Category Archives: Technology and Writing

The intersection between the creative process and the new technologies available to enhance it.

Okay, so we’ll skip right over November…

30 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in e-books, Finny Aletter, Mysteries, Technology and Writing, Yvonne Montgomery mysteries

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Although it made me very happy.

I’ve been busy-busy reviewing the e-formatted manuscript of my first mystery, Scavengers.  Thanks to the wonderful work of Nina Paules of eBook Prep, thiswas not an ordeal.  Since I always have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the next new thing, at least technologically speaking, I did whimper a bit and had to be sweet-talked into opening the files, but it all worked out.  And soon, gentle readers, my first foray into mysteries will be available at various venues.  My second mystery, Obstacle Course, will be next.  More about this later.

I’m also very near the point of sending off queries again for my current work, Edge of the Shadow, the first of the Wisdom Court paranormal novels.  Several good souls have read the manuscript, made corrections & suggestions, which I’ve noted and included.  I’ve almost finished the final nit-picky part and am printing it out, so it won’t be long.  It’s my goal to then get back to the second Wisdom Court novel, A Signal Shown, and finish it.  That won’t happen before the end of the year, but that’s okay.

I told you I’ve been busy-busy.  And now it’s time to hunt for a recipe for gluten-free fruit cake.  I am one of the few hardy souls who love fruit cake.  And now I can’t eat the real McCoy.  So, since last year’s recipe was a disappointment, I’ll try again.  Soon, so I’ll have time to soak it with brandy.  Or maybe I’ll just drink the brandy, and then try the fruit cake.  It’ll work.

Cheers!

Now the year begins…

10 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in Technology and Writing, Writing

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Today feels like the first day of school.  I swear I smell chalk in the air, and if I imagine a high-gloss shine on the floors I can almost detect the scent of wax, too.  After a weekend at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference, I’m as eager as a gap-toothed third-grader with the whole world before her.

Thanks to thought-provoking panels and excellent speakers, my backpack is once again loaded with sharpened tools and inspiration.  Sure, sometimes kids gathered in motley groups on the playground to mutter about recalcitrant agents and authoritarian publishers.  Everybody looked nervous at hearing more details unfold about changes in the industry.  But it’s hard not to gain optimism from people who struggle with the magnificent fascinations and frustrations of creating worlds and populating them with the characters who live inside us.  We writers–of all levels and accomplishments–are generous toward one another, sharing techniques and celebrating each others achievements.

Today I look at my to-do list and mentally roll up my sleeves.  I can solve those problems with chapter fourteen, and I will find a way to get my work out there again.  I may be alone in my garret but I’m one of many who work to interpret the world through imagination, creativity, and experience.

I have work to do, stories to tell, readers to find.  It’s the first day.

Wrestling with the last chapter

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in 19th century novels, Technology and Writing, Writing

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I’ve been revising the last chapter of my current novel for five months now. Not proud of that, let me tell you, but it’s the truth. As usual, there’s more than one reason for the god-awful paralysis that’s got me frozen on the edge of completion.

Edge of the Shadow is the first of the Wisdom Court trilogy. The story arc for the three novels follows associates at the women’s institute in Boulder as each works on a heart’s-desire project with total support, all expenses paid. (Did I mention there are eerie, disturbing things happening there?) Shadow sets up everything for all three books, and has to do it right. The climax has to make the reader want to run out to get the second book immediately. I’ve rewritten the damned ending so many times that I’m not dead certain it does that. I can’t tell you how eager I am to work on the second book of the trilogy–I’m at least 200 pages into A Signal Shown–but that first one has to be finished.

I keep letting myself get distracted with the New World Order of publishing. Like this blog, for instance. Plus I’ve been showing my face on Facebook & Link(ing)In, and tweeting now and again. (I think I may be too long-winded for Twitter.) I’m intrigued by the possibilities of all the networking, but the rule is, finish creating the product before you start marketing it, right?

It’s been a long time since I was published. Scavengers (1987) and Obstacle Course (1990) are mysteries set in Denver’s Capitol Hill. Bridey’s Mountain (1993), co-written with Mary Jo Adamson, is a saga set in Colorado. After Bridey, life got in the way big-time with family illnesses and such, and while I kept writing sporadically, I didn’t get near publishable quality for a long time. (That didn’t stop me from sending out Edge of the Shadow versions too early, thus burning bridges with some of the agents I knew. Stupid.)

My imagination is teased by the possibility of creating a shell for the trilogy. By that I mean I could use this blog and the Wisdom Court blog I’ve been messing with to write the back story of the women’s institute–a hang-out zone for readers. One of my favorite things in reading/writing is 19th century novels, and I’ve spent my entire writing career cutting the stuff that goes into those books. I’m talking about the descriptions, the Dear Reader asides, the plot cul-de-sacs I’ve always loved to read.  Admittedly, current tastes don’t run to that and the faster pace and pared down prose are de rigeur for fiction. Still, I ponder what fun it would be to indulge myself in what I like, particularly if I decide to publish the trilogy myself. (And then I remember the old writing advice about how you should always “kill your darlings,” [because they almost always stink] and feel a puritanical guilt about indulging myself.) Sigh.

So, it’s time for a resolution, because what the hell else can I do at this point? I will finish Chapter Twenty-four of Edge of the Shadow. Within the next month. And then I will decide whether to send out agent queries one last go-round. (I recommend QueryTracker.org as a source of agents and advice for approaching them.)

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Rediscovering the fun

22 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by in Technology and Writing, Writing

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Author Carol Caverly joined me last week in a gabfest about writing and reading, along with publishing and making the most of the internet tools now available to writers.  We shared a great deal of information while laughing at the difficulties we’ve both had with some of those tools.

I’ve been tiptoeing around FaceBook and Twitter, and LinkedIn and Gmail+ for months while tripping over such simple tasks as getting a widget or two on this blog.  Every time I try something new or try to get one link to communicate with another, I end up with my nose pressed against a brick wall.  Learning that Carol has experienced some of the same frustrations not only made me feel better, it gave me some perspective as well as several ideas.

I could use Writer in the Garret as a way to explore my adventures with the new tools available to me even as I continue to work on my current project.  I’ve been asked a lot of questions about my writing process since I was first published, and I could write about that here.  And, just maybe, I could have some fun doing it.

I don’t have many followers so far, but as soon as I figure out the widgets I need to hook up with my FaceBook and Twitter accounts, perhaps that number will grow.  It’s been a long time since I was published, but the act of writing hasn’t changed much between times.  My shiny IMac is much easier to use than that electric typewriter I started with, but I’m still typing, and I’m still hanging out with my characters.

So here’s an invitation to you:  If you’re one of us, someone who’s trying to figure out your process, join the conversation Carol Caverly and I began last week.  By the way, I figured out how to tell you a way to get at least one of Carol’s books.  And I avoided bumping my nose into that brick wall while I figured it out.