Better Days Ahead...

So, idiot that I am, I've decided to combine this week's big push (writing wise) with my determination to get Little C. to have more bedtime independence.  See, the problem is he goes down to bed just fine.  Nary a problem.  Unfortunately, trying to convince him to stay there has been a hardship.

While my husband is gone this week, number one son will move into our bedroom and Little C. will get a crash course on sleeping in his own bed.  Even if it means I get to be up all night convincing him that his bed is the best place to spend the night.  How this will affect my writing I have no idea.  It will be a fly by the seat of my pants week, and the end result won't even be published here right away because I'll be gone camping next weekend.  Ah well.

This week wasn't as bad as I feared.  I hardcore slashed Zyander.  As in, only 3 chapters of his story remained, mostly setup from the ending of the last book.  I started in on his new outline and got about halfway done with that.  I even wrote two chapters of his storyline and I'm much happier with where it's going now.
I also added about 4500 words to my other project, which made me feel like quite the success.  I mean, compared with what I've done in the past month, this week was a freaking miracle.

Once again, I'm so thankful for the readers.  You know who you are, out there, sending me encouraging emails.  You guys rock!

I found a new booknerd site:  http://tattoolit.com/
Seriously, guys, I might have to do this... or not.  I'm not a huge needle fan.  I wish I could do this.  I'm such a coward.
And I found some new writing music: http://officialbirdy.com/
This video in particular is so creepy and cool!

That's all from me this week!

Happy Reading!

The Condensed Version

Hey all the readers of blogs on the internet...
How was your week?  Oh, fab.  How was mine you ask?  Well, let me give you the Reader's Digest Condensed version:

Or FML, as I like to say.  Don't worry, the F stands for Frack.

For those who can stand the TL;DR version:
I was gifted a house full of sick people this week.  Imagine every liquid that could leave a person's body out of every orifice imaginable, combined with fevers, no sleep, whining, crying, MUD(all over my freaking house) and every damn thing piling up to be done that can't be done because I have a 16 mth old sitting in my lap crying all day and a husband that actually has to work so we have stuff and you might understand how much my week sucked.
Oh, the horrors.  Seriously, how did my mom do this?  At one point in my life she had 7 children suffering from the chicken pox, ranging in ages from 1 to 17.  How did you survive it, mother???  I only have two kids and my life is one constant helping of FAIL.  Ah well.

So to answer the other unasked question... no I did not get any writing done this week.  And since Little C. still has an ear infection and the inability to sleep longer than short bursts of time, I seriously doubt that I'm going to get any writing done next week either.  But the hubby has a work conference in a week and I usually use that time to make a big push, so barring another plague, hopefully I will get some chunks of writing done in the evenings.

Happy Reading!

Hoity Toity

I've read a lot of literary fiction.  Started out in high school with the required classics: Gone With the Wind, Grapes of Wrath, anything by the Bronte sisters.  This morphed into college, where I delved into Annie Dillard, Toni Morrison, Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston and many others.  Some of these were English assignments, but many were a springboard into a literary world in which I had never established a foothold before.  

My mom was a crazy reader, ever since I can remember, but she never read for anything but pleasure, so following her example, I assumed that literary fiction was something you read only because you were forced to.  Thankfully, I discovered that my assumption was dead wrong.

I've read a lot of literary fiction that I absolutely LOVE.  I've also read a lot that I can't stand.  But this is all to assure you that I'm not a hater when I say this:  I'm so DONE with people who consider it to be more worthy than "genre" stuff.  

I recently read some person's self important opinion on the subject and felt downright irritated.  The point of the article—can't remember who wrote it—is that if we're going to save literary fiction, we need that icky genre stuff to pay the bills and appeal to the masses.  I.E....genre fiction, indie fiction and its associated ilk are a necessary evil in the world of literature because they keep that GOOD stuff out there for people who recognize its value.  This from a person who admitted outright that she only reads non-fiction.  Uh...WHAT???

Guys, let me just assure you... there is no better or worse in the world of writing.  No, really.  I'm not talking ratings or reviews.  I'm not talking personal opinion here, because there are definitely some stories that do it for me and some that don't.  I'm talking about space on a shelf, paper in an MS, word file on my computer... at face value, no story is more worthy of saving than another.

Let me again point out that I'm not talking about ratings and reviews here.  If we look at a museum full of art, there will be people who say this one or that one is better.  People will say, I like this one and it speaks to me.  But I should HOPE, that no one would argue that one artist's vision is more worthy of creation than another.  Even a five year old child with no experience in the art world can create something that he or she deems as beautiful which we might all shake our heads at because it is SEVERELY LACKING and yet it will still be just as worthy as the next.

I'm not going to make the "books as art" argument here, but I'm going to say that I don't believe one person's story (good or bad or amateur... literary, sci-fi, YA, non-fiction or fiction) is more worthy than another's.  So writers of the world, if you write literary fiction and you can't get anyone to publish it because it's not worth risking cash over in this new world of digital bookery, don't spend your years crying because it's too hard.  Self publish!  Give the world a chance to see your work.  But come on, people.  Let's not act like just because your characters don't use magic or roam through space that they can't tell as rich and complex or as meaningful a story as you.  

Happy Reading!

PS- To all my ROW80... Keep up the good work!

WOTY

Holy Moley, has it really been over a month since my last post??  The good news is that I have my laptop back.  And I've been writing, too.  Except that things took a nosedive over the holidays.  Not in general or anything, just in the writing dept.  Nothing like having the entire family (eight kids, assorted in-laws and grandkids) all together this year to throw plans out of whack.

But that's okay.  I'm here now, and in honor of my first post of the year (as well as my first ROW post of the new round.  That's right, people.  I'm still here to hang with my favorite writers!) I'll be doing a Word of the Year post- which I freely admit to stealing from Kait Nolan last year.

Last year my word of the year was DETERMINATION.  It was a word that got me through Aeris and a couple of teeny side projects.  It got me through multiple child sicknesses, a nasty bout of teething (my youngest got 6 teeth at once!) and 10 days of pushing through so hard to finish.  It was a word I needed last year, and I'm happy with that choice.

This year, my WOTY will be Scrumptious Pretty Fighting!(A shout out to my Kdramas) FEARLESS.
This year, I'm going to try new things.  I'm going to push my creativity to the limit.  I'm going to experiment with pricing and genre and write whatever the hell I feel like writing.  I'm tired of playing it safe and feeling like I have to write a certain way "to make people love me".

Where did this come from?  Well, it's no secret I love my readers.  Just ask the super fans that all received free copies of Aeris.  And since most of them loved the second book, I've been trying to make the third book even better (which is a good personal goal).  The problem is, I've let myself get so caught up in what the fans want that I forgot to look for what I want.  I have two examples.

Luka's storyline has some elements this time around that won't please everyone.  Most of it is stuff that will KICK ASS, because he is such an awesome character, but he's also going to make some big mistakes this time around, too.  He's not perfect.  I've had such a struggle writing that, though, because every time I go to make the big choices, I wonder if it will anger the readers.  Not a good thing to second guess every plot point when you're a writer.

The second is Zyander.  Once again, to my UTTER FRUSTRATION, I think I'm going to have to ditch his story line and start over.  The problem is that unlike Nikka, who is very action oriented, Zyan is a thinker and tends to mull over every little fact before he makes a decision.  This does not make for a fast paced storyline.  The rewriting has needed to happen for a while, but the idea that I might disappoint fans by taking longer to write this book has kept me from doing what I need to do.

So, my WOTY will be FEARLESS and I will do what needs to be done this year, consequences be damned.  That sounds more dramatic than it actually is. hahaha

So, goals for this ROW: Go back to my outline.  Meaning, rewrite some elements of Zyan's story line and make the appropriate changes to the manuscript.  Two, be better about updating my blog.  And Three, continue my side project writing of two days a week.

Oh, for those who asked, if you actually want the other name I write under, send me an email at katecauthor@gmail.com and I'll send it to you.  I've gotten a couple of requests, so I thought I'd share that.  It's NOT YA fantasy, though.

Good luck to all my fellow ROWers in the New Year and Happy Reading!