We Interrupt the Chirping Crickets for… September 22, 2011

Some totally amazing awesomeness!

Seriously.

You’ve all heard me babble and gush about my fabulous cheerleader, and while this post wouldn’t exist without her (you’ll see why in a moment), this post is actually about my first book, The Firestorm Conspiracy, and some amazing people.

So, yes, all my awesome people stories begin with my cheerleader, and this one isn’t any different. You see, when Lyrical released the e-book version of Firestorm, my cheerleader dutifully trotted down to her local library and demanded, begged, bribed, politely asked the librarian to order a copy for the library. She went on, like, the second day it was out…

After my cheerleader chained herself to the doors and refused to eat or leave carefully considering her request, the librarian agreed to purchase a single copy of the e-book for the county’s library system. She immediately hopped onto gchat to tell me about this momentous moment.

I squeed and babbled and gushed, and it was all good.

Then many months later, out of the blue, I received a package in the mail. Inside, with no letter or anything, were some photos (the ones used with permission in this post). On the back of each photo was a detailed caption – basically telling me in words the story of the pictures.

Here’s where the story becomes less about my cheerleader and more about some seriously awesome people…

The story goes something like this:

My cheerleader’s library called her this week to say they had a book they were holding for her. She wasn’t surprised as she gets this call A LOT. A voracious reader, my cheerleader. Anyway, she toddled off to the library to see which of her many books on reserve was in. Little did she expect the librarians to present her with this:

Real live librarians with my book in their library

They ordered a PRINT copy of my book! They wanted my cheerleader to be the first to see it in the stacks since they knew she seemed quite attached to the title. (I can’t imagine why…) They took her on a magical journey through the bookcases until they arrived at “A” in the fiction section.

Look! Look! ZOMG, look!

Firestorm among some illustrious company

Now, if that weren’t *squee* inducing enough, the tale gets better. You see, after they showed my cheerleader where the book would reside, they gleefully said to her, “It can’t go back on the shelf because SOMEONE ELSE HAS RESERVED IT.”

Can you believe it?

Not only is my book in a public library, and in the library’s online catalogue, but someone other than my blessedly amazing cheerleader wants to read my book so much they put it on reserve.

I cried when I read the story on the back of the pictures. You see, my cheerleader could have simply emailed me, or told me on gchat, that her library now has a print copy, but no, she took the trouble to take her camera BACK to the library and make the librarians re-enact the entire event so she could take pics for me.

For me.

And you know what? The librarians totally did. They were so supportive of my friend and her wacky plan to capture the moment for me – I can’t thank them enough.

I’ll never be able to thank my cheerleader for everything she’s done. Her gifts to me go beyond words.

Maybe one day I’ll write her a book…

Wishes and Big Ol’ Fishes June 26, 2011

*Disclaimer: The tale I am about to recount is in no way meant to suggest Janet Reid possesses even the tiniest ounce of “nice,” “kind,” or even “soft-hearted” cartilage in her sharkly form. None whatsoever. NONE, you hear me?*

BEWARE THE SHARKLY ONE!

Okay, then. With that out of the way, let me begin.

You may recall I blogged yesterday about how I’d fared in one of literary agent, Janet Reid’s famous (infamous?) writing contests. If not, you really ought to go back and read that post before going any further here. What? You WANT to know the ending before reading the whole thing? You’re not one of those people who like spoilers, are you? (Because if you are, I so totally am too…)

Sorry, I digressed.

Anyway, tucked away at the bottom of my post was a little comment – well, more like a wish – where I projected my little writer-self into the future and hoped a day would come where the Shark would read one of my books and be so impressed she’d run a contest using words from text I’d written.

I have big hopes for Nikko. Brianne does too. My cheerleader’s arms are going to fall off with all her pom-pom waving. With all this support, I can’t help but believe Nikko is something special.

I was projecting into the future, imagining Ms. Reid reading and loving Nikko – a nice little stroll into fantasyland for me. Until…

Until…

Until I popped by wordpress to check my blog stats. I stared at the spike (not too huge, but noticeable) and said, “Hmm, I wonder what that’s all about?” I scrolled down to look over the search terms people had used to find me (I’m still not sure why anyone Googling debt consolidation, air conditioning, or parole violations would click on my blog, but that’s for another post).

The combination of search terms were all related, and, frankly, made almost as little sense as debt consolidation. And it’s not like these were one-offs… No, more than one person Googled the exact same terms!

“cheryl angst janet reid”

“janet reid & cheryl angst”

Really? Um, Google, why are people looking for Ms. Reid in connection with me?

Several people tried to see if Ms. Reid was the agent who sold The Firestorm Conspiracy (sorry folks, I did that one all on my lonesome long before I wrote the novel that caught my agent’s eye). (My agent is Brianne Mulligan at Movable Type Literary, btw.) (And she’s awesome.)

Sorry, another digression.

Anyway, I was perplexed by the sudden (and significant) number of people checking Ms. Reid and I out, so I wandered back to her blog to see if maybe she’d mentioned my earlier blog post, or accidentally re-posted her reaction to my vlog entry (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TB8ButGTaI) from a contest organized by literary agent, Kathleen Ortiz.

Nope.

She’d posted a new writing contest.

My jaw hit my keyboard. I think I may have snorted some flavoured water. I nearly toppled off my seat.

This is the contest Janet Reid posted: http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2011/06/that-was-so-much-fun-lets-do-it-again.html

Yes, those words are from my book. She ran a contest about one of my books.

*Please refer back to the disclaimer at the top of this post before you get any ideas about the true nature of the Shark.*

Seriously, go re-read the disclaimer.

Finished?

Good. Now that we’re all in agreement that Janet Reid is to be feared AT ALL TIMES, I can wrap up this post:

Janet Reid, you are a rockstar. If I’m ever in New York (you know, to celebrate Nikko or some other, equally awesome book), I’d love to buy you a scotch. Heck, I’ll buy the whole bottle.

C.

A Novel Reality December 12, 2010

I had a lovely conversation with my cheerleader last night than touched upon the notion that at some point I will have a published book to my name. I was planning on working on my edits for The Firestorm Conspiracy (and I so nailed them and sent them back to my editor), and my beloved cheerleader mentioned that soon we will see my book FOR SALE.

I don’t know why, but those two words made my stomach do flips.

Maybe everything has seemed so abstract for so long that it really hasn’t sunk in yet. Maybe I’ve been so focused on other projects that I forgot this was happening. Or maybe I’m one of those people for whom things never seem real until I can see it with my own eyes. Whatever the reason, I didn’t make the connection until she said, “FOR SALE.”

My book is being published. It is going to be in online bookstores. People I don’t know will buy it and read it. ZOMG.

*faints*

All right. Time to go occupy my squeeing brain with unpublished writing!

C.

Shiny Plot Threads December 11, 2010

WOOT!

1707 words of fabulous plotness last night! I wrestled my plot knot into submission: turning it, pulling it, poking it, and hurling it against the wall until it finally revealed its secret. By untangling the the mess, I revealed the block in my mind and like dominoes, everything fell into place.

It wasn’t easy though. Not by a long shot. And not just for me either.

I whined at my cheerleader for over an hour. I tried to explain what I was wrestling with, but in such a way as to not give away upcoming elements in the story – and that made tackling the plot issues even harder. She was a dear and put up with my ravings, and I thank her for her patience. After that, I moved onto my poor innocent friend. She thought we were going to have a friendly chat as usual, but I ended up rambling and rambling about my plot knots while she sat there with her eyes glazing over. I may have imposed on our friendship, but the conversation helped and I owe her a big thanks too. Then I attacked my poor husband with the same problem – and while he initially suggested I simply blow something up, he listened to my tales of woe and prodded me in a couple of places, causing the last of the knots to slip away.

So, after more than four hours of ranting and rambling and smashing my head against a brick wall, I sat down to write.

I wrote.

And I wrote.

And I got into the zone and it was marvelous!

Thank goodness for friends – they are the best cure for untangling plot knots and revealing writer’s blocks!

C.

Abandoned December 8, 2010

My cheerleader has abandoned me. She tossed away her pom poms and left me bereft on the curb like last week’s Happy Meal. My soul has been crushed. I may have to drown my sorrows in iced tea and peanut M&Ms.

Relax, we didn’t have a falling out.

It just seems as though she has switched roles for this novel. She is no longer my faithful cheerleader, but rather a rabid, pushy fangirl (her words, not mine). I’d suggest that she’s slightly too invested in the fictional characters of John and Rebeccah, except I don’t want to find a dead horse’s head in my bed…

So, I must continue to write. I suppose I could try to wean her off J&R with other fic, but what would I do with this partially complete novel? I need to finish it even if it feeds my poor cheerleader’s addiction. I’m going to work on the scene I started last night, but after that I am afraid it’s back to actual plot development. Hopefully that will cool her ardour and I will get my cheerleader back.

C.

Writing Again! December 4, 2010

My report cards are all done!

I get to write for fun and enjoyment this evening!

I was mean. I teased my beloved cheerleader tonight. Instead of being all, “Yes! I’m writing more John and Rebeccah because you’ve been so good and patient for the last week and a bit (plus the year you waited in silence)!” I was all, “Hmm… I suppose I could write more Toni & Matthias, or a sequel to Nikko, or start on my new book…”

And bless her heart, she took it in stride and assured me that as long as I didn’t write smut about a certain cartoon character (shudders), she would be happy with whatever I produced. And no, I am *NOT* going to write that, even as a joke – get your sick minds out of the gutter!

So tonight I shall endeavour to dive back into John and Rebeccah’s totally messed up world. I need to see if I can do anymore to ruin their lives before making things marginally better at the end. First though, I have to re-read what I’ve written because it’s been a bit and I need to get back into their heads.

Wish me luck!

C.

Day Eighteen 2010 November 18, 2010

1410 words last night.

I am on the road to recovery. Honestly, the scene that didn’t work threw me so out of whack it wasn’t funny. I spent last night re-writing the scene from scratch (although I was able to save a few lines) and finished feeling much more pleased with the product. I know it’s right now because I already know what the first sentence in the next chapter will be.

I find that I cannot move onto the next scene or chapter if I haven’t been true to the characters in the previous section. Sometimes it comes from leaving out something that should be put in, and sometimes it’s like that evil scene I wrote two nights ago – it’s so unfair to the characters that it doesn’t deserve to see the light of day.

I shared the new scene with my cheerleader, and while she never said the other one sucked, she did agree that this one was way better. Which, during NaNoWriMo, is saying a lot about the craptastic nature of the original version.

Now I am all set to write this evening – it’s time to up the stakes for the characters!

C.

Day Seventeen 2010 November 17, 2010

Well, yesterday was abysmal.

Seriously.

I went to bed berating myself for not writing, but no matter how hard I tried, I could NOT get anything onto the screen. Was this the infamous writer’s block? I suppose so in a way. Except, as I wandered off to bed I hit upon the precise reason for the blockage: the most recent scene I’d written was totally out of character.

I’m not going to say it wasn’t a good scene, but I KNOW it was not the scene that should have happened. Even my cheerleader knew it (she never said so out loud, and I didn’t force her to violate her cheerleaderly duties and say anything that might be contrued as criticis). And, as I discovered last night, my brain would not let me base future scenes on something that just wasn’t right.

As I lay in bed angry, confused, and disappointed in myself, I decided to force my thoughts in a more productive direction: fixing the problem. It goes against everything NaNoWriMo stands for to delete what’s written – even if it is god awful. So what’s a girl to do? A girl uses the cut and paste functions of Word and moves the offending scene to the end of the document, that’s what. This way the words still count (and they should count because they were written with good intentions) but no longer impact the actual story line.

As soon as I made the decision, the block disappeared and I knew exactly what I should have written. I wrote while my students were nanoing this afternoon, and oh my goodness, it was like I’d discovered the joy of writing all over again! I can hardly wait for my writing time this evening – it feels so good to be on the right track.

C.

Day Eleven 2010 November 11, 2010

I have decided I am more interested in my characters and their relationships to one another than I am in the actual plot of my book. And, because it’s NaNo, I’m going to do what I want.

I’m going to focus on bringing John and Rebeccah together (after they’ve suffered for 60,000 words or so), and to hell with the space pirates. I’m sure they’ll be important at some point – I’m already planning an awesome ground offensive scene that will highlight the differences between John and Monty – but only insofar as they assist with making my characters’ lives miserable.

I wrote 1933 words last night. I opened my Word doc expecting to write a chapter that delved into the diplomatic mission and the complexities of the situation, but instead John had a headache and walked into a nightmare (two women arguing outside the door to his quarters). At first I was disappointed, thinking the character stuff is great, but no one wants to read 80,000 words of romantic angst so I resolved to take it out and write something ‘better’ that tackled the plot.

As I delved into the emotions of my characters I realized I was happy there. At this point I couldn’t care less about the pirates. I care about John and Rebeccah and what Monty and Kimberly are doing to ruin things for them. And, like a pig in mud, I am content to roll around there and snort in pleasuure.

Besides, I think there might be one other person out there who’s VERY interested in what’s going on with John and Rebeccah. You’ll know her when you see her; she’s wearing a “Team John” t-shirt with the words, “Move the ship” on the back.

All hail my cheerleader! This book is for you.

C.

Day Nine 2010 November 9, 2010

2593 words last night.

Remember that move I was contemplating last night?

Well, I tried it.

*blushes*

I still cannot believe I wrote a sex scene. Me? Sex? Like oil and water, it just didn’t seem like we’d mix in the writerly world.

I knew this book was likely to turn into a romance, which implied some level of sex, but I kind of figured it would happen near the end of the book and be part of the happily ever after moment (and probably only hinted at). I did not expect to use sex as a means of making one of my character’s lives even worse.

And it turns out to be brilliant (not the writing – I’m thinking that scene will have to remain forever buried under my bed) because now I can torment another character AND leave my reader wondering what’s up!

I still can’t believe I wrote the scene I did. It was such an awkward experience for me. Part of my brain was fine with planning out what would happen and how I would say it, but at the same time another part of my mind was reading what I’d written and shriek, “OMG! Did you just write that? I cannot believe you just wrote that! I didn’t know you even knew words like that!”

With every sentence I wrote I thought of a million ways to end the scene and leave the sex implied. But then I’d berate myself, saying, “You’ll never know if you can do it if you wimp out!” And so I’d procrastinate by going to the NaNoWriMo site and updating my word count. I did this roughly every thirty words or so.

I finally reached the end of the scene, and *pants for breath* I couldn’t believe I’d done it. I refused to read it over, afraid I’d decide to burn my laptop, and fired it off to my cheerleader to find in her inbox in the morning. I assumed she’d kill me – after all, she’s very much in Team John’s camp, and I just let Monty get into Rebeccah’s pants – but I also knew she’d flip out when she realized I had actually written sex.

I was shocked. Shocked! My cheerleader was neither mad at me nor Rebeccah for her indescretion. She even went so far as to say that she understood where Rebeccah was coming from. So I guess we surprised each other.

I have to share a snippet of her response:

OH MY GOD, WOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I am laughing my ass off because that was insanely, amazingly, gloriously, window-rattlingly, burn-the-house-down hot, and not more than a week ago you were like, yeah, I’m really not sure I could write sex.

Holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am the luckiest person in the world. I have a cheerleader who can say nice things about my awkward first attempt at writing sex.

C.