Kelly Ruland drinks gin-and-tonics, takes E, and tries to fill the void in her life since her brother survived a deadly car accident and quickly skipped town. Now Jasper returns, followed by a motorcycle gang whose leader wants his soul…or maybe Kelly’s.

Justine Musk hasn’t released a novel since this 2007 young adult urban fantasy, but she’s a clever writer who weaves great sentences and a story that doesn’t fall into maudlin. Thankfully without a romance, Uninvited instead focuses on the sibling relationship. With an older brother who’s seemingly brilliant at everything, it’s easy to understand why Kelly feels she can’t measure up so she no longer tries. But ultimately Kelly will do anything to save Jasper, and vice versa. A mature tale of the void, the abyss, that we all face at one time or another.

On the repetitive nature of building habits, I found Victoria Moran’s words (in Living a Charmed Life) motivational:

You can’t buy muscle. The only way to get it is to build it yourself.

By becoming as strong, flexible and fit as is possible for you, taking the whole package that is you (heredity, age, lifestyle up to now, physical limitations) into account, might have positive physical manifestations like trimming down and having muscles that make other people envious.

But the cherry on the cake is that when you KNOW you have “strength and endurance and flexibility beyond what’s expected, you may appear to be a mild-mannered hairdresser or physician or second-grade teacher, but there’s a superhero underneath.”

Maybe I’ve been under my son’s influence too long, but being a superhero underneath seems to resonate with me. Knowing something positive about yourself – holding yourself in high esteem – that’s where your power is.

CREATIVITY

"Hey kids!" I said during a 2005 vacation, "look at that amazing storm forming in the Grand Canyon!"

“The Creative Personality: Ten paradoxical traits of the creative personality,” Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: This post by the author of one of my favorite books on creativity — appropriately titled “Creativity” — highlights contrasts in the personality traits of creative thinkers. They all feel familiar to me, but #2 really resonates: “Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.”

“The Creative Personality: Playful and Disciplined” and “The Creative Personality: Imagination and Grounded Reality,” Douglas Eby, PsychCentral:  These two posts are very appropriate for today, as they both cite Dr. Csikszentmihalyi and build on the post above. In the first post, we learn that “creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.” In the second, we gain some insight on how schizotypy, a milder version of schizophrenia, can manifest in creative people as original thinking that isn’t “bizarre.”

WRITING

“Shy Explorer Series: Asking the Experts by Judy Clement Wall,” Justine Musk interviewed on Indie Book Collective: Both Judy and Justine have been linked here before (in my fantasy Judy discovered Justine through this blog), and the two combine for a really insightful interview about blogging (Justine blogs at Tribal Writer), social media, and platform building.

Ten minutes later we were soaked. Way to go, Dad.

“6 Key Steps to Finding Your Passion as a Writer,” Barrie Davenport guest blog at Write to Done: Barrie — who blogs at Live Bold & Bloom — explains how we must know ourselves and put ourselves in our writing. That’s a lesson I’m working on in my own writing right now.

“The Seven Virtues Every Writer Needs to Succeed,” Emlyn Chand, Novel Publicity: She had me at #1, “Reverence—The would-be writer must have a profound respect for the craft.”

“10 Ways to Stay Sane When Frustrated With Your Writing,” Karin Slaughter, Writer’s Digest: There’s nothing on this list along the lines of “kicking squirrels” or “throwing rocks at skateboarders” (am I revealing too much about myself here?). They’re positive and at times productive suggestions, like “get out of the house.”

“13 Serious Mistakes No Freelancer Should Ever Make,” Lexi Rodrigo, Freelance Folder: This post applies to any freelancer, not just writers. Number 6 is “Taking on too much work.” I fell into that trap the last time I was a FT freelancer; this time I think my wife would say I’m erring too far in the other direction.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Creativity Tweets of the Week. You know, that bacon isn’t going to fetch itself.

One of the people I was most excited to interview for this series was writer/blogger Justine Musk. I found her blog, Tribal Writer, by accident one day, and was immediately hooked. She was grappling with all the same things I was (albeit with more poetry and badassery) – how to write bravely, build a platform, network in a way that felt true to her sense of self.

I sent her an email asking for an interview, and crossed my fingers that she’d be open to talking to me about what she’s learned blazing her own creative, authentic, social-networky trail. When she said yes, I did a little happy dance. It was not as big as the one I did when I read her answers to my questions. You’ll see why.

BIO: Justine Musk writes supernatural fiction (and some other stuff). Her blog, Tribal Writer is for creatives who want to come to grips with social media in a way that is not only fun and rewarding, but builds careers and enriches lives.

http://www.tribalwriter.com/

Follow Justine on Twitter: @justinemusk

j: You’ve said your blog, Tribal Writer, sits at the intersection of blogging/social media, creativity and entrepreneurship. Reading your blog was the first time I ever thought of writers as being entrepreneurs. I like the word because it encompasses creativity, productivity, saleability… a whole host of ideas. How does it help writers to think of themselves as entrepreneurs?

Justine: I like the word because it suggests a very particular kind of mindset. Entrepreneurs take ownership and responsibility for their careers, are solution-minded, educate themselves about whatever it is they need to know in order to do what they do. They understand about vision and risk and putting in long hours with no guaranteed outcome other than the chance to build something cool. They stay connected to the marketplace without being enslaved by it; they understand that sometimes you need to give people not what they want, but what they don’t know they want. Entrepreneurs play to their strengths, and not to what they think they ‘should’ do or be. They can’t survive otherwise.

Publishing is undergoing such significant changes that I really do think it’s a case of adapt or die. You still have to be the best possible writer that you can be. That won’t ever change. But I think more than ever it pays to be open-minded and experimental and a little bit visionary, to pay attention to the changing landscape and find ways and opportunities to take advantage. Resistance to change will only hurt you. Not to mention, the idea of creative entrepreneurship really kicks in once you’ve established a massive platform and can sell to your readers directly. That’s an extremely difficult feat – not all of us are meant to be like Seth Godin –but the fact that it’s possible at all just blows my mind. We’re entering a new era.

Also, entrepreneurs have an incredible work ethic. They know how to show up and start. Writers need to be able to do that.

j: You write a lot about platform, which I think is this big scary thing for many writers. What is “platform” and what are the most important elements of it?

Justine: Your platform is your ability to command attention at any given time, and to convert that attention into book sales. It means that people give a damn. They find you compelling. What writers need to understand is that you DO NOT just blast people with pleas to buy your book. You don’t broadcast. People will tune you out. Instead, you give them useful content that’s kind of like a campfire: it draws them in, gets them talking to you and each other.

So the most important part of the platform is your message. You need to have something to give to the world that excites and engages people. For fiction writers I think this gets a bit more complicated, becomes enmeshed with your voice, your identity, your quote-unquote ‘brand’.

Then you need your ‘hub’, your online home. Usually it’s a blog, or hybrid blog/website. Then you range out across the platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, various forums, etc., wherever it is that your readers gather. Each platform you use becomes a kind of door, an opportunity for people to enter your home — to click through to your blog – where they will hopefully get more deeply invested in you and your work.

You also need your list, your ‘opt-in box’, where people volunteer their email addresses so you can keep them up to date about your work. The list is crucial. Start building your list today.

I’m fascinated with the idea of platform because of how you can use it not just to promote your work but to reach out to people, to influence people, to do some good in the world. Book sales become a kind of byproduct. You can take what you’re most passionate about and start your own movement. People don’t want to be sold to, but they do want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and your platform is your chance to give them that.

j: You are a big advocate of writers blogging. Should all writers blog, and what about writers for whom blogging does not come naturally?

Justine: I believe that the ebook revolution will come to mean – probably sooner than we like to think – that if you’re not online, you don’t exist. So yeah, I’m a big advocate for blogging, partly because blogging is so much fun, so rewarding in and of itself. But you have to find a way to make it work for you, to enjoy it, otherwise it truly is a waste of time. Blogging is flexible enough that you should be able to find some way to tap into your sweetspot. You can frame it through your interests and passions. You can use it – as I have – as a form of self-education, a kind of personal quest you invite others to share with you. If long posts are not your thing, you can go short and frequent, you can microblog (Posterous, Tumblr). You can do podcasts or videoblogs. The important thing is to adapt social media to you – your interests and strengths and personal style – and not the other way round. To engage the platforms that come most naturally to you. Like anything else, it’s a process of trial and error. You experiment. You tweak. You learn your way around.

j: You have a big (wonderful) online presence. As it grows and becomes more diverse, do you find balance more difficult? I guess I’m wondering how writers can nurture their platforms, blog their passions, explore their creative limits…. and write. What is your advice to writers about how to effectively manage their time?

Justine: Thanks! I’ve been online a long time by this point, and I’ve gone off in some different and unexpected directions. What I want to do now is pull the different parts of my online self together in a way that’s more…unified. I’m about to get my blog/website professionally redesigned. It’s about freaking time.

I think it was Jane Friedman who advised writers to take half the time you set aside for writing and use it to build your platform. But your platform and your fiction can work to complement each other; ideas you’re exploring through your blog can cross-fertilize your fiction, and vice-versa. When you blog, you start to develop a sense of what truly resonates with both you and your audience, and that can work to strengthen your fiction.

Part of the creative process involves incubation. We think hard on a plot problem, for example, but then we need to think about something else entirely in order to give the subconscious the chance to resolve it. So when you work on your platform, you are giving your fiction the space to grow and deepen inside your own head. Likewise, an entire blog post can assemble itself in the back of your mind while you are working on your fiction.

Make your fiction, your ‘real’ work, your priority, but schedule in some time to nurture your platform, even if it’s just fifteen minutes everyday. Maybe it can act as a kind of warm-up to your other writing. Or maybe your platform is something you can switch to when you’re stuck. Your platform is essentially a series of small acts done everyday over a long period of time. It’s a drip-drip-drip kind of growth, which is why it’s so important to start as soon as you can. Start small. A few tweets a day. Feel your way forward.

j: There are so many publishing options open to writers now – serial online excerpts, university presses, traditional, specialized and indie publishers, self-publication. (I’m probably missing a few.) What do you think writers should consider when making a decision about how to publish their work?

Justine: The first thing any writer should consider is this: is the work truly ready to be  published? Just because you can publish it yourself doesn’t mean you should. I still believe in going the traditional route, at least at first – submitting to agents and editors – because that can provide such valuable feedback as to where you are in your development as a writer.

I think writers need to consider who and where their audience is, and then – if they’re considering self-publication – whether or not they have the ability to actually reach that audience. They also need to consider the form that their writing tends to naturally take: if you’re doing an online serial, for example, then you need to hit those cliffhanger plot points. Whereas a tender and ruminative coming-of-age novel would likely need a different publishing vehicle.

I want to experiment with self-publishing – I haven’t done so yet – and in my mind I have a sense for what projects I want to self-publish (novellas) and what projects I want to submit to traditional publishers (the upmarket psychological thriller I’m working on now). I think in the future a lot of writers are going to mix the two – self-publishing and traditional publishing – myself included.

j: I’ve been so inspired by your blog. You seem very optimistic. I’ve asked almost everyone I’ve interviewed in this series what they think about the future of publishing – whether they think it’s a good or a bad time to be a new writer with a book to sell. What do you think?

Justine: I think it’s always a difficult time to be a new writer with a book to sell. Times  and circumstances change, but that fact never does. The most powerful thing you can do is to write a great book, one that is uniquely you, infused with your heart and soul and written from your core, your emotional sweetspot. Do that, and you’ll set yourself apart from the pack. You’ll carve out your own niche, and dominate it.

j: Finally, what do you like to read, and what are you reading now?

Justine: I’m an obsessive reader and an information junkie, so I read everything about anything that snags my interest, like social media. Right now I’m reading about sex addiction as research for my novel. And some short stories by Joyce Carol Oates. And Josh Kaufman’s THE PERSONAL MBA. The last novel I read was Emma Donoghue’s ROOM. My favorite novel, the one I would kill to have written, is Siri Husvedt’s WHAT I LOVED. Go read it. It’s fantastic.

**We at the IBC  disagree with Ms. Musk’s statement that new writers should not self-publish, particularly with all the incredible options available in this ever-changing, fluid digital environment.

While the views of many traditionally published authors can be very different than what we present to our collective on a daily basis, we do believe in presenting all sides. We welcome this very real feedback as a caution to what our writers will face as they venture out into the world of publishing and hope it doesn’t prevent someone from following their dream.

Thank you.

Carolyn, Rachel, and Amber

Your IBC Co-founders and team

I love everything Justine says on Tribal Writer. More or less. Read it.

Skelliewag on writing (or blogging) for the sake of creation, not money-making

Why do ebooks cost so much? Doesn’t answer the mentality behind the pricing scheme. Reminds of Dean Smith’s myth of books as Events. Given all the books out there, it isn’t hard to write one. The first good one for me was an event, but now, not so much. My last round of editing was momentous as I realized how terrible my grammar and such was, but that’ s in the past as well. Formatting an e-book, also not so difficult. Covers- well I’m not an artist, but I don’t think mine are HORRIBLE.

Anyway, it is not as difficult to write, edit or format a book as New York would have us all believe. It does not cost $5000 for a cover. You are paying for expensive lunches, offices, and egos.

Gina Marie on best life lessons

Working a dead-end job taught me…

13. Life is too short to be wasting time not doing what you love to do despite the risks or odds against you

14. Hard work doesn’t always give you the results you want, especially if you aren’t aligned with your purpose in life

Better Writing Habits is giving 30 days of tips to makeover your writing. Cute tips,

Ditchwalk on one or two spaces? Apparently there are a bunch of OCD-types who say if you ever use two spaces you should be flogged. Publically. I didn’t know people could tell without the benefit of Show-all-characters in Word.

28 workers in Bagladesh were burned alive while making cheap clothes for the GAP, Target and others.

Is Heinz the best ketchup? I recall Streetcents doing this in the 90′s on CBC and the cheapo won there as well. Hehe Streetcents was awesome.

How different would you be if you lived in a different country? Fun. And depressing.

Related articles

• Rule #1. You must write. (writeanything.wordpress.com)

CREATIVITY

• “How to be a Creative Badass,” Justine Musk, Tribal Writer: 12 great tips, including “love the world” and “make mistakes.” I always try to do the former, and I do the latter quite well.
• “The 3rd Stage of the Creative Process: Investigation,” Orna Ross: How’s this for an opening sentence: “Creativity cannot be killed but it can be starved into stagnation by ignorance.” Okay, you’ve got my attention.
• “The Body Brings Wonder to Creative Innovation,” Jeffrey Davis, Psychology Today: A must-read by an insightful creativity consultant. Bottom line: You’ve got to use your body as well as your mind to reach full creative potential.
• “How I Use Visualization to Drive Creativity,” Mark Suster, TechCrunch: The title of this blog post makes it easy to visualize the wisdom it will hold. (Caution: the post is quite long.)
• “Becoming a Life Change Artist,” Melanie Sklarz, Dose of Creativity: Melanie strongly endorses the book “Becoming a Life Change Artist: 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life” by Fred Mandell and Kathleen Jordan.
• “The Easiest Way to Crush Creativity,” Paul Sloane, Blogging Innovation: It’s easy, just shoot down those ideas. I’m reminded of the boy who stops painting colors in Harry Chapin’s ballad “Flowers are Red.”
• “Is it Possible to Write a Hit Song in Three Hours?” Helienne Lindvall, The Guardian: My opinion is of course, after years of dedication to the craft. This article highlights efforts to track the creative process.

INSPIRATION

• “How Tall Do You Want to Grow? Taking Risks Toward Reaching Your Goals,” Mary Carroll Moore: The title of this inspiring post says it all.
• “Stepping Out of Your Day Job and Into Your Creative Dream,” Interview with Heather Plett on ABCcreativity: I ask your indulgence, dear reader. As I have now jumped into full-time freelance writing, I’m reading a lot of good blog posts like this to keep inspired, and so I’m putting them in front of you too. This post is insightful and educational.
• “Q&A with Laura Vanderkam, Author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think,” Linda Formichelli, The Renegade Writer: Learn how to reclaim “lost” time. Oh, and read her encouragement for pursuing full-time freelancing (I know).

WRITING

• “Tai Nasha No Karosha: Reflections on a Week of Blogging,” Michael Chabon, The Atlantic: The Pulitzer winner finds it’s hard to write the first sentence of a post, and says this of a blog’s comments field: “The pleasure of a favorable notice lasts about three hours and twenty-four minutes; the sting of a bad one settles down to a dull ache that can endure for decades.” So true!
• “Reject the ‘New Rules for Writers,” Andrew Shaffer, Huffington Post: A fiery post in defense of traditional elements of publishing, from MFA programs to editors. I agree with Andrew, but I wonder, could this post also be titled “Speaking Truth On Behalf of Power”?
• “Tightening Your (Manuscript’s) Belt: A Checklist for Eliminating Unnecessary Prose,” Cheryl Reifsnyder, Cheryl’s Musings: I’m a big fan of Cheryl, and this is a very useful post. That said, it gave me flashbacks to a ruthless editor whose purple pen I absolutely dreaded.
• “What’s Missing From my Writing?” Jessica McCann, guest blog on The Bird Sisters: On the importance of revisions.

A final note for all you writers out there — are you planning to attend the AWP writer’s conference in D.C. February 2-5? If so, welcome to my back yard. Let me know you’re coming, and I can give you a proper welcome!

(The photos today were taken by me last summer at the Sundance Resort in Utah.)

One of my favorite stories, “Sparks Fly Upwards”, was first encountered in this volume.  It was written by Lisa Morton and features a controversial mix of zombies and abortion.  It details the issues of population control within a survivor community.  The survivors must make choices as to who is allowed to conceive and carry a child to term, and they must deal with the ramifications of pregnancy that can’t be carried to term.  An absolute stand-out tale.

I barely made it through “On the Other Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks” by Joe R. Lansdale.  It was a great, avant garde story, but like I said earlier I’m squeamish.  Lansdale is very innovative, and knows how to play shock value for all its worth while creating a meaningful story.  It was so gruesome it was hard to finish – but more than worth the effort.

Terry Morgan and Christopher Morgan deliver an exciting tale of samurai bravery and loss in “Zaambi”, which is definately on my list of favorite stories.  When villages are besieged by the undead, the samurai take care of the villagers.  This story also delves into the selection process the children must undergo before they begin training as samurai.

As a bonus, there are two appendixes at the end of the book.  These appendixes examine the zombie’s role in history and in popular culture, respectively.  They’re fascinating reads for the zombie enthusiast.  (I’ve also used points from both to justify my zombie obsession to my less afflicted friends and family.)

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a new perspective on the zombie apocalypse.

Pros:

• A variety of stories to suit many tastes
• Great writers represented (Gaiman, King, Bloch, and others)
• Author and story introductions for every story in the anthology
• Nice cover art
• Nice art for each story
• Interesting and humorous preface and appendixes

Cons:

• Some of the stories are borderline offensive (themes of religion and sexuality involving the undead)
• Not a book you would give to a young zombie enthusiast (see above point)

Review: Part 2 (Part 1, Part 3)

Because I have so very much to say about all of the stories in this anthology, I’ve opted to break it into parts. You can find Part 1 here, though, in short, I’ll say that Diana Peterfreund’s “Errant” is excellent. I’ve been slowly enjoying the next few stories, and I figure four is enough for another post. I hadn’t heard of any of these authors before reading this anthology, but I’ll be finding more works by a few of them after this.

For Part 2, we’re starting with “Lost” by Justine Musk, which starts with an intriguing premise, and builds a fascinating story from there.

“I’ve always been good at finding lost things, but three weeks after a car accident dumped my best friend in a coma, I was the thing that felt lost. And nobody knew where to find me.” (p 108)

Sasha is found, eventually. She finds herself, and her future. It’s an interesting take on some classic greek mythology. It was a little cheesy, but mostly good.

“The Spy Who Never Grew Up” by Sarah Reese Brennan was not my favorite by a long shot. It features the boy who never grows up– Peter Pan. Except, Peter has grown up, a bit, and he has been recruited by Her Majesty, the Queen of England, to work in Her secret service. It plays with egomaniac Peter, the boy who wants a Mother, who is also a spy. It uses a dark, twisted Neverland, and a terrorized family. I am not really a big Peter Pan fan (excepting Hook) and that may be part of why I did not enjoy this story. The other part may be that it was a clear example of childhood classics twisted by adults.

Becca Fitzpatrick’s “Dungeons of Langeais” is strange, and another that I did not particularly like. It is reminiscent of the Labyrinth, but focuses on a spoiled French lord. There is some love, but it is of the dark and twisted and cruel variety. There is something going on, where Chauncy made a deal with a dark Angel– the Angel would inhabit his body for Cheshvan, and in exchange, Chauncy will never grow old and die. Except that Chauncy could not be happy with this, and has sworn to stop the angel’s possessions.

I didn’t really get this story. What it seemed to me was that a spoiled brat made a deal with a monster, and is now hoping to renege on the deal. The story is dark and violent, and not at all to my usual tastes.

“Behind the Red Door” by Caitlin Kittredge was quite the transition. Jo Ryan is a small town girl who dreams of escaping. While she waits for her chance, she spends time playing with her band, and drinking with her friends. It is while she is out with her friends one day that she decides to poke around Ash House– an old, abandoned place– and dares to go inside. It is there that she meets Nicholas, a ghost who has haunted this house for a very long time. Things aren’t quite what they seem, and Jo ends up fighting a battle she is completely unprepared for. It ends on a positive note, in the way that stories sometimes do, where you can tell that there is potentially more to say that is not necessarily being said.

Then there was “Hare Moon” by Carrie Ryan. After the Zombie Apocalypse, very few humans survive. Tabitha is from a small, incredibly conservative and religious town, surrounded by fences that keep the Unconsecrated at bay.* Except, Tabitha is not content with this life. She dreams of so much more, a chance to be somewhere else, out in the world. Tabitha learns much, about the history of her town, and has to make a major decision about the future. It was a solid, fascinating story. Much of it was unexpected, but parts of it reminded me of “Memories Traced in Snow” which is not necessarily a bad thing.

In Conclusion:

The middling segment of the book was not as strong as the beginning of the book. It was still good, and still interesting, but it definitely opened with some of the strongest stories in the volume.

_______________________________________________________________

* This whole premise makes me think of Fido– a fairly entertaining movie about a town which is surrounded by fences to keep the zombies out. If you like Zombies, there’s also Dead Snow, which is about Nazi Zombies, Black Sheep, which is about Zombie Sheep in New Zealand, and the brilliant Shaun of the Dead, which features Simon Pegg & Nick Frost.

For review:

Kiss Me Deadly Edited by Trisha Telep

If you can possibly thirst for more mysterious metaphysical accounts of love, Trisha Telep has organized some of the greatest and most thrilling tales of paranormal paramours since The Eternal Kiss. She presents the acclaimed literary talent of thirteen unique authors, creating a collection of stories that will undoubtedly capture the imagination of every soul who dares to read them. Werewolves, ghosts, zombies, vampires, and fallen angels drive the plot of these riveting romances.Kiss Me Deadly includes the exceptional writings of several authors, including: – Sarah Rees Brennan (faeries) – Becca Fitzpatrick (angels) – Caitlin Kittredge (witches) – Karen Mahoney (vampires: sequel to story from The Eternal Kiss) – Daniel Marks (ghost kids) – Justine Musk (sorcerers) – Diana Peterfreund (unicorns) – Michelle Rowen (demons) – Carrie Ryan (zombies) – Maggie Stiefvater (werewolves) – Rachel Vincent (banshees) – Daniel Waters (zombies) – Michelle Zink (gothic ghosts)

From the library:

The Awakening by L J Smith

Elena Gilbert is a pretty, popular teen who was orphaned when her parents were killed in an accident. Despite the tragedy, her life has always been normal and wholesome. Until the beginning of the school year, when two new vampire brothers show up to shake the peaceful universe at Robert E. Lee High.

My Soul To Take by Rachel Vincent

She doesn’t see dead people, but…

She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who’ll be next…

Images: Goodreads

But.

I don’t play that way.

From the link, we can disCERN (see what I did there? seriously, Husten, puns? Where will it end?) two different types of blogging: personal, confessional apparently called “female” blogging and authority “male” blogging where the author teaches and instructs the reader.

Fuck me, am I happy to be a female blogger.

…

Now some can theorise about this.

But.

I don’t need to.

“Is blogging innately narcissistic?”

Fuck me, for me, I, Husten, pretentious, moi? the answer is as clear as when it is serious decision time: go down on her or not? might be a bit fishy down there, end up with a beard I would not necessarily want.

…

…

“Is blogging innately narcissistic?”

That question is almost quixotic, but seriously discernibly erotic.

…

“Is blogging innately narcissistic?”

Fuck me ten times, but do I like the sound of my own name.

…

HallefuckmefuckyoufuckingHUSTENLuJah.

But books?…Books I care about.  I care very much about books.  I love books.  I love being in rooms with bookshelves overflowing with books.  I love really old books.  Several years ago I was in an antique bookstore on Jekyll Island, Ga and bought a 1938 copyright edition of “War and Peace“.  I know by holding something over 60 years old (at the time) added greatly to my experience, more than some ‘freshly’ minted copy from Amazon or B&N.  But even one day, even these ‘freshly’ minted books will be old.  Not eBooks.

I also  have an incomplete set of Charles Dickens’ works published by A. L. Burt Company and NO DATE.  I looked up A L Burt on Yahoo and the company published books from 1883 to 1937.  The site listed ways to date books by the street address of A L Burt, but the books do not list a street address either

 There is something about reading old books, the musty smell, the yellow paper, the physical feeling of time that I am going to miss.

…but I am sure somewhere in our past there where those who said words similar to the above about changing from reading hand-written text to that new-fangled printed  stuff…”Damn that Gutenburg!”…it is time to move forward…

Here is an interesting article I found in the NYT by Michael Sinanian of VentureBeat entitled “How Do You get an E-Book Signed” .  Mr. Sinanian interviews author Justine Musk (whom I had to Google) who has a unique perspective on how authors and their fans will interact in the ‘digital future’.

As an example of this ‘different’ interaction here is a link to an article from wired.com on William Gibson and his new book, “Zero History” by Scott Thill.  This is basically a summary of a recent online Q&A with his fans on his website.  To read the entire Q&A go here.  I do not like reading archived ‘live’ blogs…I don’t know whether to start from the bottom and read up…over vice-versa…The concept of this form of interaction is very good…but the delivery/execution/presentation is weak…very weak…these things must have some logical order or connection as fan’s questions bounce from topic to topic…chronology does not work…

Next a piece from NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’.  Terry Gross interviews Ken Auletta on his latest article in the New Yorker about the future of Publishing.  And/Or you can just go to Mr. Auletta’s article “Publish or Perish – Can the iPad topple the Kindle, and save the book business“

The issues surrounding ‘blacklists’ and copyrights are interesting to consider…and how long will it be before Adobe comes out with ‘affordable’ software to convert word documents to an eBook format?

In the several article I have read no one yet mentions Textbooks.  I guess I will have to reasearch what percentage of a publisher’s bottom line is from Textbooks.  I see the day where the ‘Steven Kings’ and ‘John Grisham’s’ of the world “publish” there own works…I can even see Universities leveraging their “Human Capital” and publishing their own textbooks…but the world of elementary and secondary textbooks will continue to be produced by “Publishers”…at least for the foreseeable future.

I’ve been enjoying exploring the nuances of story telling, ideas that build on fundamental concepts such as story structure, word and punctuation usage, and writing discipline.

Over at Tribal Writer, novelist Justine Musk has offers two great posts (among many, really) on microtension and theme. Both posts underscored my goal for creating stories that resonate. To write fiction that leaves an impression, the writer must rely on meticulous revision to bring out conflict and theme that already exists under the surface. This excerpt from Justine’s post on theme captures the crux:

Thing is, you want to write something that’s fun and compelling, sure, but also layered in a way that resonates. You have something to say, dammit, even though you’re not really sure what that is.

It’s the laying down of those layers that takes time and diligence and perseverance. It’s what separates those who try from those who do. It’s part of the never ending learning process that accompanies writing. And it’s fun.

Charles Baxter, in the introduction to his book The Art of Subtext, he says:

In fiction, the half-visible and the unspoken–all those subtextual matters–are evoked when the action and dialogue of the scene angle downward, when by their multiplicity they imply as much as they show. A slippery surface causes you to skid into the subtext.

That sounds awesome! But it also sounds hard. How do you learn it? I’m banking on lots of reading, lots of writing and even more revision.

All the good stuff is below the surface just like this subterranean city scape.

I’m beginning to see results in my own work. I just finished up a short story that, as I read through it, had all these pieces that fit together better than anything I’ve written to date. I unconsciously created many of these pieces. They showed up raw in that first draft, but they were there. During revisions, I worked to tighten them up and tease them out more.

It’s still exciting to me now, just remembering that revelation. I didn’t set out to make that happen, but by writing almost every day and reading amazing authors and studying the craft, subtext and theme are beginning to bubble up. How cool is that?

One last thought: I’m borrowing a friend’s copy of Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun series (see sidebar for link). My friend, Nathan, said to me that he first started reading it and felt like he was presented with all these disparate scenes that seemed adrift. As he read on, Wolfe wove those loose ends back into the story, giving resonance to those seemingly superfluous scenes.

That alone made me want to read it.

What do you enjoy most about the more nuanced aspects of writing? If you have any anecdotes of those “a-ha!” moments, please feel free to share.

Here’s a bit of what I took away from Bird by Bird:

• “If someone isn’t changed, then what is the point of your story?”
• “Nothing is as important as a likable narrator.”
• Dialogue: Make sure that each character has a unique voice. The reader should be able to read a paragraph of dialogue and know exactly which character is speaking. They shouldn’t all sound alike.
• Set Design: People can be a valuable resource for your setting. So ask someone to start describing for you: their childhood home, their childhood in poverty, their work in a strip club, their life in a small town or big city or college dorm – whatever you’re trying to write about, someone can help with the setting.
• Look for ideas everywhere and put absolutely everything on index cards.

Yes, there was more than that, but those are the main points I want to remember. It wasn’t a how-to book, but it was helpful all the same.

Also, I found a great list on Tribal Writer (author Justine Musk’s page) on how to create compelling characters. I thought it was excellent and immediately wrote it all down in my Writing Lessons notebook to be remembered. Next week: more from Elizabeth Lyon’s Manuscript Makeover (set aside for a few days to read Bird by Bird), which I am anxious to finish.

P.S. Still staggering through hydrocodone withdrawals, and not exactly myself. I keep asking my friends if I look drug addict-y, but they just laugh. Except Bethany; she says yes.

Cover design: JoeRoberts.co.uk

Jordan Summers – Paris After Dark
Deborah Cooke – Coven Of Mercy
Karen MacInerney – Cirque De La Nuit
Caitlin Kittredge – Perdition
Dina James – Deliver Us From Evil
Camille Bacon-Smith – Blood And Thyme
Rosemary Laurey – Into The Mists Forever
Patti O’Shea – Blood Feud
Angie Fox – Love Bites
Caitlin Kiernan – Flotsam
Jamie Leigh Hansen – The Murder King’s Woman
Carole Nelson Douglas Butterfly Kisses
Diane Whiteside – Crimson Kisses
Jaye Wells – Vampsploitation
Stacia Kane – Trust Me
Jennifer Ashley – The Scotsman And The Vamp
Justine Musk – I Need More You
Jennifer St. Giles – Point Of No Return
Dawn Cook [Kim Harrison] – With Friends Like These
Nancy Holder – Blood Gothic
Larissa Ione – Eternity Embraced
Jeanne Stein – The Ghost Of Leadville
Tiffany Trent – The Vampire, The Witch, And The Yenko
Ann Aguirre – Circle Unbroken
Devon Monk – Skein Of Sunlight

Blurb:
A wonderful variety of compellingly original vampire stories, many of them wholly unexpected, from award-winning, New York Times bestselling authors. There are typical vampires who would be right at home in a horror story or a gothic romance; historical vampires; contemporary, gritty, urban vampires; fang-in-cheek comedy; boy-meets-girl sweetheart stories (if a little bloodier!); and erotic tales of inhuman passions and midnight pleasures. Look out, too, for stand-alone stories relating to existing series and characters of contributing authors, or stories which develop more fully characters who have only walk-on parts in those authors’ longer fiction. Includes writing by big-name authors such as Jennifer Ashley, Kim Harrison writing as Dawn Cook, Caitlin Kittredge, Diane Whiteside and Eileen Wilks.

Much better cover! i’m almost certain it’s a Joe Roberts job – Mammoth Book Of Vampire Romance certainly was and he’s been responsible for many of the best Robinsons in recent years. Nancy Holder’s Blood Gothic first appeared in Stephen Jones’ Mammoth Book Of Vampires (Robinson, 1992) via Charles L. Grant’s Shadows 8.

Anyway, today – 2nd September – is the birthday of Justine Musk and Trisha Telep. Give them the gift of royalties by purchasing Blood Angel, Uninvited, Lord of Bones and The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.

Because here’s the thing. In this age of such relentless number-crunching, books don’t get the shelf life they used to get. There’s no time for a slow build-up: either the book performs once it’s out of the gate (in fact, my deal for the sequel to the sequel to BLOODANGEL offers a ‘bonus’ if the book ships above a certain number of copies within the first few months of its release date) or it gets dumped from the stores altogether and the author gets tagged with a stigma that’s hard to overcome. The problem is that the best way to sell a book – the only way, for most books that don’t get the loving PR attention of the publishers – is reader word-of-mouth. And word-of-mouth, if it’s going to happen, takes a while to get up to speed. People not only have to buy the book, they have to actually read the damn thing, and recommend it to people, who also have to read it, and then have to… etc. And by the time enough people have read it to maybe make something start to happen, the book is out of stores and maybe even out of print.

Link