Life Today

My last post was about seven months ago. I hope you haven't given up hoping that I'd post again (I'm sure you were desperately worried), but I'm sure also that whoever was holding their breath gave up awhile back. And yet, I'm back, and hope to stay back, perhaps every Saturday if I'm good.

I'm in South Korea. Again. I lived there between the ages of 23 and 27, and feel that it's (at least technically) where I became an adult. It's a country I love deeply, but not the one where I'd expected to stay, and I think it took me a while to process the idea that my life had brought me back here.

I came back on December 1st, right after Thanksgiving (which I insisted on spending at home rather than come early, but mostly slept through). Now it's been almost two seasons, and summer is coming.

I was surprised at how natural it felt to be back in Korea. I stepped off the plane, and felt like I was coming back to Incheon after any other vacation--no time seemed to have passed. And yet I'm different, and (I hope) my life is different, than the first time I was here. I plan. I arrange. I make lists, check them, review them, and analyze them with an eye to improving efficiency. It's an enormous process, consuming reams of paper and enormous amounts of time, but I think it helps.

I don't know when I'll go back home. It's not in my immediate plan.

I came back for various reasons, which I'd rather not go into. I miss my friends, and family, in the States--but here, too, I have dear friends, and getting to spend so much time with them is a blessing I never anticipated. In a way, Korea is also my country, and I like it, and I hope to do well.

My job is a lot like the one I did before. I'm in Seoul, though, which makes a huge difference. (In fact, the district where I work is quite close to the notorious Gangnam.) My hours are pretty long, and there was a learning curve, but it's a good job and I hope to keep doing it. My students are adorable. My colleagues, who hail from various countries, are interesting. I live quite far, but in my commute I've been listening to lots of new music, and have discovered some lovely new groups. (The XX and Of Monsters And Men are at the top of my list at the moment, but I've also listened to things as diverse as Concha Buika and Malice Mizer.) I have a place, I can buy clothes, my cat is sleeping next to me. I've gone to a lot of Meetups, and even started one, and am making lots of wonderful friends that way. I'm even doing a little life drawing, which is one of the most fun, relaxing things I've ever tried. On the whole (knock on wood), I am very happy.

For now, I'm going to keep teaching English. I'll write, edit, and probably self-publish (I keep seesawing, but I think ultimately it's going to turn out right for me.) I really want to finish more short stories, which I plan to put out in a bundle somewhat like this one (though hopefully much better). The first will be free--I haven't been giving you anything to read, and that's really not fair considering this is supposed to be a writing blog. And I hope you will read it, because I've been reading some wonderful stuff, and I really hope my writing will improve.

If you want to follow, I'm on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. (I'm also on DeviantArt, but I'm not telling you my ID till my art gets better.) If you'd like to contact me, that's the best way--or you can leave a question here, and I'll try to answer. And I think that's all for right now.

NaNoWriMo 2013

Because I am quite mad, I have decided to participate in NaNo this year despite having no less than four other projects up in the air at the moment. My username is Katherine Pearl, and my profile is here. If you have any plans to participate, I hope that you'll add me as a friend.

I participated in NaNoWriMo from 2005-2010, and "won" the last of those two years. It's a really great way to come up with a very inventive, seat-of-your-pants first draft. Unfortunately, back in 2009 I hadn't yet practiced rewriting a novel, and I fear that SNOWBERRY--dearly as I love it--is not destined to see the light of day, at least in its current form. HAUNTED HOUSES, the most recent effort, was actually a second attempt at one of the earlier NaNo projects. It, too, is probably lost to time.

Over the last two years, I have been working--with varying amounts of dedication--on a young adult novel, THE WOODS AND THE CASTLE. (They make you write it in all caps if it isn't published yet.) I've written a full three drafts of that book, and am four chapters away from finishing a final edit of the third. Ideally, I'll finish those edits and this year's NaNo project at more or less the same time. That would leave space for NaNo '13 to slide smoothly into the editing spot. But time will tell.

One complicating factor is one of the aforementioned side projects. It was meant to be a Halloween short story, but--like so many drafts--got way too big for its pants. I'm hoping it will come out at around 20,000 words. Tentatively, I'm planning to self-publish it, priced at 99 cents like Five Stories. (If you haven't read Five Stories yet, wouldn't Halloween week be a terrific time to do so? I... sort of... kid.) It would be nice to put out at least one thing like that every year--I'm still on the fence re: self-publishing, but it was a really fun project, and I'd like to improve my cover-fu. The novella, currently titled "The Tongue of the Dead," went over quite well with some very respected beta readers, and I'm having a wonderful time writing it.

Other than that... waiting on something big, but I feel like if I tell you I'll jinx it. Feel free to speculate! And stay warm.

XOXO,

Kate

Reading, Writing, and Publishing Links: 1/2/13

Not too many links today. While you read, here's Iron & Wine's "Flightless Bird, American mouth." Yes, I know it's from the Twilight soundtrack. The Twilight movies have excellent soundtracks.

1. "Loved Your Book, Can't Publish It." Lynn Price at Behler Blog writes about the frustration of trying to sell an excellent book that's not currently marketable.

2. "Just Shut Up." An excellent post about loving problematic media.

I don’t know about you, but when I was a child, nobody sat down with me after I watched Beauty and the Beast and said, “Okay, this is a movie, and it’s okay to enjoy this movie! It’s okay to think this movie is great! But just so you know, if someone in real life did to you the things the Beast does to Belle, that wouldn’t be okay. That wouldn’t be right.”  When my mind was young and malleable, there was no trusted adult pointing out, “This is a movie, and it’s okay to like this movie, but the relationship it shows is unhealthy.” And that’s not because I didn’t have those trusted adults in my life! I was lucky enough to grow up with two intelligent, liberal, kind, forward-thinking, active parents; they didn’t tell me because they didn’t know to tell me. They didn’t tell me because nobody told them. (via not language but a map)

3.  "Research -- All The Layers." An ode to research at YA Highway.

4. "How Long Should You Keep Trying To Get Published?" Jane Friedman discusses when not to try for publication, when to start thinking about it, and when it might be good to step back and take another look at what you're doing.

5. "Ten Things I Wish I'd Known." Julianne Lee at Book View Cafe talks about things beginning writers should know about the publishing process.

6. "Prophecies." Patricia C. Wrede weighs in on prophecies, why they often don't work in modern fantasy novels, and why they absolutely can work if used correctly. 

And that's all for this week! Going off to work on the winter story, and then to edit more of WOODS. Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season, and that 2013 is your best year yet. : )

Reading, Writing, and Publishing Links: 12/26/12

Since all the cool kids have been doing it, I thought I'd put together a little Wednesday links post every week. I'll keep it short, since the big news roundups tend to cover the major stuff. These are just favorite posts I've come across in my day-to-day surfing.

While you're reading, here's a song I revisited last week. Isn't it lovely?

"Soul Meets Body"--Death Cab For Cutie

1) Brilliant author/blogger Foz Meadows wrote a guest post for The Book Smugglers, which is one of my favorite book blogs.  The post is about literary bad boys, and astutely explains the difference between the "Classic Bad Boy" (the literary equivalent of Danny from Grease and Johnny from Dirty Dancing) and the more problematic kind that's become popular lately. This type--which Meadows describes as the "New Abuser"--includes specimens like Edward Cullen and his spinoff, who are bad not because they reject the status quo, but because they're actively dangerous for the (usually female) protagonist. Here's a snip:

And by abusive behaviour, I mean behavioural patterns which are listed by domestic abuse authorities as warning signs that you’re in a toxic or dangerous relationship. These are all clear indicators that something is seriously wrong, especially when they appear in confluence; and yet these are exactly the same characteristics which, time and again, I see being displayed by the male love interests in YA, PNR and urban fantasy novels, as though aggressive behaviour somehow becomes sweet and acceptable when the abuser loves their victim, or vice versa.

For those who are interested in trends and patterns in YA literature, this is definitely worth a read.

2) In a post called "Ladders," accomplished fantasy author Patricia Wrede reminds us that publication is not the end of a writer's journey.


3) In a brief post called "What's Not Working," agent and blogger Wendy Lawton considers whether several popular marketing techniques are really effective.  

4) China Miéville rants brilliantly against Belgium's reaction to the blatantly racist Tintin in the Congo. This post is from February, but still worth reading. I got it from a year-end link roundup on a great blog I recently started following, Things Mean A Lot. 

5) "Stories Are Genderless," another post by Foz Meadows, is another one from the link roundup in #4. It's from April, but an excellent read. It deals with the oft-cited conceit that boys won't or can't enjoy books by female authors. 

And that's it for right now! I had a wonderful holiday--quiet, at home, with family--and, hope you all did, too. New Year's is coming up! I have a "Favorite Books of 2012" list almost ready to post (that's read, not published, in 2012), and am working slowly on my winter story. I hope you have a safe and happy New Year!

XOXO
Kate

State of the Book #1: March 25, 2012

Hello, my dears! I've decided to start posting weekly updates on the State of the Book, starting tonight, which is Sunday night. Well, actually it’s Monday morning, but as far as I’m concerned “night” means “the time before I go to bed.” So:

Yesterday (Saturday) I read an interesting post on how to write engaging query letters. Naturally that’s a topic near and dear to my heart, as I hope to begin querying this book in the next few months or so. Therefore, though the novel’s not nearly finished yet, I worked up a bit of query copy: 

For thirteen years, eccentric outcast Addie Allen has shared her head with an invisible friend: the brilliant and devoted spirit she calls Julian. Julian is everything she could wish for in a companion: wise, charming, and fiercely protective of her. Every night they meet in a vast and complex dreamworld, where they have adventures the waking world could never compete with.

When an old enemy starts persecuting Addie at school, Julian reveals a disturbing new talent: he can possess the bodies of other people. Unfortunately, sharp-eyed Hector Reed is watching him, and guesses immediately that Addie’s not alone in her mind. 

No one has ever guessed the truth about Julian before, so Addie is instantly intrigued. She can’t get him out of her mind, and Julian quickly grows jealous. He imprisons Hector’s spirit somewhere in the dreamworld, then takes over his body. With Hector’s life at stake, Addie is forced to follow Julian to an abandoned house deep in the forest. Now her dearest friend has become her nemesis, and she must fight with everything she has to save a boy she barely knows. 

The title should come next, of course, but unfortunately that’s an element I’m still stuck on. As you may remember if you’ve been following for a while, the original title of this project was CREATURES OF THE MIND. It was a very different story then, and the name was appropriate, but since then the novel’s undergone some drastic changes. I thought about ANIMUS, but it didn’t seem quite right. Then I hit on INCARNATE, but it turns out that one’s already been taken. (It looks like a great book, though, and I definitely want to read it!)

So the title is still a blank. Nevertheless, the story is definitely taking shape-- which is good, since depending on how you count it this is either the third or the fourth time I’ve written it.

Coming Attractions

Rule I keep forgetting: If a thought is too complicated for a Tweet or status update, blog about it!

I keep starting blog posts and not finishing them. This is not entirely because I am lazy (though of course that is part of the reason). The big thing is that (drumroll) I am a very private person. No, really. I'll start a post about, say, existential angst, or body image, or what I think is wrong with the world-- and then I'll decide I'm revealing too much about myself, click "Save Now" to let it cool a bit, and never go back to it again.

Talking about books, though, is easy. Talking about my constant struggle with my writing process? For some reason I'm comfortable with that. So here you go:

I'm thinking about posting scenes from a story I'm working on in webcomic-style updates. That is, instead of a whole story (to be posted, um, when I finish it) you'll get a polished scene at a time until I'm done with it. This will start when I have a finished handwritten story transcribed and mostly edited-- so you're probably looking at about a month or so. But at least it's something.