Marie Dees

Strange writing habits

I want to blame JK Rowling. But as much as she might have been an original inspiration, the trend is just getting silly.
What trend? Special writing places, odd writing rituals and just darn silly writing habit. Rowling did a lot of her writing in a coffee house. Well, they do have coffee and often pastries. Though I find them generally uncomfortable and distracting for long term writing. But aspiring Rowling writers often want to follow in her footsteps by writing in coffee houses. Hey, it keeps the coffee house in business, and the writer’s wallet emptier. (Did you know that the coffee house Rowling wrote in was owned by her brother-in-law?)

But coffee houses are a minor writing affectation. And writers seem to have decided it’s just not special enough. Just hang out with some writers, online or real world, and wait for the conversations about “how” they write. This writer can only write using a specific type of pen and a moleskin notebook. That writer over there insists that her characters only come forth after she’s made her favorite rare tea and a hand crafted Japanese teapot. That writer way…way…WAY over there? Well, she writes best on cliffs overlooking a rough sea. And I am not making these up.

Look, I’d love to take a moleskin notebook up to a point overlooking the sea and write while sipping tea from handcrafted tea cups. But I write for a living and just don’t have time for all that. I write at my desk at work. On the couch in the office. While sprawled in my giant memory foam beanbag chair at home. While relaxing in the garden. Oh, at the coffee house. At the Toyota dealer. In the emergency room at Florida Hospital. I write everywhere and anywhere. I’m a writer.

Editing Backwards

When writing a novel, it pays to keep moving forward. After all, if you keep stopping and reworking every scene, every chapter, you may never get the thing finished. But have you ever thought of editing by going backwards?

When I edit the usual way, from the first chapter to the last, I develop a sort of novel-oriented tunnel vision that means by the end, I’m not really thinking of new changes or new elements. Everything I’ve written is leading me to this destination and I want to say “yes, this is where I belong. This works.”

But if I give the novel a few days rest then just open it and look at the last scene, I find sentences I can tweak, places I can make the work stronger. So, I edge my way backward, looking at key scenes and making adjustments.

Give the technique a try with your next novel and let me know how it works.

Writing the synopsis for “Balam”

This is the part of the process the reader never sees. I’m working to get a new novel ready for to submit, but first I have to prepare a synopsis for the publisher. This is basically a play by play of what happens in the story. The challenge is to hit the high points, keep it interesting, and meet the publisher’s requested guidelines. This one is a single page synopsis, so just imagine explain the important points of an entire novel in one page.

The odd aspect of the synopsis is that having more room doesn’t necessarily make it easier for me to write one. If I have three to five pages, then I have room to include more details — but which details? Sometimes the focus of a single page is easier. But since different publishers request different lengths, I may write three or four different versions of the synopsis before I place a story.

But for right now, just wish me luck.

Are you really publishing the “traditional” way?

I have a friend who says she is pursuing publication by going the traditional route. By this, she means she has an agent trying to place her work with a big publishing house. Now, I have no object to this method, but when did the fairly modern concept of agents selling books for big money become “traditional”? Now, I’m not a fan of self-publishing, though it has probably been around longer. And if you think about it, small local printers would be much more traditional that major book deals through mass-market publishers. So I’ve decided to publish (on this traditional blog) my expectations if you tell me you are seeking publication “the traditional way.”

• You have composed your work in iambic pentameter and bards are now roaming the country reciting it at county fairs and in the halls of great kings.
• You have sent your work off to a monastery, where monks are diligently copying it out using quill pens to create a stunning illuminated manuscript.
• Your noble and wealthy patron has paid to have your work published in a small but beautifully bound portfolio.

Because, folks, the idea of hiring an agent to sell the book at auction for a six-figure deal that will then result in it being sold at WalMart and “big box” stores is not “traditional.” It is very much a part of our modern view of publishing, shopping and money.

Editing, editing, editing

I know I haven’t been blogging much, but I’ve been caught up in book edits, both for my own work and assignments from Mundania. The nice part is, I’ve been reading and working on some really great novels that Mundania will be releasing. The bad part is that it does slow my own writing down a bit. Which means less blogging time.

Also, it’s been horribly hot and muggy in Florida so no one has been very active with ghost hunting. You know, there are times when I could use an explained cold spot in the house just to cut down on the air-conditioning bill.

The joy of social media

“To Have a Warrior” Now Available!

Available now from Cobblestone Press.

To Have a Warrior
by Marie Dees

Aki placed himself directly in the path of the three approaching warriors. Even if he didn’t look much like a warrior, he was going to force these men to acknowledge his existence. He wasn’t going to join the list of ethnologists who’d failed to get even a single interview from the men. “I am Aki. I am from New Earth.”

The first warrior didn’t bother to walk around him. He simply shouldered Aki out of the way as he passed. Aki stumbled and found his footing, but now stood directly in line with the second warrior. “I am Aki.” The second warrior used his elbow to send him falling to the red dirt of New Rangipo.

“Aki, you must come sit with me.”

Aki glanced to where the old woman sat, leaning against her hide tent, then back to the approaching third warrior. This one stopped to look down at him sprawled on the ground. Aki met the gaze of those blue eyes. “I am Aki. Will you tell me your name?” He was sure he had the right verb and correct conjugation.

The warrior looked away and strode a few meters to where the others stood, apparently studying the empty red desert. Aki pushed to his feet, wondering what they’d do if he went after them. From the reaction he’d just received, he’d probably set back relations with the tribe another decade. He brushed the red dirt from his pants. He hadn’t been attacked, just pushed out of the way.

“Aki, you will come sit by me,” the old woman snapped.

With a shrug, he strode over to her tent, which sat a few meters apart from the rest of the nomadic camp and closest to the research settlement. The science team would move when the camp moved, and Aki had no doubt Grandmother’s tent would again end up between them and the rest of the tribe.

She patted the ground beside her stool, indicating he should sit there. He did, folding his legs to sit cross-legged just within the shade of the tent. ”They are warriors.” She spoke slowly, as if to a child. “You are not a warrior. They may not talk to you.”

He nodded. “Yes, Grandmother,” he said using the respect word for the tribe’s older women. “But I don’t understand why they may not speak with me.”

“Because they are warriors.”

He sighed. No one had ever managed to wring a better answer than that out of the tribes since few of the women bothered to speak with the researchers. The old woman was an exception. Perhaps age put her above social considerations.

“Do not try to force them, Aki. You are not a warrior.”

He huffed. “Well, I know that.” He wasn’t even worth fighting. Not that he’d have stood a chance of winning or of proving himself a warrior if they had fought him. The warriors he’d confronted stood over six feet tall with skin burned brown from the harsh sun of this world.

Aki was a head shorter than any of them. If he’d ever thought himself muscular, the sight of these men would have changed his mind. And the warriors wore so little, a strip of cloth covering their genitals and a light robe of the local wool over their shoulders; he could see each and every muscle. They also had long hair, which they wore pulled back into a braid. The spear each one carried showed his warrior status.

Since landing on the planet, all Aki’d done was stare as a succession of desirable men wandered across the landscape and ignored him. Damn the professor for pulling him into this project. He’d called it the opportunity of a lifetime. The chance to study the culture of a society that hadn’t been in contact with the outside world since it had been settled. Aki had jumped at the opportunity. The job should have gone to someone with ten times his experience. The professor hadn’t warned him that it could also be the failure of a lifetime.

Aki looked over at the old woman. She was spinning thread from the goat-like animals the tribe raised. He watched as the thread twirled gracefully on her drop spindle. Maybe he could make her understand his need. Her standing with the tribe might be high enough to allow her to help him. “I don’t want to be a warrior. I just want to speak with them. Don’t they understand?”

“They understand.” She picked up some of the wool and put it in his hands. Then she pulled a bit out and showed him how to roll it between his fingers. He did so, anything to help win her approval. She smiled when he managed to make a bit of clumsy thread. “They do not speak to those outside the tribe.”

“Maybe you could explain to them what I need?” he asked, still twirling the wool.
“What is it that you think you need, Aki? What is it that a warrior can give to you?”

Of Ghosts and Rats

The problem with ghost hunting teams debunking ghosts is there are times when a client might really have preferred the ghost. Which is why a recent episode of Ghost Hunters International had me chuckling. Now I love Ghost Hunters International because of the settings. They visit some of the best places and look for ghosts too. Hey, even if you don’t find a ghost, you get to explore the history and background of the location.

But what if you find a rat?

The ghost hunters were investigating the White Witch of Rose Hall in Jamaica. A great location to tour on a Jamaican vacation. The hall is a restored Georgian Mansion with plenty of spooky stories. The site also features a bar in the basement where guests can be sure to find spirits in liquid form. But stories about the basement bar include a spooky clinking of the bottles when no one is present.

The Ghost Hunters International brought in all their equipment, cameras and monitors and set up for shots of the bar. They did their job. The film revealed a rodent, possibly a rat or mouse, sneaking through the bottles of the darkened bar and making them clink. So, they sat down for the reveal and showed the footage to the owner.

Which makes me wonder, if you were managing a haunted bar that was going to appear on national television, would you want someone to reveal you have a rat problem? Or would rather have a ghost?

Trailer for “To Have a Warrior”

Ghost Hunting and Television

The first experience most people have with ghost hunting is usually watching a TV show featuring the topic. For some people it may be the only experience they get. This sometimes frustrates “real world” ghost hunters. But as a fiction writer, I know that the shows generate interest in ghost hunting. However, they don’t provide the most realistic research for a book. Especially not when a writer suggests that I might want to watch Supernatural for some ideas. The guys are hot but real ghost hunters they are not. (Feel free to watch the show. Enjoy. Just don’t think you’ve fulfilled your ghost hunting research.) But I want to discuss real ghost hunting shows because I’ll probably blog about some of my favorites. The problem with ghost hunting shows on television is that television is designed to entertain and ghost hunting is filled with longer periods of nothing happening. The shows are probably a reality show producers worst nightmare. Most reality shows rely on careful editing of hours of shooting living people to create an interesting narrative. Living people can be put in situations that lead to some sort of action. That’s why shows often have challenges and drama-inducing moments. Ghosts just can’t be depended on to show up on schedule. So a real ghost hunt may involve hours of nothing more than people sitting around quietly and waiting for something that doesn’t happen. In a real ghost hunt, you don’t even get good interaction between living people because everyone is being quiet. It’s like filming Trappist monks. So, TV shows have to find ways to satisfy an audience. I have three favorite shows right now that use three different methods. I call them “techin’ screamin’ and demon. I’ll let you figure out who is who as the blog goes along. The first show is heavy on ghost hunting technology which allows them to spend time focusing on analyzing results and presenting those to the client and the audience. They are out for proof. The second show focuses on “look at how scary ghost hunting is” and features wonderful locations and hosts who scream often enough to cover up any possible spirit activity. They are fun to watch, but they’d be kicked out of any real world ghost hunting group. Potentially by the ghosts themselves. The last group relies on psychics and a dramatic story. If they can’t find a dramatic story associated with a location, well, there’s always a demon or a dead Indian to blame. I have to give it to them, they’re almost as dramatic as Supernatural. If you have a favorite ghost hunting show you watch, leave me a comment and let me know which one and why.