Dawn Colclasure's Blog

Describing a dog to young readers

2012-01-20T23:17:00.000-08:00

I recently tweeted this:

"Good thing I told a little girl the title of the MS I'm revising. She didn't know what an Irish Setter is!....Makes mental note to be sure and describe the dog in enough detail so kids (the book's audience) can "see" that kind of dog in their minds."

My friend and fellow author, Jennifer Greenleaf, happened to be on Twitter at the time. She replied:

“Ah yes, the fine line between the show and tell issues writers regularly face. Glad you're staying aware!!!”

After I read that, I was glad she noticed that my dilemma was a whole “show, don’t tell” type of thing. Writers are told “show, don’t tell” even though there are times when it is perfectly fine to tell instead of show. (We don’t really need to go through the motions of a character making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, do we? Unless he is pausing after each stroke of the knife to tell somebody off or dancing a jig after applying first the peanut butter and then again after applying the jelly. Then that’s different!)

In my case, I merely “told” my readers that a dog was an Irish Setter. I did not “show” it was an Irish Setter.

Actually, this is what I wrote:

“He sat up in bed and turned to look in the direction the whining came from. He took one look at what sat there and blinked, turning all the way around in his bed to get a better view of what he saw. There on his floor, sitting quite still, was an Irish Setter.”

I made the mistake of assuming that, since the Irish Setter is a popular breed of dog, anybody reading that (including a child, who is the audience this book is written for) would be able to perfectly picture an Irish Setter down to the last detail.

WRONG!

One thing a writer should never do is NEVER ASSUME.

I was reminded of this rule when I had shared that information with a 7-year-old girl who was visiting with my daughter one day. She was told the story’s title and I noticed the look of confusion on her face. I asked her if she knew what an Irish Setter was and she said no. Of course, I was surprised. It’s not like she lived in Africa and never saw this breed of dog, or something. But, the truth was that she didn’t know what an Irish Setter looks like. And that was a big wake-up call for me.

Not everyone knows what an Irish Setter looks like. Especially a child raised in Africa!

So why not describe it? Describe what this type of dog looks like in enough detail so that a child who has never seen such a dog before would be able to “see” it in their mind.

So I changed what I wrote to this:

"Jesse sat up in bed and turned to look in the direction the whining came from. He took one look at what he saw then blinked in surprise, turning all the way around in his bed to get a better look at it. The dog had red fur, with some of the fur fluffing out on his chest in a “V” shape. It also had an oval head, black nose and dark eyes. It look just like the pictures of an Irish Setter he’d seen in books at the library. The dog appeared to be young, but not a puppy, and it sat there on his floor with its tongue hanging out of its mouth."

Well, it’s not perfect, but I think it’s better. I actually studied several pictures of Irish Setters in order to work on describing it accurately, and even found one of an Irish Setter that looked exactly like the dog as I “saw” it in my own mind.

Still, I’m not done with that just yet. I’m planning to run that description by some of my daughter’s friends and see how they respond to it. If it “works” and helps them to get a good idea of what the dog looks like. And if not, then I’ll tweak it some more until I get it right.

I am just glad I even ran that by the little girl in the first place. It has reminded me to be a bit more detailed when it comes to something that may not be so popular after all. And that running things by potential readers is actually a good thing!

Too tired to write, or read

2012-01-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

Last week was pretty hard for me. Before school started for the kids again, we all enjoyed being night owls. That’s what we are! During the school year, the kids and I are forced to cage our night owls until Friday nights when the one day of the week we can stay up all night won’t be a problem for the next day. But it seems like my own night owl refused to go back into his cage after school started up again.

Because, as it were, I was sleepy for most of the day. At night, however, I’d be wide awake! (On a sidenote, I jokingly started to wonder if I was turning into a vampire!)

Yes, I know this could have been avoided if we had worked on integrating the school year schedule long before school started again, and we did do that. But I guess we should have worked on that longer.

Well, because I was so tired this week, I hardly got any writing done. That was bad news because I had a SIGNews article due this week! Didn’t want to miss that deadline. But, unfortunately, I did. And writing at night was not an option because I ended up getting the kids to bed later than I had hoped (after 9) and I had to get some sleep, too, in order to wake up early to get them ready and off to school.

The thing of it was, even when the kids were in school, I still couldn’t write or read. I was still so tired. Even when I took a nap for one hour, I’d STILL be tired! Or soon tired out again.

I was just way too tired to write last week. Or even read in a book I am currently reviewing. I tried to think of why I was so tired all the time. Was it the weather? The season? Was it too much sugar? Not enough water or iron?

Come to find out it was none of those things. The real reason was, I just wasn’t getting enough sleep!

I tested this theory last night. I made sure I got a good night’s sleep. I got to bed as soon as I was able to and slept well past the time I normally wake up. I usually sleep in on Saturdays, anyway, but this time, this sleeping in really helped me to recharge. I think that was because I didn’t stay up so late on Friday night like I normally do. I needed to catch up on all the sleep I missed.

And, today,. I am happy to report that I am me again! I am wide awake now and completely refreshed. Hooray!

I wrote my SIGNews article and sent it off. Now I’m ready to get back to the revisions on my manuscript, and maybe even some writing in another book project.

It’s good to finally be able to write – AND read – again. All the same, I have definitely learned that it’s time for an adjustment. It’s so important to get enough sleep, especially the children, and I’m going to have to rework our routine to make sure we get the rest we need.

The first week

2012-01-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

Today is January 7th, and it marks the first week of 2012. Some people are asking, “So how did we all do?” When I saw a question similar to that in a newsletter I am subscribed to, I had to pause and take stock of just how my first week went.

On the writing level, it went well. On a personal level ... well, it COULD have been better, but at least some things are happening that will help me reach my goals.

I’m posting about my personal stuff on the Palms to Pines blog.

Here, I’ll cover the writing stuff.

On the writing level, I had a good week.

I have a system in place for the rewrites of Shadow of Samhain, and if I follow this system to the letter, and my beta readers get back to me in the time I have set aside for that, I should have the manuscript ready to submit by April. Part of that system calls for getting five chapters done in the first week, and I have accomplished that. Things got held up the other night when we had some problems with the power and I had to hurry up and write a summary of what happens in the scene I was writing before the computer shut down for the night, but I was able to get back to that, fix it, and so now the five chapters are complete. Yay! I’m going to spend the weekend editing and revising them, then it’s on to the next five next week! (I am also going to work on my outline this weekend. The story is moving too fast in my head and I couldn’t possibly remember everything. So I have to write it all down and decide what goes into which chapter.)

Also, I received good news this week: My charity ebook, On the Wings of Pink Angels, is a go with Gypsy Shadow Publishing. HOORAY!! I am so excited and thrilled that this ebook will be a reality in the near future. While the ebook’s topic is mostly about breast cancer, the charity it will benefit, Courageous Kids, is for any child who has experienced the loss of a parent, sibling or relative to anything, not just breast cancer. One of the people I included in this ebook suggested the charity, as her friend who lost her battle against breast cancer had two boys who went through this program, and I’m glad that they accepted my proposal to have proceeds of this ebook to go towards supporting them. It feels so good to be able to “write for a cause” and I’m so glad that this project will finally reach completion.

Since my focus this year is mostly on book work, those are pretty much the accomplishments I have made so far, in this first week. My publisher and I discussed plans with the GHOST Group series yesterday, so I’ve also adjusted my “writing schedule” to include time to revise/edit Book 3 in that series.

It’s not so much of a “writing schedule,” though. I am so done with using weekly schedules or weekly “to do” lists this year! (And it actually feels kinda strange not having one.) But what I did was decide what books I’m going to be working on this year (one for writing, one for editing), and I set aside time for each project that will last me throughout the year. Some will probably take longer than others; I gave myself 9 months to write a new nonfiction book, as it is. But others won’t take very long – and I know this because I have worked on those types of books before, and I have an idea of how long it will take me to complete them. So that is set up and I’m eager to see everything fall into place.

(And for the record, I may not use a weekly “to-do” list for my writing stuff anymore, but I AM using a dayplanner to chart my progress with my book projects. That has been a huge help and it’s definitely allowed me to stick with my system.)

And while I was planning to take a scriptwriting or songwriting class/workshop this year, that has not fallen into place yet, mainly because I don’t have the funds for it. (This is tied to a personal goal, actually.) Once that’s in place, I’ll start looking for one.

For now, I’ve made progress with the book goals, and that’s a good thing. I had a good first week of the year, writing-wise.

Books published in 2011

2011-12-21T09:11:00.000-08:00

For a change, I had only one book published this year. There was going to be another one -- my novel, Shadow of Samhain -- but, late in production, a rewrite request was made for the manuscript so publication of this book has been bumped to 2012.

My one book published this year is The Yellow Rose, a children's story I am so grateful to have in print. I wrote this story years ago, when my oldest was in kindergarten (she is now in 4th grade), so you can imagine what a blessing it was to me to finally have this story published, even illustrated! And that's what I consider this year to be for me: A blessing. Getting The Yellow Rose published was really special, and since it is my only book published this year, that makes it all the more special!

Now that 2011 is nearly come and gone, watch for more books in 2012! I am hopeful we will see more than one.

The Yellow Rose
Published by Gypsy Shadow Publishing
Available as a print and ebook
http://www.gypsyshadow.com/DawnColclasure.html#YellowRose

Synopsis:

One day a gardener living on a tiny island discovers a surprise growing in his garden: A beautiful yellow rose that will never die. Every day he takes care of this perfect rose until men from a big city come to the island and convince the gardener to share the rose with the world. The men become very rich while the yellow rose becomes very weak. The greedy men want to destroy the rose since it can’t make them anymore money. Can the gardener save the special rose that he loves so much?

My writing goals for 2012

2011-12-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

The other day, I took the time to look over the kind of writing work I have done for the year. I wasn’t planning on doing this just yet, as I still have a few things I need to wrap up for the year, but I think it’s as good a time as any to reflect on what I have done as a writer in 2011 and what I want to do as a writer in 2012.

For one thing, I know I won’t be a “working writer” so much in 2012. Yes, I’ll continue writing for SIGNews, of course, but as far as bringing in any money is concerned, I don’t want it to be as a writer. I want to do other things. I just feel like it’s time to focus on something else to bring in that income next year. I have no idea what that will be, but I do know that is a sure thing.

And speaking of money, I went over my financial records for the year. To say the least, it’s definitely impressive. I made more this year than I did last year. And while I made an impressive amount as an editor and proofreader, I won’t be doing any editing or proofreading next year. That stuff takes up A LOT of my time and I just feel I need to step away from that for a while. I am grateful for the work I had and time will tell if I decide to go back to it in the future.

Another thing I noted while examining my financial records is that I got paid for A LOT of articles I wrote for Demand Media, and not so many from magazines. Or E-zines, e-newsletters, web sites, newspapers, etc. I have no regrets in having the experience of writing for a content mill, but I DO regret putting so much time, energy and focus into it, instead of other publications. (Seriously, where’s the love for Writing For DOLLARS! or Writing World???) So I want THAT to be the focus in 2012. I am still going to write articles and occasionally submit them, but not as a job (got some books I gotta promote, after all!).

One other thing I know I want to do next year is “spread my wings,’ so to speak, as a writer. I’ve decided that it’s time to stop talking about learning how to write a script or getting my song lyrics out there and JUST DO IT, already! That said, I'm keeping an eye out for any classes, online courses and workshops I can take to learn that stuff and go somewhere with it. My goal for 2012 is to write at least ONE script, so I am going to move forward with that instead of sitting around mumbling, “Maybe someday.” (My motto for 2012 is “Someday is today.”)

Now, as to my book goals for next year, I have put together a list of books I’m going to be revising/editing, as well as a new poetry book I’ll be working on time permitting. (I just finished one poetry book and now I’m jumping into another one. Whee!) I am also planning to collaborate on two books next year, and I am excited about both projects. One is a novel with fellow Gypsy Shadow Publishing author Ashley Blazina and another is a new paranormal book with Martha Jette, who I worked with on the haunted houses book. Yay! I have also penciled in when I’ll be submitting the final drafts of the following manuscripts: The new poetry book (which is done), the haunted cities book (I’m still waiting to hear from certain groups), the new Shadow of Samhain (got ideas for the rewrite!) and the second book in The GHOST Group series (also done). I have figured out a certain amount of time to work on each project and I’ll be handling two at a time (during the year, I’ve been working on three books at a time! GAH!). I have broken it all up into clusters and it looks really good. It also looks like I will finally have some breathing room, too. That will be nice!!

So, that about wraps it up. Those are my writing goals for 2012. Maybe it’s just as well that I have completed this task now, because now I need to work on my personal goals for 2012. I look forward to a new year starting for us soon and what new adventures and journeys it will bring!

Author Cemtral at Amazon.com

2011-12-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

For some time now, I have noticed quite a few authors talking about Author Central at Amazon.com. This information pretty much went right over my head. Author Central? I figured it was an “author page” at the site that listed all my books and that authors automatically had one set up. I really didn’t think we authors needed to do anything to set this up. Turns out I was wrong.

It took my publisher at Gypsy Shadow Publishing sending a note out to her authors along the lines of “Just do it!” that snapped me to attention. After reading some of the emails from fellow GSP authors about Author Central, I decided to mosey on over to Amazon.com myself to see what all the fuss was about. Surely, I had such a page up already, right? (I hope you’ll forgive me for calling you “Shirley.”) So I logged in at Amazon and did a search on my books. One thing I noticed is that my name was a link for some books but not all. Hmm. What was that about? I clicked on one linked name and it just took me to a page where it showed my books. Okay. So I clicked on the link for my co-author of the haunted houses book, Martha Jette.

It’s a good thing I have co-authored a book, because THIS is what helped me to “get” this whole Author Central thing!

After I clicked on Martha’s name, it took me to a whole ‘nother page that was – fanfare, please – her “Author Central page.” One look at Martha’s Author Central page, and I was going, “Ooooh! Nice!” Wow, there was quite a bit of stuff there. It even showed her tweets! And her blog posts! Very cool.

Ah-ha. So THIS was Author Central. (Good grief, I have been an author all these years and didn’t realize this was available on Amazon??)

I found a link that invited visitors to sign up at Author Central so I clicked on that and it had me sign in again then I had to pick from one of a few of my titles listed and identify it as my book. I chose the haunted houses book because it came up first. Next, I had to fill in information about myself, such as a bio and my links. I also had to add my picture. For the bio, I debated noting that I am a burn survivor, because people might see the pic of my face and wonder about the scars. Then I decided to leave that out. The pic is what it is. I don’t want people to take interest in me because of being a burn survivor; I want them to take interest in what kind of books I have written and what kind of writing I do. (And, hm, I note that I write for a newspaper for the deaf, so people will assume I am deaf? It’s ok to note I am deaf but not a burn survivor? Hm.) So I left that out. After that was set up, I added more of my books to the page.

When the page was set up, I did a search on my books again and the same thing happened. My name was a link on some books but not others. This time, though, it was a link on the haunted houses book. I clicked on there and, ta-da, it went to my Author Central page. Yay!

I even tried this when I was logged out of Amazon and the same thing happened. And this time, there was a direct link to my Author Central page among the listing of books. Yay! (For you authors out there not yet on Author Central, scroll down and you will see a link that says "Are you an author? Visit Author Central to change your photo, edit your biography, and more." Click on it to get started in setting up your own page.)

I still have some areas of my Author Central page to tweak, but it is a good starting point. When I have the chance, I will browse around the page some more to see what that other stuff is all about and spiffy it up. But for now, this is what I have.

I’m glad my publisher gave us all the virtual kick in the pants to work on our Author Central pages. (See, we authors are too busy writing our next books to even think about things like Author Central pages! We need a nudge every once in a while on what all is out there for us to do in order to promote ourselves and our books). I think the Author Central page is a great way for visitors and readers to get to know authors better, and the more readers get to know about authors and everything else they have going on, the better the chances they will take interest in the author’s books.

Breast cancer survivor poetry

2011-11-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

For some time now, I had been working on a breast cancer ebook that is meant to benefit a charity. And, this week, I thought I was going to finish it up. I was in the process of editing the manuscript and formatting it for submission. However, as I went through the manuscript and put together the table of contents, something struck me.

During the time I was well into the edits and formatting, I went over the contents to make sure everything was as it should be. Then I saw the words "breast cancer survivor poetry" and thought, 'Cool! There's poems in there from breast cancer survivors!' (See? This is how distracted I can get during the editing stage.)

But, actually, there weren't any poems by breast cancer survivors. It was only a short piece on the healing power of poetry and some links to where people can find poems written by breast cancer survivors.

My reaction to this? 'Wow, what a letdown.'

And, if I was the reader and not the author/editor of this ebook, I would track down the author/editor, grab that by the collar and frantically shake them, demanding, "WHERE'S THE POEMS??!!!"

As these emotions swam over me, I sat at the desk and thought about them. I really tuned in to this kind of reaction. Either I was not wording that part of the manuscript correctly or I was shortchanging readers who would have liked to see some poems that were written by breast cancer survivors.

So, the question is, which one is it?

I thought some more about this. Should I include poems written by breast cancer survivors? Poems about their experiences? Poems even in memory of those who lost the battle against breast cancer?

Hmm. It was something to think about. And I couldn't really decide either way.

So, I decided to ask on Facebook. But I didn't get any reply. I asked on Twitter. Nothing.

Drat!

I guess I will have to decide on this myself. On one hand, I DO like the idea. But on the other ... I am not able to pay anyone for including their poems. Plus, I might have to reject some. and that thought makes me feel pretty bad. (As a writer, I know the sting of rejection.)

Still, it's an idea I am toying around with. I hope that I will find some way to reach a decision about whether or not to include this. I suppose I need time -- but not TOO much time. I am planning to finish up this project before the year is out -- and, here again, that is yet another thing to consider when making my decision: Time.

UPDATE, 11/29: I have decided not to include any poetry in this book. The manuscript is being prepped for a submission tomorrow. That is all.

Remaining goals for the year

2011-11-15T14:08:00.000-08:00

Brace yourself! There is exactly 1½ months left of 2011! During the year, we all probably asked ourselves if we have accomplished the goals we set out to achieve for 2011. Perhaps some of us have managed to keep tabs on those goals here or there, but now we are at a very important juncture of the year. Now we have less than two months left to complete our goals for 2011.

Are you able to do it?

Do you even know what these remaining goals are?

That was what I was asking myself the other day. I had to pause and take stock of what remaining goals I want to accomplish for the year. And also what exactly I need to finish up before January 1st gets here. (Just as I like to greet my Mondays with NEW things to do, I like to welcome a new year with completed projects and a plate waiting to be filled with new projects.)

I took stock of what remaining ongoing projects I have on the table, as well as what projects NEED to be done before January gets here. In the end, I had eight items on my list. Some of them are manuscripts I need to finish editing, some of them are first drafts of novelettes to write, and some of them are books I have left to review.

Hmm.

Well, given that there are eight items and, more or less, two months left, I spread these items out over November and December. I decided what I will finish/write this month and what I will finish/write next month.

After that, my list of items looked doable. Yay!

Doing this has helped me create my weekly schedules in a more organized and prioritized fashion. If I stick to the schedule, I’ll be able to get everything done in time for the new year.

What ongoing or incomplete projects do you have left to finish up before the year is out?

"In Memorium": Who is the best person for the job?

2011-11-11T16:14:00.000-08:00

“It seemed, however, everyone loved a good obit....”

When I read those words in a novel I am currently reading, I had to pause. Recently, a cousin died and I wrote a poem honoring his memory. I’d done the same thing when another cousin had died, and I’d done the same thing even for when my dogs have died. (As well as dogs who shared a home with human companions.)

But I have not just written poems about people I knew – and I barely knew that first cousin I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I also wrote poems honoring those who died on 9/11, those who were killed at Columbine, those who were shot at another school massacre as well as Princess Diana and Michael Landon. I did not know any of these people, but I wrote those poems because I felt moved to write something to honor their memory with. I also did the same thing when a friend of a friend died in a bicycle accident.

I did not know them, but something moved me to write those poems. I don’t know what. When I wrote that poem for the cousin, I worried I’d get backlash from those who were closer to him, and who knew him better than I did. The one other cousin I shared this with did not react that way, but I still felt maybe the others were wondering why I was even writing that poem. After all, I don’t even remember even meeting this cousin in person, or hearing stories about him. But I just wrote the poem, anyway.

And those words in that novel affected me, because on that same day, I was struggling with this. I just stopped myself and asked, Who am I to write these poems? I was not there. I didn’t know those people or that person. How could I possibly capture the essence of someone in a poem meant to honor them if I didn’t even know them?

And it’s interesting that it was a sentence about obits that gave me pause about this. At some point in the near future, I am planning to take ALL of those poems and put them into a poetry manuscript, one which I am actually going to title “Obits.” I got the idea for this a long time ago when a friend complained that the obits in a newspaper hardly capture what a person was REALLY like. What kind of person he/she REALLY was. I have read some obits of people I knew where the obits hardly did their memory any justice, and others of people I did not know that were actually very powerful writing. So I thought, what if we did find a way to write about how a person REALLY was? There’s got to be something better to honor their memory with. I thought a poem would do just that.

All the same, I did not set out to write these types of poems with that intention. Basically, I was so moved by someone’s death that I wrote the poem. When I wrote those poems in memory of Princess Diana or Michael Landon, it’s because I was moved to do so. It wasn’t because I thought it was a great way to honor their memory or, gee, this will look good in a poetry book! I just wanted to write those poems. I was compelled to write them.

And I still want to include them all in that book.

When this book comes out and people see these poems, I hope the relatives and friends of the people I wrote about will not think I tried to put myself on their level just to get a poem out of it. I hope they won’t think I was trying to benefit off of someone’s death or tragedy, or that I’m trying to make myself look like I KNEW those people when I didn’t or have the authority to write such words. My words are my own. They are words that came from my heart and soul during a time of sadness and a time of saying goodbye. They are just words that I felt compelled to write.

If people cannot understand that, or appreciate that, I still hope that in some way, at the very least, the poems will bring them comfort, maybe even a bit of peace. It’s never easy to say goodbye to someone and some animal we have loved. It’s so hard to let someone near to our heart go away from us forever. Poems are just one way to help us heal through our grief. And, I hope, they can also be one way to remember someone in a positive and loving light.

Thank you, Girl Scout Troop #2056!

2011-11-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

In August, I received an email from a girl named Lilly who is a member of a Girl Scout troop. Her troop was doing a special project as part of trying to win a Silver Award. Their project was dedicating two park benches in a local park as part of the 10th anniversary of September 11th. They were dedicating two park benches and their theme was "Sit and Reflect." They wanted to do something special for this occasion.

Lilly contacted me because she found my 9/11 poem, "They Were Our Neighbors," on the Internet and she and her troop really liked the poem. They asked for permission to put my poem on a bookmark they would hand out to people at the dedication ceremony on September 11, 2011. Of course, I said yes, and as a former Girl Scout myself, I commended her and her troop for their efforts to do something special for their community. I thought their idea was fantastic and let them know I was cheering them on.

Later, I received an update email about their progress. They were having fun creating the bookmarks and attached photos of the occasion. It was so awesome to see their idea coming together for them! And, I felt really honored to be a part of something so special.

I just received the bookmarks in the mail and I was taken aback by how beautiful they turned out. I had tears in my eyes as I read both Lilly's and her mother's letters about the ceremony. The Poet Laureate Mary Louise Cox attended the ceremony and she asked the crowd in attendance if I was among them. (Sadly, I could not make it out there.) Lilly told me that Ms. Cox commented on the poem, saying she liked it. "Ms. Cox said to please tell you that from one poet to another she thinks your poem is beautiful!!"

I was so touched by this experience. Lilly even sent along an online printing of the article that was written about this occasion, along with photos. This has to be probably the biggest focal point in my experiences writing poetry. This is a really big deal for me and I am so grateful that a poem I posted on the Internet in 2003 turned out to be something that touched the hearts and lives of so many.

They sent me some of the bookmarks; they ran out of all of the rest at the ceremony! I hope they will be able to create more because my daughter wants to give some to her teacher and friends.

Thank you, Girl Scout Troop #2056, for doing such a generous and meaningful project for your community. Thank you for using my poem for your bookmarks. And thank you for doing something so special in honor of those who were lost on that day. Congratulations on winning the Silver Award. Many blessings and lots of cheers to you all!!!

THE ORIGINS OF THE NORICIN CHRONICLES: Guest blog post by Mark Sheldon

2011-10-25T06:18:00.000-07:00

Note from Dawn: I am a big advocate of charitable causes and anything that has to do with others trying to help a charity. So when I saw Mark's post on LinkedIn about this fundraiser, I knew this was something that I wanted to spread the word about. Mark kindly took the time out of his busy schedule to create this guest post for my blog that talks about the creation of his project and how he decided to take his book a step further.

Earlier this year, I began to publish my debut series as an author, The Noricin Chronicles. There are twelve books in the series; the first four of which are currently available and the fifth will be coming out in February of 2012. Until the end of this year, I am making available a special hardcover omnibus edition of the first four books in the series, and I will be donating 100% of my author’s royalties for this edition to Book Aid International, a literacy charity based in the United Kingdom.

The Noricin Chronicles is about the Norcinites, a secret race of super-humans who have been hiding in the shadows of society for nearly two hundred years. Almost all of the Norcinites are descended from Steven Noricin, founder of the Steven Noricin School for the New Race – commonly known as Snisnar. All young Norcinites are sent to this special school to learn how to hone and control their extraordinary powers.

The story begins with Dan Regal, an orphan who on his twelfth birthday accidentally sets the orphanage bully on fire – simply by imagining it happening. Shortly after the accident, he is visited by a mysterious, purple-eyed stranger by the name of Nevar Loeren. Mr. Loeren tells Dan about the Norcinites, and informs Dan that he is, in fact, one of them. Mr. Loeren says that he has come to invite Dan to attend Snisnar, and then he promptly disappears into thin air. But this is not the last that Dan will see of the enigmatic stranger, and he is about to embark upon a journey into a world full of wonders – and terrors – he never dreamed possible.

I can't really pinpoint the exact moment at which The Noricin Chronicles “popped” into my mind, because it was really about three separate ideas that had been festering in my imagination since as early as high school. Then, sometime in late 2005, all of these ideas just suddenly came together and clicked, and I realized that they were all part of the same story. I can’t really talk too much about two of these three ideas, as they would give away too much of the plot of the last few books, but the last idea was essentially a dark Harry Potter combined with the superheroes of The X-Men and the puzzles and riddles of The DaVinci Code.

Once the three ideas came together as one, it was pretty straightforward from there. It took me about two-to-three years to plot out the books. Probably the most extensive process of this early stage was creating the Noricin family tree. Because I knew that just about every character in my world was a direct descendant of Steven Noricin, I knew that I would have to plot out the family tree very extensively, so that I would know exactly how many Norcinites were in the world during Dan’s time, and therefore have a cast of players to work with. I spent about two weeks drafting out the massive family tree containing hundreds of names – starting out with Steven Norcin and his wife, Alice, and working down through almost two hundred years of family to Dan’s generation – and most of this work was done in the back office of the hotel where I was working with my now wife and co-conspirator in all things dastardly, Betsy.

One large complication in the creation of the Noricin Family Tree was caused by the fact that there are several Norcinites who are “blood purists” and obsessed with maintaining the Noricin genes by only marrying other Norcinites. Since most Norcinites are direct descendants of Steven Noricin, this meant that a lot of people married their cousins. To help myself keep these “special” familial lines straight from the non-blood-purists, I started using an orange marker to draw these specific family lines.

An amusing side effect of this technique came when I found that the orange marker had been bleeding through the paper onto my supervisor’s desk. When approached about this, Betsy and I (we were not yet dating at the time) informed our boss that I had been inbreeding on her desk and that I’d accidentally left some stains behind. That is where I learned the valuable lesson that if you can make someone laugh, you can be forgiven for just about anything.

But I digress – after I had finished creating the resource of the Noricin Family Tree, I spent about two years plotting out the books, another year to sit down and actually write them all, and another year editing and preparing for the publication of Book 1, The Lost Boy, on January 11, 2011. The rest of the year has pretty much been a blur, as I published one book every other month between January and June and spent the rest of the time editing the upcoming books and promoting the series.

There are, of course, many underlying themes and meanings throughout The Noricin Chronicles, some obvious and some not so obvious, but if I had to pick one, specific message as the central theme of the series and my writing in general, it would have to be tolerance. I am a big advocate of accepting other people’s beliefs, opinions, and outlooks, regardless of whether I personally agree with them or not. Just about the only thing I cannot bring myself to tolerate is intolerance, which of course makes me the biggest hypocrite of them all.

This desire to promote tolerance and fight ignorance is part of what drew me to Book Aid International, for their charity is primarily focused on supporting literacy, education, and development in sub-Saharan Africa. In the last year alone, they have provided over 500,000 new books to over 2,000 libraries.

My fundraiser for Book Aid will be running until December 31st, 2011. In order to keep production costs down and keep the list price reasonable, I was unfortunately only able to make this special hardcover edition available through Lulu. However, if the fundraiser proves to be profitable, I may decide in the future to release a paperback version of the omnibus edition, and continue to donate a portion of those royalties to Book Aid.

It has been a wild ride, these last six years, and it’s only just beginning! I can say beyond a doubt that there will be more from me to come in the future, and that hopefully I’ll be able to continue helping Book Aid, and other literacy charities as I proceed!

For more information about myself, The Noricin Chronicles, and my fundraiser for Book Aid, please feel free to visit my homepage.

BIO: The Noricin Chronicles marks author Mark Sheldon's debut as an author. Mr. Sheldon lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife, Betsy.

Rediscovering joy

2011-10-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

Last week, I started work on a new poetry manuscript. Well, actually, it’s kinda new. Mostly old. Some of the poems were published in a chapbook by a vanity publisher years ago. The book has since gone out of print (and, as far as I can tell from my searches, the vanity press no longer exists). So I have decided to give it a second life, just as I did with Topiary Dreams (Songs of the Dead) and November’s Child (Shadow of Samhain).

And just like I did with TD, I’m making this one “bigger and better.” That’s right; I am adding more poems and giving it a new title. It will also have a new cover. I truly believe that if you’re going to do something a second time and call it “new,” then, by golly! Go the whole nine yards! Take things up a notch and go all out in making it HUGE! Wow them! Entice them! Make it completely different than what the old play had once been.

That’s my philosophy, anyway.

So, that is what I did last week. And instead of 42 poems in the book, there will be 100! And, as I did with TD, I’m dedicating this version to the same person the original was dedicated to.

The thing of it is, well ... these poems are old. I mean REALLY old. And some of them make me cringe over the thought of them representing the poet I am now. But, you know what? They actually don’t. Those poems actually represent the person I used to be, and I guess the poet I used to be. And, as for the last of the poems in this book, the person I am now. And, in truth, I used to be so innocent and naïve just as the first 40 poems are (Hah! Sometimes I am still naïve! But, still....) And after all the things I have been through now, reading about those innocent times brought me a sense of peace. They brought me a sense of joy.

True, my younger years were not entirely pleasant. But it didn’t turn me into a negative, evil person. Despite the bad things, I held on to my innocence and sense of hope for a peaceful world. I held on to my inner happiness and my faith. And even after bad things happened, I still held on to them. I still wanted to believe that there was good worth fighting for and believing in. Even writing about.

And I’m glad I wrote them, because they are a pleasant and joyous escape from the brutal realities of this world. They are a comfort from the other bad things and the hard times.

And, in a way, watching the change in these poems – the innocence, the sense of maturity and the development of strength – was enough to make me feel these poems do represent me after all. They represent the journey I have been on thus far. Since the original book was meant to be autobiographical, that will happen here, too. And that goal is achieved just from seeing how the messages of the poems change.

Working on this manuscript became a delight for me. I enjoyed reading the early poems and cherished the sense of innocence they made me feel again just from reading them.

Mathematical writer?: Guest blog post by Sheila Deeth

2011-10-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

I’m a mathematician and a writer.

I used to think the best thing about math was that answers were always right or wrong—no in-betweens, no opinions, no debatables. But I learned better. The best thing about math has nothing to do with answers. It’s the point where you’re trying to imagine how something might work. Could it be this? If I tweak it like that? Can I build a counter-example? A whole wide world of what-ifs. Studying math in college expanded far more than my numerical horizons.

I thought a math degree would be good training for a job (which it was, for a while), but in the end it’s just as good training for writing stories, as I’ve learned when trying to watch how my stories grow.

My latest book, Flower Child, was born when our local writers’ group challenged us to do something based on a song. The song I chose was John Denver’s Rhyme and Reason, and the line I took was “The children and the flowers are my sisters and my brothers.” (You can see were the title came from now!) But the rest is what-ifs.

What if my childhood misconception of conception—that children grew from seeds in celestial fields with angels on guard—wasn’t so crazy after all? If I tweak it a bit, to deal with the case where the seed-child isn’t born… If I apply some boundaries perhaps—real children on one edge, angels on the other—and give my child an existence somewhere in between… If I let the child grow in the flow of words—like letting a program simulate the math, then reading off the results…?

It sounds kind of crazy I know, but I get the same satisfaction from seeing a story run its true course as I do from solving math problems. There’s something beautiful about the way math settles down into patterns of curves and lines; you look at an equation, letters simplified to make a sensible form, and you know it’s right—it’s just the way it has to be. Variables slip and slide in just the right order, adding, subtracting from the flow…

I hope you might think there’s something beautiful about my stories too. With luck, my imaginary characters will become as real to you as they are to me—just like imaginary numbers, existing in a universe all their own which is still, somehow, inconceivably, totally inseparable from reality.

I’m a mathematician and a writer, and there’s really no contradiction after all.

About the author: Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now living in the States with her husband and sons, she enjoys reading, writing, drawing, telling stories, running a local writers' group, and meeting her neighbors’ dogs on the green.

Sheila describes herself as a Mongrel Christian Mathematician. Her short stories, book reviews and articles can be found in VoiceCatcher 4, Murder on the Wind, Poetic Monthly, Nights and Weekends, the Shine Journal and Joyful Online. Besides her Gypsy Shadow ebooks, Sheila has several self-published works available from Amazon and Lulu, and a full-length novel under contract to come out next year.

Find her on her website: http://www.sheiladeeth.com
Or find her books at: http://sheiladeeth.weebly.com

About Flower Child: When Megan miscarries her first pregnancy it feels like the end of everything; instead it’s the start of a curious relationship between the grieving mother and an unborn child who hovers somewhere between ghost and angel. Angela, Megan’s “little angel,” has character and dreams all her own, friends who may or may not be real angels, and a little brother who brings hope to her mother’s world. But Angela’s dream-world has a secret and one day Angela might learn how to be real.

Where to find Flower Child:
On the publishers’ website:
http://gypsyshadow.com/SheilaDeeth.html#Flower

On Amazon

On Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/91467

A week of interviews

2011-10-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

Writers need to be ready for anything, whether it’s an impromptu interview (which is why it’s a good idea to know what questions you’ll ask before you request the interview) or if it’s an idea striking out of the blue (which is why it’s a good idea to keep pen and paper handy). The same goes for authors: Be ready for anything.

In my case, I had to be ready to answer interview questions last week. Quite a lot of them, actually.

I had quite a few interview requests lined up, so I took the time last week to answer all the interview questions. Some interviews went live immediately after I responded with answers, and some interviewers noted it would be a while before the interview went up. In fact, one interview won’t go up until sometime next year.

These interview requests came about because of two things: My networking with other authors and opportunities I saw for author interviews. Of course, with two books coming out soon, I had to grab these opportunities. They were a chance to talk about my books!

It was a lot of work going from one interview to the next, but so worth it. I have a chance to spread the word about my books (yay!) and give a heads-up on future books (yay again!). This was also a chance to offer some helpful advice to aspiring writers. Never give up, I said. Read everything you can get your hands on. Be persistent! This also gave me a sense of gratification.

Plus, I was grateful that all the interviews were through email. Made it a lot easier to think about, edit and rearrange my answers before the interviewer got them.

This experience was very interesting. I’ve been interviewed before, but I’ve never had so many lined up in one week. Also, I am used to being the interviewer, not the interviewee, so it was quite a change of place for once. I was asked some very interesting questions and was challenged to come up with interesting, if not lengthy, answers for certain scripted interviews.

Then after all was said and done, I went back to being the interviewer and worked on a couple of articles for SIGNews.

A couple of the interviews have been posted and you can read them here:

Interview at Writer’s Sanctuary.(Thanks, Dellani!)

Interview at Steel Diamonds Publishing.

Great Minds Think Aloud Literary Community
(Thanks, Kitty!)

And, earlier in the month, there was another interview with me posted at Highlighted Author here.
(Thank you, Charlene.)

Cop Talk with a Character: Guest blog post by Kathleen S. Allen

2011-10-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

Greetings All! My name is Kathleen S. Allen. I am a writer. I have been asked to do a guest blog today. I recently had a book released and I thought it might be fun to do an interview with one of the characters. The name of the book is: IF IT’S MONDAY, IT MUST BE MURDER! Published by Gypsy Shadow. It’s available as an Ebook on Kindle/Nook/Smashwords. The book trailer is available on YouTube.

INTERVIEWER: Today we are interviewing Byron Williams, a police officer with the Beechton Police Department. He and his former partner, Mel Thompson, are working a murder investigation together.

BYRON: Detective. I am a detective.

INTERVIEWER: Sorry. Our interview today is with Detective Byron Williams. I know our audience can’t see him but let me describe him to you. He’s in his late thirties. He’s tall, just six foot, lean and buff. He told me before we started that he runs and lifts weights for exercise. He carries a gun, works in homicide and loves being a cop. He shaves his head and oils it every morning. His skin is caramel coloured and his eyes are a deep chocolate---more like a dark chocolate brown. He has long tapered fingers that look as if he should be playing piano or painting with! In short, he gorgeous!

BYRON: Okay, enough about my looks. [glares at interviewer]

INTERVIEWER: Sorry. Welcome to the blog, Byron---may I call you Byron? [he nods] Tell us a little about yourself.

BYRON: I promised Mel I’d do this interview but I’m not comfortable talking about myself. What do you need to know?

INTERVIEWER: I understand you are a cop. Tell our audience about your career choice. How did you decide to go into law enforcement?

BYRON: I grew up in an urban setting, lots of criminal element in my town. We had this small family run grocery store in our neighborhood run by a Korean family. The mom loved kids and always gave us pieces of candy when we came into the store. One day I heard sirens and ran out to see what happened, I must’ve been nine or ten. Both of them were shot by a failed robbery. I remember thinking that if I did nothing else in my life, I’d make sure the bad guys are caught. [grins] Guess I never grew out of it.

INTERVIEWER: So you’ve been a cop for how long now?

BYRON: Almost ten years.

INTERVIEWER: What would you say is your worse moment as a cop? Your best?

BYRON: One of the best was getting Mel as a partner. She’s sassy, smart and beautiful, plus she kicks butt! Or did before she got shot. That was my worse moment. I didn’t know if she was alive or dead when I heard the gunshot at a routine B&E---breaking and entering---at a strip club. I ran around back and there she was on the ground, blood everywhere. I thought I lost her. [tears up]

INTERVIEWER: How is she doing, it’s been how long since she was shot?

BYRON: A year. The bullet lodged in her back near her spinal cord so she has a lot of pain and walks with a cane. She had to quit the force and go on disability. We broke up because Mel doesn’t want to be a burden to me or anyone. [grins again] I’m trying to get her to let me back in her life.

INTERVIEWER: I understand you are helping her investigate a murder?

BYRON: Yes, her best friend’s daughter, Jessie was found at the bottom of a building on campus. The M.E.---medical examiner---ruled it a suicide but Mel thinks she was pushed off the building. She’s trying to prove it so the M.E. will rule it a homicide and then we’ll open it up as a homicide case.

INTERVIEWER: And you are helping her prove it was murder?

BYRON: Let’s just say I’m doing what a cop does. Mel’s hands are tied now that she’s off the force. I’m lending my resources to her, it’s all aboveboard and legal. [frowns]

INTERVIEWER: How is the investigation going? Is it murder or suicide?

BYRON: I can’t talk about the details. Not yet. We’re still investigating.

INTERVIEWER: I understand. Thank you for coming in today, Byron, or should I say Detective Williams. Good luck in your investigation.

BYRON: Thank you for having me.

Mel, a former cop shot in the back now lives in constant pain. When her best friend's daughter is missing, Mel is asked to help find her. When the girl is found dead at the bottom of a tall building, the cops believe she jumped. Did she? Or is it murder?

Book Trailer: http://animoto.com/play/BqOWt9Xj1HYrSOoOWGAsOw

Buy it here: http://www.gypsyshadow.com/KathleenAllen.html#Monday

Buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Its-Monday-Must-Murder-ebook/dp/B005PFTW8Q/ref=sr_1_8?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1317139464&sr=1-8

Find Kathleen S. Allen:
Twitter: @kathleea
Facebook: Witch Hunter
Email: gaelicfairie(at)gmail(dot)com
Website: http://gaelicfairie.webs.com
Book Trailers on: YouTube
Represented by: Nancy Knight of Sullivan Maxx Literary Agency

Kathleen's bio: Kathleen started writing at the age of eight when she self published a book of poetry to give as gifts during the holidays. Okay, she painstakingly hand copied in her best printing her poems onto paper, used a paper punch to punch holes in the sides, made an orange construction paper book "jacket" and wrote MY POEMS on it in blue crayon, tied it with a bit of red ribbon with a very nice bow and, ta dah, her first book! She has been writing ever since. Her books are available online and in print.

Unanswered questions

2011-10-09T15:26:00.000-07:00

One thing I love about fiction is that you kinda get to play detective. You try to figure characters out, figure out what the setting looks like, how everyone is talking and, more importantly, exactly what this story is all about. I enjoy reading mysteries, and this particular genre is of course one that should keep readers guessing. But any genre – fantasy, horror, romance and sci-fi – would do well to keep readers trying to figure everything out. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that readers won’t be able to figure everything out. And this is why certain questions need to be answered.

Readers of fiction are a lot like journalists. They want to know the who, what, where, when, why and how of everything. Why does that character walk with a limp? Why is that character afraid of traveling through that particular state? Why is that character afraid to commit? But also, who are these characters? What does this particular symbol mean? Where is the story set? When did that character find the time to make the sweater she gives to her beloved? How does that character know how to pick locks like a pro?

As a writer of fiction, I realize we can’t give away too much information in one giant info dump, but we DO need to provide that information at some point in the story. Readers are a curious sort, and if their questions about who someone is and why he is important to the story are not answered, it’s a big turn-off. And, I must say that, as a book reviewer, it can be pretty irritating. One particular novel I read had me asking "what the heck just happened???" at the very end and it was aggravating that I couldn't figure it out.

In my case, I have been working on edits for Shadow of Samhain. This particular draft that was accepted by my publisher answered two questions that were not answered in the original book, November’s Child. Namely:

How did Jonathan find out about who his mother really was?

How did Jovin end up being brought into the story? (People don’t just appear out of nowhere, after all.)

I was sure to answer these questions, but I had neglected to include one other important piece of information. At one point in the story, my character, Janay, reflects on how she hadn’t talked to her mother for 20 years. Okay … why? Did she and her mother have a falling out? If so, what was it about? Did her mother abuse her and she finally got away? Was she kidnapped as a teenager and lost track of where her mother was?

I knew I could not keep readers guessing over this. Sure, readers could draw their own conclusions about why someone was estranged from their parent, but that’s not the way it works when you write fiction. Don’t leave readers hanging when it comes to something they really can’t figure out for themselves. Don’t leave those kinds of questions unanswered.

In the original book, I did answer that question, but not in this draft. So, as I worked on the edits, I realized that was important information that needed to be in the story, and so I added it. I was grateful I was able to catch something like this during this round of edits, but, unfortunately, not every author catches something like that.

When you tell a story, tell the whole story. Answer the questions: Who, what, where, when, why and how. If you need to hold some things back for future books, write it in a way that lets readers know it’s something that you’ll come back to later (such as leaving a character in confusion about something), but do try to answer the questions you can answer in the book you are writing now. Readers will appreciate it if you fill in the gaps so that they can continue reading, and enjoying, your story.

Interview with Karina Fabian

2011-10-04T06:27:00.001-07:00

Author Karina Fabian

Please welcome Karina Fabian. She and her co-author, Colleen Drippe, have a new book out called Frightliners. If you are looking for some scary stories to read for Halloween, check this book out! You won’t be disappointed.

Karina was kind enough to take the time to answer my questions for this blog post.

How long have you been a writer?

Professionally, since around 1995, but I was mostly doing non-fiction until around 2007. I enjoyed writing articles, but I was homeschooling three kids at the time and found I needed to cut back on the writing, and I’d been wanting to go back to fiction, which I’ve always loved writing. I’ve had such fun with it that I’ve not gone back!

What inspires your writing?

It’s easier to ask what doesn’t inspire my writing, but I can’t really answer that, either. I’ve written stories inspired by conversations, other books I’ve read, challenges, and even songs. In fact, the main character in the story “Accidental Undeath” included in Frightliner came from a Micheal Loncor song, “Truck Driving Vampire.”

What do you write?

Mostly science fiction and fantasy, often very funny but sometimes kind of eerie—like my latest novel Mind Over Mind, which is about a psychic whose powers drive him insane and his fight for control and sanity. My science fiction tends to be more serious, as well. My horror can also be humorous—like Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator—or it can be creepy, like Frightliner. I also wrote a devotional with my father and he’d like to do another about deacons when I can fit it. I write school calendars and have also written craft books. So I’m all over the place, which keeps things fresh and fun for me.

Who came up with the idea for Frightliner?

It was kind of a synergy. I’d written about a truck-driving vampire based on Michael Longcor’s humorous song. My story wasn’t humorous, but the vampire was a good ol’ boy in a traumatic situation. Colleen wondered that we never saw vampire stories where the vampire really was evil and we decided to write one.

How did you and Colleen Drippe collaborate on this project? Did you each write a chapter or...? Was everything done through email or...?

We each wrote a section, then the other tweaked it and continued on. It was all over e-mail and took us a couple of months, but it was just a lot of fun. I know Colleen stretched my writing abilities and made me write in a style I don’t usually use in order to match her better. (She’s much better at description and enjoys that. I’m a dialog-action person.)

Were there any issues you had to grapple with as a writer as you worked on this book? Please explain.

Actually, as I recall the story went very smoothly. I think out only issue was what to do with it when we finished. We first sold it to Twilight Times as a short story several years ago, and I decided to give it a try as a novella. We added a couple of stories and Crossroads took it. I’m pretty happy about that—not only did they do an awesome job of putting it together, they are handling the royalty split for us, which is a relief because I’m awful with finances that way.

How would you describe your experiences collaborating with another writer for one book? Was it a challenge? How did you both work out any problems that came up?

Like I said, Frightliner was pretty easy. We’re working on another that’s a little slower going because we’re both much busier. (It’s in my court now and I feel so bad that I’ve not gotten to it.) Also, we’ve got different ideas about where this one should go—Colleen’s plot pace is faster than I want, though I love the ideas she has. Also, we’re still feeling our way around the priest characters and how to treat them; some things I think are okay, she feels aren’t respectful, and a few things she’s wanted to do I feel are too extreme. However, we’re adults, professionals and friends, so we’re working through them pretty smoothly.

What is Frightliner about?

A truck-driving vampire is terrorizing the interstate between Arizona and Texas, and when it marks trucker Jay as its next victim, he’ll need to come to terms with the impossible in order to save his own life.

There are so many stories of things that happen to people because they hitched a bad ride or because they encountered something otherworldly on the road. How did you and your co-author make sure these stories were different?

We really didn’t do an analysis of other books or anything to make sure ours was different. We wrote the story as the characters told it to us. Since Colleen’s husband was a trucker, there’s a lot of great detail, and I especially enjoy the showdown in the abandoned church.

What other types of books or projects can your readers look forward to seeing from you in the near future?

The next book I have coming out is Live and Let Fly, which is a humorous fantasy starring my dragon detective and his partner, a magic-slinging nun, who take on a demigod who wants to destroy the worlds. It’s super-spy spoofing as only DragonEye can do it. To get folks ready, I have a DragonEye, PI Christmas story that will go serial in November: http://christmasspirits.karinafabian.com

Frightliner: And Other Tales of the Undead
By Colleen Drippe and Karina Fabian

Evil sits behind the wheel.

Short Synopsis: A truck-driving vampire terrorizes Interstate 10 in New Mexico and Texas. When he targets trucker Jay Carlson, Jay finds himself unwillingly teaming up with an illegal alien and a tough-talking custodian--both of whom claim to be vampire hunters. However, they are injured in the fight, and Jay will have to conquer his disbelief and
destroy the vampire himself before it kills them all.

Marketing Synopsis: All Jay Carlson wants is to get his load delivered on-time, and the mysterious murder on a lone stretch of I-10 is just a slow-down. Things get freaky as a stranger suggests the murderer is a truck driver—and Jay has seen the truck. Thus starts a game of cat
and mouse as the mysterious truck stalks him on his route. No one else seems to see his phantom pursuer except for two unlikely allies: a custodian claiming to be a vampire hunter, and an illegal alien who trusts his faith to defeat the monster. When the truck-driving vampire traps them in an abandoned church and his only defenders are injured in the fight, Jay must swallow his own disbelief and destroy the vampire himself before he kills them all.

Bios:

* Karina Fabian: Karina Fabian writes fantasy and science fiction, with the occasional foray into the world of horror. Her first novel, Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, the 2010 INDIE Award for best fantasy. Her latest book, the comedic horror, Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator, was a
top ten in the Preditor and Editor reader’s polls and winner of the Global E-Book Award for best horror. Learn more about her works at http://fabianspace.com

* Colleen Drippe: Colleen Drippe has been writing since age 6 and has had a lot of science fiction, a moderate amount of horror and fantasy, and assorted nonfiction scattered throughout the small press and online. She also writes for children and has had three children's books published so far (The Little Blue House, Christmas at the Little Blue House, and Mystery at Miners’ Creek) and another one (Growing with the Little Blue House) due out any day. She has had one sf book published (Godcountry) and another (Gelen!) coming out this year. She is the former editor of Hereditas (of happy memory but dried up funding) and is currently working on another sf book along with various other projects.

Excerpt:

Of course that was why he had not come out to check on her, she thought with a surge of relief. He probably thought it was an abandoned car. But now--she stepped out onto the gravel, hearing for the first time how loud the crickets sang. She smelled the strong scent of the cooling air. Too early for snow. Too warm, still anyway, though she cursed herself for not thinking to put on jeans before making her big exit. She peered at the cab, but nothing moved.
“Hello!” she called, moving closer. She could not make out a logo on the truck. It was dark, dark paint. She had an impression that the shape was--not wrong exactly, but not usual. It was an older model, she decided. An old truck.
She had reached the door.
“Anyone there?” she called, hesitating to step up and look inside. What if something had happened to the driver? What if he were dead? What if she opened the door and a body spilled out onto the road?
But that was silly. He had just pulled up. Probably he was rummaging around in his berth for some tools.
But what if he was dead? What if she took hold of the door and--and what if he was right there, watching her?
She had almost decided to go back to her own car. But the thought of the semi parked behind her, silently cutting its chunk from the sky, was in some strange way even more frightening than opening the door. She reached up for the handle and pulled herself up level with
the window.
The handle turned in her hand.
It was then she knew she had done the wrong thing. If only someone else had come—she prayed for someone else. A cop. Even a car full of good old boys. Anyone.
The crickets fairly screamed their shrill and mindless song, the scent of the Russian knapweed was overpowering. But it wasn’t strong enough to hide another smell, a dark earthy smell. A smell of death mellowed by long usage.
The door opened.
Reba froze, clutching the handle, balancing there with the driver’s seat in front of her.
She tried to speak, to call, but nothing would come out. She hung there, thinking of death, while the night passed and the stars moved and the moon looked in over her shoulder. Finally, she climbed into the truck.
“Daniel,” she whimpered. She was ready to forgive the new pickup, but it was too late.
Something moved in the back and she turned in the driver’s seat and saw a pale face, caught in the moonlight, eyes gleaming. She had an impression of lank hair, grizzled beard. And then two hands reached up to take her shoulders and she saw the mouth open.

Video trailer link: http://youtu.be/pEi6y0IuOlI

Amazon link: http://amzn.to/lJDL9b

Website: http://fabianspace.com

Guest blogging

2011-10-02T22:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I start doing things only because they happen to fall into my lap. I became a book reviewer after a fellow author asked me to review her book for a site -- a site whose admin liked my review so much, she asked me to review other books for her. I started writing for SIGNews after someone who works there contacted me personally about my writing interests. And I took on editing manuscripts after my writer friends asked me to do this for their books.

And now it seems that I am getting into something else, too, this time for my blog. Now I will be hosting guest blog posts every Tuesday.

Why every Tuesday? Some authors I know have new books out, and they were hunting for blogs to include in their blog tours. Of course, I volunteered my blog, and two authors are now lined up to post on here.

They are both going to be featured here on a Tuesday. I noticed how they both ended up on a Tuesday and thought, "Hm. What if I made this a Tuesday thing?"

So, every Tuesday, look for a guest blog post from an author!

Or, it could be an interview with an author or an excerpt from an author's work. Either way, it is a free promo opp for authors to spread the word about their books!

Thing of it is, I don't have anyone for THIS coming Tuesday, October 4th. But I have been responding to emails from authors telling them this day is open. Hopefully, I can find someone. Stay tuned!

How do you learn about where you are living? You write about it, of course!

2011-09-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

I may live in Oregon, but I am not a native Oregonian. Sure, I come from a nomadic family that moved from one city to another, one state to another. But in my heart, California is my home. It’s where I was born and where I spent the majority of my life (so far – we’ll see how long I end up living in Oregon!).

I came to Oregon in 2005 and, at first, I didn’t really call it home. In fact, I spent the bulk of my early time here mostly communicating with people back “home” and hoping, dreaming of moving back.

After 6 years in Oregon, however, those dreams of moving back to California are starting to fade. And, in fact, Oregon is starting to grow on me. I still love California, of course, but I have come to accept that Oregon is my home now. So I better get used to it!

One part of “getting used to it”? Looking into what Oregon is all about. From reading the papers and talking with people, seeing the sights and checking things out, I have gained a better understanding of what life is like here. One thing that has helped increase this understanding? Writing about all things Oregon. I have already written a novel set here in Eugene (it’s an unedited manuscript at this point, but I have plans to fix it up and send it off to my publisher in the near future.). But I have also written Oregon-related articles.

In fact, I made it my mission to search them out, just so I could learn more about something related to Oregon.

They say that writers should write what you know. A writer friend said this week on her Facebook page that, for her, it’s “write what you want to learn.” And I have to agree with her. There’s so many things I have learned about just from writing about them. And this has helped me to understand Oregon better, too.

When I was writing for Demand Media, Inc. (eHow), I wrote Oregon-related articles. There’s

Free Eye Exams & Glasses for Seniors with Low Income in Oregon

Recycled & Reclaimed Wood Products in Oregon (I even called up one business in Portland that was selling such products to ask them about what kinds of things they sell)

Do it Yourself Divorce in Oregon

Now that I’m writing elsewhere, I look for other Oregon-related articles to write. I actually did one recently, at Helium:

Fall festivals in Oregon

Just as I am learning things about disability law and rights for the disabled as I write about deaf-related issues for SIGNews, so, too, am I learning things about this new state I live in thanks to writing about it. Of course I’m actually out there checking places out, talking to people and visiting businesses (in addition to reading the papers). Any chance we get to visit another Oregon city, I'm there! I have visited the coast and Portland, and have seen Grants Pass as well as Cottage Grove. Our drive through Oregon to get to Eugene had me looking at all the cities we passed through. But in addition to doing these things, I am also writing about anything and everything related to what life is like here in Oregon. This is helping me understand things here better and know about stuff that is going on here. Because, the way I see it, if I am going to be living here instead of dreaming of hitting the road someday or moving back to California, then I might as well know the ins and outs of life in this state. It’s helping me to know what to expect while living here and, the bonus is, it’s opening doors for me to meet more people and get to know native Oregonians who can add to my journey of learning what Oregon is all about.

Shifting gears with an article idea

2011-09-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

When it comes to getting an assignment from the EIC at SIGNews, she usually tosses them my way. On very rare occasions, I may mention something to her that could be written up as an article for the paper, and she’ll tell me to go for it. For my September assignment, however, she opened the door for article suggestions.

I had not one but two article ideas. And she said that I could write both of them. Yay! (A third one will be for the November issue.)

So I got to work on my articles. One particular article idea came as a result of something I observed with my 3 ½-year-old son, Jesse. With Jesse being a CODA, I was aware of something POSSIBLY amiss as far as him using sign language in a school setting was concerned. After some secret investigating, however, I found nothing wrong. But I had to wonder, was this kind of thing actually happening with another Child of Deaf Adult out there? I had to find out, and therein was my assignment.

After I checked around – through Facebook, HARO and a network of deaf parents I am a part of – I found that the opposite was true. No, this was not happening. (Thank goodness!) And, actually, ASL was welcome in mainstream schools, instead of being discouraged.

But instead of considering my idea a failure, I got the message. Sign language is ACCEPTED in schools? Really? Hearing kids are allowed to use ASL?

That could work as an article, too!

And the bonus is, it’s still CODA-related. The whole point behind this article idea getting the green light was that it was related to CODAs. So it would still work!

I pitched this new angle to my editor and she gave me her blessing to proceed. I wrote up the article, got photos and turned everything in.

Thank you to you CODAs and deaf parents who took the time to respond to my inquiry about this. I am still so psyched that my own CODA will be included in this article.

I am also glad I was able to take what seemed like a “failed” idea and turn it into a successful one that sold. As writers, we do need to keep our eyes peeled for a story. But we also need to keep an eye out for how to reslant a piece if our original idea doesn't work out.

The cover for Shadow of Samhain!

2011-09-04T08:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I received a surprise in my email inbox: The proposed cover for my forthcoming novel, Shadow of Samhain. Yay!! I was so excited! My daughter and I both looked at the cover when I opened the attachment and hubby seemed to approve of it, too.

I LOVE IT!!

It is a lot like what I had put together for a "working cover" of the book some time ago. This one is so much better and, of course, a lot more professional since it was created by a professional book cover artist. (Thank you, Charlotte Holley!) I like how everything blends well together and the color contrast is just right. I also like how it is not so dark as to be unnoticeable.

And, without further ado, here is the cover:

Adventures in Title Land

2011-08-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

This morning, I came across author Katie Ganshert’s blog post on book titles. I thought it was interesting that I saw this right after I commented on another author’s blog about how important a good title is. But reading this blog post had me thinking about my own adventures in coming up with a good title.

My debut novel, which unfortunately went into limbo after the publisher went bankrupt, was titled November’s Child. This title came to me in a dream. (More details on all of that in October, where you can read more about how that story came to be in an interview I’ll be featured in on another author’s blog.) Dreams are helpful when it comes to titles. Another dream I had told another story that turned into a manuscript I wrote, and the title was in this dream, as well.

I have had other dreams about my WIPs, and sometimes I would see title candidates in those dreams. However, for one other manuscript I wrote, I don’t think “Where is Laura?” would be much of a good title. But if something grabs me in a dream, I’ll use it.

Alas, November’s Child was a title that didn’t stick around for very long. With the demise of this book, I brought it back to life in a new version of the story and the manuscript was picked up by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. During the time I was trying to figure out what to do with my book, everyone I talked to told me the same thing: It will need a new title. I spent months trying to come up with something. Then I started to ask myself, what is this book really about? What’s going on with the main characters? The heart of the book is about the Druid observance of Samhain. Hmm, Samhain. Must use that. Then I looked at the characters and I realized, you know, it’s like they are haunted by the past. Like the past is a huge shadow over them. Wait a minute, shadow? Ding! That’s how I got the book’s title: Shadow of Samhain.

The one and only book I have co-authored (so far!) is the haunted houses book with Martha Jette: Totally Scared: The Complete Book on Haunted Houses. But neither of us can take credit for the title. Actually, my good friend, Peter Bowerman, came up with that title. (Thanks, Peter!) Up until then, I’d spent months brainstorming for a title. Family members even tried to come up with something. But nothing worked. I’m glad I finally asked Peter for help, because it’s definitely a great title!

Family members have also helped me work on other book titles, as well. My daughter and I spent some time brainstorming for a title for my haunted cities book. Because the contract was cancelled by the publisher, I figured that if it was going to be with a new publisher, it’s going to have a new title! Eventually, I came up with “A Ghost on Every Corner.”

For my poetry ebook, Songs of the Dead, that one was also a team effort. My publishers suggested I use one of the poem titles as a title and I threw at them a list of the ones I liked best. They picked “Songs of the Dead” and I was happy with it. (Thank you, Denise and Charlotte!) In a way, it fits the overall collection of poems.

Despite these successes with book titles, however, I still occasionally struggle with titles for my books. There is one manuscript I have, a paranormal mystery, that has a temporary title: “Imprint.” Which I think is better than the working title it used to have: “The Haunted Carpet.” (I still chuckle over that one! LOL) This manuscript is still being spiffied up, so hopefully during the revision process, I will manage to come up with some other title.

If not, I can always ask around. Or hold a “title this book” contest with my readers. It’s an idea.

Embracing the unexpected

2011-08-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

It happens either on a Sunday or first thing Monday morning: I create a weekly “to-do” list for the coming week. Because I have so much going on, this has proven to be the best way for me to remember everything I need to do, especially for that particular week, as well as manage everything. (You can read my article about creating a weekly to-do list here.) Seriously, I’d be lost without these lists. They really work in keeping everything front and center.
But aside from the occasional SIGNews assignment or deadline, my weekly to-do list can get to be predictable – if not boring. OK, yes, “predictable” does mean “boring.” And where’s the fun of that? Who wants to keep doing the same old, same old week after week after week? Yuck!

That was my feeling when I put together my list (which I also call my “schedule”) for this past week. I took a look at everything I’d written down, which was pretty much similar to the one I had for the previous week, then released a huge sigh. Same stuff again. Yippee.

I sent up a silent plea. Why can’t this week be (gasp!) different? Why can’t I try something else this week? Why can’t I write something different this week? I WANT SOMETHING DIFFERENT! Give me variety or give me death!

Yet, I trudged on. Monday came. Here we go. It was showtime!

Soon, however, I was to see that my little plea for something different would be answered. It seems my muse had other plans for me this week, because I read something in a nonfiction book I am reviewing, and it totally blew me away. But not only did it blow me away – it got me to thinking. What if this could be a story? Of course, I was so shocked by what I read in that book that I could not continue to read it, but at the same time, you know, the wheels were turning. I started asking myself a stream of “what if?” questions – all questions that would lead me to coming up with a story idea based on that very thing.

But my muse did not stop there. Even as I started writing that story, more story ideas poured in. It seemed as though every day of the week meant new ideas for stories to write. As it is, I woke up twice this morning (at 4 a.m. then at 8 a.m.) with two story ideas after each awakening!

So this week turned itself into a “fiction writing week” for me. Instead of another round of reading books for review. I was on a story-writing spree! Ideas for new stories came out of the blue at every turn. Yay!

So it seems that I got to have something different to work on this week, after all. Of course, I kept up with the book reviews – though not as consistently as I normally do because I was busy writing so much. And I kept up with proofreading for a publisher. But I also threw myself into this story-writing spree and loving every minute of it!

Thank you, muse, for answering my plea. It was nice to have something different, if not unexpected, happen this week, for once.

On writing bad reviews

2011-08-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

When I started reviewing books on the Internet, I never once thought that it might be a good idea to use a pseudonym. On one level, I no longer use a pseudonym because I feel it is like I am ashamed of what I am writing. On another level, I won’t use one because, in the past, I’ve had to defend that I WAS indeed the author of something written under a pseudonym and I just don’t want to go there anymore. However, as I have written book reviews for quite some time now, I am beginning to think that maybe a pseudonym would have been useful for when I have to write a bad review of a book.

Being an author myself, I know that reviewing books on a public forum places me in a position where an author unhappy with my review of his/her book would lash out at me via a bad review of one of my own books on Amazon.com or something. Yes, this kind of behavior is childish and unprofessional, but it can and probably does happen.

Also, as an author, I know how painful a bad review of my book can be. I work so hard on my books and take them through several edits, revisions and critiques until they are satisfactory. And my editors have worked their magic, as well, God bless ‘em. But a bad review of one of my books is inevitable – it goes with the territory – and I know it would be a little hard to swallow. Still, I respect that reviewer’s opinions. I won’t respond to bad reviews and I will acknowledge that you just can’t please everybody. Really, you can’t.

I hope that a certain author will think the same thing when my review of his book is posted online. Unfortunately, I didn’t like the book. At all. I TRIED to like it and I even actually pointed out the novel’s one strength. But I just didn’t like it, and so my review of this book is not a very positive one. In fact, I’m giving it one star when I turn the review in. But I hope that people won’t see that one star and think they should avoid reading that book. Reading my review will clue them in as to why I didn’t like it. I tried to be restrained with my opinions. I tried to still be nice even though I called his book “filth” and “brain poison.” I still felt terrible writing a bad review. I don’t like writing bad reviews. Believe me, if I had the choice of passing on reviewing the book in order to avoid writing a bad review, I would have done so. But I HAD to read this book because it is a print copy, and I HAD to review it.

If only I had that pseudonym handy….

This reminded me of the scene in that movie Ratatouille, where the food critic struggles to write his review after he learns the chef who prepared his food was a rat. What can we do? What do we say? How can we say it without hurting anyone or anything?

I really struggled with this. How could I write this review without making it seem like this book isn’t worth anybody’s time? And how could I say the things in my review that I wanted to say? This was a Hugo Award winning author, after all! Who was I to say such things about his latest creation?

But, I have to remember that it is my job to review the novel. To only share my opinions about it – and it is just ONE person’s opinion! I am not trying to say the author sucks. I am not trying to put him down or put down his other work. I actually haven’t read his other books and they may be good stuff! What I am trying to do is share my opinions of this particular novel. Not this particular author. Just THIS particular novel.

I don’t like writing a bad review. I’ve done it before and I felt terrible after the review was posted. (And that review was actually the watered-down version of what I REALLY wrote.) But I took on this role as book reviewer and, in some cases, there are times I cannot pass on reviewing a book which I find distasteful or unappealing. These are the times I must swallow that lump in my throat and share what I think about that book. Not that author, just that book.

Perhaps in future I would do well to review ebooks instead of print. At least in that case, should I want to pass on reviewing a book, I will be allowed to do so.

There will always be more

2011-07-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

Recently, we had some problems with our cable. I thought it was a bad connection or the cable company just getting bad signals. Turns out, it was the machine that was at fault. It, well, went a little nutty. It wasn’t showing titles of shows that were playing, didn’t show the recordings of shows we DVRed despite saying “42% full” and it kept going dark. In the end, it conked out on us and we had to get a new box. The new box works better and everything is working just fine now – except that my daughter panicked after she saw that ALL of the shows she’d DVRed were gone. History.

This reminded me of certain experiences from my past. I’d loaned books out to a certain sibling and I never saw those books again.

And speaking of books, I once lost 10 boxes of books in a move. Ouch!

But that’s not as painful as something else that happened. A virus once infected my computer, wiping out EVERYTHING. Essays, articles, manuscripts, poems and short stories. I even lost a script I was writing! I also lost copies of contracts and invoices for work sold, and the copies of where that stuff appeared online.

I have even lost a whole notebook teeming with over a hundred songs that I wrote!

Ouch, indeed.

But, you know, I picked myself up by my bootstraps and just kept on writing. I dusted myself off, grabbed a pen, and wrote some more. And there was always more. There will always be more – more articles, books, stories and essays. Maybe I’ll even finish the new script I started writing!

I have written more stuff to replace the stuff that was lost. I have also bought more books, and, you know, that's just a little bit of my subconscious trying to replace all those other books that I lost. (Who knows if we are at 10 boxes worth. I haven't really counted those boxes of extra books, but there are a lot.)

The point is, I added more where there was less. And there was more to add. Maybe not the same kind of stuff that was a better replacement, but I DID have more stuff I wanted to write and more books I wanted to own.

Yes. There will be more. You lose things and you replace them. That’s just the way it is.

So as my daughter started to panic and freak out, I gently told her to calm down and said the same thing that got me through those experiences: “There will always be more.” In this case, we’re talking a TV show that airs reruns every day. Chances are pretty good they’ll air the reruns she recorded – or most of them, anyway. There’s always that chance. And this knowledge brought her comfort.

Sure, I still mourn the things I lost. But as a creative, we just have to keep creating. Sure I mourn the loss of that script, that story, that article and that book. But nothing lasts forever. Sometimes, we lose things we spend so much time creating. It happens. We can’t let that kinda thing knock us off our feet. Gotta get back on that horse! Gotta keep writing. Keep creating. Keep dreaming – and dream some more.

Because there WILL be more. Always.

Do I have what it takes to be a copywriter? Am I already one?

2011-07-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Recently, I made the decision to walk away from freelance writing for good. That’s not to say I’ve given up on writing/submitting articles. I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing articles! (That is hard to turn off.) But what I mean is, I am no longer going to approach markets I have not been published in before. This is not an act of snobbery, but more of frustration. I got tired of my queries and submissions being ignored. So I said to myself, why bother?

But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop submitting altogether. I’ll still submit, but to editors I have worked with in the past. Editors who had the decency to reply to my emails. (Say what you will about unanswered emails. I think it’s just plain rude to not reply to emails – IF the person emailing you is not being negative. A recent spat with hate messages reminded me it’s not worth the energy in responding.)

One other choice I made was to give up the writing gig for Demand Media Studios. It just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. In fact, the gig started to own my life, and I hated that. Some articles I wrote took days to write; others, hours. It just wasn’t worth it. (I also had certain creative differences with the CEs, but that's for a whole 'nother blog post.) So I said “goodbye” to that, as well. I am grateful for that experience and for the opportunity to be published on eHow. I learned a lot as a writer, self-editor and researcher.

Still, even with these changes, I realized something: I didn’t NOT like working from home. Truth of the matter is, I have been working from home for so insanely long, I am just so used to it. It’s what I know. I’ve always been a work-from-home mom. And I feel guilty if I’m NOT working, even from home. This picture just doesn’t look right.

So I asked myself, what now? I wasn’t prepared to go back to the writing gig. I’m not yet in a position to be a full-fledged book editor for a publishing company, which is my ultimate goal (and even as a freelance editor, clients are few and far between). Freelance writing for articles was out of the picture. What? Now?

Then I remembered something. For several years now, I have been tiptoeing around the idea of being a copywriter. The only thing that kept me from doing it? I. Hate. Advertising. Seriously, I don’t want to be the kind of person who tells people, “Buy! Buy! Buy!” I’ve got a frugal side to me that is anti-consumerism. More power to self-sustainability! *cue me shaking my fist*

But as I thought on this earlier today, I realized, being a copywriter is not so much about encouraging people to spend their money on MORE stuff. It’s more about telling people ABOUT stuff.

Book promotion is the same way. I’ve written articles for the purpose of getting the word out about my books. If I want to sell books, I gotta let people know these books even exist! How will people know there is a book about haunted houses unless they hear about it? That’s book promotion – and copywriting – right there.

I’ve written blurbs for other author’s books – again, similar to copywriting, because I’m endorsing a product.

And what about book reviews? I carefully word each book review so that the author has some quotes to use for promotion AND the review tells readers good things about these books. Just like with copywriting.

Of course, I know this is not enough for me to just jump into copywriting with the claim that I know all about what a good copywriter is. But I’ve realized that, should I make this choice, should I take this leap, it would seem I have had a good amount of practice writing the way a copywriter would write. Benefits, features, headlines – I am so there. Been there and done that already.

And in a way, it makes the choice easier. At least if I do this, then I will have had some practice. Some kind of idea of what kind of writing it takes to succeed.

All I need to do now is read everything I can get my hands on about copywriting. Read the books, check out the web sites and read the newsletters. Get a better feel for it.

Because I am not prepared to walk away from writing from home altogether. Before I throw in the towel on earning income from my writing, I want to at least give copywriting a shot. Stop asking “what if?” and just DO it. The time for indecision on whether or not I will give this a shot is over with. It’s time to decide – and I’m leaning towards saying “yes.”

Fathers in Fiction

2011-06-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

When it comes to Father’s Day, a common “Dad icon” the media looks for are the dads we see on television. Mike Brady, Ward Cleaver, Al Bundy, Archie Bunker, Steven Keaton, Cliff Huxtable, Sheriff Andy Taylor, Howard Cunningham, Jason Seaver, Charles Ingalls, Homer Simpson and Danny Tanner. But what about the dads we read about in novels? There may not be a lot we remember, but there are many fathers in fiction I think are worth mentioning.

One father in fiction that stands out is Atticus Finch, the widowed father of two children in To Kill a Mockingbird. I love this novel and I can still remember how Scout’s father often patiently and lovingly talked to his children about the things they were going through and especially the things going on in their lives. The children tried to understand the reasoning behind the hatred spewed at a black man put on trial, and I thought Lee’s portrayal of Atticus during his role as a lawyer and as a loving father were straight on.

Another father in fiction I liked reading about was Denny Swift in Garth Stein’s unforgettable novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain. Denny is an up-and-coming race car driver, and after his wife dies, his in-laws fight him for custody of his little girl. I had to admire the mature and intelligent way Denny handles this situation, even going so far as to encourage his daughter to stay with his in-laws so there won’t be any conflicts while custody rights are being handled in court. I was impressed with how he handles himself even after his in-laws set him up for a sex crime, all in their attempt to make him look like an unfit father in court.

In The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, Padraic “Paddy” Cleary is the firm, loving and hostile father all wrapped into one. The one thing I remember from this novel (and the made-for-TV movie) is the hostility between him and his adopted son, Frank. (Frank doesn’t know Padraic is not his real father until later in the story.) Despite his flaws, Padraic works hard to support his family and keep his family together during hard times.

It’s not just dads who became fathers the usual way I enjoyed reading about in fiction, though. There are the men who became dads after marrying a woman who already has either a child or children. Take, for example, Bernard Fine, in Danielle Steel’s novel, Fine Things. Bernard is enchanted by a little girl and falls in love with the child’s mother, Liz, who is recently divorced. The two marry and welcome another child into their small family, but tragedy strikes when Liz is diagnosed with cancer and later dies, leaving Bernard to care for the two children himself. Even though Bernard does seek out another wife, he is still a devoted father to the children, even taking the time to talk with his daughter who is angry that her mother is being “replaced.”

These are just some of the dads who come to mind when I think about fathers in fiction. There are also the dads in books I have had the privilege of reviewing: Howard Walters, the comically paranoid former NASA-man in Leanna Ellis’ Once in a Blue Moon; Joe Tucker in Carla Stewart’s novel, Chasing Lilacs, who calls his daughter, Sammie, “Sis” and struggles to keep the status quo in his home despite Sammie’s mother suffering from a severe case of depression; and Michael Seymour, the wise and gentle father in Lisa Samson’s novel, Resurrection in May, who acquiesces to his college-age daughter’s insistence on staying at Claudius’ farm after surviving a horrible ordeal in Rwanda (can’t say I don’t blame him, given his wife’s failing health and his need to care for her more than his daughter).

I especially think about fathers in fiction on this Father’s Day because, at this point, I am editing the last part of my novel, Shadow of Samhain. I think of how two fathers are portrayed in this story: Pearsons Ratham, the father of my main character, Malissa, and Dean Charleston, Malissa’s husband. I modeled Pearsons after my own father and Dean after my own husband. (They are NOT exact replicas, however. These characters just have bits and pieces of these two men in my life. I thought that, given this novel is based on actual events in my own life, it was appropriate to do so.) I am especially thoughtful about this given the part I am at now, where I had to go online and ask a bunch of dads, “What would you do if your daughter was missing and you suspected a psychic had kidnapped her?” Quite a few dads replied on how they would react and what kind of actions they would take. This contributed to how I ended up writing that scene (thanks, dads!) but I had to really wonder over how these dads sounded VERY protective of their daughters and some of them even said they’d get medieval with the psychic if they suspected the woman had harmed their child. I know we parents must set good examples for our children and try to live a life free of violence, but I could really see how, when it came to protecting one of their own, these dads were ready to roll up their sleeves and physically fight for their families.

Thanks, real-life dads, for stepping up and doing what dads are supposed to do for their homes and families. Thanks, TV dads, for making us viewers take a moment to thank the good Lord we don’t have a goofy dad like that or appreciate how our own dads were patient, whimsical and understanding like that. And thanks, fictional dads, for helping us readers analyze how your portrayal in fiction shapes our views and expectations of fatherhood, and how some fathers out there can reflect on just the kind of dad they, too, want to be.

This "book review blogger" thing

2011-06-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, when I was reviewing books for Crescent Blues E-Magazine, I started communicating with an author named Irene Watson. I wrote up a review of her book, The Sitting Swing, yet unfortunately Crescent Blues ceased publication before her review was posted. Irene and I kept tabs ever since and I’ve been a reader of her Reader Views newsletter for quite some time.

Her most recent editorial in Reader Views concerns book review bloggers. Being one myself, I read it with interest.

She pointed out how some authors should do some background checks on book review bloggers who ask for free copies of books to review. I totally agree with this suggestion. As an author myself, I’ve heard from people saying “I’ll post a review of your book on my blog if you send me a copy!” but that never happened, even months after I sent them the books. At that time, I didn’t check out these so-called “reviewers.” I just said “sure!” and sent them a copy. Then I heard nothing.

However, ever since I started being a little more careful with which reviewers I send books to, I have actually seen results. I normally ship a copy of my new books to my friend and fellow reviewer, Carolyn Howard-Johnson. She reviews books for MyShelf.com and has a newsletter. A title of mine has been mentioned in her newsletter a time or two. And I have done reciprocal reviews with other authors I know.

But for those who I don’t know, yes, I have looked at their sites. I have seen if they post their reviews elsewhere. If things don’t add up, it’s a good idea to pass on sending those people a review copy.

I must note that, as a book review blogger, I never ask for free copies of books. Sure, I receive some voluntarily from people I have networked with in the past. Peter Bowerman has me on his mailing list just for this reason. And sometimes authors on Twitter who see my tweeted links of books I have reviewed ask me if I’ll review their books. But I don’t go around telling authors, “I’m a book review blogger! Send me free copies of your books!” I don’t do this because my own book review blog is just a hobby. Something I do in my spare time. I don’t make it a “side thing,” which is why I don’t use SEO as a way to attract followers. Sure, I post the links of reviews on Twitter and Facebook, but I’m not DESPERATE for an audience. Also, I may take a while to read a book, because I already review books for Night Owl Reviews and The Dabbling Mum where I DO have deadlines, so I don’t want to get angry emails from impatient authors wanting to know where my review of their book is at.

As to reposting reviews on Amazon and B&N, to be honest, I hadn’t thought of it. I think I should start doing that. Wouldn’t hurt. I used to do that on Amazon, with books I bought from there, but stopped after I created the book review blog. Now my reviews go there. But maybe they should go elsewhere, too. If it’s allowed, anyway. I inform authors who have personally contacted me when the review is up and I give them all the green light to repost my reviews of their books on their sites, blogs, etc., as long as they include the link. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to do the same on Amazon and B&N.

This journey as a book review blogger has been a learning experience. Perhaps someday I’ll start using SEO. Perhaps someday I’ll get around to spiffying up my book review blog to make it appear more professional. Perhaps someday it will become a side thing, rather than a hobby. And I can open the doors to more authors getting reviews by inviting them to send along their review copies. But until then, this book review blogger is going to use her blog only as an outlet for sharing my thoughts on books and indulging in my joy of reading books at leisure.

Here is the link to my book review blog and more book reviews.

Payment due

2011-06-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

Ah, one of the downsides of being a working writer. You put in the work that you are under contract for and, come payday, dutifully send an invoice to your editor or client. You get ready to take on more work for that client, or you plan new article pitches to send to that editor, until everything comes to a screeching halt because said editor or client has an issue about paying you for your work. Or, they can’t possibly understand how in the world they owe you what your invoice says they owe you. You haven’t been working for them that long. Or doing that much work. But, oh, could you please do this extra work for me while we sort this silly “payment” business out?

Um, what?

Yes, the idea seems a little crazy. An editor or client expecting you to do more work for them while the money they owe you is still up in the air. But this is something I have had to deal with in the not-too-distant past.

And I have one firm policy in handling such a situation: No more work until what is owed is paid up.

Believe me, I’ve dealt with deadbeats in the past. I have had too many experiences of NOT being paid for my work to have anymore patience for more such experiences. As an attempt to avoid these situations, I made it a policy to NEVER work without a contract.

But a contract won’t keep away the nonpaying editors and clients. Which is why I have a second policy in force: All future work ceases until previous work has been paid for. I don’t care when your meeting is or when you have to have something out. The issue of payment for work performed must be resolved first.

Thankfully, I have not had to deal with a nonpaying editor or client recently. Just someone who took issue with how much was owed. And while that matter was being worked out, this particular person wanted me to do some MORE work. I made it clear that I would be happy to take on some more work, but only AFTER previous work was paid for.

Working writers and freelance editors need to do what they must in order to avoid the headaches of deadbeat editors and clients. And they must be firm with those people who see something wrong with an HONEST and AGREED-UPON fee that is the sum total of all previous work performed. Shying away from trouble and avoiding conflicts by relenting to a lower fee or forgetting about what is owed for an article only sets the writer or editor up for more of this kind of treatment. Don’t allow yourself to be taken advantage of like that.

Be firm about getting paid for the work you have done. Remind the editor or client about the terms in the contract and state that all future work ceases until the matter is resolved. If they respect your work enough (and value their reputation as an editor or professional), they will be willing to honor the invoice and pay what is owed. But if not, then it’s time to move on.

Collaborative book projects are expensive

2011-05-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, I posted about how I came upon the realization that I really SHOULD pay writers contributing original material for the Revisions book. (Took me long enough, right??) Well, recently, I've been asked about what kind of compensation I would be providing to people who are sharing their stories for the haunted cities book.

I wish I could say my answer is "financial compensation," but, alas, that cannot happen.

I really wish it could be. But it can't.

As it is, I have to save money for paying all those writers for the Revisions book. So it seems like the only kind of compensation I can provide would be a contributor copy. I wish it could be cold hard cash, but I only make so much money a month, as it is, and I can only afford so much. As it is.

Of course, aside from a payment upon publication of the book, I could provide a share of the royalties. Yes, I am aware of this option. However, I tried that before, with the Midnight Oil book, and I screwed up royally on that. And I do mean royally. I never really thought much of this agreement between myself and those writers since my royalty checks for that book were extremely scarce, and I've never gotten around to doing the math on all of that, either. (I AM making it a point to correct this, though. I WILL set aside the time to do the math and figure out what I owe those writers then send them a check. I MUST set that straight. The guilt over screwing up on that has hung over my head for so long. As it is, it took me months to pay the cover artist of that book. But I WILL get it resolved. That's a promise!)

But because I messed up on that, I won't make it an option anymore. I'm just too worried I'll mess it up again. I feel so bad about messing up the first time, as it is....

This whole thing has made me realize two things:

One: I won't be doing anymore collaborative projects with people. It is just too complicated and expensive.

Two: Doing a collaborative project is expensive. You pay contributors, you pay for information, you pay for travel expenses and phone calls. There's just so much money that has to go into a collaborative book. Which is why these two books will be my last collaborative books.

I am immensely grateful to all of the writers and paranormal investigators who took the time to contribute to these books. I harbor no ill will or resentment towards any of them who expect to be paid for their time, or even to receive a contributor copy. Believe me, I understand. I'm in the same boat. I rely on the money I earn from writing to help pay bills, put food on the table, etc. So I know where you are coming from.

Soon these two books projects will be done and then I'll move on to other book projects. But it just doesn't look like I'll be doing more collaborative book projects. However, I am grateful that, at least, I have done these books. I know readers, and writers, will enjoy them and appreciate them just as much as I have.

Story guidelines for the haunted cities book

2011-05-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

When I am working on a book, whether it is nonfiction or fiction, I try to figure out the best way to write it. With the haunted cities book, I knew right away that I wanted the stories included to share first-person accounts of haunted encounters. This is what readers of the paranormal are used to reading: Eyewitness accounts. I thought this was especially important since I am unable to travel to the locations myself or recount everything that happened to somebody else as well as the person it actually happened to. I want stories from people who were actually THERE. But, specifically, the paranormal investigators handling these cases. And I knew if I wanted to do that, I would have to establish certain guidelines regarding these stories.

A lot of the paranormal investigators I have been in contact with have asked me what exactly I am looking for. I couldn’t say, “Oh, just…whatever.” That would not make for a very good book to read. So, after some thought and consideration, I narrowed my guidelines down to these factors:

LOCATION

I want paranormal investigations that took place specifically set in the city I have included in the book. Some investigators have mentioned neighboring cities or a city that is not THAT city by name but only by proximity (for example, calling a city in the Los Angeles area “L.A.” or “Boston” for cities not in Boston proper. For the latter, I didn’t know people actually did that until AFTER I started talking with a bunch of Boston-area investigators.)

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

The investigation must contain events which are good examples of paranormal activity, such as voices from EVP recordings, psychic input, physical contact (feeling a hand on the back, for example), activity in a room that is otherwise empty, video proof of a haunting, visual evidence, etc. Just, anything that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is/was paranormal activity and/or proof of a haunting at that location. If an investigation is called off even when these factors are present, that is okay, too. I’m not interested in stories of a “ghost” that turned out to be a jacket hanging from a hook or sounds of movement in an attic that turned out to be rats.

LOCATION INFORMATION

If the investigation takes place on private property and the owner wishes to keep the names private, I need to be apprised of this. I am fine with it and totally respect such a request. I'm willing to use "Anonymous Inn" or "Private Residence" in place of anything that would reveal a location's address. However, for public places, I'd like to know the name of the place and if it has a web site, so that I can include a little background on it in the book. I am also okay with keeping names of owners and civilians involved in the investigation private and/or using a pseudonym, if they wish.

HOW STORIES ARE TOLD

Ideally, I want the investigators to tell their stories in first person, as though they were sharing it with a friend. How did they hear about this place? Why did they choose to investigate it? What happened during the investigation itself? I am hoping the story can be told where they share everything they see, hear, feel and do. Take me along on a step-by-step process of the investigation. Just share with me what happened during the investigation.

RIGHTS TO THE STORY

All stories will remain the property of the storyteller. I am only asking for permission to reprint them in the book. I will not assume any rights to the stories and they will only be used for the purpose of this book, nothing more.

INTERVIEWS

In the event that investigators are unable to write out their stories themselves, I would be happy to interview them, as well as anyone else involved in the case, to put their story together. I can interview either by phone or email, though email is preferred. Please let me know which method and day would work best.

AMOUNT OF STORIES SHARED

I am willing to look at as many stories and photos as the investigators are willing to share. I enjoy reading about these kinds of experiences, so even if I decide not to include a story, I’m still open to reading anything the investigator would like to send my way.

For the purpose of clarification, this is my wish list of cities to include in the book. Some of these chapters have already been written, though I am open to more stories for them. In the event I do not get any stories for a particular city, it will not be included. Cities in bold are definitely a go. I am accepting stories until September.

Hollywood, California
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Bristol, Connecticut
Washington, D.C.
Key West, Florida
Miami/Orlando, Florida (not sure yet which one)
Savannah, Georgia
Decatur, Illinois
Galena, Illinois
Greencastle, Indiana
Atchison, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Louisville, Kentucky
New Orleans, Louisiana
Boston, Massachusetts
Ishpeming, Michigan
Sleepy Hollow, New York
Athens, Ohio
Portland, Oregon
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Providence, Rhode Island
Charleston, South Carolina
Deadwood, South Dakota
Jonesborough, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Jefferson, Texas
Parkersburg, West Virginia
Glenrock, Wyoming

I hope these guidelines have cleared up any confusion. I also hope that they have given other writers of nonfiction books ideas on what kind of guidelines to establish when they themselves are working on similar kinds of books.

Giving historical fiction a chance

2011-05-14T16:43:00.000-07:00

This morning, after reading a review of a novel, I was so taken with the writing (and, I'll admit, the story itself sounded pretty good) that I immediately headed on over to Amazon.com and added the book to my Wish list. But after I did that, I stopped, sat still in the desk chair, and asked myself, Did I just add an historical novel to my Wish list? You see, I used to be against reading historical novels.

As a history buff, it always bothered me when people got facts about history wrong. And when you combine fiction with history...well, a whole lot of things can go wrong!

For example, characters in a story that never actually existed. With one historical novel I reviewed, I learned that one character in the story was not alive at the time of the major character's story. I also learned that one character in the TV show Little House on the Prairie, a series based on the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, never existed (he was the creation of the late actor Michael Landon).

Another thing that always bothered me about historical fiction is that authors tended to change history with their stories. This didn't happen, that happened instead!

Still, it's that whole "this happened instead" idea that can make a reader think. So many people wish certain events in history never happened. Some authors of historical fiction have decided to run with that and wrote about what could have been.

One historical novel that fits this example is Forward to Camelot by Susan Sloate and Kevin Finn. What if the Kennedy assassination never happened? The authors took this question and turned it into a novel. I liked their idea, but it doesn't change the reality we live with after we put the book down.

Still, it's enough to make us ask, "What if?" And really think.

The "what if?" question is probably what compels novelists to write their stories in the first place. What if this happened instead of that? Or, what if something people suspect about an historical figure is true? What if there was a shocking secret attached to a major historical event that people never knew about?

And what if historical figures were not who we thought they were?

I have read a few historical novels. I have enjoyed every one of them. Besides Forward to Camelot, I have also read Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne, Valeria's Cross by Kathi Macias and Susan Wales, The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon and Roots by Alex Haley. All good books, too.

So since I have enjoyed these novels, I have to wonder why I was ever against reading historical novels before. Used to be I'd see that a novel fell under "historical novel," and I'd pass on it without even reading what it's about. Nowadays, however, I'm willing to take a look.

Because it's not so much the history that these books are about, but the story.

It’s not one book at a time yet, but I’m getting there

2011-05-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

It used to be that I’d juggle multiple book projects at a time. Skeptics of this habit would tell me that doing so meant I wouldn’t be able to get good quality work done on each book, but I’d shrug that off and keep at it. As a Gemini, I’m used to variety. In fact, I crave it. But then things started to get busy, and my writing time happened less and less. That’s when I knew I’d have to start focusing on just one book at a time, since I had so little of that time available. That little time had to go into working on the book project at hand. My problem was, figuring out how to make that happen.

The first thing I tried was managing two books at a time. I would write one and edit the other. And for a while, this worked just fine.

Then I had things going on with multiple books, since one or more of them were going through the motions with publishing companies. I tried to space these out , but it just didn’t happen that way. A typical week had me working on three different manuscripts at a time. If I wasn’t writing one, I was editing two. Or I'd stop writing altogether to focus on requested edits and revisions. (Not happy with that!)

And while I thrive on having a full plate and a variety of projects on the table, I started to feel like each book was just not getting enough of my time, nor were they getting my best efforts. They just weren't getting the attention they deserved. And my work on them could suffer for that, because it's easy to make mistakes or get things wrong if I'm juggling too many books.

So I felt it was time to just say “enough.” Put the brakes on all of these book projects and focus on ONE.

Still, I’m not there yet. As it is, I’m back to work on the haunted cities book, but also editing another manuscript.

So I decided that maybe it would be a good idea to put all of my proverbial ducks in a row. Take ALL current and pending book projects and put them into a list of books I’ll work on at a time. The new version of November’s Child is at the top of this list. This is the manuscript I’m editing. And that gets done on the weekends. During the week, I'm at it with the haunted cities book, which is second on my list. Then when that's done, I'll tackle the Revisions book – the third book on my list which isn’t even done yet. (I started working on the haunted cities book again – it had previously been “done” until I decided it won’t be a series so I’m adding what would have been in future books. And I'm working on it NOW instead of later because there is quite a bit of work involved with the extra material, and it's really important for this book to come out THIS year, so this way, by working on it now alongside the editing business, I can be close to finished with it by the time it comes up on the list.)

After I was done creating this list, I had 24 books. Then I remembered OTHER manuscripts sitting on my hard drive. They are either finished drafts. WIPs or book ideas which, upon review, I decided were doable. That list went to a total of 31 books.

I know, that’s a lot of books. But it just goes to prove why it’s so important for me to create a method for this madness. After I am done with a manuscript, who’s to say what will happen after a publisher takes it? If it will be published in the order I have created with my list, if it will require more edits/revision before publication, or if it will even be published at all. At least I have everything in order now. That’s just one step closer to avoiding distractions or confusion over what gets worked on next.

Patience, please

2011-04-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

A lot of nonwriters think they know what’s involved when it comes to being an author. They think the author writes the book, gets a fat check from a publisher, and the book gets published in the blink of an eye. In truth, a lot of us authors can only dream of such a scenario. Sadly, this is only a fantasy, and it would help if a lot of people understood there is very little control an author has when it comes to when a book will be published.

In fact, unless the author is self-publishing their book, they hardly have any control over when the book will be released.

That said, I can only ask certain people involved in two of my ongoing book projects to please, pretty please, be a little more patient with me as I try to wade through the murky waters of trying to get these books published.

On one book in particular, Spook City, it will no longer be published with the publisher I mentioned. I know, the book was supposed to come out last October, but I found out at the last minute that setting up editing sessions for this book was my job. I didn’t even know about the editing sessions, really. I’ve worked with other publishers and none of them edit manuscripts this way. So it was not something I was familiar with as far as arranging. This added extra time until the book could see print. But it ended up being a waste of time, as in the end the contract is being cancelled. I have yet to receive a letter from the publisher confirming this, and that’s more waiting before I can do anything else with the manuscript. Meanwhile, I am fixing up the manuscript and adding new material to it since the book will be something different than what was envisioned by the publisher. I ask everyone involved in this book to please bear with me as I go through this process. I know, you have all been extremely patient enough as it is. We all thought it was going to come out last October. I am hoping against hope it will be out this October for sure.

The book IS important to me. I worked too hard on it to let something like this collect dust on my hard drive. And part of the reason why I stuck to my guns about certain issues with the manuscript is for your benefit, as well. So please be a little more patient with me. We will get there at some point. I promise you this book will see print and your stories will be told.

As to the Revisions book: There was supposed to be the first one in this series out this month. Obviously, that didn’t happen. And I was told editing work can’t happen on the manuscript until June. (Sigh.)

I apologize to everyone involved with these book for these delays. Believe me, these delays are NOT my doing. I want to see these books published just as much as you do. I’m tired of being in “Book Purgatory” with these manuscripts. I am going to work things out and HOPEFULLY the books will be out sooner instead of later.

I am just as angry, frustrated and as fed up with these delays as you all are. But nothing good can happen by dwelling on negative energy. Yes, I am angry about it, but I won’t sit around being angry and constantly feeling like I am being put on the back burner here. No, I will move forward. I know I can’t move forward until I get certain documents legally releasing me from contracts – and again, this is out of my control – but I promise you all these books ARE a priority to me. They may not be the very next books to see print (and there is a very personal reason why the new version of November’s Child will be the first), but they ARE at the top of my list of books.

I only ask you all to please be a little more patient. Please, just hang in there a little longer. I know you have all been very patient enough as it is, and I am grateful to those of you who have understood that delays happen without sending me rude or angry emails. I am grateful to you all for being patient enough as it is. Just please be patient just a little more longer. Please. These books WILL be published as actual books. You can count on it.

The long journey to publication

2011-03-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing that authors know too well, it's the long, trying journey to publication. A manuscript can sit in a desk drawer or on a computer's hard drive for years before it is finally turned into a book. And while the author rejoices when this wish finally comes true, she also pauses to appreciate one thing: That she never lost faith in her book. Not once.

This is exactly how I have felt for my new book, The Yellow Rose. It is my first children's book -- though I certainly hope it won't be my last. And while this book is brand new, the manuscript is not.

As it is, I wrote the very first draft of this story when my oldest child was in kindergarten (she is now in the third grade). This story has indeed gone through several revisions and been rejected by several publishers/agents, but I never gave up on it. In fact, I was determined to get this book published someday. It didn't matter if it would take me 5 years to make that happen, or even 10 years to make that happen. I knew this was a story that should be shared with the world. I never gave up on it.

My determination has paid off: The Yellow Rose is now a book which both children and adults can enjoy. I'm so glad I hung in there for the long haul, just as I did for my love poems book, and just as I did for the haunted houses book (at least in the latter case, I wasn't alone on that journey to publication!).

If the same thing happens with my other books, then I'll hang on for that journey, as well. No matter how long it takes, I'm willing to hold on. I have faith in these books and won't give up on them.

P.S. Special BIG thanks to Denise Bartlett and Charlotte Holley of Gypsy Shadow Publishing; the talented artist Allison Warner, who illustrated The Yellow Rose; and my beta readers, Jenny Greenleaf and Nancy Lopez-Marsh. You guys are awesome!

Playing "What if?" with the newspaper

2011-02-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

The other day, I was reading an article in the newspaper about an apparent murder-suicide. What troubled me was that the writer of the article noted in his lead that the site of this tragedy was on the same street where a local teen girl was starved and murdered by torture at the hands of her mother in 2009. The mother recently was on trial (she was sentenced to death on Thursday). What I didn’t get was why the writer chose to start his article with this coincidence. Why mention the apparent murder-suicide happened on that same street? What’s the connection?

Unfortunately, there was no connection mentioned in the article, so why the writer chose to do that is a mystery to me. However, the writer in me started to wonder…”what if?”

What if it had NOT been a “murder-suicide”…but a murder? After all, police did not recover the murder weapon at the scene. (If they had, the writer should have mentioned this. I mean, where IS that murder weapon? Usually, if someone commits suicide with a gun, they find the gun used on the scene.) What if these people knew the mother and had information supporting her guilt? (There was a chance she’d get life in prison instead of the death penalty.) What if she’d managed to hire someone to murder those people so that they couldn’t say anything?

There was no connection in this newspaper article, but my imagination started to create one.

This hung with me for a while. It definitely has the stuff of a good mystery story.

And speaking of mystery, I had to laugh after I solved a Jumble puzzle in the newspaper the other day. I laughed because the words I unscrambled could easily be a secret message to warn someone of something: “Foyer,” “Album,” “Beware” and “Poison.”

Hm, another mystery story inspired by something I read in the newspaper? We’ll see.

Judging again

2011-02-20T21:04:00.001-08:00

Not too long ago, a writer I knew through Absolute Write sent me an email asking if I’d like to be a judge in a writing contest. I was thrilled she asked me and so of course I said yes, asking her which categories were open for judges. Eventually, I picked the Poetry category. I received the entries for this category last week and look forward to reading all of them next week.

This will be my third experience as a judge in a writing contest. The first one was for Skyline, and the second was a writing contest for boomer writers created by my friend and fellow writer Martha Jette. For this one, it’s a writing contest created by a writing group in Oklahoma. I don't live in Oklahoma, so I guess this is not a requirement for the judges. I am just so excited about this opportunity and very thankful to this writer for thinking of me.

Plus, I get to read more poetry! Yay!

I love to read just about anything and it’s always a new experience being a judge in a writing contest. Of course, I cannot read the entries at leisure; I must analyze them with a critical eye and base my judgment on the contest criteria. Still, it’s a treat I will be able to read material that I may not otherwise have had the chance to read – let alone the world at large. So this is one other benefit of being a judge for a writing contest.

Additionally, using the criteria of a writing contest when I judge entries benefits me as a writer. The things I am told to look for in a winning entry are the same things which I should make sure can be found in my own writing. Comparing an entry to how I write that kind of particular work helps me to understand ways in which I can improve it. I also get to see little things to watch out for, and something just may make me see that kind of writing (in this case, poetry) in a whole new way.

I look forward to this experience and hope that there will be many more opportunities to be a judge for other writing contests later on down the road.

Wait! That's not what I meant!

2011-02-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

This morning, I was surprised to learn that there is a woman in Spain who claims she is the legal owner of the sun, and that she is going to tax everyone who uses the sun in any way. (Yeah, good luck with that.) What’s interesting is that I came across a related news story in which former Vice President Al Gore sued this woman for global warming. When he was confronted by members of the media who remembered how Gore said in the past that the sun doesn’t cause global warming, people do, Gore apparently recanted and said, oh, it’s the sun after all.

This reminded me of a recent story I came across, in which author Amy Chua, who wrote Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, met so much controversy and outrage over some of the things she wrote about in her book. Her book claims Chinese parents are superior because they don’t allow their kids to have sleepovers or play video games (among other Western sins). After she met an angry throng of readers who don’t agree with her, she pulled the old switcheroo and said something like, “Oh, I was only poking fun at myself.”

OK, got it.

I know we can’t believe everything we read, but it seems wrong that an author would not defend what they have written. They went to all of that trouble, they put in all of that effort, and they're not going to stand by what they wrote? It's a shame, really.

Of course, we cannot say something is indeed “the whole truth and nothing but the truth” because we are not privy to what other people are thinking or feeling (or what their intentions are when they are doing something), but it should still be as accurate as we authors can portray it to be. And we should stand by what we wrote, too – no matter what kind of reaction our books would cause.

The wrong way to find an agent

2011-02-02T21:27:00.001-08:00

While browsing through job ads on a popular ad site (which I won’t name here but you can guess what it is by this clue: It’s one word that starts with a “C”), I came across an ad from someone who was searching for a literary agent. This being the first time I have ever seen someone post an ad for a lit agent on this site, I was intrigued. I wanted to know what the ad said. So I clicked on it and started reading.

We all know that this kind of thing is really a shot in the dark. Literary agents just don’t have the time to hunt for writers/authors posting ads for them on non-agent-related sites. Sure, they may check out QueryTracker or AgentQuery, but they really don’t have the time to seek out more clients. They are busy enough with the clients they already have. Also, they’re attending meetings, negotiating deals and reading, reading, reading.

Also, an agent usually does not seek clients; the writers contact them. They use a query letter or proposal to make contact with literary agents. Another way a writer gets in touch with agents is by meeting them at conventions, workshops and retreats. They don’t contact you; you contact them. Very rarely it happens that an agent will hear good things about an aspiring author’s work or see astronimical sales numbers on a self-published book, then go through the motions of seeking out that author. However, this is not common. It’s better to go with a query letter.

All that said, there were certain items in the ad which I must comment on here:

Experienced/reputable agent required….

Just a note that a reputable and/or experienced literary agent usually doesn’t scour popular ad sites looking for clients. It’s usually the scammers who do.

Also, "required"?

“…to take a potential best seller….”

Potential? Aw, nuts. Why not an actual best seller? Seriously, though. Who is the judge of whether or not your book is going to be a best seller? It’s not a good idea to say to an agent, “My book is going to be a best seller!” Because, really, says who?

“…self-published book…”

It’s already published? Then what do you need the agent for? If you think your self-published book is going to be picked up by an agent to land a contract with a traditional publisher willing to pay big bucks for it thanks to an ad, it’s time to come back down to earth. Yes, self-published books landing big contracts with reputable publishers has happened, but only after the book has sold hundreds or even thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of copies. And after it has gained media recognition. Everybody’s talking about it! Everybody’s reading it! That’s when the magic happens. And only then, it’s the agent who contacts the author, not the other way around.

The ad goes on to request that only “reputable” agents need apply – er, get in line – er, respond to the ad, and not self-publishing companies.

Well, good luck with that. Posting something like this on a site that is not about literary agents and, therefore, not even scanned by literary agents hungry for new clients (let alone reputable agents) only sets the author up for being contacted by the less-reputable ilk.

As a side note, I would strongly recommend the ad writer learn how to put together a query letter or proposal for their book. That is what gets an agent's attention. It is also what tells us what kind of book it is (fiction? Nonfiction?) and what it's about. These things were lacking in the ad, and if the writer is serious about signing with an agent, it's a good idea to include those things -- in a query letter.

Tolerating redundancies

2011-01-30T13:40:00.000-08:00

While working on the edits for a manuscript, I noticed that a source said “11 p.m. at night.” I brought this to the attention of my editor, who asked if this was a direct quote. It was. Her response? We couldn’t touch it. This ruffled my feathers and I started to protest. I wanted to say that you don’t need to say “at night” if you’ve already said “p.m.” Because, obviously, 11 p.m. is at night! However, my editor was firm about not correcting the quote, and I was forced to sit in my chair stewing over the whole thing.

Of course, a reader might see that and wonder why the editor didn’t correct the redundancy. As well it should be corrected! Yet, my editor was right: Because it is a direct quote, we can’t change it. Sure editors change quotes all the time, and leave things out, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. My editor is the kind to play it safe so she won’t be sorry. And the one we have to make sure we don’t rile up is the person who made that quote.

I can only hope that some readers may realize this, may even understand this. Since it is a quote, maybe it would remind some people of how they have made that very mistake a time or two. Surely, someone has been guilty of saying something like “we didn’t eat dinner until 10:00 at night” or “I’ll get the money from the ATM machine.” (A common example seen among writers? “ISBN number.”)

Those examples illustrate two forms of redundancy: Unnecessary words and acronym confusion. As you can see, you don’t need to say “at night” if you’re talking about dinner. People usually eat dinner at night (I have yet to wrap my brain around why people sometimes refer to their breakfast as “supper” – as I’ve always known “supper” to be “dinner.” However, maybe this is an etymological issue). Likewise, “ATM” is “Automated Teller Machine.” So you don’t need to say “machine.”

Redundancies are one of the easiest mistakes writers can make, whether it’s in a book or an article. They are also easy for editors to miss. Characters and sources are allowed some wiggle room with redundancies, because it’s part of human nature to use them. Redundancies tend to creep into our dialogue a time or two, and in this way, it’s a bit easier for me to have some patience with them. Especially when they are part of a quote in one of my books.

Hazards of the game

2011-01-26T12:09:00.000-08:00

This week, my publisher and I have been working on the final edits and revisions for the manuscript, Spook City. The book is scheduled for publication next month. When I first started writing about the paranormal, my mother warned me that this might invite the attention of ghosts and spirits, or it might stir up activity in my home. I always shrugged that off, but my mother was right: I ended up seeing quite a lot of ghosts (and not just in my home), picking up the sensation of "others" being in the room with me, have smelled perfume or cologne which I didn't recognize, and even had other things happen like my bedcovers moving up and down on the bed (with me under them!), doors closing on their own and shadowy figures on the walls or moving through a room. These kinds of things are things I grew used to seeing and experiencing, but one particular thing happened today that gave me some serious goosebumps!

There is a popular haunted doll in Key West, Florida named "Robert." Stories of Robert the Doll can be found in books and on the Internet. Because Key West is in my book, I thought it appropriate to include a short summary about the doll. My publisher wanted some extra information on something I wrote, so I hit Google and started searching. Since the information she wanted had to do with videos shot around the doll, I started watching a bunch of videos of the doll. (One particularly creepy video can be found here. After someone removes the doll's hat, you can see a frown on his face towards the end of that video.)

Well, I got caught up watching one video after another, reporting back on what I found. After one video in particular, I was about to look for another video to watch when I felt a pounding on the wall behind me. And even though I am profoundly deaf, I even faintly heard a BOOM-BOOM-BOOM accompany the pounding!

I jumped out of my chair and ran to the front door to see if there was someone pounding on it. I looked out the window and there was no one there! I unlocked the door, opened it, looked around on the porch and went outside. I looked all around. Nothing. No one. I went back into the house and looked out all the other windows, including out the backdoor. Nobody and nothing.

I had even checked on my dog. He wasn't barking, but he did have his ears up and was attentively looking around the room.

I got really spooked. WHAT had happened?? Where had that come from?

I got goosebumps and told my publisher that maybe that was enough video-watching for one day.

And even as I typed up this blog post, I felt a stomping on the floor right behind my desk chair, like a child was angrily stomping his foot on the floor. I know this feeling well because my preschooler often angrily stomps his foot on the floor. However, he was in school at that time, and there was no one there behind me.

Perhaps Robert didn't want all this attention? Perhaps the video clips of Robert the Doll are haunted, too? Perhaps Robert didn't want me to watch those videos?

Whatever it was, it was enough to creep me out. I suppose that's what I get from writing about the paranormal.

I made the "Top 10" list again!

2011-01-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

When Carolyn Howard-Johnson voted for my book, 365 Tips For Writers, as a “Top Ten Read of 2005” at MyShelf.com, I was thrilled. It was such an honor to be included on a “Top Ten” list! I’d never thought any of my books would be included on such a list – or that it could happen to me twice. Turns out, I was wrong.

It has happened twice. Once again, one of my books made it to Carolyn’s “Top Ten” list, this time for her 2010 list! And, this time, for my poetry book!

My collection of love poems, Love is Like a Rainbow: Poems of Love and Devotion, has been included on Carolyn’s “Top Ten Reads of 2010.” Hooray! I am very excited and just so overjoyed that another one of my books has made that list. What an honor!

Thank you, Carolyn, for voting for my book and for all of your support and encouragement of my writing endeavors. It has been a pleasure to know you for so many years, and here’s to many more!

Books published in 2010

2010-12-31T15:07:00.000-08:00

Because I have had more than one book come out this year, and more scheduled for publication next year, as well as the following years, I have realized that maybe I should get into the habit of making my last blog post of the year be about the books I have had published in the year which is about to end. As you can see, it's more than one poetry book for me this year, and something on my favorite subject: the paranormal. Hooray!

Thank you to everyone involved in making the writing, editing and publication of these books possible.

Love is Like a Rainbow: Poems of Love and Devotion
Published by Gypsy Shadow Publishing
Available as a print and ebook

Love is...
...a reminder there is still hope in this world.
...a gentle whisper to guide you and give you strength in hard times.
...a neverending bond that transcends death.
...a promise of forever when two people become one.
...a brand new day after life's most turbulent storm.
Love, romance and eternal devotion come to life and restrengthen a bond through the power of verse. With words written from the heart and speaking to the soul, Love is Like a Rainbow contains love poems to remind readers to " let love come in."

Songs of the Dead
Published by Gypsy Shadow Publishing
Available only as an ebook

Enter a world of death, madness, darkness, horror and despair. Where pain and hopelessness linger at every turn, nothing is ever what it seems, and your worst nightmares lurk within the shadows.

TOTALLY SCARED: The Complete Book on Haunted Houses
Co-authored with Martha Jette
Published by Saga Books
Available only as a print

Totally Scared: The Complete Book On Haunted Houses offers everything you ever wanted to know about haunted houses directly from the folks who live in them, why homes may be haunted, where to get help, what ghost hunters do, famous and not-so-famous haunted houses around the world, haunted house movies and how they related to real hauntings, ghost hunting equipment, a compendium of ghost hunters worldwide and much more. This book is a must-have for amateur and professional ghost hunters alike."

Who you gonna thank?

2010-12-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

In an online writer’s group I’m a member of, one member requested help in putting together the Acknowledgments for his book. He wasn’t sure of who he should thank for making his book what it was and how to thank them. The issue of leaving people out was discussed when members responded to this post. The question made me think of my own struggles in putting together Acknowledgments for my books.

On one hand, who to thank is a no-brainer. Anyone who helped with research, anyone who helped write/edit the book, anyone who actually supported the author’s efforts to write the book and get it published, the publisher and the author’s family members are top of the list on who to thank. And these are the people I have included when I put together my own Acknowledgments for the haunted houses book. (There is a general Acknowledgments in the back of the book, plus my co-author, Martha Jette, and I each wrote our own personalized Acknowledgments.) It's a good idea to keep a list of people to thank as you work on your book. One would think that, with an Acknowledgments in a book that just came out, that should be the end of thanking people. However, I feel otherwise, especially now as I hold this published book in my own hands. What a long, tenuous and amazing journey it has been to get this book published! It had all started out as a series of articles for the Shadowlands newsletter. Now they were part of a new published book.

I am overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that this book is finally published. That said, I am still thanking the people involved in making that happen. I thanked them in emails shortly after the book went to the printer, but I feel compelled to thank them again here:

Thank you, DAVE JULIANO, for publishing my articles in the Shadowlands newsletter, and giving me permission to use them in the book. (Note: The articles in the book have since been revised and edited.) Thank you for your support of my research on haunted houses and insights on the paranormal.

Thank you, MARTHA JETTE, for taking on such a mammoth project and working with me tirelessly and consistently through the years in turning this book into the magnum opus it has turned out to be. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, go over everything with me, share your opinions and ideas and work with me when our ideas were not on the same page. Thank you for standing by with the emails and putting in an enormous amount of legwork and promotional efforts for this book. Many times I have marveled over how one writer in Canada can team up with one writer in the U.S. and bring them together in this joint effort of creating a book that the whole world can enjoy. Your access to resources in Canada and mine to resources in the U.S., our communication shifts with the several companies we have been in contact with concerning this book on your shore and mine, and postal/economic differences have all been interesting experiences for me. I hope it has been the same for you.

Thank you, RUTH M. THOMPSON, of Saga Books, for taking on this manuscript and going above and beyond to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. What a trying time to work with such a huge manuscript! Thank you for keeping your sights on the big picture and seeing this manuscript through to publication. Thank you for publishing our book.

And thank you to everyone who has bought copies of this book so far. I hope you enjoy them!

Busy with revisions

2010-12-20T08:25:00.000-08:00

I have been busy working on the revisions of Book 2 in my series. It seems like this is the only kind of "book work" I have going on these days -- and that's actually a good thing. Being focused on just ONE book, even during the revision stage, has helped me to step back and take a closer look at the story as a whole.

Writing the first draft of this story, my goal was to get the story out of my head and onto paper. As I revise it, I'm looking closer at the dialogue, scene structure, and characterization. I'm reminded of things I must have in the final draft that weren't in the first draft, such as weather, what people are wearing, what things look like, how things are done, etc. But the big thing I have noticed about this story is the issue: Bullying. Two characters deal with school bullies, and one aspect of the first draft of the story turned out to be something I could use in a positive way to resolve the bullying problem. I have been doing research on that and exploring different scenarios in the story to figure out which one would work best as a resolution to that conflict.

Another thing I've noticed is family ties. In the first book, readers are introduced to the family members of my main characters. Because my main characters are children, their parents and siblings play a big role in their lives. I know they say that when you write stories for kids, grown-ups should not be in the story so much and, when they are, they act different than their expected roles. And the bulk of this story is the kids doing things without grown-ups swarming all over them. However, I believe that, as children, parents and siblings are a big part of their lives, so I have to remember to include things such as a brother making some comment or a sister heading out the door for piano lessons. All the same, family ties can be helpful to main characters, especially when it comes to those main characters dealing with major issues. A big brother can give advice or help out, after all. This is another important factor I have had to work on during the revision stage.

When writing the first draft, the story comes out in a rush. How I began each scene was not an issue; I just had to start the scene and get things moving. But during revision, I can step away from the pages and take the time to analyze how I began the scene. Is it the right scene opening? Does it get reader attention? Does it flow well from where the last scene left off? Writing the first draft happened in a rush of creativity; the revising of the first draft happens with a pause of reflection.

Finally, one other thing about the revising of this draft is that there may be a new chapter or two. The first chapter of the first draft was removed, but there may be a new chapter added during revision, because as I explore the issue further, I'm beginning to see what I can add to the story to make it even better and part of the puzzle pieces needed to resolve that issue.

This manuscript is not something I can take months or even years to revise. It actually needs to get wrapped up and sent in to my publisher ASAP. But I'm not going to rush through the revisions, as much as I might feel the need to. If I tried to hurry or force the revisions, it will make all my hard work for nothing. But if I take the time needed to work on these revisions, and just try to turn it into the best story I can in a reasonably short period of time, then at least I will be confident that the story is as close to perfection as I can make it. Of course, it will go through the editing rounds, and maybe something else will come up during that process, but I do want to try to use as much time as I can to make this story the best that I can. Rushing through the revisions won't allow for that to happen. At least it is the only book I have to focus on right now.

Writing the Way I Don't Talk

2010-12-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

As a writer, you must do one thing: Write for your audience. Before beginning a nonfiction book or a novel, the writer must ask themself: Who is my audience? Specifically, who is your book written for? What kind of readers will it appeal to? If you can’t narrow your audience down to a specific kind of group, try to think of a specific kind of reader. One way to do this is to figure out the age group your ideal reader would be in. If they are an older crowd, then it’s perfectly fine to write at a college reading level. But if your ideal reader is much younger, that’s where things can take a turn. A young reader won’t understand technical jargon or big words. If you want to appeal to young readers, then write in “their” language. Use words they’d understand. Write in a character voice that they can relate to.

I was reminded of this necessity as I worked on typing up the first draft of the second book in my middle grade series. These books are written for kids age 8-12, so it's important that I write in a way that my readers will appreciate. One way to do this is to make sure my main characters, who are 10 years old, speak in a way expected of a child at that age. Of course, two of these characters, who are gifted, are allowed to use the occasional big word or two, or show off their smarts, because they are intelligent. But, for the most part, I have to make sure my young characters talk and act the way someone their age would talk and act.

In order to decode this mysterious language, I did what many savvy authors of kid lit books do: Try to remember what I was like at that age, and what my friends were like, too. Unfortunately, at that age, I was not allowed to hang out with friends that much. We were pretty much kept at home a lot. So I’d have to try to remember how I spoke, thought and acted when I was 10 years old.

Unfortunately, my memory is not that sharp, and, doubly unfortunately, I don’t have any diaries or journals I may have kept from back then to go over. (My daughter keeps a journal, so of course I’m making sure we save ALL of her journals!) Also, a lot of my memories from my childhood involve stays at various hospitals for various kinds of reconstructive surgeries (on account of that accident I was in as an infant, which resulted in my third degree burns). And I can’t remember the words in my vocab back then, or how I thought or acted. So, trying this method in order to write the way a child that age would speak is not all that useful.

Another method is to read several books which include characters that age. My daughter is a HUGE fan of Junie B. Jones, and I have often gotten a good chuckle out of reading how Miss Junie B. spoke or her many antics. However, my characters are a little bit older than Junie B., so I’ve had to check out other novels with characters closer to that age. The character in the Martha Speaks books is 10 years old. The main character in Ben 10, another favorite of my daughter's, is 10 years old. And I've just learned about a book called The Twelve Quests, which has 10-year-old twins as the heroes of the story. I will definitely keep an eye out for other books with 10-year-old characters.

Another method for ensuring your dialogue is age-appropriate is to ask someone in that age group to read the story. My daughter is 9, which is close enough, I think, so I have occasionally ran things by her to gauge her understanding and interest. I would also have to check with some other parents -- find any with 10-year-old kids who wouldn't mind reading over excerpts to give feedback.

After I did some checking on what books I could find, I got started checking my characters’ dialogue to make sure it resembled the way a 10-year-old would speak. The kinds of words they’d use, slang, their speaking patterns and habits. Of course, this differed dramatically with what I am used to. Most stories I’ve written had adult main characters, so I’m used to writing dialogue and actions the way an adult would speak and act. This shift was not an easy change for me. In fact, I kept fighting the temptation to go back and correct a line of dialogue or two, just so it would look more “grown up” and correct. I don't talk like that! I have thought many times. What if people think I'm an idiot because I'm writing this way? But in this case, however, with fiction, I am NOT writing the way that I talk. I am writing the way my characters talk. In fiction, it's so important that dialogue reflects the intelligence, background and personality of a character. And this is why I must make sure the dialogue in these stories, written for kids, reflects that. At least I can take comfort in the fact that there is the occasional appearance of a grown-up in the story, so I can use "grown-up" language with that kind of dialogue.

These books are NOT written for grown ups. They are written for kids. I have to constantly remind myself of this as I plod through the stories. On one hand, it’s fun to “cut loose” and “write like a kid” again, because in some small way, I get to relive being a kid, if only through the lives of my young characters. I didn’t exactly have a happy childhood, so this is especially appealing to me, because I get to recreate a childhood for myself that is fun, exciting, adventurous and mysterious. (After all, the stories ARE mysteries!)

So, in a way, writing for my audience – kids – has its perks. That’s the positive aspect which I will focus on. Sure, they may not speak correctly, and they may even repeat themselves from time to time, but these stories are written in a kid’s world. These books are a kid’s life. For the time being, until I finish this series, that is the kind of “life” I will indulge in as a writer. That is how I will write as a writer, even if it isn’t the way that I talk. I don’t talk the way I write, but I do write the way my audience talks. And, ultimately, for a book, that is what really matters.

They grow so fast

2010-12-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

As a writing parent, I’m used to a child tugging on my sleeve or pulling me away from something that I’m working on. This week, however, it wasn’t a real child pulling me away from my usual writing-related tasks, but a virtual one: one of my books going through the rigors of getting published.

One would think that after a book has been accepted by a publisher, after going through extensive edits and revisions, that all would be well and it was only a matter of time before the manuscript is turned into an actual book. Not so with the haunted houses book!

The first hurdle was making corrections to the galley which my co-author and I received. As I read it over, I noticed several mistakes, as well as some things I needed to clear with certain people in order to avoid legal problems. After I finished THAT and resubmitted the proofs to the publisher, I thought we were all done.

Nope, not by a long shot!

The publisher was unable to electronically send the revised galley to both my co-author and I, mainly because it’s a VERY. BIG. FILE. (This is a VERY big book, which is why I’m grateful for a co-author. I could not have possibly done all that work by myself!) So she asked if I was okay with her sending it on to the printer sight unseen.

You can only imagine the terror and anxiety that flooded through me after she asked me that question. What! I can’t see the final galley?? I can’t look at it just one more time? Just to make sure everything is perfect? I can’t see it before it’s turned into a book for the world at large to read??

My inner perfectionist started to have an anxiety attack. I was practically pacing around the room, wringing my hands over the whole decision, struggling on what to decide. I consulted with my co-author and she said if I feel everything is in order, tell the publisher go right on ahead and send it to the printer.

The question was, DID I feel everything was in order? My thoughts were in chaos. What if there’s a missing comma somewhere? What if somebody’s name is spelled wrong and I missed it? What if the publisher forgot to remove a note I left for her on one page, about inserting a picture there instead of in the other place? What if “euphemized” was not corrected to “euthanized,” as I’d corrected in my proofs? What if everything was all scrunched up together again, and not spaced out, as I made sure of when making corrections? WHAT IF I MISSED SOMETHING???

But I had to really come to terms with this. I had to accept that this was out of my hands now. It was either now or never! Do or die!

So … after I somehow or another managed to wrap Duct tape around the mouth of my inner perfectionist … and somehow or another managed to accept that I had to let it go without just one more look at it to make sure everything was perfect … I said yes. Go ahead. Send it to the printer.

God help me! After I said “yes,” I was practically covering my head and filled with dread over what would happen next. The book would come out. Yes, I’d be happy. But not so happy if it had mistakes in it. Gulp!

But, actually, that wasn’t what happened next.

Actually, I got an email from the publisher saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, “The printer sent the file back to me. Something was wrong with it. Please resend everything and I’ll start over.”

I brightened. Really? I can go over it again? I can look at the files one more time and make sure it’s all up to snuff?

...No.

The publisher sent another email and said that she was going to use what I sent before, so don’t worry. Don’t have to do anything.

Drat. I held out new hope I could see this NEW revised galley, but, ‘twas not to be. She fixed it up, sent it on, and now the waiting begins. Or, in my case, some serious nail-biting. Gah! Once again, I could not see the final galley meant for the printer.

I really started to long for the days when everybody relied on REGULAR mail to mail everything, not email. Apparently, email is flawed, because GINORMOUS files can be rejected from an email server. I remember when, with the Tips book, the galley I corrected was a print galley. That is the only book of mine where I corrected a print galley, because all of the others have been electronic. Even edited manuscripts are sent back and forth electronically. If the publisher had sent my co-author and I the final galley through regular mail, we had a better chance of receiving it. (Though, of course, it would cost a lot of money. The manuscript is large, there are tons of photos, and she is based in Canada. My co-author is in Canada, so maybe it would not cost the publisher so much to ship it to her, but for me, it might cost her quite a pretty penny!) (And here again is another issue: Money. Sending galleys and whatnot is cheaper if you do it all by email. Which is good for me, actually, since I write so many books…)

But, que sera sera. We’ve gotten to this point, things are the way they are, and now here we were with what we had. So we had to make do with what we had in the best way possible! It was now time to let our baby go out into the world. We had all those years to work on it. Our baby has grown up and now we had to just hope that we have done as good a job as we could in raising it.

The corrected galley was sent to the printer, everything checked out okay, and now we wait. Meanwhile, the publisher put the book on her site, I posted about it on my site, my co-author posted about it on her blog and in her newsletter, and we are working on spreading the word about it through Facebook and Twitter. Now we watch. And wait. And hope.

And get to work on raising the next one.

Fair or unfair? You decide

2010-11-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

For some time, I was a member of an online group of writers who talked writing, book promotion, self-publishing and anything related to the writing world. I participated in some of the discussions, bookmarked interesting blog posts and articles, and checked out books by some of the members in the group. All that changed on the day the group’s moderator sent out a message to all group members, which prompted me to not only leave the group but also delete all of this author’s emails from my email account.

The message that caused this change of heart?

The moderator outlined what could and could not happen in the group. Fair enough, except that I was puzzled over how she said that members of the group who are authors and freelance editors could not promote their books or services in any way. I could understand not allowing posts that screamed "CHECK OUT MY NEW BOOK!!!" or "BUY MY BOOK AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW!!" Of course, these kinds of posts are just … spam. They are not relevant discussions or thought-provoking insights on anything currently being discussed or part of current events. They’re just advertisements. And that’s uncool.

A savvy author knows there are certain ways of promoting their book (as well as editors promoting their services), and that’s perfectly acceptable. Including your book info in your signature is one such method, as is mentioning how a topic is covered in a chapter of your book.

But because this moderator said an author cannot promote their book or service "in any way," meaning those little methods are not allowed, it was a big turn-off. Reluctantly, I accepted this, thinking that if someone was interested in my post enough, they could click on my profile and see my books there. But then the moderator did something that really upset me: She sent out another message to the group, promoting her books, her site and her services.

FAIL!

I was so outraged by this that I left the group and deleted all of her messages from my email account. (Don’t worry; it’s not one of you authors out there I know, am acquainted with and adore). This was hard to do, given this particular author has a lot of credibility (which she now destroyed with me), has years of experience in book promotion and has a lot of good advice out there for writers and authors. Still, I couldn’t stand this act of hypocrisy. It was just unfair of her to say to all of us authors in her group “You can’t promote your book in any way at all in my group” then turn around and promote her books. That just wasn’t right.

Some people may think an author’s character should not be a factor in whether or not we associate with them, buy their books or promote their work. However, I don’t feel comfortable in supporting and promoting a fellow author who has questionable character and treats others unfairly. As it is, if an author I ask permission to quote in my work is rude or does not respond to my requests, I’ll pass on that author and look elsewhere. The same goes for a fellow author who is not fair to their readers or supporters. Like I say, if you don’t give the love, you don’t get it back. And I think members of an online group of writers need all the love they can get.

Where to begin?

2010-11-17T22:24:00.000-08:00

A lot of times, it's easy for me to start writing something new. What I usually do is carry things around in my head for a while, let them stew and build up, until I just have to let the words come out onto paper. But sometimes, the well can run dry, and I can't think of the right words to write. This happened to me when I was faced with a deadline. I had everything I needed to write my article, but no words to get me started. I needed a lead. If I had my lead, I'd be good to go. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with one.

I gave that some time. I figured, if I didn't force it, I could come up with something to write in the lead. But then the days just kept passing by and I couldn't think of anything. Sometimes, getting started is the hardest thing to do with your writing. The beginning is so important, and I just couldn't figure out how, or where, to begin.

Usually, when I have this problem, I go over what I learned in my journalism class. Should I use the summary lead? The dramatic lead? A question? My mind would run through the options, trying to come up with something for each.

And sometimes, that works. Only this time, it didn't.

So I let it linger a bit longer. I know, I had that DEADLINE looming over me. But I know I could not rush this. I HAD to let the words come to me on their own.

And, finally, they did. It took a shower for me to get my lead. (Water is a creative's best friend.) I had it! I finally had it!

Except, I didn't write it down then and there. It's not like I could, anyway. I rushed through finishing the shower and then...it was gone. Those perfect, beautiful, Pulitzer Prize-winning words disappeared.

ARGH!

When my deadline came, I was determined to get my article written up and turned in. But still, the words eluded me. So I tried writing out various leads -- another thing I do to get the ball rolling.

That didn't work, either.

Finally, I did something I don't normally do: I logged onto Twitter. While I was supposed to be WORKING! I had everything for the article in front of me but, at the same time, had Twitter open, too. I read the tweets while at the same time, working on that lead in that "workshop in my head." (I do this with movies, too. I'll be watching a movie while also working out a story problem in my head. My family has gotten used to me jumping off of the couch and crying out "that's it!" while somebody is getting the crap beaten out of them on TV.)

I don't normally log in at Twitter while I'm writing. I used to do this -- while editing, too -- but moving my eyes away from Twitter to read a paragraph then coming back to see 85 new tweets to catch up on got to be a little too...much for me. So I stopped doing that.

Then I did it again, while struggling with this article's lead. Sometimes, I use other diversions -- like reading articles, going into "super cleaning" mode with things in the house (my microwave, in fact, was once all shiny after I was done with it because I was having trouble writing something), or bouncing a basketball around. But that evening, I used Twitter.

What's interesting is that it worked. Eventually, I had my lead and, a few moments later, while I was deep into the writing, I remembered I was logged in at Twitter. I sent out a last tweet, logged out, and got back to the article. I wrote up that whole article and turned it in. Yay!

I'll keep Twitter in mind as a diversion if I have trouble with the writing again. Maybe.

It’s a Free Country – Except in Publishing

2010-11-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

Attention aspiring writers: Gatekeepers exist for a reason. You know them: The people who wade through a bazillion submissions of books, essays, short stories, poems and articles to find that gem they’re ready to publish. They are commonly known as an “editors.” But when you are a self-publishing writer, you are (usually) your own editor. In fact, when it comes to having no gatekeeper at all, the same self-publishing writer may assume they have the right to publish any old thing they want to publish. And that’s where things can get dangerous.

A writer self-published a book through Amazon’s Kindle self-publishing program that promotes a crime: Molesting children. The person committing this horrible act against a child is known as a “pedophile.” Remember that word because it’s part of the title: The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure.

I was first alerted to this yesterday when I got an email from a cousin about it. “Boycott Amazon!” the email blared. Huh? I thought. What’s that about? I may devour news items on the Internet every day and read as many newspapers as I can get my hands on, but this was unknown to me. I did some checking around on the ‘Net. Then I realized there’s one place to go to get the information I needed: Blogs. I checked the list of “Blogs I read” on my Palms to Pines blog and, thankfully, Jenna Glatzer blogged about this. I read her post and, needless to say, the whole situation made me sick.

What’s worse is that Amazon.com was apparently not giving a crap about it.

Their reasoning is that they cannot censor what people publish through their site. Oh, it may be a free country, Amazon, but it’s not so free in book publishing!

See, this is what the gatekeepers are for: To filter out the garbage. I suspect the author may have tried (and failed) to publish his book through a traditional press, only to self-publish it after it was (rightfully) rejected. Sometimes, there’s a VERY good reason why a book is rejected for publication.

And it should have been rejected by Amazon, but it wasn’t.

Fortunately, there is strength in numbers. It would seem that enough people on the World Wide Web made such an outcry about the sale of this book, that Amazon finally came to its senses and removed it. Good riddance!

A writer who will try to enter a contest or submit a short story to an anthology will often see this warning in the submission guidelines: “We will not publish anything that promotes racism, violence, crimes against children, rape and hate crimes.” Or, something to that effect. That kind of writing promoting that kind of activity will only encourage readers of such material who do such things to think that, gee, that stuff must be a pretty good idea if there are other people promoting it!

But, no. That sort of thing is NOT a good idea. Neither is molesting children. I have no sympathy for a pedophile. They are sick and predatory. I know people who were molested as children and they still struggle with the nightmare of it all. This book was probably written with the warped and twisted POV of a pedophile, which makes it even more dangerous. Apparently, the author has no qualms about sexually abusing a child, and thinks encouraging other pedophiles to keep doing what they’re doing is something worth writing a book about.

But no book like this should ever be in print. Not ever. There shouldn’t be books promoting the “fun” of rape, explaining away the reason why more people should be allowed to commit hate crimes, or even encouraging a pedophile in their attacks against children. And, yes, that’s the kind of category this book falls into. It is just one more thing promoting something that is wrong in this world.

We may live in a free country, but it’s not so free in the publishing world. You are not free to promote your hatred, your poisons and your twisted logic over committing a crime. There are gatekeepers who will refuse to allow hateful and criminal material from seeing print. We need more of them.

UPDATE: This may be helpful to concerned parents.

The virtual editing session

2010-11-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Virtual meetings are not new to me. In the past, I've blogged about successfully attending a teleconference that was very deaf-friendly, as well as "meeting" online with editors via private chat rooms. As it is, I'll occasionally chat with my editor of Spook City (when she has that time to chat, that is). I'm not as big about chatting online as I used to be, but business is business, and when it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Because of my deafness, it's pretty much the most commonly preferred alternative to a phone conversation.

Yet recently, I was a part of an editing session that everyone, deaf and hearing, participates in for this publisher: Editing via Google Docs. I've never gone through the editing stages of a book this way, or even had the chance to actually "see" what changes are being made. Usually, manuscripts are edited sight unseen, then sent back to me via email to go over. If I have any comments or request any changes, all of that is discussed via email. It's not done as though the two (or three) of us are in one virtual "conference room."

This time, however, I was in that virtual conference room, watching as sentences were being deleted, notes were being made about something that needed to be double-checked, and portions of the manuscript were changed around. It was all right there for the viewing -- as well as for the discussion between myself and the editor. For example, the editor indicated one sentence that was not clear to her, so we had a discussion about that while the page was right in front of both of us.

It was an interesting experience. I can't say I prefer to go through the edits this way, however. True, it's convenient in that we can talk about things an editor would want me to check up on or discuss moving something elsewhere, but I prefer the same old method I've participated in before. The "virtual editing sessions" are nice, but painstakingly slow. The editor has to stop editing to check in with me on things, instead of making notes in that part of the manuscript then proceeding with the edits. Also, it's dependent on how much time I can invest in participating. With two young children, my time to participate in these sessions is scarce. I grab that time when the kids are in school (though, as it is, the youngest only goes for a half-day two times a week), but even then, that's just not enough time to get the whole manuscript edited. The editor has more time than I do, and requiring me to be "present" for the edits of the manuscript just holds things up.

I'm still grateful for this experience, and it has definitely given me a lot to think about. I just prefer the other method of going through the edits of a manuscript because it just gets done faster.

If at first you don't succeed....

2010-10-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

Some years back, I had an idea for as poetry book: A dark and horror poetry collection. When it comes to poetry books, I prefer to do "theme books." My first one was autobiographical. So next I wanted to do something dark and spooky. I eventually learned about a publishing entity called Evil-Book.com. That is where my poetry book, Topiary Dreams, was first published. Unfortunately, that company folded and my book was in limbo. I moved on to other things, but at the same time, I hoped to bring my poetry book back to life.

Then I eventually decided to try publishing the book myself. I created Greenwolf Press for just such an occasion, but because finances were so tight, I could not get everything in order for this self-publishing venture. I did find a good deal to print the books, but I didn't have enough money for a bar code or ISBN. Worse, the font I ended up using was terrible on paper. It worked on screen, but not on paper. It made the book hard to read. I did, however, continue to make this book available for sale, but I didn't go nuts in promoting it. I just didn't have much confidence it would do well.

After some time passed, I got the idea to try to self-publish the book again. I spent a lot of time exploring this option, researching self-publishing, asking questions, talking to people, etc. Eventually, I decided to go with CreateSpace. But first I had to get the book ready. In order to make it stand out as "new" and not just the same old stuff. I revised and added to the poems. I also had the manuscript professionally edited by someone who worked as a horror editor, and got a couple of blurbs. Then I set to work getting it set up on CreateSpace. The only problem is, I had trouble getting the cover right, according to their specifications. Sigh!

Then an idea struck. Why not give this manuscript one last fighting chance? I scoured the Internet hoping to find someone who would publish it, but no luck. I did consider approaching Gypsy Shadow Publishing (my publisher for Love is Like a Rainbow and the forthcoming children's book The Yellow Rose), but I wasn't sure if it was "right" for them. I didn't have a handle, exactly, on what kind of books they want to publish. And I also felt maybe this kind of writing was too dark for them. Still, I decided, nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I gave a shot and asked if they might be interested in looking at the manuscript. They were, and after I submitted it, it was accepted. Hooray!

And, as if adding new poems wasn't enough to resurrect Topiary Dreams, it was also given a new title: Songs of the Dead.

Because the poems in this book are dark and spooky, they had the idea to get the Ebook version released in time for Halloween. And that's exactly what has happened.

Songs of the Dead is NOW available for purchase as an E-book at this link.

For now, it will stay an E-book, but the print version will be available in the near future. I will wait and see how the E-version will do, and time the print release for something else I have planned for one of the poems in this book.

Happy Halloween!

Cover confusion

2010-10-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

"Never judge a book by its cover." So goes a popular saying. But when it comes to a book -- specifically, YOUR book -- the cover is everything.

I recently had the chance to get a sneak peek at the cover for one of the books I have coming out this month. Because there's more than one book pending publication, I've had the chance to view quite a few book covers, and, in one case, quite a few variations of one particular book cover. (Don't get me started on how much work and strained patience there was for two certain people who worked so hard to get this particular cover satisfactory. They both deserve a good pat on the back for working so hard on it for so long!)

With one cover, however, it just didn't seem like the right one to use. I didn't think it did justice to what exactly the book was about. On a general level, I just didn't like the background, but on the specific level, I didn't think it adequately showed what the book is about. I even asked my daughter what she thought a book with that cover would be about and she said "haunted houses." There IS a haunted house in this book, and there ARE ghosts -- both of which are on the cover. But the book is not about haunted houses per se. And that's the thing that bothered me about it.

A book cover is not supposed to be about the author or what the author likes. It's supposed to be about the book; what it covers, a vague idea of what it's about, an image that captures the genre. You see a cover with two lovers passionately kissing and you know it's romance. You see a cover with a UFO on it, you know it's science fiction or about UFOs. You see a cover with a father holding his child, you know it's either a parenting book or a book about/for fathers.

Despite these opinions about book covers, I still felt bad rejecting this particular book cover. I tried to be subtle. I tried to be polite. I pointed out what I liked (the ghost) and what I didn't like (the background). I know people work really hard to create just the right kind of book cover, but an author should not have to feel guilty about saying the cover just isn't "right" for the book. After all, there are important factors to consider when it comes to a book cover, and the cover is THE first impression your book can have on a potential reader/buyer. An author should be happy with the cover that is plastered on something they worked so long and hard to perfect for publication. An author should feel proud of their book's cover. And if they're not -- if they're not happy with it, excited about it or ready to show that cover off to the world -- then the author should be given that chance to say something about it. Even reject the cover altogether.

I don't regret saying anything if a cover is not "right" but there is a twinge of guilt because when I say something, it can easily be seen as me putting down all the hard work that went into creating that cover. But it's not. I DO appreciate all that hard work. I will always be grateful for all of that hard work that goes into creating a cover for a book, even if I ask for a change or two.

Gratitude

2010-10-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

"It's October. Have you accomplished your goals for the year yet?"

This was a question posed in the recent issue of a newsletter I am subscribed to. As I reflected on the goals I have accomplished so far this year, I was taken aback just thinking about the unexpected accomplishments I have made this year. I have returned to writing for SIGNews -- and that has been going very well. I have published a new poetry book -- with another on the way this month. In fact, there are still two other books scheduled for publication this month. Maybe even three, if the illustrations for that one get done and go through the layouts, etc.

But, still. Four books this year, for sure.

I have finally sold an article to WritersWeekly, a market I wanted to break into for years. In fact, I sold two.

I sold an article to a magazine for writers -- yet another long-term goal finally accomplished.

I sold an article to both FundsForWriters and WritingKid, both published by C. Hope Clark.

I sold an article to The Dabbling Mum, yet another long-hoped-for sale.

I once again became a book reviewer for a reputable site. Alas, they are nonpaying, but their book reviews hold a lot of importance among many in the writing community, so that still makes it worthwhile. Plus, there are free books and E-books to be had from it.

And I have had short stories published in more than one anthology, too. And I got an agent.

All of this has happened in less than one year. All of it, during THIS VERY YEAR!

I am overwhelmed. When I thought on that, and added it all up, I was just so shocked and amazed.

I couldn't believe it.

Wow.

But it was not just shock I felt when realizing everything I have accomplished this year. It was also gratitude. An enormous and overwhelming sense of gratitude.

I don't know who to thank for all my luck this year. I thank God, I thank Jesus, I thank the Blessed Virgin, I thank the angels, Fate, the Universe. I thank all the editors who said "yes" to me and took a chance with me. Instead of saying "no."

I have never had a year such as this, in all of my writing career. I have never, ever, ever accomplished so much during the course of one year. It is just so mind-blowing. And such a wonderful feeling, too. WOW!

Even as I celebrate such an amazing year, knowing full well it is not over yet, I also take a few moments and express my deepest gratitude for all the wonderful things that have happened this year. So far.

Thank you. To whomever I must say thanks to. From the bottom of my heart and deep within my soul, thank you.

Changes with the Revisions book series

2010-10-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

Change is in the wind -- again.

As it was, I thought I needed to have all three of the Revisions books done this year. Turns out that I don't. It's a relief knowing that I don't, because my publisher wanted me to add another part to the book about agents. I had some trouble trying to get exactly what she wanted to see here, but as I worked on the books, I kept in mind how agent input would play into what the other parts of the books discussed. Finally, I had a better idea of how agent input could be helpful. Still, I went over this with my publisher and we went back and forth over it until we had a better grasp on what exactly will go into that part. I started to visualize the chapters and get ideas for chapter titles -- which was a good sign.

Another thing I needed extra time for was figuring out how I'm going to contact the agents for this book. I know some agents, but we need more than just a few. Again I discussed this with my publisher. Both of us know literary agents are insanely busy people, so I couldn't figure out a way to get their quotes for the book without interrupting their time. The discussion helped clear that up, and now the extra time I have to work on this will allow me the opportunity to conveniently work around an agent's busy schedule so they can still contribute advice for this book.

So, as I mentioned, all three books DO NOT need to be done this year. I was planning to have the second book done on September 30th, but I still needed material and I just couldn't make that self-imposed deadline. I was also planning to get the third book done by the end of the year, but that, too, has been changed.

According to these changes, I won't need to have the second book complete until some time next year. Ditto the third.

To say the least, this is a huge weight off of my shoulders. I can actually breathe easier now. I was under a lot of stress, scrambling to get the second book done, sweating over chapters of the book that still needed interviews and end-of-the-chapter features. It was really starting to get to me. But now I can breathe easier knowing it DOES NOT need to be done right now. I have some time, and I hope to use that time to get the remaining items needed.

This also changes when the books will be published. I was told the second book probably would not be out next year. Actually, more like 2012. I can only hope the third one will follow that year, but we'll see. Up until now, I thought all three books would be published every few months or so next year. I thought all three would come out in one year, but, nope. That's not happening. It kinda bugs me that one book in the series comes out once a year, but I guess that's the only way my publisher can do it. That's one of the downsides in book publishing: Some books can take a looooong time to get into print.

But I'm willing to wait. The wait will be worth it -- and so will having the extra time to make the other two books the most helpful and inspiring resources they can be.

Why, yes, I really SHOULD pay those writers!

2010-09-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

When I started working on the Revisions book, I had no idea what changes lay ahead – nor did I foresee any contributors to this book going above and beyond what I was asking for. Eventually, this played a role in me coming to a decision I only wished I decided on much earlier.

The one manuscript ended up being turned into 3 (my publisher was kept updated on the book’s progress as I worked on it and after I mentioned it was over 500 pages, she suggested we break the one into three). Additionally, I asked contributors if, in addition to being interviewed and sharing their revision advice, they wanted to contribute any short pieces for end-of-the-chapter features. There was no obligation for them to do so, of course. I just threw that out there. Nobody was under any pressure to submit anything. For the most part, I gathered those items myself – sending out requests to authors to include their book excerpts or writers of blog posts for permission to reprint their posts. I also wrote many of them myself. For one feature, I even included a writer’s comment left on my blog!

At some point, I “came to my senses” and realized that something was missing from this equation: Payment for original material. This especially became a concern for me after one contributor sent me a 19-page feature he labored over for one of the chapters. My heart sank, knowing I made it clear I wasn’t paying anybody for anything. But the fact that he did this stayed with me. It had a very profound effect. I hadn’t expected something so long and thorough, yet there it was.

So I started thinking. I thought maybe it would be a good idea to pay those writers. After all, they were taking the time to write ORIGINAL work for my book. And who was receiving the royalty checks from book sales?? ME! That’s not fair. It’s just not fair that I would profit off of their hard work like that. No, something was VERY wrong with that arrangement.

I don’t know why it took me so long to realize this. (I’ve been at this project for 2 years!!) But I’m just glad I realized this now. I think I finally woke up to this after a writer ranted at me after I told her I don’t pay for interviews. (Never have and never will.)

But before I could tell everybody, I had to figure out HOW I was going to make this work.

I didn’t see much sense in paying for things like blog posts and book excerpts. I also didn’t think I was obligated to pay any of the writers for including their before-and-after samples. That didn’t make sense to me. No, I realized, I will pay the writers who write something just for this book. This led me to my first decision:

1. I will be paying writers for ORIGINAL material written just for this book.

So what kind of “original material” qualified? It wasn’t quotes or interviews. I decided on exactly what I meant by “original material” in this second decision:

2. I will be paying writers for success stories and end-of-the chapter features.

My next task was to figure out how I was going to make this work. There are over 100 contributors to this series. I could not afford to pay all of them in one full swoop! No, that’s not going to work. I am on a fixed income. I have only so much available to spend each month, though I DO try to earn extra money with my writing. I had to figure out how to do this within my budget.

The first way to figure that out was to tally up how many items in the book qualified as paid work. So I went through the three manuscripts and counted them all up.

Next, I started with a figure and added that up to see if each payout was affordable. Fortunately, it was – on ONE CONDITION: IF I pay those writers after the book is published. To pay all of them right now is just not possible for me.

So I arrived at the third decision:

3. I will be paying writers when the book they appear in is published.

So it looks like I am paying writers for contributions after all. Hooray! I feel better, I have a clear conscience, I won’t look like someone taking advantage of hard-working writers, the book will have straight-on solid and helpful material useful from experts in the know, and everybody will be happy – including the writers.

I e-mailed the writers who qualified for payment and I let them know that I was NOW paying for contributions to this series. So far, none have complained about the amount (which is two figures). They were mostly grateful and appreciative that I was putting in an effort to pay them, and that they were receiving some kind of financial compensation for their hard work after all.

On the other hand, I considered the possibility that certain writers would not want payment from me. That COULD happen -- and, actually, it DID happen. I was prepared for this. I said that if the writer insisted on not receiving payment from me, then at least allow me the chance to take what I would pay them and donate it to their favorite charity. If they didn't have a favorite charity, or couldn't think of one, I said I would make the donation in their name to LiveStrong

This experience made me marvel over why on earth I didn’t think of this sooner. WHY hadn’t this struck me? After all, I agreed to pay contributors to the MIDNIGHT OIL book a portion of royalties. (Sadly, sales of that book have been insanely low. One writer said not to send him anything until the dollar amount he was entitled to reached $5, and it isn’t even yet at that amount even after all these years!) I really don’t know why I didn’t think about this sooner. I guess I needed that writer reading me the riot act to get me to take another look at what was going on here.

In any event, I am only relieved that I have finally understood the importance of paying the writers for their contributions to my book projects. They’ve earned it – and they are worth it!

Editing mistakes

2010-09-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

One thing I have learned to live with as a book reviewer is that, sometimes, editing mistakes happen in books. There is nothing I can do about it. The missing period or the dialogue missing an ending quote mark are little things I have no trouble overlooking, but some mistakes just seem to stand out.

Recently, Saga Books has contracted to publish the haunted houses book I have co-authored with Martha Jette. We have been performing surgery on this manuscript before it goes to print. Martha noted to me that, as she has worked on this manuscript, she has found mistakes we missed when we took it through the editing rounds with the last publisher we had this book with.

That is disheartening, but not surprising.

When I edited the BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL manuscript, I read it several times. I read it until my eyes started to bleed. Yet even after it was published, I caught a few mistakes that slipped through. This probably would not have happened had an extra pair of eyes given it a read, so I’m grateful that, this time around, this book has been edited by more than one person. I’m especially confident about this since Martha is also a professional editor.

All the same, editing mistakes tend to slip through. The occasional mistake is forgivable. It’s the mistakes that happen over and over again, however, that drive me batty.

This is something Martha can relate to. “I review many books that are basically good reads but all the errors just drive me crazy.”

Errors that keep showing up in a manuscript are the ones that I have gripes about. For example, one book I am currently reviewing has characters noting whether it's a.m. or p.m. when they give the time. This is a bad idea because, first of all, people don’t say “it’s 5 p.m. “ if you ask them the time. They just say “it’s 5” or “it’s 5:00.” The first time this happened, I rolled my eyes. The bazillionth time it happened, I was ready to tear my hair out. It was especially annoying when a character said that it was “10:30 a.m.” and, in the same paragraph, noted that a particular character was still in school.

Well…duh. Of course it’s “a.m.” if someone is still in school. Teenagers don’t normally attend school in the evening.

What’s worse is that this book is NOT an ARC. It is not a manuscript. It is a final release.

I mentioned this to an editor I know and it seemed to touch on a nerve. She complained about “lazy editing” in so many books.

This also reminded me of something I have heard a lot. A lot of publishers and editors won’t exactly take it upon themselves to “edit” an entire manuscript they are going to publish. These days, that responsibility rests on the author. An author must have their manuscript as print-ready as possible in order to pass the scrutinizing eyes of an agent or acquisitions editor. It must be as complete, revised and edited as it can be. One editor at a publishing house I know mentioned to me that she can tell when a manuscript is a first draft. Sadly, it’s manuscripts like these she normally rejects.

In my Revisions book series, I encourage writers to get their manuscripts edited by a professional editor. Or at least have a fellow writer look it over. Yes, editors are expensive, but trust me, they are so worth every penny they charge. Of all the editors I have worked with, I thank my lucky stars for all the mistakes they have caught in my manuscripts. As it is, one editor pointed out a glaring POV mistake I made on the very first page of a novel. After I saw that, I slapped my forehead and wondered how on earth I missed that. (A short story I recently had published also had a POV mistake which I didn't catch until after it was published. Whoops.)

This is how those mistakes happen. Sometimes, we miss things. But if we have a professional editor help us with our manuscripts, chances are good the amount of things we miss during our own edits will be smaller.

This is something that Martha likewise encourages. “I keep reminding authors that they MUST review their work many times and/or get a professional editor to do it for them because most publishers today simply do not do it.”

At least this book is in the hands of two different professional editors. You can't accuse us of "lazy editing" here! Still, mistakes tend to slip through. And that might happen even still, with this book. That's just the way it is. The most we can do is give our manuscripts the best editing work we can.

Q & A with Shanta Everington

2010-09-11T00:00:00.001-07:00

Shanta Everington is a writing parent who lives in the UK. Her new book, The Terrible Twos: A Parents Guide, was just released on the first of September. She took the time to answer some questions for this blog.

1. When did you become a parent?

My son was born in June 2006. I was totally unprepared for the reality of parenting, despite working with children and families beforehand!

2. How have your experiences as a parent influenced your writing?

After becoming a parent, I also became fascinated with reading parenting books. In the first year, I spent a lot of time thinking deeply about the relative merits of different types of parenting approaches and I spoke to a lot of other parents. A lot of my creative energy became focused on parenting. The first few years are so intense. When my son turned three, I felt that I wanted to use my own experiences and research to start writing parenting books of my own. :)

3. How did you manage getting commissioned to write The Terrible Twos: A Parent's Guide?

It happened in a roundabout kind of way. I sent in a proposal for something else that the publisher turned down. But they liked my writing style and sent such an encouraging 'rejection' that I thought I'd keep an eye on their website with a view to trying again. One day I noticed that they had posted a list of topics that they were seeking authors for and one of those was the 'terrible twos'. Everything just fell into place and I thought, 'That's the book I'm going to write!' So I worked up a proposal and sent it in and luckily they accepted!!

4. What can you tell me about this book?

The book covers all aspects of parenting a two-year-old, from dealing with tantrums and faddy eaters to potty training to sleep issues. Every chapter includes a real life case study. The book doesn't tell parents what they 'should' be doing. Rather it is a collection of ideas and strategies. The book will help parents to understand why their child is behaving the way they are and to explore a range of parenting approaches. I am a qualified early years teacher and a parent, so the book draws on personal experience and professional training.

5. What experiences with your own child contributed to your work on this book?

The whole book was inspired by my trials and tribulations with my son. I hadn't really worried about the terrible twos when he was a baby. But suddenly when he turned two and a half, we were called into nursery to discuss his behaviour. It was a time of huge anxiety. I felt that the fact we were being called in must mean something was very 'wrong'. But in reality it was nothing to worry about at all. Just all the normal stuff, like huge tantrums.

My son was very verbally articulate from a young age and because he could express himself, it was expected that he would have less tantrums than a child who couldn't. Of course, it is not that simple. He wasn't frustrated because he couldn't express himself. He was frustrated because a two-year-old's world isn't always in their control and this can result in overwhelming emotions. I wanted the book to help other parents understand their two-year-old's needs, emotions and behaviour during this developmental phase.

6. Did you ever "test out" anything in your manuscript with your own child before submitting it? What happened?

I didn't test anything out. I was never really comfortable with a lot of the simplistic approaches advocated by parenting gurus, like the 'naughty step,' so I did a lot of research into different approaches. By the time I actually wrote the book, we were over the 'worst' of the terrible twos with our son.

7. How has your work on this book affected you as a parent? Have you come out of this project a little wiser?

I think it made me observe my child more closely, to really pay attention to what he was experiencing rather than look for 'quick fix' solutions. I find it sad that we live in a culture where parents have lost touch with their instincts and rely on TV ' parenting experts' (who don't always have children of their own) to tell us what to do. Writing the book has made me more confident and more able to challenge received wisdom and think for myself. I hope reading it will do the same for other parents.

8. Your other books are fiction. Was it a challenge to work on a nonfiction book? How was it different?

It was refreshing change actually. I think I was ready to try something new. It was much more of a collaborative experience and I enjoyed that. Writing fiction can be very solitary and intense. It was also the first time I wrote a book knowing from the outset that I had a publisher, which was a wonderful feeling. :)

9. What other kind of writing do you do?

Any and all! :) Poetry, short stories, novels, life writing, articles, educational resources, charity publications. I just love to write! :)

I have two 'day jobs', one teaching creative writing with The Open University and one as Deputy Editor of Disability, Pregnancy and Parenthood International journal.

10. What can we expect to see from you in the near future?

I have two short stories appearing in two different anthologies shortly - 'Yasmina's Elbow' in Even More Tonto Short Stories (Tonto Books) and 'Graft' in Mosaic Open Anthology (Bridge House Publishing).

Need2Know have commissioned me to write a second book, Baby's First Year: A Parent's Guide, which will be published in 2011.

Bridge House Publishing: http://bridgehousepublishing.co.uk/

Tonto Books: http://www.tontobooks.co.uk/

Need2Know Books: http://www.need2knowbooks.co.uk/ (direct link to The Terrible Twos here)

Amazon page here

September business

2010-09-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

September is here! I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of September 1st, because it meant there was just one more month to go before Spook City comes out! I am so excited about this book and can't wait to see it finally appear in print! Hard to believe I got started on that book nearly 2 years ago. And all it took to get the idea for that book was an article I started to do research on. The article never happened, of course. The book happened, instead! (I ended up having too much material to fit into one article.) That is ONE book that I have coming out in October, but it's not the only one.

Yep, that's right. I have an additional book scheduled for publication in October: The revised version of Topiary Dreams! My original venture to try to publish Topiary Dreams myself after Evil-Book.com shut down ended up failing miserably. One reason why is because, in my naivete, I tried to do something special with the font to make the book stand out. Unfortunately, while it looked good on screen, it did not look good on paper. It ended up being too hard for many people to read. (I didn't get any print galleys to review before printing.) Another reason is because of no EAN bar code or ISBN. Fail!

So I'm taking it through CreateSpace this time. Self-publishing is just not for me at this point in time. However, to make this version even better than the last, I added new poems, had it professionally edited and I am currently seeking some blurbs from fellow horror writers.

That's one thing I had to remember to do this month. While September has gotten me all excited in getting just one month closer for the release of new books, it's also gotten me busy doing some legwork! I finally remembered to submit Topiary Dreams to a writer who agreed to provide a blurb for it (and I am hoping to find one or two other writers who will do this as well). I also had to remind my publisher about getting the cover done for Spook City. (She informed me the cover artist is working on that.)

Aside from the book business, I'll have to get ready for these releases! There's promotion to do and book reviewers to find. As it is, I have been sending out emails and press releases to book reviewers for Love is Like a Rainbow, but only one person has replied with a request to review. Thank goodness for Night Owl Reviews! I have the opportunity to have my books featured on there and review copies are uploaded into their system. So, at least there is that. I don't know if Topiary Dreams would match with what they review. It is horror, but....horror poetry. Well, we'll see!

So aside from the normal writing stuff I do each month, I'll be putting extra focus on getting ready for these book releases. The good news is that at least I am almost done prepping the second and third books for the Revisions book series, so I won't have to stress out so much there. I just need to find short fiction writers to interview and obtain quotes from on revising short fiction! The second book is heading off to my publisher this month. Yay!

Sesame Street and the very, very, very odd sentence

2010-08-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

One thing my family can agree on: You CANNOT watch TV with me. Or movies, either. I'm one of those people who takes what they see on TV and includes narrative. It's not something like Mysterious Science Theater 3000, but more like a running commentary on what I am seeing.

For example, one day as my daughter was watching an episode of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, I made the comment of how kids cannot survive in outer space without a spacesuit when Jimmy and his friends built rockets out of theme park rides and flew into outer space to save their parents.

On another occasion, when we saw a TV commercial advertising yogurt that has labels which try to teach kids the alphabet, I started ranting and raving about how the letter "K" could not possibly be for "karate teacher." According to my rant, the proper word is sensei. "Just say 'karate'!" I fumed.

My daughter learned two things that day. 1: A karate teacher is called a sensei. And 2: Never, ever try to convince Mommy that "K" is for "karate teacher." Ever.

As it is, last night, I was watching an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Gates McFadden's character, Dr. Crusher, had a mysterious patient who finally awoke from his coma. That was the good news. The bad news was that he couldn't remember his name, where he came from or anything about what happened that caused him to end up in sickbay. Of course, this lead into a commercial break, where I promptly shrugged my shoulders and said, "Maybe it's a temporary thing."

I bring all of this up because, sometimes, I look for an opportunity to teach my kids things when it comes to TV. Sure, I like to poke fun at what we see some of the time, or elaborate on just WHY a particular commercial was "so dumb." (And I'm not the only person in my extended family who does this. My father cracked jokes at movies he watched all the time, and some of my siblings would offer funny lines of dialogue for those suspenseful moments of silence in TV shows and movies. It's a family affair, I guess.)

Sometimes, I also take what I see on TV shows and commercials to teach my oldest child something about writing. The other day, for example, I was on the couch with my children, watching Sesame Street. At one point, the Muppets Elmo and Lulu asked a little boy to write out their story. The title of the story? "The Princess with the Very, Very, Very Long Hair." Ugh.

I rolled my eyes, looked at my daughter and said, "You know, you don't need to say 'very, very, very long hair.' Just say very long hair! And show people how long her hair is by saying something like 'her hair was so long, it reached down to her feet' or 'her hair grew past her feet.'"

I don't think that this left much of an impression on her. She just nodded then continued to watch the program. But, hey, at least I tried. It's Sesame Street, not Writing Lessons for Children.

Maybe I'll just stick to jokes from now on.

Hooray for getting up at 5 a.m.!

2010-08-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Because I am a writing parent, getting up early in the morning to get stuff done is a necessity. I don't get up so early just to have the coveted "me time," though I do find time to pray and read while enjoying my first cup of coffee. I also use it to get things done for my writing projects. And this morning, did I ever get things done!

In the span of just 4 hours, I managed to:

Find a beta reader for my children's book manuscript (this is the revised version and even though I felt that draft was final, I still wanted to find some readers just to be sure there are no hard words for children. One parent I asked is enlisting her THREE children to read it -- HOORAY! -- and my daughter, age 8, will read it, too).

Find a beta reader for the chapters I wrote for the Revisions book, on revising short fiction

Take care of business related to an article I sold (woot!)

Fix up and submit the two extra chapters requested by publisher for the Praying book

Reconnect with sources for the next volume to follow Spook City

I also got caught up on emails and, on the nonwriting side of things, scheduled an appointment for a tour of a preschool I am planning to enroll my youngest child in (*sobs* MY BABY!!!).

Overall, I am happy with what I have managed to accomplish this morning. The children did wake up early, as well -- my oldest, shortly after I did, and my youngest while I was working on fixing up those chapters -- but they have been playing all morning, as well as watching TV and eating breakfast, so I still managed to have a productive morning. I look forward to seeing what will come about from everything I've managed to accomplish so far. And now to use any extra free time I have available today for writing!

Short fiction week

2010-08-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

You know how it is, when you've put together the best-laid plans, yet something else happens? As a writer, this happens with me a lot. I try to plan out my week to include time spent working on my various projects going on: Books (usually more than one), book reviews, the occasional SIGNews article, freelancing, editing/revising and research. I try to plan it all out but, sometimes, life plans it out for me.

That's exactly what happened this week. I became immersed in everything related to short fiction: Writing, revising, researching and submitting short stories. Even finding markets for short stories. This ended up being provident, since this week, I was also focused on typing up the chapters I'd written for the section of my Revisions book on revising short fiction. So, in a way, I could "practice what I preached" as far as what the chapters covered. On days I didn't write, revise or submit short stories (and, actually, that was just one day out of the week, because I changed my mind about submitting a short story because I decided it needed more work), I read short stories as well as articles on the writing and revising of short stories.

Of the 6 short stories I sent out, 5 were accepted. I am still waiting to hear back on one other short story. I am ecstatic about this acceptance rate. These stories were accepted for publication in various anthologies, and while I think it is fun to do the anthology thing, I know I must challenge myself to take the next step: Getting short stories published in magazines. I have had only one short story published in one magazine and one short story published in one E-Magazine. I have received rejections from one magazine in particular I tried to break into. I need to try some others and see how that works out. Before that can happen, however, I must finish and polish the remaining short stories that I have, if not write up some other ones. That will take time.

As mentioned, I did get some acceptances this week, which I am very grateful for. I could NOT believe my luck! And I just felt so exhilarated when the editor accepting my stories commented that I am a "gifted storyteller." (Don't worry, I won't let that go to my head. It was so nice for someone to say that to me!) One of the stories accepted is one which I wrote many years ago. I gave it a complete rewrite, tailoring it specifically for a particular anthology's theme, and I am happy it will now see print. Another story is one of several I spent a whole week writing. That's right: For one week, I did nothing but write short stories. The ones which I felt were ready to submit are the ones I revised and sent off. The others...need a little more tinkering.

But that brings up an important point. We writers DO need to spend time just writing whatever strikes us. If it's a story, write it. If it's a poem, write it. It may not be perfect right now, and we may not have a market to submit it to right now, but the important thing to do is JUST WRITE IT. Get that story out of your head and onto paper. Write that article, write that poem. Chances are good a market will come along for that piece later, and all you'll have to do is pull it up, give it a good edit/revision, and send it off.

It worked for me. It can work for you, too.

Big words for small readers

2010-08-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been working on the revisions for my children's book, The Yellow Rose. I gave it a complete rewrite, though some fragmentary lines from the original are in the story. I was satisfied with the new version, yet, because I knew it was a children's book (for the age 8-12 crowd), I wanted to get feedback from a child.

My oldest child is almost 9, so I asked her to give it a read.

I was concerned she might have trouble understanding what was happening in the story but, instead, she ended up being confused over some of the words. The following is the list of words she needed a definition for:

inspect
hoe
gently
sprouting
uncoiled
silky
shore
fully-bloomed
ashore
faded
unique
admire
magnificent

I was surprised she didn't know the meaning of the word "ashore," on account of the popular children's song, "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore." But, there it was.

I wrote down these words and discussed with her an alternative word that might be easier for children to understand.

Also, another thing I was concerned about it the name "Schmidt." I thought it would be too hard for her to read, but it wasn't. (Perhaps she has known someone with this last name?) Nevertheless, I am still leaning towards changing that name to something simpler.

I'm glad I got her feedback on the story and will work on fixing the words she didn't understand. Even though I'm not a gardener, and not involved in any kind of gardening (yet!), I feel that a book about a rose should have some aspects of gardening which should be emphasized in the story. I'll just have to make sure it is done in a way that a child can understand.

A different kind of book research

2010-08-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, I got an idea for a nonfiction book. This idea actually came to me after I was going through a publisher's page and checking out a series he was doing. The books had titles that started with "Devoted to..." and the following books had been published so far: Devoted to Economizing, Devoted to Traveling, Devoted to Writing, Devoted to Cooking, Devoted to Quilting, Devoted to Fishing and Devoted to Trucking. My friend and fellow writer, Jen Nipps, even did one of those books: Devoted to Creating. When I saw all that, I thought it was a nifty idea! I liked a series with such a title theme, and I started to think, Gosh, it sure would be nice if I could do one, too. Well, Devoted to Writing was already taken, so I thought maybe I missed that boat. How wrong I turned out to be.

After some time passed, I was struck with an idea for a Devoted book to do. It seemed like the perfect kind of book to write! I went through all the other books first, however, because I was worried that this particular book might not have an appropriate theme. But after reading the book excerpts and seeing that, yes, this theme COULD work, I decided to proceed. But, even still, I thought I would just wait to write this book. Give that idea some time to grow. Research it for a year or two. (I've got so many other projects on my plate, as it is! I'm burying myself in books!)

I started to flesh out my idea some more. Figure out what the chapters would cover. With that done, I set about doing research. I had to see if such a book has already been done. Unfortunately, I am not able to buy every single book out there on this topic, though I have bought one so far. In the old days, I used to do that. Buy tons of books on topics I was writing about (as I did with Druidism when I wrote November's Child). But the cost of books has gone up since then and I'm no longer as financially capable of such an expense as before. These days, I do what I can -- relying on the library, bookstore, Google Book Search and Amazon's "Look Inside" feature (these last two options are limited but at least they give me a good enough idea of what those books are about and what they cover. Thank goodness they include the entire Table of Contents!) I've been going through various books on this topic and I still managed to figure out how to make my book different. A plus is that many of the Devoted books had personal stories related to the topic, and I knew I could certainly write my own for this topic.

At that point, I felt confident enough in my abilities to write this book. I still wanted to wait to tackle this project, but before I knew it, I started writing it! Something just told me that NOW is the time for this book. So I sent an email before I proceeded further. Just to see if the publisher was open to accepting proposals for these books. He replied that he certainly was, and reminded me of what I needed to include.

Part of my writing routine has involved researching this book, but this week, that research has taken on another turn. My research has been limited to getting the proposal ready to go and spiffying up my sample chapter. I'm just about done and look forward to sending it all off.

From there, who knows what will happen? If he rejects it, I'll have to give it a new title and send it to a different publisher. But if he accepts my proposal, then I look forward to continuing with this project and eventually seeing it in print. I'll manage to juggle it along with my other projects somehow.

And that is how you do THAT!

2010-07-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

This morning, I had a phone interview scheduled with a scriptwriter, for the Revisions book. This particular person is one VERY busy person, involved in some major Hollywood projects and a scriptwriting mentoring service. I've tried to get this interview for months and then he finally said " a phone interview will work best." Given my last success in handling a phone interview, I wasn't worried there'd be problems in using relay to do the interview with. What I was worried about is making sure my toddler was supervised.

My son is nearly 3 years old, and tends to get into EVERYTHING. Because my husband works the night shift, he sleeps in late (though last night, he stayed on the computer until 4:00 in the morning, a half hour before I got out of bed, so that probably adds to why he sleeps in so late). And my daughter is not exactly a morning person, either. So I tried to schedule the interview as late as I could, but it seemed like the best time available was 9ish in the mornings. So I scheduled a 9:30 interview and practically begged my daughter to watch her brother so that I could do this interview. (After all, I went all those months trying to get the interview -- couldn't lose out on this chance now!) I agreed to pay her $5 for the job.

Then today came, and I could NOT get my daughter out of bed. Even though she'd gone to bed last night earlier than usual, she just wasn't getting up this morning. The interview had been moved to 9, instead of 9:30, so I kept trying to get her up. But she wouldn't get up. So I tried rescheduling the interview, but, no luck. My source had to leave town this weekend. Sigh! So I just bit my lip and decided to go through with it, sans babysitter. I will survive! I'm used to jumping out of my chair a lot, anyway. (See, that's how we writers get our exercise. Heh.)

The phone interview started and, when my source was talking and talking, I used those moments to jump up and check on the baby. Miraculously, he stayed out of trouble, opting to play with his sister's rubber ball and net. I encouraged him to keep playing in between reading and typing for the interview. It was hard to concentrate, though, since I was so distracted, and I had to keep rereading things and second-guessing my questions before asking them, to see if they were good questions and something that would be helpful to the reader. Something a reader might ask. I also kept forgetting a couple of questions and had to stop reading answers to try to remember them. (Thankfully, I did.)

I did have to jump out of my chair a couple of times when the baby was not in sight, only to find him playing in his room. At least he did indeed stay out of trouble -- for once!

In the end, we all managed okay. And, actually, the baby ended up falling asleep on the little couch we have set up in front of the TV, drifting off while he'd been watching Little Bear. (Thank goodness for Little Bear!)

After the 45-minute interview, I did a little happy dance and said a quiet prayer of thanks that all went well. Too bad my daughter missed out on a chance to earn a little extra money, but I'm glad for this experience. Because now I know that I no longer need to rely on someone to keep an eye on the baby for me during a phone interview. Now I know that I'll be able to manage that kind of situation okay, with or without a babysitter!

Pushing aside doubts and stepping out of our comfort zone

2010-07-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I got busy in the kitchen baking muffins for breakfast. As I read the directions, I puzzled over one line: "Gently press streusel on top of the batter." Why should I do that? I thought. Wasn't it enough for the streusel to even be on the batter? Still, I shrugged and did as instructed. Only then did I see the wisdom of following through with such a thing: It helped "set" the streusel into the batter better, instead of coming off down the sides as the muffin tops rose in the oven.

Watching this little mystery get solved, it made me think of how too often a writer will be in the very same situation. This usually happens when an editor suggests the writer change or remove something from their work. The writer would respond with the exact same thought I had while preparing those muffins: Why should I do that? Additional reactions to just such a request are:

"But it's supposed to happen that way."

"But that's what he said."

"I don't want to take that out, I like it."

"The writing is too good to throw away."

But, you know what? You're not really throwing away anything. You are only changing things around a bit. Nobody said you have to delete everything you remove from your writing. Save it for another time.

The important thing is to just try it and see. Think about why your editor suggested you cut something from your writing or how it would make your piece different. Try to put yourself into the editor's shoes. Instead of rejecting the suggestion outright, just try it first and see what happens. Play around with the suggestion or even improve on it.

As a writer, we sometimes need to step out of our comfort zone and try something different to improve our work. We may not understand why we should try this at first, or even how it could make our piece better, but just taking that leap and giving it a shot is the only thing that matters. Just try that suggestion and see where it leads you. It just might inspire new ideas.

Before I end this post, let me quote book coach Judy Cullins, whose article on overcoming doubts I read today and I thought this quote applied to this advice well: "Ask if your doubts are really true."

Dear Distracted Author: Stop being so distracted!

2010-07-14T10:31:00.001-07:00

In case you're wondering, I'm still here. Just been very busy. This time, however, it is not so much being distracted by all the networking via the Web, but mostly because of the Revisions book. On that note, I have news.

After sharing with my publisher just how ginormous the manuscript was becoming, she said we'll probably have to turn this one book into a series of three books. Up until then, she had this idea, but it didn't really take center stage just yet. We played it by ear. Then the decision was made to, yes, go ahead and serialize it. So now this one Revisions book will be a series of 3 books. The first one will cover editing, revising novels, and revising nonfiction books. The second one, which I have been working on this week, will focus on revising articles, poetry, song lyrics, and scripts. Now it turns out that it will cover something else, as well.

Earlier this year, my publisher suggested that a section on revising short fiction should be in the manuscript. I, in my naivete (or was it distractedness??), thought that short fiction writers could benefit from the section on revising novels, so I thought it wasn't needed. However, after putting together a rough draft of the second book, and analyzing what it covered, I went back to her saying, "You know, Liz, I think we should include short fiction." She probably saw that note and thought, THAT'S WHAT I SAID! LOL (Sorry, Liz.) So I put together a list of chapters to include for a section on revising short fiction, focusing specifically on the mechanics of short fiction and the elements which separate short fiction from book-length fiction. I have articles written up on short fiction and I'll be going through the unpublished ones to see which ones can be revised so that they can be chapters for this book.

That said, the hunt resumes for interviewees. This time, I will need to find writers of short fiction to interview and obtain quotes for this book. I will go through my database of writers to see who writes short fiction, but I welcome inquiries from writers not included in the original manuscript. That door will remain open -- even for scriptwriters, freelance writers and songwriters.

We are also going to get in touch with literary agents for a special "agent section," which will go into all 3 books.

And I'm adding new chapters to the "Getting Out of Revision Hell Alive" section (Book 3).

Unfortunately, however, all of this busyness has kept me pretty distracted from other things -- namely, book reviews I have on the table, checking up on the haunted houses book (though miraculously I remembered to e-mail my co-author about this last night), taking care of business with the newly-accepted children's book (MUST! GET! TO! POST! OFFICE! Or the mailbox before the mail comes), and checking out other opportunities.

Those opportunities include an invitation from one of the musicians included in the book to contact someone she knows about getting a song I wrote set to music (oh, joy!) and getting short stories ready to submit to anthologies. I have one I'm currently working on for stories for children, and I just came across another call for stories for an anthology looking for dark tales.

Now all I need to find is an anthology accepting science-fiction short stories, and I'll be all set!

In other news, I recently had a short story published in a brand new anthology called Inner Fears. My story is called "A Phone Call Away." Check it out!

Inner Fears

Finally, I'm holding a "launch special" for my poetry book, to celebrate its print release. Stay tuned!

The 5 W’s and H of a Product Review

2010-07-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had the opportunity to write a product review. I was contacted by a friend of a lady who had created a new device for parents and she was looking for reviewers. Being a parent, and curious to see if this new item would be easy for a disabled parent to use, I agreed to it. Sometime after I received this product, I held a review session for it, took numerous photographs, then wrote up a review. After I took my review through revisions, I submitted it, only to realize later that I left out one important piece of information.

When thinking about this information, I realized it was just one ingredient in the “5 W’s and H” that journalists use when writing their story: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. And, as my journalism instructor added to this combination, S, for Source.

In this case, I left out the “where.”

With this in mind, I decided I should write up this information and use it for future reference, just in case I am once again approached to review some product or another. Currently, I review books, but obviously I am open to reviewing other items.

What is it? What is this item I am reviewing? The reader cannot see it, hold it, or feel it. So I need to explain what exactly it is.

How does it work? The reviewer is the reader’s eyes, ears and hands (and, in some cases, even their taster). Show the reader how a product is used and how it can be helpful or entertaining. Explain every step of using this product (in my case, how to set it up), and how the reader can use it.

Who made it? What is the name of the person who created this product? If it is a movie, who is in it? Who directed it? Give some background on this person and their motivation for creating this product.

When was it made and when will it be available? If the item is brand new, be sure to indicate as much. If it’s been around for a while but not widely available, include this information, as well, and, if possible, why it was not available until now.

Why should I buy it? This is the one question many readers of reviews have in the front of their minds. Why should they buy this product? Why is it important to tell them about it? Why should they even care?

Where can I buy it? If it’s available through retail stores, online stores such as Amazon.com, and through grocery outlets, be sure to let readers know. Indicate if this is something they will need to special order at a store. If the product is sold exclusively through a Web site, include the full URL. Additionally, try to include snail mail contact info for the product’s creator, just in case someone reading the review is unable to order directly from the creator’s Web site. (Keep in mind that there are still A LOT of people out there who are A: Too nervous to buy products online. And B: Don’t have a computer, Internet connection or PayPal account to shop online with.)

When you write a review, you want to tell your readers about this amazing product you are writing about (whether it’s a book, video, or restaurant dish), but it’s important to cover all the bases. Using the 5 W’s and H in newspaper writing can ensure that everything a reader needs to know about a product is in that review. The next time I write a product review, I’ll be sure to use them just so I won’t have to send my editor two different drafts of a review.

The phone interview vs the E-interview

2010-06-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

One thing a writer needs to be is flexible. Whether that flexibility extends to juggling various assignments, making the time to get some work done or writing about a variety of subjects, a writer who is able to shift gears and step out of the comfort zone is bound to make big strides in their career. As a deaf writer, I have found this requirement of being flexible to include how I interview someone. This calls for not only stepping out of my comfort zone, but because I have experience with people hanging up on relay calls or refusing to accept a relay call, but taking a gigantic leap!

For the most part, if someone agrees to be interviewed, I ask if an e-interview is okay. Ultimately, I prefer an e-interview, because it gives the interviewee a chance to review their answers before sending them to me, and it allows me to quote my interviewee verbatim. (On the other hand, even with the luxury of time to review their answers, one writer interviewed in Burning the Midnight Oil: How We Survive as Writing Parents requested in an email that I change a word in one of his answers. This, several months after the book was already published.) That said, I saw the e-interview as a win-win situation.

However, many people used to being interviewed have grown comfortable with a phone interview, and so many people have requested I interview them over the phone. Usually, if I'm on a tight deadline and MUST talk to them right away, I have no problem interviewing them over the phone. And if they have no problem accepting a relay call, and communicating via relay, then all is well. But first and foremost, I request an interview by e-mail.

Because I have indeed had to use the phone interviews to get the job done, one difference I have noticed is that the interview gets done faster. I get my questions answered then and there. With an e-interview, I have to wait one or more days to get a reply. Today, however, I noticed one other benefit of conducting a phone interview, compared to doing the interview by e-mail.

One of the things you'll get to read in my Revisions book are interviews with editors and writers on the various topics covered. I try to single out the right writer to interview for that topic and, for one chapter in one section of the book, I knew I had one. I was actually pretty excited about the prospect of including an interview with him in my book, because he has impressive writing credits (among them, work done on a popular TV show). Unfortunately, this person is one very busy man, and just when we had a possible e-interview scheduled, a load of work was dumped into his lap and he expressed doubt over our ability to continue with the interview. I was dismayed, because he was the perfect writer to interview for this chapter. And not knowing a lot of scriptwriters, I doubted my chances of finding another one! He proposed a phone interview -- and I knew that it was either that or nothing! So I bit my lip and agreed, noting that I am deaf and must use relay to communicate by phone. He seemed fine with this and actually curious about a relay call. I breathed a sigh of relief and we scheduled the interview for later in the week.

Fortunately, the phone interview went well. The site I use to make an online relay call did NOT conk out on me, we were able to talk at length, and there was no trouble in trying to save the conversation. (On another relay site I have used, I once lost an entire, hour-long interview after my failed attempts to save it!) I was really excited about this success, because my source provided very helpful and encouraging information on the chapter's topic and it went really well. It was a very pleasant and enjoyable conversation and I was very pleased to be able to talk with this man who is so busy in the TV industry for such a long time on the phone. He was very nice, very intelligent, and it is definitely one phone interview that I won't soon forget.

But it's not just how well the interview went that I was happy about. It's what was added to the interview questions, thanks to a real-time discussion. We ended up talking about a lot of things, not just the questions I had on paper next to the keyboard. More and more information and in-depth conversation was added to this interview, so that it didn't look scripted. With an e-interview, my sources just answer the questions. But with a phone interview, so much more can be added to the conversation. I backtrack and say things like "wow, that's interesting! Let's talk more about that!" or "that touches on what you mentioned earlier and I think that is a great example of how that can happen." That sort of thing.

This has made me reexamine the value of a phone interview. Getting into conversation with someone over the phone, it opens doors to more information and extra discussion on the unexpected. With an e-interview, everything is just there because the writer asked those questions. And, typically, there's no picking up on little things in the conversation or following up on certain quotes.

All the same, I prefer an e-interview, but I'm not going to ask straight out if that kind of interview can be done. From now on, I'll leave that ball in my interviewee's court. Should the phone interview be welcomed, I look forward to seeing what extra information it will lead the conversation to.

Planning, and getting, weekly goals

2010-06-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

I am a firm believer in the power of setting goals. Setting a goal really provides that motivation to reach for something bigger or accomplish something. But it's not just the creation of goals that needs to happen. What is important is figuring out a way to meet those goals.

That is where a "to do" list comes in handy. Some people use alternative methods for reaching their goals, such as dream boards, flash cards, charts, etc. But, for me, I have found that a "to do" list works best in accomplishing my goals. I use them to go through the steps of writing, revising and editing my work, and they really help to have a sort of "blueprint" to guide me from beginning to end.

But it's not just an ordinary "to do" list which I use. Rather, I rely on a weekly "to do" list. I give myself a set of tasks to do each day of the week. This helps me move a little closer to accomplishing my goals. This also helps immensely in making sense of all the many projects and assignments I will occasionally have to juggle. By putting something like "work on X book for one hour" on Monday and "Interview source for X article" on Tuesday, I will be able to work through the steps of the many projects currently on my plate.

The weekly "to do" lists aren't usually put in force when I'm working on a book, or even two different books, because I don't need them. I already know I should spend one hour working on this book each day, or one hour for one book, another hour for another book. (Sadly, an hour each day is all I can accomplish for book work at this time. But, it's better than nothing.)

This week, however, I found the need to set goals for the week. I am in the process of working on a variety of things, and so I felt that using a weekly "to do" list would be helpful. Initially, I had 9 items on my list:

1. Send Liz extra material for Spook City. (Scheduled for publication in October)
2. Write short story for anthology.
3. Write poetry for contest.
4. Write new poems for new Topiary Dreams.
5. Revise other poems for new Topiary Dreams.
6. Work on Revisions book.
7. Update Web site.
8. Book reviews.
9. Check in with agent.

Seems simple enough. So on Monday, I set to work, grabbing time to tackle my list here and there. I got items crossed off my list and started feeling confident about achieving ALL of those original 9 goals. I updated the Web site (which took 2 days!). Wrote the poems. Got work done on the Revisions book and revised poems for the new version of Topiary Dreams (set to be published in October.)

But then...other things came up. I got busy reading and editing material for the DPPi Journal (and actually ended up in a tiff with one of the editors on the editorial advisory board -- and for the record, I was NOT trying to discriminate against a WHEELCHAIR USER!). A contract for my children's book, The Yellow Rose, was offered to me and it was a matter of sending emails back and forth about the book and the contract (and it's all settled as of today -- YAY!). And I got into a conversation with an editor about her editing Topiary Dreams before it comes out (she agreed to edit the manuscript and I asked her because she has experience editing this kind of poetry).

Still, despite these other things popping up, I stuck to my list of 9 goals. Aside from accomplishing the other tasks, I managed to cross 6 goals off the list of the original 9. Two of those goals -- the book reviews and the Revisions book -- are ongoing, so I couldn't really cross them off. And I had to bump the second goal to next week. But I'm still happy I managed to accomplish so much of what I planned to do this week. Six out of nine isn't so bad.

There's always the weekend. And next week, too. The important thing is that, with the goals I set and the others that came up, I was able to manage them both.

Kid stuff

2010-06-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I submitted the manuscript for my children's book, The Yellow Rose. Today I was offered a contract for it to be published. Hooray! The book, which is written for children aged 7-10, will be published by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. As noted in a previous blog post, GSP is also the publisher of my poetry book, Love is Like a Rainbow: Poems of Love and Devotion. I'm very excited that this book will be published and look forward to seeing the book in print sometime in the near future! (No publication date has been set just yet.)

Also, today I was browsing the message board over at Static Movement. Just reading some of the threads and seeing how things are coming along with the anthologies rescued from Lame Goat Press after they shut down. I was interested in one thread in particular, about an anthology formerly titled Yams for Our Youth. It is now titled Yams for Our Children. Something just made me click on that to read more about it. Apparently, it's an anthology of PG-rated stories with a real child you know as the star of the story. Very cool! And, they are still accepting stories for this anthology! I emailed the editor and she sent me the following information about it:

"I just want fantasy stories written with a child or children you know in mind. They should be happy stories, and fun to read. No font requirements, I'm going to change that anyway. Underline for italics isn't required, just send as you would like for it to be published. In the subject line put Yarns, or Children so that I'll know which anthology it's for before opening, and send along a little bio written in first person, and include something about the child/children it's written for. The word limit should be around 3,000 tops, no min."

You can read more about it here.

I thought it was interesting that I came across this, because recently, I was working in the garage with my oldest child, and I said something to her that caught the attention of my muse. I laughed and said, "That would be a good title for a story." Now I'm putting that together with this call for stories, where such a story would fit quite well, and I'm thinking of writing it up and sending it in. Given that I found this call for stories the same week I thought up that idea for a story, I think it's a sign I should give it a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Lame Goat Press is no more

2010-06-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I had a short story accepted for publication in an anthology. No publication date was given and I assumed that I would be notified when the anthology came out. This was something I'd experienced with other anthology editors/publishers, so I didn't think much on it. Shortly after I signed the contract, a couple of other anthologies created by this publisher, Lame Goat Press, came out. I remained hopeful that soon the anthology with my story in it was next. That didn't happen.

At first, my thinking was that stuff was just going on. Maybe there was no money to bring out the next books. Maybe the editors were all quarreling with each other. Maybe computers had crashed and files had been lost. (Which did actually happen with one of the guest editors.) Or maybe they just didn't have their hearts in it anymore.

After some months passed, I got tired of waiting and not receiving any replies. As it was, another anthology with a story of mine in it was also pending publication, and at least the main editor touched base with the writers involved to let us know he was working on the books. But nothing came from Lame Goat Press. And I started to worry.

I eventually got around to visiting the LGP Web site. I went to the message board and sort of posted there asking "what's going on?" The writers there let me know that Christopher Jacobsmeyer, the man behind Lame Goat Press, was on a sabbatical. Confused, I dug around and read other messages. Turns out they were right. He was indeed taking a sabbatical from LGP. And as it turned out, it ended up being a permanent sabbatical.

I kept tabs on the posts on that board, lurking here and there. Pretty much keeping my thoughts and disappointment to myself. I agreed with some of the writers voicing their opinions, and worried about others saying they were pulling out. I wasn't surprised when this disaster earned Lame Goat Press a negative report on Preditors & Editors.

Eventually, one of the guest editors took matters into her own hands. Chris Bartholomew of Static Movement let everybody know she was planning to work with them on getting their work published through her own efforts, in working with the cover artists and talking with editors to see where they stood on getting the books published through their own companies. Her announcement that Christopher Jacobsmeyer is walking away from Lame Goat Press and releasing all writers from their contracts (most all of them with an 18-month hold on rights) soon followed. Cheers and appreciation sounded from the writers and a wave of relief is now felt by all that this matter has finally been resolved and things are moving forward with getting the other anthologies into print.

You can read more about it here and here.

I must admit I was angry and disappointed that Mr. Jacobsmeyer was acting so selfish and that he let down a lot of writers, but life goes on. Don't think I'll be doing business with him in the future, though.

Big thanks to Chris Bartholomew for stepping up and taking over where LGP left off.

I'm just glad the anthologies will soon be in print and that I and the other writers, as well as the editors, will finally see all of our work and hard efforts be fulfilled when the books come out.

First book regrets

2010-06-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Recently, I saw a query in HARO for authors who wanted to share their first book regrets. Since I had a story to share, I sent mine in. Days passed and I never got a reply. I shrugged it off, thinking that maybe mine was not an item to be included, and just moved on. However, yesterday I was contacted with a notification that my experience WAS included! Yay!

You can read my "first book regrets" here:

How To Move Your Book Away From Your Ankles and 30+ Other Publishing Horror Nuggets

Note: You'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.

After reading the other stories, I must say that I feel some degree of comfort knowing that I am not the only writer who thinks her first book could have used some serious editing/revising before going to print. Oh, sure, I could chalk it all up to being young and having more dreams and ambition than wisdom and caution, but that in itself is no excuse. With the Internet having so much to offer as far as knowledge, research and checking background is concerned, and with so many teens on the Internet so often, it's a little hard to not be exposed to some message of how important it is to know these things.

I'm also seeing how some authors wished they had obtained ISBNs for their books. I can relate. One of my poetry books does not have an ISBN and that has limited how much I can get the book reviewed and where it can be sold. I hope to rectify this when the new version of this book comes out in October.

Special thank you to Issamar Ginzberg for including my story.

Are you writing for money or writing for the sake of writing?

2010-05-22T09:55:00.001-07:00

A common misconception many non-writers have about authors is that they are millionaires. In fact, when I approached a paranormal investigator to interview him for Spook City, he lashed out at me for trying to make money off of his hard work with my book. I had to assure him I wasn't being paid a handsome advance for my book. In fact, I hadn't turned a single profit out of all the work I was doing in putting the book together. The money would come later, not right away. Still, many writers expect the money to come right away and, when it doesn't, they give up.

I was thinking about this sad truth this morning while I was reading Writer's First Aid by Kristi Holl. I read the chapter "Money Maxims" and noticed how the author touched on the fact that many writers expect to be paid handsomely for their first sale and, when it's not forthcoming, they give up. She reminded readers of how it takes a long time to earn a handsome profit from the work they do, and that this is time well spent, because they are given a chance to hone in on their craft and sharpen their skills as a writer. If anything, I think it's also a chance for writers to find that elusive "voice."

This really made me think. Earlier in the day, I'd been surfing various Web sites to see what kind of education and training are required for someone to be a psychologist. As many people know, a psychologist earns a good income. I was surprised to find out that this "good income" does not happen right away. In fact, it takes a lot of effort before that good money is made in psychology, but mostly, it takes time. A lot of time. There's the 4 years of a college education, the years invested in graduate school, the internship and time used for research and study. It would be a total of 12 years before anyone can become a licensed psychologist. If that. Then add 3 or 4 more years, maybe longer, before the tidy income starts coming in. One site noted that a psychologist could earn up to $80,000 a year, but not until after an investment of 20 years of training and working in the field. Twenty years before being able to live off the fat of the land. Twenty years is a long time, but worth it in the end. It gives our psychologist the chance to obtain further wisdom, experience, and a sense of professionalism in dealing with tough patients.

All of that time invested makes a person a good psychologist -- maybe even one of the best psychologists -- who has earned that very nice paycheck. The same can be said of the writer. If the writer puts in all that time, that effort, that practice and discipline to write every day even if it doesn't mean getting paid for that writing, all of it will contribute to the Holy Grail of writers: Good money.

So if someone wants to be a writer just to make money, then they'd better look into something else. The money will not come right away. Yes, yes, we all know of the first novelist nabbing that multi-million dollar book deal or the freelance writer who sells her very first article submitted to Good Housekeeping and gets paid $2,000 or more for it, but these cases are rare.

During the early part of your writing career, don't write for the money; write for the love of writing. And to hone your craft. For the desire to be a good writer and the dedication to put words down onto paper because that is what you need to have in place first before you can expect to earn good money from your writing. Yes, you should definitely aim to make good money from your writing. As it should be, if you turn out to be a great writer who is deserving of that nice payout for your work. But above all else, be willing to put in the time, training and effort to reach that goal. Just because you don't earn money right away as a writer, it DOES NOT mean you won't earn good money later on. (Sadly, I know of some writers and authors who snub these very people who don't make thousands or millions of dollars early in their career.) You will make good money as a writer, just not right away. Meanwhile, keep writing.

Awesome review of the Tips book!

2010-05-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

A book usually gets reviewed shortly before or after its release. This time around, however, I've put new energy into promoting an old book of mine, mainly because it was recently re-released as an E-book. I am especially delighted to see that sales of the E-book have been impressive, because this can only mean that this book, published in 2004, is reaching a whole new audience of readers and writers who could find the book helpful.

Fellow author Lillie Ammann, who is also an editor, took the time to review 365 Tips for Writers for her blog, A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye.

You can find the review here:

Review: 365 Tips for Writers

Thank you so much for your fantastic review of my book, Lillie! I am excited to see commenters asking about it and expressing interest. Your review was superb and it totally made my day!

Agented!

2010-05-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

When I first started working on the haunted houses book, I had no idea what I'd be in for. As the project grew, I knew I needed to find someone who could be a part of this project. I found that someone with Martha Jette, who agreed to be a co-author for the book. Pretty soon, we got the book into final shape. Not long afterwards, we found a publisher for this book -- or so we thought. As can happen in publishing, things did not work out well with the publisher, so we had to cancel our contract with them and look elsewhere. Our search consisted mostly of publishing companies, yet Martha surprised me one day with the idea of approaching a literary agent for our book. I agreed to proceed, and we waited to hear back from the agency.

When a contract from the agency appeared in my inbox one day, I couldn't believe my eyes. I even asked Martha, "Is this for real?" Sure enough, the contract was the real deal. There were certain clauses in the contract we wanted to negotiate first, and I held my breath, waiting to see what happened. I wasn't ready to celebrate yet; I first wanted to see how the negotiations went.

I am pleased to announce that all went well and now Martha and I have a literary agent for our book, Totally Scared: The Complete Book on Haunted Houses. Hooray! We now have an agent!

Our agent's name is R. Travis Shortt and he is a member of the team behind Black River Media, LLC. The company has worked mostly as a PR firm in the past, and the decision to take on the job of also working as a literary agency came after many of Mr. Shortt's clients expressed a desire for him to be their literary agent. He agreed and has since been working in this capacity for Black River Media, as well as his position as Vice President. Here is their link: http://www.blackrivermediallc.com/ Because this is still new for them, there is not a whole lot on the site about their work as a literary agency. Yet I am confident that this will change very soon.

Also, I have spoken with Mr. Shortt through E-mail, and he has opened the door for me to pitch my other book projects to him when that time comes. So not only do I "share" an agent with Martha for our haunted houses book, I have the opportunity to submit my future book projects to my agent without going through the trials of finding the right publisher for my books. Additionally, having an agent means we and I will receive a better contract from a reputable publishing company.

So that is the latest development for the haunted houses book. I'm very excited about this and feel relieved that, in addition to Martha finding an agent for our book, we both have an agent for our other book projects, as well. What a wonderful accomplishment! We have an agent and I have an agent! Now I hope the next thing to report on is that we'll have a publisher for our haunted houses book -- a publisher that will actually end up publishing our book. Fingers crossed!

Ideas are everywhere

2010-04-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

It's been said many times before: "Stories are everywhere." There are little things that will grab the writer -- a newspaper article, something somebody said or even the way a person reacts to an event -- that can grab them and say "write me!" Truman Capote is an example, or so I believe from what I read in the book and saw in the movies. He read the article about the family that was murdered by two men, called his publisher and said, "I want to write a book about this."

Or...it can be something which will cause the writer to create a short story, essay, article or poem. The bottom line is that stories really ARE everywhere. The writer just needs to keep their finger on that pulse to look out for those stories.

Today, I had the pleasure of receiving "story starters" from various things I saw and thought about.

For example, the number "13" factors in quite a lot with my new address and new things going on for us. How would that affect someone who is phobic of the number 13? Or what if it was another number? Or a number with unknown mystical qualities? Or a connection to a character?

When I took my daughter to her bus stop this morning, I saw a girl lying face-down at that bus stop. My heart froze. Had there been an accident? Had something happened? There were three other girls standing around her. Being deaf, I had no idea what they were saying. So my imagination started to play around with it. Turned out the girl was fine, she was just very sleepy, but as a writer, I had to ask...what if?

I was outside in the backyard playing with my toddler son today. I noticed things that had me getting story ideas and character ideas:

*An "F" marked on the interior wall of our shed. The product of a disgruntled teacher? Or someone who thought the shed was poorly constructed?

*A pretty rock left by one of the posts on the patio. Left behind by....a child with a fond memory of the place? A person leaving it behind in memory of someone who lived there? A "gift" to the house?

*A strange white "thing" sticking out of the ground that looked like a skeleton's finger. A body buried there without the previous resident's knowledge? A previous resident with something to hide? (Fortunately, after showing the picture to someone, she pointed out it could not be a skeleton finger because there were no visible joints. Still, the idea can really get a writer's muse going!)

*My son walking through a field of dandelions and picking the flowers. A touching moment that could inspire a scene in a story.

There are so many things that we can see, hear, learn about and read about that can inspire ideas for stories or just something to write about. I have had this happen at different times. How wonderful to have experienced a day in which so many story ideas, and even scene ideas, are there for the taking.