Saturday, February 27, 2010

Cruising with Royal Caribbean by Margot Justes

I've been AWOL for two Saturdays, but not for lack of trying. Posting a blog from the cruise ship proved difficult, at least for me. And not inexpensive.

But, I'm back and have kept a daily diary. I left palm trees, sunshine, warmth and returned to cold, snow and more snow. We won't even discuss coming back to work, the job that actually pays me. Regularly.

I did what most travel agents say not to do. I flew in the same day we boarded the ship. Given the Midwest winters, it's a risky thing to do. There were horror stories from passengers who had to drive South from New Jersey in order to get a flight that would guarantee a timely arrival, before the ship sailed without them.

I was lucky, the plane left on time, they did not lose my luggage and pick up by Royal Caribbean at the airport went without a hitch; we were safety deposited on board by lunch time. Life was good.

Everyone has heard about dining on board a cruise ship; it is plentiful. We start with breakfast, and of course there is a snack before lunch, and after lunch, another snack to tide you over until dinner.

Dining is a delight, bright lights, linen tablecloths, attentive service adds that extra spark in the evening. And, you can order as many entrees, salads and sweets as there are on the menu. Still hungry? Never fear. There is more food everywhere you turn. Hot coffee is always readily available, not good coffee, in fact remarkably bad coffee, drinkable only because you're on vacation, surrounded by water as you listen to the waves lapping and bouncing off the ship. You're lulled into contentment.

Between food and more food, I grabbed a book found a quiet place and enjoyed my first day at sea.

More next week,

Margot Justes
www.mjustes.com
A Hotel in Paris.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Waterlogged Writing; Bloated w/Dead Wood

WHAT MIGHT BE SWAMPING YOUR SENTENCES
                                                     by Robert W. Walker

I see a lot of writing any given day as I teach English at the college level along with writing courses and literature courses, and sometimes I get feeling no pain and let this pass and that pass as there is only so much I can do about the dumbing down of American schools and curriculum....a situation that has been going on for decades now.  When a student tells me she has in four years of high school not had to write one single research paper, it makes my jaw drop.  "What did you do for four  years?"  Her reply -- Watched films.

The problem that manifests itself in the writing of such a one as this sweet kid is writing with a proliferation of non-words, leech words, words that suck the meaing out of all she wants so desperately to say and get out of her mind.  Bloated sentences that are run ons, others that are fragments, but the worst crime to clarity is a preponderance of pronouns put into play.  For example:  Mary told her mother that she was fat and ugly.... No way to know who in that sentence is SHE...which she is fat, I mean.  Another example of a waterlogged sentence, waterlogged with pronouns.  We have three little girls in a short story and the student -- another studnent this time -- writes the following:  The little girl was upset because the other little girl told the other little girl that she did not belong at the party as a guest but that the first little girl, whose mother was a servant at the party, was there to serve food and not to party with the other little girl.

Makes you want to say Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I know....I know.  Talk about a sentence that was dead in the water before it began.  And it could all have been cleared up and made alive by a simple use of NAMES....Name each lil' girl.  Rosari, Madeliene, Tasha -- thank you.  Naming names, even repeating names thoughout your story keeps a reader focused; names have power and magic and are far, far more like a Kodak moment in the brain than she or he or we or they or it.  Name it, name him, name her, and name the town, the river, the lake, the park, the cemetery.  Names have resonance and meaning.  We can connect with names of people, places, and things but not so much with IT or THEM, especially when there are more than one set of its or thems in the story or sentence for that matter.  You can't go wrong with coming back to naming names, using nouns.  The two most powerful words in any given sentence are the subject noun and the verb...followed by the object noun.  If you replace the subject noun and the object noun think about what happens to the following:  Mark looked sharply at Christopher where he stood leaning against the fencepost.  NOW let's replace the names with pronouns and we get less definition and clarity and focus (more confusion):  He looked sharply at him where he stood leaning against it.

Dead in the water.  Pronouns cause all sorts of questions to be raised in the mind of the beholder. The power of a full name like Jack Buckland or Kelly Irvin or Milicent Carver is where it is at, especially in fiction and it sure helps in nonfiction and research papers as well.  These are the things that try an English professor's soul and cause doctors of philosophy to pull out their hair. That and the missteps and missues of words like stuff, thing, alot a lot, get ( I dislike get); not to mention the failure to distinctly speak and understand such pronouns at THEIR as opposed to THEY'RE and THERE or Its and it's.  Even hole and whole!  Even roll and role!  Worst yet the unnecessary overuse of prepostional phrases all over the place, and using thre prepositons when one will do the job, but that is another day....

All right I have ranted enough but let it be known that the majority of my students are sharp and intelligent and are learning better now that they are trapped in a classroom three hours a week with this teacher. THEY know now that Writing is Rewriting. 

Rob is conducting a unique experiemtn at Dirty Deeds - Mystery/Suspense Author's Advice wherenin you can watch him write his next book in a Julia & Julia styled journal on How to Cook a Book in a year.  Drop by and leave a comment or follow.  A contest for a better title will soon be put up and you could win a signed copy of one of Rob's novels.

http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/  will also guide you to the new blog.

Favorite Quotes by DL Larson

I admit it, I love quotes. I have them splashed all over my house, inside my kitchen cupboards, on plaques, slips of paper and cut outs made of wood. Some are decorated by talented artists, some are hand written, others pulled from a magazine or typed up to preserve the message. In no particular order here are a few: (many have no author and for that I apologize)

ENTER WITH A HAPPY HEART!

FAITH ~ FAMILY ~ FRIENDS

DO NOT FOLLOW WHERE THE PATH MAY LEAD, GO INSTEAD, WHERE THERE IS NO PATH, AND LEAVE A TRAIL.

LIVE YOUR LIFE IN SUCH A WAY THAT WHEN YOUR FEET HIT THE FLOOR EACH MORNING SATAN SHUDDERS AND SAYS … “OH (insert your favorite swear word), SHE’S AWAKE!”

NEVER LET THE FEAR OF STRIKING OUT GET IN YOUR WAY.
Babe Ruth


IF YOU CAN IMAGINE IT, YOU CAN ACHIEVE IT; IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN BECOME IT. William Arthur Ward

ABOVE ALL THINGS, NEVER THINK YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH YOURSELF. Anthony Trollope


GOD LOVES EACH OF US AS IF THERE WERE ONLY ONE OF US.
St. Augustine

A DOCTOR LOOKING THROUGH AN X-RAY MACHINE TO PATIENT:
“By George, You really do have a book in you!!”

PRACTICE RANDOM KINDNESS AND SENSELESS ACTS OF BEAUTY!

WE LIKE THAT A SENTENCE SHOULD READ AS IF ITS AUTHOR, HAD HE HELD A PLOUGH INSTEAD OF A PEN, COULD HAVE DRAWN A FURROW DEEP AND STRAIGHT TO THE END.” Henry David Thoreau

THINK POSITIVELY ABOUT YOURSELF, KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS AND YOUR ACTIONS CLEAN, ASK GOD WHO MADE YOU TO KEEP ON REMAKING YOU. Norman Vincent Peale

SOME LEADERS ARE BORN WOMEN!

EVERY SUNRISE IS A MESSAGE FROM GOD … AND EVERY SUNSET HIS SIGNATURE. William Wordsworth

YESTERDAY IS HISTORY; TOMORROW IS A MYSTERY; TODAY IS A GIFT. THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT THE PRESENT.

IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU WRITE. WHAT YOU BELIEVE WILL SHOW THROUGH. Theodore Sturgeon

I GET MY EXERCISE FROM SPECTATOR SPORTS!

REAL COURAGE IS WHEN YOU KNOW YOU’RE LICKED BEFORE YOU BEGIN, BUT YOU BEGIN ANYWAY AND SEE IT THROUGH NO MATTER WHAT. Harper Lee

WE DON’T KNOW WHO WE ARE UNTIL WE SEE WHAT WE CAN DO.

IF A MAN DOES NOT KEEP PACE WITH HIS COMPANIONS, PERHAPS IT IS BECAUSE HE HEARS A DIFFERENT DRUMMER. LET HIM STEP TO THE MUSIC WHICH HE HEARS, HOWEVER MEASURED OR FAR AWAY.
Henry David Thoreau

HAVE I NOT COMMANDED YOU? BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS. DO NOT BE TERRIFIED; DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED, FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL BE WITH YOU WHEREVER YOU GO. Joshua 1:0

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE IMPOSSIBLE AND THE POSSIBLE, LIES IN A PERSON’S DETERMINATION. Tommy Lasorda

Share a few of your favorite quotes with us.

Til next time ~
DL Larson

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Blog or Website - The Eternal Question by Morgan Mandel

Now that Blogger has added the ability to add 10 new pages to a blog, it's even more tempting not to maintain a website.

I've got one over at http://www.morganmandel.com/, but I have to admit I don't update it anywhere near as often as my personal blog. That's because blogs are designed to be interactive. The news is fresh. I can see almost immediately when someone makes a comment and can answer right away. A website doesn't offer that, unless--

Unless, you have the  best of both worlds and can somehow place your blog prominently on your website, so people can still makes comments. I still don't know how to do that, but I believe there is a way. I do have links to my blogs listed there, but that's not the same thing.

Anyway, the next best thing is the extra 10 pages Blogger offers. I've already set them up at http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/ . If I don't incorporate a blog in my website, someday I may change the layout of my blog so it looks like a website. Until then, I'll keep my main website at http://www.morganmandel.com/ . I may always keep it. There's so much over there I'd hate to waste it. If you've got nothing to do, stop over sometime. You may find something of interest there.

If this post seems all over the place, that's because there are a bewildering number of choices. You can tell I'm not exactly sure where I'll go next, or what will happen next in the blogging world.

What about you? What do you prefer - a blog or website? If both, how do you manage them - altogether, or separate?

Thanks,
Morgan Mandel
Find me also at http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel

Monday, February 22, 2010

REGISTER AND WIN A TICKET TO THE VIP dinner at Spring Fling 2010!

Happy Monday!

I wanted to share another announcement for the Spring Fling conference!


Register to attend Chicago North-RWA's Spring Fling 2010 and be entered into a
contest to win one of two tickets to attend our VIP dinner on Friday night,
April 23, 2010.

The winners will gain admittance to this exclusive event and a chance to meet
our headliners, Cherry Adair and Julia Quinn in addition to our editors, agents
and workshop presenters. Anyone who's already registered for the conference
will automatically be entered into the drawing as well as any new registrants
before March 15, 2010 at midnight CST. For more information on the conference,
please check our website:

http://www.chicagospringfling.com


Thanks!

Best~
June

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Voices in My Head

Now usually, if someone tells you they hear voices in their head, the first thing you do is recommend a good therapist. However, if you're a writer, those voices are a good thing.

When voices speak to me, I know I'm in the zone: the writing zone. These days, I hear voices all the time. My characters are with me everywhere I go. They speak to me. They tell me what needs to happen next. They're telling me how they're feeling.

Not only do I hear my characters, I've been seeing them a lot, too. In church this morning I saw a man pick up his little girl in a certain way, and I thought, That's how Chase would do that.

I have a small notebook with me at all times (in my purse, on my desk at work, on the nightstand next to the bed) just in case an idea pops into my head that I absolutely must right down that very minute. I have little sheets of yellow paper everywhere.

And all of this is a good thing, because (not to sound boastful) I am on a writing roll. I am just a little past page 100 in my current WIP, which means I'm just shy of about a third of the way there. And I actually know where I'm going with this one. In fact the happily ever after is written...I just have to drag my characters through a little more heartache, turmoil, and conflict to get them there.

So on that note, I think I'll sign off here and check in with Chase and Erika. I wonder where they'll take me today.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra

www.debrastjohnromance.com

Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Good Editor & The Great Editor

OR:  A Good Editor is Hard to Find, a Great Editor is Harder Still to Find


by Robert W. Walker



Nothing is harder for a writer to see clearly than his or her own work, to look at it objectively and with laserlike precision so as to make those all important rewrites and to live by the credo that Writing is Rewriting. It is no small task to remove the emotional ties to your book and look on it with a cold, sure eye--with an eye to seeing its flaws. Hard to wear the editor's hat on your own work, not unlike the surgeon who must operate on his own child.


We might just as well be looped on drugs or alcohol to find our way through our own emotional baggage when it comes to our baby--our manuscript, but it does get easier with experience, lots of experience until we start to put into practice all we have ever learned from our editors--every line they ever corrected. We take them all to heart. We learn. Down to how the word HAD is best used and when to take it out if we are paying close, close attention to what our editors over the years have had to say about our style, our sentence structure, our pattern errors, our Voice --and trust me every element of the story from dialogue to details to setting to character development. All of it. And each correction is a little sling and arrow, painful to endure and even more painful because the change or correction is obvious now and so in keeping with the book, and inescapable and truly needed.

Good editors catch errors on every page, and great editors make the book sing at a higher pitch. An excellent editor like an excellent reference librarian is a gem and a wonder and a pleasure to work with. Whenever I edit another person's book, I make every change not for the good of the author but for the good of the book, the betterment of the story. It doe not mean the voice need be lost but rather improved, honed, made tighter and less rambling, less seemingly overblown or bloated.
However, suppose the voice is so bad it can not be fixed?  So confusing there is no repariting it.  If sentences are choking on passive constructions and unneeded prepositional phrases that cause reader confusion or stumbling, and if the author's authorial voice is less than authorial, say even wishy-washy or equivocating and chockful of qualifiers and lacks absolute control over the material, then it is unlikely an editor can repair it. But most great editors can and will take on such challenges. An editor is as passionate about your book as you are when she or he is in the throes of massaging it and working it over and beating the hell out of it until it is molded and kneaded just right.

Please do leave a comment or question!



Rob Walker

The Knife Editing Services

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Have You Read 'The Lightning Thief?' by DL Larson

Once in awhile a perfect book crosses my circulation desk and I get pushy in telling kids and parents, saying, "you have to read this book. It's awesome." Well Rick Riordan's series falls into that category. The story moves in a world much like ours except all the mythical gods we learned about are real and they really do fall in love with mortals. Percy Jackson is a teen who struggles in school, has a slow, gangling friend Grover, and a mom who is just about perfect. Life should be fine, yet strange things continue to happen to him, like teachers turning into monsters who want him dead and another teacher determined he learn everything about the Greek gods.

His world turns upside down when he is sent to a summer camp for half-bloods. His mom said it was the safest place for him, but tragedy strikes before he reaches the borders of camp. His mom is pulverized by a giant and his best friend is really a satyr. His Greek teacher is the headmaster at camp and believes his mom may not be dead, but being held by one of the gods. Percy is determined to find his mom; the gods have other ideas and chaos has full reign.

Dealing with the gods is no easy task and Percy's quest takes him from New York to Los Angeles, fighting monsters and gods along the way. His absentee father, Poseidon, doesn't seem to care if Percy lives or dies. Percy tells himself he doesn't care, he may be a pawn in the dispute between the gods, but his goal is to save his mom.

This is a story full of adventure, suspense and a revival of family values. It would be a great read for any book club because one of Percy's friends is a girl named Annabeth, daughter of the god Athena, and she really kicks butt to save Percy from disaster. The Lightning Thief series is a fast-paced story, full of gods bickering, humans wondering what has happened and a fight against time before war breaks out.

I have yet to see the movie and am looking forward to seeing it this weekend. Right now I've moved on and am reading Book 2 of the series, The Sea of Monsters. It is just as exciting as the first with Percy in the center of trouble, his buddy Grover in peril and his friend Annabeth already saving his life.

I love girl heroes! I'm also learning more about the Greek gods and have to say what a great teaching tool this could be for those interested in mythology.

Share your comments with us!

Til next time ~

DL Larson

PS: the librarian in me has to mention Rick Riordan's other awesome series
39 Bones! It too is fast paced with kids not knowing their families past and discovering a bit of history. Great read!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Out of Control by Morgan Mandel

I caught part of the Dog Whisperer show on TV Tuesday night. Cesar Milan faced two dogs that barked uncontrollably. By the miracle of his calm presence and assertiveness, he gained control over them. That's because he showed them who was boss.

That's what I have to do with my e-mail. It's way out of control. I belong to a great many e-groups and I love reading the posts, but it takes me forever to get through them. By the time I do that and finish whatever blogs I need to do, I'm no longer in the mood to write.

So, I need to practice control and write first, then tackle the e-mails, blogs, and the like. Otherwise, I'll never get another book finished.

What about you? Do you have trouble getting down to business sometimes? What do you do?

Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/
http://ourlittlerascal.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Stop The Presses!

Print and digital wholesaler Baker & Taylor has reached an agreement with self-publishing house Author Solutions to provide print services for its authors through TextStream, B&T’s print-on-demand and short-run printing service. Author Solutions has grown into one of the country’s largest self-publishing book operations with a catalog of more than 125,000 titles.

For more information on this breaking news at www.publishersweekly.com go to the following link:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6719091.html

I know that many folks still believe that self-publishing is a dirty word but it's popularity continues to grow.

The usual arguments against this method of publishing include: little or no editing, poor cover design, anybody could do it, and in the past, distribution. But with the news that B&T and Author Solutions have inked a deal it will be interesting to see how that changes.

It remains to be seen how effective this partnership ill be in brining new and strong voices to readers, but one thing I can almost guarantee won't change - authors will still have to be their own best advocate and get out and promote their books.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!

I got a fabulous early Valentine's Day present this week. The cover for "This Can't Be Love" arrived in my inbox. I was thrilled! It's always so exciting to see a message from my publisher's art department on the message list.

My heart was racing as I opened the e-mail. Getting a new cover can be a nerve-wracking experience. Did the artist capture the overall tone of the story? Will the people on the cover do justice to the characters I've created in my head? How will the title look? My name?

As always, The Wild Rose Press did not disappoint. In fact, as usual, the talented people there made my day. The cover is fantastic! The title font even matches my first book, which is great, because this one is a spin-off of that, and I'd hoped they'd look like a set. I immediately shared it with all of my family and friends, who also gave it the thumbs-up of approval. I kept a copy at work for the rest of the week, and everytime I needed a little pick-me-up, I'd take a peek at the cover. It never failed to put a smile on my face.

So, what do you think?



And, as fabulous as the cover is, it's even more than that. It's letting me know that the ball is rolling on this particular book, and I'm one step closer to holding the finished product in my hands.

All in all, it's been a good author week. Receiving the new cover started it off. Then, along with a couple other fellow authors I did a romance presentation at a local library, I sent out some bookmarks for publicity, and I'm making some decent progress on my work in progress.

It doesn't get any better than that!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra

www.debrastjohnromance.com

Friday, February 12, 2010

Julia & Julia Type Journal for Cooking up a Gritty Suspense or Mystery Novel by Robert W. Walker

At Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, yes, you can follow me as I blog on the progress and success or failure of putting together my 50th novel. Without a contract, written on speculation only in my head and faith in the material and myself—I am keeping a dairy-type Journal about the process of crafting the novel.

This is like getting a creative writing course from Professor Walker. Follow me as I write a Suspense Novel Before Your Eyes, and no matter what category or genre you are working in, there is so much you can pick up from following this process. Imagine if you had the opportunity to look in over the shoulder of a veteran author and watch his hand at work. There can be no better classroom, and you are not limited in asking questions or offering comments.

Thus far Dirty Deeds has had two installments, but the first, like this, was mostly informational and descriptive of the whole idea. This week at http://tinyurl.com/ykch9vf you can see firsthand how I handle research, opening lines, opening scenes. What questions one needs ask to determine where in the story to begin. It’s all there along with an example from the novel being built from scratch: the re-telling of the story of Titanic; in fact, a rewriting of history with an answer to precisely why Captain Edward Smith intentional rammed Titanic into that iceberg. Aside from being historical in nature, the historical chapters will alternate with futuristic chapters (science fiction) wherein a dive team will actually enter the shipwreck to pillage it—all but one of the divers who is there to reawaken the horror that caused Captain Smith to scuttle his own cruise liner and take down thousands of lives with himself to the deep (horror elements tossed in). The bottom line is I’ve placed a monster and the killer plague it spreads onto the deck of Titanic. You begin with a “killer” premise, a major “what if” and starting from there, you do a great deal of research, and for me, even before the research is done, you start writing in the throes of passion for the story.

I hope you will come over to Dirty Deeds to have a look-see and follow me as I cook up a layered, complex multi-generational suspense thriller with elements of horror, romance, science fiction, and historical accuracy turned on its head. Again the site is instructional and the instructor is moi – Professor Robert W. Walker at http://tinyurl.com/ykch9vf

Do hope you’ll leave comments either here or at Dirty Deeds!

Rob Walker

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Do You Remember When? by DL Larson

Do you remember when you first realized you were a writer?

I've always enjoyed writing and worked for small newspapers as a correspondent, did some writing for local organizations and at church. I'd always been an avid reader and thought often about doing something with words. I was 36 before I took my desire seriously and went back to school. The classes weren't what I expected. Too many of the required courses had nothing to do with words and I felt my family was suffering for my whimsical need to see if I had what it took to become a writer.

Then, then it finally happened when I wasn't expecting it. The English professor had the class turning to a certain picture in the text book. We were to create a story from the picture. The whole class groaned at the face of an old woman in a black and white picture with a setting in the era of the 1930's. Her hands were dirty, her clothes unfashionable and her hair pulled back into a no nonsense style. The only redeeming fact was her hint of a smile.

A few weeks later the professor started reading some of the stories. Most were only a few paragraphs long and I realized I'd really over-done it. My story was four pages and it had little to do with the era of the days, or the hardship this woman must have lived through. I'd missed the target completely. I felt the complete fool and decided I didn't need to spend any more money on this foolishness of learning how to write. I'd even given the woman a name!

The professor started reading again and I cringed as my story of Sarah was shared. She'd gone blue berry picking up on the ridge. She reminisced about her family and how she missed her son gone now from the previous war and had decided to make his favorite dessert. But before she went home she wanted to use the new outhouse in the park. It had running water.

No one else had given the woman a name. No one else had looked for another reason for her dirty hands other than hard labor. No one had shared an insight to a simple delight as using a flush toliet. The professor wrote on my paper "interesting and intriguing." It was all I needed to keep writing, keep learning how to put one word with another in order to tell a story.

How about you? When did you know you were a writer?

Til next time ~

DL Larson

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Jobs by Morgan Mandel

While I was watching Chicago Tonight on Tuesday night, Phil Ponce interviewed a guy who took on 50 jobs in 50 states. He worked as a coal miner, a cook, lumberjack, among other occupations. That got me thinking about the tons of choices for jobs we can give our characters in manuscripts.

In Killer Career, the main character is a lawyer whose decision to change careers and become an author proves deadly. In Two Wrongs, the main character turns into a pro basketball player.

What about your characters? Tell us what they do for a living in your novel or manuscript.

Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/

Non-fiction that tells a story

I've been reading more non-fiction lately than fiction and most of us are used to the non-fiction text books we had to read and study in school. BUT, the non-fiction I've been reading of late actually tells a story - or two.

The most recent book I'm reading is by Dr. Andrew Weil and titled, Why Our Health Matters: A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future. I'm only into the first chapter but already Dr. Weil is telling a story, and a very important one at that. He's telling the story of how the health care system in America is near it's breaking point, if it hasn't actually hit it already. Another author, Malcolm Gladwell writes about tipping points and how little things can make a big difference.

The book I finished just before picking up Dr. Weil's book is by Judith Lasater titled Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life.

In my group for fiction writers we often discuss finding our voice as a writer and I think that is true for non-fiction as well. While reading Judith Lasater's book I found myself drawn into her story about her evolution with yoga and it was because of her ability as a story teller that her non-fiction teachings came across so strongly, at least for me. Based on what I've read so far of Dr. Weil's book, I suspect the same will be true for his work as well.

I'm grateful that those non-fiction writers who seek to share their knowledge with others do so by actually telling stories throughout their written works. It just goes to show you that nothing beats a good story, especially when it is told in a genuine and honest voice.

So, what story do you have to tell?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Upcoming Events

I am going to be out and about in the next couple of months, doing some promoting, speaking, etc. So I thought I'd share some of my upcoming events with you, just in case you're in the neighborhood!

Wednesday, February 10
Pre-Valentine's Day Romance Presentation/Signing (7:00 p.m.)
Freemont Public Library
1170 N. Midlothian Road
Mundelein, IL 60060
847-566-8702

April 9, 2010
Wild Wedding Weekend releases!

April 11, 2010 (tentative)
Local Author Event (1:30 - 4:30 p.m.)
Deerfield Public Library

April 23-24, 2010
Spring Fling Conference and Book Signing
Deerfield Hyatt
Deerfield, IL
www.chicagospringfling.com


Hope to see you around!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra

www.debrastjohnromance.com

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Operation Paperback by Margot Justes

Did you know that you can ship 'gently used' paperback books to our troops. All the information is on line and it's relatively easy, all you need are books, boxes, tape and a little bit of time.

When I heard about it from my friend Gina, we decided to check it out and see if we could do something. After all, what a terrific idea, the books will be passed around and benefit many.

We started a drive at work and within a week we shipped four boxes, and by Friday afternoon we had enough books for a couple more shipments.

Once you register, you get a set of names and list of preferred genres. We were able to ship sixteen books per box. Because we had actual names of soldiers it became a bit more personal.

I had a lot of fun going through the books and see what people read. We had Ludlum, Patterson, Brown, the usual suspects. But we also had a few classics and mid list authors. A nice rounded selection.

This will be an on-going effort, as long as we have books, we'll ship them out. What a wonderful idea.

Till next time,
Margot Justes
www.mjustes.com
A Hotel in Paris

Friday, February 5, 2010

eBook Wars - What They Portend For Writers by Robert W. Walker

With all the hoopla, smoke, and mirrors going on in the publishing world over ebook pricing or what they call the sales model for ebook pricing, there’s been a lot of confusion. Confusion is in fact the natural state of most authors in relation to their publishers. Publishers routinely keep writers in the dark about many aspects of their practices and why not on how they price a book? I don’t mean to sound as bitter as I actually am but there you have it. For when it comes to such matters as cover art, for instance, or the size type on your title or name or both, and when it comes to how a book is distributed, if the publisher uses or does not use jobbers, if the publisher has cut any sweetheart deals with big box stores like Costco or Wal-Mart, and if in such cases an author earns any royalties, and if a royalty statement ever comes to an author can it be read?

The long long history of writers and their publishers has not been a gentle, kind one but rather every horror story you have ever heard at the bar about a writer and his publisher is true, true, true. In the end, typically, the writer gets it in the end—and I mean that literally. Now comes an opportunity offered by Amazon.com for authors to go “Indie” – to become their own publishing concern in partnership with Amazon acting as bookstore and distributor in one, and for the first time in history authors are getting paid what their efforts are worth.

In the meantime, while many authors have been partnering via ebooks over the hard years when it was generally believed by print publishers that ebooks were a flash in the pan and would go the way of many another fad—authors and Amazon have been in the business of ebooks. Major publishers of the NYC variety have eschewed and seldom understood this area of book sales and in fact have not supported it. Until now. Until the day it appears ebooks can and do outsell paper books on occasion—as with this past Christmas. Now suddenly, Macmillan is decrying the situation as Amazon has defined it—that no Kindle book would cost more than ten bucks, because as Macmillan CEO says, authors can earn more money if their ebooks are priced higher, and so he flies to Seattle, meets with Amazon CEO and offers up an ultimatum when Mr. Bezos says no to 15 buck ebooks for Macmillan titles. Most Macmillan authors think that they won when Amazon backed down and accepted the price increase for Macmillan books, and the general consensus among Mac authors and many others is that the giant publishing firm struck a blow for writers.

Nothing further from the truth. Amazon knows its clientele better than anyone on the planet, and they know that few people believe that an ebook priced at above the 9.99 promised price for years now is going to earn out far more monies for authors than the higher prices—which will be boycotted in huge measure by readers of ebooks. Ebook readers are not interested in titles priced high whether they are bestsellers or not. Ebook readers love FREE books, public domain books are being gobbled up at an unprecedented rate! Followed by the .99 cent book and the 1.99 cent book. Ebook readers are voracious and most have enough reading piled up for the moment to last them months. They are not in the market for Dan Brown’s latest at paper price or ebook price if it is over 9.99.

Of these facts I am sure because I have been watching this trend for years, and I have had ebooks on FictionWise for years, and I have ten Kindle titles onboard with plans to add seventeen more, and the titles that are moving, selling, are not my 7 dollar titles priced by the publisher as the SAME price on the paperbacks, and not my 8.99 – half priced latest hardcover. My titles that are selling like hotcakes at a county fair are priced respectively at 2.99 and 1.99 – and as a result of volume sales, the Amazon model, like the Wal-Mart model, I have made more money in the past three years from ebook sales than I have made on paper sales. Writers pricing at bargain basement prices gain more readers who talk to other readers and fan the flames of word of mouth. This aside from the paradox of making more with smaller prices works in favor of the author, not against him or her.

The CEO of Macmillan had a major chip in his pocket—Apple’s IPad which wants to get into the ebook business too and they want to charge more for books, and they were talking to Macmillan about fifteen buck ebooks. So when Macmillan CEO states he is doing this for the benefit of his poor, put upon authors it is a croc and a major croc at that. A croc full of it. It also amounts to short-sightedness and not understanding the clientele—ebook readers, most of whom are assembled under a banner of boycotting any book priced above 9.99.

You don’t have to believe me about such matters but before you decide I am dead wrong check out JA Konrath’s recent blogs and articles on this exact subject. Joe is the man most in the know. See what he has to say on his platforms.

Meantime keep your ego up by placing a chapter or more up at http://www.authonomy.com/ where you can get feedback on your book and share feedback on my Children of Salem. The writing is the darling part of this business, and the rest can be an awful pain.

Rob
http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/

Thursday, February 4, 2010

What Would You Do? by DL Larson

Last week I was interviewed by a local newspaper of a neighboring town. I wasn't interviewed as a writer, but as a person in our community. The question was "what draws folks to small towns." A friend of mine was also interviewed for her involvement with the organization called Friends of the Library. I was at this interview to support her upcoming project on Valentine's Day, a Victorian Tea. The benefits made from this project will help fund the children's department in our library.

I answered questions as best I could, keeping a positive twist on living in our small community. A few days later the paper's photographer stopped by the library to take pictures. That's when it hit me; I never talked about my writing career to the correspondent. I spoke of the nice, safe commuity I live in, the wonderful people, the many great organizations and churches, but not about my writing. This paper has a circulation of about 4,000 - 5,000 daily. My article would be a part of their weekend "hometown" section. I'd just given up a perfect opportunity to blow my own horn and I never mentioned the tiniest comment about being an author.

The article came out last Saturday as promised. I received lots of comments about being in the paper and what good things I said about Earlville. Then the questions came, "I thought youw were a writer ..." "I was expecting to hear about your next book..."

So my question is, how should I have worked the topic of being a writer into the conversation? Or was it okay not to wave the flag of oh, did I mention I'm an author? Part of me wishes I had spoken up, the other part is rather proud I focused on the topic and let my personal agenda stay quiet.

What would you do if if this happened to you?

Til next time ~

DL Larson

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Political Views by Morgan Mandel

Because of the primary election, my thoughts turned to politics and the role they play with authors and bloggers. I purposesly avoid speaking of politics on my blogs. I don't like to force my opinion on others or alienate people of opposite tastes. I only include politics in a very general sense in my novels. 
What about you? I'm not asking you to tell us your political opinions here. I just want to know your ideas about sharing political views.

Is it something you feel necessary to include in your blog? Do you think it's helpful or harmful in an author's career to do so? Or, maybe you'd like to name circumstances that would affect doing so or not.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Back it up!

So, there I was, working on an idea for yet another story when my laptop decided to go comatose! Now, I have the majority of my work backed up but I hadn't yet backed up this most recent idea and all the brainstorming I had done on it.

Thankfully, I was able to resuscitate my laptop and quickly back everything up. Something I'm doing more frequently now.

My laptop is rather old in computer years but it has served me well and like so many other things in life I've gotten use to it being there when I need it. I even bought a spare battery when I purchased the laptop, always wanting to be able to power it up and keep it going for as long as possible. I work mostly on the train during my commute into the city so the spare battery has come in handy on more occasions than I can count.

Ironically, the laptop issue happened around the same time as my aging dog - he'll be 17 in May - had a serious kidney issue which is never a good sign for an older animal or human. Not only has my dog rebounded but so has my laptop. I did go buy a lottery ticket. Haven't checked it yet, but I bought it!

Now I know that both the dog and laptop are on their way to fading into the sunset and the next phase of their existence but I will always have my memories of Rocky the Wonder dog and as long as I do regular backups, I'll have the ideas that I have entrusted to the memory of my laptop.

So, make sure you backup your data on your computer because unfortunately our own memory is sometimes less reliable than the physical memory of our digital alter egos!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Today is the deadline...

To get your entries in for the Chicago North RWA's Fire & Ice contest.

FEBRUARY CONTEST DEADLINES....Fire and Ice ContestChicago-North RWAE-Entry Deadline: Midnight of February 1, 2010Prologue/first chapter (25 pages max) http://www.chicagonorthrwa.org/

And tell all you favorite booksellers and librarians to register for the FREE EVENT during our Spring Fling Conference which will be held April 23-24

Thanks for checking in!

~June

www.junesproat.com