Here’s an interview I did with author Michael A. Ventrella, where I talk about endurance, the future of publishing, and lawyers

Have a wonderful weekend — it’s supposed to be lovely in NY/LI (finally) and my copyedits for DARK VICTORY have come in, so I know what I’ll be doing!

EDITED TO ADD:  The link to the interview.  Link didn’t stick before — sorry!

Ms. Pendragon was my first published book, and it’s now reissued at Kindle, Nook and Smashwords –

Nook

Kindle

Smashwords

Blurb:

She’s running out of time — can Gwen stop an ancient curse from destroying Camelot and New York City?

Gwen, killer NYC litigator, finds out she’s the reincarnation of Queen Guinevere. To save New York, she must go back in time to fix the disaster she caused in Camelot.

Magical nonsense? Not when there’s an evil being lurking in her refrigerator, intent on capturing her. Not when Merlin, great mage of Camelot, pops up in the Big Apple on a motorcycle in search of her. And especially not when Gwen finds out that the sexy maniac holding a sword to her throat is Arthur Pendragon, King of Camelot…and her husband.

Gwen is both the Queen and the curse. She’s Ms. Pendragon. And she’s the only one who can rescue the past…and the future.

A wicked and witty tale of love in Camelot, this is a reissue of Michele Lang’s first book!

Praise for Ms. Pendragon:

“This is simply a fantastic read. There is just the right amount of humor to off-set the inherent angst. Ms. Pendragon has the best Arthur and Guinevere I have seen in years of reading everything I can find about Camelot. Merlin is completely charming, and not since Mary Stewart has Mordred received a better treatment. If this is to be a series, I am very anxious for it to continue.” – Amanda Killgore, The Eternal Night Reviews

The gorgeous cover artwork is by the amazing Anne Cain.  And the sequel, Mists of Manhattan, is coming soon…

It’s almost time to head out to Stony Brook for I-Con — it’s like a rite of spring for me by now

Here’s my schedule this year.  Hope to see you there!

I’ve been invited to ConnectiCon as a Guest of Honor, and I couldn’t be more honored and excited   This is my first GoH appearance, and Connecticut was my home for a long time, so lots of magical vectors will be converging this July in Hartford!  If you are in the vicinity, please do come on down — it’s going to be an awesome time.

This Saturday, April 2nd I will be on a Science Fiction/Fantasy panel at the Empire State Book Festival in Albany, NY.  It’s at 2:45, with a signing soon after.

I’ve been moving at such warp speed I haven’t made a con report on Lunacon yet — I was there this year but briefly, had my usual great time though I didn’t have enough spare time for panels other than my own!

I will be at I-Con April 14-16 and will be very busy there…more info when I get it.  And there is more conference info — I’ll update by the end of the week.  Have a great week!

Since I last checked in, I’ve been to the Denise Little Short Story Workshop held on the Oregon Coast.  An incredible experience — for a great write up, check out Dean Wesley Smith’s account here.

Now that I’ve returned, a bunch of other writers have asked me why I went.  Now, I had my rational reasons for going — I wanted to learn the short story form, I wanted to go to a craft workshop and write instead of speak on panels, I wanted to meet other working writers.  But to be honest, I really ended up going because of a strong gut feeling that I *needed* to go. A compulsion, really, not a rational decision.

I often get these urges to write a particular story, so I’ve learned to take these gut feelings very seriously.  Rarely do I get them about life choices these days — I’m in homeostasis at the moment (though I also get the deep sense that is about to change too — more about that when I know more).

This workshop gave me so much — it was so worth it!  I think the market for short fiction is going to keep growing and growing, so I am working on developing my short story chops.
I also want to learn to write faster and the DL workshop is great for that.  All of us wrote at least two stories for the workshop; some of us wrote more.   Submitting short fiction, you need to be disciplined and organized, and I learned how to approach the market, how to research it, and how to write for it.  Pretty amazing for a few short days.

I learned a ton — so often, learning is not a linear phenomenon where writing is concerned.  I learned how to write a short story.  I wrote some inventory.  I got the incredible affirmation of four editors taking a look at my work.  And I made connections with about 40 of the most creative, talented, open-hearted, and hilarious writers on the planet.

But even more, I learned about me as a writer.  I need to approach my work as gently and with as much reverence as these acclaimed editors did with every story they critiqued at the workshop.  All of them were scrupulously fair, they didn’t give false praise, but never did they shred a piece of work.  Never.  And I am guilty of shredding my own stuff without mercy.  Never again.

If you ever get the chance, I strongly recommend these writing workshops on the Coast.  A real life-changer for me.

Happy President’s Day, US readers! I know, I’ve been very, very quiet.  There’s some amazing stuff brewing, and I promise to share as soon as the news can be made public…

In the meantime, I am helping to kick off the Urban Fantasy party at author Marie Treanor’s Romantic Theme Party site — today I put on my romance writer’s hat and look at urban fantasy from a romance perspective.  If you have not yet gotten LADY LAZARUS for your reading pleasure, you are in luck — drop a comment over there and win yourself a free copy!

So come on down — the Urban Fantasy party is here!

Recently I heard from a very dear friend of mine, one who I stupidly lost touch with, and her voice brought back a time in my life when I desperately wanted to write but just didn’t know the way.

Here is a list of things I wish I could tell that younger woman, the one who Carrie knew.   I put the stuff for her in bold, and the updated information for you right after.  Maybe somehow this will influence my past, but even if not, I hope it helps you for the future:

*you WILL publish fiction. And today, you can self-publish whenever you feel you are ready.  When will you be ready?  A very good question, and the topic for another blog post <g>

*writing a lot is the surest path to success. I think this will always be true, and today I think that even more than in the recent past, the most prolific writers are most likely to succeed.  We’re entering a second golden age of pulp, and the people who can produce for their fans are the ones who will gain market share.  So, write!

*join RWA: Romance Writers of America .  I think that RWA is an amazing resource for writers, and in the 1990s when I was trying to find out about writing it was one of the only ones.  Today, with the explosion of writing industry blogs, you can find out a ton of information.  I would caution you to get the best information, and don’t believe everything you read simply because it is on the internet.  Just find impeccable sources, take what works for you, and forget the rest.

*write what you love to read. That was good advice for me in those days…I loved genre fiction in all of its forms, but wrote dreary literary dreck.  But I would say write what you love to write — the stories that insist on getting written.  The stuff that feels so easy that it is cheating.  As you get more confident in your writing, you can expand from there if you want.

*read a lot.  And stuff that is fun, not stuff you’ve been told is good for you. This is always true

*find other writers who are serious about honing their craft. Just as true today as ever, though there are many more places to find them than there used to be.  Back in the day, I would have recommended a writing conference, a local chapter of RWA (if one existed back then) or putting up a sign at a local bookstore to start a writer’s group.  Today, forums like Absolute Write, Romance Divas and so many others are available online, not to mention online writing chapters of RWA and other organizations.  But finding other writers these days is as easy as checking out Twitter for a couple of minutes — try the #amwriting, #writegoal, #litchat hashtags for starters.

*write short stories for publication.  Find short story markets in Writers Market and keep submitting. Especially in SFF, the short story market is stronger than it was in those days.  Tough to break into, but diverse and wonderful.  I’m still working on this piece of advice

*Become a genre writer — and find out what this terminology means. This was, and is, good advice for me, but it may not be for you.  Don’t get hung up on labels for your work — write it, and when you’re done you will see where it belongs.

*do not get an MFA or any other kind of fancy degree. You will make the most of the fancy degrees you’ve already gotten, but you don’t need any more. Unless you are planning to teach creative writing at a university, this is still good advice.  You do not need an expert to confer the title “writer” upon you — only you can do that.  Check out John Scalzi’s excellent MFA post written in the wake of the latest Frey scandal.

*don’t give up! You are already good enough!  All you need is practice… This was true, is true, and will always be true.  Believe in your passion for writing, and keep doing it.  The more you write, the better you are likely to get.

Here’s an amazing follow up question to the workshop I taught last Saturday for the Long Island Romance Writers.  Thank you Lisa! –

I add my tremendous thanks, Michele, for your thorough, captivating workshop about building a story world. You provided new insight to generating seed ideas.

My favorite part was your posed challenge to “write what scares you, what keeps you up at night, what pisses you off to no end.” Which brings me to my question. I want to write romantic comedy–that’s my first WIP–but in between, I’ve written darker, supernatural short stories that seem to flow out of me of their own accord. I know you said you fought it, as I am.

I find reality scary enough, I want to escape it in my writing. Have you found that writing about the ‘darkness’ helps you cope with fears?Or does it pull you in further?

I’m trying to decide whether I should take your challenge to write what keeps me awake at night…TIA for any feedback.

Thanks again,
Lisa Brennan
(a currently “safe” writer, hopefully not writing a “safe” book)

A great question, because I believe the answer is going to be different for each person, and thus is not capable of a single, neat answer.

I’m a big fan of letting the writing write itself.  There are the Big Reasons people write stories — to express their vision of the world, to banish their inner demons, to promote a certain world view — and then there is the simple joy of writing.  It is my belief that many writers who last are writing because it’s fun to write, because it is exhilarating to disappear into the story world and return to our own with treasure.

Whatever gets you to the page — your outrage, your fear, your ideals, your naked ambition — is great.  And whatever keeps you writing is great too.  In my own case, fear serves as a marker.  DO NOT WRITE THIS is the neon sign that points me to what I should be writing, because for me the taboo stuff has the greatest charge, the most treasure.

Again in my own case (because every single writer is different) what gets me out again is my belief (a recurring theme in my writing) that no matter how deep and vast the darkness, even a small candle can often defeat it.  Another way of saying this — the fear gets me started writing, the transcending of the fear is what gets me to the other side.

For you, Lisa, I say embrace the darkness and come out the other side.  I’ve read romantic comedies — Jenny Crusie’s books come to mind — where the darkness is right up front, casting weird and beautiful shadows over the comedy.  Or, check out the mordant humor on display at writer/agent/editor Betsy Lerner’s blog — slashing wit.  Love it.  The best comedy doesn’t shy away from darkness but confronts it head on.  Maybe that shadow darkness is the layer your romantic comedy needs.

Or it may be that dark, supernatural stories are yours to tell.  You could write both the funny and the earnest — my favorite stories are a mix of the two.  I’d say, whatever writes easy.  Write these supernatural short stories and send them out — you never know. . .

It’s like I said on Saturday.  I believe that each of us has stories only we can tell.  The job is to write as honest, close to the bone, as we can get.  The hardest part of writing, sometimes, is just getting out of the way and letting the writing out, uncensored.

Thanks again for sending along your note, Lisa — I am so glad you enjoyed the workshop.  I hope this answers your question!

And as for you, dear reader, what do you think?  What do you look for in your reading?  If you write, why do you write?

I gave a talk for the Long Island Romance Writers yesterday on story mapping, how to explore your fictional world. It was great to see so many people come out for the talk! Here is the handout from the workshop — I think it makes a handy list of resources:

STORY MAPPING

1/15/11 LIRW presentation at Barnes and Noble, Huntington, NY

FIVE STORY QUOTIENTS

Source: Orson Scott Card, Characters and Viewpoint, p. 48

1.      MILIEU: The milieu is the world surrounding the characters – the landscape, interior spaces, the surrounding cultures the characters emerge from and react to; everything from weather to traffic laws.

Julie Leto — http://www.julieleto.com/articles/where-am-i-the-importance-of-setting-to-your-romance-novel/

2.      IDEA:The idea is the information that the reader is meant to discover or learn during the process of the story.

Holly Lisle – http://hollylisle.com/index.php/Feature-Stories/finding-your-themes.html

3.      CHARACTER: Character is the nature of one or more of the people in the story – what they do and why they do it.  It usually leads to or arises from a conclusion about human nature in general

Jim Butcher http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/1698.html

Holly Lisle  http://hollylisle.com/index.php/How-To-s/how-to-create-a-character.html

Donald Maass  http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/Agent+Donald+Maass+On+Your+Tools+For+Character+Building.aspx

4.      EVENT: The events of the story are everything that happens and why.

Randy Ingermanson:   http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php

Blake Snyder Beat Sheet: http://www.blakesnyder.com/tools/

5.      GENRE: This is not one of Orson Scott Card’s story quotients.  But I think it is very important to know what kind of story you are going to tell in the world you are discovering – think of it as the weather of your story world.