Four Corners Writer's Group

Another Defense of E-Books

2011-10-27T04:45:00.000+02:00

I found myself wandering through the book aisle in warehouse store the other day, beating down the all-too familiar urge to pick up every book and stroke it. You see, I have an addiction to books. I am addicted to buying them, holding them, smelling them, feeling the paper in my hands and turning their beautiful pages.

It's the reason people ask me how I can own an e-reader. Where's the romance? Where's the love of the book? they ask. You are murdering books and the publishing industry as we know it.

I've actually been told that. Ouch.

I think if you took one look at my "living room" (which has been transformed into our "library") anyone could tell I love me some tree-books. Although most of them were bought before I had a Nook (and a way to e-read), many have been bought after.

But standing in the store using all my will-power not to pick up yet another to add to my collection, I realized there is a difference between loving books, and loving reading.

I love them both.

I love the books - holding them and flipping through them and seeing the colors of the cover and being able to read the front and the back at practically the same time. The physical book is part of the enjoyment of reading.

But it is not everything.

Most of the enjoyment of reading itself comes from the story - one which can be read between covers, or on an electronic device, which, I admit, is also attractive to me. I love the smoothness of the plastic, the way the buttons click just so, the way the words change magically in front of my face as I "turn" pages. The touch screen I am addicted to.

The fact that I can read on an electronic device actually helps me keep engaged in the book, ironically. When reading with a tree-book, I find myself breaking away every now and then, checking my phone, my computer. I am torn between my two addictions.

But when I read on an e-reader, I feed them both at the same time. Subconsciously, my fingers are soothed by the clicking through the pages, and I don't feel the need to constantly check my emails and social media. I am more free to get lost in the story. And as strange as this sounds, I'm not alone. In the book, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distractions, the author Alan Jacobs says the same thing.

And when people like to point out that e-readers are going to be the death of books, I like to point to the iPod. Did that kill music? Indeed not! It's true that there are less physical music stores out there. The album is rare, tapes almost non-existant, and CDs probably dwindling. But music continues to thrive, more now than ever. By making music more portable, more immediately accessible, less expensive, consumers tend to buy and listen to more. More artists have the ability to get their voice out there to be heard.

The digitization of books is similar. E-readers allow e-books, and e-books allow more authors to have their shot at publication, allow more competition, which eventually I believe will lead to better quality. The people I know who use their electronic readers primarily, buy more books. They read more. They read far more than they used to read tree-books. They spend far more money on books than they did before.

Maybe people miss music stores, but I haven't heard many people moaning over it lately. People like being able to listen to entire albums online before buying, buying only the songs they love, downloading it immediately when they hear a song.

I don't know that physical book stores will go away in the same manner, but I think if they do, the transition will be long, and by then we'll be weaned enough that we don't miss them as much. We aren't there now, for sure. My own drooling in the grocery store aisle is testament to that. But I also can see a future where there are more books being published, more access to them, and less expense (to say nothing of less space required to keep them in my house!).

Change is rarely easy. Some of us will go kicking and screaming. And others... like a frog in boiling water we'll someday look around and say, "Wait a minute? When did this happen?" Luckily, we're not frogs, and we'll survive whatever comes just fine.

Is it just me or are all fiction writers crazy?

2011-08-25T04:24:00.003+02:00

I have imaginary friends. They have conversations in my head. Then I write it down.

I want everybody to read what I've written, but the thought of anybody actually reading it scares the crap out of me.

I want to see my novel, with my name on the cover, in stores, in people's hands, in their backpacks, on the coffee table beside a pair of glasses. But telling anybody that I am a writer is totally embarrassing. I squirm with discomfort just thinking about it.

I can withdraw into my brain-world for hours. It's really interesting in there. Frightening sometimes.

I write query letters, then I rewrite them, then I cut half of it and rearrange what's left. I worry and fret that it's not good enough. I mash my lips together and press my knuckles into my temples as I read the query that will never get anywhere. I study different websites for advice on how to write a good query. Then I have to rewrite.

I send the query off to my writer's group, we go back and forth with suggestions and improvements, and you know what I do then? I rewrite it.

Anybody know the definition of insanity?

I send those queries off to agents, fully aware that there is little chance I'll get a reply, let alone a request. I put my battered self-esteem on the line again and again.

Every time there's an email my heart speeds up, then crashes with disappointment when it's a rejection.

On the rare occasion that the reply is not a rejection, I fall in love with the person who wants to see the rest of my book. I love him/her. She is the best agent, no, the best human being, in the world. He gets me, man, he understands where this is all coming from and he's the perfect guy to make it happen. She is so smart. He is so friendly.

When it turns out to be a rejection, well, turns out she's not perfect, or smart. She can't be that smart if she didn't end up loving my novel, right? And he's way out there, he is clueless because he just doesn't get it.

But if either of them contacted me I would throw myself into their metaphorical arms.

I just want to be loved.

I want you to hate my book and tell everybody how much you hate it so that it gets banned from high schools and people burn piles of it in the streets, and people cover their iPads and Kindles with one hand while they read it so that nobody else can see. I want you to hate it so much you have to buy another copy to read, just to make sure you really hated it as much as you remember hating it. I want you to write letters to magazines about all the reasons you hated my book.

And I want reporters to come to my little home in the sticks and interview me about the book everybody hates (and some love) to find out what it's all about and why, all to which I'll be coy and speak in riddles so that nobody can figure out really what my infuriating book is supposed to be doing, and as a result they need to read my next book too.

I'll decline every interview and refuse to have an author photo taken.

I'll tell myself it's irrelevant because it's never gonna happen anyways.

I dream of sitting at a table surrounded by my book with a pen in my hand, smiling, signing my novel for those who paid for it and are excited to read it. Then I think the whole scene would make me run away screaming and maybe even gagging.

I cry about things that never actually happened in real life.

I think about funny things said by a person who doesn't exist, and I giggle out loud.

I am both proud of what I've written, and convinced it's total garbage.

I love to write and I friggen hate it.

I suspect I might be kind of brilliant but I am sure that I'm flaky and cheesy.

I don't remember driving to the store because I was too busy figuring out that nasty little plot twist. I can't believe I didn't see that coming. That'll be a surprise. Nobody expected THAT to happen. Mwa ha ha. (Why am I standing in front my truck staring at my keys?)

On a regular basis, sometimes daily, I will resign myself to the fact that I may never achieve my goals. Chances are, my novel will never be on a bookstore shelf or a bookstore website. I resentfully accept that. I die a little inside. Then I find that pebble of resistance in the rubble pile of pessimism. I am a good writer, dammit! I can do this! I cheerlead myself back into it again even though I still know I will likely be disappointed.

I have this bizarre idea that I could possibly make a meagre living at this, despite statistics proving that financially successful authors are the exception and that we hear about them because of their rarity. I admit that I will keep writing while it doesn't pay me a thing. I know it's stupid. I can't help it. I have to keep writing.

If I don't write, I feel unhinged and pent-up and jittery. When I am on a hot streak, I forget to eat. I forget my name.

I want you to tell me how great my writing is.

And when you do, I'll be convinced that you mean well, but you're really just being nice and it's not great work. Or I'll think maybe you were tired when you read it and you couldn't possibly have recognized how weak it is.

Or worse, I might wonder if I didn't read or hear your compliments correctly. My own insecurities about my talent and skill might completely distort everything you say about what I wrote.

I am an extroverted introvert. I'm also an introverted extrovert. I don't want to work in public. I want to hole up in my room with my computer, tapping out words. I don't want to leave the farm, ever, but I know books need promoting, and that means being out there in the world, and it intimidates me.

I want to write. I want to make stuff up. I want to tell beautiful lies. I want to pretend.

I'm emotional, imaginative, reactive, irrational. I insist on continuing an activity that makes me alternately euphoric and despondent.

And you know why all this stuff is going on?

Because I am a fiction writer, I live part of my life in a fictional world of my own creation, I have an observant arm's length relationship with reality, and I am absolutely freaking crazy.

Creating Flawed Heroes: A Look At Three Cups of Tea

2011-04-27T17:16:00.000+02:00

One of the trappings of amateur writing is to create one-dimensional characters, protagonists that are all good and antagonists that are all evil. Let’s face it though: even comic book superheroes have weaknesses; how much more should regular human characters, be they fictional or non-fictional?

Although Mortenson and Relin’s biographical book, Three Cups of Tea, has been criticized for showing Mortenson in a biased and all-too-heroic light, I disagree. There is plenty of flaw in this mountaineer-turned-humanitarian, and that is what made him come alive on the pages, and, if possible, seem even more heroic.

Although listed as co-authors, it’s fairly clear that the majority of this book is written by David Oliver Relin. It presents a third person point of view biography of the man who has come to be known as Dr. Greg. The story begins with a failure and a triumph. On his way to conquer K2, mountain climber Greg Mortenson is called off-course, after already climbing eight times to high camp with the expedition’s food and oxygen stock, to save another climber suffering from pulmonary and cerebral edema. Though it might be easy to paint Mortenson as a superhero who trekked up and down K2 saving lives, it’s this saving of the life that saps his energy and costs him his bid for the summit. Once a helicopter rescues the ill climber at the lower camp where he has been dragged, Mortenson is left to descend the rest of the mountain on his own, where he gets lost and ends up quite sick himself in a small Pakistan village that has never seen a foreigner.

Although this failure brings about the life-changing plans to build schools for the impoverished children of Pakistan, it never seems far from Mortenson’s mind. Failure itself seems to hang over him hard, even through the successes, as he lives in his car and in crack-addled hostiles, faces empty rooms where no one shows to hear him talk, and waits long days for replies to hundreds of pleas for funding that never come.

It is not just his external circumstances that scream failure; Mortenson himself is full of flaws. His work is seemingly disorganized, his basement office “an embarrassing mess.” He appeared depressed, often hiding from the world and his family when he is back in the United States and eventually is given the name of a therapist when he is unable to cope with the depression and anger towards people who want more time than he has to give. He left his family – first a wife, then eventually two children as well – for months at a time, traveling overseas to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India as well as around the country on fund-raising missions. In charge of the Central Asian Institute, Mortenson frustrated his fellow board members with his inability to delegate tasks and allow others in on the planning, leaving them with the knowledge that without him, the charitable work in the middle east through CAI would cease to be. He also became obsessed about the work to the point where “he stopped climbing and exercising. He stopped sleeping. He began to gain so much weight that he didn’t even look like a mountaineer anymore.”

Even in his more heroic acts, he stumbles. When making good on his promise to build the first school, he is ineffective on fundraising. He entrusts his load of cement and lumber to a Pakistani who hides it and uses it for himself and as ransom to get Mortenson to build a school in his town instead. Once he is ready to bring the materials to the town, he is told there is no way to get them there across the river as there is no bridge. Although there will be many instances in which Mortenson comes up against brick walls not of his own doing – such as the Taliban kidnapping of him and the destruction of his passport– there are plenty of times in which Mortenson himself seems to not plan enough and not handle the finances well enough.

He is, however, aware of these failings, and they serve to only send him into further withdrawals at home. When Mortenson is quoted, he is self-effacing and humble in his accomplishments, often giving credit to others

The fact is that what Mortenson does accomplish – building more than 81 schools and bringing clean water pipelines as well as other community improvements – in a region of the world that hates Americans and is at war with them, in a culture he does not initially know, with a language he does not speak, with no contacts or friends or political backing – is amazing. It would be amazing if a superhero with only an aversion to cryptonite did it. The fact that Mortenson, a humble, disorganized, self-conscious and shy individual has done it is what makes it so very heroic.

For writers of fiction or non-fiction this is a lesson to be learned: let the weaknesses shine. Not only does this make for a more believable character, but it makes their victories more triumphant.

Hmmm... this character is a little too much like the author...

2011-03-25T22:02:00.002+01:00

It's been a concern of mine for years: writing characters that resemble me a little too closely!

Details like eye and hair colour, height, and other specific physical characteristics can distinguish me from my imaginary people, but what if I find my own words coming out of that mouth?

Maybe it's inevitable. These characters have been formed in my mind. Why wouldn't they act or think or look like me?

This is the kind of thing any writer needs a good group for. I asked my 4 Corners about this, because I was really freaked out that my protagonist, Nikki, was turning out like a rearranged version of Heidi. We both have spotted horses. We both teach riding lessons and do a bit of horse training. We've both been known to colour our hair. She has a musician boyfriend; I have a recording engineer husband. Differences? She has tattoos and I don't. Um...she loves to cook?

I honestly can't remember what my writer friends responded with (and I'm too lazy to go look it up) but I left that exchange with a sense of calm. The worry was lifted. My writer friends believe in me and trust that I can invent an entire novel.

I can trust readers to know that writers make things up.

It's fiction. It's all made up. It's all imaginary. For the most part, readers don't know me, and everything is new. The characters haven't solidified for them yet, and aren't based on anyone the reader is familiar with.

Isn't that the most exciting freedom?

My character has a story to tell, a story that might ring true for somebody reading it. I hope this character can have an impact, whether it's love or hate or bewilderment. She's not real, she's not me, but I want her to seem like she could be real. If certain aspects of her life are close to my own, it just means I'm writing what I know and won't make the kind of mistakes that lose readers.

I love my imaginary people and I love my writer friends!

Now back to work.

The Importance of Plot

2011-02-23T18:26:00.001+01:00

There’s no doubt that people pick up The Art of Racing in the Rain because of the too-close photo of the dog on the front and the fact that it’s written from a dog’s point of view. Enzo the dog makes a tremendous and unique narrator, and that choice for this book is brilliant. But it was not Enzo that kept me reading this book. As cute and philosophical and creative as that point of view is, what kept me glued to page after page until way too late at night was the plot – the fact that event after event piled on top of each other moved the book in such a way that even the dog lazing in the sun couldn’t slow it down.

The book opens on the eve of Enzo’s death, and though the idea is that Enzo is reflecting on his own life with his owner Denny, the truth is that we really are reflecting on the life of Denny. Within the first year of the narrator, which is glossed over in a span of three pages, Denny meets the girl who will become his wife. Under the guise of seeing how Enzo welcomes another person into his home, we really see how Denny falls so hard in love with this woman named Eve, and how, very quickly, the family expands to include a daughter, Zoe. While the story might be tempted to mold the story around Enzo’s rough adjustment to this new larger family and its happy-ever-after, instead, the dog is merely an observer to how this temporarily happy family begins to unravel.

Stein creates a story in which each chapter creates a new problem, a new layer of complications bearing down on Denny. First, we see how Denny’s career as a racecar driver keeps him from being home when his daughter is born, foreshadowing the conflicts he will face later in choosing between his family and his dreams: “But for Mark Fein to say that Denny should put his own needs above the needs of his family because concurrent success in both fields was impossible was simply wrong.”

His being away from home also compounds the problem when Eve begins feeling ill. “’You always go away, and I have to take care of Zoe and Enzo all by myself, and I can’t do it! It’s too much! I can barely take care of myself!’” In order for her to have constant care, her parents have Eve move in with them. This begins a snowball effect of Zoe moving in with the grandparents, loneliness leading to a compromising situation with a teen, Eve’s death, the grandparents’ insistence on getting custody of Zoe, a custody battle that climaxes in the false charges of felony rape, the subsequent bankruptcy of Denny due to escalating lawyer fees and lack of ability to travel for racing and a court case against him. Chapter after chapter, Denny is dealt blows that pull the reader into the story with ferocity. Enzo, though the unique narrator, is merely recording these events as a bystander and comforter.

I don’t want to downplay the importance of Enzo as narrator. The moments of reading where I laughed or cried, it was because of Enzo. My heart broke because his heart broke. My tears came when he became old and frail and unable to stand on his own, because I’ve had dogs and been through those heartbreaking last days.

But I stayed awake, page after turning page, because my attention was invested in Denny and the constant parade of difficulties that came into his life. There was not a page where everything – or even most things – was settled with him. What I learned from The Art of Racing in the Rain is that the art of creating a compelling story is to create plot points that compel a reader to keep reading so that at no chapter do they feel things are well enough to put the book down for a night. Each scene must not just move the story forward but drag the reader further into the mire of the character’s life like a pit of quicksand.

There is often the criticism that literary novels wallow. This book does not wallow; it races. From one blistering complication to the next, it is a perfect example of how a book cannot rest upon a gimmick as cheap as a dog as a narrator; in the end, plot is everything.

Focus! Purge! Rewrite! Submit! Reject! And then do it again!

2011-01-18T21:25:00.005+01:00

I'd written, rewritten, and revised. I sent it around to be read and critiqued. I made more changes. I added a few scenes, clarified some details, but most importantly, chopped thousands of words.

I thought I was DONE!

I wasn't.

I revised.

People I trust suggested changes, some of which I used, others I couldn't bring myself to make.

After purging a couple hundred more words, I believed I had a lean mean publisher's dream! This time, yes, finally, it will go somewhere! This new query is hot! This manuscript will be literary agent catnip.

I sent it off, honestly thinking it was READY!

It wasn't.

Not quite.

An agent I really like, after reading the whole thing, made a few suggestions I'd already heard. Of course, anybody's opinion is just that- an opinion- but this settled it. Despite my hard work, this book really was not as done and ready as I thought.

This may feel like a defeat or a setback, and it's always a disappointment to get a rejection, but it can actually be a blessing to be rejected by an agent. Writers never stop learning. I've got the knowledge now to make this book even better. The agent who rejected me- very kindly I must add- has done me a favour.

I'll set aside my stubbornness and pride to make some of those changes. If my critique partners and an agent are all saying the same thing, there must be some truth to it.

It won't be easy. After so many years of work I've gotten so emotionally involved in this story and characters. But rewriting a book for years a big advantage: I no longer believe that every word is precious. I can eliminate whole paragraphs and feel pretty darn good about it. I'm capable of tackling it one more time. As many times as it takes.

As long as it takes to be ready.

Again.

A German Holiday

2010-12-07T12:09:00.005+01:00

December 6th is a holiday in Germany called St. Nikolaus day. St. Nikolaus is portrayed as a grey-haired man with a flowing beard who wears bishop's robe, a golden cape and carries a staff. He visits the children to enquire about their behavior during the past year. On Monday, St. Nikolaus was seen all over Germany riding his horse and surrounded by small figures with painted black faces who passed out cakes and candy to the children.

The story of St. Nikolaus, the bishop of Myra in Minor Asia, who died on December 6th, 343, dates back to the 4th century. He is said to appear in the company of Knecht Ruprecht, "Knecht" meaning "servant". Historically, Ruprecht was a dark and sinister figure wearing a tattered robe with a big sack on his back in which, as a legend says, he would put all naughty children.

As an American, parts of this tradition are interesting, the parallels to our own Santa Claus (St. Nick), but other parts are disturbing in its political incorrectness. But there is also pleasure in participating in traditions different from what I know and seeing how others simply celebrate the holiday as it has always been, and not conforming to today's ideology. Putting aside my own feelings and trying to understand what the meaning of the celebration is, for me, what diversity should be about.

Know the Rules.... Then Break Them All

2010-11-23T23:21:00.000+01:00

When I first started getting serious about writing for publication, I spent a lot of time reading about how to write... books about how to write and how to get published, blogs by agents and editors and prospective writers about how to write.

There are a lot of rules out there.

Don't use adverbs and adjectives.

Don't begin your book with a dream.

Don't meander off into back-story.

Don't write in passive voice.

Do start in the middle of the action or conflict.

Do vary the length and structure of your sentences.

Don't use dialogue tags unless you should use dialogue tags, and then just use "said" instead of trying to be creative.

See? It's enough to drive you bonkers.

When I was in high school, there were a lot of writing rules also.

Don't use incomplete sentences.

Don't end a sentence with a preposition or start one with the word "but," "because," or "so."

Always use correct punctuation and grammar.

All paragraphs should have at least five sentences, including a topic sentence and a concluding sentences, with the supporting details in between.

You know what, though? I totally broke the rules. When I was in high school I was all about the incomplete sentences and the funky grammar and the sentences starting with "because." And the teachers let me do it. You know why? Because they trusted me that I knew the rules well enough to break them well. They trusted me enough to know that I had moved beyond basic writing rules and into trying to find my own writing style... my voice. I was SO blessed to have such great teachers!

The publishing industry isn't all that different from high school. The rules are there as basic teaching structures. You need to do more than just know them; you need to understand them. Understand why they are there, what their use is. Until you really "get" them, it's best to stick to them. You can't go wrong playing by the rules.

But once you've figured out what the rules are there for – they're there to save your book from lackluster verbs and non-specific nouns, from cliches and boring passages that don't do anything to move the story forward, to make sure your reader can actually read and understand what you are writing – then by all means, shatter those rules. Use the adverbs to emphasize already spectacular verbs. Use back-story to actually make your book more suspenseful and draw the reader in even more. Create a writing style that is uniquely yours. Write a dream sequence that is so vivid and tense it will have your reader holding his breath.

Once you've read all the writing books and writing blogs, and you know the rules, read the real books. Read the literary fiction and young adult fiction and crime fiction. Read the award winners and the best sellers, and see how the masters do it. I'd bet my last dollar you'll find authors who have managed to break every last writing rule, and done it well.

THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE.

2010-11-04T20:04:00.004+01:00

I had occasion lately, on my personal blog, to come out with a surprise ending that turned out to be amazing and it reminded me about something I heard from a writing teacher years ago. Not only are surprise endings important to story telling, but surprises spread throughout the story are crucial also. In fact this teacher suggested having surprises in every paragraph.

Thinking back to what she said, I at first found such a feat impossible. Then I thought of a movie I had seen recently which almost certainly has just that in the screenplay--Shakespeare In Love, with Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The movie starts with the owner of the playhouse where Shakespeare's plays were produced being tortured, the action of which undoubtedly is described in one paragraph in the screenplay. We are meant to think that all of this takes place in a barren room hidden away someplace; then the curtains open and we find ourselves in a great playhouse where a lot of the subsequent action is to take place and where Shakespeare plays were produced--a marvelous surprise for the beginning of a story.

When we first see Shakespeare, instead of a rather grizzled but important looking personage writing purposefully at his desk, we are amused to see a harried young man writing various versions of "William Shakespeare" on sheets of paper with a quill pen for all the world like a neophyte writer practicing his signature. We then see him angrily crumpling them up and tossing the papers here and there in the room.

Further surprises are in store for those who know Shakespeare's plays, for the balled up clumps of paper land near props suggesting some of Shakespeare's plays, one such prop being a skull suggesting Hamlet. The fact that Shakespeare is writing numerous different signatures, for those who know even more about Shakespeare, provide further surprise for numerous versions of Shakespeare's signatures are known to exist. The fact that there are numerous versions suggests that Shakespeare, at one time, was just such a neophyte writer--which wraps delightful surprise within delightful surprise!

The important thing for surprise to work is for the writer to bring about an action that seems impossible and if the writer can introduce some humor all the better. Think through stories you've read recently which you could not put down and you'll undoubtedly find such surprises spread throughout the manuscript. Our own Heidi Willis, in her wonderful "Some Kind Of Normal", brings about just such a surprise laced with humor when she has Babs, stuck at a traffic light, yelling out at the woman in the car in front of her "It's not going to get any greener if you milk it, Lady!".

The next time you put pen to paper see if you can introduce surprise in every paragraph. You will find your reader anxious to read more!

Crit it like you hate it

2010-10-12T13:43:00.002+02:00

I'm finishing up line edits with my editor, and while I'm in a great crit group *waves* and assist others in their writing, I feel like working with my editor has been the single best thing that could have happened to my critting and editing side ever. Why?

She's taught me to crit it like I hate it.

Let me explain. You have a chapter, you're reading through it. What do you normally check for?

1. misspelled words
2. funny placed words
3. basic idea carried through...
4. time schedules, where applicable

She's got me thinking about:

1. extra words. Are you saying too much where you could cut it down? Be more succinct? Editors don't pay by the word! Cut them out!

2. plot development. What actually *happens* to move the plot forward in this chapter? Because no matter what you think about how beautiful that paragraph is, if it's not bringing the story forward? It's gotta go.

3. Backstory. How much do you actually need? How much can you trust your reader to build for themself? Reading is a very individual activity, and imagination must be used. Are you taking away from the story and the reader's imagination by delivering everything on a platter?

4. Chunks. As in, 'blow chunks'. This relates to plot development. Everything should mesh...this goes for those parts that are beautiful but useless. They've got to go.

When I got the first marked-up manuscript, I almost had a HEART attack. She used pencil (thank goodness! It would have looked like a stabbing victim otherwise!) but it seemed everywhere I looked I needed to cut, cut, cut.

I trusted her, though, and decided to do it. I cut. And cut. And I realized, as I went along, that I could have seen lots of the cuts coming if I would have been honest with myself. I was just too in love with some paragraphs to let them go. But let them go I did, and I have a leaner, tighter, better book for it.

I will do this from now on, this critting technique. It's worth its weight in gold.

A Nasty Comment and The Good it Brought

2010-10-07T18:31:00.001+02:00

I dropped a minor bombshell on my husband and my son, Glenn, that prompted an impromptu writing lesson from Glenn, who teaches writing in a community college and is brilliant, of course!

The bombshell was what my writing teacher said to me, which Glenn said was very unprofessional. I'm going to have to drop her and it's killing me. The lady cannot stop from sending very destructive comments my way and yet she's a great teacher. Writers can be insecure and having someone unleash nasty stuff on them is not good, but oh I'll miss her teaching. She has really helped my writing in so many ways. My husband said he'd be very distressed if I continued with her, that's how bad the comment was.

To help me around a problem which prompted the comment, Glenn then began teaching me a very basic lesson--what a story is. First of all, he said, stories are really very simple. Doesn't matter if it's an epic--simple! Moby Dick, for instance, is all about the whale. Begins with the whale and ends with the whale. (He'd kill me if he saw this because, of course, what he said was much more to the point and brilliant!) Ulysses is about a father finding a son and a son finding a father. (All of this is from my memory so I may have it mixed up.) Try a more recent example: one of my favorite stories--"The Secret Life Of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd--wonderful! Isn't that, ultimately about finding a mother? It starts with a character obsessed with the mother she lost and ends with her finding a mother. Ultimately she finds a whole bunch, but the point remains--she finds a mother.

First thing you need to do is answer a simple question--what is your story about? That may not be easy, because you may not really know the answer until you've finished the story but try you must!

All this destructive sniping was about my fantasy--Finding The Oracians. To say my teacher has discouraged me from continuing with it is to underplay it, to say the least. The only thing that's helped is knowing what a previous student in the class had told me. She's also a fantasy writer and she is a fabulous writer. She loved the story and couldn't wait to see more!

I just realized I wrote "another fantasy writer". That is good, people! It shows that the lady's destructive comment didn't undermine me too badly.

Glenn said what I needed to do was outline; then plop my wonderful stuff in the proper place. He said my writing was brilliant and oh did that feel good, but I had trouble putting it into a clear structure. That was what prompted the nasty comment from the teacher and Glenn, of course, said it in a way that didn't hurt but helped. What the teacher said was truly demeaning to my ability as a writer and given she can't help but deliver these jabs I know it makes no sense but to quit her. Didn't matter that she said good stuff afterwards--the damage had been done. She asked for a critique at the end of my first session with her and I told her she tends to unleash the negative stuff first and sometimes not come out with anything positive to combat it, but she continues doing it and actually ups the negativity. She has been warned!

I told him Finding The Oracians was about finding the last survivors of the Oracians, a powerful people from another planet who came to Earth many years ago. At the beginning of the story, we're at some time far in the future after the planet has been destroyed by a catastrophic event; an Oracian boy has been sent by his people from the past to help my heroine, Mela, who has special powers which will serve her well. Together, their quest is to try to find the missing Oracians, if any survived. The Earth is in terrible straits and the only ones who can save it are the Oracians. The Oracians have been systematically removed many years ago--the only reason Mela's people were spared was they were sent by her grandfather, a powerful wizard, to a time far in the future. What makes it especially difficult and challenging is the Oracian villages are all hidden. Glenn suggested I start from either California or Minnesota, since I know them, and proceed from one to the other. The story begins with the destruction of her village with Mela, the only survivor.

I have a subplot going, which I'll have to work in. Actually, I'm thinking it's really part and parcel of the original plot, that somehow, Mela's mother was killed because she knew about the destruction of the Oracian villages to come and too much about another great danger coming to Earth sometime far in the future, but to up the ante, to a time now almost upon the Earth. Mela has been raised by a Resident Witch--Miss Wiggins, and Mela is obsessed with finding out what happened to her mother and finding her father--who left on a quest when she was four years old. Mela will hope to get to her mother before she's destroyed and together they will--along with the boy--hunt for the missing Oracians. All of this is tied in with the Salem Witch Trials so, come to think of it, the story has to start in Massachusetts and proceed to either Wisconsin or Minnesota.

Wish me luck on plotting out my Moby Dick!

Location, Location, Location

2010-10-06T11:58:00.003+02:00

My favorite place to write has always been our office which is painted in shades of sesame, bookshelves line the walls and there's a window with a view of several trees whose leaves are changing from green to gold. I love sitting at the computer, staring out the window when I'm trying to figure things out or even hopping on the elliptical when I'm stuck and can't figure where the story goes next.

But what I've realized is this tiny oasis has actually become too comfortable. It's a place to relax and unwind, to decompress and for me, it's not conducive to writing. I need adrenaline and energy to verbalize the ideas and pictures in my mind. So this week I've tried moving my writing area.

First, the living room. A large, comfortable coffee colored couch which begs to be reclined on. Then there's the television which somehow gets turned on and some random TV show becomes background noise. Now sometimes this works. When I want to write at night and no one else is awake and it's just a little too quiet, I like hearing voices to feel less alone. During the day? Not so much. There's enough noise from outside that it all becomes too distracting.

Bedroom. Normally the only time I'm on my bed, during the day, is when I'm sick. Being in there is just mentally uncomfortable, not to mention I hate looking at a rumpled bedspread. *thanks mom*

So I've settled in the kitchen. It's not large, as anyone who has lived in or visited Europe knows, but it's cosy and I stare at mint green walls and the window faces our garden so it's relatively quiet during the day. The internet connection is spotty and that means less online time. Kinda good when you're trying to write 2k words/day. I don't daydream or think of all the things I need to get done and haven't hit the comfort zone where I feel all relaxed and sleepy, mostly because the chairs are small and not very comfortable.

But I've written 4k new words this week. I haven't had more time, haven't been less busy, but I did move my writing space. Who knew location was so important?

Where is your favorite place to write?

An Unpopular View on Banned Book Week

2010-09-27T19:25:00.001+02:00

** I preface this by saying this post is entirely my own opinion and not necessarily the opinions of the other 4Corners writers. **

This week is the official Banned Books Week. It is sponsored by the American Library Association, among other groups, and the purpose of it is to celebrate our First Amendment right to free speech, to celebrate the freedom to read, and to draw attention to the growing challenges of censorship.

Last year there were 460 challenges to remove or ban 66 individual book titles from bookstores, libraries, or schools. Some of those books are classics, such as my all-time favorite To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, and others are newer titles such as Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper and Nineteen Minutes.

If you are interested in finding out what specific books have been challenged, and where and by whom, you can download the list here, by clicking on the link "Books Banned and Challenged 2008-2009."

I'll start by stating that I love books. I love authors who tackle difficult subjects. I understand authors wanting to show life as it really is in their books, warts and all.

I'm not a fan of book burnings. I am a fan of the first amendment.

I do love some of the banned books. This past week there's been an uproar in the blogging community over the challenge to remove the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson from a school district. I've read this book and I think it's beautifully written and touching, brilliantly funny in a very unfunny topic. I didn't find the "rape" scenes to be at all graphic or inappropriate for a high school audience, which I'm usually extraordinarily conservative about. There was some language which I might find concerning for a middle school audience but most parents probably wouldn't have issues with for high schoolers.

I do, however, have issues with the uprising over many of these challenges by people who think it's the right of any book to have a place anywhere to be read by anyone. Namely, that any book is okay for public school libraries.

What I want to address here is not in regards to the quality of any particular book and why kids should read it and have access to it. What I want to play devil's advocate to is the right of the public schools to pull books from its libraries and curriculum based on objectionable content.

I have been an author, parent, and teacher. I try to see all sides of conflict. And while I know its a wildly unpopular view, I think some of the "censorships" in schools are valid, and this is why:

1. Public schools routinely practice certain limitations of freedom of speech. Kids in public schools (elementary through high school) are usually banned from using certain language, having certain words or symbols or graphics or colors on clothing. Teachers are limited in what rating of movies they can show in class. Does it not make sense that their own libraries should have to follow these restrictions? If a student is not allowed to say the F-word in the hallways, or wear it on a t-shirt, should teachers then require them to read books with the word in it? Should books scattered with those words sit on school shelves as if the school condones the language? Taking out the arguments that kids know these words, hear these words, use these words, doesn't a public school have the right to be consistent in its rules?

If a school is constantly fighting drugs and alcohol and gangs, if they have taken up the battle cry against these things, does it not make sense that they would remove the books that have that content? If a particular district or county struggles with racism and intolerance, don't they have to right to consider removing books that might fan the flame?

Personally, I love To Kill A Mockingbird, and no matter how painful it might be, I think the racism in the book is accurate and historic, and shown in a light that makes it look as ignorant and awful as it was. It is a book I want all of my kids to read. But if our schools decide to take it out of the curriculum because there are concerns about it, I won't protest. They have to consider more than just my kids, and even if I disagree, I won't make that decision for other parents. I'll let my kids read the copy we have on our own shelves. I'll take them to the public library or the bookstore. Just because a school replaces one book with another (which they do all the time, even apart from controversy), doesn't mean that book is banned from being read.

Which leads me to the next point.

2. As far as I can tell from my research, no school has banned a student from reading any of these books. If a student wants to buy or borrow a book that a school has deemed inappropriate, he's not restricted from doing that. The school is not banning kids from reading these books, even within the walls of the school; they are removing them from their own book shelves (or in some cases not choosing to buy them). A public school is in no way obligated to provide students with an endless library. I've taught in schools that barely had enough money for two shelves of books. There is no right that says students should have access in the school building to whatever book they want. The schools, are, however, obligated to listen to parents and the community of taxpayers that provide the money for those libraries. They may not be obligated to follow the recommendations of a few, but they should listen and consider the concerns.

And if parents are so distressed by those decisions, go buy the book for your own child.

3. Many of the books banned by public schools or challenged by parents are not books written for a teen audience in the first place. Jodi Picoult, for example, didn't write her books for an audience of fourteen and fifteen year olds. The Lovely Bones, a story of kidnapping, rape and murder, was not intended for 11 and 12 years olds, and yet it ended up in a middle school library. Obviously kids will read books far outside the MG and YA constrictions, but public schools should not be the ones forcing or recommending these books to kids as they have so many times by putting them on required reading lists if they contain objectionable material.

This is true, even of classics. I remember reading Grapes of Wrath as a sophomore and being both horrified and grosssed out by some of the descriptions. Of course, I hated reading that book with a passion, so if someone could get that one banned, I'd be content. (Just kidding!! Really!!) The point is, years ago in my school someone removed that book from the required reading, not because it was objectionable, but because they found something else. 300,000 books are published every year. EVERY YEAR!! Catcher in the Rye may be a great book that resounds with many teens, but it doesn't have to be the only book that can do that.

My main point, though, is that people act as though a school taking a book of it's shelves is the equivalent of shutting down a student's First Amendment Rights, but it's not. It's a school, funded by taxpayers and endowed with the tremendous responsibility of being a huge influence in a child's rearing and education, making a decision about what is appropriate and condonable in that particular school, in that particular community. Rights have always been somewhat different for people under the age of 18, especially in schools. The right of the student is balanced by the responsibility of the school to the other students.

Thank heavens the parents' rights are still in tact, and if you as a parent want your child to read Speak or Forever or And Tango Makes Three, buy that book for them. Take them to a public library. And if the teen wants to read The Book of Bunny Suicides, I promise you he'll find it, whether you want him to or not.

Freedom of Speech is not dead. Authors can write whatever they like. Publishers can publish whatever they think will sell. Bookstores can stock whatever they think people will buy. Readers can buy whatever they are interested in reading.

Libraries and the right to borrow for free any book we want to read from any library we want to visit is never guaranteed in the Constitution. That is, and has always been, a privilege.

Where Have All the Chicano Writers Gone?

2010-09-16T14:28:00.003+02:00

I´m rereading a book I read for the first time almost twenty years ago. It´s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez. It was her debut novel, and was first published in 1991 to great acclaim. I can personally say that it is an enjoyable and compelling read. Her second novel, published in 1994 and titled In the Time of the Butterflies did so well it was made into a movie starring Salma Hayek, Marc Anthony and Edward James Olmos.

Alvarez was born in New York City in 1950 to parents originally from the Dominican Republic. Shortly after her birth, however, her parents moved back to the Dominican Republic where they remained until she was ten years old. Fleeing the Trujillo dictatorship, the family emigrated to the United States permanently in 1960. In her books, Alvarez analyzes the subjects of exile, Hispanic culture and the immigrant experience of assimilation into American culture, along with a smattering of the modern history of the Dominican Republic. Her debut novel came out at a time when Isabel Allende was also coming into her own and being recognized as a great Latina/Chicana writer, and when the Latin immigrant experience in the United States, among others, was suddenly emerging as a legitimate topic for fiction. (There was Amy Tan, for example, who wrote The Joy Luck Club in 1989 about the Chinese-American experience)

Given that I had chosen to pick up her first novel again, I decided to Google Julia Alvarez to see what she has been up to for the past almost twenty years. And she has been busy, but interestingly, after her first two very successful novels, she has written mostly children´s and young adult books. And while Isabel Allende also continues to publish, you don´t hear so much about her books as being runaway bestsellers (or at least I don´t, but maybe I´m wrong about that). In fact, I haven´t heard much about many Chicano writers of late. So I´m just wondering why. It might be that I´m just completely out of it. Afterall, I don´t even live in the United States anymore. But I was also wondering if the massive influx of Latin American natives into the United States over the past twenty years (I believe they are the largest immigrant group in the US now) has made their experience a less unique one. Maybe they are no longer the “other”, but have become just another well assimilated ethnic group, like the Italians, Irish, Germans, Jews, etc. who immigrated in great waves at the beginning of the twentieth century. Hispanics are now more of an official part of the melting pot, an immigrant group that has been accepted by the mainstream.

I don´t mean to imply by this that I think the immigrant experience is no longer an interesting topic for fiction. I think it will always be, but I think the immigrant groups that people want to read about change, because what we consider exotic changes. Over the past decade, I think the Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern immigrant experiences are what agents and editors want to hear about. Think about the recent success of works like Azar Nafisi´s memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran, Khaled Hosseini´s fictional work The Kite Runner, or Jhumpa Lahiri´s popular short stories. The average American knows much less about the culture and history of Iran, Afghanistan or India than they do now about Latin America. And with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, political tensions with Iran, India´s extensive economic growth, Al Qaeda hiding out in Pakistan, these places are now on the radar of most Americans. And immigrants from these countries are now the exotic “other”, the ones who are so different from us that we don´t understand them.

So what do you think? Does a particular immigrant experience as interesting fiction have an expiration date? Are there trends in multicultural literature as there are with other genres? In your opinion, what is hot right now?

Dog Days of Summer

2010-09-07T08:30:00.005+02:00

I don't know about everyone else, but those summer days have eaten up any free time I might have had. Not that I'm complaining, it was a beautiful summer in Germany, lots of hot days and sunshine, bbq's and swimming pools. I soaked up the rays and freckled out. But what I'm realizing now is how little time I've spent on writing. I guess it's okay since the weather is turning a bit colder, with wind and rain, and there's more incentive to stay in and write. But it's not a switch you can turn on and off, is it?

What I've done, and it's been working so far, is to liken my writing ritual to my exercise routine. For me, a good warm up is essential. I stretch my muscles to get the blood going, sit on the creaky chair, turn on the computer, open Scrivener, re-read what I've written days before (this also reassures me my writing is actually o-kay) and glance over at the words taped to the wall next to my desk.

Jonathan Franzen:

It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction. (This is what makes me leave the aforementioned desk-computer area and write someplace else)

You see more sitting still than chasing after. (Contemplation is a beautiful thing)

Helen Dunmore

A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk. (I just hop on the elliptical)

Anne Enright

Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand. (An easy thing to forget. How do I see the world, how does my character see the world? Two separate views.)

These great writers and a bunch of others have shared their writing tips. Take a look. Choose your own favorites. Get inspired!

And as I'm writing this post the adrenaline is ramping up and the craving is kicking in. I'll end here and hope you all have a great writing day!!!!

To Be Or Not To Be, That Is The GaZorTanPlan.

2010-09-02T22:37:00.007+02:00

Maybe you've been reading about the nefarious side effects of the gadgets we now live with--and like me--cannot do without. For example, sitting at a computer for hours can lesson your ability to think. This--I have to tell you--made me prick up my ears.

In case you're wondering about the word "GaZorTanPlan", that is the word (or a reasonable facsimile) used by Bob Newhart in the scrambling of a famous line by Shakespeare in an album of his favorite routines. This one was about a study using chimpanzees who were being tested to see whether they could come up with all the famous lines in literature if set at a typewriter long enough and this was what one chimp came up with. Truly, this is what my thinking process feels like, when pressed to the extreme these days. When you reach a certain age--those of us born in the 20's, 30's and 40's-- you worry about not being able to think as well as you used to. I've actually begun trying to do crossword puzzles as an aid to the thinking process. Do you know the name of the North Star? People who do crossword puzzles regularly probably have the answer plugged away comfortably in their thinking apparatus, ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice. Me? The odds of my knowing that should have been about one in a hundred; it's very strange where information like that resides in my brain for when that question came up in a recent crossword puzzle, just like that the name Polaris popped up. The joy of knowing that name!

I just found out a few days ago that lack of good sleep can also affect your thinking ability. I have a difficult time falling asleep and staying asleep--a double whammy. I saw a sleep specialist a few days ago and am arranging for a sleep study where you stay overnight in a laboratory setting where they hook you up to all these gadgets that check what your body is doing while you're sleeping--or in my case--trying to sleep. I wonder if any of those gadgets can pick up your thought processes. My husband's eyes close the minute his head hits the pillow. I hope not because I could be thinking murder in my subconscious.

There's been a series about these side effects in our local newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle. The paper followed a group of people during their work day and found all these people latched onto their iPhones and Blackberries like there was no tomorrow. One man who was waiting for his wife to come from a doctor's appointment turned on his iPhone to check his emails because he had a precious few minutes accorded to him and he had to use them! How about, instead, closing your eyes and turning on the radio and listening to music? I don't do that either!

I wonder if there's someway to put questions into a crossword puzzle. Actually, I'd love to do that. I read something yesterday that offered a great word. Do you know what a "Tweener" is? If you read the story in a recent edition of the New York Times about an incredible shot that Roger Federer made at the U.S. Open recently, you do. His opponent lobbed a shot right to the line and Federer tore back nearly to the wall and shot the ball back between his legs for a winner. A winner! That was what made everyone gasp with wonder!

Being able to think is of paramount importance to a writer. I am doing anything and everything to get those precious brain cells into action!

Are Book Ratings for MG and YA Books Censorship, or Just Another Tool in a Parent's Belt?

2010-09-02T01:04:00.000+02:00

I ran across a blog post by Nathan Bransford last week that got me thinking. In it, he quoted from another post by a woman named Sheryl Cotleur who raised the issue of violence in young adult books. In particular, she referred to the latest book in the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

I have to preface the rest of this with saying that I haven't read the Hunger Games books yet. I have the first two, but somehow always find other things that top my list. I'm not a YA author, so the types of books that pique my interest aren't usually YA. So while I haven't read the books, I'm not able to speak specifically towards the appropriateness of the violence in them for younger readers.

What the remarks by both Sheryl and Nathan did make me think about was the broader subject of what's appropriate for young adult, and even middle grade and children's books. I've been thinking about this for a while now, my own son and daughter entering the age and reading ability that brings them into the YA realm. And having read some of these books, let me say it scares me.

I freely admit to being restrictive to what my kids have seen in movies and read in books. I'm sure you'll find it shocking that I was uncomfortable with the "torture" sequences in the Pixar film "The Incredibles." I'm not one of the parents who think their child is going to be exposed to sex and violence and language and alcohol in the world around them so why protect them. I protect them so that they are shielded from that for as long as possible. There will be a whole lifetime ahead of them to be exposed to those things. And being exposed is very different from presenting it to them as acceptable. I don't care what the world around us says: sex and drinking and cursing are not appropriate for a 12 year old, let alone a ten year old. At least not for my kids.

Finding language in a book aimed at kids that would make a movie rated R disturbs me. I've read other blogs and the litany of comments over the last year, so I know this puts me in a minority. I know YA authors find parents like me unreasonable and idiotic. Last year I sat down with a stack of YA books I hoped my daughter would be interested in reading in the next few years, and I was dumbstruck by the amount of casual sex in it. It wasn't even like Forever, the Judy Bloom book that is entirely about sex, which treats it as something big and significant to dive into. This was total casual sex. By fourteen year olds. In books aimed at 12-16 year olds.

In my own little perfect world books aimed at kids under the age of 16 wouldn't have any of this, but I know this isn't realistic. There are enough people out there yelling about the rights of authors to write what they want, and for kids to read what they want, that I'm fairly sure the tides are not going to turn back towards innocence.

Still, why not a rating system for books? If authors insist on writing with certain amounts of violence or language or other material that parents might object to, and parents continue to object (which there actually are some of us), why not just rate the books the same way music and movies and video games are rated? That way a parent – or a teen, even, as I do know some that don't want that in the books they read – can make decisions before they choose.

I know this is controversial. I've googled "book rating systems." Go ahead and try it. It's vicious out there. People think it's tantamount to censorship. They think books are already adequately labeled just by putting them in the middle grade or YA category (which I can promise, by reading hundreds of these books, does not mean they are clean of what might concern some parents). I've read many, many of these articles and arguments, not a single one of which addresses the real concern of parents and teens, or does so in a way which dignifies their point of view. There's not a single argument against the rating system that I could find that I couldn't logically rebut.

I suppose there's a part of me that's flummoxed why authors would be so angry about this. Is it because they don't want parents to know what's in their books? Is it because they're afraid they'd lose readership? Is it because the surprise of finding questionable content and the resulting outcry generates free publicity for them? If an author truly thinks sex and language and alcohol use among teens is common and unremarkable, why should it bother them if that's listed on the book cover?

As for the violence in the Hunger Games that started this discussion on Nathan's blog, I think it's still a matter of content and context and information. The holocaust is a horrific event that would no doubt draw a less-than-G rating, but even so there are middle grade books that address the topic gently and carefully which even cautious parents would consider. The point is that in knowing what's in the book, those parents who care can use those books as springboards for discussion and kids with squeamish stomachs can choose something else.

It's not about censorship; it's about being able to make informed decisions. I remember when the music industry first began dealing with ratings, and there was an uproar then. Now... who cares about it? There are still 5-year-olds out there listening to rap music with language that would make a sailor blush. That's their parent's choice. And parents who choose otherwise, choose something else. Is that so bad?

So my question is this: What's your opinion on a book rating system for middle grade and YA? And do you think it would change the way writers write?

Is Facebook a Reliable Option for Writers to Promote Themselves and Their Work?

2010-08-19T14:19:00.002+02:00

Most of us here are familiar with Facebook, the popular internet social networking site. In fact, most of us are active users of Facebook, along with many other writers who use the site to help market their books, create a network of readers, and to promote themselves and their work. And Facebook can be a wonderful tool for such things.

However, in recent years, Facebook has met with serious criticism on a range of issues, particularly the privacy of its users. This includes complaints with the way personal data is used. Facebook has also been successfully sued several times for violation of intellectual property rights.

In November, 2007, Facebook released Beacon, a system that allowed third party websites to include a script by Facebook on their sites, and use it to send information to Facebook about the actions of Facebook users on their sites. Information about things like purchases made and games played were then published in users´ News Feeds, and if the user didn´t actively cancel this action, the information was automatically published in that given user´s News Feed. This prompted serious privacy concerns and many complaints. Within the month, Facebook was forced to make changes that required confirmation from the user before publishing each piece of information gathered by Beacon. Still though, there was no option that prevented Facebook from storing and using in other ways the information gathered by Beacon. By 2008-2009 a series of changes Facebook made to News Feed, Mini Feed and the Wall made it impossible for users to control what activities were published on their Wall and consequently, their News Feed. There were many complaints from organizations that monitored personal privacy breaches. Most of these organizations concluded that Facebook did not do enough to ensure that users were actually giving their consent to Facebook for the disclosure of personal information to third parties, and that Facebook did not adequately guard the personal information of its users from access by third parties.

There have also been many complaints about data mining. Until 2008, the policies of Facebook stated: “We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship.” This clause was removed in 2008 amid complaints, and only after lots of bad press and pressure from such organizations like the BBC Watchdog which suggested that Facebook was an easy target for anyone interested in collecting data for identity theft.

A New York Times article in 2008 pointed out how difficult Facebook made it for anyone wishing to close their account. Users were instructed by Facebook to manually delete wall posts, friends lists and groups and all other content, making it a daunting task for anyone trying to close their account. This raised concerns that if all content wasn´t successfully removed by the user, users´ data would remain indefinitely on Facebook servers. Only after increased pressure and more news articles about this issue did Facebook begin to permanently delete accounts on special request.

In November/December of 2009, Facebook launched a new privacy policy which proved to be one of its most controversial. The new policy declared that certain information, including lists of friends would be automatically made publicly available without any option to keep it private. Previously it was possible to keep such information private. This also meant that such information could be accessed not just by all Facebook users, but also even those without a Facebook account. This move resulted in massive protests and lots of news articles criticizing the new policy, forcing Facebook to backtrack and reinclude an option to hide friends lists from being seen, and to make it only visible to the user.

I am a user of Facebook, although I don´t rely on it as much as many of my friends and colleagues do. Therefore, I don´t have much personal information posted and saved there. I´ve never even bothered to post a photo of myself. However, lots of other people I know openly post lots of personal information on their Facebook site, and many are increasingly becoming worried about how that information has been used by Facebook and third parties in the past, and how it will be used in the future. So my question for you all today is what is your opinion on Facebook? Do you use it actively? Are you at all concerned with how your personal information is being used. Do you feel that Facebook has implemented enough safeguards to protect your personal information? And finally, is it a useful marketing and PR tool for writers. Okay, discuss…

A Writer's Mind

2010-08-12T16:34:00.004+02:00

I've spent most of my life thinking I am crazy. I didn't think anyone else had "imaginary friends" every day, especially after age 6. I didn't think anyone else talked to his or herself, or the "imaginary friends" they carried around with them. I didn't think anyone else had a constant stream of plots and story lines that involved said-imaginary friends that developed on a daily basis. Or that when one story line ended, another one would start.

I really thought I was crazy. I never told my parents I had this "problem". I never told my friends. It was a deep, dark, secret. I knew I liked to write and I did. Mostly, poems, prose, and an attempt at a novel every now and then.

Then I starting talking with other writers and realized, I'm not crazy. I'm a writer. Yes, some think they are one and the same, and perhaps that is true, to an extent. But I'm not certifiable, I'm a writer.

I remember acting out a scene in my living room, when I was alone. I was acting the part of my protag, who was recently in a car accident in which her car slammed into another car (carrying her parents; they died.) and she was on crutches. I was pantomiming the crutches, limping through the living room, and speaking her words in an argument. You see, she was horribly depressed and was arguing with her brother. My step-brother walked in, and asked, "Um, what are you doing?" I shrugged and walked away. Talk about embarrassing. Anyone else get caught in the middle of acting out a book and people don't understand?

I remember in high school, in Academic Decathlon, we were studying music from the Romantic period. My favorite piece was this, by F. Chopin:

One day, while listening, I said, "I can totally see this being played by a woman, in dark hair. At a grand piano, she is wearing a white nightgown and robe, and while she's playing, she's strangled and left dead."

Yeah.

You should have seen the looks I got for that.

I've imagined bodies in dumpsters, I've imagined bodies in truck beds. Recently, while out with my mother, we discussed the landfill we passed and I wondered how many bodies had been dumped there and never found. She said, "You have a writer's mind." And then it hit me, that's it. I'm a writer. I'm not crazy.

So when I imagine lethally poisoned watermelons being sold at a road side stand - or talk to myself - or imagine different ways people can get away with murder - really, I'm not crazy. I'm not a murderer. I just think like a writer, and that may seem crazy to those who don't get it.

But many of my writing partners do - and for that, I'm grateful.

Am I About To Buy A E Reader?

2010-08-05T18:50:00.008+02:00

For quite a while I have been struggling with time--the old bugaboo--there never seems to be enough of it! I could give up my afternoon nap but then I am an unholy grouch at night which interferes with any number of things like SEX.

I never have time to read. There are any number of books out there I would like to read and, even more important, any number that I need to read. I am a writer and writers need to read books. The books I need to read are hopefully available in e reader format. If they aren't, at least at some point perhaps they will be.

You have to understand that I hate e readers. Never, I have said with my chin defiantly up, will I buy one of these things! I like the feel of a book in my hands! I like the smell of leather!

Then, if you're going to break down and buy one of these blessed things which one do you buy? I'm an Apple person so an iPad seems a good choice but it's SO BIG! I like the idea of being able to slip an e reader in a small purse. I have another reason as well. About a month ago I had a backache to beat all backaches. It lasted for a week--each day a little better--but it took a full week before I was back to normal. The first day I really looked like an old woman--you know the routine, bent over in corkscrew position, hand on back, groaning piteously.

A friend recently told me that chiropractors were reporting an increase in their business from women due to their habit of carrying heavy purses. Heavy purse? I can make any other woman's purse look like a cream puff. I am now carrying an all cloth purse and even that is ridiculously heavy. From what, you ask? I did an exploration recently: bottom of purse--first compartment--10 pens and pencils, iPhone, tablet; second compartment--wallet (probably 3 pounds if it's an ounce and it's small)--keys, which do a clever job of reproducing inside said purse, receipts, forms, paper of all kind. What, oh what, do I do with an iPad? Sure, it's light, but I need to put it in something, which inevitably means a large purse which means everything inside will reproduce, which will inevitably end up in another ghastly backache and I hate to tell you, I have no tolerance for pain.

I also would like to answer emails, do some writing and editing when I'm out wandering around during the day and that means taking my laptop with me. Insane, given my fear of another backache? Yes, but there it is. I have been gifted a neat little carrier for said machine by my son, Glenn. It is big enough to handle an iPad, in fact it has a neat little pocket on the outside which may be big enough to handle one. An iPad is a nifty little gadget, it is light and that big screen allows the letters to expand which, at my age, I find myself increasingly needing which may mean I need to get an iPad after all. I do have a computer case which I can pull along behind me which will handle everything but I'm up 45 steps, so I end up carrying it down which, of course, is another recipe for a Big Back Problem.

I googled e readers this morning. Most of the sites must be run by THE OTHER GUYS. There was no mention of an iPad. The only one that seemed to make any sense at all was a Kindle and I have to tell you when I see the word "Kindle" I see evil flashes emanating from it. I am going to investigate it; I may have to take along a stake to kill the evil beast within but Gulp I am going to take a look at it!

Turn in for further developments! This may mean a backpack which will mean careful research. Can backpacks cause backaches?

If Your Book Were A Movie

2010-07-27T03:41:00.002+02:00

Nearly a year ago I had the privilege of going to the National Book Fair in Washington D.C., where I sat and listened to close to a dozen different big-brand authors talk about what it's like being an author.

Two of those authors spoke about having their books turned into movies. In both cases, the screenwriters took liberties with the books, adding characters that weren't there for a romantic layer, changing the ending to wrap up more neatly or to please the crowd more. While the plot and main characters were still recognizable, clearly the screenwriter and directors had a different vision for the book than the author did.

Interestingly, the authors had two widely varied observations about this. One commented that if the producers were willing to shell out millions of dollars to him, the writer, as well as millions more in making and advertising the movie, he as an author shouldn't be angry that they diverged from the story. After all, he not only collected that money, he signed a contract saying they could. And, in the end, he hoped because of the movie more people would buy the book.

The other author, having made equal amounts of money and signing the same type of contract, was angry about the way the movie changed the ending. Clearly bitter, she ranted a tiny bit about how the integrity of the book was shattered and how the whole point of what she was writing about was altered because of the change.

It made me think what a difficult position that must be in. Could you turn millions of dollars down because a movie director thought your character should die at the end, or your main character should end up falling in love with their foe rather than their friend? What if they turned the values and morals of your book upside down? Would you stick by your story enough to demand they keep it as you wrote it, and lose the deal?

Or would you graciously accept the contract, and keep your mouth shut when they turn the movie with your title in it into something unrecognizable as the baby you poured your heart into?

Voice Vs. Writing Style

2010-07-15T04:58:00.000+02:00

Since I started getting serious about writing, I've done a lot of research about the various elements of fiction writing, and about what agents and publishers are looking for, and one specific nugget has stuck out: It's all about the voice.

For three years I've read various agents - probably everyone that writes a blog - tout how important voice it. If you've got it, almost nothing else matters. They can fix plot problems. They can deal with weak characters. But voice... well, either you have it or you don't. And if you've got it, you're golden.

The problem I stumbled over time and time again was trying to figure out what voice was. What was this thing I needed to have that would snag me an agent and get my book published? And why was it such an indefinable, vague thing that no one could tell me what it was? After hemming and hawing over post after post, most agents ended up with the incredibly not helpful: "We just know it when we see it."

Lately, though, I've seen more and more trying to define it, and it usually goes something like this: "It's what makes you sound like you. It's how you pick up a Hemingway and know it's Hemingway, or a Grisham and know it's Grisham. It's your personality. "

In the humblest of ways, I'd like to say that's wrong. That isn't voice. That's writing style. A person's writing style - the words they tend towards using, the length of their sentences, their use of punctuation, the casualness or formality with which they approach writing – is something that usually remains somewhat consistent once a writer finds his groove. If a writer stays within a certain genre, the writing style can be fairly recognizable from book to book.

But the voice... the voice should reflect the story, the characters, their mood and social standing and education, where they live and where they've come from. If a character is uneducated or mentally challenged, the way Perry Crandall is in Patricia Wood's LOTTERY, you expect the voice to reflect that. If the character is sad or rebellious or buoyant, the language an author uses will show that.

And that is something that changes from book to book, from character to character. A voice can change within a single book if the narrator changes. There's nothing more frustrating to a reader than reading a book with several main narrators that you need a notation at the top of every chapter to tell you who is speaking now.

When an agent says they love your voice in fiction, they aren't talking about the length of sentences or sentence structure; they aren't talking about the style that makes you sound like you. They are talking about what sounds like your characters. Not the characters themselves, but the way the writing reflects the characters. Which is why the stronger the character, the stronger the voice.

Very few readers are going to fall in love with you. They aren't going to rave at coffee shops with friends about the way your writing sounds like you. They're going to rave about your characters. And how they love them. And how they feel like they know them and want to spend time with them.

And isn't that the way it's suppose to be?

Writing Dialect

2010-07-06T21:44:00.004+02:00

So I'm still working on the WIP which has been through, oh, about four narrative changes. But we'll just move past that bit ;o) One thing that hasn't changed is the location, the deep South, which adds what I hope is the "flair" to the story, a bit of background to give it some diversity and flavour.

I don't want to offend my readers by resorting to stereotypes or, stars forbid, phonetic spelling. I remember a book based in Boston and being a Beantown girl nothing irritated me more than reading, "Bawston". And is it effective to write an Italian accent as, "Hee-ya haz-a pizzeria"?

Like I said, I'm a New England girl, have never lived in the state I'm writing about and really have nothing but personal interactions and movies o_O to base my dialectal knowledge from. So tell me, oh wise readers and crit partners, how do you write dialect that comes across as authentic? One that doesn't cause the reader to get tripped up or pause, but register the accent and hear that voice as they're reading?

Brazilians and the Culture of the Copa

2010-06-17T14:09:00.003+02:00

Well ladies, the month of June is upon us, and normally in Brazil that means June Fest or Festa Junina as it is called here. Given that the seasons in South America are reversed, we´ll soon be going into winter, and Festa Junina is a sort of harvest festival. Everyone dresses up like farmers and country bumpkins, listens to country music, and eats typical sweets made from corn, peanuts and sweet potatoes among other things. For those who want to liven up the festivities, there is hot spiced wine to drink or quentao, another hot drink made from cachaca mixed with ginger and honey.

However, this year is a World Cup year, and when you are in Brazil for a World Cup, everything, including Festa Junina, takes a back seat. People get soccer fever like I´ve never seen before. Here in Sao Paulo, the whole city is decked out in yellow and green, Brazil´s colors, and people hang Brazil flags from their cars and their balconies. Even the gym where I work out is all decked out for the Copa as it is called in Portuguese. When an important game is on, everything stops for a few hours. On the days that Brazil plays, everything closes up, and the children are dismissed from school so that everyone can go home and see the game.

When Brazil wins, it´s even crazier. Spontaneous parties erupt on the street with people dancing, blowing horns and shooting off firecrackers. And Brazilians expect to win. They have won more World Cups than any other country, and they have almost always advanced to the final. If you ask any Brazilian, they will tell you that Brazil is supposed to be in every final. If there are any deviations from this expected plan, there better be a good excuse like massive injuries to the whole team, or at the very least a natural disaster of some sort. And if Brazil loses, the nation mourns. That´s just the way it is.

The fever is easy to get caught up in. So needless to say, I probably won´t be getting much writing done in the next few weeks. But tell me ladies of Four Corners, are there signs of World Cup fever where you are? Germany has a good looking team this year. I saw them wash the floor with Australia last Sunday. How does the German public celebrate? What about you Canadians and Americans? I know that soccer will probably never be bigger than the Super Bowl, but all of those soccer moms must be doing something to promote the game in the US. How do things look in your part of the world?

What Makes Us Improve?

2010-06-10T19:43:00.003+02:00

I'm wondering - what makes us better writers? How do we improve? Is it just with experience? The more we write, the better we get? That can't be all there is to it, because really, we could just continue to write utter poo for years.

Is it reading really good stuff? Is it taking classes and learning techniques? Or is it fellowship among other writers who critique with an honest eye and help make you stronger?

I believe the last scenario is very true, but what comes first?

I was just reading through my current WIP and came across some scenes that were written a couple years ago and they are just utter poo. And to think I was actually proud of them at one point is fascinating to me. So I'm seeing progress with my own writing, and I remain hopeful that my writing will get better as time goes by. That maybe my next book will be better than MM.

What makes you a stronger writer? How are you improving? What's your secret?

I tossed this question out to my fellow writing bloggers, and they all had fantastic ideas. So I’ve included them here.

Allowing other writers, who you trust, to read your work
Talking over concepts with those good writer friends
Read, Read, Read, Read
Having an agent to point out flaws
Having an editor to cut and show you where to cut
Always writing - stretch your limits - push your boundaries
Having a good group of honest writers whose writing you like or admire, to critique and then being able to stand back and look at the critique objectively
Consistently writing - not necessarily the same as "always writing", which actually deals with writing more books and broadening your horizon. This deals with one work, write on a consistent basis. This helps the voice stay consistent as well as the plotting and overall tone of your work. You'll have less revisions to do later.
Read about writing, follow blogs by agents or other writers whose work you like or admire. Those who have been successful in this industry may have tips or tricks or wisdom to pass on. It would be a wise choice to sit up and pay attention from those who have done it before you.
Embrace revisions - we've all killed the babies in our writing, and we know it hurts. But often, after I've done it on my own writing, I'm thankful. When you first start to let others read your work and they give you honest feedback (constructively, of course) it may be easy to cringe and want to crawl into a corner and hide - never to submit a work of your again. But get over it. Step back, look at the person critiquing. If they are a person you trust, who has been successful, has studied the industry and trends, and whose work you admire, think twice before you get defensive and shirk off the revisions and critiques. I have, and you know what? My writing has improved tremendously and most of those are directly linked to taking others advice.
Don't limit yourself - this sort of goes with "Always Writing" - if you have a story that is tugging at your heart and has camped out in your head, write it. Who knows? Maybe you're a natural young adult author or a natural supernatural/paranormal author, or a crime writer. Who knows? Wayne Gretzky once said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." So take the shots - don't tell yourself, "I'm not a crime writer." Because you might be - you won't know until you try.
Take a writing class - this goes with reading about writing and listening to those who have done it. I've found taking a writing class tremendously helpful, as others in my writing group have. There are exercises that help open the doors and let us experiment and it also introduces you to other writers. Whether it be an online class or a local thing - you may meet other authors who you admire and who can be beneficial to you in forming your very own super-awesome writing group!

How Do You Build The Personality of Your Protagonist?

2010-06-05T03:29:00.000+02:00

I usually am able to find my major character, but my fantasy, Finding The Oracians, has given me great difficulty. I think of myself as frozen, unable to move; she is lost to me somewhere out there in the ether. To try to deal with this, I have been making a list which I hope will eventually lead to my finding her.

I believe one of the issues is her having the name I gave to an earlier version of the character so I am now calling her Mela.

Here is the list I have constructed so far:

Mela is an Oracian girl, raised by Miss Wiggins, a woman with special powers. Her father, before he left on a quest, told her she was to become one of the Ancient Ones, men and women of her people with special powers.

She misses her mother terribly, to compensate for her loss she has constructed a mother in her mind: someone taller than the usual Oracian woman, with the long, black hair of her people, someone strong and wise and good.

Mela is angry that all she has is a construction of a mother, not the real thing. Something or someone robbed her of her real mother.

Sometimes, in her bed at night, she closes her eyes and sees her mother weeping for the daughter she has lost which makes Matilda weep also.

Her father is a mystery. She remembers him, tall and sad and anguished. He is anguished because of what happened to her mother—that seems clear.

Mela's over-riding passion is to find out what happened to her mother and her father.

She is very fond of Miss Wiggins. She can't take the place of her mother—she doesn't even try—but she is good to her and harsh when she needs to be.

Matilda has one problem with which she still is struggling, borne out of the loneliness that comes from not having a mother or a father: when she is angry she throws things—her morning porridge bowl becomes a missile that connects with a wall, the cup that held the milk from Cissy, the cow, lands on the counter. The lesson on how to deal with the broken piece of pottery began when she was very little.

Miss Wiggins simply insisted on her fixing the broken piece of crockery.

Mela turned her back on Miss Wiggins and said. "I can't."

"Of course you can," Miss Wiggins said. "You're your mother's daughter. Your mother was a great witch. Fixing this bowl or that cup would have been child's play for her."

"But how would she fix it?" Mela asked.
"She was one of the Ancient Ones—which means all she had to do was think the bowl or the cup whole again and they would become whole."

This was exciting—the thought of being able to think something whole. Mela sat very still at the table, closed her eyes and tried to see the bowl whole again.

She felt the pieces vibrating; then moving together haltingly. The bowl came together but not whole. It was strange, with odd corners and little hills and valleys throughout its surface.

Mela raised her hand to throw the bowl once again, except Miss Wiggins was quicker. She set the bowl on a shelf; to join the other crockery Mela had reconstructed, all of which were misshapen and sad-looking.

Mela stood in front of the cupboard, angry with Miss Wiggins, angry with herself for not being good enough--for not being her mother, for not being one of the Ancient Ones.

"One day you will know how to reconstruct a perfect piece of crockery," said Miss Wiggins, "and you will be glad you saved the others."

"But why?" asked Mela.

"You will have to wait until the day that perfect piece of crockery sits on the shelf to find out why.

I do feel my attempt at finding Mela is beginning to move me in the right direction. How would you find a character that was eluding you?

Tick Tock

2010-06-01T09:33:00.003+02:00

Lately I feel like I'm always trying to catch up, staying punctual, meeting deadlines, simply trying to maintain some sense of balance in my life. I've tried adhering to a schedule, but when kids are sick or work needs you on your day off, it's hard. Then I've tried setting daily goals, but once 9:00 PM comes around I'm exhausted.

Right now I'm looking at a WIP that's half-way written, and I have no idea when it will be finished. Maybe that's okay, the not knowing, but it's new for me. I've been doing lots of active thinking with this WIP, trying to make sure it's layered and really knowing where the story is going. In life I'm a planner and like to know what's going to happen tomorrow or in five years, but with my writing I've always liked to be surprised, the perfect pantster. But I realized that maybe it should be the other way around because my writing is better when I plan and my life is easier when I don't.

So tell me, what works for you? How do you keep a balance between real life and writing?

Good Book, Bad Book

2010-05-25T05:35:00.000+02:00

I've discovered something in the last few years, the years that I've been purposely pursuing writing and publishing. I've discovered that I enjoy books much less than I used to.

That probably isn't exactly right. I still enjoy reading. I get obsessive about it, really. You can ask my husband and kids, who often deal with burned dinners and missed buses and late appointments because I'm unable to get my nose out of a book until I finish it.

No, I still enjoy reading. I just "enjoy" it in a different way.

I complain.

I complain about the overuse of similes. I complain about stilted dialog. I complain about flat characters and pointless plots. I complain about predictability and repetitive words. Even if I am the only one in a room, I complain. Even if I am so drawn in by something in the story and cannot put the book down, I complain.

Studying writing, working at developing my own, has made me so much more critical. Critical to the point that I don't find many books anymore that I love and can rave about. I've nearly stopped doing reviews, because I find so many more things I think are wrong with a book than things I love about them.

In the past year I've read maybe three or four published books I would qualify as really great books: the total package of great writing and great plotting. The rest have somewhat disappointed me.

But I've found myself lately thinking about stories I've read that I complained about the writing, but somehow, for some reason, have stuck with me. And I've discovered that some of the beautifully written books are ones I enjoy while reading, and then put on a shelf and never feel anything about again except for a warm glow.

Others, though... ones that I complained bitterly about...ones that I literally threw the book in frustration... something in them has crept into me and burrowed in my heart. At random times I think about them. I remember a character that suddenly I connect with. I think about an issue - social, political, romantic - that was highlighted in the book that suddenly seems relate-able to my own life. Over time, with distance from the actual words on the page, some of these books I hated have become some of the stories I've loved.

I'm not sure what that means, except that perhaps the value of a book isn't immediately understood. And that a great story is more than just the way words are strung together, and yes, even sometimes great despite the way the words are strung together.

Have you read books like that?

Chinglish as She is Spoke

2010-05-20T21:48:00.003+02:00

A little while back, I did a blog entry about a book called English as She is Spoke, written in 1855 by the infamous Portuguese duo, José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino. The book was meant to be a bilingual edition that would teach conversational English to Portuguese speakers and vice versa. However, the English translations were so bad, that the book instead became a “bizarre masterpiece of unintentional humor.”

On May 2nd, Andrew Jacobs wrote an amusing piece for the New York Times entitled "Shanghai Is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English of Chinglish" which deals with the similar subject of the crazy English translations that are so commonly found in China on public signs and on restaurant menus.

“For English speakers with subpar Chinese skills, daily life in China offers a confounding array of choices. At banks there are machines for ´cash withdrawing´ and ´cash recycling´. The menus in local restaurants might present such delectables as ´fried enema,´ ‘monolithic tree mushroom stem squid´ and a mysterious thirst quencher known as ´The Jew´s Ear Juice.´ In a clothing store known as Scat, “extra large sizes sometimes come in ´fatso´or ´lard bucket´ categories.”

However, it seems that many of these crazy English adaptations are soon to be done away with in Shanghai. The Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use has been trying for the past two years to rid Shanghai of its Chinglish problem. According to Jacobs, they have already “fixed more than 10,000 public signs, rewritten English-language historical placards and helped hundreds of restaurants recast offerings.” They are modeling their campaign on Beijing´s efforts to clean up English signs for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Apparently the Beijing efforts led to the correction of 400,000 street signs, 1,300 restaurant menus and “such exemplars of impropriety as the Dongda Anus Hospital – now known as the Donga Proctology Hospital. Gone too is Racist Park, a cultural attraction that has since been rechristened Minorities Park.”

However, as the war on improper English forges on, there are those who claim that they will miss it. According to Jacobs, there are even people who study Chinglish for a living. Oliver Lutz Radtke, a former German radio reporter is doing a doctoral degree in Chinglish at the University of Heidelberg, and is apparently considered the world´s foremost authority on Chinglish. He believes that China should embrace its “fanciful melding of English and Chinese as the hallmark of a dynamic, living language.” He thinks it should be preserved and not eradicated.

Nonetheless, many of the Chinese enemies of Chinglish say it´s humiliating to the national pride, and that signs are supposed to be informative not amusing. They trace many of the translation problems to a very popular, but also totally defective, translation software known as Jinshan Ciba.

At the same time, it is recognized that the confused translations can also provide insight into how the Chinese think about language. Mr Jacobs interviewed Mr. Jeffrey Yao, a grad student at Shanghai International Studies University, and the leader in the project to clean up the signs in Shanghai. Mr. Yao gives some examples, “While park signs in the West exhort people to ´Keep Off the Grass,´ Chinese versions tend to anthropomorphize nature as a way to gently engage the stomping masses. Hence, such admonishments as ´The Little Grass is Sleeping. Please Don´t Disturb It´or ´Don´t Hurt Me. I Am Afraid of Pain.´” Still, Mr. Jacobs reports, even Mr. Yao has his limits, and he showed off a couple of examples that the Commission went after with zeal. One of them was a sign from a park designed to provide visitors with the rules for entry, all of which were unintelligible. The sign ended with “Because if the tourist does not obey the staff to manage or contrary holds, Does all consequences are proud.”

So be they amusing or insightful, it doesn´t matter. The commission will do its best to eradicate them all. Unfortunately, like weeds, there are always more popping up to cause trouble, ensuring that Chinglish as she is spoke will most likely be around for a long time.

A Little Serenade

2010-05-04T19:30:00.006+02:00

I did think of using the German translation, but then it'd look like I was throwing my German around and I'm too modest for that *bats eyelashes*

When I started writing it was natural for me to listen to music while brainstorming and scribing. Mostly this was to block out the loved ones, especially at night. Soon it became a habit and like all habits grew more complicated over time complete with Playlists for each MS then a Playlist for the different moods within an MS. But I was okay with that because I thought it was normal.

So imagine my surprise when a good writing friend said, "I cannot write with music. It's too distracting."

*jaw drop*

I write with it for the same reason. Sometimes I do find myself sitting down to write, sans music, and the thoughts flow and everything is blocked out. Let me qualify: usually these rare moments occur early in the morning on a weekday when no one is home except for the cat, and he knows not to disturb me until lunch time. I enjoy the music and it also allows me to find new songs and artists. The music on my iPod has everything from Loreena McKennitt to Mew to Jose Gonzalez. All depends on the mood I'm trying to create.

I also find it helps me stay focused on writing instead of the usual brain wandering that happens when I first sit down: maybe I should have a second coffee? or throw in a load of laundry? make that phone call? Not with the music in my ears. It's like being pulled into the otherworldly place where the writing happens.

Now tell me about you. Do you listen to music when you write? Why or why not? And most importantly if you do, what is your music of choice?

Book Trailers: Do They Work?

2010-04-22T05:04:00.000+02:00

Back in October, author Therese Fowler offered up a question on her facebook page: Do you think book trailers work to generate interest and sell books?

The resounding answer? No.

You'd think that having created my own trailer, I'd be expecting something more positive, but I wasn't terribly surprised. How many people other than authors even know what a book trailer is, and how many people watch them? And that was exactly the reason people said they didn't work...because they'd never seen one.

A book trailer, like a movie trailer, is a media production that combines audio (music or talking) and visuals (video or photographs, and sometimes words) to give a potential reader a feeling of what you book is about.

The word feeling is the operative one there. If someone just wanted to know the plot, they could read the back cover, or a blurb. But a trailer allows them to get a sense of the emotion of a book. It should capture a reader's attention and their heart. In a very short time, a good trailer will convey the mood, the setting, the conflict, the pace of the book. A great trailer will match the right reader with the right book.

But does it work? Despite the answers to Fowler's question, my own experience is yes. Maybe not in the same way that a movie trailer does, but mostly because it's not widely shown the way a movie trailer is. Most people don't watch book trailers before deciding whether or not they are interested in a book because they aren't readily available for the majority of books.

But I have found it to be hugely useful to me in garnering interest. My own book trailer for Some Kind of Normal is posted on YouTube, my website and blog, the publisher's page for my book, as well on my author's page on Amazon. It has over 500 views as of this writing this blog post. I can't begin to count how many people have written me that they are buying the book because the book trailer looks interesting.

The link to the trailer is part of my signature line in my email, which is how many people watch it who wouldn't otherwise know I even had a book. The trailer is the link friends send around to others they know who want to know what the book is about. When I've written reviewers, radio stations, and magazines, the book trailer is what they watch to know whether or not they're interested, and nine times out of ten, it's the book trailer that grabs them.

We are a media generation. We like our music, our flashy videos, our emotions taken on a ride. Even those of us who are book readers liked to be sucked into the idea of a book quickly. And frankly, most cover blurbs don't do that well.

So whether or not the polls say book trailers aren't that effective and most people don't use them to determine whether or not they'll buy a book, my own experience is that they are tremendously effective when used right – or even used at all. After all, maybe those polled say they haven't been persuaded to buy a book because they haven't seen a trailer.

I know a good one that can fix that.

Cecilia Ahern and Chocolate Guiness Cake

2010-04-15T13:30:00.002+02:00

Today I´ve decided to pick up where Kerri left off with a book review and a recipe. I´ve chosen a book by the young and very accomplished Irish writer, Cecilia Ahern, In keeping with the Irish theme, I´ve also chosen a recipe for Chocolate Guiness Cake. It calls for a cup of Guiness beer, which makes all the difference. This is a cake for people who are serious about their chocolate. It´s dense and moist and bursting with gooey chocolate flavor, and the frosting, made with cream cheese, is to die for. Okay, enough about the cake. Let´s get down to business first with the book.

Now, from what I´ve read, Cecilia Ahern is the new Irish wonder girl. She´s quite young, and already has five or six books under her belt, including several bestsellers. If You Could See Me Now, which is the book I´m reviewing today, is her fourth novel and it came out in 2007 (Okay, so it´s been out for three years, but I just read it, so it´s new for me.).

Ms. Ahern´s prose has a lovely lilt to it that captivated me perhaps more than the story itself. The plot revolves around a character named Elizabeth Egan, an uptight young professional, who in addition to running her own interior design company, is stuck raising her alcoholic sister´s young son. Elizabeth´s own mother, also an alcoholic, abandoned the family just after Elizabeth´s sister was born, leaving Elizabeth to raise her younger sister. In between feedings and diaper changes, she did her best to stay out of the way of her father´s anger and bitterness. She worked hard to finish her education and go to college, and once she had a successful career finally established, she tried to leave her troubled family and her past behind. But her sister´s problems and her sense of duty to her family always drew her back to her home town. Finally, she just gave up on her dreams and settled there for good.

And now she copes with the chaos she cannot control by making sure that every other aspect of her life is perfectly controlled. Her house is spotless, and her appearance always perfect. She and Luke, her sister´s son, live on a tightly controlled schedule, with a lot of rules about dos and don´ts. There is little time for make believe and play in Elizabeth´s regimented life, which is why it drives her nuts when Luke shows up at home with an inaginary friend named Ivan. Ivan is wild and spontaneous and always looking for fun and adventure, but the real chaos begins when one day Elizabeth wakes up and finds that she is able to see Ivan too, even when nobody else but Luke can. What Elizabeth doesn´t know is that Ivan is far from an imaginary friend. He is from another world and was sent to help Elizabeth and Luke find balance and happiness in their life. As Ivan helps her to understand her past and make better sense of her present, Elizabeth finds herself falling in love with him. Ivan finds that he is falling in love with Elizabeth too, and that presents him with a big problem, because it is strictly against the code that he must follow if he is to help her.

I won´t spoil the ending, but I will conclude by saying that there were a few enchanting and unexpected moments in If You Could See Me Now, and Ms. Ahern´s prose is flawless. I would definitely read more of her work. However, that being said, I did find that the book dragged a little here and there. It wasn´t so engaging that I couldn´t put it down, and there were a few times where I found myself wanting to skip ahead to find something more interesting. But still, overall it is a worthwhile read, something to take up when you have time to linger over a book.
Now onto the recipe, which comes to me via my friend Karen Duncan.

Ingredients for the cake:

1 cup Guiness beer
1 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup cocoa
1 2/3 cups caster sugar (Caster sugar is very highly refined sugar. It´s not the same as powdered sugar, but is somewhere in between powdered sugar and regular refined sugar in terms of the size of the granule. In the US I believe it is called bar sugar. In any case, if you can´t find it, just use regular refined sugar.)
2/3 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

Ingredients for the frosting:

1 1/3 cups Philadephia cream cheese
2/3 cup powdered sugar
½ cup whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (or 180 degrees C). Grease with butter and line a 23 cm springform pan. Pour the Guiness into a large saucepan, add the butter in spoons or slices and heat until the butter is melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and the sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the saucepan with the beer and butter mixture. Finally, whisk in the flour and baking soda.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined pan and bake for 45-60 minutes. Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack as the cake is a very moist cake. When the cake is cold, remove it from the springform pan and place it on a plate or cake stand.

To make the frosting, lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sift the powdered sugar into the cream cheese and beat them both together. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of a Guiness pint.

Am I good, or am I good?

2010-04-14T18:29:00.004+02:00

I recently had a strong case of insecurity. After all the positive feedback I've gotten, for years, from several different readers, I still wondered if my book was any good. I doubted its potential, and I doubted my own skills and talents as a writer.

I turned to my 4 Corners partners for some reassurance. (Just one more reason I recommend having yourself a writing group!) I felt like a bit of a loser, to be honest. Oh you guys, please tell me I'm not useless! Please build me up! Pleeeease! I'd take any grain of encouragement I could get, but I know these women well enough to know that they're not going to lie to me just to make me feel better.

Should I have even needed that though? After all this time, shouldn't I already know that I can write? I do words all purty like and stuff?

My entire perception of my own work can get really skewed. I don't think I'm alone here. Sometimes I write something I think is quite good but reading it the next day is a total disappointment. However, I can also be pleasantly surprised months later by reading something so good I can't believe I wrote it!

Having fellow writers who can be trusted is vital. If you know they will be honest with you, gently tell you when your work isn't, uh, working, and if you can use their constructive criticism to improve your writing, you can allow yourself to feel some security. I am so lucky (and smart) to have surrounded myself with great writers. I don't know what I'd do without them!

And yet...

And yet, I still let myself get all messed up and insecure.

I hate to say this, but... I could beg my writer-buds to tell me all day every day how wonderful a writer I am, and I could still be convinced inside my own head that I'm a hack and a poser and will never amount to anything. Of course this would never happen because good writing partners like mine don't just give out wonderful verbal filler. It's gotta be earned.

So this leaves me to think about my own lack of confidence. It's not just in the writing, sadly. It's something I've struggled with for as long as I can remember.

Only I can solve this!

I'm working on it by doing the similar thought-readjustment I've done to deal with depression and anxiety.

First, recognize that destructive thought. I'm not a good enough writer. Oh, there it is, pesky little negative thought.

Next, Stop it. Picture putting a hand against it if that helps.

Then, challenge that stupid thought. Not good enough for WHAT? I don't deal with vague negatives here. Go away.

Most of all, replace it. I'm a good writer, and I know it, because I read a lot, and I can tell good writing from bad.

We briefly discussed in 4 Corners that it's probably better to be a little self-critical than overconfident. If we're convinced of our stunning skills, we're less likely to open to helpful suggestions. If we're our own critics, we can be better at editing our own work.

But real, true confidence? That has to come from within each of us. Nobody can give it to us. Others can help to build us up, but we have to be willing to believe it.

By the way, I am reading that book of mine, and hey... they were right. It's pretty good.

Named by the Namer

2010-04-06T09:26:00.003+02:00

I love names. When I was a little girl, I'd visit my grandma and we'd spend hours talking about people's names, trying to determine their meanings and origins. She ignited the spark.

I've always been intrigued by taboos that surround speaking someone's name. There is a belief that one's name is irrevocably linked to one's body/mind/spirit. Even today, there are places where people will not reveal their name to anyone except blood relations. They believe that if someone knows their name, it can be used to cast spells or curses against them.

In some places, magic and spells are woven into a newborn's name during ancient naming rituals. It is believed that the power of who they will become is encapsulated in their chosen name.

Names are a reflection of who we are, and who we are transcends time and live on in the words we write.

It's important for me to have the right names before I start on a new WIP. Ideas are great and the foundation to the story, but it's the character's names that bring the story to life. Usually the concept comes to me first followed by the names. I always know how the names should sound, euphonic or cacophinic *is that even a word? sounds good*, short or long, and I have a great book with names that lists origins and meanings.

Now it's your turn, how important are names when you're writing? How do you come up with character names?

"AS E-BOOKS GAIN FAVOR, YOU CAN'T EVEN JUDGE A COVER".

2010-04-01T20:58:00.004+02:00

As if the publishing world doesn't have enough to worry about with E books they now have to be concerned that an E book seen on a Kindle read by a seatmate on a train or bus will no longer have a cover to look at--to pine over--to make us think "I've got to have that book!" Kindles don't come with covers.

That, according to an article in Wednesday's, March 31st, 2010, edition of the New York Times: "As E-Books Gain Popularity, You Can't Even Judge a Cover."

How important are covers? I tend to think of them as very important, particularly if it's a book of fiction we're talking about, although nonfiction explorations of topics of particular interest to a lot of people gain a lot from a nifty cover. Partricia Bostelman, vice president for marketing at Barnes & Noble, mentions in the article how if a customer sees a cover on a book in a bookstore where the majority of sales still take place and is attracted enough to pick up the book an enormous battle has been won.

"There's something about having a beautiful book that looks intellectually weighty and yummy," said Ms. Bindu Wiles. who was on a Q train in Brooklyn this month. She was reading Anna Karenina recently and liked the fact that people could see the cover on the subway. "You feel kind of proud to be reading it."

As the article goes on to say, "Among other changes heralded by the e-book era, digital editions are bumping book covers off the subway, the coffee table and the beach." I'll take umbrage with part of that comment. No one's going to want to take a Kindle to the beach--there's all that sand!-- and people love their coffee table books enough to not want to replace them with a Kindle. A coffee table book is part of the scenery!

"A good jacket is unlikely to save a bad book, of course," the article goes on to say. "But in a crowded market, a striking cover is one advantage all authors and publishers want. To get a sense of the odds, in a random analysis of 1,000 business books released last year, Codex Group, a publishing consultant, found that only 62 sold more than 5,000 copies."

The same thing happened with the music industry when it went through a similar transition with digital music devices. Music publishers are dealing with all things digital by finding new ways of displaying CD cover art on the Web sites where the songs are bought and the iPod screens where they are played. The same thing is happening in the publishing world with publishers finding new ways to tailor book jackets for the digital world, like making the type bigger since people have complained they can't always read the author's name.

Publishers realize the importance of utilizing the visual to sell a book and since people like to broadcast what they're reading, people in the publishing world think eventually a function will be added to a e-book reader that will allow just that.

For now people are depending on the "Facebook effect". When at one time you might see three people reading "Some Kind of Normal" on the train--a wonderful book recently published by NorLights Press, the author of whom is our own Heidi Willis, now you can go to Facebook and see three of your friends reading SKON!

Getting a Little Distance

2010-03-24T03:45:00.000+01:00

It's that time of year again in Washington D.C., where the snow melts and the rains come in and the weather starts to get just warm enough that you think you might have survived the winter after all; and all along the National Mall, the cherry blossoms start to bloom.

There's something special about the cherry blossoms. People come from all over the world to see them. When they are in full bloom, you can't hardly walk; the tourists and photographers as thick as ants. Some people say this is because they're so beautiful, but I think the truth lies somewhere closer to this: in a year of 365 days, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom only about five of them.

That picture above? I took it last year on the only day the blooms were at their peak and the rain wasn't beating down on them.

One day. One chance to get the perfect picture. And really, you don't even know if you got it until you get home and download or print them. And if you didn't? It's too late.

Last year I took that one day off from my regular routine and strolled around the tidal basin with the millions of others looking for that perfect photo. I knew exactly what I wanted. I took about 300 pictures in a few hours, and some of them were truly spectacular.

But none of them was the one I wanted so badly.

On the metro ride home I tried to figure out how I missed it. Of the hundreds of photos, how could I not get a single shot in which both the cherry blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial were in focus?

See what I mean?

I've seen this picture a thousand times by other people. How come I couldn't get it right? No matter how much I fiddled with the shutter and the aperture, no matter how I framed it, one of the two turned out blurry.

And then I realized what was wrong.

I was too close.

I was so close to the cherry blossoms that the camera couldn't open wide enough to focus on both something that near, and a subject that far away.

I needed distance.

This coming week the cherry blossoms are back, and most likely, I will trudge back into the city to get that one elusive shot. All I needed was a little time to figure it out, and a little distance.

Writing is like this. When we are in the midst of our masterpiece it's easy to feel like time is running out. Others all around us are hitting the jackpot, but it seems just out of reach to us.

Sometimes what our writing needs is a little distance. A little time to ponder and wallow in, to figure out not just what we want but how to get it, to finagle a bit to get all the parts to come together.

And a little perspective to remember that while it can seem that the opportunity is fleeting, it's not. It comes again. And again. And again.

Doris Lessing was 88 when she won the Nobel Prize for literature.

Now there's a little distance, time and perspective.

Creating a Community of Writers

2010-03-18T12:23:00.002+01:00

There was an article in the New York Times the other day about the Hudson Valley Writers´ Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York. In spite of it´s location, it is neither sleepy nor hollow. It is a vibrant center that attracts writers from around the region and sponsors writing workshops, classes, contests, and regular readings. The center even has its own publishing arm known as the Slapering Hol Press, which boasts of several award-winning authors, particularly in the area of poetry. If you want to check it out, here is the URL:

http://www.writerscenter.org

At the University of Pennsylvania, the Kelly Writers House was founded in 1995 and serves not only as a writing center for Penn students, faculty and alumni, but for the Philadelphia community as well. There are online book groups, regular readings, podcasts, film screenings, web magazines, lectures, dinners, radio broadcasts, workshops, art exhibits, musical performances, and interactive webcasts all about the process of reading and writing. Finally, the Kelly Writers House sponsors a fellows program which brings writers of great accomplishment into the Penn community to share their experiences. The three current fellows are Joyce Carol Oates, Susan Howe and David Milch. Last Year Joan Didion was included among the fellows, and a few years before her, the ever popular comedic writer, David Sedaris, participated in the fellows program. The fellows don´t just come and give one presentation. They remain in residence at the center for longer periods over the course of a semester or school year, in order to foster sustained contact with the Penn community of writers in an informal atmosphere. Here is the URL for the Kelly Writers House:

http://writing.upenn.edu

Being rather isolated from English speakers here in Brazil, I miss the opportunity to affiliate myself with such centers, and to be able to experience the work of other writers by attending readings and lectures. My community of writers is an online one, and it is fabulous. It is my lifeline, and has been what has kept me motivated to continue writing. Many writers these days live this way. Internet technology and the prevalence of social networking sites have made it easy to create a virtual community for almost any purpose.

But still, I would love to have a place to go to where I could meet other writers, and network so to speak, be exposed to others´ work and have opportunities for feedback on my own work. There is something to be said for the fellowship of creative communities, and the positive impact it has on your work to be around like-minded individuals. I would also love the opportunity to participate in a workshop or writers´ retreat or conference.

What about the rest of you? Do you have a real life writing community in addition to your online ones? Do they serve different purposes? Have any of you participated in workshops or conferences for writers, and have you found them helpful for networking or improving your writing. Do you have a community that you regularly present your work to? Do you do readings or give lectures? How have these experiences impacted your writing? I would love to hear your opinions on this.

Nature Vs. Nurture

2010-03-11T16:20:00.003+01:00

We've all heard it said about the writing "gift" - you're either born with it or you're not. So I've been thinking......is that "creative gene" hereditary? Is it really in our blood? Or are we just encouraged enough as children that we continue to create and write as adults?

I remember sitting as a little girl in my maternal grandmother's living room and she was going over agent's notes for a children's book she had written. I assume it was an agent, she was explaining to me that the pages in the big manila envelope were things she needed to change, add or remove from her manuscript. I was a kid - it didn't register then - but now, I think she was agented for her children's book. My grandmother continues to write - she writes pamphlets for her church and she wants to write a book on Paul, one of the Apostles. She still has it and she's still writing.

I remember when we got our first computer....way back in the day when the screen was blue and the only game you could play was a pixelated Solitaire....my mother was writing a book. I remember watching her type on that blue screen with the white letters and I even remember the beginning of the book. I think Mom wrote a page or so and then got busy with life and never finished it. But she does want me to write that story for her....with certain scenes she hasn't forgotten after all these years.

So - is the creativity hereditary? I don't remember my mother pushing me to write, I just did. When she noticed I did, she encouraged me. So do I consider myself a writer because I was encouraged by family members and teachers over the years? Or was I born with a need to write?

My maternal grandmother can draw and paint - what she does is gorgeous. My mother is also a very talented artist - she draws and paints - what she does is gorgeous. I draw - it's not gorgeous, but I still do it. I've drawn for as long as I've written, if not longer. I have huge portfolios of my drawings and a huge binder of my writings. Does creativity coexist with other modes of creativity? Is it our imagination? Is it our mind? Is it in our blood?

I don't know the answer - that's why I'm asking. I dream vividly and can remember dreams for years. My mind never stops working (Thank Goodness) - but I'm often playing out scenes in my head. I write. I draw. I have a need to create things. My son dreams almost every night and he tells me about them. They are vivid and he remembers them. His imagination is as wild as mine and I'm not sure if it's being 4 years old or being my son - I suppose time will tell.

I encourage him to do what he wants - play sports, draw at the kitchen table, or tell stories. One of our favorite things to do is to spin tall-tales off the top of our head at bedtime. We often read a book, but sometimes we keep the books on the shelf and make our own. It's great fun and we come up with some great stuff! And sometimes I wonder if this creative-writing-gene-thing has made it's way through the third generation and onto the fourth. I don't push him and I don't want to make him into something to please me - but it is interesting to me how I started seeing signs of this thing at age 2.

So are we born with it - or is it our environment?

The Art of Re-Imagining

2010-03-02T10:39:00.007+01:00

In heaven-high musings and many,

Far-seeking and deep debate,

Of strong things find I not any

That is as the strength of Fate.

Euripides

I’ve spent the last three weeks working on my new book: outlines, sketching scenes, writing a synopsis, revising outlines and synopsis, etc. Necessary evils, which unfortunately work.

The book is a re-imagining of a popular Greek myth. While I love Greek mythology and have read Homer, Vergil and Ovid several times (no, not in the original) integrating these tales into my writing is something new for me.

I guess the first question is, why mess with a good thing? The second, what makes me think I can pull it off?

Both answers can be summed up with one word: passion. Passion for this specific tale (which combines all that’s light and dark and beautiful and terrible about growing up and falling love) and passion for writing, the challenge of getting it right and proving that I can do it.

*moving on*

How do you write a re-imagining? (Yes, I’m making it into a noun for want of a better word)

The way I’ve begun is to figure out how to make the myth relevant to our contemporary world. For example, where are the gods today and what are they doing? How do their powers manifest in a 21^st century world? How much mythology will actually be included and which figures are absolutely relevant to the story? What do the gods want? How have the two main characters in this specific tale been perceived? In the original story, were their motivations portrayed accurately? What’s at stake for them today? And my favorite question (because it leads to the most interesting answers): after all this time and all these years, have these two been misunderstood?

I do find it difficult to weave the different facets of the tale into a contemporary story. Anachronism is my nemesis at the moment, and it's easy to fall into the information dumping trap, have the first chapter full of backstory or reveal too much too soon in order to make things "fit". It takes a keen eye and brutal honesty (which is why we need crit partners, agents, editors) to find those places where the details simply don't work and cut, cut, cut.

Writing a successful re-imagining, getting it right and keeping the timeless beauty of the original tale is all about passion.

Books and Cooks- We're traveling to Venice

2010-02-24T20:37:00.011+01:00

We're kicking off a new thing over here at the Corners. *clears throat* I'm not a bit nervous a'tall. Here's the deal, once a month we'll be reviewing one of our favourite books and adding a recipe we think fits well with the book.

For the inaugural post, I present to you Sarah Dunant's In the Company of the Courtesan, a historical novel set in 16th century Italy.

It begins with the sack of Rome in 1527, where courtesan Fiammetta and her dwarf companion and business partner, Bucino (who narrates the story), flee the city after Fiametta's beautiful blond hair is hacked off. She returns to Venice, the city of her birth, and goes about restarting her business. With the help of La Draga, a blind healer, she's nursed back to health, and aided by a blond wig, she and Bucino get back to establishing a business. As she works her charm among the powerful men of the city, their fortunes grow, but so do new threats. From a Turk who wants to add human oddities to his collection, to those who would prefer to own Fiametta and the one with whom she falls in love, to La Draga herself, these two partners and friends forge a life together.

I enjoyed this book not only because of the historical details, truly it's as if you're walking in Bucino's footsteps through not-oft heard of parts of Venice, but also because it demystifies the life as a courtesan and breaks it down into its business parts. Despite its obvious title, the book glosses over most of Fiammetta's dalliances and focuses on the hardship of her chosen profession and Bucino's life as an outcast. For me, this is what binds the two of them together.

Since this book is a heavy read, I want to pair it up with something light and easy. Here's my absolute favourite recipe for Bruschetta:

1 baguette or crusty loaf bread, sliced

4 cloves fresh garlic, peeled

3 tbsp olive oil

4 plum tomatoes

1 small red onion, diced

Italian seasoning

Dash of garlic salt

Grill or broil bread (broiler on high) in oven making sure to remove bread once its toasted. Rub fresh garlic and brush olive oil across the top of each slice. Let it sit while you prepare the tomato mixture.

Chop seeded tomatoes and place in small bowl. Add remaining olive oil along with diced onion, Italian seasoning and garlic salt. Mix together. Place tomato mixture on top of each bread slice and ENJOY!

Why Queries Are Horrible, Gut-Wrenching, Soul-Sucking... and Necessary

2010-02-23T05:48:00.000+01:00

I went through the query process. Twice. Well, to be honest, really only once and a half. The first time was a hesitant, put-my-toes-in-the-water type of experience. I only queried a few agents, got a handful of requests which were subsequently turned down, and I quit to write a better book.

The second time I went full out. Every query I received a rejection on, I turned around and sent another. I decided I'd quit after I had a hundred rejections. I didn't.

It became like an addiction. I swore I'd stop. But I couldn't. Which isn't to say it felt good to do it, because rejection like that can suck the hope right out of you. Even when you wake up saying, "Today may be the day," it can come crashing around you into the dark "this is never going to happen to me" as fast as you can click open an email.

You can get wonderful comments from agents about the strength of your voice or the intriguing nature of your plot or the beautiful use of language or the appeal and depth of your character, and in the next breath they say, "But it's not for me."

Or you can get a form rejection with nothing more than a "Sorry."

They hurt just the same. Equally devastating.

People who have gone their entire lives on an emotional even keel can find themselves in a crazy, roller coaster, corkscrewing spiral of ups and downs, hopes and depression, determination and deflation. It can make a person physically ill.

And in the midst of it, no doubt every writer reads something which makes them think, "How in the world did this get published?"

Isn't there a better way to do this?

And yet... and yet I think in some ways the query process is the first and necessary step to prepare you for what lies beyond the agent.

Getting the agent is not the end of the line. It's not rainbows and puppy dogs after you get an agent. There is more rejections and harsh words possible in searching for an editor, and in that editor taking your book to a committee at their publisher, And then there's the public. Reviews. Bloggers. Readers who read, who may not love your baby of a project.

The tough skin, however thinly developed in the query process, is the first layer of a thicker skin you'll need down the line, for when you submit to editors and publishing committees and to reviewers and the public, for when you sit in a bookstore ready to sign books no one wants to buy, for when you face the blank computer screen to start a new book with a new journey ahead that is just as terrifying and breathtaking as the first.

It never ends.

There is always a new chance for rejection.

Queries are horrid, no doubt. But they teach life lessons.

It's American Idol time on TV here in the U.S., and every year starts with the audition process. As three or four judges, most of them qualified on some level in the music business, sit at a table, singer after singer enters the room, just them and the judges, to show their talent. These judges are not the ones who will produce the albums; they are the gate-keepers. These star-hopefuls get one shot - a measley little minute or two to sing one song - maybe not even a whole song - to impress them.

It's a query process.

And during the process there is always a group of people who are told they shouldn't quit their day jobs, or that they just don't have what it takes, or that they chose the wrong song, or that they're good, just not good enough. Sometimes they don't have the right look. Sometimes they don't command attention. Sometimes they just don't have "it." And "it" is something even the judges can't define; they just know it when they see it.

And in those people there are some who rant at the judges, swearing and cursing and making bold prophesies about how they will be someone some day and the judges don't know anything. Seriously, some of these folks go off the deep end with their crying and raging and hysteria.

And I think – every single time – those judges just saved that person from inevitable suicide because if they can't take decent but honest criticism in the quiet of a private room, how in the world are they going to face the Paris Hiltons and TMZs of modern day media? How are they going to deal with the trolls on Amazon who will trash their precious CDs or the booing crowds?

It's brutal out there, dear readers. But it's easier to cope when you've learned along the way that not everyone is going to love your book. That life is not always fair. That sometimes just because your book is fantastic doesn't mean it's going to connect with everyone. That every time you go into a bookstore you reject thousands of books, not because they aren't good stories but because there isn't enough of you to go around; because some just aren't your style or interest; because you love it, but you love the one next to it just a little more.

The query system may not be the perfect way to get a book onto a bookshelf, but it's the way we've got.

If you are on that part of the journey right now, remember this: if it kills your will to write, perhaps you weren't meant for this business after all, and you've saved yourself much pain. And if it doesn't, then let it teach you the sweet and sour of lessons that can only come from experience. Let it add to your thickening skin. Let it spur on your determination. Let it teach you not to take everything in the business personally.

And don't forget, each day, that this day could be the one.

Get Ready to Samba, It´s Carnaval!

2010-02-18T12:32:00.001+01:00

This week marks one of Brazil´s biggest national holidays, Carnaval. The whole country stops for about five days to dance, sing and generally party down. While the Brazilian Carnaval is famous worldwide, the celebration has its origins in Europe. The first celebrations are known to have taken place in Greece around 600-520 BC and were to thank the gods for fertile land and constant protection. Eventually the Greeks, and later the Romans, expanded the celebration to include drinking and other vices including sex. This caused the Catholic Church to strongly condemn the festival. However, around 590 AD, the Church made the decision to embrace the holiday officially incorporating it into the Church calendar, hoping that this way, they could clean it up and rid it of the sinful activity. As you can imagine, the people weren´t all that thrilled with the idea.

The celebration made its way to Brazil in the early 18th century with its origins in the Portuguese entrudo, a celebration that occurred during the days just before the beginning of Lent. People ran around town dowsing others in water, and throwing eggs, flour and even urine at each other as a way to go crazy before they would have to spend the next forty days of Lent in disciplined sacrifice. The Brazilian Carnaval was also influenced by Italian and French Carnaval celebrations which took place as urban parades where everyone dressed up in masks and costumes.

The first Brazilian celebrations were street celebrations. People dressed up in costumes and decorated carts and coaches and paraded up and down the streets in large groups (later known as blocos). This tradition gave way to the elaborate floats, usually representing an allegorical theme, that one sees today in the Carnaval celebrations in places like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

In the 20th century, the celebration really took off, mainly due to the invention of the marchinhas carnavalescas, that is, specific songs and music just for Carnaval. Depending on the region of Brazil where the holiday is celebrated, the music varies. In Rio and São Paulo, the music is known as samba, and there is an elaborate structure of samba schools that spend the whole year preparing the floats, the costumes, the music, the percussions and the dances for the Carnaval celebration. Tourists and locals alike are incorporated into the celebration by being allowed, for a fee, to don a costume and march with the samba school of their choice. The samba schools are a huge commercial success and are one of the reasons that the Rio and São Paulo celebrations are so elaborate.

But other regions in Brazil also have their own Carnaval traditions. In Pernambuco, Carnaval music is known as frevo, and it has it´s own rhythm and dance that accompanies it. In the northeast of Brazil, Carnaval music is called maracatu. Each town or city has it´s own maracatu music with a specific dance and parade processions that tell a story. In Salvador, Carnaval is celebrated with what are known as trio electricos. Live bands are mounted on giant trucks that parade through the city while partygoers trail behind them dancing to local Carnaval music. Each town and region has its own Carnaval traditions which incorporate not only the early European traditions, but African traditions brought over by slaves, and local traditions.

So for all of you in North America and Europe who are snowed in with nothing to do, turn the heat up, put your shorts on, mix yourself a nice caipirinha (a traditional Brazilian drink made from limes and cachaça, a liquor made from sugar cane) and get ready to samba! Carnaval is here!!

You've done the writing... now read it!

2010-02-17T01:13:00.004+01:00

Last year, I stood in front of an audience with a book in my hands. Out of that book I read something I wrote, and had posted on my blog, out loud. Then, I did it again!

First, I read at the book launch for my writers group anthology, and a few months later at a special event featuring our group. (I'm a member of three groups, and fully plan to blog about the beauty of belonging later on...)

After surviving the experience, and learning to get good solid thrill out of it, I can't recommend it enough. You should do it! You should definitely get out there and read your work out loud!

You'll be nervous, scared, and convinced that you're about to make the biggest mistake of your life. Excellent. This is proof that you are alive. Chances are good that you will not die from reading your writing out loud, so you'll still be alive by the time you're done.

There's also a good chance that you won't be amazed by your incredible success. Even if you do regular public speaking, reading your own writing is completely different, and it'll make you shake. This is stuff that came out of your own brain, your very soul, and you're spilling it out there onto people who may not be able to love it like you do. Your throat might feel dry, or choked, your hands will shake, and don't even think about how your armpits will soak your shirt. It could happen. Of course, your voice will come out of your mouth all shaky and won't even sound like your own.

But you'll survive, and you'll be even better for it.

Now you've got one more skill in your life as a writer. Someday you'll have a book you want to promote, and author readings are a great way to get out there and show everybody what you've got.

You'll get better at it as you go. And when people who love reading hear you, they will have that extra interest to read it themselves. A few years ago I made a promise to go to as many author readings as possible, and it's amazing. As a writer, I want to pick up on what each author is doing right. I like to see the story come alive. As a reader, it's just a pure treat to hear the words in the author's own voice.

If you ever get the chance to read your writing to an audience, go for it. Be assured that any nervousness is natural. Remember to read so slow it feels ridiculous. Breathe!! You don't have to make eye contact with the audience at first; that takes practice. Relax.

You might even end up with some admirers, and dare I say it, some fans! At the very least, you'll have satisfaction and one more piece of self respect.

Roman Curses--Written On Lead Sometimes Backwards.

2010-02-04T19:33:00.001+01:00

Roman curses-written on lead sometimes backwards.

Among the artifacts that have been dredged from the foundations and the waters of the baths are an abundance of "curses". These were written on thin strips of lead, rolled up, and cast into the sacred pool. Often they were written backwards, as this was believed to give them additional magic power. They were written on lead because it was believed that if the curse floated, it would rebound upon the writer of the curse rather than its intended victim. The text of several of these is on display in the corridor overlooking the sacred spring. Many ask the goddess to visit vengeance of the most violent sort upon miscreants who have committed the most petty of crimes. One, for example, proclaims "To Minerva the goddess of Sulis I have given the thief who has stolen my hooded cloak, whether slave or free, whether man or woman. He is not to buy back this gift unless with his own blood." (It is difficult to avoid contrasting this with the Biblical injunction that "If someone steals your coat offer them your cloak as well…")

A few days ago I began looking for something new to use for my picture on the "About Me" part of my two blogs. I had been told by my daughter-in-law that I hadn't updated it since my second grandchild was born and she was right. What do you put as a picture that would represent something inherently "you"? For a short time I had a picture of my two grandchildren representing me and that was legitimate, but then my daughter-in-law became concerned with having them so prominantly displayed hence my hunt for something new.

Somewhere I have a photograph taken by one of my sons that showed me at my computer a number of years ago that might work very well but so far I haven't been able to locate it. And then I began to think a symbol would work better so I went to different spots on the internet that promised to instantly get me in touch with the perfect symbol to represent me as a writer.

It was then that I came up with the picture you see at the top which I have now as my picture for "About Me". I believe it's either a photograph or a piece of art by Rosanne Woodcraft. If it's a photograph where was it taken? If it's a piece of art what does it represent?

I looked up Rosanne Woodcraft. She appears to be a writer--thus it would seem that the picture at the top and the words are of her own crafting. I love the words and now would like to find the book representing what I see in the picture.

How and why am I using this picture on my blog? I have decided to use it to represent where I am at this particular moment. I am writing a fantasy novel "Finding The Oracians" and have recently found myself unexpectedly interested in spells of all kinds. This comes from my effort to more closely bring the world which my heroine is now entering into my subconscious. I do think one should be able to do that. In the future--rather than having an actual photograph of me on About Me I will have something representing where I am at that particular moment. I think it will help me focus on my writing, which is what I should be doing.

Book Piracy

2010-02-02T11:16:00.001+01:00

There's a lot of debate going on right now about piracy. Some think you should grab yourself a cat o' nine tails and start whipping people because there should be a price to pay for readers downloading, sharing and participating in the latest plundering of creative work, otherwise known as file sharing. And then there are others who say it's an individual's choice and others, my guess those that download, defend the sharing of texts.

Laurie Halse Anderson blogged about it here and followed up here. Her post is interesting, but the reader responses are even more intriguing, especially those who defend piracy.

My opinion? I agree with what Laurie says about free content and entitlement, but I also think it has to do with something I like to call the Rowlings-Meyer effect. Let me break it down for you.

Success=Money=Castles, Nice Cars=No Need For More Money

Here's something many readers may not realize: they are the exception to the rule. Most debut writers receive an advance of $5000 and no, they don't give up their day jobs. It takes weeks, months and sometimes years to finish a book so break it down by money earned by hour worked and, well you get my point. Writing is not a get-rich-quick business. It's hard work, long hours, time spent away from family and friends and that cannot be measured in wages. We write because we love it and hope to see our works published and in bookstores, libraries and in the hand of the person next to us at a cafe'. And yeah, we hope to earn enough to supplement our income and justify all the time spent writing.

Is it fair that Mary Pearson has had her book downloaded over 900 times on one site, has not earned a penny from it and readers can make changes to something she's worked so hard on? Not so different from someone stealing a term paper, putting it on the web where others can download, make changes and turn it in as their own work. Bottom line: it is unfair and unethical.

Let's strip it down to the basics. We're all taught as children if you take something without paying for it that's called stealing, robbery, thievery. Something to think about.

The Pros and Cons of E-Readers

2010-01-27T04:33:00.001+01:00

I once firmly held the stance that any book should be read the "real" way... on printed paper with a cover that I could hold in my hands and flip through at will. I wasn't against the evolution of e-readers; I just was sure I would never be one of those that owned one.

And then, somewhere along the way, I wondered if maybe I was wrong. Maybe, just maybe, I could fall in love just a little bit with e-books.

There has been much talk in the publishing industry – among authors and agents and editors and publishers – about the future of e-readers. Will they take over and be the ultimate demise of tree-books? Are we facing the extinction of books as we know them? Did cavemen feel this way when hammering in stone replaced cave drawings? Did Egyptians mourn the use of stone tablets when someone discovered writing on papyrus? Did monks cringe when the first printing press came along and their calligraphy talents slowly were disregarded?

I think the problem with the hype about e-readers now is that people look at them in just this light: they have come along to replace traditional paper-and-ink books. In fact, I don't think this is the case at all. E-readers aren't being made to replace tree-books; they are designed to supplement them. In the same way that audio books have not taken over and replaced paper books, neither will e-readers.

There's really no use arguing which is better, either. That's an argument in which there are no winners, because neither is better ALL the time. Both have pros and cons. And despite that, some readers will never admit that. So instead of putting e-readers and traditional books on a balance to judge them against each other, I'm going to stipulate this: Traditional, paper-ink books with covers and pages you can turn in your hands rock. There is an emotional, romantic attachment we have to these books that will never go away for many people, me included.

But, that said, that doesn't mean there can't also be a place in my life for an e-reader. So I'm putting the e-reader on the scale against itself. Why is it useful? Where can it fit in in a book-lover's life? And where does it just not measure up?

PROS OF AN E-READER:

1. It's a space-saver. I don't know anyone who has enough bookshelves for the books they own or want to own. An e-reader can hold anywhere from 1500 to 3500 books in its memory, and that's without the SD cards some of them can utilize, which can make an almost limitless amount of books in the space of a very small notebook.

2. It can hold a wide-variety of media. Many e-readers can download newspapers, magazines and blogs in addition to books.

3. It's ecological. There's no doubt that if e-readers really catch on, a lot of trees will get a second chance at life. And when you consider how many books are not just printed but pulped because no one bought them... well... it seems a shame not to come up with some viable alternative.

4. Many books are free. You'd pay good money in a bookstore to buy a copy of Wuthering Heights or Romeo and Juliet. On an e-reader? Any book in the public domain can be downloaded for free. That makes the over 1 million books published before 1900 free.

5. Many books are much less expensive. For hardback books, the price of an e-book can be more than 50% less than the price of a traditional book. Amazon advertises that all of their bestselling hardbacks are $9.99. Books in paperback are even less. Some people complain that it shouldn't even be that much since it costs nearly nothing to publish an e-book, but that neglects all of the non-printing costs that still are part of the process of bring that book to you: the writer, the agents, the editors, the marketing staff, etc.

6. It provides access to many out-of-print books. This is one of the coolest aspects, I think. All those books that have fallen off the printing list because they just don't sell enough anymore are now finding new life.

7. Books are immediately available. Instead of driving in your car or hopping on a subway or even just running a comb through your hair to look good enough to walk out the front door, you can download books in your own home. You can avoid crowds. You can do it when the stores are closed. You can buy them the moment you hear about them, even if you are covered in chicken pox and quarantined for having swine flu. Talk about instant gratification!

8. You can change the text size. If the light is low. If your eyes are hurting or blurry, or your glasses need new prescriptions. Change the font. Make any book a large print book.

9. It's easier to travel with. If you're on the go a lot, a slim, less than one pound e-reader will more than likely beat the convenience factor of lugging a 900 page Harry Potter hardback. Or whatever you're reading. And you won't even need to bring a back up book if you finish it, because you can have 1499 other books just waiting in the wings on that same device.

10. Many e-readers can play audio books or "read" audible books. You can download audio books as mp3s for around $7 on some websites, which beats the $40-60 you'd pay for the boxed CD set. And Amazon has a huge collection of e-books that its e-reader will audibly read for you, so you have the option of either. They'll also play MP3 music, which is really cool if you want to read Master and Commander while listening to the CD compilation of all the music mentioned in the book.

There are, of course, drawbacks.

CONS OF E-READERS:

1. They're expensive. Clocking in at $200 and up, buying an e-reader is an investment much larger than a book. If you are an avid reader and buyer of hardbacks, at $10 savings per book average,you will have to buy around 25 e-books to make up the price of the most popular readers. If you buy mostly paperbacks, at an average savings of $3 per book, it will take nearly 83 books before you're even.

2. It's electronic. Let's face it: books don't break if you drop them or run out of battery power right as you're getting to the good part. They don't need to be charged, and they don't need an owner's manual to use. And though I know some people who do use them at the beach, I wouldn't be one of them. I've seen what sand can do to electronics, and it isn't pretty.

3. The page refresh isn't like turning a page. This really bothers some people. Some e-readers are better– faster and more seamless – than others at this. It really bothered me at first, although now I barely notice.

4. They need a cover... which means more $$. The first edition of the Kindle came with a cover, but the new one doesn't, as don't most others. Which means if you want to keep your e-reader scratch free and semi-protected, you have to shell out more money. I've seen them around $40, but also up to $180 for designed ones.

5. You can't just flip through the pages. I like flipping back and forth through a book, especially if I've read too fast and missed a detail that comes up later in the book, or when I read something I think contradicts with something the author read earlier. In a tree-book I can flip quickly back and forth until I find what I'm looking for. In an e-book you can only flip chapter by chapter and page by page. On the other hand, if you know a keyword you're looking for, some e-readers have a find option that will pinpoint the page for you, so that could be a huge PRO.

6. Not all people have access to a lending library. Traditional paper books have libraries where you can go and check out books for free to read. Current books. Bestsellers. Hardbacks. Free, as long as you promise to bring them back. Many libraries are starting to offer e-books as well, so you can borrow an e-book, read it on your e-reader, and then it returns itself on the due date. I think the future will see a lot more of this, but for the moment, they're hard to find.

7. The Romance Factor. For some people this trumps anything else I've said. There is a love-affair between book-lovers and their books that no gadget, no matter how shiny and new, can overthrow.

I've heard some people say they don't want an e-book because they love browsing through bookstores. I guess I don't get this because an e-reader doesn't stop you from browsing bookstores. In fact, if you have an e-reader that has wi-fi or 3G service, you can browse the bookshelves, hold the books, sniff their aroma and stroke the covers... then download it right then and there. Without standing in line.

Also, I've heard people say they'd miss the discussions they have with people over books. This has some merit, for sure. I've begun conversations with strangers because they're reading or carrying a book I either have recently read or want to read. But I've also had people approach me because of my e-reader, asking questions about how I like it and what I read on it. I've had some great conversations that I might not otherwise have had. As e-readers become more popular that probably will die down.

What do you think? Are e-readers destroying traditional books or enhancing them? Did I miss any pros and cons? And will you dive into the new world of e-books, and if not, why?

Seasons of Love

2010-01-23T13:24:00.003+01:00

I´ve had a rough week, so my creative juices aren´t really flowing all that well right now. The wife of a good friend passed away, as well as the sister of one of my oldest and dearest friends. They were both women I knew and respected, and both spent many years dealing with difficult chronic illnesses that eventually overpowered them completely and took their lives.

It´s difficult to offer comfort to the friends and family of the deceased when there is no comfort to give. What can you say that will make things better when a relatively young wife and mother suffers for so many years and then must leave her family behind? What do you say to her husband? What do you tell her children? How do you console her aged mother who never thought she would outlive her child? You can send flowers or a fruit basket. If you are in the same city, you can attend the wake and funeral. These rituals give some closure to a death, but they don´t fill the void left by the deceased. I think that all we can do in this situation, is remember that life is one journey and death is another. Like the cycle of seasons that move us forward each year, life here on earth is just one cycle, and if we can fill it with as much love and positive energy as possible, then we are doing a pretty good job.

Below are the lyrics from the wonderfully beautiful song “Seasons of Love”, written by Jonathan Larson for the musical RENT. They have offered me comfort in times of loss, when I needed to contemplate and justify a death. I decided to reprint them here for everyone to read. As writers, we respond to words. Sometimes we read something and it sums up exactly how we feel, or what we think. It is that universal appeal that comforts us and lets us know that we are not alone, that others share the same feelings. Hopefully this will speak to all of you as well.

Seasons of Love
By Jonathan Larson

Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes,
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets,
In midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles,
In laughter, in strife.
In, five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes,
How do you measure, a year in the life?

How about love?
Measure in love.
Seasons of love.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,
How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?

In truths that she learned,
Or in the times that he cried.
In the bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died.

In diapers, report cards,
In spoked wheels and speeding tickets.
In contracts, in dollars,
In funerals, in births.
In, five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes,
How do you figure a last year on earth?

It´s time now to sing out,
For the story never ends.
Let´s celebrate, remember the year,
In the life of friends.

Remember the love,
Measure the love,
Measure your life in love.

Late

2010-01-20T12:28:00.002+01:00

Late late late.

Lately it seems like I'm always late for something. And if I'm not late I'm forgetting.

This poor blog falls in it. I have set it up in my calendar. And case in point: I need to remember to open my calendar daily to read what I have to do.

Head:Desk

Do you have that? Between juggling your life, juggling your writing? Which wins? How do you decide what gets the time and what gets the short end of the stick?

I need to learn how to deal with this better, because it won't get any easier at all. Just harder and more complicated.

I'd love any input you all have.

The Itty Bitty Shitty Committee

2010-01-17T04:22:00.000+01:00

You think you can write-in fact you have to write. You're a Writer, by God!

Then The Itty Bitty Shitty Committee arrives. You've heard them, these voices in our heads borne from a lifetime of uncomfortable moments.

What makes you think you can write?
Maybe you could write a great laundry list but a novel?

These voices in our heads are merciless. If you can quiet them long enough to actually write that novel and are looking for an agent, that's when they really get nasty.

You're looking for a agent? Who would ever take you on? You're nothing but a hack.
And the one that kills me: You're too old.

How do we stop these insidious voices within us? Someone said you reason with them. Somehow I don't see that working--it would be like trying to reason with a Tarantula.

I prefer talking them down: You ridiculous remnant of last night's dinner, you trickle of offal, you committee of noxious odors.

But even that sometimes doesn't work; that nasty committee of voices is still clattering around in your brain.

You have to deal with them somehow. Take out what you've written, show it to the people you trust--your fellow writers.

You know what the answer will be.

It's wonderful: amazing characters; great plot. It's a go!

That's the only voice you should listen to.

A Thrilling Ride

2010-01-14T12:13:00.002+01:00

It's not easy to write a book and see that book get published. It takes hard work, perseverance, resolve and the ability to take criticism. It's also not easy to hear about a writer whose book sold at auction without feeling a twinge of envy. But few of us know the story behind the announcement.

Well here's the pub story of a writer who happens to be the crit partner of a very successful writer. I read this post three times and each time I took something different away from it:

1. Nothing can replace an awesome crit group

2. Your agent is your advocate

3. Rejection hurts no matter which stage you're at

4. Even if you have an awesome agent and a famous crit partner, publication is not guaranteed

5. Improving is about making hard choices

6. Never give up on something you love

7. It can happen, you just have to be willing to accept help, criticism and never stop believing

What Is A Media Kit?

2010-01-14T04:56:00.000+01:00

This past week my publisher started talking to me about assembling a media kit (also called a press kit). I'd heard of them vaguely – several authors have links to them on their websites, and it's recommended that you have one in case Oprah likes your book – but I didn't know much about them. What is a media kit, and what goes into one?

An author media kit is a package of materials about your book that will give an interviewer or reviewer all they need to know about you and your book.

I like to look at it this way: If I write Oprah and say, "Hey! This is the best book ever! You need to include this in your book club!" (and let's not even go into the fact that Oprah is going cable and may not even have a book club in six months), Oprah needs to be able to find out all the pertinent information about my novel and me to decide if she wants to take a second look... or to come up with a list of questions to ask me while I'm jumping up and down on her couch.

These are some of the things that might go into an author's press kit:

1. An author bio: Usually written in third person, this is the story of who you are and can include your platform, your background, awards, why you wrote this book, a photo of you, etc.

2. Book Information to include:

title
author
publisher
distrubutor
ISBN
number of pages
size
price
cover photo

3. Book Blurb This is similar to what is on the cover to entice a reader to read; a hanging summary with a hook.

4. Author Interview or suggested interview questions

5. Endorsements/reviews

6. Media Releases

7. Frequently Asked Questions

8. Contact Information

Some media kits are flashy and unique and try to stand out from the crowd. Others try to be brief and easy to use. I'm not convinced either of these is better than the other. In the end, it has to be your book, idea and your writing that can stand the test of review.

It's possible your agent or publisher will create this for you, but if you are yet to be published, self-published, or in the midst of being published, it's a great idea to begin compiling these items so that you'll be ready when the time comes that you need them.

Momentum

2010-01-09T12:52:00.004+01:00

In the January 4th Book section of the New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote a review of Elizabeth Gilbert´s latest book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage. The book is intended to be a sequel of sorts to her mega-bestselling memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, and tells the story of how Gilbert comes to terms with marriage to her current love, a man named Felipe, after the bitter divorce that left her scarred in Eat, Pray Love.

According to Ms. Maslin, Elizabeth Gilbert had a difficult time writing Committed. She reportedly wrote a first version of the book, which she ended up discarding completely before writing a second version. In the introduction to Committed, Gilbert herself admits that she was feeling the pressure of having to write in the wake of such incredible success. Maslin quotes her as saying, “It has been a bit of a perplexity for me to figure out how, after that phenomenon, I would ever write un-self-consciously again.”

And, if Janet Maslin is right, all of Elizabeth Gilbert´s worrying is not without reason. Maslin concludes that Committed is nowhere near as good as Eat, Pray, Love. Maslin says, “In Committed, the strain is as palpable as the voice is cute, and the drama is virtually nonexistent. Ms. Gilbert begins by setting up the situation, explaining how, `in the space of only a few hours, my life with Felipe had been neatly flipped upside down, as though by some great cosmic spatula.’ That adorable mixture of spirituality and kitchen equipment was whisked by Eat, Pray, Love into and airy confection, but falls flat as a pancake this time.” Maslin calls Gilbert´s prose, “anything-goes argument and reportage, much of it headed exactly nowhere.”

Now this is just the opinion of one reviewer. There may well be others out there who will give Gilbert´s new book glowing reviews. I personally, loved Eat, Pray, Love and will likely read the sequel and decide for myself if I like it or not. However, this review highlights perhaps the biggest fear that any writer has. I think it might even be a fear that is bigger than never getting published, and that is that we might be a one hit wonder, a one trick pony. After writing that one book that was good enough to get published, that we have nothing left in us, that we become hollow, empty vessels, unable to write another good book.

So my question to you today is, how do we keep the momentum going? How do you do it in the face of rejection, and how do you do it in the face of success?

The Crush

2010-01-08T04:18:00.004+01:00

by Heidi Yantzi

A strange thing can happen to a fiction writer, an unexpected and slightly embarrassing but blushingly enjoyable accident.

Sometimes, we kinda sorta accidentally fall in love with our own characters.

There, I said it!

It's happened a few times here in Four Corners. We must all be a bunch of breathless fangirls, because we've fallen for each other's heroes too. Of course, this illustrates what talented writers we are, doesn't it? Writers want readers to fall in love. It keeps people reading. What better way get that reaction out of readers than to feel it ourselves first?

When I look back, I realize I've written crush-inducing male characters for years.

There was that awful attempt at historical type fantasy in college, with the young horse trainer with the long black hair who'd fallen under the spell of the vicious queen who made him drink the poison that turned his blood black. I think before he fell ill he spent a lot of time shirtless. (Of course.)

Then there was the archetypal dangerous boyfriend, who fronted a rock band and was adored by thousands of fans at a time but was secretly mentally abusive to his fragile model girlfriend (of course). It wasn't much of a love story, more of a cautionary tale, but that one scene with him rolling down the window of his Mustang on a bitterly cold night, with the heat pouring out of the car and his piercing green eyes staring at her... kind of caught my breath a little, I gotta admit. Also, he had long black hair and spent a fair bit of time onstage shirtless. (Hmmm.)

Then I created the adorable horse trainer husband (hmmm) who had curly golden hair but might have taken off his shirt on the odd hot day (of course). Boy I liked him a lot. Funny, reliable, honourable and good with horses. Who wouldn't have a thing for him? Jay made me giggle out loud more than once, but when he survived a shocking loss I had to admire his courage. Just so proud of the way he handled it.

After that I totally outdid myself and invented not one but two intriguing young guys, the ones you always wanted to go out with in high school. I loved them both, the nice quiet one and the hard partying bad boy. (Put them together and I married him.) Also there was long black hair involved. (See?)

Lately I've been working on two projects, because I can't decide which one I love more. I've got one hero who's starting his life over from rock bottom at the age of 40, and has forgotten what it's like to be healthy and hopeful. The other is half that age, a brilliant musician with a headful of colours, words, lighting bolts of ideas.

There's something to love in both of those guys. I'm realizing how my love for them makes me want to write about them. It's easy to write in first person from a female character's perspective. I know how she feels!

Even though I can't classify my work as romance, I like it when a romance happens. I really like it when a reader is part of that. I'm a very lucky woman because in real life I've got a man I'm absolutely crazy about. Maybe this fuels my leading men, because I just want to share the love, man. There's enough love for all of us in fiction.

Now I'd love to hear which literary imaginary boyfriend makes you swoon, whether he's one of your own inventions or came from another great mind. Don't be shy!

THE OH OH FEELING

2010-01-03T21:14:00.000+01:00

I sometimes get the OH OH FEELING as I'm writing but I'm so caught up in the moment--at what's happening in the story--that I ignore it. I'll probably do it again but somehow hope that I won't because ignoring it can have long reaching effects.

Example: My story RUN!!! has my ten year old character Ben meeting a boy named Abel in Penn Station who he eventually hooks up with. The two live in Penn Station--the Penn Station as it was in 1924.

Abel, being anxious to show Ben all the exciting stuff to be seen in a train station, takes Ben below to where the trains come in. After experiencing these huge behemoths coming into the train shed he takes Ben down the platform and into the train yard. They run through the yard and then Abel proudly shows him his home--a boarded up house on the edge of the train yard.

I had one of those OH OH moments when the two of them started running across the train yard. First of all this station is in the middle of Manhattan. Would there have even been a train yard in Manhattan at that time? My husband said everything was probably underground at that time but I just ignored that and went blithely along having all sorts of things happen in that train yard that probably wasn't there.

Then the OH OH feeling got bumped really hard when one of my writing buddies questioned what I was doing with my characters out on that train yard during one sequence. I still struggled to make it work; that's how powerful the writing process is: you want something to be a particular way so you are oh so powerfully inclined to make it that way. How else is there a term called Literary License?

I then came to a climatic scene where I had Ben out on that train yard with a huge engine rolling toward him from which he apparently had no escape. I think that scene became very real for me and all of a sudden the OH OH became OH OH!!!

It took a while to figure out what was wrong. I should feel something here--some fear for Ben being faced with this huge engine rolling toward him but did I feel it? No. If I didn't feel it a reader wouldn't either.

So then I began to track where this whole "out of the train yard" thing began and at last I asked the questions I should have asked all along: would Abel have taken Ben through a train yard in one of the busiest train stations in the United States? Abel is a moxie kid. The answer is no. So now I'm in a big quandary. A lot of things important to the story take place in that train yard--things I've written that I really loved. Would I have to kill the baby--in other words, kill what I loved because it wasn't logical?

And then something happened which will allow me to kill the baby and have the baby at the same time. How, you might ask, could this strange turn of events have happened?

I almost feel like saying "tune in tomorrow" because this seems--to me--to be something so inexplicable almost to end up in one of my "Strange and Inexplicable Events" posts.

I have been doing a lot of research for RUN. Mostly I've found some interesting pictures. Recently I went to the site of the NY Public Library and came across a whole bunch of pictures of the original Penn Station. One showed a train yard and in the immediate background I could see the unmistakable outlines of the roof of Penn Station, circa 1920 (actually I think the picture dates from 1929, which is even better.)

The train yard, which is reached through an underground tunnel, is obviously the train yard for Penn Station. I had myself a train yard and even better--I had a viewing platform!

On the side of the yard nearest to the train station is a place that must have served the purpose of being a viewing platform for one of a number of reasons--none of which was important. Now I could have Abel forbear taking Ben on a run through the train yard (It's too dangerous and besides I've got something even better). So Abel introduces Ben to the viewing platform and in that climatic scene I was worried about Ben would be running from a guy with knife, run out onto the viewing platform and find the guy with the knife's buddy blocking his exit from the other direction. Ben now has only two choices--neither one of which are good. He can fight off two much bigger guys, one of which has a knife, or he can escape over the side of the viewing platform and land in the train yard to be faced very soon with something even more dangerous--a many ton behemoth. Then that scene with Ben being faced with that engine will really have some impact because it will never have happened before. Oh, and that engine will now have become a train which will up the ante considerably!

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T09:53:00.005+01:00

All of us from Four Corners wish you a happy, healthy New Year. Thank you for all of your support and we look forward to what the new year will bring all of us.

Make Your Own Dream

2009-12-27T06:08:00.000+01:00

It's nearly a new year: that time when people evaluate where they are in life and what they'd like to change in the coming 365 days. They make resolutions, set goals, visualize a better them.

The thing about some goals is this: not everything is in your control.

This is no more true than in the business of publishing. You can dream of writing the perfect book and one day having it grace bookshelves in a store near you, but face it – there is so much in between those two bookend dreams that you can't control. If you follow the traditional path, you can query, but you can't make an agent request the book to read how wonderful it is; you can't make an editor read the book and envision the perfect market for it; you can't make the publishing team believe your book will make them money and vote to take you on; you can't make the marketing team choose your book to be the one they hype and advertise.

Do you then give up? Do you take what's handed to you and accept it as the new dream, albeit not necessarily the one you wanted? Do you just keep at it, hoping someone will someday hand you your dream?

There are a lot of judgments out there, but only you can know what's right for you. And make no mistake; though there are plenty of people who might say there is only one way, there are choices. Choices to go without an agent. Choices to submit to small publishers. Choices to self publish. Choices to market your book yourself. Choices to throw yourself your own release party if your publisher chooses to put your book out quietly.

And the choice to keep fighting to get exactly the dream you want, even if doors keep shutting in your face.

So as you head into this new year, set your goals. Define your dreams. And then know that, even when it seems it's all out of your hands, it isn't really. It's your choice to alter the dream if you want, to plug away a little longer if you want, and to make your own dream come true.

Happy 2010. May you make all your dreams this year come true.

The Value of Our Memories

2009-12-23T14:11:00.002+01:00

I was reading an interesting article in the newspaper the other day that summarized a recent study done on human memory. As it turns out, they have found a way to erase certain memories without the use of drugs that affect the central nervous system. I don´t quite understand the science behind it, but the experiments were structured to first create a fear or mild stress in a group of subjects who had volunteered for the study, and then attempt to erase that fear. On day one of the study, the subjects were connected to a device that administered a small shock. Forty percent of the time the shock was administered, the subjects were shown a piece of red paper. Eventually, just showing them the red paper was enough to elicit a stress response that was measureable. The subjects began to sweat when the red paper was shown to them.

On day two of the study, the same subjects were connected to the same device, but they never received a shock when they were shown the red paper. This process is apparently known as deconditioning. By the end of the day, all of the subjects had stopped eliciting the stress response (sweating) upon being shown the red paper. However, the memory of the association of the red paper with the shock had not been lost. On the third day, all it took was one shock administered while showing them the red paper and the stress response kicked in again.

The big discovery they found was that if, on the second day, a subject was shown the red paper and then shocked, but then immediately afterwards the deconditioning process took place, the memory was erased. On the third day, in this group of subjects, a single shock was not capable of eliciting the stress response. In order for this group to demonstrate the stress response, they had to be conditioned all over again.

Like I said earlier, I don´t quite get the science behind this, and the article was just a brief summary that didn´t go into too many details, but it got me thinking about the value of our memories, and what would happen if selective memories could easily be erased. The article touched on some of the potential future uses of this type of memory therapy that seemed positive. For example, it might be able to help soldiers coming back from combat eliminate the traumatic stress syndrome they experience, or it could be used to help victims of rape, assault and other tragedies to heal emotionally. Obviously this would be a good thing, but at the same time, I´m sure every one of us could imagine how something like this could also be abused if it could, in fact, erase real memories so easily.

Apart from contemplating the controversial nature of something like this, I began to think about how essential memory is to defining who we are and how we view the world. Even the horrible memories serve a purpose. As writers, our memories are crucial. We all write from memory. And nothing we write would be realistic if we didn´t have our memories to bring everything, from the important moments to the little experiences, back to us. When deciding on a setting for a story, writers often choose a place that they have some familiarity with. However, they don´t immediately hop on a plane to go there and take notes. They operate from their memories. Our descriptions of people, places, and life events, all come from our memories and experiences in some way or another. The description of a kiss, how it feels to make love, or be betrayed, the way an ocean breeze tickles your cheeks, or the way you can feel a cold winter day in your bones, all comes from one memory or another, either from our own personal experience, or from observing others who are experiencing the event being described. And while I can see the value in eliminating tragic memories, there is a larger part of me that wouldn´t want to give them up. They are a part of who I am, part of my own personal journey. There is a stark beauty in tragedy as well, and as writers we try to find that and portray it realistically. So what about the rest of you? Could you see the value in losing any part of your memory? Do ALL of your memories help you to be the writers that you are?

Curl up with a good book under the Christmas tree!

2009-12-21T22:17:00.003+01:00

by Heidi Yantzi

I wasn't planning on doing a seasonal post today, but I can't help myself. I'm usually such a grinch about the whole commercialism of an otherwise perfectly good religious/ social holiday that I avoid all Christmas cheery things. Today though, I'm thinking about how nice it will be to have a day off. Of course we mothers will still have things to do... and in my case, things to do for my mother since I'm currently living in her house with my family. I'll still be out in the barn, feeding the horses and cleaning their stalls, chipping ice out of their water buckets, feeding the barn cats... which I don't consider work because I enjoy it. Aside from those things, it's an unspoken rule that Christmas is a day off. (We won't discuss the one a few years back when we ended up loading hay into the barn on December 25.)

I won't be doing any vacuuming or furniture rearranging or purging of stuff no longer needed. I won't be packing or unpacking.

You know what I really want to do on Christmas day?

READ.

For years, I've asked for a book on my birthday. I like to get a novel, preferably a new one, especially since I'm too broke/ cheap to get it for myself. I wrote up a long list so I can still be surprised when I open my suspiciously book-shaped gift.

I need to finish reading my current book in the next few days. It's taken me weeks to read it, partly because I haven't allowed myself enough time for it, and also because I'm savouring it. A woman from my church wrote and self-published it, and it's wonderful. The wraparound cover image is a photo of Ruth's gorgeous perennial garden. The illustrations at each chapter heading are by her niece, who is a local graphic artist and sign painter. The book is basically a collection of real -life observations Ruth has made in our church newsletter, along with memoir style writings about life lessons. It's fascinating. She grew up close to my parents' farm and hasn't lived further than a few miles away from that place in her 70+ years, but what a lot of thinking and learning she's done. It's just a treasure of a book.

I love reading. I hope to spend a good hour or more with a book and a blanket on Friday.

How about you? Do you have any quiet moments in your Christmas traditions? And if you could receive any book for a gift, what would you ask for? What book have you loved so much in 2009 you'd give it as a gift?

Who Owns E-Book Rights?

2009-12-17T19:24:00.002+01:00

I've never taken the whole e-book thing too seriously because I write children's books and mostly my stories have been for the very young and somehow I couldn't imagine a six year old or an eleven year old being satisfied with anything other than a real, honest-to-goodness book to hold onto. From my viewpoint, there's something about the very nature of books--the smell, the feel, the look--with which an e-book just can't compete. A wonderful old bookcase full of e-books? Nah.

Now, however, I find myself thinking more seriously about it because the latest book I'm writing is decidedly in the Young Adult area and I hear these stories of all these kids walking around with Kindles so I've decided I've been rather naive about it all.

Then--BANG--two articles ran in the New York Times so close they were breathing on each other and what I smelled wasn't good. The first article was "Plot Twist For Familiar Works: Who Owns the E-Book Rights?" by Motoko Rich. The family of William Styron, the author of "Sophie's Choice" and "The Confessions of Nat Turner", was trying to lure younger readers by making these books available on Digital Readers like the Kindle, which, by the way, is owned by Amazon. The question is, who owns the electronic rights to older titles, published when electronic rights weren't in the picture at all? The family of William Styron thinks they own the rights since e-books didn't exist when "Sophie's Choice" and 'The Confessions of Nat Turner" were published. A similar controversy is afloat about Joseph Heller's "Catch 22".

Backlist titles are crucial to publishing houses because they promise lucrative revenue year after year. Last Friday, Markus Dohle, chief executive of Random House, sent a letter to dozens of literary agents which said that its older agreements gave it the exclusive right to publish in electronic book publishing formats.

Yesterday, an article titled "Top Author Shifts E-Book Rights To Amazon.com" by Brad Stone and Motoko Rich appeared on the first page of the business section of the Times. Stephen R Covey, a very successful business author, has sold E-Book rights for "The 7 Habits of Very Effective People" and "Principle-Centered Leadership" to Amazon and plans to transfer more. One of the major contributors to this decision is the royalty offered by Amazon--more than half of the net proceeds of e-books sales. (Amazon is making these books available through an electronic book publisher, RosettaBooks.) The Royalty offered by traditional publishers on e-books is 25% of net proceeds of e-book sales. Another factor? Amazon plans on publicizing Mr. Covey's books on its website. Traditional publishers now expect many of their authors to publicize their own books.

Many authors and agents say that because older contracts don't explicitly spell out electronic rights, they reside with the author. The publishing houses say that phrases like "in book form" or words that preclude competitive editions means the rights stay with the publisher.

Mr. Covey apparently is also playing with the idea of self-publishing his next book which of course would cut out the traditional publisher as well. Self-publishing, of course, is a route any author can go.

One of the thorns in the heels of the publishers is the price charged for electronic books--$9.95--which they feel cuts into the market for traditional hardcovers. Given this, Simon & Schuster, last week, said it was delaying the release by four months of the e-book verions of 35 titles. Other publishers have said much the same thing. An Amazon spokesman, Drew Herdener, said Simon & Schuster was "backward leaning."

Mike Shatzkin, the chief executive of Idea Logical, which advises publishers on digital strategy, said "Publishers were trying to herd Amazon back into their corner and keep it there but I think this is going to be a very difficult situation for big publishers to control."

I see this as being a real threat to the health of the publishing industry and by implication, the health of many authors, particularly those trying to get a book published for the first time. On the other hand, given that the revenue engendered by backlist books is in threat, perhaps publishers will be more willing to give a helping hand to the new author.

When Others Say It Better

2009-12-14T18:46:00.008+01:00

I love this time of year when it's cold and the city is decorated and lights fill the sky. I like to reflect on the past year and think of the new one fast approaching, hoping that some things will improve and others will remain the same. In keeping with this time of hope, renewal and beginning, I'm posting some of my favorite quotes by those who can summarize eternal truths in simple sentences, and of course they are writing-related.

Henry David Thoreau: How vain is it to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live.

Isaac Asimov: You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe: If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.

Jules Renard: Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.

Edith Wharton: A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.

Raymond Chandler: At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.

Victor Hugo: If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.

W. Somerset Maugham: We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.

The Importance of Living

2009-12-11T15:27:00.003+01:00

Okay - so my title may be misleading. I'm not talking about breathing, although that's important too. I'm talking about living life. We as writers tend to throw ourselves into our current project. It's always on your mind as you go through the day. You set time aside to write, and then you have blogs you need to read and comment on. You also have emails with fellow writing partners to exchange. You have research for your WIP. You have your queries going out, rejections and requests coming in. You've got edits and revisions.

Everyone has said writing and trying to get published is like a full-time job and we should treat it as such. But it's not a full-time job in the traditional sense. We write wherever we are, be it the home office, dining room, living room, or front porch. We often stay up late after the family is in bed to get in some more writing time. Sometimes we become slaves to our dream.

I am not saying to not be diligent and work your way through - we all need to. But what I am saying is that it is okay to take that break. I've done it. People in my writing group have done it. "Life" may get in the way and we may not be able to post a new blog post everyday. Check out my personal blog for an example. We may not sit at our computer to sledge out 1,200 words a day. Sure, that's a goal, but, if we spend our entire life on the computer developing carpal tunnel and staring at pixels on the screen, when are we living? When are we getting inspired?

So if you need a break from the blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Industry News, Query Letters, emails, outlines, synopses, revisions, edits, critiques, submissions, and just plain ole writing, then take it. It will be here when you come back. Go live. Get inspired. Take a breather. And when you come back, you'll be refreshed and ready to hit the pavement again with a renewed vigor.

Just don't stay away too long.

Sex in Young Adult Fiction: Taboo or Not Taboo?

2009-12-09T11:03:00.002+01:00

Recently, I came across an article written in February 2006 by Tanya Lee Stone for Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA). The title of the article is, “The Power of Sex in Young Adult Literature”.

http://pdfs.voya.com/VO/YA2/VOYA200602AuthorTalk.pdf

In this article Ms. Stone presents a very thorough and thoughtful examination of sex and sexuality in teen literature. She begins by citing Judy Blume´s Forever, published in the 1970s as perhaps the first young adult book to explore the topic, and talks about how the book was eventually banned in many circles by the time the more conservative 80s and 90s rolled around. “But the tide has recently turned,” she says. “Authors are writing brave books that acknowledge the reality of teen sexuality and publishers are publishing them.”

She goes on to talk about the ways that sex and sexuality are now portrayed in young adult literature and why many authors of young adult fiction, herself included, choose to include it. Firstly, she argues, it reflects the reality of teenage life. “Sexuality is a part of growing up and our readers are not children – they are adults – young adults. They must be able to seek out the characters and situations that reflect the world in which they live, and resonate with them.” That being said, she also argues that there do need to be boundaries and that those boundaries should be defined more by approach to sexual topics rather than the topics themselves. “For instance, any scene that does not advance a story line or deepen character development is arguably gratuitous. When an unnecessary scene is explicitly sexual, however, I believe that an author has gone too far. Exploring sex and sexuality in YA literature is worthwhile; exploiting it is not.”

She gives numerous examples of recently published books and old classics where she thinks that sex and sexuality are portrayed effectively, poignantly and elegantly. From the 1970s, along with Judy Blume´s aforementioned Forever, she mentions M.E. Kerr´s I´ll Love You When You´re More Like Me, first published in 1977. More recent publications she cites are Mary Pearson´s A Room on Lorelei Street, published in 2005, and Ellen Wittlinger´s Sandpiper, also published in 2005.

She concludes by saying that she would like to see “books for teens reflect male and female main characters who are allowed to be healthy sexual beings, able to experience sex and intimacy without feeling ashamed or being punished.” And she wants authors to be able to tell the truth about sexual experiences. However, she wants that portrayal of the truth to be a responsible one. “I would not be compelled to write a YA character – male or female – who jumped into bed without a care in the world and did not either experience some kind of transformation or trigger growth in another character.”

What is your opinion about the portrayal of sex and sexuality in young adult literature? Is it appropriate under some circumstances and not under others? Can it be done responsibly and within certain limits without compromising the truth of the story? When is it gratuitous and when does it make a story stronger and more realistic?

How To Know When It's Time To Start Writing Again

2009-12-07T16:02:00.006+01:00

by Heidi Yantzi

I'm baaaaaack.

My last post here at Four Corners Blog was about taking a break from writing. I really didn't expect that break to last from September to December. I continued to write on my Hick Chic blog, and I scribbled things into my workbook (yeah I'm one of those Moleskine freaks) and I let my brain stir up some new stories.

Meanwhile the house my husband and I raised our kids in for twelve years has crawled towards a buyer-enticing state of perfection - creating intense mixed emotions for me and my whole family. The majority of our possessions are crammed into the upper floor of my childhood home. I have no idea when we will be able to move into a house of our own again. There is security and gratitude in living with extended family, but great uncertainty in a temporary situation. I don't like that temporary feeling. Our life is in a very difficult state right now.

I needed to take some pressure off myself.

Thing is, when you're a fiction writer, the imaginary friends and stories and worlds build up their own pressure inside your head, and basically, you just can't take it anymore. That's where I'm at now!

I NEED to write!

A new story popped into my head recently. It all came together and I knew that I had something. It couldn't wait. My new hero, a basically good dude who has systematically failed everything he's attempted, took up room in my head and has been sitting there staring at me with his big brown eyes. Like me, he has moved in with his mother, and like me, he'll be sorting through stacks of papers and memories, purging and deciding, not knowing where he'll be in a year. He needs me. I have to tell his story. I need him, because he's the fuel for my inner fire.

Oh yes, fire, pressure, letting off steam, writing.

I'm back.

Writing Things Down

2009-12-03T02:13:00.002+01:00

Another bit of wisdom from my writing class: when you've reached the next step in your plot or want to know what to do with a particular plot point, write things down instead of thinking them. The argument is that that you're tapping into the subconscious by doing that and by writing it down, you may also pick up something you've forgotten.

I haven't tried that approach yet but heck no better time than the present, plus it will hopefully make me forget about the bug that won't go away. I got an antibiotic yesterday and it better start to work!

In the last chapter I wrote, my heroine has just fled her village of Hope during a storm, seeing the person she loves--Miss Wiggins--being swallowed up by something dark and threatening looming in the sky. It appears that it has swallowed up the people of Hope.

One idea is she runs through a spell that keeps Hope hidden; she had heard that Hope was hidden but didn't believe it but now it could no longer be denied. Some dogs have led the way on the escape from whatever lurks in the sky and my heroine suddenly finds herself outside Hope in a land that looks normal: in front of her, next to the ruins of a village, roll farm lands with a seemingly healthy crop of wheat growing and yet something doesn't seem right. She touches what appears to be a healthy plant and finds it dry and lifeless and yet weeds all around seem fine to the touch. Even stranger, the dogs who had accompanied her on her flight are suddenly, unaccountably attacking each other.

Suddenly a group of ghostly figures come out of the ruins of the village in front of her. She looks at the figures and sees they're carrying utinsels for farming and are leading farm animals. One of the figures in the front--a man--carries the body of a woman. A sad little girl follows him.

One by one they disappear into Hope. What can this be, she wonders. I know these people, they're my neighbors--or were my neighbors. She follows them to the edge of Hope, forgetting for a moment the danger there, and sees that the man is burying the woman in the graveyard behind her house. She slips to the ground with a moan. She is seeing her father burying her mother and the little girl--"It's me!" she cries. "Why am I seeing this?"

"It is said that our people, upon the death of their village, relive their lives,"
said a voice.

She turned and saw a boy about her own age. "Who are you?"

"I'm an Oracian, like you. I'm from another village that disappeared much like Hope. My parents knew you would be coming out of Hope at this moment and using a spell they sent me to you so I could help you. The only difference is my village died many thousands of years ago and your's just died." He had been consciously hiding his face from her but then he turned toward her, tears streaming down his face. "I just saw my mother and father disappear, never to be seen again. It may have happened thousands of years ago but for me it just happened."

His face was covered with ugly wounds. He began to fall. She grabbed him and somehow was able to help him to the ground.

"What happened?" she asked. "Why do you have those terrible wounds?"

"The spell sending me from my village was imperfect. Perhaps I connected with some things, I don't remember."

"I must get you something to help heal you: Miss Wiggins kept salves in her collection of medicines."

The surrounding countryside looked deserted: no people, no one who could help, so they start back into Hope.

The dogs had run in fear from eac.h other and now one comes toward them, wounded and near death. Matilda somehow fashions something to drag the dog along behind them. They enter Hope, finding it much changed and still full of danger.

I find that writing this as I've done I've got some new information. Before I didn't mention the field of wheat which appears to be dead though seemingly alive. That in turn has made me think of something else.

How to Improve

2009-12-01T11:52:00.001+01:00

Whether you refer to writing as a skill or craft, it is something you need to always be working on and improving. I've been thinking about how I want my next book to be written, i.e. multiple POV's or one, verse or block format, chapters or none? I know I want to write something different, topic and style-wise, but I'm not sure where to begin. How do you do it? Do you just write and see what happens? Do you approach the beginning with a format in mind? Do you read other books for help? Where do books on writing techniques factor in to your overall process? Which books do you recommend?

Losing the Things That Are Precious

2009-11-27T01:10:00.051+01:00

This summer I lost my ring. Not just any ring, but my college ring. A ring I haven't taken off my finger in eighteen years.

When my family visited Puerto Rico this past August, I remember clearly standing in the hotel room looking at it and thinking how loose it had been the last time I was at the beach, and perhaps I should take it off and keep it in a safe place in the room rather than risk losing it in the ocean. So I took it off. I tucked it in a pocket in my glucose meter, which I tucked in my suitcase.

When we unpacked from the trip, it was gone. I didn't panic at first. It was midnight and I was exhausted and I figured I must have put it somewhere else and I'd find it in the morning. I didn't. Over the course of a month I've looked everywhere for it. I've looked in places that weren't even available to me in Puerto Rico. I finally came to the conclusion that it's gone.

Even if I had the money to replace it (which I don't), I can't. The design wasn't a usual college ring design. It was unique and unlike any other design I've ever seen, and the company no longer makes it.

My ring is truly gone.

I go through moments when that realization makes my heart nearly stop, makes me want to cry, makes me feel empty. And then I say to myself, It's only a thing. Sure it had monetary and emotional value, but in the end, it's only a thing. And though I find myself rubbing at the blank space on my finger as if looking for a part of me, my life is really none the poorer for not having it. Among the top 100 most important things in life, it probably isn't even on the list.

It's made me think of other things I've lost over the years. We probably can all think of things. Things that are irreplaceable and unique, things that, once they are gone, leave a hollow space that is bigger than the space the things once occupied.

Twelve years ago I decided to write a book. It had been a dream for a long time, but something I'd never gotten around to with my full time job and new marriage. Armed with a brand new computer, I began writing. And writing. And writing. I don't know how much I wrote - something around 100 pages, I think, and then we moved. And during the move, our computer disappeared. I'd backed up the book on a floppy disc, and the floppy discs were mysteriously demagnetized and the information destroyed. The book was gone.

It took nine years before I braved writing again. The heartbreak at losing that book broke my dream for a long time.

Now I've invested my heart in the dream again, and I have a book. A finished book. A book with a publisher and a real cover and a title page. It's much better than that first attempt at a book could ever have been.

I thought for a while that the book was the precious thing, but it turns out it wasn't. The dream is the precious thing, and even though I will be holding that book in my hands this months, the dream is still a fragile thing, hard fought but easily lost.

Who knows what will happen in the future. I can write the book, but I can't make people buy it or love it. I may write another book, but I can't make a publisher publish it. I'm standing at the edge of the dream again, and scared to death I may lose it all over again.

And yet...

This week my mom offered me a ring that was my grandmother's. A beautiful ruby ring worth far more than the college ring, both in financial terms and emotional value. It can't replace the ring I lost, but it fills the space and begins a new history.

So maybe this book I wrote will be the dream come true I've hoped for... the beginning of a long and lasting career as an author. Or maybe it won't. And maybe there is another dream out there yet undiscovered.

As I stand on the edge here, I've stopped being afraid of what comes next. Whatever it may be.

The Harvest

2009-11-25T20:44:00.002+01:00

I had three ideas for my blog post.

1.) Passive Voice
2.) Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers
3.) Harvest

Well . . . you know which one I chose. I figured, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, it's Autumn, what better time to write about 'The Harvest'? Plus, I'm working on my farm on Farmville and it sort of inspired this post. How sad is it that I get inspiration from games on Facebook?

Anyway - 'The Harvest'. It sounds so daunting when you say it like that - 'The Harvest'. We've all heard that expression, "You reap what you sow." Although, I have to say, everytime I've heard that expression, it has been used as a way to say, "You'll get yours," to warn that we cannot escape the consequences of our actions. Thankfully, today, I'll be a little more positive.

We do reap what we sow. We get to harvest the fruits of our labor. Have you ever had a garden? I mean, a real vegetable garden? Have you ever plowed the earth, carefully picking out the rocks and weeds? Have you ever planted those little seeds and showered them with water and love? Have you ever gotten that excitement when you see the green growth peek up from the soil, reaching for the sun? Have you ever carefully tended to your vegetables day in, day out, and then one day sit down to eat a delicious garden salad with homegrown lettuce, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes? Know how good that feels?

Writing is like gardening or farming. I plow my thoughts, picking out the things that don't belong in my story. Then I plant my story on the paper. I shower it with time, love, and labor. I've felt the excitement when the story "takes root" and begins to grow on its own. I've carefully tended to the story day in, day out. And it is an amazing feeling when I sit down and read something that isn't horrible. And I hope, one day, I'll reap what I've sown. We all do. We all hope to "harvest" the fruits of our labor.

And I'm toasting to each and every one of you that you get your very own harvest soon.

If you're celebrating Thanksgiving, please be safe in your travels and enjoy all the food, friends, and family.

Love or Heartbreak: What´s Your Preference?

2009-11-23T12:20:00.003+01:00

WNYC (93.9 FM in New York), has a daily talk show about music called Soundcheck. It is hosted by John Schaefer and discusses pretty much all musical genres. The show covers a variety of topics of interest to performers, composers, critics and its public radio audience. There are interviews and live performances by artists from New York and the international arena, and the discussions range from historical topics to the most recent trends and ideas in the music industry. I frequently listen in via their podcasts on the internet.

On Tuesday, November 10th, the show was hosted with a live audience. The two guests were a singing/song writing duo, Glen Hansard and Markéta Iglová, stars of the film Once, and currently the couple that make up the musical group known as The Swell Season. The topic up for debate, “…which is more potent: the love song or the break-up song?” As John Schaefer put it in his opening remarks, “Love and heartbreak are the two powerful weapons in a song writer´s arsenal.” From the perspective of the songwriter, Mr. Hansard, a native of Ireland, felt that it was easier to write a break-up song than a great love song. His reasoning: “Sorrow is loud.” On the other hand, he felt that it was difficult to write a happy love song without seeming twee (Irish slang for old fashioned or hackneyed). When Schaefer turned to the audience for their preferences as registered by applause, the love song got a lukewarm reaction compared to the heartbreak song, which was very enthusiastically applauded as the more potent of the two.

Until I pondered it a little, the audience´s reaction seemed counter-intuitive to me. I mean, don´t we all really like a great love song? Shouldn´t we prefer the giddiness of love over the pain of a difficult break-up? And naturally, being a writer, I began to think about the written word. Love and heartbreak aren´t just the two main weapons for song writers, but for all writers. Most great works of literature deal with one or the other, or both. What would Gone with the Wind be without Scarlet´s heartbreak over never having Ashley´s love, or Rhett Butler´s bitterness when he realized that Scarlet never really loved him? What is The Great Gatsby without Gatsby´s undying and eventually unrequited love? Nick Hornby´s High Fidelity is one big study of falling in love, breaking up, and falling in love again.

So my question to you today is, in your opinion, which is more potent, the love story or the heartbreak story? Which do you prefer and which do you think makes for a better read? Does the heartbreak story portray the “louder” of the universal emotions? Is it more difficult to write a really good love story? Is it easier to portray pain over happiness? What are some of your favorite love or break-up stories?

Interesting new Character method

2009-11-19T12:58:00.003+01:00

In keeping with Marsh's interesting hat post from the other day, I wanted to share a particularly helpful thing I recently learned from an editor I follow.

As you know, I've been revising a MS for my agent, per request. And she had some very instructive, insightful things to say about it, but she pointed out (and it was immediately clear) that certain aspects of some of my characters were not fully imagined.

As you can think, this filled me with chagrin. Those darn secondary characters. They played good parts in the story, but I only showed the parts they played, and not their motivations. And this was hurting the story more than I ever suspected it could do.

So I thought. And thought. And finally I came up with how I could deal with this solution. I made a character sheet for each. I know. Uncool. I always mocked those types of things, but here I am using it. And you know what? It helped enormously.

In fact, I think it improved the story beyond what I had already thought was a darn good one. It was great!

So just for reference, I'm including my main questions here:

1. Character name
2. Character motivation in story
3. Character conflict
4. Character conflict with POV
5. Character resolution

Hope this helps you as much as it helped me!

The Wide Brimmed White Hat Exercise

2009-11-17T09:09:00.004+01:00

I made an interesting discovery today. The latest magazine from SCBWI came through the mail and I picked it up and thumbed through it. In it I found a reference to a beloved writer who had just passed away who had an interesting habit. When writing the first draft of a story she commonly wore a wide brimmed hat pulled over her eyes; she found that not seeing the words as she typed on her computer helped her visualize the scenes better.

I have a problem visualizing so I thought, heck--I'll just try that. Looking around in my closet what did I discover but a very spiffy wide brimmed white hat bought at the thrift store where I volunteer. It was within arms reach (with the help of a stand on which I planted my feet) and off I went to my computer.

It works! At least for me. I wrote furiously, not worrying about spelling or punctuation but just typing my thoughts as they came to me. Other than occasionally looking at the keyboard to make sure I had my hands in the right position, I religiously stayed away from the computer.

Next time I'm going to check my time. When did I start and when did this furiously pecking female finish her wide brimmed white hat exercise? I think I typed amazingly fast. Finally I stopped. I had reached the end of the chapter I was working on. Rather than editing some old writing (which I thought originally I would do) I wrote a brand new chapter for Finding The Oracians.

I've always felt inadequate around my visualizing but now with the wide brimmed white hat exercise I found I could see my heroine and the terrors she was facing--I could hear the sounds and smell the smells. I was visualizing!

I believe that this is an added wrinkle to Writing On The Blank Page, which I described recently as typing away not having a single thought as to what you were going to write and doing this for an amazing amount of pages before you peek. Oh I had an idea of what I wanted to see eventually on that computer's screen but lo and behold, I didn't use one thing that I had planned for this chapter. Everything was brand new and it was good. Of course I peeked. This chapter is for my writing class and tonight I happily sent it off to my writing teacher.

Oh, a little side note. I made very few typing errors. What I did find was a fair amount of bad spelling and those could easily be handled by spell check. I edited what I had written--cleaned up occasional bad phrasing but nothing substantial was changed. I love what I wrote and it is leading me surely ahead in a story I once thought I couldn't write!

I Know Where I've Been

2009-11-15T11:14:00.000+01:00

but I'm not sure I know where I'm going. I'm trying hard to take a break from all things scrivening, but ideas keep forming and I've finally given in and written them down. All eight. And even though I have these eight varied ideas for incredible books, there's been one I've been ignoring because it's a bit too close and personal. Still it keeps bumping against me like a boat moored to a pier, slowly and softly letting me know it's there.

My days are filled with empty moments usually filled with research and writing, and I find myself pacing like a caged animal. My mind flits from task to task, never really focusing on one thing. It's like a diet of the mind and I'm trying hard not to feed it but I know I need it *insert Gollum phrase here*

How do you stay away from something you love? Is it normal to need writing so much? What are the chances of success? And how bad do I really want all this to work out? How many more sacrifices am I willing to make?

The one thing I know is I love writing and even when I hate it there's a rush, thrill and pleasure once I've finished. Nothing has given me that feeling. And that's what I crave, what I need. It's not an easy path to walk and when a crossroad stands in front of you, it's tempting to take the other route, but the very thought of it fills me with such sadness I know I'll never be able to do it, never give it up.

In the words of Mr. Frost:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth

And that's how I see writing at the moment. There's no guarantee, sometimes it all seems pointless, but when I'm sitting in my rocking chair many years from now, I don't want any regrets, no what if's, no I should have tried once more. And I'll keep following this difficult path with a little bit of hope in my pocket.

Humility -

2009-11-11T20:02:00.003+01:00

I've never been a braggart. But I think I had settled into a little spot where I thought of myself as a "good writer" or at least a "decent writer". This is probably due to family and friends telling me I am a good writer. It is also probably due to teachers throughout my education telling me I am a good writer. I've never been presumptuous to proclaim my knowledge of writing to others and tell them how to write. In fact, I'm just the opposite - I look to others for knowledge. I look up to those who have gone before me in this whole process and look to learn all I can. Luckily, I'm surrounded by incredible writers.

I am taking a Senior Writing class this semester, which is why I'm missing quite often. I'm reading this or that or writing on this essay. I have to say though - I'm learning a lot about myself in this class. Like, I'm not as good of a writer as I thought I was. That's not to say I don't think I can write, because I can. But I've realized in the grand scheme of things, I'm like the krill in the ocean.

Sure, I'm here in the open sea, enjoying my life. I've got it going on here in "Krillville" in Ocean #1 or #2, or whatever. But there are definitely bigger fish in this ocean too, and the chances of me surviving very long are minimal. My point is this - I feel like I'm racing, swimming as fast as I can and right behind me is a huge whale about to swallow me. Then my little existence here in the writing ocean would be done. Fini.

I read my essays when they are graded and I see all the marks and slap my forehead. I should know better! Or I think, "Wow, that's just bad writing!" How is it that it was good enough for me to turn in two weeks ago and now it's horrible? I read the example essays in our text and they are just kick-ass. I read mine and want to burn them. I think this is part of the painful process of learning - and the biggest lesson I've learned is humility. Never settle for "good" or "decent". Learn something. Improve something. So after I had my little pity party today about what I find to be a bad grade on my essay, I went back to my personal blog and drug out this old piece I wrote on Self-doubt. I'm pasting it here as a reminder to myself and anyone who reads it here that it is okay to feel like we need to improve. If we don't, we never will, right?

At night, when I finally get the chance to climb into my bed and tuck in for the night, my body is ready to crash. It's begging to tap out until the next morning. Aches and pains arise and come to my attention because I'd been too busy during the day to focus on them. Pillows are shuffled, a leg is propped and my back is supported. I want nothing more than to sleep.

Then my mind perks up. All those thoughts I'd pushed aside for the day due to priorities realize I'm finally free to hear them. I can't think about that right now, I'm working. Or I can't think about that, I'm studying. Or I can't think about that, my son is calling. So once I am in bed, I make mental notes quickly, hoping my thoughts will subside and I can get to sleep. Grocery Lists are made here. Must not forget to get Honeycrisp Apples and bread for the spaghetti tomorrow. To-do lists are managed here. Must not forget to get study materials ready for mid-terms next week. Hell, even writing is done here. I need to get this story moving along. I need to introduce the District Attorney and get this manhunt wrapped up. Eventually, these thoughts turn to self-doubt, which is what I want to focus on today.

Self-Doubt is defined as: n. A lack of faith or confidence in oneself. It is common for us writers to battle self-doubt on a regular basis. We do so when we make the decision to write. We do so while we write. We do so while we query. We do so when we land an agent and submit to publishers. Its natural. Sometimes my self-doubt goes outside the realm of writing.

Am I doing right by my child? I know I mean to, but what mistakes have I made? Am I doing everything possible to improve his quality of life and show him the love I have for him?

Am I being a good student? Do I study enough? How can I make more time to study?

Am I being a good employee? Do I finish all tasks in a timely manner?

Should I even consider myself a writer? Is my writing strong enough? Should I bother? It is worth it?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has these thoughts and last night with my leg propped up and my eyes closed, checking off completed things in my mental to-do list, these thoughts began. I started my internal dialogue and reassured myself of the things I feel I am doing right and considered the things I've been doing wrong. Then it hit.

EPIPHANY! I'm all about positive thinking. BUT - I believe self-doubt and questioning has its place in a healthy lifestyle.

Sure, if I got down in the dumps and started thinking My writing sucks. My characters aren't strong enough, I'm not sure I'm introduced conflict early enough. I might as well say to Hell with it and be done.

WRONG! When we allow self-doubt in and it TAKES OVER our positive outlook or reassurances, we are using it wrong. We are also wrong is we NEVER have self-doubt.

If I go through life believing I am the best mother on Earth and there are no improvements to be made. Or I'm an awesome writer and I will not make changes for anyone - I am just as wrong as if I had let the self-doubt take over.

We all need confidence and I believe having positive thoughts will improve our chances of getting positive things; however, we also need self-doubt. By doubting our decisions, we begin an internal dialogue which causes us to question our actions. By questioning our actions, sometimes we realize mistakes and can change our behavior to bring better outcomes. So next time you get down on yourself and feel like it isn't worth it - start that internal dialogue. Question your actions. You may have mistakes that could be fixed or you could just need the reassurance that you are on the right track. Without the internal dialogue, we are doomed to make the same mistakes and never improve and we as writers and as humans strive for improvement. If we do not question, we do not discuss, then we do not realize or change.

As long as you do not allow the self-doubt to take over in a dibilitative manner, you're fine. All my writing partners at 4 Corners have bouts of self-doubt from time to time but we always pick one another up. We always question, discuss and realize and make the necessary changes to do what we all want to do - IMPROVE.

All right, I'll stop my positive thinking, reflective hogwash and let you have at it.

Ode to the Seasons

2009-11-09T11:30:00.001+01:00

I know all of my Four Corners pals in North America and Europe have probably finished mourning the end of summer, and are resigned that the cold weather is slowly creeping up, only to get colder in the coming months. However, down here in Brazil, where we have two seasons, hot and and hotter, and no air conditioning (yesterday was in the 90s with a blazing hot sun), I have to say that I really miss the change of seasons. I miss that sense of renewal you get every three months, as if the change in the weather had the potential to bring changes and new adventures for you as well.

For those with a green thumb, spring is the time to plan your garden and get those seeds in the ground. The air has that fresh, wet, earthy smell as the winter snows melt and the spring rain kicks in. When I lived in Washington, DC, spring´s arrival was always hailed by the appearance of the ubiquitous cherry blossoms, then the dogwood blossoms, then the azaleas (and then my allergies, but we won´t go into that). Growing up in Chicago, the windy city, we always flew kites in the spring. I remember many a brisk spring afternoon spent out on the wet and muddy front lawn with my siblings and some of the other kids on the block, having dog fights with our kites. The days start to grow longer, and the sun begins to get hotter. There are spring breaks, spring flings, spring fever, the prom.

Then comes summer. Hot and humid lazy days at the pool or the beach, the smell of the ocean mixed with sun block. That heavenly aroma that wafts through every neighborhood around 6:00 pm when families start firing up their grills and putting the steaks and burgers on. The afternoon buzz of lawn mowers, and the delightful smell of early morning summer dew that hits you when you go out for a run, or just sneak down the driveway in your PJs to get the paper. Fireworks, picnics, baseball games, with hot dogs and ice cold beer. Outdoor concerts, ice cream, tomatoes and peppers from the garden or the farmers´ market. There is a booth at the Arlington County farmers´ market that I remember with the best tomatoes in the world, and another one with the biggest and sweetest black berries ever. You could sit down and eat a whole box of them in minutes. When I was a child, back in the days before you really needed air conditioning in Chicago, my parents used to let us sleep out on the screened in porch when it got really hot. It was heavenly to fall asleep caressed by a soft midnight breeze and serenaded by the chirping of the crickets.

In the fall, the new school year is always a new beginning. New school shoes and crisp new back to school clothes. Indian summer with the sun hanging low in the sky at the end of the day. The leaves gradually changing from fresh green to brilliant golds, reds and oranges. Decorated porches. Harvest themes, Halloween, Thanksgiving. The smell of wood burning stoves and fireplaces at the end of the day. Cold hands, warm sweaters, fashion boots, suede. That melancholy feeling. The stark, naked beauty that the landscape takes on once the leaves have all fallen and there is nothing but the bare branches against the heavy fall sky. Hot tea, and steamed up windows. A walk in the woods is crunchy under your feet. Squash, sweet potatoes, turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie. The Macy´s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Football season and tailgate parties.

Finally, we have winter. Heavy wool coats and parkas, warm gloves, scarves and hats. You see your breath and your nose hairs freeze up when you breathe in. The ground is hard and cold to walk on. Standing at the bus stop shivering. Meeting a friend at the coffee shop for a hot cappuccino. Cookies baking. The smell of cinnamon and spiced wine. The holidays! Icicles made of lights. Fresh pine. Greeting cards in the mail. Snow days, sledding, ice skating. Ski trips and hot chocolate. Fondue in front of the fireplace. Curling up with a good book and a glass of red wine. A hot bath instead of a shower.

So that´s my little ode to the seasons. What about you? What´s your favorite season and what do you like most about it?

Detail Through Action?

2009-11-03T09:00:00.001+01:00

I wonder sometimes how to pound one word into my tired brain: detail. Detail breathes life into our characters and into our story. How tall is our heroine? How old? When we need to add detail about our characters or our story we need to show rather than tell. That ups the difficulty quotient considerably.

I like to go at a story with breakneck speed--at least within my capacity. That doesn't leave much room for detail, of any description, at the beginning. I've been working on the first chapter of Finding The Oracians, which is a fantasy. I need to remember to toss in a little action that would show important information: for instance--I want to show how a child (my heroine as a four year old) is different in size from her father who is well over six feet tall. He's anxious, so he's not about to kneel down in front of her, but perhaps I could have her have to crane her neck to look up at him. That would show she's small and the exact age isn't important. Another bit of action to work in a needed bit of information--her height as a fourteen year old: it's been suggested by my my writing teacher that I have her wander over and look at a portrait of him hanging on a wall and notice that she can now look into his eyes. I have to figure out why she'd get up and walk over to that portrait. She's hearing something that's making her anxious. It would be natural to have her get up and pace, given her anxiety. Someone who's truly in an anxious state would pace and having her pace would also add needed color to my narrative.

A truly critical part of getting an action into a story that will convey needed information is having your character firmly in place in your mind, and I have yet to be able to do that, especially when I'm beginning my story. How does a writer get a character to that wondrous place--where true creativity begins? I just realized that an important part of that exercise is having your character doing something. Perhaps your character is anxious--as I said in the last paragraph. She would walk with wide strides. There, I'm beginning to see her!

My character hears dogs howling, which frightens her. Concentrate on that, see her eyes--what would they be doing? Shifting from side to side? Widen with fear? Yes, I think that would definitely be part of the action on the part of my character which would help me see her.

I have another character in my story who I've been able to see firmly in my mind from the very beginning: she's a short, squat figure with a voluminous set of blue skirts, wearing a tower of wigs. She is easy to see. How can I make my heroine similarly easy to see? Perhaps she has a habit of twisting her hair when she's worried about something. She would be twisting her hair nearly out of her head under such stressful circumstances. She's wearing an embroidered bag holding charms. Perhaps she twists the cord, holding the bag, causing the short, squat character to chide her for treating that precious item so carelessly.

I believe I now have a plan for working in all that blessed information so I don't leave my reader with the impression they're reading an information drop.

It's NaNo Time!

2009-11-01T07:05:00.000+01:00

No, I'm not talking about a Mork & Mindy marathon, but the thirty days in November writers spend attempting to start and finish a 50k word novel. Most of us write novels that are longer in length, but 50 k is a nice goal. 50k- let's see what we're talking about here:

~ 1600 words per day

~ 6.5 pages per day

That seems doable, right? And if you miss one day you can double up and some days you might even more. The emphasis is on quantity, not quality, and writing by the seat-of-your-pants, pulling yourself out of the comfort zone and going for it.

I participated last year and realized that even though I write fast, I can't write only to see words on a page and a growing word count. I like to tweak and edit as I go, and I work better in a vacuum. But it was good because I managed 10k toward a new novel.

I think it's great to try NaNo at least once, if only to push yourself in a new direction as a writer. So if you have a few plot ideas why not try going for it this month? And if you do good luck and I want to hear how it goes!

The Tortoise and the Hare: What Velocity Is Your Writing?

2009-10-27T04:08:00.000+01:00

Lately I feel like I've been living and working in the middle of some childhood fable - one of those stories about one thing that really means something else and teaches some good life lesson - except I'm having trouble absorbing that lesson.

The story I'm living? The Tortoise and the Hare.

You know the one - where the turtle and the rabbit race, except the turtle can't really race well because he's slow, but the rabbit gets so cocky he stops off to nap and eat and enjoy the view, and before you know it the slow but steady turtle passes him and wins the race.

There are two problems to my story. One, I'm the turtle. And two, I don't think in life the turtle really always wins. It's a lovely story, don't get me wrong. But sometimes the fast aren't just fast. They're diligent, too, and disciplined. And I swear some of them never sleep.

All around me are writers who write at what seems to me to be warped speed. Six thousand - seven thousand words at a time... a book every month or two. Some of these are authors at the very start of their careers, and some are long, well-established authors.

I've felt the pressure especially lately because even though I have a great idea for a book, and even when I get a good chunk of time, even days of time, I'm slow at writing. The words don't come in a flurry - at least not for more than a few sentences at a time. I'm keeping at it, but I'll be lucky to be able to get one book a year out. Three or four? Are you kidding me?

So I was disproportionately relieved last week when Entertainment Weekly put out this review of Michael Connelly's new novel, Nine Dragons. The review was less than flattering, but this sentence was what caught my eye: James Patterson long ago proved that you can write three thrillers in a year, but even Michael Connelly can't write three good ones.

I love those words... even this great writer can't write three good ones...

Then, just today, The New Republic online had a great article called Writing and Velocity. In it author Damon Linker quoted a post by another writer (is this getting confusing or merely complicated?) who wrote that writing books should no longer take as long, since authors no longer need to go to the library and hunt through microfiche and encyclopedias, or tromp down to the police station, or take day trips in order to interview and research. With the internet, it's now all at our fingertips. With a few clicks of a button, all that great research can be ours for the taking, in very little time.

The idea, I believe, is that the greater part of writing a novel is the research that goes behind it. As the writer said: Klein’s statement implies that the only thing that might keep a writer from producing a book in a couple of months is the time it takes to conduct research. As if writing were a process of compiling and arranging lists of facts and figures.

Of course, not all novels require heavy research. But there's a host of other things that can slow a writer down. Imagination. Creativity. Uniqueness. Voice. Character. Plot. Language.

In rushing a manuscript to press, are we putting the writing secondary to the typing?

Certainly a book can be written quickly and then scrubbed to a sparkling sheen in the editing process if the author and the publisher are able to put aside ego and flashing dollar signs. The problem, I think, comes when authors and publishers don't take the time to polish. Not just the happy-to-glad kind of editing but the digging into the real guts of the story kind of editing... the turning the typing into writing.

I'm convinced a good book takes time - if not at the beginning (research) or in the middle (the writing) then at the end (the editing). In that case, it's not really a matter of whether the rabbit or the turtle crosses first. In a really good race, they'd each have their moments of being fast, but they'd cross the finish line together.

So where do you spend most of your writing time: research, writing, or editing?

And do you think it's possible to write a stellar book in three weeks? Any authors you know of that turn out three books a year that are quality books?

E-Books: The Future or the Undoing of the Publishing Business?

2009-10-23T11:43:00.002+02:00

During the past few weeks, the New York Times has published a series of articles dealing with the topic of e-books and the predictions about their future impact on the publishing industry. In the October 4th Business section of the paper, Randall Stross wrote an article entitled “Digital Domain: Will Books be Napsterized?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/business/04digi.html?emc=eta1

In this article, Stross talks about the growing negative impact that e-books are having on the publishing industry. These days, any consumer can to go Amazon and download a best-seller for $9.99. However, that same consumer can also go to RapidShare, Megaupload, Hotfile or other file-sharing and storage sites, and get the same e-book for free from another user who has uploaded the file. Until recently this hasn´t been such a big deal because not that many people were reading e-books. However, according to Stross, “e-book hardware is on the verge of going mainstream”. Soon there will be lots of more convenient, user-friendly options with better screens for reading. And while e-book sales are still quite small, they only represent 1.6% of total book sales as of July 2009, they have gone up considerably this year. Opposingly, hardcover book sales have gone down 15.5% so far this year.

Stross reports that the Association of American Publishers is seeing lots of piracy of e-books, but that the industry has yet to really understand how much it is affecting them. They don´t have an easy way to collect the numbers. According to Stross, publishers believe that half of all copyright infringements come from RapidShare, a popular file-sharing site based in Switzerland. While publishers or authors can request that material be removed from a file sharing site, they must provide the specific URL. Because of privacy issues, RapidShare and other similar sites claim that they can´t go through its users´ files to find out if there is anything illegal there. This means it is up to the publishers and the authors to go through and find all copies of illegal files being offered for free.

When free file sharing hit the music industry in the late 1990s, it practically took down the whole industry. According to Stross, the value of inflation adjusted sales in music has dropped by more than half since it peaked in 1999. Stross quotes the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimating that 95% of music downloads are illegal with no payment being made to artists and producers. This reality has forced musicians to try to make up the difference with more concerts, longer tours and very high prices for tickets. The problem that Stross sees for writers however, is that they can´t use “pirated e-books…as concert flyers” because there is no equivalent of a concert for writers.

An article written by Mokoto Rich and published in the New York Times on October 14th, entitled “Libraries and Readers Wade into Digital Lending”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/books/15libraries.html?_r=1&ref=boo

discusses how libraries are now offering more books in digital format. According to Rich, this too is affecting the publishing industry. While libraries seem to recognize the impact that their new services could have on the publishing industry, they worry that if they don´t provide these services to their users, people will stop using libraries. They risk becoming dinosaurs. Rich says that today 5,400 libraries in the US offer e-books and digitally downloadable audio books. A library patron does not even have to go to the library to get the book. From his or her home computer, all they need to do is enter their library card number, choose from the list of e-books available, and down load it for free. Unlike free file-sharing sites however, libraries do not permit more than one borrower to check out an e-book at the same time, and after about 2-3 weeks, the e-book automatically expires from the user´s account. Also, e-books in libraries cannot be read on Amazon´s Kindle or on Apple´s iPhone, the two most popular electronic readers.

However, publishers are still worried. A library only needs to purchase one e-book and hundreds of users can read it. This, combined with the Napster effect, has publishing houses like MacMillan fearing, “a world in which pretty soon you´re not paying for anything.” Until a better agreement can be reached that would satisfy publishers and their writers, many houses like MacMillan and Simon & Schuster don´t allow their e-books to be offered in public libraries.

Given these new realities, what do you think is the future of publishing? How will it affect writers trying to make a living writing, and how will it affect what types of books get published? For example, if writers can´t make a decent profit with their books, will it become more important to be able to sell movie and television rights in order to earn larger profits? How will that impact the types of books that people write? Will books that appeal to a younger market, the ones most likely to use the new technologies, be what publishers are more interested in buying? Will e-books eventually be full of advertisements as a way of making money? How will the role of the literary agent change?