Happy December!

I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season so far. Yes, I know. The official holidays aren't all month long, but there are several of them in December, so why confine oneself to a single day of celebration this month, amiright? In that vein, here is my December playlist. What's yours?

Sleigh Ride - Glenn Miller
Trad: So Treiben Wir Den Winter Aus - The Mediaeval Baebes
Through Your Eyes On Christmas Eve - Abney Park
My Song for You (From "Good Luck Charlie") - Bridgit Mendler & Shane Harper
Fairytale of New York - The Pogues
St. Stephen's Day Murders - The Chieftains feat. Elvis Costello
On Grafton Street - Nanci Griffith
Winter Winds - Mumford & Sons
Winter's Solace - Doug Wood
Trad: Salva Nos - The Mediaeval Baebes
Golden Apples Of The Sun - Paul Winter
I'll Be Home For Christmas - Glenn Miller
'zat You, Santa Claus? - Abney Park
On Christmas Time - The Coats
Dawnwalker -  Paul Winter
White Wine In the Sun - Tim Minchin

Steam(punk)ing Right Along

I literally just finished my first edit pass through my steampunk novel. I finished the manuscript about two months or so ago and I've been letting it sit, getting some distance from it be before doing my own beta-read. As far as the last 25K words or so go, it was the first time I'd read them at all. I can't tell you how excited I am to find that I really like this book! I honestly didn't know if the story would hold up, if it made sense, if it was loaded with contradictions and inconsistencies that would have to be corrected, etc., etc. I can confidently say it does, it does, and it wasn't. Yay! I haven't felt this good about a project in a long time. I still have to go through all my tracked changes before sending it to my beta readers, of course, but wheeeeeee! That clearly hasn't dampened my enthusiasm. ;-)

I hope everyone who has chosen to participate in NaNoWriMo this year is steaming merrily along on their own works! I might have to start a new novel this month myself just because I can. Hee-hee!

Long and Short

Long:
After nine months of on-again, off-again writing, I finished my steampunk m/m novel a week ago today! A couple of author buddies came over for a write-in and I knew I was in the homestretch, and... It's done! Now it sits and gels for a little while before I read it start to finish and tweak/edit it a bit before sending it to my beta readers. Whee! Oh, and it topped 100K words. WTF? That makes it the longest book I've ever written, beating my menage, Rose & Thorn, by about 10K.

Short:
I wrote a smutty f/m short story yesterday. Just under 5K words once I'd trimmed, tidied, and tightened it. I think that calls for another WTF?, don't you? I sent it to my critique partner (who actually writes het erotic romance) for a beta. I'm almost scared to see what she has to say since neither het nor short story is my usual format. Cross your fingers for me.

RIP Robin Williams

I'm sad today and felt the need to find some Robin Williams moments to make me laugh.

Here's a short one:







And vintage 1991 with Johnny Carson:







Just last fall with Craig Ferguson:







Finally, a classic that I think we all need today:







Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have a little keen and then watch The Birdcage.

Steampunk + Kismet

Random things keep entering my sphere of reality lately that are peripherally steampunky. I think the universe is telling me it likes what I'm writing at the moment. ;-) Here are a couple of links that connect to the early 1900s as examples.

85-year-old steam engine ready to roll again in Lewis County
16 Edwardian Colour Photos That Will Make You Feel Like A Time Traveller

There are links to more photos off that second one that I could spend hours happily perusing. But, alas, my m/m steampunk novel isn't going to write itself. Although every now and then I hit a scene that seems to do just that. If only it were always so easy. ::sigh::

Writers Write About Writing (Blog Hop)

Greetings! If you’re here reading this, you probably found your way from the blog of the lovely and talented Raina James. Or if you arrived here along another path, well, that means you still have the fun of reading her post on the topic of the Writing Process ahead of you. This is a cool blog hop that I’m delighted to take part in. I’m also finding other authors’ posts on the subject fascinating. Seeing what’s similar and different between their processes and mine, and also seeing what they’re all working on right now so that I can make up my To-Read List.

That said, here is my hop along the blogosphere.

1) What are you working on?
I have three things in various stages right now. I’ll start with the one closest to finished. That one is an f/f erotic fantasy romance that is in the final stages of polishing before submission to publishers. This is a novel set in the same world as my other fantasy works, but this time I’ve moved to a tropical archipelago with a matriarchal society where family and business are deeply entwined. I love world-building, and this one world has given me many opportunities to invent different cultures. I love it!

Second is a YA novel that I would classify as light urban fantasy. It’s in the present day, in our world, and in first person. Three things I never write. LOL! This one is close to ready and I will probably self-publish it since it’s not anything like what I’ve released through my publishers, and they wouldn’t want it anyway.

Third is a North American steampunk m/m novel that is currently under construction. There’s a bit of mystery, a bit of romance, and a bit of I-haven’t-a-clue-what’s-coming-next. Ah, the joys of being a pantser!

2) How does your work differ from others in the genre?
This is a tricky question. I know that my choices of sub-genres put my work in a niche within a niche within a niche (Is that enough niches? *counts* Yes, I think that’s right.), but I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here. I like to think my stories are a little less predictable than most. Yes, they still have to fall into the designated “acceptable endings” (HEA or HFN), but within that framework, I want to believe that there are moments in my stories where readers say, “Oh! I didn’t expect that!” or even, “Really? That was an odd choice.” Because, honestly, I’m okay with readers thinking my brain is a little odd.

3) Why do you write what you write?
World-building! For me, the most important part of my long list of sub-genres is the Sci-Fi/Fantasy label. You can take the girl out of Middle Earth but... You know the rest. SF/Fan gives me the perfect medium to create new worlds and new cultures. I’ve read science-fiction and fantasy my whole life. From Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, which my mom first read to us before I could read chapter books on my own; to Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, which I seriously ought to re-read because, let’s face it, I did not really understand it when I read it in middle school; to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, which I re-read yearly through high school (at least) after first reading them in the fourth grade. Each of these is a unique example of world-building at its best. I might layer all sorts of other genres into my stories, but for me they are all secondary to this one.

4) How does your writing process work?
In fits and starts. ;-) At its simplest, I work character => world => story. Characters make themselves known in my head before anything else comes along. When they’re ready, they start talking to me, giving me an idea of where they belong, in what universe or country or culture. That gives me context so that I can construct the right world around them. Once I have that established, they start telling me their stories--if I’m lucky. Sometimes I have to drag it out of them. Sometimes they lie to me and I have to go back and dig out the truth. Sometimes I have to get them drunk so they will reveal all their secrets.

Also, I am a dedicated pantser. I’m the kid who used to write her school report first and then write the outline. I actively dislike plotting out a story. If I know how it ends, I find no joy in the journey. This is why the urban fantasy crime novel I started will likely never be completed: I know how it has to end, and where’s the fun in that? Although I’m a little sad about it because I really like the characters.

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed this peek into my writing process. Hopefully I'll find someone to tag so you can continue the blog hopping. In the meantime, there are already many out there. Just follow the link back to Raina, and she'll take you on a branch of your journey. :)

Opening Night!

Not the theatrical kind, which is more common in my life, but the baseball kind! My team opened the season on the road this year, so we've had to wait an extra week for them to come home to play. (Boo! *pout*) I won't be at the sold-out game, alas, to watch those tight-panted young men run the bases, but I shall be watching from home. It's a bit of a springtime ritual for me to make a dinner in keeping with the day (baseball-geek-meets-foody), whether it's the classic hot dogs and apple pie or a homemade version of Ivar-dogs and slaw. I believe last year I bought sushi for the occasion. (Yes, at our ballpark, sushi is an option.) This post about some of the new menu items is making me hungry already!

That moment when...

That moment when your characters first meet and sparks fly.
That moment when they begin to reveal secrets that you, even as the author, didn't know they had.
That moment when you discover a third voice is necessary to tell the story.
That moment when your "short story" passes 31K with no signs of slowing down.

I love that moment. :-D

Building a Steampunk World

It feels like ages since I've done any proper world building. I did so much of it for several years running, and then poof! Nadda. Just last month, that began to change. I love to read steampunk stories. I attended Steamcon V last October. These days, it is my favourite costuming genre to peruse online and find excuses to build. For a couple of years now, I've wanted to write my own steampunk story in my own steampunk world. My first attempts were with potential co-authors, but for varying reasons we simply couldn't get on the same page. (No pun intended.) Then I tried for months to work on an idea of my own, but the damned thing wants to come out as a movie script and that is just not something I can deal with right now. Plus, it has too many ambiguities even for me, and I am a classic example of a pantser. Now, at last, I'm in a groove. A writing groove, a world-building groove, a steampunky groove.

I've built the framework of the world and the general mores of two societies. I've done research that was more than just a string of increasingly unrelated distractions. I've presented a number of hurdles to my characters, and they are working hard to leap each of them in their arduous journey towards their HEA.

Now, if you'll excuse me, the two fine gentlemen talking at me inside my head would really appreciate having their story written down. I oughtn't keep them waiting.