pretensesoup

pretensesoup, 12 days ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 5/27: What's the ideal story length?

Long enough to develop the characters and ideas without it becoming repetitive or tedious. So it varies by genre, but for my patience level something in the range of 70-100k words is good. Too short and one begins to feel that too much has been omitted; too long and who has time for that. (Someone tell Neal Stephenson.)

pretensesoup, 13 days ago to books

Happy bookiversary to my debut! One year later and it's sold reasonably well, picked up some award noms, and garnered love from a lot of people. And I've learned a lot about writing, publishing, marketing...myself, maybe.

If you want a copy, find it here: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p Or I have a few copies--$17 each, send me a msg or an email (ehlupton at gmail).

@bookstodon #books #bookiversary #bookstodon #romancelandia #historicalRomance #fantasy #madisonWI

pretensesoup, 19 days ago to books

Dionysus in Wisconsin won third place at the New England Romance Writers Readers' Choice awards in the fantasy/paranormal category. I am definitely going to be cool about this and not use it as an excuse to call myself an AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR at every turn because that would be obnoxious.

Check out the AWARD-WINNING NOVEL here: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

@romancelandia @bookstodon #romance #books #indieAuthor #fantasy #lgbtqBooks @lgbtqbookstodon

pretensesoup, 29 days ago to random

#writersCoffeeClub 5/10: Do you know any good sources for publishing information?

Submission Grinder or Chill Subs are good to find journals and many small presses. Duotrope too, although it's subscription-based now.

Manuscript Wish List is the big place for agents, also Predators and Editors and Writers Beware.

The blog PublishedToDeath can be pretty good too.

Of FB groups, I've found 20BooksTo50K has good advice, although they can be a little culty.

pretensesoup, 1 month ago to Parenting

A few weeks ago the 6yo heard "Solidarity Forever" (we were listening to Pete Seeger songs on shuffle) and I had to explain unions. IDK if he got it, but when we reread "Click, Clack, Moo" at his little bro's request, I said, "So this is how a union works," and he said "OH!"

Then b/c of a Tom Lehrer song intro, I had to try to explain who Malcolm X was.

At this point, Black Sabbath is the least troublesome band he listens to. Someone tell Tipper. Folk music has radicalized my kid.

#parenting

pretensesoup, 1 month ago to running

Ran 3:25:xx for 27k at the Tour du Dodge. There was a little graupel. It's the end of April and it's barely 40 degrees. Course was nice, rolling hills (2k feet of climb) and wide grassy trails. I'm gonna be sore AF tomorrow.

#running

pretensesoup, 1 month ago to random

#wordWeavers 4/20: Do you plan out your themes or allow them to develop as you write?

I don't know what the themes are until someone points them out to me, generally speaking. I'm just telling a story.

pretensesoup, 1 month ago to random

#writersCoffeeClub 4/17: What genre(s) would you be terrible at writing?

I actually think most genres can be learned, and I like how romance can be blended up with most fiction genres.

On the other hand, I'm not interested in: nonfiction, Christian anything, hard scifi, Agatha Christie-style mysteries, books where people have no redeeming characteristics and just yell at each other, lots of racism/sexism, and serial killers.

Essentially I need a happy ending to make it worthwhile for me.

pretensesoup, 1 month ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 4/13 Which "unfilmable" novel has worked best on screen?

I'm not a good person to ask about movies, but the film of Tristram Shandy (apparently released in some places as A Cock and Bull Story) was very good.

pretensesoup, 2 months ago to random

#writersCoffeeClub 4/8: Do you think of your books as having a particular length?

Yes. I curl up around 80k words like a possessive dragon.

But: all books are different. Write the book you're writing and not some weird mental ideal of it.

pretensesoup, 2 months ago to random

#writersCoffeeClub 4/5: What's the best thing about being a writer?

At least sometimes, it's the writing.

"I learned three things in Zurich during the war. I wrote them down. Firstly, you’re either a revolutionary or you’re not, and if you’re not you might as well be an artist as anything else. Secondly, if you can’t be an artist, you might as well be a revolutionary... I forget the third thing." (From Travesties, by Tom Stoppard)

pretensesoup, 2 months ago to random

#wordWeavers 4/4: Is there writing advice you used to follow but changed your mind?

Stephen King contended in On Writing that one shouldn't use adverbs--instead, choose a more precise verb. I've seen this expand, somewhat inexplicably, into "don't use adjectives" as well, and endless lists of alternatives to "said," and "filter words." All of this prescriptivism creates a very particular type of prose that isn't me. I've decided to revel in the poetic. Sometimes that means adverbs.

pretensesoup, 2 months ago to books

I meant to post about this yesterday, but then one of the kids gave me a norovirus, so I did that instead. Dionysus in Wisconsin has been shortlisted for a Lammy in gay romance. I'm very excited to be up there with so many greats!

You can check out the whole shortlist here: https://lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists/

If you're interested in DIW, you can find it on various websites here: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

Special extra thanks to @eliotedits, editor par excellence.

#books #romancelandia @bookstodon

pretensesoup, 2 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 3/18: Do you ever use parentheses/brackets in your writing?

Sometimes. Usually they get removed or replaced with em dashes in the final draft.

Oddly, both my mom and my thesis advisor (who I think was a bit younger than her, maybe ten years) HATED em dashes. Saw them as intellectual laziness.

But of the few problems with the books she's mentioned, the presence of em dashes hasn't been one, so perhaps Mom's stance has mellowed.

Here's an unpublished example of parentheses.

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 3/8: Do you have a favorite opening line of a book?

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

I find it comforting to know that the best opening line has already been written. Takes the pressure off.

There are lots of others I could cite that are very, very iconic. But A Hundred Years of Solitude wins, in my opinion.

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 2/29: A question

Throwing this out to everyone...

I'm curious about your planning process. Do you think of your books as having a particular length? Do you have a sense of how much plot you need for how long a manuscript? Do you revise and add more plot if you come up short?

I personally don't outline, but I usually seem to come up around 75k for a first draft and 80k for a final, so I guess I know about how much plot I need for that.

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to books

Normally, today would be the last day to get both novels as buy one, get one free, but because of leap year you have until tomorrow.

Urban fantasy + gay romance + mythology + the '60s. A grad student and a librarian fight a god.

Book 1: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p
Book 2: https://books2read.com/u/4jB8jl

@romancelandia @lgbtqbookstodon #urbanFantasy #books #indieAuthors #BOGO

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to random

#pennedPossibilities 237—How would you describe your WIP’s ideal reader?

Probably a Millennial or older.

Did you grow up in a family where people compete to make the best multilingual pun?

Did you major in English or philosophy, or are you a Shakespeare nerd?

Gifted kid to later-in-life ADHD diagnosis AND/OR manic pixie dream girl to middle-aged androgynous human?

Enjoy books with dry humor but want more kissing?

Magic? Mythology?

What if, like, mandalas, man?

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 2/25: How do you feel about Amazon's influence on books and publishing?

They're a mixed bag. They pay a better rate on paperbacks than either Draft2Digital or Ingram Spark. Rates on ebooks are comparable to other places, and Kindle seems to be the most popular ebook platform. They do fuck all to promote anyone who isn't paying them. They don't have great systems in place for removing copyright violations and if they could replace me with a box of linear algebra they would.

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to books

I just finished Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente. It's like if David Bowie and Douglas Adams had a baby, and the baby was a seven-foot tall ultramarine space flamingo. Also, the audiobook narrator got to do a ton of really fun voices.

@bookstodon
#books

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to random

There's a bell curve of how much I post on Mastodon compared to how tired I am. There's one level of sleep deprivation at which I'm really funny and unable to focus on anything. Above or below that and it drops off.

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 2/20: What's the secret to writing a good blurb?

1/ Drink a lot of coffee and then try to tell someone the 30- or 60-sec version of what the novel is about. Take note of what plot points you skip over.

2/ Write 3 paragraphs. One is where we are at the beginning, one is the complication, and one is the stakes.

3/ Make it sound good.

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to Parenting

6yo:
ABCD EFG
Gummy bears are chasing me.
One is red, one is blue,
One is even on my shoe.
And now I'm running for my life
'Cause the red one has a knife.
Now I'm running even faster
Because the blue one has a blaster...

...He says he got this at school?

I have nothing to add. I just wanted to collect this for posterity.

#parenting

pretensesoup, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 2/11 Are some genres taken more seriously than others? How does it make you feel?

Yeah. Although what counts as a genre varies wildly, e.g. in the poetry world, it's all just "fiction" and "creative nonfiction." Also, how people perceive a genre differs: I think I write romance novels with magic in them, while my husband (who reads them) thinks they're urban fantasy novels that happen to have dudes kissing in them.

In other words, categories are inherently deconstructable.😁

pretensesoup, 4 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 2/7 I write because...

I have a deep and compulsive need to tell stories. Also, it provides some much needed escapism.