As usual my good intentions are merely adding to the broad
highway I am paving on my way to the Nether Regions. Not, except for those
unfulfilled good intentions, that I expect to be damned. I don’t think
I’m a particularly bad person. I do my best not to be deliberately hurtful
and I am very fond of animals (less so of children, I’m afraid), but
the older I get the less I seem able to get done what I am supposed to do.
(That sentence leaves something to be desired in clarity, but I don’t
know how to say it better.) In any case, I am far behind in keeping
this website up to date. Cerridwen Press has been diligent about publishing
my historical romances exactly to schedule, but I have been most remiss about
getting the pages about each book up on my website. I am going to try to do
that in the following week.
I have had some excuses. In April or May, I was approached about a work-for-hire mystery project. I have never done a work-for-hire book, but the subject suggested was so intriguing to me that I decided to take a stab at it. Since the idea is not mine, I don’t think I can say any more about it unless and until the work is accepted for publication ... if it ever is. This project took all my attention for a couple of months because I needed to do a lot of research and I am a slow writer.
Once I had sent off that project, I intended to get back to the pages for FORTUNE’S BRIDE and A WOMAN’S ESTATE, both of which had been published by then. Only ... I got an email reminding me that I owed a short story to a book of Irish romances. (The working title for this is THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF IRISH ROMANCE, but the editor is hoping for a more attractive title.) I remembered immediately (once I had been reminded) of the correspondence about that project. The editor had emailed in February to ask if I would contribute; I had asked when the story would be due and how many words would be required. She said she needed the story in August and six thousand to thirteen thousand words would be acceptable. I thought, “Oh, there’s plenty of time before August,” agreed to write the story, and promptly put it out of my mind. Needless to say, I had to scramble to get the story done, but I was only a week late in sending it in.
And then, I weakened—as I keep promising myself I will not do—and agreed to judge for a writing contest, once I had been assured that the entries would be few, short, and not erotic. This is not because I have any moral objection to erotic writing. I simply find it boring. I, myself, am a story-teller and what I read for is character and story. I am not much interested in bedroom scenes, although a little sex to define aspects of the hero’s and heroine’s character is fine. It’s the repetitive pages of detailed orgasms that, for me, just interfere with the story–when there is any story.
Anyhow, the judging took forever because two of the entries were terrible and I spent a couple of days on each trying to explain what was wrong. I was judging paranormal and apparently what both writers thought was that they could just write anything they wanted without any planning at all, without developing a coherent background or consistent characters. One entry in particular distressed me because the writer could write. Her grammar and spelling were fine, her sentences were flowing and had good rhythm, her dialogue sounded natural ... but the dialogue was inane and did nothing to further the story and the well-wrought sentences contradicted each other and mangled the setting. What neither of these writers seemed to understand was that to induce a reader to suspend his/her disbelief in a paranormal tale, everything except the paranormal elements and events must be particularly well-described, real, and reasonable.
I am resolved not to add to the highway of good intentions this time. I will do
the pages for my published and forthcoming books–and the reason I can
be so certain is that doing those pages will keep me from an even more onerous
project: finishing BISHOP TO KING, CHECK! And from seriously working on my
next project (if the work-for-hire book does not come through), DANSE MACABRE,
an Urban Fantasy.
P. S. I wonder if actually completing some of the good intentions removes part
of the road to Hell? If so, I am rapidly accomplishing that feat. Not only
have I actually written the text for all the books Cerridwen has published,
but I have revised my Backlist page so that it now shows which of my books
is actually in print and can be ordered from the publisher ... and which books
are forthcoming. Please see what I have accomplished!
I hope soon to find out from Baen Books when my work will be forthcoming. When
I do, perhaps I will have material for another Dear Friends letter and so will
remove even more of the paving on the road of good intentions.
Roberta
Dear Friends,
This letter is going to be short and sweet because I am bursting with a brilliant
idea. Well—I think it’s brilliant.
The other day while I was reading one of my mail list messages, my good friend Bertrice Small said something about sending bookplates to readers who asked for them. I’ve done this too, of course, but the bookplates I have are ... ah ... plain. Or, to be truthful, rather ugly to my way of thinking. What is more they all say Ex Libris or From the Library of ... as if the book had been stolen by the reader from my library. Thus, I’ve never been terribly enthusiastic about sending signed bookplates. However, someone (please forgive me for not noting who supplied the reference) replied to Bertrice that she had bookplates made up for her by a skilled designer and printer called Laron Glover. Since I have a passion for stationary, I went to Laron’s website and was delighted with what I saw there.
Now I am in possession of a number of beautiful bookplates that are simply imprinted with my name and website. I would like to offer a signed bookplate (choose your design) to any reader who has purchased one of my Trade Paperbacks from Cerridwen Press. (Just send an email copy of the receipt for the book.) Or to any reader who has purchased one of the Doubled Edge books (coauthored by Mercedes Lackey and published by Baen Books). Again, I would have to ask for a copy of the receipt for the book and for a snail mail address to which I could send the signed bookplate.
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