Novel Infatuation
by Alayna Williams
Writing a book is a lot like being in love - good and
bad.
Initially, there's infatuation. The flush and excitement
of a new idea. This is the easy part - words flow effortlessly. I can spend
hours researching or daydreaming about how fabulous the idea is. I make notes,
sketches, maps, cut clippings from magazines - I've met my characters, and am
deliriously in love with everything they say. The project is, I believe,
invincible.
It brings me flowers. I glow.
Then, somewhere around the 30,000 word mark, the
infatuation fades. I begin to see the flaws, the inconsistencies, the cracks in
the foundation of plot. I'm rolling over in the morning and staring at a book
with bad breath that snores. It chews with its mouth open and forgets to say
"excuse me" when it farts. It doesn't bring me flowers anymore. It's
comfortable. Maybe too comfortable.
I sit in bed, staring at the book, wondering what to do.
Should I abandon it for a newer, sexier idea? They're always dancing around in
my periphery, seductively whispering: "Choose me."
But I know that it would be the same. I can choose
another idea, but in a few weeks, I'll be at the same place, the shiny newness
and rose petals replaced by snores and scratching.
At this time, I've got to decide to be committed to the
project, to see it through -- even though my story is showing me its scraggly,
unwashed underbelly. The challenge is to fall into a routine of writing that
isn't new or exhilarating -- it's to focus on the entirety of the work, good
and bad, and love it enough to finish.
There are moments that test my patience. A character
proves utterly useless around 50,000 words and is savagely eliminated. A
timeline problem emerges that requires my heroine to be in two places at once.
A loose plot thread dangles with no end in sight. But we get through it.
There are moments that are sublime. Keystrokes fly by
through the last chapter. Edits clean the story up nicely, and all of a sudden,
my story is standing before me. It's shaved, holding a bouquet of flowers.
I feel the old love for it again. Not the infatuation of
the beginning. But deep affection, knowing that we've weathered the writing
process and have come out the other side of it victorious.
I straighten its tie, kiss it on the cheek, and send it
out into the world. I hope that others will love it as much as I do.
ROGUE ORACLE
Delphic Oracle #2
Pocket Juno Books
Mass Market Paperback,
$7.99
ISBN 978-1439182819
Feb. 22, 2011
Alayna Williams writes
with power and poetry, combining old mythos with complete ass-kickery. You
don’t want to miss this series.”
-National bestselling author Ann Aguirre
The more you know about
the future, the more there may be to fear.
Tara Sheridan is the best criminal profiler around - and the most unconventional. Trained as a forensic psychologist, Tara also specializes in Tarot card reading. But she doesn't need her divination skills to realize that the new assignment from her friend and sometime lover, Agent Harry Li, is a dangerous proposition in every way.
Former Cold War operatives, all linked to a top-secret operation tracking the disposal of nuclear weapons in Russia, are disappearing. There are no bodies, and no clues to their whereabouts. Harry suspects a conspiracy to sell arms to the highest bidder. The cards - and Tara's increasingly ominous dreams - suggest something darker. Even as Tara sorts through her feelings for Harry and her fractured relationships with the mysterious order known as Delphi's Daughters, a killer is growing more ruthless by the day. And a nightmare that began decades ago in Chernobyl will reach a terrifying endgame that not even Tara could have foreseen…
Tara Sheridan is the best criminal profiler around - and the most unconventional. Trained as a forensic psychologist, Tara also specializes in Tarot card reading. But she doesn't need her divination skills to realize that the new assignment from her friend and sometime lover, Agent Harry Li, is a dangerous proposition in every way.
Former Cold War operatives, all linked to a top-secret operation tracking the disposal of nuclear weapons in Russia, are disappearing. There are no bodies, and no clues to their whereabouts. Harry suspects a conspiracy to sell arms to the highest bidder. The cards - and Tara's increasingly ominous dreams - suggest something darker. Even as Tara sorts through her feelings for Harry and her fractured relationships with the mysterious order known as Delphi's Daughters, a killer is growing more ruthless by the day. And a nightmare that began decades ago in Chernobyl will reach a terrifying endgame that not even Tara could have foreseen…
ROGUE ORACLE is available at Amazon.com
and Barnes
& Noble.
Author
Bio:
Alayna
Williams
has an MA in sociology-criminology (research interests: fear of crime and
victimology) and a BA in criminology. She has worked in and around criminal
justice since 1997. Although she does read Tarot cards, she's never used them
in criminal profiling or to locate lost scientists. She recently took up astronomy,
but for the most part her primary role in studying constellations and dark
matter is to follow her amateur astronomer-husband around central Ohio toting
the telescope tripod and various lenses. Like the Pythia in Dark Oracle, she's been known to
belly dance. Unlike the Pythia she'd never consider herself a professional
Writing
as Laura Bickle, she's the author of EMBERS and SPARKS for Pocket - Juno Books.
Writing as Alayna Williams, she's the author of DARK ORACLE and ROGUE ORACLE.
More
info on her urban fantasy and general nerdiness is here: http://www.salamanderstales.com/
Laura/
Alayna’s blogs
She’s
a proud member of Word Whores.
She’s
at Facebook, and Fangs, Fur, and Fey.
And
Twitter...@Laura_Bickle
Sparky the fire salamander from EMBERS and
SPARKS has his own Twitter account, @SparkySalamandr
