Charlene Teglia

Woke up to thunder this morning and all sorts of weather alerts. On the west coast, the storms happen in the fall. Here, it's spring. It's hard to get too worked up about the flood watch when rainfall measured in inches per hour used to be normal. Still, I am wondering if I made a mistake planting out the potatoes. I hope they don't drown.

Internet may or may not be affected by the weather, so there will be lots of working going on for internet-sensitive things and then offline work for those things not requiring connection.

Things in progress:
Art form for Kiss of the Demon. Since no matter how I fill these out I end up gnashing my teeth, I'm taking a cue from PBW and sending in a dummy cover. I'd like to carry over the look from the first book, same-but-different.

Series cheat sheet for Shadow Guardians. Because I couldn't remember what color Abaran's eyes were when I went to fill out the above-mentioned cover art form. Putting together all those little details in one handy reference saves me so much time on subsequent books. (When will I learn to do that while I'm writing the first book?)

Outlined project mentioned yesterday, which I would ideally like to release in between Red Queen and Kiss of the Demon but we'll see how that goes.

And of course, the actual writing of actual books plus revision of said books. And hoping the basement stays dry and the potatoes (or, if you are a fan of How to Train Your Dragon, The-Vegetables-That-Must-Not-be-Named) don't drown.

1.
PBW is back!

2.The Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance was officially "out" in stores yesterday. I know it's been for sale online for a while, but now it's official. You can find this real world object in brick and mortar stores.

3. I have a cool idea I would really like to implement but it will involve time and talent, half of which (or more) will not be mine, so it remains to be seen if this cool thing will become a reality. Watch this space for news.

4. If it ever stops raining I can plant the garden. It's ready to go and the Almanac says there won't be another frost. I believe the Almanac. It describes how to suck the madness out of your blood with the right kind of rock, how could it be wrong on frost?

5. The school year is nearly over. Must write faster. Or stop sleeping.

I've been reading Fan to Pro, and I'm going to post my thoughts even though I'm not finished. This isn't a book you just read through, it's a book you work through. The book offers a series of exercises designed to give you new insights into your abilities, experience and values, and many ways to brainstorm potential careers. I really think it's worth the cover price just for the exercise on page 53. If that doesn't give you a whole new set of options and opportunities, you didn't do the exercise.

This is important stuff for anybody to think through, because confidence comes from having options and just seeing how many exist calms the fearful lizard brain and puts you in the right mindset, literally, to try new things.

And let's face it, all of us are going to have to reinvent and recombine and recreate ourselves and our professional lives as we go forward, because we live in such an age of change. The jobs we're all doing ten years from now might not exist today. Look back on where your career started; chances are, your industry has changed drastically since then. It's good to have tools like this book to help us find the opportunities change brings and figure out how and why we're uniquely qualified to succeed in new directions.

Fan to Pro is a great guide to mining your overlooked or undervalued past to revitalize your present and future. You can get it in print or ebook, but either way don't forget to keep your own paper and pen handy so you can get the most out of it.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention this, but this is terrific stuff for the writer who isn't sure where their material is or who needs to take a new publishing tack. Bob Mayer blogged recently about how he used similar methods to figure out what he should be writing about. Makes me realize how much of my own material I've been ignoring.

First, raise a stein with me to celebrate werewolves in Berlin! Esteemed German publisher Rowohlt has acquired rights to Animal Attraction. Since they also publish luminaries like Henry Miller and John Updike, this news was received with hurrahs followed by breathing into a paper bag. Because, you know, no pressure there.

And in one of those funny twists life gives us, my upcoming contribution to the Mammoth Book of Hot Romance takes a German werewolf origin tale to America (Wolf at the Door). It's so very full-circle-ish.

But wait, there's more wolfy good news in the air. Kris Reisz' stunning werewolf YA romance/urban fantasy Unleashed has re-released. If you missed it the first time, don't miss it this time. And to celebrate the re-launch, he's having a contest and giving everybody a free ebook of his short fiction with beautiful illustrations. 

And finally, Steven Savage's Fan to Pro is now available as an ebook, because I asked him nicely and he said yes. I will be posting my review of the book later. Go forth and download, learn how to use your personal interests to reinvigorate your career. (Have I told you how posting Tolkien parodies on
The One Ring got me over writer's block and led me to where I am today? Your fandom can take you pro places, believe it.)

I can across an article by the author of "Bursts"and found his research fascinating and useful for me as a writer. Because his findings basically boil down to the fact that all human activity happens in bursts.

I've been fighting against the burst tendency for years, trying to do steady output instead of working in bursts, and it's nice to have scientific validation to show why it doesn't work. This isn't to say you can't work in daily bursts, but you burst and then you have inactivity, so it's not like you can just steadily produce all day long.

This is useful when it comes to planning so you can work around your bursts. Do some writing, then go read, research, etc. If the way we are is inherently geared to work in bursts, freelancers especially are uniquely able to take advantage of it and maximize our time instead of spending more hours staring at a screen berating ourselves for not keeping up continuous output. It's really much more productive to go do something else, and then come back for another burst all recharged.

If you'd like to help in the aftermath of Tennessee's flooding, the Metro Nashville Disaster Response Fund is accepting donations. I'm sure the Red Cross, Salvation Army, local churches and other organizations are accepting funds and mobilizing, as well. And of course the Humane Society will need help to care for pets.

The Romance Writers of America's national conference in Nashville was to be held at the Opryland Hotel, now expected to be closed for several months. RWA will keep members registered for the conference informed.

1. PBW pushed me off the fence I was sitting on, and I've downloaded Marjorie Liu's Tiger Eye game. It's very fun, cool music, great graphics, and fun puzzles. Given that the first computer game I ever bought started with "You are in a dark room" and the second one came with Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, this is right up my alley.

2. Oklahoma has gone insane. Check your news source and be amazed with me; doctors are now exempt from lawsuits for practicing irresponsible medicine on pregnant women not to mention committing fraud. Because it's fraud to have women pay for expensive prenatal testing only to lie to them about the results. Women of OK, this is not OK. You need to be informed, because you need to know if your baby needs an NICU standing by when you give birth, or a specialist lined up for your baby's care (it can take months to get an appointment), or if you will need to plan on not returning to work after the birth to care for a special needs child, or if you will need more help during your postpartum recovery. These are not minor issues. I would love to see every genius who voted for this handed a special needs baby to care for for a day and see how they like having it sprung on them, except that would be a cruel thing to do to a baby, hand it to somebody who had no idea how to meet their special needs and no time to learn before being faced with the job.

3. I did a mountain of laundry today. Probably at least Rushmore sized.

4. There is some amazing dirt that collects in gutters over the winter.

5. I'm still pissed at Oklahoma.

I've been having issues with Gmail lately; I find legit emails in my spam folder. When I try to move them to my inbox, they go away. And if I don't check spam often enough, the system deletes them. So I don't know how many legit emails I may have missed. Since my business is mainly done via email, this isn't good. I've had issues in the past, which led to my switch to gmail. Will try to get this resolved, but if I can't, I'll be looking for another solution. Eeek.

Meanwhile, the 5 messages I just tried to "unspam" from spam have vanished into an electronic void. If you haven't heard back from me, please email again.

Editing to add: if you have Gmail and have had the same issue, here's what the husband told me. When a message is moved out of spam, it loses its label, so it ends up in "all mail". I did go searching through "all mail" and eventually found the messages I'd tried to liberate from Spam yesterday, but you really have to wade.

In order to succeed as a writer (or really, in any area) you have to have a peculiar balance of confidence and humility. You have to know when you don't know it all and be willing to learn from those who know more. But you have to have the confidence to know who you shouldn't listen to, because somebody can be right and at the same time dead wrong for you.

It takes confidence to say that you disagree with input from a critique group, an agent, an editor because you know that it would be wrong for your story, your voice, your career. But this is not to be confused with arrogance, which doesn't know when to listen to anybody.

Arrogance and lack of confidence put you in the same place; that of not knowing who to listen to and when. Arrogance never listens to anybody, lack of confidence listens to everybody. The result in both cases doesn't lead to success.

The best way to avoid falling to either extreme is to know yourself well. Know your work, know why you want to do it, know when even good advice will lead you in a direction you don't want to go. Know what you are trying to do, and you'll recognize those who can help you do it better.

So many movies coming up that look like a lot of fun!

Killers - true love is always more fun with guns!
Prince of Persia - yeah, it's not historical, but it does look entertaining
The Losers - do I even need to comment?
The Last Airbender - I know I keep saying I'm quitting M Night Shyamalan, but I think this one's going to be good no matter what he does to the ending
The Expendables - Jason Statham and Jet Li together? I'm so there.
The Other Guys - I love Will Ferrill
The A Team - Cheese with a side of cheddar
Salt - Ooo. Is she an innocent victim or does she have an evil agenda?

Yes, you can see why I wanted to contribute to an anthology of Special Ops Romance. What movies are you looking forward to?