Writerly goodness

There’s something you should know about me

/ Melanie Marttila / 22 Comments
Photographic illustration of a near-death-expe...

Photographic illustration of a near-death-experience. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve almost died … twice

Both times, I was under the knife for what should have been straightforward surgical procedures: a tonsillectomy and an appendectomy.  Both experiences changed me profoundly.  How?  I’ll share that with you in future posts.

I’m reopening the confessional category of my site, My history as a so-called writer, with a series that might strike you as a little morbid.  It’s about death and how it’s shaped my life.  Originally, this was to be a two-part guest post on Monique Liddle’s Bends in the Road, but since them it’s metamorphosed into something a little bigger, and I hope, better.

Yes, I’ve had a couple of near-death experiences, and my father and grandparents have all passed, leaving their marks on my heart and soul, but I’m not just talking about actual death here.  Mental illness and addiction, which I think of as two kinds of personality assassination, have also had their affects on me and my family.

If the ‘you-who-wants-to-live-in-this-world’ dies, even metaphorically, how can that be any better than actually dying?  It’s a question, I believe, that leads many to the depths of depression and suicide, which may seem like the logical conclusion of such ruminations.

I’m starting this series with Bell’s Let’s Talk initiative in mind as well as my impending bell-talkpersonal season of sorrow: my father’s birthday, the anniversary of his admission into the hospital for what proved to be his ultimate decline, the anniversary of his death and funeral, followed by Father’s Day.

I also thought this was a timely topic after listening to Michael Enright’s interview with Bob Ramsay last Sunday on CBC’s The Sunday Edition.  Bob died on the operating table, but didn’t have the typical near-death experience that most people report.  In fact he didn’t remember much of anything at all.  You can visit the link above, see some listener response, and listen to the podcast yourself.

Finally, I’m reading Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project.  I picked it up on the recommendation of a friend and have been reading through it.  It’s a little slow going for me, since I’ve gone through some of what she writes about in my own way previously, and because I just can’t relate to some of the other experiences that she writes about.  I hope to share some of my  insights on happiness throughout this series as well.

On that note, this past week, I read Justine Musk’s blog post on the pursuit of happiness.  I think she has some valid points.

My encounters with death (physical and spiritual) have informed my development as a creative person and shaped the way that I respond to various negative events in my life.

What I’m hoping to accomplish

This isn’t supposed to be purely confessional or self-serving in any way.  I am a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) kind of gal, but to be honest, I expose myself as a means of defence.  If I share too much information (TMI), people tend to react in one of two ways:

  1. They never ask me a personal question again and generally leave me alone, or
  2. They understand I choose to share the deeply personal or embarrassing details of my life in an attempt to deepen my connection with the people who are important to me.

It’s a way of knowing who your friends are and of deepening your relationships with the people who mean most to you.

Doing this on my blog has been a bit of a mixed blessing.  I blogged most of my embarrassing, personal stuff early on in Writerly Goodness’s existence, thus ensuring that few people would actually look at it.  I wasn’t really risking much, but I also had no idea if this was the kind of subject material that would resonate with my readership.

I’ve mentioned a few times in various posts about how shy I am.  It would be very difficult for me to speak about these issues in a face-to-face kind of way without getting freaky and spastic.  This has happened, though.  It wasn’t pretty.

So now I’m pulling out the big guns again in an attempt to connect more with my friends on the interwebz and in the hope of sharing something of the themes and interests that inform my writing.  I’d like to start a conversation about these issues without getting self-indulgent because I think they are important to many creative people out there.

It’s an experiment of sorts and I’d love to hear from you.  What do you think about it?  Would it be of value to you?  Would you be willing to put yourself out there, along with me, on this crazy journey?

Let me know.  Please keep in mind that I moderate all comments and I have the dreaded day job.  If your comment doesn’t show up right away, it’s because I haven’t had a chance to review and respond yet.  Rest assured, I make every attempt to respond in a timely manner.  Your comments are important to me 🙂

Writerly Goodness, signing off.

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The next chapter: the value of a good editor

/ Melanie Marttila / 16 Comments

Wherein Mel writes not only of her first experience with a professional editor, but also updates on her other writerly endeavours.

I posted last month that I had finally bitten the bullet and sent Initiate of Stone off for a content edit.  Well, the result is in!  I’ll tell you more about that experience in a moment.  First, however, I’d like to spend a few words on:

The value of a good editor

A lot of other writing blogs cover this.  Off the top of my head, I can think of posts by Kristine Katherine Rusch, Joanna Penn, and K.M. Weiland that have all dealt with this topic with much more aplomb and professionalism than I.

As ever, I write from my experience.  I only hope that my experience speaks to you, and that it might save you any errors I might make.

My history with editors has not been wonderful.  Early experiences taught me that teachers rewrite your work without permission; that apparent friends will destroy your work out of spite; that lazy editors will use technology as an excuse to publish your story with errors that didn’t exist in the clean copy you provided them; and that advisors who don’t relate to your creative choices will tear you down rather than admit they can’t help you and refer you to someone who can.

All of these lessons have made me afraid to show my work to anyone because they have informed my inner editor, that psychological construct that internalizes any negative experience and tricks you into believing the worst about yourself and your work.

I’ve worked long and hard to overcome my internal editor, but exposing my writing to the eyes of others still turns like a knife in my gut.  My first, instinctual reaction is to take every criticism to heart and therefore reject it out of hand as a result.

There comes a time in every creative project, though, where you cannot achieve the

Edit Ruthlessly

Edit Ruthlessly (Photo credit: Dan Patterson)

critical distance from your work that you need to self-edit effectively.  When you’ve gone as far as you can on your own, it’s time for a professional.

Yes, a professional, one who offers her or his services for a fee, can be expensive, but this is an investment in your work.  If you are willing to invest in writing conferences; if you are willing to invest in writing courses and workshops; if you are a member of more than one professional writers association; or if you are willing to invest in self-publication, then you should be willing to lay out some cash to make sure your work in progress is the absolute best product it can be.

Some would argue that beta-readers can be an effective replacement for the professional editor.  That depends on whether your betas have the skill and acumen to offer you a professional-level critique.

A note on beta-readers: For those of you who don’t know what a beta-reader is, the term derives from the online gaming and programming world.  As a computer game is preparing for release, the developers (analogous to writers) release the game to a restricted group of game testers.  Essentially, these are people from their target audience and they share with this select group the full game-play experience in order to obtain information on remaining system bugs and other issues that will affect the experience of the general gaming public after release.

In this sense, a beta-reader should be someone who enjoys the kind of novel that you write.  She or he should be a part of your target audience and while the primary goal is to point out flaws that may detract from the experience of your general reader public, their feedback may stop there.  I would argue that it should.

Once again, more astute minds than mine have addressed the topic on their blogs.  Just Google beta-reader and you’ll no doubt get a plethora of results and perspectives on the topic.  Some will advise you to use your fellow writers as beta-readers.  Others will tell you to restrict to well-read friends.

Here’s what I know: A critique group is a very different beast to a beta-reading group.  A critique group is more along the lines of fellow writers who will get into the nitty-gritty of your text, point out grammar and spelling errors, as well as plot and structure issues.  A critique group will also be diverse and the critiques you receive will often differ, if not contradict each other outright.

The thing you have to watch with a critique group is that they are your peers and often at the same or similar points in their careers to yourself.  You want that critique, and trust me, you need it, but a critique group is not a substitute for a professional editor.  My advice is to work with a critique group earlier on in your process, after your first of second draft but before you seek the help of a professional editor.

Beta-readers, on the other hand, serve their best purpose after the professional edit, as you’re putting your final polish on your product for publication.  They’re a test audience, a focus group, if you will.

Reworking, rewriting, removing

Reworking, rewriting, removing (Photo credit: mpclemens)

What I would recommend: Write, revise at least once on your own, work with a critique group and revise at least once more based on their feedback, seek professional feedback, revise based on that, then finally send your manuscript out to beta-readers, and put the final polish on your work prior to seeking representation, publication, or self-publishing.

If you go the traditional route, this may not be the end of your editing and revision.  Get used to receiving, assessing, and incorporating critique now so that you can respond professionally later.

What I learned from my experience with a professional editor

After choosing my editor, I reviewed her web page and followed her directions for contact.  I enquired if she had the time in her schedule in January 2013.  When she replied that she did, I asked further detail.  In what format did she want the manuscript (ms), and in what file format (.doc, .rtf, .pdf).  I also asked how long it might be until I heard from her, because I didn’t want to be waiting anxiously, or bothering her needlessly.

All that established, when the time came, I sent her a preparatory email (are we still good to go?) and then the ms.  While I waited for her response, I took on some other projects.

My editor was as good as her word and contacted me promptly when she said she would.  My first thrill was this bit from her email: “I have to say I’ve been enjoying the story so much that on the first read-through I actually forgot to do editing at times.”

Despite the nay-saying of my inner editor, I was doing the happy dance 🙂  We scheduled our conference call for Saturday (yesterday) and I was sent the reviewed document along with a couple of other documents outlining more general concerns on Friday.  I read the documents through quickly, because I wanted to be well-versed in the content of the edit while at the same time staving off that crazy instinct of mine to take everything to heart and get defensive.

Then I set everything aside until our scheduled conference.

I have to confess that I wasn’t entirely successful in remaining receptive throughout the call, but my editor made it easier for me by being kind and encouraging.  This is not to say that she blew smoke up my skirt 🙂  Far from it.  I have more work ahead of me, but in being honest about the relative value of my work and encouraging me to stay the course, my editor gave me the opportunity to set some of my defensiveness aside and ask some serious questions about where I needed to focus my efforts.

A lot of ink spilled

A lot of ink spilled (Photo credit: mpclemens)

It was a good experience and well worth the fee.

That said, I’m going to let the project incubate for a while again.  I now know where I need to go with it, and I have some ideas about how to get there.  I’m having more ideas all the time 🙂  I do feel the urgency to return to Initiate of Stone, and that, more than anything else, tells me that I will return to it with passion when the time comes.

In the meantime

I participated in Khara House’s “I ❤ my blog” challenge in January.  It was a nice, thoughtful way of starting out the New Year, and it confirmed for me many of the things that I am doing well with Writerly Goodness.  There are some things that may still change, but this blog, like everything else in my life, is an organic thing. Can’t be rushing it now 😉

I also put my name in to participate in Kasie Whitner’s “Just Write: 2013 Short Story Challenge.”  The goal here is to write one new short story per month.  As I hope to do that anyway, I think I can manage it.  My January story was flash fiction created for one of Chuck Wendig’s flash fiction challenges.  February’s is well underway (8 pp/2500 words so far).

Also in January, I revised and submitted a short story to On Spec.

As planned, I have returned to work with my online critique group.

I’ve also started working on a new novel.  Gerod and the Lions is about a young boy who sets out to save his little sister Annabelle from the child merchants after his pa sells her to feed their poor family.  This will be a middle grade (MG) fantasy and so the finished work should be about 40,000 words.  I have my outline and two chapters written (10 pp/3000 words).

As you can tell by my relative output, I’m a slow writer.  It comes from working a day job, I think 😀  Writing in the evenings and on weekends puts a limit on what I can do in any given week.  Plus, I write for Writerly Goodness and journal.

I’m going to finish my February short story and continue working on Gerod for a while.  I also want to submit another short story to Tesseracts 17.  I’ll likely get back to IoS before the end of February, but I want to make sure I have enough of Gerod done to feel that I can return to the project without having to start from scratch again.

Coming soon

In the next week or two, I will have a lovely interview with Lara Schiffbauer regarding her upcoming novel, Finding Meara.  I’m also going to be taking a bit of a morbid turn with a short series in death and how it’s shaped my life.  There will be another Pupdate when Nuala has her next check up, and a report on how my next training gig (and journey toward certification) goes.

As ever, it’s a mixed bag at Writerly Goodness.

Have a good week y’all!

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Pupdate, part the third

/ Melanie Marttila / 5 Comments

Yesterday marked the removal of Nuala’s staples.  She’d finished her cocktail of medications on Wednesday, and since then, had been increasingly restive.  I think as least one of the medications was to calm her down.

Nu doesn’t like to be this inactive.  She likes her morning walks, chasing her ball, wrastling on the floor.  After her meds were done, she wanted to get back to her normal routine.

This was challenging for my mom.  She called late last Sunday to suggest that we bring Nu over and that she keep her enclosed in the basement.  As Nu became more active, this became more demanding.  On Friday, Nu jumped onto the bed that Mom has in her basement.  She hadn’t even attempted it any time in the year previous.  She might be feeling better, but she’s not supposed to run or jump at all.

Try to tell her that.

A note on accommodations

I’m not talking hotel rooms; I’m talking about the ways that we’ve had to rearrange our lives to accommodate Nu’s recovery.

We have a small house, so limiting her activity isn’t too difficult in general, but we do have stairs that lead into the house and so bathroom breaks have been somewhat of a challenge.  We’ve been trying to help her up the stairs by slinging a towel around her abdomen, but lately she doesn’t have the patience for it.

While she was on the medication, we had to make sure that we administered it at the proper times and dosages.

Since walking was out, we had to make sure that she had relief before we went to work.  Nu’s a dog of habit and she doesn’t like to do her “business” in the yard.  She prefers to decorate the yards of others so I can show my love for her by cleaning up after 😛  This last week has been one of the coldest in Sudbury for the past few years.  Waiting outside, impatiently, for Nu to realize she had to choice but to drop a deuce in the yard was a B-triple-R challenge.

Our dog has the run of our house.  Normally, she sleeps on the bed (until it gets too hot) or on the couch.  These are two of her favourite places.  Because she’s not supposed to jump, we’ve had to get creative.  The couch isn’t so bad.  We can pull the cushions down and she won’t try anything.  The bed’s a different story, though.

We have a king-sized bed with a pillow top mattress.  Before Nu started to show signs of lameness, it was really high.  Neither Phil nor I had to sit down much to get in it.  When she was initially diagnosed with arthritis, Phil cut the legs off the bed, shortening it by six inches so that Nu could hop in again.

We’ve noticed something, though.  When we have laundry out on the bed, Nu won’t go near it.  So for the last week and a half, we’ve left the laundry spread on Phil’s side of the bed and he’s volunteered to sleep on the couch nights.  See, if we were just to go to bed as usual, Nu would be tempted to jump up.  She used to leap right over Phil to get into her preferred spot between us.  Then sometime in the night, she’d hop down again.

You see how we have a problem with this.

Tonight, however, we are going to bring Phil back from his exile and put Nu into hers.  He hasn’t been sleeping so well on the couch, so we’re going to try closing the bedroom door on her.  I anticipate some trouble …

We have to work some new system out, though, because Nu will be under restrictions for at least three more weeks.

It takes six to eight to heal bone completely.

naked pup bumSorry about the lack of a decent picture.  Nu won’t sit still enough for me to take one 😛

Unless something bizarre happens, you can expect pup-related silence for the next three weeks.  Our next appointment is February 16th, so I’ll catch everyone up then.

Nu thanks you for all of the support 🙂

Writer-tech: Asus Transformer and Samsung Galaxy Note II

/ Melanie Marttila / 6 Comments

I’ve always been a bit of a technophile.  I think it comes from the fact that Phil is computer-dude supreme, a genius even, or, as one of our friends once called him, an ass in jeans 🙂  I like to joke that I learn things from him through osmosis.  I’m fairly certain that if it weren’t for Phil, that I’d still be tech-clueless and likely in a lot sorrier shape than I am now.

I’m still tentative about some things though, and learning something new in the technical realm that I’m not particularly motivated to learn can still stress me out.

Once upon a time …

In another life (that’s how long ago it was), I had an interest in creating Web pages, and with Phil’s help, I learned how to do basic HTML scripting, you know, the kind that you had to type out in Wordpad, tags and all?  I’d do my own graphics too, real basic stuff, that I’d put together in a freeware imaging editor that I no longer remember the name of.  I use The Gimp now 🙂

I did a few Web pages for some of my employers at the time: Huntington University, The Art Gallery of Sudbury, and ACCUTE (the association of Canadian college and university teachers of English).  Eventually, I graduated to Microsoft FrontPage, but I couldn’t compete with the new Web page design companies that were plentiful even in a place like Sudbury.

I maintained listservs too, and brought at least one employer into the world of Yahoo! Groups, then the only game in town, so to speak.

Enough of my techie history though.  I just wanted to give you some perspective, and to set the stage for my next revelation.

Let’s do the Time Warp!

Fast forward a few years and here I am happily writing away with a desktop, laptop, and USB keys to affect file transfers.  I was a confirmed bibliophile too, lived the smell and the feel of books, and didn’t want to enter the world of ereaders even after Phil bought one (a Kobo, by the way).  As Rupert Giles said to Jenny, knowledge should be … smelly.

I’d started my blog, been hacked, restarted my blog and was on a dedicated mission to build my platform.  I didn’t even understand what that was to begin with; I just know that I should have one.

My phone was what I affectionately called a “dumb” phone.  It was the dumbest I could find when my contract came up.  Called the Doro phone, it was marketed at seniors 😛 with a big number pad and no camera on board.  I had a digital camera.  I didn’t think I’d ever have need for anything else.  I just wanted to be able to make a phone call, and to receive one, maybe text a friend every once in a while.

Then things changed

I got tired of the dumb phone and its limitations, of paying more than half of what my friends were for their I-phones and Blackberries.  As my shelves were quickly filled with paper books, I began to see the benefits of an ereader.

Phil had given his Kobo to his mom and purchased an ASUS Transformer.  He began to use it every night, reading books off Project Gutenberg, comics, and even watching Netflix in bed.  I began to see the attraction.

So, I bought my own ASUS Transformer, and I love it!Transformer1

First, it was super easy to set up and learn how to use.  I was downloading apps from the first day.  There’s more than enough space on the dear little thing to keep me happy for a long time.

Second, it has a suppementary keyboard attachment which extends the battery life, memory, and data ports, as well as helping to protect your investment.

I have access to internet, email, all of my social media, WordPress, and just about anything else I’d want.  The only down side is that it’s not so easy taking my writing on the road.  Polaris Office doesn’t do a bad job, but there are some features that I’ve just gotten used to in Microsoft Word that Polaris doesn’t understand or offer.

Dropbox has the potential to replace my USB though 🙂

transformer2I also have, with the tablet, not only Kobo’s, but Amazon’s app too, so now I can read whatever I want wherever I want 🙂  I also have news, comics, and other readers, so I’m pretty much loaded for bear.

Plus, it has a camera/video recorder with voice recording too!  Can my dreams of podcasting and vlogging be far off?

The Transformer’s all but made my laptop (and my camera) obsolete.  Who knew that an upgrade could actually lead to an overall reduction in the amount of tech I own/use?

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

(The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

Around my birthday last year, I had done a lot of word-of-mouth research, asking friends and coworkers about the kinds of smart phones they had, about their service providers, and contracts.  How much were they paying a month and what were they getting for the price?

I’d had my eye on the Galaxy Note since Guy Kawasaki reviewed his purchase of one.  I looked up every review and the worst anyone had to say about it was that it was a little big.  Big whoop, I thought, I’ve got decent-sized hands.

As serendipity would have it, my service provider sent an upgrade offer to my email.

Phil, who used to have his own cell phone, then tired of it, had been forced back into a contract by his employer.  Then, as a cost-saving measure, his employer introduced a cost-sharing program, whereby Phil could get his own phone again, and his employer refund him for part of the monthly cost by way of compensation for using the service for work purposes.

So when I mentioned the upgrade offer, and that I was seriously considering the Galaxy Note II, it was perfect-tech-storm time 🙂

Galaxy1We went out and got ourselves a couple of Galaxy Note II’s that weekend.

Phil now uses his note to read/watch movies in bed 🙂  It’s lighter than the Transformer, even without the keyboard.  We have a wireless network at home and Phil has one at work, so we’re going to downgrade his data plan.  He almost never has to use LTE at all.

I’ve found it a boon because I can keep track of my email and SoMe notifications at work and better manage the time I spend online in the evenings.  I haven’t yet graduated to using it to create blog posts at lunch or anything, but I can see that happening in the future.

It’s essentially a tablet with a phone and text capability.  Because it’s an Android, like my tablet, I can have all the apps I have on my tablet on my phone too.  Many of them will even sync up.

I love the stylus feature though.  Included in the Galaxy Note II’s applications is a note suite galaxy2which has everything from basic notes, to meeting minutes, mind-mapping tools, financial planning notes, greeting card creation notes, drawing apps, etc.  I haven’t explored these thoroughly yet, but I have used it for shopping lists, to do lists, and reminders.

galaxy3You can simply write on your note, or use the text conversion feature to change your handwriting to text.  It works great for me.  It’s only messed up once, when I was demonstrating the feature to a friend.  I can definitely see this replacing my journal some day, but I still have about 10 or so paper journals to write through first.

I’m not an early adopter

For some things, I’m the first person to take an interest and conquer the new tech.  This happens most often in my day-job.  In general, I’m not the first person to pick up the latest technology.  I like to wait until the manufacturer has worked out the bugs and someone else has tested the product first, often Phil.

I haven’t been very quick on the uptake with respect to all the writerly apps I can make use of on my tablet and phone either.  I’ve barely scratched the surface, so I’ll leave you with a few sites I found that were very helpful to me in selecting the best apps for my droid.

I hope this post will be useful to those of you considering a tablet or smart phone.

Tomorrow, there will be a brief pupdate.  Come on back now, ya hear 😉

Pupdate, part the second

/ Melanie Marttila / 3 Comments

Please find the last pupdate here.

While I was away Jan 8-11 for IPCTD, Phil made the arrangements for Nuala’s surgery.  He took the x-rays out to Dr. Hoscheit and took Nu in for her pre-operative blood test.  On Friday, he made the appointment for Nu’s surgery: January 16, 2013.

I was home for the weekend, but then returned to Toronto for an in-person team meeting including budget discussions and discussion on the revised code of conduct.  While there, I talked to my manager about taking Thursday off.  I was completely up front about it with him and he was very accommodating.

So after my whirlwind trip to Toronto (down January 14 and up January 15), Phil and I drove Nu out to Dr. Hoscheit and went to work.  Just after noon, we got the report.  The surgery was over and appeared at first blush to be a success.  Nu was in recovery and the veterinary technician would call and check in with us when she completed her evening visit.

In the evening, the tech called and reported that Nu was doing well.  She spent 20 minutes with Nu, checking, medicating, and comforting.  Nu would be ready to return home the next morning.  We arranged to arrive for 9 am.

When we arrived, we brought some of Nuala’s food with us.  While the techs fed and prepped Nu for departure, we met a very sweet chocolate lab who’d had the same procedure only six days before.  Other than being shaved, we almost couldn’t tell she’d had an operation.

We booked the appointments to have Nuala’s bandage removed on Saturday (yesterday), and her staples removed the Saturday following.  The final follow-ups could be booked at that time.  We received three prescriptions, an antibiotic and two pain management meds, along with instructions on when to administer them.

Nu would continue to receive her Metacam in the evenings and with luck, all would be well within a couple of weeks.  Of course, we’d have to keep her quiet.  Any activity, even normal activity, could set back her recovery and potentially undo some of the benefits of the procedure.  She shouldn’t put weight on her leg and definitely shouldn’t be allowed to lick or worry at either the bandages or the incision.

Nuala was handed over to us, shaved, bandaged, and wearing the Elizabethan collar or, ‘cone of shame.”

bandage-girl

bandage-girl

The drive home was largely uneventful, and we managed to get her out of the car alright, but Nu likes to sniff as she walks, and as soon as she lowered her head, the cone became a shovel as she repeatedly jammed it into the ground.

Phil ended up carrying her into the house as the cone got stuck on every step en route to the entry, plus the door frame.  Needless to say, the cone of shame was removed as soon as we were safely in the house 🙂

Nuala post-surgery

Nuala post-surgery

Nuala

Looking good 🙂

Nuala’s been really good about keeping her leg elevated and not putting her weight on the leg.  I think we had to caution her against licking the bandage once.  We saw steady improvement, even on Friday.

Until the bandage was removed, we had to put a plastic bag over it when we took her out, and to assist her in getting up the steps, we used a towel wrapped around her abdomen to bear her weight on the way up.  The first couple of times we had her out, it was a bit of a production.

Yesterday, we took her to have the bandage removed.  Once again, she’s been very good, not licking at the staples and keeping her weight off the leg.  Phil and I are becoming expert (he more so than I) at cutting small tablets.  One of the three medications must be given in two and three quarter tablet dosages.

So that’s how my darlin’s faring this week.  Will likely have another pupdate coming in the next week or two to let you know how the staple removal and other follow-up appointments go.

The Forgotten Ones cover reveal blitz and five questions with Laura Conant Howard

/ Melanie Marttila

Title: The Forgotten Ones

Author: Laura Howard

Genre: NA Paranormal Fantasy Romance

Expected release date: May 15, 2013

Age Group: New Adult

Cover Designer: Stephanie Mooney

Book Description:

Allison O’Malley just graduated from college. Her life’s plan is to get a job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She doesn’t have room for friends or even Ethan, who clearly wants more.

When Allison’s long-lost father shows up, he claims he can bring her mother back from the dark place her mind has sent her. He reveals legends of a race of people long forgotten, the Tuatha de Danaan, along with the truth about why he abandoned her mother.

Share on Facebook and/or Twitter and you could win a $50 Amazon (or B&N) Gift card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

____________________________________________________________________________

Five questions with Laura Conant Howard

First of all, welcome to Writerly Goodness, Laura, and thank you for the opportunity to share your experience with my readers 🙂

1. I’m an unapologetic Celtophile and as such, I was immediately drawn to the premise of The Forgotten Ones.  What draws you to that tradition and who have your literary influences been?

LCH: Growing up, my Irish grandmother was a big influence in the way I saw the world. Then I married an Irish man, which deepened my love for all things Irish. My biggest influences have been Juliet Marillier, Holly Black, and so many more.

2. When and how did the inspiration for your novel strike?

LCH: This book started out quite different than it has turned out. I started writing it as a contemporary romance, but my love for paranormal worked it’s way in. At first I thought I’d base it on post-Christian faerie stories aka Seelie vs Unseelie. I have seen those done many times, so I decided to try going further back in the history of Ireland to when the Tuatha de Danaan were said to rule.

3. I’m also a process geek.  I love it when writers share this aspect of their craft.  What was your process in writing The Forgotten Ones?

LCH: This has been a very unorthodox process, I guess. I started it by writing for myself. I have started and stopped it many times over the past 3 and 1/2 years. But, the characters have stayed with me and I knew when the time was right, the story would be done.

4. What did your novel teach you about yourself as a writer?

LCH: That I need to just write what’s in my head and edit later. This has been very difficult for me, and probably for most writers. Accepting that the first draft isn’t going to be great took a long time for me to come to terms with.

5. What will be happening between now and May 15, 2013?  Flog the writerly goodness that is The Forgotten Ones 🙂

LCH: In two days I’m sending it in to my editor. I have two more revisions planned at this point. The goal is to have Advanced Copies ready by late April, and I have book blog tours in the works.

Well thanks again, Laura 🙂  It’s been a pleasure.  I’m looking foward to May!

Now everyone, hop on over to Finding Bliss, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads and get likin’ 🙂

 

Spinning the wheel for Chuck Wendig

/ Melanie Marttila / 4 Comments

So … this is my response to a flash fiction challenge posted by Chuck Wendig last Friday.  Through random selection, I got sub-genre: Zombie Apocalypse; conflict: family torn apart; and must include: a forbidden book.

Here’s the result (at exactly 1000 words):

Nothing’s perfect

The first time I’d done more than throw a punch at anyone, I levelled a rusted axe … at my mother’s neck.  Then again, she had just tried to eat me.

What a mind-fuck.  Despite the dire nature of my circumstances, I just couldn’t do it.  I swung the axe a couple of times, half-hearted, backing down the hall.

Then, I turned and ran like all the the demons of hell were on my ass.  Believe me, a zombie-mom qualifies.  I took the stairs at a leap, one hand on the rail.

Mom tumbled down after me.

There was no point staying in the house, fighting a losing battle with a mother, who, though diseased, I refused to kill.  So I’d have to take my chances outside.  Until I found some better place to hole up.

I locked the door behind me, hoping to slow Mom down further.  If she never got out of the house, I wouldn’t complain.  Not only would I not have to kill her then, but nobody else would be able to either.  Zombie or not, she was still my mom and I just couldn’t imagine Justin or Laur—or any of my other friends—taking a baseball bat to her head.  That assumed that none of my friends had been infected.

Stop thinking about this shit.  Just go!

The street appeared empty enough, the odd mail or news carrier shambling along would be easy to evade, but a quick look through the windows, cheerily lit for the evening meal, of the surrounding homes told me that no house on the street could be considered safe.  Even if it was only a smear of blood on the wall, I wasn’t about to take the chance.  Not after I saw Darcy’s dad sink his teeth into his daughter’s arm.  I stopped looking in windows after that.

Skimming along the back fences of the yards, between the property lines, seemed a safe-enough plan and the school a possible destination.  Old Larry, the crazy janitor, should be gone by now and I hoped the security guard had gotten “distracted” on his way in.  Either that, or one of them saw what happened and raised some form of defence.

“Jesus Christ!”  Someone barrelled into me from behind, her scream mingling with my profanity.  Her light blue hoodie stood out in the darkness.  She didn’t try to bite me.  “It’s okay,” I said repeating the words several times, holding onto her shoulders, praying she hadn’t been bit, or lost her shit.

“Andy?” she said.  Not bitten.  Not shitless, but shaking like a Chihuahua.  “It’s really not.  Okay, I mean.”

“Sands?”  Thank God I’m not alone.  “Where’s Justin?”

“I don’t know.”

“Your parents?”

“Dead.  Or undead.  Justin told me to run.  I couldn’t not—God!  They got him, didn’t they?”

“Did you see him get bit?”

“No.”

“Then he’s not bit.  Where you headed?”

“I don’t know,” she said again.  Calmer, but hopeless now.

“Come with me.”

 

Sands and I made our way around Barton Hill Secondary, checking doors as we went.  All locked.

“Andy,” she said, voice made strange by the night, “if we see Justin and he’s one of them, you’d kill him, right?”

“I don’t think so.  I could kill my mom even after she … I don’t think so.”

“It’s the right thing to do though, isn’t it?  They wouldn’t want to be … that way.”

I had no clue what she wanted me to say, figured anything I’d say would go wrong.

“I’m not your friend.  You barely know me,” she said.

“No.”  I can’t.  Don’t ask me.

“If something happens, you kill me.”

“No.”  I don’t want to be alone.

Sands opened her mouth to speak again and screamed instead.  I turned and saw Larry running at us with a real axe, one of the shiny, red ones in the cases with the fire extinguishers.   The rusty axe made a hollow ‘thunk’ as it hit the ground.  I followed, landed on my ass and elbows.  Sands screamed again.

Larry lumbered to a stop, grunting, and then smiled like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.  “Perfect,” he said.  “Inside. You’re just what I need.”

Sands knelt beside me, dragging the axe back so she could get a good grip on it.

“Inside.”  Larry pointed to the door.  In the next moment, it opened and Laur poked his head out.

“Get your asses in here.”  He looked again, his eyebrows rose, and he looked back over his shoulder.  “Dieser, it’s your sister and Carsin.”

“Justin?” said Sands.

We scrambled up and ran to the door, Larry watching our backs with the shiny, red axe.

Inside the cafe-torium, Laur led us to a table where Justin, a security guard, and a wide-eyed and shaking woman sat.  Laur and Justin were spattered with blood.

Larry locked the door behind us and joined us.  “Seven’s the number we need to do this thing.”

“What thing?” I said.

“This thing,” said Larry.  He threw something onto the table between us.  A big, musty-smelling book.  He reached between me and Laur, tipped the cover open with his finger, and leafed through the pages.  “There.”

All I saw were a bunch of scrawling letters with a drawing that looked like a zombie.

“What’s it say?” Sands asked.

“Don’t they teach you kids Latin anymore?”  Not even the guard and the woman nodded.  “Jesus … Stole this from my uncle.  Archaeologist, dug up a bunch of old monasteries in France.  Said the church didn’t want to lay claim to this.  I figured it was something special.”

“So?” said Justin.

“It’s magic.  Spells.  This one’s to stop the end of days.”

“What?”

“The Rapture.  Revelations?  You think the Bible’s all metaphor?  The dead walk.  I’m sure it’s not what the Pope thought it’d be.”  Larry laughed.  “If seven of us say the words, we reset the clock.  The dead go back to being dead and we get back to living.”

“What about our parents?”

“Nothing’s perfect.”

 

The next chapter

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments
Have desk, will write

Have desk, will write (Photo credit: Bright Meadow)

Today, I’m going to share some of what’s happening next with my work in progress (WIP).

Early in the life of Writerly Goodness, I blogged regularly about my WIP, from its origins, through various drafts, to the lessons the whole process taught me.  I also blogged my character sketches and world-building fairly extensively.  I’ve been a little quiet on the subject in recent months however.

The reason for this is that I have been focusing on the revision of my latest draft, and in keeping with my reasonable and malleable goals for the new year, I have now finished that work (to the degree I am currently able) and have sent my manuscript for a content edit.

This is scary.

Why?  Because it means that I’m taking this whole process seriously.  I’m getting closer to perfecting Initiate of Stone for submission and/or publication.

Given the responses I’ve gotten from various writerly authority figures in my early life, my internal editor is very well-versed in the whole “what the hell do you think you’re doing/you can’t write/your ideas are crap/your writing is puerile/you’ll never make it” brand of advice.  I’ve had to tame that beast and try to get over it.

But … there’s still this voice in my head that says: “but what if this investment (the content edit) backfires?”  What if the result is the confirmation of all my worst fears and neuroses?

I can’t think about that.  So, while I wait to hear back from the editor, I’m moving on.

What’s up, buttercup?

First, I’m going to make a few submissions of short stories.

I’m revising one for submission to an SF magazine, which I will have to do this weekend.

I’m going to participate in a few flash fiction challenges.

I’m also going to aim for a couple of anthology submissions:

  • Sword and Mythos – January 15-February 15, 2013
  • Tesseracts 17 – February 28, 2013
  • Plus, I’m going to keep my eye out for the open reading period for Fearful Symmetries.  I don’t know if I’ll have anything appropriate for the publication, but I’ll certainly give it a try.

Second, I’m going to move on to a new novel.  As of my last writing on the subject, I hadn’t decided what.  The logical next step would be the second novel in the Ascension series, Apprentice of Wind.  I’m thinking that something completely different might be in order though.

So just to give me a complete break from Ferathainn for a while, I’m going to tackle Gerod and the Lions.  I’m just going to leave you with the title for now and I’ll let you know how it goes 🙂

Finally, I’m getting back to work on my critiquing.  I’ve been inactive on this front for a while, again because I’ve been focusing on my novel, but I’m waaaaaay overdue in this department and I have to get back into it.

This will have to wait one more week, in the event, because I’m traveling for the day-job again.  My apologies to my peers.  Zombie Mel will return from the land of the critiquing dead, just not quite yet.

Set yourself up for success

The deal here is that if you are progressing on one project, but not actively working on it,

St. Augustine writing, revising, and re-writin...

St. Augustine writing, revising, and re-writing: Sandro Botticelli’s St. Augustine in His Cell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

you may need to pick something else up.  Take on a new challenge.  Keep honing your craft.  Get over your bad self.

Now this is not something you might just choose to do while waiting to hear back from your beta-readers or an editor.  You could be querying, or trying to get your self-publishing ducks in a row.  Keep in touch with your creativity.  A writer writes above all else.

Some people may think that juggling projects is a bad idea.  They want to see one project through from beginning to end and believe that they can’t divide their attention with another novel.

There are going to be those fallow times though, and I’m not just talking about those times when you have to “get distance” from your novel between drafts, when you might want to do something non-writing related (I’ve done home reno projects, or some other form of artistic expression for this, drawing, pottery, or taking part in a play).

I’m not talking about keeping your creative reserves replenished with reading and movies and creative dates either.

I’m talking about those times when you’re waiting.  Fill up those fallow times with new creative projects so you don’t stall out entirely.  Don’t let your muse get lazy.  Keep him, her, or it, active and healthy.

This is just my opinion.  In no way am I suggesting that this approach is the only one.  It’s just the strategy that I’m using, and that I’ve seen other successful authors use.

How do you fill up your fallow times?  How do you manage your writing projects?  Do you work multiple ones at the same time, or focus on a single project until it’s completed?  Do share 🙂

The pupdate: Nuala’s ACL saga continues

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

When I first mentioned Nuala’s troubles, I indicated that if she didn’t improve over the holidays, that she’d be going in to Lockerby Animal Hospital for a full assessment.

This happened last Thursday, January 3, 2013.

The snow-nosian pupPhil and I took Nuala into the veterinarian in the morning and would pick her up after work.  During the day, she would be lightly sedated, a proper assessment of the ACL injury performed, and then some x-rays taken t see if any subsequent joint damage occurred.

As an unexpected bonus, they also trimmed Nu’s nails and scraped the tartar back on her teeth 🙂  due to the injury, we decided not to take her in for her regular grooming (we call it her spa day).  I’m recommitting to a regular dental care regime for my girl now.

After work, we met with Dr. Wilkinson with no little bit of trepidation.  Upon our last visit, Chad had said that if Nu needed surgery, that she’d likely have to go to Ottawa.  This presented problems for Phil and I because we don’t have the leave to take a week off and see Nu to her surgery.  Further, Nu doesn’t travel well and a six-hour car ride on either side of surgery would be untenable.

The verdict now: Nu’s ACL is indeed ruptured.  Chad figured it occurred over the holidays because her symptoms were much more pronounced now than they were before.

Surprisingly, the x-rays revealed that Nu’s hips were just fine 🙂

Phil and I explained our issues with traveling to Ottawa, and Chad provided a local solution, one Dr. Hoscheit, but time was of the essence, as the good doctor would be leaving his practice at the end of February.

Referral in hand, we hurried home and discussed how we would proceed.

On Friday, Phil made the call to Dr. Hoscheit and we waited for an appointment.  At 9:30 am on Saturday, the call came and we could be fit in at 12:20 for an initial consult.  We’d have to act quickly, as Dr. Hoscheit prefers to see a patient post-surgically for up to 2 months after.

At the appointment, Dr. Hoscheit made his own assessment of Nu, and afterward discussed options.  One of the procedures, a TTA, or tibial tuberosity advancement, was a possibility, but Dr. Hoscheit recommended a tightrope procedure instead.  He said that for a dog of Nu’s size and age, that the procedure had the potential to be much more successful than a TTA.

He would be able to proceed as soon as he ordered more tightrope material.  He hadn’t anticipated being able to complete another procedure before leaving the practice.

In the meantime, Phil will have to get the x-rays from Dr. Wilkinson as well as Nu’s blood test results, and bring Nu in for a pre-surgical blood test on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, I’ll be out of town and this will all be on Phil.  Fortunately, my mom has agreed to pick up the x-rays and lab results so that Phil will just have to come home, pick up Nu, and get her to Dr. Hoscheit’s in time for her 6:45 appointment.

So that’s how things are looking for the moment.

I think it’s a much more positive situation than we had expected and so both Phil and I are happy, relatively speaking.  We’re very grateful that the doctor has agreed to fit us in before his departure.

So that, for now, is the pupdate.

I <3 my blog: the beginning

/ Melanie Marttila / 10 Comments

I’ve enjoyed Khara House’s challenges before.  Her October submit-o-rama was a hit 🙂

Khara HouseKhara’s really good at sussing out what her community might need and delivering it while playing to her strengths.

January is I ❤ my blog month and it’s not going to be a challenge in which everyone is dashing helter skelter to get a bunch of stuff done.  It’s going to be a gentle, thoughtful reintroduction to your blog and the reasons you started it in the first place.  It’s meant to reignite your passion for your blog and get you back on track.

I first met Khara in Robert Lee Brewer’s April Platform challenge and that was a task-a-day, whip your butt into shape kind of challenge.  A lot of us struggled to keep up, but Khara was way out in the leader-pack, showing the way.

So I’m back.

The “assignment” for week one was about developing a blogging schedule.  Now I had one.  When I started off, I was posting 6 days a week, then I dropped to five, then four … you get the idea.  In September, I hit the burnout phase.  I was trying to do too many different things and I just couldn’t keep up with the posting on a regular basis anymore.  It felt like a chore.

So I deleted my blogging schedule page and defaulted to posting when I wanted to/had the time/had something to say.  Sometimes that was several times in the course of a week.  Sometimes it wasn’t at all.

So now, in addition to being back with a Khara House challenge, my blogging schedule will be back.

It’s going to be basic.  Something I can manage given working and writing and critiquing (which I’m getting back to shortly).  What I’ve hit on, is a weekend blog-for-all 🙂

Lemme ‘splain: I figure that blogging once a week will fit into my schedule and if nothing else, I’ll post on Saturdays.  But … if it’s been a particularly inspirational week, I’m going to blog on Sundays too, and if a whole lot is happening, I might blog more than once a day.

So it’s a bloggin’ free-for-all, or a weekend blog-for-all.

Hope you like it, ‘cause it’s what you’re gonna get!