Jessica Scott's Blog, page 30

Brand Loyalty vs People Loyalty

Let’s Talk Loyalty

I’m a consumer. I hate being called that, but that’s what I am. And as a consumer, businesses want my loyalty. Recently, my husband has taken up grocery shopping because I’ve spent every weekend since January on the computer, doing my damndest to unfuck my latest manuscript. Which is awesome because, well, I love my children but there is nothing worse than kids in a grocery store (okay that’s a slight exaggeration but parents out there get the gist).

Anyway, DH has started grocery shopping, which, as I said, is awesome. Except that last week, he brought home the wrong toilet paper. Now, price shopping is fine but we’re talking toilet paper. There are certain things I look for in a roll of toilet paper and damn it, not running out after two trips to the john is one of them. So, I gently mentioned that he bought the wrong one. Big mistake. It prompted a massive discussion about, well, toilet paper.

This week, he went again. I love this man, I truly do but I have very *small* obsession with yogurt and by small obsession I mean that there are very few brands of yogurt out there that are, in my mind, actually yogurt instead of food coloring, HFCS and a teeny bit of yogurt thrown in just to make it technically yogurt.

So I’m picky. Which means, there are about 2 brands of yogurt I buy. Yes, one of them is kind of expensive but, since the kids and I eat a lot of yogurt, in my mind, its important. Yeah. There was a Brand That Shall Not Be Named in the fridge today. Not only is this a brand that I despise, it’s barely legally yogurt.

I will not be mentioning this to him. If he wants to eat it, cool. In the mean time, I’m going to say to hell with the latest epic disaster, I mean, manuscript, and take my happy ass to the grocery store.

Anyway, this post is about loyalty and so far, all you’ve read about is my OCD regarding toilet paper and yogurt.

At RWA last year, I had a great chance to chat with Steve Berry and his lovely wife. I was amazed when he mentioned that he’d been with his editor for a ridiculous amount of time, either 20 years or 20 books or something. At any rate, it struck me that there was that kind of loyalty between a publisher and their author. I was impressed because that kind of thing is practically unheard of in publishing these days. I’m taking this somewhere, just bear with me.

As a company commander in the Army, we are taught that if we have no loyalty to our soldiers, they will not be loyal to us. And yet, every day, I have to make decisions about whether or not this soldier gets to remain a soldier or gets to go home and not only that but the conditions of their discharge (honorable or general mostly). How do I reconcile the loyalty to my soldiers with say you are no longer on our team?

How does anyone reconcile telling someone you are no longer on our team with loyalty? How do commanders tell people they are no longer on the army team?

The thing about loyalty is that it is a fragile thing. Loyalty is not something that can be rebuilt after it is broken. I would argue that it is more fragile than trust, that it is more sacred than integrity. Loyalty means that there are somethings that I simply would not do. It also means that I would break the rules for you if I have loyalty to you. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, just that it is.

Last year, I had to look a young kid in the eye and say I’m sorry, you can’t be in our army any longer. What had he done? He was fat. Not a little fat, very fat, the kind of unhealthy fat that is going to send him to an early grave if he doesn’t manage to get his weight under control.

He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said ‘ma’am, I’ve deployed for my country. I’ve done everything this unit has asked. I know I can’t stay any more but could I please stay so that I can qualify for my GI Bill?’

I looked at this young man and I did not even think twice. I put him on leave that day so that he could be on active duty long enough to qualify. Why would I do that? Did I break the rules? No, I don’t think I did. What did I have to lose by allowing him to earn a benefit that he was only a few days away from earning?

I believe it would have been disloyal of me to put him out of the military without that benefit. I think it would have made me a massive douchebag of epic proportions. I couldn’t keep him in but I could damn sure make sure he got what he’d earned. I don’t just feel like I made the right decision, I know I did. I would have kept him in the army if I could have but there is a huge difference between a Commander MAY and a commander WILL.

So the whole point of this blog is that there is a difference between brand loyalty and loyalty to people. Publishing is going through massie throes, culling writers from the stable to save their ship. The Army is doing the same, telling people who were good enough to stay during the war years, thanks, we don’t need you any more. People in business and in the army have to make decisions every day that are impacted by loyalty or the lack thereof. But I will tell you that loyalty seems to be pretty rare, in the army and in the world. If you have it, treat it carefully, because it is a precious thing.

At the end of the day, it comes down to what decisions can you live with? Can you look yourself in the mirror every day and know that you’ve made the right call? Or you’ve made a call for the right reasons? Only you can answer that. And that decision is a hell of a lot more important than toilet paper or yogurt.

Shameless Summer Hop

So it’s summertime! And that means more book giveaways. Time for the Red Hot Books Shameless Summer Hop. You can see all the blogs by clicking on the picture below. And enter to win a copy of Because of You as well as a $25 gift card for Barnes and Nobel (US only)!

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Here’s What I Suck At

Well, there’s a lot of things I suck at like housework and cooking but this post is not the post for that. This post is going to talk about the things in a writer’s life that I suck at.

Things I Thought I Was Good At

I’ve been “writing professionally” since 2007. Cool, huh. Thought I’d learned a lot. Always reading craft books, always trying to get better. Well, sold my first book, which, it turns out is my 2nd book I ever wrote. But if you actually go back and read that first draft, there are exactly 2 scenes that survived the myriad of drafts that took from 2007 until 2010 when I sold it.

Thing One: Delete

Beginning writers are notorious for being unwilling to delete anything. Chuck Wendig has some amazing posts on things writers do and one of the posts he talks about just because the scene is awesome, doesn’t mean it gets to stay in the book. Love this advice. So I thought I’d gotten pretty good at deleting stuff, even stuff I loved.

Thing Two: Starting Over

Part of my writing process involves chucking pretty much the entire novel and starting over. Which is, well, it’s not a good way to write. However comma, it appears to be my way to write. Which is not efficient and it also gives editors of the world ulcers.

Thing Three: Writing Fast

Holly Root wrote a post once upon a time that talked about all these beginning novelist who query books one two and three in a series and how they want to be writing five books a year and blah blah blah. Well the thing I learned from my own writing life is that I write fast. As an example from my latest book (which is still very much at the sucks stage):

First draft: Feb 27

2nd draft: March 20

3rd draft: April 15

4th draft: April 30th

5th draft: May9

6th draft: May 30

Those last three drafts (all between 65-78K words) were not complete rewrites but pretty close to complete overhauls. Cool right? Yeah, not so much but more on that in a second.

I thought I’d gotten pretty good at these things over the last few years. I thought I’d figured out my process.

And now we turn to

Things I Suck At

Thing One: Delete



Apparently snoodling with your delete key, while a critical skill also causes you to delete entire words, punctuation, paragraphs and scenes. It also causes one to end up with a frankenmanuscript instead of anything even remotely publishable.

Thing Two: Starting Over

Yes, my willingness to throw the entire manuscript out and start over is symptomatic of being a gal who can’t plot to save her life. I’ve learned to storyboard. Hell, I’ve even learned to write synopses (granted they’re more like 10 page short stories but you get the idea). But I still can’t help throwing the entire novel out and starting over with one or two key scenes remaining. The result here is that I end up with a whole lot of scenes stuck together that may or may not make an actual novel.

Thing Three: Writing Fast

Sure it’s awesome that I can crank out a draft manuscript in 45 days. Except when you see above, you realize that I’m not good and fast, I’m just fast. I can’t see typos. I can’t see that the character arcs suck. I absolutely suck at proofreading my own stuff. Dropped words, misspellings, its vs it’s. I am appallingly bad at proofreading and I have no idea how to force my brain to slow down. My battalion commander actually commented on what a terrible first draft I write. Oh I can see it in everyone else’s stuff. Just not my own.

So what’s this really all about?

I suck at revising and editing my own work. In the army and in life, if you’re bad at something, you can work at it until it becomes a strength. But I’ve read craft books out the wazoos. The only thing I know how to do is keep going. I don’t know how to sit down and figure out the revisions process. I’ve taken classes, I’ve read books. The only thing that helps me revise is someone sitting in my manuscript with a red pen and saying this is what you’re doing here, do this instead.

And this is why I need an editor. I’m not sure if this says I’m a shitty writer or if this says I’m a lazy writer who isn’t willing to do the hard work, or if it says I’m a diva who doesn’t want to fix her own problems. But I do know that I want to get better at it. I want to be able to read my own manuscript with a critical eye and say, ooh, this sucks, you need to move this here and it would be stronger. I want to be able to see the missing words and letters and wrong words.

I don’t know how to train myself to do these things.

And the other thing I’m terrible at? Asking for help. I feel like I’m taking taking taking and never giving back. I don’t like feeling like that. So I don’t ask for help. Which is bad. Because I need it.

So fellow writers, editors, agents: I’ve confessed my writing sin, my bad writer habits. I don’t know how to fix myself. I’m all ears: How do you train writers to get better at editing? How do you enable writers to see their own words critically?

Getting Picky about…Toilet Paper

Okay, this post is not about toilet paper. It’s about male/female understanding of toilet paper consumption.

See, I live in a house that has 3 females and 1 male. The one male in the house seems to think the females use an excessive amount of toilet paper. Except that, well, we’re girls. And last I checked, one square of toilet paper equals messy hands. Trust me, we’ve had enough fun just getting the girls to wipe properly. The last thing I’m going to do is tell them to use less toilet paper.

But last week, hubby, bless him, went grocery shopping while I sat my happy ass in a chair and revised my book from hell. I had on the list a specific brand of toilet paper: Cottonelle Double Rolls. Why? Because they last the longest and it doesn’t feel like you’re wiping with hot sauce and kitty litter.

He comes home with Quilted Northern. Now there’s nothing wrong with Quilted Northern. The bears are very good advertisers for the softness of the tissue. But the rolls, they go quickly. And while I’m certain my daughters will kill me when they’re older for saying this, let’s just leave it at, well, there needs to be toilet paper in their bathroom or bad things happen that require bleach to clean up.

So when I pointed out that he’d bought the wrong brand, he proceds to give me a teeny bit of grief about how I’m the only one who uses a catchers mitt worth of toilet paper to wipe and that I’ve taught the girls the same thing.

Dude, you only have one body part to wipe. I have 2. And I prefer to do this WITHOUT getting human waste on my hands. I’m funny that way.

It’s not like it was a huge argument or anything but it was funny to me that we even had the conversation. My name is Jess and I use a lot of tp.

And that is your random Tuesday thought. Have a great week.

Weekly Winners!

The winner of JK Beck’s SHADOW KEEPERS is:

Ellen B

The winner of the $25 Barnes & Noble gift card & BECAUSE OF YOU is

Liss M

Please contact me and let me know if i have a good email address so I can get the prizes emailed off to you!

Thanks so much for everyone who stopped by for the giveaways and the hops! As always, more coming soon. And now I have to get back to work, revising my ass off!

Happy Release Day to JK Beck + Giveaway!

So I’m a huge fan of Julie Kenner’s alter ego JK Beck. The Shadow Keepers world is just so damn sexy. So today I’m going to give away all 4 of the current Shadow Keepers books to include the latest release WHEN PASSION LIES!

Enter to win between now and 1 JUNE and I’ll announce the winners on Saturday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Here’s an excerpt from WHEN PASSION LIES.

Memories

Worrell lived across the hall from us in Korea. We were all assigned to Suwon Airbase and Worrell worked for my husband in the warehouse. He was full of good idea fairies. He swore up and down that you could train a cat to use the toilet and well, since we had an illegal cat (no pets were allowed in the barracks, it’s a long story) we decided that sure, I’ll try to potty train the cat.

It lasted all of three days until the cat crawled into the chair behind me and pissed down my back. And there went that idea.

Worrell had a little mutt of a puppy (again another thing no one was supposed to have). SeaMax, as we lovingly referred to the asshole, was a first class douchebag, who like to beat up on one of the only two authorized dogs (the unit mascot known heretofore as T-Dawg and who in her hey day was credited with five enemy KIAs when she served as the early warning guard system for the warehouse. Another long story). Corporal Thunder hated SeaMax, who was a fluffy white hair ball prone to falling asleep at the drop of a hat and staying that way.

We tried to shave SeaMax one night. We thought it would be easy. I mean, after all, it looked easy enough when the pet store people did it right? Yeah, by the time we were done, SeaMax was a mutilated clump of white fluffy patches. He looked like he had mange and oh God did we laugh. Max was actually embarrassed though. It was a good memory.

Then there was the time that we finally got the company commander to agree to promote CPL Thunder to Sergeant. She’d been passed over for promotion several times and was about to call the Inspector General. Luckily, the chain of command had a sense of humor and Worrell stood in front of the formation, holding the chihuahua mix, making her salute the commander as he pinned sergeant rank to here chest. Here’s a picture in case you think I’m making this up.

We left Korea in 2003 and the war started. But my husband kept in touch with Worrell, serving another tour in Iraq with him, even though they were assigned to different units.

Worrell died in Iraq 2010.

For those who have served, the war never ends. Hopefully, it gets easier to talk about. Worrell, you will never be forgotten.

We miss you, buddy.

Weekly Winners!

It’s time for the weekly round up of winners! Just one give away this week: Trish J. Email Terry Odell at terry AT terryodell DOT com!

Remember to enter the Diamond Jubilee Hop for more prizes coming this week!!

Bribery Is a Mom’s Best Friend

You know, before I was a parent, I used to judge other parents horribly. A tantrum in the middle of the grocery store? Why didn’t you give her a nap before you went? Feeding a piece of candy? Oh the horror of the toxic food coloring.

And oh how I judged.

Then, I spawned two angelic looking little terrors.

Now, to be fair, my kids aren’t that bad. They know that when Mommy says I will take you out of this store screaming, that I really don’t care who is looking, I will carry a screaming, kicking child out of the store rather than beg her to behave.

BUT and there is always a but.

Tonight my oldest daughter has a sleepover. Youngest really wants to go. But the little girl whose house she’s staying at doesn’t have a sibling that is the same age as my youngest. And while her parents have no issues with her going, my oldest daughter (while surprisingly NOT having a fit about it) said she wants time with her friends without her little sister around.

I have pretty strong feelings about her doing this but on the flip side, she’s a pretty good big sister, as I imagine big sisters go. So her request seemed pretty reasonable.

Except that youngest child had already packed her bag. Last night.

So this morning, having lain awake tormented on how I was going to break my five year old’s heart AND have to put up with, not a tantrum, but a quiet little heartbreaking sob worthy of an academy award, I decided to ask her this question:

If you could do anything in the local area other than go to this birthday party, what would it be?

Oldest immediately started to snit, but I gave her the look – you know the one passed down from generation to generation between mother and daughter? Yeah that one.

Youngest thought about it and said, I want to go to the mall and then I want to go to the Disney store.

That’s it? Wow, I mean, I fully understand that this is bribing my youngest child so that my oldest gets to have some alone time with her friends (they’re 8, so they’re at that age). But all I have to do is take a Zanax and go to the mall and I have peace and quiet in my home?

Now maybe this is a bad precedent. Maybe I’m setting myself up for a whole lot worse down the road. But I did not do a, if you start being good I’ll take you to the mall, bribery. I asked her to think of an alternative to going to the party.

I think that’s a pretty good deal.

Guest Author Terry Odell – You Write THOSE Books? + Giveaway

Thanks to Jessica for inviting me here today. I read and enjoyed her first book, and was delighted to see that we were both honored with awards in the HOLT Medallion contest. Her Award of Merit for Because of You was well deserved. And my second Blackthorne, Inc. book, WHERE DANGER HIDES was voted Best Romantic Suspense.

So, you write “those” books…I’m sure any romance author has heard it, clearly from someone who’s never read a romance. Yes, I do. Me, I like to think they’re about relationships. And since I write romantic suspense, my books are mysteries as well. (I wish there was a genre called “Mysteries With Relationships” because that’s where mine would fit.)

How hot is hot? If you’re a romance writer, eventually, you’re going to have to deal with that moment of relationship consummation. Will it happen after the end of the book, merely alluded to? If it happens before then, will it be behind closed doors? Or will you let the reader into the bedroom? And if you do, how much will the reader be privy to?

I let my readers follow my characters into the bedroom. But I still think my books are as firmly entrenched in the mystery genre as they are in romance. Readers aren’t as picky as publishers; they don’t mind books that straddle genres. I recall coming across a mystery review site that said they also reviewed romance, as long as there was no sex. To me, that’s like saying you’re a food critic and you review Chinese restaurants, EXCEPT any food prepared with soy sauce. But the head reviewer said they had some reviewers who would accept sex scenes.

Rather than waste anyone’s time, I snipped out the sex scenes and emailed them to him to see if they were mild enough. His response: “This is PORN.” (Tell that to my editors, who gave my books “mildly sensual” ratings!)

I’ve been places where readers will ask, “Is there sex in your books?” When I answer in the affirmative, some grin and say, “That’s great!” Others frown and walk away. I’ve had a review from a reader who said she didn’t like seeing the sex on the page and wouldn’t be reading any more of my books. (She probably sold a bunch of books for me with that comment.) The beauty of the genre is that there’s something for everyone.

However, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not really about putting sex on the page, even though I do it. By the time my characters have sex, they’ve earned it. It’s much better to show the building of the relationship, and the sexual tension. After all, we’re hard-wired for the 12 Steps to Intimacy. Skip too many steps, and it will feel “off” to the reader.

Here’s a snippet from WHERE DANGER HIDES:

Dalton closed his eyes, savoring the kiss. Miri’s lips were so soft. She tasted so sweet. And this was so wrong.

Damn! He had no business kissing her. She was a Blackthorne client, for God’s sake, and vulnerable. He didn’t take advantage of women, vulnerable or not. He tried to pull away, but his lips clung to hers as if trapped by some all-powerful magnet. He clenched the chair’s armrests because if he touched her, he might not be able to stop.

He nibbled her lip. She ran her tongue along his teeth. She made a sound somewhere between a whimper and a moan. He groaned. This was barely a kiss, yet he was rock hard. His jeans shrank half a size. Bells rang.

When Miri pulled away and bent over for her purse, he didn’t know whether to curse or give thanks. Wiping sweat from his upper lip, he did both.

As she opened her cell, she flipped her bangs, revealing tiny beads of perspiration on her forehead.

Miri answered her phone with a smile and a breathless, “Hey, Sis.”

With his back to her, he adjusted his jeans, worked at getting his breathing under control. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Terry is giving away a copy of WHERE DANGER HIDES today to one lucky commenter!

Terry Odell thought she was writing a mystery when she began her first book. Her daughters informed her it was a romance. Since she’d never read a romance, she started studying the conventions of the genre. Once she discovered romantic suspense, she knew she’d found her niche. She writes two romantic suspense series: Blackthorne, Inc., and Pine Hills Police, as well as stand alone books and several contemporary romance short stories. She’s also written her first “real” mystery—Deadly Secrets—and is working on the next book in that series. Find more about Terry and her books at http://www.terryodell.com