Mel: I’m here today with Naomi Tretheway. She’s a werewolf that lives alone in Sacramento. Naomi and I go way back and I’m very excited she’s agreed to let me interview her for the blog today.
Naomi: Thanks, and I’m excited to be here - as a fictional character because, you know, werewolves aren’t real and I’m not living in Sacramento in real life. If I were, well then, my mom would probably kill you.
Mel: Right… So you live here by yourself. All alone, don’t you?
Naomi: Yeah, I’ve got my own place.
Mel: Do you like it?
Naomi: It’s not bad… and my house is beautiful. It’s right on the American River Parkway, so that I can just change and go running at night. I love to hunt with the moon shining down. The rabbits and turkey here are great for just me. If my whole pack came down we might take a deer or two.
Mel: Werewolves usually live with their packs, right? Why don’t you live with yours?
Naomi: Yeah, we do, but I was a little rebel. I went to college and got a job in town.
Mel: Isn’t that pretty much what every parent wants for their kids?
Naomi: Maybe for you humans, but not for us. I was supposed to pick a mate, become an alpha, get my own farm - not too far away, and start my own pack. Mom was pissed when I said I was going to college. Then, when I got a job straight out of school she was furious.
Mel: So, why’d you go to school if you knew it wouldn’t make your mom happy.
Naomi: All my human friends were applying to college, so I did too. Then, I got in.
Mel: But you didn’t have to go just because you got in and you knew it would piss her off. Did you go just to make her mad?
Naomi: Hell no. I’m not that stupid.
Mel: Then why’d you do it?
Naomi: Truth is I’m worried. We can’t keep doing things the old way. I mean, the city keeps getting closer and closer to home.
Mel: So, what? You’re doing some kind of experiment to see how well werewolves can blend in?
Naomi: I guess so. I mean, if I can make it work in town, maybe someone else will try it. My brother Bryan decided to go to college after I did and he blends in so much better than I do. I mean, he even picked a human mate.
Mel: A human mate? Is that common?
Naomi: God no. It’s almost a crime! Mom was going to kill him, then she convinced herself it’s just a phase, but we mate for life. He bonded with Mikey.
Mel: Wait. Mikey?
Naomi: Oh, he’s gay. Another thing my mom thinks is just a phase. But we’re different than you humans. We don’t give it up easy and when we do, we usually stay with one person until we die. I think he’s going to stay with Mikey forever.
Mel: What happens if someone dies young?
Naomi: *Naomi shrugs* Usually the widow stays single.
Mel: I see. So, uh… Blending in is very important to you, isn’t it?
Naomi: Yeah! Could you imagine what would happen if people found out we’re real?
Mel: People would be pretty shocked huh?
Naomi: Not just shocked. I’m afraid they might start kidnapping us.
Mel: Why would you think that?
Naomi: Well, there’s this story about my great-grandpa who got found out during World War II. At first they drafted him and made him work as a spy, but after the war… He never came home. He just disappeared. My great grandma never saw him again. Mom thinks the government took him. She’s terrified of what would happen if anyone found out about us.
Mel: That’s horrible.
Naomi: No kidding. And then there’s family stories about how in the 1800s some humans started hunting us down for what we are. Our whole clan moved from Europe to the US then. After that, they guarded our secret even more carefully. I wasn’t joking when I said my mom would kill people to keep our secret safe.
Mel: Uh… on that note, I think I’m going to end this interview. I don’t want to get killed.
So I’ve been rethinking the purpose of this blog.
Part of the reason for this is that I read John Locke’s “How I Sold a Million E-Books” and then saw very similar advice from JA Konrath, Kris Rusch, and Dean Wesley Smith. They all say the same thing, until you have a half dozen e-books out, don’t worry so much about marketing and sales. Worry about writing and building your back list.
I think until I have something for sale, maybe there’s not as much point of having this blog as an “author blog”. At least not the way I’ve been approaching it until now. I know it’s been about building relationships with other writers, but I think this blog should be more about connecting with readers.
I’ve set up a new blog for tracking my progress on all of my goals at bookofmel.wordpress.com.
And I’m thinking I’m going to retool this blog to be a fiction only blog. As a reader, I love seeing the free snippets (and they encourage me to buy stories or check them out of the library) on KrisWrites.com and other big name author’s websites.
I’m going to retool my categories, I think I may start posting diary entries from Naomi’s POV here as well as snippets and shorts and other stories.
Stay tuned.
It’s time for the Insecure Writers Support Group again. Last month, I barred my soul and said it was time to put my money where my mouth is amidst layoff threats and potentially going to grad school. I found out last Monday that my number one school accepted my application. Woo! Go me!
I’m now in the process of setting up all my computer account, , and requesting housing – we finally decided that it would make more sense if we live on campus (if we get in) and increase our roommies rents. So, we’ll sort of be living both in our house and mostly living in a tiny on campus apartment. I think 600 square foot +/- for a two bed apartment when we’re coming from a 1400 square foot/4 bedroom house will be a shock for us. Even the one bedroom apartment we had before we bought the house was 680 square feet. If we opted for a one bed on campus it would be 450 square feet.
Sorry, I started rambling. I’m excited, scared, and everything in between. This is a good thing and a huge step towards taking control of my life and becoming a writer.
But it also means we’ll lose most of our income and I’ll be much more in charge of my schedule than I am.
Getting into school means that I’m really putting my money where my mouth is and will be leaving my job come September. In honor of that, this month I’m putting up a 4,000 word short story for sale for 99¢. It will be the first time my work is for sale. It will available here on my website via e-junkie, on smashwords, and on Amazon shortly as a kindle single. Frankly, I’m terrified of putting myself out there for everyone and reviews and whatnot.
So, this is my first terrifying foray into selling my writing. It’s been critiqued on critique circle. I’ve made some changes in response to the critiques and proofed it with a fine toothed comb.
Also, this story will be an experiment in serialization. At the end of the story there will be a link to vote on what happens next.
***
Now that I’ve written this, I’d better go make it happen so that I’m not a liar. Make a cover, compile to ebook, make a form for people to vote with, all that good stuff. Fear and inertia have kept me from doing this before. I’m not letting it stop me any more. My heart’s all a flutter.
It’s scary to take a first step. It’s scary to take a step you haven’t before. I’m committing here to publishing this story in the next week. So yeah, I’m terrified.
Continue reading I(‘m) W(i)S(hin)G: Grad School and First Story for Sale
Yesterday I found out I was accepted at my # 1 school choice.
I’ve written a total of 8,659 words on the new WIP and decided that writing new fiction should not be done while I’m working on editing old fiction. At least not when my time’s limited so much because I only half pay attention to either project. So, we’re focused on the writing right now.
I made a new blog to chronicle my non-writing progress. Though maybe I should have just reactivated my old 43 things account, but I like the new blog better (plus I can access it even behind a firewall o.O)
I have two awesome books in my backpack for researching more paranormal creatures to include in this and future books.
Just a quick check in, and a bit of a tease from the new WIP.
Continue reading More Progress Updates for January
I feel the need to do a mid-month check in on my goals for January. Also, I’d just like to say, that the goals were actually written at the same time as the insecure writers post, but not posted until 1/9. So that’s why some of my progress actually pre-dates the goals post.
Additional Plot-Line Werewolf Investigations – Book 1:
Okay, I feel a little silly here since this was my main writing goal. Apparently I did most of the adding in this plot line last year and only had two scenes left to work in. This is done.
Edits on Book 1:
As of 1/8/12 – I’ve started a spreadsheet to make sure that every scene has a purpose in the overall story, solves one problem and creates a new one. Or something like that. This is to make sure that I have the high level story structure before I go in and flesh out scenes, fix problems, and such. That way, I don’t agonize over edits on a scene only to realize later that I need to cut it.
As of 1/10/12 – my husband has read the super rough draft. I will be making some changes and clarifications based on my notes (still ongoing) from my re-read and scene list and from his input.
As of 1/13/12 – Still reading through, making a list of scenes and taking notes.
Outlining Book 2:
I had time with a notebook and no computer a few days this week, so I worked on this goal a bit early.
- 1/8/12 -
- I’ve got my major plot points in place, except I seem to be stuck. Using Larry Brooks’ pretty circus tent, I’m not quite sure what my midpoint/shift is. This is the thing that pushes my characters out of response mode and into attack mode. No clue as of yet, but that doesn’t mean inspiration won’t strike or that I can’t talk it out with someone.
- I know who my villain is and her some of her motivations. In fact, I can totally hear her voice. This makes me happy because if I don’t have a clear voice for my characters, the story withers and dies.
- I’ve also answered a lot of the questions from the 8 steps to plot a novel resource thing. I know what the main problem is (the mystery Naomi is trying to solve), some of the consequences if she doesn’t solve this problem, the requirements that need to be fulfilled to achieve the goal, I have a couple close calls what the article calls “Forewarnings,” I know one of the big sacrifices Naomi will probably have to make, and the pre-conditions are pretty set.
- 1/10/12 -
- I wrote just over a thousand words on this draft in the last couple days and set a goal of 15k over at JanNoWriMo. So far, I haven’t gotten into this new story-line yet and it’s a bit like pulling teeth because I don’t know all of my steps yet – actually, that should be my next plotting step – make up my Ten Things to Happen list.
- 1/12/12
- I wrote 300 words today and 900-ish words yesterday so I’m at 2,033 right now and now I know a lot of what my MC will be doing for the set-up section of the novel(la).
- 1/13/12
- Woke up early to work on the blog and the draft today. Driving to Disney tonight after work and going to spend the weekend there, so I don’t know how much writing I’ll get done. Maybe in the car I’ll write for a little bit, but probably not.
- Also, I posted an excerpt from Book 2 – check it out here, and I have sort of a working title. It Seals the Deal. Or something like that, see it involves selkies – a sort of seal shape shifter, so I want to pun on the word seal, I think… Not 100% sure yet.
Money Stuff: Website Store
- 1/8/12 – I added 5 paranormal books to my shopping cart on smashwords, but I have not purchased them and added them to my kindle yet for further reading. In fact, I should do that now.
- 1/10/12 -I’ve downloaded 6 paranormal books to my kindle from smashwords (best sellers) and am reading them to see if they make the cut for something I’m happy to endorse. Also, the page is drafted, but will need the links & book cover images inserted into them when ready. Also, maybe a mini-review of each book.
- 1/12/12 I’ve read and added two smashwords books to the store page. Not quite ready to publish it until I’ve read at least one or two more of the books and put them up as well. I hope to do this by the end of the month. I have a fiction section (two books right now) and writer’s section (two books and scrivener links). Again, please don’t think this is a pushy store. You don’t have to click on it if you don’t want to, but if a few people buy through the affiliate links and it helps with hosting and maybe helps me save money to hire an editor I’d be stoked.
- 1/14/12 I finished reading The Flinch last night and decided to hit publish on my store anyway. I can always add more selection to it later.
Fitness Goals:
I’ve really been babying myself as I try to get over this chest cold. I’m going to start with a bit of light cardio and strength training over the next couple days, but go slow because I’ve been sick for the last three weeks (and am still sick). Also, please don’t tell me I should go to the doctor. I did that as soon as the cold moved into my chest. I have expectorants and cough medicine and did a course of anti-biotics because my doctor wanted to be a bit more aggressive because of my history of bronchitis and asthma. So uh, been there, done that. I’m thinking maybe if I’m more active it will strengthen my lungs and stimulate my immune system.
Rode my bike in the living room for a half hour on Tuesday night (1/10/12). Felt good. Was planning on riding the bike on Thursday, but that didn’t happen because I got my sushi craving on so we drove to Roseville (half hour away) had sushi, then because our friends live in Roseville and it’s our friends birthday we went to the dollar tree and made a gigantor birthday card… I should have taken pictures, but we made it in the dollar tree parking lot out of a poster board.
Grad School:
I know I didn’t really mention grad school in the goals post, but I’m now it the waiting mode to find out if I got in. Davis will begin sending out their acceptance letters to top candidates in mid to late February. *fingers crossed* then I will be on my way to being a profesora de español.
Side note on translation:
Also, if anyone’s interested in getting their book translated into English from Spanish, I’d love to do a swap (once my book is *ahem* edited. I’ll translate your book if you translate mine. If you’re not a native speaker, thanks but no thanks, I can translate it myself at a fairly high but non-native level.
Also I don’t want all the paranormal creatures translated to duende so we’ll have to work together on that, or leave it in the English or Irish Gaelic (ie far darrig). Of course, being as this would be a swap we’d have to just call it even at that and be done with it.
* side note, I recommend reading The Flinch. The e-book is free so more people read it. It’s about facing your fears and not letting fears and “the flinch” force you into inaction the rest of your life. Of course, if you’re already writing & publishing your books and challenging your dreams, you may have already faced it. But you have to keep facing it in all areas of your life. I’d just like to note on Tuesday, I will be facing it a 5am to go to the damn pool and do my laps.
I’m a day or a week late, but not a dollar short on posting about my goals for 2012.
Notice I say goals, not resolutions. There is a difference there. In the world of self improvement and sports a goal is S.M.A.R.T.: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely/Time Oriented.
So, instead of making year long writing resolutions, I’m going to stick to month long goals. I will evaluate my progress on these month
long goals midway through the month and we’ll see how I progress.
The month long goals are also because the end of my year is shrouded in mystery.
I may or may not be laid off and I may or may not get into graduate school since I finished my apps last month and won’t hear back until
April if I was accepted and to what schools.
Non-Writing Goals
My fitness goals include
Completing the TBF half ironman (70.3 miles) at Rancho Seco in under 7 hours, preferably 6.5 hours or less.
I did this one in 2010 at 8 hours 10 minutes, and I attempted and failed a full ironman this last summer (132-ish miles of 140.6 because
I didn’t make the cut-off to begin the third lap of the marathon). So, this is specific, measurable, hopefully with proper training
achievable, relevant to me because I care about it, but maybe not so much to this blog, and is time oriented – ie there is a specific
deadline. The goal is if I do this, maintain my fitness level and attempt the 140.6 again in 2013.
Also, I hope to lose 15 pounds by race day through proper nutrition combined with the above training. Race day is 8 months from now. Then I hope to maintain the goal weight through the winter holidays/off season. Right now I haven’t decided if I’ll use Livestrong’s my plate tool, or the fitbit.com calorie tracking tool. I’m using both right now because I just got the fitbit, but I’ve been using my plate for
some time now and don’t want to lose that data.
Money Stuff
I also have financial goals of monetizing this and my other blogs. No worries, no ads or anything like that – I’m planning on adding a store
tab that sells books (including my own) via affiliate links to smashwords here. My January goal for this is find 5 books on Smashwords that are in my genre and I enjoy enough to endorse. Then, link to these on the store page that I’ve started and publish it. I have similar goals on my other blog(s) affiliate links for related products on a very clearly labelled store page. So don’t freak out that I’ll start marketing something other my fiction here  I just want to recoup the cost of hosting before my first book goes live and maybe some of the costs of printing copies for beta readers.
So, the writing goals for January:
Finish this draft of my WIP- Werewolf Investigations Book 1. I’m working in another plot-line and am trying to weave it in carefully. Also, I’m not satisfied with the resolution of one of the plot-lines and I want to tie that off more neatly or perhaps give more emotional charge to the parts of that plot-line that are on-going. My goal is to finish this draft with minor edits by 1/28, that way, I can print it up and give copies to my betas.
If I get that done with time to spare, I hope to do a brief outline/sketch of WW Investigations Book 2. If not, this will be pushed to a February goal. Also, plan more of the overall direction for the series. This sketch of Book 2 will include the crime, suspects & new characters, the hook, first plot point/inciting incident, second plot point, and climax, as well as the general idea for the resolution. Also, I will incorporate which characters from book one will make an appearance in Book 2.
Do you have any goals for the new year? Are you breaking it into chunks like I am or doing on over arching goal? How far are you with your goals a whole week into the new year?
I’m writing this a bit early, but I am in a huge period of insecurity right now. It’s really scary actually. Not so much to do with my writing, though hopefully the changes that I might experience will give me more time to write and pursue and market my writing.
I work for the State (yes the government, actually CA’s prison system). And we are doing layoffs/bouncing people down from their
positions into lower paid positions somewhere else. I received a letter late October saying that I was a part of this process (this was only two weeks after I received a letter saying I’d officially escaped the last round of cuts).
I’m writing this in advance, currently it’s mid-December.
They’re mailing out the layoff/placement letters the week after Christmas.
So I might get laid off. In fact, even if I’m safe this round, they’re doing layoffs twice a year for the next three years. So, I’d probably get the axe in one of the later go-rounds because I haven’t been with the State very long.
Not content to just take it, I decided I was going to Grad School. I’m writing this ahead of time so at this point I’ve completed the application for one school and have two more apps in the works. By the time this posts, I will have applied to all three (the deadlines are all between 12/30/11 and 1/2/12) and my future is up for grabs.
This is my chance to put my money where my mouth is. I think I’m this great writer, now, if I get laid off, I’ll get my chance to prove it.
I’ll make writing my day job until I start school in the fall. Work on my novels and publish them myself. Then, we’ll see if I make any money
while the unemployment dwindles and doesn’t quite pay all the bills.
I’m terrified and excited.
Well, I didn’t get a lot of writing done this week, but leaps and bounds on the college stuff. I’m thinking about doing JanNo, anyone in with me?
Also, I saw Mission Impossible 4 last night and all I can say is that Tom Cruise is a total badass. And the batman trailer was awesome.
I’m in the middle of John Locke’s ‘how I done it’ book and I’m intrigued. Has anyone else read it yet? If you have did you implement any of his strategies and did they work for you? Man, I don’t know how he does it with a full time job because man I totally don’t have time. I’ll be posting more on this in my insecure writers group thing next month… which I didn’t write one this month because I was busy freaking out about grad school apps and writing my paper for the class I was auditing.
Sorry that I’ve been missing the last couple weeks from the blog. I don’t think I’ve blogged since the week before Thanksgiving.
It’s just been a little hectic here, we hosted thanksgiving – that means we deep fried two turkeys, crock potted a ham, made mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing; and cleaned. Our house was trashed – well befoerhand our house was trashed. Oh yeah, and I work full time, the final was due for the class I was auditing, and I’m still working on (almost done) with my grad school applications. I had to abandon everything for finishing the final paper and getting those applications wrapped up. So next year, when I have finals, I will be prepared with pre-written posts (or I should be).
So, next week expect me back with renewed vigor and a newfound sense of time for this blog. In the meantime, on the bus yesterday I started writing from the prompt over at write on edge for todays link-up. You should know for this story that after the first book of Werewolf Investigations (working title still) Naomi begins working with a very helpful leprechaun named Elaine.
No more than three hundred words, must begin with “The doorbell rang…” and end with “…snow started falling.”
The doorbell rant. Naomi sighed. She was nowhere near ready for her family. The house was still a mess. She sniffed the air anxiously and scented spring and all things green. Elaine. Elaine who had specific instructions not to leave the office in case there was an emergency. The door flung open revealing the little red head.
“Thought ya could use some help decorating and all.” She waved her arms around pointing at things and suddenly, the mess somehow, became a part of the decoration. THe pile of clothes that Naomi had dropped on her way from the washer became a small pine tree, covered with flocking. The dishes in the sink – well there wasn’t much to be done about those, but they were now Christmas dishes at least.
“Elaine!” Naomi shouted. The leprechaun stopped what she was doing and looked at Naomi startled.
“Oh right, ya need some festivity yourself don’t you?” With that, Naomi’s cleaning clothes, suddenly transformed themselves into a sexy holiday dress.
“No, I don’t. I need to get this mess cleaned up so I can put out the real decorations.” She gestured to the dress. “I have one that is appropriate for my family to see. Now if you don’t mind -” She could hear her mom’s van pulling up to the house. Naomi sighed. “Never mind. Go nuts. Do what you want.” Her mom hated Elaine’s glamour, but a messy house was worse.
The car doors slammed shut as Elaine returned to transforming the appearance of the mess. Elaine didn’t let anything stop her.
The doorbell rang again.
“What do you think about snow?” Elaine asked pointing at the ceiling. Naomi shook her head as she opened the door.
“Mom I’m so happy you came down.” Inside Naomi’s living room, snow started falling.
My current WIP is at about 35,500 words and I’m working on the resolution of the story right now. That would be the fourth section of my mystery novel template.
I’m developing my MC Naomi’s character arc which revolves around her trying to maintain her and her family’s safety against those that want to expose the secret that they are werewolves.
So, I guess, the theme would be safety vs. secrecy or secrecy vs. openness – which sounds like one of those crazy themes that people refer to. Like man vs. nature, man vs. man, etc.
And which not surprisingly, since this is coming out of my mind, is something I deal with in my own life. Because my family tends to be very closed off and private, I have trouble expressing myself and I tend to keep things to myself that maybe I shouldn’t.
I feel an irrational fear of being exposed or the inner workings of my mind being laid out for people to see. I feel like these are huge secrets (though in reality they’re probably not), and like Naomi who is terrified of her family’s secret coming out hide things about who I am. I know we all do this to some extent, but it surprised me to see my MC dealing with those same issues.
So, my thought is that maybe when we talk about themes in a novel or story or movie, we’re using the word theme as a codeword for the “personal growth” or “character arc” of the main characters.
Also, I’m playing with the post by email functionality again – so if there are any glitches with that I’ll get them fixed this afternoon
edit: okay, only edit for the post by email was the tags. Getting better at this
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I wonder what would happen if our world brushed up against another world and what those results might be. I love adventures of all sorts and am currently planning my next big adventures.
Contact me at Mel (at) MelCorbett.com
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