While the headache was mostly under control, she took a look at Matt Hughes' revamped Genie Memories. AND she was very impressed.

I find it fascinating to look at other people's writing. I find that I learn a lot.

As I looked at Matt's manuscript today, I was awed by several things. His use of tech. His apparently casual familiarity with weapons. His action-driven sequences. His atypical and interesting characters. His vigorous verbs. Yeah, there's work that needs done, but damn.

I feel this way often when I look at other people's work. How do they do the things they do? Look at the cool and different ways they pull people in.

Inevitably, the brain gets around to thinking: Why can't I do that?

As I grapple with the last three chapters of The Winter the Troll Danced with Old Nick, I grapple with the action sequence. The town is under siege. Why is this sort of thing so hard for me to write? I love to write interpersonal conflict, relationships, and angst. I can write this other thing, but I'll be honest with you, I usually fudge the action parts with clever plot maneuvers, and a focus on what's happening to our mains. The other guys become background.

Then again, Matt did this in one of his sequences. The scene that reunites three big players in the story. And he did it well. Hell, even Tolkien focuses on the main characters in all that...scope. Suddenly what I thought might be a weakness is reinforced effectively by another writer.

I think writing those sort of scenes is hard because it's not the part of the story that interests me. But it has to happen in this story. And I will do it to the best of my ability because I need to make it work, primarily for the conflict between the two brothers.

So, actually, I owe Matt and Matt's story, because by examining how Matt did his action scenes, it makes me feel a little more confident about what I'm doing in my own work, and he gives me a good example of how to make it work.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the many reasons why people really need to talk to other knowledgeable writers, and read their work.

Ow. I'm getting off the computer to rest my head. Your thoughts?

Catherine

ShareThis

It's pretty roasty toasty here in the Midwest. We don't air condition except a small bedroom unit at night. Argh.

I'm focused on finishing the troll novel. There will be a call for readers soon. I plan to revise chapters 8 and 9, and then wrap things up with chapter 10. It'll come in at that nice YA size of about 55K. Once I'm done with the write-a-thon, I'll go through with a serious eye on editing, continuity, and connection. Then, agent roulette begins again.

And I'll be glad. Because I want to send something out.

So, I'm not dead, although nature is trying. Off to Florida to the Potter Park next week, so things may get quiet(er) for a while. Oddly enough, I seem to be more chatty when I'm at work all week. Go figure.

Catherine

ShareThis

We took a trip up to the Decorah Nordic Fest on Saturday with our friends Mark and Michelle, and then Sunday we went to the 50th Wedding anniversary party for parents of friends, so we've been spending a lot of time in the car. There have been some cool things for writers.

1. I've learned a lot about thermite reactions and white phosphorous, because I've been studying clever ways to blow up...but that would be telling.

2. Matt Hughes has given me chapters of his book Genie Memories to read. I'm looking forward to it.

While I'm feeling smug about things I've seen that you yet haven't, I should also mention George Galuschak's On the Making of a Dead Man's Hand, which truly should be snatched up by some wise and thinking editor.

It's going to be a busy week, kids. In addition to keeping up with the Clarion Write-a-thon, I will be working on some sewing for Anime Iowa. Hey, the presentation's done, but it would be nice to get the outfit done for Friday's party too. And, there's work Tuesday and Thursday.

It's my hope to have a write up about Red Hood's Revenge soon.

What have you been up to? What projects are you working on?

Catherine

ShareThis

Let me make this easy for you:

Cool graphic link:

Shop the authors.

Remember, Clarion took some heavy cuts this year in funding. It is a great place for writers to learn, and one of the few places that is specifically designed for genre writers to learn their craft.

So, send them some money!

And yes...I have been writing on schedule. This is chapter 8 week, and I'm rough drafting that RIGHT NOW. Okay, not right now, right now, but this week right now.

Seriously though, we're finished on August 7th, so you need to get that cash in.

Catherine

ShareThis

Each morning we would meet each other in the dormitory cafeteria for breakfast. Our usual custom was then to watch television for half an hour on the tiny black and white set in his dorm room before heading out for the day. I thought the date was sacred. We were watching Inspector Gadget, for crying out loud! This particular morning I was told that Bryon had to meet his lab partner Dave for homework.

I liked Dave. Bryon had been seeing Dave a lot. Physical chemistry lab is a tough gig, and there had been a lot of obscure references to look up in the library stacks. Dave and Bryon would often take me for pizza with them after lab sessions.

That morning, I felt neglected. I'd watched our time erode as more demanding homework took hold. I wanted to hang out with my new boyfriend. I was outraged that he didn't seem to feel the same. The frustration came to a head, and I decided we were finished. I yelled at him. He yelled at me. I stormed back to my room.

When I got back, I sat down to have a self-indulgent cry. The emotional backlash of having broken up with Bryon slapped me. I had overreacted, but it was too late.

There was a soft knock on the door of my dorm room. Bryon stood there. I shrank to two inches tall, my selfishness and vanity suddenly laid out in front of me.

"I thought you had to meet Dave."

"I called him. I'm sorry."

"Why?" I looked him over. In the world I came from, you never admitted weakness or blame. "It wasn't your fault," I said.

"Someone always has to say sorry, whether it's their fault or not," he said.

It was that moment that I knew I would marry him. Because here was a way of looking at the world that was so different and so wonderful. And here was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

We began our lives together on February 17th, 1984. We married on July 18th, 1987. We are still married, and happily so. You know you've found the right person when each day is better than the last.

Happy anniversary, Sweetie Pea. I love you so much.

Catherine

ShareThis

a photo taken of the VP XIII reunion at Readercon.

*blinks*

It's been 3 days since I started this post. I had a faboo weekend with my family of choice, but yeah, my extrovert battery got hit pretty hard, so I'm only just getting back into the swing of extrovert things.

And work today...well, after a week's vacation, I really couldn't expect any better than 31 phone messages and 147 emails. Because that's just the way the English department rolls.

So...anyway, let's get back to the subject at hand, which is rethinking that Con thing.

Readercon was fun. It was a con. I saw some friends and enjoyed seeing others from afar. I attended valuable panels, and I burned out and skipped panels I hoped to see. It was a pretty typical con experience for me--highs, low, and the impossibility of doing it all, but enjoying most of what I did.

Except there was something unusual that has never happened to me at a convention before.

And if you don't want to read on, I'll cut this here. But if you do, especially as regards writer's retreats and VP XIII-ness, you may want to click.

One of the things that had me really jazzed about Readercon was the high friend meet up ratio that this con offered. Not only excellent writer friends, but also my best friend from Japanese language school, and one of my best costuming buddies were people I was going to meet up with. The convention gave me an awesome excuse to see cool people.

You know that I got to see lots of VP buddies. Six of us were there: George, Julia, Kat, Miranda, Lisa, and me. On Friday we had a lovely dinner. We kept hanging out and running into each other at the convention. We would talk about our writing, our rejections, and our hopes.

The pattern for me went something like this: meet up with VP folks. Go to convention. Go back to room to rest/recharge. Rest/recharge AND have a writing break through. Write like a maniac. Find VP folks again. Repeat.

I began to notice that I was not the only person cycling through this pattern. Many of us were plotting new stories, having breakthroughs on novels, or scoping out places in our busy lives to write.

It was really cool.

And it made me think. I love conventions. I've been to lots of them, all flavors. There are certain conventions you can count on me to go to, based on proximity and long-term love (ie unless I'm in Russia on a Fulbright, I don't miss Wiscon). But after the World Fantasy and Readercon experiences, I find myself wondering about attending writer conventions at this point in my career.

They are cool. They are awesome. But Readercon seemed to have an underlying message: right now what you need to do is to write. You write best around writers who are interested in what you're doing and you are interested in. In an ideal world, it would be best to spend money on both writer conventions and writing retreats, but since your funds are limited, does it make sense at this fledgling stage to spend your precious $$$ on writer's retreats?

I had a fantasy about having a writer's retreat. VP XIII buddies, we could have a yearly retreat somewhere, a long weekend, and hole up and write. That would be really cool. Miranda and I are going to toss around the idea in the fall. Would you be interested in that sort of thing? We'd move it around, so that different people could go different years.

I'm hoping for a research trip to Norway next summer. That doesn't necessarily preclude this retreat for me next year, but it might. However, I think we should toss this idea around. I think that the gift of writer time at this point in my life is more what I need. The kibbitz at conventions is wonderful, but having something to kibbitz about with other writers is wonderful-er.

I would like to produce work that makes me less of a wannabe, and more of a...you know, a published writer. This is a very attractive option. And I was just astounded at how productive we all were that I can't ignore that getting together worked.

Do any of you (not just VP'ers) have experience with this sort of thing? How does it work for you?

Oh, so much to write about, and so little time! I think I'd better do the anniversary post ASAP. Yesterday was 23 years. Stay tuned.

Catherine

ShareThis

However, I'm weighing in to mention that I am finished with this week's chapter for the Write-a-thon. I am going back to chapter 3. I have to back weave a plot element in, and change Manuel's mom's job, so that the new plot movement makes sense in chapter 8. Then I'll revise chapters six and seven.

I know this excites. It might be more exciting to mention that I've learned a lot about autoclaves and what they do in the last couple of days. Nope, you're going to have to read the manuscript later to know why.

You can guess all you want, though.

Catherine

ShareThis

And no, there is no documented account of Thursday night. Wonder and hope. Wonder and hope.

***

I mentioned that I read a lot on the Readercon trip. Hey, what are you looking at? I DID write too, you know!

You might have noticed that I had Alexander "Big Daddy" Dumas' book The Last Chevalier up as what I was reading for a while. It was a long book with a huge prologue.

The background: In 2007, Dumas' Napoleon novel was discovered after a scholar pulled together some hints about a missing Dumas' serial. It plugged in the hole of Dumas' romantic history of France quite tidily. The manuscript was sought out, pulled together and released in France very quickly after. In the US, we received the translation in 2009.

So, how was it?

The important thing, the important thing about Dumas is to remember you're reading Dumas. It's a lot like reading Dickens. The fiction is very much a creature of another time, and you have incredible coincidences, convenient death, and trapped gender roles. As a reader, I can usually get around this stuff, analyzing in the climate of the times. I had a bit of trouble with this book. More on that to come...

So, how good was this book? Dumas' best book was The Count of Monte Cristo. It is the most psychological of the books, and easily accessible to the modern reader. There are features of interesting psychology in many of his books. The Musketeer cycle is a rollicking tour-de-force, but it also focuses on friendships and relationships at its core.

What to make of The Last Chevalier? The book seems to have three parts. The first part is a well-written account of Napoleon's paranoia, deftly and justly dealt with by the author.

The second part loses me. It is our hero Saint-Hermine's hunting exploits. Saint-Hermine, a royalist, has run afoul of the government, but has been spared and sent to live out his life in exile as a common soldier, so he takes a great journey. He saves women from savages and kills a lot of wild life, which shows you he's a man's man in the early 19th century, but I have to admit, doesn't do much for me. I feel for him in the first part of the book, but not so much in the second.

The third part seems, sadly, that Dumas is trying to outrace his death. He cursorily deals with Nelson and the resounding French defeat, inserting Saint-Hermine into the battle quite poorly. There is no end to the book.

If you are a hard core Dumas reader, you can't miss The Last Chevalier. However, if you're looking for the reason why modern readers read Dumas, you'd best look out the books I've mentioned earlier. I'm glad I did it, because I can say I did.

Happy reading!

Catherine

ShareThis

I write like
Leo Tolstoy

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

NOOOOO!!!!!

***

Hulk Hercules?

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Oh RLY?

***

Finally, The Winter the Troll Danced with Old Nick?

I write like
Margaret Atwood

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I like this one.

But it just goes to show you, either this is not accurate, or I'm very versatile.

Who'd you get?

Catherine

ShareThis

It's been a low key day, but luckily I'm on vacation.

***

The Clarion Write-a-thon continues apace. This is the week of chapter 7, and I got a good jump on that yesterday. More about this to come.

***

In transit, I also read books: The Last Chevalier, Red Hood's Revenge, A College of Magics, and Extras. I'll have something to say about all of those eventually.

***

It was fantastic to see about 1/4 of my VP workshop buddies over the weekend. We hung out, a lot. Perhaps the most interesting facet of the convention was that hanging out seemed to inspire creativity in us all. We would talk, do a few panels, and wander away to our rooms to sleep or write. And then we'd get together and talk about what we were doing. It makes me think that maybe what we want to do is save our pennies for reuniting at writer's retreats, rather than hooking up at cons, but you guessed it, more on that later too.

Shout outs also to Sarah Prineas, who wasn't there but said hello, Eugene Myer, who one can have an action-packed hall conversation with, and Elizabeth Bear for the 4th Street information. Our reading went very well, and hanging out with alumns and meeting more VP folks and nice writing people was just good.

I won't be going to Readercon next year, as I'm already booked for North American Discworld in Madison the same weekend. While I liked Readercon fine, it's not going to be one that is a must go for me. I missed my Wiscon with its open parties and it's less hierarchical structure, and its feminist vibe. It was a little bit like going to Disney World first, and then going to Disneyland--I should have done it the other way around.

Priority one is writing the novel this week, but I'll try to get back her and say something interesting and relevant. Right now, I'm thinking more dozing.

Catherine

ShareThis