Aspirations

You might know that the writer's group that I participate in has written an anthology of short stories based on landmarks of St. Louis. I'm in it, with a modern day faerie tale that takes place at the Muny (the Municipal Theater in Forest Park, the oldest and largest outdoor amphitheater in America, with trees growing out of the stage...)

And by golly, the book is out! You can check out the page at www.toastedraviolibook.com (though there's not much there at the moment) which has a link to buying the book online, do a book search on Amazon for Toasted Ravioli, or (the best way) ask me for a book in person. That way you get a discount and a signed copy and I (or the group) gets more money.

Or better yet, come to our first signing this Saturday (tomorrow, eek) the 26th of January at Legacy Books, 5249 Delmar (at Union) from 12 pm to 5 pm. All the authors will be there, so you can get a full complement of signatures on your new book, and the authors will read from their work. There should also be a Q&A session for the curious.

I hope to see you there!

Happy half-birthday to me. ;)

I think I'm a good writer. People have told me so. I've heard that I do remarkable first drafts. But so far, that's all I've got. First drafts. I want to much to finish something that is good (and marketable, sue me) but I have such a hard time doing it. I get super-motivated after reading a good book, but then I find something else to distract me before I can get something down. I have all these ideas, but I doubt that any of them are truly original. There is such a thing as a "Mary Sue" character (in fanfiction, this refers to inserting yourself as your main character, i.e. he/she has all your good characteristics and none of your bad, with bonuses to boot) and I worry that I project too many of my desires onto my character. I become insecure about my writing easily, which is silly. I want people to read what I write, but I cringe to hear what they have to say. Which is also silly, because most of the time what people say is that it's good, just change a few things here or there...and of course, things come out better after a draft or two.

What if I don't actually have an original idea? Looking back at what I've written in my life, there's a strong common thread among all my characters. I write what I want to read, but apparently it's not very unique.

So it's all in the writing. I just have to make the character believable, with something new and different. I love it when authors throw me for a loop (as long as it's not deus ex machina), and sometimes I despair of ever being able to do that myself. Is it just because I'm not smart enough to figure something like that out?

I've got a battle scene (several scenes. A chapter or two, at least.) to write in my current novel, and it's a little scary. I would make a horrible general. Even though I've got any resources I need (what? you need more infantry? here! let's write another unit coming through) I can't seem to stop stalling. I know once I get it down it will be good. I hope things will tie up (not too neatly, or there won't be a second book ;)) because right now I'm not sure how it will.

I need a vacation where all I do is sit down at the computer and write, without worrying about work or class or sleep. Do I think that's going to happen? Not so much.

If you want to read something that the dragons took over, let me know.

For those of you who asked...

I'm a member of the St. Louis Writers Meetup, and a while ago, since we're all aspiring to be published, we decided we would put together an anthology of short stories loosely based on something St. Louis-y. Turned out to landmarks of St. Louis, and I chose the Muny, America's oldest and largest outdoor musical theater.

My story is a fairy tale taking place mainly backstage at the Muny. One of these days I'll take another tour of the stage and see how totally off base I was about the layout, but I claim artistic license and the need to have a spiral staircase like at my high school. Hopefully it has a little bit of mystery, a lot of imagination, and not entirely sappy romance. Has to be some romance.

It's short, which is odd for me, since I seem to like writing epic-length stories. But I had a deadline of midnight last night (which I actually missed by twelve minutes, but our editor is a nice guy) and a limit of 7500 words (7407, according to my counter).

Those of you who know me won't be surprised that I wrote another fantasy. Those of you who don't...I hope that one day, when the anthology is published, you'll read it and like what I did. We possibly/probably have an actual publisher, not national or anything, but it won't be self-published. I'll let you know how that goes. Any profit will most likely go to funding our meetings, so it's not like this is a get-rich scheme ;) If you want to beta it, you'll have to ask me nicely.

Strange to not have it to work on any more. Sent it off, not my problem until edits come back. Funny how, even though I've finished NaNoWriMo twice (that's 100,000 words!) it still took me a month to write 7500.