Hair pulling and James Patterson

I want to pull my hair out. And not fist fulls of hair. Just one strand at a time to prolong the frustration.

What a frustrating process. I am beginning to wonder why I started writing in the first place. Grrr. Nothing is magically flowing from my fingers to create anything, well...magical. Grrr.

And by the way while I am ranting. I hate James Patterson. What the hell? Has anyone noticed how many books a month that man puts out? Seriously. Every time I open Amazon peruse new kindle books there he is right on the front page NEW JAMES PATTERSON NOVEL.

Does he have an army of minions caged in his basement being forced as slaves to write for him? How does he do it? Really, I want to know. In the time I have been writing alone he has published FIFTY NINE books.

Yeah you read me right. FIFTY NINE BOOKS since December 2009. Son of a bitch!

How??? I don't understand. I cant get one out. It makes me want to cry. I wonder if he leases his minions? But that probably costs a very shiny penny. All of my pennies are kind of ugly and have stuff stuck to them.

Don't get me wrong now, I am thrilled with how my book is starting. And that's the problem. The beginning is great. But it's a new tone and that leads to different plot developments. So while I have a beginning that I am excited about I don't know where to take it...and thus the one strand at a time hair pulling.

I hate plot development. It sucks.

I believe that there are two kinds of books out there. (If you wonder if I make this shit up as I go...I do.)

There are what I call 'surface books' and 'involvement books.'

Surface books are books that if you don't look too closely or spend time analyzing them they are a pretty good story. But once you look beyond the surface (get it?) the story is week and unsupported.

Involvement books are stories that no matter how involved you get, the story stands up strong and you can look as deep as you want and nothing falls apart. Think Harry Potter or Game of Thrones.

Sadly I am currently in the former instead of the latter. So my little brain continues to mull until the answer comes. So if your talking to me and I look like I am not paying attention. I'm not. I'm thinking about more interesting things.

Back on the rant. I like George R. R. Martin so much better than James Patterson. The last book George published was five years ago. That is a much more realistic timeline than the Evil James Patterson. And the worse part about the all mighty Mister Patterson is he doesn't publish crap.

However there is a twinge of bitterness with George. I happen to be enjoying Game of Thrones and I wish he was more like Mr. Patterson and published the last two books by the end of September. Hear me George? I don't like waiting. Patience was never my favorite virtue.

Okay. Deep breath... 

Maybe some day I will write something about kittens, and flowers. But not today. Today its bitter and angry. Today it's Evil James Patterson. Maybe tomorrow...But I wouldn't bet on it.

Reading and Writing

Again I have been a bad blogger. Slap the back of my hand and send me to the corner.

But I haven't been posting for good reasons. I have been busy writing and reading.

I have been working on expanding my horizons. I have been exploring more genres. Stepping outside of my comfort zone and reading book I never would have expected.

Case in point:

I recently finished Beyond the Highlander Mist. Okay, I will wait while you skip over to Amazon look it up, read the synopsis and let your mouths hit your keyboards...

Tap, tap, tap. Look at imaginary watch on my wrist. Roll my eyes impatiently, scratch my head and heave a great sigh.

Back?

Yes, I know. Shake your head, blush for me and squirm appalled in your seat. I read a romance novel cover to cover. It was very lusty and there was lots of purring. But all in all it was a good book.

This was the debut novel for Karen Marie Moning. If you have been with me this whole time you will have read my review of the Fever Series. This is same author that took me down the romance isle at Barns and Noble. I was curious what her version of a romance novel, was considering Fever was not close to lusty yearnings.
To her credit it was completely different. BHM was sort of a prequel to the Fever series and shared a few of the same characters, which was a surprise. I had no idea.

Another reason to read BHM? It was a debut novel. It was a great learning experience to read the first book an author published and the most recent. If you know what your looking for you can see the author learning and evolving through their writing.

Moving on. I have never been a fantasy reader. I find fantasy novels to generally be more complicated than 'As the World Turns.'  But several people insisted that I read Game of Thrones.
So bravely I did...and what a pleasant surprise it was to find myself getting really involved with the characters and the story.

I will admit there are some parts that aren't for the happy go lucky readers. Bad things happen to good characters  and some ceremonies will make people put the book away in a deep forgotten corner never to be picked up again. If you are not easily offended Game of Thornes offers a lovely ride of adventure through politics, war, betrayal and yes, incest. Gross. My kindle tells me I am only 61% through. So I will be a bit for a thorough review.

Now on to my writing. It's going so well!! Some of you will be shocked to know that I have shared the first twenty thousand or so words with people that have previously never read one word from this particular story. The feed back I have received has been more positive than I could have hoped for. This is good, very good.

I am so please with how well the story is evolving. There are a lot of rough patches that need to be smoothed out and holes that need to be plugged but that will come. I have no fear. I finally have a publishable story!!

I have also taken the stress out of it. I am not working on it every day either. I am letting it come. I am letting my thoughts and ideas work themselves out in my head before I put fingers to keyboard. That was a hard thing to do. Not sit down with it every night and force a few words out. It was like weening myself off an addiction. There was headaches, frustration and sweating...or maybe that's the humid heat I hate so much? Anyway, the story is coming freely and easily. Yay!

Now for an announcement. Drum roll, breathless anticipation, eager bodies waiting not so patiently. I officially have a title! Isn't that great!!  It took so long to find a title I really loved. A title that sets the right tone. That brings you into the story before you open the flap to read the synopsis. This is a title that grabs you, and keeps you. (I hope.)

Bet you want to know what it is, don't cha?