Another One Bites the Dust, and Young Adults

Posted by Joanne Huspek

Yesterday afternoon, I penned yet another “The End” to pages and pages of manuscript. In celebration, I looked up a great tune…and made myself a margarita. Here’s the video, sorry, but I did not take a photo of the margarita. 🙂

another one bites the dust

Acorns and Oaks took a full four years to complete, not because I’m lazy (well, yes, I am lazy), and not because Real Life reared its ugly head (which is known to happen at least a dozen times a week), but because this WIP is my foray into the young adult genre.

How does one write for young adults? Was there even a YA genre back when I was a young adult? (I don’t think so…I read books, any books, voraciously, the more difficult the better. I read Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona and Marjorie Rawlings The Yearling in 6th grade. I don’t know what my classmates were reading.)

I have to admit that I started out writing down to my audience. My protagonist, Amberly Cooper, starts out as a naive 14 year old, so I began the story as though she were about 12. This, I found out later, is silly. I started reading some modern YA, like Lauren Myracle’s ttyl and Julie Gonzalez’s Imaginary Enemy. Then I looked at my own daughter (who was 17 when I began the novel) and her friends, as well as the kids who come through my Day Job and realized that teenagers are a lot more sophisticated these days than they were when I was a kid. They’re connected by the Internet. They swear. And they can get into loads of trouble, like underage drinking. (Growing up, I was operating at a deficit. As a teen, I was both a late bloomer and horribly overprotected by my parents.)

While the book needs a thorough edit (and then some), I’m rather pleased with Amberly’s growth. She starts out willful, spoiled, and bitchy. She ends up caring, compassionate, and not without a few talents – like baking and cooking. (Her grasp of algebra also improves.)

Looking back on what I’ve written, I can see where I have to strengthen the storyline. I’m also giving Amberly a love interest, which is only lightly touched upon in the original, because…well, because she’s nearly 15 and full of hormones. Seems like the thing to do.

Although I would love for a prolonged celebration on a desert island – or a weekend at Cedar Point – I’m going right to work on the next manuscript in various states of disrepair.

Because as we know, I don’t have much time, and I’m writing as fast as I can.

 

Posted in editing, people, rewriting, womens literature, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , Comment

My Current WIP is a Crazy Quilt

Posted by Joanne Huspek

The past few days have been crazy! Nuts! Actually, the past few months have been brutal, but I’m trying to concentrate on recent history.

As a result of the chaos, my writing schedule and modus operandi for finding time to write have taken a distinctly  weird turn.

I used to schedule a set period in the afternoon for writing, which worked out great…until my #1 girl in the office became ill in March. Thanks to a decent staff, I used to be able to carve out a couple of hours several days a week; suddenly one key person short and I was working early mornings and staying late to close to make up.

I really, really have to finish this manuscript. Acorns and Oaks has been percolating way too long. Plus, I figure if I finish this one, I will be somehow motivated to finish Oaks and Acorns, the companion novel. That one, too, has been in various states of disrepair since 2008.

Talk about procrastination. Hand me my diamond tiara, as I am the Queen.

🙂

But motivation is high. The words “The End” are so close I can taste them. (I’m thinking they taste like lemon meringue pie, but I could be wrong.)

Herein lies my new attempt at scheduling time to write: If I have a minute, I’ll jot something down. It’s better if I have a longer period of free time. An hour is great, two to three hours optimum, but twenty minutes? If that’s all I have, I’ll use it.

Sometimes I rewrite dialogue. Sometimes I straighten out my tenses (A&O is written in present tense – very difficult to stick to.) And other times, like today, I’ll actually assemble my notes and scribbles and finish a chapter. Writing this way is like piecing together a quilt. It can take hours, or years, of painstaking work. Does it matter which path you choose, as long as the job gets done and you have something warm to wrap your arms around?

It will help that this weekend I’m going out of town. You wouldn’t believe how much I can accomplish on an airplane, or in the wee hours of the morning when everyone else is asleep.

I’m thinking in seven short days, I’ll reach those magic words, diamonds glittering, and with a face full of pie.

Posted in editing, NaNoWriMo, people, rewriting, Uncategorized, womens literature, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Really Bad Good Excuses To Use For Why Not To Write

Posted by Joanne Huspek

As we all know, I’m a very lazy writer. VERY. LAZY. I also have adult ADD (self-diagnosed) because I find it difficult to keep focused on one thing at a time. A dozen balls, I can juggle, one? meh… not so much. (Or I could blame the chaos on my incredibly crazy Real Life – and I do – that keeps interfering with my best intentions.)

Take the current WIP. I started writing it in 2008, as an homage to my daughter. It is now 2012, and I’m still approximately five chapters from those magic words “The End.” I’m currently writing the chapter where Amberly will escape from her not so brilliant kidnapper. It should be an easy write. Amberly is resourceful, smart, and she’s already softened the heart of her captor by baking her signature family recipe cupcakes. However, getting my butt into a chair and turning on my laptop (this one time excluded) seems to be an insurmountable task.

I will therefore list some really bad excuses I will use for why not to write, in an attempt to shame myself into completing this book:

1. It’s really nice outside. This is a really bad excuse, because this winter has been mild, spring sprang early, and it’s been nice outside for months. I am so bad…

2. I have to do payroll. This is a good excuse only once every two weeks, when I do the BIG payroll. The alternate week payroll takes me five minutes to do. This is the alternate week. Bad writer, bad…

3. The state auditor came by. Okay, she came by yesterday, and we passed with flying colors. Still, an audit is very nerve wracking and it does take time. On the plus-writer side, I used the opportunity to take a leisurely drive through Detroit,  the starting location of Finding Cadence, and took pictures in a cemetery that figures into the storyline. So in that case, I was only half bad.

4. Gardening. This is an excuse that keeps on giving. I suppose I don’t have to garden, but I happen to have an unhealthy love affair with my own homegrown vine ripened tomatoes. I know, I know…there are farmers markets. But shopping farmers markets is not without peril. Our local one has an unorganized union. They have decided to band together and sell all of their produce for the same amount. So one guy’s $5 pint of blueberries is the same as the other guy’s, which makes no sense since I can buy blueberries for $3 a pint at the store, or eat from my own yard.

Today I gardened for five hours in the hot, lovely sun. I’m flogging myself. I could have finished my WIP in five hours, or at least have taken out a huge chunk of the To-Do writing. Instead, my urban guerilla garden is (nearly) finished for the year. (Honey, it’s never finished. Gardening is war. Weeds are the enemy.)

5. I need to make dinner. Puh-leeze. Have you seen me lately? I could go without food for a week and still have a spare tire to unload. Besides, most artists are starving, not food snobs with a wine closet. That’s why they’re nice and skinny and can wear pencil legged jeans, while I, on the other hand, wear stretch pants and loose, blousy shirts as I suck my stomach in.

5a. Exercise. I do it on occasion, but I feel guilty when I’m P90X’ing for thirty minutes when I know I should be writing. And these days, I’m doing more of #5 than #5a.

6. My children need me. This is the lamest bad excuse of all. My children are grown. They live in San Francisco, two thousand miles away. Of course, when one of them sends me a text message at 2:30 a.m. (which happened two weeks ago), telling me it’s an emergency and asking me to call as soon as I get up, “I don’t care what time it is,” a mother calls. I’m no helicoptering, nosy mother, but I do worry.

7. Words With Friends. This is the devil’s game, my friends. Ask Alec Baldwin. I could hang out all day, but instead I play on my phone and try to limit opening the app unless I really have to. (Yee–ah…like I have to…)

8. Facebook. Thanks to the Facebook Gestapo, I’ve had my friend request-ability temporarily suspended (again), so except for a few brief moments in the morning to post a status update and to make sure my children are still alive, I don’t hang out at the social media web site that won’t allow me to be social. (I know that’s a long sentence. I’m on a roll.)

9. Twitter. Ditto #8.

10. I can’t write because I’m too busy writing a complaint letter to a local restaurant for the crummy treatment I received. (More on this one later.)

None of these excuses is good. Which is why I’m going back to work on the WIP as soon as I finish this.

You should be writing too.

Posted in editing, people, rewriting, womens literature, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , Comment

Some Covers to Consider

Posted by Joanne Huspek

Now that I’m winding down on the edit, it’s time to look at cover designs. I participated in Indies Unite for Joshua (a great cause, by the way, check it out) and bid on a cover designer, and that’s how I’m now working with Sessha Batto. Here are a couple:

Image

Then there’s this one:

Image

Can you say “excitement?”

🙂

Posted in editing, people, rewriting, Uncategorized, womens literature, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

The Value ($$$) of Words

Posted by Joanne Huspek

I’ve been writing for a long, long time. One could say that I’ve been writing since I learned how to spell. The Internet gave me many wonderful opportunities to practice what natural ability I had, to find out where and how I could improve on my skills, and to let my inner Muse stretch out on uninhibited wings, where it could get as naughty or as serious as I wanted to go.

It wasn’t long before I found a market for my work. By “market” I mean more than an occasional high five or the promise of cyber margaritas after a long day of witty comebacks. Sure, I wasn’t making enough cash to retire to a beach on a deserted atoll, but it was nice to see the occasional deposit into my PayPal account. After a year’s worth of occasional deposits, I had nearly enough to buy myself lunch at a decent establishment.

Mostly, though, I was writing for free. Free stories, free opinion, free reviews, free editorials, free photo-essays. I didn’t mind; after all, I’m a writer and writers as artists are known to be [somewhat] narcissistic. Internet writers, especially those who use their real names like I do, are way out there, as vulnerable as if they were to step outside on Main Street sans clothing. It’s the nature of the beast. Writers write to communicate, to tell a story, and we do so because deep inside, no matter what Internet troll tells you different, we’re pretty damned good. Not Stephen King good or Carly Phillips good or Dan Brown good, but good enough to be a few rungs above the masses.

Now that I’m an e-pubbed author, I have a book for sale. Not for free, like my pithy essays, but for a mere pittance. (I have given out free copies, and my BETAs have read it, but it’s not the same.) I don’t know how many I’ve sold to date, but I do hear back from people who have read it, so I have to estimate, oh…maybe four or five? Maybe more? One author at the GDRWA, of which I’m a member, recently commented that she sold 18 e-books and is feeling pretty good about it. (I have since upped my goal to 19.) 🙂

I have to say that it was agonizing to come up with the price. In fact, I lowered the price in between proofs, just because in my years and years of writing for free, it felt weird to charge anything at all. I know that the retailer is going to take a cut, and Book Baby is going to take a cut, which will likely leave me with just enough for lunch after a year. But a price? I’ve purchased e-books by major authors for $14.95. I’ve also purchased books for $.99. I know Virtually Yours is not $14.95 material. It’s also worth more than $.99. On the other hand, I can’t just give it away. I put in major effort, major time, and major money (in hiring a professional editor) to put this baby together.

I’m acquainted with authors who have tried “free-bie” days on Amazon just to up their downloads. While offering freebies will cause a momentary bump in activity (in one case, my friend had 16K downloads. 16K!), as soon as the giveaway day is over, the activity usually (and I could be proven wrong by some author somewhere) falls back down to nothing. And I wonder if giving it away for free helps. Do those who download free books actually read them? Or are they just participating in the freebie mentality? If it’s for free, maybe I should get it, just in case, the “just in case” never happening.

Personally, I love the books that I have purchased, and I have purchased tons of books, both physical and e-format. I’m also given tons of books for free, mostly in the hope that I’ll read and review. With very few exceptions – and there are a few – I am far more likely to read and cherish a book I’ve purchased.

My take is this: There is a value of words, of art, and of hard work. To give your art or product away consistently means you do not value your work. Why should anyone else value it if you don’t? McDonald’s serves crappy hamburgers (sorry, McDonald lovers, but I’m a food snob), yet they still charge for a cheeseburger. Cash money.

I have plenty of free material out there on the web. If you want to read me for free, you can. Virtually Yours (and the novels that will follow) can’t be free. There is too much blood and sweat involved. If you want to taste that blood and sweat, you’ll have to invest a little to experience it.

Posted in editing, music, violin, writing, women, life, people, Uncategorized, womens literature, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , Comment

Now on Barnes and Noble…

Posted by Joanne Huspek

Virtually Yours, for you Nook-sters.

Posted in Uncategorized Comment

It’s Story, and It’s Therapy

Posted by Joanne Huspek

My first novel, Finding Cadence, is currently going through developmental editing, Edit One. Unlike the other books I’ve completed, this one is deep, dark, and somewhat depressing, especially at the beginning. I’ve spent a lot of time laboring over this particular story. It took me two full years to write. I have enrolled in writing classes for the express purpose of helping me to find the best way to tell this tale. I’ve researched the minute aspects of the story, using my friends, acquaintances, and employees in my quest to make the story as true as it can be.

This novel has angst, heartache and heartbreak, and an awful lot of bad things occurring to my main character. In the end, however, she pushes through her pain, through the obstacles in her life, to “find” herself. While not based on my life or anything that has happened to me, the story offers a reflection of some of my life experiences. I couldn’t help it; it was my first finished work, and I was the stereotypical writer who folded in every familiar nuance I could think of. You can do the back and forth and compare and contrast me and my life to Cadence and her life, and in many cases, I inserted themes or characters or story lines that were somewhat relevant to me.

Someone once asked me, “Why did you choose to write this story?” (I’m not certain, but I think he was floored by the amount of pain I ladled onto my character.)

Why does anyone choose to write any story?

The main reason is because the writer wants to tell a story, meaning beginning, middle and end, and I have to admit, my initial motivation was just finishing. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m lazy. Two years is a long time to invest in any product. Writing was a way of giving myself a goal and striving to achieve the goal.

Once completed, I realized that, while I had a story, the mechanics were off. Plus, it was way too long. This period marked the initial hatchet job of stripping away thousands of words and changing the voice from third to first person.

After that, we come to the era of giving the story and characters more depth. This is where I am now. I’ve come to see where in order to make an adequate story a great one, I’m going to have to dig deeper inside myself.

But another reason to write, and to write this particular story, is for the therapeutic value. Writing, especially a story like Cadence, is like sitting in a psychiatrist’s office.

I’ve discussed this story and this character with so many people, Cadence has now become real. My characters appear to have some real inner maladjustments. They have been profoundly influenced by their life experiences, which causes their judgement to be clouded and their actions to be flawed.

It’s not just me, but I know people who’ve beta read Finding Cadence who have said they can visualize the characters. We discuss their motivations and their reactions, dissecting them as much as I would have had I sent them into therapy.

In a way, writing is therapy, for ME. I have learned so much, not just about the skill involved in crafting a story, but also in understanding human nature.

Even my own.

Posted in editing, music, violin, writing, women, life, NaNoWriMo, people, rewriting, Uncategorized, womens literature, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , Comment