Word-Whores

Because it's my job.

2013-06-17T00:00:00.001-04:00

I am in a slightly different position than most of my counterparts at the brothel. First, I’m a guy. I know, shocking, right? Second, I’m a widower. I have no children. Hell, I don’t even have a goldfish. It’s just me.

So managing my time should be easy, right?

Yeah. No. I wish.

Here’s the thing. I don’t live on an island. I live in my hometown. That means I have family here. Several siblings, actually. Not a one of whom would deliberately interfere with my job. The thing is, now and then we talk. I’m one of those people who, regardless of the time, automatically answer the phone when my siblings call. It’s a worst case scenario mindset, you see. Any member of my family calls, and the first thing my mind tells me is that I have to answer it, because it might be a serious situation. Someone had a car wreck, someone is in the hospital, the list goes on and on. Understand, by the way, that my family is an extended thing. There are a handful of friends and close associates who qualify in the same category. They call, I answer.

That’s as rough as it gets with me.

I have a day job. The hours can be a bear. I have my writing. Now and then people call. A lot of times when people want to get together, I have to decline. That's by choice. I like having tight deadlines and that means I understand that sometimes my people time goes out the window.

Mostly I manage to keep up with the issues.

But I’ve also given more than one person the following advice: it’s your life, too. Yes, I know the kids are important. Of course they are. If they are old enough to understand the concept of needing some time to do work, they should understand the concept of needing to sit and write. Same as going off to a day job, only the office might be on a private room in the house, in the kitchen, in the living room.

There are exceptions, of course. Actual family emergencies always take precedence and sometimes teh emergency is in the form of someone really needing an ear to bend. The advantage with writing is you can often make up the time. But you still need to manage it.

My wife always understood that she came first. She also understood that now and then I had to burn a few extra hours a day at the computer. The time I kicked out a novel in three weeks? We saw each other for roughly one hour a day that qualified as together time. It sucked. I saw my wife first thing in the morning, while we ate dinner and for a solid half hour at night. The rest of the time was writing or working an eight hour shift at the day job.

It also was necessary at that time. And it was short term. Long term we managed a bit more together time.

If writing is a hobby, you can put it aside should you need to. If it is a career, or if you intend for it to be a career, then the family needs to understand that. Everything Jeffe said? Sound advice. The lady knows her stuff.

Jim Moore

Why It's a Sign of Love for Writers to Tell Their Families to Bugger-Off

2013-06-16T10:53:00.000-04:00

Today is Father's Day in the U.S., so I'm posting a photo of my father, from back in the day. He was a fighter pilot in the Air Force and died in the line of duty in 1969, a year or so after this photo was taken.

For those of you doing the math (yes, that's me holding the apple, but what was up with all the ric-rac on the dress??), that means I didn't really know my dad. I learned very early in life to treasure my family, because sometimes people just don't come home.

It's important to remind ourselves to value our loved ones, especially the ones we live with, day-in and day-out. It's easy to take those people for granted, to use them as convenient targets for our deflected frustrations, to fail to show them the love we have, deep in our hearts.

When tragedy occurs and we lose someone, with grief comes regret. It seems to come hand in hand, that creeping sense that we somehow could have done more. Spent more time with them, valued them more, loved them more. You see it all the time - following loss people exhort each other "go home and hug your children!" As if they somehow could have staved off that sense of regret.

But I have news for them. Regret will always follow loss. We will never stop regretting that someone we loved died.

Because that's what it truly is. In the mire of emotion, we wrap it up with guilt and displace to thinking we somehow could have done something more. But really, it's just grief.

Which is why you should always feel free to tell your loved ones to bugger off while you're writing.

Seriously.

See, how you feel about them is how they feel about you. (If all is right in your world - if that's not the case, then you have other issues to deal with.) Writing is your art, your self-expression, your (hopefully) career. It takes A LOT of concentration. Most of us write because we need to. It feeds a part of us that would starve without it, like a manacled prisoner forgotten in the dungeon. Writing time is sacred.

If your loved ones love you, they won't encroach on it.

But they do, don't they? They encroach all the damn time.

This is because they forget. They're absorbed in *their* things and they forget not to encroach.

"Can I ask you just one question?" they'll ask, not realizing that by asking that question, they've already snapped you out of the trance.

"Oh, are you writing?" they say in a surprised tone, as if it's not your usual time and like they can't see you, tapping furiously on the keyboard.

So, how do you keep them from encroaching on your writing time? Remind them. Gently, lovingly, with all the affection in your heart for their foible that makes them think finding the stamps Right Now is the most important thing in the world.

Smile and say. "I'm writing right now."

"I'll find them when I'm done writing."

"I'll take a break in about an hour and I'll help you then. For now I can't talk to you."

Repeat as necessary.

Some people may require more forceful reminding - you know how to communicate with them best. Children and husbands, in particular, may ask you to demonstrate your love for them by placing them first. Instead, reverse it and ask them to demonstrate their love for you by giving you that time.

Repeat as necessary.

After all, the best way to stave off regret is to live life to its fullest extent. By devoting ourselves to our art, we're developing ourselves and contributing to the world. Adding joy and pleasure to the lives of others is no small thing. Our loved ones love that about us. It's part and parcel of who we are. They just have to be reminded, sometimes sternly, sometimes gently, always lovingly, that they need to bugger off and leave us alone when we're writing.

Repeat as necessary.

Trend Setter, Trend Avoider or Trend Neutral?

2013-06-15T00:30:00.000-04:00

Not sure I can add too much to this topic that my wide ranging fellow Word Whores haven't already said this week, as far as trends, technology and troglodytes. (Which by the way that word always causes me to visualize the Morlocks from the old "Time Machine" movie - no idea why.) However, I think it's in my unwritten contract somewhere that I can't just say "what they said" and be done LOL!

Trends - I'm watching the "Hybrid Author" development closely and am one myself actually, being self published and also published by Carina Press. Some hybrid authors have massive backlists from the traditional publishing houses that they're now in various stages of reissuing themselves, which is very exciting to see.

You can Google the term and get millions of hits. You can read Chuck Wendig's post "What the hell is a "Hybrid" Author, Anyway" here....

Hmmm, looked up just now and both cats were staring at me fixedly. Apparently the term hybrid author implies to them I might suddenly become either something small, furry and edible or something large, furry and hungry! Sorry to disappoint my faithful feline companions but being a hybrid author means I publish in various ways and avenues. As Mr. Wendig says, I find advantages and disadvantages inherent in either but the choices all make me happy.

One of the nicest parts of this trend is how helpful authors are to other authors. A lot of the advice on the loops about independent publishing goes wayyyy over my head at this point - foreign rights, for example - but I file it away for the day I might need to know how to best market my book in Germany. Some of the advice is immediately pertinent to me and so helpful, like how to do effective promo with free books and 99 cent books...I tried it and my book Wreck of the Nebula Dream recently became an Amazon Best Seller in SF Adventure, which was such a rush I cannot tell you. And I was so grateful to all the Readers who bought the book during that special promotion. I hope they'll enjoy the story!

Another trend I've personally participated in over the last year is the growth of audiobooks. I've done one with a very talented actor (he read it, I just admired the end result) and I loved the entire process. I can't wait to increase my self published audiobook backlist (but kind of need to publish the actual books first. Which means writing them...)

Troglodytes - someone at the dayjob told me last week that no one should ever take notes on a pad of paper again. So in his mind, I guess I'm a trogwhatever. (But much better looking than a Morlock, I assure you!) I always have my pad of legal sized, lavender paper with me at work and I take notes or I doodle. Depends on the meeting! When it's time to seriously write, I'm all about the computer.

The bottom line to me is keeping an open mind to new developments,watching the trends but not necessarily adopting them, picking and choosing what works for me, experimenting...and always, writing my stories!

Is there a trend or a technology that you've recently adopted and recommend?

Jake the Glowing e-Cat is Everywhere!

Techie Big Brother

2013-06-14T13:13:00.000-04:00

Before we begin this post, I'd just like to shout out to my brothers and sisters at the NSA. You guys are doing a helluva job. At getting the US Government sued (with and for my tax dollars). Way to go.

Okay. Okay. The government brought the lawsuits upon themselves, deservedly so in my opinion. It is still your money and mine going to argue whether the whole mess violates the constitution.

The whole 'your government is spying on you' thing is, at its core, a technology issue. Until very, very recently, governments couldn't data mine their citizens except during census years. Then, cellphones. With more computing power in them than NASA had for the first few Apollo missions. And GPS. Glorious, potentially life-saving tech. Until some nitwit perks up and says, "Hey! This may be totally illegal AND immoral, but you know what we could do?"

All of which makes me sound anti-tech. Nothing could be further from the truth. Love the tech - so much promise. So many possibilities. Cool (outdated) techie stuff got us to the moon and back. It lets us look at video and photos of Mars. We peer into the center of our universe looking for clues to how we all got here to talk about technology in the first place.

Spain is using a solar tower to power thousands of homes with sunlight. No pollution. No CO2.

Watch the documentary Connections, available for free viewing online. It traces technology through history in a really compelling way. And like James Burke says near the end of the series, "We can't put the genie back in the bottle." Nor do I want to. Not even cell phones - or the chips I expect will end up imbedded directly in use at some point - chips that will carry our IDs, driver's license, bank account info, and a locator designed ostensibly for use by emergency responders.

See, I'm pretty convinced that technology isn't our problem. We're our problem. Power grabs, especially those veiled by 'just trying to help' excuses, seem to be human nature. Tech only aids and abets. It is also, then, human nature to resist that power grab. Usually with technology. And maybe a few well placed class action lawsuits.

Game Console Asshattery

2013-06-13T09:00:00.000-04:00

Trends, Tech or Troglodytes, eh? Yeah, the last few weeks have probably been prime examples of all three of those.

I could point to the obvious things - the SFWA kerfluffle of last week, for example- but honestly, it's been covered so much at this point, that I don't know if I've got anything worth adding to the discussion

Instead, I'm going to focus on Tech and Troglodytes - specifically at the E3 conference this week. Now, you're probably wondering, why does gaming have to do with books or writing? The short answer is...nothing.

But the fact of the matter is that good games - good, solid, immersive games - require great writing. Great characterization. Great settings. Great stories. All of which are obviously rather intrinsic to those of who tell stories in general.

So why am I tapping on this today?

Well, the big news at the E3 conference was the unveiling of the next generation gaming consoles - Microsoft's XBox One (which people already call Xbone) vs Sony's PlayStation 4.

If you're not a gamer, this may be a bit boring, but I feel like there's some obvious parallels between what's happening in the gaming world and the publishing world - specifically DRM. (And whether it stops piracy or not.)

The two platforms have taken some fairly different approaches:

XBox One:

- no longer plays from the CD - you throw the disc into the console and it copies it to the hard drive. It is unlocked by one XBox Live account and that's the only account it will play for.

- requires the XBox to connect to the internet once every 24 hours to be able to play your game. (For verification, I suppose.)

- requires the Kinect component (a camera that can utilize infrared to determine how many people are in the room) to be on ALL the time. The one for the current 360 can be unplugged or turned off if you're not using it for games. I don't like this at all. Cameras can be hacked and I'm not sure I want something that has to be ON all the time. Very big brother, especially when you consider that Microsoft has patented the ability to keep track of how many people are utilizing the media. So...if they decide too many people are watching a movie/playing a game, "remedial action may be taken." Not saying they will...but 1984, indeed.

- games can no longer be borrowed by friends. The game ONLY works for the account that has unlocked it. (I do believe there's a 10 person "friend/family" list that can be utilized - so that players with families can let their kids play the game, but when pressed, Microsoft doesn't seem to know how that's going to work yet. Dubious.)

- used games are a big business right now. The XBox One will kill rentals and reselling. I can resell a game to a friend (but they have to be in my friend list for more than 30 days.) That friend can install the game, but then they have to pay a fee to actually activate it (read: full price of game) and once that's been done, the game can no longer be sold again. Doesn't look like you'll be able to play a rented game at all.

- no indie game developers. This is a bit like self-publishing or small presses. You've got your big name game developers, but in the past, anyone who met XBox's requirements could release a game on the console. (Same with PS). This is good because it leads to games or stories that might be overlooked otherwise. No longer the case with Xbone. Big name licensed developers only. This is especially distressing considering we still have such a lack of diversity in stories and characters. "White dudebro shoots stuff" gets pretty boring after awhile.

So...how does the PS4 match up? It's $100 cheaper for one (only $399 vs $499) - Though it sells its own little camera device separate for $60 so it's probably close to a wash there.)

- PS 4 allows indie developers

- Internet connection not required to play the games

- can sell, lend, whatever without jumping through hoops

- Region-free, so you can play imports

And...that's about it.

I mean, yes - it's a tad more complicated than that, but looking at the PR cluster that Microsoft has been working up, it's not a surprise that we're hearing a lot of rumblings of gamers jumping ship to the PS4.

So what does this have to do with publishing? Well, in a lot of ways, gaming is like that last frontier. Other forms have media have dealt with DRM in varying levels of success - certainly we see a lot of it in the ebook world - should we be able to borrow ebooks or sell them? Do we own the book or are we renting it? Does it stop piracy at all? (Mmm. No, not really. But what if your Kindle suddenly required you to log in to a server every day to allow you to read those books? Would it make an impact or not?)

Just food for thought.

I always watch other industries and how they handle these types of things, simply because the impact tends to have a rolling effect. (Plus in this case, I really think killing the indie developer is a bad move - as someone who wants greater diversity in their games and stories, blinkering into creating "what sells the most" leads developers not wanting to take chances. And these days, that's hard enough.)

As far as the Troglodyte part of this post? Well - when Feminist Frequency made a tweet asking about where all the female protags were in the games that were demo'd at the event (another hot button issue for me, yes.) - the results were predictable and horrifying. (And yes, pertaining to games, but given the SFWA thing? Also relevant.)

Interactive Comic Books

2013-06-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

It's Trends, Tech or Troglodytes week here at the Word-Whores. Sadly, I fall into the latter category. I'm behind on tech, and I don't follow trends. So, I'm totally cheating on this post. Instead of writing a nifty post, I am sharing with you a link to something that it both techy and trendy, and just kick-ass cool, in my opinion.

The hook:

"...choose your own adventure motion comic."

What's not to love about that?

Except that they didn't have this when I was a kid.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/57671-dc-entertainment-introduces-dc2-interactive-comics.html

Industry Pulse: Summer 2013

2013-06-11T11:59:00.002-04:00

As writers, it's hella easy to set our blinders to view only what directly impacts our abilities to write and to sell in our sub-genre(s). Since the publishing industry is infamous for their sluggish pace, we usually have time to put on our ponchos before Big Shit Hits Fan.

To help you choose what size poncho, here are three big turds set to spray all over us:

1. Apple vs DOJ -- The Great E-Book Price-Fixing War
The government and retailers are going to war over what our art is worth in a specific format -- in this case, it's e-books. At the heart of the battle is Amazon (behind the cloak of the DOJ) versus Apple. One may wish to recall that at the time the publishers developed the Agency Model, Amazon was selling e-books at 40%-75% discounts and attempting to dictate the industry price for this newfangled digital version of a book. Amazon severely crippled fair-market competition with this practice. The Big 6 publishers were reeling from Amazon's bullying and price rigging. Amazon -- being first to bring e-books into the mainstream via their Kindle tech -- tried to set an artificially low price for our art. Publishing houses rebelled but lacked alternative tech & distribution options to turn-down Amazon's unfavorable terms. When a House said no to Amazon, Amazon removed every book by the publisher from their store. The publisher was now without its #1 retailer. In stepped Apple, with a retailer and tech option to combat Amazon. Thus Apple and the Big 6 came to an agreement on pricing. It is this agreement that the DOJ is litigating under Antitrust laws. For more details (with graphs!) check out CNN Money's Coverage and Good Ereader

Why Writers Care: It's all about the retail value of our product. In the end, it's about how much we can and/or will be paid. What comes out of this e-book trial will have repercussions for print across all publishers. Expect another flutter of contract addenda after the case is settled.

2. Random Penguin & Author Solutions
The merger of Random House and Penguin (aka Bertelsman & Pearson, their parent companies) brings the Big Houses count down to 5, which means less NYC opportunities and lots of angst for the employees and authors of the two houses. The upshot of the merger is that medium and small presses are eager to step in to the gaps the conglomerate will leave behind. Random Penguin leadership says the merger will better position them for competition in the digital market (see Apple vs DOJ above). BUT, before we get all warm and fuzzy about that idea, we must recall that Random Penguin is the owner of reviled vanity press Author Solutions. Author Solutions is in the throes of a class-action lawsuit for breech of contract (non-payment of royalties and failure to produce accurate sales records) and unjust enrichment (aka ripping off authors via producing shitty products and pissing off end-consumers thereby ruining the author's brand). The merger is expected to be complete by the end of summer. By spring 2014, the internal realignments and new strategies will have trickled down to the editorial and marketing staffs.

Why Writers Care: There's a caution flag on the field. Even if you're not published by Random House or Penguin, any movement to shape the e-book market (especially with a company like Author Solutions in the mix), is going to ripple into your next round of contract negotiations. Don't sign blindly and make sure your agent (assuming you have one) explains the changes to you. Also, expect another shift in what will be the "hot" genre as the minds behind Random Penguin review their stables.

3. Digital & Discovery
No lawsuits in this one. It should come as no surprise that publishers are still at a loss for how to improve discovery. Now that Amazon has acquired GoodReads and Bookish has yet to make waves, publishers are staring at social media (aka Facebook, Tumbler, & Twitter) trying to figure out how to use it to their advantage. In the world of social media, intimate connections are more successful than companies hawking their wares. People want to have conversations with people, not with a company. This is why authors will always be better at social media and why publishers need to figure out how to use their mass to better support us. By the time the publishing industry figures out how to improve ROI in social media the outlets they're targeting will have imploded.

Why Writers Care: We're still on the hook for our own marketing and we will be for the foreseeable future. Sorry. Do expect the publishers to ride you harder about being more visible.

There you have it, dear readers, the pulsing turds of the summer. What issues are on your radar and what size ponchos are you stocking?

What's New in the Land of Readers

2013-06-09T08:53:00.000-04:00

I was at the Lori Foster Reader and Author Get Together this weekend. During my signing, Angela James, Editorial Director of Carina Press, visited my table and I so coveted her lemon drop martini that she gave it to me.

If anyone asks how Carina treats their authors? THIS.

Because this event is more of a reader party and less of an industry conference, I didn't get tons of "official" information that pertains to this week's theme of "Industry Pulse-Trends, Tech, & Troglodytes."

However, I did talk to a lot of readers and that gave me an unusual - and fascinating - insight into their pulses.

Being primarily romance readers, they know what they like and how they like it. They were at this event to discover new authors to read and they were like kids shopping at a candy store. They snapped up bookmarks and cards. They tapped the cover images and said "tell me about this one." Things I heard from them:

"You had me at Contemporary."

"Anything erotic - yes, yes, yes."

"I'm a paranormal girl. I want THIS."

"What flavor of fantasy are you - fairies, shifters, vampires?"

What's interesting to me about this is, if you listen to the jaded and world-weary panels of agents and editors, they will shake their heads and say "paranormal romance is dead." I've been hearing that news make the rounds lately. Agents can't sell it. Editors can't buy it. Nobody wants it and all us writers might as well pack up our supernatural critters and store them in the basement until the next season.

Apparently the readers did not get this memo.

Now, they ARE tired of the same old, same old. I've seen a lot of eye-rolling over Yet Another vampire/werewolf love triangle. But this is a weariness based on lack of invention in the stories, not in the overall genre. Readers are hungrier than ever. Feed them.

Interestingly, there are many still struggling with the tech. I know the statistics say that everyone who's gonna get an eReader already has one, but that's not what I saw at this event. Many readers were stacking their raffle bets on the baskets with eReaders, so they could acquire their first one. One gal I talked to who hoped to win an eReader was all excited when I showed her the Kindle app she could put on her iPhone. She acted like it was a miracle.

So fun.

As for the troglodytes, the paper-only readers are still out there. One gal said she simply CAN'T read on any eReader because of something headaches something eyes something technical jargon. I didn't quite get it, but she was annoyed I didn't have paper books for her. Alas.

That's my report!

The Invisible Workshop Panelist

2013-06-08T00:30:00.000-04:00

That was me...well, that was all of us last year at the terrific CoyoteCon - it was a virtual, free, online conference "celebrating all flavors and blends of SFF, horror and romance", organized for 2012 by author Joely Sue Burkhart. (I understand it began in 2010 but that was before my time.) This was my first experience as an author, serving as a panelist, my courage bolstered because the interaction would be online and I knew I'd be comfortable "speaking" and answering questions from behind the computer screen! (No, not quite as dramatic as Oz, no fire LOL and I believe I'm better looking and a whole lot friendlier!)

There were four chat rooms, all kinds of fascinating topics, lots of cool people as panelists - I enjoyed the heck out of being on a panel and I enjoyed "attending" other sessions from the comfort of my own home. Yes, the timing was a bit crazy, depending where you live - we did one workshop at 6AM California time (too bad for the audience they didn't get to see my fetching nightgown, matching robe and cute slippers LOL). I was on the self publishing panel, having recently published WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM, and also on one Science Fiction panel as I recall.

My Moderator was extremely organized, had us figure out our intros and some Q&A about a week ahead of time, so we could begin both of our sessions promptly. (One workshop that I "attended" was very congenial and happy but spent nearly half the actual session getting organized! Even in a virtual conference the excellent suggestions my fellow Word Whores gave earlier this week about being a Moderator or Panelist do apply.) Our Moderator was experienced and kept the discussion moving and made sure we addressed any questions.I'm looking forward to doing CoyoteCon again this year!

Being at an actual live event like RWA (I'm hoping to make it to RT next year) and networking and meeting people and ALL of that is fun stuff but I have to say there are some good things about a virtual conference, including no need to travel, which poses some challenges for me. I do it, but it's not my favorite thing. So don't rule out the value of attending a virtual conference!

In better years for the government travel and conference budgets, I used to attend one particular annual NASA conference for the day job, strictly as an audience member, but then after a few years I began volunteering and that was FUN. I loved being behind the scenes, acting as a session co-ordinator, introducing the speakers, keeping an eye on the questions and the time and bringing things to a graceful end. It's hard to get a word in edgewise with a group of enthusiastic, world renowned space scientists and engineers, to warn them they've run out of time and must move into the hall to make room for the next session.

I'm planning to volunteer at any future writing conferences I attend - the volunteers are so necessary and it's always a blast to be part of the event in that fashion. Puts a naturally introverted person like me right at ease.

So whether I see you at RWA, RT or another conference, or I "see you" at CoyoteCon, here's to interesting workshops, smooth moderators, proficient panelists and a well stocked bar!

Workshop Know How

2013-06-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

You can teach workshops. Honest. Anyone can. It's rewarding and if you play your cards right, it's fun. The most fun I've had at a conference is doing a workshop.

Everyone knows something. You have specialized knowledge - whether it's about a time in history, a specific location, a method for getting into character, or for writing 40,000 words in two days. Try brainstorming a list of things you know. Identify one or two you'd like to work up into a presentation. Brainstorm out all of the things you'd want to tell fellow writers about on your chosen subject. Now decide whether you want to talk for forty-five to fifty minutes while people take notes, or whether you want some participation in the form of writing exercises or even getting people on their feet to try what you're talking about. Does your subject matter allow for the use of media like movie clips, slides or other audio/visual?

Know thyself, workshop presenter. Can you speak from a simple outline? Or do you need your presentation fully scripted out?

From your brainstormed list, build your outline and/or write up your presentation. This is a rough draft. If you have to do some research to fill in details or history, that happens now and fills in your draft. Let it sit for a week. Go back to it. Rearrange as the mood moves you. Tighten it up. Fill in details you'd forgotten until now. If you have photos or clips that you want to use in the presentation, build that file and note in your presentation outline which photos or clips go where. You can build the whole thing as a Powerpoint presentation if you like that sort of thing and if it won't divert you from writing your own books.

Set up your presentation and try speaking all the words - give the workshop to your stuffed animals or your action figures. Time yourself. Is it physically possible to say everything within 50 minutes? Breathing is not optional. If you don't breathe, neither will your audience. If you aren't comfortable saying what you have to say within the time constraint, no one else will be either. Speaking too quickly means no one absorbs what you say. So speak slowly and deliberately. Make heartless cuts to your content in order to fit comfortably within the time allotted.

Now, you need guinea pigs. Ask your local writer's group if they'd let you do your workshop for them. Most groups will. Ask for feedback and really listen to it so you can learn from it. You're not looking for public speaking critiques - at this point, you're vetting content. Did people feel like you left out anything vital? Where they overwhelmed? Would your audience have liked a copy of your notes? A list of your source materials so they could do some further research? Consider adding those things.

See if there's another writers' group in the next town/county/whatever that would let you do the workshop again. You're doing it again not only to work in feedback, but also to become more confident with your material.

At this point, you're ready to propose the workshop for a conference. Most conferences only allow 50 minutes for workshops (to allow people to get from place to another on time). If you intend to answer questions, plan for a few minutes.

At a conference, you'll want to state a few ground rules right up front.
1. Most conferences have people pitching - say so and tell people that if they get up and leave, you'll assume they have a pitch and you don't mind (and then don't mind or take it personally when someone leaves)
2. Point out the restrooms
3. State whether you'll take questions as you go, or whether you prefer that people hold their questions until the end

Then dive right in. Have fun. Invite your audience to have fun. If you screw up, laugh at yourself. No one gets shot at dawn because you lost your place.

Save your notes! After you've done your workshop, you have the groundwork for an article on your subject.

Convention Connection

2013-06-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

by Allison Pang

I'm not sure there's a lot I can add to the posts this week that hasn't already been said, so this is going to be relatively short and sweet.

When it comes to conventions/workshops/panels/etc?

Don't be a dick.

(As Wil Wheaton so kindly puts it.)

I've heard convention horror stories (and been in a few) and I guess the thing to come away with is you don't always know who people are or what they're going to accomplish.

Burning bridges before they've had a chance to be built is foolish. Snubbing someone because they don't have an agent or are still working on their first manuscript can very easily come back to bite you in the ass months or years later.

And people can have long memories.

That being said, the truth of most conventions is that despite all the panels and workshops you attend or are

on, the majority of the networking getting done is at the bar.

I know plenty of people on budgets who crash conventions on a regular basis and simply set up shop at a table.

Doesn't mean they're drinking non-stop (although some do, perhaps) but the bar or lounge area is where people go for food or to work or unwind. Guards get dropped and all of a sudden you're talking to creative types about all sorts of topics. (A note of caution, however - gossip can run rampant. Be careful of the information you're sharing and who you're sharing it with. A half-heard comment can be on Twitter in a matter of seconds, so be mindful of that.)

I've discovered a host of kindred spirits at cons who ended up being crit partners, beta readers, editors, project kickers and just friends...you name it. And in a business where contacts can be so very key to success, networking is an absolute must.

So does this mean you should ambush the editor you've been stalking and pitch?

Absolutely not.

But it *is* a chance for you to chat him or her up and get a feel for who they are and what they're looking for - and to help make an impression. That way if you're submitting to the slush pile later, you can mention that riveting conversation the two of you had about Dr. Who or ballet or dolphin love triangles.

Don't be afraid to say hi - you never know what might come of it. :)

A Writer’s Quick Guide to Attending Conventions

2013-06-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

Hey, it's Wednesday, and I should be posting, but as I considered the topic, I knew a writer pal of mine really had more experience and guidance on the topic to share, so I asked her if she would be my guest, and she accepted. So, kind readers, please welcome the amazing and wonderful and award-winning LUCY SNYDER. (check out her links, too!)

A Writer’s Quick Guide to Attending Conventions
A guest blog post by Lucy A. Snyder

Why should a writer attend a conference or convention?

There are a whole lot of reasons to go to a conference or convention. Many people go for fun as much as they do for business. It really depends on where you are in your writing career.

If you’re new to publishing, you might want to focus on conventions like Context that offer a strong writing track and the chance to talk to small- and medium-press editors, who are often more receptive to new writers’ work. Steer clear of conventions that mainly focus on costuming or media; they can be fun, but they’re not so good for networking. Look for conventions that offer publisher-sponsored parties, teas, and other events. They are prime opportunities to get to know people in the business.

If you have been selling short stories and have just finished a novel, look for conventions that offer the opportunity to pitch to book editors and reputable literary agents. While you can make good contacts at regional conventions, be wary of the agents featured at smaller conferences. Some convention organizers don't do a good job of distinguishing between genuine professional agents and well-intentioned amateurs (or worse, scam artists).

And if you’re a working writer, you’ll probably be looking for larger conventions that offer the best networking opportunities with editors and other writers as well as a chance to expose new readers to your work.

How do you make a good impression at a convention?

First, focus on the fundamentals. Smile. Be pleasant. Make sure you and your clothes are clean and in good condition. Get some sleep. Don't emit a strong odor, be it bad breath or expensive cologne.

Wear the kind of clothes the other pros will be wearing. This will be business attire at most romance conferences, business or dressy casual at literary conferences, but it can be a casual shirt and jeans at an SF or horror convention.

Carry some attractive business cards, but keep them in your pocket until a new acquaintance asks how he or she can contact you. Be yourself and have fun, but don't show up for your pitch session wearing your entry for the costume contest (especially if you're going as Barney the Dinosaur).

If you've chosen writing as a profession or avocation, the chances are high that you're an introvert. Shy, even. Maybe the thought of going up to strangers fills you with anything from dread to panic.

Take a deep breath. Calm down. Networking isn't that bad, and like most other things, it's a learnable skill. All those editors and writers and agents you want to meet? Many of them are introverts, too. And while they're doing business, they're pretending to be extroverts, with varying degrees of success. (So keep this in mind if people seem weird. They're probably just trying too hard.)

Once you've pushed yourself past your comfort zone, your sense of social depth perception can suffer, and it's easy to inadvertently come on too strong and annoy the person you're talking to. Be mindful of personal space and avoid off-color remarks and jokes. Your risk of making a bad impression increases a thousand percent if you're drunk or flying high on your third Red Bull, so when you're in the bar and you want to do business, it's best to stick to tea or soda.

But by all means, if the editor's glass is dry and she's looking longingly at the martini menu, offer to buy her a drink.

Don't pitch your book at people unless you're in an actual pitch session. You're not looking to corner an editor, you're looking for a conversation; if you're doing all the talking, you're probably doing it wrong.

The best way to be interesting is to be interested. Ask the editor about her ongoing projects (provided she didn't just discuss them in detail at the Q&A panel you skipped out on). But don't make her feel she’s being grilled or being asked too-personal questions; the worst thing you can do is to come off as a potential stalker.

But if things go well, you can have talks that give you valuable information about who's looking to buy what (and who you perhaps shouldn't submit to). Furthermore, a good conversation with an editor or fellow author will make you feel energized and excited about your writing prospects. And the very best conversations may be the start of new lifelong friendships.

If you’re pitching a book to an agent or editor at a convention, what do you need to do?

Make sure you know the rules of the pitch session going in, and make sure you’re following those rules. If you find out who you’ll be pitching to ahead of tme, try to learn a little about the agent or editor and his or her tastes, and adjust your pitch accordingly.

Practice your pitch on friends, and prepare pitches of different lengths. For instance, it’s always good to be able to describe your project in 30 seconds or less, but you’ll also want an intermediate and longer pitch that you can use depending on the circumstances. And it doesn’t hurt to have a back-up pitch prepared in case the agent or editor says “I don’t think that project will work for us, but do you have anything else?”

Lucy A. Snyder is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novels Spellbent, Shotgun Sorceress, Switchblade Goddess, and the collections Sparks and Shadows, Chimeric Machines, and Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. Her writing has appeared in Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, Hellbound Hearts, Chiaroscuro, GUD, and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. For more about her, visit www.lucysnyder.com.

Workshops & Panels: Playing To The Room

2013-06-04T10:59:00.000-04:00

Now that we're in the throes of Cons & Retreats Season, you're likely finding yourself in one (or more) of three roles: Contributor/Panelist, Audience Member, and/or Volunteer.

Whenever possible, volunteer to help the organizers in someway. It increases your ROI and garners goodwill. If you're somewhat socially challenged like me, volunteering also eases the panic and awkwardness of the complete submersion in convention chaos. I like to volunteer to man the registration desk. Name + Face + Factoid = Easy way to start a conversation later.

Earlier this week, Jeffe & James offered suggestions for how to be an awesome moderator and panelist. My extensive experience as a ~~panelist~~, ~~moderator~~, ~~lecturer~~, ~~trainer,~~ seat-spud, qualifies me to offer suggestions based on being in the audience...usually holding up a wall in the back of the room.

Moderators: Three Most Appreciated Qualities of Managing Talent:

Minding the Time

"Dude, I like your novels, but shut your pie-hole already!"

Making sure every panelist speaks

"Carpe Diem, better yet, Capre Mic 'Em, chicka. Take that mic from him and contribute!"

Managing the question queue

"One question then back of the line, lady!"

Panelists: How To Be Positively Memorable

Brevity & Levity

Seriously, I cannot emphasize this enough. While your answers shouldn't be as short as a tweet, they aren't your next novel either. If "funny" isn't in your wheelhouse, then default to "engaging with kindness." Bored or berated is no fun for anyone.

Banter

Light banter among your peers goes a long way to draw in your audience. Bantering with the audience? Even better ... as long as you retain control of it. Don't be shy about including the moderator; they deserve a public nod of appreciation.

Share The Stage & A Story

Whatever you do, don't be THAT guy. The one who loves the sound of his own voice. The audience will pick up on the discomfort/resentment of your peers. The only thing you'll have gained is a reputation as a dickweed.

Workshop Leaders: Being Better Than A Webinar

Interaction

The semantics of Workshop versus Lecture are critical here. Don't talk at me. Don't read from the slides or your script. I can download that shit. Get out from behind the podium. Walk the room. Look at me. Listen to me. Engage me.

Personalization

Give me the value of being physically present. Be comfortable enough in your topic to be able to customize it to the people sitting before you. Thriller writers have different needs from erotica writers. A room full of biddies has different perspectives from twenty-somethings. If you succeed at interacting with your class, personalization is a natural extension of the flow of conversation.

Make Me Think

Please stop regurgitating crap found on the Web. I'm functionally literate and familiar with Google. I'm in your class to learn something new, even if it just how to look at a common issue from a different perspective. There's a lot to be said for the Socratic method, so if you can spark a friendly debate -- DO IT. You'll have covered the first two points to workshop success with ease.

There you have my tips for leaders in a conference/retreat setting, dear readers. If you could give a Moderator, Panelist, or Workshop Leader one piece of advice, what would it be?

Five Reasons to be on a Panel.

2013-06-03T02:49:00.001-04:00

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with the following article. It is, in fact, a rendering of a character of mine, one Jonathan Crowley. It was done by Alan M. Clark, who, by the way, I met on a panel, so I guess along those lines it has something to do with this article, but mostly I'm posting the picture because I like it, and because Jeffe always has a really cool picture to post and I want to live up to her standards. In keeping with a separate conversation: Hey, Allison Pang: See? Not really all that handsome but for some reason he's popular with the girls....

The problem with following up behind Jeffe is that, damn it, she is often wise. Perhaps not always, but so far I’ve yet to see her be anything other than savvy.

So with that said, I will merely suggest you refer to her article regarding the fine art of moderating a panel.

I’ll cover something close but not quite the same. Here it is: Why you should attend panels. And just like Jeffe, I’ll give you five reasons.

Reason 1) If you are attending a panel as a panelist, it’s good exposure. You get to meet other writers, editors and creative folk, all of whom could well be significant contacts in your career. Okay, maybe not, but you never know. Example given, had I not run across Allison Pang at the World Fantasy Convention, I would not now be writing this article. I have made several friends and many valuable connections as a result of being on panels.

Reason 2) If you are attending a panel as a member of the audience, you might just learn something. Okay, arguably, you could do that ON the panel as well, but audience participation is a part of this equation. There is often, once you get past the sometimes inflated sense of importance from panelists (not all of them but all too often there’s at least one–and not always the panelists, I might add, sometimes the would be font of all knowledge is in the audience), a great deal of wisdom and knowledge available for your enlightenment.

Reason 3) Knowledge. A good deal of the panels at conventions, especially professional conventions, revolve around the market you are interested in and a lot of that knowledge is not anything easily quantifiable on paper. Put another way, sometimes the market information you can learn at conventions is substantially more valuable than you would find on the internet.

Reason 4) Exposure. No, not that sort where you bare your flesh in ways that are considered inappropriate. Either save that for the parties later, or, better still, keep yourself properly dressed and comport yourself like a professional. I mean a chance to get better known by people who might not know who you are or what work you’ve done. And as Jeffe pointed out previously, unless the panel is about you, and only you and your fine works, don’t feel the need to mention every book you’ve ever worked on fifteen times per discussion. But know this: the people who are attending panels are often the very same people who could potentially be reading your works. This is a chance to let them know about the person behind the books. It isn’t about you. It’s about the subject of the panel, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a part of the equation.

Reason 5: The Fun Factor. Seriously, panels are discussions about the very subjects we, as fans and writers, find fascinating. How could this not be fun? Unless someone is monopolizing the entire thing (and again, sometimes that someone is a panelist and sometimes that someone wishes to be a panelist or to show how much more he or she knows about the subject than all of the panelists combined), the conversations will be lively and the insights, anecdotes and tidbits of wisdom will fly.

I have, as a rule, always enjoyed being on panels. Mostly for reason five, but the others are valid too, at least in my humble opinion.

Five Tips for Being a Good Panel Moderator - and Why You Should Totally Do It

2013-06-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

Fire season has started in New Mexico. Alas.

Makes for riveting sunsets, however!

This week's topic of conversation around the bordello is "Workshops & Panels: Learning, Leading, or Volunteering."

It's timely for me because I'm off this week to two sets of writerly endeavors. Monday through Thursday, I'll be joining Word Whore Marcella Burnard and former Word Whore Laura Bickle for an internet- and phone-free retreat to a cabin in the wilderness of Ohio. (I'm assured there really is such a thing.)

After that, I'll be at the Lori Foster Reader & Author Get Together. Since that event is mainly for readers, there won't be any workshops or panels. More like games, parties and other social events.

Workshops (where a specific tool is taught) or panels (where a number of authors are clustered around a common theme and dish on it) are really within-industry events.

They're also the most fun events a writer gets to do, in my opinion.

Signings are rarely fun. For the less well-known authors, signings are about lonely tables and people darting past, trying not to meet your eye. For better-known authors, it's a marathon of person after person with little meaningful conversation possible. There seems to be little ground between these two. I blame physics.

Workshops are a kick. The drawback is that you have to get OTHER people to agree that you have something to teach. I'm really excited to be doing a workshop at the Fiction Writing in the Digital Age Conference in Las Vegas in October.

More than Wham, Bam, Thank-You M’am – Wooing the Female Reader, presented by Jeffe Kennedy

Over and over, statistics show that more women are reading fiction than men, particularly on e-Readers. With the overwhelming success of works like Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight, it bears examining just what female readers are looking for – and what they’re buying. This workshop will examine how romance can be used to both attract readers and illuminate characterization. Sexual attraction can both entice and ratchet up the overall tension of any plot. Jeffe Kennedy, award-winning author of numerous series of erotic romance and fantasy, will walk participants through examples from literature and movies, to illustrate what women really want from a story.

Not only does the topic amuse me - very Word-Whore worthy, yes? - but I'm really looking forward to the conversation on this one. I'm anticipating the workshop will attract a lot of writers with interesting things to say - and ideas I haven't thought of. That's one of the great side-benefits of giving a workshop - all the stuff YOU learn from it.

Which brings me to: panels.

Oh. My. God. A good panel is like intellectual sex. It's like sex with a few carefully selected people who resonate on exactly your same levels. In public. With an audience offering suggestions and tossing sex toys up on the stage.

Or, at least - what I imagine that would be like. *cough*

Seriously, panels are amazing. It's an opportunity to have a structured conversation with like minds and involve and audience. Of course, much depends on the moderator. It's up to the moderator to keep the input from the various panelists even. Nothing ruins a panel faster than that One Person who simply WILL NOT SHUT UP. They can lurk in the audience, too. You know the one - the person who "asks a question" that simply a poorly disguised monologue on everything they would have said, had they been on a panel. A good moderator watches for this behavior and has to be gently ruthless in squelching it. Think iron fist in the velvet glove.

Often it's easier, as a newer writer, to get on panels as a moderator. This is a GREAT opportunity because the audience will see you up there with the fancier authors and associate you with them. Plus it's a perfect opportunity to stalk those authors and make them be your friends. They'll be a little nervous about the panel, and so off-guard, and they'll see you Someone Official. Use this to your advantage. Do it any chance you get. But be a good moderator.

Tips for Being a Good Moderator

1. Be assertive.

Everyone in that room is counting on YOU to stop the One Person Who Will Natter On. It's not about you. Do it for the People.

2. It's not about you.

As a moderator, you are there to serve the panelists. Don't talk about your books or your work. If they come up naturally in conversation, fine, but keep your focus on showcasing the panelists and their work. Don't worry - you'll get plenty of reflected glory.

3. Do your research

Read a little bit of each of the panelist's work. This is super easy to do these days via Amazon and their online samples. Make lists of common themes. Email the panelists ahead of time and ask for input on the panel theme. Have a set of questions ready, but not too many. You'll be amazed how fast the time goes.

4. Be aware

Watch the audience and spread out whose questions you take. Note who's been waiting a long time to ask their burning question. Pay attention to the panelists and ask direct questions of the quiet ones.

5. Enjoy the conversation

As a moderator, this is your chance to get these writers to open up and talk about interesting things. Take advantage of this opportunity and have fun!

Equal Opportunity Rewarder

2013-06-01T00:30:00.000-04:00

When I was growing up, it was always impossible to get my Dad anything for his birthday or Christmas because if he wanted something, he bought it. I'm kinda the same way, probably as a result of being Head of the Household, earning all the money as a single mother for a long time, ever since I was widowed when the children were three and five.

Which is to say that I am very good at "rewarding" myself with virtually NO reason LOL. I don't tend to wait around for a significant event to happen. (Have I ever mentioned my lack of patience and inability to deal with delayed gratification?) I LOVE writing and the sheer act of creating my stories is a reward in and of itself in my head, fortunately for me...but - and Major SQUEE Warning - sometimes there's something that just makes me so happy and deserves special note (i.e. "reward") - and WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM recently made #26 on Amazon Paid Kindle Science Fiction Adventure Best Seller List. WHEE!!!!

So today I went out with my best friend and bought two rose bushes. I know, you really ought not to buy rose bushes in the middle of summer. I missed the bare root buying season though and for the past five years I've really regretted losing my rose garden, ever since selling the formerly family home. I adore my rented condo and I have this terrific little private patio...so, today, in direct honor of the Amazon excitement, I bought a Peace and an "I Don't Know What It Is My Friend Threw the Tag Away" but wow, it smells good. I have two requirements for roses - strong scent and a good stem, so I can have them in vases. Double Delight and Paradise are my favorites so maybe this coming bare root rose season, I'll add them to the mini garden. Roses and iris are the two flowers I can grow.

Other things I have rewarded myself with in the past are fabulous fashion earrings, like these vintage Elizabeth Taylor for Avon beauties from the

Cleopatra (movie) era....

And certain pieces of Lenox, like this Carousel Tiger that I craved for years. (Yes, yes as a matter of fact I do have a lot of dusty knickknacks in my house - did you have a point?)

So that's the story of me and rewards!

We Don't Need No Stinking Reward!

2013-05-31T12:01:00.001-04:00

Rewards? There were supposed to be rewards? Dammit. Now you tell me.

I'm only half joking. Culturally, there's that whole protestant work ethic at play that says the work itself is the reward. Or should be. Granted. I'm not protestant. And it dismays me, when I look around, to notice that I haven't actually allowed myself few meaningful rewards for meeting my goals.

It is true that I really enjoy writing - even when I'm angsting over how much I suck at it. Ask my CPs about that one. I can feel them rolling their eyes at me from here. The reward in the DOING for me is that writing was one of those things I'd always done. It hadn't occurred to me that it would ever be anything more than me telling myself fun stories. Getting to tell my fun stories to other people and actually get paid for it just tickles the heck out of me.

That said, material rewards are tough for me. Living on a boat means having to find somewhere to store said material reward. Preferably someplace where it won't be damaged by moisture or mildew or cats sharpening their claws on it. That means rewards, for me, have to be less tangible.

So I travel.

After my first book was published I got to go to LA to RT. I got to go to NYC for the first time. Now that I've turned in another book, I'm going to a writer's retreat for a week.

I love going places I've never been. I love exploring and trying things I haven't tried. I guess that my reward is experience.

Leggo my Lego...

2013-05-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

by Allison Pang

I'm a Lego-phile.

I wasn't always. We had them as kids...or really, my brother did. If I was lucky I got to dip into the bucket of loose pieces, but I never got a Lego kit of my own. Guess my parents figured it was a "boy thing" and never the twain shall meet.

And then I stopped caring and grew up or something.

Until a few years ago when I was buying Legos for my son and I realized they'd gone much farther than the basic castle/underwater/space kits of my youth.

Like...I knew there were Star Wars kits - I'd bought a few and helped my son put them together, but for whatever reason, the extended universe ships didn't really do much for me.

Until The Avengers came out and I realized they had Legos for them. And I went out and bought every

Avengers kit I could find.

Because I had to have Lego Loki. And Thor. And Captain America. And Hawkeye. And Black Widow. And Hulk.

*cough*

And you had to buy *all* the kits to get all the minifigs...and yeah. I have a problem.

A problem compounded a short while later when The Lord of the Rings kits came out. And then The Hobbit.

And I bought all of *those.* I'm awash in Lego elves and dwarves and orcs. And Gollum.

But here's the thing. Legos are mega expensive and putting them together can be time consuming, particularly the big ones. (Built the Millennium Falcon over Christmas and that one took way more time than I expected.) So I started only building them at writing milestones...or at periods of extremely high stress. (I'm not sure why - but something about using my hands in a productive way tends to calm me down. Plus when I'm done, I've got some really killer things to look at. Lately, I've been stressed out a lot.)

(And yes, I have all the Lego XBox games. Sue me. Lego Avengers comes out in October. I weep for it.)

Lots more pictures of the LotR sets here...

As writing rewards go, I guess it's a silly hobby, but that didn't stop me from picking up the Iron Man 3 sets this past weekend. Because, you know.

Lego Pepper Potts.

And I'd finished going through base edits of the newest manuscript.

But these are small rewards. The one I'm really waiting for is the Death Star.

But at $400 and nearly 4000 pieces it's a commitment I can't make just yet. Here's hoping I sell something worthy of it in the near future.

Is this really a job you want?

2013-05-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

HELP WANTED: AUTHOR. Available immediately.

Must be proficient with MS Word. Must be able to show highly developed skills in the area of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Must demonstrate an understanding of plot, character, world-building, dialogue, pacing, etc. Organizational finesse is a plus. Must be able to create large amounts of content on a daily basis. Must be able to develop and convey a unique "voice" for multiple characters.

Must capably transform visual scenery both distinctly and memorably into the written form. Must be highly creative. Must be familiar with genre tropes and aware of the current market trends. Must be predisposed to research activities, and possess the focus to stay on task, thereby avoiding the loss of countless days spent tracking a small fact that ultimately has no bearing on anything other than your personal fascination and curiosity.

Must be content to look at computer screen for indeterminable hours per day. Must be amenable to repeated rejection, and continue working, learning from mistakes, and maintaining a good attitude. Must be willing to work on a deadline. Must be agreeable to paying for own travel expenses to attend various industry conventions and talk in front of crowds on panels. Must be happy to pay for own promotional pieces such as bookmarks, postcards, signage for signings, blog tour packages and the occasional well-placed ad.

Compensation: There are no medical/dental/vision benefits to be had. No 401K unless you DIY. If published, actual pay is widely varied, might break down to mere pennies per hour, and often depends on factors such as: amount of advance, if any; breakdown of advance; royalties, if any. Agent fees may apply. **Achieving goal of being published is not a guarantee. However, if publishing is achieved, applicant may count on:

1.) having a lengthy editorial letter outlining specific and required changes.

2.) having the editorial mark-up leave you feeling completely incompetent with your own language. And,

3.) having reviewers mercilessly shred your work and question your competence as a human being.

Seriously.

Who in their right mind signs up for this?

("right mind" being the words to focus on)

But we as authors do sign up for this wild ride, blissfully and willingly ignorant of most of these underlying job-requirement truths. Oh, sure, we know the depressing facts are there, if we dare to look them up, but usually, we prefer to hide our eyes and let them spring upon us naturally, learning about/dealing with them in the unique order they come to us. We just want to write, and we are sometimes blind to all but this driving need to purge our words perfectly onto the page. Too soon, we are caught in the story's grip, writing, writing, writing...determined to finish, to sell--to be good enough--while doubting ourselves constantly because we work in that cubbyhole of an office, alone, except for that tiny doubting devil on our shoulder who won't stop whispering in our ear.

Like people who buy houses on fault lines and live in denial of ever being an earthquake statistic, we authors forge onward denying the unlikelihood of best-seller-dom, intrinsically believing we will make it, craving laurels for our stories, and all the while fearing the repercussions of sharing our wonderful words because opening ourselves to that criticism exposes our deepest vulnerability.

Demoralization sinks her claws into all of us. But like any super villain, she has one mortal enemy. *cue heroic theme music*

DETERMINATION

I sold 3 books to Juno/Pocket Books. When the contract for the 4th was looming, I contacted a few agents in the genre. I felt like I should make a modest attempt. I didn't try for the biggest, brightest agents, not the one I really wanted. I'd entered the published arena via the small-press door, so I didn't think a big name would be interested in me.

Two agents responded and in turn I sent them partials of other series/books I had, puzzled why they didn't ask to know about the series I had already going. I mean, I kinda had an implied contract in hand. Easy money to represent me then, right?

I got turned down.

BY BOTH

New-ish agents, growing their stable, turned down a writer with a contract in hand.

Demoralizing??? Can I get a "Hell yeah!"?

I couldn't beg them to take a cut of my money. WTF???

So, feeling I had nothing to lose, but determined to keep on fighting this fight, I contacted my Dream Agent. Yeah. The one from whom I already had no less than 8 rejection letters in my possession.

Crazy, right? Why would he bother saying yes now?

He asked me to send him the first 3 books. Happily, I did. At least he was considering it, yanno? He read them. He asked to see the manuscript for the 4th, understanding that in the meantime, I had to go ahead and sign the contract for the 4th in which he would not be representing me. Still, he consulted me on the fourth book.

Why yes, you did read that right.

Dream agent hadn't signed me on, and he still treated me like I was already in his stable. *Beaming and feeling special.*

Dream Agent did sign me and he represented me for two more contracts. He remains my agent and I adore his skills, and am ever-grateful that he took me on. So listen up, y'all: in the darkest moment of my demoralization, I stayed determined, and I ended up with my Dream Agent.

MORAL of the STORY:

DO NOT LET DEMORALIZATION MAKE YOU GIVE UP.

You ARE stronger than that.

Love Me, Damn You -- Coping with Demoralization

2013-05-28T10:21:00.002-04:00

How do I deal with demoralization as a writer?

~snort~ ~snicker~ ~rolls on floor~

Dear readers, last week I re-engaged in the great Agent Quest. Since this is not my first time into the foray, I find this week's topic a wee bit amusing. You see, my previous stories were shot down in great flaming blazes of form-rejections.

~clutches pearls~

~slaps back of hand to brow~

~nails couch landing~

The first time, I took rejection like a champ. I mean, hey, I have a lot of stories spinning through my head-space. I'll just write something else. Something different. I reminded myself the rejections weren't personal (as if any of these people knew me, psht). I pulled up a new doc and stared at the blank page one.

~blink, blink~

~drum, drum~

~spin, spin~

It occurred to me that maybe, just possibly, there was something "wrong" with the way I'd written my first story. I mean, I hadn't even scored a personalized rejection. No one said, "hey, your writing is great but the market's oversaturated with this genre. Sorry." So, analytical me took some classes. I worked on my craft. I learned I'd committed some fairly atrocious sins that were common among beginners. The second story I wrote committed ~~none~~ very few of those tell-tale crimes.

Nobody wanted Story Two.

Honestly, the second round of canned Hell-Nos was harder to accept. I'd done what I was supposed to. I'd honed my craft. It was, I felt, on par with works in print. Why didn't anybody want this story? Why couldn't I get a nibble? Thanks to the handful of professionals who taken the time to personalize their response, I learned what I'd done "wrong." What I viewed as the genre of my story was not what the professionals considered it. Sure, it had elements of Genre A, but it was far more like Genre B, a genre-pool in which they did not swim. When I submitted to folks of Genre B, they responded with "too much like Genre A, we don't want it."

~blink, blink~

~drum, drum~

~scowl, scowl~

Fine. Be that way. Since publishing is a game of hurry up and wait, I had written Stories Three and Four. This time, I made sure the stories fit within the tropes and expectations of a very specific genres. I chose Story Four to be the one to brave the Agent Quest again. How will it do? Too soon to tell.

I haven't gotten remotely close to the other potentially demoralizing trials of being an author -- 100 page editorial letters, scathing reviews, poor sales, dropped contracts, etc. I'd like to think I'll cope with them in the same way I deal with rejections.

Keep Learning. Keep Writing.

There is only so much within my control.

What about you, darling readers, how do you cope with discouragement?

How do I reward myself?

2013-05-27T23:03:00.002-04:00

I absolutely think an occasional reward is a must. I work hard at two jobs and now and then a treat is a nice way to remind myself that there's a reason for doing the Two-Job Tango. I mean aside from paying my bills and the roof over the head thing. Those are important, but at the end of the day we're supposed to cherish the little things, right?

Normally that means adding a little something to my office.

There are remarkably few distractions in my office. The windows are down and I stare at a wall without posters. No TV. No movies. I do have music, because I write better and think better to music. Also, on a few occasions, music has been directly responsible for making my mind run along the proper patterns to come up with new ideas that have then sold for money. Music has charms, indeed.

Normally what I buy is a few books. Now and then a DVD. On very rare occasions I'll get myself that office treat that has absolutely no purpose but to make me smile.

They are my reward for services rendered. In short, I feed my inner geek.

Here's how. Keep in mind that each of these is a novel sale, and that they are also inspiration.

Now and then, I like my toys.

Why It's Crucial for Writers to Reward Themselves

2013-05-26T12:11:00.001-04:00

This is my new wind sculpture.

It's by Lyman Whitaker, shown by the Wiford Gallery here in Santa Fe. This is the one we picked out in motion. That animation is a bit misleading, however, because the true movement is much smoother. One thing I love about this artist's sculptures is how effortlessly the pieces flow with the slightest breath of wind - almost as if they're moving on their own.

Magic.

I've wanted one of these sculptures for most of my life. Whitaker has been making them for 40 years and I've probably been looking at them nearly that long. We used to come down from Denver on spring break or long weekends, because my mother is an art nut. (I come by it honestly.) I remember being a little girl and staring up at the spinning sculptures in awe.

So, what happened is, I got my first advance check. Kensington sent the check for Book 1 (formerly called The Middle Princess, soon to be called something ELSE) of my Twelve Kingdoms series. This is not only my first check from them, for this trilogy - it's my first advance check EVER. Since my first professional publication in 1996, I've been paid for my work either upon completion or with royalties from sales. For those who don't know the business, and "advance" is shorthand for "advance against royalties." Kensington pays me ahead of time for the book that will eventually be published and will deduct my royalties from book sales from that money until I "earn out" the amount of the advance, at which point I get royalties.

It's a big step towards being Grown-Up Writer.

Those of you who follow my personal blog know I pre-spent some of this advance money when I bought my treadmill desk. I wanted to start off the new year on a healthy note, which has been working great. (At my lowest weight and body fat since early 2012, thank you very much!) When Agent Pam said she was sending my advance check (and made me tell her that she looked great in her new glasses first, which is another story), I realized that I intended to deposit the money and pay various bills with it.

Which seemed kind of wrong.

See, I've been working towards this moment - working pretty damn hard, in fact, what with the day job career, too - and it occurred to me that I should enjoy the reward. When I mentioned this idea on Twitter, a couple of people said that's the Christina Dodd Rule. She says every writer should spend his or her first advance check on something frivolous, in celebration. After all, it's a milestone event and should be treated as such. There will be plenty of opportunities later to pay bills.

So, that's what I did. Being my mother's daughter, I bought art.

Being a writer can involve long, tedious slogs of unrewarding work (see "since 1996" above). In fact, this week's topic is "How do you deal with writerly demoralization?" It's not an easy career - full of rejection and sometimes poor reviews and times when it seems Everyone Else's books are selling better than yours. There are long periods when nothing seems to happen at all. What keeps us going is hope and determination. The determination is the engine, but hope is the fuel.

Now, when I look out my studio window, I see the sculpture spinning - hope made manifest.

Did Someone Say Inner Voices?

2013-05-25T00:30:00.000-04:00

My heroes and heroines tend to be people of action, pretty much always in motion. They have thoughts, they do grow and change over the course of the novels, but there isn't much inner dialogue. Or at least not too much that gets shared with the audience or even with me, the Author LOL!

The Egyptian god Sobek in PRIESTESS OF THE NILE, for example, is grappling with the idea of being in love with a human woman and by extension having to care about the things that concern her, like Merys's younger sister. Sobek is a force of nature, keeping the Nile flowing smoothly, so it was fun to write about him trying to understand the emotions of another person. He was especially challenged to bring his attention down to the mundane daily issues of human life but because he loves Merys so much, he makes the effort. At one point he even takes on human guise to walk through her village and see the people and the place from her viewpoint. So there were bits and pieces of his thoughts in the book, but no long, extended self debate. In fact, he's trying to hide his thoughts from the goddess Isis.

In WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM, my main character Nick is supposed to be using the time he's on board the luxury space liner to think about the military tribunal he's going to be facing, and to figure out what he's going to do next. I'm afraid he does a lot of drinking before the disaster happens, some gambling occurs, a tour of the ship...he's really reluctant to sit for too long, revisiting the nightmares of his last mission. He consciously avoids that pain. Once the ship comes to grief, Nick is thrown into survival mode, and trying to save other people so his thoughts tend to be along the lines of How many people can I put on this lifeboat and Is that bulkhead going to give way before I get these two trapped children to safety? There are a few moments where he's wistfully contemplating what might have been if he and the heroine had met in a better place and time but....then another crisis hits. I guess that's just how I roll as an author.

Now Khenet, WARRIOR OF THE NILE (out in September), has a recurring dream in the novel. I always feel that my dreams are my own subconscious trying to tell me something important, especially when the dream is long and detailed, or especially vivid. All of which are aspects of Khenet's dream. Here's the way it usually begins for him:

He was walking up a small ridge, taking deep breaths of the fresh mountain air, inhaling the perfume of delicate white flowers that grew nowhere else but here. Soon he would be at the top of the rise and the village would be visible, safe in its snug valley. Only it had not been safe, had offered no shield for his people from the violent, bone breaking sickness brought one spring by a flock of migrating birds that had fallen from the sky, ill, dying. No matter how many times he had this damn dream, no matter how hard he tried, he could never control the sequence of events as they unfolded, the direst of nightmares, based on the most painful memories in his soul.

All he could do was walk through it until the last, bitter moment when he could force himself awake. Again.

Tugged along by the dream, he walked into the village, heading down the dusty central street. The road was empty, no merchants calling out their wares, no women gossiping, no children playing…only the buildings watched him, the windows like blank eyes, doors hanging open like silent screaming mouths. Even the pets and livestock had vanished in his dream. He knew the dead lay fallen behind the walls of their dwellings.

As he walked, unable to help himself, Khenet stared around longingly. The village itself was always unchanged, just as it had looked the day he’d hiked out, untouched by the disease, sent by his father, the village headman, on a useless journey to the provincial capital to plead for help. Oh, Nat-re-Akhte’s grandfather the nomarch had sent help – he was a good provincial ruler – but the assistance had arrived much too late to do anything but bury the dead.

His family’s modest house stood at this end of the road.

The only good part about this dream was that he never got that far, never had to open the door and see what had happened to his parents, his brothers and sisters.

Because now the worst portion of the dream was going to begin, as it always did....

So that's about as inner monologue-y as I ever get...

(You can find out more about WARRIOR on my web page and it is up for pre-order...but I'm afraid you won't be able to see how the dream turns out until September 16th!)

(Photo at the top of the blog post from SXC by ba1969, photo directly above is from the Author)

All's Fair in the Name of Conflict

2013-05-24T11:54:00.000-04:00

In a perfect world, which my novels are supposed to be, I guess, since I'm creating them - internal monologue is reserved for secrets my POV characters don't want to divulge. My strong preference is for short, to the point thoughts that subsequently show on said character's face. Ari, from my first book, Enemy Within, did a pretty good job with that - internal monologue that was focused and specific and usually about something she didn't want anyone else in the universe to know. Most of the time that worked out for her. She managed to hide all kinds of hurtful things from her family. But then the hero came along and could guess she was keeping secrets that he subsequently took great joy in prying out of her. Her family eventually got the full story, too, because secrets kept mean the character isn't learning her lessons.

In that story, anything Ari thought was worth saying or it worth hiding. If she thought something, it was my job to push for her to say it aloud. I needed a compelling reason to keep it shut up inside her head. I've tried to keep that criteria in mind for every subsequent story and character. Some of them cooperate more than others.

In the book I just turned in to my editor, the heroine has abandonment issues. As a result, she doesn't engage with other people much. It's too threatening. That puts her in her head a bunch. I'm hoping the thing that keeps that from being hopelessly self-indulgent is that she ends up with an internal eavesdropper - a passenger sharing headspace. It was an odd balance to attempt to strike - her wanting to keep secrets, but being stuck with no place to hide them. At that point, why shouldn't every thought that comes into her head come out her mouth? I guess when the editor reads the book, I'll know whether or not I came anywhere near getting it right.

I don't hate internal monologue in any way. I think it's necessary in moderation. For me, it should serve two purposes: 1. It should tell me something I don't already know about the character and 2. It should reveal a goal, a secret or a wound. But for the story to move forward, those internal bits of information can rarely stay internal. Unless you're writing tragedy.

Most of our stories deal with character arc, yes? Our characters change and grow in order to overcome the story conflict. Or die trying. No one wants to change. We generally have to be forced into it. You know the old saw "When the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing, you'll change."

Internal monologue that remains internal creates no stakes. There's nothing at risk. With nothing at risk, there is no impetuous to change.

So somehow, that internal has to be forced to the surface via word or deed. And then, there's some argument to say why not do away with the internal and focus on word and deed? Eh. If the internal monologue heightens tension, all's fair in the name of story conflict.

Me, Myself & I

2013-05-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

by Allison Pang

I'm going to split this topic up a bit - since I'm writing both novels and an online comic, I find I treat inner monologues differently depending on what I'm writing for.

And yeah, I just had to take a shot at Hamlet there - because let's face it, a soliloquy is just an internal monologue spoken aloud. (But only because actors haven't evolved to think their angst at the crowd yet.)

However, whereas a soliloquy is often necessary in a visual medium like a play or a movie, a writer still needs to be careful of how they use it.

Simply stating all the important facts and backstory to bring an audience up to speed might work for a live audience - "I remember when my shiftless, vagabond brother lost his sanity and his masculinity when he tripped over an overpass and fell into the open cage of a lion, pulled by a nearby passing circus...etc. etc."

But it also runs the risk of sounding contrived.

I tend to write in a fairly deep 1st PoV - so for the most part I try to keep things fairly organic. For A Brush of Darkness, I pretty much just drop the reader straight into the story. I don't explain a whole lot of what's going on because I'm telling the story through Abby's eyes. If she's unsure of something, she mentions it...but she can't explain what she doesn't know. And if she *does* know something - well, she doesn't always spend much time thinking about it.

(Some people liked this, some people didn't - I'm the first to admit it doesn't always work and there were some things I could have done better, but there it is.)

In the current WIP, it's all 1st person present - which means a lot of the inner dialogue is rather free-form. We're getting Magpie's stream of consciousness in a lot of ways, but again - because it's in first, we're only getting information filtered through the grasp of her own experiences - but then, that's the beauty of writing, isn't it?

In a lot of ways it's like holding a mirror up to the character - but as a writer, I can either reflect back what I know is true about the character...or I can purposely flaw it - show the character as he/she sees herself - and then it's up to the reader to decide what's true or not.

(As a side note, I tend to avoid sentences like "I wondered about X." or "I felt Y." If you're already in deep 1st, that sort thing feels an awful lot like telling to me. Just write what the character wonders about directly.)

For Fox & Willow, I initially had NO internal dialogue at all. I'm a firm believer that with comics, the art is

what is needed to carry the majority of the story. I think that moving from the novel medium to a visual medium can be difficult for writers at first. After all, we're used to writing pages of expositions and description - but to write too much internal monologue becomes redundant in the extreme. Mentioning that your character is sad is a bit of a space waster if the character already LOOKS sad on the page, if that makes any sense.

Now, like I said - I had no internal dialogue at first. It looked okay on the script when I wrote it out, but I did decide to add a bit here and there once the pages were drawn up.

The page on the right was one of these - I wanted to convey that Willow was hungry and probably not thinking too clearly. (And was freaking cold and miserable.) Aimo was easily able to convey how Willow feels via the visuals, but again, giving just a nudge of information here or there was enough to bring it all together.

(As a medium, I'm still learning - sometimes less is more...but sometimes it's also too little. I'm hopefully getting better at it as I go.)

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