Ready for Some Good News?

It’s the beginning of a new week, so let’s start with good news - and not just good news, but good news about an agent. Writers sometimes think that an agent, to be good, must be based in New York. The truth is that an agent, to be good, must love books and working with writers. According to West Virginia Gazette-Mail writer, Bill Lynch, Christine Witthohn is such an agent.

Witthohn admits that getting published is harder now than it’s ever been, but this has been her best year yet: “I've sold 16 books and three others are on the fence.” How has she accomplished this many sales? By not being in New York, or even in Charleston, her home base, all that much.

"I'm at one to three writers' conferences a month. I also commute to New York. About once a month, I spend a week in the city."

All the traveling doesn’t leave a lot of together time with her husband.

Last month, they made a breakfast date at the airport in Atlanta. Witthohn had a stopover before flying out to another conference.

Witthohn believes that the Internet allows her to do business without having to live in New York. Plus, she spends time on the phone or on email, and she does go into New York, too.

You can find out about Witthohn and her agency, Book Cents Literary Agency, online. Check the Submissions section to see if she represents the kind of books you write.

Good Question

Carolyn Kellogg of The Los Angeles Times asks a good question at the end of her article, Publishing From the Grave, Michael Crichton.

She starts the article off by admonishing: “If you're an author, be careful what you leave lying around.” Then she cites two examples. First is Vladimir Nabokov who died, leaving a pile of index cards. Those cards were published as The Original of Laura -- “so faithful to the original that part of the book are reproductions of the index cards themselves, which can be punched loose and stacked.”

The second example is a Michael Crichton manuscript, which has been published posthumously. Pirate Latitudes, from the description given in the article, sounds to me like an earlier manuscript he wrote and most likely had no intention of publishing (we all have a few of those in the attic, don’t we?).

The article ends with what I think is a good question and one which we writers might want to think about as we shove that first or second manuscript under the bed.

Are a writer's heirs really entitled to strip-mine his papers for every conceivable nugget of value?

Digital Pirates

Mike Harvey, Technology Correspondent, for The Times Online had an interesting article last week on digital pirates, those who plundered music and films a few years back and who are now going after e-books.

In the US, where the Kindle has been available for two years, digital book piracy is booming. The web has enabled thousands of sites to distribute pirated book content free. American publishers are estimated to have lost more than $600 million (£363 million) last year to piracy.

British publishers are trying to stop piracy, but here on SFH we’ve talked about those efforts and the successes are small in relation to the number of e-book copyrights that have been violated. The article says that the Publishers Association has noted “more than 4,000 cases of online piracy by more than 40 publishers and has succeeded in taking down 2,638 illegal copies of books. Sounds like a lot, except when you also read:

Even before The Lost Symbol was published in September, pirated copies were circulating on the internet. Within a couple of days of its release filesharers had downloaded it more than 100,000 times.

The thing that makes books so much easier to steal is the file size. “A film can be up to 1.5GB whereas the typical e-book is no more than 3MB, making it much easier to download.” Combine that with this statistic: “In the US an estimated 1.7 million people own one, and that number could rise to 4 million by the end of the year, according to analysts.” Then top it off with a sampling of the comments to this article:

Since digital books typically cost rather more than printed copies, I have no sympathy for the industry….Serves them right.

Yet another rip-off industry squealing over problems that they've created.

It's farcical to suggest the inventors of these devices didn't realise this could happen. As for the fact that people can now read books for free surely this is a service libraries have offered for centuries.

It seems to me that people are looking at the publishing industry and saying, so what, they make millions. They should be looking at the everyday authors who are not making millions. Those who steal books might do well to wonder how they would put food on the table if they worked for ten months and profited barely a hundred dollars. There are plenty of authors out there who net that little after writing and marketing their book, not to mention getting their book in e-book format if they don’t have a publisher to do it for them. I also think that the big publishers who are now putting their print authors into digital form should give those authors a higher percentage of the profits.

What do you think?

Lying on the Couch

Thanksgiving’s over. I’d get up to greet you all, but I ate too much Breakaway Bread. I did manage to get out and visit a few of you, but … well, Fruit Pie was a’calling my name. I hope all of you had a family-filled, fun holiday. I know I did.

I’m going to cross-post today. Yesterday, over on The Blood-Red Pencil, I posted a recommendation for a book. Probably wasn’t a good day, since by 9:30 last night, I was the only one who had stopped by to comment. The book I recommended is a good one, so I’m going to post about it here today. I hope you’ll check out the book!

Punish the Deed by Diane Fanning

I recently got my hands on the second book in Diane Fanning’s mystery/police procedural series starring Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce. I’ve been looking forward to following Lucinda again.

Lucinda is, in a lot of ways, typical of women police officers. She’s tough and believes in her work. In others, she’s very different. After taking a shotgun blast to the face, one side is mauled and she lost an eye. In this book, she’s taking the first real steps to plastic surgery, but is still on the job. Along with dealing with the physical injuries, she’s working on the emotional ones.

Setting aside her personal problems, Lucinda now has to deal with a violent killer who hides in the shadows and who eventually threatens her own life. She’s got quite a few other things going on in her life - like the rest of us. Lucinda Pierce is no one-dimensional character. I enjoyed discovering the different layers of Lucinda.

Here’s a snippet of Diane’s writing in Punish the Deed:

“She’d been to many crime scenes and seen many gruesome photos from others. Those sights were not alien -- they were the stuff of her life. She could think and work as she looked on the gory remains of a brutal death. She could hash over the details with her fellow professionals without the slightest churn in her gut. She swore that none of it bothered her any longer. But then there were those images that burned into her brain. The visuals she wanted to forget but instead they hung on, haunting every blink of her eye and troubling her dreams.”

The intensity of the plot and the believable development of the characters keep you reading. Fanning comes to mystery writing with a credible writing pedigree. She’s the best-selling author of 10 true crime novels, as well as another mystery series starring Molly Mullet. You may have seen Diane Fanning on Court TV or the Discovery Channel. If she ever comes to speak in your area, go hear her. I sat in on a talk she gave at the University of Texas on The Criminal Mind and she is a great speaker. Her talk sent chills down our spines.

If you or someone you know likes mystery/police procedurals with a strong, totally believable protagonist, I recommend you look for Punish the Deed by Diane Fanning. It’s available online at Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.
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FTC Disclaimer: I consider this more of a recommendation than a review, but I'll go ahead and reveal that I paid for this book and the postage. And, no, I am not giving it away. Diane autographed it for me, so it goes on my bookshelf. (I love autographed books.) I don't even lend my autographed books. I've done that once or twice and lost books. Excuse me? You lent the book I lent to you? You don't remember to whom? Aaagghh! What do you mean, the FTC confiscated it? All they gave you back was the cover, but no book? Where's the cover? Did you even try to get the cat to throw it back up?

Group Blogs

I’m wondering how many of you are part of group blogs? I’m talking about blogs where there are multiple bloggers.

I blog daily here on Straight From Hel. I also blog occasionally on a group blog, The Blood-Red Pencil. I think I’m posting there today. I say, think, because I’m never sure when my posts will show up. I’m not in charge of scheduling. Since I never know, it’s difficult to let readers of Straight From Hel know to pop over. If I’m there today, it’ll be to make a book recommendation for Punish the Deed by Diane Fanning.

And this leads me to my questions for those of you who participate in group blogs:
What has been your experience? How are the posts planned? Is there a set schedule for the participants?

I’ve seen blogs where there are, for example, seven participants, one for each day of the week. The bloggers have a set day on which they post. Others have 14 or 15 bloggers, so each posts only twice a month, like Women in Crime Ink. I’ve seen blogs with multiple bloggers, but there doesn’t seem to be a set schedule, such as The Blood-Red Pencil.

Some people participate in multiple blogs, some their own, some with others. Jean Henry Mead seems to be part of seven different blogs. Gracious! I can barely keep up with this one and an occasional post on TBRP.

What about you? If you’re part of a multi-person blog, how does it work? If you blog on your own, how often do your blog and do you ever wish you had cohorts?

By the way: Happy Turkeyday People! (This is the day we celebrate turkeys by eating ham, right?)

A Shift in Promoting

I can almost guarantee that every writer who regularly stops by, reads and comments here on Straight From Hel knows something publishers either don’t or aren’t supporting. Care to guess?

The future of book promotion is online and by the author.

You already knew that, didn’t you? That’s because you’re in the trenches, working to get your name and book in front of the public’s eyes. You’re building a website, a blog, a Facebook presence, and a LinkedIn account with umpteen-hundred connections. You’re tweeting and befriending and guest posting as yourself and as your characters.

Jesse Kornbluth shouts out to publishers, in hopes of waking them up to what authors are already doing and to what they, the publishers, need to be doing, in a Publishers Weekly article called “Authors’ -- and Publishers’ -- Shifting Responsibilities.”

Here are some snippets of what he has to say -- and as I said at the top of this post, some of it, you already know and practice:

Book publishing has been trying to commit suicide for all the decades I've been writing, and now it's finally getting some traction on that project.

Authors are beginning to grasp that the job description of “writer” has changed. Writers may be artists. They are also brands.

More typically, publishing contracts are for one or two books; in that truncated relationship, a publisher can only do so much for its writers. The heavy lifting of a career will fall to writers and their agents, or it just won't get done.

So unless they are geniuses—and recognized as such—writers who want attention for their work need to cultivate some 21st-century media skills. They should be camera-ready, because they'll want to make YouTube videos. They should know their way around social networking sites. They should have some experience with book clubs, and they should be willing to spend as much time there as they used to spend on book tours.

My vote is for the publishers of books that stand a chance to succeed to attach $5,000 to $10,000 to the advance, money the writer can use only for digital marketing expenses and Web site enhancement.

It's equally sane to demand that writers take major responsibility for their careers.

I think up and coming writers already know most of this. The responsibility has shifted to our shoulders. It’s a burden we don’t necessarily want to carry, but times have changed.

Kornbluth had some recommendations for publishers, ones authors may or may not like:

Meanwhile, like everyone else, I have a laundry list of changes that publishers might make in the interest of their survival. Some of my thoughts are obvious and universal: a massive scaling-down of the number of books published, more aggressive editing of what does get released, and a shattering of the template that says a new book must be bound between hard covers.

While all this may not be new news to you, it does indicate a possible shift in not just the thinking of the publishing world, but the reality.

Smashwords Smashes Barriers

Yesterday brought news that Smashwords, Inc., will begin supplying books to the Amazon.com Kindle store. This is good news for authors who have published in e-book form. Smashwords already has agreements with Barnes & Noble, Sony and Shortcovers. A short release in the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal noted:

Smashwords said it now publishes and distributes more 4,800 original e-books from 2,200 independent authors and about 80 small independent publishers. The service launched in May 2008 with a focus on self-published authors, and then in May 2009 expanded its offerings to support publishers as well.

Publishers Weekly had news that writers will be especially interested in:

Similar to its deal with Shortcovers, Smashwords will pay authors and publishers 42.5% of the digital list price (set by the author) for book sales through Amazon.

Smashwords expects to begin shipping e-books to Amazon on November 25 and the books will begin appearing in the Kindle store some time in December. You can opt-out if you don’t want your books on Kindle.

Having your book available in e-form does not mean you’re anti-print. For those who want to be in both digital and print or those who want to be in digital form only, this gives you another avenue to reach readers. I also think we’re closer to a format that will be compatible with all e-readers, which is vital to the longevity of this “new” way of reading.

Dream No More

In case you haven’t heard, Oprah Winfrey has set an end-date for her talk show. She’ll quit in 2011. She may go to cable. She may quit altogether. Depends on how fast her Medicare will kick in (that’s a joke, lame, but a joke - she has more money than the number of competing e-readers scheduled to premiere next year).

According to a Wall Street Journal blog, it’s not a good thing for the publishing industry.

“Oprah Winfrey has supported many authors, and her book club has had a huge impact on America’s reading habits,” added Ms. Shanley [a partner in the consulting firm Market Partners International Inc.]. “She made Faulkner a best seller again. She also promoted an eclectic group of authors and created publishing successes for many commercial writers.”

Oprah didn’t start off promoting books and she seems to have slacked off in the past year or so, but during the hay day of books on her show, she changed the way people read and find out about books. When she chose a book or author, she promoted it/him-or-her on her show and on her blog. She gave the book her seal of approval, both through her words and through her official seal that went on the cover of the book.

It’s rather doubtful there will be someone who can match her in making books overnight best-sellers. I don’t get cable, so I have no idea who’s on there. On the regular network channels, the only person I see close to her kind of following is Ellen DeGeneres. Maybe she or someone will take up the cause and promote writers and reading.

It would be nice for writers to have that dream of one day appearing on THE show that would catapult them to the best-seller list.

A Milestone Missed

As I was posting yesterday’s post, I noticed that I had missed a milestone in Straight From Hel’s existence. It’s now come and gone, but I thought I’d mention it anyway. Why? Maybe a little bit of pattin’ myself on the back. Mostly, though, amazement. I would say, stupefication, but I would never stupe to stupefication.

This past Thursday…wait for it…was the 1,000th post on Straight From Hel.

Someday, when I have lots of time and energy (specifically: never), I’ll go back and count the number of comments you wonderful people have left here. Maybe I’ll skip counting that one comment left by he-knows-who-he-is (Marvin), where he challenged me to a BBQ duel. I live in Texas, Marvin, the land of longhorn cattle and more BBQ joints than a chicken has pox.

Where was I? Oh yeah. Posts. We have a lot of those around here too. Fence posts. Military posts. And now we have one-thousand-plus posts Straight From Hel.

And the Winner is…

The 2009 National Book Award winners have been announced. I would have gone to the black-tie ceremony and dinner in New York, but discovered my black tie was in the cleaners. Dang it. Anyway, I’m still here to let you know who won.

Young People’s Literature:
Phillip Hoose for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Poetry:
Keith Waldrop for Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy (University of California Press)

Nonfiction:
T. J. Stiles for The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf)

Fiction:
Colum McCann for Let the Great World Spin (Random House)

Distinguished Contribution to American Literature:
Gore Vidal

The Literarian Award:
Dave Eggers

The Best of the National Book Awards Fiction:
The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

All good friends of mine. Each and every one.

Biggest Liar Award:
Helen Ginger for her audacity to try to trick you into believing she knows any of these wonderful writers. She does know lots of fabulous writers, but not any of these. At the moment. She is, however, stalking one of them.

Losing Your Editor

GalleyCat had a good post by Jeff Rivera on what can happen to you and your book if you lose your editor at the publishing house. When that happens, you lose the editor who was pushing and rooting for your book; your book is “orphaned.” A lot of times, your book tanks because there’s no one there to root for it. If you don’t have a good established track record with the house, you may not be signed again.

Some agents weigh in with guidance for authors who find themselves in this kind of situation.

Ted Weinstein of Ted Weinstein Literary Management advises writers to, "continue to build his or her platform and write (or get written about) in lots more media outlets, so their agent will be able to say to acquisition editors with a straight face that the author is now at a new, higher stage of their writing career."

For what other agents and managers said, click over to the full article. If you got dropped by your publisher, how hard would it be to pick yourself up and move on? Would you figure it was just fate? What would you do?

A Savage Wisdom by Norman German

Today, our guest blogger is Dr. Norman German, a Professor of English at Southeastern Louisiana University, Fiction Editor for Louisiana Literature, and Winner of the Deep South Writers' Contest for No Other World.

A specialist in twentieth-century American literature, he has also published award-winning short stories, poems, and literary criticism. His stories have appeared in commercial and literary magazines, including Shenandoah, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Sport Fishing, and Salt Water Sportsman. His scholarly articles cover a wide range of major American authors including Ernest Hemingway, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Raymond Carver, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, James Dickey, and Anthony Hecht.

You can also find him on Facebook.

He’s here today to tell us about his third book, A Savage Wisdom, his research and the trail that led him to write the book. Plus, he has a special purchase price for his book for Straight From Hel readers, so be sure you check the end of the post.

Welcome, Dr. German.

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“The Detective Work of a Writer” by Norman German

Put to death in 1942 for the 1940 Valentine’s Day murder of a Houston businessman, Toni Jo Henry is still the only woman ever executed in Louisiana’s electric chair.

Toni Jo’s story has intrigued me since childhood, when I would read about her in special features in the Lake Charles American Press, which tantalized readers with reproductions of her leggy portrait as a coddled death-row inmate.

When I decided to “novelize” her life, my four-year research led me to the newspaper archive room, legal documents, and Toni Jo’s gravesite.

First, I read dozens of newspaper articles on the murder, capture, trial, and execution. To create the dense, “textured” world of a novel, I immersed myself in magazines and popular histories from World War I to 1963 (JFK’s assassination).

From antique stores, I bought ten copies of magazines from the period, including Life, Look, Collier’s, and Saturday Evening Post. I read every article and studied every ad in order to realistically recreate the clothing, slang, and pop-culture icons of the era.

Two indispensable histories were Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s and Since Yesterday: The 1930s in America, both by Frederick Lewis Allen. However, my most valuable source was written by a hobbyist historian. New Orleans in the Thirties, by Mary Lou Widmer, includes hundreds of photographs chronicling the interior décor, men’s and women’s clothing styles, cuisine, and social customs reproduced in the novel.

For the 1950s, I ordered legendary journalist David Halberstam’s The Fifties. From Time magazine’s special issue “Time Capsule: 1950, The Year in Review,” I became familiar with everything from automobile models and colors to whiskey brands.

The authoritative source for the trial was the Southern Reporter, a series containing summaries of regional court cases—dull reading, indeed, but it led me back to the newspaper accounts describing the various parties in the courtroom. For example, during Toni Jo’s three trials, members of the courtroom audience often made slitting motions across their throats.

For years, I had heard the rumor that Toni Jo’s grave was not marked by a headstone for fear of vandalism. I went on my scavenger hunt in the Orange Grove-Graceland Cemetery on Broad Street, thinking to walk in concentric squares until I found her tombstone or proved the rumor valid.

I had two surprises. The first was coming upon the headstone within five minutes. The other was discovering that the name of Louisiana’s most notorious murderess had been misspelled. Annie Beatrice McQuiston, carved as “Anna,” adopted the name “Toni Jo” as a prostitute and became Toni Jo Henry upon marrying Claude “Cowboy” Henry, himself a murderer on the lam when he met Toni Jo.

From my research what I ultimately discovered was that Toni Jo was not a sympathetic character I could build a true-crime novel around, so I became interested in the idea of “rewinding” her life and recreating her as an ingénue deceived into a type of high-class prostitution. A Savage Wisdom thus became a study in deception and an exploration of identity development.

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Thank you, Dr. Norman. So many years of research, and it seems as though what you discovered changed your entire approach to her story.

If you’re interested in getting A Savage Wisdom for yourself or to give as a Christmas gift, I have good news. This month, to commemorate the gruesome anniversary, Dr. Norman is offering free shipping plus a discount on his book for orders placed at http://www.asavagewisdom.com through November. So instead of $14 plus shipping, paperback purchase is a flat $10.

Dr. German will be stopping by during the day to answer questions or say hi. You can also chat with him on Library Thing from now until November 26.

How about you? Have you done research that, in the end, changed your thinking or even your entire approach to the book?

She’s Herrrreee!

Long ago there was a movie, Poltergeist, I think, that had a memorable promo. In the commercial, a little girl sits on the floor and stares at a fuzzy TV screen. After a few seconds, she turns to the camera and says, “They’re herrrreee.” Whatever she sees on the screen that we can’t, is here, coming to get us.

I’m not coming to get you, but I could easily be the little girl who turns from her computer screen and says, “I’m herrreee!” Because today, I appear to be everywhere.

First of all, I’m here -- to tell you briefly about a workshop I attended this past Saturday. The Heart of Texas chapter of Sisters in Crime had a fundraiser/workshop led by author and former NY editor, Russ Hall. It was a great workshop. Russ talked about the opening pages of your manuscript and how important they are. He handed out examples of published openings and analyzed them for us. He broke down the query letter, then had us write our own sections of a query letter and read them aloud. After which, the group discussed what we’d done. He went over the synopsis, from the one sentence elevator speech to a longer synopsis. At the end of the day, he did one-on-one consulting with each participant, discussing material -- a query, a synopsis and the opening chapter of a work in progress -- we had each submitted prior to the workshop. As I said, a great workshop by Russ.

While I’m here telling you about the workshop, I’m also over on The Blood-Red Pencil. I’m one of the editors who post advice on that blog. This month, the BRP is trying something new. In among the advice, we’re posting book recommendations. We each picked out a book or two we thought would make good Christmas presents - ones that you might not have heard of or thought of before. Today, I’m recommending Five Years at Sea by James V. Lee. The book is a memoir/travelogue/diary of the years James spent aboard Navy ships as a civilian teacher of English. From 1989 to 1994, he traveled the world, visiting nearly forty countries and going on 16 deployments with various ships. Even if you’ve never served on a ship, you’ll enjoy the first-hand look. And if you like to travel, James takes you to places you won’t find in a travel book, complete with pictures.

And lastly and bestly, I’m over at Karen…following the whispers. This past Friday, I posted on her blog about things I’m seeing repeatedly in manuscripts I edit. Karen, being the wonderfully crazy woman that she is, invited me back. So, I’m over there with a few more problems I encounter. The best thing about these “problems” with your manuscript is that you can correct them. They are not insurmountable and correcting them can make a big difference in your manuscript.

Remember to come back here tomorrow. I'll be introducing you to guest blogger, Dr. Norman German, who's going to tell us about the four years of research he did for his third book, A Savage Wisdom.

As you travel the cybersphere, watch out. I’m herrreee! And there and there.

Freelance Editors

Ever consider what it takes to be a freelance editor at a publishing house? Well, wonder no more. A post on Journalism.co.uk tells you what it takes to get hired at a publishing house in the U.K.

In case you’re wondering what publishers look for when hiring freelance editors, here’s the article’s author Mary James’ list of the qualities an applicant should have:

1. You can adhere to tight deadlines

2. You know your target market inside out

3. You're easy to work with

4. Your communication skills, particularly over the phone, are second to none

5. You provide value for money

6. You guarantee high levels of confidentiality

If you want to see what she said about each of these points, click over to the article. Maybe you qualify.

Agents Looking for Writers

Looking for an agent? If so, you’ve probably begun to think that agents right now are hunkered down trying to wait out the bad economy. There are, however, some who are looking for writers and their manuscripts.

Writer’s Digest is offering a list of 24 Agents Who Want Your Work.

The article lists each agency, the address, email addresses, their interests, what they’re actively seeking, what they don’t want, recent sales, tips and how to contact them.

If you’re looking for an agent or will be soon, click over and check out the list.

Free-Download Publications

For those who, like me, have never published an e-book or given away a free downloadable publication, the New Jersey Business News has some tips. In the article, they’re primarily talking about those “relatively brief, pamphlet-like "books" distributed online.” In other words, these “e-books” are in PDF form for reading on your computer. A lot of companies and individual entrepreneurs use these as marketing devices - as do some writers.

The article says, “…e-books can be a terrific way to gain attention. If you can produce something that’s actually worth reading, and your readers find it useful — and share it via e-mail and Twitter — then you’ve got a chance to forge a genuine connection with the reader.” In this case, your goal is not to make money on these downloadable publications. It’s to get recognition.

The article then goes on to give some tips, like:

As for converting your document to a PDF, you can do that with a free trial from Adobe (createpdf.adobe.com).

Another tip they mention and I would emphasize is editing. Even though you’re giving away content for free, it must be the best it can be. It represents you and your writing. Putting unedited or poorly edited material out, even if it is free, won’t draw people in to buy your books.

Book Review: Consent to Kill

Today, I’m talking about another book in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series. This one is called Consent to Kill. If you’ve been reading my reviews of this series, then you know Mitch Rapp is the government’s top assassin. He can go undercover into just about any country and take out the bad guy. He is even called upon to take out terrorists within the U.S.

In this book, he’s the target. The father of one of those bad guys that he killed has put a price on Rapp’s head -- a price so high that another big-time assassin has accepted the job, and Rapp has no idea he’s being hunted.

This book offers a twist in the series. Rapp is now the hunted and he comes to see what his targets go through. I liked reading this new angle.

Consent to Kill, like the others in the series, has plenty of action, intrigue, and details on weaponry, politics, and supporting characters. You could pick it up and read it, even if you’ve not read any others in the series, but I think it would be good to read the earlier books before this one, to get the full impact of what happens in this book. This one, in addition, had character growth. Rapp is changed by the end of the book.
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FTC Disclaimer: I was paid nothing to write this review. I bought the book myself and read it myself. I would donate the book, but after my husband read it and carried it crammed in his briefcase through various airports and hotels, it’s in rather ragged shape. It’s still readable, but would probably be like one of those sad little licked-on lollipops in the candy store that no one wants to touch, let alone buy. It would still taste good, though. The book, not the lollipop. I've read used books, but have not eaten already-licked-on lollipops, at least, not in a long time.

Author Julie Lomoe

Today, we welcome Julie Lomoe, author of two mystery novels, Mood Swing: The Bipolar Murders (2006) and Eldercide (2008). Lomoe has been named 2009 Author of the Year by the Friends of the Albany Public Library. The library chose her especially for her novel Eldercide, because of its relevance to current issues surrounding health care reform and our nation’s treatment of the elderly and of end-of-life issues. The award has been given for decades, but this is the first time the committee has chosen a self-published rather than a traditionally published book.

Julie Lomoe knows home health care from the ground up. As President of ElderSource, Inc., a Licensed Home Care Services Agency in upstate New York, she became certified as a Personal Care Aide.

Welcome, Julie.

When you’re feeling creative, how crazy is too crazy?

Since early adolescence, I’ve been fascinated by the fine line between creativity and madness, and the life stories of artists and writers who suffered from mental illness. At 13, when I took up painting and jazz piano, I was intrigued to learn the great bebop pianist Bud Powell was schizophrenic. I barely knew what the word meant, but it sounded romantic, and I thought his illness contributed to the brilliance of his intense, driven style in compositions like “Un Poco Loco.”

When it comes to artistic creativity, is being “a little crazy” an asset or a liability? The question has been the subject of endless speculation. Would Van Gogh have been as great if he’d been totally sane? What about Robert Schumann or Virginia Wolfe? I’m not sure, but in my own case, being a bit over the top has probably helped. At any rate, my experiences with bipolar disorder inspired my first novel, Mood Swing: The Bipolar Murders.

I came by the diagnosis atypically late, in my early 50’s. I was running ElderSource, Inc., a Licensed Home Care Services Agency, and the work was unbelievably stressful. A shrink prescribed Zoloft, and the effect was amazing. Within a couple of weeks, I felt better than I had in years, ready to take on the world. A few more weeks, and I totally flipped.

It began harmlessly enough. I spent more and more time in my office behind closed doors, writing on my computer. My mind was flooded with inspirations I simply had to get down on paper before they escaped. What’s wrong with that, you ask? Nothing, if you’re a writer – but I was supposed to be running an agency. My memos got longer and longer, then turned into voluminous essays, including one about my father’s brilliance as Managing Editor of the Milwaukee Journal during the McCarthy era. Staff in the office were worried, but I blew them off – I’d never felt better, and I knew what I was writing was of supreme importance.

In early December, I devised a plan to revitalize the economy of the Hudson Valley through a multimedia art show which I would carry out with the assistance of the President of Bard College, Robert Rauschenberg (my favorite artist), and various other luminaries. Soon I was on the phone to Bard, trying to schedule an appointment. I locked myself into my office long past midnight, called the New York Times, and tried to convince some lone reporter on the night shift that they should run a front-page story about my plans, my father and his achievements. A sympathetic listener, he diplomatically suggested that my story might be better suited to the Milwaukee Journal. When I called the police rather than let my husband into the office, things were way over the top.

I narrowly escaped hospitalization. Somehow my husband got me to the shrink, who prescribed heavy medications to tamp down what I came to understand was an acute manic episode. I spent a week at home, prone on the sofa catching up on sleep and watching endless videos, waiting for the lithium to kick in. (I remember especially loving a documentary on Sting, U-2’s “Rattle and Hum” concert, and Robert Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin.) Within two weeks, I was back running ElderSource, but on a new medication regimen and with a newly heightened awareness of just how fragile mental health can be.

Was I manic depressive all along? I don’t know, but I’ve now got an official diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder I, and I’ll probably be on medications for the rest of my life, although the dosage is minimal now. Fortunately, being bipolar seems to be trendy. When I talk about Mood Swing at panels and signings, people from the audience invariably approach me to confide that they or close friends or family members are bipolar. But too often they tell me they’ve kept the information secret for fear of repercussions from the stigma that still surrounds mental illness.

So is being “un poco loco” good for creativity? Maybe, when it’s under control. These days, that control is possible through advances in psychopharmacology. Hypomania – the state of mind that falls just short of full-blown mania – can be a wonderfully productive state for writers. But if you find yourself locking out your husband and calling the police, it might be time to call a shrink instead, and see about getting onto some new meds.

~~~

Thank you, Julie, for posing such an interesting question and for sharing a piece of your life with is.

Both of Julie’s books, Mood Swing: The Bipolar Murders and Eldercide are available online from Virtual Bookworm, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can also visit her blog, Julie Lomoe’s Musings Mysterioso to learn more about her and to read the first chapters.

Julie will receive the 2009 Author of the Year by the Friends of the Albany Public Library tomorrow at a luncheon. I’m so glad she stopped by Straight From Hel today so I could say, Congratulations!

I hope you’ll leave either a comment or question for Julie. Also, feel free to tweet this, so we can get the word out about Julie's books.

What Do You Think of This?

Yesterday, I did a What Would You Do? post. Today, it’s a What Do You Think of This? post.

Richard Nash, founder of Cursor, chastises publishers in a Huffington Post article. First off, he’s not happy that Book Expo America, “the largest book convention in the US,” changed its days from Friday - Sunday to Tuesday - Thursday. What bothers him more than the day changes is that BEA cut the expected opening night party and, to make things worse, the show will not be open to the public, as is done in other book festivals and events. He feels it shows a lack of caring about the fans.

Books was once a business where publishers sold to booksellers, and booksellers sold to readers. So BEA was an event where publishers sold to booksellers. But with the chains not needing an event to meet everyone, since everyone beats a path to their door, and with the explosion in the number of books available means that publishers need to motivate readers to read their books, and not take for granted they'll walk into bookstores and buy, the event needs to be about exciting readers/customers, not hustling the retailers.

He doesn’t put the blame on the organizers of BEA, but on publishers:

By reducing their participation in BEA at the same time the media participation has increased by almost 50%, by refusing to open the Fair to the readers …, these CEOs have effectively thrown in the towel. They are managing the demise of the book business, pointing fingers at any generic social forces they can find, failing to see the one place the responsibility can be found, their own damn offices.

So, what do you think? Should BEA be open at least one day for book readers and fans to come in? Is Nash right when he says to publishers, “That pain in our foot? It's not outsiders stomping on it, it's us, shooting ourselves.”

What Would You Do?

If you read a book and really, really, don’t like it, what would you do? Review it anyway? Set it aside and move on to another book? Trash it?

If you’re Ashleigh Johnson who writes for the Daily Titan (Cal State Fullerton), you trash it. I don’t even have to officially name the book; I can just give you the title of her November 9th article: “Nerdgasm: Basking in the ‘Twilight’”

She gets down to business in her second sentence:

Allow me to rephrase my first sentence: I don’t hate everyone, only die-hard “Twilight” fans. You know, profoundly stupid people. I hate them. The end.

Of course, it’s not really the end of her review of the entire series.

No one knows for sure what happened on that fateful day – some say that a high-powered publisher’s black tar heroin bucket ran dry and he, knowing that teenage girls will read anything that involves angst and glitter, made an unholy pact with the elder gods (Oprah and a drug dealer with a heart of gold named Skidz) to bring the book into the public consciousness in exchange for another hit.

As you can see, she’s taking on everyone involved in publishing or promoting the series. Mostly, though, Johnson doesn’t like Meyer’s writing:

All of the characters are boring, whiny and one-dimensional, to the point where I wanted to pull a Meyer and create my own self-insert character who would then go all Rambo on their asses. Or at the very least, backhand them, I’m easy going like that.
Meyer doesn’t deserve her fame. The story she told (It’s not a saga, shut up before I smack you) is nothing special. Her writing style is sub-par at best. Her characters are unlikable twits.

Okay Johnson, quit dilly-dallying. What do you really think?

More important, though, what do YOU think? Could you write this kind of review? Have you? Have you ever thought about doing it?

Fairy Tales

A few years ago, wizards lit up the YA book world. Then came vampires who sucked up book sales. Now fairies are flittering into the bookstores.

If you write YA, you may already know about the fairy invasion. I don’t. And I didn’t.

According to The New York Times, “These aren’t gift-shop fairies. They’re capricious, twilight creatures that travel between the fairy realm and our own, meddling in human lives.”

The fairies seem to come with different powers, friends and aspirations.

In Cyn Balog’s “Fairy Tale,”a clairvoyant high school girl discovers that her perfect boyfriend is actually a changeling — a fairy child raised by unsuspecting humans. Malinda Lo’s somber and lovely “Ash” is a lesbian retelling of “Cinderella.”

In the majority of these fairy YA novels, the conundrum is a choice between an earthly and a fairy lover. There’s, of course, the usual teen angst over fitting in with the rest of the kids at school, only sometimes with a twist:

Laurel, in “Wings,” has the worst time with this because she discovers she’s not only a fairy but a plant.

Some of the books are apparently quick reads. Some are complex. At least one is getting attention from more than just the pre-teen and teen crowd.

Another much-admired writer in the fairy genre is Laini Taylor, whose fantasy collection “Lips Touch” is a nominee this year for a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

For Whom the Bells Toll

The Internet is the twenty-first century’s town crier. Sometimes the Word is good and all is right with the world. Sometimes the bell rings and the Word is downright scary. Lately, it’s been a lot scary. Midlist authors are being cut. Publishers are not taking on new books unless the author is a celebrity with a built-in platform. Agents aren’t even reading submissions. E-books will kill print books. The big box stores will undercut bookstores and soon the only books available will be those approved by the stock boy at Wal-Mart. Sometimes, it’s important to listen to the town crier. Always, it’s more important to remember that tomorrow the town crier will be ringing the bell and crying something different.

Tune out the criers and focus on yourself and your writing.

You must write the book, research agents and choose who to query, come up with a marketing plan, and promote your book. It’s work, but being in control of your future is better than being controlled.

As a writer, you hold your fate in your own hands. Ignore the talking heads who cry, The End is Near. Ignore the Pollyannas who gush, The Rainbow’s Pot of Gold is This Way.

Each day, before you begin your day, be silent. Quiet the voices. Listen. Hear the one voice that speaks the truth. That wise voice will tell you what and how to write. That gentle voice will tell you that you are worthy. That persistent voice will whisper encouragement. That loud voice will sing at your accomplishments and the goals met. That voice is…

Your voice.

Listen.

Speaking on Crime

If you write crime novels or would like to, then you have to go read Jason Pinter’s November 4th post in The Huffington Post. It’s a long post full of information. Pinter asked six crime fiction critics to give their thoughts on the crime novel: Patrick Anderson, Oline H. Cogdill, Jon Jordan, David J. Montgomery, Kate Stine, and Sarah Weinman.

Here are the questions he asked them:
Do you feel like crime novels are adequately addressing issues in our culture? And do they even need to?

What do you feel is your individual mission statement when it comes to covering crime novels?

What does a crime imprint need to do to be successful?

Which small presses do you feel are doing the best job publishing crime novels? Which large houses?

With book reviews being slashed, and with crime fiction having so few homes for mainstream recognition, do you feel a certain responsibility to attract readers to the genre? Have problems within the newspaper industry affected your reviewing or career (and if so, how)?

How has the rise in crime fiction blogs and social networking impacted the crime novel?

How important is it for authors to "be visible"?

Do you feel like publishers are taking the same care to grow authors as they did 10, 15, 20 years ago, or is there more of a "swing for the fences" mentality?

How relevant is the crime novel today?

How important is it for a crime novelist to get reviewed, and reviewed favorably?

Who are three veteran crime writers you feel are still at the top of their game? Who are three writers flying under the radar you feel deserve to break out?

Even if you write some other genre, you will probably glean something from the answers of these six critics. Be sure to go over and read Jason Pinter’s The State of the Crime Novel.

The Tail

I’m supposed to be at a reunion today - a gathering of ex-employees of Aquarena Springs. But I’m not. I decided not to go, even though reporter Bob Phillips emailed to ask if I’d be there.

First of all, it’s a weekend-long event, with golfing, exhibits and dinner (and not free). Second of all, I swam there years ago, back in my college days. Seems a bit weird to go back.

Don’t get me wrong, swimming in the underwater show was a great job. Didn’t pay much, but it helped with expenses, kept me in shape, and every year I was tan (okay, that last one was not a plus, I now know). We mermaids would lay out on the training platform, rub on baby oil and bake our young bodies, day after day. Yikes!

I usually swam about four shows a day - underwater ballet and a picnic. It’s odd that four bananas and four Hawaiian punches would totally fill me up. It’s also odd that, back then, I could hold my breath for a loooong time. The idea behind the ballets was to take half a breath of air, hand off your hose to one of the guy swimmers, then perform your ballet moves as slooow as possible (keeping in sequence with the lead mermaid), then glide to a finish with your hand outstretched for the guy to snap the hose back in your hand.

Those of us who swam year round (most were just summer help) could go very slowly and hold our breaths a long time. You could spot the rookies because they would be through their routines and sucking on the hose before the rest of us had finished the first forward roll.

Maybe I’ll tell stories about my years as a mermaid every so often. Since I mentioned the ballet routines, I’ll tell a quick one now. One day, I swam the ballet as usual - slowly. We had different routines, but they included most of the basic moves: forward roll, reverse split, backward flamingo roll, etc. One time, after swimming the ballet, I hurried to the warm-up room inside the volcano to change into the mermaid tail … and discovered my swim suit stitching in the crotch was totally gone. It was a bit difficult to buck up and go back out, but I changed suits, put on the tail and went out for picnic.

So I offer you this piece of advice: If you’re ever a mermaid, always check your swim suit before you do a show. (That’s actually good advice, even if you’re not a mermaid.)

Avionics

Yesterday, I blogged about my surprise at having a photographer come up to me at the Texas Book Festival and thank me for blogging about his book - and how this reminded me that we bloggers are not alone.

Today, I’ll tell you about something else that happened at the Festival, although not at the Austin Museum of Art.

On Saturday, the first day of the Festival, I arrived about 8:30 a.m. The museum wasn’t expecting me until about 9:30, so I decided I had time to walk two blocks and grab a coffee from Starbucks. They weren’t open. So I thought I’d run to the Exhibitors’ tents and see if I could catch some friends to yell “hi” at them before I headed to AMOA (once I’m there, I’m there for the day). I headed that way, but didn’t get far before I got a call that my big posters showing the line-up at AMOA for the two days needed to be picked up since no one was available to get them at the museum. I u-turned, met the staff member trying to deliver them, carted them to my car and locked them in the trunk, then u-turned and headed back, fast-walking to the Exhibitors’ tents (stopping along the way at the Exhibitors’ hospitality tent to grab a cup of free coffee). Fast-walked through the first tent of publishers, stopping briefly to look at TSTC Publishing’s table. No one was there manning it yet, but it was all set up, including …. My book, Automotive Technicians, right up front. Yay!! Woo-woo.

Zipped through the next tent - more publishers - then in the third tent, I found the Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas booth. Dave Ciambrone and Sylvia Dickey Smith were both there. We yakked and I got to see their books on display, then I headed to the next tent and ran into Russ Hall at his publisher’s table (and his many, many books on display). We talked way too long, so I hugged good-bye, then began backtracking. Paused at the SinC HoT booth again. Joan Upton Hall was there and I gave her a running hug.

Zipped into my publisher’s tent and found Mark there. Before I could get to the table, my phone was ringing again. Another delivery; told them I’d be walking down Congress headed their way. Hugged Mark. He asked if I noticed my book. I told him, yes, and picked it up. He said, not that one, and pointed to the book next to it.

There sat, propped up on display, the next one in the TechCareers series - Avionics. Bright blue cover, and I’d missed it! So, I hereby officially announce that Avionics is not only available but has an ISBN. Woo-woo.

Mark whipped out a copy and gave it to me, then I hurried off to meet the staff with more supplies, then raced off to the museum.

All that power walking started out as a trip to get a Starbucks. I ended up with about half of a small cup of coffee (I threw it away ‘cause I was spilling more of it than I was drinking), a chance to hug friends, and a copy of my latest book. Not a bad way to start the Festival.

And, what does this tell you, other than that I will dance around on a broken toe at the sight of my name on a book cover? If you’re an aspiring author, it tells you that the Texas Book Festival (and probably the Festival in your state), can be a good place to introduce yourself to small publishers. The TBF doesn’t have agents, that I know of, but there are small and regional publishers who set up their booths and stand around waiting for buyers …and aspiring authors to come talk to them. And it’s free. It costs you nothing to walk through the tents, buck up your nerve and introduce yourself.

We Are Not Alone

That sentence - we are not alone - is from some sci-fi movie, but I can’t remember which one. It has a rather ominous tone to it. I thought I’d use it as the title of the blog, but not in an ominous way.

Bloggers tend to post their thoughts or reviews or beliefs and wonder if anyone stops by. When comments start showing up, we think, wow, someone read what I wrote and added their thoughts to it. It begins to feel like an intimate conversation between yourself and the five or twenty people who show up on any given day.

I don’t think it matters whether you’re blogging for fun, or to promote your book or yourself, or to try to focus your thoughts and fears, you still are amazed or gladdened or wowed by those who comment. I am. I seem to have a core group who comment every day, and I am amazed by that. I now have close to 200 followers and that boggles my mind. Some days I check the blog and think, good gracious, 30 people have commented.

And still, it feels like a one-on-one conversation between myself and the commenters. I, and possibly others who blog, tend to forget that for every person who comments, there could be five or twenty who read and don’t comment.

What brought this into focus was something that happened this past weekend at the Texas Book Festival. Leading up to the Festival, I introduced, here on the blog, some of the authors and books who would be appearing at the Austin Museum of Art, the venue that I chair. They weren’t really reviews, but more of an enticement (I hoped) to get some of you to come hear the photographers and artists who were speaking.

In-between the speakers, we (myself and volunteers) go into re-set mode. We’re cleaning the room, straightening the chairs, whipping away opened water bottles and name plates from the speaker tables and putting out new stuff for the next speakers, etc. At one point, in the midst of doing all this, a photographer who had already finished his talk came up to me and thanked me for writing about his book on Straight From Hel.

Now, I know that people visit the blog and don’t leave a footprint that they’ve been there, but I was flabbergasted that he’d read the post. My guess is he or his publicist has a Google alert on his name or book title. Still, it totally surprised me.

It also reminded me that as bloggers, we are not alone.

Hidden Code

Today’s post is a bit off-topic, so I apologize up front. I’m posing a question for those of you who use Blogger (blogspot) or who know html code.

I noticed recently that blogspot was inserting code into my posts. When I checked the html, I found a piece of code at the end of the post. I have no clue exactly what it does and I can’t post the code here because it’s invisible. At first when I found it, I deleted it, slightly ticked that blogspot would insert it.

Then I wondered if perhaps it was something important, so I left it in.

Then I noticed that some words in the post were subtly underlined. If you clicked them, you’d be taken to some other site totally unrelated to my post. For example, in yesterday’s post about Rick Riordan, if I left in the code (which I didn’t), the word “contract” might have been underlined and when clicked you’d be taken to some site about contracts (I’m only guessing since I didn’t leave in the code).

Has anyone else noticed this? If you can read code and you use blogger, can you tell me what this piece of code is about? It seems to me that blogger/blogspot may be using all its bloggers to make money for them by using the posts as advertising methods. If you happen to use a keyword and a reader clicks it and gets taken to that advertiser’s site, then the advertiser pays blogger - again, that’s a guess on my part. (The piece of code contains words like "gwProxy" and "hidden" and "input onclick.")

I would like to know what the code is. If it’s an advertising revenue for blogger, I’ll keep deleting it. If it’s something else, say, a way for search engines to find the post, then I’ll probably go back to leaving it in, although I don’t like the idea that readers may think I put in the underlining and link, only to find themselves whisked away to some site with nothing to do with my post.

Congrats to Rick Riordan

I remember - not that many years ago - when Rick Riordan published his first book. He lived in San Antonio and was a member of the Heart of Texas Sisters in Crime group. As a new member, I was in awe of him and some of the other authors, like Susan Rogers Cooper, Barbara Burnett Smith, Susan Wittig Albert, Nancy Bell, Jeff Abbott, and Mary Willis Walker, who would stand and announce their successes since the last meeting - they’d gotten an agent, or signed a book contract, or heard back from an agent asking for more pages. I kept thinking, these are ordinary people - if they can do it, so can I.

All of those authors have gone onto be successful -- perhaps none more so than Rick Riordan. In yesterday’s San Antonio Business Journal, there was an announcement that made me cheer.

First off, the release date for the first movie based on Riordan’s first book in his Percy Jackson and The Olympians series (The Lightning Thief) is set to premiere on February 12, 2010. It’s being directed by Chris Columbus (he directed the first two Harry Potter films). According to the SA Business Journal, Riordan’s Percy Jackson series “has sold more than 7 million copies to date in the United States and has been printed in 32 different languages.”

I knew about the movie, but didn’t know that Rick is writing a new series and the first in this series will be released through Disney Book Group’s Disney-Hyperion imprint.

The Kane Chronicles, Book One: The Red Pyramid is a new fantasy book that brings ancient Egyptian mythology to life in a modern-day setting. Disney-Hyperion has scheduled a release date for the book on May 4, 2010, in both print and audio editions.

This series is aimed at kids 10 and up.

So, I wanted to say congratulations to Rick Riordan. I also wanted to tell you about Rick because I still see him and other authors as inspirations. The news lately has been mostly how publishers are cutting back on picking up new authors and how mid-list authors are being dropped. Rick got his start back when publishers were more likely to sign new authors and nurture them. Even so, I still remember when he was just a neophyte like the rest of us, hoping to get published and so excited to be able to announce his good news. Most likely, he never even thought about what an inspiration he was to the rest in the group. Even now, in these hard times for writers, I still see him as an inspiration.

Blogging Awards

Well, I survived NaBloWriMo - National Blog Writing Month. Those of us who participated by blogging every day can pat ourselves on the back. Yay! October turned out to be the month from Hades for me, but not because of NaBloWriMo. I fell, twisted my knee, sprained my ankle, went through two different sets of xrays - plus came down with the H1N1. I’m ready for November.

But! The good thing about October is that I received two awards. I’d dance around my desk, but … I can’t.

Stephanie Faris gave me an award. It doesn’t have a name, but it’s a beautiful mermaid brandishing a really wicked pitchfork, while little fish and a seahorse scamper by. Okay. I admit it. I see why Stephanie thought of me. (Not the beautiful mermaid part, but the scaring folks with the huge fork thing.) Seriously, though, thank you Stephanie. She put me in among a group of wonderful bloggers.

Karen McIntosh awarded me the One Lovely Blogger Award. I just hope I can live up to what she said about Straight From Hel: “…it's chock full of information on the publishing industry and writing, with book reviews and MORE. Helen's site is a fast way to stay up with changing industry trends…” Thank you Karen.

While Stephanie didn’t say the mermaid award had to be passed on, Karen did. So I hereby give the One Lovely Blogger Award to:

Tamika of The Write Worship
I’m just getting to know Tamika. She writes about her writing journey in a truly unique and thoughtful way.

The rules for accepting the One Lovely Blogger Award are:
1) Accept the award and don't forget to post a link back to the awarding person.
2) Pass the award on.
3) Notify the award winners.

Zip over to The Write Worship and tell Tamika hi and read some of her posts!

News Wrap-up

Thought I’d do a wrap-up of a few news stories on books that didn’t make it into the weekly blog posts.

Here’s one from the New York Times:
Macmillan, the publishing company that owns Farrar Straus & Giroux and St. Martin’s Press, has a new standard royalty rate for ebook sales - 20 percent of net proceeds. (That’s 5 percent lower than other mainstream publishers.)

The Charlotte Florida Weekly interviews Carl Hiassen:
Apparently, if you write satire, you need to live in Florida. Hiassen just writes what he reads in the news, more or less.

Greg Bean in The Sentinel talks about the changing world of books and publishing, as well as the price war currently going on. He also talks about what he plans to do to save the hardback.

Have fun! Have a great Sunday!