Clarification from HarperCollins

A couple of days ago, I wrote a post called “HarperCollins’ Author Assistant.” One comment on that column was from “anonymous.” Don’t know who anonymous is, but from the content of the comment, it sounds like someone representing HarperCollins.

In case you read the post when I first put it up, but haven’t returned to read the comments, I thought I’d post what Anonymous wrote. S/he cleared up a problem I had with the site, specifically getting into the authors’ sites on HarperCollins. Basically, the URL I had was for authors to sign up with HC’s Author Assistant program. Visitors wanting to see the author sites have a different URL to browse.

The only other thing I’ll add before letting you read the comment post is that in points 2 & 5, s/he used the acronym SEO. SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.”

Okay, here it is:

Wanted to step in to clarify things :)

1) The harpercollinsauthors.com site is where the authors go to log in and access the tool for creating web content. Since the press release we've seen confusion and so are changing the login box to reflect that.

2) Once authors update content, it goes to an in-house managing editor to look over (they suggest SEO type changes but generally just copy edit) and then goes live immediately.

3) The consumers/fans access the sites by typing in http://www.harpercollins.com/authorname for example you can go to www.harpercollins.com/teresamedeiros to see her new site and all the content. For the list of 40+ authors go to harpercollins.com and look at the press release. The authors are listed in it with links.

4) The idea of having a publisher create the tool is so the content becomes database driven and therefore it can be used not only on the author site but also the imprint/genre area, the hc homepage and maybe syndicated in the future. It allows the publisher to cross market and expand the fan base of authors.

5) As far as SEO. Of course authors will be found by those typing in their names or book titles. BUT isn't a goal to reach those who do not know about you? How about the romance fan that loves paranormals and wants more but doesn't know who to look for? By using great meta information, teaching authors to use key words in their text and headers, etc. their chances of being found in alternative ways grows exponentially.

6) Authors using the AA tool are encouraged to list all of their titles and recommend authors and books that are not HarperCollins. Fans love an author, not the house. They should see the whole author on the web, not a part :)

Anyway, hope that's helpful.

The Writer's Character

Writers often get asked how much of themselves show up in the pages of their books. Writers, on the other hand, often have to say that they are not their characters.

The truth is that rarely is a fictional character based solely on the author. But this is not to say that authors don’t put something of themselves in everything they write. They assign their beliefs to different characters. They use their own knowledge or skills for characters. Different characters display emotions of the author.

That really scary book? Good chance it’s based on a nightmare of the author. If it’s not one he/she had at some time, it’s one s/he’s thought out and put on paper. That fantasy character who can become invisible and watch people? The writer perhaps dreamt that as a child or wishes the ability was real as an adult.

It’s not all “write what you know.” If we only wrote what we knew, we might have only one book to write. And it might be rather dull. But that statement could hold water if you took it to mean write what you can learn. You put in not only what you already know and believe, but what you can research and learn.

A bit of the author is in every book s/he writes. But so are a lot of other things.

HarperCollins' Author Assistant

According to a recent Publishers Lunch, HarperCollins has launched a web-based tool called Author Assistant. It’s a way for their authors to communicate with fans online. In other words, another marketing tool for authors. It’s starting with 40 Avon Romance authors. Those authors will be able to create web pages with features like bios, blogs, Q&A, photos, links, and widgets.

According to Carolyn Pittis, SVP for Global Marketing Strategy and Operations, they plan to add other features in the future, including a video component. Pittis recognizes that a lot of authors are already working on an online presence, but says:

authors are not experts on search engine optimization. The point of what we're trying to do is to use the author's content to cross-market them within our network.

The good news is that HarperCollins says the authors will own any content they create for their pages.

You can find out more at the Avon site.

One thing I find annoying is having to register. There are so many sites where you have to sign up that there’s no way I could remember my sign-in name, let alone password. If they want you to connect with their authors, they should make it open and visible to the public. Yes, I know they want to capture the email addresses. They can do that without making you register. Having to sign up puts a block between author and reader.

Book Reviews in the Sunday Paper

More good news for writers! I don’t even subscribe to the San Jose Mercury News or the Contra Costa Times, but I’m happy to report that the Contra Costa Times will once again carry book reviews in the Sunday paper!

Why? Because readers spoke up about the reviews being removed from the paper and put online instead. They not only spoke up, the paper called it an “outcry.” The people DO have a voice after all.

Here’s what Sue Gilmore, the Times Book editor, said:

So many of you expressed such deep disappointment -- and I believe a "D" word was deployed in every single missive we received via voice message and e-mail -- that we have restored our third books page to its apparently rightful place at the back of the A&E section.

Readers not only spoke up, they threatened to switch papers. The decision makers at the paper listened and said:

We are very happy today to return to the paper the full complement of book news, interviews and reviews you have been accustomed to for years.

Power to the people. In this case, the “people” were readers.

Texas Book Festival Update

Happy Monday to one and all.

Thought I’d give an update on the Texas Book Festival, coming up November 3rd and 4th of this year. In case you’re new to Straight From Hel, I’m what they call a Chair for the Festival. That means I oversee some aspect. In my case, it means I oversee the events taking place at the Austin Museum of Art.

The Festival itself is huge. Hundreds of speakers, thousands of visitors, tons of exhibitors, and hundreds of volunteers. It started off basically taking place on the capitol grounds. Each year it expands. Last year was our first year to hold events at the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA). This year, there are also new events taking place off the capitol grounds, but nearby. You can park and walk to just about everything.

And no matter what you like to read, fiction or nonfiction, or what genre you prefer, mystery or romance or sci-fi, or whether your ninety or nine, you can find something to do, an author to see, a tent to explore. And except for a few things like the Gala, it’s free.

The committee met last Thursday. That was our next-to-the-last meeting before the Festival itself. As you might guess, we do a lot via email. But it’s always good to get together to ask questions and discuss things. Until you become a part of the committee, you have no idea what all goes on behind the scenes. It’s mind boggling. Seriously. My little chunk is easy. The staff does the major load of the work. But there’s only three staff. To pull off the Festival, it takes volunteers. About 900 of them to be exact.

You can go to the website and get more information on who is speaking. The schedule of events is not up yet. It probably will be up by this Friday, so come back then to check it. And come back to check it before you head downtown to attend the Festival. Inevitably the schedule changes. Authors drop out or get added, rooms get shifted, times get altered.

And be sure you check out what’s going on at AMOA. We’re only a few blocks down Congress from the capitol, so it’s easy to drop by to see a panel or to say hi. Here are some of the speakers scheduled to be at AMOA: John Dyer, Stephen Fox, Bill Wittliff, Cory Locke, Bill Crawford, Chuck Bailey, David Friend, Alan Pogue, and Melissa Miller.

The good news for me is that I get to see every one of those people. The bad news is that I won’t get to see anyone else appearing at the Festival since I’m at the AMOA from opening to closing. But, then again, I’ll get to see you. If you stop by and say howdy.

300 Posts About Writing!

Woo-hoo, let the confetti drop. This is post number 300. And they said it’d never happen.

Actually, the only one who said that was my dog and I don’t speak fluent dogese, so she might have actually said, “Give me a treat. Now.”

I meant to make note on the date when Straight From Hel turned one year old. But I forgot. That would have been one month ago in mid August when I was about to leave on my trip to Montana and Wyoming, so it slipped through the cracks.

The good news is that this blog has not slipped through the cracks. I’m still here and you’re still here. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and commented. Some of you have commented here on Straight From Hel; some have emailed me personally. Either way, I appreciate your support.

I’m going to try to do more author interviews in the future. Not only do I like hearing what authors have to say, I think others do, too. I’ll start putting out feelers to authors I know. But I’m open to those of you out in cyberland who are writers and would like to contribute to Straight From Hel either as an interviewer or interviewee. Email me or comment here.

And if there’s something you’d like to see on the blog, let me know. I’m open to all ideas. Well, maybe not all. I do get some strange spam in my ebox.

But here we go … we’ve passed the 300 mark. On to 500!

In His Own Words, James V. Lee

Nonfiction author James V. Lee has been active in the literary field all his adult life. He traveled the world teaching writing. He’s written and co-written multiple books. He’s also the Senior Editor and owner of Salado Press. For the past year, he’s written monthly essays for the Dallas Morning News.

He’s also been a friend of mine for years. As his time with the Dallas Morning News comes to an end, I wanted to ask him some questions about his books and essays. Today is Part One of the interview.

GINGER: What made you decide to write Nine Years in the Saddle, the story of your father?

LEE: My father walked out of my life when I was age three. His desertion was not well received by my mother, her family and all of their friends. As I grew up, his existence was just ignored, so I knew nothing about him. After everybody affected by that event died, I decided to find out what happened to him. I tracked him to Springfield, Mo., where he was alive and well at age 81 with this third wife. After he and his wife met me at the airport in Springfield, we went to his house, sat down in the kitchen, and I started the conversation with the question, "Well, Pop, what've you been doing all these years?" He had just retired and told me something of his successful business dealings. But he really became animated, and I became captivated, when he began to tell me about his years as a young cowboy in New Mexico and Arizona from 1930 to 1939. On the flight back home, I knew I had a story that would fly with many people, and I knew the title was going to be Nine Years In The Saddle.

GINGER: You not only write books, you help other authors get their stories into print, even to the extent of co-writing. When co-authoring a non-fiction book, is it difficult to suppress your own ideas and meld with the other author?

LEE: I don't even attempt to inject my own ideas into the subject's story. I want it to be as authentic as possible. The subjects' stories are a little slice of history from the viewpoint of these people. That's important to the schools that have used these books in the classroom. I do dig into the minds of these people and draw out information they had overlooked. I also use the internet to verify facts, dates, and other relevant information. For example, in the book When Surrender Was Not An Option, George Crawford, the subject, didn't remember the names of some of his fellow crewmembers on his B-24 bomber that was shot out from under him. I not only got all their names; I also got their ranks.

This interview will continue next Thursday here on this blog, as well as in my free e-newsletter, Doing It Write. In the meantime, you can find out more about James V. Lee and his books – Nine Years in the Saddle, Escape from Korea and When Surrender Was Not an Option – on his website.

Can I Get Some Support Here?

You may have the most fascinating, debonair, capable protagonist of all time, but he still can't carry the story on his own. He needs help. He needs supporting characters.

What would James Bond be without the people behind him? Who would Sherlock explain his theories to if Watson wasn't there? How effective would Big Brother’s Danielle have been if she hadn’t had the totally wacko Evel Dick to do her bidding?

But you can't just stick people into your story willy-nilly. They have to have purpose and importance.

You probably already have your protagonist. You know why he's there and what's he's going to do over the course of the plot. You know his or her arc and how it fits into the theme of the book. Now, who does he need to accomplish all you've set out for him? Who will mirror or contrast her? Who will take on the task of giving the reader information so that the main character doesn't end up lecturing or pontificating?

Think first of who would naturally be around your protagonist. A teacher needs students; a father has kids; a CEO oversees underlings; a produce clerk has managers and customers. Then think how these people can be used to show the status of the main character, how they can shine the light on him or her that illuminates the qualities you want the reader to see.

Subordinate characters do more than just reflect the importance of the protag, though. How do they convey the theme of your book? Keep in mind that they can help demonstrate the theme, while also representing different sides of that theme. No theme has just two sides. It's not all black or white. You know the theme of your book; now consider the different angles to that idea, the varying statements each secondary character could make about that theme. Once again, they are helping the protagonist carry the story. But, while they're doing it, they don't have to all be just like the main guy or clones of his beliefs and emotions.

You want variety in the make-up of your story people. They don't all look alike or sound alike. Each has a different background or upbringing. It's only logical that each would also have his or her own attitude and value system. Consider your theme or message. How would the protagonist see this theme? What would he think or do? How does it affect him? How does she change in relation to this theme over the course of the plot? Now, do that same thinking for each character. See it from each one's viewpoint and personality. Sure, some characters are similar to the protagonist -- we tend to be drawn to people who hold a value system akin to our own. Remember, though, opposites attract. But while we have the extremes of black and white in our lives, we also welcome all the *gray* in-between.

And, of course, secondary characters can give out information. Just make sure that information carries the story forward, rather than bringing it to a halt. You don't want your protagonist lecturing the reader on things he or she already knows, nor do you want the secondary characters to do that. But if you've got to get stuff across to the readers, sometimes it's better to have a side-kick do it.

You want secondary characters in your story, but they need to have purpose. They're not just there to add color or fill in the background. They can give so much more to your book. They can shine a light on the protagonist (and the antagonist, incidentally) that highlights the good qualities as well as the faults. They move the story forward. They have importance.

We all want to feel important. Even if we're only side kicks. Maybe especially if we're side kicks

NY Times Bestseller Lists

This is interesting. The New York Times has changed their Fiction and Advice Bestseller Lists, Publishers Lunch reported today.

First off, they split their paperback fiction list in two. They now list mass-market fiction and paperback trade fiction. Plus, they’ve upped the number of listings from the top 15 when it was one list to 20 listings in each of the two fields.

In addition, they’ve upped the number of entries in the hardcover and paperback listings for advice/how-to/miscellaneous from five to ten.

Publishers Lunch said:

In all, there are now 110 official weekly adult NYT bestsellers, up from 70 in the previous presentation.

While other papers like the Los Angeles Times are cutting their book reviews, the New York Times is upping theirs. The reason? Revenues. Matthew Flamm at New York Business, says:

Meanwhile, ad revenue at the Times Book Review grew 10% last year, according to vice president of business development Todd Haskell, and is on track to grow another 10% this year. Book-related ad revenue online is up 131% year to date, Mr. Haskell says.

Flamm quoted an unnamed “top executive at one of the major houses” as saying:

It’s completely ad driven … People want to buy a position next to the lists.

This is good news for writers. Hopefully, this trend will catch on with other papers and instead of cutting book reviews, they’ll increase. Plus, more categories for the NY Times Bestsellers List mean more authors can achieve this benchmark.

POD

When people think of POD or Print on Demand, they usually think vanity-publishing a book. A writer gets his book ready and pays a company to print out however many copies he wants (to put it simply). If he sells or gives away those and wants more, he orders more from the company. But POD is not limited to vanity publishing. Some small presses use the same type machine to produce books. Even larger houses can have these machines.

Actually, POD isn’t the same thing as vanity printing. POD refers to the machine that prints the books. Even so, POD still puts a sour taste in most people’s mouths. It’s so associated with vanity printing of books that the two are almost synonymous. And yet … POD will not go quietly away.

Every so often you’ll read about how POD machines are going to come to bookstores. You want a book not stocked? Wait five minutes and they’ll print it out for you. Need something to read on a plane? Stop at your local coffee shop and have one printed out while your latte is made.

There are a lot of issues associated with POD, though. One thing is the cost. A machine can cost $100,000, then you add on the maintenance and supplies. Not many local coffee cafes can afford that. Then there’s the copyright issues and royalties to authors. How would authors get paid? Would they get paid? And if a book can be printed out at any time, does it ever go out of copyright? Would an author be able to get the rights back and try to resell the book?

All these issues are still being worked on. And in the meantime, the POD machine is still being worked on, as well. In yesterday’s Chicago Tribune, Stevenson Swanson wrote a piece about a POD machine on display at a New York City library. It’s called the Espresso Book Machine -- ready to print any book, provided there’s a digital file of it.

The Expresso Book Machine prints the pages, while a color copier prints the cover, then it’s clamped, glued and trimmed, and popped out a slot at the bottom. Sort of like one of those vacation-spot machines that would stamp a coin and drop it through a slot for kids to awe over then lose.

It’s fast. It’s convenient. And for authors, it’s still scary.

Seeking Cover Blurbs

A couple of years ago, a subscriber to my newsletter, Doing It Write, asked me this question:

Helen, what do you feel is the proper protocol for seeking cover blurbs from a big name author? I'm trying to do some of these myself in addition to the ones my publisher will be doing, so I'm curious. When writing to, let's say, John Grisham and you don't have his address but you do have his agent's address ... would it be proper to matter-of-factly tell the agent to forward the galley to the author? Or should you write the agent a cover agent begging him to do so and attempting to persuade him to do so? Should you add the additional postage that may be required? What are your thoughts?

I emailed him back and don’t think I ever even put my reply in the newsletter to share with others. But I stumbled upon the question recently and thought I’d update my answer and put it here:

Unless you know big-name authors, you'll most likely have to go through their agents. And it will be difficult to get to them since they get so many blurb requests.

I would write the agent and neither direct him/her to forward the ARC nor beg. Go inbetween. Tell them what you're looking for and why you are seeking so-and-so to give you a blurb. (A little flattery or ego-boosting goes a long way, but don't overdo it.) Look at it from the big-name’s viewpoint. What about your book would make him want to recommend it? Not just that you think it’s fabulous. Are you writing in the same genre and even the same sub-genre? Have you researched this author and you know this is the kind of book he likes to read? Did you go to high school with him? Don’t think just about what a great coup this would be for you to get his rec, but what benefit he gets out of it.

Here are a couple of other ideas on how to get to Mr. / Ms. Big Name Author:

Keep in mind the old seven degrees of separation, too. Talk to friends and fellow writers. They may be able to hook you up with someone else who can connect you to someone who can .... eventually get you to said author. Afraid of hurting feelings of your friends? Lay it on your agent -- he wants you to contact John Grisham. Or ... get your friend to do a blurb as well. They may not make the cover, but they might rate a page on the inside. And if their blurb doesn't get used? Apologize. They’ll most likely understand that you’re not always the one in control of what happens on your cover.

Have you been establishing a relationship with your local bookseller? If so, good. Those CRMs or those in your store who set up book events know people. When they bring in big or well-known authors, they work with the publicist. They maintain databases of authors and their publicists. But they're not going to give up info to just anyone.

And, finally, when seeking cover blurbs:

Don't overlook less well-known authors who are on the verge of breaking out. They have fewer people asking for a blurb and by the time your book comes out, they may be a household name.

Quill Book Awards

Ya know, we don't hear much about the Quill Awards for literature. Admittedly, they're only a few years old, but it seems like authors, literary bloggers, and others in the field should be touting them.

The Quill Book Awards seem to be trying to bring attention to books the same way the Academy Awards glamorize movies and movie stars. This year's awards, which will take place on October 27th in New York will feature high profile presenters like Tiki Barber, Brooke Shields, Marlo Thomas, Ann Curry, Stephen Colbert, Mary Higgins Clark, Jonathan Groff and others.

They'll be held at the Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. And this year, for the first time, there will be a limited number of tickets available for the public to purchase.

But best of all, you and I can vote on the Book of the Year. Just go online if you want to see the list and place your vote. You have until October 10.

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone got excited about books? As excited about them as they do about TV reality shows?

If I remember right, the Quill Book Awards were broadcast the first year, but hardly anyone watched. Last year, it was apparently broadcast by NBC Universal stations. I never saw it, but you can watch a clip on the Quill Book Awards site. Now, I know when they broadcast the Oscar awards, part of the draw is seeing the movie clips. And when they show the Emmy awards, you get to watch TV stars cry in their dramatic moments from the soaps. But what everyone is really looking for is to see what the starlets are wearing.

You can get that at the Quill Awards. They dress up. They walk on stage. They give acceptance speeches.

Come on people, let's celebrate authors for a change!

A Week of No Lying

I have a group of women friends – we call ourselves the Irregulars. Most of the group has decided to go a week without lying, or at least try to. Long story as to why we’re doing this – it has to do with a book one woman in the group is working on.

Anyway, this is the week. We started Monday morning. How have I been doing? Well… it depends on who you ask. See, that’s the problem. Although we had a discussion on how to define “lying,” we didn’t come to a consensus. Some say anything that is not the absolute truth is a lie. If someone asks you, “How are you?” And you automatically say, “Fine,” it’s probably a lie. More than likely you have an ache or you’re tired or some such. If someone asks you to go to lunch and you say you’re really sorry, but you can’t, you have to examine that statement. Are you really “really” sorry? Or are you actually not all that sorry?

If you tell a joke and both you and the person you’re talking to know it’s a joke, was it a lie? For example, one person in the group was at work and met up with a fellow co-worker who was unloading heavy boxes. He suggested they change jobs for the day. She said, sure, let me put this in my office and I’ll be right back. He was kidding. She was kidding. They both knew it. But she said she told a lie because she had no intention of coming back, regardless of whether he knew that.

I say that wasn’t a lie because there was no intent to deceive. But if you agree that even jokes are lies, then I didn’t last an hour on this experiment. But other than jokes, I’d say I’ve done pretty good. ‘Course it helps that my husband left Tuesday morning on a business trip and I’m alone in the house with two dogs who have no sense of humor.

This does bring up another question, though. Every person in my Irregulars group is a writer. So, for those who write fiction, does this mean we have to go all week without writing? After all, the definition of fiction is not true. Hmm, don’t remember that coming up in our preliminary discussion of what constitutes a lie.

Don't Fall for a Scam

You’ve probably been hearing about the mortgage loan crisis, even if it doesn’t affect you. People getting trapped into ballooning mortgage payments. Sure sometimes they were greedy. Sometimes, though, they were scammed or flat out tricked. They thought they were signing for a flat low rate, only to find out they signed papers where their payments ballooned. Maybe they wanted that house so badly, they weren’t as vigilant as they should have been.

That can happen when you really want something and have dreamed about it and worked toward achieving that dream. And here I’m talking about writers wanting to get their book published. Nothing wrong with going with a small press or even going the route of self-publishing, if it fits your needs. You can even go with a vanity press – that means the writer pays someone else to publish the book – but you have to be very careful you’re not getting ripped off.

Most small presses are legitimate, but you have to check them out, just as you would check out your agent if you went the traditional route.

Self-publishing can be hazardous and a lot of hard work. You work with a cover artist and pay them for their work. You go to a binder to get the book bound. You hire a copy editor before it goes to press. You have to get your ISBN. There are a hundred steps that you do yourself. But you see these steps; you dole out the money to make the book a reality.

With a vanity press, you basically say, here’s my money (and that can be in the thousands), you do it for me and send me the finished project. If you’re going to turn over five, ten, thousand – even more – you better be sure you trust the person running the press. You better investigate their past publications and check with former clients. You better look for them in scam alert sites online.

If not, you may end up losing a lot of money and getting nothing in return. Read this cautionary tale, called “Literary Dreams End in Litigation” from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

My Editing Process

When I edit a manuscript for a friend and/or client, I go through a process very different from when I just read a book. For me, editing is nothing like reading for pleasure.

Usually I get the manuscript via email in a Word document. Often I’ll ask for a hard copy to also be mailed. I start with the emailed copy. It’s in standard submission form (12 pt. font, preferably Times New Roman or possibly Courier New, double-spaced, one-inch margins). First thing I do is turn on the Track Changes option. Then I start reading.

Unlike when I read for pleasure, I read slowly, word by word by word. I’m looking for errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, even things Word won’t catch for the writer, like the use of “their” when “they’re” was needed. I make corrections and add comments. Both of these will be visible to the writer and they can accept or reject my changes. I’m also looking for continuity problems, like an unexplained eye color change or sometimes a change in a character’s name. As crazy as it sounds to non-writers, things like that can happen. I ping on phrases or scenes that bug me. If they bother me, they’ll probably stop a reader. Particular uses of words stand out. And that’s usually okay. The problem is when I notice that same phrase repeated three, four, times. A wonderful turn of words loses its impact the third time.

And when I’ve read through the entire book, I take a break, then start over. Reading. Noting. Marking. Then when I’m done with the second read, if I have the hard copy, I start reading it. That’s because I – and I know this is true with other people because they’ve told me – see different things when I read on a computer than when I have the paper copy to peruse. Any new things I see there, I transfer to the Word copy, and it’s ready to go back to the writer.

After three reads, I know that book backwards and forwards. Not.

It’s rather like walking into a forest and cataloging each tree – height, girth, shade span, type, color, bark – then emerging and being asked to paint a picture of the forest.

This really came home to me recently. Months ago I did an edit for Diane Fanning for her latest book, Bite the Moon. There wasn’t a lot to catch, she’s an accomplished writer nationally known for her true crime books, one of which was a finalist for an Edgar Award. Bite the Moon was her first mystery novel. Then a couple of weeks ago I got a copy of the actual published book. I took it with me on my recent vacation.

I read it not as an editor but as a reader. For pleasure. For fun. Quickly. Savoring the wording, the phrases. Discovering the twists and turns. Yes, I remembered the plot, I knew the characters, I’d been to the different settings of the book. But it was new, different. It was fun.

If I were her publisher, I’d nominate it for an Edgar. Not because I edited it. As I said, I had very little to do with it. I’d nominate it because it was good, because the settings were real, the characters alive, the words flowing like a stream, bubbling in places, frothy in others … and because it captured me – someone who had already read it twice.

Jan Grape and Rick Riordan

On the flight home from our trip to the northwest, I had a book in the briefcase, but it wasn’t easy to get to, so I grabbed the Southwest Airlines magazine, Spirit. I was happy to discover there was an article titled, “Put the Mystery into Your Travel.” So, I turned right to it.

The article is about mystery authors who are very good at setting. They establish “place” almost as another character. So much so that readers can almost use their books as tour guides.

I was excited to see that two of my favorite authors were listed for Texas. Representing Austin is a friend of mine, Jan Grape. They listed the first book, Austin City Blue, in her series. For San Antonio, they recommended Rick Riordan for his series starring protagonist Tres Navarre. It was so much fun to see them there and getting the recognition they deserve. Considering the thousands of people who fly Southwest and that the magazine will be in each seatback for the entire month, this should be great publicity for all the authors listed.

I emailed Jan and Rick the next day, congratulating them. Haven’t heard from Rick, but Jan emailed back. She didn’t even know about the article!

Happy Sales to both Rick and Jan, both of whom are great writers.

Author Patsy Ward Burk on Traveling and Reading

Concerning an earlier post on always having books with you (and last week’s column in Doing It Write), especially when you travel, I heard from Patsy Ward Burk. Patsy and her husband travel in a 40-foot double-slide motor home, pulling a rag top Jeep. Wow! She said:

I refuse to buy a lap top even though I still have an I.O.U. for one that my hubby gave me several Christmases ago. I know I would stay on it all the time and miss out on scenery and reading.

Concerning always having a book nearby, Patsy wrote:

I take whatever book I'm reading with me wherever I go -- doctor's office, drive-in bank, picking the grandchildren up from school -- literally every place I go. Helps in Houston traffic when the freeway comes to a standstill because of a wreck. And I always have several in our RV when we travel -- for when I'm not driving or navigating.

I have cloth covers (I'm on my third as I've worn out two) which I made several years ago for all my regular sized paperbacks and my family doctor once said, "Haven't you finished that book yet?"

My motto: A person who doesn't read is like a day without sunshine.

Patsy is currently writing the sequel to her first novel "The Knife Struck Four." The working title is "Storm Rage." (Some of the same characters, but a couple of new killers.) She also has another book in print -- "Face of Betrayal."

She added:

I don't get as much writing done now as I did before hubby retired (not enough alone time) and we're not home as much since we travel in our RV.

Now, don't we all feel sorry for Patsy, not having as much time to write as she travels the states seeing the country, sometimes taking grandkids? She even said she hasn't been on an airplane since 1999. Just think of all the airport strip searches she's missed out on.

Thank you Patsy!

Books and Gallery

One thing I like to do when traveling is visit local bookstores. Haven’t come across many independents on this trip, but I did see two in Sheridan, Wyoming. Sheridan is not that big, only about 25,000 people, but for Wyoming, that’s a fairly large city. Not only did Sheridan have two bookstores, they were on the same street, only a block or so apart.

The one I’ll mention today is called Books and Gallery. If I remember right, it was at 206 N. Main Street, right in the hub of downtown, on the same side of the street as King’s Saddlery and close to the Mint Bar (both famous places in Sheridan).

Books and Gallery isn’t huge, but it’s a nice size with lots of books and a fairly large children’s section. Not a lot of comfortable chairs for checking out books or reading, but there was a couch in the back of the store. I liked the store as soon as I went in because it was well lit and seemed cheerful. That might have been due to the people in the store who were laughing and talking to the proprietor.

If you’re going to Sheridan, check out their interesting website, then stop by the store.