Lilith Saintcrow

Good morning, all. Last week I was tromping up and down the West Coast with Richelle Mead, tagging along on the first leg of her Mega Tour Of Death. Seriously, she’s traveling for more than 20 days, with events almost every day and very few breaks. The woman is either insane or superhuman, quite possibly both. Oh, and she has great taste in music, too.

The trip started out on Tuesday last week, when I had to get up early and roust all the kids so Coyote Boy could drive me to the train station. (Vancouver’s AmTrak station is actually pretty, what with the new rosebushes and the benches gotten out of storage.) Yes, I cried after my babies were driven away and I couldn’t see them any more. I’m not too proud to admit it.

I love riding the train to Seattle, especially if I spring for a business class ticket. (I did pay for an upgrade. It’s money well spent.) The scenery is beautiful, and in business class things are generally very quiet. Given that most of the time people are up early ad maybe uncaffeinated, it’s probably in self-defense. About halfway through I went to get a bagel, and settled down in the cafeteria car. Where I had a stroke of writerly luck–there were three Amtrak employees, all on a break.

In other words, material. I tried not to appear like I was eavesdropping as I read the Economist and made furious mental notes about train slang.

Anyway, after a leisurely ride we got to Seattle, and my sister was waiting to pick me up at the station. (She’s a trooper too.) We marveled at the drop ceiling covering up the higher, more ornate plaster ceiling–and the places where you could peer through–while waiting for my luggage. Then it was off to Ballard for lunch, and quizzing our waiter on where the hell Archie McPhee had gone. (Hint: They moved to Wallingford.) I was able to go a little crazy there, and buy a bag of swag. Which I promptly gave away at the University Bookstore, where our first event was.

Now, a long long time ago, Duane at the UB brought Richelle and me together–I think it was, oh, maybe when Succubus Blues came out? (If you haven’t read Richelle’s Georgina series, you are so in for a treat.) We immediately hit it off.

No, you don’t understand. Richelle and I are Trouble with a capital T when it comes to events. We soft-shoe and give each other straight lines all the time. I’d even go so far as to say we’re hilarious. So it was kind of like being reunited with an old vaudeville partner–one who knows and understands my horrific stage fright, and gives me an encouraging smile whenever I falter. Because she’s so utterly nice, too.

Richelle and I both read, then it was time for Q&A. I’m told there was an overprocessed gentleman hanging out in back who kept saying we were taking too long, that we shoudl just sign because he wanted to get out of here. He was so vocal, in fact, that a fellow member of Team Seattle informed him “Some of us are trying to listen,” and gave him a glare. (I’m told another member of TS tweeted about him.)

The weird part is that, while we were signing, I saw this guy and immediately pegged him as trouble, and kept him in my peripheral vision the entire time he was talking to Richelle. Just in case. He behaved himself, mostly, I suspect, because 6-foot-plus Duane was there looming over us and making certain things went smoothly.

It took a while, but we finished up signing and Richelle had to jet to make it to her Redmond event. I stayed to sign stock, and then Mark Henry, Mark Teppo, and Psynde (who makes jewelry for the Vampire Academy series) kidnapped me and my sister for dinner at Cedars.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to go to dinner with the two Marks, you’re missing out. If you do have the chance, OMG go, but be warned. The snark is industrial-grade, and this occasion was no different. When one adds in my propensity to say things that are so totally not socially acceptable, and Mark Henry’s serious consideration of absolutely every thing said no matter how filthy…well, you get the idea. It was too much fun to be legal. I’d go into a brief series of topics we covered, but I think my computer would start blushing.

I was too pooped to party much, so after dinner we walked back to the bookstore and said goodbye four or five times. In the process of getting out the door, Mark sold me on Liz Williams‘s Snake Agent, the first of the Detective Inspector Chen series.

OH. MY. GOD. Where have these books been all my life? I absolutely adored this one, and can’t wait to read the rest of the series. (Mark, damn you, I need more reading material like I need a hole in the head. JEEZ.)

My sister and I finally got on the road, and she dropped me off at my hotel near the airport. We hugged, and I thanked her a million times for chauffering me. We would have checked out the hotel bar–she’s related to me for a reason–but I had to be up at 4AM to catch the flight to Ontario, CA.

I didn’t even know there was an Ontario in California. But that’s a story for tomorrow…

I’ve just arrived home from the mini-tour with Richelle Mead. Dude, Richelle’s fans are hardcore. I also got to meet a few fans of my own, which was awesome. Each event was wonderful.

I know today is Friday, but the entire trip was exhausting. We literally saw nothing but airports, our media escorts’ cars, the events, and hotel rooms. Unfortunately, on trips like this you can’t really do much sightseeing. Richelle’s a trooper–she’s got something like twenty more days of touring. I don’t know how she does it.

So here are three book-tour-traveling tips. I’ll have a recap on Monday, when my brain resembles oatmeal less.

* Plastic bags. Bread bags and Ziplocs have a million uses, from making sure your shampoo bottle doesn’t explode all over your clothes to holding hairclips and rubber bands.

* Rest when you can. I know it sounds bad, but when you need all your strength for events, sightseeing becomes almost nonexistent. Events are pretty taxing, even if nobody shows up, and especially if a bunch of people show up.

* Thank your hosts. Being polite never hurts. It may even get you invited back. Thank-you letters to your media escorts (especially when they are ultra-super-efficient) are a Good Thing, too.

And a bonus tip: once you’re in your hotel room, drink all the water you can. Air travel is dehydrating, and when you’re already stressed dehydration can bugger up your immune system even further.

I know this is short. I’m so, so glad to be home, and so exhausted it’s unbelievable. I caught a travel cold, too. As I invariably do. You wouldn’t think I’d catch a fricking cold in California, but I did. Grr.

See you Monday! And if you happen to be somewhere Richelle’s touring, go out and show some love! She is always worthwhile.

Here’s where I’ll be this week:

Tuesday, August 25th, 4pm

University Bookstore, Seattle, WA (Richelle will also be at the Renton Borders at 7pm, for those of you on the other side of the lake.)

Wednesday, August 26th, 4pm

Upton Library event, sponsored by Mrs. Nelson’s Toy And Book Shop, Los Angeles, CA

Thursday, August 27th, 7pm

Not Your Mothers Book Club, hosted by Books Inc. – 855 El Camino Road, Palo Alto, CA

Regular blogging will resume on August 31. Be excellent to each other out there…

Good morning! I’m packing and getting ready for the start of the Grand Mini-Voyage tomorrow. It will be very good to see Richelle again, and though I hate traveling (I liked it fine until airports started resembling Kafka nightmares with petty Napoleons at every point) I will enjoy meeting Readers and having several hours to knock off a few books of my own while in transit.

Today is going to be extraordinarily busy. So, a list!

* New ebook reader taking on the Kindle. This company’s signed an agreement with Barnes & Noble, but they are not being “exclusive.”

Irex doesn’t spell it out, but suggests that the relationship with the bookseller won’t be exclusive. Canned quote from Kevin Hamilton, North American CEO of Irex Technologies: “We will change the dynamics of the consumer market–users want to easily purchase content from a variety of sources and we allow them to read it on an IREX eReader as well as other devices.” (mediamemo, h/t Victoria Strauss)

* The How Not To Cook Book. Hm. One would think that is a subject of near-infinite variety. My favorite quote? “Never start cooking before you’ve had a glass of wine but do not start cooking after you’ve had your second glass.”

…Yeah. I found that one out for myself.

* Wolfinthewood, on opting out of the Google Book Settlement. She makes a number of good points.

* Erupting volcanoes as seen from SPACE! I find this so cool, I can’t even tell you. SO. COOL.

* A study finds out men and women play video games for different reasons. Also, gamers are sad. Literally.

According to the CDC, both male and female gamers were more likely to report being overweight, having more poor-mental-health days and being less socially outgoing. Women, however, were more apt to deal with depression and report more health issues than women who aren’t gamers. For men, they reported more obesity.

“One interpretation of these findings is that, among women, video-game playing may be a form of digital self-medication…. In short, they can literally take their minds off their worries while playing a video game.” noted the CDC. “Among men, the association among sedentary behaviors, physical inactivity and overweight status observed in children and young adults may extend into adulthood.” (WIRED)

I have noticed this about myself. I play, for example, WoW at the end of the day to get a rest from complex, ambiguous tasks with no defined ending point. I play because the “quests” have defined objectives, and seeing my toon beat on NPCs with gleeful abandon (with her Titansteel Destroyer, no less, YES I INVESTED IN THAT) helps me channel my antisocial tendencies properly. In short, I play WoW to get into a groove of unthinking. To get a rest.

However, the boys I’ve physically witnessed playing (because you can’t be sure online who’s male or female) all play the game and feel a sense of connection to party members and guild mates. They play to get that social connection. It’s weird–they don’t understand why I want to play solo, and I don’t understand why they want to just do the same thing online that people do in real life–stand around the effing water cooler. Often I don’t want to play mediator or therapist online after a day of doing it IRL, for Chrissake.

I just want to farm my saronite and do my dailies.

As for the other component of the study…well, any sedentary activity is going to tend to spread the hips. But the most depressed gamers I’ve ever personally met have been skinny as rails. So…*shrugs* I dunno.

And that’s all I know today. I’ve got to get some coffee and make a list, and excavate that suitcase I want. Oh, yeah. Uber-fun.

*headdesk*

Crossposted to the Deadline Dames. Check ‘em out!.

I’m getting ready for the mini-tour and knocking off wordcount on Heaven’s Spite, so today we have a list of five things about writing as a career.

1. Writing is a physical act. Yes, you do it sitting in front of a word-processor, or sitting at a desk. That does not mean it is effortless. The sheer brute physical labor of typing eighty to a hundred thousand words for a novel (and let’s not even talk about revisions) is hard on the delicate structures of your wrist and arm, not to mention your brachial plexus (thoracic outlet syndrome and carpal tunnel problems are real risks to writers.) Plus there’s the fact that sitting for long periods is hard on the body.

Stretching and moderate exercise will not only make sure you have a less-painful career at the keyboard, but it will also help your writing. It clears out toxins and makes the prose more supple. More importantly, you have got to take care of yourself, or your body might rebel. And that ain’t pretty.

2. A story is an arc. The story equation goes like this: There is a situation in equilibrium. Something happens to disturb that equilibrium. The rest of the story is events finding a new equilibrium, and when it is found, the story naturally ends. The first line of the story is like your first cut in a duel. It holds the pattern for the rest of the arc. The story expands from that first line, and reaches a point where it must contract–where all the threads of expansion need to be picked back up and woven back down to a line. This point is not necessarily the climax. It’s different for each piece of work.

Finding that arc, finding the point where the story has to stop expanding and must start contracting toward climax and denouement, takes practice. This is why writing’s a skilled art–it takes lots and lots of practice.

3. The story belongs to the character who changes the most. I’ve attributed this saying to Karen Fisher, but I think it was actually Laura Kalpakian who said it.

Writers often bemoan the secondary character who thrusts him or herself onto the stage and won’t go away. Often, this is the principle at work–the secondary character is actually the one doing the changing. You can even have a main character who is not the character the story belongs to. That also takes practice and skill to pull off.

When you’re stuck in a story, or the characters seem lifeless, turn this into a question. “Whose story is this? Who is changing? Who is changing the most?” Often this helps jolt everything into perspective and shows you the hole in the structure.

4. No risk, no reward. If your characters aren’t risking anything, if there is not a significant chance that they will lose something that matters to them, there is little emotional payoff for the reader. Characters who are flawless have no real way of letting the reader identify with them, and they are never more than paper cutouts.

I do not want a paper cutout. I want blood and guts and bad breath. I want my characters to risk things. I want to risk things every time I sit down at this goddamn keyboard. Because I also want that reward.

5. Beware those who want something for nothing. Jess Hartley, this past week, had an interaction with such a one. This has happened many a time. Lots of people want something for nothing. And they assume that once you’re published, you hold a magic golden key for giving them what they want. What’s more, they assume that you will share this mythical golden key–that it is your duty, your pleasure and your obligation to hand over the golden key to them just for the asking.

This is another outcropping of Speshul Snowflakeism, and a particularly insidious one. Because this sort of Snowflake gets very passive-aggressive when it comes to getting what they want. It took me a merry go round with a few of them before I learned the signs and started just laughing and pressing the delete button when one cropped up.

Note that I’m not talking about the person who extends a perfectly civil, reasonable request and understands when an author can or can’t fulfill that request. I’m talking about the person who presumes a personal relationship with an author where none exists, and further presumes that the author Owes Him/Her Something on the basis of that presumption. That presumption is toxic. I could go on and on, but what would be the point? Just beware of those who expect something for nothing, on many levels.

That’s about it. I’ll add two links: Darkshiver on a particular social media don’t, and the inimitable Wolfinthewood with another roundup of links about the Google Book Settlement.

And now I’ve got to go get cracking. Books will not write themselves, and the small suitcase I’m taking won’t pack itself, either.

Over and out.