Peg Herring's Blog, page 44
May 27, 2010
Help Sites That Don't
I've spent a lot of time on a certain government website in the last week, trying to properly fill out paperwork of the "don't screw this up or we can withhold your money indefinitely" sort. I had the kind of experience that makes a person want to put her dainty little fist through the screen: wandering from page to page trying to get a simple answer but instead getting led to another screen with a vague promise of more information, which sends me on to another and yet another. What I got was usually a PDF of an outdated pamphlet that was already included in the packet of paperwork and told me nothing except general platitudes and promised help if I need it.
It isn't just the government. We've all had the experience of sifting through menu after menu, trying to get someone on the telephone who speaks human. Or the website webs, like one of my publishers, where someone with way too much time on his hands made buying my book so complicated that I doubt I would tolerate it, were I wanting to read the thing.
So here's my idea. Instead of spending tons of money on intricate websites with incredibly shallow bits of information scattered over miles of cyberspace, why don't they pay a real, live person to answer one (1) telephone number, prominently posted on the splash page of the website, and answer a question. It would go something like this:
I go to website called "Help with ---paperwork". At the top there is a phone number in 24 point font and the instruction: "Call Annabelle if you get stuck filling out our forms." I call.
Me: I'm filling out papers for ---. The instructions say I must answer all questions completely, but line 21 says "If you are under eighteen, are you married?" I am over eighteen, but I am married, so how should I answer that?
Annabell: That would be a Yes.
Me: Okay. Thanks, Annabelle.
There, now wasn't that easy?
Don't get me started on the guy who composed question 21, though.
It isn't just the government. We've all had the experience of sifting through menu after menu, trying to get someone on the telephone who speaks human. Or the website webs, like one of my publishers, where someone with way too much time on his hands made buying my book so complicated that I doubt I would tolerate it, were I wanting to read the thing.
So here's my idea. Instead of spending tons of money on intricate websites with incredibly shallow bits of information scattered over miles of cyberspace, why don't they pay a real, live person to answer one (1) telephone number, prominently posted on the splash page of the website, and answer a question. It would go something like this:
I go to website called "Help with ---paperwork". At the top there is a phone number in 24 point font and the instruction: "Call Annabelle if you get stuck filling out our forms." I call.
Me: I'm filling out papers for ---. The instructions say I must answer all questions completely, but line 21 says "If you are under eighteen, are you married?" I am over eighteen, but I am married, so how should I answer that?
Annabell: That would be a Yes.
Me: Okay. Thanks, Annabelle.
There, now wasn't that easy?
Don't get me started on the guy who composed question 21, though.
May 26, 2010
Don't Hit Me on the Head
I had lunch with a friend this week and we both happened to be reading books by famous authors who have discovered their personal agenda and think of themselves as educators of the (blind, stupid) public. My friend's reaction was the same as mine: Stop hitting me on the head!
The author I am reading wants me to know how dysfunctional our government, media, and way of life is. That's not unusual. Many modern novels portray the corruption of politicians, the greed of corporations, the slantedness of journalism, and the complacency of Americans in general. Being able to read nonfiction as well as fiction, I get the hint and either agree or disagree as I enjoy the progression of events in the novel.
But when the action in the story stops for long periods while the characters discuss these problems, or worse, when the main character THINKS about them for paragraph after paragraph, it isn't a novel anymore. It's sermonizing. As a kid, I remember reading Sinclair's THE JUNGLE and loving it...until the end, where he lambasts the System for its ills. Even at sixteen, I recognized that the author had stopped caring about the story and was at that point simply expressing his opinions. I resented his assumption that I couldn't see his point from the story itself, that he had to spell it out for me. When an author's agenda interferes with his understanding that he is writing a novel, it offends the reader. I don't care how famous the name on the cover is.
The author I am reading wants me to know how dysfunctional our government, media, and way of life is. That's not unusual. Many modern novels portray the corruption of politicians, the greed of corporations, the slantedness of journalism, and the complacency of Americans in general. Being able to read nonfiction as well as fiction, I get the hint and either agree or disagree as I enjoy the progression of events in the novel.
But when the action in the story stops for long periods while the characters discuss these problems, or worse, when the main character THINKS about them for paragraph after paragraph, it isn't a novel anymore. It's sermonizing. As a kid, I remember reading Sinclair's THE JUNGLE and loving it...until the end, where he lambasts the System for its ills. Even at sixteen, I recognized that the author had stopped caring about the story and was at that point simply expressing his opinions. I resented his assumption that I couldn't see his point from the story itself, that he had to spell it out for me. When an author's agenda interferes with his understanding that he is writing a novel, it offends the reader. I don't care how famous the name on the cover is.
May 25, 2010
The Thrill of a Good Review
Having just received a very nice review for GO HOME AND DIE, my Vietnam-era mystery e-book, I got to wondering about reviews and reviewers. (You can read it at http://ahistoryofromance.wordpress.
com/reviews/patricia-pellicane-reviews/go-home-and-die/ and it's available on Amazon. or at Red Rose Publishing)
My first book got hardly any reviews. My second, HER HIGHNESS' FIRST MURDER, got lots, and it was a big boost for me as an author to know that reviewers were interested enough to choose the book from the hundreds available to them and then pleased enough to review it positively.
So my questions are these: As readers, do you pay attention to who does the reviewing? Do you read reviews randomly or only in the genre you prefer from a source you trust, like PW? Or do you find an individual reviewer you trust and pay attention to his/her recommendations?
For my own part, I never paid much attention to reviews until I met P.J. Coldren, but I've come to appreciate the talent it takes to review fairly and well. It isn't just "I liked it a lot." or "It stinks." At
least, it shouldn't be!
com/reviews/patricia-pellicane-reviews/go-home-and-die/ and it's available on Amazon. or at Red Rose Publishing)
My first book got hardly any reviews. My second, HER HIGHNESS' FIRST MURDER, got lots, and it was a big boost for me as an author to know that reviewers were interested enough to choose the book from the hundreds available to them and then pleased enough to review it positively.
So my questions are these: As readers, do you pay attention to who does the reviewing? Do you read reviews randomly or only in the genre you prefer from a source you trust, like PW? Or do you find an individual reviewer you trust and pay attention to his/her recommendations?
For my own part, I never paid much attention to reviews until I met P.J. Coldren, but I've come to appreciate the talent it takes to review fairly and well. It isn't just "I liked it a lot." or "It stinks." At
least, it shouldn't be!
May 24, 2010
Philosophy and Laundry
That's life. Yesterday I went to see Hal Holbrook's "Mark Twain Tonight," a feast of ideas that had the four of us philosophizing all the way home (a 3 &1/2-hour drive from our north-woods home area to the theater. That's how culturally dedicated we are). Politics. Religion. Ethnicity. It was a long and meandering discussion.
And laundry. Today it's back to necessity: clean clothes, clean bathrooms, clear desktops. I guess it's good that we have kitchens to clean, because apparently, nobody can clean up the world, never could, never will.
And laundry. Today it's back to necessity: clean clothes, clean bathrooms, clear desktops. I guess it's good that we have kitchens to clean, because apparently, nobody can clean up the world, never could, never will.
May 21, 2010
Appearing Tomorrow!
Got an email on Wednesday saying how happy the West Branch, MI, library is that I am coming on Saturday from 10:00-2:00 for their annual Author Day. Problem: I'd forgotten all about it.
Luckily, I hadn't booked the day somewhere else, and I can and will make it to West Branch. But it scares me that I remember getting their request and saying I would come and then I somehow failed to write it on my calendar.
Of course it's overload. There is so much to do these days with promotion that every writer needs a publicist , a secretary, or even a teenager with computer skills. But there's no money for that, so we struggle along alone, keeping track of dates, books sold, manuscripts submitted, agents queried, libraries contacted, donations made, all the while trying to have somewhat normal lives.
Oh, and we need to be writing books, as well.
Luckily, I hadn't booked the day somewhere else, and I can and will make it to West Branch. But it scares me that I remember getting their request and saying I would come and then I somehow failed to write it on my calendar.
Of course it's overload. There is so much to do these days with promotion that every writer needs a publicist , a secretary, or even a teenager with computer skills. But there's no money for that, so we struggle along alone, keeping track of dates, books sold, manuscripts submitted, agents queried, libraries contacted, donations made, all the while trying to have somewhat normal lives.
Oh, and we need to be writing books, as well.
May 20, 2010
Canadain Valley Girl
In a store yesterday, I heard a woman talking to her friend about scrapbooking (yeah, I know). What struck me was the odd combination of Canadian cadence, complete with "eh?" at the end of most sentences, delivered in that overly high-pitched, gushy, OMG-I'm-excited manner that we once called "Valley girl": "I can't find those stickers that I promised to Allison and I've looked everywhere, eh?, and they just aren't there but of course they have to be there because I know I had them, eh? and they're probably down inside the pages, y'know, slid down where I can't see them so I'll have to look again, eh?" Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Can I use this experience in my writing? Don't know. I suppose in those "wacky" mysteries a person could get away with a 40-year-old Canadian who talks like a teenager on Red Bull, but honestly, it was hard to believe she was for real, even standing there waiting for her to find her wallet and pay the darned bill.
Can I use this experience in my writing? Don't know. I suppose in those "wacky" mysteries a person could get away with a 40-year-old Canadian who talks like a teenager on Red Bull, but honestly, it was hard to believe she was for real, even standing there waiting for her to find her wallet and pay the darned bill.
May 19, 2010
Sobbing on the Pages
I've never been much for sob stories. Of course, great literature tends to be tragic, and some of those stories are on my list of all-time favorites. I love reading versions of the King Arthur legend, for example, but I know that I'll be sad at the end because that "fleeting wisp of glory" could not sustain itself in the face of Man's corruption.
The best tragedies offer us some kind of hope, but even so, as I've gotten older, I find myself reading fewer books that I know can't end well. I just gave up on both THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE and ALICE I HAVE BEEN. It might have been a bad decision, but both books seemed sad on so many levels that I didn't want to read them.
Book buyers today seem to love the oh-my-god-how-tragic thing, but I think it's really hard for the authors of such stories not to descend into the maudlin. And since they tend to make me maudlin as well, I'd just as soon read a good detective novel, where I know that Truth and Justice will triumph in the end.
The best tragedies offer us some kind of hope, but even so, as I've gotten older, I find myself reading fewer books that I know can't end well. I just gave up on both THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE and ALICE I HAVE BEEN. It might have been a bad decision, but both books seemed sad on so many levels that I didn't want to read them.
Book buyers today seem to love the oh-my-god-how-tragic thing, but I think it's really hard for the authors of such stories not to descend into the maudlin. And since they tend to make me maudlin as well, I'd just as soon read a good detective novel, where I know that Truth and Justice will triumph in the end.
May 18, 2010
It's Not OCD, It's CDO
See, you have to put the letters in the proper order or it drives people like me crazy (er).
May 17, 2010
What Good Is an Editor?
Two big assets: distance and business sense.
First, distance. An editor is (or should be) someone who is removed from emotional attachment to a work. The editor acts as an enlightened reader, reacting to what he/she sees and noting places where more, less, or better is needed. Editors are a bit like teachers, who work with a large number of "children" and therefore can better judge your "child's" suitability for society.
Second, business sense. Editors need to keep their fingers on the pulse of the industry. A good editor knows, as well as anyone can in this crazy business, what will sell. Do they get it wrong sometimes? Of course. But they know what sold last month and last year and they know how much of a particular type is out there, how much is coming through their hands. They know that even if they love your current submission, there are twelve like it in the pipeline, and people may well be tired of, oh, say, VAMPIRES, by next year.
They aren't all good at what they choose to do. But there are lots of not-so-good writers out there, too.
First, distance. An editor is (or should be) someone who is removed from emotional attachment to a work. The editor acts as an enlightened reader, reacting to what he/she sees and noting places where more, less, or better is needed. Editors are a bit like teachers, who work with a large number of "children" and therefore can better judge your "child's" suitability for society.
Second, business sense. Editors need to keep their fingers on the pulse of the industry. A good editor knows, as well as anyone can in this crazy business, what will sell. Do they get it wrong sometimes? Of course. But they know what sold last month and last year and they know how much of a particular type is out there, how much is coming through their hands. They know that even if they love your current submission, there are twelve like it in the pipeline, and people may well be tired of, oh, say, VAMPIRES, by next year.
They aren't all good at what they choose to do. But there are lots of not-so-good writers out there, too.
May 14, 2010
Edits and Finishing Them, Sort of
The problem with being a writer is that you're never off duty. Ideas arise, phrases occur, characters appear, and they have to be captured before they fade in memory.
A subdivision of that is the editing process, which can stretch into infinity. I have a very nice editor who made some very helpful suggestions on a manuscript, and I've been working on them. So am I done? Did I do what she asked me to? Yeah. I mean, I think so. But when someone asks for more setting or more clues to character, (to quote George Michael) how much is enough?
A subdivision of that is the editing process, which can stretch into infinity. I have a very nice editor who made some very helpful suggestions on a manuscript, and I've been working on them. So am I done? Did I do what she asked me to? Yeah. I mean, I think so. But when someone asks for more setting or more clues to character, (to quote George Michael) how much is enough?
