Monday Musings on books & writing

A few Monday Musings on writing and books...

1. I put up a short post today on the other blog with some "fun facts" about my character Becca from GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie

2. Deep in proofing now. Gosh, amazing the things that get missed, or misspelled, or... how doe   does that happen??

3. It takes for-ev-er to get reviews, while you sit on pins and needles, wondering, waiting...

4. It's a good thing when you can still say after X number reads of your book that you still like it - and hope others do, too. See number 3 above.

5. When did libraries become so author un-friendly unless you are Dan Brown or someone famous?

Maybe I'll think of a few more later. Or got some musings of your own?

Editing, book releases, and what else is new?

Feel like I have been sick for-ev-er..... finally I actually feel like myself again. Can't wait for spring now and flea market season soon!!

So, what is new?

 * If you didn't read it, I have a Valentine's story (or just call it a twisted love story) over at King's River Life Magazine....

* I also won a Dog Writer's Assn. Award for best mainstream magazine story! Info and a link to the story is on my nonfiction web page.

* If you're intrigued at all by zombies, several of us writers have started a blog, GirlZombieAuthors -.http://girlzombieauthors.blogspot.com/.. random postings, so come check us out!

* I am now almost through the last edits before the galley on GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie - which I learned should be coming out around JULY 1. Yay!  Saw a preliminary cover too so that should be done soon.

Wow! After what also seemed like forever, it is now only months away to seeing the book! Wow!

Funny, how after so many reads, reading it again all these doubts rush in. But I still like the story so hope others do, too.

 ** So, how do you cope with an upcoming book release? Get scared still? Share your thoughts!

Learning Is Never Easy! by DL Larson

Recently I attended a "Beginners Band Concert."  The players consisted of fourth grade students eager to perform publicly for the first time.  Parents, grandparents and friends sat in the bleachers waiting for the performance to begin.  The children were all dressed in clean, neat clothes, hair combed with faces scrubbed.  In other words they looked adorable if not a little nervous.  Miss E, the band director, seemed calm, smiling to her students and the audience alike.  She greeted the audience and began to explain the grueling process of learning to play an instrument.  Miss E reminded her audience about developing breathing techniques, keeping a good rhythm and learning to focus on the music as well as on her.  She then reminded us how the students needed to adjust to the added burden of holding the instrument in small hands and learning to manipulate their mouths correctly in order to make the proper sounds. 

Miss E is a very enthusiastic teacher and she shared with us how much her students had learned in one school year.  She then said they were going to play the first thing they learned.  She turned to her students, nodded to them to be ready and she stepped up on her podium.  Her arms came up and with quick precision as her hands came together, a giant squawk came from the students and when she used her down motion to complete the beat, the squawk stopped. 

The kids were smiling, Miss E. was smiling and the audience laughed.  The students held up their mouth pieces and Miss E. told us what progress it was for kids to learn to make a sound through their mouth pieces.  One squawk, in unison, held for the correct amount of time, with an abrupt stop just as the instructor had motioned.  She then progressed to the first note, then to the first set of three notes, and so on.  After that I thought the concert would begin, but Miss E. invited, or rather challenged the parents to come down and try playing their children's instruments.  They were to play "Mary Had A Little Lamb."

A nervous laughed resounded through the crowd but the parents were good sports and descended on the students.  Each child showed a parent how to hold the instrument, how to manipulate the few notes and to read the music.  After a few moments Miss E. decided they had learned enough and tapped her stand to gain everyone's attention.  Once again she looked over her band, now full of adults with children standing by their sides.  She stepped up on her podium, brought her arms up and kept up a wonderfully smooth beat to the squeaking and bleating that followed.  Cheeks puffed out, faces grew red from exertion and Miss E. kept directing the beat as the kids earnestly helped their parents keep track of where they were on the page.  The audience doubled over laughing.

A wonderful concert  by the children followed the mayhem.  The kids performed with enthusiasm and everyone left the gmn a little wiser.  

So you may wonder what this has to do with writers.  Well, everything, besides sharing a story with you, it's a reminder that learning a craft is never easy.  And instead of getting crumpy at the process, relax and enjoy the progress you have made.  Whatever level your writing is at right now, take a moment to look back and enjoy those bumbling moments for what they were ~ learning to create! 

Til next time ~

DL Larson 

Writing and Waiting - what do you do?

While I am waiting for word on a book out at publishers, I've done what most everyone advises - start another one.

I've started it. Barely.

I have about six chapters outlined, more or less, though when I write I find that I tend to add in different details or even ignore the outline as I go along.

Never gone is the specter of that "other" book, languishing on some slush pile or maybe sitting, forlorn, on some editor's desk. So I hope.

It's hard to forget something you've worked so hard on. Hard to get over it and go on to something else that easily, though I am trying.

So, what do you do when you are between books? Besides clean the fridge, eat or???

Another Idea for the Season! by DL Larson

Last week I was looking for a short skit for my Sunday School class about the Mary and Joseph story (prequel to the Baby Jesus' arrival.) I found several, but didn't see anything that talked to me. Nothing was quite right for my age of children. Then I did the big DUH! and wrote the skit myself!

Sometimes I feel like the Little Red Hen and simply end up doing the work, use it once and file it away. I've done this for years in various areas of my life. I realize now, I should share these tidbits I've put together. As I remake my website, I plan to add a place for skits and other writings for folks to use. It may take me awhile, as does everything, but sharing these skits may help others and offering them could become a valuable connection to readers.

There are times when I forget my gift of writing is a talent to share. I see the knitting group at our library, occasionally visit the knitting or sewing group at our church and know I will never be that good with my hands. I look at their progress, value their talent of making prayer shawls, and sigh at the gift of 125 blankets hand-made by our sewing ladies that will go to far off places around the world. I have no expertise in such undertakings. It's easy to feel inadequate when others gifts are so visable. A friend of mine makes jewelry, her husband tumbles and polishes the stones. They've made a business out of their hobby.

Yes, it's easy to get discouraged, but remember writers make something from nothing. Wordsmiths have no yarn, no bits of material or thread. Writers have a dictionary and thesaurus. And most importantly, ideas! My suggestion for this season is to collect ideas like bits of thread. Build a tapestry of ideas to make a holiday story. Then when the ornaments and decorations are back in their boxes and things have quieted down a bit, write, write, write. Create a story from nothing but ideas, memories and experience.

Writers are the opposite of magicians. Magicians make things disappear. Writers turn ideas into reality. The work is hard, but stories appear from thin air, and characters come to life!

That's a pretty special talent!

Til next time ~

DL Larson

How do you share your hobby?

Have any special things you do for the holidays?

For fun and something different, thought I'd share a couple online miniatures Advent Calendars. As you know I write about my hobby, via my nonfiction book IN MINIATURE STYLE II. (eBook or print).

* Mini Treasures Advent Calendar

* Artisans in Miniature Advent Calendar

** If you're a writer, how do you share your interest or hobbies in your books or stories - or don't you?

A Watercolor Experience by DL Larson

A week ago I ventured into a new world, the world of watercolor painting. My art skills include drawing a heart, a happy face and maybe an occasional star, but that's about it. I have no talent in this area, but I still wanted to learn something new.

The instructor said we would be drawing butterflies and shapes. Already I was panic stricken - a butterfly meant two sides pretty much the same. Identical! I'd never get it right. Then Marcee, our instructor, said we could trace if we wanted to and the entire class gave up a big sigh. I wasn't the only one ready to bolt for the door. Marcee laughed and told us to relax, this would be fun.

As I stewed over which butterfly to trace, I realized she wanted us not to get hung up on the perfection of the piece, but to become excited in the process of learning a new technique. I drew a circle on my paper using the lip of a saucer; I traced my butterfly into the cirle I had made; I used only the outside shape of the butterfly and went rogue with the shapes of the wings. It was a challenge in balance, but one I enjoyed. The rest of the paper was for me to do as I pleased.

For a writer, I was pretty dissapointed I couldn't think of any interesting shapes to draw. I settled for wavy lines that ended up looking like ribbons floating in the background of my butterfly. I have no idea how I came up with that idea and that small part of the creative process reminded me of writing and how sometimes, if I am really lucky the best idea just floats into my brain and it's on the paper before it can escape. My background appeared and it was good. Simple, but it had character.

Then Marcee had us paint our picture with water. I felt about three years old painting with no paint, but Marcee wasn't finished, far from it and she distributed dabs of colorful pigment on saucers and instructed us to wash the background with whatever colors we wanted. Except I didn't know what I wanted; I felt unsure and hesitant and only after mulling things over with the rest of the class and each of us deciding what color our butterflies would be could we decide on the background. And just like in writing, the layering process began, one light stoke at a time.

I used washed out colors, then more solid pigment and salt. I never knew one used salt in watercolor painting. The salt reacted to the wet paint and little explosions of color expanded and grew, the colors blending and bleeding into one another in exciting ways. The process gave the picture depth and a richness it lacked before. I really felt like an artist creating something original.

Once the watery paint and salt dried, I moved onto another layer of detailing, much like writers do in filling in the story or plot to make the images more prominent. I grew bolder with the paint, making my lines of ribbon stand out then fade only to stand out again. The butterfly ended up with more than three layers of detail with straight pigment, the bold blending with the washed out colors in ways I never imagined it could.

I used too much pigment and ended up with a blob of navy blue where it didn't belong. Marcee showed me how to wash it away and fix it the way I wanted it to look. I learned there was no wrong way to paint with watercolors. I could always fix what I didn't like. Even after it had dried comepletely. Another similarity with writing.

In the end, I let Marcee detail in the tiny features of my butterfly, her hand is much steadier than mine. I watched her deftly dab paint and a face appeared. She recommended I add bits of green and yellow flowers and vines to the background within the circle where my butterfly was. Again I applied muted colors, barely recognizable, but the contrast added depth to the plain background. The butterfly grew more distinguished and life-like with something for it to rest upon.

I realize one night of painting does not make me a painter, anymore than one day of writing makes me an author. But by being adventurous in trying something different, I have expanded my knowledge and that will enhance my writing skills.

And that is good!

Til next time ~

DL Larson

Life Resolutions

While everyone else seems to be making those pesky resolutions for the New Year, I'm working on some life resolutions instead. It's just going slightly slower than I expected. I have some good reasons for this but then everyone usually does because they generally fall into the category of life happens.

Mine include an unexpected business trip, my 16 1/2 year-old dog is ill and may not recover, the pace at work seems to continue to increase, and - well, you get the point. Life Happens!

I did write down some goals, or resolutions, such as: write more, travel more, better organization at work and home, yoga everyday, enjoy life wherever possible, and so on, and so on. I've come to the conclusion, however, over the many years of making New Year's resolutions that what I need is Life Resolutions - in other words, add/subtract things from my life that make sense for the rest of my life.

One of those "things" is yoga. I like the philosophy of yoga and the opportunity for growth and awareness. With New Year's resolutions, a very small percentage, including me, are able to keep them. I've always felt like a failure by February because for the most part, the resolutions weren't reasonable and didn't take into account that life happens.

With yoga and it's many forms of practice, the fact that life happens is part of the process. Besides, it's more workable to fit my goals above into the rest of my life instead of a year.

Happy writing everyone.

What’s the Point… of View? By Austin S. Camacho

Recently a new writer hit me with a very good question. She said that every class she had taken and every book she had read about fiction writing cautioned authors to choose the point of view of their book with care, because it should stay the same throughout the story. Switching point of view is often pointed out as one of those errors that marks a writer as an amateur. Generally I agree. But she pointed out that more and more often she was seeing very successful writers changing points of view in their books. She wanted to know if the traditional wisdom was wrong, or if the rules had changed.

I would submit that most editors and agents you would send your manuscripts to would still consider POV hopping a pet peeve and a sign that they’re dealing with an untrained newbie. They would say, and I agree, that it's best to pick a POV and stick to it. But I can’t deny that many bestselling authors ignore this rule on a regular basis and still sell lots of books. Should we learn from this and follow their lead into a new set of fiction-writing rules?

I say no. First, pick any big name who changes POV and check out his earlier works. I think you’ll find that at the beginning of their writing careers, people don't violate POV rules. I think you have to obey the rules to GET published. But once you’ve got a couple best-sellers under your belt, the universe grants you a bit more latitude. For example, James Patterson seems to give almost every character in a novel some POV time, and worse, they’re all in third person except his protagonist who gets to be in first person! I can’t explain how he gets away with it, I just know he does.

On the other hand, Michael Connelly’s just that good. After several Harry Bosch books he began switching to the criminal’s POV, maybe just to keep things interesting. He’s just so good at what he does that he can make it work. Another writer might look like he was just making it up as he went along. But when Connelly does it, we trust that he knows what he's doing and we’re willing to go along for the ride. I know I’m revealing my blatant hero worship here, but I’d say if you think you’re as good as Connelly, go for it. Me, I’ll stick to one POV… most of the time.There are times that even we mere mortals can get away with going from first person to third person POV or having multiple POVs. For instance, what someone is telling a long story to your protagonist? That’s a reasonable time to switch POV to that of the storyteller.

Or, what if your detective is reading someone else’s letters? You could write a chapter that was the content of the letters, and put that chapter in the voice of the letter writer.

I’m sure there are other possibilities I can’t think of right now. The important thing is that it is very clear to a reader (an agent or an editor) that you did it on purpose with a clear plan, not just because you didn’t know any better. I think it’s always safer to play by the accepted rules – at least until you’re as big as James Patterson.

Why do I write crime fiction?

Morgan asked me to fill in for her today, so I thought I'd tell you why I write crime fiction.  Aren't you curious???

When I was ten years old, I started reading detective stories. The first ones were Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle, but I also read the Hardy Boys books, and stories of Encyclopedia Brown and the incomparable Brains Benton. I always envied Brains Benton, and tried to style myself after him as a twelve-year-old, without much success. But my first actual detective work came much later in life and inspired me to write crime fiction.

It was raining that night in the city by the bay.... no, wait a minute, wrong story.

It was a clear, late-spring Wednesday morning, and the first thing I saw as I walked out to my car was the TP carnage. Yes, we’d been hit. Toilet paper was festooned across our cars, across the trees and hedges--everywhere. But there was an added evil dimension: bright orange spray paint ran in jagged lines across the tall arbor vitae that fringed the front of the property, and a malediction had been painted on the paved driveway.  In bright blaze-orange letters, two feet tall, it said:

Penis wrinkle.

Not a common insult, and not one I had heard before. But I was a high-school teacher at the time, and as such had an inherent troop of suspects. Also, on Monday I had reprimanded one of my students severely—a senior with a strong intellect, great potential, but also a great predilection for goofing off in class. He had been very upset at being disciplined, and I was betting he was involved somehow.

When I checked things in our yard, I found that the miscreants had been in a hurry.  Two rolls were thrown without even being unwrapped. I recognized that the packages were of an institutional variety.

That day at school, I learned that others had suffered similar fates. Another teacher had her lawn rolled and her lawn and mailbox defaced with orange paint. And more seriously, the home and yard of a young lady had been defaced with orange paint, with very unflattering insults spray-painted on stonework and a privacy fence. 

My inner Sherlock Holmes took over.  I asked a few discrete questions.  I discovered that the young lady whose house was vandalized was the ex-girlfriend of the senior I had reprimanded.  I also discovered that he and two other young men had gone out “cruising” together the night before.

The family of one of the other two young men owned a motel on the outskirts of town.  I called them and pretended to be someone who had stayed there a month before, and that I owned a motel in another state.  I was “impressed with the quality” of their toilet tissue, and wondered what brand it was.  She told me over the phone.  It matched the brand of unopened tissue I found in my yard.

I got together with the other teacher, and found that she had also reprimanded two of the three students a couple of days before.  All three were now tied together with motive and/or means, as well as opportunity.

I went to the local sheriff’s office and filed a complaint, with all the evidence neatly presented.  The three lads were brought in for questioning.  There was quite a bit of dollar value of damage, when one considered the stonework and the privacy fence, so it could conceivably have been felony-level charges of destruction of property as well as malicious mischief.

The next day, three shivering seniors sat across a conference table from the other teacher and myself at the local sheriff’s office.  They confessed.  Their excuse was that they had been drinking and made stupid mistakes.

The sheriff’s department had allowed them to spend about eight hours the night before in the jail, as none of them were minors.  They were separated from the other prisoners, but they were alternately propositioned and threatened by some large, homely and lonely guys.

The young men were very, very anxious.  One young man was the president of the local National Honor Society and had been accepted at a prestigious university.  Another of the trio was headed for a full NROTC scholarship at another fine university.  Those two were scared witless that these charges would somehow lose them their places at these schools, while the third was simply scared of spending any more time in jail.

 

In the end, the other teacher and I accepted their confessions and agreed to drop all charges if: 

1. The boys would do a total cleanup and repair, with their own hands.
   
2. They would replace the mailbox they damaged at the other teacher’s house.
   
3. They would resurface my driveway.  
   
4. All of this would be done on Saturday mornings, supervised by their respective fathers.

Nobody lost their place in university, though the Honor Society president had his office stripped from him.  Gilbert and Sullivan had it right: let the punishment fit the crime.  The family of the young lady negotiated their own terms, as her father was too angry at the time of the meeting to sit down with the boys.

I believe the boys learned a valuable lesson about doing stupid things while drinking and I gained a real taste for criminal investigation. After that point, my stories took a turn for the mysterious. 

When and How to Write

I often compare writing to training for a race and since I do both I can't help but notice the parallels between the two. As writers we often spend a tremendous amount of time worrying about things that may not matter in the end. For example, what the market is buying before we even have a finished manuscript. Since the market is fluid and more difficult to time than the stock market, worrying about this is pretty much counter productive. However, it is important to understand the market, not so much to time it but how to approach it, or more specifically, the agents, editors and publishers that control it.

In training for a race we focus on the type of race we are going to run. One doesn't train the same way for a 5k race as for a 10k or half-marathon. So, knowing the race you're going to run is important for how you approach your training. On Saturday I ran a 10 mile race, my first running race for 2009 and boy was I unprepared. I finished the race but I could tell that I hadn't trained properly. How could I tell? Well, since I've run longer races and felt better I knew that running the race was a bit premature. Still, I made mental notes along the way of the things I needed to change before running the next race I signed up for - a half-marathon. I know what to do, I just need to do it.

The same holds for writing. For me,the writing equivalent of a race is submitting a manuscript to a publisher or pitching that manuscript at a conference. I waited a while before sending a letter off to an editor about my first romantic suspense novel because I wanted it to be ready should I get a request for the whole manuscript. I did get the request but in the end the novel wasn't accepted by the editor for publication. Since it was the only editor I queried I'm not as bummed about it as one might think. I feel pretty good that after sending a query to just this one editor and then receiving a request for the full manuscript - well, in the writing world of odds, that's pretty good. Haven't decided if I'm going to send this out to anyone else but in the meantime I continue writing another work of fiction that I've started.

So, I will continue to learn from my racing mistakes and misjudgements and I will continue to train and run races, regardless of where I place, because it keeps me challenged and feeling alive.

The same for my writing endeavors. I can no longer stop writing than I can stop working out and challenging myself. I write mostly on the train during my commute and then edit at home on a printed out version. I write stories based on my own voice, my own imagination, and my own taste in what I enjoy reading. I doubt I'd be any better at timing the writing market than the stock market and in the end after spending a year or more on any given writing project, I want to at least enjoy the ride and fun of putting one more word on paper and taking one more step towards finishing a race.

Writing Is A Journey

In case you don’t know already, I have two small presses: Wolfmont Press and Honey Locust Press. Wolfmont was the first, and actually was called Wolfmont Publishing at first (so if you see an older book with that imprint, it was one of mine.) Wolfmont has been around since the end of 2005, and Honey Locust Press started in late 2006. I recently blogged in more detail about both presses for Jean Henry Mead's Mysterious People blog.

Wolfmont is focused primarily on crime fiction, while Honey Locust has a broader focus and (dare I say it?) more family-friendly selection. My February 2009 release, in fact, comes from Honey Locust instead of Wolfmont, and is a book of true animal stories written by a retired Zoo Director, Jack L. Throp. (Check out NOT-SO-WILD ANIMALS I HAVE KNOWN.)

The next release from Wolfmont is a book designed to help writers, and is titled THE WRITER’S JOURNEY JOURNAL. I’ve had this book on my mind for over a year now, and finally got off my duff to do something about it. I wouldn’t dare have the hubris to assume *I* know everything about writing, but I am smart enough to know that I can get knowledgeable, experienced authors to write about various topics, wherupon I then put those things together in a book.

My idea for this book comes from my own personal experiences, as well as conversations I’ve had with other writers. Here is the basic premise: Writers are explorers, and writing is a journey.

Every author with whom I’ve had conversations about the writing process, has agreed with me that the writing of a story is like a journey. Sometimes it’s well-planned: the map is all laid out and marked, with the schedule chiseled (more or less) in stone.

Others treat writing as a spontaneous sort of thing, like the road trips many of us took when we were younger. (The price of gas makes spontaneous road trips a little more painful now!) Even though not all travelers go about the journey in the same way, knowledgeable travelers/writers can often give you information that is invaluable simply because it comes from their own experience.

If you are going to a country where you’ve never been, wouldn’t you like to know how to get through customs without a hassle? If you are going to a new city, wouldn’t it be handy if someone could recommend some good restaurants or perhaps hotels to avoid? The streets with lots of potholes? The roads with beautiful scenery? Where the speed traps are?

The thirteen contributors are experienced authors and know whereof they speak. Many are award-winners and/or have been nominated for prestigious awards such as the Agatha, the Anthony, the Edgar, Derringer, Macavity, and others.

Here is the list of contributing authors: Austin S. Camacho, Beth Groundwater, Bill Crider, Carola Dunn, Carolyn Hart, Chris Roerden, Dorothy Francis, Evelyn David, John M. Floyd, Robert W. Walker, Radine Trees Nehring, and L. Diane Wolfe. Oh yeah, and me—Tony Burton. You probably know most of these authors. (Fellow Acme bloggers Austin Camacho and Rob Walker are champing at the bit to see the final product!)

We are shooting for a mid-May release, if everything goes well.

Drop by the Wolfmont Press website and take a look. We’re pleased with this book, and believe it will be of great help to novice and experienced writers alike.

Tony Burton
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