Penny For Your Thoughts?

Now I know you religiously answer every comment on your own blog. It’s one of the ways you thank people for taking the time to read your work, right? ;-)  Commenters on your blog deserve to be thanked and responded to, because they’re loyal and interested...This is the first impression you make! Be present, be attentive, be responsive. Tell them you appreciate them by appreciating them!  Loudly and publicly.  You’re not just being polite when you engage with commenters in this way. You’re also able to gain valuable insights into what about your work interests, bothers or inspires them.

          ~ Author/Blogger Danny Iny

One of my weaknesses has always been replying to comments left on my blog posts.  I know I'm not the only one.  Some bloggers are fantastic at it, and I've had some good only conversations about writing topics via the comment section, or read those left by others.  But there have also been numerous times I've left comments or questions on a post that have never been replied to (and I don't say that in a judgemental way, because I'm the WORST at it!).  So are comment threads useful?  Is it important to respond to those who leave them?  Do they ever check back for a reply?

It's easy as a blogger to check for comments on the blogger dashboard.  There's a button totally dedicated to them.  But it can become difficult to check back to the dozens of blogs you might visit in a week to see if anyone replied to anything you said.  So while the Danny Iny quote above certainly made me stop and think, I wonder what the consensus out there is on its validity?  

What do you think?  (And yes, this means you have to comment :)  It also means I had better reply!!

On another note, the Canadian Government recently stopped manufacturing the penny, and is in the process of removing it from circulation.  I wonder what will become of the cliche phrase, penny for your thoughts?  Perhaps inflation has already altered it to be more along the line of 'quarter for your thoughts?'  Just sayin!

Dear Americans, Please Come and Visit Me!

Thaxted

I've just got back from a lovely holiday ("vacation") in Florida, and I'm really missing America. I love corn dogs, Mexican food, water parks, sunshine, wide roads without potholes, huge buildings and having my groceries bagged for me. I love the larger-than-life characters who sit on a beach with their families (within earshot of a trembling pasty Brit) and say things like, "I've got a lot of weapons and Cheryl's a hoarder, so when it goes down we'll hold out as long as we can and then retreat to her place." (For more information about my experiences, go to www.annahitsamerica.blogspot.com.)

We were very well treated by the locals in Orlando and made to feel valued and welcome, so I'd like to return the favour and spread the love. Anyone out there want to come and visit me in England?

Admittedly there's not much to tempt you. Great Britain is a very cold, damp and grotty-looking little island. We struggle to squeeze 63 million people into an area smaller than Wyoming (population half-a-million), so the roads are narrow and busy. There are no theme parks and my house (perfectly average by UK standards) is smaller than our apartment in Florida. It also doesn't have a guest room so you'd have to stay at a hotel. But here's a taster of part of the itinerary I can offer you (feel free to Google all these places, especially images):

Day 1: Hadleigh Castle, Old Leigh and Southend-on-Sea
Hadleigh Castle is a ruin, but it's interesting all the same and the views are spectacular. It's just a five-minute drive away. Old Leigh, five minutes more down the road, is a beautiful ancient fishing village with a cobbled street, tiny houses, and freshly-caught fish still sold at the docks. Just a little further along the Thames Estuary is Southend, which boasts the longest pleasure pier in the world, plus very good ice-cream. It's just a little further down the road from Leigh. I would propose ending this day with a curry at the Tandoori Parlour. British curry is the best.

Day 2: North Essex, Audley End and Suffolk
My county isn't the best in the UK I'm sure, but I love it and parts of it are stunning. We'd travel through Battlesbridge, which is as lovely as its name, and stop to look at the antique shops it's famous for. We'd then go on to Thaxted and Saffron Waldon, both beautiful historic villages, and visit Audley End, an ancient stately home. On to Ipswich, taking in the village of Lavenham on the way. And if they're agreeable, tea with my parents in their beautiful cottage, built in 1491.

Day 3: London
The easiest way to take in all the sights is by sightseeing bus tour, or a Thames boat tour. London is stunning, and we'd stay late and take in a show in the West End.

If you like history and culture, it's something you have to experience. (If you like warm weather and theme parks, I recommend Florida.) So come on, when will you come to visit me?

Let's Blow It Up: David Farland/Wolverton Book Bomb for Ben

Whether you know him as David Farland or David Wolverton, you are most likely aware that he is an amazing author and HUGE support to the writing community. This past week tragedy hit his family hard.
In support, a book bomb has been organized to take place tomorrow, April 10th. Just follow the links in this post to learn more.

Facebook: A Book Bomb for Ben

Blog: Help Ben Wolverton

For tomorrow, you should know that anything purchased through these Amazon links for 

Nightingale and Million Dollar Outlines will help Dave. He gets a small percentage of anything purchased through those links. So, if you want to buy several other books or products tomorrow, with or without Nightingale and Million Dollar Outlines, please do. 

This event can really help out Ben and Dave so spread the word.

That being said, Nikki and I have also read the books that are being blown up in the bomb and wanted to share some thoughts.

Amber's Thoughts on Nightingale:

I purchased the ebook, not the enhanced version, so I will not be able to tell you much about the newer platform.  I can tell you that  I loved Nightingale.  The book is well paced and filled with mystery, excitement, and just a touch of romance.  I love the world that Farland created.  His characters were well developed, and the solutions to the many conflicts believable.  The ending is open to more books in the series that I will definitely be reading.  Nightingale is the first book I read by David, but it will not be my last. 

Nikki's thoughts on Million Dollar Outlines:

Last week, I bought David Farland's writing book, Million Dollar Outlines. Even before this tragedy happened with David's son, I was planning on giving a review of this book on Friday. Let me tell you why. I'm a pantser, which means that when it comes to writing I like to fly by the seat of my pants. This is a thrilling way to write. You never know what's going to happen next and each twist and turn leaves you breathless to write the next part. But editing a story that I pantsed, is not fun at all! When it comes to editing my stories, I often realize there's no plot, that the setting is lacking, I often have to add characters to flesh out the story, and my characters are usually one dimensional. Which means, I get to write the story again, and usually a third time, and a fourth time, the rewrites are pretty much indefinite. To say that this becomes tiresome is an understatement. This has led me to try many different outlining techniques. But I usually find them to be so formulaic that my creative side shuts down and doesn't want to proceed. In Million Dollar Outlines, David doesn't give me an outline to use. He explains the logic behind why people read books. Why do books relieve our stress, and make life just a little bit easier to handle? Why do some books do this better than others? Why do some characters jump off the page while others are little more than a rough sketch? These are just some of the many questions that David answers in this book that has completely changed the way I see writing. I'm not new to writing. I've been around this scene for a little while at least. Not everything in this book was like a new revelation to me, but the way he explained it all, turned on a light bulb in my mind. I learn so much better when I understand the why of what I'm learning. This is what David does in this book. He tells you why to put certain things in your outlines. Part of his outlining technique includes a way for you to visually SEE your plots all together before they are even written. I'm a visual learner, so this really worked for me. This book was well worth the price and I highly recommend that anyone who is really serious about writing, buy this book. If you don't, that's just less competition for me when my wonderfully outlined books come into the publishing world!! Just kidding, sort of.

One of the Ninety and Nine

The night before Easter I was doing my bunny thing, up to my elbows in jelly beans and plastic grass, when the phone rang. I answered and heard, “Sister Tross, would you be willing to speak in Sacrament meeting tomorrow?” 

Well, not being one to back down from a challenge, I accepted. And, oddly enough, I spoke in Sacrament meeting last Easter, and my ward got reorganized in the fall, so it was practically like a whole other ward anyway, so I thought I might be able to recycle some of my talk from last year. (Because really, who would remember what I talked about a whole year ago anyway?) And besides that, I’m practically an expert on writing Sacrament talks (remember my series of posts on that very topic?) so I had it in the bag, right?

Well, almost. See, I’ve been in something of a funk lately. You know what I mean? Like, haven’t really been reading my scriptures, been going through the motions with my calling. I’ve been praying, and I’ve been asking the Lord to kind of help motivate me to get out of my funk, but I’ve just been halfheartedly saying the words because I know I should. So, I knew it was going to be a little bit like getting into a cold pool. I needed to baby step my way down. But I only had a few hours in which to do it.

I decided to go back to a version of my talk from last Easter that I'd used for an Institute devotional on the Resurrection. As I was reading it, I felt prompted to look through my Institute journal to see if there was anything in there I might be able to use. In my journal, I found a note I'd made about a quotation I'd wanted to look up. So, I went online to look up the quotation and found a BYU devotional by Chad Webb. I decided it might help with the talk so I started reading it. And this is what I read:

"When do you feel least like praying and going to church? Isn't it when we make a mistake? Somehow we want to hide ourselves from Heavenly Father. It's incredible the fig leaves we make. We fill our lives with business, [with] trips, tangible, and temporal things, which aren't bad of themselves, but when we do this to hide ourselves from Heavenly Father, instead of coming to Him to have a quiet moment of reconciliation, we miss the incredible opportunity and blessing to rely on the atonement.... “
"God so loved the world, and so loved you, that He gave His only begotten Son that you and I could be forgiven, and when we make mistakes and don't want Him to notice us, a better response is to come to the one who loves us most, and be covered through the atonement of His Only Begotten Son. The greatest way to rely on the atonement is to trust God. He loves us and wants us to be clean. Not only to be forgiven but to be changed... Through the atonement of Jesus Christ He can help us become clean and to have a new heart by changing our very nature.”

Umm...wow. It was one of a handful of times in my life when I felt like Heavenly Father was speaking directly to me, and it was incredibly humbling. I was reminded of the words to the Michael McLean song, "Ninety and Nine”:

“I am one of the ninety and nine. I’m not perfect, but basically I’m doing fine. I have not lost my way, I have not gone astray- I’m just one of the ninety and nine. I am here in the heart of the fold. I’m not mindless, but I try to do as I’m told. I’m not tempted to run and become the lost one. I’m just one of the ninety and nine. So why is my Shepherd coming this way toward me? He’s searching to find me, and He takes me aside and sweetly confides these remarkable words in my ear: ‘You are one of the ninety and nine. Have you any idea how brightly you shine? You are safe in this fold and it’s time you were told that I know where you’ve been and I know where you’ll be, because all of your life you’ve been following Me. You are more than just one of the sands of the sea or just one of the ninety and nine- you are mine.’”

I’m still working on my funk- it’s a process- but this much I do know: He sees you. He knows you. He loves you. And He’s dying to tell you if only you let Him.

:-) Kasey

Til We Meet Again

     I absolutely love General Conference.  I think each year I love it even more.  My spirit is touched and I truly feel nourished each time I listen.  I actually feel sadness when President Monson closes the conference until the next meeting, so I thought - let's keep that spirit going.  I would love to hear your thoughts or feelings about conference.  Perhaps there was a certain talk that you really loved, or a quote that spoke to you.  You could even link to your favorite talk if you so desire.  I can hardly wait to see all the cutsie quotes pop up on Pinterest and Facebook. It's exciting to know that we can send goodness out into the world.

I look forward to hearing about your thoughts!

Saturday So What: Trouble's on the Menu

Around this time last year, my writing teacher - a well known non-fiction writer- brought me his fiction novel that he planned to sell along with his new Winter Gardening how-to book. It needed a little help. I joked that his MC, a young female artist, sounded like an 80 year old tea maven. I beta read and gave some suggestions, and the next day I had the entire manuscript in my inbox with a note begging me to rewrite all the female POV chapters and a new ending. Oh, and I had 2 weeks to meet the publishers deadline for the final manuscript.

After an editor/agent/publisher receives a book, time slows to a crawl. But now my few hard weeks of sleepless nights has paid off. The book comes out next week, and I get to share credit on the cover (and royalties). It's a fun book about a city girl, Hallie, who comes to a small town to settle her estranged husband's affairs after he dies suddenly. Instead of a box of paintings to sort, she's been left an old building - with crazy tenants that pay their rent in hay and milkshakes. The young, and really cute, mayor might be worth sticking around for, but he's got his own problems. Within days, they become Hallie's problem too. When she came to the backwater Montana town, she thought she was only losing a few days vacation time, but if she's not careful she could lose her property, freedom, and her life.
Since this is the companion book to Caleb Warnock's Winter Gardening book, there are recipe's from his winter garden at the end of Trouble's on the Menu. Since my way of making soup is Campbell's (don't microwave the can. I've lost a good microwave that way) I can only vouch for the yumminess of the recipe's end results.

Excerpt- Chapter 1


Thud.
Hallie Stone held the brake pedal all the way to the floor well with her foot after the car skidded to a stop. Forcing herself out of the rented Yukon Denali, she fought her way through the biting snow to see what she’d just hit. Her designer heels slid on the slick road. A blast of Montana wind nearly sent her to her knees.

Maybe the blizzard was playing tricks on her eyes. Maybe it wasn’t a scooter she had seen, sliding toward the SUV. Maybe it had been only an animal. She’d been warned that moose roamed free up here as numerous as stray cats. But the blur was too small for a moose and too large for a cat. The best she could hope for was a deer.

Please be Bambi. Please be Bambi.

The headlights showed something sprawled on the snowpacked highway. Clutching her puffy jacket—the one practical thing she’d thought to bring from California to Montana—she stared down and saw . . .
A woman.

An expletive popped out of Hallie’s mouth—worth at least a dollar to the swear jar back home.
The woman on the ground was making high-pitched keening sounds. An awful grating noise, but at least that meant she wasn’t dead, whoever she was. Thank goodness.

Bracing in her snow-filled shoes, Hallie stepped toward the woman lying askew on the road. A crushed motor scooter straddled the woman’s leg.

“Are you okay?” Hallie blurted. The question was ridiculous.

Fumbling with icy fingers, she tried to find her cell phone in her coat. She had to get help. In the middle of her pushing the nine and the one, a man sprinted out of the darkness onto the road. Hallie wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or to reach for her pepper spray.

“I’ve called Tug and Jim,” he said, kneeling by the injured woman. “Where are you hurt?”

The woman groaned. “My daughter. She’s home.” She strained to speak. “Mayor, tell her . . . not to worry.”

“As soon as I get back to the house, I’ll call her,” he said. “Don’t worry about a thing.”

Mayor? Hallie looked at the man who couldn’t be more than a few years older than herself. Very young to be mayor.

“I’m so sorry . . .” Hallie wanted to explain how wrong her whole day had been—her missed flight, lost luggage, this behemoth of a rental car that was so different from her sporty Mustang. But the cold was freezing her brain, making her thoughts sluggish and foggy. She wanted to jump back into the Denali and drive home to her Malibu art studio. Or at least back to the airport.

Cutting through the void of the snowstorm, a siren’s wail announced the arrival of an ambulance. Slush sprayed in all directions from the approaching tires, soaking Hallie’s trousers. Seconds after the ambulance slid to a stop, two paramedics jumped out.

“If I had a nickel for every idiot driver in the world,” spat the ambulance driver.

“Oh, Tug,” the injured woman moaned weakly. “My leg.”

“Probably broken,” the ambulance driver said gruffly. “Do I even need to ask what happened?”

“She ran me over!” the woman on the ground cried out with a burst of strength. “I could be dying. I think I see a bright light.” She groaned dramatically.

Hallie probably turned a few shades whiter than the fresh powder.

“Naw, just the headlights on the snow,” the ambulance driver said matter-of-factly. “Don’t worry, Andrea. We’ll take care of you.”

The paramedics examined the woman and swiftly loaded her into the ambulance. As they drove down the lane, the swirling red lights danced away on the snowy drifts to music of the wailing siren.

Hallie was mesmerized by the light show and lost in her thoughts. On one hand, she was really worried about the women’s health; on the other, she was really worried about her own. They didn’t throw people in jail for a car accident, right? She was an outsider, though, who had just squished someone’s mother.
I am in so much trouble.

The A-Z Blogging Challenge

April 1, I became part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge, created by Arlee Bird.  Arlee is a wonderful blogger/writer who encourages writer fellowship and support.

                                          

The premise is simple.  Write a post every day during the month of April (Sundays off), starting with the letter A.  April 1, write about something that begins with A; April 2, write about something that begins with B; April 3 is the letter C, and so on.  It's a marathon of posting, and reading the other 1900 bloggers who sign up.

The A-Z is a great exercise in discipline and creativity.  It's also a smart networking tool, because it's excellent exposure for your blog, which in turn introduces readers to your book, your product, your brand.  It's a very nice way to connect to bloggers with shared interests and goals.  

This is my second year in the A-Z.  Last year, I actually wrote my posts on the days they were "due."  I've since realized I can have all my posts written by April 1 and then spend my time visiting other sites.  Much better plan.

I've written posts for the A-Z that were stellar and posts that were lame.  On April 1, I love the A-Z challenge; by April 20th, I'm wondering what the heck I'm doing.  I've received comments on my writing that make me wince, and I've received comments that make me yell "Woo-hoo!"

The A-Z is the writing life crammed into one month:  assignments, deadlines, great stuff, crummy stuff, criticism, praise, wracking your brain, and getting up the next day to do it all over again. 

If you've never heard of the A-Z Blogging Challenge, check it out at the link above.  It's a frenetic, exciting, invigorating writing exercise that keeps you on your butt (at your computer) for one month.

Then you take a long nap. 

Tomorrow....F is for fluctisonous.

Huh? 

Check it out here:  ADVENTURES in the BALLPARK.

Rookie Mistakes

Thirteen years ago my first novel was being prepared for publication and came back from my wonderful editor covered in red lines and comments. I don't think a single sentence escaped her correction. I was a little downhearted, naturally, but Val (my editor) explained that this is normal, and in fact I have since learned that lots of red is a sign of a good editor, not a bad manuscript.

I've been reminded of this because I recently read a book for review which was excellent but fell foul of two of the most basic errors writers must learn to avoid as they hone their craft. I hope the author won't mind my using her book as an example as I go over these, but I will refrain from identifying the book itself just in case.

The most common mistake I made appeared regularly on that first manuscript as just three letters. POV. Getting the Point of View wrong is rookie writer mistake no. 1. Each scene can only be viewed from the perspective of one character. If you want to switch to another character, you need to have a clear chapter or scene division.

The book I mentioned was an example of just why this was so important. The main protagonist is a teenage girl with some strange supernatural power, but at the beginning of the book we don't yet know what it is. The book is written in the first person from the perspective of this girl. A few pages in a police officer visits her at home, and the narrator details exactly what he is thinking as he approaches her home and sees her. At this point I thought, "Aha! I've figured out her power! She can read minds!" It was several chapters later that I realised that I was wrong. Her ability was something quite different, and the fact that we see what is going on in the officer's mind was a POV error on the part of the author.

Your narrator cannot know what other people are thinking or experiencing, because in life we can't flit from head to head either. At the beginning of each scene you need to figure out whose perspective it is told from, and stick to just what that person can know or guess at. If you've got a first person narrator then nothing which doesn't happen in the presence of the narrator can be included in the book.

The second rookie mistake in this book was in the dialogue. We know that writing dialogue in the form of "he said", "she said" is quite dull, and it helps to introduce alternative verbs such as "he shouted" and "she retorted". It can be even more effective to leave out the attribution altogether, but if this is done then clues need to be put in once in a while to clarify who is speaking. One way of doing this is to have characters occasionally call each other by name as they speak.

The book I reviewed had a whole chapter of dialogue between the protagonist's parents in her absence (which shouldn't have been in the book at all - see POV) in which they used each other's name every single time they spoke. Paragraph after paragraph of "Alan" and "Julia" which made the whole exchange bizzarely stilted, not least because they are husband and wife and thus you'd think the odd "darling" or "honey" might have crept in. (I almost never call my husband by his name unless I'm trying to get his attention in a crowded room.) Similarly, they spoke eloquently and articulately whereas in real life people rarely do. Next time you're part of a conversation, imagine each line written down. You'll find lots of "erms" and unfinished sentences, repetition, and missed words. Rookie mistake number 2 is to write dialogue so that it sounds good and advances the story, but lose out on realism by doing so.

I'm trying hard (probably failing) not to sound like a pretentious twerp right now. I'm only on my seventh novel, so I have a lot to learn about my craft still, and I'm still making mistakes. But I hope I can help any would-be writers to avoid just a little of the editor's red pen by keeping close tabs on the point of view, and ensuring that dialogue is realistic.

What rookie mistakes did you make?

Talking Tuesday: CorrectingYour Focus

In writing and in life, it is quite easy to focus on the wrong things.  When I should be writing, I often find myself scrolling through facebook or pinterest.  Time gets away from me.  When it is time to fosuc on family, I am thinking about all the cleaning that should be getting done, and when it is cleaning time I turn on the TV for background noise, which leads to me sitting down.  My focus is easily pulled toward the things I should not be focusing on at that time.

This same problem can also sneak into our stories.  Instead of focusing on moving the action forward, we spend too much time telling background story.  Sometimes our side characters become more interesting than our main character. 

Whenever we find ourselves losing focus, we must make the appropriate adjustments.  It is when we can see things clearly, that we will progress forward with the things that truly matter.

A Portrait of a Writer

You may have noticed that a few months ago my little photo on the sidebar changed. Or maybe you didn’t notice. Actually, chances are pretty good that you couldn’t care less….

Anyway, as writers, there often comes a time in our lives when we need a photo of ourselves. People like to see the person behind the words. So if you don’t have the budget for a high-fashion photo shoot, how do you get a decent headshot?

Well, I’m no expert, but here’s my advice:

1. Look good.

I know, kind of a no-brainer- if you want a good photo, do your hair and makeup. But it doesn’t have to be a major production. Before I took my photo I just happened to look in the mirror and notice I was having a pretty decent hair day, so I decided it might be a nice opportunity for a little photo shoot. I just put on some eyeliner and mascara and called it good (probably could have used some blush and lipstick too…but oh, well). I would recommend not getting too gussied up, though- you want to look good, but still look like yourself.

2. Lighting, lighting, lighting. 

For my photo shoot I decided to set up near a window. I do this when I want a good shot of my kids, too- sitting near a window provides lighting that is both flattering and interesting.

3. Nix the flash. 

I avoid the flash on my little point-and-shoot whenever possible. The flash does unkind things to your subjects. Most cameras have a button that looks like a lightning bolt with a little slash through it- that’ll kill the flash for you, even if you’re in auto mode.

4. Set that timer.

Using a self-timer will give you much better results than handing the camera over to your kindergartner or using your own hand as a tripod. (Classic duck face, anyone?) Set the camera up on a box or some books, take a few practice shots to make sure you’re not going to cut off your head and make sure you have enough time to settle into your pose before it snaps the photo.

5. Strike a pose. 

This part can be fun. Start out however you’re comfortable, but don’t be surprised if you end up looking stiff and awkward at first. Check each photo after you take it and evaluate and then adjust- do you need to tilt your chin down more? Would you rather have your hair tucked behind your ear? Try tilting your head to one side, then the other, looking into the camera and then away, add an accessory like a scarf, rest your head on your hands,  think of something hilarious one of your kids did and laugh out loud just before the camera clicks (or laugh because you feel ridiculous taking photos of yourself).  Take as many photos as you need to get a winner (or several winners). If you find a particular pose that you like, stick with it and take several shots in that position- that way you’ll have plenty to choose from.

6. Editing is your friend. 

Editing: it’s not just for your WIP. If you aren’t familiar with the photo editing program on your computer, then get familiar with it. Use it to crop your photos, adjust the exposure and white balance and (my favorite part!) remove blemishes. (Don’t go too crazy with that last one, though- you don’t want to look plastic!)


It takes some time and effort (and a momentary lapse into narcissism) but have a solo photo shoot once a year or so and you will always have a current, professional photo of yourself that you can feel good about.