So, what is a heroine, anyway?  The dictionary defines a heroine as 1) A woman admired or idealized for her courage or noble qualities, and/or 2) The chief female character in a book play, or movie, who is typically identified with good qualities.

That’s it?  Does my 11-year-old merely have to possess “good qualities” to earn the title of heroine?  Seems a bit flat and anti-climactic to me.  She’s already a good kid.  I think about characters like Wonder Woman or Xena, the Warrior Princess and I don’t think my Maggie is going to hit that mark.  She won’t be able to deflect bullets or fight epic battles.  However, she is going to have to display courage, perseverance, and bravery, and I think that those are qualities a heroine must possess.  She’s already experienced devastation when her father died in a work-related accident and has displayed “good qualities” as she struggles to move forward without him.

Our technological advances have brought the bad along with the good to the forefront.  Today’s kids can chat face-to-face with grandma and grandpa, and at the same time, they’ve become prey to sexual predators.  They can watch a live-cam of a bear den in Minnesota, and are also subjected to the fear and terror of 9/11, school shootings, and the recent bombings in Boston.  It’s all so immediate and “in their face.”  Bravery seems to be a requirement of daily living.

It was never on my “radar” to think that I’d face someone who would want to hurt me, someone coming into my school with a gun, or that someone would fly a plane into a building or set off a bomb with the intent of killing as many innocents as possible.  Kids today have grown up with immediate news displaying gruesome images that it’s almost impossible to shield them from.  So my Maggie is already a heroine without realizing it.  She gets up, goes to school, and lives her eleven year-old life in the world as she knows it.  She accepts it as normal because it’s all she’s ever known.

I’m going to give Maggie the chance to do even more.  I’m lucky in the fact that I get to take her to the edge and then pull her back before something really bad happens.  I can send her out on a pretty cool adventure, throw some obstacles in her way, let her overcome them, and become the heroine I know she is.

Anne Hawkinson was born in Duluth, Minnesota. The world’s largest inland port became her “window to the world” when ships from around the globe crossed under the Aerial Bridge and docked in Lake Superior’s harbor. Years later she’d visit the countries that at one time existed only in her imagination. Bedtime stories read by her father were a nighttime ritual – her favorite was “The Teeny Tiny Woman.” Because they lived near the zoo, she often fell asleep to the sound of roaring African lions. Anne graduated from St. Cloud State University with a Master’s degree and has a daughter, a son, and an endless parade of pets that provide unending inspiration for her children’s stories.

It’s hard enough writing a quality book, having a real life, and–for many of us–holding down that day job. On top of that, everyone’s telling us to be on social media. And not just one site, but on quite a few.

It’s enough to make you rip your hair out.

And then, once you have these accounts, you actually have to use them. And that’s along with writing and all the other stuff mentioned up top.

What’s a writer to do?

A writer’s to be smart and have a plan, that’s what.

If your time is finite, and you need to get the biggest benefit for that time, you need to go into your social media foray with some goals for each of your social media groups. Facebook is great for talking with people and seeing what other people are talking about. If you’re using Facebook already for personal stuff, like pictures of the kids or grandkids and adorable kitten pictures–because the Internet doesn’t have enough of those–you might want to set up a separate author page for yourself. Use your personal account for the kids and grandkids and kittens. Use your author account for the professional stuff, like your writing experience, interesting things you find during your research, and your book events.

Twitter’s a giant information feed. As I dive back in, I’ll probably be much more careful about how to use my account, subscribing only to useful sources of information, general news, sports, and yes, writer-y people who have their finger on the pulse of the industry.

And on LinkedIn, I need to start endorsing some people, keep up with their career progression–and congratulating them on milestones–and find some useful groups to monitor.

But that’s just me. Your mileage may, and probably will vary. That’s the point. You have to come up with a strategy that works for you and adds value. Otherwise, social media becomes one more obligation and eventually, your social media accounts will shrivel up and blow away, and you’ll have gained nothing.

Beyond the religious definition, a litany is a recitation using a repeated phrase, and can indeed be a poem.  Write a litany whose repetition is “I believe” or ” Tonight I will”  or “I am” or “It happens like…”  This is not to be a poem of your religious beliefs.  Rather make statements like “I believe in the skitter of my brain in every direction at once.”  A litany can be poem of human nature: this is an opportunity to be especially imaginative.

One thing that makes a litany pleasant to read is variation.  For example, you need not say exactly “I believe” every time.  You might say ‘I trust, or I hold to, or I follow,’ etc.  You might also make a pleasant jumble of various content in your poem, a sequence that surprises.  Another variation is the length of the statement that follows.  So for instance,

“I believe in stone.
I thank the rain for apples which
upon their ripening, if unpicked too long
throw themselves to the ground in request.”  pm

Maxine Kumin’s litany in this vein is “Credo” from Looking for Luck.

This week’s exercise is to write a poem that includes the elements of a litany.

—–

Peggy Miller, an editor with The Comstock Review, has an MFA from American University. She has conducted poetry workshops for over 15 years. Her collections include What the Blood Knows was published in 2007 and Stone Being in 2009, both from Custom Words. Peggy has published a chapbook, Martha Contemplates the Universe, Frith Press, and a Greatest Hits chapbook from Pudding House. Visit her on Facebook.

You can take out an ad in the conference schedule of events. You can buy an exhibitor table at the conference. You can even choose from one of three different sponsorship levels. Ads start for as little as $50 and for $2000, you can be a platinum sponsor and have your banner displayed all weekend long in the main conference room.

And if you have a small business, an exhibitor table may be a great investment. The table will stay up for all three days of the conference, with plenty of foot traffic at each of our breaks through the day. Your product doesn’t have to be related to writers, either. You could have a table that offers massages and recoup your cost in no time flat!

For more information, click here to download our FWA Sponsorship Sheet, including contact information!

It wasn’t sexual. Okay, I’m a guy. Show me a lug wrench and my thoughts turn to, well, you know.

But Catherine Burke is something different. There’s an air about her, an aura, something that says “I’m gonna kick your ass if I want to and when we’re done, I dare you to hate me for it.”

A lot of people do. But they still listen to her, because she forces you to. Not by any coercive means, but because a presence of that size has a magnetic effect. And because she works hard at being beautiful. She says she has to because women who look fifty don’t work in radio.

And because when you think you have her figured out, she’ll flummox you because that’s what she does.

Catherine once ran a marathon on consecutive weekends because she’d already signed up for one and a friend begged her to be running buddies for the other. I ran ten miles last week and moved like I needed a walker for two days.

But it wasn’t the shape she stayed in and how her body must look like a piece of art, painstakingly chiseled over countless Florida afternoons on the running trail.

I wanted to see if Catherine would be vulnerable.

Outside of my marriage–the marriage I used to have–Catherine Burke was my closest friend in the world. In the sixteen years I’d worked with her, I’d seen her hurt, angry, shocked, and even devastated exactly twice. But I’d never seen her vulnerable. She didn’t do vulnerable.

Now my marriage was gone, ripped away by the cancer. My career was circling the drain. My reputation looked like the morning after the last frat party of the year.

And I didn’t have to push any of that away from my thoughts because I was about to see Catherine Burke in the most personal way possible.

She smiled at me, and blushed. I wished I hadn’t had the fifth beer, except that the beer was necessary for me to get to this point. For her, it was the wine. Maybe it was the wine that made her blush.

“You have to be nice about it,” she said.

“Nice about what?”

She didn’t look me in the eye, which surprised me. Catherine was the difficult discussion taken head-on, unblinking. She was the opposite of subterfuge and misdirection. No one needed to translate for her.

Her cheeks turned scarlet. “Jesus, Jim, I’m about to show you my whole body.”

The thoughts came in a rush that I couldn’t sort out. “Cath…I mean…we have listeners in part because guys would crawl through a field of broken glass to see–”

I thought her cheeks had turned scarlet. It turned out they hadn’t until I said that. She put her hand up.

“Jim, no schtick, please.”

I shrugged, kind of. The way a sixteen-year-old boy might his first time.

The blouse clung to her, which was nice. Rain in Florida is a pain. Three steps outside and you might as well have jumped in a pool.

The slacks were baggy, almost bohemian. Wendy–that was my wife–picked them out when they went shopping together.

“Most people would just cut their fingers a little and mix their blood together when making a pact,” she said. I was thinking almost the same thing, but I couldn’t say that. Catherine was more than a pact, or should have been.

She took a breath in like she was about to jump off a high diving board, then unbuttoned her blouse in one smooth downward motion, somehow managing to undo each button without breaking the motion. She wore a navy-blue bra without lace or other frills and her stomach looked like it belonged on a twenty-year-old. She turned away from me and reached behind her back, as women do, and undid her bra.

“Turn out the lights,” she said.

I stammered and my feet disobeyed the half-hearted order to move and do as she said.

“Jim.” Her use of my name wasn’t snarky or angry, but almost imploring,  as if it were vital that I not see her.

I wanted to object. If Adonis were a woman, she would pale next to Catherine. But after sixteen years of being a person’s closest friend, you pick things up. I turned the light off and only the lightning in the distance lit things, an ill-timed strobe light that didn’t allow enough time to really see.

Still, she turned and when the lightning played across her, I gasped.

“Jim,” she said, either annoyed or worried.

“It’s okay,” my voice said. It was stronger than I expected it to be.

She stood by the foot of her bed, looking down at whatever the false reality was that made her want the lights off.

“You’re beautiful.”

I’m pretty sure she blushed again.

“I’m cold,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.

I held out my arms and she moved until she melted into me. She shuddered and I held her tighter. She was soft and felt smaller than I thought she would and she clung to me as much as I clung to her.

“You’re shaking,” I said and she nodded.

I brushed her left breast as I reached between us to unbutton my wet shirt. When I did, she took in a quick breath. While I undid the buttons, I paid attention to the back of my hand, to what she felt like. She cupped the back of my head and moved her mouth to mine. Somehow, she’d managed to get a breath mint or mouthwash and her mouth tasted clean and new, like a promise.

I went to a Catholic high school, where each year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition mysteriously got lost in the mail on the way to the library–at least that’s what the Sister who ran the library said. I’m not married to Catherine. My wife hadn’t yet been cremated. I know what we were doing wasn’t holy in even the most tortured definition of the word.

But what we did that night seemed solemn. Everything else had been stripped away. The only thing left was her and me and for some reason, it felt like we needed to do this to formalize our union.

There was no sweaty conflagration of limbs or urgent grabbing and thrusting. No one ran their fingernails down anyone else’s back. No deity’s name was shouted. It was just her and me and there may as well have not been anyone else in the world.

And when we finished, she lay on top of me, her forehead tucked between my neck and shoulder, her arms drawn up between us, my arms draped across her back.

“Was this the right thing?” she said. Her voice sounded different this close up.

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I didn’t know what to say to her. “I don’t know.”

I noticed that the lightning hadn’t flashed in a while. And that her ceiling fan had four big paddles that looked like spades from a deck of cards.

She nodded. “Yeah.” Then a few heartbeats of silence. “Can you hold me?”

I nodded back.

“It’s gonna be different tomorrow.” Her voice almost sounded a girl version of her.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s don’t go there now.”

I tightened my arms around her and she burrowed into me.

“Okay.”

For the first time in weeks, I wanted to stay awake. And for the first time in weeks, I failed.

When I woke the next morning, sun violated her room and made me blink a few times before my eyes adjusted. She stood between me and the window wearing a white cotton dress shirt and jeans. Her hair was damp and her make-up was on and she held a cup of coffee in front of her.

“Coffee’s on,” she said. “Your clothes are almost dry.”

“Hi,” I said. “I slept great, thanks for asking.”

She sat in the armchair in front of the window, put the coffee down, and pulled on one of the black sneakers she’d pulled from among the throng of other footware that dominated her closet.

“Sleeping’s for wusses. I’m hungry. Get up.”

Florida’s hot in the summer, but it’s really not the heat. It really is the humidity. She wore a long-sleeved shirt with a paisley vest, each button fastened, up to about three inches below the collar. I followed her to Chik-Fil-A where she inhaled two chicken biscuits and a Diet Coke while I nursed a coffee.

When she finished, she crumpled up one of the wrappers, raised it over her head, and threw a perfect arc to the garbage pale the guy had pulled out to empty. It landed in the geographic center and she pointed downward with two fingers.

When she looked back at me, her normal sly, sardonic smile faltered and I saw the eyes of the person who wanted the lights out the previous night. Then she looked down at her Coke, drained it, got up and said she had to go.

That’s really me. I especially love how the wind combs itself through my hair.

I ran ten miles this morning and–

Okay, not another exercise metaphor for writing, please. PLEASE.

Relax. It’s not.

I ran ten miles this morning. Running’s a great way to let the mind go on autopilot. You fall into a sort of trance where there’s just you and the trail and, sometimes, the realization that it’s four miles back to the car and you got to cover that space to get there.

It was someplace between mile six and eight that I had a great idea–an awesome idea for a blog post. It was potentially the best idea ever for the best blog post ever. I was excited about it. Then I passed the mile marker that said I only had a mile and a half to go and my mind wandered off to other things. And I forgot that I’d even had an idea until I sat down the computer.

I’m not the first one this has happened to. My grandfather kept having these amazing dreams, but he’d forget what they were. So my grandmother told him to put a pad of paper and pencil by the bed so he could write it down when he first woke up. So he went to bed and had the dream, then woke up and wrote it down and went back to sleep. When he woke up the next morning, the pad was blank. He dreamed that he had the dream and wrote it down.

I’ve had ideas before when it’s not handy to write them down. It’s kind of hard to keep a pad of paper in the shower. And if you’re in the throes of passion and an idea pops into your head it’s bad form to ask your partner to wait a second while you write down the thought you just had.

It’s not my fault my muse only speaks to me when the kids are asleep.

Same thing if you’re about to receive communion.

“The body of Christ.”

“Hold on Father, I just got an idea that’s going to fix my plot problem.”

For the record, my cell phone has a voice recording feature, which I will use next time. That handles the running thing. The rest, I’ll just have to live with.

Do you have any tricks for remembering great ideas that come to you at inopportune times.

For instance, take our annual conference. Here you have three days of continuous activities targeted solely for your writing benefit. Some activities occur in big groups. Some are more intimate. Faculty interviews are private. We offer five interview options.

1. Manuscript critiques. If you’d like an expert to give you confidential feedback on your work, schedule a manuscript critique. Simply download a critique form (there’s a link on the conference page of the FWA website), and the form will instruct you how to send your work to your chosen critiquer. During the conference, you’ll meet with your critiquer one on one. Actual critique time during the conference ranges from 30 minutes to 90 minutes, depending on your choice of faculty. See http://shop.floridawriters.net/category.sc?categoryId=37.
2. Special consultations. This is an interview with Bobbie Christmas, professional book coach and editor. Bobbie also heads FWA’s Editors Helping Writers editing service for members. Bobbie can assist with all genres: See http://shop.floridawriters.net/category.sc?categoryId=38.
3. Faculty consultations. Anything goes here—well, almost. You may ask the faculty member of your choice how they got published, what advice they have about writing or publication, what they think of something you’ve written, or anything else on your mind. You’ll notice that our cadre of Featured Faculty covers a wide range of expertise, including medical, legal, genre writing, editing, marketing, and more. See http://www.floridawriters.net/uploads/Faculty_bios_workshops_2013_05_09.pdf.
4. Pitch practice sessions. If you ever plan to pitch your work, we suggest you book an interview with Chantelle Osman. Although Chantelle’s company specializes in screenplays, she’s qualified and willing to coach writers of all genres. You may purchase sessions of 15 or 30 minutes. News flash: Chantelle is also offering a three-hour workshop on pitching the day before the conference: Thursday, October 17. See http://shop.floridawriters.net/category.sc?categoryId=36.
5. Interview with agent, publisher, or acquisition editor. Here you’ll have ten minutes to pitch your work. These agents and publishers are actively seeking clients, so if you pitch them, we suggest you be prepared! Many resources offer tips, including our own FWA blog: http://floridawriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/pitching-and-querying-words-from-an-agent/, http://floridawriters.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/pitching-at-the-conference-start-preparing-now/. It’s important also to research your target agent or publisher to understand what they want. See http://shop.floridawriters.net/category.sc?categoryId=32.

In future posts, we’ll spotlight particular faculty and opportunities. The conference, BTW, runs from October 18-20, 2013, at the Orlando Marriott Lake Mary. Check the FWA website, www.floridawriters.net, for details.

 Do you want meet with a faculty member? What questions would you ask about writing or publishing? What tips would you like?

OMICS Publishing Group has threatened to sue University of Colorado research librarian Jeffrey Beall, for one billion dollars over blog posts in which Beall called them predatory. According to Beall, OMICS charges professors trying to publish their work a handling fee that requires them to pay thousands of dollars if their work is published. OMICS is an Indian-based publisher, and the legal threat came from an Indian law firm. According to The New York Times, OMICS charges authors as much as $2,700 to publish a paper.

What this means to Jeffrey Beall: According to the threat, he could get arrested if he ever goes to India. It also gives him a chance to work on his Dr. Evil imitation (with a slight adjustment).

What this means to you: It’s further proof that you need to beware and read the fine print of any contract you consider signing with anyone in this industry. The drive to publish in academia is at least as strong as the drive we face to publish. That means desperation, which means predatory business practices. And there’s always the Dr. Evil thing.

Apple, DOJ (surprise!) disagree in filings before lawsuit filing

In a shocking development (you should be shocked, I tell you), Apple and the Department of Justice have filed substantially different versions of the events that led to the adoption of the agency model for e-book pricing. According to the DOJ, Apple was the ringleader in the collusion, pushing the publishers (who’ve settled with the DOJ) to accept the new pricing model. The DOJ brief included references to Apple’s alleged attempts to push HarperCollins, Random House, and Penguin to the agency model. According the Apple’s brief, the publishers had already decided to end the heavy discount of e-books before Apple approached them. The trial is slated to begin on June 3.

What this means to you: Overall, it doesn’t mean much. It’s a filing before the trial. Given that the publishers have settled already, the after-effects of the trial are probably limited. The pricing approach for e-books doesn’t seem to have shifted a lot, though. The ultimate outcome of the trial, however, could affect Amazon’s long-term influence over e-book pricing.

For the first time, kids dig e-books more than hard copy

In the Star Trek universe, the Borg are formerly humans, assimilated into an computer-organic collective. Resistance, the Borg say, is futile. A recent study of 8-to-16-year-olds in the UK indicates that the Borg encroaching on us in the real world, as well. The study has found that for the first time, kids who use read with electronic devices outnumber kids using physical books, 39 to 28 percent. However, the kids who read physical books are nearly twice as likely to be above-average readers than those using e-books. Kids who read physical books are nearly four times more likely to say they enjoy reading as those using electronic means.

What this means to you: Based on our family’s experience, your mileage may vary. The first book my son (14 at the time) got for his Nook was Moneyball, not something below-average readers his age would embrace. Assuming it doesn’t vary, it could mean that you need to follow what the National Literacy Trust, which ran the survey, suggests and work with your kids to read more physical books. But it also re-enforces a point that’s been made about a gazillion times about the digital revolution and attention spans, for all ages. As our lives become more digital and faster paced, what we digest has gotten shorter and less complex.

I was wrong.

And if you hold to those “truths,” odds are very good that you’re wrong, too. It took writing professionally to figure this out.

I’m actually bad at a lot of things. I can’t hit a curveball worth a damn. Or throw one. I can’t do scrimshaw very well and I’m absolutely horrible at painting pictures. My long game stinks and my short game is actually worse. And if you listened to me try to play the piano, you’d double your respect for Stevie Wonder and Ronnie Milsap.

All of these things have one very important thing in common–hitting a baseball, scrimshaw, painting, and golfing aren’t things I’ve worked at. There are people who can do all those things, and while many of them are blessed with talent in those areas, they also work at them. A lot.

Take a look at guys who play baseball for a living. They’ve practices for tens of thousand of hours. They wear out the nets they’re hitting baseballs into. They go through hundreds of balls and maybe dozens of bats. They’re the kids whose mothers call them in because it’s too late, or too cold, or raining to hard. They work at it harder than anyone thinks is reasonable and appropriate. And then when they finish that, they work on it some more.

It’s the same with revisions and proofreading. The reason I suck at revisions and proofreading is that I do what’s reasonable and I move onto the next thing. I don’t do the equivalent of hitting while it’s too late or too cold or raining too hard.

It’s quite simple. The way you do revisions is that you do it, and then you do it again. And then you do it again. And you make notes as you go through, where you call out things that might not fit with other things. Then you do compare those things. And then you fix them and read it again. And then you read it again and look for other things that might not fit together and resolve them. And then you do it again and again and again and again.

You do it until it’s as close to perfect as you can possibly get it.

And to be honest, I haven’t done those things. I guess I’ve been lazy. Or misinformed. Or naive.

In reality, it doesn’t matter what I’ve been. It matters what I know now and what I do with it.

How about you? Are you doing everything you should for revisions? Proofing? Writing?

If not, why not?

Because if you’re going to make it, you’ve got to be that kid down the street with blisters on his hands and a mom who thinks he’s nuts to be standing out in the rain hitting a baseball for the 43 millionth time.

My body looks better than ever, even to non-blind people, but I still struggle with the pushups. This time, as I got deep into the workout, rather than do half-assed push-ups the manly way, I went to my knees and did “girl push-ups.” Or, better put, I did the right exercise. I got more benefit from the supposed cheater push-ups done well than I did from the real push-ups done poorly. The burn I felt after in my arms and chest was like an old friend.

Then this morning, I did Pure Cardio, part of the Insanity series. Most of Insanity consists of a program where you bust your butt as hard as you can for three minutes, then you get a break. Pure Cardio is 14 minutes of straight exercises. I used to be able to make it through about 13 minutes before taking a break. Today I made it through about seven. And I barely made it through the last exercise. (The people on the DVD are wasted at the end, too, but they do the thing all the way through.)

My lessons:

• It is good to work out.
• When you start back lay off, you can’t expect the same level of accomplishment as you had before.
• Working out is a pain, but how you feel after makes the entire thing worth the effort.
• Because I’m no longer young, I need to stretch once a week for my workout.

All of these things have, of course, writing equivalents.

• It is good to write. Duh.
• When you start back after a lay off, you can’t expect the same level of accomplishment as you had before. In fact, you may trudge through and produce something you can use to grow a garden. The product isn’t the key when you first start back. The process is. Anything good you produce is a bonus. And if you have to do the writing equivalent of a knee push-up, whatever that is for you, do it.
• Writing can be a pain, but how you feel after make the entire thing worth the effort.
• Regardless of your age, you need to stretch. Write something different–a poem or even a haiku. Write a blog post or a letter to a friend. And if you’re breaking from writing, read.

Even the most prolific writers have periods when they don’t “work out.” It’s a lot harder to get back into things if you go back with realistic expectations.

But it’s a very human feeling to find something attractive where you hadn’t ought to be looking. It could be any object of your affection–a new piece of clothing or electronics you don’t need and can’t afford, a to-die-for pastry when your pants are pretty tight (and not in a sexy way), or even that person who’s just perfect for you–if it weren’t for the other one you’re saddled down with already.

Temptation is a cruel mistress. She will not, as the saying goes, be ignored.

And therein lies the problem. The dress or new electronics gadget costs more than you have. The button holding your pants up could put someone’s eye out if you eat that cream puff. And the other–well, just take a look at the lovely and affable Glenn Close, ladies and gentlemen. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here.)

Today’s assignment is to put your character in just such a situation. Let them take the leap and enjoy the sensually warm water. Then let them discover how deep it is, and how hard it is to get out.

Time limit: 30 minutes

Because you can’t click a link in a screen shot and go anywhere (heaven knows I’ve tried), here’s a link to the article. The author, Muhammed Yunus, the guy who invented microloans, says that because science can often follow science fiction, we should have social fiction that advances society the way science fiction advances technology.

First of all, I’d debate that we don’t have social fiction. Perhaps the second most famous science fiction franchise ever, Star Trek is as much social fiction as science fiction. In the 1960s, when Star Trek debuted, Henry Aaron was still almost a decade away from getting death threats for hitting home runs when William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols engaged in television’s first inter-racial kiss.

Star Trek featured a Russian character during the height of the cold war–and got quite a joke out of it when he spent time looking for nuclear wessels in Alameda. And in the Star Trek world, people worked for fulfillment, not to pay the bills. That’s as much social fiction as science fiction.

The question in my mind isn’t whether there’s social fiction, or should be. It’s whether we have the responsibility to forward social improvement as part of our writing work. Is our first responsibility to society or to the story?

It’s a question this blog can’t answer for you. But there are some precedents–and I’ll use TV, which is likely to be a little more universal experience. We’ve covered Star Trek. Remember the one with the people who looked like black-and-white cookies? For all it’s ground-breaking formula, Star Trek could be kind of preachy. Remember the one with the people who looked like black-and-white cookies?

The West Wing was run by Aaron Sorkin, an unabashed liberal, and it made its point, but at least through the end of season two, has never gotten so preachy, it turned me off. His newer effort, The Newsroom, may not share that even-handedness, as its been bashed for sancitmony and smugness by media critics, who tend to be well left of Rush Limbaugh.

Even Cheers, which no one could confuse with socially conscious entertainment, had an episode that covered gay rights, without punching you in the face about it. (At least I didn’t feel punched in the face.)

For my money, the responsibility is to the story first, then to the social message. Personally, I have no problem working my stances on gay rights into my stories. Personally, it’s none of my business who you’re attracted to, as long as the object of your affection is a consenting adult. In my opinion, the 14th amendment covers the issue from a civil standpoint, and from a moral standpoint, that’s between you and God. I don’t have the tools. But that’s just me. Your mileage may vary and probably does, and that’s what we do in a free society.

In  other words, whatever your stance on social issues, if you don’t examine that stance as a natural part of the piece you’re writing–if your dedication to the social issue is strong than your dedication to the story and its character, you’ll make even Aaron Sorkin (or Rush, if that’s more your speed) gag on the message.

I had long dismissed short stories as training wheels, unnecessary for talented writers who could ride a big-boy bike. After all, I was the guy who kicked butt at every single prompt-writing exercise. All I had to do was figure out a way to capture that magic for 300 pages.

That’s all I had to do.

That’s all.

It turns out, that’s quite a lot. The prompt-writing magic was pure inspiration. It was me at my best, creating a different world out of nothing in the space of twenty minutes or so, playing upon my readers’ emotions like Yo Yo Ma. But getting from that to a salable book isn’t about inspiration. It’s work. It’s going over the damned thing again and again. It’s testing every word to make sure it’s right, then testing it again. Then, when you get done with that, you test it a third time.

Then you get to work.

That’s how you turn from 20 minutes of inspiration to a book people want to read. But life is about learning and that’s something I didn’t really learn until I got to writing short stories. The 20 minutes of inspiration were just the beginning. Even the things I wrote that I thought were good–and they were, for first drafts–had little flaws that required me to go over then time and again. Under a microscope, this character wouldn’t have done that. And that little detail I threw in to add some depth really just added confusion.

I spent five or six times the amount of time editing and changing things than I did writing. And that’s for a 1300-word short story.

There’s a reason some of the top authors around, guys like, you know, Stephen King, cut their teeth writing short stories before graduating to long fiction.

It turns out short stories aren’t just training wheels. But if your goal is to write a novel, they are a good place to cut your teeth and learn more about the craft.

It can’t hurt.

Workshop topics run the gamut from “Pitching Nonfiction” to “How to Monetize Your Blog” to “Self-Publishing Simplified!” and more. Interview with any faculty, including Chad Rhoad, acquisition editor for The History Press, and Katharine Sands, literary agent for Sarah Jane Freymann Literary. Ms. Sands donated one of the door prizes—review of a query and first pages of a manuscript, so you’ll won’t want to miss the door prize drawings.

Details on the Nonfiction Mini-Conference, including the program, are posted on the FWA website: www.floridawriters.net. Questions, contact ConferenceMarketing@FloridaWriters.net.

What:
Nonfiction Mini Conference

When:
June 22, 2013 8:00am-5:00pm

Where:
University Club
841 N Park Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32789

Cost:
$60 Members
$80 Nonmembers

When novelist JT Ellison, who’s writing doesn’t betray a radical political stance of any sort, linked to a story on it, I read and finally decided to write.

Men are far more likely to have their work reviewed in places like The New York Times Book Review than women.

JT Ellison

The numbers are there to support the accusation. From summer 2008 to summer 2010, 62% of the books reviewed in the New York Times Book Review were by male authors. During that time period, of the 101 books reviewed both in the Book Review and the daily edition, 72 were by men. During this time, Stephenie Meyer’s fourth book, Breaking Dawn was released, along with a Harry Potter short story, sold separately as its own work. Barbara Walters and Elizabeth Edwards published books, along with Michelle Malkin and Sarah Palin. Jodi Picoult released two books. Mark Sanford’s wife also published a book about her life with him, the cheating former governor of South Carolina.

What got me to write about this, though, was the story Ms. Ellison linked to. I don’t normally read The Nation. In fact, given my political stances, I may not be allowed to read The Nation.

In the article, Deborah Copaken Kogan speaks about how her latest novel, The Red Book, is on the list for the Britain’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. According to some, the prize is sexist, because men can’t win. Author Tim Lott called it a “sexist con-trick.” Some of the numbers he recites support his argument to a degree. But Kogan’s story is about more than numbers. It’s about marketing and niches and what she perceives as serious inequities in the way her books are treated relative to similar work by men.

Deborah Copaken Kogan

Sexism isn’t a comfortable subject to discuss. For every study that says women are paid x% of what men make, there are other studies that list some of the reasons that’s so–and many of those reasons don’t have to do with sexism. But you can’t read Ms. Kogan’s work without squirming at least a little.

I know I can’t fix this. I don’t tend to ready the New York Times book reviews anyway. I probably should, but if I did all the things I should, I would need a 96-hour day. But the complaint seems valid.

What’s your experience?

Okay, so good day. I’m yer, uhh, guest blogger, Bob McKenzie and this is my brother Doug.

How’s it goin’, eh?

Okay, so good day. Our topic today on, like, the blog is writing, eh?

Take off, it is not. It’s writing dialog, you knob.

Right. I forgot, eh? Our topic today is writing dialog. ‘Cause my brother and I are, like experts in the field.

You’re an expert in the field of getten’ loaded, eh?

Take off. Okay, so the thing to do when you write dialog is, like, don’t write like a dialect ’cause that can be, like distracting, eh? So that’s that fer t’day, so g’day.

There’s more to it, hosehead.

Like what, eh?

Well, like take a look at us.

Geez, I’d rather not, eh?

Most people don’t even know who we are, eh? Like our TV show, The Great White North, AKA Kanadian Korner, stopped runnin on SCTV like 30 years ago, eh? And our movie came out 30 years ago. So people don’t know, eh?

What about our hit single? It was top ten, eh?

Yeah, like the year after Justin Timberlake was born, you hoser. So you can’t do, like a dialect in your dialog because people won’t know.

Well, like, some people know us. Or at least they know me. I’ll just change my clothes and say “Okay, who brought the dog?” and people will remember me from Ghostbusters. Lewis Tully, eh? That was a beauty movie, and I got to make out with, like Sigourney Weaver, eh?

Yeah, when youse were both dogs, you knob.

It was still Sigourney Weaver.

It was good for me, eh?

Okay, even though, like sophisticated people find us funny, most people don’t know, eh? And like a little bit of dialect fer those people goes a long way.

Okay, so that’s our topic fer t’day.

Hey, this is a blog so people don’t even know if we’re naked.

Take off, they do too.

Me and my brother here are nude.

I was nude with Sigourney Weaver, eh?

Yeah, like under five feet of cement after they crossed the streams, eh.

It was still Sigourney Weaver.

Yeah, and youse was covered in three tons of marshmallow fluff.

Hey, don’t knock it, ’til you’ve tried it, eh.

So that’s our blog fer t’day.

Good day.

Good day, eh?

Alex Sokoloff

If there’s one constant, that constant is change.

Hey, wake up! I know it’s a cliche, but it’s a cliche for a reason. And that reason has been on display in the social media world practically since its invention. Remember MySpace? How about Google Plus? Squidoo?

They’re still around, but try to find someone who uses them heavily. If you’re looking for traffic, you’re probably using Facebook and Twitter. Maybe you’re blogging.

Blogging isn’t new. Blogger, the first huge blogging platform, was launched in 1999 and bought by Google in 2003. WordPress, the host for this blog, was launched in 2005. In terms of social media, that’s forever. This specific blog’s been active for four years, or about half the time that WordPress has existed. People are still blogging. Authors blog as an arm of their marketing effort.

But in one of the last posts on the Murderati blog, author Alexandra Sokoloff makes the following observations:

And the truth is, writers don’t seem to have enough time to blog any more. It feels like diminishing returns, when there’s a fast and easy alternative conversation on Facebook. The technology has changed. The conversation has moved.  We’re having to reinvent.

Remember chat rooms and bulletin boards? Ms. Sokoloff points out that Facebook made them largely redundant. Sure there are still hugely popular bulletin boards. In the political world, Democratic Underground and Free Republic still garner lots of traffic.

iBut If you’re looking for a place to go have a conversation, you probably go to Facebook. Facebook doesn’t limit your conversation to how evil and stupid the other political party is. It allows for more interaction than a blog and it’s more egalitarian. On the blog, the conversation is primed (or not) by what the author of the post has to say. He or she is dominant. If the blog post is about the future of blogging and you want to talk about how to develop a character’s backstory in a compelling way, you’re out of luck.

On Facebook or Twitter, you can talk about whatever you want. And sometimes people will respond. But you can do so without worrying about whether you populated your blog today.

Most important, if you’re an author, you may be able to get the same bang for your buck on Facebook with a lot less effort–and it’s a hell of a lot more interactive. You engage more with your readers. (I know I’m more likely to buy a book from an author who’s talked specifically to me. How about you?)

Is blogging going away? Probably not. There are niche blogs that will be popular for as long as they last. For us, it’s blogs like Rachelle Gardner’s and Nathan Bransford’s. You name the niche, it has a few dominant blogs. But the dominant venue for conversation will continue to evolve. And if you’re looking to stretch your time so you can do the writing and marketing required, then you have to consider what Alex Sokoloff says.

Get writing, you must.

May Day has a wagon-load of historical associations. Me? I’m going with the Pagan Fertility Rites (’cause, why not, if you can, right?). You have a character that wants to create something new in his life–but has been meeting with a lot of resistance.

First, decide what he wants to bring into his life; then, make a list of several ways the Universe has not cooperated; finally . . . let him consult an oracle or visit a Voodoo Priestess or sneak into a coven of witches or make a pilgrimage to a circle of standing stones to enact a rite (or give him any other way you can think of to ask for help that’s outside the norm of reason and religion).

Does it work?

Enjoy taking a walk on the wild side.
Have fun! And I’ll see you in October!
Jamie Morris,
Director of Woodstream Writers

But a lot of people really dig Pinterest, and if it’s out there and there’s social media attached to it, you can use it to market your book.

Given my lack of getting it, I’m probably not the best person to write a post on how to use Pinterest to market your book. One of the best parts about the Internet is that it’s a big place, and many of the people there are pretty smart.

Rachelle Gardner is one of them, and she recently had a guest blogger–another pretty smart person–write about how to use Pinterest to market your book.

The key to the growing options for social media is making them fit together in a new way to elevate your work. For instance, if you travel and write about it, you could post pictures to Pinterest and write a blog featuring the same pictures. You link the blog to Facebook, and there you go–three social media sites nailed with one set of content.

As publishing for most of us becomes more and more of a cottage industry, the key is finding ways to make your product stand out above others. In that way, we might have more in common with the local baker whose pies everyone in the area knows, than we do with Stephen King.

Perhaps it’s time to stop viewing ourselves solely as artists and start thinking of ourselves as small businesses.

Image credit: Taiga / 123RF Stock Photo

You’ve slaved over your novel, your magazine article, or your query, and now you’re sending it out. Are your communications with publishing industry professionals going to exhibit the same level of care you’ve put into your work?

In my one-on-one work with clients and as an editor for a print publication and several e-newsletters, I receive a lot of email from writers. Managing all that email is challenging. I love hearing from writers. But  I often imagine what it would be like for an agent, publisher, or  magazine editor who is dealing with hundreds of queries a day to receive some of the emails I do. How can you help these professionals manage their mail? And how can even your most routine communications help you to be seen as a professional writer?

SHOW YOUR PROFESSIONALISM IN DOCUMENTS

Always include your name and the title of your book or article in the header of every page of your manuscript, unless specifically instructed otherwise, as in the case of contest when there is blind judging. Don’t make the recipient have to search for your name.

Don’t ever distribute a manuscript without page numbers. Do I have to explain why? Just don’t do it.

Don’t label the document file you’re sending “novel” or “article” or “submission.” You’re not the only one who labels her file “novel_final,”  either. Similarly, don’t label the image files you’re sending with “image” or “photo” or, my favorite, “me.”

It’s a better idea to give the files you’re sending a label that is both descriptive of its contents and uniquely you. If you’re sending to an agent you’re trying to attract, for example, you might label the file with your name and the book’s genre. You may have your own system for labeling your computer files, and that’s fine. But when you’re sending files out to others, make sure the labels work for them.

Yes, I can add the page numbers or change the file name on my end, and I do. But remember, industry professionals—agents, publishers, magazine editors, and contest holders—receive mountains of mail. Make it easy for them to work with your material and distinguish your queries from all the others they receive.

SHOW YOUR PROFESSIONALISM IN EMAILS

There are all sorts of free email addresses out there, and most Internet providers allow you to have several email addresses, so there’s really no excuse not to have an email address that you use solely for communications related to your writing career. When communicating with industry professionals:

Don’t use an address you share with a family member. Let me tell you from experience, hilarity and confusion and embarrassment can ensue.

Don’t use your work email address. An agent or a contest may not respond to you right away. Can you be sure you’ll be in the same job six months from now?

Don’t use autoresponders. You wrote to me, and when I reply, I receive an automatic message that makes me fill out a form before my email is delivered to you, and it always takes me three or four tries with the captcha code to get through. I’m going to do it, because I want your business, but can you be sure that the agent who read your partial will? Autoresponders that say things like “thank you for your mail” are useless—and annoying. No one needs that extra, impersonal email.

Think twice about using an email handle that’s silly, political, a double entendre, or gobbledygook. Is that really how you want to identify yourself in the industry? In addition, make sure your full name appears in your message “from” line. (Send yourself an email to check if you’re unsure what appears.) I’m surprised at how many people don’t show their full names—and then don’t sign their emails with their full names, either. Joe? Which Joe would that be?

Don’t send attachments of any kind, unless they’re requested. Attachments can set off spam blocks in many email programs, and this may be especially true for organizations that receive a lot of mail like literary agencies or publishers. That cute photo of yourself or the book shot you attach to every single email might be your shortcut to the junk heap. And think about it. Have you ever heard of an author being signed because the publisher liked his photo?

Do not include your industry contacts in the distribution for your joke, religious, or political forwards, your holiday letter, or your social media invitations.

Remember, every communication with an agent, publisher, or magazine editors is an opportunity to increase your name recognition and demonstrate that you’re the type of individual they’d love to work with. Take full advantage of that opportunity and impress them with your professionalism.
______________________________
Mary Ann de Stefano is a writer, editor, and organizer of writing workshops with 30 years of experience in publishing and writing consulting. Besides working one-on-one with writers who are developing books, she builds websites and advises on e-marketing. Mary Ann does business at MAD about Words, named as a play on her initials and love for writing.

The bad news:

The good news! St. Martin’s Press bestselling mystery writer Michael Wiley has stepped up to the plate! And, oh, did we mention his last book won the 2012 Best Hardback PI Novel Shamus Award? He’s enthusiastic to work with us.

• As keynoter for our Friday dinner
• As workshop presenter—get this: his workshop is entitled, “A Life of Crime (Writing)”
• As 2013 Collections Person of Renown
• As a mentor to members who purchase one-on-one interviews with him at the conference—heck, yes, let’s pick his brain!

About Michael. Michael is the author of A Bad Night’s Sleep (St. Martin’s Press, June 2011), The Bad Kitty Lounge (St. Martin’s Press, 2010) and the Shamus-nominated, PWA/SMP award-winning Last Striptease (St. Martin’s Press 2007). He is writing a fourth novel in the series, which features Chicago Detective Joe Kozmarski, as well as a standalone mystery set in the wetlands of northern Florida.

He teaches literature at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. As part of this other life, he has published Romantic Geography (Macmillan-St. Martin’s Press) and Romantic Migrations (Palgrave Macmillan). (No one shot at him when he was writing either of them.) Find out more at http://www.michaelwileyonline.com/index.html.

As a college professor and award-winning author, Michael is giving and eager to help writers of all genres. He’s also a speaker-in-demand, so on Friday, get ready for entertainment and inspiration.

About “The Greatest Writers Conference on Earth.” The FWA annual conference, “The Greatest Writers Conference on Earth” (our theme), will be held October 18-20, 2013, at the Orlando Marriott Lake Mary. The schedule is packed, and opportunities abound for you to find your agent, meet your publisher, and get the scoop on the latest developments in our industry. For details and to register, please see our website, www.floridawriters.net. Questions? Contact ConferenceMarketing@ForidaWriters.net.

Sidebar: “A Life of Crime (Writing).” Workshop Description: We’re all aware that truth sometimes is stranger than fiction and that the best fiction offers many of the greatest truths. This workshop will help participants make their fictional worlds, characters, and plots plausible or even necessary truths. We will discuss strategies for writing realistic places, making up characters that our readers are sure they know and love, and keeping stories straight and believable – in short, getting our readers to believe our most extraordinary and creative lies.

What can a mystery writer bring to other genres?
If you had one question to ask a famous mystery writer, what would it be?

Hachette has become the latest publisher to soften its stance on offering ebooks to libraries, following Simon & Schuster and Macmillan earlier this year. The Hachette program will offer ebooks at the same time as paper editions, but will charge libraries three times the cost of the hardcover book for a one-year license for the book. Maureen Sullivan, president of the American Library Association, applauded the move, saying it will help patrons with e-readers enjoy the same access as other patrons. Alan Inouye, director of ALA’s Office of Information Technology Policy wasn’t as ecstatic, saying that libraries aren’t getting a great deal for the cost of the ebook.

What this means to you: If you like Stephanie Meyer or Malcolm Gladwell, you’re in luck. Now, all of the Big Six have some sort of program that allows libraries to lend ebooks, though the terms vary depending on publisher. Overall, this is good news for libraries and their patrons. Whether it’s good new for you as an author depends on whether your books is offered to libraries digitally. If it is, having the Big Six offer their books builds the awareness that might help sell your book to libraries.

Authors sue Author Solutions

Author Solutions (owned by Penguin) is being sued by three authors who allege its business practices are deceitful. The suit charges that AS misrepresents itself as an independent publisher, when in reality, they are a “print-on-demand vanity press” that doesn’t deliver on its promises, purposely allows errors to allow for further fees, and fails to pay its authors their royalties. The plaintiffs are petitioning to convert the suit into a class action, which could result in other defendants joining the suit. For its part, Author Solutions is denying the charges, saying that it has received an A rating from the Better Business Bureau. The judge hearing the case, Denise Cote, is also hearing the collusion suits against Apple and five of the Big Six.

What this means to you: Author Solutions is not favored by Writer Beware and not recommended by Preditors and Editors (scroll down), both of whom have good reputations for looking out for authors. If you choose to self-publish, you should carefully vet your choice with these resources and other writers before you get started.

TOR celebrates one year without DRM

It’s been a year since sci-fi and fantasy publisher rocked the publishing world by removing digital rights management (DRM) software from its books. DRM is the software that limits the number of copies you can make of a specific book. TOR dropped the DRM protection largely because it doesn’t protect against piracy (at least, according to TOR) and it irritates a large number of its readers, many of whom are technically savvy. According to TOR the overall experience of removing DRM has been positive. Readers and authors alike reacted positively to the change (at least according to TOR).

What this means to you: For honest people this is great news. You won’t be limited in the number of copies of books you can make. If you’re a pirate, screw you and you can make as many copies as you want and give them away. For these fans, the loyalty received from readers outweighed the risks. That may not be true across the board. There doesn’t seem to be a huge rush to copy TOR.

Okay, I exaggerate a little. But not a lot. A published author sat down with my work and read it all the way through with the soul intent of giving me feedback. Helping me. This person didn’t just read it the way you read a standard mystery novel. There was thought applied and time spent considering things. It was a major unsolicited gift, a precious thing. It was something I’ll always be thankful for.

On the other hand, one of the reasons I left a critique group a few years back was the quality of the critiques of my work. I got back notes that there were grammatical errors. Considering the book was written in first person, you have to expect some of those. In first person, the narrator is a character, speaking to you. Unless he’s Higgins, from Magnum, PI, there are going to be some grammatical errors.

Ohhhhhhhhhh myyyyyyyyyyyy gawd! You’ve split an infinitive again! How could you?

Then there was “It’s fine.”

Dude, I spent 45 minutes on your work and you come back to me with ‘It’s fine.’

Or pointing out issues and getting batch after batch of work with the same issues and the statement “I’m just screwing around.”

As a former boss of mine once said, “Feedback is a gift.” For writers, it’s a valuable gift. When it’s feedback you don’t pay for, it’s an exceedingly valuable gift. Other writers have the same time pressures you do. Most of them have outside jobs. Families. Bathtubs to replace. When writers are generous, and most of them are, they’re putting you before some of their writing and on the same level as all the other stuff they need to get done.

They’re investing in your improvement.

If you’re a new writer, this might not occur to you. You don’t know what you’re doing and you’re eager to find out what you don’t know. Asking questions is good. Asking well is better. Don’t ask until you’ve done your homework and you’re stuck. Or unless it’s something you can’t know with out their experience. If it’s something you can research, don’t ask.

And don’t ask with the expectation of getting a response. A yes answer or a helpful response is, as mentioned, a gift. People aren’t obligated to give gifts. Gifts given out of obligation aren’t gifts, they’re payment.

And finally, and most important, say thank you. Buy their book. If you liked it, say so publicly. Let them know you recognize their actions as a gift and you appreciate that gift.

The writing friendship you develop may benefit you in ways you never imagined.

Which came first, the writer or the marketer?

Big question these days.

What does a new-to-publishing food writer know about this dilemma?

Last week, I snagged my first paid food-writing column with a weekly newspaper. Then Chris Hamilton invited me to get out of my kitchen, away from my laptop and camera, and share my story.

I’d like to dissect the cause and consequence of my first question.

There are two possibilities. You can be a writer, and not a marketer, (probably not the smartest route to take,) and technically, you can be a marketer and not a writer (although a marketer needs the same skills as a writer, one word in front of the other).

Neither option is desirable without the other in today’s publishing world.

You see, just a few years ago, I knew little about writing a novel, a memoir, or a recipe. I knew less about publishing, and discipline. In 2009, my experience with writing was weekly seafood reports, monthly market recaps, and the old college thesis for the District Attorney’s office thirty years past. I was a burned-out sales and marketing rep and wanted to be a “writer.”

Then something happened. Insert three-chord organ riff. One night my husband, Elvis, Googled “Florida writing coach,” and I put down the NY Times, and minutes later, found Woodstream Writers and Jamie Morris.

Within weeks, I’d signed up for a one-on-one, and eventually joined Woodstream’s weekly writing workshops.

In 2010, I joined the Florida Writer’s Association. My goals were similar to yours perhaps: meet new friends, possibly a mentor, and attend cool conferences to listen to the sage advice of other writerly types.

During my first FWA pre-conference seminar on Social Media, I discovered I knew a little something. I had a social media presence, meaning, my blog ranked at the top of the Google page, and I contributed and shared marketing/Social Media tidbits with the conference instructor, Chris Hamilton.

Armed with a blog, a Twitter account, and a Facebook page, I was the poster child (in my mind) of a marketer turned writer. I tweeted, blogged, and told everyone who would listen, “I am a writer.” My projects included a cookbook, a food memoir, and then when there was a rash of break-ins in my neighborhood, I joined NaNoWriMo to begin a murder mystery, my first novel.

It didn’t matter my work sucked. I had marketing skills.

I got this, I remember thinking.

Except I didn’t.

Writing, like Social Media, takes time.

Both are a process. Both require patience. Both need scheduled. Blended together they become the recipe for success in the writing and publishing world.

Now I write, and I market. Both involve my kitchen timer.

—–

Maureen C. Berry is a freelance food writer and blogger. She writes the weekly food column, “Around the Table with Maureen,” for Western Kentucky Review. She blogs Seafood Lady: fresh fish and other fishy business  and Cuisine by Maureen. She’s working on her food memoir, Hurricanes, Handcuffs, Pepper Spray, and Scrambled Eggs: an unexpected culinary adventure. Maureen lives in Western Kentucky with her husband and their wire fox terrier, Reagan. You can find out more about her at www.maureencberry.com and @SeafoodLadyOrl.

Imagine being in a relationship with someone–a long-term, lasting relationship, and knowing that you’re not all that the want. Life only happens once and when you know that you’re a disappointment to your partner, parent, child–when a gap is left in their lives because you’re…well, you, there’s an emotional wallup there. Or not.

How would your character feel with that knowledge? Would he be devastated? Would she not care? Would she be correct in her assessment? Would the disappointment be realistic and appropriate?

This is heavy-duty lifelong disappointment we’re talking about. Not something minor, like when my wife is disappointed because I left the towel hanging over the shower-curtain rod. Or my disappointment that she likes burnt-tasting bitter coffee.

Time limit: 25 minutes.

Tomorrow, we move into the middle third of 2013. In other words, it’s a great time to review the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year, if you did such a thing, and figure out where you are against them.

That’s not hyperbole. It’s truth.

We’re far enough into the year that you can’t look at what’s happened so far and call it a fluke. It’s been four complete months. That’s almost enough time to make half a baby. It’s been 120 days. If you haven’t gotten much done, but you’ve seen every single episode of The Big Bang Theory, including the reruns, maybe you need to spend some time in the thinking chair.

The thinking chair

On the other hand, you’ve got 240 entire days left until it’s time to pop the cork and bid 2013 a fond farewell. In other words, if you’ve been doing very little, there’s still time to make this year the best year yet.

If you’re on track with your goals, awesome. Go write. You deserve the time.

If you aren’t, here are some strategies to help you do better in the remainder of the year:

• Take stock of what you actually do. Seriously. Write down how you spend your time. If you’re trying to lose weight, you might decide to write down everything you eat. If you’re trying to spend less, you can write down everything you spend. If you’re trying to free up time for writing, write down how you spend your time. Maybe you’ll find out that you really are that busy and you’re going to be until school’s out. If that’s the case, you can be busy with a clear conscience. You really are doing the best you can. If you’re screwing off, then maybe it’s time to review the things you spend time on and drop some of the lower-priority items and replace them with writing.
• Take stock of what you’re trying to write. If you’re trying to write a novel and you have maybe half an hour every other day, it’ll be hard. By the time you figure out where you were and what you were doing, writing time’s over. Maybe you should try something shorter for now. Perhaps a short story fits your life better. Or a blog post. Or short poems. Sometimes you have to write what you can, instead of what you want to write.
• Forgive yourself. You’re reading this and you feel like a bad, bad writer. You’ve done all kinds of non-writing stuff, and barely a word’s been writing. You feel sheepish, like you’ve forsaken something important. Guess what? That’s why I wrote this post at the end of April, not the end of August. You have a long time left. You can still make out this year.

Happy May Day.

Get to work.

The second annual Writers Nest Mini-Conference April 20, 2013, in Altamonte Springs, Florida, was no exception. We had a full house for the event, which offered, among other things, some 13 workshops, pitching opportunities with two agents and two publishers, and a rousing keynote by award-winning YA author Adrian Fogelin. Workshop subjects ran the gamut, with topics including writing for various genres, preparing to enter FWA’s Royal Palm Literary Awards competition, writers’ legal issues, editing, pitch and query, and e-publishing and Kindle marketing.

Mini-conferences are one-day events offering a way for members to get together to hone their craft, pitch to agents, and hear workshops that interest them. FWA plans to hold several mini-conferences annually in various locales to supplement the three-day annual conference held in Orlando every October. The next mini-conference, scheduled for June 22 in Winter Park, Florida, will focus on nonfiction. Check out FWA’s Conferences tab on our website at www.floridawriters.net.

You don’t have to be an FWA officer or group leader to host a mini-conference. To learn more about future FWA mini-conferences or to find out how to host one in your area, please contact FWA president Chrissy Jackson at chrissyj@earthlink.net.

What do you think about the mini-conference concept? What would you like to see on future agendas? Any thoughts about future locales?

It didn’t hang open during the rest of the movie because I knew the story. Jackie Robinson went to UCLA where he was a star in multiple sports. He was in the Army and was almost court martialed. He played in the Negro Leagues and was hand-selected by Branch Rickey, then played a year in Montreal. Rickey selected Montreal because it wasn’t in the South and it would help Robinson ease into what was coming next.

I knew the story of Leo Durocher and his torrid love live with Lorraine Day, though his suspension was more related to gambling than the CYO’s issues with his marriage to Day.

I knew the story of Ben Chapman, the idiot manager of the Philadelphia Phillies and his obscene treatment of Robinson, and of how he requested a picture with Jackie under pressure. I know the story of Kirby Higbe, whose 22 wins helped rescue the Dodgers from obscurity, and how he was traded to the Pirates after refusing to play with Robinson. And how Pee Wee Reese publicly put his arm around Robinson at a game, which made things a little easier because Reese was from the south.

Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson

I know that the question where Jackie Robinson asked Rickey whether he wanted a man who was too weak to fight back and Rickey answered that he wanted a man who was strong enough to not fight back.

And I know that, if anything, the movie glossed over the amount of hatred and vitriol Jackie Robinson faced. By the time he retired–rather than being traded to the Giants after the 1956 season. Diabetes was already eating at him. I know he died in 1972 at the far-too-young age of 53. Officially, he died of a heart attack. Unofficially, it’s surmised he died because of the accumulated weight of the abuse he took when he integrated baseball.

A little less than a year and a half after Robinson’s death, I know that Henry Aaron received death threats because he was about to break Babe Ruth’s home run record, and the Aaron’s wife held her breath when two white men ran onto the field after Aaron homered of Dodgers pitcher Al Downing. It wound up that they were congratulating him.

I know all this because of the non-fiction I’ve read. It’s the non-fiction that makes Jackie Robinson the closest thing I have to a sports hero. It’s the non-fiction that let me know that the Boston Red Sox might not have broken generations of their fans’ hearts if they’d been a little less bigoted and signed Willie Mays to play the outfield next to Ted Williams, rather than passing on him and not fielding a black player until Pumpsie Green in 1959.

It’s the non-fiction that made me understand the men who were idolized all over the country–guys like Aaron and Willie Mays and Bob Gibson and Frank Robinson, still had to stay at separate hotels for far too long.

Sure it’s just baseball. But that baseball shaped a lot of my views of people, and who helped me see that guys like Aaron and Reggie Jackson and Eddie Murray and Dwight Gooden were just gifted ballplayers, and that the color of their skin didn’t change that. It’s the non-fiction that made me decide I didn’t want to be like Ben Chapman when I grew up.

FWA is bringing in a gifted artist and industry professional to help make your pitch the best it can be before you meet with the agents and publishers at FWA’s 12th annual conference. Working with this coach, one-on-one in 15- or 30-minute sessions, will help you deliver your perfect pitch to the person you most want to impress—the agent or publisher of your choice.

Who is this pitching coach? It is none other than Chantelle Aimée Osman of A Twist of Karma Entertainment, LLC, a distinctive film development and consultation company that provides consulting services for script editing, marketing, casting, and all other development aspects.

Although Chantelle’s company focuses on screen writing, her wide experience qualifies her to coach authors of all genres. Outside of her work with A Twist of Karma Entertainment, Chantelle is an award-winning mystery writer, whose numerous short stories and flash fiction have appeared online and in print. She is currently at work on two mystery novels, one based on her experiences in Hollywood. She is the founding member of the Anthony-nominated Sirens of Suspense blog, a group of award-winning authors who discuss all things writing and publishing, as well as a reviewer for the syndicated Poisoned Fiction Review. She has also served as editor for several successful anthologies, and judged short story writing contests.

Having worked with Chantelle, as well as FWA, I have seen the level of commitment and the personal touches that she brings to the task at hand, whether it is promotional graphic design, advice on self-promotion, or speaking at conferences. Breaking into the industry, whether through one of the big New York publishing houses or as an indie, is fraught with pitfalls, missteps that can destroy whatever chance of your acquiring representation and/or having your work accepted by a publisher.

With her experience in the publishing world and her contacts with topnotch authors and agencies, for all genres, Chantelle can guide you through your pitch, show you how to pick the right agent for you, target your pitch, and ramp up your confidence. As a consultant for writers of screenplays, she will listen to the pitch and work with you on making the pitch fit the synopsis and work through difficult or elusive plot points. By taking advantage of the opportunity to practice your pitch with Chantelle, along with the myriad of other opportunities provided by FWA at “The Greatest Writer’s Conference on Earth,” you will be several steps ahead of the competition and poised to unlock your potential as a successful author.

For more information or to sign up for an appointment, please visit the conference page.

Chantelle will also present a special pre-conference pitch workshop on Thursday, October 17, 2013, from 1:00-4:00 p.m. at the Orlando Marriott Lake Mary. Check the FWA website for details.

An avid reader, Susan Berry, is an aficionado of historical fiction, trains, the South, and the United Kingdom. Ripped from the headlines of newspapers from bygone eras aptly describes the source of her characters and plots. She is represented by Nicole Resciniti with the Seymour Agency. She is the registration chairperson for the Florida Writers Association, a member of the Georgia Writers Association and the newsletter editor for the Southeast Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. Susan can be reached at http://www.readsusanberry.wordpress.com.

A few weeks ago, we covered Amazon’s–and others’–plans to sell used ebooks. But the issues around used e-books are deeper and more complicated than they might appear at first glance. When we published a summary of the original article, some of the feedback we receive involved readers’ difficult in wrapping their head around the concept of used ebooks. It’s a difficulty that’s echoed by the author of a recent story in The Guardian (UK). The story goes beyond the writer’s struggle with the concept of used e-books to discuss the issues of changes around e-books and what amounts to piracy, that is, making a copy, then selling the original as a “used” e-book. It’s a complex and evolving set of issues.

What this means to you: With the digital revolution, a book has stopped becoming a physical thing and has become a virtual thing. To imagine a digital ebook, imagine that you had a magical duplication machine that could make another brand new copy of a physical book without requiring any materials. What’s more, you could theoretically change the book before you made another physical copy and then sell the copy and keep the original. That’s the quandary the article points out–and it’s unique to books. Sure, you could download an MP3 or a movie and duplicate it, and that would take value away from the rights holder. But the vast majority of people don’t have the means to modify a movie or song. But it’s not that hard to modify a book before you resell it. And once you change the book, it becomes something other than what the author and publisher originally sold. At some point, it becomes something different than what the rights holders own.

It’s also not like software in the sense that this year’s version of Microsoft Word will pale next to what Word’s like in five or ten years. The Great Gatsby is always going to be The Great Gatsby. There’s no Great Gatsby 2013 that comes with a slew of new features. I could probably buy a used copy of Word 2003, but who would want to? A used copy of software becomes devalued over time because of changes to the software. Books don’t work that way.

The question about when that happens is one of a myriad of other issues that have to be resolved.

Then again…

Based on current filings, you won’t be able to sell used ebooks in Germany and maybe not in the US, either. Just after a US court rejected ReDigi’s plans to resell used ebooks, a German court said purchasers can’t resell their ebooks. The German court rules that–wait for it–ebooks are different than software, which can be resold. The same court that struck down the ability to resell ebooks had previously struck down licensing provisions that prevented the resale of computer games. An appeal of the German decision is expected.

What this means to you: One aspect of this issue that hasn’t been widely discussed is the difference among different jurisdictions’ eventual laws governing used ebooks. Germany may uphold its decision to ban them altogether. China, which has notoriously lax intellectual property laws, may allow unlimited resale of used ebooks. What that means to industrious downloaders in, say, the United States, remains to be seen. As this plays out, writers and publishers may lose a decent amount of revenue. Although not every pirated copy of electronic content would have been bought if the users had to pay, but some of it would have been.

Women authors short-changed by Wikipedia?

If you look hard enough, there’s an undercurrent out that that says women don’t get equal treatment in many aspects of the publishing industry. There’s the whole issue about how and when book reviews are done in The New York Times Book Review, which we’ll cover in an upcoming post. And now Wikipedia may be chipping in. It seems that if you check its American Novelists page, you won’t find anyone who can stereptypically own a closet full of shoes or get angry at her husband for not wanting to buy a map when they’re lost. All the women are listed in American Women Novelists page. One snarky response seems to seek vengeance on novelists who can write their name in the snow by changing the name of the American Novelists page to reference their, uhhh, pencil.

What this means to you: In real terms, there probably aren’t huge numbers of sales lost because people go to the American Novelists page and don’t see women novelists. I suspect most people, when they try to decide what to read, make their way to the American Novelists page. But, as the upcoming post on the New York Times re-enforces, the charges of a double standard can’t be dismissed out of hand.

Note: After reading the comment below, I changed the header from shafted to short-changed. Having seen that response and thought the writer’s objection to my word choice in the header was reasonable, I changed it. I stand by the rest of the article.

I know the unique places to eat and I’ve been here long enough that I ‘remember when.’ Like remember when there was farmland in Town N Country? Remember when they called it The Ice Palace? Remember when they didn’t have that stupid roundabout in Clearwater Beach?

I still call it the Ice Palace.

And yet, for all that, if you ask where my heart is, it’s still in upstate New York. I’m one of those freaks who actually misses the snow in the winter time. There’s a certain kind of quiet that comes in the middle of a snow storm that you can’t find anywhere else. There’s a certain exhilaration to feeling the soft, wet grass chilling your feet when you run to the paper box in the morning before anyone else gets up. And there’s a certain joy to eating a breakfast sausage patty on a hard roll.

A hard roll. Something they just don’t have in Florida.

Sure you can take the rainy springs, 4:30 pm sunsets, and Genny Cream Ale and flush them. But the other stuff brands my heart, even though I don’t live there any more.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Similarly, I’m a Catholic. I get Catholicism. I identify with it. And when the faith is practiced as set forth in The Bible and The Catechism, it’s a truly beautiful thing. I miss gazing upon the Host, which has been transformed in the Jesus Himself, and saying, “Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I will be healed.”

All of these things are true in spite of my not practicing Catholicism in four years. They’re true even though I’ve become comfortable and started putting down some tentative roots at the Methodist church down the street.

Some things mark you long after they’re part of your life. Formerly fat people view themselves as fat decades after they lose the weight. Widows and widowers have a hard time viewing themselves as unmarried. People who were put down in childhood have a hard time seeing themselves as more than losers.

In other words, what’s real reality now isn’t necessarily real reality in the minds and hearts of the people experiencing it.

The same is true for your characters. Maybe the stunning beauty still views herself as the gawky, geeky kid with the cheap sneakers–the one the other girls shunned because of her looks. Maybe the successful businessman is driven by the many times he got beaten up in the back stairwell at school, because the jocks found him an easy mark. Maybe the mom everyone admires doesn’t figure she’s good at it because her mom told her she’d be awful at having kids.

Sometimes the most interesting thing about a character is the contradictory baggage they carry that no one else could see unless they looked incredibly closely.

As the author, it’s your job to be the person who sees it.

In our minds there is no sequence, no chronology.  Everything exists in the present.  It’s mixed together and turbid. There are no limits of tense or order.

With this in mind, write a poem or a prose poem where things are not sorted, revised or adjusted for time.   Catch the ideas as they occur to you, even if they are unrelated, and without putting them in order.

This can be like taking dictation from a nut case.  But don’t let that discourage you. After you write it, let the poem mellow for a while.   In a month or two read and revise the poem, preserving any strange things that happened because of the mixed sequence of the poem’s origin.

—–

Peggy Miller, an editor with The Comstock Review, has an MFA from American University. She has conducted poetry workshops for over 15 years. Her collections include What the Blood Knows was published in 2007 and Stone Being in 2009, both from Custom Words. Peggy has published a chapbook, Martha Contemplates the Universe, Frith Press, and a Greatest Hits chapbook from Pudding House. Visit her on Facebook.

My place of employment gives anniversary gifts for long periods of continued employment–and this year, I got an iPad mini for a decade of service. (I started work there at 16 years old.)

The iPad mini is approximately the size of a Nook tablet or a Kindle fire, but so far it blows my Nook away. Then again, my Nook is two years old. The iPad mini is thinner than the Nook and it has a ton more apps available. In my estimation, Barnes and Noble would have been better off working with a straight Android operating system, rather than an bastardized variant. Given B&N’s recent notice that they would de-emphasize the Nook, I wouldn’t expect a lot of new apps for it. Why develop for a dying platform? If B&N went with a standard Android OS, they’d get to use the apps already being developed.

I’ve got all the usual distractions–Netflix, Facebook, and MLB at Bat. It amazes me to watch a baseball game on a tablet computer when the first games I watched were on TVs that had to warm up, that featured vertical hold issues, that wonderful color-jumping sensation that happened if the Tint wasn’t adjusted correctly.

But, that’s not what this blog’s about. It’s about writing and the publishing industry.

One advantage of the iPad is the ability to read books from both the Nook and Kindle apps. Many books aren’t released in Nook format and I’ve passed up books because of that. No more. When I can, I’ll buy the Nook format. If I can’t, I’ll go with Kindle.

For writing, I really like the iPad, with one significant reservation–I hate the touchscreen keyboard. I hate it with the intensity of a million white-hot suns about to supernova. Fortunately, with iPads, you can dig deep and buy accessories, like a keyboard. The one I got cost $79. It’s a bluetooth model that has nice play and a magnetic connector that makes it a book cover and a stand. The only drawback is that it doesn’t close securely. For $10 more, I could have gotten something that does. We’ll see if that makes a difference.

Another nice difference is Pages, Apple’s Word-compatible word processor. I’ve previously used Quick Office and the entire suite was available for $7.99 at the time. If you want it now, it’s $14.99 for smart phones and $19.99 for tablets. You can get the Apple office bundle (Pages, Numbers [Excel], and Keynote [PowerPoint]) for $29.99 for your tablet. I have Pages, which you can buy for $9.99. You can buy the applications separately for the iPad for a total for $29.97, and there are a number of option packs at various prices.

I like Pages a lot more than QuickOffice. It seems to be a better conversion to Word, though saving to DropBox is a little clunky. (It’s easier to save to Apple’s iCloud–go figure.)

With the keyboard–which I’m still getting used to, the experience isn’t as quick as on my laptop keyboard, but the speed will come with time. The keyboard was definitely worth the expense for me. I could have saved a decent amount of money on the purchase by shopping around, but I had gift cards from BestBuy, s0 I got it there.

As for the iPad mini, at $299, it cost more than a Nook or a Kindle Fire. Considering I paid nothing for it, it’s worth the money to me. I’m not sure I’d have paid $299. But maybe that’s too bad. It’s a solid product. If you have the cash–plus some more for apps and a keyboard, it’s a good addition.

And for me, I think the smaller tablet is better. There’s less screen room, but so far I don’t mind that. It’s portable enough to take anywhere. On that point, your mileage may vary.

I’m pretty clueless (yes, pun intended).  I’m writing my first middle-grade mystery.  I know for certain you can’t solve a mystery without clues.  Now comes the tricky part.

How many clues do you plant?  Do they all have to lead somewhere, or can you have some that dead end?  How soon in the story do you reveal them to the reader?  Do they have to be obvious, or can they lurk in a dark corner of your story until the time is right?  I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just jumped in.

I’m the writer, so every clue is obvious to me.  The first (and major) clue my readers will encounter is on an item on an old menu.  I’ve called their attention to it (just a little) through conversations between the three major characters and the main character’s mother.  I already know how it’s going to end, but I have to ration my reveal, one tidbit at a time, to avoid having the ending of the story winding up halfway through the book.

Clues need to take the reader on a journey.  My characters will get bored staying in one setting, so they’re going through various rooms in the house and they’re going outside.  They’re also going to get into a heap of trouble along the way.  Some of it is directly related to solving the mystery and some of it is just the normal stuff kids get themselves into.

Some clues will put my characters in serious danger.  I have a hard time doing this, but they need to use their wits to get out of it and learn/grow as a result.  Facing challenges brings out the ability to lead and take charge – and it’s not always the person I figured would step up when trouble steps in.

They’re also going to be reminded that not all adults are nice people.  I’m going to teach them to look beyond their first impression of someone and get a sense of who that person really is, hopefully from a fairly safe vantage point.  They’re surrounded by strangers and they need to figure out who they can trust and who is ready and willing to harm them.

My sister Nancy loved the game “Clue.”  I played only because she wanted to and she always won.  I could never figure out how she knew Miss Scarlett committed the murder with the candlestick in the library.  Maybe that’s why I decided to write a mystery.  This one I’ll be able to solve.

Anne Hawkinson was born in Duluth, Minnesota. The world’s largest inland port became her “window to the world” when ships from around the globe crossed under the Aerial Bridge and docked in Lake Superior’s harbor. Years later she’d visit the countries that at one time existed only in her imagination. Bedtime stories read by her father were a nighttime ritual – her favorite was “The Teeny Tiny Woman.” Because they lived near the zoo, she often fell asleep to the sound of roaring African lions. Anne graduated from St. Cloud State University with a Master’s degree and has a daughter, a son, and an endless parade of pets that provide unending inspiration for her children’s stories.

“Writers Helping Writers” is what FWA stands for, and social media is a great place to put that motto into action. Like it or hate it, social media is a crucial part of being an author, and many writers are not using it—or using it effectively.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, not only help writers sell books, they’re great for sharing important information and building a valuable support system. From articles on how to market your books, to tips on how to “show, not tell,” and late-breaking news on changes in the e-publishing world, social media keeps a writer connected and informed.

So how do you use social media most effectively? The way I see it, there are two big rules to connecting effectively on your own profiles, as well as within FWA social networks:

Rule #1? Don’t spam. I have seen more than one group start out as a great place to exchange ideas, only to quickly become a wasteland of links to books that no one “likes” or comments on. Why?People are too focused sharing theirs to pay attention, but there is a way to combat this.

Does this mean you shouldn’t share your book links? No. It’s okay to share your links, but you’ll get more notice if you’re an active participant. Comment on people’s books, ask questions, and start conversations. Sometimes, people are just looking for that one person to break the ice.

Rule #2? Join the big three: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Accounts are free and easy to set up. Just make sure you share funny pictures, interesting articles, and comments on things that relate to what you write about as well as news about your writing and upcoming books.

Create interest lists on Facebook, lists on Twitter, and circles on Google+ so you can check one or two on each per day to comment on people’s posts. Why these three sites? They’re the largest and have the most reach.

Pinterest is also a great place that’s quickly catching up with the others, where you can pin favorite books and articles, as well as pictures. I have “inspiration” boards on my account, where I share articles and blogs related to my books’ topics. I also have a board where I pin favorite songs through Amazon.  To avoid copyright issues, only pin things from Amazon or blogs that have enabled the “pin” option in their sharing menu..

How can FWA help you make the most of your social media experience and help you grow as a writer?

We’ve got a Facebook page and Facebook group, along with a the FWA network, a members-only networking site where you can keep up on FWA news and talk with other FWA members.

Like the page, and you can stay up to date on what’s going on with FWA and its members. For example, we recently shared news of an FWA member’s publication in an e-magazine. You’ll gain valuable information about the publishing industry and writing-related posts, too.

Join the group, and you’ll find information about new books and chat with fellow writers. When going through the writing process, nothing’s more valuable than connecting with others who are going through the same things you are, and you won’t find a better bunch than your own local FWA members.

On the FWA Network, you’ll find lots of helpful groups related to your region to help you connect locally and find writing groups. Join in and ask any questions you have about FWA, conferences, and much more.  Remember to share any helpful info we share with others so they can benefit as well.

I’ve recently been put in charge of building FWA’s social-media presence, so I’ll be doing everything I can to help make FWA’s accounts a source of support to everyone who joins—a true community experience. To that end, I’ll be adding a place in the Facebook group where members can list their sites and social networks. I encourage everyone to follow your fellow writers and share their articles and books so we can help each other, and FWA networks, grow.

Jamie White is a music addict, book lover, pet servant & NaNoWriMo survivor. When she’s not busy writing posts for CultureShock, she’s taking pictures, and spending time with her husband and pets. Her first book, The Life and Times of No One in Particular, was released in May 2012.