I’ve been mourning the Evanescence breakup. I know, old, old news, move on. It’s just I’ve got the new stuff in my car right now and I keep trying to like it. Because, let’s face it, Amy Lee is a goddess. And sometimes, she’s enough. (Heard Sally’s Song?) But sometimes there’s something missing.

Every once in a while, I’m listening to Pandora and I hear something that catches my attention. Oh, hey, what is that? It’s We Are The Fallen. It’s what’s missing. Only it’s overlaid with a vocal that, while talented, isn’t her. Isn’t it.

It occurs to me that what I miss and what I want isn’t a singer or a name. It’s a sound.

The bands we love have distinctive sounds. You know them when you hear them. Metallica, Linkin Park, Led Zepplin, Queen, System of a Down, Rush…

In writing terms, we’d call that “voice,” right?

Garage Days, Revisited

When I hear Disturbed, I imagine them playing Metallica in a garage somewhere, a long time ago. Not being a musician myself, I’m just assuming that’s part of growing into the musician you’re going to be, that early process of trying to emulate those sounds that you love, letting them become a part of you, mix up in that unique way that eventually comes out as something different. Related, maybe, reminiscent, but a different sound.

The same way reading is part of writing. The same way maybe snippets of your early writing sound suspiciously like Jane Austen. We assimilate, not only style of prose, but we find themes and ideas we love that become part of what we do. Related, reminiscent, but different.

Fan fiction works in at this point. Whether the fiction is based on literature, film, or television, the writers make me think of those kids in the garage, exploring the work of artists they admire, letting it become part of them, taking their first steps toward finding the writers they’re going to be.

And sometimes it makes me think of the professional musician, master of his own sound, who plays a cover simply for the joy of taking something established, something that everyone knows and recognizes, and turning it on its head by applying that unique sound he owns.

Kind of makes you think of that sense of delight you get when an author or screenwriter takes a familiar story and turns it into something awesome though only mostly new.

It’s a Kind of Magic

For many authors who stand out for me, there’s something in their work that makes it stand apart from the rest as something unique and special, whether it’s voice, something in their style of characterization, a world created, a recurring theme that they somehow manage to play out again and again with a grace that never fails to touch you.

I don’t know how you go about finding that on purpose. Is there a method, a shortcut, or is it just a magic that emerges after 10,000 hours input, mimicry, and practice? Sometimes, when I’m enjoying someone’s fiction, I like to think about influences, about their garage days and wonder what went into the making of them.

Want to talk about garage days? What’s gone into the making of you? Have you found your voice or style yet?

"You there! Go and tell Kait Nolan that I wish her a Happy Birthday! Go now!"

Well, anyway, I was just listening and I happened to click to read Staind’s bio. (Staind plays a lot on my station.) A lot of the story centers around a bad first meeting between the band and Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, a bad first impression that he quickly got over when he heard Staind play.

Blown away by their live show, Durst exchanged phone numbers, and loved their demo tape when they gave it to him. He convinced them to travel to Jacksonville, Florida, to work on the new songs.

After reworking the new material and a successful live show, Durst contacted the head of Flip Records and arranged a meeting for Staind with the label. While in Los Angeles, a three-song sampler was recorded, and by the time February rolled around in 1998, the band had a record deal.

Nice story, huh? Yeah, it made me happy.

So I was just thinking that stories like that must exist in publishing. Know any?

Now, I’m just hoping I get this right because these things are confusing to me, so be nice. But what I gather is that Holly’s pissed because the iBooks user agreement says that if you use iBooks to create an ebook (and I believe you must use it to get into the iBookstore without a third party like Smashwords), and that book is rejected by the iBookstore, you can’t take that copy of your work and sell it elsewhere.

To be clear, Apple’s not saying it owns the intellectual content of the book, but it owns the format produced by its software enough to have a say in what you can do it with it.

And that’s shitty and wrong for all the reasons mentioned in the two articles mentioned above, and if adopted by others spells out DOOM and virtual apocalypse and the end of the Life As We Know It, etc.

But it is a shock?

No. This is Apple! Have I created ebooks using iBooks Author? No. Because it’s Mac-only software. As far as I know, I cannot put books directly into the iBookstore as I can the Kindle, NOOK, or Smashwords stores because I don’t own a Mac, so I can’t run the software which is the exclusive way to get in there. If I want to put my book there myself, I’m expected to buy (and learn!) a whole new computer system.

I don’t like Apple’s exclusivity. I don’t deny that they have a right to be as exclusive as they wanna be (and that other companies have the right to to do things like make mobile versions of digital comics only available to Apple devices). I don’t have to like it. And I don’t have to give in, get an Apple device and set myself up to do more business with Apple (or the few cell phone providers who can support the device) for the life of the device. And I don’t have to buy the products of companies which can’t get a move on and release their products for the devices I will buy.

That’s my protest. That’s between me and Apple. In the last few years at my house that’s included a couple laptops, a couple MP3 players, an ereader, a tablet, and a smartphone. I like to adopt early. It’s hard to keep up and it seems to make things easier. But I’ll get behind on some tech rather than bind myself up in exclusivity battles. (Did I buy a Kindle? No. I waited until my Sony Reader was wretchedly behind the times and then I bought a NOOK Color and rooted it so it could use the Kindle app so I could shop where I wanna shop.)

I totally admire what Holly says here:

And there is no number of people affected that is insignificant. The smallest minority is the individual, and minority rights protect the rights of the individual because those are the only rights there are.

I would agree with that. Don’t use the software. I hope Holly chooses to find another way into the iBookstore because this is where our opinions diverge.

Apple may lose some revenue from the loss of Holly and perhaps of others who follow her lead. But also at a loss for the content they want are the fans who have already invested in Apple’s devices. Pulling content from the marketplace that serves that segment of her fan base puts those fans in the crossfire of her dispute with Apple. (Just like pulling content from NOOK to make it exclusive to Kindle in KDP Select is a smack to a segment of fans). And I’m not iHater enough to say that’s what they deserve for investing in Apple devices. (Of course you’d think they’d be able to purchase content at other places and sideload it if necessary, but we know that’s beyond the technical capabilities of some, and, at any rate, I feel like my job is to think of the people who actually support my work whenever I can.)

The whole thing to me is like… I don’t know. I guess it feels like you marry a jealous, possessive, controlling man because he drives a stylish automobile, knows the latest hot spots, and comes in fashion colors, and then suddenly you’re surprised when he wants to start telling you what to do? If a guy starts slinging a lot of proprietary formats in your general direction, take the hint about what kind of relationship this is going to be and shop elsewhere.

I’m not trying to rag on those of you who own and love your Apple devices for all the reasons you own and love them. There IS a lot to love. And I AM frequently jealous of you while I’m sitting on the outside looking in at your app store. I’m sure your OS is as elegant as you say it is and whatever else. But that relationship is not for me, and this is the kind of thing that reaffirms my stance on buying Apple goods.

But as much as it does, I don’t think pulling out of that marketplace entirely is right answer to this event. What about you guys? Anyone else inspired to pull out of the iBookstore because of the iBooks Author license agreement? Do you plan to just dump the software and get back in through Smashwords, or boycott the store entirely? For those who shop the iBookstore, will this be a problem for you? Would you shop elsewhere for your favorites?

But I recently had a reader ask me for a Kindlegraph, and frankly it’s enough that my laziness produces a whole year between books, it shouldn’t disappoint readers any more than that. So I took my virtual butt over to Kindlegraph.com.

Quick and Easy

This was not hard. It took less than 5 minutes to watch the video about what Kindlegraphs are. It took less time than that to read through the author FAQs and understand our part. It took no time to sign in with Twitter and maybe two minutes to copy and paste my AISNs into the system.

However, I tell you this because I searched for some of my friends and I don’t seem to be the only one who hasn’t gotten around to this yet.

What you do

After you sign in and enter your AISNs, your devoted fans, or those collecting Kindlegraphs, will be able to find your books on the site and click a button to request a Kindlegraph. Hopefully they’ll add a message to you so you’ve got something to go on to personalize it.

Once you get a request, it’s just a button click to go to the page to fill it. You type in a message and then add your signature. You can either sign your name by mouse (yeah, that’s hard, but once you do it the site site stores it) or type your sig in handwriting font. Another click and your done.

What they get

A PDF of your cover image with your message and signature beneath it is emailed to the person who requested it. This can be emailed directly to their Kindle if they followed those instructions in the setup, or it just be sent to an email address and saved on their computer. Once it’s on the computer, it could be side-loaded to any device that will read PDF, so don’t be put off by the name.

You can find my books on Kindlegraph.com on this page, and any time you want to find that again, the link will be on my Talent Chronicles book page.

Here’s a screenshot of the one I autographed for my dorky self:

in which I thanked me very much

So in case any of your readers think it’s fun to collect these, just go. Doooo eeeeet nowwww.

Well, I’ve been taking a break. It’s been good. I took some time to work on being a better mom, a better housekeeper, even a bit of a writer (!), and just generally hide out and be antisocial since being too social tends to make me stressed out and ranty.

Of course, since the thing that’s on my mind today is still a bit ranty, maybe I’m still not fit for company. But I’m pretty sure this is not just me, so if you feel ranty about it, you can say–yeah, what’s that about? in the comments and we’ll have ourselves a nice little bitch session and get over it.

For those of you who write (or, insert that thing that you do and apply accordingly), do people want you to do something else? There are people my life who are generally supportive, but also ask me questions like:

• Are all books for young people so…dark?
• Do they have to be so violent?
• Why do you make bad things happen?
• Can’t you write another series about happy characters who don’t swear?
• Children’s books! You could write wonderful children’s books!

That may be. But I’ve no desire to write children’s books right now. And I don’t know how to write shining happy people holding hands.

Ugh, and you know the swearing thing is still making me insane with people commenting that I’ve added a lot of unnecessary bad language and that since they’ve never known anyone to swear so much, this culture must not exist.

I’m not a super-talented writer. The bulk of what I have is…I don’t know, like a way of seeing the world and a desire to present that, try to make sense of it, try to show that good things can come out of it, or at least that the bad things that I see can be lived through. To me, what I do is tremendously positive. I don’t understand why people in my life don’t see it that way and ask me for sweetness and light.

I don’t really relate well to sweetness and light. Maybe if I’d grown up in Stars Hollow or Mitford. But I didn’t. The news I got over Christmas? Where I went to school they’ve moved on to the teachers stabbing each other in the hallways now.

(I know that part of the issue people have with my books is that they consider my audience children. I do not. In my mind, being a teen is incredibly complicated, full of scary shit, shifting support systems, and overwhelmed with a desire to be treated more like an adult. Teens are not adults, but they’re not children. And damn me if it makes any sense to shelter them in fiction from the things life’s already throwing at them.)

I sometimes like spending time with the people of Stars Hollow and Mitford, with the March sisters or the cast of Friends. But there are people who are good at creating those worlds. It’s covered. It’s not like, by choosing something else, I am somehow causing a shortage of light romantic comedic fiction.

I don’t know, I guess I take it personally. Because objectively I should be able to understand the desire of those in my real life to be able to be proud of my books as well as of me, to be able to pass them around and show them off without having to warn to the decent folk about the content. Maybe it’s hard to find the balance between being proud of what I’ve accomplished and being kind of embarrassed by my degenerate brain and there’s some concern about people wondering how I got like this. The whole writing thing–it is really personal. There’s an awful lot of me on every page. That degenerate nature is me. Asking me to put something else on those pages is asking me to be someone else. I mean, you get that, right?

I don’t know how you erotica writers do it. More power to ya.

So, seriously, how do you do it? How do you answer the helpful suggestions of family members who want you to clean up your books or change genre? Does it get to you like it gets to me?

Welcome to Bonfire Academy!

Set in the foothills of the alpine mountains in St.Moritz, this exclusive private school caters to a special kind of student. Enter at your own risk… but if you are human, you may not want to enter at all.

WARNING: This YA story is set in a school for paranormals who are very different from normal human teens. Thus, the language and some scenes might not be appropriate for younger YA readers. Recommended for those sixteen and above.

Look for Imogen Rose and her other books, too.

]]> http://susan-bischoff.com/2011/11/27/looking-for-something-to-read/feed/ 2 Susan B. Initiation Cover http://susan-bischoff.com/2011/11/25/movies-timer/ http://susan-bischoff.com/2011/11/25/movies-timer/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:23:56 +0000 Susan Bischoff http://susan-bischoff.com/?p=1620 Continue reading →]]> When I recently posted about the movie IN TIME, a good friend tweeted me a recommendation for another movie, TiMER, in which a biotech implant counts down the time until you meet your soulmate.

This romantic comedy was pretty freakin’ adorable–an excellent date type movie. Emma Caulfield–Anya of Buffy fame–stars as Oona, a woman with a timer that just won’t kick in, as though maybe there’s just no one out there for her.

The tech requires a little explanation. I have to say I was a little lost for the first scene of the movie, after which they really get in and explain it. Basically people can choose to get these implants (you have to be at least 14), and if your soulmate also has an implant, as soon as yours is activated they sync up and start a countdown to night before you’ll meet. When the clock hits zero, you wake up the next day and, at some point, meet your true love, and both your timers start chiming to let you both know you’ve found the right person.

So while Oona’s out there trying to get more guys to get the TiMER, in hopes she’ll find one that makes her implant chime, her sister, Steph, has already got her answer. Her TiMER’s ticking and she’s not scheduled to meet her true love until she’s in her forties. So Steph’s living it up, helping guys with ticking implants sow their wild oats while Oona’s not interested in getting involved with anyone who’s not the right one.

On the surface, it’s just a cute movie. But the script does a really good job exploring the what-ifs of a world where true love is virtually guaranteed and divorce is becoming non-existent, but so is risk-taking and, to some extent, just falling in love.

This one’s available on Netflix instant play, so check it out when you get a chance.

Amazon’s got a lot of video games on sale this week. Like Mass Effect 2 (from Bioware, makers of Dragon Age) for $4.99 and BUNCH of casual games for $1.99 each (click link, scroll down). That’s how I found the Jane Austen based Matches and Matrimony.

A while back, I posted about what games I was playing and how I had really enjoyed the text adventure, Surviving High School that I had found in the DSi Shop. It was in that post that commenter, Lisey, recommended Bioware games to me and got me started down that path, but still I really like the simplicity and choose your own adventure/romance of a game like Surviving High School.

Matches and Matrimony was fun. It’s not very complicated or active and if that’s what you need, look elsewhere. It’s mainly a fan game with a lot of reading. While it starts out very much in Pride and Prejudice, the story–at least the one I played through, was a combination of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. There are three Bennet sisters, Jane, Lydianne–a combination of P&P’s Lydia, S&S’s Marianne, and Persuasion’s Louisa, and your character, whom you may name yourself or will be named Lizzy by default.

Game play consists partly of choosing skill-building activities for your character each week, Regency appropriate activities that build the Recency period desired characteristics of Wit, Willpower, Talent, Sensibility, Kindness, and Propriety. These, and your character’s energy level, affect what actions will be available during gameplay. The other part of the gameplay is the choices your character makes about actions to take and responses to other characters.

There are 8 suitors, one named Wickeby, who seems to be a combination of Wickham and Willoughby, as well as Bingley, Darcy and others you meet along the way in the game. There are 9 possible endings. In a feat of spectacular matriomonial fail, I managed to unlock the “Miss Bennet” ending when I played and married no one.

I totally felt like this was worth $2, and maybe even the regular price of $7 if you’re a big Jane Austen fan and know all the books/movies practically by heart. It’s fun to see how the game marries the various storylines. Good luck dissuading Mr. Collins, though.

I would totally support a Buffy game of this nature, just sayin’.

I’m really big on song lyrics as inspiration. I don’t usually listen to music while I write because I find it distracting, but I do a lot of plotting to music. I love songs that seems to tell a story. A lot of my stories, characters, and scenes are pulled directly out of songs I’ve heard. I even named my blog “Hunting High and Low” after a-ha’s first album, because the story I was working on at the time, working title WEST OF THE MOON, was very much inspired by their “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” album.

So I thought it might be fun to occasionally post some of the songs that have inspired things I’ve written or songs that speak to me but I’m not sure what they’re saying yet.

Today I’m going to give you a pretty obvious choice: Linkin Park’s “Numb,” which basically inspired all of Joss’s and Gene’s interactions in HEROES ‘TIL CURFEW.

I didn’t set out to purposely make Gene what he is. When I sat down to write HUSH MONEY, in my head he was still just a dad with a military background who was a bit overprotective when it came to his daughter. But the first time he came onto the page, something happened–one of those amazing, unexpected things that make writing so addictive. Gene pulled all kinds of crap out of my life and became more than I had intended. And what he made of himself had a big impact on Joss’s character and the story.

But since Gene’s mental illness was something I didn’t plan, I didn’t know where I was going with it. Then one day, as I was washing dishes and listening to my A Walk In The Dark station on Pandora, this song came on. Not like I hadn’t heard it before, but that was the day that it snagged me and said, “this is what their relationship is.”

And I was like, “Whoa. Joss is a lot more angry about this than I realized.”

Because, you know, why shouldn’t she be? It’s not fair. In HUSH MONEY, with regard to how she deals with her dad, I wrote her as someone I could admire. I made her loyal. I made her protective when she could easily have been something else. I made her willing to make sacrifices in order to support someone who needed her. I wrote her as kind of person I want to be.

I think this song helped me understand that she couldn’t continue to be that without some internal cost. It helped me feel the frustration that must be welling up inside her. That day I really listened I knew they’d have a confrontation in the next book. I knew that Joss would be pursing a course to become something that wasn’t going to fit within the safe confines of what her father wanted for her and what he needed for own sanity, and that, at some point, this was all going to come to a head.

And I knew there would be consequences to that. Any time you set up rules which a character knowingly breaks, there have to be consequences. Joss knew that her father was unstable. She chose to tell herself that it would be okay to continue on her path of defiance. She thought he was getting better. She saw what she wanted to see, the way people do. Giving her consequences for her choices gave me another big chunk of plot.

I listened to this song a LOT as I planned out the Joss/Gene scenes in book 2. And then one day another line in it, the significance of which I hadn’t thought about it before, spontaneously sparked for me and set off something completely new. Something that’s filling in some backstory and giving me a big chunk of HEROES UNDER SEIGE.

So what should we talk about today? Does music inspire your writing? How? What kind? Any thoughts about Joss’s relationship with her dad that you’d like to share?