writing updates

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Pamela

Gaia Dreams I don’t expect that the sequel to Gaia Dreams will be out until after July or August of this year. I have not yet gotten back to book three–I seem to need that second book to be published before going further for some reason.

The romance writing experiment, under my other name Nicole Smith, continues. There is one short story up on Amazon, Passion Lives On. I am currently working on another romance which is kind of a romance/thriller and will end up as a short novel. I’m so used to writing big long books that it is strange for me to write at a shorter length–but I do think it is good for me. Stretching ourselves as writers is important. It seems to me that when I return to the Gaiaverse series, these experiments in another genre can only enhance the writing.

If the weather will cooperate we will soon have warmer weather here. I am anxious to have it be warm enough to run the air conditioner. I am convinced that I think better in air conditioning. It goes along with my love of motel rooms, with the air conditioner blasting cold air. There is nothing so comfy as pulling on a cardigan sweater in the AC-cooled air. I am aware that my previous statement is an environmental outrage.

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another interview

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Pamela

I had another internet radio interview the other day. It can be heard at internet voices radio by clicking on the play button under Pamela Davis. It was interesting to talk again about the first book, Gaia Dreams after being away from it for a while. It made me remember how much fun it was to write.

I plan to return to the third book in the next week or so. I’ve detoured into writing some romance under another name. It has probably been good for me to stretch myself as a writer into another genre. It also made me consider adding more romance to the third Gaiaverse book, but ultimately I think there is a specific feel to the books that I don’t want to disrupt.

The unseasonably warm weather we had last week here in New England made me think again about how little we really understand this planet and its weather cycles. Sometimes I think my writing of the disaster novels dealing with the Earth as an entity with a plan is my attempt to make sense of the things that don’t make sense to me in real life. I do think that there are random events that happen. But I also think there may be more order in the chaos than we realize.

Here’s a link to Nicole Smith’s paranormal romance: “Passion Lives On”, a short story.

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blog radio interview

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Pamela

I did a blog radio interview with Lisa on the 16th, about Gaia Dreams. You can listen to it by going here at blogtalkradio.com the One Karma Author’s Lounge. My part is mostly in the second half of the interview. I was so nervous ahead of time! Hopefully that doesn’t come across.

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travels, interviews, and illness

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Pamela

I have been playing around with some short story writing since I finished the editing on the second Gaiaverse book. It is fun but challenging to try and write only 10,000 words or less.

I spent a week in Texas visiting family and had a lovely time. Then I came home and got sick. I usually get sick after travel on an airplane. The idea that I have the virus that will end all human life creeps into my mind by about the 3rd day of being sick. Alas, it was only the common cold.

I’m preparing to do two radio interviews on the internet during March. I’m always nervous before one of these. Also my phone has started acting up, so I will be spending some time in my closet trying to find my previous phone.

That’s my update for this week. Not much happening but I am almost recovered so I expect to be back to writing soon.

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back to work

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Pamela

I’m back! After a break of a couple of months of avoiding the keyboard, I’m back on track and writing again. I’m also editing–my second book in the Gaiaverse is through the first edit and now it’s my job to put in some hard work on rewrites and fixes. It is a lot of fun to return to the story after being away from it for four or five months. I find myself thinking, ‘ooh I didn’t expect that’ — which is somewhat crazy since I wrote all of it.

I have a couple more weeks to finish up the editing then I’m off to visit my grandkids. That should be loads of fun.

One thing I’ve realized is that I live my life better when I’m writing. I became a bit slothful during my writing break. I need the focus of putting words on the page every day to keep my life in order. Writing gives me energy…and it makes me happy. Okay…sometimes it makes me want to bash my head against a wall, but generally speaking I am happier while writing!

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details, details, details

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Pamela

When the story is truly big, it’s the details that matter. I’ve had to remember this in the second, and now third, book of the Gaiaverse series. The second book starts right after the end of the world as we knew it. What happens next only feels real if there are the details that support the story, the setting, the characters.

Sometimes I get bogged down in details and then have to go back and cut out half of what I’ve written. Other times I find that I’m skimming over them, telling the major story plot line without the details. If I am going to write about how my characters survived, I need to note their motivation, their actions but also how they looked, where they were, what was the mood, and basically ground them in the reality I’ve created for them. This is, I think, the difference between suspending disbelief and not–making the story feel real.

I’ve always thought Stephen King does this very well. He gives the reader a setting and characters that seem quite real. Then as the story goes on, the reader finds they are in a completely bizarre situation–one that shouldn’t be believed and yet is, because King has set us up with a foundation full of real details to make it all seem quite plausible.
Dean Koontz is another writer who takes ordinary people and thrusts them into extraordinary situations, yet makes it utter believable.

I think as writers we want our readers to come into the story, to leave their lives behind for a while and live in the worlds we have created. This only happens if we provide the foundation of details for the reader to hold onto as they sink into an alternate reality.

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power, bookstores, reviews

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Pamela

I wanted to mention here that losing power (and hot water) for two and a half days after the big winter storm of October was an eye-opener. For someone who has written about surviving disasters, I discovered that I was not at all prepared for one. Since then I have ordered a radio that runs on solar power or by hand crank, bought more flashlights and batteries, as well as more canned food to have on the shelves for emergencies. I really like the radio because I can charge my cell phone with it–it has a usb port.

My experiences during the power outage were fairly boring. I slept a LOT. I got to know my neighbors a bit better as we gathered in the hall where the building generator gave us minimal light there. I was thankful for my next door neighbor who fed me pumpkin muffins when I ran out of food. I kept thinking, “use this time to add to your writer’s storehouse of experiences” — HA! I’ve decided that my creativity needs electricity to function.

We got power back and it was a time of rejoicing. I have never loved a hot shower as much as I did the one I took after the hot water came back. When the lights functioned again it was as if my brain woke up too. Suddenly I was ready to write. I come away from this whole thing knowing mainly that I am not great in disasters.

Other news:

Barnes and Noble has picked up Gaia Dreams for shelf placement in their stores. I am very excited and thankful about that, and can’t wait to go see it on their shelves.

The contract has been sent back to the publisher for the second book in the series. Editing soon to come.

If anyone has read Gaia Dreams and not reviewed it yet on amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com please, please go review it as soon as possible. The more reviews it has, the better. Even if it is only a one-liner, it will be appreciated.

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book two soon out there

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Pamela

book

Another one for the stack coming soon!

I got the word from the publisher that the second book in the Gaiaverse will be published! I’m thrilled that it will be coming out. When I started writing it I called it a sequel, but now I have a third book so I think I have to call this book two of a series or a trilogy. I imagine I will just call it a series. A trilogy seems to have an story arc over the three books. Mine is not that way. The first book can stand on its own, but the second picks up right where it left off and continues on with the story. I love the characters even as I right book three, so who knows how much more story there is to tell?

I’ve been away from my blog for a while now–taking a writing break completely. It’s time to get back to it, and I’ll soon be editing the second book. I think the time away has been good for me, to get some distance from the story and come up with new ideas. I also know that every day I don’t write makes it that much easier to avoid the next day and the next. The bottom line with writing is to put your bottom in a chair and your fingers on the keyboard and get on with it.

I decided not to do NaNoWriMo this year. I had no idea for a book to write during the month and couldn’t see the point of just writing crap to put some words down on a page. Maybe next year I’ll give it a try.

The new photo header on this page is the fall view out my window.

Next time: the snowstorm and the power outage.

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partaking of the forbidden fruit

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Pamela

peaches

Yummy goodness.

Fruit of the forbidden tree.
The fruits of our labor.

I was looking at these peaches today and it occurred to me that I’ve been partaking of the forbidden fruit of thinking for the past ten days. (Yes, I know the apple was the original fruit but I’m going with peaches since they were on hand.) I think that sometimes writers forget to take time to think. We start feeling the pressure to produce, to write more novels and to write them faster. In these chaotic days of self-publishing, 99-cent books, and the wild ride of ebook sales, the drive to come up with more books is overwhelming. People are out there shooting out books left and right–and some of them just aren’t that good.

There is another way. The way of rationality instead of chaos. Don’t get me wrong–chaos can be its own useful tool at times. But there is great benefit in letting yourself think before writing. There is a positive aspect to not writing, of taking a break even in mid-story.

For the past ten days or so I’ve been away from the keyboard. Why? Because I could feel myself pushing the story, forcing it. No good can come from that. When the story is on the right track, the writing flows. Yes I know that there are writers out there who talk of every sentence being a struggle, a battle. But my own experience has been of getting in the zone and having the writing flow out of me. This book has not gone that route. There have been many stops and starts. Finally I decided to walk away and just think. Really think. Let the old brain cells sit with the story and examine it. I decided to get rid of the crazy-making pressure I was feeling with my need to force the story.

Will this break have made a difference? Well, I’m starting back to work on the book very soon. I can’t help but believe that letting my mind do some thinking about the story can only be a positive thing. I am hoping that the fruits of my thinking will be succulent, juicy and luscious.

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when good books go bad

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Pamela

bookcase

So many books to be read!

We’ve probably all had the feeling–reading along in a book, engrossed in the beginning of the story…and then it happens. We start to lose interest, we find we can no longer suspend disbelief, and we become so fed up with where the author has taken the story that we set the book aside to be left unfinished. Or perhaps we even throw it across the room for good measure.

As a writer, I don’t ever want this to happen with one of my books. The hope is that people will stay engaged with the story and the characters all the way to the end, and even want more after the story is on that last page. As a reader, I have had the experience of losing interest in a book, which is hard enough to concede. But there are so many books out there to be read, that it makes no sense to continue on if the book is truly boring. However, even worse is the experience of no longer believing in the story. To find yourself saying “WTF??” or “No way!” is not a good sign when reading a book. These are the ones that for me end up being thrown across the room.

My question is, what makes a good book go bad? How can a story that starts off with such promise suddenly go off the rails?

I suspect that some of these happen because the writer stops following the characters’ leads and instead starts forcing them into a strict outline. It is important to listen to our characters. Even if it means having to go back and rewrite an earlier section of the book, as just happened to me, as long as we are staying true to the characters it should end up taking us down the right story path.

Sometimes I think the writer loses confidence, either settling for the easy, predictable way out of a problem in the story, or veering off wildly. This veering off into totally unexpected territory can work if it makes sense in the lives of the characters, in the truth of the story. But to grasp frantically at some extreme solution as a way to work out the loss of confidence is not so good.

Writing takes courage. You have to take a running leap of faith as you pound those words out onto the page or screen. If you let yourself believe in the story you are more than halfway there. Don’t give up halfway across the abyss–keep on flying!

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