Rest in Peace, P.D. James

It's interesting to observe how the death of someone you've never met can profoundly affect your emotions.

When I learned about the death of P.D. James, I felt a little bit of my own breath slip out into the ether. No, I never met James, but her work as a mystery writer steered me to read a genre I had yet to start. While titles featuring her most notable investigator, the poetry-writing Adam Dalgliesh all eventually found a home on my bookshelves, it was Cordelia Gray who caught my eye one day at the Flamingo branch of the Clark County Library. My arms were burdened down with science fiction when I spotted An Unsuitable Job for a Woman on the table where I'd unloaded my week's finds.

"Cool title," I said to myself, thinking about the unsuitable job I had to report to on a daily basis. Without even looking at the cover blurbs, I plopped the book on my pile, completing my two-week reading list to a total of seven books.

I decided to read the James book first and within a few chapters, I was caught, mesmerized by the character development, the meticulous plotting, the subtle but necessary backstory and the vivid descriptions of a country I'd never visited.

Off to the library the next day, I returned all the science fiction and picked up four more James titles, took them home and devoured them.

What really caught my attention in these books was the way James wove little incidences into the fabric of her plot. Nothing happened without reason. There were no coincidences. There were no minor characters showing up and going away, never to be heard from again. Her style was tight; her sentence structure impecable, her major characters human, slightly flawed, dedicated.

While I'm sure I don't measure up to James' expertise, I realize how much her process seeped into my own writing. My own former detective, Andrew Atkins, doesn't believe in coincidences, he takes the lint and string and torn pieces of fabric of life and tries to weave it back into whole cloth. He doesn't write poetry but he does have a deep appreciation for music, particularly classical and opera. Like Adam Dagliesh, Atkins knows the cloth will never be as it was before the crime, and while it won't be perfect, like life, it will go on to be useful again.

Since that first P.D. James novel, I've read all her books, watched all the movies on PBS, and waited for the next release. Of course, unless she hid some unpolished or finished manuscripts in some drawer in her writing room, there will be no more.

P.D. James died on  27 November 2014 at the age of 94. As I stated in the beginning, I never met her but I am ever so grateful for having met her work.


*** Read theTerry Gross PBS Interview with P.D. James online.

Promoting your eBook: Part Two

One of the pieces of advice I picked up recently recommended having more than one title to offer on your eBook journey. This move tends to lend credibility to your profile.

While I have one more novel in the tidying up stage and two more that need work, I'm not ready to convert any of them yet.

However, I did have a short story I wrote about ten years ago. Conversations with Marilyn is a little bit of suspense, a little bit of Vegas and a little bit of coming to terms with your life. I decided to add that to my list on Amazon. I priced it at 99-cents because that seems a fair price for a short story. I think it gives some insight into my style of writing in this genre.

I hope you'll take a look at it and give me an opinion.




Meanwhile, take a look in your stash of stored writing and pull out something you like to add to your list. It could be some poetry, a short story, a collection of short stories, or even a memoir. Add them to your list of published works.

Who knows, maybe one day you and I will be as recognized in the eBook world as Amanda Hocking.

Promoting your eBook: Part One

Promoting your eBook has to be one of the tougher parts of the writing and publishing process. You have to sell yourself and your title. If you're the more reticent type, someone who is good with words as long as they aren't "personal," you have to figure out how to come out of your shell and spread the word.

I used to be that reticent person but the more I read and learn about self-promotion the more I realize there's no sin or crime or negativity attached to tooting your own horn.

Shameless commerce works!

As I figure out ways to tell the world about my own work, I'll post them here so you don't have to travel all over the Internet trying to figure out how to get more sales.

I started out by announcing The Mine on my facebook page. That encouraged my friends to post the news on their pages.

Immediately after, I tweeted the announcement.

I'm not sure the twitter thing has brought any visitors to look at the title. I know facebook resulted in a couple of sales.

Next, I joined the Kindle Board Community because I see that many independents use the boards to hype their work and discover what's going on in the eBook world. I started by reading other posts, making lists of books that sounded appealing to me, and then dropping into the Indie Authors: Plug Your Book Here discussion to introduce myself and my work.

For now, I'm off on the hunt for more. As soon as I find them, you'll know about them.

The ebook journey - Part seven: Finding formatting gliches

Finally!

It’s time to upload the spiffed up, cleaned up, formatted, reformatted, html file of the novel.

Or so I thought.

After following the directions and confirming the coding by searching for and finding several sources, I believed the product was ready to upload and preview.

Hmmm. We know about those “best laid plans.”

Apparently, after fifteen reformats, there’s a problem getting the images to show up in the preview. I’ve used only two – a version of the cover and a little vignette to separate some of the sections in the novel.

Neither image shows in the preview. In fact, there’s some little camera icon with that scary little exclamation point inside a triangle – you know, the one that serves as a warning that you’ve done something wrong.

Interestingly, both images displayed properly in the two ebook readers I used to review my changes.

So it’s back to the drawing board to see if I can figure out what the deal is.

The ebook journey: Part six- cover design

I've made a mock-up of the cover for the novel I've been putting into ebook format. 

How does it look?

A character, a plot, a story – where do they come from?

Driving today. Stopped at traffic signal. Black vehicle eased up behind me then slid to the left and drew alongside.

This car wasn’t spiffed up and pimped out to look like hot wheels from the hood. It was stripped bare of all identification. No model, no make, no dealer identification. Even the hubcaps had been bared of a manufacturer’s imprint.

“Now there’s a creative fellow,” I said to myself. I was assuming the driver was male because this was definitely a masculine vehicle.

And that’s how an entire conversation began in my head … one that is now the outline for a novel.

By the time I pulled into my driveway, the entire story evolved.

It’s a cliché, I know, but the owner of this car certainly was thinking outside the box when he customized his vehicle. And that’s how characters, plots, and stories begin for me. It’s not likely I’ll ever see this car again on the streets of Las Vegas but I’ll be seeing it quite a bit in my head as I put the words in print.

I’m no longer surprised by the fact that any everyday occurrence can turn into a piece of fiction.

How I learned to love Amazon and why that might change

From the day Amazon first appeared on the web, I disliked the company. I didn’t care for the whole concept of selling books at a deep discount. I had this smug “principle” thing going; I believed Amazon was out to destroy the independent bookstore.

I guess the attitude came from my youth.

Many years ago, folks in my hometown bought their meat at the local butcher shop, their vegetables, their baked goods from the side door of a house where a little old lady baked things daily, their bread from a local baker who delivered by truck every day, and their canned goods and other foods from the locally owned market. One day a big sign went up three miles away, on the main highway, announcing the groundbreaking for A Big Supermarket. This was a huge deal for a small town. The advent of a one-stop shop with low prices was the topic of conversation for months, and the words were not always encouraging for A Big—at least the words from the mouths of the butcher, the baker and the little bread maker and friends. The people feared their personal relationship with the local vendors would disappear because A Big would drive them out of business.

They were right.

Sales at the A Big were slow to start but within a few months, residents were driving the few miles every couple of days to purchase all their food. Not long after, the butcher closed his shop, the bread maker laid off most of his help, the general grocery too, and the baker stopped baking. (To be fair here, I think she died but some blamed A Big for that.)

In essence, A Big drove the independent businesses out of business.

I missed getting a free cupcake; I missed watching the butcher make sausages in the middle of the store; I missed the handful of red cherries the grocer let me sample while picking up our orders. I missed walking to the store every day.

Then something tragic happened.

A Big decided traffic in their big store wasn’t good enough. After about two years, they closed the store.

This is why I disliked the idea of Amazon.

Smugly, I relished every report of losses Amazon suffered in the beginning days, months and years. I hoped the experiment would result in a total failure.

Of course, that didn’t happen. Bit by bit, the company grew, diversified, grew some more and eventually turned red ink into black, making investors very happy.

And bit by bit, as Amazon flourished, independent bookstores began to fade into the proverbial sunset.  And turned to Amazon for titles my local library didn’t carry.

Eventually, I learned to like Amazon. Good prices, great selection, fast delivery—what’s not to like, especially when there’s no independent (new) bookstore in this city? 

Then, I read an eye-opening blog post about how Amazon is “banning” books. Well, not books, per se but ebooks, and not banning, exactly. These aren’t necessarily the kind of books I would read but the idea of removing them from inventory doesn’t sit well with me, especially since this is being done without clear guidelines or reason.

What’s even scarier to me is that after delisting certain titles, Amazon might also have removed the titles from consumer kindles. (This information came from a comment on the blog post noted above so I can’t confirm that it actually happened. However, kindle owners know they are just paying to borrow their titles.)

I know. I know. Amazon is a business and as such can decide what to sell and what not to sell, and that’s what they’ve done. They’re not banning; they’re just not selling.

But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

If I want to read any of the delisted titles, I’ll surf over to Barnes and Noble where the authors report their Amazon-delisted books are selling better than ever.

A new use for an old word

Sunday evening, after dinner with friends, I learned a new word. Actually, I knew the definition before I knew the word it to which it belonged. We were discussing how people in groups interact with each other and I wondered how we might interact with a person in our own group who recently had fallen into our disfavor. One of my friends suggested that our next get-together, I should use the sociogram to see how the evening plays out.

(By the way, I’m not the only entity that didn’t recognize the word sociogram. Microsoft Word noted it as a mistake but couldn’t find an alternate suggestion.)

I thought this might be an interesting experiment.

Take all the characters in your manuscript. Without regard to seating arrangements and without your own preference, put them at a table. Then see who focuses on whom, who speaks to whom and who seems to float alone without interaction.

I think this might point to some better plotting and character development and might point out some flaws in your writing.

Then I thought of taking the experiment to the next step – rearranging the seating according to how the characters actually interact in the manuscript. Who would choose to sit with whom (and why)? Who would avoid whom (and why)? Who might eventually stand up and exchange his or her seat (and why)? And who might not even belong at the dinner (and why)?

(It's rather pricey, but here's a book that goes into great detail about the

sociogram. It might be useful to writers.)

I have a feeling these two experiments will prove useful. Any thoughts?

Query letter from the Holy Ghostwriter

(In my last post, I wondered how the authors of the Old Testament might query an agent regarding publication. I’m sure this isn’t an original question but since I’ve never heard it asked before, I think I’ll just make a feeble attempt to guess—with apologies to whomever—how this might work.)

Dearest Agent:

The Old Testament is the story of how a superior entity, who goes by the name of God, created the world in just six days, seven if you count His 24-hour coffee break.

In the beginning, He just wants to create Earth but somehow that doesn’t seem like enough. After all, what good is this big round beach ball if it’s just rotating around the sun? God has this drive, this need to populate His universe, to see where his invention goes. Maybe He is just playing a game; maybe it’s an experiment; maybe it’s for real.

If God knows, He isn’t telling.

As the hours and days go by, God tinkers with His project, adds a little day and night to the mix, some firmament, a bit of fruit, even a couple of human beings and a creature that lurks around apple trees.

It’s hard work, creating the earth. After six days and nights, God was a bit on the weary side so He takes a day off -- and when he does, all hell breaks loose.

The Old Testament follows up on God’s creation as it progresses from those early days to the birth of His Son, ages later. Between the two events, we experiences a horrendous flood, watch towers being built, learn how to worship idols, get some important commandments, discover a Holy Land, and realize how God’s children had to come to terms with their sins.

The Old Testament is a fast-paced 500,000 word (more or less, depending on which version will be submitted) mystery manuscript, part of a two-book series, the second of which (titled The New Testament) is in the rewrite stage.

We respectfully await your response.

Sincerely,
Anonymous

P.S. I think the ebook version will be a gangbuster!

Why do we write; why do we read?

I suppose the reasons for writing and/or reading vary according to the number of different people who write and/or read. Some use the written word as escapism, entertainment, information, excitement, knowledge some because they love language.

On a recent day excursion to the mountains, I had a conversation (a real one, not one in my head) with my companion. He told me about the time he signed up for some self-improvement seminar. The first question the speaker asked was, “How many of you have purchased a self-help book or tape or attended a seminar?” The entire roomful of people raised its collective hand. Next he asked, “How many of you purchased a second self-help book or tape or attended a second seminar?” Again, the hands rose.

“Why, he asked in summary, “If you finished the first, did you need a second?”

It’s that way with fiction, isn’t it—reading it or writing it?

You buy one fiction title today, finish it and you’re ready for the next one.

You finish writing one masterpiece and you rev up the motor to start on the next one.

We hunger; we need; we feed

It doesn’t matter why, does it?

7 tips for writing a book review

A good book review should either convince your reader to read or not to read. Whether a person makes one decision or another depends on two elements: how well you compose the review and how likely your reader agrees with your focus.

A well-written review includes, of course, the book title and author name, probably the publisher, the price and the ISBN. (These can appear as separate text before the actual review begins.) The actual review (we’re thinking in terms of novels here) includes a summary of the plot (without revealing the conclusion, of course), and a synopsis of the characters and a discussion about how the author writes. (He uses too many big words; her characters are underdeveloped; he introduces characters and/or scenes then drops them with no further explanation; she describes scenery and geography vividly.) All these points are based on both fact and opinion because in the end, the entire review is opinion based, and should be cited by example.

Approach your review the same way you would approach any writing, with purpose and professionalism.

Here are seven hints for writing good book review. They’re not all inclusive but they are a good jumping off point, a good framework that you can embellish with your own style.

• Include the title, author, ISBN, publisher and price.
• Summarize the book with a vivid description of the plot, characters and background (Think of this as a query letter, one you would submit to an agent or publisher if you had written the book.
• Cover points about the book you liked. (Author X draws you into the plot with characters who could be your best friend, worst enemy, neighbor, teacher. Author Y doesn’t pull any punches when describing the brutal murders committed by his serial killer.)
• Include your opinion. (The murder scene was too graphic for my taste. I wish the author had given more background on the leading character’s mother.)
• Don’t just state; describe. (Tell the reader why you think the murder scene was too graphic; explain why the main character’s mother deserved more treatment.)
• Summarize why your reader should buy the book. (It’s good enough to save and to savor again; read it then leave it at the airport for the next lucky person; buy it if you want to be put to sleep.)
• Read other book reviews, preferably ones written by professional reviewers. (For an outstanding book and author review of check out Ken Bruen's Mysterious Matters blog post.)

You could also include other elements: Does the author know what he’s talking about? Did the author make you feel as if you were walking the back alleys of Paris? Did you feel the protagonist’s pain?

Don’t be afraid to criticize. You want your reader to rely on your review, to have confidence that your opinion counts.

If your goal is to become a published book reviewer, get a copy of the books featured here. Read them and review them. They’ll help get you from start to finish.

Where is your plot going?

Some writers start their work without knowing how it will end. Others have a structure in mind that includes a beginning and an ending, sometimes jotting that structure into a notepad or word processor or on index cards. Really organized writers (I’m not one of them.) create outlines that include some or much of their entire novel – plot, transitions, characters, asides, scenes – then write within that framework.

Maybe I should ask: Where is your peacock going?

I usually know how my novel will end before I know how it will begin – no outlines, no character studies, no time lines. I don’t recommend this method to others because it usually requires quite a bit of rewrite and edit. But it works for me because once the words start bouncing around in my head, they don’t stop until I’m too tired to type them.

My friend BettyJean Steinshouer introduced me to this year’s NaNoWriMo challenge – 50,000 words in 30 days, and because I write fast, I had no trouble finishing withing the time limit. I bring this up because during the contest, I trolled around the site, checked out some blogs, read some posts, answered some questions, and somehow (don’t’ remember how) came upon the Paperback Writer's Fiction Blog. Eventually, I came across this plotting post for novels.

It’s something to think about … maybe it will help your peacock figure out where she’s going.

Quote of the day (2)

I read a lot of poetry when in my younger days, when poetry for my friends was a chore. My best buds didn’t know this about me. A few suspected, thought it odd, but refrained from commenting. They didn’t understand poetry; often, I didn’t as well.

My favorite poet was (and is) E.E. Cummings, and to this day I have a tattered bookmark of (will you teach a... .

Cummings probably didn’t write this as an inspirational work for writers, but that’s how I use it.

(will you teach a …

(will you teach a
wretch to live
straighter than a needle)

ask
her
ask
when
(ask and
ask
and ask
again and)ask a
brittle little
person fiddling
in
the
rain

(did you kiss
a girl with nipples
like pink thimbles)

ask
him
ask
who
(ask and
ask
and ask
ago and)ask a
simple
crazy
thing
singing
in the snow

Character building, part deux

Okay, if you read my earlier post about character development and haven’t blown me off as a dope, thanks.

Years after that lovely rejection, I started writing a novel. One of the characters in the novel was an unlikable, devious woman with no redeeming qualities. After I finished the novel, I read it over and realized I’d created almost the same character I’d written about back when I challenged myself to write a romance novel. She was wooden, lifeless.

For weeks, I wondered: How could I make her real?

Then, one morning as I got ready for work, I got a call from an old classmate. We started reminiscing about people we knew in the past, and it was at that point I realized how I could put life into my character.

Basically, I thought about a member of my church I didn’t like. She was a snooty woman, outspoken and sometimes loud and very critical of everyone and everybody. She had some good qualities, though. She was educated, a superb seamstress, and in the choir, she sang like a pro.

This whole memory segued into a writing exercise. I gave the woman a new name and wrote 2,123 words about her. In the process, I finally had a character with dimension, someone you loved to hate but could also admire a bit.

Now, when I introduce a character, do the same exercise. I use bits and pieces in my exposition as well as in dialogue.

It works for me; it might work for you.