By Gayle Carline
Tomorrow I'm going to San Diego for the Southern California Writers' Conference, to spend a weekend with writers, talking about all things writing, from the craft to the business end of it. I will return on Monday feeling both energized and frustrated by being around other writers.
Some writers know how to get the most out of any writer's conference. They are a joy and I've made some great friends among them. Some writers still don't get it, no matter how many times you offer to show them the ropes. So, since they won't learn from positive example...
How To Have a Crappy Writer's Conference Experience
1. Attend with the only goal of getting your book published. I can't tell you the number of people who are convinced their novel is ready for publication by a major house and spend the entire weekend stalking every agent to get signed. Maybe it's a brilliant piece of work. Maybe it's a piece of something else. Doesn't matter. Here's some news: you send off a needy-creepy vibe that makes most agents turn and bolt out the door.
2. Don't talk to anyone the whole weekend. Yes, we writers can be shy, but if you are too tongue-tied, you will miss opportunities to network with other writers and possibly even publishers and agents. Put on your Big Girl/Boy pants and resolve, at each workshop, to walk up to a stranger and say, "Hi, my name is (blank). What do you write?"
3. Make your every conversation about YOUR book. Yes, we do talk about our work, within the context of problem solving and our craft, but if you are sitting with a table of others, wondering how you can turn the conversation back to your post-apocalyptic dinosaur thriller, well, knock it off. Invest yourself in the topic at hand, or find another table.
4. Spend all of your time in Read & Critique workshops. This particular conference offers all-day sessions of read and critique groups, and some people spend the whole weekend going from one R&C to another. If you're convinced your work is gold and want to read it aloud all day to an admiring audience, stand outside a Starbucks and give it a go. If, despite having at least one room of people tell you what is and isn't working in your first five pages, you're still not sure, one more of these sessions is not going to help you. Go back and study the craft of writing. Take some of THOSE workshops.
5. Be rigid and unwilling to learn anything. Some writers come with strong convictions, from their skill set is stronger than it is, to spelling/grammar aren't that important, all the way to self-publishing is the only way to do it or the mark of Satan. If no one can change your mind about anything, why are you attending a conference that is supposed to offer teaching?
6. Take yourself seriously. We work hard and we play hard. When we're not in workshops, talking about writing, we're in the bar talking about everything. I'm going to go out on a limb here and tell you that if you think we're a flippant and disrespectful group, you are going to have a hard time when your work is published and you start getting those one-star reviews. Learn to chill now, or your head will explode later.
I will be teaching two workshops. One will offer tools to writers who are unsure of how to correctly pace their work. The other is a discussion about what it takes to self-publish.
When I'm not teaching, you'll find me checking out some of the other workshops, learning something. Or I'll be at the bar, maybe hanging out with Drew Kaufman. If you are at the conference, come hang out with me. We have a lot of fun!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Dialogue in one-character scenes
By Jenny Hilborne
Author of mysteries & thrillers
I've got a dilemma.
Unless a character is talking to himself, how does an author add (meaningful) dialogue to a one-person scene? What about a one-person chapter (or three)? Should we invite another person into the scene for the purpose of avoiding an all-narrative chapter, or is that a cheap way out? Can a chapter work with no dialogue? I'm still pondering the question...
In my new project, a paranormal thriller set in a gritty area of San Francisco, my main character spends quite a bit of time alone, especially in the first few chapters. Or, at least, that's the way I intended to write it. Several sets of circumstances have thrust him into this situation, and I noticed by the end of the second chapter I had no dialogue. I remember learning at various writers conferences and workshops I've attended that dialogue is important. Without it, the chapter becomes a descriptive passage, which some may find boring. I'm also mindful of the 'show and not tell' rule.
Personally, I love dialogue, it's just that it didn't/doesn't belong in these two chapters: didn't/doesn't - I'm still wavering on the point. Unsure if a lack of dialogue would be an issue for readers, I went back and added some, with my character talking to himself. We all do it, so why not my character? Well, the problem is he's just killed a man, so he needs to stay hidden and quiet; therefore, he would not talk to himself - at least, not aloud.
I considered using internal dialogue, but struggled to carry it through two whole chapters. It's only thought and not real spoken conversation or a real interaction with another character. Stunned by what he's done, my main character's only thought is of escape - getting far away from the scene of the crime. So, I took it out and brought in a second character - someone who may or may not be linked to the killing. Even though I'm only three chapters in, the addition of a new character has changed the entire direction of the story and presented new challenges. This may be a good thing - I'm not yet sure.
The first two chapters include plenty of action and suspense. Why did he do it? Will he be caught? Who did he kill and how will he get away? As I re-read these chapters, I'm back to the question of whether the dialogue fits, or if it is even needed. I'm undecided. I've looked for other unique ways to bring in dialogue, but it's difficult to do without bringing in unnecessary characters.
I added a little bit of backstory and tried to bring in snippets of old conversations there, but it felt forced and didn't work for my first two chapters. The paranormal element to the story is not yet relevant, so I can't use that. My MC does not have a volleyball or any other imaginary friend with whom he can share a conversation. During a hot-foot pursuit, I had my MC bump into a stranger on the street, mostly for the sake of adding dialogue. It worked for this scene, but I'm going to have to find more unique ways to add dialogue in later one-character scenes.
I never realized how tough it is to write chapters with only one character. It's quite a challenge.
Authors: how do you handle one-character scenes/chapters?
Readers: do you need dialogue in every chapter?
Author of mysteries & thrillers
I've got a dilemma.
Unless a character is talking to himself, how does an author add (meaningful) dialogue to a one-person scene? What about a one-person chapter (or three)? Should we invite another person into the scene for the purpose of avoiding an all-narrative chapter, or is that a cheap way out? Can a chapter work with no dialogue? I'm still pondering the question...
In my new project, a paranormal thriller set in a gritty area of San Francisco, my main character spends quite a bit of time alone, especially in the first few chapters. Or, at least, that's the way I intended to write it. Several sets of circumstances have thrust him into this situation, and I noticed by the end of the second chapter I had no dialogue. I remember learning at various writers conferences and workshops I've attended that dialogue is important. Without it, the chapter becomes a descriptive passage, which some may find boring. I'm also mindful of the 'show and not tell' rule.
Personally, I love dialogue, it's just that it didn't/doesn't belong in these two chapters: didn't/doesn't - I'm still wavering on the point. Unsure if a lack of dialogue would be an issue for readers, I went back and added some, with my character talking to himself. We all do it, so why not my character? Well, the problem is he's just killed a man, so he needs to stay hidden and quiet; therefore, he would not talk to himself - at least, not aloud.
I considered using internal dialogue, but struggled to carry it through two whole chapters. It's only thought and not real spoken conversation or a real interaction with another character. Stunned by what he's done, my main character's only thought is of escape - getting far away from the scene of the crime. So, I took it out and brought in a second character - someone who may or may not be linked to the killing. Even though I'm only three chapters in, the addition of a new character has changed the entire direction of the story and presented new challenges. This may be a good thing - I'm not yet sure.
The first two chapters include plenty of action and suspense. Why did he do it? Will he be caught? Who did he kill and how will he get away? As I re-read these chapters, I'm back to the question of whether the dialogue fits, or if it is even needed. I'm undecided. I've looked for other unique ways to bring in dialogue, but it's difficult to do without bringing in unnecessary characters.
I added a little bit of backstory and tried to bring in snippets of old conversations there, but it felt forced and didn't work for my first two chapters. The paranormal element to the story is not yet relevant, so I can't use that. My MC does not have a volleyball or any other imaginary friend with whom he can share a conversation. During a hot-foot pursuit, I had my MC bump into a stranger on the street, mostly for the sake of adding dialogue. It worked for this scene, but I'm going to have to find more unique ways to add dialogue in later one-character scenes.
I never realized how tough it is to write chapters with only one character. It's quite a challenge.
Authors: how do you handle one-character scenes/chapters?
Readers: do you need dialogue in every chapter?
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Boxing Scene=Sex Scene
by Tom Schreck
I like what Stephen King has to say about symbolism, foreshadowing and that kind of stuff. In On Writing he says that you shouldn’t go for it in story telling but if it evolves and you pick it up as you edit it can be a real bonus.
Planting symbolism usually comes out as forced and when it becomes obvious the power of it is sapped.
In my GETTING DUNN I wrote a scene in which a male (Duffy) and female (TJ) box. As I wrote the sparring scene I realized it began to read like something else.
Let me know what you think.
“Let’s start slow, kind of feel each other out,” he said. TJ nodded. Duffy threw a jab toward her face at about half speed and she blocked it. She countered, parrying off his punch and the speed surprised him. He blocked part of it but a part of her glove got a little bit of cheek.
“Whew, you got some speed,” he said.
He threw a double jab, this time taking the speed and power up a notch. His intensity increase told her he respected her skills and the uptick in power was his way of letting her know he respected whom he was in with.
She stepped inside his next jab and through a three-punch uppercut to his body. His abs were firm and she knew the punches didn’t take anything out of him. Still, getting inside him and scoring was a victory in and of itself. He spun to his left and tapped her with two jabs. He shot them to her face and she could tell he opened his hand to lessen the impact. She deflected most of the jabs, taking just a little leather on her cheek.
“Nice movement,” TJ said.
She moved toward him, hitched her left shoulder to feint a jab and drove a straight right down the middle of his guard. He went for the feint and it fooled him. The right landed harder than TJ expected. She felt his nose against her knuckles through the padding of the glove.
“Oooh sorry. I didn’t mean to–”
“Nice shot, you caught me.” Duffy said offering his glove to tap, the universal, nonverbal boxing language of affirmation. Immediately, TJ felt embarrassed and silly for apologizing. The last thing she wanted was to come out sounding girly.
“I need to work on the ropes. Can you pressure me a bit?” I wasn’t unusual for a fighter to work on strategy during sparring. Working on the ropes required advanced skills.
“Just throw at me,” he said.
TJ let go with combinations focusing on speed. She’d go jab right, jab, jab, right and finish off with a hook. Then she alternated going upstairs and to the body. Her rat-at-tat-tats to the body came lightening quick and when she ended it with a left to the head it caught him flush on the jaw line.
She heard him grunt and it let her know that her hook had something on it. He tightened his guard and lowered his crouch. TJ was breathing hard, really hard, from the work but she was loving every second of it. She mustered all she could and let go with another combination.
Duffy took three punches on his gloves. Her next right came down the middle but he was ready for her. He stepped into the punch, hooked his upper arm around it and trapped it. Then, he turned TJ so that she was the one against the ropes.
The move caught her by surprise and it almost took her breath away. Her face was planted on his chest and she needed to breath deeply to get her wind. Her arms, needing to balance the rest of her, wrapped around his waist, forcing her even closer to him. Duffy leaned his weight into her and her back went in to the ropes. The ropes stretched and bent with the force of the two bodies.
It was some advanced movement and it was clear this guy knew what he was doing. TJ felt his weight, his hard upper body pressed against hers and she knew he had her tied up. It was both an offensive and defensive move at the same time.
She was breathing hard and took the clinch to rest as fighters often do. She let Duffy support her as she leaned back into him. He was warm, almost hot, from the work and so was she. Her breathing didn’t come back as fast as she wanted it to and she realized she was not only winded but wet from the exertion.
After what seemed like a long moment she worked out of the clinch and they danced to the center of the ring. She threw a double jab without much steam and he caught both of them. The buzzer sounded and TJ was grateful for the rest.
Both of them were winded from the exertion.
“Hey, you really got something,” Duffy said.
“So do you,” TJ said with a heavy exhale.
They went at it again for two more rounds and had found that rhythm that fighters who work together for a long time find. They could challenge each other, they could make the other work and they could also slow things down to a comfortable pace and just move for the good of the movement.
TJ hadn’t had anything like this in a long time.
I like what Stephen King has to say about symbolism, foreshadowing and that kind of stuff. In On Writing he says that you shouldn’t go for it in story telling but if it evolves and you pick it up as you edit it can be a real bonus.
Planting symbolism usually comes out as forced and when it becomes obvious the power of it is sapped.
In my GETTING DUNN I wrote a scene in which a male (Duffy) and female (TJ) box. As I wrote the sparring scene I realized it began to read like something else.
Let me know what you think.
“Let’s start slow, kind of feel each other out,” he said. TJ nodded. Duffy threw a jab toward her face at about half speed and she blocked it. She countered, parrying off his punch and the speed surprised him. He blocked part of it but a part of her glove got a little bit of cheek.
“Whew, you got some speed,” he said.
He threw a double jab, this time taking the speed and power up a notch. His intensity increase told her he respected her skills and the uptick in power was his way of letting her know he respected whom he was in with.
She stepped inside his next jab and through a three-punch uppercut to his body. His abs were firm and she knew the punches didn’t take anything out of him. Still, getting inside him and scoring was a victory in and of itself. He spun to his left and tapped her with two jabs. He shot them to her face and she could tell he opened his hand to lessen the impact. She deflected most of the jabs, taking just a little leather on her cheek.
“Nice movement,” TJ said.
Working the corner
She moved toward him, hitched her left shoulder to feint a jab and drove a straight right down the middle of his guard. He went for the feint and it fooled him. The right landed harder than TJ expected. She felt his nose against her knuckles through the padding of the glove.
“Oooh sorry. I didn’t mean to–”
“Nice shot, you caught me.” Duffy said offering his glove to tap, the universal, nonverbal boxing language of affirmation. Immediately, TJ felt embarrassed and silly for apologizing. The last thing she wanted was to come out sounding girly.
“I need to work on the ropes. Can you pressure me a bit?” I wasn’t unusual for a fighter to work on strategy during sparring. Working on the ropes required advanced skills.
“Just throw at me,” he said.
TJ let go with combinations focusing on speed. She’d go jab right, jab, jab, right and finish off with a hook. Then she alternated going upstairs and to the body. Her rat-at-tat-tats to the body came lightening quick and when she ended it with a left to the head it caught him flush on the jaw line.
She heard him grunt and it let her know that her hook had something on it. He tightened his guard and lowered his crouch. TJ was breathing hard, really hard, from the work but she was loving every second of it. She mustered all she could and let go with another combination.
Duffy took three punches on his gloves. Her next right came down the middle but he was ready for her. He stepped into the punch, hooked his upper arm around it and trapped it. Then, he turned TJ so that she was the one against the ropes.
The move caught her by surprise and it almost took her breath away. Her face was planted on his chest and she needed to breath deeply to get her wind. Her arms, needing to balance the rest of her, wrapped around his waist, forcing her even closer to him. Duffy leaned his weight into her and her back went in to the ropes. The ropes stretched and bent with the force of the two bodies.
It was some advanced movement and it was clear this guy knew what he was doing. TJ felt his weight, his hard upper body pressed against hers and she knew he had her tied up. It was both an offensive and defensive move at the same time.
She was breathing hard and took the clinch to rest as fighters often do. She let Duffy support her as she leaned back into him. He was warm, almost hot, from the work and so was she. Her breathing didn’t come back as fast as she wanted it to and she realized she was not only winded but wet from the exertion.
After what seemed like a long moment she worked out of the clinch and they danced to the center of the ring. She threw a double jab without much steam and he caught both of them. The buzzer sounded and TJ was grateful for the rest.
Both of them were winded from the exertion.
“Hey, you really got something,” Duffy said.
“So do you,” TJ said with a heavy exhale.
They went at it again for two more rounds and had found that rhythm that fighters who work together for a long time find. They could challenge each other, they could make the other work and they could also slow things down to a comfortable pace and just move for the good of the movement.
TJ hadn’t had anything like this in a long time.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Research and Realism
I'm busy traveling today, so my two-time client and all-round great guy, thriller and horror writer Allan Leverone, is filling in here at CFC for me today. Take it away, Al!
- Jodie Renner, freelance editor and craft-of-fiction writer
RESEARCH & REALISM, by Allan Leverone
As a genre author, my goal is to immerse the reader in the story. I want you turning the pages late into the night, knowing you should put the book down and go to bed but unable to force yourself to do so. I want you so involved in my fictional world that if the phone rings, you don’t even want to take your nose out of the book for three seconds to check the caller ID.
That’s my goal. And without putting words in anyone else’s mouth (or on anyone else’s keyboard), I think it’s probably a pretty safe bet that’s the goal of everyone who writes fiction.
In other words, I want to achieve a measure of realism you will accept as a reader. Since I’m only expert in a small number of subjects (people who know me might suggest that number is zero), a certain percentage of my time as an author must be spent in research.
I hate research.
Let me clarify: I like learning new things but don’t enjoy doing research for research’s sake. When I’m writing, I would much rather be writing than researching. I want to learn enough about a subject to ensure that you, as a reader, are not forced out of the story by a lack of realism in the writing.
My new thriller, Parallax View, is set late in the Cold War, in 1987, and action takes place inside the Kremlin, as well as in East and West Germany and the United States. The plot revolves around a secret communique, written by Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, to be delivered to U.S. President Ronald Reagan by beautiful and clever CIA clandestine ops specialist Tracie Tanner. A shadowy cabal is determined to ensure that communique never reaches the White House, and the chase is on.
As I mentioned before, there aren’t many subjects on which I could be considered an expert. What few subjects there are do not include KGB operations. Or CIA operations, for that matter. I’ve never been to the Kremlin. Never met Mikhail Gorbachev, although most of a couple of chapters in PARALLAX VIEW is spent inside his head.
To prepare for writing the book, I could have immersed myself in research; the subjects were certainly fascinating enough. But doing so could have meant taking years to write this one novel, rather than months, with only a minimal net gain in realism, if that. The stark reality of being a genre author early in the 21st century is that taking years to write a single book is not economically feasible.
So what’s the solution?
God bless the Internet. Instead of studying scholarly tomes on the history and construction of the Kremlin, instead of spending thousands of dollars I can’t spare to fly to Moscow (although I would love to do so some day), I was able to go online and inside of an hour’s time spent on the right websites, gain sufficient knowledge to allow me to write scenes with (hopefully) enough realism to keep the reader immersed in Tracie Tanner’s and Mikhail Gorbachev’s world, rather than our own.
The same thing goes for Soviet sniper gear. Soviet cigarettes, televisions, monitoring equipment. All these things required research, which I was able to do online in significantly less time than it would have taken twenty or thirty years ago. And my editor, Jodie Renner, collaborated by keeping an eye out for any possible discrepancies for the time period of the novel.
Another example: Ramstein Air Base in West Germany. Never been there. If you served in the United States military during the mid-1980s and your tour of duty took you through Ramstein, you may not recognize the base from its appearance in PARALLAX VIEW.
But here’s the point: you’re reading fiction. Ramstein Air Base is going to look like what I need it to look like to advance the story. My goal as a writer is to draw you into the fictional world through steadily increasing tension, and through characters who live and breathe and become real to you. If you’re looking for a detailed historical account of the Cold War, you should probably look elsewhere. If you’re interested in a detailed description of U.S. military bases in Europe during the Reagan years, you should probably look elsewhere.
But through the magic of the Internet, any writer can become well-enough versed in almost any subject to enable him or her to write compelling fiction. Because, after all, the cliché says authors should “write what you know.” With the web at your fingertips, you can now “know” almost anything.
That’s my opinion. What’s yours? Is it cutting corners to do all of your research online? Copping out? Are only ex-Soviet Red Army snipers capable of writing about Russian sniper activity?
- Jodie Renner, freelance editor and craft-of-fiction writer
As a genre author, my goal is to immerse the reader in the story. I want you turning the pages late into the night, knowing you should put the book down and go to bed but unable to force yourself to do so. I want you so involved in my fictional world that if the phone rings, you don’t even want to take your nose out of the book for three seconds to check the caller ID.
That’s my goal. And without putting words in anyone else’s mouth (or on anyone else’s keyboard), I think it’s probably a pretty safe bet that’s the goal of everyone who writes fiction.
In other words, I want to achieve a measure of realism you will accept as a reader. Since I’m only expert in a small number of subjects (people who know me might suggest that number is zero), a certain percentage of my time as an author must be spent in research.
I hate research.
Let me clarify: I like learning new things but don’t enjoy doing research for research’s sake. When I’m writing, I would much rather be writing than researching. I want to learn enough about a subject to ensure that you, as a reader, are not forced out of the story by a lack of realism in the writing.
My new thriller, Parallax View, is set late in the Cold War, in 1987, and action takes place inside the Kremlin, as well as in East and West Germany and the United States. The plot revolves around a secret communique, written by Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, to be delivered to U.S. President Ronald Reagan by beautiful and clever CIA clandestine ops specialist Tracie Tanner. A shadowy cabal is determined to ensure that communique never reaches the White House, and the chase is on.
As I mentioned before, there aren’t many subjects on which I could be considered an expert. What few subjects there are do not include KGB operations. Or CIA operations, for that matter. I’ve never been to the Kremlin. Never met Mikhail Gorbachev, although most of a couple of chapters in PARALLAX VIEW is spent inside his head.
To prepare for writing the book, I could have immersed myself in research; the subjects were certainly fascinating enough. But doing so could have meant taking years to write this one novel, rather than months, with only a minimal net gain in realism, if that. The stark reality of being a genre author early in the 21st century is that taking years to write a single book is not economically feasible.
So what’s the solution?
God bless the Internet. Instead of studying scholarly tomes on the history and construction of the Kremlin, instead of spending thousands of dollars I can’t spare to fly to Moscow (although I would love to do so some day), I was able to go online and inside of an hour’s time spent on the right websites, gain sufficient knowledge to allow me to write scenes with (hopefully) enough realism to keep the reader immersed in Tracie Tanner’s and Mikhail Gorbachev’s world, rather than our own.
The same thing goes for Soviet sniper gear. Soviet cigarettes, televisions, monitoring equipment. All these things required research, which I was able to do online in significantly less time than it would have taken twenty or thirty years ago. And my editor, Jodie Renner, collaborated by keeping an eye out for any possible discrepancies for the time period of the novel.
But here’s the point: you’re reading fiction. Ramstein Air Base is going to look like what I need it to look like to advance the story. My goal as a writer is to draw you into the fictional world through steadily increasing tension, and through characters who live and breathe and become real to you. If you’re looking for a detailed historical account of the Cold War, you should probably look elsewhere. If you’re interested in a detailed description of U.S. military bases in Europe during the Reagan years, you should probably look elsewhere.
But through the magic of the Internet, any writer can become well-enough versed in almost any subject to enable him or her to write compelling fiction. Because, after all, the cliché says authors should “write what you know.” With the web at your fingertips, you can now “know” almost anything.
That’s my opinion. What’s yours? Is it cutting corners to do all of your research online? Copping out? Are only ex-Soviet Red Army snipers capable of writing about Russian sniper activity?
Allan Leverone is the author of the Amazon Top-25 bestselling thriller, THE LONELY MILE, as well as four other novels, including the brand-new PARALLAX VIEW. He's an air traffic controller in the real world and lives with his family in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Connect on Facebook, Twitter @AllanLeverone, and at http://www.allanleverone.com/.
Click on these titles to go to Allan's novels on Amazon: Parallax View, Revenant, Paskagankee, The Lonely Mile, and Final Vector.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Guns - No Roses
I can't wink without screwing up one whole side of my face. That reason alone made me leery of ever shooting a gun. That whole aiming thing.
Even though I would never go on for pages and pages writing all sorts of fine details regarding weapons—because the only people likely to still be awake at the end would be those readers looking for an error—I still have an interest in developing a personal understanding of guns. Hand guns in particular. How to handle them. What recoil might really feel like. To help me be a better crime fiction writer. Plus I'm slightly competitive and targets are a good way to measure success.
A few years ago I attended Writer's Police Academy in Greensboro, North Carolina. One of my favorite take-aways was the FATS (Fire Arms Training Simulator) sessions I participated in. Though only air guns, I shot a Glock and a Sig-Sauer. And did a lot of yelling. "Drop your weapon! Now! Do it! Do it!" No one was rushing to sign me up as a ringer in a shooting competition, but I didn't embarrass myself either.
Since then, I've had a range date with my husband and completed a basic pistol course that included a little more time on the range. And now, since I can, I've decided to apply for a concealed carry permit.
Which is where the horse has stopped cold.
I appreciate that our county requirements are tough when it comes to allowing people to carry concealed weapons. I think it's a fine thing that drug addicts, alcoholics, convicted felons, fugitives from justice (yes, they actually ask that question on the form) are routinely denied the right to hide a weapon on their person.
But trying to provide them satisfactory proof that I have lived in the house I've lived in since 1985 wasn't the slam-dunk I thought it would be.
The only acceptable proof is one of the following three things: a "current utility bill with the applicant's name and address" (this is the preferred proof); "current lease or rental agreement"; or a "notarized statement from the owner verifying the applicant's residency if the property listed as the applicant's residence is owned by another party." Technically speaking, I can't provide any one of those things. Not one. The utility bills only reflect my husband's name. We don't rent. We both own the residence. No other proof of residency is acceptable. (For purposes of full disclosure, we're not 100% sure on the utility bill thing since they'd already been paid and we didn't have them laying around, and I have drawn up The Stupidest affidavit in all of history as a last resort.)
The state legislature is currently discussing a proposed bill that would allow people who've been convicted of less serious crimes to obtain a concealed carry permit.
It appears that it might soon be easier for a convict to carry a weapon than a wife. Planned, do you think?
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
How Much Should an e-book Cost?
It seems to be a question that has yet to find an answer,
with about as many theories as there are books.
Back in the days of paperbacks and hard covers (remember
those?) it seemed the price for a novel was pretty standard—they weren’t all
the same, but at least they hovered in the same neighborhood. Since the advent
of the e-book, however, it seems anything goes. The scale is frenetic, to say
the least, with prices falling on average anywhere between free and about $12.99.
As an author, I find it disconcerting, and as a reader, even
more so. While shopping for books, I often shake my head at some of the
prices—and I also wonder: what makes one book worth more than another? Amazon
tried to level the field by setting a fixed price for e-books, putting them all
at a reasonable $9.99, and even taking a loss on profits, but then legacy publishing fell into an uproar and put an end to it.
So now the question remains: what makes one book worth more than another? Should they be based on prior sales? The author’s reputation? If those
were the criteria, one might expect each book to be as good as the last, and
that’s simply seldom the case. How about the length of a book? More pages no
longer equate to more paper, but they still mean more work—should the author and
publisher be compensated accordingly?
Of course, I’m just throwing out variables here, and really,
I don’t know if there’s a reasonable answer. I suppose the logical theory from
an economic standpoint would be that a book is only worth as much as people are
willing to pay for it, but these days, even that answer seems a bit vague, because most readers have different standards on what they’re willing to pay.
Some base their price cap on how much they can afford, others on how much of a
risk they’re willing to take on a new author. Then there are those who set a
firm cutoff point and won’t go over a certain price no matter who the author
is. Yet another variable (as if there weren’t already enough) is the pricing on indie books vs. traditionally published ones. Some readers are still uncertain
about paying a higher price for the former.
But whether independent or mainstream, it seems authors and publishers are just as uncertain on the
matter. One might think that finding the magic price point were as complex as
charting a quantum theory. I decided to take an informal survey of Amazon’s top
12 bestsellers to illustrate my point. Here’s what I found:
1. Safe Haven (Nicholas Sparks): $6.64
2. American Sniper (Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen, Jim Defelice):
$8.99
3. Wait for Me (Elizabeth Naughton) .99
4. Crazy Little Thing ( Tracy Brogan) $3.99
5. Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn) $12.99
6. House of Evidence (Victor Ingolfsson) $4.99
7. Collide (Gail McHugh) $3.99
8. Hopeless (Colleen Hoover)
$3.99
9. Beautiful Creatures (Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl) $5.80
10. The Pain Scale (Tyler Ditts) $1.99
11. Alex Cross, Run (James Patterson) $12.74
12. Rush (Maya Banks) $7.99
See what I mean? All over the map.
I suppose prices will eventually settle once the market
does—or at least, I hope so—but in the meantime, what do you think? How much are you
willing to pay for an e-book, and how do you arrive at that decision?
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Lousy Book Covers ReBlogged
I genuinely do know that I'm a dreadful nag. In my first post here at CFC, I posted the second part of my discussion on book covers (Cover Design Calypso, Part II), which appeared here in November of 2011, and then reposted the first portion, which originally appeared on my own website, Cover Design Calypso, Part I, here on CFC during the Christmas holiday, I did indeed nag our gentle readers about the import of good cover art. In thinking about it (and in my happy treks around the Internet), I discovered a source that has become a daily stop for me, before I open my emails--it's called "Lousy Book Covers" (on tumblr) and it's the CakeWrecks of book covers. If you haven't discovered CakeWrecks, ("Where Professional Cakes Go Horribly, Hilariously Wrong") you don't know how to live, but suffice it to say: LousyBookCovers is worth a daily visit.
And it occurred to me, in my enjoyment of LBC, that I'd learned an old but valuable lesson: a picture is worth a thousand words. And thus, this week's nag is an urge for you to visit LousyBookCovers, and think to yourself: Would I ever pick up this book and flip through the pages?
Since Blogger won't allow you to reblog from Tumblr, and my understanding of the associated rights isn't quite thorough (Mr. Shumate pulls the images through his Amazon associates link, and I don't know how he manages to obtain only the cover images, sans Amazon text--I think it's a Tumblr thing, which is, after all, an images weblog site), here are some links to his Tumblr blog that I know reinforced my theories on "what NOT TO DO" when creating a cover:
Erotic Refugees: (captioned, "We don't want your kind here!")
Talon of the Raptor Clan (captioned: "I don't want to startle you, but you have an eagle where your hair should be."
Goat Suckin' --- Hotter Than It Sounds (captioned: "It would have to be, wouldn't it?")
Elfthade (captioned: "Words fail me.")
And,
If You Miss the Train Im [sic] On (captioned: "On the plus side, the unreadable font almost hides the fact that the apostrophe is missing")
Now, trust me when I tell you: there are plenty more. These aren't even the worst; they're just five examples of why you not only need Beta readers for your book (not to mention editors and critique groups!!), but for your cover design as well. Remember two things: if you enjoy LBC from now on, you have me to thank. (Okay, really, you have Nate Shumate to thank, the evil genius behind LousyBookCovers, but, hey, I am the one who toldja!). Secondly: when you look at your cover, close your eyes and just imagine: "can my cover end up on Lousy Book Covers?" If the answer is yes, or maybe: get working on that redesign! (if you're on a budget, don't forget our Super-Secret Budget Saving Tip from Cover Calypso 2: Check out Goonwrite.com, for high-quality pre-made covers.)
If you have a good amount of memory on your computer, click through and view Nate's "ARCHIVE," which will leave you gasping for air, because you'll either be crying or laughing so hard, you won't be able to breathe. If these don't make you laugh, you're clearly a cyborg designed by Cyberdyne systems, and they left out your humor module.
You've been warned! The posts are all in good fun--but an object lesson is to be had, as well.
Next time: actually, I have absolutely no idea.
###
Monday, February 4, 2013
Just an ordinary girl?
The Girl Next Door (Carter Ross Mystery #3) by Brad Parks (Minotaur hardcover, 13 March 2012).
Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.
Not unlike his creator, Carter Ross is smart, funny and irreverent. Not unlike his creation, Brad Parks was a journalist and has a quick wit.
Hopefully Mr. Parks is very much unlike his imaginary alter-ego in his tendency to get himself into trouble.
Carter Ross works for the fictional New Jersey Eagle-Examiner. In The Girl Next Door, he is reading the paper's obituaries looking for inspiration for an article, when he comes across one for a woman named Nancy Marino, who was struck by a car while crossing the street on her Eagle-Examiner delivery route, the victim of a random hit-and-run.
Ross initially pursues the story just to call attention to a "girl-next-door" type who makes ends meet working as a waitress and delivering the newspaper, and attends her wake in order to find out more about her, but stumbles upon a loud argument between two men, one of whom is the publisher of his own newspaper. Then, one of Nancy's sisters approaches Carter, telling him that Nancy was killed deliberately and asks him to investigate.
Carter doesn't agree, but he does begin to wonder if something is going on, and decides to continue on the story he originally intended to write, reasoning that if he does stumble across anything suspicious he can decide then.
He gets so involved in Nancy's story that he neglects his assignments (what reporter worth his salt wants to write a fluff piece about a bear wandering through the city?) which gets him in trouble with his editor. When he's conspicuously ordered to stop investigating Nancy Marino, he quits and continues on his own.
What Carter discovers is a lot more arcane and mercenary than he expected, and uncovering the truth nearly gets him killed as well.
I prefer to start series at the beginning, but since I was looking for books published in 2012 that might be eligible for certain awards, I broke my rule and began with this one. There were no problems understanding the plot, and Carter's backstory was filled in as necessary. I will likely read the first two books in the series when I can, because I liked Carter Ross and would like to get to know him better.
FTC Full Disclosure: I borrowed this book from my local library.
Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.
Not unlike his creator, Carter Ross is smart, funny and irreverent. Not unlike his creation, Brad Parks was a journalist and has a quick wit.
Hopefully Mr. Parks is very much unlike his imaginary alter-ego in his tendency to get himself into trouble.
Ross initially pursues the story just to call attention to a "girl-next-door" type who makes ends meet working as a waitress and delivering the newspaper, and attends her wake in order to find out more about her, but stumbles upon a loud argument between two men, one of whom is the publisher of his own newspaper. Then, one of Nancy's sisters approaches Carter, telling him that Nancy was killed deliberately and asks him to investigate.
Carter doesn't agree, but he does begin to wonder if something is going on, and decides to continue on the story he originally intended to write, reasoning that if he does stumble across anything suspicious he can decide then.
He gets so involved in Nancy's story that he neglects his assignments (what reporter worth his salt wants to write a fluff piece about a bear wandering through the city?) which gets him in trouble with his editor. When he's conspicuously ordered to stop investigating Nancy Marino, he quits and continues on his own.
What Carter discovers is a lot more arcane and mercenary than he expected, and uncovering the truth nearly gets him killed as well.
I prefer to start series at the beginning, but since I was looking for books published in 2012 that might be eligible for certain awards, I broke my rule and began with this one. There were no problems understanding the plot, and Carter's backstory was filled in as necessary. I will likely read the first two books in the series when I can, because I liked Carter Ross and would like to get to know him better.
FTC Full Disclosure: I borrowed this book from my local library.
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