writing — Page 3

March 29, 2017 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

Hauntings and Finding “The Livi”

[Wherein you’re going to find writery thoughts and a novella announcement (buried at the bottom)…]

I really struggled after finishing Oblivion (a year ago April) to write, well, just about anything.

It wasn’t merely that the book took so damn much from me mentally, emotionally, and even physically (seriously, you think it hurt your heart? I barely have one left). I got a few words in on multiple projects but didn’t finish anything–for-pay writing fell by the wayside entirely, much to the sadness of my bank account–and chronic, debilitating depression made everything damn near impossible.

Depression is not to ever be romanticized for a creator; when you’re having trouble with the very basics of self-care (I don’t eat because I don’t have the spoons for cooking, or washing the dishes piled up to cook in; my hair is a tangled mess; anything outside of caring for my pets just doesn’t happen; every task takes me ten times as long to do), it’s impossible to write. Wanting to not be alive all the time is not conductive to creativity. And as much as I need the time off to clear my head and try to get better, that isn’t happening (newsflash: depression is expensive as fuck, buying pre-prepared meals and work taking longer to do). Writing just hasn’t been happening and publishing is a frustrating nightmare–it is, quite honestly, only my commitment to Patrons of Snark (who buy my monthly meds) that have kept me from deleting all my books from online sellers and nuking my website from existence.

And when writing stops, it’s like breathing stops–I lose my primary coping mechanism, the one thing that keeps me wanting to be alive, and everything becomes that much harder. I did get some revisions done, though–Oblivion came out in August, Solomon’s Seal in September, and Odin’s Spear in February–it was just new projects that were suffering.

Writing Resist in January helped tremendously; although it’s just 6K words, at least it was something I’d started and finished, and had a lot of fun with. Even getting a for-pay book done in February helped too, but the sheer size of a Livi novel (usually 105K-ish) was daunting. I have struggled with her third book for over a year now; it’s presently sitting at 17K, and I know I’ve been missing some component that would let it start flowing, but damned if I could figure out what.

A couple of pieces recently clicked, however, and while I’m not there yet, I think it’ll ultimately help.

The first was me lamenting how my writing productivity changed after being sick three years ago. Being sick meant everything became about illness and the stories went quiet, and while they came back, it hasn’t been quite the same. I am tremendously hard on myself and have a lot of difficulty accepting I’m different now, that I don’t have the same endurance, nor the tolerance for stress that I used to. Bad Horse pointed out that sometimes you have to reframe; writing came become richer, deeper, and you have to budget more mental time and emotional energy before you get to the writing part (which is entirely true–I am not a pantser like I used to be, at least not for most stories, and what I write requires more time to simmer in my head). Writing Livi #4 (look, I thought it was #3 at the time) a few years ago was one of the best writing experiences I’d had, but then I’d lived with that story arc in my head for years prior. That is not true with the book I’m struggling with now, which I only belatedly realized needed to be in the series and has to be worked into the overall arc.

The second piece came from the Livi novella I just finished, and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer 20th anniversary celebration.

Let me back up for a second.

So as I said, a full Livi novel was incredibly daunting to me. I’d tried (and failed) to write a couple of haunting stories lately, but why not throw a ghost in Livi’s world? After writing Zara’s short Resist, I thought I’d write a short story–maybe 10K or so–as something fun for Patreon supporters.

But Livi doesn’t do “short”, as should be evident by her novels.

The more I got writing, though, the more I felt like I was missing something. And I realized my biggest problem was that I hadn’t found “the Livi” of the piece yet.

This is a writing lesson I picked up from Buffy years ago, and all the recent interviews have brought it to the forefront of my mind again. One of the reason their Monster of the Week stories often worked far better than procedurals typically do is because the core question was always: “What is ‘the Buffy’ of this?” What is the emotional hook with Buffy, how does this reflect and connect with her–that’s the part that resonates with viewers. Those stories were always broken backwards, starting with the emotional moment–“the Buffy” of the piece–and then working from there (which is how I’ve written most of my life as well).

The Livi books have all had me know right off the bat what “the Livi” is in them. Solomon’s Seal doesn’t work without her need for financial freedom and desire to return to what she once had, which is parallel to the villain’s need for freedom in many ways. Odin’s Spear doesn’t work without the contrast of Oliver Talbot’s treatment of his daughter and Amy Gordon’s devotion to her son, nor Livi’s war with the complicated emotions she enters the novel with and Reed Gordon’s submission to what he feels is humanity’s true nature. (Shiva’s Bow, #4, is about trust; #5 is about the consequences of betrayal–and it goes on from there).

I am not the type of writer who can just write something fun and throwaway; characters need to grow and change in everything, there has to be meaning to what I write. Likewise Livi is not the type of character who can be in a story she’s not emotionally connected to (girl is busy; she ain’t got time for that).

The Livi novella I was writing finally had its “click” moment when I realized what emotional hook I needed for Livi–what her story there was once everything plot-wise was stripped away, what ghosts were truly haunting her below the surface story. Once I had that, the story took over, and I wrote 10K in a day last week to finish it off (for about 37K total–see, I don’t do short stories).

Now, I grant that afterward I could literally feel the holes in my brain, and it took two days of eating really carb-heavy foods before my brain felt repaired. But for the first time in months, I felt fantastic. I slept better, my mood was better, I got some basic household chores done. Again, it was like I was breathing after a lengthy period being stuck underwater.

Of course now my lungs feel like they’re going to burst again, so I’ve pulled out Livi #3. I know several of the tent pole moments, I know some of “the Livi”, but clearly this piece needs a bit more time simmering, and I have to give myself permission to do that, to accept that just because I’m not physically writing doesn’t mean I’m not laying the groundwork for the later writing. I have no idea when it’ll get written–hopefully by the end of the year, and btw buy my books or join Patreon so I can hopefully ease back on freelance a bit, ‘kay?–but Jeebus, I hope I’m finally on the path to it.

What does this all mean for readers?

A new Livi novella is coming soon!

It’s nearly 35% the length of one of her books, so a substantial chunk of reading material. I’m doing a dual novella release with my friend Dina James–our two different takes on hauntings–late spring/early summer, and then it’ll be available as a single release in the fall. Given the length, I’m going to also serialize it for all Patrons of Snark over three months or so once I have it back from my beta.

Here’s the rough jacket copy:

Four months ago, Livi Talbot successfully killed the afreet who abducted her family and tried to murder her. Then she took over his villa and made it her base of operations/home, as any respectable treasure hunter in need of better digs is wont to do.

But this house is haunted, and she’s starting to think the ancient murderer she used the Seal of Solomon to destroy might not be entirely dead after all. Deep in the bowels of her home, something dark is dwelling, gathering strength by the day, threatening not only Livi’s safety but possibly her very sanity.

It takes place a few months after Odin’s Spear (and a couple week’s prior to Zheng’s Tomb, Livi #3), so it’s officially Livi #2.5. I’ve posted an excerpt for Patrons of Snark, and little teasers at Alchemy Red. I’m hoping to have pre-order figured out and a cover reveal next month sometime.

So I go back to freelancing for the day and let the book simmer (of course, it’s Livi #9 in my head at the moment–not a typo, I’ve warned you it’s a ten-book series), and quietly hope to go visiting the Qin Shi Huang’s tomb and battle terracotta soldiers brought to life soon.

(Also, FYI, I’ll probably leave Solomon’s Seal freebie sample on instaFreebie for another month, so if you want to try before you buy, now’s the time to grab it.)

February 8, 2017 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

The Myth of the “Writing Police”

So FYI: there are no writing police. There are readers. And if you want their time and money (and, like, actually care about people, but let’s try to play on your sense of career-preservation), you have to make an effort to not harm them with what you write.

That’s the short version. The long version is that as people (rightly) grow more vocal about the way they are portrayed in books, you’d better start caring more about what you put out in the world. If representation furthers stereotypes, that is actively harmful to groups as a whole. You probably should not harm people, I am pretty sure that’s Humaning 101. So what does a writer do when she wants to be accurate in what she writes? She hires an expert. In this case, they are often called “sensitivity readers”, but make no mistake, you are paying for expertise.

Now, I am addressing this post specifically to white women writers because a. I am one of you, so maybe you’ll listen to me, and b. I am continually fucking baffled by how this is such a difficult concept for us.

White women writers: you have read a book by a male writer who couldn’t write female characters. All of you have at some point in your life. Female characters with no nuance, who were either a virgin or a whore, who had no agency, no complexity, and existed solely as props. Or an entirely male cast with women completely erased from existence. Every. Single. Woman. Has. You read those books and you didn’t understand how that male writer could get it so wrong. You didn’t understand how he saw women that way. You saw how that portrayal echoed how women were seen outside of fiction as well, which threw so many more barriers in front of you. You silently seethed and said, “My god, if he’d just found a woman to read his fucking book that could’ve been corrected before it even got to the reader!”

Congratulations: you just wished that male writer had a sensitivity reader. Or an editor who had the sense to point out the misogyny or sexism in the book. Or that the male writer had actually spent time around women, listening to women, and attempted to understand their perspective.

If you have any area in your life where your experience is considered “other”, where you are marginalized or outside of the default perspective, you should understand this concept.

Here’s an example from my own experience: some years ago I read a well-praised book that had a bipolar secondary character that was wrong on just about every level I could think of. The writer got the medication wrong. She got the symptoms wrong. She treated this character–whose illness is a real thing that kills 15% of the people like me who have it–as a prop for the plot, victimized and brutally cast aside at the end.

There’s this notion that if something “offends” you, the problem is you, and you should get over it, but the problem is that it ignores what “offends” really means, and that is: harms. That book harmed me by furthering stereotypes and the stigmatization of my illness. It told non-bipolar readers that people like me are irrational, clingy, violent, and hurt others. Every bipolar person who read that book was reminded that it’s that much harder to speak up about their illness, to let friends and family know what it’s like for them, and encouraged them to see themselves as damaged, useless props in someone else’s story.

That writer could’ve reached out to people with the disorder and psychologists. Or even quietly read the blogs and forum posts of others to get a sense of what stereotypes are out there and avoid them. The editor could’ve said, “Maybe you should double check your research here.” But no one did, and that book made it into my hands, and I was sickened by it.

If you can understand that, if you can understand the frustration when you’ve read books by male writers with shit female characters, then it shouldn’t be a stretch for you to understand what people of colour, trans people, gay/lesbian and bisexual people, disabled people, fat people, are all saying. No one is policing anyone else’s writing. But when you write a book that misrepresents or entirely erases people (and yes, erase is just as political as inclusion), your readers–your audience, your customers, the people you expect to pay your bills–are going to speak up about that. And all anyone is asking for is for you to do your fucking research. (And if you think THIS is policing your writing? My god, try writing about guns and watch out when a gun nut reads your book.)

When you are writing outside your experience, and someone with that lived experience reads it, they are going to probably say things that make you uncomfortable, and you want to avoid that discomfort. I get that–most of us like to avoid discomfort. But that discomfort pales in comparison to actually being harmed. It also sucks when we get edits back and find out the plot jumped the shark, the grammar is an assault on the English language, and the main character’s name changes three times, but as writers who want to put out the best book possible, we swallow our pride and go to work fixing that stuff. You pay experts to help you see and fill in your blindspots–they’re not the fucking police, whether they’re a content editor, a Latin expert, or POC checking your rep of African Americans.

Do you want to be like that oblivious male writer who thinks he knows everything but actually wrote a shit book filled with shoddy characterization? No? Then do the things you wish he’d done to improve the representation of people like you in his book.

And maybe start by realizing you are not actually the victim here.

No one is going to arrest you because you wrote harmful stereotypes and lazy cliches about real people, however, there are consequences for it. That is not the same as policing you; it’s your audience exercising their rights to both have an opinion and express it as well as potentially not buy your book.

You have a hell of a lot of power as a writer. So what are you going to chose to do with it?

September 20, 2016 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

SOLOMON’S SEAL Releases!

Here it is! At last!

I really love this book and I’m happy it’s finally out there. I hope you check it out and dig it.

EX-DEBUTANTE. SINGLE MOTHER. TREASURE HUNTER.

Disowned and left penniless for getting pregnant at seventeen, former celebutante Olivia Talbot was willing to do whatever it took to provide for her daughter…including become a treasure hunter. Since the Pulse hit, activating relics of legend, there are plenty of artifacts to be had—not to mention wealthy clients willing to pay top dollar for them.

Just as her daughter’s private school tuition cheque bounces, Livi gets an offer that could be the break she needs to return to some semblance of her former life. A potential new client wants her to travel to Ethiopia and retrieve the Seal of Solomon—a mythical ring said to control demons and djinn—and this bounty comes with one hell of a financial pay off.

The deadline: a week. The team: unreliable. The competition: her world-renowned archaeologist older brother. Nothing Livi can’t handle… Except the danger goes beyond a few subterranean serpent-dragons she might encounter or tangling with her employer’s deadly second-in-command. This client isn’t all he seems, and handing him the ring might be worse than what he’ll do to her—and her daughter—if she doesn’t.

“Whip-smart, gritty, and fascinating. Olivia Talbot is a badass, and a mother, I’d want on my side if the world went to hell. Skyla Dawn Cameron’s deft characterization, complex plotting, and brutal action leaves the reader gasping for more.”
–Lilith Saintcrow, New York Times Bestselling Author

“It’s well written with a balanced blend of humor and adventure you can’t deny is spellbinding.”
–My World…in words and pages

If you’re into soundtracks, here’s this book’s.

Melissa of My World…in words and pages has the full review up today here and a guest post from me about Livi called DNA of a Hero.

And..that’s pretty much it. I won’t be doing any Amazon freebies like when I re-launched the Demons of Oblivion series–Solomon’s Seal is basically relying on word of mouth. If you enjoy the book, please consider telling a friend (or leaving a review, or sacrificing a virgin to the elder gods).

Tomorrow is my birthday and party for the book (in the event you’re in the area).

Odin’s Spear comes early 2017! Revisions are in progress now and I’m hoping to have them all done next month as I’m diving into writing the third book in November.

April 23, 2016 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

“When’s That Book Coming?” Spring 2016 Edition

State of the Union time, boys and ghouls.

What I’m Working On

I squirreled away my pennies so I could take April off to focus on Oblivion. Of course that’s gone about as well as expected, but I anticipate finishing a very bare bones zero draft by the end of next week. It’s going to need a lot of fleshing out (like, I’m 70% through it and I’ve skipped about 10K worth of scenes), which I hope to do throughout May, and I’ll need to schedule time with my beta and copyeditor, but I’m looking to release it late this summer.

When it’s done, I have to finish a for-pay project, but then I’ll likely be working on Zheng’s Tomb, which I’m about 13K words into. I’m also playing with a fun comedic crime novel called Trix Moody that I’ll tell you about sometime if it ever actually goes anywhere.

What’s Upcoming

Oblivion

Obv. More below.

New Series

As I’ve been hinting for a few months now (and previously told Patrons of Snark), September 20 will see the release of the first in a new series: Solomon’s Seal.

For the Livi Talbot books, think Tomb Raider meets Gilmore Girls in a mix of urban fantasy and adventure. SS will be up for pre-order in June. The cover is done but I’m awaiting the review quote for the front before previewing it along with rewriting the jacket copy, so look for that stuff later this summer when I have time to poke at it.

I’ll go into more detail about the series later, as right now I want to keep the focus gearing up for Oblivion, but atm I’ll say the Livi Talbot series is nine to ten books. At this point, I’m going to commit to publishing the first three. Other than something brief in the first one, there are no cliffhangers, so I won’t leave anyone hanging if my stress level gets too high and I decide to stop publishing them. (If sales are poor and piracy is high, I don’t want to quit with a cliffhanger and leave readers frustrated.) So three books to see how they do, each book with a resolution and nothing hanging. Beyond that, we’ll see. The goal is to release them three to six months apart–I have a workable third draft of Odin’s Spear done as a follow up to Solomon’s Seal that just needs a bit more smoothing out.

Wolfe

For Wolfe, it’s moved to next year. It was either work on those rewrites or work on Oblivion, and so I put it off. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Haunted

The novella Haunted is also backburnered. I just have too much on my plate with my books, for-pay writing projects, and re-releasing Aunt Judy’s books. I’ll see if I have time to rewrite it next year.

Heaven’s Choice

I also wanted to finish Heaven’s Choice, the prequel novella, before Oblivion but I’ve had to backburner it too. It was getting really long–Heaven’s quite a talker, probably as punishment for killing her–and I might save it for later when I feel like revisiting the series. If that changes, I’ll let everyone know.

Now for the questions…

Everything You Wanted to Know About Oblivion (But Were Afraid to Ask)

Release date? August 2016 (tentatively)

Pre-order? May or June

Availability? Everywhere ebooks are sold: Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks, GooglePlay, ARe/Omnit Lit, direct, Smashwords, etc. Paperback on Amazon.

Length? About 90K words when all is said and done (around the length of Bloodlines).

Narrators? Peri and Mishka primarily. There are brief one-shots between Peri and Mishka’s sections featuring the other characters so most fan favourites get some “screen” time.

Is this the last book? Yes. No, it wasn’t supposed to be, but I’m done; my heart can’t take having another Zara book pirated given how much she means to me. I am actually looking forward to writing the next arc of books just for me. I might put them out in paperback eventually, I don’t know–the cost of stock and editing might be more than I can invest. For all intents and purposes, though, this is it.

Happily ever after? Oh AHAHAHA, sweetheart. I am not the writer for you if HEAs are requisite for your reading material. There’s closure to the arc, however it’s a painful book on a lot of levels and I expect it to get some hate.

But Zara and Nate— No, just don’t even with me. I’m not a romance writer. They are not the focus of the plot.

Additional short story at the end? Nope. I always used those to set up future books in the series. That would just be cruel this time.

Deleted scenes? I had to rewrite so much early on, yes, there’ll likely be some. I’ll post them at www.zaralain.com when the book releases. There were a few Peri scenes cut from the beginning that I loved but couldn’t use anymore.

Can I have a review copy? No. I am not touring or offering books for review or anything else, the stress is not good for me. People who took previous books didn’t bother with the fourth one and hated the third, so I’m certainly not handing out the fifth. It’ll be $4.99 in ebook or $11.49 in print, like the others. Some Patrons of Snark get ARCs. If you read it and enjoy it, and want to leave a review, I thank you. But I don’t have the spoons for pursuing reviews.

Will you have signed copies in your online shop? Yep!

Who dies? Everyone!*

Can I catch previews or excerpts? I’ve posted some for Patrons of Snark (and owe them another this month) and members of Alchemy Red on Facebook can sometimes catch others.

Does it have a soundtrack? Yep! I’ll be resuming Soundtrack Sunday with both Oblivion and Solomon’s Seal later. For now, here are my top four Oblivion tunes on repeat:

So that’s it for now. Hopefully some pre-order links next month–I’ll post when it’s all settled. Back to writing this damn book now.

*Not everyone. Probably.

September 16, 2015 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

Quick Oblivion Update

So as FB and Twitter followers know, I’ve been poking at Oblivion. I’m about a quarter of the way through. Sometimes pages fly by, other times I have to pluck each and every word from my brain (it’s as painful as it sounds). The structure’s worked out, though, and the big tent pole moments have mostly been figured out, and I know how it ends. I’m also ensuring even Ryann and Zara get small sections, so everyone gets their moment with the reader, and a solid epilogue.*

A couple of brief teasers have been posted at Alchemy Red–it’s a closed group but anyone’s free to join, so please check it out if you’re so inclined and would like to connect with other readers.

I’ve also just posted a couple of chapters (about fourteen pages) for Patrons of Snark, if you want to catch up with Mishka and get a peek at Oblivion. I’ll look at posting more snippets there as I can (in lieu of working on Amends right now).

There is also the ZaraLain.com domain I finally have running as a series hub. It’s still in progress and I’ll be adding some desktop wallpaper featuring the cover art and that. If you think of anything else I should add, just let me know.

I know some of you have been waiting for this book for three years now. I’m sorry for the delay but I’m hoping the kinks are worked out and this will happen tentatively next spring. Once a draft is complete and I’ve worked out a schedule with my beta and my copyeditor, I’ll set a date and get the book up for pre-order. I’m also looking at finishing Heaven’s Choice and releasing that a little ahead of time to lead into Oblivion.

I appreciate your patience and understanding, and for not yelling at me, and hope to hell I can pull this damn book off.

* I was going to warn that I am not even trying to make this book easy to follow if you’ve skipped the other books, but I’m pretty sure anyone who skipped Hunter/Lineage isn’t reading for the plot and won’t bother with the series conclusion anyway. For loyal readers, though, I’m hoping Zara and Nate will have at least a single moment appropriate for them and the story as thanks for sticking with the series.

Hauntings and Finding “The Livi”

The Myth of the “Writing Police”

SOLOMON’S SEAL Releases!