Present Tense

I am grabbing books, willy nilly, off the shelf at the library again. Sometimes I find a gem that way. Unfortunately, this time it fell flat.

The big turn off for this book is that it is in present tense. That really grates on me after awhile. I think it works well for dream sequences and flashbacks. I think in the Farseer books Robin Hobb used present tense for the journal entries that began each chapter. It set the tone and reminded us that someone was telling the story. I love those books, and I think that method worked well.

But I can't read an entire book of it. It makes me unreasonably aware that I am reading. I can't slip into the world and get carried along. I am always aware that someone is slinging words at me.

It might just be that I was taught to expect stories to be past tense. I read them growing up and now I'm too old to adjust. It's a strange affectation to me. The story doesn't need any distractions like that. Especially complicated ones.

I don't understand the sudden love of it. A lot of books I pick up are written that way. And I usually put them right back down. Although, I have to admit I used to feel that way about first person. It's too intimate. Jim Butcher got me to love first person, because I love Harry Dresden. But that's a big gamble. Not only has the story got to dazzle the reader, your narrator has to also. I've read books that draw me in despite not liking a character. That might not happen with first person.

Third person, past tense will always be the most comfortable read for me. First person is acceptable, but has a higher hurdle to cross. Present tense has the highest and ugh I don't think I could ever read first person, present tense.

But that's just me...today.

Conflict

Writing advice always pushes conflict. There has to be a problem to make the story interesting. Some stories I've read have so much conflict that I want to yell at the writer "Get on with it already!" So there has to be some but not too much.

I just finished reading a book by an author I love that has too little conflict, I think. The main character takes on herculean tasks and, well, just does them. It's a fish-out-of-water story, the old alternate world trope. Normally, I shy away from them. For that reason, I decided to give this one a try. It felt a little light, so I tried to think through why it didn't work for me.

The person from our world gets pulled into a land of magic. She learns how to use it and rids the world of evil...the end. (But it's only book one, so I'm sure she didn't get all the evil.) There is minor conflict in that she has confrontations with various characters and fights in several battles, but she always wins easily.

That might have made for a good set up towards over confidence. Then she hits the big reversal and realizes her own naivete. But even when she faces off with the Big Bad, she does her thing and they all go home. Yes there are consequences - she's physically depleted and friends die. But even that seems glossed over. She sleeps for a week and has a hearty breakfast.

The death of the sidekick is almost an aside. Oh, yeah, by the way, he's dead. She sheds a tear and carries on. That plus the mass destruction she incurs makes her feel like a psychopath. She destroyed a whole country. And she sheds a tear and carries on. What choice did she have? If she didn't kill them all they'd just keep coming after her, right?

That's an argument for a boatload of other stories. There's always that point where you just want the hero to kill off the villain already! Well, that happened in this book and it was sooo unsatisfying. The goal achieve too easily has a lower satisfaction threshold.

So that brings me back to the whole point of this post. Stories have to have appropriate conflict.

Audiobook delay

This is the cover for the upcoming audiobook. It was a learning experience! But I think it works in comparison to the print cover. The online publishing people are demanding higher quality, which is a good thing. But it means I need to learn new graphic programs. Which is also a good thing, even if I don't have time for it.

There's been a glitch and the recording has been delayed. I'm disappointed in a "now-now-now" kind of way. But it's only about a month and in the scheme of things, that's not much.

I'm very excited to be having the book produced at all!

The actor recording it - Scott David Reeves - has a lovely voice. The piece I heard was very well done. I can't wait to listen to the whole thing.

Hopefully it will be out about mid-May.

Why do bunnies bring eggs?

This question has bothered me for some time. Where the heck did the whole Easter bunny and chocolate egg thing come from?

It wasn't until I read Neil Gaiman's American Gods that I understood. It's all based on a pagan spring ritual. I don't remember the goddess's name, but the point was to celebrate birth - babies of all kinds. So baby rabbits, chicks, lambs, etc.

Spring is a time when the trees come back to life and green things shoot out of the ground. Life starts up again. Or over depending on your world view.

After I read that, it all made sense. It has nothing to do with Christianity. It's just one of those trappings of society that got dragged along as a seasonal ritual.

The transition to chocolate was probably more commercial than symbolic. People wanted chicks and bunnies in the spring, but giving live animals as gifts gets complicated. It probably started as chick cookies or bunny buns and eventually morphed into chocolate and marshmallow.

So now we celebrate the arrival of spring with a sugar high!

Fruit Trees

The apricot and plum are blooming. And we are having the coldest weather of the winter!

I put lights in the trees this year to see if that might help warm them a little. Last night it went down to 24 degrees. And tonight it is supposed to go almost as low. According to a chart I found, unopened buds should be OK. The fully opened flowers may be killed off. Sigh.

Going on 6 years and we haven't eaten an apricot, yet. Hopefully, some of the buds will survive.

The plum tree only has a handful of flowers open, so I'm not as concerned. I'd say the apricot is about 1/3 open. I will keep my fingers crossed that some of the remaining unopened buds will survive.

The other fruits in the yard are still sleeping. I saw some buds swelling on the blueberries and cherries, but they are just knobby at this point. Thank goodness.

Our mild winter has spoiled me. I am not happy with the cold. And since I was out digging in the garden last week, I am disappointed to be stuck indoors. The high today is forecast to be 39. Definitely not warm enough for me to play outside!

Can't wait for summer.

Learning to relax

I once had such a stressful job that I found myself multitasking at all times. Even at home. When I changed jobs, I had to pace myself. Multitasking can lead to mistakes. Or even dropping one thing for another, of which I am often guilty.

Now that I am self employed I can set my own hours and take my time. Somehow that isn't happening. I set goals and milestones and fret about them. Life gets in the way and then I stress out.

But they're just personal goals. No one will die if I don't get this done by Tuesday, or the 1st or whatever. Whew.

I wanted to publish Unintended Consequences by the end of March. Right now it's out to a second round of readers. That's a good thing. When I get it back, I will probably have a few more tweaks for it. Then it will be line edited for grammar and spelling. So it looks more like the end of April than March. Is that such a big deal? It was only an arbitrary date I picked out last year.

It's taken me awhile to condition myself to write every day. Now I feel guilty if I don't get some words on paper every day. Yikes. One more thing to stress about. So last weekend I declared a day off. Since it was a lovely sunny day in the low 70's, I spent the whole day in the garden. Which is also behind in being ready for planting...sheesh.

There's a difference between not working because I don't want to and not working because I need a break. Everyone needs a break from time to time. And now I am going to allow myself that luxury!

Spring Flowers

Crocuses are all in bloom. In my yard they come up by color. The yellow first and the purples last. I don't know why.

 These creamy yellow ones were a lovely treat. I forgot I put them in!



Spring flowers are so rejuvenating. When we moved to this house, I was very excited to see what the previous owners had done in the was of bulbs. I was sorely disappointed. They had a couple of tulips scattered here and there. That's it!

How could they forget daffodils? These baby daffs come up very early. They are so sweet. It just makes you smile.

And of course miniature iris. They are very early also. And so pretty. They only stand about 6-8" I love irises in all shapes and forms. But it is wonderful to have a small dose of them before their larger brethren are even putting up leaves.

Lovely.