Pura Vida

I've heard authors complain about rewrites on occasion, but for me, the rewrite is one of the best parts of crafting a novel -- akin to opening up a coloring book, and filling all those white spaces with color.  The story inevitably becomes deeper and richer on the second pass; I have a clearer handle on the motivations of my characters, especially the minor ones; and all in all it's easier to see what's important and what's not, what to keep and what to drop.  The excitement I feel during a rewrite is even more heady that that initial inspiration that gets a novel started, because not only does it hit home just how much fun the story I'm writing really is, but even better, I'm almost done!

At the moment, I am simultaneously writing the final chapters of High Maga, while beginning the rewrites of the opening chapters.  It's a great experience.  An author friend of mine once told me that he knows how all his characters die -- whether they are slated to die in the novel at hand or not -- and that this adds dimension to his understanding of them.  I am not gifted with that level of foresight for all my characters, but once a novel is finished, or approaching finished, and the fates of the characters at hand are determined, I do find that it brings their personalities forward in a much more vivid fashion when I rewrite those earlier scenes. 

Last week I was at Virginia Beach with nine other women authors.  It was an amazing experience, and really jumpstarted my summer of writing.  On my blog for Eolyn, I write about VAB and more generally about how storytelling builds community.  Please stop by for a read when you have a chance.

On Heroines of Fantasy, Terri-Lynne DeFino is up with a post about Homecomings and Good-byes.  She's inspired some fun discussion, and I hope you will join us there if you haven't already.

Next week is going to be very exciting.  Kansas City's own ConQuest is Memorial Day Weekend, and several Hadley Rille Books authors are coming into town for the event.  As part of the festivities, Prospero's Bookstore will be hosting a meet-the-author event, High Adventure with Hadley Rille Books, on Thursday, May 24 at 6pm.  This is a great opportunity to meet some awesome authors of science fiction and fantasy; there will be readings, discussions and books available for purchase and signing. 

Then, at ConQuest itself, Hadley Rille will be launching Terri-Lynne DeFino's awesome new novel A Time Never Lived. 

As if all this weren't enough, we have a guest coming next week from Costa Rica, a very old friend of mine, Jose Rogelio.  We've been looking at options in the Arkansas Ozarks to take him sightseeing.  I've never been to that part of the country, though it is so close, and I am really looking forward to seeing it. 

I think that covers the news for the moment.  I'm done with grades & most meetings, but still have my year-end reports to finish up for spring semester.  It's hard to focus on that now, though, since I am just so very excited about my rewrite...

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

This is going to be one of those brief posts where I send you off in other directions.

May is Eolyn's birthday month, and Hadley Rille Books is celebrating with a variety of activities, including giveaways and special offers.  To see the full list of events, please visit my blog for Eolyn. 

While we're on the topic of birthday events, I should mention that the Goodreads Giveaway for Eolyn is coming up fast, on May 7.  If you haven't registered to win yet, please take a moment to visit the Eolyn Giveaway and sign up now.  You never know when you might get lucky!

On Heroines of Fantasy this week, our guest blogger is Mark Nelson, author of the soon-to-be-released Poets of Pevana.  Mark has written a great post questioning the use of the never-ending-series in the genre of fantasy.  He's sparked some nice discussion, which I hope you will be a part of.  Please visit his post, When is Enough, Enough?

This is the last week of classes at Avila.   Aaaaaaaagh!    That's all I have to say about that.

On Saturday, I travel to Virginia Beach for a week-long writing retreat with nine other women authors.  This might very well be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it was offered to me most generously by my sister at Hadley Rille, Terri-Lynne DeFino.  I am very much looking forward to it, and hope to make some significant progress toward my goal of finishing High Maga this summer. 

I know a lot of you, like me, are on an academic schedule, so I hope things aren't too crazy for you right now.  I'll be back next week with more time and more to write.

In the meantime, please stop by Eolyn's Birthday Party and find out how you can join the fun.

I know it's a little late, but my Earth Day celebration is lasting the whole week.  (A little trick I learned in Costa Rica; birthdays last a week, major holidays a month, the family party a life time, and so on...)

On facebook I've been posting, day-by-day, links to the reflections I wrote last May as part of the Andrews Forest Writers Residency.  For any one who'd like to revisit all or part of that tour, here are the links all in one basket:

Born of Fire -- What the Douglas fir, Dragons and flying magas have in common

Old Growth Forest -- To what extent has wilderness given us our language?

Shades of Black -- Death and renewal in Andrews Forest

Lookout Creek -- Waterways as a place where different worlds meet

Legends in the Making -- Why every epic fantasy author needs a forest

The World I Want to Live In -- Who the true losers are when we raze old growth forest

Animating the Forest -- Why biologists cannot anthropomorphize, but writers must

The Landscape of my Imagination -- Is the deforestation of our world reflected in the deforestation of our writing?

I suggest taking them one day at a time, or picking and choosing whatever piques your interest.  In either case, enjoy!

In other news, Hadley Rille Books is sponsoring a Goodreads Giveaway for EOLYN, part of the celebration for the anniversary of the novel's release, coming up in May.  Members of Goodreads can register to win a free signed copy. If you aren't a member, you can sign up -- it's free, easy and fun.  The drawing is on May 7.

Also, EOLYN now has a CafePress store!  Eolyn t-shirts, totes, mugs and more are available, all featuring original cover art by Jesse Smolover.  There are a lot of fun items, and what can I say?  Jesse's art looks great on a t-shirt!  Have a look at the store and see if there's something you like.  If there's an item you don't see in the store, but would like to have a chance to purchase, let me know & I will have it added.

Those are the updates for this week.  More news next.  Now please, if you haven't already, go plant a tree!

We're heading into the last 2 weeks of classes --  a very busy time, so I may not be posting much for a little while. 

It's already been a week since Down to Earth 2012, Hadley Rille Books' meet-the-author event and Earth Day celebration.  We had a great afternoon with a small but enthusiastic audience.  Readings were followed by a very interesting discussion about environment and environmental issues in the context of fantasy.  If you'd like to see photos, visit my album for Down to Earth 2012 on Facebook.

May is going to be a big month at Hadley Rille.  We are setting up several activities to celebrate Eolyn's birthday, including a Goodreads Giveaway.  Members of Goodreads can register to win a free signed copy.  (If you aren't a member, consider signing up -- it's easy, free and fun.)  The drawing is at midnight on May 7.

Coupled with the giveaway, I'm organizing a Goodreads Q&A forum starting May 15.  I'll be talking about this more further down the line, but just wanted to put it on your radar.

At the end of May, we have Kansas City's own ConQuest.  About 10 HRB authors will be in attendance, including Terri-Lynne DeFino, who will be launching her wonderful new novel, A Time Never Lived.  There will be a meet-the-author event at Prospero's Books on the eve of ConQuest, followed by lots of fun activities at the conference itself.  As the details firm up, I'll be posting them here.

High Maga slipped over 110K last week.  I've been contemplating 'measures of progress' a little since then, and thinking again about how I don't really like word counts all that much, just because there's so much more involved in writing than adding a certain number of words.  And in truth, often times as I edit and clean up, the word count goes down, which I tend to see as a good thing.  And what about the process of switching out the old words -- the bad ways of saying things -- for new words & better ways of saying things?  Word count remains more or less constant when we do this, and yet it is a very important component of progress toward the finished novel. 

Anyway.  All this to say, 110K is nothing to sneeze at, but that number will probably remain unchanged now for a couple weeks, because I have many details to mull over -- another important task of 'writing' that doesn't increase the word count -- before launching into the next set of chapters. 

We're still looking at 130K to finish out the novel.  And I'm still projecting it'll be done sometime during the summer months.

Signing off for a little while now.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I feel it in my blood, and see it in my students' faces.  The season of wanting-to-be-anywhere-but-in-this-classroom has arrived.

Updates for this week:

Please please stop by and read my post 'Eternal Forest' on Heroines of Fantasy.  It's important; a topic I want everyone to be thinking about with Earth Day around the corner.

Friday April 13th is Down to Earth 2012, Hadley Rille Books' meet-the-author extravaganza at the Jayhawk Ink bookstore in Lawrence, KS.  Science fiction and fantasy authors James Gunn, Christopher McKitterick, M.C Chambers, and I will be there, along with founder and editor of Hadley Rille Books, Eric T. Reynolds.  Readings start at 4pm, followed by signings until 5:30pm.   Hope to see you there!

Next week, I'll be starting Eolyn's birthday bash, leading up to the first year anniversary of her release on May 7.  Stay tuned for more details. 

That's enough time on the internet.  I'm going back out in the sun, now.  And you should, too.

This summer I'll be participating in the Native American and Pacific Islander Research Experience (NAPIRE) Program, run by the Organization for Tropical Studies at Las Cruces Biological Station, near San Vito, Costa Rica.  The last time I participated in NAPIRE was in the summer of 2010, and I'm very excited to be returning this year. 

NAPIRE gives undergraduate students who are Native Americans and Pacific Islanders the opportunity to conduct ecological research at one of the premier field stations in the Neotropics.  It is a FUN program, a lot of hard work, but you spend six weeks in a beautiful premontane forest (see my office at Las Cruces, pictured on the left), enjoying the most comfortable accomodations and the best food I have ever experienced in the field, and meeting a lot of great people from diverse backgrounds.   

I just met my students via email last week:  Aliah Irvine from the University of Hawaii, and Steven Pillman from the University of Guam.  Aliah and Steven will probably be working on some aspect of the ecology of Piper ant-plants, a group of plants in the peppercorn family that participate in a symbiotic mutualism with ants.  We'll be discussing details by email in the weeks to come, and will have about 5 to 6 weeks to complete their field projects once we arrive in Costa Rica. 

I am very excited.  (Except when I think about filling out the application for our research permits.  Then I just groan.  But that won't be too bad.  After all, what paperwork doesn't kill you makes you stronger...  I just have to get on it.  Like, yesterday.  Or last week.)

Coming up much sooner than NAPIRE is Down to Earth 2012, an Earth Day celebration and signing event hosted by Hadley Rille Books and Jayhawk Ink at the University of Kansas on April 13.  Several area HRB authors will be there, including science fiction icon James Gunn, the Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, Christopher McKitterick, M.C. Chambers, and myself.  Master of Ceremonies will, of course, be Eric T. Reynolds, founder and editor of Hadley Rille Books.  The event will feature the launch of Aftermaths, an anthology of short stories set in possible futures unleashed by climate change.  But all of our novels and anthologies will be available for purchase and signing -- including Eolyn-- and we will be doing short readings as well. 

If you are in the Lawrence area on April 13, please stop by to say hi.  If you have friends in the area who are into science fiction and fantasy, please let them know about this event, as I'm sure they will enjoy it.  We'll be at the University of Kansas Bookstore in the Kansas Union from 4:00-5:30pm. 

Heroines of Fantasy this week is hosting author Sandra McDonald, who followed up on Kim's latest post with her own take on costuming for women warriors.  Please stop by to read and comment on her thought-provoking post, Sensible Clothing for Heroines. 

Those are my updates for the moment.  I hope everyone is having a good week. 

I've been listening a lot lately to this song, composed by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelmen for the movie The Last of the Mohicans. In part because I like the music, but also it's my opinion that the climactic sequence set to 'Promontory' is perhaps one of the best I've ever seen in film. I mean, it has everything.  By the time we get to this point in the film, we are thoroughly engaged in the fate of the characters.  Within a few action-packed minutes, we are fed some of the best elements of story-telling:  ultimate sacrifice, narrow escapes, bitter acts of mercy, courage and valor, tragic loss, more tragic loss, the triumph of true love, but at great cost.  It's a sequence like no other, and I like to reflect on it now, as I approach the crafting of my own climax for High Maga, in the hopes of absorbing some of that genius, having a bit of it flow into the final chapters of my new novel.

I had a great time last weekend hanging out with Terri-Lynne DeFino and Lawrence M. Schoen at Lunacon.  We gave some fun panels and met interesting folks.  I'm very glad I went, though the con was much more focused on gaming than I anticipated.  Now I'm contemplating WorldCon in Chicago -- to go or not to go?  I think I will go.  There just never seems to be quite enough money to feel comfortable committing to another con.

This has been a good week for Eolyn on Amazon.  Two new customer reviews have popped up in the last few days, both five stars.  Here's what those readers have to say:

"I have a hard time finding books that I like, but this one is fabulous.  I couldn't put it down." 

"I loved this book...it was wonderful...delightful...exciting...I couldn't put it down and was surprised with the unpredictable ending. I can only hope that that there is continuation of the Eolyn saga! PLEASE GIVE US MORE!"

That was a nice boost to my week, and good incentive to keep writing.  :)

Kim Vandervort is up on Heroines of Fantasy this week, and has written a really fun post on short skirts and big swords.  Please stop by to read her thoughts and share yours.  (I admit, I haven't been to HoF since Monday, and am feeling guilty about that, but I will try to get back to it today...)

On my blog for Eolyn, I talk a little about the origin of Eolyn's name, and also list some of the exciting events and signings that are just around the corner, including Hadley Rille Books' Earth Day extravaganza, Down to Earth 2012, a meet-the-author event featuring various works of science fiction and fantasy, including HRB's new anthology, Aftermaths. 

I have to wrap up now; on my way to the dentist to have a crown put in.  Oh, joy. 

Have a good rest of the week and a great weekend.

This is the question that makes me pause and think every 3-4 sentences in the current battle scene I'm composing for High Maga.  It's a great example of why I wouldn't last two minutes on a medieval battle field.  In the ten or fifteen it takes me to figure out the next move -- not to mention how to describe it -- my opponent's sword would run me through a few times over.  (And this doesn't take into account the many instances in which I abandon Sir Drostan's struggle altogether, to say, put the wash in the dryer, or make a fresh cup of tea, or even better, work in the garden...)

I do like writing the battle scenes, though.  And I've learned to understand and accept the fact that this is where I need to take my time.  I cannot judge my progress on word count, but I can judge it on the vividness and authenticity of every moment I describe.  And I can tell that when all is said and done, this is going to be an awesome chapter. 

Though I'm still not sure if poor Drostan will finish it alive...

For those of you unfamiliar with Eolyn-lore, Sir Drostan is a minor character, a mage warrior of the Old Orders who serves Akmael's father, and later on, Akmael himself.  He's one of my favorite characters.  I may have to write a short featuring him sometime.  If you'd like to hear a battle scene with Drostan, I posted an audio recording of one on my blog for Eolyn not too long ago.  You can access it here:  Drostan and the Tiger.

This weekend is LUNACON!  I am very excited.  In addition to myself, Hadley Rille authors Terri-Lynne DeFino and Lawrence M. Schoen will also be at the event.  We have a panel together on Saturday at 12pm.  If you'd like more details on my schedule of panels and events, the complete list is posted on my blog for Eolyn.  Or, stop by Heroines of Fantasy to check out Lunacon schedules for me and for Terri-Lynne DeFino.

Speaking of Heroines of Fantasy, this week we're talking about tears and crying.  When and under what circumstances do we find it acceptable for our heroes and heroines to cry?  What has science revealed about the evolution and function of tears?  Read about it and please share your thoughts with us.  Here's the link:  No Woman No Cry

Wishing everyone a great rest of the week.  If you're going to be at Lunacon, please look for me.  It'd be great to meet you.

I bit the bullet yesterday and switched to the new timeline format on Facebook, both for my personal page & for my Eolyn page.  I was whining and complaining up to the last minute, but in truth, I kind of like the results.  I'm still not sure if anyone can actually find anything on a timeline page, but maybe as people get used to it that'll change.

If you'd like to check out the new look, here are the links:

my facebook page

Eolyn's facebook page

Let me know what you think.

Only one week to go until   Luna Con   

And all I can say is, WOW!  LunaCon is next week already?!  How did that happen?  I'm very excited about the event; it'll be my first time there.  I'll be visiting friend & sister at HRB, Terri-Lynne DeFino.  Lawrence M. Schoen, another HRB author, will also be there.  I know it's going to be a very exciting weekend. 

In April, Hadley Rille Books will host   Down to Earth, a meet-the-author event at Jayhawk Ink, the University of Kansas Bookstore.  I'll be there, along with some big hitters in speculative fiction, like James Gunn and Chris McKitterick.  Kansas City area author M.C. Chambers will also participate, as will The Man himself, Eric T. Reynolds, editor and founder of Hadley Rille Books.  As part of the event, Hadley Rille will be launching its new anthology Aftermaths, with short stories set in possible futures unleashed by climate change.  For more info, visit this link:  Down to Earth.  And please pass the word along to family and friends in the Lawrence and Kansas City area.

On Heroines of Fantasy, we've been talking about time.  Terri-Lynne DeFino invites us to consider the use of calendars in fantasy.  It's been a fun discussion, as always.  I hope you will stop by to participate.

That's my news this week.  Still working through the current battle scene in High Maga.  It's a different situation from what I've done before -- Eolyn's battle was between two armies on an open field.  This scene is the defense of a pass by a handful of men.  So a lot of thought has had to go into the set up.  That means that while I've been putting a lot of time into figuring it out, I don't have much to show -- yet -- in terms of word count.  I will soon, though.  And when I do, you'll be hearing about it.  ;)

Hope everyone is in for a great weekend. 

Last Thursday's performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Kansas City Ballet was just spectacular.  It's so exciting for my hometown to have a world-class ballet, and a world-class performance venue, the Kauffman Center, in which to enjoy them.  As usual, the timeless romance inspired some deep thoughts about characters, and especially immortal characters.  Read about my musings on the blog for Eolyn:  Eternal Love, Eternal Pain.

Just a couple weeks to go until LunaCon!  Hooray!  I can't wait.  It will be my first time at New York's oldest sci fi and fantasy conference.  I will be staying with Terri-Lynne DeFino, and hopefully will have some quality time with that other HRB rogue, Lawrence M. Schoen.  Still no program in existence...This sort of thing used to annoy me, but I'm beginning to realize it's kind of the trademark of cons, not to have a program together until the last minute.  If any of you are going to be there, please let me know.  I'd love to meet with you!

It's been a great season for Amazon customer reviews for Eolyn; I topped 20 customer reviews about a week ago, which may not be a big deal for everyone, but it was a big deal for me.  Hopefully Eolyn's readership will continue to grow this spring.

Reworked chapter 1 of High Maga; I'm so happy with it now.  I was uncertain for several reasons whether to have this set of events be chapter one, but the more I let it simmer, the better it gets. And I'm pretty confident the novel is in for a very strong start at this point. 

Meanwhile, on the other end of the book, I'm working through chapter 32, nearing the end with just under 105K completed.  Chapter 32 is an important battle scene, so it will take some time, but I like what I've done so far.  And I'm looking forward to having more time with it later this week.

Please stop by Heroines of Fantasy!  Last week's post by Kim Vandervort was a lot of fun and is still generating discussion.  You can view it here:  How's the Weather?  This week, Peadar O'Guilin is up talking about A Fantasy Reader's Demands.  We look forward to your visit, and your comments and insights.

My husband comes home tomorrow.  I cannot wait; it's been 2 months.  It will be so good to see him again.

Wishing everyone a happy Monday!