See For Yourself

First-hand research is always best. Sometimes it’s not an option and a writer has to depend on books, Internet searches and second-hand accounts. We’ve got a character zipping off to Mexico City, but we’ve never been there and can’t go do research. So we turn to secondary sources. Luckily, we can find out lots of information from other places and we can go to chat rooms and ask questions of people who live in Mexico City or other places we need to know about.

Luckily, some places never seem to change. Like Central Texas. Hot. Little rain. Humid. The Mesquite is always green. We only have two seasons: flip flops and shorts or flip flops and a long-sleeve t-shirt. January or July – it’s all the same.

Wrong. That’s a myth perpetuated by Texans.

Today is beautiful. Granted, most days in Central Texas are, but we do have rain. We do occasionally have to wear coats. Some people even wear close-toed shoes – I’m not often one of them. This morning as the sun came up it was cool, not cold. The sky is now a soft blue with white puffy clouds splattered here and there. It’s the last day of October. Trees are beginning to lose leaves. Granted, not all the trees, but there are a few trees even here that turn brilliant colors and lose their leaves. Out my kitchen window I can see the roof of a house in the valley, the only house in sight. By winter, I’ll be able to see more of the house, the front of it, the porch, the smoke curling from its chimney. We may not be able to often legitimately use our fireplaces, but we do have a few opportunities without having to turn down the a/c.

Don’t rely on what you think you know about a place. If you can’t find out first-hand, then try to talk to people who live in that setting. And not just one person. Talk to several. One time while working on a book I needed to know if a bus could drive into Central Park and load passengers. I tried to find out through research and couldn’t get an answer. I turned to the Internet and put the question out in a chat room of other authors. Got my answer. Got several answers. Different answers. Sometimes you have to go with the majority or the answer that comes from the most reliable or knowledgeable source. But you can’t just shrug your shoulders and flip a coin. If you’re wrong, your readers will catch it.

It’s much better if you catch it before it goes to print.

Texas Book Festival Wrap-Up

Well, it’s Monday and the Texas Book Festival is over. I need about a day to recover, then I’ll start looking forward to next year. The TBF staff will probably need a bit longer.

I chaired the events at the downtown Austin Museum of Art. Since this was our first year there, I worried people wouldn’t know to make the trek down Congress to find us. But they did. One of my recommendations for next year would be, if possible, to use a bigger room. I’m not sure if AMOA has a bigger room, though.

On Saturday, three of the four panels were Standing Room Only. Bill Witliff and Graciela Iturbide drew the biggest crowd of the day. On Sunday, the Big Bend National Park panel with Joe Nick Patoski and Laurence Parent pulled in the biggest crowd of the whole weekend. The SRO crowd quickly became a SOL crowd. There wasn’t even standing room.

Other than that, things ran smoothly, even with three volunteers not showing up. The museum people were great. I hope we didn’t interfere with their business, or, if we did, I hope the extra traffic coming into the museum made up for it. Speaking of volunteers, mine were the best of the festival – not that I ever had time to go to anything outside of AMOA so that I would know anything about the other 800+ volunteers. But I’m sure mine were the best. They jumped in and worked hard and made visitors, authors, artists, photographers, architects, moderators, and panelists feel welcome.

My husband snagged a wrist band to hear Barack Obama speak. He said it was a good talk. He spoke mostly about his book. I reminded my husband this was a book festival. I think he hoped to hear more political rhetoric from Obama. My daughter went to hear Gore Vidal. She said he was good. She had hoped to also make it to Amy Sedaris’ session, but she heard from friends that Sedaris was funny.

To tell you the truth, I was so focused on the AMOA events, I didn’t even check the schedule to find out what was going on elsewhere. Before things got started on Sunday, I raced to the exhibitors’ tents to say “hi” to Colleen Devine with Barnes & Noble (talk about someone with a huge job!), swung by the Writers’ League of Texas booth, but there was no one there, then stopped in to talk to Sarah Ann Robertson at the Sisters in Crime booth. Sisters in Crime had a great line-up of authors signing books all day long, both days. Practically all of them friends of mine. I, of course, missed them all! Best I could do was leave a note before I ran back to the museum to unload my car for the start of another day.

Saturday evening, I got home and collapsed into a chair. My feet were killing me. Seriously. I’d stood all day. Sunday morning I said to hell with fashion. I put on jeans and my Birks (thought hard about wearing Crocs, but decided that was taking it a little too far). That, plus the walk up and down the exhibitors’ booths in the morning, helped. Wasn’t hurting so badly Sunday evening, but was glad to crawl into bed.

But it was worth it. Got to hear seven panels. Wonderful speakers, fabulous books. The last panel on Sunday wasn’t a standing room only crowd, but it was a powerful subject. What a cap to the weekend. Tammy Cromer-Campbell spoke on her book, Fruit of the Orchard: Environmental Justice in East Texas, along with three contributors to the book, Phyllis Glazer, Roy Flukinger and Dr. Eugene Hargrove. What an amazing story about a small Texas town decimated by a chemical plant. The residents there are still suffering the health consequences. Tammy’s pictures of the children and townsfolk tell a heart-wrenching story.

And so, the 2006 Texas Book Festival came to an end. Gotta get my notebook ready to turn in with my recommendations and pictures of the physical set-up, turn in the extra t-shirts I didn’t need since three volunteers were no-shows and a couple of speakers didn’t take theirs, then, unlike the TBF staff, I can rest.

Happy Festival Everyone!

Don’t have much time this morning, but not sure if I’ll feel like blogging this evening. So, here’s a quickie.

The Texas Book Festival has been going on for a couple of days now with the preliminary stuff like the Gala. But today starts the main festival, including two days of events at the Austin Museum of Art. That’s me.

So this morning I’m off. First I have to go to Whole Foods and pick up the tray of food for the green room, that’s our staging area for the artists and authors. Then I race to the museum to set up and get everything ready. Before it all starts, I’ll have to go up to the capital area in order to get t-shirts for the authors. I have the ones for the volunteers ready with their nametags attached (boy, were those difficult to make for some reason – the name tags, not the shirts). Then it’s a full day, non-stop, of talks, slide shows and signings.

Wish I could wear my crocs, but I’ll have to wear regular shoes. Bleh. On the other hand, I get to meet some fabulous volunteers and some great authors. Yea!

If you stop in, say “hi” and tell the volunteers what a great job they’re doing.

Conspiracy?

I don’t believe the world is out to get me. I don’t adhere to the idea that technology is constantly changing just to do me in. But it is.

Well, okay, maybe it’s not aimed specifically at me. Maybe I’m just getting old. Unlike my kids, I can honestly say I remember a time before the Internet, before cell phones and iPods and PDAs. Now I have all those things – a cell phone, a PDA, Dell’s version of the iPod, a laptop, and I’m constantly on the Internet. But being an active participant in this constantly changing world doesn’t mean the world isn’t conspiring against me (and us).

Have you ever bought a computer or printer? Of course you have. Let me tell you what would happen if you paid for it, walked out to your car and changed your mind. You’d carry it back inside and tell the clerk your decision. He’d look sadly at you and say, “I’m sorry sir/ma’am, we don’t carry that model anymore.”

Writers – and that’s you, me, and probably most anyone who’s reading this blog – depend on technology. Even writers who do their drafts by longhand have to have a computer. I know of only one writer, well, actually two since they’re a husband and wife team, who aren’t connected to the Internet. I have one friend who doesn’t have a cell phone and even she told me yesterday she’s decided to break down and get one.

So, whether we like it or not, we’re all connected to the unseen mass trying to do us in. The average person can’t keep up with the constant changes and updates. And if you have a problem, there’s no one to talk to.

I’m probably average when it comes to knowledge about technology. I can use email. I’m pretty good at researching via the Internet. I do my own website, blog and newsletter. Sort of. I admit I use an easy template for the blog and I use a service, Topica, to mail out the newsletter. But when something goes wrong – and have you noticed that it’s usually not your fault – it is so frustrating to try to fix it. It’s like running through a maze blindfolded while the mad scientists watch from high above, laughing and chortling.

For a week and a half now, at least, I’ve been having a problem with the service that hosts my website. Not so much with the website but with the eboxes I have connected to the site -- specifically, the mailboxes that my newsletter subscribers use to write to me. Hostway would not let me get into two of them. Every time I tried, it would send me to a page asking for an address, a password and what interface I wanted to use. Interface, sminterface, just let me in. I tried every combination I knew, but could not check my mail. You can’t call anyone to get help anymore, so I emailed. Of course, the address they give you is never the actual department who handles your problem. They’d email back and ask questions then email and tell me they were directing my question to someone else. Of course, that someone else never gets back to you.

Finally this morning, I hit upon the right combination of address, password and interface. Voila. I’m in. In one box alone, 952 emails. And Hostway will only let you view 10 at a time and if you find one legitimate email among the spam and click it to read, when you’re done, Hostway takes you back to the first ten and you have to start all over. I have to admit, I gave up and hit delete all. I’d already notified subscribers to Doing It Write that I was having a problem and given them a new address to resend email.

I have a friend who has a business hosting websites. One of the big advantages she touts is that if you have a problem, you have a real person to contact – her. I’ve been meaning to switch, but kept putting it off. I’m trying to update my website so it’s not so bulky and so it looks more professional. I wanted to start with a new website with a new host. Problem is, I’m not a professional web designer. No matter what I come up with, it still looks amateurish. But writers need to have a web presence. When a reader googles you, you need to be findable. So I’m going to cut the bulk and make the move. Soon.

So is the constant changing of technology, the lack of personal service, the fact that your seven year old is more tech savvy than you are, a conspiracy against writers (and everyone over thirty)? No. Does it feel like it is? Yes. Now that I’ve figured out how to get into my eboxes, could I help you with your problems? Email me. I’ll get back to you.

Friends Tell Tales

Today I went to lunch with a group of women friends. I use the word “lunch” loosely since our lunches usually last about four hours. There is eating involved, of course, but also laughter and hugs. And, today, a bit of tap dancing. Four or so of us had cameras, so we have pictures of big smiles, crazy costumes (it is almost Halloween, after all) and circles of bare feet. I’d tell you the story behind the bare feet, but, well, I can’t. That’d be like explaining why the term “frigate” kept coming up in conversation. Some things just have to stay within the group.

We all write. We all get along. We do talk about writing, but only a little. We heard about one woman’s recent four week writing residency in Costa Rica. Did you know cinnamon does absolutely nothing to keep away ants? On the non-writing side, we heard about another woman’s crazy trip to a Mexican border town. Did you know it’s possible, but not fun or easy, to transport a total stranger who’s totally drunk and obnoxious across the border from Mexico to the U.S.?

Lots of stories. Stories I will never use in my writing. That doesn’t mean I don’t adapt stories or tales I hear (I would never use something verbatim). But it does mean that authors have to have their own inner guidelines as to what they will or won’t “borrow” from friends. There are some acquaintances and friends who provide stories that become fodder for your writing. You change the story so much they could read it and have no idea their tale was the flicker that ignited a particular scene. There are some who are quite happy to let you use their life experiences. But there are some friends or groups of friends you would never even think of using their stories because it would be a breach of trust.

Which level your friends fall into is something you’ll have to figure out for yourself. But it’s important that you do.

Hear the Voices

When you write a character, you try to get inside their head (yeah, I know I should write his/her, but their is easier). You want to hear their voice as they describe things, as they talk about their life, their feelings, their observations. And of course you want to hear their voice (not yours) when they speak. The voice that will be most prominent in your book is that of your protagonist, usually.

I think most of us know to have the character speak like him or her, rather than us. The words he uses, the slang, the grammar, the inflections, sound like the character. But we sometimes forget that when we’re in his head, hearing his thoughts or seeing what he’s seeing, we also need to be in his voice. This voice of the character, especially if it’s a series character, will become the voice of the book. Not yours. His. Or hers.

I’ve been reading the series by Lee Child. The main character is named Jack Reacher – the reader is in his head. I’m on my third Child book. I think I could recognize a Jack Reacher book even if the cover had been torn off and his name blacked out. I know his voice. Jack Reacher doesn’t look around a room and see things in long flowing sentences. He sees things in short, choppy sentences. He notes everything. He sees everything. He often describes things in sentences that have the same structure.

Here’s a bit from a character of my own. See if you can hear her voice. In this passage, she never says anything aloud, but you can still hear her.

****
I was supposed to have been a boy. Surprised everyone by arriving with a piece of my package missing. Sometimes God plays tricks on people.

Long ago I decided God was a woman. Only a woman would have such a weird sense of humor. Like giving Miss Aggie, the lady who sold beauty makeup door-to-door, a squashed flat nose and eyebrows that streaked across her forehead in thin slashes. Or the way God put my woods together – ordered, clean, beautiful. Only a woman-God would do that. A man would’ve planted a tire-growing tree or a burping bush.

Then last year, God took baby Celia, even though Mama carried her inside her for so long.

I’d been to funerals before. Grandpa Watson rested in a big, dark brown coffin, snuggled in snow-white satin, his head on a pillow Mama embroidered with a heavenly angel. Mary Belle, whose husband owned Belle of the Ball Dress Shop, had a fancy casket with lots of brass and hundreds of yellow roses.

I’d never seen such a small coffin. White, with baby’s breath and one red rose on top. I added a dandelion I’d picked at the side of the road, ‘cause it’s my favorite. I like to make a wish and blow on it so it scatters to the wind. Celia would have liked those too, if she’d had the chance.

Mama said Celia was so beautiful and precious God decided to keep her in Heaven.

Guess God doesn’t like dirty fingernails and callused feet. That’s okay. Now She can keep a better eye on Celia than She did on me. I’m wiry. I have the woods to hide in.

Organized vs Creative

I am, for the most part, what people would call an organized person. And I do try to be. I have a PDA where I keep my calendar which I synchronize with my laptop. I make lists of things to do. I keep notebooks and files. I have a spiral notebook handy in my purse to jot down things on the run. I maintain a set schedule for things that have to be done, like paying the bills.

But I find that’s not always compatible with the part of my brain that writes. That part wants to be free of restrictions. It wants to brainstorm, jump from one idea to another without any tethers. That part wants to play at night, dance through scenes, visit characters, try out dialogue. It would be happy to take over and run things.

But lately the organized side has taken over, almost shutting down the creative side, especially in these last few days before the book festival. Last night – this morning, actually – I woke at 4 a.m. I could have gotten up, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to go back to sleep. I was determined to go back to sleep.

Instead I lay there running through things I might have overlooked in getting ready for the Austin Museum of Art events. An hour and a half later, I was still awake. The only way I could shut down was to make a mental list of everything I needed to remember. Once I had the list, I drifted off.

I remember making the list. Problem is, I now can’t remember the actual items on the list.

An hour and a half of possible sleep wasted, lost. Come November, the creative side gets to rise again. Run things. Run amok. Let’s just hope it remembers to take out the trash and pay the bills.

Pitchapalooza at the TBF

If you’ve been reading the blog or my newsletter for a while, then you know I’m involved with the Texas Book Festival. Last year I chaired Book Church which included gospel music and books about gospel music. It took place on the capital steps and was a foot-stomping success. This year I’m chairing art and photography books, artists, and authors at the Austin Museum of Art. Book Church premiered last year and the Book as Art at AMOA is new this year.

The Book Festival keeps changing, trying different events, bringing in exciting authors, working on traffic flow. The planning goes on all year long. Literally, as soon as this event is over next weekend, planning will begin for 2007. It is a huge multi-days event, getting bigger each year. The TBF staff is amazingly small. Which means the volunteers who work the weekend are numerous. It takes over 900 volunteers to pull it off.

The AMOA events are not the only new thing going on this year. One that I wanted to mention here is a pitching event called “Putting Your Passion into Print Pitchapalooza.” It’s brand new, never tried at the TBF before. That means not too many people know about it. And that means if you want to try your hand at pitching your book, you got a good chance of getting the opportunity. And it’s free. Too scared to pitch? All the more reason to do it here. Way too scared to pitch? Then come watch, listen, and learn.

Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry of Putting Your Passion Into Print will lead the workshop. Eckstut is an agent. Sterry is an author and pitch consultant. You’ll have one minute to pitch your book.

Here’s the write-up on the workshop:

Putting Your Passion into Print Pitchapalooza
It's like American Idol, without the Simon

Texas Book Festival
Oct. 29, 2006; 12-1:15pm, Capitol Auditorium, Texas Book Festival

So, you wanna be an author? Well, this is your shot. You get one minute to pitch your book to a bunch of publishing experts, American Idol-style.

Now the Putting Your Passion Into Print Pitchapalooza is coming to you. The Pitchapalooza is the brainchild of Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, authors of Putting Your Passion Into Print (Workman 2005). She's an agent who runs the West Coast office of Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. She has also authored three books, including The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen. David's a bestselling author who's had four books published in five years, with another two contracted for, ranging from memoir to sports to reference to Young Adult. He's also a professional actor, a pitch consultant and a book doctor. Already five of their students have book deals. Plus, they're married.

Here's your shot. Are you gonna take it?

Doing It All

The other day I bounced around the Internet and stumbled across an article on Nora Roberts. Can’t say that I’ve ever even read one of her books, either under her real name or her pseudonym, J. D. Robb. But the article on her was very interesting. So much so that I went to her website to read more.

The woman will boggle your mind.

She’s published 165 books. Shoot, I was stunned just by the amount of work she has coming out this year alone: three hardcovers, seven mass market paperbacks, and three trade paper reissues. On her website, she states: “Lifetime Television will be making four of my novels into Lifetime Original Movies and they will be airing on Mondays in February.” According to the Arizona Daily Star article, “Each book published under the Nora Roberts name since 1999 has been a best-seller; there are 280 million Roberts books in print. She is published in 35 countries. Her books sold 12 million copies in 2005, according to Publishers Weekly.” She averages six books a year.

How in the heck does she do it?

She says she works eight hours a day, minimum. In her office. She looks on her writing as a job, not a hobby. She doesn’t wait for the muse to hit. In addition to planting her butt in front of the computer to write, she works out in the morning, spends time checking email and logging onto Internet fan sites and reading posts on the on-line boards, and also, of course, working on galleys of upcoming releases. And she has a family, a husband, and the family’s bookstore.

Well, dang, girl. Color me lazy. I do believe I’ll mosey on down to the local bookstore and take a look at her latest book.

More Than Just the Facts

I’ve been doing some research. I like doing research. Years ago, I spent a weekend at a women’s prison. Very interesting and informative. And I was happy to leave.

The last few months, I’ve made trips downtown to the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice System. I picked out a particular courtroom and sat in. Didn’t really attend any actual on-going cases, but rather tried to get there while things were getting ready to begin.

For example, today I arrived about 8:45 a.m. Went through the security check point. Actually, today was the first time I got through without being wanded. I’ve decided the trick is to keep on all my jewelry – watch, earrings, ring, necklace. I’d always taken it all off before and gotten beeped. Or it could be that today I was running late and had to run out with my hair still dripping wet. Perhaps the guards decided I was not a terrorist – no bad guy would be caught dead looking like a pool rat.

Took the elevator up to my usual courtroom and found a seat. They were already in the middle of calling names. If they call your name, you holler out that you’re there. The list goes on and on. If you’re late or you don’t hear your name, then later you have to get in line to go up to the clerks and let them know you’re present. Then you go back and try to find another seat since while you were up there, more people filed into the room and took up all available spots.

Some people are called up and instructed to go elsewhere to pay or get papers or hire a lawyer, then return. They go off, eventually come back, and climb over people to get to an empty seat. Lawyers wander hither and yon. Sometimes they know their clients. Most often they call out names and look to see who raises a hand. If your lawyer motions, you stumble over legs and make your way to the aisle, talk to your lawyer either in the aisle or out of the courtroom in the hallway. Then you come back and wonder if you’ll fit in that tiny spot between the young woman wearing the mini skirt, headphones and knee-high fur boots and the burly guy with the dragon tattoo peeking from his muscle shirt.

Eventually the judge comes in. We all stand. He sits. We sit. He chats with passing lawyers. “Good to see your smiling face.” “Like that tie.” “Where’ve you been? Haven’t seen you in a while.” The coming and going of attorneys and clients continues. And the judge sits. An hour passes.

I leave around 11:30. Not one single case has come before the bench. Almost three hours since I arrived. I conclude the criminal justice system seriously needs an efficiency expert to come in and do an overhaul. Surely some of that could be taken care of over the Internet. Couldn’t all the checking in be done in another room? Could the lawyers get there a little earlier to introduce themselves to clients and start negotiating the deals in the back rooms? Why is the judge having to waste so much time just sitting there waiting for something to get going?

I’ve gone up there to the same courtroom about four times so far and it’s always the same. And, no, I don’t plan on going back. I think I’ve learned enough.

But one thing it does tell you, and this is something you already know, start in the middle. Doesn’t matter what kind of scene your setting up -- courtroom, sniper attack, chance meeting of two lovers – don’t start with the mundane, the boring. Start with action or something very interesting. And that’s not always when the bailiff tells the courtroom to rise and the judge sweeps into the room. That could be a continuation of the boring. Start when the judge points at bench three and orders the bailiff to remove the wet-headed rat drinking a Diet Dr. Pepper and taking suspicious notes.

Idea Journaling

I’m not a dedicated journaler. I go through periods where I’ll write things down, but, unlike some friends, I don’t keep a journal religiously. I know it’s a good idea and it can be quite helpful in getting down your thoughts and feelings and in being able to remember them.

In a way, though, this blog and my newsletter, which I’ve been doing for seven years, is sort of a journal. But I am beginning to believe that some things should be recorded. I should write them down so I can use them some day in a book or story. This is the type of journaling I would like to do more of. Maybe I’ll make that my 2007 resolution.

I bring this up because of something that happened this morning. I’m going to record it for future use.

But first, a little back story. While my husband and I were gone earlier this year on a trip to Lake Tahoe, I believe (see, I’ve already forgotten exactly where we went; gotta write this stuff down), something happened here at the house. Luckily, my daughter had dropped by to pick up some stuff and she saw the incident. Our house is pretty much hidden from the street and we have a windy driveway. A FedEx truck pulled in to make a delivery. Then he apparently couldn’t back out. What he did was drive over a rocked cactus garden, completely destroying a huge what-we-would-call century plant with a probably ten foot flower growing up from it, then break a large limb from a tree.

This morning a DHL delivery truck did virtually the same thing, while I stood at the window watching. He saw me there, but just proceeded to back up into the front yard, then drive over the same rocked cactus garden. The big century plant is gone, but he managed to run over a smaller one, knock loose rocks from the wall, then kick up dirt and rock as he gunned the motor to get out of the garden. He knew what he was doing since the van rocked from side to side as the driver’s side bumped up over the rocked wall.

With a little time and patience, either driver could have maneuvered his vehicle until he was turned and in position to just drive out. But neither did.

Now, when I write the book, I have to decide whether to make the FedEx/DHL guy a serial killer or the bumbling doofus side kick. Or maybe a numbskull serial cactus killer.

Who Has the Power?

In the Arts & Entertainment section of the Post-Gazette online, Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg wrote an article about the efforts of a U.S. publisher to make a debut novel a best-seller. It’s a cautionary tale.

Publisher John Sterling with Henry Holt & Co. did its best. He acquired the book, The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfield, for $800,000, one of the highest advances ever paid by Henry Holt. “He committed his publishing house to a $500,000 marketing campaign, in which it printed 10,000 advanced reader copies at a cost of $17,000.” He prepared a huge marketing blitz, including author-meets with media and senior staff at Barnes & Noble and a $10,000 website.

Rubenfield’s agent, Suzanne Gluck with William Morris, “sold foreign rights to 31 publishers for more than $1 million.”

Rubenfield went on a 12 city book tour. Early reviews were good. Then they turned lukewarm. Then along came Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble began a new program called Barnes & Noble Recommends. With that program, they focus “all the retailer's employees on a single title. It includes in-store displays, promotions online and direct emails to customers.” And the book they chose? Not The Interpretation of Murder. They chose The Thirteenth Tale, which debuted No. 1 on the New York Times list. The following week, Rubenfield’s book dropped to No. 30 on the New York Times list. “Nielsen BookScan, which says it tracks about 70 percent of retail book sales, says "Murder" sold 12,400 copies in its first 19 days. Barnes & Noble alone sold nearly 15,000 copies of "The Thirteenth Tale" in only five days.”

And that tells it all. The power of Barnes & Noble. It can really boggle the mind.

Revolutionizing or Just Revolting?

I’m not sure if the UK is just catching up to the US or if journalist/blogger Bryan Appleyard is slow. His article in the Times Online this past Sunday touted “a novel use of technology,” which here in the states is neither novel nor revolutionary. He was writing about POD.

Here in the states, we tend to use the terms “POD” and “self-published” interchangeably. They’re not. POD stands for Print On Demand, a technology for printing books. Authors who publish their own books use this technology, but so do some small presses and even larger presses.

Mr. Appleyard was actually using the term POD correctly, because he was talking about all publishing houses turning to POD for producing books. But … he was talking about it as if it were some new, amazing thing that would revolutionize the book buying world. In reality, it’s been around for years.

His “news” is that he believes this new technology will do away with bookstores all together. And he is very happy about this idea. “High-street bookshops could soon be killed off by the greatest revolution in publishing since Gutenberg. They had it coming.” In talking about books being more readily available over the Internet, he says, “Infuriatingly, however, this did not destroy the bookshops.”

The man definitely has it in for bookstores.

And he may be right in that it will revolutionize bookstores. But this idea is nothing new, either. I’ve been hearing that since POD first began. But just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

Look at how the music industry has changed. When I was younger (which wasn’t all that many years ago, mind you), you went to a music store, browsed the records, CDs, tapes, and picked out what you wanted. Then it changed to where you could actually listen to the music before you bought. Now, look at how much that industry has moved online. My son still buys CDs, but a lot of his music is downloaded from the Internet and loaded onto his computer or his phone. I download music onto my teeny little music player that I can carry onto planes or use when I’m on the treadmill. The music industry has adjusted.

Bookstores may have to adjust to the new world. Certainly, authors will. But will it mean the end of bookstores as we know them? Mr. Appleyard says, “You will go into Starbucks, slip your credit card into a machine, order a book and grab a latte, which you will finish just as your book completes its printing and binding process.” He says bookstores will basically be little stores where you order a book and it’s printed for you, no browsing or leafing through pages. No books on shelves, taking up room, costing overhead. No returns and every book ever printed will be available within minutes.

He may be right. That’s certainly been predicted for years. But, am I as excited and gleeful over the idea as he is? Not really. I can adjust. I certainly have when it comes to working on my computer, researching over the Internet and downloading music. And I admit I buy books over the Internet. I haven’t actually downloaded a book, yet, but I have bought them from online stores when I can’t get into town to visit a physical bookstore or when my favorite store doesn’t have something in stock.

But I would miss going into a bookstore, gazing out over a field of shelves, browsing for a particular title and discovering a new author or series, turning the pages, reading the opening paragraph then scanning through the book at other passages. I would miss sitting in a comfy chair to look through several similar books to choose the one I wanted. Gone would be the chance to go hear an author speak and sign (we certainly couldn’t all fit into a hole-in-the-wall printing booth).

Our grandparents had milk delivered to their door by a horse drawn delivery truck. Most of us today have only seen pictures of such a thing in a history book. Sure, if the bookstore as we know it today disappeared, we could all adjust.

But change and revolutionary are not necessarily synonymous with good. Unlike Mr. Appleyard, I would not dance around the fire in celebration.

The Poetry of Women on Fire

Every once in a while, the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski invites their women clients to special events. So, last night I went to the Paramount Theatre here in Austin to see the one-woman show called Women on Fire, starring Judith Ivey.

Great show. Ms. Ivey did ten different characters, all unforgettable, all with wonderful stories to tell. She glided easily from one character to the next, no intermission. Each one had a unique voice and personality. Very few props. One chair on stage and a stool with a small case where she occasionally pulled out a hat or scarf to put on. Otherwise, it was just her, only you quickly forgot it was an actor as she became each woman.

That may have been it, end of story -- I went to the play and came home. But the reason I mentioned I went as a guest of F&J is because the evening was more than just a great show. Before the show, there was a reception with hors d’oeuvres and drinks. Then afterward, the 48 women who were guests went back upstairs to the reception area where Ms. Ivey joined us for questions, comments and her insights.

It was during this after-show time Ms. Ivey mentioned that, as believably as she seemed to inhabit the characters, she was not adlibbing at any point. Everything was memorized, and, no, she did not write the material. It was written by another woman, Irene O’Garden, and was, in fact material taken from a larger work involving words from thirty characters. What surprised me is that the material was written as poetry.

Ms. Ivey said that if you saw the pieces on paper you would see it as non-rhyming poems. I could see the poetry in each woman’s story, but had not thought of it as being written as poems. I thought it wonderful to know this little piece of information about the show, and about the writer, of course.

Today is the last day of the show. If you go, listen for the poetry. And take a friend with you. It’s a great show to share. And, yes, there were men in the audience.

Grand Master King

Out yesterday in The Hollywood Reporter – a press release saying Stephen King will receive the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. This is the highest award given to someone by the MWA.

I know there are some people who think King is a hack. And there are some who argue he’s not strictly mystery, but also horror and suspense. But then, I say, aren’t there plenty of mystery writers who are cross-genre or hope to be? And I think he’s done a lot to raise the status of mysteries and whether you like him or not, he’s a celebrity who promotes the genre. He’s also a best-selling writer and a star in the field. This trickles down to other mystery writers and benefits them as well. He’s also, as far as I know, never dissed the mystery field.

Once, when I conducted a workshop at the Art & Soul conference at Baylor University, I got to hear John Grisham speak. He was very interesting. I would love to hear King. However, I don’t think I’ll be going to the ceremony in NY next April.

I love getting to hear authors speak, whether they’re first-time authors or masters like Grisham and King. You can always learn something, gain insight, or feel connected to other writers. And they don’t have to be authors who write books similar to mine. Whatever genre they write, each writer has his/her own story, experiences and insights.

That’s one reason why, if you’re given the opportunity to speak at a book signing, do it. You’ll connect to the audience, your readers. And people are a lot more likely to come to a talk than just to a book signing. If you’re coming to the Texas Book Festival later this month, pick out one or two authors whom you think will be interesting and make a point of going to hear them. And if a local author is speaking at a bookstore near you, try to go to the event.

Writers never stop learning. I bet even Stephen King the soon-to-be Grand Master would agree with that.

Critiquing

Last month I signed up for an online critique class. It’s a one-time class with four participants and the instructor, Ray Rhamey. I think it will be very interesting and I’m looking forward to it. We’ll all virtually meet tomorrow for the session.

I’ve been doing my homework, which consists of reading the opening pages that we exchanged and making notes. I’ve made notes on the pages themselves, then also printed out the suggested talking points that Ray sent and made notes on each person’s pages there as well.

One thing I’ve found interesting is that by reading the first chapters (although the critique will only focus on the first five pages) I can’t tell the genre. And, thinking back to what I sent to the other participants, I doubt they could tell my genre.

You may know you’ve written a sci-fi or a mystery or a romance or a fantasy, but if nothing happens in the opening pages to indicate that (a murder or an elf or an overly handsome yet aloof man, etc.), your reader won’t know it. But, of course, they do. They picked your book out of the mystery section of the bookstore, or the horror section, or wherever, so they know what to expect.

Another thing I’ve found disconcerting is that in a couple of the manuscripts, I’m unsure of the time period. The setting appears to have features that could set it in the “modern” world of today or late twentieth century, yet there is an atmosphere of early 1900s. As a result, I feel a little un-grounded. Of course, this makes me look at my own material. Are my pages firmly set in the modern day? Maybe not in the first five pages. I think it reads as if it was in the present day, but it could be questioned until about page six when it becomes clear. I’m not sure how I would anchor my own pages in the present day in those first five pages, but it does give me something to think about.

This is why a critique group is a good idea. Of course it’s helpful to everyone in the group. But it also makes you think about your own work. Of course, you have to find the right critique group for you. That may not be the first group you join, or even the second or third. Find people you’re compatible with, yet who won’t just tell you how great your work is or tell you it sucks either. Find people actively writing and able to submit work to the group for review. I’ll do more on finding a critique group in another post, but in the meantime, I’ll see how this group goes when we meet tomorrow and let you know. My guess is that Ray is going to be a great facilitator.

Sign Your X Right Here

Today’s Washington Post had an article on handwriting, or, more accurately, on the diminishing skills in handwriting of today’s youth.

It came as a surprise to me that cursive handwriting is barely being taught in schools today. Being of the generation that learned it and actually took pride in penmanship, I assumed it was still being taught. I admit I don’t use it as much as I did before the computer came into common usage, but it still comes in handy when taking notes (faster than printing).

On first glance, you might think, so what? Nowadays, practically everyone has a computer or a laptop. A lot of us have PDAs for taking notes or tracking names and numbers. And they do, at least, still teach block writing. The Washington Post article, however, points to “research that shows children without proficient handwriting skills produce simpler, shorter compositions, from the earliest grades.”

Despite the studies, though, primary grade students today may receive only 10 minutes a day of instruction in cursive handwriting. The article noted one school where the gifted-and-talented third graders were taught cursive once a week. Not necessarily so they would be able to write it, but so they would be able to read it. Even at that age, they type their work.

But if the loss of handwriting skills affects the cognitive process, what does this mean for the future writers? Even for those of us who now do first drafts on the computer, we did, at some point, learn how to write in cursive. We received the benefit of learning this process. “The neurological process that directs thought, through fingers, into written symbols is a highly sophisticated one.” The article goes on to say, “Several academic studies have found that good handwriting skills at a young age can help children express their thoughts better -- a lifelong benefit.”

If this is true and if the trend of not teaching cursive continues or worsens, we will all see the results within a generation or two. Is this just another step in the trek of dumbing down America?

(Thank you to author Jim Gramon for sending the link to this article.)

Think of Your Writing as Art

I’m baaack! And I’m so far behind. Already. But enough about all the “stuff” I have lined up this week.

Los Angeles was a whirlwind. From the time I set down my suitcase to the minute Exton dropped me off at the airport to leave, we were moving. Mostly we were either walking or driving, from one end of L.A. to the other and back twenty times. We were even briefly on horseback, which is a tale for a book, at least the part about me getting off Margarita. Exton drives like a native Los Angelean, which means laid-back Helen spent a great deal of time gripping the door armrest.

It was four days immersed in art and I had a great time. We went to the Getty Villa and then on another day to the big Getty Museum, then to the Topanga Canyon Gallery, the Orlando Gallery, and several others, then spent a day at The Brewery Project at the big ArtWalk. The Brewery is a big complex of buildings where, according to Exton, thousands of artists work and live. Can you imagine thousands of writers living and working together in a big complex of buildings with lofts and studios? We’d probably all go nuts. Excuse me, nuttier. But, oh, the critique groups we could put together.

Walking through the Getty Museum, I was looking at paintings and thinking that, like writing, art is in the details. If you stand far back from one of the masters, it’s like reading a logline for a book or a query letter. You see the big strokes. A query shows the overall picture – the protagonist, the motivation, the conflict, your own passion. But it’s when you get up close that you see the artwork. The details, the fine brush strokes, the shading, the complexity. The brilliance. The uniquenss.

It’s interesting to think of your book as if it were a painting or a piece of sculpture. You know in your head what the overall picture will be, but you labor on the fine points, the details, the twists and turns, the layers. If it’s not working, you paint over it and start again or you do touch ups and color changes until it’s what you want. You add layers of complexity, obstacles for the protagonist to overcome.

Writing is an Art. That makes you, the Writer, an Artist.

L.A., Horses, and the Hollywood Sign

I may be offline for about four days. I’m heading to Los Angeles to visit a friend, Exton Quinn, and attend the Opening Reception for Exton’s gallery showing. Don’t know whether I’ll be able to find a computer to make posts (I can’t take my laptop on this trip).

Exton called the other day to ask if I was allergic to horses. Something about horses, riding, and the Hollywood sign. Hmm. I’m not allergic to horses, just to getting on one. Exton didn’t think that was much of an excuse.

So, if I’m not online for the next few days, I’ll be back. Perhaps with stories to tell. Hopefully, none of them will involve hospitals or police.

Starting a Book

Let's say you have an idea, but can’t figure out how to get started writing. What do you do to jumpstart yourself?

Usually, for me, the first step is researching. If there's any area I'm going to have to know more about, I like to research as much as I can before I get started. I know I'll be doing additional work during the writing of the book, but the more I can get done up front, the less interruption of my flow of thoughts I'll have later.

Don't feel like you're a train stuck on the tracks. While you research, keep a notebook where you can jot down ideas or comments on characters, scenes, plot twists, the book climax, so on. All the time you're working on one aspect of your book, you're thinking about other points. Sometimes I see characters doing things. (Usually this happens just before I fall asleep, which is why I keep a lighted pad and pen by my bed. In an earlier post I referred to it as focused dreaming.) Sometimes I hear a particular character's voice. (No, I'm not insane. At least not more than other writers.) Write down the phrases they use or their pattern of speech. If the setting is important to your book, you might begin to see the layout of the town or house or whatever. Go ahead and draw it out or make notes.

By the time you're through with your research and brainstorming, you'll probably have a pretty good idea of where the book is going. At this point, we could probably divide writers into two categories. Those who write extemporaneously and those who do an outline.

I'm in the latter group. I might write a few chapters, because I'm excited about the characters or plot and want to get started, or because I have the opening firmly established in my head. But I like to do an outline.

By outline, I mean a listing of the scenes or major events of the book, nothing formal with Roman numerals. This happens, this happens, then that occurs, and so on. One way to do this so it doesn't seem overwhelming is to start with the 10 to 12 major points of the plot. I'm talking about the big things that turn the story. That's not too hard, right? Just the dozen big scenes essential to the plot.

Then divide those plot points into smaller, necessary scenes. What has to happen before this first big scene? What five or six events occur before this next plot turn? What do I have to set up here in order for there to be a payoff later? By doing this you'll end up with 50 or 80 scenes or events. Your plot will be "fleshed" out. At this point in your preparation, you'll most likely begin to see what the theme of your story is. What the major goal of your protagonist is. You're beginning to really know your story.

Now, set it aside.

Remember, you're not a train. You can leave the tracks. Write your story. Let your characters talk, move, live. Watch your setting expand and flourish. Your outline is a guide. If you feel you've strayed too far from where you thought the story was going, refer back to it. If you realize you haven't a clue what should happen next, dig out the old outline and remind yourself of your original intention.

Or you can keep the outline in clear sight, tacked to the wall beside your computer. Refer to it daily, if you want. Just don't let it stifle your creativity. Sometimes you have to surprise yourself in order to surprise your readers. And sometimes your characters will surprise you.

So ... how do you start a book? Come up with a whiz-bang idea. Do research either on information you don't know, or on your characters or setting or dialect, or whatever you need to know for this book. Do an outline. Write.

Ah, if only it were so easy, huh?

Too Good to be True, But Who Cares

Apparently, a hoax can be so well pulled off that a publisher, even though the scam has been uncovered, would go ahead and publish the book. Such is the case for an author in England. According to an article in today’s New York Times, Rohan Kriwaczek wrote what he said was a nonfiction book, An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violin. He had papers to back up his story. He had pictures (including one supposedly taken in 1870 that looks a lot like the author). He had a website showing his credentials, like a degree from the Royal Academy of Music (not true) and a lifetime achievement award from the International Federation of Funeral Directors (a possibly bogus organization).

Ultimately, though, the book, due out in January 2007, was found out.

The result? Overlook Press intends to go ahead and publish it. Peter Mayer, Kriwaczek’s publisher at the American publishing house Overlook, acknowledges the book is most likely fiction, but doesn’t seem to care. “I just thought, whether it is true or not true, it is the work of some sort of crazy genius,” he said. “If it is a hoax, it is a brilliant, brilliant hoax.”

Man, James Frey picked the wrong publisher. ‘Course he got more than $1,800 for A Million Little Pieces.

Wave of the Future for E-Books?

An article came out today in Business Week Online. It’s called Free Downloads – After This Message and deals primarily with music downloads, but also concerns books, and therefore authors. For several years now, the music industry has struggled with songs being pirated on the Internet.

The answer to illegal downloads seemed, to me, to go in phases. First, the industry tried to educate the people doing the stealing, to show them they weren’t just stealing from a huge anonymous music publishing industry, but from the individual struggling (as well as big name) musicians. On a side note, here in Austin, the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World, there’s a push for a unified help for struggling musicians in the area of health care, who, since they’re self-employed, have to pay for themselves or go without.

Second, to try to stop the illegal downloads, the industry went through a phase where they sued those who downloaded huge numbers of songs without paying. They went after websites like Napster, but they also targeted individual downloaders. For a while it seemed like either you had to pay per song or download only those songs put up by the artists for free.

Third, at the same time, they tried to put in safeguards so that even if one paid for downloads, you couldn’t then share those songs with others. Movies were treated the same way on DVDs.

Now, we seem to have reached a new phase: music for free without fear of legal repercussions. Well, not totally free. The music comes with advertising.

And, as in the past, the book industry is paying close attention. Ads in books? Of course, some books already have advertising. You’ve most likely read paperbacks with advertising in the back for books by the author or by other authors of the same publishing house. This would be ads outside of that. The Business Weekly article said online sites where books can be downloaded would create user profiles so that “PDF-formatted e-books can be embedded with appropriate ads every 30 pages or so.”

WOWIO, one of the sites considering this idea, already has a lot of ads on their site. They have free books available, but they also have, for example, a contest of sorts. You “create a WOWIO account, download your favorite ebooks (including comics), then search through the ads. If you find a Golden W emblem, click on it to claim your prize.” This would take it a step further (which they’ve already implemented on some books) and put the ads inside the downloaded books.

Some questions here. Would readers continue to download ebooks if they have to put up with ads every thirty pages? How much revenue would these ads generate? How would the revenue be disbursed? How much goes to the site? How much to the publisher? How much to the lowly author? How much to however many middlemen are involved in the process?

And before you say no one really reads PDF books, think again. It’s becoming more popular and more companies are coming out with improved readers. And consider the book industry as a whole. Fewer books are being read. Just as the movie and music industry had to readjust to the changing world that includes the Internet, so does the book industry. The questions include how, when, in what way, and how can it be done fairly.

Crazy Sunny Came Home in a Fast Car down Suicide Alley

In the movie world of La-La Land (incidentally, hello to everyone in L.A.; I’m heading your way this weekend), screenwriters, when pitching their scripts, often describe their work in relation to other successful movies. “My script, One Dead Bluebonnet, is like In Her Shoes meets Crash.”

That type of association game is creeping into the book world, as well. “If you liked Geek Love and You: The Owner’s Manual, you’ll love my science fiction novel Beyond Copacabana.” Incidentally, this type of comparison rarely works unless you’re writing is really, really good and your book actually does combine central elements or emotions from the works you’re invoking.

For me, though, if I were going to compare a manuscript to other works, it would probably be songs. Whatever I’m writing, I seem to find relevant songs. I don’t look to songs for inspiration, though. In other words, I don’t hear a song and say, “That’s what I’m going to write about.” But I do hear songs and find in them bits of my own book’s story.

At times, a song will really resonate with me and I’ll listen to it over and over. If possible, I’ll rip it to my music player or laptop, then put on headphones and feast on it, singing along with it, trying to make sure I know every word (not easy with some songs), letting the emotions of the song wash over me.

While no one song parallels my work, when I find songs that reflect emotions or characters or settings in my book, I listen to them and begin to think of them as the theme songs for the book. Right now, for the manuscript I’m working on, the soundtrack includes:

1. Sunny Came Home by Shawn Colvin

2. Fast Car by Tracy Chapman

3. Suicide Alley by Shawn Colvin

4. Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

The soundtrack will probably grow, but those four are currently on my hit list.