Eric Witchey's Blog: Shared ShadowSpinners Blog , page 9

CENSORSHIP!

By Cynthia Ray

“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”     ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Recently, I came across a  list of previously banned and censored classic books, which got me wondering about the phenomena of censorship.  It has taken many forms and faces over time, in different governments, countries and cultures, and looms over us now. [image error]

In her new book on censorship; Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love – a dramatic historical investigation of the roots of modern censorship in Britain and the US, Naomi Wolf exhibits a grim optimism:

   “Let’s just say that I have now looked at the issue of censorship in Britain and the United States over the last 2½ centuries and I can tell you categorically that censorship never stops anything from happening. It didn’t stop abortion, homosexuality, contraception. If anything, censoring ideas just makes them stronger. And bad ideas are only ever changed through sunlight, scrutiny and debate.”

Powerful books that confront the status quo, like Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird, or Margaret Atwoods The Handmaidens Tale, provoke debate and shine a light on important issues, bringing them to the forefront for discussion.

The desire to censor something could only be based on FEAR. Fear of seeing that which makes us bothered, uncomfortable, troubled and disturbed.  It is fear of exposure to ideas, images or actions that go against the prevailing values of a group or a society and belief that exposure to those images, or ideas will taint or corrupt.

Censorship is defined as the supervision and control of the information and ideas circulated within a society.  The ALCU points out that in the United States, censorship can be carried out by the government as well as private pressure groups, but censorship by the government is unconstitutional.  Individuals and groups are protected by the First Ammendent, but that doesn’t stop efforts to censor certain ideas, groups, in an ever-evolving conversation.

I had to ask myself what makes me so uncomfortable that I would censor it?  What were my own boundaries, and where did I think people should be made to behave in certain ways, whether they agreed with them or not.

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If the society we live in wishes to turn away from uncomfortable truths, we should not be surprised.  Do we welcome someone telling us something unpleasant about ourselves?  Often, our first response to become angry at the messenger, or to deny and turn away.   On the other hand, who defines truth, and for who?

Artists, poets, writers and thinkers have always pushed the limits and boundaries set by the government, by religion, by the culture or prevailing mindset of the time.  That is why the book, the photograph, the movie is so important.  It remains available for consideration and examination, inviting us to confront our discomfort and encouraging a conversation to be had in “sunlight, scrutiny and debate.”

As writers and artists, it is important to ask:

Do we censor ourselves?
Do we allow boundaries to be set by other or by conditions outside of ourselves?
Do we tell our truth courageously?
How far do we allow ourselves to push our limits?

When we are able to rise above the prevailing thinking of the time to see and express what others only sense, making the invisible visible, and have the courage to express what we see, it brings us forward together.

“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”

― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

 

 

 

 

Seriously Silly

by Christina Lay

I’ve always been a fan of silliness well-done. Be it Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks or Tom Robbins writing from a vibrator’s POV or Douglas Adams taking us across the universe with nothing but a towel and terrible poetry for company, there is a special sort of joy in reveling in a world where the absurd is commonplace and maturity is a liability.  Lately though, it seems like everyone is becoming much too serious; unable to laugh at themselves or enjoy a quirky perspective on life in general. Our entertainment reflects this, and we get more Game of Thrones, less The Tick. This despite the fact that the more grim and desperate reality becomes, the more we need to laugh, to lose ourselves in mirth.

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Just today in a daily inspirational email that I receive, I read this on silliness: “We play yet we do not lose ourselves in play, and our imaginations are never truly given free rein because we regard the products of irrational creativity as being valueless.” Madisyn Taylor, Daily Om.

Irrational creativity. I love that. I had already been thinking about the value of silliness when I read it because I’d been planning to review the book, Space Opera, by Catherine M. Valente, so lucky me, it ties right in to the larger, all important theme of this blog. Yes, as the title suggests, Space Opera is pure and unapologetic space opera (Meaning Science Fiction that pays no attention whatsoever to physics or actual technology. Getting across the galaxy or even the universe might be as simple as pressing a button or hijacking a police call box). This book not only indulges in make-believe science, it revels in it. I appreciate that.  The book is sheer fun, sheer silliness, imagination run riot, and yet…

For a truly silly book to be memorable and not just a forgettable airplane read (which is of course valuable in its own right) a well-crafted silly book is anchored by moments of profundity. The thing about humor is there’s really no better way to set the reader up for a glimpse into the heart and soul of humanity. It’s Us laid bare, exposed, shown with all our warts and ill-fitting plaid jackets, but with compassion, kindness and a deep understanding of the silly kid locked inside of us all.

So that was quite the sentence. To break it down, I’ll quote Catherine Valente. “Life is beautiful. Life is stupid.”  That’s basically the theme of the book. We laugh, we tear our hair out, we cry, we sigh in wonder. A good silly book reminds us of all that.

Space Opera was inspired by an international music competition called Eurovision, where contestants are encouraged to be as outrageously fabulous as possible. I’m thinking Elton John on Acid at a Drag Queen fire sale with glitter explosions in the background (remember, this is the reality part). In the book, Humanity is called upon to prove itself sentient by performing a song of heartbreaking beauty and fabulousness in a musical competition on the other side of the universe.

Naturally, just telling the aliens that we’re sentient doesn’t work. Look at our history, at our now, at all the terrible things we’ve done and keep on doing. So what’s silly about that, you might ask (grimly, brow furrowed)? Nothing. What makes it silly is that we’re also capable of wonderful, fantastic things. The conflicted dichotomy of the human race is stunning. Paralyzing. Beautiful. Stupid. What can you do but laugh?

Valente has mastered the art of irrational creativity. Kudos. And her characters are intensely human, lovable, and relatable. My only nit with this book is that the ratio of narration to actual scenes is off, IMHO. I’d like to spend more time with the characters, and less time reading lengthy (although mostly hilarious) summaries. That aside, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book, with silly and heartfelt both in good measure. In her afterward, she pays homage to Douglas Adams, as is right. I believe Adams, the grand master of silly, would approve.

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Even if your current project isn’t silly in the least, it is healthy to allow irrational creativity to flow now and again, to laugh at yourself and your agonizingly constructed sentences, to play at the page. Maybe you’re writing a murder/horror mystery wherein everyone dies. If you don’t allow yourself to be silly while writing something like that, watch out. You will become grim and furrowed. And I suspect that a touch of silliness will make your characters more relatable, your tragedy more heartfelt. As writers, it’s not only the readers we have to think about, but ourselves. To keep ourselves fresh, motivated, happy in our art, we need to breathe, and the best way to get fresh air into our brains and our heart is to laugh.

Writing and Grieving While Gardening: A Lesson in What’s Important

[image error]By Lisa Alber

I happened to be browsing my defunct blog and came across a three-year-old post that holds as true today as it did then. It’s really a post about writing, I realize now. And as I sit here a year after my mom’s death, I’m struck by how much gardening helped my grieving process in addition to my writing process. The garden is looking pretty fabulous this year because of all the work I did last year.

Have I grown since three years ago, since a year ago? I honestly don’t know, but I do know that time spent in my garden is still a balm to my soul. Writing my current novel is on the upswing again, and I’m grateful for that. I’m looking forward to hours and hours of writing in my backyard in the coming months.

Anyhow, without further ado, here’s the post with a few notes and things.

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However many years she lived, Mary always felt that she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow.

— Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

The other day I was talking to my writer buddy, A, about the usual thing: how behind I am on my work-in-progress (LISA NOTE: Gawd, some things don’t change!). I joked that with all the time spent in my garden since April, I could have had the novel completed, revised, and polished by now.

So what’s up with me and my garden? Yet another procrastination method or a requirement for mental equilibrium?

I’ve owned my house for a year four years(!) now, and (still) much to my surprise I’ve become what I call “one of those crazy gardening ladies.” I suppose it’s better than being a crazy cat lady or a crazy-looking Botox lady, but still, I’m fascinated by this newly discovered side of myself. I hadn’t realized I would take to gardening to the extent of digging up bushes and transplanting established plants and sifting through the soil to dig out every, and I mean every, bluebell bulb I can find. (

So what gives with that?

I (re-)realized as I was talking to A that I always need a project. You might think, But isn’t fiction your project?

No no, oh no — not any more, it isn’t. It’s my *work* now. A while back, writing fiction was my soul release, my labor of love. I pursued it just for me — writing is the way I connect and process — but once I started to get published, I was forced to think of it as a business. Which it is, definitely, and I don’t have a beef with that.

[image error]With the advent of fiction writing moving over to “the dark side,” I was left with a void. A project void. I no longer had a creative outlet that was just for me in the spirit of Elizabeth Bennett …

… I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.    —Pride and Prejudice

Over the years I’ve tried out all kinds of creative activities in addition to writing: photography, painting, guitar, piano, pottery, drama, cooking (which may surprise people who know me well), crocheting, knitting, decoupage(!), printmaking, scrapbooking, and more I can’t remember.

Ultimately, fiction (with photography on the side) stuck, but now I need something to replace fiction. Looks like it’s gardening! And I’m content with this, more than content, actually. Gardening seems to be doing my poor, beleaguered, neurotic mind some good.

[image error] There’s a meditative thing that happens where I don’t think I’m thinking at all. (I must be, but you know what I mean.)
I lose time, which is signal enough that I’ve been 100% living in the moment.
I’m outside and physical and getting dirty—a nice opposition to the cerebral, clean world in front of my laptop.
Unlike writing, I can immediately see the result of my work. Instant gratification. While writing I can see my word count, but I can’t tell if what I’ve written is good or not. Whereas, a de-weeded flower bed? That’s nothing but good.
The excitement of seeing perennials pop up, watching buds grow fatter until one day the rose or the lily or the peony  pops open. That’s just good for the soul.
And, I don’t know this for sure, but I suspect that mucking about in my garden enhances my creativity when I sit down to work. (TRUE! I need time to let my story thoughts ripen.)

So, I may joke with A about all the time “wasted” in the garden, but I know it’s time spent on what’s important rather than just on what’s urgent. Life needs to be more about the important than the urgent.

Do you have a just-for-you activity that ends up being therapeutic?

Still the Crazy Gardening Lady

[image error]By Lisa Alber

I happened to be browsing my defunct blog and came across a three-year-old post that holds as true today as it did then. It’s really a post about writing, I realize now. And as I sit here a year after my mom’s death, I’m struck by how much gardening helped my grieving process. The garden is looking pretty fabulous this year because of all the work I did last year.

Have I grown since three years ago, since a year ago? I honestly don’t know, but I do know that time spent in my garden is still a balm to my soul. Writing my current novel is on the upswing again, and I’m grateful for that. I’m looking forward to hours and hours of writing in my backyard in the coming months.

Anyhow, without further ado, here’s the post with a few notes and things.

[image error]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

However many years she lived, Mary always felt that she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow.

— Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

The other day I was talking to my writer buddy, A, about the usual thing: how behind I am on my work-in-progress (LISA NOTE: Gawd, some things don’t change!). I joked that with all the time spent in my garden since April, I could have had the novel completed, revised, and polished by now.

So what’s up with me and my garden? Yet another procrastination method or a requirement for mental equilibrium?

I’ve owned my house for a year four years(!) now, and (still) much to my surprise I’ve become what I call “one of those crazy gardening ladies.” I suppose it’s better than being a crazy cat lady or a crazy-looking Botox lady, but still, I’m fascinated by this newly discovered side of myself. I hadn’t realized I would take to gardening to the extent of digging up bushes and transplanting established plants and sifting through the soil to dig out every, and I mean every, bluebell bulb I can find. (

So what gives with that?

I (re-)realized as I was talking to A that I always need a project. You might think, But isn’t fiction your project?

No no, oh no — not any more, it isn’t. It’s my *work* now. A while back, writing fiction was my soul release, my labor of love. I pursued it just for me — writing is the way I connect and process — but once I started to get published, I was forced to think of it as a business. Which it is, definitely, and I don’t have a beef with that.

[image error]With the advent of fiction writing moving over to “the dark side,” I was left with a void. A project void. I no longer had a creative outlet that was just for me in the spirit of Elizabeth Bennett …

… I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.    —Pride and Prejudice

Over the years I’ve tried out all kinds of creative activities in addition to writing: photography, painting, guitar, piano, pottery, drama, cooking (which may surprise people who know me well), crocheting, knitting, decoupage(!), printmaking, scrapbooking, and more I can’t remember.

Ultimately, fiction (with photography on the side) stuck, but now I need something to replace fiction. Looks like it’s gardening! And I’m content with this, more than content, actually. Gardening seems to be doing my poor, beleaguered, neurotic mind some good.

[image error] There’s a meditative thing that happens where I don’t think I’m thinking at all. (I must be, but you know what I mean.)
I lose time, which is signal enough that I’ve been 100% living in the moment.
I’m outside and physical and getting dirty—a nice opposition to the cerebral, clean world in front of my laptop.
Unlike writing, I can immediately see the result of my work. Instant gratification. While writing I can see my word count, but I can’t tell if what I’ve written is good or not. Whereas, a de-weeded flower bed? That’s nothing but good.
The excitement of seeing perennials pop up, watching buds grow fatter until one day the rose or the lily or the peony  pops open. That’s just good for the soul.
And, I don’t know this for sure, but I suspect that mucking about in my garden enhances my creativity when I sit down to work. (TRUE! I need time to let my story thoughts ripen.)

So, I may joke with A about all the time “wasted” in the garden, but I know it’s time spent on what’s important rather than just on what’s urgent. Life needs to be more about the important than the urgent.

Do you have a just-for-you activity that ends up being therapeutic?

5 Ways to Put the Romance into Necromancy by Sarina Dorie

Today on ShadowSpinners we welcome Sarina Dorie, creator of the popular series: Womby’s School for Wayward Witches.

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5 Ways to Put the Romance into Necromancy—Writing Romance

 by Sarina Dorie

I have a background writing science fiction and fantasy. I am a member of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) and the majority of what I write has some kind of speculative element. I also have a passion for romance. I’m a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America) and a lot of what I write has a romance plot or subplot. I am bored by stories that don’t include female characters and relationships of some kind. I love sci-fi but if it is all engines, laser guns, and starships blowing up, my eyes glaze over. That is just my personal preference. I know what I like to read and what I want to write.

Put the two genres together that I am passionate about, and we get paranormal romance—if the story contains vampires, werewolves, and witches in contemporary settings. When it has a werewolf but it isn’t contemporary, it might be fantasy romance or even science fiction romance if it is set in the future. Sometimes the combinations can be pretty eccentric. Because I like humor, eccentric works for me. But this is also coming from someone who has a short story titled “Putting the Romance Back into Necromancy,” and I have an urban fantasy romance titled “Reading, Writing and Necromancy,” which is part of my Womby’s School for Wayward Witches Series. These are funny horror or humorous urban fantasy romances that use both genres to their advantage.

If you are thinking about including romance in a story or writing a romance, consider a few things first:

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1.Understand what romance is.The love story should be necessary to the plot. The characters need to have a HEA (happily ever after) or HFN (happy for now) if it is considered romance. It is fine if it doesn’t, but if that is the case, it might be horror with There is a difference and readers have expectations when a book is marketed as a romance. Just because you are including a love story doesn’t make it a romance.

For example, someone told me I needed to see Me Before You because I would love it—because it was a romance and it was about a woman with unusual fashion tastes like me, apparently. I watched it, and I loved it, then I got to the end, and realized it wasn’t a romance. Then I hated it. But I didn’t really hate it. I actually like the movie a lot, but I went into it with the wrong expectation.

 

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2. Find the heat level appropriate for the story. Not all romance has sex. The point of a sex scene in a well-written romance should be part of the plot and character arc. Just as a science fiction novel would be broken without the science, taking the love scenes/relationships out of a romance novel would break the plot. If the novel doesn’t need a sex scene or it is outside your comfort zone, you don’t need to include it.

There are many romance novels out there that do not have sex scenes on the page or implied. Some books end on the proposal, wedding, or a happy moment when the characters finally kiss and confess their feelings for each other. Young adult, sweet romance, and inspirational don’t include sex scenes. On the other end of the scale, erotica is more sex scenes than plot and can include a variety of kink like ménage, harem, or bondage.

 

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3. Find the tropes for your genre. A trope is a plot device. All genres have them. It isn’t that a trope is inherently bad, although some readers hate particular ones while someone else loves that trope. Readers expect them. In romance, the trope is generally the element that helps the hero and heroine meet or keeps them apart. The thing that makes a trope work is subverting the readers expectations so that the writing feels fresh and original.

If you are writing a horror novel, mystery, historical, thriller, etc. my favorite tropes might not be the tropes you and your audience are drawn to. Figure out what works for you. How do you find tropes appropriate for your genre? (See article: Paranormal Romance and Fantasy Romance Tropes.)

 

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4. Enjoy the process of research. If you are a writer, you probably enjoy reading. I know all of us writers say we are all too busy to read, but we need to do it to see good examples and bad examples. The guilty pleasure that makes my life more tolerable is audiobooks. I love reading, but I don’t always have time. It is a handy way for me to do research. I “read” books and analyze why I find it trite, boring, and lacking in sexual tension or why I am rooting for the characters. Is it the evocative language? Is it the way the author captures the senses? Is it the building tension between the characters? There is a lot of different kinds of romance—and love stories that are beautiful but are not the romance genre.

Find out what works for you and what doesn’t, whether it is style, language, heat level, or tropes. If you disdain the genre and the idea of including a happy ending, love scene, or relationships, ask yourself why you are punishing yourself by writing a romance. Maybe you really are wanting to write horror with romance elements.

I thought I was writing a slow-burn romance series when I started Womby’s School for Wayward Witches, but as I wrote more books, I realized the romance was not the central plot in every book. It was the B plot. Also, not every book had an HFN or HEA ending with the romance. Because I have done my research and I know my genre, I know what these books are and are not. I would call them urban fantasy mysteries with romance. I had a lot of fun writing them, and I think readers are enjoying reading them, so I am okay with them not being romance.

 

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5. Practice—in whatever way makes sense to you. For me, practice is writing. Sometimes writing short stories or flash fiction can be a great way to exercise the mind and get out ideas. A couple years ago at a Romance Writers of America meeting I attended, one presenter talked about how she makes sexy storyboards of all the things to set the mood. At another meeting, a different presenter talked about all the positions she tries with her husband—then has to race away from bed to go write down all the positions it is humanly possible for people’s bodies to contort into. Whatever floats your boat, right?

Whether you are interested in including romance in your genre because it is what you like to read, you are interested in tapping into a different market, or it fits into the story you are writing naturally, I highly recommend checking out Romance Writers of America as a resource.

 

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Sarina Dorie has sold over 150 short stories to markets like Analog, Daily Science Fiction, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card’s IGMS, Cosmos, and Abyss and Apex. Her stories and published novels have won humor contests and Romance Writer of America awards. She has over two dozen books available on Amazon including her steampunk romance series, The Memory Thief and her collections of short stories like Fairies, Robots and Unicorns—Oh My! are available on Amazon, along with her series Womby’s School for Wayward Witches.

You can find info about Sarina Dorie’s short stories and novels on her website:

www.sarinadorie.com

 

The best way to stay in contact with Sarina Dorie, hear about what she is writing, know when she has a new release, or books offered for free on Amazon is by signing up for her newsletter.

https://mailchi.mp/sarinadorie/authornewsletter

 

How to Get Rich Selling a Novel to a Major Publisher, 2000 vs. 2019

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Prologue: I wrote this as a joke among friends in January. This week, I posted the original version as a thread on Facebook. Sadly, it was taken seriously. I’ve been full-time freelance since 1990. I have had wonderful experiences with editors, agents, publishers, and other writers. I’ve also had horrible experiences that include having work stolen, pirated, and used in ways I did not authorize and from which I did not profit. Buy me a scotch at a conference, and I’ll tell you horror stories. However, I will also require you to listen to the glorious moments that I have been privileged to experience. I know of no profession or job that does not include both good and bad experiences. Writing, more than most jobs, is a lifestyle profession. Please don’t take this seriously. Little bits are true. Other bits feel true to some people. However, that little bit of truth and feeling are mixed with lies and myths to create the following.

How to Get Rich Selling a Novel to a Major Publisher, 2000 vs. 2019

by Eric Witchey

2000:

Learn the Craft.
Write a good book.
Get an agent.
Sell the book.
Go to signings and parties.
Write another good book.

2019:

Be really lucky, or….
Establish financial support and freedom to pursue craft: husband, wife, trust fund, inheritance, poverty lifestyle, Patreon, GoFundMe, hut on a third-world beach, a diamond heist, etc.
Choose a currently very popular genre. Base the choice on what you like to watch on TV.
Read a few popular books in that genre so you can pretend to have read a lot.
Learn enough of the language of craft any way you can to sound like you understand it when you are interviewed for webcasts or by Oprah.
Establish credentials that prove you learned the craft: A couple honorary internet Ph.Ds or a six-week, low-residency MFA are good enough. In a pinch, Microsoft Certifications can be used. You can also purchase reviews, purchase awards, and pay someone to campaign for awards for you.
Spend a few thousand dollars attending a conference and buying people drinks where editors and agents can be met and slowly befriended while you repeat this exercise 20 times a year to demonstrates that you have number 2 firmly in hand and can travel the country and world promoting and hand-selling the books a publisher might buy.
Establish platform: Build, buy, or steal a mailing list of over 50k people, create or hire out author sites on all social media systems. Don’t worry. You don’t have to use them. You just have to have them so the marketing team can nod sagely and say that you have platform.
Establish more platform: Create or hire out a successful YouTube channel, generate endless self-promoted appearances, hire a click farm to manipulate search engine hits on your name to exceed 500k, participate in lots of blogs and vlogs talking about you and your life as a famous writer.
Write, or hire someone to write in your name, a book or series of books that: can be compared to two, but no more than three, extremely successful books or series so that marketing people can begin to believe they won’t have to work if they allow your book to be purchased by the publisher. However, be careful that your book or series is just different enough so that they have to change the cover art, blurbs, and press releases they used for the books you compared yours to. You can’t be too careful with marketing people.
Get a famous author with film industry connections, say George R. R. Martin, to pitch your book or series to Netflix, HBO, or the Syfy Channel.
Get an offer.
Show the unsigned film offer to a publisher.
Get an offer.
Show the unsigned book offer to an agent.
Sign with the agent.
Let the agent sell the book to the publisher, which will require a new contract that gives the agent a higher percentage of all derivative products.
Agent says, ” It’s a good contract. You don’t want to be considered hard to work with. Don’t overthink. Just sign.”
Let the agent’s film agent negotiate the contract for the film, which will require you to reduce your up-front and take points on net while the agent’s agent and the agent lock in a percentage of points on gross for themselves.
Agents all say, ” It’s good. You don’t want to be considered hard to work with. Don’t overthink. Just sign.”
Go online and vaguebook about what might happen soon.
Read the marketing instructions the publisher publicist assigned to your book has sent you. Realize it will be expensive to fly to go to signings and interviews in places like the independent bookstore in Brillton, North Dakota, pop. 1700. Note that the marketeers have committed to nothing except sending you the list.
Ask for money for promotion. Marketing people say, “This is standard for our first time writers.” Agent says, “The money will come. Stay focused.”
Take out a loan against your advance.
Remain upbeat and plucky. Dutifully start the prescribed prepromotion for the book, but carefully adhere to contractual constraints and only hint at the pub date and possible film. Wouldn’t want to sour the deal or be considered hard to work with.
Continue prepromotion for one to five years before you can announce the pub date and the film deal.
Finally announce a publication date range that is intended to match the film release.
Come up with an idea about merchandising. Publisher loves it. Realize that all merchandising revenue is owned by the publisher. It’s a good contract. Don’t overthink it.
Politics and infighting end the film production.
Production company declares bankruptcy.
Agent says they can’t help.
Agent’s film agent won’t return calls or emails.
Hire an entertainment lawyer.
Receive bill from lawyer for lots of phone calls, prework on lawsuit, and the final meeting in which you are told you are a creditor and won’t get paid.
Publisher blames the story. They drop you just after you have delivered the second book, which you wrote in hotel rooms, vans, back alleys, and bookstores while promoting the first book and film. They cancel publication and demand the advance back.
Agent blames the story. The second book, which you personally fought to get back from the publisher, “isn’t right for them at this time.” They drop you and tell you that you have to pay the advance back but won’t get their percentage back because they did their job and get paid for the work they did.
Bookstores remainders your first book. Your name is forever associated with losses on their computer ordering systems. Even if you had another book, they wouldn’t order it because your name is on the cover and the last one lost money. However, they got paid for the books they sold and didn’t have to pay a dime for the books they didn’t sell. There’s that.
You realize that you are the only one who does not get paid for the work you did.
But wait. A huge company bought the assets of the defunct production company. The project is resurrected. The film is made. Hooray!
You celebrate with a banquet for your sister and both your patient, supportive friends. The brewpub has never had it so good.
The film burns bright in pre-release focus viewings. A novelization of the film goes to your former publisher. It tops out the NYT Bestseller List. Everyone gets paid except you because you were only a creditor to the first production company.
Your accountant sends you a bill and a P&L that shows your net profit for the entire process is: -250k.
The lawyer puts a lien on your house.
Return to 1.

Happy National Poetry Month

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I’m a writer not a poet, an artist, but not a poet. Yet, I have shared several of my poems in past blog posts. For me, poetry serves as a shorthand expression of creativity that I do not spend a great deal of time obsessing over.

Please don’t misunderstand me; I do take poetry most seriously. From Henry David Thoreau, to Sylvia Plath, to Maya Angelou, their lyrical words have healed my broken psyche, made me feel I wasn’t alone in the world, and allowed me to see humankind, and Mother Nature, through new eyes.

When I do take my own poetry seriously is when I’m using it to see/understand more clearly—and in less time—the “underlying message” behind the story banging against the walls of my brain insisting on a way out.   Those short clipped sentences have proven to be a most useful tool in the honeymoon phase of writing a short story, or novel.

To date, my relationship with poetry has been a secluded, solitary association. But to my surprise, I’ve recently discovered another use for this impactful form of expression.

Do you like playing games?

Many of my writing friends use games, role-playing games, dice games, tarot card games; the list goes on and on. They utilize these games to allow the fates to determine the story they will tell. I personally have never done this, but….

In a small bookstore on the Oregon coast I stumbled upon a poetry word game. It was one of those, hair standing up on the back of my neck moments. I felt this game literally calling out to me from its hidden, dusty shelf.

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It was as though this game was made specifically for me—“A Game of Color and Wordplay!”

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Color and Wordplay!

For those who’ve not read my past blog posts, as stated above I’m also an artist. But this game didn’t just catch me with its title. No, it gave this extrovert writer the added bonus of being, either a solitary game, or a game to be enjoyed with others.

There are several ways in the “How to Play” rules. The first time I played this game, I had the good fortune of being on a weekend retreat with three of my adult daughters, a nine-year old grandson, and a sixteen-year old granddaughter.

There was admittedly, hesitation, from my offspring at my request to play this particular game. But some time later, after many stories magically appeared through randomly picked colored tiles etched with whispered words, they were hooked.

The rules we played by were quite simple:

Stock your palette with a dozen paint chips.
Draw a Prompt
Make your Poem
Show & Tell
The “judge” declares the winner who then receives the Prompt card.

The final winner is the player who collects the most prompts, but we didn’t play to win. We played for the fun, creative story reflected as each palette was revealed.

Here are a few of the stories created along with the prompt, and paint chips:

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Once Upon a Time

There was a dragon fly,

who lived in an herb garden.

He found a looking glass.

When he looked through it, he saw an emerald.

The Sunshine hit it,

giving him a new zest for life.

 

Once Upon a Time

In outerspace,

on the red planet.

A bluebird lived,

in a cedar chest,

made of driftwood.

 

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In a Parallel Universe

A fairy mustard seed,

woke in the shadow of midnight,

by a babbling brook,

and her lover, Supernova.

As she sat next to him eating nectar,

she blushed like a pink pearl.

 

In a Parallel Universe

An iron gate opened

To a genie in a lamp playing a saxophone solo

It created a pyramid, tree house of bone.

The result—a total eclipse of night.

 

 

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Heartbreak

We began with a lightening bolt.

It created the bright fire of our love.

But through boundary waters we slipped,

separating us for an eternity in Outer Space.

 

Heartbreak

Revenge,

                  Blazing Sun,

                                    Bullseye,

                                                Easy Peasy,

                                                            BlackWidow.

 

So in this month of poetry, I encourage you, if you’ve never written poetry or used it as a creative outlet please give it a try. Paint Chip Poetry can get you started.

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I can’t wait to open the box on this wordplay game again.   With its never-ending source of creative story on paint colored chips, it waits for its players to imagine new worlds, new stories revealed.

What tools do you use to spark your creative muse?

THE END – Knowing When to Stop

By Cynthia Ray

Sometimes knowing when a story or piece of art is finished and “just right” is not easy nor obvious.  A writer can fall into a rabbit hole like Alice, writing in circles, while the story balloons into a monster, or growing smaller and smaller, tight and stilted, until it can be difficult to find the way out again.

There is danger in the sticky plotting stage, mulling over characters, deciding whether to add another subplot, or theme, and changing the ending (again!).  Once the writing commences in earnest, some writers craft each sentence as a masterpiece, considering each word, trying all the thesaurus possibilities, to find the perfect and exact expression of an idea, before getting to the end of the paragraph, let alone the chapter or the book.

Yet others make it all the way through the first draft but end up in an editing labyrinth–redoing chapters, endless line edits, questioning everything about the work until all perspective is lost and perhaps the work is given up as lost.

The self-doubt, the inner demons that whisper ‘failure’ to us and the misguided desire to deliver only perfection keeps many wonderful stories from the world.  Don’t let it be one of yours!  Stephen King tells the story of working on a novel, but in despair, he tossed his manuscript into the trash can. His lovely wife found the discarded manuscript, read it, and made him reconsider. “Carrie” is one of his best works.

When is it finished?  Truman Capote expressed it perfectly:

“Since each story presents its own technical problems, obviously one can’t generalize about them on a two-times-two-equals-four basis. Finding the right form for your story is simply to realize the most natural way of telling the story. The test of whether or not a writer has defined the natural shape of his story is just this: After reading it, can you imagine it differently, or does it silence your imagination and seem to you absolute and final? As an orange is final. As an orange is something nature has made just right.”

Recently, I finally finished a painting I worked on for over two years.  My end product is more emotional than any earlier version and more meaningful to me.  However, I could have ended on another version, and it might have been okay, but it would not have been the ORANGE.  I nearly tossed it into the trash on various occasions, and those whispering demons of failure nibbled at the edges of my canvas.   Here is part of the progression of this art.  Wishing you courage, perseverance and inspiration in your work.

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The Advantages of a Long Life

by Elizabeth Engstrom

 

I’ve been around for a while. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a great career as a writer, teacher, editor, professional speaker, and publisher.

One of the nicest things about a long career is that royalty checks show up about every six months from a variety of sources.

Another nice thing about having had a long career is that what was old becomes new again.

Valancourt Books is reissuing my first book, When Darkness Loves Us as part of their Paperbacks from Hell series.

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Grady Hendrix wrote a book called Paperbacks from Hell, and it included both my first book When Darkness Loves Us and my second book, Black Ambrosia in a two-page spread.

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Now, Valancourt is reissuing these books (and has a book club you can join to receive them all!). Grady is also working on a television series that includes these books, and voila! A new generation of readers for my work.

In addition, there are always new ways for our work to be released into the world. My current publisher, IFD Publishing, is set to release my books in ePub editions. That would be in addition to paperback and audio.

And now and then, Hollywood comes knocking. I should be used to that by now, but it’s a thrill every time I sell an option, or even get a query.

So to all of you writing in your quiet office, focused solely on the work at hand, remember that your work lives on, will likely have many iterations, and you will remain as relevant as you wish to be.

Murder-A-Go-Go’s: A Music-Inspired Anthology

[image error] By Lisa Alber

Today (Monday as I write this) is publication day for an anthology that I’m honored to participate in: MURDER-A-GO-GO’S: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of the Go-Go’s, edited by Holly West and featuring sooo many great authors (many of whom I call friends).

Music-themed anthologies are fashionable these days. In the last several years, I’ve seen anthologies inspired by the music of The Replacements, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, and Steely Dan. All male, you notice. It’s about time for a female-artist-themed anthology, especially centered around a band like The Go-Go’s — the first, and to date only, all-female band to write their own songs and play their own instruments and top the Billboard album charts. That’s no mean feat in a male-dominated rock world.

The way it worked was that we were assigned song titles as prompts. My song/story title is “It’s Everything but Partytime.” From a process point of view, I found it challenging and fun to start with a title. Normally, I don’t know the title ahead of time and struggle to come up with decent titles all the time. Working backwards from a title was oddly liberating. And let’s be honest, it’s rarely going to be partytime for characters involved in a crime. So I could have written just about anything.

However, I decided to work a party atmosphere into the story — a fun and maybe funny environment in which to set a murder. I decided on a furry convention for the sheer novelty and silliness of it. I realize these conferences are serious business for devotees of the furry world, but … you know … it’s funny. It just is, especially if you’re an outsider — let’s say a cranky detective — who doesn’t understand what the hell is going on.

It made for a great push-and-pull. The environment is an obstacle to sussing out the murderer of a guest at the conference hotel. However, ultimately the environment helps the detective find the murderer. The environment is light and humorous, but the crime is dark.

This week I’m heading up to Vancouver, B.C., for a writers conference called Left Coast Crime. A bunch of my anthology pals will be there, and we’ll toast ourselves in true tipsy writerly fashion. That’s what I call partytime!