My new hero is Jim McCarthy of Dystel & Goderich for this post on commercial vs. literary fiction.

It's nice to hear it put so passionately from someone who works with both.

Labels: agents, books, literature, romance genre, writing

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

It's like, at the end, there's this surprise quiz: Am I proud of me? I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth what I paid?

Richard Bach, writer (1936- )

The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind.

Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983)

Labels: Quotations

So here it's pretty much the end of June. Magellan's Witch is due August 1. I seem to be spending most of my time massively rewriting. Sigh. Right now I'm going through some comments and addressing those-- if I haven't already deleted or re-written the chapter -- and last night as I was reading this one particular chapter which even when I wrote it I knew was pushing things, I thought to myself, hey, this is good! This is actually fascinating. So for the first time ever I went to bed thinking maybe I don't have a total disaster on my hands.

OK, moment over. Back to freaking. Um, yeah. Definitely that.

Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch

Today is my son's birthday. He's 12. Ohmygoshhowdidthathappen? Last night he had a sleep over, which, in point of fact, was actually a wake-over since I got up at 4:00am to tell them to go to bed, please. But others in the household reported variously that said boys were up at 5:00am and having waffles at 5:30am. I got up at 10:00 am and the boys were sprawled on the couches in pretzel-like positions. I woke them at 11:20 because we were going to the Fair. Between 10:00 and 11:20 or so I worked on editing Magellan's Witch.

To the Fair we went. At 12, they can run around on their own without constant supervision. And, as I discovered, there was no need to worry about losing contact with them as they phoned me whenever they ran out of money. They knew the location of the ATM's, too. Imagine that. I got a free massage and a $10.00 airbrushed tattoo of a dragon. It'll wash off in a few days. I now know that when I get my real tattoo, I will not get black as my skin is too pale, and will get something perhaps a square inch or less in size. So, we were all fried about 4:00pm and the various 12 year olds went home with parents etc.

Then I picked up a cake for my son's party with family and went home. My present to him, besides the Fair, was to take down his share of the garbage. This is a big deal on account of the garbage needs to go down to the bottom of the driveway. See the Driveway Torture post for more.

He was asleep on the couch at 8:30pm but when I woke him to to say perhaps he should go to bed, he refused. It's summer and he just can't bring himself to go to bed early. By which I mean, being in his bed. Crashing on the couch is completely involuntary and doesn't count.

I've been working on editing Magellan's Witch since I got back. Some progress is made. At least so far it's editing, not massive rewriting. I'm going to go to bed a bit early tonight,as I am tired from all the walking at the Fair and the rowing and the summer heat.

One big fat ick for Monday.

But, for once I feel like I got some good away time. I feel mentally refreshed. Which store of freshness I will need in order to get this book into shape. It's going to have to go to other readers in whatever shape it's in by, say, mid week. Urk.

Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, plugging away

I've been trying to get all my paper edits into the computer and things were going OK for a while. I got through a fairly rough patch blah blah edit cut etc.I have maybe 30 pages to go. But my gosh. I have some major fixing and no inspiration at the moment. This morning I had my first rowing lesson. It was really fun. Can't wait for more. I got home and started working and found myself falling asleep in my chair since I had to get up early for the rowing instead of sleeping in to catch up from the work week deficit. I could have pushed through, but this nagging little voice I am NOT a nag! Yes, you are. kept saying, Carolyn, you can't keep writing chapters without the hero and heroine both in them. Shut up, I'm fixing this just fine without your help, thank you very much. No you're not. So I took a nap when my eyes drooped closed for the bazillionth time and just when I was in the nirvanah of napdom the phone rang. So now I'm awake. Carolyn, go rewrite those chapters with your hero in them. Just do it, OK? All right all right! Sheesh.

Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch

Boy, did I need to read this interview with Lemony Snickett:

Since that time, I sort of love it when things are going badly because I know that means that soon things will go well. I just stay at my desk, and I say, "There's no shame in writing crap," knowing that it's good for the brain because meanwhile, in some corner, something is getting nudged. And I've used that strategy ever since.

It's a good interview, too.

Back to work. Editing crap.

Say n'more.

Labels: angst, editing, Magellan's Witch

Rats. It's Sunday and I need it to be Saturday or for Monday to be a holiday. Nice father's day. Yesterday I told myself that if I got through the rest of the manuscript read through, I could take the evening off to read. Which I did. I finished off Chuck Pfarrer's Warrior Soul which is a memoir of a Navy SEAL. Good book. I really enjoyed it. Apparently, nobody in D.C. has learned anything since Beirut in the 80's or Iran-Contra. That was kind of depressing.

Worked today. One of my brothers came over and played poker with my son. I think one of them is rich now. Then I had to go shopping and today, shopping included shoes and shirts. My sandals are falling apart and one pair of my work shoes is worn through. Also, I needed new running shoes. The sole of my current pair is now separating from the shoe. I also needed summer shirts. I believe I've mentioned I despise shopping. Yuck. But mission accomplished. Then grocery shopping. Then had to make cookies for lunches tomorrow. Not mine. I am on a cookie free diet. (Rats!)

I've changed up my work out on account of a couple weeks ago as I was heading back to the house after taking down the garbage I was dying jogging up the driveway. The driveway is roughly a quarter mile uphill (depending on your point of view, I guess, it was uphill for me at the time.) I should have been able to jog up the freaking driveway without dying. I was wearing my sandals, at the time, but still. So, now 2 days a week instead of going to the gym I run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes. Torture. Horrors. Sweat. Then one day I cycle for 45 because I'm not able to add a third day of driveway torture yet and the other two I do free weights and resistance training. I added in 10 push ups between every set, and am happy to report I'm up to 12 push ups between sets. The good news is my arms are getting some cuts and by the third morning of running I was still dying but at a slightly faster speed. Really slightly. Next weekend I start the rowing so that should help, too. All of which is my way of explaining that I really did need new running shoes. And, lucky me! The Nike outlet carries Men's size 6, which is the size of running shoe that fits me best. Before grad school, I could do 100 push-ups and run a mile in 7:30, which I thought was pretty sad since in college I ran 5:30's. Now I'm in the double digits for roughly a mile. Of course, 45 minutes of driveway torture is something like 3 or 3.5 miles. Maybe grad school wasn't all good for me.

I figure if SEALs can do what they so, I can run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes and do a few measly push ups. I hope to swap out the cycling day for more driveway torture but right now I need that for recovery so I don't get (too) sore. See, reading is good for you!

In comparison, writing is --- well, a completely different kind of torture. Which I've been doing all weekend. And will be doing more shortly.

Tomorrow morning, driveway torture. Yay. Not.

Labels: editing, exercise, Magellan's Witch

This quote is from Publishers Lunch:

There is a slow but steady worldwide decline in the sales of printed products, roughly matched by growth in sales of electronic media, and gravity is reasserting itself in the UK trade. In 2006, it became clear that book publishers should probably expect medium and long-term sales stagnation and decline in their printed products, just as newspaper publishers do.

Anyone who checks out the A-list bloggers of the Tech Altiverse (I just made up that word since the Uber-Geeks do, in fact, inhabit an alternate universe: see e.g., Tech Crunch, Guy Kawasaki or Robert Scoble) knows that the geekish are rolling their eyes at newspapers for not understanding what's happening to their business model. For the most part, the Uber-Geeks are right. Newspapers moan about Craigslist taking their revenue without making the leap to gee, maybe readers want want ads that work like Craigslist so we better do that! It took me about 2 minutes, maybe three, to post my old printer on Craigslist and within 2 minutes, I kid you not, I had a taker. Could I have done that, as easily or as quickly on any newspaper want-ad site? No. Do I go to newspaper websites that are behind a pay wall? No, I do not. I go get my website news somewhere else, and by the way, view someone else's ads when I do. Lest you think that there's no money in Google's ad-sense, I've seen creditable reports (but not proof) that many of the the A-listers make a few thousand a month in ad sense revenue. (A-list bloggers have hundreds of thousands of impressions, not a few hundred. For comparison's sake Miss Snark, despite her avid fans, would not have been considered an A-lister, though before her retirement from blogging, I was starting to think she might get there.)

The cat analogy is coming up, by the way.

Have people become news averse? No. They're just consuming it in places where it's convenient for them. But I still look through 2 print newspapers at home, too.

So here's the cat analogy. My cat Jake loves to sleep on my printer. My brand-new printer! So I keep it covered with two thin-ish kitchen towels. The other day I thought, hey, I'm going to cover the printer with this much bigger and vastly thicker cloth! The printer will be even more impervious to cat hair and Jake will be comfier, too!

That's not what happened.

Jake refused to sleep on the printer. Instead, my big, fluffy 15 pound cat decided to sleep in the space where I put my manuscript binder when I am transferring paper edits to the computer. At first, I thought, man, this is just so inconvenient to have him trying to sleep on my MS! We spent a couple of days irritated with each other about that. And then I removed the big cloth from the printer and Jake got up on the printer and went to sleep on the two thin cloths.

Oh. There was no abandonment of cat-napping behavior, merely a displacement of its location.

See where I'm going with this? If this publisher is right, the medium is changing. But the need for stories people want to read is not.

So authors have no need to panic. Publishers do, if they don't wake up to the translocation.

In writing news, I've deleted two chapters from Magellan's Witch. But things are getting better.

Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, publishing

Here's something that really frosts me. I'm all for historical accuracy. I believe in doing research etc. But let's apply some common sense to the matter. As a general statement, the people who preceded us were not fundamentally stupid or lacking in inventiveness. There are implements commonly used today that were commonly used in the past because 1) the implement is obviously both useful and necessary and 2) does not require the discovery or invention of something as yet undiscovered or not-invented yet. Therefore, some common implements can reasonably be assumed to have existed in the past. It's not worth fussing over whether that's TRUE when you have plot points that make no sense.

So, take matches. Useful yes. But not necessary. Matches also require an invention, so yeah, this is something you might want to research so your heroine isn't striking a match in 1805.

Now take something like, oh, say, a rolling pin. Useful? Yes. Necessary? If you wish to make pie crust, yeah. Is an invention or discovery required? No. If you're trying to make pie crust, rest assured wood or stone have been discovered. A cook is going to stare at a lump of dough and say, wow, I need something to make this really, really thin. I feel confident that even a idiot cook is going to think of something that will have looked remarkably like a rolling pin.

I just found this in draft status in blogger. I remember why I didn't actually post it, but now that I read it, I'm going to post it anyway. Apply some common sense people. For crying out loud.

Labels: research

Galley Cat on one of my favorite authors Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart was my intro into African literature. Mind opening.

Interesting blog post about imprints from a publisher who always has interesting insights into the business.

Even more interesting blog post about imprints. I TOTALLY agree with this. Readers just don't care about imprints. File this under the publishers should be doing market research...

Physicists blog about Being in Love. Read it. You'll be surprised.

Saving myself 15 years of bad luck. Maybe. I was cough cough mumble on mySpace cough working hard when I came across this, which unlike most horoscopes, seems to describe me exactly. Please read the foregoing and following, with no sense of being serious at all, okay?

TAURUS: The Freak in bed

Aggressive. Freak in bed. Rare to find! Loves being in long relationships Likes to give a good fight for what they want. Extremely outgoing. Sexy as ...u no!..... Loves to help people in times of need. Outstanding kisser. Very funny. Awesome personality. Stubborn. Sexual as ......... Most caring person you will ever meet! One of a kind. Not one to fuck with. Are the most sexiest people on earth! 15 years of bad luck if you do not repost.

In writing news, Magellan's Witch is going okay I think. I got to chapter 10 this time before I had to massively rewrite and that only took a day. Last night I got through a lot.

And now, I really do have to go work hard.

Labels: Authors, Magellan's Witch, marketing, publishing

There's a really interesting post over at Word Wenches. Erika Tsang of Avon is blogging today and posed a question about covers. Make sure you read the comments to the post, by the way or you'll have missed the point.

A week or two ago the blogosphere and the print press was abuzz with talk about how publishers do no market research into readers. Articles mentioned that RWA was the only organization that even came close to doing such research. As a reader, I know there are things that many, many readers dislike, and covers are a HOT hot issue with them (us). EVERYONE, (except apparently, publishers) knows that readers hate covers that misrepresent the story. Hate it. Go read the comments to the post above.

Does anybody believe publishers are really listening? That's valuable market research right there in the comments, and from people who buy a lot of books.

Just thought that was intereesting.

Back to work

Labels: Book Covers, publishing

Sigh.

I was stuck at Starbucks until 12:00. Got some work done, not much, and not much of it very cheerful work. Rats. Then I went to my nephew's birthday party and was there until three. At one point I went back to the car and got my binder and very rudely did some editing. Honestly. When do people think I get all this done? Anyway, we left at 3:00 which was just in time for me to remember my son had soccer practice and I hadn't done any grocery shopping. So, got home, he changed and we were off. Only the field was being used and I drove my son and two other boys to the alternate location and got lost. My town has an old Jr. High of a certain name and a new Jr. High of the exact same name. I went to the old one only to realize then that everyone must have been talking about the new one. Sigh. I have never been to the new one and don't know the address. But we managed to find it. Then I had to get groceries. I was able to get in half an hour of editing. Now I'm off to do more.

Sigh.

Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch

I'm at Starbucks right now (alas,the local coffee shop closed its doors) having just finished doing work for the day job. I have to hang out for a bit to make sure every thing's OK. It's been a crazy week. I attended my son's 6th grade graduation on Thursday -- he won a President's Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence (the Secretary of Education may need some remedial lessons there, but whatever). And a school Outstanding Citizenship Award. Both were unexpected and of course I was proud as anything. Friday was the graduation party for him and my nephew.

All week I've been trying to get organized for my son's birthday party for his buddies, yesterday. Today is my nephew's birthday party, so I'm hoping I get out of here in time. Oh my gosh. So, this week I did not get as much done as I wanted to. I went to my local RWA chapter meeting Saturday morning because they had a bookseller's panel and I wanted to know that kinds of things a writer can reasonably and effectively do (besides writing a good book). Most trinkets are a waste of time and money. And even for the few that were clever or cute, I didn't hear anyone say that made them buy more books. Things that work;

• Bookmarks. Put the release date on them. Sign them.


• Coming in to sign stock (see below)


• Sending ARCs - at least 2 mos in advance of release


• Mail a copy of your newsletter to chains - Borders stores don't have internet access. Only limited email


• Make your own shelf talkers. The width of a book, about two inches long below the fold -- too long and it hangs too low. Include title, author, blurb.


• If you have a pseudonym, let booksellers know.

Regarding signing stock, it's not true that signed books don't get stripped for return. Sorry, that's a myth. It might keep your book around a little longer, but it doesn't prevent returns. However, signed books always sell before unsigned ones.

I got home from the chapter meeting and worked frantically to get in some edits on Magellan's Witch before it was time to get over to Scandia and the party location. Made it by the skin of my teeth. I was able to get some work done. Not much, but some. Home from the party frazzled and tired by 7:30.

At 8:30 I went to bed with my MS and fell asleep. I woke up at 9:00 (the binder was poking me) and decided it was better to just turn off the light and sleep. OK.

Anyhoo -- As mentioned before, I ran into trouble at chapter 7 on the last read through and had to stop reading to fix that. I ended up adding two new chapters. Next week it has to go out to some other readers. I've just realized that RWA is early this year and my agent will be there and, naturally, unable to read MW for me so, well, whatever. Right now, I just need to keep working on it. I hope to get past chapter 7 this time, but now I'm thinking it's just boring. Sigh.

Labels: Magellan's Witch, marketing

Yeah. I'm slaving away on Magellan's Witch. Chapter 7 was boring so I'm fixing that as soon as I finish this post. I need serious help with chapter endings. That's three people who've noticed I have a problem with that: me, my prof and my current reader. Sigh.

In other news, hmm. There is no other news. I have to go write my new chapter.

Labels: Magellan's Witch

But not for much longer eh? As my neighbors to the north might say. I'm doing another paper read through of Magellan's Witch. I'm up to chapter 5 and I'm not massively redoing anything. Yet. Lot's of polishing and layering. I have this draft out for an early read. I need to get back to work.

What else? The sale of Scandal is totally official now. It just posted to Publisher's Lunch. Yipee!

Tired, but what's new?

Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch

Working. That's what I'm doing. I woke up this morning with a notion for Magellan's Witch that involves a new chapter. I'm writing it now. My son and I went kyaking for the first time. They were having a free water sports day on the Petaluma River so we went and kayaked. Fun! But what I want to do is row. So I'm going to pony up the bucks for the Rowing for Beginners class and do that. Now that I'm home I'm back at work on the new chapter.

What else? Seems like there ought to be something interesting, but, gosh, I guess not. Here's a random picture:

Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch