I got an email from the Literary Midwife, Mary Rosenblum, last Monday asking if she could tag me as ‘it’ in a game of blog tag. Never heard of it, I said. It’s easy, she said, all you have to do is answer four questions. Very appropriate, I said, what with Passover coming and all. (Like how I’m using all those verboten said-tags, Mary? Editor Mary would slap me upside my typing knuckles…) Unfortunately, blog tag doesn’t use those four questions that will be asked at a seder. I’m guessing they aren’t from Easter, either. And those questions from that other big date with the IRS this week? Fuhgeddaboutdit…
Actually, blog tag is a way to tap other writers and invite them to share what they’re working on. Mary, of course, wrote a terrific post here explaining all the incredible pies she has her fingers into. Oh, sure Mary—like that’s not a tough act to follow. But since she cleverly got me to agree first, here goes.
1. What am I working on? I assume you don’t count the work of speculative fiction we posted off to the IRS this week? According to Michael N Marcus, writers can deduct porn, drugs, booze, and sex. Of course, they have to A) have them and B) pay for them. (Most writers I know are fine with A. It’s B that’s a problem…) With input from my coauthor (daughter Hannah), I’m working on Round Trip Fare, Book 3 in the Null City series. [See excerpt here]
Carey Parker knows superpowers suck. From childhood she’s had two choices—master her warrior gift, or take the Metro train to Null City and a normal life. After one day there, imps become baristas, and hellhounds become poodles. Demons settle down, become parents, join the PTA, and worry about their taxes. There are just a couple of problems with that. Her brother and sister have disappeared. The leader of the angels trying to destroy Null City might just be the one person she loves most in the world. And her new partner’s gift lets him predict deaths. Hers.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? If I could figure out its genre, I could answer that. Basically, it’s the steampunk without the steam/urban fantasy with a bit of time travel/ humor with an end of the world prophecy/ mature young adult with the occasional sex/ and a great dog genre. And really: it’s pretty much just like all the other works in that genre.
3. Why do I write what I do? My daughter and I started telling each other the Null City story when she was in high school. After talking about the characters for months, I decided to write down their stories.
4. How does your writing process work? Hannah is great at creating characters and the Null City setting. We go through spurts of back and forth discussions, much texting, and long Google chats, and then I hole up and write. I’m a total pantser, and get most of my word count in the middle of the night. Sleep is so overrated.
Since it’s kind of probable that I haven’t tagged the next people in this chain yet, please let me know if you’d like to participate. No pressure. Except for the part where if you break the chain, I’ll hide week-old gefilte fish under the back seat of your car, somebody will eat the ears off of your chocolate bunny, and the IRS will audit you. Happy Passover/Easter/Tax day!
Kassandra Lamb said:
I love it that you and your daughter are writing partners, Barb. What fun! I too am a pantser who seems to do my best work at 2 a.m.
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barbtaub said:
My poor little dog just hates those 0:dark-thirty nights. She thinks she’s supposed to hang with me, but she really wants to be in her bed. (Just to clarify: as the most spoiled AussieDog on the planet, she maintains a bed in every room of our house, but her favorite one is in our bedroom.)
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ioniamartin said:
It really is hard to answer questions about yourself. You did great!
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barbtaub said:
And how weird is that? Normally, I’m one of my favorite topics. But thanks for the compliment. I really appreciate it, coming from you.
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Aussa Lorens said:
Woah woah woah! I like this plan of writing off ridiculous expenses! I mean, I won’t be paying for sex anytime soon but surely a backpacking trip is a necessary expense for the sake of inspiration, riiiiight?
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barbtaub said:
Oh, yeah — like Big Brother didn’t see that one coming. Turns out the IRS takes a dim view of a business operating at a loss (ie every writer on the planet except for JK Rowlings and those girls who do the monster porn), so you can only deduct up to the total amount you actually make as a writer. Thus my trip to France (totally legit research because I mentioned it…somewhere… in one of my books, or I really, really was going to do so) didn’t count AT ALL because I had already deducted those lattes I got at LAX. And they weren’t even venti’s.
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maryrosenblum said:
I knew I stuck…er…tagged the right person with this little game! And I love the excerpt from Book Three! As for those said tags…..THWAP. That was a chunk of gefilte fish, right on the schnoz! Be glad it wasn’t a matzo ball!
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barbtaub said:
Actually, I think I’d prefer the matzo ball…
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Bastet said:
🙂 you are a wonder…those are questions that I find more than difficult to answer…
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barbtaub said:
That’s because you’re so dang prolific. I couldn’t answer either if I was juggling job, half dozen blogs, multiple daily poetry/photo/story posts, and — oh, yeah — family. Whew! I get tired just *thinking* about being you.
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Bastet said:
Hmmm…well when put like that, maybe you’ve just explained why I had serious problems with this when Oloriel asked me to “blog hop” as the post was called then.
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