Suck It Up Princess

This was one of my best coach's favorite expressions. Admittedly, we were a pretty hardcore bunch of ballplayers. We trained and played eleven months a year, and in season it was rare to have more than a day off a week. Whenever someone got hurt, this same coach would undoubtedly ask, "Are you hurt? Or are you injured?" Meaning, if we don't need to cart you off to the hospital, quit whining, suck it up and get back out there.

We got used to his tough love routine pretty fast. I still hear him sometimes in my head when I'm staring at my blank laptop screen wondering what the heck to write next. "Suck it up, princess." And he's right. As Todd Stone wrote in his book Novelist's Boot Camp, you can whine or you can write, but you can't do both.

Writers have to write, and if they want to succeed, they have to write constantly. They can't sit around waiting for their muse to show up, and they can't wait for inspiration to strike. Not all of as are as hardcore as Nora Roberts, who writes eight hours every single day--including Christmas, I'm told. Wow. Now that's a level of dedication I can't even aspire to, because I know it would never happen. I need my downtime to recharge my batteries, and I could never work on Christmas!

Here are some ideas for the less militant among us that have worked for me. Set a page or word count and a schedule you--and your family--can live with. If possible, pick the time of day when your creative juices seem to flow the best, and make it part of your routine. This is the only way my family has learned to respect what I'm doing. The schedule thing seems to make my hubby happier, otherwise he grumbles about me being attached to my laptop all the time. I write in the morning for an hour or two, then when hubby puts our little ones to bed. If I get an extra bit of time in between someplace, bonus.

My point is, even if it's not as much time to write as I'd like to have, at least it's something. I've got to make that window of opportunity work. No one's going to hold me accountabale but me. No one can make me quit but me. No one's going to do the writing for me. Yes, writing is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it! But that's no excuse. Just write. No whining. You can't fix a blank page. Get the words down, and even if they're awful, you've got something to work with when you go back and revise.

Okay, I'm hopping off my soapbox now. And as promised, here's a picture of me on my way out for trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Happy writing! No whining.

Remembrance Day Reflections

I'm prouder to be a Canadian on Remembrance Day than on any other day of the year. When I was 12, my parents took my best friend and I over to Europe, and my dad made sure we visited some of the most important Canadian WWI sites. I've never forgotten that trip, or how I felt standing on those battlefields and in the cemeteries. Humbled and awed, and incredibly sad that so many young men died in the war that was meant to end all wars...but didn't.

A month ago my best cousin and I traveled to Europe, and visited Normandy, France. Our first stop there was to Juno Beach, where the Canadians landed on June 6th, 1944 for their part in the D-Day invasion of Operation Overlord.






















A few days before arriving there, I happened to learn a very interesting fact. To give you a point of reference, my father was president of Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers for a long time, and worked as the right hand man of the CEO, Dave Ritchie. The Ritchies are from Kelowna, a small city in the interior of BC.

Turns out, Dave's eldest brother volunteered to fight during WWII, and was killed at Juno Beach. My father says Dave remembered his eldest brother marching through the streets of Kelowna on their way to war while the crowd cheered them on. Dave ran after him, and his brother told him to go stand with their parents. That's the last time Dave ever saw him.

On the way to Normandy from Paris, my cousin and I passed a Ritchie Bros. yard on the main highway. I didn't think much of it at the time, except to point it out to my cousin. We visited Juno Beach and the visitors center, then went to the Canadian cemetery and found Dave's brother's grave--not forty five minutes' drive from where the yard now stands. It gave me goose bumps to know the eldest brother had died liberating France, and because of him and his fellow soldiers turning the tide of the war, sixty years later his baby brother was able to set up part of his empire there.






















So this Remembrance Day I'm thinking of Corporal William Ritchie, and the ultimate sacrifice he made. I wonder if he knows the part he played in helping his little brother.

Warrior Writer: Reflections

Got back last night from Bob Mayer's Warrior Writer workshop, and during the drive home mulled over what resonated with me the most.

The first day was a writing workshop where we focused on the main story idea and conflict, plus reviewed critiques of our opening pages from the other participants. Except for my critique partner (who you can't have--she's mine! All mine!), all other criticism I usually have to read and then put away for a day or two before coming back to it. Otherwise I get too stuck on the negative things pointed out, and get down on myself. You know how that goes, right? Instead of thinking, Aha! I see how I can improve this, and I'm so glad someone pointed this weakness out, we wallow in the abyss of self-pity. Instead of seeing it as constructive criticism, we hear people saying, "You suck, and somebody should take that keyboard away from you because clearly you shouldn't be using it", or "I would rather stab something sharp into my eye than have to read another word you write". Yeah. Feeling like people hate your work (or worse, you) can cripple a writer.

Bob put it perfectly, saying that writers are a different breed, and it's usually that one "aw, shit" that wipes out the ninety-nine "atta-boys" that came before it. That's why I always let the feedback marinate a while in my subconscious. I'm always better off that way. Of course the comments are just opinions, but if there's something constructive I can work with to improve my writing, I'll at least take a hard look at it. And let's face it, when NYT bestselling author points out weaknesses in your work, you'd better sit up and pay attention and then work to improve your craft/story.

After day one, I was suddenly left questioning my entire plot and main characters for the WIP I've been struggling with. The good news is that my subconscious already knew there was a problem with the story, but I couldn't put my finger on it. After mulling it over this weekend, I think I've got a few ideas up my sleeve to make it better.

I learned from Bob that most writers are introverts by nature. We kind of have to be, since we hole up in our little cocoons and type on a keyboard for hours on end, day after day. Month after month...Yikes, year after year even. That's why most of us are not very good at promotion. We're more comfortable being in the audience than on the stage. We tend to get discouraged easily, either because of negative feedback, or because of the way the business is set up. That's why so many writers give up before they get published, and why others give up before they've attained their dreams. Bottom line is, nobody can make you quit except you. And nobody's going to do the work for you. It's up to you to figure out how you want your career to be, and then keep writing until you turn out a product that publishing can't say no to.

Here are a few thoughts to ponder about your current project:

-How can you make your main story idea more special and so unique that it grabs the agent's/editor's eye right away in the query letter? You want something that can knock their socks off and set you apart from the other fifty manuscripts with a similar plot already sitting in their inbox.

-What attribute(s) can you give your main characters to make them different than any other character ever invented? Make them so interesting and riveting that no reader, agent or editor could ever forget them.

-How can you up the stakes of the conflict so that your protagonist is the only person on Earth fit to take on your antagonist?

-Do you have at least two layers of conflict in every single scene? Verbal, emotional, physical, psychological.

-You should write in the point of view you enjoy reading the most.

-Study authors and books that you love. What is the POV? What is it about the characters and story that draws you? What have those authors done that you haven't?

Finally, the biggest thing I took away from the weekend is that pretty much everything is fixable in a manuscript. It just takes the willingness to change and a lot of hard work. But above all, you only get one chance to hook an agent or editor, so make sure you only put your best work in front of them, and never ever give them an easy reason to reject you. Make it really hard for them to say no.

I challenge you to put these ideas into action. See if you can really push the envelope with your plot and characters. I'm looking forward to watching how much life it injects into my current work.

Remember, style and craft can be fixed, but in today's writing market, it's the story itself that has to be brilliant.

Happy writing!
Kaylea :)

Happy Halloween!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween! Here in Vancouver the weather has turned crisp and the leaves are falling, swirling through the air on gusts of autumn wind. Our front porch is decorated with spiders and jack-o-lanterns carved to look like a ghost and a pirate skull, and my little ones are beside themselves at the prospect of filling their treat bags once it gets dark.

Tonight I'm dressing up in my drindl I bought in Munich, tying my hair into pigtails and rocking the whole outfit by topping it off with black fisnhet stockings and four inch black heels. Then I'll be escorted by none other than Bumblebee and Scooby-Doo for some good old-fashioned trick-or-treating.

If it's cold wherever you are and you're in need of a Halloween treat to warm you up, Katie Reus has a new paranormal erotic romance release out called Unleashed Temptation, under her alter ego's pen name, Savannah Stuart. You can check it out here.

Hope everyone stays safe and has a great time tonight!
Kaylea :)

Halloween fun

Expecting copy edits for Relentless (book 4), but I've got to get my butt in gear with the first book of my Bagram Special Ops series. I've tentatively titled it Turbulence, and am about a third of the way through the first draft--the hardest part of the writing phase. Well, at least for me ;)

In honor of Halloween, I've put in a short clip of this amazing costume. For anyone out there with young boys, this is guaranteed to make them smile. So without further delay, here's someone who's a huge fan of the Transformers movies. Enjoy!

Out of Her League playlist

I'm going to be posting a few things regarding my books as we get closer to my next release date in February. Character interviews, recipes they like to cook (or eat, in Bryn's case--she's a terrible cook). I cleaned out my iPod today to make room for my new WIP, and thought I'd share some of the songs from my first book, Out of Her League.

You may recall in an earlier post I find having a playlist for my current book or even some songs particular for a certain character in that book really helps get my creative juices flowing. Even now when I'm driving and a song from one of my playlists comes on the radio, I'm instantly transported back to that book and its characters. Kind of neat, actually.

So, here are some of the songs I kept around for when I needed inspiration for Out of Her League:

-Every Breath You Take (The Police--theme song for Seth and the whole book, really)
-Nights In White Satin (The Moody Blues--this was for Luke and Emily's flashback scene where he shows up at her door in the middle of the night in the pouring rain)
-Interstate Love Song (Stone Temple Pilots)
-Kickstart My Heart (Motley Crue--this always makes me think of softball because it played during warm-ups in Canada Cup one year when I was starting against Team Australia. Trust me, it was a memorable--if short :)--experience. So I used this for writing the scenes where Christa is catching during the game.)
-Ghost (Live)
-All We Are (Kim Mitchell--for the ending climax scene with Rayne taking down Seth)
-I'm Ready (Bryan Adams--this is Rayne's theme song, because it took him a long time to become a happily ever after kind of guy. Only Christa could have brought that out in him.)

If you've never tried the playlist trick of jumpstarting your creativity, give it a whirl. I bet you'll find it helps when you get stuck!

There's No Place Like Home

I'm back safe and sound! Whew, it felt like a long trip because I was pining for my little guys the whole time. Oh, and hubby too. He really missed me, by the way. He and the boys met me at the airport with chocolate roses :) I can't even describe how happy I was to see them and hug them all.

As hard as it was to leave my family for that long, it was good for my marriage in a way. Keeps things fresh when you don't see each other every single day, which is when most couples tend to take each other for granted. I came home to a spotless, gleaming house, two happy boys and a hubby that lost seven pounds because he missed me so much (or so I like to think, but maybe it was because he wasn't eating my cooking and baking every day!).

My time in France was relatively short, but man is it expensive there! Moreso than any of the other countries I visited. I went to a burlesque show at the Crazy Horse theater in Paris (who'd have ever thought that would happen?), ate crepes and shopped. Now that's my idea of a good time. I even got complimented on my French a couple of times, which is funny because I barely know any. But it's nice to know my accent is good!

At least in France I felt "normal", physically speaking. Not so much in the Baltic countries. I'm about 5' 7" and 130 pounds (size 4 or 6, depending on the clothes), but in the Baltics I felt short and fat. Seriously, all the women there seemed to be 5' 9" or better, and my weight. Size zeroes and twos. Probably because their diet is much better than in North America, or even most of Western Europe. Our tour guide commented more than once that all we seemed to do was eat! Plus, they don't eat processed crap like we all do on the west side of the "pond".

Another thing that surprised me was the number of people that spoke English, especially in Estonia. Nearly everyone we met spoke enough to converse with us. And they still rely on central heating, piped in from Russia. The Batic governments determine when to turn it on and off, and this week in Lithuania, the government is turning on heat in schools and hospitals. And trust me, it's cold there right now. The rest of the population has to wait until the temperature falls below a certain level for three consecutive days, then the heat gets turned on. And once it's on, you can't shut it off or regulate the temperature. So if you're too hot, you have to keep all your windows open until the heat gets shut off in April or May, once again determined by the temperature. You can imagine how expensive this method is, especially to a population struggling to make ends meet. Hopefully things will keep improving there over the next few years, but the current economic crisis isn't helping matters. Our tour guide Edgars has a master's degree in international business relations, and he's just left Latvia for six months to drive a bread truck in Australia. That says a lot, doesn't it?

So, all in all I'm glad I went, and my cousin was awesome to travel with. Other than an upcoming writer's retreat with Bob Mayer in November, I'm not planning on going anywhere for a long while!

Now I've got to get my butt in gear and get back into some sort of writing routine. I've been such a slacker! Let's hope this break from the keyboard has let my current WIP percolate in my little brain, and that the words will flow next time I sit down to write.