Anya Bast

This is something I’ve been wanting to blog about for a while. I’ve noticed in recent years on lists and reader’s boards talk of the TSTL heroine. TSTL stands for Too Stupid to Live, btw. 

I have encountered the TSTL heroine many times in my reading life. I know her when I see her. She’s the one haring off without a care, endangering herself, and needing to be saved by the hero. But once in a while I’ll run into someone saying that a particular heroine is TSTL just because, say, she didn’t get permission from the hero to do something.  This has always made me go hmmmm. I’ve talked about this on my discussion board at length.

Here’s the deal, characters have to have the proper motivation to do dangerous things.

For example, if the heroine is in a darkened, tumble-down mansion at midnight and hears something clunking around and groaning in the basement, she would be TSTL if she just flounced down the stairs asking, “Who’s there?” without waiting for the hero (who, I dunno, was out taking a walk or whatever) to come back and accompany her. 

She would not be TSTL if her baby brother was somewhere in the basement, being held captive by whatever was making the clunking and groaning sounds. In the second scenario, she has the proper motivation to venture into the dark by herself (hopefully she takes a weapon!) because someone she loves is at risk. 

I don’t think the heroine in a romance novel always needs the permission or presence of the hero in order to make big decisions that may endanger her life….as long as she has the proper motivation. This goes for the hero, too. (I wonder why we never hear of heroes being TSTL?)  This behavior might make the heroine stubborn or over-protective, but I don’t think it necessarily makes the heroine stupid. The thought that the heroine always needs the approval of the male character to make these decisions kind of bugs me.

I went back to the post in which I begged people for blogging topics and saw that I missed this question… 

I’ve got a question (or more). When is the length of a book decided? Who decides how long a book is going to be … is it the author, the publisher … or the book itself? Has any book you have written taken on a life of it’s own in a way you didn’t expect … and if so, how did you deal with it? Is there a particular length of book you prefer to write? Is it harder to write long stories or short ones … 

To a large degree it’s the book that decides the length, since when the story is done, it’s just done. It spins out naturally and any attempt to make it longer is just padding. Padding ruins the pacing and might even ruin the book. Every scene has to have a goal, motivation and conflict. Every scene needs to advance the plot and further develop the characters, so scenes that don’t do that?…bad. 

But, since I’m a plotter and not a pantster, (a pantster is a writer who doesn’t really plan out the book before they write. They just do it “by the seat of their pants”), I can control how long a book is going to be before I start it. 

For example, for quickies like Edge of Sweetness, I kept the plot fairly simple and made my objectives modest going in. With short stories like that one, the characterization has to be in every single line, every piece of dialogue, every movement that the character makes because there’s so little space to develop them. But when I intend to write that short, I plan for it and don’t let the plot get out of control. 

For longer books, like Water Crystal, the plot was large to begin with and I knew it would take 120,000 words to tell it all. And it did. 

Then some books surprise me. Witch Blood came in about 10k over what I’d intended. That was a case of the book deciding how long it needed to be. Of course, my editor may not concur. *g* Maybe I’ll be cutting it down shortly.

Waaaaahooooooooo!!!!!!

I put the finishing touches on Witch Blood this morning and it is out the door. Whew!! Witch Blood clocks in over 10k longer than Witch Fire, so we’ll see what my editor has to say about that.

*does Dance of Joy*

That’s going to get me some weird Google hits.

My husband pointed out this morning that you can always tell where I’ve been working on my laptop during the day because there is at least one bra and one pair of shoes discarded there. I really hate bras. I’m not much of a shoe fan, either. So whenever I sit down, the first thing I do is shed both. So if one wants to see where I’ve been spending the most time in my house, just look for the bra.

I’m still deep in edits. My deadline is looming. This third revision is taking me longer than I initially thought it would. Plus, I’ve rewritten the end three times, but it looks like it needs one more go. One day, long after the book has run its course, I’ll post them all my web site, like the alternate endings to a movie on DVD. Heh.

My internal monologue goes a little like this, these days…

“Oh my god, why did she just say that?” *delete, rewrite*

“Hmm…this paragraph should go up here, not down there.” *moves para*

“What the hell was I thinking!?!” *delete, rewrite*

“Uhm, yeah, I used the word ‘silk’ in some variation fifteen times on this page.” *delete, gets out Thesaurus*

“That, that…that…what is this love affair I have with the word ‘that’?” *delete, rewrite*

“This sex scene needs more spice.” *delete, rewrite*

And so it goes.

Back to the depths of my revision.

The ever lovely Milady Insanity posted an interview with me yesterday. She also has a review of Witch Fire up. There’s a chance to win a copy, so stop on over and take a peek!

I’m still very deeply buried in revisions for Witch Blood, however I just wanted to pass this along quickly. I caught sight of this over on It’s Not Chick Porn and on a couple other blogs.

Nothing But Red. Please, if you have a moment or two, click on the link and read that.

On April 7, 2007, Du’a Khalil Aswad, a 17 year old Iraqi Yazidi girl, was stoned to death in an honor killing. Her crime is believed to have been consorting with a Muslim, a man she may have intended to marry. A group of onlookers got the whole murder on video, but never bothered to intervene.

Nothing but Red is an anthology being published by lulu.com. It will be released on the anniversary of Du’a Khalil Aswad’s murder. The proceeds will go to Equality Now. For many more details, go to the link above and read.

Check out my post on the Bradford Bunch blog. I talk about finding the right agent…and magic. (You’ll just have to go over there to see what I mean.) There’s a contest too!

It has been ten days since Witch Fire’s release. I have no real idea how the book has done, but if the fact the novel is placing pretty high on Bookscan is a good thing, (I think it’s a good thing. *frowns*), and if the flood of emails I’ve received from readers are any measure, I think the book has been doing well. All of you who sent me emails or pinged me through MySpace to say you enjoyed Witch Fire, thank you so much. You ease this neurotic author’s mind. 🙂

I am technically finished with the sequel, Witch Blood. Now I’m polishing and revising. I’ll keep the book right up to the deadline to pick at it, ’cause that’s what I do. Once my editor has given the book the okay, I’ll start teasing you guys about it. Because teasing is fun.

Now…..hie thee to bookmark The Pretty!

Some of literary agent Laura Bradford’s clients have banded together to create a fun new blog called The Bradford Bunch. Participants are: Ann Aguirre, Anya Bast, Cynthia Eden, Jodi Lynn Copeland, Lauren Dane, Marissa Scott and Vonna Harper

Ann will kick off the blog on Sunday. We’ll be going in the order above, which means I’ll be blogging on Mondays. There will be prizes this first week of Bradford Blogging Deliciousness and I might (just might) be giving away a signed copy of Witch Fire. You never know.

So, GO! Go, now! Go, bookmark, and then come visit us starting Sunday.

…

Fades back into the depths of Deadline Hell.

I finally saw Pan’s Labyrinth last.

What. A. Good. Movie.

It made me cry. There are only a handful of movies that can make me do that. In fact, What Dreams May Come and Love Actually are the only two that come to mind. Ugh. I cried almost from beginning to end when I saw What Dreams May Come in the theater. How embarrassing.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen Pan’s Labyrinth and you enjoy dark fantasy, NETFLIX IT NOW, or obtain it in whatever way you obtain your movies.

Now, back to Isabelle and Thomas. Their date with Berkley looms.

I haven’t been blogging because I’m under deadline for Witch Blood and I have no Thursday Thirteen offering for you this week. Instead, I thought I’d give you…dross. Not literally. Actually dross is one of my favorite words. I’m not sure why, exactly.

Here are a few more of my favorite words:

Venezuela

Door

Open (I especially love the combination open door)

Cabbage

Raven

Entice

Elaborate

Ribbon

What are some of your favorite words?