Thinking Sideways ~

Lots of us here in the inter-spaceways are taking Holly Lisle's "How to Think Sideways" class, I've seen a lot posted around on various forums and blogs, but I find I have to throw out my own two cents about it.

First, let me say that I've been a fan of Holly's for a long time. Her books first, and I used to lurk in the Forward Motion community. I've read over and over again all the good free articles and advice she has on her website. At a point, before I had really gotten a good start, I'd been beaten down and was close to giving it all up, but the encouragement and support that she offers to anyone who will take the time to read what she has to offer tossed me back on my feet and helped me find my backbone and keep going.

When she started making her writer's workshop series available in the Holly Shop -- I elbowed my way to the front of the line.

Now, the second thing I want to say is that I've done the usual round of online classes as well as f2f workshops at various conferences and worked somewhat extensively with some very talented authors - and not to take anything away from any of that, because I've learned a lot in so many different places it would be impossible to list them all - and I have a full shelf of 'how to' books, including a short stack of well-thumbed favorites -- but on the whole, Holly's workbooks are in a class of their own.

There are a lot of good authors out there, good writers and good teachers. But it is a rare and unique individual who has the extraordinary talent to teach well the thing they are successful at. It takes a special *combination* of skill and talent that few people have.

Holly has that extraordinary, unique combination of talents -- not only of being able to figure out what she's doing that helps make her successful but being able to break that down into steps and explain it in a way that others can use what she's done to build their own skills.

I have most, if not all, of the writers workshop series and love every one. I have links to her shop in my sidebar because I believe in what she has to offer. When she opened up submissions for the '33 Mistakes' Series, I was excited to be included and ecstatic to get to be the first release.

So when Holly opened up registration for the first Think Sideways course, I was right there.

- my life has a series of explosions going on right now, so I wasn't able to keep up with weekly lessons for the 2nd through 6th week ... but I got caught up over the holiday weekend, which leads me to the reason I feel compelled to blog about it, even though so many others are as well, is because even though I went into the course with the highest of expectations - she totally blew me away.

It's not the kind of course I've seen anywhere else. She doesn't necessarily tell you anything.

What she does is show you how to use tools you need in order to learn the skills to ask the right questions and how to use the answers.

By the time I had worked past the barriers, through the clustering and done my Sentences, I had three muses screaming at me in full Technicolor scenes with plots, characters and conflict with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back explaining why each one was on the Group W Bench ... *ahem* ... or something like that. Amazing stuff came up out of the back of my mind and coalesced into complete stories faster than I could work through the pages of the workshop.

I had to physically cap the pen and close the notebook and put it away for a couple of hours so the muses would quiet down enough that I could hear the voices of the stories one at a time and get some notes down for them.

And, with all that, she shows you how to make the connection between writing what you love and writing something marketable. ...and I'm only six weeks into a six month program. I can't even imagine what else she might have in store for us, but I'm very excited about it.

I will say it should come with a warning label: not for the part-timers, wannabes and light-weights. I printed the first six weeks' lessons to take on the road with me last weekend and it completely filled a three inch binder. But the beauty of it is that you can go at your own pace so you don't miss lessons because of the ebb and ka-booms in your life.

If you are serious about a career in writing, if you love writing and you want to make a living doing it, this course can help you learn the skills you need. I haven't seen another single course that comes close to offering what just the first six weeks of this one does.

It's on sale, now, Monday Sept 1-Monday Sept 8. It's a full six months to a year long with weekly or bi-weekly lessons and much more affordable than it should be given the value of what you're getting. It comes with a guarantee, if you don't like it and want out, let her know and the payments stop.

LOL! ... I've been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to think of a way to say "you owe it to yourself to give it a try" without sounding cliché, but it's simply the truth and there isn't a better way to say it - so there ya' go. ;)

Mistakes our brains make...

So when I was about halfway though the session on writing horses at the February DFWWW Conference -- someone pointed out that on my handout, where I commented on the fabulous characterization by Eddie Murphy as Donkey as the White Stallion, it said Shrek III, and those scenes had been in Shrek II.

I was sure I had copied most of that paragraph about stallions from the draft of 33 Mistakes, Mistake One - Stallions. And so I was sure that the mistake must be in the final version of the e-book as well. You can imagine my mind was going a thousand directions and none of them good.

It truly was one of those cold-sweat kind of moments and in hindsight I was really glad I didn't have my laptop with me because I know how hard it would have been not to stop everything, turn around and check the file. As if it would have done any good to know, in that instant, if I had really screwed up that badly.

At any rate, once I did get to where I could check the file, the original correctly said Shrek II. *whew*

And, thankfully, if I blubbered too badly over those next few minutes, it's blocked from my memory. Have you ever notice how the human brain is wondrous like that, sometimes, to just pretend that it didn't happen. Is that kind of memory loss a type of survival mechanism to protect us from embarrassment and pain?

What about how denial kicks in at the time something is happening.

- "That isn't really a rattlesnake. It's a harmless snake that just happens to have rattles and a head shaped like a pit viper."

- "Just keep driving. That funny noise the truck is making will quiet down if you can just keep it going for another few miles."
- - on a side note, it's true that if there is smoke or steam coming out from under your hood and you speed up, it will seem to have disappeared. *blink, blink* ...although if it's a smoldering fire, it will burst into flames when you slow down ... don't ask me how I know that, it's a long, sad story with a bad ending.

Or what about those people you know who are (naively?) eternal optimists?

- I know my boss said they'd have to let me go if I was late one more time, but I now they didn't mean it.
- I know I shouldn't have that candy bar, but I'll get back on my diet tomorrow.
- I know my husband said not to bring another stray dog home, but that one's just too pathetic to leave here. He'll understand.

Do you ever put those people in your novels? Not the people of course, but those characteristics? Have you considered what wonderful character flaws these things can be? The bits of blank memory, the outright denial, the justification and the 'just one more time' refusal to step up to the bar. Are these things that keep your character down? Are they issues your character can grow and overcome? I know these are issues that I deal with everyday, both in myself and in those around me, and I suspect I would easily identify with a protag dealing these traits.

DFW Writer's Workshop 2008 Conference

All of you who missed the DFW Writer's Workshop Conference in Grapevine, Texas this weekend missed a real class act. Although it was a first annual conference, the DFWWW group is anything but new on the scene. They've been around since 1977 and have a tremendous store of expertise and knowledge to draw on - and it showed clearly this weekend.

They had a full line-up of knowledgeable, informative and engaging speakers, yes, including yours truly :), and a solid contingent of volunteers who were at every turn making sure things ran smoothly - and they did. The only thing that really drives me crazy about a well-run conference with such a fantastic schedule is trying to figure out which speakers to attend and which ones I'll have to miss. The attending agents were professional but friendly, easy to talk to and easily approachable. They represented a wide variety of genres - which is always appreciated.

Candy Havens spoke during lunch on Saturday, her key note address was so unabashedly heartfelt and so emotional there couldn't have been a dry eye in the room.and, if I can say it without sounding cliché and trite, she's one of the most amazing people I've ever met. It seems impossible for a individual to do as much as she does in a day - but she never pulls back. In spite of keeping a daily schedule that would drive most people insane, she still makes time to give of herself unstintingly. In spite of being wildly successful, she never loses touch - she's not someone you can admire from afar because she pulls you in, sits you down, hugs you and then tells you to get your butt in gear and get writing. I've found her to be the epitome of tough love, truly tough and truly loving.

who am I, what am I doing in this box

I've been working on , among other things, the presentation I'll be giving at the workshop in February and realized I need to update (finish) my profile.

So who am I and why the heck do I think I have anything special to say about horses?
Well, I have to admit, I don't know that I have anything really different or astounding to say that you haven't heard before, or that you couldn't find elsewhere. The world is full of horses and horseman, and most horseman, like me, are more than happy to ramble on about their horses. Typically, the problem is getting them to shut up once you've got them started.

I think there are two things that make my input valuable. Not that my words more valuable than other horseman's, but simply useful in their own way.

One is that I've had horses a long time. Nearly 40 years now and while I've had some formal training, most of what I've learned has been through the school of hard knocks. Read that as - if there is a mistake to be made, I've probably made it. My parents were loving and generous, but not horseman and bought me a yearling stud colt when I was in the first grade. He lasted almost a year before he got dangerous enough they traded him in on the mature Welsh Shetland cross who is the one who raised me. ... fast forward to now: I've been riding AERC Endurance for 21 years this year, that is long distance (up to 100 miles) cross-country races, although it isn't PC to actually call them races. So I know something about galloping in an undisciplined crowd and also about being alone in the woods with a horse, and being on horseback for a long time.

And I've dabbled in a lot of different stuff, from arena shows to dressage to cowboy type stuff like rodeo and speed events. And we've done some medieval and western reenactment, so most of my horses are 'weapons' trained to some extent. I've used a lance and a bow and a gun from horseback.

And, because I trained professionally for years and because I'm a breeder have a reasonable sized herd, I've done a lot of this stuff on a variety of horses. Which is a lot crazier than doing it all on one or two horses, but it gives a slightly different perspective. And I've worked with lots of beginner riders, both child and adult

How this applies to writing?
* I can provide lots of fodder for all the mistakes and issues that make such wonderful conflict.
* I know the kind of things that can go wrong, some silly, some really horrific. I know simple ways to frustrate your hero.
* The basic stuff and the bigger issues are easy to Google. But I can answer the questions authors didn't know they needed to ask to help layer the details with believability.

My mission: should I choose to admit one. Is to get authors to characterize their horses instead of using the typical cardboard cut-outs.

My Bookshelf ~ Grok!

Little cabin nestled back in the woods... My local group camped here a couple of weeks ago and we had a great time. It was incredibly refreshing to be able to sit and work in such a cozy natural environment. We cycles through writing and visiting phases all day and we all got an incredible amount of work done.

and I've been on a reading jag: jag2 /dʒæg/ –noun
1. a period of unrestrained indulgence in an activity; spree; binge: a crying jag; a talking jag. 2. a state of intoxication from liquor.
3. Northern, North Midland, and Western U.S. a load, as of hay or wood.

But now that I look it up, it strikes me that it's a noun and I would have said, without thinking, that it's a verb, because it's something that you *do*, but I guess if you're 'on' it - is that what makes it a noun. Enough digression. I'll start a side panel for my reading because I find it interesting to see what others are reading and hope that others might find some gems in amongst my favorites or current reads.


So here are a few old favs and what's been on my desk in the last few months:

Patricia Briggs - all of them. I started with Dragon Bones and she's been my most recent obsession, (and not to mention that she writes delightful horse-characters, most especially Duck and the Lass in Hob's Bargain.) but I've caught up with her and we had to order "Mercy's Garage" t-shirts in order to take some of the edge off the wait for Iron Kissed.

RED GARNIER ...not much I can say about Red on a family-rated blog, but if you like a little plot with your sex, this is one author you don't want to miss!

Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler It's a series bound in a single book. It's uncommon and well worth reading.

John Ringo, most especially his Council War series, but I haven't read anything of his I didn't like. You might beware what I like. His characters are larger than life and hard-hitting. They don't pull punches and there's never any soft-lenses or misty focus in his tangled high-stakes games of wars and love.

Sails and Sorcery. An anthology of Tales of Nautical Fantasy published by Fantasist

Children of Hurin I loved every word of it and, yes, I'm a die-hard Tolkien fan. I love The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, and I've read most of the Histories, but when I want the familiar comfort of slipping far away it's my old dog-eared copy of the Silmarillion that I reach for.

CJ Cherryh - I currently have well-worn copies of the Faded Sun Trilogy and Arafel's Saga, but I haven't read anything of hers that wasn't worth reading at least twice.


Holly Lisle - too many good ones to mention, all the way back from Fire in the Mist and The Rose Sea up through Last Girl Dancing and Talyn. Regardless of if she's writing mystery, suspense, romance or fantasy (and it's usually a wonderful mix), I haven't seen anything of hers that doesn't make me want more. Also check out her series of writing clinics.

Stranger in a Strange Land and too many others to list by Heinlein. Also Asimov. ER Burroughs, both Tarzan and John Carter ... and yes, I read most of the Gor series at an impressionable age, but I'm not going to list it here... Conan: Howard, Carter and DeLisle are my favs, but I'll read all of the series. ... I love Arnold as Conan in his fur loincloth. I had to post the picture ... just because. :) I don't think any real reason is needed to post a pic of a hunky guy with a big sword.

...and I'm realizing what a foolish project it was to think I could browse and list all the books I've recent read, re-read, or intend to read shortly, so I'm just going to mention three I picked up this weekend The Sense of Honor by Ashley Kath-Bilsky, High Seas Cthulhu (an anthology of swashbuckling adventure meets Mythos), and Every Inch a King, a delightful rollicking fantasy by Harry Turtledove.

Too much fun?

Arrrgh, Matey! It didn't matter that Talk Like a Pirate Day was three days past. Little details like that will never slow down Fencon fun!

Conventions like these are what you make of them, and you should always come to Fencon prepared to have a great time. Education and fun and games galore, you just have to take advantage. Go ahead and mark your calendars now for Fencon 5. They always have a great program of panels with agents, editors and authors and more fun stuff than anyone could possibly take in during the short three days. Chat and autograph sessions with authors, educational panels and workshops, gaming, filk, costume contests... the Saturday night show is always great and don't miss the Yard Dog Traveling Road Show.

glances nervously at date... I know, Iknowiknowiknow... It's only been a day since the last post! but whatheheck!? Fencon is worth it!

Conventions, Contests and Horses - Oh My!

...had a FENtastic time at Fencon4 this weekend. I didn't make as many panels as I would have liked, but I got so much out of the workshop with Toni Weisskopf that I felt that it more than balanced out. I really enjoyed listening to her, and learned a lot from all the critiques, not just mine. I also found it interesting on another level - maybe only in my own mind - because of her parallel but different perspective of being the one who makes the decision to buy when the previous workshops were by well-published authors. Of course, Mike Resnick is an editor as well as an author, and on board with Baen now, but it seemed that she came at the work from the other direction - and umm. not sure where I'm going with that, maybe just that I found it interesting.

I know my masochistic tendencies are showing, but I loved that she marked the spot where it got tossed in the reject pile. I'm pathetically ecstatic to have gotten to the bottom of the fourth page. go!me.

A couple of things struck home for me. Mainly, that thing they say about researching your market. Yeah. Do that. Know your market, and know the editor or agent you're submitting to. It may not really be possible to find out if they like cats or not, but a good feel for the flavor of that house will help you land in the right place.

In other news, I gained my own bit of recognition - it was fun because they were nice about it, and a little funnier once I'd had a couple of drinks. Fencon always has a short story contest and they announce the winners at their opening on Friday night. Well. I work weeknights - luckily enough I can take my work with me when I travel - but it keeps me in the room Friday nights. So when they announced the winners on Friday, they made the point that I had also won third place the previous year and not showed up for that certificate either ... THEN, at the show on Saturday night - the announced it AGAIN! LOL! and I finally got to go up and get my little bit of spotlight for both years. So anyway - that was fun. I enjoy contests, although I don't think they count for much on the grand scale, I've had a nice little run lately. Four entries to the Cisco contest garnered two firsts and two thirds and I'm especially proud of my 2nd place into RWA Ohio Valley's Summer Sizzle contest. (A couple of those are announced under my married name, just because things are slow to change over.) But the best thing about the Fencon and Cisco wins are the stories. _Love Me_ is a fun rendition of the old-tyme serial cowboy sitcoms .... railroad coming to town, evil rancher, beautiful daughter, requisite sidekick and the handsome stranger that's the hero; and _Sunshine_ is a Pirate Vampires in Space story. I figure that if I can do well enough with fun stuff like space cowboys, pirates and vampires, I should be able to write just about anything. :)

I was glad to get home yesterday afternoon. It's hard for me to be gone with so many horses, there is always something going on, it seems like. But I think in this case, the extra day away was good. We've had such a weird year with so much injury and sickness that it's been getting me down but when I got back Sunday, the days away gave me enough perspective to see that things are on the mend. The spider-bit horse is healing (as is the snake-bit dog) and the snots, excuse me, "respiratory crap" that's been going around is finally getting better instead of worse.

The first visit back is always fun because it seems like their personalities really come out when they're pushing for attention. And believe me, after me being gone for three days - they're attention deficient. GWAIHIR, my stallion, is trick trained and has the personality to be a lap dog if he weighed about a thousand pounds less. He'll start spontaneously tricking when he's real excited and so when I was trying to feed him last night, he kept picking up his bucket and throwing it, and then he would trot over and strike it. (He's trained to charge and strike a target.) And when I leaned over to turn his feeder right side up so I could put the grain in, he starts bowing. All of which is cute enough that I finally just gave up and asked him for a couple of tricks - which I enjoy as much as he does. But then the thing you have to remember is that he does about fifteen trick and he has about fifteen or so cues, but it's like the cue is only a guideline, not a rule. So you're never really sure which trick you're going to get when you cue him. And that's something that's definitely needs to be in a story some day ... when the hero is trying to impress the princess and he asks his horse to bow and the durn beast sticks his tongue out. *grin*.

Even in today's society where horses are more pet than livestock in so many cases, it often gets lost in the shuffle that they all have their little mannerisms and as a horseman, I'm always delighted to see an author give a horse some simple bit of personality because it just seems to add a layer to the whole thing.

We have a mare, BERI, also has an odd eating habit. She eats standing on three legs with her left foreleg tucked up. I'm afraid I'm responsible for that. Her mother was a terrible 'digger', she would paw and paw at feeding time and any time was tied up. So poor Beri, I always used harsh language when she started to dig. Sometimes, she'll paw in the air, but more often she just holds that leg up while she eats.

Our chestnut horse, Glamdring, was aggressive at feeding time as a baby. A horse has to pin it's ears back to act aggressively, to bite or anything like that and so I taught him that he had to perk his ears (happy horse) in order to get his feed. He *knows* this, but he still fusses about it. Any of you who have teenagers know what I'm talking about. So there is me, standing at the feeder with a bucket of grain - and there is he, ears pinned, tossing his head up and down ... dipping his nose in the empty bucket then looking at me and pretending to chew - as if I don't know I'm supposed to pour the feed in the bucket. "Ears," I say. And he'll flip his ears forward and back too fast for me to pour the grain and so we start over with the pinning of the ears and the tossing of the head. Funniest thing is that sometimes he'll put *one* ear forward and keep the other one back. I'll pretend not to notice and he'll get mad but will eventually turn his head to SHOW me that he has an ear forward. As if I couldn't see his left ear from where I'm standing on the right side of the horse. (he clearly thinks there are times that I'm not so smart *LOL*). And the problem with that is that he's so cute when he does it that I usually give in, and, horses being creatures of habit, once you're rewarded them for something three times, it tends to become a regular habit. Which can be something of a problem if you laugh when they've done something bad or even the least bit obnoxious. So if you need an odd thing picked up and tossed, pushed over, stomped on, kicked, smashed or bitten - just work in a couple of incidents through the early parts of the story and if the horse suspects a carrot, a bit of oats or even a good scratch'n at the wrong moment he'll be more than happy to wreak havoc as needed.

RWA National Conference - part II

Wow - what a whirlwind of a week. It will take me some time to get my head together, but I know I had a fabulous time. "Cheers!" to everyone who helped make this happen - from the organizers, speakers and volunteers to the members and attendees who make it all worthwhile. I've organized events in the past and raise my mug to those who managed to pull this off. (especially year after year).

The workshops were wonderful. I attended so many, the days started blurring! But I loved getting all the handouts spiral bound with the blank notes pages with between each class so at least my note are clear ;)

I especially loved Jane Porter's class on the Alpha Hero - she almost had me in tears a few times ... ok okokokokokOOOOK. ~ goosebumps *and* tears. ~ so there! She's one of the most engaging speakers I've ever had the privilege to workshop with and once the plastic quits smoking, I'm headed to the nearest brick and mortar to see what I can find of her backlist.



... just one more, because I just can't resist the primal alpha male.

Other favorites included the Chilling Villains workshop by Karen Rose and Madeline Hunter; The Men We Love by Tami Cowden; and I had a surprise favorite in a two hour class on real life hostage negotiation and how to use it in fiction by Angela Knight and her husband Michael Woodcock. I'm not sure why I went since I don't write contemporary, but I'm glad I did, and I hope that if I ever get nabbed, that Officer Woodcock is on duty.

The scheduling was just as tough as it could be. There were so many good workshops, it was really hard to pick. I hated missing Mary Buckham's workshop, but I did get a chance for a short visit, at least long enough to let her know the piece she helped me with in a recent online class finaled in the Sizzle contest.

I had an incredible time visiting with Leah Braemel who is every bit as delightful in person as she is online. But I have to admit that I was something of a bad influence as I was determined to be sure she had the full Texas Experience and so I tempted her away from the conference a couple of times. Even so I managed to meet Red Garnier and many wonderful people from all ends of the earth that it's going to take me a month at least to catch up with everyone.

I think I'll go for a long ride tomorrow!

Sue L

RWA National Conference

Leah Braemel is here and we're having a great time here in Dallas.

After spending the morning at the conference in workshops about creating spunky heroines and conflict, we skipped over to Fort Worth's 'Northside'. We had lunch at Risky's and discussed the morning's classes over a couple of cold brews.


I think Leah was getting a little carried away with it all. ... what do you think? ;)

writing and riding and writing

Another week gone by and we're on the road again early in the morning to the Bluebonnet Endurance Ride. I'll hopefully have a ride report and some photos next week.

I spent last weekend at the OWFI conference and had a wonderful time. I got a request for a partial from my agent appointment and she graciously spent a few minutes talking with me and offering advice about a couple of other projects I'm working through. I highly recommend this conference. It's two full days of workshops and lectures - I took some good tidbits from every single one I attended. My favorite session was when they put three agents up front and Robyn Conley read aloud. Everyone had the chance to turn in the first few pages of their manuscripts at check-in. Robyn shuffled the stack and started reading. Each agent would raise their hand at the point they would reject the work. When the second one rejected, they'd each take the mike and explain what they liked about the work and what the trigger was that cause them to throw their hand up. - yes, I turned mine in, but it didn't come up in the shuffle before we ran out of time.

But back to the subject of mud - from the Hog Scramble, and probably the Bluebonnet too - it's an excellent way to slow down your hero if you need to create conflict. You'll need to plan ahead with storm clouds, or setup unpredictable weather in your world. Depending on the type of soil, maybe clay (slick mud), blackland (thick and clumpy), or as in the Piney Woods of East Texas, soft and boggy. Not only does the mud greatly increase the horses workload, promoting fatigue, it exponentially increases the chance of injury to the horses' soft tissues, ligaments and tendons.

When a horse travels, especially at speed, they have a rhythm and an energy cycle and exchange. Using this, a horse can actually run past the point of having the strength to stop and live. Mud tends to break that easy rhythm because they're having to tense and brace when each hoof lands and rather than springing back off the ground with returned energy, they're having to wrestle each step out of the muck.

Not just mud, but any kind of terrain. Hills, steep or rolling, or rock, (like at the Heart of the Hills ride earlier this year) will also tend to slow a horse down and raise the chance of injury. Mud or hills, either one, will cause a horse to show tight muscles and soreness in the large muscles of the rump and down the tops of their back legs. A strained, stressed or pulled tendon will express itself in the horse bobbing it's head at the trot, or an unevenness of gait at the canter and when the rider dismounts to check the legs, they may be able to feel some heat in the injured leg. Depending on the severity, the horse may point that toe out, or hold it up so only the tip of the hoof touches the ground. There is a lot of good, easily available, information on the 'net about "bowed tendons" so I won't go into it here although I'll be happy to answer any specific questions if you want to email.