Two Books...

Right now I'm reading two books. One by James Patterson & friend and one by Lee Childs. I'm struggling with the Patterson book. The internal dialog of the characters is weirdly feminine for a NY cop and the external dialog is stilted. Then there's the tags. The main character is a hardened NYC detective. Okay, so this guy should be kool under pressure but half the time he's freakin out. He's screaming and yelling in people's faces and otherwise acting like he's never seen any action before. He's such a girl! Even the female FBI agent working with him isn't as feminine.
Now the Lee Childs book is a Jack Reacher book. This is a character that's often seen in Lee's books. I'm only a few chapters into this book and I totally forget that I'm reading. Lee Childs pulls me into the story with such skill I can feel the snow swirling around Jack as he sets the flares out on the road. I'm shivering and worrying and so far into the world Childs created that I'm late for work.
When I finally left the house I was trying to think what it was in Lee Childs book that yanked me in to his world and left me forsaking the clock, the fact that the roads are an icy mess and I intended to get an early start and the dogs who are waiting patiently for breakfast.
I know what Reacher's wearing, where he's been for the last few days and why he got on that bus. I could see it, feel it and hear it.
Lee Childs is a master. I want to write like him.
I haven't finished either of these books yet but I'll have more when I'm done with them.

Cat Litter

I have a weird cat. She won't cover anything in her litter box. I have to take the little scooper-rake and cover things up so they don't smell. To make matters worse she won't use the box again if things aren't covered. It's like a punishment for not keeping up on my job. She'll pick a throw rug or towel or piece of clothing left on the floor to use instead. Once she even peed on the dog, but I think that was more of a vengeance thing.
What does cat litter have to do with writing?
Sometimes I'm meaning to get some writing done, but something in my environment isn't perfect and I put it off. I promise myself I'll write today but then I realize the room really needs vacumning so I'll do that first. Or maybe I'll just do a load of laundry or bathe the dog (because of the cat), or after Judge Judy (because the coming attractions looked like something I just can't miss!).
Whatever! It seems like there's something in the litter box that puts me out of the game.
This is my problem.
Now how do I overcome it?
I think when a woman has been a stay-at-home mom it's more difficult. For years while the kids were younger this whole house was my job. Kids grow up, I get an outside job and still everything in the house still seems like my job. It's like having two jobs.
It's hard to overcome or let go so I can get some writing/editing done.
>sigh<

Writer Brains

Writers can be hard to live with. Even harder to watch television with.
I can often guess the plot before the show is over. I catch glitches in the story and point out why the crime scene doesn't make sense.
Hawaii 5-0 recently had a show where one of the characters is found kneeling in a parking lot or some such area, with a bomb strapped to his neck. One of the cops says, "Don't move. That's a mercury switch, if you move it will blow up."
A mercury switch depends on where the little drop of mercury is in the switch. If you lean to either side the mercury moves and completes the circuit and KABOOM!
So then the 5-0 character tells his would be rescuers that he doesn't know how he got there he was knocked out and just woke up in the parking lot.
Now remember as we come upon the scene the man is in a kneeling position. So that means, if he was knocked out, he would not have been in an upright kneeling position. He would have been laying down. Now, if it is a mercury switch, and he would have had to move up to the kneeling position, this would have set off the bomb. That's the way a mercury switch works.
Hmmmm...
I just can't let these things slide. It's bad habit. It's so apparent I just have to say something. It amazes me that others don't see this stuff.
I give away the plot and I dissect the inconsistent. I think its a writer thing.
Anyone else do this?

The Editing Process...

I had Disregarding Heaven ready to go months ago and have the rejection to prove it. The only thing the editor said when she rejected me was that my hero didn't come in soon enough. Yet I've seen books where the hero didn't enter right away and they worked just fine. So I added a preamble. I'm doing a scene where the hero shows in the woman's life two years before. Which what happened but is only referenced in the way I originally wrote the story. Let's hope it works.
One thing I'm seeing while editing this story is I'll get to a place and think "I should put X here" and I insert it. Then I read down a couple of lines and see X. So I thought of it originally and did put it in. This is slowing me down as I have to keep back tracking and re-fixing the stuff I added that was already there.
>sigh<
It just makes me want to write a new story. Which I started because I had an idea pop into my head and had to get it down.
So what's your secret to successful editing?

My story, Valentine's Day Disaster, is in the February True Romance Magazine. Yay!
It seems Dorchester revamped the True's office and the January issues went digital, but it seems February is back in print. Whew!
I think the audience for the Trues is definitely print type people. It's the kind of mag you curl up on the couch with a hot cup of tea. I was worried.
True Confessions was started in like 1922 and after it's success True Romance bounced onto the scene followed by a bunch of others. They are simple stories about how people overcome hardships to find love. Fun to write, fun to read.
:)

Adventures in ebooking

I've decided to have a go at putting an ebook up on Amazon. This is a learning curve as I don't really know what I'm doing. So here's the adventure. Step by step I'm going to post as I go along.
Step 1. Pick something already finished to put up as the ebook. I have several novels finished (rejected by agents) that I think are polished and ready to go. I'm choosing "Disregarding Heaven", a story about a woman who finds out she should have died two years ago and now has no destiny. When she finds out it's all her guardian angel's fault she goes looking for him and the show down ain't gonna be pretty.
One editor told me I introduced the hero too late and that he should have come in within the first ten pages. Hmmmmm, gotta think on that. I might have a slight change to make, but I have an idea on how to do it.
Step 2. Polish it one more time. I'm going through it again because I have this very nervous feeling that it won't be perfect and reviews will be biting.
That's where I'm at now.
All advice welcomed.

Self pub? The times they are a-changin?

Visited J.A.Konrath's blog and he has up an interesting post about the evolving world of self publishing. I know for years self publishing has been a big no-no and thought to be only a thing to stroke the ego of a writer who has yet to be able to go the conventional route. But now?
I think it's a new world for publishing. Like everything else evolves so has book publishing. There's been many a time I laid down my good bucks for a book that should have been used to line the bird cage. As a yet unpublished (except for the Trues, ehow and Livestrong) writer I knew I could do better. I'm sure others have had the same experience. There were times I wondered if getting your book published was 50% talent and 50% luck. Hit the right agent on the right day when your words would hit the right ear at the right time.
So now we have Amazon's epublishing stuff where anyone can put their book up for sale. This means some books are going to be not so good. Wait, I've already paid good money for one (or ten) of those and they were from traditionally published authors.
So now I think about ebooking it and my biggest worry is the polishing. I want it to be perfect. I want perfect grammar, flow, execution and everything a good agent and editor would catch.
What about you? Do you ebook? Do you want to? What's holding you back?