More whine and cheese

Why is it that I keep wanting to write Never-Been-Done-Before romance novels? Why can't I write nice, safe stuff that is popular and which will hop off the shelves now into readers' hands by the millions, instead of writing romance novels that appeal to a few people now, and then five years later, everyone's discovering it all of a sudden in the used book stores and then of course they can't get them unless they want to pay exhorbitant prices for them on eBay because they've run out of them in the used bookstores? And then they complain to me.

I keep getting e-mails about that. "I just found your (5 year old) book in the used book store, and wow, now I want to find and read all of your books!" Well dang it! Where was this reader when the books were new? And then I see my old books discussed on different lists as "classics" the copies of which are now as scarce as hen's teeth, and people complain because they can't find copies.

Argh. This is what I get for writing paranormal fantasy romances five years before they're popular. And the crazy thing is, I KNOW they won't be popular for five years. But does my Muse listen to me about that? Nooooo! Of course not. She never listens to me about any of my predictions, she just wants me to write these different stories. And then, when I do write something that's popular now, does she give me more of that? Of course not. She turns her nose up at it and gives me something that won't be popular now, when I could use the doggone money. She wants me to write something that will be popular five years later.

Sometimes I want to strangle the Muse. I wouldn't want to do that if she weren't so cruel to me, tantalizing me with nifty story ideas that I know won't sell right now, or at least editors won't want now, but will want in five years. The Muse presents me with these doggone ideas, and when I protest, she says, "why do you want to write those old things? Everyone's writing them and they are SO last year! What I'm giving you is new! This is fresh! Nobody's done this before!" Right. That makes it so very easy to market. NOT.

And five years. It's always five years. She couldn't give me something that will be popular in one or two years, oh no. It's five. I do not know why she has this thing for five years.

(Sigh) Well. Enough of my whining.

I am GLAD I have a Muse. Grateful, in fact. Better than having no Muse at all. Yes, indeedy.

--Karen H (going back to the grindstone)

Got some cheese with this whine

This is the Pollyanna Files, so I have some silver linings with my clouds, or cheese with this whine, or whatever good/bad/good combo of metaphors you might want to mention.

Good: I have lots of ideas for novels.

Bad: I'm on a massively ASAP deadline and these story ideas are making me crazy because they want to be written. And they want to be written NOW.

Good: That I have lots of ideas for novels.

Bad: None of them are about vampires, which is the in thing, and which I'm sure every publisher in the world would prefer me to write about.

Good: They will be popular themes in about 3 to 5 years.

Bad: Nobody is going to believe me that they will be popular themes, even though I've been right about predicting what will be popular in the romance genre a good 95% of the time since I've begun writing them, and that's over 10 years now.

Good: I'm going to write them anyway, which means I'll be on the forefront of the trend.

Bad: It'll probably mean I'll have to go contractless while I write them on spec, or at least write most of them. This has happened every time I've written one of these kinds of books.

Good: I will not have a deadline making me crazy if I do write them on spec.

Bad: I have a son to put through college and going without a contract means no money to help him along.

Good: Actually, now that I think of it, an editor who overheard me talking about one of these ideas at the 2005 Reno Romance Writers of America conference immediately gave me her card and said if it wasn't going to be under contract, could I send it to her please? It is a pretty high-concept idea, actually, which is why she probably jumped on it.

Bad: I like my current publisher, which is actually a good thing, but it'll probably mean my different ideas won't see the light of day, because they're a departure from what I've been writing. Still in the paranormal/fantasy area, but a departure.

Good: Umm...umm....gotta think of something good here...Pollyanna Files, after all...ummm... Uh.... Oh! I'm glad I'm such a creative person that I have all these nifty ideas. Oh, wait, I already said that in Good #1 and #2. Uh.... Okay! Nice to know that I have more than one editor/publisher interested in my work. And, nothing says I can't take a pseudonym some day.

Whew! Ended on an up note. And that's good.

--Karen H.

P.S. No, I'm not going to say what those ideas are. You will just have to wait, because if I'm going to have to wait, I'd like some company. :-D

One down, one to go

I've obviously not been writing posts to this blog for a while and will not be for a few more weeks, alas. However, I've finished writing the novella for the dragon anthology (Dragon Magic) earlier this month, thank goodness. So, meanwhile, you may amuse yourselves by reading the excerpt of "Anna and the King of Dragons."

It'll be published by Signet/Penguin Putnam, and will also feature novellas on the theme of dragons by Mary Jo Putney, Jo Beverley, and Barbara Samuel. I've had the great pleasure of collaborating with these wonderful authors before on the Faery Magic anthology, back in 1996, and once again, I think we have a winner. Each of us feature a dragon in our stories, and each of us have our own particular cultural take on them. Mine's a Japanese dragon, since my mother is Japanese, and she in fact has seen a dragon's cave on the island of Kyushu herself, not far from Arita, a city that's famous for its porcelain (it's from this city that the original Imari ware and the Dutch Delftware first came). So it's in that area that I have set the story.

I've woven in some folklore into the story; my mother used to tell me stories of the kami-sama--the nature spirits--that abound in Japanese folk and fairy tales. The kami-sama are akin to the faeries of Celtic legend, in that they have magical powers and are also shape-changers and sometimes tricksters.

I'm afraid the anthology won't be out until April of 2007, but at least I have an excerpt posted!

--Karen H.

Happy New Year!

I wish you all a joyful and abundant New Year, full of hope, peace, and love. :-)

--Karen H.