OPP-Yeah you know Me or Other People's Paranormal uh...

It's already Wylde Wednesday again! Where did the week go? Time is flying by this month, but I'm ready for October. You know what's in October? Besides my ten year wedding anniversary? And besides the Friday the 13th that will live on forever in the annals (Since it's my naughty blog day, I was tempted to say "anals" of history, because I mean, they were drilled in the butt with the bad luck bit.) of history as bad luck? (You know, the one where the Templars were all named as heretics and murdred because the King wanted their power, he already had the Pope.)Those are actually on the same day, my deliciously Viking spouse creature has a thing for Templar lore.

The best paranormal releases are usually in October in preparation for Halloween, or as other prefer to call it, The Turn of the Wheel. My own novella, The Binding had a Halloween release date. All very ecxciting stuff. So this brings us to my topic for today, non-human sex.

My adoring spouse creature mentioned to me that he didn't see how vampire/human sex was something to aspire to. He said that number one, their man-swords wouldn't work because they reproduce through their bite and nature is all about utility. To which of course I answered him that vampires weren't naural, they were SUPERnatural. Hence is logic was null. He countered with the necrophelia argument. I still haven't come up with a good answer to that. When I think about it that way, it kind squicks me, Miss Unsquickable. Of course, he hasn't managed to sour me on vampage, just for screwing with my Chi he was forced to sit through the entire series of Dark Shadows Resurrection. He was lucky it wasn't Kindred: The Embraced where I drool buckets over Julian Luna. (RIP)

What makes paranormal sex squickable? I've read a host of bodice rippers (I use this term lovingly.)where the innocent virgin was offered to the beast and he tagged the hell out of it while he was in werewolf form. Sure, it was for curse breaking, but she liked it. Is that bestiality? I didn't think so, because it was all allegory for a man fighting the worst in himself to win his true love, and all about her overcoming her fear and trusting for the same. But in the harsh, neon lights of my husband's oh-so logical analysis (Hehee. I said "anal" again.) I can see the paradigm shift to squick.

What do you guys think?

Does Size Really Matter? Chapter Length in Novels (Cell Phone & Otherwise)

Okay, my copyedits are in front of me (arrived yesterday and are due back on 10/9). Between now and then I have several blog-related interviews and guest posts to do (I'll be over at author Jeri Smith-Ready's blog on Friday--you're all invited). But I'm good. Yep. *twitch* ;-)

The fact my copyedits just got here made me return to a question I had about chapter length in novels.

Because 13 TO LIFE began as a serial cell phone novel it was important to keep chapters brief and consumable. If you go and check it out (it's still posted on Textnovel.com) you'll see most "chapters" would (at most) amount to a single page of text in a standard novel.

When I was getting ready to send my more traditionally designed full manuscript back to my editor at St. Martin's Press, I wound up on the phone with him discussing chapter length. 13 TO LIFE is a YA paranormal romance. And...

1. According to studies, our youth have a tremendously short attention span (one reason teachers are pushed to design multiple 15 minute sub-lesson plans in a standard classroom period).
   
2. Most tv segments are between 10-15 minutes before a commercial break. In my opinion, they have an advantage over books as a story-telling venue.
   
3. In a classroom a teacher can get your attention personally and there's always the threat of disciplinary action if you are unresponsive.
   
4. On tv, it's action, action, action, or comedy or high drama--whatever it takes to hold you on the couch.

What about books? How do I, as an author, encourage readers to keep going? The obvious is: WRITE A GOOD STORY WITH COMPELLING CHARACTERS.

The less obvious? Understand your target audience's attention span and deal with it. My editor (whom I love ;-) said he thought my chapter breaks were fine. I asked if he minded if I shortened them. He (being quite agreeable and willing to consider options) said I could. I revisited my Textnovel version and tweaked my full accordingly. After he got the manuscript back he responded that he liked the changes I'd made.

Between the phone call discussing chapter length and the results I returned, I looked around online and considered other books I'd read. Which had flown? I immediately recalled one novel by Eloisa James (I know, I know, people have strong feelings about her--I'm on the fan side, so cope) in which she had each chapter be between 9-12 pages. I sailed through that novel and (although I noticed the size) I loved it because I sailed through it.

Here's a link to something Orson Scott Card (yes, controversial, too--again, I'm a fan of his writing) says about chapter length: essentially there are no rules and he uses shorter chapters at the beginning to build pace and lengthens part way through with the assumption the reader's invested by then.

I just finished reading SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater. It was very engaging, used the traditional romance ploy of switching POVs between the two YA love interests and had MANY chapters that are merely a single page (or a paragraph or three). If life didn't get in the way of reading I probably would have chewed through that novel in a day or two.

So, even if the size of the chapters doesn't necessarily mean a great deal, the long and the short of this post should be that you as the author must consider your target audience, their needs, desires and distractions. Yes, creative writing is an art. But there's a bunch of more scientific stuff that we should consider, too. ;-)

~Shannon Reinbold-Gee
Author of the 13 TO LIFE series (coming in June 2010 with St. Martin's Griffin)

Muse Monday: It's in their jeans--er--genes.

Busting free of stereotypes. ::insert frustrated sigh::

It's easier said than done, particularly when writing fiction. And what better to start Muse Monday with a couple of visuals regarding the same?

Are all women like this?



And all men like this?




The answer? Yes, but no.

As authors, we want our characters to be recognizable as someone our readers could know, understand, and root for. On the flip side of believability, we don't want to write cases of same hero/heroine, different story, either.

Yeah, I really did just say, same, only different. Which makes my point as clear as--well, mud.

The biological truth of the matter is women are women and men are men. No matter how we dice it, we just aren't wired the same. And those wiring differences impact our behavior. So how do authors believably break free from the archetypes, those hardwired behavioral expectations that stand in the way of our creatng unique characters a reader can asssociate with?

As I grow and learn as an author, I'm finding that there's a huge difference between authorial voice and character voice. And if I want to make it in this industry, I realize I've gotta have both. To do that, I have to know what the stereotype if I'm to stand a chance of bursting free of it in a believable, yet appealing manner.

And that all comes down to character building and character voice.

Ryder Black, my Hellhound shifter in my serial textnovel in progress, Surrender the Night is "alpha male" to the bone. And he's been a real pain in the backside to write, because honestly, ultra alpha heroes risk coming off as jerks.

As I built Ryder's world, I realized he has tremendous issues with surrendering to anything, or anybody. And who could blame him? After all, the US NAVY keeps Ryder and the rest of the FANG warriors addicted to mind control drugs. Worse, they kennel the paranormal warriors like military working dogs.

Truth be told, working dogs get better treatment.

To say Ryder isn't all that keen on humanity is the understatement of the century. That is until he meets Dana Darko, the animal behaviorist called in by the Navy to force Ryder to toe the line.

Uh, yeah. Like that's going to happen. Because remember, Ryder doesn't surrender to anything or anybody. He's alpha. He's also got a chip on his shoulder the size of a small planet.

Problem is, Dana has something Ryder needs--the key to his memories. She alone has the skills Ryder needs to master if he is to overcome the mind control drugs the Navy uses to control his memories. And if he is to remember the identity of the woman who haunts his dreams, he must first remember who or what he is--and why.

Ryder needs Dana to get what he wants. To do that, He. Must. Surrender....

But Dana has her own motives for getting close to Ryder. She believes he may be responsible for the death of her husband. Natch, she aims to find out the truth, no matter what. If that means making nice with the FANG, then so be it. The way she sees it, every dog has his day, and seeing as how Ryder wants to get in her pants so badly, she's the natural choice for bringing it on.

If teaching Ryder to overcome his addiction so he can remember what happened to Tristan, then she's going to do whatever it takes to insure that happens. Even if it means sleeping with he enemy.

Enter the conflict.

On the surface, Ryder and Dana are one each romantic heroes/heroines. What makes them unique is their personal histories make them the only characters in the story world who can solve each other's problems. They are forced by circumstance to rise above the stereotypical expectations in order to get what they want.
So know what your characters want. Then block them from getting it in every conceivable fashion. I promise you, they'll rise to the occasion. In Ryder's case, in more ways than one. ;)

A Crit by Published and Award-Winning Horror Novelist Ray Garton

This is a special, out of the norm post from Text Diva Saranna DeWylde. Nope, your calendar isn't wrong. It's not Wylde Wednesday. My friend and insanely talented author, Ray Garton is auctioning off a novel critique. Check below for details! He's been in the trenches awhile and knows what he's talking about, my darlings. A great guy who will give you an honest critique and real answers to any questions you have about your novel or the publishing industry! Of course, if you haven't read his Ravenous you should! It's the definitive werewolf novel, it's right up there next to The Howling for me! Okay, on to the dirty (juicy) details!



Have your unpublished novel critiqued by a professional novelist!

Award-winning bestseller Ray Garton is auctioning off a critique.



Are you an aspiring writer with an unpublished novel that you’re eager to sell? Could you use some advice from a professional writer? Would you be interested in having a veteran writer give you a full critique of your novel and answer any questions you may have about writing, the publishing business and getting published? That’s what this auction offers to the winning bidder.



My name is Ray Garton and over the last 25 years, I’ve written about 60 books (it’s been awhile since I’ve done an exact count). My novels include Seductions, Darklings, the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Live Girls, Crucifax, Trade Secrets, The New Neighbor, Dark Channel, Shackled, Sex and Violence in Hollywood, Biofire, Night Life, The Loveliest Dead, Ravenous, Bestial, and the upcoming paperback release Scissors, among others. Four of my books are in the works as movies. I wrote the 1992 book In A Dark Place: The Story of A True Haunting, which told the allegedly “true” story of a family who claimed to have been plagued by demons while living in a former funeral home. The same story was used as the basis for the TV re-enactment and feature film The Haunting in Connecticut. I have written dozens of short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies and in five collections: Methods of Madness, Pieces of Hate, Slivers of Bone, The Girl in the Basement and Other Stories, and ‘Nids and Other Stories. Under the pseudonym Joseph Locke, I’ve written several young adult thrillers and horror novels, including Kill the Teacher’s Pet, Petrified, Game Over, Kiss of Death, 1-900-Killer, and Vengeance. I’ve also written several movie novelizations – The Nightmares on Elm Street, Invaders From Mars, Warlock, and others – and numerous TV tie-ins for shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Secret World of Alex Mack. My novel Live Girls (soon to be a motion picture) was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel of the Year by the Horror Writers Association, and in 2006 I received the Grand Master of Horror Award from the World Horror Society.



I am offering a full critique of your unpublished novel. I’ll read the manuscript, make notes (this is a critique and not a line-by-line edit), and then you and I will have a long online chat. We will discuss every aspect of your novel at length, what I think works, what I think doesn’t work, and how I think you might improve your book with an eye toward selling it. I will answer any questions you have about the novel, the publishing business, and writing in general.



I’m just one writer, of course, and I cannot guarantee that your book will sell. The best I can do is offer you my opinion, but it will be an opinion based on 25 years of professional writing experience, of mistakes made, lessons learned, and goals achieved. This auction will be your chance to draw on that experience.



I look forward to reading your novel and doing what I can to help you achieve your goals.

Clickety-Click!
Bid Now

In Praise of Younger Men

As practitioners of textnovelling, the Divas are riding a new technological trend, but we seem to be part of a storyline trend as well. Two of our entries in the Dorchester/Textnovel America's Next Best Celler contest– Liane Gentry Skye’s Muse Struck and my Confessions of the World’s Oldest Shotgun Bride – involve romances between older women and younger men. And as it happens, two of this season’s new sitcoms plow those same, sometimes fertile (pun intended) fields. Descriptions from the network websites:

Accidentally on Purpose (CBS) - Billie is a successful 30-something movie critic living in San Francisco who’s just broken up with her commitment-phobic boyfriend. She ends up rebounding with a much younger man, Zack, who at 22 is just starting out on his career as a chef. Billie and Zack’s fling takes a serious turn when Billie discovers she is pregnant. Not knowing what the future has in store for her, Billie decides to keep the baby and raise it by herself if necessary. However, Zack decides to move in and help Billie with the baby. None of this sits too well with her ex, who tries to win her back, only to discover that she’s now very involved with Zack. Jenna Elfmann plays Billie.

Cougar Town (ABC) - Jules is a single mom in her 40s with a teenage son and a 20-something assistant. After Jules sees her recently divorced neighbor escorting a young conquest to a waiting cab, she confronts him about the double-standard people have when it comes to divorced men and women dating younger. He responds that Jules is just jealous because she couldn’t get a young stud if she tried. So Jules goes out to a bar with her assistant and meets a hot young guy, who later shows up on her doorstep. When the hottie lets his intentions be known, Jules is happy to go along. She’s excited about how the night has turned out until her son comes home early and walks in on her and the hottie during…well, let’s just say the next morning he’s uncomfortable seeing his mother about to eat a banana for breakfast. Courtney Cox stars as Jules.

I was curious about Accidentally because the basic storyline is similar to Confessions. I only saw about the last ten minutes of the pilot, but I have to say, in my humble opinion, Steve beats Zack all to hell in the hero department. Zack has a lot of growing up to do before he’ll make Billie a good mate. And I haven’t seen Cougar Town yet. But whether these shows have been executed well or poorly, the mere fact that they made it onto the air, with proven talent in the starring roles, tells me that the network suits think the public is ready for OW/YM stories. I’ll drink to that!