{"id":25250,"date":"2014-11-05T20:56:36","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T01:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=25250"},"modified":"2014-11-05T20:56:36","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T01:56:36","slug":"jenn-lyons-what-i-learned-writing-blood-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2014\/11\/05\/jenn-lyons-what-i-learned-writing-blood-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenn Lyons: What I Learned Writing Blood Sin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Everything is permitted\u2026 \u00a0and everyone has their price.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Zander Sin is the bad boy of rock-n-roll, known for his wealth, his temper tantrums, and his love of hedonism, but to K&R expert and newly born maran vampire Jackson Pastor, Zander Sin is something else: murderer, monster, and kidnapper. After Zander\u2019s Whore of Babylon tour comes to Los Angeles, Jackson also learns that Zander Sin has a grudge with Jackson\u2019s family that goes way beyond money or power, and stretches all the way back to ancient Rome.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Zander may be on everyone\u2019s hit list, human and supernatural alike, but when Jackson learns that Zander\u2019s keeping his younger sister Monika prisoner, he finds himself face-to-face with the most objectionable of outcomes: being forced to help Zander Sin get what he wants.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Even if it means Jackson may have to betray everyone he loves to do it.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The Second Book In A Series Is Just As Hard As The First.<\/h2>\n

Blood Sin is my fourth book, but my first sequel. All the previous books had been in radically different genres with no connection to each other (because sticking to one genre will never be my groove.) Blood Sin, on the other hand, is the sequel to Blood Chimera, book two in an open-ended paranormal mystery series. In some ways that\u2019s easier, since it means that there will be familiar characters and some of the world-building is already done, but everything that\u2019s a benefit is also a constraint, because…well…the characters are familiar and the world-building is already done. I can\u2019t just go around changing things now, or introducing concepts which should have been present in the first book. I\u2019m locked in.<\/p>\n

So easier in lots of ways, but also scary.<\/p>\n

Stare Into The Abyss Of Language And The Vocabulary Stares Back.<\/h2>\n

So the monsters in my series are called \u2018grendels\u2019 — and as you might expect that translated into reading about the epic poem \u2018Beowulf.\u2019 While doing so, I discovered the word \u2018aeglaeca,\u2019 which turns out to be a bit problematic. And sexist.<\/p>\n

Whoa now. What?<\/p>\n

Aeglaeca is a word used to describe Grendel\u2019s mother, and it\u2019s usually translated as meaning \u2018monstrous.\u2019 Grendel\u2019s mother is a monster because it says so right there. Monster. See? Print doesn\u2019t lie. And that\u2019s all well and good, but the same word is also often used to describe the titular hero of the story, Beowulf.<\/p>\n

Only then the same word is typically translated as \u2018heroic.\u2019<\/p>\n

Same word. Used the same way. The only difference between how the word is translated into modern English seems to be the gender of the subject, and that translation is one of the main pieces of evidence used to present that Grendel\u2019s mother is a foul bitch-beast. Turns out \u2018aeglaeca\u2019 really translates as \u2018epic\u2019 or \u2018fierce\u2019 — applicable to both heroes and villains. So everything I assumed I knew about Grendel\u2019s mother stemmed from a bunch of scholars who just couldn\u2019t wrap their heads around the idea that a woman could try to kick the ass of the man who killed her son without also being a literal monster.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I ended up naming a Vegas-style floor show after it, because Blood Sin\u2019s that kind of book.<\/p>\n

I Have To Write Faster Than My Demons.<\/h2>\n

Blood Sin was probably the most trouble-free novel I\u2019ve written to date. I\u2019m pretty infamous for hitting the three-fourths mark of a book and grinding to a halt so I can go back over everything I\u2019ve done and second guess myself in crippling ways, up to and including completely radical rewrites. That didn\u2019t happen this time. Why?<\/p>\n

Blood Sin was also the fastest I\u2019ve ever written a novel, and these things are not unconnected. That probably goes against someone\u2019s rules for writing and certainly against popular conceptions of how writing should be, but I have discovered that I do my best writing when I write fast enough to trust my instincts instead of giving my brain time to second-guess my work. How fast? At least two thousand words an hour usually does the trick for me. I can\u2019t keep that up all day — it\u2019s exhausting — but when you\u2019re writing that fast, you don\u2019t need more than a few hours a day.<\/p>\n

My Health is an Important Part of This Process.<\/h2>\n

Around six or so years ago, long before I decided to make this writing thing a permanent part of my raison d’\u00eatre, I was a freelance illustrator, which fyi, is not an easy way to earn a penny. I worked myself to the ground, spent long periods of time cramming myself into poor ergonomic contortions, and ended up doing permanent damage to my health from which I\u2019ve yet to recover. Back problems, primarily, but also weight gain from being so sedentary, which of course made the back problems worse.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still paying for it.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019ve learned from this (besides how important diet is for my overall health and well being) is that ignoring your health is something you will absolutely regret. In some ways, the attention I now pay to my diet and exercise means I\u2019m healthier than I\u2019ve ever been before (especially since I\u2019ve cut sugar out of my diet) but all it takes is one really bad back flare-up to remind me how nice it would have been if I\u2019d done all this before it became a crippling issue. Also? It\u2019s not easy for me to write when I\u2019m doubled over in pain.<\/p>\n

So don\u2019t be me, okay?<\/p>\n

Always Be Closing.<\/h2>\n

I work full time. I\u2019m also a fervent gamer who enjoys table-top RPGs and MMOs. I have a lot of hobbies. And I\u2019ve written five books in the last two years (and I\u2019m in the middle of my sixth.) Guess what I don\u2019t do so much anymore? (Hint: I still pay my bills.) I\u2019ve discovered that writing books (and finishing those books) is a choice. It\u2019s not about talent, although that certainly impacts if anyone will want to read my books later. It\u2019s about one single thing: making writing more important than all the other activities that clamor for my free time and energy.<\/p>\n

Writing is my BAE, my first priority, the thing I do before TV shows, video games, or hanging out with friends. When that wasn\u2019t true? I also didn\u2019t have any finished books. Probably some kind of connection there…<\/p>\n

I have friends who are professional artists, and they draw all the time. ALL THE TIME. When they aren\u2019t drawing, they are watching videos of other artists drawing or they are staring at drawn pictures of Batman pointing a finger at them and saying, \u201cWhy aren\u2019t you drawing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing is exactly the same.<\/p>\n

Which isn\u2019t to say I haven\u2019t been playing a lot of video games lately, just that I\u2019m not making any excuses for it the way I used to do.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, three cats and\u00a0a lot of opinions on anything from Sumerian creation myths to the\u00a0correct way to make a martini. At various points in her life, she has\u00a0wanted to be an archaeologist, anthropologist, architect, diamond\u00a0cutter, fashion illustrator, graphic designer, or Batman. Turning from\u00a0such obvious trades, she is now a video game producer by day, and\u00a0spends her evenings writing science fiction and fantasy.<\/p>\n

Jenn Lyons: Website<\/span><\/a> | Tumblr<\/span><\/a> | Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Blood Sin: Amazon<\/span><\/a> | B&N<\/span><\/a> | Kobo<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everything is permitted\u2026 \u00a0and everyone has their price.\u00a0 Zander Sin is the bad boy of rock-n-roll, known for his wealth, his temper tantrums, and his love of hedonism, but to K&R expert and newly born maran vampire Jackson Pastor, Zander Sin is something else: murderer, monster, and kidnapper. After Zander\u2019s Whore of Babylon tour comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-6zg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25252,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25250\/revisions\/25252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}