Dudes!! It’s out next Tuesday!

With all the fun of Halloween and then the freebies for BLACK MAGIC SANCTION coming in, I have not yet had the chance to crow about the mass market of WHITE WITCH, BLACK CURSE hitting the shelves in time for the big Thanksgiving shopping day!  I know that a lot of you have been patiently waiting for the mass market, and it’s finally almost OUT!  Just look for the same fabulous artwork they used for the hard cover.  Oh, and if you’ve already read it, you might want to take a quick look in the back.  There is no short story this year, but there is a 1/2 chapter teaser for BLACK MAGIC SANCTION.  (grin) 

Happy Friday, everyone!  I probably won’t be baking.  I’m hitting the stores early because, frankly, I hide on post-Thanksgiving Day shopping.  Mmmm.

–Kim

BLACK MAGIC SANCTION freebies

The freebies for BLACK MAGIC SANCTION are in!!!  OMGosh, they are so friggen cool this year, I can hardly stand it.  Keeping in mind that Guy and I have been brainstorming, sketching, contacting, arranging, agreeing, tweaking, discarding, adjusting, pleading, and finally, dancing for about eight months to create these things from scratch, I am pleased to give you the BLACK MAGIC SANCTION freebie for the price of a Self-Addressed-Stamped-Envelope.  This one is kind of heavy, so it’s going to need 62 cents worth of stamps on the SASE to return it to you, but it’s a very cool stocking stuffer for less than a dollar.  (grin, grin, grin)  Can you tell I really like these? 

Send your 62 cent return envelope to Guy at

Kim Harrison

PO Box 36653

Rock Hill, SC 29732

Non-US people need to do a little more than a SASE to get these, so please come over to the website for info on how to arrange it.

Guy is trying to dig himself out of real life right now, and orders are going out slowly, but I’ll help him with the keys so the turn around will be about two weeks.

Love, love, love these.  And, ah, no teasers other than what you can glean from the key.  (laugh)

–Kim

Finding your pace

I haven’t been to the gym for almost a year now due to a back issue that can be aggravated by comfy chairs, fast movements, and alas,  tumbling on mats.  (Still kind of angry about that, but that’s not the point of this post.)  After about five months or so of not being in the gym, besides putting on a few pounds, I realized I was feeling “old” when I got up from my chair, walked across a parking lot, or took a walk with the dogs–almost as if my body was forgetting how to function on a basic level.  Wobbling about in a parking lot like I was on high-heels scared me, so I got an elliptical a few months ago.  I liked the idea of a no-impact workout, and I figured I could spare ten mintues a day, right?

I’ve been working on it for just over two months, panting, pushing, breathing hard, trying to go as fast as I could in as short of time as I allowed myself.  It was kind of fun.  (Me? Competive?  Naaaah.) and there were some clear improvement in times and distances.  It was a challenge trying to figure out where this new excercise fit into my day: morning, afternoon, or evening.  The gym had always been at night, so shifting to a morning workout was hard, but that’s where it naturally fell.  Slowly my balance improved to where it had been, and I no longer felt like I was walking funny or as if my legs didn’t know what to do.

Yesterday, though,  something deeper clicked as I worked out.  My brain and body finally got what was going on and decided to work together.  I found a slightly slower pace than I’d been pushing myself, a slightly higher resistance, and, like magic, it worked.  The huffing and puffing stopped, the achy muscles shut up, the sweat came on as the body decided to cool itself, and I could just . . . run.  Forever.  Of course I didn’t run forever, but for that time, it felt like I could.   I found my pace or zone, and I am eager to get on my elliptical today and find it again.

This is nothing new.  Athletes have been finding their pace since we were on the savanna running down prey.  The only reason I’m bringing it up now is because there is a pacing to writing, too, and it takes a lot longer than a few months to find it.  If you are having a hard time finding it, you might take a few weeks and study the other patterns in your life and see where twenty minutes a day fits in better.  Some people write better in the morning when the brain is rested, some at night with the entire day of experiences to draw upon.  Recognize what works for you, and put yourself in that place when it’s time to write.  Soon, your brain will recognize what you are trying to do, and the creativity will flow as soon as you sit down and you won’t have to struggle to find it.  Really.  I’m not kidding!  No more staring at blank pages, trying to begin.

Right now I know that a lot of you are participating in NaNoWriMo, which is like a marathon of writing.  Your natural pace is likely a lot slower, but when you find it, you can write forever–page by page, chapter by chapter, all the way to the triumphant end.

I kicked my keyboards butt yesterday, and cranked out 22 pages to make up for Monday’s no-count.  Today I am going to drop back to my more comfortable pace.  I’m exhausted!  (grin)

–Kim

Winner and a new contest for WWBC

And it’s only Tuesday!  The grand prize winner of the BLACK MAGIC SANCTION ARC is none other than Chris, dressed as the Queen of Hearts.  His photo was pulled at random from the category winners, and I am just delighted that a pre-publication copy of the next Hollows book will soon be headed his way.  To see the other contenders and catagory winners, they are all up at the website, and will stay there until after the first of the year.

There is a signed copy of WHITE WITCH, BLACK CURSE up for grabs as well at fellow author’s site, Jocelynn Drake.  She has been giving away books for over 19 weeks, and this week it’s the Hollows’s turn again!  (No pun intended)  To be in the running, jump over to her website and drop her a post.  I think it’s that easy, but check the rules.  It may be open only to US citizens due to the shipping costs.  And if you’ve never heard of Jocelynn Drake, (which would surprise me) take some time to check out her work.  Her vampires don’t sparkle.  They are mean and nasty, and I love her work.  I can’t wait to see what is going to come from this woman’s mind as she stretches her writing skills.  Start with NIGHTWALKER.  You don’t want to come into this series half-way.

Today I’m planning on kicking my keyboard’s butt.  Monday didn’t turn out so well at my desk with real life taking priority and demanding my time.  I still worked, but there is no page count.  grrrrrr.  So today, I’m fighting back.  Can you just hear the Rocky theme music?  I can.

–Kim

Costume Contest catagory winners at website

Tomorrow, I’ll have the grand prize winner for you, but I ran out of steam today after making that new page with the catagory winners on it.  Being one’s own webmistress has its pros and cons.

But as promised, here’s the cover for the next Madison book, EARLY TO DEATH, EARLY TO RISE.  I love it!  I went pursing through the YA shelves this last weekend to study the covers, and I love it even more.  It’s got the facial close up that’s very popular right now, and the broody eyes, but the cover is light and bright, like Madison’s outlook despite the trials of being dead.  Angels, not vampires, it says without words, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

I hope you all had a great weekend.  It was unseasonably warm where I live, so I divided my time between raking leaves from my garden beds and baking.  Made some cookies, two loaves of French bread so I could have sandwiches from it, and tried my hands at pretzels.  I’d never made pretzels before.  I’m going to have to practice them because they tasted great, and I want to get them looking great, too.  Fun to make.  I had to boil them for thirty seconds in baking soda water.  Very cool.

–Kim

Last day to send me your costume pictures

Today, midnight EST is the cut off to send Guy your Halloween pictures.  I’ll have the winners for  you on Monday!  Group winners get signed cover flats, and grand winner gets an ARC of BLACK MAGIC SANCTION!  I’ve got all the pictures up now, so if you don’t see yourself there and you sent me a picture, send it again.    Rules and how to submit are at the website.

For those who have been participating in NaNoWriMo, I finally have page count!  If you’ve not been to the drama box recently, I began plotting out the next Hollows book the first of the month.  (explained in previous posts in excruciating detail.)

Yesterday I finally finished my plotting and started actually writing the thing.  Taking my one page of notes on chapter one, I spent the morning writing out the dialog, then in the afternoon, I turned it into prose.  Today I’ll take my one page of notes on chapter two and do the same, and in about three to four months, I’ll have turned my 27 pages of notes into a 500 page manuscript.  I don’t usually keep track of word count, but since I know a lot of you are for NaNoWriMo, I had six pages of dialog/short action (1363 words) and turned it into 12 pages of prose (4182 words)

So what does a page of my dialog look like?  Well, I was going to show you the cover of the next Madison book today, but here’s a page from ODW instead.  This is the beginning of chapter six, page 78 in the mass market, and it’s dialog between Rachel and Marshal as she enters Carew Tower to attend a meeting with a Mr. Domo

I write dialog fast, so I just use notations for the character names, and don’t bother with punctuation, even to separate the actual dialog from the action, but since it’s only useful for a couple of hours, I can remember my intent.  And as you might have noticed, I’ve got the date in the header, which is a no-no when you submit, but I like it for my record keeping.  The title is not ODW, either.  Ley Lines don’t say “magic” to the public at large, so no Ley Lines in the finished title.  (I used it in a novella, though.  grin)

The big question some of you might be asking is why?  Why take the time to write out the dialog if you’re only going to rewrite in just a few hours?  For most genres, dialog needs to be fast give and take, especially if you are writing first-person, and this helps keep it quick.  I usually take the first page or so in a chapter to set the scene and Rachel’s mood, but after that, the balance of description vs dialog should be heavy on dialog with one-sentence or one-word reminders of setting and mood.  Work it into the action.  (Sets coffee cup in beam of sun coming into kitchen window says a lot.  Kitchen.  Day.  Breakfast.  Mood–set it down hard or soft.) Use action to the fullest.  

Different genres have different balances, and a gothic romance will have tons more description than an urban fantasy, so don’t necessarily take what I’ve said here as the end-all.  Know your genre.  Take a highligher to your favorite book and see what the author did where.  Find the patterns.

Writing out the dialog first helps me stay on track to what I want to accomplish.  I can choose to put in the description where it needs to be, not right when I think of it, and that makes the process faster.

Today, I’m hoping to get through chapter two.  It’s going to be heavier on description than the first was, but now that the main characters have been introduced, I can do that without tiring the reader or throwing too much at him or her.

Have a great weekend!  See you Monday.  I’m baking this weekend!!

–Kim

And now . . . it begins

. . . again.  (grin)  Last night, I finished breaking my 13 page synopsis into chapters, using it as a guide to write about a page of handwritten notes about each chapter, being careful to include who is in it, where to begin, and what poignant thought to end it with.  It’s here that I usually find my hook into the next chapter that gets you to turn the page instead of turn off the light and go to bed. 

There are definite no-nos when ending chapters.  Be careful ending with “I don’t know what to do.”  Never end with the main character going to bed.  Passing out occasionally is okay, and by that, once a book is almost too much.  Ending by taking a walk to clear her head is chancy. (Unless she’s thinks aloud that she’s going to talk to a neighbor about problem X.) 

I’ve found it most effective to end chapters with a thought or word that implies story movement.  “I”ve got to talk to Trent”  “Soon as I find Nick, I’m going to kick his butt”   “That’s the third body in as many days, I’m going to turn into a rat and do some investigation”  “Three, two, one, go!”  Something that teases the reader into turning the page to see what she says to Trent, how she finds Nick, or if she is indeed fury for the next 40 pages.  It’s all about pinging the readers curiosity.

So now I’ve got 27 pages of notes, I know the ending.  I can make a solid beginning that circles back to the ending.  I know the slow spot that I’m going to have to try to beef up.  I have some character growth that stems from the problems she’s dealing with, and I’ve got a way to end it that is satisfying, and yet makes you eager for the next book.  I know.  It sounds so easy the way I say it.  The hard part is finding ways to do it, and the only way you can learn to find the hooks and patterns is to practice–a lot.

Now I’ve just got to write the thing.

Today I’ll spend the morning writing out dialog, and hopefully turn it into prose in the afternoon.  Is the plotting lesson over?  (grin)  Mostly, but since I’m writing a first chapter, I’ll take some time tomorrow to tell you how an editor or agent knows how much time you’ve put in honing your craft–by simply looking at one page.   Yep.  That’s generally all it takes to decide if they will read more, or write their “Thank you, but no” letter.  Doesn’t seem fair, but if you’ve not put the time in, there are people who have, and that’s whom they want to talk to.

Puppies are sassy again, barking, not wheezing.  And tomorrow is the last day to send me your Halloween photos!  You guys really outdid yourself this year.  This is going to be hard to judge.

And on the fifth day . . .

My internet service is out, so I rested.

No, really.  My service is down, but alas, I’m not resting.  I’m going to try to keep it short today since I’m using my Verision card to get internet service, and it’s really slow out here.

It’s about day five of the plotting/outlining stage of the next Hollows book, and I’ve got my 13 page synopsis broken into ten chapters so far.  Hopefully I’ll finish the chapter breakdown today, and can start on the actual writing tomorrow.  (whoo-hoo!  I’ve got to catch up with you guys doing the NaNoWriMo!) 

So far, while using my character grid, I’ve found that I’ve got a slow spot, and I moved some things around to quicken it up.  I also named a new character, learned a few things about him, and Rachel has told me she likes him better than the guy I thought she’d be interested in.  He kind of likes her, too, or maybe he just likes the way she makes him feel.  (Be smart, Rachel.)  I’ve also learned what the story is about besides solving the crime and settling the love interest.  (By the way, it’s not settled.)  What I’m talking about here is the character growth, I suppose.  And without character growth, not only would the story be stale, but I’d be bored to tears writing it.

So today, I know what inner demon Rachel is going to slay this book–or at least come to terms with, and can work it in even at this early stage.  Previous demons?  Trust, adrenaline, her sexuality, independence.    That I’ve realized it this soon is good.  Sometimes I don’t see it until the end of the book, which goes to prove that I’m still learning my craft.  Thank all that is holy.

Tomorrow I’ll have a picture of the cover of the next Madison book, EARLY TO DEATH, EARLY TO RISE.  I’d give it to you now, but my connection is way to slow.  It’s beautiful!!!

P.S.  Puppies are okay.  They have a virus of some sort which is aggravating their throats.  Because they are kenneled often, they were previously immunized for kennel cough, but you can be sure I’ll be watching them close.  We’ve had some sheet rock work done in the house recently, and that probably isn’t helping.

–Kim

Character Grid

For those of you who haven’t been to the drama box in a few days, I’m taking the opportunity of NaNoWriMo and me just starting rough draft to detail out my plotting process.  Disclaimer:everyone writes differently, there’s no wrong way to do it.  This is what I’ve come up with over the last ten years or so, and what works for me.  It’s a process that’s still evolving.  Oh, and my word count is still zero.

Yesterday I rewrote my plot to take out the demon plotline and expand two others of crime and love.  It made a much more tidy story and I was able to dig deeper into the relationships instead of skimming over them.  My one page synopsis turned into a 13 page synopsis, casually broken into maybe-chapters.  Today I’m going to begin to break this up into clear chapters so I can better balance the entire work as to pacing, place, and characters.  I don’t want to spend too much time in the church, or be moving from place to place in any given chapter.  My rule is no more than one scene shift per chapter, and try not to stay in any one place for more than two consecutive chapters.  Same thing with characters.  Variety keeps the reader interested and the story moving.  So to better see the patterns that the story is taking and head off any potential problems, I have come up with a character grid.  It’s about the only piece of “software” that I use, and it’s just an Excel spreadsheet that I’ve modified to my needs.  Here’s the one I used for ODW.

Characters are down the side, the locations of the scene are on the top, and the action is at the bottom.  (this is an early version, so it might not dovetail perfectly into the published book) The color shift is an indication of a change in day (which can be seen by the dates) and the chapter numbers are under that.  The Xs are when a character is an a chapter, and sometimes I use an O to indicate that they are in the chapter by way of phone or scrying mirror.  I usually have the month and day the book takes place in across the top, and the sunrise and set and average temps at the bottom, but I recently had a software upgrade, and I lost my headers and footers in Excel.  (sucks big time)

My character grid is how I first realized that Jenks was in almost every chapter in the earlier books, and I’ve become better at getting him out so other characters can shine.  It’s also how I know if I have a character who is needed for a crucial scene, and yet is not introduced anywhere until that scene.  Very bad.  Same thing with the bad guys.  I try to have them show up early, and then at least one more time before the end.  Another rule of thumb is don’t introduce too many characters in the same scene, even if they are returning characters.  I like to have only two at the most, and will break a chapter just to avoid this.

A character grid of some sort is also a great way to make sure that your male to female ratio isn’t wildly out of balance.  Mine usually slant to the male end of the ratio, but since Rachel is female it works out.  Oh, and when you go to rewrite and need to add something that revolves around a character, it’s really easy to go the grid, see where they are, and place your clue instead of spending an hour thumbing through the file and guessing where to put it is.

Tomorrow, after I break this monster into chapters, I’ll let you know what balance issues I encountered and nipped in the bud, but for now, I’ve not a clue as to what problems the manuscript has.  I can’t wait!

P.S. I think the puppies caught something at the borders last week and I’ll be taking them in this afternoon.  They are coughing and wheezing when they get up to do anything.  If they were big dogs, I wouldn’t worry so much, but Aleix is only six pounds.  I’ll let you know.

–Kim

Day Two Of The Plotting

Whoa.  I had a great weekend, but I’m feeling it now.  It’s been six weeks since I’ve been able to work in the garden, so now my body is really complaining.  The yard, though, looks great, with about six more inches of rock on the front rock wall and tidy trimmed bushes.  I also put in some tulips for the first time in about twelve years.  I may have been a little aggressive in the bulb count, but there it is.  I really needed the break, and you know I was thinking about the Hollows while I had my face turned to the earth.

Friday was the second day of my plotting out of the next Hollows book, and still no words on the screen, but I’ve plenty of notes, so all you people taking part in NaNoWriMo, be assured that you are way ahead of me.  At this rate, I will be hard pressed to meet your 175 page count by the end of the month.  And I still have a few days of plotting before I can begin.  So what am I spending my time on?

Well . . .  I took my six pages of notes from Thursday and wrote up a free-flowing, one-sentence brainstorming list of “ways to start” and a list of  ”ways to end.”  I still don’t have a good way to start the book, and I won’t until I have the end, but my goal is to have in the first five pages the hint of the problem that is settled in the last so to make a full circle.  I’m more successful at this some times than others, but if you break the stories apart, it’s there.  By the way, I found the ending by the time I turned my office light off.  Damn.  This is going to be a fun one to write.  As usual, Guy helped with finding the kicker. 

I then wrote out a handwritten, ten-page summary of the book, starting at the beginning and going all the way to the end, saying who died, who got jailed, and who got pregnant.  No, none of those things happened, but you get the idea.  Some might say it’s a waste of time, but I just saved myself three to six weeks of grief as I realized that my original three plots of demons, love, and crime were taking up too much page count and there were too many characters.  My solution?  Get rid of the demon story line for this book, much as I love it. (It will show up in the next book where it belongs)

After some thought, I realized that the story would work that much better with some new limitations that no-demons engenders.  Now I can expand on the other two story lines and bring in some secondary characters that I’d have had to skimp on.  I’m going to miss Al, but let’s hope it’s absence makes the heart grow fonder rather than out of sight, out of mind. . .   Today, I’ll rewrite my 10 page summary and maybe start on some more detailed chapter outlines to be sure I’ve not forgotten some bit of logic and to nail down the character lineup. 

Halloween contest is still open to submissions, so if you haven’t gotten around to taking your pictures out of your camera, you have time yet to send them to me.  Contest closes Friday, winners announced on Monday. 

Kim