I am attending When Words Collide in Calgary, Alberta, from August 11-13, 2017!

I’ll be seeing panels and doing barcon as an attendee. I’m looking forward to attending Taxes For Creative Folk, The Book of Sensations, and Worldbuilding the Lazy Bastard Way.

I won’t have any swag, but I will have business cards, and they’re useful as bookmarks.

  1. I declare a vacation. Usually about a week long. I don’t look at any of my work during that week.
  2. I get out my paper journal and pen and I write in it every day. I just brain-dump, all my complaints and worries and selfish egotistical thoughts. I’m writing to purge myself of the crap that has built up.
  3. And then I read. I read every day. I read in my genre for one story, and then outside of my genre for one story. I’ve been catching up on “great” modern novels this year, but I’ve also been reading historical fiction, mystery, romance, and YA. I catch book recommendations from Stephen King, who hasn’t steered me wrong yet.
  4. I write about what I’ve read. Just free-form stuff about what I like, don’t like, what it sparks in me. It’s all private so I can write whatever I really think; no one is going to look at it anyway
  5. I go out of my way to enjoy art. A gallery or museum visit, getting lost in the met’s website, I listen to genres of music I don’t usually listen to every day but still enjoy. I look for award winning or classic film, but if what I want to watch is Captain America, well then okay.
  6. I read nonfiction. I should read more nonfiction, but honestly I have to be interested or need it for future projects. I read biographies rarely, but I will read about a period of history or something on a subject that fascinates me.
  7. I listen to podcasts. There are literally thousands of them. google “podcast (subject) and you’re likely to find something.
  8. If I get an idea while i’m refilling, i will scribble it down in a bunny folder, but I won’t immediately leap on it to make a story. I need seven ideas for a story, so acting too quickly won’t help…
  9. …But if I get mugged by an idea, then I follow it. getting an idea is one thing. you can scribble it down and forget about it. but sometimes a story comes in and it’s like…I don’t know. an entity. it’s got a setting I can see and characters who were born like Athena and things are happening that I need to write down. There’s no room in my brain for anything else, and I’m compelled to record what I see.

It’s been a long time since I published a craft blog post, but I haven’t quit talking about craft. I made a Patreon account, and I have posts there about things like 

  • a synopsis writing guide that will help expose structural manuscript problems
  • how to evaluate a scene to make sure it’s doing the right things
  • how to build a story when all you have is a character

I do a new writing related post every month, available to patrons on a sliding scale basis – pick the level of patronage you can afford and you’re in!

Starting in August I am starting a Live Sessions tier, where I will explore a subject about the craft and business of writing on zoom, where you can ask more questions. Look for it then!

pmwitchmark(transcribed from graphic: “C.L. Polk’s debut WITCHMARK, in which a doctor returned from a recent war has faked his death to work at a cash-strapped veteran’s hospital, but when a fatally poisoned patient exposes his secret healing powers to a witness, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder, in a two-book deal, to Carl Engle-Laird at Tor.com, by Caitlin McDonald at Donald Maass Literary Agency.”)

It’s happening. It’s real. My novel is going to be published – not just anywhere, but at my dream publisher. I’m represented by the agent I secretly wished for when I was making my agent research spreadsheet. From my first queries in February to signing the contract in December, I’ve been so lucky.

I think I wouldn’t have managed it, though, if it hadn’t been for entering a novel mentoring contest and being selected by Michelle Hazen. Her suggestions and insight into wrangling the complicated braid of all Witchmark’s plots into something more connected made all the difference. I definitely wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for Liz Bourke, whose kind words about my manuscript tickled the curiosity of Justin Landon, who reached out and asked to see it. We’ll be diving into a new round of edits and I cannot wait to get started.

Witchmark will probably be available from tor.com in 2018. I’ll give more detail when I know for sure.

 

Yeah, there’s nothing to see here. I haven’t published a book yet.

I can tell you about the novel I finished, though.

Witchmark is an 83,000 word Fantasy about an ex-army doctor who is the only one who can see that his patients who suffer from violent fantasies have an infection in their brains, and a guardian of the dead in search of souls lost from the underworld. Together, their pursuit of a journalist’s murderer leads them to the terrible answer behind each of their puzzles, and the revenge that could devastate the nation if they don’t find a way to stop it.

Not one to sit on my laurels, I’ve started another book.

Project Arcade is a contemporary romance currently in the drafting stages. Sexism and harassment won’t stop Juliet from making the video game of the year, but a secret relationship with the game’s lead actor could end her career.

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