Kathryn Magendie's Blog: Lonely Woman's Guide to the Galaxy, page 7

What if writing/publishing were like a “traditional job” . . . ?

If we were to think about our writing life, and publishing life, in the way of a “traditional job,” we may consider things quite differently. You��interview and you then ���sit by the phone and wait for it to ring��� (most things are done online now, but you get the idea), sweating, hoping. Phone rings���you didn���t get the job���DANG IT ALL TO HELLVITICA! That happens again, and again, until finally that phone rings and the answer is Yes! The job is yours! WHOOOP-WHOOOOP! You put on your work clothes and���

I’m set! I���m in the money!

The company offers you ���upfront��� money. That money will take care of expenses and such until you show them how successful you will be and how much money you will make them, or how much output you provide to make yourself a worthwhile risk. They���ll hold back your salary until you work enough to make up that upfront money. If you work for a huge company and they have reason to believe you���ll make them lots of moola, your advance could be Big. But, if like most of us pea-headed littlers you are more of a risk, advances aren���t going to be big, and some ���companies��� do not pay advances at all.

I receive advances on my books that��are manageable enough to ���earn back��� quickly. You have to ���pay back��� that advance���meaning, you have to sell enough books to cover the advance before you begin making royalties. Dream big, but know the realities, y���allses.

I���m going to buy a car and a house and ten gallons of gelato from my trip to Italy. Zippity do dah! Zippity Ay!

Better check your salary again, y���aaaawwwwl! Whether big business or small, the money the company takes in and doles out���including your salary���has to go many different places. Imagine Good Ole Bubba���s Tools & Supplies. Bubba the owner hires you to make tools, and when you make those tools, he sells them. From that money he has to pay rent or mortgage on his building, utilities and other expenses; he has to pay taxes, insurance; he has to buy inventory; he has to pay all of his employees; he has to pay himself. If you provide Bubba with a service, you are only a part of the entire operation of who has to be paid. The money has to be spread around to keep the business afloat.

So, your book is published���print, e-book, ethereal transcription on a moonbeam. Everyone involved receives their cut. Industry standard royalty rate ranges, give or take percentages based on that particular contract, are from around 6 to 15 percent for paperback/hardback and 25 to 40 percent on ebook. So, let���s suppose you earn 10% royalty on each print book you sell, and your book sells for $15.00: 10% of $15.00 = $1.50 per book is your cut���well, not exactly, as you must pay taxes, and ���pay back��� any expenses you incurred (if any), and for those of you with an agent, take 15% more off the top of that $1.50 before you do anything else. Lawdy be in a bucket!

Takes a whole lotta books to make a living off that, doesn���t it, my beauties? Now, e-books earn a better royalty, and you can plug in the numbers yourself���still, tain���t a goldmine lessen you become a Kindle Millionaire or sumpin������be realistic about��your salary. Royalties can be really good one royalty period and not so good another royalty period. I have had royalties for a year that weren���t as much as just one royalty check earned off the sales of a book promotion. It���s a stressful way to make a living if you are on one income, and finding another income source is most likely a reality.

Dream big, but temper it with the certainties of just how difficult it is to make a good living being an author.

My book will be reviewed by: Magazines, Oprah���s Book Club, New York Times Books, et cetera .

You���ve been working hard. You���ve put in your time and then some. You walk by The Big Boss���s��office every so often, showing him/her your determined face, your sincere attitude, the nights you���ve stayed late, the weekends you���ve worked, the family time you���ve sacrificed. You���ve gone to meetings and didn���t even fall asleep-haw!���okay, once, but no one was the wiser.

You���ve done everything you can think of to be noticed by��The Big Boss. And, well, he/she just doesn���t notice you. He/She has so many other employees who are doing the same thing, and some of them are backed by People who are able to slip into��Big Boss���s��office and put in a good word, or, some other employee just happens to be in the elevator with��The Big Boss��when she/he���s in a good mood, or when he/she just happens to be looking for that particular person���s smile or nod or look or good morning. Or somehow, an employee has some buzz going on a project he/she did and it develops legs and ruuuuuuuuuns.

There���s a lot of competition out there. And lotso times, the Big 5 (I believe it���s still five now) published authors garner the most attention, or the authors who���ve already had best sellers or are gaining attention for some other reason, et cetera-oony. It���s a saturated business, folkses. It���s a tough business.��The Big Boss��is busy, and important, and frankly, doesn���t have time to come to know every little employee out there���no matter how sincere or hardworking, and even, no matter how lovely and captivating and beautiful your work is. Yup. Dang.

My book will be in many bookstores across the land.

Your proposal is done. You���ve worked hard on the��Slim Slam Piddly Lam account. It���s all done up in a nice folder, and you are proud of it. Now time to get it to the right hands. There���s two-hundred offices in the building; heck, if you could get even one-hundred or so Boss Peoples to look at your proposal, why, even that would be great; better to have all two-hundred, but, you���ll settle for half. You take your shiny proposal for the��Slim Slam Piddly Lam��account and make a hundred-fifty copies. You put them on your desk and wait. One person comes by���it���s Ms. Office Fifteen. She���s been a casual acquaintance and you bought her coffee one day. She takes a proposal, then because she likes you, she takes three more.�� HOT DAMN! You are on your way! Whooooop Whooooop! Four proposals! The other hundred-forty-six sit. La la la tee dah. *check watch* *tap fingers* *tap toes* *sob a little*

You make the rounds of a few offices: ���Will you take my��Slim Slamp Piddly Lam��account proposal?��� And a couple take one, but it ends up under a big stack of other proposals.

Some shake their heads no. They have enough proposals, no more space. You realize you just don���t have time or funds or energy to go to all hundred-forty-six offices, so you place your��Slim Slam Piddly Lam account proposals on your desk, again, and hope word will get around���ungh ungh. Your supervisor who works with you on accounts is helping, too, taking half of those proposals and sending out word, newsletters, samples, et cetera. A few more proposals are placed, but nowhere near what you thought.

The truth is: sometimes you and your publishers (agent/editors/publicists, whomever) have to practically beg a bookstore to stock your book���until they tire of begging and stop���even if you are traditionally published by a viable press. Bookstores have limited space and they���re going to stock the ���bigger names��� ���that means bigger in publishers and in authors.

Sadly but true, you can be a champion of brick and mortar bookstores, but when you approach them, they may or may not care. They may or may not stock your book. They may stock one just to be nice. Since you can���t conceivably contact every bookstore there is, there���s no way to have your book noticed by many bookstores���for them, it���s about their budget, and sentimentality usually goes one way: the author may be sentimental about having their books in brick and mortar bookstores but the sentimentality is often not returned���it���s a hard cold world out there in this book business. Make friends with your local bookstore owners and you probably will have success there, at least.

This is why Amazon and Nook and other e-readers have become important to authors���authors feel ���heard��� and authors are able to see their books on ���shelves.��� And author���s books are more likely to be read.

Aw, shoot

Once I have one book published, I am assured to have more published.

You landed the��Shots a Lot��account! Oh Happy Days are Near Again! Surely now the next couple of accounts will be Yours! You can kick back and relax now. Or . . . not. Well, dang it all to Dang Town!

With each book, you (or if you have an agent, the agent) still need to convince your publisher/publishing editor to take on your book. Even if the last book was successful. Now, granted, if you���ve had success with your first book or books, the chances are higher; however, you still need to present the book and have it approved.

This means: just as with the first time, you���ll write your novel without knowing whether you will have it published and without knowing whether all your work will be realized in print/e-book. You write regardless of the outcome. You write never knowing where it will take you, or if you will be published, if you will ever make a dime, or if you will only make a dime.

So my lovelies, tell me:

How many jobs would you take knowing these kinds of odds? How many jobs would you take making an unknown salary? How many jobs would you take where you could work your arse off for weeks, months, a year, or more, and Maybe��MAYBE��be paid, and maybe not? Would you take that job?

You have to love this business and have a crazy amount of faith and hope and daring.

��I want this crazy-arse roller coaster job���do you?

(pardon this reprint of an earlier post – I have a danged ole Texas cold! I rarely was sick in the mountains, but here? Dang!)

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Touty Plug of the day: (I’m really happy with how the covers to these little sweet stories turned out – beautiful water colors).

“Story Snacks” through “Howling Wolf Press”

On your lunch break? Sitting bored in a waiting room? Need just one little simple story before you go to sleep? Shortie short stories are satisfying, and can be read quickly in one little spark of time. Download one of Kathryn Magendie���s very short stories, between 3,000 and 6,000 words, and gobble them up in one gulp���a nice little story-snack.

Filed under: authors and books, novelists, publishing, writing Tagged: Books, kathryn magendie, writers, writing

Round and Round we go: stop for just a moment, y’all

I do a lot of listening to (or reading about) writers���both published writers and as yet unpublished writers.

And what I hear is a lot of ���what if��� and ���if only��� and ���If I could just��� and ���So and So is doing this and that���s what I want��� and ���Why can���t I?,��� and so on and so forth and blah diddity do dah day. I���m not immune to it, but I am growing ever more Aware of it. Circuitous thinking, round and round it goes, endless. Our desires are always a step ahead of��our needs;��round that curved corner we can���t see from where we are . . . and we must see . . . we must . . . must’nt we?

Funny thing is, we don���t remember when we were Wishing for that something from before because when we reached that goal, we were already circling to find the next Thing, and that for which we wished for prior has already been left behind and forgotten, discarded.

Don���t get me wrong here, having goals and wanting success is not a bad thing. What I am talking about is our discontent or dissatisfaction with what is happening right now, that thing that we had wanted to achieve so very much, before we actually achieved it.

So, round and round we go trying to grab the next thing, when in reality, we are stepping over all our successes, great and small, along the way. Oops! I just stepped over the goal of starting my project/finishing my project! Oops! I just stepped over my goal of finding an agent/having my work published/getting paid for writing/querying agents-small presses-lit mags/having someone I respect love my work or encourage me. Oops! I just stepped over my goal of my work being published. Oops, I just stepped over my goal of (fill in blanks). And as you circle, you pass people who are running to catch up and pass you as you run to catch up and pass someone else.

I remember a quote by Michael M.��Hughes when he was a guest on an author friends blog (helluo librorum), and this thought of his bolded in my head: ���If you have even halting, tentative success, realize how lucky you are.���

So, whatever the case may be where you are, take a moment to breathe in and out, and��NOTICE just where you are Right Now, and then, take just a glance backwards to remember how excited you were when This Happened���that first glow, that first happy realization that you met your goal before you left it behind and began the round and round and round.

Each success should be savored. Roll that thing in your mouth like a big piece of sweet candy ���the good kind, not the kind nobody likes ���and instead of crunching through it and swallowing it, let it slowly melt before you reach for the next piece.

And remember how there is always going to be someone behind you and someone in front of you and someone running over you or pushing you out of the way, someone who sets up circle-roadblocks in front of you���but if you stop the mad dash round and round and appreciate each experience, you will find some peace.

I know most (all?) every one of us will forget this advice and/or ignore it from time to time, repeatedly, but for right now, we have right now.

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Touty Plug of the day: SWEETIE. One of my most favorite books and character(s). It’s the favorite of many of my readers. A coming of age story. Suitable for younger readers, as well. I’m rather proud of this book. I’ll savor this accomplishment like a big ole piece of candy — chocolate!

A little mountain to wn in the 1960s, a reclusive girl, an unlikely friendship. Melissa will come to understand that just because Sweetie feels no physical pain, does not mean she cannot be hurt ��. . .��

Lyrical and poignant gothic southern storytelling. Sweetie is a wild girl, rough, almost feral, yet brave and endlessly honest. When Melissa, a shy, stuttering town girl, befriends Sweetie, the two enrich each other’s lonely lives. But there are some in the Appalachian community who regard Sweetie and her peculiar heritage as sinister…

For shy, stuttering Melissa, the wild mountain girl named Sweetie was a symbol of pride and strength. But to many in the��Smoky Mountain��town, Sweetie was an outcast . . . .

Filed under: authors and books, kathryn magendie Tagged: writers, writing

Monday Classroom: More Grammar Tidbitters (ain’t you gladeravated?)

Morning, all y���allses! What? You think all y���allses isn���t correct? Well, it ain���t. It ain���t even correct in many southern towns. Nope. But it���s correct in my pea-head, so there y���allses goes���ses.

Our manuscripts will never be perfect. Yeah, I know! It���s difficult to imagine, isn���t it? That we aren���t or will never be perfect? Nor will our books/essays/short stories,��and so on. Lawd and Dang. However, we can do our best to��strengthen our work by learning The Rules and applying them when we ���should.” Then, we can break those rules with a firm and knowledgeable hand. Right? Riighhht!

Do you own a Strunk & White? No? *Gasp!* Go ye and purchase one. I don’t care if you’ve heard it’s all stuffy-fied. I���ll wait whilst you do. *Jeopardy music here* You back? All right then (and notice, yes sir and yes m’am, that all right is two words���two!).

Now, let us begin.

As I wrote above, all right should be two words. Not alright. Because I say so. So does “Grammar Girl,” who I do agree with (and yes I know what I just did with that sentence and how I ended it!). And I don’t care if people are beginning to “accept things that are used all the time.” Nope. All right?

Do you feel badly? Well, what���s wrong with your hands? Yep. Feeling badly, or feel badly: think about it. Roll that around on your tongue-brain. It is: I feel bad. I feel bad that you��think I’m being a grammar bitch (I really don’t feel bad – haha!).

Another of those pesky “ly” words:��Most always when we write ���hopefully��� we mean ���I hope or with hope.��� Yup. It is with hope that I write this tip prompting you to��stop saying “Hopefully, I will understand all this mess.” Well, dang me but��“hope” looks like it’s spelled all wrong and I know it is not. Ain’t that funny when a word does that in our heads? One we’ve written many times will all of a sudden be all wrong in said heads?

Of course there are many “ly” words that are perfectly acceptable. Those adverbs — ly words — flummox people right and left and up and down. Another day with the ly-ers.

well, sheee’it

Who that? I often see/hear ���that��� used instead of ���who������ if you are writing/speaking of a person, then it is who. She is a woman who likes strawberries right off the vine; not, she is a woman that likes strawberries right off the vine.

Commas before which���s. The dog wanted his walk, which was most inconvenient for the woman who wasn���t yet ready. What? I don’t care! It’s correct! Because Strunk & White say so! And I do, too. Humph. If you hate commas, “that” can be used instead of “which” in many sentences. But if you are going to use “which” then use the comma, which is proper grammar that can be used today and tomorrow and so on and so forth and la tee dah tee dah.

We Southern/Mountain folk often add words and such all and all that stuff and a little bit of this and that the t���other. I often use colloquialism in my work, since my settings are usually in the Appalachian/Deep South. So if you read my work, you will see grammar discombobulations when I am in the character’s voice. However:

Off of is incorrect, and plain old ���off��� is correct. The woman jumped off of the couch and ran to the porch to yell, ���Git off���n my land!��� should be The woman jumped off the couch and ran to the porch to yell ���Git off���n my land!���

As well, instead of ���Could of��� we should write/say ���could have��� ��� I could of had a V8 is incorrect! Don���t you watch commercials to learn yer grammarfications? It���s I could have had a V8! Or “I could’ve had . . . .” That said, I it may sound as if I am saying��the “could of” because I’m southern and charming and oh so mysteriously colloquial. Tee hee.

you nauseate me – just say’n

Nauseous versus Nauseated. If you feel it, it is nauseated. If you or someone or something else is causing the nausea, well then, that is nauseous. ��I am nauseated because you vomited on my just-mopped floor, you nauseous pile of vomitus!

Y���allses gots any grammerfications and other writin bloooperdoops you wanna tawlk about?And, as always, if I have an error, which does happen because I’m imperfectly perfect, point ‘er out and I’ll fix it (if I agree).

Now, go do the day!

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Touty Plug of the day: Family Graces, the 3rd book in the Graces Trilogy. This explores Momma’s and Rebekha’s lives more, and we finally learn what happens with Virginia Kate and Gary.

Filed under: appalachian mountain people, cleaning up our manuscripts, craft of writing, General Poo Dee Dah, grammar Tagged: craft of writing, family graces, grammar, kathryn magendie

You are mine and I am yours, dear Reader: how I love you.

What shall I do��with my gift? For I am not quite sure what direction I want to take with a new novel. Unfinished work sits in my computer. For I imploded my life over a year ago–I exploded it–I ripped it asunder–I left my marriage and my life on the mountain. I pummeled myself stupid with one decision after another until I sat dazed for months. Now, now I am ready again.

But I hesitate. Which one? Or a new one? “Listen to your heart, Kathryn,” the cliched voice inside me rages.

Once, years back,��I printed out my novel and held its heaviness in my hands, and as I read, I loved Virginia Kate all over again, but I��wondered if there were more I could��do to her: make her shorter, tighter, smaller, for I’m told readers have a short attention span now and expect things to be more dramatic, to move faster, to have more and more tension and action and –is this you, reader? Are you really like that? Where you expect things to be fed to you so fast, crammed down your throat, where you expect quick-reading works that��can be gulped down like fast food, or, do you sometimes enjoy the dinner at a quiet nice restaurant, where each course is served to you gently and with full attention, each course a delicate taste, but with undertones of spice and heat and with the hint of��something dramatic to come. Each course comes just a moment after you’ve finished the last one, and in that moment, you savor what you have just completed.

I am smiling at you, smiling with imagining you reading my words and how you would think this is something different, yet something quite familiar that you are reading. Something to take to the back porch, to the beach, to a rocking chair.

I have so much to tell you all, dear readers! So much! My mind won’t be still and there are times when I want to hush it up, to tell my thoughts to stop its mad rushing about! When I think I shall go insane with all the words to tell you.

How do I reach you all? I could put my novels��away and concentrate on other things to show you, and then one day, when I am ready, I will come to you, and you will not forget me. I could write what isn’t in my heart to capture the market and perhaps place much needed funds in my bank. But I hesitate. For when I tried that before, it felt so wrong, so alien, so rubbery.

I have a restless mind. I have a mind full of images — bones of dogs attached to leashes while the old man calls to me to write him, for he is lost, and he needs me to find him, and there is a boy, a dark-haired boy who parts the bushes, parts the thistles, and sees the bones, and a voice comes to him and says, “I am near, too, come find me . . . .”

And there–a group of women, all over sixty, crossing the street, and two of them help one who is weak weaker weakest, while three more are a bit ahead, chatting about anything but their youth, because they do not care about those days any longer, they have stories, so many stories to tell, and as I watch them cross the street, I hear their words, and I hear the inner words of their story and I must tell it! Words slam into me, and I take them in, bam bam bam bam bam slam.

And��there is the woman, who wakes up beside her husband, and goes to the bathroom, and as she relieves herself, she stares at the stain��of the night’s sex��on her panties, and sighs, gets up, washes her hands, washes her faces (yes, faces), and tries not to look in the mirror, but she does, accidentally she looks into the woman in the mirror, and all the days of her life slam into her, and she pushes back her hair, and listens to the loud breathing of her husband, and suddenly, suddenly, unexpectedly, the world tilts and rearranges and she becomes the woman she was meant to be. I think about this woman, and she thinks about me – for she knows I will have to write her story and she waits, staring into that mirror, turning away from that mirror, out of the bathroom, down the hall, out the front door, down the sidewalk, her feet slapping against the cement–where is she going?! I have to find out! Words. Images. Ideas. Characters.

Whispers – is that the wind, or a character speaking to me? Last night, my legs were restless under the covers as I held a��book of short stories. I opened it, and read and enjoyed and wondered about the author, what they were doing and thinking and if they knew how beautiful they are, and that at that very moment, I was reading their words and they’d never know me, never know I smiled, and then closed the book with satisfaction, turned out the light, and dreamed of my own words on the page. Deam. Dreamer. Dreamest.

��I will never again be the same because you, dear readers, have touched me and read me and come to know me through my books. I can never go back to how I was in the days before this happened. I am yours now. I have no choice but to give you more of me. For anything less feels wrong and empty. My life wrong and empty without the words and language. I love this writing, my characters, the idea and reality of you all holding my words and loving my characters, as much as I love my arm, my leg, my tiniest of baby toes.

Stay with me. For I need you.

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Touty plug of the day. My very first published book. Tender Graces, the first in the trilogy. Where I introduce to you my beloved Virginia Kate. It is one of my most popular books, with only Sweetie being just as popular.

Filed under: appalachian mountain people, authors and books, family stories, graces sagas, novelists Tagged: amazon, bell bridge books, kathryn magendie, prose, smoky mountains, west virginia

Monday Classroom: grammar tidbits

Grammar really isn’t difficult. Yes, I laughed a little when I wrote that. I can remember the days when certain “grammar rules” made little sense to me. I struggled and stumbled and cursed the comma. But then, for whatever reason in the universe, my pea-headed brain had some kind of Oh! AHA! moment and the grammar rules began to make (im)perfect sense to me (though I break them many times, but I do it with purpose). I’m sure it was an insidious inky thing spreading out and snapping through the mysterious regions of my brain–helped by my work as an editor (and then Publishing Editor with Angie Ledbetter) at the Rose & Thorn Journal (a fine fine literary journal that we both grieved shutting down–the archives are still there, should you wish to peruse and enjoy!). I had to find ways to help my brain make sense of it all by��using��my own little “memory tics;” or, just accept what is, is, and forever more may be.

So,��my fine beautiful lovelies: some tidbits for your grammar angstesess:

Less/Fewer

Simply put: think of fewer as “counting things” and less as “time and space and things you don’t count.”

I ate fewer apples (three) today because I had less time (about an hour) to chew.

There are fewer dogs (twelve) in the dog park so there’s way less barking (who knows how many dogs are barking; I just hear noise).

Take fewer cookies (three) so you’ll spend less time on the treadmill (get on that treadmill anyway – no matter how many cookies you’ve eaten, or not eaten!).

Fewer coins��(ten)��means less money (you are probably broke if you are a writer) to spend.

Most Important/Most Importantly

It’s important. Period. Most important, it’s important not importantly. Because I said so. Because I consulted the Most High Poombahs of Grammar and they said so. Most important, I said so.

But wait! There’s more! There is quite a controversy on the “important/importantly” debate. I will stick to my “most important” and continue to correct people in my head – hahahaha!

Your/You’re

Do we really need to discuss this? Yes. Because even people I dearly love still use “your” as “you’re.” Your is possessive: Your (possessive – you own the pants) pants are falling down so you’re (you are) going to trip on them.��You’re is��the contraction of “You are.”

You’re (you are) so cute when your (possessive) pants fall down. You can only use “you’re” as You Are and nothing else–if you write “you’re” you are saying “you are” and if you write “your” you are saying that person owns the thing that it is attached to it.

Your��(the person the lips are attached to)��lips are kissable; you’re (you are) sexy.

It’s/Its

Often, writers write the it’s/its incorrectly on accident. I scour my manuscript with a fine-toothed eye to catch any it’s/its -ses I may have missed just by a slip of the finger — or! Word sometimes plays tricks that I must watch out for.

It’s: contraction of it is. ��Note that “it’s” can be a contraction for “it has” as well: It’s been nice but I gotta go –it has been nice but I gotta go. That’s it. That’s the use of it’s: it is or it has. Nothing else.

Its: a possessor that is neutral. Consider that��his and her is a “possessor” – his legs are strong��but��her thighs can crack a walnut. ��Think of its replacing his or her as in��the case of the example below: the dog and the dog’s house.

It’s (it is) chilly outside and the dog shivers in its (possessor) dog house. (So I let the dog in my��house–okay, I had to add this because I kept feeling sorry for this imaginary dog. Haw!)

The swan knows it’s beautiful in its watery kingdom at the lake.

Starbucks is a huge corporation and its coffees are over-priced. See that��Starbucks “owns” the coffees but we don’t call Starbucks a “his or her” – still, it “possesses” the coffees it sells, so: It’s (it is) my opinion that Starbucks and its (neutral possessor) coffees are sometimes delicious and sometimes burnt-tasting.

Now, I hope I didn’t create any typos or make an embarrassing grammatical mistake while typing this out. If so, call me on it and I’ll fix ‘er up.

That’s it for today. Take those in your mouth until you’re sure you can swallow them down in your tummy. Most important, it’s widely known that grammar is its own worst enemy but dang if it’s not beautiful in its complexity. You’re going to muddle over this until your head explodes. You’ll have fewer brain cells and less synaptic activity once you have considered all of the above. Teehee.

Later, y’all (spelled “Y’all and not Ya’ll” – you all – y’all, y’all!) Go Write!

Touty plug of the day: The Lightning Charmer – wish my publishers (and I suppose me to some extent) luck, for TLC’s cover is a finalist in the EPIC Ariana Awards for book cover art. Winners announced in March.

Filed under: authors and books, cleaning up our manuscripts, craft of writing, gratitude Tagged: craft of writing, grammar, kathryn magendie, strengthening manuscripts

‘Bad’ Poetry Sunday from a Non Poet

 

yes, ‘bad’ poetry from a non-poet��Sunday��is back – ha!

 

 

IT���S ALL RANDOM

 

1.

The giant she���d become

Pleased her

She passed a church singing

Tore off the roof

Because she could

(see all the people?)

Singing silenced

Tiny people looked up

At her giant mooned face

They thought, she thought,

She is God.

 

2.

A fine morning

She found fifty-two emails

Oh how fifty-one adored her!

But that one

Who did not

Would not could not chose not

Caught in her throat

Tore at her brain

She read the words

Once twice thrice

The words bloated

Sagging heavy in the middle and outward

She walked to town

On slippery feet and happenstance notions

But the words fattened ever more

Bloated fly words, blue fly shoo

She ran home, slipping on the grease

Of oozing words; hid in her bedroom

The words found her, weighing

Down down the bedroom roof, down

Down sagging upon her poor sore head

Until that head bowed in supplication

The heavy heavy words grew bolder

Split the roof asunder

And all the bloated oozing words laid

Atop her���writhing lazy

A lover could not be as complete

���so was spent the last day

Of her life well-known

 

3.

He liked to break things on purpose

Cell left in pocket off to the washer

Oh dear I dropped your camera

There���s his hip, hop, hip

bump against the table

Comes crash and splintering

Of beloved glass memories

���I burnt the teapot, my love;

was it a favorite?���

Once the car ran, until it did into a tree

 

she doesn���t know why she didn���t see it coming

 

4.

 

 

Her life is an ellipsis . . .

. . . inside each tiny little dot

she lives . . . and even in the pauses . . .

between them she could be found

. . . but no one tried . . . .

 

-kat magendie

Filed under: poetry, poetry and prose Tagged: kathryn magendie, poetry, prose

Who is your character? (How We Write)

Fun for all ages (ha)

Here���s a secret: I don���t have a clue what favorite flavor of ice cream is Virginia Kate���s (The Graces Trilogy books main character) favorite flavor. If I thought about it, maybe I���d have her go into the ice cream parlor and she���d step up to the counter and she���d order a . . . *kat thinks* . . . chocolate dipped cone. There. She doesn���t like pistachio like I do. She���d eat strawberry, though, yeah; we both like strawberry with real chunks of strawberries in there.

Sometimes authors make detailed ���character sketches.��� They know their characters so well, up to the minutetednest detail���their favorite foods, their favorite movies, how they look from the top of their head to the soles and souls of their feet���every detail about their physical appearance. They know every like and dislike, every nuance, every place the character has been or worked or gone to school, etc etc etc.��— Lawdy! I have a headache just thankin’ about all that!

When I first began writing fiction, I thought there was This Way I was supposed to write and think and do and be, and if I wasn���t This Way, then I wasn���t a Real Writer. I might as well have put thick gloves on my hands and tried to write that way, for thinking ���what I am supposed to do��� versus ���what is comfortable and real and instinctual��� for me creates boundaries where there should be free space. You know how I came up with the Sweetie��character? She came to me whilst I was walking Muse Trail One in my Smoky Mountain cove. Hovered there as an apparition demanding me to tell her story–first time that’s happened. Was it real or imagined in my writer’s mind? Who cares? Sweetie��has become one of my most beloved books. I won’t question it.

For me personally, when it comes to character, I learned I have to discover my character(s) as I write, and even in that discovery, just as it is with meeting real people, I never know every detail about them, and may never know every detail. Up until the last Graces book (Family Graces), I was still discovering who Virginia Kate is. If I have an ice cream scene, that���s when I find out what flavor she will choose and likes (chocolate dipped cone! Now I know!). If I have a movie scene, maybe she���ll talk about her favorite movie, and then again, maybe she won���t���maybe I���ll never know her favorite movie. I know she loves books, and has a special place for her Black Stallion and Black Beauty books, but what does she read as an adult? Well, I don���t know. She hasn���t had time to read because she���s going through her families��� archives (their letters, journals, photos) and storytelling their lives.��When I wrote my sixth work��The Lightning Charmer, I first tried to shoehorn things I thought I wanted for my characters into the book–I was trying to please someone outside of myself, and the book was suffering for it. It took me a long time to relax and let the characters have their way, and even so, it’s still a book that my readers either dislike completely or love as their favorite–not much in between with that book.

follow your own path

Well, y’all all know how writers love to give advice���heck, I do that here on my blog��every so often or often or every once in a while.��Most��all��of us mean well. Many of��us give advice because we want to tell you ���Hey, relax a litle–it���s all okay; really!��� We want to support you and help you; we want to give you guidance; we want to perhaps make things a bit easier on you where we had to muddle our way through; and we want to talk about the craft, the language, because it is important to us and we love it so.��It’s rarely to tout and shout about our books even when we shamelessly put photos of them in the post and all that because our publishers are probably upset at us for rarely talking about our books, teehee, lawd. (And y’all know I rarely��tout my books–but perhaps I should do more of it? How else will people know about my books? How else will I please ��my publishers?–more on this later in another post, y’allses.)

How you write; how the process is for you is an individual decision–a unique glimpse into the mind of you as Writer/Author/Novelist. If you like to discover your character as you go along, or if you like to write detailed character descriptions���who can tell you which is ���right or wrong��� because neither way is ���right or wrong.��� If you read how a writer does his or her thang and then you try to duplicate that and in that trying to duplicate you hit wall after wall���your character becomes wooden, or doesn���t seem real to you, or something just isn���t right about this character dang it all!���then find your own way. Take off the borrowed gloves and feel the flexing of your own fingers, the feel of the keys, the freedom of ungloved hands.

Just Do It

Go Forth and Write, y’all!

Filed under: appalachian mountain people, authors and books, bell bridge books, bellebooks Tagged: kathryn magendie, strengthening manuscripts, writing

The Work-out Writer: no more whining!

balance, strength, energy

Work-out:

I used to tell my clients I trained to ���listen to their bodies��� to let them know how much they could do or when to pull back so there wasn���t over-use or injury. And that is mostly true, all y���allses beauties out there. However, I also recognize how this isn���t always the case. Sometimes our bodies/minds want to fool us, because what we are doing may be��Haaaaaaard, and why oh why would our brains want to do the Hard Thing when it can at times easily convince us to do the Easy Thing? Even if the Easy Thing isn���t as good for us. Sometimes we must re-wire our thought processes.

Folks, there are times we must push through when our bodies/minds tell us it wants to slow down or stop���not to the point of exhaustion or dangerous over-working, but to the point of Kicking Our Asses and doing the Hard Thing���and not ���once in a while��� but ���several times a week.��� (Though, you must always consult a doctor before beginning a workout program!)

��Write write write! Write with abandon!

Writer:

Some days I just ain���t feelin��� it, you know? Well, Kat, suck it up. Sit your arse down in the chair, fingers to keys, and write. Timed writing isn���t going to do it for me. If I watch the clock, then just as with my aerobics workout, I’ll be ever aware of that clock ticking: 15 minutes of writing? Okay ��� tic toc tic toc tic toc. *Yawn!* The work also isn���t going to be done by my whining about how haaarrrrd it is to be a wrriiiiiitteer.

Stop��whining! It’s time to re-wire��our ���minds/bodies��� from telling us we caaaaann���t to that of I can do this!–we have��to,��at the least, give it a try, right?��Books aren���t written by rolling our eyes and sighing. Royalties aren���t paid to writers who aren���t producing books. The work is done by doing the work.

Work-out:

This person (me��a few��years ago) felt like��crap-a-doodle-doo-doo. Wasn’ t writing, wasn’t taking care of herself

I used to crave junk and loads of chocolate. (Honestly, I still do crave it. And, I’m a Sweet-a-holic.) There were days I wanted to sit on my ass and do nothing but eat chocolate and feel depressed and not do a danged ole thing. Some days are sucky and I could fall into that trap again if I weren���t careful. But if I were to sit on my ass and gobble down an entire box of chocolates, feeling sorry for myself and the state of Everything, well, dangity it all to dangtown, but I���d feel even worse. My body would be bloated and sick from Chocolate-Junk-Sitting on my Arse Overload. Sluggish, tired, cranky,��like in this pic from a few years ago–I was being silly, but there was truth behind this photo .

The more I work out, the healthier I eat, the better I feel, and the more I want to do those things to continue to feel better. Then when I do treat myself, it tastes/feels even better than it ever did before.

Writer:

Sometimes I want to sit on my ass and do nothing but feel depressed and not write a danged ole thing��and eat junk and drink vodka.��Some days are sucky. Well, guess what? If thousands of us sat our asses on the couch and did nothing because life is haaarrrrdd, who���d write the books?; who���d deliver the mail?; who���d bake the bread?;��who���d teach the kids?

This book/writing business isn���t always easy, but ask yourself: Is this what I really want to do? Am I ready to be in this for the long-haul? Am I ready to sacrifice? Can I handle rejection? Scrutiny both good and bad and in between?��If not, then what do you want to do? Reorganize your thought-processes.

Sometimes being a published author (or an unpublished one) is the easiest best job in the entire danged ole world, and other times it sucks like a big fat suckity suck black-hole sucker���but I love it more than my right arm. Get back to work. Whatever that “work” is for you–if writing novels isn’t truly what you love but you’ve been slogging through it, then maybe there is something else in this business you will enjoy more? Or maybe you’ll discover��a direction/road you never considered.

streeeeeetch

Work-out:

At the end of a grueling work-out, find time to stretch those muscles, and then just as important as the work-out and the stretch, comes the quiet moment of reflection. Time and distance and wants and needs lift away as we respect our bodies, minds, hearts. The old saying “you only have one body, one life” is true (reincarnation doesn’t count – because you’ll be someone/something else, right? so no excuses!). We have this one chance to make the best of our lives. To honor our bodies. To give ourselves the gift of good health and well-being. What will you do with yours?

Writer:

step up and see what’s around that corner

When the writing day is done, find a moment to reflect on this writing life. Calm the voices, the rejections, the expectations, the harried hurry and the long-ass frustrating waits, and remember just why you love this writing life so much. Recall the raw beginnings of it, when it was just you and a white space of whatever in the world you wanted to say to anyone who would listen, even if it was only your own ears. Find that joy in quiet reflection. Time is going to pass anyway. A year will pass, and a year from now, where will you be? Will you have written a year’s worth of words? Or will you have angsted yourself to a wordless mass of messy nothing-on-the-page-ness. Time will pass no matter what we are doing with it; make the best of it by stretching your writing muscles.

Work-out:

Night comes. Time to rest the body. Rest is as important as movement. A good night���s sleep prepares you for the next day���s challenge. Your body/mind deserves and needs this rest. Requires it. Be grateful for the body you have instead of fighting against it. Why would you dislike your beautiful self? Our bodies are a work of art; a gorgeous scientific biological wonder!

Writer:

When laying your head upon your pillow, remember to give gratitude for what you have accomplished. This business is so much about looking ahead to what we ���should��� accomplish, or what may come, or what we hope will come, that we must remember what we did achieve. Hold on to it, let it come with us into our dreams. ���You Did This! Good for You!��� Sleep. Dream. Going to sleep with a heart of gratitude will ready you for the next day���s challenge.

Namaste, y’allses.

 

 

 

(post taken from a previous post. soon I’ll be writing original posts again, but this is a start to getting back to blogging regularly!)

Filed under: authors, craft of writing, gratitude, health fitness, inspiration Tagged: anti-aging, exercise, fitness, health, kathryn magendie, writing

Poetry Sunday from a Non-Poet

I never know what to do with my poetry. I’m really not a poet; I’m a novelist and occasional short story writer. Still, every so often I have to say something in very few words. I have to create an image stuck in my head and heart and other innards that is poking at me and needs release — and it’s something that definitely isn’t going to be a short story or novel. So, unlucky for you dear readers who happen here, *laughing*, I am going to occasionally post them here on Sundays. That way, they have a home and aren’t gathering mold and dust upon my computer. It just makes me feel better – as if I didn’t write them in a lonely vacuum and leave them homeless.

 

 

THE KILLING SPOT

 

The deer pauses

early morning fog twining ���round a100-year-old oak

whose ancient branches weary to the ground,

reach, touch roots, leave a bit of deceptively soft Spanish moss

to trail along by the action of breezes

 

and she that is alone

lowers her snout to dew spattered grass, sips each blade

a delicate pull of her lips, teeth bite down, chew swallow and begin again.

Silence knows her.

 

He comes on quiet paw

watches her from behind a young swarm of knobby cypress knees���

the mother cypress towering near���steam sears from his heated body,

saliva slips from sharp points of teeth, his tongue protrudes,

slicks along his lips

 

she lifts her head

trembles, the ripples vaguely discernable across her small compact body,

nostrils flare, a tear of moisture drips and falls to the ground

as one tiny hoof lifts in preparation for flight���

 

���and he is upon her

snaps her neck, one swift calculated bite finds its way to her death,

she is consumed,

the rest left as pickings for the scavengers who are patient,

waiting for her fall

 

He saunters away belly distended

the good parts of her he uses for nourishment

the parts he has no need are disgorged upon the earth

 

Her bones are licked clean

Lay bleaching in the sun���

 

And he returns again and again to the killing spot, sniffs, wants more

of what she no longer has to give.

 

 

–kat magendie

 

 

Filed under: General Poo Dee Dah, poetry, poetry and prose Tagged: kathryn magendie, poetry, writing

Writing out the Fear . . . .

(I wrote this a few years ago – I need to read it as if it was written by someone else and then listen – yes, Kathryn, listen to this writer/novelist who stomped over her fears; who didn’t let anything stop her from writing what she wanted to write. Who didn’t let depression, anxiety, anger, or anything else keep her from what she loves, and what she is, frankly, good at.)

—————————————————————————————–

Before I was published, whenever I���d read about an author who wrote a book and never wrote another one, I���d say, ���If I had the chance, I sure wouldn���t be hesitating. I���d sure be writing to beat the band!��� I simply couldn���t understand why a writer who had the chance to have his/her next book published would not jump on that chance with all the glee and energy and writing writer write they had, especially if that book was a success.

Until my own books were published. Then came the understanding of how fear plays such a part in this business.

An artist and I were in a conversation about not letting the negativity get in the way of creativity. I said to the artist how we have to have the dark and the light in our work, but we have to make sure the dark is not someone else���s shadow. Much of what you hear after you publish your book is Everyone Else���s Opinion���if you are not careful, you begin to listen to too many voices/opinions. Finding a way to separate the ���should not listen to��� versus the ���this will help me in my journey��� is a difficult one.

After my first book, Tender Graces, was released, I woke up with anxiety so fierce that my stomach tied in a snarl of knots. Fear of what someone may say about my work. That I���d disappoint readers. Some of this faded as time went by, but only because I stomped over it���how else could I go back to work? But it came again with the release of the Secret Graces, and then with Sweetie, and onward with my other novels. Will people still love me and my characters? Did I do okay? Are my words reaching anyone? Will I be loved?

Just Do It

My friends, I understand why some writers do not write that second book. An author can become paralyzed with fear. That fear can permeate and penetrate and become so prevalent that creativity is stifled. Imagine writing a book and being compared to other writers���but���imagine writing a book and being compared to yourself! Harper Lee, Stephen King, Oscar Wilde, Gail Godwin, Ralph Ellison, Margaret Mitchell, Elizabeth Berg���all have one thing in common: they wrote a book. What they don���t have in common is some went on to write more and others never wrote another book, or at least one that we know about.

If I had not stomped over my fears, skirted around the dark that is someone else���s shadow, ignored my terror, more work would not have come to me and then to readers. Writers and artists and singers and dancers and actors���all those whose work is out for public consumption and review and deliberation���must find a way to stop the: ���I have to be loved by everyone. My work must be adored by everyone. I am afraid of what will happen. I am afraid of success/failure/mediocrity.��� And instead, we must do what we love and do it the best we can and do it with love and hope and strength and honesty.

Of course, we must also do it in a way that sells, don���t forget that. Art aside, love of books and reading and writing aside, it has to be deconstructed into the business side of things as well. Heart and Brain go hand in hand in this business. What a terrifyingly fascinatingly wonderful sucky horrid confusing business!

Am I still worried about the books I write to be released into the hands of readers? Well, yes. But am I letting that stop me? No. Step out from that shadow and show yourself. Be brave and hearty in whatever you love to do. How will you know what you can create until the creating is accomplished?

Filed under: authors and books, craft of writing, kathryn magendie Tagged: anxiety, appalachian southern fiction, Books, craft of writing, depression