Karen Sandler

Tag: karen sandler

  • RTW – Balancing Reality and Fiction

    This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks the question, How do you balance hectic times like the holidays with your writing schedule?

    Um, yeah. How do you do that?

    I’m not sure I’ve entirely figured that one out. The good news is, I’ve been under contract with a publishing house nearly every holiday season for the past dozen or so years. The bad news is, that means I’ve got a deadline staring me in the face every year all through the holidays.

    Which means I have to stay focused and on task in November and December. Yes, I’m longing to go Christmas shopping (or Hanukkah shopping–our family goes both ways). I’m dreaming of baking Christmas (or Hanukkah) cookies. I’m jonesing to go up the hill to one of the local tree farms to cut down my tree. But I can’t just take off all the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas (much as I might wish it) because that darn book isn’t going to write itself.

    So what do I do? I do cut myself some slack. I choose a day or afternoon for the tree cutting, for the baking, for the decorating. I work hard on the days when I don’t have holiday festivities planned and get as much written as I can. I tend to do the Christmas shopping in one fell swoop, demanding a list from everyone, and storm the stores on a weekday when they’re less busy. And I keep an eye on my word count and the number of days remaining until the deadline.

    I do find it annoying to have to write during the holidays. Even worse, my birthday is smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, so there’s another distraction. But I also know that I’m very lucky to be working under contract, to have that deadline, so who am I to gripe?

    How about you? How do you keep working during the holidays? Christmas carols on or off? Christmas cookies stacked on your desk? Is your office decorated? I wanna know how the rest of you do it.

  • The Trouble With Trilogies

    Back in my romance writing days, I didn’t write trilogies.  The love stories I wrote were one-offs. Although half of my Harlequin books (Counting on a Cowboy, A Father’s Sacrifice, His Baby to Love, The Three-Way Miracle, and Her Baby’s Hero) were all set in the same small town of Hart Valley and had some overlapping characters, there weren’t any connections between the stories. There were two books I did for Harlequin (Their Second-Chance Child and The Family He Wanted) that were part of the Fostering Family mini-series, where the second book picked up where the first left off. Characters from the first book were mentioned in the second, but the main story revolved around a new hero and heroine.

    Then along came Tankborn. When I first wrote Tankborn, I had a hazy idea of possibly writing a trilogy. Then when I signed with my agents and we were getting the manuscript ready for submission, they suggested I write up short blurbs for a second and third book. When we sold to Lee and Low/Tu Books, the original contract was only for the one book, but we later sold them two other books to complete the trilogy.

    So my foray into writing my first real trilogy actually commenced with the second Tankborn book. With book one, I was blissfully ignorant of how anything I wrote might have a ripple effect into books two and three. Although I’d still had that hazy idea of writing two more books, I completed Tankborn and saw it into print before I ever wrote word one of the second book, Awakening.

    And that was when the hand-shackles went on. From the moment I started Awakening, I had to constantly keep in mind the Tankborn universe. The book was already printed, many, many people had already read it, and while most readers probably wouldn’t notice if some little detail wasn’t consistent, someone somewhere would.

    So I certainly couldn’t change the planet my characters were on from Loka to somewhere else. I could not make the sky blue instead of green. There had to be two suns in the sky, not one. And seycats and droms had to have six legs, not four or eight. In other words, I couldn’t fudge or goof. The first book was already in print, there for anyone to refer to and point out my mistakes.

    Still, as I wrote Awakening, I thought it was pretty cool having the Tankborn universe already defined. I didn’t have to re-invent the wheel. If I couldn’t remember whether seycats had stripes or spots, or just how tall a genetically engineered drom was, I had the best reference in the world–the first book.

    So I finished Awakening feeling pretty good about things. My editor and I had a great round of developmental edits that strengthened all my characters and added some complexity to the plot. Then it was time for the copy editor.

    That’s when the oopsies started. For instance, Risa, a very minor character in Tankborn, is a prominent secondary character throughout Awakening. As I fleshed out her character in the second book, I gave her red hair mixed with gray. I didn’t bother to check in Tankborn to see if I’d mentioned what color hair Risa had. But the copy editor did check. And pointed out that in Tankborn, Risa is described as having dark hair. For continuity’s sake, Risa’s hair couldn’t be red.

    This may seem very minor (and it was for the most part). But I was a little sad at the necessity because Risa has a pet seycat (a wild feline indigenous to the planet Loka) and seycat coats are red (with black/grayish markings). I’d really liked the idea that Risa’s hair matched the seycat’s. That had to go away with the change of hair color, which required a bit more tweaking than a simple change from red to dark.

    The second blooper was an incorrect character name. There’s an important character who plays a very minor role in Tankborn, a slightly more important role in Awakening, and will play a major role in the third book of the trilogy, Revolution. I used the wrong name for her throughout Awakening. I hadn’t remembered that one of the last changes we made in Tankborn before it went to print was to change that character’s name. Again, it was a good catch on the part of the copy editor that saved us from using the wrong name and really confusing readers.

    Alas, there is an error/inconsistency that was my fault that sneaked its way into Tankborn. I only noticed it as I was working on Revolution. There’s a shrub on the planet Loka called a sticker bush. At least that’s what I was calling it all through Awakening, what I thought I’d called it in Tankborn. But it turns out that at some point, I decided to call the sticker bush a prickle bush instead. And I wasn’t even consistent at that, because while I call it a prickle bush twice in Tankborn, I call it a sticker bush once.

    So what to do? Prickle or sticker? I realized I liked sticker bush better and made an executive decision to call it that, inconsistency be damned.

    Live and learn. Continuity in trilogies has proved to be a tricky business. I’ll have another chance to play around with this in my upcoming mystery series from Angry Robot/Exhibit A, which begins with Clean Burn. Since it’s not science fiction, it should be a piece of cake, right?

    Right.

  • RTW – Best Book Read in October

    This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks, What’s the best book you’ve read in October?

    My answer, Scott Westerfeld’s Goliath, was not only the best book I read in October (and I read some good ones), but the most highly anticipated. I was so glad to finally get my hands on it.

    I’d known about the Leviathan series for quite a while, but I wasn’t sure I’d like steampunk. I’m usually pretty meh about alternate history stories, so I was reluctant to try Westerfeld’s series on that basis (despite being a big fan of his Uglies books).

    Then I saw the artwork on his website and realized I really wanted to give it a try. I own a Kindle, and had planned to get the e-book. But then I was in an independent bookstore about an hour away from my house (we don’t have too many IBS’s nearby) and saw Leviathan. I realized the price for the paper book (trade paperback sized) was the same as for the e-book. Wanting to support the IBS, I bought Leviathan in paper.

    I am so glad I did. I’ve learned in the nearly two years I’ve owned my very basic Kindle that it does have limitations. Reading an illustrated book just doesn’t work as well on the electronic device. Much better to see those detailed drawings on paper, at least for me. So reading that paper version of Leviathan was sheer pleasure, and prompted me to buy the second book, Behemoth, as trade paperback as well.

    I was pretty bummed that Goliath wasn’t immediately available when I finished Behemoth several months ago. Then when Goliath came out in August, I was further frustrated because I wanted to purchase it in a brick-and-mortar IBS instead of from Amazon. But the store that’s an hour away from me was near where my son and daughter-in-law used to live. That made it somewhat convenient to shop there when I’d go visit them. But now they’ve moved out of state, so I have no reason to drive all the way to that store.

    Then I was at a nearby news and gift shop and found out they can and will order in books. I requested Goliath from them (and while I was at it scheduled a book signing at their store for Tankborn). Once it came in, I went and picked it up, then proceeded to devour Westerfeld’s book (in the figurative sense).

    Goliath is full of adventure, alternate history, extremely cool gadgets and exotic genetically engineered beasties, and wonderful characters. I’m sure it’s great fun for the young adults who are ostensibly its audience, but I think any adult lover of science fiction would enjoy the book. If you’re intrigued by history, particularly the events surrounding World War I, then Goliath (the entire Leviathan series, really) is absolutely for you. Scott Westerfeld, you are a god of the written word!

    So what did you read this month? Something wonderful?

  • Why I Can’t Write Your Story

    I got another one of those e-mails the other day. If you’re a published author, you’ve probably received one or two. It always starts out with some variation of “I have the most incredible story to tell, and it’s all true.” Or the writer will state, “It’s like a cross of Popular Book A and Popular Book B, except better.” And somewhere in there it will say, “I’m not a very good writer, so that’s why I’m contacting you.”

    Even if they don’t spell it out, the intention of the person who sent the e-mail is clear. They think their idea is so terrific that they want me, Ms. Published Author, to write it as a book. They believe their idea is so great that they’re sure I will jump at the chance to write the book on spec (i.e., with no payment) for the opportunity to make big money down the line.

    I usually ignore e-mails like this one because it’s never something I want to pursue. There’s never anything in the e-mail that tells me the person is a fan of my work. They just found me on the web, or in a listing of authors somewhere and threw out an e-mail to me.

    In the case of this particular e-mail, I did respond because of one line: “I am completely clueless how to get started, or where to go with this.” That meant to me that although she claims she’s not a very good writer, she was open to information. And it turned out I was right. When she responded to my e-mail, she was grateful for the information I’d passed on.

    Here’s a little of what I told her, and a few other points:

    • Professional writers don’t work for free. If we don’t charge for our work, we can’t make a living.
    • I have no shortage of ideas. I’m not looking for ideas from other people. In fact, I wish I had the time to write all the ideas that are floating around in my own head.
    • Ideas are actually the easy-easy-easy part. Constructing a novel-length story around that idea is what’s really hard and time consuming.
    • Sometimes people’s life stories aren’t as interesting as they seem to the person who lived it. Not to mention you will have to fictionalize parts of it to make it fit into the above mentioned story.
    • If your life story truly is that interesting, you ought to be the one to write it. Because you are the one most passionate about it. Because you’re the one who really cares about it.
    • Sometimes people say they’re not very good at writing when they really mean they don’t like to write. And maybe they don’t like to write because they were never properly taught how. The best solution to that is to take a class–at your local community college, online, at the library, wherever you find one offered. Learn enough to see if you actually do like writing, then you can write your story yourself.

    What if this person does learn the craft of writing, writes her life story, and it turns out to be so fantastic she gets a giant book deal? I will be thrilled. I’ll be proud that I might have had a tiny bit to do with that. But truly, it will be her own hard work that got her to bestsellerdom. And that will make the victory all the sweeter for her.

  • RTW – Writing and the Change of the Seasons

    This week, YA Highway‘s Road Trip Wednesday asks, How does your writing (place, time, inspiration) change with the seasons?

    It’s a great question but I’m afraid I don’t have a particularly great answer. As a writer, my routine is kind of boring, and, well, routine. I don’t change anything with the seasons.

    I just sit at the same computer, in the same office, and whether I’m under contract and working on a deadline, or writing some spec piece, I just…write. I work nearly every day. There are times I take a break (like between contracts) when I go a few days or even a week or so without writing. But then a new contract starts or I settle in on a new spec project and I’m back to the routine.

    Ye Olde Grindstone

    I confess, I’m not exactly sure what I would do differently. I don’t find any particular season any more inspiring than another. If I’m on deadline, I just work. I do dislike deadlines that around Christmas (like if something is due in January), because I just want to kick back and bake cookies and decorate my tree and enjoy the season. But it’s not like I suddenly get ideas for holiday stories.

    Am I boring or what? At least my son, who’s got a YA circulating out there and is currently working on a MG book, goes out on the back deck to write on lovely summer days. I just stay in my cubicle, taking root and growing mushrooms between my toes.

    I really want to hear from other people on this. Do you have a seasonal ebb and flow with your creativity? Do you write differently at different times of the year? Drop me a line. I’d appreciate a break from my grindstone.