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Tate Hallaway

Tate Hallaway


Last Updated: 7/15/2009

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Gender: Female
Status: In a Relationship
Age: 42
Sign: Scorpio

City: Saint Paul
State: Minnesota
Country: US
Signup Date: 8/8/2007

Blog Archive
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October 13, 2009 - Tuesday 

Category: Writing and Poetry
I've got a busy day ahead of me, but I just wanted to report some good news. As of ten o'clock last night, I officially delivered electronically the copy of the final manuscript for ALMOST TO DIE FOR. Now the only thing I have to do to complete my initial contractual obligations is to finish the proposal for ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN, the second book in the Vampire Princess of Saint Paul trilogy.

Yipee!

Although, I tell you, there's no rest for the writer. I finally got my revision letter for HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD from my editor and, as they got a bit behind in their schedule, they want the edits back ASAP. Luckily, I managed to talk them into a couple of weeks or my head would have exploded trying to finish ALMOST while revising HONEYMOON.
However, it's kind of like that Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times." For me, it's "may you have too many contracts." It's a funny problem to have since it's, ultimately, a good thing.
3:59 PM 
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October 8, 2009 - Thursday 

Category: Writing and Poetry
So I told you I was in a big deadline crunch, well, I still sort of am, but I wanted to give you all a present...  here's the cover for the last Garnet Lacey book, HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD (May 2010).


 

Let me know what you think of it!

And here's what's going on with me:  the manuscript for the first book in the new young adult series is due on my editor's desk on October 15.  I've gotten a first draft of it done, but it's not ready to be shippped.  A beta reader found a few areas where the plot and theme could be strengthened, plus I need to let my partner read it over for horrific typos and hideous grammar errors.

On top of that, my contract for the young adult novel stipulates that I need to turn in a proposal for the second book in the series (currently titled: ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN) on the same day as the msss. for book one.  I've written about six pages on a proposal that usually runs me ten or twelve.

Oh, and my editor e-mailed me her revision letter for HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD (pictured  above) and they want that fixed and turned around by the end of the month.

Granted, these are the kinds of problems I've always dreamed of having, but yikes!  If you don't see me here for another month or so, you know what I'm doing (answer: working my butt off.)
3:33 PM 
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September 22, 2009 - Tuesday 
You probably won't see much of me in the next several weeks.  I'm in the middle of a massive deadline crunch for the young adult novel, ALMOST TO DIE FOR.  I've got about 20,000 words to write in 15 or so days (depending on how much lead time I want to give my writers' group volunteers.)  In a weird way, the good news is that my partner is off on a business trip to Washington, D.C.  and won't be back until Thursday.  While this means I have to be a temporary single parent, it also means the evenings are slightly less distracting.  I'm hoping to get a big push done before she's home.

Plus, I lost two days to the flu.  It was pretty a$$-kicking.  I think I was smart about it, though.  I decided not to fight it.  I just went nose down into my pillow and didn't come up until this morning.  Yesterday, I woke up long enough to get Mason dressed, fed, and ready for school.  I slept again until it was time to pick him up, feed him, brush his teeth, get him into pjs and give him directions for bedtime. 

We have a tradition when mom is away of being mischievious.  I cleverly decided his big michief last night was  to be allowed to stay up reading until "late."  Almost 9:00 on a school night.  This meant he read while I snoozed, and we got to sleep in a bit this morning because we didn't have to take mom into work.

My plan seems to have paid off.  I'm much more bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning.  I feel near to human, no less.  Now I have to hit the pages as it were, make my word count and my words count! 
3:50 PM 
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September 12, 2009 - Saturday 

Category: Writing and Poetry

Here's the preliminary (but 99.99% finished) cover for my new young adult novel, ALMOST TO DIE FOR, which is scheduled to be an NAL Trade in August 2010.

In case you've forgotten, the back cover copy says:
On her sixteenth birthday, Anastasija Parker’s present winds up being the shock of a lifetime. When her mom referred to her absentee dad as a deadbeat it was actually half true—he’s a vampire. And a king, no less. A king who wants his daughter to assume her rightful position at his side. But, thanks to Ana’s mother, the blood of a witch also runs through her veins…

Too bad vampires and witches are mortal enemies.

With her parents gearing up for an all out brawl over her destiny, Ana’s about ready to scream. But things get even crazier when a male witch and a brooding bad boy vampire start vying for her affection. Then the barely leashed tension between the vampires and the witches starts to boil over, and Ana has to figure out once and for all if she wants to become heir to her dad’s throne. And deciding your eternal destiny is a pretty big deal for a girl who just wants to get through high school.
2:50 AM 
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August 28, 2009 - Friday 

Category: Writing and Poetry
I'm not sure what the on-line etiquette is in this situation, but it seems like important news to pass on so...

First of all, may I have a moment of silence while I speak the benediction? "Gucci, Gucci, Garnet. You were a good series."

Yes, Garnet Lacey is no more. The book I finished this year, HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD, will be coming out in May of '10 as scheduled. However, my editor turned down the proposals my agent and I sent for books 6, 7 and 8. As far as I know, all the previous books are still in print. I haven't heard that they're going to be remaindered right away or anything.

Yesterday was my day of mourning. I wailed and gnashed teeth. But it was a rather less dramatic affair than you might imagine because I *am* still contracted for three books in the new young adult series. And, as I told Shawn, we're not really _out_ anything, since, most years, I only write one book a year anyway. More to the point, Penguin was actually quite gracious. They told my agent that they're interested in possibly seeing a new series by me. So it's not like they said, "And don't let the door hit you on the way out." In fact, quite the opposite. It's hard to be too depressed when this really does feel like an opportunity to propose something fun and fresh. My editor would like to see contemporary urban fantasy, but that's a mighty wide pool. I'm kind of excited to start pondering ideas. I think I've mentioned this before, but I actually really, really LOVE writing proposals. Most people dread the synopsis, but I rather embrace it. It's a funny thing.

Speaking of which, I thought that for fun, I might post the proposals of the Garnet books that Shall Never Be over the next couple days so people can see what might have been...

Meanwhile.... be vewy quiet, I'm hunting ideas!
3:26 PM 
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August 25, 2009 - Tuesday 

Category: Writing and Poetry
A long time ago, back when MiniCON was big, I attended a panel that Alan Steele was on. I no longer remember what the panel topic was, but I remember him talking about how he had these tremendous periods in output (writing) followed by a cycle of input (reading.)

Well, even though I'm still in the middle of writing my young adult novel, my input valve must be stuck or something because I've been reading like CRAZY. I've just narfed a bunch of graphic novels in the manga series HIRAKU NO-GO (about a bunch of kids, a ghost, and professional "Go" playing in Japan) and I finished a novel by Australian author Bernard Beckett called GENESIS (hardcover, Houghton Mifflin Harcort, 2009). (I have a long extended rant... er, review of the book over at my alternate personality's LiveJournal blog. Warning: SPOILERS. I put them under lj-cuts, but I don't know if they'll be there if you go via my link. So sheild your eyes. :-)

Anyway, that always leads me to wonder... what are the rest of you reading these days?
4:18 PM 
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August 20, 2009 - Thursday 

Category: Life
Yesterday afternoon, I was laying on the bed thinking I should either nap, meditate (which is really, for me, just guided napping,) or start writing.  Since I could barely keep my eyes open I went for meditation/napping.  I settled in on the bed, plugged in to my mp3 player, but I paused because I heard the sound of a train rattling in the far, far distance.  I thought:  "Huh, a train," because, a train passes quite close to our house and we can often heard it rumbling through the neighborhood.  Two seconds later the tornado sirens went off.  Mason and I scurried off to the basement, but as it was only just pitter-pattering rain, I still didn't make the connection.  And, honestly, because it's Wednesday, if I didn't have a weather radio that automatically tells me if this is a drill or a real advisory, I probably wouldn't even have hurried us off to the basement. 

I'm glad I did.

The tornado that touched down was quite a distance from us.  Across the river and in the Portland Avenue and Downtown areas of Minneapolis.  But, you know, that's much closer than I really ever needed to be.  My sympathies go out to everyone directly affected.
1:47 PM 
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August 19, 2009 - Wednesday 

Category: Writing and Poetry
Jim Butcher recently joined Twitter. Encouraged by many of the people I already "follow," I checked out his tweets. His very first one was strangely profound. He wrote something to the effect of "Author kills Muse. Film at 11." Subsequent posts made it clear that his reason for "killing" his Muse is that he's behind on his deadline and he can no longer afford to wait for inspiration to strike. He's just got to knuckle down and write.

Like I said, I found that surprisingly insightful.

I always thought that someone in the stratosphere like Jim Butcher had the luxury of waiting on his Muse, you know? I know that the rest of us down here scrabbling in the dirt have to write whenever we can squeeze in time at the computer. But, I guess I thought that once you kind of "made it" you could just sip martinis poolside and wait for that shining Goddess in white to appear and smack you upside the head and say, "Time to write! I've got a great idea for you, pal!"

It's kind of nice to know that's not true. I guess I remember reading in Stephen King's book about writing that he thinks it's a good idea, if possible, to sit down at the computer at the same time every day so the Muse knows where and when to show up -- even if She doesn't deign to come every time, his point is that if you make it a regular habit, eventually She'll get the invitation and appear. But I also sort of thought that "Stevie" (as he calls himself throughout the book) was kind of just saying that for us lowly not-yet-as-great-as-he sorts.

Maybe not. Maybe everyone struggles with writing when they don't want to.

Huh.

Cool.
2:29 PM 
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August 18, 2009 - Tuesday 

Category: Writing and Poetry
I've been lax about posting here because summer at Chez Hallaway is in full swing. In fact, I think my family is still recovering from an exhausting (yet relaxing) weekend up at our friends' cabin in Siren, Wisconsin. It was exhausting because the weather cooperated and so we spent oodles of time in the water -- swimming, floating, playing beach tag, building sand castles, kayaking, and generally exhausting the grown-ups.

Yesterday, we were all so cranky at being back in the real world. It sucked.

Today is better. In fact, I got started a bit on the third re-boot of the young adult novel. My editor said, having read the new and improved bit I sent her, that I probably should just writing the thing in first person. Right now I can hear my partner and Naomi, the Wyrdsmith that complained the loudest that the whole thing should be in first person, laughing at me. I resisted first person because... well, because I really wanted the challenge of writing in third. Something new to me. Something to stretch me a bit. Alas, a highly commercial venture is not really the place one should attempt to stretch one's self. :-)

Maybe I'll work in third person in some short stories. But the good news is that I finally wore Mason out up at the lake. He's been very inwardly focused for the last couple days since we've come back, and I think that he finally got enough excercise and sunshine for a little while. I was actually able, like I said, to get some writing done. During the DAY. Awesome, no?
5:45 PM 
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August 12, 2009 - Wednesday 

Category: Writing and Poetry
Do you have a time when your brain is better suited for writing?

I know I do. As a professional writer, I've trained myself to write any time, any where. However, the fact remains: I write better during daylight hours, preferably between 9:00 AM and noon.

Yesterday, I took Mason to the beach for three hours. We played and played and I thought for certain he'd be tired by the end of the day after all that healthy sunshine and exercise. He did get to bed at a reasonable hour, but then guess what? I was tired too! I did get a bit of writing done after hours, but I have to tell you, writing at night, for me, is just plain HARD. I can do it, but it's not "natural" for me, you know?

Strangely, I think I got in the habit of writing during the day when I had a regular job. I was the world's worst employee. I tell my friends in business: "Never hire me." Because I'm the consummate slacker. I get only enough done not to get fired, and I spend the rest of the time stealing your office supplies and writing my novel on company time. I wrote five novels while "working" full-time that way. Bad. And, like I said, the 9 to 5 mentality still infuses my writing brain. My brain thinks: office hours = writing hours. After hours = play and sleep.

Now, with child at home, that's reversed.

It's hard to retrain the brain, though it can be done. I've now written nearly as many novels at home with small child as I did with a regular job. Many a midnight oil has been burned. But... I still don't like it. Even after years of writing this way (although now, only during summer,) it's still a bit like pulling teeth.

So how about you? All things being equal, when do you write best?
3:09 PM 
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