Breaking In Before Breaking Down

A Writer's 2011: Some Highlights

2012-01-01T10:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, writers and would-be writers! As you prepare to get a fresh batch of literary masterpieces on paper for the new year, these are some of writer/editor/book reviewer Erin O'Riordan's articles from the year past to provide inspiration.

January: My Favorite Weird Fiction of 2010

February: Attracting More Reviews For Your Books

March: Great Books For Women's History Month

April: Review of The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

May: Review: The Strangest Book I've Ever Read

June: The Art of the Anagram

November: Two Articles for Aspiring Writers

Two New Articles For Aspiring Writers

2011-11-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

My guest blogger at Pagan Spirits today is Harry Bingham, the UK writer behind the website The Writers' Workshop. Harry's guest post addresses:

-Obsessive editing
-Writing a good book
-The query letter, synopsis and manuscript presentation
-Professional feedback

You can read Harry's post here.

Earlier this week, I featured a post titled "So You Want to Be a Writer We've All Heard Of," focusing on post-publication marketing. This time, my guest blogger was Jane Wenham-Jones. Jane gives advice on crafting the perfect author biography.

Hope to see you there - and keep working on those masterpieces!

The Kindle Author blog presents promotion tips for self-published authors

2011-10-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

The kindle-author.blogspot.com blog put forth a set of promotion suggestions for self-published authors in November 2010. These tips, which come from ten different self-published authors in various genres, are worth repeating again this year.

Although there is no "magic bullet" tip that will make your book sell thousands of copies overnight, every book campaign can benefit from strategic promotion and careful social networking.

The list can be found at http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-10-tips-for-promoting-your-book.html

Another good source of marketing tips for newly published authors is Social Media Examiner. Aimed at small businesses of any type, the site allows patrons to sign up for a free e-mail newsletter, which comes Monday-Saturday.

Social Media Examiner's tips address everything from the best ways to set up a LinkedIn profile to monetized Facebook applications. The site occasionally offers free e-books with additional promotion tips, too.

In September, Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Expert (another free e-mail newsletter) published a post called "Twenty Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Website and Blog." It appeared in the Huffington Post.

Not too sure about things like Google Page Rank? Don't worry. Penny puts things in terms even non-technically oriented writers can understand.

Good luck, and happy promoting!

Flood Zone!

2011-08-26T17:51:00.001-07:00

It turns out I live in a flood zone. My wife and I went to visit my mother.

Light blogging and fifty percent chance of showers

2011-08-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't gone on another one of my long hiatuses yet. I'm doing a critique for Deadly Prose. The manuscript is fun, and I hope it does well in the publishing jungle.

Meanwhile, I may have some exciting news soon, but I don't want to say for sure until the details are finalized.

2011-08-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Susan R. Mills has started blogging again at A Walk in My Shoes, One Step at a Time!

I learned a lot from her blog, and even from the long period when she stopped blogging. I shouldn't read too much into that, since I've done the same thing, but I will anyway.

For a long time she posted three times a week. Every post was well thought out, and about something all writers should be interested in, except when she talked about her personal triumphs and those of her friends. She always found an appropriate picture of shoes which was related to her post. And she did all this in addition to her regular writing, rewriting, and other forms of online networking. How did she do all this without burning out? Well, she sold her children on e-bay.

Actually, I think she did burn out, at least partially, although I can't say for sure how much writing she got done while she wasn't blogging. Building a platform is important, but you have to pace yourself.

Look at Marcy of Mainwords. She has lots of great content, and she's teamed up with another blogger to critique the first page of a different author's manuscript each month. She gives herself a little break sometimes though:

Under the category of 'whatever' she says:

"when I get published...
I am so going to get me a new washer/dryer unit. One that doesn't make that horrific high pitched, grating, whining noise that mine does when I first start it up (I'm thinking belt. You?). And when it's done drying? There will be NO annoying buzzer that shoots through my skull like a laser. Like I really need a buzzer to tell me my stuff is done drying. Hello? The dryer stopped. I got the clue. Thanks."

Of course there's an art to that too. You make it personal but not too personal, knowing what not to say. People who like your writing voice enjoy these posts too.

So Susan, if you feel like you're pushing too hard, just post a picture of a single shoe. Accumulate a bunch of pictures of sexy shoes with legs in them, and nobody will mind if they're not related to your posts. And dry humor is good, but sometimes dryer humor is even better.

Of course they both have a lot more real and regular content than I do, but I think we can ignore that, or at least I can.

Am I too cheap to buy something intangible?

2011-08-13T16:48:00.000-07:00

Apparently not. I've been known to subscribe to monthly online services. And even pay my electric, cable, and phone bills, or at least let my wife do so! And yes, I've gotten to the point where buying a book for three dollars or less to read on my iPad kindle app is preferable to going to the library when I don't happen to feel like it, especially when I see the e-book on Amazon and haven't checked my library yet. I feel bad for the librarians though. I hope nobody gets laid off because I'm paying less in fines.

Of course your big six mainstream publishers want you to pay ten dollars or more for many e-books, rarely less than four. Thus my financial support for indy and self publishers. While I would still love to have an agent and a major publisher, for the first time publishing on Amazon aka Konrath seems better than a desperate last resort to me, because I can imagine I might buy my own book if I were someone else, provided I price it at three dollars.

You can't read the whole library!

2011-08-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

So, if you like the library, you have more good books than you can possibly read, right? Sort of. I like science fiction, a rather small section of the library. Plus, I'm rather picky. If I read the jacket cover and the first couple of pages, and they don't hook me, there still may be a chance I'll enjoy it, but ordinarily I won't go on to find out. Life is short.

Of course you can get books through interlibrary loan, of go to libraries other than your local one. We're getting less and less convenient now, and in the former case you can't read the first page either, unless you visit Amazon.

Also, old library books may be dirty, or smell funny. It never used to bother me.

I gather it's not too hard to get books not from Amazon onto my Kindle, but so far I'm too lazy to fiddle with it. Any e-book three dollars or less is worthwhile for avoiding hassle and indulging impulse gratification, I've come to feel. It's convenient to be able to carry around several books easily, in case I lose interest in one. And my iPad is it's own book light, convenient for reading in bed next to my wife with the lights out. I know they have book lights for that with clips, but they will probably work better if I have an extra hand grafted on.

I pad into iPadland?

2011-08-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

When I first got my iPad, one of the first apps I downloaded was the kindle reader. Many Amazon e-books are free, more than you could read. Amazon has set up a 'most downloaded' list for the free books, if you get tired of browsing a sea of mediocre free uploads. It doesn't help as much as you would think, most of the books in the top 100 aren't something I would read.

Why buy a book when you can get it in the library for free? And paper books have many advantages. They aren't so expensive when you lose them or they get stolen. You don't have to recharge the batteries. And because paper books in bookstores and libraries are mostly by major publishers with many people involved, most of the absolute dross gets filtered out.

So tomorrow I'll explain some of the reasons I'm using my kindle app more and more.

Kick Ass Heroines

2011-07-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

(I'm sorry I'm putting up this guest blog by Beth Barany late, I tried to send her a blogger link so she had total control of the formatting. It may not have worked, and I wasn't able to check because my wife and I spent a night in a hotel due to air conditioning problems in a heat wave.)

Kick Ass heroines, Bad Girls, in Science Fiction and Fantasy
by Beth Barany

David, thank you for having me on your blog to write about kick ass heroines in fantasy and science fiction.

Major confession up front: I love kick ass heroines in science fiction and fantasy and love to write and read about them, too.

I've recently published my first novel, a YA fantasy, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer. Yeah, she's a bad ass!

Henrietta is a bit of a bad girl as the story opens. She’s gettin’ out of Dodge, leaving her hero days behind, not wanting to be her kingsdom's hero anymore. She's leaving behind her responsibilities for a life in the sunny beaches down south. Her heart is hurting and she doesn’t even know it. Yet.

ABOUT

Henrietta, the legendary Dragon Slayer of the Kingdom of Bleuve, can’t stomach the thought of one more kill. Yet, in order to save her dying mentor, she must go on one last quest. But will misfit companions, seasickness, and an ego maniacal king derail the quest for the healing stone? And will she be able to cut past her conscience and kill the dragon?

Read an excerpt of Henrietta The Dragon Slayer here.

Where did the inspiration for Henrietta come from?

Other bad girls!

I devote this post to the bad girls and kick ass heroines I know and love, drawn mostly my favorite authors, books, movies and TV shows. And from a few surprises thrown in for good measure.

The Bad Girl archetype is a powerful and ancient one, and well represented in our modern stories.

The Bad Girl archetype is about reclaiming female power for the good of the community and for benefit of the Bad Girl, who sometimes becomes more than just a Bad Girl. But more on that in a future post.

I'll be doing a giveaway at the end of the month for a free copy of Henrietta The Dragon Slayer and picking a winner from all the people who comment during my blog tour, so please to chime in with your favorites!

In Science Fiction...
Elizabeth Moon writes smart science fiction featuring most often women space captains. Ms. Moon was one of the first women in the Marine Corps in the 1960s and her military knowledge flows through her stories like a second skin. I love reading about women facing leadership challenges in space. There is nothing like the threat of zero atmo to make a leader come alive.
My current favorite book of hers is Once a Hero in The Serrano Legacy series. I also loved the Vatta’s War series, and the stand-alone, Remnant Population.
Sharon Shinn writes fantasy and science fiction, for young adults and adults. The first book I read of hers is still my favorite: Mystic & Rider, the first in the Twelve House series. A hardened warrior devoted only to his king and a mystic shunned by her family but trusted by the king must roust out those that scheme in secret against the kingdom.
Her heroines are complex, the love stories unique and varied in each of her books, and her worlds feel so full and real.

In Fantasy...
I have a primary place in my heart for Nikita in the original Luc Besson film, La Femme Nikita.
She’s bad out of choice and circumstance. Then she gets a chance at redemption. Or does she? I like how she has the opportunity to remake her life.
Another kick ass heroine I like is Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.
She's a spoiled rich girl, or is she? Not just. She lost her beloved father early and seems to be driven by some sort of justice. She’s strong, she’s capable, and she won’t stop until she gets what she wants.
And then there's Lilu in The Fifth Element, another Luc Besson film.
She may not be considered a bad girl, because she’s supposed to save the world. But if the world is not worth saving she will let it be destroyed. That is definitely a Bad Girl trait, in my book. That takes guts, and the strength of doing what’s right, in the face of the potential horrible loss.

In Archetypes...
The ultimate bad girl is Kali, the Hindi goddess of birth and destruction, and eternal energy.
I’ve been drawn to her all my life, without consciously knowing why. Then in preparation for this article, I read this: “She is also revered as Bhavatarini (literally 'redeemer of the universe').”
I love stories where the Bad Girl gets redeemed. She’s on the outside looking in, her violent tendencies seemingly keeping her at odds with the expectations of what it means to be a woman.
Only through acceptance of her benefits to the community that both she and the community agree on, can she find her place in the community.

In History...
Lastly, I want to mention the book, Warrior Women: An Archaeologist’s Search for History’s Hidden Heroines by Jeannine Davis-Kimball, with Mona Behan.
From an editorial review at Amazon: “Nearly one-quarter of the women buried in some late Iron Age sites were either warriors or priestesses. Even the remainder ‘hearth women’ were important players in the tribes’ surprisingly egalitarian societies. Further, southern Kazakhstan’s famous ‘gold man’ was in fact, a ‘gold woman.’ ”

I know I come from a long line of warrior women, many of them viewed as Bad Girls from the culture of their day.
It’s time for us, for me, to reclaim our Badness and use it as a force for good! And use our considerable abilities to be kick ass heroines in our own lives.
Who are your favorite Bad Girl or Kick Ass Heroines?!

P.S. All who answer the question and comment on this post are eligible to enter my July book giveaway for a copy of Henrietta The Dragon Slayer (print or ebook -- your choice!) and also the blog tour Grand Prize, Henrietta's necklace, featured on the cover. All the Giveaway rules here: Henrietta The Dragon Slayer Summer Blog Tour. The novel is available is Amazon US, Amazon UK, Nook, Smashwords.

PPS. An earlier version of this article first appeared on my blog, http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog.

The Foolish Samurai

2011-07-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

I just read an unusual online story. One thing that makes it unusual is that I read it to the end. I abandon lots of fiction after a page or even a paragraph.

The Foolish Samurai breaks some rules, but it draws me and holds me anyhow, so the story is worth thinking about.

At the end of the long first paragraph I don't understand what is going on. Is the Samurai sleeping in the sewer drain and planning to break into the Evil Wizard's corporate HQ part of some kind of role playing game? It sounds too fantastical to take seriously even in the bounds of the story, and we have no real hint of the problems or fears, so it doesn't generate much suspense by itself. It generates a bit of curiousity though.

He doesn't exactly 'save the cat', perform some immediate deed of kindness to make us empathize with him. Somehow the wistful dream of eating fried chicken with his family brings us closer to him, even as little hints make the story more mysterious than ever.

I don't know if this story will be read in twenty years, if the metaphor for us and our society is profound or unique enough to stand the test of time. But it drew me in to the end today, and that's an accomplishment, even if the author doesn't realize or appreciate it.

Love and Writing

2011-07-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

As I navigate the world of trying to get published, I often look back on early drafts of writing. It makes me happy to see how far my writing has come in the last 14 years. Working on the skill of writing is, as it turns out, quite similar to working on a good marriage.

A marriage starts with a good proposal. Take my husband's proposal to me: We were on a romantic drive through the Appalachian Mountains. The trees were changing colors. The southern breezes must have been whispering sweet nothings into my then-boyfriend's ear. He pulled over at scenic drive along the Cumberland Gap. With an engagement ring full of diamonds in his hand, he smiled at me said, "Marry me, or I'll jump over." I laughed, of course, and agreed that marriage sounded wonderful. I love his sense of humor, but I also love that he is responsible, driven, and adventuresome.

A good piece of writing shares those same qualities. It was actually when I went to write my vows—naturally, we had decided to write our own—and began to list all the qualities I loved in him that I thought about how that translates into writing fiction.

Responsibility
I am a writer of young adult fiction, which means I have to pay special attention to morality in my writing. Where in adult fiction, a writer can publish a piece that is dark, a young adult piece without a hopeful ending will likely be a hard sell. But in most fiction, young adult or otherwise, readers relate to the good guy. It could be the guy who may be long-suffering, but has strength of heart or the underdog who works hard to bring his team victory in the face of difficulty, or possibly even the boy who does the right thing when the wrong thing is easier. Authors give a reader a reason to read the same way a guy gives a girl a reason to say yes to the engagement ring. It starts with some kind of moral ground.

Drive
If a character isn't driven to solve problems, you have no book. Successful characters succeed because they stay true to the one thing in life they need or want most. They don't give up. Marriage is similar. It's probably different for every couple, but if they stay true to the thing that is most important to them as a team, I think that marriage will be a strong one. I guess I can only answer for my own, but that has been my experience thus far.

Adventuresome Spirit
Not all books are adventure stories, per se, but I think they all have an element of characters doing something new or becoming something new. Great books begin with a character's problem, mystery, or desire and end in his or her transformation. So, even if a character doesn't end up somewhere physically different from where he or she started, something has changed for him or her. Readers love to follow around a character that allows them to experience a new world or a new mindset. I'd say the same is true for spouses. The very act of getting engaged and then married is doing and becoming something new. But, it can't stop there. Love and marriage is truly exciting when you realize you've become something new—something better—because you're together.

Ha! The Man of Great Rat (The Art of the Anagram)

2011-06-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

Anagram: a word or term formed by rearranging the letters in another word or term.

Writers love anagrams. Romance writer Jennifer St. Giles named her villain in Touch a Dark Wolf Dr. Cinatas, and his medical research company Sno-Med. Simply turn the letters around and you have “Satanic” and “Demons.” Dan Brown used anagrams in The Da Vinci Code. When the dying Sauniere spelled out “O Draconian devil! O lame saint!,” the message he was trying to get out was, “Leonardo da Vinci! The Mona Lisa!”

In children’s literature, Lemony Snicket often used anagrams in his Series of Unfortunate Events. The first book in the series, The Bad Beginning, features a play written by Al Funcoot, an anagram for the villainous actor Count Olaf. Lemony Snicket captured the essence of the anagram: they work well for villains because they’re slightly deceptive. They can also be funny.

A perceptive reader (especially readers of mystery novels, where they’re also frequently used) can spot them a mile away. A more casual reader may not discover the word game until the characters do. There’s also a cleverness to a good anagram that makes it fun and can make the reader laugh out loud. That’s why anagrams work well in humorous writing.

The best anagrams form words and phrases that are real words and can easily be pronounced, as in the Da Vinci Code example. If simply spelling a word backwards doesn’t turn up a good anagram, you’ll have to scramble. Write the word or phrase at the top of a piece of paper. Start picking out words you can make with those letters, crossing each letter off as you write it down below. Then check to see if you can make any words from them. It often takes several attempts to come up with a good anagram you can work into a short story or novel.

(You can also cheat and use the Anagram Genius website, which lets you input text and turns it into an anagram for you. For the title of this article it suggested, “Ahem! The arrogant fat.”)

Many people practice coming up with anagrams by starting with their own names, or with the names of famous authors. Edgar Allan Poe becomes “Ape and All Gore,” which is especially apt since he wrote gory horror stories, at least one of which (“Hop-Frog”) features an ape. William Shakespeare becomes “I am a weakish speller,” and Charlotte Bronte becomes “Tolerant Botcher.”

If you want to give a personal stamp of ownership to a piece of writing while remaining anonymous, you could use an anagrammatic name. Clever readers may find you out, though.

Book Review: The Art of War

2011-05-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

Some people compare finding the right career to fighting a battle for their livelihood. Changing careers requires planning and strategy, whether that means attaining an associate degree, obtaining online training, or striving for an MFA, if you are a writer. It may also require being able to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, anticipating possible challenges, and recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of players in the field. Changing careers means competing with other people who are either doing the same thing, starting out fresh, or who are well established and networked within a particular market. Having the right mindset is key to exploiting opportunities and developing the means to achieve a successful shift in employment.

The Art of War was a bestseller in the 1980s when the “greed is good” philosophy was dominant in American pop culture. While many people bought and read the book during that decade, its relevance still pertains to the current job market.

Sun Tzu, who wrote this manuscript, was a Chinese general who lived between 544 and 496 BCE. He was renowned for his military successes that depended not so much on superior manpower or material resources so much as psychology. As a strategist, he is traditionally revered as a man without peers, who still has lessons to teach after more than 2000 years spent studying his methods. Going about a career change with the goal of succeeding is imperative to making it work. The lessons of Sun Tzu will enable readers to be in top form and to maximize their advantage.

While this is a battlefield treatise, it offers lessons that people can apply to their own, more peaceful, career ambitions. The twelve chapters deal with various aspects of warfare that are both specific and general. For instance, Sun Tzu recommends reconnaissance of enemy terrain and abilities before embarking on an expedition. This is what job seekers do when they evaluate their options in new professional fields. They look for strong points in any given market, as well as evaluate weak points in which they can fulfill unmet needs over other people who have similar skill sets.

The most valuable lesson Sun Tzu imparts is the necessity of being well-versed in the abilities and expectations of the competition, so much so that trouble can be avoided and success achieved with the least amount of effort. Everyone knows that time and resources are valuable for someone looking to change careers. By presenting oneself as an expert and being able to back it up, job seekers will stand out from the pack in their market.

Planning and intelligence are helpful in seeking success. So is self-assurance. A worker or business owner who presents himself or herself as a qualified individual will naturally find opportunities crop up that will lead, one after another, to many chances for career fulfillment. Research and mastery are the keys to being able to project assurance, as Sun Tzu did with great success over two centuries ago.

The Strangest Book I've Ever Read (by Erin O'Riordan)

2011-05-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

A week or two ago, if you had asked me what the strangest book I've ever read was, I probably would have answered, "Christopher Priest's The Prestige." If you've seen the film version, directed by Christopher Nolan and brilliantly acted by a cast including Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Hugh Jackman and David Bowie, you have some idea of the strangeness of that novel. Some, but not all. In a distinctively English way, Priest took the idea of turn-of-the-century dueling stage magicians to places I never could have imagined...and keep in mind I read the novel after seeing the film.

I think we have a new winner, though. The title of strangest book I've ever read must now go to The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin. Pelevin, one of the finest contemporary Russian writers, released the book in his native language in 2005. It was released in English in 2008, translated by Andrew Bromfield.

Werewolf is narrated by A Hu-Li. Apparently, the Russian translation of her name is "So F---ing What," though in the original Chinese it means "A Fox Named A."

A Hu-Li is a werefox, but she's so much more than that. She's 2,000 years old, one of a sisterhood of werefoxes from ancient China. These foxes are a kind of energy vampires, using prostitution as a cover to feed off the sexual energy of men. Through a kind of hallucinogenic effect they produce with their fox-tails, A Hu-Li and her sisters never actually have to touch these men. A Hu-Li is, in fact, a 2,000-year-old virgin.

For the first time in her extremely long life, A Hu-Li is faced with the prospect of falling in love. She goes a little too far with a client who offends her; her imaginary whip draws real blood. This arouses the suspicions of an SVR (what used to be the KGB) officer named Alexander. Alexander is a werewolf. He may be Fenrir, the wolf from Norse mythology who, at the end of time, catches the sun and devours it. The two were-creatures are drawn to each other. By twining their tails together, they can act out any fantasy imaginable in their minds.

A Hu-Li has a sister who lives in England, with a husband who's obsessed with esoteric magic and believes in the coming of a super-werewolf. Alexander is convinced he is the super-werewolf, and together he and A Hu-Li embark on a strange journey through their own minds, over which they discuss the meaning of existence itself.

My favorite quote is this one: "The energy that serves for the conception of life does not belong to people. Entering into the act of love, a human being becomes a channel for this energy and is transformed from a sealed vessel to a pipe that is connected for a few seconds to the bottomless source of the life force. I simply require access to that source, that's all." Don't we all?

A Writers Guide to Shipping and Media Rates

2011-04-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

If you’re a writer like me, you’re also an avid reader. And while this may not be news to you, I was surprised to learn that I could mail books to my friends at a media rate. It’s a lot cheaper than standard mail. In fact, media mail is one of the least expensive ways to use to ship books and manuscripts. These media rates are often the very lowest of all shipping rates. Other types of media rates for shipping books and manuscripts quicker include overnight mail, first class mail, certified mail, and registered mail with return receipt requested. An author should never ship the only copy of a manuscript anywhere, obviously. Always make at least one photocopy to save in case the shipped version gets lost or damaged during transit. Is anyone else surprised that so many publishers still ask for snail mail submissions? I marvel at this.

As I went about mailing my first manuscript submission I began thinking of the life cycle of a book from idea to finished manuscript to published book. It is a long and involved one. But any writer with enough determination and dedication can achieve the dream of having a book published.

The Idea

The aspiring author first decides what the idea or concept of the book. Then the hardest part begins: the writing. Only after the complete novel is done, does the idea get shrunk to a one page written synopsis or query, which will eventually be submitted to prospective book publishers or literary agents. The nonfiction author can sell his book idea based solely on the contents of the book proposal.

The Book Proposal or Query

The book proposal includes writing sections on what the specific audience for the book is, how to best promote and market it, the synopsis, an author bio, one to three sample chapters, along with a self addressed stamped envelope, aka a SASE. The query, on the other hand, is a pitch letter for the novel which includes the flavor or voice of the story you’re pitching. But either way, this is the beginning of the book’s journey.

Researching the Prospective Markets

There are many print and online writing market directories where authors can perform due diligence on potential publishing houses or literary agents to see which specific books they handle. Study these markets well and avoid wasting postage, effort, and time!

Sending the Finished Manuscript Out

When a query attracts the attention of an agent or publisher, congratulations! It’s time to send on the full manuscript. Manuscripts should be mailed out in securely wrapped and sealed packages using media mailing and shipping rates. Hopefully the next step in the mailing process will be signing and sending a contract to work with an agent or editor. Certified mail will now be your bestie!

Waiting for A Publication Contract

A nonfiction book author has to wait until his book proposal is evaluated before a publication contract will arrive in the mail. A fiction manuscript writer has to wait until his entire novel is evaluated and accepted for publication before an official contract will be sent to him.

Waiting for the Book to Come Out

After the contract is received; it takes about a year for the fiction writer to see a novel make it to print. The nonfiction writer has to first finish writing the entire manuscript, and about the same year wait is necessary before that book is for sale online and in the bookstores. The ARCs and then the final books will then be shipped not only to you, but reviewers, libraries, and finally the general public. I don’t know about you, but for me receiving my own book at my doorstep will be the most amazing package ever to arrive.

Jody Sparks is working her way toward becoming a published author. She's also an avid reader and blogger.

An and the Pirates - Excerpt from 'The Smell of Gas'

2011-04-23T05:48:00.000-07:00

Lian came up with a plan. He would simply cut off An’s long hair and dress her in some of his old clothes. He would pass her off as his cousin from the country, and she would accompany him on his next pirating expedition.

It was a fine plan, except that when the men of the crew saw An, they immediately knew that she was a woman. They made some crude remarks, but Lian drew his sword, and everyone agreed An could come along on this one voyage only.

Lian’s “pirate ship” was hardly worthy of being called a ship at all. It was little more than a large fishing boat, although it did have a cannon. The rusted cannon had been salvaged from the wreck of a British trader. The ship’s crew consisted of six men other than Lian. They didn’t give An their names, and she didn’t ask. They looked as if they all had something to hide. She wouldn’t have been surprised if they were all murderers. Still, sensing that this was her only chance, An clung to Lian and sailed with them.

Three days out to sea, the would-be pirates had encountered nothing but fishing vessels. They would sometimes rob the unfortunate fisherman of their catch, their water, or their liquor if there was any, but it was hardly worth the trouble. Then, as the sun was beginning to set on the third evening, An spotted a ship’s billowing white sails in the distance. She took the news straight to Lian.

Lian took a look at the vessel and shook his head. “Japanese Navy,” he said. “We wouldn’t dare.”

“What do you mean, you wouldn’t dare?” An said. “You’re a pirate.”

“The penalty for piracy is death,” said one of the crew. “And the Japanese are even more relentless about tracking down violators than the Chinese.”

“Especially if the victim ship happens to be in the Navy,” Lian added. “Attack the Japanese military and they’ll consider it an attack against the Emperor himself. And you know how funny they are about their royal family.”

The entire crew laughed, except An. She’d met a few Japanese men in her line of work, but she’d had little opportunity to converse with them about politics.

The ship’s crew went back to what they were doing--drinking and playing cards, mostly. An watched the single-masted vessel with the white sails as it drew closer.
She soon realized it was not alone. There were three Naval vessels in a V formation, escorting the largest ship An had ever seen. She ran and reported this finding to Lian.

He looked at the ships again. He smiled and shook his head. “Somebody really important,” he told his sister. “Maybe the Emperor himself.”

“Let’s take it,” An said.

Love pulp fiction? Just try putting down THE SMELL OF GAS by Erin O'Riordan and Tit Elingtin. TSOG is full of saints and sinners you'll love to hate. There's Brigid, the high school basketball player and secret heroin addict. Fred, a Catholic lesbian teen, loves Brigid, but doesn't know about her affair with Edward, a married Evangelical preacher...oh yes, there are also turn-of-the-century Chinese pirates. Sex, ethics, religions and mythologies clash as you dig deeper into their connection to the death of a young couple. Available now in print and e-book from Melange Books.

A double thank you

2011-04-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

I want to thank Marcy Hatch of Mainewords and Dianne K. Salerni of In High Spirits for critiquing the first page of my manuscipt on their blogs.

If you have a manuscript and you've been thinking about the opening you should visit them, they look at three different first pages a month and give suggestions and exposure to them. If you act now, you might still make it for May.

Bloggers and Intellectual Property Rights

2011-04-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

As a writer and a blogger, something I’ve been think a lot about is intellectual property, I heard recently that the courts have been asked to keep up with technology changes while applying property laws. Sounds like an interesting challenge for them. Writers who create online content may want to know about these changes, given the way that people can steal content online. An IP lawyer can provide personalized advice on a situation. Beyond that, there are some measures that bloggers may want to investigate that will help deter intellectual property theft.

Creative Commons License
With these licenses, you can post a badge on your site letting others know exactly how they are allowed to use content. You set the allowances for how people may use your content. Likewise, having the license noted on your blog will let visitors know you are serious about protecting content. Most potential content thieves don’t want to take risks, and this type of measure could potentially scare them off.

Fair Use Warnings
One thing that an IP attorney may advise is that the law implies a fair use policy. This means that people may post some relevant portions of your content on their blogs for the purposes of summarizing, highlighting, or showcasing it. They are not allowed to post the heart of your work. If you post a fair use warning, you’ll remind would-be content thieves that they may not steal large sections of your writing. Though this won't always deter theft, it may help.

Click Protection
One of the newest ways to protect content is to click-protect your page. This means that people can’t right click to copy your content. You could also add a feature that prohibits individuals from highlighting text for the purpose of copy/pasting. While people could take the time to trudge through transcribing your work by hand, I doubt that most would-be content thieves would actually bother. Making theft a little difficult for them will probably be enough of a deterrent.

Jody Sparks is working her way toward becoming a published author. She's also an avid reader and blogger.

Review: 'The Gargoyle' by Andrew Davidson

2011-04-01T17:11:00.000-07:00

I've got a confession to make: I don't know of very many Canadian authors. Seriously, the only one I can think of is John McCrae, who wrote the famous poem "In Flanders Field" as a tribute to the fallen soldiers of a terrible First World War battle. In 1915. And then came Andrew Davidson.

Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle came to me through one of my husband's remodeling customers, Juanita. She and I got to talking about books when I went with my husband to swap out a medicine cabinet in her bathroom. Juanita's adult son had read the book, then sent it to her, insisting she had to read it. She allowed me to take her hardcover copy home with me. It was on my to-read list for at least nine months, but I finally got around to it.

Juanita's son was not wrong: this book is a must-read. It opens with a young porn star, a narrator whom Davidson never gives a name, who drives his car off a cliff in a stupid act of drunken driving. The resulting auto fire burns most of his body; only the car's falling into a creek saves him from near-instant death. He spends 8 months in a burn ward, recovering and making an unlikely friend in Marianne, a visitor from the hospital's psychiatric ward. Marianne claims to be over 700 years old and swears she knows the narrator from a previous lifetime.

What unfolds over the course of the narrator's recovery is an epic spanning from medieval times to the present, including a cast of characters from feudal Japan, the Scandinavia of the Vikings, Italy at the time of the Black Plague and German monastic life. Each time and place is the setting of a striking love story. Throughout the novel, Davidson weaves in elements of Dante's Inferno.

Given that the narrator is a porn star, it comes as a bit of a surprise that this novel has so much heart. Although it never becomes overly sentimental, it does espouse a theme of eternal love. Think Francis Ford Coppolla's Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's up to the reader to determine whether this 700-year romance is actual or delusional.

What's even more astonishing is that this is Davidson's debut novel. If Canadians are going to write books like this, then we Americans need to pay more attention to them.

To politic or not to politic?

2011-03-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

I never blog about politics on my writing blog. I've heard it's a bad idea. People may be turned off to you because of political reasons, but nobody will love your writing just because you agree with them about politics.

At first this felt like betrayal. If you believe what you believe is important for human life, it seems wrong not to speak about it frankly. And yet, I've polished my fiction writing again and again. While I've given a lot of thought to politics, many of my ideas are similar to those I hear from 'my half' of the politicosphere. I don't condone lying for my side, I just feel much less angry than when I see it done by the other side. Perhaps my political beliefs are not yet truly ready for prime time.

There is one story I want to share though, about a local election. I kept getting calls from supporters of the party I would usually support. When I asked them what their candidate would do different from the incumbent, they didn't tell me, just how nice she was and how much time she spent working for the community. They actually said they didn'tknow about policy, even though they were making calls on the candidate's behalf.

Her opponents were a bit more specific. They said that the local big cheese was using taxpayer money to pay for twenty four hour limousine service, which most politicans on his level don't have, and they were fighting it. The big cheese was calling for cuts but not making them in his own area.

So I broke out of my rut.

Critique Groups: In Person vs. Online

2011-03-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

I've been writing with critique groups for about six years, both online and in person. I love working in both arenas for various reasons. I'm a pretty social person and love collaborative work, so that makes a critique group a great fit for me. Also, I don't let my husband, or my sister, or my parents read my work. If you're letting your family read your work, don't believe a word they say. Just thank them and find a critique group. Or, an editor. And I'll bet that if you seek an editor too soon, s/he will tell you to find a critique group. Because you need to hear the truth about your writing.

Truth Telling
The truth about your writing will come out differently online than in person. One of the things I like best about my online critique group, is that I don't ever have to look anyone in the eye. Because I can't see anyone on the verge of tears, raging, or rolling their eyes, I'm a lot more direct in my suggestions. Because everything is written down, you can choose your critique points very carefully.

In person, I'm much more careful about what I say and how I give suggestions. The "sandwich method" is recommended: praise, criticism, praise. It can be laborious. But, there is usually someone to back me up or refute my suggestions as needed. Discussion ensues. Perhaps we discover a new idea altogether. It's easier to ask questions and get answers.

Quality and Specification
I write contemporary young adult fiction. That's pretty niche-y. I also live in a flyover state where conferences are sparse. I'm extremely lucky to have found a writing group that meets in person, and that can give me insightful feedback on my genre-specific writing. I've been in groups that looked at everything from poetry to non-fiction to fantasy to picture books, and while there may be sparks of insight here and there, getting solid feedback regularly was impossible. Besides that, I learned very quickly that people have widely varying goals for their writing, and are at widely varying stages of the publishing game. You get all kinds in person.

An online critique group pulls talent from all over, which makes it much easier to find people that are writing similar things, and that have similar goals, and are at a similar talent level. Writing forums such as NaNoWriMo and Verla Kay's message board are great places to start looking for writers with similar needs.

Timeliness and Deadlines
I've found its easier to keep motivated in my writing with my in person group. I have to go and actually fact these people, so I prioritize my critiques for them. I also know that if I want feedback, I've got an actual deadline. I have a stack of papers that I physically see. I know I need to attend to it.

While the deadlines are technically the same online, I tend to be more willing to shoot that email that says, "Hey, I'm backed up. Will get to your critique soon." Again, I can't see the rage and eye-rolling. And the typing of the critique just takes longer. I swear I read slower when I'm reading on screen, too. I'd much rather read and critique on paper. And when that paper isn't sitting in front of me, it's so much easier to ignore the work.

So. To get the most out of myself as a writer, I use both kinds of critique groups. I also hit the conference scenes, attend workshops, keep my eye on a few writing blogs, and attend some Twitter chats now and then. Writing is no longer for the solitary.

Jody Sparks is a struggling writer who knows her craft has improved because of numerous critiques and critique groups. Follow her on twitter @jodysparks

"An Irish Vocabulary" by Erin O'Riordan

2011-03-11T05:17:00.000-08:00

Words are fun, aren't they? You would think the English language would be enough for any writer. It does have 400,000 words, after all, far more than any other language on Earth. That's why the Oxford English Dictionary, originally supposed to take 10 years to complete, became a 49-year project. Allegedly, five years in, the compilers of the OED had gotten as far as the word "ant." (I learned these fun facts from a little book called Who the Hell is Pansy O'Hara?)

Yet in the course of my writing, I've dipped into Chinese, Croatian, French, Italian, Latin, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish for vocab words. My favorite foreign tongues, though, are the Celtic ones. I have a fascination with Welsh, even though it's not my ancestral tongue. It's nearly St. Patrick's day, though, so the language of the hour is Gaeilge (pronounced gale-ga), which we English speakers know as Gaelic.

The ubiquitous Gaelic phrase on St. Patrick's Day decorations is Erin Go Bragh, or Eireann go braugh, which we all know means "Ireland Forever." I'd like to say that my father, whose ancestors came from Derry, Northern Ireland in the 1840s, purposely named me after our island homeland. The truth is, my mom named me after an actor on The Waltons. But I digress. Another common Gaelic phrase is 'S Rioghal Mo Dhream, oft translated as "Royal is my race."

Other helpful Gaelic phrases:

Slainte! ~ Cheers!
Go raibh mile maith agat ~ Thank you very much
Pogue mo thoin ~ Kiss my posterior midsection
Beannachtai na Feile Padraig ~ Happy St. Patrick's Day

Note the Irish form of the saint's name is Padraig, which is why I abbreviate the holiday as St. Paddy's Day, the Irish way, and not St. Patty's Day, the Anglicized way. Not that I have anything against the English way of saying things; it's my stock and trade, after all. But we're all Irish on March 17.

XWave and The Journey to Wild Divine

2011-03-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

Imagine a video game powered by your mind. You stare at an empty fireplace and try to meditate. You don't really know how, but when your brainwaves indicate some slight success, little flames start to burn. Partly through conscious learning and partly through unconscious conditioning, you acquire the ability to still your thoughts. At first the exhultation of partial success breaks the mood and douses the embers immediately. That stage passes, and eventually you stare at a roaring fire without even thinking about not thinking.

This finale is also a beginning, because it opens the rest of the game. You roam an imaginary world and play with symbolic toys that aid you to even more esoteric states of mind, which are also sought by some real Hindi and Buddhists.

Sounds too amazing to be true? I own this game, sort of. Journey to the Wild Divine comes with sensors that attach to your fingertips. Based on the electrical conductivity of your skin and other factors (I forget, it's old) the game attempts to measure your state of mind.

Does it work? Well. Since everyone's brain and skin is different, you calibrate it before you start playing. The first time you may be excited about your new game, creating more contrast and making it easier to convince the game you've achieved meditative quiet. In the future it may be different, making the game harder. Is it cheating to breath hard and try to feel excited while you calibrate the sensors, or is that how you're supposed to do it? Maybe just try to feel normal and average. What is that? The instructions don't say.

So one day you've having trouble, wishing you could find some cheat codes to light the fire with a blowtorch. Just as you're ready to give up and pull the sensors off in disgust, flames blaze up! Perhaps your acceptance of failure was a breakthrough.

More likely you moved your hand slightly as you got ready to pull off the sensors. That's the easiest way to make the flames blaze up. It would be silly to cheat yourself deliberately, but success conditions you, perhaps without your even being aware.

Will the Xwave sensors now being made for the iPhone change anything? They go on your head, so you don't have to worry about moving your hand. I wonder what happens if you move your head, and how you calibrate it.

Still a mind blowing concept, and I hope we don't have to wait for the sort of technology in my book. My novel is set in the future, and the nanotechnology in your blood can work with a helmet on your head to image and communicate with your brain. It's used for accelerated learning, communication, research, and as a collaborative tool. Gonna be quite awhile until that happens though, and my real interest is in human nature, our hopes and fears. Should we fear becoming Borg, or hope to unlock human potential?

A Dance With Dragons

2011-03-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

According to Entertainment Weekly, the next book in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is coming soon! I quote:

A Dance With Dragons will be published by Bantam on July 12, 2011. The manuscript is huge — the publisher estimates the hardcover edition will run more than 900 pages, putting it about the same length as the longest book in the series, A Storm of Swords. Schedule your summer vacation accordingly.

For those of us who want to create awesome, these books are worth thinking about. Of all the fiction stcuk in my head, this is the only one currently in the process of being created.

It shares many excellent features with lesser books. Fascinating characters, vivid description, vast scope, and wonderful adventures with many twists and turns. I don't think these are enough to keep the series in my brain for the six years since the previous installment though.

These books are extraordinarily real, and also a sort of reversal of Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's trilogy is about ordinary people discovering extraordinary strength. Martin's books are about normal well meaning people, who we can sort of imagine being, coming to do horrible things. It feels so real, and so little like a fantasy, that it makes suspension of disbelief very easy. Yet there is catharsis too, in knowing we could never be quite as bad as some of these apparently well meaning people.

Each character is ripped open, and each stereotype of high fantasy. Just as we want to believe one of them is good, not only do we learn the things they are capable of doing wrong, but we see why it should have been obvious in the first place.

Great Books For Women's History Month 2011 (by Erin O'Riordan)

2011-03-01T18:50:00.000-08:00

The month of March is so much more than an excuse to drink Guinness and pinch people who don't wear green on the 17th. It's also Women's History Month...a great excuse to look into these fascinating books. Each of these titles is from my personal library.

A Woman's Book of Life by Joan Borysenko. This explains all the big transitions in a woman's life in a way that makes sense biologically, psychologically and spiritually. My other favorite Borysenko volume is A Woman's Journey to God.

Feminist Fairy Tales by Barbara G. Walker (HarperCollins, 1996). Includes classic fairy tales most Americans will recognize from childhood, rewritten without the sexist overtones. They're more fun that way. Walker also wrote the incomparable encyclopedia mentioned below.

Goddesses in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women by Jean Shinoda Bolen (Harper & Row, 1984). Another book that totally gets me--I'm a Persephone, big time. Using classical Greek goddesses as archetypes, it posits a theory of various female personalities. (It also works on fictional characters, like the ones in Twilight. Bella Swan is a Persephone too, Esme Cullen is a Demeter and Rosalie Hale is a Hera.)

Letters to Ms. 1972-1987, edited by Mary Thom (The Ms. Foundation, 1987). Okay, this is just an old book I bought for a quarter at a library cast-off sale, but it captures a huge variety of women's issues in voices from all around the country. It's remarkably intimate and diverse. The intro was written by Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine, whose work I respect and admire. (Also, I have a crush on her stepson, Christian Bale.)

QPB Anthology of Women's Writing, edited by Susan Cahill (QPB, 2002). Poetry, nonfiction, fiction and personal letters make up this more-than-600-page anthology, which covers women who wrote in English from Julian of Norwich (c.1342-1423) to Sandra Cisneros (born 1952).

Sacred Voices: Essential Women's Wisdom Through the Ages, edited by Mary-Ford Grabowsky (HarperCollins, 2002). Composed of prayers and other spiritual writings from many cultures, ancient times to modern. Priestesses of Inanna share its pages with Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, African and Native American oral tradition, and modern Hindu women.

She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock and Roll by Gillian G. Gaar (Seal Press, 2002). The title pretty much says it all. It starts with Big Mama Thornton and ends with Britney Spears.

The American Women's Almanac by Louise Bernikow and the National Women's History Project (Berkley Books, 1997). With all its vintage photos, artwork, quotes and fascinating sidebars, this one's tough to put down. The best section is the last one: "25 Things Women Have Done For Each Other." Examples: Alice Walker, appalled by Zora Neale Hurston's unmarked grave, bought her fellow writer a headstone inscribed "Genius of the South." Lucille Ball used striptease to cheer up a friend who'd had a miscarriage.

The Book of Goddesses by Kris Waldherr (Beyond Words Publishing, 1995). Waldherr wrote and illustrated this beautiful, multicultural children's alphabet book, with a goddess or goddesses for every letter of the alphabet.

The Great Women Superheroes by Trina Robbins (Kitchen Sink Press, 1996). Sure, you know Wonder Woman, but what about the other leggy costumed super-sheroes whose ideals little girls have aspired to? From Miss Fury to Action Girl, Robbins covers them all. Trina Robbins has also written Great Women Cartoonists and, one of my all-time personal favorites, Eternally Bad: Goddesses With Attitude.

The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara G. Walker (Harper & Row, 1983). This is my go-to source for Pagan mythology, and I also sit around flipping through it, reading it just for fun. It's fascinating! If you've ever wanted to know the mystical meanings of lilies, the Himalayas, the moon...just about anything, it's in here, and so much of it connects to goddess-worship suppressed by the rise of patriarchal Middle Eastern-based religions.

Wild Women by Autumn Stephens (1992, Conari Press). A gallery of notable and infamous women from American history, arranged into categories like "Hatchet Queens and Pistol Packers" and "Holy Terrors and Pope Perturbers." Some of these women, like Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, are still well-known. Others make for fascinating historical footnotes.

The Zork Chronicles by George Alec Effinger

2011-02-27T05:43:00.000-08:00

When clutter attempted to take over our apartment and force the humans out, we won, but at great cost. Many objects to which we were emotionally attached were ruthlessly frogmarched out, given to charity when possible, sometimes thrown into a dumpster. Most of the books I still have mean something to me.

The books lodged most prominently on my bookshelf and in my mind are not always predictable. I'm sure you saw plenty of media tie in novels on your last trip to the bookstore. The more prominent shared universes can afford to hire well known science fiction authors, but it is often done as work for hire without royalties, and considered unprestigeous. At any rate the constraints on the author's imagination often don't allow for great books which are remembered twenty years later.

The Zork Chronicles by George Alec Effinger are an exception to this rule, at least for me. The earliest Zork games were text only. 'Kill troll with sword' you type, and the computer responds, 'You can't see any sword here', then you die.

He mixes in his interest in mythology, and the various guides who often lead heroes on their quests in epic poems, and even his experience with Hugo and Nebula award nominations. The result is often hilarious, and he finds ways to joke about the occassional illogic of the game without breaking our suspension of disbelief.

Glorian is a guardian spirit, a young supernatural being, and a Campbell award nominee. The latter refers to Joseph Campbell's 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' and the guides who help heroes along their journeys. Some of the attendees are quite well known. For instance, Shiva the Destroyer terrifies the hotel clerk into rediscovering Glorian's reservation. Despite the fun, Glorian is downbeat, feeling he is one of those destined to watch the winners then talk humbly about how it is an honor just to be nominated.

Then a mysterious envelope from the Powers That Be appears in his room, with the imprint of the Autoexec himself on it. Glorian is to guide a hero names Mirakles on a quest.

This quest is through the Zork universe, starting with breaking into the house and getting the equipment. They don't do everything quite as you're supposed to do it in Zork. Not having the Bell, Book, and Candle at the right time, they are forced to get a vast quantity of blood from their hotel room through drawer forwarding and perform a much more ancient ritual to get Mirakles out of Hades after he makes a boo boo.

I'm not going to give away too much of the plot, but there's real character development, and Mirakles son of Thrag the Well hated really learns things about himself. Somehow even the bit characters of Zork become real, and we understand the meaning of the tragic limits imposed on them in the name of game balance, which the programmers themselves probably didn't give much though to. Despite which, this is also a light fun adventure novel with a happy ending, and even the bit players come to terms with their fate.

I'm not sure if this novel is truly great in itself, or if people will take the trouble to read it when the Zork generation has passed away, but it is fun to read, and I've always remembered it because George Alec Effinger wasn't satisfied to sell his name and knock off a bit of hack work in exchange for easy money. He put a lot into this novel.

Let's Talk About Agents

2011-02-22T05:39:00.000-08:00

I never queried.

Don’t hate me.

I also no longer have an agent. Maybe it was a bad omen that “The Phone Call” where I was invited to sign with the agency came while I was at the awkward doctor, and my call went to voice mail.

But for a while there I thought I’d “arrived.” I’d spent a couple of years researching, writing, and finally polishing my manuscript. I wasn’t going to be “that” writer: the one who queried and then had to hurry to finish a draft to send off to an agent. In fact, I was near terrified of the query. People, I wanted to write fiction! I was as angsty about the query as my teen protagonist was about her boyfriend.

I hit the conference scene. An agent liked my sample chapter. A miracle. He requested the full. Four months later I’d signed with the first boy to say, “I love your book.” I had butterflies. I had visions of my book cover and my name in print. I was so nervous about real editors reading my sex scene that I would literally sweat when thinking about it. My parents might actually read that. I was GOING TO HAVE A REAL BOOK. My agent would make it so.

No.

After revising for months—first a different beginning, then a totally different ending—the manuscript was ready. FINALLY. It went out on submission. If I thought querying was going to be scary. Oh, lord. I’m positive there is nothing more stressful than having a book on submission. Who would say yes to my book? Who would offer the biggest advance? Which publishing house had the coolest authors for me to associate myself with? These were all the wrong the worries.

The rejections came in over months. Not days. Not weeks. Months! My book and my dreams were dying the slowest of deaths. Then one day my agent decided to take his career in a different direction. It wasn’t personal. It was business. But still.

Back to square one. I a few things to do: Write new novel. Find agent. Revise. Submit. Hope it works out. No guaranties.

And that’s where I am now.

Do I still believe it will happen? Yes. I think I can get published. Am I willing to do years of writing and potentially suffer another failed submission? Yes.

Sometimes I wonder if my hands really hold a printed book I wrote if I will feel the ecstatic first love feelings or if it will be more like, There, I endured it. But, I’m jumping ahead again. What makes either one of those outcomes worth it is that writing and yearning to get published make me feel like I’m living hard. I need to live hard and feel a lot. That’s life.

Jody Sparks is a struggling novelist who also writes web content for Angie's List, The Children’s Museum, and other fine clients.

Attracting More Reviews For Your Book

2011-02-18T16:37:00.000-08:00

Writing a book and getting it published is a lot of work, but it’s only the beginning. Once the book is published, the marketing begins. One of the best ways to generate good word of mouth and increase your book’s visibility is to gather honest reviews.

Here are a few resources you can use to find quality book reviewers.

1. Examiner.com Though Examiner operates throughout the U.S. and Canada, many of its writers create local content. Find your local book or arts Examiner, or the Examiner who writes about your subject area, online. Visit his or her profile; many Examiners post links to personal websites through which you can get in touch with them. Find out if they’ll review and rate your book for Examiner.com. The writers often have a following of subscribers who receive e-mails about all their posts.

2. BloggerLinkUp Three times a week, BloggerLinkUp e-mails go out to subscribers. These e-mails include products for review. To call for reviews for your book, all you need to do is sign up at the BloggerLinkUp website, then fill out a brief submission form. Interested reviewers will get back to you via e-mail.

3. Gather.com Originally created as a social networking site for and by writers, Gather members place a strong emphasis on original written content. It’s easy to find readers on Gather, and many are willing to write reviews. Gather is also free, can be used (to a limited extent) for self-promotion, and rewards users with points that can be redeemed for gift cards or PayPal payments.

4. Author Meeting Place Advertising on this site is free. Reviews by AMP’s volunteer staff are also free if you’re willing to have your book placed at the bottom of the queue. Expedited reviews are available for a fee.

5. Writers Marketing Group Blog There are many Yahoo groups that can link you up with book lovers and reviewers. This one is especially for writers to exchange guest posts on one another’s blogs. It’s a good place to find a book to review in exchange for the author’s review of your book.

6. Reviews4Reviews Reviews4Reviews also allows you to choose from free and paying options, and is another place where authors can meet and exchange reviews.

7. Writer Gazette blog Author Krista Barrett maintains a list of reviewers and also accepts calls for reviews.

8. Manic Readers Manic Readers is also designed to connect writers and readers, and offers a variety of advertising options.

“Attracting More Reviews For Your Book” is a guest post by Erin O’Riordan. Erin writes the Pagan Spirits book blog.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-13T18:01:00.000-08:00

Since my wife and I both have to work tomorrow, and our favorite restaurant is charging a fortune for dinner on Valentine's day, we decided to celebrate early. Today we had the cleaning lady and visited someone in the hospital. If that doesn't sound very romantic, we did find a few hours to spend alone together in the middle of the day :-)

Plus, I'm going to give her her Valentine's day card in the morning, with some scratch off lottery tickets in it. I'll tell her not to open it until she gets aggravated in the middle of the day, because they always cheer her up.

Passage

2011-02-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

Passage by Connie Willis is another book I read and reread, and think about in between. Who hasn't wondered about the afterlife, unless they've convinced themselves they know already? You can base light fun fantasy on many traditional visions of the afterlife, and Niven and Pournelle wrote fascinating science fiction on the same topic.

A really serious writer will strive to comment on the human condition, in addition to creating fun adventures based on a familiar on unfamiliar mythology. Connie Willis has achieved this.

You know it's different from the first page. Two scientists studying near death experiences are trying to avoid a popular author. Connie Willis has studied the scientific literature, and the complaints scientists make about popular studies of near death experiences, and woven them into her novel. She's taken them to heart, and if you're looking for easy affirmation you won't find it here.

Yet the end is not a simple denial either. A novel can't definitively resolve the question, but she makes an amazing try. Symbols are introduced, explained not quite completely, and developed in unexpected yet completely logical ways. The ending could have many meanings, but if a simple 'no' is concealed at the core it is not obvious to me.

Contest

2011-02-07T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is my first line for Brenda Drake's contest:

Name: David F. Weisman
Title: Absorption
Genre: Science Fiction

At rest, the young girl's eyes looked identical, but when she glanced around the room, the left had trouble keeping up with the right.

Guest Post - Leveraging Facebook

2011-02-06T17:12:00.000-08:00

Margo Smith generously offered me a guest post for authors who want to use Facebook to promote their work. Like life, her piece offers more questions than answers, but I learned several things from this short essay, and hope you do as well.

Leveraging Facebook: Tips for Authors

Do you have a Facebook account? Do you actively use it? Do you know how to use Facebook to reach your particular target audience? Do you know how to specifically promote your book? Do you know how to attract readers to your book via this social media tool? If the answer to any of these questions was ‘No,’ you can read on for helpful tips to market your own book with the power of Facebook.

First of all, if you have not yet created a Facebook account, I encourage you to do that. Use your real name, not the name of your book or product. Facebook likes authenticity, and so do it users, so sign up as yourself and be yourself and you’ve already made a good first step.

Now that you are on Facebook, what is the next step? Start learning how to use this as a valuable means to an end, i.e., getting yourself and your book noticed. Learn how to use this site to talk with others. Reach out to others with a love of writing or words or whatever else truly interests you. Make new friends and invite your existing friends to join you. Learn how to post to someone’s wall. Learn how to share photos, add comments and become part of the conversation. Be active, and again, be yourself. Your authentic voice will attract like-minded people and help you gain credibility as a person and an author.

Once you have done this, the next thing to do is to join or create author groups. There is a group just for authors on Facebook – have you clicked the Like button and joined this group? Get in touch with others and learn from them and let them learn from you.

You can create a page that tells all about your book. That is a wonderful first step, but now how do you bring people to see this page you have made? Try offering a free product or hosting a contest with a giveaway as an incentive for people to visit or like your site. Give away some product or service of real value and you will get visitors.

Another way to get your name – and the name of your book – out to the general public is to use the various sites available to promote your contest. Blogger Link Up has a contest/giveaway section that will allow you to reach other bloggers to spread the word of your contest. There are numerous other sites out there where they post about contests and giveaways. Get yourself on them and promote your blog, book or product by dramatically increasing your viewers.

Maximize your book exposure by using Lexicon, a Facebook tool that allows you to specify who you would like your advertising audience to be on this social site. For instance, if your book is a collection of recipes, you can place an ad on Facebook and use Lexicon to narrow the field to your perfect audience. You can select that your ad be viewed by males or females – or both! You can find others who are interested in cooking, recipes and such relevant topics. You can keep narrowing the field by age, region and various other demographics until you find your ideal foodie audience for your cookbook.

Once your contest is set up, offer extra entries – with an increased chance of winning - if your viewers also tweet about your contest. That will do a great deal to get increased visibility to your book page. Twitter is another valuable social media tool for promotion, but that is a subject for another time.

About the Author

Margo Smith graduated with a B.S. degree from BYU. She lives along the Wasatch Front and loves the beauty and peace of the Rocky Mountains she calls home. She looks with a writer’s eye at the world around her when compiling articles about a variety of subjects from current world events to online schooling to social media.

One Story to Rule them All, One Story to Find them ...

2011-02-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

Usually I prefer novels to short stories, but there are a few short stories that mean something to me, and have hung out in my head for years. There is only one hardcover short story collection on my bookshelves, and I bought it for one story, considering everything else a free bonus. This is my favorite short story ever, and has influenced my writing greatly.

"The Coming of Vertumnus" by Ian Watson is truly awesome. It's about the dissolution of the ego and conscious mind, perhaps to become part of something greater, or perhaps not. He starts by putting us inside the head of art critic Jill Donaldson, who is not so annoying that we wish to tune out her first person narration, but whose self centered irony and cynicism introduce an element of pleasure for the reader into the fearsome and fascinating things to follow.

The old painting described in the opening of the story seems only meant to give us a pleasurable image while introducing us to the narrator's book and career, but deeper levels of symbolism are introduced as the story goes on, which itself sets a pattern of symbolism and unexpected yet inevitable double meanings. Jill Donaldson herself becomes the tiny nude figure held by the sculptor in the painting.

For a short story such as this, anything past the first few pages might be considered a spoiler, and I don't want to give away too much. The author has researched Titian and the Hapsburg dynasty, and unless you've studied them yourself, you won't know where fact blends into fiction. This helps us get into the protagonist's head, since all the conspiracy theories feel real and possible while under the spell of the story.

If (like me) you are not an art aficionado, visualize one of Archimboldo's painting as described. Various fruits and vegetables are used to form a three dimensional human shape in a painting. Now imagine a future ecological movement using this image as a symbol. Now an oil billionaire who claims to be concerned about the excesses of the environmental movement has immitative pornographic paintings forged, which pretend to be by the same artist. These could destabilize some environmental groups. Now an exhibition of the paintings is bombed. Who did it, environmentalists, or those whose avowed intent is to discredit them?

The protagonist is kidnapped and drugged by people claiming to represent the Hapsburg dynasty. 'Ringbinders' will be in her brain for a long time, and neither she not the reader can take her perceptions at face value from then on. She's hallucinating things, unless of course she's become able to perceive realities that others cannot yet see.

Ultimately this story is not about a fictional world, or even a possible future, but who and what we are now. It's also a wild ride, to read for fun while having your brain twisted.

Finished

2011-02-03T15:25:00.000-08:00

Nicolaos lives in ancient Greece, and is startled when a dead man falls to the ground from above him. Not just any dead man either. This is the corpse of Ephialtes, one of the fathers of democracy. His death was murder not suicide, since he was killed with a bow before falling. This could cause civil war in Athens, because many believe that the old men who held power before his time murdered him in order to seize it again.

His successor Pericles is impressed by Nicolaos's wit, and hires him to uncover the killer before the city is torn apart. The protagonist doesn't have a word for private detective, and there don't seem to be any in Greece yet, but he decides that is what he wants to do with the rest of his life. And a good thing too, because someone wants to kill the nosy citizen poking into their business, so he may not have time to do much else.

Sometimes the author does an amazing job taking us to ancient Greece. I loved the hard bitten story when old men, women, and young children swallowed hemlock, so the rest of their community would have a chance to avoid starvation after the Persian army stole their food. On the other hand, the romantic lead is sometimes a little too modern in her attitudes for me to suspend disbelief, although the author points out some things that have made her different from her compatriots.

Take a look at this book, or visit Gary Corby at A Dead Man Fell from the Sky and say hello.

My Favorite Weird Indie Fiction of 2010

2011-02-02T17:13:00.000-08:00

Hi, readers. My name is Erin O'Riordan, and I regularly blog at Pagan Spirits. David Weisman has graciously allowed me to write a guest post at Breaking In Before Breaking Down. I present to you condensed reviews of two of the best books I read in 2010, both from small publishing houses and independent authors. Both are a little weird.

1. Punk Minneapolis by Peter Joseph Swanson

It's not exactly a hot tub time machine, but Peter Joseph Swanson's Punk Minneapolis (Stonegarden.net Publishing) will take you back to 1989. Forget everything you've seen on I Love the '80s. That's all about corporate yuppie mall stuff that would make Raven, Becky, Sandra, Tope and Bunny Umber want to puke. They're punkers, and their purpose in life is to rock out, drink beer, steal pizza and other essentials and offend the yuppie world. Life isn't all pepperonis and salad bars, though. Strange things are happening, things that seem to center on the crazy nun who stalks the uptown Minneapolis pizza parlor (formerly a hair salon) where Raven, Becky and Sandra work. Is that really her face Raven sees in his second-floor window at night? What is the K-Mart Ouija board trying to say? Are there really space aliens in the walls, as Tope says? Several bizarre accidents and cosmic revelations later, we arrive at the '90s. Punk is dead, and so are some of the characters. Others have moved on to become what they once feared and loathed. Only Raven has remained somewhat true to his artistic ideals, wondering how he can make a novel of the beer-soaked, pizza-greased, Plasmatic chaos that was 1989.

2. Refracted by Sheila Deeth

Refracted by Sheila Deeth (Gypsy Shadow Publishing) is the kind of book that starts out by making the reader wonder, "What am I reading?" After the first chapter or two, you might think you were in a Christian fiction novel, one that follows child witnesses to Biblical events who tell of miraculous happenings from their own points of view. Soon you begin to realize these characters aren't particularly religious, at least not in any orthodox way. After the third chapter, the narrators aren't quite so innocent anymore, and a bigger picture begins to emerge. Let me give you a hint: this is a work of science fiction, though one that's told in a particularly poetic voice. It evoked a number of associations for me. Let me name just a few so I can attempt to parse out the flavors of this fantastic dish:

~If you read The Prestige by Christopher Priest (or even saw the movie), you can have some idea of the strange, eerie type of science fiction this turns out to be

~If you think back to the horcruxes in the Harry Potter series, and how Lord Voldemort split his soul into pieces, you can imagine the meaning Deeth assigns to the colors of the rainbow

~If you read the anthology She Nailed a Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror you can have some idea of the various settings.

That's probably all I can say without spoiling too much.

The Pericles Commission

2011-01-29T07:37:00.000-08:00

I'm reading The Pericles Commission. It's a murder mystery set in ancient Greece, in the time of Pericles. Sometimes the atmosphere is wonderful, sometimes I'm not sure if it feels quite right to me. I'm not far enough along for any accidental spoilers, so I'll just say Socrates is the detective's 12 year old younger brother, and the fate of Democracy is at stake!

Resistance is Futile

2011-01-25T18:35:00.000-08:00

I grew up with Star Trek reruns, and longed for more episodes for a long time. I was less interested by the time they actually came, and never bonded completely with the new characters. When many other shows followed the Next Generation, I only caught an episode of one now and then.

Yet they've given us at least one idea of enduring fascination. The Borg Collective. Forget your iPod? No problem. You can play video games on the inside of your eyes when boring people insist on talking to you. To function at peak capacity the elements of the Borg should have high endorphin levels. Fortunately sex will do this, and a properly informed nexus will be better at finding compatible partners than individuals would be at pairing themselves off. Imagine the things a mind composed of many brains could understand, not just about technology, but philosophy and the universe.

What's that you say? What about losing your individuality and being enslaved? Well, it could happen, but the automatic assumption says more about us than Borg Collectives. Would bees live fuller and happier lives if not for the subtle control of the hive, or do they exert that control on themselves, because that is how they are suited to live? How about ants? If our brain cells tried to live individual lives in a pond, they would probably die in short order. Many human brain cells live as long as we do, a long life for a single cell. Not a bad gig, and I don't know if they would truly experience anything as profound as consciousness if they had individual 'individuality'.

Could it be we can form a Borganism if and only if we are suited to one?

Maybe, but no technology comes without dangers, and no software works perfectly without being debugged and alpha and beta tested. If you install new software and hardware in your brain, the warranty may be voided.

This is the central conflict of my new novel. Brett Johnson hates hive minds, yet is called to persuade one to surrender peacefully to avert a war that will cost millions of lives. He falls in love with a woman who is part of the hive mind, and begins to doubt that it truly destroys people's individuality. He must avoid being used as a tool by something that may well want to absorb humanity, but fears he's being used by some of his own superiors who may after all want war.

Big Ideas

2011-01-23T19:28:00.000-08:00

The other thing I love about Bujold is that great characterization never comes at the expense of great ideas. Cryogenic storage which can keep people in suspended animation until science finds a cure for a disease is a staple of science fiction. But nobody has thought out the secondary consequences as well as she has. Even people who are just old may help science will extend their lifespans - but what happens if almost everyone wants to be kept alive?

Some of her questions deal mostly with her own universe, at least superficially. But many will come back to bite us in a slightly different form if cryogenic suspension becomes real. Unlike some of her imaginary worlds, political votes can't be delegated. But people won't give most of their property to their heirs if they expect to need it after revival. How will the trust funds assigned to represent their interests make their investments? And in some industries, takeovers and mergers about, due to economies of scale.

If the technology does become real, nobody has done more than Bujold to prepare us for the bumpy road ahead. And unlike characterization, this is mostly unique to science fiction.

I too hope to address the human condition in a unique way, not because the technology I describe is likely to come in the exact way I describe it, but by looking at an ancient fear and desire in an entirely new light.

Cryoburn

2011-01-17T12:39:00.000-08:00

One of the few books I've bought new in hardcover is Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold. I love Miles Vorkosigan, and I've been waiting a long time for the next in the series.

As an author, I've been thinking about what I can learn from her. Certainly Miles has plenty of weaknesses, meaning both vulnerabilities and character flaws. One of the reasons I always pull for him is because sometimes his stunts don't work, although his adventures usually come out well in the end. I love Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin too, but they've gotten away with so much I sometimes hope to see them fall off the tightrope.

Miles Vorkosigan doesn't just have random flaws to make him human either. All his flaws are related to his strong points. His brilliance and creativity can lead to mistakes a conformist would not have made. His confidence and independence can lead him to break rules which actually have good reasons behind them, and suffer the consequences. And his personal courage creates headaches for his associates. But he always takes responsibility for his mistakes, and busts his behind fixing them.

Bujold is a big name in science fiction now, which also gives her high expectations to meet. I've been thinking about how she satisfies both those of us looking forward to seeing Miles again, and new readers encountering him for the first time. Since he's garnered responsibility and power as a result of previous adventures, a new reader might not empathize with him if she began at the wrong point. But we meet him after he's just barely escaped some kidnappers, desperately wandering through a huge maze full of people in cryogenic suspension, hallucinating from drugs the kidnappers gave him, hungry and thirsty. His acutity is on display in his quirky thoughts about his hallucinations, and there are hints of his importance elsewhere, but neither can help him now, as he seeks escape while his thirst gets ever worse.

Before my latest rewrite, several people told me the same thing about my novel. They had trouble bonding with the main character. I knew how awesome he was, but it didn't come out in the first pages. I had a similar problem in reverse with a short story. The reader was supposed to be waiting for the protagonist to take a fall, but the editor of the magazine I submitted to didn't feel emotional involvement with him.

I guess I know what to check for first in my future novels and stories.

Been There, Done That, Wrote the Synopsis

2011-01-15T06:37:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been nine months since I last blogged. So this is my bloggy rebirth.

Much has happened since then. I received my first pair of novel reviews from Deadly Prose, and became frustrated. Eventually I rewrote and got two more critiques. For the first time someone felt and enjoyed the effect I was trying to create, but there were still plenty more changes to make. I rewrote again. Now different critiquers are giving me different advice, and the advice I haven't yet followed doesn't feel right to me, so I'll probably wait for suggestions from an agent or editor before making more changes.

I've written the synopsis, sought advice on it both in a AgentQuery.com forum and on Deadly Prose.

Does that mean I'm ready to start querying? Well, I've read you should put a manuscript aside a month or so and work on your next novel awhile before submitting the completed one. I have three more novels in various states of completion, so once I do make my first sale, the pace of one a year shouldn't be too hard to keep up.

Deadly Prose

2010-04-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

I'm currently having my manuscript critiqued by two members of Deadly Prose, an exclusive critique group designed for novel length manuscripts that requires tests of both your writing and critiquing skills before you can be admitted. As the testing implies, it's a moderated group.

There's a serious advantage to moderated groups when you're critiquing a whole novel at once. With single chapters and short stories, you could critique one, then if someone responded with a helpful critique of your work you could do another, and so on. A novel is a bit long to critique only to discover the other person has lost interest or is unhelpful. Besides, you may not need a novel critiqued at the same time as anyone else.

Deadly Prose operates on credits - and has rather strict formatting rules for quality control. You don't usually get to choose who critiques your manuscript. The moderator (thank you John Darrin!) does try to make sure you get value for your credits, but there's still some luck involved. And it takes longer because three humans are involved in every transaction.

On the other hand, this is one of the few ways to make sure your entire novel gets critiqued. For books like mine, it would be very hard to provide a useful critique of the final chapters without having read the rest.

Have you done whole novel critiques, or had them?

Upping my game

2010-04-07T05:25:00.000-07:00

I had thought I was almost ready to submit my manuscript to literary agents, but I'm going to up my game instead. I'm going to start reviewing the best critiquers on critique circle, and getting a couple of reviews from Deadly Prose as well.

It's a tough market out there. I love my concept and my characters, but my prose could probably use a little smoothing.

Now an Award Winning blog!

2010-03-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

I want to thank Alicia Frey for awarding me this "Creative Writer" award - and motivating me to upload my first image ever!

I think most people know the rules. I make five false statements and one true one, and any reader so inclined can guess which are which.

1. You owe me twenty bucks! Yes YOU, reading this. You forgot? You're reminded now. Paypal will be fine.

2. I have an agent sending out my manuscript to major publishers, but I'm not supposed to tell because the process sometimes takes awhile, and editors may be less enthusiastic if they think the manuscript has been going around a long time and rejected by everyone but them. My agent said it was fine to include her in this list - as long as I made another statement that everyone would think was true.

3. I used to read while driving sometimes when traffic was moving slowly.

4. Unlike Bill Clinton I inhaled in college, but only a few puffs. One of my companions congratulated me on my ability to get high cheaply, and bemoaned his own 'high' tolerance.

5. I own a time machine, or at least a homonym of one. It's used to dry certain herbs.

Since a bunch of the fun storytellers I know online have already received this award, I'm going to doublecheck the others before passing it on.

Public Query Slushpile

2010-03-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

Another good place to get free no-strings-attached help with your query is the Public Query Slushpile. There are some excellent forums devoted to the same purpose, but they mostly have one thing in common. They remind you of their reciprocal nature. You are expected to give other people query advice - and advised that you will probably receive more and better advice if you help out some other people first.

This is very reasonable - but I think it's awesome that there are a couple of places that this rule doesn't seem to be in effect. I already posted about Evil Editor's blog. Since people are polite and friendly at the Public Query Slushpile I kept looking for the fine print, but nobody even suggests it's not nice to receive without giving. I was so touched I did my best to help out some people anyway. I feel bad for them - I'm still having trouble with my own query.

So how's your quest for a query workshop and/or writer's workshop going?

Waiting for a response

2010-03-12T20:07:00.000-08:00

I'm not always as calm and patient as A. J. Frey when waiting for a response to my writing:

I am never more neurotic than when I am waiting on a review. I pray in time this will get better for the publishing business is all about waiting. I know this, and that is why I make sure that my crazy is kept internal. Well, with the exception of this post. The only reason that I share this so openly is because I don’t think that I am alone.

But you have to recognize this for what it is and not give into temptation to pester those blessed souls who have offered to read your work. To not fill their inbox with insane messages of …

--- “What page are you on?” ---

---“Nevermind, don’t read it. You won’t like it.” ---

--- “I know you’ve had fifty pages for only thirty minutes, but what do you think?” ---

--- “Your silence means you hate it. Am I right?” ---

--- “Please love me.” ---

Unfortunately I had already sent the review of chapter one (which had lots of fun stuff) when I read this. Unfortunately, because I've been reading that waiting is such a major and persistent part of the writers life. Waiting to get a request for a partial or full manuscript from an agent, waiting for them to read it, waiting for editors to respond when your agent is sending them your work. Clearly the most helpful thing I could do is help her get used to it.

How do you help, or 'help', your fellow writers?

Between Fact and Fiction

2010-03-02T21:49:00.000-08:00

Natalie Whipple is holding a contest. It's a fun contest, you don't have to remember to comment on her blog every day and blog about her and tweet about her and refer people. You just write, which is what writers do anyway? Well, actually we procrastinate, but if anyone wants to hold a procrastination contest, save yourself trouble and just send me the prize.

Anyway,

Objective: People say never to open with the weather, but I want you to do just that—make the weather opener interesting. It doesn't have to be entirely about the weather, but weather's gotta be somewhere in your 250 word limit.

Prizes:
First Place: Choice of 30-page crit, query/synopsis crit, or a full color drawing.

Second Place: Choice of 20-page crit, query/synopsis crit, or full color drawing

Third Place: Choice of 10-page crit, query crit, or black and white drawing.

My entry was sent in very late at night, so I didn't get distracted and miss the deadline while tinkering with it, so it's not perfect or polished, but it still makes me smile:

It was raining cats and dogs.

Cats anyway, though only one puppy, plus the water. Two cats jumped nimbly from a flooded second story window box. Despite a moment of shock, I managed to catch the black, white, and brown puppy before it hit the pavement. It was very wet, but I had no regrets, even when the wind stole the umbrella I had just dropped. I backed into a doorway to plot my next move.

Surely nobody could have been cruel enough to throw the puppy from one of the windows above me. Could they?

Critique Circle

2010-02-23T01:55:00.000-08:00

My favorite online workshop is Critique Circle. I've gotten to know people there, well enough to feel bad when I'm absent for several months, well enough to know their work and look forward to it. I'm shy and not good at getting to know people through chit chat, but reading someone's book give you a glimpse of their hopes and dreams - like reading their blog.

All you have to do to earn credits is to write a review of at least 300 words for a story that is at the front of the queue. When you've done several of those, you have enough credits to upload your own story. It will probably get reviewed, since your first three stories go in the newbie queue, and the workshop is structured to encourage people to review the stories at the front of the queues, which pays more credits.

It might seem it doesn't matter much if your review is good or bad, as long as it's over 300 words. There's an informal system inside the formal one though. Anyone can write useless reviews - but if you write a very helpful one the recipient is likely to review you in turn. They might even go back and review your older chapters, though they get fewer upload credits for doing so than they would for reviewing the most recent material.

If you subscribe you can create your own queue with your own rules. So far I haven't done this yet - I'm saving my money to publicize my book after it gets published. They've placed limits on the personalized queues, so as not to make the free users feel too frustrated. The large user base is one of the major assets of this workshop, because it makes it much easier to find someone who is helpful to you, and considers your critiques helpful to them as well.

What's your favorite online workshop? What do you like about it?

Querying Your Query

2010-02-18T17:40:00.000-08:00

I guess you've started writing seriously when you expose your writing to a workshop. You're well along the path to a first novel when you workshop your query. And you're a veteran when you workshop your procrastination techniques.

I've been at phase two for awhile, and Evil Editor is the first and most unique query workshop I found.

Usually you help other people polish their work in exchange for having your own polished. Oddly enough, that's not necessarily expected on Evil Editor's blog. You receive free and unreciprocated (unless you feel like it) help in exchange for accepting the fact that other people are going to make fun of your query letter, and first pages if you submit them. There are several games to this end. Each submission is used for an episode of Guess The Plot, where Evil Editor tells people your title, and makes up outrageous plots that might fit it. It would be easier if he weren't so cunning at slanting his brief description of your real plot.

If you submit the first hundred fifty words of your book, you may receive helpful advice on the all important hook. On the other hand, people will write satirical continuations of your opening, and Evil Editor will publish the one(s) he considers funniest.

The frequent writing exercises may be helpful, although after a short time I had to decide my time was better spent on my own writing. The exercises do offer opportunities to take vengeful digs at Evil Editor.

I like to think Evil Editor is what he seems - someone frustrated by the bland unhelpful politeness that is most prudent for an agent or editor rejecting work. Under the cloak of anonymity he could be both helpful and rude. Or not - who knows?

I'm going to give this blog two thumbs up. A good query letter and a thick skin are both important for a novelist. I'm glad I started polishing my query here, and even met one of the first people to actually find the premise of my novel intriguing.

Have you workshopped any queries yet? Are you planning to? Do you know of any writer's workshop you'd prefer to a special query workshop for this?

2010-02-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

Google reader recommended sources just introduced me to A Walk in My Shoes. This is a blog about writing and shoes, blended in an amazing way. If Susan Mills does as good a job branding her novels as she does her blog, she has an awesome career ahead of her!

Choosing an Online Writer's Workshop

2010-02-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

My current manuscript and I have been in three online writers workshops together. All have had good and bad points. First was the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. The name may have been a little different back then, but the website looks much the same. The experience is worth sharing with other writers - I'll do the same for the other workshops I've tried soon.

The most important this is being able to find active members, and this is easy at OWW. Start by looking at the most recently published stories - though just reviewing these isn't your best bet if you want helpful critiques. Look for stories with at least a couple of critiques. One might be an accident, but if a story has several, probably the author critiques other people in turn. You could critique this story - but better yet, read the critiques already there, and when you find one you like, see what that person has written.

Unfortunately, OWW isn't ideal for a novel. To keep things fresh, you can only have three stories or chapters up at a time. Given the erratic schedules of those of us who love to write but have to work at something else to make a living, its hard enough critiquing partners on the same schedule to make this work. I did benefit from this workshop though - I received a lot of help with my first few chapters. If chapter one is confusing, you can't blame the fact that somebody missed previous chapters.

Also, you have to pay - $6 a month, unless you go for a longer plan. We all know how that is - you think you're going to stop for a few weeks, then it turns into months, automatically deducted from your credit card while you don't have time to log on. Its a good workshop, and they have to pay the bills, but I always find that racket annoying. I like workshops with a free option, even if they have to charge for premium. You can find a greater variety of critique partners - although I never had a problem with this in practice.

I'll post a few more details if they come to me, but its been quite awhile since me and OWW were together.

A New Plan to Rule the World!

2010-02-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

A big thank you to Fairyhedgehog in the comments for asking when I would blog again. Its more fun when someone actually notices. I've been concentrating on polishing my manuscript, but I'll need to learn to multitask. Soon I'll be writing a new novel while submitting my finished one, and fulfilling rewrite requests (hopefully) first from an agent then from a publisher.

Its a good thing I've found time to blog, since the publishing industry has clearly missed the ideal way to handle e-readers, and now I can tell them. One of the problems is that people who have spent so much money on e-readers are reluctant to spend more on e-books.

So e-readers should be given away free.

No, really. Like cell phones. Of course you have to sign a contract.

So, if you sign a contract to pay $40 a month for two years, what do you get besides a free e-reader?

Well, you get one new bestseller a month at no extra charge - at least sort of. Like cell phone minutes, the credits don't necessarily roll over if you don't use them in time, depending on your plan. But if you're careful and have some McMillan favorites, that's probably $14 or $16 of your $40 monthly fee right there.

OK, so you'll have to pay for new bestsellers for the rest of the month - but here's the publishers' chance to push the books not in bookstores anymore. You get free unlimited first chapters of novels. When you just have to read the next chapter, you get one click ordering - and you probably get credits for five or ten non best selling authors not widely back listed. You may not use them every month, but their nominal value is probably above $40 without the new book or anything. Too bad a few new books are so widely advertised that you just have to order them even if your one credit is used up, so people tend to go over their $40 frequently.

Maybe you could get a magazine subscription or two with that.

Just for fun, how about 1 genuine collectible autographed hardcover, or a few paperbacks a year to carry around when you don't want to worry about having your e-reader stolen?

A set of steak knives?

Now the hard questions - who decides how to divy your $40? And are these 'free' e-readers handled by distributors, who are the only people who actually deal directly with all major publishers? Ironic to discover that far from being cut out by e-readers, distributors are now front and center.

That's enough, I'm getting over a cold, and am still light headed. You couldn't tell - could you?

Not fanfic, or a media tie in either

2009-09-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

I found another piece of online fiction to meet my special criteria. You won't get a laugh out of it unless you ever played Zork or another game from Infocom.

You are standing at an existential crossroads, a wasteland at your feet and a song on your lips. Overhead, a trio of mechanical vultures have begun circling, and the red dots of their laser-sights are crawling across your bare chest. To the west runs a dank near-motionless river, and every now and then something thrashes around in the water. The way east is blocked by an endless sense of ennui. South is a burning city, and an ex-wife to whom you owe alimony.

My first acceptance from a paying market

2009-09-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

Under normal circumstances, any reminder of a first sale to a paying market would be a happy moment.

I just had to withdraw my story though. The sale was well over a year ago. A few months after that (still slightly over a year ago) I followed up, and received e-mail that there would be a few months delay. Nothing has happened since then, so I faced reality, and wrote the editor an e-mail explaining that I was withdrawing the story but would like to hear if they began publishing again.

The birth of this story is still with me. I was browsing through Duotrope to see if any of the markets would inspire me, hoping to publish a few short stories and become an SFWA member before finishing my novel and sending query letters. I found Mansstory 2, a magazine which not only published stories reminiscent of the pulp era but illustrated them.

While I was born a little late for the pulp era, I still remember an old magazine I bought in college a couple of decades ago at a used bookstore. For some semi logical reason, the all female extraterrestrial crew that discovered earth was able to breed with humans - I forget why. Eventually it turned out they wanted to do something nasty to the sun, send the Earth into an ice age, not destroying humanity totally but turning Earth into a combination rest stop and male whore house.

The story took itself too seriously for something so silly, but there was something fun about it. I designed my own species, originally descended from humans but separated during a collapse of civilization. I came up with biological and cultural reasons why they had all female crews who were sexually interested in human males. My story is set on Treaty Station, a couple of decades after a war, and everyone involved has ftl.

My craft has grown in the interim, and I will rewrite the story before I begin sending it out again, when I need a break from the book I'm writing.

Anybody else have stories about the stories you have written, are writing, or plan to write?

A Special Kind of Short Story

2009-09-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

I have not yet joined the ranks of the Kindled (Kindling?). I may instead wait for a newer and cheaper version, perhaps produced by someone besides Amazon, with broader options as to which books can be read.

This does not entirely exclude me from the ranks of electronic fiction readers, although it does narrow my options. I prefer browser fiction readable with Firefox rather than Adobe Acrobat, though I won't insist on that. Since I will be sitting in front of my computer the whole time, my ideal online read is shorter than your average short story. Needless to say it should be great fiction - why should I suffer for being cheap, err, largess impaired?

I've found a story that meets all those criteria, and interests me as a writer as well, because it breaks several important rules so successfully. Some of the most important moments are made into a narrative summary, rather than shown through the eyes of the protagonist, or even the narrator. Instead of saving four letter words for a point of deep emotional impact, the author opens with one. Until you read the author's biography at the end, you may wonder if this is a work of fiction or an essay. Yet it works wonderfully.

I want to thank the Rose and Thorn literary e-zine and Charles Ries for Bill the Mink

I would love to hear about any stories that fulfill most or all of my rules in the comment section.

Blogging for the soon to be published author

2009-09-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

I spent a few minutes finding this on Google, and it was worth it. I remember reading the original post, and it's been in my thoughts.

Mystery and crime writer Lee Goldberg links to a post on a mysterious Agent 007 blog which has since been deleted. Click here to sort out which parts of this advice come from which writer - and read the rest of it.

"Agents and editors can Google search, too, and before we sign you, we usually do. It can be so hard to feel the love when we read that you’ve already been rejected fifty times. We know it happens, but we don’t need to know that it happened to you. And we certainly won’t feel comfortable sending your work to editors with that kind of info so readily available.

So what should you be writing about? All your success. Kind of hard to do if you haven't had any yet, but I guess the message is... don't whine. Unless you already ARE a success, and then it's okay."

So the beginning of my writer's blog waited until I had a few triumphs saved up to record. Yesterday I was admitted to Deadly Prose, an exclusive critique group for novel length work. They require an entrance examination and sample first chapter, and accept less than a quarter of all applicants. I was accepted, and promptly greeted by enthusiastic, friendly, and knowledgeable authors.