writing

Time After Time

annabowling Leave a comment

My original concept for this entry was to write about my adventures as a historical nomad, and that’s still probably where things are ultimately going. First, though, a slight detour. When I logged into Facebook this morning, it showed me my daily memory, a link to my first Hypercritical Gremlins post, here:

https://annacbowling.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/hypercritical-gremlin-interview-part-one/

Technically, it’s the Hypercritical Gremlins’ birthday. Okay, not technically, as they did exist before I gave them a name or a voice on my blog, but funny thing about that; giving them blog space took away some of their power. They’ve been mostly quiet of late, and I consider that to be a good thing. I finished my initial draft of Her Last First Kiss, and Melva and I are a good chunk of the way into  the Beach Ball, so yeah, I think letting the gremlins out once in a while actually has some benefits. Happy Birthday, guys. I’d lob a cupcake into the closet for them, but A) I do not have any cupcakes, and B) if I did, I would not throw them into closets. Maybe a couple of pieces of hard candy will suffice. Spirit of the thing, more than the letter of it, and all that stuff.

Back to historical nomad-ness. Vagabondary? Whatever I want to call it, I’ve always been that way. When I was but a wee little princess, I lumped all historical eras into what my father called “the olden days.” I seriously thought that was how it worked, which was A) kind of confusing, and B) partially explains how it made perfect sense for me to reenact the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet with my Jane and Johnny west figures. I want to say I was maybe four? Five? At any rate, young. I grew up on fairy tales, and my dad’s strong interest in the 1920s. We lived in Westchester County, NY, where relics of the Revolutionary war were commonplace; stone walls built by the Dutch settlers still marked land boundaries, and the town itself had been burned to the ground during the war, but for one house (Can a historical romance writer hear that and not get ideas about why that one house was spared? No, she cannot.) and there is a fence around the Bedford Oak, which is more than five hundred years old and still hanging in there. Talk about living history.

We also made frequent trips into NYC, where the turn of the century (and prior) architecture still holds echoes of times long past. Not all that different from where I currently live, in Albany. A five minute walk will take me to Washington Park, where continental army soldiers drilled. The name, Schuyler, is everywhere, and yes, those Schuylers, Hamilton fans. I remember, once, when my mom levied the worst possible punishment (no idea what I did, but she had her reasons) for teeny me -I had to sit facing a blank wall and not talk to her for x amount of time- I was allowed paper and crayons (likely for her sanity more than my amusement) and spent my time figuring out what the planets would have been named if the names were taken from different pantheistic  mythologies than what they were. This was entirely my own idea, and I was pretty heavy into mythology when I was in about first grade, so it was probably then. I remember asking her if there was any kind of grownup job that involved reading myths all the time, and she said no, there was not. Guess she forgot about “writer,” because that’s where I landed. Stories are, and always will be, my happy place, even if that place moves around a lot.

I popped my current paperback read, The Queen’s Christmas Summons, into today’s deskscape because of the sheer strength of the grabby hands I made at it as soon as I saw it on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. Standalone (as far as I know; if it’s not, please do not disillusion me; it’s Christmas, or nearly so, and I do love my standalones) Christmas Tudor Romance. Did Amanda McCabe (another historical nomad, as she’s written Tudor, Regency, and 1920s so far; must investigate further) read my diary? No, she did not, because I do not have one, but if I could have designed the perfect concept for the sort of book I was in the mood for when I went to the store that day, that would be it, to the letter. There may or may not have been happy dancing right there in the aisle. (Okay, there was.) The Tudor era was the first one I fell in love with as a setting for historical romance, and I chased after it like a madwoman. Not used a lot these days in historical romance (and whyever not, because it’s perfect for it, but that’s another topic) but I love it all the same. Ditto for a later discovery, the Stuart > English Civil War/Interregum> Restoration era(s,) which I touched on in Orphans in the Storm.

My Outcast Heart, my first published novel, is set in 1720 Bedford, NY, where I spent the first ten years of my life. and still a favorite place to visit. Queen of the Ocean took me to 16th century (technically, my first Tudor era romance; I did not even put that together until right now) Cornwall, and Never Too Late brought me to turn of the twentieth century (aka Edwardian.) England and Italy.  Her Last First Kiss could be set nowhere else but Georgian England, which seems to be my current default, back to the era that surrounded me in my childhood, even if it’s on the other side of the pond. I still have my postapocalyptic (oh, tell me the Black Plague wasn’t an apocalypse to the survivors, and we are going to wrangle) medieval romance to finish editing, and I don’t think my historical travels are going to end there.

TLDR (too long, didn’t read) version: I love history. I love romance. I love historical romance, in all its various eras and places and tying myself down to one is not going to work. So, I don’t. Love is love, in any era, no matter how hard life might have been. Isn’t it in the hardest times that we need love the most? Must’ve worked, because we’re all here, so people did fall in love and make more people back in the olden days, or there wouldn’t be any contemporary folk.  That whole “proof of a thousand loves” thing: I’m sticking with that.

So This is Christmas Week

annabowling 4 Comments

Yeah, big surprise, I have no idea what I’m going to talk about today, but we are burning daylight here, so I am going to jump in with both feet and trust that I am going to be somewhere by the end of the magic seven hundred, at the very least. Christmas week is in full swing now, and The Day is Sunday. That’s six days until Christmas, seven until my favorite tucked-away week arrives. Blabbity blabbity holiday. Blabbity blabbity Christmas books and Christmas movies and changing holiday plans and related blabbity blab.

Christmas spirit is not the problem here, because I have plenty of that. Our Christmas lights are awesome in our living room, there is a park full of lights literally five minutes’ walk from our house, I am charging through this blog entry, because I am heading out to grab somebody’s present. Yesterday. our church went out into the community to spread some love; the team Housemate and I were on got to give out hot drinks and cookies to passersby, which was fun, and for sure put me over the line into the holiday feeling, so that’s not even close to it. I’m not even sure there is an “it,” but I am still me, and I still have space to fill here, so I am not deleting anything because this is blog entry time. I am going to trace my slightly off-center-ness (well, today at least) on the fact that I was not the only person in the laundromat this morning. Far from it.

Okay, think I got something. The reason I like to be the only person in the laundromat is because it’s a good thinky place, when I’m alone. It’s also excellent for acoustics if I want to, for example, take the earbuds out of my phone and feed my current musical theater addiction, which usually is what I want to do. Not exactly polite when there are other people there, who may not share my tastes in music, and/or would like to be left alone, so they can do their laundry and get on back to the rest of their lives. If there are people there, I am going to people watch, which is also good, but it’s a different dynamic.

I like to know what I’m getting into, so if I know I’m not going to be the only person there, that’s fine. I’ll prepare for the experience and go in with different expectations. If I am the only one there, then it’s great for turning laundry time into writing time, whether that’s free writing (which it was, to a small extent, today) or actual working on one of my current WIPs. That’s what I’d expected, but not what happened. What happened was that I stuck my earbuds in my ears and stuck my nose in the paperback copy of Dark Champion, one of Jo Beverley’s only four medieval, and did the laundry. When I got back, I checked in on Real Life Romance hero, fed Skye, and bundled myself in to my office, where it was time to hang out with Guy and Girl for a while. That, I can do, and having one space that is mine, and the presence of anyone else is by invitation only, really does make a huge difference.

So what does this all have to do with Christmas week? Not a lot, and everything. On the one hand, it’s a regular week. I’m the only one who can get Hero and Heroine’s story into a form where other people can read it. I’m half of the team for Guy and Girl’s story. Blog entries have to go up, because 1) I like blogging, and 2) the discipline matters. That’s why there are entries that are completely or partly composed of seemingly random blather. There is writing through the blather, which I do need, partly to remind myself that blather isn’t bad. Blather is taking the scenic route to what I want to share with others. Nothing wrong with that. As one might guess, that’s the “not a lot” part.

The “everything” part is where I also remind myself that this actually is the week leading up to my favorite day of the year and my favorite week of the year, immediately following said day. It comes once a year. Once. No do-overs, no rainchecks, no reschedules. This is it, the one shot I get for this year, and, if I miss it, I have to wait a whole other year. I am not willing to wait a whole other year. Thus begins the juggling act. The left foot, right foot of working on these WIPs and the special work of making sure our family is ready for the holiday. Not a big production this year (although I do love those; never too early to plan for 2017) but still taking the quiet moments to rest and connect and appreciate what makes the entire year something special.

Not sure if this actually did go anywhere, but it’s over the magic 700, it’s written, and the Hypercritical Gremlins are mostly shushed, so I am calling this a win. Hoping for a more focused post on Wednesday, and if I ramble again, well, that’s okay, too. My blog, my rules. How’s your holiday week looking?

 

Typing With Wet Claws: Happy Anniversary To Me Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

Hello, all. Skye here, for another Feline Friday. This is a very special edition, because yesterday was my ninth anniversary of getting adopted and becoming a pet. I was ten months old when Mama and Anty came to the shelter to get me. I had been living there since I was six months old. Before that, I was wild, because I was born that way. I did not stay that way, though, because the rescue people found me when I got hurt by a car, and they took care of me until my humans could find me. I did not know what was happening on my adoption day. The rescue humans put me in a carrier, like when they took me to the pokey place. I did not want to go the pokey place and see a vet, but that is not what happened.

What happened was that Mama and Anty came to the shelter. They did not know I was already in the carrier, so they talked about how much they wanted to meet the kitty they were going to take home. They talked about how Olivia, their other cat, had gone to Rainbow Bridge, and how sad they were because of that. I did not want these nice humans to be sad, because that made me sad, too. I was already sad, so that means I got sadder, but the story is not over there (obviously, because you are reading this.) The rescue humans showed Mama and Anty where I was, and then they got happy, because of me. They asked if I wanted to come live with them and if they could call me Skye. I think my response was something like, “um, okay?” because I still did not know what was going on, but other humans who came to take kitties to that home place were always happy. Happy humans are my favorite kind. One of the rescue humans helped put my carrier in Mama’s car, and Anty called Uncle at his work to let him know I was coming home. She told him other things, too, like what kind of kitty I was (Maine Coon, which I still am) and what color I was (brown tabby) and that I had a ginger spot on my head (it is the only orange fur on my whole entire me) and that I was scared but still a good kitty.

Everybody was very patient with me while I got used to being in my new home. Anty even thought it was funny when I tried to nurse on her toe (Anty says we miss one hundred percent of the shots we don’t take) and now it is one of her favorite Baby Skye stories. She says that adopting me crossed “Christmas kitten” off her bucket list (maybe that is one of the reasons “Skye Bucket” is one of her names for me?) but being adopted by my humans crossed “get a home” off mine. It is a good home.

It does not, however, get me out of talking about Anty’s writing (she let me go first this week because it was my adoptiversary.) As usual, Anty has her post at Buried Under Romance to share with you. This week, she talked about romance novels and related items as holiday gifts (if you have gifts yet to buy for reading friends, books are good ones. Especially Anty’s. Anty gets really happy when people buy her books.) That post is here: http://www.buriedunderromance.com/2016/12/saturday-discussion-the-gift-of-romance.html#comment-9289 and it looks like this:

bur121216

 

Anty also has a new post at Heroes and Heartbreakers, where she talks about six of the shippiest moments on This Is Us. Anty loves writing and she loves This is Us, so this was a fun piece for her to write. Is your favorite couple/moment listed? (My favorite moment was finding out that Clooney, the cat, was okay and even got extra pettings. I hope that was not a spoiler.) That post is here:

http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com/blogs/2016/12/best-this-is-us-moments-of-season-one#comments and it looks like this:

 

handhthisisus

But can we really feel too much? Really?

Another thing Anty wrote about this week was something that helped her pursue three goals at the same time: reading more historical romance, feeling more Christmassy, and writing more about what she reads. That is all because she read My First Noel, by Danelle Harmon, who is a favorite author anyway, (and a very nice human, even if she does have dogs and a horsie. rather than cats.) This book was Miss Danelle’s first time writing in the inspirational genre. Anty was all over that from the concept alone. Her review is posted here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1839106619?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1 and it looks like this:

goodreadsharmonnoel

 

 

If you would like to see all of Anty’s reviews she posts on Goodreads, you can find them here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8485744-anna?shelf=read. If you have read any of Anty’s books so far, and would like to write a review of them, or you are interested in reading them, you can find them on her “I Wrote It” shelf, which is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8485744-anna?shelf=i-wrote-it. Anty would like to say thank you to all the new Goodreads friends she made this week. She is always up for more Goodreads friends, and has plans to make her “I Wrote It” shelf bigger in the coming year. I will keep you all up to date on that front, as I am very dedicated to my duties as a mews.

That is about it for this week, so I will give the computer back to Anty so she can play with her imaginary friends, and make more books for you to read. Until next time, I remain very truly yours,

skyebye

Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling
(the kitty, not the book)

 

How to Eat an Elephant

annabowling 2 Comments

This past Saturday, Capitol Region Romance Writers had our annual member appreciation meeting. That’s when we gather together to celebrate everything our chapter sisters and brothers (yep, we got dudes) have achieved during the calendar year. There’s the big stuff – new releases, new contracts, first books, tenth books, twenty-fifth books-  and there’s stuff that may not seem as big on the surface, but is every bit as important – kept writing, attended a conference, gave workshops, volunteered for chapter or organization, etc- and the atmosphere is supportive and celebratory. My co-host, the fabulous K.A. Mitchell,( http://www.kamitchell.com/) cheered us all on, and suggested networking opportunities to encourage us to go better, harder, faster, longer for 2017. I love that stuff.

Not everybody participated in the survey of member achievements, and I get that. I almost didn’t, myself. Some people don’t want the attention, thanks, and, for others, something like this might give self-doubt a foothold, because other people are hitting these big milestones, and then there’s the person staring at the list, thinking they’ll never get there. Thankfully, the Hypercritical Gremlins seem to be keeping mostly quiet these days, and I only got a trace echo of “EVERYBODY WILL KNOW YOU ARE A GIANT FRAUD” because no, I’m not. I’m going to call that good.

I had wanted 2016 to be the year I could check off that I had my fifth published work. That’s not what happened. The only TARDIS I own is a night light (and even that belongs to Real Life Romance Hero) so I can’t go back to this past January and make things different. What I can do is go forward from where I am right now, which is not in so deep a hole I can’t get out of it. From a certain perspective, it isn’t a hole at all. I’m working on two manuscripts, have another, my postapocalyptic medieval novella, that really only needs an edit and formatting (okay, and a cover) to go all indie on 2017. I have posts for Heroes and Heartbreakers slated, I write a weekly discussion post on the topic of romance novel reading every Saturday (barring technical difficulties, that’s about fifty of them a year, baby. 5-0. Not small potatoes by any means.) I blog here three times a week (okay, fine, two entries from me and one from Skye, but I do have a blogging cat, so that’s something special right there.) Even so, could I have done better? Well, I hope so. If this is the pinnacle of my success, I’m going to go cry in a blanket fort (but I’m taking my computer with me, so I can play Sims.)

There’s only a few weeks left in 2016, so I am looking 2017-ward from here. Not going to lie, I want to be one of those, at next year’s member appreciation meeting, walking away with one of the big prizes. If I release or sell a book to a publisher, that puts me at fifth published work, and that does get the big prize. (There’s actually a choice, and one of said choices is a padfolio. Anyone who has known me for more than about five minutes knows about me and stationery. New readers who do not, check the AnnaLog tag. It’s all there. )

So, how do I get there? Dragging out the old Japanese proverb of a journey of a thousand miles beginning with a single step feels cliché  (but things are cliché because there is an element of truth to them) so, instead, I am going to use a favorite Dutch proverb instead. Pray to God and row to shore. Finishing a book means writing a book. Slapping the duct tape over the Hypercritical Gremlins, boarding over their closet (spray painting “Don’t open, dead inside” a la The Walking Dead is optional, but adds a certain degree of panache, as well as a much needed reminder in the weak moments.

I’m still not sure exactly how I’m going to organize the work, but meeting goals is the same as eating an elephant. One bite at a time. For those who are fans of Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, think one-inch picture frames. Little bits. Remember I’ve done this before. Remember the encouragement of chapter mates. Remember what it feels like to hear from a reader who connected with my story, that I’m not shouting into a black hole, after all. Remember why I started writing in the first place. Remember what it felt like to send that first manuscript off to the very first publisher, and what it felt like to open The Email, the one who actually bought Dalby and Tabetha’s story. If a hermit and a subsistence farmer can find love, there’s hope for all of us, I’d imagine.

So, that’s how it’s going today. Blog entry. Article. Would love to get some fiction in as well, and if the end of the day comes before then, that only means I know what’s first on the to-do list for tomorrow.

Typing With Wet Claws: Reading Rambles Edition

annabowling 4 Comments

Hello, all. Skye here, for another Feline Friday. It is now almost exactly two weeks until Christmas. Anty has hopes the tree will be up before then (so do I; I do not climb it, like some kitties do, or sit underneath it like my predecessor, Olivia, did, but I like to look at it, because it has sparkly lights and shiny balls and I can imagine what I would do if I could get to it.) but Anty and Mama put the white lights around the doorways to the dining room and Uncle’s office, so it is starting to look festive around here.

It is also starting to sound very clicky around here. By clicky, I mean the sound the computer keys make when Anty pounds on them. With her fingers, that is, not a baseball bat. She only does that in her imagination when she is frustrated. That happens sometimes. The end of the year is coming (one week after Christmas, so that is soon) and that makes Anty want to clear her desk of writing obligations for 2016. She is already working on goals, especially regarding fiction. She would like to be both reading and writing more of it, which means I will have more to report on my days to blog. I like to be useful, so this is a good thing.

Before I go any farther (or is it further? Ha, ha, fur-ther. That is funny, because I have a lot of fur. Maybe that joke is funnier for kitties than for humans. Oh, well. Can’t win them all.) I need to tell you where you can read Anty’s writing this week. Her latest Buried Under Romance post is all about reading rituals. Do you have any reading rituals you observe? I highly recommend having a super fluffy kitty sleeping peacefully nearby, preferably with a full tummy from food and treats. That always makes the reading experience better. Especially for the kitty. If you would like to read Anty’s take on the matter, the post is here: http://www.buriedunderromance.com/2016/12/saturday-discussion-reading-rituals.html#comment-9267  and it looks like this:

 

burritual

What are your reading rituals?

 

 

Anty’s binge on Matthew Quick novels continues, as you can see in her review of The Silver Linings Playbook (only of the book; she has not seen the movie, and now is not sure if she wants to, because she researched the differences and she knows what they changed. Word of warning, do not get her started on the movie version of Paper Towns cutting out her two favorite parts, because she is never going to be over that. Trust me on this one.) here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1832682800?utm_medium=email&utm_source=rating  and it looks like this:

grsilverlinings

Anty is now over halfway done with Love May Fail, which is told in four different parts, in four different viewpoints, all combining to make one story. Anty likes that kind of thing, and she very much likes the author’s voice (that is his writing voice, not his speaking voice, which she has never heard, so she cannot talk about that) and the kinds of stories that he tells. She would like to be reading more historical romance, and that will come, because that is still her favorite, but when she gets one of these urges to gobble everything by a new to her author, then she will follow that. Mr. Quick often has love stories in his novels, but because they are not genre romances, those love stories do not always have to end happily (but they can, and some of them do; the point is that they do not have to) nor are they always the focus.

In a genre romance, the love story does  have to be the main focus, and it does have to have a happy ending. That does not mean that the humans who fall in love never have anything bad happen to them ever again (that is a pretty naïve outlook, if you ask me; I have seen things) or that their story is over-over, and nothing interesting ever happens to them again (Anty and Uncle have been in love a long time, and interesting things happen to them all the time. For instance, they have a cat who can blog. I think that is pretty interesting.) What it does mean is that, no matter what happens in the future, the humans who are in love will have each other. They are together and happy to be that way. Believe it or not, that is the only requirement for a romance novel. The only one, seriously. That is why it puzzles me (and Anty) when people who do not read romance think that all romance novels are the same. That is not even close to being true.

Since Anty has been reading and writing romance for a long time now (three cats’ worth, including me; five, if we count Michelangelo and Francesca, who did not live with Anty, but whom she cat-sat on a regular basis) she is pretty familiar with how a romance novel goes. This year, she has been reading a lot of Young Adult fiction and general fiction by authors who also write Young Adult, because she likes getting some fresh voices in her head, and because she likes the edge many of these stories have. She would like to harness some of that and put it into her historical romances. (Note: I have been right there while she wrote the initial daft of Her Last First Kiss, and I think she is on the right tack for that particular goal.)

Suffice it to say (that is fancy human talk for Anty wants the computer back) that things are going to get very interesting, story-wise, around here, as Anty analyzes the books she is reading and takes from them things she would like to put into her own books. As a dedicated Mews, I will be sure to stay on top of this (figuratively, that is. I am a floor girl.) and let you know what is going on. I think there may be some surprises in store.

That is about it for this week, so, until next time, I remain very truly yours,

skyebye

Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling
(the kitty, not the book)

Place

annabowling 2 Comments

Back when I lived in the old county, Wednesday nights meant one thing for several years; nag group. Two writer friends and I met at one of their houses, had tea, went over work we’d all done during that week, set goals, had a nibble and then some social time. More often than not, there was a four-legged member of our group. Our hostess would let aforementioned four-legged member (of the canine variety) know when it was time to let the humans do human things, with one firmly spoken word: “Place.” Over the course of the years we had nag group, there were a few different canines, as this group was of long standing, but the “place” command remained a constant.

“Place” meant that canine needed to lie down on the cushion next to their bowl, and remain there, quietly. Our hostess did not need to elaborate, because canine understood she (and her husband) meant business. If the human said “place,” then canine was to assume the position. This comes to mind now because one of my disciplines is to do as much work as possible in my office, which is pretty much my Place these days.

Place in progress, to be honest here, because the surrounding area may or may not look like booknado blew through it a couple of dozen times. All right, it’s not that bad, but there’s enough going right that we do have a degree of leveling up going on here. One will note that the  wallpaper is generic, because I haven’t set a new one yet. Abbie and Ichabod are hiding their file (which does not surprise me) and the new setup also means that whatever my wallpaper is on my laptop is automatically also the lock screen on my desktop. I am not sure how that happened (probably something to do with syncing) and I’m not sure I like it, even though it is kind of neat, in an objective, isn’t-technology-great kind of sense. As long as aforementioned technology will help me get stories from my brain to yours, (and play Sims) then I am fine and will deal, but I do miss the different wallpapers. I’m not sure how I feel about my devices talking to each other like that when I am not included in the conversation. I’ve been through enough robot uprisings to have an opinion on this sort of thing.

I was going somewhere with this. Maybe the fact that I am writing this entry, not from the pictured desk, but from the lap desk in the living room (you know, the big, distract-y one with off-white walls and sunlight and family members tromping through, and TV right there in line of sight, the “where does the Christmas tree go?” question still unanswered, and tonight looking okay for putting up of said decorations) has something to do with it.

Contrast the office. When I’m in there, my brain knows that making stories is the whole point of the place. That’s why there is the desk I’ve been in love with since I was but a wee princess of two or three. That’s why there is a computer and a wifi extender, and enough notebooks to build a fort, if necessary, and enough pens to write in all of them. This place is primed and ready to go (apart from lock screen and printer that insists it is jammed when there is no paper in it, ahem) so it’s all on me now. I’m in the factory, so time to make the product. It’s not that revolutionary a concept. That’s pretty much how things work.

With only weeks left in 2016, I’m looking forward to starting 2017 on the right foot. A big part of that is making the office not only my hobbit hole, but home base. Making it my Place. That’s where I go when I work. That’s where stories happen. When I’m finished writing my morning pages, the next thing on my mind is, “that’s done, what else can I do here?” The answer? Anything. That’s both exciting and scary, and I think I can deal with that balance. The squares of Kraft paper sticky notes on the top of the monitor are my tasks for the day, what I need to get done to move closer to my goals, closer to getting these stories from my brain to yours. I like having them there. They remind me what steps I need to take to get from this place to the next.

 

Does That Mean There Is Quietermilk?

annabowling 2 Comments

Days become weeks
Weeks become months
Months become way back when

      -Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, “Holding On”

During the weekend, I had an idea for this blog entry. Do not ask me what that idea was, because I do not know anymore. I am not even going to try and take a wild guess. Not even a stab in its general direction. That ship has sailed, so what you get instead is blabber, because “blog entry” is the next thing on my to-do list, and sleep was not that great this weekend, which means my mind is a muddle. Which means it is time to impose some order on chaos. Which means making lists and prioritizing.

Today’s quote is from the musical, Tales From the Bad Years. No, I’ve never seen it, but I have been listening to many of the songs from it repeatedly over the last couple of weeks. I haven’t played any Christmas music yet, which is unusual for me. I mean nothing. Seriously. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nada. I’m not not-in the Christmas spirit, but it hasn’t kicked in yet. Maybe that’s because the decorations are still not up. Fingers crossed for tomorrow. Maybe then it will feel real. We’ve had sickies in our house for the last…three weeks? Four? Maybe that has something to do with it. I have Christmas books at hand, and have not cracked the covers on any of them, either.

No, wait, that’s not right. I am reading For Christmas, Forever, by Barbara Samuel, originally published under her Ruth Wind pseudonym, on my phone. I don’t read a lot of category romance, but I would read Barbara Samuel’s grocery list in a heartbeat. Pounce on that sucker like a starving hyena, I would, and that might be underselling my theoretical behavior. We need to make that clear at the outset. Still, I don’t read a lot of category, and the combination of intrigue and Christmas has me in uncharted territory, but the voice is still there, and that’s what I wanted (besides the whole Christmas angle) so that balances things out. Combine that with my devouring of Matthew Quick novels (be forewarned, I may get whiny when I finish the ones I have on hand, because then I will have read all currently published ones; why do I keep doing this to myself, again?) and rationing Dark Champion, the second of Jo Beverley’s medieval historical romances (I do sorely wish she had written more medieval, but there are loads of her Regencies and some of her Georgians I have not yet read. She is, sadly, another one who has left us, so when I am done, I will be done. At least with reading new to me titles for the first time.)

But back to the music. I wish I could say how it was I stumbled across the Kerrigan-Lowdermilk team, but I am going to say it was either Spotify or YouTube. I like to follow bunny trails, of things I might like, based on things I already like, and I’ve been using both of the above frequently as of late, so it’s probably one of the two. When an authorial voice catches my attention like that, I like to hunt down as much of it as I can. When that voice belongs to a songwriting team, and said songs are in the realm of musical theater, that makes my blood do a skippity skip, because that means that there are, somewhere out there, a plethora of different interpretations of the same songs, by different performers.

I love that kind of thing. I can find Actor A’s performance of Song X, take that in, find what I like about it and what I would direct them to do differently, then take in different takes on the material by Actor B, Actor C, Actor D, etc. Gender flipped, with or without changes in pronouns, solos divided into duets or multiple singers, and vice versa. Stage performances, cabaret, concert, professional, student, etc, etc. Bring all of that stuff right on over here, because it goes straight into ye olde creative well.

On the official page for Tales From The Bad Years, (find it here: http://kerrigan-lowdermilk.com/shows/tales-from-the-bad-years) the blurb about the show concludes with “There’s no doubt that the bad years make the best stories.” That resonated with me, and reminds me that it was the very title, Tales From The Bad Years, that told me this was something I had to investigate. I’m glad I did. Though I haven’t seen the show, or read the script, I’ve listened to the available songs, so, if I had to shelve it in a genre, I would put it in New Adult. Again, not a genre, in the contemporary fiction sense, with which I have any degree of familiarity, apart from the Going The Distance series by Lark O’Neal (http://www.larkoneal.com/) -who is also Barbara Samuel, go figure- but I very clearly got the “Yes. That.” reaction, so I’m listening. A lot. Rolling it around in my head, and letting it seep into my heart. We’ll see what sticks, what combines with all the other things that are in there already, and what else is going into the tank at the same time.

Writers are, by nature, omnivores. If it waves a tentacle at us, and if we grab onto that tentacle, it’s going into us. Becoming part of us. Coming out again in some other form that is our version of that. Calling us to come to a higher level. Making us want to be that good. Work that hard. Make something that has the same effect on somebody else, we would hope. We don’t always know what it’s going to do to us when we recognize it, but that moment when we know that yes, that new thing we like, it’s ours now, that’s something we need to hold onto and see where it takes us

The lines at the top of this entry are one of those things that stick. The inevitable passage of time, the reminder that my track record for getting through stuff has been 100% so far, so odds are that’s probably going to continue. Not smooth sailing all the way, because how boring would a story like that be, seriously? The knowledge that a current stressor will one day be a story to tell, of something that happened “way back when,” that’s encouraging. I can work with that.

 

 

Typing With Wet Claws: Successfully Extended Edition

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Hello, all. Skye here, for another Feline Friday. I think that I would probably be blogging today, even if it were not Friday, because Anty is in a mood. Anty did not sleep that great last night, and she had to make two trips to the Laundromat this morning. It was almost three. When she came home from the second trip, she noticed right away that there was a particular aroma. That aroma was my um, stuff. A big stuff, actually, right near the apartment door, and exactly where Anty’s foot went when she took her first step inside. Anty leaves her outside shoes on the landing, so she took that step in her stocking foot, and her step turned into a skid. Uncle says he cannot describe the sound Anty made, but he knew it had to be something interesting. He was right.  Anty had to do some creative walking to get to the bathroom so she could put her dirty socks in the next laundry bin, and get my scoop so she could get rid of my stuff. Then she fed me, so it all worked out okay in the end.

Before I talk about anything else, I need to talk about Anty’s writing first. Her most recent post at Buried Under Romance is here:
http://www.buriedunderromance.com/2016/11/saturday-discussion-making-a-reading-list-and-checking-it-twice.html

and it looks like this:

bur

Anty also posted a review of a book that had a big effect on her, Every Exquisite Thing, by Matthew Quick, on Goodreads. If I ever get a turtle brother (I do not think that is likey, but one never knows) Anty says his name will be Unproductive Ted, because of a turtle that is a book that is in this book. I did not mistype that (even though I have special paws) – there is a book inside this book that is special to the main character and her friends. Anty had to hug this book after she finished reading it, and she went right back to the library, to get two more books by the same author. Those had a similar effect on her, and she will probably talk about that more, later. For now, her review is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1823317233

and it looks like this:

goodreadseet

 

Anty is going to find more books by this author, so she can figure out what she likes about his work this much, and how she can incorporate it in her historical romance writing. One of his books, Silver Linings Playbook, was made into a movie, and it won an Oscar, which is the award for really good movie things. Anty is going to watch that movie, too, but she does not know when. She has a lot going on these days, especially now that she and Mama got the wifi booster. The booster worked, and now Anty can talk to the interwebs from her office. When she goes into her office to work, I either wait outside the door, if it is only a little time she is in there. If she is in there a longer time, I will go sleep by her recliner, because I know she will go there eventually. Yesterday, she wrote a chapter for her book with Anty Melva, and got it all done in one go, because she was able to concentrate. Anty said that felt super good. I still think she might want to consider getting rid of that carpet, because then I would spend more time in there with her.

Christmas decorations are slated to go up tomorrow, but it is not out of the question for things to get bumped back a little further if something unexpected comes up; Anty loves to get her decorations up as soon as possible, but she is also a realist. Sometimes, things happen. The decorations will get put up in plenty of time for Christmas, so there is no use getting all concerned about it. In the same way, the books are going to get written, and they are going to find their ways into the hands of readers, so there is no use in getting worried about that, either.

As long as Anty keeps moving forward with both books (and with her posts for other sites) then she will, probably before she knows it, find herself at The End. Then it will be time to write more books. She has to remind herself to focus on this book now (actually these books now, because she is working on two) but that does not mean she cannot make notes and file them away for later. That is actually a good thing, because Anty does best when her tank is filled, and she knows what she is doing. The more she knows before it is time to start writing the story, the easier the writing goes. Anty says the view is pretty good from up there, back in the saddle.

That is about it for this week. Until next time, I remain very truly yours,

skyebye

Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling
(the kitty, not the book)

 

 

 

One Way or Another

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This morning, I finished filling my fifth morning pages book, so I think it’s safe to say that I’ve found something that works to keep me writing every day. Even on days when morning pages are the only thing I write (and there are some of those, especially when in the grips of the Cold That Will Not Die) I have written two pages, first thing in the morning, and my mother was right – the more I do, the more I want to do.

Yesterday, Real Life Romance Hero asked me what I was planning to do for the day. My first answer was “figure out how far behind I am, and make a plan on how to get current.” My second answer was “That or watch Netflix from a blanket fort.” RLRH said something along the lines of “you can’t write anything if you’re dead,” which I took as a vote for the blanket fort. In the end, I split the difference. No Netflix was watched, alas, but I did have a nap, and I did write. I also found out that the options for getting Internet connection on my office computer are:

 

  1. Move the modem.
  2. Move the computer.
  3. Get a wifi signal booster.

 

The first two options crossed themselves off the list in an astoundingly short amount of time:

  1. This house was built around 1890, when the Internet was not anybody’s top concern, because the Internet did not exist. Therefore, there are a limited amount of outlets, which means the next available outlet to which we could move the modem was :drumroll please: about five feet in an office-ward direction, but also took it out of the living room, where all the rest of the devices get the majority of their use, and it made absolutely no difference in the signal in my office, which is to say none.
  2. Moving the computer would defeat the purpose of having the computer in my office, which is where I want to be doing the majority of my work. I prefer using my desktop for big chunks of work, in my comfy office chair, behind my closed door, because family knows that closed door = working. Also, my poor, beleaguered eyeballs are much happier with the big monitor, and, with the closed door, I am far less likely to fall prey to distractions. The only places I could move the whole setup to, if I had to move it, under protest, would be A) the dining room, and B) the living room. Dining room could be possible if absolutely needed, but there is the matter of prewar ceilings and burned out overhead lighting. Also, the dining room is tiny and has only one outlet. Living room would put me in the same middle-of-everything spot I am with the laptop, so no.

Clearly, the wifi booster is the obvious winner here. Part of me is curmudgeon enough to want a plan B, in case my office truly is a dead zone and even the booster doesn’t do the trick. As a once-upon-a-time friend once said, I would need a tech manual to operate a butter churn. I am not the most technologically minded person on this (or probably any other) planet. I am also reminded of a writer’s workshop I once attended, where the presenter asked everyone in the room who considered themselves an optimist to raise their hand. I was literally the only person who did not do so. So, the presenter asked, would I identify as a pessimist? I took a third option: realist. A thing might work, or a thing might not. Both outcomes are possible. If I plan for both outcomes, then I’m prepared for either. In this case, the booster will pinch the pocket a bit, but I will be able to do everything I want behind my office door (Virginia Woolf really was on to something with her whole room of one’s own thing) or it will be a noble experiment, and I will find some way of moving the entire setup into the dining room when I want Internet.

The realist in me does not mind either outcome. I’d prefer the former, but if it’s the latter, then so be it. Whatever gets things done, gets things done. Those who have been reading this blog for a while know I’m ansty. Getting back on the horse can be one hell of a ride in and of itself, but, when one is finally back in the saddle (mine happens to be a very lovely office chair) one wants to actually have something to show for it. In my case, books.

I’ve called my office my Hobbit Hole in the past, and that still pretty much rings true. Get inside, shut the door, music on, notebook or computer file (or both) open, and watch me go. it took long enough to get to this place that I want to stick my flag in it and go full steam ahead. If that means moving machinery around, then that’s what I’m going to do. I’d prefer not to have to do it, but if that’s what it takes, well, okay, then. Hero and Heroine, and Guy and Girl want to meet all of you, and the only way that can happen is if I write (or co-write) their whole stories.

One of my favorite memories of my From Fan Fiction to Fantastic Fiction (now called Play In Your Own Sandbox, Keep All the Toys) was when one student shared her experience of co-writing her long form fic with a friend who lived 200 miles away. Every Friday night, she would dismantle her big early 80s desktop computer (this was long, long ago, obviously,) pack it in her car, drive 200 miles to her friend’s house, where she would unpack it, set it up there, and she and her friend would spend the entire weekend writing. Then reverse the process, go back home and do the responsible adult thing from Monday through Friday night, and do it again the next weekend.

I don’t know what happened to that student, though I hope she’s still writing. What I do know is that if she can do that, I can do this. The walk from my office to the dining room is not as far as the journey from sobbing my guts out because writing wouldn’t come. Tomorrow, i start my sixth morning pages book, interestingly enough another copy of the same book that inspired me to start writing morning pages in the first place. Kind of feels like leveling up, in a way, with both of these things happening at the same time. This spring, I will be co-presenting a workshop on blogging. I am writing one book I love, and co-writing another. I have a nice queue of posts for Heroes and Heartbreakers that I can’t wait to share, and we are in the Christmas season, which is my favorite-favorite time of the year. All pretty decent, all things considered.

 

 

 

I am a Weeble

annabowling 2 Comments

First things first: I do not have high hopes for this blog entry. My cold has officially entered week two. I am currently wrestling with in-store pickup for a purchased item that told me I would have it by the 23rd. It is now the 28th. I very strongly want to show up on the item’s one-weeki-versary with a cupcake and balloons, perhaps party hats, and insist on taking a selfie with the worker who “guaranteed” it would be available on Saturday. Item is in store, but being “processed.” Um, long process, dudes. There will be feedback on this one, oh yes there will.

Today, I have made myself get dressed, put on makeup and head to my favorite coffee house, because the need to do normal things is overwhelming. Note that I did not list “do my hair” in the preparations to leave the house, because I have honestly forgotten what  one does with face framing layers, and it’s only one day post wash. Yep. Been in the house too long. I forgot to ask the barista for my customary splash of skim milk, which means my tea now has a splash of the community half and half. Cookie is less because I am getting down to Serious Novel Writing, and more because I have not had lunch and did not want to cook. One look at refrigerator full of delicious Thansgiving leftovers, and nothing but nope. I am dealing with my laptop’s touchpad, because I was too tired to pack the mouse, and wrangling with the mouse cord is not worth the aggravation.

Yesterday, I inhaled Every Exquisite Thing, by Matthew Quick (Skye will provide the link to my rambling review on Friday) and am now emotionally eviscerated. Also mourning a fictional character, and would compare the events of that character needing to be mourned with events of a similar nature in another book whose title and author escape me, but I think I can take a reasonably good stab at the author. At any rate, there’s a similarity in the circumstances, and I’d like to see if I could work that into a historical romance at some point in the future. EET was YA fiction, and the other book, hmmm, I’m going to say horror. Maybe. With YA elements.

This all makes me want to spend more time on historical romance, and I have high hopes for my next few historical romance reads, as well as a clearer focus on returning to the next scene in Her Last First Kiss, so that’s all good.  I also owe half a scene from the Beach Ball, which I hope to get done in the next couple of days, because a) my collaborator, Melva, deserves a reward for her legendary patience, and b) I want this story to progress, because there is more yet to come.

Earlier this week, I’d braved the elements (and Black Friday crowds) because certain things had to be done, even if what I wanted to do was watch Netflix from my blanket fort. As part of that outing, I had lunch at a favorite establishment with Housemate, and talk turned to work. Specifically mine. I asked her how she’d describe my author brand to someone who had never read me before. Since this is a fairly large people group, this question is extremely relevant to my interests. Her answer involved the phrase, “getting back on the horse” and moving forward (even with setbacks) in the face of adversity, in fiction as well as nonfiction.

“So, basically,” I said to her, when she was done, “I’m a Weeble?”

The gist of her response can be whittled down to, “Pretty  much.”

Okay. I can live with that. Seriously, what’s the alternative? Not getting back up after life knocks one down? Not going on, even if it means dancing on phantom limbs or heading off in a slightly or completely different direction? Yeah, no. Not going to do that. That’s not in me. I tried. It didn’t work. It’s not in my characters, either; not in my heroes and heroines, no matter when or where they lived. Apple trees can only grow apples. I want to grow as many apples as I possibly can, and make them into a whole smorgasbord of dishes.

So that’s where I am on this fine Monday morning, now firmly in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Decorations at Stately Bowling Manor would have been going up directly after Thanksgiving dinner, but sick me, so tomorrow is the next projected date. As much as it’s irritating to have to wait for things like that, they payoff is worth it. That moment when Real Life Romance Hero and I tell Housemate to turn off all the lights, and we get that first glimpse of the living room lit by nothing but Christmas lights, that’s where the magic is. Every year, we call it the best tree ever, and, every year, it is.

That’s what I’m shooting for when I type (or co-type) the end on HLFK and the Beach Ball. Best books ever. Well, mine (and semi-mine) at least. That’s all any of us writer types can aim for, with each new endeavor. Make this the best one. Fall down? Yep, going to happen. If it hasn’t, then it only hasn’t happened yet. Fall down? Get up. Get back on the horse. Keep going. I guess it’s my inherent Weeble-ness that keeps things going at times, and I am okay with that.