Mikki Sadil: The Word Painter

Friday's Focus: Setting, Weather, and Characters

2012-01-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

When most of us begin writing a story, we usually concentrate on our plot and our characters. Making sure all the elements of plot are there, and that we are sure our characterizations are consistent with who and what those characters are supposed to be, or represent.

But our characters respond...or should...to more than the plot elements we've laid out for them, such as goals, motivations, conflicts, crises, and so on. What about the setting your characters are in? It doesn't have to be historical fiction for you to be knowledgeable about the geographical location, the towns/cities, the clothing worn, the jobs/careers, the schools, the food, the transportation, the electronics or lack thereof, and all of the other everyday elements we humans are surrounded with that your characters are also going to be surrounded with.

Let's say your MC is a 16 year old girl in high school. What kind of school is it: big, small, old construction, new construction, brick, wooden, etc. Does she walk carefully up a rickity old staircase, or run up concrete steps? Does she live in a big city with tall skyscrapers that she doesn't know her way around in, or a small town where she knows every street by heart, and most all the people? Does she wear old jeans, sweatshirts, and boots because she lives on a farm and that's all she has, or does she wear designer jeans, expensive sweaters and brand name shoes because she goes to a prestigious school and that's what is expected? Or maybe she wears the old beat-up jeans and boots TO that prestigious school because that's all she has, and suffers ridicule because of it.

Your characters react and respond to the setting in which you place them, so be sure that you know as much about that setting as you do about your characters. You don't have to use everything you learn, but you should know enough to know how your characters realistically respond and act/react within that setting.

Weather is another part of story writing that a lot of writers dismiss. Or, they use it in a cliched manner. How many times have you read something to the effect of: The tears running down her face coincided with the rain peppering the window pane, and her heart felt as broken as the jagged slashes of lightening. Or: They huddled together behind the hay bales, trapped by the raging snow storm and the would-be killer outside.

It seems that we gotten accustomed to using the weather to reflect our characters' moods, to the point that it has all become a giant cliche'. Have you ever thought about doing just the opposite of what the weather seems to inspire? For example:
She stood at the window, glaring down at her younger sister playing with her friends. How dare they be so happy and lighthearted, how dare the sun be so bright, the sky so blue, when her heart was breaking and the tears were racing down her face? Or: He opened the door, already relishing the black clouds that precipitated the coming storm, and the cover those clouds would give him. Imagine his surprise when he was confronted with bright moonlight and clear skies, a situation clearly not conducive to the evil he planned that night.

In other words, we use the weather to change and possibly confuse the circumstances we've put our characters in. We use it to showcase the contradictory nature between what our character is feeling and how she believes
the weather should be to confirm those emotions. We take the weather and we turn it into an element of surprise, both for our characters and for our readers.

Think about it.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Friday's Focus: Is a Critique Group Really Necessary?

2012-01-20T09:44:00.000-08:00

Whether you take writing classes in college, nightschool, online, or from a private instructional course, almost from the first word you write you are going to be told, "Join a critique group." At the least, have a critique partner.

Of course, you are also admonished that this critique partner or partners should never be friends or family members, or even co-workers, because all they are going to do is tell you how wonderful your writing is. You need to have people who are objective, and willing to point out errors as well as the good things you write.

This is all well and good IF you can find a ready-made critique group to work with, AND if you find you fit well into that group. But it's not as easy as it seems. I joined one group when I first started taking the ICL courses, and left after little more than one month. There were 9 women in the group...and that's way too many...and everyone was supposed to submit something to be critiqued each week. That meant that you had 8 other stories to critique, as well as have something ready yourself every single week. It left no time for my own writing with respect to doing ICL assignments, and to say nothing about having time for the rest of my life!

The second group I joined was made up of 4 women, who did nothing but vehemently criticize each other's work, and tell them what terrible writers they were. These 4 were friends who'd been together for some time. Friends? I left that group the seond week.

The third group was my own. I went online to every writers' forum I could find, and asked for people to form an online critique group. The first group was 6 women, including myself, and 5 of us have been together for the last 5 years. One finally left several months ago, due to other responsibilities, we now have 2 new members, and we all work very well together.

So why have a critique group? What do they do for an individual writer, or what should they do? The first thing, and possibly the most important, is to show support for one another. Writing is a lonely profession if you are in it to become a published author, and it's almost necessary to have people who know and understand what you go through. Families often don't. They often think of your writing as a hobby, and "when are you going to quit that and do something more productive?"

Another reason is to have someone point out any inconsistencies you might have, in terms of days, dates, time of year, where one character is at a specific time so that you don't put him, a couple of chapters or scenes later, somewhere else. Unless you are a very organized writer ( which I'm not), it's easy to forget little things like times or days when you have written something in one chapter, and then have to go back to that later on in your story. My partners have caught me on those things so many times, and it saved me so much time and effort.

Then there is the ever-present voice! Our voice has to be consistent throughout the story. Dialogue is one area where a lot of writers get messed up. In my first novel, one of my main characters spoke perfect English...'perfect' in the sense that she never used contractions, such as "I don't", "you haven't", and so on. It was always "I do not," "You have not,"etc., and I was fine until about 2/3 of the way through the story. Then in one whole chapter, she was using contractions in her dialogue. A dumb mistake on my part, but my critique partners caught that immediately!

Pointing out holes in your plot is another area where critique partners are necessary. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own words, as well as the anxiety about getting that darn story finally finished, that we leave big holes in our plot. For example, in the last chapter or two, do you ever find one of your main characters suddenly spouting off a lot of dialogue that is nothing more than an information dump? He or she is giving the reader information, through dialogue, that should have come up earlier, or been accounted for through scenes and action. As the author, you've just realized that you didn't explain an incident, so now the MC has to do so.

Or how about those last two secondary, rather minor characters that you introduced in Chapter 5, who've suddenly disappeared but without any reason or explanation? They were there, they had dialogue and action, but now there's no trace of them at the end of the story. What, they just evaporated into the atmosphere?

Then there's that mystery you've been dying to write. Your MCs stumble upon a dead man in a car on a secluded street, and this leads them into a fantasy maze of death, destruction, and terror before they finally find their way through the maze, solve all the crimes and problems, and return to their normal lives. EXCEPT! Who was the man in the car, who killed him, and why was he the key to this new fantasy world with all the problems? If you haven't explained that, it is a huge hole in your plot.

The point is: critique partners are very valuable entities for all writers. Granted, sometimes it takes awhile to find just the right group, but once you do, they can save your bacon on more than one occasion! No writer should ever presume that we don't need someone to oversee our work, to provide help and guidance along the way, to keep our voice, our characterizations, our dialogue, and so on, on the straight and narrow. We need new eyes, fresh ideas, and certainly objective and honest criticism about our work. Obviously, in the long run, our work is our work, and we need to take from our critiques only that which we feel will add to our story. But, also in the long run, we need the accountability that a critique group gives us.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Tuesday's Thoughts: Suspension of Disbelief

2012-01-16T17:45:00.000-08:00

We all know what the literary term "suspension of disbelief" means, right? But did you know that the term as I wrote it lacks one important word? "Willing." Yes, that is the important word: it is not the suspension of disbelief, it is the willing suspension of disbelief.

Let's go back to the origin of that term. Most people, writers, screenwriters, playwriters alike, believe the term was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817, when he wrote his biographical sketches of his literary life. And who is Samual Taylor Coleridge?

Coleridge was born in 1772, died in 1834, and was perhaps one of the most influential poets and literary giants of all time. He and his good friend, William Wordsworth, found the Romantic Movement in England. Coleridge's greatest works are the "conversational poems,"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan."

When he wrote Biographia Literaria, which were sketches and opinions of his own literary life, he coined many literary words and phrases, among them the willing suspension of disbelief. Here is the statement in his work which, supposedly, originated that term:

"In this idea originated the plan of the "Lyrical Ballads," in which it was agreed that my endeavors be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."

Frankly, I had to read that statement over several times to figure out what he was trying to say. I think what he was getting at was that as people read his work, or watched the plays during his time, they had to be able to believe what they were reading or watching, and in order to do this, they had to set aside their own knowledge and perception of what was real for the duration of the book or the play. And he termed this ability the willing suspension of disbelief.

The willing suspension of disbelief is one of the most important narrative functions in books, plays, movies, and TV. Without it, no story, no matter the format, would ever be successful. This suggests that every person of every age has the ability to suspend disbelief: that must be true, because don't we see it every day with our children? They read ( or are read to) fantasies and fairy tales, they read about puppies who talk and bunnies who dress up in human clothes. Yet they know their own puppy doesn't talk to them, and the bunnies who eat up Mom's early spring garden aren't dressed up. They believe because they want to believe. And so do we, as adults.

As writers, it doesn't matter if we write fantasies, science fiction, historical fiction, mysteries, contemporary stories, or what; it doesn't matter if we make up whole new worlds or create gigantic steel spiders bent on inhabiting our planet or merely write about today's teens undergoing the horrors of drug and physical/ sexual abuse, our stories have to have that elusive ingredient that makes the reader willing to suspend his/her disbelief in what is on that page, and accept for the moment that real life is as it is written. As to what that ingredient is, each and every writer must find it for himself/herself.

We have to create a compelling plot, strong, believable characters, realistic conflicts, dialogue that rings true for each character, and a climax and resolution that reflects all of the above and is consistent with the plot. It is only then that our readers are willing to suspend their disbelief in what they know is real, and what they know cannot possibly happen as they are reading it, and still hang in there to the end, hoping for a good read and plausible ending.

If we don't give all of this to them, in every story we write, they are not going to be willing to suspend their disbelief, and our writing careers will be over.

By the way, Coleridge is NOT the first person to use the phrase "suspension of disbelief." Aristotle, who lived between 384 and 322 BC, wrote a book called Poetics, in which he says:

The plot is an arrangement of events derived from an unbroken chain of cause and effect. The beginning, middle, and end must have causal connections comprising a holistic whole to ensure audiences do not suffer from a suspension of disbelief or become disengaged from the plot.

How's that for being around a long time?

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wanderings: Looking Back...and Forward

2012-01-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

The year of our Lord Two Thousand and Eleven is over, and I for one am so glad! It was not the best of years for me and my family, so I think 2012 can only be better.

I learned some things this past year, however, that are probably going to change the way I look at the future in terms of my writing. I received a lot of rejections last year, but the "good" part of that is that most of them were personal notes of rejection. I learned that for the most part, agents like my writing. They like my characters, they like my plots, they like the way I develop the story, how I arouse emotion from sympathy to anger in just the first few pages, how vividly I paint an imaginary picture. But the answer is still a 'no.' For a variety of reasons: just accepted one similar; not quite what I am looking for; don't have the "stomach" to go down the road of slavery right now; and the one I liked best: I loved it but didn't "fall in love" with it. And there were other reasons.

What does that tell me..or you? I think agents are looking for a SURE thing, and how can they be "sure" of that with a new author? All of the agents I queried were ones who were looking for new clients, at least according to blog interviews and Query Tracker. But it seems that new clients doesn't equal new authors, in many cases.

Publishing has changed drastically in the last couple of years, due to the bad economy and to the advent of ebook publishing. The "Big Six" publishers in New York are only going to publish those books that are going to bring in a lot of money, and possibly make the New York Times Best Seller list, and very few new authors are going to do that. Well, unless you're the next JK Rowlings or Stephanie Meyer, that is. And most of us aren't, even if we'd like to think we are!

Consequently, agents have to deal with publishers who are being extremely choosey about what they publish, so agents also have to be extremely choosey. Most of them are no longer willing to take chances on new authors, unless they truly believe you have a blockbuster of a novel. The exception to this 'rule' is the few agents who are aiming for the smaller, less-well-known publishers, rather than the Big Six or any of their imprints.

(Big Six: Hachette Book Group, formerly TimeWarner, many imprints including Little,Brown, and Co; HarperCollins, with 50 imprints; MacMillan Publishers, dozens of imprints including St.Martin Press, Tor, Farrar,Straus, & Giroux; Penguin Group, second largest trade publisher in the world; Random House, largest English-language trade publisher in the world; and Simon Schuster, with dozens of imprints.)

From what I've been reading on several published authors' blogs, the Big Six are looking for younger writers who are truly outstanding, who are writing series instead of independent novels, and with whom they can have a long-lasting relationship. So where does that leave the, er, not-so-younger writer? Are we all nothing more than chopped liver, in terms of our writing? According to the personal rejections I've been getting, I'm not exactly chopped liver, I'm a "brilliant writer" but I don't have the demographics the Big Six are looking for, so I'm not what the agents are looking for, either.

That was then, this is now. 2011 is over with, 2012 has just begun, and for me, that means changing my direction, changing my thoughts, and changing my career path. I'm a grandmother, and proud of it! And if I have to frame all of those "glowing, thanks but not thanks" personal rejections, and hang them up in my study to prove to myself that my writing is "brilliant," I will do so. But I'm not giving up, just changing things around a bit.

This year, I'm going after the small, independent publishers. NOT, repeat, NOT the vanity-type where you pay them to publish your book, but the smaller, less well-known publishers who do a lot, if not most, of ebook publishing. Why not? Ebooks are now being published from picture books to middle grade, young adult, and adult. Ebook publishing no longer has the stigma that it did when it first came out, and although you don't get an advance, your royalty percentage is quite a bit more than through traditional, print publishing.

You do have to do a lot more of the promotion yourself, but in today's economy, you also have to do much of it even with the Big Six. Websites, blogs, interviews, school visitis, smaller independent book store signings ( if you get into print), are all easy and inexpensive ways to promote your book.

Another thing I'm going to look into is self-publishing. Again, not the kind where you have to do all the work and pay someone else. But I've been reading about highly successful authors, including some who have made the NY Times Best Seller list, whose best-selling books are self-published. It can't be all that bad. At least, it's an option to look into.

Does that mean I'm going to stop querying agents? Not at all. But it does mean that I'm not taking days and days of doing research on them, it means I'm sending out queries to many at a time instead of only a select few, and it means I'm not going to be heartbroken over rejections, personal or otherwise.

And in the meantime, I'm going to be querying as many ebook and smaller, independent publishers as I can for the coming year. I'm looking forward with a smile to 2012. 2011, you're in the trash can!

Are you looking forward to what this new year will bring? What are your feelings about ebook publishing?

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Thursday's Thoughts: Christmas Is Over, Now What? Part 2

2011-12-29T08:20:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over, the new year is two days away. About this time of year, people start making New Year's Resolutions, setting goals, sometimes making decisions about their lives that may or may not be productive throughout the year.

When I was in my teens and early 20s, I never gave a thought to "new year's resolutions," and from what I saw of older people around me who did, it seemed pretty silly. Those resolutions never seemed to come true, or were even talked about much beyond New Year's Day. So why bother?

As I got older, with a husband and children, I tried to set some goals for myself, or even for the kids, to have something to work towards. Again, it never seemed to work out the way I wanted. And then I began to wonder why. If you take the time to set out some goals for yourself, why don't you accomplish them? I decided to start asking people about their resolutions, and if they actually followed through with them during the year. What I found surprised me.

One person told me that in the middle of a New Year's Eve party, standing in front of a gigantic table loaded with delicious, extremely rich food, she told everyone around that her number one resolution for the next year was to lose weight. That year she gained 25 pounds.

Another young lady told me that at midnight on New Year's Eve, she looked around and saw most of her friends kissing their boyfriends, while she stood by, "kissless." Her number one resolutions was to not only get a boyfriend, but to be engaged or married by the following New Year's Eve. The following New Year's Eve, she did have a boyfriend...but not the kind you'd want YOUR daughter kissing!

A male friend told me his resolution for the coming year was to invest for the first time in the stock market, because many of his business associates were making a lot of money. When I asked him if he knew anything about the stock market ( I don't), he said no, but it seemed easy to learn about. He lost a lot of money that year.

What does this all add up to? Making decisions on the spur of the moment, calling them "New Year's Resolutions," and not putting any thought into what that resolution actually means. It appears that a good many people, of all ages, make their "resolutions" exactly the same way. They get caught up in the excitement of the New Year's moment, and whatever comes to their mind becomes a "resolution."

If you have something you truly want to do during the coming year, why make an off-the-cuff decision about it? Why not take the time to think about it, make it a goal to be accomplished, and then think about what it's going to take during the coming year for you to accomplish what you want?

Suppose you have a story started, and you want to turn it into a novel, finish it, and get it off to a few publishers by December 1st. That's your goal. What are the steps, or objectives, you need to take to accomplish that goal? You need to think that through...how much time do you actually have to write each day? Don't set a certain number of words or pages for yourself that you have to struggle to get down. Be realistic in what you can accomplish on a daily basis, and each step will become much easier.

The point is: when you make a New Year's Resolution, give it some time and thought. Is this really what you want to accomplish this coming year? Is it a realistic goal, given your personality, your attitude, your willingness to overcome whatever obstacles might come up during the year, including things like your "real" life: outside job, family, children, etc. You need to consider all of this before commiting yourself.

If it is important enough to say, This is my goal, then it is important enough for you to take the time to think it through, and come up with the steps you need to take to accomplish the goal. Just be sure you are realistic. Don't set yourself up for failure by deciding that you HAVE to do something each day that simply may not be easily done, due to your other obligations. And LIFE! LIFE has a way of coming at us at the most inconvenient times and under the most inconvenient conditions, so be sure to make allowances for the things you can't control, and make the most of those things you can control.

Make a goal plan, follow that plan to the best of your ability, but don't let it get you down, and don't allow yourself to become discouraged if you fail to do something in the time you've set for yourself. Remember, without failure there is no success. Hmm...somebody famous said that, but I don't remember who!

Happy New Year, everyone, and Happy and Realistic Resolutioning!!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Monday's Meanderings: Christmas Is Over, Now What?

2011-12-26T09:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over! I wonder how many of you feel as I do, that it was great while it lasted, but I'm glad that it's over? I love the preparations for Christmas: the decorating of house, tree, and the outside, planning the menu for Christmas dinner. But I don't love the shopping in all the crowds, and I don't even like wrapping gifts. I just like seeing the finished project sitting under the tree, all bright and colorful and shiny.

But then it's over. The last guest leaves, the first load of dishes is in the dishwasher, and there's a mountain of food left over to be wrapped and put in the freezer, or made up into "care" packages. There are still a few gifts to be sorted out and put away; the Christmas table that was so beautifully set is a mess, remnants of dessert on cheery Christmas paper plates to be thrown away; soda cans to be made sure they are empty before putting them in the recycle sack; and the lovely tablecloth, place mats, and napkins have to be washed, ironed, and put away for the next year. All of this is the 'real' work of Christmas. To say nothing of finally taking down the tree and putting away all the lovely, funny, and quirky decorations!

In my house, the latter means carefully storing away 15 large doll-sized Santa Clauses, each from a different state and/or part of the world that I've been in. It means taking 7 Snowdens ( remember them as Target's Christmas symbol during the lat '90s and early 2000's ?) and lovingly wrapping them up and putting them in their own packing boxes; it's bubble-wrapping my 7 piece Victorian village so none of it gets broken...a major job with all the little people, horse-and-carriages, trees, street lamps, and so on. And then there are all of my furry creatures to put away: 3 mooses, 2 reindeer, one singing mouse, 20-some bears of all sizes including several very large ones; one large, standing Tigger, one small talking Tigger, 3 dogs of various sizes, and one lion who surveys his kingdom every year. There's also the nativity scene, several china and porcelain Santas, all of my Santa paintings, and my other Christmas wood paintings. And I've probably forgotten some.

All the excitement and music and glamour and anticipation, and even the work is over, and slowly but surely the "normal" world comes back into focus. Now what?

We'll talk about "now what?" in my next post.

Until then,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wanderings: Time Flies...or Not

2011-12-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Aaarghh! Where does the time go? It's been a week since my last post, and I really didn't intend that to happen.

'Tis the season, and all that, but really, does time seem to go faster during the Christmas holidays, or does it stand still? As kids, I guess we all thought that time was standing still, and Santa's "day" would never get here. As adults, we never have enough time to do everything we want and need to do before the Big Day.

Where does that leave us with our writing? I marvel at some of my younger writing friends, those with outside jobs and/or young children: they not only find the time to write, but to post regularly on their blogs. Then, of course, I look at myself and say, "Self, you are retired. You have time. Much time. What is your problem?" Unfortunately, Self never has a good answer.

I've tried the schedule bit, tried writing down everything I have to do in one day, then making myself a schedule ...7am to 8am, get up, shower, get dressed, get dog up and outside; 8am to 8:20am, brush dog; 8:20am to 8:30 am, feed dog, cat, and parrots; 8:30 to 9am, feed husband and self. Good grief, by the time I've written all this down, I'm exhausted just thinking about it, and I haven't even gotten past 9 o'clock in the morning. Obviously, scheduling doesn't work for me.

All joking aside, in the busiest season of the year, how does one find the time to write, post a blog, and carry on with all the seasonal 'asides' that you have to do? You know, those 'little' things like Christmas shopping, baking cookies, sending out cards...the list goes on.

For me, the earlier in the morning I work on Christmas 'stuff,' the better. Getting the house decorated, shopping for gifts or cooking, actually doing the baking, and so on. I try to get it all done by 1pm. If Possible. From 1 to 3pm I write, and nothing better get in my way. Except, of course, the kids stop by; neighbors drop in; the phone rings and hubby is conveniently out with the dog or puttering in the garage and the person on the phone is a telemarketer who won't take 'no' for an answer; or it's a long-lost 'friend' ( who hasn't stayed lost long enough) who just decides to take that time to catch me up on everything that has gone on in her life for the last 3 years that I have not heard from her. Thankfully have not heard from her. And so the day goes. Writing? You've got to be kidding!

How is your writing day going? Smoothly or with more bumps, twists, and turns than usual? Do you blame it on the season, or do you accept it more gracefully than I do? ( Well, age does have its privileges, ya' know!)

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wanderings: Thoughts on Publishing an Ebook

2011-11-30T07:40:00.001-08:00

Well, finally! I've been locked out of my blog for the last few days for some reason. I was getting very annoyed, and ready to take on Blogger when today it seems fine. The workings of the Internet I'm afraid will always be a mystery to me.

Yesterday I took a somewhat scary step towards publishing. I sent off my historical novel, The Freedom Thief, to an ebook publisher, MuseItUp Publishing. I thought that would be the end of it, until I received a reply saying they either would or would not be interested in publishing the book. Instead, I received an email from the President of the company accknowledging receipt of my manuscript, and telling me I should hear again from them within 6-8 weeks, or perhaps sooner. What a pleasant surprise!

I said this was a scary step for me. My novel has a 13-almost-14 year old boy as the protagnonist, and with seemingly every publisher having his own definition of what makes a middle grade or young adult read, in terms of age, I have no idea if the story is middle grade or young adult. I still have misgivings about a middle grade story in an ebook format, so it's scary because I don't know if it will sell as an ebook or not.

In today's economy, it seems to me that for the majority of parents, buying their kids a Kindle or a Nook or whatever other kind of ereader is out there would be one of the last items on their Christmas list...or any kind of gift list. Especially if the kids are only 10 to about 12 or 13 years old...the age my story is aimed at. Yet a lot of writers are going this route, not only with MG and YA stories, but even with picture books and short chapter books for elementary grade readers.

Perhaps the initial cost of the ereader overrides the ongoing cost of buying books from a bookstore, even Amazon. If so, publishing as an ebook makes a lot of sense. However, there are also many parents today who are saying to their children, you have to go to the library because I can't afford to buy you a book. So there are two sides to this issue of ebook publishing for kids.

I just hope I've chosen the right side ! Of course, first I have to find out that the manuscript has been selected for publishing, then I'll have plenty of time to worry about how well it's going to sell.

What are your thoughts on ebook publishing? Do you think this is a viable alternative to fighting the battle in finding a traditional print publisher, and if so, have you taken this route or are planning to?

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Monday's Meanderings: Thoughts on Titles

2011-11-20T12:12:00.001-08:00

Today I was reading something totally unrelated to writing, and certainly to titles, when one popped into my head: Dead Girl Walking. Where in the world did that come from? It sounds intriguing. It could be a mystery, it could even be historical...well, depending. But I haven't started a new novel yet, althought I have bits and pieces of 3 new ones to begin seriously working on, yet I don't see that particular title as being very appealing to any one of the 3.

So where do good titles come from? My historical novel, from day one, was titled "Escape On The Train Without Tracks." That title held for 3 years. Then one day, recently, as I was working on an edit, I suddenly thought...The Freedom Thief. It seemed perfect, and that is the title under which I'm submitting it. Yet I have no idea where it came from.

My first novel, T he Year of the Scream or Why I Hate Cheerleading, Chocolate, and Celine Carroll, was one where the title came to me after only writing a few pages. At the time, I wasn't even sure what part "Celine Carroll" was going to play, or even if she was going to be a major character. But it seemed to fit from the very first chapter, and I've never changed it. I'm submitting the novel under that title, and unless the editor wants it changed, that's what it will be.

Dead Girl Walking: I can't get it out of my head. And as I've pondered on it, I have realized that maybe...just maybe...this is the title for the story about Gabriela...the character who woke me up one early...very early...morning last week. Maybe...Gabriela is Dead Girl Walking.

Where do you get your ideas for your titles? Do they suddenly pop into your head for no reason, or do you take your time, and let the title slowly immerge from the storyline? Do your titles come from something you've read, a newspaper headline that, with a little tweaking, seems to be "just perfect" for that new story? Or do they sneak up on you, a little at a time, sometimes surprising you? And once you decide upon a title, do you ever change it on your own, or because someone says the title doesn't fit the story? Think about it!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Tuesday's Teaser: Thoughts on Characters...Or Dreams...Or...

2011-11-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 3:45 am and thought I was coming out of a dream. After a couple of minutes, it was clear that it wasn't a dream, it was a new character screaming at me. I mean, actually screaming because she was being chased through a forest. Okay, I thought, enough of this. I do not write fairy tales, so shut up and let me go back to sleep.

Except...she was being chased, she was in a forest, and it was not a fairy tale.

Her name is Gabriela, she is Italian, the forest is in New Jersey (?), and somehow a town called Whitesbog is involved.

The thing is...I'm not writing about a character named Gabriela, I know little to nothing about New Jersey ( except that one of the Mafioso Families is there), and I never heard of some place called Whitesbog...if such a place actually exists.

Obviously, this new character has a story she wants me to tell, but right now I have no idea what it is. Whitesbog, New Jersey?? Now I'm intrigued. I must do some research!

A dream? Or can a character actually come into your head, and demand that you tell her story? Even if you have absolutely NO idea what that story is? Actually, I did have that happen with my very first novel. AJ woke me up one morning about the same time as Gabriela...uh oh, now I'm talking about HER as if she's really going to exist...anyway, AJ wanted her story told, too. But with AJ, I had some idea of what she wanted me to tell, and eventually her story became The Year of the Scream.

What does Gabriela want? What is her story? Frankly, I can't imagine. Perhaps if I start researching some place called "Whitesbog" to see is there is such a place, I'll have a better idea. Why is she so insistent? I can't get her name out of my head, it's like it is plastered there. When something like that happens with me, I know nothing is going to matter until I get started on the story. Usually, I have at least a few thoughts about the direction it will take. Today? My mind is blank...all I can hear or think about is this little voice saying...Gabriela Gabriela Gabriela.

It's driving me crazy!!

Do you ever have a character wake you up and make demands on you? If so, do you always know WHY this character has shown up so unexpectedly? Please, share your thoughts...you might help me know what to do with this girl !

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Monday's Meanderings: Teacher in Reverse: Daughter and Father

2011-11-14T14:16:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the library, and while I was there, I saw something so touching I had to write about it.

I was in the YA stacks of the Children's Library, and I heard this soft voice saying, "No, Dad, that word is 'running.' You know the word 'run,' so just put the 'ing' to it."

Another soft voice, somewhat deeper: "He wa...was run..running too far.." "No, Dad, not 'too far,' 'too fast.' Try it again."

A silence. Then the deep voice said, "I don't know, honey. I don't think I'll ever learn again."

The sentence was spoken in bits and pieces, with pain evident in each word. I didn't want to be a snoop, but I guess I am. I had to know what was going on. I stepped quietly around a couple of bookcases, and stopped. In front of me was one of the round tables for small children, complete with the little chairs. On one chair, stooped over and barely sitting on the seat, was a tall, thin man with his face in his hands. Sitting next to him, on the table itself, sat a young girl about fourteen. Sweet face, dark curly hair, dark eyes full of tears. She sat with one slim hand on the man's shoulder.

"Dad, you will learn again. Look how far you've come this year. I won't let you stop learning until you can read all your own books again."

He raised his head and smiled at her. He got up slowly and painfully ( any adult who's ever sat in one of those kindergarten chairs knows you can't get up any other way, no matter how strong you are!), held out his hand to his daughter, and they carefully picked their way around the other tables to the check-out counter.

I checked out behind them, and as I walked out, I saw the father pointing at various trees, cars, a rabbit hopping by...and naming them all for his daughter. She was laughing and hugging him around the waist as I drove off.

Teacher in reverse: daughter teaching father all the things, and in the same loving, patient way, that father had once taught his daughter.

How wonderful. How remarkable. Courage, love, and patience all bound up in one beautiful, 14 year old package.

What remarkable thing have you seen lately?

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wanderings: The Wonderfu, Remarkable, Frustrating World of Websites: Part Two

2011-11-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to add some more websites that I hope will be of use to my readers. Without further ado, here they are:

Bookends: www.bookendslitagency.blogspot.com
Two agents, Jessica Faust and Kim Lionetti, have a great site with a large array of posts on proposals, contracts, editing, story conflict, and a lot more. Their advice is good and it's free!

QueryTracker: www.querytracker.net
This is the best place in the world to go if you are at the point of wanting to find an agent. Much of the site is free, but if you are really serious about agenting, pay the $40 yearly fee, at least for a year, and take advantage of all the premier things you can do here.

The Market List: www.marketlist.com
For those of you who want to make some extra money doing freelance writing. If you're writing genre fiction, there are hundreds of market listings here for you to look into.

Ed 2010: www.ed2010.com
There are young magazine editors here who offer excellent advice about writing for magazines. There is a section called "WhisperJobs" that is a great resource for both freelance and full time magazine jobs.

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: www.jakonrath.blogspot.com
J.A.Konrath is a thriller-writer who isn't the least bit shy about sharing his opinions on the best way to seek out traditional publishers, as well as those for self-publishing ebooks. He also offers an array of good writing-related resources.

Writer Beware Blog: www.accrispin.blogspot.com
This is a writing watchdog who tracks, exposes, and raises awareness about scammers and the other many questionable activities in and around the publishing industry. A good place to visit, to see what is the latest "worry spot" in our business.

Stephie Smith's Writers' Resources: www.stephiesmith.com/resources.html
There aren't any articles here, just links to everything imaginable concerned with writing. They are all broken down by category, including a list of resources especially valuable to writers of historical fiction. ( That's me, guys!)

Once Written: www.oncewritten.com
This site gives a lot of solid information, writing prompts, contests, and allows writers an opportunity to have their books reviewed.

Pimp My Novel: www.pimpmynovel.blogspot.com
This is one site that many of you already know about, but it's worth repeating here. It is authored by a publishing sales rep who gives the inside scoop on what happens to books after they've been acquired. Be sure to check out the Profit & Loss ( P&L) series, which tells about a little-known aspect of how book publishing really works.

Resources for Children's Writers: www.resourcesforchildren'swriters.com
Rachelle Burk's site links to hundreds of articles for children's writers who are trying to improve their writing skills, network with other writers, and get published and sell their work. It's a great site for us!

Mystery Writing Is Murder: www.mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com
Mystery writer Elizabeth Spann Craig uses her blog for good, not evil...except when she is explaining how to craft antagonists.

Murder By 4: www.murderby4.blogspot.com
Great tips on writing the thriller genre by four masters of suspense.

Don't be afraid to check out some of the sites about genres you haven't thought of writing. You might find just the spark you need to step out of your comfort zone and try something new!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Monday's Meanderings: The Remarkable, Wonderful, Frustrating World of Websites

2011-10-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wander from one writing website to another, looking for information, help, advice, ideas? Do you ever get frustrated because nothing seems to be just what you are looking for? For the next couple of posts, I'm going to give you some of the best websites I've come across in the years I've been writing. Most of these came from the Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites," but I've used many in the past, and have found them useful, humorous, and sometimes, just plain frustrating. I hope you find some you can enjoy.

Grammar Girl: www.grammar.quickanddirtytips.com
We can all use a little help with grammar from time to time, and this is a good place to get that help.

Long, Story Short: An E-Zine for Writers: www.alongstoryshort.net
These editors offer great writing tips and personally reply to every author who contacts them for writing and publishing advice.

Plot Whisperer for Writers & Readers: www.plotwhisperer.blogspot.com
A great place for help and tips on writing plots.

Easy Street Promps: www.easystreetprompts.blogspot.com
If you're having trouble getting your muse to come back from her vacation, this is the place for you. Lots of picture prompts and video story-starters.

Six Sentences: www.sixsentences.blogpspot.com
For those of you who can "write short," something I can't seem to do. Here you can submit a six sentence story and take a chance on getting published.

Agent Query: www.agentquery.com
I've used this off and on for a couple of years, just got serious with it this year. If you're looking for an agent, this is the place to come. There is a lot you can do for free, but if you're seriously looking, pay the annual fee of $40, because it is well worth it.

Babbles from Scott Eagan: www.scotteagan.blogspot.com
Scott Eagan is the founder of Greyhaus Literary Agent, and writes multiple columns on querying tips, defining your genre, the pros and cons of social media, and much more. It's worth checking out.

Fundsfor Writers: www.fundsforwriters.com
A great site if you're looking for money, grants, contests, awards, and markets. Hope Clark is an editor and her free email newsletter is a good one.

Slush Pile Hell: www.slushpilehell.tumblr.com
What more needs to be said?! The tag line is "One grumpy literary agent, a sea of query fails, and other publishing nonsense." Check it out!

That's all for now, I'll have a few more in the next post.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wandering: Bookstores, Or The Lack Thereof

2011-10-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

My daughter was up visiting all of last week, and one day we went down the mountain to our local mall...such as it is. We wandered through the shops, did a little buying, and as we walked down the sidewalk ( we don't have the luxury of an inclosed mall), we passed a large... and empty...building. She asked me about it, and I told her it once was a beautiful bookstore... one of Border's Bookstores. We walked over to the windows and looked in. Empty. Deserted. Not even the bookshelves were left. Another window looked in on the small cafe where I had sat for many an hour, drinking coffee, talking to my husband as we both leafed through the myriad of magazines available. Gone were the tables, the chairs, even the glass-front cabinet where the "goodies" had lain in all their delectable glory. It was so sad.

Bookstores are becoming a relic of our society. Everywhere you look, the wonderful buildings that have for so long been home to literally miles of books are now standing empty. Their shelves are crumbling, the floors are filthy with dirt, crushed out cigarettes, and remnants of rotting food workers didn't bother to throw away. Their glass fronts, once so clean and shiny, are now home to dust bunnies and spiders busily spinning their webs. All that is left are the ghosts of the characters which once peopled their many books, remaining behind to sigh and whisper their laments.

The closing of so many bookstores seems to be symbolic of the coming ( or already here) changes in our literary world. Ebooks and their accompaning readers, the Kindle, the Nook, the iPad, and so on, are encroaching upon the written word at a speed approaching that of light...or so it appears. It is causing a major upheaval in the way we read books, and are able to publish books.

I have a Kindle, and many books on it, but I will always prefer to read the printed word. I love strolling down the aisles of a bookstore, stopping to admire the cover of a book, picking up another to read the jacket flap, still another to flip through the pages, until finally I decide upon the one ( or several) to buy. I love the smell of books, and the feel of holding one in my hands. I enjoy turning the pages by hand, placing a pretty bookmark between them when I have to stop reading and return to something I should be doing instead... like writing.

Those pleasures are rapidly being taken away from me and everyone who enjoys a "real" book. Is the convenience of having 500 to 1,000 books ( given that you can afford them) ready and waiting in a small 8" x 5" electronic reader really more important, more enjoyable, than being able to linger leisurely among the stacks of books, as you decide which one to buy? Well, not for me! And I suspect, not for a few thousand others... at least.

Ebooks and digitalization are becoming the "buzz" words of the future, except... the future is now. Even traditional book publishers are opening small sections of their business to begin publishing electronic books. Many new and smaller publishers are open only to ebook publishing, and others specify they will publish in print only those books which do well in ebook format first.

Another trend that is becoming fashionable is self-publishing in the ebook format, or in ebooks that are POD. While there are several reputable ways to do this, there are also many scam artists out there who are out for your money and nothing more. Self-publishing in any format has always been the "stepchild" of publishing, and those who wish to take that route must now be all the more diligent in finding an honest and reputable way of doing that with ebooks.

For me, ebooks will always be a poor second choice, for both reading and publishing. I always seek out the bookstores, even though now most of them are of the "second-hand and antique book" variety! Still, it's far better than not having one at all.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wandering: Writing MG/YA Fiction That Sells

2011-10-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

Today's blog concerns a workshop I took at a Writer's Conference in September. The presenter was Jonathan Maberry, a multipublished author of teen and middle grade fiction. Please check out his website at: www.JonathanMaberry.com.

I think we all have trouble sometimes deciding if our story is for "middle grade" or "young adult." I keep seeing publishers who claim that YA is from age 12 to 18. As a parent and grandparent, I know there is a big difference between the emotional/mental maturity of a 12 or 13 year-old, and a kid who is 16, 17, and older. Therefore, some stories aimed at the later teens are not appropriate for early teens, and those for early teens the older kids wouldn't want to read.

Mr. Maberry has broken down the age groups in very much the same way I would, and I was glad to see I wasn't the only one who felt like this! His break-down is:
Middle Grade = 8 to 12 years
Younger YA   =  12 to 15 years
Older YA        = 15 to 17 years

I don't think he mentioned it, but I assume he figures 18 and up is adult.

There is more money right now in YA than there is in adult books, which came as a surprise. More YA books are being sold, and are bringing in better royalites. The biggest seller is for the younger YA, 12 to 15 years. They are given the biggest print run, and there is no limit to genre or a mixture of genres, but there are fewer appropriate themes than for the older group.

Kids read up, especially in the middle grades, but that doesn't mean writing for them in the same vein as writing for the YA groups. No heavy romance, or sex, or hard horror books for this age group. Most MG novels run from 20,000 to 40,000 words, and CAN bring as much as $60,000 for new authors. Steam punk is selling well, but he says historical fiction is not. That part I would debate him on, as I'm getting the opposite information from agents.
There are more themes available to write about in the 15 to 17 year-old YA, such as drugs, sex, abuse, abortions, gangs, anorexia-type themes, rape, and etc.     Many YA are now heavily into romance, which can range from the hand-holding, first kisses to those who steam up the pages a bit with more sex.

Boys, however, are not reading the older YA, which presents an open door for those who want to write for the older YA boys. Anyone who can write a good multi-cultural story with a strong boy protagonist, or a Western with a strong boy protagonist would automatically be a good sell.

When Mr. Mabeery was asked if there is still a market for vampires, he replied that werewolves were probably a better seller, and some unique version of a werewolf would be great. The example he gave was: A boy comes from South America and becomes, not a werewolf, but a werejaguar.

That example stirred the room up a bit! However, this was a real happening in South American folklore.

Most of the houses are looking for series for both middle grade and young adult. They want two to three books in each series, but each one must be a "stand alone" book. He suggested saying something in a query about the manuscript was a single story but with a series potential.

He said that libraries are buying more books than school systems, due to the budget cuts. However, in my state, libraries have been cut as much as the schools, so even they are not buying new books. He also mentioned that audio books were selling well in both schools and libraries. I would liked to have had him discuss ebooks for these age groups but there wasn't time. With so much controversy surrounding ebooks right now...are they for kids or not...that subject would probably make a whole new workshop, anyway!

In his closing remarks, Mr. Maberry said one of the most important... and ... and necessary... things you can do as a writer is to have a one sentence pitch that gives an accurate idea of what your book is about. That brought a groan from the audience, as we all know how difficult it is to sum up 20,000 to 50,000 words in one sentence, even when the one sentence is 2 or 3 lines long!

I hope this has given a bit of new insight into what writing for teens and middle grade kids is all about.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Friday's Fare: Review of Millicent Min, Girl Genius

2011-10-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to review a book much lighter in vein than recent ones. It is a book to read for fun, to relieve a hard day at work or serious writing, or even just because you don't have anything else on hand to read. Whatever your reason, it is, first, a book you will laugh about, and second, a book you SHOULD read if you're writing anything for girls aged 9 to 14.

Millicent Min is an eleven year old genius. She began kindergarten at the age of three and now, at eleven, she is in the eleventh grade in high school, is taking a college advanced poetry class, and is looking forward to being a full time college student before she enters her teens. She has appeared on television seven times, and has been the subject of six articles on highly gifted children.

The first sentence of this book---"I have been accused of being anal retentive, an over-achiever, and a compulsive perfectionist, like those are bad things"---perfectly sets the stage and captures the unique voice of this charming and amusing story.

Millicent must spend the summer between awaiting the start of her last year in high school. Unfortunately, she has the social and athletic skills of a gnat, and consequently, has no friends her own age, or even of high school age. She has no trouble in espousing her knowledge about any and all subjects, so anyone who might be considered her peer tends to shy away from her. She spends her spare time with her grandmother, who often gives advice she has gained from watching her favorite TV show, Kung Fu.

Her parents decide she must have a more well-rounded life, so they sign her up for summer volleyball at the high school, something that Millicent says "It reminds me of kindergarten--something I tried but was just not suited for." Even
more horrendous, her mother informs her that she is to tutor Stanford Wong, son of a family friend. Millicent would rather go back to elementary school than take on the task of trying to teach this annoying and totally obnoxious boy anything, but she has no choice.

Her first day of volleyball practice turns out as badly as she expected it to, but she does meet Emily Ebers, a new girl in town her own age, and who hates volleyball as much as Millicent. They become friends, but Millicent goes to great lengths to hide her mental capabilities, fearing that like everyone else, if Emily finds out Millicent is a genius, she will dump her. Needless to say, this deception leads to comic disaster, especially when Emily runs into Millicent and Stanford at the library, and Stanford immediately tells Emily HE is the one tutoring Millicent. There is more than one hilarious complication resulting from the Emily-Millicent-Stanford trio.

To be expected, Emily accidentally finds out about Millicent's IQ, and true to form, she dumps her. However, this is not because Millicent is a genius, as she believes, but because Emily is hurt that Millicent didn't think their friendship was strong enough for her to tell Emily the truth. Now Millicent is faced with a problem she can't solve as easily as she does any academic test question. How can she earn back Emily's trust and friendship?

There are several colorful characters in Millicent's life, including her down-to-earth mother, her very laid-back father, and of course, her often out-in-left-field grandmother. Her interactions with her family, with Emily and Stanford, and her journey to the discovery that true friendship, trust, and the acceptance of herself and others is something not measured by IQ but by one's inner spirit make for an engaging and heartfelt story. It deserves an A+ by any grading system, and a place of honor on your bookshelf.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Thursday's Thoughts: The Power of Protest

2011-10-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going a little off the subject of writing to talk about something that is really important to me. That is the Power of Protest. The last couple of weeks, the media has indulged itself in the protests that have FINALLY come over the corruption and greed that has manifested and ingrained itself in Wall Street, and the fact that 2% of the population in the United States holds the wealth of this country in their money-grubbing hands.

For the last couple of years, I have ranted and raved ( just ask my husband, he'll tell you!) about the sad complaisance of the American people who are allowing this country to be driven into the ground by incompetent governing...specifically the last administration. I have asked over and over, rhetorically, of course, WHY people, especially the young people, can't get up off their rears, stop watching the boob tube, stop playing video games and texting, and DO SOMETHING! Don't they realize the POWER OF PROTEST? Apparently not.

So let's go back to the early 1960s for a moment. Many of you who read my blog weren't even born then, but that's okay... maybe you need an education into what protesting can do. The 1960s Protests were NOT all about the VietNam War... those came later in the '60s and the early '70s. The early 60s protests were about some of the most important elements in American society which were still frozen in the 19th Century.

Those elements were about RIGHTS. They began with Student Rights to Free Speech. This concerned the right of students belonging to different political groups to have their meetings on campus, and to speak freely in newsletters and on the open Commons grounds about their beliefs. They won.

Then there Women's Rights. They, too, began with the rights of women on college campuses to cohabitate with their boyfriends. It seems that most of the college Deans thought it was their responsibility to determine the sexual activity of women, but men could do as they pleased. After protest signs, marches, newsletters, etc., women were given the same rights on campuses around the country as men. But it didn't stop at the college. Protests began all over the country about women's rights in the work place, equal pay for equal work, the home, in schools as teachers, and everywhere else that women played a role. They won, too.

Protest marches began on Washington, DC, protesting for Civil Rights. Do you remember the four African Americans who went into a restaurant only for "white people" and staged a sit-down? Do you remember a woman by the name of Rosa Parks? Do you remember the first African American students allowed to enter an all-white school, and who had to do so under the protection of the National Guard? Perhaps not, but all of these incidents came about because of the POWER OF PROTEST, and led to the greater Civil Rights of all minority people in the US.

Protest songs became the hit version of the "Hot List" today. Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind, a song of protest against the VietNam War; Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come, about Civil Rights for African Americans; Pete Seegar's Turn! Turn! Turn!, whose lyrics were taken from passages in the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible; and his most iconic song, and one of the most powerful songs ever written, We Shall Overcome. And we can't forget the songs of Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and many others.

Any time any one of their many songs is sung, it invokes memories of the many hundreds, and often thousands, of men and women who stood together, holding hands, and facing the barrage of police dogs, tear gas, and fire hoses in order to hold true to their beliefs about the wrongs of this society, and in the Power of Protest.

Protest marches, signs, songs, meetings, all came together in the 1960s and '70s to convince the American government that the time for change had come, and it was NOW. Not in six months or a year, not when the next administration took office, it was NOW. The POWER OF PROTEST took effect, and change began...slowly, to be sure, but it began and it began at once.

Are you satisfied with the condition of our country today? Are you at all concerned about the fact that the country is on the verge of bankruptcy; that our schools are letting teachers by the hundreds go because of state budget cuts... what is this going to do to teachers trying to educate 40 and 50 students in one class, when it was difficult enough with 30? There are too many things wrong with our society today to even think of listing them, but you know them as well as I do. But one of the main things to be concerned about is the children of today: those who are homeless, who can't go to school because the district requires a permanent residence address, who are starving because their parents have no jobs and no money... starving in a country that was once the richest in the world. Wall Street and the millionaires have become the monsters of our society. These are only a few of the societal ills which infect all of us.

So where have the protesters gone? Where are the signs, the marches, the letters and newsletters of protest? Where are the PROTEST SONGS? I'm not young enough to be involved in this any more ( I once was, however), but if you will do your research, you will see that the power of protest is the only thing that is going to turn this country around. It has worked in the past, it WILL work in the present. The Power of Protest is still as viable and influential today as it was fifty-some years ago, but it has to be applied.

To bring this rant back to writing, think about what it would do for all of us if the economy blossomed again. More publishing houses would get back on their feet; more editors would be hired; more agents would have more money to hire assistants and first readers; and WE could sell more of our work, and get paid better money.

Think about it.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Monday's Meanderings: Review of Chains

2011-09-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

I usually do book reviews on Fridays, but this Friday I will probably be gone all day, so I decided to do one today. I just finished reading...actually, re-reading... Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson. This is a 'must read' for anyone who enjoys historical fiction. It is a middle grade level novel.

In the spring of 1776, 13 year-old Isabel and her 5 year-old sister Ruth, who is prone to "fits" ( seizures), were sold by the unscrupulous nephew of their present owner, Miss Mary, when she dies. Their new owners are ruthless, cruel, and wealthy Loyalists who live in New York. Almost as soon as she gets off the boat, Isabel is accosted by a friendly young slave named Curzon, who has considerably more freedom than Isabel will have in her new home. Curzon plays a role in helping the soldiers of the American Revolution, and begs Isabel to, literally, become a spy. She refuses because of her fear of being found out by her new owners, whom she already knows are cruel and unfeeling towards their slaves.

However, after her little sister Ruth is sold in the middle of the night while Isabel sleeps, she is again approached by rebels who promise to give her freedom if she agrees to spy. She uses her "cloak of invisibility" which whites unwittingly give to their slaves, and listens in on the conversations of her owner, Master Lockton, as he and his Tory friends make plans to stop the rebel uprisings. She sees the place where Lockton hides a document that he and the others, including the mayor, have signed, that would definitely cause him to be arrested. That night, she steals into his library, finds the document, and takes it to the rebel commander.

That act of espionage, however, does not lead to freedom for her or any promise to find the missing Ruth, which then leads Isabel to distrust the Americans as well as the British.

This book is full of exciting events, too many to discuss here, but it is more than the events of Isabel's life which make the story to engrossing. This is a story about slavery...but not in the South, as most novels about slavery are, but in the very heart of the North, New York City. How was it different here, than in the South? The answer is that the institution of slavery was the same everywhere, only the duties of the slaves were different. In the South, they labored on plantations; in the North, they labored in their Mistresses' bedrooms and kitchens, and served their Masters in many ways, sometimes unspeakable.

This is the story of one thirteen year old slave who could read and write, and who was strong, intellegent, intuitive, loving, emotionally mature, and above all, fiercely determined to be free and find her lost sister and free her, also.

But it's more than that. It's a story of what slavery was like in the 1770s in the British dominated North; a story where the British could be seen as the "good guys", if there is such a thing in a war... when both sides believe they are right, what constitutes the "good" over the "bad?" It is a story where history, morality, and a sense of right over wrong meld into the most minute details and sensory perceptions, and make this story come alive, putting the reader into history itself of 200 years ago.

Chains is a remarkable book, made all the more so by the careful way Anderson weaves the themes of powerlessness, sadistic ownership, invisibility, morality, the sources of human hope and strength, and the overwhelming desire for freedom together to make a fascinating story you won't be able to put down.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wanderings: Blogging No No's

2011-09-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

Monday's blog was all about the "what to do" in blogging that I learned from one of my conference workshops over the weekend. Today I'm going to talk about the "what not to do" in blogging. The workshop I attended was taught by Anne R. Allen, who has a great blog on writing and publishing, so stop by and visit hers.

IMPORTANT NOT TO DO:

1. Ignore comments. Sometimes we get to involved in our own writing that we forget to read, much less respond to, the comments that people leave after a post. This is a biggy...you must respond! If you ignore those comments, people will think "Why bother? she probably doesn't even read them." It's not only respectful to respond, but it's also a good way to stimulate discussions.

2. "Crying in the wilderness." This was good for a laugh! Anne says if no one is coming to visit your blog, go find others that interest you and LEAVE COMMENTS! People aren't going to automatically know you have a blog... you have to get the word out yourself. As she said, Social Networking is SOCIAL, so use it to your advantage!

3. Using your blog as a personal journal. No one wants to look up your blog and read your personal thoughts ( usually bad ones) on how long you were stuck in traffic today! Or how you had to stay home and miss lunch with the girls because of a sick kid. Sure, it's okay to throw in a personal tidbit once in a while, but if your blog is there for professional reasons, don't crowd your professionalism out with a lot of personal junk that is interesting to no one but you.

4. Complain about rejections, agents, editors, and bad reviews. Oh, my! This is another of those BIGGIES! You never know when agents and editors just might decide to take a break from the slush pile and check out your name...and blog. Even if you're not complaining about them specifically, the fact that you ARE complaining is very unprofessional and that will turn them off quicker than a bad query. Ok, we all post about our rejections...after all, misery loves company! But DO NOT EVER put a name or any kind of identifying "characteristic" in your post. And if you can find a bit of humor in the whole thing, post that...it's better to laugh than to cry.

5. Posting unpublished works of any kind, if you ever hope to get them published. Did you know that is infringing on your own copyright? I didn't, but Anne says it is. Posting a story, poem, or non-fiction for a critique, for example, is NOT the way to go. Join a critique group or get a beta reader, but don't rely upon the public. If your work can be read on your blog for free, why should an agent accept it for representation or an editor for publication? Just DON'T DO IT!

Exception to the above: you can post short excerpts for blogfests and contests that connect you with other writers. "Short excerpts" = one or two paragraphs.

6. Not linking to other blogs. Don't be afraid to send your readers off to read someone else. It's another way to start discussions, and links raise your Google profile.

7. Blogging too often and/or erratically. If you have nothing to say, don't say it! One or two posts a week is plenty, and doesn't interrupt your writing time. Remember that novel you're writing...the one you need your blog to promote? Go work on it instead of posting just to be posting! Don't be erratic about your posting, keep to a schedule, even if it is only once a week. Keep the same day or days, and don't skip around. ( er...I need to take my own advice!) If you take a break from blogging, that's fine but let your followers know that's what is happening.

8. WHITE TEXT ON DARK BACKGROUNDS! Another biggie! Every "how to blog" article says never use white text on a dark background, but many of the blogs you visit have this. This is SOOO hard on the eyes! No matter how "pretty" you think it is, it is not cool, it is a sure "go away" sign.

9. Forgetting the #1 Rule of blogging. Want followers? Follow! Want comments? Comment! No one is going to follow you if you don't follow them, or comment on your blog if you never comment on theirs. This is Social Networking, gang, get it?

My thanks to Anne for a great workshop. If she visits me, I hope I've quoted her correctly. If not, I apologize. Her blog is: www.annerallen.blogspot.com.

I also hope these tips about what to do and what not to do in blogging have been helpful to my readers, and that y'all have learned something new!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Monday's Meanderings: Do You Know How to Blog?

2011-09-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to a conference, and one of the workshops I took was titled " Blogging: A Must For a Writer." The presenter was Anne R. Allen, who has a blog...www.annerallen.blogspot.com...about writing. When I was signing up for the workshops, I hesitated about hers because I already have a blog, but then I decided I could always use some new tips on blogging. Her information was solid and helpful, so I'm going to pass along some of it to you.

IMPORTANT TO DO:

1. Read other blogs and comment, comment, comment! That is one way to get your name out, besides making the blog author feel good. Always leave your own blog address in your comment, then those who read the comments can find you. She also said it was important to respond to the people who leave comments on your blog.

2. Your name should always be in the title of your blog. "Cutesy" titles relating to writing, or to your family, or to your dog, are great if you are not concerned about readers, editors, publishers, and agents finding you on the Internet. But if you are blogging seriously, with the intent of making your presence as a writer known, then your blog absolutely has to have YOUR NAME in the title. She talked about how search engines look for new names in any field...business, writing/publishing, medicine, etc... and if your name is not in the title of your blog, you can't be found by anyone.

3. Publishers, editors, and agents DO look at blogs. If you've had an acceptance from a query, even if it's only for a partial, the publisher or editor or agent will probably look you up on the Internet, especially if you've given the name of your blog in your personal information. If your name is not in the title of your blog, this is not going to make a great impression, even if your blog is well-written. Putting your name in the title is the number one thing to do with your blog. (Great...only my first name is on the address of my blog, and my name isn't on the title at all. Guess that means I have to change it...can you do that with Blogger?)

4. Use TAGS...as many as possible. This was an interesting comment. I've never used tags, didn't know they were important at all. She said that the tags, again, were a way for Google and other search engines to find you. You should tag the name of anyone mentioned in your blog post, as well as the main topics of your post. Anne called it Search Engine Optimization! Something else I need to start doing!

5. Keep to a schedule! Anne suggested once a week, and on the same day each week. She said that if you have nothing to say, DON'T POST! This was mainly for people who are new to blogging, but she was insistent about how you needed to have something of worth to post about, not just post because you're taking a break from writing, and can't think of anything else to occupy your time!

6. Anne talked about privacy settings, and said you should turn off Word Verification, because it does NOT prevent spammers, and it's annoying to most who come to leave comments. I definitely agree about that, I hate those dumb things! She also said that comments over a week all should be sent to you for approval, because old ones attract spam.

7. She talked about how your blog should look. She suggested using only a very few pictures, and NO MUSIC! You should definitely have an "about me" page, and she also suggested other "gadgets" such as "followers," "subscribe," "share," and "search." Blogger now has pages you can add as well as the gadgets, so that's a big plus.

These were all the "positive" or "should do" tips Anne gave. My next post will be about all the "negative" or "should not do" tips. Stay tuned!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wandering: What Do You Celebrate?

2011-09-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

True to form, I'm running behind in my posts. Let's see, I tried to come up with an excuse, but couldn't find any that sounded legitimate, so let's try this one :

I'm going to a conference this weekend, and I've been trying to finish an article to submit next week, write a synopsis of the 60,000 word historical novel I would like to find an agent for, and making up new business cards because I waited too long to have them made for me. Will that do??

Hmm. Well, okay, let's get to the business at hand!

What do you celebrate? I mean, besides the usual birthdays and anniversaries. Last week I celebrated the fact that my husband, who has been very ill, is now well on his way to recovery. I know this to be true because he's now getting grouchy, can't stand to "take it easy," so that's a sure sign of wellness! I celebrated by going to Starbucks and getting us both a Grande Caramel Frappachino with extra caramel LOL.

Sunday we both celebrated the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Now, don't get upset. You probably think "celebrate" is exactly the wrong word to use. We lost friends that day, friends who were visiting the Towers when the planes hit. We have grieved over their deaths long enough. Sunday we celebrated their lives, who they were, the kind of people they were, what they stood for, the strength, love, dedication to their family... all of the good qualities they had, and there were many. This is what we celebrated. We raised a toast ( okay, it was coffee, but still...) not to their deaths, but to their lives. We are bound to the thousands of friends and families of those who died that day, but for us, it was time to gently lay aside our personal grief and remember the good, instead of focusing on the bad.

Yesterday I celebrated an agent's rejection! When I opened my email yesterday morning, and found a post from her, I was so excited! Then I read it, and my excitement deflated faster than a balloon with a hole in it. I was so disappointed, as she was someone I really wanted to connect with.

Then I read her post again, and thought...WOW! It was personal, addressed to "Dear Mikki." In it, she said that she liked my story ( it was my historical novel) but didn't "fall in love" with it, so she was passing on it. She went on to say not to give up, that what one agent didn't love another one would. Keep writing!

Now, I don't know about you, but to me that rejection was something to keep, and something to celebrate! How many times do we get a really personal rejection? How many times do we get a cold form rejection? How many times do we not get anything at all, and after months of waiting, have to assume we've been passed by?

Yes, this was my very first personal rejection. NOT my first rejection by any means, but the first really personal one. So I am celebrating it! I'm telling everyone I know all about it, even those friends and family members who look at me strangely and wonder if maybe I've lost a few marbles. Okay, I know no one but my writer friends will understand, but that's all right, it still doesn't put a damper on my celebration.

What will I celebrate today? Perhaps getting my new business cards made up... if I do. Or finishing that synopsis to take along to the conference... if I can finish it so that it makes sense. Or who knows? Hopefully, I WILL have something to celebrate today, even if it is just some small accomplishment that doesn't mean anything to anyone but me.

What do you celebrate? Think about it. Let me know.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Monday's Meanderings: Random Acts of Kindness?

2011-09-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday I was driving down the freeway, minding my own business, when up ahead I noticed a car waiting...and waiting...at the on-ramp. I was in the right lane, no traffic at the moment behind me or in the left lane, but cars ahead of me wouldn't let this car onto the freeway. I never stop on the freeway to let a car come on, and I seldom slow down, either, because there's usually traffic behind me. But this time, something said...slow down and let the car on. I checked again...no cars close behind me... so I slowed down just a bit and motioned for the driver to come ahead.

The driver was a woman, who waved cheerily at me as she came onto the freeway just ahead of my car. As we picked up speed, three kids in the back seat of her car all stuck their heads out of the back window... for a moment looking like those "bobble heads" you see on dashboards... and started blowing kisses to me. What a pleasant surprise! I laughed at them, and blew a kiss back.

Then her car picked up speed, as in about 15 miles above the 65 mph limit, and she abruptly turned into the left lane right in front of a big truck. She almost gave me a heart attack, because it was an 18-wheeler who had to brake for her. He probably sat uncomfortably in his britches for the next few miles! It was then that I saw all three of those kids bobbing around in the back seat, and realized they did not have their seat belts on. The mother did, I saw it. Why didn't they?

I could see her car up ahead...a bright yellow Taurus, kinda hard to miss... and could see her reeling in and out of traffic, from one lane to the other, until she finally disappeared from view...still going at about 80 to 85 mph. I couldn't stand it... I didn't want to read the next day about a woman and her three children being injured or dead in a car accident. I pulled over to the shoulder, stopped, and called 911. All I could give the dispatcher was the make, model, and color of her car, but also how fast she was going and that the children didn't have on seat belts. She sent it out to the CHPs.

The rest of the way home I was thinking about that car. I had slowed down on the freeway to let her get on... something that ordinarily I wouldn't have done, because it's not exactly safe driving. A "random act of kindness." That got me to thinking about "random acts of kindness." We all do them. Most of the time, we do them without thinking about the act itself, so I guess that's why they are called "random."

I wonder, though, what effect that act, whatever it was, has upon the person who receives that little bit of kindness. Does it affect them in any way? Does it make them want to "pay it forward," or do they forget it as quickly as it was done?

My letting that car on the freeway was of no importance as to how the woman was driving or why her children didn't have on seatbelts. She would still have eventually gotten on, and she would still have begun driving fast and erratically. But I wonder if she gave any thought at all to having someone actively "allow" her on the freeway? I wonder if she considered it an act of kindness, or... did she simply consider it her "due" because she needed to get on, therefore I "should" have slowed down for her? If I had not slowed down, would sitting there a few moments longer have had any impact on her driving? I seriously doubt it.

Nevertheless, it got me to thinking about the concept of 'random acts of kindness.' How often do you commit this kind of random act? Are you aware at the time that you are doing something for someone else, or is it just a passing thought that doesn't have any real meaning for you, but at the moment you hope it will help someone else? How many times are the acts of kindness you pass along to someone really "random," and how many times are they deliberate? Either way, do you ever think about the effect that act might have upon the person receiving it? Will it always be good... or could that act possibly lead, at times, to something more evil than good?

Think about it. Let me know.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Tuesday's Teaser: Create a Setting That's "In Character":Part Two

2011-08-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

Last week I talked about using all five senses in your setting, and how that can add to your overall scene. But what else is important in creating a setting for your characters?

The first thing to think about is where the major part of your story takes place. Is it in a fictional town, fantasy world, alien planet? Is it in the desert or a forest or the middle of a city? When you know where it takes place, then answer this question: is it possible for it to take place somewhere else?

Before you answer THAT question, think about your Main Character's relationship to the setting: is this a place where she grew up or someplace that she relocated to; is it a place she loves or fears or perhaps just takes for granted; is she familiar with it, or does it seem strange or alien to her; if you take her out of this setting and put her somewhere else, will the story still work? Sometimes we need to know more about our main characters before we decide where to set the story. It usually doesn't work to decide upon a place where we want to set the story, and then go back and work our characters into it.

Now you've decided definitely upon the place for your setting. How do you bring it to life? Think about this: you're on vacation. You've gone to wonderful little fishing village on the coast of France that you've longed to visit. What are your feelings when you get there? What sensory overload do you enjoy...the piquant odor of freshly caught fish on open tables, the taste of ocean salt upon your lips, the rough texture of the cobblestone streets beneath your feet, the deep blue of the sea, dotted heavily by the white sails of fishing boats, and the hungry cries of circling sea birds overhead?

What emotions are you experiencing during your visit? How do you react to the people, the language? Are you familiar with them, or is everything so new that it either intrigues you or frightens you? This is what brings this village to life for you, and these same elements should bring the setting to life for your characters.

And remember, how your MC reacts to the setting she's in, the emotions she feels, the way she might describe what she sees or hears or feels will not be the same for your other characters. Just as we all act and react differently to all issues in our lives, including those that are specific to the setting we're in, so will your characters act, interact, and react differently.

When you're describing your setting, don't think you have to suddenly become a travel writer, and describe every house, tree, or flower in minute detail. What you want to do is bring your setting to life through your characters, especially your main character. For example, my historical novel is set in pre-Civil War Kentucky. Because it is historical, all of the physical facts ( geography, weather, kinds of housing, clothing, etc. ) have to be accurately portrayed, but there is more to bringing a setting to life than those factors. I've included parts of speech, expressions and colloquialisms, that were used during those times; what kind of family discussions were appropriate for that era; how my MC interacted with his father, which is much different than the way kids interact with parents today; what kinds of inner conflicts my MC had because of where he was, his own beliefs, and the beliefs and conventions of the institution of slavery.

These factors, and more, all add to the historical accuracy of that era, but more importantly, bring the setting of slavery on a plantation to life through the emotions, actions, interactions, and reactions of my MC with his environment...i.e..the setting of the novel.

Your setting does not have to be that of an historical novel. No matter what time era it is, no matter whether it is a contemporary setting in today's world, or a fantasy setting in a never-never land, you still need to bring that setting to life. You need to make good use of the five senses; you need to have a great descriptive narrative; most of all, you need to develop a strong 'sense of place' through your characters, and how each feels about and reacts to that setting. Each one will be different, and each of those differences will bring your setting to life in such a way as to make your readers believe they are a part of it.

Have fun with it, enjoy it, make it come alive, and your setting will become its own character in your novel.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Friday's Fare: Review of Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life

2011-08-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Middle school! The time in any kid's life when he or she really, truly, begins to "grow up". But growing up means dealing with problems not usually found in elementary school: changes in one's body; changes in one's personality, usually steming from said changes in one's body; homework which increases both in terms of quantity and difficulty; attraction to girls, along with things like dances, sports, and cheerleading; grades, which are definitely more important than they were during the past 5 years in school; and of course, the seemingly ever present bully.

All of these things can be really tough on any kid, but when Rafe Khatchadorian enters 6th grade, "tough" becomes "impossible to survive." He hates his school, which he insists was at one time a medieval prison that they forgot to tear down and turned into a middle school instead.

Today that prison is home to the Diabolical Dragon Lady ( his English teacher); the Lizard King ( the principal); the Three Witches Millie, Billie, and Tillie ( the cafeteria ladies); Sargeant Stricker ( the vice-principal); The Ogre ( the gym teacher ); and..oh yes, we mustn't forget Miller the Killer, the ( 9 foot ) school bully.

Unfortunately for Rafe, home is no refuge, either. Here he deals with his little sister Georgia who is "super-obnoxious" and "super bratty;" his mother whom he loves dearly but is never around because she is always working . She has to work double shifts to support not only him, his sister, and herself, but also Rafe's soon-to-be-stepfather who does nothing but lay around all day, drinking beer and watching TV. Carl, better known as Bear, is in his own way as big a bully as Miller the Killer.

The one saving grace for Rafe is his very best friend, Leonardo the Silent. "The Silent" because he hardly ever talks, and when he does it's just to Rafe. Leo comes in very handy, however, because he gives Rafe an idea of how to "beat the system" of 26 pages of RULES for middle school behavior. It is a stupendous idea!

Rafe invents a game based on Leo's idea. That game is going to give him points for breaking every rule of conduct on each of those 26 pages. All Rafe has to do is figure out the best way for each rule to be broken. He also get "bonus" points for the amount of creativity used in breaking a rule, points for causing laughter from the other kids when he breaks a rule ( because he intends to break each one in a most obvious way, so that everyone...including the Dragon Lady and the Lizard King...knows about it), and of course, MORE bonus points if he is observed by the most popular girl in school, Jeanne Galletta.

But things don't turn out exactly as Rafe has planned. He is spending more and more time in detention, his grades are D's and F's...even some unasked-for tutoring by Jeanne can't bring them up, and he makes his mom cry. Events take a turn for the worse when he loses his book with his rule-breaking game in it to Miller the Killer, and the only way he can get it back is to buy it, one page at a time. So now he is in even bigger trouble, something he didn't think possible, and this time, Leo can't get him out of it.

His troubles just keep mounting up until finally the police are called in, and Rafe has no choice but to tell all. Surprisingly enough, help comes from a most unexpected source, and Rafe realizes that life can not only get better, but be far more exciting by going in a totally different direction...one he loved, but never thought would amount to anything.

This is the hilarious and amazing adventure of one boy's misguided attempts to survive middle school. James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts teamed up to make a fascinating graphic novel, all the more exciting because of Laura Park's hysterical illustrations which detail every thought and move in Rafe's life.

The game that Rafe invented to break all the rules and the ways in which he broke them are delightfully imaginative, even though they sometimes border on dangerous, and inevitably, lead him to pay the consequences of his actions. Nevertheless, you will identify with him, probably remember with great clarity some of your most poignant moments in middle school, and you will undoubtedly laugh out loud with each page you turn.

The most tender and emotional moment in the book is the revealing of Rafe's mysterious friend, Leo. After laughing all through the book unil your sides hurt, this revelation will bring tears to your eyes.

Middle School: the Worst Years of My Life is one of the best kids' book I've ever read, one I will most probably read again, and one which I assure you should be on your list of 'next to buy.' You won't regret it...oh yes, and if you have a boy ( or girl) in or getting ready to go into middle school, be sure you let them read it, too!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Tuesday's Teaser: Create a Setting That's "In Character":Part One

2011-08-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

What does the setting of your story say about the story itself, and more importantly, about your main character? Do you give much thought to the setting, or is it something that just "happens" as you go along?

Every character in your story lives, works, plays, cries, laughs, and thinks someplace. They don't just drift in and out of the story from out of the blue. Your MC doesn't live in some vague dimension where there is no sense of time, of space, atmosphere, or weather. She doesn't walk on air; she doesn't sit on nothing, and her five senses are not totally inactive for the length of your story.

Let's talk about those five senses first. As writers, we all rely heavily on sight, as that is our own human nature. When you use sight, what kind of description to you give? Let's say the MC is lost in the desert. Is that the end of it? Perhaps you give the desert a name, talk about her dragging through the heavy sand. For example:

She stood on top of the dune and scanned the desert. She was lost, and she had no idea what to do next. All around her was sand, nothing but hot, deep sand. She brushed at the tears on her cheeks, and stepped resolutely forward.

That give us sight, but nothing more. We don't see or hear or smell or feel the desert. What about this next example:

She stood on top of the dune and scanned the desert. There was nothing as far as she could see but the hot sand creating one mirage after another on the horizon. Overhead, the raucous cries of the turkey buzzards drifted down to her as they glided on the thermals in search of carrion. The slight breeze gifted her face with the red grit from the sand, and the unique odor of the creosote bushes was not one she could identify. A single tear crept down her cheek and kissed her lips with salt, before she brushed it away, and resolutely stepped forward into the deep sand.

Does this setting do more for the character? Do you get a sense of what SHE is feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling, and touching? Can you picture this location in your mind, and do so better than with the first example? If so, it is because this description uses all five senses, and it gives the reader two things: one is a true picture of the desert itself, and the other is a better understanding of the character. She is no longer one dimensional, but she hears and smells and feels and tastes as well as sees...just like we do.

Using all five senses is very important to your story and to your characters. All five don't have to be used in every scene, and shouldn't be or that would be a real "sensory overload," but they should be interspersed, one or two at a time, as your characters go along in their lives, just as they are in our lives.

There are other elements to setting besides the five senses. Time, place, location, weather, atmosphere, housing, transportation, life style, culture, art, even food and clothing are all a part of the setting. Not all of these are going to play a part in every story, of course, but you need to pick and choose which elements are going to be important enough for you to write about.

In fantasy and science fiction, writers seem to spend a great deal of time writing about their make-believe worlds. They go to great lengths to describe physical locations, castles, rocket ships, weird animals, electronic weapons and gadgetry...anything to make the reader "see" this new world the characters are romping around in.

Think about the Harry Potter novels. Weren't you able to "see" Hogwarts, and all of the characters in that first book long before the first movie came out? It was only because JK Rowlings spent a considerable amount of time in detailing the settings.

This should hold true for writers of contemporary fiction, too, but seldom does. Yet setting is one of the most important elements of any story, regardless of genre or time era. How do you react to your environment? Do you act differently, feel differently, when you are in a familiar place versus somewhere strange you've never been before? Are you more observant of the places you are unfamiliar with than the ones you've grown up in? That is human nature, so it should be "in character" for our stories, too.

We'll talk about characters and settings in Part 2 of this theme. Stay tuned, hopefully I will be bringing you something new to think about!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Friday's Fare: Review of Theodore Boone: The Abduction

2011-08-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

Theodore Boone: the Abduction is the second in John Grisham's series about a thirteen year-old boy-turned-lawyer...almost. Theo is the son of two attorneys and has grown up with the law. He fully expects to become a trial lawyer and then quite probably a famous judge when he is out of school. In the meantime, he tries dilegently to solve all the "legal" problems his friends and classmates have. He knows every attorney, law clerk, bailiff, and most of the judges in the town where he lives, and spends as much time as he can get away with in the courtroom when a trial is going on.

But all this knowledge doesn't help him one bit when his best friend, April Finnemore, disappears in the middle of the night. She is not the kind of kid to run away...the whole town agrees on this. But the house shows no signs of break-in, which means either she has run away, or she knows the person who took her, and let him in the house while she was alone.

Theo knows more about April than most anyone else: her father is an aging, wannabee rock star who is always off somewhere with the scudsy band he plays with, made up of other aging, drug-using wannabees who can't manage to score gigs in anything but seedy bars and run-down dance halls; her mother is very often not at home, as she wasn't on the night April went missing, she takes pills for everything that could possibly ail her, and April thinks she is losing her mind.

None of this matters when Jake Leeper appears on the scene. Jake is a convicted long-time criminal who has escaped from prison, and shows up in the small town of Strattenburg. When it comes to light that April had become his "pen pal" while he was in prison...why, no one knows...the police forget about anything but Jake and, when he is captured, making him tell them what he did to April. They are convinced he kidnapped her, but have no evidence of any kind to back that assumption up.

However, Theo is determined to find April himself, or find out what happened to her, so he and his next-best friend, Chase, take it upon themselves to, first of all, find April's father. Once again, Theo goes to his Uncle Ike for help. Ike has gotten a note from someone who claims the band April's father is in, Plunder, is down in Raleigh, North Carolina, playing in bad bars and for college frat houses.

Theo and Chase begin tracking down all the fraternities and sororities in North Carolina on the Internet, calling the most likely ones, and finally track Plunder down to one location. Through much subterfuge and not-quite-little-white-lies, Theo gets Ike to "borrow" one of the family cars, while Theo's parents are out of town, and the two of them race to North Carolina, find the fraternity where the band is, find April who has run away, all right, but with her father and without her mother's knowledge, and bring April home.

To wind the story up: Jake Leeper is returned to prison, April's father and mother both promise to enter counseling and rehab, Theo's mother becomes April's temporary guardian until something either positive or negative happens with her family, and Theo is once again the hero of the day for finding April.

Okay. Once again Grisham has failed to write a convincing Middle Grade novel. Kids may like it, that's true, but from my perspective as a Middle Grade author, it fails miserably in many ways. Theo relies too heavily upon adults to help him, either with the solution to the problem, or help in carrying out the solution. His parents, Ike, and of course, Judge Gantry, are always heavily endowed as secondary characters.

The story drags. There is far too much dialogue that doesn't go anywhere, and that is more often between the adults in the story than between Theo and any other kid. There are pages and pages devoted to the police detectives, Slater and Capshaw, and their interrogations of Jake Leeper, and in which there is no Theo to be seen or heard from. Chapter Seven, for example, is a 10 and 1/2 page chapter that is devoted almost entirely to an interrogation of Leeper, with only the first 3 1/2 pages having anything to do with Theo, and in that, no action, no dialogue, just narration.

All in all, this story bored me as much as the first one. There is no real mystery, no danger, no excitement, and certainly NO suspense, because the reader already knows that Theo is going to save the day, BUT with the help of the adults.

Most people reading this, after reading the first in the series, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, would have assumed ( at least, I did) that it was a sequel to the first, but it's not. However, on the very last page, a reference was made to the first story, wherein a murder trial ended in a mistrial, again thanks to Theo with the help of adults. This time, Theo's friend, Judge Gantry, told him that a new trial had been set for Pete Duffy ( the defendent in the first story). So obviously, there will be a third book in this series.

Mr. Grisham, you have once again disappointed me. I DO wish you would read up on middle grade stories by "real" middle grade authors! I'm not at all sure I will be reading anything more about Theodore Boone. I LOVE your books...but only when they are for adult readers.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Tuesday's Teaser: Journey Into Writing: The Middle

2011-08-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

How did you begin your writing career? Was writing a passion from childhood or teen years on? Or did you take it up later in life, as I did?

I've always loved to write, and in an earlier post described that beginning, but then I seemed to take a whole "lifetime" off before I began seriously again.

In July, 2006, I signed up for my first Institute of Children's Literature course, and had a wonderful instructor. The course was terrific, and I learned so much that I didn't know I didn't know! For my first non-fiction assignment, I decided to write a "creative" NF piece about a small part of the Amazon Rainforest. My instructor was very impressed, and told me I should start thinking about writing a NF article for publication. Publication? So soon? I was amazed that she thought I could actually write something publishable after being in the course for only a short time.

I was encouraged, however, so I started looking through guidelines for some of the children's magazines. Nothing came of that effort at the time, however, as I got caught up in the next assignments. When my second NF asignment came up, I went back to the guidelines and saw that a future issue of ODYSSEY was going to be about...get this...POOP! Yes, that's right, all about POOP. The first thing that came to my mind was, of course, horse manure...er, poop...and that brought to mind dung beetles. We had dung beetles all over our ranch because they ate the horse poop. So I wrote my assignment about dung beetles ( you have no idea how many different kinds of dung beetles there are...each type eats only a certain kind of poop...and that's probably more than you ever wanted to know about poop and beetles, right?)

Okay, to get back to the point: I wrote the assignment, my instructor made a very observations, and wanted me to make it more factual rather than "creative." I worked on it aside from the assignment, and in doing some Internet research, I came across a great article by an Entymologist from the University of Montana. I decided to send him an email, tell him who I was and what I was doing, and see if he would give me an interview. I figured the worst that could happen was for him to delete the email. But he didn't...he replied, asked me to send him my article and he'd critique it. I did, he was impressed, gave me an interview, and the article was published in the POOP! issue of ODYSSEY magazine. My first publication! I was thrilled!

When I completed the first ICL course, my instructor recommended that I take the Advanced Novel Writing course. I not only took one, and completed a contemporary novel for Middle Grade girls, but I took a second course, and completed an Historical Fiction taking place in pre-Civil War days for YA boys age 12 to 14. Neither of them has been published yet, but I'm confident that I will find the right agent or publisher in time. Hopefully.

In the meantime, however, I've published several short stories, including one in a children's anthology, and some poetry. The poetry is for adults, however, not for children.

Now, I have a couple of stories that I'm ready to send out, and I'm working on two new novels: one is another historical story, about a traveling carnival, a freak show, a disfigured MC, and a murder, all taking place during the Great Depression; the second is also a murder mystery, but it is a much darker story, taking place in modern times. Both are Young Adult.

My story has come to an end, but not my journey. It continues, for giving up is not an option. This is a road not less traveled, but well traveled, with all the accompanying twists, turns, detours, dead-ends, and potholes, but nevertheless, one which I believe will ultimately lead to my destination.

Are you traveling it with me?

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Friday's Fare: Review of Theodore Boone:Kid Lawyer

2011-08-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

I bought this book some time ago, because John Grisham is one of my favorite authors. My reaction when I had finished reading it was a kind of...hmmm. So I decided to read it again in order to review it.

Theodore Boone is the son of two trial lawyers who have their own firm, in which Theo has his own office. He is in love with the law, and considers himself just a smaller version of a "real" attorney...who will someday take the Bar. He is on a first name basis with the law clerks and bailiffs at the courthouse, since he hangs out there when he's not in school. And when he is in school, all his classmates come to him for legal advice. He also regularly visits one of the prominent judges who hears criminal cases.

At the moment, there is a notorious murder trial going on, at which Judge Gantry is presiding. Theo talks to him about the trial, and although Grisham is careful not to let the judge say anything prejudicial or reveal any legal thoughts or opinions, in real life, a thirteen year old kid would not be allowed in to the office of a presently sitting judge, most especially one who is hearing a murder case.

During the murder trial, a friend of Theo's tells him privately that his cousin, who is an illegal alien, has some key evidence that will definitely prove the suspect in this case is guilty. However, the boy is afraid to come forward to the authorities because of his immigration status. Now Theo has a moral dilemma: how to get this evidence before the judge, and not rat out his friend's cousin. Things become especially serious when it looks like the defendent is going to walk out a free man, because there is not enough evidence to convict him...unless Theo comes forward. Which he finally does, but not until he brings his parents, uncle, and Judge Gantry in on the whole problem. Once he does that, the adults work together with him to solve the problem of key evidence and illegal alien. The ending is flat, without interest, conviction of the defendent is left up in the air...or...up to being solved in the sequel that is sure to come.

John Grisham is a master storyteller, but perhaps he should review some of the really good books written specifically for MG/YA by MG/YA authors. This book drags. It takes 50 pages to get to the first court scene, and from then on, nothing spectacular happens. Unfortunately, nothing spectacular has happened prior to that, either. It is a wandering discourse on criminal law, with Theo sounding just a little too much like an encyclopedia on law.

Theo is too perfect, so much so he got on my nerves with my second reading, and he is a one-dimensional character, as are all the characters in this book. It is totally unrealistic, for one thing...kids might talk to him about some small problem they are having, but to have him actually go to court in their behalf ( so okay, it was only Animal Court, but still...) and speak as their "attorney" is more than a little far-fetched. When one of his teachers asks him for legal advice, suspension of disbelief goes down the drain!

There is almost no action in this book, merely a series of conversations that lead...I could say, nowhere, but I guess ultimately they lead to the conclusion of the story...such as it is. There is no suspense, no mystery ( shame on you, John!), no danger, a predictible conclusion which isn't really a conclusion at all, because the murder defendent walks out of the courthouse, supposedly with a new trial hanging over his head...but is it really?

My first reading of this book was indecisive, my second read unsatisfactory. The sequel is on its way, but now I'm dreading having to read it! I'm afraid it's going to be more of the same. I wanted and expected Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer to be the kind of legal thriller...only kid style...that John Grisham usually writes. It wasn't. I am disappointed.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wandering: Why Do You Blog?

2011-08-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

Everyone talks about how having a blog and being on Facebook or Twitter are important for "building a social presence." It's important to have something about yourself "out there" for the roaming agent or editor to find.

Recently I've been researching agents, and I've come across a couple of interesting remarks from interviews with certain agents. I'm going to share them, and I hope you'll tell me what you think.

The first was a contradiction of much I've read. This agent said that she had never understood why writers put blogs up when they had nothing particularly interesting to say. (Wow, that's kinda a slap in the face, right?) She went on to say that most of the agents she knew were far too busy to go around "surfing" the Internet in the off chance they would find the blog, or Facebook/Twitter page, of a writer whom they would be interested in representing; she said that when she read a query that excited her enough to ask for a partial, she was far more interested in reading the partial, perhaps asking for a full, and then TALKING to the writer, than she was in wasting her time reading a blog. She claimed that most blogs were full of posts unrelated to writing, and that often they were simply full of the writer's life, her/his kids and their activities, etc., and she didn't care to waste her time on them.

Hmmm.....

The second interview was more enlightening. This agent said that she often went to a writer's blog, but that it was only after reading a query, she didn't have the time to "surf" for writers nor did she know of any agent who did have that kind of time. She said that when she read a query that interested her, even if she didn't ask for a partial, she would go to the writer's blog...but not Facebook or Twitter...just to see what the writer offered.

"Offered." That's when this interview became interesting. She asked, What does the writer offer on her blog? Does she post about different elements in writing, offering help or suggestions to other writers? Does she offer other blogs and websites which are specific to writers? Does she do reviews of books written in her genre or in the genres of writers she knows? What research resources does she post for the benefit of others, especially if she writes non-fiction? Or...does she blog just about the everyday happenings in her life?

She went on to say that she liked to see blogs that were open to comments, and that possibly had a page for a discussion about some particular post. What she didn't say, however, was what effect the blogs she looked at had on her in terms of offering representation, and I was disappointed in that. Did they change her mind about repping that particular writer, either in a positive or negative way? And if so, why? But she didn't go any further with her comments.

These two interviews were taken a couple of years ago, and I was also disappointed to find out from Query Tracker that the second agent had retired at the end of 2009.

My point today is to ask, what do you blog about, and why? Do you post a lot about your personal life and what you do, do you post about current events and ask for opinions or a discussion, or do you post different things that you hope will be beneficial to other writers? Or do you post something entirely different from the above?

There are many blogs, both of writers I know and those I don't, that I find interesting, entertaining, and of value. There are some I've read that are pretty boring, to be truthful. As a retired teacher, I guess I'm never really through with teaching, and I post a lot of things that I've learned throughout this writing journey that I hope will be of help and some value to those who read them. I'm not one for posting a lot about my personal life, although I've started an on-going "edition" ( or whatever you want to call it!) about my own writing journey. I truly hope that my posts...hmm, well, most of them anyway!...are not boring!

But YOU? Why do you blog? What do you blog about? Do you like posts about different elements of writing, and think you might find a bit of a gem that you didn't know before, or do you prefer those blogs that are mostly personal in nature? How many different things do you usually post about, and do you have "themes" for your posts? Is there anything in particular you would like to see on this blog?

Let me know what you think.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Friday's Fare: Last Night I Cried

2011-08-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I was watching a special news broadcast about the terrible famine in Africa. The most horrible part was the headline: 29,000 children under the age of 5 died of starvation in the last 3 months.

Twenty-nine thousand. That is an astounding number. All children, all under the age of 5 years old. That is 1/4...one quarter...of an entire generation, in terms of age. It's not something I can completely comprehend. The number alone...what about the children over the age of 5...how many of them are dead, dying, starving to death?

I was mesmerized by the pictures on the TV in front of me. The faces of the women...almost all of the adult refugess are women...and the children of all ages clustered around them...the hopelessness, the fear, and the grief on the women's faces, the pleading in the eyes of the younger children, and the emptiness on the faces of the older children who already know there is no life for them. I cried for those children and for their mothers.

The longer I watched, the more astonished I became. The camera roved over literally thousands of make-shift tents and huts being used as homes, it lingered on women lining up for what little food and water was being handed out by rescue workers, and it played gently upon the children of all ages...some who sat silently, others who tried to play with whatever ball or piece of a toy was near-by. Why was I astonished?

Because in all of that despair, the only DIRT was on the ground.

The women were dressed in the long dresses of their culture, all of which were neat and in one piece, and their hair was perfectly braided; the children, even those playing around on the ground, had clean faces, arms, and hands, and no matter how ragged their clothes were, they were also clean. The camera swung by many different tents, some with the occupants sitting inside, some were empty. The tents were clean, what few possessions the people had were all placed neatly on chairs or boxes, and if the owners were so lucky as to have a cot for a bed, it was spread nicely with a thin blanket. NO dirt, NO clutter. Amid all that fear and defeat, amid all that hunger, the refugees of Somalia were intent upon making their temporary...or permanent...homes a reflection of the kind of life they had once had...even as they knew they might never have that life again. Or indeed, life of any kind.

The camera left the refugee camp, and went to the borders where the rescue efforts of many different countries, the US included, were being stymied by members of the African Al-Qaeda who want to keep food and supplies away from the refugees. The fighting was horrible, especially considering why it was occurring in the first place. Many times men who inform the rescue people they are "friendlies" who will help deliver the supplies to the camps, merely turn them over to the Al-Qaeda troops who eat and use what they want, then wantonly destroy the rest. It is a crime against humanity, and little seems able to be done.

The camera swings back to one of the camps, and rests upon the face of a young woman who delivered her newborn son in the dirt along the heavily traveled road to this camp. She traveled this road alone, with no one to help in her pain and subsequent delivery. Her husband had been killed in the fighting she had fled. Now, her face is streaked with tears, but she holds this tiny infant, clad only in a piece of a thin...but clean...blanket, in gentle arms. I looked at them, and wondered how long this boychild would survive. Would it be weeks or months...or only days?

How can human beings do this to one another? How can genocide and starvation and the constant random killing and destruction of whole tribes, whole villages, be allowed to continue? What do we, the rational people, have to do to stop this? Or will we continue to be helpless in the face of the demented masses?

Last night I watched TV...last night I cried.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wandering: Review of "As If Being 12 3/4 Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother's Running For President

2011-08-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

Donna Gephart's debut novel, As If Being 12 3/4 Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother's Running For President, is a hilarously funny ( as in "snickersnort funny") story about an almost-teen who is having to deal with being the daughter of the Governor of state of Florida...her mother...and the fact that her mother is now campaigning for the nomination vote for President of the United States.

Vanessa Rothrock would like nothing more than to be just another ordinary student at Lawndale Academy. Instead, she is the only student there with a personal bodyguard, who won't even let her go to the Girls Restroom by herself. Not that he goes inside the restroom, of course, but he stands guard outside and refuses to let any other girl in until Vanessa comes out. That doesn't make for the greatest of popularity. As if that wasn't bad enough, she is followed through the day by news reporters and flash cameras, taking her picture at the most awkward and inopportune times.

Vanessa is also the County Spelling Bee Champ who will now go on to the Regionals...with or without her mother present. She wasn't present for the County Bee...she sent her Press Secretary to stand in for her. Is it so awful for her to want her mother to come to the spelling bees, or be home to play Scrabble with like she used to, or to be with her in the ER after she's broken her wrist in PE? Being the Govenor's daughter, particularly when said Govenor is campaigning, ranks very high in the Life Sucks department.

But Vanessa has more to worry about than the upcoming Regionals or even playing Scrabble. There is Reginald Trumbull, the handsomest boy at Lawndale, who Vanessa is in love with and hopes to someday bear his 2.3 children; there are her humongous feet, which automatically trip her whenever there is a news camera fixating on her...and of course will show her picture in all its gawky glory on the 6 o'clock news; there is the Boob Fairy who has not yet graced Vanessa with her presence, thereby making her practically the only 12 and 3/4 year old girl in all of Florida who does not need a bra; there is the fact that she has to make an appointment to see her mother, but her bodyguard is present 24/7; there are the secret love notes she's getting from an unknown admirer, whom she hopes and prays is actually Reginald; and there are those other notes she is getting...the ones that threaten Vanessa's mother with death if Vanessa doesn't talk her out of running for President.

This is a novel which deals with many teenage issues that most pre-teen girls will understand and identity with: mother/daughter relationships; first crushes; embarrassing moments; teenage insecurities and physical awkwardness; and the issue of a working mother who doesn't have time for her daughter, although she loves her very much. It is also a novel that deals with a daughter fearing for the life of her mother, and the sometimes unlikely things she does to "protect" her mother.

I really liked the story, but found some inconsistencies in it. I didn't see a lot of personal growth in Vanessa, until the very end. I think her character could have been developed a little more. One issue I felt was pretty much ignored was that Vanessa's father was killed in a plane crash, but that's all we know. How did she deal with such a tragic event? How did she get from that terrible happening to where her mother is Govenor and now campaigning for the Presidency? That was something I felt must have been a major issue in her life, and yet it was barely touched upon.

The other thing I got fairly bored with was that on practically every page, one of her spelling words, or any "big" word, was S P E L L E D O U T. That got to be a little A N N O Y I N G !

One other thing is that the book is recommended for teens, and I'm not sure how many older teen-age girls would be interested. The awkwardness, the first love, the spelling bees, all seem more appropriate for 9 to 12 year olds. However, having said that, there are certain concepts, like the "Boob Fairy" for one, that even a 9 year old might not be too familiar with. Over all, though, it is a good read, humorous and sensitive at the same time, and one I can highly recommend.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Tuesday's Teaser: Journey Into Writing: The Beginning

2011-08-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

As writers, we are on a journey. It's a long trip, full of potholes, rough roads, traffic we often can't find an easy way through, signs saying "road closed," and most of all, frustration. The completion of that journey is publication, and is almost always worth that long and tiring trip. Where do we start the journey, and how did we get the impulse to put everything else aside, and...go for it? We all have different stories to tell, and this one is mine.

I was ten years old when I first published. It was a very long poem, not in rhyme, which told about the antics of my three kittens. I was living in a boarding house in Rock Creek, Maryland, with my parents while my father was stationed in Washington, D.C. ( It was during this time that I first saw Congress is action, but that is another story.) My mother thought the poem was great...of course!...so she sent it off to a long-since defunct magazine, The Children's Digest. It was published, I think I received a whole dollar, and I was an author!

The second time I published something, I was twelve years old, and living in Seattle, Washington, while my father was stationed there. We had just come back from Alaska, and before that, from the Philippines. ( yep, I was an Army brat.) I had a Quarter Horse mare, the first horse I'd owned since we left Texas and the ranch. I'd been training her to show, when suddenly she went blind. The vet had no idea why. I was heartbroken, but she was such a good mare, I refused to give up on her. So I continued her training with voice signals to indicate when she came to a jump, or when she needed to turn left or right to avoid running into the fences. I did show her about four months later, and she won several classes. After the show, I wrote an article about her, the training, and her success as a show horse. It was published in the local papers, the major Houston, Texas paper, and in a horse magazine. I guess in those days, "rights" were not a big issue like they are today.

Never in those childhood days did I ever think of writing as a profession. My dream was to become a Musical Theatre singer, which I did at the age of 13. In fact, it wasn't until I was in college that I ever wrote anything that could have been published. I took an Anthropology class, and one of our assignments was to do a project for one of the cultures we had been studying. I chose Japan, and wrote a 20 page book of Haiku poetry. I guess it was pretty good, because my professor had it published for the college library. That was the only other time I attempted poetry of any kind until later in life.

Writing was not even a hobby during the days I was raising my children, nor when I went back to college to finish my degrees. It wasn't until 1996 that I once again wrote something that could possibly be published...some day! I was sitting at the computer one evening in December, 1996, catching up on some horse-related work ( my husband and I had a ranch, and bred, raised and trained Appaloosas), when from out of the blue, an idea came to me about a cockatoo parrot and the North Star. Crazy, huh? But that idea turned in the first of a series of short stories about Great Father ( my name for God, Jehovah, Jesus, Allah, or whatever one wants to call their religious Supreme Being) and his Great Beasts...Lion, Elephant, and Cheetah. And of course, various other characters like Little Donkey, Keira the African Grey Parrot, Goofy the Goffin's Cockatoo, and so on.

There were stories like The Cockatoo and the North Star, my first one; Santa Claus and The Red Light Bird...where an African Grey Parrot with its red tail takes over for Rudolph who has a bad cold, and leads Santa and the reindeer on their Christmas Eve journey; Who Stole The Fourth of July?...where Goofy steals the July 4th day from the calendar, so the Beasts can't celebrate, therefore there won't be fireworks' noise to hurt Elephant's ears; The Search for The Rainbow...where the rain has disappeared from the Great Forest, taking with it the Rainbow, so all the flowers and grass and trees and birds are gone, and Great Father has to send Lion, Elephant, and Cheetah out to search for the Rainbow. There were a couple of other stories, including one about Halloween and the three Great Beasts meeting up with a little dragon who had been banished from his home because he couldn't spit fire, and a would-be ghost who had also been banished because he couldn't become invisible.

These stories were written over a couple of years, passed around to friends with kids...who loved them, but then, ALL little kids love stories about talking animals....and then were put away and for the most part, forgotten about.

Christmas, 2005...my daughter sent me a box of books for Christmas: How to Write and Illustrate Children's Books and Get Them Published; The ABCs of Writing For Children; The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children; and Children's Writer's Word Book. In this awesome gift, she also included a note which said ( paraphrased to be polite) Mom, get off your butt and start writing again!

In July, 2006, I took her...and myself...seriously, and signed up for the first of three courses with the Institute of Children's Literature.

My journey continues...

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Thursday's Thoughts: Blogging and The First Amendment

2011-07-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

I read something in the news today that really got me to thinking, plus getting under my skin. It seems that a high school teacher in Philadelphia was suspended for writing on her personal blog about how lazy, rude, obnoxious, and even dim-witted her students were. She wrote about them not listening in class, not wanting to learn, complaining about the grades they received, and so on. In other words, describing to a T how so many teens are today, specifically those in her classes. She did not name a single kid, but directed her remarks to them all. On her personal blog.

A couple of her students found the blog and reported it to administrators, who promptly suspended her. She retained an attorney, and is now getting her job back. The attorney apparently had to remind school officials that what the teacher says on her blog is protected by the First Amendment, particularly when she doesn't name any of the students.

The article brought to mind a couple of things, one being that this teacher is right on about a great many teens today. For the most part, they seem to all feel they are "entitled" to do or say anything they want to, and NOT do or say anything they don't want to. That includes being rude and obnoxious to adults, and not putting forth any effort to learn in school, yet feeling entitled to join the work force without the skills, knowledge and ability to do so. Having worked with young people for many years, I can see for myself the ways in which their attitudes and thinking have changed over the years, and I agree with everything this teacher said.

However, what concerns me the most is the fact that this teacher was suspended over what she said in her blog. A blog on the Internet certainly does not have any expectation of privacy, so there was nothing wrong with her students finding and reading it. But since when can we NOT say what we think and have opinions about in our own blogs? That's where the rub is.

The First Amendment grants us the right to freedom of speech, which carries over into the freedom to write whatever we want to write. (Given, of course, that what is written is not some kind of libel against someone.) However, sometimes it is also brought up as a diversion from the truth, or as an attack upon someone we don't want to hear or something we think should not have been written. That's when I believe it is misused.

When you blog, how often do you really think about what you are writing? By this I mean, do you ever "ponder" if what you are blogging about might be conceived as a violation of the First Amendment? How could it be, when we are guaranteed the right to say anything under that very same amendment? So when this teacher blogged about her opinions of her students, how could she have been suspended by the school board? Obviously, they believed that she did not have the right to state, on her blog, her opinions of the students she tried to teach on a daily basis.

I wonder what this means to us, as writers, would-be book authors, searching for agents and publishers? Should we think twice about what we post on our blogs? It goes without saying that no professional person, published or not, should ever carry on a contentious conversation on their blog about a run-in with an agent or publisher, or how terrible an editor is because she sent back a "bad" rejection letter, or any of the other "mishaps" we all have along our journey to find representation and/or a publisher.

The First Amendment protects our right to say anything we want to say. But how far does that take us in posting on our blogs? On the Internet, everything is out in the open for anyone to see; we certainly can't say that we expect our private thoughts...when we post them...to remain private. I've read some blogs that are really disgusting...in my opinion, that is...with language right out of the garbage can, on any number of subjects, some equally disgusting, and even people. The only option I have, since these same blogs are protected, is to never read them again, and of course, I don't.

Then there are the politically extremist blogs, full of hate and self-righteous indignation towards our present President, as well as those presidents in the past. Do they have the right to spew out their racially charged expletives, their lies, their vicious and venomous remarks? Apparently, they are also protected by the First Amendment, regardless of how decent, intelligent, and objective people feel about them.

Think about it. Do you ever post anything that could be taken as offensive to someone? Not necessarily someone in our literary profession, but by anyone? The First Amendment gives you that right, but with rights, comes responsibility. Many blogs today abuse the rights this amendment gives them, most of them intentionally. How far can a blog go, before that same amendment will no longer protect it? Or, in this country, where freedom of speech is the FIRST freedom we all espouse, will that amendment never recant that freedom, no matter how radically or extremist the speech, written or spoken, becomes?

Where do "rights" end, and responsibility begin?

Think about it. I'd love to hear your opinions.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Friday's Fare: First Impressions

2011-07-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

Do you remember when you were a kid and your mother used to say, "You only have one chance to make a first impression"? Like it or not, that holds true today in our writing more than anything else. Especially for those of us who write for kids and teens, nothing is more important than that first sentence, paragraph, and page. If we don't capture their interest immediately, they won't continue reading and the book goes back to the library or on their bookshelf where it will gather cute little dust bunnies for the next decade.

So how do you start that first page? What makes a first sentence exciting? How many of you have read Charlotte's Web?
                   "Mama, where's Papa going with that ax?"
Now there's a first sentence to grab you by the throat ! Many writers do begin their novels with dialogue, but it has to be something that is startling, humorous, frightening, or in some other way grabs the attention of the reader and doesn't let go. For example:

                      First the colors. Then the humans. That's usually how I see things.
                      Or at least, how I try.
                                   HERE IS A SMALL FACT.
                                       You are going to die.

Okay, not just a single sentence, but this is how The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak,
begins. Now wouldn't that hold you interest, and make you continue reading? It sure did me !

                               Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

A half-blood? A half-blood of what or who? The first line of The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan. A few sentences down, Riordan goes on to say that ...being a half-blood is dangerous, it could get you killed. (Paraphrasing here.) That will get any kid's attention, right?

I'm going to give you the first sentence of an adult book by Virginia Woolf, and tell you what that sentence says to me. Compare my thoughts with what you may have thought about it.
                    Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.
Here is what the sentence says to me:
1. Question: who is Mrs. Dalloway, and who is she buying flowers for?
2. It tells me that buying flowers herself is not the usual way she does things, so there must be some special reason for her to do it now. I wonder what that reason is?
3. The sentence indicates someone is talking about Mrs. Dalloway to someone else. Who, and why? It's almost as though Mrs.Dalloway has servants, one of whom usually buys her flowers, so that servant is talking to another one because it is unusual for Mrs. D to buy her own flowers . ( May or may not be true.)
4. I get the feeling that there is something mysterious or very different about this simple act of buying flowers, and it makes me want to read on, and find out why Mrs.Dalloway is doing what she's doing.

Did any of the above thoughts occur to you? think about it, and decide why or why not.

Here are some ideas about things to look for and think about in writing your first sentence ( or 2 or 3), always keeping in mind the age of the children or teens you're writing for:

1. Will the make the reader ask questions that can only be answered by reading further?
2. Does it give the impression that something mysterious, or exciting, or dangerous, or very funny is going to happen in the coming pages?
3. Does that first sentence ( or 2 or 3) hint at some kind of goal to be accomplished or conflict to be overcome in future pages?
4. Do you believe your reader will find an immediate emotional connection to your character, or be fascinated by the scene or bits of dialogue you've created?

Now I'm going to give you some first sentences, not all of which come from published novels... some you will recognize, some you may not. Read each one separately, and think about it for a minute. Then ask yourself the above questions, and see if any apply to your feelings about the sentence. If they do, write out the sentence, and then write what you think or feel about it. Keep it for reference when you write your next first sentence, or revise the ones you have now.

1. Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday. I don't know.
2. This is what happened.
3. I don't know why she thought the plan was hers. It wasn't. It couldn't have been.
4. I am invisible. I am flesh and blood, but I am invisible. People see right through me; they walk right past me. They don't hear me crying.
5. Murder never sends out a calling card, so why was it different this time?

I hope you have fun with this, but also, that it helps some in writing those all important "first" sentences...or 2 or 3!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Wednesday's Wanderings: Dog Days of Summer

2011-07-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

It's hot! Temperatures are rising all over the country, including here on the Pacific Coast. Our Mid-State Fair begins today, and historically, that's when our temps begin to reach 100 plus degrees.

The Dog Days of Summer...have you ever wondered where this name came from, and what exactly it means? I have, so I did some research and this is what I found:

In Webster's Dictionary, "dog days" are define as the period between early July and early September when the hottest and most sultry temperatures of summer occur in the Northern Hemisphere. But what does the term really mean and where does it come from?

Long ago, in the ancient times where the beauty of the night skies was not obliterated by artificial lights and smog, the stars were at their brightest. Ancient peoples in different lands drew pictures in the sky by connecting the stars with dots, which is how our present day constellations were born. These pictures, however, were dependent upon the cultures, as each society saw the stars and the images they created differently. The Native Americans saw one picture, the Chinese saw another, the Europeans still another, and so on.

The images they created were of bears, (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor), twins, ( Gemini), a bull, (Taurus), and of course, many others including DOGs ( Canis Major and Canis Minor.)

The brightest of all these stars in the night sky is Sirius, also the brightest in the constellation of Canis Major. Sirius is called The Dog Star. It is so bright that the Ancient Romans thought the earth derived its heat from this star, but of course we've learned through time that this isn't the case.

Anyway, how did the Dog Star come to be associated with the term "Dog days of summer?" Well, in July this star rises and sets with the sun, and the ancients believed that because it was so bright, during this period of time it added its own heat to the sun, resulting in the hottest and most sultry period of time on earth. So they called this period time, from 20 days before this conjunction to 20 days after, the "Dog Days of Summer." This usually means the Dog Days of Summer range from July 3rd to August 11th.

So this is your astronomical/historical "lesson" in what the Dog Days of summer are, and how they got their name ! But more importantly...how do these days affect you? Are you more tired during this period of time? Cranky and crotchety? How does your writing go during this time, do you write more, less? Do you think your creativity sort of "shrinks" up in the heat?

I hate summer! For me, it's a period of sheer isolation. I don't handle the heat at all, so when it's so hot and humid, I hibernate in the house with the a/c on. Unfortunately, I'm also claustophobic, so being in the house with all the doors and windows closed will drive me up a wall after a while. Consequently, my creativity takes a holiday, but it doesn't take me with it !

How do you handle the Dog Days of Summer?

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Friday's Fare: Review of The Book Thief

2011-07-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back, after a prolonged absence I wasn't counting on. Hopefully, all those pesky little physical problems are gone, and I can get back to business.

If you have not read The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak, you should, because you are missing out on one of the GREAT YA books of all time. Not just my opinion, as this book has won 12 awards, including Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Children's Literature, Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults, and nine other prestigious awards.

The year is 1939. The place is Molching, a small town in Nazi Germany. The narrator is Death, who tells you right off that you have nothing to be afraid of, because if nothing else, he is fair. The main character is Liesel Meminger, 9 years old, sent to live with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood after the death of her younger brother. Her father has been taken to a concentration camp for being a Communist, and her mother has disappeared.

Death meets Liesel for the first time when he comes for her little brother at the railroad station. For reasons he himself cannot explain, Death becomes fascinated by this small girl as she stands rigidly by the body of her brother, and allows tears to freeze on her face. This is Liesel's story, but it is Death's story, too.

Death observes Liesel stealing a book she finds laying on the ground at her brother's funeral, and he gives her the name, The Book Thief. It is The Gravediggers' Handbook, and even though she cannot read, she is determined to keep this book. It is Liesel's foster father who reads to her every night out of The Gravediggers' Handbook, when she is having nightmares about her brother, and it is this book from which Liesel eventually learns to read.

Liesel realizes that words are what keep her sane, and one book is not enough, so she sets out to steal as many books as she can. First comes the one from a Nazi book-burning, but that is only the beginning. She meets the Nazi mayor's strange and reclusive wife, who invites Liesel into her library to read, and then allows her to steal books by pretending she knows and sees nothing.

Over the next few years, Death observes Liesel with her friend Rudy, a neighbor boy who teaches her to steal more than books, and especially Max, a young Jewish refugee who takes shelter in the basement of Hans and Rosa Hubermann and while there, literally whitewashes pages of old newspapers in order to write his own book for Liesel. Books are the spine of this novel, and they become not only Liesel's own salvation, but diversions from an Allied bombing raid gone awry, and the ultimate hedge against Liesel's grief and despair.

Death is a formidable voice in this book. At times he is quite dispassionate, but at others, particularly in the beginning of the story, you can almost feel his own grief at his workload.

Death is also very observant of colors. Every death has a color...he prefers chocolate, dark chocolate, but finds every color is available at the moment of death. Especially, in Nazi Germany, red. As he says, in his line of work, he needs a distraction, and that comes in colors that he makes a point of noticing. You might ask, what does Death need a distraction from? In his words...the leftover humans. The survivors with the wounded hearts no one can heal. That's when he seeks out the colors most of all.

This book is about Death, about heroics and grief, hope and despair, about courage in the face of a known but unseen enemy, about life and love and death. It is about the words that kept a young girl alive, but it is far more than that: it is about the unbeatable spirits that are kept alive in the midst of tragedy and the violence of an unspeakable war. It is a remarkable book that offers both teens and adults in our world today not only hope, but the realization that there are alternatives to any rigid political or societal ideology, and that even the most voracious amorality of the times can be overcome.

The Book Thief is not a book you can sit down and read through in a single sitting. You must take your time, savor it, understand it, and ultimately, fall in love with it. It is a book about words, the beauty of them, the good they can do, and the evil they can cause. It is brilliant, powerful, grim, sad, and yet, overflowing with a kind of inner spirit and courage you may never encounter again.

A MUST read. You won't regret it.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Goodbye For Awhile

2011-05-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

To all my faithful followers: I know I've been very lax in the past month about posting here, and I'm sorry about that. But it will probably be another month, early June, before I get here again. In two days I'm having surgery, the first of two this month, and I won't be able to use my eyes for about 4 weeks. It's really a bummer, messes up my writing schedule badly, but can't be helped.

So for now, good bye for a few weeks. Be good and play nice, and I'll see you in June.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Book Review: Water For Elephants

2011-04-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

One of the best books I've read in a very long time is Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen. It is a romantic historical fiction, set in the days of the Great Depression. For those of you who like historical fiction, it may come as a surprise to know that before she started her research into circuses, Ms. Gruen had never been to one, large or small. She did a year's research, even tracking down circus performers for interviews, before she began this book.

This is the story of Jacob Jankowski, who happens to be ninety. Or ninety- three, depending upon whom you believe. Jacob is living out his days in a nursing home, which he hates with a passion. All he has left of his life are his memories of the traveling circus, The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, and thus the meat of the story is told in flashbacks.

The story opens with twenty-one year old Jacob sitting in the food tent as the show for the evening is over, and the roustabouts are getting ready to tear everything down. Suddenly, there is a clash of cymbals, a cacophony of brass, reed, and percussion instruments, and then the loud strains of "Stars and Stripes Forevcr" blast forward. This is the Disaster March...the animals have escaped their cages, stalls, and handlers and are racing pellmell through the midway. Jacob dashes out of the tent, searching for the young woman he has fallen in love with. But he is stopped in his tracks, as he witnesses the murder of the very man he has grown to not only fear, but to hate.

Jacob Jankowski is ready to sit for his final exams in the Veterinary School of Medicine at Cornell University, when he is called out of the room by the head of the school. He learns that his parents have been killed in a horrible accident. When he returns home, he finds that there is nothing left for him, as his parents had mortgaged their house and his father's Vet Clinic in order to pay for his university education. He returns to Cornell, but doesn't write a word on his exams. He walks out, and soon finds himself running along side a train filled with men he believes to be hobos. He swings himself up, and that is the beginning of the next seven years of his life, working with the animals in the Benzini Brothers Circus.

There is Uncle Al, the gross, often cruel circus impressario who thinks of no one but himself, and who will dispatch in the most horrendous way, anyone who disagrees with him or refuses to do what he tells them to. There is Marlena, the beautiful, young star who trains and loves the horses she rides to perfection in her act...and with whom Jacob falls in love. This becomes disasterous, as Marlena is married to August, the animal trainer who is also deranged, and whose flights into madness can focus on the animals, Marlena, or Jacob. Then there is Rosie, the bull elephant who seems to be untrainable, thereby incuring August's wrath many times, until Jacob accidentally stumbles upon a way to get through to her, and get her to obey commands. Slyly, through the book, Rosie comes to love Jacob and Marlena, but quickly learns to hate August...she is merely waiting her turn. Which does come.

The thrust of the story is the love between Marlena and Jacob, Marlena's love of her horses and Rosie, and the shaky relationship Jacob has with the other people in the circus. The ending may surprise you.

Ms. Gruen did her research well. Her descriptions of the filth and squalor of the living quarters the roustabouts and circus people live in; her depictions of the mistreated animals who are fed rotten food and mangy hay; her way of humanizing the "freaks" of the show...all bring to life in the reader's mind, the wonderful, terrible, beautiful, horrifying life of a traveling circus in the 1930s.

One of the most interesting and compelling features of this book is the author's total grasp of the circus vocabulary: the roustabouts, the workers, the impressario, the grifters, rubes, Jamacian ginger paralysis, cooch tent, the Disaster March when something bad occurs, the set-up and take-down of the circus tents, the Midway games, how the "revenoors" ( cops) run the circus out of town, and, perhaps most terrifying of all, the "Red lighting" of those who don't conform to life in a less-than-second-rate traveling circus.

Water for Elephants has a surprising twist, and perhaps a less than totally believable ending, but you will be IN the time and place of this story. You will smell the smells, and breathe in the sometimes sweet and more often fetid air of the Big Top and the Midway, you will see the pathetic animals come to life, and you will hear the band playing the Opening March as animals and performers rise to the occasion as they parade around the Center Ring. You will believe the pagentry, you will laugh and you will cry as the story unfolds, and at the end, you will know exactly who the people were that populated the traveling circuses in small-town America during the Great Depression.

Read the book before you see the movie. I've read the reviews of the movie, and if they can be believed, Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattison do not come close to the intensity and the depth of emotion displayed in the book between Jacob and Marlena.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

An Award and a New Way to Outline

2011-04-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

I was recently awarded the Versatile Blogger Award by a writer friend, Allyn Stotz. Thank you, Allyn! Be sure to check out her blog at: www.allynstotz.blogspot.com, and watch for her upcoming picture book, The Pea in Peanut Butter. Now I have to pass this award on to some deserving friends, and then tell you something about myself you might not know...or even want to!

Seven Things About Me You May Not Know:

1. I trained my first unbroken 2 year old filly at age 10.
2. I had my first poem published at age 10, and my first short story at age 12.
3. I sang at the Hollywood Bowl ( Hollywood, CA) when I was 16.
4. I am deathly afraid of spiders and snakes, all kinds, shapes, sizes, colors, and poisonous or not. Daddy Longlegs give me the creeps.
5. I published a book of Haiku poetry when I was in college.
6. I have traveled to 34 states, and traveled to or lived in 9 foreign countries.
7. I have three weaknesses: my husband, my Corgi, and chocolate.

Now to pay it forward: here are the blogs I've nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award:
www.claudsy.wordpress.com
www.terriehope.com
www.ellekennen.wordpress.com
www.kara-writeaway.blogspot.com

Many writers hate to outline. Have you ever thought about doing your plot outline as a three act structure? We all have to have a Beginning, Middle, and End to our stories, so why not think of these elements as a three act play? For example:

Act I
Opening hook
Introduction of the main character
Introduction of the secondary characters
Show the relationships between all the characters: most of your secondary characters are introduced in the beginning of your story, so there is a relationship there, even if minor.
Establish time line or era, and setting of the story
Describe the beginning of the major conflict: what the MC wants or needs
First Act Climax: here is where something unexpected happens to turn things around and possibly send the story or the MC in a new direction.

Act II
Develop the relationship between the characters more strongly
Develop the sub plot or plots
Develop these subplots to show how they and the secondary characters affect the MC, and whether they are, in effect, "friends or foes"...working to help her or working behind the scenes to hinder her
Describe and develop the external and internal conflicts the MC is going to face and have to overcome
Describe and develop the steps the MC has to take to overcome her conflicts
Describe and develop the events which occur that cause tension and conflict, and which hinder the MC in her attempts to achieve her goals
Second Act Climax: This should be the high point of the story, the action-packed scenes which cause the MC to either succeed in her attempts to reach her goals, or to have some kind of action or event that will prohibit her from doing so.

Act III

The third act is the "End" of the story, where all the loose ends are gathered up and tied in a pretty little knot. Here you make sure that your characters, their intermingled relationships, and the subplots have all interwoven perfectly, and that nothing is left to the imagination that should not be. It's one thing to leave your readers wondering or hoping that there might be a sequel to see what could have happened next, but you should never leave them up in the air about some event or issue that should have been resolved within the story. The conclusion is showing how the MC deals with either having succeeded in resolving the external and internal conflicts, or how she comes to terms with having failed at resolving either, or perhaps both. Remember, all stories do not have to have a happy ending, just a satisfactory one that leaves nothing unsaid or undone.

"Plot as a Three Act Structure" does not have to be followed step by step, but it does give you an idea of how to go about planning your story without actually doing an outline. If you're like me and hate to outline, this has been an easier way for me to decide what scenes and actions should go where.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Frustration!

2011-04-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

It's been three weeks since I posted and those have been filled with one frustration after another. I've been trying to establish a website, and nothing works right! Now I know I'm probably the second most technologically challenged person in the US ( the first being my husband), but come on! I'm not stupid! Honest, I'm not. I read the directions, do exactly what it says to do, and voila! NOTHING! NYET! NADA! NO'SING!

So I'm still working on it, and basically getting no where. The problem is I've paid for it for a year, so I have to get it up and going somehow. In the meantime, my frustration level is getting lower and lower. :(

Frustration and writing: how do you deal with that? What if your characters simply don't do or won't do what you intend for them to do? One writer I know says when that happens, she just eliminates the character, and puts a new one in place. Oh wow! if I did that when one of mine decided to develop a will of her or his own, I'd never get a story written, much less a novel. I've had characters wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me they don't like the direction I have them going, and I'd better do something different.

Do you get frustrated when your writing seems to be going well, and then you come to a stumbling block in the middle of a scene, or you realize your plot is going off into an entirely new direction that you hadn't intended? For me, that is frustration at its highest. I seldom want to delete the scene, yet editing it or rewriting it completely to make it all come together at just the right time seems to take forever. On the other hand, there have been times when I've found that the stumbling block, whatever it might be, has in fact made me realize the entire scene is either out of place, or really doesn't need to be there at all.

It's when the plot branches off all on its own, that my frustration level reaches its highest point. I've just had that happen in a steampunk novel ( my first and probably my last !) that I'm working on. It has suddenly become NOT steampunk. It started off as a steampunk mystery, and has now veered off into a fantasy-mystery. I have gone back over the beginning again and again, and it just doesn't stay "steampunk." Yet the mystery, and even the fantasy part, are strong and well-thought out. So now what? Do we ( this is a collaboration) go back to the beginning and rethink/rewrite that part, or stick with that, and rethink/rewrite the latter part of the beginning and the first of the middle? At the moment, the only response I have to that question is: G R R R!

How do you deal with frustration in your writing? Do you leave the story alone for awhile, and when you go back find that things go together after all? Do you just bulldoze your way through, determined things are going to go the way you want, no matter what? Do you settle down, rethink and then rewrite? Do you delete the scene, dialogue, or the part of the plot that seems destined to disrupt your thought and writing process? Or do you take a break, steal some chocolate out of your secret hoard, and just give your muse a rest? What works best for you when frustration pokes a hole in your creativity?

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Awards and Aardvarks

2011-03-11T13:05:00.000-08:00

A writer friend just nominated me for the One Lovely Blog Award. Isn't that great? And what a nice compliment! Thank you, Allyn Stotz. Please check out her blog at http://www.allynstotz.blogspot.com/ for all kinds of neat stuff.

The award carries with it some rules, which are:

1. Accept the award and post it on your blog with the name of the person who nominated you, and give their link.
2. Pass the award on to 15 others you have discovered recently.
3. Notify the bloggers that they have been selected for this award.

So here are my nominees:

http://www.claudsy.wordpress.com/
http://www.pimpmynovel.blogspot.com/
http://www.wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/
http://www.kellyhashway.com/
http://www.ctnyrene.blogspot.com/
http://www.katrinadelallo.blogspot.com/
http://www.childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/
http://www.cynthialeitishsmith.blogspot.com/
http://www.caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/
http://www.thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/
http://www.katielclark.webs.com/
http://www.terriehope.com/
http://www.aleerily.blogspot.com/

Do you know what an aardvark is? Seriously. You probably know that he eats ants and termites. You probably know he lives in South Africa. But did you know that an aardvark is a living fossil, because he is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, which was a prehistoric animal species? Did you know that he has no known relatives, or that there is no other animal even close to him, other than possibly the very rare elephant shrew?

Hmm, you are saying. So what does an aardvark have to do with writing? Well, think about if for a moment. There are two ways to look at an aardcvark from a writer's point of view. The first is that in many ways, an aardvark is an obscure creature: aren't there times when we, as writers, feel very obscure? We look at some of the "big" names in children't literature...Stephanie Meyer, JK Rowling, Laurie Halse Anderson, Ellen Hopkins...and we wonder if we will ever be on equal footing with them, or will we be forever obscure in our own little corner of the writing world? I don't know about you, but there are many times when I feel very obscure, very much out of the mainstream of writing and publishing, and wonder if I will ever wallk through that portal that separates those who are known in the writing world and those who are not.

The other way to look at the aardvark is that he is an unique animal. Unique in appearance, in method of operation in so far as his hunting and burrowing rites are concerned, and certainly unique in that there is no other animal like him. So...are we not also unique in our writing? In what we write, how we approach writing, the twist we put on our stories, the sometimes strange ideas we come up with, which, when put on the printed page, turn into marvelous works of literary art? Is it not to our advantage to consider ourselves as kin to the unique aardvark, who has no equal in the animal universe?

Hmm...well, as you can see, I'm very...um...nostalgic, melancholy, or maybe...just off the wall in my introspection this morning. Maybe it's the tsunami that is threatening to destroy our beautiful Central Coast.

Until next time,
Thats a wrap.

Monday Miscellany

2011-03-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

Today is Monday, time for miscellany, since my thoughts today are not focused on any one thing. Indeed, they're really not focused at all!

First off is the fact that I've just received my second novel diploma from the Institute of Children's Literature, which means that my historical novel is finished. Along with that accomplishment, however, came the realization that the first five chapters of the novel needed to be condensed into two, so what was chapter six could become chapter three. That whole thing is a long story I'm not going to get into here, but at least I was finally able to do it.

This, of course, means I have to get my posterior in gear and start sending out queries. That brings up a question: no matter if you're querying an agent or a publisher, you know how the submission guidelines always give you a time limit for them to respond to you? ONLY if they're interested, that is. But for example, a lot of the publishers say they will respond in 3 months. How do they know that? How do they know it's going to be 3 months, or 2 months, or 6 months? When a query comes in, and is read by the first reader (editor, assistant editor, or who knows who), and it supposedly goes to the "real" editor, then what...if the editor gets it on the 7th of March ( today), do they put it into a pile that says "7th of June?" On the 7th of June, do they go through the pile and pick out the ones they want to respond to, or do they do it earlier? Later, maybe? How do they know they are responding within the time frame they give in the guidelines? I'd like to know the answer to that, wouldn't you?

There are days when I have so many ideas running around in my head that I can't get them all sorted out and written down. Then there are other days when I try to think of something interesting or unique or at least different to write about, and my brain is as dry as a cotton field in mid-summer. Do you ever have days like that? In case you do, here are a few tidbits that you might make something out of:

1. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antartica, but this is the driest continent on the planet, having an annual percipitation of about 2 inches a year and an absolute humidity lower than that of the Gobi Desert.

2. The Great Pyramids of Egypt have shifted 3 miles south due to the shift in the Earth's surface over the last 4,500 years.

3. Babies are born without kneecaps. ( Did you know that??) Their knee caps are fully formed between the ages of 2 and 4 years.

4. In the 1600, thermometers were filled with brandy rather than mercury. ( People probably weren't too careful about not breaking them, either ! )

5. Emus can't walk backwards. They are the second largest member of the flightless bird family called ratites. They are 5 to 7 feet tall, and can run 40 mph with single strides over 9 feet.

6. A poison arrow frog contains enough poison to kill 2,200 people. They are indigenous to rain forests, are only about 1/2 inch in length, and have bright, distinctive colors. ( I wonder how they figured out that one frog could kill 2,200 people...do you suppose they had a test group ? )
These facts are courtesy of Marni McNiff.

Did anyone watch The Apprentice last night? That's one of the better reality shows on TV, if you can get past The Donald's hair. But seriously, I like both him and the show. Last night was a bummer, however, when it came to who got fired. David Cassidy bit the dust, when it should have been Richard Hatch. Remember him from the first season of Survivor ? Well, he's still the same old arrogant a...well, you know. I guess 4 years of prison didn't teach him anything. I like the show because of the challenges they have to do...it sure brings out the best in some, and the worst in others, but it's always interesting.

Last, but most definitely not least, I've just received the One Lovely Blog Award from a fellow writer. How great! Now I have to come up with a number of newly found blogs that I've read, and can provide links to. Hmm...that's going to take some thought, but I'll do it!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Writing Prompts

2011-03-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

Today it is raining...again...so it's supposed to be a good kind of day for writing, right? Wrong! I love the rain, love the cold, damp air, the streets that shine in the cars' headlights as though they had been spread with olive oil, love the bare limbs of the trees as they sway back and forth, brushing thin naked branches against window panes. I love our tiny house finches who gather around the bird feeder, shaking drops from brown or golden or red or black wing feathers. I love watching the dogwalkers, dressed in rain gear and carrying umbrellas, hurrying down the street with a variety of dogs, each dressed in his or her own rain outfit, usually matching that of the owner.

And so I sit at my desk, in front of my big bay window, and watch. Watch, not write! It makes me wonder how many of you do the same thing, according to the weather...do the seasons of the year, and their accompanying weather phases, make you stare out of a window or off into space, submersing yourself in what is happening on the outside, instead of concentrating on what should be happening on the inside, i.e, your mind and thoughts?

If that's so, how about having a little fun...just for the heck of it! How about taking some of the following prompts, and writng a couple of paragraphs...just for fun, nothing serious...but who knows? With a little luck ( and a little less window-watching), you might have the gleam of a real story idea ! Here goes:

1) Remember when you were a kid, and you mother was always around? How she could be sweet and loving and understanding one minute, and the next be bossy and demanding and irritating? Okay...take one or more of these names, and build a short scenario about this person when he or she was a kid, and how his or her mother was acting at that particular moment.

a. Florence Nightingale
b. James Dean
c. Theodore Roosevelt
d. Cleopatra
e. Calamity Jane
f. Wyatt Earp
g. Sinclare Lewis
h.Joan of Arc
i. Shakespeare
j. The Wicked Witch of the West
k. Agatha Christie

Oh, but that's not all! With so many reality shows on TV today, pretend you are going to be on one. Select one of the shows below, and write a scenario showing how you would act in this one, and why. (You don't have to have watched them, to be able to place yourself in one.)

a. Survivor
b. The Great Race
c. The Real Housewives of Atlanta ( or wherever.)
d. The Apprentice
e. Dancing With the Stars
f. American Idol

And finally... let's let real life meet reel life, but in another way. Select one of the shows below ( even if you've never watched it or it was "before your time"), and write a scenario with you as a family member.

a. The Flintstones
b Criminal Minds
c. Happy Days
d. Hawaii 5-0 ( the new show)
e. Smallville
d. Blue Bloods
e. Gilmore Girls
f. The Waltons
g. House
h. The Twilight Zone
i. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
j. The Good Wife

If these prompts don't give you a warm, fuzzy feeling for that rainy or snowy or sunshiny day, nothing will !!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Gnocchi, The Age of Cattle, and Colorful Insults

2011-02-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

In today's world, no matter what you read...or write...people want to know the facts, the real truth, the unknowns, and the absurd. And they're not too particular about which is which. But as writers, we should be...particular, that is. No matter what we are writing in terms of fiction...contemporary, science fiction, steampunk, whatever...we should be concerned with realism. Even in Science Fiction, isn't what makes it fascinating to readers is that what is on the printed page could actually happen? If it is an idea, isn't it true that the only thing stopping that idea from becoming reality is the technology to put it into action?

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is where research comes in. So here are some more interesting, and perhaps unusual, websites to spark your interest in doing research!

Food Reference:
http://www.foodreference.com/

Did you know that "gnocchi" is also called "strangolapreti" in Italy, because supposedly an Italian priest loved the dumplings so much he ate them too fast and choked to death? An old wives' tale? Hmm...well, maybe. Did you know that the Visigoths demanded 3,000 pounds of pepper ( pepper ?? ) as a ransom for Rome, or that the first Olympic champion was a cook in 776 B.C. ? Here you will find all kinds of fun facts ( the start of a NF article, perhaps? ), as well as recipes, food trivia, culinary quotes, and a timeline that dates back to 10,000 B.C.

The Household Cyclopedia:
www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/The_Household_Cyclopedia_of_General_Information

A 19th Century treasure trove of miscellania ! How did people in this age run their homes? If they had had this information, they could know how to tell the age of their cattle ( always nice to know so you won't breed an old cow to a young bull ! ), or how to avoid drowning...in the event they lived near water they could swim in, of course; or even how to make ink...in case they had a quill handy but nothing to write with. Who knows? Some trivia like this could make a mediocre story the next best seller!

The Costume Gallery Research Library:
www.costumegallery.com/research.htm

Everything you ever wanted to know about shoes, hats, fashion, textiles, needlework, paperdolls, film costumes, designers, and even etiquette is right here. It covers a time span from the Byzantine,Medieval, and Renaissance up to later centuries, and even has information about the Titanic and German fashion.

Surfing for Slang:
http://www.slanglinks.cjb.net/

A comprehensive slang database which covers common colloquialisms from the US, UK, Australia, Scandinavia, South Africa, the Caribbean, and many other countries. There are colorful insults, and specialized jargon relating to the military, journalism, sports, chess, technology, and even truckers. What more could you want?

The Phobia List:
http://phobialist.com/

Sometimes our MCs have phobias that they have to overcome in order to gain what they want. So how about some of these: alliumphobia ( fear of garlic); consecotaleophobia ( fear of chopsticks); lutraphobia ( fear of otters); or even...a fear of big words ( hippopotomonstrosequippedaliophobia). I think if a character had to tell a psychiatrist the name of her phobia, she'd get over it pretty darn quick !

Finally, for the time travelers among us:

Andy's Anachronisms:
http://www.timetravelerreviews.com/

This extensive website covers just about everything on time travel you would want to know about alternative universes, time travel, and temporal anomalies found in novels, movies, short stories, TV, and plays. It also includes links to scientific theories so you can check out your methodology from getting from here to there, and compare it to other theories.

And one more:

The TV Crime Libary:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/

Maybe not for you if you write for younger readers. But this site covers everything you ever wanted to know about horrific murders, gangsters, spies, conspiracy theories, and the workings of the criminal mind.

These websites, and the ones in the last post, were put together by Christina Hamlett, and are found in the Children's Writer Guide, 2009 edition. Thanks, Christina!

Until later,
That's a wrap.

Madam Curie, Beethovan, and Riders of the Purple Sage

2011-02-12T15:32:00.000-08:00

Did I catch your eye? Spark your curiousity? I hope so, because that's what research is all about. Oh, I know...you HATE research! Hmm...really? Did you know that Madam Curie valued her privacy so much that she once pretended to be her own maid, so she could rant at an overly-aggressive (to her mind) reporter about respecting people's privacy? Did you know that Beethovan was out to dinner one night, and promptly threw his dinner of roast beef at the waiter because it wasn't what he ordered? Did you know that the Riders of the Purple Sage, Zane Grey's best known novel, is NOT primarily a Western, even though it set the stage for future Westerns, but is mostly about a young Mormon woman who is persecuted by her own people because she refuses to marry a polygamous Mormon elder, and instead befriends a young Western Gentile outrider?

You see? Research can give you all kinds of valuable, interesting, mysterious, and often quirky facts to write about, or to incorporate into another kind of story. In keeping with the above statement, for the next couple of posts, I'm going to give you some research sites, which I hope will add to the originality and creativity of your writing.

Medieval and Ancient Names: www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/medievalnames.htm
Writing a medieval fantasy? You're not likely to find a Kevin or a Melissa, but you can look up Arabic, Babylonian, Jewish, Chinese, Aztec, or even Mongolian names ( just to name a few!). This is in addition to hundreds of medieval names, too.

ePodunk City Profiles:
http://www.epodunk.com/
Want to know something about a particular city in the US to make your story more realistic? This site offers comprehensive county and community profiles, maps, calendars, weather, history, demographics, and just about anything else you might want to know to make your story settings more interesting and accurate.

World Time Server:
http://www.worldtimeserver.com/
If your young MC in San Franciso decides at noon on Friday to check up on her boyfriend who's supposedly with his parents in Sri Lanka, unless he's out two-timing her, he's most likely asleep...it's 12:30am the following day in that part of the world. This site not only calculates time zones anywhere on the plante, but also gives you the local news and weather.

dMarie Time Capsule:
www.dmarie.com/timecap
If you put in any date back to the 1800s, this site will usher in a list of newspaper headlines, top songs, movies, books, toys and the prices people paid for milk, bread, houses and transportation. A great place to go if your character lives in a different era, and you want to know what movies they went to, or what books they read, or how much their parents paid for their home.

History in Song:
www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/atoz.html
If your characters live in a different era, and you want them to know certain song lyrics, this is the place for you. It will bring up an alphabetical listing of songs with dates, as well as catagorize them by topics and artists.

This is all for today. Don't forget to drop by again on Monday (Valentine's Day), when I'll have more great sites for you to look at.

Until then,
That's a wrap.

Partly Cloudy With a Chance of Rain: Weather and Fiction

2011-01-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thought about what weather adds to your story, or if it adds anything? Do you ever ask yourself it using weather is an effective way to influence a scene or a character's actions or reactions? The answer is, you should.

Think about how many times in a movie or on TV, you've seen a character get some really bad news, while outside the sky is filled with thunder and lightning, and rain is slamming the windows. A scene filled with drama and tension on the inside, and outside, the dark and stormy night ( or day) creates the proper mood in order to strengthen the emotional impact. Isn't that what you want to do with your story? Strengthen the emotional impact upon the reader?

Think about the other ways you can use weather to add excitement to your story. How about irony? Janie has just found out that her boyfriend has ditched her for her best friend. She has been crying for hours. Her face is red and patchy, her eyes are swollen, her throat is hoarse. She feels alone and deserted by two of the most important people in her life. But outside, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, her younger brother and sister are screaming and laughing with their friends. Even the weather is against her. In a scene like this, a bright, beautiful day can add more to the feeling of isolation and despair for your MC than any rainstorm could possibly do.

Weather can create a life-threatening situation for your characters, also. Suppose the MC and her boyfriend have gone sailing. It's a cool, crisp, sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, just a mild enough breeze to make sailing great. But before they realize what is happening, a terrible squall comes up. The waves are huge, the wind is high, the kids don't know how to get the boat back into the bay, and even if they did, the weather wouldn't allow it. What will happen? Will the sailboat capsize? Will they drown?

Weather can raise the stakes for your characters, and increase the tension for your readers. Your MC has had a bad fight with her boyfriend, and she walks out of the high school dance alone. She's crying, so she doesn't realize that what is known as "tulle fog" ( a real phenomenon in California) has come up. She can't see two feet in front of her face. She can't see the street lights or the cars as they come past her. But she CAN hear the footsteps behind her, footsteps that slow down when she slows, speed up when she speeds up. And she know there is a rapist/killer loose in town, who stalks and kidnaps girls her age. Is this her boyfriend coming after her, or the killer, ready to pounce at any moment? How can she tell, when the fog is so thick she not only can't see behind her, but her voice is silenced as though a heavy veil has been thrown over her face?

There are many ways to use weather to enrich your story. It makes a scene become three-dimensional, rather than two. It gives your characters the ability to feel the impact of what they are dealing with...and it surely gives you, the author, a fantastic chance to show what's happening, rather than tell what's happening. Weather is important to any story, important in creating imagery for the reader, and important in exacting the thoughts and emotions of your characters. Try it, you'll like it !

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Sports, Awards, and Self-Image

2011-01-17T12:04:00.000-08:00

I heard something on TV this morning that got me to thinking. It was all about the awards that are given out in the sports arena, especially for kids up to about high school age.

The discussion was about giving awards out to all the members of a winning team vs giving one for Best Player or Most Valuable Player, etc., as well as giving awards to every kid who participates in a sporting event of any kind, even if it is a one-on-one event. The whole idea is involved with the self-image of the kid.

When my kids were young, they were never involved in anything but Boy and Girl Scouts...no Little League or Softball, etc. But some of their respective friends were, and we often went as a family to watch the boys' Little League games or the Girls Softball League. We saw pats on the head and great praises given to all members of the winning team, with the Captain usually given a trophy, and certain players, both boys and girls, being given trophies or ribbons for Most Valuable Player and so on.

Those kids on the winning teams who didn't get trophies never cried or complained. They crowded around their captains and ohed and ahed about his trophy, which would soon have ALL of their names on it; they admired the MVP awards, and stoutly maintained that next season it would go to them. They they all whooped and hollered, and went gleefully off to the local pizza parlor to celebrate. Ego? What was that? Self-image? Wasn't that what you saw in the mirror?

Today, it seems that things are different. In order to ensure a good self-image, EVERYONE on the winning team must have a trophy...each exactly the same. Who determined that? The kids? No, I don't think so. From what I've been hearing and reading lately, the whimpy kids who didn't get a trophy decided to throw a bunch of tantrums, so the parents got together, stormed the fortress of the coaches, and demanded a change. Instead of sitting the kids down, and explaining why some get trophies and others don't, instead of teaching the kids good sportsmanship, and what it takes to make a winning team, the parents give in to bad manners and spoiled actions, and take issue with time-honored traditions.

What does it teach a child about doing his best when his best is never treated any differently from someone who just "gets along?" Doesn't it teach that mediocrity is all you need to get "the spoils of war?" Doesn't it teach that there is really no point in working hard and putting more effort into "being the best", because you are going to get the exact same kind of recognition that every other child gets, no matter what?

"They" say that giving the same award to all the kids, in any kind of competition today, not just solely for sports, is "improving" their self-image, but that giving recognition to ONLY those who win, or get the best grade in an essay contest, or whatever kind of competition is going on, is going to deflate the ego and damage the self-image of the child.

Yet...we are a society of people who strive daily to do their best...to succeed, to achieve goals. Our nation is built upon the premise that we are the strongest because we are the best...we are composed of people who have always put forth their best. Mediocrity has never had its place in the building and prosperity of America.

So if we are now teaching our children that everyone wins, that there is no "best effort" needed to win the prize, whatever it may be, what does that bode for this country and this society? Will we become, in future generations, a society of mediocrity, a nation no longer the strongest and the best? If we teach our children that everyone wins, that there is no clearly defined "winner," that "their best" is just not necessary, what does that mean?

Self-image should not be based upon a group mentality, whether it is one of superiority or of medocrity. It should be an independent collection of one's unique talents, abilities, and feelings of worth to others in his/her family, friends and community. But if kids grow up to believe that everything they do, learn, know, and show to others is the same, that no one does better or worse, knows more or less, learns more easily or with more difficulty, and so on, doesn't that mean that individuality is lost, and that "self-image" becomes a mere reflection of a group mentality?

What do you think?

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Creating Tension

2011-01-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

Tension is one of the most important parts of the novel. The goals, motivations and conflicts that the main character finds herself in the middle of mean nothing if they don't also create tension. Donald Maass, who wrote The Breakout Novel, says this about tension: In dialogue, tension means disagreement. In action, it means not physical business bu the inner anxiety of the point-of-view character. In exposition, it means ideas in conflict and emotions at war.

To simplify it more than it should be, it is basically opposition of one kind or another. For example:
a) Your main character has an external goal which somehow conflicts with an internal goal;
b) Perhaps she has two external goals, but can only even attempt to accomplish one, so she has to choose between the two but she wants both of them equally;
c) Someone she loves, or is close to ( best friends) wants the same thing she wants; along with this idea rests
d) Achieving her goal ( winning the boy) would hurt someone else ( her BFF), or would be doing something that her conscience or her own sense of values would not allow;
e) Your MC starts the novel out wrestling with some kind of dilemma, which could be either internal or external, but which leads to the question of how, when, or if she is going to resolve the problem.

There are many ways to create tension, but no matter how you do it, it has to be something that follows in the footsteps, so to speak, of your GMC. It must be believable, it must be something that occurs naturally to or with your MC, and it must have some kind of compelling reason for the circumstances to occur which lead to the tension.

One example that I've read over and over about "tension" is that of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is in love with Juliet but knows that if continues to pursue her, he is going against his family, whom he also loves. But his love for her is too great for him to ignore and to give her up. So no matter which course of action he decides upon, someone, including him, is going to be hurt. Now that is Tension!

As your story goes along, you can create more tension by having your MC solve one problem, or overcome one obstacle standing in the way of her achieving her goal, only to have another problem or obstacle pop up in front of her. Perhaps this one is not only different, but more difficult for her to overcome. Each succeeding problem she solves should lead to just one more obstacle, until finally your climax occurs, the resolution follows, and both MC and reader can take a deep breath. The more opposing factors there are in a novel, the more tension is created; the more tension created, the more the story is moved forward, and the more compelling the story becomes for the reader.

Along with this tension/obstacle/problem solving, don't forget that your MC needs to show a change in her feelings and her attitudes. Another word for this is Growth. As she goes along, she needs to show growth in her character. If she doesn't feel or show any kind of change in her makeup, then the whole work has been for nothing, because nothing has impacted the MC.

In closing, remember that your GMC must lead to T or Tension. The MC's goals must be realistic and achievable, her motivation must be strong enough to overcome obstacles, the conflicts must also be believable and must arise, hopefully, from both external AND internal choices, and all of this must lead to realistic circumstances that create tension.

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

A New Year, A New Novel?

2011-01-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

Does a new year bring with it new ideas for stories, novels, non-fiction articles? Or does it just bring a new resolve to finish what you had started last year? Wit me, it's a little of both...and that's probably how it is with most writers.

If you are going to begin a new story line, for a novel or otherwise, is it something you've had brewing in your mind for awhile, or has it come as a flash of inspiration from your muse? Either is good, but sometimes that little muse can get in the way of a well-thought out plan before you begin. I don't necessarily mean outlining before you begin, because that's something I don't do. But have you thought out the GMCT of your story before beginning?

Okay, you ask, just what is GMCT? I thought you'd never ask! GMCT stands for Goal, Motivation, Conflict, and Tension. The first three should always be in any story of any length, and to make it better, you should be able to add Tension.

GMC is the heart and soul of any good story, and the concept has to apply to the MC, but to make the story more interesting, and surely more believable, you need to apply them to at least one of your main secondary characters. To make the story even more exciting, the GMC of the major secondary characters should clash with that of the MC. Perhaps they both have the same goal...say, of attracting the handsome high school sports hero, but their motivations are different, even opposing. This brings up much external conflict, but suppose the MC and the major SC are best friends...what happens then to the internal conflict of each one? And at the climax, what has the MC had to go through, give up, or change in her own behavior and attitudes ( growth) to achieve...or not...her goal?

To recap:
(G)oal is what the MC wants in order for the story to move forward. It must be difficult or seemingly impossible for her to achieve, because of the problems and obstacles that get in her way.
(M)otivation is what drives the MC forward to get what she wants. The reason or reasons for her to be willing to do just about anything must be logical and believable in terms of her being physically, emotionally, or mentally capable.
(C)onflict arises when she comes face to face with the obstacles which stand in the way of her achieving her goal. These obstacles could be physical, in terms of a person, place or a situation; they could be emotional, in terms of her feelings about something, or her conscience; they could be mental, in terms of her not having, at the moment, the intellectual ability or knowledge she needs; or these obstacles could be any combination of the above.

Using the example above, what kinds of external and internal conflict could be more believable than that of two friends fighting over the same boy? And with teens especially, the conflict is going to be elevated to great heights, as all problems with teens are exaggerated. That in turn leads to the T in the GMCT formula...Tension.

Tomorrow, I'll talk more about Tension and what it means to a novel.

Until then,
That's a wrap.

Looking Forward

2011-01-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

It is now January 3rd, and the New Year's resolutions should be well in place. Oh! You didn't make any resolutions this year? Hmm...what about goals? Or even...objectives? No? Ooookay...so what now...you're just going to go with the flow for the year? That could be pretty interesting...or disasterous.

All kidding aside, do you make resolutions for the coming year? I stopped many years ago when I finally realized I wasn't keeping them at all, so why bother making them? But I do have goals, not all of which get met, but some do, and sometimes the objectives leading to the goal get met. At least that keeps me satisfied, if not happy.

So this year I've set 8 goals for myself:

1. Finish my last novel course and the historical novel I've been researching and writing for the last 3 years. ( Only about 11 months in the novel course.)
2. Get back on track in sending out queries to both agents and publishers.
3. Become consistent again in writing my blog. I was very good about it when I first started, but then let both the course and life's not always amusing twists get in the way.
4. Begin editing and revising Lily Leticia Langford and The Book of Practical Magic.
5. Finish Celine's story ( the antagonist in my first novel is now the protagonist in her own novel.)
6. Outline ( ugh) or write down good notes for the 4 new ideas for novels I have: a) girl has disability, poses as a "freak" in the carnival show run by her parents, goes to new small town and uncovers a murder mystery that the whole town is involved in; b) girls in a private school have a "hate book," girl is murdered, her name is in the book; c) girl starts bullying her best friend in order to start high school as part of the "Snob Mob."; and d) a rewrite of Beauty and the Beast...this is one that's been on my mind for a long time, and it definitely has a twist to it.
7. Begin sending out the short stories I have languishing in my computer, and get busy with all the NF ideas I have.
8. Possibly set up a website, but that won't be until the end of the year, and is totally dependent upon how well I meet my goal of being consistent with this blog.

So, these are my goals for the new year, 2011. My husband tells me I'm very ambitious, but I honestly believe these are all within my capability. If I fail to meet them, or any one of them, it's all on my head.

What are the goals you've set for yourself for 2011?
Let me know.

Until later,
That's a wrap.

Writing What You Know...Or Not.

2010-12-19T16:37:00.000-08:00

How many times have you heard someone say, "Write what you know?" Have you ever thought about that? Seriously, I mean. Have you ever thought about how much you know...as opposed to how much you don't know?

I had the very great pleasure this past week to visit...in person...with a dear friend, an Internet friend, with whom I've been writing to and responding to for about 2 years, but had never met. In listening to her talk about all the things she has going on, in terms of articles and stories, I realized that her depth of knowledge about certain things supercedes mine. We are both educated women, I may have one more degree than she does, but that has nothing to do with either of our independent intellectual growth. So following the adage "write what you know" means that there are a LOT of things I couldn't write about, but she could. Not that we are in any kind of competition, so don't misunderstand me. It's just that in certain areas, my ability to write what I know doesn't count for much, while hers does.

Writing what you know means that you are in control of your writing knowledge and ability. It means that you can take a familiar subject and inject it with your own unique sense of humor, your own feelings and sensitivity, your own individuality. You can organize your thoughts in such a way as to bring passion, humanity, tenderness, and originality to a story or a factual event that, in most cases, appears to be commonplace.

So what does it mean to write about what you don't know? It means to expand your horizons when you sit down to write. It doesn't have to mean a lot of mindboggling research. Instead, think "outside of the box." Let your imagination run wild. After all, that's why we have imaginations, isn't it? To allow ourselves to explore a realm of possibilities where we may never have delved before? Let's say you take your 4 year old to the neighborhood park. You see a woman about your age sitting on a bench. None of the children playing appear to belong to her. Her face is sad. You wonder why she is here, and where she came from, as you've never seen her before. Doesn't that open up a world of questions in your mind? You approach her with a quiet "hello," but she gets up and you see a moment of panic on her face before she runs away from you. Now your curiosity is aroused. Don't let it fall by the wayside. This is not something or someone you "know," but it is a wonderful opportunity to explore the wild, the different, the mysterious, the unique situation of a stranger.

Don't settle for writing only what you know: the familiar, the safe, the "everything is under control" bit. Be curious about what is going on around you that you may never have seen or heard or experienced before. Let your imagination have free rein, and don't keep it forever "in its place" as part of your life control. Let it out, let it romp and run free, let it get crazy and wild, let it open your heart and your mind to what is new and different, maybe a bit scary, but surely no longer safe and under control. Then let your writing reflect the spontaneity your imagination has unleashed. You might be amazed at what you can do!

Let me know what you think.

Until later,
That's a wrap.

Blogging vs Writing

2010-11-29T13:22:00.000-08:00

It's been almost two weeks since I posted, and the main reason has been all the writing I'm doing. Plus little things like "life" taking up too much time. So today, I got to thinking about writing and blogging.

The title of this post says "blogging vs writing." Because I can't seem to do both consistently, I am wondering how other writers feel about it. Let me tell you a little story, first. I have a friend who has been a good writer, publishing some short children's stories because that's what she likes to do best. Then, one of her friends told her she needed to start a website, or at least a blog. She began a blog, and it has been her downfall. Each week it kept getting bigger and...supposedly...better, until the blog has taken over her life. She does interviews with book-published authors, reviews other books, makes up contests and games and puzzles for her readers to get involved in. She writes about her full time job, about her husband, about her kids and what they are doing. She brings favorite recipes to the blog, and describes in detail when and why she served them. She comments long and longer about other blogs she reads, even reading them at work.

My friend is no longer a writer, she is a 'has-been' writer, and now she is a blogger.

My question to you is: do you blog, or do you write? If you do both, do you do both consistently, do you block out time for each? If you are a stay-at-home-mom with children to take care of, or if you have a full time job out of the home, how do you do all the things you have to do just to keep your life at a steady keel, and STILL find time to write and to blog?

My husband and I are retired, so most people would think...gee, you've got all the time in the world to write AND to blog, so what's your problem?? Umm...well, you should be right, but you're not!

I seldom do both on the same day. Occasionally, I blog a bit and then write, but not often. My writing day consists of usually 4 to 6 hours of steady writing...but that's not every day. My husband and I have what we like to call a "life", and so we do things together...we grocery shop together...we take our Corgi to the dog park together...right now, we're Christmas shopping together. Sometimes, we throw Dylan ( afore-mentioned Corgi) in the back seat in his harness and seat belt, and just take off for parts unknown. We may be gone for hours, just driving and absorbing all the beautiful coastal scenery. "Life" has just taken up all of my writing time for the day...or for several days.

There are several blogs that I follow, reading them several times a week but never taking the time to do so every day. I marvel at how "big" they are...all the things that are happening on the blog on a daily basis, and yet the blogger still claims to be a writer. My friend is not the only blogger I've seen lately who appears to spend his or her entire time blogging, and little or no time writing. Does "blogging" make you a writer? Certainly not in the professional sense.

As for me, I'm a writer. I'm a blogger accidentally, or at least, incidentally. How about you? Are you a writer, or a blogger?

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Part Two of Guide to Being a Pedophile, etc.

2010-11-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

I want to talk about the American flag and other issues as they apply to our writing for children.

The American flag issue was about the 13 year old who wasn't allowed to display his American flag on Veteran's Day, because of the harrassment that some of the Mexican kids received for displaying their flag on Cinco de Mayo. I already said that I didn't think it was right to allow one privelege to one ethnic group, and not allow that same privilege to another...regardless of what had transpired.

Do we do things like that in our writing? I read a story a couple of weeks ago, where a group of Chinese students were allowed to prepare some Chinese food for their classmates in honor of a Chinese holiday ( the setting was the US). But as the story went on, the three Jewish kids in the class weren't allowed to bring tradition Hannakuh foods to school because school would be out for Christmas, and the teacher didn't think it was appropriate for them to bring food for a specific holiday when it wouldn't be on that holiday.

The interesting thing to me was, ethnicity and food did not play a major part in the story at all. Both were kind of stuck in there in relation to something else. Obviously, it was not a big deal to the writer.

And truthfully, I didn't pay that much attention to it at the moment, either. But then when the media made such a fuss about the 13 year old and his flag, that story came back to mind. It made me wonder: do we do things like that in our writing, and they make so little impression upon us that they are incidental to the story itself? If so, why?

It is right in "real" life for one ethnic or religious group to be allowed a certain privilege, and then another group denied that same privilege? We hear about how wrong it is in our society to openly ( or even covertly, for that matter) display sexism, or homophobia, or religious, ethnic or political bias, or any of the other very contentious and controversial emotions and opinions we all hold. Yet we write our stories from ideas, opinions, emotions, viewpoints, and situations we read or hear about, talk about, or are involved in.

What kind of message do we send in our writing if we allow one character to do something that is based upon his/her ethnic or relgious culture, and then later on, don't allow another character to do something of the same nature, based upon his/her ethnic or religious culture? Does it even matter? Or...should it matter? After all, we're writing fiction, and we are allowed to take much in the way of "literary license."

How much of real life should be in our stories? Oh, I know that we are encouraged to write about things such as drug use and abuse, anorexia, teen pregnancy, sexual and self-abuse, and so on...the dark side of life that kids, especially teens, experience every day. But what about the smaller things in life, the more seemingly inconsequential happenings...like this flag incident? Don't they teach our kids as much about life as everything I mentioned above? Is it really only the very "bad" issues that make a difference?

Personally, I disagree. I believe that children are influenced as much, if not more, by the small, everyday incidents that they have to deal with, as they are by some of the more life-changing events, such as anorexia, abuse and so on.

So...how does that play out in our writing? IF the flag incident plays an important role in the story, it should definitely stay in. However, there should be some kind of reason, resolution or even retribution for it somewhere before the story ends. I don't think that this kind of issue should be brought into a story, and then dropped, simply to take up space, rev the word count, or for some other unimportant reason. If, in our story, we give preferential treatment of some kind to either a character or group of characters, based upon their ethnic or religious culture, and we don't allow another character or group the same kind of privelege, there needs to be a specific reason for it, and the reader should be able to tell what that reason is by the end of the story.

The point is: don't be "cavalier" in writing about intolerance, or prejudice, or hostility and animosity based on a character's racial, ethnic or religious heritage. Let it be there for a purpose; allow the reader to understand the purpose, and give the reader a reason to think about how such events or attitudes may play out in his own real life.

Think about it. Until next time,
That's a wrap.

Guide to Being a Pedophile, The American Flag, and Other Issues, Part One

2010-11-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

There's a new book out at Amazon. An e-book that can be immediately dowloaded to your Kindle or other e-reader. You might be surprised to hear the name of this book: Guide to Being a Pedophile. No, I haven't made a mistake. That's the name of the book. Supposedly, it is written by a man who is not himself a pedophile. Or so he says. But he definitely knows how to go about meeting children, both in person and on the Internet, how to talk to them so they become comfortable with him, and how to get them to go with him...uh, that is, with you the child molester. Interesting, isn't it, that a man who claims to be "normal," and NOT a child molester, can know so so much, so many intimate details about how to attract children and entice them into the clutches of other child molesters?

Even more interesting is the fact that the book sold only ONE issue...until The Media found out about it, and it became the talk of the nation. Now, sales are up over 100,000 % ( yep, that's true), which is only putting money into the pocket of the man who knows everything about how to be a pedophile...but claims he isn't one. Do you believe that? Neither do I. What will it take to put this man where he belongs, and get his book into the trash can where it belongs? I don't have the answer, but I surely hope someone does.

Then there is the 13 year old boy and his American flag. Seems he rides his bicycle to school every day with an American flag flying from the back end. For two months, this was okay by everyone who say him, including teachers, principal, and school administration. UNTIL...Veteran's Week. He was ordered to remove the flag until AFTER Veteran's Day. He was very upset; he was flying the flag in honor of his grandfather and all the veterans in his home town. But the school powers that be said, NO, take the flag down.

It seems that on May 5th...Cinco deMayo...the Mexican kids at his school flew their Mexico flags, and were hassled and harrassed by the American kids. So the school admin didn't want the same thing to happen with this boy and his American flag, so he had to take it down.

It seems to me the school acted irresponsibly in both issues. If they were going to give the Mexican kids permission to fly their flags, why didn't they make some kind of school announcement to that effect, and to say that anyone causing trouble for those kids would meet with punishment? If they were concerned about this boy flying his flag during Veteran's Day week, why didn't they make an announcement to all the school and parents, and say that anyone causing him trouble would be punished, suspended or something? Barring that...why didn't they allow him to fly his flag, and make sure that he was accompanied by an adult to and from school for those three days, and then kept a close watch on him while he was at school?

It is wrong to allow one ethnic group to do one thing, and forbid another ethnic group from doing the exact same thing, regardless of the reason.

I have no problem with kids from Mexico, or any foreign country, being allowed to display some of their cultural heritage when it is appropriate for them to do so. But I sure have a problem with one privilege being given to one group and denied to another group.

Think about it. Part Two coming up!

Until next time,
that's a wrap.

Random Acts of Kindness, and other matters

2010-11-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

Do you ever ask yourself what you are doing and why you are doing it? Now, come on, that isn't necessarily a dumb question! I was writing away on my NaNo novel this morning when I heard a ding! that signaled a new email. It was time for a break, so I put my novel on "sleep" and went to my email. An internet friend from Montana had sent me a story about Root Beer and Twinkies. I'll try to be brief.

A little boy decided he wanted to talk to God, so he packed up some Root Beer and Twinkies and went on his way. He stopped in a park, and saw an old man sitting on a bench. He went over and sat besides him. The boy was thirsty so he took out a root beer, but then thought the old man looked thirsty, so he gave one to him. Then he was hungry, so he gave one of his twinkies to the old man. When he got up to leave, he gave the old man a hug, and got a big smile in return. Other than that, not a word had been spoken between them.

When the little boy returned home, he told his mother he had lunch with God, and He had the most beautiful smile in the world. When the old man returned home, he told his son he had lunch with God, and He was a lot younger than he thought He would be.

Random acts of kindness...what a difference such a small thing meant to this child and this old man. Do you ever think about a random act of kindness that someone has done for or given to you? Do you ever stop and wonder if anything you've done or said lately is a random act of kindness?

A couple of days ago, I sent an email to another Internet friend who had just lost her mother-in-law, to whom she was very close. I had also found out that she and her husband were going through several other very bad issues that had popped up unexpectedly. I sent her a message because I was concerned about her, yet when she responded, she made me feel like I had suddenly given her a million dollars. A random act of kindness? Possibly, except it certainly wasn't random on my part because I was thinking about her.

What makes an act of kindnes random? My message to my friend was deliberate on one hand, and random on the other...random in this case being I hadn't given it a lot of thought. Her name came to mind, I realized I hadn't seen her around on our writers forum, so I wondered if she was doing all right since her MIL's death, and I wrote to her. Would that be considered a "random" act? Or not?

It concerns me greatly that we hear and see in the media every single day about random acts of violence...but how many times do the media carry on about someone's random act of kindness? Why is that? Is it that we as a nation, or as a society, have become so inured to violence that it no longer makes an impression, and since we have little media coverage of acts of kindness or of good things happening, they also don't make an impression?

What are the things that matter to us? Oh, I know, people are going to say...friends, family, church...not necessarily in that order. But what else? I don't mean the mundane things like a roof over our heads, food on the table, money coming in, a decent job. Although today, all of those things are a top priority.

But what else matters? My husband and I went for a walk yesterday. We held hands, which we been doing practically since the day we met, some 35 years ago. We're "senior citizens" so when some young teens walked towards us, they looked pointedly at our hands, our faces, and then...smiled at us. I wonder what they were thinking...that it was strange that "old people" would be holding hands? that they hoped when they were our age they had someone to hold hands with? I don't know, but I hope it was the latter.

So what random acts of kindness have you received lately? A get-well card from someone unexpectedly? My husband did. An email or phone call to see how you're doing, for no particular reason? That would be well and good. But the main thing is, what have you done that could be construed as a random act of kindness?

How much time do we spend even thinking about things like this? As writers, especially, our time is already consumed by writing, editing, revising, sending out queries, doing research...to say nothing of eating, sleeping, house work, taking care of kids and spouses...and life in general. So time for random acts of anything is precious.

But it only takes a minute...you don't have to bake an extra turkey or a new batch of cookies to take to someone. How about a smile on the street as you pass an older person waiting for a bus? How about helping that young mother cross the street with a baby stroller and maybe one or two other kids in tow? How about giving a hand to the disabled man trying to put groceries from the cart into the trunk of his car? How about offering your arm to someone walking up or down a hill and trying to keep stable with a cane or a walker? How about holding the door open for someone in a wheelchair?

Random acts of kindness: let's try to make them more often, more important, and more newsworthy, than random acts of violence.

Remember: it only takes a moment.

Until later,
That's a wrap.

It's Time for NaNo!

2010-11-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

Today is the 5th day of NaNoWriMo, that crazy month of November when writers like me, who have no sense whatsoever, say goodbye for a month to family, friends, and reason, and begin to write. Anything. As long as it ends up with at least 50,000 words on the last day of November. Of course, it should make some sense, but maybe that's not too important.

I did NaNo for the first time last year, and finished a pretty good middle grade novel...even if I do say so myself. Then I said I would never do it again. Hmmm.
So why am I doing it now? Well, after I finished my first novel course with ICL, my antagonist, who was a little ... er...witch, demanded to have her story told, so people would know why she was a little...witch. But right after I finished the first novel course, I decided to do a second one, so I could get some help with my historical novel. Consequently, the first NaNo didn't get edited or revised ( yet), and Celine's story didn't get told.

Doing NaNo this year seemed a good excuse for me to get Celine's story going, even though the historical novel isn't finished. My husband, kids, grandkids, and Corgi all think I'm crazy, but...hey, it isn't the first time for that thought !

The trick is to just write...whatever thoughts come to mind. I would imagine this is difficult for writers who like to outline every chapter before they begin a new story, but for pantsters like me, it's old hat. My main problem is that I'm too much of a perfectionist to "just write" and not stop to "fix" mistakes in spelling or grammar or anything else, for that matter. That's supposed to be a no-no for NaNo...um, catchy, dontcha' think...a NoNo for NaNo ! Wow, I'm good! ( actually, I'm just a little punchy right now :( )

Anyway, every NaNo writer knows we're not supposed to take the time now to fix our mistakes...SPAG or anything else. But I'm one of these people who cannot live with myself and go on past a glaring error. So I must admit I take the time to backtrack and do corrections. Hopefully, this time I'll still come out with at least my 50,000 words...last year, I barely made it at 50,124 or something like that.

I'll try to post at least once a week during this month. Who knows, I may even post a bit about the story as it goes along. No promises, though. In the meantime, for all of you equally insane writers, the best of luck with NaNo, and may we all end up with something understandable and at least 50,000 words!

Until next time,
that's a wrap.

Help! Murder!

2010-10-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Uh, no not really. What I want to talk about today is how to eliminate those words and phrases that can really kill a story. "Eliminate"..."kill"...= Murder...sigh, oh all right, my attempt at humor failed.

So now can we get down to serious business? What about all those extraneous words that we all use in our stories that we shouldn't? Words like "that," "then," "but," "well," and so on. We all know those, right? Like the italisized ones in the sentence above. I should have written: What about all those extraneous words we all use in our stories when we shouldn't. Better?

Let's shift gears, and talk about phrases. How many of us have read something like this: Her eyes followed him as he stormed down the walk. What kind of image does that produce? A pair of long-lashed eyes bumping along the walk? Umm...really?

How about: Her eyes were consumed with passion. Hmm. The dictionary says "consume" means to use something up in such a way that it cannot be recovered. Wonder what she did without her eyes when her passion was over? Then there's: He claimed he was telling the truth, but his eyes said otherwise. Did his eyes learn to talk at the same time he did? That should have been interesting for his parents.

She dropped her eyes in embarrassment. Excuse me? I hope she dropped them onto something soft, like a bed or a thick carpet.

Here's one I just read by a favorite author of mine: Unseeing, he looked out at the setting sun. How can he "look out" at anything, if he can't see?

Here are some more:
Her emerald eyes mesmerized him. ( what was the rest of her body doing?)
Her smokey eyes blazed with fire. ( I guess her eyes would be smokey, if they were on fire.)
Her sultry voice grated on me. ( Why? are you a piece of cheese?)
His voice came from a long distance. ( That must have been hard on his throat.)
His eyes caught and held hers. ( Hmm...one pair of eyes must have been running away to have been caught by another pair.)
Her heart sang with happiness. (This is an old favorite...uh, what song was her heart singing? )
I thought to myself. ( Who else would you be thinking to? I used this phrase so many times until I finally realized what I was saying! )

Enough, all ready! The point is...when we are editing our work, these are the kinds of words and phrases we need to especially look out for. Think about yourself before you write something: would your eyes be falling out on the bed or onto the carpet? Or would they be on fire, or chasing another pair down the street? The same with using voice or any other body part as the subject of your sentence. It just doesn't work.

These are phrases we read...and write...all the time. So much so that we usually don't give them a second thought...they are nothing more than cliches. So be careful during your edits, and if you've written something using eyes or voice or another body part as the subject, change it. Don't give an editor or an agent the opportunity to think..."she/he is an amateur."

Until next time,
that's a wrap.

Words...and What They Can Do

2010-10-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

How many of you grew up knowing the expression "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me?" Have any of you ever repeated that to your own children? Do you really believe that words can never hurt someone?

Another young teen committed suicide over the weekend. Why? Because he had been bullied. Oh, not with being hit or jabbed or shoved into lockers or ignored or having his books and papers stolen or ruined. No, these bullies used words to hurt him. He was overweight, too heavy to run or play sports. He was a diabetic, so he had to give himself insulin shots during the school day. He wore braces and spoke sometimes with a lisp.

He was bullied with words. 'Hey Fatso,' 'lispy wispy,' 'shot jock,' and...I'll leave it to your imagination. I wonder if his parents ever told him that old saying...Sticks and stones can break my bones, but WORDS can never hurt me.

Excuse me? Words can never hurt? Words can sear like a bad burn; words can cut to the quick like a knife thrust; words can penetrate the heart like a bullet...and...words can kill. Words stay with you forever. Sometimes they can be buried in the subconscious, but they're there, nevertheless. And the more hurtful those words were, the shorter the time for them to stay buried. They begin to grow and to fester...along with the hurt...until the wound becomes so infected it has to be cured. And sometimes, the more vulnerable the person is, sometimes the only cure is death.

The teen who died over the weekend is not the first nor will he be the last to die because of words...words deliberately thrown at him or her to create a lasting hurt.

Recently, I read an interview with an author of a middle grade book...her first. ( No, who she is and the name of the book is not important.) She said that the main reason this particular book was published was because her editor admired the sarcastic, snarky wit, and it appealed to him. But then she added that she had not realized the book was sarcastic, that was not the voice she had intended.
Hmm...how do you write a story with a sarcastic, snarky voice and not know it? Sarcasm is not something that everyone can do in their writing. It's not something that everyone is even comfortable with in talking in conversations. But she was unaware that the words she was using created a sarcastic voice to the story.

Think about that...she was unaware. Can that apply to the rest of us in our writing? Do we get so involved with our story, our plot, our characters, that we are unaware of the voice we are creating? Are there words, phrases perhaps, that we use so often we neglect to think about their meaning, or how others reading those words could interpret them? Do we put words into the mouths of our characters whose meaning could be interpreted in ways other than what our characters do?

I'm not saying characters should never be snarky or sarcastic. I'm not saying that the voice we create should never be either of those. I AM saying that we should be aware of the words we put into our characters' mouths, of the voice our overall story has, and be aware of the fact that words and intonations can always be interpreted in different ways. Be AWARE that the voice we intended to create with the words we used is actually the one we created.

Words can kill. Perhaps that old saying should be reworded to: Sticks and stones can break my bones, but WORDS can kill me.

I don't know about you, but from now on, I'm going to be very careful about the words I use...in talking, and most of all, in writing.

Until next time,
that's a wrap.

The Bully and the Writer

2010-10-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

For some time now, I've been thinking about bullying, and wondering if we, as writers, can do something about it. The statistics on bullying in schools are appalling...more than that, they are frightening because we all know that in some cases, they lead to suicide, attempted suicide, rape, and even attempted murder. Statistics show that teen suicide is the 3rd leading cause of teen deaths in the US, and the majority of those are due to bullying.

Everyone knows the story of the father of a girl with Cerebral Palsy, who was being bullied on the school bus every single day, and the bus driver did nothing about it. Finally, the father boarded the bus and screamed at the kids, verbally abused the bus driver, and in return, was arrested. HE was arrested, but the kids doing the bullying, and the driver who said nothing and did nothing, had no repercussions. What kind of justice is that?

Then there is the case of Phoebe Prince, the Massachusetes teen who hanged herself in February of this year, because of being bullied and sexually assaulted. In this case, there are at least 6 teens who have been arrested and charged with bullying, criminal harassment and statutory rape. Parents all over the state are now calling for the firing of the school administrators who knew this was going on, and did nothing to stop it. As far as I'm concerned, they are as guilty as the other teens.

The stories and the cases go on and on, each one seemingly worse that the others. I know what it is like. I was teased unmercifully in elementary school because I wore glasses, and none of the other kids did. I was teased because I was from a military family, and had lived in many states and foreign countries, and spoke three languages. In junior hight ( middle school today) and high school, the teasing became bullying, mostly by girls but sometimes by boys. I was singing professionally, and sometimes was gone from school on tour, yet I managed to keep a strong A average. When I would return to school, the girls would go from making nasty remarks about my singing and my clothes, to pushing me in the hall ways, to totally ignoring me. If I said anything to a teacher or my parents, it wa always tossed off as the girls being jealous of me. HAH!

Boys pretended to like me so I would help them with their studies, especially foreign languages, but would then tell their friends I was not someone to date. Once I was invited to a school dance, got all ready, but the boy never came to pick me up. The next day, the girl he actually took and her friends made sure everyone knew I was dumb enough to think I'd really been invited to a dance. Girls would encourage me to join their clubs or "sorority", then when it came time to pledge, would tell me they didn't want "someone like me" around them. It wasn't the kind of bullying we see today, but it was hurtful and made a lasting impression on me.

So, what, if anything, can we do as writers? Does it help to write fictional stories about the bullies and their victims, and then have the bully given his "comeupance" in the end? Should we write non-fictional articles about the true stories of bullying, and the lasting negative effects on both the bully and his or her victim?

I don't know. If I had the answer to that question, I could probably make millions of dollars in selling the solution to schools and parents alike. But something needs to be done, and it needs to be done soon.

I've done some research online, and found that there are a myriad of books already out on bullying...things like what parents should look for in their child's behavior to determine if they are bullying or being bullied; what to do if your child is being bullied, and so on. But no one seems to write about what to do regarding the school teachers and administrators who often know about the bullying but do nothing about it. For example, four teens have committed suicide within the last two years at Mentor High School in Mentor,Ohio, all complained to teachers and coaches, who did nothing, and the principal merely chalked the bullying up to "boys being boys." What kind of stupidity, of sheer crass indifference is that? Obviously no one at that school has read any of these books, nor, apparently, do they care to.

So what do we do as writers? We are supposed to have a "great influence" upon society..."we" meaning writers in general. Are we failing to reach the kids who do the bullying? Or are we reaching them in our books and articles, but simply not saying what needs to be said...the kinds of things that will change their attitudes? Or...worse case scenario...does it matter? Are the kids who bully someone to the extent that he or she takes their life, already beyond the help of anything they could read in a book? Is this bullying merely a forerunner of worse things to come?

Many times prosecuters will say that criminal behavior begins in the home, and when kids are young. The behaviors and attitudes that they learn there stay with them for life, and if there is any kind of cruelty or bullying in the home, it will manifest itself in the child in later life. From having taught Sociology of Criminal Behavior, I know this to be true. But it is difficult to believe that nothing we can do, say, or write is ever of any help or benefit to a bullying teen.

I don't have the answers. Do you? I hope to hear from some of you.

Until next time,
that's a wrap.

Censorship and The Writer

2010-09-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

This week ( September 25 - October 1, 2010) is Banned Book Week. Banning books is censorship. Author Ellen Hopkins was "uninvited" to a teen book festival in a small town in Texas this past summer, because her trilogy of books on drugs was "unacceptable reading" for teens. Author Sarah Ockler's book, Twenty Boy Summer, has been challenged, not necessarily for content, but because the title sounds "promiscuous," and may be pulled from a high school library. In Stockton, Missouri, Sherman Alexie's book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was removed from the high schools because of jokes about masturbation and some swear words. Are you kidding me? High school boys never swear? They don't know what masturbation is? From what planet are the adults who removed this book? On the other hand, perhaps this book was removed because of its clear and unbiased look at racism, a facet of the American culture that this society would much prefer to ignore.

What is the removal of these books teaching our kids? Isn't it teaching them that it is perfectly okay to judge something on the basis of appearance rather than on the facts? ( Twenty Boy Summer.) Isn't it teaching them to learn about drugs and sex and violence either from strangers who may entice them into this culture, or by actually entering it on their own? (Crack.) Isn't it teaching them to be embarrassed about a natural part of growing up, and to ignore things you don't understand and hope they will go away? (Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.)

Is that what you want for your kids or for yourself? Some narrow minded, usually fanatically inclined, person to tell you and them that they have the right, and your best interests at heart when they say that you must think, talk, act, and believe as they do? Someone who insists that he or she has the absolute right to make all of your decisions for you in every facet of your life, no matter how personal it might be? Oh, and if you resist this person, he will simply work harder to ignite the righteous indigation of people who DO believe as he does, so this small, bigoted group of people can rant and rave, scream, threaten, and carry on until their wishes are carried out, no matter how you feel.

Don't for one minute think that censorship is confined to books alone. It is not. Censorship is espoused by religious and political fanatics, by people who want to dictate what movies can be made, what art can be exhibited, what stories can be told, what people can be allowed to live in peace, what values, morals and ethics can be taught to our children, and in fact...what FREEDOMS can be allowed in our society.

Censorship can ( and has ) lead to the outrageously heinous acts of the attempted extermination of an entire society...the American Indians in our Western culture, the Jews in Poland and Eastern Europe in the 1940's...or the enslavement of a culture, such as the blacks kidnapped and brought to the US in the 18th and 19th centures.

Censorship spawns the idea that there is only one right way to do things, and that right way is only what one person or one group of people say it is. By giving birth to THAT idea, we...or mainly our kids...learn that it's okay to bully someone smaller or weaker or different than you...which in turn leads to the above ideas that it's okay to exterminate or enslave an entire culture.

So what do you do about censorship? You talk to each other and most of all, you talk to your kids. When it comes to books, for younger children you can buy or check out at the library only what you want them to read. But when they are old enough to want to have a say in what they read, then you talk to them. You tell them what is appropriate for their age and reading/comprehension level, and you guide them in that direction. When they are old enough to pick out their own reading material, and want to read something you may not approve of, you have a conversation about it...what the book is about, why you're not too pleased with it, bring in the values and morals that you've taught your kids...BUT DON'T REFUSE TO LET THEM READ IT, REGARDLESS OF WHAT IT IS. Parental censorship is no better than public censorship. Let them read the book, but with the understanding that you WILL have a conversation about it afterwards. Have them tell you what they liked and didn't like, what they understood, what they may have been confused about, and what the book meant to them in terms of what is happening in their own lives, both at home, in school and with their friends.

Nothing can take the place of conversation, open, objective, unemotional ( as much as possible), and completely devoid of a moralistic attitude on your part. Remember that children learn from books, even as teens, and the ideas and attitudes they learn do not have to be "wrong" or derogatory or even scary. Take the negative out of the situation by having a discussion of the book, the characters, the plot, and how the characters acted and reacted within the plot. Make it a part of real life, if possible, by comparing that book to something that may have happened in your own lives, in those of friends or family, or even something that happened in the media. Kids learn from all of these incidents, so make them as positive a learning experience as possible. Don't let fear and uncertainly become the end result of reading a book.

But the same axiom applies to all the other phases of life that the hatemongers of the world subscribe to...art, music, TV, movies, cultural/religious/ethnic diversity, values, ideas/thoughts/attitudes...in other words, FREEDOM. Remember that it's not the books or the movies and so on that we need to fear, it is the lunatics, the people who truly believe that they have to right to monitor and/or control everyone else's life, in terms of their right to the freedoms guaranteed us by the US Constitution. The people who think they have the right to censor and even destroy any one of those freedoms...this element of society is what we have to fear...not the words on a written page.

Until later,
that's a wrap.

The First Amendment and Banned Book Week

2010-09-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

I am ready to spit nails. September 25 to October 1st is Banned Book Week in the US, and we need to do all we can to support this event, and keep censorship out of the United States of America.

Why am I ready to spit nails? Because I just read a piece of garbage by a man named Wesley Scroggins. This man, who merely displays his total ignorance, is trying to get books like Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, banned from his school district. Not only that, but he has blasted Slaughterhouse Five, a classic by Kurt Vonnegut, as well as several other books. The reason? Well, he considers rape "pornographic" ( are you kidding me??), and SF apparently had the "f" word on every page, several times. Guess I read the wrong Slaughterhouse Five.

This man is a fundamentalist Christian in Republic, Missouri, whose own children don't go to public school, from what I've read. They are home-schooled. Okay, Mr. Scroggins, if you don't want your kids to read these books, that's your perogative, but don't go putting your misguided values and moralistic views on other parents and children.

I wonder if he has even read Speak ? It is a very sensitively written book about a high school girl who is raped at a party. She calls 911, but by the time they police get there, she is afraid to say anything, so all her friends think she just wanted to sabotage the party. Now they won't have anything to do with her, and she is still afraid to tell anyone about what happened. Until, that is, the boy tries again, and then all hell breaks loose.

This is a book about date rape...something that adult women, as well as teen girls, experience all the time. For Scroggins to vilify the book is for him to denigrate all the women, regardless of age, who have had this happen to them. Every woman, from 14 to 40 and beyond, who is dating, should read this book, and understand that keeping silent from something this terrible happening to them is the wrong thing to do. SPEAK up and tell parents, teachers, authorities, AND the world what has been done to you and by whom. Perhaps if more girls and women spoke up, the male sex would (eventually) learn that we are NOT the weaker sex, and we WILL NOT be treated so inhumanely and with such disrespect.

Scroggins is a man who apparently wants to be an ostrich...you know, the "head in the sand" mindset? He seems to have a problem with any kind of teaching that doesn't adhere strictly to his own very fundamentalist views...he objects to certain parts of history and science courses which teach views other than those of the most fundamental Christian opinions, AND he even objects to certain parts of the Constitution. This is a man who actually has some sway in school board matters in Republic, Missouri? I pity the kids who come out of that school district!

Speaking of the Constitution: The First Amendment says: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Book banning is a direct violation of the First Amendment, besides a slap in the face to all of us. Would you believe that some of the most famous books in history, as well as some of the most powerful new ones, have been banned from local schools and libraries, or have had some very serious debates going on about the need for banning them? Try these on for size:
Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Uncle Bobby's Wedding, Catcher In The Rye, Twilight, My Sister's Keeper, Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Speak, Slaughterhouse Five, Twenty Boy Summer, and many, many more.

From Uncle Tom's Cabin and on, the religious fanatacism and gross ignorance of only a small group of people have ignited the flames of censorship. Tomorrow I am going to post a few of my thoughts on censorship in general.

In the meantime, support your local schools and libraries in any events they may have going on, concerning Banned Books Week. Keep our freedom and that of our children to read the books we so choose FREE.

Until later,
that's a wrap.

More About Agents

2010-09-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

I guess I have agents on the brain. I'm trying to work up the courage to start querying them about my first novel, and after attending a conference this past weekend, and listening to Nathan Bransford talk, I know that I've got to quit procrastinating, and JUST. DO. IT.

In his keynote address, Nathan talked a bit about agents. His emphasis was on finding the agent who is right for you. That means doing your homework, which is research, research, and more research. For writers who enjoy research, that's not a big deal, but it is for those who don't.

So, how do you do this research? The best way is to find their blogs...Google is great for this...and start reading. Agents are going to tell you lots of things...most have an enormous amount of information on their blogs, so it is up to you to dig it out.

You need to find the agents who best represent the genre and age group that you are the most familiar with and the most comfortable writing about. After you do that, begin researching the kinds of books they have repped. Usually these are shown on their blogs or websites. Then go to Amazon, or even your local library, browse the books and read the reviews. If the books sound like something you would write about, or what you've written is similar in some way, then this agent might be a good choice for you to query.

It is best to try to find an agent who is affiliated with the Association of Authors' Representatives ( AAR) in order to make sure your agent is legitimate. ( Sorry, but there are scam artists out there in the literary world.) However...that is not to say that any agent NOT affiliated with AAR is not a good agent ! AAR has requirements for affiliation ( I don't know these), and many very fine agents, especially those who are new, will not have met those requirements yet. So don't turn down an agent just because he or she is not yet a member of AAR.

Make sure the agent has a good track record, and if they are new or a young agent, that they are at a reputable firm. Ask them about what fees they charge, because agents are NOT supposed to charge any fees, for reading your work, postage, or anything else.

It isn't necessary but it is desirable to have a blog or a website, as agents sometimes...as busy as they are...do check them out to look for new clients. Social networking is good, too, especially if you can get in with other writers who may already have agents, and will give you a referral.

When that all-important phone call comes in, don't be so delirious with happiness that you accept immediately!! First, ask questions. Your agent won't be upset, he or she will be glad that, again, you've done your homework. Ask about the genres the agent accepts and make sure your work fits in to what he/she wants and expects. Ask about fees and expenses on your end, if any. Remember that there should be none. Ask how often the agent is in touch with you, and is it by phone or email. Ask about editing, does she do any, and what does she expect from you in terms of the editing. Ask about the marketing/selling of your book...what publishers will she be sending the manuscript to, are they traditional print publishers, and will e-books be considered. Ask what she has in mind for your career...how far does she see you going, what other genres of books will she rep, in case you want to explore something different than what she has accepted.

All of these questions are pertinent to your relationship with your agent, who just might be the most important person in your life...well, excluding spouses, children, parents and siblings, that is.

I hope this has been helpful for those of you in search of, or getting ready to be in search of, that elusive creature called the Literary Agent!

Until next time,
That's a wrap.

The Right Way to Query

2010-09-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

I'm back after an extended absence that I really didn't intend to take. I've been so busy with editing and finishing up an assignment that I just couldn't seem to find the time to post. Once again, I promise not to let such a long time go by!

This past weekend I went to a writers' conference. I had hoped to come away with a lot of notes that I could pass along to you, but the workshops were so bad, that wasn't the case. EXCEPT! For one. I had Nathan Bransford for a workshop on queries, and it was not only very informative, it was also fun. And considering how difficult it is to write a good query, FUN was all important! So I'm going to tell you about the things he told us.

First, a query doesn't need to be more than three paragraphs: 1) personalization; 2) what the story is about; and 3) closing, with a brief bio and publishing credits if any.

It's very important to personalize your query. That means you need to do your research in order to learn something about this agent: what genres do they accept, what are they looking for in that ( those) genre, and also, some little tidbit about the agent personally. For example, if they have said in a blog that they love Chocolate Pecan Pie or they hate the Lakers, you might mention that.

The second paragraph is about the story, and it should be about three or four sentences. This should include a) the setting; b) the protagonist's name; c) the antagonist ( which can be a person, emotion, or obstacle); d) complicating incident; e) the protagonist's quest; and f) the protagonist's ultimate goal. These elements don't necessarily have to be in any particular order, but they should all be in that second paragraph.

Since Nathan posted this query on his blogspot, and then gave it to us in a handout, I'm going to post it here so you can see what he means by the five elements above. The example is from ROCK PAPER TIGER.

The Beijing '08 Olympics are over, the war in Iraq is lost, and former National Guard medic Ellie McEnroe (protagonist) is stuck in China, trying to lose herself in the alien worlds of performance artists and online gamers (setting). When a chance encounter with a Chinese Muslim dissident ( complicating incident) drops her down a rabbit hole of conspiracies, Ellie must decide who to trust ( quest) among the artists, dealers, collectors and operatives claiming to be on her side (antagonists)--in particular, a mysterious organization operating within a popular online game.

The third paragraph is the closing, which includes the important details of the novel: Title, word count, genre, and brief author bio and credits.

Finally, the thank you and your name. The query should run between 250 and 350 words. Match the tone of your query to the tone of your book, if possible...if your book is humorous, so should your query be; if the book is serious, your query should be serious, also. At all times, be professional, but personalize!

I hope this has helped those of you who, like me, would rather write 10 novels than one query! Nathan's talk demystified the process, and made writing a query seem much simpler than it had been in the past.

For those of you who would like to read his blog, which is fantastic, here is the link again: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/

Until next time,
that's a wrap.

Kindle, E-Books, and Traditional Publishing

2010-08-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

My husband bought me a Kindle for my birthday ( which hasn't happened quite yet), and neither has the Kindle :) By that, I mean it hasn't arrived. He bought one, then discovered the next day that they were bringing out a brand new model, same price, on August 27th. So he cancelled the first one and ordered the new one...which still hasn't arrived.

This whole rigamarole got me to thinking: what is the Kindle and others like it going to do to traditional print books? Is it going to have any effect on them? My answer is Yes. But I think the UNanswerable question is, what kind of effect and how much of one. ( Okay, okay, I know that's two questions! )

In searching through the Kindle bookstore on Amazon, I found many of the classics that could be electronically transmitted to your Kindle. Classics like Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and many many others. Classics which have become e-books; classics that you no longer have to hold in your hand, smell the print, touch the covers. I don't know, but for me, there are some books that should never see the light of day as e-books, and classics number highly among those. And...many of those classics are free.

Now which would you rather do...go to an antique books store, and rummage around all those wonderful old books until you find just the right one...maybe even with a LEATHER cover...OR...pick up an electronic gadget and read it there? What about the smell of old books? Isn't there something to be said for the smell of old books when you go into that antique store? You know, to me, those smells conjure up all kinds of images of days past...young women in hoop skirts with long curls swirling over their shoulders while they sit in their parlors reading by gas lamps; a young man in a 3 piece suit bending over a young woman's slim hand, while holding a beautifully wrapped book behind his back to surprise her with...so much more dignity and graciousness in those days than in our world today. And it all begins with books. Printed books. Sigh. But that was yesteryear.

Enough reminiscing. Back to the present and future. So...will e-books hurt the traditional publishing? Some editors and publishers say yes, eventually, some say no, not at all. I had a conversation with a friend recently who is also a writer. She seems to think that having a manuscript turned into an e-book, rather than going the traditional publishing way, is similar to, but better than, self-publishing. Our discussion centered around someone we both know who is having her first manuscript published as an e-book. Yet this person, whom we both think very highly of, is just not ready to have a book published. In any form. It hasn't been critiqued, there are a few SPAG errors still in it, but the main problem is the plot and characterizations. But the editor seems to think it's fine, so it will be published in e-book form.

I think this will diminish her as a writer if she decides to go the traditional route with another book. She will add the e-book to her writing credits, and if the editor or assistant editor or first reader decides to check it out...hmm...that will not be a good thing. So another question becomes: will publishing as an e-book harm credibility if the author decides to go the traditional way? Especially if the author is newly published?

Another way to look at e-books is all of the multiple-published authors ( in the adult field) whose books are now being published as e-books: authors like James Patterson, Lisa Jackson, John Grisham. These are among my favorites, and all have multiple books published by traditional publishers. I'm sure you'll find your favorite authors published electronically, also.

But the difference is: these authors have been published in print for years and years. Their books are still being put on book shelves as print books, so now being published as e-books is just another venue for them. I doubt that any will forego print for electronic.

Then there are first-time authors like my friend and me. I don't think I would consider publishing first as an e-book...in fact, I'm sure I wouldn't. But IF I did, would that lessen my credibility for print publishing? I don't know. Some people who supposedly know say that self-publishing lessens credibility, but we all know famous authors who self-published their first book, and look where they are today.

I guess this is one of those things where the best answer is: wait and see. E-books are here to stay, there's no doubt about that. I think one thing we need to seriously consider, as children's and YA writers, is another question: how many kids, even teens or at least, young teens, are going to have Kindles or its equivilent? If you had an 8 year old, or 10, 12 or even 15 year old, would you trust them with an expensive electronic devise such as a Kindle? Many parents would not, and probably rightly so. Kids of any age just don't take care of their expensive "toys" the way we'd like them to, so why pay $200 - $500 for a Kindle which might not last them more than a month or two? And if they don't have Kindles...they don't have e-books, do they? !

So if you're like me, and you are writing for kids of any age, I would suggest taking the traditional route to publishing...no matter how long it takes or how frustrating it becomes.

Of course, there's always that chance that by the time we get published in print, Kindles will be down to $20 and all e-books are $4.99 ! Oh well...nobody said being a writer was a bed of roses.

Until next time, that's a wrap.

Editing and Revision, Part 2

2010-08-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Back to the fun process of editing! Did you know that if you use Microsoft Word, you can utilize the "find" function to find all the everyday words you've used, and probably shouldn't have? I'm going to list a few of those words, so you'll see what I mean:

And, but, that, just, that ( when you mean who ), few, many, nearly, anyway, only, then, felt or feel, really, almost, because, begin or began, very. To name a few.

Now these are perfectly good words, words we use in both speaking and writing all the time. But ( one of those we shouldn't use much) sometimes we overuse them in writing when we don't have to. Take the word "that." How many times do you use "that" in a sentence like this: I thought that he was coming, too. Or here is one I took right out of our local paper: The design that he is going to create was inspired by the Salinas River.

Now try reading it this way: I thought he was coming, too. And: The design he is going to create was inspired by the Salinas River. Has the meaning of either sentence changed because I took out "that"? No, it hasn't. However, each sentence reads more smoothly, and...you're eliminating two words in your word count. So here is one word in particular that you can usually get rid of without changing the meaning of your sentences or paragraphs, and all it does is to lower your word count. On the other hand...if you are using that word excessively, as well as some of the others listed, to boost your word count, then you have a problem!

All of the words listed above are valid words, and there are times when it is necessary for the flow of your paragraph or dialogue for you to use them. But a good rule is to go through your manuscript sentence by sentence and see if you can eliminate them...especially "that!"

Another type of word to avoid whenever possible are the adverbs...all "ly" tell something instead of showing it. For example: She walked angrily into her bedroom and shut the door. This sentence is telling the reader that the character is angry. What about this sentence: She stomped into her bedroom and slammed the door so hard all her pictures rattled and swayed on their hangers. A longer sentence, true, but doesn't that give the reader a clearer picture of how she was feeling? Doesn't it show the reader her feelings rather then telling how she is feeling? Showing rather than telling usually does add words, but it is a much more active way of drawing the reader into the story, rather than just telling the reader everything.

Other than specific words, a couple of other important points to conside when reviding and editing are chapter openings and endings, and the story ending.
Chapter Openings and Endings:

Be sure that all of your chapters open and close differently. Don't have them all open at the same time of day or evening, or with dialogue, or with exposition or backstory. Vary each one, so the reader doesn't know what to expect each time she begins a new chapter.

The same with your chapter endings. Do they end with a cliff-hanger? With some kind of unresolved tension or conflict? Do they end in such a was as to keep your reader turning the pages? Every chapter can't always end in conflict or tension, we all know that. But you should read through each chapter carefully, and make sure that you have at least left the reader wondering what might happen on the next page. Sometimes that means splitting a chapter in a way that you hadn't intended, but if it adds to the overall suspense in terms of emotional tension, a dramatic scene, or perhaps a physical conflict or confrontation left unsolved until the next chapter, then it is the right thing to do.

Story Ending:

The final ending is very important. Make sure that you haven't left any loose ends hanging. For example: Taylor (MC) and Allyson ( secondary MC) had a big fight in Chapter 12 over a boy that both of them liked. Some harsh words were exchanged that Taylor finds hard to forgive. In Chapter 13, the two girls make up. Chapter 15 is the end of the novel...have those harsh words that Taylor couldn't forgive in Chapter 12 been taken care of? Did the girls make up, but no mention of those words was made? Would that leave Taylor still unforgiving towards Allyson as far as what she said? Don't leave loose ends unresolved, however seemingly minor. Kids will be sure to pick up on that one point, and ask, well, what happened about this Make sure as you go back through all your chapters during your edit, that everything said and done has some kind of conclusion.

That's not to say that every novel has to have a happy ending. They don't, but the ending at least has to satisfy kids that everything that should have happened, did, in one way or another. Sometimes, if a series is going to occur, you may want to leave one minor little detail...umm, not hanging, exactly, but not resolved completely, with the idea that maybe someday something else is going to happen in another book.

Editing and revision is a long, drawn out process, but a very necessary one. The bright side of that process is that often, we find ways to make each page, each chapter more interesting and more exciting to the reader. The end result is almost always a better novel. Just remember, perfection is beyond us mere mortals, so don't strive for that. Strive to produce a story that agents and editors are going to be happy with, and kids are going to fall in love with!

Until next time, that's a wrap.

The Process of Editing and Revision

2010-08-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

If you're like most writers I know, including myself, the editing and revison process can be a nightmare. I think we all hate it, yet we know that it has to be done. We can't submit a manuscript without doing a mountainous amount of editing and revising. If we did, that would be like going bowling butt naked! Even if your team consisted of only women, it's still not the best way to present your...er...striking position, is it?

I'm now editing and revising AJ's story for the last time. I mean it. The absolutely, positively, definitely LAST time...at least, until an agent or editor asks for something else.

Right now, AJ is not cooperating at all. She's the little gal who woke me up in the middle of the night, demanding to have her story told. Which I have done...over...and over...and over...and over. Each time she has more or less agreed with me, but now she is a sulky little witch, pouting and telling me I am NOT getting it right. She has become demanding and obnoxious. I am sure if she could come out of the computer, she'd be standing over me with eyes glaring and fists on her hips. Neverthe less...

We all do revisions differently. Some people are very organized, have a system that they follow, and others, like me, start with the first sentence and go on from there. But there are a few things I believe we all need to be aware of as we go along. These are:

First Five Pages: How do we get started? Do we begin with dialogue, backstory ( always a bugaboo), narration? However we begin, will those first few paragraphs grab the reader's attention, and keep them reading through the next four pages? Do we start with some kind of action, or does it take more than five pages to really get into the meat of the story? ( If the answer is yes, that's bad news.)

The Main Character: Will the reader know what the MC is all about within those first five pages? Will the MC display enough of his/her characteristics to cause the reader to bond with her? Is she someone who changes and grows in some way be the end of the story? What about her will make the reader want her to succeed: is she a heroine in some way; someone who is the underdog but overcomes it; someone who is funny and sarcastic; someone who knows what she wants and how to get it, and lets nothing stand in her way? In other words, do YOU know this character well enough for her to know herself, AND the reader to fall in love with her? or even, Love to Hate her?

Conflict: Is there more than one conflict? Is the MC engaging in this conflict emotionally, physically, mentally or spiritually, or any combination of those? Is the conflict believable for the MC's age? Is there more than one conflict, and if so, are you weaving them together concisely and believably, or do you have a loose end somewhere? Is the conflict one that your reader can relate to, in terms of both age and experience?

Voice and POV: Both are difficult, but I think voice is probably the hardest for all of us. First, we have our own voices, the way we write, the style we use. Then we have to consider the voice of each of our characters. We can't have a 13 year old girl sounding like a 6 year old child, or a 30 year old woman. Not only do we have to have a realistic voice for our MC, but the voices for each of the characters must be different, too. If the MC is a 13 year old girl, she shouldn't sound like her 16 year old brother. If we have 10 year old twins, they can't sound like their sister, brother, or mother. ( In case you're wondering, AJ is the 13 year old, with a 16 year old brother and 10 year old twin sisters.)

So finding the right voice, in terms of vocabulary, how she or he speak, the phrases and words they use...all the elements that go into having a distinct voice for each character...are all very important. They are definitely things to edit closely.

POV is another sticky wicket. I love to write in 1st person past tense, but this is not the easiest thing to do, and I sometimes slip up. For one thing, it's hard to carry 1st person through a whole novel, because nothing can happen in the novel that your MC is not privy to. She has to be with the other characters in every scene, or she has to be in some place where she can see and hear but not be seen or heard. None of the other characters can think about something, because she would not be able to know their thoughts. They can't have "looks" come over their faces, or "feel" something, because the MC can't do that for them.

Most writers use 3rd person past tense, and write from the MC's POV. But even that can cause problems, if you're not careful.

We'll talk more about some of the other pitfalls of editing next time. In the meantime, when you begin your edit, pay close attention to the things we've talked about here.

Until next time, that's a wrap.

Good Intentions

2010-08-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

Good intentions gone awry! I had every intention of posting here at least twice a week, after my last post which was in July. And as you can see, that was almost a month ago.

Worst part is, I have no excuses. Except: let's see, I was busy working on getting my assignment finished; I had 6 chapters to do an almost complete rewrite on; I had three query letters I've been working on ( one is harder to write than an entire novel, let alone three different ones); I had a three-day conference to attend ( okay, okay, so it was online, I still had to be there, didn't I?); and then, well, there's just life in general getting in the way.

Besides all that, I'm still mulling over what one of my favorite agents said ( no, she's not my agent, but she's at the top of my list) about blogging in general. She said that there is really no good reason for an unpublished writer to have a blog or a website. According to her, the main purpose for either is to promote our books, and if we don't have one published yet, we don't really need to take time away from writing to work on a blog or website. Although, she did say that if blogging was just something you really loved, you should stay with it...but don't allow it to take away from your real writing time.

I agree with her a lot, but not entirely. However, this is just one of those times when one reputable agent says one thing, and another one says the opposite. I've also read agents say how important it is for a beginning writer to have a presence or a platform for themselves on the Internet.

I'm still not sure what a platform is all about. But a presence? I can go along with that. Then, of course, comes another question and differences of opinion. The question is: who are you writing your blog for? Kids? Teens? Teachers/librarians? Other writers? Or even, none of the above? For me, the answer would be, other writers, especially those just beginning. I try very hard to post some good information and/or tips about writing that I have learned through courses, books, conferences, and other experienced writers.

Kids don't read blogs. Teens don't either, unless they are by some favorite/fabulous author like Stephanie Meyer or JK Rowling. And I'm not sure what teachers and/or librarians would be looking for in a blog, so I concentrate on putting out something that will ( hopefully) benefit less experienced writers.

The agents' grapevine also says it is a good thing to talk about your writing: the ups and downs ( not necessarily rejections), how your ideas come to you, how you go about putting those ideas into action, and even posting exerpts occasionally from some of your work.

So stay tuned. This week I am for sure/absolutely/positively going to have some new stuff on my blog...and it may even surprise you!

Until then, that's a wrap.

Monday Musings

2010-07-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hello again, I'm back! I've been so involved in getting my middle six chapters finished for my historical novel, that I'm near hysterical. Anyway, I don't know where the time has gone, but I guess I was having too much fun to remember about my blog...NOT.

I've got so much on my mind these days that i seem to be turning in circles without finding an exit. I'm doing research on both agents and editors, but I think I am going to try to find representation rather than going straight to a publishing house. You know what that means? Mostly it means my head is spinning, to be cliche-ish.

For one thing, I have yet to figure out what "juvenile" means in terms of genre for agents. I have spent 4 hours going through the 2011 edition of Guide to Literary Agents, and all it has gotten me is confusion. Some agents specify that they represent MG and/or YA books. Some say children's books but do not specify what age limit, other than perhaps saying they don't want Picture Books. And then...we have those who ONLY specify "juvenile." That's a new one for me. If you know what "juvenile" means in terms of...PBs, early reader,
chapter books, MG or YA, would you please post a comment and let me know?
Seriously.

Then there is my first novel that I am once again...and hopefully for the very last time...editing. I had a professional critique of my first three chapters, which I was very glad to receive. The lady who did it was complimentary, but also very clear in what she thought should be changed, eliminated, or reworded entirely. A lot of work to be done on those first chapters, but now I've begun going through every page of the remaining 15 chapters to apply the suggestions and comments she made to everywhere that it would be pertinent. It's a lot of work, and I'm not even half way through the 18 chapters, but in the long run, I feel it will make the manuscript better.

Speaking of that novel...how did you come by the ideas for the stories or novels you write or have written? My main character, AJ, woke me up in the middle of the night. Now my husband...non-writer that he is...insists I merely dreamed the whold thing. But...even he cannot explain the hand-written, only partially legible notes that I found on my desk the following moring. And considering my handwriting these days, after so many years on the computer, those notes could only have been written when I was only half awake!

So...AJ wakes me up and says I need to write her story about cheerleading. Excuse me? Cheerleading? What I know about that subject you could write on the head of a pin. But she was SO insistent. The next morning, I went to the library and checked out 7 books on cheerleading, 6 were fiction and 1 was NF. I spent days and weeks reading and doing research on the Internet about cheerleading. When I told my daughter, she thought I'd really lost it. She hadn't even wanted to be a cheerer ( is that a word? ) when she was in school, and thought the girls who were were all a bunch of snobs.

Nevertheless, after 2 weeks of straight research, I began the novel, Almost immediately, I decided I needed help, so I signed up for the ICL novel course. Over the next 16 months, I wrote, edited, revised, wrote, edited, revised, wrote...well, you know. As it turns out, AJ is a 13 year old girl who has a lot more going for her than she realizes. She becomes a cheerleader, although not the Senior Captain that she expected to be. And the reason for that comes in the form of the new girl in town, Celine, who for some strange reason is out to destroy all of AJ's friendships and ruin her chances to even be on the cheerleading squad. The story evolved into much more than a "cheerleading saga." Being a horse person, I could hardly be expected to write a novel without horses in it, so AJ lives in a western Colorado town, and has a championship mare. She fights ( literally) with Celine, learns that there is a mysterious connection between Celine ( who is not who or what she claims to be) and AJ's father, faces the death of one of her BFFs, learns that she will be getting a stepmother soon who has been in her father's life for much longer than she should have been, and...

Hopefully, before too much longer, you all will be able to read the entire novel by buying it from Amazon or your local bookstore!

And then, there's my hysterical...umm, I mean... historical...novel...but thats a story for another day.

Until next time, that's a wrap.

Books, Books, and More Books

2010-07-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

How many "how to write" books do you have? Writing for children, writing for adults, just writing in general?

The first writing books I had were sent to me by my daughter, with a note that basically said, Get off your butt and start writing! And those 5 books were actually what started me writing with the intention ( and hope) of someday being published.

The best of those books were Crafting Stories for Children, by Nancy Lamb, and The Children's Writer's Word Book, by Alijandra Mogilner. I've kinda gotten beyond the Writer's Word Book, but I still refer to Nancy Lamb's book.

Then there is Writing it Right by Sandy Asher, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King; Finding Your Voice by Les Edgerton; Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass; The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman; Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint by Nancy Kress; and last but certainly not least, Word Magic for Writers by Cindy Rogers.

These all grace my bookshelves, as well as the requisite 2010 editions of Writer's Guide to 2010, The Children's Writers and Illustrators Market, Book Markets for Children's Writers, Magazine Markets for Children's Writers, The Children's Writers' Guide ( 2009 edition), and just received, the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents. Whew!

Have I read all of these books, cover to cover? No, of course not. I probably should, but instead, I pick and choose the chapters that seem to be the most pertinent to my current WIP.

Now, all of these books are wonderful. Each offers something the others don't have. I think they should all be on every children' writer's desk or bookshelf. But! Do you realize how confused you can get by reading all these books? Each offers a different perspective to writing. It may differ only slightly from one or more of the others, but it is just enough to cause you ( me, anyway) to say HUH? But I just read something the opposite of this in Writing it Right !

One might say that exposition is necessary, another might say you should have very little. One might explain that backstory should be brought in early on in the story, another will say backstory should be dropped by bits and pieces throughout the story. One will say using adverbs is a BIG No No, another will say adverbs spice up the story if used judiciously. And on and on.

What to believe? How to write? Sometimes the books are more confusing than they are helpful! I'm in my third course with ICL, and one instructor has said my novel should begin with action, another has said no, let's establish the relationships first. Aaghh!

I suppose that all this confusion serves a purpose, however. First, if we follow all of these books, we will be doing a mountainous amount of writing and no story will be like another LOL Second, it does give us experience when we get to the point in writing that I'm in at the moment...looking for an agent. Because the truth of the matter is: there are no two agents in this entire universe who want exactly the same thing in a query letter ! !

Consequently, if you have experience in writing in different modes ( not genres, necessarily), you will have experience in writing a mulitude of query letters...and not any one will be anything like another.

All joking aside...umm, I wasn't entirely joking...the above mentioned books are a tremendous asset to any writer, and I seriously recommend them.

Until later, that's a wrap.

The Three Paragraph Rule

2010-06-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of the "3 paragraph" rule for queries? You know, where you're supposed to tell everything that's important about your manuscript and you in just 3 paragraphs? That's a laugh, isn't it !

I'm going to talk about what I've been taught about this rule. You might find it handy, or you might not. Anyway, supposedly the first paragraph is actually no more than a one or two sentence introduction. This is to try to make the reason why you're querying this particular agent a personal one, i.e. to let him know that you've done your homework and know something about him. For example, if you can start this first paragraph off by saying...I am seeking your representation because you represented TITLE OF BOOK by AUTHOR'S NAME, and I think my manuscript is similar. However, before you say this, you need to make sure you've read this book and your book actually IS similar. Nothing will put an agent off more than to ask for your manuscript based on this kind of statement in your query, and then find that your story doesn't even faintly resemble the one you mentioned.

The second paragraph should be a short and concise description of your plot/storyline. By short I mean only a few sentences, maybe 4 or 5. You don't want to try to work in subplots or characters' names. Although, not mentioning even the MC's name seems to be something that agents disagree on, because I've seen some agents who want to know right away who they will be reading about. So there seems to be some disagreement on that. What you do need is tight and concise writing: instead of "My novel is about a tragedy that happened at a high school," you should say "My novel is about the 12 students who were shot at XXX high school." The second thing you need is the location of your story. Not "It takes place in a large metropolitan city," but "It takes place in Chicago, Illinois." And the third thing is the time period.

If you are abiding by the "write tight and specific" rule, then you want your time period to be tight and specific too. Instead of saying "My novel takes place over a short span of time" you can say "My novel takes place during the month of August," or "over 10 days in December." This gives the agent some idea of the structure and time line of your work, and the knowledge that you've done your homework and the story isn't just something you've thrown together.

The third paragraph, which should be the final one in your query, is your biography. And this is also the one which probably causes the writer the most difficulty. People are always asking What should I put in my bio? How much is too much or not enough? Is it long enough, or short enough? Again, this paragraph needs to be short.

You don't need to, and probably shouldn't, mention "minor' credits, like being published in a local newspaper or magazine...anything that seems "amateurish" should be left out, even if you were delighted that you were published in something local. Anything major, like a children's national magazine, is a great publishing credit. Any major award, like the Newbury Honor Award, or the William C. Morris Debut Award, should of course be listed. Anything that tells the agent what accomplishments you already have behind you needs to be included. Any extra schooling related specifically to writing, such as an MFA or writing education courses, such as the Institute of Children's Literature, is a bonus.

Another couple of things not to do: Don't get personal, about how you started writing in middle school; what your hobbies are, how you write the office newsletter and everyone thinks you're great, and so on. Don't include information that simply is not relevant to your writing, just "talking to be talking." Don't embellish your bios by talking about how everyone thinks your writing is great, your daughter's 5th grade class loved your last story, and so on. Be specific, concise and relevant in all that you say.

That's a wrap. Let me know what you think.