Livia Blackburne

Don't Let Your Words Obstruct Your Meaning

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:21:00 +0000

"You probably know that understanding your audience is essential if you want a document to work. But this means understanding not just their level of knowledge of the subject at hand, but also their history, their cultural references and associations and their past experiences, argues Livia Blackburne."

I guest posted at writing-skills.com this week on the psychological idea of schemas and how writers can use them to inform their word choices. Check out my post here.

Hope you enjoyed this post! To get regular updates from this blog, use the subscription options on the sidebar.

Also, friend of the blog Gail Gauthier recently re-released her backlist title Saving the Planet & Stuff. Michael Racine is spending a miserable summer alone at home when he stumbles upon a temporary job and housing with his grandparents’ friends, Walt Marcello and Nora Blake. Walt and Nora made names for themselves in the environmental movement with their magazine, "The Earth’s Wife," and Michael believes he’s headed for an internship with them that could rival the summer activities of his far more industrious and accomplished friends. Lack of air conditioning and biking to work get old very fast for him, though, and he has trouble taking seriously Nora’s concerns about the environmental impact of golf courses and Walt’s interest in composting toilets. He gets to leave his hosts’ solar home each weekday only to be faced with turmoil and revolt among "The Earth’s Wife"’s staff. How can Michael—or Walt and Nora—decide on the right course of action?

"Saving the Planet & Stuff" was originally published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. This new edition includes an unpublished short story that uses early versions of the Walt and Nora characters, as well as a new cover illustration by Eric Bloom.

Beyond the Sandwich Method: What I Learned About Critiquing From My Editors

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

A while ago, before Midnight Thief went out on submission, I had tea with a veteran writer friend. Amongst discussion of all things publishing, the topic turned to editing. My friend mentioned that early on in his career, he wouldn't have been able to judge good editorial advice. It was only after writing several books and growing in his craft that he had the experience to do so.

I distinctly remember wondering what he meant by good editing and whether it really was that hard to identify. After all, I’d put my novel through several rounds with beta readers and felt like I had a good instinct for sorting through feedback.

Fast forward ten months later, when I got my first editorial letter from Abby Ranger. That was when I realized that I’d had NO idea what a good editor was capable of. The difference between the manuscript I submitted and my story now is the difference between a pencil sketch and a full-fledged oil painting.

And not only have I improved my book, I've also gleaned tips on how to be a better critique partner. Here are some of the things I've learned, both from my first editor Abby and my current editor Rotem.

1. Decreasing the suck Vs. Increasing the awesome

When I critique manuscripts, I tend to focus on things that I don't like. But I've come to realize that it's equally important to be look for good things so they can be emphasized -- for example, noting an intruiging character trait that be brought out more, or pointing out intriguing themes that are hinted at but could be developed. A side benefit of doing this is that you decrease your chances of being “that guy.” You know, the beta reader who suggests you rewrite the story to his personal taste.

2. Ask good questions

Some the best feedback that I've gotten was not in the form of specific suggestions, but questions that help me clarify and deepen my story. What does the character want here? What does she learn? Why does she feel this way?

3. A spoonful of sugar ...

I don't consider myself an incredibly sensitive writer when it comes to feedback, but apparently I'm as susceptible to flattery as the next person. I’ve realized that I get more excited about revision suggestions that are phrased in a positive way. And when you think about it, there are many ways to give the same advice. Saying "The first chapter of your book is boring ” vs. “Your book would be even more exciting if you tighten the pacing in the first chapter,” are ultimately suggesting the same thing, but I still feel more motivated after reading the latter. Both my editors (and agent Jim as well) are really good at this phrasing suggestions in an encouraging way. You'd almost think that they spend a lot of time delivering editorial feedback to writers or something.

So these some principles I've gleaned from my editorial letters so far. After I finish my revisions, I'll blog more specifically (in a non-spoilerish kind of way) about the changes I've been making to my book. But for now, let me turn the question to you. What kind of editorial feedback do you find most helpful?

Hope you enjoyed this post! To get regular updates from this blog, use the subscription options on the sidebar. Also, friend of the blog Susan Bradley recently released her YA mystery Unraveled
. Check it out!

Sixteen year old math whiz, Autumn, spends her days reading about serial killers and dreaming of becoming an FBI Profiler. She never dreams her first case will be so personal. Her world is shattered when she comes home from school and discovers her murdered sister’s body on the living room floor. When the initial evidence points to a burglary gone wrong, Autumn challenges the police’s theory because of the personal nature of the crime. Thinking that finding the killer will bring her family back together, she conducts her own investigation using her affinity for math and forensics, but her plan backfires and her obsession with the case further splinters her family. When her investigation reveals the killer is someone she knows, Autumn offers herself up as bait and sets a dangerous trap to unmask his true nature and to obtain a confession for her sister’s murder.

Operation Chest Hair Part II: Grief

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:07:00 +0000

Spoiler warning: Major spoilers for The Sword Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons, Rain Fall by Barry Eisler, Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce, Plain Kate by Erin Bow, and The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.

Wow, time flies. It's been over six months since the last installment of Operation Chest Hair.

Operation Chest Hair started when I had a story idea with a male point-of-view (POV) character. And not just any any old guy -- a manly man. The rugged, tough type that wrestles grizzly bears and uses undiluted tabasco sauce for mouthwash. A far cry from my teenage girls I usually write. To train my voice to write such a paragon of masculinity, I’ve been studying books with manly characters.

My previous article focused on how these man characters respond to the introduction of a love interest. In this article, I want to look at how they deal with grief, and how their reaction to loss compares to YA heroines in similar situations.

As before, I chose to study books with male POV characters that were written by male authors. In each of these books, these male protagonists lost loved ones. How did they react? There was a lot of variation, but I did pick up some tidbits.

1. No crying

First, take a look at these passages where YA heroines mourn their loved ones.

Her eyes burned, but she was cried out. Hopelessly she plucked at his sleeve, wishing she could bring him back. Crying would have helped. - Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce

Glad to be alone, Alanna sat and wept, letting the Dragon go at last. - Lioness Rampant

Something flashed through her, surprising her with a sting of tears. She thought it was bewilderment, anger, fear – before she recognized it: grief. - Plain Kate by Erin Bow

I hear a keening sound. High-pitched, wild. I realize it's me. . . . I can't speak. I'm shaking too badly. The faces of my companions blur as a sharp pain streaks to my temples. Oh God, oh God… .The Godstone warms to my grief. - The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

There’s lots of crying and grief here here from the YA heroines. But from the men? Across the board, not a single tear.

So how do the men respond? Let’s move on to the next observation.

2. Muted Grief (sometimes)

In two of the books with male characters, I noticed a muted presentation of grief.

In the passage below, John Rain talks to his associate Tatsu, who tells Rain that he must let his lover Midori believe that he’s dead.

"You may be tempted to contact her," [Tatsu] continued. "I would advise against this. She believes you are dead."
"Why would she believe that?"
"Because I told her."
"Tatsu," I said, my voice dangerously flat, "explain yourself.". . . .
He paused for a long moment, then looked at me squarely, his eyes resigned. "I deeply regret the pain you feel now. However I am more convinced even than before that I did the right thing in telling her.. . .
I wasn't even surprised Tatsu had put together all the pieces. "She didn't have to know," I heard myself say.. . . .
I realized, but somehow could not grasp, that Midori had already been made part of my past. It was like a magic trick. Now you see it, now you don't. Now it's real; notes just a memory.

- Rain Fall by Barry Eisler

Here, John Rain’s grief is only hinted at by his “dangerously flat” voice and his confusion. He “hears himself” protest. He tries but “somehow cannot grasp” that Midori is gone. The only pain mentioned in this passage is brought up not by Rain, but by Tatsu when he mentions the “pain you feel now.” There’s no wallowing in grief here, but because we’ve been with Rain for the whole book and know his voice, we pick up on these more subtle clues.

In The Sword-Edged Blonde, Eddie LaCrosse finds out that his friend Cathy has been murdered. His reaction is a bit stronger. Though he doesn’t speak directly about his grief, his worry for his friend shows through in his actions.

The roof of Betty's little not-a-tavern collapsed in a big puff of sparks. My chest was on fire, too, from all that running, and from the agony of realizing Cathy had to be among the dead.

Unless…

I had to know. I ran through the village, heedless of the heat and danger. "Cathy!" I yelled. I dodged chickens and goats, free of their pens and frantically seeking shelter or escape. I did not look at the other corpses except to make sure they weren't her.

After he’s sure of Cathy’s death, however, LaCrosse’s grief reaction is also more muted than the YA heroines. I’d describe it as drained.

The only person I buried was Cathy, in a shallow grave with no marker. I found her charred – boiled, really – body still in the metal tub inside one of the ruined buildings. . . . The smell was as appalling as it sounds.

At dawn, I returned to Epona’s cottage. No horses followed me through the forest. No weird bird sang overhead. The house was exactly as I've left it, but the woman – whoever she'd been – was gone. Perhaps the poisoned wine had driven her into the forest to die. I didn't know, and didn't really care. I considered torching the place, but I'd seen enough destruction to do me for a while.

LaCrosse talks about the apalling smell of corpses, about how he'd seen a lot of destruction, but he doesn't talk explicitly about how sad he is.

The one case where grief was not muted was for Raul Endymion, from Dan Simmon’s Hyperion series. He had the most painful loss of all three male characters. Endymion was forced to watch his longtime friend and lover be tortured to death, and his reaction is full-on pain and madness.

I began screaming in my high-g tank, ripping at life support umbilicals and banging the bulkhead with my head and fists, until the water-filled tank was swirling with my blood. I tried tearing at the osmosis mask that covered my face like some parasite sucking away my breath; it would not tear. For a full three hours I screamed and protested, battering myself into a state of semiconsciousness at best, reliving the shared moments with Aenea a thousand times and screaming in agony a thousand times, and then the robot ship injected sleep drugs through the leechlike umbilicals.

--The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

3. Reactions of Pain/Anger/Madness

Another thing I noticed was that the male characters reacted to their loss with anger. John Rain’s voice, for example, becomes “dangerously flat” when he hears of Tatsuo’s deception.

When Eddie Lacrosse hears that Cathy has been murdered, he runs in panic to the city to look for her body. He discover the man who killed her, and he also responds with anger and battle rage.

My pulse returned to normal, then continued to slow, as panic and horror dissolved into cold soldierly professionalism. I saw no reason to delay any longer. "Did you kill Cathy, too?" . . . .
I let my jacket fall to the ground. After Eppie’s hut, and my mad run, and the heat from the burning village, I was drenched in sweat. Yet inside I was solid ice.

-The Sword Edged Blonde

And of course, there’s Endymion’s violent reaction quoted earlier.

I was curious about whether the young adult heroines exhibited the same anger and wish for revenge.

Plain Kate, when she loses her dear friend Taggle the cat, is angry at the man responsible for Taggle’s death, but she also takes his hand in compassion as he lays dying.

[Linay] looked up first at Kate, then Eleanor, and then – blankly – at the clearing sky. "I feel strange," he said. "I think I'm dying."
Kate, with the little body in her arms, answered, "Good. We don't like you." But she knelt beside him and took his raw hand.

-Plain Kate

Interestingly, a few heroines blamed themselves rather than the villain. When Alanna loses her twin brother Thom to the schemes of the evil wizard Roger, this is her reaction.

Alanna didn’t know how long she sat, holding Thom’s cold hand. She was certain somehow this was all her fault. How was she supposed to live without her other half? -Lioness Rampant

In the next scene however Alanna does become angry.

Rage was replacing her grief. She wanted to act... -Lioness Rampant

In The Girl of Fire and Thorns, when an enemy kills Elisa's love Humberto, her first reaction is also to blame herself. Convinced that the Godstone in her navel is the reason her enemies have been hurting her and her friends, she takes a dagger and attempts to cut it from her flesh. After her initial grief, however, Elisa also makes plans for revenge.

Strange that I have been loathe to use a knife on a man. Now, I relish the prospect. “Tomorrow, I kill Trevino.” -Girl of Fire and Thorns

So in summary, it appears that both the manly men and YA heroines express anger and a desire for revenge, although the YA heroines' anger was more delayed, and they were more quick to blame themselves.

4. Philosophizing
One thing I didn’t expect to find was that two of the male characters processed their loss in a through philosophical reflection. John Rain has a long interior monologue on the nature of his loss.

I thought about Tatsu. I knew he had done right in telling Midori I was dead. . .
He was right, too, about my loss not being a long-term issue for her. She was young and had a brilliant career opening up right in front of her. When you've known someone only briefly, even if intensely, death comes as a shock, but not a particularly long or deep one. After all, there was no time for the person in question to become woven tightly into the fabric of your life. . . .
There were moments with her when I would forget everything I had done, everything I had become. But those moments would never have lasted. I have the product of things I have done, and I know I will always wake up to this conclusion, no matter how beguiling the reverie that precedes the awakening.

-Rain Fall

In the case of Raul Endymion, the entire book is his memoir, a vehicle to help him understand what had happened.

We’re leaving here, Raul, my darling,” she whispered in the darkness last night.” Not soon, but as soon as you finish our tale. As soon as you remember it all and understand it all. -Endymion

There was nothing like this in the YA books that I checked. The closest was in Alanna’s story. A few weeks after her lover’s death, she receives a letter from him (written before his death) telling her he is at peace and explaining that he had found meaning in his upcoming death.

The truth is we never saw death the same (like some other things), so I didn't talk about it with you. All you think of death is ending. To me, it's how a person goes. Dying for important things – that's better than living safe.
I often visited Tortall, though we never met there. The last two times . . . I felt a change. . . . If I can protect this beginning, I will have died a Dragon.

So Alanna does find meaning in her lover’s death, but he's the one who explains her to her.

I’m not sure if this difference is due to gender or age. The YA heroines are much younger, and perhaps their youth is why they don’t process and make sense of their grief this way. Or is it a gender issue?

Now readers, what do you think? Are there differences in how grief is portrayed in men vs. women in literature? If so, are these due to true gender differences or societal expectations?

Addendum. As I was writing this, I found out that Barry Eisler, author of Rain Fall, is about to release a new novella -- from a woman's point of view! The novella is called London Twist, and is about Delilah, John Rain's sometimes lover. I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy, and loved it. Intrigue, adventure, complicated relationships and moral shades of gray, kick ass women... It reminded me of the old La Femme Nikita TV show on USA, which I was a huge fan of. Check it out! (Parental note: The novella is not YA and has some adult content.)

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My Top Five Book Picks for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 23:14:00 +0000

Happy new year everyone! I hope you're all having a restful holiday season. I usually don't review books on this blog, but every New Year's I like to recommend my five favorite books from the year before (I read these books in 2012, but these books were not necessarily published in the past year). You can see my five picks from 2011 here.

And these are my five picks for this year, in the order that I read them.

1. Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowskey

This is the most unconventional pick of the list. I'm not a regular fanfic reader, but this story has been making the viral rounds, and it's like nothing I've ever seen before. Think enlightenment thinking meets Harry Potter. In this universe, Harry Potter is a child prodigy well-trained in rationalism and the scientific method. When he enters magical Hogwarts, the developments are both hilarious and educational. I actually learned a lot about science reading this. It's truly unique and fresh, and you can read it for free!

2. Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2011 Edition

This is a short story collection compiled by Tor.com. Lots of gems here. My favorites are Beauty Belongs to the Flowers about a girl growing up in futuristic Japan, the noir alien story A Clean Sweep With All the Trimmings, and Shetl Days, which I can't really describe without ruining.

3. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
What can I say that hasn't been said already? This tale about a World War II pilot and her best friend is amazing. The characters, the brilliant way in which the story unfolds.... I'm a little surprised it was categorized as YA, since it's strongly character driven and features characters in their late teens and early 20s, but who cares? It's brilliant.

4. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
I'm very late to the party on this one, since this book won the Hugo in 1990. I've been catching up on sci fi since marrying my sci-fi loving husband. Hyperion is styled after the Canterbury tales. Seven pilgrims travel to the planet Hyperion to meet the mysterious Shrike creature. On their way, they tell their stories. Simmons explores different styles with each story, leading to six unique yet interrelated tales. One story is written as a noir detective tale, another is written as a series of diary entries, etc. The world building is also fantastic. Definitely check this one out.

5. Anything by Laini Taylor
I'm not usually the type of reader to track down all of an author's books, but I've been doing so for Taylor. She's probably best known for Daughter of Smoke & Bone, but she also has two books from an earlier series Faries of Dreamdark and a short story collection Lips Touch: Three Times. I love the sense of wonder in the worlds she creates, and her language is beautiful. I'd check out Daughter of Smoke and Bone you want a more commercial YA romance. The Fairies of Dreamdark are younger and lighter in tone (though just as magical).

So these are my picks this year. What are yours?

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What Makes A Quote Memorable?

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:40:00 +0000

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya.
You had me at hello.
Life is like a box of chocolates.
Luke, I am your father.

Every year, a handful of movie quotes become integrated into popular culture. What is it about them that makes them so memorable? Is it just that they bring up fond memories of the movie, or is there something about their structure that make them more likely to be remembered and passed on? A recent study from computer scientists at Cornell sheds some light on this.

In order to do this research, one first has to definite what one means by "memorable." These researchers decided to use quotes from the Memorable Quotes section of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) as a way to identify enduring quotes.

First, the researchers wanted to see whether there was something about these quotes that distinguished them from non-memorable quotes. They had volunteers look at pairs of quotes from the same movie. One member of the pair was a “memorable quote” as defined by IMDb. The other was comparison quote spoken by the same character at approximately the same time as the memorable quote.

Could people tell the difference between memorable and nonmemerable quotes? Indeed, participants were above chance at identifying the memorable quotes, even though they had never seen the movies in question. So there does seem to be some thing about the memorable quotes that makes them recognizable even without the context of the movie itself.

Now that the researchers had some evidence that memorable quotes were intrinsically unique, they set about trying to figure out what made them different. They analyzed the member and non-memorable quotess, and this is what they found.

1. The memorable quotes used more distinctive vocabulary than their non-memorable counterparts.

2. The memorable quotes used more common syntactic patterns than non-memorable quotes.

3. The memorable quotes had some syntactic characteristics that might have made the quotes more generalizable to outside situations. For example, the memorable quotes had more present tense and less past tense, which might make them easier to quote in different contexts. They also had fewer pronouns than non-memorable quotes.

What are some of your favorite movie quotes? Do they follow these patterns?

Hope you enjoyed this post! To get regular updates from this blog, use the subscription options on the sidebar. Also, friend of the blog Kurt Crisman is running a really cool Kickstarter project to create a software that matches your fiction to literary journals using computer text analysis. Check it out!

Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, Justin Cheng, Jon Kleinberg, & Lillian Lee (2012). You had me at hello: How phrasing affects memorability ACL 2012 arXiv: 1203.6360v1

Why I Signed With a Traditional Publisher

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 06:36:00 +0000

Note: Wednesday, November 7th is the last day to bid on a critique from me and other debut 2014 authors to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy!

In April 2011, I had a conversation with my dad about changes in the publishing industry and what to do with my manuscript MIDNIGHT THIEF. By the end of our discussion, I’d decided to self publish.

My writer’s group was supportive, but suggested I query a few agents to keep my options open. Sounded reasonable, so I mailed some queries while I sent the manuscript to one last round of beta readers, figuring I wouldn’t lose time this way. Seventeen days later, I had five offers of representation and a lot of thinking to do.

As most of you know, I did end up signing with an agent and selling my book to Disney-Hyperion. Since I hang out a lot with indie authors, people have asked me why I went traditional. So I thought I'd outline my reasons here.

1. Editing
This was the biggest reason. Many of the agents I spoke with had solid revision suggestions that I was excited about implementing, and these conversations convinced me that I would benefit from working with an editor. While I could have self-published with a freelance editor, in practice, I probably would have made do with beta readers. Since I had no prior sales record, I wanted to keep expenses for the first book low. And there was some risk to hiring a freelance editor. I would've had to vet editors myself and pay for the editor’s time before knowing how I would resonate with her suggestions.
On the other hand, if I went traditional, there were people willing to share the risk with me (Agent Jim works on spec, and Disney-Hyperion pays my editor's salaries.). Also, I knew going in that both agent Jim and editor Abby had strong track records and that they “got” my book. Thus far, I couldn't be more pleased with how things have turned out. The original manuscript I queried with was a fun read, but the changes since then have added depth and maturity, and I’ve grown significantly in my craft.

2. Advance
Self-publishing is backloaded income. You start out in the red, and you make the money back in small amounts over years. Traditional publishing is frontloaded income. You start out with your advance, and you only see royalties once you earn out your advance. For me, an advance was attractive because it allowed me to spend more time on my writing, thus increasing my output.

3. Brand
Disney-Hyperion has an established brand, which matters to a subset of readers that includes influencers like booksellers, librarians, and book reviewers. As a new author starting to build a readership, I wanted that extra push.

4. Reaching Teen Readers
This is related to #3. My online platform is limited mostly to adults, and if I were to launch my book, I would primarily be marketing to this audience. By releasing my book with Disney, it will be easier to reach school librarians through netgalley and conferences.

5. Convenience
My publisher takes care of the book design, e-book formatting, cover design, finding copy editors and proofreaders, etc. All things I'd have to arrange myself if I self published.

Those are my main reasons. Am I going to tell everyone to sign with publisher now? Of course not. I've never seen the indie versus traditional debate as a either/or decision. It's an exciting world with lots of options, and what path you take depends on your priorities for any particular project. To balance things out, here are what I think are the main advantages of going indie.

1. Higher Profit Per Book
If you take on the role of publisher, you take the publisher's cut of earnings. For e-books especially, this makes a big difference.

2. Total control
If you self publish, you have the final say on everything, from editorial to cover design to pricing to release date.

3. Faster time to release
With traditional publishing, it takes about two years from sale to publication. If you self publish, you're only limited by how quickly you can work.

4. Flexibility with Rights
Because publishers invest money into your book, they justifiably buy the rights for a certain period of time in order to recoup that investment. Your book will stay with your publisher until the requirements for rights reversion are met (This usually will be a time limit or a minimum sales threshold.). If you self publish, you own your rights, and you're free to switch between services or sell the rights to another publisher at any time.

5. Flexibility With Other Work
Some publishing contracts have noncompete clauses that limit what other work you can publish at a certain time. Obviously, if you self publish, this won't apply to you.

So now readers, your turn. What publication path are you pursuing, and why?

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Bid on a Group Critique from Me and Other 2014 Debut Authors to Benefit Hurricane Sandy Victims

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:26:00 +0000

It's been a crazy week, with Hurricane Sandy. I hope this blog post finds you all well and safe. In an effort to help with the relief efforts, Jennifer Malone is organizing an auction of reading and writing related items to benefit the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. A group of 2014 Debut Authors (including me!) have teamed together to donate a group critique package.

If you win the package:
Two authors will critique your query
Three authors will critique your first 10 pages. (I'll be one of them)
Plus, a 20 minute Skype chat with three authors about publishing, writing, anything else.

The auction runs from now until Wednesday, November 7. Check it out if you want more details on the authors involved (They are fabulous!), and also look through the other very cool items offered!

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On Kissing (I Think Deeply About Making Out so You Don’t Have To!)

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:16:00 +0000

My first round revisions for MIDNIGHT THIEF involved ramping up a romance arc. Specifically, this required MOAR KISSING.

And it was kind of difficult.

Okay, okay, I know this is hard to believe, given the hot and heavy action MIT neuroscientists get on a daily basis, but really truly, it was. Maybe it says something about me that I wrote five unique fight scenes in my novel, but by my second kiss scene, things were already starting to feel repetitive.

(Those tempted to explain in the comments section exactly what that says about me, do so at your own risk. Did I mention that I write a lot of murder scenes? :-P)

So I spent a week brainstorming one or two kiss scenes per day and rejecting them one after another. It was incredibly hard work, and definitely interfered with my day job. Here I was in lab, trying to run my data through another analysis, and then I’d start thinking about the latest version of THE KISS, and what INTREPID HEROINE and HOT LOVE INTEREST were thinking, and whether they were standing close to each other or far, and just what exactly is that look in his eyes and whether her heart was beating faster…

Anyways. Very annoying, and SERIOUSLY INTERFERED WITH MY SCIENCE.

Since I had to suffer through all that, I thought I would share the lessons I learned about writing kiss scenes. (Plus some shoutouts to some fellow 2014 debut authors who shared their own tips).

1. Employ All the Senses.

What does the HOT LOVE INTEREST look like? Smell like? If it’s cold outside, does your viewpoint character feel cold, or does she feel warm despite the weather? Are the two of them close enough to be touching? What about taste?

2. It's All About the Emotions

The emotions are just as important, if not more important, than the physical actions. To quote Jenny Martin, “Some bad love scenes feel like biology 101.” It's the emotions and context behind a kiss – the history between the kissers, what it means, how it makes them feel – that’s what makes the kiss interesting and unique. In fact, you can take the exact same set of kissing actions, change the thoughts behind them, and it becomes a completely different kiss.

3. Kissing is Pacing Dynamite.

If you want to characters to kiss, be prepared for tension in your story to change drastically. If a kiss comes out of nowhere, it introduces tension, uncertainty, and angst. But if your characters have been flirting since Chapter 1, a kiss will probably release the tension -- perhaps too much. Jessica Corra adds, “Kissing is great for tension, but you also have a certain catharsis or release once chars finally do it. You can play with this by varying your kissing - interrupted make out, a single chaste kiss, indecision on where to go from the kiss, etc. “

and finally, one last bit of advice from Julie Murphy...

4. Make sure your characters brush their TEETH.

Now readers, what about you? Do you like (to write about) kissing? Any tips?

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I'm Back! And in LA!

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 23:50:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

Long time no see! A lot has happened since my last blog entry. I defended my dissertation in mid-September, and after that, promptly jumped into a car with my husband for a cross-country drive to our new home in Los Angeles. So now we're settling down -- him at his new job, and me in my new life as a freelance science writer/novelist. In the next few weeks, I'll be working on getting the blog back up to speed. In the meantime, how are you? And for those of you familiar with the Los Angeles area/writing community, any tips for things to do, places to see?

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Why "Please and Thank You" Mean Different Things in American and Britain

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:54:00 +0000

Hello all. I recently completed a dissertation draft and I'm taking a quick breather before I dive back in to prepare for my defense. So no actual blog entry, but I wanted to direct your attention to an interesting article written by an American linguist living in the UK. It's about words like "please" and "thank you," and how they mean different things in the two different cultures. It's a fascinating article (the video is worth watching as well), and useful to writers for understanding the interaction between culture and language. Go take a look!

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How To Market Your Book At Cons

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Guest post by Bryan Thomas Schmidt.

So, you’ve done all the research. Whether from online sites like Locus, or a general search for science fiction convention lists like this or this, through word of mouth or reading the back of Asimovs and Analog, you’ve identified several Cons for which the stars seem aligned (locations, dates, guests, size, costs, themes, etc. all seem to fit your needs, wants and schedule. Great. But hold on a minute. Before you make contact, first things first. And the first thing here is you need a good bio.

A good bio should be short but highlight the key things which would make you desirable as a panelist/guest and attendee.

Let’s start with mine:

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the author of the space opera novels The Worker Prince, a Barnes & Noble Book Clubs Year’s Best SF Releases of 2011 Honorable Mention, and The Returning, the collection The North Star Serial, Part 1, and several short stories featured in anthologies and magazines. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 for Flying Pen Press, headlined by Mike Resnick. As a freelance editor, he’s edited a novels and nonfiction. He’s also the host of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat every Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter under the hashtag #sffwrtcht. A frequent contributor to Adventures In SF Publishing, Grasping For The Wind and SFSignal, he can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via his website. Bryan is an affiliate member of the SFWA.

In my case, mine has grown over the past two years a lot, but I mention my novels, recognition one received with links, my editing, including the headliner who is a big name, as well as my SFFWRTCHT work and blogging with popular sites. I also mention my SFWA membership. This immediately tells them I am not just average joe wanna be writer but have respect in the industry at least enough to get the recommendations needed to join the SFWA and to get the trust as editor and interviewer of name writers, etc. I also mention my web life accounts so they will know that 1) I can be contacted easily and where and 2) I am active with promotion and thus will likely help promote their Con. The point is to present what you do have in the best light. If you are graduate of a respected workshop, especially one taught by names which they can find information about online, mention that. Mention your social networking and blog. Mention where your work has appeared etc. There’s no guarantee you’ll get on panels but presentation is an absolute necessity for those who do so your bio needs to present you well.

Once you’re happy with your bio, then it’s time to contact the Cons. Contacting cons should be done at least four to six months in advance. Sometimes you can squeeze in last minute but out of consideration, plan as early as you can. As soon as the previous Con is over, you can contact them but, again, out of courtesy, I'd give them a month to rest first. Cons are exhausting. If you don't know, you'll see.

I usually target smaller local Cons to get feet wet for several reasons. 1) They are more open to new and local writers as panelists, etc. 2) They are smaller crowds usually and thus a safer place to get your nervous feet wet. And you will be nervous. If you’re not, there’s something wrong. I’ve been on panels now at seven or eight Cons and I still get nervous pre-panels, etc. It’s okay. That’s why having fellow panelists is so great. We lift each other up with our energy and support. 3) Local cons are easiest to get to and find people you know to help you navigate your first time. Going far away to a strange place, especially if you’re an introvert, is hard enough but do it alone with strangers and be expected to be knowledgeable and THAT’s pressure. So don’t do that to yourself if you’re not ready. 4) Local Cons introduce you to a fanbase with whom you can readily build rapport as well as a circle of dealers and writers who can become your support community. They will help you to sort out what's happening and when and also take personal interest in your work because of frequent interactions. You won't feel so alone. They will root for the little guy they know.

The way to contact Cons is via the contact links on their website. Some will have one direct to programming. Others just have an info one. Others list the contacts for various departments. Write the address you have, tell them you’d like to participate in the Con, offer your bio, and wait for their response. If you’ve done panels or been a writer guest at Cons before, mention that, but if you’re here for my advice, I’m assuming you probably haven’t.

Some take a while to respond. Some are prompt. They will always tell you yes or no. (I have yet to hear no) and then let you know what happens yet. Most require you to buy a membership. Some offer discounts. Sometimes this is only for SFWA members to weed out the wheat from the chaffe. Sorry if that’s not you. You’ll get there. Whatever the case, even at World Con, panelists pay to attend. Big names even. So don’t feel bad.

The next thing you’ll likely be asked to do is suggest panels. If you have ideas, send a panel name and brief description. Offer to do signings and readings if you’re up for it and have anything to sign or read. As a bonus, look at the website. Are they listing attendees yet? If you submit panel ideas with suggested panelists, you are helping them save time. It shows you are attentive to their needs and to detail and have given serious thought to your ideas. You’re not committing anyone. The people you suggest can turn it down. Sometimes I contact them first, sometimes I let the Con do it. But no one will be mad if you suggest they might be good for a panel. It’s flattering. If they disagree or have too much already, they’ll just say no. Most won’t even know the idea came from you. There’s just too much going on at Cons.

After you’ve done that, send a headshot and final bio in case they need it for a program and then wait to hear from them. Once you get a schedule, which will likely be no more than two weeks ahead of the Con, be sure and study up a little. Make up some questions you would ask if you were in the audience of each panel and then practice your answers. This serves two purposes: A) it helps you be sure you have something coherent to say. Don’t worry, it won’t sound rehearsed because live, you’ll say it differently and it’ll just come out. What it does is organize your thoughts and bring them to the forefront so whe n you need them, they’re ready to be articulated. B) If no one is moderating, you may be asked. Most panelists won’t call on anyone who really doesn’t want to do it. But the saving grace of moderating is you get to put pressure on everyone else for answers while you figure out what to ask and plan brief tag-ons to what they say. And you get the exposure of being heard in the panel without being required to speak as the top expert. It sounds hard but really you just ask questions and choose who gets to ask and when from the audience. It’s not that hard and it can take pressure off if you can handle that responsibility. Moderating also helps you feel and look more knowledgeable both to fellow panelists and audience but also to Con staff and you’re also showing you’re willing to pitch in and help make their Con better too, which goes a long way.

There’s two more things you should do now. 1) Prepare your agenda, including other panels or events you’d like to attend; including whom you’d like to meet; 2) If you have books to sell or anthologies or magazines with your story and don’t plan to pay for a dealer table (you need to be there when it’s open remember), look at the dealer list and see if any dealers carry books whom you can contact. Do not be afraid. Dealers like to carry stuff by Con participants because it encourages sales and brings people to the table not just from interest in panelists but from panelists telling attendees where to get their stuff. They may say no, but most are quite willing to help. Some will order your stuff in themselves. Others want to work on consignment for a percentage. It varies. But it’s worth it to have your stuff there if you have stuff. Stand in the dealer room near your stuff when you can. Offer to sign it. Pitch it if anyone shows interest. Mention the dealer on all panels.

Lastly, make it a point to thank everyone from con staff to fellow panelists to attendees to the dealers.

Finally, blog about the Con a week ahead, during, and after. This helps not only promote the Con but shows you’re involved in fandom and growing in your appeal enough to get invited. You can also talk about tips, as I do, for those following in your footsteps. It’s good fodder for blogging. People do find it interesting. And it helps prove to other Cons you’re someone they can count on to help make their Con a success. It also impresses agents, editors and fellow writers. For what it’s worth…

In Bryan’s second novel, The Returning, new challenges arise as Davi Rhii’s rival Bordox and his uncle, Xalivar, seek revenge for his actions in The Worker Prince, putting his life and those of his friends and family in constant danger. Meanwhile, politics as usual has the Borali Alliance split apart over questions of citizenship and freedom for the former slaves. Someone’s even killing them off. Davi’s involvement in the investigation turns his life upside down, including his relationship with his fiancée, Tela. The answers are not easy with his whole world at stake.

Using Pinterest as a Reader, Writer, and Author

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:46:00 +0000

First, congratulations to Sam for winning the Near Witch Giveaway.

Second, MIT graduation was last Friday. Unfortunately, I wasn't in it. In the grand tradition of doctoral dissertations, my defense has been moved back a few months. I'm now shooting for the end of summer. My next few months will be split between dissertation writing and revisions of Midnight Thief, so blogwise, I’ll still be scarce for a while.

But even when time is scarce, there's always time for another social network! I've been checking out Pinterest recently (Here I am!), trying to see if I should integrate it into my social media strategy (Oh, who am I kidding? I just like the pretty pictures.). I thought I'd share some of the ways that it might be useful for book people: specifically readers, pre-published writers, and published writers.

Edit: Since coming across Roni Loren's blog post on copyright violation, I've removed some of the embedded images on this post. For the moment, I'm still using Pinterest, but I'm looking into the copyright issue.

1. Book recommendations

Source: amazon.com via Livia on Pinterest

I keep a partial list of books I read in my goodreads account, but I've also started a gallery of books I recommend. It's always fun to pimp books and browse my friends' galleries.

2. Scene setting and character inspiration

Many people post travel pictures on Pinterest, and these are a fantasy author’s godsend, especially if you're like me and lazy when it comes to setting. I have a gallery of interesting landscapes and buildings that I can browse what I'm trying to think of a story. I've also started a gallery of people that might inspire characters. I've also started a board for Midnight Thief, and it's actually been useful for revising. For example, I've been trying to ramp up the romance between two characters, and surprisingly, it got SO MUCH EASIER after I posted this picture as a model for the guy.

Ahem…

3. Writing prompts

There are lots of quirky pictures on twitter as well, and I'm keeping a file of them to use as writing prompts.
4. Communicating your vision to your publishing team.

When I showed my Midnight Thief board to Laura from my editorial team, she mentioned that it would be helpful when they start cover discussions. I imagine that this would also work for indie authors when hiring freelance designers.

So far I've only covered point of inspiration. Are there ways in which Pinterest can be used to build your social media platform? Some ideas for those.

5. Publicizing your blog

Source: smackdowns.liviablackburne.com via Livia on Pinterest

Much ado has been made about Pinterest’s value in driving web traffic. It really depends on the kind of site you have. This blog, for example, doesn't really translate into pictures well. However, I also have a politically incorrect humor blog, and quotes from their have translated well to Pinterest. So it really depends on your content.

Source: smackdowns.liviablackburne.com via Livia on Pinterest

Beyond that, I've been trying to brainstorm ways to use interest once you have a book out. I can't really do this yet, but some ideas I've had were:

6. Post pictures of readers with your book in the wild

Jody Hedland has a gallery of readers in bookstores on the sidebar of her blog. I think Richelle Mead also had a facebook gallery of readers with books in front of international landmarks. Pinterest would be an easy way to post these pictures.

7.Fan Art

If you're lucky enough to inspire fan art, like Cinda Williams Chima, you could also post these in a gallery.

So does seem like Pinterest has its uses. As to whether it would sell books in any significant quantity, I'm not sure. At least with ideas listed above, Pinterest seems more like a way to interact with an existing fan base than a way to get new readers (with the exception of publicizing blog posts). When you post pictures of your book, it does show up on the main Pinterest feed for a bit, but unless it gets re-pinned, I don't think it would catch that many eyeballs.

But what you think?Have you joined Pinterest? Do you think is useful for authors?

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Point of View and Freewheeling Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:47:00 +0000

First of all, a huge thank you to everyone for your well wishes and congratulations. I’m super excited about bringing Midnight Thief into the world, and I’m looking forward to sharing more details about the deal and process (BTW, if anyone has any specific questions, lemme know!). But first, for today, something different.

My freshman year of college, I took an expository writing class. One of the most important skills we learned was how to transition smoothly between different ideas. It was good, solid, advice, and improved my writing greatly. But like all writing rules, it doesn't always apply. I was reminded of this when I read Victoria Schwab's The Near Witch.

Take a look at this passage, in which the main character Lexi takes her sister Wren into town (the town is called Near). Everybody is talking about a stranger who showed up the night before.

Wren has strayed far ahead now, and Otto casts a look up at me, giving a sideways jerk of his head. I turn and go, making should note that Bo lives on the western edge of the village, so the stranger must have circled Near in that direction. Catching up to Wren, I pass by two families from the southern part of town. I slow my pace, careful to keep my sister in my sight.

"No, John, I swear he towers like a bare tree…" hollers an older woman, holding her arms wide as the scarecrow.

"You're daft, Berth. I saw him, and he's old, very old, practically crumbling."

"He's a ghost." "No such thing as a ghost! He's a halfling – part man, part crow."

[More dialogue…]

"Crows are terrible omens!! You've lost your mind, John. I know I said it last week but I was wrong. To Dave really lost it…"

I've lost Wren.

I look around and finally see a slip of blond hair vanishing into the nearby circle of children. I reach the cluster and find my sister, a good head shorter than most of them but just as loud and twice as quick.

I love the abrupt transition from the dialogue of the villagers to the thought "I've lost Wren." If I’d been writing it myself, I would've been tempted out of habit to smooth over that transition with something like, "Suddenly I stop and look around. I've lost Wren." But our minds don't smooth over transitions in real life, and there's something about the abrupt switch that deepens the point of view and pulls you inside Lexi’s head.

Here's another example. In this scene, Lexi is watching the witch Magda arrange her cabin.

Magda collects her pieces of the world daily. I imagine it's all for charms. Small craft. Now and then a piece of the sisters’ work will find its way into the villager's pocket, or around their neck, even if they claim not to believe in it. I swear I seen a charm stitched to the skirt of Helena's dress, most likely meant to attract Tyler Ward's attention. She can have him.

Again, I love that last sentence. First she's talking about the charms villagers carrying them, and suddenly it skips to a much more personal comment about Tyler Ward and Helena. It's a neat technique to keep in mind.

What about your writing? Do your characters transition smoothly between thoughts, or do they let them run free?

Today is actually the paperback release day for The Near Witch. To celebrate, Victoria Schwab has written a prequel novella called The Ash-Born Boy, and it's available for free download at the Disney Hyperion website. I've just started reading it, and it's fantastic.

Also, I'm giving away a free hardcover edition of The Near Witch. To enter the drawing, do one of two things:

1. Share this post on twitter and leave your username in the comments.

2. RSS subscribers will see a secret code at the bottom of the post. Send an e-mail to liviablackburne at gmail com with the secret code in the subject line.

I will draw a winner on May 22 , 2012.

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The Other Reason I Haven't Had As Much Time to Blog Lately

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:03:00 +0000

From Dystel and Goderich's latest deals roundup:

Livia Blackburne’s MIDNIGHT THIEF, a debut YA fantasy novel about a talented thief who joins an assassin’s guild only to find that what she thought was the perfect job is much more sinister than originally imagined was sold to Abby Ranger at Hyperion by Jim.

More details to come...

Operation Chest Hair Part I: In Which I Look at Girls Through a Manly Lens

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Wed, 09 May 2012 05:03:00 +0000

I write about teenage girls. That's my comfort zone, but I recently got an idea for a story from a man's point of view.

This made me nervous. I'd written boys before (not without difficulty), but this new story was about a Man’s Man. You know, the kind of guy that drinks black coffee and crushes rocks with his bare hands. To be honest, I didn't know if I had the balls to pull it off. And thus, Operation Chest Hair was born, in which I analyze Man Books in an attempt to raise my testosterone level.

I had two criteria for books to analyze. First, the book had to be narrated by a man. Second, it had to be written by a man (a manly man, if you will), to ensure accuracy. On my dorm room bookshelf, I had two books that fit: Barry Eisler’s Rain Fall *, about half Japanese assassin John Rain, and Alex Bledsoe’s The Sword-Edged Blonde, about freelance sword jockey Eddie Lacrosse.

Now I know that men are complicated, multidimensional, creatures, but for the sake of analysis, I needed to focus on specific themes. Today's topic: women (an important topic for men). I wanted to see how these characters looked at potential love interest. To narrow things down further, I focused on early encounters when they're getting to know the gal. So when you're ready, grab a beer, slather some Rogaine on your chest, and let's dive right in.

[Actually, one more clarification. I want to be clear here that I'm not attempting some kind of complex analysis of the male psyche. This is a writerly exercise focused on picking up aspects of voice from a certain type of male character in the specific situation of meeting the future love interest, so please don't read more into this than I intended... ]

Okay, now we really can begin.

In Rain Fall, John Rain first sees jazz pianist Midori when she performs.

I watched Midori's face as she took up her post at the piano. She looked to be her mid 30s and had straight, shoulder length hair so black it seemed to glisten in the overhead light. She was wearing a short sleeve pullover, as black as her hair, the smooth white skin of her arms and neck appearing almost to float beside it. I tried to see her eyes but could catch only a glimpse in the shadows cast by the overhead light. She had framed them in eyeliner, I saw, but other than that she was unadorned. Confident enough not to trouble herself. Not that she needed to. She looked good and must have been aware of it.

Later on, they meet and get a chance to talk. Here's how Rain describes her this second time.

For the first time, I was in a position to notice her body. She was slender and long limbed, perhaps a legacy from her father . . . Her shoulders were broad, a lovely counterpart to a long and graceful neck. Her breasts were small, and, I couldn't help but notice, shapely beneath her sweater. The skin on the exposed portion of her chest was beautiful: smooth and white, framed by the contrast of the black V-neck.

What about Eddie Lacrosse? He first sees Liz from afar as she's fighting off three bandits.

In the center of the triangle stood a slender, redhaired girl, as tall as me though with that willowly quality so many country girls possess. She had short hair and was dressed like a man, which actually made her look more feminine. But this was certainly no helpless maiden.

After he helps her in the fight, he takes a closer look.

Then she faced me, and I got my first close look at her. She had wide shoulders and the kind of trim narrow body that spoke of hard muscle beneath her baggy clothes. A deep scar cut through her right eyebrow and touched her hairline, where a streak of white sprang from it.

Here’s what I noticed.

1. The men are looking at both the woman's face and body.

So it's interesting. In both books the guy sees the woman from far away at first. Then she moves closer, and in both books, the guy makes a point of taking a closer look.

In terms of physical description, it’s very precise language, often mentioning specific body parts (long and graceful neck, small breasts, wide shoulders, hard muscle). Which brings me to point two.

2. The men are looking at clothing in relation to the body.

For example, Midori’s black clothes contrast with her skin. Liz’s clothes make her look more feminine. And sometimes, it seems like the guys are more interested in looking through the clothes then at them. :-)

I was curious about how this compares to YA heroines, so I grabbed a pile of books off my shelf. It seems like teenage girls are much more about the face. A few do mention the guy's body, but it's very general language, usually referring to build.

For example, Elisa from The Girl of Fire and Thorns gushes about her King Alejandro’s friendly smile and beautiful teeth. Aly from Trickster's Choice spends four sentences describing Nawat’s face and then mentions that he is "6 feet tall, with a wiry build." Cate from Born Wicked sees Finn’s freckles and notes that he's no longer scrawny. As for her other suitor Paul, he's taller, has a mustache and beard, and “looks quite the gentleman in his frock coat.” Katsa from Graceling notices Po’s gold earrings, his rings, his dark hair, and his eyes. The only allusion to his body is that the neck of his shirt is open.

I was curious as to whether the focus on face rather than body were more because of the YA heroines’ age or their gender. So I picked up Karen Marie Moning’s Darkfever. Darkfever is an adult romance, and the Mackayla Lane is no innocent flower. What does she notice in the first meeting between her and Jericho Barrons?

He didn't just occupy space; he saturated it. The room had been full of books before, now was full of him. About thirty, six foot two or three, he had dark hair, golden skin, and dark eyes. His features were strong, chiseled. I couldn't pinpoint his nationality… He wore an elegant, dark gray Italian suit, a crisp white shirt, and a muted map patterned tie. He wasn't handsome. That was too common a word. He was intensely masculine. He was sexual. He attracted. There was an omnipresent carnality about him, his dark eyes, and his full mouth, in the way he stood. He was the kind of man I wouldn't flirt with in a million years.

So there's certainly nothing shy or innocent about this description, but even Mac describes the Jericho’s body with less detail than his face or even his clothes. (Note also, that Cate from Born Wicked also describes Paul’s frock coat and other clothing in detail.)

It's not like these women never look at a guy's body if it's there in front of them. In Graceling, there's a delightful scene in which Po takes his shirt off and Katsa makes a heroic effort not to gawk, and Mac gets quite a few eyefuls in the Fever series. But in general, there's less of an effort to develop x-ray vision.

There was one notable exception to this trend: Bella Swan from Twilight. Bella notices early on that Edward’s forearm is "surprisingly hard and muscular.” In later scenes, she gushes over his “sculpted, incandescent chest,” and his “scintillating arms.” Does this have something to do with Twilight's mysterious ability to drive teenage girls into a hormonal craze? Hmmm…

Okay, moving on ...

3. Both John Rain and Eddie LaCrosse specifically mention the woman's attractiveness early on. And not just that she's good looking, but also whether or not she knows it.

“. . . she was unadorned. Confident enough not to trouble herself. Not that she needed to. She looked good and must have been aware of it.” – Rain Fall

“She was cute rather than pretty, and I just bet eshe knew that and it bugged the hell out of her.” -TSEB

YA heroines were less straightforward about physical attraction. Elisa does mention that Alejandro is beautiful, and Bella definitely notices Edward. Other heroines, however, simply note a pleasant face or don’t mention that the guy is attractive at all (thought it’s implied). As to whether or not he knows he’s good looking, the closest I found was from Graceling.

Then he raised his eyebrows and hair, and his mouth shifted into a hint of a smirk. He nodded at her, just barely, and it released her from her spell. Cocky, she thought. Cocky and arrogant, this one, and that was all there was to make of him.

And one last observation.

4. Both men mention how the woman's attractiveness affects and/or distracts them.

“What the hell is wrong with you? I thought. You've got nothing to do with her or her father. She's attractive, it's getting to you. Okay. But drop it.” -Rain Fall

“Yes, she was attractive. And yes, I noticed, and yes, it had been a while for me. But besides the fact that she was not very encouraging (she insisted we always sleep with the fire between us), I just wasn't motivated that way.” -TSEB

So in this case, I do see similar things happening with the YA heroines. Bella falls all over herself over Edward’s beauty. Katsa is distracted by Po’s eyes, and Elisa by Alejandro's good looks. However, the girls are usually not really thinking about whether they'll make a move. Could this be due to the social script of the women as the pursued rather than the pursuer?

So here ends my somewhat haphazard sampling of men and women in romance, and I'd now like to enlist your help. What do you think? Do you have any supporting examples, or counter examples, on your bookshelves?

Also, click here for the next installment of Operation Chest Hair.

[*Editor's note: Barry Eisler’s ex-CIA status and penchant for posting wrestling videos make his books a natural pick for this blog series, but there have been recent rumors that he is secretly a male model. Operation Chest Hair takes these allegations of nonmanliness very seriously and will investigate them thoroughly before the next installment.]

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Also, friend of the blog Linda Poitevin recently released her urban fantasy Sins of the Son. Check it out!
A detective with a secret...
When homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis sees a photo of Seth Benjamin on a police bulletin, she knows that Heaven's plan to halt Armageddon has gone terribly wrong. As the only mortal who knows of Seth's true nature, she's also the only one who can save him.

An exiled angel turned assassin...
Aramael was a hunter of Fallen Angels until a traitor forced him into earthly exile. Now, with no powers and only a faint memory of Alex, his mortal soulmate, he will stop at nothing to redeem himself--even if it means destroying Seth in the name of the Creator.

A world with little chance of redemption...
As Alex's need to protect Seth sets her on a collision course with the determined Aramael, the conflict between them may push the world over the edge--and into the very chaos they're trying to prevent.

Lukewarm Cover Blurb Contest: Winners!

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:12:00 +0000

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Lukewarm Cover Blurb Contest. My husband, the original Lukewarm Blurber, has chosen his favorites, and without further ado:

Tied for third place are Unpublished Guy and Dan.

Unpublished Guy's entry:

A giant lateral leap in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Mutton Chops chronicles the way the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles rational theories of human history.

Dan's entry.:

I do not regret walking into the bookstore the day I bought this book at a discount.

In second place, Nate Wilson:

This is a book that no one else on earth would even have conceived of writing. The author's word choice is stunning, and his plot twists boggle the mind. I couldn't get through it fast enough.

And the first place winner is Dan again, with nicely cynical entry.

Minimal spelling errors, characters with consistent names, fewer than six plot holes: perfect for the tired high school English teacher in your life.

Winners: Please contact me at liviablackburne at gmail dot com with your mailing address. Thanks to everyone for participating!

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Announcing the Lukewarm Cover Blurb Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:23:00 +0000

We’ve passed the 1500 RSS subscribers mark! Thank you all so much for sticking around and participating in our discussions of all things writing. As has become tradition here, we'll celebrate with a contest. And I have a good one.

A while back, my dad asked my husband (aka astronomer and literary snob J Blackburne) if he liked Midnight Thief. J’s response was something along the lines of, “Yeah, I did! A lot of first novels have cardboard characters and plots that fall apart halfway through, but Livia's book was not like that.”

Later on, I teased him about having liked my book because it “was not horrible.” At which point, my secretly-supportive-but-very-mischievous husband got a glint in his eye.

“It's… serviceable fiction,” he said. “With every element needed to become a runaway bestseller amongst undiscerning readers.”

And that dear readers, is how I got my very first cover blurb. I can just see it now, in italics across the top of the cover, just above the picture of Kyra vaulting over a palace wall.

In honor of this occasion, I now announce the Luke Warm Cover Blurb contest. Because good cover blurbs are boring, and bad ones are too obvious. I'm looking for the ones that make you step back and scratch your head -- do a double take.

Here are the rules:

1. Leave as many entries as you want to, between now and end of the day April 14, 2012.
2. My husband can get away with this because we have the same sense of humor and I think he's adorable, but for the sake of good karma, let's limit this contest to imaginary book titles and authors (or your own, if you're the masochistic type).
3. On April 15, the original Lukewarm Blurber himself will choose the winners. Each winner will get a book, with the first-place winner getting first choice, and so on. I'm not quite sure how many books I'll give away, but they will include at least:

Alright, folks. Happy blurbing!

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What Makes A Story Persuasive?

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:21:00 +0000

Poking my head out briefly to say hi. Dissertation writing is taking quite a bit of time... (surprise surprise)

What was the last time a work of fiction changed your view on an issue? For me, it was Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, which made me think seriously about government intrusion on privacy. Fiction to make a point is nothing new. But what makes a story persuasive? A study from researchers Melianie Green and Timothy Brock points toward one ingredient.

These researchers were interested in what they called "transportation," the extent to which someone is absorbed and engaged in a story. They wanted to know if transportation made readers more likely to take on story-consistent beliefs.

Green and Brock had participants read a story about a college student whose little sister was stabbed to death by a psychiatric patient at the mall. After participants read the story, they answered a “Transportation questionnaire,” which included questions like "While I was reading the narrative, I could easily picture the events in it taking place," and "The narrative affected me emotionally."

The researchers found that readers with higher transportation scores had more story-consistent beliefs. They were more likely to think that stabbings were common in the United States, and that psychiatric patients should be supervised when they go out into the community.

Of course, correlation does not equal causation. It could be that transportation encourages story-consistent views, or it could be the other way around, that people who already held story-consistent beliefs were more easily transported into the story. So the researchers did some follow-ups. In one experiment, they surveyed participants about their views 5 to 9 weeks before they read the story. It turns out that initial beliefs did not predict transportation. In another study, the researchers manipulated transportation by having participants circle difficult vocabulary words while they were reading. As expected, this task distracted the readers. They reported both lower levels of transportation and less agreement with story-consistent beliefs.

So the bottom line to persuading with your fiction? Draw people in. Make them emotionally involved. In other words, write a good story.

Have you read any fiction that changed your views?

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Also, friend of the blog Passive Guy a.k.a. David Vandagriff a.k.a Darius Acheson recently released his novel The Titanboar Touchstone. Check it out!

When Jager touches a dead titanboar in the forest, a fierce power blazes into him. From that moment, his girlfriend, Rolinda, is condemned to a lingering death at the hands of corrupt Emperor Dragene. Jager’s titanboar magic is as changeable as his moods, working with breathtaking power one moment, but failing when he needs it most. The titanboars call him Bright One as he struggles to understand their cryptic expectations. An old man in the village, Wazdan, has a collection of talking cats and talented vultures. Wazille appears to be a gentle grandmother who enjoys cooking, but she also delights in green explosions in the midnight sky. As Dragene seeks Jager, Wazdan and Wazille try to prepare him for the dangerous challenges ahead. The secretive titanboars are drawn from their clandestine life in the forest by a need to protect Bright One from his expanding collection of enemies. Terrifying night creatures track Jager by a glow only they can see. Shadow Man appears in his dreams and Dragene sends flying orrocks to hunt him down. The titanboars are a riveting new magical creature in this epic fantasy. They are vastly superior to humans, but they desperately need one human, Jager, to ensure their survival.

Green, Melanie C.;Brock, Timothy C (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Starting the Second Novel: What I'm Doing Differently

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:09:00 +0000

It's crunch time in dissertation land. I’m aiming to graduate this June, so blog posts won't be as frequent this semester. Hopefully I'll come out the other side without too many dead brain cells. :-)

With the new year, it’s a good time to talk about new beginnings. Now that I’ve finished revisions on Midnight Thief for agent Jim, I'm starting a new novel.

It's a very different experience this time around. Three years ago, I was blissfully ignorant about the whole process. Seven revisions, two years of critique group meetings, and 178 blog posts later, I’ve learned a few lessons.

These some things I've learned and/or am doing differently the second time around.

1. I have a better understanding of point of view (POV). When I first started writing, I mistakenly misinterpreted “show don't tell” as "never say when a character feels.” My scenes were written from a distant viewpoint -- like a camera looking at the characters from the outside. While there's objectively nothing wrong with this approach, I've since learned the advantages of a deeper POV. After all, one perk of novels over movies is that the reader gets access to a character's thoughts. I now know more about incorporating internal narration and shading narration through a character’s eyes and worldview.

2. I'm spending more pre-writing time on characters. When I started Midnight Thief, I approached the characters mostly as "peopleI need to further the plot.” Characters in the first few drafts were pretty flat, and I spent a good deal of revision time rounding them out. This time, I'm building them up before I start writing. These are some of the exercises that I've been using.

3. Instead of thinking about how to keep readers hooked, I'm thinking about how to make readers care. I relied a lot on cliffhanger endings for Midnight Thief. While I love my cliffhangers dearly, they can only take you so far. I now see cliffhangers as part of a larger set of tools to keep readers invested. If readers build an emotional connection to the character, they'll keep reading -- plus, they'll keep thinking about the book after they finish. I'm still trying to figure out how to do this in practice. Some ideas are building emotional depth, making your character the underdog, and save the cat moments. Cheryl Klein has also a nice list of attributes that make a character likable. Any other suggestions?

4. In addition to plot arc, I'm thinking about character arcs and relationship arcs. Again, my first few drafts of Midnight Thief focused heavily on plot. The second time around, I'm also thinking about character journeys and the push-pull of character relationships as the story develops. The latter is especially good for building tension.

5. I'm using more setting to enhance the story. I didn't include much setting description in Midnight Thief because I'm the type of reader who skips over descriptive passages. But I've since learned ways to include setting details in non-obtrusive ways. For example, in props used by the characters, and small details that fill the beats between bits of dialogue and action.

So how is book 2 going? Well, for all those noble aspirations, the first draft is still pretty darn bad. But that's what first drafts are for, I guess. I do have to work a lot harder to silence my internal editor, but on the other hand it's very exciting to see a new story take shape.

So readers, what about you? What do you do differently now, compared to when you first started writing?

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Also, friend of the blog Gina Penn recently released her new novel The Dark Layer. Check it out!
Annemarie Lukas Bredahl has recently left her husband and moved into a small but cozy house in the lower middle-class city of Holly, Ohio. Alone except for her dog and scared of being on her own, she tries to adapt to her newly single life. As if things couldn’t get worse, she starts noticing items moving around on their own and the plumbing in her new place needs work. On a recommendation she calls Jackson Terry, a local plumber, and he proves to be the perfect distraction from her failing marriage. Annemarie knows something isn’t right with the house. Crosses appear and disappear on the walls. Her dog goes missing. She consults her long-time priest and although at first unwilling to personally help, he tells her that her house may be filled with souls trying to escape Hell by slipping through a hole in the dark layer-a layer between Heaven and Hell. This is too much for Annemarie. She only wants a normal new life and new relationship with Jackson. Instead, she must learn why the dark souls slipping through want her and her alone to guide them to what any damned soul wants-salvation.

How to Incorporate Backstory That Hooks The Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:21:00 +0000

Spoiler warning: Spoilers for the John Rain series by Barry Eisler. Also, The Detachment reached #1 on the Kindle store this week. Congrats, Barry!

I don't often read series out of order, but Barry Eisler was kind enough to send me a review copy of The Detachment when he visited the blog. The Detachment can be read as a standalone, although there are references to events from previous books.

While I often find “here’s what you’ve missed” sections boring, I enjoyed the backstory passages in The Detachment. They actually made me eager to go back and read the previous volumes. Now why would that be? Time to dig out the old magnifying glass.

Here are some sample sections. They center on the relationship between the assassin John Rain, his hitman buddy Dox, and his ex-lover Delilah. [Note: I don't actually know for sure if they describe events from a previous book, since I haven't read them yet, but it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this blog entry.]

Passage 1 (John Rain narrating):

The three of us had been through a lot together: first, as opposing players on hair triggers; then, when Mossad had brought me in to take out a rogue Israeli bomb maker named Lavi, on the same team; and then, most improbably, watching each other's backs for reasons that had nothing to do with national interests and everything to do with personal allegiances. What had bloomed between Delilah and me, I knew, was as improbable as it was precious.

Passage 2:

I wound up telling [another character] about Hong Kong, and Hilger, and how Dox had walked away from a $5 million payday to save my life, and how I killed two innocent people just to buy time to save Dox's life.

Passage 3:

[Another character speaking] "You told me [Dox] saved your life."
[John Rain speaking ] "That was the obvious part. He also proved to me that I could trust somebody. Of the two, I think the second had more lasting effect."

These passages made me want to know more. But what was it about them that caught my attention?

Some thoughts:

1. They described critical decisions Someone walking away from a $5 million payday to save a friend? Killing two innocent people to buy time? The loyalties and emotions promise an engaging story. (As a side note, the way these passages tell just enough to make you want more is this is a good example of how to get someone's attention by introducing a knowledge gap.)

2. They describe key points of change. Passage one outlines how the relationship between the three characters developed over time – from enemies to allies. Passage three describes how an event fundamentally changed John Rain’s world view. These are pivotal moments that let the reader understand characters more deeply.

So what lessons to draw from this? Well, at the surface level, boiling down backstory to key decisions and points of change is a good trick for your writer's toolbox.

But on a broader scale, it's a lesson on what makes a story. Good stories are about life's inflection points, the times when a character’s personality, relationships, or situation change, and the decisions that bring that to pass. These moments are so full of emotion, drama, and conflict that we want to hear more even if we know how things turn out. (This ties in to last week's discussion of spoilers.)

So readers, your turn. Any examples of decision moments or points of change, either from your own writing or from other books?

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Spoilers: Good or Bad?

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:50:00 +0000

One of my favorite Threadless T shirts

I hate spoilers. Once I turned on the TV and accidentally watched last 10 min. of The Usual Suspects (I hadn't seen it before). Whoops. I also figured out the ending of The Sixth Sense halfway through and was grumpy the rest of the movie because I'd missed out on the surprise.

But do spoilers actually decrease enjoyment?

Spoiler alert: A recent study says no.

Researchers at UCSD conducted an experiment to see how spoilers affect readers' enjoyment of a story. They had students read three types of short stories: ironic twist stories, mysteries, and evocative literary stories.

The stories were presented in one of three ways:
1) In its original form (unspoiled condition)
2)With a spoiler paragraph presented before the story (external spoiler)
3)With a spoiler paragraph incorporated as the first paragraph of the story (incorporated spoiler).

Participants rated each story for enjoyment on a scale of 1 to 10.

The result was counterintuitive. For all three types of stories, subjects gave higher ratings for externally spoiled stories than for the unspoiled stories. Interestingly, incorporating the spoiler in the opening paragraph did not raise enjoyment. In those cases, the enjoyment was the same as for the unspoiled stories.

Given these results, will I be less careful about avoiding spoilers? Probably not. The enjoyment rating used in this experiment was a coarse measure, and I don't think it quite captures the delightful surprise of a good twist ending. You might indeed enjoy the story better overall the second time, when you have a better idea of what to look for and aren’t distracted by curiosity, but you can only be surprised once. For me at least, that first naive read is still worth protecting. On the other hand, if a story is accidentally spoiled for me, I probably won't feel quite as gypped as I would have before. And the does change my intuitions about what makes a story enjoyable.

Finally, It's interesting that the external spoiler increased enjoyment, while the incorporated spoilers did not. The researchers suggested that this was because an incorporated spoiler led the reader to believe there was still more to the story that the author would reveal later. So maybe readers weredisappointed when they found out that there actually wasn't anything more, or perhaps the external spoiler allowed the reader to relax and enjoy the story without constantly thinking ahead. More on this next week, but for now, what do you think? Do you avoid spoilers?

Hope you enjoyed this post! To get regular updates from this blog, use the subscription options on the sidebar.

Also, friend of the blog Catherine Stine recently released her YA novel, Fireseed One. Set in a near-future world with soaring heat, toxic waters, tricked-out gadgets, and fish that grow up on vines, Varik Teitur inherits a vast sea farm after the mysterious death of his marine biologist father. When Marisa Baron, a beautiful and shrewd intruder, who knows way too much about Varik’s father’s work, tries to steal seed disks from the world’s food bank, Varik is forced to put his dreams of becoming a doctor on hold and venture with her, into a hot zone teeming with treacherous nomads and a cult who worships his dead father, in order to search for a magical hybrid plant that may not even exist.

Leavitt JD, & Christenfeld NJ (2011). Story spoilers don't spoil stories. Psychological science, 22 (9), 1152-4 PMID: 21841150

Top Five Book Picks of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:56:00 +0000

I usually don't do book reviews, but once in a while, it's fun to blog as a reader rather than a writer. Here are my favorite books that I read this past year. I read many other fantastic books as well, but if I have to limit myself to five...

(Listed in the order in which I read them.)

1. Plain Kate by Erin Bow

I have already gushed about Plain Kate -- the poetic language, the heartbreak. I loved this book so much that I bought two copies – one to keep and one to underline and analyze. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fairytales and bittersweet stories.

2. Push by Sapphire

Push is not an easy book to read. It's told from the point of view of a girl who was sexually abused by both her father and her mother and becomes pregnant twice by her father. The narrator's voice is very strong, and despite its dark subject matter, the story is surprisingly hopeful.

3.Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

My writing group reads a young adult book once a month, and this was the first book since The Hunger Games that all five of us loved. I couldn’t figure out how to blog about it though. I remember trying to draw principles about why it worked, and the only thing I could come up with was “be interesting and hilarious,” which, while true, isn't exactly the type of concrete advice that makes for useful blog entries. So yeah, still no idea how it works -- I mean, as far as I can tell, there isn't even a plot for the first few chapters. But I was still turning the pages, and laughing my head off.

4. Vicarious Pleasures and In Sickness and in Health by Jacob Appel.

Okay, so this is technically two, but they are short stories so I'm counting them as one. I don’t often read literary fiction, but I was really drawn to these stories. I love Appel’s characters -- he paints incredibly vivid, complex, yet identifiable people in just a few pages. And both the stories had endings that left me thinking.
(FTC Disclaimer: I received these two as review copies from the publisher, but that had nothing to do with their inclusion on this list.)

5. The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning

I had an interesting experience with this series. I actively disliked the main character Mac in the first book – I mean, seriously wanted to punch her in the face. The next two books felt like a lot of set up and not really books in their own right. But the series had an addictive pull. Mac grew as a character over time, and all the setup from the earlier books paid off on a grand scale in books four and five. The series itself is hard to put in a genre. It’s a paranormal romance at the core, with lots of action, plus the cast size and world building of an epic fantasy. Ultimately, your opinion of the series will depend on your reaction to the male lead Jericho Barrons. If you enjoy romances involving conflicted and dysfunctional, yet intriguingly sexy men, you’ll probably like the Fever series. (Parental Advisory: This series is not family-friendly. At all.)

So, dear readers, your turn. Have you read any of these books? What are you own picks from the past year?

Tips On Responding to Public Criticism (Inspired by Steve Jobs)

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 22:47:00 +0000

The Internet is an interesting place. When people interact through computer screens, it increases anonymity and decreases inhibitions while dehumanizing the person on the other end. This is why online interactions tend to be so polite and respectful.

Um, right.

The truth is, if you spend enough time on the Internet, you’ll eventually take your turn as a punching bag. As a blogger and future author, I'm very interested in how people react to public criticism. A while back, I ran across this video of Steve Jobs during a question-and-answer session. A man asks an insulting question, and Jobs’ response was quite impressive. It's worth taking a look.

Let's break down this response see if we can come up with some generalizable tips for dealing with public criticism.

1. You don't have to respond right away. When someone criticizes you and everybody’s watching, there's some pressure to say something right back. But resist that temptation. Take some time and think things over. But should you respond at all? I can't answer that for you, but a few questions to consider.

Is the criticism worth dignifying with a response? My levelheaded husband talks me out of a flame wars by asking that very question. If someone is raising reasonable objections, it might be worth responding. But if someone is just being snarky or immature (On the internet? No way!), it may not be worth sinking down to their level.
Are you being criticized in a hostile environment? Generally, the more hostile the environment, the more carefully you have to consider your response. If you're a part of the traditional publishing establishment, being lambasted on an virulently indie blog, or if you’re indie author trying to defend self publishing on a pro traditional writer’s forum, it may not matter how well reasoned your responses are. If the audience is already predisposed to hating you, they may not listen, and you'll just end up getting even more frustrated.
Think twice about responding to reviews I recently saw this blog post asking whether authors should respond to reviews. Several commentors mentioned that it was awkward when authors responded to bad reviews, even if it was in a nice way. Sometimes readers need a safe place to discuss books without feeling like the author is looking over their shoulder.

2. If there is truth to the criticism, acknowledge it. Hard to imagine, but sometimes your critics might be right. If that's true, then you’re better of acknowledging it than digging your heels in and denying everything. I'm often surprised that how effective an acknowledgment or apology can be for diffusing a tense situation. Several times, I’ve seen an angry commenter march onto a blog demanding blood for a perceived insult. But the blogger apologized, and it all smoothed over. In more than one case, the angry commenter ended up apologizing for his own initial rudeness as well.

3. Maintain your composure and sense of humor. People tune out when they see angry ranting. You come across as much more reasonable and mature if you stay calm.

4. Elevate the discussion. As they say, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." In the video, Steve Jobs took a thinly veiled insult and redirected the discussion to something more productive. Rather than discuss whether or not he was an idiot, he focused on the importance of looking at the big picture.

Have you ever been criticized in a public forum? How did you respond?

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Do Re-readers Tend to Be Revisers?

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:44:00 +0000

So today on twitter, agent Holly Root proposed a theory: Editors tend to have been re-readers as kids; agents were rarely re-readers. (via Molly O'Neill)

I don't know about agents and editors, but that made me wonder how re-reading and re-writing are related for writers. I proposed my own hypothesis: Writers who like revising were re-readers as kids. Writers who like first drafts, not so much.

People on twitter started weighing in, some who fit this pattern, and some who didn't. Which made me curious enough to put up a little unscientific poll.

What are your rereading and revising preferences? (Email subscribers and people reading in feed readers will need to click through to the web page to take the poll.)

poll by twiigs.com

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The Psychology of Attraction: The Intertwining of Sex and Aggression

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:39:00 +0000

"His gaze flickered to my lips. I got that. He was once again furious with me and once again perfectly ready to have sex with me. The conundrum that was Barrons. Apparently it was impossible for him to feel anything as far as I was concerned without getting angry about it. Did anger make them want to have sex with me? Or was it that he always wanted to have sex with me that made him so angry?"

--Shadowfever, by Karen Marie Moning

So I’m looking back over the "Psychology of Attraction" series, and so far we have fear, uncertainty, and now aggression. Which makes me think I should clarify some things before y'all stage an intervention. This series is not meant to be a picture of how healthy relationships work, or even how the majority of relationships work. They’re interesting tidbits that might be useful for a novelist. As often is the case, the healthy cases don’t always make interesting stories.

Actually, that's an interesting thought -- that the pathological makes for more gripping stories. Is it true? Is it desirable? Which dovetails nicely into today's post.

When I was researching the article on fear, I ran across some old studies exploring the relationship between aggression and sexuality. The basic idea was that the experimenters made test participants angry and then tested them for sexual arousal.

In one case, the experiment was conducted in a class on the day a midterm was supposed to be returned. The instructor told the students that almost everybody had failed and then went on to lambaste the class on their bad performance. Then, a visiting lecturer from a prestigious Ivy League university gave a guest lecture in which he was very condescending toward the students in the class. (The students were enrolled in a less prestigious institution).

After the anger manipulation, students were given pictures and asked to write stories based on the pictures. As you may have guessed, the angry students had more sexual imagery in their stories than students in a control condition.

Now I'm not sure if there's anything special about aggression and sex. It could be, that any strong emotion (like fear) will cause an increase in sexual drive. However, as a storyteller and a reader, I still thought it was worth discussing.

Many stories mix aggression into their romance threads. In the Fever Series quoted above, Jericho Barrons and MacKayla Lane have a very combative relationship, which increases the sparks when they finally get together. There are so many other examples: Katsa and Po in Graceling, the fight scene turned sex scene in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. My own novel features a conflicted relationship between my main character Kyra and “dangerous-yet-intriguingly-sexy-assassin.”*

So how do I feel about this? Well, on the one hand, it's clearly effective -- I found all the examples above to be very compelling.

On the other hand, I'm of glad that the YA genre doesn't tend to take this too far. Because while situations like these may seem sexy on paper, many women (and men) do learn the hard way that the aggressive and unpredictable alpha type is not so sexy in real life.

So, readers, I turn the question to you. How do you feel about the mixing of violence and sex in literature?

*BTW, it's ridiculously hard to write co-ed close-combat scenes in a PG way. I got so many fight scenes back from my writing group with phrases like “It’s ridiculously hard” circled, and “Lol!” scribbled the margin. Hence, the inspiration for this post.

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Barclay, A., & Haber, R. (1965). The relation of aggressive to sexual motivation1 Journal of Personality, 33 (3), 462-475 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1965.tb01398.x