Welcome to the website of Mindy Klasky, author of fifteen novels (including Fright Court, the As You Wish Series, the Glasswrights Series, Harlequin Special Editions, the Jane Madison Series, and Season of Sacrifice.)

Look around, read some blog posts, and click on other pages for more information about Mindy, her writing career and her editorial services.  If you would like to receive Mindy’s free quarterly electronic newsletter, sign up in the lower left corner of this page.

Thanks for coming by — and don’t hesitate to join in the conversation below!

Last October, I attended my local science fiction convention, Capclave, where I had the good fortune of being interviewed by Jean Marie Ward, for Buzzy Magazine.

Jean Marie has now posted her interview for all the world to see:

http://buzzymag.com/morgan-keyes-interview/

It’s interesting to me, seeing how I convey on camera.  We were in a dim lounge area, with a lot of background noise; the video actually came through more clearly than I expected.  There *is* something a bit funky with the recording of my voice — I sound like I have a rather pronounced lisp, which I don’t, in real life.

In any case, take a peek at the video, if you want to know more about Morgan Keyes, DARKBEAST, and what’s coming up next for Morgan and Mindy!

We had a pretty quiet weekend around here — at least, not much to write about.  In a word, our weekend was:  Baseball.

On Thursday afternoon, we went to see the Nationals beat the Tigers.  (This was a makeup game, after the original got rained out on Tuesday.)  The game was exciting — it all came down to the very last out, with Prince Fielder at the plate.  After, we went to Five Guys for dinner, where I indulged in a burger and fries and didn’t even think about feeling guilty

On Friday, relatives came to visit from North Carolina, and we went to see the Nationals beat the Cubs.  I was surprised to find that two games, back to back, weren’t too much for me.  I suspect that the two wins helped that to be the case!  We sat one section over from our usual seats.  (Enter long, boring explanation for why there isn’t an usher posted near our usual seats.)  It was fun to watch a good usher properly handling the crowd — helping people find their seats, holding them in the aisle until breaks in play, etc.  I ended up tracking down the ushers’ supervisor — both to compliment the usher we saw, and to try to remedy the lack of an usher in our usual section.  I was pleased with the customer service, at least the lip service ::wry grin::

On Saturday, I went to see the yarn bombing to which I had contributed several pieces over the winter.  Then, on Saturday evening, I watched BULL DURHAM with our visiting Carolina relatives.  I haven’t seen the whole movie in a long time, and I was surprised by a couple of things — how much baseball I’ve learned since the last time I saw it, and how utterly unquotable-in-a-family-blog most of the dialog is.  I think it’d be about a one-hour movie on TV, once they deleted all the lines they couldn’t satisfactorily bleep…

I’m reeling a bit from the discovery that this is a Monday, and it’s time for me to head to work.  Nevertheless, it’s Writing Day, so I’d better settle down and get my words in – 5000 is today’s target!

So?  Did anyone have a more exciting weekend than mine?  (I like to give you easy assignments, once in a while )

I’m over at Magical Words today, talking about the details of writing a synopsis.  Essentially, I provide line by line instructions for creating a strong synopsis for agents, editors, art departments, etc.  Stop by and see what you think — and leave a comment or two!

http://www.magicalwords.net/mindy-klasky/synopses-the-nitty-and-the-gritty/

Magical Words is a website by writers for writers (and readers who want a behind-the-scenes peak at the process of writing.)  Regular posters include David B. Coe, John G. Hartness, Faith Hunter, and Misty Massey, with regular guest posts from Lucienne Diver, Diana Pharaoh Francis, and Carrie Ryan.  We’re always happy to see new faces in the crowd, so don’t be shy!

Last weekend, we headed down to the Newseum for a new documentary, BLACK AND WHITE AND DEAD ALL OVER.

Having attended Silverdocs (a film festival that exclusively shows documentaries) last year, and having watched dozens of them on our own, outside of the festival, we have become something of documentary snobs.  We talk a lot about whether the subject is worth the investment of time, whether the story is told in interesting ways, whether new facts were illuminated, whether the movie itself was enjoyable as a movie.  We have pretty strong opinions — and sometimes they differ from the critics’.

BAWADAO got a solid B from us.

It is subtitled “A Film About the End of American Newspapers”.  As a unifying features, it shows a map of the United States, with dots placed to show cities where newspapers have been severely curtailed or, in some cases, shut down forever.  The film cites various statistics, including the average age of readers (55, and growing older).

But that’s not really what the film is about.

BAWADAO is about the death of *investigative journalism*.  It’s about those reporters who invest months — sometimes a year or more — in developing a story, ferreting out injustice, exposing bad government.  Investigative journalism is very expensive for newspapers; it requires fronting salaries for months, along with the costs of the actual investigations.  It is the very opposite of tweets and Facebook and other social media news.

BAWADAO tracks two investigative journalists from the Philadelphia Daily News, telling their story — both the Pulitzer-Prize-winning series that they wrote and their precarious job position.  The film spends a *lot* of time talking about Philly papers, about how they’ve been bought and sold five times in six years, about how hedge fund managers make lousy publishers.

These are all part and parcel of the problem.  But ultimately, the film claims too much when it says it’s about the (absolute) end of (all) American newspapers.

The Newseum welcomed us to the screening, handing out totebags with the slogan from the movie (“Democracy dies in darkness”.)  The bags also contained a copy of that day’s Washington Post, a bottle of water, and a bag of SmartFood popcorn (you know, so we could enjoy popcorn and a drink at the movies.)

In fact, we’d already read that day’s Post (even though we’re younger than the 55-average-age.)  How about you?  When was the last time that you read a print paper?  How about a mainstream paper, online?  From where do you get your news?

…  I have finally learned when a story is working and when it is not.

That doesn’t mean that I always know how to fix what’s broken.  It doesn’t mean that I don’t rant and rave and despair that the book on my computer screen will never match the one inside my head.  It doesn’t meant that bluebirds fly around my head as I work and mice carry me around my office, all singing saccharine songs.

But I can tell when I’m heading down the wrong path.  And I know enough to stop before I get to the end.

This week, that happened in a major way.  I started Chapter 10 of Jane’s story, a chapter that follows a big, action-packed, emotion-punching chapter.  And I had Jane casually joking with Melissa about baked goods.

Yeah, Jane has a best friend.  Sure, she looks for validation from her best friend on a fairly regular basis.  Of course, it’s fun to figure out new treats from the Cake Walk bakery (and maybe even some recipes to go along with them.)

But Chapter 10 wasn’t the place for that.  Chapter 10 was the place for exploring emotions, for grappling with consequences, for reacting to the Big Bad that went before.

Once I realized that, it wasn’t very fun to cut 2500 words.  Especially since it was already 4:00 in the afternoon, and I had vowed I would finish the chapter that day.

But snip, snip.

And wow, is the new Chapter 10 *right*.

Are you a writer?  Can you tell when things are broken, or do you need to ride them out till the end?  And as a reader, how much faith are you willing to invest in a writer, that they’ll get back to where they need/should/want to be?

Once upon a time, I loved having noise around me as I worked.  (I grew up in the 1970s, and I attended a “school without walls”, where classrooms were open, and there was a huge amount of ambient noise.  I grew accustomed to working in that environment, although I understand that education is trending away from such things these days…)

I used to have a whole variety of writing music, with different mix-tapes (yes, this was a long time ago!) for different emotions.  I relied on some pre-recorded music, too — often, the soundtracks to movies.  I could still probably hum the entire soundtrack to Star Wars (A New Hope), if you just start me off with the first note!

Over time, though, I have found that I need to concentrate much more on my work.  I find all but the *most* familiar music distracting (and even that becomes unworkable for me, if there are lyrics.)  I have a small handful of fall-backs, about a half dozen albums that I listen to through my headphones, when I’m forced to work in an environment with a lot of background noise.

Today, I’m working at the public library.  As has happened the last few times I was here, a group took over two tables and started talking — in street-level volume — about their real estate project.  I shot them dirty looks and grumbled to myself and complained inside my head.

And then I remembered that there is a Quiet Study Room.  One used to have to get permission to use it, signing up in advance.  These days, though, it’s first come, first served, and there are spaces for about forty workers.

I’m in the Quiet Study Room now, and it is heaven.  The *only* noise is from people shifting in their chairs, the occasional turn of a page, the tap of fingers on a keyboard (and I’m the loudest at that, much to my embarrassment).  No talking.  No cell phones, even for a quick call.  No headphones with music bleeding.  Sheer, unadulterated silence.

How about you?  Are you a silence fetishist?  Or a background noise person?

So, I’m now two full weeks into my new writing regimen.  (Thumbnail version:  I write — and do no socializing, administrative tasks, or erranding — on Mondays, Wednesdays, and every other Friday.  I socialize, admin and errand on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I take off weekends, and every other Friday.)

Two weeks is obviously early days — I’d be a fool to draw grand conclusions about what’s working and what’s not working.  But I can say this: the system seems to be working.  Each day, I’m frustrated that I have to set aside the work that I’m doing.  I’m eager to continue either my writing or my administrative tasks (which makes it more likely that I pick up same, with enthusiasm, on the next scheduled day).

In two weeks, I accomplished the following:

• Editing a total of 40,000 words on Single Witch’s Survival Guide
• Writing approximately 15,000 new words, replacing 20,000 old words in Single Witch’s Survival Guide
• Upgrading both the Mindy Klasky and Morgan Keyes website, including installing current WordPress, themes, widgets, and plugins
• Upgrading the electronic copies of the Jane Madison Series, Fright Court, Capitol Magic, and the As You Wish Series on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
• Loading electronic copies of the Jane Madison Series, Fright Court, Capitol Magic, and the As You Wish Series on Apple.
• Preparing electronic copies of the Jane Madison Series, Fright Court, Capitol Magic, and the As You Wish Series for an exciting new venue that I’ll be sharing with you in the very near future.
• Designing and ordering new business cards.
• Creating and sending a newsletter, updating my readers on various, um, news
• Completing about a million errands around the house, not directly related to writing (grocery shopping, clothes shopping, closet cleaning, cooking, bill paying, tax deduction filing, etc.)

I’ve still got long to-do lists.  Survival Guide still has about 40,000 words to go.  I still have lots of administrative tasks to complete on the self-publishing side of things.  There’s a never-ending list of to-do items around the house.  I haven’t updated this blog as promptly or as often as I’d like.

But for the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m getting things under control.  I can see the general shape of the to-be-dones, instead of just a huge wall of FAILURE.

So.  Back to work

If you receive my newsletter, then you know my big news — all five of the novels in the Glasswrights Series, along with my stand-alone traditional fantasy novel, Season of Sacrifice, are on sale for the entire month of May — $2.99 for each ebook, regardless of the venue where you buy.  That means that you can buy my first six novels for less than $20.  Pretty cool, huh?

(And if you don’t receive my newsletter, why don’t you?  You can sign up on the front page of my website — just complete the easy-peasy form in the lower left corner of the page.)

And, while it’s not part of the amazing, incredible sale, the Glasswrights and Season are also available as audiobooks from Audible and Audible.co.uk.

So, just to make your purchasing all nice and easy, here’s a slew of links.  (Click on the book name to get to the page on my website where you can read the first chapter — for free.  Click on the buy links to, you know, buy.)

• The Glasswrights’ Apprentice  (Amazon Kindle | Amazon Print | Apple | Audible UK | Audible US | B&N Nook | B&N Print | Diesel Ebooks | Ebooks.com | E-reads | Google Play | Kobo | Sony)

• The Glasswrights’ Progress  (Amazon Kindle | Amazon Print | Apple | Audible UK | Audible US | B&N Nook | B&N Print | Diesel Ebooks | Ebooks.com |E-reads | Google Play | Kobo | Sony)

• The Glasswrights’ Journeyman  (Amazon Kindle | Amazon Print | Apple | Audible UK | Audible US | B&N Nook | B&N Print | Diesel Ebooks | Ebooks.com | E-reads | Google Play | Kobo | Sony)
  

• The Glasswrights’ Test  (Amazon Kindle | Amazon Print | Apple | Audible UK | Audible US | B&N Nook | B&N Print | Diesel Ebooks | Ebooks.com | E-reads | Google Play | Kobo | Sony)

• The Glasswrights’ Master  (Amazon Kindle | Amazon Print | Apple | Audible UK | Audible US | B&N Nook | B&N Print | Diesel Ebooks | Ebooks.com | E-reads | Google Play | Kobo | Sony)

• Season of Sacrifice (Amazon Kindle | Amazon Print | Audible UK | Audible US | B&N Nook | B&N Print | Diesel Ebooks | E-reads | Google Play | Kobo | Sony)

Happy reading!

As a writer, I am frequently asked, “What books most influenced your writing?”  I have my stock answers — Lord of the Rings, Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni books, a bunch of other old favorites.  But last week, I heard a segment on NPR that completely threw me for a loop, because it made me recognize a huge influence on my writing, one that I’d never consciously thought of before.

Pippin.

The musical (music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz; choreography by Bob Fosse).  About the son of Charlemagne, sort of.  About the quest for the meaning of life, sort of.  About sex, drugs, and rock and roll, sort of.

I first saw Pippin in the late seventies.  I was visiting my grandmother in Los Angeles, and she had tickets for a production at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  For reasons long lost in the mists of time, my grandmother didn’t go to the show; instead, she sent my cousin and me.

I remember being absolutely, 100% enchanted by the performance.  And I remember being somewhat embarrassed by the show — there were scenes about men and women (and men and men and women and women) who were sexually interested in each other.  There was rather suggestive dancing.  There were somewhat revealing costumes.  I wasn’t quite sure what to say to Grandma when she asked what I thought of the performance.

But, in my heart, I loved it.  I loved the lyrics.  I loved the music.  I loved the costumes and the staging and the laugh lines and the sheer energy of the entire thing.  And most of all, I loved the message — all about what it takes to be free and committed and independent and bound and, and, and.

I can probably sing every single word of the musical, by heart.  I used to use the soundtrack as one of my writing pieces, because I knew it so well that it didn’t disrupt my creativity.

But it wasn’t until last week, it wasn’t until I was listening to the NPR segment — about the current revival in New York — that I realized something I’d never consciously thought about.  Pippin is about a person who goes on a quest.  And while he’s searching for the meaning of his life, he comes across a troupe of traveling actors.  He becomes one of them, only to find that his future does not lie with them.

And when I heard that, when I thought about that, I realized that I’ve told that story over, and over, and over again.  Rani Trader finds her Players.  Keara finds her Travelers.  Even the As You Wish Series is about women finding their true selves against the backdrop of contemporary theaters.

I love the otherness of acting, the ability to literally and figuratively don masks.  But I never realized just how deep that love was, just how early I learned to tell that story…

(Incidentally, the revival of Pippin sounds ***amazing***, with circus performers interspersed with the acting company.  ::eyes New York with longing::)

So?  How about you?  Ever had a deep epiphany about what you write or what you read?  Care to share it?

Reposting, because you’re very busy, and you might have forgotten…  (But Lea, Alethea, and I have not forgotten you!  We can’t wait to see you!)

* * *

You!  Yes, you!

What are you doing this coming SUNDAY, April 28?  At 3:30 p.m.?  In Arlington, Virginia, at One More Page Books, 2200 N Westmoreland Street #101 Arlington, VA 22213?

You’re coming to visit me, aren’t you?  And to see Lea Nolan, too.  And Alethea Kontis.  Because we’re going to be talking about middle grade fiction, especially fantasy!  We’d all love to see you, and your friends, too.  So, what are you waiting for?  Add this visit to your calendar and stop by on Saturday!  (And if you can’t make it to the store, but you want a signed, personalized copy of any of our books, just call the store and let them know.)

Mindy, looking forward to seeing lots of friends!