When the Words Won't Come - Erin Zarro

It's no secret that many people are off kilter due to the COVID-19 happenings going on right now. My husband was laid off in late March, and he's been completely out of sorts since because he's not used to being home. I've been working through this because 1) I work from home anyway, and 2) Publishing really hasn't seemed to have been hit much (yet) and things have been ticking along as usual. I do realize that could change, and that's scary.

My usual method for dealing with stress or upheaval is to write. One of my novels got me through a divorce. Another got me through a family upheaval, after the initial shock wore off and I could feel again. Countless breakups in high school compelled me to write tons of poetry, most of which became the basis of my second poetry chapbook, Without Wings, which released in 2011. A particularly horrible breakup resulted in some of the best poems I ever wrote.

Any stress in general gives rise to words. And it's been that way for years and years and years.

Until now.

To be fair, we're in a completely new, almost unbelievable situation. We, as a people, at least in my lifetime, have never had to face something like this. There's so much fear and panic and it's every day in the news, on the internet, talking with the family...I can't get away from it. Luckily, work has been busy and has given me a bit of space, so I'm no longer a ball of anxiety like I was before. But for the country in general, it's been a rough few months. Especially the lockdowns. People aren't used to staying home. Well, I am, and I rarely go anywhere, but most aren't like me. They're feeling it. I am starting to feel it. In Michigan, our governor just extended our stay-at-home order till May 15th, but has raised some restrictions.And that brings with it the possibility of things, some good and some bad.

I don't think anyone really knows how to handle this.

The Fifteen-Minute Solution - Erin Zarro

At the end of last year, I promised myself that I wouldn't stress myself out trying to do All The Things. I had some deadlines hitting, and I knew that if I beat myself up over not writing, it'd make it all much worse.For me, things accumulate — I'm not writing, I'm working twelve-hour days, I'm not getting enough sleep, I'm stressed...I have to be so careful because of the fibro and trigeminal neuralgia. I could put myself into a major flare that could take months to recover from.

And who the heck needs that on top of everything else?

So I was pretty much okay and zen about it.

Then...my muse started whispering things to me again.

"You're not writing. You're wasting valuable time."

"You're feeling okay today. How about a few hundred words?"

"That idea I gave you last week would be perfect to dive into! What are you waiting for?"

Ugh. Sometimes — okay, most of the time — she's relentless. And a bit psychotic. I put up with it because when she's good...she's phenomenal. When she's like this...not so much.

The other thing is that if I am not being creative on a regular basis, I fall into a depression. I feel worthless. Life has no meaning. Part of me is missing, like an amputated limb. It is absolutely one of worst states to be in, and I actively try to avoid that.

There's only one way to relieve it. By being creative.

Alternate Universes, a Novel, and Spending Time in My Own Head - Erin Zarro

Crazy title, but it's appropriate.

This will make sense, I swear. ;)

I have been experiencing memories of things that never happened.

Yeah, it's freaky.

The first time it happened, it was after I had surgery on my foot. I'd remembered writing an email to a client and putting together an invoice. Vividly. Turns out, I'd never sent it, nor did any such invoice exist. And it wasn't hiding in my Drafts folder, either. I thought, hmm, general anesthetic screws with your brain for a bit...maybe it's that, and went along my merry way.

Until it happened a few more times, well past the time the anesthetic would have left my body.

So I did what I usually do in this situation. I researched it.

I found out some interesting things. For one, which blew my mind completely, is that your brain cannot tell the difference between a true memory and a false one. Let that sink in for a moment. There are cases where eyewitnesses to crimes had actually confabulated memories when prompted. They suddenly thought they saw a man walking a dog when they actually saw no dog if asked in a leading manner, for example. That's why eyewitnesses and memories are so complicated in law enforcement.

Returning to Whisper Hollow--Yasmine Galenorn

When I left Berkley, I thought I had lost my Whisper Hollow world for a long, long time. I cried over that, I mourned the world, and the characters, because this is one of my series of the heart. To understand that, first you have to understand what a book or series of the heart means to a writer.

It's one of those worlds that creeps out from your gut, that gets under your skin, that digs in and won't let go. It's a world that — when you're writing it — takes your breath away, where the characters are so vibrant in your subconscious that they talk to you. It’s a world that you can't imagine not writing.

So, when I left Berkley, and they still owned the rights to the first two books in the series, I was devastated. Oh, I could have written more, but it makes no economic sense as an indie to write in a world where a traditional publisher owns the first books—you can’t promote the series the way you need to, you can’t put out boxed sets, you can’t do a lot of things. The only reason I finished the Otherworld Series was because I was so far into the series and I knew it would be years before I got the rights back.

When I walked away, leaving Whisper Hollow behind me, I tried to put the world out of my mind. And I began to write new series that I loved writing, including yet a new series of the heart — my Wild Hunt series, to be specific — but the fact is Whisper Hollow has haunted me.

I’m not surprised—the world of Whisper Hollow is a romantic and dark world, filled with ghosts and shades, where six types of dead exist, along with a spirit shaman who tries to drive the dead back to the Veil when they wander. It's a world of spirits that exist between the living and the dead, some are helpful and terrifying like Penelope, the Gatekeeper, others are terrifying and malicious like Diago, the Scuffler Under the Bed. But all of them can be deadly.

Then, earlier this year, I decided to make a stab at requesting my rights back to Whisper Hollow. I honestly didn’t expect a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the reversion. But, I did a little magick on the side for it — after all, I'm shamanic witch and I've been so for almost 40 years—and I said a prayer to the gods. And I waited. And I crossed my fingers. And shock up on shocks, they gave me the rights back. Whisper Hollow belongs to me again.

So, I have now dived back into the world. I’ll be rereleasing the first two books in January, along with a new, third book. Returning to Whisper Hollow has made me incredibly happy, and now I can make the series what I truly wanted it to be.

I am drastically tightening the first two books. When I wrote those books, I was in a period of major stress. I was shifting over to indie and I was terrified. I feel the books reflect my stress and uncertainty—not in the plot or characters—but in the writing.

So I'm making them stronger and tighter. I’m cutting out deadwood and scenes that I didn't want to write. Toward the end of my stint in trad publishing, I was pushed to add more and more sex to the books. I don’t mind writing a good sex scene at all, but there were a number of them (across the board in all my work) that I was asked to add, that didn’t feel right but I had no choice. So now I can axe them. The plot remains basically the same, but the books are tighter and flow better.

But more than just taking the books to where I want them to be, I’m rejoicing in being able to revisit the characters and write more in their world. I was thrilled to find the entire cast waiting for me in the back of my mind, excited and ready to pick up where we left off. And now I hope to take the world to a whole new level.

And best of all, this means I'm writing two series that hold my heart now — the Wild Hunt, and Whisper Hollow. And I couldn't be happier.

Yasmine Galenorn

The Delight and Agony of Dictation

Well, friends, it has happened. I have had to start with voice recognition software to write once again.

Recently, I decided to start dictating again for speed. I've heard of people dictating ten times more than me. I'm not looking for a novel a day or anything, but a few thousand extra words a day would be great.

Because I am a slow, slow writer.

In 2003, I had a carpal tunnel syndrome scare. Turns out it was just severe tendonitis. Back then, ergonomics weren't really a thing, so I had no idea how to sit properly, nor did I realize that yes, typing for hours on end might lead to hand and wrist issues. Say it with me: Duh.

Anyway, I bought Dragon Naturally Speaking, which is the best dictation software out there. It cost me $60.00. And I started dictating. I had a bit of trouble with the RAM — Dragon needs a ton of RAM and my computer needed to be upgraded to Windows XP. Damn, that was a long time! I found it to be very awkward because I am used to typing, and speaking everything, including punctuation, was just weird. I even went so far as to pretend to be typing to trick my brain. As time went on, I got better at it, and my wrists got better, too. However, I went back to typing at my first opportunity. But I've had to drastically cut down how much I type per day.

Over the years, I had several more tendonitis flares, requiring me to drag out the software once again and relearn how to speak my novel. Each time I went back to typing. See a pattern here? My last flare was in 2008, where I dictated my entire novel for National Novel Writing Month, a writing challenge that takes place every November. I "wrote" 57,000 words, 7,000 more than the goal of 50,000. But I had a serious problem. The headset that comes with the program gave me migraines.

Since then, I've done two things. I've been keeping the software up to date so I always have the most current version. It has gotten better over time. And now you don't even have to train it anymore! It's like 90-some odd percent accurate upon installation. And I can verify that this is true.

I have also been looking for an alternative to the headset. For awhile, I used the Dragon Dictation app on my iPhone, and it worked beautifully. And then they stopped updating it to be compatible with the iPhone, which totally sucked. Strangely enough, the version for Android still works.

I also looked into a Bluetooth headset, but that was a major problem because they're so expensive but so flimsy.

So I was basically screwed.

Deadlines, Deadlines

So, I'm on deadline with the new book--The Eternal Return. In case you don't know what a writer on deadline is like, well, there's this:

And my moods are varying from this:

 

To this: 

And right now, if I let myself, I'd be scarfing down all the gluten free cookies I could eat. But I'm maintaining a modicum of control, thank gods, and mostly just relying on Netflix and reruns of Downton Abby to get me through on my breaks from writing.

I wouldn't BE on deadline if I hadn't tried to tuck writing an extra book in between two books. (Demon's Delight, which I wanted to bring out this month but which is now coming out in February). I managed to get about 2/3 of it written, then realized I wasn't going to have enough time to write The Eternal Return on schedule, so had to stop and move over to TER. 

The good news is I'm almost done with TER, and then I start the third Whisper Hollow book. It will be wonderful, returning to that world, which I haven't been able to visit since 2015, because the stories still haunt me, and the characters still call.

Anyway, that's enough for today. OH, I'm also decorating early. (If you are one of those peeps who gets irate when people do that, get over it. I'm not decorating YOUR house, early, and I need the sparkles.). ;) 

Now, back to the words, because I really need to get this book done by tomorrow. And I'll do it!

~Yasmine

Galenorn.com