Why I wrote my Pitch Wars book

I think I may have mentioned before that I've been part of the intense awesomeness that is Pitch Wars. If I haven't mentioned it a lot, well, it's because I've been too busy writing and revising my manuscript thanks to notes from my incredible mentor (seriously, she's so smart) Virginia Boecker. But now the furor is dying down and I have a little more time for thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know . . . ).

Several of the Pitch Wars mentees and alternates are participating in a blog hop about why we wrote our Pitch Wars manuscripts.

Let me back up about three years. I used to write--a lot (I wrote a 250,000 word beast of a novel in high school)--but somehow when I went to graduate school and got married, I stopped writing creatively. I decided to pick it up again when I realized that the novel I was going to write "someday" was never going to happen unless I started now. My sister talked me into signing up for the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference in Sandy, UT. I'd waited so long there weren't many options left for classes, but I lucked into a class by the incomparable Claudia Mills. Since she was teaching middle grade, I started writing a middle grade novel. I finished it, queried it, but it wasn't quite working so I put it aside and started the novel that had been kicking around in my brain.

In my heart, I'm a closet Victorianist. I adore nineteenth-century novels and the nineteenth-century world in all its complexities (I'm under no illusions: despite Victorian prudery, nineteenth-century London had one of the highest per capita prostitution rates in the world). I guess I should clarify I don't love all of it: the sexism, racism, elitism are definitely troubling. But there's something about that world and its literature that I keep coming back to. I love Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell and almost any BBC mini-series built off their worlds.

But I also love a little magic in my world. So I started thinking about what Victorian society would look like with magic--and because I'm interested in people who have to navigate their worlds in unusual circumstances, I also started dreaming of a heroine who didn't quite belong to her world. What if, I wondered, she didn't have magic in a world that venerated it? How would she manage that. And so Anna Arden was born.

I wanted to do more than just play with Victorian London, however, because England has been visited so many times. I lived in Hungary for a year and a half in my early twenties and I'd fallen in love with the people and with their difficult language. In 1848, Hungary was one of many countries to witness a successful revolution (though their indendence lasted less than two years), and I reasoned that if I could get my heroine to Hungary, I could get the best of both worlds: she could be part of that mid-century excitement, but as a relative newcomer to Hungary, she could be experiencing this new world along with the reader. (This also let me throw in an allusion to the Georgette Heyer Regency novels I love: Anna's family is related to Princess Eszterhazy, who was one of the society patrons of Almacks in Regency London, and is, in fact, the reason Anna's Hungarian mother came to be in London in the first place).

When I brought the first few chapters to my critique group, their response was uniformly: Why haven't you been writing this all along? Something about the world and the voice is a much better fit to my writing style and temperament than the MG novel I'd been struggling with.

I won't say this novel has been easy to write. It's involved a lot of research, a lot of drafts, and a lot of learning of craft. But I have loved it.


I'm honored and humbled to be part of the talented writers in Pitch Wars. Be sure to check out the other authors participating in this blog hop. I've no doubt some of these stories will be making their way to a bookstore near you in the next couple of years.

Carleen Karanovic: HOPE ON A FEATHER
Heather Truett: RENASCENCE
Tracie Martin: WILD IS THE WIND
Susan Bickford: FRAMED
Rachel Sarah: RULES FOR RUNNING AWAY
Amanda Rawson Hill: GRIMM AND BEAR IT
Charlotte Gruber: CODE OF SILENCE
Kip Wilson: THE MOST DAZZLING GIRL IN BERLIN
Mary Ann Nicholson: CALAMITY
Nikki Roberti: THE TRUTH ABOUT TWO-SHOES
Anna Patel: EXODUS
K. A. Reynolds: LE CIRQUE DU LITERATI
Susan Crispell: WISHES TO NOWHERE
Ron Walters: THE GOLEM INITIATIVE
Ashley Poston: HEART OF IRON
Mara Rutherford: WINTERSOUL
Janet Walden-West: Damned If She Do
Kazul Wolf: SUMMER THUNDER 
S. D. Grimm: WITCHER  
Kelli Newby: THORNVAAL
Tara Sim: TIMEKEEPER
Elliah Terry: POCKET FULL OF POPPIES
Alessa Hinlo: THE HONEST THIEF
Rachel Horwitz: THE BOOTLEGGER’S BIBLE
Whitney Taylor: DEFINITIONS OF INDEFINABLE THINGS
Lyra Selene: REVERIE
Natalie Williamson: SET IN STONE
Robin Lemke: THE DANCE OF THE PALMS
Stephanie Herman: CLIFF WITH NO EDGE
Shannon Cooley: A FROG, A WHISTLE, AND A VIAL OF SAND
Ruth Anne Snow: THE GIRLS OF MARCH
Elizabeth Dimit: PHOEBE FRANZ'S GUIDE TO PASSPORTS, PAGEANTS, & PARENTAL DISASTERS
Gwen C. Katz: AMONG THE RED STARS
Jennifer Hawkins: FALSE START
Kelly DeVos: THE WHITE LEHUA
Gina Denny: SANDS OF IMMORTALITY
Natasha M. Heck: FOLLOW THE MOON
Esher Hogan - Walking After Midnight
D.A. Mages: THE MEMORY OF OBJECTS

Painting Kisses

 I've loved everything I've read by Melanie Jacobson: her writing is clean, fun, refreshing and sweet. Painting Kisses is no exception. Lia Carswell has left behind a hot-shot life in New York as a premier artist (leaving behind her not-so-hot ex-husband) for a quieter life in Salt Lake City working in a diner and helping her sister raise her niece, Chloe. After her experience with her ex, she's less than interested in dating, particularly not anyone who's handsome and confident, like Aidan, the construction worker who flirts with her at the diner--he rings all the wrong bells after her previous experience with romance. She's actually more interested in Griff, her nice-but-quiet neighbor, who doesn't scare her--but who also doesn't spark quite the same emotional response.

After getting an unexpected commission from a former New York contact, Lia finds herself doing something she never thought she'd do again: paint. As she rediscovers the joy of creating, she finds herself opening in other ways as well, including to the unexpected joys of a new romance.

I thought this was quite well done. The characters are real--and, seeing them through Lia's eyes, we make some of the same misjudgments that she does. I liked, too, that this novel had some unexpected depth: it wasn't just about romance and kissing, but about Lia coming to terms with her past. As an amateur artist myself, I also resonated with Lia's deep satisfaction in creativity, and I thought Jacobson's descriptions of that process were nicely done. One of my favorite lines in the book compares Lia's sisters to paintings: a radiant Klimt when she's rested, a muted Modigliani when she's exhausted. That was enough to conjure a near-perfect impression for me.

My only real complaint is that the book is too short! I wanted just a little more resolution to the love story.

Untold

 Sarah Rees Brennan is a master at moody atmosphere and tense relationships. Untold is the second of her Lynburn series. In the first book, Kami discovers that the voice she's always heard in her head is not, in fact, imaginary, but belongs to a very real boy. One of the long-lost Lynburns, in fact, the almost-noble family that used to rule her small town. When the Lynburns return, they set the whole village of Sorry-in-the-Vale on its ears, including Kami, who, still reeling from her discovery about Jared, finds that the family are actually sorcerers who ruled through blood sacrifice, and someone wants to reinstate their rule.

In this book (spoiler alert!), Kami and her friends are trying to figure out how to face the dark sorcerer who has split the Lynburn family and divided the town. Kami has severed her bond with Jared, and she thinks he hates her (though its clear to the reader that this is not, in fact, the case). In fact, not much happens for the middle half of the book other than Kami and Jared trying to figure out their relationship.

I didn't mind. I found the story compelling--though as I read through it with a writer's eye I noticed that, after some initial plot fireworks in the first two chapters, months pass before the final, high-stakes confrontation. There's lots of down time, but it doesn't feel like that because Rees is so good at relationship tension. I kept reading to find out what would happen between two characters I'd come to love, and then kept reading because their world imploded. The ending is wrenching and devastating and I'm almost afraid to read book three, after seeing Rees retweet (with, it must be noted, considerable glee), readers' devastated reactions.

Duck The Halls (Meg Langslow #16)

I think Donna Andrews is one of the funniest mystery writers writing today (RIP Elizabeth Peters!). Meg Langslow is a terrific character: smart, grounded, humorous.

Only days before Christmas, perpetrators unknown leave a dozen or so skunks in one of the local churches, and Meg's organizational ability is called upon to rearrange all the church events while the building is fumigated. But as the pranks escalate to arson and someone dies, Meg's has to use all of her skills to solve the mystery before it ruins Christmas.

This particular installment wasn't one of my favorites. It had all the right elements: bizarre crimes, Meg's eccentric family, the quaint setting. I liked it--I'll no doubt read the next one (I mean, I've read all sixteen so far)--but it wasn't my favorite.

I'm trying to make a conscious attempt to study author techniques as I read, instead of blitzing through on a buzz of plot-fueled adrenaline. One thing I did admire was the way Andrews set up a personal as well as professional goal for Meg. Alongside the murder, Meg and her husband struggle to find quiet time to recreate the idyllic Christmas of Meg's childhood (and one both her mother and mother-in-law seem determined to ignore). The resolution of this particular goal was my favorite part of the whole book--it reminds me that readers need emotional payoffs (of the good kind) as well as just plot resolution.

Dreams of Gods and Monsters (also a bit of Pitch Wars)

So, yeah, I get that I haven't posted in almost two weeks.

Part of that is because I was savoring Laini Taylor's Dreams of Gods and Monsters, which took me longer to get through than most of the books I read.

Also, I've been buried up to my eye-balls in Pitch Wars revisions. The revision has been a pretty big overhaul--my MS has gone from 90,000 words back up to 96,000 and down to 87,000--but in between all that I've cut almost 28,000 words and written 25,000--in three weeks. But I'm pretty excited about the way things are shaping up. I think I've fixed some of the major pacing problems in the story.

Ahem.

On to the review.

I've been a fan of Laini Taylor since her Fairies of Dreamdark series. But I didn't love Daughter of Smoke and Bone as much as I've loved her two most recent books. That's rare in a trilogy, for the later books to wow me more than the original one.

In this conclusion, Karou (a chimera) and Akiva (seraphim) struggle to reconcile their warring people, prevent Jael from acquiring nuclear weapons on earth, and put an end to his cruel rule (how's that for an awkwardly half-rhymed sentence?). As if that weren't enough, Taylor also introduces a new set of characters, PhD student Eliza who has (she thinks) put her family's crazy cultish history behind her, and a race of seraphim whose duty it is to protect Eretz from some unnamed threat.

As always, the stakes are high. And Taylor's prose is breath-taking. Heart-breaking.

I thought she did a terrific job of working together several very complex plotlines and keeping the pace moving forward. I was confused for a little while in the middle, but I was invested in the characters and kept reading anyway.

And if the end seemed a little drawn out and indulgent, well, Akiva and Karou earned it.

IWSG Wednesday: Feeling blessed

As a writer, it's easy to get caught up in my craft--to daydream about the snapping dialogue I'm going to write, to feel intimidated by the massive plot revision I'm in the middle of, to wonder about my publishing prospects. I spent a lot of time with my mind spinning in the future.

It's easy to think: as soon as I reach *this* milestone, things will be better/easier/more worthwhile: once I finish this draft. Once I've finished revisions. Once I get my first partial request. But of course, each milestone only brings new ones in its place.

Last night, I had an epiphany. I was thinking about my children, what I want for them in life.

*I want them to life faithful lives.
*I want them to have work that interests them.
*I want them to have good friends, and family.

That's it. I mean, other things would be nice (health, sufficient wealth for travel and a few perks), but these are the essentials.

And then I realized: I already have all these things. By my own definition, my life is rich. And this writing work is some of the most fascinating work I've done. Hard, not always financially rewarding, but always intellectually rewarding.

So I've decided for now to focus on this: on enjoying what I currently have, and not what I think I want. There are a lot of things I can't control about my writing, starting with what happens to it once it leaves my  hand. I can't force readers to enjoy it; I can't force an agent to pick it up.

But I can write.

And I can enjoy the ride.