“But” is a Four-Letter Word

“It shows promise, but…”
“I liked it, but…”
“I had a good time, but…”
“You’re very talented, but…”

Admit it. You laughed at the title of this post till you read those examples. I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of “but”s, and none of them ever followed this pattern:

“We checked our records, but we were wrong. Your lottery ticket is the prizewinner after all.”

When Force of Habit was on sub to editors, I was on the receiving end of many “but”s. They were complimentary. They were polite. They were always professional. And they were the worst messages I ever read.

I’ve heard a lot of “but”s in my life. The guy who dumped me on my college graduation night (“I used to love you, but…”). The stage roles I didn’t land (“Your audition was very good, but…”). I often walked away from them feeling like I'd been thrown in the boxing ring with Muhammad Ali.

To be fair, while there were a lot of theater “but”s, there were also many “you got the part”s to compensate for them. And there was a wonderful contract from Midnight Ink that more than compensated for the on-sub "but"s.

My “but” compensation strategy involved chocolate and therapeutic housecleaning. One very useful takeaway from my convent years was learning to take out anger and frustration on dirty floors or walls or anything that required long, hard scrubbing.

What’s your “but” compensation strategy? I’m always on the lookout for new techniques. Because right now I’m starting to think about giving the cats a bath when the next “but” arrives--because there's always a next "but". Save me from certain injury, please!

P.S. This will be my last Inkspot post for a few months. I need to focus on book writing. I'll still be hanging around, though!

Inkspot News - March 19, 2011

Two Inkspot authors, Beth Groundwater and G.M. Malliet, will appear at the Left Coast Crime conference in Santa Fe, NM, March 24 - 27. Their panel appearances are:
Friday, 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM, "Murder in the Great Outdoors", Beth Groundwater
Saturday, 1:30 - 2:15 PM, "Series & Standalones", G.M. Malliet.

In conjunction with her travel to Left Coast Crime, Beth Groundwater will conduct signings of Deadly Currents in Los Alamos, NM (Wednesday, March 23, 6:00 -7:30 PM at the Otowi Station Bookstore, 1350 Central Avenue) and Pueblo, CO (Sunday, March 27, 4:00 - 5:00 PM at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 4300 North Freeway).

A reminder: Keith Raffel (as writerkeith) sends out a Literary Quote of the Day each weekday morning via Twitter. For St. Patrick's Day, the quote was from Irishman James Joyce: "Writing in English is the most ingenous torture ever devised for sins commited in previous lives." Subscribe if you'd like!

Alice Loweecey returns to her old stomping grounds in Syracuse, NY. On Wednesday, March 23, she'll host a reading, conversation, and booksigning of Force of Habit at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Erie Blvd. East.

The “It’s Really Real” Moment

I had this post all planned out in my head. It was going to be a humorous recap of my New York City trip, complete with drool-worthy photos of the Manhattan Library. Here’s one, at least: Marble and carved wood and electric chandeliers and so many books I could get happily lost in there for a decade.

And I saw a Gutenberg Bible. Among dozens of other ancient books in their current display of religious texts. The gilding, the calligraphy, the artwork… a book lover’s paradise.

But just as a character can wrest control of a WIP by main force, the events of the end of last week grabbed this planned post and ran with it.

A box sat on my front stoop when I returned from the airport. A heavy box. From Midnight Ink. Filled with my author’s copies of Force of Habit. In a new tradition started by I created a sculpture with them.

Last Friday, my boss showed me his copy of Force of Habit—just delivered. I signed it for him and went back to work. I few hours later, in a classic delayed reaction, realization hit me: I just autographed my first book. That someone ordered, paid for, and received in an everyday business transaction.

After four years, three books, 185 rejections and a few publisher passes, it’s real.

I met four authors much farther along in their careers than I am—one has 70 published books! Yet as we talked about debuts, they all reported the same “oh, wow” moment for their first book.

This deliriously happy post brought to you by that great catchphrase from the movie Galaxy Quest: Never give up! Never surrender!

Of Herbs and Stewing SNIs

(with apologies to JRR Tolkien)

The trick to planting herbs is to contain them in pots. That is, unless you want your garden overrun with mint and sage and oregano and thyme. I stick to this rule, because I want my garden to produce tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers too. Except there’s this one peppermint plant that went rogue years ago. It’s small, I thought, I’ll be able to keep it tamed. Besides, a Buffalo winter will surely kill it.

I’ll pause so all you gardeners can laugh.

This is that peppermint plant today:










The only way I keep it out of my garden is ruthless hacking. I make tea from the leaves, so it’s a useful beast, but an unruly one.

Which brings me to SNIs (Shiny New Ideas). I’m deep in the sequel to Force Of Habit. Yet there’s this YA that’s nagging me. On top of that, this morning as I drove to the grocery store I saw a deserted parking lot with seagulls fighting over some stale bread, and I started to write an entire scene in my head. For yet another book.

Just like the rampaging peppermint, if I don’t contain these books, they’ll devour my sequel time. This is why I keep pen and paper in my glove compartment. I sketched out the scene. It was like giving a treat to my hungry cats so I could finish a task before feeding them. The SNI settled in its corner, gnawing its tidbit of attention. Like this oregano:








When the sequel is with betas, I know I’ll have time for the SNI files. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I’ll squee as I open their boxes and dither over which to play with first. I’ll allow the many scenes and characters and story arcs I’ve tucked away to audition for the starring role of my new WIP.

I can hear them now, rehearsing their parts, putting on their best makeup, shining their tap shoes. They’ve seen what a well-tended plant in the right pot can look like and they want the same result.

Since rogue herbs don’t yield a useable crop, I’d love to hear how everyone else handles this. All the writers reading this post (writers of fiction, nonfiction, songs, anything): how do you contain your peppermint?