The latest...

Going a little crazy this time of year, as you can probably tell by thelack of an updated blog. We did move into our new house, but immediatelyfollowing that day (like, three days later) we had our annual holiday party for friends and family. Yes, we are gluttons for punishment. Right now, we are in the midst of buying, wrapping, and sending gifts, preparing to send Christmas cards, making Christmas cookies (my one culinary contribution toour household) and also having our house (the inside) painted. I didn't even plug my computer into the wall--my writing computer, that is--until this morning. I've been making do with the laptop for email and myAlphaSmart for writing...and not much of the latter has been accomplished in the last week and half, I can assure you.

I'm sort of halfway into my new office. I still have boxes everywhere. Most of them sit shunned in the hallway, so I can try to accomplish something. I am excited, though, because this office gets lots and lots of natural light. I just feel so much better and feel like I'm more productive whenthe sun is shining. Though in Illinois in mid-December, that's rare enough as to be unattainable.

There's a boatload of promotional opportunities I need to be following up on and the lack of time is KILLING me. I actually signed up for a free trial offer of Constant Contact (an email program) and I suspect it's going to expire before I ever even get a chance to try it. I'm also due to turn in an interview, information about my covers, and buy some banner ads. I'm also starting some promotion for Bitter Pill and need to make some headwaythere, but I have to find time!!!! This month, you'll find an ad for The Silver Spoon in RT Magazine and a really cool joint ad with Linnea Sinclair in SciFi Magazine (I will try to post a copy here). I'm SO excited. Also, EOB should be up for preorder on Amazon in the next week or so, and I'm due to post a new excerpt from it here on the site. Overdue, actually. Arrrgh.

It's also that time of year when I start to think about my plan for next year. I must admit that my plans usually do not go according to, well, plan. I never know what's going to sell, what I can finish and reasonably polish during the course of the year and what opportunities might fall in my lap.

According to last year's blog, these were my 2007 goals:

So that means for writing projects in 2007, I’ll be:
-finishing edits on the second Zara book (I’m working on those now, and I’m nearly done. Hope to be finished by the middle of January at the latest—yea!).
-editing/revising the second Rennie book.
-writing the third Zara book.
-working on something new!

Well, the second Zara book is done and sold to Echelon, so that's a good thing. Third book, honestly, has not even been started yet because I need a little distance from the second book to see where I'm going next. However, I realized, in discussion with Linnea, that a major character is not going to survive our next outing. That sucks, but the weird thing is, that more than anything else has motivated me to start thinking about how this third (and possibly, final) book is going to come together.

I also sold The Silver Spoon to Echelon this year. Need to cut myself some slack because prior to April or so, I didn't have a publisher for that book, which meant the series was going nowhere, at least temporarily.

Didn't even touch the second Rennie book. However, I did finally drop the vampire mystery that I started, struggled with and ultimately hated. I'm NOT a vampire writer. Very clearly. Lesson learned. *full body shudder* I also wrote a proposal and the first 40 pages for a new book for the Dorchester Shomi line. It didn't go anywhere (at least, not yet), but I'm pleased with the idea and the pages that came from it and I'm definitely going to pursue finishing it. I'm also proud of myself for making time to write those pages instead of sticking so rigidly to my plan as I probably would have in the past. First, because I LOVE what came from it, and second, it was just a really cool opportunity. This was the year of NOW. No Opportunities Wasted, and I like to think I did much better on that than I would have in other years. I think I'm going to make that my permanent motto, actually!

I'm in the midst of working on a shorter SF romance story, probably novella length, though I'm not sure. It leans a little more toward the space opera side, and I'm enjoying the change of pace, both the shorter length and the different twist on things. My goal was to finish the first draft by the end of the year, but I'm going to have to really work hard on letting go and writing a sh*tty first draft if that's going to happen. I'm hanging on just a bit too tight. I know it, and yet, haven't had time to force myself toget over it.

Now, for 2008 goals...I feel like I need a spreadsheet or Microsoft Project or something to try to be more productive and measure out my year in what Iwant to accomplish rather than just making a list and trying to guess at timeframes. I am blessed to be able to work on whatever I feel like instead of obeying set deadlines, which is fortunate, but that also means I can vacillate for days. : ) Anyone have a suggestion on how they make goals and schedule them for completion?

Oops.

I completely forgot to mention here that I've posted the entire first chapter of Eye of the Beholder. Prior to this point, I'd only posted the first few pages, which were also used as an excerpt in the back of the new version of The Silver Spoon.

Here's the link:
http://www.staceyklemstein.com/EOBExcerpt.html

I'm thinking it's about eight or more "new" pages. Chapter Two will be posted in December and Chapter Three in January! : )

Other random stuff...

--I'm suffering from major gadget lust, again. I've only just recovered from desperately needing an iPhone, which I still want, and now Amazon has launched the Kindle. I'm not completely convinced it's the best ebook reader or anything, but I LOVE that you can instantly download new books from anywhere. No service plan or monthly fees. Plus, you get to skip the step of downloading to your computer and then your ebook reader. I just WANT it. But I do not have the $399 (!!!) required. Oh, well, the gadget lust will fade (eventually) and maybe the price will drop (a la the iPhone). For that price, I'm not certain it's worth it when I'm not sure I can give up the physical presence of a book. I am one of those (my dad is another I know of) who loves the smell and texture of books, the paper, the ink, the cover. All of it. Guess we'll see...

--Is it just a little bit disturbing that at least one person (possibly more) found my website by searching for the phrase "Nancy Drew bound and gagged" on Google? I have a similar phrase in my mystery bio, where I'm sort of poking fun at the series because Nancy never did seem to learn that going anywhere alone was the surest way to end up in trouble. But in this context, it's just a little...weird. : )

--Took two days off over Thanksgiving and the day after to visit with my family in Peoria. We celebrated my grandmother's eightieth birthday, which is actually tomorrow. Had amazing food, played games and just relaxed. I felt a little guilty about not writing those two days, even though what I was mostly doing was floundering, flopping around on the page like a fish out of water. But I thought about the point at which I was having trouble in the story a lot, working it through from every possible angle. For me, a huge portion of writing takes place in my head, working and reworking, long before I sit at the keyboard. And lo and behold, when I got back yesterday and sat down, the pieces all fell together. I'm sure I'll be back to floundering again soon, but it's nice to feel like I made that little bit of progress. : )

--I'm thinking about adding a page to my site, creating a list of all the stuff I'm reading (and therefore recommending). It would be good to keep track, so I can remember all the authors I want follow. Of course, I could do this just in a word doc for myself for that purpose. But I'm wondering if anyone else would be interested in it? I always like to find out what other people are reading, and except on MySpace (where there's a place to put what you're reading), I always forget to mention it here. Just let me know... : )

Blahbbedy, blah.

I'm suffering writer frustration. Arrggh. I hate this. I want to write. I want to write so much, and yet when I sit down to do so all that comes out is complete and utter crap. I know that it's probably not as bad as it seems. Proof of this is finding old writing and realizing that it's not the gag-fest that I thought it was when I first wrote it. Plus, this is part of the whole "write a sh*tty first draft," a theory I fervently ascribe to. But I can't seem to make myself keep going today for some reason.





Some of this is because I KNOW what happens, but I don't know whose perspective it should be from. I typically don't encounter this problem because I usually write first person, single narrator. But in this case, I'm not and....arrgggh. I guess the worst thing that could happen is that I have to go back and rewrite it from the other perspective. Or maybe I could rough out the scene from both perspectives and see which one feels more right. *pitiful sigh*





Anyway, aside from my whining, here are some things that may or may not entertain you.





First, I've been following along pretty closely with the Writers' Guild strike in California and New York. I didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about, at first. Residuals, which is what you often hear about, are like royalties. They don't get residuals for anything that's downloaded off the internet because the networks, get this, are saying that the internet use is purely promotional. Ha, right. How many of you download shows? I do. And I have to sit through the annoying commercials, too, so somebody somewhere is getting paid on these. Now, they may not be making very much money, but x percent of not very much is still x percent. That's what they're out there fighting for.





Yet I've read many comments in various places bitching about how rich television writers shouldn't be asking for more money. I'll grant you that there are some writers who probably are rich and make a very tidy profit. But I'll bet you there are lots of others who are just barely making it, trying to find a way to keep doing what they love and still pay the bills. I know this because this is how it is for novelists. It's freaking hard to make enough money in this industry. It just is, even for the big press authors. But we do it because we love it, and we fight to make enough to keep doing it. Anyway, check out John August's blog for a first-hand description of the strike and an insightful explanation of the reasons behind it. : )





If I were L.A., I'd be out there handing out doughnuts!





Okay, on to second very important topic. My friend Judy is an awesome photographer. She took a bunch of headshots for me so I'd have something to include in the back cover of my next book, if I wanted to. Here are a couple. I shall call them Photo A and Photo B. What think you, dear reader? You will note that there is no big smile because when I smile like that my eyes squinch up and disappear. So I have to go the more coy and mysterious route...it may, however, look more like I'm squinting at something in the distance, so we'll see!

Photo A

Photo B:

So tired...

What the heck...I'm supposed to be less tired given the sleeping in later that has occurred thanks to bizarre ritual of turning back the clocks. (The Future Anthropologist in my head pops up just long enough to point out that this quaint custom is still upheld in the future but more for tradition's sake as the introduction of electricity to homes made it possible for people to do just about anything they want while the sun is down!)

Let's see...what else?

Working on Zara III and it is slooooow going. I'm wondering if I need to resort to writing a sh*tty first draft. I was trying to be all proactive and plan stuff out as I did when I wrote the second (and only readable) draft of book two, but I'm kind of wondering if I need to get the crappy stuff out of the way first. That's how I did it for books one and two. Not sure why I think changing my process now is going to work! Read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott for more on the sh*tty first draft phenomenon.

Oh, dude....if only...check these out! Veronica Mars Season 4! Part One and Part Two. Okay, network executives suck. This could have been such a cool show. The writing of Seasons 1-3 was so good. Way better than say, Heroes Season Two. And because I love you, here are bloopers from Season Three of VM. And more bloopery goodness!