Radical Departure: What’s Next for "The Crystal Ball"

© 2012 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

This is one of my occasional posts on the status of my humorous mystery, The Crystal Ball. Thanks for your support as I dig deeper into one of my favorite genres of writing!

March 31 has come and long gone. It's the latest date day by which I should have heard the news, if I happened to be the lucky winner of the St. Martin’s First Crime Novel Contest. Although I haven’t yet seen the winner posted online, I assume it’s not me for lack of a call or letter. I’m less disappointed that I thought I'd be. Now it’s time to move onto Plan B. Transiting Jupiter entered my 1^st House on the same day—March 31—and I’m even more optimistic than usual about the book’s potential. I don’t equate not winning to “the book isn’t good.” Contests have to find the book that best fits the publishing criteria of the sponsoring publisher. I’ve had very positive feedback from early readers about The Crystal Ball, including comparisons of my writing style to that of Janet Evanovich. (I love her hilarious mysteries and consider that quite a compliment.) Best of all, I like how it turned out, and as you can imagine, The Radical Virgo can be a Radical Nitpicker when it comes to getting it just right. (If you knew what I go through sometimes, just to get the “perfect” art or photo for one of these posts, you’d be rolling your eyes as much as reading with them!)

It was good to take a breather from the project between submission of the book to the contest in November 2011 till now. It was one of many major projects that contributed to massive overdo last year. The cumulative busy tizzy left me in deep recovery all winter. Meanwhile, I’ve been gleaning wisdom from one of my favorite local authors. She tells me the only people making money as authors these days are the already famous, who nabbed a traditional publisher and steady contract long ago, and those who are self-publishing. That’s what a Virgo likes, a practical analysis. I’ve given away so much of my writing, willingly I might add, it’s time to help support the family for all my time and effort. Especially as we get older—even the pets!—our care and keeping gets costlier. Given that, I think I’ll be self-publishing. Being both author and publisher is labor intensive, but it yields the highest percentage of profits and in many ways, the highest satisfaction. Someone even told me recently that big publishers are now searching Amazon to find new authors who self-publish and make good sales. The book industry really has been turned on its ear by print on demand, e-readers, and the other cool tools of the Information Age. It's a whole new ballgame.

Here’s my newest blurb on the book:

The Crystal Ball

Opposites attract with such chemistry, they’re San Francisco’s latest earthquake. Astrologer Micki Michaels and Curt Stern are odder as a couple than Bones and Booth, except she’s the bleeding heart. He’s still the FBI agent, but retired and loving it--if she’d just let him. Micki and Curt find themselves keeping masqueraders from turning up dead at a futuristic, New Year’s Eve costume party. It’s the silver anniversary celebration of the longevity association she heads. Some nutcase wants the secret of immortality. He has no doubt crashed the party as one of the masked characters. How will they figure out who he is, protect family and friends, and keep this party the love-in craved by the Immortalists on Planet Earth Association? Wacky costumes, solutions and surprises. You’ll laugh way past Auld Lang Syne.

My favorite Vedic astrologer, Dennis Harness, told me long ago that I have a good signature for self-publishing in my Jyotish chart. I’ve decided I need to believe him, believe in my own positive self-publishing history, and believe in myself. Isn’t it one of life’s great astrological ironies that Virgo, a sign strong in the charts of many writers, is also one with the challenge of self-doubt?

I had this huge aha recently that Jupiter in the 1^st House combines the keywords House of Self and the Planet of Publishing = Self-Publishing. Now is, apparently, my time. So what am I waiting for, except for a new method to stare down the fear of the unknown?

It’s not like I don’t have experience self-publishing. I’ve been doing it since the 1990s, starting with Chironicles. I do it now on this blog and with my e-books. However, I’ve not yet done a paperback or print book, which simply adds another format to my repertoire.

So, here’s my plan. Since it has continued to sell well in PDF and e-reader versions, I’m going to adapt Chiron and Wholeness: A Primer into a paperback version so there will be a third format and purchasing option. In the process of converting that short primer, I should learn everything I need to know about how to self-publish The Crystal Ball. One of the things I’ve learned, thanks to you, is that PDF and e-reader versions are a good place to start. Then if sales warrant, moving to paperback makes sense, so people have choices that fit their various preferences.

If Saturn is good to me (we have a great relationship, overall), I hope to have my novel available by autumn. I could use all the cheerleading I can get … and if anyone has advice from any personal publishing experiences, I’m taking notes!

Thanks for being there for me and with me on my path of the pen,

Joyce

PS – I guess it’s more the path of the keyboard in modern times. I have never been so grateful that I took typing as a teenager in summer school—or for my fast flying, nimble fingers, which have gotten quite a workout ever since.

~~~

 Photo Credit: © Pétrouche - Fotolia.com

Radical Departure: Mazes and Evening at the Improv

© 2011 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

In case you’re wondering what on Earth is going on here, see No Small Change on The Radical Virgo. During October and November, I’ll be doing short posts to take you along for the wild ride of rewriting and getting my humorous, metaphysical mystery book ready for submission to the St. Martin’s Press annual First Mystery Novel Contest

The only other time I have written a full, book-length manuscript was in 1990 when I wrote The Crystal Ball’s predecessor, Life’s Companions. That was too long ago for me to remember much about my process, so everything I’m discovering about writing a mystery now feels brand new. I’ve actually had considerable mystery writing education since my first foray. My first book suffered from genre confusion. It wasn’t sure if it was a mystery, a romance, a self-help book, or some a New Age version of the Jehovah’s Witness Watchtower publication—actually a bit of all of those. It was way too autobiographical. My life is stranger than fiction, and when I write it too literally on paper, it comes out just plain strange.

Writing a mystery—even a cozy humorous one like The Crystal Ball— is akin to doing a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle in motion. The puzzle is a maze, and sometimes I hit dead ends and don’t know how to get myself out of the messes I’ve gotten myself into. This reminds me of one of my favorite sayings:

Things are always easier to get into than to get out of. 

~ Corollary to Murphy’s Law

When I get stuck, in order to move out of the latest corner I have written myself into: I pace, I do other things, I distract myself until my subconscious can resolve it. I learned from the book Higher Creativity: Liberating the Unconscious for Breakthrough Insightsthat this is how problems are best solved—not by direct brain power but by tapping the unlimited creativity of our psycho-spiritual selves.

My psyche sure surprises me at times. I knew certain plot points in the book going into it, but I find it mandatory to develop others “on the fly.” Writing a long story is all about visualization. I see characters get into situations, and I have to envision in real time how they’ll resolve each crisis or tension point. I can’t freeze-frame the action; it’s like a movie that has to keep going on paper. I can pause in the writing to figure it out, but it has to flow in the reading. My characters have to think on their feet. No rehearsal.

In this intricate puzzle, change one thing and there’s a multi-level domino effect. Many other things must change as revisions ping off the sides of my mental pinball machine. I laughed yesterday when I had one couple seated in two different places in the audience, listening to my protagonist give a speech. Talk about attention to details. No wonder Virgos make good writers.

I’m bringing more astrology into The Crystal Ball than I originally planned but less than in Life’s Companions. It’s quality over quantity, and my friend Chiron plays a special role. Is anyone surprised? (I thought you’d like the skeleton key in the maze, what Chiron’s symbol represents.)

After much angst about making my deadline, getting waylaid for a few days by the flu, and several other distractions, I now sit at approximately 75 percent done, confident I can make it.

But that last quarter is also the most challenging to write—the denouement, the resolution. I have a lot of loose ends to tie up, and I don’t know, quite yet, how that’s going to happen. I’m very excited to find out! One of the biggest problems resolved itself tonight, better than I thought I ever thought it would. These are the times I know I channel. Even the Radical Virgo can’t come up with solutions that tidy without divine intervention.

I wrote something today to the effect that the members of the longevity organization in my novel live their lives like Evening at the Improv. These folks are so full of vitality and being who they are without fear or hesitation, they are just “on.” They problem solve and create scenarios in the moment and are effective, funny and endlessly entertaining.

I realized that’s how I have to write. This is also how I want to be. Seeing the differences between the 1990 and the 2011 versions of this material, I’m gratified to see how far I’ve come in the pursuit of Improv.

Most importantly, today I realized how much fun I’m having. This is what I have always wanted to do, my entire life, but all those Chironic wounds, insecurities, and lack of maturity were in the way. The wisdom years, in many ways, are even more than they’re cracked up to be.

I was born to do this, and wherever it goes, I’ll be there doing comedy sketches.

~~~

Photo Credit: © koya79 - Fotolia.com

Radical Departure: Book Signings and Other Inspirations

Janet Evanovich at 2006 signing for Twelve Sharp in Roseville, CA

© 2011 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

In case you’re wondering what on Earth is going on here, see No Small Change on The Radical Virgo. During October and November, I’ll be doing short posts to take you along for the wild ride of rewriting and getting my humorous, metaphysical mystery book ready for submission to the St. Martin’s Press annual First Mystery Novel Contest

Whenever I start to freak out about the tight timeframe to rewrite my book and submit it letter-perfect, I remind myself that I’m finally doing what I've always wanted to do. I try to let the joy of the creative process overshadow the fear of the clock.

Sometimes it works.

Although the deadline for the annual St. Martin’s First Mystery Contest is November 30, I didn’t look past November 22 as my personal deadline. It’s a great electional day. Theoretically, great things should come of anything I start, like my part in the contest process. I can’t say I like that it’s the annual anniversary of the assassination of JFK, but beggars can’t be choosers when I’ve only got 4 ½ more weeks to pull it off. If I’d have looked one day deeper into my calendar, I’d have realized the other reason I can’t go past November 22. In my time zone, Mercury goes retrograde late on the 23^rd. The fact that Mercury Retro wasn’t even on my radar screen speaks to the Sabian symbol for my Sun: A false call unheard in the attention to immediate service. This Sabian is all about priority and absorption. One interpretation calls the bearer of this symbol “deaf to all allurement.” (Sorry, Mercury, I didn’t even know you were alive. Don’t hold it against me!) Too close to it, akin to how you can’t see your own nose.

I always knew I had an overly active imagination, but until I wrote this novel, I had no idea what actually goes on with me “upstairs.” My mind is a little scary. I feel that way when I hear Robin Williams. He actually blurts out the kind of stuff that goes on in my brain. The first time I heard him, I blushed! Since I need to produce quickly right now, I have no time for creative inhibitions. I just have to let go and let flow. I wrote five new chapters this week, still borrowing bits from Life’s Companions, the original version of the story. Ninety percent was new. The process keeps surprising me. Words keep on appearing on paper. (Is this automatic writing?)

One thing’s clear. You can’t hurry love and you can’t push creativity. Down time is an essential part of this process. I felt lousy the other day—tummy trouble, my back was out, and I generally felt like the flu was gunning for me. I decided to take the day off and get some extra healing sleep. My reward was cranking out three more chapters in the next 24 hours.

Now that I know I need R&R to make my fountain of creativity bubble, I have to trust that the timing will fall into place. I took off a few hours Saturday to go to my friend Cindy Sample’s book signing. It was another good shot in the arm. Cindy and I had lunch recently and compared notes on the writing life. Her second humorous mystery, Dying for a Dance,is now available. Her heroine, Laurel McKay, is a single mom who keeps stumbling over dead bodies, this time at her ballroom dance class studio. Since my novel, The Crystal Ball, takes place at a futuristic costume party in a big ballroom, I feel a kinship to Cindy’s latest book and just loved reading it in Kindle!

Cindy is also the queen of making book signings fun. Since the murder weapon in Dance is a high-heeled shoe, she had a big basket of chocolate high heels. (Death by chocolate—yes!). Some of her other edible perks are dead body crime scene cookies, you know—the outline of a body. Pass the yellow Do Not Cross tape!

At Cindy's signing, I bumped into another author I know from Sisters in Crime, Elaine Macko. Elaine and I were in a critique group together some years ago. Her first novel, Armed, just came out. Who knew murder could be so much fun! Armed takes place in a mannequin factory in a fictional New England town with a very interesting cast of characters and a unique murder weapon. I've been enamored with her story since she was still writing the first draft. Her new web site rocks.

It’d be a crime not to promote such creative new authors, so I’m giving their books as holiday gifts to a number of people this year. Watching them finally manifest all this “fun between the covers,” after being familiar with their stories for a number of years, is a great model of manifestation. I'm enjoying the vicarious thrill.

Seeing Elaine also reminded me of a time when we went with another Sister in Crime to a local signing by Janet Evanovich a few years ago. Janet’s at the top of this post in that moment all authors dream of—stacks of books ready for signing and crowds lined up by the thousands. We got to Barnes & Noble early, waited a long time, and it was well worth it. Janet, too, has a huge flair for creating a party at her book signings, including goodies. She passes out the Jersey junk food that’s everyday fare for her snack-addicted Stephanie Plum, the protagonist in her number novels. For Janet and Stephanie fans, in case you haven’t heard, the movie of her first book in the series, One for the Money, will be out in January 2012 starring Katherine Heigl. Don't miss the trailer in this link! For fans of Stephanie's wacky Grandma Mazur, I almost fell over when I found out she'll be played by Debbie Reynolds.

It’s a relief—and a big carrot!—to remember that the other end of this process is a party. In my case, that’s doubly true since much of The Crystal Ball takes place at one—a big, crazy costume party. Carrots may be incentives, but I don't plan to serve them at my book launch.

Will someone help me see that party in my Crystal Ball next week when I’m up to my eyeballs in work?

Radical Departure: Borrowing a Cup of Sugar

 

© 2011 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

In case you’re wondering what on Earth is going on here, see No Small Change on The Radical Virgo. During October and November, I’ll be doing short posts to take you along for the wild ride of rewriting and getting my humorous, metaphysical mystery book ready for submission to the St. Martin’s Press annual First Mystery Novel Contest.

Since returning to my current rewrite of The Crystal Ball, I’ve felt like an out-of-era Betty Crocker trying to bake the perfect cake by the end of November. I’m up to my ears in flour and various ingredients, apron full of splotches. I thought I had everything I needed. I thought Life’s Companions, The Crystal Ball’s unpublished predecessor, contained most of the necessary ingredients. I figured I’d only have to rework it a little. I went to borrow a cup of sugar from the last incarnation of this book and discovered there were only a few tablespoons left.

In other words, I have changed the plot and focus so much, there isn’t nearly as much that I can borrow—at least in the first two thirds of the book. That means more creative writing in a hurry. Just when I was starting to freak out at the size of the task and its time pressures, I stumbled on an inspiration. If people across the country can write a book in a month during the annual NaNoWriMo event, I can certainly come up with the rest of this one in six weeks. Or so I keep telling myself! November is National Novel Writing Month, what the acronymn NaNoWriMo stands for. Maybe I’ll inspire you to join me on your own writing ride!

This would be a good time to discuss my writing process. The two extremes of writing habits are people who outline and those who fly by the seat of their pants or make it up as they go. I’m primarily a seat of the pants writer who works with a skeletal outline or story arc. Other writers have told me they outline more, the more they write. I’ll be thanking God for Sr. Fabian, my 8^th grade nun who was a fanatic about teaching us how to outline with all the appropriate Roman Numerals, numbers, and parenthetical numbers and letters. I never thought such an excruciating skill to learn might come in handy some day.

As far as my mystery is concerned, I know whodunit, howdunit, wheredunit, and whydunit. It’s just the middle of the Oreo—the filling—that needs a little more substance. I’m sure it’ll look like a cake, or at least a cookie, before I know it—I hope.

There’s nothing novel about a tablespoon of the good old Virgo self-doubt!

Halloween’s around the corner, Maybe I should throw in some eye of newt.

As an update from last week, my visit with my niece and family has actually confirmed the authenticity of many nuances in the relationship of my protagonist, Micki, with her nieces. I see I drew deeply from my Auntie Joyce role (the actual one, rather than the slightly snarky comedian you sometimes see on this blog.) I also got quite a surprise, an example of art imitating life in an intuitive preview. Something that I’ve been planning for Micki’s nieces in the second book in the series is likely happening to my actual nieces in real life.

Art imitating life just proves life is art!

Hope you all had a good Full Moon in Aries this week. Seeing Dawn, my stellium in Aries niece with most of her close-knit family? The most literal manifestation of an Aries Full Moon I’ve had in years!

~~~

Photo Credit: © Scott Griessel - Fotolia.com

Don’t forget the October Fiction Fest Comment Contest!

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Radical Departure: The Book Blurb

© 2011 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

In case you’re wondering what on Earth is going on here, see No Small Change on The Radical Virgo. During October and November, I’ll be doing short posts to take you along for the wild ride of rewriting and getting my humorous, metaphysical mystery book ready for submission to the St. Martin’s Press annual First Mystery Novel Contest.

Peeling out,

Joyce

Greetings, as I skid to a stop in front of my new home for the next two months. The address is OMG! How Am I Going to Get This Done by November 30^th?

The artwork in this post is a cover concept for my book. Of course, if it’s published by anyone but me, I’m unlikely to have the final say about the cover art. If money were no object, it would have an intricate drawing of some of the more wacky costumes at The Crystal Ball. That’s the costume party where much of the action in my book takes place.

The Crystal Ball

They’ve loved each other since they were teenagers.  He’s a chain-smoking, recently retired FBI agent—a crusty guy who has seen it all.  She’s an astrologer and president of a society dedicated to increasing longevity—as New Age as he is Old School.  A New Year’s Eve costume party brings them together in a way neither of them would have ever imagined in a race against time to prevent a crime.

They’re the new Nick and Nora Charles! –Carolina Montague, Author

My first job this weekend is to reread the original version of the book I wrote in 1990. Yes, I said 1990—no typo! Originally entitled Life's Companions, I wrote it for a contest Ted Turner sponsored. Obviously, I did not win or would already be a famous novelist. :) The contest had some sort of “ideas that will change the world” concept. I set it aside for a decade-and-a-half before picking it up again in 2005. That’s when I took a mystery writing class and saw ways I could redirect it that would work better and be much more exciting.

Timing is everything (said the Capricorn Moon). I figure if there’s anything to Saturn cycles, at 21 years old, this book is three-quarters of the way to its Saturn Return. It’s certainly time for it to grow up and leave home in the form of an emancipated book, not some manuscript still stuck in my computer and several notebooks full of research and old versions.

At least I proved to myself that I can finish a book. Now, to refinish it!

Till next week!

~~~

Photo Credits: Disco Ball - © Maxim Loskutnikov - Fotolia.com, Carnival Mask -  piai - Fotolia.com