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Filed in: Asian fantasy | miscellaneous | writing Tags: adventure | Asian fantasy | martial arts | multicultural romance | swordfights | wuxia
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I was going to put “Asian fantasy” in the title, but then I had visions of people coming here searching for a XXX site—ugh.
 I got a note from a reader who told me they’ve been searching for this sort of book forever and there’s not much out there. She had been going through search engines looking for Asian fantasy stories. It’s not the first letter I’ve gotten like that either. Each one makes me hopeful. For an unpublished writer to start getting fan mail, and not from friends who love me, that must mean something right? 
It was a big boost when I found an agent who was excited to go to bat for me. We’re still on that search for the editor who believes that these stories will sell. Funny how much of an uphill battle it is to get into English language genre fiction when there’s a flood of movies, manga, anime and centuries of Asian language literature on the same themes.
Once in a while when I’m feeling blue and lonely, I do go googling for Asian fantasy fiction or wuxia. But that’s okay. I knew this was going to be hard when I started. I just have to keep improving the writing.
 So if you’re out there. If you’re searching too and you’ve found me. Say hello. *waves*
I truly believe there is a market and I love these stories. I’m very stubborn and somewhat patient and there’s enough stories in this genre to last another couple centuries.
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Filed in: friends and family | miscellaneous | slice of life Tags: random musings | romantic stories | wedding anniversary
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“I need to get you a card when we’re at Target,” my husband says.
“You’re going to buy me an anniversary card while I’m there at the store with you? After telling me about it?”
“Well, I have to get you something paper and that’s that.”
Oh, my hubby. So romantic.
I roll my eyes. “Well I was going to get you Star Trek tickets. That’s made of paper.”
“That’s a great idea! I’ll buy your ticket and you’ll buy my ticket. And we’ll exchange.” He grins. Everything is solved, all is right with the world.
I remark about how unspontaneous this is. We can’t plan out what we’re going to give each other like this! But hubby insists that we’re just being practical, which is good.
“Well, let me tell you right now. I want something romantic for our second anniversary,” I say with a scowl.
Hubby laughs, apparently quite pleased with how everything has worked out.
He did actually order us a cake that tastes just like our wedding cake — a vanilla chiffon cake with fresh strawberries and cream filling. He didn’t believe in eating a year old wedding cake, but he did want to observe the tradition in some way. That’s my husband for you. Unassumingly romantic and annoyingly practical all at once.
We did exchange tickets inside the theater after paying individually and enjoyed our movie date night very much.
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Filed in: book reviews | events | friends and family | miscellaneous | slice of life | The Bookshelf | travel | writing Tags: motivation | rewards | shoe shopping
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 In celebration of finishing my draft and sending it out to be worked over by Little Sis, I went out yesterday for a massage and bought a pair of slinky little shoes to wear at conference.
Yes, I do dream about one day doing this for a living. When the time comes, I’ll have to put the pedal to the metal and just get it done because I want to eat. But in the meantime, there’s a lot of things that can make you feel down during the journey to publication so why not create some reasons to feel up?
Tonight it’s back to work now that all the knots are worked out of my neck and shoulders. How do you reward yourself?
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Filed in: miscellaneous Tags: books | reading | twilight
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I’m a crier. I cry in weddings and movies and television shows. I even cried at the end of Terminator 2 when they lowered Schwarznegger into the pit of molten metal. *sniff*
That’s my litmus test for reading. If at some point I get that tight, pinching feeling in my chest and I start to tear up, then I know the writing sucked me in and affected me. I still may not say that it’s a good book overall, but I’ll definitely give the author props for invoking emotion in me. I feel the same if the writer made me laugh out loud as well, but that seems to be a harder task than making me tear up.
I just finished reading Twilight and I have to say, I enjoyed that book. Of course, I’m not alone. I expected to be underwhelmed after Stephen King’s remarks and my Little Sis being so-so on it. But I can honestly say I really liked where this book went. Are there issues with it? Sure, but even my most favorite books are not flawless.
I think one of the reasons I can say I loved parts of this book is that it made me sniffly, sniffly in parts. I’m not even going to go for the fallback answer of “I can see why teenage girls would love this” review. I can be a picky, discerning reader, but at the same time, I’m also ready to be swept off my feet.
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Filed in: events | friends and family | miscellaneous | slice of life | travel Tags: 10 essentials | guide to style | professional dress | RWA conference | shopping
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 I’m supposed to go shopping today for the RWA conference along with some chaptermates. I find conference very intimidating. First of all, I have to shop for it. That means I don’t have closets full of fabulous outfits to choose from and that makes me feel like I’m already behind the 8 ball.
It’s really daunting to be surrounded by savvy, stylish, beautiful women. And I don’t care what people say about “just be comfortable”. This is a professional, social setting. You wouldn’t go to an interview dressed inappropriately. Plus since I’m up for an award so I have to get a killer dress. It’s like the Academy Awards for romance. People have been talking about their dresses for months! *gulp*
My sense of style can pretty much be summed up in one sentence — “Black goes with everything?” Yes, the question mark is included deliberately.
Is it bad that I’m resorting to Tim Gunn’s 10 Essentials for my shopping list? Here’s what I’m looking for today:
- Basic Black Dress - Need a new one. I wore all my LBDs at last year’s conference.
- Trench Coat - Going to pass. This is a summertime event.
- Dress Pants - Check! Although the ones I have are a little snug.
- Classic Shirt - Need a tailored white shirt
- Jeans - Need to get some in time to have them altered for my short legs
- Any Occasion Top - Something fun. MUST HAVE COLOR.
- Skirt - Check! One of the few things I have covered.
- Day Dress - Check! I’ve got several fun ones.
- Jacket - Need a nice tailored one, preferably not black, with pockets.
- Sweatsuit Alternative - Check! Casual skirt and top for me.
And finally something snazzy that might potentially go on stage…ACK!…fingers crossed.
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Filed in: events | miscellaneous | The Bookshelf | writing Tags: author interview | favorite author | kurt vonnegut | random musings | ray bradbury | stephen king
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My very first “author” interview is up at Vivienne Westlake’s blog. She writes steamy historical romances. Check it out here.
My Little Sis and I were chatting last night and she surprised me by asking who my favorite author was. I think she knows that I kind of hold that spot for someone as if it were the heavyweight championship and only rarely does the title get handed over.
I hadn’t thought about it in a while, but the answer was still Kurt Vonnegut. I offered up Stephen King as a maybe, but the last thing I’ve read by King was On Writing. I actually haven’t read anything by either of them in a while. So why do they get the title? Why not someone in romance or historical fiction?
I guess if I had to choose only one author, I’d want it to be an author that I can pick up any piece of writing from and know that I’m going to read from start to finish. It has to be someone who’s changed the way I think of the world and has to have done it for years. Each new work I read from them has to provoke something new in me. Ray Bradbury used to have the title for the longest time. Then I read Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle and Breakfast of Champions and decided Kurt was my favorite. He’s nothing at all like what I write or will ever write. Stephen King was always high on the list. No one makes me care about a character like King. Then On Writing just had such a huge effect on me as a writer and a person that he’s definitely a contender.
So who’s your favorite author? Do you think it’s one that others would expect?
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Filed in: miscellaneous Tags: social networking | twitter convert
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Alright, I succumbed. For the past week I kept on seeing hits to my blog from Twitter. And by “hits” I mean 3.
Curiosity got the best of me and I signed up. And oh my gosh, is it addictive! You see friends from your address book immediately upon entering. And then you’re in this multichannel IM panel.
Obviously this isn’t new to anyone but silly ol’ me. But I can see how it hooks you. It’s like going into the girls bathroom and actually being part of the crowd instead of having to listen to the gossip from the stall before slinking away as quick as possible.
I still don’t know how people were getting to the blog through Twitter. Probably Excerpt Monday.
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Filed in: book reviews | events | friends and family | miscellaneous | slice of life | travel | writing Tags: brainstorming | inspiration | plotting | random musings | travels | writing
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 Lately I’ve been brewing a lot of thoughts. Last night I even plotted out an entirely new novel. For some people that’s no big deal, but I rarely commit enough to an idea to outline it. It takes a long period of mulling over an idea before I decide it’s tickled my interest enough to latch onto it. Writerly friends always talk about how many ideas they get that are pulling at them and urging to be written. That so ain’t me, babe.
In San Diego, I was thinking about Little Sis’ fiance. Soon-to-be Brother in Law is a journalist and a freelance travel writer. Sunday morning, they got up early to take my brother to the airport, hit the zoo for five hours and then meet up with us for lunch. What kind of crazy person wants to squeeze in time at the San Diego zoo on Sunday after going to a huge wedding the day before? To me, it just sounded exhausting, but Brother in Law was giddy about going to the zoo and seeing lions and tigers and bears.
I thought then about all the articles he has to write on a daily basis. If I had to come up with ideas on a daily basis, I’d implode. Even these little bloggy thingies are hard to come up with sometimes. But BIL loves to go out and experience things. You might think, yeah, who doesn’t? But Little Sis and BIL, both writers, are out every chance they get finding events, places to go, people to see. Maybe all these inputs help BIL formulate this neverending cycle of ideas.
It leads me to think about what kind of experiences I’ve been stirring into the daydream soup. Ever since my honeymoon, I haven’t been writing or revising in earnest (yes, confession time). Some of it was because of the whole euphoria of finding an agent and getting embroiled in the day job. But I’ve also been going out and doing things. There was the weekend in San Diego and the entire week visiting friends and family in Los Angeles.
Even back in St. Louis, we’re getting out more. After the farmer’s market in Amsterdam, I remarked to hubby that it was the sort of Saturday I’d like to have every week. Sure enough, when we got back home, hubby started taking us to the Soulard Market on Saturdays. We’ll walk hand in hand, buying fresh fruit and vegetables. Then we go home and I’ll make the best sangria and guacamole. And that, of course, leads to another couple hours of lounging and non-writing.
All of this stuff feeds my mind, so I guess I have a happy brain right now. So maybe it’s not so bad to not be writing so much for the moment.
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Filed in: miscellaneous | slice of life | writing Tags: all-nighter | goals | procrastination | revisions | writing
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I have a pitching presentation to do this Saturday and I’ve been asked to do a guest blog on “Feminism in the Tang Dynasty”. On top of this, I sorely need to revise “Silk and Seduction”. I made progress today by deleting an extraneous “the”. And that was all.
It struck me that I feel like I’m back in university. I “turned in” my presentation outline for peer review, I’m formulating my arguments for my blog on historical heroines and looming over it all is my 300 page “thesis” on love and redemption.
Just like in school, procrastination is rearing it’s ugly head. I sense an all-nighter coming on.
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Filed in: friends and family | miscellaneous | slice of life | writing Tags: childhood stories | dreams | fan fiction | mother's day | random musings
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 When I was in 3rd grade my mum told me that you can think up stories and write them down and if they’re good enough, then people will pay you for them. I wrote so much that summer that my fingers swelled and I developed a writer’s callous that has only just begun to fade.
Mum always wanted to be a writer and she gave that dream to me and Little Sis and my not-often-mentioned brother as well, who’s also a pretty decent storyteller. Our first stories were mostly fan fiction — retellings of Transformers and Voltron episodes and whatever shows tickled our fantasy.
When my Little Sis was struggling with writer’s block during her master’s thesis, my mom’s supportive words were, “Maybe you’re not creative enough.” My Sis loves that story, because Mum cuts to the quick. Aren’t you a writer? Isn’t that what writers do?
When she asked about how my writing quest was going and I told her I was still trying to query after three years, her response: “The hardest one is going to be the first one. Until people know your name.” You know, there is nothing untrue about that.
More lovely encouraging words from Mum to Little Sis: “I paid a lot of money for your degree, where’s my book?”
It’s always been matter-of-fact with Mum. This is what you do. Write your story and that is all you need to worry about.
One more story, the best one. On the day Mum was supposed to graduate with her teaching degree, she got onto a refugee boat and left her parents and native country behind to flee with her husband. She had plans to teach literature during the school year and write in the summer. Obviously, all those plans were gone the moment she left shore.
A woman in the boat saw that Mum was pregnant and told her that the child would be intelligent, being conceived in one country and born in another. That little bump inside her was me. You don’t know how many times I’ve heard this tale.
“Mom always knew you’d be smart,” she’d say.
I hope my mother decides to sit down and write again one day. What stories she must have to tell! In the meantime, thanks for the dreams, Mum. They’re pretty good ones.
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