Lev Raphael's Blog, page 60

Planning a Blog Tour? Think Twice.

Blog tours are all the rage right now for indie and traditionally-published authors. My advice: think it through, and then talk to other people who've done them, and think it through again.



I'd heard mixed reports about them, and decided to try one myself. Now I wish I hadn't wasted my time.



Working with one of the tour-organizing web sites, I arranged for a two-week blog tour that ended up with 14 "stops." The organizer was thrilled by the strong response. At her direction, I'd written a chara...

Crabby About Downton Abbey?

So, even though I'd heard about the ending of Downton Abbey's Season 3 and knew what was coming, I found the fatal car accident at the end gratuitous, pointless, and lazy on the part of the writers. Please, another semi-orphaned baby? Well, maybe the grieving parents will find solace and true understanding together. Won't that put some noses out of joint.



But meanwhile, think of all the truly dramatic things that could have happened this season instead:



Lady Cora could have bitch slapped mopey...

Are Authors Ever Happy?

Not long ago, I ran into a friend at a local restaurant who was excited to tell me that her husband had sold a first novel to a major publisher, along with foreign rights to many countries. My friend was thrilled.



I congratulated her, sent her husband my best wishes, and waited.



This week we crossed paths again and I asked how things were going. She gave me a wry smile. "Let me guess," I said. "Your husband thought everything would be great once he signed a contract, and now he's pissed off bec...

Edith Wharton Rocked My World

Wharton just had her 151st birthday, and I feel like she's been part of my life for decades. In my senior year of college, I read the Pulitzer-winning biography of her by R.W.B. Lewis and was fascinated by her relentless drive to succeed as an author and to perfect her craft. She was a true artist, but also tuned into the business side of writing, something that stuck with me as I launched my own writing career soon after.



I read about a dozen of her books that year, amazed by her wit, her ins...

Sometimes We Root for the Crooks

I'm teaching a crime fiction class at Michigan State University as a guest author of a mystery series, and one of the things we've been discussing is how you don't always root for the good guys.



I'm not talking about cheering on the psychopaths and serial killers. But it's the charming rogues who win our affection. Especially in heists. Whom do we want to come out on top in Ocean's Eleven ? Not Andy Garcia, no way. We want George Clooney's brilliant plot and colorful team to win. And the more e...

Downton Abbey Meets Scandal

Ok, let's get this straight.



On her deathbed, Lavinia wrote a letter to her father? And in effect this letter blessed Matthew, her intended who loved somebody else and humiliated her?



And then dying, magnanimous, saintly Lavinia entrusted this letter to a maid making up the fire in her room? And this letter solves all the financial problems of Downton, because now priggish Matthew can accept Lavinia's father's money?



Folks, there's clearly a conspiracy going on here.



Two, in fact: one with the b...

How You Know You've Watched Too Much Downton Abbey

1) Each time the scene shifts to Bates in prison, you hope for an Oz-style riot.



2) Whenever Matthew protests he can't inherit money from his ex-fiancee's father because it would be "wrong," you imagine Lady Mary braining him with a vase.



3) Maggie Smith has stopped being amusing, and you try counting her chins.



4) You keep waiting for a cat fight in the servants' hall à la Dynasty.



5) You're truly sorry nobody ever dies of ptomaine poisoning at dinner. Or even boredom. Any death will do.



6) All t...

When Bad Readings Happen to Good Authors

It's a common occurrence: We love an author, we've read all her books, we can't wait to hear her read at a local book store. And when we go, the reading's anywhere from a letdown to a total dud.



What goes wrong?



Most authors I talk to, whether they're newbies or veterans, don't understand that readings are performances and a complete break from their routine. Writing is solitary, even if you do it on your laptop in a coffee house. And so is reading a book.



But reading aloud to an audience is the...

Does Being Famous Mean You Don't Have to Write Well?

When I was the crime fiction reviewer for the Detroit Free Press, I noticed something strange in the reviewing world. My colleagues would rave about a mystery or thriller, but ignore the fact that it was badly written. I suspect that's what's going to happen with Dick Wolf's debut thriller The Intercept.



In case you don't recognize the name, Wolf is the Emmy-winning producer and creator of Law and Order. I was a devoted viewer of that show through almost all of its twenty seasons, happily watc...

America's Worst School Massacre Took Place Decades Before Mike Huckabee Was Born

Mike Huckabee seems to think America's latest school massacre is the fault of a godless culture: "We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"



Like many GOP ideologues who use tragedy to advance their agendas, he doesn't know his American history. American schools were being targeted as far back as May 18th, 1927, when our worst school m...