Sucks me in EVERY time….

I’m in edit mode.

(Run, hide, now…it makes me grrry….no, not really. Kidding, kind of….maybe not.) Psycho much in our house???

I finally decided to focus on the editorial comments from Laurin Wittig (she was a great recommendation from a fellow writer, JT Bock, and author, JA Konrath) – it’s been a while (a long while), and I’ve been a little busy with CatKlaw and paying the bills. Or as the case may be, paying OFF some bills. Pffft. Gotta love how life tangles you up in confusion and reality. And yes, I’m all about responsiblity….just dare to ask what I did in the last month to make sure things were caught up. And yes, I was avoiding the comment…call me an ostrich…

Although, probably not wise to do so to my face, I might, must might, kick you

Cat will say I wasn’t paying attention to the family enough. And, I’m sure I wasn’t….blah. Our VA Beach vacation sucked for me, I was working. Booo.

Now, let me explain. I get paid to edit documents…technical and sales materials.

That’s my JOB, and I’m damn good at it. I may be a freelancer, but I have steady work, thank the universe, and I enjoy what I do, even though I might curse and WHEN those hours happen.

I am not being egotistical about it, I’m being truthful. I worked my tail off to make sure I had a business focus that would support my creative bent. God bless my mother.

Thanks to the whimsical nature of publishing and the music industry, you can see my reasoning. (Point in case, Charlaine Harris wrote the Sookie books..what we all know now as True Blood… TEN YEARS AGO…) See, there’s logic there. I promise. Combine the business writing craziness with insane deadlines…people pay me good money to work on their proposals. Hell, I even enjoy it (see, I must be insane and I should add…most times I do enjoy it LOL.) I am NOT counting Stephanie Meyers amazing results OR JK Rowling’s work…both were a true, phenomenon in our society.

However, when focused on my fiction writing, I have a different (contrary) view than the industry norm on paying someone to go through and edit/read my material. My reasoning?

One, I consider writing a learning process. I paid my college professors, correct? And, I learned something. I paid for classes to teach me how to write and manage proposals, yes? Yes. I continually pay other writers who lead workshops or teach classes to help me learn. RWA and Candace Havens have some GREAT classes. Candy’s are FREE (mostly) ….if you don’t sign up for them…you and me…dark alley. Bring it.

Why is paying an editor….a GOOD editor, different?

This is so far off the recommended path, turn back now if you don’t want to hear it.

If they’re not out to make money on my story, but offering a service for a fee (teaching me something…and I learn…key is LEARN) then by all means, pay the editor. Especially if you don’t have the time/inclination to deal with the arbitrary contest responses (I’ve had great scores and wtf I don’t understand responses…makes a writer nutty) and crit group responses. And yes, I actually review works for contests…I just try to review as a reader and a professor.

As for critique groups? It is very hard to build a GOOD crit group. For the record, I love my dispersed group, we are all over the world, but we’re all learning and none ‘published’ (Cat no offense, I’ve never sent you my work to read nor vice verse, not that I wouldn’t LOVE to share!)

It takes time.

I’ll write another post on THAT, later. (Suffice to say there is an art to being in a crit group that so many have not learned.) I have had more than enough of both. And, I don’t have the time to get out and meet weekly with a crit group like I used to, damn, I wished I did. But husband, child, work, training,…and writing…no way, no how. Our Sparkling Hearts group gets together at least once a month to have lunch and encourage each other.

For my Fiction now?

Now, I want a professional opinion, someone published,…and I paid for it. It’s not like the agents I’ve been querying or the publishers have had the time to offer me anything other than their standards rejections. I understand that. They are overwhelmed and not knocking them for that. They only get paid on the stories they accept and sell. I get that and would be the same way if I were in their shoes based on the current model.

I believe in my series. So, with Phyxe, I paid Laurin for her time and expertise to highlight where I needed to focus, where the gaps were,..where my challenges were. She was DEAD ON. I’m working on those edits now…crafting and honing a better story. Will I look for an agent? Maybe….or..will I? I still have my team….I read their stuff (awesome ideas) and they read my stuff (drivel but improving). We encourage and help each other…that’s our JOB. I’ll likely look for an agent the same reason JA Konrath has one, to negotiate rights.

Question for you…if you REALLY believed in your writing & skills…would you go out of your way to pay a professional editor to look over your work? Or do you just expect, you send it off, it’s glorious and the agent/publisher accept it?

Honestly, pay up front, like you would for a class, to get feedback…or wait, and wait, and wait some more to get a “thank you but you don’t fit what we’re looking for.” I don’t knock that…it means I have not done my JOB in writing the best damn story I can.

So, more work. Deal.

I’m about improving my skills and telling the story. What are you about?

Two, with digital publishing…I can pay a GREAT editor to review my work, rework it, …and then go format it for Amazon or Smashwords. If I price my book at least at $2.99, I net 70% of the cover price. (Go check out JA Konrath‘s in depth focus on digital publishing. Seriously. Do it now.) The key is…WRITE A GOOD BOOK. And, hello, pay a good editor to review you and a good illustrator to make a GREAT cover. And, learn everything you can about marketing it all. You’d be marketing it anyway if a print publisher picked you up. And, I can publish both fiction and non-fiction. My NF is doing GREAT!.

Both reasons have been the best money I’ve spent in my writing evolution. We won’t count the few college classes during my MASTER’s program that really hit home.

Why all this? Because I wasn’t looking to for my (paid) editor or (paid) illustrator to publish the story or represent me.

I respect their time and I believe in my skills and talent. My editor? She’s a busy, PUBLISHED author and goes out of her way to closely review each and every manuscript that she signs up to look at. She doesn’t offer comments like “this doesn’t work for me” – you get comments, helpful suggestions, and years of experience. My illustrator? She’s working freelance, writing and illustrating. We’re all in this together. Will they love it if I succeed? Hell yes. They’ll get acknowledgments and kudos, which will only lead to paying work for them. One of the BEST forms of advertising, genuine referrals.

Move outside the realm of current reality.

Make it happen. And hello, reach outside the current mind set of ‘this is how it works and this is how you make money’. Be willing to think outside the box. It’s working for so many authors. Make it work for you…keep learning, keep changing…KEEP WRITING.

And seriously, if it isn’t working for you? You’re not working HARD enough to perfect your craft in the current age. Do I want an agent? Yes. Will I continue to query agents? Yes.

Will I publish my stories when I feel they’re ready?

Hell yes.

And, I will just watch the outcome. Either people will eat them up, or they won’t. But truthfully? I started out writing for myself.

Namaste,
Sybir/Stacia

PS – Happy Birthday to me!!! We’re not having a party…and seriously, I don’t think there is a darn thing planned….drat. LOL. I should have sent out invites to come hang out. Have just been to darn busy. But as pup said…”You’re turning 27, Mommy.”

Right, for the 10th time. They’re all anniversaries after that 27th.

Hiatus…..

Ok, so I’m not NOT writing, but I am nose down on a proposal…that means I’m writing/editing off times. I finished writing Book Three, Glacial’s story. OMG, can I tell you how much that pulled out of me? I’m going back through and editing about a chapter a day. Book One is out in query mode and with at least one reviewer. I hope my reviewer tells me what’s not working in the book. I really wish the agents would stop sending me form rejections so I know what isn’t hooking them.

This is such a crazy process. I’d rather TALK one on one with some of them. Get to know them personally, let them read…tell me …ya no…you suck…come back when….

In the meantime…I keep writing, reading, adding to my capabilities…and checking in with my writing partners.

Sharing Book 3, but Not Sure About This….

One, I don’t know ANY writers who share before the book is out there…I mean REALLY. This is my baby (one of them). And in DRAFT format. But, I had a few requests…and I do love my online and virtual friends…so, here goes….be KIND. Remember, DRAFT, means NOT EDITED.

This is an excerpt from Book 3 in my Elemental Goddess Chronicles: ICED.

I am sure it needs work…I’m looking for an agent or an editor – everyday, I’m sending out more query letters…following the process with Book 1 while I edit book 2 and WRITE book 3. More importantly, I’m working on my WRITING. So, here, because a few have asked… a hint into the Goddess of Water, Glacial.

Glacial groaned. Her body protested as she tried to move. She went to move her hands…her feet…and felt locked into place. Painfully, she pried open her eyes. Shackles. She eyed them from lowered lashes. Cold hard metal bit into her back, her legs, her arms.  Whoever gave her this splitting headache might need a sound beating from one of her sisters. She hurt to badly to mesh it out herself. This being bound thing was overrated. She didn’t care what Demetri wanted to do in the future, but tying her up wasn’t high on her list.

“Taking you long enough to wake up.” A voice drawled.

Blackness flowed over her. She shivered. Her eyes cut open, hazy. She was getting used to the vision impairment, but stars, she was going to make someone blind on purpose to retaliate. Thank the stars, whoever had clothed her. She could feel the brush of cool silk against her skin. She hadn’t relished opening her eyes and finding herself naked. Really, it was the least of her worries, but somehow, that gave her a small sense of peace.

She’d shown up places worse.

“You really know how to treat a lady.” She took a deep breath and opened her eyes fully. Her gaze, cleared, immediately landed on the semi naked man in front of her. Black pants, bare, heavily, angrily tattooed chest. Oh, someone was not a happy soul. His hand played with a symbol, a necklace. Her eyes trailed up…dark eyes…dark hair.

“You.” Shock swept through her.

A dark eyebrow twitched at her. His jaw strong and locked, an eyebrow raised at her, insanity swirling in his eyes. Rais…demon. The one who’d trapped Phyxe. But he was not the God of Chaos. She didn’t sense that kind of instability. She got his instability, but the energetic threads were wrong somehow. His felt contained, trapped. The man before her was very stable, very focused, normally. She could see the threads. And then, they halted. What was wrong with him?

“Yes, me.” He moved closer as if enthralled. “You are not afraid.”

“I am not. You cannot harm me. Just contain me…for a while.” Glacial smiled, realizing it was true. And the sudden realization swept over her that this demon was just as trapped as she was. While she didn’t want to have to resurrect…she would do so. Demetri had already lives thousands of years. She would find him again if she needed to.

“Contain. Interesting term.” He drew closer. His eyes were a little wild. He leaned closer, the necklace dangled…and Glacial noted the emblem. Chaos.

He was just as trapped as she was.

Her eyes darted up to his. Wildness strived to balance.

“Interesting dance, Demon lord.” She whispered, glancing at his necklace. Then she let her eyes raise to his.

“Yes. We all bow to a higher power, don’t we?” A wicked smile crossed his face, but a panic, awareness, swirled in his eyes before being tramped down. He moved closer, his lips near her ear. “He can hear everywhere. I will not harm you if I can. But I cannot promise.”

Glacial turned her head, her lips near his ear, “Do what you need to do to survive. We are pawns right now. We will resurrect you if need be.”

“Thank you, lady.” He whispered before drawing back, chaos in his eyes. “You will remain here until we destroy New Earth.”

Panic flared, even with his recent words. NO! Demetri! “You cannot destroy New Earth!”

“We can and we will.” Rais tilted his head. His jaw tightened. The only panic flaring in his eyes. “The MarsSook have done less to other planets. This one needs a lesson…and there are so many who can be sold.”

Glacial frosted over. Ice stole over her skin. She could not allow the destruction of New Earth. While she longed to set Demetri’s sister Ilysa on her ass, she would not condone the destruction of an entire planet she shared with Gaian for nothing more than housing her.

Ice extended from her to the chair. A crystal shell formed around her. She watched as Rais turned a shocked, but somehow happy gaze on her. The ice reached out and began to seep down into the metal around her.

She felt the whisper flow over her, “Fight it. Goddess, because you and your sisters might be my only hope.”

I don’t normally share…but here it is…I have been writing since I was in the 2nd grade. God bless my mother, I still have that first story. And that was tonight’s writing… in the raw.

Wiki For Writers – What’s a Wiki?

First off. BAD SYBIR. I should be posting at least 2x a week. My excuse? I’ve been WRITING! Yes, you heard me. I’ve been hard at work on Book 3 of the Elemental Goddess Series and Lady Glacial, Goddess of Water has been making me work for my 20 pages a day goal. Now, some days I make that goals, some days I don’t…but at least, I’m always moving forward.

It helps that small child is back in school FT and on schedule this week. I’ve found it REALLY hard to write with iCarly going in the background. Anyone wonder why?

Back to writing….Candace Havens is running an online workshop called “Fast Draft” and oh, by the way, only a few more days to visit your local bookstore and snag TAKE ME IF YOU DARE. (Hot contemporary…you will love it.) She’s teaching us, pretty much in the style of Nanowrimo to shut your internal editor up and just write.

Something I truly needed with this book because it started out soooo hard to begin with.

But the object of this post was not Fast Drafts, I just wanted to give you some insight as to how I reached this next step. By being on book 3, some of the timelines, world-building and histories are starting to blend together in my mind. I need some way to track it OTHER THAN PAPER….and some way to quickly search it (MS is failing miserably in the helpful realm here). So, Scrivener, as I’ve mentioned before (and now converted most of my writer friends to) is a big help…but not across books. i.e., world-building. (Of course I may be wrong, I’m STILL learning things about the software!)

Enter a post from my friend Charles at Celtic Wolf. He was blogging about Wikis. Now, if you don’t know Wikipedia (you’re not living online like the rest of us ) – it is pretty much a user built online encyclopedia. I was reading 1) because he sent me the link and asked me to read and 2) because once I was reading I kept thinking, how can I use this?

And then, lightbulb! Dokuwiki can be set to PRIVATE….I could keep track of my goddesses, my planets, my alien races, my mythology, EVERYTHING behind a secure log in and really help myself not lose my readers OR myself. Hot Damn! Now, you do have to be a little tech savvy to know what to do like uploading it to your webserver and then setting it up…and the creation of a new page isn’t right there in your face, but the documentation is very straight forward.

It took me about 10 minutes, not counting waiting for the files to upload.

And now? Now, I can keep track of my worlds, search on them, have it all online so I can reach it from wherever I am. So yes, I may be bad Sybir for not posting, but really, when I find gems like this to share??

Feng Shui, Creativity & Snow Storms Oh My

Peaceful Snowpocolypse for the Kelly Family

While mother nature is beautiful in her blanketing of the area with pristine whiteness (at least until the plowing takes over), after round three of this I can safely say that

1. we’re quite capable of surviving, digging out and driving now and
2. we’re definitely over her sharing of it all. (And if I hear one word of fussing this summer about not having enough water, I may have to hurt someone.)

I figured I’d share a quick video of the sheer quiet of our yard during that last storm and sorry to my neighbor, I got his house in the picture….beautiful house. Sorry, Dave! Turn up your volume to hear the windchimes and the sound of snow landing on more snow.

So, what did WE decided to do in the evening hours last night?

Feng Shui the office. Yes, Yes, you heard me right. Nick decided that my desire from a few weeks ago to rearrange the office for better energy flow would be best taken care of last night. My desk was in the knowledge/self help sector, which just explains SO much, doesn’t it? Pup’s was in family and creativity. We switched. And I think my family all breathed a collective sigh of relief at that one. (I’m the degree collector ) How did it all work out?

1. Travel Corner – placed some fun travel items like my Eiffel Tower sculpture, a bottle of sand from Bermuda, a French book, our stamps and postage meter and the TV.
2. Career/LifePath – need something for to go over the double wide entry – although, it does feel like there’s more movement since the entry is now completely open.
3. Knowledge/Self Help – Pup’s Desk.
4. Health/Family/Community – bookcase of Health & Wellness Books plus some family pictures and the phone and some H&W knickknacks.
5. Wealth/Abundance/Prosperity – another bookcase of Self Help and Finance books.
6. Fame/Reputation – Nick’s desk remains. We figured it was doing just fine there.
7. My desk now takes over 2 sectors 1) Relationships/Love/Marriage and 2) Creativity/Children/Projects
8. He & I meet in the middle of the room creating a nice balance.

And if any of that makes zero sense to you? There’s a great map here. Turn the map so the Career block side is the point of entry. Do I believe in Feng Shui and the power it can help to impart? Well, the jury is still out. But I do know that my subconscious is picking up the visual clues now every time I look around the room. And really, isn’t that the point? Reinforcement of goals? What do you think of the art of arranging a room to help your creativity?

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