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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

This one's for Patry Francis

Patry Francis, an excellent writer and a co-member of several of the same forae I belong to, wrote a wonderful novel called The Liar's Diary.

Patry is recovering from major surgery for very aggressive cancer. She's not long out of hospital, and today is the day her book is released in paperback.

A few hundred writers - yes, I said hundred - are doing our small bit to help her promote her book release. She can't get up and do it herself. As a cancer survivor myself, I'm proud to be part of the effort.

Go, buy, read. It's a very good book!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Wheee! Green Man Review!

I have four - yep, count 'em, four! - pieces in the brand new, out-today, bright shiny edition of Green Man Review:

http://www.greenmanreview.com/oneoffs/best2007music.html

First up: the short continuity piece, The Boys in the Barroom, (with a tip of the hat to Bob Hunter for the title) has my two fictional leading men/musicians, Ringan Laine and JP Kinkaid, having a conversation at the Green Man's virtual pub, while the lady author gets quietly sozzled and wonders what in hell else she doesn't know about her characters' history. There's also a jam session at the end.

Next up: Musings on three Richard Thompson shows in three months: "Dear Richard, Will You Please Play...?"

http://www.greenmanreview.com/cd//grabien_thompsonconcert.html

After that, my wrapup on 2007 music; this is a very visceral look back at how the serpent swallows its own tail. From the Summer of Love through today, how things came full circle for me, musically. It's called Talkin' About That Unbroken Circle:

http://www.greenmanreview.com/cd//grabien_onmusic.html


And last (but hoo, mama, so very NOT least) is a juicy excerpt from the first Kinkaid Chronicle, Rock & Roll Never Forgets, being released this July by St. Martin's Minotaur:

http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/excerpt_grabien_kinkaid1.html

Free! Go, read, enjoy, and comments are welcome.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

A rare non-writing post, on politics

I seriously, seriously do not like Barack Obama. I haven't, for a good long time. But it took awhile to really see what was causing the dislike.

Why I think the Sainted Obama is, essentially, Reagan Lite for the disenchanted 21st Century Democrat.

You can't tell me I'm wroooooooooooooong! wrongwrongwrong neener! over at livejournal unless you have an account there - I disabled anonymous posting over there years ago. But you can comment here, if you want to.

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Open to all writers, published or not

I'm taking a break from the incredibly happy-making current WIP, and I found myself looking through old (5 years old, nearly) emails.

One of them, from my editor at St. Martin's, was talking about the first Haunted Ballad, The Weaver & The Factory Maid. She was talking about wanting the modern characters to be 100% of the focus, and why she thought having them discover the solution to these historical crimes would work better than giving the dead people page time through any other medium than Penny/Ringan/et al doing the research.

A minor thing popped out from one of her emails. She's talking about the modern characters, and she uses the phrase "the surprising Albert Wychsale."

Now, Albert - Baron Boult of Glastonbury, sweet elderly man, with a warm heart, a hard head, and a certain kind of courage - was a secondary character, at least when I wrote him in the first book. In fact, even after I'd begun the second book, I wasn't sure we'd see more of him. But Ruth Cavin wanted more of him: he'd surprised her.

Okay. Jump ahead a few years, and here's me, having completed Rock & Roll Never Forgets and jumped right into the muddy waters of the second Kinkaid, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. About a third of the way through, I realised that I - and the story - both wanted Blacklight's frontman, Malcolm "Mac" Sharpe, in this story, along with his (Jamaican and female) bodyguard, Domitra Calley.

So I wrote him in.

As Joe Walsh puts it, "POW! Right between the eyes/oh, how nature loves her little surprises!"

Seriously. I'd seen the character of Mac, in the first book, as a goodnatured horndog whose only three passions were sex, humanist politics, and rock and roll. Not a lot of hidden personality for me to run with; he struck me as very "what you see is what you get". One of those laaaaaaaarge types, and me, I prefer the sidemen, the session players.

Yeah, well, the character looked me in the eye, smiled sweetly, and said "Sod off, lady, I'm going THIS way and you're free to come along, but we're not arguing over it."

Not being - as JP Kinkaid would say - completely dim, I undug my heels and let him pull me down the road. And I got one of my favourite characters out of it. Mac, in his own way, is a masterpiece of a human being. He's funny, smart, warm-hearted, a natural frontman who can hold a crowd in the palm of his hand and still make someone at the back of Wembley Stadium think he's singing directly at her. The scene in Book of Days in which he "accidentally" films a Blacklight video for "Liplock", a song about oral sex, and seduces an evening entertainment talk show hostess on camera in the process, makes me cackle every time I read it or think of it. It's also emblematic of Mac.

So, writers, talk to me.

Who are your surprising characters, and why? How did they surprise you? Come on, people! Dish!

(and if you want to see what other writers have to say about it, this is crossposted with my livejournal, as well, right here. You won't be able to comment unless you have a livejournal account - I don't allow anonymous posting - but you can read.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

cue Barenaked Ladies...

"It's been, ONE WEEK..." Oh, wait, wrong song.

I began the sixth Kinkaid, Uncle John's Band, last Saturday. I had to take most of a day away from writing time for the anthology event at Keplers in Menlo Park, a big chunk of a day to do what are close to the final edits the editor asked for on the new essay for the new anthology (that essay is called My Favorite Mistake and I'll talk about it when the nice editor says it's okay), and yet another chunk of time to get the taxes done.



"It's been, ONE WEEK..."

Man, I love writing this series.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

KINKAID!

Uncle John's Band, out the starting gate! Viva Kinkaids! WHEEEE!



Come hear Uncle John's Band, by the riverside
got some things to talk about, here beside the rising tide...



And we hit the ground running. Chapter one begun. It was prologue, but feels more like chapter one. Good sign, because every damned Chronicle has done that to me.

Yesssssssss!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

La la la la DONE!

61,170 words.

Done.

288 pages.

Done.

Now I can start the sixth Kinkaid. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Talk talk.!

Sitting in the middle of the closest thing California gets to a typhoon: torrential rain, winds gusting at 50 mph plus. Our heavy wooden glider is halfway across the front yard, and there are lawn chairs all over the place. The cats are unamused, and seem inclined to blame me for the weather. I'm worried about our outdoor cats, especially the Golden Gate Park cats, since their usual daytime refuge - the trees - are not the safest place to be right now.

About to start the final chapter of Dark in the Park, after which there will be an epilogue, after which this sucker will be done like a done thing, and I can send it off to AgentKate, who can tell me what I need to do to make it a saleable 12-and-up YA commodity. Yay me.

Also, I'm going to be on radio today (yes, I nearly typed "appearing on radio", good grief), reading a bit from a new short story of mine, about poverty in America. It was actually inspired by Richard Thompson's beautiful song, Oh I Swear, about a couple who don't like each other anymore but are too poor to split up.

The show is The Eclectic Word, on http://www.myspace.com/wordsspeaknetwork. It starts at 4 pm pacific, 7 pm east coast. I will NOT talk about Barack Obama. I don't like him.