Living the Fictional Dream

The new issue of Electric Spec is live today, and with it, my story, “Alpha.”

The way this e-zine works is that you download a .pdf to read the whole story. You can download just a .pdf of my story, or you can download a .pdf of the whole e-zine. I’m planning to do the latter, so I can read all of the stories at one time (possibly while we’re on the road to south Texas for the 4th of July)!

You may also notice that my story is the first one on the table of contents. Now, I know that has more to do with the flow of the issue than anything else, but it still made me smile.

“Alpha” is the first story in my urban fantasy universe to make an appearance. It’s about a werecoyote, Callie, who lives in a small town in Texas not unlike the town where I grew up (Callie’s cabin is actually very similar to one my family has outside of town). Callie struggles with issues that plague most young adults when they’re trying to find their place in a post-college world — what to do with her life professionally, romantically, and otherwise. Though, considering Callie belongs to a pack of werecoyotes, she has some unique issues to deal with, as well, including those left behind when her parents, the pack Alphas, passed away.

If you like the character of Luke in “Alpha,” I’ve also written a short story all about him in New York (Rick is in this story, as well). It’s still in the revision stages, but possibly one day it will find a home, as well.

To all the other writers who stop by my blog, I would definitely recommend Electric Spec as a market to submit to. The editors work with you to make your story the best it can be, and they are very informative. You can even keep up with their status on the slush pile (and other writing tidbits) on their editor blog. Working with them has been a good experience.

If you get a chance to read “Alpha,” I’d love to know what you think. Leave me a comment here! And, finally, I want to send a big thanks out to my writing group. Their crits really helped me make this story the best it could be!

Isn’t the summer a great time for reading? I’ve been up to my ears in books this summer, and enjoying every minute of it!

The most recent novel that I finished was No Humans Involved, the seventh book in Kelley Armstrong’s excellent Otherworld series. The series focuses on women with supernatural powers, which places it smack in the middle of the urban fantasy genre. Rana introduced me to the series a few years ago, and I’m glad she did.

The first two novels in the series are narrated by Elena, the only female werewolf and probably my favorite of Armstrong’s narrators. The second two are narrated by Paige, a witch. The fifth novel in the series is narrated by Eve, a witch/half-demon became a ghost after her untimely death. The sixth novel is back to Elena, and the newest one is narrated by Jaime Vegas, a spiritualist who is actually a necromancer (she can see/communicate with ghosts and raise the dead).

I wasn’t actually looking forward to a novel from Jaime’s point of view. She’s never been one of my favorites as a supporting cast member. However, once I got into the novel, Jaime grew on me, and now I quite like her. The same thing happened with Eve, so I should probably just relax and trust that I’ll like whomever Armstrong chooses as her next narrator.

Despite her profession, Jaime has always been afraid that one day her necromancy will make her go mad. She would rather ignore a ghost than talk to it, because, more often that not, what the ghost wants, she can’t do. And then she signs on for a TV show in L.A. and finds that the house is haunted by ghosts who can actually touch her. There have been some strange goings on in L.A. that aren’t in the normal line of things, and it’s up to Jaime to find out the truth, with a little help from a half chaos demon named Hope and her long-time unrequited love, Jeremy, Alpha of the North American werewolf pack.

I won’t give away any more of the plot, but I enjoyed this novel very much. Jaime is surprisingly resourceful, despite her innate ditziness, and the relationship between brash Jaime and cool and collected Jeremy is fun to watch.

The world building in this series is really well done, and it is one of the things that makes the Otherworld series a delight to read. And even though the series is built around the women in this world, the men are compelling characters in their own right. Armstrong doesn’t give anyone the short shrift.

The other thing I like about Armstrong is her website. Every year she writes an original novella or series of short stories set in her urban fantasy world and publishes it online for all her fans to read. Talk about a way to keep your readers coming back for more. It also totally embraces the new give-and-take that the Internet allows novelists to have with their readers. Should I ever become a published novelist, I would love to do the same!

So, if you’re looking for good, action-packed urban fantasy with strong female characters, give Armstrong’s Otherworld series a try. And if you’re already into the series, don’t miss out on No Humans Involved!

Superhero fiction is eating my brain! As in, I suddenly have so many ideas for short stories in my original superhero universe that I can’t write them down fast enough. Since “Bridge Club” was accepted by A Thousand Faces (no word on the release date as of yet), I’ve written two more.

One was a SED story during the midst of the competition, but it actually turned out fairly well. It’s about a superhero with ocean powers. I need to revise it and then send it out to my writing group. Then the second one popped into my mind this morning, and wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote it down. It’s about a female superhero this time, which is a change of pace. It is somewhat in answer to a prompt that I gave to my writing group in May — writing a story about a superhero on a blind date — but it also ties in really well with “Bridge Club” and the rest of my superhero ‘verse.

Strangely enough, I have another idea bumbling around in my brain for a story about a woman who can change her appearance (yes, I know… Mystique, but what super power hasn’t been used already — it’s what you do to make the character unique after the super powers!).

I’m totally going to have to investigate other markets that might be interested in original superhero fiction, because Frank over at ATF is going to get tired of me!

And now, in a totally random subject shift, I was reading Shanna Swendson’s blog this evening, and I came across this post. It’s all about what a reader can do to support a favorite book series (her Enchantment Inc. series or any other series). If you’ve ever wanted to help out the sales of a series so that the publishers might decide to continue it, you should check out her ideas on things you can do. There’s more that just buying a copy of the book yourself or buying it for other people.

I especially note her comment about used bookstores. This is a rant that I’ve given many times since my college days working for local mystery writer Carole Nelson Douglas. Used bookstore sales don’t count with the publisher — only new sales do. Now, I understand budgeting and not being able to afford to buy all your favorite books new. It’s a common problem. But, if that’s the case, then you should pick and choose the ones you buy and put your money to where it will do the most good. I save my Half Price purchases for books that are either (1) best sellers (Meg Cabot, Robert Jordan, etc.) or (2) old and/or out of print.

And that’s it for me today. Have a good one!

Last weekend, I read Meg Cabot’s new book, Airhead. Let me start out by saying that I very much enjoyed the book. I’m a Meg Cabot fan, and love everything of hers that I’ve read (The Princess Diaries, Jinx, An American Girl, and even her adult novels, like the Heather Wells mysteries), and, despite the title, Airhead was no exception. Em Watts is a fabulous character with believable issues, but Meg also managed to make the celebutants/models sympathetic, as well.

But, while reading, I started to worry. My page count was rapidly dwindling, and it felt like the main plot had yet to really get going. And when I reached the end, my worries were realized. Airhead, to me, doesn’t actually feel like a complete story… it feels like the first installment of an ongoing series.

This got me thinking about the novel-writing biz. Everything I’ve read — author blogs, agent blogs, etc. — stress that in the writing game, you shouldn’t think about writing a good series. You need to think about writing a good novel. The series will never sell if the novel doesn’t stand on its own. After thinking about it, especially in relation to books I’m reading, I have to agree.

I’m not saying that every novel needs to tie up all loose ends. That would be no fun at all. But I think that a series is better served if each installment has its own specific plot that can be resolved by the end of that book, leaving just the overarching character development and possibly a larger series-long mystery to spin out between books. Some great examples of this method are the Golden series by Jennifer Lynne Barnes, the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter, and the Midnight Louie series by Carole Nelson Douglas. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling also does it well. The more I think on it, the more great examples that come to mind.

This method works because the reader gets a sense of closure at the end of each installment of the series. The reader can feel content with the money that they paid for the book and relax while they wait for the next installment to be written (which usually takes at least a year!). And yet, there is still a sense of anticipation because there are elements that the reader wants to find out more about. It’s the best of both worlds.

After reading Airhead, I wish that I would have waited to buy it. The first novel was quite good, but it was just enough to get me really into the characters and the storyline, but by the end, nothing had been resolved. It was all setup for future stories and not a complete story in and of itself. Mysteries upon mysteries were set up, as were many, many relationships (friendship and romantic), and yet none of them got any kind of resolution. Had I known that going in, I would have known that this is a series that I should wait and buy all of in a clump (or at least three or four installments in a clump). I still would have read it eventually, but I wouldn’t have done so now. (Especially not for the price of a hardcover!)

Of course, Meg Cabot is a best seller, so she can write whatever she wants. The advice I read in agent and author blogs doesn’t apply to her, as she already has a publisher, an agent, and many more people lined up to accept anything she decides to write (what an awesome place that must be, right?). And she’s not the only writer who does this. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series is totally like this… one novel fades right into the next, each one ending in a huge cliffhanger that leaves readers gnashing their teeth and cursing his name for two years until the next installment is published.

Perhaps the conundrum is similar to the difference between an episodic TV series with continuing elements and season long major plot arcs (like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural) and a soap opera or a soap opera-esque series like Lost. I like both types, but I really prefer the former and tend to watch the latter in large clumps of episodes as opposed to every time it airs. I also feel like that the episodic series model works better in the Y/A genre than the soap opera model — of course, that’s just my personal opinon, and I’m sure that many people think just the oposite.

If I’m ever lucky enough to be the published author of a book series, I’ve already made my decision. I would definitely go the route of each installment being its own story with continuing elements, instead of using the other formula. I wouldn’t want someone to finish reading an installment in my series and be disapointed the way I was when I reached the end of Airhead. And, when it comes to Airhead, if you like Meg Cabot, I defintely recommend the book, but I would advise waiting to buy it at least until the sequel (Being Nikki) is released so you can read them both at the same time.

I am totally inspired by the results of the SED contest. The group did so well. Four of us actually completed a story every day for 14 days, which is totally amazing. My congrats go out to my fellows at the finish line — Stephanie, Sandra, and Donna. I won the tie breaker, as I had the highest word count, which was exciting. Finally, my tendency toward wordiness came in handy!

But I think the real winner is the group itself, especially everyone who participated in the contest. Alex wrote 12 stories, and Janel, Brittany, and Virginia all wrote at least one. All totalled, in two weeks the group wrote well over 80,000 words. Yay, Writer’s Ink! Well done!

I’m fairly amazed by all the work we did, and now that we’ve done all this work, there are stories for critting and/or submitting. What fun! I fully expect to hear good results from my fellow writers soon. I suppose the next challenge is not to let the stories sit around, but to do something with them.

Of course, for me, all the stories weren’t submission-ready, or even submission-worthy for that matter. But there are defintely a handful that are worth pursuing. And that is more than I had before, so yay!

When looking over my new crop of stories, I notice that the stories that turned out the best are the ones that I had no intention of writing. Isn’t that strange? The ones I intended to write, such as the story about human colonies on the moon, all turned out poorly, but the ones that started with no apparent rhyme or reason became keepers.

I wonder why that is. Perhaps my muse is only captured by pure randomness? Or perhaps she is just perverse? Or is that the way of it for most writers — that their best tales come when they are least expecting it? What do y’all think?

Whew! It has been a crazy two weeks; however, I am proud to report that I did indeed write a story every day. And while not all of the 14 stories turned into greatness, there are several that I think will be worth pursuing, and a couple of others that were more ideas, but that could possibly be developed into something later. All in all, not a bad two weeks’ work. And, now that SED is over, perhaps I can get back to a semi-regular writing schedule over here!

So, on my first day back, I want to talk about a book that I just read, Don’t Hex With Texas, by Shanna Swendson. This is the fourth book in her Enchantment Inc. series, which I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve given the first book as a Christmas gift at least four times.

I discovered the series through my sister. She told me that I friend of hers had a novel published, so I took a look, and that was that. The series is a cross between fantasy and chick lit, but, for some reason, most of the bookstores shelve it in the general fiction area. (I know, because I’ve had to hunt for it! I expected to find it with the fantasy novels, but… not so much.)

Katie, the heroine of EI, is unique, but not in the usual way. See, it turns out that there is magic in the world. In fact, most people have a little magic in them, which means that magic will work on them, too. There is a whole magical community out there (fairies, wizards, pixies, enchanted frogs, etc.) that your everyday people don’t see thanks to illusion spells and the like.

But Katie’s super secret magic power is not really so magic at all. She is immune to magic, which makes her a valuable commodity in the magical world. She gets a job at the “Microsoft” of the magical world (a company that makes magic spells), and soon finds herself bringing both her immunity and her common sense into the wacky world of magic, as well as meeting some interesting guys along the way, such as Owen, an extremely shy co-worker who just happens to be one of the most powerful wizards of his generation.

Don’t Hex With Texas takes place right where the previous book (Damsel Under Stress) left off, with Katie out of New York and back in her hometown in Texas. She thought that coming back to Texas would give her a little respite from the wacky hijinks of the magical world, but instead, the magical world follows her to the Lone Star State.

I don’t want to give away too much of DHWT or the EI series in general, so I won’t say any more about plot, but if you’ve read the other books, you definitely need to pick up your copy of DHWT as soon as possible. And, if you haven’t read any of the EI series, what are you waiting for? Head out and pick up a copy of all four titles (Enchantment, Inc., Once Upon Stilettos, Damsel Under Stress, and Don’t Hex With Texas) and settle in for some the fun.

Shanna writes with a bright and easy style, and the pages just seem to flow by before you’ve realized it. The characters are memorable, and her world building is top notch. These books are good fun with a liberal sprinkling of magic and action — summer reading material that you need to put on your list!

Sadly, the one tragedy is that Shanna’s short-sighted publisher has not offered a contract for more books in the EI series, so, as of now, DHWT is the last installment. However, don’t let that deter you from reading the series. First of all, the stories are fun and should not be missed. Second, the more copies of the existing four books that get bought, the more likely it is that a publisher will take notice and possibly contract another installment. And, finally, because I know some of you out there would want to know this before starting the series, if DHWT is the final installment ever, it leaves the characters in a good place. There are unanswered questions, of course, but no cliffhangers, either physically or emotionally.

Also, if you’ve finished the series and want to know more or if you’re a writer looking for another good blog to read, you should check out Shanna’s blog.

Happy reading, y’all!

The SED contest still continues. I think it is sucking all the other writing thoughts from my mind, as nothing has come to mind to blog about. I enjoyed yesterday’s story, though. A woman fighting a tree that became a tentacled monster. Much fun, and inspired by a real tree that I saw in the park while Stephen and I were riding our bikes earlier this week. I have not seen the real tree break out into tentacles yet, but it looks shifty!

Anyway, I thought I would take this lack of creativity and use it to highlight some other people’s creativity. So, the following are links that I’ve found whilst meandering through the interwebs.

The Teen Fiction Cafe is a blog run by a rotating cast of Y/A authors. They have weekly themes and their posts tend to be quite awesome. There are give-aways sometimes, as well.

Pub Rants is my absolute favorite agent blog out there. Agent Kristen always has interesting things to say about the industry, and I like that she always does her ranting the polite way. My favorite posts are when she talks about queries, the slush pile, and what’s hot in the industry right now.

Lit Agent X is also a great agent blog. I love it when Rachel lists the trends in the queries she receives. However, the only downside is that she doesn’t have a regular update schedule. The archives are worth perusing, though!

If you enjoy urban fantasy, try Fangs, Fur, & Fey. Lots of publishing urban fantasy writers (including Melissa Marr of Wicked Lovely, which is an awesome book you should definitely read) post here. I always discover some interesting tidbit that I didn’t know about before.

And that is it for the blog installment of my links posts. Happy clicking! There should be enough there to read to keep you occupied for quite a while! And if any of y’all have any links you want to share with me (especially good author, agent, or writing blogs, but anything, really), feel free to share!

I just got word that the North Point e-zine has closed its doors. It never really got off the ground, I suppose. It seems to have been plagued by problems and scheduling issues from the get-go. I’m sad, though. Any fiction outlet closing is sad, and I liked the couple of stories I was actually able to read at North Point.

However, I’m especially (and selfishly) sad because now the flash piece that they accepted from me will not be published. Or, at least, not yet. I will have to find new markets to submit it, too. I’ve have stories rejected before because the market was closing its doors, but it’s a special bummer when the story was actually accepted!

The SED contest continues. I’m proud of myself because I have, thus far, written a story every day. Just six more days to go. Here’s hoping I can keep it up!

This contest made me realize just how many fictional worlds exist in my imagination. When I can’t think of something to write for my daily SED story, I find myself turning to these fictional worlds and writing about an aspect of them that I haven’t yet explored, perhaps a small subset of the culture or a minor character who deserves his/her own story.

Of course there is Tyden, the medival-style fantasy world from the novel that is in a constant state of revision. That one is the most fully formed of all of them. But in the past year or so, several more have sprung into being.

There is my science fiction universe in which the Moon has several self-sustaining colonies. Sadly, none of the stories I set there worked out quite the way I had planned, but that world is really vivid to me. I’ve named all the colonies, worked out where they are and what their resources are, and everything. Maybe someday it will actually see the light of day!

I have two urban fantasy universes (distinguished from a fantasy world because they are layered on top of the real world instead of being created completely from scratch). One is a Y/A universe inhabited by Sirens. My 2006 NaNo novel was set in this world. Sadly, novel revisions aren’t coming along quite as swiftly as when I wrote the whole first draft in one month!

The other is a world of Thropes (short for Therianthropes, which means shapeshifters of all kinds). My shapeshifter universe has a whole Thrope society made of of werewolves, werecoyotes, werepanthers, werefoxes, wereleopards, wererats, and more. I’ve written two short stories set in this universe, one of which, “Alpha,”  will be published in Electric Spec at the end of the month.

I’ve recently created a super hero universe, as well. The first story, “Zero to Clean in Ten Minutes or Less,” was published in A Thousand Faces, issue 4, and the second of which, “Bridge Club,” will be published in a forthcoming issue of ATF.

There is my fantasy world (loosely based on 18th century Earth) in which people who survived the fall of Atlantis roam the Earth, first seen in “The Widow and the Stranger,” published in Allegory e-zine. And I have another medieval-style fantasy world about immortal sorcerers who devote their lives to a mysterious Game. One story set there has reached round two in a flash e-zine, but I haven’t heard back about it yet. Oh, and there is my Christian vampire hunter world — more urban fantasy — only one story so far (scheduled out in Afterburn SF early next year), but ideas for several short story ideas have occured to me. And, there are a few others, less well defined than the ones mentioned above.

All these ‘verses beg the question — how much room do I have in my imagination anyway? If my imagination is anything like the Book World in the Thursday Next series (which  highly recommend if you’re looking for smart, funny, highly literate fantasy), things must be going amok in there!

But, that’s why we’re in this writing game, isn’t it? Because these worlds and characters are there in our minds just waiting for their stories to be written down on paper (or via the keyboard). We don’t do it for the money or the glory (there isn’t much of either of those to be had). We do it because we enjoy it (at least sometimes), and because the stories are out there waiting to be told.

If I don’t tell the stories of all my imaginary worlds, who’s going to?

I wrote a little flash piece a while back about two ex-lovers having a confrontation. Of course, there is magic and a fantasy world, as well, but the crux of the piece is the painful relationship between the two characters. The woman in the piece, Viola, is the villain, in as much as one can be in that situation. It was her choices that forced the friendship between the two to end after the love affair was no more.

When I first wrote the story, I really hated this character. Viola was total scum in my mind, her only redeeming quality being that she did actually love the guy in her own selfish way. But, since then, Viola has surprised me. She inspired the SED story that I wrote today, which was from her point of view.

There is something about her — some spark, some flash that makes her leap off the page — and that surprises me, because she wasn’t supposed to do that. She was supposed to lose, however ungracefully, and then go away, leaving her ex to his own happy ending. But Viola was not content with that.

One of my graduate school writing profs gave the class a bit of advice that I’ve never forgotten. He said that everyone is the hero of his (or her) own life story. If you approach creating a character from that perspective — the perspective that in the character’s mind, he or she is justified in her actions and deserves to win in the end — it makes the more well rounded, more real. And, apparently, once the character is that real, she’ll take on a life of her own in your imagination and on your pages… like Viola.