Museum-ing

So after my rant, I though you all deserved a public service announcement.

As mentioned here last week, I've been researching art history. Also as mentioned here last week, Chicago has a fine art institute, and every Thursday, between 5:00 and 9:00 p.m., admission is free. Fun, huh? Last night while I was watching the news, they mentioned said museum, the reason being that it is now the only art museum in the country with an app that takes you where you want to go, AND free WiFi to use it. Pretty cool, huh? So if you're in my city and you want to go to the art institute, download the app. It will GPS you to where you want to be, whether its the miniature room (mu favorite when I was a kid) or A Sunday in the Park by Seurat (make sure to look for the monkey).

Here's a link to the app.  Art institute of Chicago app

I can't, I won't, I don't

Pet peeve day at Karla's blog. Had a rude revelation at the day job during which I sent a request to a cooperative department and they rejected it.  I didn't spoon feed them the information, even though they already have it. So I basically said "WTF?" and the response was, "that's not protocol." They decided that logical, rational thought was outside thier job description. Since when is this type of attitude acceptable?

When I was growing up, if I said I can't, my father said "you can."  If I said I won't, my father said "you will." And if I said I don't, my father said, "you do." This is the entrepreneurial spirit on which our country was founded. "Can-do" spirit. So I really struggle with people who, in good conscience, say "no." I can't even blame it on the other department being staffed by "millennials." These people grew up in the same era I did. But clearly thy didn't know my father.

Is the entrepreneurial spirit lost? Isn't this EXACTLY what's wrong in Congress? "That's not protocol. Don't ask me to think for myself. I'll only do what I want to do and forget about everyone else."

I wish I could feel comfortable blowing something off now and then, but when all is said and done, I think I'd rather say, "thanks, dad."

The Joy of Research

Let me start by saying that sometimes when you start writing a new novel, you get carried away from the start. Imagination carries you off on a sea of inspiration. Then there are the times when you have "a brilliant idea," but have a hard time pushing off with it, or you get interrupted enough times during the "discovery phase," that you lose track of the brilliance.  This is where research sometimes helps.

I'm in the beginning chapters of my newest endeavor, which I'll just refer to as the Shoemaker and the Elves (since that was the point of inspiration), even though it really doesn't have anything to do with making shoes, or with elves. The story is about an author and a ghost writer. I'm becoming acquainted with my characters, and that takes several chapters as they reveal themselves, but I'm finding these characters are a little more reserved. I've also been distracted by the day job, by the new baby in the family, etc., so I haven't been able to spend as much time as I'd like. But life's like that, sometimes.


"Flora" from
Flora and the Zephyrs - John William Waterhouse



I've also been doing research for the story. The hero in my new novel writes crime novels about art thefts. The Renaissance and Pre-Raphaelite periods have jumped up to be noticed, and I'm learning a lot about John William Waterhouse. Back in grade school, we had an art appreciation class that exposed us to classic works of art (thank you, Mrs. Najarian). I also live near Chicago, where we have a fabulous Art Institute, which is calling out to me for a visit.

Every novel has to have conflict.  Goals, Motivation and Conflict. GMC. My hero is pretty well set, as far as all that goes, but my heroine has been a little more standoffish with me.  As noted last week right here on my blog, I have been trying to determine what her deal is, and I've come up with two scenarios. The one scenario is almost a cop-out, it's been done a million times, including by me in Intimate Distance. The second is a little more interesting, and I did an interview over the weekend with someone who has been through that particular scenario. That one would be a challenge, because it requires sensitivity and deep emotional content. Yes, I'm leaning that direction, but it does make me nervous to do so. So I'm going to jump in and see how it plays out, reserving the right to go back and change it to scenario one. BUT, this reinforces the title of this post - the joy of research. I have learned some very interesting things, and I'm re-discovering some beautiful pieces of art.

Research can be a form of procrastination. An interesting subject can take you down all sorts of roads and alternate scenarios, but that's part of the fun. The most important part is knowing when to rein it in, knowing what it is you want to write about. Sometimes the research changes your original intent. Either way, I always enjoy learning something new, or dusting off knowledge that hasn't been used for a number of years.



Buckling Down

Isn’t winter the best time to sit in a corner and read? Well, it is for me. I’ve been cashing in my Kindle gift cards and I’m down to my last $11.38. Binge reading. That’s what it is. I haven’t been completely idle when it comes to my own writing, but I haven't been highly productive, either. 

After Christmas, I needed a break after having finished Mist on the Meadow, and in January I received my edits back from my editor. To fill space, I did outline a new story, but I also picked up Epitaph, my last story from the shelf. Epitaph is essentially written, but requires some rework and a ton of editing. I was amazed at how “unpolished” it was when I picked it back up, but that’s probably one of the reasons it went to the shelf in the first place. So I’ve been practicing my craft, but not creating.

And now it’s February. High time to jump into that new project, don’t you think? I got as far as Chapter One a couple of weeks ago, but that elusive something wasn’t right, and my creative brain was still exhausted from the sprint on Mist on the Meadow. I do believe that creative space is ready for some exercise again. Yes, I’m jumping into the new story, as yet untitled, but inspired by the Shoemaker and the Elves. I have my main characters, I have a sketchy plot, but I’m still working on “she’s hiding something. She has a secret.” This has to be a big deal, that’s part of what makes the story interesting, but so far I have no idea what that “something” is. And that’s okay. It generally takes a couple of chapters for me to get fully acquainted with my characters, and if she has a secret, it will take her at least that long to confide in me what it is. Note: No, the story isn’t based on a real person.

So . . . while I’m waiting to hear back from agents who are dying to represent Mist on the Meadow to the big publishing houses, I thought I’d check in with you folks. Help me write my story. The heroine in my story has moved to another continent to escape the United States and “her big secret,” but now she has to come back to attend to family and/or business matters, while being careful to protect/avoid association with her secret. She’s either running away or she’s hiding out. (This is how an author’s mind works.) What would be motive enough to send you packing to a foreign country?

Indie or traditional?

This is a highly debated topic these days.  With the changes in the publishing industry, many authors previously published traditionally are moving to publishing independent to earn a higher royalty. But these are the previously traditionally published authors who are cleaning up. They already have the fan base. Which is not to say that other independent authors aren't also doing well.

For the record, authors do not make a ton of money in royalties (unless you're JK Rowling, or Stephen King, or John Grisham). The majority of us can't make a living on what we earn by selling our books. We write because we love to do it, and in addition to sharing our work, we hope to make a little pocket change as well (or become the next JK Rowling, or Stephen King, or Danielle Steel, etc.).

As I "close the book" on my latest project (sorry for the pun), I'm faced with the decision once again as to whether I take it to market, or bypass the query letters, the synopsis writing, the rejection (this is ultimately part of the process - not everyone likes the same thing), the tedium involved in selling my work to the traditional market and publish independently. My previous books were all published independently so that I could "get them off my plate." After dozens-no, HUNDREDS-of rejection letters, I had enough faith in the books to make them available to the general public. It's like writing "the end" all over again. By independently publishing them, I'm able to move on to the next project. So for people weighing their options, this is my take on it.

Mist on the Meadow was submitted to a professional editor so that I knew I had a quality product to sell. That's step one. Once her comments were addressed, the decision had to be made. On the one hand, going with a traditional publisher is validation, in my mind. That was the foremost motivation for my next step, writing query letters and a synopsis. And writing a synopsis is like chewing on nails.  You have to take your 300 page novel and condense it down to 3 pages, while still making it fun to read. And yet I've been trying to do just that. Putting myself through the torture. Then the waiting game begins. Most of the agents/publishers you query take three months (and sometimes more) to respond. Torture. Yes. Self-inflicted.

Option two: publishing independently. In my case, I do have a small following (and hopefully growing!), so to go directly to indie isn't so bad. There are people looking for my next release, people who will buy it. The only response time involved is how long it takes for the websites to approve it for sale (usually only a couple of days). Instant gratification. I am responsible for formatting it, for ensuring that it is a quality product, for designing (or having someone design) my cover art and for promotion. After three books, I've got this process down. And while I wait for those agents to reply to me, I can prepare my product in the event I don't strike their fancy. IF I go indie, you will see this cover (or some reasonable facsimile thereof).

Another misconception:  Traditional publishers have a big promotion budget. They will advertise and send me on book tours, etc. Yep. Not so much. Sure, after I've sold a million copies and earned them enough to invest back into my brand. But initially, I still have to do my own promotion. They'll do the cover art, they'll do the formatting, but that's about the extent of it.

The last thing to consider is media. E-books are outselling print books. That makes indie publishing more attractive. It is still a fairly simple process to produce a print book, but the price is less flexible. A traditional publisher can sell a paperback for $5.99 (for instance). Independently, you're locked into a minimum price, which returns minimum royalties, and that minimum is almost always going to be closer to $10 than to $6.

So, all those things considered, I am sending out query letters. Mist on the Meadow is ready for market, but I would still like the validation of a traditional publisher, even if I don't get the same percentage in royalties. And if the agents/publishers that I've targeted don't connect with my book (they're very particular, you know. It's not a lucrative business for them, either), then you'll see this book for sale in the near future, published by yours truly. I'll keep you up to date on my journey right here.

The value of a critique group

Over the years, I've been a part of several different critique groups, some good, some not so good, but all of them useful.  For a very short time, I tried one sponsored by Romance Writers of America, but that didn't go well. Overall, that was not a favorable or productive experience. One of the cardinal rules in joining a critique group is knowing when they are helping and when they are not helping. If the group has something negative to say, it is important that it is constructive and that they speak from a position of knowledge and/or experience. To say "I didn't like it," isn't helpful. To say "You don't know what you're talking about," isn't helpful. To point out "you've used the word 'just' six times on this page" is helpful. To point out "Your character doesn't ring true for me. I have experience/know someone in that position, and his experience is X." is helpful.

For the last several years, I have been a part of a very small, and yet very helpful group.  They are tough! They don't pull any punches!  And my writing has improved tremendously since I've joined their ranks. So yeah, sometimes I'm a little put off by a comment, but given a day to think it through, I can appreciate the weight of what they say (or discount it, if that is the right thing to do). The thing of it is that I trust them, and I know that even if they don't "get it," what they say is of value. I've had my share of comments from them that didn't apply or that I couldn't use, but the majority of what they've shared with  me has been invaluable.

We've been together through the transition to e-books, which I understand now outsell bound copies. We've shared market experience, conference experience, sources of reference, marketing ideas and more than a few stories. We write different genres, and while that can sometimes be problematic, it is also helpful for an "outside" look into what works. For instance, I'm not a fan of sci-fi as a rule, but that doesn't mean there aren't sci-fi novels that I've enjoyed. If a story is well written, it surpasses the pigeon hole of genre, and that is the main goal: to write well.

I've just received Mist on the Meadow back from my editor. I knew there were rough spots, and my wonderful critique group pointed some of them out. I knew they were right, and having the editor validate those points was no surprise.

This critique group has a high bar, and we hold each other to it. Sometimes we don't like what we have to say to each other, but in the end, we all understand that the comments are worthwhile. Right or wrong. The editor I'm working with now I have a lot of confidence in, and for her to validate what my group has found is an added bonus rather than redundancy. I'm grateful to my group for getting me close to "done," and thankful to my editor for pushing me over that final hurdle.

With that being said, Mist on the Meadow is in its final stages. I'd hoped to shoot a photo for the cover - a stag in the snow, but we're not getting snow in Chicago this winter! So I've been hunting down other people's photos and considering a cover artist who could photoshop it for me, but first I have to take care of the writing end.

Anybody have a photo they want to share?

Do Characters in a Book Resemble the Author?

A common question for authors is "how much of the story is your life?" You'll see jokes on Facebook frequently posted by authors about "don't make an author mad or she'll kill you off in her next novel," or something along those lines. And to a certain degree it's true. The mogul in Living Canvas was originally based on someone I worked for, an experience we still refer to as the "reign of terror." The character morphed quite a lot during the editing process (that was one of those shelved books that I couldn't get right for a long time). But back to the point. The stories are NOT our lives, however, we do insert snippets of our lives.

There is a part of ourselves in every book, whether it's that evil boss, or that kind soul that did something "above and beyond" for us, an experience we had. I'd venture to say that beyond one "cathartic" book that an author will have to write (which many times never sees the light of day - I wrote mine when I was very young and it was horrible), we do not make personal appearances in our books. Maybe one part of my personality will find it's way into one character, but you can bet that for most books authors and characters should never be confused as one and the same.

I was listening to the radio station this morning and they were talking about ghostly encounters. This is main stream radio, mind you, and it was probably a pre-recorded show from Halloween time or maybe some other newsworthy story from another time.  You know those moments when someone close to you dies and you just know they've come to say their last goodbyes? You woke up at the precise moment they died, certain that they'd touched you? As one woman said, it was the day after her mother died, and she was trying to sleep and very sad, and she felt her mother's touch, stroking her hair to comfort her, and she felt at peace.

Here's an example of taking a "real life" (if you want to call it that - maybe it's "real dead") situation and incorporating it into a book. My stories generally only broach the supernatural rather than go full on into vampires and zombies and such. I prefer to remain on the fringe, into more believable experiences. Although . . . .

Epitaph is a full-blown ghost story. Well, it's a romance, because that's what I write, and it's got that mystery element in it, because that's what I write, but there's a seance, and there's a ghost following the main characters around.

If you tell me you've had an experience with a loved one who has passed, I'm going to believe you, and not count you out as "mental" (to use an adjective from a book I just read). For the record, I have never consciously seen a ghost. I have never spoken with the dead. I don't believe in that psychic down the street who wants to read your fortune. But I don't discount that these experiences actually happen. I've had "psychic" experiences with people I am close to that lead me to believe there is another channel that we tune to sometimes. That's my wackadoodle confession of the day. 

Anyone care to laugh at me or share one of their "wackadoodle" experiences?