My Dazzling Life (with cats!)

[lydamorehouse]

I got my nonfiction thingie done for the web editor at Romantic Times. She claims to be pleased, so I'll take that as a you-didn't-suck-too-much. :-)

I think given the responses I got on Facebook about not liking to write nonficiton I should clarify something. The kind of nonfiction I particularly suck at is the kind that requires me to publicize myself or my books. Writing letters home (or blogging, which is kind of like a public letter home,) doesn't bother me. I can talk endlessly about the true and semi-true things in my life -- the exploits of my fish, my kid, myself. But, when someone comes to me with the dreaded "guest blog" request, my brain freezes. I absolutely DREAD trying to come up with something to say that will be two parts charming and one part publicity.

I mean, you are talking to a woman who got kicked off a group blog for being too boring. Seriously. It was a group blog that another paranormal fiction writer invited me to join and eventually she had to call me and say, "Listen, Tate, the other women think you suck." Okay, she said that they didn't feel I put enough effort into my blogs, and I admitted that they were probably right. I agreed to resign. It was a sad episode in my life, but also very telling.

I was not made for social media, as much as I'm good at self-promotion, I'm not good at this particular brand of it.

Anyway, today has been a weird day. It's one of those kind of days where the sun seems to be sleeping in. It's been hiding behind cloud cover all day, and consequentally it's gray and vaguely dreary outside. The light that comes in the windows is muted.

Consequentally, I feel muted and a bit dreary, myself.

We had a late start. Shawn let the family sleep in because she was trying to forstall another migraine. The weather has been playing havoc with her sinuses and her migraines are triggered by a number of factors including hormones, but also weather. This has been bad weather for her. So, we didn't get up and get going until after 10:00 am, which is extraordinarily late for us. I made waffles and some pre-packaged hashbrowns that we picked up in our every-once-and-a-while-treat shopping spree at Trader Joe's. The hashbrows were good in that these could have come straight from McDonald's sort of way, but at least the waffles were whole grain. But it was almost 11:00 am before I had my first cup of coffee. By the time I got it, I'd already started snapping impatiently at everything that moved. Not good.

We stopped at Cub Foods on our way home because our vet has put Inky on a strict diet. He's a massive 21 pounds, though you wouldn't think it to look at him. She's switching him (and everyone else, as it happens,) to higher protien, which means wet food. Then we're supplimenting (for cost reasons) with kitty dry. We'll see if it works.



Then we got home and I took care of the fish. Huh. I just realized that I forgot to put the declorinator in the two jugs I put under the sink. I'll have to do that when I get home... although if I wait two days the clorine evaporates naturally. Still, I'm hoping to do the bigger tank tomorrow so I should try to remember to do that when I get home. Anyway, everyone is doing well:



I did some of the ever present dishes and took out the ever overflowing garbage. Despite double-bagging, something gross and pink dripped on the sidewalk. At least it was outside.

I'm not doing much writing at the moment. I need to start working on the proposal for the next Ana (Vampire Princess of St. Paul) book, which will be #3, but I was kind of hoping to hear from my editor just in case she loves everything but the ending (which would then change my plans for the next book).

Another scintilating day in the life, eh?

Comments

[seawasp]

I've been told that "romance" these days is a much broader category than it was 20 years ago. Would you agree with that characterization?

[lydamorehouse]

I dunno, I guess it would depend on the context. How do you mean catagory? Like as in as a genre as a whole? In which case, yes. I think to actually get the word "romance" on the spine, you have to, well, be published by a romance publisher, but also the story has to focus pretty tightly on the person meets person angle of the story. But, for something to be romantic? I would say that you could call my first novel Archangel Protocol a romance.

Why do you ask?

[seawasp]

I ask because I have one novel that one could call a romance (the full current title of the novel is Polychrome: A Romantic Fantasy) which I doubt will ever be published but I'm exploring the potential options in directions other than the publishers in the SF/F field, because the novel came out vastly better than I thought it would when I wrote it. (I wrote it because it MADE me write it by taking my other works hostage; I found that, unless I wrote a chapter or two in Polychrome every week or two, I would be incapable of writing anything in any of my other works)

[lydamorehouse]

Do you have an agent? Perhaps that's the place to start, if not. I don't know if romance is any more open to "unagented" manuscript than SF/F, but I _do_ know that there are a ton more contests you can enter (for a fee) that can get you noticed by publishers. Also the romance conferences aren't at all like our conventions. They EXPECT you to come with your mss. under your arm and a pitch ready. A lot of deals go down at the two romance conferences (RWA has one as does Romantic Times.) So, if you have the time to put in the effort and the money to make the trips...

The other thing to consider is that no matter where you live, there's probably a chapter of RWA in town (or nearby or on-line, if you're super remote.) You don't have to be published to be a member (I can't remember if you are or not, sorry.) At any rate, the people who go to meetings know a LOT about how to find romance markets. Our local one even does critique sessions, and if one near you does that you could find out if people think it's enough of a romance to try to sell that way.

Just some thoughts. I love the title, btw.

[seawasp]

Alas, I don't have an agent yet. I had been given the impression that once you were a Published Author (TM) you'd have no trouble finding agents, but thus far that has not seemed to be the case.

I may have to make one of those trips, though I'm not sure how to pitch it. It's GOOD -- my entire beta group thought so, despite the fact that most of them were originally in a state that ranged from doubtful to mildly horrified that something like this had taken over my brain.

I'm glad you like the title! The problem with selling it ANYWHERE is that it is an Oz-derivative (thus the title; Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow, is of course the female romantic interest/heroine), and while deconstructions like Wicked have seemed to work, this is more an ... adult imagining/continuation which assumes that Baum's depiction was pretty accurate, allowing for the kid's filter and for his later, er, political leanings.

[tezmillertm.livejournal.com]

For a massive cat, Inky looks rather svelte. Where's he hiding the fat? ;-)

[lydamorehouse]

He's actually very tall for a cat, though my vet claims he should be 14 pounds I think he'd look skeletal at that weight. I thought he looked best at 18. I mean, he's HUGE. Big paws, long body, a lot of height (for a cat.)

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

I put my kitty on a high-protein, low-carb diet because she has feline diabetes, and I discovered that if you read the labels on the dry food, it is actually much higher in protein than most commercial canned foods. The wet food you get at the vet is high in protein (about 50 percent for the diabetic diet food) but the stuff like Fancy Feast and other commercial canned foods are only about 10 to 12 percent protein. You can get dry food at the pet store that is about 40 percent protein without having to pay for the more expensive veterinary food, if money is a concern.

[lydamorehouse]

Interesting about Fancy Feast because my vet told me to buy that particular brand, although she did give me specifics (ie the turkey or seafood). I'll look into high protien dry food. Though the kitties sure love the wet stuff! They'll be disappointed if I find good dry.