NaBloWriMo

I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo, but this will be my second year to take part in NaBloWriMo - National Blog Writing Month. I believe the only rule is to blog every day for the month of October.

There’s even a NaBloWriMo site where the participating bloggers are tracked. You can join, if you like. If you miss a day, you don’t get kicked off and no one comes after you with a sword. Just do a make-up blog.

I like to use NaBloWriMo to find new blogs and to get to know other bloggers. If you want to participate, go to the NaBloWriMo blog. You’ll find an address in the sidebar. Email Amy (or theoldecrone) and tell her you want to sign on. Do it today, though. We start tomorrow.

Textbooks

This past Friday, I was talking to a friend whose son is in middle school. She’d recently been to Back to School Night (and wondered, on a side note, why in the world back to school night happened a month after school started). She found out that the school has no textbooks. (No, this is not some progressive private school, but a regular school district school.) No textbooks, she wondered. When asked how they learn stuff, the teacher said she spends her Fridays making copies of the next week’s work for all the students. Okay, my friend thought, this cannot be saving money or the environment if each teacher is printing out thousands of pages of material for the students to look at. And since the students work on the sheets then turn them in, they have no textbook or worksheets to take home and refer to, so what happens if a student doesn’t understand something - they have nothing to study at home.

The good news is my friend plans to get more involved in the school and her son’s classes. The bad news is she’ll have to take off from work on Fridays. She’s going to offer to do all that copy-making for her son’s Math teacher so she can figure out how this is possibly going to work. Apparently the school considers it a success since, although it’s my friend’s son’s first year at this school, it’s not the school’s first year to use no books.

Maybe some colleges have a better idea.

The Jacksonville Observer ran an article about the University Press of Florida and Florida colleges.

Pay $200 for a O-chem book at the campus bookstore or $0 for an online version? Tough choice? Not really. And it may become a reality for some Florida students in the near future.

Right now they only have about 90 books in their listing, but they’re working on more. Students get the book online for free and can refer to it as much as they want or download it to their computers.

Research released by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that students spend an average of $900 per year on books. And they don’t always get a lot of that money back.

Many bookstores will buy back books, but at a significantly lower cost than what they were sold for originally. Some stores will not buy certain books back because they also come with a CD that expires.

Of course, there will be those students who want or need a physical copy of a book.

And for some students, who will still prefer to have a physical copy of the book, they can pay a much lower price to have a hard copy printed and bound. However, it will be a paperback, and not the typical hardback textbook normally sold in stores.

Clearly, not every title will be available. Some may never be. But it’s a start. Maybe this will be a catalyst to getting my friend’s son some textbooks.

Story Circle Network Conference

If you write memoir or have ever thought of writing about your life or family, then you probably know about Story Circle Network. If not, let me introduce you.

The Story Circle Network is a national not-for-profit membership organization made up of women who want to document their lives and explore their personal stories through journaling, memoir, autobiography, personal essays, poetry, drama, and mixed-media.

SCN’s headquarters are in Austin, Texas, but they also have an Internet chapter, Story Circles in local communities, online classes, book review website, e-letters and a mentorship program. Plus they have a national conference every other year. Story Circle Network was started by author Susan Wittig Albert in 1997 and has been growing ever since then.

In February of 2010, they’ll be holding their fifth Stories from the Heart Memoir Conference. It’ll take place at the Wyndham Hotel in Austin. The Keynote Speakers will be Heather Summerhayes Cariou and Mary Gordon Spence. If you come to the conference, find me and say “hello” or come to the panel discussion I’ll be moderating. “My” panel is called Getting Published. Panelists include: Matilda Butler from California, Kendra Bonnett from Maine, Susan Tweit from Colorado, Linda Wisniewski from Pennsylvania, and Laurie Buyer from Texas. The conference has four different tracks. Getting Published is part of the Nuts & Bolts track. The panelists, with all their knowledge on getting published, are the bolts that make the panel strong. I am the nut.

Don’t think, though, that this is your usual conference where you come, sit and listen. Almost every talk or panel is interactive and presentations are more like workshops. You can also sign up for Open Mike night on Saturday to share a story, poem, art, dance or whatever you want to do to present your story.

So, if you write memoir or have thought about it, check out the schedule and register.

Word Puzzle

Decided to do something a little different for Sunday. A friend sent this to me so I thought I’d test you on your word skills.

See if you can figure out what these words have in common.

1. Banana
2. Dresser
3. Grammar
4. Potato
5. Revive
6. Uneven
7. Assess

No peeking at the answer. Or have you already given up? Give it another try…

Look at each word carefully. You’ll kick yourself when you discover the answer…

This is rather clever. (I can say that since I wasn’t the one who came up with it.)

Answer: No, it is not that they all have at least two common letters….


Answer: In all of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word.

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone. And watch your words.

Book Review: The Third Option

I’ve started reading Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series. Last Saturday, I reviewed the first, Transfer of Power. I really liked it and right away started the second in the series. I’ve finished it and started the third. But today… I’m reviewing the second, The Third Option.

This one I wasn’t so enthused about. I still like Flynn enough that I’m continuing in the series, but The Third Option was not as fast-paced as Transfer of Power and, frankly, not much happens in The Third Option.

The long-time director of the CIA is dying and powerful people who want to control the CIA don’t like his chosen successor and to get to her, they’re going after Mitch Rapp. (That’s my summary of the back cover blurb. It’s also the entire book summarized in one sentence.)

Very little gets resolved and even less happens. You meet new characters who apparently will be ongoing in the series. He brings back old characters who appeared in the first book. He goes into some of the behind-the-scenes closed-doors plotting that goes on in D.C. So, it’s not boring - just slower than I expected after the very fast-paced first book.

I’m hoping the third book has me raving again about the Mitch Rapp series. I’ll let you know.

New Strategies

In the past, we’ve talked about publishers being a bit slow to jump on the e-book wagon. They now seem to be trying to get onboard and looking for new innovations (or re-working old innovations). While surfing around, I found an article in BussinessWeek called Publishers Try to Learn to Love the Web.

Some of it was old news - publishers are selling digital versions for e-Readers. Yeah, heard that before, although this was interesting:

Across the publishing industry, revenue rose 1.8%, to $3.71 billion, in the first half of 2009, according to the Association of American Publishers. In the first half of 2009, e-book sales reached $61.2 million, up from $24.6 million a year earlier, the AAP says.

Keep in mind, though, those figures include things like textbooks.

… Cengage Learning … has found that selling digital copies alongside physical books has done little to erode demand for physical books…. Cengage sells digital versions of its textbooks online for about half the price of its physical titles. It also sells individual e-book chapters for as little as $1.99. "It's one of the fastest-growing parts of our business…

Here’s a couple of new ideas, though. Some publishers are catering to businesses.

O'Reilly and Pearson Education run Safari Books Online, a service that lets budget-conscious companies and universities make certain digital books available to large pools of users at a time. "In this economy, the business is a little stronger because when people cut their training budgets, this becomes a cheaper option," says Paige Mazzoni, vice-president of marketing at Safari, which boasts more than 15 million users and expects revenue to double this year.

And here’s an idea that, although not totally new, was news to me:

Some providers of Netflix-like book-reading services hope to enter revenue-sharing agreements with publishers as well. Take Paperspine.com, whose users can keep books for as long as they want, then mail them back to get new ones for a subscription that starts at $15 a month.

Just last Friday, we discussed a guy doing something similar for his own book. He urged buyers of his book to pass it on to friends (who would then voluntarily send him money) and the cycle would continue until the book wore out. Not exactly like Netflix. If I were a fast reader and didn't like to save books, then a monthly subscription for books might be a good idea. Hmm.

Reading Reviews

If you’re wondering if your manuscript will stand up to published books and to an agent’s scrutiny (or his first reader, otherwise know as s/he-who-builds-the-reject-pile), then you might want to make a habit of reading reviews.

First of all, find reviewers who write reviews that you trust. I would recommend you start with reviews in Publishers Weekly. PW reviews in different categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Children’s. Each category has sub-categories. Choose the category that fits what you write and then read the reviews on a weekly basis.

Publishers Weekly reviews that are starred are ones the reviewer gave a high rating. One thing I like about a PW review is that the reviewer tells you what he didn’t like. Of course, if they were reviewing my book, I wouldn’t like that at all, but we’re talking learning from reviews not analyzing my anger issues.

Let’s look at three reviews from Publishers Weekly’s Fiction Book Reviews: 9/21/2009

First a snippet from a starred review for Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler:

Tyler's gift is to make the reader empathize with this flawed but decent man, and to marvel at how this determinedly low-key, plainspoken novelist achieves miracles of insight and understanding.

What can you learn from this? How about: it’s okay to have flawed characters. Sometimes, as writers, we forget that readers don’t have to have perfect characters. Flawed can be good as long as those flaws are balanced. If by seeing those flaws exposed, we (readers) gain insight into ourselves and understanding of that character’s actions and behavior (and, thus, ourselves), then flawed is good.

Here are two lines from a review of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman:

Unfortunately, any hint of trouble is nipped in the bud before it can provide narrative tension, and Hoffman toys with, but doesn't develop, the idea that Cecelia could inherit her mother's mental problems. Madness, neglect, racism and snobbery slink in the background, but Hoffman remains locked on the sugary promise of a new day.

What does this tell us? It tells us that this reviewer felt that the author was afraid to let go and explore hard issues. Maybe the author wanted to keep the book upbeat, quirky and fun. The reviewer, however, wanted the issues brought up to be explored deeper. To me, that says if you dance around the hard stuff, there will be people who don’t like your dance or who think your happy dance doesn’t fit the music your book is playing.

And lastly, here’s the closing line from a starred review of Then Came the Evening by Brian Hart:

Most impressive is Hart's ability to conjure rich and conflicted characters in an uncommon situation; his handling of the material is sublime.

Look closely at that line. It tells us that this reviewer liked the characters (as did the reviewer in the first example, which was also a starred review) - s/he called them “rich.” Notice also that those characters s/he liked were “conflicted.” (Remember that the unstarred review in the second example pointed out that the author had not tackled the difficult issues.) Notice also that the reviewer liked that the author had put the characters in an uncommon situation.

Those are mere snippets from three out of many reviews for that week’s book releases. By reading reviews, you see not only what is coming out in your genre, but what pulls in a reader and what pulls the reader out of the story. In just these three pieces, you can see how important fully developed characters are and how, as an author, if you hint or show dark places in your book, you then have to go into those dark places and face the fear within.

How many of you read and analyze reviews? What have you learned from them?

There Are Book Parties, Then There Are…

Book parties. You and I might throw a book launch party -- at our local book store or wine shop or church or whatever would fit our book. We might have punch or a cake with our cover on it. Maybe a band or background music. We’d invite friends and sell books.

Then there’s Dan Brown’s book party.

That’s a horse of a different color, as they say in Emerald City.

Wanna know how to party like Dan Brown? You might want to read the Los Angeles Times article recapping his party.

He and a few hundred of his friends celebrated at Gotham Hall in New York on the day of The Lost Symbol’s release.

Symbols from the book's cover were projected high on the walls. Catering staff wore bright white George Washington-style wigs. "Lost Symbol" cocktails were offered in oversized martini glasses, followed by champagne for toasting. Delicious finger snacks came by. A White House cake was on display, then sliced up for dessert.

In addition to a few hundred of his friends, there were some others there.

… Random House's biggest bigwigs -- Knopf-Doubleday Publisher Sonny Mehta and Random House CEO Markus Dohle -- were there, getting thanked by Brown from the stage.

Carolyn Kellogg, who wrote the article, likened the event to the Oscars. Brown cracked jokes and thanked everyone.

What he said, mostly, was thank you. He thanked everyone in the food chain of his book, from his wife, Blythe, to his agent to the audiobook crew and the production staff.

Kellogg noted that his talk and book launch had more in common with the Oscars and the movie industry than just his long thank yous.

… the concern is that he's the only guy who's in the running. The movie industry couldn't survive on Meryl Streep alone; the publishing industry might benefit from nurturing more of its own demi-stars to fill out the program.

Nurturing authors other than the obvious best-sellers? Not a new concept. It’s something we’ve discussed before here on Straight From Hel. I love that Dan Brown has another mega-seller out. I want there to be sales of books. I love books. I love reading. I bought The Lost Symbol. I want to read different kinds of books. I can live without celebrity regurgitations and political tell-alls. I don’t want to live without authors whose series I love but who are in danger of being dropped because they’re mid-list, or new authors who must sell a mind-boggling number of books their first time out or they won’t get a second chance, or friends who’ve written beautiful but quiet books but don’t have a platform that will net them thousands of sales.

I’m with Kellogg. I hope the publishing industry nurtures authors who are not mega-stars. Dan Brown wasn’t a star until he became one. I hope the publishing industry keeps looking for new stars. There are lots of them out there working to be discovered.

Books: Sitcom or Drama?

If you were writing the script or pitch for a new TV show centered in the publishing world, would you make it a comedy or a drama? Do you think you could sell such a show?

Someone did.

Gail Lerner, writer of Will and Grace and co-executive producer of Ugly Betty, has sold CBS on the idea of a comedy centered on a book editor and her friends.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the show will be called Open Books. In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, Lerner said:

“Publishing is a lot like sitcoms. Although both are supposedly dying, that only makes people more passionate about creating the next great novel or show.”

What do you think about this idea? Would you watch it? Will anyone who’s not a writer, editor or connected to the publishing world watch it? Would you have written a comedy or a tragedy, a romance, or some other genre?

Traveling Dragons

Yesterday, L. Diane Wolfe of Spunk on a Stick honored me with two Dragon Awards. Thank you so much.

Diane is both an author and a professional speaker. She’s also generous with her advice and news, plus she promotes other authors on her blog. Diane writes the Circle of Friends books. Stop by and see her blog and leave her a comment - and check out her series.

The first award was the Heart of a Dragon Award. Here’s what Diane said about this award:

The Heart of a Dragon Award is a very special award for the blogger who inspires you and/or others to go above and beyond or the blogger who helps keep us all connected.

Here are the rules:
1. Post the award on your site with a link to the person who gave it to you.
2. Pass it on to the blogger(s) who inspire you and list why they are receiving the award.
3. Post a comment on their blog.

I’m going to pass the Heart of a Dragon Award to two wonderful bloggers:

1. Sylvia Dickey Smith of Rules to Live By
Sylvia is a terrific author. On her blog, she writes introspective pieces that make me think and look inside myself.

2. Lisa Gurney of My Life as a Daughter
Lisa may not pass on this award since she’s taking a break from blogging, but I still want to give it to her. Her blog is the amazing personal story of her journey taking care of her mother who has Alzheimer’s. She’s honest, caring and, I think, an incredible person to share her life and feelings with the world.

Diane Wolfe also gave me The Dragon’s Loyalty Award:

The Dragon's Loyalty Award is an award for the loyal fan/commenter, whether the recipient is a fellow blogger or just a someone who follows and comments regularly.

Here are the rules:
* If you have a blog, post it on your blog with a link back to the site who gave it to you.
* Leave them a comment on their site, email, etc. to let them know.
* If you don't have a blog but have a website, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or other type account, post there with a link back.
* Pass this on to 3-10 loyal fans.

Again, thank you for this honor. If Diane hadn’t already received it, I would pass it on to her. There are so many of you who stop by daily to say hi and join in the discussion on Straight From Hel, it’s difficult to narrow the list down to just a few. I’m going to award three people:

1. Stephanie Faris of Steph in the City
Stephanie writes romance and young adult and blogs about her pursuit of publication, as well as other fun stuff like celebrities, dating, short fiction pieces, and some very funny pictures. And somehow she finds time to stop by Straight From Hel, bless her pea pickin’ heart, as we say in the South.

2. Elspeth Antonelli of It’s A Mystery
If you’re a writer, make sure you follow Elspeth. On her blog, she offers advice about writing. In the last couple of weeks, she’s blogged about characters, genres, killing off characters, friends who think writers sit around all day doing nothing, titles and more. Luckily for me, she also comes by Straight From Hel and adds her 2 cents, which, even without the sagging economy, is priceless.

3. Laura Eno of A Shift in Dimensions
In the “About Me” section of Laura’s blog she says, “I write and write some more. Did I mention that I write?” She blogs once or twice a week, and each one is worth reading, like the day she did headlines that should have had an editor. Or Flash Fiction Fridays. Or the day she passed on an award to the wonderful Tomara, then gave ten reasons why she follows/stalks Tomara. I’m very glad Laura stops by Straight From Hel - I look forward to her comments and her avatar (a cat on an open book).

And there you have it. I’ve passed on two awards to a total of 5 people. Those wonderful bloggers can pass the award on - or not. It’s up to them. I’m always honored and amazed when people give me an award, but I know some choose not to pass it on. And that’s fine. Either way, I think these are five bloggers to check out, if you aren’t already familiar with them. Tell ‘em hi for me!

The Reading Hour

It’s Sunday. For most of us, Sunday is an “off” day. A day to relax, read the paper, watch sports on TV, go to church, and call Mom. I’d like to propose that Sunday become a time to read.

Maybe an hour. Maybe two. Everyone in the family gathers in the living room, picks a book, and reads. If the kids are too young to read, then an adult reads aloud to them. There could even be family discussions on a book that everyone reads.

I grew up reading. That was before online games, Wii, texting, and cable television, though. I’m guessing here, but I don’t think there’s as much reading for pleasure anymore.

There are benefits to reading. You learn. You can experience other cultures and other viewpoints and learn about history through compelling characters. Your vocabulary increases. Your spelling improves. I dare say reading makes you smarter. Plus, if you do it as a family, even though you’re reading silently to yourself, your family ties are closer than if everyone’s off doing his or her own thing.

So, I’m calling for a Sunday Family Reading Hour. It might just give a whole new meaning to “time out” -- for the kids and for the parents.

Book Review: Transfer of Power

My husband discovered Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series. As soon as he read the first, Transfer of Power, he started searching for the rest. He’s now on number 4, I believe.

I finally found time to start the series. I finished Transfer of Power last night and immediately started on the next one.

If you like fast-paced political thrillers, you’ll like Transfer of Power.

Mitch Rapp usually works alone, but he’s not a loner. He works for the government, but he’s so deep, few know about him. He doesn’t just do what he’s told to do. He thinks. He plans. He does what has to be done -- what others wouldn’t or couldn’t do.

In Transfer of Power, what he has to do is retake the White House. Terrorists have taken hostages, booby-trapped entrances, blocked communications, and have control of everything, except the President. Secret Service managed to get him to his bunker. The clock’s ticking, however, on how long the President can hold out. Rapp’s handlers will have to deal with the politicians. His job is saving the President and killing the terrorists.

Flynn’s writing is sharp and the action moves quickly. He gives details on buildings, passageways, equipment and maneuverings. I have no idea what he’s made up and what’s real. And it doesn’t particularly matter to me. He makes it all seem real and possible.

In this book, Rapp’s not totally alone. He has two side-kicks, one planned and one unplanned. Both characters are fully developed. And Rapp is as well. He’s not a one-dimensional soldier, which makes him believable.

If you like fast-from-the-beginning, high-concept political thrillers, give Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp a try. I recommend Transfer of Power. I’ll let you know how the second in the series fares. (I’ve read the first few pages and it starts out strong.)

Want to Borrow My Jaded Glasses?

Somebody has on his Rainbow Glasses and I fear he will get rained on. I’m willing to lend him my Jaded ones.

According to The Manchester Journal, Tom Pope, has written The Trouble with Wisdom and will sell it for less than it costs him to print. He does, however, intend to make money on his book.

You can buy his book at his website or in a store that has a Print On Demand machine. You pay $5. When you finish, you pass it on to someone, who goes to Pope’s website and pays him $5 and then signs their name in the book. When that person finishes the book, she passes it on to someone else, who goes to Pope’s website and pays him $5 and so on. When the book is too worn out to pass on, the last person reading it tears out the signature page and sends it to Pope who posts it on his website. Voila. He figures he can make probably $30 per book through these readers who voluntarily pay to lease his book.

Anybody remember music sharing on the Internet? Anybody else see the need for some new glasses for Tom Pope? Mine aren’t pink with sparkles, but I think they’ll help. ‘Course, it could be that I’m from Texas and we don’t give away our horse for a wink and a promise.

Making Books The Drug of Choice

Joanne Rendell with the Huffington Post has an idea I like. She proposes that the publishing industry follow the lead of the drug industry if it wants to be successful. To quote her: “Publishing industry, listen up, it's time to sell reading."

Indeed.

Instead of putting all their rapidly declining marketing dollars behind single authors and their new releases (think of those rather dull ads on the subway or in magazines which feature an author's grinning face, a book cover, and a few generic "thumbs up" quotes), why don't publishing companies run campaigns which would make reading itself a desirable lifestyle choice? Why not help craft a new, exciting, and sexy "reading" identity for people to aspire to?

She admits doing this probably goes contrary to the established practices of the publishing world and confesses she’s not a marketing person. But she does have some ideas:

New spaces need to emerge where people will meet and discuss books and, importantly, be seen and respected for discussing books. TV and movies need to show sexy readers, much like they showed sexy smokers back in the day. Celebrities need to be caught reading books -- or Kindles -- on the beaches of the Caribbean. Book groups should not be left to form themselves; they need to be propagated and supported by the book industry. Expert voices should be everywhere, in newspapers and on Oprah, talking about the intellectual, personal, health, and even sexual benefits of reading!

Celebrities reading? Sexual benefits of books? Movies with characters reading and they’re not nerds? How radical.

I like it.

17 Books in 3 Years

The New York Times reported that James Patterson has signed a deal with Hachette Book Group to pen 17 books. Hachette says the contract will cover books through 2012. Of those 17 books, 11 will be for adult readers & 6 will be Books for Young Readers.

The New York Times article actually wrote:

If over the next few months you see smoke coming from the direction of James Patterson’s house, it might be a result of the author’s burning off his fingertips as he types…

Seriously? The New York Times believes that Patterson writes his own books?

Entertainment Weekly noted that 17 books in 3 years was actually a slower output than Patterson has done in the past.

By year’s end, Patterson will have published a whopping 22 books in the last three years alone.

EW also points out: “But Patterson, of course, is more than just a proverbial book factory. He’s an actual book factory, typically using credited co-authors to compose “first drafts” from elaborate outlines that he sends…”

And Entertainment Weekly also asks this:

The question is, can James Patterson™ be considered a prolific author in the way we regard Joyce Carol Oates (nine books in the last three years, by my count) or Alexander McCall Smith (ten books in three years)? Or is he more like Carolyn Keene or Franklin W. Dixon, the credited “authors” of the comparably well-branded Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery series? Are you still a writer if you subcontract out much of the actual, you know, writing?

[Notice in the above quote that Patterson has trademarked his name.]

What do you think?

Literary Blogger Award

A while back, the wonderful Lynnette Labelle gave me the Literary Blogger Award. Thank you, Lynnette! Lynette writes romantic suspense and manages two online groups. One is called Writers on Writing and the other is called Rumored Romantics, plus she blogs. You can also find her on Facebook. I hope you’ll link over and tell her hi.

Here are the rules to the Literary Blogger Award: For Energizing & Inspiring Reading--
1. Accept the award and post a link to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Pass the award on to three people and link to their blog.
3. Notify those you nominated for the award.
(Contrary to the rules, my caveat is always, you don’t have to pass it on if you’d rather not.) But I do have 3 wonderful blogs in mind, so I’m passing it on.

The award goes to:

Laura Eno - I enjoy reading her posts every day. Laura has started doing Flash Fridays where she writes short flash pieces which are always fun to read.

Cathy Bryant - Cathy posts author interviews on her blog, plus has wonderful, thought-provoking posts. She also gives advice, like how to build a blog or create a pitch sheet.

Miriam S. Forster - Miriam admits she’s a voracious reader; she’s even keeping a book count for the year. You’ll find advice on blogging, quotes from books, literary events you need to be aware of, book reviews, and lots of fun things like “random funny stuff.”

Drop by and see these three picks. Hope you’ll mark them as favorites.

The Lost Book

Okay. I admit it. I ordered The Lost Symbol for my husband’s birthday. It should arrive tomorrow. ‘Course, it doesn’t really matter since DH is out of town. I’ll have to tell him, though, or he’ll stop at the airport and buy a copy. Grr. He does that sometimes. He liked Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, so he’ll read this, I’m sure.

Apparently lots of people are planning on reading it. The New York Times reports Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group is going all out to whip readers into a frenzy. Can adults be whipped into a frenzy? Never mind, don’t answer that all your erotica romance writers.

Twitter clues have been coming out since June 23rd. The Today Show’s Matt Lauer had to sign an agreement not to reveal what was in the book before he was allowed to read it and do a weeklong countdown to publication. Amazon is keeping their stockpile under 24-hour guard in a chain-link enclosure that requires two people for entry. The latest count is that Amazon had 70,000 advance orders by customers, putting The Lost Symbol in the No. 1 best seller slot on Amazon -- last week. At least half of all Borders stores plan to stay open until after midnight tonight so impatient readers can buy a copy of The Lost Symbol at 12:01 a.m. Walmart is offering a 52% discount on pre-orders. Barnes & Noble and Borders are giving a 40% discount. Knopf Doubleday will release the ebook of The Lost Symbol on the same day as the hard copy comes out.

The New York Times gives these few hints about the book:

Robert Langdon is the protagonist again; it is set in Washington; the action takes place over the course of 12 hours; it features a deep look into the Masons.

I’m sort of looking forward to information on the Masons. My grandfather was a Mason. I have no clue what that means. Plus, I liked The Da Vinci Code, so as soon as DH is finished reading The Lost Symbol, I’ll snatch it up.

Howdy! Wanna Go With?

Howdy is the Texan’s way of saying “hello.” If you can guess where “Wanna go with?” is from, then you know where I’m heading today.

As you read this, there’s a good chance I’m on a plane headed north. Up to cooler temps. To the land where people end sentences with a preposition. To visit a sister who, when she asks, “Wanna go with?”, I ask, “With what?”

Some of you may be wondering who’s taking care of Ruffles, my 15-year old dog. Never fear. She’s not alone. She has her personal assistant with her -- otherwise known as son, house-sitter and dog-petter.

Figured out where I’m headed? No cheese curds involved.

And for that author (you know who you are) reading this and thinking, “Wait a minute. She’s supposed to be editing my manuscript,” no worries, I have it with me. As a matter of fact, right now (depending on when you’re reading this) I have my laptop open, manuscript on the screen, ear plugs in my ears, and I’m reading while swaying to the music and eating airplane peanuts.

Guesses? Nope, I’m not leaving the States.

Speaking of music, I figured out how to put the iTunes on my computer onto my iPhone. All you techhies are hrmmphing now, but this took me a while to figure out. I even left my laptop running all night ‘cause it said it was syncing. The next morning it was still synching, but it lied. It wasn’t syncing at all. I was not deterred. My perseverance paid off and now my 186 songs are on my iPhone and I am currently bopping to the music as I slash and cut…uh… leave supportive and soothing comments… on said manuscript.

I’m also leaving DH to finish resetting our alarm system. The other day, while DH was out of town, we had a lightning strike so close that it set off the alarm in ear-piercing screeches. Would not quit. I had to call him and scream over the squawks to find out how to unplug the system.

Adios Texas.

Okay….wait for it…I’m enroute to….Minnesota.

Wanna go with?

Book Review: Three Weeks to Say Goodbye

I just finished C.J. Box’s standalone novel, Three Weeks to Say Goodbye. Both my husband and I are fans of C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett mystery series. As soon as the newest in the series comes out, one of us picks it up. When this standalone came out, I got it and generously gave it to my DH for his birthday. (Knowing he’d tear through it and I’d get it next.)

Three Weeks to Say Goodbye is different from the Pickett series, yet holds some similarities. In both cases, the protagonist is “everyman.” Clearly, I’m not a park ranger, but when I read a Pickett book, I can identify with the life, struggles, and dreams of Joe Pickett. And like the protagonist of Three Weeks to Say Goodbye, Jack McGuane, I have children and would do anything to protect them.

Jack and Melissa McGuane spent years trying to have a child before they adopted a little girl. She’s been there daughter for nine months when the birth father decides he wants her back. Unbeknownst to the McGuane’s, the birth father never agreed to the adoption or gave up his rights. The father of the birth father is a powerful judge and he wants his granddaughter - in the worst way. The McGuanes cannot give up the girl. She is their daughter. And they begin to believe that if they did, it would indeed be the worst thing that could ever happen to the little girl.

How far will Jack go to protect her? What will he do? What won’t he do? And what is the horror that awaits her if he fails?

It’s a suspense that builds and shocks. It’s a fast page-turner. And in the end, it’s satisfying. And not. I won’t give away the ending. You’ll have to read Three Weeks to Say Goodbye and tell me what you think.

Volunteer Opportunity

If you live in Texas or will be visiting the Austin area on Halloween weekend, now is the time to volunteer to work at the Texas Book Festival. Now’s the time because it’s still early enough that the opportunities are wide open.

It takes around 900 volunteers to pull off the festival. You can work one or multiple shifts. You can choose what and where you want to work. You can work in the children’s tent, inside the capital, over in the Austin Museum of Art (with me). You can be an Author Escort or a monitor. You can work the Entertainment Tent or the Cooking Tent or the Austin Museum of Art (with me). You can work the signing tent, the volunteer tent, the bookseller’s tent, or the Austin Museum of Art (guess who heads up that venue?). You can ask to work where your favorite author is speaking.

You get to wear a special t-shirt identifying yourself as a Volunteer. You get to help set up and break down (and, man, do I appreciate those who help me set up and break down!), if you choose those shifts. You get free coffee as a volunteer. And once your shift is over, you can wander around, meeting people, watching panels and bands, buying books and getting autographs. Plus, you help out Texas libraries.

To whet your appetite for the Festival, be sure you check out the list of scheduled authors.

If you’re there and don’t volunteer for a shift at the Austin Museum of Art (with me), at least stop by and say hello.

Doing It Write

Doing It Write is the name of the weekly e-newsletter I’ve been sending out for ten years. I’m not trying to sell you on DIW - for one thing, it’s free so there’s no selling. I mention it because I wanted to tell you about the column I wrote for it last week. In it, I urged subscribers to form Writers Groups. And I’d like to urge you here to do that as well.

When I say “writers groups,” I’m not talking about critique groups. I mean a group of friends who are writers. A critique group is good if that's what you're in need of, but a fun writers group is good for the soul and for any occasion.

Recently I got together with a group of fellow writers for lunch. We meet irregularly, usually whenever one of us emails and wants to set up a date for a get-together. Then we keep tossing around dates until we find a time we can all or most agree on. We occasionally meet at a restaurant but most often convene at someone's house. A house is best since our lunches tend to stretch to around three hours long.

Considering we're all writers, we rarely talk about writing unless someone has a recent publication to share. We talk about everything else, from families, to vacations, to shows, to books we've read, to ... you name it.

Gather friends who are writers and friends of friends who are writers. There's a special feeling to meeting up with like-minded people. You're away from your computer, away from your manuscript, yet you're still in the writing world and you never know what will happen. You may get a lead on a magazine or agent. But most likely, you'll just have fun and relax and make long-lasting relationships. And those are important to writers who tend to be soloist playing notes on their computers.

It doesn't have to be often. We meet maybe four times a year. We happen to be all women, but your group can be a mix of sexes. We have different kinds of writers, from fiction to magazines to nonfiction to humor to travel. We're at different stages or levels of writing.

Gather a group of folks you like. It may take a lot of effort to find times when everyone can meet. Keep working at it. Find people whom you could support and who will support you - and keep them in your circle.

Skype It

In preparation for the Poisoned Pen Webcon this October, which I’ve registered for, I needed to put Skype on my computer and figure it out. I know some of you have thought about registering for the conference, but weren’t sure about tackling Skype.

I know exactly how you feel. I’m tired of learning new things! Okay, not tired, just frustrated.

Anyway, here’s my take on Skype. You could do Skype without a camera, I believe. Skype is basically a way to make free calls from one computer to another, so what you really need is a microphone on your computer. However, the plus about Skype, if you’ve watched any Oprah, is that you also can use a camera so you can see who you’re talking to and vice versa.

So, I went to the store and checked out the little cameras. You can get expensive ones or ones not so expensive. You can get ones with built in microphones or you can get a headset type of microphone.

I got a camera with built-in microphone that was not the top of the line, but, then, I don’t expect to use it a lot. Loading the camera on my computer was easy. Stick in the CD, do what it tells me, and I was done. Getting the little camera to balance on my laptop and focus on something besides the ceiling was a bit of a hassle. And since it sits on the top of the open lid of my laptop, I can either look into its little eye and not see the screen and the person I’m talking to, or I can look at the screen to see the caller and that person sees the top of my head. Plus, I think my image resembles a fish with eyes on the side of her head. Or maybe that’s the way I really look. I dunno.

I’m assuming I sound okay to the person I’m talking to. I’ve only made one call.

Let me rephrase that, I’ve made several calls, but they were one right after the other trying to make the connection. The wonderful Jean Henry Mead volunteered to work with me. She’s new to Skype, too, and wanted to test her equipment. So we set up a day and time. And she called me.

I could see her (she’s pretty as a picture, no fisheyes) and hear her. She could neither see me nor hear me. We could, however, text each other. We hung up. I fiddled with my software settings and called her back. If I remember right, this time she could see me, but not hear me, but we could still text. As we “talked” I kept clicking stuff until, finally, we could both see and hear each other.

I will point out here that Jean had hers all set up properly from the beginning. I was the screw-up. I will also point out that I did get it fixed. I think. I’ll need to try a few more times before the conference, for sure.

This is all to say that if you’re thinking of setting up Skype, you can do it. It’s not impossible. And when you’re ready to test it out, you can call me. I’ll fumble around and probably cause you great frustration, but, hey, what are friends for?

Some Kreativ Friends

Last Wednesday, Maryann Miller of It’s Not All Gravy, awarded me the Kreativ Blogger Award. Maryann has a great blog, with pictures, reading and writing topics, book reviews and more. If you don’t know her blog, give her a visit.

Here are the rules for the Kreative Blogger Award:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

I’ve done 1-3, and will come back to 4. I’m going to skip #5, since I recently passed this award on. But I will link you to the 7 fabulous bloggers that I gave the award to at that time:
Laura Eno with A Shift in Dimensions

Lori Tiron-Pandit at Daily Writing

Bermudaonion at Bermudaonion’s Weblog

Dana Fredsti of Zhadi’s Den

Sheila Deeth of Sheila Deeth

N.A. Sharpe of Realms of Thought

Marvin Wilson of The Old Silly’s Free Spirit Blog

That leaves only #4: Seven things about me you might find interesting.

Okay. I scoured my brain and I seriously doubt there are 7 interesting things about me. I’m pretty much like everyone else. Interesting things…interesting things…let’s see…

1. I used to have straight hair. It began to curl when I started having kids. It’s now curly, curly.

2. I have big feet. Seriously. Big feet.

3. I have always been considered tall. I’m now the shortest person in my family. But I have not shrunk.

4. I like to travel. I don’t mind driving. I like to fly. I’ll go by bus. I’d like to take a cruise. I’d like to go on a cross-country train trip. I like to travel.

5. When I was quite young, my mother sent me to accordion lesson (notice the singular noun, lesson, as in one).

6. I have lived in Texas so long, I consider myself a native, but I’m not. I was born in Georgia.

7. I’m teaching myself to say “no.” Especially to solicitors who call on the phone and ask for money for their causes or want to sell something or call from an 866# and ask if my husband is home. I just say, “no.” One word. Nothing more.

Now, it’s your turn. Tell me one interesting thing about you and be sure to leave the link to your blog or website. Again, thank you Maryann for honoring me with this award.

The Enticement

According to the USA TODAY, the latest marketing come-on to sell books is to first give one away. That’s what James Patterson, the brand, is doing. Notice that the USA TODAY calls him a “brand” now that he’s more the front man for the authors writing his books than the actual writers.

Patterson is among the biggest brands added to the growing list of free e-book offerings. Over the past few months, top sellers on the Kindle — with downloads in the tens of thousands, authors and publishers say — have included such public domain titles as Pride and Prejudice and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and novels by Jennifer Stevenson and Greg Keyes.

The key seems to be to link a free book with a paid-for one. According to Maja Thomas, senior vice president of digital media at Patterson's publisher, the Hachette Book Group, said. "It's like priming the pump."

According to Scott Shannon, publisher of the Del Rey/Spectra imprint at Random House, Inc., Del Rey has had “especially good luck with Naomi Novik's Temeraire fantasy series after offering the first book for free. He said sales for the other Temeraire novels increased by more than 1,000%. "It's been stunning," he said.”

With free e-books comes the question of how this affects best-seller lists. Amazon give free e-books visibility by including them on the Kindle best-seller lists. Sony does not.

Then there are questions by authors. Some see it as a good way to build readers. Some are a bit worried. Joseph Finder, whose thriller Paranoia was a free e-book in 2004, saw his sales of his other books go up. But he’s also a bit worried.

"I get a lot of e-mails from people, saying, 'I hadn't even heard of you until I read your free book.' So no question, it does bring in free riders," Finder said. "But I'm also increasingly concerned. There are so many free e-books that basically you could stuff your Kindle or Sony Reader with free books and never have to buy anything."

What do you think?

Visual Writing Prompt: Hiding in Plain Sight

Last Sunday, we talked about hiding clues. There are, of course, lots of things you can hide in a book. Emotions, feelings of your characters. Truth, lies. Wishes and desires. Family lineage. Knowledge. Power. Fears. Connections and memories. Secrets.

There are plenty of things you and your characters don’t hide. Things in plain sight for the reader to see, learn, know, identify with, believe in, understand. Some are true. Some are false.

What’s real? What’s not? What’s hidden? What’s in plain sight? As the writer, you have to play fair. That doesn’t necessarily mean revealing all up front, but it does mean revealing. At some point. To the reader. Characters may continue to hide things from each other, but eventually the reader needs to know the truth, to know whether they were right or wrong.

Some things you the author can reveal right up front. Look, here it is. But although revealed, it’s still hidden. In among all the other revelations. All the other clues, emotions, pieces of the truth, objects, colors.



(This picture is my first Free Domain capture. It’s by Petr Kratochvil.)

What is your favorite way to hide things from the reader while still playing fair?

Book Review: Romanced to Death

This summer I mentored an aspiring writer as part of the Barbara Burnett Smith Aspiring Writers Event. There were a lot of published authors who mentored, Susan Rogers Cooper among them. Frankly, it was like homecoming to get to see authors/friends I hadn’t visited with in a while. Susan is one of my favorites. She’s written three series.

Romanced to Death is the latest (the 8th) in her EJ Pugh mystery series. I would call Romanced to Death a cozy since the protagonist, EJ, is a housewife who gets involved in crimes because she’s curious, believes in righting wrongs, and just can’t seem to help herself. I should also mention EJ is a romance writer. In Romanced to Death, EJ is up for the top award given out for romance writers. Therefore, EJ comes to Austin for the big convention and gets caught up in backstabbing writers, crazy fans and ditzy reporters, and, of course, murder. But it’s not all about EJ. When EJ heads to Austin, she leaves behind her husband and three kids. Those three kids are headed for trouble as a brother who’s been dead for 10 years turns up on the Internet stalking one of the sisters.

If you’ve ever been to a writers’ or fan conference, you’ll enjoy Susan’s opening of the curtains on the behind the scenes shenanigans. And if you ever go to another conference, you’ll spend more time in the bar where the real action plays out.

EJ tells her story in first person. She takes you along on a wild ride. You’ll get to know her, her family and her writer friends. And you’ll worry about her kids as they do just what parents tell teens never to do - they begin to believe the Internet stalker. He may just be the long-lost brother.

Honest or Just Scrap?

Carol Kilgore of the wonderful blog, Under the Tiki Hut, gave me the Honest Scrap Award. I’ve received this one before, but it’s been awhile. And I’m glad I got it again because it confirms that all my scrap is honest, or at least Carol thinks so. Although I’m not sure how Carol would know since nothing on her blog is scrap.

Another good thing about the Honest Scrap Award is it’s fairly easy to pass along. Here are the rules:

The award rules are simple - pass the award to seven worthy bloggers who post from the heart, and list ten honest things about yourself.

I’m going to make an addendum to the rules:

You don’t have to pass it along, unless you want to, but you do have to list 10 honest things about yourself.

I added the caveat because last week I passed on awards to 17 people and I’m tagging some of the same ones again.

Seven Fabulous Bloggers who Post From the Heart:

Lisa Gurney of My Life As a Daughter

Tabitha Bird of books, bubs and writing blabber

Sylvia Dickey Smith of Lessons to Live By

Karen Walker of Karen…following the whispers

Patricia Stoltey of Patricia Stoltey

Christina Rodriguez of Christiina Rodriguez

Elspeth Antonelli of It’s a Mystery

And now for 10 honest things about me (really, I’m being honest):

1. I’m not nearly as observant as I think I am. I read mysteries. I write mysteries. And yet when the neighborhood burglar apparently knocked on my door this week, I talked to him and paid so little attention to him that the only information I was able to give the police was that he had no license plate on the front of his car.

2. I really hate to shop. I inherited my miserly ways from my dad.

3. I’m more like my dad than my mother which is odd since my parents divorced when I was three and I grew up in a house of all women.

4. The older I get, the more content I am.

5. I have more close women friends now than at any point in my life.

6. I got an email from Bob Phillips recently. He’s famous on TV as the Texas Country Reporter. He may interview me for his documentary on 50 years of Aquarena Springs. (Not my 50 years, mind you. I only swam there three.)

7. I’m not going to be able to compete in next year’s Olympics. My left knee has been bothering me so much I was having trouble going up and down stairs. Physical therapy wasn’t working. So my doctor decided I should go on one round of what he called giant hormones because he felt the knee was inflamed. I’m 7 days into the treatment and just found out “giant hormones” is code for steroids. Now I’ll never pass the pee test for the 1500 meter relay swim. Dang.

8. I’ve discovered I like writing nonfiction. Never would have thunk it. But from the first book I did for TSTC Publishing, TechCareers: Automotive Technicians, to the fourth I’ve been asked to write (although have not been given the topic yet), I’ve enjoyed the interviewing, the researching and the writing.

9. I’m adjusting. To treating my kids as adults, which they now are. To my husband officing out of the house. To sitting at the computer all day.

10. I do not like to argue or debate or get involved in conflict. I have my own political beliefs, but keep them to myself (husband excepted). I usually take on the role of mediator in tense situations. If pushed, I won’t take up the gauntlet. My son, however, loves to argue. Not necessarily with me, just debate in general. Whatever side you take, he’ll take the opposite. And win.

That’s it. Honest. That’s all my scrap. So, please visit the blogs I recommend and find out their Honest Scrap.

Skype? Pipe Up.

Anybody skype? I don’t, but I’m looking to.

I signed up for the Poisoned Pen Webcon. One day, all you can attend, no dress requirements. You can find a link to it on my Events page. From what I can gather, some events will be in the form of blog radio, some on videos, some through text messaging and some real time participation through Skype.

Okay, I know nothing about Skype, but I did go buy a teeny video camera with built in microphone which the saleskid said was all I needed - that and going online and downloading Skype.

The camera is still in the store bag in the hermetically sealed, impossible to open without a blow torch, packaging. And, no, I’ve not downloaded Skype. But I plan to. Then I figured I would ask my brilliant, always willing to help, visitors to this blog - do you Skype? Have any suggestions? Other than, turn the dang camera off when you don’t want people seeing you in your PJs. Which brings up another question, does having that teeny camera mounted on my laptop mean I’m always on-air???

If you have Skype, does it cost to make calls? I know no one who actually has Skype, so if you do, I may have to call you to see if mine works. Well, that certainly brought the background chatter to a halt. Okay, maybe there’s a test center I can call.

Anywho, I’m open for all advice on Skype. I haven’t actually opened the package, so I could still return it. Or I could try to hotwire my laptop and give you a call. How’s 3 a.m. this coming Sunday morning work for you? Be sure to keep your laptop by your bedside so you’ll hear my ring.

A Radical Revolution?

I was reading an article in the San Francisco Chronicle online called “Watch Out Publishing Industry, There’s a Radical Revolution on Your Heels” and I thought, Really?Radical?

Here are some snippets from the article by Frances Dinkelspiel:

When Kemble Scott walks into the Booksmith on Haight Street tonight, opens up a copy of his new novel The Sower, and starts to read to the collected audience, he will be committing an act of radical revolution. …

Scott's previous novel, SOMA, was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. But he thought the subject and references in The Sower were so topical - think mentions of The Daily Beast, Susan Boyle, and more - that they would be out of date when a book published the traditional way was printed. (that might be as late as 2011)

So in May, Scott teamed up with the website Scribd, the on-line publishing company, to put The Sower on the Internet as an e-book. It sold for $2 a copy, and Scott was paid 80% of that price.

On top of that, a publisher approached him about putting it out in print. Scott at first thought, no, that’d take too long. But then, he found out the publisher, Numina Press, uses POD printing, which meant “the turn-around time was a mere 29 days, rather than the year it usually takes to get a book out in print.”

Scott liked that idea, so he decided to draw attention to the print book by treating it like a movie, and releasing it in selected markets.

So Scott has decided to make the hardcover edition of The Sower only available in Bay Area independent bookstores during the next month. If the response is strong, when The Sower is released nation-wide, larger chain bookstores will be more likely to take notice.

Okay, I agree, this is a different way to approach publishing. But radical revolution in the publishing world?

Okay, a $2 e-book from a best-selling author who gets 80% of each sale. That’s fairly big. He’s going to be using POD printing for the print book - that’s not big. Lots of books are printed that way today. He’s getting his books out in local markets in independent stores in order to create buzz and attract a national market. Not big. Unknown authors do that all the time. They turn to their local markets to try to jumpstart the sells, in hopes that bigger stores in not-so-local markets will start carrying their books.

But it is good that a “big” author is, in a way, trailblazing some new ideas. Perhaps that’ll make it easier for the rest of us. But is this radical? Not particularly. Will it cause a revolution in the publishing world? I think that revolution had already started before he joined the troops.

Like Rabbits Multiplying

I swear, new eReaders are popping up daily. Now Sony’s revealed its latest version of its eBook Reader. They’re calling it the Daily Edition. It’ll work via AT&T’s 3G network and will come with built-in free wireless capability. Seems to me, the set-apart feature of this eReader is that you can download books from your library using your library card. It’s free to do that, but once you go past your library’s lending period, the book “expires” - I assume that means it disappears from your eReader or becomes unreadable.

You’ll also be able to buy books and Sony will have a website for book lovers to share passages from favorite books and to socialize. Since it’s built to work on the 3G network, it’ll have some iPhone-like features, like the ability to read in either portrait or landscape orientation, but no, it’s not an app for your iPhone. It’s a standalone that will retail for $399.

Like its predecessors, it’s not cheap. I do like that you can download using your library card. What about you? Is this a feature that would influence your buying decision?