Sunday, December 27, 2015

The Agony and the Ecstasy

The agony and ecstasy, which was the title of a novel  by Irving Stone and then a movie about the novel, so aptly describes the process that any creative person goes through when creating his or her project. This includes writers, especially those of us who not only create stories, but also the worlds that go into such stories, often acting as another character, if you will. You may well suppose that the ecstasy comes from the act of creation. When our mind births a character, wholy fleshed, with his or her own back story, with his or her own motives for doing things, and emotions we go through . But then, if that is the ecstasy, you may well ask, where does the agony come in?

The agony comes in during those periods of self-doubt, when we stare at the  blank screen or blank page and ask ourselves why we thought we had the talent  it takes to write, when our minds are just as blank as the page on the screen where did we get the  hubris, the unmitigated gall, the nerve to think to think that we had any writing talent at all? I go through this every time I sit down and start to write. Of course, I have Dragon, so I talk my stories.. But there are times when my mind is blank, and not a word comes through. It is at this time that I begin to realize why many writers have such a problem with alcohol. They drink to get through the psychic pain that comes whenever they sit down to write something. They drink to avoid the agony that comes after the ecstasy, or the agony that comes instead of the ecstasy. Now, with me, the real drinkers would consider me no fun at all, because I quit drinking just as soon as I start to feel the buzz. I don't like the loss of control that comes with consuming too much, and I tend to get sick if I go over my self-imposed limit.  That’s why I imposed it myself.  I don't like to get sick.  If I've gone to the trouble of cooking a meal, and then consuming part of it, I don't like having to sacrifice it to the white porcelain god . If someone is kind enough and generous enough to treat me to dinner, I don't like having to sacrifice it to the white porcelain god.

Of course I have ways of getting around this agony. One thing I have is music. I have several playlists on Rhapsody, which I use to set the mood, and get my mind working on my chosen scenario. Another way I have is by talking the story out with my Significant Other. Sometimes just talking it at him gives me ideas. Other times his questions raise questions in my own mind which I answer by writing.  Another way I have is legal in two states, and legal here if you have a card that says you need it for some condition or another.  But I don’t use it often.  We don’t have much, it’s expensive, and only my house mate has a card for using it because of his glaucoma.  Here also, moderation is necessary.  Use too much and you become pre-literate.  This may work for the visual arts, such as painting or sculpture, but if you’re writing, nope.

But in the end, there really is only one way did and this agony. That is to push through it to get to the act ecstasy part of creation. If you were a woman who has ever gone to trial birth, you know what I mean you pushed through the pain to emerge on the other side with the ecstasy of having this perfect small human in your arms. In the case of riding, you are merged with something that can be proved in improved with a bit of creative editing which carries its own agony.


Sunday, October 25, 2015

"It's been a LOOOOOOOOng Time!

Yes, it's been over 7 years since last I wrote here.  I lost my publisher in 2009 due to the Managing editor having gotten stressed out taking care of her surly curmudgeon of a father, and her husband being afraid that she'd have an MS episode had her close the site down.  Compulsive writer that I am, I kept on writing, then Kira Cattan, dear generous soul that she is, turned me on to her publisher, Crimson Frost Books, out of British Columbia, Canada.  I friended the Managing Editor Patricia Bates, and sent her some of my manuscripts, all of which she accepted, I've signed 4 contracts, and the rest was history.  The first book to come out will be Palulukon, sometime early in '16.  The title is subject to change.  I'm not very good at coming up with engaging titles, so I'm trusting Patricia to come up with a title that will grab the attention of the reading public.  Stay tuned to this bat-channel for more developments.

Palulukon was my 2013 project for NaNoWriMo.  It's about a young widow to moves back with her 2 kids to her hometown of Flagstaff, AZ, and there is a dangerous monster killing people who abuse water.  It's from a Hopi legend about the underground guardians of water, a precious resource in desert-like Arizona. Janet WhiteDeer has a reunion with her high school sweetheart, who decides that he wants to rekindle the magic they had in high school.  But soon she meets the dashing geologist, and cannot decide which beau she prefers.  Will they stop the killings in the area by the monster and will Janet choose between her two suitors?

The other three books that I signed contracts for are: Takuhi's Dream,  Blood of her Fathers, and Nibiru ITakuhi's Dream was published as a Young Adult back in '08, but when FireDrake's Weyr folded in '09, the rights reverted to me, and I put all the steamy bits back into the manuscript.  Takuhi Maimun has just returned from a harrowing mission where only she and one other on her XT team survived.  She has been having nightmares of a monster that has been following her halfway around the Human part of the Galaxy.  Two men are also following her from planet to planet.  What are their intentions, and will she ever come to terms with her subconscious, roiling as it is with half-seen half heard visions of a being she cannot face?

Blood of her Fathersis about a young Wiccan who is forced into the family business of vampire hunting when her best friends are slain by aa bloodthirsty vampire hunting in the City by the Bay.  Will she conquer the vampire and discover the secret the police detective is hiding about himself, when she starts to realize that she is serious about him, as he is about her?

Nibiru I (there is also a II)  is about three young women who are taken across the dimensions, and to a planet on the other side of the Sun from Earth, where Christianity never develops.  Feelings develop between the 3 young women and their "abductors."  But trouble is brewing on their home planet.  radical evangelical Christians discover a whole new population for them to convert, namely their adoptive planet, and plan to invade.  Will the Nibiruans  be able to fend off these hostile invaders in time and will the 6 get together in the end?

To sum it all up, a lot of exciting things are happening.  My publisher suggested 2 posts per week, so will keep you posted on my progress.It seems kind of funny to me that while most people compile bucket lists of places they want to  go and things they want to do, my bucket list is full of books I want to write in the 20 or 30 years left in this incarnation.