Structures

Well, I’ve decided to work full time, not at my writing, but outside of the home. Washington State University has increased their tuition (and other fees, I’m sure) by 7%, and the income from writing books just doesn’t cut it any more. It’s a temporary position, and after the time’s up, we’ll see how life shapes up then. I must say, having a regular paycheck will be very nice indeed.

This time it’s doing word processing, editing, and formatting of civil engineering documents, which isn’t dull at all. It’s amazing what goes into building bridges, mass transit systems, shipping docks, buildings, etc. The company I’m working for built the Seattle monorail back in the early 1960’s for the World’s Fair, and they’ve built a lot of international and local structures as well. Little did I know that the road and bridge I drive over every month to pick up my meat order at the butcher’s was built by this company. You take things like this for granted, but if such structures aren’t built right, people could die, or at the very least traffic would be much worse than it is.

I have to say, they do beautiful work. I’ve seen one of their parking garages, and it’s not only functional, but it has some interesting textural designs on the outer walls. I love the park they built in the city of Federal Way; so pleasant to walk around, with meandering paths through the lush grass.

I think working at this engineering firm will do me some good; I felt rather like a mole coming out of my little office at home, blinking somewhat blindly at the bright activity at this engineering company. I needed a change, get my brain working in different ways, and with luck, the focus on fine detail at this office will hone my attention and focus to a finer point than it had been lately. And heavens, I hope it’ll do something for my social skills. Holing up every day in my office has made me quite rusty that way, and I find myself not being very discreet.

Meanwhile, I’m still writing stories, of course. I usually write during lunch, after work, and on the weekends. I manage to get in at least an hour a day on the week days, and then 8 to 12 hours on the weekends. Interestingly enough, I end up writing more pages per hour this way than I had when I was writing full time, go figure. Right now I’m fleshing out the story, mulling it over, and I expect I’ll get the synopsis done in a month or so. We’ll see. I won’t post it here, because then it’ll spoil the story for anyone who wants to read my book in the future. Still, I’m looking forward to writing real chapters. I’m feeling antsy that way, but I’ve promised myself that I won’t write chapters until I get a good, firm handle on the story and the characters. I’ve jumped the gun before, and fallen into a mire (to mix metaphors) and have got panicky-stuck for months. I don’t want to do that any more, and I won’t let any pressure to get that synopsis out QUICK make me mess myself up like that later. Best to do the foundation and structural work up front, then lay the brick.

Heh. It’s probably not a mistake that I’ve begun working for a civil engineering firm. I’m a believer in good solid story structure, but heaven knows I’ve muddled my way through instead of taking the time to lay down the foundation. There’s always been the pressure to Write It Now, which I’ve done while anxious and panicked the whole time. I really think it’s resulted in my getting stuck something horrible, and of course that makes me even more anxious, and more stuck, and of course late for deadlines.

So, time for a change. This time, I’m drawing up the plans, doing preliminary sketches, letting things gel. Wish me luck.

Character sketch - hero

What’s below is copyrighted--I have to say this, because it’s in process and probably part of my contract with my publisher.

I still haven’t quite figured out what the hero of my next book is like. But since I seemed to be able to flesh out the heroine on this blog, I’ll try it with the hero.

So, his name: James Martone. I don’t want him to be all tortured and dark, because I don’t think he is. But whenever I visualize him (dark haired, grey-eyed) he looks rather grim. I don’t know what makes him so....

I don’t think it’s because he’s a werewolf (although you might naturally think, what’s not to be grim about that?), because he doesn’t become one until after he comes to Ireland. In addition, I don’t think he knows he is one. All he knows is that he has strange dreams and wakes up in odd situations, not remembering where he’s been. Or he’ll wake up with a lot of muscle soreness, though he’s not done any physical work the day before.

I’m thinking he’s basically just a serious sort. He’s one of the Marstones: they’re psychic in various ways, although their powers grow very strong if they’re put through some trauma. I think being cursed into becoming a werewolf is a sort of trauma, but I’m not sure if it’s enough of one to spur the growth of the Marstone powers. I’m not quite sure if I want him to have a good amount of psychic powers right off the bat or not. Maybe, maybe not.

I think he might have had occasional visions as child, and thus felt set apart. Went to Eton, where he was bullied dreadfully, and then treated as a weirdo when it was discovered that his visions came true. So I think he retreated a bit into himself, became a loner, and learned to defend himself physically when needed. And something tells me he left Eton--with a great deal of relief--when he came down with chickenpox, and then was tutored at home, until such time he went to...I’m thinking Cambridge. He was still reserved and watchful, though a good student, never letting on that he has any psychic gifts, and even not liking those gifts, because they set him apart. His visions keep him from feeling normal, something he wants very much. I think he must have been told in Eton that manly men don’t go pale, look as if they’d faint, and see visions. He’s compensated by becoming quite athletic and a great boxer.

He does have a good model in his father, but his father’s psychic gifts are not great--no more than having a sensitivity to animals, and so has become a great horseman and breeder of fine cattle--so he feels it’s not something his father can understand.

So...I’m thinking that he’s inherited a somewhat ruined castle in Ireland--possibly through his mother--and once he hears about it, needs to go there to manage it. The estate’s in pretty good shape, but the last lord of the estate was oppressive and cruel, and his estate manager was a crook. So now James has to go in and fix it. Thing is, he’s been told by the manager plus letters from the old lord that the farmers and villagers were a villainous, recalcitrant lot, and so James goes in thinking that he needs to be firm with the village and farm folk.

Which of course is precisely the wrong way to be, because they’re going to hate the old lord’s replacement, thinking that James is going to be yet another English oppressor. He sees the problems of poverty and finds out that the estate manager is indeed a crook within a month--James is not stupid, after all, and he fires the estate manager. But by that time, the damage is done, and he’s got to slog his way through getting the rebellious servants, villagers, and farmers to work with him. And of course, the way they treat him is reminiscent of the way he was treated as a child, so it just makes him retreat and become a very cool and reserved English lord, which does nothing to fix things.

Even worse, as lord of the estate, one of his jobs is to be a magistrate. Not a popular job at all. Increases the resentment. He tries to be fair, but it doesn’t matter what he does, it’ll be seen as wrong, wrong, wrong. And when Mary Kate’s brother Brian is implicated in the blowing up of munitions at a port, he’s the magistrate that has to figure out whether Brian is innocent or guilty.

Oh, now I know how James gets together with Mary Kate! James quickly figures out Brian’s innocent, but he knows he needs someone respected on his side. He’s seen Mary Kate, but doesn’t believe that such a woman has the wit and cleverness he needs. So he acts the oppressive Englishman that everyone expects him to be, and he says he’ll free Brian if Mary Kate can solve a riddle, but part of the bargain is for her to be his wife as well. Yeah, he’s fallen for her, and he can’t think of any other way of getting her, and is frankly cursing himself for blurting it out, because he sure as hell didn’t mean to say it. But once he’s said it, he can’t take it back.

And of course Mary Kate feels that she has no choice about it, because isn’t that horrible Sassenach of a Marstone sure to execute her brother otherwise?

All right. I think this will work. Because I think it puts a lot of obstacles in the way of a relationship, and because Mary Kate is a lot more clear-seeing than most, she saw from the beginning that James isn’t as bad as the villagers make him out to be, English or not. But the incarceration of her brother, plus feeling that she’s forced to marry James is a huge set-back. And then there is the whole werewolf thing. I’ve got a good ironic, possibly even tragic twist on that one, but I’m not going to reveal it here. Oh, and I believe I know who has cursed James, but that’s another thing I’m not going to reveal. It’s not who you think. ☺

You know, I think this story has just a bit of the movie “The Quiet Man” in it. I don’t see James as John Wayne, but it is about being accepted into a community and coming to understand it, and overcoming divisive attitudes.

(Happy sigh.) Not too bad for an evening’s work.

Writing again - character studies

Been getting a bit antsy about writing--feeling like I want to write another story already. I don’t want to start the actual chapters yet, because I want to give this story some time to jell. So, I’m skirting the story, mulling it over in my mind, getting flashes of scenes, thinking of each character and what they’re like.

I have a good idea for the heroine--practical, managing, no-nonsense, a woman of authority in her little village, and she doesn’t take guff from anyone. In my last two books, the heroines were victimized, and had to climb out of the horrors into which they’d been thrust. But this determined Irish heroine is different, and I’m feeling a good deal of relief at the idea that she’s very managing, and she’s the one to whom everyone goes when there’s a problem, and even the village priest will ask her to intercede in local squabbles. She’s so capable and manages...everything and everybody. She’s got a good deal of pride, for she’s from a long line of Bean Sidhe (aka banshee)--wise women who have just a bit of faerie in them, and who have inherited the Sight. Her grandmother was a Bean Sidhe, and my heroine--I think I’ll call her Mary Kate McCree--learned everything from her. I think Mary Kate looks a bit like the actress Maureen O’Hara--auburn haired and voluptuous, and a spitfire attitude.

I even have in mind what her cottage might look like. It’s got a thatched roof, it’s got wood siding and green trim. She’s got pretty lace curtains at the windows, and a nice big porch, with a gravel path through a glorious flower and herb garden. There’s a vegetable garden out back, and a nanny goat in a neat small barn to the right of the cottage, for both milk and butter. She’s got a brother and sister, both younger than herself. I think she’s about 25, which is a bit of an “old maid” for that time (1798 or so), but that’s because while the villagers respect her, they’re also intimidated by her. Her younger brother, Brian, is 22, and is smart enough for Dublin University, where he’s a scholar, but terribly idealistic. He’s being recruited by some Irish rebels, unbeknownst to Mary Kate. Her younger sister, Bridget, is about 17, very pretty and blonde, and much less intimidating than Mary Kate, so has more than a few suitors. But though Bridget has shown no sign of the Sight, she’s a good herbalist and very quick-witted.

The hero, though...I’m having a little more difficulty visualizing him. I’ve decided his name will be James Marstone, and related to the Marstones I’ve written about before. He’s English, and has inherited the local castle, which is not in good repair. Of course, being English, he won’t be liked. And, since he’s living in the castle, which is supposedly cursed, he’s going to feel pretty isolated because nobody wants to work for him. And since he’s also become a werewolf, he’ll be bewildered because he doesn’t remember what he’s done or where he’s been at night during the full moon. But that’s all I’ve got on him. I’ll have to figure out how he became cursed, who cursed him, and why. Although, perhaps that’s a mystery in the novel to be solved. Certainly, nobody in the village wants him there, for he’s a damned Sassanach, and a Protestant to boot.

I know what’s going to bring them together: James Marstone will have young Brian arrested for treason, since he’s been linked to the Irish rebels who blew up something or other. Mary Kate’s going to have to figure out a way to persuade Marstone to let him go. And that bit is going to follow the Grimm’s fairy tale of “The Peasant’s Clever Daughter,” because that’s what I’m basing this story on. Mary Kate’s the sort to do anything for family, even if it’s a blot on her sense of pride.

It won’t be all grim and dark, though. I’m running out of fuel for grim and dark, because I’ve done that with the last three books. This will be lighter, with hopefully lots of banter, because Mary Kate has a quick tongue on her and will get in the last word if she can, and James is no slacker in the repartee department.

Oh, and the village. I haven’t thought of a name for the little Irish village. That place is almost a character in itself. I need to think of a good name, but I don’t know much about Celtic names and what they mean. I think I need something that has to do with “wolf” or faeries. This should be fun: I think I have the Irish speech rhythms in my head pretty well, so the dialogue should have a nice flavor of it. Sure, and I’m thinkin’ it’ll sound fair authentic. ☺

So anyway, that’s what I’ve thought up so far, and with any luck, my publisher will like it.

Well, heck. Here I’ve written all this stuff down, not just mulled it about in my mind. Very well. I’ll keep a copy of this for my files and refer to it again, maybe flesh it out more as I think about it. But I will not start writing the chapters until I have the characters better fleshed out in my mind, and I need to visualize where they are and where they live, and what they look like. I’m really feeling the urge to write the chapters, but I think my big mistake in the past has been jumping into that and then getting stuck because I haven’t thought it through. I really think I need to back off that and do some solid groundwork before I even begin the actual chapters.

Besides, I don’t yet know who cursed James Marstone and why. It could be that I’ll figure it out while I’m writing it, but...no. Gotta try to flesh out the story line and characters first. If I don’t know who the characters are and where they’re coming from, I won’t know where they’re going.

Finding stuff

One good thing about cleaning up--in this case, my office--is that I find all sorts of nifty things I forgot I had. It’s like finding nice surprises. Which is sort of an excuse for not cleaning up, because if everything was neat and tidy, I wouldn’t discover delightful things all over again. For one, I discovered a small zippered purse, in which I had at one time put about five dollars in coins and paper money, which apparently fell off my desk and behind some...stuff. Picked up said stuff and now I’m five + dollars richer.

I discovered I have some very nice taupe cashmere roving; I’m debating whether I want to use it as it is and spin some pure cashmere yarn, or whether I want to combine it with wool into batts and spin it that way. Or, combine the pure cashmere with hand-dyed silk of gold, silver, bronze and copper colors. That would be quite a delightfully sinful combination, but I’m not sure whether it’d be worth it to sell it on eBay afterwards. For one thing, it’s heading into summer now, which is a bad time to sell yarn, and for another, I’ve got some yarn up on eBay for sale that’s made of Lorna’s Laces roving, and I’ve discounted it twice already since it hasn’t sold. Discounted it so much that it’s below cost, and I won’t make any money on it, unless I get lucky.

So I’m thinking it’s not time to spin the cashmere and put it up, because there’s no way I’d get a good price for it. Or rather, I can spin it up now, and save it to sell later. Or, I might just keep it myself, or give it away as a Christmas present for my mom, who most certainly knows the value of a good cashmere yarn.

I did discover some lovely hand-dyed cotton roving, which I think I’ll spin up during the summer, and see if that will sell at all. I’ve never spun up cotton, so it’ll be something new.