Caught in the Author Web!

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I was snagged to participate in a spider web blog challenge. Janet Greger snagged me; Ilene Schneider snagged her; and I snagged Sandra Bremser. You get to meet some bloggers you might not have encountered as we play this game! Additionally, you find out more about this blogger and her work as an author. Check the bottom for links.

Each of us has the same four questions to answer. Here I go! Tag! I’m it!

WHAT AM I WORKING ON NOW? 

I am deep into two novel sequels, a romance short story for an anthology, and revisions of a mystery short story for a contest submission. The two sequels are Sex for Sale, sequel to Streewalker, my erotic romance series and Prime Rib and Punishment, sequel to Mission Impastable, my culinary mystery series.

In Sex for Sale, my protagonist, Carrie, and her business partner, Harlan still run their Upper East side brothel, but Harlan is distancing himself more and more as he develops his photography interest. Carrie is trying to get out of the brothel business and find more legitimate ways to sell sex as she opens an erotica art gallery and restaurant. Relationship misunderstandings interfere with their developing romance. Stuff happens. Will they part forever?

Prime Rib and Punishment picks up a couple of months after the end of Mission Impastable and finds the newly-minted personal chefs still struggling financially. They take part-time teaching jobs at a new culinary school but the head chef, forced to hire them by his boss, hates Alli and Gina. Unfortunately for them, that makes them prime suspects when he ends up dead. Filled with recipes, this two-fer, mystery and cookbook, will keep readers guessing as they try to solve the mystery alongside Alli.

In addition, I am writing a short story, “Just Say Something” (tentative) for a romance anthology to be published in October.

I am in the process of edits for an historical suspense romance, Lucinda, that I really want to publish later this year.

And for fun this summer, and as a break, I plan to finish my play about a single guy moving into a retirement community. Hot Dishes refers to the food the women show up with and how they view themselves.

WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

I write in a wide range of genres because I let the story unfold. Sometimes that means paranormal, sometimes romance, and sometimes something else. I have to say I love writing culinary mysteries just as much as historical fiction or as much as erotic romance.

Each genre teaches me something more about the craft of writing as I struggle to master different genre elements. I think writing in a variety of genres is the sign of a healthy imagination rather than a sign of a dilettante who can’t focus! Right?

HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF THE SAME GENRE?

My protagonist, Alli, struggles with commitment and suffers from huge personal issues traceable to being abandoned as a youth. She is a hard worker, but Alli questions authority, and that hasn’t sat well with her dozens of employers over the years. She lives in the backyard casita of her friend from 2^nd grade as part of her friend’s extended family.  She is a natural cook who finds measuring anathema. Her business partner in their newly-minted personal chef business knows they have to be more mindful of the details. The women struggle, not with their cooking, but with the business aspects of their chosen line of work.

HOW DOES YOUR WRITING PROCESS WORK?

I can be a pantser, a plotter, or (as one speaker identified in her session), a puzzler. A pantser lets the story roll out on its own. Sort of like mid-wifery. Just helping along a natural process. I am also, with some of my novels, a plotter (and I go into more detail on that). But at times, I am a puzzler. At a workshop recently, Lexi Post/Alexis Walker said that folks who don’t write chronologically, rather they write scenes out of order, are puzzlers. The pieces will fit together somehow.

I always work on more than one piece at a time. That shotgun approach staves off writer’s block. I also find that working on different genres helps me stay fresh with writing as well, as described above.

I start with a situation, question, or character and then play “what if?” to find plot lines to explore. “What if their first client died of food poisoning?” “What if Alli had a police officer boyfriend?” and so on.

I do major character sketches. I have the characters tell me, in first person, who they are, what’s important to them, what scares them, and so on.

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I write the ten key events for the novel. I put the events spaced within a 40-line grid leaving grid spaces on either side to fill in as scenes. What happened before and after each of the ten? Then on either side of those. Each line of the grid includes who is in the scene, where/when is the scene, the point of the scene, and other stuff that needs to be there. This plotting does not restrict me (I veer off on side paths frequently), but it gives me a compass for finishing the novel.

However, as the puzzler, I have also written novels where I capture scenes that I write down and then weave together later. I write scenes from any place in the book. I’m afraid if I don’t get them down while they are pressing on me, I’ll lose them.

The spider who caught me in this web was Janet Greger. See her at www.jlgreger.com  She was caught by Ilene Schneider. See her at rabbiauthor.com. She was caught into the web Sandy Fairfax. See her at sandyfairfaxauthor.com. I snared Sandra Bremser into the web. See her blog at www.sandrabremser.tumblr.com   

What Makes a Critique Group Work? Pens Afire Tri-Blog

Visiting today are the other two members of Pens Afire, one of my critique groups. Annie Weissman writes a blog called The Single Senior (at thesinglesenior.wordpress.com) and Sandy Bremser (at sbremser.com). We have a very successful weekly critique group. So why do we think that is?

ANNIE: I think the most important quality of a critique partner is insight. I used to think someone who was great at writing or a broad reader would make the best critiquer but that's not necessarily so.

SHARON: I'd agree that you want someone who knows what good writing is and whether or not your piece has what it takes. But don't you think it is generally true that a more consistently good critique partner does read a lot?

ANNIE: I agree that people who are well read in good fiction (meaning they read good fiction AND think out it) have a feel for story, character, and all the other literary elements.

SHARON: In my opinion, the single most important part of having an effective critique group is honesty with a heart. If you can’t trust that your partners will tell you the truth where your piece isn’t working, then how can you trust them when they say it is wonderful? By the same token, there are ways to give critiques that are critical and ways that are helpful. Being hurtful doesn’t move the piece forward nor does it engender trust.

SANDY: Honesty and insight are important, I agree. There are also practical aspects.

I’d say group members need to be on the same page when it comes to how often the group meets, how earnest each is about writing/publishing, and how focused they are during meetings. My goal is to publish, so I want to meet 2-4 times a month with a couple of partners who are serious about writing and don’t spend critique time discussing their jobs or their neighbor’s barking dog. The perfect time for that is after the meeting when people can stay and chat or not. Large groups require a larger personal investment of reading and critiquing others’ work.

Someone else might be after totally different things, preferring to meet once a month with several friends who mainly provide emotional support for each other’s writing efforts. Both groups could be effective, but a writer needs to seek out those critique partners who have similar goals.

If members of a critique group aren’t evenly matched but want to form a group, they could all agree on ground rules and go from there. There’s something to be said for having similar temperaments and good chemistry, so people can be honest in sharing their insights.

SHARON: How true that the group members have to share goals and a common vision! But, Sandy, that's a management issue. Say that the group does share goals and vision, still within that group some people give better feedback on your work than others. Why is that? And what makes you value some people's input more than others?

SANDY: Offhand, I want to say, “I just know which people give me the best feedback.” Upon reflection, I think the most useful advisors differ depending on the author’s needs at the time. For instance, I belong to two critique groups and receive a lot of great input. One critique partner might catch every typo, while another suggests I’m having point of view problems. I appreciate those responses, and it does save me time, but I probably would have caught them on my own during rewrites.

I benefit most from probing questions such as, “Is each character in this chapter unique and necessary for the story? Could you collapse a few personalities together so I, as a reader, don’t have to keep track of so many?” or “How does this scene move your story along? What could you add to make it more relevant to the plot?” Dialogues like these that make my book richer and tighter are flashing neon signs for me to listen up and take notes. Gotta love those critique partners!

ANNIE: I’ve been surprised more than once at insightful feedback from someone who hasn’t offered much before. But there are some people who routinely give better feedback. I also need the detail people who catch my typos and tense problems. The frequency of a critique group is very important to me to keep on track with my writing projects. If I know I have to get twenty pages ready every week or every other week, I’m much more likely to keep on track with my writing projects. I also think the moral support is very important. Writing is such a lonely profession and publication is far off and iffy.

Blogging Sandra K. Bremser

Let’s all give a big Write Away welcome to Sandra Bremser. (applause) You can find her website and blog at sbremser.com. Check it out! Sandy is a member of my Pens Afire critique group, and I am engrossed by her novel.

Good Morning, Sandy. Thanks for dropping by to talk about your novel. I know lots of my readers will be interested in this Southwest historical fiction. Could you tell us a little about House of the Earth?

SANDY: Alison Cabot becomes an archeologist in 1916 when society doesn’t exactly welcome women into the profession. When she builds her adobe home, Jokake, near the Hopi mesas and Basque sheepherders of northern Arizona, Alison attempts to make a name for herself professionally while dodging bullets and solving the murders of two local women.

SHARON: I understand this is just book one. What is coming up after you publish House of the Earth? You have two other titles, right? What are they about?

SANDY: Book two, Devil Dance in Talum, finds Alison spying for the US government during World War I while on an archeology dig. In the third book, called Basque Bones, Alison travels to the Basque country of Spain to solve a mystery threatening her own home in northern Arizona.

SHARON: I know you have been working on historical fiction for years. Why do you write what you write?

SANDY: As a kid growing up on an apple orchard, my chores were often solitary, so I entertained myself by making up stories. For instance, I’d pretend the strawberry patch I was weeding was the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” and wonder who I’d run into at the end of the row. Maybe it would be a harem girl who’d want to escape into the desert. I’d make up a whole big story, then research facts about the era and setting and write about it. I still think writing stories is hugely entertaining.

SHARON: What is the best writing advice someone gave you—in person or from a book?

SANDY: Between the act of writing and then researching the historical aspects, I sometimes get overwhelmed. At times I want to abandon the whole endeavor. When I read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, I realized that by taking it one step at a time, I can actually write the books that run around inside my head.

SHARON: What advice do you have for those who write?

SANDY: Put your seat in the chair and type. Schedule writing into your calendar or time will be gobbled up by things we won’t remember a year from now. Don’t answer the phone. Don’t do laundry. You owe it to yourself.

SHARON: What do you do to get “unstuck” when you write and hit a wall?

SANDY: It’s unusual for me to get stuck but if I do, I might read an excerpt from a well-written book or a couple pages of Billy Collins’ poetry. If that doesn’t inspire me, I contact a critique partner and ask to discuss the scene I’m working on.

SHARON: What is the number one writing “rule” you think people break?

SANDY: We talk about writing instead of writing.

SHARON: What does your writing schedule look like? Do you write every day?

SANDY: I write beginning about 6:00 A.M. until other obligations crowd in around lunchtime. I can edit most any time of day, but first thing in the morning is my best time to create. I hope sometime soon to be able to write every day, but currently I don’t.

SHARON: Is there anything else you’d like to address?

SANDY: What I haven’t said yet is that writing helps me process my own life. It’s no accident that my character, Alison, is an independent woman who wants to balance a career and love life. Someone who wants to find a way sometimes to just “be” and not always “do.” These are lessons she learns in the desert watching the red-tailed hawk circling above her house of the earth. I have had many “aha’s” writing the scenes where she learns these kinds of lessons. It’s kind of like the realizations we have when reading a good book only much more intimate because you’re the author.

Dilettante is as Dilettante Does

I have accused myself of being a dilettante because I write in so many genres. It surely helps with writer’s block to have so many different projects going—plays to children’s books to culinary mystery to erotica to historical fiction to . . . well, you get the idea.

But, this time, I think I out-dilettante-d myself!

I started book two in my “Dinner is Served” series about two personal chefs and the murders they solve. Good you say? Not so fast. It’s not like book one is done. That’s the one I dumped and had to start over. But I can’t. Not yet.

It’s like there is static in my head. I want to “re-purpose” parts of book one, but I have to have a new killer and motivation. The red herrings change. Nope—can’t do book one right now. I can’t get a handle on the new story because part of my brain is still working on the old one.

Fortunately, long ago I planned out multiple books in the series. So, I moved on to book 2 to get back into the series. The hardest question was do I make Cooks in the Can book two or should it be Prime Rib and Punishment? After a suggestion from one of my critique group partners, I began Prime Rib and Punishment, set in a cooking school.

Interesting to me, anyway, is that I am not writing it episodically as I wrote book one. I used Hallie Ephron’s planning guide then wrote first two chapters. Then I wrote part of last chapter because I read somewhere that when writing plays, if you write the last act first, you know where you are headed and can plant seeds throughout that ripen and come to harvest in the last act. Okay, so that’s make some sense. Then, I started getting scenes in my head, so I wrote two other scenes that will appear someplace, not sure where.

Have I planned my novel? Yep, but my pantser stepped in. I don’t know if that is good or bad. I just know I have no control over the flashes. This has happened to me before with other novels. When I get the scene flashes, I know to write them down. Even if they end up on the cutting room floor, the more I write about my characters and my story line, the better it will be for the final book.

I took the first two chapters to my Pens Afire critique group yesterday. There were multiple problems to fix (as is always the case, eh?), but the biggest one harkened to Sue Grafton’s comment re writing a series. How do you keep the recurring characters fresh? How do you introduce them to a new audience while not boring your fan base?

Writing Alli Wesson and Gina Smithson or Gina’s mom Maria and her pal, Pearl—pretty easy. I know these women! I like them, and I can tell you what they are likely to have for breakfast whether at home or when they go out to IHop.

But therein lies the problem. I am not reading this with the eyes of a reader new to my series. So Pens Afire (Sandra Bremser and Annie Weissman) called me on it. Good for them. Even though I knew of the danger, I skated right past the warning signs onto the thin ice. It’s cracking around me, but I now know, early in this book, to skate away. Thanks, Pens Afire.