Workshop section updated

Filed in: blog | pitching | promotion | workshop | writing    Tags: handouts | workshops

I’ve updated my workshop section with handouts from the recent workshops I did. I was actually quite pleased with being able to do the one hour Selling the Hard Sell on Saturday (I only got 50 minutes) and then expanding the Keeping Them Hooked workshop on Sunday to a three hour class. We got to cover a lot more than just me barreling through the list of things to think about–plus maybe I just like to talk.

Workshop Handouts

I do like speaking and don’t charge any fee other than travel expenses, so if you happen to have an open chapter meeting you’d like to fill, don’t hesitate to drop me a line. I’m what you call a cheap date. *wink*

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Can’t talk…writin’

Filed in: blog | event | writing    Tags: Fast Draft | rsswwf | ruby-slippered sisterhood | winter writing festival

You have reached the blog of Jeannie Lin. Jeannie is temporarily on blog hiatus so all her words can be poured into her current Fast Draft for the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival.

Wanna join?

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On meritocracy, modern language…and other conundrums

Filed in: blog | research | writing    Tags: feminism in ancient times | poets | Tang dynasty

I happened upon this article about female Chinese poets throughout history from the Cultural China website: Women Poets in Past Centuries – Raising One’s Voice in a Male World. Not surprisingly, the article describes how women of noble families were often highly educated and literate and, though at times were able to gain some notoriety, never had as much public recognition as their male counterparts.

While reading about the struggle of female poets, my thoughts went back to a discussion that Courtney Milan began on her post, Fairytales of Meritocracy, about the historical fantasy inherent in much of historical romance where modern ideals of meritocracy are inserted. Her very well-written post sparked some great conversation. I for one, LOVE that Courtney pinpoints some of the true “fantasies” at the heart of romance. The feminine fantasy is not the superficial one so often lambasted of wearing pretty clothes, having a great body, and landing a ravishing rake of one’s own. The fantasy is one of meritocracy: that worthy deeds will be rewarded. That characters, in any walk of life, vie for a better life and can achieve it. Yes, it comes with finding your true love as well. We want it all. HEA.

In a comment to Courtney Milan’s post, I stated an idealistic idea that feminism and meritocracy are not strictly modern ideals and that history itself doesn’t show a linear progression of subjugation to liberation, by any means.

Robin expressed the balance very well:

“I interpret (this) as finding the moments and pockets in history where what we recognize in the present is also discernible in the past.

That notion comports best with hist Rom to which I generally gravitate — those books that I can connect to through my current moment in time but without feeling that they are modern books in historical costume.”

While reading the Cultural China article, I found myself moved to nearly the point of tears by the words of these female poets who, very clearly and in ancient times, expressed this same desire to be recognized.

First, the example of private versus public independence. I think this is something Westerners often misinterpret when pushing the idea of the meek, subjugated Asian female:

From Cultural China:

“Take the example of Bao Linghui, who lived in the fifth century. She was the sister of the renowned poet Bao Zhao, and was highly educated too. Women were not discriminated. They were the ones who would stay home and educate their children while men would serve. They would even help their husbands to pass the imperial examination”

This couldn’t help but bring to mind Virginia Woolf and her conundrum of Shakespeare’s gifted sister with no place to exhibit her creativity in A Room of One’s Own. Chinese women did have a room and a sphere of their own – though it was a private one: inside the home, the inner chamber, the so-called “red chamber”.

And then the lament of Yue Xuanji, female poet of the Tang Dynasty:

“I resent these gauze robes of mine which conceal poems’ lines, I raise my head, envying the names on the roster of successful candidates.”

“I resent these gauze robes.” — Such a beautiful vision evoking femininity, the desire for recognition, and ideal of meritocracy. And this was in the 9th century.

In these cases, the need for public acceptance and recognition eludes these women, but in modern times the path of meritocracy is also fraught with obstacles, is it not?

I have received several comments that my characters exhibit modern behavior. I don’t know whether this is in their speech or their independent and outspoken natures. In both cases, I wholeheartedly accept such criticisms without argument other than the ones I’ve laid out here. I’ve “modernized” the speech in that I’ve made little effort to shy away from contractions and language that flows without any sense of being stiff or stilted. After reading the words of the Tang women, I can’t fathom in my head how to make them sound “ancient” and still do justice to the absolute command of the language I sense in their words. Though of course, as an author, there’s simply the case that perhaps I chose the occasional word that triggered a modern feeling, and I accept that shortcoming too. It could be that I simply, plainly, did not get the job done in a convincing manner.

In terms of independence and wanting to be recognized as equals, in terms of expressing these opinions openly and eloquently — again I defer to my muses, the women of the Tang Dynasty. How could their words and feats have survived more than a thousand years, surviving revisionist efforts of subsequent generations, if these thoughts had not resonated deeply in their own time as well as today?

My characters are modern, but my characters are historical. I chose them for that reason, and I must accept all such criticisms of anachronism. I must embrace these critiques in light of the choices I’ve made.

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RSS Winter Writing Festival

Filed in: Announcements | blog | writing    Tags: ruby-slippered sisterhood | winter writing festival | writing challenges

The Ruby Sisters are hosting a writing festival for those of us that want to get a jumpstart on the writing goal for the new year. Big pluses: You get to set your own goals, chat challenges, shiny prizes, and this one doesn’t happen over a major holiday.

It starts on January 10, but you can register now at the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival blog and set your daily goal. Mine is to write 10 pages a day as I’m Fast Drafting this next novel.  Be pretty cool to have a novel done by February…

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It’s here!

Filed in: Announcements | blog | writing    Tags: author copies | butterfly swords | debut novel

Need I say more?

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Yes Woman

Filed in: blog | craft | event | rwa | workshop | writing    Tags: online classes | rwa 2010 | selling the hard sell | workshop handouts

You know the movie where Jim Carrey has to say “Yes” to every request? Well, apparently that’s what I must have done earlier this year because for August, I find myself scheduled to teach two online classes and coordinating the historical category of the Gateway contest. And judging for the Golden Pen.

I’m not complaining. I’m actually smacking myself on the forehead. *smack* I must fire my personal assistant. (My personal assistant is myself — as I try to answer writing e-mails in between day job conference calls and activities.) I must also install a physical calendar in front of myself instead of the virtual one that I have in my head that I THINK is always open.

Speaking of classes: I promised the people who attended my workshop at Nationals that I would post the handout online for those who didn’t get it. Well, here it is: Selling the Hard Sell handout.

It will also be linked in the “Extras” section.

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The Zone of Proximal Development

Filed in: blog | craft | writing    Tags: contest judging | education | vygotsky | writing critique | zone of proximal development

I was having a Twitter discussion with a couple of writer buddies around contests and feedback. How it’s so helpful when judges give comments versus just filling out the scoresheet. And how do you interpret polarized comments from different judges? And finally, when people judge, sometimes they feel like they ended up giving a six page critique or red-lined the whole darn thing and maybe that was overkill.

I’ve had that happen plenty of times. I send out pages asking for a look at motivation or a look at overall plot and I’ve received the pages back with every line marked up — suggestions for replacements of all my word choices, fixing all my passive sentences. I always step back from those detailed line edits with a sense that I can’t see the forest for the trees. I rarely give such edits because of my philosophy that:

1) that level of editing is very personal and tied to Voice. Tell me that too many of my sentences are passive and it’s distracting or that you hear an echo of the word “that”. I appreciate that, but going through the extent of reworking my individual sentences and suggesting how I should rewrite them is rarely helpful to me because those sentences will all naturally disappear and get reworked in the next revision.

2) That level of detail is only helpful at the very, very end of revisions when you’re spit polishing and only for an advanced writer who knows what to throw out. For a beginner writer who is trying to take all your advice, I feel this can be very destructive to their development.

Not to say I don’t always get something from a deluge of revision notes, broad to the nit-picky. But I feel that it’s easy to confuse a writer with such a critique. First, they may simply cry. Or freeze up like a deer in the headlights. They may become so lost about what to tackle first that the critique becomes counter-productive.

This is where teaching philosophy comes in. Or in this case, critiquing philosophy. Everyone has one deep down — even if you haven’t stated it yet. And no one’s philosophy is superior to anyone else’s. The philosophy just grounds you, as the critiquer, and gives you a reference point for making your decisions on what feedback to give and how to give it.

Ha! If I haven’t lost you yet, let me bring up Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal development.

I threw that in there because it’s a five dollar phrase and I spent a lot of money for my Education degree to learn that Soviet dude’s name. It’s just the idea that students learn best when you gauge where they are and then give them proper scaffolding and guidance to get to the next level. Then they master that level until they can do it independently.

Trying to teach beyond that zone without addressing the gap causes frustration, increases the affective filter ($5 dollar phrase meaning you’re too keyed up/frightened/embarrassed/emotional to learn) and ultimately results in failure for the student. On the flip side, teach below the Zone and the student fails to learn or grow. The lesson is too easy.

So when I critique and when I comment as a contest judge, I’m aiming for the Zone of Proximal Development. The place where the maximum and most effective learning can occur. Based on the writing, find where the writer is “at”. Then identify what bit of writerly advice will most likely boost them to the next level. Push them to one notch beyond where they are.

Sometimes the writing is very solid, but the characters are flat. So I concentrate my comments on characterization.

Sometimes the writing sparkles, but the scenes don’t have a good build of tension, not enough highs and lows. So I’ll comment on that.

Sometimes the writing is very, very beginner. That’s tougher. Is the maximum benefit then to concentrate on sentence structure and grammar? Or on structural issues such as motivation, conflict, etc. I have to insert another philosophy there. I believe writing only smooths out with more writing and explicit instruction, i.e. telling someone how to write, doesn’t necessarily help a beginning writer. So yes, I may give a couple pointers about sentence structure, but I’ll stick to the global issues.

But what about all the other issues? All the other things that are wrong? Can you just ignore them? I can and I do. They’ll all work themselves out in the next zone or with practice and self-discovery.

This is why I always qualify when I critique that I don’t do line edits for people. Mainly because you don’t want me doing line edits. I find it hard to critique people at that level of detail without inserting too many of my Voice biases which I know are exactly that, my biases. Plus I suck at reading for that level of detail. I like to admire the forest. From there, I can see if a part of it looks a little barren.

So, what do you think? What’s your critiquing philosophy?

P.S. Any educational folks, if I’ve mangled Vygotsky and oversimplified, I truly apologize.

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Thank you Tony Leung

Filed in: blog | writing    Tags: hero | lust caution | maggie cheung | romantic chemistry | tony leung

Happy birthday Tony Leung! (June 27, 1962)

I’ve been a fan of Tony’s since watching Police Story on tapes from the Hong Kong TVB back in the 80′s. Then of course, he starred in Heaven Sword, Dragon Sabre, my sister’s favorite Jin Yong adaptation. Lately, he’s been taking on intense feature film roles. He was fabulous in Hero — and I argue the true “hero” of the piece instead of Jet Li’s character…but that’s a movie discussion for another day.

Lust, Caution — mesmerizing. I would love to say Tony’s Mr. Yee was the inspiration for the character of Li Tao in The Dragon and the Pearl, but I had actually written the manuscript before seeing Lust, Caution.

Tony once said about his counterpart, actress Maggie Cheung:

“Maggie is a truly formidable partner – one to waltz with. We do not spend a lot of time with each other, as we like to keep some mystery between us. Whenever I see her, I discover something new about her.”

Maggie and Tony are like Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

When writing romance, I’m very much inspired by complex characters. The hero and heroine always have secrets they keep from each other, but I lose interest if the information comes too easily. If the interactions are so predictable other than the obvious fact that the hero and heroine aren’t speaking “the big secret” aloud, I get frustrated.

I want to read stories where I hit the happily-ever-after ending, but I’m still left with a sense that the waltz is really just beginning. There are mysteries between the happy couple yet to be discovered for years and years to come. That’s what keeps the chemistry alive.

What’s the key to recreating that feeling? I don’t know. Perhaps there’s a hint within the note my Little Sis likes to put in the margin of my manuscripts – “Need internal reaction here — preferably mixed.”

Tony’s quote has given me a lot of inspiration. So thank you Tony and happy birthday.

(Note: See how I refrained from drawing little hearts over Tony’s picture? So mature of me.)

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Excerpt Monday: The Sorcerer’s Daughter pt.3

Filed in: Asian fantasy | blog | excerpts | writing    Tags: Asian fantasy | excerpts | first chapter | free read | historical paranormal

Welcome to another Excerpt Monday!

Excerpt Monday was started by two lovely writers: Bria Quinlan and Alexia Reed. Visit the other links for some interesting reads from unpublished and published alike and if you’d like to join up for next month, take a look at the main site: The Excerpt Monday blog.

The Sorcerer’s Daughter is a historical fantasy centered around five swordsmen in the Emperor’s secret service who’ve been tasked with fighting demons and evil spirits. This is Book One in what I’m currently calling The Soul Stealers.

I had to admit some similarities to Tsui Hark’s Age of Vampires…but only on the surface.

Excerpt 1: The Sorcerer’s Daughter

Excerpt 2: The Sorcerer’s Daughter

——————-

Tai Shen sensed the sudden emptiness in the clearing. The gui were gone. He sheathed his sword to silence the lost souls that whirled around him. They fell away with a mournful sigh.

Song Yi lowered the ritual sword. Her hand trembled. “It was worse tonight.”

Her lips were pale. The mourning veil had fallen away to reveal a cascade of black hair tied back with a single ribbon. A moment ago she had been like a warrior goddess, but now Tai Shen only saw the girl, grieving and frightened. How had she faced these demons alone?

“Was that the leader?” she asked.

“Demons don’t have a leader.”

The stillness was unsettled. Once again, too quiet. As if the insects and birds and natural creatures of the night knew to stay away. Tai Shen swept his gaze over the woods. Something was wrong.

Jin approached, frowning. Like every expression from Jin, is spoke of a thousand thoughts behind it. “The guiguai all disappeared.”

“They never went away until dawn…” Song Yi’s voice trailed away. She rushed back to the cabin.

They reached the door to find her standing beside the bamboo mat. The talismans smoldered upon the walls. The mat lay empty.

She bowed her head. “I should never have left.”

A thin layer of sand had been laid over the floor. Taoist symbols were traced into the dirt, radiating outward like a spider’s web. A trail of footprints disrupted the markings.

One set led away from the mat. None led to it.

***

Song Yi grabbed the lantern, ignoring the swordsmen as the called after her. She would search the entire mountainside for Father if she had to. She would lay him to rest.

The smell of rotting meat tainted the air and her stomach lurched. The previous nights, she’d hidden away inside the cabin, praying that the talismans, the chanting, the mirror wards would hold the gui back. She’d considered that these beings were only waking nightmares, coming at night, living only in her mind. But they were real. She had seen how them swarm and attack. Had seen how the swords cut through them. Demon flesh melted into black sludge in the grass at her feet. She held her breath and pushed forward, but someone grabbed hold of her arm.

It was the one called Tai Shen. Up close, he seemed massive, foreboding. She tensed beneath the force of his grip. No one ever touched her like that.

“We need to get back inside,” he said. He appeared almost apologetic as she shook her arm free.

“Father is out there.”

“They’re coming again.”

The air churned like dark water around them and the unnatural hum in her ears grew louder until her head throbbed. A chill crept over her skin. He was right.

They escaped to the cabin, behind the talismans and mirror wards. Behind the screen of fragrant incense, meant to attract benevolent spirits. Tai Shen dragged the door shut and stood guard by the window.

He drew back the curtain with two fingers, sword still in hand. “I can see them.”

She and Father had lived in one room where all the humble necessities of life had been packed; furnace, bed mats, small, tight shelves that held their few belongings. The intrustion of the two strangers shrunk the space even smaller. A curtain could be drawn to separate the altar from the rest of the cabin. She wanted to do so now and block out the sight of the barren mat where her father had lain cold and still.

“I must go after him.” Her heart pounded and her palms grew damp around the wooden sword. Yet she forced herself to continue. “They’ll tear him apart.”

——————–

More excerpts:

As always, your hostesses Bria Quinlan (PG13), , Alexia Reed (R), Rachel Jameson (PG13) and Kendal Corbitt (R)  thank you for stopping by!

Joining us this week:

Babette James, Contemporary Romance (PG 13)
Danie Ford, Contemporary YA (PG 13)
Jeannie Lin, Historical Paranormal (PG 13)
Kaige, Historical Romance (PG 13)
Shawntelle Madison, Paranormal Romance (PG 13)
Debbie  Mumford, Fantasy (PG 13)
Ryan, Mystery (PG13)
Madison Woods, Fantasy (PG 13)
Stephanie Draven, Dark Fantasy (PG 13)

Ali Katz, Historical (R)
Vivien Jackson, Paranormal erotic romance (R)
Rhiannon Leith, Fantasy (R)

Elizabeth Black, gay m/m erotica (NC 17)
Sara Brookes, Urban Fantasy (NC 17)
Angeleque Ford, Contemporary erotic romance (NC17)
Lisa Fox, Paranormal erotic romance (NC 17)
Christa Paige, Regency romance (NC 17)
Gail Roarke, Paranormal erotic romance (NC 17)

I haven’t screened all of these myself, so please heed the ratings. These excerpts may contain content not typical of my site.

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While I was sleeping…

Filed in: blog | publishing | writing    Tags: butterfly swords | harlequin historical undone | taming of mei lin | warrior bride

I always know what time it is in the UK. At least, I know when 5pm hits over there and the business day is over. That block from when I wake up to about noon is when I wait eagerly for news…if there’s any wait-worthy news on the pipeline…which there usually is.

In any case, I woke up this morning to a wonderful surprise. The powers that be have decided to rename my Harlequin Undone short from “Warrior Bride” to “The Taming of Mei Lin”. The Undone line is e-published, with a possibility of later going print in an anthology. The title is the main selling point for Undones and the powers wanted something that reflected both the sensuality and the Asian setting.

I’m quite thrilled! The Taming of Mei Lin also has the added benefit of referencing The Taming of the Shrew. Hee hee…which actually works quite well here. I wish I had thought of it.

Mei Lin is the feisty counterpart to Ai Li, the heroine of Butterfly Swords. You’ll have to look carefully for Mei Lin’s appearance in the longer novel.

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