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That Trip to England. When will the book be out? by Shelley Freydont

That Trip to England.  When will the book be out?

It’s weird, people’s perceptions of writers . . . or maybe not.  Pearl and I just spent two and half weeks in England and Dublin.  People asked “Are you doing research?”  Of course we were.  So, okay, Pearl writes the regency period, that made Bath, etc. obvious stops for her. But what about a contemporary writer like me?  My last books were about baseball and Sudoku.  That’s a little harder to explain.  And you can immediately see that “oh sure” look in the questioner’s eyes.

Others were fascinated.

I had an interesting two rain days (the rest were bright, blue, beautiful. ) No I swear , cross my heart, it was sunny in England for two whole weeks. But on the two mizzley days in Dublin, I hung out in coffee bars or just a bar and chatted with people—research.  (Also my favorite thing to do on a trip.  And the ale will definitely find its way into a book, yum).

When are you going to write this book?  When will it be published?  What’s it about?

Well, I don’t really know.  And the location may change.  And the ale might be lemonade and the old man in the Fish and Chips place might be an Italian vintner. Or it might just be about two writers on a trip to England.

The thing is, unless you’re writing non fiction under a deadline, things are not so cut and dried.  Two years ago, I went to Rome with several women, only one of whom I really knew.  I didn’t really care about going to Rome, I’d been there lots, but I thought what the heck, this will be fun.  As always I took copious notes, jotted down ideas, filled my camera’s memory with interesting pictures.

And forgot about it.

Then a few weeks ago I’m sitting on the top level of a tour bus, clicking pictures of London landmarks, and a story based on the Rome trip comes to me, full blown.  I put down my camera and quickly wrote down the essential points.  So maybe the Rome book (actually I’ve already moved it to a village outside of Rome (seen on another trip.) is close to being written.  Or at least closer to being written.  But what about the England book?

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Shelley

ShelleyFreydont/GemmaBruce

Sudden Death Sudoku/The Man For Me

shelleyfreydont.com/gemmabruce.com

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Hook ‘Em with Your Best Shot by Anne Carole

As both a reader and a writer, I admire authors who can hook a reader in a few sentences, so I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite openings. These are openings that make me want to keep reading to find out more, or surprise me with the unexpected, or make me feel something. The authors whose work I’ve cited include Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Eloisa James, Rachel Gibson, Linda Lael Miller, Jennifer Crusie and Elizabeth Lowell. For a little fun, try to match the author with her writing. I’ve given the answers, listed in order, at the end of this article. 

Ready? Here goes: 

(1) She found the paper while she was sorting through the personal things in her father’s desk. Michelle Cabot unfolded the single sheet with casual curiosity, just as she had unfolded dozens of others, but she had read only a paragraph when her spine slowly straightened and a tremor began in her fingers. Stunned, she began again, her eyes widening with sick horror at what she read.

(2) Devon Hamilton-Zemaitis was a beautiful woman. Being dead didn’t change that. 

(3) One hot August Thursday afternoon, Maddie Faraday reached under the front seat of her husband’s Cadillac and pulled out a pair of black lace underpants. They weren’t hers.

 (4) “Don’t move. Don’t even breathe.”

The man’s low, emotionless voice was enough to freeze Sarah Kennedy in place. But even if his voice hadn’t stilled her, the rest of him would have. 

(5) He wanted a drink. Whiskey, cheap and warm. After six weeks on the trail, he wanted the same kind of woman. Some men usually managed to get what they wanted. He was one of them. Still, the woman could wait, Jake decided as he leaned against the bar. The whiskey couldn’t. 

(6) Knowing precisely why no one wants to marry you is slim consolation for the truth of it. In Lady Roberta St. Giles’s case, the evidence was all too clear—as was her lack of suitors. 

(7) The noose lay heavy around Jolie McKibben’s neck, smelling of sweat and horseflesh and hemp. Frantic protests of innocence had long since rendered her throat too raw to speak, and she felt nothing except a certain defiant numbness as she stared back at those who had gathered to see her hanged. 

Now here’s an opening excerpt from my story in the anthology Return to Wayback, just released TODAY at the Wild Rose Press and available on www.amazon.com. It contains three stories about three hard-driving men with three different reasons to return to Wayback and the women who could give them a reason to stay. Besides my story, Re-ride at the Rodeo, Return to Wayback  also features two other great Wayback stories,  Payback in Wayback by Lynda Coker and Roped and Tied by Mallary Mitchell. 

“There he goes, ladies and gents. Tyler Wright has done it. An eighty-five. That’s about as good as it gets,” the announcer blared over the loudspeaker.

The cheers from the crowd were deafening, but Dusty didn’t care to notice. She’d heard it all too many times before. Since the start, just about any weekend from March to November, it seemed she’d been at the rodeo arena. First watching from the stands. Now as barkeep handling the beer stall. There was no escaping the rodeo if you lived in Wayback. It was the only game in town, except for Friday nights at the high school field during football season. It was also the major source of the town’s revenue. One way or another, if you lived in Wayback, you were connected to the rodeo. She was connected in more ways than she cared to count. More ways than she cared to remember. 

Here’s the list of the authors and the book the opening hook was taken from—how’d you do? 

(1)  Linda Howard, Heartbreaker

(2) Rachel Gibson, Not Another Bad Date

(3) Jennifer Crusie, Tell Me Lies

(4) Elizabeth Lowell, Winter Fire

(5) Nora Roberts, Lawless (her only western, I think)

(6) Eloisa James, Duchess in Love

(7) Linda Lael Miller, Daniel’s Bride 

Now, any of those openings that you liked?  Want to share any favorite books whose openings hooked you? What makes a good hook?

Leave a comment and you could be a winner. Because to celebrate the release of Return to Wayback, I’ll randomly choose one lucky person who leaves a comment to get a free copy of Return to Wayback and I’ll announce the winner tomorrow, Saturday, on my blog at www.annecarrole.blogspot.com! So comment! 

Anne Carrole

www.annecarrole.com

www.annecarrole.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/annecarrole

www.twitter.com/annecarrole  

Book Purchase urls to insert with underlines above:

The Wild Rose Press: http://www.thewildrosepress.com  

www.amazon.com :   http://tinyurl.com/Return-to-Wayback-Amazon

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The Letter by Christine Bush

I received a letter today.

It touched my heart.

Now, I’m a “writing-word-communicating” sort of person. Daily I receive a zillion emails, business mailings, memos, text messages, phone calls and an assortment of loop mail. All are good.

But this was different. It was a real, old fashioned letter. With a stamp. It came in the mail. It was beautifully handwritten on pretty writing paper. It was written to me, just me, by a dear friend in another state, just to say hello, to share her life, and to ask about mine.

I write a lot of words in the course of a day. I write on my current book manuscript, write articles, short stories, plays, and occasional blogs. I communicate with a lot of people. But I have to admit it’s been a long time since I wrote a personal letter like that, although I did way back when, in the past. Why did I stop?

“Why spend 42 cents on a letter when email is free?”
“Email is so much faster..texting is like the speed of light.” “Hi 2 u!”
“Loop mail goes to dozens. It is much more productive.”
“I can send messages on Facebook, I can Tweet..”

I’m not exactly sure why getting this good old fashioned letter felt so nice. Was it that I was worth the extra minutes? Worth 42 cents?

All I know is, I cherish this letter! I like the feeling of pleasure it gave me, so I’m passing the thought on. I designed my own writing paper today (and printed it myself, as I’m still too cheap to buy the expensive kind, I admit).

I’m going to handwrite some notes, and let a few people know how much I care about them. In this busy, productive, high tech world, sometimes I can forget about that special, personal touch. I’ll spend the time and the 42 cents, because friendship is worth the extra effort.

Are there any thoughts on letter writing out there?

Other

Intro to 1st Turning Point by Jacquie Rogers

On May 1st, an exciting new website launched called 1st Turning Point. It’s a place where authors, artists, musicians, crafters–people who create, can teach learn and share All About Promotion. Ann Charles and I came up with this idea a few months ago, and here we are now!

1st Turning Point -- All About Promotion

Any sane, reasonable person would wonder why two authors who should be writing set up a site to share promotional and marketing tips and strategies. Ann Charles has her story, and here’s mine:

A Pitiful Year for Me

2004 wasn’t my best year. I started it with pneumonia, then had an accident and spent the rest of the year recovering (translation: wearing a neck brace and sitting in a recliner, all while under the influence of some really good pain killers). The best part about that year was my daughter stayed with us for a while, and in November, my husband and I moved to a new (to us) house.

A Glorious but Busy Year for Judith

But Judith Laik had a completely different 2004–she sold two books to Kensington! And that’s quite a tale in itself. She has agreed to tell her story on 1st Turning Point in June, so you’ll have to wait for that. Here’s where her experience affected me–she worked long hours every day, seven days a week, right down to the wire to get her books written, and did meet her deadline. Only then did she have the time to plunge into research for setting up a website and the uncharted waters of book promotion. Trouble is, even with working all those hours and through the night for weeks on end, her website wasn’t live until a month after her first book was released.

An Awakening

That’s when I realized that Gerri Russell, who had been proactive in building name recognition for ten years before her “overnight” success, was on the right track (even though she hadn’t sold her first book yet). We’ll hear from Gerri in a few weeks, too, at 1st Turning Point.

But Gerri and I are very different people. She’s much better in groups and establishes rapport with nearly everyone in a heartbeat. As for me, I’m a whole lot more comfortable on the internet, and I have never been all that comfortable at parties or social gatherings. And, like me, many writers have this affliction.

Step One

So I decided to get a website. I had no idea how to go about this–yes, I’d been a software consultant in my past life, but I didn’t deal with websites. The person who designed Judith’s website charged reasonable rates and I liked her results, so I asked her to get me going. It’s the second best money I ever spent (first best was a professional head shot–more about that in another post).

But I had no content! What’s a lowly unpublished writer to do? So there’s where I strayed from Ann Charles’ course. We were both targeting NY publishers, but a great opportunity landed in my lap–I could get a story published in a trade paperback book, and it would benefit breast cancer research besides. Heckuva deal! The drawback was that the publisher was small press, but the benefits were just what I needed to get me going. I had something on Amazon and BN.com to purchase, I had a cause to promote, and it turns out I contributed two stories, not one.

This anthology, No Law Against Love, and my two short stories, Faery Good Advice and Single Girls Can’t Jump, gave me a platform–something to hang my hat on. Deborah Macgillivray encouraged (translation: relentlessly prodding, explaining and re-explaining how to do it all) the anthology authors to get our websites in shape and to get our author pages set up on Amazon. I’m hoping she’ll do a guest spot for us in the near future.

But then I got involved in social networking sites. With small press, I won’t ever sell a single book on impulse buy–every book sold will be because a reader sees my name, sees the book blurb or excerpt, and wants it badly enough to hunt it down. In baseball terms, I get no in-field hits or even base hits, only home runs. It’s hard to play the game that way, but at least I get to play.

I’ll be writing more about my experiences as the weeks go by–things that worked, things that didn’t work, and a few what-was-I-thinking? moments.

My partner in 1st Turning Point, Ann Charles, has a completely different path to the website, including the decision to do this gig and dragging me into it. You can read her post here. Her original idea was to have a blog, but frankly, if I want to know something in particular, I go to a website where I can find the expertise I need.

Ann’s idea was broad enough and important enough that, in my opinion, we could create an entire website, gather some experts, and share information in a way that hasn’t been done up until now. Then, of course, she came up with even more bright ideas, and together, we raised it up a notch–or ten. Ann and I are very grateful for the columnists, reviewers, instructors, and PR consultants who have agreed to be part of 1st Turning Point.

We hope you’ll come for a visit and are pleased with what you see. We’re very serious about the pay-it-forward concept. We learn, and we share.

Oh, and did I mention, there are prizes???

Jacquie

Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues (See the Book Video featuring Justin Saragueta)
Jacquie Rogers *** Myspace *** Twitter *** Facebook

Faery Special Romances * Book Video * Royalties go to Children’s Tumor Foundation, ending Neurofibromatosis through Research

Read a book by Jacquie Rogers

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Be the Chihuahua by Chris Redding

            My degree is in journalism and for about 5 months I actually worked in that field. Did I crave the hard news? Nope. I loved the feature stories, but I went at them with no less vigor than I did the breaking stories.

            Frankly, people’s jobs are interesting. I once spent a half an hour on the phone with a guy named Ted E. Behr (no joke)  talking about effluent. It was fascinating because he found it fascinating.

            What does that have to do with being a Chihuahua?

            Well I always warn my interviewee that I will keep asking questions until I either get an answer or understand what the person is telling me. I liken it to those little dogs that grab onto your pant leg and won’t let go.

            Gotta admire the little guy’s persistence. He’ll hang onto your pant leg and he only weighs eight pounds.

            And I think this is a great attitude on many levels for a writer.

            First you have to be persistent and finish the damn book.

            Then you have to learn all you can about writing and how to make your gem shine.

            And of course you have to submit. No matter how many rejections, you have to keep polishing and keep submitting. Until someone says, “yes.”

            You must write another book. And another. Until you write one that someone wants to publish.

            And when it is published, you have to get out there and network with your readers. You have to do signings. You have to do workshops.

            You have to be persistent.

            Especially because lots of people around you won’t be.  I’ve seen writers come and go and never get published. And it wasn’t because they couldn’t write, it was because they gave up.

            So be the Chihuahua.

Other

The Grass is Always Greener by Debra Mullins

Today I read a blog where agent Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown is running a contest so his readers can be an agent for a day.  He got the idea from the way people were commenting about agent responses.  I thought the contest was an interesting idea, and it got me to thinking.  The grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence, doesn’t it? 

That green grass  metaphor brings to mind the concept of published authors versus unpublished.  I’ve been both, and as an unpublished author I dreamed of the day when I would sell my first book.  The validation I would get from that.  A sale from a real publisher would say to the world, “Yes, you can write!”  As an unpublished writer I could write what moved me without worrying about the marketing aspect.  I could take as long as I wanted.  I could get lost in the story.  Green grass, truly.  But the down side?  The part where the grass starts to get kind of yellow?  People didn’t consider me a “real writer” because I wasn’t published.  I still had to prove myself. 

On January 26, 1998 at around 4pm I sold my first book to Micki Nuding at Avon Books.  The manuscript had been an RWA Golden Heart finalist, and I had approached Micki at the 1997 RWA conference in Orlando to pitch the book.  She asked me to send her a proposal.  A couple of months later she called and requested the full manuscript (and was still laughing on the answering machine message—she really liked my funny pirate drama).  Then in early January 1998 she called to tell me that she had sent my manuscript to her senior editor to read but the carrier had lost my manuscript (the package came open) and could I send another one? 

No brainer there.  I sent off another one with fingers crossed, since sending it to the senior editor means she might want to buy it.  Then she called me on January 26 to offer for the book.  And that quickly, I went from being unpublished to published.  

But I didn’t know what was in store for me as a published author.  Your life as a writer changes.  The validation is wonderful and the money sure doesn’t hurt, but then you are swept up into the business of publishing.  Suddenly there are revisions, page proofs, cover art, royalty statements, and option books.  You have to learn all of this language and go through the stages of production that turn a manuscript into a finished book that can be sold in stores.   

You have to do revisions based on your editor’s comments (you can call your editor to discuss the changes she wants if you disagree or have questions).  You have to STET the copyeditor’s remarks that you disagree with (this means telling the printer to ignore those changes), and you have to read your book again in page proof format to look for typos or errors (you are limited to fifty changes in the whole book because more than that costs money to fix).  You have to hope when you open up that envelope or email containing your cover art that everyone’s hair color is right.  And that first royalty statement?  Good luck if you can understand all the numbers and jargon! (Royalty statements are famous for being hard to understand).  This is a lot of stuff, but my grass is still green.  Maybe a little trampled… 

And then there’s the option book.  Now that your first book is in the works, you need to start talking with your editor about what your next book is going to be.  And when you are going to turn it in.  Is six months enough time? 

Here’s where that green grass starts turning kind of yellow.  Six months?  It took me six YEARS to write, polish and sell my first book.  But in commercial fiction, no publisher is going to wait another six years for a manuscript.  There are lots of writers out there.  The publisher liked your work, but they can always buy another writer’s manuscript to fill the slot if you can’t write another book within the next twelve months or so. 

Fill the slot.  How coolly businesslike.  As if your work, your opus, your singularly individual creation is just a product.  But it is.  This is a business, and there is always another writer standing in the wings, longing for the shot to become a published author.  The writing game becomes about sales figures and sell-throughs and bestseller lists.  It can be very easy to get caught up in all that.  Very easy to get discouraged, to lose sight of that fire inside you that needed to write to begin with.  Very easy for that green grass to turn brown.

So you need to balance.  Yes, you need to pay attention to the business end.  You signed a contract and you have to deliver.  You need to perform all the tasks involved in producing that book.  But when you negotiate your delivery dates (a.k.a. deadlines), take into account the amount of time you need to produce a good book.  You need to learn this to survive in the business, to continue to be published.  How long does it take you to write a book?  How much down time do you need between books?  You MUST take that time to refill the creative well.  If you don’t, you will end up staring at a blank screen wondering why you ever thought you could write. 

And finding yourself here is where the grass becomes not just brown but completely dried up.  

Yes, I can tell people that I am a published writer—even though they still ask me where they can find my book, as if I sell them out of the trunk of my car.  But there is a part of me that longs for the freedom that came with being unpublished.  To take as long as I wanted to work on an idea.  To go weeks without writing if I wanted to.  To write whatever weird thing I wanted without worrying about how to go about marketing it.  

But I’m hooked now.  I’ve sold thirteen books to Avon.  I can’t stop, even if I wanted to.  The drive is still there, the need to tell that story.  The need to keep that validation, to be successful.  To not fail in doing what my soul compels me to do. 

So the trick is to tell the stories I want to—but make them marketable.  Take the time I need to write the book—but keep it within a reasonable timeframe for the publisher.  And most importantly, when I am doing the actual writing—the part where I wake up at 6am to write for an hour before having to leave for work—I don’t think about the marketing.  I don’t think about the deadline.  I am lost in the story.  I am once again that organic writer, feeding that storytelling flame. 

And that is where the grass is always green.

Other

Contests: Good Promo or Bad Gamble? by Jacquie Rogers

Authors are responsible for most of their own promotion now, moreso than any other time, from what I’ve been told. I doubt that will ease up any time soon. The successful authors of my personal acquaintance have spent considerable time and effort on publicity. These authors are on or near the NYT Bestsellers list, so don’t think self-promo is for small press authors only.

Bottom line is, I believe every author should learn as much about promotion and marketing as she can, and be willing to do whatever it takes to sell books and earn name recognition. There are many avenues–blogs, social networks, online classes, postcard mailings, spamming your friends (no, I didn’t really say that!), and of course, contests. Most of us choose a variety of these in our marketing plans (you do have a plan, right?), including contests. Today, we’ll discuss what makes a successful contest and how to go about conducting one.

Good Promo or Bad Gamble?

I do think contests are an effective way to build your mailing list and garner name recognition. I’m not so sure it sells books, but as the saying goes, we’re using our current release to sell our next book. Is that true? Don’t know. But I do know if your goal is to build your mailing list, a contest is a jimdandy way of doing it.

(Question: Is it still okay to say “jimdandy”? Or is offensive to someone or something? If so, forget I wrote that, please.)

One thing I learned early on was not to get in over my head. Lesson 1: I have a super hard time getting things mailed–don’t know why, but I’m missing that gene. Luckily, my sister is good at it and agreed to take over that part. I bought business cards with her name and the title “Contest Coordinator” before she could change her mind.

So get the practical, physical aspects of conducting the contest under control.
Who will design and code the web pages?
Who will code the messages for online promotion?
And what is the plan for online promotion of the contest?
(You do have a plan, right?)
What are the prizes?
Who will package and mail the prizes?
How will the contest be conducted?
What timeframe? In conjunction with book release? Or a holiday?

Yes, it’s a lot to think about, but all these considerations and more go into the decision to run a contest. There isn’t enough space to go into all the items in detail, but I’ll touch on each of them.

Contests are nearly always run from the author’s website, and for good reason–to bring traffic so the contestant might be lured to buy a book. A website is the best bang for the marketing dollar, and to make the most of it, we need a dynamic site, not static. Contests are a good way to draw readers. But who’s going to code that page? If the author codes it herself, then that project has to be coordinated with deadlines, copy edits, and all that. If not, she has to be prepared to pay. Either way, website changes don’t happen magically or for free.

Same with online promotion. I’m on over 100 yahoogroups, and of those, probably half are readers loops or promo loops. There’s even a yahoogroup that tracks romance promo groups and sends you an announcement each day of what you can post and where called Promotion Loop Schedule. Again, this takes coding (because you don’t want to send amateurish promos), and it takes time to post all those messages–so again you have to weigh the time involved with your writing schedule.

The plan? Yes, before you even start, you have to decide what kind of contest to run, how long it will take, who’s going to do what and when, and what is a reasonable budget. This is a business, and good business requires planning. Write it down and record the schedule on your calendar.

What are the prizes? More is better–either more expensive, or more prizes. Either will get you more entrants than giving away one download. The prizes do need to be commensurate with the scope of the contest; e.g., if your marketing is limited to emailing, most people will never know about the vacation in French Polynesia you’re offering. Save the vacation for a nation-wide print campaign. Download of your most recent ebook? That’s also iffy, because the people who want it are probably the same ones who would buy your book anyway, so you may have just lost a sale. I like to offer my friends’ books. This gives me a chance to give them a little free publicity because they’ve helped me so much, and it also gives me good publicity, so a win-win situation. And I offer my book to them for contests, also.

Okay, one more paragraph about prizes. I recently ran a pet pictures contest and I was amazed at the really awesome pet pictures people sent in. So I told everyone that “we” would mail them something, whether they won or not. Except I sort of forgot to mention it to my sister. This is not a good thing, I learned, unless one enjoys having knots thumped upon one’s head. So don’t change the rules in the middle of the game. Make sure everyone knows what’s going to happen and when, and make sure they have the money and supplies to get the job done.

I’ve conducted three kinds of contests: scavenger hunts with other authors, two different types of voting contests, and then the join-my-mailing-list contest where the winner is chosen from the mailing list. By the way, if you want to join mine, you have to put up with Princess Keely, who runs Keely’s Contest and News Group. (Hint: she rather likes being called “Princess Keely” and has her own myspace page as well.)

Scavenger hunts have resulted in lots of hits to my website and lots of subscriptions to Keely’s group. (Caveat: too many authors and too complicated searches will put off entrants.) Pet pictures voting resulted in the most website hits and the most inquiries about my latest release. The join-my-mailing-list contests didn’t give me a lot of website hits, but quadrupled the number of members on the mailing list in one month.

The last thing we’ll discuss is the timing of the contest. Every romance author has a Valentine’s Day contest, it seems (including me). Do you want to plan your contest then? Or sit it out? I’m thinking this year I might sit it out and have a St. Patrick’s Day contest instead, just because there won’t be so much competition for PR. If you’re having a winter holiday contest, you’re best planning it to be over by mid-December, if not earlier. People are too busy after that to pay much attention. Make sure you schedule your contest to get the most attention to your books and your website.

Hmmm, we haven’t had a contest on Keely’s Contest and News Group lately, so at 11:59pm Pacific Time a week from today, I’ll draw one name at random from the group. All you have to do is be a member, or join if you’re not currently a member.

That said, I’ve already broken a rule because my sister doesn’t know about this. Oh boy, I’m in trouble now!

The winner will receive a signed copy of Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues. Sorry, but USA shipping only.

Good Luck!

Jacquie
Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues (See the Book Video featuring Justin Saragueta)
Jacquie Rogers *** Myspace *** Twitter *** Facebook
Faery Special Romances *** Book Video
Royalties go to Children’s Tumor Foundation,
ending Neurofibromatosis through Research

Read a book by Jacquie Rogers

Member News

2009 April May Member News

Chris Redding is pleased to announce that she has signed a contract for her romantic suspense INCENDIARY with LBF (Lachesis) Books. This a book of the heart for Chris since it involves a rescue squad.

Wendy La Capra’s historical suspense, BEWARE, MY LOVE, is a finalist in The Heart of the West’s Great Beginnings contest. It is Wendy’s first final so she’s very excited about it.

AMETHYST, The first book in Kathye Quick’s contemporary series for Avalon Books entitled Grandmother’s Rings is already listed on Amazon.com for pre-order.

Caridad Pineiro has just received the cover for her November release from Grand Central Publishing, SINS OF THE FLESH. SINS OF THE FLESH is Caridad’s first single title paranormal romantic suspense.

LSF Writers members Eloisa James, Caridad Pineiro and Lois Winston were featured in this month’s NJ Monthly. To read the article, please use this link:
http://njmonthly.com/articles/lifestyle/people/whole-lotta-love.html

Cris Anson’s FIRST TO DIE, which was released digitally last July, will shortly be on the Cerridwen website in print! If you’d like to read a blurb and an excerpt, please visit http://crisanson.com/Firsttodie.html

Elaine Charton’s PANDORA’S JUSTICE was a Thrill Me Thursday Pick at Crave More Romance. For more, please visit this link: http://cravemoreromance.blogspot.com/
Carolyn Martin is a finalist in the Hearts Through History Contest. Hearts Through History is specialty chapter of RWA. Winners will be announced at the RWA National Conference in July.

Dianne Gerber has just signed another contract with The Wild Rose Press. Her novel, WILDFIRE, will be part of the Wayback series.

Other

Light My Fire: A Review of Amazon’s Kindle 2 E-Reader by Carolyn Martin

Al Gore lives on my shoulder. He whispers in my ear while I’m doing laundry (“Cold water!”), driving (“Inflate your tires!”) or snuggling with my husband (“Turn off the light!”).

Al is never more disapproving than when a box of books arrives on my doorstep. “Oh, your carbon footprint!” Al sighs. “How much fuel was wasted shipping those books? And don’t get me started on the paper!”

Killjoy.

I recently silenced my inner Al by investing $359 in a new Kindle 2, Amazon’s next-generation e-book reader, beloved by Oprah and untold (because Amazon refuses to divulge the exact number) thousands of early adopters.

Here’s a review of the Kindle 2 from the viewpoint of a reader, not a tech wizard.

The Skinny: Product Specs

It’s nearly inconceivable that 1,500 books can fit onto the 10.2-ounce Kindle. At 8” x 5.3”, approximately one-third of an inch thick, the sleek, slender device easily slips into all but the smallest purses. The battery fully charges in three hours, and Amazon claims a single charge can last two weeks with the wireless radio turned off or four days with the wireless on.

The Kindle uses black “e-ink” on a gray display screen (slightly darker than the paper in a child’s coloring book) that is not backlit like typical computer screens. As a result, the Kindle has no reflected glare, is perfectly readable in full sunlight, and is far less likely to cause eyestrain than a computer. However, unlike a computer, the Kindle cannot be read in the dark.

A reader “turns pages” by pressing a button on either side of the device (a bonus for lefties). When “pages” are “turned,” there’s a brief flash as the e-ink repositions itself. Some find the flash annoying, but after a few minutes, I didn’t notice it. An indicator at the bottom of the screen tracks the reader’s progress through the book, graphically and as a percentage.

Purchasing Content

Currently, the Kindle Store sells over 250,000 titles, as well as subscriptions to major national and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Kindle content expands every day, as Amazon executes its ambitious plan to ultimately stock the Kindle Store with “every book ever printed in every language.”

The Kindle Store is accessed through the device’s wireless radio (no need for a computer hookup) anywhere there’s a Sprint wireless signal. Before purchasing a book, readers may download a free sample—usually a book’s first chapter or a complimentary two-week subscription to a periodical. A simple click completes the purchase, and the price is automatically charged to an Amazon-registered credit card. Within 60 seconds (usually faster), the wireless download is complete.

Kindle books cost about 50% less than a typical hardback (a savings of $10.00-$15.00) and 20% ($1.00-$2.00) less than a paperback. A randomly selected textbook (Mass Spectrometry by Jürgen H. Gross) sells for $57.56, or 42% less than its $99.00 cover price, leading one to wonder when e-readers will become the norm on university campuses.

Content Availability

How many of Kindle’s 250,000 titles are up your alley? It depends. A virtual stroll through the Kindle Store reveals depth in some areas, gaps in others.

The Kindle Store features 103 of the 111 books on the New York Times Best Seller lists, and the more famous the author, the more extensive the backlist. For example, Kindle sells 106 titles by horror king Stephen King and 63 by romance titan Nora Roberts, but the backlists for less well-known writers can be spotty.

Kindle’s library is by no means limited to contemporary writers. In fact, it’s hard to beat Kindle’s price for public-domain classics: the complete works of Shakespeare cost $3.19, all six Jane Austen novels only $1.59, and Dickens’s 16 novels, an astounding 99 cents. Who could resist that? Not me. Click!

Many popular craft books are also in Kindle format, including On Writing by Stephen King; Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott; Screenplay by Syd Field; and Fiction Writer’s Toolkit by Bob Mayer.

But if you’re looking for Writing the Breakout Novel; Goal, Motivation and Conflict; or the most recent edition of Elements of Style, you’re out of luck—for now.

Other features

Technology enthusiasts can spend hours poring over the Kindle User’s Guide (sensibly pre-installed on the device). But for amateurs like me, here are the highlights.

Adjustable type: Any book can now be converted into large print, thanks to Kindle’s six adjustable font sizes. This feature alone makes it worth a look for vision-impaired book lovers.

Text-to-speech: Kindle’s text-to-speech feature has inflamed authors and publishers, who fear it threatens audiobooks (and the accompanying royalties). They needn’t worry.

Since I have the maturity level of a twelve-year-old boy, I first tested the text-to-speech application on a sex scene in Sea Witch by Virginia Kantra. The scene was super-hot when I read it, but creepily bizarre when recited in the Kindle’s emotionless, robotic monotone. It was like getting an obscene phone call from Stephen Hawking.

In addition, Prof. Hawking sometimes can’t “read” the text properly (translating the honorific “Ms.” as “millisecond,” for example).

So relax, everybody. Kindle’s text-to-speech is okay in a pinch, but will never replace a well-performed audiobook.

Audiobooks and music: (Real) audiobooks from Amazon’s Audible.com and music files can be downloaded to a Kindle, although they consume an inordinate amount of memory.

Built-in dictionary: Highlight the unfamiliar word and—voilà!—up pops the definition from the free, pre-loaded dictionary.

Search functions: Type in a word or phrase and the Kindle provides a list of occurrences within the document. With a few additional clicks of a tiny toggle switch, readers can also search Google or Wikipedia for more information.

Other features: Kindle offers many other features, including the ability to save “clippings” from books and periodicals, type notes in the “margins” of documents, bookmark pages with a virtual dog-ear, and download Word, TXT, HTML, image, and pdf files.

Pros and Cons

Is the Kindle right for you? Consider the pros and cons. On the pro side, the Kindle is user-friendly (I downloaded my first book within five minutes of opening the box); ridiculously portable; and a pleasure to read, indoors or out. In addition, the Kindle Store mimics Amazon.com’s first-class purchasing experience, then does it one better with its ability to deliver a book in less than 60 seconds.

Other pluses: savings and environmental considerations. Between the $10-15 savings on hardbacks and $1-2 on paperbacks, serious buyers can break even in a year. And e-books are infinitely greener than conventional books, though the Kindle’s plastic casing and battery aren’t impact-free.

Finally, don’t discount the very real, if very shallow, cool factor. Whip out a Kindle and crowds gather (mostly men—hurray!).

Kindle cons include its steep price, its available-only-from-Amazon content, and, for readers who enjoy the feel of a new book and appreciate cover art, its rather joyless, utilitarian reproduction of the printed word. In addition, the virtual purchasing experience has its hazards: without an armful of books or an internet shopping cart tally to remind you of your literary gluttony, it’s easy to lose track of your spending. And if you share books, buying a Kindle will effectively end that generous and frugal practice.

A Final Note

I love my Kindle. I highly recommend it to anyone who buys lots of books, has back problems from lugging around their personal library, or covets cool technology. Of course, the Kindle isn’t the only game in town—Sony Reader aficionados extol its lower price, sleeker design, convenient touch screen and read-in-the-dark back lighting, among other features. So do your homework before making an investment in the future of books.

But if you do decide to buy a Kindle, use this link and Liberty States Fiction Writers will get a $35 referral fee for each Kindle purchased!

Liberty States Fiction Writers Bookstore

And one more thing:

As of this writing, An Inconvenient Truth is not available on Kindle.

Your move, Al Gore.

Questions about the Kindle? Thoughts about the future of e-books? Leave a comment and let me know!

Carolyn Martin is a former senior communications executive for a Fortune 100 company. Now a freelance writer/editor and pre-published author, she’s catching up on twenty years of deferred reading.

Other

Can You Get a Ticket for Reckless Driving When Using Creative License? by Gretchen Jones

Recently I took an online class for writers on serial killers. One of the instructor’s goals in this course was to educate authors on the psychological realities of serial killers and the criminal justice professionals to promote accuracy in their portrayals. I can see how fictional accounts could annoy someone in the know.  I get that way when I hear people waxing poetic about Krispy Kreme donuts – As someone who has worked in the donut “biz”- it’s my professional opinion that their whole philosophy is wrong.  But that’s a subject for a different blog.

I had submitted the scenario I’m currently working on to the instructor, to see if it was “flawed” per her comments.  She responded that she didn’t want to get into analyzing characters but… then she had some comments for me that gave me serious pause about my characters and their motivations vis-à-vis reality.  Which is why I took the class in the first place – to get her expert insight.  

So then I made a squinchy face and despaired for a moment over how adopting her suggestions would impact my current plot.  Admittedly I am not an expert on serial killers and she certainly is.  This resulted in another squinchy face and considerable grumbling.  Then I had an epiphany. I didn’t have to make any changes at all.  It’s fiction after all. Intellectually I know that you can choose whether or not to adopt the recommendations of a critiquer but emotionally when someone tells me that my stuff is “wrong” I feel compelled to fix it. It’s a character flaw I have. Hello, my name is Gretchen and I’m a “fixer”.

That got me wondering, what exactly is the responsibility of the author to represent characters realistically in fiction?

My initial thoughts were that it is necessary for the characters to be minimally plausible.  If they aren’t, the book is subject to wall banging and that can’t be good.  So I asked a few authors I’m acquainted with to see what they thought their responsibility was to portray reality in fiction. 

When I asked the question “Exactly what does creative license entitle you to do?” here’s what I found.

Fiction is a little bit like magic.  We use “slight of hand” in an attempt to fashion characters that are believable, interesting, and that readers can identify with.  In the case of serial killers, or certain other “villains” this is particularly difficult.  Most real life fiends are motivated by emotions and a chemical makeup that the “non-fiend” never experiences.  The average reader just does not have the biology to understand or relate to how the worst criminals think and justify their actions.  So in an attempt to align our characters with our reader’s experience in a way they can appreciate, we take liberties with their behavior, motivations and goals. 

The downside is that you run the risk of alienating those people who do have experience with the type of villain or victim in real life.  I think it takes a really skilled author to pull off something that reflects real life and isn’t a boring rehash of historical events or clinical facts.  It may be easier and more plausible to grossly exaggerate reality beyond the experience of the typical reader.  For example, I never heard anyone say Stephen King’s villain in his novel Misery, was too over the top. Readers loved it.  Probably his experience in light of his celebrity made that character all too plausible to him.  I can imagine that William Shatner would have had much the same reaction to King’s book given the legendary enthusiasm of Star Trek fans.  If the author believes in the character’s villainy and has the skills to tell the tale, the reader is likely to accept the premise.  Even if the characters color way outside the lines of reality.

As authors we also have to contend with issues of creativity and originality.  In order for our work to not be derivative it is sometimes necessary for us to take a walk on the wild side and use ideas that dangle from the edge of a cliff in order to surprise the reader. To give that element of suspense we take risks with our characters and have them do things that are unexpected, original.  How can an author do that if not by treading the fine line between creating characters with actions that are outside the norm of everyday experience, while using motivations that remain relatable to our readers, or ourselves?  

Everyone I asked seemed to agree that there are limits to creative license.  Characters need to be plausible, believable, and have motivations that the reader can at least accept.  Certainly that is the “happy path” to publication (notice I didn’t say easy).  To that end most writers do at least some research into the topics they address in their fiction.  Their efforts honor the subject matter. Much like the author writing about a character who was an adult survivor of child sexual abuse.  Her concern with “getting it right” showed a sincere appreciation of the problem and a forthright attempt to avoid demeaning the victims of abuse while telling a compelling story.  The story is not about survivors of sexual abuse, it’s about vampires, human beings, werewolves, or other humanoid creatures and what makes them tick.  The sexual abuse thread was simply one facet, much like the case of the adult survivor in the real world.  The sexual abuse does not define them.  It is a single aspect of their character. Fortunately, I’m not terribly worried about insulting serial killers, though who knows, maybe I should be? Let’s hope not.  

There are those among us who take another kind of risk by choosing not to exhaustively research.  They may focus their stories on other elements using the un-researched aspects as an underlying theme rather than loading their prose with potentially implausible details.   They concentrate the reader’s attention on the emotional impact of the interaction between the main characters and de-emphasize particular events that put the characters in peril.  

That same writer might produce such lively and outrageous stories that the reader is distracted from being critical of the details.  Whether it’s likely that a character would sit still long enough to be killed in a particular manner is inconsequential if the other details around the murder are so flamboyant as to deflect doubt about the character’s actions. Does anyone question the likelihood that that another of Stephanie Plums cars has exploded?  As a reader I was surprised and delighted but never questioned it when she loaded a pack of monkeys in one of Ranger’s SUV’s.  Of course she did.  When Claire fell through the stones in Outlander no one cared if the laws of physics supported the premise of her journey. They were focused on the character’s problem of being a modern woman in an 18th century world.   That slight of hand takes considerable skill to achieve, and the willingness of the reader to accept the illusion.

So to answer the question, yes, you can pretty much count on being ticketed for reckless driving when using creative license.  But that shouldn’t keep you parked at the curb.  Risk is part of the business of writing fiction.  Exactly how much risk are you able to tolerate and how well you execute the maneuver will determine your success.  Regardless, writing will always fall under the category of – you can’t please all of the people all of the time – no matter how carefully you steer between the orange barrels.

www.gretchenjones.com

A Multi-Genre Fiction Writers Organization