What does a writer have to be thankful for in these days of shrinking lists, cut print runs, lower advances, and fewer markets? If we stop to think about it, I’m sure we can come up with several items. So here’s my list. I am grateful for:

• My fans, first and foremost. I write stories to please you, to sweep you into my worlds, to offer you an escape from daily toil. Your feedback gives me the encouragement to keep writing despite the highs and lows of the publishing business. Your feedback shows me what you respond to in my writing and my blogs. Your feedback lifts my spirits.
• My writing talent. I am grateful that I have been gifted with storytelling ability, that I can lose myself in imaginary worlds, and envision scenes in my head with people I’ve created. The drive to write cannot be taught. Writing craft can be learned, but the urge that makes a writer pick up a pen or sit at a keyboard comes from the heart.
• A love of reading fiction. I can look at printed words on the page and soar into the zone where a story unfolds. It’s such a glorious feeling that I feel bad for people who read non-fiction and don’t understand what they’re missing. Not everyone has this ability. Consider it a gift, too.
• The publishers who have accepted my work so that I could share my stories with you. So thanks to Dorchester, Kensington, and The Wild Rose Press. SILVER SERENADE will be my fifteenth published book.
• My husband whose support has allowed me to pursue this career. He helps with the errands, often with the cooking, and this frees my time to write. He drives me to signings and other events. He listens to me whine. I realize not all spouses are this supportive or generous, and I am grateful for our 33 years together.
• My kids who give out my bookmarks to their co-workers.

What are you, my fellow writers, grateful for today?

Inconstant Moon cover art

What I said was,

“No, I don’t have time…. because the novel isn’t done yet.”

He went on to express surprise that I wasn’t as predictable as he thought. Hah! Thought he had >me< pegged, did he? Well.
Uh. Here I am, writing a blog post.

[It's rough to be so predictable. But I should have learned by now that the greatest kid in the world is pretty much always right.]

I think I’m about half way through the outline (although it’s hard to tell since its so badly in need of rejigging just now. The characters have been asserting themselves with some force.)

But I plan on working my fingers to the bone for the rest of the month and see how much I can get done. Hey, its the weekend, and I vow not to do another blog post (after this one) before December.

Really.

I will be back to blogging (guilt free) come December, but I will keep going on the novel until it’s done. Because this is what I REALLY want to do.

[Besides, I need to finish this one so I can start on the next one.]

“my hair still wet from yesterday,

the ocean calls me back to play”

“to the oceanside return,

there’s always more to learn”

“inside you there’s an ocean

of movement and of motion”

“if you want to teach

your name should be the beach”

“at the beach we are excused

from the norm the world views”

“surfers beware the rocks,

the school of hard knocks”

Click on < or > for other categories.

Please visit again as hundreds of other sayings will be posted to this and other categories.

(c)  2009  Unknown Heartist

Unknownheartist@gmail.com

Actually, my esteemed colleague informs me that the movie is in limited release this weekend, and that it will open to a broader audience next week. Despite my display of internet rage now having been proven to be entirely inappropriate, I must admit I’m still somewhat miffed. This film has been delayed for over a year now, and this half-hearted release is actually disappointing. Jeez guys, you’re already pushing the envelope on getting it out there before the Oscars – make with the andale and get this sucker out there, no?

It’s raining, wet and cold today. Drizzle Drizzle Drizzle … I didn’t want to get out of bed today but alas, I had that appointment with Prof. Scott over my Origen paper. I have done some preliminary reading of a text that I picked up at the library – but even Prof. Scott told me that it would do me no good. So what did he do? We checked the library for texts – none were to be found … so much for a university library stocked with all the latest books and archives.

He then perused his own personal library there in his office and pulled 4 books off the shelf and told me that he would photo copy everything that I would need for my paper… That was very kind. Some of the reading that he copied me was written by our esteemed professor of Theology Charles Kannengiesser, whom I took Trinity with last summer. So it looks like I am on track for this second paper.

We also talked about god forsaken Sophia. I told him that I thought that I had exhausted all of my sources for material and came up 5 pages short of the goal of 20 pages and he suggested that I write a 5 page critical analysis of the material that I used covering the major themes and crucial ideas. I think I can do that. So I will do that over the next couple of days. The paper isn’t due until Tuesday.

I stopped by the library to drop off all the books that I had checked out and wouldn’t you know it, the university has already put up their Christmas trees in all the downtown buildings. I noticed that many of the shops on Ste. Catherine’s Street are decorated as well. It doesn’t feel like Christmas yet, but I know that hubby wants to put the tree up this weekend… OY VEY !!!

I think that’s all for the moment…

More to come, stay tuned…

Bill Duke

CLAUDE COLLUUMMBBUUSS
CAME AGAIN
TODAY
AND
EVERYONE
RAN
TO GET
THEIR
SPEARS
AND
SHIELDS
MOTHERS
TOOK BABIES
FROM BASKETS
CHILDREN
RAN TO HUTS
FOR RAZORS
ALLLLLL SHEEP
WERE
HEARDED DOWN THE HILL
AND
THERE WAS NO
WELCOME TO OUR LAND
NO
WELCOME HAND
NO ONE
TALKED OF EVEN TRADES
BLOOD
WAS
POURED FROM PITCHERS
AND
GODS
WORE SHADES

Bill Duke

All Rights Reserved

© 2009

This is the first post for the novel I just wrote during November.  It’s only the first in a series I plan — and this blog will be talking about things related to writing, editing and publishing.

I’ve been following with interest the whole RWA and HQ thing in Twitter and elsewhere in the web.  Because, even though most of my published stories so far have been Literary Erotica — this is not.  Before I started to craft the story I was already thinking about where I might want it to end up.  I plan on following a traditional route (assuming they still exist) to publication.

This blog will document that.

xxoo!

by Ellen Brandt, Ph.D.

Many of those in my now-loyal audience first became acquainted with my work by supporting me in the Community Marketing site’s Great Blog-Off contest a few months ago. A number of people have asked me to write a little case study about my (overwhelming) win in that test, which illustrates some basic principles everyone who writes for the Internet should keep in mind: Hook ‘Em With Headlines. Keep ‘Em There With Links. And Remember You’re Only As Strong As Your Fan Base.

I’ve been a heavy-volume print journalist most of my working life. But after a several-year sabbatical from the field, I returned to find the world of magazines in disarray, Big Media under fire from Little Media, and the Internet emerging as the place where a busy and educated audience of professionals tended to go for both news and features.

I was also dismayed to find that the current dominance of a few major search engines tends to exclude from Internet visibility anything written prior to 18 months ago or so. Magazines are particularly poorly represented. So the more than 3,000 print magazine articles I’d published over a 30-year period were virtually inaccessible, in Internet terms. I was suddenly a journalistic ghost, while Buffy the Siamese Cat, with 14,000 Twitter “publications,” was now a media superstar.

What to do? Well, with the help of my cousin the Internet guru, I first scanned in a selection of about 50 of my magazine articles and placed them in a little virtual portfolio on the Web. Then I wrote a couple of articles for Internet “aggregators,” but soon decided they were pretty much pimps, and I was a lady, not a Lady of the Night.

So I decided to create a Web presence of my own by publishing and administering my own blogsites and developing an audience in the Brave New Blogosphere. While this idea was germinating, I heard about the Great Blog-Off contest at a website called Community Marketing.

Marketing is not my area of expertise, although I’ve done a few stories on it over the years. (I’ve probably done a few stories on everything over the years.) But this contest was not designed for marketing writers only. It welcomed all bloggers who professed to be “thought leaders” on any kind of subject matter. I had been contemplating starting my Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation series, which most of you now know about. (See the latest Index at http://wp.me/pxD3J-2a )

I signed up for the contest, describing myself as a “thought leader” on the subject of Baby Boomers. The owner of the site asked contestants – there were a couple of dozen originally, although some turned out to be not very active – to come up with punchy little descriptions of themselves, a few words that would make us memorable. I offered the following:

Dr. Ellen Brandt – “Sophisticated Rabble-Rouser”

About my professional background: I’m an Ivy League-educated Ph.D. cultural historian and the author of over 3,000 magazine articles. I’m now a professional in the senior services industry – the fastest-growing sector of this economy for the next 100 years or so – while also resuming my career as a heavy-volume journalist.

When I’m not working: I’m a mezzo soprano trained at Juilliard Prep when it was at 123rd and Claremont. I like lighthouses, carousels, and botanical gardens. And my Dog-Nephew Garcia, named after Jerry Garcia, was – honestly! – the inspiration for the Obamas getting a Portuguese water dog.

My Pre-Blog-Off Blogsite

Said punchy blurb was accompanied by a photo and the notation that I would be the contestant representing Boomers among a field of mostly Gen-Xers and Millennials.

The punchy blurbs were posted about ten days before the contest proper was to begin, at which time I contemplated what kind of strategy might set me apart from the field, help win me a loyal audience, and address the essential differences between a static print environment and this dynamic sphere which calls itself the Internet.

I decided to establish a “pre-Blog-Off blog” at WordPress, where I now house the blogs I publish. The site was called “Preparing for the Blog-Off” with the subhead “Seeing What Works.”

It basically consisted of the same page repeated ten times with different headlines. More about the headlines in a second. The main purpose of the page was to introduce readers to the Blog-Off, with an easy link to the contest embedded in the text.

I also said a little bit about my background and stated that I would be the contestant representing Content and Experience, as befitted a Baby Boomer. On the blogsite’s About page, I offered further links to my Linked In profile, about 50 examples of my print magazine articles, and a wide-ranging interview about my career. (See Why This Blog at http://wp.me/sycK6-about )

This adds up to a whole lot of links! Which illustrates one of those three principles successful website owners should keep in mind: Don’t keep your Readers on one static page, in which case they might as well be sitting at their kitchen table reading a newspaper. Keep your audience moving swiftly from link to link, offering them choices of what to read about next. Make your site a textual Treasure Hunt, with riches galore opening before their eyes.

Now For Those Headlines . . .

All I needed now was an interesting topic for the site, broad enough to warrant several blog entries over the two-week period of the contest, and compelling enough to attract a brand-new audience previously unfamiliar with my work.

The Blog-Off winner would be the contestant who attracted both the most comments and the most clicks – or page views – on the Community Marketing site. So I conceived the idea of a series of stories about attracting both page views and comments via the strength of one’s article headlines.

The series would be called “Thank You For Clicking!” and would be based on the experience early in my career within the world of those Headline Hotshots, the tabloid newspapers. (See “In An Economy and World Gone Haywire” http://wp.me/pycK6-v )

No one does headlines better than the tabloids. Their titles may amuse you, intrigue you, infuriate you, or have you scratching your head – but they are superb at drawing you in and getting you to read the accompanying stories.

Looking at this exercise as informative, as well as fun, I decided to use ten Faux Tabloid Headlines representing different kinds of typical tabloid stories, which I categorized as The Big Story, Plausible-But-Off, Purely Ridiculous, and What-the-Heck-Is-That-About? You can read about these tabloid story categories – and I certainly hope you will – in the four-part series of blogs which made up my composite entry in the Blog-Off.

Here are the ten Faux Tabloid Headlines:

Corpse Found in Internet Guru’s Gym Locker

Pet Hamsters May Spread Swine Flu

Each of these headlines was placed on a separate page at the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” site at Word Press, with the exact same text accompanying each one. In other words, the only element that differed page-to-page was the headline itself. A reader’s clicking on any particular page instead of another would demonstrate that the headline on that page attracted that reader in some way. I also encouraged readers to comment on why they clicked on that particular headline.

Please click on this link to see what the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” page looked like: http://wp.me/pycK6-2h I have used “7 Out of 10 Blog in the Nude” as an example.

Finding Your Fan Base

At this point I needed an audience to read my Blog-Off entries. Several of the younger entrants in the contest publically stated they’d be concentrating on their Twitter networks as potential bases of fans. But I wasn’t on Twitter yet, nor was I active on Face Book.

So I decided to focus my efforts on my Linked In network – considerably smaller then than it is now – and my 50 Linked In Groups.

Starting about two weeks before the Blog-Off’s official commencement, I began to post each of the ten Faux Tabloid Headlines in turn, with a link to the appropriate “Preparing” site page, first in the News sections, then in the Discussion sections, of my various Linked In Groups. I made sure each of the ten Faux Headlines appeared in News and Discussion threads an equal number of times, meaning that an approximately equal number of site visitors would have the opportunity to click – or not click – on each distinctive headline.

Readers who did choose to click were encouraged to make comments about why they chose the headline they did. Many got into the spirit of this exercise and made comments which were sophisticated, insightful, and often quite funny.

It was also soon very clear who my own “fan base” tended to be: over-35; equally divided between female and male; well-educated; and with professional, managerial, or creative careers.

I’m quite happy with that audience. And, in fact, many of those who first “found” me and my work via the Blog-Off are now friends and members of my network.

A quick note about my Baby Boomers series: I intended to introduce the first of my Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation articles towards the end of the Blog-Off contest. But I collected so much material from the Faux Tabloid Headlines exercise – most of which turned out to be genuinely interesting, as well as humorous – I decided to stick with that “mini-series,” consisting of four separate “Thank You For Clicking!” results stories, as my composite Blog-Off entry.

Here are links to the four stories in the series:

Thank You For Clicking! Part One: Corpse Found In Internet Guru’s Gym Locker http://wp.me/pycK6-2i

Thank You For Clicking! Part Four: New Reality Show To Feature Laid-Off Bankers, Lawyers http://wp.me/pycK6-2o

I urge you to read these stories in sequence, after looking at the Introductory page from the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” site, linked above.

This sequence of four Thank You For Clicking! results articles made up my Blog-Off entry. They were posted on the Community Marketing site at about three-day intervals over the two-week course of the contest. Other active competitors also posted about four stories on average, with three to five blogs being the typical range per contestant.

When the results were tallied, my articles garnered about twice as many page views on the Community Marketing site as my nearest competitor. But the number of page views on the “Preparing for the Blog-Off” site itself was over double that amount, meaning my total views overall, counting both sites, was between six and seven times as great as the next-nearest contestant.

Tell Me What You Think

The series of Thank You For Clicking! stories also did extremely well in terms of reader commentary, which I believe is one of the essential components of successful Internet-based publishing.

Internet gurus tell us that a comment-to-click ratio of 1-2 percent is the average among publishers across the Web. Adding together the approximately 200 comments the Thank You! series received at the Community Marketing site, my Linked In Groups, and the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” site, these articles had a comment-to-click ratio of almost 4 percent, considered an excellent showing.

The comment-to-page view ratio on the “Preparing” site alone, where I – and not other managers – had complete control of the blog and its content was similar, with close to 100 comments from readers, out of 2700 page views in a three-week period.

I am including a selection of original Reader comments from the Community Marketing site and the “Preparing” blogsite as an appendix to this case study. To see them, please click here: http://wp.me/pycK6-2q and http://wp.me/pycK6-2r

The superb reader response demonstrates how enthusiastic – and witty – an audience I was fortunate enough to make an acquaintance with during the course of the Blog-Off contest.

There were a few detractors. If you’ve read my serious humor piece about Malice on the Web, you’ll remember a small cadre of loonies at a couple of Linked In media groups – including a PR man! – who thought anything whatsoever to do with tabloids was just too undignified for Internet discourse. (See “Vultures and Stiletto Heels” http://wp.me/pycK6-5 )

But most readers loved the premise of the Faux Tabloid Headline experiment and understood that it was not only entertaining, but also told us some interesting things about which kinds of headlines readers respond to viscerally and why.

Even coming from a heavy-volume print background, it was essential for me – as it is for every writer and publisher – to discover just who my Internet “fan base” might be and how I could best appeal to them in future Web publications.

My gratifying win in the Blog-Off contest allowed me to do that.

Soon afterwards, I launched my Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation series. (See http://wp.me/pxD3J-2V ) And “Tell Me What You Think,” a catch phrase I used throughout the Blog-Off, became the subtitle of my EllenInteractive site, a cornucopia of diverse stories designed to elicit above-average reader response. (For instance, see “The World is Divided,” a key question story which received well over 100 comments: http://wp.me/pycK6-n )

I’m now moving on to additional Internet publishing projects:

Media Revolution, a subseries of EllenInteractive, talks about how the entire media sector is undergoing a sea change of enormous proportions and how we must prepare for it. (See “Is Big Brother Here-And Is He An Algorithm?” http://wp.me/pycK6-1Y )

Romance After Fifty is a series on dating and relationships I’m developing with a Baby Boomer matchmaker. (See “A Chance for Romance” http://wp.me/pxD3J-R )

A Little Knowledge will look at Internet security and cloud computing from the perspective of an audience which is well-educated and has used computers for years, but which lacks information on some of the serious recent developments that are changing the Web as we speak.

And The Rest of US - pun intended – is a new blogsite I’m launching about and for political Centrists.

So there have been many interesting developments built upon the foundation of my Blog-Off win.

I invite my brilliant, sophisticated, and in-every-way-perfect audience to join with me in these new projects and others to come.

Any success I have is due to you!

Every once in a while, I like to pick up a new hobby. It’s fun to learn something new, to be a novice in the creative process, to let my brain work out the kinks of a different medium.

Six months ago, I learned to crochet by doing this granny square afghan:

It was born out of a combination of things, like my memory of a similarly patterned afghan at my grandparents’ cabin growing up (the kind with the flowers sticking out) and my need for an afghan of certain colors for our living room, which certain colors I was not finding in stores. So I googled until I found the pattern, then used YouTube videos to learn the basic crochet stitches, and voila!

Well, not really voila. More like stitching and restitching dozens of times until I could actually make one flower (good thing crochet pulls out just by tugging on the strand), then making dozens of flowers with practice yarn until I could make them the right size, then making 104 in the right colors, since that’s how many the pattern called for. Then realizing — oops! — that the green part wasn’t supposed to be done around each individual flower but added as you join them, so hundreds of yards of green yarn ended up in unraveled piles on our basement floor as I redid that .

And I still haven’t finished off the hundreds of literal loose ends that need to somehow be hidden.

Nevertheless, I decided it would be fun to do it again! This time, as a baby blanket gift. Except, again I was picky. I wanted zigzag stripes, but I couldn’t find a pattern with zigzag stripes, so I made them up. I won’t even bore you with details of how much unraveling happened with that.

But the nice thing about the stripes is that, once I got the first, say, ten rows figured out, the rest has been just a matter of one stitch after another until I get to the end.

Plus, I can do it while watching TV or movies or whatever. It’s sort of brainless while giving my hands something to do.

And it makes me wish writing could be even a little bit like that. Despite all the initial unraveling, I wish that at some point I could start from the first word on the first page and work word after word through until typing “The End,” the way they do in movies! Wouldn’t that be great?

Even though I know it’ll never happen, somehow I keep trying it. I focus really hard, unravelling what I need to in my mind of the way I’ve already written my novel and picturing the way I want it, and then I open a blank document and I start from the first page. And I usually make it about five-to-fifteen pages in doing things that way before I give up again. Because drafting that way is too much pressure for me and my creative process.

So, maybe the point of this post is that, from these crocheting projects, I’m trying to get it into my head that it’s GOOD that writing’s not like this. After all, with the zigzag pattern, there are (tiny) mistakes that I’m never going to fix, because it would require starting completely over. In the floral afghan, there are flowers that have slightly fewer stitches than other flowers, because I miscounted and didn’t realize it until later. 

One of our teenage babysitters told me about how her grandmother had noticed a mistake right in the middle of her (the thirteen-year-old’s) afghan and made her take half the project apart to get back to that spot! Ack!

This Thanksgiving weekend, I’m grateful that writing is more piecemeal, that I can go back and fix page 150 or page 1 or page 87 or page 292 as many times as I need to, that I don’t have to solidify the first word, then the second, then the third, and so on.

Now I just need to remind myself not to keep trying it that way.

What does your writing process remind you of? Or what are you glad it’s not like?

Leave a comment!

Source: Novel Journey: Author Interview ~ Terry Brennan.

Writing is a lot like life. Enjoy the journey. And let God handle the details.

Today I’m chatting with author Kimberly Killion. After reading Dante’s Inferno, Kimberly immersed herself in the classics and developed a love for all things tragic, passionate, and historic. A graphic artist by training, she has now traded her design career for that of an historical romance author. She resides in Illinois with her husband and two children. Her first novel, Her One Desire, won a Holt Medallion, and was a finalist in the National Readers Choice Awards and the RITA®. RT Book Reviews described her second book, Highland Dragon, released in October, as “captivating, finely written romance” and “a tale to cherish.”

SUSAN: Congratulations on the great reviews for Highland Dragon. There were more I didn’t quote. Would you tell us a little about this book? And is it a stand-alone novel or part of a series?

KIMBERLY: Thank you, Susan. I’m still in awe of the positive response this book is receiving. Highland Dragon is a stand-alone, though I admit I would like to write Kendrick’s story some day. (He is the heroine’s brother.)What’s it about…well the back cover blurb aside, here is the original pitch I used in my query letter: Eighteen years after hiding the secret of his betrothed’s lineage, Laird Calin MacLeod must choose between avenging his father’s death and surrendering to the passion he finds in the arms of his enemy’s daughter.

 SUSAN: I can tell you love the classics. Your premise is the classic revenge plot-enemy’s daughter romance. Your heroine is thought to be a witch but she harbors a different secret. How do you juggle these elements and keep her secrets while building a romance with the hero?

KIMBERLY: Akira’s secrets are the main conflict of the hero, so I had to keep them undisclosed, otherwise the book would have come to a slamming halt. Building romance is the easy part when you are dealing with a randy Highlander and an innocent lass who’s eager to learn. *wiggles brows*

SUSAN: Not a retiring maiden, then. I look forward to reading it. Your RITA ® nominated book, Her One Desire, is also set in medieval times. Why did you choose this time frame and how does it enhance the stories?

KIMBERLY: I love the drama that goes hand in hand with the medieval era. The struggles and decisions faced by the Highland laird were no small potatoes. People were always at risk, as was land and status. I like to write with a dramatic flare. I have a voice for it, and I think that’s what makes my stories so intense.

SUSAN: What in your opinion is the hardest part of writing historical romances? What is the easiest?

KIMBERLY: The hardest: Getting the dialect down and weeding through pages of research. The easiest: There is nothing easy about writing anything, historical or otherwise.

SUSAN: I’m so glad you said that. Too many people seem to think this stuff is easy. LOL.

You’re ready to begin a new project. What’s the first thing you do? Character bios? Plot and plan? Or just jump in and let the muse take you?

KIMBERLY: I’m a pantser, but I have to know about my characters before I start. I do character sketches prior to typing that first line, which includes finding a picture of them, making a list of their GMC, their expletives, their habits, their fears, their flaws. The goal in doing this is to develop more believable characters.

SUSAN: Would you share your journey to publication?

KIMBERLY: I started writing a Regency in 1997, but my writing quickly went on hold after the birth of my son in 1998. It wasn’t until 2005 when my television broke, and I started writing again. I joined RWA and my local chapter, Missouri RWA, and also Hearts Through History Online Chapter of RWA. I became interested in writing Scottish medievals and joined a few critique groups at which point I realized I’d written my first book all wrong. Highland Dragonwas actually my second book and once I had it polished for publication (this took another year) I went to the 2007 RWA National conference in Texas with one goal–to sell. I had one completed manuscript, Highland Dragon, and one manuscript partially written, Her One Desire. I had two interviews set up, and luckily one was with Hilary Sares of Kensington. Though she perked up when I mentioned my contest wins, I didn’t have her full attention until I started talking about the book I had in the works. At the time, I only had five chapters written on Her One Desire.. Hilary was very interested in the premise of this particular story and asked to see everything I had written on it to date, in addition to Highland Dragon. Ten days after National I got ‘THE CALL’. Hilary wanted to buy both books from me. The catch…she wanted Her One Desire to hit the shelves first. Of course, I was exhilarated, excited, but I only had five chapters written. Long story short…I had to write 80,000 words in three months. The following weeks were a whirlwind of chaos. I set myself on a schedule of 1,000 words a day and 5,000 on the weekends in order to meet my deadline. I got up at 4:00 a.m. to write before work and then wrote at night until 10:00, 11:00, sometimes midnight. I locked myself in the closet with my laptop for privacy and when that didn’t work, I went to the ‘shed’. But, I DID IT! Within 10 weeks, I had 103,000 words written. Whew!

SUSAN: Whew, for sure. A marathon. What was the best piece of advice you got from another writer?

KIMBERLY: Perseverance. When you finish a book, and NY rejects it, you start another one. The old saying “suck it up and move on” applies here.

SUSAN: What advice can you offer to writers who are working toward publication?

KIMBERLY: Perseverance. (See previous answer.) If you want it bad enough, it will happen. You must continue to learn. Find a critique partner or group. I found it easier to learn the craft of writing from reading ‘bad writing’ vs. ‘good writing’. Join online writer’s group and take classes. Read all the How-to books and never, under any circumstances should you ever give up.

SUSAN: And lastly, the blog fairy is granting you three wishes. If you could have anything or do anything you wanted, what would they be?

KIMBERLY: I want to go to Scotland. I would like to have a month to simply wander about the country. And since this is a wish…I would like the year to be 1502 and I want Gerard Butler to be my tour guide.

SUSAN: A tall order (Gerard Butler, get it?). Oh well, but at least I’m sure you’ll get one third of your wish, the trip to Scotland. You can write off the expenses as research. Go for it!

My thanks to Kimberly for a great interview. I know everyone will be checking out both her books and visiting her website at http://www.kimberlykillion.com.

‘Cooking is her real talent’

After eating a third helping of the candied yams his daughter made for Thanksgiving, Allan Wilson beamed with pride.

“Now these are damn good yams,” he said to his wife Margaret. “Rhonda should cook for a living, instead of wasting her life writing sappy romantic comedies while she works double shifts at Starbucks.”

According to Wilson, the yams were “absolutely perfect,” while his daughter Rhonda’s scripts are “almost always sickeningly sweet, to the point where I’ve started blaming myself for her total lack of skill and ability. How could this be my child?”

“I know my parents just want the best for me,” said Rhonda, booting up her laptop in the Wilsons’ spare bedroom. “So they understand why I dropped out of grad school to pursue a career in Hollywood. I have a lot of creativity to share.”

When asked if she ever considered a career in the culinary arts, Rhonda seemed confused.

“But I’m so good at writing,” she said. “Cooking would be such an incredible waste of talent. Just ask any of the paid script consultants I work with.”

What did I do today??? I worked on that god damned paper on The Role of Sophia in Gnostic Cosmogony. I worked all evening long. More than three hours worth of reading, typing, checking and double checking.

I went over all of my quotes to make sure they were in order – I even begged my prof for less pages and he said NO! I need 5 more pages. I spent an hour going through the EBSCO services and JOURNAL features at the library looking for shit to fill 5 pages…

God give me strength …

I also pulled my book review together and I think it is finished to the best of my ability, with that reading at least. It isn’t spot on and I could not compete with the language of the text, I just don’t write that “high” at all. So I may have to reread it and do some quick revisions before Tuesday night.

I am working on Origen. I like Origen, but I need more source material. I spent last night reading a book I pulled from the library, but it only gives hints at the material that I really need – that would be Christology according to Origen.

I have an appointment tomorrow to meet with the department scholar on Origen at 2, so maybe he can help me with my source material.

We are so close to the end I can taste it, but not before I finish Origen. Classes end on the 9th of December. That’s when the last paper is due. I need to squeeze my ass and get this paper written sooner than later … If I get pointed in the right direction tomorrow then I can pull it together. I got some good advice from a few of my readers so thank you all for your academic advice.

I missed the parade today… And I didn’t get to watch any football…

Did you see Glee last night??? Did it make you cry?

Only two episodes left until the very very very long hiatus until April 13th

More to come, stay tuned …

Marius's Mules by SJA Turney

If I wasn’t a fantasy writer, I should dearly love to write historical fiction. And as a reader, this year I have tried to read mostly hist.fict.  which includes those I listed in my shopping spree last night as well as a re-visit of the unparalleled Dorothy Dunnett.  To me, these top rated authors are paying an enormous compliment to time past, to our ancestors, to the breadth of experience that has brought us to this point in our existence.  None more so than those who write of ancient Rome.  I have read Marius’ Mules this year and below is my review of it for Amazon.com:

“Marius’s Mules presents a meticulous attention to detail and to historic fact . But the line between fact and fiction is seamless and invisible thus offering an entertaining and unpatronising read. The characters, led by the worn persona of Fronto are supremely ‘everyman’ and therefore utterly believable.
Whilst one has historically been informed that Roman conquests were the result of the foresight and brilliance of men like Caesar, this book flies in the face of that concept, revealing a far more likely idea . . . that perhaps the ingenuity was in Caesar’s weary officers, just as the muscle and effort came from the legions of men who fought for Rome.
Turney gives us idiosyncratic men of wry humour, with a healthy disrespect for authority and an even healthier belief that ‘what doesn’t kill one makes one stronger.’
The battle scenes are delivered with pace, movement and colour, full of cinematographic grandeur and laden with dust, guts and bravery.
I am ignorant of much of ancient history, but this novel offered so much information in such a measured way that it is impossible not to recommend it. Five stars.“

I am a fan of Mr.Turney’s writing and its reassuring to know that he has been well-reviewed by the likes of the Scarrows and by Liviu on Fantasy.Book.Critic His website is full of interesting detail and vast humour: http://www.sjaturney.co.uk  This isn’t a dusty old fogey from the halls of academia, that’s for sure!

A book that I recommend for the stalwart embroiderers amongst bloggers and even for those who just love looking at a beautiful book, and especially those interested in illuminated manuscripts, is Stumpwork Medieval Flora by Jane Nicholas. I’m a stumpwork embroiderer, and it’s because of Jane’s wonderful work and her Masterclasses that I was inspired to write the fantasies The Stumpwork Robe and The Last Stitch. Even if you don’t embroider, have a look at http://www.janenicholas.com and prepare for being over-awed.

2009's first write-in at Genuine Joe's

I hated Brownies, Girl Scouts, and Girls’ Club. After-school clubs, organizations, or whatever you were supposed to join to add sparkle to your college application–no. And sororities? They scared the hell out of me. Anything that comes with a cheer is instant soul-sucking death. I might have shortened my life expectancy by going to a Mary Kay meeting once. And the facebook groups I have joined and even created make me feel like I’ve gone down a wrong path.

I am not a joiner.

But I love NaNoWriMo. It is the first group thing I’ve participated in that is filled with people I could’ve been friends with in high school. It is temporary. One month and you’re done. I now know people I see once a year–and that’s the way it should be. It is free.

Where else do you get a group of people together with a similar goal/interest/passion, and yet each person goes about it in his or her own unique/quirky/absurd way? Reach 50k or don’t. Nobody cares as long as you’re writing. I know participants who never intend to write fifty thousand words. There is no rule about what to do next. Edit and try to be published. Publish yourself. Hide it away. Delete the whole thing. One fellow finishes his novel and come December first, he deletes the file. He doesn’t write again until November the next year.

The first novel I wrote took years. It was like slogging through a swamp of words in a dense fog. That NaNoWriMo goal, 50k in 30 days, is sunshine on a path. There is no edit and create at the same time. The goal isn’t write a great novel in 30 days. I couldn’t do that. I might never do that no matter how many days I’m given. I’m rewarded and approved of for quantity! That I can do.

The rest of the year is for quality. Hours spent picking over sentences and cutting out scenes and wondering what the point of it all is. Maybe I could say that 11 months of the year is like being a soldier getting ready for inspection and November is shore leave.

What goals do you need to help you write? When was the last time your imagination ran around loose on the page?

…movie was pretty good, but not as good as the book.

And I know, I know people always say that. But in this case it really is true.

I liked it (the movie) but it just didn’t have the same effect on me as the book, you know. I think it has something to do with the language. Cormac McCarthy’s voice is so…particular, so evocative. I’m not sure it can be captured well in film. It is captured quite well in the audio book version of the novel. Same goes for previous novels such as All The Pretty Horses and No Country for Old man. Although I have to say that I think the Coen brothers did a very good job of translating Cormac McCarthy’s voice and style and asthetic to film. In fact, it was spot on  as far as I’m concerned. I was so sure it would be too, when I heard that they were making NCFOM into a movie. They just seemed like the perfect fit. Which of course is why that movie won so many awards.

I’d had similar hopes when I learned that it was going to be directed by John Hillcoat because of a movie he directed entitled The Proposition, which was an amazing albeit very brutal movie, but I wasn’t as sure as I was about the Coen brothers doing NCFOM. In fact, so certain was I that the brothers Coen would make a great movie out of that novel that I actually argued it’s merits with someone who had seen it and didn’t think it was all that good even before I’d seen it. Of course, I later saw it and felt entirely justified in my stance.

It’s funny because I wasn’t as enthralled with NCFOM when it first came out. I remember liking it but thinking it was just kind of a Cormac McCarthy-esque thriller, you know. That was partly because it didn’t impress me the way All the Pretty Horses, the first Cormac McCarthy novel I ever read, had. And there’d been a lot of build up, waiting for it to come out. It has been about seven years since he last novel, Cities of the Plain, kind of let down as the third installment of the Border Trilogy, which started with ATPH followed by The Crossing. Point being I was anxious to read something  new by McCarthy. And even though NCFOM was quite an improvement, I found it a little disappointing. And who knew  how long I’d have to wait until the man’s next novel.

Turned out not that long. The Road was published the next year. I had no idea it was coming out. I just remember opening a box of new book at the library where I work and seeing this book with a glossy black cover with the title, The Road, in a muted brown color, and Cormac McCarthy’s name in an even more muted gray color. It was like discovering something you’d always wished for but hadn’t had the chance to yet. My heart began to beat faster. My hands shook a little. For a second I was sure that I was imaginging it, hallucinating. But I wasn’t.

I began reading The Road immediately. And I know that people say this a lot but I literally could not put it down. And as soon as I finished it I began reading it again right then. As soon as I was able I ran out and bought a hardcover copy, because I wanted to have a first edition. If only there was some way to get it signed.

I knew instinctively that it was a great book, a superb novel, and there was no doubt that it would win some literary prize. And I was right. I won The Pulitzer and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, as well as being nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Being selected as an Oprah Book didn’t hurt none either.

Perhaps the movie version never had a chance to live up to my expectations.

But don’t think I’m ragging the movie. Because I’m not. It was excellent. And there were some moments in that book that literally made my heart race. And Viggio Mortensen was the perefect cast for the father, as were all the character castings. The kid who plaed The Boy, Kodi Smit-McPhee, was excellent. But perhaps the most stunning performance came from Robert Duvall, who plays the feeble old man that they (The Man and The Boy) encounter and take a meall with, mostly because of The Boy’s insistence.

Still, I’m not sure I’d automaticlly recomend this movie. It is not for the average movie goer. Most people aren’t going to want to see this movie; no feel good fare it be. Which is why during Thanksgiving I purposely refrained from talking about it when the subject of movies came up. I’d learned my lesson after reading the book, when I was talking aboug books at some family gathering and mentioned the novel — I got a response like a tumbleweed blowing through a ghost town pretty much.

This is a great post from one of my favorite blogs/mailing lists, Daily Writing Tips.The guest post was written by Maeve Maddox. You should check out the link above, but her are a couple of highlights.

When I read a blog filled with incomplete sentences, trendy slang, misspellings and grammatical atrocities, I feel at one with the professor at Ohio University who returned a student’s paper with this comment:

I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top.

To me a writer has certain characteristics, among which are:

a compulsion to write
a love of language
a grasp of grammar and idiom
a wide acquaintance with writing in different genres and from different historical periods
an enormous vocabulary, together with an instinct for choosing words appropriate to context and audience
the ability to write despite discouragement and distractions

…

Here are some quotations that go along with my understanding of what a “real” writer is.

It is impossible to discourage the real writers – they don’t give a damn what you say, they’re going to write.  ~Sinclair Lewis

I can write with a crying child on my lap. I have. Often. ~ David Baldacci

We write because something inside says we must and we can no longer ignore that voice. ~ Sheila Bender

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.  ~Hart Crane

The more you read, the more you will write. The better the stuff you read, the better the stuff you will write. ~ Annie Dillard

The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax.  ~Alfred Kazin

If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.  ~Lord Byron

“Daily Writing Tips” is always a highlight of my email checking day. It should be one of yours, too!

I’m hoping this letter finds you well and in excellent spirits for the coming holiday. I know, I know, it’s been quite awhile since you last heard from me–trying to go it alone now, even though it looks like I might have mucked things up a bit. Anyway, since I’ve been pretty good this year, and because you’re a busy man and you hate last minute requests, I thought I’d send you my wish list right now, in plenty of time for Christmas:

1. I need a new car: Yes, I said need and not want, because it’s been well over a decade and the time has come for a new set of wheels, which is why it’s number one here on my list. However, before you say “Ah-hah, one of those little Smart Cars ought to do the trick,” I just want to add that my taste in automobiles is pretty much the same as it was in my Lincoln-Continental days. That is to say that, although I do appreciate fuel economy, I’m simply not a small-car gal, and, if you take into consideration my frugal ways regarding energy consumption, I really do think I could be trusted with, say, a Cadillac. (I’ll leave the color to you.)
2. A new computer: Now on this one there’s a little room for compromise. Meaning, a newer computer will suit me just fine, as long as it comes equipped with a decent printer and the design programs and Apps I’ve grown accustomed to having and that, as both an artist and writer, I’ve come to rely upon. (Be careful with it on the stairs, please. They can be rather tricky in the dark.)
3. New boots: Size eight, but don’t forget to add a half size for a pair of thick wool socks, or in the event that they may come with a lining. Also, I’m going to have to be somewhat picky here because I’ve been investigating this and, seriously, there are a lot of ugly boots in the market lately. Sure, a beggar can’t be choosy but, geesh, no man-made materials or space-age designs, please. And, as is customary, no less than 1 1/2 inch heels. (If you remember, a two-inch heel with a tall shaft typically works best for me, and, by the way, laces are perfectly all right, too, though pull-ons or zip-ups would also be cool. As to the theme, I’m leaning toward western or combat this year, something that balances the concept of kick-ass with cute, but I want a square toe, nothing round or pointed. Again, you may pick the color scheme.)
4. Books: Books have gotten soooo expensive of late. Not my books, of course, but most everyone else’s are just out of this world now. I know you read a lot so, if you can toss a few of your favourites under the tree, I’d be grateful. Per usual, hardcovers are most desirable to me and, yes, I still prefer non-fiction over any other category, with biographies heading up the list. But don’t even trouble yourself with those so called “Bestsellers” as I’ve learned from experience that such lists are thoroughly rigged and, thus, cannot assure a quality read anymore. (In short, just find some truly good books if you can, irrespective of who may have authored them, and surprise me!)
5. Firewood: Yup, you’re right, this request is not for myself but for the Landlady, who, I can vouch for, has been just terrific every single day of the year. If you could deliver her a full cord as opposed to a face cord, and see to it that it’s all split and neatly stacked right outside the door–her door, not mine–that would be really great. (She’s a rugged individual, but she turns sixty this year and, unfortunately, so does her back.)
6. Something for the cats: I know I can speak for my Landlady here when I say that the animus between our animals must end, ASAP. Regrettably, we are at a loss ourselves as to how to achieve this, for, in truth, we have tried everything we could think of, and yet my poor (snooty) Princess is still actively stalked by Lord Findlay (pronounced finn-lee) and lives virtually every waking moment in certain dread of him. Therefore, I am suggesting a gift for these two otherwise exemplary and very well-behaved kitties that explores the idea and possibility of sharing, even though I have no idea what that would potentially resemble. (Having said this much, however, I implore you not to supply them with a chipmunk, bunny, bird, or the like, because neither of their humans have a stomach for murder and mayhem, and, moreover, such a present isn’t likely to bring about the spirit of cooperation we are hoping for and constantly seeking.)
7. Democracy in Burma: In light of how many times I’ve brought this subject up in the past two decades, I’m aware that it may seem I’m harping on it, but within that time span nothing has changed in Burma but its name–the military junta is still in power and the duly elected leader still remains under house arrest, a situation that is not only beneath her but which is negatively impacting her health overall, as well as that of her nation. I understand when it comes to issues like world peace you prefer to look at the big picture, which I respect, but I truly think this is a matter that requires your closer scrutiny. Thus, I am requesting once again that you free Aung San Suu Kyi for Christmas and, if that’s too short notice for you to act upon, then at least in time for her to participate in Burma’s election next year. (I’d be willing to trade the new car in exchange for this, but I can’t budge an inch for a new computer.)

Now, obviously poor Burma isn’t the only place in the world with bad people living in it and, quite frankly, I can name plenty of them dwelling right here in my own hemisphere. I’m only mentioning this just in case any of these individuals have requested a new home-entertainment system from you, for which you have, on proper review, deemed them completely unworthy. Mine, as you’ve probably already heard, went and kicked the bucket on me this month and, as a result, I haven’t been able to watch a home-movie for weeks now on end. (But, since it’s arguable that I could be constructively utilizing all that extra time to finish work on my new novel, I’ll just have to leave this one to your discretion.)

Well, that just about covers everything this year, and, notwithstanding that my wish list is rather short, I think you’ll find it nevertheless comprehensive. Naturally, I have omitted many smaller items from it that might conveniently fit into a stocking. Should you decide to indulge me, you’ll find those hung (with care) beside the broken television, as I no longer have a chimney to speak of. On that note, you’ll also find my new digs kind of small and a bit cramped to work in, for which I apologize in advance. As to me, you’ll see I’m much older than the last time we met, although, I suspect, fairly recognizable. Some things, however, will never change so, yes, I’m still a very light sleeper, but don’t worry about that; I will, as agreed to in the past, pretend that I’m not awake when you get here. By the way, remember to look for your glass of milk on the table by the door. Per usual, it will not be warm, but it will be spiked with good rum, so go easy on it if you’ve got more stops to make. Also, I don’t know if you’re watching your sugar these days, but I’m going to put out a plate of gingersnaps for you, too. (They’re low-fat, low-cal and low-carb, so you might want to give them a try anyway.)

Looking forward to seeing you again, old friend. Have a safe trip and drive carefully!

Your friend, Francine

PS. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Iker Casillas begs to differ.

So Stephanie Zacharek used her review of the film adaptation of The Road to bash the original source material. There’s no accounting for taste, but does Cormac McCarthy really have a “he-man streak”? And even if he does… why is that bad?

I rarely agree with Zacherek’s reviews, though I think she gets unfairly lambasted all of the time, and really don’t appreciate the meanness in the comments directed to her (Salon’s commenters, of which I frequently am one, have a bad reputation for a reason). I just don’t understand the criticism being leveled at McCarthy here, I guess. I still get chills just thinking about his description of the Man who contemplates whether or not anything is living in the sea – giant squid, perhaps. I mean, think about it, a post-apocalyptic wasteland in which a man dreams of squid in the cold, dark sea. I don’t even… That’s terrifying. And brilliant.

And the details of “The Road” — which must be particularly wrenching for people who have children, given that nearly every page stokes a common parental fear — repeatedly ask the same question: Are you man enough to take it?

You know, as a woman who read the book and enjoyed it – although perhaps the word “enjoyed” is wrong here, perhaps “admired” works better – I really didn’t get the sense that McCarthy was asking me if I was “man enough.” He was just telling a story in a hard (no pun intended), unflinching style. I didn’t think there was anything gendered about the way he was treating his readers or his subject matter. Sure, it’s a tale of a man and his son, and the mother is gone and not by accident, so there’s that aspect of it. But the man and his son didn’t make me feel as though I was an outsider at He-Man Thunderdome. If anything, I spent a long time thinking about my brother afterward, wondering if I’d be able to take care of him like that if shit should hit the fan. That’s because the writing is so personal; I think it clearly comes from a place wherein McCarthy himself was contemplating various scenarios, and wondering if he could take it.

[The director of "The Road", John Hillcoat] also knows that sometimes it’s not just healthy to recoil — it’s essential.

Well now. First of all, you can’t deny that these are two different mediums we’re talking about here. Because of the way we interact with the written word, and because of the way that the written word interacts with us, there are images we can conjure up in books that don’t translate well when it comes to film. The gruesome image of an infant roasting on a spit is the one that Zacharek has particular issues with, and she praises Hillcoat for not dwelling on it in the film. I think that’s a little like praising Stanley Kubrick for not attempting to re-enact Nabokov’s image of “a sultan, his face expressing great agony (belied, as it were, by his molding caress), helping a callypygean slave child to climb a column of onyx.” Hells to the yeah! Who cares about Oscars, let’s start giving out Common Sense Awards!

I also think that there is quite a bit of “recoiling” going on in The Road, it’s just done in this very graceful, penetrating (bwahaha – OK, fine, I’m intending all of these puns) manner. Like many of the writers I admire, McCarthy writes beautifully about absolutely horrifying things. That’s not so much a recoil as it is an act of transcendence. And if you can’t avoid stepping in blood or shit, you might as well transcend it – is what I always say.

Anyway, all of this is very depressing. Let’s end this post on a happy note, by objectifying Viggo Mortensen for a second:

He may not have made a particularly excellent King, but he was still the best Strider a dork could hope for. Haters to the left.

]]> http://gkosk.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/%ce%bf%ce%b9-%ce%b1%ce%b3%ce%b1%cf%80%ce%b7%ce%bc%ce%ad%ce%bd%ce%b5%cf%82-%ce%bc%ce%bf%cf%85-%cf%87%cf%81%ce%b9%cf%83%cf%84%ce%bf%cf%85%ce%b3%ce%b5%ce%bd%ce%bd%ce%b9%ce%ac%cf%84%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%b5/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:47:17 +0000 gkosk http://gkosk.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/%ce%bf%ce%b9-%ce%b1%ce%b3%ce%b1%cf%80%ce%b7%ce%bc%ce%ad%ce%bd%ce%b5%cf%82-%ce%bc%ce%bf%cf%85-%cf%87%cf%81%ce%b9%cf%83%cf%84%ce%bf%cf%85%ce%b3%ce%b5%ce%bd%ce%bd%ce%b9%ce%ac%cf%84%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%b5/ http://charlotteotter.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/dani-noir/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:13:13 +0000 charlotteotter http://charlotteotter.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/dani-noir/

One of the joys of blogging is being able to connect with writers all over the world, right here from The Dorf, Germany. One writer whom I “met” early in my blogging days was New Yorker Nova Ren Suma, who blogs at Distraction No. 99. Nova has inspired me and many others with her dedication to writing. She is a writer with every core of her being; she lives and breathes it. (Occasionally, she breaks from writing to eat cake, which is another reason to love her.)

Having ghosted a series of tween and YA novels, Nova decided to try her hand at writing for younger readers. It was clearly the right decision: her debut Dani Noir was published by Simon and Schuster’s Aladdin imprint in October this year. Within a month, it was on Amazon’s list of Top 10 Books for 2009: Middle Readers.

I’ve read Dani Noir and I loved it. It’s witty, pacey and delightful. If you are looking for a present for a girl this Christmas in the nine to 14-year-old range, Dani Noir might be just the thing. Be warned though: you might have to start renting Rita Hayworth movies!

Here’s a link to the Dani Noir site, and to my recent interview with Nova, published today on Buzzine.