This writer's life

Ted's Birthday

2011-12-30T21:28:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday, Dad! Thank you for your help this year by reviewing books on my blog. I apologize for not getting these out sooner.
In honor of Dad's birthday I'd like to post the reviews he sent me in November.

"Well, another month has come and gone, almost another year as well. So something a little different this month. I'm sure most of you know of and have probably seen "The Bucket List". Well, as I was getting ready to retire, I bought a book called "1,000 Places to see in Your Life". I read through it and marked all of the ones I've already seen. Of the 1,000 I had seen an amazing 78 of them. Doing a little math, I calculated that at the current rate (78 in 69 years) I was going to have to hurry up or live another 800+ years. I have concluded neither would I live that long nor would I see all 1000! I've even slowed down, only adding two in the last three years.
The other day, I received a booklet that had a list of 15 celebrates (actors, news reporters, politicians, etc.) and each had selected six books that they'd read that they considered the best books ever written. That made 110 ---some listed 7 books. Oh boy, I thought, let me see how many of these I have read. I check them off. There were 43 that I had read. I won't list them all, but on the list were Winston Churchill's War Memories, Homer's Illiad and Odyssey, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, War and Peace, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Moby Dick, House of Seven Gables, The Poems of Elizabeth Barret Browning, The Poems of Emily Dickenson, The Poems of Robert Frost, The Plays of William Shakespeare, The Grapes of Wrath, Gone with the Wind, Quo Vadis, The Short Stories of Edgar Allen Poe-------you get the idea.
Missing were some that to me should have been obvious: The Bible ( Maybe none of them have read the whole thing), Don Quixote, Doctor Zhavago, 10 Days That Shook the World, Fathers and Sons, none of modern American Fiction ( Stephen King, Louis Lamour,again a list too long to write in a blog.)
I'll be reading some from their list in the near future....How about you? What books have you read that you would put on the list of greatest books ever written?
Make a New Year's resolution to read at least 1 book a month. Try to read a wide variety, it will help you grow as a person. Happy Holidays, Ted

December

2011-12-19T20:49:00.005-06:00

Well, where the heck have I been? Did I take December off? I didn't mean to, and yet it appears I did. Dad has sent two great reviews and I haven't even posted them. What?! Why?
I am seriously off my game the last few months. Even with help, I can't seem to keep up. Have you ever had a time like that?

I think the thing to do is what the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says, "Do Not Panic."

These things happen. Wait- not to me they don't... um, yes, yes, they do. They happen to everyone. "The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men..."

But, but we're all supposed to have goals and work toward them unfailingly and accomplish stuff and stuff...

Oh, my dear, dear perfectionists, take a look around. How many of God's creatures work and scurry every day to accomplish goals? They are no less a rabbit or deer or dog or hawk or even an eagle if they stop and take a nap in the sun, or if they are unsuccessful in their hunt for the day. It doesn't mean there won't be something better on another day.

Take the time to stop and enjoy the lights of the season, the love of family and friends. In a few short days it will be 2012. We can worry over blogs and books and such then. In fact we'll make a plan for it. In the meantime, I promise to post Dad's fun reviews.

Happy Holidays~ be safe and tell me what your favorite thing about this time of year is... Cheers~

Last Day of November

2011-11-30T20:42:00.003-06:00

I love penguins and used to enjoy watching Chilly Willy cartoons. I thought it appropriate to bring in Chilly on the first Day of December. For those of you doing NaNoWriMo, how many pages did you get done? Or is it what was your word count? The real question is what are you going to do with the story you wrote in November. Are you going to edit it? Are you going to send it out somewhere? Is it sold? Or will you simply be brave enough to let someone else read those words you slaved over? No? That's okay~ Contrary to popular belief, I believe that everyone has their own journey to make when writing. When and if you're ready you will edit, you will let others read it. You will edit again and you will send it out. That doesn't have to be today or tomorrow or in the next year. No words are wasted. Writing is a craft best practiced every day. Life is too short to fit your pace into someone else's life- whether that is writing fast or writing slow. It's a journey not a competition.

As for Chilly Willy, look how happy he is simply to be warm. My goal for December is to find what makes me that happy and to live it. My wish for you is that you do the same.

Books to give for Christmas or Not!

2011-11-24T20:36:00.003-06:00

When doing your Christmas shopping- remember a book is a wonderful gift to give.

Here are a few fun things my Dad (Ted) has to say about buying books as gifts for Christmas:

Books to give for Christmas or NOT!

For those of you who read my book reviews here on Nancy's Blog, you already know I read...A LOT ! I also buy books...A LOT.....When we moved, I donated about 150 to the local library for their book sale, sold ( gave away) another 200 in an auction to not have to move them 900 miles from Kansas to Michigan. When we moved to Kansas, I donated 40+ books on Russian History ( my other passion ) to Butler County Community College in El Dorado.
Last week, I got a real prize........a catalogue from a book wholesaler..........imagine 75 pages of books--20 per page average---at bargain prices---better than any book club!!!
Wow, I was in hog heaven!!!
I began to go through it and I checked some books that I was interested in and began a list or two. Books I'd like and (with apologies to their authors) books that probably should not have been published!
I call this list: BOOKS NOT TO GIVE FOR CHRISTMAS
The CIA Lockpicking Manual - Listed under Self-Help books
What to do When the S--t Hits the Fan- Another Self-Help
Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-defeating Behavior - Self-Help
Lies The Government Told You: Myth, Power and Deception in American History-Listed under Politics
Don't Vote-It Just Encourages the B------S - Politics
Napoleon's Hemorrhoids - History
Bedlam: London and Its Mad - History
Myths,Lies, and Downright Stupidity:Get Out the Shovel--Why everything You Know Is Wrong - American History
Idiot American: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free - American History
How Do You Light a Fart? And 150 Other Essential Things Every Guy Should Know About Science. -Science--where else
As I reviewed the selections I had listed and then shortened it, because by now you must have got the idea, I realized, I could have just as easily called this:

"BOOKS TO BUY FOR CHRISTMAS!!" Support you starving author...............Have a great holiday.

So, do you know any strange book titles? Feel free to share. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Gluten-free Thursday- pie

2011-11-17T22:12:00.003-06:00

Like many other people, I've been forced to be gluten-free for medical reasons. One of my hobbies is baking and it's tough to bake gluten-free. Many friends have asked for some recipes. I hope to have at least one GF recipe a month posted here. (No worries, I use mixes so you don't have to weigh your own flours, etc.)

Today is
Gluten-free Sour Cream, Chocolate Chip, Pecan Pie.

Crust:

I use Gluten Free Pantry perfect pie crust mix. I find it at Walmart, Whole Foods, and Jewel/Osco.

You can follow the recipe on the back and freeze three of the four crusts. Or do the following:

Use 1 cup all purpose flour of your choice. (I used 1 cup of the mix above.)

1/8 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar

mix. Cut in 5 tbsp butter and 5 tbps shortening (I use all butter) until pea size.

Then add 1 beaten egg, 1 tbsp COLD water, 1 and 1/2 tsp cider vinegar.

Mix until makes a ball-do not over mix. refrigerate for 1 hour.

Roll out to two 8" pie crusts or one deep dish crust.

Filling:

4 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp GF vanilla
dash of salt

Beat with whisk until well combined.

Add 2 cups chopped pecans and 1 cup chocolate chips.

Pour into pie crust - careful not to overfill.

Bake in 350 degree over for 40-45 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack.

Enjoy!

Busy, busy, busy

2011-11-16T19:41:00.002-06:00

This writer's life has been busy and it's not even the holidays yet. The question becomes how do you find the time to keep writing even when you are so busy your to-do lists have to-do lists?

The answer is simple. One word at a time. One sentence at a time. A bad first draft is better than the most magnificent story never written. There are people who will argue that you are wasting time and energy writing a bad first draft. I say balderdash! Writing is a craft that must be practiced every day. That does not mean you "must" write twenty pages a day to be a writer. Or even a single page a day. What it means is that you sit down, open a file and write a few words. If you are too busy to warm up the computer- keep a notebook with you and write a sentence before bed, or in the car line waiting to pick your kids up from school, or while waiting in line at the grocery store. If you have a smart phone write a sentence or two instead of that tweet telling everyone what you had for lunch.

If you are still having trouble finding the time or the energy to write-and you are not on deadline- then perhaps giving yourself permission to take a break and wait is a good idea. Even the best writers need vacations...or a good night's sleep.

Take care of yourselves my friends and most importantly take a moment to breathe in and out. Nothing is so important that you should ruin your health over it. Cheers~

November Book Review by Ted

2011-11-10T18:49:00.003-06:00

Well, it's that time again. Another review is due. I must be slipping, but I've read a few good books in a row lately! If I say " The Silent Girl" does that ring a bell for you? How about "Ice Cold" or "The Sinner" ? Or what if I say "Tess Gerritsen"? Doesn't mean anything to you? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Didn't mean anything to me either. "The Chicago Tribune" says she makes Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft "seem like goody-two-shoes." Still never heard of her? What if I say " Rizzoli & Isles" ? Ring a bell?

Yes, Tess is the creator of the pair who TNT turned into a summer hit in 2010, returned this summer and are now scheduled to begin a " new season " in a couple weeks.

This month's book is called "The Silent Girl" and is placed in Boston's Chinatown and involves Detective Jane Rizzoli and M.E. Maura Isles. True to the transfer from book to movie, theatre or TV, the characters are a little different, but the "the name is the same".

The story begins with a tour in China town.

The tour goes down an alley and finds a neatly severed female hand on the ground in the middle of the alley. Throw in a dead detective who, though retired, had been investigating a 19 year old case of missing young girls, a group of people who receive letters on the anniversary of a massacre in a chinese restaurant and...oh, I forgot Ninjas and the legendary Monkey King!

You are Rizzoli and chasing a killer down an alley in the dark--suddenly the killer disappears and reappears silently behind you, knocks you down....a gun is pointed at your head...but then there is a whisper of wind and a thump, followed by a louder thump. You reach out and touch a pool of warm liquid, getting up, you feel a body and a head but they're not attached!
"What you must do," said Monkey, "is lure the monster from his hiding place, but be certain it is a fight you can survive." from "The Monkey King : Journey to the West." by Wu Cheng'en c. 1500-1582.
Oh, yes, my apologies to friends in Boston, but there is also the Boston gang boss and his flunkies. What other elements do you need to blend together for a novel you won't be able to put down? How well do you sleep at night after reading good, scary mysteries? Good luck if you dream about what you read...This would even make Alfred Hitchcock proud.
I'm off to find more copies of her other 13 books.

~Ted

Nov. 1 NANO

2011-11-01T20:37:00.003-05:00

Hi, my writer friends, are you fast and furiously at work on your nanowrimo project? It's November once again and writers ban together to encourage each other to attempt to write a book in a month. As for me I've been thinking through some serious thoughts about my on-line marketing. I fear I have gone terribly wrong somewhere. I went to Klout.com - a website that rates your on-line influence. Riiight- four years of blogging, facebook, twitter, linkedin and google-plus have gotten a score of 25 out of 100-

Wait! What?!
How is that possible I spend nearly 3 hours a day on internet talking and joining in, etc. to make matters worse, it listed all my dear friends - some who just started last year with this crazy marketing thing- as all having larger Klout scores than me. It's a little embarrassing really as I've taken several classes on internet marketing, read countless tomes, kept up on my marketing network to learn the latest and greatest trends. In fact that is part of what I get paid to do at work.

So what am I doing wrong? Well, number one I only today joined Klout. Hmmm- did you know your Klout score goes up as you chat more and link more on Klout? Sounds like a scam to me- and yet there are actual people who check Klout scores to determine your viability as an author. What?! Yes, I read that today in a writing association newsletter, which is why I went to find out my Klout score.

Now, let's talk working smart- working smart is not not writing my novel because I'm scrambling to add people to my Klout page. Smart is sighing at yet another way for people to judge me without ever reading my book. Smart is ending this blog and getting to writing my latest mystery. So forgive my low Klout score and check out one of my books. Then you can tell me which you'd rather I spent my time on. Cheers~

October Book Review by Ted

2011-10-25T21:59:00.004-05:00

Well, I missed my deadline this month. First time I think...I did do one the day it was due........plenty of excuses, but editors don't accept them do they??

This month is a different book. Name one of your favorite TV actors, find an unexpected book written by him, and then read it to see what it is. Now let's dissect this; one of my favorite actors: ICE-T of " Law & Order SVU". I was surprised to find it is his 4th book. Book titled " Kings of Vice", we have a master of Hip-Hop, a good actor with a co-writer ( Mal Radcliff ), and we have a master story-teller. It is a novel that has a good plot- after 20 years in prison, a former gang leader is out for revenge against his former lieutenant who tried to kill him and took over the gang when he went to prison. While in prison, he was befriended by an older man who taught him patience, strategy ( SP?), he comes back to avenge his wounding and reclaim his gang empire.
Add beautiful women, a scheming Parole officer, old friends, more firearms, car chases, flying bullets------I will be surprised if this is not made into a movie. It fits into today's genre of gangster and shoot-em-up movies.
Read it and enjoy with this caution: The use of Black- Street Language is very heavy! If this were written by a non-Black, it might be offensive to some. If you do not find this offensive, you can find it a well-written story. Honestly I hope to see another book in the near future by this writing pair.

As before, I want you to notice this is another case of a co-writer, ghost-writer, or whatever name is being used these days. It is an opportunity for writers to make a living while gaining a reputation as a writer. More surprises next month.......Ted

Movie review

2011-10-18T19:49:00.006-05:00

I haven't done a movie review in a long time, so here goes. I went to see the "Guy Flick," Real Steel with Hugh Jackman and Evangeline Lilly. Both actors are gorgeous to watch on screen. I went into this movie thinking "oh, man, Rocky meets Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots." but surprisingly the movie hits all the right emotional cues. It suckered me in even though I knew, I knew, how the story went. I mean it's a tired plot line, right? Um, I had such a good time I wanted to stand up and cheer. I wanted to cry. I want to go see it again. It's the classic story about a down-on-his-luck boxer who has a lot to learn and has to make amends along the way to find his true potential. The story has heart and I have to say I'm not a fan of boxing, but I really enjoyed the robots smashing each other in the ring. Maybe there really is an audience for the sport of robot boxing. I think I'd go see a match or two.

My advice- go see this movie. If you have boys- take them to see it. It's a lot of fun.

If you've seen it, I'd love to hear what you think. Cheers~

The Best Advice

2011-10-11T19:48:00.003-05:00

I suppose you have heard the old saying, "Learn the rules, then and only then, can you break them." I don't know if this is true or not. I think it depends on the writer. Telling people you are writing a book is a bit like telling people you're pregnant. (Sorry guys but the moms will understand.) The moment you tell people you're pregnant the horror stories come out. I was in labor for 10 days! They had to have five men stick their hands up there and yank the baby out. I nearly died. My ankles and face swelled so much I looked like the blueberry girl from Willie Wonky. Or my personal favorite, "Once you get pregnant, you'll never be slender again." (This said while drinking two colas and eating three snack cakes.)

When you tell people you're writing a book, the horror stories start. No one under forty gets published, you might as well wait. You have to know someone or you'll never get published. You need an MFA/PhD to get published. No one will take you without an agent. Agents won't rep you unless you're published. Outline? No, it's too contrived. No outline? You'll have to rewrite the entire book~no one ever writes a good book without an outline. Then people ask what you're writing and when you tell them, they get to tell you how no one is buying that. Or how that will never sell.

Next come the questions that mirror: when are you due? Haven't you had that kid yet? Are you still pregnant? They're: when's your book come out? Have you sold it yet? Are you done writing it yet?

Finally- no matter what you decide to do just like hospital or home birth- you will do it "wrong." Sign a contract with the big six? Wrong. There will be people standing in line to tell you why your choice was bad. Decide to Self publish? Wrong. There will be just as many standing in line to tell you how bad that is. Decide on a small press? OMG! How could you do that?

If you've read this far you either know exactly what I mean, or you suspect you'll understand someday.

My best advice to writers of all stages is this: Relax, be open to learning, be open to changing as much as you comfortably can and understand that everyone's journey is different. Which means that everyone and no one is right when they give you advice. It's your journey. Have fun with it. If it's not fun, it's not worth it. Cheers~

How to Tell if You are a "True" Writer or Not

2011-10-05T19:51:00.003-05:00

This week I was blogging over at Sia McKye's Thoughts Over Coffee blog. The idea of what makes you a "true" writer came up. A lovely follower noted that they must not be a "true" writer because... (insert reason here.)

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we look for the definition of a "true" writer?

I hate this question. I hate that some people say you have to be published by one of the big six to be a "real" writer. I hate that others say you aren't real until you make $X. So what in my opinion makes a "true" writer?

A writer writes.

That's it. It's that simple. Ask yourself, do I write? If the answer is yes, then you are a writer. It doesn't matter if you have to clean the house before you write or if you have to write when everyone else is in bed. It doesn't matter if the grammar is bad or the story-line doesn't hold up. It doesn't matter if your dialog is off key.

We all have our different ways of doing things and we all have the ability to learn. So what makes a writer? Someone who writes. Some writers are list makers. Some writers are poets. Some writers are slogan writers. Some writers are journalists. Some write for money. Some write research. Some write short stories. Others write novels or songs. All in all if you write, then you are a true writer.

Now that that is decided, the next thing to ask yourself is what are your personal goals as a writer? Do you want to write a short story? Do you want to write a song? A poem? A jingle for a product? Do you want to write fan fic? Do you want to write a novel?

How do your goals as a writer fit into your lifestyle? Having trouble finding the time to write? Ask yourself why- are you afraid of failure or success? Are you afraid to give yourself permission to take time to meet a seemingly frivolous goal? Or are your writing goals too big for your current life?

Whatever it is~ you have the power to change it. Fear of failure? Tell yourself you're only writing for fun and don't show it to anyone. Not until you want to or are comfortable. There is no rule that you have to have your work read to be a writer. Fear of success? Take the writing day by day Today I will write a page. I won't worry about hitting the NY Times list or doing appearances. Fear of taking time for yourself? Tell yourself that "Everyone" will be happier when you are happier and writing makes you happy. Adjust your goals to match your life-don't let yourself be pushed into something that doesn't work for you.

So here is my question: are you a writer? Did you write today? Did you want to? Do your goals need to be adjusted?

If you are a writer- even a writer of lists. Give yourself permission to play with it, to have fun with it. Life is too short to not be who you are or to try to live up to other people's expectations or definitions of who you are. Now go and write~ even if it's only to comment on my thoughts. Cheers~

Character action/reaction

2011-09-27T22:11:00.003-05:00

When reading contest entries and critiquing new writers' work, I've learned that one of the most difficult things for a writer to perfect in a story is the character's action/reaction. Often the character may react before something happens. Or not react to a situation the way the reader expected.

How does a reader get an expectation of reaction? Motivation. As writers we put characters in situations and give them motivation. Even villains must be motivated to act badly. The hero/heroine/protagonist must react in a manner consistent with their motivation. The reader will fling a book faster than you can say, "...but she acted that way because of something I haven't told you yet." A reader creates your story in their mind based on the character's motivations, goals and conflicts. The ones you put on the page--not the ones that you have in your head. Having a character react out of, well, character, is like listening to someone sing off-key. It is a sure sign that the writer needs to work on their craft.

How can you prevent your writing from sounding off-key? Get out of your head and into your character's. Imagine you are your hero-with all his goals, motivations and conflicts- and you walk into a situation just like the one you are writing. What would you do? How would you react?

As a writer I love this part. I have time to think of snappy come backs or cool actions. In real life there is no do-over. In real life, I usually think of something I should have said or done hours or even days later. But as a writer I can ensure my characters give the best reactions to good and bad situations. I have the time to think of some action or witty dialog that will make the reader fall in love with my character. Yes, this takes time. There is no personality chart, no horoscope or middle child/oldest child chart. There is only you acting out your character as written-not as you want to be written. Would they really say this? Would they really do this? If they must, then you have to go back and motivate it.

Take the time to play pretend. Get into your character's head and before you know it your actions and reactions will ring true.

What tips do you know that will help create "real" actions and reactions?

Sept Book Review by Ted

2011-09-22T20:32:00.000-05:00

In keeping with the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I am reviewing "The Eleventh Day" by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan.
It is very hard for me to try to be objective with this book, because my subjective side keeps turning up. I ask your forgiveness, but you see as I approach my 72nd birthday, I find that I have not lived a day when there was not a war, police action, revolution or military _______________ ( you put in the word (incursion, action, undertaking etc.) I was born about 3 weeks after Germany invaded Poland in 1939, and I won't bore you with the list, but I doubt that there will not be something in Somalia, Lybia, Iraq, or Afganastan going on on December 30th.
This book deals with the heroes of Flight 93. In some ways they were neglected in the massive news coverage of 9/11 both on the day it happened and the 10th anniversary. Yet they were the only ones who consciously were able to do something about this attack on America.
This is a well-written account of the high-jacking and the action of the people on this flight that saved our capitol and foiled the success of the mission of terror. The beauty of the account is that it deals with the individuals ( 14 ) who managed to call their loved one and give them a verbal report of what was going on and what they were doing to stop it. Somehow the 3000+ casualties of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon are for most of us a group of nameless/faceless individauls. We do not know what they thought, or said, or much else. These 3 dozen passangers and crew come to life more easily as we can almost hear them on the cell phones that they used to contact their families. Individuals who are quoted and explain what is happening and what they are trying to do.
If you can stand to take the time to put a face on 9/11 and want to know more about this group, I can not think of a better piece of work than this book.
It is interesting, intriguing, and will hold you attention.

I'm at Bouchercon

2011-09-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

This week I will be in St. Louis at Bouchercon. Here is the link: http://bouchercon2011.com. I'm a first timer at this conference but I've been told it is a lot of laid back fun. I'm looking forward to meeting readers and writers. I will tweet about the experience. Follow me at www.twitter.com/nancyjparra or @nancyjparra.

A full report will be on this blog next Tuesday. Have a safe and fun week. Cheers~

Thoughts on the Zombie Apocalypse

2011-09-05T08:45:00.004-05:00

noun

(in voodoo)

the body of a dead person given the semblance of life,but mute and will-less, by a supernatural force, usuallyfor some evil purpose.

the supernatural force itself.

For the last year or so there has been a strong trend toward zombie stories in books, articles, movies, jokes and conventions. There is even a Facebook status game of who will help you or hurt you when the zombie apocalypse comes. Why?

I was never quite sure why until I was doing research on serial killers for a thriller idea I have. There in the book the author spoke about serial killers who kill the poor, homeless, and/or prostitutes. These killers are less interesting to the general public because--as long as we aren't poor, homeless, drug abusers or prostitutes--we feel safe. But serial killers who go after pretty college coeds or suburban housewives are far less accepted and the public will stay on the police until they are caught. Why? Because, the author said, the poor, the homeless, drug abusers, prostitutes, immigrants are all considered the other--the living dead.

That thought made me stop. In these hard economic times with the unemployed competing with the under-employed creating a true jobless rate of close to 16 percent, the numbers of poor and homeless are the highest we've seen since the great depression. Which means subconsciously we know that while we go about our lives more and more people are joining the ranks of the undead. We can feel it in the number of unsold empty homes in our neighborhoods. In fact our next door neighbors just abandoned their big, beautiful, four bedroom, four-story home with granite counter tops. These are two working upper-middle-class people who live right next door to me. We don't know where they went. Are they living in a hotel now? With family? In their car?Whatever happened they may have now fallen into the ranks of the social undead. Kind of a creepy thought, isn't it?

I'm not saying things won't turn around economically. I'm not getting into politics. I like to study human nature and found it interesting that trends in story telling mirror current social happenings. That Middle America fears it will fall into the ranks of the living dead- and those fears translate into fiction.

So, what will be the next trend? Ideas?

The Care and Feeding of a Writer

2011-08-30T08:40:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite artists is Native American Sculptor Roxanne Swentzell. You can see some of her work here. It's simply amazing. When I was at the national Romance Writer's of America Conference in Denver some years back, I took time out to visit the Denver Art Museum and there I saw her sculpture entitled "The Things I have to do to Maintain Myself." I've posted the picture of this work on the left. This little guy has a broken horn and is threading a needle to repair himself. This particular sculpture spoke to me deeply as a woman and a writer.

No offense guys, but women tend to put family, friends and work before their own care much more so then men. We think, "I have a gift to write and I'm going to even put that in front of my own care." Or we think, "I don't have time to mend myself." Overweight? I'll eat better when I have time. Exercise--but that takes away an hour I could be writing or doing laundry. Ladies, we put laundry before our own health. How messed up is that?

But as a creative artist and writer your work will suffer if you don't take time out daily to maintain yourself. Your work suffers, your family suffers and your life suffers. But, but, but...

I know all the excuses. I live them daily. I've found that as we age and continue to abuse ourselves with lack of proper rest, nutrition, and exercise, things begin to break down. Your work will suffer and spending more time in front of the computer won't cure it.

So how to do you break the cycle? When I was in the military I worked as an electronics technician and we had daily duties called PMI's (preventative measure initiatives.) We had a list of daily things that needed to be done to prevent breakdowns and malfunctions. I recommend you make a simple list of PMI's and then implement them one at a time. Commit to them for thirty days and they will become lifestyle habits. I'm not talking diets here, my friends. I'm talking about self-love and self-care. Care that will make your writing better, along with your family and your relationships.

Here's my list:

Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
Walk the dog twenty minutes five days a week.

Do a simple yoga stretch routine right before bed.

Incorporate five fruits and vegetables in my food choices every day.

Never sit at the computer longer than an hour-use this five minute break to go downstairs and get a glass of water.

Look myself in the mirror and tell myself that I love me and that I'm here for me. Take this time to check in and ensure I don't have any pains, illness or tooth aches. If I do, then make an appointment to get it checked out or fixed.

Take care of yourself. Think of it as the instructions for oxygen masks in an airplane-put your mask on first- then you will be better equipped to help others.

What do you do to maintain yourself?

Grammar Rulz or I am a lazy writer

2011-08-23T09:47:00.005-05:00

I am a story teller. I am not a grammar person. You know the kind who has all the rules memorized and actually knows the names of things like participle and gerund. (I bow to your knowledge and skill.)

You see, I'm more of a write-by-how-it-sounds kind of person, which means when everyone else was memorizing grammar rules I got away with just "knowing them." This means that I can easily write excellent dialog, but it also means I struggle through copy editing. On my desk are the following: "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers," Browne and King; "The AP Stylebook;" "The Chicago Manual of Style" and the "MLA Handbook." On my book shelf are at least three other books on grammar and style. I love to research and so I'd rather have the books at the ready than depend on my memorization skills. That said, I do keep an eye out for what I like to think of as "unusual" rules.

For today's blog I thought I'd share with you a cool rule that most writers intuit but don't know why. The rules for the official order of adjectives.

I know, I didn't realize there were rules. In fact one of my MFA module instructors- a multi-published author- talked about the order of adjectives based on how it sounds. He didn't know there was an official rule either. Why? Because "the large blue dinosaur just sounds more familiar, more correct, than the blue large dinosaur. So we put size before color when describing something: the gigantic green frog, the large black briefcase.

We can put together long strings of adjectives without any punctuation, as long as we follow the official order of adjectives: the valuable old green Mercedes sedan.

The order is first a, the, or a possessive such as my or Tom's. Then we put evaluation or opinion, followed by the physical description-size, shape, age, color, texture-followed by where it came from, the material it is made of, and finally it's purpose or main use. Oh, and we might have one last item before the noun: another noun that helps identify it."-note, this is taken directly from the source, but unfortunately I, thinking I would only use it for myself, did not write that source down. If you know this source, please clue me in and I'll post. Yes, I am a lazy researcher as well.

When I did an internet search looking for my source-see I did try- I discovered that there is in fact a Royal Order of adjectives. Here's a great link for more information: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm Unless you teach English or are a lover of grammar rules, you may want to bookmark this.

Also for fun here's the link to the School House Rock video on adjectives: http://youtu.be/mYzGLzFuwxI

So, are you a story person or a word person?

August Book Review by Ted

2011-08-16T09:53:00.004-05:00

This month I left the frontier and cowboys and once again visit the world of Country Music. It is a strange place where people come from diverse backgrounds and because of a talent find themselves thrust into the spotlight, situations, and a world of broken dreams, broken marriages, broken families, drugs, and in many cases broken talent.
The Three of Us is the story of a woman who was born into the family of The King and Queen

of country music. George Jones and Tammy Wynette were the epitome of success and talent.......a couple who loved each other, but could not turn that love into a successful marriage. The ups and downs of show business careers mixed with too much alcohol and drugs along with the pressures of trying to raise a family just could not be handled by the two super stars.
Georgette Jones with the help of Patsi Bale Cox has crafted a story that is filled with joy, pain, and tragedy. Written in an easy to read style, this book - for the Country Music fan - is a must read. Coming from lives of poverty, propelled by talent the artists ride to the top and then the stress of success and the strain of continually preforming to maintain the top leads them through situations that they are not equipped to handle....False friends, bad managers, and users abound and the artists are lost to their fans, their friends, and their families.
Unable to cope, they drift from marriage to marriage and their children are left in confusing situations.
The book will lead you through situations of happiness (far too few) into the dark recesses of depression as Georgette attempts to cope with parents who are riding the roller coaster of fame and fortune and divorce and despair. Her life mimics much the same things that the parents experienced. Finally at the age of 40 she seems to be emerging and becoming a happy person able to face life and possibly claim her inheritance as the daughter of the King and Queen of Country Music.
If you choose to read this book, I would suggest you have a supply of your favorite tissues and a handy waste basket. It will, I think, cause you to look at your life and be thankful you were never in many of the situations Georgette faced and still does.
A word about her co-author. If you read these reviews, you'll remember on I wrote about Tanya Tucker several months ago. I want to repeat what I wrote then. There is a good field for the author who can develop a relationship with people of fame and fortune and " help" them write their story. Books about celebrities usually sell well, and give authors the opportunity to show their skills and open more doors to them in their career fields. Ms Cox has authored a book about "The Garth Factor" in country music and collaborated with Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker, Wynonna Judd, Ralph Emery, and Pat Benatar. That to me is the mark of a successful career covering the careers of the cream of Country Music.

Thoughts on being fabulously wealthy

2011-08-09T13:11:00.003-05:00

All I want to do is write~ write and be fabulously wealthy and beloved because of my writing. It's how it happens, right? Isn't that what happened to JK Rowling? Or Amanda Hocking? Or Stephanie Meyers?

They had story ideas. They wrote them down and became fabulously wealthy and famous over night. Fairy tales can come true-it can happen to you if you're young at heart.

People who don't write believe this can happen. They can name names. Writers starting out believe this can happen. They can name names.

It's fun and exciting.

But, no one tells you about the hard part. The work that goes into it. The hours at the computer. The hours of research needed for setting and background. The swollen hands, the hurt wrists, the aching back, the broadening seat, the crooked neck. They don't tell you about the hours spent searching out over used words. Digging out repetitive sentences. Making excel spread sheets for names and character descriptions. The work behind plotting and weaving subplots. The hook at the beginning and end of every chapter, every scene. The work behind crafting dialogue and transitions. The need for worsening conflict. The black moment that ruins it all and then somehow magically repairs everything for a happy ending.

They don't tell you that once you get through all that there is the research into agents and publishers. The query letter writing to get an agent or editor. The marketing work-where my book fits. Who wants to read it? How can I stand out? The website that is needed. The blogs to write- whether one of your own or ones you visit. The twitter/facebook/myspace/yahoogroups/google+ work that goes into getting people-agents, editors, readers to even know you are a person with a completed work and it's good!

Then there is the figuring out who your audience is and how to find them and how to market to them. We try giveaways and contests and reviewers. There are interviews and workshops and on-line classes to develop and give all in the name of getting noticed.

The coming of the digital age means there are a lot more books out. A lot more choices for readers and even more competition. Those who indie publish have the added work of editing, cover design, up loading, up keeping (checking for errors in all formats) and watching the numbers daily to see if they should adjust a price or make a list.

So many talented people with loyal fan bases never become fabulously wealthy. In the end we laugh at how we were so certain we would be the next big thing. Instead of writing in hopes of winning, we now write out sheer joy and the knowledge that our stories do change lives. Maybe not as many as JK Rowling, but that doesn't make us any less fabulous. What it makes us is a little more frugal and a lot more in touch with our readers who struggle everyday just as we do. We are in this life together, and if I can write something that makes your day in some little way, then that makes me happy and happy beats wealthy every time. Cheers

On Character Naming

2011-08-02T12:24:00.004-05:00

The assigned reading for the last semester of my Master's program was "Changes" by Jim Butcher. This was, I believe, book 12 in the Harry Dresden Series.

One of the things the students said they hated were the number of characters with a name that started with the same letter. For example M~ and how difficult it was to keep the characters apart. This probably isn't as obvious in the earlier books, but by the time we get to book 12, and many reoccurring characters show up, we start to see patterns in the author's mind.

I didn't really think about this until it was brought up in class. Now I am very conscious about how I pick character names.

I recently sold the first three books in a gluten-free bakery series. I'm currently working on a second completely different series and discovered in my first draft that I tended to use the same first names for secondary characters that I used in the GF series. I know I've done this before in different single title books. But now I'm conscious of the pattern to my brain's naming process. Having a pattern is not good. The last thing an author wants is the same character names in two separate series set in two very different places. So I got out my baby naming books and my copy of "The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook." I had invested money in these books early on in my career, but over time got lazy and simply picked what I thought were random names out of the air. Come to find out those names were not so random. (Sort of like when you think you are naming your children new and different names only to discover you named them the same as everyone else that year. For example, I was always one of at least three Nancy's in school. So I picked what I thought was a weird name-Ashley- for my daughter. Only to discover that she was always one of three Ashley's in school. Who knew?)

So how do you pick character names? Sometimes I will go through my resources and pick names that contain certain meanings-like little man, or wolf, or mythic hero name. Then I'll find a section based on ethic names and use the name will help me to build a character. Or I'll do a search of most popular baby names the year my character was born and choose one of those. Or I'll use the names of family or friends. I do this for all my main characters. Where I was falling down on the job were the side characters. It was the side characters with names that all started with the same letter that bothered the readers in Book 12 of the Dresden Files. I would be so lucky to have a book 12 in any series, so I figure it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

Now I have work to do- I am compiling a list of all character names I've used in my published books. Yep, there are patterns my friends. Next I will check the list and disregard any names that start with the same letter as a previous character in the same series. Then add the new name to my growing list for characters and side characters. It seems like a lot of work, but really if you do a few names with every book, you'll begin to see your own patterns and should you get to a 12th book in a series with reoccurring characters, your readers will be able to tell them apart- even if they start with book 12.

When you're reading, do you notice a pattern to the character names? Does it bother you? If you're a writer, please share the secrets to your character names.

Inquiring minds would love to know. Cheers~

As the Book World Churns

2011-07-26T13:28:00.010-05:00

We all said goodbye to Borders Book Stores this week and the book world is up in arms. Was it the bad economy? Was it the expansion of electronic readers and e-books? Or was it good old-fashioned bad business. The way people are swarming the stores looking for books at discounted prices, I think it was bad business, but that is my opinion.

Across the industry people are saying the e-book climate and self publishing is a gold mine. The gold rush is on my friends. I find it interesting. Back in 2007, when my hopes of expanding my career from sweet historicals into contemporary romantic suspense were shot by the super tight market, many of my colleagues were so against e-books that they would rather place a book they had written but not sold as a free read on their website than go with an e-publisher. E-publishers were bad. E-authors were hacks and woe to those who even thought about e-pubbing themselves. (Yes, Amazon had visited RWA nationals Pan retreat to talk about this new service they were providing where you could put up your own stuff once you were already on Amazon. They said it was a great way to feed fans more work and promote your current books.) Well, if it was a marketing ploy and you had a contract with one of the big six than it was okay to put up a story or two to promote them. But they still didn't count.

At the time I thought, instead of devaluing my work, I would publish with an e-publisher. So I queried The Wild Rose Press, who were very professional. I admit that the two years it took to get through editorial and production seemed silly at the time, but the resulting book was good. So I sent them a second. This was my way of keeping my fans reading while working on other books I hoped to sell to the big six. But let me tell you- that didn't fly among the "real" writers. Sigh. These were my "little" books. And truth be told even though I hit the WRP bestseller list five weeks in a row neither book made me much money. You see, I discovered that my readers prefer "real books."

Then came the e-book evangelists who swore that it was a gold mine and you could make millions by self-publishing. Others in the book world squawked that this was ridiculous...a sham.. a farce...not being a "real" writer. Then Amazon jumped their royalty rates to 70 % of books at least $2.99 in price. Suddenly unknowns were bringing in millions-buying houses with the cash they made from their self-pubbed books. Suddenly self-publishing backlists and stories that don't fit in the big six marketing were all the rage. Now many people who dismissed me and my "little" e-books are telling me it is legitimate for literary agencies to become publishers of their writer's works- the works that didn't sell to the big six. Really?

How interesting that everyone is doing a 360 turn around. So many people are talking about making monthly checks that pay mortgages that everyone is drawn to "trying it for themselves." Well, my friends, for me at least there is no gold mine in e-books. These are good books with solid excruciating edits, nice covers and really good reviews. I made a total of $150 on two books. Is it because I went with an e-publisher and am getting 30 percent royalty and not 70 percent after doing my own self edits, cover and publishing? Um, I don't think so. Is it because I don't do enough marketing? I'm here to tell you I spend three hours a day on marketing. The reality of my world is that my readers prefer real books. My sales on my e-books are coming from POD - not from electronic sales. The interesting news is that I'm not the only author finding this to be the case.

It's a brave new world. People who were nasty and fierce to tear down e-publishing are suddenly evangelists and talking about how they are making cash hand over fists. And yet~ the so called Kindle millionaires are making deals with the big six publishers for non-e-books. Even Amazon is trying to break into the "real" publishing world by offering advances and "real books."

In short- no one knows what the truth is... or what readers really want-even readers. I have never told anyone they aren't "real" (meaning legitimate authors.) Why? Because, my friends the book world pecking order has been destroyed. Even New York Times Bestseller doesn't mean what it meant twenty years ago in terms of prestige or income.

It's a brave new world. With new comes the potential for conflict of interest, scams, and spammers. All I can tell you is what I told you in 2007, do your research, know what you want out of your work and consider any mistakes as lesson learned. Trust yourself. Trust your readers and most of all take the time to write a good story. In the end, it is the stories that will make your career. As for me, I'm curious to see what happens next. In the meantime, I would love to know what you think about literary agencies becoming publishers, Amazon being an advance-paying publisher and the positive and negative effects the new world of publishing has had on how and what you read.

Cheers~

July Book review by Ted

2011-07-19T13:52:00.003-05:00

Well, another month and it is time to let you in on what I have read. Honestly, it's almost too hot to read. Reading is something to do on a cold winter night when the wind is howling and the snow is piling up on the sidewalks and driveway. That is when you take a basket of apples, a pillow or two, and a stack of books and get as near the roaring fire in the fireplace as is possible and comfortable and READ !
I thought we had moved far enough north that there would be many nights doing just that, but this week has seen temperatures in the 90s with heat indices over 100+. So much for fireplace and cushions, and apples in the local store are $1.98 a pound! Such are dreams!
This month we are going back farther than the cowboys of last month---If you saw and enjoyed the movie Jeremiah Johnson, this month's book is for you.
"Give Your Heart to the Hawks" by Win Blevins copyrighted in 1973 and renewed in 2005 with a new introduction. He notes in the book that he is pleased that the book has remained in publication for more than 30 years and he credits the mountain men who are portrayed in the book for its longevity. Frequently readers congratulate him on this great and interesting work of fiction, but he corrects them by saying that every story is true and about real people as truthfully told as is possible. For more than 30 years after Lewis and Clark, the mountain men explored the great American West and opened the way for the wagon trains and pioneers who created the villages, towns, and cities that we know and live in today.
The mountain men are all here: John Colter in 1808 escaped the Blackfeet Indians, naked, food- and weapon-less, who walked and ran 250 miles to Fort Lisa. Hugh Glass, left for dead by his trapper companions after a mauling by a grizzly bear, crawled 300 miles from his shallow grave to Fort Kiowa. Kit Carson, scout for John C. Fremont, ran away from home at 17 and was a legend by his 20's. Jedediah Smith who lead groups of trappers across the deserts into California and was killed by Comanches in 1831. This is just a sampling...............Well written, capable of holding your interest, this is a good history of the times, region, and the peoples of the western United States. If history books were written this way and this well, maybe we would find more people interested in learning about the history of the United States.

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A word from our sponsor

2011-07-15T10:41:00.004-05:00

My latest sweet historical romance, THE COUNTERFEIT BRIDE, is out at libraries and available on line. If your library doesn't have it, please request that they purchase it.

I got my first PW book review: They called it "a breezy romance with a strong and capable heroine..."

Last night I found this review from ALL ABOUT ROMANCE: "Often very funny and always charming, the story of tough-as-nails Lillian and her handsome psuedo-husband was and enjoyable quick read." (Pat's complaint was the book wasn't long enough. That always makes me smile. Avalon Books has a set limit of pages and I pushed that limit with this book. In fact this book was originally twice as long but could not find a home, so I edited it down to Avalon's guidelines.)

There are authors who would say I should have kept the length and put it up as an e-book. But I have two e-books and they are not selling. They sell best as POD (Print on Demand paperback.) For me it makes more sense to give my readers books they can hold in their hands. At least for now. If you want to see more ebooks from me, then I need to see a rise in sales on the two book from The Wild Rose Press. Otherwise, I'm going to stick with print books.

I hope you enjoy this fine read~ I had a lot of fun writing it. Cheers~

Writing through despair

2011-07-05T12:21:00.005-05:00

I read the following blog today: The Business Rusch: You are not alone. I can't tell if this is an encouraging blog or a discouraging blog, but what I do know is that writers- published or not- indie or midlist or NYT Bestsellers- one and all hit the pit of despair at least once. For some, it is multiple times. Let's face it we are creatives and that leads us to wild imaginings of both fame and fortune, and the opposite, being forced to live in a cardboard box and scrounge in dumpsters for our next meal. When the words are dragged from you in blood, sweat, and tears and poured over and edited and reedited and hours spent on perfection-then all you see is rejection or worse- you get published-great reviews and still "no one" buys the book-except for maybe 50 of your friends who may not even read it. It feels like you have tried and failed. It feels personal-very personal.

I have to agree with one thing she says in her blog- you are not alone. What is most important- really truly important is to ask yourself what do you want to do? If what you want to do is write- then write. Write for fun. Write as freelance if you can. Write nonfiction. Write.

But I don't want to settle, you think. My writing is good. Some people think it's great. If I settle, will I be selling out? Will I be giving up? Will I do a disservice to the stories I have poured my heart and soul into?

We have all heard the stories of those writers who win the lottery and make it big in new ways. We begrudge them. We harangue them. We try to imitate them. We make it personal. It feels personal. It should be personal.

It's not.

Publishing is a crazy business. A crazy business that is changing as fast as technology. It's hard to keep up. Hard to tell what is up from down. It's like the grocery store check out lines. The line next to you is always shorter. But if you switch lines your old line goes faster. If you wait and get firmly wedged into the crowd a new line opens and people who just arrived get checked out first. Crazy. Also- not personal.

So read the blog above- let me know what you think. More importantly, write. Write for fun. Write out of love. Write because that is what you want. It is in the writing that we are created-not how fast you get out of the checkout line or how much money you save.

Cheers~

Workshops, Presentations and Speeches

2011-06-30T10:38:00.003-05:00

It's conference time. When you're first starting out as a writer, you get to sit in the workshops and learn. Or be rude and get up and leave. You get to judge the worth and value of the information to you-and sometimes you judge wrong, but that's another matter. As you progress in your years of writing, as you learn more than the basics, suddenly you are the workshop presenter. You are the person tasked with deciding on a subject that hasn't been done to death, working on the handouts and the possible PowerPoint slides. You need to determine the mix of lecture and exercises and discussion to give your audience something to go home with and feel as if they got value from their conference fee. You are tasked with sharing the knowledge others shared with you that allowed you to get where you are. You are responsible to pay it forward.

That's something I did last week. I learned some valuable things in my modules at grad school and last week it was my turn to create a module and present it to a small class. I think it went well. I have heard from the attendees that they found it useful. I'm so glad. The best part is that no one walked out.

Please remember as you go to conferences and pick workshops to attend that the presenters have taken a great deal of time and effort to share information with you. No matter how boring you may find it, or how repetitive. Please don't leave. Consider the person in the front. As writer's we aren't trained to be good presenters. We live in our small offices and write. We speak through media that can be edited and revised. We are not usually face to face. Remember the presenter is simply trying to pay it forward. Be considerate. You never know what kernel of info/inspiration you might get if you only stick it out.

When it's your turn to pay it forward, you'll understand and hopefully no one will walk out on you. Cheers~

June Book Review by Ted

2011-06-20T10:46:00.006-05:00

I'm posting Dad's book review this week because I'm off for my last intensive residency for the SHU Master's Degree program. Yes! Graduation is June 26th. Woot. Okay, here's Dad:

Vanishing genre.............................. This morning the news from entertainment is about the death of actor James Arness----for 20 years he was Matt Dillon on CBS's "Gunsmoke." During this period there were as many as 10 weekly shows about the Old West and all the stories it spawned. That was before the plethora of TV channels and programs about a lot of nothing. It is almost as if we are now ashamed of this part of our history. So.......................... Let us return to the days of yester-year. From out of past comes the thundering hoof beats of the great horse Silver. The Lone Ranger rides again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Almost every child waited impatiently for the WJR ( Detroit ) syndicated show to begin the daily adventures of " the Masked Man of the Plains." This same period saw books-- paperbacks--by great Western authors like: Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, Larry McMurtry, Owen Wister,Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and Tony Hillerman. They were on all the books shelves in every bookstore, newspaper stand, and paperback rack. Movies were made from many of them and they spawned such heroes as: The Lone Ranger, Lash LaRue, The Cisco Kid, The Green Hornet! Wait, The Green Hornet!??? A western hero??? Well, for the uninformed, the Lone Ranger's last name was REED. His nephew Dan was in many episodes of the stories. According to the story of the Green Hornet (Bret Reed), his great uncle was the Lone Ranger! That might be worth knowing for a trivia question in a gathering of friends. However I digress. The Western today has about died. I think it is a pity! Another Western author penned this month's selection: "Other Men's Horses" by Elmer Kelton. This book is the eighth book in his nine-volume Texas Ranger series. The ninth, "Texas Standoff" is the

last in the series and the last of Mr. Kenton's books since he is no longer with us, having passed away in 2009. In "Other Men's Horses" Texas Ranger Andy Pickard is assigned what appears to be routine duty. Donley Bannister, a West Texas horse trader, has killed a thug named Cletus Slocum, who stole one of Bannister's horses. Pickard is ordered to find and arrest

Bannister and bring him to trial. WAIT a minute! A trial for someone who shot a horse thief in Texas!?!?!?!? The action gets heavy really fast as there are gunfights, spirited chases, outlaws who are bad but also good.....This book is indeed a "Return to the days of yester-year!" If you haven't ever read a Western or if you have but not in a long while, maybe it is the time for you also to "Return to the days of yester-year." This is a good place to start.

Do Writers Have Hobbies?

2011-06-14T10:17:00.004-05:00

I think in the beginning writing is a hobby-don't smack me. We usually start off thinking , "I have an idea for a book. I wonder if I can write it." We play around with our stories never intending for anyone to read them. Some may never go farther, but others will get the notion that perhaps they can become published. Suddenly the little hobby becomes serious work. There is craft to learn. Rough drafts, revisions, critiques, more revisions and learning about querying and actually sending out the work. Then there are more revisions and so on and so forth. After years deep in the trenches of writing- published or not- you stick your head up and wonder, "Do I have any hobbies?" or maybe you think, "Who has time for hobbies?"

The answer to that is you need hobbies and you must find time for hobbies. Why? Hobbies can lead to book ideas. For example my hobby of baking gluten-free lead to my gluten-free bakery mystery series. Another writer I know began to make her own soaps and this helped round out her historical romances.

The point being that yes, we are always told, get your butt in your chair and write. But without doing more than that the writing falls flat. The hobby you choose doesn't matter. It could be fixing scales, hiking, photography, playing in a small town band, weaving, painting, gardening. Anything to get you out of the story doing something where you have permission to do it badly. I mean, it's a hobby, right? So who cares if the scarf you attempted to knit turns out to be a pot holder? Hobbies free up the creative mind. They allow you to relax and let your muse in without the pressure of performance.

Give yourself permission to add a new hobby to your life and I am betting you will find that your writing is better for it.

If you could do anything, what hobby would you take up? I'm off to make triple berry jam. Cheers~

Combating Your Procrastination

2011-06-08T11:36:00.004-05:00

I'm reading "The Feeling Good Handbook" by David D. Burns, M.D. It's one I come back to now and again. He has a section on procrastination that I find helpful and so I thought I'd share. If you find yourself procrastinating about your next book, your current book or even promoting your book here are a few simple steps Dr. Burns suggests to get you started:

1) Label the task you want to accomplish- such as; writing the proposal for your next book.

2) Get a piece of paper and make two columns. In the first, write down the benefits to not doing this task. In the second column, write down what the costs are to not doing the task. Ex: the benefits: If I don't write the proposal, it won't get rejected. If I don't write it, then I can feel as if the idea is great and not worry that it isn't going to really work. If I don't write the proposal then I don't have to get started on the next book. Now- the costs: If I don't write the proposal I feel behind and will miss my deadline. If I don't write it, I'll waste a lot of creative energy on an idea that isn't going anywhere. If I don't write it, I won't get the book done and I won't make any money. Next look at your list. If the benefits of procrastination out weigh the costs, then simply choose not to do the project. It's not procrastination if you choose not to do it. It's a choice. But, if the costs out weight the benefits, then go on to the next step.

3) Set a time and day you will begin the task. Ex: Tuesday at 2 p.m. Now, write down all the reasons you won't do the task at that time. (You know you'll have reasons.) Ex: I'll forget. I'll get a phone call. My kids will want something. Next- counter those reasons. Ex: I will write a note or make an e-mail alert reminding me of my time and day. I will not answer the phone and call back at 3 p.m. I will tell the kids I am working for this time and give them something to occupy them while I work-such as a nap, a video, a snack. etc.

4) Break the task up into reasonable steps so you can at least begin your task. Ex: a) Create a Word .doc for the proposal. b) Create a list of research links for the book. c) Write a simple outline. d) Write character arcs. etc.

5) Work on the task for the allotted time- starting with the simple steps. Give yourself credit for the work you have accomplished. You are no longer procrastinating. You are working toward your goal.

Let me know what you think about these simple steps and if this helps. Cheers~

How to make your story more powerful

2011-06-01T11:24:00.005-05:00

Last night we watched the 2008 John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie movie, The Changeling. The movie was based on the true story of a mother in the 1920's whose son went missing and how the LAPD tried to placate her by giving her another boy and telling her they found her son. The story is fantastic and mostly true which gives it a scary edge but this movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, felt completely disjointed and failed it's fabulous cast and director. In trying to figure out what happened, it occurred to me that the producers didn't know whose story they were telling. It was billed as the mother's story- but she was not written well and the impact of her story was lost in shots of Angelina running here and there. They did not get personal enough with her. They did not get into her head and her life.

Then they lost the trued hero of the story- John Malkovich's character- an Episcopal Pastor who had a radio broadcast in LA denouncing the corruption of the LAPD at the time. This is the character who actually drove the action. If he hadn't been denouncing the corruption, he would have never brought the mother and her missing child to the public's attention. He pressured the LAPD for five months-until they produced the "fake" child in hopes of making the matter "go away." But when the mother denied that the child they found was her son and begged them to keep looking- they stuck to their guns and painted her in the press as stressed and a bit crazy. In steps John Malkovich-again. He calls the mother, explains that he believes the cops have railroaded her to improve their image. He convinces her to draw up proof via the boy's dentist, school teacher and personal doctor that the boy is indeed the wrong child. He gets her to make the announcement to the press. The mother is subsequently tossed into the insane asylum in an attempt to shut her up and cool the political situation. All the character of the mother can do is stand her ground in the face of this madness-which is a very static position. The Pastor meanwhile discovers this atrocity and works to get her out. Again- who is doing the action? The Pastor. In the meantime, a boy comes forward and tells the police that his uncle has been killing little boys and identifies the son as one his uncle killed. The police try to bury the story-but another good cop- one we don't know at all until this moment -steps forward and digs up the bodies proving the boy's story to be true. With this information, the Pastor gets the mother out of the asylum, he then gets her a high powered-lawyer to work her case pro bono and together they sue the LAPD.

This is where the action ended and where the story should have ended, but they insisted that it was the passive mother's story and dragged the movie on- showing us how she dealt with the murderer and kept looking for her son for the rest of her life. this caused the last thirty minutes of the story to fizzle.

They say as writers, we are to write each scene from the point of view of the character with the most to lose. Why? Usually that character is the most active- they drive the story. Sometimes- as in this movie- the character with the most to lose is not the character driving the story. It is important as an author to step back and ask yourself-who is driving this story? Why are they driving it? Are they the most important character? Should they be the one whose story I am really telling?

Your work can become so much stronger- more powerful and faster paced if you can identify who drives the action, how they bring about change and how they change. Your story is strongest when you discover whose story you are really telling.

In the case of The Changeling, without John Malkovich's character, Angelina Jolie becomes just another voice in the crowd. How much stronger and more impact-ful the story would have been if told from the Pastor's point of view.

The way to make your story more powerful is to write about the character who is creating change-tell their story and you'll never go wrong.

Promoting your work

2011-05-24T09:59:00.004-05:00

My e-mail inbox is full of opportunities to promote my work. There are calls for blog tours, calls for giving on-line classes, calls for contests, and calls to work with promoters. There are don't miss opportunities. Don't forget your Amazon page and twitter and facebook and tumblr. There are libraries to be contacted and booksellers. Newsletter e-mail lists to keep plus newsletters to write. Hand written notes to others who bought your book or sold your book. Thank yous to people who helped you with quotes, etc. There are contests and book blogs and Ning. It is the giant elephant in the corner of my office. One I've been ignoring, while others tackle it head on and spend literally 40 hours a week at work on their promotion.

I'm still the kind of writer who wants to spend those forty hours in my stories and let someone else take care of the rest. But that is not possible in today's market. You have to tell people who you are. You have to build a brand. You want to create a community. How do you do that and not turn it into a full time job?

Step one is to sort through the opportunities. Toss those you know you'll never do no matter how great they are. Toss those that didn't show you a significant bump in sales last time. (If this is your first book-toss those that "feel" to large.) Sort into a will do, can do and won't do pile. Throw away the won't do and don't waste a moment of regret. Trust me even if you did everything there is no guarantee that you will see significant sales. Too much is out of your hands. Next- ask your agent and editor what they expect you to do. Put those things at the top of the pile. Do them first and if that's all you get done-bravo!!

Do not try to compete with Marketing Sally who seems to be everywhere doing everything. No matter how she gushes you will never have a true idea of how her campaign relates to her sales. She is a salesman- she will never let her slip show. (Her exclamations of success might be accurate but are not necessarily true.)

It comes down to moderation. Your real efforts need to go into your creative work- your books. The key is to tailor your promotion efforts to your time and money constraints and your ability to be comfortable with what you do. And let the rest go~ really, truly there is no one way to be successful. What works for Sally might not work the same for you. Relax, do what you can and let the rest go. If you start to get worried again, come back and read this blog. You have my promise that doing what you are comfortable doing and letting go of the rest is really the best road to success.

This blog was brought to you by my latest release. THE COUNTERFEIT BRIDE, Avalon books will be released next month. It is available for pre-order now. click on the title to pre-order.

Cheers~

May Book Review by Ted

2011-05-17T10:13:00.005-05:00

Well, as Nancy told you in her blog, we have moved to " God's Country" from the stormy plains of Kansas to the snowy, icy lakes of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Going home in a manner of speaking since both my wife and I were born and raised in Michigan, just not so far north. Or west either for that matter---we are now living in Iron River which is almost as far west as St. Louis, Missouri. I never thought about that until we actually were looking at maps. Anyway, we are settling in, including spending a day+ in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer.

Can you tell good fiction from bad fiction? If it is all fiction, what is the difference? As I told you before, I shop in bookstores and am often attracted by the title of a book. If the title catches my eye, I'll probably pick up the book and consider it. On my last trip to a book store, I saw a title " There's a Blond Sleeping in My Bed!" I had to quickly pick it up and check this out. Imagine my surprise when on opening it, I saw it was really "Goldie Locks and the Three Bears"!!!! Good fiction or bad fiction?

That little story was fiction and an attempt to catch your attention for this month's review: THE LAMPSHADE. You decide if it was good or bad. I bought The Lampshade ( A Holocaust Detective Story from Buchenwald to New Orleans ) from a book club. Author is Mark Jacobson who has several other books to his credit. Being a history teacher among other things, I am also a person who had relatives in the Nazi concentration camps. Am I Jewish? Not that I have found proof of, though there is some family, word-of-mouth tales that say it may be. But I had cousins in Poland who were confined to Auschwitz --at least one died there and one was born there. They were Polish - professional people who were considered too important for the Nazis to allow to be free. So I am intrigued by all that the camps stand for. I bought the book and spent some time reading it. It took me a while to decide whether it was fiction or fact, but the pictures convinced me it was fact. For those who have no background about these camps, a brief, very brief, description: these camps were places of great inhumanity of man against man, based on the slightest whim of those in charge. The actual happenings numb the mind and I think that's one of the reasons (not necessarily the main one) for the denial of these happenings today. " WE CAN'T BELIEVE THEM TO BE REAL!" Surely they are propaganda, lies by the victors, etc. I have no doubt they existed; they were horrible; the stories are real....12 million died, half because they were Jewish (A religion, not a race). Therefore The Lampshade exists as a story and as a real thing. The fabric of the shade is skin--human skin.........It appears in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and the author comes into ownership- in part- of it and sets out to learn the truth about it and what it is or is not. I stop here because: 1) I do not want to upset anyone. 2) I do not want to recommend for you to read it, unless you have a real reason to. It is not a work to entertain you. It is a piece for research, not curiosity. 3) I can not truthfully say the content is all fact or all fiction. I believe he tells what he was able to figure out about the lampshade, but there is no provable conclusion. Why review it? My excuse is, I read it. Someone took the time to write it and deserves the acknowledgement for his work. It took a lot of time and effort to research and write. I wish to acknowledge his ability and the fact that he did all that he did and then wrote about it. I, as you can tell, am still somewhat befuddled on how to describe it. I could not read it cover to cover, it took a couple weeks with pauses between readings............So if you are intrigued, read it...I'd be very interested in hearing about your reaction to it.

Next month hopefully a lighter offering.

Marketing Sell Sheets

2011-05-12T11:45:00.000-05:00

This post is a rerun, but it is also the subject of my Master's teaching demonstration so I thought it would be good to revisit.

Sell sheets are a single page device that every company's marketing department creates to focus their marketing plan. It occurred to me a few years ago that sell sheets are a great tool for writers.

For writers, sell sheets are single page flyers/brochures that sell the audience on their book. I learned that sell sheets are my friend. I use them to focus my writing and my marketing efforts.

A sell sheet is helpful whether you are published or unpublished. It can be used to focus your plot and help with a sagging middle. It can be used to frame your synopsis and query letter. It can also be used to sell a published work-to readers and book buyers. Blogging? Use the material off your sell sheet. Chats? A sell sheet keeps your message focused. Announcing a new sale or a book release or contest? Use the information off your sell sheet to provide a uniform message.

Even better, a sell sheet can be helpful when making an editor/agent pitch. A proper has all the elements you need to give your sales pitch in any situation.

What do I put on my sell sheet?

To begin with I include the following four written elements:
1) A single sentence describing the story using 15 words or less. (Think NY Times blurb.)
2) A five sentence paragraph where the first sentence gives the background. The next three sentences give worsening conflict and the last sentence asks the story question. (Think back cover blurb.)
3) A Goal, Motivation and Conflict sentence for each of the main characters.
4) A short-less than 250 word- excerpt from the book.

Then I arrange them on the single sheet using eye catching graphics-book cover if you have it and fonts. Be sure to include: your title, subtitle if you have one, ISBN, retail price, number of pages, and availability. Finally-have them professionally printed on high-quality paper.

Taking the time to create a professional sell sheet can help to focus your work, your editorial pitch and your marketing plan into a cohesive message that helps the readers/editors/agents understand your unique story point of view.

On hooks; beginnings and ends

2011-05-03T10:02:00.004-05:00

When you start to write you hear all about writing a good hook. What does that mean...exactly? Your first paragraph even better your first sentence should bring the reader immediately into the story. Pull out five of your favorite fiction books and write down the opening sentence. Did it hook you? Why? What are the ways the author used to do it?

Here are examples from two of my books:

"Nate Cancaid sat straight up in bed, gasping like a drowning man who had finally reached the surface, each breath wrenched from his chest." ~ Dream Man, romantic suspense.

"I'm in big trouble." ~ The Bettin' Kind, Avalon Books, sweet historical.

The opening sentence should make the reader ask the question-why? It should draw their curiosity and make them want to read the next sentence. It should also relate to the overall story question.

In Dream Man, Nate must figure out the connection between his reoccurring dream and a thirty-year-old missing persons cold case.

In The Bettin' Kind, Amelia Morgan sacrifices her dowry and herself to save her little brother.

Hooks are not only found in the opening of a book. Each scene, each chapter should end with a hook. Why? Because you don't want your reader to put the book down. You want them to feel the need to turn the page and find out more. If you get really good at this, you'll have your readers up all night reading. They might curse you for it, but they love it. And you've done your job.

Look at the books you've selected. Thumb through to the last sentences in the first chapter. Write them down. Does it make you ask a question? Does it get your curiosity up? Do you need to take a sneak peak at the next chapters opening hook?

Examples: "...Do you realize what you just said?" "I know what I said," She kept her voice low but firm. "I know what kind of danger saying it put me in, especially with Tom running for President. But let me just tell you one more thing...she asked for you by name." ~ Dream Man, chapter one end.

"She shut her mouth and glared at him. He knew in her heart she didn't believe he would do it. But, of course, she didn't know him. If she thought anything other than her own refusal would save her, she was dead wrong. The men in the barbershop came over, introducing themselves to Alex and slapping him on the back. They almost pushed Amelia away, but Alex wasn't having any of that. He didn't want her to get away. Not before he got his horse." ~ The Bettin' Kind, chapter one end.

As a writer it is your job to draw the reader in and keep them turning pages. Study your favorite authors' chapter beginnings and endings and you will discover a wide variety of ways hooks are created, but be careful, you might get drawn into reading the story. Cheers~

Announcing...

2011-04-26T11:47:00.004-05:00

This is one of the few places I have not yet announced my latest sale. I have sold a Cozy Mystery series to Berkley Prime Crime in a three book deal. YAY! *flings confetti*

The working title of the first book is "Gluten for Punishment." I asked for titles on my Facebook page back in November- explaining that I was about to write a Cozy Mystery set in Kansas in which a gluten-free bakery owner finds a dead man at her door. Unfortunately the dead man is a wheat farmer who protested at her Grand Opening just days before and our heroine is suspect number one.

I had a number of really great title suggestions, but simply had to use Jaci Charbonneau's "Gluten For Punishment." Thanks Jaci!

The book features our heroine, Toni Ryder who returns to her small town Kansas roots after her mother dies and leaves the rambling Victorian family home in Toni's care. Always one to make the best of a situation, Toni opens a store front for her already booming on-line gluten-free bakery business. But Toni left OilTop, Kansas right after her high school graduation because she never quite fit in. Now she is back twenty years later and is still a fish-out-of-water. Her loud, large and creative family plus a dead man at her door does not help Toni blend in. Add in a newspaper reporter out for a story, a good-looking lawyer, a handsome rancher and a best friend whose life is falling apart and Toni has her hands full. Will she be able to figure out who did it and clear her name before the killer gets too close?

This book was a whole lot of fun to write. Plus I am putting some of my own gluten-free recipes in the back so it's been fun playing in the kitchen as well. The book's release date is yet to be set, but I imagine sometime in early 2013.

Meanwhile- don't forget THE COUNTERFEIT BRIDE is out this June. For a fun, sweet western romance, about a gal who makes up a husband to legitimize her business then a man appears, calling himself her husband and she is stuck trying to figure out who he is and what he wants before she loses everything...including her heart. Preorder now!

April Book Review by Ted

2011-04-19T09:55:00.004-05:00

I am writing this with a lot of mixed emotions. I keep telling myself I have to be objective with reviewing books, not subjective....It is difficult at times..This time very difficult!

A couple years ago, I read "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. It was 900 pages +/- and I found it very interesting. After all, I was a history major in college, donated my collection of over 50 books on Russian history to the local Junior College, and I read history books like a lot of people read novels. I have been fascinated by the building of about 13 gigantic, beautiful, still-standing cathedrals in Great Britain in a span of 200 years. I had the honor of visiting the Cathedral at Wells the last time I was in England. The book was great.

Then last fall I found a copy of his "World without End." I know the former was written in 1989 and the later in 2007---I told you my house has piles of books!( Not so much right now as we are getting ready to move and last week we drove to the local library and donated 12 bags {about 150 copies} of books for their fund raising book sale) It takes me time to get through them all.

All that said, I read this " latest" book - actually he has at least 1 newer out.

Well, to begin with I must attest to the fact that I like sex---I don't mind if I read about it---I understand that the world would not be as populated without it---but, in a book of 900 + pages, many trees would have been saved, at least 100 pages could have been saved, if the redundancy had been cut out. OK, we get it--the clergy both male and female were not true to their vows! The nobility were able to abuse their serfs and did frequently. Yes, men lusted after women, and women after men...That's how we keep the earth populated despite wars, plagues and other natural disasters. But sometime enough is enough.

Back to objectivity...Well- written, well-researched, entertaining, yes, all of the above. Far-reaching,I believe so...some of the story stretches things beyond the breaking point: 2 Sisters ( nuns) travelling from England to France following the King and the Black Prince to the Battle of Crecy ( English longbow annihilated the bulk of French Knights and changed the way wars were fought), dressing like men and traveling with the French army, then going back, meeting the King of England --and talking back to him, stretches the belief. I know it is not history, it is a novel---but shouldn't most scenarios be possible of belief? Women may find this fascinating ( "You go, girl! ) but in the 14th century, it is unbelievable and if done would have found her not just tried as a witch--but successful burned as a witch----As in Joan d'Arc.

There goes the subjective weighting in again. Would I read it again--probably, did I enjoy it--yes! Did he write well? Let me just say, I could not wait for the villains to get their just deserts, the hero and heroine just had problem after problem....

So ---will I read another book by Ken Follett...yes, I just hope is does not go 900 Pages!And it is not a book without end as the " World without End" seemed to be.

~Ted

Query Letters-Part IV -The Package

2011-04-12T11:44:00.003-05:00

So far we have discussed how to discover your market, how to know what you write and who you want to sell it to, along with how to write a tag line and a selling blurb. Then I discussed a simple template for writing the query letter.

For our last and final week, I want to talk about the full query package. What it is and how to make the most of it. So, what is the full package? Depends on what the editor/agent requires. Some require a letter only. Some require letter and synopsis. While other require the letter, chapters and synopsis. (Find query guidelines on their websites and be sure to stick to them.)

1) The letter only. The query letter is your sales pitch. Your marketing tool to convince the editor/agent to look at a partial or the entire work for serious consideration. The letter should reflect your writing style and sell, sell, sell your work. See previous blogs parts two and three for how to write selling bits and how to write the query letter. This is your pitch make it as professional as possible. Hint: do your research.

2) The letter plus synopsis. While the query letter sells your work, the synopsis tells the editor/agent that you can plot an entire book. A well written synopsis-not an outline-will show the editor/agent a plot that is compelling, emotional and concludes with a satisfying ending. Some editors will take a synopsis in with them to the publisher as proof that the story in full "works." Synopsis can run anywhere from a single page to ten pages. Read the editor/agent guidelines to find out length of synopsis. (Short means one to two pages.) I usually have three written. A single page synopsis, a three to four page synopsis and a full ten page synopsis. (A rule of thumb for long synopsis is one page for every 10,000 words in the story.) Remember editors/agents are busy and a synopsis that is too long can be cause to reject the manuscript.

3) The full package: letter, synopsis and sample chapters. The query letter makes your sales pitch, the synopsis shows you can plot a book and the sample chapters show off your writing style. Always send your opening pages. Sometimes you may feel that a scene from chapter five is better than the opening hook of the book and be tempted to send that scene for sample pages. DON'T. If the opening hook of your book is not as good as other scenes- stop your query process and revise the opening. The opening hook of a book is what sells your book. Many readers will pick up a book, read the back blurb and then read the first page or two. If you don't hook in the first page the reader will put you down. Editors and agents know this. They want to read a strong opening hook. They want to be hooked. Hook them. Send them your opening pages-in consecutive order. ALWAYS. If they want 50 pages but that means you end in the middle of a paragraph-find an ending hook on an earlier page. End your pages there. Always leave the query chapters with a hook. You want them to want to read more. Never send more pages than requested on their guidelines, but you can give them fewer if you start with a strong hook and end your sample with a strong hook.

Remember, the query letter is your marketing pitch-your advertisement. The synopsis shows the editor/agent that you can plot an entire book and resolve all conflicts in a reasonable manner. The sample chapters hook your reader and leave them wanting more.

All these parts work in harmony to make your book the next must read on an editor/agent's desk. Good luck!

Query Letters-Part III- writing the actual beast

2011-04-05T11:37:00.003-05:00

(reposted from April 2009 but still relevant today.)

Now that you know your market, you have your pitch and your back cover blurb, it's time to write the actual letter. Here's a format I've found successful.
Salutation: (Dear Ms. Smith) - always direct the letter to a person-not a publisher or agency this shows you have done your homework.
Opening: (It was so nice to me you at whatifacon. I've always had an interest in stories of space exploration. After meeting you I believe my story, Spacequest, a 90,000 word completed Scifi novel is something that might interest you and your readers.) or (I am a big fan of your blog. Your thoughts about trends in the market really got me thinking about how my manuscript fits in today's market. I think Spacequest, a 90,000 word completed Scifi novel might be something that would interest you.) or (I see that you represent Joe Bluffer, my favorite author)- always start with a complementary sentence- that shows you have done your homework- followed their blog, checked out their website to discover they have sold books by authors who are writing what you write, etc.
Hint: Be careful not to give them a reason to turn you down on your opener. Example: if you did meet them and spilled coffee on them- don't mention it! If you disagreed with a blog or opinion- don't mention it! Even trickier- if they say that westerns aren't selling- don't send them a western- not even if your buddy just sold three. Don't insult them by telling them you know their job better then they do. Instead go find someone looking for westerns. Also-if your word count is high or low for the market- don't mention the word count. Don't give them a reason to reject you.
Next- Present your tag line: (Following is the tag line for Spacequest: An intrepid space cadet must pass through the galaxy of death stars to save his planet.)
Then give them your back blurb: A MAN ON A MISSION...Junior Samples knows the code that will allow him to control the monster computer that is guiding the deathstars to his planet. (BR 549...) He has only 24 hours to make it through the galaxy of deathstars and implant the code but his lack of computer skills stands in his way.
A COMPANION OUT FOR NUMBER ONE...Bill Gatesman knows how to implement the code but is only interested in dominating the universe. Saving the planet is low on his list.
Can a hillbilly convince the computer world's biggest genius to work together to save mankind? Or are we all lost?
Give a small paragraph about your qualifications: (I have been a member of a local scifi writers group for two years. I've finaled in three whatifacon contests. Judges have found my work fast-paced and funny.)
Hint: again be careful not to give them a reason to reject you- ensure that you have entered contests in your genre. Or that you've taken workshops, etc. Don't tell them your professor/mother/sister/best friend loved the work.
Finally, close with an ending paragraph that shows your professionalism: (Enclosed please find the first eight pages and a short synopsis per your guidelines. I've added a small bio and an SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) for your reply. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, X

This is a simple template you can use to write your letter. Next week- we'll discuss what each piece of a proposal -query, synopsis, chapters- are for and how to ensure they create a branded marketing package. Cheers!

Query Letters - Part II - The Perfect Pitch

2011-03-29T10:12:00.003-05:00

Query Letters-Part II - the perfect pitch

(This is a reprint of a four part series from 2009)

Now that you know what your book is about, where it will be shelved, and who you are querying, (See Part I on query letters.) it's time to craft the Pitch.
You have to think of your query letter as a five minute pitch session. (The very words "pitch session" turn most writers into a quivering mass of sweat and nerve. Relax we'll take it one step at a time.)
It is at this point that you have to really think like a marketing guru- or better yet an advertising executive. (Not like Darin from the old TV show "Bewitched." More like why they do on the show "Mad Men," and yes, sometimes copious amounts of drinking might be necessary--just kidding.)
To get into the right frame of mind, watch ten minutes of advertising on television, thumb through magazines and newspapers, play on facebook and google and --this is the important part-- pay attention to the ads. What are they selling? How are they selling it?
The key here is to use a tag line. Think about the NY Times Bestseller list- each book on it has a tag line.
Ex:
THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer. (Little, Brown, $25.99.) One woman won’t surrender to the aliens who have taken control.
MALICE, by Lisa Jackson. (Kensington, $24.) A New Orleans detective is stalked by his dead first wife.
Your first task in marketing your book is to write this tag line. The rules are simple. Write a fifteen word or less sentence that tells your story premise. Use descriptors instead of names.
Here is the tag line for- If The Shoe Fits, by Nancy J. Parra.
A convention services manager discovers a fairy godfather who complicates her happy ever after.
You can tell from all three examples what the basic book premise is and what market it belongs to... read them over and think about it. Is it a romance? A mystery? Does it have paranormal elements? How do you know this?
Take your time- write out two or three of these for your books-tweak them. (Mine usually start out at 17 to 20 words and I cut and tweak to under 15.)
Save this info because you can use this as a simple pitch when you are at conferences, book signings and interviews. If someone asks you what you are writing- give them this statement. I bet they will ask to know more... versus holding them hostage by telling your entire story in twenty minutes while their eyes glaze over.
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Write the tag line! Do it. It's good practice because when you sell your book- 9 times out of 10 you will be the one writing the tag line and the back blurb. When your editor asks for it, you'll already have it done.
The next step to writing your query is to write what amounts to a selling cover blurb. Think of the back blurb of your book. This part is intended to be an eye catcher with a hook. This is not a synopsis, but a marketing piece meant to encourage the agent/editor to ask to read your synopsis.
How do you do this?
Write three simple sentences that give your hero/heroine's goal, motivation and conflict. Then add a sizzling hook.
Following are some examples:
From C.J. Cherryh's Fortress of Eagles, EOS, 1998-
Tristen is both more and less than a man. A summoning, a shaping, he was brought to life by a wizard, to serve a king yet to be crowned.
Cefwyn had a dream: a united Ylesuin, and a peace this land had never known. Cefwyn needs his only friend, this young man of mysterious origins who is more brother than vassal.
He relies on Tristen, and trusts him though he knows not why, as he plans the war that will bring his dreams to pass...or bring ruin upon them all.

From Mary Margret Daughtridge's Sealed with a Kiss, Sourcebooks, 2008-
HE CAN HANDLE JUST ABOUT ANYTHING, EXCEPT THIS... Jax Graham is a member of an elite military team, but when it comes to taking care of his four-year-old son, he's completely clueless.
ONE PERSON CAN HELP HIM, IF HE'LL LET HER...Family therapist Pickett Sessoms knows just how to help a rough, tough Navy SEAL deal with a scared and lonely little boy, but not if he insists on going it alone.
When an outing turns deadly, Picket discovers what it means to be a SEAL, and Jax discovers that even a hero needs help sometimes...

From Nancy J. Parra's, If The Shoe Fits-
AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN… Joella St. John vows to be successful on her own to prove to herself and her family that she is not a failure. The last thing she wants is a fairy godfather telling her he can magically make everything all right.
A MAN ON A MISSION…R.J. Sinclair has only one job and that is to protect the Bennet family at all costs. When Wade Bennet decides he wants to marry Joella, R.J. does everything in his power to convince her the match is right-even though his heart is demanding that he keep this one for himself.
A FAIRYTALE GONE AWRY…There’s a fairy godfather, a handsome prince, a ball and a crystal shoe. But what happens when it’s not the prince who captures your heart?

Writing the tag line and pitch are probably two of the toughest things you'll do for your book. Trust me. I know how hard it is to take a 100,000 word story and create a compelling fifteen word sentence. But once you do this a couple of times, you'll start to get a solid feel for what your book is about. Why you are writing it and why you want people to buy it.
A good pitch can be written at the beginning of a book or the end of a book- depending on what works for you. Never skip this step. By having a tag line and a selling back blurb you show editors and agents that you are a professional, serious about selling your work and you give them something strong to take into meetings and help them sell your work.

Next week- Part III- Putting the letter together

How to write a Query Letter - part 1 Finding Your Market

2011-03-22T10:07:00.003-05:00

Fair warning this is a repeat post from 2009. But some things need repeating. So here goes:
Let's begin at the beginning.

Know What Your Book is All About.

1) What are you writing? That's easy, you think-it's a (insert genre here) romance, sff, mystery, thriller, women's fiction, graphic novel. Good. But, you ask...what if you are writing a women's fiction with some romance and a murderous twist? Or a thriller with a sff/paranormal element? Or what if the story could be a romance, sff, mystery, thriller, women's fiction, graphic novel?
TIP: In these tough times-cross genre is harder to sell then simple genre. Remember, you need to make it easy for an agent/editor to sell you work to a publisher/marketing/book seller. If they don't know how to shelf a book, they won't order it. Don't pull out your hair if you have a cross genre book done- For the purposes of a query letter-Pick One Genre. Think about your book-what genre is is most like? Where in the bookstore would it be shelved? (Beside the dream of right up front in it's own kiosk like all the best sellers...)

2) How many words is it? If you don't know how to figure the word count-check you word processing program. Most have word count in the tools. Or you can do it the old fashioned way and set your pages up for exactly 25lines per page-at 25 lines per page, 12 pt. type in courier new- you average 250 words per pages. 250 pages equals roughly 50,000 words-yes, ugh...math.
Knowing the word count is important to the market place. Some publishers only want books that are 50,000-60,000 words while others may want 90,000 words. Rarely will a publisher look at a book over 125,000 words.

3) Now- this is very important-What publisher is most likely to publish your story? (Yes-even if you are querying agents alone you need to know this information. A strong query letter will tell the agent who you are and what your market is.) So-how do you know? Research. Go to the library and your local bookstore. Look for who is publishing books in your genre. Who has recently published an author who writes similar to you?
Example: If your friend or critique partner says you write like Stephen King. Go to your local bookstore. Find out where Stephen King is shelved. Now- here's the interesting part- don't look at Stephen King's books. (He is a well known bestseller and doesn't have the same restrictions as a new author.) Find several books that are similar to Stephen King but relatively new authors-look at the spine and write down the publisher. Tip: Open the book and look at the copy right page. Ensure that the book was published in the last month or two. This will give you an idea of who is publishing your type of story right now. Keep in mind that books released today were bought two years ago. Trends change. But this will give you the most current idea.

4) Target your editor/agent. There are several ways to do this.
a) go to the library resource center and ask to read a copy of the Literary Market Place. This book is an annual listing of all agents and editors-their addresses, websites, what they are looking for, what they are buying and if they charge a fee. NEVER PAY A FEE FOR SOMEONE TO READ YOUR WORK.
b) go on-line to the websites of the publishers you targeted- look for the link to author guidelines. Make sure your book-word count and genre-fit the publisher's author guidelines. Example: If you have a book you believe is a techno thriller, but the author guidelines of a publisher says techno thrillers happen overseas or on submarines. Then you better ensure you have overseas or sub elements- OR- you will sell your book as a straight up thriller. TIP: Make the story what they are asking for.
c) Go to great websites like Editors and Preditors that rate agents based on word of mouth from others who have worked with them.
d) Go to the agent/publisher websites- look at what they want to see in a query letter- do they want an e-mail letter? or snail mail? Do they want pages? Are they taking submissions? Know and follow their rules.

5) Create a list of who you are contacting.
TIP: Choose if you are going to query agents or editors. No- you don't NEED an agent to sell. Again- do some research-publishers like Harlequin/Silhouette and Sourcebooks take unagented work. While other publishers like Pocket or Grand Central do not take unagented work. Who is your target? Know and follow their rules. Most agents don't want to look at a manuscript that has already been rejected by publishing houses-so if your target is a house that wants agented work-START with agents.
a) You can write your list on a piece of paper. Or you can fill out a spreadsheet program like Excel. Or you can use on-line programs. I put my list in a Word table.
b) Order your list as to priority. Pick the top five agents-then the next, then the next.
c) Write down the editor/agent name, the address. Then write down the type of submission required. Then the date you submitted and leave two columns for when you hear-accept or reject and further action taken.
Example: column one: Editor name,Harlequin Intrigue, address. Column two: sent Query letter with first three chapters and synopsis on X date. Column three: received request for full. Column four: Full sent on X date. Column Five: sold or reject.
Now that you know what you write-how long it is-what market and publishers you are targeting-if your work fits their guidelines-if you are querying agents or editors-names of who you are querying-what their submission requests are- and created a file to track your work, you are now ready to write your query letter.

Oh, I need to add a disclaimer- that as Captain Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean said, "These aren't rules, exactly, more like guidelines."

March Book Review by Ted

2011-03-15T09:55:00.005-05:00

I like to read biographies and am also interested in autobiographies. If you can find both about the same person, it is always interesting to see how many differences there are between how the person sees him- or her- self, and how others see him/her.

I am also good at finding books with JUMP OUT titles. That's why they have JUMP OUT titles....they grab you and hold your attention while you check out what the book is about. That said, I have a question: Do you know who Alison Arnold is?? I didn't know either, but if I asked you if you know Nellie Oleson, I'll bet a light went on.

CONFESSIONS of a PRAIRIE BITCH is an autobiography of Alison Arnold probably better known as Nellie Oleson from Little House on the Prairie (the TV series). I found it interesting reading, comical in places, sad in places and downright infuriating in others. Not a bad combination for holding the readers attention. Alison began life as the daughter of two Canadian actors, both not too successful in the beginning. Not an unusual start for most actors. Her dad was a homosexual who was not "out" because it was not heard of at that time. Her mother was consumed with career ambitions and really made the big time as cartoon voices for many including Casper the Friendly Ghost and Gumby.
I don't want to get bogged down in her story---read it for yourself, I think you will find it interesting. Let me just say that she has had a very unusual life from being a physically and sexually abused child ( age 6 ) to becoming an advocate for many causes such as Aids ( the actor who played Nellie's husband died of the disease ), battered women, abused children, the list is lengthy.
I leave it to you if it was well-spent money for the book ( don't think many libraries will have it ) and this quote from one of the shows ( also used at Michael Landon's funeral):

"Remember me with smiles and laughter,

Because that's how I'll remember you all.

If you can remember me only with tears,

Then don't remember me at all."

Alison, I'll remember you.

Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune

2011-03-08T09:42:00.004-06:00

Let's talk about the painful part of writing. You know it if you write. Even if you don't send queries, if you show anyone your work and they come back with a criticism that is vague or one that "feels" like a pounce, you know pain. As a friend recently wrote on Facebook, it seems that just as you learn something, someone sees something in your work and is so proud of themselves that they "found" some little flaw, they pounce on you. Their "aha!" Turns into "you fail, stupid." Whether they mean it or not. These are artistic losses we all suffer.

"Perhaps the most damaging form of artistic loss has to do with criticism. The artist within, like the child within, is seldom hurt by truth. I will say it again that true criticism liberates the artist it is aimed at. We are childlike, not childish. Ah-hah! is often the accompanying inner sound when a well placed, accurate critical arrow makes it's mark. The artist thinks, "Yes! I can see that! That's right! I can change that!

The criticism that damages an artist is the criticism-well intentioned or ill- that contains no saving kernel of truth yet has a certain damning plausibility or an unassailable blanket judgement that cannot be rationally refuted." ~ Julie Cameron, The Artist Way, pg 130

All these things Hurt- I'll say it again. They HURT. The only way to move on and be free to create work is to acknowledge these hurts- to write about them-to talk about them- to feel them and move on.

I told a dear friend a week or so ago that I'm a huge drama queen (I've said this before on this blog.) When I get a rejection or a damning criticism, I feel it. I cry. I whine. I may even take to my bed, or a hot bathtub of bubbles. I go on and on about it for at least three days. Then I set it aside and move on- The point is I get it out of my system and move on.

Now, I've had friends say- oh, buck up. Stop whining. Grow a thick skin. There is a prevailing sense in this business that if you feel hurt, then you won't make it. You must suffer all these hurts big and small in silence, sweep them under a rug, ignore them in order to be professional. I'm here to tell you, that if you do that, you will kill the joy in your writing. (The person who told me to buck up- Grow a skin...they got one revision letter from an editor and never sent another book out.)

Allow yourself to grieve and move on. I have countless rejection letters. I still have people today who point out my flaws, my typos, etc. I take a bow, acknowledge my imperfections and if there is artistic truth, I thank them. If it is petty I think, really? What did that gain you? Allow yourself to feel these slights- these slings and arrows- acknowledge them, look them in the eye, rob them of their power.

The Journey is tough and random. Some people make millions while other talented artists get ignored. One bad review can set you back years. I often describe the writing life like this. There is a giant room full of boxes. A writer must take a risk and reach their hand blindly into a box. Some pullout a contract. Some get bit by a snake. Some pull out a winning lotto ticket, while others find only razor blades.

When you're feeling blue- remember. It's not a race. The outcomes and opinions of others do not effect your journey. Only you effect your journey. They don't give away prizes for who ever bucks up best. Whoever has the thickest skin. - nope, no award show for that. If you begin to feel as I often do that everyone else knows more of the grammar rules and that I will never be a "good enough" at craft, here is a quote from Julia that I completely agree with: "For an artist to become overly cerebral is to become crippled (artistically.)"

So, grieve your injuries and let them go. Celebrate your imperfections as part of taking artistic risks. Find the joy in the journey while dodging the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Cheers~

The Art of World Building

2011-03-01T09:28:00.005-06:00

Every genre story builds a world your characters live in. Some genre's worlds are easier. They are placed in our time and in places people can visit and relate to. Other genre's are tougher. The characters' worlds are set in the future or the past. The characters live in alternate worlds of magick and myth or off world planets. When we think of world building we think of paranormal or scifi first. But all stories must have proper world building. You don't want mountains in Indiana. You don't want icebergs in the Gulf of Mexico. You don't want flying cars in present day New York City, or camel caravans on the Kansas Turnpike unless you have built a world where the reader excepts these things.

How do you build a rich world regardless of genre?

1) Ground your characters. Tell the reader what their feet are touching - cement, mulched path, gravel, brick, asphalt. Give the reader an idea of what the air smells like, what the place looks like. Ensure you have the five senses. You don't have to be Michener with chapters of description. But if your characters are in a national park with wind and snow, tell me more. Are there trees? What kind? Are they on top of a mountain? Are their rocks at their feet? Campers nearby? Are they on a hiking path or in a meadow?

2) Clue the reader in on what is important to the characters. Why does she have an herb packet in her pocket. Why is she giving it to a little girl? Why are her dreams important. Who is the person they are chasing? Why are they worried what the council thinks? who is the council?

3) Remember that the hero's journey begins in the ordinary world. If you push them into the call to action too soon, the reader has no sense as to how that is different. What is at stake. Why the character would go on the journey.

World building involves setting, the five senses and character motivation. Without proper world building, it doesn't matter how colorful or magical your characters are, the reader will be lost and pages will not be turned.

My favorite story is when my New York Editors didn't understand the world of a midwest city. What is common place to me had to be explained in my story so that those who don't live in that area of the country can understand.

Have you ever been told you didn't world build enough?

The art of voice

2011-02-22T10:26:00.006-06:00

As a writer you hear a lot about voice. These are often vague concepts. People can tell you whether they like your voice or not but can't tell you what it is or how to fix it. For the purposes of this blog, I'll define voice as the music of your prose. Vague, right? Broken down it becomes about the words that you choose and the length of your sentences and the way you put your paragraphs together. Some people write in long lyrical prose while others write in short choppy sentences. Some love interesting words while others go for more common place words to express the story they want to tell. No two writers choose the same words. And that, my friends, is voice.

What do you want to accomplish with your voice? You want to seduce the reader.

How do you do this?

Choose your words, paragraph breaks and scenes carefully. Think about them. For instance: need to speed up your pacing in certain areas? Short choppy sentences intensify a scene. One or two syllable words punctuate a dark moment or a bit of humor. very your sentence lengths to engage the readers eye. Your word choice makes all the difference.

Finally, clean up your style with the following five rules:

1) Know the actual definition of the words you choose. Often times someone will write, "the gorge rose in her throat in revulsion." If you look of the definition of the word gorge- it is the throat or gullet in this instance. In other words, the writer is saying that the throat rose in her throat.

2) Do your best to create a clean manuscript free from typos, spelling and grammar errors. (As I've talked about before, this is nearly impossible in a 90,000 manuscript, but you have to really try. More than one proof reader is always a good way to tackle this.)

3) Do your research. There should be no cell phones in the 1920's.

4) Don't forget your theme and premise. Every word, sentence, paragraph and scene must tie directly back to your plot.

5) Omit needless words and repetitive words.

Voice is the ability to lead the reader into your story world using their imagination. Choose your words carefully and do the work of style revision. Remember, the art of voice is found in the white space between the words where the reader's mind creates their own personal connection to the story.

February Book Review by Ted

2011-02-15T18:20:00.007-06:00

Well, it's Saturday and I just realized that I did not send Nancy a Book Review for February...Deadline is Monday so it can be on the blog Tuesday. Writers, do you have deadlines??? I'm not used to them, unless it is to make house and utility payments!

I will plead being too busy. We are preparing to leave Kansas where we have lived the last 35+ years. I don't think I will miss it. The last 2 weeks have been something else. Last Sunday in January was sunny and warm ( 55 F ), by Tuesday we were in a blizzard with 5 inches of snow falling sideways at 35 mph with gusts to 45+. Temp dropped to -1 F by Thursday morning. Then it warmed up into the 50s again by Sunday. Guess what! Tuesday it started to get cold and Wednesday it was snowing. It was almost falling straight down or as straight down as it gets in Kansas. By Thursday morning we were -17F and had 15 inches of new snow! Friday (yesterday) brought -8 in the morning and 48F by 5PM. Today we were in the mid 40's. By next Thursday we are expected to be in the 70s !

Anyway, this month I promised you a review of a book by my second or third favorite author. He is also a male author who writes books primarily for a male audience, but I think a female will enjoy then also. Bernard Cornwell lives on Cape Cod and writes and writes and writes. If my count is correct, this is his 46th book. I can say a couple things off the top: 1) This is a lot of writing. 2) This is a lot of books sold! 3) Some have been made into TV shows. Oh yes, and I have read every one of them.

There are 21 in the Richard Sharpe series alone. The BBC has made several of them into movies. They are real action stories.

I'll review his latest: THE FORT.... published in 2010. It is not one of the Sharpe series.The book is set in the Massachusetts Colony during the Revolutionary War ( 1779 ), the story tells of a battle in Penobscot Bay in what is now Maine. There was a small village of mostly loyalists living there and Britain decided to fortify the bay to keep the Americans from taking it and using it as a naval base to attack Canadian and British shipping.

The problem was the disjointed colonies were hard put to get troops and ships to build a fort. There was militia from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 1 regulation U S Navy Frigate, 20 or so privateers, Massachusetts Navy, Connecticut Navy, Indian tribes who all form a coalition to occupy the area . Well, by the time they finished making preparations, the British had landed a force and began to fortify the Bay.

It is interesting to know that basically all the heroes were the British and the villains are the Americans. The book is well researched--I even checked on some of the history-- and presented in a very readable "fiction" work. In fact, I started it and read right through until it was finished.

Interested in historical fiction? Not afraid to find out that one of our biggest heroes for the Revolutionary War was court-martialed for obstructing and then deserting the battle? Wonder how the colonists ever actually won our independence??? Well, the true story makes me wonder. But remember, one battle does not make a war.

Since I am a big fan, you know I will highly recommend reading this book. I don't want you to think I give him a blank check for writing...there were a couple of books several years ago that he wrote that I did not even finish. They bogged down and I lost interest. This will not happen if you read THE FORT...

The Trouble with Dreams

2011-02-08T10:08:00.000-06:00

I blame Walt Disney. He started it. Generations have grown up listening to the words, "When you wish upon a star. Makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come true."

Oh boy, if that isn't a prescription for disillusionment and feelings of personal failure I don't know what is. We hear it all the time. It's the Disney theme song. Schools picked up on it and tell kids everyone can go to Yale and Harvard, anyone can be a doctor or a lawyer. All you have to do is dream it and you can be it.

No wonder so many people are on depression medication. When the world doesn't work that way, we think there is something wrong with us personally. We feel cheated and as if we failed at something that should have been as easy as trying harder. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you can't have dreams. I'm not saying you can't follow your dreams. I'm also not saying you are stuck in the class or world you are born in-What I'm saying that it is harmful to teach our kids that they can be a multimillionaire "star" if they only wish it.

Look at American Idol. Last week two boys who were sweet, nice looking and fun came in for an audition. They couldn't carry a tune in a bucket and were told so politely by the judges. Go out and find your true talent, they were told. But no. The boys answer was. "We'll work harder. We know we can achieve our dream if only we persist." Wow- I find this sad. I think that the world will miss out on their true talent because these boys will be off in a corner working on their Disney Dream.

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I encourage persistence. I encourage everyone to tell their stories. To improve their craft. To keep going.

At the same time I realize there are a lot of people out there who are living in misery because they work hard and can't achieve their dream. The misery boils over into their entire lives. No matter what they achieve they can't help but feel they failed because they aren't published. I say stop the madness. Life is too short to be that miserable. We're not all going to be CEO's. We can't all be rock stars or neurosurgeons. Yes, it is disheartening and a bit of a shock when you realize that perhaps singing isn't for you. Perhaps nuclear physics or gaming aren't for you. Perhaps publishing isn't the business for you. So what! That's what I say. So what if one dream isn't for you. There are so many dreams out there. We each have our own unique talents. Go find a new dream.

What would the world have missed if Einstein had thought he could be an opera singer and threw all his energy into that? Never letting go of his "dream." What about your doctor or your kid's teacher who helped them "get" math for the first time. What would your life have been like if they had spent their time wallowing in self pity because they didn't make it on stage and screen?

Dreams are wonderful tools for finding your place in the world. But they aren't easy. You can't just wish it and be it. Life doesn't work that way and we are doing a disservice to others when we encourage them to keep putting effort in places where they don't shine. Find your shine people. There's no shame if you excel at taking care of dogs. If you excel at tutoring children. If you excel at keeping lawns green or raising children or making your friends laugh. Life's too short to be wasted making yourself miserable because you can't achieve Disney Princess status. Let's stop the madness and teach our children and ourselves to shine with the talents we have. Food for thought anyway. Please discuss in comments below. I'd love to hear what you think. Cheers~

Improving your scenes

2011-02-01T09:03:00.005-06:00

When writing a book, I tend to get caught up in "the book." Which means the overall character arc and the overall plot line. I am a big picture person. When it comes to revisions, I must work hard to become a small item person. Some people are the opposite. They work each sentence, paragraph and scene then put together all the pieces to make a "big picture." Both ways accomplish the task. Both ways look at the structure of each scene. The question becomes, how do you know you are building your scene's right?

Let's begin with a review of basic scene structure. Each scene is in itself a short story and contains three parts. The first part is the statement of a goal which needs to be immediate and definite. The second part is to immediately introduce and develop conflict to the goal. Finally at the end of the scene there should be a failure to reach the goal or a tactical disaster. Keep in mind that this disaster could appear to be a success for the character, but in the long run turns out to be a real problem. If your scene does not have these three things, cut it.

What?! No~ I love that scene, you think. Okay, so cut it and paste it into a separate file. Now read the scene before and after. What, if any, information was lost? Did the scene actually advance the over all plot? Or was it filler? If you decide you absolutely need the scene, it's time to work on it as an individual story. Work in your cut and pasted file. Cut out any sentences that don't immediately and definitively state the goal. Then cut the sentences that don't immediately introduce or develop a conflict to that goal. Finally, end with your disaster. The disaster can be personal or it can be external.

Read the scene again and ask yourself, does it add to the overall character goal? Does it strengthen the overall character conflict? Finally does it make sense in the over all story line and will it keep the reader turning pages?

All the pieces must mesh together. Never write a disaster only because you need to have a disaster at the end of a scene. I had a friend once who had her character slip on her doorstep and fall in the bushes, dropping her groceries. She got up, picked up her groceries and went inside. When I asked the writer why she had the character slip, she said, "There needs to be action in the beginning of the scene. This is my action." But her action had nothing to do with the overall story or characterization. Her character was not a klutz. No one saw her fall. She did not leave an important can of beans out in the bushes that she later needed to retrieve. Retrieving the can of beans did not lead to seeing a murder, or her friend's lover cheating.

Beware the action or conflict for the sake of action or conflict. Every piece must fit together like a puzzle or you will lose your reader's interest and your story won't be told.

Are you a scene person or a big picture person? Does being a scene person slow you down? As a big picture person do you skip the revision step of reviewing each scene with a critical eye?

I'd love to hear what you think. Cheers~

Characters who draw your reader in

2011-01-25T10:00:00.004-06:00

It's been two weeks since my intensive week at my MFA residency. I like to write blogs on things I've learned because it helps reinforce the knowledge for me and hopefully gives you something to work with as well. As Jonathan Mayberry said in his workshop, "Writers need to help each other out." That is the goal of this blog. To pass on what I learn, so that we can all make our writing stronger.

I sat in a great workshop given by Randall Silvis, novelist and character writer. The following is from my notes on the workshop:

The reader wants characters they can relate to, identify with and care about. How do you get that? By creating a character who is inherently dramatic. They should have traits, motivations and contradictions that invite drama. They should stand out with a distinctive voice by taking interesting actions, making interesting choices based on their motivations. The events of your story should grow out of the character's choices and actions.

There should be external and internal conflict. The external conflict drives the story while the internal conflict drives the character and the character drives the external conflict. Think of it as the circle of life for your story.

How can we fashion conflict? By identifying the characters needs or desires, then identifying the tasks or goals the character has to fulfill their needs, finally identify and create the obstacles to their goals. (Work from the least dramatic to the most dramatic as you build your story.)

Take a moment to do this little exercise with your current main character (or any character you're working with.) Answer the following:

1) what is their external need?

2) what is their external task?

3) what is their internal need?

4) What is their internal task?

How are these different, exciting and dramatic for readers of your genre? What kinds of obstacles can you use in your plot to block them from fulfilling their needs or completing their tasks?

Here's my example:

Toni Ryder's external need is to build a successful gluten-free bakery business. Her external task is to drum up business, create customers, bake goods. What blocks her from doing this? She set up her bakery in her home town of OilTop Kansas, where wheat farming is a big part of the community. She must convince the community and the wheat farmers her bakery is not a threat to their livelihood. The biggest block to her task-a man is murdered on her doorstep. All kinds of things happen after that in a cascade of trouble that block her need to build a successful business.

Toni Ryder's internal need is to find her place in her hometown and fit into the community she has recently returned to after her mother's death. Her task is to create relationships with people she once abandoned as too small-minded, and to build a family and a web of support for her internal needs. What blocks her is her own feelings of rebelling against the community. After all she did pick a wheat town to build her anti-wheat bakery. Then there is her struggle to accept her "unconventional" over-sized family and the characters that are related to her. Her struggle to date after a nasty divorce. Her own lack of confidence in her choice of males. Her grief at the death of her mother and her unwillingness to make the home her mother left her her very own.

Do you find her dramatic? Does she stand out? Can you identify with her?

I'll leave you with a final quote:

"I would never write about anyone who is not at the end of his rope." Stanley Elkin

January book review by Ted

2011-01-18T09:00:00.009-06:00

Have you ever wondered what a person in his 70's does when the weather is not good enough or "arther" is hurting joints that you did not know you had? Well, we had quiet holidays and I actually spent more time reading than playing computer games on Pogo. So I have 4 books that I read---actually 5, I'll use the 5th for next month.

I am a writer's best friend.....I actually buy books! Thank goodness there are book clubs, it saves me a lot of money. I always have a stack of them around that I have yet to read. I also have recently discovered a used book store that sells and then buys back older books. Fixed incomes in retirement are not fun.

I've been talking in this blog about different types of readers, tailoring stories to a focus group, and I want to add another this time. Using catchy gimmicks to catch the readers attention and enhance the story. Well, I want to mention one of those. I bought a book called "Santa Clawed" by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown.
Our youngest granddaughter has a 6 month-old kitten and since she ( not the cat) was spending several days with us, I thought it might be a good book for her---she really does not like to read. I read it first-- The story is a mystery, in addition to the people, there are a pair of cats who talk ( to each other ) . So now meet a person who does not like cats. That is OK, because they don't like me either. Now how do I write a book review about this book? It is well written, well constructed, definitely not for a 9 year-old. If you like cats, it is a good useful gimmick......but for a non-cat-lover, I would not buy another. A bad book? No! A bad reader? No, just a case of the focus group did not include the possibility of a person not liking cats.

Ever read anything by William Peter Blatty? NO?!! While neither had I, in fact I do not remember hearing his name before. Yet his work is well known. He is the author of " The Exorcist".
"DIMITER" is an excellent mystery---it catches and holds your attention. It begins with a strange story and then moves forward...you wonder what the connection is. Just about when you think you have it figured out, there comes a new twist...I'll leave you with the problem of trying to figure out what a body was doing in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, lying on the slab of rock in the tomb where Jesus was laid. Love a good mystery??? This is one.

Do you like Country Music? I don't mean Taylor Swift, I'm talking about the country of the 70', 80's,90's. " Nickel Dreams" was written in 1997---found in another pile of books that I had not read!
If you like biographies, want to know about how stars begin, become superstars and come close to becoming a Super Nova, then "Nickel Dreams" by Tanya Tucker ( Yes, the "Delta Dawn" singer) tells it all from her early beginnings to the time of the publishing of the book. Child star, the Lindsey Lohan of her day, battered woman, single mother of two children, Tanya tells the whole story. I made it to about the first 10 pages and came across the name of one of the people she looked up to, a personal friend of mine, Johnny Western---singer and writer of " The Ballad of Paladin" for the "Have Gun, Will Travel" TV series. I was hooked. The book is not great literature--- she tells it with the aid of Patsi Bale Cox--authors, another way to make money as a writer. Great literature? No, not supposed to be. It tells the story and holds your interest......What else is it supposed to do?

Now for the fourth and best book , I am highly recommending "The Wolves of Andover" by Kathleen Kent. I almost said the best book I read in 2010, but I am not sure that is true. Kathleen wrote " The Heretic's Daughter" which I also read last year. She is a newer author- these are her first 2 works ( published anyway). They both deal with the Carrier Family legends of which she is the 10th generation.

The time frame is the 1600's in the area of Salem. Now, if you remember your history, this is the time of the Puritans, Salem Witch Trials, the Restoration of the Monarchy in England. I'd highly recommend you read "The Heretic's Daughter" first, though it is not a requirement.

"The Wolves of Andover" shifts back and forth between the Salem/Boston area and the streets/palaces/dives/brothels of London. She accomplishes this by alternating the places between the chapters...first in Salem, next in London, and so on until the action is all in the new world until the end when the salt barrel is opened in London.

Characters did actually live---most anyway. Their adventures, lives, loves are all part of the story. Is it all fact? Of course not--it's a novel not a history book, but it is well told and one of ( or two) those books that is "Hard to put down" once you begin it. This is one of those books written by a woman that will make an interesting read for males readers also.

Kathleen also has her own website: www.KathleenKent.com Check her out---she reminds me a lot of Nancy.

Anxiety and High Drama

2011-01-04T09:39:00.003-06:00

Creative people live for drama. To the friends and family members who are horrified by my sometimes too loud outbursts, and over emotional thinking, I say, "I'm a passionate person." I try to hide it. Really, I put a lot of energy into appearing as normal as possible but the drama pops out of me. I get so excited my hands shake. I get so mad I have an all out crying, stomping, shouting tantrum. I get so sad there is no consoling me...over something as little as a rejection letter. "Get over it," people mutter. Said people are not creative. Said people do not bleed into a computer and then send out queries because said people are afraid of rejection. But, I digress. The point being that creative people often use anxiety and high drama to prevent themselves from being creative.

I have a friend who has a terrific idea for a middle grade book whose hero is a boy in a wheelchair. She won't write it, though. Why? Because when it makes the NY Times list her entire life will change and she doesn't want the responsibility. I know at least three people who can't get farther than the first three chapters of a book because if it's not perfect something awful will happen. Something so humiliating and terrible that their stomachs pinch and their hands shake and they go back to the first page because this time they might get it right. For my Master's degree program you must write and polish and defend a genre novel. Having done all this over two years, when it comes time to put that novel on a CD and leave it in the school library for others to read, the students balk. "No, it's not ready." Trust me, folks, it's never ready.

"Creative people are dramatic, and we use negative drama to scare ourselves out of creativity with this notion of wholesale and often destructive change. Fantasizing about pursuing our art full-time (and the terrible things that might happen if we did), we fail to pursue it part-time--or at all."~Julia Cameron

Ex: I can't be a writer and raise children. I can't take a class and keep my job. If I hit the NY Times list--and I will--I'll be busy touring and my spouse will leave me.

"Most...creatives have an active addiction to anxiety. We prefer the low-grade pain and occasional heart-stopping panic attack to the drudgery of small and simple daily steps in the right direction." ~JC

Oh, how I wish these quotes from Julia Cameron's, The Artist's Way, were not true. But they are. Our own fears and passions keep us from doing something daily to live the creative life we were born to live. The scary thought of "What will people say?" or "Will I have to start wearing flowy skirts and bangle bracelets?" "Will I have to quit my job, leave my family, move into the deep city, stay up late, smoke dope and hang out with intellectuals?" Or worse~ "That agent rejected my book, now she hates me." "That editor is laughing at me and telling her entire staff how awful my work was."

No wonder we freeze up, run away, keep putting obstacles in front of our creative soul. Stop the madness. Take a deep breath. Blow it out slow. Put that all aside and ask yourself, "what small thing can I do today-right now- to feed my creative soul?" I can open a word doc and write a title. Can't figure out a title? Use someone else's title. Don't stop. Write a sentence. Write a paragraph. Read a craft book, one page a day. Attend a workshop. Make a space-however small- to create. Push through the doubt and keep going-step by step, page by page.

I have discovered that in every book I write 1/3 of the way in I freeze and think, "this is horrible. No one will read it. It's a bad idea. I can't write." I push through anyway by giving myself permission to write terrible, horrible, no good stuff. I tell myself no one is reading this but me. I write the next page. Then things pick up and I go along happy and merry until-yep 3/4 of the way through the book. The end is coming up. I'm afraid there isn't enough story. It doesn't work. It's no good. Again I have to take a deep breath and write the next page and the next page. I give myself permission to write a book that is too short or too long. I write. I revise. I polish. I query. I send it in. I revise more. I send it in again. I cry. I scream. I am petrified. I imagine all the terrible things. I write anyway. Bit by bit I create. It's in the doing that we actually live.

So...I've spilled my fears and dramas. What are yours? Care to share?

New Year's Reflections

2010-12-28T10:32:00.005-06:00

It is that time of year when we look back and say, "Wow, last year stunk! Next year will be so much better. Come on the New Year~" We are ever the eternal optimists. Already people are asking: "What are your New Years resolutions or goals?" I haven't made any New Years resolutions in years, not since I figured out that resolutions don't really work for me.

I do like to take the time to reflect on the last twelve months. The first thing I do is find the good things, the sweet things, the fun things that happened, no matter how small. Make a list. 2010 might have been your worst year ever, but there were things that were good about it if you look. The smile of a new baby, the hug from a friend, sunshine on a crystal ice cycle are all good things. Some of the things I cherished about this year: A visit from my parents and son, taking my daughter off to college, discovering a new writing craft book that helped me in a big way, going to a writer's conference and sharing my experience in persevering as a writer, then there were the times I had coffee with friends, the writer's group afternoons, a new book out, celebrating friends with new books out.

Once I make this list, I make a short list of things I've learned, mistakes made that I want to remember not to do again, people I forgot to call, letters I forgot to send, and then I address this list right now, today. I give out a hug. I call a friend. I send a note. So that when I start my New Year, I can start it with my head up and hope in my heart.

Will 2011 be a better year or a stinky year? There is so much about life we can't control such as unemployment, taxes, politics, bad bosses, overdue bills that you simply can't pay, health issues. These are the things that make a year stinky. But they are things we can't really control. What we can control is how we feel about them and how we act. Right now, today, I can decide to find at least one thing that makes me smile. I can decide to try a new thing that can help at work. I can eat one healthy meal. I can walk around my block. I can take five minutes to write a paragraph on the novel of my dreams. I can take one small step that will brighten my future and make 2011 a better year and I'm going to put it on my list so I remember what I did that was good. :D

How about you? Do you make New Years resolutions? Do you set goals? What traditions do you follow this time of year? I'd love to know. Cheers~

Happy Holidays~

2010-12-21T09:38:00.003-06:00

I want to take a moment to wish you all the best and brightest holiday this year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thank you all for stopping by every week. I hope I have been helpful sharing what I know and what I learn on my writer's journey. My wish for you is that you never deny your creative self. That you keep learning and growing. That this next year be wonderful.

With that I'll leave you with this list of Affirmations (affirmations are positive true statements) from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way:

1. I am a channel for God's creativity, and my work comes to good.

2. My dreams come from God and God has the power to accomplish them.

3. As I create and listen, I will be led.

4. Creativity is the creator's will for me.

5. My creativity heals myself and others.

6. I am allowed to nurture my artist.

7 Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.

8. Through the use of my creativity, I serve God.

9. My creativity always leads me to truth and love.

10. My creativity leads me to forgiveness and self-forgiveness.

11. There is a divine plan of goodness for me.

12. There is a divine plan of goodness for my work.

13. As I listen to the creator within, I am led.

14. As I listen to my creativity I am led to my creator.

15. I am willing to create.

16. I am willing to learn to let myself create.

17. I am willing to let God create through me.

18. I am willing to be of service through my creativity.

19. I am willing to experience my creative energy.

20. I am willing to use my creative talents.

Cheers, my friends, may this season remind you that it is okay to take the time to seek, to learn to nurture the person God created you to be.

December's Book Review by Ted

2010-12-14T10:09:00.005-06:00

MY First Love!. I'm pretty good at catchy titles, now I have to deliver!

To begin with, what kind of a reader are you??? If you are a writer, what do you expect of your reader??? This is all inter-related. While teaching reading, I have found that many people, maybe most, are word readers. I used to think that I had no imagination...until I began to understand how I read. I am a reader who is part of the scene--I may be the narrator--I may be the hero or heroine ( not a question of sexuality--- I am a male heroine!) We won't pursue that any further. When I read, I am there, the scene is all around me, I am ducking bullets, arrows, plots along with the rest of the characters of the book.

A little background: When I was 13 and in 9th grade, I entered a Catholic seminary to study to be a priest. Didn't make it as Nancy can attest.

I was bored with the classes--we won't go there, but I carried the usual high school load plus 4 years of Latin,3 of Greek, 4 of religion, and 4 of Public Speaking. That was with all the usual expected of all 1950's high school students. So I read books. I think in my 4 years I read about 400 books not required for classes. I used them to escape where I was and what I was doing. I knew I did not belong there, but parents wanted me to finish High school there.

About January of 1954 I discovered " The Miracle of the Bells". I read it at least twice a year for the next 3 years. I fell in love with the female character : Olga......

"The Miracle of the Bells" was written by Russel Janney ( before you ask "WHO?") Let me say it was his first book, his publisher ordered a first run of 125,000 copies ( hardback) and there were 6 more printing in the 40's and 50's then at least 7 paperback printing in the 60"s.) As I investigated I found that Janney was a well know writer of screen-plays and even Musicals that played on Broadway. So while a new book writer, he had a great history. He only wrote 1 more book as far as I can tell.

Maybe it was my nature as an " Softee". or the fact that my grandfather had been a coal miner - though in Illinois not in Pennsylvania. Maybe it was my Softee nature that sympathized with Olga.....But it all came together. I created pictures of the characters in my mind of Olga, "Spats" Dunnigan -a press agent, Father Spinsky and his housekeeper sister who were less than 'holy", the money grabbing funeral director, the weak priest who agreed to anything as long as it brought people to his church so he could try to help them. The Jewish movie mogul who had problems with miracles......

I read it over and over. I loved the dying young girl from the coal town who had Black Lung disease because of where she was raised, the young priest who would knuckle under because he was too unselfish to oppose others..."Spats" who made and lost fortunes for himself and others , and also loved Olga. The Miracle itself, because there was one. But more than one--in fact maybe too many by the end of the book!

I once had a first edition of the book that had notes from press coverage of the book included. It was Number 2 on the New York Times best seller list for 1946 ( Back when that really meant something.) I had a student who did not like to read, I tutored her one summer and loaned her the book---it was never returned!

This is getting too long, but I want to include that it was made into a movie in the 1950's. It is available on DVD...I have one. This was another Hollywood disaster! If you have read books and then seen the movies, you will understand what I mean. The weak priest was played by Frank Sinatra ( A weak performance by a good actor), Lee J. Cobb was the Jewish movie producer- an adequate job, the actress playing Olga is really an unknown- but she looked as I pictured Olga ( my first love), then the crushing blow was Fred McMurray as "Spats" I need to stop there---he was miserable, and I can hardly stand to watch him on reruns of "My Three Sons". There must of been 40 actors that could have been used, but he was picked. The picture was/is less than half good.

I strongly recommend reading the book if you never have. Copies in various condition are available on Amazon or even can be found in old bookstores. The small price is well worth the trip back to coal-mining towns in Pennsylvania and the times when a nobody might have a press agent tell a producer " Give the kid a break!" Olga will always be alive for me. Thanks to Russell Yanney.

The 80/20 rule

2010-12-07T09:02:00.004-06:00

Publishing is an impossibly slow business. I think you can safely say that you can take the time it took you to write and polish the book and multiply it by four or more. That is the time it will take to sell the book. Then on average add 18 months for the publisher to do revisions, copy edits, galleys, pre-release publicity and put the book on the shelf. What is a writer to do while they wait? Well, write another book, of course, says the prevailing wisdom. And I agree. Writing another book allows you to keep up the practice and perfect your craft. But here is the thing you have to accept about that truth. For the average writer, only twenty percent of the manuscripts you write will actually become books on the shelf. One of the Professors at my MFA program stated this statistic in a class. I sat down and figured out how many books I've written over the years versus how many are on the shelf and it came to exactly 20 percent. Huh.

Knowing this many writers say, well, I won't write past a partial then because why waste my time on a book that will never sell. This is a self made trap. Why? 1) It used to be you could sell your second book on partial, but the business has changed so that nine times out of ten even midlist authors must write the entire book before a contract is written and the book sold. 2) If all you do is write beginnings, you miss out on the practice and perfecting of the middle and the end of stories. You miss out on knowing where your personal pitfalls are and how to deal with them.

Other writers write entire books, for example: I average three books a year. In today's economy many paying publishers are buying one book a year. Even if you sign a three book contract those books will usually come out one a year. (Unless you are working with a company whose business model goes with three books in one year such as Sourcebooks or Harlequin.) The point being that many prolific writers have mounds of inventory-remember on average 80 percent of their works are not published. This can lead to desperation and attempts to fling that inventory at editors and agents as fast as you can. Okay so you rejected that one, here's another. This desperation leaks into the work and the industry's perception of you. I know, you would think that an agent would want to sell every book their author writes, right? Editors should want to publish every book their author writes. Fact: this is a false assumption. Agents and editors want to sell books they think they can make the most money on and will not even try to sell books they think they can't market. Remember publishing is a business. Publishers, editors, and agents are in it to make money. They are your test market. No matter how clever the idea, if the agent can't get an editor to bite, if the editor can't get their marketing department to take a risk, then they have wasted their time and efforts. Fact: sending an agent four different books in one year is a waste of their time--no matter that the rejection letter said they would be happy to see your next work. Unless the concept is really happening, fresh, and now, you need to wait at least three to six months before you query with your next work.

Some authors think. Fine. I know my inventory is good. Why should I wait? I will publish it as an e-book. There is nothing wrong with this, especially if you have years between paying books. But you have to understand the simple truth about e-books. They are a dime a dozen and, unless you work really, really hard on marketing, your book will be lucky to earn you more than $50. (I made $0.73 last quarter on my two Wild Rose Press romantic suspense books.)

So what is a writer to do? Relax. Keep writing. Look at the 80 percent of books that don't sell as hours of practice. Keep reading craft books. If you find yourself getting frustrated or desperate, stop. Live life. Try something new. Most importantly don't beat yourself up for books written but not sold. Don't curse your agent or editor for rejecting 80 percent of your work. It's how the average writer's journey goes.

For those of you out there who will say these facts aren't true. Who will say that you write and sell every book and sometimes three or four books a year, I say, good for you. You are on the other side of the bell curve. You are not average. It doesn't mean you are better than an author who publishes only 20 percent of their work. It simply means you are either a) working with a publishing model that plans for more than one book a year; or b) you are able to repeat marketable ideas and themes for your publisher; and c) you don't need to read this blog which is meant for the average writer.

As for the rest of us, I'm not writing about the 80/20 rule to discourage you, but to encourage you. To help you relax and not feel so desperate that you send a new book out to agents every six weeks. To help you understand that the 80 percent of your work never read is not wasted effort to grieve over, but fun, joyful practice that allows you to craft great stories for the 20 percent that sell. Remember it really is all about the journey, no matter where it takes you. Cheers~

Money for nothing and your chicks for free...

2010-11-30T09:03:00.005-06:00

I know you've heard this before, but if you want to make writing your career you have to understand that publishing is a business. For the next couple of weeks I want to talk about the business of writing. Let's begin with how businesses work. Businesses work by getting paid for work done. Its a fair exchange of value and services for something of equal value-such as cash.

Yes, dentists, and doctors, and lawyers do pro bono work- they sometimes offer their skills for free. Small businesses will offer samples in hopes of enticing customers into the store to buy. But no one stays in business long if they give away their product for free. So, please, think twice about free reads. Many authors are offering free electronic versions of their books on line. People love this- yay something for free. The problem with this is the reader then devalues your work. Why pay when I can get a different book for free?

Someone said to me, I'm going to self publish my book on-line. I've been reading the free reads and there are some really good books available on line. When I asked, have you bought any books from the authors you've been reading for free the answer was no. Huh. So, how will you get people to buy your book if all they do is read free books? Again, no answer.

There are certain circles of folks who believe that in future all books will be free. As in no one will be paid for services rendered. Great for readers. But not so great for writers. I truly believe if that happens, no one will be able to write for a living... Seriously, will we all write and polish and edit and market-for free? Would you do all this work for no pay? Some of you will say- yes, yes I will. My next question is -how long will you work and perfect your craft if you are not getting paid?

If there is no possibility of payment in future?

Books have value- in entertainment, in education, in magic. Never devalue your muse, your talent or your efforts. If you want to put up examples of your work, put up excerpts, entice readers like setting out small samples. But think twice before setting readers up with the expectation that you will do all the work while they give you nothing in exchange.

The first rule of business is to understand the value of the product and services you provide. (This works both ways- over valuing your work will ruin you as well.)

How do you determine the value of your work?

Nov. Book Review by Ted Kozicki

2010-11-23T09:54:00.005-06:00

SEX...............There, I've gotten your attention. After last month's title"HELL", I figured I'd need something great or greater to begin this one!

I did not choose the word at random, however. I want to remind or instruct you that there is sex in literature--books, stories, poems....... However, not the way you may be thinking. ( Well, yes, the way you are thinking, but that's not what I am talking about!) Those of you who write have an idea of who your expected audience is, and you write or should accordingly. What I am talking is the old basic: Masculine, feminine, and neuter ( I am torn between saying either or neither, but I won't). So fitting the work to the audience means you will write for a male or female reader, and believe me there is a big difference in the approach.

This ties in with the book I just finished: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. It is the first of a series she is doing called the Cousins' War. That is The War of the Roses for you English history buffs. The two factions of the Plantagenet family, the Lancasters and the York are fighting over control of the English crown. The next book, just out is called: The Scarlet Queen. So guess what color the roses are!

I read this with interest and anticipation since I am a history major and find this very interesting. In addition, Philippa has just earned a PHD in history so my expectations were high. I did not take into account sex. This book is written in the feminine. Since it deals with several major battles between the factions, with one or the other side winning or losing and holding the other's king captive, I was expecting long and bloody battlefield descriptions with the usual drinking and wenching along the way. That is a MASCULINE book.

Imagine my disappointment when I found it was more about seduction ( Elizabeth Woodville was a commoner- in a way) and King Edward was a renowned womanizer. She leads her family from being Lancaster supporters to the Yorkish side as she keeps the "Prize" just out of Edward's reach until he secretly marries her. In addition, there is a fantasy side with Elizabeth and her mother being descendants of a mythological half-woman/half-fish named Melusina. ( Which is a German legend ). As a battle is going to take place, they open a window at the Tower of London and breath out creating a massive fog that covers the battlefield and confuses the Lancaster forces who end up attacking each other and Edward wins a major victory. Merlin must be turning over in his grave!

So if you want to take this book as being a work of fiction which uses characters who really existed and interweaves a story with the audience being primarily female, it is a fun read....Yet I don't think most women would tell their family that they did not mind their husband pursuing most of the women in the country because "after all he is the king, and he always comes home to me."

If you are interested in learning more about the War of the Roses, the missing two princes in the Tower, and the last of the Plantagenets.......remember this is fiction, not a history book.

So I'll go looking for a more Masculine book for a review, so you can help understand the difference--I know you do, but it gives me something to write about.

Next month an older book, but it was made into a movie ( long ago- also ), but it is special to me which I'll explain next time.

Tips on when to query

2010-11-16T09:06:00.004-06:00

Okay so you are zooming along on your NaNoWriMo book. You finish. You revise/polish and are ready to query. Check you calender, if it's December or January-wait. The truth is that there are windows of better opportunity to query. For example: after Nov. 1st, editors and publisher are in hours long meetings looking at the titles they have for the new year. They are talking marketing. They are discussing delivery date. They are figuring budgets. They are taking vacation for the holidays. December everything slows down to a crawl. It's desk clearing time and they look at the work that has been left hanging all year. The books that they wanted to buy but there is no shelf space or budget left. The books that were maybes need to be decided upon. Then there are holiday parties and vacations. The last thing they want is new queries. Okay, so you wait until the first week of January. Everything is fresh and new and you send it in--Along with thousands of others who have made new year resolutions or have been waiting through the holidays. Editors and agents are inundated. Quick decisions are made to reduce the slush pile. Yes, sometimes they throw the baby out with the bathwater.

But there are prime times to query- February and March are good. Skip April again holidays and Spring Break. May and June are good. Skip July and August-there are conferences and vacations. September is good, but beware that October is also prime conference months. The problem with conference months is that editors and agents are again inundated with queries from people they saw at conferences. The key is to guestimate when the agent/editors desk will have the least amount of slush. When they will be looking to fill slots.

Once you send out your query/partial be patient. Trust the editor/agent to do their job. That said, things do get lost in the mail so after 8 to 9 months you can send a quick e-mail-don't call- and see if they got your partial. Then wait some more.

What do you do while you wait? Go and live your life. Write another book. Have fun. Read a new craft book. Try again. Because as Kevin Spacey said in a video interview going around, "There is no prize, only the journey."

Cheers~

As a side note, the kind and lovely Linda Kage gave this blog the Cherry on Top Blog award. Thanks, Linda. :D

On being an Artist

2010-11-09T11:28:00.005-06:00

I spoke to a friend of mine last night. We talked about her niece who has many teachers telling her she should be a writer. "She's really good."

But my practical friend keeps telling her there is no money in it. My question is can you, should you be something other than what you are? Hmmm.

This week I found myself revisiting "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. Part of the title reads- "A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self."
When I thumbed through I discovered some of the things I'd highlighted when reading the book still held true for me today. So, I'm going to post a few here. On the off chance they touch a cord with you as well.

"Over any extended period of time, being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline. Enthusiasm is not an emotional state. It is a spiritual commitment, a loving surrender to our creative process, a loving reception to all the creativity around us."
"Remember art is a process and that process is supposed to be fun..."
"(Sometimes our writing circles)...can produce the "How am I doing?" syndrome. This question is not "Is the work going well?" This question is "How does it look to them?" The point of the work is the work... instead of writing being about writing, it becomes about being recognized..." This is the worst mistake a writer can make in my opinion.

"As artists we can't afford to think about who is getting ahead of us and how they don't deserve it. The desire to be better than can choke off the simple desire to be."
"As artists, we are asked to repeat ourselves and expand on the market we have built. Sometimes this is possible for us. Other times its not."
"I need to create what wants to be created...I write whether I think it's any good or not."

Finally-please know this quote is the honest truth:
"Good work will sometimes not sell...The market may be rotten even when the work is great. (You) cannot control these factors."

What you can control is how you feel about these things. So, yes, we may all have or be looking for a job that will support us, but we can't deny the talent of creativity inside us.

Food for thought. Cheers~

National Novel Writing Month

2010-11-02T11:35:00.003-05:00

I know that many writers wait all year for National Novel Writing Month- NaNoWrMo. The goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. One writer friend of mine asked, why November? I mean with the advent of the holiday season, wouldn't it be better to do this in January right after we make our New Year's Resolutions?

So I went to the official NaNo web site and clicked on History. It seems the first event was held in July 1999 and was merely a group of 20-somethings gathered together to see if they could do it. They were surprised by what they learned. Then decided it was actually fun?! So they developed a website and announced a second year. This time they moved it "to November to more fully take advantage of the miserable weather." And were shocked and surprised by the number of writers who signed up. It's sort of taken on a life of it's own since. (If you get a chance, do read the history of this thing. It is quite funny. Especially when it gets to the part about people asking what the rules were. "Rules? Didn't these people know that the 'rules' had just been a loose aggregate of contradictory statements that I'd hurriedly pulled from my butt the previous year?") Doesn't that sound like a writer? The point being they were gathering to write-not to follow rules. So, whether you are nose to the grindstone working on NaNo or simply plodding along on the work you do day in and day out, I say have fun. After all if writing isn't fun, it's not worth much else. So, best of luck and let me know if you are attempting the big 50 or merely playing along with friends. Cheers~

Book Review Oct. 2010

2010-10-26T12:33:00.007-05:00

Book Review by Ted Kozicki

To begin writing reviews of books, one should start somewhere and hope things get better. So I think if I begin with "HELL", things can only go up from there.

While it is not necessary to have read Dante's " Inferno", be familiar with "Faust", it may be incumbent for the reader to have a knowledge of recent ( 20th Century ) Americana and satire to enjoy this detailed, funny, yet scary look at what may constitute hell.

Have you seen the movie " Network"? Are you a journalist, novelist, history major, avid reader of novels, husband, wife, lover,

hunter, politician.........then you are a part of this book. I found myself---I am the old person who is forced to learn technology as my never-ending punishment for all eternity while the technology continues to grow faster than I can learn.

The narrative is clear and fluent, descriptions are vivid, believable, and often not just entertaining but outright funny! Reading this right now during this time before the elections, I found it especially interesting.

I will try not to make everything I read a " Highly Recommended" selection......A lot are not, but this is my first in many ways.

Remember: We may very well be creating our own hell every day of our life.....Not reading "HELL" will not add to your hell, but maybe to your heaven-on-earth.

And now for something completely different...

2010-10-25T14:22:00.006-05:00

As you all know, I'm in the middle of my Master's program and working on three novels and I've found I've had less, and less time to devote to reading books and watching movies to give you a monthly review. So, my father, Ted Kozicki, has offered to help me out by acting as the book reviewer on this blog once a month for the next couple of months. Without further ado, here's Dad in his own words:

Hello. I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Nancy's father. Being a dutiful person and still interested in what my kids are up to, I read that she does not always have time for her reviews in her Crafts' Blog....So rather than see her drop it, I'm stepping up to help out.

I know what you are thinking.....great, what does he know? What does he read? What makes him a critic? All good questions which I'll try to answer. I am 70....been over the hill for a lot of years! I am a former school teacher.. I've taught English...well, that should have lost half of the readers! I've also taught science, drama, public speaking, history, government, K-12 Special Education, 4th grade math, religion, Latin, Spanish, and a few other things that people have been willing to pay me to teach. That probably lost half of those who were still reading!

So for the 2 or 3 that are still left, I'll continue. I am published.....poems in a local newspaper in Michigan which were later borrowed by several couples to include in their wedding ceremonies----no pay, but at least acknowledged! Wonder if they are still married? Some reports to the Federal Government about the research done with grants while a graduate assistant at Emporia State University....Again no pay, unless you count free tuition, office, and expenses while finishing my MS. A couple of Melodramas-----one performed in several venues around the county and SOLD to a publisher who now continues to offer it for performing. The others have yet to sell. So I am a PAID writer! I'm the one from whom Nancy gets her talent , if you've seen the picture, you can see the looks come from her mother!

What do I read? Just about anything someone is willing to write and someone is willing to print and sell. That being said, I do have things I like more than others. I have favorite authors. I have some that I will not read, or in some cases have not because I have no interest...I even read plays, poetry, history books, Annie Rice, Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall), Wilbur Smith ( EVERY book he has written), Ted Kennedy, Nancy J Parra ( had to put that in!)...You'll find out more as I do some of these.

I love theatre ( that high class theater)... I love Andrew Lloyd Weber...seen "Phantom" 7 times-twice in London ( Bragging)...Evita more than that (Nancy's mother refuses to go with me again)...Music... Country/Western .....early Rock/Roll...Jazz ( New Orleans), Blues ( Memphis), Opera ( No, the music not the woman with the talk show-- but she was great in The Color Purple).......

I'm not impressed with critics.....Heard a lot of definitions of what they are...fill in your own! "Whistle down the Wind" is my favorite A.L.Weber musical, critics hated it. I learned to dislike critics in college when I had to read a book ( which I might like ) and have the professor take it apart explaining what was wrong with it or what it was about.

That in a nutshell is who I am and where I am coming from. I will leave you with one thought that I impressed on my High School English students about Poetry:" There is only 1 person who knows what a poet meant by what he/she wrote, and most of them never told us. We are supposed to find what it means to us." Hope that gives you a reason to read what I write for her blog.

Thanks Dad!

Now that you know a bit about my playwright Dad, I will post his first book review tomorrow.

PS - a special thanks to my sister Mary who passed on the photos included in this blog.

How to craft a solid ending

2010-10-19T11:20:00.004-05:00

We spend a lot of time learning how to craft beginnings of novels. Beginnings are hooks that sell the story and draw the reader in. Next we learn about crafting overall plot and character arc-creating goals, motivation and conflict. We learn about the Hero's Journey, The first act, second act third act, the W plot, the 15 beats necessary in a story. We work hard on word count and getting the draft done. Trust me by page 350 I'm all about getting the darn thing done.
So how much time do we spend crafting the ending? What do we know about endings?
When I first started writing in my teens, there were no endings. Only stories that went on and on. I mean life goes on, right? So did my stories. (Yes, yes, I can hear you pointing out the movie, "The Never Ending Story. " Wasn't there a sequel to that? How can you have a sequel if the first one never ends? I digress.)
I got to the point in my writing -because I write by the seat of my pants-that I had to visualize the beginning and then the ending out of necessity. If I wanted to finish, I had to know the end. Still my editorial director said to me on my third book, "You have trouble with endings, don't you?"
Hmmm. No, I didn't think so. I thought I fixed that. But clearly she thought so-therefore problem was not solved. Then how do you create a solid ending?
The answer is simple. Take as much time to think through the ending as you do the beginning. Here's how:
1) Pull five of your favorite books off the shelf and read the endings. What about them is satisfactory? Do they end with a bang? Do they wrap up all the clues? Do they set up the next book? How can you use the tricks of your favorite novels in your work?
2) Go back to what you know about the Hero's Journey- in the end, the hero must return to the ordinary world with his new found gifts (emotional and/or physical changes) and relate to this world as a changed person. Think about Harry Potter. He returns to his dreaded Aunt's and Uncle's ordinary home, but no longer lives in the cupboard under the stairs.
3) Blake Snyder's beat sheet says endings should be the opposite of the beginning to show that change has occurred. Relate 2 and 3 to how your favorite novels end. Can you see how it was done?
What if the above tips still don't help? Brainstorm with your closest friends and most importantly practice, practice practice. Sometimes a lousy first ending is caused by weak plotting. sometimes you have to go back and strengthen things in the book to get the ending you need. Do it. It's worth it. Readers like closure. They like endings that pull on heart strings, or send creepy feelings down their back. They want to know that you made the end as satisfying as the beginning and worth the hours spent reading the book. Some even read endings before they buy the book. Remember-deadline or not- an ending is a terrible thing to waste. Do the work and readers will keep coming back for more.
Cheers~

Be Prepared for Randomness

2010-10-13T10:22:00.004-05:00

The book publishing business is extremely random. I know many writers who plot and plan and are certain they figured out the key to success. Then a flood hits the publisher's warehouse and half their print run never makes it to store shelves. Their books are delivered to a Walmart or Sam's and the pallet containing them sits on the dock or gets left out in the rain. The guy who stocks the shelves gets sick and this week's books are returned as next week's arrive. Your e-book gets lost in the pile of 1,500 other new e-books that came out that month.
But let's say everything works in your favor. You do several signings with good solid turnouts and your books seem to be selling like hotcakes. Surely you made a local best seller list...only to discover the list decided not to report the two weeks during which your book came out for internal staff reasons. Or your debut-which you sold as a hard cover-yes!- comes out the same day as Nora Robert's, James Patterson, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and four other best sellers. Bookstores stock best sellers. Readers buy best sellers first.
Why am I telling you these depressing things? I want you to write because you want to write. I want you to know that you are writing for you first. Yes, study the market place and polish your work and send it out to good agents and try for the best publishers. Yes, do it! (It shows respect for yourself, your talent and your story.) But don't write genre fiction if you're looking for easy cash, *snort* or bestseller fame. Or even respect from critics and the book world. You won't make it very long if these are the things that motivate you because they are the things you cannot control.
In the beginning and in the end, a successful fiction writing career depends on your love of your story, your happiness with your characters, your joy of bringing to life the stories in your head. When that is enough then, whether you publish well or not, you are successful.
My wish for you this week is that you find the joy in your work. cheers~

Writing Fresh

2010-10-05T10:02:00.005-05:00

When writing a novel the first question anyone asks is, "So, what is your story about?" Some people answer with an elevator pitch--a sentence that gives the particulars. Such as, "A seemingly random murder leads a blogger into an international race to create a mind control device."

Sounds good-now, what kind of story is it? What is your theme? Who has written something like it before? How does this compare? What type of reader would buy this? How are you going to make it "fresh?"

Those are the questions that always stop me in my tracks. But they are the questions you should answer before you begin to write your story. They are the questions that will ensure the book is marketable. For nearly twenty years I've struggle with the question of theme and fresh. I've experimented with saying things like-"think Cinderella with a twist." But this isn't enough. It's weak. It doesn't really answer the questions. It doesn't really explain the story concept or how it fits in the market. It doesn't tell the editor/agent what makes it fresh.

I've recently discovered three steps that help me answer those important questions.

Step one: write down your concept and then take the time to research. Find two or three books that are similar to your concept. Read them. Dissect them. Find out what worked and what didn't work. Write down how you would do things differently.

Step two: determine what type of book you are writing and make sure you have all the elements for that particular kind of story. A good book to help with this is Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat Goes to the Movies." He lists a variety of story types and their essential three or four elements. For example: A "Monster in the House" story needs a monster with supernatural powers; a house or small enclosed setting and a sin--someone who is guilty of bringing the monster into the house. But another element that must be found in a "Monster in the House" story is a "half man." Someone who has survived a similar situation and warns the hero. In "Harry Potter," the boy, Harry, literally is saved by a "half man" in the form of a centaur in the woods who warns him of dangers to come.
I discovered that two books I'm currently plotting are "Dude with a Problem" stories. The elements are an innocent hero/heroine; a sudden event that comes without warning; and a life or death battle. But also found in this type of story is an "eye of the storm" moment where the hero/heroine "finds a partner who is a friendly ally in a sea of trouble." Now I know the type of story and the readers' expectations.

Step three: determine how your theme fits in your story type.

My theme of survival for one story includes a Law Enforcement Problem. The second is a Domestic Problem. This is how the two stories vary and what makes them fresh.

Taking the time to go through these three steps and answering the questions before you begin your story will help you understand how your story can be "fresh" and still be marketable. Remember we are not trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead we are trying to make the wheel more efficient/funny/fresh.

Cheers~

Perhaps a Writer's Retreat

2010-09-29T13:45:00.003-05:00

I am exhausted. Have no idea why, except for the two submissions I got out last week and then the Master's degree deadline on Monday. The two critiques I had to do. I have four or five friends with books that released Tuesday. I've already gotten a rejection for one of last week's submissions and still haven't heard that the other arrived--need to check on that. I realized that my website needs updating. I'm reading three books at once--a nice hat trick--using every spare moment to crack one open and read a few bits. I discovered this morning I missed a promo opportunity. Two others appeared on my doorstep that I need to seriously consider. And that is just my writing life, I won't mention the rest of it. I saw it was time to blog here and I thought. No... I'll just leave last week's up. But that's a bit lazy, isn't it?

So, I thought I'd simply be honest. Let you know that sometimes the "glamorous" life of a writer is exhausting. Trust me when I say nothing good gets written when you are exhausted. So, I decided to take this week off. The last thing I want to do is interrupt your busy writing life with a blog that has nothing useful in it. (I am hoping that at least the photo gives you a laugh.)

Hopefully next week I'll have something useful for you. In the meantime, please make sure you take a moment for yourself. Cheers~

How to Write Right

2010-09-22T09:14:00.004-05:00

"You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life; the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it." ~ Doris Lessing

I love this quote. As genre writers it is easy to get caught up in page counts, trends, "rules," contests, etc. Especially in the current environment when multi-published authors, what used to be called mid-list authors, are struggling with the newbies to sell work. Publishers are struggling to stay in business. Editors are losing their jobs and turning into agents and advances are so low that agents can't support themselves full time. It feels like desperate times and as writers we can get caught up in it all. I've been in a mood lately to say-"Stop the madness!"
Take a deep breathe and a step back. Ask yourself why you started writing in the first place. Was it love of words? Love of story? To get the characters out of your head? (This doesn't work-when you get done with one another pops up. sigh.)

Were you lured in by people telling you that you are a good writer-gifted even? Did thoughts of success on the scale of Nora Roberts or Stephanie Meyer twinkle before your eyes?

Do you find yourself with a bitter taste in your mouth- wondering what the heck happened. Or are you still desperately chasing trends, beating yourself up every time someone else sells?

Again, I say, Stop the madness! Stay with me here-take a deep breathe and let it out slow.

Now-let's review. 1) You are a gifted writer. You are. Believe that. But there are a lot of gifted writers. Just as their are a lot of gifted singers-some make the top forty, some make it to opera or Broadway, some sing at Disney world or on cruise ships and some sing at church. Each are as valid and gifted as the next.

2) Be yourself. Nora is Nora. That spot is already taken. Your friend who just sold three vampire books-that's her journey not yours. Stop trying to imitate.Yes, imitation is the highest form of flattery and we kid ourselves by saying-well, if it worked for them it will work for me. (This feels true when more than one friend sells in something you don't write. You start to second guess. You start to wonder if perhaps you should change over to YA steampunk. Of course, you'll have to research it and such because you were working on a cozy mystery...)

3) Live your life. Get a job, meet with friends, take a walk-you can't write about life if you are holed up in a closet pounding out four or five books a year in hopes that one of them sticks. Go into the city and watch people. Interview people in small towns. Discover occupations and the sorts of people who work them. If you are stuck at home with small children or job hunting, take walks. Make note of the seasons as they pass-the scents, the sights, the temperature of the air against your skin, the sound of lawnmowers or trains or traffic, the taste of water or seasonal fruit. All these things will make you a better writer.

And finally 4) celebrate your victories great and small and celebrate the victories of others. Life is too short not to have a party now and then. Or at the very least some virtual champagne and chocolate.

Cheers~

The Importance of Being, or Passive Voice

2010-09-14T15:00:00.006-05:00

Fiction novelists are story tellers. Maybe I should be even clearer than that- genre fiction novelists are story tellers. The work is about the story. It is NOT--I can't repeat this enough--NOT about grammar rules. Have I made you upset yet? Trust me when I say this, a strong story will win every time over excellent writing skills. A professor made this comment in one of my break out sessions, "we graduated this fellow who had a genius for writing, but he could not tell a story to save his soul."
What does this have to do with learning passive voice? A lot. Many writers mistake strong writing skills for strong story telling. They will tell people to be sure that they "never" use passive voice. Every sentence must be active so your story sings or...you will never be published. dum, dum, duuuum. Trust me the last thing a writer wants to hear is that they will "never" be published. And so, they diligently go through and get rid of every 'to be' verb in their 75,000 word manuscript. Why? Because everyone knows that 'to be' verbs are passive. And, passive means...you will "never" be published. Gah!
Relax, my friends. According to an excellent paper from The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, entitled Passive Voice, the above revelation is a myth.
It is myth number 2 "Any use of the verb 'to be' constitutes the passive voice." Wrong. "The passive voice entails more than using a being verb. Using 'to be" can weaken the impact of your writing, but it is occasionally necessary and does not by itself constitute the passive voice."
Myth number 4 will have rule followers shaking in their boots. It is a myth to say, "you should never use the passive voice. While the passive voice can weaken the clarity of your writing, there are times when the passive voice is okay and even preferable."
To which I say, YES! Writers waste too much time worrying about getting rid of the word "was" in their stories and not enough time looking at conflict, character growth, strength of scene and over all plot development. Why? Because it somehow "feels" easier to cling to basic "rules" like search and destroy all 'to be' verbs and repetitive words-when those things are the last things you should work on. Note: I did not say not to work on them. What I'm saying is that they are not as important as the story.
Don't let passive voice "rules" bog you down revising and polishing the first three chapters when what you really need to work on is the more ambiguous scene, sequel, story plot, character arc and sharp dialogue.
It is the story that you need to spend time polishing. It is the story that will ultimately sell a book. When you write a story, write it as if your life depends upon keeping the reader turning pages. If you can do that, then you will sell your book.

Writing and Identifying theme in your work

2010-09-08T08:51:00.004-05:00

I don't know if you do, but I struggle understanding and identifying the specific theme of my stories. I went looking for a definition. According to Dictionary.com, theme when used as a noun is defined several ways: 1) a subject of discourse, discussion, meditations or composition..., 2) a unifying or dominating idea or motif..., 3) a short informal essay, a school composition, 4) music..., 5) grammar, the element common to all or most of the forms of an inflection paradigm, often consisting of a root with certain formative elements or modifications... (Huh?)

Truthfully whether you "get" it or not theme is one of the most important things about a story and is integral to plot. Theme is the reason you write the story. It is what you, as the author, are telling the world. Knowing and understanding the theme you are exploring in your work will keep you on track and it will help you explain the work to agents and editors.

According to Suite101.com, there are two kinds of themes in writing, implied truth themes and simple themes. Most of my books have implied truth themes such as "love will prevail but it's not always easy," or "you are more than you think you are," and "no where is safe." Simple themes are one word themes such as "courage," "survival," "friendship," "sacrifice," and "growth."

Once you have identified your working theme be sure to state it early on in the work. Perhaps not literally but strongly.

Ex: one character can say to another, "there is more going on here than meets the eye." And the other can answer with a shake of the head, "you are one of those conspiracy theory crazies, aren't you?"

Or a character can pass a man on the street holding a sign that says, "The end of the world is near." Even if it's only the end of the character's marriage or career. It states the theme of the book. And begs the question, now what?

Putting theme into words is one of the hardest parts of story telling and yet, if you take the time to discover your theme, it will give you a clear path to follow whether you plot or pants your story. It will also help you with your tag line, synopsis and pitch. Don't just ramble, people, know what it is you want to say and then make sure you say it in a clear and concise manner.

Does theme come easy or hard for you? Do you find what you think is your theme but then readers find something else in your work? Does your theme change over the course of your writing? Curious minds want to know. Cheers~

Writing through stress

2010-09-01T08:25:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I cheat a bit. This topic came straight from a chat I attended for the Master's program last night. But so many people showed up to talk about stress that I thought it might be a good topic to address today.

Let's face it there are many things in life you have no control over. As writers, we love to have complete control over the lives and worlds our characters live in and, after a while, we get frustrated when the "real" world does not act the way we think it should. We throw conflicts into our characters lives to drive plot and create character growth but conflict in our own lives drives us mad. We tend to procrastinate. An "I'll deal with it later" attitude would get cut from our character's lives because there is only so much room on a page. Perhaps we should think of that in our own lives. There are truly only so many days in your life-if we turn into Scarlett O'Hara and say "Tomorrow is another day." We slow down the pace of success in our own lives and slow down our character growth, thus creating our own stress.

Sometimes we create our own stress-procrastination, poor eating, lack of vitamins or exercise- because we are bored. Stress gives us something to think about or do, but these kinds of stresses can effect our writing and our own personal character growth.

Sometimes we put stress on ourselves to live the perfect life to be the perfect person. We've all grown up in a world filled with advertising. The successful person washes with X soap. The healthful person has the white smile and the crazy flat abs. Everyone in "Ad land" lives in huge up-to-date houses. They all fill their weekends with less spending and more doing-single handed remodeling bathrooms from gutting to tile and grout to plumbing. Our yards are supposed to be picture perfect. Our cars well maintained and always clean. Our kids should have every toy, eat perfectly nutritious foods, enjoy cookouts and games and cakes the size of New England. How do we reconcile this with the size of our paychecks? With the age of our homes? With the bills that are due? With the slowness of old computers?With kids who get sick or have tantrums or parents who get sick and need care. With family members diagnosed with cancer. With deaths of loved ones due to war or accidents or flesh eating bacteria.

The real world is messy and unpredictable and most of the time our own character growth is hard-unlike those we write about. Fantasy and reality are so wide apart we are stressed by the differences.

For some writers, stress fuels their passion. The more going on the better they write. For others, stress freezes them in place like a deer in the headlights. Goals, dreams, deadlines slip away.

How do we combat this?

First off find out what is your optimal amount of stress. What causes you to work better without over whelming you. Use this as your best indicator. Try not to stray to far one way or the other from this. Next, organize your life and prioritize your actions based on your personal stress baseline. Finally, do your best with your health-I don't mean lose those 40 pounds today. I mean get up and take a ten minute walk around the block. Drink water. Ensure you get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. And, when you have to, feel free to do something silly, like step into your coat closet and scream your head off.

Remember you can't control the stress that comes your way-but you can control how you react to it. Find your base line and live the life that works best around it. Not the false life of advertisements, or the "You have to do x to be happy or published" life of others who want to control you. Think of your life like the pages of your book and edit thoughtfully.

These are some of my tricks for combating stress. What are yours?

Building Characters

2010-08-24T10:33:00.005-05:00

Do your characters come to you fully formed? Or do you create them from the ground up? No matter which way they arrive at your door, you can use character building tricks to add quirks, foibles and realistic human traits to create depth to your characters which in turn will take your plots to greater heights.
So where do you start? Start with the very basics--goals, motivation and conflict. Seems simple, right? And yet time after time I have seen writers have to rewrite entire chapters because they are wondering about. Their characters have no purpose-no goal in the scene. If they have a goal such as attending the school of their choice then you need to motivate the reason why. It needs to be a strong motivation to vigorously move the story forward and keep the reader from thinking your characters are too stupid to live. Once you have them with a goal-in each scene-and strongly motivated you need to build internal conflicts that drive them to change. Here's an example of an internal conflict: as a small child the protag watched her mother struggle raising babies. She internalized that babies are bad. Therefore she has made the internal decision to never have children. Now-she finds herself either a) pregnant or b) in love with a man who has or loves children or c) must rescue a baby and bring it on her journey. This means that the character has to change her fear or dislike of babies to move forward. GMC is the basic building blocks of creating a character-even an evil villain.
Now- let's flesh your character out a bit. Some people do a family study. What I mean is that they assign the character a place in a family-oldest, middle, youngest or only child and use psychological profiles of these child placements to add depth to characters.
Another method is to do an astrology chart on your character- are they a Pisces? A Leo or a creative Aquarius? How does this help or hurt them? What descriptors can you take from horoscopes to add to your character. Remember people/characters are a million pieces of the world around them.
I sat through a wonderful workshop on Personality theory. The speaker gave us Freudian Hang ups, Archetypes and Trait Perspectives based on what he knew as a psychologist. People in all fields categorize other people-socially and by personality. Do a little research and you can use these categories and descriptors to flesh out your characters to create 3 dimensional beings in your story.
I have mentioned self help books in past blogs. Some of these can help you to create characters that real life readers can identify with. For instance someone overcoming bad relationships, someone overcoming childhood trauma or even weight issues, health issues, disability issues-all can be heroes or villains. I have this great book called Personology--the precision approach to charting your life, career and relationships. It gives who you are and your traits based on your year of birth, your astrological sign, your Chinese zodiac, etc. No- you don't have to believe in these things to write strong characters, but you can use the information offered to add details to your characters.
Think of the Goal, Motivation and Conflict as the skeleton for your character. The flesh and details come from their experiences, zodiac sign, family traits and personality traits. Finally you add in eye color, skin color and hair. Some people will do a search of photos and print them out or cut them out to pin up so that they always have a visual of their character. Think of a photo in the opening of a police file on someone. It's all there--anything and everything you want to know about your character. Now that you know them inside and out you understand how they will act and react in any situation and you set them free inside the world you built last week and see what happens.
What is your favorite method for character building? Have I left anything out? Is there anything you would like to blog about in detail? Let me know. Cheers~

Self Care for Writers

2010-08-18T09:21:00.004-05:00

It's been a long busy summer filled with the demands of family and friends. Today the local school children go off to school. College starts this week. It is time to take a good hard look at ourselves and our personal goals.
Most writers (men and women) are highly sensitive to their environments. It's how we "come up with those ideas." We see things in different ways and open ourselves to experiences. In other words, many writers have very few personal boundaries. We see it. We absorb it. We let it get in our face. We let it take over our lives. (Whatever it is that currently fascinates us.) We get caught up in story or article or marketing or puzzle or plot and completely forget about the fact that we are in there somewhere.
Writers in sandwich generations find themselves caring for both children and parents. They find themselves writing at 2 am because that's the only free time they have. Sleep is not as important as deadline. Food is not as important as deadline-or worse, we write with a bowl of chips or candies beside us, talking with our hands but chewing with our mouths. We forgo exercise in order to get in one more page or plot point.
If you don't work outside the home office, then you may forgo haircuts, and shopping for anything but necessities-unless you are shopping for kids or parents. Because you are not even aware of yourself as a person. It's a great trick for story telling without author intrusion, but it is not a great way to live.
If you are not healthy, your stories suffer. I'm talking about mental health and physical health. Stop for a moment and step away from the big fat pile of stress in your life. View it as an uninvolved observer. Amazing isn't it?
Fall is a good time to look in the mirror and smile at the person you see there. Think about them as your best friend and the most important person in your life. Because -guess what-they are. All those people who depend on you -children, parents, editors, agents, readers-are shortchanged if you don't find the time to take care of yourself. Trust me, no one else is going to do it for you.
Make a plan to help yourself out. Think of a ten minute walk as important as picking the kids up from school-as important as revising that last page another time. If you get a rejection-stop telling yourself you're a loser who will never make it. Stop being embarrassed that you are somehow inferior. Neither of these things is true and you certainly wouldn't tell a friend that. Instead celebrate the fact that someone read your work. That you did the work and got it out there. Know that you will learn. You can't help but learn. Take breaks from writing if you need to. Take care of your health in small ways- switch from coffee and soda to ice or hot water with lemon. Make a rule that there is no food near your computer. Save that as celebration for finishing a page. Get up, walk away from your desk before you eat. My office is upstairs. All the food is downstairs. So I have to do at least two sets of stairs-down then up to eat anything. It pulls me out of the book, makes me aware of what I'm doing, and I like to think the exercise somehow takes a handful of calories off whatever I eat. Not into eating? (Well, some people aren't. I don't know them, but I hear that writers can forget to eat.) Set a timer in another room for 60 minutes. Yes, it pulls you out of your work, but it also means you have to get up and walk over and turn it off. It sets a limit which allows you to see what you can do in 60 minutes as well as making you move and stretch. A simple stretch can bring a new and brilliant thought into your head.
Now is the time, before Fall deadlines and queries and holidays, to notice the person in the mirror and take small steps to make them the most important person in your life. Your writing will be better for it. Hey, go out and buy yourself flowers-yes, even you guys. They will sit on your desk and remind you that you are more than what you do. Cheers~

The Rule of Threes

2010-08-12T11:58:00.005-05:00

Years ago I attended a workshop by author Alfie Thompson on using movies to guide and plot your fiction. It was while sitting in her workshop that I learned about the rule of threes in writing. Alfie contends that no matter how improbable something is, if your reader sees it three times they tend to buy into the idea. Thus the writer's rule of threes. Alfie's example was the movie "While You Were Sleeping." She asked us to note in the opening "ordinary world" how the screenwriter and director showed two random people slipping on sidewalk ice. The one I remember most is the paperboy who was on a bike, threw the paper and slipped in a safe yet comical way. The audience laughed. It seemed to set the tone that this movie was going to be funny and charming. Alfie told us that the reason for showing these two people-who have nothing to do with the story- slipping on ice in the opening was to set up for a later scene. The only other time in the entire movie anyone slips on the ice is when the hero and heroine are crossing the sidewalk and the heroine slips. The hero helps her up establishing a socially forbidden closeness and then slips himself, taking her back down with him and ripping his pants. Then, after much pawing and sliding, when they both safely slide off the ice the hero asks the heroine if he can borrow her pants since his pair is ripped. The heroine disclaims in horror that she would rather kill herself then fit into his pants.
This was a charming way of allowing the characters to touch each other intimately at a time when they would not usually pass that boundary and also brings the focus to both the heroine's slenderness and the hero's manly physic. It is a scene that gets them thinking about each other in a more intimate way- it is also the only time there is a patch if ice on the sidewalk. No one thinks of the ice as a plot device because the opening established in two small isolated incidences that the sidewalks are slippery.
Storytellers use the rule of threes to bring believability to a story. This is why, in my previous blogs on The Hero's Journey and World Building, I mention to have incidents or trials come in threes. Thus allowing the reader to believe that something can happen readily in your story and is never pulled out of the story or surprised when purple bats attack.
Next time you are watching a movie or a television show pay attention to the small details and see if you can spot the rule of three slipped into the story. For more interesting ways to use movies in your fiction, check out Alfie's book, "Lights, Camera, Fiction."
What ways do you use the rule of three in your work?

World Building for non scifi/fantasy writers

2010-08-03T09:46:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about the wonderful World Building for YA seminar given by the amazing Shelley Bates that I attended as part of my MFA residency program. Many of you have asked for more information about world building as we all sort of assumed that was a term for science fiction or fantasy writers. Let's face it there are a lot of witches, vampires, werewolves and zombies out there right now, but what if you were writing a contemporary story set in small town Kansas. Do you need world building? The answer to that is yes.
Here's why:
Many readers, lets face it most of your readers including your agent and editor, have never lived in a small town in Kansas. They have no clue what people dress like, talk like (Trust me, I've gotten more question marks from my editor on common Midwest sayings in my writing then I ever imagined.) and how their values and points of view are different than say someone from New York City. I imagine the same thing is true if you are writing a book set in Los Angeles or New York or Seattle. You have to understand that more than half your readers may have never been there and so you need to build a world around your characters that gives the reader a solid sense of time, place and rules of action and behavior.
Where do you start? In the ordinary world-what is their life like? The protag has learned to navigate their world and as a writer you should think about what this reveals about the character-what strengths and what weaknesses. Establish a social order- things are very different on a working ranch versus a highrise office job. A trip to work might entail a beat up Chevy truck or a commuter train; endless expanse of rolling plains or elbowed standing room only space on a bus.
Shelley taught us to create the world by working down, working out and working in. Ask yourself what is the dominate element in the setting? Let's say the windswept prairie to show vast expanse, the smallness of humans, the struggle between nature and man-as you write, you narrow your focus from the prairie to the protag. This is working down. Then you show the story from the character's point of view-let's say your character lives on an old ranch and works in a donut shop in a small town. She drives to work at 4 a.m. in her beat up Chevy. The road is bumpy and rugged and dark. There might be cracks in the dash from years of hot sun coming in the window. The material on the roof might sag. There could be an old empty gun rack in the back. The radio plays the stock report or weather forecast or country songs. It goes in and out as she drives through small valleys. A coyote crosses her path, she swerves and ends up in the ditch. Now she's late, maybe it's her last chance to keep her job. It's a half mile hike to the closest house and a five mile hike into town. She gets out, kicks the car in frustration, and heads out thankful that she's wearing white nurses shoes that are made for standing for long periods and walking for hours. It smells of night and dew and rain coming. Robins sing cheerfully worsening her mood because the next house over belongs to old man Simmons and he has no patience for stupid drivers and more importantly white trash Paisely women. Sue Paisely knows that her family has never been good enough, not since her great great grandpa refused to be run off when the oil and cattle barons were buying up or stealing all the land they could get their hands on.
Finally, Shelley said that your character's knowledge-such as Sue's knowledge about her family and how the town thinks of her is building the world from within. Her actions and reactions help to build and change the world she's in. Will she knock on the old man's door or walk the five miles into town?
World building is done with details great and small, but most importantly not all at once. If you add them all at once you are what we call, data dumping, or showing the reader how much research you did. World building is an art form of its own. I hope these small tips can get you started. Most importantly stick to the rules of your world. If the town sees her one way not much will change that-what will change is how the character feels about it. Remember Harry Potter didn't return to his Aunt's house a hero, but he returned with internal knowledge that there was more to life then his Aunt's small minded views.
Questions? Please let me know and I'll be happy to explain. Cheers~

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