Archive for the 'Writing Process' Category

Book Deal and Day Job Announcements!

I am so excited to announce all sorts of good stuff!

First of all, there’s going to be MORE JANE TRUE! Orbit has bought Jane True, Books 4, 5, and 6. Don’t ask me what they’re going to be called, because I am totally stuck. “Tempest” related names seemed like SUCH a good idea . . . till I ran the fuck out of ideas. Number six might wind up “Tempest Bledsoe.” Just a warning.

But, names aside, there’s going to be MORE JANE! Which makes me so unbelievably happy, not least because I can continue working with everyone at Orbit. They’ve been SO great, and I feel so very honored and humbled by their faith in me.

So that’s some huge news, and very exciting. But equally huge and exciting is that I am on the move, again!

I’ve adored my time at LSUS. My colleagues and students couldn’t have been more amazing. But my life has changed so much with the publication of the books, and it’s more than a little scary working for Louisiana higher ed when there’s a budget crisis. So I am thrilled to announce that I’m moving to teach as an assistant professor in Seton Hill’s MFA program for Writing Popular Fiction. Yes, you read that correctly . . . it’s an MFA specifically for popular, publishable fiction. Here’s the blurb from our website:

http://www.setonhill.edu/index.cfm

The Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill is one of the only programs in the country that teaches writers to create – and market – the fiction that sells. Upon graduation from Seton Hill’s program, you will have completed a full-length market-ready novel, earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from a leading liberal arts University, and become part of a supportive network of published authors.

Seton Hill University’s unique Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction teaches students to write marketable novels in popular genres like mystery, romance, science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Additional specialties include literature for children and adolescents, and cross-genre blends like romantic suspense or young adult mysteries. Knowing that graduate students have many obligations, Seton Hill has designed a flexible, intensive-residency format that allows you to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree while working full-time or caring for a family. One-on-one mentoring by established writers enables students to develop a writing project in a genre of their choice. Online contact with other participants ensures that students become part of a writing community and that they receive varied commentary on their work-in-progress. Week long residencies, twice each year, inform and enliven the writing experience, bringing students together on Seton Hill’s campus to learn the basics and complexities of popular fiction. Lectures and workshops by guest writers of regional and national fame (and editors, agents and publishers) add extra impact to the residency experience.

How cool is that? This semester, I’ll be mentoring students who are writing Urban Fantasy, and teaching at least one online course. I’ll also get an iPad, which I will name Bessie.

So I’m moving to Pittsburgh, people! Seton Hill is in Greensburg, but I’m a city gal by nature. The idea of walking to get a coffee THRILLS me. And in Pittsburgh, I’ll be closer to my family and friends in Chicago, my friends on the East Coast, and an airport from which I can go wherever I please (not just DFW).

That said, I am very sad to leave Shreveport and my friends, colleagues, and students here in Louisiana. I’ve loved my time here and y’all couldn’t have been more welcoming and generous. Thank you so much for a beautiful run, and I will miss you all very, very much. Look me up if you’re in Pennsylvania. :-)

Published on May 17, 2010 in Coming Soon!, Day Job!, My Travels, Nicole Peeler, Urban Fantasy and Writing Process. 75 Comments Tags: , , , .

Let’s Talk About Sex . . . Again

I am, once again, to be found in the internetz talking about the sex.

In a professional capacity, por su puesto.

Please come on over, comment, and let me know if there’s some issues about sex and mainstream publishing you’d like me to address! :-)

Published on January 14, 2010 in WriteSex and Writing Process. 4 Comments Tags: , .

That Ubiquitous New Year’s Post…

I wasn’t going to do a New Year’s post, because I am, of course, ornery about New Year’s.

(In case you haven’t noticed, I’m ornery over just about everything)

So why am I ornery about New Year’s? It’s because I hate the idea of resolutions. And why do I hate resolutions? It’s because I hate the idea of living for watershed moments. I hate the idea of saying, “On January first, THAT’S when I’ll do whatever super important thing I really need/want to do. Until then I’ll do fuck all . . . but on January first, it’s ON!” 

Because it rarely, if ever, is on. What you’ve put off for a month can inevitably be put off for another month. Or you wait for the magic of the New Year’s resolution to kick in, and then you realize that it’s January fifth and nothing has happened because what you want to do requires work, not magic.

In other words, you can intend all you want, but things don’t get done until you do them.

Plus, New Year’s is inevitably a pain in my ass. Whenever I make plans, they fall to pieces. For example, this year, about a month ago, I bought tickets  to see this super awesome concert in Chicago with my good friend. Now she has phneumonia in both lungs (get well soon, Loren!) and I am going to go watch Harry Potter with Mrs. Bunch, my former English teacher.

I felt pretty shit about this, to be honest. Not about spending time with Mr. and Mrs. Bunch, whom I adore, but about not getting my vacation. For going to Chicago for the concert was going to be My Vacation: I was going to use going into the city and staying with Loren as my time to see friends, shop, get some stuff done I’ve been wanting to do (tattoo!!!!) and basically just be a jet-setting city girl instead of a hermit writer.

So I was really disappointed about not getting my vacay, and I felt pretty mopey. Until I made some calls, got on Expedia, and bought tickets to San Francisco, to see my friend with whom I spent last New Years.

(Which, btw, was a PERFECT New Years as my friend, Jana Henning, organized it, and she is the most brilliant, beautiful, funniest, smartest, awesome, and most likely to make me pee in my pants person EVER.) (And yes, the peeing has happened. She made me pee all over the Greek islands once. Our friendship is like a comedic bio hazard.)

So now, instead of spending a lame assed New Years in Elburn, I am spending a productive New Years getting ready for my BAD ASS trip to San Fran.

And the reason I have money to do stuff like this, although the ticket was actually outrageously cheap–nothing like the fear of terrorism to bring down ticket prices, is because I don’t make resolutions. I don’t say, “Next week, I’m gonna . . .” Instead, I’ve learned to say, “Right now, I’m gonna. . .”

Meanwhile, acting upon this attitude was, indeed, a skill I had to learn. Doing my Ph.D., I was always going to start writing, I just had to research one more thing . . . I just had to get inspired . . . I just had to . . .

Finally, my supervisor(s) were like, “You just gotta stop making excuses and start writing.” Eventually, I learned to do just that. But it was difficult. Excuses are great! Not starting is even better! Cause if I didn’t start, I couldn’t fail.

Eventually, I realized that what was wrong with me wasn’t my project, or my paragraph, or my idea . . . what was wrong with me was my definition of “failure.” I had set up in my mind this dichotomous world where everything was either “perfect” or a “failure.” But that’s not how life really works. If you want to lose twenty pounds, but you only lose five, that’s not a failure. If you attempt an idea that doesn’t come to fruition, that’s not a failure. If you write a rough draft that’s rough, that is not a failure.

These are all just steps required on the way to success, and they are victories in themselves.

So try a different type of resolution, this year: not to make resolutions. Instead, just try to get things done. Don’t let yourself get bogged down by final, ultimate, goals. See life as what it is: a process where sometimes we perform major coups, but most of the time we take faltering steps forward (and occasionally backward) that eventually culminate in real, substantial success.

Oh, and pre-order Tracking the Tempest. It’s up on Amazon, and should be available everywhere else, soon. ;-) Yay!!!!!

Published on December 31, 2009 in Nicole Peeler, Tracking the Tempest and Writing Process. 14 Comments

Just a quickie . . .

I went to Dallas on Tuesday to see Glasvegas, and the COOLEST thing happened, ever. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Glasvegas. But I’m a bit obsessed at the mo’ with a band called Ida Maria. They’re Norwegian. And they ROCK MY WORLD.

On the ride over to Dallas, I genuised a playlist on my Touch* using Glasvegas’s Geraldine, and there was tons of Ida Maria mixed in. Squid, my friend who I was going to the show with, was like, “Who is this band? They rock? Can we listen to that song again?” So we ended up listening to tons of Ida Maria on the way down.

Anyway, we show up at the venue and there’s Ida Maria signs mixed up with the Glasvegas signs ALL OVER. And I’m all, “Oh, Ida Maria must be coming to town! Let’s see them when they do!” Squid agrees.

Now, keep in mind that Squid bought the tix and didn’t know Ida Maria from a hole in the wall before the drive to Dallas. As we watch the opening band’s roadies set up their stuff, I’m all, “Who’s opening?” and Squid’s like, “You know what, I have no idea.”

Then this girl takes the stages and I’m like, “Oh my God … That’s Ida Maria!” And it WAS! And they were amazing! If you haven’t heard their stuff, download NOW. I heart. I really, really heart.

And Glasvegas was amazing. Although they made me miss my braw Scottish lads.

That was my Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we drove back to Shreveport, and on the way I talked to my editor regarding my revisions of Tracking the Tempest. Basically, she’s happy with them. I still have a leeeetle more work to do on the mystery aspect. My mystery is still is a bit lame. BUT it’s getting there, and I think I fixed EVERYTHING else that blew about this sequel.

In the past few months, I’ve learned about 1,027 lessons about writing. And I’ll be going into book 3 with an entirely different mindset and with an entirely different focus than I had for book two. I don’t think my struggle with my sequel was that bad, and I know that struggling with a sequel is really, really common. I think I got off pretty lightly, really. But I did struggle, I AM struggling, and I think it comes down to how I approached it, in the beginning.

Which was, essentially, “I’m gonna write my sequel, yo! Woot!” Apparently, more should go into it than that.

So I’m going to do some more work on an academic article I REALLY need to revise, and then I’ll go another round with Tracking. And in the meantime I’m going to pick the brainz of other writers to see how THEY organize for an upcoming book.

And in the meantime, I’m learning the fine art of mystery writing. Or at least learning to be less crap at it.

See ya’ll on the flip side. ;-)

*Yes, I speak Mac along with Twitter. I am a technology whore.

Published on August 6, 2009 in My Travels, Tracking the Tempest, Writing Process and revisions. 2 Comments

Defining Voice: On Personality and Prose

Yesterday, on Twitter, author Toni McGee Causey retweeted a link to a great blog post on “voice” by Allison Brennan. (For those of you who don’t speak Twitter, just run with me. ;-) )

Anyway, Brennan’s post made me think about voice. It’s something I’ve heard talked about a million times, and Brennan does a great job, on the one hand, of illustrating just how common such talk is by bandying about all the “voice” expressions we hear constantly. That an author has a “strong voice,” or a “commercial voice,” or that his or her writing seems “honest.” On the other hand, as Brennan also discusses, no one can definitively define “voice.” What is authorial voice? I can certainly define an individual author’s voice (by using adjectives such as humorous, wry, dark, et cetera), but I only have my own, homespun idea of what the Platonic ideal definition of voice may be.

Brennan gives a few small paragraphs defining voice, and I think it’s absolutely accurate. But in my own definition, and to add to everything Brennan says about tone and the like, is the idea of voice as personality.

Voice is like Dr. Frankenstein’s spark; it imbues a work with life. Voice makes a work breathe and speak, and, in that mysterious process which is reading, voice allows a work to interact with its reader.

Voice is also, like so many of the best things in life, most easily defined by what it is not. We’ve all read, or heard, something in which the voice just isn’t up to snuff. The words cling lifeless to the page, a rote exercise in grammar or penmanship. What do you do, with that piece of paper upon which words are written but in which there is no life? In other words, how do you learn, or teach, voice?

To be honest, I don’t know if it’s possible to do so. I don’t know if voice is something that can be taught. In my occasionally hippie-dippie philosophies, I think that voice might be that mysterious force that an individual either understands, or doesn’t, and that’s why we’re not all authors.

That said, I do think that many people probably have an authorial voice, and I do think there are ways of helping them remove the things that block them from accessing that voice.

What does that mean? Well, I’ve talked often about how, on the surface, it looks a bit like one day I was not an author; the next day I was. How I read a book, and decided I could write like that, and so I did.

This story is important on two levels. The first involves the superficial story and the idea of me connecting with a voice. The second involves the real story behind the superficial story, in which I’ve worked for years to become an author, but I just didn’t know it at the time.

In the first, superficial version of the story, the whole point is this idea of being inspired by another work. I randomly picked up Charlaine Harris’s book Dead as a Doornail. I read that book and I thought, “I can do this.” There were many things I loved about that novel, but the thing that I think really struck a chord for me was Harris’s voice.

I’d always loved urban fantasy, and fantasy in general, but it tends to take itself very seriously. The heroes are truly heroic: they run around brandishing weapons and saving the world. My problem is that as much as I love reading about them, I don’t really believe in heroes and I certainly wouldn’t know how to write one. What Harris showed me was that UF can be about accidental heroes; that it can be funny, and touching, and very, very human. And have hot were-tigers. Mrwor.

In other words, Harris illustrated to me how my voice could fit into a fantasy setting, something I hadn’t really thought possible based on the more canonically fantasy stuff I’d read ages before.

So, the idea of finding a way to integrate your voice into your subject matter is important. But the other part of this story is that, while it’s very exciting (and rather irritating) on a superficial level, it’s not really the truth. For even though I did become a fiction writer in about three months, I became a writer over about 11 years.

I’ve talked a lot about how becoming an academic, and especially doing my Ph.D., helped me to learn about the process of writing and to see writing not so much as inspiration but as hard work and discipline. But my Ph.D. also taught me about voice. I had to become very acquainted with my own authorial voice because, for my thesis, I had to strip it out of my writing. There’s nothing like being forced to remove something to help you identify it. My voice is sarcastic, humorous, and self deprecating, but it also has an edge of sweetness and a frisson of idealism. None of which are appropriate for academic writing. So I had to pare down my writing; take out my voice, so that my ideas were highlighted rather than my personality. And that’s where I made the connection between the idea of personality and the idea of voice.

You’ll read some writers who are their books. Their personalities are so deeply embedded in their writing that reading their book is like having a conversation with them. Other writers pull from some deep, inner part of their being that never sees the light of day, otherwise. But whether or not the work reflects the actual writer, what a good work definitely does reflect is a personality. It has its own life; its own soul.

So we’re back to the idea of teaching . . . how can you teach the transference of souls? And could I be more of a closet hippie?

Fear not, those of you who don’t feel you’ve found your voice. For while I’m not sure voice can be taught to someone who doesn’t, really, have one, I do think that there are many people who have a voice that’s been buried. So many things we grow up with – pressure to conform, pressure to write and think a certain way, pressure to hide ourselves beneath masks – get in the way of our voice. Therefore one thing we can teach is how to strip away those roadblocks to voice. That’s where learning good practice, good discipline, and good editorial skills comes in. It’s also about finding confidence and ceasing to fear revealing oneself. I won’t lie; I’m really scared of what people will make of me through Tempest Rising. It’s a book about a half seal woman living in Maine, but there’s still a lot of me in there. It’s not all me; it’s obviously not memoir, and there are a lot of things I purposely gave Jane that are not me. But there’s also a lot of me, and that’s scary. Revealing yourself, stripping yourself down for the world to see, is frightening. Writing genre-fiction gives you a bit of a buffer, but the personality behind it is still, to a greater or lesser extent, going to be your personality. And that’s frightening.

But that fear can be overcome with practice, with diligence, and with confidence that, as Brennan points out, having a “strong” personality is a good thing, even if its not appreciated by all.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. And I want to know what you think about voice. Have you struggled with it or do you think it comes naturally? Do you think voice can be taught? What’s your definition of voice?

Published on August 3, 2009 in Writing Process. 4 Comments

Revisions Diary: Day ONE MILLION AND SHOOT ME

Yeah, I’m still revising. The same book I was revising before.

Basically, I fixed everything my editor wanted me to fix, and in doing so I uncovered everything else that also needed to be fixed, but that had been slightly camouflaged by the suckitude of the initial things that needed to be fixed.

Say what?

Yeah, that’s about where I’m at with language these days.

Anyway, I’m ALMOST DONE. I got a wee bit stuck in a little chunk about 2/3 of the way through, but now I’ve cracked the outline for it and I think it’s going to be good. So I’m going to hammer out these changes in the next few days. Then take a day to do glorious fuck all bugger, and then I’ll go back for a round of proofing/souping up/making things fun.

All to be done before the 31st, my friends. Ohhhhhh yes.

In the meantime, I have also been having a very good time. It always takes me a wee minute to adjust back to life in the Porte du Shreve, but once I’m in….. watch out. Belly dancing? Okay, I shoulda practiced more as my hips are wound up tight as could be. But I’ve also got a new trainer (Dawn!) who is killing me, but in the best possible way. She’s so fun and makes the work out go by so quickly, and I love just following somebody around as they tell me what to do. I have an alarmingly submissive side that never gets to come out, except, apparently, at the gym! And I can’t tell you how I’ve missed the Sausagefest which is my gym. So much eye candy! so little time!

In other words, I missed my routine. But most of all, lordie did I miss my friends!

So I had them all over for dinner the other night, and made them one of these. It’s basically a spaghetti pie (or a spaghetti en croûte as Mark Henry called it on Twitter, because he’s fancy). I followed the recipe exactly and it came out perfect. Be sure to keep an eye on the croûte, and I did have to throw a sheet of tin foil over the top about 2/3 of the way through. Also, I made the sauce (minus the cheese and angel hair) the night BEFORE so that the day of the party I had very little prep. Anyway, it turned out REALLY FUCKING IMPRESSIVE.  Especially considering it was so easy. But the result was this big ass, HEAVY (another trick is to put the spring form on a baking sheet so it’s easier to lift in/out of oven), golden beauty of puff pastry and outrageously delicious filling. Check that bad boy out!

IMG_0206 IMG_0207

And here’s the money shot! Look at that ooze! Blimey!

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Lovely. I’ve really missed cooking and I think I’m going to get back into it this year. So yeah, I’ll probably have EVEN MORE FOOD on this blog. Is that possible? Is this a food blog or a writer’s blog? Well, this is one writer who love her food, so it’s gotta be both.

If you have any questions about the recipe, give me a shout out!

Yay!

Published on July 25, 2009 in Tracking the Tempest, Writing Process and revisions. 6 Comments

Tracking the Tempest Revisions Diary: Vlog on my NNB

So here’s me talking about my Near Nervous Breakdown regarding my revisions. Okay, it only lasted twenty minutes, so it’s really not that serious. The important part is how I got over it and what I think others can take from my very own NNB.

For those of you who don’t really  want to watch me mug and need a little inspiration, here’s a wee sales pitch:

You get to see me heart my Dyson

You get to hear my theory regarding “muscling through”

My accent may put hairs on your chest

I promote violence against animals… Just kidding, PETA!

If that doesn’t do it, I don’t know what will. So here she is. Da Vlog…..



Published on June 7, 2009 in Tracking the Tempest, Vlogs, Writing Process and revisions. 0 Comments

Tracking the Tempest Revisions Diary: Day Gark (and some other stuff)

I have no idea what day it is in my revisions. I could sit down and count, but I’m not going to. Instead I’m going to refer to it as “gark,” because that’s the noise I make when I look at the calendar.

Don’t get me wrong, my revisions aren’t due till July 15th. And it’s June 3rd. But I want to get down this rough draft and then sit on it for at least a few days. That way, hopefully, everything will become clear and I’ll get a little distance on the writing. Then I’ll go back, give it a big super edit and try to fit in some more stuff (it’s so tight! Soooo tight!). After that, I’ll send it off to my Alpha Readers, my new critique partner (the FABULOUS Diana Rowland), and my agent. Oh, and My One Friend Mary Lois, who has a sinfully orderly economist brain and finds all sorts of inconsistencies that my wacky, artsy brain glosses over as “pretty”. 

I think in the next post I do, probably Thursday or Friday, I’ll go into detail about my Near Nervous Breakdown and How I Recovered. Okay, the NNB lasted for about 20 minutes, but I think it’s the kind of emotional trap that would have killed me pre-doctorate. So in my next post I’ll talk about what precipitated it, how I got over it, and how, for only three monthly installments of $99.99, you can get over it, too.

Just kidding. But seriously, I will delve into the emotional black hole which is Nicole Peeler, and I will delve just for you, people.

Maybe I’ll even vlog it? Saucy.

Which reminds me of another thing I wanted to talk about today: What I Learned about myself from Vlogging

1) I need someone to follow me with a taser and zap me everytime I say, “um,” “whatever,” and, “you know.” Did I get my doctorate in Valley Girl? No? Then I need to Pavlov that shit right out of me.

2) On a happier note, I am totally at one with my ball. It’s like an extension of me. I have even integrated it into my physical comedy. I am like a Pilates Ball Centaur.

3) For everyone who sent me messages about my devil eyes, they’re not always that blue. It’s only when I’ve sacrificed a really juicy baby. No, seriously, they’re usually not that crazy (well, the color’s not, at least). My brother’s eyes, however, ARE that blue, ALL the time. And he got the eyelashes. Bastard. 

Speaking of vlogging, here’s the update with Team Burn Sauce. Apparently, they cancelled trivia this week. I think they know I’m gunning for them. And by them I mean EVERYONE. They’re all going down in a blaze of trivia-intelligence. So instead of going to trivia, we’re going to go hang out at my friend’s place, play a board game, and order pizza from a different establishment than the one that CANCELLED TRIVIA ON US. ‘Cause we get our revenge any way we can. But next week? It’s. So. On.

And that’s my life in a nutshell. I hope to have my 1st round of revisions for Tracking done in the next day or two, so that I can spend all of next week being an Academic, and revising an article I’d written on Nietzsche’s theory of ressentiment in Philip Roth’s When She Was Good. It’s already accepted at a journal, I just gotta revise and resubmit. But I’m not really in Nietzsche mode. I’m more in paranormal nookie mode.

BTW, no matter how many times I write the name “Nietzsche,” it always looks wrong. Not like the name Peeler. Which, if inelegant and a bit plebeian, is very easy to spell. EXCEPT THAT NO ONE EVER GETS IT RIGHT. I say, “It’s like potato peeler,” and they say, “So how do you spell that?”

Really?

So that’s my life in a nutshell. Be back in a few days with a super self-indulgent post on my Near Nervous Breakdown, Which Actually Lasted 20 Minutes, and hopefully some good news about my first round of revisions being finito.

And to close, here’s a pretty little piccy of my 1st pass manuscript of Tempest Rising. She’s going to be a real book, people! They’re actually publishing her!!! It’s not a dream!

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Can I get a woot?

Published on June 3, 2009 in Tracking the Tempest, Writing Process and revisions. 0 Comments

Tracking the Tempest Revisions Diary: Day 16

This week was AWESOME, work wise. I’m on chapter 11, so I’ve basically finished the first third of major rewriting I had to do, which included quite a few whole chapters or sections that needed written from scratch. I think there are only 2 new sections in the rest of my new outline, with, obviously, quite a few new lines, paragraphs, etc., to keep continuity with all the changes I’ve made.

But basically from here on in it should be smooth sailing and I should be on target to finish a rough draft of my revisions by June 1. At that point I am going to send them off to my two Alpha Readers: Dr. James Clawson and Master Christie Ko (loves you guys!). I also, now, have the luxury of sending them off to my new critique partner, Diana Rowland, whose upcoming release Mark of the Demon ROCKED MY CASBAH. Seriously. I love the tone, love the heroine, adore the male protags, can’t get enough of the south Louisiana setting, and just ate it up like it was candy. Indeed, if it were candy, it would be Sour Patch Kids. And I can’t begin to tell you the damage I can do to some Sour Patch Kids. In other terms, it was really, really good and I highly recommend you BUY THAT BOOK. I said that just like Jon Lovitz did in the Critic, btw. It’s one of my favorite jokes that nobody ever gets.

After they have at it, and I let it simmer and stew and get some distance on what I wrote (as I write book 3, btw), I’ll do a final set of edits for July 15, when my editor wants it back. Hopefully she will be pleased and I will get another chunk of advance. Chunks of advance are always nice.

The best thing about this process is that I am insanely happy with the changes. It’s gone from being a passably readable book in which fun things happen to, I hope, a book that does Jane justice, that builds on the first book and that does what a second book should do in terms of the series as a whole. Jane is much feistier in this version that she was in the first, and it suits her. Ryu comes across more vividly, here, as well. And there’s EVEN MORE ANYAN. Oy gevalt, more Anyan!

And I should desist talking about these characters like you know who they are, as the first book isn’t going to be released for what feels like EONS. So just ignore me for now, but after you’ve read it you can come back and this’ll be like free spoilers.

So I’m going to finish my smoothie and my coffee, then put on the gym clothes and head over to the cushy ‘Bucks to work. After which I will gym it. No rest for the wicked, and what not. But man do I love my job. 

It’s good to be an urban fantasist.

Published on May 24, 2009 in Tracking the Tempest, Writing Process and revisions. 0 Comments

Tracking the Tempest Revisions Diary: Day 12

As I was in NOLA, stuffing my face, over the last weekend, we skipped from Day 6 to Day 12 here in Revisions Paradise.

The good thing is that my trip was actually really productive, workwise, and it was also really inspiring.

I think between here and the League I’ve droned on long enough about how much I loved NOLA, and how the city gave me tons of ideas and images, as well as tons of happy karma that I am spreading through my work.

More importantly, however, was that I remembered how much I love words. As I said, I was attending the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival with a friend who is a poet. I paid for a day ticket to see my friend’s two panels, and they were great. One was a panel in remembrance of a poet who died last year, Reginald Shepherd. I’m really, really behind when it comes to contemporary poetry, so I wasn’t aware of Reginald’s work. But there were a lot of readings done of various poems during the panel, and they were beautiful. I mean heartrendingly lovely: full of brilliant imagery, eroticism, and life. Even his poetry about his own imminent death was full of life, a beautifully crafted example of the horrifying paradox Philip Roth calls our human stain: the fact we must live with the knowledge we shall die.

The other panel I attended was a reading done by a group of men, including my friend, Chris, who’d contributed essays to a fabulous anthology called My Diva. Each essay was about a particular female icon that had been that man’s diva when he was younger. Chris wrote a lovely piece on Princess Leia, and there was another essay on Auntie Mame that made me tear up. Anyway, all of the essays read were great, and all but one of them wrote on figures from popular culture. Which reminded me of my own childhood and how very important my fantasy heros and heroines were to me. They weren’t figures of high culture, or high art. Hell, they weren’t real people doing real things. But I was so convinced, at the time, that Mercedes Lackey’s Vanyel, or de Lint’s Ally, from Greenmantle, had something to teach me. They obviously spoke to me, as I read their books till they were in tatters, but there was more to it than that.

What I’m trying to get at, in my own roundabout fashion, is that I know the stuff I write isn’t the stuff I study. I’m not writing Literature; I’m not Philip Roth or A.S. Byatt or Iris Murdoch. But I think that beauty can lurk in unexpected places and I also think that those who ignore the importance of popular culture do so in self-inflicted blindness. Our brightly colored paperbacks might not hold sway at academic conferences, but they mean so much to so many people that they do have a tremendous power. Most overtly, it is the power to entertain, the power to help people disengage with their mundane lives and let their imagination run rampant. In doing so, however, the author has a unique opportunity to guide their readers from image to image and from idea to idea. And I think that fantasy, especially urban fantasy, which integrates the Other into our own landscape, making the familiar seem frightening and the otherwise frightening appear familiar, has so much to teach about tolerance, acceptance, and that genuine sense of adventure and curiosity that, to me, defines a good life.

So I learned a lot last weekend, and was reminded of even more. Thanks to everyone involved at Saints and Sinners, and to all of the wonderful poets and writers that I met there. You guys were amazing!

Published on May 20, 2009 in Tracking the Tempest, Writing Process and revisions. 0 Comments