Holly Lisle: Official Author Homepage» Appearances | Holly Lisle: Official Author Homepage

Migraines and Vertigo Redux

Holly — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:01:49 +0000

I started having headaches about halfway through last week.

On Friday, they turned into migraines and icepick migraines.

On Saturday, the vertigo returned, and the headaches stayed.

I got a few hundred words written on Saturday and again on Sunday on WARPAINT, but did not do anything online.

I’m working on LESSON 23 of the Self-Pub Expansion of HTTS today, and again, am working through migraines and vertigo.

I’ll answer the additional story and writing questions from the party as quickly as I’m able, but it won’t be today.

I apologize for the delay. I had a wonderful time at the party. Thank you again for coming.

Interview with Stephanie Osborn, author of The Case Of The Displaced Detective (science fiction)

Holly — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:55 +0000

The Case of the Displaced Detective: Book 1

In a single sentence of thirty words or less, describe your main story, hero, conflict, and why my readers will love your book.
Physicist Dr. Skye Chadwick discovers an alternate reality wherein Sherlock Holmes is destined to die at Reichenbach and rescues him, but can Holmes thrive – even survive – in our modern world?

What is the core of this story, your passion for writing it, the reason you wrote THIS book and not something else?
This is a fish-out-of-water story. I wanted to take one of the most brilliant men in literature and place him in a situation where he had only two choices – lose his mind, or man up and adapt.

Grow.

Learn.

I’ve been a “Holmesian” since childhood, so he was the logical choice. And once the “plot-bunny” bit, I couldn’t NOT write it. 215,000 words spilled out of me in two months. Which is why it’s a two-volume: The Arrival, and At Speed. The Arrival is an “origin story,” with foreshadowings of a spy ring after the project that brought Holmes here, and by its end we go full bore into the mystery, which unwinds fully in At Speed.

The Case of the Displaced Detective: Book 2

Which character do you most love, and why?

I adore Holmes, always have, always will. He’s so brilliant, and so very human, at the same time. I wish he WAS real.

What was the most difficult part of writing this book, and why?
Keeping Holmes true to himself as Doyle created him, hands down. Holmes’ character and quirks are fixed. And here I was, putting him in a situation that would stretch his very reason to its limits – imagine being jerked from your own world, leaving everything and everyone you have ever known and loved behind, and transmitted 150 years into the future! And yet I still had to maintain the essential Holmes.

If you were to pick a quote from the book to represent you, your writing, and what readers should expect from you, what would it be?
“Everyone please stand behind the yellow line until the doors open. No food, drink, flash photography, or video cameras are permitted. Once aboard the ride, please keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times until we come to a full and complete stop. Otherwise, they’re apt to end up in another universe somewhere without ya, and wouldn’t that fry your noggin?”
—Skye Chadwick, The Case of the Displaced Detective: The Arrival

http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

http://www.sff.net/people/steph-osborn/DDTheArrival.html

http://www.sff.net/people/steph-osborn/DDAtSpeed.html

Visiting with Author Karen Cote

Holly — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:47:50 +0000

I visited Karen Cote’s website—she’s made the visit something entertaining and remarkable.

Take a look here—and then look around her website to see her work and what she’s created.

SavvyAuthors.com Membership Contest Winners

Holly — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:33:57 +0000

I read every comment twice.

Thank you to every single one of you who played.

Every entry was excellent. There was no way I could choose ten on my own.

I went to Random.org’s True Random Number Generator, generated ten random numbers, and one of the ten was for a long-time reader here who had requested she not be considered in the drawing.

So I generated one more.

For the ten folks who won: You have won a one-year paid membership to SavvyAuthors.com. You may accept it for yourself, or offer it to a friend. You’ll be receiving an e-mail from me letting you know how to claim your prize. I’ll be using the e-mail you have used in your winning post. If you don’t receive your response from me by tomorrow, you’ll need to e-mail me here, let me know your name and your e-mail address, and the link to your winning entry, and I’ll resend the information.

Winners:

Rob F
Michael
Pam Hauser
Sarah
Charlene
Jenn
Sara Carrero
Alice B.
Dyre
Kathi

My Mistake, Your Gain–A Fun Drawing for 10 Free Memberships

Holly — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:03:14 +0000

My newsletter introducing the workshop I’m teaching for SavvyAuthors.com [LINK CORRECTED] started like this:

So.

In the midst of my current insane seventy-hour-a-week work schedule, I got this crazy question.

It was “How would you like to do a free writing workshop for our
site?”

Now, in most cases, the answer to the question “How would you like to add about 70 to 100 more hours to your workload and not get paid for it?” would be “Not very much!”

In this case, though, I found two reasons that made me say yes…

And on my writing diary while making the same announcement, I said:

Finally, a COMPENSATION DISCLAIMER:

I’m not an affiliate of SavvyAuthors.com. I’m not making a dime from the workshop, nor will I receive any payment for recommending the site.

I’m doing this because I think it will be fun, and interesting, and challenging, and because it will let me meet some new folks.

And then Sharon, my primary liaison for the workshop, sent me a happy e-mail about how many people had signed up (231 the last I heard), and she told me I’d be getting some money.

To which I said, “I honestly didn’t know I was supposed to get any sort of compensation. The long e-mail I sent out and my blog post both made it clear that I WASN’T being compensated.

“So as nice as the money would be, I’ll have to turn it down. Use it for something cool. ”

Her idea of cool was, why don’t I give it to ten of you as paid memberships for one year to SavvyAuthors.com.

And I agreed that would be pretty cool.

So.

HOW TO WIN

If you’d like to win a year’s membership to SavvyAuthors.com, just post here. Let me know the MOST USEFUL THING you’ve learned from my website, this weblog, or any of my courses.

That’s it. If you do that, you’re eligible in the drawing.

I’ll do the drawings NEXT WEDNESDAY (FEBRUARY 24th), which will give folks a LITTLE time to reply, and winners enough time to attend some of the workshops this year.

I’ll announce the winners on this writing diary.

[A NOTE: I am reading these entries. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM. If you attempt to use this contest to claim that I recommended a product I have never even heard of, I will delete your entry and block you from the site. I don't tolerate spam. I have deleted one entry so far.]

My New Free Writing Workshop

Holly — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:49:15 +0000

I’m teaching a “free or really, really cheap” writing workshop called Crash Revision: How To Revise Your Novel In 7 Days.

Mine is a general course, geared to writers in every genre—it’s not romance-specific.

My workshop is part of the 2010 Writers’ Boot Camp at SavvyAuthors.com.

I also have two items in the “book raffle,” though neither of mine is a book, and both are spectacular.

This short course starts on March 28th. You have to be signed up before then to be a part of it.

And some info on my workshop hosts:

SavvyAuthors.com offers tools and resources for romance authors at every stage of their career.

Finally, a COMPENSATION DISCLAIMER:

I’m not an affiliate of SavvyAuthors.com. I’m not making a dime from the workshop, nor will I receive any payment for recommending the site.

I’m doing this because I think it will be fun, and interesting, and challenging, and because it will let me meet some new folks.

Did a freebie online writing workshop today. You can take the workshop.

Holly — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:46:24 +0000

The workshop is Creating Characters With Character. My host is Cindy Rushton, and we did this live on the air, so it has the usual rough edges you get with a live workshop…but also the energy you get from someone pacing around the room talking and gesturing (that would be me—cannot sit still while I’m doing a workshop).

I liked the system enough that I’ve created an account for myself. We’re in the midst of chaos (of a good kind) here, so I won’t be able to use it right away. But I’d like to be able to do some live Q&As with writers on your writing questions, and maybe just some discussions on different aspects of writing.

Let me know what you think.

Dreaming the Dead

Holly — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:12:17 +0000

It was 1:37 AM when I woke up. It’s 1:48 AM right now, and I’m still shaky.

I dreamed I was visited by Jim Baen, and by someone speaking for him. I didn’t know his intermediary, but Jim Baen was my first publisher, and he taught me a huge amount about the business, and, frankly, I adored him. And then differences of opinion came between us, and I moved on. I tried to call him a few times–to find out how to make things right between us–but he would never take my calls.

And then he died, ending the chance that anything would ever be fixed between us.

I don’t dream the dead. In my memory, I spent some sleep time once with my grandmother after she died. And once, my Persian cat Fafhrd came to sit beside me in my dream. Neither of them did anything. Neither said anything. And in my entire life, those are the only two times before this has happened.

I dreamed Jim Baen. In my dream, Jim had come back to set things right between us. And he did it by telling his intermediary to tell me something to write, something “that you would love, that you would be passionate about.” Through his intermediary, he told me that if I wrote it, well, basically, we wouldn’t have to worry about money anymore.

The intermediary named Jim’s amount. It was big, but surprisingly plausible. I tried to ask Jim something, to speak to him directly, to make sure I understood.

The dead do not speak in my dreams. If if approached directly, apparently they vanish. In the dream, I crashed to the ground while trying to talk to him.

And then I woke up.

And I’m sitting here typing at this ludicrous hour of the morning with my pulse pounding, with my skin prickled, with my hands shaking. I had the idea in my head. No. Let me restate that. I have the idea in my head, and it’s incredible. Even now that I am awake, even now that I am rational, it is so good it is sucking the air from the room, making it hard for me to breathe. It’s an idea that I want to write even if it isn’t a gift from Jim Baen, the publisher I adored but with whom I did not end well, making his own amends for the way things ended.

It is rich, it is workable, it builds on something that I’d plunked around with and loved and then put away because I was doing contracted novels. Because now, you see, I’m not. I’m done with every book of every contract I had, and I’m working my ass off to put together enough money so that I’ll be able to write a couple of novels on spec (yes, this is the reason I’ve been sinking my entire life into the How to Think Sideways course and willingly putting in 70-hour weeks while completely ignoring my fiction since June). I’m buying myself time to write the books I want to write. The books of my heart. I thought I knew what those books would be.

And now…

Now I have dreamed the dead, and have been offered a freaking brilliant publishing insight from someone I tried so hard to fix things with, and have dreamed that this was the olive branch between us, and dammit, the other thing I was writing was good. But this is better. This is SO much better, and it’s fantasy. And even if the amount of money his intermediary told me it would make was a dream, and even if the gesture of the olive branch was a dream, and even if …

Shit. Tears in my eyes. Tears running down my cheeks. And this incredible idea.

I do not dream the dead. But tonight I did. Tonight I did. And whether it was real or not, or whether it was a metaphor, or my subconscious mind trying to fix the thing that could not be fixed between me and a man who was a wonderful mentor before things went wrong, I think I’m going to listen.

“How To Write A Novel” Live Online Seminar

Holly — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:00:25 +0000

I’ve been invisible since Friday because I’ve been working myself to exhaustion putting together something I think is really cool. You folks have been hanging in here with me for a long time, some of you since I started my career. You get first go at this.

After this one time, anything I do like this is going to be announced through my new newsletter first, and will generally offer subscribers the info a few days to a week ahead of everyone else. But this last time, we’ll start here. After this, anything that isn’t writing, new books, snippets, personal stuff, or the occasional curmudgeonly rant will disappear.

(Much to the relief of those of you who are no doubt tired of hearing about the future OneMoreWord Books publishing company, or the affiliate program…) I know. I care. This will go back to being a personal writer’s diary.

But just today, take a look at the free live writing seminar I’m putting together.

Writing Interview With Mur Lafferty

Holly — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 12:38:00 +0000

I did a writing interview this morning with Mur Lafferty of the I Should Be Writing podcast. The interview will be available sometime next week. But if you haven’t heard Mur yet, don’t wait for the interview; she does an excellent and inspirational podcast, and finds herself dealing with the same issues that hit all of us–unconvincing villains, struggling heroes, words that won’t come, plots that won’t gel, and all the rest. And unlike my irregular podcast, Mur gets hers out there with stunning and enviable regularity.