Got your attention, didn’t I?

But the parallel struck me this morning when I had one of those moments. I was considering a major plotline in the new book, chewing over its implications, when it hit me. There was a detail that I had overlooked, but which dovetailed so neatly with the rest of the story that I had to conclude that part of me already knew about it. I spent a few minutes to develop the notion, but it really wasn’t that difficult.

The beauty of that realization was that I could deliver it to my readers too. They would get to a certain point in the story and, hopefully, see this unexpected twist and say, “Aha! I should’ve known!”

It is my job as a writer to make sure my readers have at least one of those moments. Otherwise, I’m not doing my job. No amount of literary foreplay or character cuddling can substitute for a climactic and entirely satisfying “Aha!”

Today I did it. The scenes marked with “may cut” have, indeed, been cut. I adjusted later places in the story that had referred back to the scenes, and it looks as if I have done minimal damage to the story. This is another sign that those scenes needed cutting; one theory has it that if a scene can be easily removed, it should be removed from the story.

Word count: just under 99,000 words
Page count: 400pp.

‘Nuff said.

I’m in the process of a straight read-through of the manuscript for Book Two. This is the first time I’ve treated the book as a single, indivisible whole, and there are numerous rough edges to smooth and corners to knock off. When I started I was uncertain as to what I’d find and where in the manuscript I’d need to bring out the authorial Key of Deletion and smite my tender prose. Things were going so well, though, and it began to look like I’d get to the Second Draft with little bloodshed.

How wrong I was. One of the crucial tasks before me was to evaluate the pacing for my story. The first thing I noticed was that it was very slow to get off the ground. Thousands of words into the novel, I realized that I was becoming impatient with my *own story.* That’s never a good sign. So I started marking out my story ‘beats’ to see if I was getting to the crucial turning points in time. No, I wasn’t.

What to cut? Which delicious vignette, what carefully crafted scene, what fully-formed child of Wisdom, sprung from my decidedly ungodly brow would succumb to the headsman’s axe?

Upon close examination, I determined that there were several scenes, centered on one of my more beloved characters, that did little more than introduce her and other characters and establish basic interactions. These scenes did not seem to be moving the story forward.

But I lost my nerve. Instead of outright removing them, I decided to mark them as “might cut” in Scrivener. I knew that I’d need to evaluate them in the context of the story and find later places where those characters and their actions would change. I promised myself that I would not simply erase these scenes; they’re my darlings, and actually rather funny, and may find a home in (drum roll, please) Book Three.

This decision having been made, I re-evaluated the rest of the story, and to my profound surprise discovered that the pacing beyond those problematic scenes looks really good. Looks like between 3,000 and 4,000 words will be removed when I’m done, which is probably just as well as I’m pushing 100,000 words, much longer than I’m comfortable with for this novel.

I sheathed my sword, cased my headsman’s axe, covered my red pen, and lifted my finger from the almighty Delete Key. For now.

If I were to cast a movie based on “The Soul Thief,” I’d consider Scarlett Johansson to play Angela:

If Scarlett played Angela

and Rooney Mara for Cassandra:

She’s got the look

I based these ideas on acting skill as well as looks. Ms. Johansson closely resembles the Angela that I have imagined: intense, somewhat curious, very serious, and with a detached air stemming from both her extraordinary past and her otherworldly experiences. I think the actress could probably pull off the demeanor of my half-Romani heroine, too. She’s already demonstrated greater range than most people might give her credit for.

Ms. Mara played a character in “Girl with the Dragon Tatoo” who reminded me of Cassandra as she was when she met Angela. That is, insofar as Cassandra is someone on the run, in great pain, and dealing with traumatic, abusive situations, she would respond similarly to the crises portrayed in that movie. That said, I believe that Cassandra’s character is less emotionally scarred. I think that the look of the character is aptly captured by this screenshot, too.

Without posting any spoilers, what do those of you who’ve read the book think? Who do you think would be a good George? Nadia? I’m curious…

I just finished with some of the prep work for another batch of sauerkraut. Rachel enjoys making it almost as much as she enjoys eating it, and of course I enjoy the fruits, as it were, of that labor too. As I was meditatively squishing the pile of leaves and other vegetable oddments, well salted and oozing their liquid, I found my mind drifting toward the craft of writing.

I’m in the midst of building a new story (and I use that term “building” deliberately), and because of the way that I iterate over each of its pieces, I find that the process very much resembles the making of sauerkraut:

• The cutting of the veggies.
  You trim and slice the vegetables, choosing the bits to remove and cutting the pieces that remain into bite-sized morsels. This is much like the process of writing the first draft, in which you are going for bulk and roughly cutting the ideas into sentences, paragraphs, scenes and chapters.
• The building of layers and the salting of those layers.
  You begin laying vegetables into the big bowl, alternating with spoonfuls of salt. This actually goes in parallel with the above step, so I liken this to the process of creating the story from the raw materials as you go. It’s still a rough draft, but the basics are there.
• The squishing of the veggies.
  This is what I do, as it requires a steady, strong grip and a certain placid calm. This is very much like the art of rewriting, in that the best frame of mind is a meditative one. You are going to be reducing the size of the pile of veggies, and you will see a lot of the desired liquid appear at the bottom of the bowl. This is the juice of the story, and it tells you that the thing is going to ferment quite nicely.

Maybe the analogy is rough. In fact, it is pretty rough. But the emotional states, the frame of mind that I’m in when I’m writing, remind me very much of what it feels like for me to write. I don’t write it all in one go, but instead build in layers, squishing and mashing and folding and packing. What I want to have at the end is a well-fermented nutriment for the mind that will keep and will be enjoyed for a long time to come.

The price for the Kindle edition of “Poems de Terre” has dropped to $0.99! For less than a buck you can own an electronic copy of the poetry collection that has already received excellent reviews!

“Poems de Terre is a collection of short poems … that are delightful, and fresh, grabbing you from the first phrase.”
– J. French

“Poems de Terre is a sweet collection of poetry.”
– J. Godair

I never thought I’d agree with the observation that an author’s characters take on a life of their own. They’re just imaginary people, after all. Right? Well…

When I’m writing dialog, it feels like I’m taking dictation. That’s pretty convenient and (according to some) the dialog does scan well. But now I’m noticing that if I spend a lot of time with a character I start to act like that character, talk like that character, and even get annoyed at the same things that bother the character. Not to a huge degree; I’m still “me.” But clearly that part of my pea brain that generated the character emphasizes those attributes within me when I focus on that imaginary person.

I had learned techniques for emphasizing my own beneficial personality attributes as part of my philosophical studies. I think it would help me to clearly demarcate these ‘channeling’ episodes if I use those techniques from now on. One of those is to start a meditation with a meaningful gesture and a spoken phrase designed to reinforce the idea that a special time and place have been set up for inner work. Then at the end of meditation, reverse these steps. By establishing a clear start and a clean stop, this ensures that there’s no ‘bleed over’, but it also ensures that I dedicate that time and place exclusively to the work in front of me.

Over time, this should strengthen my writing, if only by virtue of a sort of post-hypnotic suggestion that reinforces my concentration.

As a newly self-published novelist, I’m learning that the work on a new novel will continue to overlap with the marketing of the already-written one. Writers who have opted to publish the ‘traditional’ route often find that they must also market their own books these days, so there’s really no shortcut. One of my Kindle books, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book, has a great deal of good advice on this work. Still, it’s not easy to step away from the creation of a book to do marketing. One way to do this is to rigorously divide the time allocated to writing. For example, if four hours are set aside for writing, spend two of those actually writing and two of them marketing and doing paperwork.

That said, I’m in the midst of knocking the roughest corners off the first draft of the next novel. At this stage of the work, it’s a little easier to step away from the manuscript! The todo list for the novel is still quite long, though, so I’m picking it back up tomorrow morning.

I’m proud to announce that “The Soul Thief” is available on Amazon in Kindle and print editions today. Tomorrow morning, the Kindle edition will be free to download; the delay is unfortunate, but I could not find a way around it.

You can find both of these listed here on the Kindle edition page on Amazon:

http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00LS7TBR2

As part of this launch I’ve also made “Poems de Terre” available for free on Kindle, and have also performed minor updates to the book, such as a better looking title page and a blurb about the novel.

A number of my early reviewers have asked when the next one will be out. This is very encouraging! And the good news is, I’m working on it right now. Of course, these things take time, but given my current pace, I expect to publish Book Two of the Gypsy Dreamwalker series, tentatively entitled “God of Battles,” in early spring of 2015. Keep an eye on this blog or on my Facebook page OR on Twitter for news!

I am pleased to announce that “The Soul Thief,” my novel of paranormal horror and suspense, will be available on Kindle on July 14th. It will be available in paperback a few days after that, depending on how quickly the distributor is able to process it.

As a celebration of the book launch, the Kindle edition will be FREE for a limited time. I will post an update the moment it appears on Amazon.

Once the free availability period has ended, the book will be published on other platforms, including the Apple iBookstore. Paperback and hardback editions will become generally available over time, and I will announce availability of these when they show up.

Also, I will post an announcement for the book signings in our local area. Keep an eye on this space!

Thanks, everyone, for your patience!