Fictionwise eBook Bestseller

Holy crap. Sorry, I’m just a little stunned…but in a good way! The Silver Spoon is #10 on the Fictionwise e-book bestseller list. I’ve never been on a best seller list of any kind before. This is so cool!!!

#3 on the list is Stephen King’s book, Blaze. I can’t believe my book is on the same list! : )

Thank you to everyone who has purchased a copy of my book, whether in print or e-book. I really appreciate it! And thank you to fellow Echelon author, J.R. Turner, for the heads up about Fictionwise.

So, here, look quickly before it changes…*grin*

http://www.fictionwise.com/topstories.htm

Guest blogging this week

Hey guys, just a quick note to let you know I guest-blogged this week at Alien Romances. I wrote about creating new words in world-building. "Shiny" from Firefly was my example of this concept done well.

Check it out here!

Where to Begin?

Working on my current WIP, and this is a weird one for me. Normally, I have a very clear idea of what the beginning and end should be. Now, that doesn't mean that they both turn out that way. But I can see an initial version. With this one, I can see more of the middle and the beginning...is not clear. I've got several scenes, each one would start the book one scene earlier.

They aren't competing ideas in the sense that it would be one or the other, but that very first scene, the one that kicks everything off can start either pretty close to the main "everything changes" event or a little farther back.

The advantage of the farther back approach is the chance to give more context so readers understand why certain events are significant without me having to spell it out. That's a good thing to avoid--the info dump or the telling versus showing.

But starting closer to the "everything changes" scene means you don't have to wait so long for something to happen.

With The Silver Spoon, I start with the diner explosion pretty much right off. It works in that case because an explosion is pretty self-explanatory. But the opening situation I'm working with here--someone waking up from cyrogenic freezing is a little more complicated. Also, it's a future setting slightly, which requires some context.

If I follow the Writer's Journey, I need the ordinary world first, which means I'd have to back up even farther, and I've got part of that scene written too. But does that go too far back? I don't know...

Just need to think more, I think.

Snostorm

Emerald Snostorm

July 27, 1996 - June 4, 2007

I've been avoiding blogging for awhile, as you probably noticed, because I haven't really been sure how to deal with this. I know I don't need to write about it, but it will feel Not Right if I don't.

Snostorm, my baby, died on June 4. To be fair, we ended her life, and God, that was the worst thing I've ever had to do. To make that decision for another living being. But after an incident on Memorial Day weekend when she couldn't stop crying in pain, things didn't get better, only worse. She was on constant pain meds again, after being off them for almost two months after her surgery. Then, toward the end of that week, she couldn't walk properly--dragging her right rear leg--and some of her basic bodily functions started to fail. We suspect that either the cancer spread to her spine or internal organs, or she might have even had a minor stroke.

I stayed with her to the end. That was something I wasn't sure I could do. But after they administered the sedative, I tried to get up and she opened her eyes and looked at me. So, I stayed. As difficult as that was, I'm glad I did. I didn't want her to be alone or afraid in a room of strangers. Life had already been hard on her. She didn't need that at the end.

I loved her. She was my baby. And I miss her so much every day. She used to wait for me to come home. She'd get up in the morning and come and lay in my writing room, even after her surgery when she had to hop there. Her fur was the softest I've ever felt on a dog, and she always smelled sort of sticky sweet, like day old syrup or something.

I taught her to sit and shake. Greg carried her down the stairs when, on her first day with us, she was brave enough to go up but not back down. When we first met her, she rolled over on her back in her crate at the kennel, begging for a tummy rub. She was the only dog there who didn't bark when we came in, which was important as we were living in a tiny condo at the time.

She lived with us for eight years, joining our family only a few months after we were married. We were so hoping she would make it to her eleventh birthday next month.

There are so many things I want to say, little moments I want to remember, but I don't feel up to writing it all down just yet. Hurts a little too much right now, the wound is still too raw.

It sounds weird and completely superficial, but one thing I'm really glad of is that Bitter Pill will be making it to print, as Rennie's greyhound, Fritzy, is based on her. In that little way, Snostorm will live forever, you know? I'm just sad that she can't be here to come with me to the book release party next spring. She would have loved all the attention.

Oh, no--BSG is ending!

No, no, no! The best sci-fi show on television, Battlestar Galactica, is ending. Producers announced that next season, the 4th season, will be the last.

Of course, I'm disappointed. And yet, here's the thing. So many television shows just...linger. Replacing characters when actors want to leave, convoluting storylines to come up with something, anything new, slowly degenerating into crap.

What makes BSG different is the producers' willingness to take risks to tell good stories. I've said recently that most shows fall apart during or just after their third season (see Grey's Anatomy, IMO) because they're trying so hard to keep things the same in order to maintain popularity but also to keep things changing and different to elevate interest level. BSG has taken some HUGE risks in the last three seasons, and those risks worked. It kept the show fresh and sharp.

So as much as I love that, I respect the fact that it's impossible to keep that up forever. It would be like writing the middle of a book...forever. Ever notice how many shows get more interesting once they have an end date? They no longer have to worry about taking dramatic action that might or might not close off possible future episode ideas. It's okay that so and so dies or gets married or finally admits her love for her fellow Viper pilot (yeah, okay, so I have my own ideas about how it should all end) because the writers don't have to worry about backing out of that commitment later.

Battlestar Galactica, thanks for showing us all how it's done. I look forward to your last 22 eps with great anticipation and more than a little sadness.