secritcrush

What is the appropriate number of cloves of garlic per person in a meal? (A garlicly type meal, not like breakfast or something.)

larbalestier

http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/10/nano-tip-no-10-dont-skip-the-tricky-bits/

http://justinelarbalestier.com/?p=6737

I hope you all saw Scott’s tip yesterday, the first of a series on meta-documents. Though now that I use Scrivener, I no longer use meta-documents. Or, rather, I do but they’re all incorporated into the one Scrivener document so it doesn’t feel like lots of different documents.

But I digress: on to today’s tip which has nothing to do with meta-documents and also kind of contradicts my previous tip about using square brackets. It emerges from a conversation I had with the marvellous Sarah Rees Brennan. It turns out that she does not skip the boring or tricky bits but instead bribes herself into writing them. Her reward is to write the fun scene on the other side of the tricky bit. So if she doesn’t write the scene she’s been avoiding then she’s not allowed to write the scene she really wants to write.

There are many reasons for doing this but the most frequently cited one is that if you skip all the hard bits—as I advised you to do in the square bracket post—you may never finish the book. As Zeborah puts it:

It means I write all the easy parts of the book first, meaning I have to write all the hard parts later in a single chunk, meaning I probably won’t finish the book. Whereas if I force myself to write entirely in order, I can use a future easy-and-fun scene as a reward for getting through a hard scene.

Another reason not to skip tricky scenes is that sometimes you don’t know whether a scene is going to be hard until you’ve written it. I can’t tell you how many times a scene I was dreading has turned out to be easy and vice versa. A slightly spoilery Liar example after the cut:

In the third part of Liar there’s the climactic scene in Yayeko Shoji’s apartment between Micah and Yayeko and her mother and daughter. This scene was not in the first few drafts of the book and was suggested by Karen Joy Fowler and my wonderful Australian editor, Jodie Webster. As soon as they said it I knew they were right. It was exactly what the book was missing. However, I wasn’t sure I could write it. I thought it would be ridiculously hard. I whinged to Scott, who told me not to be a wuss and write the damn scene, as I have told him many times.¹ Which I did in about half an hour with no difficulty at all. It’s probably my favourite scene in the whole book.

What if the “hard” scene you’re skipping is just as easy to write as that one was? What happens when the “easy” scene you write first turns out to be really hard? Will it put you off ever writing the “hard” scenes?

Obviously all of this depends on what kind of writer you are. It will also depend on the book. Sometimes scene skipping is just the ticket. Other times not so much. Sometimes it will turn out that the reason you’re skipping the scene is because it doesn’t belong in your book. Rule number ten of Elmore Leonard’s writing advice is to skip the boring bits.

There you have it: don’t skip the tricky bits! (Unless you need to.)

1. We get to trade off on who is bad cop and who is good. Oops! TMI.

sm_a2

http://sm-a2.blogspot.com/2009/11/excuse-me.html

badgerbag

Because Indymedia follows EFF’s Best Practices for Online Service Providers and does not keep historical IP logs, there was no information for Indymedia to hand over, and the government withdrew the subpoena. However, as the report describes, that wasn’t the end of the tale: Ms. Clair wanted EFF to be able to tell the story of the subpoena and shine a light on the government’s illegal demand, yet the subpoena ordered silence. Under pressure from EFF, the government admitted that the subpoena’s gag order had no legal basis, and ultimately chose not to go to court to try to force Ms. Clair’s silence despite earlier threats to do so.

litescapism

http://www.literaryescapism.com/6072/call-me-a-geek-if-you-want

http://www.literaryescapism.com/?p=6072

…but I just found out that I was blurbed in a published book. One that was published back in April. How did I miss this!? It’s on the second page of the reviews, which in itself is amazing, but then I find it on the back cover as well! Sorry, but I am having an extreme giddy freakfest right now. Call me a geek if you want, but this is my first (that I know of) and it’s kind of exciting for me. I hadn’t thought I had gotten to this point and then to find it on Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance – one of my favorite authors – it’s exciting!

And I was just informed by Larissa Ione that part of my review for Passion Unleashed is quoted in Ecstasy Unveiled, which I’m hoping won’t get cut on the publishing floor.  *grin*

So yeah, I’m having a good day right now. I’m going to go use this energy to clean the house and then concentrate on reviews.  I’ll do a news post later tonight.  And just a quick FYI, I’m going to be a little sporadic with the news post until I get caught up with my reviews.  I have about 10 I need to get posted and doing the news takes time away from them.  I will try and get one up tonight though.

romjunkiesblog

http://www.romancejunkies.com/rjblog/?p=666

A powerful gust of wind sparked Marissa from her trance, and she broke into a terrified run for the farmhouse.  The stars were fading in the evening sky and it almost seemed as though the sun were rising back out of the west.  Impossible! Ghostlike figures continued to eddy on the wind around her, and another gust threatened to steal the very breath from her lungs. An intense flash of light lit the sky, and the blanket of stars shattered into a thousand glittering orbs of spectral light. 

Marissa felt a scream building inside, but an even more horrifying sensation of paralysis swept over her, blocking it in her throat. She was unable to move, cry, or scream. In desperation, she fought to tear herself from the hellish chaos of the weird half-night, half-day she found herself in. An intense light flooded the world around her, and the ghostly wraiths bent and twisted. The sights, sounds, and smells of the night merged in a stunning collage of sensation and color. The wraithlike figures grew even more distorted, altering her perception of everything around her. The earth, the grass, even the farmhouse changed before her very eyes. Then all at once, she felt solid ground under her feet, and she could move again, running toward the house…in terror. 

For many readers—myself included—romantic fiction is the ultimate reading escape.  Tales of love and devotion complete with a happy ending provide the perfect way to decompress after a long day at work or to simply take a break from everyday life.  This excerpt, from my debut novel Without Regret My Love, depicts a modern day ER nurse swept back to the civil war’s Confederate south.  Time travel stories give us an extra element of escape because who among us hasn’t wished to see the past, future or even longed for a fresh start?

So what inspired me to write this particular time travel?  This particular story came about as a combination of my career as a registered nurse and interest in history.  While researching medicine in the American Civil War for a presentation I was horrified by the common beliefs and practices of the time.  But it got me to thinking…  How would someone with today’s knowledge of medicine respond in an 1863 field hospital?  The idea evolved into a sweeping romance, giving me the opportunity to experience my ultimate time travel fantasy through the eyes of my heroine.   

Jilted by her fiancé, Marissa is done with men until fate steps in and she finds that Craig Langston may be more man than she can resist.

Marissa is a high energy independent career woman of the 21st century who finds herself on a collision course with destiny when she is thrown 144 years into the past. Confederate Officer Dr. Craig Langston is an enticing man that any woman would long to fall in love with, and now Marissa is torn between rampant desire, for the man ignites her very soul, and a longing to return home.

Can she find it within herself to embrace a new life in the arms of her Confederate officer or will more sinister forces intervene before she can discover what may be the greatest love of all time?

 Now it’s your turn.  If provided the opportunity when and where would you time travel? 

The old west?  Regency England?  Medieval Scotland?

The sky is the limit…  Or, since we’re speaking of time travel, perhaps beyond.

Thanks for stopping by!

Melissa Blue 

Direct Buy link:

http://www.champagnebooks.com/books/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=Melissa+Blue

katiebabsbabble

http://kbgbabbles.blogspot.com/2009/11/cover-alert-darkly-luminous-fight-for.html

Here's the synopsis blurb:

With radiant, snow white skin and hair, Percy Parker was a beacon for Fate. True love had found her, in the tempestuous form of Professor Alexi Rychman. But her mythic destiny was not complete. Accompanying the ghosts with which she alone could converse, new and terrifying omens loomed. A war was coming, a desperate ploy of a spectral host. Victorian London would be overrun. Yet, Percy kept faith. Within the mighty bastion of Athens Academy, alongside The Guard whose magic shielded mortals from the agents of the Underworld, she counted herself among friends. Wreathed in hallowed fire, they would stand together, no matter what dreams or nightmares—might come.