Alas, as you all probably know, none of those roles were given to the actors I envisioned. Didn’t stop me from fantasizing.

The other day I was thinking about who I would cast in the novel I’m currently revising. Here’s a hint: Jeremy Renner is a ghost. I like the idea of putting a face to a character, on a wholly personal, subjective level. I had the urge to cast my whole novel, then! Only problem is, because I am in the middle of revisions the characters might change–possibly in significant ways–before the final version of the book.

But the idea wouldn’t leave me alone. What’s a girl to do!?

Answer: Cast another book!

A few of you out there have read the second novel I wrote, a pseudo romance novel by the name of Struck By Chocolate. I will never publish this book, either through traditional means or self publishing. Essentially it is a story of a chocolate maker and the organizer of a world-renowned chocolate competition. And they fall in love. And complications ensue. As they do.

So, without further ado, my dream cast!

Farley Dunaway: Heroine, Organizer of the Cocoa Cabaret, a world-renowned chocolate competition put on by Sweetness, Inc.

Elisabeth Moss is probably best known for her role as Peggy in Mad Men, where she plays an awkward girl coming into her self and her sexuality. Farley is taking a similar path through the course of Struck By Chocolate, learning to love her quirks and, in time, Alex.

Alex Valeri: Hero, apprentice to Leo Gotard of Lionceau Chocolat

Alex Valeri is a headstrong, selfmade man, who has enough masculine energy to power a small city. Oh wait, that’s Gerard Butler. Perfect match!

Stephanie: Farley’s best friend, a freelance travel writer

Stephanie is a bit of a sarcastic, worldly kind of girl, while still being sweet and super thoughtful. A combination of Amy Adams‘ characters in Sunshine Cleaning and Julie & Julia could strike that balance.

Leo Gotard: Owner of Lionceau Chocolat and mentor to Alex

Sure, Christoph Waltz played a Nazi scumbag in Inglourious Basterds, but he did it damn well.

Odette Auchard: Leo’s personal assistant

Julianne Moore can play hard nosed as well as sensitive, which would be perfect for the role of Odette. Odette keeps the admin side of Lionceau Chocolat in line, but she has a deep-seated platonic love for Leo, as well.

Emily Vogler: Farley’s coworker, angling to take her position in Sweetness, Inc.

Amanda Seyfried played the dead girl on Veronica Mars. Her performance of Lilly Kane makes me think she would do a great job as the conniving–if slightly inept–coworker.

Robin: Farley’s personal assistant, a bright young girl with a nautical obsession

Say what you will about Zooey Deschanel, she does pull off cute and quirky well. Robin is both of these things, in spades.

Norah Dunaway: Farley’s mother

Frances Sternhagen has won my heart through her portrayal of Brenda’s mother in The Closer. I think she would do great, adorable justice to Farley’s overbearing, possibly alcoholic, always well-meaning mother.

Well, that was a great way to procrastinate actually working on revisions! Do you have any actors or actresses you would have loved to see in a movie adaptation of your favorite novel? Or maybe you have an actor or actress pegged as perfect for a role in your book? Let me know!

For those who don’t know, ClarionWest is an intensive six-week workshop which focuses on developing science fiction and fantasy writers, with a strong emphasis on short stories. During those six weeks participants are expected to write five new stories, while simultaneously critiquing everyone else’s stories, going to parties thrown by area supporters and authors, staying up late playing ridiculous games, drinking more than might be deemed ‘healthy’, and still managing to get a few hours sleep. It’s true multi-tasking, and has helped develop the careers of authors like Rachel Swirsky, Louise Marley, Cat Rambo, Daniel Abraham and many others.

In short, it’s awesome.

And it needs support. Which is where the Write-a-thon comes in. Dozens of authors will shadow this year’s ClarionWest class, in spirit if not in form. The idea behind the Write-a-thon is that authors will stretch themselves to produce more, or differently, than they do the rest of the year. Some will draft a new novel. Others will produce fiction which will end up in the hands of their supporters. I have chosen to write six+one short stories, one per week and a bonus shoved in there somewhere, with each story touching on a specific subject/theme/setting. I had a couple ideas, and FaceBook helped me finish my list:

• Serial Killers
• Ritual
• Superheroes (thanks Lindsey!)
• Dismemberment (thanks Anne!)
• South African setting (thanks Jenni!)
• The Victorian era/steampunk (thanks Arwen!)
• The ocean (thanks Alisa!)

And I will be fitting in some reference to some iteration of the World Cup for my good friend Jake.

Now, you must be asking yourself, what can I do? How can I throw my hard-earned cash at this project? It’s easy my friends!

Write-a-thon participants can be sponsored by any generous benefactor. You can donate five bucks a week, or ten, or whatever fits your budget. And it’s as simple as going to my Write-a-thon page here and clicking that beautiful gold PayPal button labeled donate. The Write-a-thon goes from June 19th through July 27th.

ClarionWest is a 501(c)3 organization. All your donations are completely tax-deductible, and will generate a guaranteed warm, fuzzy feeling.

As a bonus, I will send all of my lovely sponsors one short story of their choice, pulling from the list above. So click that button, and help support the next wave of evil literature overlords!

Photo used under creative commons license from Tom Swift.

Thank you, Mr. Chandler.

I’m still deep in the rewrite stage of working on Toulouse, the YA novel I wrote last year during NaNoWriMo. It’s no secret to anyone who’s been reading this blog, or who has talked to me about writing, that the revision/rewrite process is my least favorite part of writing. The main reason, I think, is because I often have a hard time seeing what’s wrong with my own work, and figuring out how to fix the problems. Especially figuring out how to fix the problems. It’s like my brain says to me “You’ve already written the scene this way. That’s the only possible way this could go! Time for a drink.”

Sometimes my brain is not helpful.

Despite my struggles in this arena, I am committed to this book. There is a lot about the story—and the characters—that I love. I want to make this story the best I can, and in order to do that I need to fix things. A lot of things.

I realized pretty early on in my first read-through of the finished zero draft that I would need to do some serious rewriting. While writing the zero draft I got to a point where I found myself kind of bored by the story, so I took the age-old advice of Raymond chandler: “When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.” I did exactly that, and ended up taking the story down a road it really should not have traversed. The focus shifted away from the main conflict and turned a character on his head, personality-wise.

Sometimes this is good and necessary. Some characters should be surprises, most characters should develop. But in this case, I lost my way.

So I started the rewrite, which turned out to be almost whole cloth rewriting from about a quarter of the way through the zero draft. At the fifty percent mark, or thereabouts, I ran into the same problem: I was getting a bit bored. This time, instead of a gun, I threw in a drug-dealer.

And then my rewrite screeched to a halt. I can blame the lack of progress on moving to a new place, on quitting my job, on a billion things, but what it comes down to is that I was on the wrong road again. I had pushed, I got another few thousand words out, but this time I was conscious enough to realize that what I was writing felt wrong. Instead of tamping down that feeling like I’d done in November, I used my busier-than-normal time to reflect, and came to the realization that I needed to rewind a bit and get rid of those words I’d forced. I need to figure out how to make the story interesting without sacrificing important things like continuity, internal logic and theme.

Tomorrow, I return to Toulouse in earnest, knowing that I will be cutting before I can move forward. I hope to get this rewrite completed by the end of next month, so I can start revisions with a solid manuscript in July. Hopefully the rest will be relatively easy sailing. I’ll nail down what I want to say with this story, and handle it with aplomb.

More likely I’ll be dodging plot bunnies left and right, while clawing my way toward the ending.

I’m curious to hear about your revision horror stories, and how you dealt with them. New characters you had to slay? A subplot worthy of Jerry Springer? Tentacle demons in your chick lit? Let me know!

photo used under creative commons license from Tim Cummins

GeekGirlCon is a local convention in its second year, designed to celebrate all the geeky awesomeness that the ladies of the world contribute. They sponsor events throughout the year like art auctions and TV Dinners with Dr. Who.

In my post I talk a bit about a character from Into the Wild Nerd Yonder, by Julie Halpern. If you haven’t read the book, I recommend picking it up. Nothing like a YA book full of D&D, home sewing skills and a little bit of nerd romance to make for some fun weekend reading.

I will be doing more of this.

As of Friday May 11^th, I am officially, and happily, unemployed.

The United States economy is in a bad place right now. People are struggling to find jobs, struggling to keep jobs. The reasons behind this bleak tableau are debatable, and are one of the things I absolutely refuse to debate. (I don’t do political conversations.) And here I am giving up a perfectly good job. Really, a better than good job. I had easy hours, a great boss, and awesome coworkers. I had sweet benefits, got paid really well for what I did, and worked literally behind a liquor store. Not too shabby.

I’d been working there for three and a half years when I was accepted into ClarionWest. During those years I spent a lot of time, and a lot of energy, working to achieve someone else’s goals, writing in my spare moments. Lunch hours, days off, the time between when I got home and when Mr. Eliza returned from work. I squeezed my passion into the cracks and I don’t regret a second of it.

Then I went to ClarionWest. Six weeks of living and breathing and sleeping (and not a little bit of drinking) around words and people just as much in love with stories as I am. It was both life-changing and life-affirming.

My boss generously allowed me to return to work at the end of six weeks. The transition back into reality was difficult, both while at work and while at home. It took some time for the intensity of ClarionWest to wane. Even now I find myself tearing up when I drive down the street I took to get back home after that last day. Eventually, I settled back into my routine.

Except, I wasn’t comfortable anymore. My productivity dipped. My energy levels and general sense of well-being began to wane. I was burning out, and I could feel it.

In preparation for the possibility of moving to Japan Mr. Eliza and I rented a room in a stranger’s house for a few months. We saved a lot of money, and that is the only saving grace of that situation. Then we learned we wouldn’t be going to Japan after all. We had a nice bank balance, a burning (itching, chafing) desire to get out of our living situation, and I was on my last legs of happiness at my job.

We could have stayed at that house longer than we did. I could have stayed at my job longer. But doing either (or both-scary!) would have meant an ever-decreasing quality of life.

We moved in with some friends and Mr. Eliza and I had a long talk about how our world would look if I quit my job.

Then how it would look if I quit—and didn’t find another one.

And you know what? The world looks pretty rosy.

It’s not the right decision for everyone. We’ve made some choices about how to live our life that others might not be willing or able to make. One of the big ones—no kids. Don’t have ‘em, don’t want ‘em. We’ve given up some privacy by living with other people. We’ve given up some mobility by having only one car.

And I’m happy as a fish in a squeaky clean tank.

I’m curious to hear from my readers on this topic. What hard choices have you made to help your dreams come true?

Photo used under Creative Commons license from Iwan B.

Because I couldn't figure out what else to use

This last weekend Mr. Eliza and I took a little trip down to SeaTac, to attend NorWesCon, the Seattle area’s biggest science fiction and fantasy convention. The weekend before NorWesCon we spent about half a day at the Emerald City Comic Convention, which I will get back to in a moment.

After a brief bit of Google Fu I was unable to find numbers for this year’s attendance. Three years ago the attendance was at 3,030, and it has only grown since. That is a hell of a lot of people. The con itself takes place all over the SeaTac Doubletree hotel. An entire hallway of meeting rooms are dedicated to the panels, with topics ranging from Victorian Sex, the new wave of energy, general writing topics and polyamory. There’s also a large gaming room which is always hopping. We played a rousing game of Call of Cthulhu on Sunday.

A few bigger conference rooms host things like a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with the Vicarious Theater Company, and a Survey of Medieval Weaponry panel/demo. The bottom floor of one wing of rooms hosts things like the coat check, the hospitality suite, and the Flashback Arcade. (Leave your quarters at home and prepare steep in 80′s geekdom. I lost spectacularly at DigDug.) The Grand Ballroom gets dominated first by the Phillip K. Dick awards, and then by the Fannish Fetish Fashion Show. This year, for the first time, NorWesCon got free run of Maxi’s, the bar on the top floor.

The art room is huge, four long aisles of mixed media. John Picacio was the artist GoH this year. If you’re a fan of Song of Ice and Fire, check out his new calendar. I’m especially fond of his painting of Bran. Across the way from the art room is the dealer’s hall, with everything you’d expect to find at an SF/F con.

Whew…that’s a lot of stuff. Throw in room parties and any number of attractions that I missed, and you have a veritable barrel of monkeys for damn near everyone.

My favorite part of the con? Drinking whiskey and coke in my hotel room, watching Splice (a nice bit of WTFery) and eating pizza. With Mr. Eliza. And no one else.

I think there are a couple reasons I enjoyed this con less than I hoped. One-the writing panels (I went to a few) are really geared towards beginners, and I left having not learned a whole lot in most cases. The panels on things like weapons and history were more interesting and informative, but acted as jumping off points, more than anything. A hazard of the format, I know.

Additionally, and I think more importantly, I wasn’t very socially active. Cons are great times to spend with other people, but when you don’t know/aren’t comfortable with those people it makes things less enjoyable. I thought being a CW grad, and having met the people I’ve met over the past few months, this aspect would be different than the first time I went to NorWesCon. And it was. A little. But not enough to make the camaraderie a fulfilling part of the con on its own.

At ECCC, my expectations were different. I had two goals- Buy some Espionage products, and go to the panel on Ready Player One Wil Wheaton was hosting with Ernest Cline. I got my makeup, and Wil had to cancel, but I spent two hours listening to Cline talk about the path he took to writing this book (which is awesome and super highly extra recommended to any and all geeks, writers and readers in the world), and the response he received to writing something that was, at its core, him ‘geeking out on the page’. The panel was entertaining, and inspiring, and ultimately fulfilling.

I think the point I want to make is that, when going to a con, have realistic expectations. Maybe if I went into NorWesCon with a couple really cool things singled out (spending some time gaming, going to the fetish show, etc.) I would have been happier with the time I spent there.

Then again, maybe not. I don’t know. I have to take into account the incontrovertible fact that I am an introvert. I do best with tiny doses of crowds, and larger doses of really awesome people. I got the opposite of that this weekend. Lots of crowds, little bits of awesome.

I will go to NorWesCon again, I think. But not until I’m doing panels, and am more involved with the inner workings of the con. Not until I have a purpose for being there.

I’d like to hear about the convention experiences you’ve had. Tell me the good, the bad, the ugly, the exquisite and the awesome.

Photo used under creative commons license from jm2c.

Who Would You Rather Read About?

Being Active. I’m not talking about daily walks or morning yoga (though those are important, too. Get off the office chair, people!). I’m talking about your writing. More specifically, your characters.

Let me give you two brief example stories, first.

Story A: Sally is walking down the street when someone mugs her. The guy takes her money. She brushes herself off and goes home, where she discovers her boyfriend getting a little too familiar with the next door neighbor. He leaves, of his own accord, taking the neighbor with him. Sally sits in the dark for a while. Then she gets a call from the police–they’ve apprehended her mugger. A little while later Sally learns that her boyfriend and her neighbor slipped and fell down the stairs, shattering both of their pelvises. The End

Story B: Sally is walking down the street and someone mugs her. She fights back, but the guy hits her over the head and she goes unconscious. When she wakes up, she goes home and discovers her boyfriend getting a little too familiar with the neighbor. She grabs a knife from the kitchen and threatens the neighbor, then ties up her boyfriend. Filled with adrenalin, Sally takes the knife and goes back to the scene of the mugging, where she tracks down the SOB that took her wallet, and takes it back. Seeing the guy bleeding in the street, Sally realizes she’s as bad as he is. She goes back home, intending to release her boyfriend. Instead she finds that neighbor has rescued boyfriend and they are attempting to vacate the premises. Sally shoves them both down the stairs, and flees before the cops come to arrest her.

What’s the difference? Other than Sally going apeshit destructo style?

Action.

In Story A, things happen TO Sally. Someone mugs her. Her boyfriend cheats on her. The police do their job. Fate takes care of the philanderer. Sally is an observer. Sally is, in part, a victim. Not a true victim, because she has the power to act and react, but she plays into the part of victim.

Now, in Story B, we see a radically different Sally.  She may not be your cup of tea, but she is WAY more interesting to write about. And you know what that means? She’s going to be WAY more interesting to read about.

She doesn’t have to be a killer. She could track down the mugger and try to rehabilitate him. She could offer him money to rough up her boyfriend. In both cases, of course, her actions would lead to even bigger problems for Sally. Mugger, post rehabilitation, becomes stalker. Boyfriend outbids Sally and turns the guy back on her. Whatever. The important thing, in this example, is that Sally is doing something.

It is crucial, absolutely oxygen-level vital, that your main character acts. The inciting incident can be something happening TO them, but that should spur them into action. If you find yourself with a story wherein the twists and turns are a result of outside influences, and not a result of your main character(s) doing something to fix/change the situation, try stepping back. You may be telling the story from the wrong POV. You may even be telling the wrong story altogether.

What do you think? Are your characters out there, getting shit done? Or are they stationary reeds, buffeted by the wind?

Photos used under Creative Commons license from ahhyeah (sleeping girl) and Tayrawr Fortune (bloody girl)

Before I went to CW I knew a few writers. I’d been to a few signings (what up Dan Wells!). I even went to a convention (where I felt lost and lonely, for the most part). I belonged to some critique groups, which had their own…problems. My literary circle was anemic. Mr. Eliza will attest, I complained often. The words “I want a writer friend!” were heard maybe too often around my house. It was tragic. I set things on fire. (Or maybe that was him, the memory grows smoky, harhar.)

Clarion West did three things, in the people field.

1- It introduced me to my fellow Westies, amazing people each and every one of them. (Now Mr. Eliza hears “I miss my writer friends!”)

2- It introduced me to authors who were both up and coming, and established, broadening my understanding of what it means to be a professional writer and underscoring the fact that this. Is. Possible.

3- It introduced me to my new IRL critique group, Horrific Miscue. Comprised of previous CW alumni, this is a well-organized, competent group that gives excellent critiques and supports one and another. (One of my issues with previous crit groups was…well, a lack of all three of those criteria.)

With that in mind, it pleases me to introduce all of you, my beautiful readers, to the Horrific Miscue blog. A bit quiet in the past, the blog is undergoing, as Cat Rambo says, Revitalizations! Members of the Horrific Miscue groups will post to the blog periodically with publishing updates, thoughts to think about and the like. I’ll be posting there on occasion, as well.

So add it to your blogroll and read it with your morning coffee or–better yet–midnight bourbon!

I grew up around firearms, so I am (for the most part) comfortable with them. My parents became gun safety instructors when I was in my sullen teenhood, and I remember (sometimes not so fondly) weekends spent on the gun range, writing and reading and drawing while they helped students shoot a variety and sundry of rifles and handguns, all the while trying not to freeze in the bitter Colorado winters.

I went through the safety class myself, and got to shoot all those pretty guns. Occasionally we’d go to the range, too, and I’d use the tiny gun I always think of as being pearl-handled, though I’m not totally sure it was. It’s romantic, though: a pearl-handled .22 revolver, just the right size for a garter holster.

That gun needs to go in a story.

This weekend, my trigger-happy tendencies were reignited. Mr. Eliza and I spent Sunday morning at a local range, shooting rifles and handguns of multiple calibers and awesomeness. You can check out a video of our date at his blog, here.

When we first got into the shooting part of the range (which was frigid, by the way), my nose flared up with the familiar scent of a fired weapon. What is that smell, technically? Gunpowder? Google says its cordite. Whatever it is, it smelled a little like coming home.

Then I got my first rifle to shoot, a .22, and sadness ensued. When you have a gun that weighs as much as a rifle, all the recoil from such a tiny bullet is going to be absorbed. It felt like shooting a capgun. Pingpingping. I used my next round of ammo on something much beefier, which you can see in the video. I think it was a 9mm, all black, with stuff on top and an effing laser sight. Heavy, too, and powerful. This, I thought, was much more what a rifle experience should be.

Then we moved on to handguns, where I started out with a Ruger Mark something, a .22. I have a thing for Ruger Marks. They remind me of WWII. Very no-nonsense guns, in my opinion. I don’t know if he actually used this gun, but I imagine Michael Fassbender wielding a Ruger Mark III in Inglourious Basterds. And how is that ever not sexy?

Anyway, after being bitch-slapped by a 9 mm Colt and wooed by a 9 mm Smith and Wesson, among others, we ended our time at the range and went out for beer.

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, other than the fact that I had an awesome time, and that I fully endorse gun safety training for everyone (seriously, do you want to be stuck not knowing up come the zombie apocalypse? Think long-term people.), I think that is important as writers to get a good grip (harhar) on some technical elements of writing. And for me, and a LOT of writers I know, guns are part of the story.

And when gun are part of the story, chances are you’re writing a high tension scene, one you want your reader to really identify with.

One way to achieve that connection is by getting the description right. The weight of the gun, the kick of the recoil (or lack of one in the case of that rifle), the smell, the imprints the grip leaves on the hand (in the case of the Colt), etc. It’s all part of it and, I think, an important part. If a character is going to kill someone, or even threaten them, their senses will be heightened. Adrenaline rushes, focus narrows, heart races.

I could write a scene where my character goes water-skiing. I could write that scene better if I went water-skiing myself.

I could write a scene where my character gets a tattoo. And, having gotten one, I think I can write it better now than I could ten years ago. (um, for a lot of reasons.)

I could write a scene where my character has sex, and—well, you get the picture.

(Not that picture. Get your head out of the gutter.)

So, what have your characters been getting up to lately? Feeling the need for any first hand research?

Photo used under Creative Commons license from Rob Beyer

The time has come for a new crop of hopefuls to throw their hats into the consideration ring. With the stellar lineup the organizers have put together this year (George RR Martin, anyone? Character-oriented writers rejoice!) the competition will surely be stiff. If you’re still vacillating on whether or not to apply, let me answer that for you with a hearty and unequivocal:

YES.

For the love of all that is holy polish up those short stories, write your application check and get that stuff in the mail! Time is running out! The application window is rapidly closing, with a firm March 1st deadline in place.

It’s scary. You know what? It’s really scary. It’s putting yourself out there and kind of committing to taking six weeks out of your undoubtedly busy life, to focus on something that has absolutely no guarantee of being anything other than personally fulfilling. The time commitment and the financial commitment and the emotional investment are all pretty lofty.

And worth it.

Even if you don’t get it your first time (or second, or third) you know that you’re still trying. But that phone call…damn, that’s a feeling. That was my second real validation that I was doing something right with my writing. My third validation came the first week of CW, when I sold my first short story.

Beyond everything I learned, though, it’s the people that I met that are so invaluable. My fellow Westies, of course (you guys rock!) and the authors, Neile and Les, all the volunteers and the hosts and past alum.

When I start talking about Clarion West I always skirt the line between excited and frenetic, because I am so enthusiastic about what this workshop provides. A taste of the writer’s life, invaluable connections, and adivce that will trickle down for years after the fact.

Do it. Apply. Because there is no way you can get in if you don’t.

Month of Letters Update from Day One–I sent TWO things yesterday! Birthday cards to my older twin brothers.  It felt good.