Esther’s Timeline

Posted on February 9, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

Edwin Long [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Queen Esther, by Edwin Long [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

My Incorporeum stories are categorized as Biblical Speculative Fiction, or Weird Fic (as is Garden Gnome Pub‘s specialty.) Each story has a tie-in with a story or setting in the bible. The Genesis of the Incorporeum began in the Garden of Eden. The Remorse of the Incorporeum went to Sodom and Gomorrah. The Immersion of the Incorporeum partially takes place in the days leading up to the Great Flood. The Prison of the Incorporeum is set in the Land of Nod.

For the next incorporeum story, I’m developing a novel-length work. For my biblical tie-in, I chose Esther the Queen. This is an important story about events that are still celebrated today. I watched a 2013 movie about Esther, and although it seemed to be an honest attempt to present the story, it was definitely sanitized for modern sensibilities.

I want my story to be as true to the biblical record as possible. Now, the incorporeum are time travelers, and there will be several other settings in the novel. The eras that are close to present day, or in the future, are easy to completely fictionalize. But as I’m writing the parts that take place in Xerxes’ court in ancient Persia, I want to ensure that I’m paying proper homage to what we know of that time and place.

It’s not easy. Last night, I read through the book of Esther on Bible Gateway and made an outline of events. There are many details that are absent from my memory, as I learned the story not only in Sunday School as a child but touched on it many times in my adult life as well. There are four years between Vashti being deposed as queen and Esther being chosen. Esther spent a year in the harem getting ready to see the king, as did all the other virgins. The bible doesn’t give us any details about why Xerxes chose Esther. After she becomes Queen, it’s unclear exactly what that means. She’s not by his side; she can’t see him or talk to him unless he calls for her. Xerxes doesn’t stop taste-testing virgins after he makes Esther his queen; the bible specifically mentions Xerxes gathering the virgins ‘a second time.’

When Esther risks her life and goes to see the king, it’s obvious that he does at least like her a lot, if not love. It’s odd that, when she has the king’s ear at the banquet she prepares for him and Haman, she does not ask him for what she wants. Instead, she asks them to come again the next night. The reasons are unclear. Scholars have postulated and debated, but we’ll never really know. This is a detail I can fictionalize.

I was slightly befuddled by the fact that Xerxes won’t just rescind the order to kill the Jews. Apparently, it’s something about not being able to reverse a decree that’s been stamped with his signet ring. The solution these ancient people come up with is to decree that the Jews are allowed to fight back. Yes, it’s violent. Thousands of people die. But it’s a huge turning point in the history of a people who have been living in exile, often in slavery, for generations. In fact, many people convert to Judaism because of this. The bible says ‘out of fear’ which, today, is a bad reason to do something. I’m not sure the ancient people saw it that way.

Esther isn’t as sweet and gentle as the movie made her seem. After Haman and his sons have been killed (Haman was impaled on a giant pole, his sons were killed during the violence following the decrees) Esther asks to have the sons impaled as well.

I enjoy this kind of research. Next, I get to look into the story of Scheherazade. She’s fictional, but likely inspired by a real woman.

Then I need to pry myself away from my research and actually write the darn thing.

Esther’s Biblical Timeline

  1. Xerxes rules over 127 provinces from India to Cush, from the citadel of Susa
  2. 3rd year of reign, Queen Vashti Deposed
  3. According to the Encyclopedia of the bible (accessed via Biblegateway) Xerxes is arranging a disastrous expedition against Greece
  4. “Later” King Xerxes has his eunuch, Hegai, gather the women so he can choose
  5. Esther is one of them. She won Hegai’s favor, and gets special beauty treatments food, and female attendants
  6. No one knows she’s a Jewess, because Mordecai told her to keep it a secret
  7. Mordecai walks near the courtyard every evening to check up on Esther
  8. Maidens spend 6 months with oil of myrrh, 6 months with perfumes and cosmetics, then go to the king, then to Shaashgaz the eunuch who was in charge of the concubines.
  9. Esther’s turn, in the 7th year of Xerxes’ reign
    1. She only takes ‘what Hegai told her’
    2. She won the favor ‘of everyone who saw her’
    3. She was taken to the king in the tenth month (Tebeh)
    4. She won Xerxes’ favor ‘more than any of the other virgins’
    5. I wonder if she learned a thing or two from the newly-deflowered virgins?
  10. Xerxes set a crown on her head and ‘made her queen instead of Vashti’ then had a big party.
  11. Esther is Queen, still keeps her nationality a secret
  12. Why the heck is Xerxes gathering the virgins ‘a second time’?
  13. Bigthana and Teresh plot to kill Xerxes
    1. Mordecai found out, tells Esther
    2. Esther tells the king, crediting Mordecai
    3. The conspirators are impaled on poles
  14. Xerxes elevates Haman (son of Hammedatha, the Agagite), but the bible doesn’t say why
  15. Mordecai refuses to bow to Haman, day after day
  16. Mordecai has told the other officials that he’s a Jew, and they tell Haman
  17. Haman is pissed, and wants to destroy not just Mordecai, but all the Jews
  18. Xerxes gives Haman permission to destroy all the Jews
    1. To decide when, In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast. It landed on:
    2. This will happen on the 13th day of 12th month (Adar)
    3. Those who kill the Jews have permission to plunder
    4. 3:15 ‘the city of Susa was bewildered’
  19. Obviously, the Jews aren’t happy about this. Sackcloth and ashes become fashionable. Mordecai can’t/won’t go past the king’s gate while wearing sackcloth.
  20. Esther’s eunuchs and female attendants tell her about Mordecai
  21. Esther sends her eunuch Hathak to talk to Mordecai
    1. Mordecai tells Hathak to ask Esther to plead with the king for the Jews
    2. Esther hesitates because she hasn’t been called to the king in 30 days, and anyone who goes to the king without being summoned risks being put to death.
    3. Mordecai points out that she will probably be killed on the appointed day, even though she’s the queen. Esther agrees, and asks for the Jews to fast for three days and nights. (She fasts too.)
  22. Esther goes to the king
    1. She stands in the inner court, in front of the king’s hall
    2. The king sees her and extends his gold scepter; she goes to him
    3. He says “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.”
    4. She asks him and Haman to come to a banquet she prepares
    5. They come to the banquet,
    6. The king asks “Now what is your petition? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”
    7. She says “Come to another banquet tomorrow”
    8. OK…why? I guess I can make up a reason… but it later says he can’t sleep so he orders people to read his chronicles to him
  23. Haman’s all happy and full of himself
    1. Mordecai still won’t bow to him
    2. Although this pisses him off, he restrains himself
    3. Haman gathers his friends and brags about himself
    4. His wife (Zeresh) and friends tell him to ask the king to impale Mordecai
    5. Haman has the big giant pole (23 meters?) set up
  24. Xerxes can’t sleep, so he commands his servant to read the chronicles of his reign to him
    1. He realizes he never rewarded Mordecai for uncovering the plot to kill him
    2. He asks “Who’s in the court right now?” and Haman just happens to be there, ready to ask the king to impale Mordecai
    3. Wait… is this the middle of the night? Or is it morning already?
    4. Xerxes bring Haman in and asks his advice on honoring an awesomely cool dude
    5. Haman assumes that HE is the awesomely cool dude, and says “For the man the king delights to honor, 8 have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. 9 Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!’”
    6. The king says “OK! Go do that for Mordecai.”
    7. Haman obeys, and finds the whole experience humiliating
  25. Mordecai returns to hanging out at the gate
  26. Haman goes home and cries
    1. His wife and advisors tell him he’s screwed (6:12)
    2. The king’s eunuchs arrive hurry him away to the banquet
  27. The second banquet
    1. Xerxes asks Esther what she wants again (The bible always has him wording it exactly the same way)
    2. Esther begs for the lives of herself and all the Jews
    3. Esther emphasizes that slavery wouldn’t have been bad…she wouldn’t have bothered the king if the Jews were just to be enslaved, but killing them all is too much.
    4. Xerxes asks “Who has done this?”
    5. Esther says “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”
    6. Haman is terrified
    7. The King is pissed and goes out to the garden to calm down
    8. Haman begs Esther for his life
    9. Just as Xerxes is returning, Haman falls onto the couch where Esther is reclining
    10. The king thinks Haman is assaulting the queen
    11. Harbona (the king’s eunuch) says ‘Haman has one of those nifty impaling poles already set up, intended for Mordecai’
    12. The king orders them to impale Haman, and they do
  28. Xerxes gives Esther Haman’s estate
  29. NOW Esther tells him how she’s related to Mordecai
  30. Xerxes takes his signet ring (which he had given to Haman) and gives it to Mordecai
  31. Esther appoints Mordecai over Haman’s estate
  32. Esther begs the king to end the plan to destroy the Jews
    1. “If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?”
    2. “Because Haman attacked the Jews,” he says “I have given his estate to Esther, and they have impaled him on the pole he set up. 8 Now write another decree in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.”
    3. The secretaries were summoned (23rd day of the 3rd month…Sivan)
    4. Instead of revoking the previous order (apparently that’s a big no-no) the new edict gives the Jews to protect themselves
    5. The appointed day was the 13th day of the 12th month (Adar)
  33. The End
    1. Mordecai got some nifty blue & white clothes
    2. The Jews rejoice
    3. (It doesn’t say how much bloodshed there was…) Until the next chapter…
    4. Lots of people become Jews because ‘fear of the Jews had seized them’
  34. The 13th day of the 12th month
    1. There are still some people looking forward to slaughtering the Jews
    2. The Jews have the upper hand
    3. No one could stand against them, because the people were afraid of the Jews
    4. The nobles and officials help the Jews because they’re afraid of Mordecai
    5. Mordea was prominent in the palace, becoming more powerful
    6. The Jews struck down their enemies…500 in Susa alone (including Haman’s sons)
    7. The Jews do NOT lay their hands on plunder
    8. The king asks Esther what she wants
      1. She wants it to continue into the next day
      2. She wants Haman’s sons (er…who are already dead…) impaled
    9. The king agrees
    10. The Jews kill 300 more men the next day
    11. The other provinces kill 75k men
    12. The 14th day they all partied in the provinces
    13. The 15th day the Jews in Susa partied
  35. Purim Established
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Too Much Sex

Posted on February 5, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

PolyamoryI began writing my first polyamorous romance eight years ago, when I was pregnant. It was a wonderful outlet for my hormonal creativity, and the stories immediately demanded to be erotica, or at least erotic romance.

In a well-written book of any genre, the sex scenes are there because they need to be there. It is not a sprinkling of titillation on top of the ‘real’ story, it is part of the story. Although some people regard sex as something secret or dirty that, of course, just happens to come along in a relationship after everything else is in place, in reality, sex is an integral part of the development of most romantic relationships.

For some people (this is a stereotypically male thing, but not limited to males) they need some kind of physical intimacy in order to feel secure in offering emotional intimacy. Some people interpret this as emotional hostage-taking, threatening ‘I won’t open up to you until you give me sex.’ Although this situation can be true for some relationships, for most people it is not a threat but a genuine need. Like someone who won’t feel comfortable crossing a narrow bridge unless someone else holds their hand. Sex is more than a primal, physical need like hunger or shelter, sex is something we need in order to fully integrate ourselves with those whom we love.

That first poly romance I wrote had too much sex. Or rather, the beginning chapters had too much sex. It was about an arranged marriage of four men and four women (very traditional on this world) and I used a spreadsheet to figure out how an eight day honeymoon would work if the tradition was that they were paired off for the first seven days and nights, and only came together for the final night. My main character was a female, so she was with one of her new husbands the first night, a wife the second, then a husband, then a wife etc. The sexual encounters were all very different, from the husband who was not attracted to women but considered it his duty to consummate the marriage and continue with that sexual relationship until he impregnated one of them, to the young virgin who’d never had a romantic relationship until his arranged marriage.

It was too much. All these scenes were integral, not only because they happened in a certain timeline, but because they represented the stepping-off point for my main character’s relationship with each of her new spouses. But simply describing what each pair did during the day and their intimate experiences each night felt almost as bad as an info dump in the opening chapters.

That novel is unfinished, and on the shelf.

The story going through Revision 02 right now is a polyamorous romance that comes together in stages. Characters A&B and B&C reach a certain level of emotional and sexual intimacy before characters A&C reach that point. Actually, there are six characters in the romance, so it’s A, B, C, D, E, & F. Last night, I reached the end of the story, but still had one scene I wanted to go back to. Or rather, it was a lack of scene I wanted to return to. Although the final intimate breakthrough is the climax of the story, the penultimate intimate breakthrough was simply mentioned as ‘oh, and this happened.’

This penultimate breakthrough really didn’t feel like a breakthrough. It was a rather quiet, sweet consummation of their relationship. Yet, during Revision 01, I read the ‘oh, and this happened’ and thought that maybe it wasn’t enough.

I’m still waffling.

 

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February Has Arrived

Posted on February 3, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

ROW80 scroll downI had hoped to be finished with Revision 02 of the duology by the end of February. Alas, ’twas not to be. But I’m close. I eliminated a couple of entire scenes, and discovered that with my newly adjusted timeline, Christmas came earlier than I thought. Although the holiday is not a pivotal moment in the plot, it is an important even in this culture, and ignoring it would be very, very strange.

Christmas happens at about the 80% mark. After this, events rapidly snowball and then resolve. I’ve given myself a chapter to insert the ‘what happened over Christmas’ but I might finish revising and then go back to it. I’ll also have to take out the old mention of what happened at Christmas.

I’m doing well with my weekly ROW80 goals. There were a couple of nights when I did hardly any work, but most nights I’ve had butt-in-chair and been working for several hours. With revising-time, it’s difficult to measure progress any way but my time spent working. I might go through 20 pages and hardly change a thing, or I might delete 20 pages and rewrite half of it.

RIVETED, A Novel of the Iron SeasTiffany has started a wizard-themed book club on twitter. The last few books they’ve read, I really wanted to read, but never got around to it. This month’s choice is Riveted by Meljean Brook. It’s the third book in the Iron Seas series…

I’ve started reading the first one. Let’s see if I can finish all three before discussion day at the end of the month. And…let’s see if I can revise SciFi Romance and then write Weird SpecFic whilst reading Steampunk.

I can go back to Steampunk after the duology is query-ready and the Weird Fic is off to my crit partner.

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I’m on Pinterest!

Posted on February 1, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

Pinterest beginningI discovered something today. Apparently, I’m on Pinterest, and didn’t even know it. Thirty-odd people have followed me, even though I have never pinned a single thing.

A writer needs a strong internet presence. I have this via Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, and a few others. But not Pinterest. Apparently, at some point in time, I must have activated an account, likely via my facebook page since it uses my real name instead of my pseudonym.

So I decided I might as well dive in.

I only have a few boards so far. I decided to go ahead and leave it under my real name, and use it as a bridge between my real name and my pseudonyms (I also use AmyBeth Drumnadrochit for children’s books, but I’m not actively working on those at the moment.) I installed the ‘PinIt’ button, so now it’s easier to pin anything that catches my fancy. Too easy. I need to remember that these pins don’t scroll off into oblivion like things posted to a wall or newsfeed on Facebook or Google Plus. Pinterest could easily turn into a junk drawer!

I’m still getting used to what kinds of things can be pinned. Although it’s geared to images, it’s a bit more complicated than that. There are some overlaps with Goodreads… although I have boards for my covers and various genre covers I like, I don’t need to give detailed information on the books. That’s available on Goodreads.

I did decide to put up a few family pictures. I think it’s good to show my life as a whole, and not confine the boards to one aspect or another. As I said, I want it to act as a bridge between my real name and pseudonyms. I have a board for home decor (funky stuff I like) and another for Highland Dancing. I need to make a board for kilts…men in kilts, in particular, but not exclusively.

This can turn into something overwhelming very quickly, but I think it will be a good and fun tool to use. Come visit me, and I’ll figure out how to follow people back!

Here’s the link: https://www.pinterest.com/USNessie/

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Consistency in the Timeline

Posted on January 31, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

By Ⅿeagan from Tulsa, OK, United States (Julie Uploaded by calliopejen1) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

By Ⅿeagan from Tulsa, OK, United States (Julie Uploaded by calliopejen1) [CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s not a huge spoiler, but there is a pregnancy in the Kingdom Come Duology From Earth to Kingdom Come. The main character gets pregnant in Jubliation of the Southern Cross and gives birth in Hearthsong.

Lots of timeline details can remain vague, but something like human pregnancy forces a specific schedule on the story. On Earth, gestation is nine months. With Kingdom Come’s slightly longer year, gestation is about seven months. I remember, when I was pregnant, waiting forever to finally be able to feel the baby kick. I don’t recall how far along I was, but a quick googling says at least three or four months is average.

During Revision 01, I discovered that there were some (very picky) issues with the timeline. Between R01 and R02 I tweaked the conversion factor of Earth time to KC time. All this was done to streamline the universe as a whole. It’s a good thing. It also meant some small changes had to be done to the timeline of the duology.

In Revision 02, it wasn’t a big deal to incorporate the new consistency to Jubliation of the Southern Cross. However, in Hearthsong, the character goes through the milestones of pregnancy, including feeling the baby kick. In the rough draft, this didn’t happen until about halfway through the story. When I started R02, I realized that she would probably feel the baby move much earlier in the story, and I started writing that in.

Then I reached the halfway point, and remembered that I had a scene where the dads (this is polyamory) are both out of town when the baby kicks for the first time. Several actions follow, demonstrating important aspects of several characters. But I’d already started saying ‘she felt the baby move’ throughout the first half. It would be very difficult to find every reference without literally combing over the entire first half word-for-word, because sometimes I said ‘there was a flutter’ or some other poetic term.

I stopped for the night. The next day, I scanned/searched the beginning of the story, and noticed that most of the references were ‘she thought she felt a flutter’ and I stated She’d felt Janikah move several times, but it never lasted more than a fleeting moment. The baby was a tease. I read through the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the characters that come after the original moment of ‘first movement’ and realized that I did need to have this be a big deal.

I let it rest. Then today, I realized that all the ‘feeling a flutter’ moments in the early part of the story can be foreshadowing to the time when it happens in earnest. All those mentions help build up the anticipation for the moment.

When this book comes out, those tiny moments will be seamless part of the story. It will fit, and flow, and hopefully the reader will never feel the urge to count up months or do the math to see whether or not something fits, because it will all ‘feel’ right in addition to actually being mathematically correct.

A lot of work for something the reader won’t notice.

But that’s the goal…do it right, and the reader won’t notice.

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Rollerdanceskating Karaokeview

Posted on January 27, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

ROW80 scroll down

OK. The #SaturdayScenes community on Google Plus is planning to do some interviews of its members, and somehow that escalated into me organizing a dance show. Ironically, during the years when I was teaching Scottish Highland Dance, I did that on a regular basis.

I’m guessing that none of my community-mates know how to do a Seann Triubhas. But they could handle rollerskating…I’m sure they could handle rollerskating! And karaoke. Yeah…karaoke on skates. We’ll get Harry Connick Jr. to judge…

Here’s the plan. 500 words or less, autobiographical, whatever POV makes you happy, describing what your performance would be like. Dancing, skating, karaoke, or all three in any combination. Post in the comments with a mini-blurb bio telling us what you write. Or, alternatively, a link to a video that demonstrates any such performance.

Anyone can participate. ROWers, Scenics, innocent passers-by who have no idea how they got to my blog…all are welcome!

Skating on fireAnd now, my ROW80 update for the week:

Many butt-in-chair hours plugging away this week. I’m more than meeting the goals, as measured by time. I finished Revision 02 of one novel in the duology, and started the second.

One not-really-a-glitch moment is when I had the beginning of another story banging away at the inside of my skull and I had to start writing it. I had planned to put it off until the duology was off to the beta readers, so I could give my full attention to this very different story, but I just couldn’t help myself.

My brain does not like switching gears. My brain wants to do whatever my OCD is latched onto. But I wrote about a thousand words one night, and then was able to go back to revising. I’m hoping to be done with Revision 02 by the end of the week.

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Casualties of Career

Posted on January 24, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

Reading Ashlyn croppedIt is assumed, and likely true, that most writers begin as voracious readers. When I was little, used bookstores were ‘anything goes’ when shopping with my father. He also passed down most the the SciFi he read, from John DeChancie, Larry Niven, and Jerry Pournelle (who is currently recovering quite well from his stroke) to authors whose names I don’t remember because I was a kid and I didn’t care. I just wanted a good story.

When I reached Junior High, a paperback novel was always between my assignment notebook and Trapper Keeper. I almost always finished my classwork early, then picked up my book, sat and quietly read.

This voracity continued through my thirties. Trying to get pregnant, I began devouring romance novels. Then, in my early forties (I turned 44 last Tuesday) I got serious about my writing career. I found some new authors and read them, not because it was pure pleasure, but because I admired them and wanted to learn. I read craft books such as Stephen King’s On Writing. I proofread for a small press for a year, reading many novels that were sent to me, not chosen by me.

I learned a lot.

And then I burned out.

Reading for pleasure had become a casualty of my career.

I didn’t think it was possible, but I realized that I’d started reading books…good stories by authors I loved…and not finished them. In 2014 I only finished reading two books, although I started at least a dozen.

I don’t keep Goodreads completely up to date, but I will not mark a book as ‘read’ unless I finished it. I give almost everything 4 stars, reserving 5 stars for the absolute gems or classics. My ‘am currently reading’ list is pretty long. Many (not all) of these books were ones I really was enjoying, but after spending the day on the computer, writing, revising, reading my friends’ flash fiction or blog entries, all I want to do is fall into bed, play my turns in Words With Friends (I’m USNessie… start a game with me!) and go to sleep. Reading for pleasure eludes me.

I am trying to change this. Last weekend I finished Revision 01 on the duology From Earth to Kingdom Come, and found some issues I had to untie, namely smoothing out the timeline that I’d tweaked. I decided to put aside writing and revising, and read as my ‘writing-related-work’ for a while. Fortunately, Tiffany Reisz’s The King was recently released. It took me about a week to finish, which is much longer than I used to take with a novel. In the beginning, I still suffered from the inclination to either do something ‘productive’ work-wise (like actual writing) or to just collapse in bed without reading. But when I reached a certain tipping point in the story, I couldn’t put it down and finished it that night.

Those two books I finished in 2014? Also Tiffany Reisz’s.

I’m not sure if the block is broken yet. My cup overfloweth with reading material. I don’t like the idea of turning reading into a chore where I make myself finish a certain number of pages each week. I’ll have to find something that works. I want to find the pleasure in reading again.

 

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The Financial Lesson from Teaching Highland Dance

Posted on January 20, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

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Yup. That's me, as a teenager in Estes Park, Colorado.

Yup. That’s me, as a teenager in Estes Park, Colorado.

When I was seven, my mother signed me up for Scottish Highland dance lessons. When I was twelve, my mother passed her teaching exam, found a few students, and I began helping her teach. When I was sixteen, I passed my Associate’s exam in Scottish Highland from BATD. In my early twenties, I passed my full member’s exam.

Highland dancing has been a large part of my life for many years. Although I’m not actively teaching anymore, growing up with the Scottish society affected my life, even my writing life, in many ways. It’s why I chose the pseudonym Inverness. (My real surname is Fredricksen. If you’re in the dance community, you might know me as Mary Lillie’s daughter. ♥ ) I have more than a passing fondness for men in kilts. I collect Loch Ness Monsters, although since I now live in Vermont I have quite a few Champys too.

Teaching has always been a labor of love. In the 80’s, my mother paid me $5 each week to help her. The money was nice, but even more memorable was our trip from Longmont up to Estes Park each week, then down the mountain to Fort Collins, and back home. I never added up the mileage we put on the car. I never balanced the books to see whether we were making a profit for a handful of students in Estes and another handful in Fort Collins. I’m pretty sure it rarely came out even close to even.

In college, I used dance teaching as my way of earning pocket money. I was definitely coming out ahead, since I never had to leave Laramie, Wyoming. It was nowhere near a living wage, but I loved it.

When I was a nanny, I found a few more students, but at that time I had to travel around southern Connecticut to reach them. Again, it didn’t matter that I wasn’t charging enough money for the lessons to even break even, much less make a profit.

It was an expensive hobby.

If I treated my writing career like I treated my Scottish Highland career, I’d have no name as a writer. I’d just be a housewife with an expensive hobby. I don’t want writing to be an expensive hobby. I have made it my career.

The first few stories I had published were either charitable or for groups I wanted to support and be part of, even though they didn’t pay. For a new author seeking recognition and a path to publication, that was appropriate. The next few stories earned me a token amount.

I have yet to earn more than a token.

But it’s not an expensive hobby.

It’s the boot camp of my career.

I have finished the initial revisions on my Polyamorous SciFi Romance from NaNoWriMo 2013. I’m setting it aside to read The King by Tiffany Reisz. The theory is, when writing about jalapeños, it’s good to read about habaneros. My story will probably be categorized as erotic romance, as the sexual relationships between the characters are key to the plot of the story. The Original Sinners books are BDSM erotica and very steamy! But Tiffany has a way of making me sympathize with and identify with her characters, even if I’m at a loss to name a single thing we have in common. These books are extremely well-written, which is not only enjoyable but makes excellent brain-food in preparations for the next round of edits.

My ROW80 goals?

Good. I’m working every night. I finished Revision 01 on two 75k+ novels in record time…less than a week. However, since a few tangly problems were identified, I need to do a Revision 02 before they goes out to beta readers. By the way… if you’re interested in beta reading two 75k+ novels centering around a polyamorous love story, let me know! I have several betas who identify with the polyamory community. It would be nice to have some other betas with various different backgrounds, including (as Tiffany would call it) ‘vanilla.’ 🙂

For the next few days or week, my ‘writing-related-work’ will consist largely of reading. It is something that has diminished in my life at the exact time it should have increased, and I need to work on that. More importantly, this reading material will put me in a good mind frame for working out the issues between revisions one and two.

Question for the week:

When do you use beta readers? After the rough draft? After several revisions?

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Why Stories Sit on the Shelf

Posted on January 13, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

♥ROW80 scroll down

Art by Phatpuppy, used with permission

Art by Phatpuppy, used with permission

My TBR (To Be Read) shelf overfloweth. That’s nothing usual for any writer or bibliophile. But my TBF (To Be Finished) shelf overfloweth as well.

So why do stories sit on the shelf? Why would a writer put them there in the first place?

The first reason is the most common. Sometimes, a story just isn’t marketable. This absolutely does not mean it should not have been written. Some stories are destined to never see the light of day, but they hold great value in other ways. Simple experience and practice for the writer is one. Stories may have a good core, ready to be later revised and rewritten. Stories may be cannibalized, with scenes and characters being used in other stories. A story may be a writer’s self-introduction to a world, including the info-dump and nitty-gritty details that shouldn’t be included in the book that is marketed to the public. Charity’s story, in the Kingdom Come series is this for me.

Some writers (myself included) need to put a rough draft on the shelf for a while before looking at it again. For a short story, I might let it sit for a day. For a novel, it usually sits for at least a couple of months. For the duology of The Jubilation of the Southern Cross and Hearthsong, it’s been just over a year.

A story may go on the shelf simply because other things take precedence. Sometimes, it’s what we call ‘real life demands’ as in family, the day job, and other non-writing commitments. Sometimes, other writing takes precedence either because the writer has  a marketable opportunity with another work, or simply because the writer personally wants to work on something different for a while. With the aforementioned duology, I first had a dayjob commitment that kept me from getting back to it, and then I had a contract for a different series that took precedence.

When a story is part of a planned series, it may need to sit on the shelf while an overall story-arc is worked out, or while background details that affect the entire series are decided on. With the Pangalactic Sojourners, one important detail is the legality of same-sex marriage from state to state. When I started writing these stories, only a few states had legalized gay marriage. Over the last year, the map has snowballed until almost the entire nation is a rainbow. If I set my stories sometime in the last few years, then I’ll need to include this snowballing as important events that occur during the time of the story. If I leave the stories on the shelf for a year or more, and then set them in 2015 or 2016, then I’ll be starting with most of the map already rainbowed and there will probably be fewer momentously newsworthy events to incorporate into the stories.

Of course, some stories go on the shelf just because there’s no inspiration to finish them. Maybe the author grew disenchanted with the characters, or there was something about the plot that simply wasn’t working. However, as I said above this absolutely does not mean it should not have been written. Every story has value. Even awful ones. Sometimes you need to get the awful stories out in order to make room for the good ones. I did that this weekend with a little story about a genie in a neti pot.

The ROW80 Goals this week:

Some writing, some revising, but nothing being promoted at the moment. I sent a short to a critique partner a few hours ago, which is very productive. I’m working on a couple of projects that have very real possibilities in the near future, which is, of course, why those projects are on the plate and not the shelf.

Er… ROW80 is supposed to be measurable goals. I think I need to keep closer track of what I’m doing. Buttocks in chair and fingers on keyboard is happening, but it’s mixed with personal stuff and those hours are hard to count. I finished and revised a short story, and wrote a couple pieces of flash. I polished up a couple of documents to make them submission-ready. Next on the plate is transcribing a hand-written short, then plotting and planning a SciFi novella using my Incorporeum characters.

SO! Have you ever taken something off the shelf and discovered a hidden gem?

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The Race Card

Posted on January 7, 2015 by AmyBeth Inverness

ROW80 scroll downI want to include a diverse range of characters in all my stories. In my lunar shorts, it’s easy to imagine that the settlers on the Moon represent a wide range of nationalities, ages, familial situations etc. With the incorporeum stories, since they travel in time I can have their beloveds be any gender, any nationality, any quirks I want to them to have. In the Kingdom Come novels, it’s a bit trickier because I imagine that, by that time, humanities’ skin colors, regional customs, and sense of humor will be thoroughly mixed up from where they are now. With my Steampunk stories, it is the biggest challenge because, although I have created my own world, it is based on the civilization of Queen Victoria’s era and there’s only so much tweaking I can do.

There are some unique problems with trying to write diversely. Many details of a person’s character, such as their sexual orientation or the color of their skin, aren’t important to their overall profile. I rarely give detailed descriptions of my characters. If I imagine the guy as tall, dark, and handsome but you envision him as fair-haired and square-jawed, that’s not usually a problem. Sometimes I pick a name and try to use that to cue in the reader that someone is not a white male, or I’ll mention that they are speaking a specific language. In one story, I mentioned that the local rabbi came over for tea, but the fact that the family is Jewish isn’t important to the story. One of the easiest things to do is to mention ‘dark’ fingers intertwined with lighter ones or somehow else contrasting with something. Again, though, the fact that the character has dark skin isn’t integral to the plot. In another story, you find out close to the end that the woman’s ex-husband is deaf. When she’s talking to him via a video feed, she can’t casually turn away and keep talking. She can’t look away, because their method of communication relies heavily on lip-reading and sign language. It’s not a major plot point, it’s characterization. In my WIP (an incorporeum story) one of the characters is a blue-eyed blonde, which actually is an important plot point because, in most of the settings, that combination is highly unusual.

I have a different challenge as well. If I do decide to create a character who has a specific trait, whether they’re lesbian, Maori, atheist, or a fan of Motley Crue, I suddenly worry that any quirk I assign that character will be perceived as personal prejudice, or worse, racist. I agonize over the idea that someone will say “What? Do you really think that all short women wear too much makeup?” when it’s really just one of many, many combinations of diverse character quirks I’ve created. If someone reads a variety of my stories, hopefully they’ll realize that. But to hook that one reader who’s picking up my writing for the first time, it’s a risk I take.

I continue. I will always strive to describe a variety of very real humans in all my stories.

Even the ones about aliens.

And now, for the writing goals:

I find myself in a new situation. A year ago, I was concentrating on Tiffany Reisz’s advice to ‘pick something, finish it, polish it, and send it.’ NaNoWriMo had gone very well, and I had a duology set on Kingdom Come that were complete rough drafts awaiting revision one, then beta readers, then revision two etc. Then I signed a contract with a publisher to write The Cities of Luna, and I put all other projects on the shelf. Sadly, that relationship did not work out.

I am picking up again on the ‘finish something’ advice. A couple of incorporeum stories to send to Garden Gnome are on my plate. (By the way…the deadline for submissions to The Land of Nod anthology isn’t until summer. If you write evil, this is the antho for you!) My connections in the writing community are helping me to explore where The Cities of Luna might go. Steampunk is on the shelf not because it has a problem, but because I’m working on an arc for five books. That’s a lot of work, and at this point in my career I need to take something I have more finished and get it ready to submit. Although some Kingdom Come novels have a five-book-arc, the ones from a year ago are a duology as well as an excellent introduction to the world. They are also very complete rough drafts, unlike some other stories where I purposely left giant holes, intending to fill them in with revision one.

So I know what I’m working on, but for ROW80 I need to define weekly goals.

  • Although I’m not concentrating on short stories at the moment, I will continue to pledge that, if I start one, I finish it within a few days. Otherwise they tend to go wonky.
  • I have cut my blogging down to this weekly update, but every once in a while I post something extra. I will also continue to ask my SciFi Question of the Day on social media, and keep up with various writerly-networking activities (like ROW80.)
  • This round will see me doing both writing and revising. Some weeks it may be all of one or the other. I don’t think I should define how much of each needs to be done.
  • I think I’ll resurrect my old word count goals:
  • Write at least five days a week.
    • 500 words is not that great, but it’s acceptable, even if it’s just flash and not my WIP.
    • 1,000 is average, but not where I’d like to be.
    • 2,000 words is a good, healthy daily goal. I will continue to strive that, someday, I will break 2k in one hour. I’ve come close, I’ve never passed the mark.
  • If I’m editing, word count doesn’t mean much. Time spent is a more accurate measure of productivity. If I’m editing a longer work, then I should spend at least a couple of hours doing so each day. Preferably more, since writing is my career, not an expensive hobby.
  • Hopefully, soon I’ll need to do promo again. That eats up a lot of time, but it’s important. I think I’ll try to celebrate the fact that I don’t have anything I need to push at the moment, and use my time for actual writing.

Someday, I want to be successful enough that most of my time is spent in actual writing. But that’s a long-term goal, not something I’m going to accomplish this week or this round.

So, fellow ROWers, how do you measure editing? Word count? Page count? Time spent? I’m interested to hear!

 

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