Adventures with Words, September 2024

Though I enjoyed the cooler days of False Fall, I don’t mind the Return of Summer before Actual Fall arrives – tomatoes are still trying to ripen, and the heat helps. I’ve been collecting them as they turn orange so that they can ripen inside and away from any ill effects the weather could bring. The rest of the garden is getting its end of summer clean-up with some spaces planted with fall crops – carrots, beets, kale and lettuce. I’ve never done a fall garden before, so I have no idea how it will go for us. Crossing fingers.

IF ELEPHANT EARS COULD TALK Update

Novel News: I sent the IEECT manuscript to Jenny Bartoy for line editing. This is a big milestone. In addition to her notes, I have feedback from readers, including two sensitivity readers – Danielle Pernelle and Dr. Clover Tamayo. I will use all of that feedback as I make the final changes to the novel before querying agents.

This is an exciting place to be in the lifespan of this project. Exciting and a bit nervous-making. While I’ve gotten lots of love from readers about the story, the characters, the setting and all of that – I still have that imposter syndrome voice telling me that once I get it out there into the wider world, someone will tell me it’s not as great as I thought. 

But that happens to all authors, so I should see it as a badge of honor, right? 

I decided to leave the manuscript alone until after I got Jenny’s feedback, because I want to keep our documents in sync. That doesn’t mean ideas haven’t popped into my head about changes I can and should make; I’m keeping notes.  The characters are telling me things about where the story goes after the end of IF ELEPHANT EARS COULD TALK, so I’ve started writing scenes and character notes for a sequel. Here is a very drafty pitch for it:

In less than 24 hours, EJ Temple-Fairview, heir to a small fortune, has gone from the highest high of their young life to one of the lowest lows.

Now they must re-build and manage the amusement park they inherited, find out if  the more-than-friends feelings they have for a friend are mutual, stop a vengeful enemy from ruining everything and, oh yeah, get through their senior year of high school. 

Looking Back – Lessons Learned

I’ve been looking back on this project for lessons learned. One pattern I’m very aware of right now is that when I pause after a big push – like getting the work over to an editor – I feel antsy and disoriented. Makes all kinds of sense given that I am in story-saturation right up to the moment I hit Send. The transition out of that mega-focus is rough. I don’t know what to do with my spare time; I constantly feel like there’s something I should be working on. I’m jittery as an addict gone cold turkey. During the week or so after sending the novel to Jenny this last time, I was uncomfortable, but less surprised about the antsy jitters. I countered by making bagels and obsessing over a puzzle. 

I also read some books.

What I’m Reading

I added BETTER LEFT BURIED, by Mary E. Roach, to my list of potential comp titles while doing research into YA mysteries at the library. This is Roach’s debut and came out on August 6th. After reading it, I can tell you not only is it a comparative title, it is similar enough to IEECT that both of our books could have resulted from a single prompt “owner of an amusement park found dead under a roller coaster”. From that similarity, our stories diverged, though they both feature queer main characters, generational drama and conflicts with mothers. I really enjoyed the story and the two main characters – the story is multi-POV, alternating between Audrey and Lucy. The author takes us on a twisty journey not unlike a roller coaster. I’m still tripping over the idea that Roach and I were working on very similar stories during the same time period, both for debut novels.

I am in the midst of reading and highlighting passages in CONFLICT, ACTION & SUSPENSE, by William Noble. In the chapter on The Nuts and Bolts of Drama, I highlighted the following:

“One way we excite the reader is to portray strong emotions.”

“Developing a confrontation creates a rooting opportunity…”

“A sense of drama powers action and suspense stories because they rely on an upsurge of reader involvement.”

In the chapter on Stage Setting, Noble talks about using contrasts to heighten interest and drama. One way to do this is to take a trope or expectation and turn it on its head, giving it a twist that is unexpected. A real world example is when you’re driving somewhere and you take an unfamiliar route to a familiar place. I do this to Mol frequently and that decision never fails to get a reaction.

Going back to what I’ve learned through the process of writing my first novel, I know a lot more about the costs associated with a project like this than I did 4 years ago.  Writing is low cost in terms of paper, pens, digital marks on the screen – time is a valuable resource but hard to put a price on. However, it’s easy to calculate the cost of buying other people’s time for editing, sensitivity readers and printing manuscripts.  So far I’ve spent close to $6,000 for professional services. Because of this, I’m doing a hard thing – I’m asking you to contribute what you can toward those expenses. I feel anxious and almost nauseous asking, and also, I need your help. I want to keep doing this work of creating stories about LGBTQ+ characters in multiple genres and in order to produce the high quality readers deserve, I need help from my community.

Whether you contribute or not, I appreciate you taking a little time to read this newsletter and follow my progress with the novel. While writing is great fun and I enjoy the hell out of creating characters and making their lives difficult, like many things in life, it’s better when I can share my creations with others. Thank you for supporting me as I pursue this dream.

Ways to contribute…

The NaNoWriMo Thing

I’m adding this because my feeds have blown up and multiple people have contacted me to make sure I know. 

Yes, I know NaNoWriMo shit all over themselves about AI usage. 

To summarize, the organization that formed around the idea that anyone could write a novel, and that the first goal was write 50,000 words – any words you can – and edit later – has put out a statement saying the usage of AI to write said novel is fine with them. OK, weird and completely against the Code of Conduct, but whatever.  Then they doubled-down by stating in plain text that to protest the use of AI to write a novel was classist and ableist. 

Um, say what again?

Use of assistive technologies powered by machine learning is not equivalent to use of generative AI that trains on the work of others – without permission or compensation. Threads, Bluesky and Instagram have blown up with people condemning this decision. Disabled folks of all kinds are not happy being used as an excuse for the policy. They are all fine doing their own writing, thank you very much – as they’ve been doing all along. 

This isn’t the first Big Mistake made by the organization. Recent allegations about inappropriate conduct of adult volunteers with young writers was addressed by attempting to cover it up. Many folks had already left them behind over this. I wasn’t aware of this issue or I’d have cut ties already. As it was, they lost a ton of sponsors.

To conclude, I’ve deleted the account I opened in 2012. NaNoWriMo was instrumental for building my confidence in writing novel-length work. IEECT started as a November 2020 project. I remember the early days when a very small group of volunteers had this crazy notion that anyone could write a novel, and their mission was to provide encouragement, support and incentives. Somewhere in the past 12 years, that mission was abandoned. I do know that nonprofits always need money and if you cozy up to AI providers for sponsorship, I guess you’re going to say using AI is OK. 

I’m keeping my shirts –  I earned them – but I won’t be a WriMo any more and I won’t encourage others to participate either. RIP the true spirit of NaNoWriMo.

Making Contact

Here’s where you can find me online:

• CKCombs.com – my blog
• @CKCombs_author – Instagram and Threads 
• CKCombsAuthor@gmail.com