Blog – Page 125 – Kit Campbell Books

The Trope of Destined Lovers

You know the tale. Two people, through whatever circumstances, are thrown together and discover there’s a spark. But it’s more than just that – there can be no one else for them. Fate has brought them together. It was meant to be.

Soulmates.

This tends to be fairly prevalent in fantasy and paranormal romance. (It may also be fairly prevalent in straight romance. I admit I’m not terribly familiar with the genre.) I suspect this may be because fantasy itself tends to be somewhat enamored with Destiny in general. (Luuuuke, it is your destiny.)

(Star Wars, despite the spaceships, is totally fantasy.)

Like so many tropes, it can be done well or poorly. (You will know, based on whether you are excited when destiny hits, or confused and slightly off-out. I recently read a series that, in general, was quite excellent, but there was a bit of destined lovers right at the end, where the main character had been avoiding her best friend’s boyfriend despite their connection, but then the best friend said, essentially, “Oh, you can have him, even though we’ve been madly in love for years before you showed up, because I know you are soulmates because of [random magical whatever] and I am perfectly okay with this.” Right. Pull the other one.)

I admit I tend to be overly sensitive to this particular trope. I like it when it goes well, but so often it seems tacked on and lazy.

What do you think, Squiders? Does it warm the cockles of your cold, dead heart, or make you consider setting things on fire? Recommendations on movies/books/etc where it’s done well?

Year of Doing Things: Picture Book Challenge

I have friends – and I’m sure you do too – who have yearly resolutions to try new things. I have a few that want to do a new thing every month, or even every week.

I am nowhere near that adventurous. I hold myself to a just a couple of new thing goals: 1) Go somewhere I have never been before, and 2) Do something new writing-wise. Last year I started submitting short stories (and went to Peru). The year before I entered a couple of query contests (…and went to Germany). This year, we are trying the medium known as picture books.

This is for a couple of reasons. One, they look fun. Two, people have said I have a good child voice. (Alternately, people have said I’m really good at dark. Those two concepts seem to be mortal enemies.) Three, why not? It never hurts to try something new.

So, with the urging of my dear Sarah, I have joined #kidlitart’s 2012 picture book dummy challenge. The goal is to have a complete dummy ready by June. That is an excellent time frame for me (more on that sometime in the future) and hopefully I will come out of the challenge with something good.

Ever done a picture book, Squiders? What are your favorites? (Either from when you were a kid, or ones you like to read to your kids.) I’ve always been rather partial to The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash.

Author Websites

So, I’ve reached a point in my career where I probably need to stop mooching off of free services and create my own website.

The problem?

The last time I had my own website, I was sixteen and firmly believed in some weird movement called the Save the Electrons which preached that black backgrounds on websites saved energy. Or something like that. It was black with neon green text. There were frames.

Obviously, technology has come quite a long ways since those days, and while I’ve had to program the odd thing in my day, I find myself staring at my options without an ounce of understanding. You don’t even really have to program anything any more these days, just pick some sort of engine and a theme and buy a domain, and tada, you’re good to go.

I have two engineering degrees; this should not be as confusing as it is for me.

KD has been a dear and is trying to explain things to me and it is like she is speaking Klingon.

For those of you out there who run your own website, what do you suggest for someone who’s been mooching for the past ten years? I just want something simple and clean and customizable with all the landsquid a girl could want. Something where I can stick on widgets and social media buttons and have it look lovely and professional. Yeeeeessss.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Journey Through the Door

Through the Door, everything you have ever written – ever imagined – comes to life. Margery just needs to see how this one scene goes. Surely nothing can go wrong if she goes in alone.

Find out more in the YA urban fantasy Hidden Worlds.

Landsquid Friday: Limerick

To put the landsquid back in Where Landsquid Fear to Tread, the Landsquid shall be more active from here on out. I’m not sure if it will be every Friday or a less regular thing quite yet. I am not the best planner in the world.

(Also, thank you to everyone who told me they couldn’t see a learning curve with the last landsquid from the wacom tablet, even though you lie horribly. It took me approximately fifteen tries to get this one to look like a landsquid and not some strange Angry Birds reject.)

Today, I have a landsquid and a limerick for you. Enjoy.

There was a landsquid named Joe
Whose editing simply won’t go
He sweeps every room
With a dusty old broom
But alas, procrastination just grows

Latest Release: Frozen

Astrid has only ever known winter. But the long snows have worn on their people, and food is scarce. When she learns she can walk through dreams, she will do what she must not only to save her village, but save their souls as well.

Read the story in the Turtleduck Press anthology Winter’s Night.

The Year of Doing

I feel like I should get my act together. Sure, I’ve sold a good amount of shorts in the past year (I sold one today, hoorah) but I’m starting to think that I’m using them to procrastinate my real goals – like, why edit my YA paranormal novel when I can whip out a short story about Norse gods pretending to be private eyes? Yet the novel writing is what I love and I want to get more out into the world.

Drastic measures may be needed.

I would like to get at least two novels ready to go this year: one for submission to agents, and one for submission to Turtleduck Press. Obviously I can’t trust myself to get things done on my own, so monthly steps need to be taken.

Those are my goals for the Year of Doing, and I thought I would invite others – no matter what your big goals for 2012 are – to post you big goals here, and every month we’ll check in and see how progress is going. If you know specifically what you’re going to do for your monthly steps, you can post them here as well.

So what do you want to get done, Squiders?

So Goes the Kitchen Ceiling

I wish I could claim I had a nice, inspirational, well-thought-out post for you, Squiders, but I have spent the last hour scrubbing paint off of my floors because, despite the gazillion drop cloths, my husband still manages to get paint everywhere. He even somehow managed to get it all over the dining room floor, which is completely separated from the kitchen by a wall. True talent.

(I spent most of the time doing it on hands and knees, but then I realized I own a Swiffer WetJet which, while crap for actually mopping, is good for some things.)

So instead of something lovely, you get a kitchen ceiling analogy.

We are redoing our kitchen ceiling because my husband dislikes flourescent lights and I do not care enough to stop him. So, without further adieu, ways redoing my kitchen ceiling is like writing a novel.

It doesn’t come out quite right the first time.
I think we all wish that there was such things as perfect first drafts but, sadly, there are not. Bits need to be rewritten, character motivations need to be better thought out, and subplots may end up not fitting. Alas. Luckily there is time to fix things. (In the kitchen’s case, we had to redo the texturing twice.)

Sometimes it takes longer than you think.
“We’ll be done in two days,” my husband said. Two weeks later, we’ve still got two, maybe three, steps to go. Novels go much the same way. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, a novel just won’t get done in the amount of time you think it should take. (Alternately, sometimes they go faster. Rarely, though.)

It makes a mess.
Much like the paint everywhere and the dust (oh God, the dust), novels are never as clean as you like them to be the first (or sometimes the second, or the third) time through. There are loose ends, extraneous characters, and plot holes the size of elephants. And it takes a while to clean everything up.

In the end, it’s better than when you started.
Sure, it takes a lot of work and you suspect there’s drywall dust in all your food, but even you have to admit that it was worth it. And so it goes with your novel, so don’t give up.

(Seriously, though, drywall dust everywhere.)

Looking Forward to 2012

Well, Squiders, now that we’ve got the year-end administrative stuff out of the way, we have a whole glorious new year in front of us, full of potential and hopes and dreams.

I’d like your feedback on what you’d like to see this year. I’ll stick in a poll for ease, but if you have anything else you’d like to add in the comments, don’t be shy! The Landsquid doesn’t bite, he has no teeth.

[polldaddy poll=5812136]

I’ll admit that I’m about out of subgenres, so I don’t know how much longer that will continue, but I have some ideas for fun things for the year. Have at it!

What Did I Read in 2011?

Every year I keep track of what I read, what genre it was, and what I thought of it (on a five point scale). This past year, 2011, I also started keeping track of publication year.

Here are the 2011 stats:

Books read in 2011: 53
Change from 2010: +2

Of those:
16 were Nonfiction
12 were Fantasy
5 were Science Fiction
4 were Mystery
3 were Steampunk
3 were General Literature
2 were Science Fantasy
2 were Romance
1 was Young Adult
1 was Humor
1 was Paranormal
1 was Horror
1 was Historical Fiction
1 was a genreless anthology

New genres: Humor, Paranormal, Science Fantasy

Genres that went up: Nonfiction, General Literature
Genres that went down: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Historical Fiction, Thrillers (none read at all)

Guess it wasn’t a very genre-y (or even a very fiction-y) year.

21 were my books (3 were ebooks, 1 I originally got from the library but later bought)
24 were from the library
8 I borrowed from friends or family

Average rating: 3.29

Top Rated:
Incarceron (4.5)
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (4.2)
Behemoth (4)
Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies (4)
First Contact (4)
Sapphique (4)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (4)
Mindless Eating (4)

No 5’s this year. That’s kind of sad.

Most recent publication year: 2011
Oldest publication year: 1883
Average publication year: 1998
Books Older than 1900: 2
Books Newer than (and including) 2000: 42

If you have any questions about anything specific, please let me know! I love to share reading suggestions (and receive them) but I figure you guys don’t want to see my book list as it’s updated.

Books by Kit Campbell