P.A. Wilson's Blog, page 23

One Lovely Blog Award

I’ve been nominated for the One Lovely blog Award. A big thanks to Sonya over at Swashbuckler’s Tales for the nomination.

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It’s one of the pass it forward type of awards

The rules are to thank the person who nominated you – Thanks Sonya!

Then nominate 7 blogs.

Then give 7 random facts about yourself.

Seven blogs I love

Indies Unlimited a blog of great help and support for Indie publishers
Mystery Writing is Murder
The Passive Voice
Writer Unboxed
The Book Designer
Kristine Katherine Rusch
Teleread

 Seven random things about me

I like to kill people on the page
I worked at a concession stand in Stanley Park
I once almost drowned at Kits Beach
I would rather drive anywhere than fly because I like to keep my own schedule
I’ve never had the flu (every time I say that, I think I’ve jinxed myself)
I’ve seen ghost twice
I hate clowns

It feels great to be nominated for the award and to take part in a great acknowledgement circle.

 

Do we need to redefine literacy?

I retweeted this tidbit from @steveumstead HA! Very interesting take: Most Citizens of the Star Wars Galaxy are Probably Totally Illiterate | Tor.com ow.ly/ep8PX and it got me thinking. In the future will reading words be the definition of literacy? I know the word means that now, but….

Today we are literate if we…

read and understand the written word. Whether that’s on paper or on screen or on a wall somewhere, it’s all about the words and letters.

Tomorrow what will literacy mean?

I suggest that literacy will come to mean able to functionally communicate. That could mean being able to understand icons on a screen, or runes or, a computer coded language.

We see illiteracy as a barrier to making the most out of your life. I think that’s mainly true in our first world environment. People who can’t read, or can’t read well, face barriers because we survive on words.

Movies and television don’t require reading skills – well, unless you are a Jeopardy home champ! You don’t need to be able to read music to enjoy it. Audio books are sometimes more enjoyable than reading the work yourself. Even though entertainment comes in many forms, underlying the experience are words. You can enjoy the product without reading, but it doesn’t get produced without reading.

As an author, I work in words, so literacy is important to me.

 As an x-wing fighter, can I be illiterate?

I think by the time we get into space in a meaningful way, words will take a back seat to more efficient and faster communication tools; icons, colored lights, spoken instruction, and even things we can’t imagine at our current technological stage.

 What do you think?

Do you think we’ll evolve the idea of literacy into something other than just words?

 

The new James Bond. Where’s the arrogance?

I loved the old James Bond movies. I liked the arrogance and cynicism of the Sean Connerys and the Pierce Brosnans. I’m not sure about the Daniel Craig Bond.

A little reality check – if that’s  not too weird when talking about James Bond

I like my action heroes larger than life. I know that I wouldn’t put up with the arrogance, or all the women or all the violence or….. Well that said, I like my movies to be escapes.

The old James Bonds didn’t ask me to care about him. He just was a superspy and I think that worked. JB was supposed to save the world, not crank up my nurturing bone.

The new one, so far

I’ll go see Skyfall. Why not, as much as I don’t care for the humanizing of the character, Daniel Craig is some nice eye candy.

My problem is all the brooding. For me it makes him less of an action hero. Before you slam me for my unrealistic expectations of men, we’re talking James Bond here, not a real human being. That was what made him great entertainment, he wasn’t realistic.

Think about the Die Hard franchise. John had problems at home and they were mentioned in each of the movies. The mention gave us a feeling he wasn’t so much of an ahole that someone didn’t care for him enough to have two kids. The key thing was that the stories were not about him trying to fix his home life by talking things out, they were about him fighting off the bad guys.

The old James Bond was damaged because his wife was killed. Like John Mclane, it gave his some humanity, but didn’t get in the way of his heroics. The Daniel Craig Bond so far seems to be driven by the tragedy, not by the threat to humanity the uber villains represent.

I guess at some point, I’ll stop going to the Bond movies and that means I’ll probably only watch them on TV when there’s nothing else on.

The question

So, am I just an old fashioned fan? Or, do other people want the cocky and promiscuous Bond back?

Reading series stories, and Kindle Serials

In the old old days, people read serialized novels. In the new old days, serialized books disappeared and series became popular. Now in the future old days (yeah it was a stretch) of ebooks, we have both. Is the serialized book a viable choice? Maybe.

The differences – well for now

A serialized book is on storyline that is delivered in sections. The old way was to have a cliff hanger at the end of each section to bring the reader back to the series when the next episode comes. The new way is to buy the Kindle Serial and you get all the current  episodes, then the future ones arrive in on your Kindle as they are published.

A series is either a set of stories linked to an overriding tale or a number of stories set in the same world that stand alone.

You can read any Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum as a standalone story, or my Charity Deacon Investigations. There is character growth through the series, but each will satisfy your desire for a complete story.

You might read The Fellowship of the Ring and stop there (I dare you), but The Lord of the Rings is a story told in three parts. There is definitely something there to draw you to the Two Towers and then to The Return of the King. My Quinn Larson Quests and Madeline Journeys are examples of the overriding storyline.

Another difference between series and serials is the fact that the serial episodes could be quite short and the series books are full sized.

What works for you, Reader?

A story that has short episodes and cliff hangers at the end of each, but no schedule of release. Or story that comes in full form that might take longer to get to you.

If I wrote a serial, I would probably create all the episodes in draft form then schedule the revisions so I could get the next episodes to you over a month. Amazon has no requirements that the story be completely written to qualify for publishing, so there will be wide differences in the schedule.

To be honest, for me I much prefer reading the whole series when it’s out, so I’d apply the same to the series books.

Should your favorite authors start thinking about creating serials?

It’s National Novel Writing time – well for the plotters it is

There will be a lot of posts out there this month and next. All about the 30 days of writing that changes some writers from introverted keyboard clickers to mad word count challengers.

 First – I’m back from vacation, yes I missed you

I took a week off to do some writing and relaxation. When I left it felt like I had plenty of time to get ready for NaNo. After all it was September – yes, the 25th, but I was in denial.

Now I’m back and it’s October and I have to get planning.

A quick NaNo tutorial for those of you who aren’t crazy enough to be a writer.

National Novel Writing Month is held every November and writers all over world commit to writing at least 50,000 words in 30 days. There are regional communities and lots of social time to keep the excitement up.

There’s controversy – isn’t there always – about the quality of the writing done so quickly. My take on that is go bother someone else with your judgement. The idea is to write and a first draft is all I aim for – revision is what comes after.

What does this mean for you, dear reader?

Every year I’ve done NaNo (won every time), I knew what to write. I only had one story to tell. This year I have two. I’m hoping you can help me decide.

The choices

Option number one is the third Charity Deacon Investigation. I have an idea that it will be set in a Vancouver suburb. There will be surprise guests and lots of trouble between Charity and the local police. For voting, let’s call this Charity Three

Option number two is the story that has been floating in the back of my mind for a couple of months. It will be a gritty story set in Vancouver. There will be jazz clubs, and murder and deep dark secrets – not just the bad guys. For voting, let’s call this Jazz Crimes.

How to vote

Let’s keep this transparent. Leave your vote as a comment on the blog. If I get responses on Facebook, or Twitter, or Reddit, I’ll add them into the comments.

Vote for Charity Three or Jazz Crimes

Mo retailers mo problems.

One of the things that I think is important is the provide my readers with as many ways as possible to buy my books. The ongoing challenge I have is that when I have more retailers, I have more challenges to make sure the books are at the right price and the version is the most current.

The situation

I publish directly through Kindle and Createspace on Amazon and the price and version is always up-to-date. I publish directly to Kobo and ditto. Within minutes – or hours at the longest – the price is set and any cover updates or corrections are made.

The books on Smashwords are also updated immediately. The challenge is when Smashwords is my middleman. Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony and Diesel are the premium retailers that I need Smashwords to act as the middleman. In theory that’s great. Smashwords takes a little cut and  you get to buy from your favorite retailer.

The problem is that there are old version of my books on most of the retailers and that means you may end up with a version that still has errors that have been caught and fixed on other sites. Yes, no matter how many eyes hit the page before I publish, there always seem to be  few typos that don’t get caught.

The dilemma

The balance of quality control v accessibility is driving me nuts. The only way I’ve been able to manage it is through my website. I link the books to Amazon and Smashwords because I know it what version is there. I spend time every day trying to get the other versions updated – time I could be writing.

A solution

So, dear readers, I’m torn between two options. Only be available at vendors I have a direct relationship with, or just let it go and ignore the fact that there are different version out there.

What do you think? Or is there another option I’m not seeing?

Preparing for a vacation – or getting ready for research

I’m getting ready to go on a short holiday and I realized that it’s been years since I took a real vacation. Since I started writing, I always have a research project going on or had a major writing goal for my holiday.

When I went to France last year, I was researching locations for Greed. When I was in Italy I was trying to write Closing the Circle. Now I’m off to Portland Oregon for the second time in a couple of years. Last time I was looking for places to have people murdered for Imperative – Portland has no alleys so I moved the series to Vancouver where we have great ones.

This time I’ll be doing some research for a romance I’ve written that takes place partly in Portland. And I’ll be writing and revising and plotting. I’m starting to get exhausted.

I think I’ll make some plans to not have plans. To take a break and do some reading instead of writing. Maybe I’ll come back refreshed like I used to when I took a break from work.

What do you think? Do you turn off and take your vacation? Or do you try to cram in as much as you can?

Reviewing a story that has a disappointing feature

I recently read a story that I rated 4 stars, but it had a disappointing facet that almost made me not review it. The conundrum of the reviewer.

My review policy

That sounds so formal. I’m not a book reviewer in the sense that I get books specifically to review. I read a lot and I like to leave a review  – to help other readers and because I’m hoping the universe will respond with reviews of my books. Because I’m a writer, I don’t do 1 or 2 star reviews- it’s mainly because I can’t tell whether it’s a problem with craft (something that would bug a writer) or a problem with the story (something that would bother the reader).

The book I read

I’ve left my review on Goodreads, Shelfari, and Amazon so the content of the review is not a surprise. I won’t put a specific spoiler in this post, but if you want to read it fresh don’t read the next paragraph.

The disappointing facet was the secret. The thing that caused all the murders and all the pain. It was something that has been done to death in my opinion. It fit, and if I had been looking to figure it out I’d probably have done so. The clues were all there and I could still see how this would have been a motive – thirty years ago.

That’s the problem with many conspiracy books. Think about a contemporary book about WW2 war criminals. Yes they committed horrible crimes. Yes they deserve to be punished to the full effect of the law. But they are all old men now, most are dead and there are more current war crimes to use as the impetus for a story.

How do you review a story like this?

I really enjoyed this book and it’s not a unique problem. I’m reading a book right now that I have to force myself to put it down, but there are errors of logic and fact. And there are typos. So why do I keep picking it up and losing time in my day? Because the story is great enough for me to ignore the problems.

So what do you do in this circumstance? Leave a scathing review based on only the errors. Do you leave a 5 star raving about the story and ignoring the flaws? Or do you not leave reviews?

Is it all about the toys?

When you make decisions to buy gadgets, do you make it based on the latest hot toy, or on a business decision?

Why it can’t be a business case

Obviously it can be a business decision and it often is for a bigger business. But for the smaller business, or the individual there often isn’t enough information available to make a logical decision.

It should be a decision based on features and what benefit you are trying to get out of the new technology. The buzz tends to be all about the cool. I think that would be okay except that these devices are not cheap.

What that means from a purchase perspective

A personal journey: I was in the market for a tablet. I tried to get information on how I could use the iPad for business – I am a pc and will probably always be one – and I couldn’t. The iPad cost about $200 more than the Android device. I went Android because I could afford to test it out. I love my tablet and actually ran my business from it for a week. I still need my laptop, but it’s nice to have a backup.

When things change

I like to have a direct relationship with the distributor of my books because I can make sure my readers have the right version of the books at the right price. To do that with Kobo or Amazon, I didn’t need to buy anything new. To do that with Apple, I need to buy or borrow a Mac. I would need to sell a lot of books to make a Mac purchase a good financial decision.

The main challenge for the small business person is getting enough information to determine the value of changing. We are all so different that it’s hard to find an example of success that relates. We also don’t have a lot of time to learn new tools.

The bottom line

I’ll probably remain an Android/PC person. Even if I get my hands on an iPad or a cheap Mac,  I’ve been working with essentially the same tools for as long as computers have been available to individuals. When something goes wrong with my PC I know I can find a way to fix it.

What about you? Are you tempted to cross the floor from PC related products to Apple – or go the other way?

 

Amazon tests takeoff issues for Kindle

Those of us who want to read electronically on a plane are waiting for the FAA to make it possible to do it from the moment we sit to the moment we get ready to leave.

Amazon tests the problem

This post from Teleread is a teaser. I’m not advocating that the FAA or their compatriots let the makers of devices prove the safety. Even the most naive of us could probably predict the outcome.

Let’s make suggestions

I think it is difficult for the FAA to consider a new approach. As you’ll see in the comment I put on the Teleread post, I think the tests will take so long that the technology may have changed so much that we’ll need a new round of tests.

Takeoff and landing are the most dangerous times – this is why we need to put away the electronic devices. It’s also the time where I need more distraction. The inflight magazine is okay, but if you are taxing for any length of time, you’ll run out of reading material pretty quick.

I think the FAA could just create a set of standards that need to be met. The electronic devices could be made to meet the standard – and be tested. Then the inventors of devices can go at it to their heart’s content.

What ideas do you have?