Groundbreaking Books

The news yesterday and today about the man from Georgia with a strain of TB highly resistant to drugs who traveled from the US, all over Europe, Canada and finally back to the US has caught everyone’s attention. It’s certainly caught mine. Partly because it makes you want to head slap the guy for exposing so many people to the disease just so he could go on a luxury honeymoon. And partly because the whole thing exposes the flaws in what is supposed to be a security plan to protect the public from exposure to virulent diseases.

It really reminds you of the books and movies like Outbreak where one person had a disease which was quickly spread throughout the public. Of course, movies being movies, in the end the spread was finally stopped, thus avoiding total annihilation of mankind.

Isn’t it interesting that movies and books often are far ahead of their time? Writers discuss things that eventually become hot topics. They “invent” things for their books which later become reality. They use plot lines that seem unbelievable at the time or totally scary, which sets off alarms and causes society to change the way they think or do things. Often you see an author on national TV because of something she’s written in a book and now news media want to know if it could really happen.

Sometimes it can be scary when fiction becomes reality. But you have to be in awe of the imagination of writers

Book Hooks

It’s not easy to know where to end a chapter. As much as possible, you want it to end with a hook, something that will make the reader want to keep reading, even though it’s way past bedtime, even though they’ve got other things to do.

Some people say they end when the scene ends. Period. When the scene is over, they quit. But, let’s face it, sometimes a scene goes on too long. A writer can imagine the scene going on and on, people talking or fighting, looking at scenery, discussing other characters, whatever. Sometimes you have to take a hard look at what you wrote and ask if all that is necessary. Can you stop the scene earlier and create a hook, as well as making what is included in the scene more relevant?

If you feel you need it all in, even if it peters out and doesn’t have a hook, can you break it into two chapters? Find a spot where you can stop with a hook, then pick up in the next chapter, reworking it so it, too, ends with something that hints at things to come or leads in a direction that will keep the reader reading.

Everybody knows the first chapter has to end with a hook. A hook is just what the word implies – it hooks the reader into reading more. But each chapter is important. They won’t each have a huge hook like the first, but they should each in their own way make the reader want to keep turning pages.

My Heart's in San Francisco

Sent my daughter off to San Francisco today. Well, actually, I didn’t send her. I just waved as she drove away. It was absolutely wonderful having her here at home for the month of May while she packed and sorted through boxes to get ready for the move. First time she’s lived at home since she went off to college.

So, I was sad to see her go. But I didn’t cry. She’s grown now. I was a little scared since she’s going off to an unknown. Sure, she went away to college, but then I knew where she’d be and what she’d be doing – for the most part. But this is different. She’s an adult and I have no idea what she’ll be doing or where she might go. So, I’ll worry about her.

But this is an adventure for her. It may even be a little scary for her. But she’s up for the challenge. This is the child who went off to a college in a far off state where she knew absolutely no one. This is the child who went to Europe for the summer during college, got a job, made her own plans and living arrangements, and traveled all over the place. Without mom and dad. This is the now-grown child who may not stay in San Francisco since she still wants to travel to other continents.

This is a woman who would make a good protagonist in a novel. The lead character in a book has to have an arc. She already has one. She’s grown from a shy child to an adventuresome, beautiful, loving woman. Who knows where the next few years will take her … where the chapters of her life will take her … or in what new ways she will change because of the discoveries she makes along the way.

The Synopsis as a Class

Happy Memorial Day everyone. Thank you to all service men and women, past and present, who have served this country so valiantly.

I’m back from College Station. Had a good time at the Brazos Writers’ conference. One of the benefits of attending a conference is getting to meet other writers. All the members of the Brazos Writers group weren’t at the conference of course, but I met the ones who were – and they were enthusiastic and fun. I had about 40 people in my workshop and they, also, were enthusiastic. Great questions, interesting comments. And like any conference, those people who “work” the conference, setting up tables and chairs, readying the lunch and snacks, manning the book table, doing the nametags, work hard and are often not thanked. So, thank you to all the members of the Brazos Writers for asking me to speak and for making it a great conference and thank you to all the attendees for making it a great workshop.

I’ve done this workshop on The Synopsis: Four Steps the Ultimate SALES Tool before and each time I wish I had more time. I can present all the information in three hours and have time for Q and A, but it would be nice to have more time for individual and partner writing and more time for sharing and discussing the exercises. I could easily see this as a three or four week class.

Don’t know how many takers I’d get. The synopsis is usually a subject writers try to avoid. After this past weekend, I hope that’s not true for the people who came to the workshop.

Solving Problems

Didn’t get to post yesterday. We got a heavy rain storm and lost Internet service. Tried over and over to get online, but couldn’t make the connection.

We seem to be getting a ton of rain lately. That’s good because this part of Texas was in dire need of rain – lakes twenty feet and more below average. Now we’re back up to normal. Later in the summer it’ll get super hot and dry, so getting the rain now will help.

We didn’t lose power during the storm, but it was strong enough that everything blinked, just long enough to set things to beeping and for all the lights, computers, and clocks to go off. After I went around re-setting the time on various clocks, I discovered the Internet was gone. At first, I thought maybe it was just my laptop – it’d been acting up earlier in the day and I’d had to reboot about three times. But I checked with my daughter who uses a Mac and she couldn’t connect either.

During the night, while I slept, I figured out the problem. The answer was simple. The Internet wasn’t out; I just hadn’t seen the way to correct the problem until I let my mind work on it.

Our house is wireless. I can take my laptop and work anywhere. What I hadn’t thought of was that there is one computer in the house that’s not wireless. That’s my husband’s PC, the main computer in the house, the one that is the hub for all the others, the one where the DSL hooks up. When I’d gone around resetting things, I hadn’t restarted his computer, which had blinked off along with the clocks. That broke the wireless connection. Duh.

This way of figuring out solutions to problems is not new to me, or to a lot of people I suspect. When I’m writing, I often hit snags. The solutions come to me either while I’m sleeping or in those few minutes before I fall asleep. The problem then becomes remembering them the next morning. There are even times when I can’t see what the character will do next or where the story is going, so I’ll lay down and let my mind roam. Our house before this one had a pool, and I would do the same type thing – I would get in the shallow end and walk back and forth, back and forth, exercising, but also thinking, imagining, letting ideas come to me.

You can pick your own way – walking on the treadmill, mowing the lawn, working in the garden, meditating, whatever. Sometimes when you hit a plot problem, the solution isn’t to think about the problem, but to not think, to let your subconscious work on it.

Now if the rain would just continue its light sprinkle and not become another gully washer. I have to finish packing and leave for College Station for the Brazos Writers’ The Business of Writing Conference. Last thing I need is for the rain to pour and the low water crossing at the entrance to our subdivision to become un-crossable. That’s one problem my mind can’t fix on its own.

Resources for Writers

I’m teaching a workshop, The Synopsis: Four Steps to the Ultimate SALES Tool, this weekend in College Station, so, I’ve been reviewing my notes and getting ready.

I decided to add a handout of resources for writers. That means going through my books on writing and also finding sites about agents and writing. I used to maintain a website of over 50 pages. A lot of those pages housed the archives for my e-newsletter, Doing It Write. About seven or eight of the pages were links. When I re-did my website, I cut those pages out. Going from over 50 pages to about eight pages sure made the site more manageable. It also meant that before I put some of those sites onto a resource list, I had to check to make sure they were still viable.

Even when I still had the links on my website, they were constantly changing. Sites disappear, URLs change – most of the time I didn’t know a link was broken unless someone emailed me. I definitely appreciated it when visitors to the site let me know. I had literally hundreds of links, too many to keep up with.

So far I’ve got about three pages of resource sites, as well as books. I’ll need to quit tonight, print it out and take it to Kinko’s in order to make copies to take with me on Friday. The other handouts have already been sent to Mark Troy at Brazos Writers to be put into attendees’ packets.

Then, hopefully, I’m all set to teach the workshop. Yea! Who wouldn’t be excited about three hours talking about writing the synopsis and using it as a selling tool for your book?

Network and Learn

It seems like most of the writers I know are warm and willing to share and help other writers. Maybe this isn’t true of all writers or maybe I hang with a strange crowd, but it’s been my experience that writers are the kind of people who look back and extend a hand as they climb the ladder.

Networking and meeting new people are reasons why I like to go to conferences and workshops. It’s great fun to meet published writers and hear their stories and news. It’s also great to meet unpublished writers and find out about their manuscripts and struggles to get published. If you go to a conference and your main goal is to meet the agents and editors there and pitch your book, that’s fine. But don’t forget about the other attendees or speakers. You can learn a lot from them, and they most often are willing to talk and network.

You can also network with authors in your local area. Go to signings and readings. Get to know people. Make friends.

What brought this up is that yesterday I had lunch with a friend, Patricia Saunders. We’re both freelance editors and we both do classes and workshops. Hearing that, you may think we would be competitors, not friends. But … you’d be wrong. Just like writers can be friends, so can editors. You might be surprised to learn that we talked about classes and workshops we’re doing – Patricia will be speaking at the East Texas Baptist University Christian Writers Conference, June 1-2 – and even some of our clients (all good comments, of course). We shared ideas. We even discussed the possibility of the two of us getting together to teach a workshop or class.

I think it’s important to make friends and learn from each other. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking to writers you’ve just met, authors or speakers at a conference, your own critique group partners, or people who write in a genre you hate, you’re not in competition with them. You’ll learn, experience and enjoy things a lot more if your mind is open.

View from My Office Window

My office has a large window facing the front yard. When I sit at my desk, I look out that window. I can’t actually see much of the front yard because of the trees. But it’s a great view. Lots of birds flittering around, big, small, blue, brown, red. The occasional road runner. One time I was at the dinning room table and looked around to find a road runner right next to the window, staring intently at me.

In the mornings, there’s usually a rabbit. We tend to have standoffs. I don’t know whether he can see me – he’s outside in the sun, I’m inside in the dark – but he usually freezes and seems to be staring at me. I hold very still and wait him out. Eventually he goes back to munching then hops away.

Later in the day, the resident squirrel appears. Of course, it may not always be the same squirrel, but I’ve never seen two of them together. It’s always one. Swinging from the bird feeder. Leaping from trees to the roof. About two years ago, we had a hammock on the back upstairs deck. He totally shredded the pad and pillow. Ripped it open and stole the stuffing. We actually would see him running along the railing, his little mouth overflowing with stuffing. He probably had a warm home that winter. We’ve now got bamboo furniture with white cushions and pillows out there. I’m trying to keep an eye on it for signs he’s nesting.

We have deer too. Our back yard goes down to a creek bed and a small canyon. The other side is all trees, so we see deer following the trails. They come into the yard and often sleep in the front yard. Yesterday morning, I saw a mama deer and a teeny fawn in the back yard. The fawn was trying to nurse while the mama ate. Except for the long legs, the fawn wasn’t any bigger than our miniature Schnauzer. I went out on the back deck and took a couple of pictures, but haven’t downloaded them to even know if they’re any good. Eventually, the mama coaxed the fawn to follow her behind some trees.

This morning, about 6:30, we found a fawn in our front yard, curled up. I suspect it’s the same fawn. But the mama wasn’t around. We backed off without waking the deer. My husband did a little yard work at the other end of the lawn. The deer didn’t budge. It’s now almost 10 and the fawn is still there, although it’s raised its head to look around. I was glad to see it move; I was beginning to worry. Even though it’s alive, I’m still worried because the sun is well up and the mama deer hasn’t returned.

I keep checking on it with the binoculars.

And that’s my view from my office window. And before you ask, yes, it’s sometimes hard to stay focused on the computer.

One Wailing Slug

I have a blog; I write a weekly e-newsletter, I maintain my own website, and yet I know nothing. Nothing compared to young people like my daughter. She’s moved in with us for a month before she leaves for San Francisco. (Waaa … sorry, didn’t mean to let that motherly wail slip out.) She’s been going through storage and getting rid of mementos, sorting through old pictures, donating stuff she can’t take with her, etc. She’s only here for a little over a week more, then she’s gone. (Waaaa … sorry.)

She was off from work last night, so I skipped the second class with Karen MacInerney to stay home with Christi. Mainly, we sat upstairs and watched TV with our laptops. I should probably say that I watched TV and did a little work on next week’s issue of Doing It Write! Christi sat on the floor and worked on her laptop with an occasional glance up at the TV. She worked for hours.

I don’t know what all she was doing. I asked her once and she said she was sorting through pictures and picking out ones to be sent off to be printed. Another time she was on her email account. We have the same email provider, yet she somehow was making her emails appear in different colors, white, pink, yellow, blue. How and why she was doing that, I have no idea. For a while, she inserted music CDs. I assume to download them onto her computer so she could transfer them to her Ipod. She had said before that she wasn’t going to take her CD collection with her to California since she could download everything onto her Ipod – and she has tons of CDs. She’s also leaving her turntable here, along with albums. I don’t see how she could have loaded those, but if there’s a way, she probably figured it out.

She has a MySpace account, or so my son told me. I haven’t seen it since I don’t have a MySpace account. She has a website and she doesn’t need Dreamweaver to maintain it. She knows code. And, no, neither of her degrees is in computer science.

I’m a slug and she is amazing. Waaaa.

How To Write a Mystery class

Went to the first of three classes on How To Write A Mystery, led by Karen MacInerney last night at the Barnes & Noble Westlake (Austin). MacInerney is an experienced teacher. Not only is she an award nominated author, she teaches University of Texas informal classes, and she has the first in her second series coming out next year.

For the first class, she went into the basics, such as the essentials that have to be in a mystery and the best way to end chapters. She also provided time for the attendees to do a little writing. Toward the end, we all participated in a fun and informative brain-storming session on plotting a novel.

It sounds like tonight we’ll take what we learned on Wednesday and work on plotting a novel using her “book map” method.

Doesn’t matter whether you write mysteries or whether you’ve never written a mystery in your life, so far, this is a fun and interesting class. Even if you missed last night, you can still come tonight, get a handout and join in.

Whether I Can Stay Awake is a Mystery

Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Sometime after midnight we got a lightning/thunder/rain storm. That set off our dog. She’s scared witless of storms. She woke me up with her whimpering, whining, panting and carrying on. I gave up and put her bed up into my bed, then propped pillows around it to try to block out the lightning flashes. Did little to calm her. She crawled out and lay next to me, a panting, vibrating mass of fur. I moved her under the covers, then kept lifting the covers to get air to her.

I was beginning to drift off when the phone rang. My daughter. She’s living with us for about four weeks until she moves to San Francisco. She was down at the entrance to our area after getting off work. I should mention here that we live in a subdivision that has one way in or out. And it’s over a low water crossing which floods every time we get a big rain. She, needless to say, was stuck on the wrong side.

I threw on clothes and jumped in the car to check out the water level. It was at one foot, too high for her low Toyota. As I watched, the water kept rising and debris raced across the road in the fast moving stream. Within seconds it had risen so much I couldn’t even see the numeral “one” anymore. About that time she called again and I gave her the bad news that even my slightly higher Rav4 couldn’t make it. We debated what she should do. I suggested a nearby hotel or a friend’s house. She preferred sleeping in her car until it went down. In the end, I reminded myself she’s an adult, not a child anymore, and left it to her.

Couldn’t get back to sleep, though. Wanted to call and find out what she’d decided but didn’t want to do that if she was trying to drive in the pouring rain. Finally, about 2, I made the call. She was in her car waiting it out at the entrance to the area.

Around 4 she called again. The police had shown up at our area. I was surprised it took them so long to check out the crossing. But I shouldn’t have been. Frankly, we’re a low density neighborhood and don’t have nearly as much pull as the big subdivisions with so many houses, they’re close enough to shake hands without leaving their bedrooms. More people, more pull, more attention. Anyway, she was calling to say she’d decided to go to a friend’s house. She asked me to text message her when I got up and checked the crossing.

So, about 6:30 I drove down to the crossing and found water still going over, but it was passable. I stayed long enough to see a car go over, although the school bus was waiting it out.

Now, what is this all leading up to? I plan to go to the first of Karen MacInerney’s classes on How To Write The Mystery at the Barnes & Noble Westlake tonight. If I’m still awake by 7. If you’re interested in mysteries, the class is tonight, tomorrow and Friday. It’s free. It’s open to the public. It’s being taught by an Agatha nominated writer. And you can just show up without registering and can come to one or all of the classes. Hope to see you there. Poke me if I nod off.

Build a Marketing Database

Today I read an article that reminded me of the importance of marketing your book. Sure, all writers know you have to market and promote your book, but how many of us are actually ready to do that and are maximizing our efforts?

The article was Port Orchard’s Macomber Isn’t Known Well, Just Read Well by John Marshall, the book critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It was a phone interview with romance, or women’s fiction, writer Debbie Macomber. She has over 70 million copies of her books in print.

One thing that I noticed right away was this comment by Macomber:

I have a mailing list of 75,000 readers -- and these are not lists I have bought; every one of those readers has been in touch with me personally. Every city I am going to, I send out postcards to everyone on my list in that city and neighboring ZIP codes. I have a staff of three who help me with that. So I'm bringing a lot of people into the bookstores where I appear.
Now that’s being ready to market. Yes, she has staff to help her, but my guess is that she didn’t have help in the beginning of her career. Another guess would be that even without help, she started building her database of contacts.

That’s what every writer needs to do. Keep records of friends, acquaintances, anyone who might be interested in reading, especially in reading your book. Nowadays, we tend to keep in contact with people via email. But you can see the importance of knowing the snail mail addresses of your contacts. If you know their zip code, then you can contact them to let them know you’re coming into their area.

It’s important to start now. Even if you’re not published yet. Even if you’re on book ten. Start a mailing list. Build a database. And, yes, keep those email addresses as well. When you do book signings or talks, pass around a sign up sheet. When you meet and talk to people at a conference or event, get their business cards. Think about ways to build your database. As you become more well-known, like Macomber, your list will grow from those sign-up sheets, from fans emailing you. But even before you’re published, you can start on your list.

Once you’ve built a base list, keep adding to it. If you do it in increments, it’ll be a lot easier than if you suddenly have a book signing or a tour and you’re scrambling to come up with people to send notices to.

Political Correctness

Hope all the mothers out there had a nice Mother’s Day. Mine was wonderful. My son called from work and my daughter took me out for a movie and dinner.

We went to the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse. That is absolutely my favorite movie theatre. For those of you not in Austin, the Alamo Drafthouses have stadium seating, tons of leg room, and serve everything from popcorn to salads to beer to sandwiches. We went to their special Mother’s Day Dinner and Movie.

Every so often, they do these kinds of shows. It might be a new show, like Harry Potter where they plan the meal to fit the movie. For Harry Potter, they served Butter Beer, etc. They either serve things the characters in the movie are eating or serve food that fits the theme.

For Mother’s Day, we watched the movie It Happened One Night with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Since the two characters are traveling cross country, the head chef at the Alamo served a five-course meal, starting with Marlin in Mojo with MaLanga Fritas, then chilled carrot soup, then Boovashenkel, then peppercorn seared NY Strip, and ending with Almond Sponge Cake Topped with Citrus Cream Frosting and Brandied Strawberries. Each course came with a glass of wine chosen to compliment the dish.

I drank the first glass of wine, then just tasted the others. If we’d finished off all five, we would have been under the table.

The movie was good. I hadn’t seen it before. It’s a good lesson in how times change. This would be true whether you were watching a movie or reading a book written in that time. Although I’m not sure it would be as true if you were reading a book written in today’s time, but set in a different period. Today, we try to be so politically correct in both books and movies that we’re not always true to that past time.

There were places where Clark Gable would say things to Claudette Colbert, like referring to her as a little girl unable to make her own decisions, that would have my daughter laughing. You couldn’t really write a book set in today’s time period (and some writers would hesitate to even write a book set in the 30s) where men were portrayed as considering women rather witless. On the other hand, this movie had no cursing, no sex scenes, and was one you could take the entire family to. Very different from movies today. Not just movies, either. Look at the gore, violence and sex on TV. Consider the lyrics of music, both profane and disgusting. Don’t look, please, at the videos. Even books are becoming more gory and graphic.

A lot of it is a reflection of our time, of how things change over the years. Some of it is a testament to the deterioration of society’s commitment to morals and respect for all people. Each of us has to draw the line both in our writing lives and our private lives.

I do watch the CSI shows, although I prefer the shows like Heroes or Boston Legal. I do read suspense, as well as cozies and literary. I listen to pop music and the oldies, but not rap. I don’t watch music videos. I watch the news and the Sunday Morning News show is my favorite news magazine. But I’m tired of the entertainment fluff taking over the “news” programs. I do use some curse words in my writing, when it feels appropriate to the character, although I still hesitate and usually delete harder curse words.

I would rather censor myself than have someone else do it. But we do each have to use our own judgment when it comes to what we allow into our heads. I choose not to watch videos where women are degraded and treated as nothing more than sex objects. I’m tired of seeing bodies cut open and bullets ricocheting through tissue and muscle. I’m tired of police or legal shows where the main lesson learned is to never talk to the police except to say, “I want my lawyer,” and to never trust a police officer or lawyer because apparently they all lie.

Our children are exposed to this kind of trash at an earlier and earlier age, both in videos and books. What kind of damage is it doing to their core beliefs?

People Watching

I think I’ve mentioned before that I tend to be a people watcher. Last night I was at an event at the Barton Creek Resort & Spa. I’m going to things there five days this week because of the Alliant National Title Insurance Company’s conference and the Barton Creek Member/Guest Golf Tournament. I didn’t actually attend the conference nor am I playing golf, but I’m involved peripherally.

Anyway …

Last night was a mixer/cocktail party in the main clubhouse. The theme was Mexico, with a mariachi band, luminaries, various food stations from fajitas to beef to sea food to desserts, along with about four bars. This was the second day of the golf tournament, so most of the table hopping talk was about golf – scores, placement of the flags, swings, hazards, different courses, and so on. Golfers are serious people, except when they’re joking about their swings.

One guy, Nathan, said he hit his ball off to the left and it landed in the trees. Literally, in the crook of a tree. He decided to try to hit it out, except it was so close to another tree that he couldn’t get a good back swing. He hit it, it bounced off a tree in front of it and then bounced back behind him. He was so angry, he threw his club… which bounced off the tree and came back and whacked him in the face. Blood everywhere. He thought he’d broken his nose, but he hadn’t. He’d cleaned up by the time of the cocktail party and seemed none the worse, except for a story to tell.

Another guy, Wayne, was a smoker. That seemed to be how he spent most of his time. He’d go out on the balcony to smoke, then come in to chat with his friends at the table or to grab a plate of something, then go out to smoke again. I saw him more times out on the balcony than I did inside.

We were there with friends and sat at a table to talk and eat. Which was fun. The mariachi band came by and played right behind me. For about ten minutes I couldn’t hear a word that was said. They were good though.

By the time we went up to the ballroom, the band was finishing up. We listened to about three songs, then headed home. Tonight we go back again. This time for a cocktail party and sit down dinner. We’ll probably be at a table with new people, so I’ll have more people to watch and learn from.

May put Wayne the smoker in a book.

Celebrate for Authors

Some people have asked why I’m always happy when a friend gets published or has a new book coming out.

I don’t think any writer should be jealous of another’s success. When a new writer makes their first deal it’s exciting. They’ve worked hard to achieve that step. It’s also good news for every other unpublished writer. It means it’s still possible to get published. If they can achieve their dream, so can you.

And, believe it or not, getting your first book published doesn’t mean you’ll get a second, third or forth book published. So when someone does get more books in the pipeline, it’s cause for celebration -- for them, of course, but also for all other writers. It’s hope for all writers. Plus, it means books are still being published and bought. There are a lot of naysayers out there who say the book business is on the way out, especially print books.

I’ve got quite a few author friends – some whose books I’ve edited or consulted on, some not. But for every one of them, I’m happy when they have a book coming out or when they email or call to say they’ve made a deal or gotten an agent. How can you not want to jump up and down and yell when someone tells you they’ve achieved a step in their dream?

Stop and think of the authors you know. How many of them have books coming out this year? I couldn’t even name all my friends’ books due out this year. That means I know a lot of happy people. It also means that local authors are getting picked up. Not just the big name celebrities. Not just the major names already known around the world. There are some people outside of Hollywood coming out with books.

That’s another reason why I believe in supporting the authors in your area. Go to their events, buy their books, read the reviews in your local paper and write the reviewer to say thanks for reviewing a local author, let your bookstore know you want to see more local authors, give their books as presents, read their blogs, go to their websites, visit their My Spaces, do whatever you can to support them. Not only do they need your support a whole lot more than Paris Hilton or John Grisham, but some day you may be that new local author.

For every author, even the big names, be happy. For those you know, celebrate, whether it’s their first book or the ninth. And when your first book or you next book comes out, email me. I’ll do my Yippee Dance.

Dinner with Larry Gatlin

I’m gonna tell you about dinner last night. Before I do, I have to set the scene with a whole bunch of names. I went to dinner at the Alliant National Title Insurance Company conference. The dinner was sponsored by Guaranty Bank. The evening was called “A Hill Country Evening with Larry Gatlin.” And it was held at the Barton Creek Resort and Spa. Whew!

I was seated at the big muckity-muck table – chairman of the board of Alliant National, top guy at Guaranty Bank, president of Alliant National, and Larry Gatlin himself, among others. Let’s just say the conversation was lively and interesting.

At one point, Larry (or LG) was talking about his schedule, which is heavy on the travel side, including a trip to Greece soon. He mentioned that at home he has an office where he goes to write. Well, you know my ears picked up at that. I’m thinking memoir.

So I asked him what he was working on. Turns out he’s not working on his memoirs. He’s not even working on a book. He’s writing a musical about the life of Quanah Parker, the Comanche Chief. He said he’s written fifteen new songs for it. It sounds like he’s getting close to being finished with it and is working with people in New York.

Somehow I hadn’t pictured him writing a musical, despite the fact that he’s a Grammy winning singer. The play isn’t a comedy, but Larry is funny, both in conversation and on stage. I thoroughly enjoyed his performance, as did everyone in the audience.

You Can Be Too Organized

Do you consider yourself to be an organized person? An organized writer? You know, the answers to those two questions don't necessarily have to be the same.

I try to be organized in both areas of my life. Sometimes I pull it off; sometimes I fail. Sometimes I'm too organized – to the point of being anal. Take my newsletter, Doing It Write!, for example. I keep a copy of each issue on my hard drive. I also used to keep a hard copy in ever-growing notebooks, one for each year. I also maintained copies in my email folder. And copies of all the columns and web pages used to be up on my website ... and on my Dreamweaver program. Okay, even I thought that was overkill! I’ve pared it down to just copies on my hard drive.

My name is Helen and I’m a recovering anal retentive organizer.

Sometimes I think I worry too much about losing important papers or missing deadlines and appointments. I used to carry a heavy notebook/calendar in my purse. Now I have a small palm pilot. I used to put up a weekly calendar on the refrigerator -- until, after years of frustration, I came to the realization that I was the only person who ever looked at it, let alone wrote on it. Everybody in the family knew where I was minute-by-minute. I knew where no one was or what their plans were. Forget that!

I have a huge file cabinet in the garage with research papers, copies of manuscripts, left-over handouts from workshops and talks I've given, reams of paper I've wasted querying agents or writing proposals. At my desk is a smaller file cabinet full of those clear envelope folders, one for each project or committee I'm working on, manuscripts in progress, To-Be-Read papers ... and so on.

I'm so organized, I can't find squat.

I was looking for my folder I keep on important things (phone numbers, etc.). It's not in the file cabinet. I know it was there not long ago. Who moved it?

I wanted to work on a book idea I started about a year ago. Surely I saved it on my laptop, but where? Maybe I was working on the PC and saved it there. I'm sure I could find it on the zip drive back-ups or the diskettes in the safe deposit box at the bank (you never know when your hard drive will crash or the house will catch on fire), but surely there's a paper copy of it around here. Couldn't find it. Did find a couple of spare copies of some issues of Doing It Write! that I handed out at a seminar ...

Okay, I said “recovering” not “cured.”

Speaking of diskettes, I make so many edits while I write that I end up with about 15 copies of each project. You never know when you might want to review the original, right? As a result, I have this huge box of diskettes. I learned to date each diskette so I can keep up with which one is the latest version. They’re pretty much totally useless now since my laptop doesn’t even have a slot for a diskette. Of course, you need a paper copy of those versions. I used to even keep the edits my critique group did. Still, sometimes it's easier to scan through paper than electronic pages when you're searching for something in a manuscript.

The other day I found the complete notebook from a Board I served on years ago. Did I go through it, saving papers or information that might be relevant today and tossing the rest? Nah, I re-shelved it. You never know ...

Recovering? Ha! I've decided that I've gone from being this organized, lay-her-hands-on-anything person to being a first-class pack rat.

Anyone out there who'd like to join me on my block of cheddar?

Squeak.

A New Publisher

Here’s some good news in the publishing world. A new publisher is afoot.

I first read about Rager Media in a short clip in Publishers Lunch. So I started looking farther: read a piece in The Beacon Journal, then went to the home site for Rager Media. Rager Media is a fairly new publisher who’s making a name for itself. They launched in 2006.

The Beacon Journal article said:

“Their published works have been reviewed in respected national outlets that they feared would shun them for their size and youth.”

They also said:

“With low overhead and no debt, Rager can offer bigger royalties than its supersized peers.”

That’s good news.

One piece of not so good news is that word quickly got out about the small publisher. Even with the goal of publishing one book a month, they’re booked through 2009. The guidelines on their site say they only accept email submissions. Makes it easier on authors, unless you’re scared of sending off your book without a return SASE.

According to Rager, they want:

“to find the best material, regardless of reputation or publishing history.”

You can check out their website to get an idea of the books they’re publishing. If you’re thinking about submitting, keep in mind, your book won’t see daylight for a while. At this point, Rager is taking longer than most university presses, but not as long as some big publishing houses.

Productive Years

What do you think are a writer’s most productive years? I got an email today that said sixty to eighty were the most productive. While I can’t say for sure that’s right since I’m not there yet, I sort of think early twenties were mine.

I wrote a lot in college. Short stories. Poetry. Journals. Although I guess we should perhaps define “productive.” I’m thinking amount or volume. If we’re talking quality … well, maybe my college and post graduate work would not be the most “productive.”

If quality is the definition, then, hopefully, I’m going into those years now. And if things ever settle down a bit, I’m going to aim for volumes as well.

Texas Mystery Month is Here

Well, May is here. That means it’s Texas Mystery Month.

For those of us working for the last six months on this, it means one more committee meeting later today. After that, it’s events, events, events, then a final wrap-up meeting.

There are events going on across Texas, but the concentration is here in Austin. You can find out what’s happening here in central Texas by going to the website for the Austin chapter of Sisters in Crime (the Heart of Texas chapter).

Lots of authors participating. And it takes a lot of people to pull it together. There is the committee which does most of the legwork, but you also can’t overlook the bookstores and CRMs participating and coordinating events. And, in many cases, it’s the authors themselves who plan and organize their own events.

As for the committee – there’s someone who pulls together information on the participating authors and their books, then compiles it into a multi-page handout to be given out at the events. There’s someone who has to oversee everything, including working with bookstores and writing organizations who are interested in putting on events. I worked with the aspiring authors for the Barbara Burnett Smith Aspiring Writers Event to be held on May 20th. But if you’ve got aspiring writers, then you have to have mentors. So there’s someone who works with the authors, both those who are willing to act as mentors and those doing workshops or talks. That’s a time-consuming job.

We have someone who does the publicity for the chapter. This year we also had a professional who did media marketing – pro bono.

In fact, all the work is pro bono. It’s all volunteers. Even the author who is doing a multi-day class on writing the mystery. Even the author who is hoping to pull together a day of spotlighting aspiring writers with a reading of their in-progress work.

Like with any volunteer project, it’s difficult to find volunteers. If you’d like to get involved, go to the website and email the chapter to let them know that next year you want to help. Or go to an event and talk to someone.

Co-Authoring

There are problems inherent when any two people write on one project. Personalities, style of writing, ways of editing, acceptance of suggestions, differing visions for the book, who and how many readers, and on and on. I’ve written a manuscript with a co-author and we’ve dealt with all of those … and more.

In the end, the book got written, but our friendship suffered somewhat.

But there are also mechanical problems. For example, although we both work in Windows, we have different versions of Word. There was no point in trying to correct the font and style problems each time we sent chapters back and forth. They’d just change again any time an edit or correction was made, no matter how small. We won’t even get into the fact that I leave one space between sentences and she leaves two.

Any problems like these you might as well leave alone as you write, as you edit and as you give it out to readers. They’re going to make suggestions and then you’ll have to do more editing or re-writing. So wait until you feel really sure it’s done and ready to send out to agents or editors.

Then you’ve got the monumental task of one person making the corrections. Of changing the fonts, the quote marks, the spacing, etc.

It’s best if the two writers can somehow get on the same page software-wise from the beginning to avoid this hassle. I can first-hand recommend it.

And don’t forget, if you send it out to agents and don’t get a positive response or you get some guidance from one of them, thus leading you to decide to do more editing, you’re gonna have more corrections to make.

This is a big problem for co-authors. And yet it’s small compared to some things that can wreak havoc on a friendship.

Check Out Blogs

Today, I’ve been doing a lot of catch-up. Some things around the house, but mostly work related things. Over the weekend, my husband and I finished the shelves in my office closet. The ones we cut, painted and put up were the ones designated for office supplies. So this morning, I started arranging things on them – paper, notebooks, sticky notes, other supplies. Had to go to the grocery store. Then did some work stuff for my husband, who’s out on the road. That involved multiple phone calls, sending emails, working within Outlook, which I don’t particularly like, but am getting used to.

Then I had work to do on my website. I was browsing through it yesterday and realized I had let it get outdated in some areas. So I brought it up to date, then added new side links. Then uploaded it all.

Then I had emails to answer. Part of that involved re-visiting the sites I had tagged in my last blog post. That was fun. Most of the five blogs I noted as Thinking Blogs had posted their own blogs of note. Therese with Writer Unboxed had gone beyond the call and listed more than five. I knew of some of them, but the majority were unknown to me. So I had lots of blogs to go visit. And some to bookmark to go back to again.

Not only is it fun to find new, interesting, blogs, it’s inspiring to see what other people read -- what they consider blogs that make them think. If you get a chance, go visit the blogs I listed. Check them out and see if they’re something you would want to bookmark. Then, if you have time, visit the blogs chosen by the ones I tagged. See if you can come up with some Thinking Blogs of your own. Ones that you enjoy, read, pay attention to. Ones that make you think … or laugh … or wonder … or want to write.