Nothing Like That First Copy

Seriously, there is nothing like opening the package with the first copy of your new book! My fellow writers, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I wondered if I wouldn't be as excited for round 2 of this adventure, but that was pure silliness wondering. Of course I was just as excited! If not more so!!!

This book was a lot harder in coming than Heartless. The concept is much more complex and the work it took to find a form for it that truly worked was intense. I had a lot of back-and-forth with my editors as we labored to find the right way to tell this story. And I think it was so worth it in the end! This book was no walk in the park, but it came to life for me in ways that no other project has. Every novel has a life of its own, of course . . . and I truly love all of my projects. But it's different with each. You appreciate different aspects.

One thing I particularly enjoy about this story is how much of my Rohan turned up in it in very random places. The poor dear man was just starting to court me when I was on a two month deadline to get this novel drafted. (For those of you non-writers reading, two months to write a 120,000 word manuscript = insanity.) My handsome suitor truly saw me at my very worst hair-pulling-out-depths-of-despair-absolutely-nothing-left. And still wanted to marry me at the end of the summer!

That's love.

But it amuses me now to read the story and see little phrases that are pure Rohan. Or word choices. Or descriptions. Tiny little details that no one else would pick up on, but which I read and go, "Ha! Yeah, I wonder where that came from." Life definitely inspires art.

Thus, the dedication: To my David Rohan.

Rohan: "Hmmm, this better be good . . . ."

One skeptical eyebrow later . . .

After all he went through, I really hope he enjoys it!

Squeeeee!!! It's so exciting to see them both together! I can't even begin to say how much I love this second cover. I didn't think I could possibly like a cover as much as the first book, but I just love the last-minute changes they made to Veiled Rose. The colors are rich and vivid, and the image is so perfectly suited to the story, it's almost unbelievable. I just adore it and feel blessed beyond belief!

Anyway, it's been a lovely four-day weekend at Rooglewood. Back to reality tomorrow. The office for Rohan and the manuscript for yours truly. I will write again soon.

Until then, happy reading!

Project Maya

I keep meaning to write up another literary-type post on writing theory . . . I even have one halfway written! But I have just been too distracted lately to get back to it. Mostly with rewrites on Book 3 in Tales of Goldstone Wood.

But also with kitten work!

Meet Maya:

She is a feral kitten who lost her mother and her sibling while still very young. Soon after, she started coming regularly to visit me . . . unusual behavior for a feral cat. They are usually completely wild and want nothing to do with people. But she started watching me from a distance while I worked in the garden, demonstrating a shy willingness to make friends.

So I started feeding her. And I would sit in the yard and talk to her, making gentle sounds and getting her used to my voice.

Pretty soon, I had her almost completely comfortable with me! She still isn't wild about being petted (though she'll let me pet her while she eats), but she loves to play and will often press up against me while napping. Lately it's been too hot for that, so she's gotten a wee bit standoffish. But she still comes running whenever I call her, eager to play and socialize.

This is her glamour shot, above. I think she looks really pretty!

I started looking around for a permanent family for her a few weeks ago. Because she is feral and has little to no familiarity with people, I was concerned that I wouldn't find anyone willing to take on a project like Maya! But, after much prayer, a family came along ready and willing to give her a chance. They've already done well by giving her such a pretty name (I was calling her 'Mabel,' which isn't as romantic).

"My camera cord!"

But the work isn't over just yet. I want to get her at least a little prepared for life as a housecat before sending her over to her new family's house. So yesterday evening, I caught Maya and brought her down for some time in our basement to get her used to being indoors and to train her in how to use a litterbox. The poor little thing is so scared! It breaks my heart a bit. She's never been indoors, so there are a lot of scary smells. But she is eating well and has a comfortable bed that Rohan bought her, so I am hoping she will adjust quickly.

Big yawn!

In a week and a half, she has her appoint to be spayed. Then she will be off to her new home and, I do hope, a happy, comfortable life as a housecat. Not entirely certain how I'm going to transport her to the vet (she's now shy of the trap I caught her in . . . and I don't blame her!). But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

So, if you think of it, say a prayer for little Maya that she'll have a smooth transition into her new life. Then, when she is settled, there is this pretty silver tabby starting to come to my door. A pretty tabby who is obviously pregnant. Might be I have another project coming in the near future . . . .

Review: The Five Red Herrings

I guessed who done it.

Okay, okay, it took me most of the book to figure it out. And no, I didn’t actually piece it together using subtle clues dropped by the much-more-brilliant mind of Dorothy Sayers. I simply have a little bit more knowledge of Sayers and her work than I used to, so my sleuthing was based off of what I have come to expect of the author rather than the story itself.

Besides, Ms. Sayers, I have a bit of a gripe with you. You purposefully—purposefully!—withheld the key piece of information!

Dearest Lord Peter Wimssy, early on in the story, tells the police officers that they must search the scene of the crime for one particular object. He tells them what that object is, and the proceed to scour the countryside for it. The whole solution to the mystery rests on the location of this one object. But we, the reader, aren’t told what the dragon-eaten thing is!!! Not until, like, the second to last chapter of the book! Maddening!

Not that I would have been able to put together any sort of a solution had the knowledge been handed me on a silver platter. Nope. Darling Wimsey (and his creator) remains forever my intellectual superior, and I bow to his genius (and hers).

Nevertheless, lack of Sherlockian-skills aside, I did actually manage to guess who the murderer was before the great revelation was given.

You see, four weeks before my wedding last summer, I returned to my native haunts in the forgotten wilds of Wisconsin and lived deep in the quiet Northwoods among the woodland creatures (and brothers) while awaiting the arrival of my Beloved. I was dead bored. I also caught rubella, so I was all over red spots and wanting to die . . . except dying meant not marrying Rohan, so I decided to struggle on.

During this interval, when I wasn’t languishing in fever (or experiencing feverish dreams about Rohan’s ‘secret wives’ . . . it’s amazing what your subconscious will concoct and batter you with on the eve of your wedding!), I was reading mystery novels. I’d never particularly read the genre before, other than my Sherlock Holmes craze in high school, and I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed it! I read my first Agatha Christie novel, but must admit that Dorothy Sayers proved herself the superior author. In short order (and completely out of order), I read Strong Poison, Murder Must Advertize, Gaudy Night, and some other that I can’t quite recall at present.

I think I will always associate those weeks before my wedding with murder mysteries . . . and rubella.

I cannot say enough about Ms. Sayers’ genius. If you haven’t read her, do yourself a favor and give her a try! She’s stylistically much more complex than Christie, and her characters are that much more satisfying. Especially dreamy Peter Wimsey (whom I cannot classify as a literary crush since I did not truly encounter him until the few weeks before my wedding, during which time all my romantic sensibilities were thoroughly occupied elsewhere. I did, however, see a lot of similarities between Lord Wimsey and my handsome Rohan, which I continue to see to this day. Perhaps that counts for something).

Anyway, all that to say that, while her methods and inventiveness still boggle my inferior mind, there is one, tiny, almost unnoticeable trend in her work that I did manage to pick up on. There is a particular type of character that she likes to make her villains. And, I’m sorry to say, I can’t tell you what that type is because the LAST thing I want to do is spoil any future Sayers books you might pick up! What’s more, even though I knew the type, it still took me a good three-quarters of the novel to finally pick my criminal candidate.

So, I must declare The Five Red Herrings an excellent read and give it a high recommendation! You might want to try to pick up the Wimsey novels in order, though, starting with Whose Body. I’ve been reading them completely mish-mashed and enjoyed each one thoroughly . . . but I can’t help but wonder what the experience would have been had I taken a more conventional route.

Now, on to the next read.

I told my Rohan that I wanted something different. He has a large selection of paperback fantasy that he brought to the States from Sri Lanka, so he took me to our Rooglewood library, selected one, and handed it to me.

"I already read fantasy,” said I.

“Look at the cover,” said he.

“Is that a grendel and an elf in a diner?” said I.

“Actually look at the cover, sweetie,” said he.

“Oh. A grendel and an elf in a subway station. Got it.” said I.

Pause.

“It looked like a diner!” said I.

“Shall I make you an appointment with an optometrist?” said he.

I have never read an urban fantasy. Never in my life! Can you believe it? So here’s to Rosemary Edghill for providing my first portal into the world of urban fantasy, and may it be an interesting, enlightening, and (hopefully) entertaining experience!

Prologue for Veiled Rose available online!

So excited!!!

I just discovered that the prologue for Veiled Rose is up on Amazon! If you are curious for a sneak peak at Leo and Rose Red's story, go here.

So interesting . . . they actually changed the cover. Not drastically, but in little ways that I think really improve it. Don't get me wrong! I liked the cover the way it was very much. But I do love these changes! I love that Rose Red's face is more covered. I love that the reds are brighter and the dragon is more of a lurking menace in the background (kind of miss how bright his eyes were, but not too much). Paul, the artist, seems to have added pretty details to the mirror, which I love!

And do please notice the absolutely, eerily fantastic back cover. I just adore it! It suits the story so very well, and I love the back cover blurb too. I just can't say enough for Bethany House and their brilliant work! I do hope my story is worthy of all the effort they put into it.

Let me know what you think!

The Gardens of Rooglewood

I was going to write a literary post today, something about style, technique, literary research . . . something fascinating. Really, it was going to be fascinating!

But I'm lazy.

So, instead, I am going to show off the recent green-thumb pursuits of the Rooglewood inhabitants! My Rohan and I have never particularly gardened before, but we have a great big, blank yard. A yard that we don't want to be a mere yard, but rather a garden . . .

Here is the porch area, fresh black dirt in place, a bunch of tiny, new petunias, a bare root rose, and as-yet unseen dahlias:

Here it is developing! Sorry the picture isn't better. But you can see that my petunias are sprouting nicely, that dahlia is getting huge, and there are gladiolas coming up along the wall! The bare root rose is also covered with leaves and starting to look more rosebush-like:

I love petunias! Such happy flowers:

Here is one of the back planters near our sunroom. I dug up all the scraggly grass, Rohan put down fresh dirt, and I built the little rock wall around it. Two more bare root roses, gladiola bulbs, vinca, etc.

Here it is coming along! The gladiolas have shot up to towering heights, dahlias are growing, vinca is settling in well. So excited for summer blossoms!

Speaking of blossoms . . . I didn't realize my rose bushes would bloom the first year! Here is the first rose bud of the season! A pink Dreamweaver:

 And here it is, bigger and frillier!



And here is a picture taken this morning! Spectacular!

Just glorious!

I can hardly wait until they are climbing all over that black rail!

And my first dahlia, stunning in scarlet:

 Opened up a little more here:



Anyway, so there you have a taste of our gardening endeavors! I believe, in time, we shall transform Rooglewood into a veritable butterfly of color! In time . . . in time . . .

All right, I should get to work now. Only ten (outlined) chapters left to write in the current manuscript. I'm just getting into all the fun stuff when all the foreshadowing is coming to fruition, all the characters established foibles and desires are rising to a head, and all the menace is ready to explode! The last ten or so chapters are always my favorite to write. :)

More On Those Literary Crushes . . .

A friend of mine, with whom I made a pact to list our literary crushes, has posted her list over on her blog. Have a look . . . it cracked me up!

The YA Conundrum

The other day, I discovered and devoured this interview by one of my all-time favorite authors, Megan Whalen Turner. Ms. Turner is the author of the fascinating Queen's Thief Series which, you may or may not have noticed, gets mentioned more often than not on this blog. I'm a bit of a fan . . .

My favorite part of this particular interview was the moment when Ms. Turner was asked, “Do you think you’ll always be writing YA? Or do you have any interest in writing an adult novel someday?”


(Note: For those of you who might not be familiar with the term, YA stands for “young-adult literature,” or literature written, published and marketed toward adolescents and young adults.)

I thought this was an interesting question for the interviewer to hand the author of a popular and award-winning YA series. And I loved Ms. Turner’s answer: “No.”

As a YA writer newly come to the field myself, I have already gotten a taste of the attitude that sometimes comes with the job. There’s a school of thought that seems to think as follows: Beginners write children’s books, progress up to YA, and begin writing adult literature as soon as they reach that proper level of maturity.

Acquaintances of mine or friends-of-friends have said (or told my friends) things along the lines of: “Well, I had some trouble getting into Heartless at first, but as soon as I realized it was just YA, I liked it better.” I have had people speculate that, now that I’m married, my work will probably “mature.”

What they tend to mean by “mature,” is “take on a sensual element.”

And my answer to this question is as simple as Ms. Turners: “No.”

You see, I have never enjoyed the sensual aspect of adult novels (Married life has not changed this). And really, this tends to be the main factor separating adult from YA literature. I’m not saying it’s wrong—everyone must live by their own convictions—but I simply do not and never will enjoy reading that stuff. It’s as though as soon as a novel slides from YA into the adult section, all the characters are motivated by sensual desires and the compulsion to have these gratified.

To me, this is cheap writing. I find much deeper satisfaction in the YA literature that pulls motivations and desires from very different sources . . . very real and human sources, but not this one-note focus. I often find that YA lit. is more reminiscent of the classics which, while very aware and willing to deal with all sorts of human emotions, sordid or otherwise, never played up the sensuality to the crazy extent you see happening in our modern literature. The classic authors—Austen, Dickens, Gaskell, Hugo, Tolstoy, etc.—recognized the importance of all the intricacies of the human heart. They never fixated on this one, small aspect.

I am certainly not implying that I don’t enjoy a good romance in a story or series! Turner’s Queen’s Thief series has one of the most compelling, interesting, complicated romances I have ever read in any novel, adult or YA. But Ms. Turner, while maintaining realism of feeling and emotion unparalleled, doesn’t feel the need to focus on sensuality. Instead, we get politics and betrayals, conflicted hearts and jealousies . . . everything you could possibly ask for in a romance that makes it all so very satisfying. She never resorts to mere sensuality to make an easy play on our emotions. She doesn’t need to!

And I don’t consider the Queen’s Thief series to be a “romance” as such. Not at all! The romance is an important piece of a much more complicated puzzle. But it doesn’t single-handedly run the show. I like this and find the romance much more satisfying this way. I attempted (to relative success) to make this the case in Heartless as well. While the romance is important to the story (the plot doesn’t exist without it), the center of the plot is Una’s stubborn clinging to her own will, the disaster that ensues, and her eventual redemption. It’s really not a romantic love story . . . it’s a story about undeserved love.

Anyway, I’m getting away from myself. I would like to point out that, despite the popular view that a more experienced writer writes more “adult” literature, I tend to see the opposite among my favorites. Have a glance at Neil Gaiman’s work. He made his name with his very “adult” Sandman Chronicles and American Gods . . . but his most recent pieces have been wonders like The Graveyard Book and Odd and the Frost Giants. Children’s literature. Not even YA. Books for children.

Or, to pick an author I respect that much more, take a look at C.S. Lewis’s writing career. While he wrote many brilliant and fascinating adult novels (The Space Trilogy, Till We Have Faces), he will always be renowned for his children’s literature, the beloved Chronicles of Narnia.

YA, as Ms. Turner points out in her interview, is a relatively new development in the publishing market. It bridges the gap between children and adults . . . but not in a progressing-from-intermediate-to-advanced sort of way. It’s a sophisticated genre that I have seen cover many mature themes. Themes like love and loss, death and life, abuse and abandonment, promiscuity and rebellion . . . in short, all the major themes you find in adult literature. But usually (and not always. Have a glance at all the “vampire romances” dominating the YA shelves will tell you that!) without such a focus on sensuality as the #1 motivation of mankind.

I might even go so far as to name YA the most complicated genre to write. Because it bridges that gap between child and adult, it is necessary for it to appeal to both. You can’t have children solving all the world’s problems with no help from adults . . . neither can you have adults solving all the world’s problems with no help from children. There must be balance. There must be recognition of both the advantages of adult maturity and childlike innocence. It is a difficult genre to write well . . . but such a satisfying genre to read!

Anyway, those were some thoughts stimulated from reading Ms. Turner’s great interview! If you haven’t read her series, please do. She creates a rich world which, though peppered with a pantheon of old gods, actually teaches spot-on theology (the pantheon aspect aside). As a Christian reader, I was startled to find that the views she presents on godhood are so compellingly true . . . but perhaps I’ll write an article on that at a later date.

Happy reading!