Ten Rules of Writing

Found this article on The Guardian here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one

All good advice and certainly the Guardian is not the only place I've read this, but it never hurts to repeat it again.

1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a charac ter's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead look ing for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his bookArctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2 Avoid prologues: they can be annoying, especially a prologue ­following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in non-fiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want. There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday, but it's OK because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: "I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks."

3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But "said" is far less intrusive than "grumbled", "gasped", "cautioned", "lied". I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" . . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances "full of rape and adverbs".

5 Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6 Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose". This rule doesn't require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use "suddenly" tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apos­trophes, you won't be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavour of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories Close Range.

8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants", what do the "Ameri can and the girl with him" look like? "She had taken off her hat and put it on the table." That's the only reference to a physical description in the story.

9 Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them.

Writing Mafia

I found a great writing group on LinkedIn - Writing Mafia. One of the discussion posts is "You Know You're A Writer if....."

There are some great quotes in the stream of over 170 comments. Here's just a couple:

You wake up in the morning wondering how someone is feeling, and you have to remind yourself it's one of your characters...

Your characters keep you up at night....

Your bank account is empty....

You regard the humble typo as your arch nemesis....

So what's your quote?

You Know You're A Writer if......

Hacks

Stepping away from writing today, I thought I'd share what it's like working at a place like MIT. Yes, I know, MIT is known for being the best engineering school on the planet, but I think one of the best things about working here is seeing what the students come up with for their latest hack. We've had some of the best hacks ever here. Who could forget the police car on top on the great dome complete with a box of Dunkin donuts?

Here's today's hack - a complete living room including pool table and TV suspended from the concrete overhand in front of the Media Lab.

Pictures courtesy of Eric Schmiedl:

http://www.photoshelter.com/c/ericschmiedl/gallery-img-show/Hack-Upside-Down-Lounge-for-CPW-2010/G0000QtNIXpkgTQo/?_bqG=2&_bqH=eJzzNA8Ldg0uDMqsCNPNKzB2z82O9A1xKs7NDnO0MrcyNDCwsnKP93SxdTcAgsASP8.Iguz0kMB8NXfPeHdHHx_XoEhs0gCfARrH

If you're interested in seeing other hacks, check out the MIT Hack Gallery:

http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/misc/best_of.html

Mars vs. Venus

Dave sent this along to me. You might have seen it before, but it's worth reading again. Sometimes our writing goes like this. In our version, Dave will say, "Stop being a girl," and I'll say, "Stop being so macho." In the end my writing partner and I are who we are and we balance each other's writing perfectly.

Enjoy.....

The Literary Lesson

RECEIVED FROM AN ENGLISH PROFESSOR:

You know that book Men are from Mars, Women from Venus? Well, here's a prime example of that. This assignment was actually turned in by two of my English students: Rebecca (last name deleted) and Gary (last name deleted).

English 44A SMU Creative Writing Prof. Miller

In-class Assignment for Wednesday

Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth.

Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her Asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. 
"A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his trans-galactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..".
But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychologically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. 
"Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel." Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her.
 She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth--when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. 
Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85 million other Americans. 
The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of the sky!"

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.

Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.

Asshole.

Bitch.

New Dark Future series

Dave and I are happy to announce that we have published the first 2 novellas in the Dark Future series.

The Path to War:

In a last attempt to turn the tide in a desperate war, General Matthew Smith of the American Freedom Fighters asks Master Samurai Kenzo and his unit of warriors to make a batch of the ultimate weapons. Memory weapons infuse its user with the skills and memories of a master warrior. But, will the cost be too high when the weapons fall into the hands of a unit of unstable augmented soldiers?

Multiple formats are available on Smashwords.

Link on Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/12398

The Right Path:

Abraham "Ham" Jones, a cripple, and Zia Slate, a tomboy with an attitude, find themselves unlikely partners In this post apocalyptic tale of survival. Their lives are irrevocably changed when they encounter a mysterious old man bearing gifts - a cane for Ham and a knife for Zia. But, nothing is as it seems and they must fight for their lives when it's discovered they have 2 of the legendary memory weapons.

Multiple formats are available on Smashwords.

Smashwords link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/12404

Apple iPad

Apple iPad's will finally be available this weekend. Well, I want one, but I guess I'll have to wait. Even at the lower end, $499 is a steep price. Like all things, if you wait long enough, the price will come down.

In the mean time, here's an article from CNN today - 10 things you should know about the iPad.

1. How is the iPad different from a laptop?

The word "laptop" is getting somewhat brushed aside for a truckload of new, confusing categories.

The Apple iPad falls into the slate (some people say tablet) category of portable personal computers, because, unlike a laptop, it doesn't have a hardware keyboard.

Another key difference: To type and to navigate through files and photos on the iPad, you touch its screen in the same way you operate an iPhone or iPod Touch. That's possible on some laptop models, but not many.

2. How is the iPad different from e-readers like the Kindle?

Reading digital books on "e-readers" like the Amazon Kindle is becoming increasingly popular. The iPad acts like an e-reader and like a personal computer, but there are some notable differences between the two.

For one, the iPad has a color display. The Kindle, by contrast, is only black-and-white. Some people think the iPad, partly for this reason, will be popular with students who read textbooks with colorful diagrams. Others say the Kindle's screen, which isn't backlit, will be easier on the eyes over long periods.

There's an aesthetic difference, too: The iPad will display books horizontally, with two pages showing, or vertically, zooming in on a single page of text. The Kindle only works in vertical mode.

Perhaps more importantly, the devices access books from different online bookstores. iPad users buy books from Apple's new digital bookstore, called the iBookstore, which supports an open e-book format called ePub. Kindle users must buy their books from Amazon.com.

3. How much does the iPad cost?

Prices range from $499 to $829. The more expensive versions have more storage space, which means you can put more music and videos on the device.

iPads that connect to the Internet with Wi-Fi only are less expensive than those that can connect through Wi-Fi and through AT&T's mobile Internet network.

4. Do you have to sign-up for an AT&T contract when you buy the iPad?

You don't have to buy an AT&T mobile Internet contract to purchase the iPad.

If you buy a Wi-Fi-only version of the iPad and have a Wi-Fi connection at home, or you want to use the iPad primarily at coffee shops or public places that have wireless Internet connections, then you probably won't have to deal with AT&T at all.

Pricier versions of the iPad are able to connect to AT&T's mobile 3G network, allowing them to browse the Web from many more locations.

Surprisingly, you don't need a contract with AT&T to use this service, either.

Users can pay by the month and cancel at any time without penalty, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at the iPad unveiling. The unlimited data plan with AT&T costs $29.99 per month.

The Wi-Fi-enabled iPads go on sale on Saturday. The AT&T-enabled iPads will ship in late April, according to the online Apple store.

4. If there's no keyboard, how do you type on the iPad?

Instead of being a piece of plastic with physical keys, the iPad's keyboard is a graphic that pops up on the device's touch-sensitive screen -- an interface that will be familiar to iPhone and iPod Touch users.

iPad users type by touching pictures of keys on the screen. The iPad keyboard is about the same size as the one on your desk, but you can't feel the keys.

When he unveiled the device in January, Jobs said the iPad is "a dream to type on." But some bloggers, including this writer, have complained that the iPad's touch-screen keyboard is difficult to use.

5. Can you create documents, spreadsheets and presentations with the iPad?

Apple created a new suite of "apps" specifically for the iPad. These iWork programs, which cost $9.99 each, let users create documents, edit spreadsheets and create business presentations from the iPad.

It's unclear how easy these programs will be to use. Some reviewers say it's easy enough to compose business documents on the iPad. Others say serious users will need another computer to be productive.

The iPad has a Wi-Fi connection, which, in theory, could be used for printing documents wirelessly through your printer. There is some debate online about what apps will perform this function.

6. Can you view any Web site on the iPad?

A certain format of online video, called Flash, does not play on the Apple iPad.

While there are some workarounds for this, many Web sites are redesigning themselves, using a type of code called HTML5, so they will work on the iPad.

That code allows video display on the device, but you may notice some sites, including this one, will have holes because the iPad doesn't support Flash video.

7. Will the iPad replace my current computer? Or do you need both?

Some technology writers and critics say the iPad is an all-in-one machine. Others argue that it's more of a portable accessory, and that most computer users need a desktop or laptop computer in addition to an iPad.

What works for you really depends on what you use your computers for. If you spend a lot of time typing or creating things with your computer, it may be easier to use a laptop. If you just want to surf the Web, read books, play games, watch movies or send an occasional short e-mail, the iPad might work.

Apple and others sell keyboards that can be attached to the device in case you need to write a longer e-mail and don't want to fiddle with the touch-screen keyboard.

8. Is the iPad lighter and smaller than other laptops or e-readers?

The iPad will be about a half-inch thick and weigh about 1½ pounds.

Its screen is 9.7 inches across, when measured diagonally.

That's smaller and lighter than some laptops. A 10-inch netbook from Dell is similar in size but weighs about a pound more.

Amazon's Kindle DX is slimmer than the iPad, at only a third of an inch thick, and it weighs slightly less: 1.2 pounds, according to Amazon.

Its screen is the same size as the iPad's, but it doesn't display color.

9. Can you subscribe to newspapers and magazines on the iPad?

Some magazines and newspapers have said they hope the iPad will help save their struggling industries. A number of them have reformatted their publications for the iPad's screen and are offering new digital subscription plans.

The Wall Street Journal, for example, will charge $17.99 per month for an iPad subscription to its newspaper.

10. Are there iPad alternatives?

Apple is not the only computer maker offering a slate device. Some are on the market now and others will come out soon.

HP briefly showed off its slate computer before an audience at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Dell has announced plans to make a personal computer in the slate category.

If Blogging was a Crime...

Here's a fun fact I found today on Self-PublishingReview.com:

FACT: If blogging was a crime, and in some cases it very much should be, it would be the number one source of criminal activity in the land.” Adam Brown, FreeLanceSwitch Site, 01/07/09.

Smashwords

Smashwords is a great place to publish your ebooks. If you meticulously follow their Style Guide requirements, your ebooks will be distributed through their premium catalog. The premium catalog gets forwarded to sites like Sony eReader, Kobo, B&N and soon the Apple ipad.

Smashwords, said today it has signed a distribution deal with Apple to put its books into the iPad iBookstore. Mark Coker, chief executive of Smashwords, said in an email to authors that his company has been working on the deal ever since the iPad was announced.

Luckily, I got both books, "Quest for Nobility" and "The Crystal Facade" formatted, uploaded and accepted into the premium catalog which means they will be available on the Apple ipad. Dave and I are very happy. How cool is that?

Otharia website redesigned

Our author pages, Otharia.com, have been totally redesigned. Thanks Dave. If you get a chance, go over and take a look and tell us what you think. You can send an email to info@otharia.com with your comments.

It's Been A Great Week

Both Dave and I are thrilled that our ebooks are now live at the Amazon Kindle Store. The best part of all, however, is that we have SALES!!!! What a rush! I know that it's not the same as getting a contract from a big fancy NY publisher, but our goal has always been to write what we love and get it out there so others could enjoy it too!

Well, we accomplished our goals and we are happy. Now it's back to work on our next book. We still can't decide which one to write yet. We have 3 novels started at the moment. We'll just have to see how the mood strikes us.

Thank you to our fans who have been reading our first book over on our author pages, Otharia.com. If you want to see what happens to Darius and Dyla, you can find the link to download "The Crystal Facade" in the right sidebar of the blog. You won't be disappointed.

Our Ebooks are live

Dave and I are happy to report that both "Quest for Nobility," Book 1 in the Rule of Otharia series and "The Crystal Facade", Book 2 in the same series are now live on Amazon. They are available to buy for $1.99. There's only a few days left to read Book 1 over on our author pages, Otharia.com, because we will be taking down all the chapters except for Chapter 1.

For our fans who have followed the Telkur twins' journey in book 1, now's your chance to find out what happens to Darius and Dyla, and their incredible friend Eclair in the aftermath of their Grand Council testimony.

You can find the links and buy the books here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CC1KI4

and http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CC1KK2

The Meaning of Hell

I'm sure that many of you have seen this before, but it's just too good not to pass along again.

The following is an question given on a University of Washington chemistry midterm.

The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor felt compelled to share it with colleagues. Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Student's answer: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct.......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

Done

The final chapter of "Quest for Nobility" has been posted over on our author pages, Otharia.com.

Find out what happened to our royal twins. Did they save the duchy? At what costs?

We hoped you enjoyed the book. The sequel, "The Crystal Facade" will be available soon as an e-book.

Math of E-book Publishing

The New York Times has a timely article about the actual costs of e-books for publishers. Many believe that the publishers are saving huge amounts of print costs with ebooks, but that's not necessarily the case. You can read the entire article here.

Of course, one of the biggest issues for authors are the royalty rates for ebooks, generally set around 25% depending on the publisher. With ebooks becoming the next big medium, royalty rates are the next battleground for authors.

It will be interesting to see how these issues play out in the next few years.

3 Chapters posted

To keep the excitement and suspense going for our fans, I posted 3 chapters this week for our novel, "The Quest for Nobility." These chapters deal with our trio finding the lake and possibly the underground enclosure of the legendary Lady of the Lake.

There are only a couple of chapters left in the book so hang in there and all will be revealed within the next two weeks.

Our author pages can be found here.

A Day in the Life

I thought I'd share a short story I wrote a few years ago when my cat Isabelle was 16 weeks old. Enjoy.

"The Isabelle Factor"

I could have avoided trouble that day if only I had remembered to close the window completely. Leaving the living room window opened two inches with a rambunctious kitten running around was clearly testing fate.

It had been an uneventful start to my typical day, checking on our feline family, five adult cats and one 4 month-old kitten before I went to work. Locating any of the cats since Isabelle joined us, was not a difficult task. Our house had become a racetrack of flying furry bodies.

Isabelle has made it clear to her feline companions that she was in charge of resetting the old rules for those lazy, lounging days. Her agenda every day is to play, and to play hard. Her secret formula was to chase, jump on or stalk the other cats relentlessly until total exhaustion set in all around. It is not unusual to come home and find an obstacle course of sleeping cats as I made my way to the kitchen.

As I left that morning, all seemed relatively calm. Three cats were sleeping on the bed having carved out their favorite spot on the comforter, one had bolted past me heading for the sanctuary of the basement while Isabelle rode bare back on the gray tabby trying to engage her in fun and games, Isabelle style. Little did I know, that today would be Isabelle’s greatest adventure.

Apparently, driving five adult cats to total exhaustion was not enough to satisfy this little one’s spirit for adventure. Spying the open window, she wiggled her little kitten backside and sprang into action. Anyone who has ever had the privilege of owning a kitten knows first hand how fast those little legs can run, and she had to run fast enough to give her the momentum to jump into the window. The problem with too much momentum, however, is that it carries you beyond your target.

Isabelle managed to squeeze through that two-inch opening, but was not so coordinated to stop once she landed on the windowsill. She banged into the screen and it promptly fell out of the window taking her with it to the ground below. I can only imagine what happened next. Only Isabelle knows and she isn’t talking.

As luck would have it, it was trash day. My mother dutifully dragged the barrels around to the garage doors, and to her horror, found the window screen on the grass. She ran back into the house only to discover that Isabelle was nowhere to be found.

Panicking that she had lost the kitten on her watch, she called my husband who works at a local motorcycle shop. When she reached the receptionist, she was near hysteria with worry. She asked to speak to my husband only to be told that mechanics were not allowed to come to the phone unless there was an emergency.

“This IS an emergency,” she screamed. “The baby is missing!”

My husband was quickly located and brought to the phone. He listened to the sobbing mother-in-law story, and thought it best to drive home to survey the situation first hand. After searching outside for nearly 30 minutes, he finally located Isabelle under the front porch. Trekking back into the house to find her favorite feather toy, he spent another 15 minutes coaxing her close enough to him to grab her.

When I returned home that night, my mother immediately cornered me and relayed the harrowing story of Isabelle’s escape and what it had done to her nerves. My husband proceeded to tell his part of the story and somehow I felt responsible for everything that they had gone through, like a mother’s guilt over a misbehaving child. I soothe everyone's nerves and went to check on the kitten myself.

I found Isabelle sound asleep on the sofa, her little kitten body sprawled across the cushion blissfully unaware of the turmoil she had caused earlier in the day. My heart melted as I gently stroked her soft fur reminding her that she was a lucky little girl today. Any number of disasters could have befallen her out in the wild outside world. A higher power was looking out for her although I did make a mental note to check for open windows from now on.

Everything in our lives is ruled by the Isabelle factor now. What we will do next summer when it is a sweltering 95 degrees and we still can’t open the windows is anyone’s guess.

News Flash from the Land of the Clueless

Hang on to your hats, ladies and gents, you are about to enter the IDIOT ZONE:

IDIOT SIGHTINGS:

We had to have the garage door repaired. The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, 'Lady, you need a 1/4 horsepower.' I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4. He said, 'NO, it's not.' Four is larger than two.' We haven't used Sears repair since.

My daughter and I went through the McDonald's take-out window and I gave the clerk a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. She said, 'You gave me too much money.' I said, 'Yes Iknow, but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back. She sighed and went to get the manager, who asked me to repeat my request. I did so, and he handed me back the quarter, and said 'We're sorry but we could not do that kind of thing.' The clerk then proceeded to give me back $1 and 75 cents in change.

Do not confuse the clerks at McD's.

I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?' To which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?' He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'

Happened in Birmingham, Ala.

And my personal favorite:

How would you pronounce this child's name?

"Le-a"

Leah?? NO

Lee - A?? NOPE

Lay - a?? NO

Lei?? Guess Again.

This child attends a school inKansas City, Mo. Her mother is irate ecause everyone is getting her name wrong.

It's pronounced "Ledasha", When the Mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said, "the dash don't be silent."

SO, if you see something come across your desk like this please remember to pronounce the dash.

If dey axe you why, tell dem de dash don't be silent.

Who says the USA lags behind the world in education???????

The End is Near

With Chapter 36 posted over at our author pages, Otharia.com, the climax to the book, "Quest for Nobility" is near. There are only a few chapters left.

Now that Eclair has discovered the map, will he find the location of the underground enclosure? And what if he does find it? Will the traveling crystal be there? And what's up with Munroe? Will he be able to convince Cat to help them pinpoint the location on the map?

Time is running out for our trio. If they don't make it back to Otharia soon, Avikar's plan to steal the Telkur throne will become a reality. Will Ty be able to convince the gypsies to come forward and reveal what they know about Avikar before it's too late.

Chapter 35 is posted

Head on over to our author pages, Otharia.com, to read the latest installment in the saga of the Telkur twins and their friend Eclair.

There are only 6 more chapters left to the exciting climax. Will the trio find the traveling crystal in time to get home? And can they reach Otharia before Avikar worms his way onto the Telkur throne?

Stay tuned.....

Amazon vs. Macmillan STILL

Any writer whether or not you are published should be following the kerfuffle about the publisher Macmillan and Amazon. There's plenty of good posts out there to get you up to speed in case you haven't been following it.

Author John Scalzi's Whatever post here. He also spends several other posts talking about the issue so head over to Whatever and search through them if you want to read them all.

Agent Nathan Bransford expresses his opinion here.

Agent Kristen Nelson here.

Agent Jessica Faust here.

AND it didn't take very long before the comics jumped on the whole affair. The Onion has posted a video poking fun at whole debate in a serious of fake interviews. You can find the link on Galley Cat here.

In the end, it doesn't matter if you're for Team Amazon or Team Macmillan, it seems to me that the people getting hurt by all this posturing is the authors themselves. Without the "buy" buttons activated on Amazon, it's the authors who miss out on sales and authors today can least afford to bear the brunt of this issue. I buy all my books from Barnes and Nobles and there are plenty of other places to buy your favorite author's books. So make sure, a deactivated "buy" button on Amazon doesn't stop you from going to the next site to buy a book. Your favorite author will thank you.

Chapter 34 is posted

Head over to our author pages at Otharia.com to read Chapter 34 - The Mansion. Eclair and the twins have made the decision to trust Munroe to get them into Blackheart's mansion to look for the traveling crystal. Sneaking in went fairly smoothly with a slight glitch, but as promised Munroe led them to Blackheart's artifact room which was filled with antiques from Earth and artifacts from Otharia. How is that possible that a crime lord has so many Otharian pieces?

With senses on high alert, the trio start their search. What happens next is not in the plan....

When is the Right Time to get an Agent

Currently, there is the mantra, "get an agent, you need an agent to sell a book" for unpublished authors. This logic is everywhere until I stumbled upon the web site of published writer Dean Wesley Smith. His website is here. Dean has written more than 90 novels and numerous short stories. He knows a great deal about publishing and he disputes this statement wholeheartedly. He doesn't bash agents at all, just the misconceptions that are out there. If you want to learn more, go to his website and read his posts about his experiences with agents, editors and publishers.

Dean contradicts one of the biggest myths out there that "you need a agent to sell a book." You can read the entire post here, but here's an excerpt:

Agents are hired to do certain chores a writer needs done, to help in negotiating contracts, to be a pit bull with late payments, to have connections with Hollywood and maybe overseas, although that job is falling away as well. They are the business contact between the publisher and the writer on business items, leaving the editor and writer to work on the craft side.

So suddenly, because of the situation, the publishers are demanding that a writer hire an employee before they will look at their product.

Excuse me?

Let me look at why this system is about to fail and fail big.

First off, it forces agents by the nature of the requirement to be the gatekeeper for all the bad stuff publishers don’t want. That’s not their job. When I hire an agent, I don’t hire a slush reader doing someone else’s work, I hire someone who negotiates contracts for me and has good contacts. I don’t want MY employee reading slush.

It allows young agents to think they are the boss at times over writers. Of course, no longterm writers think this, and no respected, longer term agent thinks it either, but beginning writers and early professionals fall into this trap, and even go so far as to rewrite a book on demand of their agent.

Excuse me?? If the agent could write, they would be, instead of taking 15% of what a writer makes for writing. Yet beginning writers and young professionals who don’t understand how the business really works fall into this ugly rewriting trap all the time. Agents are your employee, they don’t tell you what to do, you tell them. Duh.

This guideline also helps young agents believe they have a lot more power than they really do, and it makes new writers buy into that belief. I have heard new writer after new writer get excited about “getting an agent” and the agent is 26 years old, a former editor who got laid off, and has hung out a shingle. The new agent wouldn’t know how to negotiate a contract if their life depended on it, let alone have any contacts except for maybe a few people in the place they were fired. But as a former editor, they think they know what makes a book better, so they think their job is to have new writers rewrite. And thus years are wasted and no one makes any money.

Point right here: Anyone can be an agent. There are no rules, no regulations, no training. The old joke is “What does it take to become a book agent? Stationery.”

Another reason this system is showing major cracks and about to fail is that editors are not getting the new and innovative books they are looking for. They are not seeing the new talent, the new dangerous voices, because the agents and the system itself are blocking these voices. Often these new voices fall into the rewriting trap shoved on them by a new agent in the business and if the editors see anything, they see the watered-down manuscript that fits into the next vampire/Da Vinci Code want-to-be.

Writer after writer after writer I have met are getting discouraged and when I ask how many editors have rejected their book they say “None. But I sent it to 30 or 40 agents before giving up on it.”

No editor had a chance to buy the book.

Makes me want to cry for all the good books lost in this last decade.

Chapter 33 is posted

Chapter 33 is up over at our author pages, Otharia.com.

The pieces are all starting to fit together, but is that necessarily a good thing? Lives will be changed and not always for the better. And what connection does Lilly, a gypsy pirate, have to do with young Duke Tyrian?

There are less than 10 chapters left in our story. Will the twins and Eclair find the missing crystal and make it back to Otharia in time to stop Avikar from seizing the Telkur throne? Will Ty be able to protect Trinity from the evil clutches of Nils? And what's with the gypsies? Are they the good guys or what?

10 Words to stop Misspelling

Found this cool post over at The Oatmeal which has a series of cartoons depicting the top 10 misspelled words. It is quite comical. My favorite: Every time you use this spelling of the word "wierd," a dolphin gets run over by a jet ski. Come on people, dolphins are great - stop the great dolphin slaughter and spell WEIRD the right way!

You can see all the cartoons here.

Distributors vs. Wholesalers: Getting Your Book on the Shelf

The Writers Beware blog has an excellent post from multi-published author Cathy Clamp about the difference between distributing your book and getting the physical edition of book on book store shelves. You can read the entire post here. Here's the first section of the post:

The distinction between a wholesaler and a distributor is an important one, especially for writers who want to get their books onto physical bookstore shelves. Too often, however, writers and startup publishers aren't aware of the difference, and don't realize that a wholesaler like Ingram is only half the distribution picture.

Let's start with major NY publishers. They have a sales force. The sales department is charged with doing nothing but selling books for the publisher. Sales reps meet regularly with the buyers for the major chains and secondary markets. You might have one salesperson who handles Borders and B&N, another who meets with Target and WalMart, a third who handles Booksamillion and Costco, etc. They take the books of the publisher directly to the buyers who handle them.

Every book needs a salesperson to get it into the store. Yes, book buyers are looking for new books--but there is only so much space in each bookstore. So they have to be selective.

But even if every book needs, and deserves, a salesperson--let's face it, a small press or self-publisher often can't afford to have a full time salesperson, much less a sales "force," to go out to meet with every book buyer for every chain. Too, it's unlikely (if not impossible) that the buyer would be willing to meet with every single small press out there. There are just too many of them.

So, a lot of small publishers hire "Distributors." A distributor takes the place of a sales force by doing the exact same thing a dedicated, salaried salesperson would do. And for the same reason. They'resalaried.

Distributors cost money. A lot of money. Plan on about a third of your retail price to pay the distributor. It's a monthly/quarterly contract for the privilege of putting your books in front of the market, selling them to the buyers at the stores and increasing orders for the books. Is it worth the money? Hard to say. If you're an indie press with thirty niche books that might struggle to interest a bookstore without a marketing pitch, then sure. Absolutely. But for a single, stand-alone novel? Doubtful. In fact, it's doubtful a distributor would have a self-pubbed author or small press. It has to be worth the distributor's while, too. Generally speaking, if a press has fewer than ten titles, a distributor won't accept it as a client.

Now, if a publisher (again, whether small press or self-pub) chooses not to spend the money for a distributor, they go with the wholesalers. To make the difference simple, look at it like this:

- A distributor is the equivalent of a pack-n-ship store.
- A wholesaler is the equivalent of your local postal office.

The rest of the post is here and be sure to read the comments. Lots of good information in those as well.

Sell-Through

Getting a book published is not the end of the journey for an author. Besides all the marketing publishers are asking authors to be involved with, one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is the practice of publishers letting book sellers return unsold books. Book sellers do not have to bear the financial burden if a book is not selling well within their allotted time slot. There is no incentive on the part of the bookstores to promote poorly selling novels. This is especially hard on the author because the publisher will base any future book runs on the current sell-through percentage.

Agent Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary Agency explains the situation of sell-through in greater detail. You can read the entire post here. Here's some of the highlights:

"So a publisher will print books based on orders from stores. If stores order 20,000 copies, most publishers will print something around 22,000 to 25,000 copies of your book. They’ll ship 20,000 copies, which is your initial ship number. Within the next six months or so they’ll start to see returns. If 10,000 copies are returned, your sell-through is 50%. If 5,000 copies are returned, your sell-through is 75%, and if 15,000 copies are returned, your sell-through is 25%."

"One of the reasons sell-through is so important is that it affects the numbers for your next book. Let’s go back to our 20,000 copy order and pretend your sell-through was 50%. That means that your next book is likely to only get orders of 10,000 copies. If things are going well you’ll likely sell all 10,000 copies, have gone back to press on the first book and eventually go back to press on the second. Each time you go back to press the orders on your next book, as well as the sell-through, should increase. However, if your second book also has a sell-through of only 50%, that means the orders on your third book are going to be around 5,000 copies. If you haven’t noticed, you’re going in the wrong direction in that case."

Focus on Your Book

Agent Rachel Gardner has some good advice about trying to capture an agent's attention. It's really all about your book. You can read more of Rachel's blog posts at:

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/

Here's her post from Jan. 7, 2010:

I’ve been thinking about all the information for writers available now on the internet. It’s great for writers because although getting published has never been more challenging, there has never been so much information available about how to do it. But there are so many people giving advice that it must get overwhelming sometimes.

Getting published today involves more than writing your book (as you know), so blogging and Twittering agents are constantly giving tips about queries and proposals and marketing your book. But here’s the thing: All that stuff is irrelevant without a good book.

It's your book that matters most.

Not your query or your proposal or your marketing plan. Your book. It has to work on every level. It has to appeal to a lot of people, and it has to be saleable.

Agents talk a lot about queries, and we give plenty of tips to help you get it right. But the query boils down to making a clear and concise presentation of your book. Just tell us enough that we get a feel for it and want to read it. Be polite and professional and try to avoid coming across like a crackpot. It’s worth putting some effort into, but 99.9% of your effort should be in your book.

So if it’s all about the book, then why are we constantly giving you advice on so many other things, especially queries? Well, we have some really good reasons for doing that. And by “we” I mean all of the agents who blog and Twitter.

Here’s why we do it:

1. We’re trying to set you up for success. Honestly. We want to give you the tools to get it right.

2. If your book is really good, we want to be able to recognize it. If your query doesn’t shine, we might miss it. We really want your query to give us a glimpse of your book.

3. We harp on submission guidelines because we’re trying to avoid wasted effort—yours and ours. Let’s face it, we are all overloaded with too much to do. We need to streamline our processes. When you write your query properly and send it only to appropriate agents, it makes the best use of your time and ours.

4. We want you to know what it looks like from our end of the desk. The world of publishing and literary agents used to be shrouded in mystery, but we don’t want it that way. We’re trying to help demystify the business.

Don’t stress out too much about all the advice you find online. Learn what you can from it and enjoy being part of the writing community (because that’s what all this blogging and Twittering is about anyway). But focus mostly on your book.

Digital Readers

Digital Readers seem to be the new "it" gadget to have. Here's an article about digital readers by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 1/6/2010 7:58:00 AM

The Consumer Electronics Show opens tomorrow in Las Vegas and we can expect to see a veritable explosion of e-reading devices in every shape and format. Indeed, the CES Web site lists an eBook TechZone that features about 23 different manufacturers and it looks as though every major e-reader device producer –from IREX, Sony and Plastic Logic to Bookeen and Ditto—and many we’ve never heard of, will be on hand to show off a range of previously unveiled, new or upgraded devices. Baker & Taylor will use CES to provide more details on Blio.

While 2009 may have been the year of the Kindle, 2010 may very well be the year of the Apple Tablet, the much ballyhooed multi-media computing device, which actually will not be exhibited at CES but at a separate Apple press conference later this month. But Microsoft is expected to fill the visionary tablet void at CES by offering its own version of a tablet computer/e-reader device. Called the Courier, it’s a very interesting two-screen multimedia device that looks as innovative as the constant rumors circulating about the Apple Tablet—at least it seems so on the video of the device at the Gizmodosite.

Indeed the two-screen e-reader device—a kind of futuristic book-machine with facing screens—looks like it will be a tech theme at this year’s CES. The eDGe reader from Entourage is a great example. The device combines an e-ink screen unit with what is essentially a netbook and allows straight text reading on one screen and full color, fully functional computing (from e-mail to webbrowsing) on the other with full integration between the two screens. The thing can be reconfigured to use it like a book or folded down to function like a tablet; it has lots of internal memory, expandable SD card, 9.7” screens, 3G and Wi-fi and will cost $490. In addition, rumors abound of plans by electronics companies like Asus and MSI to also offer dual screen e-reading/computing devices.

Of course there will be straight e-ink screen devices of all kind. IREX will show off its DRS800SG, the stylus-touchscreen with Wi-fi/3G wireless the Dutch manufacturer unveiled in September. Interead, manufacturer of the colorful Cool-ER series of e-readers, is said to be offering an upgraded wireless/3G enabled model to come that will have some form of touchscreen functionality and also offer newspaper content. IRiver is showing off its Story Reader, a kindle look-alike with 6” E-Ink Screen,2 GB internal memory, SD Card, and Wi-fi (eventually, apparently). Price has not been announced. Plastic Logic will also show off its much anticipated B&N endorsed device, now named Que. Other e-ink devices slated for CES include the eSlick Reader from Foxit and of course the Alex Reader, a hybrid dual screen device with e-ink screen above a smaller LCD screen with full web browsing capability, that just announced a content deal with Google to offer a million public domain titles through the device

Baker & Taylor will be at CES and the distributor has teamed with visionary technologist Ray Kurzweil and his company K-NFB Reading Technology, to launch Blio, new e-reading software with an impressive range of functionality. The software will be offered for free download starting in the spring and in an interview with PW last year, Kurzweill said the software will run on everything from laptop and desktop computers to netbooks and smartphones. Blio is said to support ePub and offers full color graphics (including 3D), animation and enhanced Text2Speech functions (where rights have been enabled) with multiple voices, video, notetaking and more. A B&T spokesperson said Blio will have about 200,000 titles available at launch—from cookbooks and kids book to comics—and content deals with Penguin, Hachette, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Elsevier, HarperCollins,Wiley and others.

Skiff, a newspaper/magazine content-driven online platform, will present a prototype of its own device. Called the Skiff Reader, its an 11.5” touchscreen b&w reader formatted for newspaper style layouts and offers 3G/Wi-fi connectivity and 4GB of internal memory. It’s a flex touchscreen and can bend back and forth like a plastic sheet although the need for that kind of flexibility remains to be explained.

And this just scratches the surface of digital reading presentations at CES. There are many more companies and devices on display. It looks like we’re in for a very interesting and competitive year in digital reading technology.

Writing in 2010

Now that the holidays are over, Dave and I can concentrate on our next book. We are throwing around a couple of different ideas, a new fantasy story, a new scifi story or finishing book 3 of the "Rule of Otharia" trilogy. We plan to make the decision soon.

In the meantime, Chapter 30-The Con, is posted over at our author pages Otharia.com. Munroe is a master con artist, but has he met his match with our trio? How many "tests" will he throw at them before he relaxes a bit and trusts them? The twins have their own con going. They need to find that ancient crystal if they have any hope of ever returning to Otharia, but can they accomplish that without revealing who they really are? Who will win in the battle of the con?