So Good It Makes You Sad

Have you ever read an amazingly great book and felt totally depressed when you finished? Not because one of your favorite characters died, or even that the book ended and you had to say goodbye. No, I mean depression because the book was so freaking incredible and you KNOW you will never write like that author, so why not just give up now!


As you may know, this has been a few weeks of incredible reading for me. You didn't know? Well, you do now. Since the beginning of August, when I decided to work through several of the paperbacks and Kindle books collecting various forms of dust and cobwebs around me, I've been plowing through the pile. To date, I have read: 

• Cinders by Michelle Davidson Argyle (fantasy)
• Blockbuster by Sven Michael Davison (contemporary)
• Khan: Empire of Silver by Conn Iggulden (historical)
• The Swords of Faith by Richard Warren Field (historical) - I needed to get back to this from a while ago - very glad I did
• Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert (sci-fi) - again, didn't plan to, but I'm a huge Dune fan!
• The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick (historical)
• Cartier's Ring by Pearson Moore (historical)
• The Borgia Betrayal by Sarah Poole (historical)
• Kismet's Kiss by Cate Rowan (romance)
• The Black God's War by Moses Siregar III (fantasy)
• To Touch the Knight by Lindsay Townsend (romance)

In case it occurs to you, yeah, that's a hell of a lot of reading. What can I say? I went on vacation and I'm not working on my own books now. That will change very shortly. Next on the list is Michael Hicks' In Her Name: Empire, which I'm looking forward to, as I've heard nothing but good about it.


Reading all these great books has not only gave me a better appreciation for how hard these authors have worked, but honestly, the quality of some of them made me depressed. I'm not exaggerating. I'm one of those writers who has to work hard at a story, yet there are others who seem to be master storytellers. I know, I've read some of them this summer. These writers can effortlessly sweep a reader away into their cleverly crafted worlds. Kudos to everyone I've read so far for keeping me entertained. But, dammit, sometimes I wish your stories weren't so good!

The Mammoth Summer of Reading

Now that I have some free time on my hands, guess what I'll be doing for the rest of the summer? Actually, you don't have to guess; I told you in my last post. Those are just the print copies. Highlights include:

• Ruth Downie's Caveat Emptor & Medicus
• The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick
• C.C. Humphrey's Vlad: The Last Confession
• Conn Iggulden's Khan: Empire of Silver
• George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (I'll wait for A Dance With Dragons when HBO's Game of Thrones season 2 is done next year)
• The Borgia Betrayal by Sara Poole
• A book by one of my absolute favorites, the woman who inspired my love of historical fiction, Persia Woolley in a re-release of Queen of the Summer Stars.

A summer of books

There are prime choices that I'm looking forward to on Kindle as well, including:

• Cinders by Michelle Davidson Argyle
• Elizabeth Chadwick's For the King's Favor
• Mel Comley's Impending Justice
• Blockbuster by Sven Michael Davison
• Alison DeLuca's The Night Watchman Express
• In Her Name: Empire, by Micheal Hicks
• The Vampire Relationship Guide, Volume 1: Meeting and Mating by Evelyn LaFont
• Cartier's Ring by Pearson Moore
• Cate Rowan's Kismet's Kiss
• The Black God's War by Moses Siregar III
• Lindsay Townsend's To Touch the Knight & A Knight's Vow
• Mike Wells' Wild Child
• The House of Women by Anne Whitfield
• Sarah Woodbury's The Last Pendragon    

That's about a tenth of what's on my Kindle right now. All of them will be read and reviewed this summer, either for the HNR blog or any place I like to mouth off about books, like Amazon. You might be wondering, is she really going to through all those books? Um, yeah. If an author really hooks me, I'll read a book a day, with a rare break to eat and pee. Since I'm a semi-insomniac, sleep is also a possibility. But why sleep, when you can read?

What are your summer reading plans? What are you looking forward to the most?  

Truth in fiction: why do we care?

A great friend, Sophie Perinot, did an excellent blog post yesterday, Invention is the Midwife of Good Historical Fiction.  Truth in fiction is a huge concern for me. I don't believe that the historical fiction author has a license to make it all up. Otherwise, why write or call it a historical, if you ignore the sources? But, there are times where even a good detective of history, as hist fic writers are often forced to be, must use their imagination. Check out Sophie's article too, as she shares the "experts" reasoning on the topic.

I'm struggling with truth in fiction, while wrapping up scenes between my protagonist and villain in Sultana's Legacy. My antagonist is my heroine Fatima's elder brother, Sultan Muhammad III. If some of the therapists I know could get him on their couch, he'd be diagnosed as a sociopath, seriously in need of some CBT. The historical record has some information on his murderous behavior. One day, he got pissed off at his jailer for having pity on some political prisoners (he dared throw them some dry bread, rather than let them starve). Muhammad had the jailer's head cut off and let the blood rain down on the prisoners to give them "something to drink" - that's direct from all the sources. It's the best example of his cruelty I could find, so I had to include that scene . The other references to how he tortured and killed his father's servants, or roamed the palace at odd hours screaming like a madman, are just general examples of his instability.

Sounds like the perfect sort of villain to write about, doesn't he? While I have no doubt that Muhammad was a complete nut job, I've had to guess at how others would have reacted to his behavior, in particular Fatima. By all accounts, she was her father's image, devoted to her studies and as learned as he was. How did she feel when Muhammad poisoned their father? I'll never know. 

The Spanish and even Arabic chroniclers within the Alhambra didn't write anything about how the murder of Muhammad II affected his other children. Some of the later events from Fatima's history have allowed me to form an educated guess about her feelings. I've used it as the basis for the majority of the conflict that occurs 2/3 into Sultana's Legacy. My dilemma: do I address the fact in my author's note that I truly don't know the extent of her vengeance? Why should I care?

The reason I care is because of what can be called the "Braveheart phenomena" - if you've seen the film, you know what I mean so I won't go into it here. If you haven't seen it, watch the film, then go off and read about Isabella of France, the wife of King Edward II. I'm sure you'll say because it's a movie, it's different from historical fiction. Historical events on TV or in books still leave the audience with the same conclusion: the events, as presented, must have happened. I remember seeing Braveheart with my mother and, since she knows her daughter is some history freak, she asked what I thought. My response? "Why'd he (Mel Gibson) have to do the stupid French princess thing?" She asked what I meant and was surprised that history and Mel disagreed.

In my case, does it matter that what I've written isn't 100% verifiable? When the sources don't give me any detail, I've settled for what's reasonably plausible, what could have happened. I've determined that Fatima didn't get the warm fuzzies when her elder brother killed their father, because she helped secure the throne for a younger brother. Yes, this was one screwed up family - they would all be on therapists' couches if they were alive today!

Beyond extrapolating later details, I also considered basic human nature. I don't know anyone who can take on a villain without taking some risks and doing slightly questionable things. I also think it's impossible to come out of the battle unscathed. I've enjoyed writing this sequel because I got to turn my genteel, loving heroine into a person almost as dangerous as her real-life brother. It's all reasonably possible that it happened, but part of me wishes I knew the real truth. Where's a time machine when you need one? Scholars are still investigating the Moorish period in Spain and perhaps one day, they'll get the real story.

Until now, it's never bothered me that I was putting words in the mouths of my historical figures. I understand a little better why some of my friends who write in the same genre create characters from scratch. I keep in mind that as a writer, it's my job to be creative and sustain conflict. But, what do you do when the sources are silent as to whether there was a conflict to begin with?  

Making the Connections - Characterization

 

I just completed tweaking the novella that I'm writing under a pen name, and sent it off to an editor in the hopes that a small publisher will accept it. My heroine’s not a pirate, but she sure curses like one. Writing a contemporary has been so freeing! I explained to one of my best writing buds, as much as I love historical fiction and will continue in that genre, I just wanted to write freely in this instance. To put aside a typical year's worth of research into the past and just focus on the writing instead. The approach didn't necessarily make my task any easier. I still had to look up pop culture way back in the 1990's, from music, movies and fashion trends to the dynamics of highway traffic accidents and plane crashes. Did I mention this novella wouldn’t have a happy conclusion? So sad.

The one aspect that is universal to anything I write is how much time I spend crafting characters. It took me several years to understand the concept of show vs. tell, especially when it comes to characterization. It's deeper than, "Don't tell us your protagonist, Jane Doe is a divorcee who's getting older. Show us." It's more than Jane's rheumy eyes, her gnarled hands cramping and shaking as she gropes for the pill bottle on the nightstand, while she lies alone at night in her bed. It's about getting a reader to make a deep connection with Jane, to care about what happens to her.

How many times have you read a book, where you just couldn't connect with the main character? Whether he or she was too perfect, too pathetic, something about this character just felt unreal. I’ll bet you may not remember the entire plot of some of your favorite novels, but something about the story stood out. Typically, that something is a character. How many of you writers have slaved over getting the characteristics of your protagonists and villains just right? Do you ever ask yourself why you go to the trouble? For the same reason that I do - to make your characters true to life, as flesh and blood as you are, with faults and foibles to spare. No protagonist should be too perfect. If he or she can always save the day and do just the right thing without any consequences, I have to ask, where’s the conflict? Why should I stay tuned to find out if Mr. Perfect Hero really will get the vaccine from the villain’s HQ in time to save the dying villagers? I already know he’s going to do it, if the writer has painted him as someone who can do no wrong. We're not perfect. Why should our characters be?

 

I've heard of lots of different approaches to crafting characters. One method I've come to rely on is a character sketch. First, I summarize a character in one or two lines, to define their basic personality. Then I go beyond the physical descriptions of the characters (so that black hair doesn't suddenly turn brown with highlights; I've done that before!), to refine their personalities. I keep a table in Access with answers to questions like, “Most painful childhood memory?” or “Does he or she like children? Why or why not?” and, most important in my mind, “How does he or she deal with change?” Change is a vital aspect to building up a strong character, showing how a person grows (or not) by altering their circumstances.

Once I have answered the questions, it’s easier to think about what will happen scene by scene, and how my characters will deal with the events that transpire. I look to see how much havoc I can wreak in my characters’ lives, and ways in which they can, or perhaps can’t, work themselves out of trouble. Sometimes they just don’t make it. I did mention there’s no HEA in that novella, right? Don’t crucify me by calling it a love story gone wrong! I warned you.

 

With Edric, my hero in On Falcon’s Wings, he’s best summed up as a Saxon lord’s son, living in the shadow of everyone else’s expectations, until a forbidden love affair challenges him to find his own happiness. The first third of the book shows Edric under his father’s thumb, then under the sway of his lord, Harold Godwinson. It’s only in the latter third of the book that Edric comes into his own, and fights for his family and future at the Battle of Hastings. Fatima, my heroine in Sultana and Sultana’s Legacy is devoted to her family. Bitter rivalries among its members force her to make the wrong choices, for all the right reasons. She remains one of my favorite protagonists and I loved writing about her, because she is so incredibly flawed. She loves her family to the point where she will do anything, even murder innocents, to protect them. Part of creating memorable characters is showing them at their best and worst.

Tell me about some of your favorite characters. Why did they resonate with you? Also, if you’re a writer, how do you create a memorable character?

Sex in Novels: Your Thoughts

Yeah, I could have chosen a sexier title for today's post, but I'm putting all my creativity elsewhere right now. And not just into finding pictures like the one on the left!

In my last round of online reviews for On Falcon's Wings, I noticed several readers chiming in about the amount of sex in the novel. I have never really thought that I write truly detailed or even provocative sex scenes; they do nothing for me. One of my best writer buddies has always said she finds them tasteful. Is she lying to me? Fess up, writing bud; you know who you are. However, another writerly friend does love scenes that leave me needing a cigarette afterward. And I don't even smoke.

When there is a romance involved in the storytelling, I like to include lots of sexual tension, whether between the estranged lovers as in this book, or the couple in a pre-arranged marriage who will become passionate lovers, as in Sultana. My approach to including sex in any novel is never to be gratuitous or to write scenes according a specific formula, as in, "And they should have sex for the first time on page 163."

Also, while I write historical novels, some people assume that they are historical romance because of the interactions between my protagonists. Nothing against historical romance; I cut my proverbial reading teeth on the likes of Heather Graham, Johannna Lindsey, Betrice Small, but uh, I don't write historical romance. My characters always have rocky starts as in historical romance, but a happy ending is never certain. When my characters fall in love, I make them work for it. Sorry, but I do love to torture my creations. Makes the ending much more fulfilling or perhaps bittersweet, but more importantly, I want readers to feel all the difficulties have been worthwhile.

To me, detailing sex in a novel should be the natural outcome of the intense relationships that have been built in the preceding pages. Love scenes, like any other scene, should feel natural. It should make perfect sense that the characters would find themselves together in such a way. While I understand that some readers shy away from the details, if I've spent all that time building up the tension, showing the budding love as it evolves between two characters, should I really just close the door on the sex scene to follow? As a reader, I'd feel cheated of something if a writer did that me. But what do I know?

So, you tell me. Feel free to leave your comments, or if you don't want to go into detail, just take the poll below.     

Do you read detailed sex scenes in novels?

"Is that you?" - Using a Pen Name



Royalty-free image, courtesy of FOTOLIA

 There are many reasons to use a pen name. Three particularly good ones, in my opinion, are:

1. Your name is similar to that of another famous author, e.g., Stephen King, Dan Brown. Yeah, at first it might be fun to think that the similarity to such a famous name will help you. Think again when it comes to would-be fans Googling your name, only to wade through hundreds of webpages about the other author. Will that help them find your website or Twitter page then? No. Get a pen name.

2. If your real name became known, the genre you're writing in might interfere with your personal life or other career. Recent example, the hoopla about the teacher who writes erotica. I didn't comment on it in writing and I'm not about to do it here. That's what my buddies are for, and trust me, we talked about this one! I can see, in this instance, where someone might want to keep a real name under wraps based on subject matter. If you're worried about offending anyone, get a pen name.

3. Lastly, your writing crosses genres. Say you're a, just a random example here, historical fiction author and you want to branch into writing contemporary fiction, horror or non-fiction. If you've gone about branding yourself as a writer in one genre AND people know you write in that genre because it's all you ever talk about, they're going to be (a) confused or (b) pissed when they go to buy your next book and find out that it's completely different. Yes, you can alert some fans or followers beforehand with social media, including Facebook fan pages, etc. But why confuse people? "Wait, he doesn't write science fiction any more? Now it's erotica? Is he doing both?" There's a reason why Nora Roberts (a pen name, by the way) also writes suspense and police procedurals under yet another pen name, J.D. Robb.   

I'm taking a page from Nora Roberts (wish it involved her money or following, too!) and using a pen name for my next work. It's not historical fiction. Why do I feel the need to use a pen name? I am still building a brand as a historical fiction writer, but when I want to branch out beyond that, I don't want to create confusion. I want anyone who Google's Lisa J. Yarde books now or in the future to know me as a writer in one genre, not to be confused as to why or if I've suddenly switched to writing some other genre full time. My other work doesn't complement historical fiction at all. Since I plan to write historical fiction until I die (I'm not joking, I've got at least ten other books mapped out and by the time I've finished them, I'll have more), it's what I plan to build my public persona on. As for that pen name? Nope, I'm not telling you.

Have you ever used a pen name? If so, why?