But at the same time, I’m kind of encouraged. The Shifters series has found a lot of new readers in the last year, and many, many of those who’ve been with me from the beginning have written or left messages telling me how excited they are about this book. So no matter what happens later with the sales, this release is already a success in at least one way–people seem to be excited about it. And that means more than I could ever really express.

And since I’d like to feed that excitement, I’m gonna give away a book. If you’d like an early, signed copy of Alpha, take a look at the Territorial Map on my website, then comment here to tell me what territory you live in and who your Alpha would be. (A pane should pop up when you hover over the territories, showing you the most important Pride members.) And feel free to tell me how you feel about that Alpha or territory, if you’ve already read some of the books.

You must comment before 11:59 pm on Friday to be entered. One comment per person.

Okay…go!

Edit: I’m so sorry! I forgot about those of you outside the continental US. And yes, you can still enter. Just tell me which territory/Alpha you’d prefer to have.

Related posts:

1. Almost there…
2. It’s almost here!
3. The Promo Machine (with poll)

We Dames like getting email, especially when it includes pictures of chocolate, or Matt Damon, or, best of all, Matt Damon AND chocolate. (Note: When I say “we Dames,” I am referring to me specifically; I can only assume the other Dames also enjoy chocolate. And Matt Damon.) One reader, Brandi, sent us the following:

“I’m looking for a Dames opinion on Copy Editing and Proofreading. Especially from a freelance type of perspective. I’ve tread the shallow end of the google pool on this and it makes me want to never read again. There’s just too much junk shoved up front of the search engine. Where should I start? What should I pay attention to?”

Brandi, I wasn’t sure if you were asking about becoming a freelance copy editor/proofreading, or if you should get the services of a freelance copy editor/proofreader. I’m going to tackle the “should I hire a freelance copy editor?” question.

(Note: I’m not talking about developmental editing/content editing, which focuses on the big picture. I’m not talking about book doctors, who provide a thorough analysis of a manuscript and suggest areas of improvement. Copy editing is all about grammar, punctuation, spelling and consistency; proofreading catches typos and other errors before a book goes to press.)

Question: Should I hire a freelance copy editor or proofreader?

My immediate reaction is “Hell, no.” But to be fair, I’ve been a professional copy chief for more than a dozen years, so let me temper that reaction, or at least explain it.

[Before anything else, a disclaimer: I used to be a freelance copy editor. I made it through two projects before I decided the freelancing life wasn't for me. And as I said above, I'm a copy chief for my day job, which means I manage the copy editing and proofreading for my company's magazine. All right, back to our regularly scheduled blog post...]

Words are a writer’s tools. They’re how we tell our stories. Without words, a writer is nothing. But like all tools, words are useless if we don’t possess the knowledge and skill needed to wield them. Every writer, whether first starting out or a multiple NY Times bestseller, needs to know how to string a sentence together. It’s simply inexcusable for an author not to know the basics of proper grammar.

“But Dame Jackie,” says my evil twin Skippy, “if that’s the case, why do commercial publishers provide a copy editor and a proofreader?”

Simple: Every story, no matter how well written, will have mistakes. A copy editor will catch most instances of grammatical errors and stylistic inconsistencies, and a proofreader will catch most of the errors that slipped through the cracks. Having a top-notch copy editor review your pre-published manuscript is crucial, as is having a proofreader sign off on the page proofs.

“All right,” Skippy says, “then why shouldn’t I hire a freelance copy editor to edit my work before I submit the manuscript to publishers?”

Because you still need to know the grammatical basics.

Here’s the thing: a manuscript needs to be as strong as possible before you submit it to agents or publishers for consideration. A story riddled with typos is probably going to be rejected out of hand, no matter how brilliant the actual story is. Part of your job, as a writer, is to know how to write a grammatically sound sentence and to spell words correctly. There are no short cuts here. I’m not saying your manuscript needs to be absolutely perfect in terms of grammar, consistency and style before you submit it — but it needs to be as perfect as you can make it.

Uh oh. Skippy’s getting agitated.

“But learning how to copy edit my own work is hard,” says Skippy.

Oh, and writing a good book is supposed to be easy? I didn’t know that.

“Can’t I just hire someone to do it for me?”

Sure. But be prepared to pay a lot of money for it.

“I’m willing to pay,” Skippy insists. “I don’t have the time to study the rules of grammar. I’m too busy writing my story.”

Your call, snowflake. I think it’s a waste of your money. If you don’t learn the basics of grammar, you’re always going to have to pay a freelance copy editor to review your manuscripts.

If you decide to become your own best copy editor — and I strongly recommend that you do — there are a number of terrific style guides you can use. The Chicago Manual of Style is one of the bibles of the publishing industry — and now it’s available online. I made my bones with the Gregg Reference Manual (also now available online). Other guides include Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style and the AP Stylebook (ditto online).

Of course, you can go ahead and hire a freelance copy editor. If you do, please make sure you’re completely clear on the fee and payment structure and the amount of time needed for the project. Caveat emptor.

The way I see it, mastering the basics of grammar isn’t optional, not if you’re serious about using words in your career. And once you know the rules, you can bend them as you see fit.

So take the time to read up on the punctuation staples, such as the comma, the colon and the semicolon. It can only help. Unless you’re on Twitter, in which case all bets are off.

Related posts:

1. A Writer’s Garden: Pruning Words
2. I Have to Read This AGAIN?
3. Deadline Overload

by Dame Devon

Now mind you, I am not the fastest writer. A lot of authors write more than three books a year and still have time to write several short stories, novellas, and hey, maybe a script or two. But since this year was the first time I’ve tried something new–writing three books in twelve months–I thought I’d share a little about my process.

First, let’s go over the reality of how much time goes into writing ONE book. For me, the steps are:

•    Outline –  3 days to 1 week
•    Write zero draft  –  3 to 4 months
•    Revise for reader draft — 1 week
•    Revise with reader input  –  3 days to 1 week
•    Submit & wait for reply  –  3 weeks to 4 months
•    Revise with editor’s input  –  1 to 2 weeks
•    Wait for copy edits  –  1 to 2 months
•    Revise copy edits  –  1 week
•    Wait for proofs  –  1 month
•    Revise proofs  –  1 week

So from the very first step of, “hey, I have an idea” to “The End” it’s about 9 months. But wait, you say, there’s an awful lot of waiting time in that schedule. You’re right! And that waiting time (plus the 3 other months of the year) are there for the taking. Maybe you’re the kind of writer who will want to spend more time on the outline, or on the first (zero) draft. Maybe you’re the kind of writer who hates revision and will take a couple extra weeks for that part of the process.

Cool. That’s absolutely fine to do if you want to write one book a year. And many, many, many successful writers do. One book a year is a great pace. (And if you want to look at it via daily word count, to draft a book in 4 months, it’s: 1,000 words a day (approximately 4 double-spaced pages)  5 days a week for 80 days =  80,000 word novel.)

But what if you want to write two books a year? How do you fit 18 months of work into 12?

You’ll work on book B during the waiting times for book A. Brilliant! And it works too.

Except….remember, you won’t have control over when book A’s revisions/copy edits/proofs show up. Your editor is also a very busy person and she is working on many other books too. So when the editorial letter/copy edits/proofs land in your inbox, you’ll need to drop everything you’re doing on book B and switch projects to hit those tight turn-around deadlines. (Revisions, copy edits, and proofs each require you to go through your novel from beginning to end at least once.)

Ok, you say, it’s workable. Basically six months of the year for each book, with work from one slotted into the wait time of the other.  Yes.

But what if you want to write three books a year? This, for me, was where it got tricky.

The Allie Beckstrom books come out every six months, in November and May. That schedule was pretty easy to hit. It cut the year nicely in half and scattered my deadlines in a manageable manner.

Adding in the deadlines for the steampunk novel, DEAD IRON, which will be released in July 2011, didn’t cut my writing schedule and year nicely in thirds. Because of the deadlines already in place for the Allie Beckstrom novels, DEAD IRON had to be written in two time blocks–at the beginning of the year for a month-and-a-half, then dropped while I wrote an entire Allie Beckstrom novel, then picked back up in the summer and finished in two months.

Did I do it? Yes, so far. I’ll turn in DEAD IRON on September 1st, my deadline for that book, then dive right into the editorial revisions I’ve received for book #6 of the Allie Beckstrom series. After that, I’ll start work immediately on the next Allie Beckstrom book.

What’s my point about all this scheduling mumbo-jumbo?

My point is this: even though I have never tried writing three books a year, some of the things I did before I was published gave me the skills to pull this off.

1. I wrote a book in a year. I did that for several years, getting used to the schedule, learning through trial and error my processes, how to fit “real life” around my writing career, and getting the feel for creating a work that size at a yearly pace.

2. I gave my work to trusted readers and learned how to revise to the input that rang true to me. It’s important to get comfortable with revisions, and practice doing them in a timely manner, because revising on deadline is part of the process too.

3. I tried to write every day, (hey, I’m not perfect, there were lots of days I failed, lol!) I learned that if I wrote every day it kept me from getting rusty, and words–good words–added up more quickly than if I wrote in bursts here and there.

4. I thought about what my next book was going to be while I was writing the current book. Having the next cool thing out there waiting for me helped to keep me going when the book I was working on got difficult.  It also let me practice outlining and beginning the next book with very little down time between projects.

5. I learned to get comfortable with the work that goes into writing, and even learned to like the hard stuff that makes my brain hurt.

And mostly, I learned that all writing, no matter if it’s fast or slow, finished or just a glimmer of an idea, is a vital part of the process of being a writer. There are no wrong ways to be a writer. There is only your way, and your way might change daily, or remain constant throughout your career. But it is up to each of us to try, fail, learn, explore, and maybe even thrive in the challenges we face.  We must have the courage to set our eyes on a dream, and not stop until we write our way to it.

Related posts:

1. There’s Always Trickery….
2. Switching Gears
3. The Long Haul

Dame Lili

* Dame Devon: How I Got To Where I Am
* Dame Jackie: My Path To Publication
* Dame Rachel: The Echo Of My Own Voice
* Dame Keri: The Long Road To Publication
* Yours truly: The Rocky Road
* Dame Jenna: An Overnight Success
* Dame Kaz: Dark Nights and Brighter Days
* Dame Toni: A Business Analyst Becomes A Novelist

There’s a lot of good stuff there, and frankly I don’t have much to add. Earning a living through writing is a chancy proposition, and certainly not one I’d recommend unless one has near-pathological persistence and a taste for punishment, as well as tolerance for manic-depressive career swings. (I’m only exaggerating slightly here, if at all.)

So why do it? Why on earth would anyone pick this way to make a living?

I can’t speak for anyone else. Why do I do this, then?

I’ve always loved writing. No, that’s not quite accurate. I have always written, ever since I can remember, and sometimes I love it. More often, I write because I am in the habit of writing and I am unable to stop. I compare my urge to write to a socially-acceptable mental disease, and I am only half joking. I am compelled to write, and extraordinarily uncomfortable when I do not write.

Writing is how I’ve chosen to make sense of the world for years now. Writing was my sanity during my childhood and difficult adolescence, my most trusted friend in young adulthood and my faithful ally now. Writing was and is my constant companion, the way I chose to sharpen my skills of observation and expression, the thing that made me feel sane when the world was falling apart. (Or if not sane, then, at least, marginally more able to cope. I’ll take what I can get.)

I write because it feels good. I write because it helps me make sense of the world. I write because there is a pressure inside me, and the writing bleeds that pressure off. I get paid for writing, true–but that’s merely a recent development. My writing life has spanned a good twenty-five years, and it’s only in the last four or so that it’s paid enough to be considered a decent living.

Don’t get me wrong. I love making a living from writing. To be able to make a living from the thing that makes me feel most alive is a gift I will always be grateful for, and one I intend to hang onto for as long as people will read the stories I spin. As Louisa May Alcott once said, I have taken Fate by the throat and I intend to shake a living out of the bitch. I am determined that if my career goes south, it will not be because I’ve given up. It will not be because I’ve stopped trying.

But.

I am going to be writing as long as my body and mind permit such an activity, whether I am paid or not. I cannot not write. I literally don’t feel right if a day happens along that I don’t write. I can only think of a handful of days in the past decade when I haven’t been able to write, and most of that handful have diary entries to mark them, so I’m not sure they count. Writing is just what I do, and if it is an addiction I don’t particularly mind. I don’t know what might happen anymore when I don’t write, simply because any attempt I make not to write during a day results in extremely uncomfortable tension. I wouldn’t hesitate to call it anguish, even.

So, I write because I must. I have grown accustomed to it, it seems, much as I’ve grown accustomed to caffeine.

Yet I also write to please myself. I listen to editors who help me make a book better and I listen to Readers and reviewers, of course. But when it comes right down to it, you have to get something out of the hours a day you sit, day after day, and pour out the words to make a novel. If you’re not getting some pleasure or enjoyment out of the process, it’s not going to end well. When all is said and done, I revise to please my readers, of whatever stripe they be.

I write, I create, solely for my own pleasure. And what a marvelous pleasure it is.

When I was about twelve, I got a set of Mary O’Hara books–the Thunderhead and Green Grass of Wyoming novels. (Curiously, though, I have never read My Friend Flicka.) Thunderhead was a magnificently ugly white horse, and he could run. He didn’t care if it was on a racetrack or with the herd. When he decided to, something would go off inside him, and he would shift into a curious, floating gallop and leave everyone else in the dust.

This made quite an impression on me. Because every day, when I am writing, I feel like I’m doing the thing I was made for. I feel like Thunderhead probably felt when the explosion happened inside him and the gallop took over. Making a living from writing is damn fine, and I don’t ever intend to stop. I’ll do it as long as the Readers let me. Still, like Thunderhead, I don’t care if I’m at the racetrack or a city street, a meadow or a canyon or the surface of the moon. Every day, that explosion goes off inside me…

…and I write. I really can’t see doing anything else.

For what it’s worth, that’s the clearest explanation I can give of why I do what I do. Your mileage may vary. The world is an odd place, and we are forced to make sense of it in whatever way we can. Mine is with words.

What’s yours?

Related posts:

1. Abstract, Real
2. Do That Thing
3. On Characters

“My life changed one day while I was sitting on the toilet.”

If you’ve been to my website, you’ve seen that line.  Okay, so I wrote it to be funny.  But it’s true.

Unlike the other Dames, I didn’t always write fiction.  My plan, from as early as I can remember, was to be a musical actress.  I sang before I spoke–my first discernable words were, according to my grandmother, the lyrics to a Nat King Cole beer commercial, which I sang before I could sit up on my own.

But I lacked discipline.  Like writing, acting is a profession that has, at any given time, something like 95% unemployment.  In college I studied acting, directing stagecraft, voice, and dance but, once I got out, I didn’t have the stones to move to New York or Los Angeles. Instead, I did non-union plays (the last one I was in paid $35 per performance)  and worked as a waitress or a bartender to pay the rent.  I sang with bands that imploded after a few performances (Have you seen The Commitments?) and picked up more shifts at the bar.

Then, one day, I prepared for my final acting role.  I went to the local Goodwill and bought three skirts, two jackets, and a pair of sensible pumps, and wrote my first work of fiction: A résumé that included a degree in accounting and a shitload of work experience. I gave a series of brilliant performances—at job interviews for companies that had insurance, benefits and paid days off.

Eighteen years later (still on the strength of that fictitious resume, arguably my most successful writing work) I was earning a huge salary as a Business Analyst. I had a fabulous wardrobe, shoes to make Imelda Marcos jealous, a Blackberry, a Bluetooth, and platinum frequent flyer cards on three airlines.

I’d relocated from Southern California to Miami, and the boyfriend I’d left behind decided to follow me.  When he arrived, he found out that high tech jobs in the greater Miami area were a bit thin on the ground. He started talking about a career change.  Teaching, maybe, or doing something with his pilot’s license.  Always a voracious reader, I went down to the local Borders and bought a stack of books like What Color is Your Parachute and Be What You Are. I presented them to him, thinking that he would use them to make a decision.  I don’t think he ever opened any of them, and they eventually made their way into my “reading room.”

So, one morning, I was reading one of those books (with my underwear around my ankles), and I came to an end-of-chapter summary, in the form of four questions.  Here they are, more or less,with my answers on that day.

Q: Do you like your job? A. Well, sure. It’s a great job.

Q: Would you do it if they didn’t pay you? A: Hahahahahahaha. I don’t like it that much.

Q. If money wasn’t a consideration, what would you do? A:  Well, I always thought I’d like to write a book.

And, then, the killer fourth question:

Q. Is there any reason you can’t start now?

Now, I ‘d heard questions like this before, but for some reason, it was exactly the right question at exactly the right time.  I suddenly knew–absolutely knew–that this time I could do it.  I could write a book.  And, I could write a good book–one that people would want to read.  At that moment, I saw myself as an author. No more suits, no more Blackberry, no more day job.

I started writing my first novel that day.  It was January of 2004.

I didn’t quit my job that afternoon–I understood that I didn’t know how to write a book or, once I’d written one, how to get it onto bookstore shelves.  I had a vague notion that lots of people wrote books and never got them published.  I had no intention of becoming one of those people.

But, I had an advantage that other would be writers didn’t have.  I was a Business Analyst (BA). What I did for a living was figure out how to get there from here. So, using the same methodology, tools, charts and software that I used in my day job, I did a Business Analysis and started on a Project Plan for my writing career!

BAs don’t have to be an expert in the field about which they are doing an analysis.  They use Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who have the actual skills to perform the tasks.  I needed SMEs, and I needed them fast.

I had no idea how to structure a book.  But I had a story idea, and I was pretty sure it was a romance. I went back to Borders in search of an SME.  I picked up a book that still sits on the shelf above my desk: Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wainger.

I knew nothing about getting published. Leslie’s book suggested I join an organization called Romance Writers of America (RWA). I went online, learned there was a chapter that met about 45 miles away, in Ft. Lauderdale.  And they were meeting that Saturday. WHAM! An entire room full of SMEs.

From my newly acquired expert friends, I learned that career writers had to have a good literary agent. I started researching agents, and targeted a few based on what they were selling, and to whom.  I went to their websites and found out what conferences they would be attending.  Then I proceeded to stalk them.

In the meantime, I’d finished my first manuscript and moved on to my second.  At one of the agent-stalking conferences I was attending, I signed up to pitch to an editor I thought might be interested in my fantasy romance but, when I arrived, I’d been paired up with an editor who didn’t acquire books in that genre.  Rather than waste the appointment, I sat down and pitched an idea that had been rattling around in my head, about a woman with unusual paranormal abilities.  It was called Mercy Killing, and I had no more than a half page outline and a few rough pages of a first chapter.

The editor was so excited about the idea that I (gulp) told her that I had a completed draft, and was working on revisions.  I went home and wrote the entire book in under a month, and sent it off to the editor.

While waiting to hear from her, I finished up that second manuscript, a medieval paranormal erotic romance called Witch’s Knight, and entered it in every writing contest I could find.  It won or placed in twelve contests (I’d been paying attention to Leslie’s book and those writing workshops) and I got several offers from small publishers.  At that time, the only publisher that was doing any volume in erotic romance was Ellora’s Cave.  Raelene Gorlinsky, EC’s senior publisher, had judged one of the contests and awarded the book first place, but had not made an offer.

I went online and got the phone number for the main office at Jasmine-Jade Enterprises, the parent company for Ellora’s Cave.  I called them up and, somehow, talked my way through several people until someone put Raelene on the phone.  And then, in the spirit of nothing ventured, nothing gained, I told her about all of the offers and asked her why she hadn’t offered me a contract.  She told me it was because the book didn’t have enough explicit sex in it.

I laughed and asked, “Is that all?  How much more sex would you like?”

I signed my first book contract, with Ellora’s Cave Publishing, on August 17^th, 2005.

I was still stalking agents and, with that in mind, I went to the New Jersey Romance Writers conference in October 2005 with the hope of meeting Miriam Kriss.  When I spotted her in the lobby, I went up and introduced myself. We were chatting when a strange, smelly, man came up and started hitting on me.  Miriam smirked at me over his shoulder as he oozed his sleazy version of “charm” all over me.  Then, he turned to Miriam and asked if she was a writer, too. As soon as he found out she was an agent (he was an aspiring writer) I became invisible and she became the object of his attention.  It was my turn to smirk and, by the time he walked away, we both needed a drink.  We sat in the bar and drank martinis and, eventually, she asked me about my work.  I agreed to send her some samples.

A week later, she called me.  She’d read Mercy Killing, the book I’d written in a month, and wanted to represent it.  I did the happy dance in my apartment and said “yes” without a second thought.  By far, the best decision I’d yet made in my career.

Witch’s Knight was published by Ellora’s Cave in November of 2005.  My project plan had given me two years to have a book published; I made it with six weeks to spare.

Then, in early December 2005, Miriam called to tell me she’d sold Mercy Killing in a three-book deal to Mira Books, to an editor named Leslie Wainger – the author of Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies!

In October of 2006, I quit my day job, divested myself of 75% of my wardrobe and the Blackberry, and moved to the cottage where I spent childhood summers in rural Connecticut.

Beg for Mercy (formerly Mercy Killing) was released in September 2007. By then, I’d published another book with Ellora’s Cave, Beastmistress, and that first romance manuscript, massively revised, was released under the title Men in Chains. It’s full of mistakes, but I still get fan mail.

Do I miss my high powered job?  Well, maybe the frequent flyer miles and regular paychecks. But the thing is, I now have a new answer to that second question from that chapter summary in that nameless self-help book.

Q: Would you do it if they didn’t pay you?   A: Hell, yeah!

Related posts:

1. I’ll Make You Famous…
2. The echo of my own voice.
3. Setting goals.

Dame Rinda

I have to break the cycle. Can’t miss the Readers on Deadline, can we?  No worries, I’ll share my “continuing” path to publication on my post in two weeks. It is still a work in progress.

_____________________________

Readers on Deadline (ROD) is a monthly Deadline Dame feature where we post an intriguing image and invite readers to be inspired and share the results in up to 250 words right here in the comments.

There’s a two week deadline, so entries will have to be in by midnight when I post my next regular Deadline Dames post, which is midnight September 8th.   The Dames will pick the entry that most intrigues us, post that entry in the next month’s ROD  along with a link to that writer/reader’s site-if there is one.  And you get a prize!

( We’d like to add a request for our readers not to re-post pictures.  Some are stock photos and those are fine, but quite a few of them are used with written permission from the artist.  Thanks! )

We received some FANTASTIC entries last month. There were intriguing bits throughout, some intense and fresh descriptions. I had a blast reading them.  In the end, the Dames chose Lisa T. Congratulations Lisa!!  This is wonderful! Send us your mailing address so Dame Devon can get your A Cup of Normal anthology in the mail.

I dragged the overstuffed chair outside to wait and watch. Hoping the gathering clouds would clash and battle to form something uncontrollable and destructive. At least I would be comfortable while I witnessed the dangerous dance of opposing forces.

An ozone scented breeze raised goosebumps on my skin and rustled voluminous skirts up over my knees. As I smoothed the hem back into place, I craved the comfort of my favorite pair of jeans but he did ask nicely. I obliged him this time, even though he was late.

Maybe the clouds would approve of my spaghetti-strapped offering and reward me by reducing the dilapidated boarding house to a pile of useless rubble driving all of the shadows and whispers away. The ruin blighted the street with stench of secrets and muffled screams.

Lightning blazed and wind howled. I counted four heartbeats before I heard the thunderclap. Only one thing could make this long overdue spectacle better. Joe.

Rain pelted my face and plastered fabric to skin. I knew I should go inside before the gods themselves reclaimed the boarding house and cleansed the filth away. But I was transfixed as if the chair had grown roots. Eager to witness the power of nature as it righted an old wrong.

A hand squeezed my shoulder and a familiar voice approved of my drenched dress. I moved over and made room. He smiled and winked as a clump of shingles flew straight through him and continued on its way like tumbleweed.

_________________________

This next image is a bit unusual. Can’t wait to see how creative you guys get with this one!  It’s by Agata Urbaniak.

Dame Jenna is offering up a signed copy of Dame Keri’s DESTINY KILLS.  Good luck!

Desire calls. Danger Lurks.
But…When Destiny McCree wakes up beside a dead man on an Oregon beach, she knows only this: she has to keep moving, keep searching, and keep one step ahead of the forces that have been pursuing her from the heart of Scotland to this isolated spot. Why? The death of her lover has left her alone, with little memory of her past. A glimmering serpent-shaped ring is the one clue she has—and a bargaining chip in a most dangerous game.

Enter Trae Wilson, a master thief with a sexy, knowing grin and a secret agenda of his own. Destiny and Trae both have powers far beyond the human—and both are running for their lives. Together they’re riding a tide of danger, magic, and lust…but with killers stalking their every move, they must use any means necessary, even each other, to survive—until the shocking secret of one woman’s destiny finally unravels.…

Related posts:

1. Readers On Deadline (ROD#17)
2. Readers on Deadline (ROD) #14
3. Readers on Deadline (ROD #15)

Dame Kaz

Dame Devon started us off here with her Path to Publication and, as you know (Bob), the Deadline Dames are spending two weeks talking about how we got started, where our paths took us (for me, for a long time, that was nowhere), and where we are now. I’ve loved seeing the full story behind how my fellow Dames first got published. We’re all so different – and yet, not so different. We’ve each been completely determined to really do this crazy thing. No two writers have the same road to publication, so here comes another one. This is my story:

How a completely ordinary Brit Chick got published in the US
(An illustrated account)

The Mythical Writer?

My brother and I would write and illustrate our own comic books. (I can’t draw, by the way. At all.) We also wrote and performed plays for our long-suffering parents. One of my favorite memories is of the vampire story we created (honestly, this explains a lot about me). This involved a working script – that we were adding to right up until ‘performance’ time – and a half-baked story about a woman who is walking down a deserted road at night when she gets bitten by a vampire bat. There was no explanation for the bat’s vampiric bite, only that it immediately turned the hapless victim (played by me!) into a vampire. We used actual stage ‘props’, one of which was something like this:

Realistic Bat 'Prop'

We used my mum’s green eyeshadow to cover my face and make me look suitably ghoulish; I had a black cloak, wild hair as I sat rocking in a chair, and two ice lolly sticks held in the shape of a cross were enough to scare me away.

Clearly, I was allowed to watch things like the Salem’s Lot TV miniseries waaay too young.

But I digress… I wrote on and off through my entire childhood. I wrote a little in my teens, but by the time I hit 17 (the age most of my characters – so far – seem to be), I was more interested in living life than writing about it.

Once I hit my twenties, though, I was ready to return to writing. I wrote vaguely literary short stories (usually with a science fictional or dystopian twist) and even started submitting my work. By my mid-twenties I was getting shortlisted in competitions; receiving positive feedback from wonderful authors; and coming close to publication in magazines I subscribed to and admired. But, for me at the time, coming ‘close’ wasn’t good enough.

I wanted more. Only… I didn’t have the endurance to keep going.

I regret that now, though there’s also the possibility that I needed to give up in order to come back to writing better and stronger in my thirties.

I gave up all fiction writing for five years – throughout my late 20s and early 30s. However… I did read a lot during that time. Those five years were filled with so many books and – even more importantly, I believe – books of all genres. I read ridiculously widely. When I was going through some Bad Stuff in Real Life, I continued to read and read and read.

And then I was ill for a few months one summer, and discovered these books (I’m using the original UK covers which are no longer available, because they’re still the best!):

The Anita Blake series blew me away when they were first released in the UK: I couldn’t get enough of them and was waiting anxiously for the back-to-back releases of those early volumes. Of course, combined with the BBC showing the first series of this:

…I was a lost cause. I remembered how much I LOVED this stuff, from way back in childhood, and I decided there and then that if I ever did return to writing it would be in the genre that truly inspired me.

Fast forward a few years, and I was driving my partner-at-the-time crazy moaning about how I hadn’t ever tried hard enough to achieve my dreams of being a writer. A published author. After this had gone on for way too long, he marched me down to the nearest Starbucks and told me not to bother coming back home until I’d written for 2 hours. (He confiscated my reading book and only left me with a notebook and pen – meanie! LOL) This was January 2007, and from that moment on something inside me just… clicked. I was 33 years old and I gave myself 5 years to have my first book on the shelves.

In February 2011 my first book will be published by Llewellyn/Flux in the US and Random House Children’s Books in the UK and Australia/New Zealand. I made it with a year to spare, and I wouldn’t have done it without the support of so many people – including the other eight ladies I’m honoured to share this blog with. In the meantime, I’ve had a couple of stories published in YA paranormal anthologies, the first of which was – appropriately – a book devoted to vampires:

July 2009

I’d come home.

How did I do it? Lots and lots of writing. Lots of mistakes. A lot of reading (yes, even more reading!). Hooking up with other writers who I could exchange work with (in a strange twist of fate, I met my first CPs in the comments section of Dame Rachel’s blog!). It was thanks to Kim Harrison‘s website that I first learned about our very own Rachel Vincent, and from then I followed her pre-published blog entries and learned so much. THANK YOU, Rachel. (Just in case I’ve never said it before.) It was through reading about Rachel’s journey – in part – that I decided I would aim high and try to interest Dame Agent with my work. I didn’t honestly believe it would happen, but I pushed those doubts aside and focused on writing the best story that I could.

My first attempt – an adult urban fantasy – had potential but was lacking… something. I didn’t actually finish it, though I came pretty close. I think all those years of not writing (apart from journalling), and all the reading I’d done through those 5 years ‘in the wilderness’, had somehow taught me something by osmosis. I really believe that I was unconsciously learning how to structure a story, how to formulate plot and build character… how to show emotions that leapt off the page…

So I turned to the YA idea that was nibbling away at me, and once I had a complete draft of The Iron Witch I revised (with the help of my CPs/beta readers) – and then began querying agents. I mostly aimed for literary agents in the US; I’d seen that overseas authors like Dame Keri could do it, so why not? I researched agents all the time. I lived and breathed agents and agent blogs and agent online interviews. Any time I saw an agent post a guest blog or interviewed somewhere, I took note of what they said and what they were currently looking for. Then I’d query them and make sure to reference that interview or post, letting them know that that was why I specifically wanted to work with them.

But all the time – in the back of my mind – I couldn’t stop thinking about that lone query letter I’d sent Agent M in my very first batch of six queries. Between sending that first query, to sending the full manuscript, and then getting The Call; all that took about 6 months. It was the longest 6 months of my life, but I also know how lucky I am and how relatively short a time that is for gaining agent representation.

Dreams can come true!

However. Let my story be a lesson to you: ‘getting’ an agent is not the end of the tale.. not by a long shot. In fact, getting a publishing contract is by no means the end of the story. But that’s another post for another time – probably at a later stage in what I hope will be a verrry long career. Heh. All told, The Iron Witch was on submission to editors in the US for about ten months. And that was after working with Agent M to get the manuscript in the best shape we possibly could before sending it out into the world. If I’d thought that waiting to hear back from agents was painful, then I was in for a shock! We went out on submission at a particularly bad time for the publishing industry, but thankfully we did eventually find a wonderful home for my debut novel. And then the Australian rights sold, closely followed by the UK rights… I was finally on my way!

If I was going to sum up my Path to Publication I would do it thusly:

1. Read a lot.
2. Read everything you can get your hands on.
3. But don’t be afraid to embrace the genre(s) that you truly love.
4. Write.
5. Finish what you write.
6. Get feedback on your early work.
7. But don’t be afraid to admit that you feel ready to ‘go it alone’ and get less feedback. (Sometimes too many opinions can be as bad as none at all, imho.)
8. Listen to your intuition – both about the writing itself, and about your career.
9. Take every opportunity that comes your way. Stand up to be counted.
10. Say “thank you” to those that helped you along the way – even if they didn’t realise that they helped you.
11. Don’t give up.
12. But if you do give up, keep reading and dreaming and know that, one day, you will return to what you love best.

Related posts:

1. Finishing What We Start*
2. Ask a Dame
3. Never Stop Dreaming

As our regular readers know, each of the Dames is writing an entry to tell you about our roads to publication. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been seriously enjoying reader the other Dames’ posts. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who struggled like mad to fulfill the dream that at times seemed unattainable.

My love affair with writing started very early in my life. In fact, I wrote my first “book” when I was ten years old. It was an autobiography. (I kid you not.) It was written in pencil with crayon illustrations and a construction paper cover (as pictured below).

Of course, I’d had a bit of an interesting life already as a ten-year-old, having spent four years living in Tahiti, so perhaps I can be forgiven for thinking I had enough for an autobiography.

I wrote another book while I was in middle school, this one fiction. Unfortunately, I no longer have that one, so I can’t show you any cute pictures to laugh at. I went on to write a couple more while in high school. None of those was anything close to publishable, and I doubt any of them were really close to real book length. The longest was probably a novella.

In college, I wrote my first “real” book, a science fiction novel called The Exile Experiment, wherein a group of misfits is marooned on an mysterious planet and eventually discover they’re subjects in an experiment on brain chemistry and personality. I don’t think I could bear to go back and read it now, because I’m sure it would make me cringe. However, I know it really wasn’t that bad for a first novel. I know this because I tried to get it published, and it actually got personalized rejections from major publishers, including one who said he wished he could make an offer on it but that the tough economic times meant he had to cut back on acquiring first novels. (I suspect in the publishing world, it’s always “tough economic times.”)

This what I consider the start of my quest for publication, although at the time, it was a bit haphazard and was a hobby, rather than an actual career choice. I started working on another novel–a high fantasy, meant to be the first book in a trilogy–and also wrote some short stories, none of which sold. It wasn’t until 1989 that I started getting serious about writing as a possible career. I attended the Clarion West workshop in Seattle. This is an intense, six-week workshop, taught by various experts in the field. Lest I make you jealous, my teachers were: Orson Scott Card, Karen Joy Fowler, Lucius Shepard, Connie Willis, Amy Stout (then an editor at a major publisher, though I don’t remember which), and Roger Zelazny. It was an all-star lineup, and I learned a lot about how to write a short story. Which led quickly thereafter to my first short story sale.

It was all smooth sailing from there.

Um, no.

I continued to write, both short stories and novels. I managed to sell a handful of short stories, though not to any of the major markets. (If you’d like to read one of them, you can see it here. It is not a romance, nor does it have any romantic elements.) But I still couldn’t break into the novel-length market, despite repeated close calls. In fact, there’s only one of my early books that didn’t at least get close to getting me either a publisher or an agent.

Around 1998 or 1999, my husband decided to start a small press publishing company (Aardwolf Press, and no, it isn’t open to submissions now) to publish science fiction and fantasy books. By this time, I’d written six or seven novels, and Dan said he wanted to publish one of them down the road after his press was more established. I immediately earmarked one of my manuscripts for him. I had used it to try to get an agent, and for the first time ever I’d gotten something like a consensus on the rejections: this novel wasn’t commercial enough. Which made it a good candidate for a small press.

Dan found his first manuscript–a short story collection–very quickly. But after that, he learned just what an editor goes through with the slush pile. I helped him read some of those submissions, which gave me a healthy appreciation for what editors and agents go through. After a year of not being able to find something he wanted to publish, he decided to go ahead and publish my book, Hamlet Dreams (written under the name Jennifer Barlow). Because it was my husband who published it, I never felt like it was “really” published. (A fact that still annoys him to this day. LOL) However, it was a nice boost to my confidence because it got a lot of good reviews, even in places that have never (as far as I know) reviewed any of my Jenna Black books.

Of course, I was still trying to sell to a commercial press. By this time, I had a stockpile of seven novels, and had been getting positive, hope-generating rejections for about fifteen years. I was frustrated as hell, and every rejection I got felt like just a little more evidence that I was never going to make it. To get so close so many times and then not make a sale . . . However, frustrated and despondent as I was, I never considered quitting. Quitting was something I was going to have to think about doing “someday.”

Everything in my writing life changed in the spring of 2003, when I attended a two-week professional writer’s workshop, the intensity of which made Clarion West feel like a walk in the park. (This is the same workshop Dame Devon attended, though we didn’t go to the same session.) The two all-important messages I got out of this workshop were: You are responsible for your own career, and Dare to be bad.

I came home with a whole new attitude and approach to writing. No longer was I going to wait until I “felt like it” to write. No longer was I going to use my full-time day job as an excuse for not writing. I was going to treat my writing like a job, and I was going to write every single day and keep submitting until someone finally bought one of my books, dammit!

I wrote at least six books that year, attacking my writing with a kind of intensity I never had before. I started writing things other than just science fiction and fantasy (which was what felt “safe” to me), and dipped my toe in the romance pool. I was going to Dare to be Bad, and I was going to try everything, even if I sucked at it, just to see where I fit best. I wrote contemporary romantic comedy, romantic suspense, and even a couple of Regency historical romances, though my first love in romance was (not surprisingly) paranormal.

About a year into this new endeavor, I gave one of the published authors in my local RWA chapter a copy of Hamlet Dreams in a mutual book swap. She read it and enjoyed it (always a relief). She went to the Romantic Times conference and met a young and hungry agent, looking for cients. She brought home Agent M’s card for me, having told Agent M about me. Within something like a week, I had signed on with Agent M as her second client.

No, everything wasn’t smooth and easy after I had an agent. It took about a year for Agent M to sell one of my books, and she’d tried with a goodly handful of them. In 2005, she sold Watchers in the Night, the first book of my Guardians of the Night series. Since then, I have sold three more books in that series, five books in the Morgan Kingsley series, three books in the Faeriewalker series, and two books in my upcoming Descendant series. So, as you can clearly see, I was an overnight success. (Excuse me while I laugh my a$$ off.)

Watchers in the Night was my 18th completed novel. (Not counting the juvenile efforts, naturally.) The message here is one you have heard from the Dames before: persistance pays. NEVER GIVE UP!

Related posts:

1. The Myth of Luck
2. My First Romance
3. How I Got to Where I Am

Dame Lili

Short story: it was fantastic.

Slightly longer story: I arrived after traffic that seemed designed to test the temper of a saint, had to check twice to make sure I’d brought the chapter I was going to read a bit of, and saw people waiting in the event area. I was only prevented from fleeing by the fact that I was in heels and couldn’t run very fast without wrenching a muscle or three, and I was already in the bookstore anyway.

It’s not that fans are scary. It’s that public speaking surpasses Zombie Apocalypse on the list of Things I Fear Most. I know the Zombie Apocalypse is not likely to happen, but public speaking? That will be with us, lo unto the ending of the world.

ANYWAY. There were familiar faces in the audience, like Jay (Kimberly, that hug should have reached you uncrumpled!) and Marne O., as well as the Martian Mooncrab and her Sister Creature, and the fabulous Suzanne Young, whose smile I recognized. Must Love Books and the Novel Novice were also there (hi, guys!) so every time I glanced up, there were encouraging smiles and friendly faces.

I ended up reading a whole chapter of Defiance, book 4 of Strange Angels that comes out next spring. I stopped a couple times, certain that everyone was bored beyond belief, but was pressed very politely and firmly to continue. I also gave out a few spoilers, but not many. Most of them concerned who would and would not die in Certain Books. For some reason I have a reputation for killing characters. *evil grin* I gave as much hope as I could.

Everyone was very patient, waiting in line for the signing portion. Thank you all! I had a great time once I got over the fear of standing in front of everyone and talking. I’m always certain I sound like a complete idiot in front of a group of people.

And now, onward to the Friday post!

The Dames this week have been talking about their paths to publication. Dame Devon, Dame Jackie, Dame Rachel, and Dame Keri have all weighed in on different aspects of their experiences; next week, more Dames will share.

…I just sat here for a good ten minutes staring at the screen, noodling, trying to think of what to say about getting published. The thing is, I never really saw not getting published as an option. The kids had to eat, I had to bring in some work and money somehow, and so it was just a question of what I could write or how I could work in publishing to make some of that happen. I figured that if I did what I could and learned enough, someone somewhere would want something I could write, and I’d figure out the rest later.

All too often, I see aspiring or “new” writers who have just this One Special Thing that they’re determined to see in print or die trying. The trouble with this is, they keep flogging this One Special Thing like a dead horse on their front lawn. If you do that long enough, pretty soon even the tourists will stop staring.

It’s all right to have that One Special Thing, that book you love, the thing you really want to sell, the thing you feel you were born to write. This is perfectly okay. Unfortunately, that One Special Thing might not be sellable, for a variety of reasons. You may have to wait until the market improves. You may have to learn more craft before you can revise the Thing enough to make it publishable-quality. It may be so outre and strange (that’s not a bad thing!) that you need a platform of reliability built up before someone will risk publishing this weird thing you’ve got.

I’ve been told before that I shouldn’t give writing advice because I’m not a Real Writer. Instead of being a Real Writer, I’m told, I am a filthy hack. I expect to get paid, therefore I am not a real artist and I should shut my mouth and live in the genre ghetto. (You already know what I think of this.) I suppose it’s catty of me to point out that writing for money requires careful attention to craft and to one’s audience, as well as utter commitment. I happen to believe that people will pay for the truth in the form of stories I write as best as I know how to. It never occurred to me to spend ten years polishing every word in a single manuscript, because my kids needed to eat a little sooner than that.

So I was flexible. I took a couple editing jobs, I pitched in reading slush submissions, and I kept my ears open. I tried my hand at writing serials, short stories, a couple novel-length attempts. The serials taught me about structure and gave me contacts. The rejections from the novel-length works got better and better, until I finally got one that said, “We can’t use this. It’s got adultery, illegal drug use, and too much gore. Do you have anything else?”

(I should note here that my hallmarks and preferences, so to say, apparently started early.)

By then I had a much better idea of how to write to genre, and the result was Dark Watcher. While that was in the submissions queue for a small press, I wrote the third in the series–Fire Watcher. I thought very seriously about the structure of both books. By then I knew much more about the romance genre, paranormal romance in particular, and I was fairly sure I’d turned in a book that had at least a shot.

The most important interaction in my fledgling career came when I got a letter from the small press I’d submitted to, saying “Can you do these revisions?” There followed a good three pages or so of things that needed to be fine-tuned and tightened.

I had a choice here. I could be a Special Snowflake and stamp away. (“No! Of course I will not revise my deathless prose! Isn’t it good enough that I sweated this out for you?”) Or I could be an adult. (“Yes. These changes I can do, these others I have even better ideas for, this one I’m not sure about for these reasons but I’m open to discussion.”)

I chose the latter half, and was offered a four-book contract. Dark Watcher wasn’t perfect (it still isn’t, my God, believe me, I know!) but my willingness to work hard and be reasonable opened the door. The Watcher books taught me a lot, and that entry into small-press publishing paved the way for other things down the line–opportunities I was ready for because I’d already started building good habits and a good reputation.

If you don’t want to write for money, that’s your right. If you want to flog just that One Special Thing, that’s all right too. Just be warned that the odds are not in your favor. As far as I’ve figured out, even taking into account that everyone’s path is different and unique, the odds favor writers who have more than one arrow in their quiver, writers who are open to revision and tight with deadlines. You have a fighting chance to seize opportunity by the throat and make that bitch start paying attention if you’ve put in some time preparing the ground and gathering those arrows and that willingness to revise.

It is indeed a rocky road, whichever way you try for publication. But there’s also some chewy marshmallows and crunchy nuts, as well as some damn fine chocolate moments, to be had along the way.

Huh. Now I want ice cream.

Good luck out there.

Related posts:

1. Huh. Is There Any Money In That?
2. Finishing What We Start*
3. When The Gallop Takes Over

My path, I’m afraid, was a long and rather uneducated one. Like Dame Rachel, I didn’t hit this business from an academic bent, but rather from a sheer love of telling stories. I’ve been telling myself stories for as long as I can remember. As a horse mad pre-teen, I used to take my collection of horse statues out into the garden and make up adventures with them. I even told myself stories in bed at night to help me fall asleep. But the first actual time I can remember putting pen to paper was when a favorite author killed off a character I loved in one of her novels. I was so incensed that I rewrote that story, making that character the hero and letting him live.

And that, I’m afraid, was the start of it all. As a teenager, I was always writing—sometimes the stories featured my favorite pop star falling madly in love with me, and sometimes they were simply fantasy stories featuring females as the main lead (even as a teenager who loved fantasy stories, I was getting a little sick of women always being the ones who needed rescuing)

As I became an adult, the desire to write grew stronger, as did the desire to see my novels in print. But I had no idea where to start or what to do, and besides, why in the world would anyone want to published a story from an unknown Australian who had absolutely no training when it came to writing?

So, I went to work, bought lots of books, had lots of horses who ate too much and got too fat, met my hubby, and eventually got married. All through that, I kept writing and kept dreaming of being published, but I never did a whole lot to actually achieve the dream.

Then, in 1989, I got pregnant. And suddenly, it was now or never. I decided that when my daughter was born, I was going to quit work and concentrate on my writing with the aim of becoming published, because we all know new mums have so much free time once their child is born (okay, you can stop laughing. Babies were new world to me—I had no idea back then just how much work the adorable little blighters were). But despite the culture shock that was my daughter’s entrance into the world, I did manage to write. Not only that, I went to my first conference–the Romance Writers of Australia conference–and it was a revelation. For the first time in my life, I knew I wasn’t alone in this dream of becoming published, and I began to believe it was actually possible.

It was around that time that I wrote the first draft of Dancing with the Devil. It was a paranormal romance featuring a kick arse heroine, and I happily sent it off into the world, fully believing that any publisher in their right mind would snap it up.

Unfortunately for me, the publishers didn’t quite see it that way. Rejections followed. Lots of them. Ten years worth, in fact. I joined crit groups, learned more about my craft, and wrote lots of other books, but I just couldn’t let Dancing go. I really believed in that book and wouldn’t let it die. But as so many rejections reminded me, it was simply too cross genre for the market. I also think the fact that I was an unknown Aussie didn’t help matters—in fact, I know it was a reason several agents rejected me. The tyranny of distance, and all that crap.

In the late 1990′s, in a fit of frustration, I submitted to two e-presses. One was Hardshell, and the other ImaJinn, a small trade paperback and e-press that had just started up. I knew the risks, I knew I was never going to make a lot of money, and I sure as hell knew I wouldn’t ever see my books on the shelves in Australia. But I figured that if New York didn’t want me, maybe I could build up a following at an e-press and, along the way, gain some experience that might just help me step up. So I sent Dancing back out. Hardshell never really got back to me, but ImaJinn’s response was quick. But once again, it was the dreaded rejection. However, for the first time, it was actually a positive rejection, with the editor saying that if I rewrote the book and addressed her concerns, she’d look at it again. Naturally enough, that’s exactly what I did, and in 2001, Dancing with the Devil became my first published book.

Releases came thick and fast after that. While some of the stories published were novels I’d written in the years before Dancing’s publication, many of them were brand new, and between 2001 and 2007 I had 12 novels and one novella published with ImaJinn.

But for me, the big jump came in 2003, when I wrote my first werewolf book—Beneath a Rising Moon. In it, you’ll see the beginnings of the mythology that became the world of Riley Jenson. Riley herself sort of exploded into my life sometime in 2003/2004 (I can’t remember the exact date now), and I wrote the first two books in rather quick succession. I knew from the minute she hit the page that if any book could break me into New York, it would be hers, and I excitedly sent her out to the world. All she collected was rejections. I even had a great agent work on it with me, but in the end, she too rejected it. The story was so cross genre she wasn’t sure were to send it. To say it was disheartening is something of an understatement.

When I got the recommendation to our fabulous Dame Agent, I wasn’t exactly expecting a whole lot, so it was something of a surprise when she got back to me rather quickly to say she loved it and wanted to represent me. Six weeks later, after an auction with three publishers, I had a three book deal with Bantam. Full Moon Rising was published in hardcover in 2006. Between the hardcover and the paperback release of Full Moon, I signed another three book contract, meaning the Dec 2006 mass market release of Full Moon Rising was followed in quick succession by Kissing Sin (Jan 2007), Tempting Evil (Feb), Dangerous Games (March), and Embraced by Darkness (July). I also sold another 3 books, bringing the total to 9. In 2008, The Darkest Kiss came out (April), as did Destiny Kills (Oct), and I sold another 4 books to Bantam. In 2009, both Deadly Desire (March) and Bound to Shadows (Oct) came out. Moon Sworn, the last of the Riley series, came out in May this year.

So what’s next? Well, Mercy Burns, the follow-up to Destiny Kills finally comes out in April next year, then Darkness Unbound, the first of the Dark Angels series (The Riley offshoot series) comes out in July. Right now, I’m working on the second of the Dark Angels books, and then I’m out of contract and hoping like hell Bantam wants more of them.

So to echo the words of my fellow dames, whew! But as you can see, my somewhat long writing apprenticeship did eventually pay off, evolving into a rather rapid succession of sales and releases. It just shows that you should never, ever give up on your dream of being a writer. And that sometimes, sheer, bloody minded persistence does pay off!

Related posts:

1. Moon Sworn has been released!
2. Argh!
3. Setting goals.