A Legitimate Author

Three things happened this weekend. (Well, a lot more happened than that, but three writing related things.)

First, I got a royalty check from my publisher! My first one, believe it or not. It was for less than $10. (I took a picture of the check, but I'm not going to post that online.)

Second, I went to a book signing, had a ton of fun, and didn't sell a single book.

Third, I got a dreadful two-star review on Amazon.

Surprisingly, these three things lifted my spirits instead of bringing me down. I guess they made me feel like an honest-to-goodness legitimate author. Weird how that works.

Anyway, book news!

Spirits Bright, a collection of four inspirational sci-fi Christmas stories is coming soon!

I will be down in Kanab, UT on the 24-25 of this month presenting at the Kanab Writers Conference. It's beautiful down there, and they have some great classes lined up. If you're anywhere nearby, check it out!

Bad Advice

I mentioned before that I am sort of between writing processes right now. I feel that I have lost touch with my writer's intuition, and the organic process of creating that used to guide me. This problem started, I believe, about six years ago when I started attending writing conferences again after many years away.

Now, I love writing conferences and other conventions. I love seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I love visiting, commiserating, and networking. I love attending classes and workshops. But, I think that along they way, I been given some bad advice at these conferences. (Bad for ME, mind you. This advice might be great for other writers.) Outlines, structure, character arcs, etc., etc. are all great things. They are also hampering my creativity. Big time. I feel almost paralyzed when I sit down to write for fear that I'm going about it all wrong.


Something's got to change, and fast.

So, I'm very sorry, but I am ditching story structure. I am ignoring character arc. I'm not outlining. I'm going to sit down and tell stories the way they unfold in my head. The way that feels natural and right to me. Yeah, maybe I am doing it wrong. I don't care anymore. I just want to feel creative again.

We'll see how it goes.

Life, the Universe, and Everything and other fun stuff

It's almost time for my favorite event of the year!  

Life, the Universe and Everything, or LTUE as it's more commonly known is a science fiction and fantasy symposium held each year in Provo, UT. This year it is February 14-16 at the Provo Marriott Hotel. I love it! It is so much fun. This year, I will be presenting a class on writing short stories, as well as doing a couple of panels and participating in the mass author book signing on Friday night. If you're in the area, it's only $30 for the full three day conference, if you register by Feb. 10. Check out the website, and come if you can. It is so worth it!

I also have some other fun stuff coming up. I am doing two school visits. One to my kids' elementary for their career club day, and one to Timpview High School in Provo for their career fair. It should be fun to talk to those up and coming authors!

On February 21, I'll be presenting a class on writing speculative fiction at 7pm at the Pleasant Grove Library as part of their Professional Writers Series.

On February 22, I'll be doing a podcast interview for The Goodword Podcast at 5pm, followed by a book 
signing in their store from 6-8pm.

Then on March 9, I'll be at the Write Here in Ephraim conference at Snow College in Ephraim, UT. I'll be teaching two classes. One on finding time to write and balancing life and writing, and one on writing short stories. More details on that to come!

I'll be a busy, happy girl! Hope you can come see me at some of these!

Out of the Comfort Zone

Well, I survived teaching at Write Here in Ephraim. I think it went pretty well. I felt like I was talking too fast, and didn't know if I made sense half the time, but the people attending seemed to like it all right. I think. That was my Science Fiction and Fantasy class. I took a lot of what I said from the Writing Speculative Fiction posts I did. Only one person came to my Finding Time to Write class, but she and I had a nice discussion.

It was good for me to get outside my comfort zone like that and stretch myself a bit. I think I learned more about how to make a presentation interesting and how to get people involved. I'll do even better next time.

Another stretching moment came this week when I submitted my second novel (a sequel to Defenders of the Covenant) and she politely asked me to cut it by 20k words if possible. Really? 20,000 words is a whole lot to come out of a novel! But I want to see it published, so I am taking the challenge. Yesterday, I started hacking. And hacking. And hacking. It got it down by 26K! That should give me the room to add what I need to put all the pieces back into a coherent whole again. You know what? I think it's going to be a better novel for it.

What have you done to step outside your comfort zone lately?

Words of Wisdom from Tracy Hickman

Last weekend at CONduit, I attended a lot of panels that Tracy Hickman was on. The man is a fantasy legend and everything he said was just brilliant. He kept spouting amazing quotes so fast, I couldn't write them down quickly enough. I thought I'd share some of what I learned from him.

On the Streamlining Your Fiction panel, he suggested you take your manuscript, hold it at arms length, point to it and say "This is my manuscript," Then point to yourself and say, "This is me." Do this over and over until you believe it. He also pointed out that story is structure. Anything else is just chrome (ie: the part of the car that doesn't do anything for it). When streamlining, you have to get rid of the unnecessary chrome. He said, "If you don't streamline your text, you're reader will." They'll skim if the story is good enough. If it isn't, they'll streamline by just putting your book down. (Or throwing it against the wall. Or burning it.)

He pointed out on several of the panels that our goal should not be to get published. Anyone can get published, especially now. Our goal should be to be read. That's what is really important. He said, "The written word does not live until someone else reads it."

He also said, "Story is not about who we are. It's about who we should be." That was in the panel on when to use cliches. (Yes, there is in fact good reason to use cliches. That was probably the best panel I attended.) That quote there hit me in the deepest part of my heart.

Listening to him speak was probably the best part of the convention for me. Well, that and hanging out with Danyelle.  =)

Tracy Hickman and his wife and fellow writer Laura are offering online seminars on writing which look fabulous. You can find them at Scribe's Forge.

A Few More Days!

Don't forget you still have a few days to enter the Out of This World Adventure if you haven't already. Contest closes on Monday, May 30 at midnight. Check out the sidebar for all the links!

Tomorrow I'm off to CONduit, a science fiction convention in Salt Lake City. I'm on  a couple of panels. "How to add flavor to your vanilla character" on Friday, and "How to give and receive critiques" on Saturday. Should be a fun weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends.

So, I hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend! I'll be announcing the winners on Wed. June 1!

There have been issues with leaving comments on blogger the past few days, so if you tried to leave a comment on one of the contest posts, but weren't able to, please email me and let me know, and I'll make sure you get entered!

I'm Off!

I'm off to Boot Camp this morning. Five hour critique session with five of us and a professional author. This was such a valuable experience for me last year, I'm really looking forward to it.

Then Friday and Saturday is the Storymakers Conference. Can't wait to see some of my great writing friends!

And don't forget...only four days until we launch the Out of This World Adventure!

See you on Monday...

Lots to Think About

A few days ago, I attended the Write Here in Ephraim writing conference. Ephraim is a little town in central Utah (my favorite kind of town). It's about as far from me as Salt Lake City is, and the drive is way more pleasant. I had a great time. I got to see some old friends and meet some new ones and meet some of my online buddies in person for the first time. I love that! (No, I didn't have a camera with me. Bummer.)

The classes were VERY informative and gave me a lot to think about. Jewel Adam's class on publishing e-books has my mind churning with all sorts of possibilities. Rachelle Christensen's class on blog tours inspired a great idea for a contest. Except, now I wonder if it is such a great idea...I'm mulling it over. (So, stay tuned. I may be holding a fun contest in the near future!) Julie Coulter Bellon inspired me with her presentation on making time for our talents. She's written eight novels in just 15 minutes a day! Amazing lady.

I've got all sorts of questions rattling in my brain now about e-books and traditional publishers and markets and marketing and just what I want to achieve with my own writing. I'm a bit unsettled, actually.

But, I have started brainstorming a new novel! The processes is rather like falling in love. Fun, exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Regardless of the answers I come up with to all my new questions, the creating, the writing, the imagining--that's what really matters.

Over the Rainbow...

Where the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. *cue Judy Garland*

I've been practicing "Over the Rainbow" with my women's choir, and that phrase really jumped out at me. Especially in light of my own dream-come-true moment this past weekend.

LTUE rocked! I had the time of my life. Seriously. What a fantastic conference it is every year.

When I first arrived, I was nervous about being on panels for the first time. Would I know what to say? Would I sound like an idiot? Would the organizers politely ask me to leave and not do any future panels? Two people put me at ease right away, though. Sandra Tayler and Paul Genesse, both of whom I had just met in person for the first time, gave me some great advice and reassurance. Thank you both, Sandra and Paul! You made a big difference for me.

My panels went great (I'll do posts on each one later), and I learned that I LOVE sitting in front of a room full of people and talking about writing. It was seriously fun! So, my dream of sitting up in the front with the big boys was even better than I imagined it would be.

Considering the number of people who were there, I am totally counting this as the fulfillment of the "present at a conference" half of my Big Goal. I hope I get many more opportunities to do so in the future.

Come See Me at LTUE

Life, the Universe, and Everything starts tomorrow! I am so excited. And nervous. I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. I sure hope I conduct myself well on my panels. I am so nervous I'll end up looking like a dork. I've made a bunch of notes, though, and I think I'm ready. Also, there are some awesome authors on the panels with me, so that'll help. If you're going, please come say hi to me. In case you're interested, here is my schedule:

Thursday, 4pm: The Writing Life

Friday, 10am: How to Write a Good Short Story

Friday, 1pm: Dialog Tags and Speech Patterns

Saturday, 10am: Religion in Science Fiction: How to Make it Work

So, there you have it. Wish me luck!

What I Learned

This year at the Book Academy, one message came at me over and over again.

Write what you love! If you don't love it, who will?

After all, you are your story's mommy. You gave birth to it, you nurture it, feed it, stay up late at night worrying about it. If you think it's boring, well, what will all those non-mommy readers think?

I heard it in, I think, three different workshops and speeches. Of course, I already believe this with all my heart, but sometimes it's nice to have it reaffirmed. 

Follow your heart!

Back to the Book Academy

This week is the Book Academy writing conference. I'll be going again. Last year, I felt like it was such a big, honkin', hairy deal that it loomed on the horizon of my consciousness for weeks. I looked forward to it, I worried about it, I alternated between being wildly excited and feeling like I didn't want to go at all. I studied the schedule, planned out all my classes, and lost sleep anticipating/fretting about the whole thing.

This year? Well, last week my husband and I were discussing his remaining vacation days. He said, "Since I'm taking off the 30th, I won't take off the day before Thanksgiving."

Me: "The 30th of what? Why are you taking off the 30th?"

Hubby: "Uh, you're writing thing?"

Me: "Oh, right."

It was only later in the week that I realized it was next week! I didn't even look at the workshop list until today. I don't know which classes I'll be attending. I'll just play it by ear. I'm not losing any sleep over it. Not because I'm not excited, but just because I realize now that while writing conferences are fun and all-around awesome, they aren't the beginning and end of my writing life.

Anyway, this year's keynote speaker is Brandon Mull of Fablehaven fame, so I'm looking forward to that. There are some great presenters too. I think some of my friends will be there. It'll be fun, I'm sure. I'm just glad to be feeling more relaxed about the whole thing. This is the conference last year that sparked my "Big Goal" (see the sidebar), so I'll update you on my progress on that in an upcoming post.