Of Cats and Laptops

Attack of the Verbs: Letter D!

2012-01-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

Welcome to an abbreviated attack of the verbs. Due to a crazy work schedule, I’m eating lunch at my desk and throwing these words out as fast as I can!

So, in honor of my current state of being, our letter D word this week is…

Debilitate.

Boy, howdy--this word has some serious connotations to it. Its primary definitions are to incapacitate, to cripple, to make dull. It can also mean to sap, weaken or wear out. (Courtesy of dictionary.com)

A strongly negative verb, no? For example, which sounds more painful?

He debilitated his soldiers by waking them several times a night for spontaneous exercises.

OR

He wore out his soldiers by waking them several times a night for spontaneous exercises.

Maybe it’s just me, but the first instance sounds stronger, more painful. Either way, debilitate has a definitive connotation.

I'm Pooped. How about you?

Attack of the Verbs: C

2012-01-20T06:42:00.000-08:00

Good Friday to you! We continue our “action-packed, verb-laden” trip around the alphabet this week with the letter C.

And filed under the subject of Current Events, our verb this week is….

~~CENSOR~~

Oh, could you not read that? If you’ve been following the news…wait, sorry, some news media didn’t actually cover the subject that well, for rather obvious reasons. Let’s start again….

If you tried to access Wikipedia, hit the Google front page, or were active on Twitter or Facebook on Wednesday, you probably noticed there was a great deal of chatter on the internet about certain legislation that Congress was considering: SOPA and PIPA. Since this blog is about verbs, I’ll leave it at that, and allow you to draw your own conclusions as to why I chose “Censor” as my verb this week.

Censor can be a noun (a censor is an official that monitors content for inappropriate material, a la the person in a radio station with her finger on the “delay” button lest the deejay or a guest drop the F-bomb.) It’s origins are Roman:

1531, A Roman magistrate who took censuses and oversaw public morals, from L. censere "to appraise, value, judge," from PIE base *kens- "speak solemnly, announce." Transferred sense of "officious judge of morals and conduct" is from 1592; of books, plays, later films, etc., 1644. The verb is from 1882.
From dictionary.com

In its verb form, “censor” means to ban or cut portions from whatever you’re judging/reviewing (books, speeches, television programs, films, etc) due to content you find inappropriate, keeping it from others.

Now, censoring is not always a bad thing: “He censored his words to keep from hurting his mother’s feelings. No need to tell her the casserole was a complete disaster.”

However, most of the time it has a very negative connotation – that someone or some entity is trying to govern what you see, read, hear….

“Congress’s poorly thought out attempt to stem the tide of music/movie piracy actually censors websites so fully, under threat of steep penalties, that many sites might cease to exist as a result.”

Ahem, I let my politics show there for a second. Sorry.

You hear cries of censorship anytime a school board creates a banned book list. Or when certain topics aren’t fully covered by news channels due to the editor's particular ideological leanings.

Either way, it’s a very strong verb, with very particular implications, which can add just the right nuance to your writing.

What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? Or did the PTBs censor that bit of news?

ATTACK OF THE VERBS 2012: B!

2012-01-12T20:11:00.000-08:00

Greetings! If you’re new to Of Cats and Laptops, this year we have a grand plan…to discover an alphabet of strong, active verbs, one week at a time!

This week, the letter B!

It’s always struck me as funny that there are so many B verbs that mean almost the same thing. Oh, of what B verbs do I speak, you ask?

Well, without further ado:

BAFFLE, BEFUDDLE, BEWILDER, BOGGLE

Put simply? There’s a lot of darn B verbs that mean “To confuse or perplex.”

What’s fun about these verbs is how they sound. There’s a humorous connotation to them. They are good for sarcasm (I know—boggles the mind, doesn’t it?). They work well in showing someone who’s a little slow on the uptake. (The DVD player baffles Grandpa. He’s always asking, “Where does the tape go?”) It shows someone who’s having a hard time moving forward in the face of a lot of options. (She was bewildered by all the choices in the lipstick section. She pulled out three tubes, staring at them, unable to decide.)

Even if you are befuddled by the sheer number of edits you want to make in your WIP, you can’t go wrong with a good, strong verb!

Any other "confused" B verbs out there?

Has anyone seen my steak? I'm totally baffled -- it was here a minute ago!

Attack of the Verbs: 2012!

2012-01-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

As I teased in my final “Year of Win” blog post, I have a new theme in mind for 2012. As an unrepentant word nerd (so say we all!), I love learning about etymology and new/strange words. Which led me to ponder…for a writer, what’s more important than good, strong verbs? They helps us avoid those dreaded “to be” sentences, add color to our prose, and make our characters ACT.

In short, verbs rock!

Since there are 52 fine Fridays in 2012, I thought we could take a little trip around the alphabet—twice—and visit some fun/outlandish/awesome verbs.

So, without further ado, our first verb for 2012 is….*drum roll*

Assuage!

Why “assuage?” Okay, you caught me…I like how it sounds : ) But, besides that, assuage conveys a deeper meaning than just “satisfy” or “relieve.” It’s a strong, evocative verb.

Let’s start with the definition (via dictionary.com):

1. To make milder or less severe; relieve; ease; mitigate
2. To appease; satisfy; allay; relieve

3. To soothe, calm, or mollify

Assuage’s origins began sometime in the 13th century, in Old English. When you look at its Latin roots, the word comes from a derivative of suāvis – or “agreeable to taste.” Seems kind of strange, right? But in essence, “assuage” says “I’m making this painful thing more agreeable” – so it fits.

If your character feels like this:

Someone, or something, can assuage their pain/guilt/fear/anger, and make them feel like this:

Is assuage a verb you find you use? Or is it on a dusty closet shelf, waiting for the perfect moment to add color to your story?

I hope you enjoy the little trip we’re taking around verb-land – I am (but again, by admission, I’m a total nerd). By the way—special requests for a particular week are always welcome. Email me at kchighley(at)gmail(dot)com.

Next week? The Letter B….

Year of Win Blog: 2011 in Review

2011-12-16T07:51:00.000-08:00

Greetings! Long time no, er, blog.

Ah yes, the break. I took one. I took a LOOONNNGG one. There’ve been a lot of changes in my life this year, so blogging slipped, slipped, slipped. I volunteered for a layoff from my old job a year ago (risky), found a new one in April (riskier), and worked hard to prove myself. I finished one manuscript and drafted another, that just went through first round beta-reads (some good, some bad, Que sera sera). My grandma fell ill, battled back, but now is confined to a full-time nursing facility. In short, it’s been a busy time.

But I’ve seen some great things this year. My friend Claire LeGrand got a book deal. So did Sarah Gilman. Teresa Frohock saw her debut novel come out. Lindsay Buroker found huge success in self-publishing. My cousin, writing as Casea Major, published a novella and two short stories, with a third pending. And it’s been a stellar year in YA publishing. I’ve read some amazing fiction this year: The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Divergent, Red Glove, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Shatter Me, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer…the list goes on. Great fiction is coming out next year—sequels to those above, as well as The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, Incarnate, and one I can’t wait for….Black Heart, by Holly Black. Totally a year of win.

For my own writing, I’ve kind of been through hell and back. Writer’s block, self-doubt, rejection …it’s been a real test of will. I’ve tried to quit a few times, if we’re being honest. Lucky for me, my husband is good at talking me off the ledge, as are a few friends, one of whom basically called me a chicken. Failure, struggle, pain—it’s part of this deal. Laurie Halse Anderson told me at a book signing, “it always takes longer than you think it will.” We have options—self-publishing is a real option—but if the dream is traditional publishing (or good success at self-publishing), you have to put the blood, sweat and tears into it. I expect backlash for saying this, but anyone can publish a book. You just need a Smashwords account and a word processing program. Not just anyone can write a good book, one that sticks with a reader. That takes work and struggle. Given a long time to examine my motives, I’ve finally come to understand that the reader reaction is the most important thing. Over time, maybe my writing will improve to the point that I touch a reader in a significant way. For now, I realize I have a hill to climb, but the reward is so great, and my need to write words is so deep, that I’ll keep going.

So, to everyone who climbed that hill with me in 2011, keep going. The struggle will bring you to a Win. Just keep going.

I’ve loved this experiment, celebrating wins with my fellow writer friends. For 2012, I’m going to do something a little different, though. I’m a word-nerd, grammar punk, so next year is the year of VERBS! Yes, that’s right, people…verbs. Stay tuned….

Thanks for reading. --Kendra

Year of Win, Day 31: Starting Over

2011-09-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

Since my last post talked about writer’s block and the dark struggle of the soul, I thought I’d follow up with a “where do we go from here” conversation. For me, it took learning some simple rules:

1. It’s not a race. I’ve been running at a goal for so long, I forgot I’m on a journey. The point of writing is to follow the story, to see what happens. Being in a hurry to win a contest, to get an agent, to self-publish a novel, to get a traditional publishing deal…while those things are nice, it’s more important to own and love the story and the craft. If you do that, without haste, the others will come.

2. Imaginary pressure is not my friend. Giving myself insane goals hurt more than helped. Feeling like a failure because I didn’t finish a manuscript on a self-imposed deadline was counter-productive. I’m in this glorious place where I don’t have professional deadlines—I have the freedom to take things slow and enjoy the small moments my characters are having. Someday, I might not have that luxury, so why not relish it now?

3. Listen to my teachers—and follow through. I was lucky enough to have a critique with Kathleen Duey (Skin Hunger, Sacred Scars) this past week. Some of the things she said where things I knew intrinsically, but had been ignoring in my hurry (see point 1). Others were ways of making things clear, in such a practical way, that I went, “Okay…duh. Yes, I get it now!” But to really hear it, I had to let go of my defensiveness about my own work. As a result, I’m energized and ready to put things into practice, even if it means big rewrites, because it’s all clear to me now.

4. Kill darlings with malevolent glee. But, never let them go. I save all my drafts. Who knows when a sparkly little line I had to discard in one piece will find a perfect home in another. I tell you, that makes editing a lot easier…because nothing good ever truly dies.

5. I am who I am. I love Holly Black. I think her Curse Workers series is brilliant. But no matter how much I love her writing, I’m not Holly Black. I’ve had different experiences, and I see the world through a different set of eyes. Ignoring trends and finding the story that only I am capable of telling is the way to great writing.

6. Above all, just relax

We can all have a Year of Win if we write the stories on our hearts and let the doubts go, while hanging on to our dreams, whatever those may be.

What lessons have you learned over the course of your writing journey? Sharing these things helps us all….


Just2shutter / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Year of Win, Day 30: How I’m Getting my Mojo Back

2011-09-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Greetings all! Sorry for the drought at Year of Win. You ever have one of those months when everything seems to happen at once? Yeah, me too. I’m trying to keep some positivity, but I didn’t really feel it the last few weeks, so I decided to go dark rather than sound like Catastrophe Kendra.

But now I’m feeling better! Maybe it’s because (brief ROW80 check) that I’m finally cracking my writer’s block.

Wait...let's back up a few months. So, I did something stupid—I let myself get burned out. I think many of us reach this place, about 3 -5 years in, where we’ve been writing hard, thinking about nothing else, when we hit this wall. We remember there’s a world outside, that we have families, friends, lives. We’ve also been working so hard that the words just retreat to the corners of our brains. At least, that’s how it’s been for me. (For an awesome perspective on getting caught in the writing vortex—read Claire Legrand’s blog…it has a unicorn—truly a WIN! She also has another amazing unicorn blog post about self doubt which I've read more than a few times recently.)

After hitting the wall...well, I’ll be fully honest—I took a break. A big one. I focused on my kids more. I spent time with my husband. I ironed. I watched a Big Bang Theory marathon night after night. I didn’t feel motivated. Whenever I sat at my laptop, guilt ate my brain and fear whirled in my stomach. Then my fingers froze and I ended up staring at the screen or spending all my time on twitter, wondering where those words went. It’s a terrifying feeling. I’ve had brief bouts of writer’s block before, but nothing like this. It’s never been so bad that I went weeks without feeling like writing. And it didn’t help that parts of my support system weren’t working well. There’s also this unfathomable feeling of failure. I haven’t nailed a publishing contract yet and I was so sure I would’ve by now. It’s hard to keep writing in the face of that, to keep reminding myself that success happens in its own time, and that I have many other options if only I'd just try.

So what finally helped? My husband. He said, “Maybe you’re trying too hard. You used to write because you loved it. Now you write because you feel like it’s expected. No wonder it’s hard.”

You know what? He’s right. I wasn’t writing for love. I was writing for “must.” And it drained my creativity. I was so worried about being perfect, I couldn’t write just to see where the story went. I was polishing my prose before it even landed on the page. In short, I need to dare to suck. I also have to re-learn how to write for love.

The last few days, I’ve done just that. I literally cringed at some of the stuff leaving my keyboard, but it didn’t matter. There were words there. The story was moving forward. And I met my writing goal both days. Baby steps. I can polish the heck out of this sucker later. Right now, it’s more important to actually create it. To quote my husband again, “It’s a process, not an event.” It’ll take time, but I know eventually I’ll get fully in the groove again. I just have to keep trying.

Maybe this post is TMI, but I think it’s okay to admit I’m fallible. Maybe if I do, others in the same dark place won’t feel as alone as I did….even when we aren’t alone.

Thanks to all of you for your support; it means a lot to me. Having writerly friends makes all the difference…and that’s full of WIN!

Year of Win, Day 29: Patience Pays Off

2011-08-12T07:19:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

It's been a long week, but the weekend is here! I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am!

Before we get to our very inspirational Year of Win story, I need to make a quick ROW80 check-in since I was bad and missed my check in last week. *Hides head in shame* I'm behind. In the last two weeks, I've churned out maybe 2500 words....when I should have written 7000. I'm bouncing between 2 projects, and it took me a bit to settle. I have now, and have spent a few days in researching and outlining. This weekend, I write. Period.

Now on to the bestest story I've heard in a while : D I met my dear friend, Liz Coley, on the OWW site nearly three years ago. I was a newbie "serious" writer, and she was the agented writer who took me under her wing. Liz went through my first, quite awful, novel. Chapter by chapter, she taught me a lot, both through her own writing (which I critiqued...sort of, since I had no idea what I was doing), and through her critiques of my work. She's read several other manuscripts for me since, and each one is better for it. So it thrills me to present her story. Recently, Liz sold a manuscript, in a good deal, to a major house. Getting to this point took perseverance, hard work and patience. These are the kinds of stories that give me hope, and I hope you find it as exciting as I did!

How Long?

Like the psalmist David lamenting his grief and fear, we writers spend some dark nights of the soul calling, "How long, oh Lord, how long?" For many, the answer is ten. Ten? Really? Yes, that's what I've heard--ten manuscripts, ten years, ten thousand hours--pick one. Learning to be a writer takes a long time, and becoming a published author can take even longer. But...this is the Year of Win.

2011 is the year I self-published my fourth novel, Out of Xibalba

2011 is the year I sold my seventh novel to big publishing

In the same week.

Follow the breadcrumbs backwards to see how I got here. Back in 1998, when my boys were four and six, I made the sudden decision that I wanted to be an author. Connie Willis was 48 when she broke out with the absolutely brilliant Doomsday book. I was only 36. I had time. I signed up for my first speculative fiction conference, wrote two short stories to take with me, got my first positive feedback, and found out I was expecting my daughter. In 2001, when she started school, I decided to tackle my first novel, The Captain's Kid, the kind of story I wished I could find for my boys. It took two years to write and taught me a lot about the craft--about writing, revising, polishing, and finishing. And when I started submitting, The Captain's Kid also taught me a lot about the business. You've been through this yourselves, most likely. A lot of silence, one maybe, and ultimately no. My second manuscript, Splitting Point, sent to 12 agents and editors, got as far as one encouraging personal rejection. Under its earlier title of Sixty Million Best Friends, my third novel Tor Maddox: Unleashed went out to 42 agents. It worked. I was learning. In 2007, I signed for representation with Nancy Coffey Literary. I thought I'd reached the top of the mountain, but it was really Basecamp 2, the next staging spot.

At least I could see the path up. Each year I was attending my speculative fiction workshop/conference and one or two children's literature conferences. I was churning out another novel every November with Nanowrimo. I was making friends and connections in the writing community. I had critique partners and the SFF Online Writing Workshop. I was writing and submitting short stories. In short, I was doing everything my teachers had advised--if you want to be a professional author, act like one. You'll get there.

2011 is also the year I finally sold those first two short stories written back in 1998.

"Never give up. Never surrender."

Liz Coley is the author of Out of Xibalba, available now on Amazon, Kindle, B&N, Nook, Createspace, and Smashwords.

Congrats to Liz for her success! I'm super-excited to see what happens next!

Year of Win, Day 28: Out in Blue, Out in Stores!

2011-08-05T07:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone! Hot enough for you? Today’s high in lovely Dallas is 110. Yes, I think the devil moved to Texas…

On today’s Year of Win, we celebrate my friend, Sarah Gilman. Her new novel, Out in Blue recently released, and I asked her to talk about her journey through the publication process:

Kendra asked me to talk today about preparing for publication and the experience of a book launch. Out in Blue, released on August 2nd, is my debut novel, so I am doing all this for the first time. The process is, in a word, busy!

Preparation for publication started as soon as I signed my contract with Entangled Publishing. My editor, the fabulous Marie Loggia-Kee, read the manuscript and suggested revisions, which were minor except for places where she asked for additional content. After I completed the changes, she read the work a second time, and again I executed the suggested revisions. From there, the manuscript went to the desk of the copy editor, who went over every sentence with a fine tooth comb. Then I went through to approve all of her changes.

We still weren’t done! Next, the publisher formatted the manuscript and I received the galley, the advanced reader copy which reviewers receive. I read the manuscript again, slowly, for the last chance to catch formatting errors and typos. How I don’t have Out in Blue memorized word for word, I can’t imagine!

During this time, we also developed the cover, the series name, the tag line, etc. And as swamped as I felt, my editor and copy editor were doing all these things with several books at once! I stand back in awe.

Once all that was over and done with, we got even busier! My awesome publicist, Roxanne Rhoads (who has several authors to juggle), put together a massive blog tour for the month of August and beyond to promote the release. I’m now in the process of writing all those guest posts and answering many interview questions, all while getting nervous and biting my nails as reviewers announce their verdicts. {I pause my writing of this post to refresh Goodreads. Again.}

Deep breaths.

Above all else, I’m excited and thrilled to be working with Entangled Publishing and seeing my first novel hit the streets. I’m nervous, I’m busy, my inbox has never seen so much action, but this is one of the best experiences of my life.

Pass the coffee.

Thank you so much for having me today, Kendra!

Thanks, Sarah! I wish you great success with your series and with the release of Out in Blue!

Out in Blue--Entangled Publishing

Review copies available at NetGalley

Out in Blue Trailer

Year of Win, Day 27: Left is All Right

2011-07-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings from sunny Dallas/Fort Worth. If I may be frank, I would dearly love to say “Greetings from rainy and chilly Dallas/Fort Worth” but that’s not likely to happen until October at the outside. Break out the sunscreen!

Quick ROW80 Update….not quite the week I wanted to have. My goal is 500/words a day, or 3500 per week. I wrote a measly 2000. Between traveling and getting a manuscript ready for my agent, work time was scarce for my WIP. I hope to remedy that this weekend. With the other MS out of the way, maybe now I can focus on this new world I’m trying to create.

Now on to Year of Win! Every once in a while, I get a wild hair to celebrate something outside the writing realm. Today I received an adorable picture of my 18-month-old niece (one of my sister’s twin girls…so cute, seriously) and it gave me the idea. It appears, to my great delight, that baby A is left-handed. Her Aunt Kay (that’s me : D) is also a lefty. In three generations, on both sides of my family, there have been four; my maternal grandfather, me, my ten-year-old son and now sweet A.

In honor of that momentous discovery, today’s blog is dedicated to us southpaws.

There aren’t many of us…only about 10% of the world’s population is left-handed. But, interestingly enough, FIVE of seven recent presidents are/were left-handed: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan (who was ambidextrous), George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. A coincidence? Maybe not…research has pointed out that lefties tend to be high achievers, primarily because we have to adapt our natural right-brain tendencies to a right-handed/left-brained-centric world. A number of us even become somewhat ambidextrous by necessity: I use scissors right-handed, I bowl right-handed, I golf right-handed. I eat and write left-handed. Adaptation is key.

As an aside, my fourth grade teacher once tried to get me to write “right.” She wanted me to learn, at age nine, how to write with my right hand, because writing left-handed was incorrect, To her, that meant I had a deficiency of sorts. Needless to say, my Mom had a few choice words to say about that. And here I am almost thirty years later, not only writing left-handed, but holding my pencil in a way that most people find contortionist.

I win!

Yep, that’s really my hand. And yep, I find holding my pencil that way quite comfortable. (I can’t use chopsticks to save my behind, though….)

Things weren’t always so accommodating for southpaws. My family should’ve had five lefties…in grade school, my grandma had her knuckles rapped until she learned how to write with her “right” hand. I’m really glad that kind of stigma doesn’t exist as much today. In some places it does, but for the most part different is okay with left-handedness. Which makes me happy.

So today, we celebrate my left-handed counterparts. Lift up those smudged hands and ink-splotched papers and hold your heads high!

*designs can be found at cafepress *

Year of Win, Day 26: I Think I Can, I Think I Can

2011-07-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

Good morning campers! Hot enough for you? We’re having a new roof put on, and our crew spends 12:30 to 4:30 each day in the shade under my trees. Then they work until 9 pm. Mercy.

Quick ROW80 check in. I surpassed my goals this week—I added about 3000 words to my near-final WIP, added a few words to my current WIP, and wrote a short story for the heck of it. It didn’t feel like I got much done (the current WIP is languishing which frustrates me), but when I added it up, the week went better than I thought. Here’s hoping for a good writing weekend!

Year of win news….we have some great blog posts planned for August (a few big things to celebrate!). For this week, I’d like to celebrate all the writers plugging away, hoping, dreaming, waiting for an agent call, for a sale, for publication in a short-fiction magazine or contest. These are the dog days, and it’s tough to go after it week after week, not knowing if the dream is close at hand or still in the distance. I was lucky enough to meet Laurie Halse Anderson last month at an event in Dallas. When she signed my copy of FORGE, she also wrote a PS, tell me it was the secret to a successful writing career: DON’T QUIT.

That’s what the Year of Win is about.

Year of Win Day 25: Short Story Win for K

2011-07-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings! I hope this July week finds you well. If I don't melt before August 1st, I'll call it a fine summer (it was 104 degrees in my neck o' the woods today. Brutal isn't a strong enough word...perhaps "gateway to hell" is more appropriate, but I digress).

Quick ROW80 check in--I wrote a short story this week as a break from editing the so-almost-done-I-can-taste it WIP, and from the new manuscript as well. I had so much fun writing it, I clocked in a whopping 7000 words this past week! My goal was 3500, so color me overjoyed! It's good, too, because I'll be in edit mode part-time, so my first draft's word count is likely to suffer the next few weeks. But I'm committed to sticking with it, and so I shall.

This week's Year of Win story is for my cousin K, who writes under the name Casea Major. K sold her second short story/novella this week. I'm really excited for her! It's exciting to share the writing journey with her. And even nicer to have a family member who gets what it's like to be a writer. Congrats to K!

Year of Win Reboot: Miserere Debuts

2011-07-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

As I promised, we're back in business here at the Year of Win blog. For new readers (hi!), I'm on a mission to celebrate good writerly news in 2011 and beyond. If you have something you'd like to share--be it signing with an agent, getting a book deal, or just receiving an awesome critique from that really tough crit partner--I want to hear about it! My email is in the sidebar. Drop me a line so we can cheer each other on. Writing can be a lonely business, but it doesn't have to be. That's what we're here for!

Before we get down to the story of the week, a quick ROW80 check in---2200 words since Monday. My goal was 2000. Yay! That's my win : D

This week's feature is to celebrate my friend, Teresa Frohock. Something special happened for her last week. Her novel, MISERERE: An Autumn Tale, debuted on July 1. Y'all, I've read it and it's a fantastic story...you should pick it up. I'm thrilled for Teresa, and her agent Weronika Janczuk. This is definitely an accomplishment full of win! You can find Teresa's website here to learn more.

Congrats Teresa!