November 2016 update

I’m not going to lie. I just finished NaNoWriMo and this is mostly a mindless ramble.

It’s at the end of November, which for many writers means the end of NaNoWriMo (or as my friend will say nanorama!) I've done pretty good this year, kept mostly on track with 3-5k jumps occasionally during the weekends. Overall it's been a good Nano year.

Every year I always consider writing a weekly or daily blog about my progress with Nano. Unfortunately, I just don't think it would be very interesting. It would turn into ‘today I made my word count.’ And ‘today I didn't’. Don't worry, I've tried. It's never good.

So I guess what I want to reflect is over my years of doing Nano and what it means to me as a yearly exercise. I first started Nano almost ten years ago. It took me two years before I managed to get to 50k words. By that point I had already written completed works at about that length (granted not in that time frame). Since then, barring some personal crises (i.e. college) I've been able to finish Nano every year. I don't mean this as some boast. I've been doing this for almost ten years. Heck yes, I should be able to pound out 50k.

The difference is now, as I've become a published author and hope to continue publishing, I write so much all year round. I've done 2 short stories in one month. I've re edited a 40k novel into a 70k novel in two months. I once rewrote almost forty pages in two weeks. Every day I sit down to write and edit and make blog posts or compose emails or browse tumblr.

In the past couple of years, 90% of what I write is for publishing (whether or not all of it gets published is another matter) Just about everything is written with a publisher/publication in mind. Clear goals, set deadlines, work.

I'm not complaining. I enjoy having a structured writing experience. Publisher's guidelines or editor comments are like prompts to me. I use them with other half baked ideas I have and make it work not only for the market, but also to my own taste.

Nano is a strange time in my usual writing schedule. Yes, I often use it to pound out bulk words that I can later use for publishing. However it is also a time for me to write fanfiction, or to write using bad writing habits that I constantly have to be aware of the rest of the year. Even the words that I think could become a short story or novel for publication often drive away from clear cut romance or fantasy or adventure. It turns into mush, muddled ideas, dropped characters, dropped tenses. By mid month I write without thinking of grammar or purpose. And at the end? Well, it’s a mess.

Out of the ten or so Nanos that i have completed, I have published zero. This year I am feeling really good about my strategy of writing a few Christmas short stories, but time will really tell if I will find a use for them later. It has made me realize that Nano shouldn't be some crazy bulk writing in my yearly count of words.

Nano is a purge. I usually write about two novels a year. One of them usually during the summer and maybe into the fall. The other is, at least in part, written during Nano. My summer novel may take years of editing, but it's brought me Tokyo Love, Amemus, The Warrior the Healer and the Thief, and Cursus Honorum. Nano has brought me fanfiction, a structurally flawed fantasy series, and so many terrible romance novel ideas.

It’s like, I finish a big project during most of the year, then I vomit words for a month. Reconsider my life choices for another month.

Then I’ll write some fluffy romantic short stories for the rest of the winter to make myself feel better and then get started on my next big idea come spring.

This is how I have been for about 4 years. I'm still young and undoubtedly will change my habits in the future. The only thing that will not change is how much I need that Nano word vomit once a year.

Inspirations

I feel like I can't truly describe what inspired me to write romances until I talk about Megan Derr.

There was a time when I was in high school that I began to realize there was more gay romances out there than just fanfiction. This search led me to Fictionpress and eventually Megan Derr. At the time, she had posted a great many m/m sappy, lovely, sexy, fluffy romances. I read a great many of them, but my favorites were her Fairytales Slashed series.

Let me tell you, I have read those short stories so often that I can literally open this book to any page and just start reading and thoroughly enjoy myself. I don't need to be at the beginning of a story or even in any logical place, I have it memorized. Any one of Megan Derr's short stories or novels are my ultimate comfort read. When I want something light and romantic and a happy ending, I go to her.

Now I don't know the life story of Megan Derr, but I do know she eventually took down all her works on Fictionpress and moved some to her website and others she began to publish through Less Than Three Press. Since I couldn't get all my kicks for free, I began to purchase some of her novels/collections, especially the older works I knew so well.

(please don't judge some of the other books in frame. I judge myself every day for owning Twilight)

I still have plans to basically collect all of her works, but this is a good start.

So flash forward to a few years ago when I decided that I wanted to try getting published. I wanted to try to find small publishers that would be more likely to accept my work. Naturally, one of the first places I looked was Less Than Three. At the time they had submission calls out for more Fairytales Slashed stories and I decided to try and write a couple of original fairytales.

I've never known if this is super obvious, but I did write those stories as if I was Megan Derr. I tried to use her same style, same tropes, same fluffiness. And it worked! I got published for the first time!

(Admittedly, I do think my first couple of stories are a bit rough, but I blame that entirely on being inexperienced on the whole short story business)

I've branched out since then. I've tried different ideas and moved from short stories to novels, but I do think a bit of my Megan Derr inspiration is there in every romance I write. Or maybe I just think "would my high school self love to read this?" and I go from there.

The Warrior, the Healer, and the Thief inspirations

So The Warrior, the Healer, and the Thief, started out as a simple idea. I wanted to write a poly story and I wanted the characters ‘roles’ to be based off of RPG/D&D character classes. To make it a bit more interesting, I wanted the characters to be useless in their class (i.e. a healer that cannot heal, a thief afraid of the dark, a non-typical warrior)

This is about where my idea ended. I tried different genders, different fantasy worlds, but nothing seemed to stick. Then Less Than Three Press put out a call for a western collection and I wondered if I could finally flesh out my idea. 

Thus was born the magical western lesbian polyamory romance.

When I created the world, naturally I needed to incorporate magic. (I mean, being inspired by D&D means this is a requirement) I wanted a variety of magical users whose classification wasn't entirely based on types of magic, but more like the culture and family they were born from. Mages and healers and witches and voodoo. I also wanted monsters but I didn't want to take entirely from European myth. So I started picking from Native American myth and American folklore.

Fun fact # 1: Speaking of mythical creatures featured in the novel, hodags are from Wisconsin and the legend started based on an old timey ‘photoshop’ picture of one. 

Also sharp tongues are my own mythical creation based on a short story you can read here.

I spent a long time agonizing over what sort of western setting I wanted to use. From the Oregon trail, to the transcontinental railroad, to cattle herding in Texas or frontier farming int he Dakotas. I watched all of Ken Burns The West and fell in love with all of them, haha.

I picked a typical Oregon trail setting, if only because it would be easier to bring different characters together. It was a time when the west was still relatively fresh and untouched by European influence and I had played the game, Oregon Trail, too much as a child.

Fun fact # 2; if I had used the transcontinental railroad someone would have definitely been a Chinese immigrant. Possibly Chase. Ahh, perhaps for a spin off…

Throughout the book I learned a lot of things. Not only what it means to write a poly romance, but also how writing three people falling in love is exponentially more complicated than two people. I'm also just not very good with more than two main characters, haha.

I'm hoping to one day get started on a sequel.

Fixed!

I think I managed to fix my blog! Hooray!

I'll give a proper update soon. Also, in case it wasn't obvious, I've put a link to my author Tumblr page in my profile.

Here is a link for anyone interested in seeing me reblog writing related things on Tumblr!

http://dianajeanauthor.tumblr.com/

Small Update 9/7

It seems this blog is having some technical difficulty. I have been attempting send requests for assistance but so far have received no reply. I may have to move this blog to another platform.

Cursus Honorum and Amemus

In anticipation of the upcoming release of Cursus Honorum being published by Less Than Three Press,

I’ve decided to share my inspirations for both Cursus Honorum and Amemus, since they share genres.

I started Latin classes in High School and even managed to get a Latin minor in college. While it’s been some years since I’ve done serious translations, I’ve always been inspired by the literature that I was exposed to. Ovid is by far my favorite author, but since Cursus Honorum  and Amemus have none of him in them… whatever!

I’ll start with Catullus, who was the most romantic (and crude) poet that I’ve translated. His poem 5, written to a love interested called Lesbia, starts with the line

Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love.

To me, the poem is about passionate and desperate love, despite what the world around them might think. I wanted to use a word/phrase from this poem and so I chose ‘amemus’ or ‘let us love’.

In Amemus, I wanted to explore the rolls of gladiators and slaves in ancient Rome (or around 65-70 BC). I’ve always found it interesting how varied slaves could be. They could be prisoners of war, people in debt, former criminals, etc. They could be Roman or they could be foreigners. Often, especially for those in debt, slaves could earn a small amount of money from their masters and ‘buy’ back their freedom. If a master was kind, they could free a slave and the slave might stay with the master as a paid servant. Of course, the treatment of slaves could vary greatly and many children were used as slaves (often to pay off their parent’s crimes/debts). But, as an American with our own history of slavery, it was interesting for me to explore another culture’s interpretation.

I also chose to write about gladiators for similar reasons. Gladiators were, for the most part, slaves. Yet they could rise up like superstars to the general Roman public. They had fans and supporters (if they were good enough) and could potentially free themselves. Of course, many gladiators were criminals and often were put in games as form of execution.

It was fun to play around with these ideas and to explore the city of Capua, as opposed to Rome. I just wanted my characters to walk around and interact with the scenery and culture and each other. Which is practically the reason why I have the 'Bathhouse Scene of Much Gratuity'.

For Cursus Honorum, I wanted to explore the other side of the Roman Republic (at around 146 BC). Instead of slaves and gladiators, I wanted to try out the patricians and politicians. Cursus honorum translates to ‘course of offices’ or the path a politician would take to rise in the government. It was rather strict, both by the age of the applicant as well as the path they must take. It would be like if an aspiring American politician wanted to become president, then they would have to first be a mayor, then a governor, then a congressman, than a senator, etc. It appealed to me to have a character in the middle of this progression, constantly trying to reach ever higher for the better position. They would have to be someone exciting and social, constantly having to make allies with other powerful politicians.

Politics and military exploits have always gone together since ancient times and Rome was certainly not excluded. But not every smooth talking politician is going to be a great military fighter. So it was rather common in the Republic for politicians and honored military generals to ally themselves. It is one of the reasons why I set the story in 146 BC, the end of the third Punic War and when the current pro-consul was paired with a strong general.

I just loved the idea of putting together a roughened war veteran against the softness of a pampered city politician. And, of course, I got to put them in Rome during the height of the Republic and the Roman Forum. In Amemus, I got to have my gratuitous bathhouse scene, in Cursus Honorum, I got to have gratuitous party scenes. And I got to have my characters walk around fancy Roman villas.

Also, my main inspirations for the parties were definitely from Petronius’ Satyricon. Which, if you are into crude humor, orgies, crazy dinner parties, and two men battling to woo a young male slave, then you should definitely check it out.

What’s up next for my Roman inspired romances? I’m hoping to get a little lesbian loving in there ;)

Tokyo Love and Japan (part 4)

Continuing my excitement for my upcoming novel, Tokyo Love. Being published by Crimson Romance this July.

I feel like I could probably talk about Japan for a million and one blogs. But this would quickly turn into some sort of terrible travel blog in which all I can say is 'Oh, I went to this one place and it was cool and we ate this great food and that was fun.'

So I guess I'll just try to wrap things up a bit before I get out of control.

I feel like I learned a lot about the world through Japan. What it means to be the minority in a foreign country. (And really what it's like to be the majority in my own). I can appreciate a culture that is so tightly knit and strong like the Japanese. And I appreciate looser, more varied culture of America. I understand what it means to not have the native language be my first language. And I learned not to judge people in my own country that prefer to speak their own native language instead of English. I've learned how to ask for help when I'm confused or lost and to accept whatever reaction I might get for asking for help, whether that be acceptance or ridicule.

Finally, I learned what it means to be from both sides of the world. Whether by family relations, or the choice to be a world traveler. I suppose that is what I wanted to convey in Tokyo Love.

I also really really wanted them to visit shrines and buy doujin.