Write on Demand

            When I was in seventh grade, I had a teacher from Africa. She was from Kenya, if memory serves. I am not sure if it was because she was stricter than our other teachers, but not many people liked her. One girl in particular loved to butt heads with her, and I can remember one time when it involved me.

            My composition notebook habit began in middle school. I’d carry it around in my purse, from class to class, writing when I could or when I was bored. Sometimes, I’d try to write when I was supposed to be listening, or taking notes. This teacher from Kenya caught me and the girl who loved to butt heads with her defended me, arguing that maybe that was what I wanted to do with my life. Looking back on it now, I can’t help but roll my eyes at the whole thing.

            What made me think of this episode was lying in the floor of my bedroom, just now, trying to write and thinking that I hate everything I’m working on right now. I think that’s normal, but it drives me crazy. When I was the nerdy girl carrying a book and notebook in her purse at all times, I wrote when I could, as often as I could. There was no question, no hesitation. I could think past whether or not I hated what I was working on, I just wrote because I wanted to.

            Some people avoid making what they love a career because there’s always the danger that one day, it will become a chore. I don’t want writing to become a chore, but I’ve set a deadline for myself in April and it is ever looming in my mind and making the fact that I hate what I’m writing stare me down. Plus, there’s the argument that if you don’t like it, what’s to say your audience will?

            Where that leaves me on March 3^rd with an order of 50,000 words to do in the next month, I am not sure. I think I’ll figure something out because the fact of the matter is, I love this way too much to just stop.

Fanfic ain't no passing craze

            As a reader, it is always fun to discover other family members that read too. It’s like validation that you’re not alone, that there are other little freaks in the bloodline too. I’ve found the same thing applies to writing.

            Fanfiction is a highly contested thing among writers, with varying degrees of love, toleration, and outright hate. Personally, I feel fanfiction has its place. I enjoy reading it on the side and there are some amazing writers in those circles. Then again, there are also some horrible ones too. So horrible you ask yourself while reading, why did this person ever think putting pen to paper was a good idea? But writers can grow, and many do while writing fanfiction. They test the waters, learn what works for them and what doesn’t, and can eventually work up to writing original stories.

            Unfortunately, to my knowledge, the other little freak in my family tree didn’t make it past fanfiction. My dad has made a comment here and there about one of his aunts being a writer, but the only one I have proof of is from my mom’s side, a cousin of hers who is sadly no longer with us. I just consider myself lucky enough to have a piece of her writing, and it is wrestling fanfiction.

            The irony here is that I began reading wrestling fanfiction, based on current superstars, a couple of years ago. Most of it is a smut-fest, but some actually contain amazing storylines that I wish, just for a minute, were real.

            This cousin was clearly very young when she wrote the story, and it is in an aged blue folder, on yellowed paper in fading pencil. It’s a tentative connection to a kindred spirit that I never got to meet. It came up on the fly this past week while talking to Bear and it occurred to me that I should type this story up and save it, so that piece of her is never lost.

            Her name would have been great on the spine of a book. It was a very author-ish name.

            Is writing a gene to be passed down through the generations? I don’t think so, but it’s a special inclination that not everyone feels, giving those who do a connection that wouldn’t have otherwise existed. When that is with actual family, even family moved on to the next world, it’s special.

            Here’s to you, TVD. We never met, but we shared words. Blessed be.

            Have a good week. Kelswitch, over and out.

I do not own this photo.

The Virtual Slush Pile

            What prompted this Tuesday edition of the Kelswitch? This. Another writer weighing the world of self-publishing, which I just stepped into. So you can bet your behind this matters to me in a huge way. I don’t intend on being solely self-published in my lifetime, but for now, this is how I’m making my way and like he said, the world of self-publishing through Amazon has become a huge slush pile.

            Whether or not I just contributed to the crap for readers to wade through, I’m hoping not. What took me so long to get Shadows Rising out was that I went through the draft twice and then sent it to my Kindle where I went over it with a fine toothed comb, trying to make it as free of errors and coherent as possible without access to an editor.

            Self-publishing is easy but it’s not something that writers should take lightly. We still owe it to ourselves and to our readers to put out the best story possible. If we want any kind of future in publishing, we can’t put out crap and expect people to pay .99 cents or more for it. We’ll get a reputation or worse, just become lost in the slush pile that is publishing through Amazon.

            It is my personal opinion that part of the reason for all the crap being uploaded with a price tag on it is that people have this crazy idea that writers make a lot of money. Even worse, they seem to think that if you self-publish, you are instantaneously making the big bucks, thanks to the rare success stories that have been promoted by mainstream media.

There is at least one person in my circle of loved ones (who shall remain nameless) who thinks that is the norm, that that is what will happen with my stories, if we can only just share the buy link every single day.

            Not only is the idea ludicrous, but that’s a spam machine with flesh. As a reader, I want to interact with writers on Twitter and Facebook who are about more than trying to push buy links on me. If it’s an unknown writer constantly trying to promote his/her stuff to me, that’s off-putting, often earning them an unfollow or an unlike. That’s my thoughts as a reader and it’s informing how I move forward as a writer. That may make the marketing a little more difficult or slow going, but it’s the best way I know how.

            It would be safe to say that my Twitter following has doubled within the last year, if not tripled. The numbers still aren’t that impressive, but it’s a ongoing work in progress and if I have followers on Twitter, that means they may see my buy links, if they enjoy what I tweet enough to pay attention when I do share something underlined in blue.

            For the first time in history, every Joe Blow who has ever had the thought in his head that he could write a book has a platform to see this thought to completion. That’s as amazing as it is scary, because some people get rejected by publishing houses with good reason, I’m sure, and we live in an age where no one wants to hear there is something they are not good at. Lawsuits have been started over less.

            I’m no expert, I’m just a writer calling things as I see them. I’m no more of a writer than anyone else just because I have a BA in English, but I have been at it a long time and I’d like to think I’ve learned a lot.

I’d be happy to talk/respectfully argue the point.

Friday Reader Rambles

            This baffles me so much that I wanted to write a blog about it. I just scored a major find at a local book thrift deal. I wouldn’t exactly call it a store, since its run out of a warehouse, but anyway. For the bargain price of a buck, I got my hands on Karen Marie Moning’s Into the Dreaming, which is a collection containing the short story “Into the Dreaming” and some fun bonus material. I already own and have read the story. I have the original anthology it was published in, which is apparently hard to find.

            Apparently, in 1998 no one wanted to read paranormal romance. Urban fantasy did not exist yet. Publishers wanted straight up romances, historical with a focus on regency. Moning had trouble finding her voice because she had to attempt to bend to what the market wanted, what her publishers were willing to take a chance on. I think Sherrilyn Kenyon had similar problems with her Greek flavored vampire series, the Dark-Hunters.

            Traditional publishers are incredibly short sighted. Both of these women are incredibly successful now and it is because they put a unique spin on old ideas and they are fantastic writers, so they can pull it off. I have a hard time understanding how publishers could be so timid that they wouldn’t touch their work.

            In 1998, highlanders were too “primitive” to sell. With all the highlander romances on the shelves now, that blows my mind. Horny women like primitive. Female readers looking for some hot material generally want dominance. I’ll take that over a simpering lord any day, personally.

            It occurs to me how much the publishing landscape has changed in the last fifteen years. What was once too much of a risk is the hottest thing on the shelves and it’s becoming more mainstream by the day.  And if publishers are still too timid, there’s self-publishing. Readers shape the landscape, writers give them the tools.

            Getting my hands on this book, and having everything Moning has published, makes me remember that I’ve been reading her for close to ten years. And what a ride it’s been. I devoured her Highlander novels quickly, picking up The Immortal Highlander in 2004 and having read all the others by the time Spell of the Highlander came out in 2005. I was 14 at the time and incredibly  embarrassed buying that book with my parents around, but I did it anyway. When Darkfever hit the scene, I wasn’t interested and didn’t pick it up until my freshman year of college. I devoured it and waited impatiently for Shadowfever, the fifth book in the Fever series, to hit shelves. And now we move forward with Iced and Burned, due out sometime next year.

            Through the anthology “Into the Dreaming” was in, I discovered Sherrilyn Kenyon. From one of her anthologies, I discovered J. R. Ward. It’s a vicious cycle and as a reader, I love it. Lady powerhouses of the genre I hope to join one day and I know at least that Karen Marie Moning and J. R. Ward have mad respect for each other, which makes the fangirl in me completely lose her mind.

            It’s a good day to be a reader. It’s a good day to be a writer. Peace out from the Kelswitch, I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Diary of a Mad Writer: I Needs tha Dash!

            It occurs to me that I update my website the way some people update their blogs. Once in a blue moon full of updates that only keep you entertained for five minutes. Then it’s on to the next big thing in the world of link hopping.

            So. You wouldn’t know this by checking out my website, but I have mentioned it here that Blood Shadows is finished. Well, the first draft anyway. Since I finished it on August 5^th, it’s been sitting quietly on my computer, and not much writing has happened since. The main reason for that? I’ve been wrestling with the new beginning chapters I want to add. The thirty page prologue that I wrote in twenty-four hours needs to be cut up into individual chapters, and I have done that at least. However, I wanted to add some more meat to the beginning, to give a better introduction to the world and to the main characters before jumping in with the main conflict of the invasion. The problem has been deciding how to go about it and I think I finally figured it out.

            The night before the second draft of my senior seminar  paper was due, a friend and myself locked ourselves in the study room in our dorm, armed with our research, our computers, and junk food and energy drinks. I crashed before she did, after putting in seven hours of straight work on that draft. As a writer, I learned a lot from writing that paper. For the first time, I learned the true meaning of drafting and rewriting. That night in particular gave me something else as well. It was arguably the first time I lost myself to work. We broke up the monotony by playing on Facebook and Twitter and having 3:30am giggle fits, but it was all about slamming out the words and WRITING. Since then, I’ve had one other instance where I lost myself to work. When I wrote 14,000 words in twenty-four hours. When I spent all day and the better part of the night banging away on the keyboard to produce a thirty page prologue.

            As a writer, there is no greater adrenaline rush that leaves you with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. These times of a Mad Writer Dash are precious and do not happen nearly enough. And where I’m going with this is that I need one of those times to happen NOW.

            These new chapters that I’m trying to add are spelling out a lot of work ahead with this story, in addition to the revising that’s been on the to-do list since August 5^th. It’s going to require locking myself away to focus all of my attention on this story and fleshing out these characters. Unfortunately, my attention is constantly being drawn away by other matters. When I want to be writing, I feel like I should be doing something else. I think it’s the jobless guilt syndrome.

            After so many years with these characters, I feel like I’ve finally gotten the storyline right. They are exactly where they are supposed to be, and my greatest fear is letting this sit too long and then I will start wondering if the storyline is right after all. The main characters of Blood Shadows, Elana and Markus, have been with me since 5^th grade. They have evolved and changed forms more times than I care to count, not unlike myself. And finally, we’ve found our way together to a story I believe in, something I would be proud to send to a publisher for inspection. Once I finish polishing the story to pure perfection.

            I’m fascinated by struggle and how people react to it. I’ve always gravitated towards writing about struggles for the fate of the world. I’ve long admired characters who lose everything they love and get back up for more, because laying down to die just isn’t in their blood. It is the greatest lesson I think books have taught me, how to get back up after a fall. And as a writer, I want to pass it on to the next generation of readers and writers.

            I just have to write the damn thing first.