Unreal Influences

While at the book store today, I spotted a book that I later looked up on B&N.com, listed under possibly the longest title I've ever seen: The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History by Dan Karlan, Allan Lazar, Jeremy Salter.

Imagine, just typing up the file folder labels for that one. Ouch.

The book's title did make me think about fictional characters who might have had some influence on my work. Laura Ingalls from the Little House Books wasn't fictitious, but her and her family's struggle to survive during The Long Winter definitely left a lasting impression. As did Paiken and Elea, the "ice people" from La Nuit des Temps, and Ivan Denisovich from the novel some rookie named Solzhenitsyn wrote about one day in his miserable life. It's possible they're why a beach girl from Florida ended up writing a novel like Rebel Ice.

I don't write knock-offs or derivative fiction, but there have been some memorable characters that still serve me as shining examples of why one should toss all Da Genre Rules out the window. Devon and Michael from Virginia Coffman's Mistress Devon turned the Gothic novel upside down for me by showing how a theatre troupe deals with treachery on the brink of the American Revolution. Mitji from Madeleine Brent's Golden Urchin demonstrated just how far out you could go with a romance heroine -- like abandoning her as a baby to be raised by Aborigines in the Australian outback -- and still keep her completely plausible and realistic.

Have fictional characters had any impact on your work? Who are they, and how do you think they've influenced your writing?

Friday 20

Before we get into this week's Q&A, I have to try to compete with Marjorie and Alison, as they both have gorgeous new cover art posted at their blogs.



Jerry Vanderstelt, the artist who also created the cover art for my StarDoc novels Endurance, Eternity Row and Rebel Ice, has always done a marvelous job depicting Cherijo and various alien characters from my novels as I've described them. He took on both Cherijo and the Hsktskt this time, and (at least from the author's POV) achieved perfection.

Also, a bit of news: Plague of Memory is my last SF novel under contract, but my publisher has already inquired about buying more StarDoc novels. I have a couple of things up in the air at the moment, so I can't commit yet, but I'll be discussing it with my agent and making more of those fun career decisions we all know and dread.

I know some of you out there are series writers like me, and like to stay and play in the universes you create. We face a bunch of unique challenges in today's market, not just with selling a series from book one and trying to build a readership but with keeping a series alive despite of chains ordering to the net and publishers only offering one- and two-book contracts at a time.

Successful series writing is a struggle in any genre, and you often find your plans have to change from book to book. Some pros are self-publishing to continue series that publishers dump; others are selling novels in serial chunks to magazines or in reprint editions to small presses. The hardest part is to know when to push, when to hold on, or when to abandon a series. Twenty years ago a long-running series was one that went twenty or thirty books over the span of a career. Today StarDoc, with only six books in print in as many years, is being referred to as a long-running series (and yeah, when I first heard that, I thought, what the hell?)

Time for questions: got any for me?

Winners

You know how much I hate picking the winners of the giveaways, right? Because I want everyone to win. For me, it's torture not to be able to get the books into everyone's hands. I was really feeling the pain with the Ice Giveaway, because what you all wrote about your writing and life landmarks was so great.

Well, tonight I took a hard look at the promo budget for Rebel Ice, and there's just enough left in there to cover what I was thinking about doing. Plus I've always wanted to do this for one of my novels on the weblog, and we should celebrate all of our landmarks once.

So the winners for the Ice Giveaway are:

Everyone who participated.

Now, I need all 61 winners to e-mail me at LynnViehl@aol.com, and send your full name and the address where you want me to send the book. It will take me a few more days to get the extra books, sign, package and get them all out, but I figure you'll be okay with that.

Congratulations to everyone.

Ice Giveaway

I promised I'd do another giveaway for my January release, Rebel Ice, and lo and behold, my box of author copies just landed on the doorstep today.

Every book you write is special for one reason or another: the first book published, the one that became a bestseller, the story that changed your career. Some are special for reasons more personal than the traditional writer landmarks, and RI is one of those. To see it in print is the ultimate reward for a very long haul.

If you'd like a chance at winning one of fifteen signed copies of Rebel Ice, tell us in comments about one of your own personal writing or life landmarks. Post your comment by midnight EST on Thursday, January 19, 2006, and I'll draw fifteen names at random from everyone who participates. Winners' names will be posted here by noon EST on Friday, January 20, 2006. Giveaway open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW before now.

Iced

Thanks to my very kind SF editor, I presently have in my hands two copies of Rebel Ice, the new StarDoc novel, which will be hitting the shelves the first week of January.

I haven't talked much about RI because this is a landmark book for me. It's a novel I've worked three years to get into print. It also fulfills the promise I made to my StarDoc readers not to give up on the series. I didn't do it alone, either. My readers did their part by spreading the word about the series, keeping all five of the previous StarDoc novels in print, and buying up the other SF books I've written since StarDoc went on hiatus with Eternity Row in 2002.

Finally, it's here. We did it.

I also promised to give away the very first copies that landed on my desk, so in comments to this post, tell us how you keep going when all the odds are against you. Post your comment by midnight EST on 12/15/2005. I'll draw two names at random from everyone who participates and sign the copies for you. Winners will be announced by noon EST on 12/16/2005. Giveaway open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something at PBW before this.

Bid on PBW

I'm donating a signed, unbound corrected galley copy of Private Demon by me writing as Lynn Viehl and Rebel Ice by me writing as S.L. Viehl* to the auction to benefit Marianne Mancusi. I'll post a link as soon as the Literary Chicks send me the info.

Authors, if you can donate a signed book, critique or galley, please do.

*This will be the only copy of Rebel Ice, the new StarDoc book due out in January 2006, that I give away before publication. Not to be mean, but to add a little extra value to the auction for it. :)

Art Ten

Ten Things for the Art Lovers

1. The Art of Alan Pollack*

2. Ashes and Snow

3. Donato Arts*

4. Etch-a-sketch

5. Fractalism

6. Frank Frazetta

7. Gabrielle Swain

8. Hollis Chatelain

9. Nancy Crow

10. Vanderstelt Studio*

*Shameless plugs for three artists who have painted six of my covers. I own the two Pollacks. Jerry Vanderstelt created the art for Rebel Ice.

Finally

For all the patient, loyal StarDoc readers out there, we've now got cover:



StarDoc returns to the shelves in January 2006.

Finito

Desk check: Rebel Ice revisions, done, gone, out of here. BioRescue mass market galley corrections, likewise. Weekend, clear.

Household check: Dinner, simmering. Laundry, drying. Homework, decimated. Pets, fed. Litter boxes, sanitized. Dishes, washed. Bathrooms, doors shut. Children, bickering. Laundry . . . breeding?

PBW Status: Cookie, earned.

Scenery

Unless you're channeling William Faulkner* or, God forbid, James Joyce**, writing a novel means composing a series of scenes.

I don't plot individual scenes when I outline a novel, although I do think about scenes and mentally choreograph some of the important ones before I start to write. Others I flash on, as in I see snapshots or cells from the scene that pop up like posters in my head. Listening to whatever music I've chosen for the novel helps me imagine important scenes and bring on the flashes.

I probably write between six to twelve scenes a day, but my method is always the same. I read from my notes and the novel outline to see what I'm doing, i.e.:

Reever and Aledver leave Skjonn and fly to the surface. Aledver talks about Toskald body worship, reveals contempt for the Kangal, becomes suspicious of Reever's piloting, tries to take over the launch. Aledver's hijacking causes the helm to shut down and the launch crash-lands on the surface. The injured Aledver reveals to Reever that he was sent to assassinate him, but won't tell him why or who gave the order. Reever kills Aledver in self-defense, switches clothing with him, and crawls out of the crashed launch. He sees a rebel scouting party approaching the crash site. -- from Rebel Ice by S.L. Viehl

I check my notebook to see if there are any special research notes in weaponry, piloting and character description that I need for this scene. Once I've reviewed those, I start visualizing the scene:

Scene setting is the interior of the launch as it leaves Skjonn. I see Reever and Aledver, the contrasts, the similarities. The trader's shown reaction to Reever, what he says to him (start scene with a line of dialogue, Aledver speaking to Reever.)

I imagine the conversation between the two men. As Reever speaks, he's piloting the launch, and setting it up to make a controlled crash landing.

I plan the moment when Aledver hijacks the launch, what happens when he takes over the helm, how and why Reever still manages the crash landing.

Go through impact, damage to the ship, smoke, sparking equipment, crumpled hull panels, leaking atmosphere, dropping temperature.

I imagine Aledver's terminal injuries, what sort of weapon he produces, how he bleeds while he ignores Reever's questions.

I choreograph the brief fight and determine how Reever kills the trader.

I move into Reever's head as he strips the body and prepares to leave the launch.

I shift outside, imagine how cold it will feel to Reever, who is leaving a banged-up but otherwise nice warm ship that contains the corpse of a man he's just killed and stripped of his clothing.

I imagine what Reever feels about being back on this world, about his desperate mission, and now facing capture by rebels before he even gets started.

Once I've thought through all of the above -- and this doesn't take as long as it might sound -- I sit down to write the scene.

The actual writing part is pretty simple. I replay a loop of all of the above in my head, and write what happens. At this point in my process there is very little of me the person involved; this is where I become the typist versus the writer. I write straight through the scene, start to finish. I don't think about voice, style, word usage, pacing, or any of that stuff as I go along; most of it is unconscious now and if there are errors, I'll fix them later, when I edit. I try not to stop writing until I've finished the scene.

As I write, I don't think about how I'm writing. I don't wonder if it's any good, or how many words I'll get out of it. I don't backtrack or re-read. There aren't a lot of emotions pinging around in my heart or my head. If I feel anything, it's the pleasure that always comes from writing; being in the zone, burning up the keys, practicing my craft.

*If you are, then tell Will I apologize for the I Love Lucy parody of The Sound and the Fury I wrote back in the tenth grade.

**Come over to the house so I can kick you. He'll get the message.

2005

The nine novels I have scheduled (or planned) for release during 2005, listed by title, pseudonym, book type, publisher and genre:

1. March If Angels Burn by Lynn Viehl, mm, Signet. Dark Fantasy

2. April Life is a Three Ring Circus by Rebecca Kelly, hc, Guideposts. Inspirational

3. August Bio Rescue by S.L. Viehl, mm, Ace/Roc. SF

4. August Afterburn by S.L. Viehl, hc, Ace/Roc. SF

5. December Private Demon by Lynn Viehl, mm, Signet. Dark Fantasy

The books for which I don't yet have dates, info or contract ink:

6. Rebel Ice by S.L. Viehl, mm, Ace/Roc -- Book #6 of the StarDoc series. Publisher has not given me a release date and I'm not guessing anymore. SF

7. & 8. Biblical Historical Novel #1: This will be released in Spring, but I am not permitted to publicize any info on these without my publisher's permission, which I don't have. Same goes for Biblical Historical Novel #2, which comes out in the Fall. Historical/inspirational

9. Untitled, GCI Series Novel, by Rebecca Kelly, September -- I haven't seen a contract for this one yet, so while it's scheduled I can't count it. Inspirational.

Rejects

Editor Stanley Schmidt posted an old editorial he wrote about accepting and rejecting serial novels for Analog magazine.

I found this interesting, but it would have been more help to me back in 2002. Back then, my publisher put the StarDoc series on hold and instead had me write SF standalones for hardcover. My editor at that time suggested I submit StarDoc book six to Mr. Schmidt for serialization in his magazine.

I queried Analog and received a form letter approving a synopsis submission. I submitted the synopsis, and received a form letter rejection (I stress the form letters because a lot of aspiring writers think published authors don't get them. We do.)

This past spring I sold StarDoc book six, Rebel Ice, plus book seven, ClanSon to a different editor at Roc. This was nice as I signed for a lot more money than Analog would have paid me.

Another example: Gordon Van Gelder has rejected every short story I've submitted to F&SF (just FYI, he did brief but personal rejections as opposed to the form letter.) I later developed two of those stories into the Darkyn novels, three of which I also sold this past spring to Signet Eclipse. Also made a great deal more $$$ with the book sales than the short stories would have brought in.

Moral of the stories: A rejection doesn't mean your work can't sell. It only means it won't sell to that particular editor. Sometimes, they may even be doing you a favor.

Wrapping it Up

Plotted and wrote two synopses today; sent one off to the respective editor and will sleep on the other for the night. Not quite satisfied with the twist yet.

Wrote a new chapter for Rebel Ice, edited it tonight. I've got a decent flow rolling with this one so it pours out onto the page.

Worked on the next chapter for my second biblical historical novel. Much tougher and slower-going, not quite comfortable with the new voice yet. Also still waiting for some dig/research books to arrive so I can complete my layout map and get more details on the field irrigation systems that were used, which are turnkey to the plot.

Wrote two devotionals for the 2006 Anthology. Stayed under my 250 wordcount max limit for those, but it's never easy. I have to edit these as I write to stay in guidelines.

Synopses = 7,277 words; RI Chapter = 8,403 words; BH Chapter = 1,525 words; and Antho = 462 words. Day's wordcount total: 17,667.

In the Works

I'm about done writing SF series book six (or book nine, if you count the three hardcover standalones) in the StarDoc universe, Rebel Ice. No scheduled pub date yet, but I'm hoping it'll follow up Afterburn in August or September. Then I'll write book seven/ten, ClanSon and that will the book when I decide whether to wrap up Cherijo's story, keep going, or shift into a Blade Dancer spin-off series.

My romance alter-ego, Jessica Hall, is taking a short hiatus while my Lynn Viehl vampire series debuts with If Angels Burn in April. The last two JH books have done so well I'll probably try to work a new one in the 2005 schedule, but it really depends on sales and what the publisher wants.

I'm contracted to write three more Christian series and biblical historical novels through 2005, and my agent and I are kicking around a neat idea I have for a new Christian historical series, possibly YA.

My first fantasy novel is at the midway mark and will take another couple months to finish. Then I'll have to obsess over it some more and decide where I want to go with it. It's so good I may sit on it for another year, but more than likely it will make the rounds in summer or fall 2005.

I also have a straight -- well, for me -- mystery series brewing. I know, with my schedule, I'm insane to even think about it. But this little town I moved to is such a perfect setting: endless little corners and niches, an eventful history, and all these colorful character types just walking around. I think it's all the old architecture, twisty oaks and Spanish moss infecting me, too.

Writing has become this constantly busy, sometimes snarled, occasionally conflicting, pulling-me-in-all-directions daily carnival, but I run the show now. And I love it. I'm having fun, and that's all that really counts.

Backlist

To view the most up-to-date listing of all my novels, please go to the Backlist/Bibliography page.