A welcome surprise

It’s been deadline city here this month, and mostly I’ve been happy with that. I  love being completely immersed in writing. This month, however, I hit a big bump. Just as I reached the final lap for SECRETS & SPIES (due this month to my editor!), the page proofs for RA #3 came in.

Proofs are never one of my favorite stages, and I had absolutely no energy left for dealing with these. I was in danger — as an old French acquaintance of mine used to say — of “losing my quiet.”

In short, my friends, I hit a wall.

Luckily, my wonderful niece Ruth came to my rescue. She had a surprise for me, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Underneath the bulky packing, here is what I found:

It’s a life-sized Ra! And Ruth made him all by herself. Just look at those wire whiskers. And Khepri is there, too — made so that he can twirl around on the top of Ra’s head.

Aren’t they amazing?!

Of course, what’s truly amazing is my niece. Ruth has always been a gifted artist, and now she works in a sculpture studio that makes props for some very famous places. I’d love to see her go into business for herself someday!

 

I took dozens of photos, then buckled down to those page proofs, with Ra standing guard over the work.  I smiled every time I looked up and saw him.

Now that the proofs are in, he has pride of place on a favorite bookshelf — the perfect place for a book cat.

 

Writing in dark and light

I am so deep in writing these days that sometimes I hardly look up for hours. But light is precious this time of year, so to keep myself from living in the dark, most days I go for a walk at dawn, when I see the sun rise. It was so foggy this morning that I thought I would miss it. But then there it was, more spectacular that ever.

Writing is a lot like this, I find. Things get foggy, and I start to think I’ve missed my moment. But if I just keep going, then eventually the sun comes up. Maybe not when or where I expected it to, but it’s there, and it transforms the whole landscape.

 

Traveling an old road, talking about cochineal

Sixteen years ago I traveled down to southern Mexico to do research for A Perfect Red. It was a miraculous trip in many ways, not least because I met up with Eric Mindling, a local guide with a powerful love of the people, cultures, and art of Oaxaca. Exploring cochineal byways with him was one of the best adventures of my life.

Last month, Eric talked me into a reunion of sorts, an internet conversation that had me traveling over those old roads again with him. He taped it, so if you’d like to travel along with us, you can listen in here. We talk about cochineal, history, and what it’s like to research and write a story that traverses more than 500 years of history.

As Eric says, bear in mind that the conversation took place across 6,000 terrestrial miles (and who knows how many more in cyberspace). The sound quality isn’t all we would wish it to be, but we’re happy to have you along for the ride.

I’ll just finish by saying that Eric is an artist himself, and I’ve been delighted to see his own work take off.  You can see his stunning photos here, where you’ll also find links to his books. His TED talk — Sagebrush, Tumbleweed, and Very Slow Fashion — is a masterpiece. If you’ve ever thought of traveling to southern Mexico, I highly recommend checking out the tours he runs through Traditions Mexico.

 

Making the leap

True story: After I wrote and revised RA THE MIGHTY, I sat on it for six months before I sent it to my agent. Why?

Because I worried that if a publisher bought it, they’d want a sequel. And I was afraid I couldn’t be funny twice.

As I explained a while ago, I never saw humor as my strong point, at least not in writing. I was as surprised as could be when Ra and Khepri showed up on the page and started making me laugh. And that’s really how I thought of it – they they were the ones who made things funny. Not me.

Luckily, a good friend pushed me to send the book out.  She’d read the manuscript, and she knew it was ready. Her prompting made me realize two things:

• I wasn’t going to get over my fear anytime soon.
• I was just going to have to take the leap anyway.

At least, I had to leap if I wanted RA THE MIGHTY to find a home, and if I wanted to grow as a writer. And I did.It turned out Ra found a home fast. (Yay!) And yes, they wanted a sequel. (Cue a big attack of nerves!)

To ward off anxiety, I’d already scribbled down some ideas for more Ra mysteries, and it helped to know those were in my back pocket. But ideas are a long way from a book. And they don’t have much to do with voice, which was the wellspring for the humor in RA THE MIGHTY. In the end, I just had to make another leap—and hope that Ra and Khepri showed up again.

Thankfully, they did. And they made me laugh even harder this time, as they tackled THE GREAT TOMB ROBBERY.

I’m the kind of person who likes to have a plan for everything (and a back-up plan, and a back-up back-up plan). But I’ve finally realized that what I love about humor is that it doesn’t lend itself to planning. It requires me to leap. And even for an over-planner like me, it’s the very act of leaping that makes it so much fun.

 

The crocodile has left the building

After I’ve daydreamed, scribbled, researched, outlined, drafted, despaired, rebounded, revised, consulted, reworked, and tweaked…

…it’s time to press send.

<deep breath>

This will be my eighth book, but my insides still twist when I think about hitting that button and letting go.

But I’ve got a finished manuscript that’s the best I can make it. I’ve had wonderful readers to help me. (Thank you, Tracy, Kit, David, and T!)  And I’ve got an editor who’s eagerly awaiting some crocodiles in her in-box.

So it’s goodbye and good luck to RA #3, THE CROCODILE CAPER!

<hits the button and breaks out the celebratory chocolate>

Done!

 

Walking, dreaming, thinking

I used to be the kind of writer who could only commit to one book at a time. Then I became the kind of writer who could only commit to two books at a time. Nowadays I have several on the go: a tenth draft, a finished first draft, a promising opening, and another couple still mostly at the dreaming stage.

This week every single one of my works-in-progress has hit a point where I need to step back and think things over. I think best on my feet, so that means I’m doing a lot of walking.

Just going outside can give me a second wind. My thinking loosens up, and I see patterns that I might have missed before.

Seven swans a-swimming, spotted on my morning walk..

 

It may take a lot of walking, but eventually my writing ducks start to get in line. After looking at them from another perspective, I may even discover they’re swans.

Fun and mysteries

Just a quick post today to say that I’m delighted to be a guest on Elizabeth Dulemba’s wonderful blog today, talking about writing, inspiration, and unexpected story twists. And also about how the BBC is a boon to writers and how beetles make things better. (Ra’s scarab beetle buddy would agree with me there.)

I even take a closer look at a goddess.

Yes, I’m looking at you, Bastet!

 

For more fun and mysteries, come check out my post at Elizabeth’s site. And do take a look at the rest of her great offerings, including her newest book, CROW BY CROW!

Gift books and transformations

It’s publication day! And my books have made it across the Atlantic: the paperback of Chantress, and the brand new hardcover of Chantress Alchemy. It’s wonderful to hold them in my hands.

 

Every once in a while, some writers get a “gift book” — one that comes together quickly and with much less angst that usual, one where the story seems to know from the get-go what it wants to be. That was my experience with Chantress Alchemy.

That didn’t mean I hardly had to lift a finger, or that I never made mistakes. I put in long hours, and there were weeks where I lived more in the story than I did in the real world. But mostly this book was a joy to write.

Maybe that’s because it was about alchemy, which is something that’s fascinated me for ages. It’s also about the transformative power of friendship and love, and about the way our weaknesses can sometimes make us stronger — all things I deeply believe in.

But then again, I always write about things I care deeply about. (I’d never find the strength to keep at the writing, otherwise!) So in the end I have no real explanation for my gift book. Which I think is the nature of the beast. All you can do is be grateful when it happens.

At the moment, I’m wrestling with book three, which alas, is not a gift book. Although there’s a lot I love about it, it’s been hard work, and I’m having to finish it on a very tight deadline. So that makes me all the more grateful that the stars aligned for Chantress Alchemy.

***

If you’d like to know more about Chantress Alchemy, I’m doing a tour this week with some wonderful bloggers, thanks to the amazing team at Rockstar Book Tours. Today I’m visiting Word Spelunking where I share secrets and photos of the great houses in England that inspired the setting for Chantress Alchemy.

The full tour schedule is here. And the tour includes a giveaway of copies of the book, which anyone in the world can enter!

***

ETA: I forgot to add that the first few chapters are now online! You can find them here.

How to write fast(er)

Tags

Alchemy, chantress

Earlier this month I turned in the manuscript for Chantress Alchemy, the sequel to Chantress. Whew! I had only year to write it, which scared me. (It took me five years to write Chantress.) But it turns out I finished ahead of deadline. Even better, I sent in a manuscript I was really happy with.

What most amazes me is that I wrote almost the entire first draft of Chantress Alchemy in two 7-week stretches. For me, that’s a blistering pace! The rest of my time was spent waiting for reader comments and revising. I like revision, so that suited me really well.

But how on earth did I manage to write the book so fast? It’s a bit of a mystery to me, so I’m trying to look back and see what I did differently. What works for one book won’t necessarily work for another, of course. Still, here are nine things that helped me write fast(er) this time around:

(1.) It helped that I had time. Sweetpea started school last year, and much as I miss her, it’s been good for both of us. She loves school (she tells me “it’s the best school ever”), and I love having more time for writing. I pushed myself to write as hard and fast as I could while she was in school, so I could be there for her the rest of the time and during vacations.

(2.) It helped that I was willing to give a lot up. During my writing-intensive weeks, I didn’t take many days or nights off. I didn’t do much socializing. I dusted only when absolutely necessary. I watched very little television. I cooked only simple meals, and I didn’t bake. I only blogged occasionally, and Facebook and Twitter didn’t see much of me. Some of those things were easy to give up. Some of them were hard. But I couldn’t get the book written any other way. (And I learned that homemade muffins and cookies and pies taste extra good when you haven’t had them for a while!)

(3.) It helped that some things were established already. It took me years to find the right voice for Chantress. In Chantress Alchemy, I re-connected with that voice right away. It was a great joy, too, to bring some of the characters I loved best back to life. I noticed that scenes with established characters were usually easier to write than ones with new characters, and required less revision.

(4.) It helped that I had an outline. I had to produce a brief synopsis of books two and three when I sold the trilogy—a useful exercise, but there was a lot that I didn’t touch on, or wasn’t sure about. So before I wrote the book, I spent some weeks working out what could happen in it. I read old books on story structure and bought a new one (Save the Cat). I brainstormed possibilities, shot them down, and scribbled, scribbled, scribbled. In the end, I had a good idea of the story path I wanted to take, and that helped me take the plunge into actual writing. Caveat: See #5.

(5.) It helped that I was willing to abandon my outline. I wrote the first quarter of the book in a blur. Some of the book strongly resembled my outline, but there was a whole new strand to it that I hadn’t seen coming at all—and yet it just poured onto the page, a scene here, a moment there, another scene a day later. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I decided I would let those bits be for now, and edit them out later. And then I went away for a weekend and had the crashing realization that I didn’t want to write the book I’d planned. Instead I committed myself to that unexpected strand, and it became the core of the book. And because of that, riding this book was sometimes like riding a wave. It had an energy all its own.

(6.) It helped to read chapters out loud as I wrote them. I have never, ever done this before. I am one of those people who would rather die than share my first drafts. But for some strange reason I needed to read this one in Dickensian installments, hot off the press… and my wonderful husband sat and listened to each one, and made wise suggestions and encouraging comments.

(7.) It helped that I kept telling myself it was a first draft. I told myself every day – sometimes many times a day — that it didn’t have to be perfect; it just had to be done. That’s radical stuff for a perfectionist like me. But it was absolutely necessary.

(8.) It helped that I gave myself a weekly word quota. I really hate missing targets, so word quotas were a good way of keeping my perfectionist streak in check.

(9.) It helped that I had support from writer friends. I wrote the first part of this book during JoNoWriMo+1.5, and the last part during a writing challenge run by some of the fabulous members of one of my favorite listservs. I know I pushed myself harder because of our check-ins. I also had a lot more fun along the way.

Do you have any favorite techniques that help you write faster? Any other tips and tricks for dealing with deadlines? If so, I’d love to hear them.

How to be burned at the stake

A beloved early mentor of mine, the late Dona Vaughn, told me that her first critique group was brutal. How brutal? Well, let’s just say the first part of their critiquing handbook was called “How to Be Burned at the Stake.” The second, “How to Light the Match.” *

I’ve never been in a group as ferocious as that. But even so, my heart pounds with anxiety every time I submit a piece for critique, especially if it’s going out to someone new. It’s a tricky thing, this sharing of early work, and I find it hard to do even with people I trust.

I’ve come to see it’s worth doing, though, because that’s how you connect with good critiquers — and good critiquers are one of life’s great blessings. They ask the right questions; they point out the bits that don’t connect; they help you dream and plot and plan. I’m grateful for every one I’ve ever had, Dona included.

This month I’m feeling especially thankful for the critiquers of my current novel-in-progress — starting with some amazing writers from home who read the whole book, and continuing on to the great critique groups I’ve found here in England.

In truth, I may have had almost too many critiquers this time around. The early chapters have had more than fifteen readers, way more than I’ve had on previous manuscripts. So I’m pulling back now, mulling over what everyone’s said and listening for what chimes and echoes inside me.

Still, there’s nothing like a bunch of thoughtful and enthusiastic readers to make you want to get working again. It’s even better when your readers think you’re almost there. I’m digging into my manuscript with new heart and fresh insights, and I’m excited about where this story is going to go next.

* (If you’re looking for a kinder orientation to the gentle art of critiquing, I recommend Becky Levine’s The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide. And Cheryl Klein’s lectures, now available in her book Second Sight, are a fabulous guide to editing a whole manuscript.)