It's that time again, boys and girls. Mostly girls though.
Yes, November is just around the corner, and I don't think I have to tell anyone what that means. Not followers of THIS blog. You crazy kids know the drill. It's the annual writer version of a marathon, the literary equivalent of the Olympics, its time for you to strut your stuff, walk the walk, talk the talk, put pen to paper (in an entirely digital fashion), place butt in chair and WRITE THAT BOOK.
Oh NaNoWriMo. That glorious one month a year, where we writerly types almost feel athletic.
Have you all been stretching your creative muscles? Getting limber, doing your breathing exercises, loosening up those 'THIS MUST BE A BESTSELLER OR I WILL NEVER WRITE AGAIN RAWR' expectations and getting in touch with your innate love of writing?
Because that's what NaNoWriMo is, if you think about it. It's not about a book that will get you an agent or a book deal or a house in Hawaii. It's not about the book at all. NaNoWriMo is about the WRITING. It's about letting go of all the hang-ups and expectations and self-recriminations we work ourselves into a frenzy with the other eleven months out of the year. It's about not worrying what the book will look like at the end of the month, how many drafts it'll need before its publication-ready, whether or not this is the book that'll put you on the map. NaNo is about telling the story, in whatever way you need to in order to get it out there, and worrying about the packaging later.
It's a chance for us every year to stop, breathe, blank our minds and get back in touch with what makes us all writers in the first place....that inner drive to just sit in whatever environment suits us best, place our fingers on the keys and just let go, channel the story inside us and watch the words, thoughts, and ideas blossom on the screen in front of us. No obsessing about the perfect beginning or perfect ending, just each word right NOW and then the one right after it and then the one after that....until all the words are out and we can write THE END and sit back, exhale, and celebrate our accomplishment, finally putting one more of the many stories rattling around in our head to bed.
And best of all, it's a chance to do it in the company of fine friends and like-minded fools....I mean fine friends. The ones who actually GET what the madness is all about, and celebrate the insanity of giving birth to a book with only a month for gestation. To urge each other on and carry each other to the finish line.
So, fine followers, I ask you....are you ready for NaNo? Do you have your story idea yet? Plotters, are you plotting? Pantsers, are you loosening up that belt?
I'll be doing a MG Fantasy called 'The Two Sides of Midnight', but am abstaining from plotting. We'll see how the story takes shape on its own this time. Should be fun. How about you all? What are your plans for NaNo?
For anyone partaking, I'm proposing a daily check-in on twitter, starting November 1st, using the hashtag #thisismybrainonNaNo. Just a little something for everyone to use in a morning tweet with your wordcount thus far, an easy way to find others and urge each other on at the start of each day. You can end the day with another #thisismybrainonNaNo tweet with how many words you've written that day, and get a flurry of feel-goods to take with you to bed, a smile on your face. As always, you can find me on twitter at @kalenodonnell where I shall happily enable any and all of you in your drug - I mean NaNo induced frenzies.
Tick-tock goes the clock, guys! Fifteen days til NaNo!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Inevitable #YesgayYA Post - but its not what you think, honest
No, your eyes do not deceive you, for lo! I have returned from blogging hiatus! (We're gonna pretend that was an official 'thing' and not like, me utterly FAILING on the regular updating thing. Okay? Sound good? Thanks for playing along, guys. You're all aces in my book.)
So, speaking of books - yeah, you know you liked that segue - how about that whole yesgayya hoopla from last week? Oh YA. We do love our drama. Course, you know me being me, I have A Very Important Opinion on it, so despite being a day late and a dollar short, I'm going to drop my two cents down right here.
BUT instead of talking about this instance in particular, let's talk about the greater issue. And about diversity in YA in general. I'm sure most of you following this have seen all the relevant posts like Malinda Lo's charts demonstrating that less than 1% of YA books have gay characters at all. I know! Crazy, right? And I think we all remember the whole white-washing thing with the cover of Justine Larbalestier's novel 'Liar'. We've come a long way in the publishing industry, where today books like Scott Tracey's 'Witch Eyes' can wind up on shelves next to every other YA paranormal, not caring that the MC's Romeo and Juliet style romance with a witch from another family is with another boy. But the way we got to this point, and the only way to get to MORE such books on the shelves, is not by writing blog posts or arguing for better minority representation via twitter. It's simply by WRITING MORE MINORITY CHARACTERS.
Eureka. Pretty self-explanatory, right? Except it's not so simple. Because no single author can make up for under representation of any given minority. When an author tries, the effort tends to stick out amidst all the other books featuring a cast of straight white teens across the board. And I can't speak for everyone, but I know when I examined my own works and my own motivations in writing this character this way and that character as a member of that demographic, I discovered a personal fear of mine. A fear of being labeled - as That Author. The One With the Agenda.
I'm ashamed to admit - I have in the past made the conscious decision to straighten or whitewash my OWN characters - because I was afraid of being perceived as the author who always had gay or minority characters in his novels. That readers would perceive it as filling a quota, or pushing an agenda.
But you know what? That's just silly, boys and girls. That's hogwash. And there's a lot worse things to be known for.
The thing is, all writers are readers, first and foremost. And reading a book is a HELL of a lot easier than writing one. So when we writers write, we usually do it to fill a lack. We write the stories we want to read, but can't - because they're in our heads, and nobody can put them to paper but us. We write the characters we want to see in other books but don't. Doing the things we wish the hero of this book would have done, or making the choice we wish the heroine of that one had made. For me, a lot of the time that means the characters I want to write are minority characters, a bi-racial heroine, a predominantly Hispanic main cast, a gay hero having fantastical, non romantic adventures. Because these are the stories and characters I can't read elsewhere. Because they don't exist elsewhere. Because there's a lack.
Writing to fill a void is not the same thing as writing to fill a quota.
Intent matters. Your reasons for making this character black and that one gay matter - but the only one they have to matter to is YOU, the author. Everyone else will think what they want to think regardless. If you have a formula, and after writing a book full of straight white teens sit down and make one of them multiracial, one of them LGBT, etc...yeah, that could probably be construed as agenda. But if you're simply writing the characters as they pop into your head, who cares if every single one of them happens to be black and transgendered?
I'm bisexual. My older sister's Jewish. My younger sister's Vietnamese, my little brother's Mexican. We're a weird family. It's a long story. But if a family lineup like that can come about naturally in real life, then surely you can make any assemblage of characters work in a fictional world of your own making. I grew up used to being around people who are different from me. That's my normal. So yeah, the books I write are pretty much always going to have more minority characters than most - because that's what's normal to me, and that's a part of my life and my world I don't see adequately reflected in fiction. It's silly for me to be self-conscious about it, just because it sets me apart from books with no minority characters and risks me being labeled as an author with an agenda.
Yeah, I'm a minority writer and I have an agenda. My agenda? To write what's inside of me. To write and let it out.
More people should try it, honestly. Saves truckloads on therapy bills.
So, speaking of books - yeah, you know you liked that segue - how about that whole yesgayya hoopla from last week? Oh YA. We do love our drama. Course, you know me being me, I have A Very Important Opinion on it, so despite being a day late and a dollar short, I'm going to drop my two cents down right here.
BUT instead of talking about this instance in particular, let's talk about the greater issue. And about diversity in YA in general. I'm sure most of you following this have seen all the relevant posts like Malinda Lo's charts demonstrating that less than 1% of YA books have gay characters at all. I know! Crazy, right? And I think we all remember the whole white-washing thing with the cover of Justine Larbalestier's novel 'Liar'. We've come a long way in the publishing industry, where today books like Scott Tracey's 'Witch Eyes' can wind up on shelves next to every other YA paranormal, not caring that the MC's Romeo and Juliet style romance with a witch from another family is with another boy. But the way we got to this point, and the only way to get to MORE such books on the shelves, is not by writing blog posts or arguing for better minority representation via twitter. It's simply by WRITING MORE MINORITY CHARACTERS.
Eureka. Pretty self-explanatory, right? Except it's not so simple. Because no single author can make up for under representation of any given minority. When an author tries, the effort tends to stick out amidst all the other books featuring a cast of straight white teens across the board. And I can't speak for everyone, but I know when I examined my own works and my own motivations in writing this character this way and that character as a member of that demographic, I discovered a personal fear of mine. A fear of being labeled - as That Author. The One With the Agenda.
I'm ashamed to admit - I have in the past made the conscious decision to straighten or whitewash my OWN characters - because I was afraid of being perceived as the author who always had gay or minority characters in his novels. That readers would perceive it as filling a quota, or pushing an agenda.
But you know what? That's just silly, boys and girls. That's hogwash. And there's a lot worse things to be known for.
The thing is, all writers are readers, first and foremost. And reading a book is a HELL of a lot easier than writing one. So when we writers write, we usually do it to fill a lack. We write the stories we want to read, but can't - because they're in our heads, and nobody can put them to paper but us. We write the characters we want to see in other books but don't. Doing the things we wish the hero of this book would have done, or making the choice we wish the heroine of that one had made. For me, a lot of the time that means the characters I want to write are minority characters, a bi-racial heroine, a predominantly Hispanic main cast, a gay hero having fantastical, non romantic adventures. Because these are the stories and characters I can't read elsewhere. Because they don't exist elsewhere. Because there's a lack.
Writing to fill a void is not the same thing as writing to fill a quota.
Intent matters. Your reasons for making this character black and that one gay matter - but the only one they have to matter to is YOU, the author. Everyone else will think what they want to think regardless. If you have a formula, and after writing a book full of straight white teens sit down and make one of them multiracial, one of them LGBT, etc...yeah, that could probably be construed as agenda. But if you're simply writing the characters as they pop into your head, who cares if every single one of them happens to be black and transgendered?
I'm bisexual. My older sister's Jewish. My younger sister's Vietnamese, my little brother's Mexican. We're a weird family. It's a long story. But if a family lineup like that can come about naturally in real life, then surely you can make any assemblage of characters work in a fictional world of your own making. I grew up used to being around people who are different from me. That's my normal. So yeah, the books I write are pretty much always going to have more minority characters than most - because that's what's normal to me, and that's a part of my life and my world I don't see adequately reflected in fiction. It's silly for me to be self-conscious about it, just because it sets me apart from books with no minority characters and risks me being labeled as an author with an agenda.
Yeah, I'm a minority writer and I have an agenda. My agenda? To write what's inside of me. To write and let it out.
More people should try it, honestly. Saves truckloads on therapy bills.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
An Abundance of Katherines
No, I'm not talking about the John Green novel, though that is most definitely worth checking out. I'm talking about last week's birthday of the many incarnations of my good friend Katey....better known in these here blog parts as horror/dark fic writer KV Taylor and her shiny alter ego Katey Hawthorne, romance writer extraordinaire.
Not only was last week her birthday, it was a book birthday for her as well. Her very first book, Equilibrium debuted from Loose Id, and is available for digital purchase right now! It's a m/m romance, with err....no punches pulled, so since many of my blog readers are YA readers and writers I advise you to go into that with your eyes wide open, but I know superpowered boys in love should appeal to more than a few of you, hmmmMMMM? *Eyes a few of you in particular YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE*
And it's SO good, Loose Id has already announced they will be publishing her second book in the Equilibrium universe....this one to be tentatively titled 'Riot Boy', I believe?
But maybe superboys in love aren't your cup of tea. That's okay, she has 'Scripped' dropping from Belfire Press any day now under her KV Taylor nom de plume....a dark, twisted tale of Appalachian fae and the old adage you can't go home again....
And get this! Belfire Press likes her so much, they've already announced plans to publish the next KV Taylor book....a dark and bloody vampire romance/horror, where the monsters are actually monsters....and still disturbingly hot, just the way we like them. Now, if the woman managed to sell a vampire book in THIS market, you KNOW it's gotta be good, right?
And to top of Ms. Taylor's all around awesome sauce year last year, it also saw her debut as an editor at Morrigan Books AND as the creator and editor of the Red Penny Papers, a quarterly online lit magazine of things that go bump in the night, a compilation of amazing fiction, stunning art, and the revival of the serial novella with weekly installments of a new novella in between each regular issue. Get the scoop on that here at the Red Penny Papers site - it's fully legit and FANCY yo....I think more than a couple of you might have some things you might want to float her way, and it's ALWAYS a good read and worth a perusal.
So in conclusion, Katey is awesome. If awesome people want to read the implication that they should totally go wish her a happy birthday with a quick peek at some of her goodies (I MEANT HER FICTION NOT THOSE GOODIES YOU BUNCHA PERVERTS) and possibly snag one or two for a read, well.....that is totally your call.
*Is hella subtle, yo*
Happy birthday Katey!
Not only was last week her birthday, it was a book birthday for her as well. Her very first book, Equilibrium debuted from Loose Id, and is available for digital purchase right now! It's a m/m romance, with err....no punches pulled, so since many of my blog readers are YA readers and writers I advise you to go into that with your eyes wide open, but I know superpowered boys in love should appeal to more than a few of you, hmmmMMMM? *Eyes a few of you in particular YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE*
And it's SO good, Loose Id has already announced they will be publishing her second book in the Equilibrium universe....this one to be tentatively titled 'Riot Boy', I believe?
But maybe superboys in love aren't your cup of tea. That's okay, she has 'Scripped' dropping from Belfire Press any day now under her KV Taylor nom de plume....a dark, twisted tale of Appalachian fae and the old adage you can't go home again....
And get this! Belfire Press likes her so much, they've already announced plans to publish the next KV Taylor book....a dark and bloody vampire romance/horror, where the monsters are actually monsters....and still disturbingly hot, just the way we like them. Now, if the woman managed to sell a vampire book in THIS market, you KNOW it's gotta be good, right?
And to top of Ms. Taylor's all around awesome sauce year last year, it also saw her debut as an editor at Morrigan Books AND as the creator and editor of the Red Penny Papers, a quarterly online lit magazine of things that go bump in the night, a compilation of amazing fiction, stunning art, and the revival of the serial novella with weekly installments of a new novella in between each regular issue. Get the scoop on that here at the Red Penny Papers site - it's fully legit and FANCY yo....I think more than a couple of you might have some things you might want to float her way, and it's ALWAYS a good read and worth a perusal.
So in conclusion, Katey is awesome. If awesome people want to read the implication that they should totally go wish her a happy birthday with a quick peek at some of her goodies (I MEANT HER FICTION NOT THOSE GOODIES YOU BUNCHA PERVERTS) and possibly snag one or two for a read, well.....that is totally your call.
*Is hella subtle, yo*
Happy birthday Katey!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Let's Hear It For the Girl....
So I'm neck-deep in the amazing-ness that is Writeoncon.com at the moment (if you're not over there, you need to run over and join the fun IMMEDIATELY) but I had to come up for air real quick to give a round of applause and big shout out to your friend and mine, Ms. Anita Howard, authoress extraordinaire of the upcoming YA fantasy 'Splintered'....coming to shelves near you in the spring of 2013.
That's right. the one and only Goat Posse Den Mother, fountain of boundless optimism and inspiration to the rest of us, has inspired once again! She's going to the big leagues kiddos, so run on over to her blog and congratulate her! You're not gonna want to miss this dark Alice in Wonderland spin off about a girl who talks to bugs! Four out of five critique partners think its the bee's knees.
We no longer speak of the fifth.
(I'm just kidding, there is no fifth. Everyone who's read her book loves it, I just made up an imaginary person who didn't to make Anita seem more real and less Wonder Woman-y. Seriously. Nobody's that frickin' nice unless they're secretly like, a cyborg or something unnatural like that).
AND THAT WAS A TEST BY THE WAY. If you actually read that far, CLEARLY you did not follow instructions and hop on over to Anita's blog. Shoo! What are you still doing here?
Sigh. Some people...
That's right. the one and only Goat Posse Den Mother, fountain of boundless optimism and inspiration to the rest of us, has inspired once again! She's going to the big leagues kiddos, so run on over to her blog and congratulate her! You're not gonna want to miss this dark Alice in Wonderland spin off about a girl who talks to bugs! Four out of five critique partners think its the bee's knees.
We no longer speak of the fifth.
(I'm just kidding, there is no fifth. Everyone who's read her book loves it, I just made up an imaginary person who didn't to make Anita seem more real and less Wonder Woman-y. Seriously. Nobody's that frickin' nice unless they're secretly like, a cyborg or something unnatural like that).
AND THAT WAS A TEST BY THE WAY. If you actually read that far, CLEARLY you did not follow instructions and hop on over to Anita's blog. Shoo! What are you still doing here?
Sigh. Some people...
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Guest Post at Cory's Blog!
Hey everybody! I'm guest blogging today over at the blog of the always lovely Corinne Duyvis over here! Cory, a totally fantabulous writer who rocks the casbah and is represented by Michael Carr of the Veritas Literary Agency, is currently away at Clarion West right now with all the other kids and asked me and a few others to fill in for her with some guest spots at her casa de la intarwebz! If you've yet to acquaint yourself with her, you should get your butts over to her blog posthaste and delve into the awesomeness that is she! And like, read my guest post, yo.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Hidden Treasures
So I was cleaning out an old email account, when I came across a cover I'd made for one of my epic fantasy WIPs. I used to play around with Photoshop a lot (back when I still had it *cries*) and had a blast combining different images and elements to create mock covers for my works. (Note, I didn't create any of the specific images in this cover, I just combined them with various elements and designs to create the overall piece. Credit where credit's due, but alas, I can't remember where I found the images, which is why this is just for fun.)
And then it got me thinking about all the random creations I've lost over the years...due to computer crashes or lost spiral notebooks or a box of old printed manuscripts vanishing in a move to a new apartment. I still have my first broken laptop tucked away in my closet, and on it is all the outlining and writing I did on my original magnum opus I started years ago. There's still a fun story to be told from those notes, I'm sure, but I for the life of me can not remember how the story was supposed to go without them, and I've yet to find someone able to recover the files from that particular harddrive. I hold onto it anyways, just in case.
So how about you guys? Any of you have any vanished masterpieces you've lost and been unable to recover, or that you know are still lurking around somewhere if you can just remember where you put those notes or saved those chapters? Or have you ever stumbled across something you created years ago and totally forgot about until it popped up again unexpectedly?
And then it got me thinking about all the random creations I've lost over the years...due to computer crashes or lost spiral notebooks or a box of old printed manuscripts vanishing in a move to a new apartment. I still have my first broken laptop tucked away in my closet, and on it is all the outlining and writing I did on my original magnum opus I started years ago. There's still a fun story to be told from those notes, I'm sure, but I for the life of me can not remember how the story was supposed to go without them, and I've yet to find someone able to recover the files from that particular harddrive. I hold onto it anyways, just in case.
So how about you guys? Any of you have any vanished masterpieces you've lost and been unable to recover, or that you know are still lurking around somewhere if you can just remember where you put those notes or saved those chapters? Or have you ever stumbled across something you created years ago and totally forgot about until it popped up again unexpectedly?
Friday, June 24, 2011
Big Things Poppin'
And with that fabulous intro by rapper T.I., I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
But just for a second. Sorry to leave you lovelies deprived of my awesomeness for the past two weeks (Hey you in the back! Don't think I don't see you rolling your eyes!) but I have had DRAMA! And excitement! Amazing happenings!
...also, bronchitis.
But enough about the questionable state of my lungs! I am merely popping in to say rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!
...Hmm? What's that? Nobody's been spreading such rumors? Well fine, I don't care about you either.
Anyways, just wanted to say regular blogging probably won't resume until after next week - due in part to said DRAMA! Excitement! And amazing happenings! - and in part due to my being in New York next week for work. If any of y'all live in New York near the Lincoln Center (think that's where I'll be), it'd be awesome to hang or something, even if ever so briefly!
But once I get back, expect NEWS. And a blogfest. And a contest. And possibly scandalous gossip about my famous co-stars, once I have weighed whether or not they are the type to SUE me for spreading slanderous half truths all across yon interwebs.
So basically, business as usual.
Ta ta, peeps!
But just for a second. Sorry to leave you lovelies deprived of my awesomeness for the past two weeks (Hey you in the back! Don't think I don't see you rolling your eyes!) but I have had DRAMA! And excitement! Amazing happenings!
...also, bronchitis.
But enough about the questionable state of my lungs! I am merely popping in to say rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!
...Hmm? What's that? Nobody's been spreading such rumors? Well fine, I don't care about you either.
Anyways, just wanted to say regular blogging probably won't resume until after next week - due in part to said DRAMA! Excitement! And amazing happenings! - and in part due to my being in New York next week for work. If any of y'all live in New York near the Lincoln Center (think that's where I'll be), it'd be awesome to hang or something, even if ever so briefly!
But once I get back, expect NEWS. And a blogfest. And a contest. And possibly scandalous gossip about my famous co-stars, once I have weighed whether or not they are the type to SUE me for spreading slanderous half truths all across yon interwebs.
So basically, business as usual.
Ta ta, peeps!
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