This and That

Sales were low for ebooks again - no sales across the board, but I did sell two books at the GA COMO event and as posted previously made contact with four distributors who will hopefully get my books in schools. I've received a response from createspace regarding how they can acquire my books and am ready to send the information on. The next month or so maybe I'll see a huge influx in my sales. I did sell 19 bookworms to one of the reps from Rainbow Books (the bikini colored ones which look like the rainbow colors) and then sold 16 or 17 others with two people buying a chance on the red, white and blue afghan. My presentation went okay; I had 2 ladies show up and found out that possibly my books are being talked about in one of the schools in Cobb County Georgia, which needs further investigation tomorrow. I am still in need of young writers writing questions for my Wednesday weekly postings, so teachers send in your students' questions and I'll do my best to answer them. If you are a class or writing club participating in NaNo and would like an author visit, please drop me a line and let me know so I can schedule all the class visits. If you are into zombies or just want some fun stuff for the month of October, stop over on Susanne Drazic's blog and sign up for her email notifications so you know when a new posting is made and leave a comment on her postings to be entered for some zombie related prizes. You never know when the zombies will show up. I wish I had a cover for "Zombies Amuck" and had it up for sale to participate in Susanne's zombie extravaganza but at this point I don't so maybe next year; and by then, she may do ghosts or werewolves or vampires or some other Halloween-y theme. We just have to wait and see. Time to get to work as I have been away from the work since Wednesday morning - see you all in the postings - E :)

This and That

The week has flown by but that's because I've been extremely busy with work, since my supervisor was supposed to be off all week and we had to do some of her work. It's all good though. "Train of Clues" (A Mystery Destination story) went on sale Friday both as an ebook and a print book. I haven't put it on smashwords or nook yet as my cover isn't the right size for nook, but it will get there. I did have an ebook sale already - woohooo - made all of 52 cents on that sale - lol. I also have an unreported sale from the week ending 09/22, a copy of "The Tulip Kiss" sold. I'm almost ready for the Georgia COMO event in that I've got all but one afghan completed but I'm not too worried about finishing it since I won't be taking my computer this week and can crochet Wednesday night while I'm chilling. I also need to make up some bookworms in the same color as the afghan and all the crocheting will be behind me. I'll have my tablet with me but that is mostly for taking credit cards and playing games while manning the SELA booth. But hopefully, I'll be so busy that I won't have to play games on the tablet (or read some books I'e recently acquired). I've printed out order forms for the librarians, offering them a 20-25% discount on all orders (some may be just under 20% but all titles are discounted). I've got my tote bag almost packed and ready to go. I'll do laundry tomorrow or Tuesday and pack my suitcase. The car is pretty much packed. Tablet and phone and kindle will be charged and ready to go. So I think I'm pretty close to being prepared. Don't forget that the chances for the red, white and blue afghan are still available through the end of November with the drawing to be held on December 1 and the winner receiving the afghan sometime during the second week of December. If you purchase any book, you get 5 chances for the drawing, so put your orders in now. Books make great gifts. Bookworms make great stocking stuffers and teacher gifts. My Curl Up With A Good Book afghans make excellent winter gifts as well. There are only 8 afghans available - Watercolor, Woodsy, Primary, Aspen, Mirage, Melonberry, Bonbon print, and Marrakesh. If you are wanting an afghan as a gift for someone special, please make sure to order early as I need a three week lead in time to get the yarn and crochet them. No orders will be taken after the end of October, so basically you have one month to place an order. See you all in the postings - have a great week. I may or may not post a WWYWWQ Wednesday but will past next Sunday about the event and everything else that I usually report on. See you all in Macon for the GA COMO - E :)

WWYWWQ #4 2012-13 SY

Last week's question was on onomatopoeia and how to "write them," which actually was a repeat from one of my very first WWYWWQ postings (see January 11, 2012, for the first posting and September 16, 2012, for the second one). Today's question is actually from a student in Mr. Hughes' 5th grade writing class. Last week we were working on paragraphing and when you start a new paragraph. The student, Rebecca S., was being shown by Mr. Hughes about where to put paragraphs and she had an onomatopoeia for an alarm clock. So the question actually is do you put onomatopoeia as separate paragraphs? My answer in this case is that since Beep. Beep. Beep. was a complete thought (she is basically making the alarm clock an animated object by expressing the sound it was making) that it would be a separate paragraph. Her sentence read something like this: (this is paraphrased as I don't have a copy of the paper to show where she should paragraph) It was a bright, sunny day in March. I was sleeping soundly. Beep. Beep. Beep. Stupid alarm clock waking me from a good sleep. In reality, each sentence (the Beep, beep, beeps are one sentence even though there are three of them but they are the same idea/concept) should be its own paragraph and should be written like this: It was a bright, sunny day in March. I was sleeping soundly. Beep. Beep. Beep. Stupid alarm clock waking me from a good sleep. I hope this clears things up. Have a great week, see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

WWYWWQ #3 2012-13 SY

This week's question actually comes from Mr. Hughes during his 4th grade writing class (we just finished in there a few minutes ago, which is why the lateness of this posting), and in reality, it was I who asked the question. So the question is this: How do you write onomatopoeia - italicize, all caps, in quotes? The answer isn't a straightforward one and there are different views on which is the right to use. The best answers I found were on this site. If you are using the sound word like someone is speaking it, it would go in quotes - like today being Talk Like A Pirate Day, you would hear a lot of "Arrrgggg" sounds. If you are just writing the sound words in the sentence, you would just write them and let the context speak for itself. If you are using onomatopoeia words at the beginning of the sentences, depending on the nature of the sound, all caps or italicized would be the correct way to do so. I start the story "The Proposal" with onomatopoeia - Ribbet. Ribbet. Ribbet. and in doing so, the words themselves are just italicized. If I were using "ribbet" in the sentence, I probably would have just written it something like this: The ribbeting was disturbing to Stella being in a fancy French restaurant and knowing they served frogs' legs. "No, they wouldn't kill the frogs on site," Stella thought as she tried to enjoy the company of her boyfriend, Henry. I think the biggest thing is to be consistent and make sure you stay true to your writing. If I were using a "power" onomatopoeia word like "pow", "pop" or some other very visual word at the beginning, I probably would capitalize and italicize. I would start my sentence with POW OR BAM or whatever word I was using. I think this is more for emphasis rather than trying to sway from the norm. Onomatopoeia are great for use in graphic novels or comic books but should be limited when writing prose because you don't want to turn your readers away. Use in moderation as with everything else. Hope this helps, Mr. Hughes. See you in class and remember I'm in need of questions for future postings, so keep them coming if you have them. This is an open invitation to all teachers who teach writing class in 3rd through 12th grades. Thanks - see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

This and That

The week has flown by but I've not accomplished that much. As far as sales go, nothing to report, no sales across the board again.

This is the last month in the third quarter of the year and looking at my projected sales (had to set my goals high at 500 for overall sales with 10 or 11 books published at this point) I'm very disappointed. Not counting my free days with "Bride-and-Seek", "The Tulip Kiss", or "The Proposal" (except when the 50% coupon was offered in July on smashwords), my sales have been less than 100 so far. Next month is the Georgia COMO conference and I really hope to see a major spike in the sales of books since there are 12 states represented in the SELA group with an overall county total of 1025. I'd love it if every state, each county bought at least one copy of each title I have available. That would make my year and would allow me to get more state stories published (i.e., pay Heather so she can keep doing covers and illustrations for the books).

I have been kind of slack this year as far as attending conferences and being out there but with no sales, no royalties, no money to speak of, it's hard to do all the conferences I would like to do. Conferences get costly - booth rental, travel time, hotel, gas (and the price seems to be hovering around $3.50 something/gallon in this area with higher amounts in different places), food, et cetera. I feel like I could be doing more but have to just take what I can get when I get it. So hopefully the librarians will do their part and order tons of books in October.

As far as my writing goal, that fell flat. I've become disinterested in my story, even after printing it off and reading it to refresh my memory of what I'd written. I still think the story is a good idea but getting Sarah Beth (Imogene's mother) from Washington state to China (still haven't decided which city to set this story in - Bangkok, Shanghai, or Beijing) is mostly personal thoughts, very little interaction between other characters. The interactions come once she is in China but even those are few and far between. This is definitely unfamiliar territory for me to write since I'm used to moving a story along with dialogue. If any of my readers out there have any suggestions or sites that will help me write a "quest/adventure type" story, please share. If anyone would like to brainstorm some ideas on how to move the story along, email me and we can get together on chat and try brainstorming the story so I can get it written.

Last item of business - tablets. Last week I posted a video "A day made of Glass by Corning" showing how Corning is developing glass products (we all know Corning is known for their cookware) that can be used everywhere - in the office, at home, schools, zoos, field trips, bus stops, et cetera. Some of the items they showed reminded me of the tablets that are out there in that they have similar features - can enlarge pictures, move things around, do reports, but what will happen to the tablets and computers in the future? The glass products are basically supposed to replace computers and tablets in such a way that we are wouldn't need our ancient computers and tablets any more. I can't do without my computer unless they find a way to integrate the actual feel of typing on the glass products - lol. That said, I love to type and my job and writing require it, so not sure I can totally give up my computer right now. Maybe one day.

Why do I mention this? About a month ago, I got a tablet - an Acer Iconia Tab 10.1. I mostly got it to use at events for my square device so I could take credit cards. I've been asked numerous times at events if I took credit cards but had to lose a sale because I didn't. Last summer I found about square and set up an account and got the device (with the hopes that I would eventually upgrade my phone to a smartphone of some sort still with straighttalk). I've used the square device a couple of times but both times on someone else's phone (once at the SCSLA and once at the SC Book Festival). Since I won't be places where other people have the devices needed for me to use my device, I decided that a tablet would be my best bet. The problem with the tablet is that unless I have some sort of data plan, I can't use it unless there is free wifi available in the places I am doing events. When I did the Mint Hill Sunday in the Park event, no wifi, so my tablet was useless not that it mattered anyway since I only sold one book that day.

There are pros and cons to my tablet but overall I do like it. The pros are that I can actually use my square on it; the con - I need portable internet service to use it outside of my wifi area. Pro - I can read a book from my kindle account on it with much more ease than on the kindle; the con - it's heavier than my kindle and makes reading in bed difficult. Pro - checking my email and accessing my web browser are faster than on my computer; con - I haven't figured out how to copy and paste things from my emails to websites like plurk so have to open my email on the computer when I post the DK Daily Teach newsletter items. Pro - you can download tons of apps (a lot of them for free); con - you get addicted to the games you download (my favorites so far have been spades (although I don't like the way the computer plays because nothing like interacting with real people when playing card games) and bubble blast). I've been through all the levels of bubble blast Halloween and bubble blast Holiday, now I'm working on the plain bubble blast (I'm up to pack 7, which means I've already been through 600 puzzles on the regular; 400 on each of the Halloween and Holiday packs). I found myself playing bubble blast until after 5:30 this morning and I was upset with myself since that meant I was going to bed in the wee hours of the morning and of course, that means I am so late getting going in the day. I guess I need to set limits on myself and stick to them.

See you all in the postings - have a great weak - and I'm still looking for teachers who teach writing to students grades 3 through 12 who would like to have their writing questions answered - so please pass the word and if you know of any teachers who fit this category, please have them contact me via email so I can get my WWYWWQ column going. I'm totally out of questions and know school has been back in session for a couple of weeks to a month in some places, so surely you teachers out there have students asking general writing questions that an author can answer for you. Thanks - E :)

WWYWWQ #2 2012-2013 SY

I don't have a question today but I thought I would share this video with you all and ask you if you think this si the future.



I especially like how the students and teachers are using the glass in the classroom and on field trips. What do you all think, is this the future? What will happen to computers? What will writers do or people who rely on typing for their jobs? Weigh in and let me know what you think. See you all in the postings - E :)

WWYWWQ #1 2012-2013 School Year

As many of you know, this past January, I started my Wednesdays Weekly Young Writers Writing Questions postings, trying to gather as many writing questions from the classes I've worked with in the first part of the school year and answer those questions on my blog. Some of the questions have required a little research and some have been general knowledge to most writers.

It's that time of year to get started on the WWYWWQ postings.

The first posting comes from one of Mr. Hughes' classes (he is teaching 4th, 5th and 6th grade writing classes this year) as well as a subsequent posting on my friend Faye Tollison's blog.

I'm sorry I don't remember which student asked the question or whether it was from the 4th, 5th or 6th grade, but credit does go to one of those classes for this question: How do you know when to end the story? or basically how long should a story be?

My answer to the class and students was - A writer ends the story when the story is finished. It could be 10 pages or 100, but only when the story is completed should you decide how long it will be. Ther are always exceptions to this but if you haven't answered the question posed by your story, then it isn't long enough or completed.

Ms. Faye poses on her blog the question of where a story should start - At the Beginning. Reading her posting, after the original student question had been posted, gave me the idea to combine the two.

Where exactly does a story start? According to most sources on the craft of writing, one never really starts at the very beginning as that is backstory - the story behind the story, building your characters up and breathing life int them. One should start in a crucial point in the story and weave all the backstory in throughout in bits and pieces as the story progresses.

An example from my own writing is Imogene: Innocense Lost. The backstory starts in 1945, the birth of Sarah Beth (Imogene's mother), at the very end of World War II. That isn't where my story starts though. My story actually starts in 1980 and then shows you what happened between 1970 and 1980, while finding out why 1945 is so crucial to the storyline as well. The premise for the story is that Sarah Beth (mother) and family, which includes Imogene, take a vacation to China (still have to decide which country in China or city to use specifically) in 1970. While there on vacation, Imogene is kidnapped. Sarah Beth and her husband search for a long time before finally returning home to the United States but make the trip over the 10 years searching for their lost daughter. Sarah Beth won't give up and at the 10 year mark, she makes her final trip, alone, leaving her husband and son at home in Washington to search for Imogene. The year 1980 is crucial to the story ecause in 1981, the United States passport laws changed. Imogene being 15 in 1980 makes it the last year for Sarah Beth to find her and get her out of China on the passport she has from their original trip since Imogene was only 5 at the time and was on her mother's passport. (In 1981, the government stated that all children would have their own passports with a guardian (parent or otherwise) signing them; and at the age of 15, they had their own passports with the child signing them.) So Sarah Beth has roots in China (the hint to 1945) and only finds out on this final trip in search for her daughter.

I don't start the story in 1945, rather June of 1980. As for how long it will be, there is no telling as I've only written 3 pages and a few scenes for a total of five pages so far. Nothing substantial except a killer hook paragraph.

This story is inspired by some pictures on this website (pictures 23 (this is link between Sarah Beth and her daughter), 38 (this is the start of the story) 10 (this just reminded me of a shop in China that carry things like mood enhancing powders or strength enhancements), 20 (this is the wall where the hidden city is), and 41 (this seemed like the fencing around the shopowner's home - and as the story progresses, you'll find out who the shopowner is)), and I even printed out the photos and pasted them on a sheet with a tentative outline. This story will be less dialogue than any of my oter stories as it is a personal quest and Sarah Beth has very little interaction with other folks. Truth be told, I don't really know if I have it in me to really write this story, but I'm going to try.

So where does your story start and how long should it be? Start at the turning point in the story and write until the question posed by the backstory has been answered and the story is completed.

More questions to come - ya'll keep on writing until you have completed the story. See you in the postings - Mrs. E :)

This and That

July is moving very slowly on my end or maybe it's moving fast but I don't realize it. It is only the 8th of July and i feel like I've already run a marathon and a half. I've watched some of the Olympic trials - swimming, track and gymnastics recently and am unsure what our chances for gold are going to be like at the Olympics this year. I guess I'll have to check them out this summer.

Sales are slow everywhere - 1 copy of Finally Home sold for kindle this week. A copy of "The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss" were "sold" on smashwords - given that they are being offered for free right now, no royalties on those.

No one has taken advantage of any of my special deals posted last week. For the month of July, I'm offering a 20% discount on my afghan/kindle sleeve or tablet sleeve/bookworm combo. I'm also going to continue my afghan drawing chances special through the end of the month - $1 each no matter how many you purchase and with each 25, you get an extra 5 chances for free. The smashowrds 1/2 price special is still available on Finally Home as well as the free purchases for both "The Tulip Kiss" and "The Proposal". Coupon code SSW50 is needed at checkout but that is also on the side bar to let you know to use that coupon code to take advantage of the special deal.

I've been steady busy working on completing afghans and bookworms (have to build my collection back up for the August event).

I've been very nonparticipatory in events this year so far. I do have at least three more, maybe four, but most of that will depend on my funds. If I do well with my sales and special offers (the afghan combos, et cetera), I will probably be participating in at least four events with two definitely already booked.

This week, I'll have a book review for Jo Linsdell's "Out and About at the Zoo" as part of her book tour, and look for a surprise posting either this week or next. I need to start working on my guest posts for the upcoming school year and get with all the teachers with whom I've Skyped to start the bal rolling for my WWYWWQ postings so that after Labor Day, I'll be ready. Mr. Hughes has indicated that if the district approved their proposal that I would be working with the fourth, fifth and sixth grade classes this coming fall, so it will be interesting to see where this goes. More on that later - hope you all are staying cool and have a productive week - E :)

WWYWWQ Hiatus

School is winding down and I've had a few really great questions from a couple of classes this year, considering this was a new feature to my blog in January. I hope you all have enjoyed the various WWYWWQ postings and have found my answers helpful in guiding you on your writing adventure. WWYWWQ will resume in September. I will try to gather more questions in August and start back with the WWYWWQ postings right after Labor Day. Think about your writing questions and ask your teacher to submit them to me. See you all in the fall - Mrs. E :)

This and That

First, Happy Mother's Day to all my readers who are mothers and hope your day is extra special. It's definitely spring as my allergies are acting up and I've had a hard time with the runny nose and itchy eyes; one reason I try to not to go outside too much.

Yesterday's welcome center event was pretty successful on several accounts. First, one of the folks there was a representative for a hotel in Greenville, which is the town where our local Sisters in Crimes group meets and he gave me contact information for the owner or person who books their meeting rooms. Hopefully we can get the room booked when we need to for months that we can't have the Runway Cafe without paying a fee to book the meeting room. What's even better is they have a restaurant on site.

I did make a sale of Finally HOme from my car to same representative for his niece when I was packing up some of my things (but that is a hush hush sale since we aren't technically supposed to sell anything at the welcome center secondary to it being a Federal Right of Way). When I got home I checked my kindle stats and noticed I had sold a copy of Finally Home.

That leads me into sales for the week. I sold 1 physical copy of Finally Home as noted above, 1 kindle copy of Finally Home and someone apparently ordered a print copy of Finally Home from Amazon as per my createspace accounting. I had a copy of "The Proposal" sell for kindle during the week and yesterday a copy of "The Tulip Kiss" sold in the UK - pretty good week for me - considering that I've not sold any copies of Finally Home since March at the SCASL conference.

All my ebooks are now available for all ereaders - nook, smashwords (which includes the Sony, Kobo, and computer files to read online), and kindle, except "Bride-and-Seek" as I'm waiting for Heather to get me a correctly sized cover for the nook and reformat the interior for smashwords. When Butterfly Halves is released, during my half a century celebration, I'll offer free downloads of several of the stories from smashwords. (My 50-day giveaway postings start June 5 and run through August 2, minus Sundays and holidays (but I may run a special giveaway for the 4th of July, after all, my JGDS series all about the United States, and what better giveaway than red/white/blue themed one.))

I hope to have at least 2 more afghans completed this week which will be available at the SC Book Festival next weekend. I'd like to have most of them completed, but I took some time away from them to work on a special order and with work and crazy things happening, I just haven't worked on the afghans steadily like I should have. If anyone wants to order an afghan that isn't completed yet (so far Bonbon print is the only completed one but Primary is half completed and Melonberry is started), I will be happy to complete that one before the others. Now is the time to start thinking ahead for presents for the holidays. Afghan orders can be made through my author website or the JGDS website under the gifts tab. Bookworms are still available in all colors and I'm still running my special of 25 bookworms for $30 through Thursday of this week.

Don't forget that chances for the red, white and blue granny square afghan are available throughout the year as well. These can be purchased on either website under the events or calendar of events tab.

This week coming up, tomorrow I'll talk about "website promotion versus book promotion, are they really that different?". Wednesday will be an open day as I've exhausted my WWYWWQ questions and didn't realize I had another week to go before taking a break. Thursday will be a pre-SC Book Festival posting. Saturday evening will be an update of the day's events and Sunday will be a 2-posting day as I'll post my This and That posting and then probably upon returning home after seeing what the event held as far as sales and what not goes. Hope you all have a great week. See you all in the postings - E :)

WWYWWQ #12

Today's questions come from Ms. Jurkowski's third class. These are the last two left as next week is a guest author posting and then school will be out shortly. I hope to gather some questions over the summer to start back in September after Labor Day for the WWYWWQ blogs again.

D.G. asks: How do you come up with so many books?

Answer: (I think I've addressed this before) The ideas are all around us. For me, it was winning second place on my first ever contest submitted piece of writing. That one story spurned on the idea of a state series, which obviously will be a 50-book series. All my short stories have come about from contests and have placed first, second, third, runner up or have been selected for an anthology. Finally Home came about from a vision and then after writing the original story, I did a complete rewrite. I'm in the process of writing a novel that was inspired by several pictures from an interactive creative writing prompt site; the trick will be tying all the pictures that spoke to me originally together in one story. The story won't be illustrated but I think I can describe the pictures well enough when they appear in the story. It's an illusion basically.

The object is to write something everyday and before you know it you too will have several or many books. Thanks for the question, D.G. and keep on writing.

The second question comes from D.J. D.J. asks: How do you plan your writing?

Answer: This goes to outlining or not outlining in my case. Writers are either planners or pantsers. By this, you can take an idea and storyboard or outline until you think you can write it or you can take the idea and just write what comes to mind. Having written several stories by the seat of my pants, the problem you tend to come up against is not developing the story or knowing your characters well enough to really write their story. On the other side of the coin, there are definite times you have to be a pantser such as when writing short stories for contests or anthologies. Most of these type of stories aren't afforded time to get to know your characters or the plot of the story. Since all of my short stories were written for contests, except the one that was selected to appear in an anthology, I basically was on the contest's deadlines and themes.

The story I'm working on now, Imogene: Innocence Lost, I've done a tentative outline from the pictures to help guide me from the pictures through the story. I also sent the sequence of events (which is what your outline basically is) to my editor so she knows how the story is supposed to progress.

For my state stories, I don't really outline but I don't really write them by the seat of my pants per se. The process for these stories is a little different. The whole idea behind the stories is to present facts in the form of clues for my readers and the characters to guess the state. So, the process goes like this: 1) Research - this is completed for all the state stories; 2) Clue picking - since I have my research completed, I have to go through all the factoids or trivia information and decide which 25 will be the most fun to read about and to write around; 3) Once clues are placed, I send to my editor and illustrator for a title to the story. Since the title is also a clue to the state, I tend to write the story around the clues and the title. This also gives my illustrator a heads up of what I want on the cover and helps her start working on the interior illustrations; 4) Place clues in an order that allows a bit of a challenge to the readers but aren't too difficult for those who are familiar with the state. Since the characters playing the game in the stories hardly go back to previous clues and all their "interactions" are based on the current given clue from the game, I don't want the clues to come across as too difficult or too easy right up front. I do try to progress from more difficult clues down to easy clues, so that the readers have a chance of guessing the state early on, somewhere in the middle or even as late as the last clue. The 25th clue will be something the state is known for, usually something everyone would think of that state immediately. The 26th clue is the state flower and geographic center of the state. The 27th clue is the state bird and state capital. 5) Write story - this can be the tricky part sometimes but for the most part, I just start off with some dialogue, which places my characters either at school, the park, the library, at home, or somewhere in their town, which is basically an Anywhere, USA. This is my jumping off point and once I've decided who is playing the game, sometimes I'll have them make small wagers to see who can guess the state first and sometimes they will just play the game. They discuss each clue as it is presented and move on. 6) Edit/revise - once the story is written, I go through it the first time to make sure it makes sense and then I send to my editor for her feedback so I can then revise and send back to her for all the final edits. 7) Publish story - once I've finished all my edits, I send the completed story to my illustrator who then places all the illustrations in the proper place and then she formats the book so that it is in the correct format for the printing process. Once I have those files back, I upload them on createspace.com and do my interior review and then wait to see if the book meets their specifications and then order a proof copy. Sometimes, if there are noticeable problems on the interior review, I let my illustrator know so she can fix them before I get to order the proof copy. Once I have the proof copy in hand and I've gone through it to make sure everything is as it is supposed to be, I then release the book so that it is available everywhere.

So, D.J., as you can see there are several ways to "plan" your writing, and the only advice I can give you is that you need to use the method that works for the story at hand as each story will be different for you. Some will require that you outline or write the key plot elements out, timelines, character maps, et cetera while others will be written to someone else's specifications and may not allow you the time to outline so you would basically have to write by the seat of your pants. Others still will mean you have to research first before taking a direction for the story to go. Keep writing and try different methods for different types of stories.

I would like to thank Mr. Hughes' sixth grade class and Ms. Jurkowski's third grade class for participating in my Wednesdays Weekly Young Writers Writing Questions. You all have provided some interesting questions along the way. Good luck in all your writing projects. Mrs. E :)

WWYWWQ #11

Today's question comes from J.H. in Ms. Jurkowski's third class. J.H. asks: How many pages are you allowed in a chapter book? How can you write a chapter book?

A: Well, J.H., when talking about lengths of books, we usually don't worry about how many chapters a book has, we base it more on the word count. If you are targeting early readers, 1st and 2nd grade, you want to keep your word count pretty low. Once the book has gone through layout, even if your book is only 500 words long (this is about 2 double-spaced, typed pages), you will see that for the proper amount of pages, there can be fewer words per page. We try to stay within our guidelines. Here is a breakdown of word lengths for various books and another one specifically for children's books

You will find that each source varies and that most of the time, the story length is determined by the type of story. My state stories could be considered chapter books for the most part, word count wise, as they are all about 4,000 to 10,000 words. Since I don't divide the story in chapters, they are basically short stories that are illustrated.

You may want to consider this eHow article on writing chapter books for more on deciding if you are going to write a chapter book or not.


As for your second question, how does one write a chapter book, same as other books you are writing. Making chapters in a book is really how the author feels about that book. I covered breaking your book into chapters on an earlier post here which was a question posed by a sixth grader in Utah.

It is very hard to take one aspect of writing any book and say this is the only way to do something. There are many elements involved in writing process that need to be taken into consideration. The main thing is to brainstorm what type of book you want to write, then get the basic story written and worry about chapters and word length during the editing and revising process. Remember that you should always have someone else edit your story (professional, not family or friends) before submitting for publication.

Hope this helps you in deciding if you want to write a chapter book or not. Thanks for the interesting question and allowing me to do what I enjoy best - research. Mrs. E :)

This and That

Updates for the week include no sales of any of the ebooks this past week. A teacher on my friends' list on plurk contacted me after I left a response on her posting regarding some ideas to get a student reading and setting commitments for his IEP (individualized education program). I made several suggestions including my state books; she has requested an order form, so now it is a matter of waiting to see what she does. I also sent her the file of one of the books so she can decide whether or not the class would benfit from the books or not. I hope she does as this might be incentive for me start working on the state stories again. I really need to concentrate on those for a bit, with the hopes of getting three written and whenever Heather is ready to work on them she can just do her thing and they will be ready for her. Of course, once they are written, I also have to get my editor back on track with editing as she has pretty much given up on her writing career and has been busy with other things. But it will happen.

One of my son's friends who is basically homeless but staying here for the most part (he stays at other friends' houses on the weekends and sometimes during the week but they all have school so hard to stay elsewhere) is in debt to me, so I told him he could work off his debt by doing some research for my wip - Imogene: Innocense Lost. Maybe he will have that research done by the end of May or middle of June so I can get back to writing that story as I really would like to get it published sometime the first of next year. I know, I know, we've all been told get the story written fist and then do research but there is a problem with writing this story that way. It is a dated story. By that I mean that there are key dates in the story and I have to make sure I don't write something that didn't exist or wouldn't be realistic for that time period (i.e., the story starts in June of 1980, the real story starts in 1970 and the backstory starts in June of 1945/September 1945). Obviously in 1980, I can't talk about booking flights to China via online methods (we were still typing on Selectric typewriters in 1980 and word processors were the new wave of technology then; cell phones were big and bulky and kept in cars mostly because they were too heavy to carry around, not like today's cell phones that fit in your pocket; computers existed but not in the form of laptops, netbooks, et cetera; Sony Walkmans were the thing of the day back then not iPods or MP3 players or whatever is out there today; we still listened to cassettes and even a few 8-track tapes still existed in 1980 as well as soem reel-to-reel tapes. In other words, a lot has changed from 1980 to 2012 and I want this story to have as realistic feel to it as possible.) I have several scenes or parts of scenes written as well as the first three pages. Once I have the research notes, I think I will have to sit down and do an outline and then start writing the story, which is something I've not done before with my writing simply because I write short stories. Most of time the stories were written for contests and there wasn't time to outline anything. When I wrote Finally Home, it was actually a total rewrite of a story and was written as a NaNo challenge for me (National Novel Writing Month which is from November 1 through November 30 with the object being to write 50,000 words of a novel, or a complete novel, in 30 days. These days, 50,000 words is considered a novella or a good start to a novel. Finally Home topped out at 56,000 words, and really wasn't written during the November 1 to November 30 timeframe; rather, I started about November 14 or 15 and ended December 14 or 15, so I did write it during a 30-day period and hit the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days, it didn't count for NaNo officially. I have a feeling that Immogene's story will end up being much longer than that and thus will need the outlining. I'll probably challenge myself to write it in 30 days again and shoot for about 75,000 to 90,000 words on that story, so we will see what comes of it once the research is done.

For my earth day bookworm giveaways, I sent 2 to Australia, 1 to England, 2 to Kuwait via Germany (these were purchases), and 12 out across the United States with 1 person refusing to accept her bookworm and 1 person winning 3 different times so in lieu of sending her 2 more of the same bookworms and the fact that she was purchasing 5 total, she got her choice of 3 bookworms and purchased 2 for Christmas presents (she had one a previous time for a different bookworm giveaway and had refused saying she was going to buy some anyway, so that is where the 3 of her choice came in). Overall, I think the giveaways worked because I wasn't just giving bookworms to commenters of this blog but on the Writers on the Move blog also. My birthday is coming up in just over a month and there will many giveaways during the 50 days from June 5 (my birthday) and August 2 (no giveaways on Sundays or holidays, although I may do a special one for the 4th of July but haven't decided yet since that date falls on a Wednesday this year) to include bookworms, chances for the red, white, blue afghan drawing to be held December 1, and maybe even books and other prizes. Watch for the announcement May 31 with the first giveaway occurring on June 5.

Coming up tomorrow is a posting on self-imposed deadlines (probably why I talked about writing Imogene on today's posting) and WWYWWQ. I haven't planned out Thursday's posting yet so not sure what the topic will be. See you all in the postings - E :)

WWYWWQ #10

Today's question comes from F.H. from Ms. Jurkowski's third grade class. F.H. asks: Why do you like to blog? How do you get your ideas? How many pages do you write?

Answer: Well, F.H., there is no right way to answer this question. I started blogging while my kids were in marching band as a way to keep my friends and family entertained and informed about what was going on with my life and the kids. Once I started entering contests and writing short stories, I needed to keep everyone apprised of what was happening with my writing, so I continued blogging. I originally attempted to post about once a month or randomly whenever I could or needed to blog. I started writing stories for publication and started blogging a little more often. Now that I've moved from a traditional publisher and am having to do all my own marketing, my own publishing and everything in between, I need to blog more often. This year I decided to move to scheduled blog postings on Mondays and Thursdays except the fourth week of the month when I would have guest bloggers on the blog, either via an interview or via an article. I added the WWYWWQ late in January to try to connect with the school side of things since I feel my books needed to be in the schools.

So to answer your question, I enjoy blogging as long as I have something to blog about. I'm starting to run out of ideas and have put several requests out there for ideas but no one has responded. I try to keep to my 2 actual blog postings and the WWYWWQ each week. I do random postings on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and try to do blog repostings of articles I like or think will benefit my readers to those days as well. Sundasy is reserved for my week in review week - keeping up with my sales and other happenings during the week and also as a way to let folks know what is coming up during the week.

Thanks for asking your question, F.H. Keep writing and keep the questions coming. Mrs. E :)

WWYWWQ #9

Today's question is from S.S. from Ms. Jurkowski's third grade class. S.S. asks: Is it hard being an author?

Answer: It is hard some days and easy others. The reason I say this is that being an author is more than just writing the books, which is the easy part. Once the story is written, the hard part starts, which includes editing, revising, rewriting and then getting your story cover and illustrations if it is an illustrated story, then publishing and marketing. Marketing is the hardest part of being an author because you have to really put yourself out there for the world to see. You have to do a lot of events whether it be a book festival, a conference or even getting into a bookstore and doing a book signing, and do a lot of online promotion.

My philosophy on this is if you really want something you will really work hard for it. I enjoy writing my books and therefore will continue putting in the time and hard work to maintain my status as an author.

Thanks for the great question, S.S. Keep writing, keep working hard and keep the questions coming. Mrs. E :)

WWYWWQ Break

WWYWWQ will resume next week and continue through the middle of May. I'm still looking to add more classes with writing questions for the fall. So if your class has any writing-related questions and would like an author to answer them, please send them to eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com with subject line WWYWWQ and in the body of email, please put something like: E.E. asks from teacher's name class asks: Question? (example: E.E. from Ms. Eldering's class asks how you would write onomatopeia, italics, all caps?) - That question was previously asked and answered so you can check back on previous WWYWWQs for that one. Thanks for stopping by and visiting me - Mrs. E :)

WWYWWQ #8

Today's question comes from A.C. in Ms. Jurkowski's class. A.C. asks: Why do you need to have a book published before you can sell it?

Answer: Now, some of you might think this is a no-brainer - you need a product to sell; something the people want, but honestly, it is a bit more complicated than that. As authors, we have to promote our books long before they are published and sometimes that means "pre-selling" our books. Amazon does it all the time, especially if it is listed as a coming soon title.

The selling of your books is monetary. The promoting of your books goes deeper. You need to have a near finished product to start the promotion process and sometimes we start promoting a year or more in advance. We have to get our covers out there so people will be anxious to get the book when it is finally published; we have to have websites and blogs in place several months to a year before hand so that we can talk about our wips (that's works in progress for you students) and keep the desire up. We want people ready to purchase our books as soon as they are published. Of course, the promotion doesn't stop once the book is published. There are events and other things that go into promoting a book.

Right now, I'm working on a piece (non-YA or children's novel) that I will start promoting probably around September of this year, depending on how my research goes and how the story goes. I have plans to publish it by February of 2013. That may not happen if I don't get my research done and write the story. I hope by October to have a cover to show off and start really promoting the story. I've mentioned it in passing on this blog but haven't really talked about it much. I would love to see more copies of my YA novel sell but again, I've been in a non-promoting mood since December. Since it is now the conference and book festival season, I am back to promoting my state stories and my YA novel, Finally Home.

In essence, A.C., an author is really selling her books before they are published by promoting them up to a year before publication. Sometimes a shorter period of time for promotion happens but usually by time you get a cover, an ARC (advanced reader's copy) and publishing the book, a good bit of time has passed.

Thanks for the thought provoking question, A.C., and ya'll keep on writing and sending in those questions. Mrs. E :)

WWYWWQ #7

Today's question comes from Mr. Hughes' class (I believe from many students, although it was just stated "they" want to know).

Parentheses

The question is when is it okay to use parentheses in writing?

A: Parentheses are used for asides, afterthoughts, series that are not listed down the page (in a paragraph), and a few other places.

This website has some great examples of when to use parenthesis and some very good advice about using them in a numbered or lettered series in a paragraph. Pick one of the examples that best matches your style of writing.

In my transcription job, the dictators are constantly listing series of items and they shouldn't be numbered down the page like this:

1. Whatever.
2. However.
3. Somewhere.

They are in need of staying in the paragraph. I usually type them like this: 1) whatever; 2) however; 3) somewhere.

This doesn't mean that this is the only way to do parentheses or that my way is better than your way, but definitely when listing a series of items you want to be consistent. If you use double parentheses (1), consistently do that throughout.

I can't think of an example right off hand in my writing where I've used parentheses but that doesn't mean I haven't; just that I can't think of somewhere I've done so.

The general rule of thumb is that what's inside the parentheses is basically nonessential "stuff" (yeah, Mr. Hughes' favorite writing word - lol) in the story and basically could be left out and the story would still be the same. I would recommend using them sparingly and try not to sidetrack your reader too often throughout the story. Of course, if you are writing something like historical fiction or using lots of references in your writing, then you will probably need more parentheses. If you want to keep the asides or afterthoughts, commas work just as well as parentheses do. Check out the website and see how many different ways you use parentheses in your writing.

Thanks for the question everyone and keep on writing. See you all in the postings (and for Mr. Hughes' students, I'll chat with you all in class) - Mrs. E :)

WWYWWQ #6

Today's question comes from C.Q. from Mrs. Jurkowski's class.

Q; If my story was about Valentine's Day, how should I start it?
A: Although this is a little late for the holiday, but it can go for any holiday themed story. Simple answer: As an author, I can only guide you in the craft of writing. I can't tell you how to specifically start your story.

Longer answer: It is recommended to start your story one of three ways, which was answered on a previous question - start in the middle of the story, start with action. Most of my stories start with dialogue. I drop the reader right into the middle of things. You basically want to give your reader a starting point to develop his or her own images about what the story is about as quickly as possible. Hook your reader.

Think of your story as a movie. When you watch a movie, the screenwriter has picked you up out of your chair and dropped into the action. That's what you should do with your story.

An example of just dropping the reader into the story is in my story Finally Home. My first page is pretty much dialogue. This is how it starts:

"I hate your job. I hate this car." Kelly grumbled in the back seat of the family station wagon. "Why do we even have to go to some stinking town in South Carolina anyway?"

"Kelly, that is no way to talk to your father." Mrs. Watson looked back at Kelly with a pleading look to apologize.

Kelly knew that look all too well, the one where her mother expected ...

From this, you can tell they are moving and are in the car. I've just put the reader right into the middle of it.

For more, please find the WWYWWQ posting that addresses the three ways to start a story. Thanks for your question, C.Q., and ya'll keep them coming - Mrs. E :)

WWYWWQ #5

Today's question comes from Mr. Hughes' student, L.M.

Question: Mrs. E, is it okay to make up words in your story?
(explained that her characters are calling other characters names and they were like combinations of words or jumbled words).

Answer: Absolutely. This is your story and you can make up words, especially if you are writing sci-fi or fantasy.

But be careful not to overload your story with made up words as your reader will get frustrated and stop reading because they can't pronounce the words in their head. So, yes do make up words for your story but limit the amount of made up words you are using.

In one of my stories, I didn't make up words but have used some foreign phrases (I know, not the same as making up words) since my story is set in France, but my readers shouldn't have a problem figuring out what the meaning of the phrases are based on content and they are pretty common phrases - Je'taime (I love you) and things like terms of endearment, Mon Cherie, ma cherie and a few other fitting phrases in the story.

Thanks for the question, L.M. and keep on writing - Mrs. E ;)