June IWSG: No Secrets, Just Plans

It's hard to believe it's June, isn't it? I hope you have some perfect days this month. But first, it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook, and Twitter. Our hosts this month are Pat Garcia, J.Q. Rose, and Natalie Aguirre. We've been posed the following question: Writers have secrets! What are one or two of yours, something readers would never know from your work?

Well, when it comes to revealing secrets, especially online, there's only one thing for me to say, and that's...

So, let me tell you how my writing is going instead.

My main focus at the moment is a cozy mystery with paranormal elements. It's called Murder at Magic Lake, and I currently have about 22,000 words drafted. (Yes, this is a quarantine novel.) I aim to write about 500 new words each day, or at least enough to get me to the next 500 or 1,000 mark. If I have enough time afterwards, I also try to work on Dryads and Dragons, the third book in my urban fantasy trilogy. After losing most of my first draft back in February, I'm over 24,000 words with that. A short story I submitted to an anthology back in February was rejected, though the editor was very encouraging and urged me to submit to next year's anthology. I should look it over again and send it to another market. However, I've drawn up a new marketing plan based on advice from indie author Susan Kaye Quinn, and that's going to take priority. I'll be publishing my work directly to Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Apple, but first I may update some blurbs and keywords for my novels. It might also be time to update the covers for Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes, since they're from 2011 and 2012. There's a lot to do, so I need to break it down into manageable tasks.We may not be able to travel anywhere this summer, but I'll still have plenty of uses for my vacation time!

Are you revealing a secret for IWSG, or did you choose another topic? Feel free to share in the comments. In the meantime, it's back to writing for me.

 

An Online WisCon

The con must go on. This weekend, instead of heading up to Madison, Wisconsin, I sat in front of my computer to watch panels and presentations on YouTube and chat with others via Discord.

The virtual format allowed me to attend events that I don't normally have a chance to watch, such as the Thursday night reading by the guest of honor and the speeches on Sunday night. On the other hand, there were only a few hours of programming instead of the normal all-day affair, and the choices were much more limited. I wound up watching more readings and academic presentations than I normally do at WisCon. For the first time, I even watched the "Not Another *#?! Race Panel," which is a staple at WisCon. This is a panel where people of color discuss anything other than race. Normally I would pick a more focused panel dealing with something I wanted to learn about, but I enjoyed this panel more than I expected. I learned about an awesome Filipino bakery in Chicago, and the discussions about bad Star Wars parents and how the Harry Potter characters would handle quarantine were funny. Would I attend the panel next time I'm at WisCon? It would depend on what else is scheduled at the same time.

I have to admit an online Dealers Room and Art Show don't have the same draw, and even though there were a lot of subject-specific channels on the Discord, I didn't feel like I had anything to add to the conversations. I missed attending Farmers Market Saturday morning, listening to readings at Michelangelo's Coffee House, and shopping at the Soap Opera. When you've been going to a particular event for so long you expect to run into a past self in the elevator, any change feels strange. Hopefully next year the con will go on in person. But if for some reason I can't attend, being able to watch at least part of WisCon online would keep the connection alive.

Indies Together and WisCon Schedule

Best-selling indie author Susan Kaye Quinn has started a Facebook group to help other indie authors. It's called Indies Together. It's a private group, but she's encouraging other people to join. Susan is sharing her marketing knowledge with indies and offers a couple of different "recipes" depending if you're exclusive to Amazon or have your work available in multiple markets. I've read through her advice, and it makes sense, though it does take multiple books in series, time, and some seed money to make it work. If you're looking for a group with supportive members, I recommend it.

It's hard to believe WisCon will be this weekend. Today is the last day to register here. Standard price is only $10, but there are other tiers available. I won't be able to participate much on Friday since I have to work, but I should be able to do more Saturday through Monday. I'll report back next week how it went.

Amazon's Upload: Is the Near Future Futuristic Enough?

Although I don't spend a lot of time watching TV, occasionally I'm able to squeeze in some time around dinner when I'm crocheting or cutting fabric for masks. I was intrigued by the ads for Amazon's new show Upload, about Nathan, a young man who's killed in an accident and uploaded to a digital afterlife represented by a fancy hotel. Helping him adjust is his customer service representative "angel" named Nora. The show is set in 2033, which is only thirteen years away. Technology has advanced to the point where people print food, use self-driving cars, and, as the premise implies, have the ability to upload a human's consciousness to digital format.

I'm in the middle of Episode Three, so it'll take me a while to finish this series. However, I have noticed a few things that don't seem realistic to me. For example, in the first episode, we see a woman with a black-and-white avatar, which was based on an old photo. This was probably put in to be funny and appeal to the audience. In practice, we can already add color to photos, so why wouldn't that be done for her? For that matter, why not allow people to customize their avatars or even choose non-human forms? There's also a pretty big plot hole in the first episode where a dangerous section of the afterlife has less security than a chapel in that same setting. The dangerous area is key to the climax of the first episode; however, I think it could have been set up to make the character work harder to gain access, which would have proven he was truly desperate instead of hangry and annoyed about a bad hairstyle. Perhaps I'm more critical of these things because I'm a storyteller and used to nitpicking my own work.

One of the biggest dangers of writing about the near future is that it can be so hard to predict. You can reference current popular culture, but will the songs and movies you use be a flash in the pan or still be popular a decade or two later? Your audience may appreciate the throwback, but would a movie from 2004 be meaningful for a character who could have been born that year? What new disruptions will occur in the next thirteen years that we couldn't have foreseen?

Anyway, as I keep watching, perhaps some of these "glitches" will make more sense. (I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so please don't add any in the comments.) It will be interesting to look back at this show in thirteen years and see how well it compares to reality.

IWSG: Writing Rituals

Welcome to the month of May, otherwise known as Level 5 of Jumanji if you've been following the memes on social media. It's not only the first Wednesday of May, but it's also the 30th anniversary of the day my husband asked me out, and I gave him a "Maybe." I guess by now I can give him a more definite answer. I guess I should also remind readers that this is the designated day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group post, in which writers can share their insecurities without fear and encourage other writers. Learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed. Our hosts this month are Feather Stone, Beverly Stowe McClure, Mary Aalgaard, Kim Lajevardi, and Chemist Ken.

Here's our question for the month: Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the ZONE? Care to share?


No, I don't have any special writing rituals. As a working mother, I have to take my writing time wherever and whenever I can get it. These days, since I'm working from home, I can no longer write on my lunch hour at work (I'm too busy making lunch for my son and myself, doing the dishes afterwards, and catching up on laundry.) What I can share is that it often takes me a while to get into the zone, especially if I'm not sure what to include in the scene I'm working on. I can be very distracted by games and social media under these conditions. To help me get started, I may end a writing session by adding a few ideas about what I want to add next and try to think about my story when I'm doing housework or walking around the neighborhood. The more I write, the easier it is to get the ideas that keep my fingers typing.

Now that I've warmed up by writing this blog post, it's time to turn to my work in progress. If you have any ideas for getting into and staying in the writing zone, please feel free to share them in the comments.

I Didn't Start the Fire (Song Parody)

Yesterday was my 50th birthday. To mark the occasion, I decided to rewrite the lyrics to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" to cover events of the last fifty years. There are five verses, so each one is dedicated to a different decade. (I used Wikipedia to look up key events, people, and things from each decade.) Although I like to rewrite lyrics to songs, this was one of my more challenging projects. Billy Joel manages to make his lyrics work by incorporating internal rhymes into every line. Not all of my lines rhyme that well. The syllable counts for each line don't sound consistent to me, though I could be mishearing them. Perhaps I'll come back to this at some point to tweak a few lines. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this musical trip down Memory Lane.

Earth Day, Watergate, Richard Nixon ain’t so great,

Oil crisis, Gerald Ford, Hawking finds black holes,

Voyager, Pinochet, Bell-Bottoms and World Trade,

Elvis Presley, Happy Days, Alda and Travolta

Saigon falls, Jonestown, Biko, and stagflation

Star Wars, Space Invaders, Dark Side of the Moon

Disco, edit genes, Test tube babies hit the scene

Margaret Thatcher, Mao Zedong, hostages, and Brady Bunch!

(Chorus) We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Lennon shot, Regan lives, Cold War and Gorbachev

Marcos had to go, Pinochet and Truedeau

Rubik’s cube, Madonna, Mario and Pacman

New pope in Rome, ET’s gotta phone home,

Dallas was a dream, Valley Girls reigned supreme,

Michael Jackson, Challenger, Halley’s Comet, Chernobyl,

Apple, MTV, Sarajevo, Tom Hanks

INXS, greed is good, Germans tore a wall down

Chorus

World Wide Web, NAFTA, Bill Clinton, Mandela,

Hubble, GPS, Windows is a big success,

Rodney King, Eurostar, Kuwait and the Gulf War

Dolly Sheep, Warsaw Pack, Rabin and Arafat

Climate change, slacker, Hale-Bopp, Pathfinder

Amazon, Hong Kong, Spice Girls sang their songs

Toy Story, Pokemon, Gen X has flannel on

OJ got away, end it all with Y2K!

Chorus

9-11 don’t forget, Facebook on the Internet

Climate change, anthrax, we all wear cargo pants

Harry Potter, civil wars, Pluto now is a dwarf

Bush, Obama, Merkel too, Come on back, Doctor Who

Housing bubble had to burst, earthquakes did their worst

Sequence genomes mice to men, Avatar and Eminem!

Chorus

2010, Arab Spring, African uprising

Castro, smartphones, hybrid cars and flying drones

Human rights, Endgame, California needs some rain

Chicago Cubs break a curse, White House goes from great to worse

Women march in pussy hats, teenagers on SnapChat

3D printing, iPads, Brexit, The Walking Dead

Fire sweeps a continent, fake news from the government

COVID-19 at my door, I’ll be here for fifty more!

(This last line is meant to be an expression of an indomitable spirit, not hubris.)

Chorus

Indie Publishing: The Reckoning

When I started indie publishing back in 2011, I promised myself I would keep at it until my next landmark birthday and then re-evaluate if I wanted to continue. That day arrives next week.

Like many people at the start of a new venture, I thought self-publishing success would be assured, and it wouldn't take me long to find fame and fortune. That didn't happen. I'm not a fast or prolific writer, and the stories I want to tell don't have the tropes many readers seem to want. I seldom sell books unless I pay for ads on the free/bargain book sites, and even the ads end up costing more than I earn. I earn more from selling short stories to anthologies than I do from my indie-published novels. Perhaps I should focus on short stories--if I still feel that writing is worth the effort.

Despite all the struggled, I'm determined to keep writing and self-publishing my novels. I improve my craft with every project, and it's possible future novels will hit the sweet spot between what I want to write and what readers want to read. I don't necessarily need to be a bestseller; if I can find a few thousand people who are in my tribe and get what I write, I'll do well enough. There are still so many stories I want to tell with my current and future characters. I can't let them--or myself--down by giving up. I already fulfilled one dream by finishing the Season Avatars series. There are still more dreams out there. Thanks to indie publishing, I can control what happens to my dreams.

Here's to another fifty years of reading and writing books. May the Muse be with me!

Virtual Conventions

If you're missing your favorite convention, there are online ones to compensate. Here are a few that I know of:

Quarencon2020: This is a new convention that's supposed to run from April 24th-April 28th. There's not a lot of information on the website yet, but there will be panels, workshops, contents, and vendors (I've applied to be one of the vendors.) I think it will be free.

WisCon: This one has gone virtual as well. As usual, it will be held Memorial Day weekend. It sounds like there will be a small fee to attend, but registration hasn't opened yet. I haven't attended for a couple of years, so I'm looking forward to participating. While I'll miss seeing my Madison friends and going around my beloved city, it might be easier to focus on the online con if there are fewer real-life things competing with it.

WorldCon (CoNZealand) will occur online between July 29th through August 2nd. The supporting price is about $46. I'm not sure if I'll register for this one yet, but guests include Mercedes Lackey. I was a big fan of her work when I first started reading fantasy, so it might be interesting to attend her panels. Obviously it won't be as thrilling as meeting her in person, but it's much cheaper and easier than flying to New Zealand, even under normal conditions.

Are you aware of other online conventions? If so, feel free to share them in the comments.

Books I've Loved to Death

Many book lovers feel that the physical format of the book should be protected at all costs. They always use bookmarks, store their books properly, and keep them pristine. I'm more interested in the content than the container. I often use unconventional things to mark my place in a book or leave it upside down. Sometimes (though not often) I even write in books. Here are a few books that I've used so much over the years that they're falling apart:

I've had this copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance since high school. This book has the most annotations I've ever written in a single book.

 Every morning, I read a page from this book. I've been doing it so long that this is actually the second copy of this book. I think pretty soon I'll need to get a third copy.

Cookbooks get a lot of use. I've had the bread machine cookbook for well over twenty years--and I'm still finding new recipes I want to try. I like the vegetarian cookbook so much I've given a copy to a friend. It might be time to replace that one soon too.









How do you treat your books? Are they in good shape, or are they falling apart like mine? Let me know in the comments!

IWSG: How Are You Doing?

No fooling, it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. For more information about the IWSG, check out their website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed.

Our hosts for April are Diane Burton, J.H. Moncrieff, Anna at elements of emaginette, Karen at Reprobate Typewriter, Erika Beebe, and Lisa Buie-Collard.

The IWSG’s focus is on our writers. Each month, from all over the globe, we are a united group sharing our insecurities, our troubles, and our pain. So, in this time when our world is in crisis with the Covid-19 pandemic, our optional question this month is: How are things in your world?


I've already spent the last two weeks talking about how the pandemic has affected me and my family. We're fortunate so far in that we're still healthy and working. Things can always change, especially since we live in the Chicago suburbs, and there are a lot of cases in our area. At the beginning of March, we went to McCormick Place for C2E2; now, the convention center is going to become a makeshift hospital. It'll probably take between twelve and eighteen months before things settle down. All we can do in the meantime is take proper precautions and keep our spirits up. I'm still pretty busy with work and extra cleaning around the house, but I make time to read, write, crochet, watch TV or documentaries, socialize online with friends, and take an online class. (And yes, play games on my smartphone.)

How are you doing? What are your coping strategies? Feel free to share them in the comments.

Ten Things I've Learned About Working From Home

10. It's possible to fit two computers on my desk.
9. I drink less tea while I'm at home.
8. I might drink less tea at home because I have to boil water whenever I want a mug (as opposed to having hot water instantly available).
7. I don't miss driving to work.
6. I do actually miss being able to do some of the paperwork and filing that are a normal part of my job.
5. I don't have time to write on my lunch hour because I have to make my son's lunch and do the dishes.
4. Sometimes accessing the network feels like the biggest accomplishment of the day.
3. When using the mouse, I write equally poorly with both hands.
2. Why, yes, I will try working on Sunday evening if that gives me more time later in the week.
1. I need a better office chair for my home office--I'm not used to sitting it in all day!

Books in the Time of COVID-19

Whether you've been following the spread of COVID-19 since it first made the news or just realized its impact recently, we're all affected by it now. School is cancelled for my son, though he's doing e-learning this week. He was supposed to go on a class trip to Washington D.C. during spring break, but they cancelled it a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, we got a refund for almost all the money we spent on it, so hopefully he'll be able to go next year. I'm not sure yet what my work schedule is going to be like, so child care may be a challenge.

Our local library is also closed, so I won't be able to pick up any more paper books until March. Maybe this means I'll finally start working on my pile of To-Read paper books. Of course, I have plenty of eBooks available through my Kindle account and library apps. Between books, crochet, and writing, I should be able to keep myself occupied at home.

Speaking of books, if you need something to read, I'm putting all my novels on sale. If they're not free, they're $0.99. This includes Ordinary Wonders: A Fantasy Short Story Collection, Twinned Universes, Seasons' Beginnings, Chaos Season, Fifth Season, and Summon the Seasons. Even my Season Avatars box set, which contains five novels and four short stories, is half off (normally $9.99, now $4.99). These links are universal, so you can go to your favorite eBook vendor.

Stay healthy, everyone, and we'll get though this together.

Dozing with the Dinos 2020

This year was the final time my son was able to participate in the annual Dozing with the Dinos event at the Field Museum. The event is for kids age 6-12 and their adults, but my son will turn thirteen at the end of May. Although I've enjoyed going behind the scenes at the Field Museum, I will not miss the poor sleeping conditions.

Saturday afternoon, Alex and I took the Metra downtown to connect with my husband.Since my husband works on Saturdays, it's easier for us to do this instead of making him drive back home to pick us up before we go to the museum. We ate dinner, then drove to the museum. We got there early, which made check-in easier and allowed us to pick a prime spot in the evolution exhibit.

After orientation, we had a special behind-the-scenes tour of the lab where they prepare fish specimens for study. We don't get to choose in advance which tour we take. We hadn't been in this part of the museum before, and since Alex likes fishing, this was a good match for us. We got to see many specimens prepared in different ways. Some were preserved in formaldehyde, while others were treated with special stains to make different parts of their bodies visible. We saw several sharks, a puffer fish, and my favorite, a coelacanth.

After snack time and buying a few souvenirs, we explored the museum, both with and without flashlights. By the time we were done, we were so exhausted we went straight to bed. Unfortunately, our air mattresses all had leaks, despite my attempts to patch them. My mattress was so bad I just deflated it completely instead of having to deal with a rocking mattress. At least it was ready to pack in the morning. We had breakfast, then left. We may not able to sleep over again, but we'll always have the memories.

IWSG: Family Traditions and Stories

Whether or not March came in like a lion or a lamb in your area, it brought in another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. You can learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook, or Twitter account.

This month's hosts are Jacqui Murray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence.

Our question this month is Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories? 

One of my short stories, "Bugged Out at the Museum," was inspired by our annual tradition of attending Member's Night at the Field Museum. Members are allowed to go behind the scenes to see how exhibits are set up and how research is conducted. One of the biggest attractions of the night is the "Insect Petting Zoo," where members can hold hissing cockroaches and other creatures. I drew on this to write "Bugged Out at the Museum." It was originally published in a bugs-theme issue of Indie Writers Monthly and republished last in my fantasy short story collection Ordinary Wonders.

 
Do you write about your family's customs or traditions in your stories? Feel free to share your answers in the comments.

A Writer by Any Other Name?

Although fantasy and science fiction are my favorite genres, I also like to read mysteries, especially cozy mysteries. It's probably not surprising that I've come up with an idea for a cozy mystery series. I'm trying to do more worldbuilding and plotting with this project, but even before I write the first word, I also have to consider the marketing aspect. Should I publish these stories under my own name or a pen name? Traditional thinking has always been that you need different pen names for different genres so readers can distinguish them. However, this doesn't seem to be too much of a concern for indie writers. Honestly, I have enough trouble doing social media and marketing for one name; doubling it would make it even harder. Book covers and blurbs do a better job of signaling genre than names, and I would put different books on different pages of my website.

Do you use a pen name, or have you thought about it? Let me know in the comments.

Third Flatiron Best of 2019 Now Available!

I mentioned a couple of months ago that my short story, "Specimen 1842," had been selected for Third Flatiron's Best of 2019 anthology. This anthology is finally available, though currently only as an ebook on Amazon. It's free if you're in Kindle Unlimited or only $2.99 if you're not. Here's the cover, and below is the description from Amazon:

Third Flatiron Anthologies presents fourteen of its best speculative fiction stories from the year 2019. Contributors include Tom Pappalardo, J. D. Blackrose, Brian Trent, Bruce Golden, Mack Moyer, Arthur Carey, Maureen Bowden, Edwina Shaw, Elizabeth Beechwood, Evan A Davis, K. G. Anderson, Philip John Schweitzer, Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, and Samson Stormcrow Hayes. Edited by Juliana Rew.

I'm still waiting to get my copy, but I'm looking forward to reading it. Here's hoping you check it out too.

Letters to Psyche--A Valentine's Day Read

Looking for a short story to read for Valentine's Day? How about one told by the God of Love himself? This short story of mine actually features two famous couples: Cupid and Psyche, and Romeo and Juliet. Here's the blurb:

When the Greek god Cupid visits Verona, he foresees no problems uniting the Montague and Capulet families. But when Elisabeth Capulet and Giovanni Montague's love ends in tragedy, Elisabeth places a powerful curse not on just the families, but Cupid himself. Unable to visit his wife Psyche, he sends her letters detailing his efforts to undo the curse. Can the two of them save another generation of lovers, or will Cupid and Psyche be forever parted?

You can buy it as a stand-alone short story for $0.99, or get it as part of Ordinary Wonders: A Fantasy Short Story Collection, for $2.99. Both links are universal.

IWSG: The Art Behind the Story

January sure seemed like a long month, didn't it? Here's hoping February will be better. Let's get the month off to a good start with the Insecure Writer's Support Group. You can learn more about them on their website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed. Our hosts for February are Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes (no link available), Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson.

Our question for this month is Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

I've been wracking my brain for a while, and all I could come up with is a writing assignment from seventh or eighth grade. I don't remember the details very well, but the photo was of a dark hallway. I wrote a story about walking through my school at night, and I think my dog made an appearance at the end (I think I was looking for her, though I don't remember why she would have been at school.) Since I graduated from school, I assumed I finished the assignment.

Most of my story inspiration these days comes from either anthologies or exploring established characters and worlds. Occasionally, I do find photos that deserve to inspire stories or be book covers. One of them was posted to Twitter in December; I saw it on my Facebook feed. It's a pair of brides, one in a purple/gray dress, the other in white, each facing outward while holding swords one-handed and clasping their free hands behind their backs. If you haven't seen the photo, check it out at the link; it's gorgeous. Since this photo was part of their actual wedding, I won't share it here. It would make a great book cover, however. You can follow the pair on Twitter at Bisexuals of the Blade. Perhaps someday that photo will inspire me to write a story about a pair of bisexual women in a similar pose but with different weapons. (I already know who they would be, though I'm not sure if that scene fits their story.)

Have you found art more inspiring than I have? If so, feel free to discuss it in the comments.

How Many Drafts?

Last week, I talked a little bit about a problem I was having with a short story. I think I've got some new ideas for it, though it will change the theme of the story a little from what I'd originally planned. I started making some of the changes, but I have to finish revising the entire story before I can decide if it works.

I plan to submit this story to an anthology, though I don't want to go into details at this point. The submission period closes next month, though. I wrote the first draft of this story in October, but I've held onto it because it didn't feel to me like it was ready. This will be the third or fourth version of this story, so I thought it might be interesting to ask other writers how many drafts they typically do of a story. For novels, I'd say I go through at least three or four drafts (rough draft, read on Kindle and make big changes draft, possibly another draft before preparing a paper proof, final version) though the revisions become fewer and less extensive with each pass. Many indie writers might consider this slow, but as a panster, I need to write the first draft to figure out the story. I will say I feel like I'm going through fewer drafts now than when I first started writing, so I consider that progress.

How many drafts do you usually need for a story? Feel free to share in the comments.

Books or Reading--Which is More Important?

I'm working on a science fiction short story that's got me frustrated. It's set in a future where the vast majority of people rely on a computer-brain interface and network to accomplish daily tasks, including reading. A few people who are unable to obtain the implant can read independently, and this skill is treated as something worth preserving. I'm trying to decide how (or if) to recruit more people to carry on this skill. If they do, is it more important for them to decipher words on their own, or is it the fact that they're taking in stories through words (when most stories are told in visual media) that is worth preserving? I'd appreciate your thoughts on this matter.