Ruby’s Blog

Ugh… one thing I think all people who are lucky enough to have computers could do without is spam. Email spam, pop-up advertising, and yes, even spam in blog comments. Comment spam was sparse for the last couple of months, but for some reason, in the last week, I’ve had to mark a comment as spam and ban the IP address from which it was sent at least once a day, if not twice.

In other news, I have finally moved to a new house, though I’ve not settled in yet. Still many things to do. Also, the fourth book I’ve been working on for quite a while is very close to completion. A couple more weeks and I can get the thing into my editor’s hands.

I’ve got to say, I’m very pleased with it so far. I only hope that the final version is something readers would like, too. D:

I must say that I have a whole new appreciation for authors who write historicals. Fantasy or contemporary writers really don’t have to invest nearly as much time into research (if at all in some cases). Unless one is writing a medical/spy thriller or a mystery involving police work, that is. (Even then, most successful authors of that genre are doctors, ex-spies, or ex-cops/detectives.) That makes me sad. :( I would love to write a thriller or mystery some day. Perhaps when I can write full-time and invest that time into research, I shall attempt it.

As for my fourth book, it’s finally becoming vastly improved versus what it was three months ago. I’ve been researching language, customs and general history (what little of it I can get regarding some topics). Thank God for my good friend at the library. She’s a whiz with information retrieval.

Finally, this brings me to the topic of this post: historical accuracy and artistic license. We’ve seen Hollywood movies that are really accurate and a great many others that are really inaccurate (I’m thinking of Academy Award-winning Braveheart right now). Yet, I know lots of people that really liked Braveheart (I didn’t for the reason that it made me cry so hard–I refuse to watch it again). We’ve also read books that ignored certain historical facts in order to create a more exciting (or more convenient) story, but I have heard of people who rip apart books set in the Georgian/Regency/Victorian eras because they ignore a couple of things that regular readers wouldn’t know were missing, anyway.

Where do you draw the line? If an author describes the home of a peasant but includes an item that most peasants wouldn’t own, would you cry foul, even though having that item allows for the story to move faster? If an author’s dialogue uses words that were 50 years too soon for the period (such as using “glamour” in the 1600s when it wasn’t used until 1715), would you prefer that the author limit their vocabulary or even search for archaic words that no one today would know the meaning of? Or worse, use the word with the meaning that it had then but doesn’t have now? The word “nice” didn’t always have a positive meaning. The phrase, “It’s nice to meet you,” would’ve been insulting once upon a time. Would doing this make an historically-accurate novel suddenly unreadable? Or at least too much work to read?

I wonder these things all the time. Some friends tell me to try to find a “happy medium” and strive for a “taste” of historically-accurate dialogue, which might not satisfy members of the SCA, but would at least give me elbow room to write a well-paced, interesting, moving story that isn’t weighed down by the (many) limitations of historical fact. Sometimes, these facts can’t even be confirmed or are entirely missing from written record, which is really annoying.

Please comment if you have a few minutes!

It’s the first day of summer and I have a plan for my life! Well, at least for the next year or two. I’m in love with writing and I’d like to see if I can actually make a career out of it. I’ll have to continue writing in my spare time since I’ll be working a full-time job (soonish), but that’s how my first three were written and I managed to finish them relatively quickly. I sometimes hear authors say that they crank out 10 to 15 pages a day, but even when I’ve got a whole day to myself, such as a Sunday or something, I can’t spew out that much prose. Even so, and even with a job, I think I’m going to commit myself to this writing thing I enjoy so much. Wish me luck!

Stark: “Hmmm. Your eyes are red. Tears for your long lost boss?”
Potts: “Tears of joy. I hate job-hunting.”

As the Ironman quote may imply, I am now job-hunting in Seattle. (Unfortunately, writing full-time is not within my grasp right now.) I’ve got a very promising lead on a decent job, so that’s good news. Once I know if I get it and have an idea of a budget, I can finally get started on finding an apartment so that I can have my own address in Seattle and finally renew my driver’s license, which expired on my birthday earlier this month. Ugh, the stress!

Writing has honestly slowed down since I came home from Japan (and has ground to a halt now that I’m in Seattle). It grates at me because I want to get this story written down and the characters keep pestering me about it. I’ve been striving to improve my craft (because damn, it could use a lot of improvement), so I hope that once the final draft is ready for submission, it’s more impressive than my earlier and much more awkward manuscripts.

I’ve got a few quiet moments right now, though, so I think I’ll go poke at my story. Have a good one, everybody!

You may remember my short commentary back in February on “character voices” and being careful to avoid writing every character with the same speech patterns. Today I’ll tackle topic #2: Author Voice.

Voice I: Character Voices
Voice II: Author Voice
Voice III: First-Person, Third-Person, and Other POVs (next time)

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A quick look at the misconceptions we in the present day have of the life and people of the Middle Ages in Europe. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the official excerpt for Blues, now available at Ellora’s Cave!

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Ready for adventure in the crowded clubs of futuristic Tokyo? How about an advanced office building 300 stories tall? Or a car chase on an “automatic” highway where the cars zip by at fantastic speeds yet only have a car length’s space in between? That’s what you’ll get with Blues, a futuristic novel that follows a woman living in Tokyo and working for Nippon Tobacco as a translator. Her boss sells the hottest item on the market, Blues, the cigarette that burns blue, contains no tar or carcinogens, and even smells like mint when smoked. It seems almost too good to be true.

At a hot club in Roppongi on a Saturday night, Hannah is drowning her bitter cynicism after being stood up for a date. Not even her friend seems capable of chasing away her blues, and when she spots the most gorgeous man in the room, she’s certain that someone like him is out of her league. Until he asks her to dance. Her cynicism melts in the heat between them as they dance and it’s not long before they decide to continue the fireworks somewhere private.

Ryo is stunned when the sexy woman he slept with the night before is gone the next morning. He decides to track her down. The mystery about his profession gets complicated when it turns out that they both work for the same company…and when Hannah comes across an internal memo that could get her killed.

For a paperback, CitDH is just a tad expensive at $17.99, which made me sweat a little because who wants to pay that much? Granted, it’s a trade paperback and just over 400 pages, but still… so if you had been worried about price, head to CitDH’s page on Amazon, where it’s on sale for $12 (and free super-saver shipping). I hope that’s a little easier on your wallet. DX

I’m back from RT! What a fun time! Next year’s will be in Orlando (my favorite place since I’m a huge fan of Mickey Mouse–despite my age), so please think about coming out to see me and all the other authors! There’ll be lots of interesting panels, too, if book-signings are not your thing. The best part, though, is all the parties and cover models! A very nice EC author by the name of M.A. Ellis took pictures of me with four cover models from Ellora’s Cave: “Big” John (he was enormous), Rodney & Brian (cover model sandwich!), and Kevin (who loves the camera).

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