Category: Archive

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

…is up at All Romance Ebooks here! Also, look for the “Girl on Fire” ARe ad in the July issue of the Romantic Times, and you’ll see Isabella’s lovely cover.

Watch for a review at Book Room Reviews later this week, and I’ll also be guest blogging with them Monday, July 7th. Tracy just had a wonderfully crazy weekend reading books like a madwoman for a Read-A-Thon. Now that sounds right up my alley! Maybe next year…

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Yeah, I know I missed a bunch of days, so this technically isn’t “three” but life happens. In fact, life happens a lot, and if this month goes the way I suspect, I’ll be extremely lucky to get any revisions done at all. But I made a commitment to myself when I shipped NSR out, and so I must work on it as much as I’m able.

This morning, I got up early before work and took a survey of where I am. I managed to add about 4K since I started Revision Hell. Not much at all. However, I smoothed several things that were bothering me. Eliminated some redundancy. Dropped a few more hints early, weaving them in hopefully seamlessly. I re-arranged some sections that were out of order.

Some good changes. I’m back to the Evil Day Job today and will just have to see how the week progresses. My sleep/writing schedule is in tatters right now, and I’m sure if I flip back to this time last year, I’d see the same thing. With the summer hours, I want to stay up late, but the kids are out of school, so they stay up late, which means I don’t get started on MY stuff until even later. If I’m not careful, I’m up until midnight every night, and I start work at 6:30 a.m. Not good. I really need to be in bed by 11:00 if possible, but that hasn’t happened yet.

You’d think it would be easier to get up Dark & Early with the sun, but it’s not, because my body wants to stay up late. Ideally, I’d move to a D&E writing schedule and leave the nights completely open to chance, but I just can’t seem to get up that early. I’m going to experiment this week and see if I can get to bed earlier. Unfortunately, that might cut into this week’s progress. If I oversleep in the morning, and make myself go to bed early, then I won’t see any numbers on the writing.

I’ll just have to see what I can do.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

BUST.

I should have remembered that a day of vacation–with That Man and the monsters underfoot–means no writing time whatsoever. I tinkered with NSR a little, maybe a couple of hundred words, but I’m seriously behind. At this rate, I won’t really get a good start until Monday.

I started reading a VERY high concept book that was VERY disappointing (not by anyone I “know” on the blogosphere, so nobody worry!). I couldn’t even make it 50 pages. What a waste of a good idea.

We watched The Bucket List, which made me bawl. Not a feel-good bawl at all. That Man’s got the new-ish Rambo movie Tivo’d too, which he’ll probably make me suffer through tomorrow.

On the bright side, at this rate, I’ll be EXCITED to return to work on Monday.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I was hoping to get through my entire planning stage last night – each scene of the story documented in a notecard — but it just didn’t happen. Too much drama on the home front. So today I’ll get as far as I can on revisions, and go back and forth with smoothing/fixing to reading ahead and documenting the rest of the story.

Notecards are important for me, although I still haven’t found the perfect way to handle a story yet. Color is highly important when I’m putting a story together, and notecards in the right colors are difficult if not impossible to find. This story actually works pretty well with the neon orange, green, and yellow standard cards since it’s Mayan. These colors would NOT work at all for the Blood and Shadows world (black, red, white). For those stories, I use white notecards and switch back and forth between colored pens. A pain, but it worked enough. The colored cards make it much easier to see the balance of story without flipping through to see the color of ink I used.

Why is this painful process necessary? For me, I need to SEE the story complete in my head like a plotted-out graph or equation. Going back to my numerical analysis background, I don’t like a plot point to deviate too far off the curve (Story) I’m approximating (writing). Maybe that point should be tossed entirely and a better approximation written instead. I also need symmetry and balance, so when I have too many orange cards (Jaid’s POV) in a row, it screams to me that I need a green one (Ruin’s POV) in between. The physical cards and colors help me see the symmetry and shape of the story I’m building in a way that a flat file cannot.

I’ve also been making notes of things to fix as I go, mostly a failure to give the story a strong sense of PLACE. Once the characters converge in my made-up ruin, my setting takes over (because it’s MINE), but up until then, the story could take place anywhere, in any season. Not good. So I’ll definitely work on that in this pass. I chose Texas as the starting point because I’ve lived there. I might as well make use of my memories, even though only a chapter or two actually take place in Texas. (Austin specifically, and we never lived there, but I think I can make it work.)

I’ll update throughout the day with my progress.

• Fixed the setting, sense of place/time/season in chapter 2 with a little paragraph. 64 very important words.
• Cut 180 words from the beginning of chapter 4 – I need to insert a scene in Ruin’s POV instead.
• New 448 word scene in Ruin’s POV to kick off Chapter 4.
• 807 words in Jaid’s POV.

Today’s goal wasn’t met but I got off to a decent start. Hoping for better tomorrow.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Larissa managed to pull off something only Lynn Viehl and Laurell K. Hamilton have done recently. She made me read a book in ONE SITTING.

I picked up Pleasure Unbound over lunch today and then dared to flip through a few pages while I was cooking dinner. I didn’t really know what to expect as far as the demon angle was concerned. They’re not my favorite paranormal creature by any means. Although I’ve enjoyed Larissa’s work before, I didn’t expect to be sucked in so fully. My eyes are killing me, but the book is finished and I just had to blog about it.

Hells bells indeed! What a great read. Very sexy, definitely. I especially adored the relationship between Eidolon, Wraith, and Shade, three brothers of the Seminus (incubi) demon line. Tayla is an incredible heroine, and the conflict and sexual attraction between her and Eidolon just burns on the page.

A mentor once told me that to write a great romance, the conflict had to be extreme. Like if the hero was a firefighter, the heroine had better be an arsonist. In Pleasure Unbound, Tayla is a demon slayer, a member of the Aegis. As far as the demons are concerned, the Aegis are the murderers. When mutilated demons begin showing up at Underworld General Hospital (UGH, giggles), of course Eidolon suspects the Aegis of foul deeds. Naturally, he looks upon the injured human slayer with suspicion, but he’s a doctor first, demon second, although he has a hard time remembering that once his incubus nature takes over. Tayla and Eidolon have very solid reasons for hating and fearing each other, but their relationship develops anyway.

Other than a few little POV shifts (I’m a purist, so I don’t like shifts mid-scene), I was treated to a fun, engrossing story. This is definitely a world I’m looking forward to vising again!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Welcome to Revision Hell!

(Hellacious link courtesy of Larissa Ione)

Goal: Take last year’s NaNoWriMo novel (Night Sun Rising) and expand/polish 63.5K to 80K and prepare for submission by July 31, 2008.

Planning: I have 10K already pretty well polished. That leaves 70K to get through. Obviously, I need to expand since the first draft is short, but through description, plot fixes, and character development, I don’t think 15K will be a problem. Uh, but I have to actually WRITE it.

I have 38 days counting today. Today and tomorrow are planning days. I’ll read through what I have, make notes, do research (e.g. what does Santiago Atitlan look like?), and identify key holes I need to fill. By Thursday, 6/26, I’ll be ready to hit the ground running.

My daily goal is 2500 revised words, up to 30 days. That way I’ll have several days free to make up missed time and for holidays (That Man’s birthday is in July; God help me if we have to move). That number is pretty intimidating, but I’m going to hope for the best with a big showing Thursday and Friday since I’m on vacation. If these were NEW words, I couldn’t make it; however, I have some good solid scenes I’ll be able to cut and paste from. Hopefully it’ll be enough.

So, are you ready to join me in Revision Hell?

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Yeah, I know it’s late. My schedule is all messed up now that summer school is out. Keeping the kids occupied with their various trips, etc. will be crazy for the next six weeks.

As far as writing, it’s not going so hot. I didn’t plan on June being a heavy month, so I guess that’s okay that I haven’t gotten much done this month. I do need to finish up the NSR revisions, though, just in case, and it needs a TON of work. Plus I’m getting a lot of pressure from That Man to move. Yeah. Needless to say, I’m a little bit crazy right now and none of it for a good reason.

I have been reading quite a bit, though. I’m working through Holly Lisle’s The Ruby Key, which I’m enjoying, and I also have Patti O’Shea’s latest book on my pile, as well as a sneak peak at S.L. Viehl’s Omega Games, which I’m dying to read but I’m sort of afraid to, if you know what I mean. (If I take one peek at it, I’ll have to read it straight through and nothing else will get done until I finish the book!!!) Also, her latest Darkyn book comes out in a few weeks, so stay tuned for another giveaway!

I have Thursday and Friday off (That Man’s having some minor out patient surgery) so I’m hoping to do a little mini challenge or something to spark my revisions. If anyone wants to participate with some kind of “revision hell” or whatever, shout it out!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Today was a massive cleaning day. Let me tell you, I’ve never seen bigger slobs than my family. Gah. And spoiled!!! I went through several containers of toys that we’d put in the garage because we didn’t have room in the house. We ended up making two trips to the storage unit, and I’m ashamed to say how much junk we’ll be throwing out. Some of that stuff we hadn’t touched in the two years we’ve lived here, so it was time to toss or donate it, if I can find someone to take it.

Meanwhile, of course, the laundry’s going, and we went and got groceries and had to put them away, which meant I ended up cleaning the pantry too. I guess I’m just in the declutter mode, and I’d better do it while I’m in the mood!

e.g. I’m not neck-deep in writing!

I even took 5 grocery bags of books to the used book store this past week, and I’ve got another sack of DVDs to sell, if I can find a place to take them. Now if I could only declutter my brain at the same time…!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Continuing the story behind Beautiful Death…

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be a caterpillar wrapped tight in darkness? Trapped in that chrysalis, it must wonder if the dawn will ever come, or if darkness and death are all that’s left.

I found myself in a chrysalis with Beautiful Death, and I almost didn’t crawl out of it.

I’m nearly 5 years old as a writer. In the fall of 2003, I wrote two full-length novels that went on to become The Rose of Shanhasson and Road to Shanhasson. The first novels I completed after tinkering for years. Yet they were definitely freshman attempts: raw, silly, and immature. I started learning about the craft of writing, I entered some contests, and even sold two short stories in 2004. In the summer of 2004, I rewrote Rose from scratch again and it had some success in RWA contests that summer. Dorchester even requested the complete of it and I had such huge hopes.

Yet I was teetering on a dangerous slope and didn’t even know it. The waiting game is agonizing at the best of times, and I’d set such high expectations on that beloved story. In the months that followed, I day-dreamed while I began the rewrite of the next book, but month after month went by with no word from NY. I kept writing, but I hesitated to finish that second book until I had an answer on the first. Reading that beloved ms, I felt that something was still missing — but I had no idea how to fix it. My brain tried to reason that it must not be so bad if the full had been requested, but my heart insisted the story wasn’t RIGHT. Not yet.

I started an entirely new book and tried to apply all the theory of writing craft I’d been learning…and that book sucked bracken swamp water. Dismayed, I tried to return to my old beloved world and finish the rewrite of the second book in the series, but I was stalled, badly, with no idea how to proceed. How could I keep going with no answer? When I knew something was wrong?

Other than the first rewrite of Rose, I didn’t finish anything but short stories in 2004. In 2005, I started Beautiful Death. I decided to try my hand at erotica, but it just wasn’t working. It was forced and awkward. I can write sex, sure, and I have nothing against spice and even non-politically-correct Romancelandia topics, but that first 100 pages or so of the first draft was not working. At all.

So now in 2005 I’m sitting looking back at my path so far, with two recent failed novels in my hands and no answer from NY yet (by the way, no answer ever did come, and I withdrew it from consideration when Rose sold to Drollerie). I was crippled. I couldn’t fix Rose. I couldn’t finish BD. I was afraid to start yet another book when I’d failed on the last two attempts. In short, I’d lost all sense of myself as a writer. I had no confidence, no voice, no vision, no heart.

Like a racehorse forced into a carriage harness, I’d kicked and fought my way free of the traces I imagined strangling me, destroying myself in the process. I felt trapped in Romancelandia, but couldn’t keep myself out of the genre no matter how hard I tried. Dismayed, I really thought about quitting. I couldn’t find my place, my voice, and I was tired of failing.

Yet a friend gave me a different perspective. She told me that I needed to find a way to stay — and color as vibrantly as I wanted — within the lines.

For some reason, this made me think of a stained glass butterfly. I’d taken a stained glass class in 2004 before Littlest Monster was born, and I’d enjoyed picking out the various colors of glass and framing each piece within lead to make the picture. My mother-in-law had taken the class with me, and she’d chosen a butterfly pattern. I was tempted to do the same, but pride drove me to do something different. Her finished project was lovely — and totally not what I would have done. I never would have selected those textures and colors of glass. She’d made the pattern her own with her choice of colors in a way I never would have done.

She’d colored within the lines and was thoroughly pleased with her project.

Although I didn’t finish a novel in 2005, I sat down with those 100 pages or so of Beautiful Death and tore it apart. I eliminated all the stuff that wasn’t working for me. I eliminated a few characters that I still miss (Phillip) and used all the craft I’d studied the past two years to start from the beginning. The butterfly metaphor was still with me, and somewhere along the way toward The End I stumbled across Wings of a Butterfly by H.I.M.

For your soul, my love, Rip off the wings of a butterfly.

Oh, how those words spoke to me. I’d ripped off the wings of my writer butterfly. I’d made a sacrifice of my blood and dreams. And only I could make that butterfly fly again.

I set that song on an endless loop and wrote the last chapters straight through, finishing in the middle of the night nearly a year after I’d started BD. One novel in a whole year, after writing 2 (big novels) in 4 months in 2003. Yet that novel was the turning point. It threw my butterfly back into the sky. I remembered why I loved to write. I colored within a lead pattern and found a way to fly again with stained glass wings of my own voice.

Bouyed with the high of finishing BD, I turned back to Rose late in 2006 and murdered my heroine. I mean, I really killed her in my mind and created her fresh. I threw out that entire second draft and started AGAIN from scratch. I finished that draft early in 2007. Moved on to Survive My Fire in Feb. 2007. Sold it in April to Drollerie Press. And the rest is history.

Remember the butterfly if you read Beautiful Death. It’s not just a cool design Icarus uses for inspiration. It’s not just a pin from Isabella’s childhood. When Isabella pulls herself out of the chrysalis, I was pulling myself out too. It’s a desperate, frightening, dangerous birth in which one wrong move can lead to death.

In the end, she learns to fly even with Hades’ silver piercing her wings, and I learned to color within the lines.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Beautiful Death is now available at Drollerie Press here!

Some story behind the story…

I’ve always loved mythology (no surprise if you’ve been reading here long) and Hades in particular, but I never cared for the traditional stories involving Persephone. Whine whine whine. I want to go home. *rolls eyes*

I liked the idea of a “death story,” but I wanted more than the normal everyday Lord of the Underworld.

Some definite influences:

The movie Underworld, which quite honestly, I couldn’t finish. I loved the idea of it, though. The very dark, seductive tone of the movie was cool. I’ve never been much of a fan of werewolves, but vampires, yes, and the battle of the races I thought was very cool, with humans sort of caught between.

But I didn’t want another poor human vs. monster story. My mind sort of turned that around and asked: what if humans were the monsters, and the traditional monster–like vampires–were perhaps innocent or victims?

I certainly didn’t want to write a normal everyday vampire story, either, let alone the typical Alien movie. However, Alien and all its sequels laid a strong foundation for the story. At one time, I called this story an “Alien Underworld” referring to these two movies. Yet I didn’t want monster aliens, though. How about beautiful ones that valued perfection?

And the catalyst: a pandemic virus that obliterated the world as we know it.

I still didn’t have the Greek mythology angle pinned yet. I knew the theme. I knew the catalyst. But who was my protagonist? I was reading a ton of Laurell K. Hamilton at the time, but I didn’t want a whiny character like Anita Blake–she’d be no better than Peresphone who bitched about going home all the time. No, I wanted somebody strong and deadly. Somebody like…Edward, Anita’s friend who’s known as Death. He’s always been one of my favorite characters, and Obsidian Butterfly is still my favorite Anita Blake book.

So I started thinking about a female protagonist whose nickname was Death. Who was she? Hades came to mind first, obviously, but I didn’t want to make Hades a woman. Thanatos, though… The Greek god of Death hasn’t been used that many times, at least that I could remember. Once I settled on Thanatos, and Hades, the underlying mythology fell into place and defined the other characters: Charon, Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Icarus. All warped just a little, of course. For example, Icarus is obsessed with wings and flying, but for a very specific reason that’s central to his relationship with Isabella. Zeus is obviously the father of New Olympia, but to tie him to the virus, he became a famous hematologist who helped develop the vaccine. And more. *winks*

So that’s how the story world came to be. However, it was also a story that I almost quit. I almost quit writing entirely before I finished Beautiful Death. Yet that’ll be a story for another time: how the butterfly decided to fly again.