WINGSPAN is born...Welcome with me my tenth baby

Most posts here on the bloggy, I try to keep in line with the educational theme of helping the new and aspiring writer.  As the owner of the blog, I am hereby exercising my God given right to brag a bit.

This weekend I finally completed manuscript number 10. Wingspan is born.  This damn manuscript would NOT come out.  I have been struggling over the last five thousand words for way longer than I will ever admit in writing.  I wasn't in a funk; the ending just wouldn't come. And none of my usual tricks for jumpstarting the story machine worked.  I couldn't be philosophical, or patient, or even unemotional about it.  I was just pissed.  Know what finally worked?  I watched several hours of the ID channel.

You know the one, right?  Hour after hour of stories about really depressed and sick people plotting and then carrying out some of the stupidest murder plots in history?  Yep, watched that for a whole day, in my pajamas, eating bomb pops out of the freezer.  And just like that, the end came.  The whole thing was just waiting for those last two thousand words.  I had even desperately edited the damn thing, thinking that might rehydrate the creative juices.  It didn't.  Then, just like that, a slobby day in front of the telly worked!  And I wrote the end, nonstop, until the words stop gushing.  Sometimes it just goes like that.  I have never subscribed to the "write every day" school of thought, preferring only to write when the mood strikes.  The mood just didn't strike till this weekend.

So, I would love to know what you think.  I have no cover art even remotely imagined, but try and just run with it.  Thanks!  Here is the current query:

Chessa Dawning never thought she’d be the kind of girl who’d be on the run.  Or have a boyfriend.  Or grow wings.  Yet, here she was, having left the only home she’s ever known, staying two steps ahead of the men from her scientist father’s genetics company hell-bent on capturing her, and falling for a resourceful ex-criminal with colorful friends. And that was just this week.

Most of the time, Charlotte Lake can’t believe her life.  The reluctant leader of a rebel faction called the Ginger Nation, Charlie’s days are filled with planning surveillance, rescuing detainees, and exposing government conspiracy.  Surrounded by loyal friends and soldiers, she knows she can never reveal the true nature of her quest.  Finding her real father and exacting revenge for the freaky physical deformity he burdened her with is a bigger goal than even her most trusted confidant can know.

When a sudden twist in both their lives brings these two girls together, revelations about their past will make them rethink where they came from, and define their future in ways they never could have imagined.  Not every scientific breakthrough is welcomed.

Please comment here and let me know what thoughts the query provokes and if it entices, intrigues or bores you.  Trust me, ten books in and I can handle the criticism.

Being the Phoenix

   
A family member of mine is going through some life-changing events.  Whenever that happens, I find myself compelled to examine my own life.  To him, I have offered the kind words, the solace, the love only a sister can.  But I know the best thing I can offer is not help, but validation.  Not suggestions, but just the relating of my own wounded experiences.

     Also not lost on me is the finality the month of December can bring.  Even before the looming of the first of the year commercially challenges me to make change and resolutions, I find I am doing it anyway.  I am silently grading my year, checking off invisible boxes and begrudgingly drawing in new ones.  The self-examination at the end of any year can be a chafing process, raw and emotional.  But for me, no more so than this year.

     At the top of the year, I started the job I wanted more than I wanted to take my next breath.  I loved it then and I still do now.  We had our company Christmas party this past Friday and I was once again reminded that this company values us, the employees, like no other company I have ever worked for before.  On the same day, tragedy struck our nation and we lost wonderful people and precious children.  The dichotomy struck me and made me nearly raw.

     My husband dealt with an emotionally draining matter on his own this year for so long before he told me.  I cried for him, then for us, as I realized this was as it should be.  It, and the aftermath, brought us closer in a way I have never felt in our dozen-plus years together.  I love my husband and always have, but this year, I learned that I like him.  Mind-blowing.

The purpose of this post, as suggested by the      title, is how the Phoenix rises from the ashes.
   
     Renewed.

     Reborn.

     Repurposed.

     This year more than any other, I understand that now.  How ruin can define us or realign us.  How only from destruction can there be resurrection.  How only from the wreckage must the bird begin his flight.

      I feel like that bird now.  Purposeful.  Driven.  Directed.  My wings have been battered, my feathers torn off, and still I am compelled to fly.

     As a writer, I feel that attitude permeating my work.  Regeneration.  Reconfiguration.  Resurgence.  I'm writing in genres I've never tackled and allowing my characters to be stupid.  Ignorant.  Cocky. Afraid.  I'm allowing my characters to be me.  And they are living and breathing inside me and spilling out onto my keyboard.  And I like them.  I want to have a beer with them, go shopping with them, giggle with them over a silly movie.  They are my friends.  And I don't think I could say that about them two years ago.  Or maybe even one.

     So to my brother I tried to convey all that.  Everyone processes things at a different pace and in a different manner.  Oh, I learned that this year too.  So, I am letting him process.  And he will.  Because I truly, truly, truly believe that when you endeavor to make a change that scares you, that tears into your core, what you are really doing is tearing down a wall.  And even though you don't know what's on the other side, darling brother, it's there.  It's waiting.  It's always been there, waiting for you to be ready for it.  And you have to get there on your own.  Only, know this:  If you scale that wall and fall back down, I'll always be there.  I'll hold you for a moment, then I'll shove you back up that wall.  Because your life is waiting for you.  On the other side.

     I suppose what this post is for, other than to let me ramble a it, is to push you to choose that risk, take that chance, scale that wall.  A friend of mine moved across the country.  He didn't know anyone and just did it.  He just scaled the wall.  I'm speechless at his courage.  It mirrors my brother's.  So, find your wall.  Don't worry about telling me what it is.  Just let me know you've identified it.  I sure the hell know mine.

     And this next year, 2013 in the year of our Lord, let's kick the shit out of that wall.

Speculative Fiction Done the Nancy DiMauro Way

Welcome today another new friend and author with Musa Publishing. Nancy DiMauro writes for the Urania imprint with Musa, which is the one that deals with speculative fiction. While this is a large genre, the category generally involves the essence of the unknown like paranormalcy, or supernatural powers in a kind of mix with a touch of science fiction. That kind of story you read that seems unlikely, but a tiny bit of you believes in it's possibility.

I haven't had a spec-fic author on the blog before and I'm happy to host Nancy. I especially love how she tackles writer's block. Enjoy meeting Nancy!

Tell us about yourself. I’m a mommy, writer, lawyer, and farmer. Wow, that’s a mouthful. My condo-raised husband agreed to move out to the country with me 12 years ago (almost to the day) because living on a horse farm was my dream. So, we have two horses in our front yard, and two dogs, three hermit crabs and four cats in the house. The Hubby has managed to resist the pleas for a partridge in a pear tree so far. But he doesn’t realize I planted a pear tree this last spring.

Anyway, I am lucky enough to have two boys (soon to be 14 and 12). I’ve been a practicing trial attorney since 1995, and in my free time, I write. Actually, I’m pretty regimented about when I write – between 9pm and 11pm 4-5 nights a week. After all, being a writer is one of my jobs.

Tell us about your book. My newest release is Apollo Rising about Apollo’s quest to break Daphne’s curse and restore her to her true form. In seeking to enlist the aid he needs, Apollo bargains with Hades for Daphne’s soul. But the god of the underworld may demand too a high price. You can find Apollo’s Rising on Amazon.


Who is your favorite character from one of your books and why? Has there ever been a question designed to cause more strife? It’s like asking which child is your favorite. I love them all. Vonna, from the Flashes of Life story in Paths Less Traveled, is probably my favorite to play with right now. While I have other characters with supernatural powers, Vonna’s ability to recover memories from the dead is pretty out there. Also, Vonna sees emotion as color so I’ve had to create a color wheel of emotion. That was really challenging. The other neat thing about Vonna is she’s living in a near future Washington, D.C. so I get to mix in politics with the vampires, psychics and weres. Oh my! Vonna’s talents also make her a target for anyone wanting to get away with murder.

What are you working on now? I’m in different phases on three novels. I’m editing/ rewriting The King’s Falcon, which follows Falcon from Lightning Strikes in Paths Less Traveled. I’m hoping to turn that in for consideration by the end of the year. I’m almost done with the first draft an erotic romance called New Bohemia: Just One Night in which May has a favor to ask of her best friend and housemate, Pete. I’m outlining The Nocebo Effect, which follows Vonna as she tries to solve a string of murders that initially appeared to be natural deaths before the killer finds her.

Do you listen to music when you write, if so what? I don’t listen to music, but I tend to have the TV on for background noise. I notice silence, but I can ignore the TV if I’ve seen the show before. So, my DVR gets a lot of play while I’m writing.

Which of your covers is your favorite? Wow. That’s tough. Kelly Shorten did all the covers for my four Musa books. They are all really wonderful and tie in so well with the stories. Since I have to pick, I think the Shots at Redemption cover is my favorite. I love the ghost ship. Check out the cover at Amazon,

Where do you find inspiration? My family. My boys (all three of them) do and say the most outrageous things. My youngest son also loves telling stories so he and I will spend hours talking about worlds that only we can see.

Name 5 things that are on your desk right now? Pictures of my boys as babies; The Describer’s Dictionary by David Grambs; The Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon; a list of e-mails from Dave Farland’s Novel Rewriting workshop participants; and a stack of business cards I still need to scan into my contact list.

What is your biggest distraction when it comes to writing? The need for sleep. Because I write so late in the day, there are times when I just can’t stay awake long enough to get the words on the page. I’ve learned just to give up and try again the next day.

When did you discover the need to write? Back in high school. I’d been writing poetry for years, and wrote my first novel when I was a sophomore. Of that fan-fic novel, let’s just all be glad that the changes in technology since the 1980’s have made the story unrecoverable.

How do you handle writers’ block? I don’t really believe in writers’ block. For me, when I hit a point I’m struggling to find the words, it generally means one of a few things. Usually, it means I haven’t taken the time I need to pre-write the scene. Because my keyboard time is limited, I spend a lot of time daydreaming scenes before they ever hit the page. The ones I struggle with are often the ones where I haven’t spent the time visualizing them first. I’ll log off for the day and imagine what I’m missing. It might take another day to get to the point where I can write the scene, but my high word count days are ones where I’ve been daydreaming a lot about the story.

Another reason I can’t write is because sometimes I need more research. In New Bohemia, I have a significant section of the story in the Swiss Alps. When it came time to write it, I realized my visualization of the area came solely from my memories of The Sound Of Music. So, not so good. I spent about two weeks researching locations, building construction, and most importantly snow rescue techniques. When I went back to the keyboard, the scenes were much easier.

The final reason I can’t get words on the page is exhaustion. My other jobs (mommy and lawyer) are demanding. Sometimes they take everything I have. When that happens I have to give into the inevitable and use my writing time for sleep.

Where can readers find you? On my website www.FalconsFables.com and blog. www.nancydimauro.blogspot.com
I’m also on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/writernancydimauro
and Twitter. https://twitter.com/kings_falcon