Sharp Words

Hello, I’m home from the day job and tomorrow I will embark on four fun-filled days at RWA Conference, where I’ll try to pretend writing is my actual profession instead of just the hobby that consumes all my free time.  Anyway, here is the third and final installment of Terra Obscura. The entire story will be available in the Reads section of my website. www.bettiesharpe.com/reads/TerraObscura.htm

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The dyehouse is downwind of every other building, but its location does little to diffuse its smell. The building is squat and dark and windowless. Its roof is pierced with chimneys, like arrows sticking out of Saint Sebastian’s chest. The air around it is soaked in the moist, acrid stench of dyestuff, lye and urine. After a day’s work, I’ll carry that same stench, and everyone who walks within ten feet of me will know I have again incurred an Elder’s wrath.

The work is hard, the hours are long; the dying is no easy task. Pilgrims, still wan and weak-legged from their voyage across the ocean, must bring their garments to be dyed black before they can become citizens of God’s kingdom here on Earth. In so doing, the Elders say, they obliterate the sin of pride, and come into the kingdom humble as penitents.

In the dyehouse, we submerge the aristocrat’s bright velvets and the pauper’s faded woolens into the same steaming, stinking tub of boiling water and ammonia which we have distilled from urine and some other sources. We stew the garments longer than a tough cut of meat, until the threads are weak enough to accept the dye. The dying takes time, but we will wait. Within the wall, time is something we do not lack.

Once the garments have been soaked and softened, we submerge them in a vat of black dyestuff laced with arsenic to help the color stick. We stir this pot for hours before it is time to remove the sodden mass of black clothes. The dye makes our hands rough and gray. The arsenic makes our skin pale and our bodies weak.

There is no punishment worse than the dyehouse, save the tannery and the distillery where our chemicals are made. But that work is heavy and hard—the men labor with their coats removed and sleeves rolled back. I have been told that the sight of men working at such labors would be not purify my soul, but cast me deeper into sin. We women are weak, and must be protected from such sights. Thank goodness. Read the rest of this entry »

Before starting the story, I’d like to say a few words about Terra Obscura. It’s as much an experiment as it is a story, and I totally blame Ann Aguirre for it. Her novel Grimspace is written in first person present tense, which is rarely my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it in Grimspace. A funny thing happened after I finished reading the book, and got back to writing my own stuff: it started coming out in present tense (rather like how my narrative voice came down with a bad case of the word “betimes” after I read Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart in the middle of writing Ember.).

To exorcise the first person present tense from my brain, I sat down and wrote a few paragraphs in it. Overall, it was a good exercise. It helped me make peace with the tense. And when I needed a short story for my short story class, it gave me a nice starting point. However, the ending is rather…open-ended. I happen to like the possibilities of it, but I thought I should warn you.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, part one of Terra Obscura is after the break. I hope you like it.

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I’m sick. Sick and sad and uninspired. Stupid cold.

So here’s me cheating on my blogging by posting the start of a story I started a while ago, and mean to finish once I get three or five other Works in Progress out of my head and into my hard drive (and thumb drive, and back-up disk. Save early and often, peoples.)

Nieves

When I was very young, I asked my mother what had happened to the smallest finger on her left hand.

“I cut it off,” she told me, miming the chop of a knife with the flat of her right hand. One swing, sure and swift. She’d smiled when she said it, no doubt meaning to keep the conversation light. She often told outrageous tales just to see my eyes grow big. And when I asked, “Truly?” she’d shake her head and we would giggle over my credulity like a pair of mean little girls.

I did not realize until I was much older that she spun those fanciful tales a purpose. She meant to teach me to tell a lie from the truth, and to distrust even the people I loved the most.

That’s how I felt when I hopped on the Internets this morning to read Sherry Thomas’s combined review of Ember and Like a Thief in the Night at Dear Author.

A little bird reminded me I should be promoting Like a Thief in the Night and letting people know that this red hot futuristic tale of sex, murder, magic and mayhem will be available for sale at Samhain Publishing on January 15, 2008 for the low, low price of $3.50.

But how should I promote the novella? Maybe a contest? I wracked my brain, which took all of 2 seconds, and came up with these ideas:

• The “Guess Bettie’s Favorite Color Contest”
• The “Tell Bettie Why You Deserve a Free Book” Contest
• The “Guess How Many Fingers Bettie is Holding Up Behind her Back” Contest.

Maybe I’m not so good at this contest thing. Maybe I used up my one good idea on the Hard Boiled contest. No, wait, I have one more idea: I’ll let potential contest entrants make up their own contest.

So, here’s the deal. Post your single best idea for a contest in the comments of this post. If I pick that idea, you’ll win a free copy of Like a Thief in the Night and I’ll hold the contest in February, with a second copy of Like a Thief… as the prize. Entries must be submitted by 6 P.M. Pacific on Monday, January 14, 2008.

Everybody loves presents. Here’s a list of presents from authors to readers–free reads!

1. Update: December 26, 2007 through January 1, 2008: Free Harlequin eBooks! You can download one book a day.
2. Paperback Writer’s 2006 Free eBook Challenge
   This here is a big, mama-jama list o’ free fiction. Lynn Viehl (she of the Stardoc & Darkyn novels) challenged her blog readers to write original free stories for their readers. Also, check out the sidebar for links to Viehl’s outstanding freebies.
3. be delicious by Annie Dean (Ann Aguirre)
   Friends to lovers. Short. Sweet. Hot. There are actually four free stories on this page. I haven’t read them all yet–but only because I’m pacing myself. ;o)
4. Meeting in Darkness by Imogen Howson
   Clicking around on the Drollerie Press site, I came across the cover of Ms. Howson’s forthcoming YA novel, Frayed Tapestry. It is a thing of beauty. And the hook is cracktastically hookalicious. That book’s on my list. Meeting in Darkness was Howson’s contribution to the Romance Divas Free eBook Challenge. It’s short, sweet, and I adore her writing style. Also, her freebie, Helen is available at Drollerie Press.
5. One Night Stand by Dionne Galace
   What happens when they stay for breakfast? (Good gory fun. This story is not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.)
6. The Serial
   No, this isn’t shameless self-promotion. Okay. It’s not just shameless self promotion. It’s a Watch This Space announcement. Tumperkin’s two-part short story, the Ring, is on it, and, come January, there will be something new.

All right. That’s it, y’all. It is time for me to go forth and shop. (Yes, I know it’s Christmas Eve). Here’s hoping your Christmas is full of peace, love, and many, many good reads.

P.S. This list is by no means complete. Mostly, it’s what I could think of off the top of my head. If you have recommendations for good free reads, please post them in the comments.

A while back, Nice Mommy and Evil Editor Angie had a fun contest. She said she would send something to the first three people to reply to her post. The thing is, the winners have to pay it forward and hold a similar contest.

Which is quite a nice kick in the pants for yours truly. I keep meaning to hold a contest (all the cool kids are doing it), but I have this problem when it comes to actually putting stuff in the mail. (Yet another reason I like ePublishing.)

Knowing my natural penchant for postal-avoidance, I thought and thought and thought, and ate a Godiva truffle, and thought some more about how to give something away without having to mail it.

Here’s my solution: I do an electronic give away. Instead of oh-so-cute and cuddly hand-sewn items, I will give away cold hard pixels. I have at my disposal, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Flash and a lovely new toy called a Wacom tablet that lets me draw straight into the graphics program of my choice.

Maybe you’ve been wanting a flash banner for your website, or a pretty cover for your free ebook, or an anime avatar drawn in your image. Here’s your chance. The first three people to respond to this post get the web-only file type of their choice, three hours of work by me and up to three of their favorite royalty-free images from dreamstime.com or istockphoto.com to be purchased by me for use in their shiny new file.

Examples of graphics stuff I’ve done:I did a bookmark for Ann Aguirre using images from the cover of her forthcoming novel Grimspace. Check her kick-ass quote from Sharon Shin! I asked that part of my payment be a signed copy of the book–I am so looking forward to reading it. Have been since I read the excerpt on her site ages ago.

I did the cover from Ember using this royalty free image, and, depending on the version, a copyright-free illustration from the original Perrault version of Cinderella or a curl of smoke as the background.

Then there’s the anime avatar, which, apparently, looks enough like me to get me recognized at a LARA meeting IRL. But maybe that’s just because anime me also has short hair and brown skin and there aren’t so many women fitting that description being newbies at RWA local chapter meetings.

Also, here’s the Flash banner I did for Like a Thief in the Night before I got the cover.

Here’s the static banner ad I did after. I still need to update the Flash image…

I also did all of the graphics on this blog layout, and my web site (but don’t take the website as an add–I did it all in one afternoon and I totally intend to re-do it up nicer when inspiration strikes me. :g:)

The first chapter of Ember is up on Bam’s (a.k.a. Dionne Galace’s) site. Go check it out.

Updated:
A PDF and html file of each chapter will be available on my website the day after Bam runs the chapter on her site.

Charm is a curse. Love is a fire. And this story? It’s is no fairytale.

31,304 / 15,000 (208.7%)

Time to take it off the old WIP board.

I spent more time on it than I’d planned, but I don’t regret it. Ember was sitting on my hard drive at 1,500 words for at least a year. I just could not motivate myself to write it for sale. But once I started writing for fun and web content, the story just took off.

Perhaps the reason for my hesitation was that I have a longer story set in the same world that I like better. The other story, Rohais is also first person narrated. I was beginning to think the narrative voices of the two main characters were a bit too similar. The funny thing is, now that the story is finished, I don’t think Ember sounds too much like Rohais.

So, what have I learned.

1. Writing is fun.
2. I do not need the motivation of a deadline to finish a story (but it helps).
3. I shouldn’t talk myself out of stories I haven’t written yet. Maybe the things I’m worried about won’t be a problem.
4. Some stories run longer than you think they will, and that’s OK.

Look for Ember in November.