One in Every Minyan

...but between moving house in late December and some recent medical issues (all is well, just been exhausting from the multiple appointments and all), I have been spending all my spare time trying to figure out this story I've been banging my head against.

But finally I've shaken free from the writing-related miasma. What did I do? Gave into the inevitable and put the story into first person. I'd been struggling to write in third person, but my natural writing style seems to be first, and once I let myself write in first person, the words began to flow again.

So I guess the rule is, give up on third person, at least for now. Go with what feels most natural, most comfortable, and just let the character drive.

The Glowing Lights of Chanukah will soon be here and there are Gifts waiting for you!
Beginning Wednesday, December 17th join Ten authors who have gathered romance stories with Jewish heroes and heroines from all walks of life: >From the days of the Maccabees to Regency England to modern day America to parallel worlds; from sweet to spicy hot. Tell us the names of their heroes and heroines and send them to borntowrite@writeme.com to be entered in a drawing of Gifts for the Season. The winner will be drawn December 22nd, the first day of Chanukah!

My story contribution to this contest is Voices of Joy and Gladness, of the Groom and the... Groom. An excerpt can be found here.

Check out my story for the names of my heroes, and then head to Samantha Kane's blog tomorrow for the next clue!

Start the celebration with authors:

I have a new story in the works (see early mumbling about characters), but I didn't have any clue of a title. I think I've now come up with the title of the story:

Standing On One Foot

It may change (my titles are almost never set in stone until the final draft), but I think this one has sticking power.

I have some new characters (in Dani and Avi's universe) whom I need to develop, and so I need to do what I always do -- "interview" them. A number of years ago, a friend pointed me to a compendium of questions that one can ask one's characters, and that's how I tend to do new character development. It sounds odd, sure, but it works for me. :-)

But that made me wonder how other people do character development. Do you just write and see where the character takes you? Free writing with a focus on the character (if that can be called true free writing)? Something else entirely?

louisaclark very kindly reviewed all of the Wedding Sips. And her review of "Voices of Joy and Gladness, of the Groom and the...Groom" is lovely:

Avi is a bundle of nerves as his anxiety tried to get the best of him. Dani is such a loving and supportive partner, his quiet assurance an anchor for Avi, Dani knowing exactly what to say and do to calm the stressed Avi. Dani’s characterization was my favorite part of the story, as it said so much concerning his love for Avi. Which in turn reflected Avi’s love for Dani. Two pieces of a whole.

Read the whole review here.

The radio station I listen to runs a lot of PSAs for various government programs. One they started running last week contains the following (approximately):

"*Ding*! That's the sound of your ex-boyfriend sending that picture of you in your underwear to all of your friends. *Ding!* And now to your coach. *Ding!* And, worst of all, to your father."

It is an ad trying to teach (I presume) teenagers to think before posting things online, with the message that it'll be seen by people they didn't even think would ever see it.

But I heard another message -- either it's pro-women's-sports (the photo is being sent to "your coach"), or it's in favor of gay guys dating (it's being sent by "your ex-boyfriend").

Either way, it works for me. But I doubt the US government intended that message.

Hi to the new people who have started reading here since the publication of my Torquere Press Wedding Sip, Voices of Joy and Gladness, of the Groom and the... Groom.

Avi and Dani were my first pair of original characters, and they're still the muses closest to my heart. I've got a bunch of stuff written about them, some of which will likely be posted here over the next little while.

Thank you for reading me, and I hope you'll enjoy what you read here.

I volunteered to participate in the snippet day that Kiernan so kindly offered to the writers of Wedding Sips, but now I have to figure out what to use as a snippet. It's a longish story (about 8K words), but I have no idea what to snip -- a beginning bit? The middle-ish, where the wedding planning is in full swing? Near the end, where they're actually having the wedding?

I'd snip a sex scene, as that always brings the readers ;-), but this is told from Avi's POV, so there's no actual sex in this story.

I have until some time tomorrow to figure this out, I guess.

Or, as the official blurb says...

Check out Torquere Press' Wedding Sip Blitz! Twenty of Torquere's great authors have written wedding themed stories to show their support in the fight for equal recognition of gay and lesbian marriage! Sexy and sweet, funny and dramatic, these Sips will satisfy everyone's urge for something old and something new, something borrowed and something blue! The best part about the Sip Blitz is that all of the authors have agreed to donate the profits from their wedding Sips to charity, with Torquere Press matching their donation 100%! All profits collected from the sale of the wedding Sips will be donated the Lambda Legal Defense Fund. Sips cost just $1.29, and you can't beat that for entertainment and a good cause! Buy them all, and get the entire twenty Sip package for 15% off! Who doesn't love a happy ending? The Sip Blitz begins Saturday, September 13, 2008!

Massachusetts has same-sex marriage thanks to the efforts of groups like MassEquality, but we're definitely in the minority. Help Torquere celebrate its birthday and raise money to help others achieve the same equality, and get some great stories in the process!

On Saturday night (right at the beginning of the major fast day of Tisha b'Av, so I didn't say anything then), I got notice that I had sold my story ""Voices of Joy and Gladness, of the Groom and the... Groom" to the Wedding Sip Blitz coming up from Torquere Press.

This is the return of Dani and Avi, who were last seen in my story "Madim uG'madim" (which appeared in Men in Uniform II.)

...that may *finally* allow me to finish the novel-like-thing I've been working on seemingly forever. It occurred to me that I was going about the secondary conflict all wrong, and once I figured that out, it was clear how the rest of it would have to play out.

Now I just have to find the time to sit and work on it.

For those of you playing our home game, this is not the epic tale of the folks I introduced in "Madim U'Gmadim," it's another couple altogether whose story has been sitting untouched on my hard drive for over a year.

Thanks to eroticjames for the link.

Men in Uniform II has been reviewed by Joyfully Reviewed, and they liked it. A lot. :-)

(They even kinda liked my story, I think...)

I'm completely stuck on this one, mostly because I can't figure out who's trying to tell this story. From the stammering and blushing going on from that corner of my brain, I'd think it was Avi. But it has to be Dani in order for the whole thing to play out -- he can't know what Avi knows, he has to misunderstand all sorts of things that Avi wouldn't misunderstand.

I'm likely to have about 2-3 hours of uninterrupted writing time tomorrow night (provided I don't let myself get distracted), so maybe I'll make some headway in figuring this one out. It's one of those stories that I feel has to be written before I can get any further with these two, but it's fighting me in ways these stories don't usually fight me.

Related to yesterday's mental wanderings... should I post WIPs and stubs? I've got a ton of stuff that I've abandoned in one stage or another for Avi and Dani because they wouldn't play nice. And part of me can't help but think that airing them, showing them to someone who isn't me, might get me kicked into gear on them again. But another part of me winces at the idea of showing them to people because they go nowhere.

So I'll think and stew and maybe decide something, eventually.

I may have figured out how to get Avi out of his pants. Problem is, it feels more like farce than story. I mean, Avi and Dani are trading off telling this thing in my head, but I'm not convinced that any of it is real (they've lied to me before, led me down the wrong path for a long time before I figured it out). So now... well, now I'm not sure if this is something I should try writing (I have stubs of many, many stories for them) or if I should let them play it out in my head and see if it goes anywhere substantive.

I've got a story part I know has to be written. I can *see* it in my head, almost completely. But I can't write it.

Why?

Because Avi won't take off his pants.

I mean, I know he does eventually. The boys get married, after all, in Carnival (my not-a-NaNoWriMo not-a-novel that got Jossed by the Massachusetts SJC), and there's at least one story part that already exists from which it's clear that Dani and Avi are sleeping together. But -- and here's where my frustration comes in -- I can't get Avi out of his pants.

(and, yes, this is what I was thinking about at one point yesterday while sitting in shul. Bad frummie. No cookie.)

An Afternoon at the Improv - Dani

Oh, shit.

When I agreed to this lunch, I'd come up with a list of don'ts - don't blatantly ask Avi if he's straight; don't pressure him into anything, don't jump the gun.

And now I'd violated all three of those in one statement.
( Read more... )

Back from the long holiday sweep. So back to the business of posting stuff here, yes?

Staccato Signals of Constant Information - Avi

Since I'd instigated the lunch at Milk Street, I was very concerned that it all work out OK.
( Read more... )

Now that I've sold my first story, I'm thinking it might be time to build myself a webpage. First off, I've bought a domain name, and I'm working on a preliminary home page.

But I don't know what to put up there. A short bio of me, possibly. A link to my published work, definitely. A link back here, to my journal, yeah. But now I'm stuck.

Anyone have any suggestions?