Recently, some events have come together like planets aligning (or the Confluence of the Three Moons – see Sword & Illusion – 31 May), and these things have gotten me to thinking about the difference between good storytelling and good writing. Which is more important?

I read the Twilight series about four years ago or whenever it was, at the insistence of my daughter who loved them. I didn’t.

I will admit that I read books these days like a writer, critiquing as I go, but also, later I kind of analyze what I’ve read. There are many times I ask myself where the author’s critique partners were when books were in their formative stages. What about all the things I’ve learned in all the conferences I’ve attended?

Why is it that some authors can seemingly break all the rules, or at least the big ones, and yet their books not only get published but are wildly successful?

Bella was not a great heroine. She has no wants, needs or desires of her own other than getting Edward. She wasn’t really complete person, and we never got any sense that she had a life before she stepped onto the first page of the book.

I could go on, as I’ve thought a lot about this, but that’s not the point of this post.

Those books were amazingly successful and they do generate discussion, especially among writers. There are people who love the series and others who cringe whenever they’re mentioned.

Regardless of your feelings about them, the author has to be thrilled. They sold, they have rabid fans of all ages, and they have become a cultural phenomenon. What more could an author dream of?

But most of us struggle to hone our craft, attending workshops, reading technical articles, polishing, critiquing, submitting, polishing more. We work hard every day to have our books be the best they can be, to make them shine, sparkle and sing, and yet we collect rejection after rejection, while books that seemingly never saw a critique or an editor’s red pencil soar to the top of the bestseller charts.

There’s a new series out now that is creating the kind of love it or hate it vibe that the Twilight series had. I haven’t read this “book everyone is talking about” except for the first chapter, and again, the writing isn’t great.

Last night, I went to a meeting of the Vacation Bible School committee at our church, and several of the women there – devout Catholic women – were talking about these books. Not just talking, but RAVING about them. One of them even said, “She’s such a good writer.”

I cringed. An author I admire has been doing a chapter by chapter critique of these books over at Goodreads and her post are hilarious.

Even with the not so good writing, the books are selling.

Why? Why do some of us struggle for years to make our work the best it can be and never succeed while someone can write a book riddled with cliches, inconsistencies and characters no one likes and the books soar?

I can’t figure it out. Do some books touch a nerve in readers that have nothing to do with tight, polished writing? Is it that the story hits the target market at exactly the right time? Is it that some stories are so new/timely/primal that they fill a need in their readers’ soul/unconscious/subconscious/some undefinable thing?

If you have any thoughts on the matter, I’d love to hear them. Also, have you read “The book everyone is talking about”? Did you like it? Why? Why not?

My book, Sword & Illusion will be released on 31 May – a mere 16 days from today!!!! I decided to institute Teaser Tuesday, one day a week where I will post snippets of my books for your enjoyment, and I hope, to entice you to put this book on your “To Be Read” pile. I hope to continue this practice even after S&I is released. I also plan to spotlight new releases from my friends.

Today I’m sharing a small bit from early in the book. Moonrazer, the heroine, is talking to her sister, Whiteshadow, about one of Moonrazer’s duties as Exalted Warrior. I hope you enjoy it!

“What is the Confluence?” Adazzra asked.
“You have never seen one,” Moonrazer said. “At the last one, you were back on Awhyrrl dealing with the epidemic. A Confluence is when the three moons of Carrick line up in the sky. The night is nearly as bright as the day then.”
She smiled. “It is a major day of celebration. At the Confluence of the Three Moons, the Crystal Spirits can become manifest and help us decide whether the current Exalted Warrior shall continue her reign, or whether a new one should be chosen. The Sword Bearer is a trusted man who communes with the spirits and listens to their advice. Then he takes the Sword of Justice and either returns it to the reigning Exalted Warrior or names a new one.”
Whiteshadow frowned and said, “Up until now, that snake man has served as Sword Bearer.”
“I am sorry that you disapprove of my friends, sister,” Moonrazer said. “But Olaf is wiser and more trustworthy than any other man I know, and I see no reason that he can’t continue as Sword Bearer.”
“No, sister,” the Mother Prioress said, “you misunderstand my meaning. Tradition states, in the Laws of Lorelii, that the Sword Bearer should be the husband of an Exalted Warrior. Olaf served previously because you had only been Exalted Warrior for a short time and no husband of a prior Exalted Warrior was still alive.”
“I have not chosen a husband.”
“By your fortieth year you must find a mate, or the weakness will come upon you and make you unfit to serve even as a warrior. The Laws of Lorelii state that before then you must furnish a proper husband and Sword Bearer.
“The astronomers tell us that we face a rare event, two conjunctions of the three moons within the next year. By the second, the Crystal Spirits will choose your successor, but by the first you must marry, and that will happen in less than two months.”
She smiled. “To that end, I believe we should summon men from all of the Known Worlds to come and vie for your hand.”
“What?” Moonrazer said, staring at the Mother Prioress. “You want to bring in a line of men and have me mate with one of them? A man I have never met before?”
“Few Sarl men would feel worthy to claim you,” Whiteshadow said. “The only solution I can see is to invite suitors from all over the Known Worlds as well as any of our own men who are willing to participate.”
Moonrazer shook her head. “No, Whiteshadow. I will not do this. I will not select a mate the way I would choose a horse or a sword.”
Whiteshadow bowed again. “As you say, but you must choose by whatever means before the first Conjunction. What I am proposing is the traditional procedure, but I will leave you now so that you can decide how best to fulfill your duty. Please consider the knowledge I have given you in peace and in prayer.” She turned and walked toward the other end of the hall and departed.

Your turn!

Teaser Tuesday is simple. Post a teaser from your latest book on your blog. Link back to this one and add your blog to the list below. Let’s all support each other and check out great new books. You might find a new favorite author!

Let’s talk a little bit about our fictional heroes.

First and foremost, your hero has to be heroic. I know this sounds pretty obvious, but it might not be.

What does it mean for your hero to be heroic? After all, if he’s the hero, then the story revolves around him and he’s the one we’re rooting for and so on. Right?

However, if he doesn’t act like a hero, will we still root for him? Maybe, but don’t we need or deserve more? Surely our heroine does.

Recently, I worked on a story for Crescent Moon Press that will be released soon, but it had a problem with the hero. Since it’s been fixed and the book is wonderful, I think I can tell you a little about it without revealing too much of the story.

In a nutshell, the heroine’s life is in danger from the hero’s brother. The brother literally tries to kill her a couple of times, and while she’s been able to get out of danger, the villain escapes each time.

At one point she tells the hero they have to do something. They have to kill the villain, to which the hero says no, and he gives her a talk about how murder damages your soul and turns you toward being totally evil (there’s a paranormal/demon/witch element to the book). He says he can’t kill someone because his soul will be irreparably harmed. Although it would clearly be self-defense, that doesn’t seem to change his mind.

The heroine asks him what they can do, given that the villain won’t stop until they’re both dead, and the hero tells her they will run. Run and keep running, moving around so the villain can’t find them.

At the end of that version of the story, the hero and heroine are, indeed, on the run.

Clearly, this is not the way a hero should respond to this threat. A hero needs to step up to protect the heroine’s life, and even his own. The idea of a “heroic sacrifice” is an important concept.

Your hero has to be willing to sacrifice even his own life, if need be, to protect the heroine, or even other characters. A real hero would never offer the heroine, the woman he loves, a life of moving around from one motel to another, for the rest of her life.

As I said, the author of this book fixed the problem and the book has a much more satisfying story line now. When the book is released, I’ll make sure you all know it because it’s a wonderful story.

Heroes need to be heroes. They might not be super heroes, Conan clones, or the strong silent types, but they need to be worthy of the heroine or at least, the title “Hero.”

Beta males are heroes, too. They might not have to kill someone to save the heroine’s life, but they still need to be willing to step up and prove they are the man she needs.

Make sure to give your reader a man she can fall in love with, whether he’s an ex-mercenary or a high school science teacher. Your readers will thank you!

I’ve been editing content for Crescent Moon Press for almost a year now, and I just recently finished the first book. I know that sounds odd, and I agree. I wish things had gone faster, but there was apparently some issues at the publisher and some books were accepted and given contracts that shouldn’t have been.

Anyway, I thought maybe aspiring authors might benefit from some of the things I noticed in the books I’ve been working on.

The first thing, and this seems so simple, is that stories, regardless of whether you’re writing a stand alone or part of a series, need a coherent ending. I understand that your big picture might be a story that takes place over several or a dozen books, but each book has to have some kind of real ending.

Maybe you’re writing about an epic war between two huge fantasy empires, and this war will last for five or ten books. That’s fine, but each book also has to have a pretty big story that can be told completely in that book. Just because you stop writing does not mean the story – or the book – is over.

Every author makes a promise to his or her readers at the beginning of a book, the moment of first dramatic action. You promise your reader that that action is the beginning of a ride that will be exciting and fun, but most of all satisfying.

If you’re writing a mystery, you promise your reader that the murderer will be found and justice will be served. You don’t tell the story until three people have been killed, then end it with the idea that the next book will solve the crimes. Your readers will never pick up your second book because you lied to them. You promised to give them a satisfactory ending and you didn’t.

Now, you could write a series where a serial killer is tormenting a town or city and you don’t intend to reveal the killer’s identity until the third book, but that doesn’t mean you can end the first two without some kind of ending. You have to find a way to tell three distinct stories that will move the larger story forward. Each story, in itself, must have a beginning, middle and end, as well.

Think about Episodes Four, Five and Six of the Star Wars saga. Each one has its own story, its own end, but will moves the greater story forward.

For our purposes, though, we need to understand that each story provided a satisfying ending, while still leaving room for a sequel.

IF you are closer to my age and saw what we now call “A New Hope” in theaters, you just called it Star Wars and didn’t know there would be anything else after it. Coincidentally, there had been nothing like it in theaters in forever and it was a phenomenon, but we had no idea of the scope of the saga to come. When A New Hope ended, the Death Star had been destroyed. That was the satisfying ending. We had seen Darth Vader destroy Alderaan early in the book, so we had a picture of how horrible Darth could be, so when Death Star was destroyed, we were satisfied. The whole story had been leading up to that moment.

As a teenager, I missed that Darth Vader survived that last battle, so when I began to see “Darth Vader Lives” pins around, I was surprised and a little scared, let me tell you. Darth was a scary dude!

The point of all this was that there was enough of the story left to continue the saga, but if for some reason George had never gotten another movie made, we would have been happy.

There might have been this big rebellion against the evil empire, but the story focused on a small cast – Luke, Leia and Han and their goal of destroying the Death Star.

You have to do something like this with your books. Even with your epic war fantasy novel, you have to zoom in on a character or a handful of characters your reader can identify with and give them a story that you can tell in one book.

With the serial killer saga, you might focus one book on the main detective and her struggle to get her ex-husband to give her custody of her daughter. The Serial Killer story takes a bit of a back seat, but it’s always there, and you move it forward, too.

It might sound like a lot, and it is, but by weaving this stuff all together and giving your main character center stage, you are able to fulfill your promise to your readers while setting the stage for the next book.

You owe it to your readers to write the best book you can and to lay out your clues and hints and loose ends for your next book, without making them so big that the book doesn’t feel finished.

It’s a tall order but you do yourself no favors by taking short cuts. If you want the second (or third or fifth or tenth) book in your saga to get published, you need to make sure that each of the previous books have a good enough ending that if the series doesn’t go further, your readers will still be happy!

Get out there and write your book!

I don’t know if I can say sold really because the publisher doesn’t pay advances, but earlier this week, Steve and I signed a contract with Astraea Press (www.astraeapress.com) for the publication of Sword & Illusion! The editor said her reader couldn’t put it down and even said it was better than The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings!

I am sure that’s a little over the top, but at least she liked it!

I’m so excited about this!

I’ll keep you updated as more information becomes available.

…when it’s not National Novel Writing Month, which I won, by the way!

I actually got to over 50,000 words on Tuesday (thank you, Rowdy Girls), and felt miserable yesterday with what I think is a sinus thing as I had a headache for three days.

Anyway, I had a brief doctor’s appointment this morning and headed off to the mall to do some Christmas shopping. Oh, I did get about two pages written in the waiting room of the doctor’s office where I found a convenient outlet, so yay!!

I got some gifts at the mall and came home by way of our local Target to get wrapping paper and some other gifty/Christmas-y stuff.

Tangent – What’s with the Justin Beiber wrapping paper and ornaments???? Seriously???

I get Toy Story, Thomas the Tank Engine, even Sponge Bob. Those are kid things and cute, for the most part.

But Beiber??? And there was blue Beiber paper that said Happy Holidays??

I just don’t get it. I don’t get the pink, orange, blue and teal ornaments, either nor the glittery fish ornaments in those colors, but whatever….

Anyway, I went to the checkout and chatted merrily with a wonderfully friendly woman, and it was looking to be a fabulous day.

Until I ran my RedCard through.

We got an email a while back saying we were late a payment on the RedCard. I didn’t see how that could be as I pay every bill when it comes in, but when I paid bills two weeks ago, I sent in the full amount and thought no more about it until today.

I came home, called Target and found out that they haven’t gotten ANY of our payments!!!

Six months ago, we had this issue with payments for the RedCard were going to my husband’s old Target Visa card. That was settled easily, and I changed the bill payment record with our online banking to the RedCard number.

Turns out I typed an 8 where there should have been a 9.

That’s an invalid number and our bank should have been redepositing the payments because Target should have been bouncing the checks, but that hasn’t happened at all.

Now it’s only three months worth of payments but it is enough to damage our credit rating.

After I talked with a nice Target woman on the phone and went through the online banking screens and discovered that the money was not put back in our account, another woman came on the phone and said she had to talk to Steve. His name is on the card, he’s the primary account holder and he needed to just tell her that he’s aware of all this.

I guess we have to find out where the money went – who’s been cashing these checks and get our money back and our account dealt with.

That’s why I didn’t come home and dive right back into The Pigsty Princess!

I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve done it before, but this year I’m very excited because I took the time to plot out a book beforehand, mostly. I had about 3/4 of it plotted before I started writing on November 2.

(November first is a Holy Day of obligation for the Catholic Church and I don’t write on Holy Days or Sundays – those are days of rest.)

When I’ve done this in other years, I ended up “winning” (having 50,000+ words at the end of the month), but I didn’t end up with a book or even something that could be edited into a book. This year, I really think I can finish this and it will be a “real” book.

Because of my work with Crescent Moon Press, I had to miss a few days of my own writing, but today I’m only about 11,000 words from winning.

About a week or so ago, I read an article in the London Guardian (I think) that someone posted on Facebook. It was about Nora Roberts. I have to assume that if you are here, you know who she is, but for those few who always wander in looking for Doctor Who stuff, I’ll just say she is the Queen of the Romance Novel.

She’s super prolific and her fans are as fanatical as they come. I’ve been to several conferences in New Jersey that she attended back in the 90s, but I rarely stood in line to get her to sign a book because I always figured there were other authors just as worthy without the lines. I have this “Pie in the Sky,” “Pay it Forward” attitude that if I buy your book today, maybe you’ll buy mine when it comes out.

Anyway, I know lots of people love Nora, but I was always prepared to believe she was a prima donna or something. There are lots of reasons for this, which don’t matter now.

The point is that I read that she writes every day, all day, and something clicked in my head. I need to focus more on getting lots of words written every day.

This week, Thanksgiving week, my husband took the week off. He’s doing NaNo, too, and Monday we spent the whole day together. Our son had the week off, too, and he’d spent Sunday night with his grandparents. Steve and I went out to breakfast, then to lunch and sat together on our sofa and wrote all day. (We wrote in the coffee shop, too.)

I wrote over 6,000 words that day!

I think in terms of pages and that’s over 24 pages. A definite record for me.

The next day, Steve went to work because he had to teach a class, but even doing some laundry and cleaning the kitchen and going to the chiropractor, I wrote about 5,000 words – (approx. 20 pages). I proved that I could do this!

So I’m so excited about my new found productivity.

My critique group, The Rowdy Girls, has met a few times to just write. They were here last night and we worked for about four hours, just writing. Okay some talking, laughing and drinking wine, but I did end the day with 5,566 words written.

Heartla met today and we wrote for an hour.

After the meeting I had to run to Walgreens to get a Rx filled for my son. I had to wait, and fortunately there is an outlet near the chairs so I pulled out my computer, plugged her in and wrote.

When the prescription was done, the clerk apologized and asked if I’d just gotten all set up. I said no.

“I’m a writer so I try to get new stuff written whenever I can,” I said.

“I understand,” she said. “I’m a reader.”

I immediately pulled out my card and handed it to her and told her about our Readers’ Luncheon. You never know where you might find a new reader.

I hope she stops by here and says hello if she does. She made me smile today and gave me more motivation to get new words written!

Have a great day everyone, and please say hello if you stop by!

Hi, all! I hope you’re having a great weekend, even though it’s still kind of early on Saturday morning.

Last night, after we put our son to bed, I settled my computer on my lap in bed and checked my email. I got a note from Lin, an editor from Crescent Moon Press, an epublisher for whom I’m doing editing (but no acquisitions, so don’t send me manuscripts!). I’m currently in the middle, technically, of editing two books for them. I say technically because I only have one of them on my computer right now, and I’m waiting for the author to send me the other one.

Lin just wrong to see how things were going and asked if I’d be interested in editing a Middle Grade book. I’m quite excited about this because Steve has a Middle Grade book he’s written that’s he’s been talking about self-publishing. I’m interested in seeing how his book stands up to one that CMP has purchased.

So, now I’m focusing on getting my current assignment finished to I can move on to the next one!

For my own writing, I have a good start on Sword & Infidel but I’ve set it aside until I see if Sword & Illusion sells. I don’t want to waste my writing time on a project that may never see the light of day.

So, now I’m debating on what to work on. I want to do NaNoWriMo this year, so I’m holding off on writing Pigsty Princess until then. I got an idea for a shapeshifting jewel thief detective last weekend so I’ve been working on that one, AND the Lost Ring of Queen Foo that Noah and I’ve been talking about. I just don’t have one book that I’m focusing on now.

My critique group, The Rowdy Girls, meets on Tuesday and I need to submit something to them this weekend.

So, I guess I should get writing! Later, y’all!

Can you spot the imposter in the picture? Couldn't pass up a chance to include a guinea pig in my post!

My daughter recently got an internship with a big NYC literary agency. It is exactly the internship and the kind of job she wants and she is thrilled. Busy, stressed, but thrilled.

It’s all “virtual” in that she still lives in her apartment near the LSU campus and is taking classes, but she works two or three days for the agency, reading manuscripts they send her and stuff like that. All online.

Last week, she had a conference call for something they call “Intern Academy.” It’s apparently a chance for the interns to ask questions about the publishing industry and books and such.

She was totally freaked out by this because, as she said, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” I told her she’s an intern and by definition she doesn’t know what she’s doing. Plus, I said, “I don’t think anyone in any kind of creative, ‘thinking’ job thinks they know what they’re doing.”

I know several multi-published authors who finish a book and are convinced that’s the last one they will ever write. I worked as a Kelly girl for years and I often DIDN’T know what I was doing because it was my first day on the job or sometimes my only day in that office and the training was little to none. But there were other times when I worked some place for months and still often felt like I was just making it up as I went along.

I was in the Army for two years and always felt like I wasn’t REALLY in because I was in the Intelligence and Security Command and after basic training, it wasn’t really very military, and I was terrified someone would realize that I wasn’t really a soldier. To this day, I’m a little chagrined to stand up on Veterans’ Day with all the guys who served in war. I was in during “peace time,” if you can call the Cold War that, and don’t feel worthy to stand with people who literally risked their lives for the country, but that’s a different story.

The point is that EVERYONE, I think, who is doing “skilled” work, sometimes feels like an imposter.

Maybe if you are a dog walker or mow lawns or flip burgers for a living you might not feel that way about your job, but you might feel it about something else.

None of us, I maintain, ever REALLY feels like a grown-up, and therefore, we never really feel like we know what we’re doing.

I know I don’t.

What do you think?

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think God is really trying to get my attention, possibly because I haven’t been paying attention before!

Well, I feel like this is happening a lot lately and I’ve started looking around to see what He’s trying to get me to change. Because, ultimately, He wouldn’t be trying to hard to get me to listen if I were doing all the right things in the first place.

I keep hearing a song on the radio by Steven Curtis Chapman called Do Everything. I’d post the video here but experience has taught me that it wouldn’t work anyway, but go to YouTube and look for it if you don’t know the song.

The basic message is to “Do Everything You Do for the Glory of God.”

Years ago, I tried to figure out how that’s even possible. At the time I was the wife of a graduate student and the mom of a little girl about four or five years old. We were living in a trailer and seriously had no money. I was thinking about being a writer and people would suggest that I go to a book store and buy the kinds of books I wanted to write and study them. They just didn’t get that I literally didn’t have the money to buy books!

Doing my daily chores and life stuff for the glory of God just didn’t compute. How did defrosting a freezer or folding clothes glorify God? Didn’t I need to be praying endless Rosaries or going out and finding the homeless and bringing them back to my house to feed and clothe?

We actually did take care of a homeless guy for awhile but frankly, he wanted to drink and break windows more than he wanted new clothes or food.

Now it’s years later, and I’m older and I hope, more mature in my walk with Jesus. Last summer, when I went to RWA Nationals, I got a very strong feeling that God was reaffirming to me that He wants me to write. The speakers all seemed to be telling me that and even the missal at the church I went to Mass on Sunday morning had a picture on the cover labeled, “Jesus the Storyteller.” I felt like God was sitting next to me, saying, “Look, I gave you the talent and the desire to write. What are you going to do about it?”

A year has gone by and I’ve finished my book, sent it to an agent, and am still looking. I’m also working on the second book in the series along with a middle grade fantasy novel based on stories my son tells.

But if I’m getting this message that I need to do everything for the glory of God, what am I missing?

Well, of course I know. I’m not working hard enough on my writing. I waste a lot of time on computer games, Facebook, whatever.

And there’s more.

This was the year I said I was going to meet my weight loss goals, and that’s not looking so promising now. I hate tracking my food and I love ice cream.

But, I’m starting to get a new perspective. Today’s second reading this morning was Romans 12:1-2 and as I followed along in the missal I felt that 2×4 to my head (or my heart, maybe) again. Verse 2 especially:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Okay, so I’m now seeing things a little differently. When I want to do something, I’ve started asking myself, “Does this bring glory to God?”

If I’m folding clothes or cleaning the bathroom or emptying the dishwasher, I’ve started to realize that those things bless my family and I’ve been called to be a mom so if I do mom things then I bring glory to God.

If I sit down and write my word quota, then since I’m called to write, I bring glory to God.

If I spend an hour playing Word with Friends or Frontierville, I’m not bringing glory to God if my other tasks are being neglected. Games and pasttimes are not evil but they’re not my calling.

Sundays are a day of rest and I can play games then. I can also sew for my family and that’s renewing to my spirit, too, so I can bring glory to God by blessing my family with clothing or lovely things to look at or quilts to keep them warm. I can make gifts to bless others, too.

If I’m eating healthy food to nourish my temple of the Holy Spirit, I bring glory to God.

If I stuff my face with cake and cookies, to the exclusion of good food, I don’t.

I don’t know where this all will lead me but it’s a journey I’m looking forward to.