18 June 2008

The second issue of Read These Lips is out! I've been waiting for it to be posted, so that I could put up my submission to it. This is an anthology of short stories (under 2,000 words) by a whole list of excellent authors, including Nicola Griffith, Lois Cloarec Hart, Lee Lynch, Marianne K. Martin...definitely worth a download and a good evening's read. All of the authors for this anthology submitted their work free of charge, in support of making good lesbian fiction available to women all over the world. I'm proud to be a part of that cause.

My own contribution, titled The Birthday Gift, is a definite departure from the spec fic that many readers expect from me...but then again, my short stories usually are.

I don't usually dedicate my work, but in light of recent historic events in California, this story simply cried out for a particular dedication. You'll find it at the end.

15 April 2008

Tax day, and I'm feeling a little odd about having no salary income to report. Haven't been in that situation since the eleventh grade! But I'm still writing away, and am now taking two simultaneous Portuguese classes in an effort to learn this difficult language. It's starting to make a lot more sense, but I still can't hear it. I'm still translating everything in my head, and my brain just can't translate fast enough to keep up with a conversation. It feels tantalizingly close, though...

Hey! The Wry Writer interviewed me about what goes on in my little pea brain when I write, so if you'd like a peek into said pea, check it out at Fletcher DeLancey—Writer: 20 Questions in the Hot Seat. It was fun to sit down and really think about how I do what I do, and how to articulate that.

On the writing front, Forward Motion is now at 225 pages. Just as a teaser, everyone's home and the family dynamics are kicking in...Revi just took Seven to meet her parents, Kathryn is seeing her mother in a new way, and Lynne found an unexpected connection to the parents she left behind. Meanwhile, the saboteur from No Return is making his or her presence felt in rather unpleasant ways, and no one is beyond suspicion.

Okay. Back to writing.

27 February 2008

Update time! Forward Motion is progressing right along -- my last stat count showed that I'm up to 140 pages if I were to print it in paperback form. This is actually kind of scary because in my mind I'm still at the beginning of the story. It's odd; I can write short stories of just a few pages, or I can write epic-length novels, and anything in between seems out of my grasp.

<thinking>

Well, I suppose it's not really out of my grasp; it's just that I always have too much story to tell to keep it at the "novella" length. I like character development and dialogue, and those two things tend to swell page counts. At any rate, it's shaping up to be a good story, and my beta readers are loving it. And it feels good to hang out with Lynne and Kathryn and Seven and Revi again...not to mention Alison, who is getting a lot more stage time in this novel.

I've also been traveling a bit more, since Maria has finally (THANK THE GODDESS) turned in the last part of her Ph.D. dissertation. We now have lives again, and celebrated by visiting London for a few days, followed by a trip to a few spectacular parts of the Portugal interior. In addition, I'm heading back to the States this summer for a long visit with friends and family, which will be wonderful. And in a fit of insanity, I signed up for my second Cycle Oregon -- close to 400 miles of bike riding in seven days. Such is the strength of my insanity that I even induced one of my readers, who has become a friend, to sign up as well -- and she got her partner to come along. Since I had earlier induced another friend to go, that will make four of us sharing the torture glory of the ride! (Hopefully those women will still be my friends when it's over...) If you'd like to get an idea of what we've gotten ourselves into, my journal from the 2004 ride is here. Now I'm thinking we need a team name. My first suggestion was Team Tanqueray, but my friend R. (who is the only heterosexual among us) said that was too commercial and besides, she doesn't drink gin. My next suggestion is going to be Three Lesbians And A Straight Chick. She probably won't wear that shirt, either.

27 December 2007

Has it already been four weeks? Geez. I've now celebrated my first Winter Solstice in Portugal, which turned out to be a lovely event for our little family. I introduced Maria, her son and her brother to mashed potatoes and gravy, which was pretty fun — my stepson thought the whole "make a volcano and put the gravy in the crater" concept was way cool. And my brother-in-law is now addicted to my brownies. Funny, I never considered brownies to be particularly American, but they certainly aren't Iberian! I think that besides language, food is the most obvious difference between nations — and the one you don't think about until suddenly you can't get your favorite things at the store or in a restaurant. But then there are new things to discover...

Now that Solstice is over and I'm between language classes, I took some time to redo the formatting of the Past Imperfect Series on the site. Like Without A Front, they now sport chapter numbers and increased spacing between scenes. While going through all those files I couldn't resist doing a little editing, so there are a few rewritten scenes as well. (Writers should never be allowed to look at their own work once it has been published or posted!) Also, the Palm version of Without A Front now includes the glossary. Look for e-reader versions of the Past Imperfect Series soon; that's next on my list.

As the year draws to a close I wish you all a Bom Ano Novo, and the hope that 2008 will bring some good changes to our world.

Now I'm going to whip up a batch of brownies.

23 November 2007

Well, this is it. For those of you who have been on this ride from the beginning, thank you for sharing it with me. It's a little difficult for me to put up this last post, because it means letting go of characters and a world that I came to love. I know from your letters that some of you are simultaneously looking forward to and dreading this post for the same reason. I also know that you're out there making wild guesses as to what will happen! If I've managed to surprise you, I hope you'll drop me a line and tell me so. (Feel free to make a quick recommendation on my Athenaeum story page, too!)

For those of you just coming in to this story because it is now fully posted—enjoy the ride! It's long and full of twists and turns, so I'd suggest fixing yourself a snack and a drink before you start. <wink>

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my American readers—I must admit, it's a bit strange to be an expatriate right now, since Thanksgiving has no meaning outside of the US. But wow, the Portuguese take Christmas seriously! Loulé is ablaze with a Natal light display that puts my hometown to shame, and I understand that Lisboa is even more amazing. Time for a sightseeing trip, I think.

Best wishes to you all for a happy holiday season and a promising new year. Oh, and one more thing: I'm 35,000 words into Forward Motion, the fifth novel of my Past Imperfect series. It was the only way I could cure the blues caused by ending Without A Front.

16 November 2007

Guess what? I'm now working with a Portuguese language tutor, and it's making a real difference. I think I might actually figure this language out...in another five years or so. Whose idea was it to make the same vowel have four different sounds??

In other news, we are now at the penultimate post. There's a lot going on in this one, and things are going to come together. Which is not to say I'm letting y'all off the ride just yet. Hang tight, and enjoy. E bom fim de semana!

9 November 2007

Thanks again to the folks, and you know who you are, who added more recommendations to my story page on the Athenaeum. It's been fun to watch the results of a little more visibility: over 7,300 visitors last week, not to mention three placings on the Top 25 List! Future Perfect came in at number 18; Past Imperfect at number 7; and Without A Front catapulted right up to number two. WOO!

If any of you can suggest other well-known fanfic or sci-fi sites that might want to link to this site (versus hosting my stories, which I am not interested in), please let me know. This is fun.

So, back to the story...we're nearing the end now; only two posts left after this one. And I confess that I'm going to wind you up pretty tight. If you were hoping for the stress to ease after last week's post, give it up. However, I was a lot kinder about where I chose to end the post. <wink> Enjoy, and happy weekend!

2 November 2007

Well, ask and I shall receive! Y'all did me proud; in just a few days my stories acquired more recommendations on the Athenaeum than almost any author on the site. As a result, you inspired over 4,000 new visitors to check out my stories last week, and two of my stories instantly catapulted to the Top 25 list: No Return was rated number 19, and Past Imperfect came in at number 5. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave comments; it was an incredible feeling to read them. I really appreciate that.

The tension ramps up in this post; Tal is about to find out that catching the traitor doesn't mean it's all over. Far from it, in fact. So buckle in—this one's a ride.

26 October 2007

Hey, cool news! I'm on the Athenaeum now! For eons I'd declined to ask about it because I didn't want my stories hosted elsewhere, but after a reader told me that they link to other sites, I wrote them and voila, I'm in. (Thanks, Netta!) They've indexed the Past Imperfect Series and I'm already getting traffic from the site. So now I'm asking y'all a favor -- would you mind popping over to my page on the Athenaeum and hitting the Recommend button for any of my stories? Leaving even a one-sentence review for one or more of them will give me a lot more recognition on the site, and if I can get enough reviews I can pop into the Top 25, which would really get me some visibility. It wouldn't take you long and I'd be grateful...in fact, just to show how much, I'm putting up the next part of Without A Front, in which the threads of the plot start to draw tighter.

Thanks in advance, and enjoy this week's ride.

19 October 2007

My office is still a disaster, with boxes and books all over the floor as I continue to unpack stuff into my new bookcases. Why is it that one must make a bigger mess to clean up a mess?

At least I've swept all the crap off my desk long enough to get the new post up. After the howls of protest from last week's post -- usually along the lines of "What a cruel place to leave us!!" -- I think you'll find today's ending a little more to your liking. Also, in response to a reader's question, I've updated the glossary to more clearly spell out the difference between joining and Sharing (and to add a few more things while I was at it).

Oh -- Maria and I saw "The Brave One" today. Brrrr. Really good film. The acting was top notch, but what we both loved most about it was the dialogue. It seemed as if every sentence really meant something; there was no fluff. I'm glad we saw it, but some parts of it were very, very hard to watch. Sure made us want to hug each other and cherish what we have.

12 October 2007

We've returned from a mostly-successful trip to Seville, Spain (which is the nearest IKEA store for us) with bookcases for the living room and office, storage shelves for the dispensary and kitchen veranda, and assorted other stuff that filled a rented van and took us a considerable amount of time to get up to our apartment. Now comes the fun part -- assembly. I never knew it was possible to get sore forearms from screwing. Um, I mean from using a screwdriver.

Then I remembered that I have a story to post. So, while you're reading, I'm going to be slaving over furniture assembly. Send me some good thoughts. And don't blame me for the way this post ends...

5 October 2007

Back at home after a day of being a tourist in Lisboa...nothing like touring with a native guide! We walked around the old part of town, meaning the part that was left more or less intact after the 1755 earthquake and following tsunami wiped out much of the city. I loved the narrow streets and the profusion of restaurants, cafés, bookstores and rooftop gardens. Sitting in a rooftop café, drinking fresh pineapple-and-mint fruit juice, and gazing out over the skyline to the Rio Tejo is my idea of a great time. Yup, I'm an adrenaline junkie.

Book 4 is up, and Palm users should go to Chapter 20. Tal and Salomen are off on their first date, doing their best to slow down the bonding process. In the meantime, the demands of governance are creeping in, and there are rumblings of trouble ahead...

28 September 2007

OMG, it's almost October! How did that happen? And the really weird thing (to a former Oregon girl) is that I'm still wearing shorts and sandals, and it's still warm. Back in my hometown I'd be breaking out the sweatshirt collection now, and thinking about wearing gloves during beach walks. Here we're still wearing bikinis during beach walks. Amazing.

For the last post of September, things heat up a bit, and Tal and Salomen learn that control is an illusory thing. A hard lesson for most women, but especially hard for these two. (Palm file users, click on Chapter 14 to pick up where you left off.)

21 September 2007

Book 2 of Without A Front is up! And for those who might have missed it, this novel is also available in Palm format (.pdb) for readers with a more mobile lifestyle. The Palm file will be updated with every weekly post, and is marked with chapter headings to make it easier to navigate. If you want to go straight to where you left off in the last post, click on Chapter 8.

Eventually all of the novels will be available in Palm format, but that's a longer term project...and dependent upon my partner, who is currently wrapping up her Ph.D. She would actually prefer playing with .pdb formatting, which apparently is much more fun than creating tables and writing thesis conclusions, but alas, we are not the ones who set those particular priorities.

14 September 2007

Welcome to the new site! And, of course, the first post of Without A Front. What started as a short story grew into my longest novel yet, with a multitude of characters and an entirely new world to explore. It was a joy to write, and hard for me to let go when I finished it. Throwing myself into my site redesign was the only thing that kept the blues away. (My psychologist friend would call this "transference.")

The first question many of you may have is, "why Red Moon?" It will be clear eventually...but not until you read the Epilogue of Without A Front. Until then, you'll just have to be patient. And since you've all waited so long for this novel, I know you've got patience in spades!

If you're new to the site, I highly recommend that you read Book 1 of No Return (up to Chapter 3) before diving into Without A Front. The story will make sense even if you don't, but you'll get more out of it if you do.

Enjoy the first part of the story, and the beginning of Friday Posting Days. The good news for US readers is, since I'm now living in the GMT time zone, my Friday evening is your Friday morning. Don't be reading this stuff at work, now! Save it for when the boss can't catch you.

31 August 2007

It's done. All but the epilogue.

I'm a little bit in shock, after working on this for so long and through such dramatic changes in my life. And I already miss the characters, even though I'm still writing the last few pages. Just knowing that they're the last makes me miss my friends in advance.

Without A Front turned out to be 264,000 words long—minus the epilogue—which makes it 35,000 words longer than No Return. According to my writing software, if I were to print this book in paperback format it would be 700 pages long. Holy shit. But there was a lot of story to tell, with what became a long list of characters and a twisting plot.

Next comes the final edit, and then the posting. I'm preparing to move this site elsewhere (it's still hosted on my old server in the States) and will probably play with some site redesign now that I actually have the time. So keep your eyes on this space; I'm hoping to have the first post up in two weeks; three tops. As before, I will post every Friday, so get ready for a long ride.

29 July 2007

The writing Muse is cruel sometimes. I had a particular plot point set out from the very beginning of my Lancer Tal novel, but when the time came to incorporate it, the story as written no longer allowed it. I spent more than two weeks in total stasis trying to think of a way to make it happen. No dice. So I've left it behind, dealt with a few subsequent logical isses (damn this story for not doing what I want it to!), and am now charging ahead toward the ending.

At 198K words, this novel is now quite a bit longer than "Future Perfect" and may very well match "No Return." Amazing. I'm going to be so bummed when it's done; the characters have become great friends. I could actually start posting now, as I'm certain to finish before the time comes to post the ending, but for my own peace of mind will hold off. Soon!

In the meantime, I'm learning all the tricks of staying cool during a southern Portugal summer. Trick No. 1: Don't even think about being productive until around 9:30 p.m. That's when it starts to cool off enough for your brain to resume higher functions. Trick No. 2: Ice is your friend. And it goes really well in a gin and tonic.

This novel keeps getting longer...I've added nearly 40,000 words since the last update on May 23rd. At this point I'm certain that Lancer Tal's story will end up as long as "Future Perfect."

My beta readers have returned their marked-up copies with relatively few red marks, though one of them (hi, Caren!) had some psychology questions and suggestions that sent me into a serious editing blitz. She and I argued back and forth by email and still managed to stay friends, and the resulting text is much improved.

In the meantime, I've just finished my Basic Portuguese class, and have been picking up valuable vocabulary here at home as well. Most importantly, I've learned how to say "I have to pee" as well as the word for Number Two, which means that I am now fully qualified to have a conversation with my 6-year-old stepson. And I start my intensive Beginner Portuguese class in August, though that one is causing me a good bit of trepidation. It's four hours of classes, five days a week, for one month. I will either learn to speak reasonably well or die trying. I promise that if it's the latter, I'll try really hard to get the novel posted first.

23 May 2007

Writing update: Lancer Tal's story has passed the 120,000 word mark and is now officially longer than "Past Imperfect." The bulk of the story has gone out to my beta readers and I'm waiting for their response, while moving ahead with the final part. I'm hoping that I can start posting in another month...we'll see!

In other, non-related news -- I recently had a realization about why I love being a lesbian. (Okay, another realization.) You've heard about the upcoming Fox series, "The Sarah Conner Chronicles," right? Starring the simply gorgeous Lena Headey? (Be still my heart.) Well, after drooling over the trailer, I then came across references to the show in two other blogs I read. Both are written by men. One referred to Lena Headey as "the not as buff as Linda Hamilton mom" (and did not even name her), then added that hey, Summer Glau is in the series so that makes it worth watching! (Who?) The other blogger also waxed enthusiastically over Glau and barely mentioned Headey, though he at least had the courtesy to name her. These are grown, intelligent men tossing off a beautiful, accomplished, mature woman without a second glance while getting a little too excited over an actress who only recently left her teens behind her.

Cut to the Afterellen.com website, and you find a blogger enthusiastically touting Headey as the show's lead, followed by a bunch of comments from lesbians who are all panting heavily in anticipation of seeing Headey, not Glau. And that's why I love being lesbian. We drool over real women, of all ages and stripes, and do not limit our admiration solely to women who have not yet acquired their first character line. Sorry, Ms. Glau, I'm sure you're talented and your photos are lovely but frankly, I'll be tuning in to watch the glorious Lena Headey.

1 May 2007

What a difference a little time makes. After an initial period of somewhat shocked adaptation to leaving my entire life behind, I got my feet back under me, caught up on my email backlog (200+ messages, yikes), and started writing. It's been such a rush to get back into that...god, I've missed it. And what an amazing feeling to have a partner who not only doesn't resent me vanishing into my dream world, but even tells me this is a priority. I still can't get over that part.

At any rate, I bear good news: my Lancer Tal novel is roaring. I'm just a day or two away from the 100,000 word mark, and am currently sitting at 270 pages. That makes this "short story" (yeah, right) longer than Present Tension and approaching the length of Past Imperfect. I just finished a section that leads directly into the last part of the story, which was fully mapped out some time ago and is now bouncing in place, waiting to come out my fingertips. I figure I'm about 3/4 of the way to the end, but only my Muse knows for sure. The novel is now going to my beta readers, who can point out any issues I need to take care of while I'm still flexible enough to easily fix them before locking in the ending. How long before I post depends on both me and my beta readers now, but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Keep checking in—I'll post updates as I move through this last push. Oh, and speaking of updates, I've done a major rewrite of my biography page. It was, well, a bit out of date.

20 March 2007

Greetings from sunny southern Portugal! I've been here for two months already, which is a bit mind-boggling. My furniture finally arrived (much the worse for wear, unfortunately -- now I get to deal with the insurance claim), and I am delighted to once more have my 20-inch Apple Cinema Display, my comfy office chair, and a desk at which to park myself. Ahhhh! Okay, I'm ready.

My apologies to the many people who have written me over the last several months and gotten nothing in return -- I've been a bit overwhelmed with wrapping up an old life and settling into a new one, and haven't been able to keep up with everything. But I've broken the surface at last, and am catching up on my email. If you haven't heard from me, you will in the next few days!

Also, please note that my email address has changed: I can now be reached at fletcher.delancey@gmail.com.

Southern Portugal is a whole lot different from my homeland (the temperate rainforests of the US west coast), but I'm adapting. Yep, it's tough adjusting to all this sunshine and warmth and madly blooming flowers...but I'm managing somehow. Most of all, I'm basking in the peace that comes from finding a home in someone else's heart. It took me almost four decades to get it right, but you know what? It was worth the wait.

Now it's time to get back to my writing. I hope, once I can finally post, that you'll think it was worth the wait as well.