The Emerald Sun: Banris the Flea wins a battle

By Holly Lisle

Genna, the cat, Doyati, Yarri, and Dan are in the right place at the right time to see a human army winning their war against Banris… until they aren’t.

I had to spend about half an hour setting up my Scrivener file for the new deadlines and writing objectives I’m now working toward — more on that another time.

But with my new deadlines set, my document set up to allow me to make the best use of my time, and my ten-minute timer going, I got 1604 words on the story today, and ended up with a nice realization about the current conflict, and how it will play into what’s coming.

And the cat was busy in this scene, though he manages to make himself scarce right at the end.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Dead Man’s Party — and Fiction as the Day Job again…

By Holly Lisle

Got 1515+ words this morning on Dead Man’s Party, in a smidge under an hour.

Also built my work process for getting a LOT more fiction done, and spending the first two to three hours of every weekday on that.

My daughter Becca is going to modify the process I came up with (after some heavy research over the past couple of weeks) to work in both shorter fiction and long fiction.

Me? Right now, I just wanna do a bunch of novels, the first stack of them in Settled Space.

Then I want to resuscitate some of my Hard Drive Zombies.

And then we’ll see.

But the objective is to make my fiction the BIG paying job again, with the classes as this fun thing I get to do alongside novels that are paying the bills.

I’m a lot happier when I’m writing two hours of fiction first every morning… and that’s the plan. (Mostly…)

Roughed out, the plan is actually:

Monday through Friday…

  • STEP ONE: Write two hours or 2000 words on the current novel
  • STEP TWO: Then build the plan for the next novel
  • STEP THREE: Then revise/ edit/ format/ publish/ market for one hour on the previous novel

Then do the nonfiction stuff.

That’ll put me up to three to four hours a day on total fiction, leaving two to four hours a day for non-fiction plus forums plus blogging.

In that order.

Consistent Novel Publishing. It’s what I’m heading toward.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


The Wishbone Conspiracy: I discover Tangerine’s real name

By Holly Lisle

Tangerine got himself in some hot water with Cady today — he’s a clever chap who did some deep digging, and found out a bit of her past he would have been better off not knowing.

But during what turned into an awkward encounter between the two of them, I learned both his original real name and his “grew up and legally changed my name” name.

Original first name?

Furball. (His mother had some serious issues.)

Grown up, changed real name?

Keff Ronin.

Keff is having a much worse day than he anticipated. But it will get better.

Because when all is said and done, he’s one of the good guys. It’s just a bit hard to tell that at the moment. He hasn’t yet done a good job of proving it.

2116 words today — took a while, but I’m happy with what I got.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


The Wishbone Conspiracy: Tangerine Returns

By Holly Lisle

Today, a blast from the past who yesterday showed up for this party uninvited today became a major part of the story.

Tangerine was a one-scene character in Hunting the Corrigan’s Blood. He was in that story to change Cady’s appearance when she was in trouble but did not yet know exactly how much trouble she was in.

The rule of thumb with characters you don’t want to have popping up uninvited is exactly the same as it is with stray animals:

  • Don’t name them
  • Don’t feed them
  • Don’t get to know them too well

I did all three things in Tangerine’s one scene.

I gave him a name, I discovered that he, like Cady, was a Maryschild, and I let him say the bunch of funny lines that he threw at me.

And then I came up with nine more novel concepts for Cady that I planned to pitch to Baen, one of which actually had Tangerine in it. That was Number Eight, I think.

But then… Baen didn’t reprint Hunting the Corrigan’s Blood, a book that hit the Locus bestseller list two months in a row and sold out its first printing in two months.

And refused to look at any more SF from me.

YEARS passed before I finally reacquired the rights to Hunting the Corrigan’s Blood. More years passed until I made the time to get it back into print and to write its sequel, Warpaint. That second book rode off into the sunset with the idea for The Wishbone Conspiracy firmly planted in my brain.  Where it sat simmering for several MORE years, because… <sigh>

Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.

This is my planned third book.

But Tangerine was nowhere in my concept for this book.

He showed up yesterday as an uninvited extra, and today made himself a main character. The Wishbone Conspiracy is not — and has nothing to do with — the novel I plan to write that actually features him.

Oh, no.

This is him showing up dragging something useful to prove me how much I need him, in much the same fashion my much-missed cat Bouncer used to bring me squirrel hindquarters as his contribution to the family. “See, I’m taking care of you.”

The squirrels, the birds, and I were a lot happier when I turned Bouncer and my other cats into indoor-only cats. Bouncer? Probably not so much. He’d sit on windowsills and shit-talk the wildlife outside the windows.

But Tangerine… turns out that isn’t his real name… And who he was wasn’t and isn’t who he is, either.

He and Cady actually were acquainted with each other back in their Maryschild past, though in their previous meeting neither recognized the other.

And today he dropped the back half of a squirrel he’d apparently been holding between his metaphorical teeth and without saying the words, told Cady, “You need me.”

Turns out, he was right.


Oh! Words I got on TWC today? 2024

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Moon & Sun 3: Sketching with words

By Holly Lisle

Moon and Sun outline and locationsI started out my workday this morning looking for (and finding) a sketchbook among my many notebooks and blank project books.

Followed by staring at the blank pages, with an array of drawing tools in front of me, and with my Muse going, “No, no, no, no, no…”

“I need to see these things,” I muttered, and Muse said, “I already see them. Let me show you.”

So I sat, pulled up my Emerald Sun Scrivener document, and opened a page in Places, and my Muse said, “Tell me about the Running forest.

So I did. Rather a lot.

And then the Muse said, “Okay. Now what’s the story with the Vault of Gears?”

And I started answering the question, and discovered SO much more story.

I didn’t have pen lines or shapes for what I was seeing, for what I was discovering — but I had a lot of words, and the words divulged secrets, and the secrets made me hungry to get started on this book.

So.

Next Tuesday, I’ll start writing the actual novel. I might from time to time need to slow down to sit with my Muse and sketch more words…

But this story has been waiting a long time to be born, and all of a sudden, it feels like it’s in a hurry.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Becoming Piers Anthony: The Not-Impossible Dream of 3 Books A Year

By Holly Lisle

A couple of things have changed in my life recently, one of which has been the writing of Dead Man’s Party, my demo novel for the writing class I’m currently building, How to Write a Novel.

I’ve been dedicating one concentrated hour or so a week to the writing of the first draft (and a bloody awful first draft it is, too), but the bones of the story are solid, and it’s going in a great direction, and it’s turning funny on me all of a sudden.

And I’ve been reading through Moon & Sun, and taking notes, but they were not being very helpful notes.

Then, while Becky and I were talking about going back through the first two novels of my Moon & Sun series in order to pick up toys I’d left on the floor for the third book, I realized that I had not done an Octopus Map for the series.

So I built the Octopus Map (a core technique in my How to Write a Series class), and something that I mention in the upcoming Episode 29 of Alone in a Room with Invisible People.

Once I remembered to do it, it took me about half an hour to get the overall bones of the final story figured out. I still have to do all the reading and the finding and identifying of essential toys, and some scene-by-scene plotting, but I know what the story is now. That’s big.

So…

At the moment Patreon is covering me for one hour of fiction writing a day, and the income from my fiction isn’t currently enough to run beyond that.

And I’m writing the How to Write a Novel class, and the demo novel, and doing the podcast, and reissuing some of my novels, and getting others ready to go live…

But I’ve discovered from my writing of Dead Man’s Party that I can get a lot of actual written fiction done in an hour, and I want to be seeing more progress than I’m seeing.

Because almost all of my hours have been eaten up by research for Moon & Sun, I haven’t been seeing a lot of progress.

But this morning I was standing in the shower and my Muse said, “Piers Anthony said he worked on THREE books at a time.”

And then I thought, “I have five hours a week, and Dead Man’s Party is only taking one hour, and I could limit my current reading and noting in the Moon & Sun series to two hours, which would let me do… What?

“What third project?”

At which point, my Muse practically screamed in my ear, “The Wishbone Conspiracy!!!” With a muttered undertone of you idiot.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, my Muse and I have an interesting relationship.

With Wishbone, I already have the world, the characters, the opening chapter, and even a bit of the plot worked out.

So I’m going to do this:

  • Two days a week I’ll be working on Moon & Sun 3: The Emerald Sun
  • One day a week I’ll be writing Dead Man’s Party
  • And two days a week I’ll be working on Cadence Drake in The Wishbone Conspiracy

If my Patreon funding can go up to two hours a day, or if I can get my fiction income up by other means (which I’m also working on), I’ll be able to increase that. Top level would be three hours a day, which would still leave five (plus the occasional evening) for creating How To Write A Novel plus emails plus forums…

I think even at top funding, or with a much-increased readership of my fiction, this will still work.

Monday I start finding out.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


NEW Fiction, BARGAIN price: The Longview Chronicles and The Owner’s Tale

By Holly Lisle

I’m delighted to announce that The Longview Chronicles, the complete six-book series in one volume, is on sale through Friday for $2.99regular price will be $7.99 for the complete series in ebook form, but I wanted all of my folks to get the whole series for the price of one episode.

For folks who are wondering, Cady is in the series (as is Herog), and this is the (very big) book that fits between Cadence Drake: Warpaint and the next novel, Cadence Drake: The Wishbone Conspiracy, and shows you what’s happening during and right after the end of Warpaint.

When the trusted are monsters, one monster becomes a hero…

The Longview Chronicles 250X400In the vast reaches of Settled Space, everything is legal, or at least obtainable privately… for a price.

Science has created near immortality, and the wealthy and powerful are buying it to make themselves gods. But these gods require–and create–an endless procession of manufactured criminals who become human sacrifices for their amusement…

Until one twisted creature born to be a sacrifice discovers the truth. This escaped slave declares a secret war against corruption, enslavement, and the wealthy, powerful men and women who have declared themselves gods, and made their whims law.

THE COMPLETE SERIES IN ONE VOLUME

Get this book from your favorite bookstore.

(And if you love it, please leave a review…)

 

And for folks who already have the first five, for the rest of this week, The Owner’s Tale, the brand new concluding episode, will be on sale for $.99.

When the truth comes out, who is left standing?

Longview 6 The Owners TaleIn this final episode of the series. the Longview reveals its secrets, Herog finds the path to protecting the City of Furies, and Melie discovers the truth about the ship she captains and the owner she serves.

MEET THE LONGVIEW – An Ancient Spaceship Resurrected To Transport Conspiracy

Inhabited by a crew of misfits fleeing nightmare pasts, with a cargo of Condemned slated to die at the hands of the highest bidders, and with a passenger roster made up exclusively of people NOT who they claim to be, The Longview serves the hidden agenda of an eccentric recluse bent on playing puppetmaster to all of Settled Space.

Get this from your favorite bookstore.

(And if you love it, please leave a review…)

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Video & Podcast Test: How To Write Suckitudinous Fiction

By Holly Lisle

I chose one of my funnier articles on writing fiction and turned it into both a video and a podcast. I’m testing new software that I hope to use for a number of different applications, including workshops, and I’d like to know how these two formats work for you.

VIDEO TEST:
PGNlbnRlcj48c2NyaXB0IHR5cGU9InRleHQvamF2YXNjcmlwdCIgc3JjPSJodHRwOi8vaG9sbHlsaXNsZS5ldnN1aXRlLmNvbS9wbGF5ZXIvYUc5M0xYUnZMWGR5YVhSbExYTjFZMnRwZEhWa2FXNXZkWE10Wm1samRHbHZiaTV0Y0RRPS8/Y29udGFpbmVyPWV2cC1HVU8wTEFaSDhTIj48L3NjcmlwdD48ZGl2IGlkPSJldnAtR1VPMExBWkg4UyIgZGF0YS1yb2xlPSJldnAtdmlkZW8iIGRhdGEtZXZwLWlkPSJhRzkzTFhSdkxYZHlhWFJsTFhOMVkydHBkSFZrYVc1dmRYTXRabWxqZEdsdmJpNXRjRFE9Ij48L2Rpdj48L2NlbnRlcj4=

AUDIO TEST
PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiIHNyYz0iLy9ob2xseWxpc2xlLmF1ZGVsbG8uY29tL3BsYXllci9hRzkzTFhSdkxYZHlhWFJsTFhOMVkydHBkSFZrYVc1dmRYTXRabWxqZEdsdmJpNXRjRE09Lz9jb250YWluZXI9YXVkZWxsby1BUDdCWTlCUDNCIiBhc3luYz48L3NjcmlwdD48ZGl2IGlkPSJhdWRlbGxvLUFQN0JZOUJQM0IiIGNsYXNzPSJhdWRlbGxvLXBsYXllciBhdWRlbGxvLWZpbGUiIGRhdGEtcm9sZT0iYXVkZWxsby1maWxlIiBkYXRhLWF1ZGVsbG8taWQ9ImFHOTNMWFJ2TFhkeWFYUmxMWE4xWTJ0cGRIVmthVzV2ZFhNdFptbGpkR2x2Ymk1dGNETT0iPjwvZGl2Pg==

YOUTUBE LINK:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTAksz1NFyc

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Intern Program #1: FICTION Critter, Editor, Copyeditor, Text Layout, Cover Design, Fiction Launch Path

By Holly Lisle

Internship
I’ve created my first intern program: COMMERCIAL FICTION DEVELOPMENT. The first intern program is for people who want to work with WRITERS OF FICTION (and personal non-fiction). And who want to get paid to do this.

I’m looking for people with whom I can work LONG-TERM. I want to build a team I can rely on to work with every fiction project I write, and ideally the first interns who join the program would become my team, and will still be working with me as indie contractors 25 years from now.

However, I know other writers need help, too—and I know where hundreds of these writers are (ReadersMeetWriters.com), and I can train more folks than just my own team.

Whether we end up working together long-term or not, I’ll make sure that, if you take the program seriously and apply the necessary effort to learn the skills I teach, I’ll recommend you in ReadersMeetWriters for the skills you learned, and you can offer your skills in the RMW Market with my recommendation as your first client.

This is the program to apply for if you want to get to read a lot of fiction, and work with writers to help them make their fiction the best it can be, and to learn how to get it out into the world to reach other readers.

If you maintain your active status as an intern, you will get hands-on experience and training in doing:

  • Professional-quality crits
  • Manuscript Content Editing
  • Manuscript Copy Editing
  • Manuscript Text Layout and Manuscript Formatting
  • Cover copy and promotional copy
  • Cover Design
  • Fiction copy and launch building

Each of these skills is needed not just by me, but by the members of ReadersMeetWriters.com

And I’ll be recruiting FROM the membership of ReadersMeetWriters.com for my first interns. Here’s the program.

BEGINNING INTERNS—You’ll work with my previously published work doing:

  • Reading and bughunting
  • Manuscript layout and pre-formatting (for novels) and ebook creation (for short fiction)
  • Writing cover copy and other promotional copy
  • Designing cover art
  • BASIC fiction launch training

ADVANCED INTERNS—Interns who perform well and reliably and hit deadlines consistently will move on to working with my new fiction as I write it, doing:

  • Reader crits of first drafts
  • Content editing of final drafts
  • Manuscript copyediting
  • ADVANCED fiction launch training

BEGINNING INTERNS will receive my downloadable training for bug-hunting, manuscript layout and formatting, writing cover copy, designing cover art, and basic fiction launches, and you’ll get my input on each step you complete.

When the split-tester becomes available, we will split-test cover-copy, cover art, and launch elements, and you will be able to see which of your own work is best (you’ll do multiple entries), and how your work stacks up against the work by others—and you’ll be able to use what you learn to improve your skills.

By successfully completing each section, interns will receive my recommendation and points in ReadersMeetWriters.com, as well as the courses I offer that include additional training.

Interns will also receive an acknowledgment in each book on which they are an active participant.

I have room for twelve interns who will work in teams of three on the 19 projects I have ready to go. I will open up replacement slots for any interns who drop out of the program.

Interns with whom I work well and who enjoy working with me will progress to the ADVANCED PROGRAM.

All advanced interns will take How To Revise Your Novel at an accelerated pace, and will use this course to understand how to revise and edit fiction. You will each receive first-draft manuscripts of previously published works of mine to use for practice, and once you have completed the course and a full edit of a first-draft manuscript, will work with me on live fiction as I create it.

ADVANCED INTERNS will also take the advanced fiction launch training I am currently developing, and will set up test launches. Successful test launches will become live launches. When each ADVANCED INTERN runs a successful live launch, that intern will receive fiction launch certification for use in RMW. I will contract with one or two certified fiction launchers to plan, set up, and run my own launches, and will recommend certified fiction launchers to RMW members looking to hire them.

This intern program will be a lot of work, will not cost you anything, but also will not pay you anything.

You’ll receive free training; you’ll receive points and recommendations in RMW if you do well; you’ll receive acknowledgement in the books you help fix.

And as I’m able to move from the intern-training model to hiring contractors, I will.

If you want to apply for an internship, watch your email from the RMW list. If you are not currently a member, you can join ReadersMeetWriters.com, which is still in its BETA stage. I’ll send an email out early next week.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


I have NEW Fiction and Nonfiction available!

By Holly Lisle

It’s taken a while to get past the indigestible lump that was How To Think Sideways, but from now on, I’m hoping to get at least one new item into print every month.

This month, I have two—LIGHT THROUGH FOG, the first Holly Lisle Single (short fiction), and CREATE A CHARACTER CLINIC, 2nd EDITION.

Both feature introductory discounts that end October 1st.
LIGHT THROUGH FOG

Some people only fall in love once…

SHORT DESCRIPTION: When a young widow abruptly loses her beloved husband, she finds a way to reconnect with him…but there’s a price.

REVIEW: “This is a hauntingly brilliant story about second chances. Sam and Sarah are married, with two wonderful kids. They are soul mates and each other’s childhood sweetheart until Sam is killed in a car accident. Sarah is devastated and bereft. In a moment of peace after the funeral Sarah retreats to a tiny island on their property where they had built a whimsical adult tree house together. Sarah plans to spread Sam’s ashes – a promise they had made to one another. As a fog rolls in she hears a voice and then a figure emerges from the mist – Sam. Whether dreaming, or going crazy or not Sarah embraces a last opportunity for a goodbye she never had the chance to say…” — SciFiGuy.ca

99¢ until OCTOBER 1st. Save $1.00

PARANORMAL FANTASY NOVELETTE: 7600 words
Includes a new afterword by the author.
Reprint: First published in The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance, edited by Trisha Telep

About Holly Lisle Singles:

Along with novels, I write short fiction. Like my novels, my short work comes in all genres, in many styles, and is about all sorts of subject matter. If this is your first experience with my work, there’s a LOT more out there already.

With Holly Lisle Singles, I’m both reprinting out-of-print work and writing new stories, trying out new characters (or revisiting old ones), and exploring new genres and voices. I figure it’s a good way for folks who have never read anything by me to try out my work. Besides, short fiction is fun to write.

So with every Single, you’ll be getting something different. If you find something you love, or meet a character you would love to see more of, TELL me. Post comments and requests here, or go to my site and send me a message via SUPPORT. I listen.

CREATE A CHARACTER CLINIC, Second Edition
You can create and write characters who live and breathe on the page; who capture the attention of readers, agents, and editors; who drive your story from a compelling start to a captivating ending.

It’s not a trick, it’s not some gift of the Fiction Fairy bestowed on only a few. You have everything you need within you to start creating brilliant characters today.
Today? Yes.

If you jumpstart with the Shadow Room exercise, you can know enough about your first new, compelling character to start writing about him…in about 15 minutes.

My system is simple, and step-by-step. I break character development down into techniques you can start following immediately. I’ll show you what I do, and then take you through doing it yourself.

COURSE INCLUDES WORKSHEETS, WORKSHEET DEMOS, PRINTABLE CHARTS, and A WRITING EXERCISE MP3

And I keep it short—you shouldn’t have to wade through tons of words to find the few kernels of useful knowledge that you can start applying to your own work.

You can get your copy from:

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved