Diana Pharaoh Francis

Writing Full Time: Diana Pharaoh Francis

Cover: Edge of DreamsIn three more days, I reach the end of my time as a full-time state employee.

Author Diana Pharaoh Francis was kind enough to write the letter below, congratulating me and sharing her experiences and the lessons she’s learned. Taking care of yourself is important advice, and it’s something so many of us routinely forget or neglect. My thanks to Di for the reminder.

Her latest book is Edge of Dreams, the second Diamond City Magic book. I haven’t read this one yet, but I’ve enjoyed a lot of her other work. You can also say hi to Di over on Twitter or Facebook.

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Dear Jim,

Congratulations on leaving the day job and embracing the word-job full time. Scary as it is, it’s a wonderful thing. I’ve been working on what to say to you, and I was embracing the funny, but really, I couldn’t maintain it. This is too important. So let me tell you from the heart some things that I think are important.

As you know, I did this about two years ago. I left a stable tenured job at a university and moved across several states with my family and went full time writer. It was a glorious dream come true. I was over-the-moon excited. This was something I’d been working toward for a long time. Like you, I have a spouse with insurance and a stable income, but I still need to make a certain level of income to get the bills paid. Unfortunately, unlike you, we couldn’t pay off our mortgage (I so envy you that).

At first it was amazing. The kids were in school and I was writing like a fiend. Words tumbled out on the book and I was having a fabulous time. And then came the unexpected. My son developed an illness that turned into a long term illness. It’s lasted now for the better part of two years. I’ve been so grateful to be able to be with him and to have the schedule that lets me go to hospitals and doctors and so on without having to worry about getting time off. On the other hand, it seriously cut into my writing time. It also cut into my creativity. (He is getting better finally. Yay!)

I didn’t realize it was happening to me, but over the months, I began losing motivation and ability to write. I felt tired all the time and I couldn’t think. I had a lot of resistance to writing. It took me time to figure out that this was stress. Perfectly reasonable, but by that time, the stress of not being able to write had added to the stress of everything else and created a terrible feedback loop.

And that’s where I come to my advice. Take care of yourself. You know that means exercise and taking schedule time off from the job, and so on. But I’m here to tell you that one of the most important parts of taking care of yourself is to find a community of writers to hang out with. We do this at cons, but it’s truly important to do this in your real life, too. Maybe it’s online in chatting. Better if you can do it in person. I’ve taken to meeting other writing friends for coffee or breakfast. The conversation is sometimes about writing, but more it’s just talking to people who really get what your life is like. They’ve experienced the same things. There’s something so positive and rejuvenating in that understanding, it can be a lifeline when you’re struggling on any level.

So that’s it. My big advice. Oh, except this one thing, which is actually from Neil Gaiman. Enjoy the ride. It’s lovely and fun and exhausting and difficult and so very amazing. Remember to enjoy it.

All my best,
Di

Diana Pharaoh Francis Talks About, Well, Me…

Diana Pharaoh Francis (Twitter, LJ) lies! You can’t believe anything she says here. She’s one of those fiction writers. She lies professionally! (Her next book Blood Winter [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] will be out around Christmas of this year.)  She informs me that she is not particularly dangerous and I escaped from nowhere and so no one is hunting me down to drag me back to any sort of asylum. Really.

I am very much amused…

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to Jim’s blog. I’m here today to lay out some facts for you, facts you’re likely highly unaware of, and you should be. You must be able to make informed decisions.

First, I’m very sorry to have to inform you, but Jim has lied to you. Constantly and relentlessly and on a variety of subjects. Let’s start with the basics. He isn’t really human. What he is, isn’t certain. Some scholars have postulated that he’s some sort of alien with few bones, as evidenced by the cover pics he did demonstrating how real female poses on Urban Fantasy covers could be. As you can tell from those pictures, no human could actually manage them, and someone with either few bones or other magical properties could only manage to twist himself (or herself—it’s still debatable what gender Jim really is) into such positions. The fact that Jim reasonably accomplished these poses, is proof positive that in fact, he is not human.

Other scholars, incidentally, have suggested that he’s a shapeshifter (unlikely, given the shape he’s chosen for every day life is so very innocuous), that he’s a djinn (highly possible, given that he does fit into small bottles and it would explain the contortions in the cover pics if he was actually made out of smoke, plus Djinns are frequently not so attractive), it is also possible he’s some sort of serpent creature covered in human skin as a disguise (a la V or so many bad SciFi channel movies.) This latter possibility brings us to the next dreadful truth.

Jim Hines is the ghost writer for almost all of the SciFi channel movies involving snakes, piranhas, spiders, gators, octopi, and sharks. Yes. I hate to be the one to have to tell you this. He is responsible for not only writing, but casting and funding these movies. He himself came up with the brainless pepto-bismol pink spiders that farted fire (I mean, what a dead give away!) in Arachnoquake. Sorry Jim, you can’t fool us with the pink. You’ll have to do better than that. And Megapython vs Gatoroid was another of his babies–who else would have chosen his favorite singers Tiffany and Debbie Gibson for the parts? You now know what he does when he disappears and leaves someone else to blog.

Third, he doesn’t really have diabetes. I know what you’re thinking—he’d never lie about that. But I’m sorry, he has. Really, his blood is some sort of highly acidic goop that burns through steel. Yeah, you got it. His great, great, great, great aunt Martha was the alien in Alien. Though that was a disguise as well, so we still don’t know exactly what Jim is. The diabetes thing is just a cover up to allow him to stab himself periodically with needles full of some concoction that is believe to be a ‘happy’ drug. Quaaludes for aliens or djinns. Though the little baby aliens in Alien and Aliens bear a remarkable resemblance to a certain fire spider and also to all the spiders in his SciFi movies . . . . I sense a theme here, a Freudian slip of epic proportions that clues us in on not only what he is, but what a danger he presents to the public.

Folks, I’m telling you. Be careful when encountering Jim. He’s been killed before and risen up. I know. I killed him in Crimson Wind. But he’s back. Dare I say from outer space? Did you just walk in to find him here with that sad look upon his face that makes it so easy to like him? So easy to fall for his charms? So easy to believe that he could just be a normal human and not a secret weapon for some evil force intent upon taking over the world? Over your souls? Over your minds and your children?

There’s really only one thing to do to. Go now. Get yourself armed. Flamethrowers, RAID, Skittles, chocolate, Scotch, Dr. Who, Firefly—whatever it takes to bring this monster to a standstill. Save yourselves. Save your children. Save the dog. (don’t worry about the cats. Cats are much smarter and more powerful than anything Jim might be).

I beg you. Take precautions now.

First Book Friday: Diana Pharaoh Francis

Welcome to First Book Friday!

Today we have Diana Pharaoh Francis (difrancis on LJ), author of several different fantasy series.  Her book  Crimson Wind [B&N |  Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] comes out later this month, and–

Wait, what???  She does what in that book?  I’m sorry, just give me a minute.  I’ll be all right.  I just … I never thought … How could she?

I think I need a hug.

Just read her story.  Or go read my review of her book The Cipher from a few years back.

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Hello there everyone!!! I’m delighted to be here and want to thank Jim for having me.

My first book was Path of Fate [B&N |  Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon], the first in a traditional fantasy trilogy. It began as a Book In a Week. That’s a sort of a precursor to Nanowrimo, in which you take a week and try to do nothing else but work on a book in the hopes of really jump starting it. By the end of the week, you have either created a real foundation, or you’ve found out that the book isn’t something you want to spend time with. Luckily, I did want to spend time with it and so I was off and running.

I wrote the rest of it over the next 7 months, at which time I wanted to immediately send it out. Luckily, I wrestled myself down and instead sent it out to some beta readers who gave me fabulous feedback. I revised and then put together a query letter and synopsis (which took a couple of months all by themselves. But I wanted to get this right.)

In the meantime, I had started making a list of agents and editors I wanted to submit to. On the top of the list was Roc Books. They were publishing a lot of the novels that I was reading at that point and I thought I would be a great fit in their house. Coincidentally, they had recently published a short story of mine in a collection for the Best of Dreams of Decadence. I thought that would give me a great connection and a reason to be elevated above the slush pile. (That story is called “All Things Being Not Quite Equal” and you can read it on my website.)

When I thought I was ready, I sent query packages out to my top four agents. I sent a quick query to Laura Anne Gilman, at that time senior editor at Roc, asking about the submission procedure as Roc’s guidelines had been changing and I wanted to be sure of them. I included most of my query letter so that I could show that I knew what I was doing. She quickly got back with me and said she’d forwarded my query to her fellow editor, Jennifer Heddle, and I would hear from her soon.

Jen soon requested the entire manuscript, which I sent off immediately, and that meant I couldn’t send it anywhere else until I had a reply. So I promptly sat by the phone like a sixteen year old waiting for someone to call and ask me to the prom. That got old fast. And then the agent rejections started rolling in. That got old too. Imagine that.

Skip forward a couple of months. I had made plans to go to World Fantasy Con. I daringly (for me anyhow) decided to contact Jen and ask if she’d have time to meet for a few minutes. I told her I totally understood that she probably hadn’t read Path of Fate yet, but that I would love a chance to just talk to her. Shockers! She agreed. So we met and I had a chance to pitch the novel along with the rest of the trilogy. Two weeks later, she bought all three.

And that, kind gentlefolk, is the story of my first book, and thank goodness, because how else would you be able to read about the murder of Jim Hines in my forthcoming book, Crimson Wind?

Book Roundup

I picked up a copy of Kelly McCullough‘s Cybermancy [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], in the dealer’s room this weekend and read it on the plane ride home.  I reviewed WebMage [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], earlier this year, and Cybermancy was even better (which is how it should be).

Basically, if you liked the first book, you should definitely pick up the second.  Cybermancy brings back magical hacker Raven/Ravirn and his webgoblin companion and throws them into even more trouble than last time. It’s got the same fast pacing, the same humor, but McCullough also shows a more serious side, taking an unflinching look at the story of Persephone.  I really appreciated his take on that one. Ravirn’s relationship angst felt a little too predictable, but nowhere near as bad as your average sitcom, and overall I really liked this one.  Book three is already on my wish list 🙂

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Other new books to check out:

Bitter Night [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], by Diana P Francis.  Book one of the Horngate Witches Books.

Indigo Springs [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], by A.M. Dellamonica.

By the Mountain Bound [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], by Elizabeth Bear. This is the prequel to All the Windwracked Stars.

So, anyone have any thoughts or comments on these?  If not, what else is out there that we should all be reading?