Thea Atkinson's Blog, page 21

Ogle Me Some features Wintersleep novascotia #music @wintersleep

Tim d'Eon from Wintersleep at Nova Scotia Music Week in Yarmouth

This week's Ogle Me Some was decided the moment I saw a commercial on televeision that used Wintersleep background music and a local guy at the end planting a tree. (Vid is below)

This pic is of hometown boy, Tim d'Eon playing at the NS Music Week gala during Nov 2010. I had a seat way in the 11th roy and I'm lucky to have caught something this good as when they explode on stage, these boys in Wintersleep explode on stage.

They are making it big and in just two and half years since getting nominated for, and winning, a Juno, these guys are really rolling. They were on Letterman, if you can believe it. You can follow them on twitter for updates. (@wintersleep)

Nova Scotia has so much talent, and so much

Wintersleep accepting award at NSMW

very close to home that it's amazing. The world is finally taking notice. Local boys like Ryan Cook are opening for Big name country acts like Dwight Yoakem. Post on Ryan next week., I think.

For your listening enjoyment, here is the video for "Weighty Ghost" by Wintersleep folllowed by the commercial that got me excited.

Way to go guys!

Filed under: ogle me some

Epiracy and ebooks. Have you been hacked?

Thea's Three Mashup
June 24

There was a lot of rumbling early this week about ebook piracy. Most notably, a good colleague and friend Mel Comley mentioned it in a group I belong to and started a frenzy of great discussion. It put me to thinking: Would I be upset if someone stole my work? Would I think, hey, now I've made it? Epiracy hasn't much hurt JK Rowling, has it? If I get pirated, that must mean I'm popular.

I can afford to think these things because so far, I've not been pirated enmasse, and I'm quite sure I'd be furious if I found out I was…especially since my sales are not stellar. I'd REALLY be ticked if folks were d/ling my work in droves and I was getting 70% of 2.99 once a day. Grrr. Ok. Now my blood is sufficiently boiling. Grin.

The Mashup has some links on epiracy info. I thought it prudent to at least keep a tab in case I needed to research more in the future. (hope not.)

So: Thea's Three (plus a bonus track today) are:

The Passive Voice had a great writeup with some really interesting comments. You should read.
Digital Inspiration lists sites that host pirated stuff. You could check there.
I'm not sure I agree with Torrent Freak's version of the argument.
The Digital Reader has some great comments in the comment section. Worth a read

So: what are your thoughts on stealing ebooks? Reader to reader? Writer to Writer? Writer to Reader? Reader to Writer?

Filed under: mashup

I blog about #jodipicoult today in genre exploration. #mywana #amwriting

I'm No Jodi Picoult and I'm OK with That

Thea Atkinson

I have a friend who keeps asking me to write a book for her. Let's call her Alicia. Alicia keeps saying things to me like, "Write me a romance, Thea. Write a good relationship book with lots of romance. Write me a good love story."

I keep having to answer her back in ways she doesn't want to hear. I keep saying things like, "That's not the style I write; I don't have a romantic bone in my body. I don't even remember my own wedding anniversary."

She's persistent. It's one of the things I like about her. So a few years ago, while I was bemoaning the fact that my agent hadn't found a publisher who wanted to take a chance on a new literary writer, she piped up again: "You need to write a romance. A good story like Jodi Picoult."

I'm not sure what genre she thinks Jodi Picoult writes in; heck, I thought it was chicklit with a romantic slant myself. I wasn't so sure I could pull a Jodi tale out of the li'l twisted muse who visits me off and on.

Still, I told her I would try a short story first, see if I could do it before investing the many months it took to write a novel. I was excited. Maybe if I tried hard enough, I could write something that people all over the world would want to read; no, would want to PAY for.

I settled down to write, then filled my mind with Alicia's encouraging words: "You're a good writer, Thea. Surely you can write a love story."

I could. Of course, I could.

Imagine my discomfort a few days later when I had to admit to Alicia of the path that this little "romance" actually took. There I was, sipping tea, feeling sheepish as I confessed that the couple in the story were both octogenarians and that he accidentally broke a few of her bones while being romantic. Worse yet, that she ended up dying during the encounter of a heart attack. I titled it "Like Breaking Crystal." I loved it. I was proud of it. It focused on all the psychological things I loved about fiction.

Alicia did not share my enthusiasm.

I think she might have blinked once or twice the way they do in cartoons when they've experienced a shock. I think I might have shrugged comically, helplessly.

OK. I thought, so I'm no Jodi Picoult. I did try, after all. As much as I might like to believe that I could write a mass appeal novel and sell multiple copies, enough to buy me a new laptop, a brand-new thesaurus, and maybe a little trip to Petra, I have had to make my peace with the fact that I write dark literary fiction: a genre that by some descriptions is: that which does not sell.

Then imagine my surprise further when I, galled by my failure, started to research exactly what genre Ms. Picoult wrote in: Not chicklit romance, like I originally thought. (Sue me, I've not actually READ a Jodi Picoult novel….I thought it was chicklit, remember? And I like, well, edgier stuff than chicklit provides.)

Psychological thriller, it was labeled. I tasted the genre on my tongue. Sounded about right for me, too, I figured. I immediately put the novel she'd written (Sing Me Home) that most closely resembled my own, (Anomaly) onto my TBR to see if we do indeed write in the same vein. Until then, I'm content to call myself a psychological thriller author.

Every now and then, Alicia still brings the subject up. She still persists, God bless her. She says I'm capable of writing the kind of story she loves to read and I feel so humbled every time she tries to support the writer in me by believing in me.

Now, I just remind her that the tale will end up in some very strange places. It won't have mass appeal, it won't sell a million copies, but despite the fact that I can't write romance, it will be an honest-to-goodness Thea made story.

And then I ask her if she's ready to read that.

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So: who do you write like? Or not? Readers:  How would you classify indies that you've read compared to mainstream writers? Does Mel Comley write like James Patterson for example?

Filed under: Indie Publishing, Uncategorized, writing

Tag Wrestling and writing dialogue? #ww exercise for #writers

This week I thought I'd offer up the writing exercise to a guest to direct. I put the call out on twitter and one lone wolf called back: Don Holloway, author of: The Company of Fellows.

He offers us a writing exercise on dialogue. I hope you comment to let him know how much you enjoyed this week's exercise, and as if a nifty exercise wasn't enough, I am offering the gift of Four Years from Home by Larry Enright to a random commenter from the month.

 Tag Wrestling

There are things you'll commonly hear when people talk about writing dialogue. And like every worthwhile lesson they're both essential and utter rot. Never use anything but "said" and "asked" is the first, and it's coupled with "use them sparingly if at all, and only so people don't lose track." And the second is a qualification of that "though you shouldn't really need tags at all because each character should have their own distinctive voice."

Super. And there are other great pieces of advice like "enter the conversation late and leave it early" and "make it realistic not real" and "don't use dialogue for information dumps" and "dialogue gets you from one point in the scene arc to its goal".

Super duper. Very true. Great. You've got the mechanics. Try telling your disgruntled lover the morning after "what are you complaining about, I've got the mechanics."

So here's the exercise. It's about colour and sound. And taste, touch and smell I guess. Basically it's about mood. Feel. You know the kind of thing – like those apps for cameras that make your photos look sepia, or soft focus.

I'm giving you a man and a woman in a cafe. We don't know what they're doing but we do know it's 6pm and the man she's with isn't the woman's husband but she's going to be with her husband 8. and you're going to write them three ways. You know, like those fancy meals. Like venison cooked three ways.

The cues you get are all mood cues. And they're all based on movies. First up, think Vincent and Mia in Pulp Fiction (watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQh4YRw9H8). It's hip, it's slick, it's hard-boiled. Next we have Brief Encounter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hubyFqSUaGA), all propriety and repression and denial. And finally a masterclass from the one and only Juliette Binoche in Three Colours: Blue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8R0RQ3F0hE), full of worldliness and flirtation and layering and menace.

And here's the thing. I want you to have the characters have the exact same conversation (word for word if you can, but at least blow by blow the same subject). And I want you to make them as different as those three clips.

Prompt 1: it's all about how you tag and POV the dialogue, because tagging is about so much more than telling us who said what. It's about fell, mood, rhythm. How do you create a breath, a beat, a pause in dialogue? Throw in a "he said". Take the following sentence:

"I always loved you but it wasn't enough."

Now.

She said, "I always loved you but it wasn't enough."

"I always loved you but it wasn't enough," she said

"I always loved you," she said. "But it wasn't enough."

Three completely different rhythms. Three completely different lines of dialogue. But only because of the tags.

Prompt 2: Read your first conversation again. Now try omitting all quotation marks, writing it as a single sentence and splicing every piece of dialogue together with "and he said…and she said…and he said". Go on. Let loose and try it. I dare you.

 Dan Holloway (http://danholloway.wordpress.com) is a writer and spoken word performer. He is the author of, amongst other things, The Company of Fellows (http://www.amazon.com/The-Company-of-Fellows/dp/B004PLMHYC), Black Heart High(http://www.amazon.com/Black-Heart-High-ebook/dp/B0053CPFDC), and Songs from the Other Side of the Wall (http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Other-Side-Wall-ebook/dp/B003LN1UBG).

 

Feel free to comment below, paste your story, a line from your story, a complaint about the exercise, whatever…and get entered to win a copy of Four Years From Home by Larry Enright at the end of the month.

Now, go. Be creative if you can. Mwah ha ha

Filed under: writerwednesday exercises

is there a sexy secret to #epublishing success: @gpwriter guests #amblogging #mywana

George Pappas, author of Monogamy Sucks
These days I am the most confident I've ever felt as a writer. My writing dreams of being a full-time author are finally in reach.

After a shaky start, my novel Monogamy Sucks is receiving critical support from readers and fellow authors that I always hoped for. I have found an incredibly supportive writing community on Twitter that inspires me daily.

My novel Monogamy Sucks has performed well on Amazon. It has been ranked as high  #11 among Erotica novels on Amazon Kindle and is consistently ranked in sales among the top 50,000 to 100,000 in the Kindle store out of 800,000 e-books.

My next novel about Internet dating and sex is slated to come out later this summer, and I am currently working on a story for a paranormal erotica print anthology by Lazy Day Publishing that is scheduled to come out in October.

But it hasn't always been this way. Until recently, I was an isolated writer leery of sharing my work with anyone.

Overcoming fears and doubts is one of the more daunting challenges a writer faces.

If you don't believe in your own work, why should anyone else?

Easier said than done. From an early age, we are taught that writing — good writing is the bastion of a gifted few. Successful or lauded authors are put on a pedestal and considered to possess almost God-like powers to create stories that captivate us. I believe subconsciously we begin to believe our own stories are not worthy of telling by comparison. I know this feeling well and lived with it longer than I should have.

My own fears and doubts kept my novel Monogamy Sucks, which was recently published as an e-book by Lazy Day Publishing, in my computer for more than 12 years. I never showed my work to anyone — not even my closest friends or family.

I personally was afraid that no one would grasp my novel's vision or understand what I was trying to do — explore the limits of monogamy through the eyes of a liberated male who goes on a taboo bending journey into the swinging lifestyle.

It wasn't just that I was dealing with controversial subjects such as swinging, threesomes, orgies, but that I was also challenging the status quo of monogamy and writing my novel from an edgy male perspective.

Questions haunted me.

Would I turn off potential female readers?
Would I go too far and readers be put off my novel's explicit erotic material?
Would readers enjoy and be amused by my main character Jake Dalmas' dark and sarcastic sense of humor, which represents the core of my book?

I have been pleasantly surprised that female readers have embraced my novel as much as they have. However, I didn't know if that would be the case at the time.

I also worried if there was a market for my controversial novel.  My first novel Letters From Cyberspace, which I self-published in 2001, was completely ignored, and it was a book written from the female point of view.

I also had a frustrating experience in trying to find an agent and publisher for my first book and doubted if it would be any easier with this novel.

Additionally, I was reluctant to relinquish control over the content of my novel.

So all of this anxiety conspired to keep my novel under wraps for years as I worked on draft after draft waiting to bring it out myself.

A little over a year ago in May 2010, I finally decided after much consideration to bring out my novel one chapter at a time on a dedicated blog — www.monogamysucks.wordpress.com.

I had seen a photo feature on the Huffington Post about how many bestsellers started out as blogs. I figured what did I have to lose?

Still, in the weeks and days shortly before and after my novel's May 2010 blog launch, I dreaded what people might think.

All of my worst fears proved unfounded. I didn't find a group of haters waiting to attack my novel, but instead found supporters and potential readers. What ultimately surprised me was the overwhelming positive response I received to my blog novel. Readers praised my novel's humor and sexuality. They mentioned how they could relate to Jake's foibles and experiences and wanted to read the entire book.

Two months into my blog novel experiment, Lazy Day Publishing, a new digital publisher, offered to publish my novel. It was more than I ever could have imagined.

What did I learn from all this that I can suggest to my fellow writers?

Bring some sunshine into your private writing world. Embrace the Internet. Start a blog and begin blogging about your writing experiences, and even more importantly, reveal some of your writing online. Build up your own readership and supporters. Don't wait to be discovered by agents and publishers. Go on Twitter and Facebook and meet fellow writers and potential publishing contacts and readers.

Writers no longer need to languish in isolation and obscurity wondering if anyone will ever care about their writing projects. A new writing destiny can now be at your fingertips. You can truly make it your own.

I believe the next literary star will most likely be found on the Internet not in

University workshops or the notorious "slush" pile. Just look at what

happened to indie novelist Amanda Hocking. She was discovered through her blog and now has prosperous writing career. Stories like hers have been an inspiration for many of us writers.

The DIY revolution that made Punk Rock and independent filmmaking so thrilling has finally taken over the publishing industry.

Join it.

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George Pappas is a Los Angeles-based novelist, blogger, poet and lyricist. Lazy Day Publishing released his second novel of erotic fiction Monogamy Sucks as an e-book in December 2010. Pappas launched the first six chapters of his novel on his blog in summer 2010 after more than 12 years of writing and researching his work. His novel explores intriguing notions about monogamy, relationships, casual sex and the swinging lifestyle.

Pappas is a lifelong resident of southern California and has been writing fiction since he was 15. When he's not writing, Pappas enjoys traveling, music, reading his favorite novelists Henry Miller and Anais Nin, watching films, exploring life's many adventures and pleasures, and living near the ocean.

links

Twitter: http://twitter.com/gpwriter

Blog: http://monogamysucks.wordpress.com

Publisher: http://www.lazydaypub.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Monogamy-Sucks-ebook/dp/B004E113X4

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Monogamy-Sucks-An-Erotic-Fiction-Novel/171812426178729?v=wall

Filed under: guest blogging, writing

Ogle Me Some: a lil #youth #music for you from novascotia @thomason_molly

June 10 and 11th this year marked the third annual convention of Minor Music: a great event that exposes youths in music to…well…more music. It teams up mentors and protegees, offers open jams and clinics, and it's just an absolute great time.

Can I just say it was a a penultimate fantastic time this year?

My Ogle Me Some this week is Molly Thomason who I snapped from my little seat in the eighth  row. I'm impressed she came out so clear although I had to wait till she was fairly still in the lighting so I wouldn't blur the heck out of her because my shutter speed was so slow. I think the shot suffers, but the blue light is cool.

I'm pasting in a video from the concert where she's doing her hit All Down the Highway. Did you realize this little songbird is under 18? Wow. Check out her website for details

Filed under: ogle me some

Thea's 3 Mashup. :It's all about me, baby @guineapig66 @booksandpals @siblehodge

June 17, 2011

First of all, I woke up in a frenzy this morning. Had a heap of things to do before I had to run off to work and do all those Friday errands that have spilled over from the last Friday when I didn't get the errands done. So. I forgot the mashup.

But:

Ha Ha! Joke's on me cause I ended up finding 2 really great reviews today! Yippee! So In honor of the really generous folks who review us poor dejected indies, this one's for you! (and me of course; it's all about me.)

I really want you to go over and comment if you can, if you find the time, if you care at all about indies and their support system cause reviewers are part of it, baby. I don't care if you read the review, but as writers, it's nice to show any reviewer support. So without fanfare and excitement, here are my three:

Vivienne Tuffnell is a great author who blogs at Zen and the Art of Tightrope Walking and today she posted a seriously awesome review about Anomaly.


Sibel Hodge is a stunning writer and she reviews too. She posted a review today for One Insular Tahiti. Thanks so much Sibel


Big Al is probably the best known and I really love his site. It's full of great, insightful reviews of tons of books. You could drown in the reading list. He reviewed Anomaly a month or so ago

happy reading!

Filed under: mashup

@m_pallante guests: Should you really play #music while you write?

I have always listened to music when I write; over the last three novels, I've carefully selected a sound track to write to that reflected themes, character, or tone of the piece/scene/novel I was working on. When i commented on twitter about this, M. pallante replied back very quickly with an interesting comment. I asked him for a blog post on music and writing and he obliged. As always, feel free to comment at the end. Do YOU write to music?

Michael Pallante
brings us:

The Writer's Playlist
There's one dimension that both music and writing intrinsically share. Music is necessarily about conflict and resolution.


Its no wonder then that so many writers choose to listen to music when they work. I know if I was alone with nothing but my thoughts and a blank sheet of paper I'd go stark and or raving mad.
A lot of writers like to set their playlist like a soundtrack to their novel, and imagine the songs as the score to the film version. This has its benefits, writing a tense scene with the psycho music playing will have the obvious effects. But, in general writing is as much of a craft as it is an art so music can perform a different function.
When I write I choose music which stimulates or calms me- so my mind is either focused enough or free to work the intricacies of plot or the unique problems of dialog. For this reason I tend to avoid heavy rock or anthemic type stuff- anything which draws my mind away from the story is bad.
For that reason I find songs with a mantra quality, lots of repetition, or of a character which centers my mood work best for writing. In the past this has included everything from new age music like Shantala, to modern rock like A Perfect Circle or Tom Wait's unique brand of blues and jazz.
The thing which all these varied "soundtracks" have in common is their transcendental quality. I'd have a hard time writing to Velvet Revolver because I'd be singing along, and don't even try to get me to work while listening to the Beatles! They are fantastic and stimulating acts- but they engage me on a whole other level.
Any song that puts you in a mental 'place' that is easy to write from is a good song to listen to. Think about changing your soundtrack up and seeing how it affects your focus and voice.


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 Michael Pallante is the community director for Questional.com and author of thrillers.
My professional site is located at: www.michaelpallante.com and my writing blog is kept at http://palehorsenovel.wordpress.com




Filed under: guest blogging, writing

Do your sex scenes sizzle or fall flat? @bethanyhalle @gpwriter #mywana

Writer Wednesday Exercise Sex scenes are tough. How hot is too hot? Just exactly what DO you call the necessary bits of anatomy? What if the writing just falls…limp? Finding the right balance between steamy and corny is my greatest … Continue reading →

Cassandre Dayne gets naughty on GonzoInk. #erotica #spanking from @bethanyhalle

It's only fair to warn you: I think readers and writers need spice every now and then. When I asked Cassandre Dayne to guest for me, she worried the blog couldn't take the heat. I assured her that I do … Continue reading →