Remember, leave a comment to enter Layla's drawing!
~~~~~~~~
Hi,
and thank you to Tali for hosting me today! This is the second stop on my blog
tour for my novella Homespun, coming out tomorrow (Sept. 18) from
Dreamspinner Press! During my blog tour, which runs 'til Oct. 8, I'm giving
away a handmade scarf, knit or crocheted by me specially for you, in a style
and yarn color that you get to pick! (This would also be a great holiday gift
for someone else!) More details here:
http://laylawier.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/scarf-giveaway/
- you just need to comment on any of the posts in the tour to be entered.
And
that's a great lead-in to the topic of today's post: sharing your passions! No,
not that kind of passion -- at least not quite! Knitting and other
fibercrafts are a great (platonic!) love of mine, as you can probably guess
from the scarf giveaway.
Writing
is, in some sense, all about sharing passions. You have to love your characters
in order to get other people to love them. And it's not a simple matter of
telling the reader "This character is wonderful! Love them!" In fact,
that's a pretty sure route to a character who's roundly loathed by all. Instead
you must take the reader by the hand and lead them to it gently. I don't know
how many of my favorite characters are the ones who snuck up on me, the ones I
didn't even realize I'd love from their first introduction, only to look back
twelve chapters later and discover I'd grown to adore them.
It's
not just characters, though. As writers, we fill our books with the things we
love. Homespun is very much that way for me. It's a book that is full of
my favorite things: autumn and fibercrafting and farming and painting; rural
living and communication issues and difficult, complicated relationships.
But
just as with characters, you always walk a fine line between inviting the
reader to share your love, and simply masturbating on the page. Masturbation is
a fine thing, don't get me wrong, but it's not something you typically invite
other people to watch.
(Unless
they're into that.)
When
I wrote the first draft of Homespun, I told myself that I was writing it
just for me. No one ever had to see it. The whole thing could be as much of an
exercise in id-stroking as I wanted it to be.
But
on the revisions, I had to ask myself to see it from a reader's perspective.
This often meant asking myself if I needed to explain things a little better,
or whether I really needed this many paragraphs talking
about sheep; could I cut it down a bit? The trick is to learn how to say
"I love this thing! Come here and let me show it to you!" without
also jumping up and down, waving your arms at the reader, and generally making
a nuisance of yourself.
I
have always balked at a lot of writing advice that describes writing as a hard,
desperate, lonely process full of soul-wrenching despair. "Kill your
darlings", the adage runs -- which means not killing characters (as it's
sometimes taken to mean), but never becoming so attached to any part of the
story that you can't cut it if you have to.
I
am wary of putting too much credence in that advice. I think the parts we love
best are loved for a reason, and the lines of dialogue or descriptive passages
that shine in our eyes are worth saving. A story's writer is also its greatest
fan, and that's as it should be.
I
try not to look at revision as a purely rational, objective exercise. I don't
ever think I can be objective about my own work, and I honestly don't think
it's a state to be sought after. Instead I think of it as learning to see it
through someone else's eyes, the eyes of someone who's just come to it fresh
and new. What do they see, this hypothetical new reader? What do they
love, what do they hate, where do they get bored?
Don't
kill your darlings. Nurture them so that they can be all they're meant to be.
~~~~~~
Homespun
by Layla M. Wier
Genre:
M/M Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: Novella/104
pages
Release Date: Sept. 18, 2013
Blurb:
For twenty years, Owen Fortescue, a down-to-earth farmer in
upstate New York, has had an on-again, off-again relationship with volatile New
York City artist Kerry Ruehling. Now that same-sex marriage is recognized in
New York, Owen wants to tie the knot. But Kerry responds to the proposal with
instant, angry withdrawal. Owen resolves to prove to Kerry that, regardless of
the way his family of origin has treated him, family ties don’t necessarily tie
a man down. With help from his grown daughter, Laura, who loves them both, Owen
hopes to convince Kerry that his marriage proposal isn’t a trap, but a chance
at real love.
Buy at Dreamspinner Press:
About Layla:
Layla M. Wier is the romance pen name of artist and writer
Layla Lawlor. She was born in a log cabin in rural Alaska and grew up thirty
miles from towns, roads, electricity, and cars. These days, she lives in Fox, a
gold-rush mining town on the highway north of Fairbanks, Alaska, with her
husband, dogs, and the occasional farm animal. Their house is a log cabin in a
birch and aspen forest. Wolves, moose, and foxes wander through the front yard.
During the short, bright Arctic summer, Layla enjoys gardening and hiking, and
in the winter, she writes, paints, and draws.
Where to find Layla:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Layla_in_Alaska
Tumblr: http://laylainalaska.tumblr.com
Stops and topics on the Homespun blog tour (Sept. 16-Oct.
8):
Monday, Sept. 16: Zahra Owens (http://zahraowens.com/)
- autumn
Tuesday, Sept. 17: Tali Spencer (http://talismania-brilliantdisguise.blogspot.com/)
- sharing passions
Wednesday, Sept. 18: RELEASE DAY! Party at the Dreamspinner Press blog!
Thursday, Sept. 19: Charley Descoteaux (http://cdescoteauxwrites.com/)
- location scouting in central New York
Friday, Sept. 20: Chris T. Kat (http://christikat.blogspot.com/)
- interview
Monday, Sept. 23: Charlie Cochet's Purple Rose Tea House (http://purpleroseteahouse.charliecochet.com/)
- doing research
Tuesday, Sept. 24: Helen Pattskyn (http://www.helenpattskyn.com/)
- bisexuality in Homespun
Wednesday, Sept. 25: Garrett Leigh (http://garrettleigh.com/)
- interview
Thursday, Sept. 26: Skylar Cates (http://skylarmcates.wordpress.com/)
- rural life
Friday, Sept. 27: Madison Parker (http://madisonparklove.com/blog/)
- interview + review
Monday, Sept. 30: Jessica Davies (http://jessicaskyedavies.blogspot.com/)
- learning to spin, part 1
Tuesday, Oct. 1: Anne Barwell (http://anne-barwell.livejournal.com/)
- learning to spin, part 2
Thursday, Oct. 3: Michael Rupured (http://rupured.com/)
- writing respectfully from outside a subculture
Friday, Oct. 4: Jana Denardo (http://jana-denardo.livejournal.com/)
- invading characters' privacy
Monday, Oct. 7: SL Huang (http://slhuang.com/)
- interview
Please count me in. Love the cover and the blurb. Can't wait to read it; when budget allows. I used to knit and crochet, don't know why I quit. The last thing I remember making was a pair of booties for my grandson who is now 11. No more babies to make booties for, darn it. Don't think I will make it for the great-grandkids.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Nancy! :) I hope you'll enjoy the book when you get a chance.
DeleteI have drifted away from knitting/crochet and then come back several times over the years. I quit completely for awhile (I think I was just too busy) but the last couple of years I've been getting back into it, making some scarves and afghans and a few stuffed toys. I'd like to tackle something more complex, like a sweater, but I haven't tried that yet!
My mom likes to crochet, but she hasn't been able to in a long time, because work tires her out.
ReplyDeleteThose scarves look great. :)
Thank you, Cyndi! :)
DeleteI can sympathize with your mom. I quit knitting for several years because I was just too busy and exhausted at the end of the day, but I've recently been getting back into it, playing with some simpler patterns and working my way back up to bigger projects.
Tali, I love your tags on this! That made me smile. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for hosting me!