New Kelly Adventure

Monday evening I was chatting with one of my editors, who is busy working on finishing several drafts of projects she has started before she delivers her third child in August, and she was nudging, okay more like nagging me, to write.  I tried the nudging part with her before to get her inspired to complete some projects but she tended to shut down and disappear for a while and not write much.  I guess I'm kind of the same way.  I went to the store Wednesday evening because I had the munchies and ran into a lady whom I met at the laundromat a few months ago and had given her daughter, age 10, a copy of Finally Home and we got to talking and I was told that her daughter really enjoyed it and kept telling her mom that she couldn't put it down until she had finished reading it.  So, that inspired me some and got me thinking more on the new story since I had a base for it from chatting with Lana.

So, since the state books are on hold for now and I tried putting the karma out to the kids for new stories for Kelly and Emma and that didn't work too well, I know I need to write something else, either a short story or another Kelly story.  I was looking over some story lines from previous winners of kids stories (the kids actually wrote the stories) on Mysterynet.com and some other information about writing mysteries that I had printed off. 

One of the pages I had printed off was a "Mystery Story Starter Ideas: DIY Guide for Children and Adults" by Marilisa Sachteleben.  One of the prompts is titled "The Book Seller's Enigma" and the prompt reads as:  "I hadn't remembered seeing the musty old book shop on that street before, but the old peddler bechoned me.  When I returned the next day with my brother, shop and shopkeeper had gone.  We asked an old-timer passing by.  "That shop?" he declared, "why it ain't been around for 50 years."  (Doesn't that just beckon you to write a story about the store, the shopkeeper or the something else mysterious about the contents of the bookstore?)

When I shared that prompt with Lana, before I actually could get the whole prompt typed into the chat window, she said I could write about a mysterious book from the bookstore.  I mulled it over a day or so, and have now come up with a second adventure for Kelly.  I don't know what I will call it yet, but I've written 2 pages so far and I feel I need to write a couple of pages before I even get to Kelly and Emma's conversation about the bookstore.  I feel I almost have to have an istant message between Kelly and Judy, Kelly's long-time, bestest friend who is blind and from whom Kelly had to move when they moved to the small town where she found the house that actually belonged to her father.  I will play around with it a bit and see what is working and hopefully I will have a new story soon.  When I get a bit further in to the story, I may start sharing some excerpts from the story and may even run a contest for the title of the story.  I will keep you all posted as I progress.  See you all in the postings - E :)

AFGHAN DRAWING:  Don't forget to leave a comment with a valid email to be contacted so that you can be entered in the drawing for the red, white and blue afghan drawing, which will be held around December 1 or so. 

Show Don't Tell

I recently finished a book about witches but was puzzled why the author defined things like athame and Book of Shadows instead of describing them.  The one thing I did take away from reading the book is that I need to do some research and bring out Kelly's powers more in future stories.  I need to know how to do certain things, like how to do Tarot readings and help her use her newfound witch powers for good.

I also decided that instead of saying "show don't tell" for stories, the new saying is "Describe don't Define."  As a children's author, we are told to not talk down to the readers and I felt like I was being talked down to by this author when she defined things instead of describing them.  I felt like she assumed we were stupid and not knowing of the things associated with witches and that is why she had to define them for us.  I think as a reader, I'm typically going to read things that interest me and that I do know something about or that I may be writing about.

I don't read sci-fi because it doesn't interest me; I'm not big on a romance but if there is romance in the story, I'm not turned off by it; I enjoy things like Suspense, Thrillers, Mysteries, some paranormal and children's genres.  I'm not into werewolves or vampires but enjoy good ghost stories and some witch stories.  If the witch story isn't evil and has an element of what true witches are, I'm okay with it. 

As far as showing goes, you want the reader to picture in their mind exactly what you are describing and how you see the object.  Witches' athames are different as are their familiars and Book of Shadows.  Some witches have psychic powers and some have the ability to read Tarot cards with accuracy.  Research what it is you want to use in your stories and describe for your readers but don't talk down to them. 

Think of a story you've read recently and if the author has described or defined things throughout.  Did you feel talked down to or that you were not knowing of the items in the story?  Did the author do a good job of making you see the objects in your mind?  Do you read a particular author more than others because they use a lot of description in their writings?  Leave a comment with your thoughts on the subject of "Describe don't Define."  -  See you all in the postings - E :)

This and That

23 years - that's how long ago I said "I do". Grant it, the last 8 or so years haven't really been like we've been together; just living under the same roof and have hardly said anything to each other, but it's okay. He did leave me a text message this morning saying "happy anniversary" so at least he hasn't forgotten.

On the sales note, nothing happened this week. I'm trying to get Heather to fix "Train of Clues" for the final time (I've been trying for months now to get it fixed and finalized but to no avail), so hopefully I can get it back on the market before the October events, and maybe even put it up as an ebook. I hope she isn't ignoring me because I really would like to get that project out of the way. I have 3 more ebooks I want to publish but need covers for them. Biggest thing is I can't afford to pay someone to do my covers or my illustrations right now. Until I see mega sales from the state series, and I mean like 1000 print-run per state, then I probably won't ever ba able to pay someone for doing the artwork. I hope that I see a big jump in sales at the Georgia COMO event the first week of October. With SELA being there and with me in their booth all day Thursday and most of Friday, I should see some orders coming in (that is 12 states represented in the association - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia). Me personally, I wouldn't consider Virginia and West Virginia as "southeastern states" but I'll be happy to have each state pick up the states already completed for their collection. If each county in each state would get one copy of the five titles available for their main branch, that would be 1025 copies per title to equal 5125 books. That would be well worth everything. I could continue with the series. But that is wishful/hopeful thinking on my part. It's hard to predict what will happen at any given event.

This week starts the Book-in-a-Week challenge and I've decided to participate but not officially. Their (see my posting from Friday about the BIW and the website to get more information) time starts Monday at 8 AM and ends the following Monday at 8 AM; officially my week will run from 12:01 Sunday AM to 11:59 Saturday night. I've decided to work on Imogene and have decided to make it a 2-month time frame to work on it. My goal is to write 3 pages a day for 20 or 21 pages a week over the course of 10 weeks (starting today, ending November 17, with the goal of having the story almost completed if not fully completed). I think setting goals of number of pages as opposed to number of words per day or week will not feel as frenzied as NaNo, and I'll be writing roughly the same amount of words as expected for NaNo over a longer period of time. This hopefully will let me get Imogene's story developed and written so I can achieve publication goal of next summer or fall. I'll post an update every week here (my "this and that" column) so that you all can see that I am on track or if I'm falling short of meeting my goals and you can all stop by and encourage me or give me a pep talk (I'll need plenty of that to get it done).

Off to work so I can work on my writing - see you all in the postings - E :)

Sisters in Crime and Domestic Violence

You may wonder how these two topics relate. If you are a mystery writer, it's always best to be as factual as possible with your details. What better way than to have experts come in and share information that you can use in your book.

Last week's guest speaker at our local Sisters in Crime meeting was the executive director of a local safe house for abused women and children. She presented information on domestic violence and some key notes on how to recognize the signs and symptoms of an abuser and victim. What came from the meeting was some very interesting information about domestic violence but in turn, several members in our local group revealed that they too had been victims of such violence.

The numbers are staggering and what was even more surprising is that South Carolina is at number 7th in the nation for domestic violence. According to our speaker, since she started working in the domestic violence arena, South Carolina has never been out of the top 10 states in reported domestic violence cases.

There are many reasons for domestic violence and many cases unreported each and every year. Being informed of the signs of an abuser and a victim should help get more cases reported, but unfortunately, it doesn't happen.

One person mentioned to me that there are four A's that are lethal to women: Acceptance, Approval, Affection, and Attention. When women strive to feel these from a man, they usually turn against them, because the abuser will use these as a way to wear down the victim's boundaries and cause her to lose sense of herself; she no lnoger exists as the person she was known to be but exists only for him.

I encourage everyone to get the facts and if they suspect abuse of someone they know that they take action and report it and hopefully prevent the death of that person.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not but our local chapter has some of the best meetings. We bring in guest speakers every month who have a lot to offer writers and readers. We've been told that fiction really should be as realistic as possible, so these speakers share their expertise which hopefully makes our stories more believable or plausible.

What the persons who secure the guest speakers usually do for our meetings is alternately bring in a professional in some field and an author, so the topics range from things like FBI agents, drug trafficking officers, arson inspectors, 911 operators, weapons experts, forensic psychologists, lawyers, K-9 units as well as writing related topics from the authors. In the four or so years I've been a member and attending meetings, we have had some excellent speakers. The line-up for the next few months include Maggie Toussant who blogs over on the Murder Must Advertise blog, and funny thing is just last week she posted a delightful posting about marketing, a topic that is near and dear to me. I think Maggie was surprised how many people actually read and commented on her posting. I think one author coming is the author of a book titled The Blue Virgin which is set in Oxford. It looks to be a fun and interesting year with the Greenville Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

If you are writer and have the opportunity to attend groups that are similar or offer professional guest speakers for minimal fees, I highly recommend you join the group. What can be better than getting free (depends on the venue; ours is the cost of dinner and gas since none of live very close to the meeting place, but even still for less than $20/month) advice on how to make your characters or stories more believable? Check out your local Sisters in Crime group and if there isn't one near you, get one started and seek out guest speakers who can really help you with different aspects of your mystery writing, or your writing in general.

See ou all in the postings - E :)

Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery

I've not talked much about this story but I think it's time to bring it out of the closet and get it published. This is the story I wrote for NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2008, although I didn't really write it during the month of November (I started late, about the middle of November and wrote through the middle of December, so it was still in that 30-day period that I wrote over 50,000 words on a novel; Finally Home came in at about 56,000 words.). I've already done some behind the scenes things like sending it out to several readers to get some feedback, and supplying Heather with info for cover and layout (although the ms is not in final draft yet). I also sent a copy of the document to my kindle to make notes and do some basic editing as well. So far I've received one person's comments back. Jess, who helps me sometimes during the summer with events, is reading but with her starting school this coming week, I'm afraid she won't have time to finish editing it. She did verbally give me some feedback this weekend, so I hope to at least get a partial back from her so that I can use the info to edit the story. Heather is working on a cover for Finally Home as we speak, but she too will be starting college soon and so I know her time will be limited as far as being able to work on my stories and all. I'm anxiously awaiting the cover so I can share with all of you. For more info on other stories previously published or in the works, please visit my website. I will be self-publishing and the book will be available in print via amazon, createspace and directly from me, as well as an ebook through smashwords, Kindle and Nook. I'm looking for a publication date of about the middle of October so that I will have copies on hand for events in November, namely the Savannah Children's book festival.

Stay tuned for some upcoming contests and giveaways with the release of Finally Home.

Five Reasons You're Not Writing Your Novel

5 Reasons You’re Not Writing Your Novel

This post was written by Jessica Stilling who also writes for pharmacy technician and medical assistant

So you’ve always wanted to be a writer. Maybe you got that fancy MFA, or you sit in your room during all hours of the night typing away, or maybe you fantasize about what it would be like to be a best selling author at your day job. Whatever the case, you know it’s time to write that novel and yet you’re waiting. Why? Here are a few reasons you might be waiting, and a few reasons why putting it off would be the worst mistake of your life.

#1. You don’t have time. Make time. Yes, you have a job, a family, a social life. There are bills to pay and a girlfriend to keep happy. You don’t need to give up your life, or your income, to write, just set aside some time. Wake up an hour earlier and write a few pages every day, set aside a few hours on the weekend when you would otherwise be breezing through an entire season of Dexter. Evaluate how you’re using your time and see where you might find room for writing.

#2. You’re not inspired. This is a problem and no, the solution is not simply get inspired. Though inspiration may seem like a magical force that comes and goes whenever it feels like it, there are ways to jumpstart creative juices. Sit and think for a while, go for a walk, sit on a park bench and listen and watch people. Maybe the inspiration for the heroine for your best seller is standing over by the hot dog vendor.

#3. Your head is not in the right place. Again, this solution is not so simple, you can’t just get your head in the right place to write a novel. Still, there are ways to evaluate where your head is and where it needs to be. Is your boyfriend being a pain, does your best friend need to cry on your shoulder about her latest break up? You don’t need to drop every emotional connection you have, on the contrary, those connections can feed creative juices, but you might want to re-evaluate where you’re spending your emotional energy.

#4. The Market. The market is bad, the market is flooded, the market doesn’t want this. Whatever the reason, the all mighty market seems to take a lot of blame for a lot of unwritten novels. What does the market have to do with your writing? Maybe by the time you finish this project the market will have turned around, maybe you’ll be the lucky one person who hits it big? And if not, so what? You’re writing a novel, not working for the market.

#5. You simply do not believe that you and/or your idea is good enough. Well that’s just silly. You’ve wanted to write since you were how old? You’ve been planning this novel at least in the abstract for how long? Of course you have talent, and of course your idea has merit and even if those publishers and agents tell you otherwise, don’t listen. Your ideas, your talent will grow as you write this novel.

Overall, you owe it to yourself, you owe it to your work and the greater literary society to write this novel. So go for it.