Withdrawal

It has been just over one week since I sent out the Beta Manuscript.  I promised myself that I would not edit Pack while the beta readers are working.  To that end, I've given myself one month away.  Here's my reasoning:

1. Respect for the readers: if I'm fiddling with the manuscript, then they're not reading the latest version, and their time is wasted.  
2. Fresh eyes: giving myself some time away will let me go back and read with renewed vision.  I'll be able to see the typos and errors better, and gain a new perspective on the story.
3. Distance: when reader input comes back, I'll have a bit of distance from the project.  I won't be as wrapped up in crafting the story, so I'll be able to consider their feedback with an open mind, and not take things personally. 

Unfortunately, taking time off is proving a much more difficult task than anticipated.  I can't stop thinking about it!  Even though I'm not reading the words on the page, I'm still revising things in my head and second guessing certain decisions I made along the way. 

"Is that scene really necessary?  Maybe I should have taken it out before sending to the beta readers." 

OR 

"That transition was too fast, there wasn't enough time between action A and response B." 

I will not go back to edit.  I will not go back and revise. 

The thing is, I was really happy with it when I sent Pack off to be read.  I felt pretty good about it.  Is it perfect?  No, but I thought it was as close as I could get on my own without new insight.  I still think that's true.  Additional edits might have just been changes, and not necessarily for the better.  I need the time away and I need the feedback.  So I will wait, as frustrating as that may seem sometimes!

I'm trying to distract myself with other related projects.  I'm seriously researching the publishing options, reading blogs and books on all aspects of the subject.  I'm revising a short story set in the same world as Pack but 60 years prior.  I'm writing the content for my website and bugging my husband to help me design it.  I'm thinking about the next book and starting on a very rough outline.

All in all, this is still going to be a productive month, but I can't wait to hear what the readers think and get back to finishing Pack!

Second Sight by Sherry Ficklin

I don't give book reviews very often, but this one definitely deserves a mention.

Sherry Ficklin is the author of The Gods of Fate series, a young adult fantasy trilogy, following Grace Archer.  I read the first book in the series, Foresight, last August, and loved it.  So I was excited to read Second Sight as soon as it came out last week.  I'll try to avoid giving too many spoilers...

Grace Archer is the daughter of Pandora and Prometheus, friend to the fey, and demi-goddess in her own right.  In Foresight, Grace learns of her heritage and discovers her powers as a demi-goddess, as she fights to protect her mother's urn.  Along the way she falls in love with Chris, one of her guardians and a fey warrior.  Unfortunately, he's killed during the big battle scene (sorry...trying to avoid spoilers here...but I can't avoid them all...) but she brings him back to life and they live happily ever after...

...For awhile in Faerie.  This is where book two, Second Sight, begins.

By saving Chris and bringing him back to life, Grace stole his soul from Hades.  He was safe in Faerie, but as soon as they leave, Hades returns to collect the missing soul and take Chris to the Underworld.  Grace is devastated.  What choice does she have but to bribe Charon, barter with Hades, and bring Chris home?   Of course, it's all a lot more complicated than that, and Grace is forced to make decisions that change everyone's lives, while narrowly avoiding destroying her own.  Friends and relatives -- people she should be able to trust -- want to use and control her (and her growing powers), and she must navigate the traps and schemes to become the woman she wants to be. 

Overall, I loved Second Sight as much as I loved Foresight.  Sherry Ficklin does a fantastic job bringing together modern, contemporary fantasy with Greek/Roman mythology.  Though the book is being marketed as YA, the complexity of the story, and the maturity of the lead character kept me entertained and turning the pages.  In fact, I felt it was a much more mature novel than some other YA stories I've read.

I highly recommend picking up this series.  But you have to read Foresight first.  Second Sight is equally as good, but it's not truly a stand-alone novel.  Start with Foresight, read them both, and you won't be disappointed. 

(P.S. The final installment of The Gods of Fate trilogy, Hindsight, is slated to be released early next year.  I can't wait to read the completion of the saga!)

Final Rating: 4 out of 5

Quick Update

I apologize for missing my posting earlier this week.  Things have been a little crazy around here.  So I'm just going to give a quick update on where I'm at.

I finished a second (or is it third?) review of the manuscript, tightened up some plot points and rewrote the ending.  The ending still needs some work, but I'll get back to that.

I've decided I need to write-out a character from the original draft.  She felt like a 2D stereotype and didn't add much to the story.  In fact, she wasn't physically in most of the story, usually appearing only through phone conversations.  I figured out a way to replace her, so I'm going to do it.  But that means a lot of revision, and one more pass on the manuscript before Beta. 

The new ending also beefed up another character for me, and added a new dimension to the story that I have to scatter throughout the manuscript.  I think it will be much, much better this way.

All of these changes have really cut down the size of the manuscript.  I'm down to about 60,000 words, which is a little short for a novel.  If I continue to slice and dice, it could go even lower than that (and might be better for it).  I'm considering calling it a novella now instead of a novel.  There are issues with that, of course, including that novella's are often difficult to sell through Traditional Publishing, but I'm thinking I don't want to go that route...much to ponder before fully making that decision, but I'm thinking about it.

I should have a Beta Manuscript by the end of the weekend.  My Beta Readers are lined up and ready to go.  Then it will be a month-long "break" from the novella.  I have a couple of story ideas that I'm going to start working on during the "break" to see if anything sticks.  I also have a short that I want to clean up and post for free online.  And I'm going to put up my own website soon too, so you can look forward to that.

Well, so much for a "quick" update.  There really is a lot going on!

This is a long one today, but I'm feeling prolific. 

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about my goals for my writing career.  The most immediate goal is, of course, to finish writing the novel and perfect it to what I consider a publishable quality.  I’ve been making significant progress on this one, and I think I’m still on track to meet my self-imposed deadline of the end of March.  But once that’s done, I need to decide where I want to go, and what I want to do with it.

I’ve been doing a lot of research into the publishing industry, trying to decide what’s going to be best for my own growth and development, and what makes the most sense in the digital age.  Last summer, I wrote a little about the changes occurring in publishing.  Since that time, I’ve read a lot more on the subject, so I thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far.

Traditional Publishing
When most people think of books, they think of the big publishing houses.  Traditional publishing essentially works like this.

1. Write the Novel: Author locks herself away in a remote cabin somewhere and writes a novel.
2. Get an Agent: Once complete, Author sends out query letters to agents, hoping to find someone to represent the novel and take it to the publishers.  (Query letters include information about the author, a one-paragraph description of the novel, and some other basic information.)  Based on the query letter, the agent will decide if they want to request pages and find out more.  Most agents request anywhere from 1 - 50 pages initially.  If they still like it, they'll ask for a full manuscript.  If they still like it after that, they'll offer representation.  Finding an agent can take months, even years, and perhaps dozens of queries.
3. Get a Publisher: Agent takes the manuscript and shops it around to the publishers.  Why the middle-man?  Publishers usually won't look at 'unsolicited' manuscripts submitted directly by the unknown author.  Why?  Because most of those manuscripts aren't ready for publication and the agent acts as a first screening process.  Plus the agent will know which publishing houses are looking for new authors, represent the genre or similar works, and they have the right connections to get the manuscript in front of the right people.  This process again can take several months or even years.  When Publisher makes an offer, Agent reviews the contract and negotiates the deal for Author, so that Author can, for the most part, continue to write uninterrupted.
4. Publish Books: Once a contract is signed with Publisher, Publisher takes control of the manuscript.  They'll have an editor go through and make additional revisions.  They take care of the cover art, formatting, and printing of the manuscript.  They develop a marketing plan and set up the distribution networks to get the book in stores, on shelves, and nowadays, online.  For the most part, they take care of everything for Author, allowing Author to focus on writing.  By the time the first novel is launched, the second novel should be finished and in production.  Meanwhile, Agent is making sure that the money is taken care of, the accounting is accurate, and everyone is being paid their appropriate share.

Clearly, Traditional Publishing takes a long time and requires jumping through a lot of hoops.  There are some nice benefits to it, though.  Number one, only your best work can make it through that grueling process.  It also allows the writer to do what they do best -- write.  But in this scenario, Author loses a lot of control, and a lot of the profit as well.  On top of that, in today's market, Authors are being asked to do most of their own marketing themselves, and Agents/Editors often want to see that Author has an audience before the book is published.

Self-Publishing
Unless the manuscript is going to sit in a desk-drawer somewhere and crumble into dust, the alternative to Traditional Publishing is to self-publish.  There's a certain stigma to self-publishing, in part because a large majority of self-published books aren't very well written, and in part because it sort of seems like cheating.  Plus, it's hard to sell books as a self-published author because you don't have the connections and distribution networks like the big guys.  In the past, I think a lot of people’s approach self-publishing like this:

1. Write the Novel: Author locks herself away in a remote cabin somewhere and writes a novel
2. Publish Books:  Author finished the novel, and decides to skip the whole Traditional Publishing thing.  She doesn't worry about getting it edited or reviewed, except maybe by Family Member A; it's clearly perfect.  E-Publishing is the new-hotness, so Author, maybe with the help of a technical person, publishes the book as a Kindle or Nook (name your favorite e-reading format).  Yay!  It's published!

Okay, so I'm being a little snarky, but this does seem to be the way many authors have approached self-publishing.  Can't get it published traditionally?  No worries.  Send it out into the ether and it will prove them all wrong.  Instant gratification.

But there is a better way to approach Self-Publishing, that can be worthwhile and still produce a high-quality novel.  It goes like this:

1. Write the Novel: Author writes a novel, but not in isolation, instead connecting with other writers and readers and developing relationships with people interested in similar topics.  They’re called Friends and Colleagues
2. Get Feedback:  Author asks for feedback from Friends and Colleagues, perhaps participating in a critique group.  Ideally, the group of readers should be diverse, including one or two family members (for positive support) but mostly independent readers that don’t have to worry as much about negative reactions.  Some reviewers should be writers themselves, and subject-matter experts are good readers to make sure the facts hold up (e.g. if the novel is science fiction, the science should be based on the actual laws of physics, so it would be helpful to have a scientist review it).
3. Get Help: Author is probably good at writing, but probably not so good at the technical stuff or artwork.  Whatever Author isn’t good at, needs to be outsourced.  However, the Author needs to be the director of the show, making sure that all aspects of the project are completed to a high standard.  What should be considered?  Editing, cover art, website, digital formatting, etc.  
4. Develop a Marketing Plan: Author needs to be in charge of marketing and promoting the novel.  Hiring an expert, in this case, is probably too expensive, though it could be done.  She needs to be a Businessperson.
5. Publish Books: Author needs to choose the best publishing options for their audience.  Digital is probably the easiest and cheapest format, but there are also print-on-demand services, or Author could even choose to print an entire run of books and store them somewhere.  This also ties in to the marketing plan, since if you’re going to print books, you need to have outlets to sell them.
6. Reevaluate Marketing Plan: Since Author is in charge, Author needs to stay vigilant and make tweaks or changes to increase the sales.  There are a lot of variables that can be messed with, everything from price, to promotions, to guest blogging to freebies.  Author is now also Salesman.
7. Stay Connected: Throughout the entire process, Author needs to stay connected and keep developing Friends and Colleagues, and building an Audience.
8. Keep Writing:  While all this is going on, you ALSO have to keep writing, produce the next novel and keep everything moving. 

Quite a few more steps, huh?  Successful self-publishing is a lot of work, and requires the development of a broad, cross-functional skillset.  You can’t just be a writer, you have to be a businessperson, salesperson, director of marketing, project manager, and possibly a website designer or artist as well.  However, there are definite benefits in all that work.  If done correctly, and if the book is good, an author can make a good living in self-publishing, perhaps as good as, or better than with a Traditional Publisher.

So which is better?  I don’t know.  I don’t think there’s an answer to that.  I think there will always be room for Traditional Publishing, because some authors are happy to give up control if it means they don’t have to do anything but write.  But by the same token, I think there’s a broad and expanding market for self-publication, for those authors willing to put in the time and effort to develop the necessary skills and make it work.  And the authors that don't put the time in, will be weeded out by the market

Before I sign off on this ridiculously long post, I wanted to throw out a couple of links for the blogs that have helped me understand the publishing market.

Dan Blank has a fantastic blog (We Grow Media) about digital media with a focus toward the writer.  He’s also offering a course that I’m considering taking called “Build Your Author Platform”.  It’s a bit pricey, which is why I haven’t signed up already, but I took an hour long webinar that gave the overview, and it sounded really fantastic.  If you’re interested in learning more about digital and social media, check him out.

Jane Friedman is another blogger that I follow religiously.  She’s also focused on the publishing industry, with an eye toward the use of social media.  One of her recent posts described how the digital generation is shaping publishing and, really, consumer expectations in general.

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing is one that I just started following a few days ago, but has some great information.

Finally, Pub Rants, written by literary agent Kristen Nelson, is a fantastic resource to learn more about traditional publishing.

'Pack' Synopsis

Here it is, my first attempt at the back-cover description of 'Pack', by Megan P. Haskell.

Hiking the Colorado mountains is a passion Laila Anders shares with her twin brother, Erik.  During a regular weekend backpacking trip, Laila is attacked by rogue wolves looking for an easy meal.  She's rescued, only to be kidnapped by her savior, a man with a dark secret and more in common with her attackers than she could imagine.  While Laila grapples with a new reality and searches for an escape, Erik searches for the sister he knows is still alive.  What they discover will test the strength of their bond and their perceptions of the world around them.  

Please note that the novel is currently under revision and there are no plans to publish it yet, so don't ask when it's coming out.  Otherwise, feel free to post comments!

The Laws of the World

World-building is an integral part of any good work of fiction.  It is the author's job to make the world feel real, so that the reader can live in it for the period of time that they're reading the work.

"But realistic settings constructed from memory or research are only part of the challenge, for an intensely created fantasy world makes new boundaries for the mind...Obviously this does not absolve the writer from the necessity of giving outer space its own characteristics, atmosphere, and logic.  If anything, these must be more intensely realized within the fiction, since we have less to borrow from in our own experience." 

 ~ Writing Fiction, by Janet Burroway

Much of world-building is done in the head of the writer through research and planning prior to the actual writing of the story.  The author always knows more about the novel than the words that end up written on the page, especially in science fiction or fantasy.  Meanwhile, the reader needs to feel part of the written world without being overwhelmed with information dumped all at once. 

Benjamin Tate, author of Well of Sorrows (which I'm currently reading), posted not too long ago on Magical Words, saying that,

"The main goal...is to let the reader settle into the world and live in it without the world itself becoming overwhelming. Make the world familiar enough and expose the differences from our world in slow and steady stages, and the reader won’t even notice that they’ve snuggled deeper into their chair and are turning the pages that much faster."

I bring this topic up now because of my summer writing class.  We were required to submit a final piece, either a complete short story or the first chapter to a novel.  During the last two classes, we critiqued each other's work.  My final short story was set in the world of my novel, but occurred approximately sixty years prior.  Ironically, the short story's protagonist is the antagonist of the novel: Sarah, the current werewolf pack leader.  In any case, one of the primary criticisms was that I hadn't provided enough information about the rules of my fictional world. 

My goal had been to follow Benjamin's advice.  I wanted the reader to slowly become aware that the story was about a single battle in a werewolf war.  I tried introduce the rules of the world more or less evenly over the ~5,000 words of the story.  Unfortunately, by the end the readers still didn't have enough information to fully understand what was going on or feel satisfied with the conclusion.  My classmates asked about the identity of the werewolf pack, the reason for the war, and why the protagonist was so brutal.  We ended up talking about my world more than the story itself, which was fine by me since I had so much information to share.

Nearly everyone in the class thought that my short story was part of a longer work.  In a way, I suppose it was.  It was a piece of back-story for my novel.  But it made me realize that world-building is a balancing act.  You need to bring the reader into the world slowly and carefully, but you also have to give them enough to chew on or you'll lose them.  Every word, every sentence, needs to function on multiple levels to keep the reader interested, entertained, and ultimately satisfied.  If you don't give them enough, they feel incomplete, but give them too much and they'll either be overwhelmed or feel patronized.  The sweet spot is hard to find.

Now that I'm beginning the revision process for my novel, I'm reading with an eye for the "reality" of the world.  I've already noticed spots where I've given an information dump, or areas that need more description.  Revision is a wonderful thing.

Chocolate Surprise

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but here's a little treat for you all...

Chocolate Surprise

by Megan P Haskell

     He approached from behind, sliding one hand along her long, exposed white neck. The skin beneath his fingers shivered as the tiny hairs on the back of her neck lifted. He loved the first seduction of the last fatal kiss.
     

     “Mmm, that feels nice,” she whispered, her sultry tone asking to be caressed.
     

     She had no idea what he really was. He had picked her up in an exclusive and expensive bar downtown.  She had eyed him from across the room, as they all were wont to do, but it was her neck that had made his final decision. He couldn't resist the translucent skin that gently pulsed in long blue lines beneath the surface. They had talked.  She was a business woman, far away from home, looking for a little adventure.  He had invited her home with him.  No woman had ever refused.
     

     “Would you like some dessert? I have some wonderful imported chocolates that would taste lovely with a little red wine,” he whispered into her ear. The chill that shivered down her spine was tantalizing. He almost took her then and there, but decided to make the evening last. At least a little while longer.
 

     “That would be lovely,” she replied turning into his arms.
 

     He let his hands slide down her shoulders, then quickly left the room, moving to the kitchen where he stored his bait. He had no real food, just dessert, liquor and wine. It was all he ever needed.

     He pulled the red box of chocolates from the cabinet, selecting a few choice pieces and arranging them artfully on a plate. He poured what was rumored to be a fantastic wine into his favorite crystal goblet.  It was thick and had a deep red color that looked remarkably like blood. He enjoyed the irony with every pour. He carried the bait back into the living room.
 

     “Here we are,” he said, offering the plate and the goblet.
 

     “Aren't you going to have any wine?” the woman inquired. “I hate to be the only one drinking.”
    

     “Never mind that,” he replied. “Try the wine with the chocolates. They're truly divine.”
 

     The woman took the plate from him and they sat on the burgundy couch, knees touching lightly. She picked up one of the dark brown morsels and placed it on her tongue. Her eyes closed in pleasure. He let his eyes trail down her light blue dress shirt and black pencil skirt. So proper on the outside, yet clearly so deviant on the inside.
 

     “Here, let me give you a piece,” she said, a chocolate held out toward him.
 

     “No, no. They are all for you, my dear.” 
 

      She frowned.  “Please, let me feed you.” She leaned forward, her blouse framing that lovely neck and opening wider across the bust. No matter how hard he tried to look away, his eyes were drawn back to that little pulse point. He was hungry. He closed his eyes, inhaling her scent but keeping his desires in check.
 

     “Don't worry. You'll feed me a little later, my darling.”
 

     “I don't think so.”
 

     His eyes flew open. Her voice had changed: no longer warm and sultry, it was cold and hard. But it was the wooden stake that rested between his ribs that was the real surprise. She had much better bait than he did.

False Truth

What is fiction? Well-crafted lies? Imagination run wild? Real-life condensed and amplified? Social or political commentary? Escape from reality?

I think it can be any or all of these, and sometimes all at once. My personal definition is that fiction is a "false truth".  The story is false - either entirely made up or exaggerated in some way - but there also has to be some truth to it.  

One of my favorite books of the last few years was One Second After, by William R Forstchen. Part of what made this book so fascinating was that it was based on a very real threat to the US: an electromagnetic pulse or EMP. In a nut shell, an EMP kills anything and everything electronic, sending the victim country back to the dark ages with no transportation, no power, and very few means of communicating. The characters in the story were imaginary, but their reactions to the threat and behaviors after it occurred were true. The story is made-up (false) but it's based on reality (truth).

But Megan, you write fantasy!  It's all made up, its only point is to provide an escape from reality, so it can't be real and it can't be true.

Just because fantasy isn't real doesn't mean it isn't true.  And just because it isn't real doesn't mean that there's no value in it except as an escape. Every great fantasy has truth and meaning.   

“Aristotle went so far as to say that a 'probable impossibility' made a better story than an 'improbable possibility,' meaning that a skillful author can sell us glass mountains, UFOs, and hobbits, whereas a less skilled writer may not be able to convince us that Mary Lou has a crush on Sam.”

~ Writing Fiction, by Janet Burroway

The characters of the story might belong to a fictional race of elves, trolls, werewolves, vampires, hobbits, orcs, goblins, angels, demons...you get the idea...but their personalities have to be based on something or someone we know or can relate to in some way, even the bad guys.  Frodo was the boy next door, forced to step up to a responsibility he didn't really want and wasn't really ready for. And at the most basic level, Sauron was an evil dictator, living far away, that wanted to take over the world.  Remind you of anyone?

The key here is that though they weren't human, these characters had personalities, backgrounds, quirks, and pet peeves that defined them and were true to their stories.

Then there's the setting: depending on the subgenre, the setting can be both real and true, or just true. My novel is set in the mountains of Colorado. I've been there. It's real. Promise.

Oh, you want a published example? Look at the Sookie Stackhouse series (or True Blood for those that watch the show but haven't read the books) – Sookie lives in modern day Louisiana, it just so happens that the vampires have come out of the coffin and revealed their existence. So long as Charlaine Harris maintains the rules of her world (vampires allergic to silver, for example), the world she's created feels real.

However, even an epic fantasy adventure can take place on a non-Earth world and feel as real as the suburban neighborhood I live in, so long as the author follows his own rules and stays true to the characters. If the planet has a purple sky, it needs to stay that way (unless there's some kind of catastrophic event that changes the color of the sky for a reason...but I digress). If the protagonist is the daughter of a Duke living in a castle, she probably shouldn't be a weapons expert or inadvertently break the rules of etiquette.

Fantasy is definitely false, but it can also be true too.

Genre fiction can still be literature. Honest.

As I stated in my post a few weeks ago, sci-fi and fantasy - and practically all of their sub-genres - are my cup of tea when it comes to books I love.  I make no bones about it.  When you ask me what I'm reading, 95% of the time it will be something within this realm of literature.  However, as we all know, genre fiction is often looked down upon by academics.  It's considered "low-brow" and unsophisticated; inappropriate for an educated person to be caught reading.  Of course, as a well-educated woman who gobbles up the stuff, I have to politely disagree.

However, I do agree with what Laura Ann Gilman said this on Tor.com the other day:

"... in my experience, urban fantasy—more to the point, modern fantasy—is at its heart not about the fantastic, but the everyday: the intensity of the real world drawn in the most vibrant colors possible, so that what was mundane and ordinary takes on a new depth and meaning."

To me, taking mundane things in our everyday lives and making them new and exciting is what makes fantasy so fun.  So, okay, you have an adventure set in some alternate medieval period, with talking cats and ghosts.  I get it, some people can't suspend their disbelief that far.  But what's the story really about?  It's really about a young woman making her way in the world, falling in love, and finding her destiny.   (Note: I just finished reading The Poison Throne and The Crowded Shadows, the first two books in the Moorehawk trilogy by Celine Kiernan, and they're fantastic.  Highly recommended.)  There are swords and crossbows, court politics and adventure, but the fundamental story is not about the action, it's about the journey and the relationships that are developed between the characters.

Misty Massey, from Magical Words, had this to say: 

"Some of the genre fiction I’ve read is more well-written and brilliant than any ten literary doorstops, but kept from the eyes of the literati merely because of the genre label."

Genre fiction sells, which means people are reading it.  Considering that one in four American adults failed to read a single book in 2006, shouldn't we consider this to be a good thing?  Shouldn't we celebrate the written word, in whatever form it takes, and encourage people to find the value in it for themselves?  Better yet, why don't we take a closer look at genre fiction to understand the power of escaping the real world through a good story?  Maybe it will even teach the literati a thing or two.

(Side rant: isn't "literary fiction" a genre in it's own right?  Sure seems like one to me.)  

*****************
Woo Hoo! 
Word count on the novel: 40,221  !!!