Let Me Check My Schedule...

So it is time for desperate measures.

My writing has floundered far too long. I figure HERE with two weeks until our next insecure writer's group meeting...

Hi. I'm Hart.
Hi Hart.
And I am floundering.

*fish slap*

I am going to try a desperate tactic. I've fallen into a series of bad habits... some shows I like, some YouTube channels I follow, so discussion groups I participate in which fall into the “Squee fan girl” category rather than the writer one... I am reading a ton and that is good, but I am NOT exercising the discipline I need otherwise.

Weekdays

WRITE (or edit) 6:30-7:30 (I can shift by half an hour but that is all the flexibility there is)
PLOT: In the bathtub for half an hour before I switch over to reading (this can be edit plotting or original plotting, but a half hour devoted to plot)

I will DO this thing!!!


In Other News

The Boy Project

I think starting in August I am going to begin a “lasts” feature... My son—my baby, otherwise known as Thing 2—and I started our steps for college application this weekend—sent his ACT scores, put deadlines on a spread sheet, signed up for Parchment.com which is how his school submits transcripts... And I realized this is my last year with him really at home. I mean he may come back, but I know him. He is not my kid who will live at home as an adult. (I can see my daughter living with me if her dad weren't there, and she is still finding footing, so mostly lives with us anyway). But my baby will be leaving in just over a year.

But in perfect timing mode I saw a recommendation about documenting “lasts”. So I am going to. It won't probably be weekly, but I think I will be glad later I've done it.


Love This Blog!

And there is something I've been bad about. I share stuff on Facebook, but why NOT share with all of you when I see stuff I really love (which I do all the time), so I am just going to make a point on Fridays or Saturdays of sharing the week's gems, craft, philosophy, humor... possibly occasional politics, but I will try to limit that to the truly “make you think” stuff.

Part of all of this is trying to rejuvenate myself a bit. I used to love blogging because... honestly, I used to be interesting. I'm not sure what the heck has happened. Maybe a person just only gets so much of that. But I feel like most of the last three years I've just complained or tried to get back on track. So I am trying to settle back in and find what works again.

It's About Time!

So HWMNBMOTI and I watched Gone Girl on Saturday night and it got me thinking about something that I actually think about a lot when I read, and think I want to think about MORE when I write.

You guessed it. Time.

Now the thing about time is people seem to have really strong opinions about how time plays out in books. Some people really want time to flow in one direction. Other people (like me) love a story that does some wonky backward/forward stuff, provided it is done well.

James Michener

The first book I remember really noticing this done elegantly is The Source. This was the first of Michener's location novels where he goes through time in one place to give us a sense of history. The clever thing I loved though, was that it traveled backward (archeologists digging down) and forward (from the first civilization built at the water source).


Tom Robbins

Tom does some of the bendiest stuff with time I've ever seen. He slows it and speeds it and makes it a character and it's fantastic, but his novels are all on a sort of surreal plane—the reader knows he's playing. It is just our job to enjoy the trip.

Mysteries

I've seen some mysteries jump between the solving and the happening of the crime—I can like that a lot, done well. Harry Dolan's latest, The Last Dead Girl, does a bit of this and I love it.


Done Wrong

I've seen a lot of books with flashbacks or “finding papers or a journal” that manage to pull up the old story, but I find them clunky a lot of the time. Not always... if done as a mystery I can get along with it—learning with the MC. But I've seen it done badly enough to know to BE CAREFUL!


But What is RIGHT?

This is the trick, right? I know I've seen it done well and done poorly, so how do I make sure I fall on the right side of this?

The reason I'm asking as, after watching Gone Girl, it occurred to me that Medium Wrong, which so centrally heads toward Amanda's mother's story, MIGHT best be told in a bit of parallel... I think... But I want to make sure I am not clunky and awkward about it.


So do you like stories that mess with time?
Not counting specific time travel, what are your favorites?
Any words of wisdom as I think about doing this?



ALSO, if you are near Ann Arbor and write mysteries, Aunt Agatha's is hosting a writer in residence day at the Ann Arbor Bookfest for a few lucky authors to get one on one feedback.  Check here for details.

Mesothelioma and Heather's Story

So I am helping a cancer survivor with an awareness campaign today. She is approaching her 10 year survival marker (YAY!!!) and is celebrating by trying to spread the word about the cancer and its treatment by sharing her story. Since two of my grandparents lost cancer battles, I felt it was a good cause to help spread the word for.

For starters, you probably are wondering what the heck Mesothelioma IS. I know I didn't know until Heather approached me about helping her out.

Mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer that occurs in the thin layer of cells lining the body's internal organs, known as the mesothelium. Pleural (or lung) is the most common sort (about 70%) but if can also be in the abdomen (peritonial) or heart (pericardial).

Asbestos exposure increases risk and treatment runs the same gamut as most cancers: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy. If you want to know more about the cancer broadly, this website is helpful.

Most cancers have pretty good survival rate for stage two or lower—even stage three, depending on the cancer, but this one, unless caught in stage one, is typically less than a two year survival prognosis, though cases are different. [For reference, stage one is small and localized, stage 2 is larger and starting to spread, stage three means it has spread to another organ or system and stage four is fully systemic.]

In 2005 Heather Von St. James was given just 15 months for her own diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma—she'd given birth to her daughter just three months earlier and she found the odds unacceptable... but you should probably hear her story from her... Heather's Video.

Take a few minutes to give it a watch and share the story. People with early asbestos exposure should be particularly vigilant.

Lessons from Journalism in the Age of Twitter (Tumblr, Whatever)

So most of you probably have heard about the John Green events last week, but in case you haven't, in a nutshell, this is what happened:

A young woman on Tumblr Posted:

I bet John Green thinks people don't like him because he's a dork or a nerd or whatever, when in reality it's because he's a creep who panders to teenage girls so that he can amass some weird cult-like following. And it's always girls who feel misunderstood, you know, and he goes out of his way to make them feel important and desirable. Which is fucking weird. Also he has a social media presence that is equivalent to that dad of a kid in your friend group who always volunteers to 'supervise' the pool parties and scoots his lawn chair close to all the girls.

Hard to find the guy not smiling. Honestly, he looks nice to me

And then a bunch of internet instigators kept tagging John Green demanding he defend himself (not to mention several very famous authors defending him). Finally he'd had enough, and he DID respond with this:

His entire response, btw, which included a note that he didn't want anyone sending hate to the OP:

"You want me to defend myself against the implication that I sexually abuse children?
Okay. I do not sexually abuse children.
Throwing that kind of accusation around is sick and libelous and most importantly damages the discourse around the actual sexual abuse of children. When you use accusations of pedophilia as a way of insulting people whose work you don’t like, you trivialize abuse.
I’m tired of seeing the language of social justice–important language doing important work–misused as a way to dehumanize others and treat them hatefully.
So we all seek (and seek to share) the jolt that accompanies outrage and anger. As studies have shown, the complicated dopamine rush that comes with righteous indignation is very powerful, and I’m indulging it simply by responding to the outrageous accusation that my work is somehow evidence of sexual abuse.
But the outrage cycle is exhausting, and while there are wonderful examples of outrage fueling long-term, productive responses to injustice–We Need Diverse Books and the UPLIFT both come to mind–too often the Internet moves from jolt to jolt, from hatred to hatred, ever more convinced of our own righteousness and the world’s evil. And getting caught up in that is very painful.
I realize that will seem privileged to many of you (and it is), or like an excuse (maybe it’s that too), or lacking in empathy (maybe so), and I’m sure there is plenty here to deconstruct and reveal my various shortcomings (which are legion).
But this stops being a productive place for me to be in conversations if I’m not allowed to be wrong, if my apologies are not acknowledged alongside my misdeeds, and if I’m not treated like a person.
I think at this point it’s impossible to continue to use tumblr in the way I’ve used it since 2011. My life is different (in ways that are both good and bad); this community is different (in ways that are both good and bad); the world is different (in ways that are both good and bad).
So if this blog begins to look more one-way, with more original content and less reblogging/commenting/answering asks/etc., that’s why.
I want to emphasize that I am ridiculously lucky to work on stuff I love, from Crash Course to The Art Assignment to writing books. And I trust that many nerdfighter communities–whether vlogbrothers or Dear Hank and John or the Wimbly Womblys or the kiva group–will continue to be open and collaborative and constructive. Also, I’m not angry or anything like that. I just need some distance for my well-being.
Thanks for reading. DFTBA.

EDIT: To be clear, sending hate to people who say this stuff is counter-productive and only continues the outrage cycle, so please don’t abuse anyone. Thanks."

And then he started getting a bad time about being insensitive to the poor girl and yelled at not to victimize her again...

Erm yeah...


So here is my assessment of all that (because I'm wise and all that):

A young woman perceives what she perceives and has a right to that. But there are things you say about people that fall into hurtful territory at least and slanderous at worst. So the girl DID deserve to have the effect of her words explained.

But see John is a video guy... he is used to his four minute platform, a chance to build up his audience and educate us. I think that training failed poor John here. See, his response WAS thoughtful and educational. By the third paragraph. He GOT to the kind lesson. But he was offended first and in the age of the tweet, THAT was what people responded to.


So here are some things that could have saved the pain:

REMEMBER we are in a 140 Character Age! That doesn't mean he couldn't post his whole response, but it makes the order critical. In fact ideally he gets in a full summary in the first sentence and THEN expands:

“I'm sorry your experiences make you feel people who care about young adults are creepy, but your hurtful words suggest something untrue.” (135 characters—took a little work)

There is only the room there is...

REMEMBER the Journalism Rules!

One of my first degrees is journalism and unlike ALL other forms of writing, journalism rules require you to start with the MOST important details and trickle from there. The reason was that made the guy formatting the paper's job easier—if he needed an extra inch, he could just chop the last inch of any article. But the reason it applies HERE is we've all developed such short attention spans. You never KNOW when a person is going to quit reading, but you better bet it is before the end. Front load the main message.


REMEMBER the Image You Want to Present!

Do you want to be the guy on the defensive? Or do you want to be the patient teacher? Are you the ranting loon or the author who rose above it all? A statement of compassion right up front buys a lot of good will.


So there you go. Now you're smarter. Or something... Anybody else have advice to add or cases where a fiasco might have been saved with a bit more thought?

When We Mirror Our Characters: An Insecure Post

Welcome friends to first Wednesday and the Insecure Writer's Support Group!

So I failed my WriMo in June. There's that... but on a more positive note, I started a serious edit of Also Appearing... where Leah Clarence feels like an extra in her own life. She has friends and family but always feels like she is in the background—like life is happening around her.

And then she falls in love... not real love necessarily, but that first teenage wallflower infatuation approximation of love... And he likes her back. And she feels special. And real. And like she is finally in a starring role in her life. And then suddenly it's over, but for just that brief moment she felt ALIVE. Living her life, not it living her... and she becomes desperate to get that feeling back without having any clue where it came from in the first place.

That is me.

I had a hole and my life went on around me. And then I got to writing and fell in love and dived in and was intoxicated with the magic of it. And at the moment I feel like I've been doing drugs and sleeping with strangers to try to get back something I must never have understood in the first place... Well not literally... But the Everly Brothers keep singing You've Lost that Loving Feeling...

So I am hoping this editing process, where Leah finally learns to live life on her terms, will help me with the process of getting my writing life back on my terms.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.


If you are feeling kind, you should go check out the OTHER writers in the Insecure Writer Support Group.

And I totally forgot I was sharing VR Barkowski's arc winner today!  Lee Jackson from Tossing it Out--VR will be in touch!

Half Year Reading Assessment

So last week I didn't even manage a blog. I suck. I want to be interesting and I got nothin... but as tomorrow marks the end of the first half of the year and I had a couple reading goals/projects, I thought I'd share a bit about what I've read and what I recommend YOU read.


The Read Your Friends Project  (aka Blog Buddy Book Review)

Nasty by Bret Wright (Mystery/Thriller)

Nate Jessup is a PI in the Pacific Northwest and as the story begins, Nate is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is held up by a desperate man who really just wants help getting away from the beach where they encounter each other, or more specifically, the MEN on the beach who are trying to kill him. Nate ends up with his car exploded and some people after him who think he has something that he doesn't.

The tone of this has a lot in common with the hard boiled detective stories of old, but I felt like it had a lot more heart. Nate isn't a caricature—he has some demons, sure, but he is also balanced—a good person who has just been through some stuff. I also loved the Pacific Northwest setting, though that may be because I have roots there myself.

Overall I loved the tension, story and the nice sprinkling of humor to keep this balanced. And excellent debut.

Dragon of the Stars by Alex Cavanaugh (Sci Fi—Space Opera)

I enjoyed this space jaunt. The characters were well thought out with complete arcs and Pendar had some very tough choices to make. I particularly loved Tamlin—his weapons leftenent (though I may have that title wrong)--she is his hard working and talented wingman with a gift for sincerity that makes her both a bit awkward and very endearing. I liked the moral dilemma at the core of this story and the character growth shown by Pendar, who is initially so focused on his career that he fails to quite comprehend that there are people around him with worries and lives. It isn't normally my genre, but there was plenty of character stuff to keep me happy.

A Twist of Hate by VR Barkowski (Mystery/Thriller)

This was a fantastic debut. I counted five separate mysteries, beautifully twined together. This story is set in current day, among the elite art community in the San Francisco area, but ties in an escape from Nazi occupied France and the newly contested ownership and theft of an important painting. The characters were compelling, slightly flawed or damaged, their interactions sometimes tense, and the plotting was masterful. I definitely recommend this.


The City of Refuge by Diana Wilder (Historical Fiction/Mystery)

As historical fiction I thought this was fantastic. As a mystery, I had just a few quibbles. I think the characters, backdrop, setting and details were very well done. The perfect level of description to really put me there. I feel though, the author might have made a slightly stronger story had there been something up front that suggested WHY they group was going to the dead city--I mean an official reason was given, but a "why then" would have hinted at the suspected looting--a motive for the second prophet. I mean I get that it is tied to the mystery, so important not to give too much away, and he isn't the PoV, but it would have increased the readers drive forward. As it was, I was about a quarter of the way in before I really grasped what the story was about. It all came through in the end and things fell together well, but it was a little hard to get into because of that.


The Prospect of My Arrival by Dwight Okita (Speculative Fiction)

I loved the premise of this story. An experiment to see if people who have a chance to PREVIEW life before they actually commit are then happier because it was their choice. And Prospect was a wonderful character—his combination of innocence and pre-coded facts made him engaging and much of this tale was very thought provoking and entertaining. I had a few later frustrations that would be too spoilery to share, but that is probably because I was too invested and had a certain way I would have liked it to go. And it's probably good I don't have the power to write my own endings, or I'd never be surprised. I was surprised here.


Strings (In progress--not yet ready for review) by Allison Dickson (Horror)

Pending. But already scary.


So I am starting the 6th rather than finishing, but that isn't so far off. Plenty of time to do my 12.



The Other Books I've read, According to Goodreads and by Genre

Young Adult (because I want to master writing these)

Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (5 Stars)

I really enjoyed this twist on a myth tale. The world felt very real in most ways, pulling me farther into it so the fantastical bit (these "sea horses" if you will) feel real, too. The author really made me care about the characters and it had a perfect mix of darkness, tension, and triumph and hope.


Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner (4 Stars)

Very interesting book. Stylistically it had bits that reminded me of Fahrenheit 451 and bits like The Book Thief, though I liked it much better than the former and it didn't quite catch the magic of the latter. It was an interesting dystopian sort of world and an interesting set of characters. Overall worth the read.


Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith (5 Stars)

I sometimes feel guilty about how stingy I am with five-star reviews. I give them, but a story really needs to be fairly flawless AND suck me in—so both well executed AND my thing… But once in a while a book like this will come along that makes me feel like I need to go back and downgrade 90% of my fives because it is just head and shoulders above sublime.

This book is not for the faint hearted. There is swearing, a bit of sexual violence and a lot of teen deviance. But harder than that, this is very dark emotionally so it is probably not the thing for some people. But for others, it is EXACTLY the thing.

The story set-up reminded me a lot of The Talisman, one of my favorites from two of my favorite scary authors—Stephen King and Peter Straub. In both books there are parallel worlds in which people can exist in both and the MC is pushed into a position of going back and forth, but I felt while The Talisman is a brilliant show to watch externally, The Marbury Lens actually pulls us inside so we feel it. And the REAL world in Marbury Lens is more real and the OTHER world is darker… I just really feel like Smith upped the ante on the type of tale.


Passenger by Andrew Smith (4 Stars)

(Sequel to Marbury Lens) I LIKED this, but I didn't love it quite to the same degree. The premise is good—same parallel world setup as Marbury Lens, but this is a world where the changes you make have ripple effects and everyone else changes, too. My trouble with it was it felt less coherent, like the author was pantsing it more. I suppose the chaos is part of the point—the MC doesn't really know what is going on either, but I sometimes felt like neither did the author. (I have several friends who liked this one even BETTER, so I think this is a totally subjective assessment)

Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (5 Stars)

Blue lives in a house with her mother, a couple relatives and several of her mother's friends. ALL of them are psychic... except Blue. Blue however, has a sort of amplification effect, so she makes all these women more powerful. It begins with attending St. Mark's with her aunt where the people who will die in the following year march in a parade along the lay line... this allows her family to “give notice” to the doomed who might have affairs to set in order (they seem to have a no harm approach—no need to tell anyone if there is no significant benefit). But in watching there is a boy Blue can see, Gansy. Her aunt says she can see him because either she is his true love, or she is going to kill him. (maybe both). Blue becomes acquainted with Gansey and a few friends, these Raven Boys. And they are on a quest—to wake a long dead king and get their wish... and so it begins. I love this series and this first book is an excellent introduction. This cast of boys is each unique, with his own strengths and flaws. And Blue's setup, in that house with that cast of quirky people, is brilliant, both for plot and for a heavy dose of humor in an otherwise sort of grim tale. This series is one I am strongly recommending to people and this is where to start.


The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (5+  I'd rank it higher if I could)

I loved The Raven Boys, but I've been trained that the second in a series is typically a bit weaker. Not so with this one. This one is Ronan's story. Ronan is arguably the darkest Raven Boy, and we finally get to understand why and follow his demons and he wrestles with them, often quite literally. The over all story of the lay line and the quest for Glendower continues, but it becomes clearer why Ronan is such an integral part of this story. I really loved this.


Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (4 Stars)

The third in the Raven Cycle series and maybe weaker than the other two, but still excellent. I feel like any plot would be spoiler for the other two. What I will say is I am VERY eagerly awaiting the fourth.


The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma (4 Stars)

This was such a unique story and telling. It tells a story from two ends--two narrators, two points in time. Amber is in a young women's detention facility. Violet is a ballerina headed to Julliard three years later. And both are telling the story of the character who connects them. To say much more risks giving it away, but it is one of the more unique books I've read stylistically and it mostly works. If I have a complaint it is that the ending strained my suspension of disbelief a bit. Overall though, it was very enjoyable.


Legend by Marie Lu

I loved this one. I just finished Friday, so need some thought, but basically, it is a dystopian future of a split US where part of it decides full futures based on a test we take at 10. The top get good training, the middle get manual jobs, and the bottom get experimented on... The MCs are a girl who scored perfectly and is a prodigy headed to government work and a boy who failed and somehow managed to escape and become a bit of a (legendary) criminal fighting for the little guy. Good stuff.


Mystery/Thriller

Spilled Blood by Brian Freeman (5 Stars)

A tale of two cities. This story is about twin towns, one benefiting from a huge agricultural research firm, the other experiencing a cancer cluster among kids that they blame on that same firm. Tempers are high and violence is escalating, and then the daughter of the CEO winds up dead. The MC is called to town because he is a lawyer and his daughter has been blamed for the death. I found the tensions true to life and the interactions realistic, and I loved the way an outsider with such a huge vested interest inside could dig down to figure out what was going on. I really thought this was an excellent mystery.


Historical Fiction

The White Princess by Phillippa Gregory (3 Stars)

I read this because I watched The White Queen on Starz and loved it and I wanted to see what came next. First person present was a problem for me (it always is except in the very most engaging stories) but for historical fiction it also felt particularly off. And then unlike The White Queen, where stuff HAPPENS, this felt like a lot of “well maybe this is happening” but nothing really ever did. I get that you don't want to change history, but I feel a little like this slice of it might have been more interesting from somebody else's point of view.


So that is 16 books read in 26 weeks... I'd love to be a super fast reader, but I just really am not. A book every two weeks though, is not a pace I am too embarrassed about. And making a point of highly rated YA for a lot of it I think has been a good investment. I am now going to turn to revisions on a couple of my YA drafts, so having a good feel for what works and what doesn't will be critical.

As for BuNoWriMo... I'm not going to win. It is the first time other than one I knew I'd be traveling so I made an alternative goal... I just petered out on plot. But I will get back to it. I need to do some revision and get a feel for how I do this thing first.

And on WEDNESDAY, when we are all here being insecure, I will announce the winner of VR Barkowski's ARC. You still have time to go enter if you want...

BLOGIVERSARY! Or... A Tart Faces Her Blog

I'm not sure why I am feeling so accusatory toward it at the moment, but it seems to be taunting me. Oh wait... I've got it... I just passed my anniversary and I forgot to throw a party. So why not today? I have a winner to announce for VR's book giveaway. It is summer (if stormy) and I have a four-day weekend on the horizon. So let's have a party!!!

Cheers!

So What Are We Celebrating?

SIX YEARS!!! That is a pretty long time, ne? I've grown in a lot of ways. This blog really helped me find my voice. I think writing as yourself is a different sort of exercise from writing as narrator—you learn what you sound like without the story filter and I think it makes the story voice truer, too.



So CHEERS to perseverance and voice!

I've made a TON of fabulous friends. This is a wonderfully supportive community and surely would have gone insane somewhere between then and now without you. Many many of you have become real friends, not just blog friends, and I will always be grateful.

So CHEERS to FRIENDS!

Time for a group hug...

This blog has also sometimes given me reality checks I totally didn't want but probably needed. I can't really give a toast to that because I really can't endorse reality, but I do comprehend its necessity at times.

And this blog supported me through going from being a writer with a single first draft to my name, to a published author. I've written... I think 18 books now (20 if I count the Shot in the Light as a trilogy) and have traditionally published three and self published the trilogy. I have a lot of work to go here. I'm not convinced I know how to really make a book shine. I want to write hard back best sellers and I'm not there yet. But if any support system can get me there, this one can.

Have a truffle... good for good times and bad...

So CHEERS to author careers! May I yet have one!


So all that said, I am still in my slump... Thought I was coming out of it, but I am struggling like crazy. The fact that I've delayed my first blog of the week until Thursday is never a good sign. Not only could I not get out story words, I couldn't eve seem to get out blog words.

Part of this is the GAP. It was so long that I really didn't write. Inertia is real.

Part of it is my ridiculous Game of Thrones obsession, so what I WANT to write is all my theories about what it going to happen and why. I have been through this with Harry Potter and I am totallya junkie for this stuff—looking at what is written and writing what comes next. If you both watch and read, I posted my Jon season 6 predictions yesterday. I will do all the major characters (Dany next)

I have managed about 21K words on the WiP. I also got EXCELLENT feedback on Also Appearing from Johanna Garth (THANK YOU) that I actually think I know how to address, so that will be my July project.

It is all still just my shaken confidence. But I think that place where we know we need to improve, while painful, is critical to doing the work to grow. When we get confident, and for a while there I think I sort of was, we can stagnate. Let's just hope this doesn't make me physically grow. Writing has already been bad enough where that is concerned...

VR Barkowski Interview for the Release of Twist of Hate

So HALLO fine friends! Today I have the pleasure of interviewing one of my writing friends, a friendship formed during my first or second ABNA when I knew very few people. I have always been struck by VRs style and gotten along with her well, but as you will glean from the interview, I am impressed as heck with her actual writing.

She is giving away an ARC today and you totally want this, so if you'd like to be considered, please leave a comment with your favorite piece of art or book or movie ABOUT an art mystery. I will use a random number generator to pick a winner.. Sadly, only from within the US, as she has some mailing limitations where she is located.

So without further ado, welcome VR and lets get to the interview!

TART: Let me just start by saying I think you should teach a plotting class. This was so elegantly done—and there are 5 mysteries I spotted within the on story: 1) who stole the painting, 2) who killed the guy? (you know who I mean), 3) How did the original painting change hands? [accusations are flying, throwing doubt on ownership], 4) What the hell happened that left a few of the MCs so scarred (one of them literally)? And 5) who killed victim #2? They are beautifully woven together and I have a few related questions. Oh, right... I should ask a question to YOU!

1)Regarding #4 above, Is this the outcome of a book you previously wrote? Has it been published? (If so, how did I not know this?) or WILL you publish it as a prequel? [note to readers—it is the only one of the five mysteries above that doesn't get answered, though it adds a lot to back story, even unexplained]

VR: Thanks so much for having me and for the kind words, Hart. A Twist of Hate is indeed a sequel. It's a follow-up to my unpublished novel, Blood Under Will. I'd planned to self-publish Blood Under Will prior to A Twist of Hate, but with everything in publishing being in such flux, I was advised to wait. I hope it sees print one day. It's edgier, quirkier, much darker, and in my opinion better written than A Twist of Hate.

TART:  2)This is meticulously done. Are you an outliner? Were all the plots part of the original plan or did some appear during writing or in a later draft?

VR: I don't outline, and I'm not a plotter. I start with premise and character. I'm more concerned with story than plot. By that, I mean the protagonist's transformative arc, the emotional journey he or she will take in pursuit of a goal. Plot without story is just a string of events with no emotional weight. Before I write, I want to know my characters. Not the superficial stuff. I don't care about favorite foods or what a character wears, but rather how the character thinks, what he believes, his inner struggle and how I can show it. Plot naturally follows from internal conflict.

The process is not as vague as I make it sound. In A Twist of Hate, I had an inciting incident and two protagonists. I asked myself what I could do to these two intensely loyal, yet very different, men to challenge their allegiances. Then I just kept throwing situations at them—the situations become the plot.

TART: 3)This rich California Jewish community is one I've stuck my toe into. My college boyfriend's family was part of it (though land development, rather than art) so what you wrote felt very familiar and authentic to me. It is a “small world” in spite of California being so populated and the social structure isn't quite incestuous, but approaches it. Was this the world you grew up in? And can you talk about how it influences your fiction?

VR: Apart from its California location, this story is about as far from the world I grew up in as it is humanly possible to get. I worked in finance and operations at a major museum in Seattle for years. That's the world I tried to capture. While San Francisco is a bit larger, I made an assumption its core community of wealthy philanthropists would be similar to that of Seattle: generous, tight-knit, and somewhat cliquish. I'm thrilled it felt authentic to you!

Weird, but I have no clue how the world I grew up in (a college town north of Sacramento) influenced my fiction, but it must have, right? I can't imagine writing about my hometown or a place like it, so I guess I was influenced to explore other worlds in my writing.

TART: 4)You and I met several years ago through ABNA and our similar backgrounds (social science), ages, and genres led me to believe we had a ton in common, but holy crap are you out of my league!? What extra things have you done to develop yourself as a writer? Classes? Workshops? Mentors?

VR: That is SO not true!!! You have six novels (is that right?) published under two different names, and I'm still working on getting my first book out. Sigh... I know, I know, we're not supposed to compare.

Early on, I took online novel writing classes through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program. I'm also a huge fan of writer conferences and retreats. NOT writer/fan conferences or conventions, but writer conferences where the sole focus is writing—no promotion, no pitching agents, no business talk. Whenever pitching is involved, attendees become so focused on selling their work and making a good impression, writing takes a backseat. All that aside, in my opinion, the best way to develop as a writer is to read widely.

TART: 5)Any more books currently on schedule for publication? And what are you working on now?

VR: Nothing on the schedule, though I would like to see Blood Under Will out in the world soon. At present, I'm finishing the draft of a psychological thriller titled Crying for Mercy set in Salem. It's about the obsessive relationship between a teacher at a Catholic high school and an occult shop owner, and how their lives are affected by a series of local murders.

_____________________________________

BIO
VR Barkowski is a recovering sociologist who stumbled into finance by accident. After spending most of her days buried beneath spreadsheets, she is overjoyed to have exchanged bottom lines for storylines. A native Californian, VR now pens dark tales of murder and obsession from a too-small desk in Salem, Massachusetts, where the history, coastline, capricious weather, and melancholy spirit of Hawthorne never fail to provide inspiration.

Website: www.vrbarkowski.com
Blog: www.vrbarkowski.wordpress.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/vrbarkowski
Twitter: www.twitter.com/vrbarkowski
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/6537046.V_R_Barkowski
Amazon: www.amazon.com/author/vrbarkowski


BLURB
When his family’s priceless Cézanne disappears from a local museum, former homicide inspector Del Miller leaves the investigation to the FBI. But that’s before an art dealer alleges that Del’s grandfather, a victim of the Nazi death camps, stole the masterpiece from a Paris gallery seventy years before. After the dealer is found dead, and Del's father is implicated, Del sets out to uncover the truth.

From present-day San Francisco to war-torn France, to the Nazi death camps and betrayal, A TWIST OF HATE is a story of family honor. One man's quest for answers about the grandfather he never knew, the father he idolizes, and the secrets behind a missing painting that lay buried deep within his family's past.


Thanks, VR!!!  And friends, don't forget to leave your favorite work of art or story ABOUT art for a chance to with the ARC!

An Interesting Prospect

So I am currently reading Dwight Okita's The Prospect of My Arrival, and it's good, but I am not far enough in yet for an actual review. What it HAS done though, is cause me some deep philosophical ponderance (which bodes well for the book), and it is those ponderances I actually want to talk about.

The premise of the story is the Pre-Born Project, in which is a a chance for embryos... souls... people who are pre-born, to have a chance to come before they are born, meet some critical people and have some experiences, and then decide whether or not they want to be born. The scientist involved believes this will make for happier people, if everyone is here by their own choice.

But that got me to thinking... what sort of people would and would not decide to be born? Truly?


The Resilience of the Human Spirit

I am going to start with the assumption that most of us would like our chance... that there is an error toward the yes vote because, even pre-born, SOMETHING has to look better than NOTHING.

So I think it is easier to think about maybe who WOULDN'T choose to give it a shot.


People with really horrible people for parents... this seems relatively obvious... Oh, no, I am not stepping into THAT.

People with biological depressive tendencies... though would these have manifested yet? Seems they usually appear in the teen years... But there is an opposite that is thought to be a trait (as opposed to a state caused by circumstances). Hardiness. Hardy people keep on plugging away and tend to be more resilient than more fragile people (who take things personally and are hurt easily and hold those negative feelings longer). Hardy people have better outcomes in terrible circumstances than people lacking in that hardy trait in the same circumstances, so low hardiness might mean those interviews are critical.


Competitive people seem to be MORE likely to choose to give it a try... Not sure how I feel about that. Competitive people make me tired.


Optimists seem more likely than pessimists to want to give it a go. Pretty sure someone like my husband, who sees every single thing that might go wrong and really hates uncertainty would say, “Nope. Not doing that.”


Now lets consider whether all this might be good or bad. Fewer depressed people in the world, fewer nay-sayers, fewer fragile souls all sounds well and good. But don't these personalities offer us some balance? In my personal circumstance, a delusional optimist married to a glum pessimist, he is my reality check. I have a lot of things I would just dive head long into without him pointing out all the things I really need to think about first. Now sometimes I still dive, but at least I dive with my eyes open because I have that balance. What ill-advised things might we dive into as a society without the nay-sayers stepping in?

Then again, what might be possible without all the obstacles?


And SOME pessimists might be born—those who have good circumstances or convincing referrals telling them the help there is to get through the difficulties.


Would it be good if children could opt out of lousy parents? I sort of think yes on this one... some people shouldn't get to be parents and who has more right to decide that than their children? But then who would the world be missing?

There is also the other side: much of what life is is the things and people and experiences we encounter. I mean sure, we bring some personality at the start, but those things that we go through shape us, so how much is honestly predictable before we ever start? How accurate can those decisions BE about whether to be born or not?

What do you think? Can you think of sorts of people more or less likely to opt in or out if they got to interview some people about what their life will be like before deciding to be born? Does the whole idea terrify you, or can you see some promise to it?

[and good on you, Dwight, for really getting us thinking]

A Game with Chrys Fey

So I am sure you all know Chrys Fey--she has taken this whole social media thing by storm and is doing an amazing job getting to know the blogging community, giving both helpful advice and a helping hand when we have promoting of our own today, so I am pleased today, to host Chrys as she does her blog tour to promote TWO shortish stories she has available (they both look like they are about 35 pages).

So without further ado... Welcome Chrys!!!


Thank you, Hart, for letting me take over your blog today. I have a fun game for your readers. :)

Can you finish these lines of dialogue?

Witch
of Death:

Libby, the detective and witch: “If you roll your eyes
one more time, Detective Sanders, they’re going to fall out of your skull, and
I’m going to _____________.”

Reid, the detective and skeptic: “I know I haven’t been
your partner for long. So I think I should ask. Do you normally kiss all the
female detectives and ____________?”

Ghost
of Death”

Jolie, the ghost:
“Are you kidding? We can’t do that. For one, we’re adults. And two,
_________.”

Avrianna, the cool detective: “Sailors found me in the
ocean when I was a couple of days old. There hadn’t been any shipwrecks or
plane crashes in the area. The fact I was there is a complete mystery. For all
we know, ________.”

I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Title: Witch of Death

Author: Chrys Fey

Genre: Supernatural/Suspense

Format: eBook Only

Page Count: 45 (short story)

Release Date: May 20th, 2015

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Blurb:

Detective Reid Sanders doesn’t believe in the
supernatural, but when he’s faced with a crime scene that defies the laws of
nature, he has no other choice but to start believing. And solving a magical
murder involves working with a witch.

Liberty Sawyer embodies the look of your classic evil
witch, so, it’s no surprise when she uncovers the murderer is a witch that she
becomes Reid’s number one suspect. If she can’t convince him otherwise, more
people could lose their lives to dark magic, including her.

BOOK LINKS:

Amazon US / Amazon UK / The
Wild Rose Press / NOOK
/ KOBO

Excerpt:

Liberty Sawyer glided swiftly through the horde of police
officers, reporters, and on- lookers. Black hair fell from a rigid part in the
middle of her scalp to her hips. Her eyes were a soul-stabbing blue and her
lips were blood-red. She towered over the other officers on the scene, and wore
all black, which set off 6 the pallor of her skin.

Showing her badge to the officer, she slipped under the
crime scene tape. A few paces away, she spotted Detective Corbin talking to his
new partner, a man she knew by name but hadn’t had the privilege of meeting
yet.

“I cannot believe you called her,” the new man was saying
when she came up behind them. “We don’t need a damn psychic!”

“Actually, I’m a witch.” She smiled when Reid jolted and
turned to face her. “I’m

Detective Liberty Sawyer.” She stuck out her hand.

“Detective Reid Sanders,” he grunted back and took her
hand.

The feel of his palm against hers sent tingles of lust
from the tips of her fingers to her shoulder blade, and she knew he felt it too
by the way he jerked his hand back. She winked at him playfully, hoping it
would unnerve him even more.

ALSO AVAILABLE:

Blurb:

Jolie Montgomery, a twenty-one-year-old woman, wakes up
in an alley next to her corpse. She has no memories of her murder or the night
she died. She didn’t even see the killer’s face before he or she took her life.
Wanting justice, Jolie seeks answers in the only way a ghost can...by stalking
the lead detective on the case.

Avrianna Heavenborn is determined to find the person
responsible for a young woman’s death. She gets closer to the killer’s identity
with every clue she uncovers, and Jolie is with her every step of the way.

But if they don’t solve her murder soon, Jolie will be an
earth-bound spirit forever.

Book Links:

 Amazon US / Amazon UK / The Wild Rose Press / NOOK / KOBO

BIO:

Chrys Fey is the author of Hurricane Crimes and 30
Seconds. She is currently working on the sequel to Hurricane Crimes that’ll
serve as book two in the Disaster Crimes series.

When Fey was six years old, she realized her dream of
being a writer by watching her mother pursue publication. At the age of twelve,
she started writing her first novel, which flourished into a series she later
rewrote at seventeen. Fey lives in Florida where she is waiting for the next
hurricane to come her way.

You can connect with her on Facebook and her blog, Write
with Fey. She loves to get to know her readers! 

Author Links: 

Facebook / Blog / Website / Goodreads 

Thank you all for visiting and hopefully commenting. ;) 

And here is me... (your tartness) playing the game... I am going with:
(highlight to see--I wanted to give you all a chance to answer before you saw)
1) hang them from the mirror of my car...
2) rate them?
3) we lack substance.
4) My mother was a squid

And So It Begins: IWSG Post - June

June has arrived, and with it, BuNoWriMo and the starting of a new book. I've been reading young adult books all winter and spring and feel fairly ready to approach this, this time with a bit more of a plan than I typically have. I've never been a total pantser. Well... I have, back before I understood how to finish a books. But for me, if I don't know where I am going, I can write myself into a corner, so I've been what I call a timeliner since I got back to writing. This time around I actually have a much more detailed plan. I have THEMES (gads, are you serious?) and a background mystery to go with the frontground teen tale.

Writing balance: You can't touch this...erm...

Know what? The writing is going pretty well. It is the juggling other stuff I've forgotten how to do. Why do I have to have a job? Why does my family need to eat? Chores? POO! Why can't I be a kept woman who just writes?

Oh, that's right... because at the moment nobody is buying my books so that I can pay for being in such a position and the sugar daddy supply seems to have dried up...

Anyway, at LEAST the writing is flowing. I will be thankful for that. Clean house be damned.



I seem to know several people coming off a large funk. How is everyone doing? Writing flowing? Any tricks to balance you want to remind me of? (maybe my home and family have ALWAYS been neglected?)

So you should go see the OTHER insecure writers now...

Building the Infrastructure of a Story

So sorry for no 2nd blog last week, and this one is a day late, mostly because I figured nobody was reading blogs yesterday...

So y'all know I've been trying to get writing again, yes? I've been very half-assed about it, but I really AM going to full on write in June, so I've spend the weekend developing character and backstory for my June effort. I don't fully outline, but I do need to do enough work to understand who is on the canvas and what drives them. I also like a bit of a timelie.

This is good. I am planning more than I usually do because I am feeling less confident, but I plan to give myself some leeway to stray, should better ideas appear.

BuNoWriMo begins next MONDAY, so anyone who wants to join is welcome! (we do it on Facebook)


June's Novel: Summer of Bones

This is the second in my Chatcolet series—this is a Young Adult series, each of which addresses a real teen issue, hopefully in a rounded way. The characters don't overlap (at least in my overall plan) and are just joined by broad location and tone. The first (Also Appearing) is about identity. This one is broadly about bullying and pranks (and how it can spin out of control).

So now I have a broad timeline that still needs some work.

I have my MC and her family (and a backstory for her family).

I have a cast of mean girls.

I have a group of boys (that is the reason the MC is targeted by the mean girls).

I have a frenemy.

I have a sympathetic quiet, reluctant person who will lend some guidance.

It just all needs to be a bit more concrete.


I even wrote a scene last night—not one that I'd USE but one to get to understand the relationship between my MC, Gabbi and her frenemy...


What about you? Who is joining me in writing a first draft in June? How much planning do you do? Are you ready?

Blood, Boobs, Carnage? Sounds like Game of Thrones to me

I have to admit to you that normally I can take or leave ALL these things. I don't object to them. I am not squeemish or prudish. I just also don't really NEED them. They don't necessarily add for me.

Why then, is my very favorite TV show ever so full of all three? [I read these books, too, but these descriptors in the books have far lower prominence, though they are there--how graphically depending largely on the PoV character at the time and how much they understand and would care to describe.]

[Minor spoilers included, though kept to a minimum other than the first episode and the one I think most of the world knows about]

Jaime pushing Bran out the window

The very first episode doesn't have ACTUAL blood--oh wait... there IS a beheading of a deserter of the Night's Watch--but what it lacks in blood it makes up for with two different incestuous scenes, which I think we will call a draw. Besides that, MOST episodes have blood. And there are boobs... I think Danaerys gets the first full boobal scene (yes that's a word—it means “all about boobs” though it might be Roz—a whore, so her boobage can be forgiven. And carnage? An eight year old boy is thrown out a window of a high tower for stumbling across one of those incest scenes mentioned. And there are hints that someone (John Arryn) was murdered.

It isn't the blood itself, but the implications

Favorite Blood in the Series

Oh, sure, there is gory death and battle blood. Lots of it. But I think the BLOOD MAGIC ("Only death can pay for life" and "There is Power in a King's Blood") has a lot more appeal to me. Also, there is a scene where Sansa wakes up from a dream of being raped (after she nearly was—it is a PTSD dream) to find she has “flowered” (moon's blood, aka: started her period)--this puts her in imminent danger as it means she is old enough to marry the sadistic young king.

They showed this from both angles, but in the interest of PG...

Favorite Boobs in the Series

Erm... this show has coined a phrase. “Sexposition”--when someone has to SAY something that can't be shown, then somebody in the scene is inevitably having sex to make it visually interesting... or something. I guess though, I forgive the boobage as it is one of few shows to not shy from full male nudity, too. The best scene this way is Hodor because it is largely so innocent. Hodor is believed to be part giant with great strength, but the wits and temperament of a sweet three year old. He comes out of a pool to find Bran, Osha and Rickon and Osha raises an eyebrow, “Now there's a big man” and Bran tells Hodor to put his clothes on. Hodor has no clue he's been inappropriate (and in a better world, neither would anybody else--it's just nakedness). It just is this sweet, comedic nakedness.

Nobody is safe. Nobody.

My Favorite Carnage

Man, this show is so full of it. And my favorite scenes this way are favorites not because they were “good” but because they were full on wrenches to the gut. The first is in season one and even people totally unfamiliar probably know: killing the person we all thought was the MC. Then there is the George RR Martin Wedding Planner thing... and the trials by combat... In short, I like the carnage in this show because it has proven to have such power as a game changer. Anyone is expendable, which increases the tension all the time. And tables can turn in an instant. This series took a lot of inspiration from War of the Roses, which is actual history, and I think this piece is where that is most powerfully displayed.



So I encourage you to go check out the other participants. And what about you? Do you like violence? Nudity? What is your favorite book, TV show or movie that is heavy on these?

Frenemies

You know what I don't see much of in books? People who don't like each other but are stuck pursuing a common goal. It is comedy gold and a really beautiful opportunity for character growth, but it had not occurred to me until just a few days ago that I should be taking advantage of this beautiful dynamic. I am definitely going to include it in my next book, but I thought in the meantime I'd talk about a few frenemy pairings that I really love.

Buffy and Cordelia

Cordelia is the self-appointed society queen at Sunnydale High and in comes Buffy who doesn't care about all that because she is busy fighting the vampires, but somehow Cordelia always ends up in the middle of it, snobbing her way along and learning and growing. Several times Buffy and Cordelia have to actually work together or DIE... it is great humor at first, but that growth stuff eventually makes it emotional and we are rooting for reformed Cordy.

Joss Whedon uses this a lot. Even just within Buffy there is also Buffy and Faith and Buffy and Spike. Or on Firefly there is Jayne with just about anyone...


Legolas/Gimly (at least initially)

The Fellowship of the Ring needed representatives from the different peoples, but dwarves and elves are notoriously anti-the-other. It really because noticeable when nine was narrowed to three. Loved their banter.

Percy Jackson and Clarisse

Not many people in the Half Blood Camp like Percy, but Clarice is a special kind of bully. Daughter of Aries, she is made for war, not love, and she is not thrilled to have a son of the “big three” (Zeus, Poseiden and Hades are sort of a tier above the other gods) show up. Needless to say there is a TON of posturing, but eventually Percy needs her and manages to convince her to help.


Dorian and Vicky (from One Life to Live)

You may not be soap fans and the show has been off the air for two years now, but these two divas from rival rich families, having affairs with each other's family members and friends... (you know soaps) but the show gave them some brilliant moments of danger where they had to work together and they were comedic gold and tear jerkers all in one.

Soap operas broadly have made good use of this: competing divas. Whether the day soaps or the prime time ones.

Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire has a couple pairs

Brienne/Jaime: originally captor and captive and a rather mean back and forth but Brienne earns the respect of the snob and they grow to respect each other (is it love? The jury is still out but I think it miight be).

Arya/The Hound: Again, captive/captor but he becomes a sort of twisted mentor to her, teaching her survival skills she very much needs.


In all these cases there is a giant benefit from the comedy potential and the character growth possible from having to learn to work with someone a character doesn't like. Who are your favorite frenemies?


So I am not doing a second blog this week as I have travels for work but I will be back Monday for the blood, boobs and violence blogfest!