Category Archives: Writing
The multiple stages of editing
Editing is a very different beast from writing. It’s when you have to ditch your drunken slut of a muse and put on the green celluloid visor to become a cross between a dominatrix, an old-school English teacher and the bitchiest, most persnickety of proofreaders. And because I’m waiting on the last beta edit, I’m going to entertain you with an explanation of Nic’s Personal Editing Process.
With a self-pubbed book like Palace of Scoundrels, it all starts the first draft (which shouldn’t be shown to anyone because Jesus, Allah, and Zoroaster, it’s SOOOOO bad. We’re talking word vomit on the page, all kinds of weasel words, and not nearly enough physical description because my subconscious thinks I’m a screenwriter). Then I laboriously hack and slash my way through the worst of the wordy underbrush and carve out a draft that is tolerable for my beta readers.
That gets sent off, and I go back and do what I call the mechanical edit, which means turning on every grammar and spelling option in Scrivener and going line by line to make sure all spelling/grammar/punctuation is correct, all tenses agree with each other, and I don’t have doubled words (I do that a lot, I don’t know why).
After the mechanical edit comes the weasel word edit. Basically, I use the Find function to locate these 43 words you should never use in your writing and evaluate each case to see if I can get rid of the word entirely, modify the sentence so that it has the same meaning without using the word, or occasionally leave the word in because it’s needed. This is OMG tedious (POS took half of yesterday and all of today to get this done, with much cursing on my part) but it’s also an absolutely necessary and vital part of editing a book, and it always, ALWAYS makes the book better.
By this point I usually start getting beta comments back and can add in their corrections and suggestions. I use at least three beta readers per book, as well as a kick-ass editor who has the sharpest eye I have ever been blessed to have my work under. Once all those edits have been added, I’ll do a final once-over as a polish, then it’s ready to be uploaded to Amazon, Smashwords, and All Romance eBooks. It’s long, tedious process that requires a hella amount of attention, but if you do it right you wind up with a killer book.
My current status on, well, everything
So, yeah, it has been brought to my attention that I’ve been maintaining radio silence while working on Palace of Scoundrels, so sorry about that. I’ve been focusing on finishing the damn book so much that I kinda forgot, “Uh, you have a blog? And people might like to know how things are going?”
So yeah, we are now officially into the home stretch, as seen at left. I strongly doubt this will be the final word count — I have at least two major scenes to insert while doing the rewrite, and I’m guessing it’ll top out more around 73K. But that’s still a chunky little piece of high fantasy erotic romance, so for all of you who are looking for fixes to your GOT jones just hang on for another week.
(I am still absolutely boggled that I’m writing high fantasy erotic romance. But damn it, this world is just so much fun.)
Also, while we’re on the topic of GOT, if you’re a fellow fan of that delightfully tall drink of Scottish water Rory McCann (Sandor “The Hound” Clegane), might I suggest that you track down a British comedy TV series called The Book Group on Hulu? It’s from 2002 and stars Anne Dudek, who played House fellow applicant/Wilson’s girlfriend Amber on House, and is the story of a rather neurotic American named Clare who moves to Glasgow and starts a book group to meet people. The other members of the group include three footballers’ wives (one of whom is played by the goddess Michelle Gomez, also known as Missy/The Master on Doctor Who), a rather sweetly clueless guy named Rab who is secretly having an affair with Michelle’s footballer husband, an obnoxious hipster played by James Lance, and McCann’s character Kenny, who is a kindly lifeguard at a local leisure center. Kenny’s also in a wheelchair after what we presume is a climbing accident, and the writers do a great job of not turning him into the Magical Paraplegic or giving him Very Special Episode moments. He’s got a couple of issues, not to mention crap taste in girlfriends, but he’s still one of the better-adjusted people in the group along with Rab, and his low level flirtation with Clare goes everywhere from exasperation to genuine friendship.
Also, it’s really nice to hear McCann using his own accent–he’s got this amazing young Sean Connery thing going on. Pity he was depilating his chest at the time, but one can’t have everything, I suppose.
So, Nicola’s been making jewelry
I’m writing, too, never fear, and Palace of Scoundrels and Do No Harm will be out next month to prove it. Buuuuut my budget kinda got blown out of the water this month when 1) I forgot to budget for the cost of an out-of-town convention, 2) one of our cats had a rather expensive vet visit (turns out his kidneys are failing, but the vet said it’s VERY early stages and he could survive for another 1-3 years or even longer. As he’s already 15.5 years old, I’ll be grateful for any extra time I get with him) and 3) Shutterstock surprised me by renewing two photo packages without me expecting it, so that was a surprise hundred on the Amex.
And since the Amazon royalties this month have already been spoken for, I’m falling back on my (ahem) awesome jewelry-making expertise to wire wrap some gorgeous semi-precious cabochons and get them out where customers can buy them. Of the cabs shown below (left to right), I’ve already wrapped and sold the tiger’s eye, I’m going to wrap the dragonstone next in antique brass, the fossilized coral is waiting for some bronze wire and sheet to come in (I’ve been inspired by a Game of Thrones character, what can I say), a friend has already claimed the azurite/malachite, and the labradorite and amethyst will be wrapped in sterling silver if I can figure out where the hell I put the SS I bought last month.
On the left, by the way, is Irena, the tiger’s eye cab wrapped with gold wire, gold beads and brick seed beads. When my buddy Peter heard that I’d bought the cab he said, “Mine! Just tell me when you get it done.” I love it when people do that.
On the right is a piece of picasso marble wrapped in gunmetal wire with silver, black, and base metal beads and a black crystal drop. I couldn’t resist calling it Winterfell — the streaks on the marble look like a forest in winter. Also, I may have been bingeing on Seasons 3 and 4 of GOT, I dunno. This one is still available if anyone has a hankering for it — $40 plus $3 shipping in the US.
In between the writing and the jewelry making I have to finish a quilt for a friend, get some cleaning and laundry done, and finish a long-pending video project for a buddy. But it’s a hell of a lot better than being bored, right?
In other news, I think I may have added a new actor to my favorites stable. I blame myself for avoiding GOT for so damn long, but now that I’m watching it I have to admit that I’m rather taken with Rory McCann, that tall Scottish drink of water who plays the Hound. I’m also kicking myself because he was at LoneStarCon 3 a couple of years ago making the rounds of the room parties, and I thought, “Meh. An actor. Whatever. I’m going to bed.” I swear, one of these days I’m going to stop sabotaging myself…
It’s GOOD to have writer friends
This is Jeremy, looking at me and wondering when I’m going to put this warm silver thing down and feed him. He’s one of five cats who do this to me on a regular basis. I’m amazed I ever manage to finish a book.
So I’m working on Palace of Scoundrels (Two Thrones #2) and Matthias is not having a good time. His ally Tomas Villiers, Duke of Kelles and fearsome guardian of the Ypresian North Border, has fallen in love with and kindasorta kidnapped Lady Sibeal LeClerq, daughter of Henrietta LeClerq, Countess of Lierde (also a powerful Terra magistra and owner of the most fertile farmlands in Ypres).
Un petit problem — Sibeal has already been betrothed to Lord Clement Reynard, heir of the Earl of Leuwen (a rather recently ennobled family, and filthy rich). Clement was originally betrothed to Sibeal’s older sister Amelie, but they had a dreadful argument and Amelie broke the betrothal and refuses to take him back. The countess offered the Reynards Sibeal instead, and she was accepted. But Sibeal is in love with Villiers and doesn’t want to marry Reynard. Unfortunately, her mother laid a sterility spell on her and refuses to lift it unless Sibeal marries Reynard, and both Villiers and Sibeal really want children.
So they toss this in Matthias’s lap to sort out, which gives both him and me a headache (there’s a reason why I don’t usually write political intrigue). I was complaining to the brilliant and talented Michelle Muenzler that I had no idea why the Countess was so all-fired to marry one of her daughters off to the Reynards but it had to be important. Glorious woman that she is, she promptly said, “It’s not her pushing this. The Earl has something on the Countess, something major that could ruin her reputation and endanger her lands, and he wants to marry his son into her (major noble) family or he spills the beans.”
Et voila, the clouds parted, the sun shone, and I knew the Earl of Leuwen’s motivation and how this whole mess got started. More importantly, I think I know how to resolve it entertainingly. Now I just have to add a touch more flesh to the problem in Hellas (there’s a reason why I’m calling this Palace of Scoundrels, you know), and I have a complete book. Whee!
Oh, while I’m on the topic of political intrigue and thrones, something has recently come to my attention and I need to swear on the head of Barbara Cartland that I had never seen NOR read Game of Thrones until this July. I’m saying this now because I’m currently on book three and thinking, “Fuck, they have a young queen called Dany and I have a young queen called Danaë. And the Hound calls Sansa “little bird.” And there’s a divine entity called Lys — FUCK. They’re going to think I’m ripping off GoT.” All I can say in my defense is that European history, language, and terminology are being called upon lavishly by both myself and George R.R. Martin, and sometimes there’s going to be overlap. But from this point onward I will do my utmost to stay as far away from the terms of Westeros as possible.
I Need My Office Back
As many of you know, I write full time from home, which is an amazing boon and one I’m grateful for each day. I even have my own office where I’m supposed to split my time between writing, sewing, and making jewelry. Except that over the last five years or so it’s gotten difficult for me to sit for long periods of time because my knees lock up and my ankles start to swell (this getting old shit sucks, I’ll tell you). The logical answer to that is to get up every hour and walk around for awhile, but sometimes that’s difficult if you’re hip-deep in a scene and don’t want to leave it. So you keep writing, then get up and almost fall over because your legs have turned to wood. Same problem when sewing or working on jewelry.
So for writing I moved downstairs into the living room, where I would sit with my feet extended on a footstool. It worked pretty damn well for a couple of years because Ramón would head off to the office and I’d have the house to myself, free to tap away on a story while keeping an eye on (and acting as a perch for) the cats. All was well, and many books were written.
And then last year Ramón was laid off in October. It quickly became apparent that working in the living room wasn’t, well going to work anymore. It was fine when I was the only one in the house, but when Ramón was also home all day looking for work, doing phone interviews and the like, it was like trying to write in a particularly loud Starbucks where the barista interrupts you to ask where his clean suit is.
Also, I have a tendency to talk to myself when I write, especially when I’m doing dialogue. And it can be problematic when you’re working on a scene and suddenly your beloved says, “What did you say, sweetie?” Not good when you realize you’ve been saying some really filthy things under your breath. And yeah, okay, I’m just gonna say it. It’s hard to write a hot M/M sex scene with my husband sitting next to me. Go figure.
But he got a new job in March so everything should be copacetic now, right? It is … except that he now works from home. And he likes to eat lunch while watching TV. And during his breaks he likes to check his email and read news on his laptop in the living room. And sometimes the silly romantic fool just likes coming downstairs and kissing me because he can, bless his heart.
Which means that the goal now is to turn the living room back into the public area it’s supposed to be and get my happy ass back into my office for work, and towards this end I have a plan. Thanks to EoS royalties I recently bought a lovely faux leather wingback chair that is also a recliner (in fact, I’m sitting on it right now) and put it in our front room/library. But that’s still a public area, and while it’s peaceful in here it’s also right next to the staircase which mean I now get all of Ramón’s comings and goings in the corner of my eye while working. I’d wanted to put the recliner into my office and work from there, but all available space is pretty much taken up with furniture and computer carts (my office holds the printers and routers).
So I threw this problem to Ramón, who is the master of spatial relations. It turns out that the printer cart is on wheels, and the router cart is 85% full of stuff that doesn’t need to be there (software DVDs and manuals, and a half-finished dollhouse. He suggested that I pick a time when we can disconnect the modem and router temporarily, move the dollhouse and software stuff Elsewhere, move the printer cart over to where the router cart is, find space on it for the modem and router, and reconnect them. That leaves a tidy chunk of open space right next to my office window, which would be a faboo place to put this chair.
So that’s on the cards for this weekend, which means as of next week I actually get to go work in my office AND CLOSE THE DOOR IF I WANT TO. Heaven. Of course the cats aren’t going to like it, so I’m going to have to negotiate visiting hours with them. But soon, my precious, very soon…
Welp, I passed 5000
And by 5000, I mean five thousand actual sales, not including returns (God, those annoy me because I know a good percentage of them are people who are gaming the system to read new stuff then return it and get the price of purchase back) or giveaways. And by “I” I mean Empress of Storms.
The funny thing? I honestly can’t tell if that’s good or not. Some sources say that you need to sell 10K copies, but that’s if you’re with a major publisher. Other sources say that a self-pubbed book sells 500 copies on average, so in that case I’ve done really well. I dunno, Marty. I guess all I can do is keep writing and hope people like the new stuff as much.
Lord, I just realized — I have to finish Palace of Scoundrels, Do No Harm, and Behind the Iron Cross, get those out, write The Chevalier and get that out this fall, then start researching the historical M/M romance that my BFF suggested so that I can start writing it in November. Sleep? What means this word, sleep?
I’m #1 in Germany!
Well, okay, not me personally, but the German language version of Trickster is, in the Gay Romance category. If that’s not whoop-inducing enough, Trickster is also #162 in the Kindle Bestseller list!
Needless to say, I am VERY pumped about this. So if you like reading in German and want a sexy, hot, and funny M/M shifter romance (I think that’s what the reviews said — my German is seriously rusty), go get a copy!
And they wonder why “Big Publishing” is crumbling…
So I was reading an article at io9.com, as you do, about important SF books that lots of people pretend to read and never actually finish. As it turns out I’ve already read a number of them, so there, nyah, but I thought I would download some of the ones I haven’t read and take a crack at them (because I still write SF and fantasy when I get the time).
Headed over to the Big River, plugged in a title, and holy mother of Cthulhu. I’m sorry, and this is me speaking as an author, but ain’t no way I’m paying $15.99 for an ebook. I don’t care who wrote it or how important they are in the field. IT’S A ELECTRONIC FILE. Publishers don’t have to print, store, ship, or remainder ebooks. An ebook isn’t made from unicorn farts and fairy dust. IT’S A FILE.
What flavor of crack are the Big Five smoking, anyway? No wonder New York publishing is going straight to hell. They have no idea how to price their product so that people will buy. One of the biggest selling points about ebooks is that they lend themselves very well to impulse purchases. You can read about a book online, think, “Oh, that sounds interesting,” pop over to your favorite online retailer and have it downloaded to your reader in milliseconds, usually for the price of a Starbucks. No one blinks at a $3.99 ebook. $4.99 and $5.99 are starting to get up there, but are perfectly reasonable for longer works. If it’s an author I really like and want to read, I’ll go up to $8.99. Any higher, however, and I have problems rationalizing paying that much money for, say it with me, AN ELECTRONIC FILE.
And the worst part is, I have author friends who have been caught up in this egregious fuckup and are being dropped by their publishers because their “sales are too low.” Yeah, well, maybe if their publishers weren’t charging $11.99 for AN ELECTRONIC FILE those sales might perk up, hey?
In related news, it looks like I won’t be reading Gravity’s Rainbow, Dhalgren, or Infinite Jest any time soon. But I’m increasingly happy that I decided to switch to romance and be a hybrid author with a house that knows how to price its ebooks affordably.
I am grateful
An amazing number of things have happened to me professionally in the last two weeks things that have reinforced my decision to switch genres and start writing the stuff I always wanted to write. I am deeply grateful for all of these wonderful opportunities, and I want to thank each and every one of you who read my work because you’re the reason why so many good things are happening right now. You people rock.
- May 8th I signed a contract with Me and the Muse Publishing to have Trickster translated and published in German.
- May 15th held three important career milestones for me:1) For the first time in my writing career I cracked the five figure mark in writing income.
2) I cracked the five figure mark for yearly writing income.
3) I made five figures (oh, screw it — $10,000) on one title. And yes, it was Empress of Storms.
- May 16th I signed a contract with Juno Publishing to have Empress of Storms translated and published in French.
- May 18th I signed a contract with photographer Javier Cortina to use a photograph of Colby Keller from Javier’s The Legend of St. George photo shoot as the cover for my fantasy historical M/M romance The Chevalier, coming out in August.
On the verge of turning 50, I feel like my life and career are truly on track, and I’m very excited to see what the next few years bring.
A blast from the past
Today’s writing project was Cross Current and despite not one, not two, but THREE cats insisting on jumping into my lap to help I finally finished knocking out 3K on it, bringing my total word count up to 6,409 words. I’m also very pleased to announce that I get to use one of my very first characters in this novel — yes, for fans of my novelette A Boon by Moonlight I’m bringing back Lord Jerrek of House Carwin as a consultant for the Olympic Cove crew on how to handle the runaway selkie prince who just landed on their shores. As it turns out Jerrek owes Poseidon a favor or two, and he’s being deliciously snarky as usual as he negotiates the trade of information with my two lead characters.
Oh, and Ceit? Your namesake just made her first appearance (in discussion, at least). The beautiful, brilliant Lady Ceitlin of House Selbach is waiting for her wayward groom to get his ass back to the pod and go through their marriage ceremony. But will that be the end of it? Oh, hell no — things just get more interesting from here on in.
Also, apropos of nothing I’ve somehow managed to wash all of the master bedroom bedding today. Considering that we sleep with a ridiculous amount of bedclothes (all my fault — Ramón calls me the Greater American Nesting Female) that’s about seven loads of laundry, plus I carried all the clean clothes upstairs and put them away. I think I can take the rest of the night off, yes?
Nicola Cameron Writes 