Writer Pals

by Gigi Pandian

Far from being a solitary pursuit, writing wasn't something I was able to do well until I surrounded myself with other writers. Shortly after I moved to the Bay Area, everything in my life began to fall into place: wonderful friends, a great guy, an amazing job. But something was missing. Writing a book was still one of those things people say they really want to accomplish but don't actually find a way to do. 

A couple of years after setting into my life in Berkeley, a woman who had recently completed her MFA in creative writing moved to my neighborhood. Emberly Nesbitt was the friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, and we discovered we were both working on novels. Em and I wrote together during my first National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and the momentum stuck. We met frequently at local cafes to motivate each other.

NaNoWriMo with Emberly Nesbitt

Everything snowballed from there:

It was through Em's encouragement that I sent my NaNoWriMo novel to the Malice Domestic Grants competition, which fosters the next generation of traditional mystery writers by giving grants to promising unpublished writers. When I found out I was being awarded one of their grants for Artifact, I attended Malice Domestic -- my very first mystery convention. It was there I met Juliet Blackwell.

Gigi Pandian and Juliet Blackwell

It turned out Juliet was the president of my local Sisters in Crime Northern California chapter. Since I hadn't previously known any local mystery writers, I would never have attended a meeting without her recommendation. Juliet and I became friends, and I also found myself serving on the board doing the chapter newsletter. 

Sisters in Crime NorCal Board in 2010

I learned about another group at that Malice Domestic convention: the Guppies Chapter of Sisters in Crime, a chapter set up for unpublished authors to have an online community. It was there that I learned how much time and effort it takes to learn to write a good novel, how to query an agent once your work is ready, and also how to not get discouraged in this crazy business.

Guppies Avery Aames (Daryl Wood Gerber) and Gigi Pandian.

I continued to write with Em at cafes, attended events in the mystery writer community, and signed with an agent I love working with. It was then that Sophie Littlefield rounded up a group of writers she thought would be a good fit for a group blog.

Juliet Blackwell, Gigi Pandian, Sophie Littlefield at Bouchercon

Since we wrote across genres, we hadn't all met each other before. I only knew Sophie and Juliet. Yet somehow we instantly clicked. (Sophie, to this day I don't know how you did it!) We picked a blog name, then got together for a photo shoot at a local cemetery (hey, many of us are mystery writers, after all).

Pens Fatales photo shoot in 2009

 
I didn't realize at the time how much of a community the group would become. Not only for writing, but for life in general. When your friends take you wig shopping and buy you a fun wig after you've been diagnosed with breast cancer, and then throw a big dinner party, you know you've chosen wisely.

A Pens Fatales dinner party

   

The Pens Fatales after wig shopping for Gigi

Last month at Left Coast Crime: Gigi Pandian, Sophie Littlefield, Juliet Blackwell

If you're a writer, definitely surround yourself with other writers. It doesn't have to be in person. Some of my best friends and critique partners are people I primarily know online, a couple of whom I've never even met. Even if you're an introvert, having at least a few writer pals who understand will make all the difference.

If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going (And Do NaNoWriMo While You're At It)

by Gigi Pandian

The first half of this post's title is a quote from Winston Churchill. I get sent a lot of quotes these days, what with the whole cancer thing and all. That quote is one of my favorites. If you're going through hell, keep going.

I'm not especially going through hell (truly, modern medicine is fantastic) but it's a great reminder than when you face challenges, it's ridiculous to stop and give in to them.

It's true you can hear me for miles around as I whine about how I can't drink coffee for another six weeks. But aside from my coffee deprivation whining, I think I'm doing a good job not only keeping on going, but stepping up the pace.

Now that I've done the grunt work to make Gargoyle Girl Productions official, it's time for an ambitious November: Turning a messy, overly complex YA novel into a brand new trilogy of novellas that each takes one of the original overlapping story lines.

Yup, I'm signing up for not only the National Novel Writing Month promise of 50,000 words, but I'm aiming for a total of 75,000 words this November. Three 25,000 YA mystery novellas.

Can I do it? Definitely. I never set out to do anything if I think I'm going to fail.

Am I crazy? Probably.

So why am I doing 50% more than the already arduous NaNoWriMo goal? I'll be done with chemo by the end of November. What better way to make the month fly by than throwing myself into a big project of literary abandon?

NaNoWriMo begins next Tuesday. Who's with me?

Want to Read a Thriller? Try a Nonfiction Book on Art Theft

by Gigi Pandian

My fascination with the world of art theft didn't begin the day in 1998 when I was trapped in the Louvre with an art thief.

But the experience definitely solidified my interest.

How could thieves escape in broad daylight from a world-famous museum with a painting by French Impressionist Camille Corot?

When I set out to write a mystery novel, I knew I wanted to involve art theft in some way. But aside from my afternoon spent trapped in the Louvre and a few mystery novels I'd read that featured dashing art thieves, I didn't know anything about the real world of art theft. Since I love research, this wasn't a problem. I started reading up on the subject.

The problem? It turns out nonfiction art theft books are fascinating. I couldn't stop reading.

I ordered books written by FBI agents and journalists. When I realized how many books I was buying, I checked out books from the library. I followed art theft blogs. I interviewed museum curators. The stories of real life con men and the people on their trail were more fascinating than just about any fiction I'd seen.

I knew I needed to stop my research and get writing. But how? There were so many more books that would give me insight... It's all too easy to get bogged down in research, especially when one's research reads like a thriller, which is why I need tricks to get myself back on track.

The collective pressure of NaNoWriMo, coming up in a few weeks, is the trick that works for me. There's a time and a place for research, and National Novel Writing Month is not that time. I'm doing research on a different topic this month, but come November 1, it's time to write.

The subject of my mystery series evolved from art to treasure, but the crux of the issue is the same. The world is full of objects of such beauty, and thieves come up with ways to steal, smuggle, or forge their way to them. There are endless scenarios in both real life and in fiction.

Pens Go Na No

Several of the Pens are engaged in National Novel Writing Month this November.

That's a commitment to write 50,000 words in 30 days.




But the true commitment is to make writing your priority for an entire month. Put writing first.

So chime in if you've already started Na No and want to share your progress. We are all about support at the Pens. And if you want to start now. Go for it!! The link is below.


www.nanowrimo.org

We'll keep you posted on our progress throughout the month!! Go NaNo!!!

Carrie Ryan: One Month To Put Writing First

Today we welcome Carrie Ryan, author of the amazing young adult novel THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH and its sequel, due out in 2010, THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES. MTV News calls The Forest of Hands and Teeth "a pretty freakin' amazing, empowering and absolutely thrilling young-adult post-apocalyptic zombie love story."

I’m convinced that it’s because of National Novel Writing Month that I sold my first book. When NaNo came around in 2006 I’d just had a partial rejected by an agent and I was stuck at 40k words on that project (long story how I ended up sending in a partial when the book wasn’t done - I don’t ever recommend doing that!). I’d also just started a new project for a class on writing YA novels but… the rules for NaNo were clear: you had to start day one with a zero word count. That meant, I couldn’t work on either of those two projects for NaNo.

And that was okay because really, I was having a hard time making the voice of my character from project 2 stand out from the voice of project 1. I needed something new to shake myself out of it -- cleanse the palate so to say. And I figured a month of playing with something new would be just the solution.

Of course, that meant coming up with something new. Which meant a lot of whingeing on my part as I complained about having to start something new AGAIN. This is when my fiancé uttered words that changed everything: Write what you love.

I said, “You mean the zombie apocalypse?” He smiled. I reminded him I’d been writing chick lit and he smiled wider (he loves it when he’s right). And so when a first line popped into my head on the way home from work in early November, I ran with it. It was just NaNo, after all, and I could afford to take a month to play with something new.

Unfortunately, I didn’t “win” NaNo that year, we adopted a special needs dog and I ended the month with only 20k words. But I loved the idea and I kept writing and in April I started revising. I queried in August, signed with an agent in September and sold the book in October. Just under a year from a first line to a two book contract.

I’m not sure I ever would have forced myself to risk trying something new if it hadn’t been for NaNo. I’d spent most of 2006 so wrapped up in one project, so tied to those words that I needed the forced break. I needed something to shove me out of my comfort zone and allow me to experiment.

To me, this is one of the best parts of NaNo, that we all take one month to put writing first, to focus on the basics: words on the page. And we all share that goal together, blogging and supporting and talking craft. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in life and work and other obligations that we move writing farther and farther down our list of priorities. Even writing full time it’s easy for me to put the actual writing last.

But not in November. NaNo is our chance to, for one month, indulge in the basics: writing. We send the internal editor on vacation, we tell doubts we don’t have time for them, we play and experiment and perhaps gnash our teeth a bit. And hopefully, we remind ourselves how much we really do love putting words on paper.

Hopefully, we end up with something great we can revise and work with. Hopefully we learn something about ourselves, our writing style, our worlds and characters. And hopefully we have fun, even if we don’t “win” because in the end, we’re all in this together.

Happy NaNo everyone!!

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Carrie Ryan is a graduate of Williams College and Duke University School of Law. A former litigator, she now writes full time. She lives with her writer/lawyer fiancé, two fat cats and one large puppy in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are not at all prepared for the zombie apocalypse.

Gigi's NaNoWriMo Tips and Timeline

by Gigi

Here's my secret for finally managing to finish that novel I wanted to write "someday": NaNoWriMo.

I was introduced to National Novel Writing Month 5 years ago, in 2004. I had been bouncing around ideas for mystery novels for years, having fun with it along with the rest of my creative pursuits. But while I got better at art, photography, and the guitar, I never seemed to get further on a novel than than jotting down ideas and over-editing a few scenes to death.

I'd come close to finishing a novel during college, but with all my rewriting, I could never quite get to THE END.

That's the beauty of NaNoWriMo. It asks you to throw editing out the window. In accepting that charge, it forces you to let go of your inner editor. And what a freeing force that can be.

Don't get me wrong--editing has its place. And if you're going to do it right, editing will probably take longer than writing that first draft. But you cannot get to that place until you finish that first draft.

By signing up to write 50,000 words in a month, you make a deal with yourself to avoid the temptation to go back and read what you've just written. You move forward, rushing to get 50,000 words down on paper. Much of it will be nonsense you'll never use, but you'll also have brilliant ideas you never would have thought of if you hadn't gone through the exercise.

I loved reading Sophie's NaNo timeline, so I thought I'd share mine:

November 2004: I discovered NaNoWriMo and wrote a whole book. THE ROSE didn't fit into any genre (was it a mystery? a ghost story? a YA book? a paranormal romance???) but it taught me that I could write a whole book. Not a good book, but a complete book. What fun! Now back to regular life.

November 2005: I wrote over 50,000 words of a mystery novel, ARTIFACT. When I stepped back and read it a few months later, I thought for the first time that I might actually have something with what I'd written. I decided it might be worth editing this book.

November 2006: I didn't win NaNoWriMo this year. I used this November to furiously edit that 2005 book.

In December, I submitted it to the Malice Domestic grants competition for unpublished mystery writers. A few months later, in early 2007, I found out I'd won one of their two 2007 grants. Excited about this validation of my writing, I queried a few agents. I subsequently learned that 1 month of editing isn't enough. I needed to learn how to edit a book.

November 2007: I wrote what I thought would be Book 2 in the mystery series. (Yeah, it's much more fun to write a new book than to edit an old one.)

I had such fun with this caper that I decided to hunker down and put in the work to edit Book 1. I knew that was what I needed to do if I ever wanted either book to see the light of day. I joined local writers groups, bought some writing craft books, and got to be a better writer this year.

November 2008: I got my creative juices flowing by writing something completely different: a YA ghost story.

Simultaneously, I submitted ARTIFACT to a bigger mystery competition--one that gave the winner a publishing deal. I found out a few months later that I was a finalist. I didn't end up winning, but I knew then that my book was ready to send out. I queried agents, and this time there was a lot more interest. I signed with a wonderful agent.

November 2009: My agent thought my idea for Book 3 in my mystery series was much stronger than Book 2 (she's right), so I'm currently writing Book 3--which is now Book 2--tentatively titled PIRATE. I passed the 20,000 word mark yesterday.

Whew! It's been a fun few years.

p.s. If you want to read even more about what I have to say about NaNoWriMo, you can check out the guest blog post I did on the NaNoWriMo blog last year.

Nanowrimo Wiped The Floor With Martha (But That's Okay)

Lisa and I have the same problem. "No" isn't in our vocabulary.

Swim Alcatraz? Sure.
Pole Dancing? Why not.
Juice Fast? Yum.
Breakdancing? Awesome.
Triathlon? Bring it.
Nano? I'm in.

Fortunately, I'm blessed with a little something known as non-attachment to the outcome.

Alcatraz? I came in dead last.
Pole Dancing? Face planted twice.
Juice Fast? Nervous jittery breakdown.
Breakdancing? Pulled my shoulder.
Triathlon? Fell off my bike three times and cried.
Nano? Hella behind. No way I'll "win."

But that's okay. I've never needed to be the best. I've never even needed to be particularly good. Perfection? What's that?

Nike trademarked the slogan in 1988 but it's been my motto since 1977.

No whining. No excuses. No naysay.

Just Do It.

So even though this month is sucking pretty hard, I'll see you again next year, ready to roll.

No, Yes, I'm a NaNo Mess

I have a little problem.

I try not to talk about it. I’ve been working on it over the last few years and I’ve gotten better. But I’m still not completely cured.



I have trouble saying NO.








My default answer (even when I reset) comes up, “sure, you need me to:

1. Moderate an online class for the month

2. Cook food for 20 people twice in one week

3. Buy and donate food for the high school barbecue fundraiser

4. Have my parents and sister visit for a week

5. Start an exercise challenge

6. Do Nano”




Okay, so I admit the last two are for me and I signed up of my own free will. But whenever I embark on NaNo I have the best of intentions and the desire to ‘win’. And every year other stuff comes up (you’re supposed to cut out everything but writing) and I feel guilty if I don’t say yes.


So here I am, once again, ten days into NaNo and all six of those things are on my To-Do list. And now I’m caught in the middle. As my parent’s visit starts tomorrow (my house is semi-clean), I’m going to exercise class once a day, and I’m writing every day, and monitoring and shopping and cooking and attending end of season, soccer, waterpolo and cross country banquets. I’m trying to squeeze everything in but something will have to give.

So I’m torn...do I continue on my path to physical health and wellness or my spiritual path to completing NaNo? And isn’t it amazing that the choice comes down to the two things I chose for myself?



Lisa

ps. I want to win but I always figure that every word I get down in November is a WIN

5 Very Quick Questions for a Very Busy Chris Baty

1. It's been ten years since you started Nanowrimo. Eleven years ago, what would you have pictured yourself doing in the year 2010?

Oh man. Either working as a freelance music writer (which I'd just started doing in 1999) or living, destitute and alone, in a Central Valley hobo jungle.


2. Does your family participate in Nanowrimo? Do they support the madness?

They are very supportive of the madness! In the early days of NaNoWriMo, my family loaned me the money I needed to launch NaNo. So in a very real way, the event wouldn't exist without them. But no matter how much I try to encourage or guilt them into writing a novel in November, they won't do it. I'm not giving up.

3. What's the staple food in headquarters during ramp-up to November?

It's a steady diet of Atlas Coffee (a Seattle coffee importer run by a NaNoWriMo participant who is nice enough to send us 10 pounds of high-octane beans every year), burritos, and a tooth-threatening amount of candy from staff member (and candy blogger) Cybele May. We pretty much exist in an all-dessert-all-the-time mode from November 1 onward.

4. Besides November (natch), what's your favorite month?

I'm also very fond of April, when Script Frenzy rolls around. I think I have a problem with downtime.

5. MAC or PC?

PC. I covet Macs, but PCs are cheaper and make more sense to my brain.

Bonus round (if you feel like playing, no worries if you don't) -- worst dream you ever had about Nanowrimo:

I sadly have bad dreams every single night of October and November about NaNoWriMo. Usually about emails and missed deadlines. Last night's dream was that a staff member was celebrating her one-year anniversary with us, and I'd told everyone in the office we were having a party. Then I got so busy trying to write a Week Two pep talk that I forgot about the party, and everyone was sad.

Chris Baty is the original founder of NaNoWriMo, and as per his NaNo bio, he is "seriously going to rock it this November."

Meet Douglas

--Adrienne Miller

Douglas is my date this November. That scruffy hair. That half smile. That mischievous look in his eyes. Oh yeah, I don’t think its going to be a problem spending a whole month with Douglas.

Of course, it’s easy to say that now, while November is still young, while we are still in that thrilling hook up stage of our relationship. I’m well aware of how things will change around the middle of the month. How he will start to break away from the plan I’ve mapped out for him and start doing his own thing. You see, Douglas is cocky and he's headstrong. He's even a little crazy. But he’ll come back to me. They always do.

How does my family feel about this autumn fling? Oh, I’m sure they’ll manage. Don’t feel sorry for them; they knew the job was dangerous when they took it. Besides, there are worse things in the world than a month of takeout dinners and leftover lunches. It’s a well known fact that November is a month of literary abandon...and parental and spousal neglect.

Will things work out between Douglas and I? Will our liaison last to the bookstore shelf? Do I even dare dream of a bestseller list or two? I know it’s too early to say now, but it’s so easy to dream when I gaze into those eyes.

Juliet's trying to figure out what Nanowrimo is all about....

Like so many other endeavors in my life, I got into this whole writing thing backwards. Here are a few examples:

I set off to write my first book on a lark, rather than with any actual game plan. (I figured since I liked reading mysteries, how hard could it be to write one? Answer: hard.)

I had no critique group (though I wrote my first book with my sister, so we were each other's de facto critiquers).

I didn't know about helpful professional organizations like Mystery Writers of America or Sisters in Crime.

I didn't realize mystery writers held conventions full of thousands of people, from authors to agents to fans.

I didn't know any other authors.

I didn't know any agents.

I didn't know what a freaking query letter was.

So is it any wonder that I'm only now figuring out what Nanowrimo is?

Here's what I love about it: Nanowrimo is a valuable, energizing, exciting, instructive way to learn to apply one's butt to the seat of one's chair and WRITE, which for many writers is the most difficult part of writing.

By its very nature it reinforces what I have come to believe: there is no waiting for the muse, no "feeling it", no looking for inspiration. There is only sitting down and getting words on paper, even if they're not perfect words (because really, how often are they perfect, no matter how much time one spends?)

The major problem with Nanowrimo is that there's no talk of revision, and as any novelist knows, that's often the hardest part. Fair point. But without the original words in the first place, there is no revision, no re-write.

Over the long run, the point isn't to get 2- or 3- thousand words a day down on paper. The point is to get some words down on that first draft, just about every day. Can't make 2,000? It's going to take you longer than a couple of months to complete a manuscript.

But even 2 pages a day, produced consistently, will add up to a sizable book in a matter of six months -- and that's assuming you're taking off weekends! Do that over and over, and pretty soon you'll have produced a whole stack of books.

Here's my pet peeve, overheard far too often: "I just don't have the time to write."

Some people don't. Some people are saving dying folks in remote parts of the world or caring for both parents suffering from Alzheimers or raising sixteen children not yet of school age.

But most of us do have the time, we just don't choose to use it. We don't prioritize.

I think the novelist Harry Crews said it best:

'You have to go to considerable trouble to live differently from the way the world wants you to live. That’s what I’ve discovered about writing. The world doesn’t want you to do a damn thing. If you wait till you got time to write a novel or time to write a story or time to read the hundred thousands of books you should have already read–if you wait for the time, you’ll never do it. Cause there ain’t no time; world don’t want you to do that. World wants you to go to the zoo and eat cotton candy, preferably seven days a week.'

And if you love writing, if you're bitten by the bug, your "work" is also your "fun"...even when it's not that fun. Hard to explain.

So if you don't want to write, do something else wonderful with your life.

But if you want to write, sit down and write no matter the circumstance. And if you do write, but don't write enough, and want to learn to write a lot, fast, jump on that Nanowrimo bandwagon!

Rachael Crushes On NaNo

NaNoWriMo is sexy.

I knew that the first time I set eyes on him. All 50K of him, long, stretched out over the month, like I couldn't handle that many words.

He didn't think I could handle that many words? Did he have any idea what the idea of a challenge does to me? I'd show that NaNo who could write a novel in a month. Bring it.

By November 15th that first year, 2006, I knew I was in deep. I was doing it. I was writing every day. I was making it work. I was actually getting words on the page that were making me laugh. Plot was happening in front of my very eyes, and sometimes things felt smart and fresh, and every once in a while, I barely had to try.

Other times, the words looked like fish on dry land, flopping and gasping, waiting to die ignominiously. I ignored them, because NaNo was still whispering in my ear, "Ignore them. Let them flop. You'll gut them later. Ignore the smell."

Then, two days early, I hit 50,000 words with the word "stabbed." The hero and heroine were making out in a pantry, and he got punctured in the thigh with a knitting needle. It was appropriate, I thought. I did a victory dance like none I'd ever done before.

And then, as Sophie posted yesterday, I kind of never stopped writing. Three years later, I write every day. Today I'm 2K words into Book Three of a contracted work, and I'm headed out to San Francisco to find a good cafe in which to sit and write 2K or so of my NaNo.

I love that I'm writing both at the same time. It feels like I'm cheating on Book Three with my NaNo. It makes it dirty, and naughty; therefore it makes it FUN.

And we're back to NaNo being sexy. Mmmm. I'm gonna unwrap ALL those 50,000 words and make 'em my own.

Come here, big boy. Talk to mama.

NaNoWriMo: Bring It On!

Just a quick update from the Pens....



Many of us are participating in the National Novel Writing Month. Go here for details: www.nanowrimo.org

The object of the challenge is to write 50,000 words in one month. Several of our pens have "won" over the years and we're all excited to be a part of such energy.

Check it out!