With the end of Daylight Savings time this weekend, Americans were afforded the luxury of an extra hour last night. (Well, technically in the wee hours of the morning...)
So, what did you do with yours?
I'd love to say I used that extra hour to write something profound, to be prolific, to crank out an amazing scene in my WIP. Heck, I'd like to say I used that hour to write anything at all. These days, when there are not enough hours in the day, an extra one is certainly a gift.
So what did I do with mine?
I slept. I've been feeling under the weather, so I used this year's "gift" to get some much needed rest. I do feel a tad bit guilty for not using it in some other meaningful way, but this worked for me.
And since I woke up at the crack of dawn (Well, not really, it just seemed that way for a Sunday morning when I could sleep in.), I'm going to grab my laptop and put my fingers to the keys this morning. At least that's something.
Until next time,
Happy Reading!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Heavenly Saturday by Margot Justes
What a blissful Saturday, I've been up since six, drank a few cups of coffee, and had a delicious slice of Panettone (a big slice of Panettone) and I will spend the rest of the day writing. It doesn't get much better than that. Panettone and coffee are perfect together.
If you don't know what a Panettone is, I'll be happy to tell you. It is a delicious cake, not overly sweet, aromatic filled with raisins and orange peels. The one I just bought at Costco is made by the Bauli family in Verona, Italy. There are many brands readily available in the US.
For me just smelling the Panettone evokes the approaching holiday season, and after all we are a mere three weeks away from Thanksgiving.
All in all, other than my paying job, it was a good week. Thanks to my critique partner June Sproat, I will take my short story and included it in my novella-and voila, my novella will become a novel. It was such an obvious thing to do and I missed it until June said, 'why don't you just include it in the novella?'
And dare I mention it, I received the most wonderful rejection letter ever. I knew Amanda (an editor) didn't handle my genre, but since I pitched it to her at RT, she was gracious enough and asked to see A Hotel in Bath. She warned me it would take a while for her to respond. And respond she did. She offered advice on the conflict between the hero and heroine and then said, "with some revision and refining, this story could be a strong contender for NY Publishing houses." She urged me to pursue an agent.
To complete a great week, I received another batch of Eyvind Earle posters from Guy.
Till next time,
Margot Justes
www.mjustes.com
A Hotel in Paris
If you don't know what a Panettone is, I'll be happy to tell you. It is a delicious cake, not overly sweet, aromatic filled with raisins and orange peels. The one I just bought at Costco is made by the Bauli family in Verona, Italy. There are many brands readily available in the US.
For me just smelling the Panettone evokes the approaching holiday season, and after all we are a mere three weeks away from Thanksgiving.
All in all, other than my paying job, it was a good week. Thanks to my critique partner June Sproat, I will take my short story and included it in my novella-and voila, my novella will become a novel. It was such an obvious thing to do and I missed it until June said, 'why don't you just include it in the novella?'
And dare I mention it, I received the most wonderful rejection letter ever. I knew Amanda (an editor) didn't handle my genre, but since I pitched it to her at RT, she was gracious enough and asked to see A Hotel in Bath. She warned me it would take a while for her to respond. And respond she did. She offered advice on the conflict between the hero and heroine and then said, "with some revision and refining, this story could be a strong contender for NY Publishing houses." She urged me to pursue an agent.
To complete a great week, I received another batch of Eyvind Earle posters from Guy.
Till next time,
Margot Justes
www.mjustes.com
A Hotel in Paris
Thursday, November 4, 2010
A Titanic Book Launch & Teachable Moment
When in my classes, I plead, beg, urge, encourage my students not simply to write but to re-write, many have no idea how much the rewrite means to me; they've no conception of how many rewrites I do to get a page, a scene, a chapter right. Not just right but perfectly right to my final perfect LIKING. Of course, it is not always easy to determine when it's as good as it's going to get, but there comes a moment in the many rewrites of a scene or chapter that screams at you--you're DONE DONE. But then you turn it over to a number of editors, and guess what? You're not done.
However, you've now been away from the story long enough--or that chapter long enough--that you can be objective with it and yourself, so that when suggestions anew are made, you can deal with them without freaking out (as the younger generation is want to say). The story or scene or chapter is not correctable inside your head, and so the first and rough drafts have to be produced before you can ever get to the process of rewriting and revamping and reorganizing and re-this and re-that. Once it is out of the gray matter and on the white page, you now have product to work with...to mold and shape, to hammer and saw...and you see it and feel it as a product rather than nebulous, foggy thoughts and voices careening about your mind's deepest recesses and corridors.
Some authors say they hate the rewrite and this is understandable because once a story's been told (the plot is put on paper), it can't help but get old; it gets older as your rewrite, too. However, in my own case, I get my best lines and most inspiration and insights into character(s) and best plot twists and the occasional ingenious idea or "movement" in the action or situation during the laborious rewrites. Whole incidents not there before worm their way in, insisting on being a part; whole new characters crop up insisting on being in the story. Layers develop and the once straightforward story takes on a character of the onion needing to be peeled away so as to get at the core. Themes emerge that were not there until that sixth, seventh, or tenth rewrite.
This certainly has been the case with my Children of Salem, a purely historical novel set in Salem Witch Hunt days wherein our hero is trying to conduct a courting of his childhood sweetheart when her mother is excommunicated and locked up as a witch....and this was certainly true of my 11-book medical examiner series begun with Killer Instinct and predating Bones and Silence of the Lambs. This was definitely the case with my recently completed and gone on sale Kindle Original entitled Titanic 2012 - Curse of RMS Titanic. The thing grew and grew with each successive rewrite, and I believe and feel with all my heart that it grew for the better and not the worse.
Chapter 30 - wow, OMG....how many times did I have to rewrite Chapter 30, far more than all the other chapters, and why? For one, it needed a great deal of attention from the get-go and a lot of rewriting even before I turned it over to early readers/editors. Knowing I need all the help I can get and not shying from that fact, I had as many folks read the early, ugly drafts as I could manage to find. The book was torn from limb to limb, as my early readers did not spare the rod or spoil the child/book...nor did they spare the slings and arrows for its author. "How couuuld you?"/ "Call yourself an English Professor, do you?"/ "What were you thinking?"/ "Are you sure you want to be a writer?"/ "Ever et raw meat?" ---OK, I exaggerate and none of my early readers are that blunt or harsh, but I KNEW what they were thinking.
Chapter 30 - as with other chapters just required so much attention in large part due to the fact I had NO idea what I was talking about. I knew what I wanted to say, what I wanted to accomplish, but as my final editor pointed out, he being a genius with special effects of the science fiction order: "You'd be laughed off the face of the Earth had "THAT" gone to press." Fortunately, Robert Farley Jr. was tough on me and blunt. It would have been the equivalent of a street cop using a frilly girly-girly gun on the job had I not had this friend's help in the sci-fi areas of the futuristic scenes. As I said, I knew what I wanted to get across, had it all sketched out in fact--but man was it was damned "rough" until my friend and early reader/editor got hold of it. Together we went back at it again and again as it was not so easy for any of us either to get this scene across and keep all of its surreal dream aspect intact along with the floating dead, zombies in a true Dead Zone. I needed help with the sub, with the breathing apparatus, the liquid air--its scientific name, with how men might find a dead zone and how it would look and feel, a zone inside Titanic where no life, not even microscopic, lived--where only my hero alone becomes the sole life form. While having fun with the discovery of the 1912 cargo of automobiles. Final writing was a matter of many honings.
So never discount the power of the Re-Write and what it does for your story, scene, chapter, novel. With that, I leave you with a buy link for a novel you can have in your hands in ANY format thanks to Kindle store philosophy of not being exclusive. Find Titanic 2012 at: http://ning.it/97tR1E - A Titanic book launching it is, too. Amazon Reviews are up as well!
Please do leave a comment....would love to hear stories of reWrite that saved your scene!
Robert W. Walker (Rob)
www.robertwalkerbooks.com
http://ningit/97tRIE
However, you've now been away from the story long enough--or that chapter long enough--that you can be objective with it and yourself, so that when suggestions anew are made, you can deal with them without freaking out (as the younger generation is want to say). The story or scene or chapter is not correctable inside your head, and so the first and rough drafts have to be produced before you can ever get to the process of rewriting and revamping and reorganizing and re-this and re-that. Once it is out of the gray matter and on the white page, you now have product to work with...to mold and shape, to hammer and saw...and you see it and feel it as a product rather than nebulous, foggy thoughts and voices careening about your mind's deepest recesses and corridors.
Some authors say they hate the rewrite and this is understandable because once a story's been told (the plot is put on paper), it can't help but get old; it gets older as your rewrite, too. However, in my own case, I get my best lines and most inspiration and insights into character(s) and best plot twists and the occasional ingenious idea or "movement" in the action or situation during the laborious rewrites. Whole incidents not there before worm their way in, insisting on being a part; whole new characters crop up insisting on being in the story. Layers develop and the once straightforward story takes on a character of the onion needing to be peeled away so as to get at the core. Themes emerge that were not there until that sixth, seventh, or tenth rewrite.
This certainly has been the case with my Children of Salem, a purely historical novel set in Salem Witch Hunt days wherein our hero is trying to conduct a courting of his childhood sweetheart when her mother is excommunicated and locked up as a witch....and this was certainly true of my 11-book medical examiner series begun with Killer Instinct and predating Bones and Silence of the Lambs. This was definitely the case with my recently completed and gone on sale Kindle Original entitled Titanic 2012 - Curse of RMS Titanic. The thing grew and grew with each successive rewrite, and I believe and feel with all my heart that it grew for the better and not the worse.
Chapter 30 - wow, OMG....how many times did I have to rewrite Chapter 30, far more than all the other chapters, and why? For one, it needed a great deal of attention from the get-go and a lot of rewriting even before I turned it over to early readers/editors. Knowing I need all the help I can get and not shying from that fact, I had as many folks read the early, ugly drafts as I could manage to find. The book was torn from limb to limb, as my early readers did not spare the rod or spoil the child/book...nor did they spare the slings and arrows for its author. "How couuuld you?"/ "Call yourself an English Professor, do you?"/ "What were you thinking?"/ "Are you sure you want to be a writer?"/ "Ever et raw meat?" ---OK, I exaggerate and none of my early readers are that blunt or harsh, but I KNEW what they were thinking.
Chapter 30 - as with other chapters just required so much attention in large part due to the fact I had NO idea what I was talking about. I knew what I wanted to say, what I wanted to accomplish, but as my final editor pointed out, he being a genius with special effects of the science fiction order: "You'd be laughed off the face of the Earth had "THAT" gone to press." Fortunately, Robert Farley Jr. was tough on me and blunt. It would have been the equivalent of a street cop using a frilly girly-girly gun on the job had I not had this friend's help in the sci-fi areas of the futuristic scenes. As I said, I knew what I wanted to get across, had it all sketched out in fact--but man was it was damned "rough" until my friend and early reader/editor got hold of it. Together we went back at it again and again as it was not so easy for any of us either to get this scene across and keep all of its surreal dream aspect intact along with the floating dead, zombies in a true Dead Zone. I needed help with the sub, with the breathing apparatus, the liquid air--its scientific name, with how men might find a dead zone and how it would look and feel, a zone inside Titanic where no life, not even microscopic, lived--where only my hero alone becomes the sole life form. While having fun with the discovery of the 1912 cargo of automobiles. Final writing was a matter of many honings.
So never discount the power of the Re-Write and what it does for your story, scene, chapter, novel. With that, I leave you with a buy link for a novel you can have in your hands in ANY format thanks to Kindle store philosophy of not being exclusive. Find Titanic 2012 at: http://ning.it/97tR1E - A Titanic book launching it is, too. Amazon Reviews are up as well!
Please do leave a comment....would love to hear stories of reWrite that saved your scene!
Robert W. Walker (Rob)
www.robertwalkerbooks.com
http://ningit/97tRIE
Making Time Count! by DL Larson
With the holidays fast approaching, it's all too easy to put my WIP in a box and let it rest until the new year rolls around. Setting aside my writing sounds reasonable, practical even, but I've learned over the years just because I'm not physically working on my plot and characters' problems, doesn't mean I can switch off my brain. My mind is still churning, conjuring up twists and changes. It's so aggravating! I don't want to think about plot just now, I want to decorate my home, do a little baking, search through catalogs and stores for great presents for my kids and grandkids. I have outings to attend. I don't want to be a writer just now!
Unfortunately my brain can't stop, it's addicted to problem solving, with or without paper and computer. I discover answers I've been searching for - for months! I don't want to be a schemer right now, I want to enjoy the holidays, peacefully. My characters never take vacations, never leave me alone. They never rest.
So I've come to a consensus; I turn on the computer every day. I sit in my office or at my dining room table to appease my cantankerous characters marching around in my head. I write, I scheme, I plot, I do what needs to be done. Then I sneak away.
I slip out of the room how one eases away from a sleeping baby. Don't want to stir things up again. Best to tip-toe from the chaos of scattered papers, frantic notes and spent pencils.
All will be well until tomorrow and I'll have to do the same routine all over again. It's quite immature, my characters nagging me, but our system works, sort of. I've learned over the years, ignoring them creates a disasterous muddle. It's easier and more productive to give in and get words on the paper than to struggle weeks later and wonder if I've missed something along the way.
So how do you deal with your writing during the holidays? Do you face time constrictions that you don't normally have the rest of the year? Please tell me I'm not the only one with this dilemma!
Til next time ~
DL Larson
Unfortunately my brain can't stop, it's addicted to problem solving, with or without paper and computer. I discover answers I've been searching for - for months! I don't want to be a schemer right now, I want to enjoy the holidays, peacefully. My characters never take vacations, never leave me alone. They never rest.
So I've come to a consensus; I turn on the computer every day. I sit in my office or at my dining room table to appease my cantankerous characters marching around in my head. I write, I scheme, I plot, I do what needs to be done. Then I sneak away.
I slip out of the room how one eases away from a sleeping baby. Don't want to stir things up again. Best to tip-toe from the chaos of scattered papers, frantic notes and spent pencils.
All will be well until tomorrow and I'll have to do the same routine all over again. It's quite immature, my characters nagging me, but our system works, sort of. I've learned over the years, ignoring them creates a disasterous muddle. It's easier and more productive to give in and get words on the paper than to struggle weeks later and wonder if I've missed something along the way.
So how do you deal with your writing during the holidays? Do you face time constrictions that you don't normally have the rest of the year? Please tell me I'm not the only one with this dilemma!
Til next time ~
DL Larson
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Price War by Morgan Mandel
How low is too low? There are tons of books on the Amazon Kindle for very small prices, many even for free. I know for a fact I've been reading a lot more since I bought my Kindle 3 than ever before, and I've noticed more people with Kindles everywhere. People are noticing I've got one and asking about it, so there's still a lot of interest in them. Also, Christmas is coming up, which means more Kindles will be around.
Smashwords is also a very popular site for buying books because they translate them into many formats. The prices there are quite reasonable as well.
There's lots of competition out there, and that's for sure. To compete with the market, I've reduced Killer Career today to the low price of 99 cents at both sites. The new price should be showing up in a day or so, if it hasn't already. Is that too low, or is it a smart market move?
What's your take?
Morgan Mandel
Killer Career at Smashwords, Amazon
Smashwords is also a very popular site for buying books because they translate them into many formats. The prices there are quite reasonable as well.
There's lots of competition out there, and that's for sure. To compete with the market, I've reduced Killer Career today to the low price of 99 cents at both sites. The new price should be showing up in a day or so, if it hasn't already. Is that too low, or is it a smart market move?
What's your take?
Morgan Mandel
Killer Career at Smashwords, Amazon
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Jeffrey Deaver
In yesterday's edition of USAToday the following profile of Jeffrey Deaver was a highlight:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-11-01-deaver01_CV_N.htm
It was exciting for me to read because Jeffrey Deaver was one of our headliners for the 2009 Love is Murder CON. At Love is Murder we pride ourselves on being a close and exiciting CON where all of us can mingle up front and personal with New York Times best selling authors such as Jeffrey Deaver.
I have to say that he gave an extremely entertaining talk to our audience and afterwards he graciously waited around to talk with everyone who approached him, including me.
The article link above addresses his place as the author of the new Bond novel. A regular at Love is Murder is author Raymond Benson who has authored numerous Bond books.
http://www.raymondbenson.com/
So, come out to Love is Murder this Feb and rub elbows with some of the most amazing authors, readers and fans on the planet.
www.loveismurder.net
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-11-01-deaver01_CV_N.htm
It was exciting for me to read because Jeffrey Deaver was one of our headliners for the 2009 Love is Murder CON. At Love is Murder we pride ourselves on being a close and exiciting CON where all of us can mingle up front and personal with New York Times best selling authors such as Jeffrey Deaver.
I have to say that he gave an extremely entertaining talk to our audience and afterwards he graciously waited around to talk with everyone who approached him, including me.
The article link above addresses his place as the author of the new Bond novel. A regular at Love is Murder is author Raymond Benson who has authored numerous Bond books.
http://www.raymondbenson.com/
So, come out to Love is Murder this Feb and rub elbows with some of the most amazing authors, readers and fans on the planet.
www.loveismurder.net
Monday, November 1, 2010
Halloween by June
I did the typical parent thing yesterday and took my youngest daughter trick or treating. She had a ball, except everyone was getting her costume wrong. Now I didn't really think it mattered, but she kept correcting them. To her advantage, most of the people felt bad they guessed wrong and gave her an extra piece of candy!
This is a picture of her in costume:
This is a picture of her in costume:
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