Jordan Summers

The Eternal Kiss is out. It’s an anthology of YA Vampire stories and thus far, one of the best anthologies I’ve read in a while. (I used to buy anthologies all the time to sample authors, but I’ve been disappointed in the last few that I’ve read. It’s made me gunshy.) I’m six stories in on a thirteen story book (I stopped reading when I began my own YA.) and haven’t encountered a clunker yet. They’re all very inventive. A few have made me run to the computer to see what else the authors have written. You know you’ve read a good story when you start to look up backlists. I’ll give a complete review with a story breakdown once I finish writing this book.

If you’re into YA or vampires, then you can’t go wrong with this collection.

I know I’m putting up a lot of videos, but I like the positive vibes that I’m getting from them. And now, here’s Africa originally by Toto, but I think I like the way these guys perform it better.

I took this link from Kari Stewart’s site because it made me smile. I LOVE seeing things like this. It’s great that people are ‘owning’ their weddings, making them unique to match their personalities. Bravo!

The other day I went on a group joining spree. I’d been looking at the International Thriller Writers (because several reviews called RED a paranormal thriller and I thought I should learn more about the craft of constructing thrillers), Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (this one should be obvious), and the Horror Writers Association (I enjoyed having my werewolf eat people in the beginning of RED so much I thought I’d see if I could expand upon the theme. *g* As of this entry, I’m waiting to see if the HWA accepts me.) for a few years now.

I’d weighed the pros and cons of joining these organizations and in the end decided I needed to break out of my ‘comfort zone’. I can’t do that if the only groups I belong to are Novelist Inc. and Romance Writers of America. (There’s a lot of cross-over.) I like these three groups for their unique approaches. I like the fact that they’re geared toward professional writers. They each offer something different. I hope to absorb their knowledge. I have two other groups I may end up joining called PASIC (a group within a group) and SCBWI (since I’m currently trying my hand at YA). I’ve heard great things about these groups and may have to check them out.

Do any of you belong to any of the above groups? If so, what do you think about them? What have you gotten out of these groups?

I know many of the people who visit my blog aren’t old enough to remember Walter Cronkite. For some reason his death has bothered me more than the others. It feels like something important has died with him. Truly an end of an era. It’s hard to believe a news-man could be so trusted, especially in a world where today’s news comes off more like an article out of People magazine. (No offense to People.) But see the news didn’t used to be that way. When I was a kid, news-men like Walter Cronkite didn’t cover sensational stories. They covered what was happening in the country and around the world. Walter Cronkite in particular did a wonderful job of keeping his opinions out of his news stories. He gave you the facts, told you what you needed to know, and let you digest the information for yourself. If you didn’t like the truth, well, that was your problem. There are VERY FEW true news stations left in this country. Most skew toward one side or another. They distort facts instead of reporting on events. I never realized how much things had changed until I was in Oklahoma during the last L.A. riots. The ‘news’ Oklahoma was receiving looked a lot different than the news L.A. was broadcasting. The footage had been edited to make it look like a certain segment of the population was doing all the looting, when in fact the looters were made up of ALL nationalities. It was a real eye-opening moment for me and not something I would’ve expected to see when Walter was on the air. As he always said at the end of his broadcast, “And that’s the way it is.” Rest in Peace, Mr. Cronkite.

We went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince today and I was once again reminded of why I write. Particularly why I’m writing the young adult book right now. There is something fundamentally child-like about fiction writers. There is a part of us that doesn’t want to grow up, which is why we choose to live in the world of imagination.

The world of imagination is a world we can control (for the most part *g*), unlike the real world. We can make it look like anything we want. Build castles in the sky. Make dragons talk. Characters can behave in ways we can only dream of. They are our golems. For we are the weavers of words, the spinners of dreams. We conjure fantasy. And make you believe.

Our prose may not always paint the pictures we see in our minds–no matter how hard we try to get the words onto paper. Most mental pictures are as elusive as catching smoke with teardrops. That is the challenge of living a dream, of being a fiction writer. When I see movies like Harry Potter, I am reminded why I chose to travel this solitary road and why I must continue walking without concern for my ultimate destination. For it is the landscape I pass, the characters I meet that make up the real journey, the true writer’s journey. And if I can close my eyes for one last time on this planet knowing that I’ve reached people, touched their lives, showed them worlds they never knew existed, then I have succeeded beyond my wildest imagination. And that’s saying something.

I know some of you are hoping that I stop talking about my UF YA. Sorry, it won’t be today. *ggg* Last night I FINALLY got the opening of the book. It took a different starting point and a change of point of view (from third person to first), but it finally worked. YAY!!!

You have no idea what a relief it is to have the opening chapter of the book finished. It’s taken so long to get it right. Of course, once I did, the opening flowed. The weird thing is I’ve been able to feed in almost all of my original openings into the manuscript. I guess my brain was just having trouble separating scenes. Today I plan to write a rough chapter two. Hopefully it won’t take as long. As least I know how it opens.

I finished reading Dying Bites by D.D. Barant. The world building was good and the secondary characters were interesting, but I don’t think I’ll be picking up the next book in the series. It just wasn’t for me.

Haven’t heard any rumblings online about RWA, so I guess the drama was minimal. Other than that, I’m sure nothing has changed.

I’ve been doing a lot of career thinking lately since I’m attempting to branch off into other genres beyond romance. It’s had me take a closer look at the authors around me. Well, actually, I’ve been looking at their careers. Probably not in the way that you’re thinking. I’m not comparing myself to the authors around me (ie who has the better career, etc.). I’ve been looking at their productivity. And what I discovered is rather upsetting. I realized I have not been working hard enough. My productivity is lacking.

I know how this started. When I first began writing for Ellora’s Cave I made the mistake of trying to write several books back to back. At first, I succeeded. But it didn’t take long until I hit a wall. A very tall, very thick, unforgiving wall. I ended up giving myself writer’s block for over six months because I was so burned out. I promised myself that if I ever got through it that I’d NEVER do that again. The problem with making yourself a promise like that is you have to be specific. I wasn’t. I ended up swinging toward the other end of the pendulum and I’ve never quite gone back toward the middle. Because of this gun-shy reaction my productivity has dropped–a LOT. I still make deadlines and manage to get in partials, but I’m not working near to the level I could be comfortably working. See I’m not talking about going back to a crazy land schedule. I’m just talking about getting to the point where I’m writing a couple single titles and a few novellas a year or three Blazes/Nocturnes and a novella a year, etc. Given the word counts that’s actually quite realistic.

So why haven’t I done it? Because I’m lazy I’ve gotten out of the habit. Yep, it boils down to habit. So now I have to begin the slow process of building the habit up again until it becomes second nature. Have you let any good ‘habits’ slip lately?

It’s been interesting working on this Young Adult book. My heroine is fifteen and a half–an age I remember rather vividly for it’s tremendous highs and crushing lows. It’s weird hearing that teenage voice again in my head. I’m at once relieved and a little terrified, since I thought it had gone away a long time ago. The writing is slow going, but I really didn’t expect otherwise. I’m still experimenting with POV. Not sure yet whether it should be written in first or third person. It’s also been a challenge figuring out where to start this book. Wisdom says to start it as close to the end as possible, but it was difficult to do that with this particular story. We’ll see if I end up keeping what I’ve written or tossing it. I must say that I do LOVE this plot. I really hope I can pull this story off. I’d love to share it with you all.

Several writing friends and I are considering a name change. There comes a time in a career when it becomes apparent that a name change is needed. Either you’ve steadily published, but never really got anywhere (ie you continue to work, but not build your following) or your sales are dropping, making it hard to sell work. It’s never an easy decision no matter what drives it. I’ve been fortunate to earn out on every book I’ve published. I’m hoping that the Dead World series continues that ‘streak’. But I’m nowhere near where I’d like to be (I’m sure that a lot of authors feel this way.) and I’m not sure I’ll be able to get there under the JS name.

Like I said, a name change isn’t something any author takes lightly. Most authors have spent years trying to build a name. You have to be willing to walk away from that foundation and start anew. Some people can do it easily, while others cling. Still others fall somewhere in betweeen. I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to do it yet. I have a lot of friends in the same boat. At least we’re all paddling together.