Making Neuroses Fun!

I'm in that "It sucks! No, it's amazing, I'm brilliant, I'm an idiot, what was I thinking, who told me I could be a writer?" phase of the story I'm working on now. Thank God for Debbie Ridpath and Will Write for Chocolate.

The Fine Line

I've been thinking today about the distinction between Perfectionism and Professionalism.

I'll be honest, I'm a little bit on the neurotic side when it comes to my work. Someone once told me I used a run-on sentence (which I do sometimes do for effect , but in this case I hadn't) and, being me, I diagrammed the entire chapter to show that there wasn't a single run-on in there. Long sentences, hell yes. Grammatically incorrect? Allow me to introduce you to my eighth grade English teacher's wrath.

I thought about why I was so offended by the claim and realized it had to do with professionalism as much as perfectionism. Subpar grammar is unprofessional. I felt like my professional integrity was under attack.

On a certain level, I equate professionalism with perfection. If there is a typo on my website, I feel it reflects badly on me. (Dude, I'm soooo tempted to put a typo in this blog just as a joke about how perfect I am... hee hee. My sense of humor is messed up.) If I don't get in touch with a giveaway winner right away or forget to return an email, I kick myself for not being on top of things and draw up elaborate scenarios in my head in which the neglected party tells everyone she knows how unprofessional I am.

When I was in the corporate workforce, I used to have anxiety dreams every time I made a mistake at work. Mistakes in my personal life meant living and learning and becoming a better person from it. Mistakes at the office? Nightmares for weeks.

If someone interferes with my professionalism or causes me to be unable to behave professionally (i.e. perfectly), it's really hard for me to maintain my cool. The words "reflects badly on me" dance in my head in a neurotic can-can line, encouraging me to smack the offender down. (Cuz smackdowns are wicked professional.)

I'm a control freak and a neurotic perfectionist when it comes to my career, but I try to keep it to myself whenever possible. (Except when I'm blabbing about it on the blog for all the world to see.)

My question for you, dear reader, is this: How do you define professionalism?

Author Interview: Kaye Chambers

We have another victim, ladies and gentlemen! Samhain authoress Kaye Chambers has been suckered into agreed to an author interview here at the blog. Please help me welcome Kaye as she chats with us a bit about her new release, Angelic Avenger. Welcome, Kaye! (Applause!)

Angelic Avenger is the tale of reluctant angelic enforcer Bella. You've created such a unique world. What inspired you to write Bella's story?

A nagging voice in my head. I was sitting in a movie theater waiting for a movie to start and this little voice said, “Don’t mind me. I’m going straight to Hell. That’s what you get when you take a life. Oh, don’t get melodramatic. It was only mine.”

Watching the movie, I kept hearing that little voice. Afterwards, I rushed home to find the house quiet because the kids were asleep. Snatching up my laptop, I started writing. I went to bed in tears that night. Why? I would start the book in third person, but it ended up in first before the end of the opening chapter.

After about a week of this and still no further into the book than that opening, I was talking to my friend Colleen who gave me the best advice: “Stop fighting it. Go with the story and if it flips back to third, you can always fix it."

So that is what I did.

Sounds like a good time to get out of the way and let the book write itself. What three things do you absolutely need to write?

1. Caffeine (diet Coke or coffee about the color of mocha)
2. Something to drown out the pitter-patter of little feet and the accompanying screaming (headphones and music, usually)
3. Inspiration

What would you say is the driving force behind your books? A hot hero? A dynamic heroine? The conflict?

Definitely the heroine. When I sit to write, I’m usually pretty deep into the skin of my heroines. Since the majority of my manuscripts are done in first person, it’s easy to like what they like, write what they would do in a situation, as well as embrace the inner vixen and let her rip on the pages. :)

Gotta love a feisty heroine, and the feisty writer who goes with her. Do you have a favorite writing memory?

I do have a story I’d love to share. ANGELIC AVENGER was the first book I ever sat and wrote all on my own. I did it mostly at night, slaving with coffee while my children were asleep. At the time, my husband was unaccompanied in Japan on military orders. Since I had no idea if it was going to be worth anything, I told the Cookie Monsters (i.e. my writing support group) about it, but kept my aspirations close to my chest.

Two years and many, many revisions and tweaks later, my husband was home on leave. He was sitting on the couch as I checked the voicemail. Strangely enough, I had an email from Tami Brothers regarding a contest I’d shipped the manuscript off to. Some may have heard of the Maggie Awards? Nervously, I wrote the number down on a post-it and took the phone outside to get away from the screaming chaos of preschoolers.

She answered and delivered the shocking news that ANGELIC AVENGER had finaled in the contest. Poor lady. I screamed in her ear. I was laughing, crying, shocked, excited, and generally a screaming lunatic. She laughed with me. When I got off the phone, I ran into the house, jumped in front of my husband and announced my good fortune.

“Bella finaled in the Maggies!”

“What?” He stared at me blankly.

Josie, hearing the racket, came out onto the landing of her rooms upstairs. Turning to her, I held out my hands and repeated myself. She squealed in delight, ran down the stairs, and danced with me in front of the fireplace. My husband, dear man, stared at us like we were loons even after my children joined in the dance.

“Who’s Bella?” he asked somewhat bewildered by the excitement.

“It’s Mommy’s book, Daddy,” my daughter informed in at the same time I said, “Bella is my book.”

“You wrote a book?” I nodded. The dear man sat there and thought about it a moment before shaking his head. His next question told me exactly how far out of the loop he really was even though he’d bought me a new laptop so I could write. “What’s the Maggies?”

In the two years since, he’s become much more educated about the publishing world and none of it would be possible without his support and faith in me. Every woman needs a hero in her life and it’s even better if she can lay her hands on him. :)

It can be a startling transition when our writing for fun becomes "I wrote a book", can't it? Then suddenly it's "I'm publishing a book!" with many more to come... What's next for you, Kaye?

Two things, actually. :)

In January, my novella LOVE AT FIRST SHOT releases from The Wild Rose Press. What do an inept witch, a kidnapped coroner, and a dead werewolf have in common? LOVE AT FIRST SHOT, of course. Emma Feltman is a master mage in training with one minor problem: sexual frustration has twisted her ordinarily powerful magic into an unpredictable force of chaos. Her current job assignment is the Supernatural Clean-up Crew.

When a werewolf is unlucky enough to get hit by a car, Emma's crew is sent in to retrieve the body. The sexy Dr. "T.J." Jackson is the coroner on duty. When it's discovered his mind is immune to Emma's magic and they can't erase the incident from his memory, they do the next best thing: they take him with them.

Stashed in a cabin miles from anywhere, Emma and T.J. start things off with a bang. But can a relationship built under extreme conditions really work?

In March, my new series (The Ladies of St. George) launches from Samhain Publishing with BLOOD AND DESTINY. It’s another first person novel told from the heroine’s point of view. Destiny St. George is a shapeshifting lioness private investigator just trying to make a living while avoiding the on-again-off-again relationship with the local vampire king, Marcus Smythe. When she takes a missing person case that leads her straight back to his arms, she knows she’s in trouble. Throw in an out-of-town lion flown in to be her escort to her best friend’s wedding, and she’s suddenly facing all sorts of choices, personally and professionally.

Can she find the missing woman before she disappears into the abyss of the vampire underground? Will the lion or the vampire capture her heart and convince her to change her ways?

BLOOD AND DESTINY know the answers.

Thank you for submitting to a stint in the hot seat, Kaye! Hopefully it wasn't too warm.

And now, dear reader, check out Kaye's fabulous new release, Angelic Avenger!

Angelic Avenger

Kaye Chambers

ISBN: 978-1-60504-720-1

The road to hell is paved with heavenly desire...

Angelic Avengers, Book 1

Fetch a soul? No problem. Quell a little shape shifter rebellion? She can do that, too. Just an average day in the afterlife of Arabella "Bella" Morrison. Or, what she hopes will become an afterlife after restoring the cosmic imbalance caused by her suicide over a love affair gone bad.

Protect a willful fallen angel? That takes a little more teamwork than she's accustomed to. Especially when the team includes Gray Devereau, a sexy, half-breed angel who's got an eye on her - in more ways than one.

Their attraction could set could set fire to Heaven itself. Normally not a problem for Bella, but Gray's sights are set on something more than a fly-by-night affair.

Save mankind from chaos? Bring it on. Let her heart trust a man enough to love again?

It'll be a cold day in hell...

Oh, and one more thing... Happy Birthday to Kaye, happy birthday to Kaye, happy birthday to Kaaa-aaaaye, happy birthday to Kaye! And many mooooooore...

Bright Sunshiny Day

What's better than a hotly anticipated blockbuster? How about the little film you've never even heard of that turns out to be deeply awesome. Thanks to the magic of DVR, I saw this movie called Sunshine the other day. Have you heard of it? I'm usually pretty tuned in to what's coming out in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, so I'm surprised this one slipped past me.

The Premise: The sun is dying. A team of astronauts are being sent with a payload including all the fissile materials left on earth to set off a nuclear bomb inside the sun, therefore "restarting" it.

On hearing that, I rolled my eyes, visualizing some ridiculous, campy, disaster film like The Core. Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered Sunshine is a very different sort of movie altogether. A nuanced sci-fi character drama. Subtle, smart and electric.

The first clue that I was getting something more than just camp was the name of the spaceship. Icarus II. What I loved was the fact that they didn't insult the viewer's intelligence by over-explaining the significance of the name. They simply stated that the first Icarus mission had failed. It had gotten too close to the sun, beyond the range of communication, and they'd never heard from it again. So Icarus II was the second desperate attempt at what was already a risky proposal.

And Icarus? The boy of mythic wax-winged fame, who flew too close to the sun, melted his wings and fell to his death? What better name could there be for a mission whose basic premise is the hubris of overruling nature by restarting the sun?

The story opens right before our intrepid astronauts are about to leave communication range with Earth. They know these will be the last messages they send and the odds of their safe return are variable. They will likely never receive a response for the messages they are about to send (though they still believe there is a chance they will make it back to Earth after completing their mission).


It is the characters who truly make this story sing. The psychologist who gets his kicks by staring in to the sun (through a shield, of course) and walks through the entire film sunburned. The crew member who's slightest mistake can turn into a suicide risk, when viewed through the filter of the salvation of all of mankind. The pressure bearing down on this team is phenomenal. They are brilliant, picked for this mission for their knowledge of astrophysics, nuclear physics, or astronavigation, but they are human, with the weight of all humanity resting on them.

The immortality of youth is faced with the hard realities of hard choices in the face of true species extinction. A god complex, a hero complex, and an unholy terror at the idea of failure all rolled into one.

I have to recommend this intricate and well thought out sci-fi character drama about the seemingly ridiculous idea of restarting the sun. Yeah, it gets a little... odd in the last half hour, taking an unexpected turn in a more thriller direction, but all in all, Sunshine was some pretty rockin' sci fi. An unexpected treat.

Too Supportive?

In my speech for the Golden Heart, I thanked my family and friends, describing them as "sometimes too supportive." It occurred to me, as those words were coming out of my mouth, that maybe I should have phrased that differently. (For the record: Impromptu speaking in front of two thousand people = not recommended... as I believe I may have mentioned about two million times already.)

I am incredibly lucky to have an amazingly supportive network of friends and family. (Does anyone else think that sentence sounded like it should be part of a wireless phone commercial?) But there are times when the cheerleading of my supporters gets so loud, it's hard to hear the reality that I've still got a lot of room for improvement.

My family doesn't really do "tough love." My mom loves every book I've ever written (and some of them were just dreadful). It's hard to get an accurate idea of where I fit in the grand-writing-scheme of things when my mom tells me I'm just as good as Jennifer Crusie. (Go ahead and laugh. I get a little snort of laughter every time she tries to sell me that one. The Divine Miss J? I don't think so. I'm not even in the same zip code.)

This well-meant blowing of smoke up nether regions extends beyond my immediate family. Writers groups are marvelously supportive places, but that may not always be a good thing. When your website is a travesty or you are making a grievous career misstep, are they going to tell you that? Or are they going to support you all the way to your next self-sabotaging behavior? We need more than just rubber stamps and yes men. We need people to kick us in the butt when we need it and tell us when we are being idiots.

And God forbid someone should say something negative about a book! With a few notable exceptions (Smart Bitches, Dear Author, Mrs. Giggles), review sites are so gloriously supportive of our books that it's hard to figure out which ones they really like. I love having people tell me they like my book, but if they wax poetic absolutely everything they read... well, I'm more discriminating than that. And the praise would mean more to me if they were too.

I'm glad I have an editor who will tell me when I need to go back to the drawing board (though sometimes I secretly worry that she's too easy on me). Revisions are designed to make us better, not tear us down. When someone asks me to do better, sure it may sting a bit at first, but I know it's the best thing for me and I'm grateful.

I am capable of more. I won't shatter if more is demanded of me.

I know it seems strange to be complaining about being wrapped up in warm fuzzies, but honesty is paramount for me. Sometimes the honest answer is that I'm not the greatest thing since sliced bread. And that's okay too. It's good actually. I'm still learning. And I need the pressure to try harder. Sometimes we need people who believe in our potential just as much as we do the people who value what we've already achieved.

And when (fingers crossed, knock on wood) I'm a big name, when best seller lists lie down and beg for mercy when they see me coming, I hope I have someone - editor, agent, crit partner - who will kick my butt if I lose my way and start churning out formula pulp. I think one of the worst things a writer can have is the level of success where the people around you turn into giant rubber stamps.

So here's to rejections, revisions, and criticism. Long may they reign.

A Handful of Books

Five! Five is a beautiful number. Hold up all your fingers. Isn't that fun? I've been doing that all week, and now that the ink is dry, I can tell you why (and it ain't cuz I want to be in a Subway commercial).

I sold my fifth book to Samhain!

The third Karmic Consultants story will release as an ebook this spring. It's gonna be a busy year. The Ghost Exterminator this month. The Tickle My Fantasy print anthology in December. Serengeti Storm in January. And now, both the Shifting Dreams print anthology and a new Karmic Consultants ebook in April.

I've certainly got plenty to be thankful for, so a big ole HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all you Canadians out there. Enjoy your holiday!

Ebb and Flow

You know what bugs me, as a reader? This new trend where everything has to be all-action-all-the-time because we, as readers, have been immunized by the internet, television and movies to have short attention spans and want every moment to be an I-can't-put-it-down moment. What happened to good ole ebb and flow?

I'm reading this book, which shall remain nameless, in which the heroine is "startled nearly to death" by the loud noise some makes pounding on a door. The funny thing is this: she is watching the person pound on the door. So she should have expected a noise, just not the volume.

Maybe it's just me, but "startled nearly to death" doesn't leave you far to go in the amping-up-the-dramatic-tension department. By making even the most innocuous scenes into Def Con One, the really dramatic scenes lose impact. She was scared nearly to death by a loud noise... so how am I supposed to feel when she's fighting for her life ten pages later? I've stopped feeling anything about this book and these characters because the author wants me to feel so much all the time. Every second is high drama, high tension.

Of course, the opposite can be an issue too. I watched There Will Be Blood last night. Two and a half hours that felt like four. Perhaps I was in the wrong mood for it. I just didn't have patience for long slow scenes with characters I didn't like. Huge long stretches of nothing happening were punctuated by moments of action and character interaction, but I couldn't make myself care about it when things were actually happening because my brain checked out during the extended pointless scenes of characters walking or swimming or just sitting. There were long stretches where the drama was so understated as to be nearly non-existent.

You know what movie was great at maintaining tension through long, slow scenes? Inglorious Bastards. It was surprisingly subtle, the way the tension flared through the silences. The inherent drama of each situation was played out to perfection. Even though very little was happening on an overt level, there was so much there. (Or maybe I just thought that because it's Quentin Terrantino and I knew gore might errupt at any moment.)

So the trick seems to be in finding the balance. The ebb and flow between too much and too little. It can't be all adrenaline all the time or the reader will burn out and lose interest. Even that Jason Statham movie where he has to keep his heartrate up or he dies has moments - albeit brief ones - of tension release.

RWA Photo Journal #2 - RITA/Golden Heart Awards Ceremony

My pictorial accounting of the RWA National Conference continues... it's Saturday, the day of the big ole RITA/Golden Heart Awards Ceremony.

Photo #13: At the Golden Heart Rehearsal thingy, I see The Room. It's... uh... kinda big. (This photo is taken from beneath the giant floating head screen.)


Photo #14: Kelly Fitzpatrick and I primp for Awards Night and this is the result. I couldn't make my hair do anything I wanted it to all night. *sigh*

Photo #15: We arrive early (because we're supposed to and I'm nothing if not an obeyer of rules - when I like the rules). The room is slowly starting to fill. Please note 1) the room is freaking huge. Yes, that is the screen on which people's giant floating heads are projected. And 2) everyone who is already seated is texting. Yee-haw technology.
Before the ceremony starts, I go a little nuts and take pictures of everyone...

Photo #16: It's Sara Ramsey & Terry!

Photo #17: Jenn Bray-Weber looks too gorgeous for words seven months pregnant. (This is a very early shot of her precious little girl.)

Photo #18: Heather McCollum and her kilt-wearing hubby. (I know, I know, I should have gotten a shot of the kilt. Mea culpa.)

Photo #19: Me and Amanda Brice.

Photo #20: Best Picture Ever! Is it me and Sara Ramsey? Why, yes, it is. But what's this? Who's that in the background? Could that possibly be ELOISA-areyoufreakingkiddingme-JAMES and JULIA-ohmyfreakinggod-QUINN sitting right behind us? Why, yes. I do believe it is. (And we totally knew they were back there and slouched down as much as we could to try to squeeze them into the shot. Fan-obsessed? Okay, maybe a little.)

The ceremony commences.

Photo #21: Sara looks like a rockstar giving her speech. She sounds poised and fabulous.

Photo #22: I look like an idiot giving my speech. What the hell kind of face is that to make? I must have made it the entire time because every picture of me looks like that. Ugh.


Photo #23: Oooooh... Is that a Golden Heart? Or, dare I say, two?

Photo #24: Doesn't Shelli Stevens look fabulous?

Photo #25: Look, Ma! It's a speech! Note: The scribbling random words on your palm method is not a recommended speech-giving procedure.

Photo #26: Because Golden Heart Winners are totally dignified. Heh. Yeah. Dignified.