MWA Snippets

I had a blast at the conference (except for being more than mildly offended when a woman opined that romances were crap--after I'd already told her I'd written some!) and took reams of notes at all the workshops.

One thing that surprised me was learning how many mystery/thriller writers are pantsers. I had assumed the vast majority were big plotters, with at least some idea of where their stories were going (if not story boards or color-coded index cards).

There was also a small debate on whether or not critique partners were a good idea. Some (like me) swear by them, for their ability to point out logic/motivation errors the author couldn't catch herself. Others said CPs can be bad because, as a CP, they feel *obliged* to be critical, just to look like they have intelligent feedback.

I learned writing a 4-act spec episode for a TV program is probably way more than I will ever attempt, because a) you pretty much have to pick an existing show that you know inside and out (which, for me, is nothing) and b) what if I got hired and they needed me to move to LA?

I also learned all four networks rejected Law & Order, before it eventually found a home. So take heart, those of you with rejection letters. It's a rite of passage. =)

David Black told a hilarious story about Chris Noth. I would repeat it here, but it's much better in person so I can gesture accordingly. Next time you see me, remind me, and I'll dish.

Oh, and I was unbelievably annoyed during a Q&A session when a woman went up to the microphone to ask her question, and instead chose to give spoilers for seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter (which, you may recall, I had *just* ordered on DVD.) I might've forgiven her if she at least had a question, but she did not. Aaargh! Why do people do that?!

Also heard the term "refrigerator moment" to describe that moment when you come home after going to the movies, open the fridge to grab a beer/soda/OJ, and go, "Hey, waaaaiiiit a minute... Why didn't [protagonist] just do [some obvious and logical course of action that would've totally derailed the plot and ended the movie an hour early]?!"

I love Lee Goldberg

The

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless LGVX9900 device.

Lee Child & Leslie Silbert

Just went to my first MWA workshop! Good stuff. The first main difference between this and RWA is the quantity of workshops and quantity of attendees.

That said, everyone here is super nice, and Lee and Leslie are both personable speakers and the workshops are great so far. I'll write up my notes back at the hotel--Gotta run to the next class!

Mystery Writers of America

Off to the MWA conference! I will text the blog with updates...

E

Mmmmm

Dinner rocked--Gnocchi al pesto rosso and tiramisu. Mmmm. And I stopped at the bar down the street (Hey, it's a two hour hike to the metro) where the guy next to me at the bar not only (correctly) used "patina" in a sentence, he totally schooled the bartender in the nature and origin of the Chelsea "Rye-P-A" I agreed to sample. Funny! But not as funny as this snippet overheard of a quartet of umbrellaed nyc guys...

"How does John *do* it?!"

"Easy--He has a guitar *and* a puppy!"

Desperately seeking Sicilian

Client work over at last (well, long enough for me to grab some grub) so off I go in search of Little Italy...

rainy day fun in nyc

I made it inside moma at last!!!

Snafu

Who says new yorkers aren't friendly? already half a dozen have rushed to my aid when i stood around gaping at the subway exit. i dont know why i assumed my stop was the end of the line. hindsight being 20 20, maybe i shouldve, yanno, read the map or glanced at a sign. ah, well, found the hotel w/ no trouble thanks to several friendly folk, one of whom was a puerto rican who thought i was from spain for some reason. (Only if it's contagious... hehe. never mind.)

i wanted to go to the wtc memorial before my monday afternoon client conference call, but its rainy and gross, so i'm standing in a wraparound line at moma, hoping to get in before i have to go back.

i did snack on some delish vegi grub at a roti cafe... mmm, nyc!!!

Ew, chilly!

first adventure--tromping thru the rain in search of something called an air train, which is apparently not the metro. Not sure I brought warm enough clothes... this FL girl is chilly! (and lets not discuss the wisdom--or lack thereof--of my faux suede mary janes in these mud puddles...)

If NYC Won't Come to Erica...

Erica will go to NYC!

Starting today, I'll be posting real-time updates of my visit to NYC all day, every day! (And I apologize in advance for the b.s. ads Verizon attaches to messages emailed from my cell phone... /sigh) In case you forgot, here is the sitch in a nutshell:

I am in New York City this week. I leave Tampa at 7:30 am and I arrive in the Big Apple at 10. From there, it will be a whirlwind of conference-attending, agent-meeting, and of course laptop-typing as I attempt to get my (paying) work accomplished while on the road. I plan to squeeze in a few sights between everything else, but I'll be honest--I'm most excited about meeting Lauren for the first time, and checking out a completely different sort of conference.

At least... I think it is. Or might be. I have no idea! Maybe the MWA folks are just like the RWA folks, what do I know. (Nothing yet... but I will find out tomorrow!)

On one of my many loops recently, a debate ensued over whether it was worth $2K in hotel, fees, food, drinks, airfare, etc to fly to San Francisco to meet one's editor/agent. (My agent has no plans on going to SF for RWA National AFAIK and I have no editor yet, so the question is moot for me.) Some people do go to National specifically to get face time with their agent/editor, which didn't strike me as remotely odd until I started hearing a few people say, "Why bother meeting at some random location [last National was in Dallas] when you could fly to NYC and visit them *and* their office for half the $$?"

And I thought to myself, "...Huh!"

(Of course, now I'll be in SF anyway b/c Darc had to go and final in the GH--jeez! If she would've just checked with my calendar first... *g)

YOUR TURN: Are you more likely to visit your agent/editor in NYC or at a local/National conference? Or does a face-to-face meeting not interest you at all? Why or why not?

Heads Up: NYC!!!

Next week, I will be taking the Big Apple by storm Monday through Friday, dropping in on the MWA conference, and meeting my agent!!

Am I going on blog hiatus? NO WAY!!

I am at long last the proud owner of a camera phone with email capabilities, so I will be updating the blog a zillion times a day (technology permitting--I guess I better test it first) with all my adventures.

And there's sure to be adventures--I have them wherever I go! The only other time I've been in NYC was the week of Xmas-New Years 1999. So... yeah. It's been a while. Color me excited!!

YOUR TURN: Any must-see hints or tips for a single writer alone in the City not to look like a crazy camera-phone-blogging tourist? Maybe that's impossible...

P.S. Just did a test run and discovered everything works perfectly, except Verizon puts a giant blurb about "This photo was taken with a blah blah blah click here to find out how you too can be the proud owner of a blah blah blah" text beneath it. I don't see any way to turn that crap off, so I apologize in advance!

Lizard Invasion--Help!!!

This morning I woke up to not one, not two, but three gecko-esque critters hanging out on the magazine basket in the living room. Little lizards are an inescapable part of Florida (and luckily I don't have a gecko phobia or anything, despite having suffered through an over abundance of Geico commercials) but this spring I am chasing the stupid critters outside several times a day--when I can catch them. Aargh!! Most of my neighbors just shrug and suffer in silence, but not me. Oh no, not me.

One of the lizards' favorite guerrilla tactics is to camouflage themselves on the steps in front of my door, so that when I arrive at home--especially at night, when it's too shadowy to tell--they can dart past my feet into my house. Why, lizard gods, why?!

HELP! How do I keep the little buggers from coming inside? And once inside, how do I get them out??

Writers and Earth Day (A Conundrum)

x-posted from manuscriptmavens.com

What shenanigans did you get up to this weekend? Mine were many and varied, and included printing out the entire manuscript of Touched. I just received my agent's revision letter (which is always exciting--she gives amazing feedback) and since it's been a while (er, months) since I read the story myself, I thought I ought to do so.

But why did I print it out? Well, several reasons:

1) I find it much easier to crit my own work on paper. In fact, I find it impossible to do so on-screen, because of a regrettable tendency to skim sentences and paragraphs, and even scroll forward through whole pages or scenes. (Hard to catch stuff you don't read.

2) I reformat my manuscript to fit 2 pages to a sheet, single-space, justified, so I can hole-punch it and pop it in a half-binder. The half-binder makes it read "like a book", and also tucks easily into a purse or bag, making it convenient to lug around. (Unlike my monstruous laptop, which is super-heavy and requires a power source after a few hours.)

3) Not only does the reformatting change the line breaks and page breaks and let me catch a multitude of problem areas I wouldn't have otherwise, but paper also is a great critting medium for me to scribble notes in margins, plaster sticky-notes on the reverse sides of pages, circle sections and draw arrows to move them earlier or later, put question marks through entire paras/pages if I'm not sure I really need them, and so on.

Sounds fab, right? So what's my problem? Well, I'm a fan of planet earth, that's what. I'm a recycler. The kind that carries an empty Yoplait around with me all day b/c I prefer to recycle it at home than chuck it in the trash somewhere. The kind that saved all the Golden Heart entries I judged so I could print on the reverse sides. The kind that angsts over what to do with expired soup. That's me.

And here I am printing out 170 pages of a manuscript. (Which was as compact as I could make 100,000 words and still be able to read/crit it.) For the second time, even, since I did this for Draft 2 as well. Urgh.

Earth Day is tomorrow. I'll have to find some way to repent. Maybe I can talk my writing chapter into sponsoring a highway...

YOUR TURN: Am I going to Anti- Environment Hell for printing out my story? What if it sells ten million copies--will I go to Anti-Environment Hell then? How do you reconcile being both a writer/reader and a recycler? (You are a recycler, right???)

Seeking Recycling Advice

I recycle. I'm the sort that holds on to my empty bottle of water until I can throw it in my car (rather than a trash can on the side of the post office or grocery store) because I know once it gets home, I'll recycle it, and I have no idea if city workers sort through trash. So: it matters to me.

On the other hand, I have no mechanical garbage disposal in my sink.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, when I was sick, I was going through my pantry looking for vegetable soup. I found four cans, all of which were expired. I also found cans of other random expired food (refried beans, tomato sauce, etc.)

So here's my question: How can I recycle my cans if they've still got stuff inside? Do I have to dump out a gallon's worth of vegetable soup and tomato sauce and the like first? Or can I just put the cans out by the curb?

Seattle Shenanigans

Finally downloaded the photos from my trip to Seattle weekend before last! I have no photo evidence of the plotstorming I did with Maven Lacey and Maven Darcy, but I can prove we didn't have our noses in our storyboards the entire time:

Erica and Lacey at the Space Needle


Happy Hour with the cast of VHM


Lace rescues a beached seal trashbag

Fun times had by all!

YOUR TURN: Ever been to Seattle? If so, what were your favorite parts/activities? (If not, may I recommend... summertime? Brrr... *g)

Juanes, ¡en concierto!

Despite being sick, no way was I missing out on the Juanes concert this past weekend. I loaded up on cough drops and gatorade and headed out to Orlando with the girls to get me an eyeful and earful of mi cantante favorito. Mmm, Juanes!





Más que un guapo increíble, Juanes es un cantante marravilloso que también cree en temas serios y importantes. A él le importa mucho el futuro del mundo, las guerras, los infermos, los pobres, y la paz. (¡Y también es muuuuuuy romántico! ¡Guau!)

YOUR TURN: Been to any concerts lately? Do tell! ¿Fuiste a algún concierto? ¡Díme!

Scary!

Had a nice chat with Discover Card yesterday when I got home from running errands. Apparently, while I was buying $30 of sundries at a Tampa Publix, folks in sunny California were charging upwards of $100 in groceries.

We all know teleportation is one of many new technologies I plan to implement once I succeed in my plot for world domination, but as I have not yet conquered this particular talent, it was not me in both places.

Yay, Discover Card, for catching it immediately!! Especially note-worthy b/c I travel all the time and had just used the card on the West Coast myself, days before. (Although not, it must be said, in California.)

Boo, a$$holes who stole my credit card numbers! I am not sure when or how this happened, seeing as I still have my card--or did, anyway. It was immediately cancelled and new numbers will be headed my way.

Until then, I must subsist on $30 worth of sundries...

Whatcha working on?

x-posted from ManuscriptMavens.com

Carrie suggested this week the Mavens spill via the Novel Meme, lovingly lifted from Sarah Prineas and Melissa Marr. It goes like this:

Hey, Erica, what books have you written?

Funny you should ask...

1) Countless stories and serial novels, handwritten in spiral notebooks, and sometimes co-written with my childhood bff, during my extremely productive years of age 5 through 12. These ranged in topic from time travel to the Mesozoic Era to post-apocalyptic horror stories, depending on my mood. (And some random poetry, just to shake things up.)

2) Song of My Heart--Years later, I began an (unfinished) Regency-set historical with no discernable plot, other than the heroine liking to make up songs and eventually falling in love with the hero. (Yes, I know how stupid that sounds. I was smart enough not to finish it, wasn't I?) I was working on this monstrosity when I first joined the Aspiring Romance Writers loop, which was how I met Mavens Lacey, Darcy, and Jackie.

3) Unmasked. Regency-set Historical featuring a masked, family-minded ex-spy investigating the father of a feisty down-on-her-luck debutante being forced to marry (the villain, natch) against her will. (This story featured plenty more cliches, but I'll spare you.) I finished this thing and actually got two requests which turned into rejections (tg) before being relegated to the magical mulch pile under my bed.

4) Witness. Romantic Suspense sorely lacking in both, but with a spectacular villain, if I do say so myself. *g I am positive her snark and unrepentant villainy is how this book finaled in the Golden Rose. This was my first story to hit "almost"--I got an extremely positive rejection letter from a publishing house that invited me to submit something else. (Yanno--something with actual romantic suspense.) I did not follow through, as I realized R/S was not my calling.

5) Touched--I love this book. I didn't at first. I wrote 90k in less than a month and then lit out for Europe for several weeks and basically forgot about it for a year while I was writing other things. But then I went back and spent months revising it and Bam! actually liked the thing, despite its genre confusion. Touched is a Regency-set historical paranormal mystery suspense gothic urban fantasy romance. (What?! Stop laughing!)

6) Hi-Jinxed started its life as a lark, when I decided to submit to anonymous agent Miss Snark's infamous crapometer, but had no WIP to send. So I made one up. I dashed off a few lines about an apprentice tooth fairy from Nether-Netherland whose first assignment runs amok when she lands at an archaeological dig and accidentally turns the hero's assistant into a pumpkin. I had a blast writing, and this book landed me my agent.

7) Dorinda and the Demon--unfinished follow up to H-J, abandoned 2/3 through for the rewrite of H-J and Touched. She's an unsuccessful politician with a heart of gold. He's a demon from hell, sent to corrupt her for Satan. Good stuff. Still simmering on the backburner.

8) Spectacle--current WIP, follow-up to Touched. (Yes, it's also a Regency-set historical paranormal suspense gothic urban fantasy romance. Duh.) Am about halfway through.

9) Secret Project--also a WIP. I'm super-excited about this one, but haven't figured out a way to blurb it without giving away major spoilers. This would be contemporary paranormal / urban fantasy. (With romantic elements, as they say in RWA.)

YOUR TURN: What do you think... am I crazy? (Wait--don't answer that!) How about you? What lies beneath your bed, or in the deepest recesses of your hard drive? What are you working on now?

Home Sick

instead of at the TARA meeting. :(

In the meantime, I am sharpening my critting pencils and catching up on my TBR a bit.

Hope your weekend is a fun one!

Fellow Maven gets The Call!

My pal Jackie Barbosa just got The Call! Squee!

Please go congratulate her--thanks!!! =)

Historical Tomfoolery

x-posted from ManuscriptMavens.com

Whenever I find myself overcome with historical hubris¹, I like to compare my favorite bits of deathless prose to an etymology dictionary or two, then throw myself upon the closest machete in despair. (Try it. It's fun.)

Let's pretend your WIP takes place in 1812 London. Which of these words existed in the common vernacular prior to that year? Which of these words didn't become hip with the cool kids until much later? (No cheating! Answers at the end.)

* railway
* nerve-wracking
* offhanded
* windswept
* lunch
* featherweight
* toss-up
* tomfoolery
* dibs
* reconstitute
* body snatcher
* platitude
* yokel
* opposable
* word of mouth
* roadster
* washbasin
* dollop
* jailhouse

Answers in white text (highlight to view): Believe it or not, all of these words and phrases came into existence exactly during our year: 1812. We'd be hosed if we'd set it in 1811. Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (link) End Answers

YOUR TURN: How'd you do? (Assuming you didn't peek at the answers first.) Do you think you have a good handle on what words were in common usage when? Are you an historical purist? Or do you even care? Sound off!

1. Which happens approximately... never. I was really just procrastinating and looking for a way to make it sound like I knew what I was talking about.

Back on Thursday (4/10)

(I know it looks remarkably like I'm back now. Don't be fooled by the clever hologram erica substitute. *g)

Hiatus + Guest Maven

I am taking a week-long blog hiatus so I can get my act together for my trip to Seattle this week to visit Lacey and Darcy! When I come back, I will try to have lots of pix to go with the crazy stories of all-night plotstorming and drunken debauchery that's bound to ensue. =)

In the meantime, check out Guest Maven Elizabeth Lyon over at the MM--you can win a copy of her latest book, called Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore!