Things to Do While You're Stuck at Home

Chances are if you're reading this, you're at home and not at Romance Times this weekend. Judging by my tiny little slice of the Twitterverse, it looks like we're missing one HELL of a good time, too. I hope everyone comes back with lots and lots of brilliant reports and even better stories of their shenanigans so I can properly go about living vicariously through them. If you ARE at RT and you're reading this... why are you on the Internet? There are BOOK THINGS to be had and seen and done! Go and do them and report back next week. I command thee. We, your sad and lonely friends, will make a party all our own. All we need is a blender, some glowsticks, and a couple of Daft Punk CDs.

What? Like you've never wanted to try it...



But in the meantime, here we are. And here I am, with a regularly scheduled blog spot to play with from the comfort of my living room couch (aka, my office). Whatever shall I write about?

Things to Do While Everyone Else is at RT

• Clean the house. Oh, you always mean to do it, but there are blog posts to read and tweets to respond to, Facebook statuses to comment on... so many little things that you have to do when you're not writing but can still technically call working (although a lot of the unenlightened might call it "farting around on the Internet"). This weekend, though? Things are a lot quieter on the US front. Now is the perfect time to oust that budding civilization you've got forming behind the toilet.
• Play the RT11 Drinking Game (Twitter Edition). Non-alcoholic editions are of course welcome. If anyone asks why you're sitting in front of Twitter all night, just tell them that you're looking for industry updates and networking at the same time. When they scoff, tell them they can't have any of your tasty beverage.
• Spend time with people. You know, face-to-face. ...or not. Because if you're like me, you spend all week running yourself ragged, so maybe a quiet weekend with a little less demand than usual is just what you need. Put your feet up, grab a book, and just relax for a change. That way, when the RT crowd drags their hungover behinds home, you'll be fresh and chipper and just perky enough that your life might be in danger. Almost as much fun as the morning after being a DD, only with a drastically reduced chance of finding someone's puke in your backseat.
• Do a full website overhaul. You want to keep your website content fresh and relevant. If you're not going to do an overhaul, maybe a survey of the contents would be in order. Check your links, make sure you don't have dead spots, and get your newest book up on your front page so people will want to buy it once they see that your site is spit-shined with care.
• Open a CafePress store and then continually futz with it. It's easier than you'd think to do this. I opened mine and had several designs up within the evening. Of course, now I'm thinking of all the other designs I want to put up there, and wondering how much sweet talk it will take to get my graphic artist Spouse to do them for me so I don't spend my entire weekend in Photoshop. I mean, I've got other things to do. Look at this list! Also, shameless plug: Liz's Shiny Silver.
• When all else fails, you can always write something. Because, really, isn't that the point? I mean, just because we're not at the big industry conference this weekend doesn't mean that we're not part of said industry. All kidding aside, I'm actually going to be spending a goodly amount of this weekend kicking at my various WIPs like a good, productive part of the industry. But I'll also be taking breaks by combing over my site and prepping for the overhaul I'm doing in a couple of months, finishing a couple of books that I owe reviews on, and spending my evenings playing the drinking game, just 'cause. You know, a typical weekend for me.

What about you? What are you doing this weekend?

See you next month, when the RT crowd will have hopefully recovered enough to join us.

Love,

Elizabeth
http://UrbanSilver.net
http://DirtyBirdAuthors.blogspot.com (April is BDSM month)

Like Tooth Extraction With a Roll of Duct Tape and a Pocket Knife

writer's block
by Inger Klekacz

Writers are always told to write what you know.

Which is all well and good until you enter the realm of women writing m/m romance or men writing f/f. Or, hell, virgins writing erotic romance of any kind (and yes, they do exist). Yet many of these books that are written by people who likely don't have intimate knowledge of these types of relationships are brilliantly done, evoking deep responses from the readers, and not necessarily from their tingly parts. And let’s not forget space travel, werewolves, time travel, vampires, fairies, magic and monsters… So the question is, what makes these books so good?

Well, I can't speak for others, but I know that as far as I'm concerned, not only is it because I'm clearly a genius (ha-ha), but also because I still apply the old axiom to my writing, and work in what I know at every opportunity. I’m not an expert on men in love with men, but I like to think that I’ve got a pretty damn good handle on romance, and people want to be loved. People seek partners, and sometimes they avoid partners at all costs because their lives are just that messed up, but love finds them anyway – I get to help two friends go ring shopping in the near future, despite the one’s insistence for years that he was “done” with dating and romance and just going to be monogamous with his right hand for the rest of his life – and yes, the emotional wiring is different, thanks to the vast complexity of the human condition, and therein lies the real challenge. The true heart of writing what you know while still exploring new and/or different realms and possibilities.

In every character I create, I place a kernel of truth. Something that I believe and identify with and can build upon. It might be something as simple as a competitive streak, like I did with Dominic Taylor in Winner Takes All, which grew and became a defining factor for him; there could have been any number of ways to get Matt in bed, but instead, he does it with a bet. And can’t even make himself back down when he knows it’s got all the potential to blow up in his face, because there’s that need to win. I dislike competing, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t have that drive to win, to do better than the other guy, to hang on like a rat terrier until the prize is effing mine. I just took that and gave it to Dom; but I knew it, as well as I know myself.

Sometimes this tactic can backfire on me, though. Jenny and I have been working on a novel lately, and one of the characters is introduced at the funeral of his wife. I had to dig deep for those feelings, picking at a personal emotional scab until I was able to find a way to put into the words the unimaginable desolation of having to face a world without your loved one in it. It’s a large part of what’s taking so long with this novel, in fact, because I have to do my part in passes, a little at a time, a forced catharsis that rather resembles dental surgery without drugs.

But damn, I’m so proud of it already.

So I’ll keep on writing what I know. But I think next time I’m just going to go with something easy. Maybe a love of cats.

What about you? Do you believe in writing what you know?

And, because it wouldn't be one of my posts without an extra visual aid:








See you next month, when I'll have hopefully figured out Blogger.

Love,

Elizabeth

PS: I have a new adventure I'm embarking on, opening on Tuesday. I've banded together with some talented and wildly entertaining writers to form a small group blog called Dirty Birdies. There are no content restrictions, just nine authors being themselves, writing what we know. Even if "what we know" is nothing more than a Top Ten list of "Hell yes, in a heartbeat" do-ees.

There will be contests and shenanigans, and we'd love for you to come on by!

I Feel Like I’m Narrating a Health Informational

Best friends, or kissing cousins?
by Olivander

Valentine’s Day is coming up, which means that websites lately have been awash with a vomitous mass of pink and white, like the bastard love children of a whirly gig, a typewriter, and slutty cotton candy machine. Not that I’ve ever seen such a love match outside of a few drunken hallucinations, mind you, but I’m a writer, and I’ve got a very good imagination. I also have really awesome Google-Fu, but I promise not to subject you to any more diabetic coma-inducing sweetness than is absolutely necessary today.

But at the same time, it’s Valentine’s Day. And I write romances. So you’re going to have to deal with me talking about relationships this month. Or, rather, one very specific, very special relationship.

Your co-author and you.

Working with a co-author is a unique experience. When the pair of you match up well, strengths meet weaknesses and a beautiful synergy happens, allowing a story to emerge that neither one of you could have come up with on your own. There’s an element of surprise lurking around every pass of the manuscript back and forth, keeping the experience fun, fresh and exhilarating, all while still operating with the polite fiction that you, the writer, have some sort of control over your plot and characters.

Of course, when you don’t match up, it can be pretty epically bad. From incompatible writing styles to conflicting visions of the story, not being on the same wavelength as your writing partner can be catastrophic for the story. You need to communicate, cooperate, and leave the egos behind. Heavens, do you ever need to leave the egos behind. I mean, self-confidence is one thing, but it’s too easy to take it from that to:




I have been just dying to use a clip with John Barrowman. Anyway.

I’ve been fortunate with my co-author. Jenny and I are very close, and have a degree of trust in each other that makes it easy for her to tell me when I just don’t make sense in my exposition. Or when I’m abusing homophones that I know to use properly but my fingers just haven’t gotten the blasted memo yet. Likewise, I can tell her when her punctuation is all over the place and tease out more description from her.

We’re a team, the two of us, and we keep each other going, keep writing together even when our day jobs have drained us of every last ounce of energy. When the words don’t want to come out in any order fit for public consumption, we work together to scheme and plot – we have a massive pile of plot ideas to cherry-pick from, just from our habit of bouncing ideas off each other. And she helps me.

Working with Jenny makes me more focused, helps me to block out the distractions a little better because it’s for shorter bursts of time. And my writing has grown by leaps and bounds, getting tighter and neater for working with someone else and being so acutely aware that ambiguity will only lead to the scene getting derailed. While I like to think that I’d have gotten better on my own, eventually, I know damn well that it was the push and pull we have between us that hurried the process along.

If you have ever found that happy place with your co-author, that Zen state of being where you achieve balance and harmony between the two of you, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

I guess that’s one of the perks to being such good friends for the better part of a decade. That, and I get to blame all the editorial mistakes on her. *ducks*

How about you? Have you ever worked with a co-author? If so, how did it work out, and would you ever do it again?

And no, you can’t have mine. She’s made of awesome and I never was very good at sharing.

(Jenny would also like me to add that I was only allowed to use the above video in this post once I assured her that no, I wasn’t trying to tell her something.)

See you next month, when I will hopefully have found a way to get my co-author to help me write my blog posts, too (did anyone else just hear an indelicate snort?).

Love,

Elizabeth
http://www.UrbanSilver.net

On Running Behind Schedule

Traffic Light Tree by Squirmelia

It is a truth universally recognized that when you are running late, you are almost guaranteed to hit every last red light on the way. And possibly a traffic jam or two. It’s just the way things are; who doesn’t know that feeling of sitting in traffic, one hand white-knuckled around the steering wheel while you bang on the dash with the other, chanting to the transportation gods, making wild promises in exchange for making up a few minutes of time?

Oddly enough, this karmic return on postponing getting our asses in gear by a reasonable time is not limited to just doctor appointments, flights, and work schedules, but it shows up all over the place. I notice it especially when I have a deadline looming.

As a writer, a “non-traditional” (read: kinda old) college student, and a full time office drone, I am well familiar with the whooshing sound due dates make as they go by. Something like a cross between an Apache helicopter and a Concorde jet, the passing of a deadline is pretty damn hard to mistake for anything else. And just like how you don’t want to be caught out in the open when the birds bring the rain or out of your seat when the sound barrier is broken, letting a deadline sneak up on you can have disastrous effects.

I think I’ve properly beaten that simile to death, don’t you?

But the point isn’t how far I can stretch a shaky turn of phrase, as much as the fact that the more behind you get and the closer to your drop dead date, the more of a son of a bitch old Murphy and his Laws can be. Because let’s be honest – when you’re running on time, or even early, it’s always smooth sailing, isn’t it? It’s kind of like getting a few thousand words ahead in NaNoWriMo.

In fact, as far as deadlines go, NaNo is a pretty good example; you’ve got the secure comfort of short to medium-length deadlines in your daily and monthly goal, on top of the frantic hurry-hurry-hurry-damn-the-red-lights sensation that always comes with an impending due date and a mountain of work to be done. But you still know what you’re getting into from the very beginning, as insane of an undertaking as it might be, and so you’re able to plan for making up lost writing time thanks to Thanksgiving (if you celebrate), or birthdays, or even padding in for unforeseen circumstances like getting five chapters in and scrapping the whole manuscript and starting over with a new plot. You can deal with those things if you use your deadline to help you plan, and you’ll even survive. Kind of.

Me, I have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. I love the comfort and security that comes with knowing what to expect in the future, and at the same time, there is still that immature part of me that stomps her mental foot at being told what to do. And, since I’m a Gemini, I can totally admit to these two parts going to war with each other on a regular basis (other astrological signs, don't try this at home).

But then there are the times when I tell my teenage self to shut the hell up and sit the hell down, because I have my first blog post to write for Loose Ends, and I need to get it done. And I sit my ass down and start typing, only to have truly pretty links pop up from my friends. Even my OCD self can’t help but appreciate something that fine. Go on, I’ll wait. In fact, I think I'll watch a movie:



The fact of the matter is that I know all about red lights and handing in papers still warm from the laser printer. I know what it’s like to plan ahead and then get distracted and have to scramble to catch up.

But I also know what it’s like to win NaNoWriMo because I busted my ass for a solid month. And I’ve delivered a promised manuscript in time to make the production schedule. Getting Where the Heart Is done enough to satisfy my perfectionist self and in time to make our Thanksgiving release date was one hell of a learning experience, but Jenny and I survived and can look back on it now and say that it was actually a lot of fun.

Oh, Murphy’s Law tries to screw with me when I write. I have a spouse that likes to do things like talk to me, a lonely cat that still doesn't understand where his sickly sister went to, a brother that's moved in for an indeterminate period of time and has the sole hobby of video gaming, school that needs doing, friends that feel neglected, day job that needs changing... but I just push right on through those red lights at every chance I get. This is what I want to do, this is my job, and I'm not going to let a few measly roadblocks get in my way now.

Besides, if I were to get pulled over for that (in my living room, no less!), I’d just tell the cop that sure, there’s a fire. And wait until you see the sexy fireman…

How about you? Do you ride up on your deadlines with white knuckles and caffeine overdoses, or are you a planner that gets it all done?


See you next month!

Love,

Elizabeth
http://www.urbansilver.net