Is it just me, or are books getting harder to write? I always knew that writing was difficult. Okay, I admit that in the beginning I didn’t realize that because I ignored things like craft and structure. I was so excited that I wrote a book that it didn’t occur to me that there was more to it. *g*
Sadly, this is how I approach many things.
That changed with these last three books. They were all difficult for various reasons. The Blaze was hard because frankly, they’re hard to structure. You get the layout or you don’t. I fall into the latter category. RED was hard because I’d never written a book in two different POV’s and it was my first serious attempt at paranormal suspense. Also, it was only the second single title that I’ve written. Yeah, that length is a bitch. LOL! The third book’s been HARD because I’ve never written in this genre…and I want it to be PERFECT. *ggg* Small detail.
I actually think the reason that writing is becoming difficult for me is because my plots are getting more and more complex. As you all remember, there was a time I fought to have a plot. Not any more. I’m coming up with some doozies.
If you’re a writer, has anything in the ‘process’ changed for you recently?
Archive for April, 2007
I finished typing in the changes yesterday. The big question now is does it make sense? Answer: I have NO idea. I can’t read it right now. My face is smashed firmly against the glass. I can’t even make out a letter from this angle. Hopefully by the end of the week or the first part of next week I’ll be able to read the book in its entirety.
For now, I’m going to go watch the new Robin Hood and relax for a day or two. 
Now that you’re coming down from your chocolate coma, what are your plans for the week?
Hello everyone, we have exciting news - Fangs Fur and Fey is hosting its first contest!
For those of you who’ve seen Miss Snark’s Crap-O-Meter or Lit Agent X’s GOT HOOK? extravaganza, you’ll have an idea of the format. Writers are invited to submit up to a 300 word ‘hook’ to us describing your novel. What’s a hook? Consider it a movie trailer for your book. It’s a brief description meant to entice and interest someone into wanting to read your novel. A hook does NOT list every character, subplot or setting detail - that’s a synopsis, and we don’t want those. You also don’t need to list your book’s title or word count. Just list the genre, your name and email address (these will not count toward your total word tally) and then go right to your hook. That 300 max word count will be strictly enforced, too - anything over it won’t be eligible.
We will be able to accept up to 180 hooks on a first-come, first serve basis. Start sending in hooks on Friday, April 13th (if you REALLY want to be first, you can do it as early as 12:01 am Friday the 13th, EASTERN standard time) and then we will close submissions on Sunday, April 15th at midnight - or until we get 180 hooks, whichever comes first. DO NOT POST HOOKS HERE. Email hooks to fangsfurandfey@yahoo.com
All 180 hooks will be critiqued by our volunteer judges, members of Fangs, Fur and Fey (see below for list of judges). Now, though we love Miss Snark, these critiques will not be in her famous “WTF?” style, but will be overviews of what did or didn’t work for the hook and why. The critiqued hooks will be posted online at FFF on Monday, April 23rd. The author’s name and email address will NOT be made public. Instead, each hook will listed by number, and each author will be informed of their number when we receive his/her submission. Furthermore, the name of the particular judge who critiqued your hook will also not be listed, privately or publicly. Only the judges’ comments, the hook, and the hook number will be posted. Due to size, most hooks and comments will be under a cut - we don’t want to receive hate mail by clogging up everyone’s Friend pages with an extremely long Hook contest post.
Watchers will also be invited to offer comments on what did/didn’t work for them on hooks, BUT NO FLAMING, PEOPLE! This is supposed to be helpful, informative and fun, not rude, cruel or insulting. Any abusive comments will be deleted as fast as we see them.
You may be wondering, how can we call this a contest if there isn’t a prize? Well, aside from the feedback given by the judges and your own peers, don’t worry, we do have a prize! Out of those 180 hooks, judges will choose the best 12 to advance to the next round. Those writers will have thru Thursday, April 26th, to turn in the first 5 pages of their novel (double-spaced), also emailed to fangsfurandfey@yahoo.com . These pages will be critiqued by our judges and posted online Sunday, May 6th in the same manner as the hooks. Out of those 12, judges will choose the best one overall. The final winner will then be announced on Thursday, May 9th and he/she will receive…
Rachel Vater raleva31 at Lowenstein-Yost has agreed to critique and offer feedback (NOT posted online at FFF, but directly to the writer) of the author’s first three chapters/50 double-spaced pages of their manuscript, plus their synopsis, if desired. Since most authors very much want a professional agent’s take on their novel, we think this is a prize that will really benefit the winning participant.
And here are some things you may be wondering:
1) What if my novel isn’t finished? Can I still enter the contest?
A: Yes, but you DO need to have at least the first three chapters or 50 pages (double-spaced) completed in case you’re the lucky winner.
2) But what if I don’t want my hook/first five pages posted online for other people to see?
A: Then don’t enter. Sorry, but as anyone who’s seen the Crap-O-Meter or Got Hook contest knows, it’s extremely helpful for writers to see common mistakes/pitfalls or what works in hooks and pages. This is a contest with the goal of making everyone who enters it better at writing their hooks/initial pages…and everyone who watches as well.
3) What if Rachel’s rejected my query letter before? Does that make me ineligible?
A: Nope. This is a clean slate all the way around.
4) Okay, but what if she’s already read and rejected my partial before, can I still enter?
A: If you’ve revised since then, yes, you can. If it’s the EXACT same first 3 chapters/50 pages Rachel’s seen before and already given you comments on…then no. That isn’t fair to everyone else else who enters, because then she’ll just be repeating herself.
5) Suppose I win and Rachel really likes my first 3 chapter/50 pages, will she request more?
A: That’s up to her. If she want to see a full manuscript after doing her part in this contest, she’s welcome to do so, but Fangs, Fur and Fey would have nothing to do with that. It would be solely at her discretion and she is under no obligation to request more.
6) What is Rachel does request my full manuscript, but for whatever reason, I don’t want to send it to her?
A: Same principle applies. You’re under no obligation to send her more either. If she offers and you choose to accept or decline that offer, Fangs Fur and Fey would have nothing to do with it. We’re guaranteeing one person a critique of their first three caps/50 pages from Rachel - anything above and beyond that would be between your and her.
7) What if you don’t get 180 entries into this contest? Will it be canceled?
A: No, we’ll move ahead with however many entries we do get. Since this is our first contest, we really don’t know what the response will be. But we know SOMEONE will win no matter how many entries we get.
What genres are you accepting for this contest? Any exclusions?
A: These are the genres we’re accepting hooks from:
Urban Fantasy - adult and YA
Mystery/Thriller
Young Adult Fiction
Paranormal romance
Sci-Fi and Fantasy
These are the genres Excluded:
Nonfiction
Childrens/Middle Grade
Memoir
True Crime
Horror
Erotica
Literary fiction
9) Can I request a particular judge for my hook/pages?
A: No. Hooks and pages will be assigned a number and randomly handed out to judges. In the interest of fairness and with the knowledge that some of us may have online friends entering this contest, the writer’s identity will stripped from the hook when it’s assigned. If a judge happens to recognizes a friend’s hook/pages from their content, again in the interest of fairness, they will forward it to another judge.
10) Why don’t we get to know who judged our hooks/pages?
A: Because that’s not what this contest is about. We’re looking to help writers improve, not finger-point about which judge didn’t like what hook and then get personally upset with he/she over it.
11) Why do you people have the right to judge us, anyway? You’re not agents or editors.
A: No, we’re not. But we all have one thing in common: we’re all published/contracted authors, and therefore we’ve all gotten out of the slush pile at one point. Are we the most qualified people in the world to judge? No, but this isn’t a perfect world and we’re hosting this contest to offer help and advice, not pretend we know absolutely everything about hooks and initial pages.
That said, if you don’t want our feedback, we won’t be offended if you don’t enter. We just wanted to do something to give back to the not-yet-published writers. We have a vested interest in seeing more writers succeed (we like reading good books), so if we can help, that would please us.
12) Are you going to have another Hook contest again?
A: We don’t know. Let’s get through this one first
Judges:
Ilona Andrews
Holly Black
Mark Del Franco
Jeaniene Frost
Claudia Gray
Mark Henry
Caitlin Kittredge
Robert Levy
Amanda Marrone
Justine Musk
Janni Lee Simner
Rachel Vincent
If you have any questions, ask away!
**Side Note: Due to an immediate surge in requests for membership with Fangs, Fur and Fey (which is flattering :), we’d like to remind everyone to read our profile and decide if you should request to be a Member or a Watcher. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by rejecting their membership if they hit ‘Member’ when they meant to hit ‘Watcher’. If you hit ‘Member’ before by mistake, just go back and click ‘Watcher’ and we’ll take care of the rest. Thanks!**
I received Christine Feehan’s newsletter today. I don’t think I ever signed up for it, but I did write her one time, so I’m sure that’s how I ended up there. *g* Anyway, I noticed at the bottom that one of her Dark books, Dark Hunger is about to come out in Manga format. This makes the third author that I know of whose books are being converted.
Personally, I’m excited by this news. No, I don’t read Manga comics, but I may start now. I’m also wondering if this is a new trend that we’re just starting to see with paranormal romances and urban fantasies. A way to reach readers who wouldn’t normally buy a romance or urban fantasy. I certainly can see the appeal, since the characters come to life through another art form.
So I’m curious, what do you think of your favorite books being made into Manga comics/graphic novels? Good idea? Waste of trees? Don’t care either way?
I managed to rework one and a half chapters. I’m nowhere near caught up with my ‘progress’ from yesterday, but at least it’s moving forward again. I’ve started saving the manuscript every three pages, instead of every few hours. Hopefully that will work. I have a good fifty-five pages to go, but they won’t move quickly. Ah well, here’s hoping this new version is better.
Other than that, I have no news. I thought I might, but it looks like I’ll have to wait until after the holiday has passed. Anyone have any big plans for the weekend? Any family gatherings, overdosing on colored eggs, freebasing chocolate bunnies or snorting marshmellow chicks?
When you’ve been typing in edits for seven hours and your Word program glitches and loses all the changes that you’ve made. Yeah, that’s fun. :/ &$@$%*&@&@&#$%
I want to start this entry by saying that I finished my first round of edits on the urban fantasy at 1:00am last night. YAH!!! I realize I’m far from finished. I still have to type in the changes and then send the pages off to be critiqued, but I am relieved. I didn’t think that I would ever see this day. Thunk!
When I first started reading romances, I didn’t read anything but historicals. I was so taken with the genre that I wrote one for my freshman year of high school creative writing class. I was very upset that I didn’t have time to finish my opus. *g* I turned the ‘manuscript’ in a week late, but still received an A-. I think my teacher realized that I’d taken that assignment VERY seriously.
My most embarrassing ‘historical’ moment was back in 2001, when I met Virginia Henley at the Romantic Times Convention in Orlando. She’s written several of my favorite historical books. Now keep in mind, I’d never met a ‘real live author’ before, much less one of my all-time favorites. Someone pointed her out at the booksigning. I took a couple of deep breaths to get my nerve up, then walked over to meet her. I managed to get out that her books had a profound affect on me. She asked me my name and I proceeded to burst into tears. I had to walk away because I was mortified.
Through the years, my love for the genre has waned. Not sure why. Probably me changing as a person. I still love a good book in the genre. It is escapism at its finest. I’m sure somewhere in the back of my mind, I wish I was writing historicals to go with all the other genres that I currently write in.
With that in mind, I’d like to talk about some of my favorite historical authors. Two of these people are my friends (Julie and Sylvia). The rest I don’t know.
Julia Templeton started out writing historicals for Kensington. I met her a few years later, when she sold her first book to Ellora’s Cave. Two years after that we became critique partners. I love Julie’s work. (Wouldn’t critique with her otherwise.) She blends sensuality with a rich historical texture. She doesn’t write typical Regency settings. Instead, she’s drawn to Medieval times. My favorite book by Julie is The Bargain. It’s a lush tale of love and betrayal, which is played out in a harsh and changing world. She also has a new vampire historical coming out this year called Return to Me. If you enjoy deeply developed characters, who aren’t afraid to show their flaws, then check out her work.
The next author, Sylvia Day is another friend of mine. Sylvia writes scorchingly hot historicals with sweeping love stories that don’t always follow the expected path. It’s one of the things I love about her writing. The second is her ability to weave a convincing love story into even the most difficult plots. Not many writers do this well, but she does. I loved her Bad Boys Ahoy anthology and Ask For It, but she out did herself with The Stranger I Married. If you want a story that doesn’t take the easy way out, pick up her work.
This next lady is one of my absolute favorite historical authors. There is something about Lisa Kleypas’ work that speaks to the heart. Whether she’s writing about rogues or gentlemen, her stories are rich in character development. You feel that moment when the hero and heroine first meet. When the characters kiss, it curls your toes. Lisa is as close to a sure thing as you can get, when it comes to her historical work.
I’m also a huge fan of Stephanie Laurens’ original Cynster series. She has written two of my all time favorite heroes, Devil Cynster and Captain Jack. There have only been a few heroes that I wish were real and those are two of them. *g* She’s also written two of my favorite novellas, Rose in Bloom and Melting Ice. Great stuff. Stephanie has earned a place on my keeper shelf. When I’m looking for a comfort read, I grab one of her books.
I don’t think anyone does Highlander stories better than the final author on my short list, Karen Marie Moning. I first became aware of her work after reading, Beyond the Highland Mist. She hooked me immediately with her darkly handsome heroes and naturally sensual writing. I couldn’t get enough of her work. Now Karen has turned her talents to urban fantasy. I haven’t read her new work yet, but if it’s anything like her older titles, then we’re in for a treat.
Do you have a favorite historical author? If so, who is it and why do you like them? If not, why?
I’m down to the last seventy pages of the urban fantasy. I’m going to try to edit at least half of that today. It will be done this week. YAH!!! The sound you hear after that will be me collapsing.
Watched Blood Ties last night. They keep teasing me with glimpses of a half-naked Henry. Sigh. Drool. Next week’s episode is promising more of the same.
Since I plan to edit for the day, I thought I’d open the blog up to questions. If you have any questions about writing/publishing or whatever, fire away. 
