Moving on and moving up

I recently came to the conclusion that I needed to go for a masters degree. Why, you ask? I guess I'm at that point in my career where I realize I won't be satisfied with doing the same fundamental job I've been doing for the past, I don't know, let's say fifteen years. As some of you may know, I'm what they call an IT Professional.

Here's the relevant definitions:

IT = Information Technology
they = the all knowing, ever present "they"
Information Technology = Computer Geek stuff
Professional = someone who gets paid to be a Computer Geek.


I'm going to date myself now, and by date myself, I don't mean take myself out for dinner and a movie. Nearly twenty-two years ago, I graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton with a Bachelor's Degree in Management.

*Pauses to shudder at the realization it's been that long*

When I left school, I accepted a job at Morgan Stanley, a brokerage firm in New York City, where I was paid to work for twelve hours a day: eight hours as an amateur computer geek performing mundane tasks such as loading reel-to-reel tapes and/or cartridges into the data center tape drives, unloading six-inch thick reports from twin-bed sized Siemens printers, staring at a computer monitor for hours on end to ensure that the monolithic stuff was working, and calling professional computer geeks in the middle of the night when said stuff of theirs wasn't working.

Nine months later, I was deemed a professional computer geek and set loose upon the commercial world of Morgan Stanley. Okay, so basically I was a computer programmer. Some folks like to call it software developer, while others prefer the self-satisfying term, software engineer. However you looked at it - programming computers, developing software, engineering software, or geeking out... I was an IT professional.

About six years and a couple of companies later, I moved on and moved up and into the world of management. I was a HGIC. Head Geek in Charge. That, by the way, is entirely different from the title we have at my present employer - HMFIC. I'll leave the definition of that acronym to your imagination. But, know there is only one correct answer.

As an HGIC, or development manager, it was my job to ensure other geeks wrote software by whatever random date somebody else chose. And frankly, I was still one of the geeks, so I continued to write software, and still do to this day, sixteen years later. Sure, I don't code*** nearly as much as I used to, but I've still got the heart of a programmer.

***Missing definition
code = write/develop/engineer software, program a computer, geek out

Okay, so this brings us to present day. I've been managing my kind for fifteen years. I'm quite sure I was awful at it to begin with, but over time, I think I've become somewhat competent. Hopefully, more than that. But as much as I enjoy the occasional programming diversion, I'm once again ready to move on and move up. Despite my many years of solid experience, it looks like an advanced degree is, while not required, certainly helpful in moving on and moving up.

MBA - Masters of Business Administration. That's the degree I'm going after. It'll be part time, possibly online or a mix of online and on-campus. I'm researching schools now. It's going to take a while - probably three or four years at the pace my home and work life can handle.

What will this do to my writing? Heck if I know, but something will have to give. I'm thinking of ways to balance work, family, friends, education and writing. I think the community aspect of writing may need to diminish if I'm to keep on writing novels, at least when school is in session. I can't stop writing. My brain just keeps pumping out strange and wonderful story ideas, and I need to put them on paper.


*Sigh*

A Little Planning Goes a Long Way

I just finished listening to the audio book version of Scott Westerfeld's, Behemoth, the follow up to Leviathan. You can generally find me reading one novel while listening to another on the daily trip to and from work. It takes me a while to get into Steampunk novels, but I jumped right into Behemoth. It's a fascinating genre, one that requires quite a lot of planning.  Westerfeld must have done a serious amount of outlining for this series, because it offers a richly detailed alternate history of the events leading up to World War I.

Now I'm waiting for the audio book version of Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel to free up at the library. But as I often do, when I'm waiting and I'm in the mood, I'll pop in a Harry Potter CD for the drive. So, in went Deathly Hallows. And you know what? J.K. Rowling must have outlined the heck out of the series.

Seriously! When she wrote the Order of the Phoenix, did she plan for Regulus Black's locket to be thrown out with the trash, knowing full well that it was actually Slytherin's locket, which, as one of Voldemort's horcruxes, held a piece of his damaged soul? Did she do so knowing the prominent role it would play in the end of Half Blood Prince and a huge portion of Deathly Hallows? Or, when she set out to write the sixth book, did she look back over her earlier novels, looking for anything she might use? Did she say, okay, I need a little something that one of the kids might have seen. Oh, a locket! Hmm. Yeah. Locket. They'll find that locket. And ... and... I'll make it Hufflepuff's locket! Wait. No good. Riddle was in Slytherin's house. It'll be Slytherin's Locket!

Maybe she didn't even think of it when she wrote Half Blood Prince. Perhaps she just said, it'll be a locket, and then when she set out to write the penultimate book, she had to give it a back story. And then she looked back over the previous novels and said, hey look! A locket! They threw out a locket. I need a locket. Let's make up a story about that locket. Really, it could have been anything. What if it wasn't a locket, but an old chocolate frog wrapper in Ron's bedroom? If I wrote it, yeah, probably, and then Sorcerer's Stone wouldn't have been published, and then where would Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson be? (Maybe they'd have done just as well, but...)

You see, it couldn't have been a chocolate frog wrapper. I think Ms. Rowling planned out almost every last detail, and that's why the novels are so freaking brilliant. It is 100% clear that terrific series like Westerfeld's Leviathan, Clare's Mortal Instruments and Dashner's Maze Runner were not written organically, with events, plot and characters simply unfolding as they might. Do I know this for a fact? Heck, no. But it sure smells like it.

Rethinking Voice and Style

The one on the left is voice. The other guy is style.

I wrote the first two chapters of Ghost Fishing, my middle grade boy adventure, a couple of months back then got sidetracked with some other projects. When I returned to it a few weeks ago, I decided I needed to put together a somewhat coherent outline for the events that were to play out in the novel. Each chapter was to be almost its own mini adventure. At the same time, I wanted to ensure my characters were well fleshed out, unique, interesting, and had clear motivations.

While this was going on, I also decided I needed to take a fresh look at the style and voice with which I was going to write the novel. So what if I'd written a couple of chapters I might throw away. I reasoned that these were exploratory in nature. When I began conceptualizing Ghost Fishing, I'd just finished reading the first two novels in The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor's series inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The fairy-tale voice and style in these novels really struck and inspired me, and that's the direction in which I wanted to take Ghost Fishing. 

But as I began to fill in the details behind my new novel, I began to pay attention to other middle grade fiction. Some of this I read, some of this I listened to in the car. There's really nothing like listening to a good book read by a talented actor or actress. It's a lot of fun. Anyway, it was in these novels that I found other styles that equally inspired me.

Rick Riordan's, The Lost Hero reminded me of what fun I had reading the Percy Jackson novels, and although this novel isn't written in first person POV like the Percy novels, the voice and humor are all there. Eoin Colfer's, The Eternity Code, and Artemis Fowl novel, dished out the joy, cleverness, outlandishness and laughs, while sticking to third person, omniscient. Both novels share pacing, humor and heart, even though their voices are entirely different.

I dug into Will Hobbs' Ghost Canoe because, well, my novel is entitled Ghost Fishing, so I had to see what this was all about. It shares nothing with my novel or the two above. It's historical middle grade, has quite a lot of fishing, and the tone is pretty much straight forward boy adventure that reminds me of some of the novels of my very early youth. I gave Michael Spradlin's, The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail a shot. This is middle grade adventure set in the middle ages, but told in first person POV, which seemed kind of unique for something set so long ago.

Having read each of the above, I began to lean back toward what I enjoy reading most -- a fast-paced story laced with humor, told in perhaps first person POV or third person limited. The third person limited buys me the ability to get a bit deeper in other characters' heads, and there is one character in Ghost Fishing -- the impact character -- into whose head I wouldn't mind dipping. On the other hand, the benefit of staying in first person with my main character is that I can keep the impact character's story a bit more mysterious for a while.

As for the fairy tale style, I'm somewhat afraid I won't be able to carry off the style with as much humor and snappy pacing as I'd like. However, I've returned to the third book in The Looking Glass Wars series, ArchEnemy to see what inspired me to go with the fairy tale approach in the first place. Maybe I'll change my mind back again. I plan on wrapping up my initial outlining this week and jump back to the writing next week.

Oh, and for those organic writers out there -- you know who you are -- I'm not outlining the entire novel from front to back. Yes, I've done a fair bit of work on characters, overarching plot, and motivations, but my chapter outline only goes about five or six out. I like to map out where I'm going for a period of time so I can simply drive without worrying if I'm headed in the right direction. Then I'll reach a rest stop, where I'll map out the next part of the journey before I get back behind the wheel.

I'm feeling a little verklempt

One of the toughest challenges we face as writers is rejection. Rejection by our peers, both published and otherwise. Rejection by publishing professionals - agents & editors. When you write a book, unless you plan on never showing it to anyone, you run this risk. Somebody is going to read it, and either they will tell you how they feel about it or you will nag them until they ultimately do. Good or bad.

Positive feedback is always welcome and quite the ego boost. Unless it's tempered with constructive criticism, however, it won't help you improve. So when you put your novel out there for everyone to see, for everybody to critique, well, it takes a badge of courage.

Earlier this year, I submitted the first 250 words of Urban Mythos to Authoress's awesome Secret Agent Contest - July Edition. I got plenty of feedback from my peers, mostly good, some bad, but almost all of them had an element of constructive criticism. I came in runner up and won a partial submission to a fabulous agent, who later rejected the partial but offered to have another look should I revise. (I did, and I did.)

This month, Authoress sponsored an absolutely unbelievable contest called the Baker's Dozen Agent Auction. First, you had to be among the first 100+ to get your logline and first 250 words emailed. After that, your logline and first 250 words had to pass muster and make the final cut of 40 total entrants. Then, and this is where it went from fantastic to other-worldly, thirteen agents bid on the entries they liked. Bidding ranged from a five page submission to a full. Not every entry would necessarily receive a bid. In addition to that, one of three published authors provides a critique for each entry as does editor Stacy Whitman.

This was a big big big contest with lots of people watching. The feedback was, shall we say, illuminating. Some of the same folks who read my excerpt before commented again, but there were many others. The critiques were more wide ranging, anywhere from "love this" to "hate this". Generally, it was quite positive, with bits of advice here and there that I take to heart. Whether I agreed with some of the more brusque comments was immaterial - I most definitely took something constructive out of each and every word people wrote and I sincerely appreciate it.

The hardest part this time was sitting by during the day of the bidding and not receiving one nibble. The Patriots had slaughtered my Jets the night before on Monday Night Football, and the day of the auction was my birthday. Alas, there were no agent birthday gifts. I got to feeling a bit melancholy about things. I must admit that three of the thirteen agents in the auction either already have my novel or have rejected it. And these same agents might have been the only three in the auction who would have bid in the first place.

I'll never forget two things that occurred during this contest, though. First, toward the end of the bidding, someone posted... and I quote, "Okay, I just have to say I can't believe no one has bid on this entry yet. It's so original and funny. Hang in there, author!!!" I still didn't receive a bid, but that made me feel pretty darned good.

The second item of note was that many of my writing.com buddies provided their comments as well. I thus name them here:

Louisa

Dawne

Kurt

Annie

Kate

Rachel

What I will most remember is that some of these fine folks took umbrage at one or two negative comments and posted their well conceived and incredibly well crafted rebuttals. I never asked for it and their efforts really weren't necessary - as writers, we all have thick skins.

But it's just the best knowing these great folks have my back. They should know I read their comments with a smile plastered on my face, and as my family would say, I got a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island. Discuss.

Literary Intermezzo

 

Intermezzo - a short movement coming between the major sections of a symphony

It's an odd time for me. I'm not actively writing anything at the moment except this blog post. The world building revisions to Urban Mythos are done, and I've got my query on the awesome YALITCHAT's Query Kick Around. I've received some excellent feedback so far and I continue to revise it. At the same time I'm researching agents, most of whom I already list on the YA Pubs and Agents list. There's so much to discover about these literary agents - interviews, tweets, blog posts, etc.

I'm reading quite a lot right now, having just finished The Scorch Trials, the phenomenal sequel to James Dashner's The Maze Runner. In the car, Libba Bray's Going Bovine has got me thoroughly intrigued. I've begun reading the first novel in Rick Riordan's new camp halfblood series - The Lost Hero. This guy is amazing. If you're looking for the pacing blueprint for Middle Grade adventure fantasy, read any Percy Jackson novel.

Speaking of Middle Grade, my MG WIP - Ghost Fishing is just sitting there, waiting for my return like a lonely puppy. The Lost Hero has me motivated to go back to the beginning and change things around. The opening chapters are too slow. That's got to change right away. Yes, the book starts where things change, but it's kind of debatable. Does the tale of the Titanic start when Leonardo DiCaprio's character boards the ship or when the ship hits the iceberg? I think Ghost Fishing has begun when he boards the ship, whereas I might need to start somewhere in the North Atlantic.

I'm also debating what to do with the POV. When I started writing the book, I'd just finished reading Frank Beddor's Looking Glass Wars, and decided that's the style and voice I was aiming for -- third person, limited, kind of fairytale tone. The other option on the table is 1st person, and then within that POV, I might go past or present tense. I had a great time writing 1st person in Urban Mythos. The humor really flows more naturally and the character developed easily. That said, you kind of lose some of the fairy tale nature of the story. Clearly, I'm of two minds on this. I wonder if I can combine the fairy tale element with the 1st person POV and the immediacy of present tense. Any ideas? Anyone? Ideas? Bueller?

Mythos, Fishing for Ghosts and the query kick-around

Revising. Writing. Plotting. Research. Revising. Writing.

As soon as I post this entry on the pen, I'm whipping out my sasquatch notebook and laying out my firm plans for revising Urban Mythos. I touched on the essential points in my previous blog entry. There's some trepidation about these revisions, but enough people seem to agree they're needed, so it's the real deal. Off I go.

I'd been holding out on the revisions until I completed the true "opening" for Ghost Fishing, my current middle grade WIP. This weekend, words and story flowed and the first two chapters are done. It's in a good state - the story is now launched. It probably took a little longer than it should have to get to that point, but I'm pleased with the bit of character development that's included.

I've also got some heavy location research to do for this middle grade adventure. I'm after small islands off the east coast of the United States with some unique scenery and local flavor. Mind you, I'll create the flavor if I don't find it, but my preference is for the concoction to taste somewhat authentic. If you have any ideas - preferably south of New York's Long Island - please drop me a note, either here or by email - eckertnj at gmail dot com.

For those of you who have enjoyed what you've read of Urban Mythos, or if you're just checking it out for the first time, it would be so cool of you to swing by the YALITCHAT Query Kick-Around contest, where I've got a query for my YA urban fantasy entered. Simply search for "Urban Mythos", and if you think my query sounds promising and you can find it in your heart, soul, or just your fingers, I'd be thrilled if you voted for it. Thank you!

Getting past the exhaustion

Sometimes, you get home from work and feel like a walking zombie. You just want to sit on the couch, rest your head on your hand and close your eyes. Or if you're a little black pug, maybe you want to rest your head on your fluffy and squeaky multi-colored, fairly slobbered and dirty looking plush toy.

Either way, you need to make yourself a cup of caffeine laced drink of choice, grab a slice of sugar infused pastry of choice, and get writing. This is where I am. 

Some time later, I did manage to churn out about 800 words. It's all about getting through it. And having caffeine and sugar to help.

Is boy friendly YA the kiss of death?

There I was, working on a query letter for Urban Mythos. This particular query required that I sensibly compare my novel to others on the shelves. I'm generally no good at this particular task, because while I devour YA fiction, there's just so darn much, and I rarely find something quite like what I've written. Not being completely foolish, I don't compare my books to other books, but I instead focus on the target audience and what they're reading/buying today.

In other words, when I pop over to the local Borders, what's on the shelf to interest those special someones who, upon noticing Urban Mythos decide to carry it to the register instead (or as well)?

And herein lies the problem. This novel is a YA urban fantasy. The protagonist is a teenage boy ... sort of. Okay, he's a former griffin, but nowadays he's a teenage boy. I've been told based on the query and first 250 words that this is -- *GASP* -- a boy friendly YA. I'll explain the gasping in a bit.

Armed with this information I reach into my memory banks (and my "read" shelf on goodreads) to see if I've read a YA novel with a boy protagonist, preferably an urban fantasy. The most recent boy friendly YA novels I've enjoyed of late are James Dashner's, The Maze Runner and Lockdown: Escape from Furnace, by Alexander Gordon Smith. Hmm. These aren't exactly urban fantasy. Okay, there's The Dead and the Gone, by Susan Beth Pfeffer (the 2nd book in the Last Survivors series, which features a boy protag). But that's not urban fantasy, it's post-apocalyptic. Digging some more, I find quite a bit of Rick Riordan, with the Percy Jackson series and the Kane Chronicles. Technically, that's Middle Grade. In fact, the more I dig for boy-friendly, the more I find a load of Middle Grade novels.

Time to do some research, right? Off to Borders and Amazon venture I. And I am disappointed to find a dearth of boy friendly YA. Ugh. It's Google time. The results weren't pretty. They basically say that boys don't read YA. Younger boys read Middle Grade, but then something happens when they enter high school and they supposedly don't read YA. We are told that the market essentially backs up this theory. And because boys don't read YA, publishers focus primarily on girl-friendly YA.

This made me sad, and just a little worried, especially because once I entered high school seven hundred years ago, I stopped reading for pleasure, and only resumed in college. This may have had something to do my slow reading pace, my busy schedule, and the assigned reading from my high school classes which preoccupied me.  But I did like my books. In fact, it was Daniel Pinkwater's Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars that really got me hooked in middle school.

My son is a sophomore in high school. He also loves to read, but doesn't do so at a rapid pace. His schedule is nuts between athletics, marching band, friends, and tons and tons of homework. The only reading time he has is for the books his Lit teacher assigns. This all occurred once he hit high school. He found more time to read in middle school, but he did read more middle grade. Even now, when he does get a chance to read for pleasure, I'll more likely find him curled up with Percy Jackson or Harry Potter than with the Mortal Instruments series.

In my research, I stumbled upon many excellent resources, but two in particular interest me. Hannah Moskowitz, author of Break and the upcoming Invincible Summer, wrote an excellent blog post entitled, The Boy Problem. She writes boy-friendly YA and believes the debate is about boys who loved to read until they became teenagers.. She pins a good deal of the blame on writers for basically stripping down boy characters. They've become stereotypes or shallow. In the end, Hannah says, they're not real enough. She also begs agents and publishers to stop saying they're seeking "boy friendly" unless they mean it. She asks boys to shut up and read YA. Did she ever get a lot of feedback on this post! There was a huge amount of debate, and all healthy.

The other interesting post I found was from Mary Kole of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, entitled Boy Protagonists in YA. She makes a few interesting points. First, when anyone says they're looking for boy friendly fiction, they generally mean Middle Grade. She's also heard from publishers who make it very clear they have very very VERY few slots open for boy friendly YA in any given year. One publisher had, in fact, just one slot. But the news isn't all bad. Just because you have a boy protagonist and your novel is boy friendly doesn't mean it can't also be girl friendly and sell to what the primary market is for YA. If your male protagonist appeals to teenage girls in one fashion or another, you've got a leg up. A bit of romance certainly helps.

Before I close, I wanted to highlight some additional research I've done that emphasizes the market we "boy-friendly" YA writers face. I took a gander at the New York Times Best Seller lists in Childrens' fiction as of September 9th. This will include both Middle Grade and YA. Here's the rundown of the top seven.



1. The Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Clare - YA, girl protagonist
2. The Red Pyramid, by Rick Riordan - Middle Grade (MG), boy and girl protagonists
3. Dork Diaries 2, by Rachel Renee Russo - MG, girl protag
4. Halo, by Alexandra Adornetto - YA, girl
5. Linger, by Maggie Stierfvater - YA, girl + boy protag, girl friendly
6. Unraveled, by Gena Showalter - YA, boy protag, romance=girl friendly
7. Paranormalcy, by Kiersten White (go, Kiersten!) - YA, girl protag

I also took a gander at the top "series" books, and of the top ten there are six YA novels, all of which feature a girl protagonist and are decidedly girl friendly: Hunger Games, Twilight Saga, Pretty Little Liars, Private, House of Night, and Mortal Instruments. The remaining four are all Middle Grade: Percy Jackson, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Artemis Fowl, and The 39 Clues.

This paints a picture, doesn't it?

Despite all that, if you are a writer, keep the following in mind. I've read and personally received this advice countless times, by the way. Write the story you want to write. Don't write for the market because it will have changed (possibly more than once) before your novel reaches the shelves. And even if the market isn't in your favor, if the story is that good, it will sell. I really believe the market changes because of the books being written and published. Was there a market thirteen years ago for ten-year-old kids reading about an orphan going to a strange English school to learn how to perform magic? Harry Potter's done well since. Dracula was published in 1897. Who could have predicted that 108 years later, a YA vampire novel would turn into a phenomenon.

Write the story you want to write. If it's that good, a market will find it.

Back in ye ol' saddle

It's thoroughly shameful that I haven't blogged in over a week. Good gravy, what's wrong with me? Many things, my friends, many things. However, I am back and probably not better than ever. The good news is that I've been busy hatching ideas for my next novel(s). The first one is a true middle grade adventure/fantasy going under the working title of Ghost Fishing. The second is the sequel to Urban Mythos, tentatively entitled Suburban Mythos.

I left open the very real possibility of a sequel in the epilogue of Urban Mythos. My ideas at the time had been somewhat generic - stories about Mythos in an urban center, a suburban center and a rural center.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I began to see more compelling possibilities. I see motivation in concept if not genre by Susan Beth Pfeffer's Last Survivors series. Throw in a little X-Men, and a direction has presented itself to me.

Ghost Fishing, on the other hand, is a boy friendly adventure that starts off in a small Long Island fishing hamlet and wends its way through various strange locations along the Atlantic seaboard. This novel is solid middle grade, and a boy friendly adventure. The voice is going to be interesting - I'm aiming for a fairy-tale-ish feel -- it may take a lot of tweaking until I get it right. For those who've been paying attention, this is the book in which zombie mermaids make an appearance.

Believe it or not, I've been dying to write scenes that take place in winter -- not the cold, dry variety, mind you, but the snowy, holiday-time flavor. I was so enamored of the Godric's Hollow scenes in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I love that feel. The book will also have a number of elements I've never touched before, including divorce/separation, lost faith and trust, as well as mixed marriage -- Dad's Christian, Mom's Jewish. I'm looking forward to touching on the Christmas/Hanukkah thing. This will be especially interesting because the protagonist's family is quite poor.

I don't know that I'll do another Birth of a Novel series, but here's the first draft of the opening line.

The night Jacob Keener first noticed the schooner shimmering in the moonlight on the Great Peconic Bay, his mind was on his father, lost at sea and presumed dead eleven months earlier.

I just wrote the opening scene tonight. It feels great to be writing something new. I love Zydeco, Blaine, Tameina, and all my kids from Urban Mythos, but it's time to hang out with some new characters for a little while.

Mythos is now Urban Mythos

The first bit of interesting news for those that follow me is that I've retitled Mythos as Urban Mythos. It's a kind of catchy play on words. The key revisions will be completed today (a neat trick, considering my daughter and six other eleven-year-old girls will be occupying my house during Rachel's birthday sleepover). I'll definitely post an update on this, but suffice to say, rounds one through three of my revision process are complete.

At this point, I'm convinced  the book is in the kind of shape where I can now divide my time up between writing and refining the core of a query and a synopsis, while spending some time on revision round four. There is nothing quite like having your book read to you, even if by a deranged robot living within your computer. If only Jim Dale would donate his time.... *sighs* With experience comes a keener eye (and ear) for some of the less obvious issues such as repetition, cliche, pacing, etc. In years past, I relied on tools like AutoCrit.com to help me there, but right now, I'm feeling less obliged because of how pleased I am right with the book in its current state.

The book is still up for my critique partners at the YA forum to continue providing me the most excellent feedback a writer could ever receive, and so I will continue to tweak here and there, until such time as I must stop.

So, wish me luck with the tween girl set giggling, singing Karaoke, and generally being eleven year old girls as my son and I try to avoid being covered in nail polish. Of course, I did pop Sweet Caroline on their Karaoke DVD. I may need to join in.

The "Finish Writing the Book" Experience

Let me tell you a little about my "finish writing the book" experience I'm having. I've been writing the closing chapters of Mythos for weeks now. Whereas I allowed my characters to drive much of the earlier part of the book, yours truly has directed events leading up to and through the climax. And it's an odd thing. I see how it ends more and more every day, and my fingers are tap-tap-tapping furiously on the keyboard to get the story there. The more I see, the more prolific the writing becomes. Yep - at the end, I have received "total consciousness", which is nice. Thanks for that riff, Bill Murray.

As the words find their way on screen, the most bizarre ideas come to mind - roads along which I might take my characters, avenues with all sorts of twists and turns, and certainly littered with potholes. As this happens, I envision my characters looking up at me as if I'm in the stratosphere. They dutifully go about whatever business I set before them, but every now and then I catch them shaking their heads. For every unplanned direction I take them, for every shiny new obstacle I place before them, they've got to deal with it, and I need to help them. And in every case, this extends the story. This is why it's taken longer to get to the honest-to-goodness final chapter.

The last ten chapters of Mythos are the "big resolve". All the activity leading up to these chapters was a whole lot of simmering and the occasional bubbling over of conflict. The last ten are the rolling boil, and the foamy water is slopping over the sides of the pot. I knew where I wanted to be ten chapters ago, and with every chapter I wrote, I discovered even more details I needed to cover in the remaining pages. It's been a serious blast and is the sum total reason why I write.
 
So now, I can finally look myself in the mirror and declare, I am writing the final chapter. Truly. Well, unless I decide to do the epilogue thing. But that's it. Absolutely. There is this one loose end that might prove troublesome, so maybe.... No. It's the end.

Oh, and when it's all done, I'll combe the final three chapters into one last Birth of a Novel post. *sigh* What ever shall I do with my time?

The Long Running Apex

I've been a bit quieter than normal on the sharpened pen. Every day this week I've been working on Mythos, either writing, scribbling notes, daydreaming, or having arguments with myself. On one or more occasion I've mentioned that writing pure action scenes is difficult for me. I need dialog to keep things moving. People need to say stuff about what's going on around them. I'm no big talker - okay, well, get me going on something I care about and I don't shut up so easy - but engaging me in the first place is a challenge. I'm also not accomplished at kicking off conversations because my mind is always wandering. I do not shmooze.

Yet, I need the rhythm of conversation in the chapters I write, otherwise I'm as uncomfortable as the family potbelly pet at a pig roast. (Yeah, I went a long way for that one.)

Here's the deal. Mythos reaches a fairly substantial climax, followed by a denouement you will count in paragraphs. I'm probably midway through that climax.

Hey you, stop that snickering!

As I was saying before the juvenile in you (and me, actually) interrupted, I'm halfway through the big, humongous, all encompassing, incredibly complicated, hard-to-choreograph, super-important, page-turning capstone of the book. It's a whopper! And I don't mean it's incredibly impressive, although I sure hope it is. No, what I'm saying is this sucker is huge. It's really a long, long scene. It's chapter-spanning. Holy mackerel, it's taking a lot of words to get it done.

So, that's why I'm not up here blogging that much, or up on twitter, tweeting, or visiting everyone's blogs, commenting. The good news is that when this apogee of apogees is behind me, there'll only be a couple of paragraphs I need with which to conclude the book, and then I'm done with the first draft. Then I can go back to publicly making a fool of myself instead of doing so only before family and friends.

Oh, and the picture has nothing to do with this post. I just quite enjoy it. And in case you wanted to know, Tinkerbell was not served the steak we were grilling that night.

Community For YA Authors

I recently joined the YALITCHAT online community. This is an excellent community of young adult book writers, editors, agents, publicists, marketers, packagers, librarians, sellers and readers. As of this morning there are over 1000 members. I've joined four groups inside this community so far.

Does your query need work? Are you looking for several more opinions on it? Then check out the Query Kick-Around group.

You can get the latest news, scoop and insider info on agents who represent YA in the Agent Insider group.

At the Agent Inbox, you can submit to agents who have chosen to accept #yalitchat member queries along with your first 250 words. The moderator vets the submissions based on personal agent preferences and active relationships with each agent. You may receive feedback from agents.

I also joined the Queries that Work group to read about successful queries, including the actual results - the agent or deal, the release date, partial/full requests, etc.

There are so many other groups and activities you can participate in, such as blogging, discussion forums, events, contests, chat and more. I'm darn near ecstatic at finding it. Now I just need to more regularly participate in the weekly #YALITCHAT discussion on twitter.

ABNA and the back-story tweak

Late last week I decided to enter the Amazon Breakout Novel Contest. This year, they added a separate Young Adult category for submission, which is a pretty cool deal for us YA writers because our books were compared against adult fiction in the past. They really are different categories in my view. The style of YA is often quite distinct and needed its own special place.

Seeing as how Mythos wasn't ready, I decided to enter The Children of Midian. However, I realized some things needed changing: the opening and the pitch. As far as the opening goes, I eliminated chapter one and the first half of chapter two. The book now begins with fourteen-year-old Elliot in the woods at dusk, moments before curiosity brings him into the shack from which he's carried off to Midian.

When I originally wrote Midian, I didn't subscribe to the notion that your book should begin when everything changes for your protagonist. I wrote the story where it began. In fact, I once had a way cool prologue, but I put the thing in the guillotine. In theory, everything that occurs before the "big change" is nothing but back-story. That includes prologues. Once this finally sunk into this slack brain of mine, it became quite simple.

What are you supposed to do with back-story? You weave it in throughout your book. In the case of Midian, I've long feared starting where things changed for Elliot because some crucial character information resided in those opening chapters. When it "clicked" this weekend, I was able to weave those critical bits of back-story into the opening scene. And wouldn't you know it? The book opens at a brisker pace, with a bonus of 4000 fewer words!

As far as pitch goes, well, I had one already. But it seemed to me I could do worse than to come up with something entirely different - a whole from scratch kind of thing. So, I spent Sunday before and after the Jets game (sniff) working that puppy until the light bulb stayed on.

New opening? Check.
New pitch? Check.

Last year I stayed up until midnight Sunday into Monday to submit. This year, I got up at the butt-crack of dawn Monday and submitted. Heck, I had to get up and go to work anyway, didn't I? So now I wait. Actually, I'm going to completely tune it out and resume working on Mythos. Spealing of Mythos, I owe you all a new Birth of a Novel entry.

It's Thursday and I fell off the writing chair

Today was one of those days that just sucked the ever-lovin' creative juices from my heart and soul. I stayed up late last night writing and reading, then got home from work today and read some more. I just finished The Boy Who Dared, which my son pointed out he read in eight grade. It's really a good book - historical fiction of a kid growing up in Nazi Germany. I'll post my review on goodreads in the next day or so. For some reason I like these kinds of book. Milkweed was also excellent, and not just because Jerry Spinelli autographed my copy.

Thursday night's are busy. I posted my blog entry for Frankie's blog, which you won't see until Friday morning. It's about setting: when you write it and how much you write. Mireyah posted a really interesting entry there today about whether certain slang is considered "okay". Frankie and I have both posted our comments. I'm interested to see everyone's thoughts. The other entree on the Thursday night menu is scheduling out my FollowFriday tweets, because I don't "tweet" while at work. Apart from the fact that they block twitter and other social networking sites at work, I'm not getting paid to mess about on twitter. What else? Oh, yes. Fringe!!!

And I haven't written a darn thing on Mythos today, although yesterday was super-dee-duper productive. Hey, speaking of super-dee-duper, is Barney still alive?

Okay, time to watch Fringe.

The Business and the Art

When do you set aside the book upon which you're focusing all your creativity, in order to query and submit your previously completed novel? It's funny how the business side of it can sap your creative energy somewhat. Researching where to query is exhaustive, as is refining that most important query letter.

Here's the thing. If I'm doing that after work and dinner, I'm not writing. If I'm writing, I'm not researching and querying. Rock? Hard Place? Meet your man in the middle.

There's also the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest to consider. Submissions begin next week! Do I go down that path as well as querying? But wait, I also want to finish and revise Mythos in time for the next BEA Writer's Digest conference, which I believe will be in NYC again this year. You can't beat those pitch slams!

If I research and query, how much time will it take away from Mythos? Will I still make my self imposed deadline for BEA? How strongly do I feel about this already written book? Mind you, I have queried this book before, and technically it's still out at one or two places, but it's been so long, I've half written them off.

Questions, questions, questions. Writing is art. Everything else is business. (Why do I hear Godfather dialog running through my head?) The art. The business. I love the former and don't mind the latter, but balancing the two is a major challenge.

How do you manage?

To write or to query or to ABNA?

As most of you know, I've been heads down lately on my YA urban fantasy, Mythos. This has left me precious little time to focus on finding an agent or publishing venue for The Children of Midian. It's actually been liberating not to think or worry about Midian over the last few months.

It's the new year, though, and with the new year comes new ideals and resolutions. Should I spend time searching out some agents to query? Should I submit directly to some small press publishers? If I do this, I probably need to go back and reshape my query, focusing on Midian's crossover nature - it's somewhere between middle grade and young adult, and the word count reflects it. Curse that word count.

Another intriguing option is the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. This year, they've added a Young Adult Literature category, which is sweet, because that's all me. I gave this contest a shot last year, but like American Idol or any fun amusement park ride, why not go again? Considering they've added that YA niche, I think it gives YA writers a better shot.

I might also do both. Or neither. I'm so engrossed in Mythos and want to see it through, that I'd prefer fewer distractions over and above life and family and work and blogging and tweeting.

I wonder what I will do!

Writing vs Life

Life is just a tad on too fast for me, sometimes. I haven't updated this blog 'o mine in a while. I'm busy trying to write, but I've lost control of my faculties. I'm finding the notion of writing distinct chapters for Mythos has gone out the door, through the snow, into the decorative grass (read: weeds) at the edge of the yard, and disappeared. I've got no idea how much I've written since the last chapter, but I know it's way more than a Mythos chapter can stand. When I post the next Birth of a Novel entry, I'll definitely elaborate.

In between all this, work has intervened. I'm an IT dude, and sometimes I get called. I've received a few calls of late. Darn! I swore to myself I would never, ever, ever talk about the day job here. This is my writing space. Phooey. That's it. Done with the work thing on the blog. Kaput. No more. Really, I'm just using it as an excuse for not getting enough writing done. You know - the writing thing? The thing I love to do and want to do and would give my left [insert body part] to do full time while still paying the mortgage, but can't because I'm just not there yet.

Work's not the only excuse. Meals. Clean up after dinner. Make the spawn (read: children) lunches. Walk the dog. Spend time with the way, way, way better half. Drive the older spawn to his high school fencing matches, and sit there for two hours trying to figure out what on earth is going on and why the judge keeps flailing his arms around like he's signaling Ricky Henderson to steal home. Read!!!! Six hours' sleep. Watch my beloved and accursed Jets 3+ hours on the weekend. With a remarkable amount of luck, maybe I'll have the privilege of watching them a couple more times this year. Blog. Tweet.

I know there's more.

What I'm trying to say is, writing is hard. Making time for writing is harder.

The Evil Inner Editor

The Inner Editor is quasi-evil when writing a first draft. Don't get me wrong. He ensures I avoid fragments and run-ons. He proofs my basic grammar. He spell checks for me, although MS Word does it too, just not as well as the evil inner editor. These are all good things.

But he's always poking at me while I write, making me feel bad.

"That sentence makes me angry. When I get angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset, people die!" "

"Your protagonist's dialog is insolent. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds."

"How dare you use an adverb there. I demand the sum of ... one million dollars."

"That scene. Throw me a friggin' bone here."

In short, the dude slows me down. And yes, he's a dude. He's a bald dude with a bald cat and a miniature clone living in an underwater lair.

I very well know it's fine to write crap, at least in the first draft. But will the Evil Inner Editor let me? How do I turn him off? Why can't he just have a look at the first draft once its written, and then give me one cohesive critique? I'll tell you why. The Evil Inner Editor doesn't work that way.

He's an omnipresent, mojo-draining taskmaster that needs to be locked away in a space ship in geosynchronous orbit around the moon until I'm ready for him. Until then, I'll agonize over each paragraph, sentence and word. I need to stop that. I need to stop him. Sometimes, I'll have the mojo flowing. The story finds its way from my head to my fingers, and the word count shoots up. I need to bottle that. That's the genie that keeps the Evil Inner Editor at bay.

I'm going to start paying careful attention when the words rush out. What am I doing to keep the Evil Inner Editor out of my head so that the story can flow freely? Once I get that figured out, I'm going to try it on purpose, and see if it's repeatable. I'll blog about the results in a few weeks.

Writer's Blah and Catching Fire so far

Why is this taking so long? This Mythos chapter feels like the gestation period of an African elephant. *sighs* I'm able to get out 300-500 words at a clip, and sadly, I've hit that most hideous of writing walls. No, it's not the writers' block thing. It's called writer's blah, and it stems from being pooped from work every night. I want to lie in bed with the TV on in the background, while reading until my eyes threaten to leap from their sockets. Perhaps I just need to catch up on some sleep, or maybe brew some strong coffee? We suffer for our art, do we not? Okay, okay... What are you doing with your fingers? The worlds smallest violin, you say? Yeah, yeah. How original. *sticks out tongue*

On a separate note, I've got the unabridged CD set of Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, and listen every moment of my mobile life - a.k.a. driving to and from work.  I usually have one book by my bedside and another playing in the car. Y'know, I was really looking forward to this book, but was worried about how I'd feel about revisiting Katniss and Peeta after the end of the last book. I'd read about Catching Fire and the forthcoming third book in the series, and I had this nagging feeling that I wasn't going to like what I read.

I'm happy to say I'm enjoying it so far. It is a bit slower - more like a slow boil compared to the rolling pace of the Hunger Games. But there's more about Katniss learning about herself so far - more character development here. I've got an opinion on her inability to choose right now between Peeta and Gale, but I'll reserve judgment until I get to the end. When I've finished reading/listening, you can be sure I'll post my mini-review of it right here. I'll also be sure to check out the Catching Fire discussion on The Spectacle.

I'm off to post a comment on Tamara's excellent Chasing Dreams blog, because she's commented on a few Catching Fire items I've noticed right away.