Thinky thoughts on writing - long post is long and all about me me me
Specifically, on writing m/m stories which, if there as any doubt at all, Long Way Home is.
I am sitting in the library at UTA, waiting for class. I have about 45 minutes, and though being a student again at my old university deserves a post as I have tons of thinky thoughts about life as a returned student, I'll stick to this topic.
Five years thereabouts have passed since I first sold A Red-Tainted Silence. It wasn't my first sale--Home Is Where the Murder Is, a traditional mystery (and I grin at the 'traditional' - I write anything but traditional now). It was with a small press, and got good happy buzz but probably made roughly, oh, 1k off it? Maybe? And then the spouse got sick and I stopped writing.
When I went back--about a year and a half after his heart surgery--life was very different. It was hard. I was the only physically-well parent, our lives revolved around Kel's heart, my son was having a very hard time dealing, and needless to say, Kel was living on borrowed time, knew it, refused to talk about it, and I was left to deal with everything. My weight skyrocketed, my health plummeted. I had no release for my own fears and emotions because I was too busy sacrificing my sanity and health for my family. It was a rough, rough time.
I turned to fiction, as so many do, and stumbled upon slash. I didn't want to read about m/f relationships that were all golden and lovely (unlike my own) but I am a romantic, and well... hello slash! It wasn't soon after devouring all the LOTR slash I could find (ELVES, YO) that I fell into the Savage Garden fandom, and was directed here by klgrem, to whom I dedicated ARTS. :) HI LINDA!
I started to write ARTS though back then it was called Odyssey, and was inspired by a Savage Garden video someone named AussieRay had put together about their breakup. Since I always wrote in first person, I decided I wanted to write a story loosely based on that video, and almost 300k words later, Odyssey was done. :)
The special thing about that story though was how much of myself--the parts I couldn't express--were poured into that book, into the characters. There really is a valid reason they are so emotional! I could not be, so they were. They were my voice, my release.
Eventually, about six months after Kel died, I decided to take the kids to Seattle where we met a then-friend (who ended up betraying me and my kids spectacularly, and Nick, and others too), to a writers con. Met Jim Butcher there, and all the Loose-Id people. I rewrote the first chapter of Odyssey, renamed it based on a line in the story, and entered into the con's contest. It came in second! WTH! WOO!!!!
Though I pitched to Ellora's Cave, I am so grateful they passed, and I got to utilize the card that was passed down the table to me from one of the Loose-Id editors. She'd been waiting to hear from me. They bought the story, now completely revamped, made me cut almost 60k (YIKES) and I waited for it to come out.
I told next to no one. The climate back then for ebooks was very different from today. I celebrated its release with close friends and my kids, and went on, both elated and devastated that the book of my heart was done, and out there. It was raw and rough to put that story out there, and as reviews came in over the years I just simply didn't feel like I would ever write any more m/m.
People's minds change, including mine, and I started to miss writing, but fear also struck--it'd been so long since I'd written! Could I really do it again? I'd stayed in touch with my editor, sorta-kinda-not-really, because I have received royalties on the book ever since--but certain things had to click before I finally realized what I honestly wanted to do was write another m/m story.
Part of the huge reason I did was the fan letters. So amazing are they! Wow! The emails asking for Lee's story made me start thinking...and in 2008 when Nick came to visit, and we went to see the Dallas Ballet, an idea formed. It has taken me since then to finally bring this book to life, and I haven't been happier.
So much has changed in the meantime--especially the last year or so, in epublishing and such. I make more money now for ARTS than I used to, and then GoodReads' m/m group decided to choose ARTS as their book of the month read. I about died when amproof, who has known me all this time, told me. SAY WHAT? ME? MY BOOK? OMG!!!!!
This time around, I am 'out' about what I write to far more people than I ever imagined I would, given 'what' I write. But I am proud now in ways I wasn't in the past, proud and happy to be telling stories people seem to want to read. It is a very welcoming world, writing m/m fiction, and frankly, profitable--far more than I honestly imagined it would be. Of course, time will tell just how much but... as a person on unemployment I am VERY excited to see. :)
What is next? Not too long ago, I hadn't considered making writing m/m a full-time endeavour, but I've changed my mind. I'm revamping a certain story for Loose-Id, and want to write a story based on one of the characters in Long Way Home. I love being epublished, love writing for Loose-Id, loved working with my editor, Raven of the purple comic sans :), love sharing the journey with Nick, my friends here who embrace my choice wholly, all of you.
This is what I am meant to do, and so, here I am. I still love and want to write my fantasies but given a choice, for now, I'm concentrating on this. It feels good and right and exciting and my mind is bursting with other stories to tell for my readers. I am hoping that they start asking for this other character's story...I think they will, he needs one bad, lol. My goal is to get the editing on this rewrite done asap, get it turned in, and then between now and the end of 2012 write three more. That is a lot, but given ARTS took a year, LWH took THREE... But, writing the Merlin Big Bang was a purposeful exercise to see if I could write a manuscript-length story (100k for me) in six months or less, and I did. I also felt like I finally got my writing groove back with that story and I am so very grateful. Next one, I want to write in four. That should be enough time, if I focus on one story at a time.
Anyway, think I will wrap up this thinky post, and get out my rewrite in the time left before class. I have a lot to fix and add to that thing, and am excited about what I am doing to it.
Am so happy to be writing again and now I know I'll never stop again. :)
End of thinky me thoughts!!
I am sitting in the library at UTA, waiting for class. I have about 45 minutes, and though being a student again at my old university deserves a post as I have tons of thinky thoughts about life as a returned student, I'll stick to this topic.
Five years thereabouts have passed since I first sold A Red-Tainted Silence. It wasn't my first sale--Home Is Where the Murder Is, a traditional mystery (and I grin at the 'traditional' - I write anything but traditional now). It was with a small press, and got good happy buzz but probably made roughly, oh, 1k off it? Maybe? And then the spouse got sick and I stopped writing.
When I went back--about a year and a half after his heart surgery--life was very different. It was hard. I was the only physically-well parent, our lives revolved around Kel's heart, my son was having a very hard time dealing, and needless to say, Kel was living on borrowed time, knew it, refused to talk about it, and I was left to deal with everything. My weight skyrocketed, my health plummeted. I had no release for my own fears and emotions because I was too busy sacrificing my sanity and health for my family. It was a rough, rough time.
I turned to fiction, as so many do, and stumbled upon slash. I didn't want to read about m/f relationships that were all golden and lovely (unlike my own) but I am a romantic, and well... hello slash! It wasn't soon after devouring all the LOTR slash I could find (ELVES, YO) that I fell into the Savage Garden fandom, and was directed here by klgrem, to whom I dedicated ARTS. :) HI LINDA!
I started to write ARTS though back then it was called Odyssey, and was inspired by a Savage Garden video someone named AussieRay had put together about their breakup. Since I always wrote in first person, I decided I wanted to write a story loosely based on that video, and almost 300k words later, Odyssey was done. :)
The special thing about that story though was how much of myself--the parts I couldn't express--were poured into that book, into the characters. There really is a valid reason they are so emotional! I could not be, so they were. They were my voice, my release.
Eventually, about six months after Kel died, I decided to take the kids to Seattle where we met a then-friend (who ended up betraying me and my kids spectacularly, and Nick, and others too), to a writers con. Met Jim Butcher there, and all the Loose-Id people. I rewrote the first chapter of Odyssey, renamed it based on a line in the story, and entered into the con's contest. It came in second! WTH! WOO!!!!
Though I pitched to Ellora's Cave, I am so grateful they passed, and I got to utilize the card that was passed down the table to me from one of the Loose-Id editors. She'd been waiting to hear from me. They bought the story, now completely revamped, made me cut almost 60k (YIKES) and I waited for it to come out.
I told next to no one. The climate back then for ebooks was very different from today. I celebrated its release with close friends and my kids, and went on, both elated and devastated that the book of my heart was done, and out there. It was raw and rough to put that story out there, and as reviews came in over the years I just simply didn't feel like I would ever write any more m/m.
People's minds change, including mine, and I started to miss writing, but fear also struck--it'd been so long since I'd written! Could I really do it again? I'd stayed in touch with my editor, sorta-kinda-not-really, because I have received royalties on the book ever since--but certain things had to click before I finally realized what I honestly wanted to do was write another m/m story.
Part of the huge reason I did was the fan letters. So amazing are they! Wow! The emails asking for Lee's story made me start thinking...and in 2008 when Nick came to visit, and we went to see the Dallas Ballet, an idea formed. It has taken me since then to finally bring this book to life, and I haven't been happier.
So much has changed in the meantime--especially the last year or so, in epublishing and such. I make more money now for ARTS than I used to, and then GoodReads' m/m group decided to choose ARTS as their book of the month read. I about died when amproof, who has known me all this time, told me. SAY WHAT? ME? MY BOOK? OMG!!!!!
This time around, I am 'out' about what I write to far more people than I ever imagined I would, given 'what' I write. But I am proud now in ways I wasn't in the past, proud and happy to be telling stories people seem to want to read. It is a very welcoming world, writing m/m fiction, and frankly, profitable--far more than I honestly imagined it would be. Of course, time will tell just how much but... as a person on unemployment I am VERY excited to see. :)
What is next? Not too long ago, I hadn't considered making writing m/m a full-time endeavour, but I've changed my mind. I'm revamping a certain story for Loose-Id, and want to write a story based on one of the characters in Long Way Home. I love being epublished, love writing for Loose-Id, loved working with my editor, Raven of the purple comic sans :), love sharing the journey with Nick, my friends here who embrace my choice wholly, all of you.
This is what I am meant to do, and so, here I am. I still love and want to write my fantasies but given a choice, for now, I'm concentrating on this. It feels good and right and exciting and my mind is bursting with other stories to tell for my readers. I am hoping that they start asking for this other character's story...I think they will, he needs one bad, lol. My goal is to get the editing on this rewrite done asap, get it turned in, and then between now and the end of 2012 write three more. That is a lot, but given ARTS took a year, LWH took THREE... But, writing the Merlin Big Bang was a purposeful exercise to see if I could write a manuscript-length story (100k for me) in six months or less, and I did. I also felt like I finally got my writing groove back with that story and I am so very grateful. Next one, I want to write in four. That should be enough time, if I focus on one story at a time.
Anyway, think I will wrap up this thinky post, and get out my rewrite in the time left before class. I have a lot to fix and add to that thing, and am excited about what I am doing to it.
Am so happy to be writing again and now I know I'll never stop again. :)
End of thinky me thoughts!!