Category: Writing

Posts in which we talk about the writing craft and process

Stories of Gods and Heroes. . .

Updated on November 17, 2022 by carolyn

A few days ago I was ~~procrastinating~~ ~~marketing myself~~ on social media– oh all right, I was on twitter when someone tweeted that Bullfinch’s Mythology was free on Amazon.

Well, hot diggity! FREE!

So I clicked on through and took a look and yes, Bullfinch’s Mythology was indeed free. It was a public domain copy put out by the Gutenberg Project. There was a comment by one Richard Martin to the effect that he’d gotten several inquiries about the book from concerned people, and that yes, the book was indeed Bullfinch’s Mythology in its entirety, but it was not the 1991 Harper-Collin’s version that he had edited and commented on.

In 1991, Martin was an associate professor of Classics at Princeton. It was a really gracious comment, and it made me click around until I found the 1991 edition and could read about that, and then, DESPITE the existence of a completely free version of the myths, I bought the 1991 version. Its was only available used and it wasn’t all that cheap, but a well documented resource is gold.

The book, a library edition in excellent condition, arrived today and right there on the front it says:

The Age of Fable
The Age of Chivalry
Legends of Charlemagne

I was immediately cast back to my childhood, when I loved mythology, and gods and creatures lived in my head, and in those stories, there were often large glimpses of women who did things. Goddesses were as fearsome as gods.

This book has a list of proverbial expressions, illustrations, dictionary and index, a bibliography, and maps and charts. You’d think that alone is reason to celebrate the acquisition, but you know what? That’s not it.

It was this:

I opened to the table of contents and very first heading is this:

Stories of Gods and Heroes

Don’t you, right now this minute, want to pick up a book (paper or not) and have an adventure?

I do.

Posted in Former Riskies, Research, Writing | Tagged adventures, Bullfinch, Mythology | 2 Replies

One day, After All the Editors Went Home, the Slush Pile and an Abandoned Marketing Research Plan Partied Hard

Updated on November 17, 2022 by carolyn

I’d like to continue Diane’s discussion about Historical Romance. I’ve now been writing long enough that I have “survived” cycles. At least twice since I published my first novel (a historical romance!) the Historical has been declared dead. Vampires have been dead. (BWAHAHAHAHAAHAH! Ohmygod you have no idea how fun that was to write!) Westerns: Dead. Contemporary Romance: Dead. Romantic Suspense: Dead. Zombies: The Walking Dead.

What I have continued to hear throughout my writing life is that Regencies sell and sell a lot. You can’t sell Victorian! ::::Courtney Milan:::: You can’t sell Edwardian ::::Sherry Thomas:::: You can’t sell Georgian ::::Jo Beverly:::: No more Scotsmen! And for God’s sake, not Culloden! ::::Monica McCarty::::

For a long while, the Angsty Historical was IN IN IN!! Right now, they’re a hard sell. Oh my GOD!! Nobody tell Cecilia Grant! And what about lighthearted historical romances? Are they In or Out? The answer is yes.

Publishers will always buy more of what’s sold in the past, and they will keep doing that until 1) people stop buying them and/or 2) someone comes along with an extraordinary book that breaks with the past– because editors, while of course they buy what’s sold in the past, also, from time to time, buy a damn good book that isn’t like what’s popular. And should that damn good book break out, then of course publishers will buy more of that, too.

Now there’s self-publishing thrown in there. But first, what’s the one thing publishing DOESN’T do that every other company does? Yes. Market testing. Publishing doesn’t survey the end-user. They don’t focus group covers or (to my knowledge) A/B test anything. Publishers know next to nothing about what readers are inclined to buy. The traditional market, driven by middlemen who purchase for Big Stores, has removed publishers from the consumer who would, in the aggregate, buy more varied books except that the middleman (the stores who buy lots and lots of only a few books) has artificially whittled down the selection.

In other words, the genetic diversity required for a robust, healthy population withered away in the face of a dangerous inbreeding. The problem with limited diversity is you don’t realize it’s unhealthy until the offspring are dying. Or one of the studs or brood mares dies. In this somewhat tortured analogy, the offspring are the books, the studs and brood mares are the Big Chains.

One day, After All the Editors Went Home, the Slush Pile and an Abandoned Marketing Research Plan Partied Hard

Nine months later …..

A baby!!!

They named it Self-publishing. But all its rowdy friends call it Indie for short.

Because, really, what is self-publishing but one big genetically diverse market test for publishers? Setting aside all the missteps so far, self-publishing is a crucible from which shiny new kinds of stories emerge market-tested. Traditional publishers can watch what catches on, and place their bets with greater confidence than before. 50 Shades proved there’s a bigger market for erotic romance than they knew. “New Adult” showed up in self-publishing first. If publishers manage to get their Beer Goggles off, they may find they’re in a good place.

Oh, Historical, Where Art Thou?

As the publishing ecosystem continues its transformation, we’ll see Indie authors do riskier things with their stories — and they can do it because they don’t have to listen to anyone tell them they can’t publish a story with THAT in it. They can write in the mid-Victorian period if they want. And maybe that story will crash and burn because (all other things being equal) what readers want is a Regency. Or a Vampire. Or something else. But there WILL be new and different historicals.

So. What do YOU think?

Posted in Former Riskies, Regency, Writing | Tagged Inbreeding, publishing, Secret Baby, the future of | 10 Replies

In the Parlor with the ?

Updated on November 17, 2022 by carolyn

I’ve been working away on my next Sinclair Sister’s novel. I keep getting interrupted with other work. Hoo boy. However, having realized the other day that I had started the book in the wrong place—

Actually, that gives an incorrect impression that somehow I would have known the REAL chapter 1, if only I were a smarter, better, writer. What I should say is I realized that my current chapter 15 would be an EXCELLENT chapter 1 and that the book will be much much better for moving all the chapters around. It happens that that are currently only two chapters after 15. When I wrote my actual first words, they were a place for me to jump in.

NOW I can get to my post

Anyway, I’ve been working on Lucy and Thrale and thinking about them a lot even though because of all the interruptions I haven’t gotten in as many words as I’d like. And then I realized that I need a place for Thrale to live. I gave him a vague location in Lord Ruin, but now I need to know about the interior and his relationship to it.

This meant I pulled out my reference books to start looking at pictures and diagrams and about five minutes later I started getting annoyed at whoever deiced homes should be build with 8 ft ceilings instead of 10 or 12 feet and THEN I started wondering about the kind of ethos in which a class of persons, who cannot help but see people living in squalid homes, build themselves houses that big and that spacious.

Sometimes, when I’m staring out my window thinking about a plot point, or character issue, I think wouldn’t it be nice to be a bird? Because then I wouldn’t have to go to work. I’d just flit around all day looking for seeds or bugs or what have you. Plus, birds don’t stay up too late and then remember 4.5 hours later why it was a bad idea to keep reading :::damnalarmclock:::

And THEN I remember that birds also do not have grocery stores. They have to get their own food ALL THE TIME and there are predators who think of them as dinner.

There WAS such a thing as Bad Taste

And so, as I flip through the pages of my Lost Mansions of Mayfair, glad, after all, that I am not a bird, I see photographic evidence of people with a lot more money than most. Some of them built big houses and then decorated the decorations until you think your eyes might actually bleed. It is in fact, possible to go too far with the bling. Seriously. There must have been some snickering going on with people who thought bling is an additive property. MORE!! MORE!!! Byzantene Good. Rococo Great! Byzantine AND Rococo BETTTER!!!!!

Then again, suppose you hired cheap with the architectural work and when you come see your new home for the first time? GAHHHHH!!! And you blew your wad on someone who thinks there’s no such thing as too busy.

While I’m on the subject, sometimes I see pictures of period gowns and I think the dress is ugly. There. I said it. Some of those dresses had too much frilly crap all over the place.

Thrale’s Fate?

So, what kind of house does Thrale have? I think maybe his father had awful taste…..

ETA: Sorry about the late post! I put the wrong date when I scheduled it. Sheesh.

Posted in Former Riskies, Regency, Writing | Tagged gowns. dresses, Houses, Sinclair sisters | 3 Replies

Style. Sort of.

Updated on November 17, 2022 by carolyn

For me, the early stage of writing a book tends to be the most difficult. The story I see and feel in my head is not what’s getting down on paper and, despite the fact that I know better, I continue to be stubborn about the direction to go. And every time I go through this I think about the story I read about celebrated mystery writer Rex Stout, who, this story went, would sit down at his typewriter and write his story and keep going until he was done. One version, no revisions necessary. Done. And what about Michael Moorcock whose book on the subject of writing seemed, to me, to be so blithe about the difficulties– I know I came away with the impression that he didn’t feel writing was difficult at all. Whenever he felt stuck, he put his characters under attack. Not plot moppets but plot attacks!

I’m at that dangerous place in my story where I always think about giving up and writing something else… That shinier story that has the advantage of not having 15 chapters of awful.

Inspiration!

But then I’ll see something inspiring, like the dress pictured in this blog post: I found that, by the way, from a tweet by Candice Hern. If you’re not following her on twitter, you should be.

Go look at that dress.

It’s just gorgeous. Now I want to write a scene where my heroine is wearing a gown like that. How, how I ask you, could a hero NOT fall in love with a woman wearing a dress like that? Imagine how it would look in candlelight. :::sigh:::

Step Away From the Keyboard, Ma’am

This is why I should never be allowed near the internet:

First, I thought, WAIT! PINTEREST! I can pin that beautiful gold gown! So I go to pinterest and wonder, when I get there, why there are so many pictures of Arjun Rampal and then I got distracted (safe for work except, well, if anyone sees you it will be obvious you’re not working….) Really: I have 4 boards (5 now) and the only ones with more than one pin are my books and Arjun Rampal.

Anyway, I managed to create a board to pin the gold gown and THEN I ended up at this website Regency Society of America with its posting section on fabrics and then Esty where I looked at gorgeous pictures of Regency-style wedding gowns AND THIS website, Reproduction Fabrics.

So right. I better end this post here.

Who’s on Pinterest? Leave your pinterest info in the comments so I can follow your stuff.

Posted in Former Riskies, Frivolity, Regency, Writing | Tagged Also the Regency, Arjun Rampal, Beautifal gowns, Pinterest, The Internet | 6 Replies

The First Third

Updated on November 17, 2022 by carolyn

I’m working away at The Next Historical and I’m making progress. The story is starting to gel which, you know; :::Sigh of Relief::: This writing gig is hard work. Yesterday when I was reading through my current chapter one, I thought to myself, hey! This is pretty good! :::runs around cheering::::

I’ve hit the first third of the story when typically things are slightly less sucky and slightly more focused. It’s a good feeling.

I think I might have mentioned already that at first the book was set in London. I was reading a lot of my Epicure’s Almanack that the dog chewed on and I was all ready to start using some of that great research. But then I ended up moving the story to the country and so far no one is showing any sign of wanting—

omg, I just had a great idea! ROAD TRIP!!!!! They will travel somewhere…. and do something…. and exciting stuff will happen!!! And there will be hotel rooms and possibly shenanigans.

—to leave the country.

That does not mean my research was wasted because, as it turns out, this whole section I read on a totally wild, extravagant party that Ryder made up (it NEEDS to be TRUE!!!) has turned into this backstory-ish thing based on that and it’s working out well.