I've just returned home from a lovely afternoon spent at a nearby shopping mall and watching HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE at the cinema. I went to be enchanted and I was not disappointed: it is a truly lovely, magical film, and while I didn't really like young Sophie's German voice, I instantly fell in love with Hauru. *big sigh* HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE is the story of Sophie, who seems destined for a boring life as a hatter, until the Witch of the Waste arrives on her doorstep and transforms her into an old woman. Sophie leaves home and ends up as a cleaner in Hauru's moving castle, which from the inside resembles very much a pigsty before Sophie takes things in hand. And very quickly it becomes clear that the witch's curse is in fact the best that could have happened to Sophie! For suddenly, her life is adventurous! She becomes friends with a scarecrow, a fire demon, becomes embroiled in politics, and all the while tries to find out the secret of Hauru's as well as of her own curse.
For more info on Hayao Miyazaki, have a look at the fansite Nausicaa.net, where you can find info on all Studio Ghibli films, including my favourites, TONARI NO TOTORO and WHISPER OF THE HEART. Happy browsing!
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Late Night Chatter
You'll be happy to hear that my heroine still hasn't run away with the stableboy. (Well, truth be told, I don't take any chances: so far there simply is no stableboy in the story. Hehe.) But remember what I told you about scenes that refuse to develop according to plan? So today my hero totally freaked out, went completely nuts. Argh! That wasn't planned either!!! However, I hope it'll add to his mysterious allure. Or something. The freaking out part might be John Denver's fault, though: these past two days I listened to country while writing. I've never listened to music before while writing, but "Country Roads" somehow became the theme song of the WIP, and listening to the song helps me to get into the story. Plus I've found out I simply love John Denver songs!
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Building a Castle
You'll be happy to hear that so far my heroine has not yet run away with the stableboy. (Please imagine one very relieved author.) Well, I didn't give her a chance to run away with the stableboy. For today it occurred to me that I haven't yet mapped out the castle. THE main setting. And I always, always work with plans. Or maps. Or whatever comes in handy.
So today I built a castle.
And it turned out it's a rather good thing I've got this habit of buying random books which I might (or might not) need for future research. I've got books on the medieval warhorse, on colours, on Victorian shopping, dogs, wolves, snails (when I was little I had a snail -- "Schnucki" -- as a pet), Paris, underwear, tea, pirates, Celts, etc. And seven years ago I bought a book with the nice title BURGENKUNDE, a reprint of a book originally published in 1912. It's got 711 pages and it tells you everything, everything about the architecture of castles. *biiig smile*
So I built a very nice castle today!
Hooray!
So today I built a castle.
And it turned out it's a rather good thing I've got this habit of buying random books which I might (or might not) need for future research. I've got books on the medieval warhorse, on colours, on Victorian shopping, dogs, wolves, snails (when I was little I had a snail -- "Schnucki" -- as a pet), Paris, underwear, tea, pirates, Celts, etc. And seven years ago I bought a book with the nice title BURGENKUNDE, a reprint of a book originally published in 1912. It's got 711 pages and it tells you everything, everything about the architecture of castles. *biiig smile*
So I built a very nice castle today!
Hooray!
Monday, August 22, 2005
Plotting and other catastrophes
Hi everybody,
from what I've written so far about the RWA conference, you might have gotten the impression that I somehow managed to collapse on Thursday evening and missed the rest of the conference. I can assure you that this is not the case. I'm just so busy trying to finish the next book, that at the moment I don't have time to report more magical Reno adventures. But never fear, I've got more to tell! :O)
But for now, let's talk about plotting.
Plotting.
Plotting a novel can be a bit tricky.
I mean, you start with this rather nice story (well, at least you yourself think it's nice), start writing it -- and then somebody tells you that the setting you've chosen is a complete and absolute no-no.
Duh. (That brought about a horrible case of mid-book blues while I was still only in the middle of chapter 3.)
Okay, then you somehow talk yourself out of the little problem with the setting. (Hey, it's the BLACK FOREST! I mean, it's romantic, it's gothic, it totally FITS the story! Ha!) (Besides, people seem to really like the idea.) So you happily go on writing -- and bam! the next scene you're working on takes a totally different turn from what you've planned.
Duh. Will you go back to rewrite it? Or will you go on with the flow?
You spend the next few days ... uhm ... weeks debating this issue with yourself.
So you decide to go with the flow (as one of my friends once told me, it's a good idea to listen to your subconscious) (uhm ... did I talk about the unconscious in any earlier posts??? Drat!). You happily go on writing.
But wait! Now the other scenes you've planned don't quite fit anymore!
Argh!
You spend the next few days trying to come up with a solution to this problem.
Okay, so you've solved that particular problem -- well, in a way --, and happily go on writing. Then another round of self-doubt hits. You know, the part where you think you're the worst writer on the whole wide earth and you will never manage to finish that dratted book and it's a stupid story anyway and everybody will hate the setting and what you do to your hero isn't particularily typical for a romance either.
Duh.
You spent the next few days .... weeks eating lots of chocolate until you finally overcome this crisis, too. So you happily go on writing. Right. Then it occurs to you that one of the important secondary characters is still nameless.
Duh.
You spend a whole day leaving through your assorted books of first names in order to find a perfect name for this particular character. (No, you can't name him Alex. There was already an Alex in your last novel, if you remember!) To make things more complicated you also need a second name from Nordic mythology. You finally come up with something. It's not perfect, granted, but by that time you're desperate. So you go for Loki Leopold (Yes, I already said it's not perfect...) and happily go on writing. (At this stage, though, the "happily" part is already somewhat debatable.) Anyway, now you mentally prepare yourself for --- the marriage! Yeah! But wait! One of your protagonists is Catholic. The other Anglican. That might be a problem, right?
Sh*t!
Doesn't matter, you go on writing, for, to make matters worse, you've given yourself a totally impossible deadline, thank you very much, so you better get your butt into this chair and move your finger over the fricking keyboard! So you go on writing. And then it suddenly occurs to you -- and mind you, this happens after you've worked with this story for MONTHS! -- that your heroine is residing in the same castle as the hero -- UNCHAPERONED!!!!!
Argh! Argh! Argh!
You hit your head against the nearest wall.
And panic.
Your story has just folded down. For, of course, she cannot spend the night -- several nights, in fact -- under the same roof as the hero with just the servants present. Gargh! For of course, your lovely heroine would be immediately ruined forever after.
Argh! Argh! Argh!
You spend the next few days in a total panic.
Then in the middle of the night -- because you no longer sleep properly, of course -- inspiration strikes! Heureka! You just take that other secondary character which you dropped off in Baden-Baden on the way to the Black Forest and get her to the Black Forest, too.
Unfortunately this means that the character of your book will change slightly, for she's a rather merry secondary character, and merry secondary characters do nothing for darkness. Heck, it doesn't matter, you've set yourself this stupid deadline, remember? So what you're waiting for? Just WRITE!
You write.
Then inspiration strikes a second time: why does the heroine need to be Anglican, anyway? She's going to be Catholic and her ancestor was executed under Cromwell as a royalist. (Will make nice, bloody anecdote in novel.) (Bloody is good when you're supposed to write a dark novel.) YES! Marriage-problem happily solved!
So actually, now your problem is that deadline.
Well, at the moment.
Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Perhaps your hero drops of the tower of the castle. Or your heroine runs away with the stableboy.
*shrug*
That's plotting a novel for you.
from what I've written so far about the RWA conference, you might have gotten the impression that I somehow managed to collapse on Thursday evening and missed the rest of the conference. I can assure you that this is not the case. I'm just so busy trying to finish the next book, that at the moment I don't have time to report more magical Reno adventures. But never fear, I've got more to tell! :O)
But for now, let's talk about plotting.
Plotting.
Plotting a novel can be a bit tricky.
I mean, you start with this rather nice story (well, at least you yourself think it's nice), start writing it -- and then somebody tells you that the setting you've chosen is a complete and absolute no-no.
Duh. (That brought about a horrible case of mid-book blues while I was still only in the middle of chapter 3.)
Okay, then you somehow talk yourself out of the little problem with the setting. (Hey, it's the BLACK FOREST! I mean, it's romantic, it's gothic, it totally FITS the story! Ha!) (Besides, people seem to really like the idea.) So you happily go on writing -- and bam! the next scene you're working on takes a totally different turn from what you've planned.
Duh. Will you go back to rewrite it? Or will you go on with the flow?
You spend the next few days ... uhm ... weeks debating this issue with yourself.
So you decide to go with the flow (as one of my friends once told me, it's a good idea to listen to your subconscious) (uhm ... did I talk about the unconscious in any earlier posts??? Drat!). You happily go on writing.
But wait! Now the other scenes you've planned don't quite fit anymore!
Argh!
You spend the next few days trying to come up with a solution to this problem.
Okay, so you've solved that particular problem -- well, in a way --, and happily go on writing. Then another round of self-doubt hits. You know, the part where you think you're the worst writer on the whole wide earth and you will never manage to finish that dratted book and it's a stupid story anyway and everybody will hate the setting and what you do to your hero isn't particularily typical for a romance either.
Duh.
You spent the next few days .... weeks eating lots of chocolate until you finally overcome this crisis, too. So you happily go on writing. Right. Then it occurs to you that one of the important secondary characters is still nameless.
Duh.
You spend a whole day leaving through your assorted books of first names in order to find a perfect name for this particular character. (No, you can't name him Alex. There was already an Alex in your last novel, if you remember!) To make things more complicated you also need a second name from Nordic mythology. You finally come up with something. It's not perfect, granted, but by that time you're desperate. So you go for Loki Leopold (Yes, I already said it's not perfect...) and happily go on writing. (At this stage, though, the "happily" part is already somewhat debatable.) Anyway, now you mentally prepare yourself for --- the marriage! Yeah! But wait! One of your protagonists is Catholic. The other Anglican. That might be a problem, right?
Sh*t!
Doesn't matter, you go on writing, for, to make matters worse, you've given yourself a totally impossible deadline, thank you very much, so you better get your butt into this chair and move your finger over the fricking keyboard! So you go on writing. And then it suddenly occurs to you -- and mind you, this happens after you've worked with this story for MONTHS! -- that your heroine is residing in the same castle as the hero -- UNCHAPERONED!!!!!
Argh! Argh! Argh!
You hit your head against the nearest wall.
And panic.
Your story has just folded down. For, of course, she cannot spend the night -- several nights, in fact -- under the same roof as the hero with just the servants present. Gargh! For of course, your lovely heroine would be immediately ruined forever after.
Argh! Argh! Argh!
You spend the next few days in a total panic.
Then in the middle of the night -- because you no longer sleep properly, of course -- inspiration strikes! Heureka! You just take that other secondary character which you dropped off in Baden-Baden on the way to the Black Forest and get her to the Black Forest, too.
Unfortunately this means that the character of your book will change slightly, for she's a rather merry secondary character, and merry secondary characters do nothing for darkness. Heck, it doesn't matter, you've set yourself this stupid deadline, remember? So what you're waiting for? Just WRITE!
You write.
Then inspiration strikes a second time: why does the heroine need to be Anglican, anyway? She's going to be Catholic and her ancestor was executed under Cromwell as a royalist. (Will make nice, bloody anecdote in novel.) (Bloody is good when you're supposed to write a dark novel.) YES! Marriage-problem happily solved!
So actually, now your problem is that deadline.
Well, at the moment.
Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Perhaps your hero drops of the tower of the castle. Or your heroine runs away with the stableboy.
*shrug*
That's plotting a novel for you.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Pictures!!!!
Monday, August 15, 2005
Monday Greetings & Sandy's Reno Adventures, Part II
Hello everybody,
no, I haven't fallen off the edges of the earth – despite appearances! *g* I was just hit by a bout of delayed jetlag and afterwards by a few days of lazeritis. By then I had convinced myself once more that I'm the worst writer on this earth and that I would never finish that next book (this, in case you're interested, is called "second-bookeritis." Happens to more or less everyone. Or so I've heard. And hope. *scratching my head*), so I needed a good kick in the butt to get myself writing again. I've found out that mindmaps help me a great deal when it comes to visualizing and recognizing (!) story patterns and the use of symbols throughout the novel. So I hope I'll now get through the rest of the book without more mishaps.
Well. Have I already mentioned that my notebook went on strike? Luckily for me, I've got my wonderful AlphaSmart! So there's no excuse not to write!
As to my further adventures in Reno: on Thursday the RWA conference proper kicked off with workshops in the morning – I loved Sabrina Jeffries' "People Will Talk: Writing Snappy Dialogue"! – and the first conference meal. Now, I think, before the food arrived everybody in that ballroom was holding their breaths because most of us remembered the ghastly details about the food in Dallas (sometimes we didn't even know what we were eating!). But this year the food turned out to be rather wonderful (and included an awesome death-by-chocolate dessert!)! Yeah! It was also lovely to share again a table with my Lunch Buddies from last year, Anna and Vicki (*waving to you*)! For this first meal, Debbie Macomber gave such a moving keynote speech that she had the whole room more or less in tears (in a way it is funny to see the people around you brushing their eyes at exactly the same moment when you get this curious pricking in your eyes!).
Now, some time after lunch I had my first meeting with my editor. And of course, you want to freshen up before your first meeting with your editor, right? And brush your teeth, right? And get rid of your heavy bag that got miraculously filled with books in the course of the morning, right? Wellllll .... too bad that there was such a huge queue in front of the elevators that it would have probably taken me 15 minutes to get to my room and god knows how long to get downstairs again. By that time I probably would have been too late for the meeting. Duh. So I decided for freshening up in one of the restrooms on the upper (and now empty!) conference room level. Not the most promising start.
Eventually, though, I found Chris (we've set up a meeting in the lobby bar and the hotel turned out to have more than one lobby bar ...) (Yup, imagine little me walking agitatedly up and down the lobby). I have to admit I was slightly nervous (though thankfully, not as nervous as during the first ever lesson I taught when I must have sounded as if I'd burst into tears any moment), but Chris turned out to be one of the nicest people around, and that apart from being a pretty wonderful editor! Both of us survived this first meeting (and no, he had no blood coming out of his ears as I left him!), and for the rest of the day I kept telling people (including perfect strangers in the elevator *sigh*) that this day I had met my editor for the first time. (Moral: I get too bubbly when I'm happy or excited.)
Met my lunch buddies and we went to the bookfair together, where Vicki complained that they didn't sell my book and I found Lindt chocolates in flavors I hadn't seen before. (You see, these people from Waldenbooks who had set up the bookfair, they were soooo mean: they were selling books AND chocolate! *g*)
More chocolate at the reception in the evening, plus one gigantic ice sculpture (pic will follow soon).
So this were Sandy's Reno Adventures, the second day. Stay tuned for pics and more stories!
Cheers,
Sandy
no, I haven't fallen off the edges of the earth – despite appearances! *g* I was just hit by a bout of delayed jetlag and afterwards by a few days of lazeritis. By then I had convinced myself once more that I'm the worst writer on this earth and that I would never finish that next book (this, in case you're interested, is called "second-bookeritis." Happens to more or less everyone. Or so I've heard. And hope. *scratching my head*), so I needed a good kick in the butt to get myself writing again. I've found out that mindmaps help me a great deal when it comes to visualizing and recognizing (!) story patterns and the use of symbols throughout the novel. So I hope I'll now get through the rest of the book without more mishaps.
Well. Have I already mentioned that my notebook went on strike? Luckily for me, I've got my wonderful AlphaSmart! So there's no excuse not to write!
As to my further adventures in Reno: on Thursday the RWA conference proper kicked off with workshops in the morning – I loved Sabrina Jeffries' "People Will Talk: Writing Snappy Dialogue"! – and the first conference meal. Now, I think, before the food arrived everybody in that ballroom was holding their breaths because most of us remembered the ghastly details about the food in Dallas (sometimes we didn't even know what we were eating!). But this year the food turned out to be rather wonderful (and included an awesome death-by-chocolate dessert!)! Yeah! It was also lovely to share again a table with my Lunch Buddies from last year, Anna and Vicki (*waving to you*)! For this first meal, Debbie Macomber gave such a moving keynote speech that she had the whole room more or less in tears (in a way it is funny to see the people around you brushing their eyes at exactly the same moment when you get this curious pricking in your eyes!).
Now, some time after lunch I had my first meeting with my editor. And of course, you want to freshen up before your first meeting with your editor, right? And brush your teeth, right? And get rid of your heavy bag that got miraculously filled with books in the course of the morning, right? Wellllll .... too bad that there was such a huge queue in front of the elevators that it would have probably taken me 15 minutes to get to my room and god knows how long to get downstairs again. By that time I probably would have been too late for the meeting. Duh. So I decided for freshening up in one of the restrooms on the upper (and now empty!) conference room level. Not the most promising start.
Eventually, though, I found Chris (we've set up a meeting in the lobby bar and the hotel turned out to have more than one lobby bar ...) (Yup, imagine little me walking agitatedly up and down the lobby). I have to admit I was slightly nervous (though thankfully, not as nervous as during the first ever lesson I taught when I must have sounded as if I'd burst into tears any moment), but Chris turned out to be one of the nicest people around, and that apart from being a pretty wonderful editor! Both of us survived this first meeting (and no, he had no blood coming out of his ears as I left him!), and for the rest of the day I kept telling people (including perfect strangers in the elevator *sigh*) that this day I had met my editor for the first time. (Moral: I get too bubbly when I'm happy or excited.)
Met my lunch buddies and we went to the bookfair together, where Vicki complained that they didn't sell my book and I found Lindt chocolates in flavors I hadn't seen before. (You see, these people from Waldenbooks who had set up the bookfair, they were soooo mean: they were selling books AND chocolate! *g*)
More chocolate at the reception in the evening, plus one gigantic ice sculpture (pic will follow soon).
So this were Sandy's Reno Adventures, the second day. Stay tuned for pics and more stories!
Cheers,
Sandy
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Sandy's Magical Reno Adventure, Part 1
(at the Literacy for Life booksigning; the picture was first posted by Teresa at Squawk Radio)
Reno ... How describe the conference in Reno?
Well, first of all, you'll be happy to hear that this year I actually managed to catch my connecting flight! Yeah! (Well, after all, I had four hours to get through immigration, customs, re-check my luggage and find the correct gate.) And while marching through one of the terminals of the airport at Dallas Fort Worth, I spotted a woman wearing a tee-shirt which proclaimed: "Romance writers do it and write about it!" What does that tell your hopeful, bumbling newbie author? Yes, she was not alone! Indeed, half of the plane from Dallas to Reno was filled with romance writers, among them such big names as Julie Garwood or Sherrilyn Kenyon -- but at that point I was already too tired to appreciate the fact (and after gushing over poor Jack Zipes at the ICFA in Ft Lauderdale back in 2002, I don't do any more gushing anyway *g*). Yet I did utter some loud & delighted squeals when I spotted Vicki, one of my Lunch Buddies from last year, walking into the lounge. :O)
On we went to Reno, where already in the airport slot machines waved one-armedly at us. Yet we forsook these temptations, collected our luggage instead and drove off to the Reno Hilton (there more slot machines filled the lobby with a neverending mechanical ding-dong-click-clack-click song). My hotel room (# 977) was big and lovely, with a breathtaking view over the city to the bare, brown mountains in the background. When I called home to let my folks know I had arrived safe and sound, my Mum had just got up: it was already the next morning in Europe and I truly felt as if a ton of bricks had dropped on my head.
Next day: the Beau Monde conference! I was delighted to meet Dee (Emily Hendrickson) again, who had taken me under her wing at last year's BM tea and made sure I had a good start in Dallas. She is a darling woman! I also met Nancy Mayer for the first time. Nancy is one of the legends of our chapter: she knows more or less everything about the Regency. As you can tell from that, she's quite amazing!
In the afternoon I gave my workshop on Holland House and the Holland House circle, and the whole thing went surprisingly well (apart from the suicidal overhead projector....). Of course, it always helps if you've got a friendly and attentive audience – and that I had! So I was very happy with that workshop. Among the people attending was also my good German (and jetlagged *g*) friend Kris Alice, whom I met in Dallas last year for the first time and who's a real sweetheart. She's just launched a German romance newsletter, LoveLetter, and is doing a wonderful job with it.
After tea, the BIG EVENT OF THE DAY had arrived: the Literacy for Life booksigning! I had to visit the restrooms at least ten times, before I joined other authors to walk to the great ballroom where the signing was to be held. We passed a seemingly endless queue of people waiting for the signing to start (actually, these masses of people were a bit scary ...). The first sight of that ballroom was stunning: imagine a vast room, humming with hundreds of voices and filled with hundreds of tables, all lined up in neat rows. At these events the authors are seated in alphabetical order, yet even though, I didn't immediately find my table, but walked into the wrong direction. (Grrr. That didn't do anything to calm my nerves, let me tell you!) Finally found table. And a box of copies of THE LILY BRAND!!!!! Set up my sweets, my pen, my CDs, my bookmarks and my teaser booklets (you never know!), and waited. And then along came this tall (well, a lot taller than me, but that's no miracle, since I'm a bit on the small side) woman, waving and yelling "Sandy!" And perhaps this was the best moment of this day, for that woman was Jen aka Lady LaLa, who has accompanied me on my writing-in-English adventure from the very beginning (yes! THE Lady LaLa!!!!!). I've known her for five years, but I've never before met her in person. So this was indeed a very special moment for me.
Then the doors to the ballroom were opened – and the signing started. At first it was a bit frightening to watch all these people walk by my table. And people at such big booksigning usually don't loiter. No, they walk with purposeful steps to the tables of their favourite authors. I felt rather small and bumbling newbie-ish at first. But ... I had sold out all my books after an hour and half! Yeah! So for the next hour and half, I gave out teaser booklets. Teaser booklets are great, for you can throw them (well, not literally throw them) at unsuspecting passerbys! (And try to force one onto your publisher's former PR person, who will laugh her head off while you're trying to make the ground swallow you up. Or at least to hide under the table .... As I said: bumbling newbie author. *G*)
As you can see, my 2005-conference experience started with a bang – in more ways than one. :O)
Stay tuned for Sandy's further RWA adventures!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)