WordPlay

01/31/12

Here’s the latest, the greatest, the newsiest news!

The Fitzhenry & Whiteside Writer Beware generated by the  Dun Lady’s Jess reversion situation is quieter, but actively ongoing.  Some things take time…

Here in the office, TIGER BOUND, the fourth Nocturne Sentinels book, is in production–and so is the reprint of NOSE FOR TROUBLE, which means I’m working on the cover even now!  KODIAK CHAINED is in first draft and zooooming along quite nicely!  And the steamy new paranormal novella, Touched By Fire, is now available.

And…

• My out-of-print backlist is at Backlist eBooks — with more to come!
• Night of the Tiger was a December release (Nocturne Bite).
• The release schedule for the four outstanding Nocturnes is: Tiger Bound 08/12; Kodiak Chained  12/12; Demon Blade 2013; Dark Blade 2013.
• ConneryBeagle’s medical fundraiser goes on, and his updates are at the anthology pages!
• You can subscribe to WordPlay by Email

Every time I start first draft on a hefty project, my brain sprints for the gate.  There begins a long process of negotiation: the muse vs. real life.

Really, the brain wants nothing to do with it.  “Noooo,” it whines.  “Why can’t I have it aaaalll?”

Because it apparently just doesn’t work that way.

So after a certain amount of struggle, the muse will give a little ground–just enough to keep certain critical real life activity from imploding–and Real Life will give a little ground.  Or maybe a lot of ground.  Eventually, a lopsided balance of sorts will be struck.

But on this first day?  The brain is not interested in coming out to write a blog.  On this particular first day, the brain is a lot more interested in a proper opening for the story so many readers requested–Ruger’s story in my Nocturne Sentinel series.  The classic background character who sparkled on screen and demanded some time of his own, that’s Ruger.

Not that I’m complaining.  Neither is my muse.  My brain, as usual, is still trying to find the balance.

(Someone tell me I’m not the only one.)

Meanwhile, I think “A Bitch in Time “is still lingering as a freebie–that’s still a gone-any-minute thing–and Wolverine’s Daughter is on a 30% sale at ARe  until the 27th.  They’re both clickable from my Backlist eBooks page.  Happy reading!

Going naked in public.  That’s kind of what it’s like, when you’re a writer.

It’s definitely what it’s like during the days a new piece is released.

I mean, there’s all that, “Will they like my work?  Will they see in it what I see in it?  Will they walk away happy?  Or will they give me one star at Amazon because of something Amazon does?”

Not for the faint of heart.

Later, the muse might not feel quite so vulnerable (or, more likely, she’ll find something else to feel vulnerable about).  After all, this piece isn’t about ME.  It’s about finding ways to explore an idea while conveying it, and it’s about entertaining.  For me, in the end, it’s about providing for others what means so much to me when I read a book/story that carries me away.

So after a while, the muse will find the presence of mind to breath again.  But now?  Now she’s holding her breath.  Pretty hard, actually.  Because now it’s still the first days, and it’s new and scary and hopeful all in one.

I hope you like it.

Touched by Fire
$2.49
An Original Release; Novella

Leyana is a creature of beauty…a creature of fire. She looks like an angel, but she’s driven by a geas–one acquired on the night she died. She spends her evenings exacting revenge on those men who would try to harm what she’s become. Only a man of strong heart can survive her allure–while at the same time reaching her deeply enough to free her from the geas. Paul Campbell might be that man…or he might lose himself to her altogether.

DART BEAGLE!

It’s happened AGAIN.

That would be the way my work with critters habitually turns into metaphor for my writing.

While I could be talking about the incredible icy poo-fest that is the barn frontage this particular winter (in fact, given the state of the industry, I probably should be talking about the incredible icy poo-fest that is the barn frontage this particular winter), I’m somehow not.

It’s about tracking, really.  And how being on the end of the tracking line is a whole lot like wrangling the muse.

Every dog has a different style when tracking, but staying on the track is the only way to get the job done.  Enticing crosstracks won’t do it.  Following that just-flushed jackrabbit won’t do it, either.  Following blown scent instead of the actual track isn’t going to get you there, or getting stuck in scent pools won’t get you anywhere at all.

It’s up to the handler to question the dog, create a thoughtful process, and not follow blindly where the dog leads.  After all, if you step out confidently when the dog is merely pondering a crosstrack, then the dog may well rightfully think, “Ah HA!  She wants me to go this way!”

And yes, a writer needs to stay on track.  Both with editorial expectations (some publishers more than others) and with storytelling needs.  As in, there are certain necessary elements for a good story, no matter how many individual ways there are to approach those elements.

At the same time, the handler has to trust the dog.  No human can detect the scent the dog follows; only the dog can say where the track goes.  And while the handler employs an understanding of scent behavior and dog body language to know when to follow freely and when to wait and watch and stay out of the way and when to say, “Are you sure?”, at some point you simply have to trust.  And if you don’t–if you start questioning and hesitating in that moment you should be trusting…then the dog loses confidence.  Shuts down.  Quits.

It’s just the same with writers, right?  A writer needs to follow her muse.  Restrain the muse, and she shuts down.  Tell her no too many times and she flips you a rude gesture.  Ignore her insight, and go down a duller, well-trodden path instead of managing a bright new track through unexplored territory.

Add it all up and it becomes a dance.  Knowing enough about the territory and conditions and expectations–not to mention the muse or the dog–to provide the necessary guidance.  And then, knowing when to just plain trust, even if the track goes in an unexpected direction.

See?  Is that totally a tracking as writing metaphor, or what?

The muse rules.

My muse doesn’t have a name, which is kind of odd because my research muse certainly does (it’s Spike, which should give you an idea of the pushy nature of said research muse).

But she rules, regardless.

That means I write.  I write regardless of whether or not I have a contract.  I started writing in 7th grade (the first book, modest as it was) and I wrote through junior high, high school, and two different colleges.  Once I was living on that beloved mountainside in Eastern Kentucky, I wrote even more.  I wrote my way through Virginia, through Ohio, back to Western New York–and there, I finally sold the first book.

The point being…I write.  Regardless.

When I don’t write, the world is askew.  The pressure of that need builds inside, rather like the onset of a spastic tick.  Or the pressure of a big pending burp.  Or something more glamorous than that, if I could only think of it.

These past months, I’ve been involved in a lot of projects, and a lot of things that aren’t necessarily first draft, even when they’re part of the writing process.  It hasn’t escaped me that with each passing day, my little frantic undernote of being off-balance grows greater and greater.  Or that these other things, having forced their way in to eat my life, are really, truly eating away at the thing that keeps me whole.

The challenge is getting back to that whole–that pattern of basing the day around the writing.  Once you’ve fallen into that frenetic, off-balance place, finding the balance again isn’t always easy–especially when you have to say “no” to people to do it.  (And especially when real life isn’t cooperating, with weather chaos, wrecked van chaos, injured dog chaos, publishing industry chaos…oh, you just name it.)

So this week, I’m practicing.  Writing FIRST, other things second.  (This is complicated by my natural pattern of writing in the evenings, but I’m working on it…)  Because the muse is staging a rebellion, and in this case it doesn’t mean refusing to write…it means demanding to write.

I mean, it’s not healthy to hold in a burp that big, right?

A Guest Post by Stephanie Draven

One of the things that annoys me about the critiques of the Romance genre is that it’s somehow trivial. As if love had not, in fact, given rise to empires or made them come tumbling down again. Maybe love is dismissed because it is often the interest of women, important to them–more important than battles. Or maybe it is because so many writers don’t understand that even when telling a love story, they’re telling a story about more than that.

Every story should have a theme–and ideally, more than one. In a romance novel, the overarching theme is a given: Love conquers all. That’s the argument. Everything you write in this story should support the premise that love overcomes all obstacles. That it is through love that our hero and heroine can get what they want. That’s the relatively easy part because the entire genre is built around this single theme.

But because it’s already built in, readers expect a second theme. And that’s where things get tricky. So what is a theme? ChuckWendig said it better than I ever could, but a theme is an argument that you’re making. It’s a thesis. Several themes of my most recent HQN Nocturne nove, Dark Sins and Desert Sands include: “War makes men into monsters,” “torture demeans both the tortured and the torturer,” “civilized nations ought to uphold laws even during wartime,” “women have a right to be sexy,” “women can’t and shouldn’t be owned,” “the human capacity for forgiveness is our salvation.”

Some of these themes are more controversial than others, but they’re all in there, and the story, the dialog, the plot…all of it works together to make an argument that supports these themes. So, did I set out with a list of arguments and then create a book around them? Not really. I had a central premise, but as the plot started to unfold, the underlying arguments started peeking to the surface. It was in the rewrite that I was able to uncover and expand upon my themes, which lends credence to my belief that there are no great writers in the world. Only great rewriters.

It’s in the editing that magic happens. Where you can spot the arguments in your subtext and use metaphors to hammer them home. So the next time you’re looking over your first draft, ask yourself what your book is trying to say. What fight is it picking? And if it isn’t saying anything at all, it might be time to put it back in the drawer and write something else.

*applause from the gallery!*

 Stephanie Draven is currently a denizen of Baltimore, that city of  ravens and purple night skies. She lives there with her favorite nocturnal creatures–three scheming cats and a deliciously wicked  husband. And when she is not busy with dark domestic rituals, she  writes her books.

Stephanie also writes historical fiction as Stephanie Dray  and has a series of forthcoming novels  from Berkley Books featuring Cleopatra’s daughter.

Stephanie’s Web Site

10/15/11 Original Post
10/23/11 Updated information; identified at end
10/26/11 More Updates, ooooh!  Interesting stuff! At the end!

Also!  There’s a silent auction of my remaining DUN LADY’S JESS copies, proceeds to go to horse rescue!

Dun Lady’s Jess

When hikers Dayna and Eric find a young woman naked, terrified, and speechless, they’re sure she’s the victim of foul play. But the truth is much more shocking: she isn’t human at all. She’s Dun Lady’s Jess, a horse transformed into this new shape by the spell that brought her and her rider, to whom she is utterly devoted, into this world. Possessed now of human intelligence but still a horse deep inside, Jess desperately searches this world for her master and rider, using her fiery equine spirit to take on human idiosyncracies–and human threats.

10/15/11 Dun Lady’s Jess is my heart book—my first book. A fantasy, it was first published by Baen in 1994, and in 1995 it won the prestigious Stephen Tall/Compton Crook Award for Best First SF/F/H of the year. It grew two sequels, and it stayed in print for a good long run—but eventually, some years later, it fell off the shelves and the rights reverted to me. Halfway through the next decade, I was invited by a delightful editor to reprint the book through the new Star Ink imprint of the Canadian publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside. We had a wonderful time with the new edition, giving painstaking attention to the details large and small. It became stalled in production, however, and by the time it was released, the editor had chosen to part ways with the publisher. Eventually the book was released under Fitzhenry & Whiteside’s Red Deer Press line. The reversion clause for Dun Lady’s Jess reads:

“16.(a) If the Publisher fails to keep the Work in print *through regular trade channels* and for sale and written demand from the Author declines or neglects to reprint it within six (6) months thereafter and to offer it for sale, or after two (2) years from the date of the first publication the Publisher wishes to discontinue publication of the Work and gives three (3) months’ notice to this effect to the Author in writing.”

The part between asterisks? My agent and I added that to the boilerplate, because the clause as it stood was far too open-ended. The new phrase was approved and initialed by both myself and Richard Dionne, for Fitzhenry & Whiteside. (The part right after the asterisks? Yes, it seems to be missing a word—probably “upon.” But that’s part of the boilerplate.) The book was published in November 2007, although the U.S. distribution didn’t take place until April 2008. By spring of 2010, it was evident, through royalty reports, that the book wasn’t being placed on the shelves anywhere (that is, “regular trade channels”). For a couple of years now, it’s sold only a handful of copies per year, and has slowly slid off availability via online sources. (see the screenshot at the bottom of the page) But when we asked for reversion of rights, the response shocked us: if I would buy the considerable copies the publisher has sitting in their warehouse, they would revert the book. I have to tell you…it felt like coercion. We responded that this wasn’t possible, and reminded them that they naturally had the ability to sell their remaining stock should the rights to the book be reverted. In other words, for them, nothing would change. But they didn’t respond to that email,nor to the one after that, or the one after that, or to the phone call by the book’s original editor with that line, or—after we’d let the situation sit for a year—to the query after that.

Dun Lady's Jess: The warehouse listing. Unlike books that are available through regular trade channels, this title is stocked only in the Fitzhenry & Whiteside warehouse

We sent screenshots of the book’s lack of availability and its failure to appear in any distributor warehouse. It’s in the publisher warehouse alone—which does not equal being available through regular trade channels. We also sent a PDF of the relevant contract page with the initialed changes to their boilerplate. This material went out return receipt—and finally, we received a promise to review the situation and get back to us in a week.

This did not happen.

After another nudge—which included the reminder that the publisher could continue to sell warehoused copies in their usual fashion, as well as a reminder of the boilerplate changes–we were finally told: “This book is in stock, on sale on our website, it continues to sell albeit in lesser quantities. [my note: yes, a handful of copies a year] We have some 1,600 in stock with no reason to revert rights. ”

How about because it’s a contractual obligation?

Finally, I went to SFWA GriefCom. You may not have heard much about this committee; when GriefCom mediates a dispute, the parties involved maintain a strict nondisclosure; no one’s dirty laundry is aired. And because they see a high level of success, that means you see very little dirty laundry and very little about GriefCom.

In this case, the request from GriefCom to Fitzhenry & Whiteside was simple: Revert the book per the contract obligations, or provide proof that the book is available via regular trade channels.

It took a week of trying for GriefCom to connect with Mr. Dionne, at which point we were given a promise that Red Deer would provide proof of distribution within a week.

This did not happen.

After three weeks of silence and unreturned phone calls, GriefCom sent a different kind of request, giving Red Deer forty-eight hours to either revert the book or provide proof that it was being sold via regular trade channels, and asserting that after that, I would be forced to take additional steps.

Early the next day, I heard from the GriefCom chair that he had received a phone call, and that the unidentified caller took him to task in no uncertain terms–claiming harassment, declaring there would be no reversion on the title, and warning that she would “report” us to [prominent Canadian SF writer #1] and [prominent Canadian SF writer #2]—all before hanging up on him.

We took this as an indication that the publisher no longer wishes to interact with GriefCom.

Finally—knowing that truly, no one wants a big dramafest, I emailed Richard Dionne and made the same request: Please send either the reversion or the proof that Dun Lady’s Jess is being sold via regular trade channels, and please do so within the next three business days.

This did not happen.

I don’t have a lot of options left, but I do have some. For one thing, I have this: I can break the silence that protects Fitzhenry & Whiteside from the consequences of their actions—a silence I’ve kept for a year and a half. And I can do it to warn everyone possible, via the big wide Internets: This is my documented experience with this publisher. We have a contract clause that was approved and initialed, but is not being honored. A critical contract clause—one that protects my interests in my book per the agreed-upon terms. A contract clause that is of utmost importance these days, when publishers and writers are scrambling to negotiate shifting terms and a shifting industry.

A contract clause no writer should take lightly.

Meanwhile, I still want my book back. I still want Fitzhenry & Whiteside to honor the contract they signed. Contracts are not a thing of convenience, to be ignored when a publisher pleases. “Make me,” isn’t in a professional lexicon…or shouldn’t be. If you feel the same, I hope you’ll pass this warning along.

=======

10/23/11 Edited to Add Tidbits, with a point of dark irony:

After F&W’s threat to report me to specific Canadian writers (no, I’m not going to name them.  One honorable person doesn’t deserve it; I find the other irrelevant to the situation), on the same day Writer Beware guested my blog warning, the latter author did indeed mount a campaign to discredit my efforts; this continues as of this writing.  Personally, I’m not a big believer of coincidences.

As of 10/22, this author is reaching out directly to those who have spread the word on Twitter.  I’m sorry for that.  But backing off on my hope that people will continue to share this situation with writers, agents, and readers would be the wrong choice, so I’m not doing it, and I hope that if you believe writers should have warning about publishers who have behaved this way, you’ll share, too.

Meanwhile, a kind reader gave me a heads-up that I’m not listed on the F&W Red Deer site with their other authors, in spite of the publisher determination to keep the book.  One might instantly suspect this is due to my decision to break silence…unless you happen to check the wayback machine, and determine that they never listed me as an author–not even when the book first came out.  There’s no conclusion here…just some dark irony.

And finally, on Saturday (Oct. 22), additional dark irony:  The most recent royalty statement for this book arrived.  In the first six months of the year, Fitzhenry & Whiteside has sold two copies of Dun Lady’s Jess.

Two.

Don’t ask me why F&W wants to keep the rights to this book.  It clearly wasn’t a good match for their publishing program–a fact I regret, I imagine they regret, and I suspect every reader facing collector’s prices of the first (and ironically more available) edition regrets.  Why not remainder the title, clear out their warehouse space, revert the book, honor the contract, and be quit of the book?  Or simply revert the book, continue to sell the title exactly as they’re currently doing, honor the contract, and be quit of me?

Many people have advised me to get physical evidence of the warehoused books’ existence.  Hmm.
========

10/26/11: Interesting tidbits continue to trickle in.

The most critical of these is this, in a quoted 10/24/11 comment (with permission) from Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware.  You can see it there, too.  Also, I added the titles/details to my timeline.

Victoria:

Over on his blog, Rob Sawyer posed a challenge: put things in context by comparing Doranna’s book to other books published by Red Deer Press.

So I did.

- Amazon shows 10 books pubbed by Red Deer in 2007. Of those, eight are listed by Amazon as in stock and available in at least one edition. Only two are out of stock or out of print: a nonfiction hardcover that’s out of print, and Doranna’s book, which is out of stock. Doranna’s is also the only 2007-pubbed paperback that’s not currently in stock and available.

- Amazon shows 14 SF/fantasy books pubbed by Red Deer between 2002 and 2010. Of these, 13 are in stock and available in at least one edition. Doranna’s is the only one that’s out of stock in all editions.

Results from Barnes & Noble aren’t quite identical, but they are very similar.

Obviously, there are many reasons why books go out of stock. But this does demonstrate that Red Deer has no trouble getting its books into US distribution.

What does this mean for me?

It means that Amazon.com is, in fact, a regular distribution channel for Fitzhenry & Whiteside; ditto Barnes & Noble.  The publisher has no trouble maintaining stock in these venues when it chooses to.

It is perhaps a good time to put this information back in context:

DUN LADY’S JESS was to be the first book in a new line under a Canadian author/editor. However, my editor reconsidered that publisher relationship while JESS was in production, and the book was folded into the Red Deer imprint.

The book never received the promised bookshelf distribution (yes, I have those emails somewhere, even three email programs later)–promises which heavily influenced my willingness to sign the contract. It didn’t receive post-publication support; I was never even listed on the Red Deer web site as an author (yes, I have screenshots).  You can find the book on their web site, but only with persistence–a “search” returns a broken link.

It’s clear to me that this orphaned book fell through all kinds of cracks. Well, okay. It happens. That doesn’t mean the contract isn’t just as valid as it was the day I signed it–as interpreted in context of the time frame in which I signed it.  And under the contract, it’s time for the book to revert. Asking for reversion–insisting on it, under the contract terms and circumstances–is no justification for bad publisher behavior, or for the publisher to threaten me with another author who did in fact then make an effort to discredit me.

Free DUN LADY’S JESS, Fitzhenry & Whiteside. At this point, it’s the least you can do.

What’s that, you say?  Aren’t you keeping us up to date any longer here on WordPlay?

Just as soon as I get back from twelve hours of agility trialing for two days with the Beagles.  

#FreeDLJ!
And writers, take a look before submitting your work.  Knowledge is power…

======================
This is a vastly updated version of Q&A #1.  It’s lots different, though–I just didn’t want to stick a second post in this space to clutter things up.

If you haven’t seen the BoingBoing post—or read Cory Doctorow’s wonderfully concise and clear comments regarding the nature of regular trade channels—you might find it of some interest. Not everyone there thinks I’ve got my head screwed on straight, of course.

In response to the most common point I see being addressed in comments here and there:

Yes, in a perfect world, the contract reversion clause would have been more tightly negotiated–but we had to fight tooth and nail to get what we got.  Going forward on those terms was a decision I made on the basis of significant mitigating circumstances–my agent responds with a little more detail in the original post comments. By all means, learn from this situation.  But the main point here is how this publisher has behaved for the past eighteen months.  Learn from that, too.

The Original Post
The Timeline
The BoingBoing Post
The Writer Beware Post
WriterBeware Comments Further (scroll down!)
Twitter #FreeDLJ

Regarding my awareness that this is a Canadian publisher—yes, I know that.  It’s been taken into account with regards to the distribution conversation, as has the industry standard meaning for “regular trade channels.”

But delayed, limited online availability doesn’t constitute regular trade channels.  And even this (Tuesday) evening, a search on Indigo.ca of all the Chapters, Coles, and Indigo bookstores in Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and Toronto has revealed DLJ to have one copy on the shelves at one store.

I’ve said elsewhere (I haven’t the faintest idea where.  It’s been a crazy couple of days) that I have no delusions that this book should be a best-seller.  It’s a 17yo title which sold modestly the first time.  The first edition copies are regularly priced at sums that startle me, but it can also sometimes be found at your basic used-book price (note:  it’s easier to find a used copy of the first edition than it is to find the reprint under discussion–I signed three of them at the last convention, after which they went back in their plastic protective sleeves).  To some extent, conversational threads that go in that direction–my unreasonable expectations or some failure to understand the modest nature of the book–are only misdirection.  To the contrary, I have a very good (and realistic!) idea of what this book could be selling.

Meanwhile, I’ve left a comment here and there, but I haven’t engaged in any significant conversations outside this blog.  I’m aware of what’s being said about me, and…well, I disagree.  Let’s leave it at that.

I admit it. This is not my strength. I’m not someone who enjoys a good rousing argument or is invigorated by social conflict. Mainly, I’m doing my best with something I feel needs to be done. Probably that means it could be done better, but you know…here I am, and here it is, and so be it.  I mainly hope the word of this publisher’s behavior over the past 18 months is reaching agents and authors who are considering submission plans.

PS: First-time posters on this blog pass through moderation before posting, and always have.  This is a Zone of Thoughtful Discourse, whether you agree or disagree with me.  Visitors here should feel safe to post, either way.  Visitors of Virulence will receive the Mighty Click of Moderation.

By Patty Wilber

Three a.m. in the New Mexico autumn is dark, with a chill, but that is when the alarm bleeped, repeatedly.  The bed was murmuring “don’t go!” and that soft green blanket was really, well, soft.  And warm.

Not enthusiastically, got up anyway, pulled on some clothes, and stumbled (carefully) down to the barn to feed.

Not the standard storybook fare of apples or carrots or oats.  Nope, we’re talking working horses, feed ‘em something sturdy and affordable.  A flake of alfalfa hay and a flake of grass hay for each equid.  We were leaving in a hour and they were facing a long day of driving to the cow pens and a good many miles of riding.

Drove for four hours, saddled, and tied on saddle bags and slickers even though over head was the intense blue New Mexico sky, cloudless. Last year the aspens were decorated in gold, but this year the cold is just hitting the high country.  Not enough time to cause the light harvesting pigments in the leaves to degrade to their flashy last splash.

We took off…at a walk. No leaping upon the bare-backed steed and galloping across the grassy meadow, because a) I no longer have the spring of my high school high-jumping self who could bounce onto a 17 hand horse from the ground, b) no meadows; the ride starts on a rutted dirt lane between two barbed wire (Bob Why-er, if yer from Texas) fences, and  c) even endurance horses that can cover 100 rugged miles in less than 10 hours, do not gallop from end to end across the day.

We jog-trotted (slow trot, easy to ride, and ground-covering, without blowing up the horse) quite a bit.  Galloping? Not at all. We will gather cows this afternoon, after the 18 mile ride, and then push cows out tomorrow.  No point in wasting energy now.

The day progressed to shirt-sleeve warm.  No wind.  Good horses, good weather, no grading, no computers, no cock-eyed personalitied biology students! No place I’d rather be.

Last week’s cold, wind-driven rain and slick footing was an adrenaline rush challenge (yeah, I wanna be a cowgirl!); this is deep in my soul easy.

The elk and deer were everywhere in June, when we were the first ones up country after the winter snows.  Now they are hidden in the trees; hunting season has begun.  They’ve been replaced. By cows.  In fact, so many gates have been left open by thoughtless hunters or lazy-ass forest users, that at least four herds are hopelessly mixed.  “Leave the gates as you found them” is a good rule of thumb…except what to do when you are pretty sure they should be closed and they are open???

 We made the eastern edge of the ranch in good time, but then took the long cut to get in at the bottom where the fence is not good and some neighbor cows have been interloping.  Slithered down steep slopes of loose volcanic ash  that I would have preferred to avoid (shut up and ride, I wanna be a cowBOY).  Both horses were even tempered and sure on their feet. We did find some neighbor cows, but none of ours.

 Ours were grazing the big meadows east of the bunk house–40 of the 62 anyway.  Sent five neighbor cows out a spot on the north fence that was down.  Fixed the hole. Then we bunched the rest and moved them closer to the horse pasture where we planned to hold them for the night.   The horses had to work back and forth, first to mobilize and then to  motivate the grass-fat bovines.  They had to be quick over rough ground.  Wanna be a cow HORSE? They worked up a full body sweat.

Next we dropped over into Barlow Creek to look for my big red cow. She likes to hang out there, away from the main herd, with her own personal entourage. Up and down, more steep terrain.   The two horses, after 8 hours of riding were still right there for us.  Very game.  Penny is just four and Tabooli, although older, at five, has only 1/3 the number of training hours. As TrainerMom, am Very Pleased!

Found Red and Co., and pushed them up to the first group.  This left 10 still missing, so we made a big loop: back down to Barlow, turned left instead of right and rode east, into the night, as the sky softened through yellow-orange to mauve and starlight gradually filled the moonless sky.  It went from shirt sleeve warm to fleece hat, gloves and three layers on top, cold.  At 10,000 feet, when the sun disappears, the warmth follows, immediately.

 Untacked with the help of the head lamps, and brushed the caked sweat streaks off the horses.

Penny still has her short summer show coat, and although Tabooli has begun to hair up I’d sent blankets up in a truck coming in from the other side.  Given the long day, and the cold night, blankets would reduce stress. T went in a pen too small for two horses when one is PMS-y…yes that would be Penny.  So, she was hobbled outside.  They both got big piles of alfalfa, and water.  No apples. No oats.

Both horses looked sucked up in the flanks–like grey hounds instead of their usual plump selves.  By morning, T looked normal–he eats and drinks very well away from home.  Penny still looked a little dehydrated, although she did eat well.

They were saddled at dawn, which is 6:30 ish at this time of year, and had another ends-at-dark day, starting with finding the last 10 cows and ending with all 62 off the mountain, down at the pens.  In the last big pasture we crossed, Penny (who was working on only three shoes all day–one came off on the night loop) and I went to move the resident bovines out of our path so we didn’t gain mass as our bunch passed through.  She still had it in her to lope a long way at a good clip and get after those cows, then come back to ours, who were moving at the speed of molasses in January at this point, and get after them.

The cows are all at the farm near Estancia, NM now.  Horses got new shoes Thursday and the week off! (And still no apples.) I wanna be a cowgirl.

That’s me.  Evil Overlord of my characters.

Evil Overlord:  Plans to interfere with his targets’ lives.

Me:  Plan to interfere with my characters’ lives.

Evil Overlord:  Is constantly thinking, “What can I do to cause trouble for these people?”

Me:  “What can I do next to cause trouble for these characters?

Evil Overlord:  “In fact, what can I do to tear them to shreds?”

Me:  In fact, what can I do to make things as difficult as possible?

Evil Overlord:  “HOW SHALL I KILL THEM?”

Me:  HOW SHALL I–

No, no no.  Wait a minute.  Here’s where we part ways.

For me, it’s How will they get out of it?

What new depths of themselves will they plumb to climb out of this personal disaster I’ve created, possibly while also saving the world?

(Possibly.)

Because the thing is, as the author, I don’t usually have any idea how they’re going to get out of what I put them into.  I’m so focused on getting them to the point of ultimate internal and external disaster (because, you know, that’s just the way I am) that when I reach it, I often go…

Me:  Uh, durrrr… NOW what are they gonna do?

The fun thing is how well it often works out.  If you read Storm of Reckoning, you’ll reach a point shortly before the end where…well, where things happen.  Go on, read it.  You’ll know where I mean.  Well, confession:  I didn’t know that was coming until about two pages before I reached it.  It was all, “Ahhhh!  What’s Garrie gonna do?!  How’s Trevarr going to get out of this one?!”  Complete with melodramatic punctuation.

And yet oddly, looking back on it…I don’t know how that scene could have turned out any other way.  Or that I would have wanted it to.

(The very end?  Well, I knew THAT was coming.)

It’s not all just a random power trip, by the way.  It’s not doing unto for the sake of doing unto–

Evil Overlord:  What are you talking about?  Of course it is!  And what a power trip it is!  Mwah ha ha!

*stuffs Evil Overlord into a gunnysack*

It’s NOT.  By pushing my characters to the limit, I’m exploring who they really are…and in a way, I’m showing myself what can be done.  Paving the way for that mindset, so when I reach my own roadblocks in life (an overly-profound phrase if I ever heard one), I don’t buckle or fold.  I don’t exactly think, “What would Garrie/Trevarr do?”–that would maybe be kinda creepy.  But I do fall back into the awareness that how I deal with difficulties–what I envision for myself–has a huge impact on the resolution of those difficulties.

Muffled Evil Overlord:  You are full of crap!  It’s all about the POWER!

Yeah, yeah.  Move over.  My people have a world to save.  Just don’t ask me how.

*wrote this one for my agent’s blog this spring; saved it up for a day that needed a good snicker