When is Enough Enough?

There are books in this world, wonderful, powerful books that have shaped the minds of generation after generation.  Many of these books took a lifetime to create, and the writer’s effort clearly shows.  Others of these books may have taken several months or several years, but they too have earned a place of respect.  Right now, I have no intention of creating a novel that can compete with these works.  I simply want to create a story that young teens will read, relate with, and enjoy.  I also intend to write many books over my lifetime with different characters and settings until all the stories in my mind have been told.  But each day that ticks by, I feel a great anxiety to finish my first novel and begin my journey as a professional writer.  This goal of mine, a goal I’ve had since the second grade, is sometimes motivating and sometimes overwhelming.  Today, it’s overwhelming.

I have spent years taking an idea in my mind and creating it into a real novel.  I am proud of every word on my pages, but I also want to keep making them better.  So, when is enough enough?  When do you print your precious pages and send them out into the world to be met with enthusiasm or criticism?

Part of me wants to hit print this very day and take that step, but the other part of me thinks my work may still be in its teenage years, and may still need the love of its creator.  The other part of me wants to sit patiently waiting as I create each book in the series until it has reached the closest state to perfection that it can reach.  So, I’m torn.  I take precious minutes when I can and continue to polish my work, too afraid to make a choice either way, and yet, just by continuing this process it seems I’ve already made my choice.

Meanwhile Back at the Monastery

Greetings and Salutations Glorious Readers of the Blog,

As you can see Mischievous Raven and I have finally been granted entrance into the Monastery of the Werewolf Monks.  I know, right it’s pretty cool if you haven’t been before.  Let me show you around, Brother Lon will accompany us but he cannot talk, there is always a vow of silence after the full moon hunt.  Lead on Brother Lon.  This is the library and the thing the Monastery is most well-known for.  As you can see it is packed with books and scrolls going back thousands of years.  The best stuff is up ahead here.  Scholars from all over the world come here to study about the strange and sometimes horrible creatures that roam  the planet right under the noses of the unsuspecting general public.  This is where I did my research on Vampires.  They have an entire section on Vlad The Impaler.  Rumor has it that Vlad himself comes over to review the library from time to time.  You know of course he stays at the Dakota right off Central Park most of the year.  He does, I’m not kidding.  You should come back and spend some time here.  Libraries are the best places to meet interesting people.  Down those steps is where the wines are made.  You can only go there once a year when they turn out their new vintages.  They have a big tasting it’s a regular who’s who event, very A list.  The rest of the year it’s off-limits.  No, I’ve never been, I’m sure it’s a clerical over site.  That’s the chapel,  up here are the quarters for the monks.  The guest rooms are on the next couple floors.  Above that is the observatory where they plot the moon and star movements.  You can visit Brother Al up there after sundown and he’ll show you around.  You can even have a look through the peeper if you like.  Brother Lon is directing us toward the dining room.  It must be dinner time.  Go have a bite I’ll see you later.  I’m going to catch up my muse and go over a few things we wrote last week before he ditched me.

I just wrote a short piece which came right out of nowhere for me.  The strange thing about the story is, it has no dialogue.  That in itself isn’t strange, but it is strange for me.  I’ve been told that I have a gift for dialogue.  So to write a piece without a single spoken word for over 2,500 words was really odd for me.  It got me to thinking about what makes dialogue flow.  Now if I have a gift it is God-given and not something I learned, and my friends will tell you I was out to lunch when God was giving such gifts as Grammar, Spelling, Point of View, and Tenses, among other things.  But they seem to agree I do pretty decent dialogue.

This is what came to me,( totally my opinion here folks).  I thinks that when writing is flowing for me I’m in the characters head.  Almost like a movie is playing out the scene.  I hear what the character is saying and it comes out in his/her voice not mine.  And if I’m really there I hear the replies from whoever as if I am the character.  This makes the other voices authentic because they have to sound right to the POV character or I get pulled out of the scene.  When I struggle the most is when I’m not hearing what my character is hears.  This all sounds very WOO-WOO, but it’s the best way I describe what happens.  When I put myself in the scene and hear what is said I know if it sounds right or not.  One trick I use to help with this is I read my dialogue back out loud.  I’ll never be one who reads for audio books, but I try to put inflection in the speech.  In effect give the character a voice, not one I hear in my head but actually hear.  I am but a lowly scribbler and I don’t want this to sound like a lecture so I’m going to quit here.  If you have some thoughts on dialogue send me a comment.  And if you struggle with getting your characters to sound natural try hearing it, listen for the nuances.  As is our custom here at the swamp I’ll leave you with this appropriate quote.

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; not characters. A character is a caricature.

Ernest Hemingway 

Write On,

Eerie

Merging of Greatness…

In an effort to cut down on how much of a time suck cyberverse is, I wrangled my Knight in Slightly Muddy Armor and had his alternate persona, King of Tech, merge my www.jamigray.com address to this–my most awesomest blog site ever!  Now if you type in jamigray.com you’ll come here, and you can still peruse my holy list of links on my Links page, buy my world changing books on my Books page, stalk me through the electronic world on my Blog Tour page, all in one spot!  I kneel to the genius of my hubby in the weird ways of tech, because it’s all Greek to me (and I mean that seriously!).

On top of this nifty change, I also set up an Author Fan Page on Facebook.  You can see it here http://www.facebook.com/JamiGrayUFWriter .  Feel free to go over and share your love of moi and click the LIKE button.  It took time before I bowed to the requests for one of these as I was uncertain exactly how to use it.  Now that I know it’s where you post all your blog visits, book releases and general writing news, viola it is created!

So even though I finally got a tighter handle on book 3, I have yet to sit down and start again, but now that all the pressing cyber demands have been met, I’m ready to go! WOO HOO!

Now, I need your support because this upcoming week (May 14th-18th) will become a testing ground on just how thick I’ve managed to get my writing skin to as I embark on a five stop review tour of Shadow’s Edge.  Oh yes, I hear you.  Why would I subject myself to such a rack of torture? Because, I really would like people out there to give me their honest feeback–good or bad–because how else will I be able to stretch myself as a writer? And because I don’t want to inhibit any postings, I’ll be there to thank the reviewer, but I’ll lurk in the shadows to see what is said.  Fingers crossed that the reviewers find Shadow’s Edge exciting and thrilling!

If you’d like to swing over and see what’s up next week, feel free.  Here’s the schedule:

• 5/14/12      Come on over and see the review of Shadow’s Edge at Live To Read
• 5/15/12      Stop over at A Case of Reading Insomnia for another review of Shadow’s Edge
• 5/16/12      Shadow’s Edge is up for review at V’s Book Life
• 5/17/12      Another review of Shadow’s Edge over at Unabridged Andra’s
• 5/18/12     Last Review stop of the tour, so stop by Books Are Magic

And lastly, I had to share a moment I had this weekend.  Life was getting stressful, you know how it is when everything around you seems to sit their big, heavy weight upon your shoulders and you just want to slither away into a small, hidden place?  Okay, so I had a few bad moments because, hey, we’re all human, right?  Just when the light of creativity was beginning to sputter, one of my favorite Twitter Peeps (@KindlesConsort) was chatting with another bud of mine and she gave strength to my flame through her excitement and anticipation of my writing and how much she enjoyed chatting with authors.  I couldn’t resist, I had to tell her how much her words meant and that it was because of readers like her that authors, especially me, continue to put pen to paper.  Then later that night through Facebook I received another message from another fan, Kim Hawk, who shared how much she enjoyed Shadow’s Edge and why.  Again, I was humbled by such words.  I may put my stories out there, but the reason I have the courage to continue onward is because of you, the readers, who so eagerly embrace these fantastical worlds and then share your excitement with the writers.

Long story short, authors write for you readers so take the time and drop a line to your favorite authors, big or small.  Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the one that strengths their flickering creative light on a dark day, giving them the strength to pick up the pen once more and forge forward!

–Wicked

For the Love of Dialogue

Recently, I was reading over a part of my novel that just felt awkward.  Over and over I tried to rewrite it so that it flowed more naturally, but it just wasn’t working.  Finally, I realized that there were pages of description and no dialogue, so I tried to rewrite it with the same goals in mind, but this time I simply sprinkled the description and setting around a dialogue.  Then, BLAM, it all seemed to come together.  But is dialogue really the perfect tool to solve all my awkward writing moments, or is dialogue like every other part of writing and shouldn’t be overused?

Unfortunately, this isn’t my only dialogue issue.  You see, my novel is a young adult fantasy set in a fantastical world that is Earth, only better.  My main character is intelligent and thoughtful, but young.  When she speaks, I want her to sound like all of these things, and yet I’m struggling with showing a young intelligent person without using slang that is appropriate to our world but not hers.  So what do I do?  For awhile, I just tried to write and write, hoping that her voice that seemed so strong in my mind would translate to the page, but the words always came out differently.  I felt like I couldn’t just keep writing in circles, so I’ve taken a slight break to read some of my favorite authors once more and see if their writing can inspire my own.

As you might be able to tell, this somewhat rambling blog has been used as a dialogue therapy session for me to discuss my love/hate relationship with it.  Regrettably, however, I think I’ve come to the end of my time, and I haven’t quite made peace with dialogue yet.  I want to use it like a powerful tool through writing, but my tool may need a little more sharpening before it is able to create exactly what’s in my mind.  I’ll let you know when, if ever, things begin to improve.

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Greetings and Salutations Glorious Readers of the blog,

I’m glad to see you made it through the Impenetrable Forrest with Mischievous and myself.  On our way we passed Dreamers quaint little cottage, we attracted the zombie horde and brought them along with us.  It was the good thing too, because when the Piranha Hummingbirds attacked the zombies were slow and they were devoured down to the bare bones affording us an easy escape.  So that’s a few less zombies to pester Dreamer.  Of course there are always new ones showing up so the Prankster Duo won’t have to worry about running out of playmates anytime soon.  In our mad dash to escape I think we ran right past a Killer Koala.  He was probably disoriented by Mischievous’  screaming.  What’s that?  I was the one screaming.  Are you sure?  Well, who knew my short legs could move so fast, even as screamed like a little girl.

Mischievous and I are holed up here in the old Catholic unconsecrated cemetery to wait out the full moon. There is no cell phone service here so we are out of touch with the world for now.  I hope the Snark is recuperating all right.  It’s a serious thing if the Whipmistress’ Snark isn’t feeling well.  The reason we’re stuck here in the cemetery  is The Werewolf Monks, wonderful hosts that they are, don’t accept visitors during the course of the full moon.  Of course my muse is safe because he’s already there.  Don’t worry about us we’re safe because the unconsecrated cemetery is neutral territory.  Nothing messes with the Enforcer Spirits that execute the law around here, not even the zombies are that stupid.  And let’s face folks the zombies aren’t just playing with a less than a full deck. Their deck only contains Jokers and Lazy Jacks.   So while we’re cooling our jets here I thought I’d talk about what I’ve been reading.

Besides my daily spiritual readings, in the last week three of my  favorite authors have released books.  The first and foremost is of course is the Master’s.  Just when you thought it was safe to visit mid-world again Mr. King has released another book in the Gunslinger series. This new book titled The Wind Through the Keyhole, falls in the middle of the Dark Tower cycle, between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of Calla.  I’ve only just begun to read it so I can’t tell you much more than that.  It should comfort me nicely here against the headstone of poor old Liam Flannery who passed away two days before the Mrs., affording him a very short respite from her sharp tongue.  The critics have been sharp tongued with regards to SK’s revisiting of mid-world, and although it’s too early for me to have an opinion on the work itself I must say it is courageous of Stephen to reopen the doorway to visit with Roland and his ka-tet.

The second book added to my granite nightstand is the latest from that jokester Mr. Christopher Moore titled Sacre Bleu.  He claims it is a book about the color blue.  What ever he says about it, is irrelevant because he never fails to make me laugh out loud.  It’s a Dirty Job was about a beta male.  And You Suck is a love story.  I’m looking forward to laughing in public places as I read all about the color blue.

And last but not least Bloodstorm by Amber Kallyn is out in paperback from Amazon.  A love story with intrigue, passion, and blood sucking vamps.  Five Salamanders out of five.  Check it out at Amazon.

In any case I’ll savor my time with these authors because they always entertain.  Fortunately the moon is rising early and it’s plenty bright enough for me to read by.  So I think I’ll wrap it here and get some reading in this week I’ll leave you with a little taste of Christopher Moore.

“That’s the difference between irony and sarcasm. Irony can be spontaneous, while sarcasm requires volition. You have to create sarcasm.” 

― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

“Charlie Asher: I accidentally shagged a monk last night.
Minty Fresh: Sometimes, in times of crisis, that shit cannot be avoided.”
― Christopher Moore, A Dirty Job

“She gave him the wide, green-eyed expression that she would have described as I will slap you so far into next week that it will take a team of surgeons just to get Wednesday out of your ass.” 

― Christopher Moore, You Suck

Write On,

Eerie

It’s Amazing What A Little Time Off Will Bring…

I came back to the Swamp on Sunday after spending the weekend with Snarky at the RWA Desert Dreams conference down in the Valley of the Sun and found the Zombie Horde had finally deserted Dreamer’s little piece of property.  I’m guessing Eerie and Mischevious have been making tracks to the Impentrable Forest considering the path of gnawed bones littering the trail.  Have to love those Piranha Hummingbirds, they clean their dinner plates!  Not to worry, the Prankster Duo has no problem attracting new Zombies, it seems to be an inborn talent of theirs.

So after rounding up the Hellhound, I was pleased to see my Knight in Slightly Muddy Armor had managed to keep the Duo busy while I was away.  Seems there was a required marathon of movies involving a horned-helmeted blond with a facination for hammers, a green muscle head with a temper problem, and that dashing king of sarcasm who looks good in red and self perpetuating battery.  Something about all three, plus a red-head in latex and, if I do say so myself, a rather good looking archer gathering for their debut this weekend. The tickets have already been purchased–twice.

In the meantime, Snarky and I attended this conference.  Now you may wonder why two paranormal, urban fantasy writers would attend a gathering of those mavens of love and hard chests, but there are some really good workskhops at these things. Plus we were considering kidnapping a few agents and editors for our own amusement.  Since this time I wasn’t on pins and needles endlessly practicing my story pitch, I was able to enjoy the expierence.  For writers, conferences are like a red carpet gala–you get to meet the actual human that writes those books you wait on pins and needles for every Tuesday.  It can reduce a 41 year old to a 16 year old in like two minutes flat.  It’s so embarrassing!

Anyway, other than the massive amounts of information that I’m still processing, the biggest success I pulled from my three day stint was the eight hour brainstorming session Snarky and I indulged ourselves in.  What was funny was there was an actual brain storming session planned on Saturday night during the dinner.  We got a head start, because that’s just how we roll.  We headed over to the nearest barrista heaven, spent two and half hours there before realizing we might miss dinner, dashed back to the conference, gathered necessary sustanance, then hunkered down in our room and balcony and spent the next 6 plus hours taking everything that had been thrown at us and incorporating it into our WIPs (works in progress).

Doing things this way is a double edged sword.  I was having issues with Shadow’s Moon (Book 3 of the Kyn Kronicles) and by the end of the evening realized why (you really do need a strong villian for a good story!), and now all those pages I’ve accumlated are being moved to the cut pile–yes indeed, we are starting over.  Here’s hoping that since there’s a clearer picture of where we’re going and Xander’s stopped being so damn coy, it will go much faster.  Plus Snarky figured out her sticking point on her hush-hush project.  It’s hard to explain to a non-writer how much fun the expierence was because for some peeps the idead of talking through plot points, character motivation, series arcs, and personalities is just….blehh!  But for me–I LOVED IT! 

Plus it was the most awesomest thing in the world to meet both newbie and not-so-newbie writers and READERS! I swear the writing community just rocks.  Conferences are where no one gets upset if you space in the middle of a conversation, they understand sometimes those voices in your head just drown out those around you.  Plus where else could you chat about what exactly constitutes a psychopath versus a sociopath, or why corsets are a hell of a lot harder to get rid of than just “ripping” them off–think bones and damn tough material? There was even the most entertaining conversation regarding the staminia of the men of the Paranormal community versus the rakes of the historicals–truly riveting!

Now the goal is to make it to the Paranormal Conference next year because as lovely as the RWA crowd was–I think I’d like to expierence the wild, twisted worlds of the Paranorms for a bit.  Think of what it would do to my Muse!  She’d have others to play blade-darts with, they could go on Zombie hunts, and maybe torment a few demons along the way.   Who knows, maybe we’ll get to come back with new alligator boots next year! 

-Wicked

When Can You Break Rules?

Recently, I started reading a book by a well-known young adult author.  I’ve read several books by him already, and he’s one of my favorite authors.  His more recent series has become incredibly popular with teenagers, so I was really excited to start reading it.  Now, I’m a quarter of the way through the book, and I’m having a difficult time truly enjoying this novel.  It seems to break many of the “rules” of writing, which is constantly distracting me from the characters and plot.

I’m certainly not saying the book isn’t good, but it got me thinking about when we are allowed to break rules.  Are we allowed to break rules when we become well-known writers?  Or is our writing simply better when we stop worrying about the rules altogether?

Here are just a couple of the “broken rules” I noticed:

Telling something and then showing it.  Just show it. 

Example of broken rule: I shuddered at his touch.  The feeling of his hands on me grossed me out.

The way it should be written: I shuddered at his touch.

Saying “I felt” or “I saw” in first person. Just say it.

Example of broken rule: I felt like he was being really mean.

The way it should be written: He was being really mean.

I was also wondering if these rules are broken more in first person or if perhaps they’re broken more in young adult fiction.  What are your thoughts?  I don’t have a good answer, but I am extremely curious.

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After years of suffocating under her boss’s scrutiny, whale biologist Zoe Morgan finally lands a job as director of a tagging project in Hervey Bay, Australia. Success Down Under all but guarantees her the promotion of a lifetime, and Zoe won’t let anything—or anyone—stand in her way. Not the whale voices she suddenly hears in her head, not the ex who won’t take no for an answer, and especially not the gorgeous figment of her imagination who keeps saving her from the fiery hell of her dreams.

Gavin Cassidy hasn’t been called to help a human Wyldling in over a year, which is fine by him. Still blaming himself for the death of his partner, he keeps the guilt at bay by indulging in every excess his rock star persona affords. That is, until he’s summoned to protect Zoe from hungry Fyre Elementals and learns his new charge is the key to restoring order in the dying Dreaming. He never expects to fall for the feisty Dr. Morgan…nor does he realize he may have to sacrifice the woman he loves to save an entire country.
***
*This book contains graphic language, sex, and some violence. Not suitable for readers under the age of 18.
**The author will donate all profits from the sale of the JUST BREATHE trilogy to programs that educate people about whales and the challenges they face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kendall Grey

Blog: http://www.kendallgrey.com
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SNARK HAS BEEN RETURNED NOW BACK TO WORK

Greetings and salutations loyal followers,

As you probably know by now we found the missing Snark at the Monastery of the Werewolf Monks.  She’s still recovering from drinking all the left over Exsanguinate The Holidays from the Monk’s special reserve.  It’s taken quite a toll on her. The last time I saw her she was in the throes of the DTs.  The good news is she’s in good hands, the Swamp Thing is nursing her back to her former glory and has agreed to counsel her on substance abuse.  The bad news is we lost my muse during the search.  Wicked thought he went for the whites but Mischievous said he was heading into the cellar for amontillado.  So Mischievous and I are going to take the shortcut back to Monastery through THE IMPENETRABLE FORREST and get my muse back.  

Wish us luck because you know there are many hazards to be encountered there.  Last time we ventured there we lost several members of our group to the Killer Koalas, and the time before that we were attacked by Pirahana Humming Birds.  I’ve never seen a Black Tiger, but they say they are most ferocious.   Vampire Tarantulas  drop from the trees and suck you dry.  However it is the only way to get to the Werewolf Monastery in half a day if you don’t drive.  Dwarves aren’t especially good drivers because our feet don’t touch the pedals and we can’t see over the steering wheel.  

Before we leave I need to share with you what I’ve been up to.  I backed off work just a bit and one night I carried a legal pad and pen to bed to make some notes on an idea.  Before you could say Rumplestiltskin I  had eleven hand written pages of a story.  This is what happens when your muse comes to work and your ready for him.  I’ve since started typing it into my Mac.  The message is clear.  If a writer you want to be, then ready you are, and do not flee.  

You’ve heard this before if you write; we don’t write because we can, but because we must.

One last thing I’d like to share, I heard a speaker this weekend who said that Fear and Love are mutually incompatible.  If you fear you cannot love.   And when you love you need not fear.  So fear not.  Go forth and love your fellows.     

This week’s quote comes from SELF-PORTRAIT by David White

“I want to know if you are willing to live, day by day with the consequence of love and the bitter unwanted passion of your sure defeat.  I’ve heard, in that fierce embrace, even the gods speak of God.