The Takeaway from Downton Abbey

Behind most of the writing world, I am finally watching Downton Abbey. I had heard SO many accolades and recommendations for this show, I have to admit I was expecting something different. Something with really realistic dialogue and breathtaking plot construction. Now, don't get me wrong, it has much to recommend it, but it is a pretty-looking soap opera with really superb costuming. (Seriously...give me all Edith's clothes! Just the fact that they gave everyone enough different styles that I want Edith's clothes but not Mary's or Sibyl's is commendable.)

(grabbed from this lovely Pinterest acct: http://pinterest.com/belle111285/edwardian-costume/)

Throughout the show I find myself pausing to mutter over the incredulity of many moments, such as the wonky timelines (suddenly they say months have passed and yet all the character plots are EXACTLY where they left off), or the fact that characters are constantly exclaiming things like "TIMES ARE CHANGING!!" or some unbelivably prescient remark, or that aggravating thing when characters don't tell each other things just so the drama can be ratcheted up a notch.

However, now that I understand what I'm in for, of course I'm hooked. I mean, I never miss an episode of Once Upon a Time. I can't exactly bitch about some writing missteps.

But this reminded me, once again, of another shade of the same idea that I spoke of in my recent Skip the boring parts post. If you are writing commercial entertainment, your number one objective must be to tell a good story. I know that, like many of my writing peers, I spend a lot of time making sure that my timelines are correct, that I have done my research, that my characters aren't absurd and my situations aren't unbelievable and I don't have tension simply for tension's sake and I haven't committed the sin of cheesiness and the list goes on and on. But in the end? This year I have been emphasizing entertainment above all else. Lit by Shadows was bought along with a sequel, and that's a first for me. I want to keep people up at night. I want to write a book that makes you want to preorder the sequel. I'll confess I am not ENTIRELY sure how to do that. But I am making it my priority to try.

Tension for tension's sake? Maybe better than no tension at all.
Cheesiness? Still maybe better than a scene of realistically rendered parliamentary procedure.
Unbelievable situations? Just why ARE we escaping into books anyway?

It isn't like I suddenly intend to write a poorly researched and improbable mess, heavens no, but questioning my *priorities*? Absolutely. And sometimes these lessons are actually easier to learn from something that is flawed but delightful, rather than something told so smoothly that I don't even think about it.

For the first time in my life, here in Maryland, I can say I am a TINY bit tired of winter. Of course, not as much as I'm dreading summer. Florida girl's had enough summer to last for years. I was looking at my last year of pictures and this one was from mid-March:

I'm looking forward to seeing those again. But it is funny, we had just moved and I wasn't like, "FLOWERS!!" I was more like, "Wow, pretty things are growing in my new yard!" It's all very relative. There are always flowers in Florida.

Winter has many delights, though. A warm cup of cocoa in the morning, climbing under a feather-stuffed duvet at night, long quiet nights with the space heater for writing, dancing flakes of snow (though we only got one good snow this year), exceedingly cuddly kitties.

What I actually miss more than warmth is fruit. Of course, February and March aren't good months for fresh produce no matter where you are, though in Florida we do get those honey tangerines that are my FAVORITE. Local farms around here are still providing us with a lot of root veggies: in the past month  I've eaten pounds upon pounds of turnips, red turnips, beets, celeriac, Jerusalem artichoke, parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, and potatoes. They are delicious, roasted in medleys in big pans with sliced onions, salt, and seasonings. But how I am dreaming of strawberries, fresh peas, asparagus and garlic scapes...

The latest Dark Metropolis news! Or, should I say...

Some of you may have been wondering just what is going on with Dark Metropolis anyway. Well, I have some bad news (that is actually good news, believe me):

The book has been pushed back again, to 2014.

I've actually known about this for months, but when I first heard, I was pretty bummed. When it was pushed back to fall 2013 I was like, well, okay. But NOW, I hate that I have no book in 2013 for you, dear readers, especially since I actually write pretty fast, most of the time. But this past year has definitely been out of the ordinary, and truly, I am glad my editor wanted to push the book back to give it the time it needs to be the best book it can be. It's better to wait and have a great book.

But I know, it is still a bummer. I am feeling broke and un-famous. But it's probably been good for my creative process. A kind of re-centering.

However, I also have some nifty news. The book has a new title, and I love it!! It is...

LIT BY SHADOWS!

It hasn't gone through marketing yet so there is a wee chance it could change, but...I think it is so evocative! I had nothing to do with choosing it, of course, because I am the WORST with titles and I try to push that job into someone else's hands as much as possible. Pleeeeease, I will write the book, just do not make me title it!!! I gave Hyperion a list of words and they came back with this, which I simply adore. I hope you like it too!

Shiny updated Goodreads listing: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12483970-lit-by-shadows

Skip the boring parts

The other day I was editing a scene from the sequel to Dark Metropolis and I realized what the problem had been with the original: I had added in boring parts, subconsciously, because "it's more realistic".

Once I noticed this I realized how often I do it.

I will feel the need to add some extra characters no one cares about, because I simply feel like, realistically, more people would be involved in these endeavors.

Or I drag out a scene because, well, come on, realistically things probably wouldn't happen THAT fast.

Or I make characters more boring than they need to be because some little voice in my head says, "Realistically, not all the people my MC comes across would be fascinating and awesome. Some people are just dull!"

I am going to try to banish the word "realistically" from my vocabulary--well, or at least pare it back. It's one thing to get serious research details wrong, but the actual storytelling? Well, it probably shouldn't be TOO realistic.

This week's food adventures

First, if you have not yet seen it, I just realized Kristin Cashore wrote up a post of her tour presentation of how she wrote Bitterblue: http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/2012/12/pictures-of-book-being-made.html. A must-read, if you haven't seen her on tour--well, heck, I did see her on tour and I'm still bookmarking it to remind myself that you can struggle and struggle with a book and it might NOT be crap, in the end.

I also think this Food Timeline is awesome: http://www.foodtimeline.org/index.html (via bodlon).

I cook a lot. This week I had some good luck with various recipes.

First, I made this Peanut Butter & Greens Soup: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/soupssalads/r/peanutsoup.htm because Food Lion had bags of prewashed collards on sale for .50. They must have over-ordered for New Year's. It was really good, though I didn't have as much peanut butter as the recipe calls for. I added Huy Fong Chili Garlic sauce instead of cayenne pepper.

I also tried this Thai omelette: http://shesimmers.com/2009/05/how-to-make-thai-style-omelets.html which turned out delicious and very rich... I used only a couple tablespoons of coconut oil instead of the 3/4 cup vegetable oil. The recipe tells you not to do this, but I don't use veggie oil, and coconut oil is much too pricey to use in such quantity. It absorbed all of it, I'm not sure how much the lesser quantity of oil may have affected its ability to "flash fry". However, the end result was really good. The coconut oil is scrumptious. I ate it with Jasmine rice as suggested, hoisin sauce and more chili garlic sauce. If you need something that will hold you for a loooong time for less than a dollar, this is it.

I had gotten A Taste of Thai Spicy Thai Peanut Bake for 99 cents at Amazing Savings in Asheville in November, which I finally remembered I had and tossed on some roasted sweet potatoes. I put the peanut bake on about halfway through the roasting time, but it did burn a little. I think I could've put it on just in the last ten minutes. I really liked this, though. It's peanutty, sweet, a little spicy, and really gives roasted veggies a pop.

Thus concludes this week's food adventures. 

Remembering Evan S. Connell and Mrs. Bridge

PW Daily has just informed me that Evan S. Connell passed away yesterday. I must comment on this because he happens to be the author of one of my favorite books of all time: Mrs. Bridge. (I am also quite fond of the companion novel, Mr. Bridge.)

One of my favorite styles of writing to read is the witty and satirical portrait of how absurd people are. It's very hard to do well. I'm sure I couldn't, although bits of it do filter into my writing. My favorite novel of this type is Mrs. Bridge.

I came upon the book in a funny way. I was reading a non-fiction book about people who collect and resell antiquarian books, and they purchased a copy of Mrs. Bridge and included a generous excerpt from the novel. An entire chapter, I think, which wouldn't be hard because the entire book is written as a series of short chapters, moments in the life of a repressed suburban housewife.

I'd never heard of the book--most 20th century literary fiction isn't really my thing--but I was so impressed by this chapter I purchased the book that very week, and I was gripped from the first line:

"Her first name was India-she was never able to get used to it."

These books are funny but also sad. Occasionally downright dark. Thoughtful. And impeccably written. What else can I say? It's difficult to make a book about a suburban housewife sound like a must-read. But I adore this book. I might just have to go read it again...

The Casual Blogger

Heyyyy there.

It's been a while. But it's a new year, a much less INSANE year, and I'm feeling like it's time to blow the dust off the old blog.

I'm also going to try to post about more little things instead of waiting a month and writing like, a magazine article. I vow to post about smaller things! More frequent things! Things I can write in the morning (12:06 is totally the morning in my book) when my cat Betsy, happy and full of her morning kibble, conks out on my lap and is too distractingly heavy and adorable for me to do anything more important.

Thought for the day: I just went to the calendar store this week and got my 2013 calendar 50% off. You never know what you'll get, if you wait until after the new year, but I have to say this year might be one of my favorites EVER. Vintage sheet music.

Some of the images are just the BEST, like this month it is an image of an ice palace for the "Ice Palace March-Twostep".

What's on your calendar this year?