Conversation With a Muse

Today's ongoing conversation with Rhea (verbatim):

Rhea: I don't think you're ready for this jelly...
Me: What? That's news to me, because I've never met a jelly I didn't like. Bring it.
Rhea: I don't think you're ready for this jelly...
Me: Did you not hear me? I said I'm ready for the the jelly. I'm totally jelly ready. Promise!
Rhea: I don't think you're ready for this...
Me: Really? Well, I thought I was, but now you have me second guessing...
Rhea: This story's too bootylicious for ya', babe.
Me: Really? For me, or for Deseret Book? Or for the part of me that entertains the idea that Deseret Book might actually like Book 5 and want to carry it. Which is it?
Rhea: *silence*

*Sits down in front of computer and opens Word document*

Me: Well, I'm here and I'm ready, so why don't we start small. There's gotta be some place to start.
Rhea: *silence*
Me: Seriously? Nothing?!
Rhea: You'll just end up rewriting it. You're in left field, babe.
Me: Well, then, loan me a compass. Show me where you want me, and I'll go. Promise.
Rhea: *silence*
Me: Rhea?
Rhea: I don't think you're ready for this jelly...

*Deep, calming breath*

All I can say is that Rhea is lucky that she's invisible and has the mystique of a muse. Because the fact remains that I have a draft of Book 5, and Rhea is very adamant that it needs some serious revamping--which is something she's never done to me before.

The good news of all this is that Rhea is definitely on the cusp of letting us all a little farther into her personal rabbit hole. The bad news is that we all have to wait for me to catch on to what she's trying to show me that I am so obviously missing.

If the Spidey sense on the back of my neck is worth anything (which is debatable at this point), then it will all be worth the wait. But send me happy thoughts, okay? Happy thoughts that I can pick up what Rhea is putting down and write it all at record speed and share it with you all :)

In the meantime, here's the theme song she's channeling.

The Winds of Change... I Like Them :)

There’s going to be a little changing here on this blog.

Now some of you might be thinking, “Wait, I thought this was just a blog of randomness followed by further randomness, rarely relating one thing to another.”

And yes, you would be right. To date that was what you could expect here.

But today, that will change. Why? Because I actually have direction now. *pauses to allow gasps to subside*

So here’s the new deal:

I am participating in a new website that will be launching in the next month or so, and this site will be pointing people/writers with specific questions to specific blogs.

This fact quite naturally leads to the question, “Well, what will you be blogging about then?”

I’ll be blogging about why I know best, of course: kicking butt. Teaching martial arts for 12 years does give me a bit of a background--and of the skill sets I bring to the writing table, it is one of the more obscure. Plus, I would LOVE to teach classes on this or receive questions about action sequences.

So FUN!

And since I’m highly “fun” motivated, here we are.

So from this moment on this blog has to do with the various forms of butt-kickery and how to portray it in writing. Questions are welcome. I will either answer submitted questions myself, or link to videos that answer the question the same way I would.

This is going to be fun. Just you wait.

So let the fun begin J

LDS StoryMakers

Each year, there is a great writer's convention held in Utah. The first year I went I didn't have the highest of expectations. I thought it was just going to be some local writers getting together. I don't know what I expected, but I can tell you that I left the convention impressed.

Shouldn't be shocking, right? Mormons know how to get things done, after all. So why wouldn't LDS StoryMakers be an excellent writing conference?

Well, it should have been, and it was.

Last year I was invited to be a presenter in addition to working with authors at the Boot Camp, which was great. Especially the Boot Camp. It's SO great to work with emerging authors and see all the stories that are in other people's heads.And also, as coaches, we get to learn a thing or two. After all, just because you're published it doesn't mean you're all knowing. I'm not the best writer in the world. I'm just a storyteller who gets the job done with the skill I have at the moment.

It's all any of us can do. Be our best in the moment.

And I can tell you in all honesty that a few of the writers in my boot camp last year were much better writers than I was. I told them the same thing to their faces. (One of which seemed flattered while the other stared me in the eye as if to say, "I know. So why are you published and I'm not?" Always fun moments to have. :))

This Thursday, I get to participate in the LDS StoryMakers Boot Camp again. The bonus, this year writers will have the option to choose me--or any other mentor they want! Last year they were assigned. This year it's first come, first served.

So, if you want me, come and get me... or not. That's the cool part of the Boot Camp this year. The choice is YOURS (if you get there early enough... if you get there late, you might be shown to my table by default. We'll have fun, though).

Regardless of the mentor you choose, however, I'd love to meet you and get to say hi face to face! So come find me :)

And to those of you who are going all of the days, I'll only be there on Thursday, but I hope you have a great conference!

For My Next Trick: I'll Turn Crap Into A Blooming Flower

People think differently. It’s true. I know that some people think that some ways of thinking are righter than other, just like some people are thinking at this very moment, It’s not “righter,” it’s “more correct.” Duh, Sheralyn. I thought you wrote for a living.

Yes, I do write for a living. I write for businesses at my day job and for fiction readers at night. And usually—and yes, I’m saying usually, not always—I don’t have much of an ego about it. There are days, or rather instances, however, when I kind of do.

^^ Liar.

It’s interesting to do a character study on yourself—to be sitting in a room where everyone else is calmly going about business as usual while you are furious. And in that moment you think, Why am I the only one suppressing violent impulses at the moment? Why am I the only one who is freakishly, steamingly mad when anger is very atypical for me?

In this situation, on this day, I know the answer to that question. I know why I’m mad. But in this case, knowing is not half battle.

G.I. Joe totally lied, which is disappointing, really. I expected more from a Saturday morning cartoon.

I. Am. Mad.

The good news: I’m a believer that good can come from anything. God turns crap into flowers all day long. Therefore, the logic follows that if we wish to become more godlike, we need to learn to turn the crap of this earth into blooming, sniffable eye candy.

It toils not. Neither does it spin... or freak out.

Which brings me back to my original point: people think differently. Consequently, this means we do things differently. And because we frequently don’t know the thoughts behind someone’s action, sometimes their methods don’t make sense to us. We look at others and wonder how they got where they got when they are so obviously incompetent. How they get through a day, a project, a job, we have no idea. Only that they do. Somehow, and in some baffling way.

But if only you could step in and get them to do it “right,” it would be so much better!

Right?

Now I’m not saying there aren’t incompetent and unqualified people in the world. I’m not saying there aren’t managers who delegate themselves into inactivity. I’m not saying that some people don’t need mentoring or a guiding hand. What I’m saying is that there are some people who don’t see any value in doing something any way but their own. Other ways are not “different,” they are “worse” or maybe even flat-out "bad." Different ways of saying things are not different, but wrong. A different approach is unacceptable to them even if they have nothing to do with executing the approach.

They are right. And by force of their will, you will be “right.”

We all do this to a degree. I’m guilty, for sure. And I can be super pushy about it, too. In recent years I’ve improved upon my compulsion to help people be "right" a little by offering a mandatory disclaimer any time I offer correction that states I am simply speaking from my own experience and may be totally wrong. People are welcome to ignore me, no matter how convincing I may be in explaining why my way works in a superior manner to theirs.

Conversely, I've also learned to appreciate the insight offered when someone else tells me how to be “right.” I’m a writer, after all, so understanding the psychology behind different ways of doing things is very much to my benefit.

It’s when advice turns to force and agency is taken away that I freak out a little.

I would imaging any person in a creative field experiences this. For example, a writer feels this way when an editor makes a change in a manuscript without consulting the author because they think they’re improving the text and know the author well enough to know that the author will fight the change. The author thinks what they've written is perfect as is, but the editor notices a hiccup in flow. So, hush-hush, they just sneak a fix in, believing no one (including the insufferable, immovable author) will ever notice. 

In truth, the author may not notice the change unless a reader asks them to explain it. It’s only then that they read the sentence for the first time and say out loud, “I never wrote that!” Because they didn’t. 

Their editor did. And when asked about it, the editor lets out a long-suffering sigh as they explain how a colloquialism that wasn’t popular until the 1920s found its way into a regency romance while the author balks. The author did their research, by darn, and that saying didn't exist in the same century as her characters. How dare that change be made without consulting her?

No one will notice, the editor might say. What you had before wasn't working. This is better.

And, really, at this point it doesn't matter who's right or if either party is right. What's done is done. The book has been printed and it's not changing.

For my editors: Nothing but love.

To be super clear: this did not happen to me. An editor is NOT the reason for my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I LOVE EDITORS. Desperately! I need them—as anyone who’s edited me can attest to. 

The kind of Pooh you don't mind on your shoe.

I’m simply using this hypothetical,power-abusing, self-righteous editor in this example as the metaphor for what I’m dealing with that has made me Little Miss Pooh-On-Her-Shoe today. (So if there any any editors with ruffled feathers right now, sorry. I love you, and 9.9 out of 10 times, you are absolutely right.)

So after thinking about my little pile crap I metaphorically stepped in today and analyzing it for its flowering potential, I offer this little tidbit of maybe-wisdom:

There are many paths to the same location. The path we take frequently depends on our goals.

One person may be seeking the quickest route from point A to B, while another person prefers to go a little out of the way if they can spend more time on the freeway. One person may choose a different route because they need to stop at the store to get some medicine for a splitting headache, or because they want to take the opportunity to drive past their late-grandma’s house. Still another person may need to drop off a child at a babysitter, while another person going to pick up a date.

If all these people start at the same origin point and set off without conferring with each other, some of the drivers may certainly be baffled at the turns other people make. The one choosing the quickest route may see the other driver turn on the freeway and think, “That’s going to add 3.2 miles to your travel time—6.4 miles if you take the same path on the way home.” At the same time, the person getting on the freeway may be looking at the one taking the most direct route and thinking, “You’re going to have to go through eight more stop lights on the way there, and none of them are timed. Have fun sitting at the red lights.” They both may watch the guy going to pick up his date and think, “You’re going the wrong way, dude. Are you totally daft?” or see another driver pull into a store parking lot and think, “Seriously? You’re going to the store now? You couldn’t do that before?”

The point is that everyone is doing what’s best for them in that moment. They’re all going to end up where they planned, as planned. And they will all accomplish what they need to on their way, if allowed.

But if those who think they are most right forbid the one driver from stopping from the store, because they should have done it before.

They have just forced that person to endure the night with a headache.

If they tell the person who is taking their child to the babysitter’s that they’re going the wrong way and have to turn around, they’ve also tied that person’s hands from doing something (dropping off their child) that would help them be more present in the evening’s events.

And if one of those people who thinks they are the most right decides that it’s time to be frank with the person who likes to drive past grandma’s that, “Your grandma’s dead. It’s time to accept that and stop wasting time and gas driving past a memory.”

That will also change the mood and disposition of the group when they all arrived at their destination.

In short, when going from point A to point B, we all have the ways that work best for us for reasons all our own. Maybe those reasons are based on logic, maybe, sentiment, maybe a random memory, a heard-of crime, or any number of other reasons.

Point is: people have their reasons for doing what they’re doing based on their previous experience. Their pathway may be different from yours, but if the other person has repeatedly and competently shown that they can make it to the finish line with time to spare and in good spirits, let them do it in the way that works best for them. Or at least do some probing to discover their rationale before forcing change just because you can.

I’m pretty sure if we all did this, the world would be a more harmonious place.

Confessing a Writer Crush

You may notice that I don't review books on my blog. This is for a number of reasons. I could line-list those reasons, but what it comes down to is that somewhere around two years ago something snapped/shifted/changed inside of me.

I don't know exactly what took place or when it happened, all I know is that all of a sudden I stopped losing myself in books. I became a technical reader, studying what was done right, what was lazy, and how and where authors placed the hooks that got me to keep reading. I became a strategic reader, always asking, "Why is this working?" Why isn't this working?" "Why do I care?" "How are they maintaining the momentum?" "Why don't I want her to end up with so-and-so when other fans of the series do?" "How does she balance so many character story lines and make me care about each?"

And so forth.

While I read these books, I love them, but not in a way I used to love books. I'm not lost in the story. The things I enjoy have changed. I get giddy over well-executed technique and pacing. I clap when I don't see a scene coming, or a character does something memorable. I sigh over funny metaphors (while wishing I'd thought of them first), and I enjoy good, sustained tension more than any HEA (happily ever after).

The things I like about books aren't anything anyone would want to read about in a review. So I don't review.

All that said, there are still exceptions to this rule--rare moments when an author comes along and gets me to enjoy their book on a purely fan level. I forget to think. I don't even try to take notes, because what they're pulling off is so purely their own that to try to emulate it would be to embarrass myself.

All I can do is clap... and develop a writer crush.

I have a few authors I crush on, but today I'll only mention one: Kiersten White, author of Paranormalcy, Supernaturally, and Endlessly.

If you haven't bee introduced to Kiersten White already, I'm proud to make the intro. Check her out! Especially if you liked the Buffy series. And if you didn't like Buffy... well, you'll have to explain that to me some day.

Until then, I'd like you to meet Kiersten White. Paranormalcy is her first book, and I totally encourage you tot pick it up!

A Quick Thank You!

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who have not only taken the time to read my books, but to rate them on reading websites. As writers, we can tell a story, but it's mainly word of mouth that decides whether or not our stories are read.

So a big thanks from me to you for sharing your thoughts (whatever they may be) with others. Every review counts.

And just so you know I REALLY mean that, here's a cute "thank you" image made by someone infinitely more crafty than me:

Oh, and by way of good news: when I added The Avenues to Kindle for $4.99, it lowered all of my other books to the same price. If you're an ebook reader, you'll notice that books 1 & 2 are missing from Kindle for some reason. Not sure why that is, but you can definitely get the ebooks from my publisher. As of this posting, they have dropped them down to half price. They used to be $7.50, but right now they're $3.75, so that's a deal if you're looking to add the series to your ebook collection.

But all that is really a sidenote to saying thank you. You are the best!

Not-So Top Secret, But Kind of Embarrassing...

I have a confession: I like fanvids of TV shows on youtube.

Sometimes, when I want to take a frivolous and unnecessary break from writing, I look up fanvids to see shows through the eyes of devout fans and shippers. Fanvids were the gateway drugs that got me to watch full series like "Chuck" (insert html heart here, because I LOVE that show) and "Legend of the Seeker," among others.

Sometimes, I dare say, the fan vids are better than the actual episodes they're taken from. And more than once they've gotten me to see a dynamic I was missing before (which, for a writer, is a special kind of high). So while I've never posted a fanvid myself, I applaud the people who love the fictional characters of others enough to make them themselves

I confess all this because today I stumbled across the link of a "Caskett" (Castle/Beckett) shipper who has made a video to remind fellow fans of the dynamic that they all fell in love with that the show has all but lost. I, for one, LOVED seasons 1 and 2 of Castle. Season 3 felt like it fell off track and season 4 has basically just felt like a freefall--one I'm still hoping they can pull out of by returning to the very thing that got me hooked.

"And what is that?" you ask.

Well, I'm glad you asked, because this fanvid illustrates it PERFECTLY!!!



Here's to hoping that Castle finds its way back to a place like this :)

Any shows you're hoping will come back next season? (Read: Any fanvids you think I should check out to see if I want to get hooked on another show?)