Tag Archives: journal

Jerks & Irks XLII: The Unglamorous Side of Writing

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I’m sure you all know by now that the prelude novella to my Blood for Blood Series, Blood in the Past, will be released Wednesday. What you don’t know is why my eye has been twitching for the last nine days. It’s because of the unglamorous side of writing. It’s nothing short of awesome-rockets to create characters, write a plot around them, and see it through to “The End.” But the end is slow going. When I received my final polished copy from Cassie at Red Adept, I thought it would be smooth sailing until release day. It was not.

  • Following the editing process, Blood in the Past was sent to a proofreader. After I received my manuscript back from the proofreader, I didn’t entirely trust their work (equal parts perfectionism, paranoia, and the proofreader herself had made a few errors), so I had to read my story three more times. The reading and re-reading and re-re-reading of your own work is tiresome. That in itself is eye-twitch-worthy.
  • With the novella fully polished, I thought it was a good time to type up the front- and back-matter. Table of Contents. Dedication. Acknowledgments. About the Author. Contact the Author. Copyright. Agh! I bet your eyes are twitching just reading that list. Then I had to read everything over. Again and again. Typos? Spacing? Thanked everyone? Copyright page scary enough? Tres un-glam.
  • Once satisfied with my edited and proofread copy, I copy-and-pasted all the components of the front- and back-matter, then I hired Karen Perkins at LionheART to format the it for Kindle. When she was done–you guessed it–I had to read it through a couple more times, this time from my Kindle. I only found a couple of errors and they might have been my doing. But Karen was very patient with me and we corresponded via email for hours until I was happy.
  • Whoops, I forgot a step. See how scatter-brained I am? Before I sent Blood in the Past to LionheART, I purchased a gaggle of ISBN numbers from Bowker. I know what you’re gonna say: Amazon provides the ISBN for you. And you’re right…if you want the publisher to be listed as Amazon. I registered my own publishing company, remember? (Blood Read Press) Therefore I needed my own ISBNs. Purchasing them was pretty easy. Assigning one to my novella was a pain in the pin-cushion.There are so many QUESTIONS! Agh! A few of which I didn’t even know the answers to. Thankfully, not all the questions required an answer to continue. But seriously, that took me about two hours.

I still have yet to formally apply for a copyright, but I guess that’s for a different post. Tonight, I’ll attempt to upload Blood in the Past to Amazon. Why so early? To ensure I don’t screw it up and have to delay my release date. Duh. Wish me luck guys. I’m gonna need it.

But in all honesty, it is pretty damn cool to look at your own book on your Kindle. ;-)

 

 

My Global Malfunction

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I’m about to share something with you guys. Something that few people know about me.

I suck at geography and I suck bad.

When I was little, I came down with the chicken pox right when my class was learning US and World Geography. It was a very mild case of the chicken pox, so my grandmother kept me home a little longer than she needed to so that I didn’t get it twice.

I missed a whole lotta geography.

Fast forward to the present. To my Hubby-pants’ teasing jokes, cock-eyed looks, and exasperated sighs. Well, all of that culminated to head a couple of weeks ago. In the space of 24 hours, I said the following stupid things:

  1. We were talking about Pablo Escobar. Me: “Columbia. That’s in Cuba, right?”
  2. We were watching Defiance on the SyFy channel. Me: “Why do the characters keep saying ‘down to Antarctica?’ Antarctica is the North Pole, isn’t it?” (Side note, this led to a rather amusing argument about how, if there wasn’t an actual land mass at the North Pole, then why did people start the rumor that Santa Claus lived there.)

I don’t remember the order in which these two gaffes occurred, but one of them made Hubby-pants order me to put on my shoes and we went out right then and there to buy a globe. We found an adorable little, 6-inch, desk globe. On sale! Isn’t it cute?

globe

Speaking of globes…Wherever you are on the globe, you can now add my upcoming novella, Blood in the Past, to your Goodreads ‘To Read’ Shelf! There’s a button right over there >>>>

Only FIVE more days until RELEASE DAY!

What I Learned From My Editor

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You knew it was coming. The obligatory “my work has been edited, my editor was invaluable, this is what I learned, you wish you had an editor like mine” post.

Blood in the Past was sent to Red Adept Publishing for a deluxe line edit a couple of weeks ago. Oooh, deluxe! I know, right? That means my lovely editor and I go back and forth like a see-saw until the manuscript is perfect. Then we send it off to a proofreader for good measure.

It didn’t take Cassie (hope she doesn’t mind me using her real name) very long to edit BITP, as it’s a novella, not a full-length novel. I received all of her corrections in Word’s Track Changes in about a week. And with that handy-dandy deluxe package comes a separate document with some general points that the editor noticed about your writing style. So, without further delay, here’s what a learned from the fabulous Cassie:

  • I do things for effect, but I do them too frequently so that the effect is for naught. Such as one-line paragraphs and sentence fragments.
  • I use present tense words like now, these, this, etc even though I write in past tense.
  • I don’t use enough contractions. (I blame my mother for that one. She wasn’t a fan of contractions. She even tried to use Eddie Murphy’s character in Coming to America to prove that the English language is better without them. What can I say? It stuck.)
  • I often segue into sentences like I’m writing a sixth grade paper. Yet, Instead, But, etc.
  • I use began to and started to like it’s my job. Cassie pointed out that it is not, in fact, my job.
  • My timeline was a little jacked up because I underestimated the time it would take to complete an arson investigation. None of my betas caught that, so that was a HUGE gaffe that I’m glad she brought to my attention.
  • And finally (this one cut me deep), I have the tendency to “wax poetic.” ~Le sigh~ Cassie did go on to say that my “technical writing is beautiful,” but I need to remember that my characters aren’t all kooky literary professors whose inner dialogue would be so verbose. Oopsie.

All in all, my time with Cassie will be remembered fondly. We cut things that shouldn’t be there. We added things that should. We compromised on a few points. She let me have my way on a few other points. And we bonded over the movie Bringin’ Down the House.

Wait, what?

Here’s what happened. She made a comment that one of my characters had taken kick-boxing classes and thus would be a worthy adversary for another character. I pointed out that it wasn’t MMA-quality training. It was like in Bringin’ Down the House, when Queen Latifah gets into that fight with the Country Club Chick, who says she takes Tai-bo. Country Club Chick then goes on to get her ass beat. Turns out, Cassie LOVES that movie (capital letters were her own, not mine.) So, for my character, the kick-boxing classes, were just for cardio. Sure, you learn a few general movements, but not enough to ward off a larger woman wielding a chef’s knife. Oh dear, I’ve said too much…

Blood in the Past. Available June 19th on Amazon. Ebook Only for this one. Sorry.

No Jerks. That’s What Friends Are For.

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This past weekend Hubby-pants and I visited some dear friends of ours down in Maryland. They were so gracious and hospitable, the memory of will warm my heart for days. Here’s how it all started. A few days prior to our trip, this text message exchange took place, sparked by a 90+ degree forecast for their area:

Me: Please tell me you have AC.

J: We have central air. No one is gonna pass out.

Me: Had to ask.

J: Fair enough. You need fluffed pillows and lime slices for your water?

Me: F*** You! …I take mint leaves in my water.

J: You can’t say “F*** You” and then say mint leaves.

Me: Cucumber slices? Sliced thin though.

With that last message, I created a monster. I went on to say that I was “accustomed to a certain lifestyle” and at that moment was drinking “chilled Akura green tea in a frosted mug with German rock sugar.” I was serious about my current beverage choice, but I was joking about the snooty lifestyle part. In return, he jokingly told me to keep my ass home. It’s okay, I know he didn’t mean it.

Anyway, on the day we made the trip, when we were about ten minutes away, this next text message exchange took place:

J: You okay, dude?

Me: Ten minutes out.

J: Ok! Your cucumber water is waiting.

Me: Sliced thin?

J: I don’t like you.

Little did I know, THERE WAS ACTUALLY CUCUMBER WATER WAITING FOR ME! His lovely wife had made some with lemon and cucumber slices and everything! Muddled and marinated and ice-cold and just pure refreshing awesomeness! And that’s why I love them! She even made homemade white sangria.They brought us to a seafood restaurant on the Baltimore Harbor that night and to a Latin Rum Bar in Annapolis for lunch the next day. We even had satin sheets! All around great time. I highly recommend Hotel My Friends if you’re ever in the Jessup, MD area.

AND they signed up for my mailing list. You guys should probably do that too, since I’m sending the opening scene to Blood in the Past out exclusively to subscribers on Wednesday, June 5th. Sign up here!

The Lifeblood of the Supporting Cast

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Throughout the month of April I boasted posted about the main characters in Blood in the Past, Jillian, Brighthouse, and Lyla. But what’s a story without its supporting cast? What’s Lord of the Rings without Meriadoc and Pippin? Not that Blood in the Past is on the scale of Lord of the Rings, but still. Take a look at my supporting cast:

  • Mel. Jillian Atford’s roommate. Short black hair in a funky, angular cut across her eyes. Dark eye makeup. Tough attitude. But really she’s from a small town in Ohio. And when she and Jillian are victimized, Mel’s vulnerability is apparent. Jillian and Mel were never really close, other than living in close quarters, but after the incident a budding friendship forms. And since Jillian has no one else, she turns to Mel when she has to.
  • Susannah. Lyla’s mother. Beautiful nordic features. Long, golden hair. She’s sick of her husband’s infidelity, but she deals with it. Until she doesn’t.
  • LeeAnn. Lyla’s aunt on her father’s side. LeeAnn is an Associate Medical Examiner. Petite, pale, dry demeanor. The opposite of her charming, charismatic brother. And very suspicious of Lyla. But there’s nothing she can do about it. Her boss is retiring and refuses to hear any of her theories. So she waits. (Blood in the Paint, anyone?)
  • CJ. Lyla’s friend at UPENN hospital. They shared classes as undergrads and after she became a resident physician, he took a position in the pharmacy department. He longs for her in a way Lyla can’t ignore, but does.

There are a few other characters, but they don’t stick around very long, if you know what I mean. One day down the line I plan on writing individual short stories for these sub-characters. They will only be available to those on my mailing list. That’s just one of the perks to signing up, so make sure you add your email address soon! (Don’t worry, I won’t bombard you with crap. You’ll probably receive half a dozen emails a year at most.)

And now for my BIG announcement!

The date of my COVER REVEAL for Blood in the Past is almost upon us!

Check in on MAY 8th, 2013 to get the first peek! (And if anyone would like to help spread the word, please contact me. I’ll be scheduling interviews and guest posts throughout the month of May.)

Why Jillian Atford? A Character Study

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On Thursdays and Fridays this month, I’ll be posting about the characters in my upcoming novella, Blood in the Past. Hopefully this will lead up to the cover reveal and the end-of-april-release, but I’m not a fortune-teller. Here’s hoping…

I'd cast Gabrielle Union as Jillian. Check out other inspiration images at http://pinterest.com/jordannaeast/blood-in-the-paint/.

I’d cast Gabrielle Union as Jillian.

The first character I’m going to chat about is Jillian Atford. Hers is the opening story told in Blood in the Past. How did I choose her name? That’s easy. ‘Jillian’ was the first name of my childhood best friend. When I started writing the first full-length novel of the series, Blood in the Paint, I named a character after her and she was also the first to read the chapters I’d written. Boy, was she was objective! But more on real-life Jillian’s comments later, in the post pertaining to Lyla, my main character.

That was years ago. Sadly, in 2009, real-life Jillian and I had a falling out. We never spoke again. Then she died in December 2011. I was devastated. All the things that were never said, the hatchet that was never buried, the water that never ran peacefully under the bridge. I still dream about her. That’s why in January 2012, I decided to finish Blood in the Paint and pursue a writing career head-on.

There are many similarities between real-life Jillian and character-Jillian. Physically, they are both tall, brown-skinned women. I originally had them both going to the same college (Hampton University), but had to alter that due to a plot problem. The artwork in Jillian’s office is patterned after that found in the home of real-life Jillian’s parents. Additionally, and I’m not sure if real-life Jillian would approve of this part, character-Jillian had an affair with a married man. Yikes!

In Blood in the Past, Jillian is a young graduate student, majoring in Clinical Psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia. She was a foster child, so she is damaged and without strong personal relationships. When a married police officer shows her a little attention, she’s confused at first, caught in the turmoil between what’s wrong and what’s right. But eventually the fact the someone who already has a family, but still wants her, wins over Jillian’s conscience. As a foster child, she never had that–and she doesn’t want to let it go.

Learn more tomorrow!

Cliffhangers Continued…

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Followers, I keep trying to make enemies and you guys just love me too much. First I tried with this post about why I won’t buy your book. No takers. Everyone seemed to think I was brilliant and in no way the self-proclaimed jerk I purported to be. Next I spoke about how much I love cliffhanger endings and lot of people weighed in but still no enemies. Dammit guys, I’m trying to go viral over here! What do I have to do? Talk politics? I refuse. I’m old school. Politics isn’t for mixed company. But I digress.

I didn’t make any enemies with my cliffhanger-lovin’, but the post did garner a number of comments. Here are my favorite quotes:

  • From AJ Race: “I guess it depends on the book, part of me with book 3, really wants to end leaving the reader with more questions than answers, but given that it’s the last book that almost seems sort of cruel. I haven’t entirely decided yet.” (Sounds like the series LOST. And yes, that’s kinda cruel. But he also said he can’t wait for my novella, so he’s alright in my book. Teehee.)
  • From Victoria Grefer: “But I always have felt a book should have a beginning, middle, and end. That’s what makes a story. A book should be its own story, even if it’s a series novel. (For instance, every Harry Potter book is its own adventure, and that specific adventure is resolved by book’s end.) If the major threads of a book’s individual story aren’t resolved, then the book isn’t finished yet. And that’s a cliffhanger, in my opinion. And I don’t like them one bit. It violates my sense of entitlement to a story. A book means I’m getting a story.” (I agree with this. Mini-conflict resolved. Major-conflict, not so much.)
  • Victoria also had this to say: “It seems to me like the compromise you describe[d about Blood in the Paint's ending] is PERFECT. Just what makes sense to me: a resolved story with some remaining bits to attract people to the next book.” (Of course I had to shamelessly include this one, right?)
  • From Tonya Kerrigan: “I like cliffhangers…if they’re done right. If the book suddenly ends right in the middle, then no…I wouldn’t like that. However, there are times when a book has to end in the middle if the middle is the beginning of a new story.” (Do I have to mention that this is how Blood in the Paint ends? I don’t? Well, I’m doing it anyway.)
  • From Peppa Germany: “I think Cliff Hangers work really well in TV and movies and at the end of a chapter in a book, but I do find it really frustrating when a book leaves a blatant cliff hanger. As other commentors have said a book need a beginning, middle and end and if the end is halfway through the story then it really doesn’t work.” (Wow, people are really hell-bent on this whole beginning/middle/ending thing. You would think that’s what they were taught or something.)
  • From G. Norman Lippert: “My last book had a major cliffhanger ending (to be resolved in the next one– sorta) and I did get a lot of comments about it, most along the lines of “loved this book, but hated the ending”. I don’t mind. In fact, that’s the point, isn’t it? The fact that the readers “hate the ending” is evidence that they are deeply involved in the story.” (I really like this take on it. If you weren’t invested in the story, you wouldn’t care how it ended. He also goes on to add that this only really works within a series, not a stand-alone novel.)
  • Also from Mr Lippert: “Writers have a contract with their readers.  The reader invests time, the author pays them with a satisfying read. A cliffhanger can actually be satisfying, if the answer is implied, or the possible conclusions are all worth considering. But the author simply cannot cross over into the intensely unsatisfying realm of the non-resolution. If so, we owe the reader a good bit of their life back.” (I would never want to steal someone’s life away. I know how that feels. I’m talking to YOU, College Calc Classes.)
  • Last minute comment from Dan Harris: “Simples. Cliffhangers that don’t complete the story of that book: bad. Cliffhangers which wrap up that story and set up an equally big juicy story for the next book: good.” (Well said, I think.)

Do these comments make me feel any differently about how I ended Blood in the Paint? No. Do you know why? Here’s what my husband, who is the only to have read my novel in its entirety, had to say (I’m paraphrasing):

To be honest, I was a little disappointed. Everything went really fast and it just seemed like everything was wrapping up. And I was like, “Well, this is her first book so…” But then [the ending happened] and I was like, “What! What about [spoiler alert omitted]? What, huh? No, I need more…”

The genuine excitement and mind-blown-ness on his face was enough for me. I can’t wait to do that to strangers. *Fingers crossed*

The Conundrum Over Cliffhangers

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I don’t know what made me decide to talk about this today, since I finished the first draft of my full-length novel, Blood in the Paint, months ago, and I’m now fully focused on its prelude novella, but here goes…

I love cliffhanger endings in a series. I don’t even mind a cliffhanger ending in a stand-alone novel where I’m left guessing after I turn that last page. But it seems as though I might be in the minority on this one. Or maybe not, I didn’t actually take a poll or anything. Nor do I have any interest in doing so.

But I would like to know WHY people don’t like cliffhanger endings, especially in a series. What else would lure you to buy the sequels if there wasn’t something left unresolved? I struggled with how I wanted to end my own novel. I like cliffhangers, so obviously I wanted to end it on one. But I’ve also read the countless Amazon reviews of readers chiding the author for leaving them hanging (and not in the, “How dare s/he do that to me! I love this story so much! I want to have its babies, but first I need to know what happens next!” kind of way). Some people really hate to be roped into the next book? Why? Do they want the option of not having to read the next book? Like a literary commitment-phobe? Do they hate having to wait until the next book comes out because they fear they won’t remember enough of the first book and they’ll be lost? Maybe they have a short-term memory condition like Drew Barrymore in 50 First Dates. What the hell is it? Seriously, the suspense is killing me. Oh, wait. That’s their problem too, isn’t it? Dammit.

Anyway, I hope the way I ended Blood in the Paint was a nice compromise. A nicely resolved ending, with a teeny, tiny monkey-wrench thrown in right at the very end to make you question everything you’ve just read. Ok, maybe “compromise” is the wrong word…

How do you YOU feel about cliffhanger endings?

 

Turns Out, Writing is NOT One of My Favorite Things…

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Hear me out.

So, the other day I appeared on a podcast with Robert Chazz Chute (I’ll post the link in a couple of weeks, when it’s ready). Before the discussion began, Chazz asked me a sort of test question: Name three of your favorite things. My reply? Sports, Reading, Chocolate (and I added that alcohol would be a fourth if the list were to be expanded, teehee). He immediately told me that “Sports” was the wrong answer. At first I thought maybe Chazz wasn’t that in to sports. But then I realized my gaffe: I hadn’t mentioned “Writing” as one of my three favorite things. D’oh!

What kind of writer doesn’t love writing?

I’ve been thinking about that question quite a bit since then and here’s what I came up with:

  • Writing is hard. It takes a lot of effort to effectively transform a non-tangible concept into a readable, engaging transcript.
  • Writing is tedious. There are so many rules. What to do. What not to do. When to not do what you’re supposed to do. When to do what you’re not supposed to. Still with me? I know, right?
  • Writing makes me happy, but it also makes me incredibly sad. We all have those moments of self-doubt about our writing. I don’t know anyone else, but mine are more along the lines of self-loathing at times.
  • My writing hasn’t been proven (yet). Nothing is published (yet). I don’t have the validation of 5* reviews and people clamoring for the sequels (yet).
  • Writing is a gamble. I’m optimistic that it could turn into a viable career. But I’m also realistic: it may not. And I’m the kind of person that hates not knowing what the future holds.

So I guess, what I’m trying to say is that I love the act of writing.

I love the thought of being a writer.

And as Dorothy Parker once said, “I hate writing, I love having written.”

What I Learned From The Editor: Round 1

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I received my novella, Blood in the Past, back from the editor weeks ago. I’ve been working on rewrites feverishly since then to add stuff. That’s right. Add. Stuff. I’m the only writer in the history of the world whose editor requested they add stuff. But more on that later. Here’s what I learned during this first round of edits.

  • I’m wordy. Now, as a reader, I hate description overkill. I don’t need a paragraph to explain how green the grass is or a page to show how mangy a stray cat is. I also don’t need to know what everyone is wearing. In fact, details like that pull me from the story. She’s wearing a purple sweater? Hmm, I pictured her wearing a red sweater. I guess that’s because red is my favorite color. I wish I had a red sweater. Wait, I do! Is that clean? Where is that sweater? See what I mean? Anyway, the point is that I tried to avoid that in my own writing. However, I often add sentence fragments of description. For effect. My editor left the ones that actually were effective. But there were many, many redundant ones. Yikes.
  • I don’t tell enough. You know how you’re not supposed to write as though the reader is dumb? Well apparently I take it a step further and write as though the reader is telepathically connected to me. I assume they know things I know and see things I see. Dammit.
  • I tell too much. In contrast to the bullet point above, sometimes I skip having information come out in conversation or thought and just tell the reader stuff. Tsk, tsk.

And this is where the adding of stuff comes in. I’ve been adding extra scenes and dialogue sequences like a mad woman. Still hoping for an end of March release, but we’ll see. Wish me luck.