Tao of J.T. is the online blog of New York Times bestselling author and EMMY-award winning television host J.T. Ellison.
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Thanks for taking the ride with me!
I love taking a real vacation – away from home, work and the responsibilities of a schedule. Vacation is the time of year I allow myself to be a total slob – drop clothes on the floor, don’t make the bed, stay up too late and sleep the morning away, tipple in the afternoons – all things I would never, ever do at home.
But the best part of vacation is unrestricted reading time. I managed a few books during my week away, and enjoyed all of them. I focused mainly on new to me authors, with an old faithful tucked in for surety. Here’s what I read, with attendant thoughts.
What I Read:
This was a phenomenal book. I knew the narrator was unreliable from the start, but the story swept me in immediately with an excellent opening line – “The moment I heard how McAra died, I should have walked away.” You know something dreadful is going to happen, and you can’t wait to find out what it is. This was my first Harris book, but it certainly won’t be my last.
THE GRAVEYARD BOOK – Neil Gaiman
My first foray into Gaiman’s world wasn’t a disappointment. I was so touched by the story, the setting, the lovely notion that there are lives to be lead whether you’re alive or dead. It was a morality tale, but more – an exploration into the mind of a creative genius. I can’t wait to move on to his adult work.
Stuart is an author with my house, a classic romantic suspense specialist. Though I wanted to slap the heroine for being rather too trusting and too committed to a bad course of action, the premise of the story – even serial killers have families – was intriguing, and the sex was rompalicious.
BABY SHARK’S JUGGLERS AT THE BORDER – Robert Fate
Full disclosure, Bob is a friend of mine. But his Baby Shark books are some of the finest on the market today. The latest installment was a true pleasure to read – I felt like I was right there in late 50’s Texas, a cannon strapped to my arm and a blade down my pant leg. Otis Millett was in his finest form ever, and the story crackled along at a breakneck pace. And Henry makes a welcome reappearance in this book too, lending his usual poignancy to Kristin’s life. I absolutely loved it, and I can’t wait for the next one. Bob, I hope you’re writing faster!
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC – Sophie Kinsella
Silly, fun and an easy read, I had a good time while reading this. My own confession, I’m still reading it, which is more my problem than the author’s ability to keep my head in the story. A definite beach read.
This exposé into the word of professional Scrabble reads like an anagrammatic dictionary, full of unfamiliar words and quirky characters. But it’s rekindled my love of the game, and I promptly downloaded Scrabble for my iPhone and have been using the tips and tricks laid out in the book to further my own scores. I still suck, but at least I’m looking at the board in a whole new way. It also served to remind me that while I think I have an extensive vocabulary, I really don’t.
THE ACCIDENTAL BUDDHIST – Dinty Moore
I saved the best for last. This was my favorite of all the books I read. Surprised me too. Jeff Abbott suggested I give this a read, and I enjoyed every minute. It’s in turns funny, enlightening and inspirational. I’ve documented my path to finding some sort of Zen in my daily life on this blog, and this book affirmed much of what I’ve been thinking. I’ve realized that many of my “methods” are firmly rooted in Buddhism, which surprised me. But I loved the idea of dedicating yourself to a project like Moore has, and the realization he makes: the more you search for something, the further away it gets. When you allow peace and happiness to find you, then you can achieve enlightenment. That’s true in all things, I think. Highly recommend this book for everyone, whether you’re on a journey of personal growth or just want a little more peace in your life.
What I’m Reading Right Now:
After a big jag like this, I often turn to familiar, comfort reads to help me get settled back into my routine. Seeing the New Moon trailer the other night sparked a reunion with my old friends Jacob, Edward and Bella. I’ve read this series twice before, but this time it feels different for me. I have more compassion with Jacob than I have in the past, feel his pain more keenly. Trying to choose between two men is difficult for anyone, but for the first time I felt myself lean a bit toward Team Jacob. I wonder how the movie will turn out, and if I’m simply responding to Taylor Lautner in the role of Jacob. Regardless, these books are the perfect segue back to my real world of writing.
What I’m Reading Next:
This weekend, I’m starting Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL. I can’t wait. It’s sitting next to me, taunting me. I enjoyed THE DAVINCI CODE, and I’m sure I’m going to enjoy this as well. I’m not down on Dan Brown like so many others – hell, he’s done for adults what JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyers did for teenagers – got them reading. I will never fault an author who draws a huge audience. Brown strikes a chord in many people. I know he struck one in me when I first read THE DAVINCI CODE. So, love him or hate him, I choose to enjoy the ride and can’t wait to crack the covers. My grandfather was a Mason, and I hope to learn something about him, too.
The minute I finish THE LOST SYMBOL, I’ll move on to Diana Gabaldon’s long awaited AN ECHO IN THE BONE. Gabaldon’s books are a lifeline for me, a series of books that truly transcend description. We all have those books that just speak to us, the characters who climb into our brains and reside there. Gabaldon is an author who evokes such strong imagery and setting that I feel like I’m living the story as one of the unseen cast. I’ll admit, I’ve had a wicked crush on Jaime Fraser for a very, very long time.
And to cap off my week, I get to see Ms. Gabaldon here in Nashville this coming Thursday. She’s at Davis Kidd September 24, 7:00 p.m. Be there or be square!
So, my ‘Rati friends, how about you? Tell me the last book you read, the book you’re reading now, and the book you’re planning to read next. Ready? GO!
Wine of the Week: 2006 Chateau la Rose Tour Blanche Bordeaux
I know I’m not unique in the idea of a theme song for each novel. We all use music to drive us, some more than others. I know many authors who have to have music blaring to write, others who need silence.
But I’m always looking back to the very moment when I decided to be a writer. And I have to admit, even before I read John Sandford and decided to try it for myself, long ago in a land I’d rather forget, I heard a song that got under my skin.
It’s called “Disarm” by Smashing Pumpkins. There is a line in the song that goes:
The killer in me is the killer in you
That line mesmerized me. I listened to the song over, and over, and over. That line got under my skin, into my brain. Hubby and I watched a lot of Profiler and Millennium in those days, and I was beginning a true fascination with forensics, profiling and police work. The song felt like it was speaking to me, telling me something. It stayed with me for years, niggling at the back of my brain. I never did anything with it, just let it sit back there, all gargoyle-ly, gathering moss and rot and black mold.
It was a sign of things to come, though I had absolutely no idea at the time.
It happened again when I was writing my first attempt at a novel. The song was “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails. It’s rough, and rude, and violent – and my villain worshipped the song. Worshipped the lyrics. They drove him to his ultimate purpose – to hurt, violate and kill.
You can imagine how I might have been a little worried about this whole getting inspired by music thing.
Now that I’ve harnessed my bizarre little fascination, channeled it into writing novels about good and evil and all the places in between, you’d think I would be better at understanding the why behind the stories. But I don’t. The ideas come when I least expect them. They make themselves known, perching on windowsills, scratching at the glass, each one stumbling over the next in a vain attempt to get inside, vying desperately for my attention.
I love them. Truly, I do.
Sometimes the ideas come from nowhere. Other times, they come from snippets of songs. I’ve learned to take them as they come, write them down, and let them ferment. Sometimes, they actually grow into something worthwhile.
There have been other songs that speak to me. If it weren’t for Evanescence, I might never have finished THE COLD ROOM. I was on a flight to Denver, and I’d been struggling, really struggling, with the book. I couldn’t get myself from point A to point B, much less from A to Z, which is where I needed to go. I had my laptop open, trying to work, and it just wasn’t coming. Frustrated, I turned on my iPod, put it on shuffle and shut my eyes. Evanescence was the first song that popped on. It was “Bring Me to Life.”
As I listened to the song, a spark began in my chest. When it finished, I played it again. And again, and again. And suddenly, all those stupid lost threads fell into place with a bang.
I flipped the laptop back open and wrote the scene toward the end of the book where Memphis and Taylor are talking. I won’t share about what, but it’s a major, significant scene, both for the book, for Taylor’s character, and for the series story arc. Hugely important. And if I hadn’t gotten frustrated and given up, if even for a few moments, I wouldn’t have made the leap. Yes, I might have gotten there another way, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as rich and satisfying to the story.
Now I know my MO. Each book has to have its own song. There’s always a classical piece that’s the daily go to (THE COLD ROOM plays heavily on Dvořák’s New World Symphony) but more and more I’m using songs with lyrics to inspire me. THE IMMORTALS theme song was "Ariadne" by The Cruxshadows. I already had a character named Ariadne, so when I stumbled over the song, it fit so perfectly I couldn’t help myself.
I’m working on a new book. It’s had fits and starts. It keeps getting interrupted to deal with earlier titles, the way this time of year always plays out. But at long last, THE PRETENDER has a song too, one that’s terribly melancholy and sad, but uplifting, in its way. It’s “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. It’s perfect for the tone of the book, the setting, the topic, everything. Every day when I sit down to work, I listen to the song and read the lyrics, and it puts me in the right, well, mood is the best word for it. I usually listen three or four times, letting the words wash over me as I think back to what I wrote the day before, and where I want to go. Then I can write.
Bizarre, these little idiosyncrasies we writers have.
So writers, do you have a special song that has meaning you and you along comprehend? And readers, do you use a theme song in your daily life?
Wine of the Week: Frozen Strawberry Margaritas
Which explains why I'm not as attendant as I'd like today, so please forgive me. I'll check in as often as I can.
You want to hear some hard truth? Do you promise not to get mad at me? Promise?
Okay then. Here it is. Your social networking habit? It might be hurting you.
Yes, I know it’s fun. Meeting new people, reconnecting with old friends, discussing the price of tea in china with strangers, staffing up your mafia, finding out your Princess personality, etcetera, etcetera. But every minute you spend on Facebook and Twitter (I'm not even going to try and list the gajillion other social networking sites available) is another minute you aren’t writing, or reading. Nurturing your creative spirit.
The Muse is a delicate flower, a fickle Goddess. She must be treated with respect and dignity. She must be nurtured, given the proper nutrients: water, sunlight, fertilizer, a touch of love. If properly taken care of, she will reward you with great things: a bountiful garden of words, a cornucopia of ideas. But if you neglect her, she will forsake you.
And none of us want to be forsaken.
I read an essay last week that broke my heart. It was one writer’s honest, true assessment of her burgeoning Twitter addiction. She openly admitted compromising her family time so she could spend hours a night talking to strangers on Twitter. Her online world became more important that her real one. And I get it. I see how easily that happens. Especially when you’re a new writer, and networking is so vital to your future success. (I am so thankful Facebook and Twitter came along after I was already published.) A little encouragement—that tweet that gets retweeted, the blog entry that starts people talking, that link you sent that helps someone else—it’s heady stuff. A classic, undeniable ego stroke, and for a lot of us, that’s just plain intoxicating. (Yes, some of us not so new writers fall into the Twitter trap too…)
But when does it become a problem?
I can’t answer that question for you. You may want to ask yourself some hard questions though. Namely, how much time are you really spending online? Can’t answer that offhand? Spend a week keeping a log of all your online activity. Not just Twitter and Facebook and Goodreads and Shelfari. Track your email consumption, your blogging, your blog reading, your Yahoo groups, your aimless surfing and your necessary research. Be honest. Don’t cheat. Add that time up at the end of the week and take a candid, truthful look at the results. I guarantee you’ll be surprised at how much time the Internet takes.
Then ask yourself these questions:
Is the Internet as a whole compromising my writing time? Am I reading less because I’m spending more time online? Why am I doing this? Am I reaching out to strangers because I’m not feeling the same sort of support at home? Am I lonely? Blocked? Frustrated?
Because here’s the heart of the matter. Writers? Our job is to write. And I don’t mean pithy status updates and 140 character gems that astonish the world. I mean create. I mean writing stories. I mean taking all that energy and time you’re spending online playing and refocusing it into your work.
You know why it’s so easy to say that and so hard to back it up with results? Because Twitter and Facebook are FUN! And you’re talking to other writers, so you can sort of kind of tell yourself that this is really just research, background. You’re learning, right? You're connecting with your fans, with your readers, with your heros. Very, very cool stuff.
Listen, if you get inspired by social networking, if watching successful authors launch successful campaigns helps spur you on to greatness, fabulous. I have been greatly inspired by some posts, links and attitudes on Twitter. I think it’s so important to try and have a positive experience out there in the world, and I follow people who exude positivity, who are following the path I want to follow.
But if you’re forsaking your Muse, taking the easy way out, then you have to do a bit of self-examination and decide if it’s really worth it. I am “friends” with people who are online every single time I open my computer and go to the sites. And I can’t help but wonder – when are they working? When are they feeding the Muse?
An editor is going to be impressed with your finished manuscript, submitted on time. The jury is still out on whether they’re impressed that you can Tweet effectively or that you’ve rekindled that friendship with the cheerleader who always dissed you in school.
The thing about social networking is a little goes a long way. I love Twitter. It’s my number one news source. I follow interesting people, I’ve made new friends, and more importantly, I’ve gained new readers. It’s a tremendous tool for me. But I’ve also (hopefully) mastered the art of Twitter and Facebook. I can glance at my Tweetdeck, see what I need to see, read what I need to read, then move along.
Facebook, on the other hand, became a problem for me last year, so I gave it up for Lent. I spent six weeks only checking it on Tuesdays and Fridays. The first two weeks were hell. I was missing out! Everyone was on there having fun except me.
And then it got better. At the end of the six weeks, I added things up. I wrote 60,000 words during my enforced Facebook vacation. That was enough of an indicator to me that it was taking time away from my job, which is to write.
Now Facebook is a breeze. I’ve separated out my friends, the people I actually interact with daily, so I can pop in one or twice a day, check on them, then keep on trucking. I’ve set my preferences so I’m not alerted to every tic and twitch of the people I’m friends with. I don’t take quizzes or accept hugs. Ignore All has become my new best friend. Because really, as fun as it is to find out that I’m really the Goddess Athena, that aspect isn’t enriching my life.
I read Steven Pressfield’s THE WAR OF ART recently and was so struck by his thesis, that artists fight resistance every moment of every day, and the ones who are published (or sell their work, etc.) are the ones who beat the resistance back. Twitter, Facebook, the Internet in general, that’s resistance. (And to clarify, resistance and procrastination aren’t one and the same. Read the book. It’s brilliant.)
For professional writers, the social networks are a necessary evil, and as such, they must be managed, just like every other distraction in our lives. I still have my days when I find myself aimlessly surfing Twitter and Facebook, looking at what people are doing. Getting into conversations, playing. But I am much, much better at feeding my Muse. I allot time in my day to look at my social networks, but I allot much more time in my day to read. And most importantly, I have that sacred four hour stretch—twelve to four, five days a week—that is dedicated to nothing but putting words on paper.
There’s another phenomenon happening. The social networks are eating into our reading time. Readers have their own resistance, their own challenges managing their online time.
Yes, there are plenty of readers who don’t have Facebook or Twitter accounts, who may read this and laugh. But many of us do, and if we’re being honest with ourselves, every minute spent conversing online is another minute we aren’t reading. I can’t help but wonder if this is what will ultimately drive the trend toward ebooks, since one out of every three readers prefer to read electronically now. One in three, folks. That’s a large chunk of the market.
So how do you turn it off? How do you discipline yourself, walk away from the fun?
It’s hard. But what’s more important? Writing the very best book you can possibly write, or taking a quiz about which Goddess you are? Reading the top book on your teetering TBR stack, or reading what other people think about said book?
For writers, you have to set your priority, and every time your fingers touch the keyboard, that priority really should be writing. The rest will fall into place. I hypothesize that while the Internet is taking a chunk of reading time, most readers still read a great deal. Which means we need to keep up the machine to feed them, right?
Does this post sound like you? Are you easily distracted? Frustrated because you can’t seem to get a grip on things? There are a bunch of great tools out there to help you refocus your creative life. Here’s a list of the websites and blogs that I’ve used over the past year to help me refocus mine.
Websites:
Books:
The War of Art – Steven Pressfield
The Creative Habit – Twyla Tharp
Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life – Winifred Gallagher
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Take fifteen minutes a day off your social networking and read one of these. I promise it will help you reprioritize your day.
Because really, what’s the point in being a writer if you don’t write?
What do you think, 'Rati? Are you overdoing the online time? Any tips for making the best out of your Internet experience? How do you find the balance?
Wine of the Week: 2008 Quattro Mani Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
The indefatigable Sarah Weinman did a Dark Passages column for the LA Times a couple of weeks ago about female characters with dark histories. She cited some great examples of authors who use their female protagonists to tread into the traditionally male territory of overwhelming violence: Karin Slaughter, Mo Hayder, Gillian Flynn.
There is a common denominator in all of these fabulous authors' characters: the woman has a tortured past. They are damaged goods. Abused, debased, yet, like the phoenix from the ashes, rising above their beginnings to become strong, compassionate female leads who step in where even males fear to tread.
But here's my question.
Why does a strong female lead have to have a tortured background? Can a female protagonist make it in the fiction world if she's not been broken first?
I daresay the answer is no. Because it just wouldn't be ladylike for the female lead to have an unrequited bloodlust, now would it?
I know this isn’t a female-centric phenomena – it’s a crime fiction phenomena. There are plenty of male characters who are driven by a tortured past. John Connolly’s Charlie Parker comes to mind: if Parker’s wife and daughter hadn’t been brutally murdered, would he have ever become the man he is today? Of course not. But, and here’s a big but, for the most part, the male characters who are driven by despair didn’t have the violence done to them. To those around them, yes. To their loved one, (who many would argue are an extension of ourselves, and as such, what you do to them, you do to me.) The reality is, though, there aren’t a lot of male characters in crime fiction who’ve been raped or tortured, then struck out to find vengeance by becoming a cop, or a PI, or a spy.
To me, this ultimately harkens back to the archetypal female mythos - the soul eater, the strong woman who devours men because of our magical abilities - we bleed and don't die. Therefore, we must have some inherent evil and that evil must be contained. Generations have tried to tamp down the Lilith that resides in all of us, just waiting to be freed.
So it seems goes the strong female lead in fiction. If, and only if, she has been raped or beaten or otherwise horribly misused, has lost a sibling or a parent to violence, will she be allowed to acknowledge her bloodlust. The violence done to her unlocks the deep-seated resentment, and society understands—not condones, mind you, but understands—because of what she's been through.
In other words, society has conditioned us to tamp down our feminine wiles, to stow away our power, to hide behind our men and only emerge once we've been raked over the coals through some unspeakable violence.
Bullshit.
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
What in the hell is that all about???
Why can't a woman be strong because she's strong? I know we're talking about fiction here, and we need to have a weakness that's apparent in order to "relate" to the characters, but I'm always amazed at just how many female lead characters fall prey to this. Mind you, and this is an important caveat, there are instances of this that mold the character into who they become that won’t work any other way.
Karin Slaughter's Sara Linton is a perfect example. She is so touched by the evil that's done to her that it's now imprinted itself on her psyche, and we know that evil begets evil. They can smell it hopping around in the veins, whispering the siren's call filth vile exremous hate that emanates from the very cells of the blood they've permeated. She has no choice but to go forth and battle evil, because it follows her everywhere she goes, sensing her weakness, and her strength.
Our Zoë Sharp's Charlie Fox is another that can be cited here as an appropriate product of an unspeakable violence. Zoë's books work for me because there's an unanswered question that rides through the series. On the surface, Charlie becomes a monster, a killer, because she has been forced to become one through the monstrous act that's done to her. But did she? Or was there latent evil in her system? Would she be who she is despite the despicable actions of her teammates? There are many people who don't turn into a killer after violence is done to them. I think there resides a small possibility that Charlie would have ended up exactly where she was regardless of her rape. Charlie is my favorite kind of character, the moral person who does immoral things. Her struggles with her new reality are some of the most nuanced in modern fiction today.
But many, many writers take this path—the tortured backstory—as a shortcut to give their women depth, and it can fall flat.
On the surface, it’s a psychological windfall. We cheer because it's the underdog syndrome, the need to root for a character who has glimpsed the depths of hell and can come back to tell us all about it. Don't get me wrong, some of my favorite books have female characters who've had some roughness in their past. I'm not saying this is wrong, or bad, or you shouldn't do it. It's just a phenomenon that I find fascinating, a trend that I'm not sure is a good one.
Why?
Because we're victimizing our heroines to make them appear more heroic.
When I was first writing Taylor, something was very one-dimensional about her. Looking back, I understand now that she was too perfect. I asked an old English professor for advice and she said something vitally important: she needs to have a weakness. That was an a-ha moment for me. Oh, I thought. She needs to have a weakness. Okay. I can do that. Now what would that be????
You can see how easy it would be, at this particular point in time, to insert an unspeakable evil into her past that makes her what she is. Weakness, though, bespoke weak to me, and that was exactly the opposite effect that I wanted. My girl wasn't going to be weak. She was going to be kick ass, and not because she was driven by a demon, it's just who she was. So in the first book, Taylor smokes. That's her weakness, her humanizing factor. And it works for me. She doesn’t have a big secret in her closet, a tragedy that drove her to become a cop. She chose that route because it was the right thing to do. Many might find her boring because she is a moral person doing moral things because of an overarching desire to rid the world of evil. I don’t know.
Just for the record, I am, obviously, a feminist. But I like being a wife, being a nurturer. I like men, too. I have a lot of male friends. I have brothers, and a father who taught me to never back down from a fight. I find that the vast majority of guys are good, honest, and true. All that said, I hate that women aren't paid equally for their work, are so often debased and treated like their voices have less meaning than a man's. I will become highly annoyed if you suggest to me where my place is or neglect to treat me like a lady. But I've worked in male-dominated environments before, and I learned very early on that there were two ways to get a leg up. One, sleep your way there. Two, earn the respect of your team. Guess which route I took?
And I'll tell you, earning the respect of your team means showing absolutely no weakness. So when it came time to write my female character in a male world, there was no chance she'd be showing any either. I just don't know how to program that way.
So. Am I completely off base here? Would you rather see the damaged soul find redemption? Or is it okay for women to finally come into their own in crime fiction? Look at the double standard that exists when it comes to sex: I know if there was a female lead who acted like the men, we'd all get into trouble. It's not ladylike to have desires and act on them - that makes you a slut. But a male character can screw his way through the book and no one bats an eyelash.
How is this any different?
Wine of the Week: 2007 Feudo Arancio Nero d'Avola Sambuca di Sicilia paired with a hearty puttanesca sauce.
(Oh come on, you knew that was coming....)
