Zoe Winters, Paranormal Romance Writer

Cynthia Eden’s book: “Hotter After Midnight” is being released today by Kensington, Brava. It sounds like a fantastic paranormal romance. I really like the concept she’s created of a monster doctor. And if her hero looks anything like the guy on the cover…yum.

I can’t wait to read it. Will try to pick up a copy this weekend if at all possible.

Be sure to pick it up and support Cynthia! And if you can, mention the book on your blog.

Spy sent me a link to Erica’s Loving your Synopsis. This is definitely something I needed to read. I like the attitude about it.

Looking at it as a sales presentation changes it to me from a “Dammit someone is CHEATING and trying to read the spoilers first” to a more fun challenge. This is the kind of attitude shift I have to have in order to write a great synopsis.

Am I an optimist or a pessimist? It depends on who in my life you ask. It depends on if they’re close enough to me to be in my “whiny inner circle.” I’m honestly both, but I would like to learn more optimism. Because frankly pessimism hasn’t done a damn thing for me. Now a healthy skepticism and dose of cynicism has served me well, but just the all out doom and gloom mentality of the pessimist, no.

If occurs to me that worry doesn’t solve any problems. It’s not an active solution. It’s just burning energy. And not in a productive way. So I’m seeking to change my attitude. I don’t want to be the type of person who worries about things, gets frequently depressed, or is angry all the time.

I tend to blow things up bigger than they are. I tend to let stupid things get to me. I’ve been known to stew and obsess for hours, even days over a smartass remark on a message board. (Not writing related things. Places where I can be anonymous.) Why? What’s the point? At the end of the day most people aren’t saints, but most people aren’t devils either.

Most of those nasty people we know are just miserably unhappy. I don’t have to get the last word in. They make their own day bad just by having to exist in the sludge of meanness they’ve built around them. Maybe it’s a protective measure so people won’t hurt them or take advantage. But when does a shield stop being a shield and start being a weapon that you attack both others and yourself with?

I don’t want to be like that. When people think of me I want them to think positive things. Not because I have some need for everybody to like me. Not everybody will. That’s fine. But because I don’t want to be a part of making someone else unhappy. Even indirectly with my pessimism.

There are often times when I feel like I’m “behind.” For 29 I haven’t accomplished a whole lot. And I feel like a big part of that has been a pessimistic attitude.

Two things are clear here:

1. I have to do the synopsis. No matter how much I hate it. Until and unless I get rich and famous and can publish my own stuff and ride on my name, which let’s be honest here, isn’t that likely, I have to do it if I want to be published. It’s just one of those horrible things writers have to do. But at least I’m not sitting in a cubicle somewhere stapling the new cover sheet to the TPS reports.

2. If I don’t get over my synopsis resentment my synopsis will look like A. I can’t write a synopsis to save my life and B. I don’t know my own plot or else don’t have one.

I’m trying to rethink and re-frame how I approach the synopsis. Sure, I want every reader, even the editor or agent to get to experience the book like the reader does. And I strongly feel that if you get spoiled first it changes the experience. And I’m honestly not sure how someone can sell a book to anyone that they were spoiled on first. I just don’t grok it.

However…an editor/agent is like your lawyer. If you have a lawyer, he/she isn’t there to “experience courtroom drama.” He/she is there to help create courtroom drama (well and get you free, but that goes without saying), which the judge, jury, and any people sitting in the “audience” get to experience.

You don’t withhold anything from your lawyer. Or you screw up your case. You can’t hold back an essential clue saying it’s a “surprise” from your lawyer, just because you want your lawyer to experience shock and surprise. I guess a part of being a lawyer is you give up the right to that sort of thing. But maybe there is an equal level of fun in being “in on the secrets.”

I still don’t love this synopsis thing. I’m still only a fraction of an inch away from hate, where I was. But if I don’t change my attitude on it, I may never get published, simply because every synopsis will make me look like such a rank amateur no one will want to work with me.

These are the hoops one has to jump through when they need someone else to finance their project. And that’s basically what the publishing industry is…someone else financing your project. Like an investor.

I don’t dislike it. I don’t find it slightly annoying. I hate it. And it’s not the work. It’s not the fact that I’m having to do extra work that the “end reader” won’t see. If it was the extra work, I’d bitch about the dead words from all those drafts or the maps and character sketches, or research or query letters. But I don’t. I understand the purpose of all those things. But the synopsis feels somehow almost morally wrong.

Yeah, I know I’m cracked, but hear me out. The synopsis is 1 or 2, sometimes 3 pages in a long book, where you basically tell the entire story really really really short. It’s like a giant spoiler. Books are supposed to be experienced in a certain way. The writer goes to all this work and the payoff is the big reveal. The experience the reader has. Which is altered by a spoiler.

This is why readers who read the last page first drive me crazy. It’s not fair. You shouldn’t be allowed to do that. Read it in order. If it ceases being entertaining throw it across the room or burn it, or write the author a nasty letter or email to convey your severe displeasure. But don’t read the last page first. That’s just wrong.

The synopsis is like sex on the first date. I don’t do that. Shake my hand first. Jeez. I’m very grudging about what I want to share in the synopsis because I want some surprises remaining. In fact I have a surprise in one novel which doesn’t affect the flow of the book and I am so dead serious about this I would rather remain forever unpublished than give the surprise away in the synopsis.

Now I do get that often things like the synopsis are used in sales meetings, etc. I get that not every single person involved in the production of my book wants to read it. I’m not that vain. And I guess if I thought of the editor or agent as one of those people it might not be that bad. But somehow it feels like whoring myself out, and if I wanted to do that, there are lots of street corners in the world.

Though, on the flip side maybe there exist editors or agents who start reading a story first before they read the synopsis. (In a perfect world right?) If they don’t read it until after they read the novel, I don’t care. I guess in some ways it’s a matter of faith, like people reading or not reading the last page first.

Once a book is out there, anyone can read that last page first and there’s not a damn thing I can do to stop them unless I want to start some vigilante team that stalks people in libraries and bookstores and boxes their ears for them when they see them reading the last page. Even then I can’t get to people who don’t start reading at all until they get a book home. Unless I had some really bitchin’ surveillance. I jest. Probably.

I guess I’m going to just have to accept, that just like there are people who read the last page first, there are agents and editors that likely read the synopsis first (probably most of them.) If I want my writing to see the light of day, there are going to have to be a few reading casualties.

If I was an agent or editor I’d say: “Give me a blurb but don’t give away the ending. I want to be surprised. There will be time for a synopsis when I decide I like it.” I just wish it was a more prevalent attitude instead of trying to sell something before you’ve had a chance to enjoy it. Slow down. Drink some wine. It’ll be there tomorrow. There’s no need to be this frantic. Really. The entire rest of the book publishing industry is so freaking slow, that I don’t understand why they have to have the entire thing encapsulated in two pages, right now.

For my next book I read MaryJanice Davidson’s “Hello Gorgeous.” It’s the first book of the “Gorgeous” series, which is a series of stories about cybernetically enhanced humans. Think vampires minus blood, plus nanobytes.

One minute Caitlyn is out partying with her sorority sisters, the next she’s dead. Only not really. Because a super secret government agency injected her with nanobytes. So now she’s like Buffy on Steroids. The government insists she works for them. But she doesn’t recall filling out a W-4 form, so she’s thinking probably not.

She steadfastly refuses to work for them until dead bodies start cropping up and the primary suspect is the only other cybernetically enhanced human being. And he’s a hottie. But…she thought she was the only one. They TOLD her she was the only one.

Those government bitches. (And no, I didn’t copy that from the back cover. That was my take on the book.)

I FINALLY have KEPT finished. Done, finito. And the polish edit really WAS just a polish. I found as I went along that I’d gotten pretty much everything fixed, expanded upon, or cut out in earlier drafts. It’s pretty much as good as it’s going to get at this point in time and further edits wouldn’t change much of anything. I also wrote my cover letter and the rough draft of my synopsis tonight. I’ll edit that over the weekend and mail it out on Sunday.

If anyone wants to take a look at my synopsis, let me know. I HATE the synopsis. I’m not sure if it’s “annoying” or not. My email is: zoegrace25@gmail.com if anyone would like to take a look at the synopsis and offer some pointers.

My original self imposed deadline for KEPT was the end of March so I could enter a contest with it. But I didn’t feel it was ready at the time and I wasn’t willing to send in something half-assed. I could have finished this a week or two ago but I was dragging my feet because I was scared. But now I’m just hoping to find a home for it. I think it’s good, much better than it was. At this point I think it’s a matter of taste, and finding the right person whose taste will mesh with this to support the project. Because I really believe it’s good enough to be on a shelf.

Next week it’s back to SMS edits. I should be ready to send that one out the door within a month. I should start thinking about what I want to write next and start collecting research and organizing some kind of outline.

I’m halfway through the challenge for the year about 2 months ahead of schedule. For book 25 I read “Four to Score” by Janet Evanovich. This is the fourth book in the Stephanie Plum series. I really like Morelli, but I know either he’s about to do something stupid in the next book or two, or Ranger is about to do something droolworthy, because aliances are about to shift. (Hey, I was spoiled, you get spoiled too. Though I don’t really know enough to spoil anyone.)

The only thing I don’t like about the Stephanie Plum series is all the running around looking for people. I get that’s what bounty hunters do, but there’s something about writing it all out instead of showing it on a big screen or something that makes it feel less exciting and less glamorous. I would make a horrible bounty hunter. I’m way too impatient to sit around and do surveillance crap. And run all over Hell’s half acre asking people questions like a census taker.

Plus there’s that whole getting shot at thing. I don’t think I would care for that at all. See, this is why I write. This stuff looks really good on paper but in reality it’s either horribly boring, or really dangerous. Sometimes both. Which can you imagine a job that is alternately boring AND dangerous? Yeah, sign me up for that one. Plus no regular payday. Pfffft whatever.

So when I was a kid I wanted to be a spy or in the FBI or if I had known about bounty hunting I can guarantee I’d have wanted to do that. But then I realized the boring plus getting shot at part and I was like “Um…no.” So then I thought I could be in movies or tv shows. Then you get to act out the fun and quirky parts without any real danger. But then I found out these people work 18 hour days. And I need 8 hours of sleep a night. Also it’s significantly less fun after the 12th take. And the way movies are shot there is no story continuity for the actor. It’s not remotely like virtual reality. (Yeah, I’m a real trooper.)

Very early on, this left writing. If it’s boring, it’s really a reflection on me, and not writing itself. Since plenty of people entertain themselves just fine through writing. There’s no danger of getting shot. Theoretically. And there are no 18 hour days. I can play with vampires without getting drained, werewolves without being turned, and bad ass bounty hunters without getting shot at.

You get this experience with reading to. Trouble with just reading is, you don’t get to direct any of the action.

ETA: I thought I would take this moment to point out and reassure you guys that I don’t believe in vampires or werewolves. That next to the last paragraph might have left that point a little fuzzy.

I gotta say, most of the people who are supposed to “inspire us” end up making us feel inadequate. And like… “Well yeah, they started on their mission to conquer the world when they were five. Of course we know they succeeded. But it’s too late for me to do anything worthwhile.”

I look at that kid who wrote Eragon. He was 17 when it was published. 17 with a published novel. At 17 I was making out with my boyfriend and rolling my eyes at my mother, and making C’s in school in everything but English, not because I was a moron but because I was bored and just plain didn’t care. I was not publishing novels.

A few minutes ago I was looking for a market to submit a query for an article and I came across Skirt Magazine. They just accept personal essays but actually that’s right down my alley and probably what I should be writing anyway, so I think I may give it a shot and send in a submission.

I haven’t come across someone who truly inspired me in awhile. But when I read the bio of the publisher for Skirt, I was inspired. Publisher Bio .

What jumps out at me is the following: “I left home at 17 to elope with my high-school boyfriend. Twelve years later, divorced with three children and unskilled at almost everything, I started college at the age of 29.”

Then it goes on to tell her degrees and jobs and basically how she ended up doing something with her life. I identify with that. I’m 29 and unskilled at almost everything. And it’s good to know I’m not alone. I’ve got a bit of college under my belt but have been away from it for awhile.

I love that she started college at 29. It’s not that 29 is old. There are plenty of people who go to college even later. But I guess I just identify, because that’s the bump in the road I’m at right now. And I often hear of people who go back to school later in life but I rarely hear about what they actually did with their lives and degree.

Like we hear a human interest story about a 43 year old single mother who went back to college. And the achievement seems to be in the attendance. There’s no follow up on what she got her degree in, or what she’s doing with the degree. It’s just “She’s 43, she went to college.” Or sometimes it’s an 80 year old grandmother who went to college. And whee, that’s great, but what did she do with the degree? Did she get a degree? Was it just for personal enrichment?

We live in this society that is completely achievement obsessed, until we hear human interest stories on the news or in the paper. Then it’s all about some small endearing, heartwarming thing. I want to know what people did with their lives AFTER they got a late start. I don’t want to know just that they went to college. As if anyone past 22 who decides to go to college, the only achievement we care about is them “going” to college. As if it’s some kind of consolation prize and deep down we know they can’t possibly really be making anything of their lives “past a certain age.”

Thoughts?

I think something else that makes it hard to be a writer is…a short amount of time of concentrated work is sometimes hard. But at the same time it feels so “unproductive.” People go to regular jobs and work 8 hours a day. Writers sometimes work (as in actually write, not just research or something else related to writing) 1 or 2 hours a day. (Some writers work really long hours writing or editing at a time, but this tends to be the exception not the rule.)

So it feels like we don’t do anything. Like we spend all day laying out in the sun. (Okay, that’s totally true for me, but I digress.) But then again… Has anyone seen the movie “Office Space?” Now granted, this might not be everyone’s work experience, but for many people who have a desk job, they spend a lot more time socializing and taking breaks than working.

People check email at work, and surf the web, and talk to their cubicle mates. They take coffee breaks and lunch breaks and bathroom breaks. At the end of an 8 hour day, all but the most conscientious or high-powered people with tons of responsibility may not be putting in much more work than the writer who writes for 1 or 2 hours. I know that sounds incredible but I believe there is a lot of truth to it.

People have a certain amount of work to do, and unless they’re vying for a promotion, since usually they’re getting paid by the hour and can’t go home early, they don’t work too fast. Because if you work too fast, someone else just brings you more work to do. If you work slower (as long as there isn’t a layoff coming up) you usually have less to do. Again, unless you have the type of job where it’s going to just keep coming no matter how fast or slow you work. And then some people like to stay busy because it makes the time go faster.

And writers work all the time on some level. Ideas are percolating. We’re reading. We’re researching. We’re talking with other people. We’re observing the world around us, and our reactions.

This past weekend I had to go to my grandmother’s funeral and I was crying and freaking out and angry because I couldn’t find the shoes I wanted to wear, they’d just disappeared. I’d packed them away but I went through every box and I couldn’t find them. And I was lamenting the fact that I had to wear the uncomfortable shoes.

Obviously I wasn’t REALLY upset about the shoes. I was projecting feelings about my grandmother’s death onto the shoes. And I realized it even while I was doing it. And then I kid you not, in the middle of all this hysteria and sadness and freaking out over shoes and my grandmother, I thought: “This would be great in a scene. I need to file this away in my brain. This is how people deal with grief. This is how I can make what I’m writing better.”

In other news I got three chapters polished. This is an amazing achievement since I fell on my ass rollerblading in the driveway today. And now I’m freaking SORE when I sit for too long. Four more chapters to go and then it’s ready to go out into the world. I fully intend to have this done and out the door by the weekend.