Author: Nicole Luttrell

I'm a speculative fiction writer. That means I write about dragons, ghosts and spaceships. Sometimes I write about the ghosts of dragons on spaceships.

The Writing Life, June 23

I had a much better week this week guys, how about you? I’m fitting more into the grove of my new schedule, and back to my old self.

When you’re a creature of habit like me change can make for some unhappy days. I got through it eventually, though.

Things that rocked this week

* I finished the title story for my upcoming self published collection, called Days. I’m making a concious decision not to submit it anywhere, so that it can only be found in the book.
* I also wrote the rough draft of a new short story. I’ll be sending that one out when it’s ready. I don’t like to let a month go by when I don’t send something out. Unless I’m in novel rough draft mode.
Things that I’m looking forward to this week

* There are three contest deadlines in July. Two for Imaginate, which I covered here, and a Mash deadline. Assuming all goes well, I want to have all three rough drafts done this week. All will likely not go well, but I can dream.
So what are you excited about this week? Do you have anything you want to add to the brag board?

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Happy Fathers Day, from a fatherless daughter

Fair warning, today’s post is not about writing. It’s about fathers.

First off, a little back ground from me. I was raised by a single mom. My dad wasn’t a deadbeat or anything, my mom just decided not to tell him she was pregnant. She’s like that. So growing up was sort of bent in a way that only other kids without dads will understand.

The first thing I want to tell you about growing up without a dad is that as a kid other people seemed more upset about my lack of dad than I ever was. One well meaning lady in my church offered to have her husband escort me to a father daughter event we were having. I really didn’t care that I didn’t have a dad, though. I had my mom, and that was all I thought I needed.

Two things changed my mind as I got older; Cathy and my husband.

You know Cathy, the comic strip? She’s got a complicated relationship with her friends, her husband, her boss, her mom, chocolate, salespeople, shoes and bathing suits. She doesn’t have a complicated relationship with her dad. They love each other unconditionally. When he says she’s beautiful, she believes him.

My husband is the best dad in the world. He has devoted himself to being a daddy and a step daddy. While I’ve got the day job, our daughters are his day job, and his night job too. When the kids get sick in the night, they come find him. When the neighborhood kids tease my kids, they come find him. When they want five bucks, they come find me.

I wish I’d had a dad like Cathy and my girls.

We are a non traditional family. And we’ve faced our fair share of persecution for that in our very traditional little town. It’s hell getting an apartment when the land lord doesn’t think a woman can make enough money to afford it. It’s humiliating when someone assumes that there has to be some good reason why your husband ‘doesn’t work’. I spent longer than I’m happy about making up explanations about why my husband didn’t have a job. I wouldn’t have expected to explain if I was the stay at home parent.

We do it because it works for us, but it doesn’t work for the people who see us and can’t understand what we’re doing. In our society, men are the providers, and women are the nurturers. That’s the sort of society that makes it okay for a woman to not tell the father of her child that he’s going to be a daddy.

So, I told you all of that to tell you this. You never appreciate something unless you don’t have it. Fathers are unappreciated. We hear a lot about the deadbeat dads, the abusive dads, the critical, domineering dads.

I mean, let’s just take a look at how we celebrate Mothers Day and Fathers Day. Mothers Day we moms are showered with love, as we should be. Being a mom is a hard job. Step moms get the love too, which I appreciate the hell out of. Being a step parent is a whole different kind of hard, let me tell you. If you went on tv on Mothers Day and talked about dead beat moms, or moms who drink, they would roast you alive on the evening news.  But we say those sorts of things about dads every Fathers Day.

There used to be a whole advertising campaign encouraging fathers to be there for their kids. Do you remember those? “Anyone can be a father, but it takes a man to be a dad.” What do you think would happen if there was and ad campaign like that for women? “Women, let’s stand up and take responsibility for the children we created.” Yeah, I don’t think that would fly. Yes, some men walk out on their kids, but some women do to.

It’s just sexist. And, as a handy tip, here’s how you know if something is sexist, because there is some confusion about this. If you can take any sentence, and switch the gender pronouns and have it be something you wouldn’t want to say in public, it wasn’t okay to begin with.

I couldn’t do what I do, be what I am, without my husband. He keeps the home in check while I write my stories and do my day job. I want to use this very public forum to thank him for that. There’s a couple other people I want to thank, too.
* To every gay couple fighting to be allowed to adopt, thank you.
* To every dad fighting for custody, fighting just to be part of their child’s life, thank you.
* To every dad suffering from Parental Alienation Syndrome, thank you. I know it’s hard.
* To every step dad stepping up and looking after a child by choice, thank you.
* To every coach and teacher who was ever a father figure to kids like me without one at home, let me give you a sincere and heartfelt thank you. It helps more than you know.

So today, thank your dad, your step dad, your uncle, your teacher. Thank anyone and everyone who’s been like a father to you. And if you really want to thank a dad, give them the same freedom we women have. Give them the freedom to be the nurturer.

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Writing Prompt Saturday, Write a Sestina

We do love our poetry here at Paper Beats World, even if I can’t write it very well.

This week’s new form I bet you’ve never heard of is the sestina.  A sestina poem is a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The words that end each line of the first stanza are used as line endings in each of the following stanzas, rotated in a set pattern. (Curtsey of Wikipedia.)  Since that didn’t mean a lot to me when I read it, here’s an example of what I mean.

This is by Elizabeth Bishop, and try as I might, I couldn’t find a title.

September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It’s time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle’s small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
I know what I know, says the almanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother
busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.

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Market, Creepy Campfire Stories for Grownups

I know, I know, I promised I was going to give the horror sites a rest, but it’s really hard when I keep finding such awesome ones!  And I mean, really, what says summer more than a good campfire story?

Creepy Campfire stories for grownups is all about a good story.  Gore is fine, so long as it’s not gratuitous.

I also have to add, that I heard about this awhile ago, and wrote it off because it had a reading fee.  They took that away, so that’s a big plus.  Remember, I never post markets that are pay to play.

Genre- Horror

Word Count- 1,500 to 6,000

Sub Date- August 1

Wait time- September 20.

Payout- 4 cents a word.

Rights-Exclusive print and epublishing rights of selected work for six months from publication date.

Don’t forget to check out the full submission guidelines, which can be found here. Good luck.

Did you have luck with this, or any other market?  Let us know, and you’ll be listed on the Monthly Brag Board, published on the last day of each month!

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Check This Out, the IC Blog Tour Questionair!

Hello, hello.  I am so thrilled to be involved in the IC Blog tour this summer!  I’d first like to give a huge thanks to Meghan Bliss, from The Blissful Poet, who invited me to the tour.  If you’re interested, check out her blog here.  It’s pretty sweet.

For my regular readers, if you’re interested in more information about the IC Blog tour, here’s a link to their site.  If you’re a blogger, you should definitely get involved if you can.

So, now on to the blog questions.

1. What are your tips for creating meaningful content?

I write blog posts the same way I write everything else.  I outline.  I start out with a theme for the month, like writing for parents this month.  Then, I think about my weekly columns, and what I can say that pertains to the months theme.  So, for Check This Out, that is posted on Wednesday, I thought about what sort of blogs and apps I could suggest for other writing parents.  I thought about what I could say or suggest concerning the topic, and I make a list.  If I come up with more ideas than I’ve got days I want to post, I decide which one I like least, and cross it off the list.  Then I sit down once a week, and write all the posts I intend to publish this week.

2. What steps have you taken to writing a book?

Oh, goodness, like I haven’t bored everyone with this already.  Alright, here’s the thing.  I’ve written five books.  Two have gotten through multiple drafts.  Two are from my fantasy series, Woven.  The other three I’ve put on a high shelf because I’ve realized for one reason or another that I’m not ready to write them yet.  Not that the stories are bad, just that I’m not ready to write them.  This is the method I’ve used to write all of my books so far.

  • I start by brainstorming for a few days.  Now that I’m working on a series, I’ve got notes all over the place before I even start this, so step one’s got to be collecting all that mess.  Then, I break out my three favorite brainstorming tools; lists, mind maps and free writing.
  • Once I’ve got some idea of what I want to do with this book, I start on my outline.  I flesh this out first on index cards, so I can move around my ideas visually.  I’ll transition this onto Evernote later, so I can color code it and still have plenty of mobility.  But for some reason, my brain works best on index cards.  This process can take up to a week.
  • Then I start with the rough draft.  I’ll probably throw out my outline at least twice, but that’s okay.  Nothing’s set in stone until it’s published.  Generally I have to write my first draft on paper, in college ruled composition notebooks, with Le Pens.  I find recently that I’ve been writing books from two characters points of view, so I stick to two ink colors, and change color with voice.  All of my notes are also written with these colors, so I can keep better track.  It also works as sort of a mental trick for me.  I know that with this color, I’m talking in this voice.  I’ve written first drafts in as little as six weeks, but my last one took me six months!  However long it takes, I like to let the book sit for six weeks after that.  If you’re playing along at home, this first draft has already taken seven months.  Writing a book takes time, dammit!
  • Now, the time has come for the red pen.  I’ll go through the whole thing with my red pen and a legal pad, and just toss down first impressions.  What worked, what didn’t.  What character do I need to hear more from, and who’s not making it to draft two.  Then I rewrite by chapter.  This generally takes six months, and is the longest part of the process for me.  Now we’re up to a year and a month.
  • Draft three comes next.  Hopefully by this time I’m tidying up.  Working on the language, character development, that sort of thing.  This takes about three months, and it’s the draft I’ll show to my beta readers.  My beta readers take at least two to read it.  So now we’re up to a year and a half.

Since we’re on the subject, I like to stagger my books.  While I let Broken Patterns sit for six weeks, I finished the final draft of my thriller novel.  While I gave Broken Patterns to my beta readers, I wrote the rough draft of Starting Chains, it’s sequel.  Now that it’s in it’s cool down phase, I’m working on draft four of Broken Patterns.  And speaking of Draft four.

  • Draft four is the first one that has any outside input.  For me, a lot of that input comes from my husband, who is a long time fantasy reader and not at all shy about telling me if the book sucks.  This takes about four months, and so now we’re at a year and ten months.
  • Finally, draft five, the final polish draft.  I print draft four out, and red pen it again.  This will be the draft that an agent sees, so it’s got to be as close to perfect as I can make it.  This takes about three months.  So, all together, a whole book from conception to finish takes me two years and one month.

3. What advice would you give your younger self?

Don’t be afraid to let go of something that isn’t working, in life or in writing.  Don’t throw good time or money after bad.

4. What are you working on now, and how can we, as a community, help?

I’m going to be putting out my very first self published collection of short fiction later this year.  I’d love some feedback when I do so.  More than that, I want to help you.  I blog about writing here almost every day, and the best part of my day is when I see someone’s read one of my blogs.  To paraphrase the most quoted movie of all time, help me help you by checking us out.

That’s all for me!  My friend over at Deliawrites is up next week! Here’s a bio, and a link to her site. Don’t forget to check her out next week!

I’m a Writer. In my head, I live in a log cabin, lined with beautifully bound books and tiny fairies pour tea, while I write. I’ve recently self-published a picture book, and want to share the journey with everyone. I am desperately seeking more time to write and be a better blogger.
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The Writing Life, June 16

I am not going to lie to you guys, this has been a really, really tough week.  I am very used to working 29 hours a week, and having time while I’m at work to write.  I’m also used to being home two days during the week, when the monsters are at school.

Well, my whole life went upside down this week.  I started my full time hours, and I’m doing a lot of training this week, which means I haven’t had the time at work I’m used to.  The monsters are done with school until August, which means they’ve got more free time than I’d like.

All of this is meaning two big things that are super bad for me.  One, I have little to no energy, even with coffee, Coke and a B complex.  And two, I’ve gone from having an average of thirteen hours a week to devote to my writing to about nine.

I intended to get up before work and write, since I’ve got to be there an hour later than I used to.  That didn’t happen.  I intended to write for an hour in the evening, but I’ve been too tired to manage more than one twenty five minute session.  I’m hoping to get more done this weekend, but the state of the house is getting a little mad.

Not writing isn’t healthy for me, mentally.  I have found that there are two things that will toss me into a depressive phase faster than a vegetarian will tell you all about her ‘alternate lifestyle’; being in the house alone and not writing.

Have you been here before?  I have.  Here’s what I’m doing to get out of this very bad hole.

  • I am being very kind to myself.  I am remembering that this is just one week, a week where I added eleven work hours to my week, and that is going to take some getting used to.
  • I’m also remembering, though, that I used to work 46 hours, and that was when I wrote the rough draft of Broken Patterns.  I know that I can do this, because I have before.
  • I am working hard to figure out what my new writing schedule is going to be like.  A lot of my writing’s going to fall on the days off, now.  For instance, I’ll be writing all of my posts on the same day.
  • I am prioritizing my projects, just as I was telling you last week.  Woven is the most important, so if I’ve got time, it will go there.
  • I’m also remembering that if something doesn’t work, I can try something else.  Hear me when I say that I will try at least a hundred things that will not work.  But if I keep trying, I’ll find two or three things that will work.

I don’t want you to think this week was all bad.  I love my new position at the day job, and I am learning so much.  I’m sure that this week is going to go better, writing wise.

Things that rocked this week-

  • I’m going to be linking to some of my very favorite blogs this week during the IC Blog tour, which is tomorrow, by the way.
  • I finally like the direction part one of Broken Patterns is taking.  I’m excited about the project, and when I get the time to work on it, I’m loving every minute of it.
  • I got a chance, finally, to sit down for Tipsy Writer Twitter chat last week, and had a blast.  Hoping to do it again tonight.  As always, if you want to join us, just hop on twitter and follow the Tipsy Writer.  Chat starts at 8:30.

Things that I’m looking forward to this week.

  • I’m ready to devote some real time to writing this week, wherever I can find it.
  • Hopefully I’m more used to the extra hours at the day job, so I’m hoping to have more energy for my little Monsters, and my short stories.
  • Getting all ready to contact some bloggers I love about participating in a new little project.  I’ll keep you posted, as always.

So, how do you handle periods of transition?  Do you freak out like me, or do you have some tips for a tired writer this week?

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Keeping Your Children Out of the Spotlight

I’ve been doing Paper Beats World for about ten months now.  I’ve learned so much, and met so many awesome people.  You’ve probably learned a lot about me, too, because I am really fast to share my business.  It makes sense for me to talk about my life, since I’m writing a blog about being a writer with a day job and a family.  So you hear about my day job, and about fitting twenty five minutes into my day at random intervals.  You hear about the struggle to finish my fantasy series while raising two little girls.  You hear about all my little tips and tricks to cheat the clock and all the blogs I’m obsessed over.

What you don’t hear is a lot about what my kids themselves are up to.  I’m not the only one, either.  Bloggers that write about parenting and family life don’t do it either, even though you’d think that it would come up more.  There are a lot of reasons why.

  • My daughters will have their own lives one day.  I don’t want my life to overshadow theirs.  If they end up being famous scientists or singers, I don’t want people to meet them and say, “Hey, you’re that writer’s kid.”
  • I’m a loudmouth.  I’m pro gay rights, pro choice, an equal rights activist, Unitarian, Democrat.  I am going to have people disagree with me.  Some of them will decide to tell me of their disagreements, using four letter words.  I don’t want my kids to attract bad attention from my mouth.  They’ll get their own, I’m sure.
  • The internet is forever.  If I were to write about something embarrassing my daughters did now, it would still be on the internet when they got older.
  • Look, I don’t want to get creepy on you, but there are some sick people online.  I don’t want anyone seeing a picture of my little girls online, and grab them while they’re playing outside.  Maybe that’s a little paranoid, but maybe I’m okay with that.  Pedophiles are something I’m allowed to be paranoid about.

Especially if you intend to make a name for yourself, you’ve got to do your best to protect your kids privacy.  Here are some things to avoid.

  • Don’t ever give your kids real names.  Obviously, not even their first ones, since your last name’s already out there.
  • I’ve seen other bloggers show pictures of their kids, but I avoid it.  I do show pictures of my cat, though.
  • My daughters show all sorts of talents and interests.  You will never see them on this site, though.  As much as I encourage my kids to get out there themselves, I and show off all their talents, and I love to brag on them, I want them to do that on their own.

So no matter how much you’re chasing the spotlight, keep your kids out of it.

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Writing Prompt Saturday, When My Children are Older

I think we all spend more time then we should, dreaming of what our children will be when they grow up. Honestly, the only thing on that list should be ‘happy’. But we all dream.

Today, write a list of all the things you want for your kids when they are grown. Not what you want them to be, what you want for them. Here’s mine.

* I want my girls to have a lover who makes them see the best in themselves.
* I want them to have a passion in life that they can use.
* I want them to be healthy.
* I want them to have great friends who support them, and compete with them just enough to keep them both sharp.
* I want them to be able to enjoy a beer, or a hand of cards or a saucy book without losing themselves to those things.
* I want them to grow up, but not lose childhood joys. Never should they think themselves too old for an ice cream.
* I want them to mind their health, but never their pant size.
* I want them to always be happy on their birthdays.
* I want them to vote every single year. I want them to be with people who vote.
* I want them to stand up for others, but also stand up for themselves. Too often we see one but not the other.
* And finally, I never want there to be a day where they don’t laugh.

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Market, Monster Waiting in the Woods

Okay, one more horror anthology, then I’ll give it a rest, I swear.
This one is called Monster Waiting in the Woods. This, boys and girls, is for grownups only. They want dark, atmospheric stories for adults. No happy endings required.

Genre- Horror
Due date- September 1
Payout- $25.00
Wait Time- A decision will be announced November 2.
Word Count- 2,000 to 8,000
Rights-1 year exclusive rights, but if you contact them, they will consider letting you reprint it elsewhere.

Full submission guidelines can be found here.

Any luck with this or any other markets? Let me know, and I’ll post it on the monthly brag board, on the last day of the month.

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Check This Out, Evernote

Well, I am writing on it right now, so that should give you some idea of how very much I do love Evernote.

I feel like it would be silly to tell you what Evernote is, because it is all over the internet. But, not everyone is a crazy internet junkie like me, and maybe you don’t subscribe to quite as many orginization blogs as I do. So, Evernote is basically a writing program, like Open Office or Word. But it does so much more than just that.

Reasons to love Evernote

* I have it linked between my home computer and my tablet. Let me explain to you how cool this is. I can write anywhere. I can, for instance, start writing my blog post while I’m at my day job, and finish it when I get home on my pc.
* This also means that if one of my devices has a fatal error, I have my ass covered. Yes, I use other things as backups including Drop Box and a zip drive, but Evernote is my first line of defense.
* I use it to write shopping lists, too. I can write it on my pc, and then check stuff off on my tablet while I’m out shopping.
* I wrote my outline on it. I was able to color code it, and as I wrote, I could add things to my outline as the plan changed. And, I could cross things out as I went to keep my place.
* I have different notebooks on my account, so I have one for Woven stuff, one for Paper Beats World, and one for each of my e-books. So I’m not shuffling through all my notes to find the one I need.
* There is a voice to text recording option. I have totally used that to ‘write’ blog posts while doing dishes.
* There’s a sketch option that have, on occasion, used to brainstorm. But I have far more often used it to distract my little monsters in stores and waiting rooms.
So, for your sanity as a writer and a parent, check out Evernote.

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