Polly Iyer's Blog, page 3

July 12, 2014

I'm Jealous of My Character

I’m psychically deprived. Don't have a psychic bone in my body. No premonitions, no spooky hair-standing-on-end moments. So what inspired me to write a series with a psychic character?

Jealousy.

I would love to touch someone and see inside them, or hold a missing person’s article of clothing and get a vision of where that person was. My character in MIND GAMES, Diana Racine, can’t make up her mind whether having those abilities is a gift or a curse.

She’s a psychic entertainer. She’s also a fraud. That’s right, fraud, as in charlatan, huckster, and even witch. Those are only a few of the epithets she’s been called. She employs a computer hacker to dig up information on the people in the audience by cracking the credit cards they use to buy a seat for one of her performances. But with every reading, she reveals a fact known only to her subject, whose reaction assures the audience that Diana is not the fraud people claim. So is she for real, or is she a con artist?

Diana’s story goes back over twenty-five years. Her first psychic experience as a six-year old was an accident. A neighborhood boy went missing, and Diana picked up one of his toys. Wham! She saw where he was clear as day and led the search party to his body in a ditch not far from his house.

After a few more astonishing discoveries, law enforcement began calling on her to help find people who’d disappeared, and those who’d given up hope of locating their missing kin paid her to do the same. Many didn’t believe a child could possess that much power. Some even accused her of setting up the disappearances and the discoveries. Most put their skepticism to rest after institutes all over the world proved she was the real thing.

Along with worldwide fame came the stress of finding lost people―children who’d strayed, Alzheimer patients who’d lost their way, murder victims. Sometimes finding those victims led to clues that put some bad people behind bars. When the pressure became too much, Diana told her manipulative father that she’d lost her gift. Unwilling to give up the life to which he’d become accustomed, he created her act. That’s how she segued from famed child psychic to more famous psychic entertainer.

One of the killers who wound up in prison because Diana found clues that led to his arrest, has festered for twenty years about exacting revenge on the child who sent him there. He’s out, and though Diana doesn’t know it yet, she’s in big trouble. The twist is that the killer has the same psychic abilities as Diana, which makes for a duel of mental dominance.

Are there really people who have psychic abilities? Yes. Are there frauds? Yes again. The only thing that separates one from the other is their track record and/or a good PR person. Some have websites and claim their teachings can help followers find their spiritual selves. They make generic predictions and promote their own beliefs; others claim they can speak to the departed, and most perform for a price.

I have a friend who’s had psychics tell her things they couldn’t possibly know. She’s a believer. Personally, I don’t want a psychic reading. I know what’s already happened, and like a character in the second book of the series, GODDESS OF THE MOON, I’m too old to want to know the future. We all have the same end. I’d prefer not to know mine. I like surprises.


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May 26, 2014

Love Scenes vs. Sex Scenes

Originally written as a Blood Red Pencil blog post on February 18, 2014

This sentence came up in a discussion about our February theme: Sex in novels is just scenery; it rarely moves the story forward.

Of course, I took up the rebuttal since all my books have love scenes. Notice I said “love scenes.” How can a reader feel the emotional content if there is none? How does a writer define sex between her two protagonists? How does a reader respond?

Let me elaborate by explaining an eye-opening experience.

I entered one of my romantic suspense books in a contest a while back. One requirement committed everyone entering to judge another genre. I chose Erotica because I’ve written erotica under a pen name. I was not then, nor have I been since, a steady reader of the genre, and wow, was I surprised by the material I judged. I could see why I was not a breakout sensation among erotica writers.

I write basically the same type of character-driven/plot-driven (yes, a book can be both) stories in my erotica novels as I write in my romantic suspense and thriller novels. The main requirement of the stories I judged seemed like how many sex scenes the author could write in their 60-80K words. I likened it to books or movies with excessive violence. Readers/viewers become inured to the extremes when faced with them constantly, and it eventually dulls the senses, which is what happened to me as a judge. I really didn’t care what happened to any of the characters. I want a story, the more complicated the better.

I dislike painting all erotic novels with the same broad brush, because the erotic romance protagonists in the books I judged also wound up in committed relationships, albeit with a couple of the books, more than two people. That’s another blog post entirely.

Sex in a book, as in life, is the result of a relationship. That relationship can span the emotions of heated passion to friendship that turns into deep and lasting love, and everything in between. Writing those scenes is the author’s choice. Many writers leave the physical contact behind closed doors. I’m all for that if the writer finds constructing those scenes out of their comfort zone or the reader finds them equally uncomfortable.

Sex scenes are hard to write. I’ve spent hours/days on one scene. For me there has to be affection between the two lead characters at the start of a relationship. The one time I had a serious moment of unbridled passion or lust in a book, it ended quickly and not well. Still, the two characters eventually get to know each other and explore a relationship at the end of the novel. The thwarted passionate scene is the only one between the two in the book. The developing relationship scenes explore their pasts and very complicated personas, so we get to know them and hopefully care about them.

Many readers don’t want those scenes in a mystery or a thriller, which is why my Amazon page states clearly that my books contain adult material. One reviewer reviewed three of my books with a warning. A few women wrote in thanking her for letting them know because they didn’t like those scenes in a mystery. That’s when I included my warning. I also did something no author should do, and that is to comment on a review. I thanked her for the reviews but suggested she not read any more of my books because they all contained sex scenes, some more graphic than others. She felt it was her duty to “enlighten” other readers. Her prerogative indeed. Mine is to write them or not.

By now, you must know my answer as to whether sex scenes move the story forward. Yes, but I prefer to call them love scenes.
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Published on May 26, 2014 18:31 Tags: contests, erotica, love-scenes, relattionships, sex-in-books

April 27, 2014

I've Been Tagged in a Blog Tour

I don't usually do blog tours, but the excellent romantic suspense writer, Ellis Vidler, tagged me for a Writing Process Blog Tour. It's a simple Q&A, so I thought I'd put it on my Goodreads Blog. If you don't know Ellis's books, check them out on her website: http://www.ellisvidler.com/ You'll be glad you did.

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Q. What are you working on?

The third book in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, titled Backlash. It will be out late summer, early fall. Then, right behind it, is Cross Currents, a book about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist--obviously pure fiction.

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Q. How does your work differ from others of its genre?

Starting with the premise that there's very little that hasn't been done, my books may hit on some risky subjects. The trick is to add a fresh approach. Hooked , for instance, is about an ex-call girl, a sex-crime investigator, a Wall St. pimp, and a mob boss. Some parts are kinky but funny, so I guess it's up to the reader to determine whether I've succeeded in making that scenario different from the romantic suspense genre.

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Q. Why do you write what you do?

I had one reviewer who'd read all my books and said I liked to make heroes out of damaged people. I thought that was spot on. Stories about the most vulnerable appeal to me. I tend to put them in unimaginable situations and see what they do. Threads is probably the best example of this.

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Q. How does your writing process work?

Writing is what I do. If I'm not actually writing, I'm thinking about writing. I have a separate office in the back of the house. Once I get into the story, I can go on for hours. The biggest distraction for writers these days, whether indie or traditionally published, is social media. If I can stay off Facebook and Twitter, I might be more productive, but it's the curse of getting your name and work out there, so we all do it to some extent.

Read more about my books on my Amazon author page my link text and on my website www.PollyIyer.com


Thanks, Ellis for asking me to participate. Now I'm passing the baton.

To: Romantic suspense author, L. A. Sartor, Dare to Believe, Stone of Heaven, and the holiday romance, Be Mine This Christmas Night. Follow her blog here:
http://anindieadventure.blogspot.com/

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To: Thriller/Suspense author Peg Brantley, Red Tide, The Missings, The Sacrifice.
http://pegbrantley.com/

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http://www.amazon.com/SACRIFICE-Peg-B...
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Published on April 27, 2014 13:48

March 27, 2014

Everybody Needs Romance

Recently, I watched one of my favorite movies of all time—Casablanca. I mentioned at a meeting where the guest was an acquiring editor for an up and coming e-press that I thought it was one of the most romantic movies I’d ever seen. “But no,” she said. “Casablanca isn’t a romance, it’s a love story.” She was right, of course. A romance has to have a happy ending. I’m not giving anything away, because everyone knows after seventy years there is no happy ending in Casablanca.

Did you know the director filmed two endings for the movie, and even the actors didn’t know which ending would wind up in theaters? Focus groups preferred the ending we all know. If the movie had ended happily and Ilsa and Rick walked off into the mist instead of Rick and Captain Renault, would it be the classic it is today or would it have been just another movie?

Interesting question.

My opinion is a happy-ever-after ending would have relegated Casablanca as just another movie. Those immortal lines in the last scene are sad and gut-wrenching. The look on Ingrid Bergman’s face, the glistening tears in her eyes—those are emotions you remember.

Rick: “If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”

Ilsa: “But what about us?”

Rick: “We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we…we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.”

Ilsa: “When I said I would never leave you.”

Rick: “And you never will.”

Sure it’s a love story, but come on, that’s romantic. Here’s a clip for any of you who’ve never seen the original. Then tell me if that isn’t ROMANTIC. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa-dGY... Some of the comments say Romantic, best film of all time, iconic lines. All true.

My point is this: those of us who write romance, whether it’s contemporary, suspense, or any other genre (erotica has more leeway and is now removed from Amazon’s Romance sub-genres), where two people fall in love, are bound by the Happy-Ever-After formula—yes, I said it: formula—that is required in order to classify a book as Romance. I understand organizations need parameters to specify genre descriptions, and a HEA is the determining factor in Romance. I understand it, but the rebel in me doesn’t like to be told I HAVE to do something. I’m glad one of the sub-genres now is Romantic Elements. I’m happy about that.

If you’re wondering if all my books have HEA endings or whether the maverick in me wins out, and a few love affairs fizzle by the end of the book, no fear. They all have a HEA ending. But it’s still my contention that romance shouldn’t be confined by that limitation.

If you remember the movie Love Story with Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal, corny by today’s standards and even those in the day, the title separates it from romance. Love Story says it all. But wasn’t it romantic watching Ryan weep over Ali when she dies (personally, I was glad to see her go—did I mention corny?), when his whole world comes crashing down? What’s more romantic than the tortured lover? Heathcliff, anyone?

Alas, I give in, or do I give up? I’m arguing semantics when we really need those boundaries. Thrillers and Suspense should make you turn the pages faster, Mysteries should challenge you to solve the murder, Horror should scare the pants off you, Fantasy should take you into another realm, and yes, Romance should have a happy ending.

Now, should we tackle Conflict? Must the Hero and Heroine be at each other’s throats for half to three-quarters of the book before they acknowledge their love? Why can’t they just like each other and fall in love? I have veered from that in one or two of my novels, but that’s another blog post.
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Published on March 27, 2014 20:02

January 16, 2014

Writer’s Block or How to Jumpstart Your Imagination

I wrote this blog post for Poe's Deadly Daughters on July 20, 2013.

I exchanged Facebook posts the other day with an author lamenting about writer’s block. I commiserated because I’m having the same problem with my WIP. The difficulties prompted me to reach for something on top of my computer desk that I haven’t looked at in quite a while. It’s a book called The Writer’s Block, which I purchased years ago in a gift store. The title is a play on words because the book’s dimensions are 3” x 3” x 3”. Get it? Block. Inside are 786 ideas to jumpstart your imagination. On the first page is a quote by Joseph Heller: “Every writer I know has trouble writing.” This from the author of the bestselling Catch 22. I felt better already.

As I thumbed through its stiff pages, I saw ideas for writers to unclog their brains and stir their imagination, many geared to short stories. But short stories can and do evolve into novels. For mystery writers, one idea was to research an unsolved murder that happened in your town or to write something from the point of view of a murderer…without mentioning the murder.
Throughout the “block” were single word triggers: Waiting. Lust. Prophecy. Tattoo. Discipline. Loser. Superstition. Homeless. Flirting. Cloning. Panic. Deadline. Outcast. Hangover. Any one of those words could create the concept for a short story or a novel if a writer allows her imagination to flow. (I shall allude to the writer as feminine.)
I’m a visual writer―I see stories as movies―so the last word, Hangover, reminded me of the film The Lost Weekend. Did the screenplay come from a book? I wondered. Yes, by a writer I’d never heard of, Charles R. Jackson. He wrote the dark, terrifying story from personal experience. As I read more about him, I thought he’d be a fascinating character worthy of protagonist status. And another idea was born, maybe to be resurrected at a later date when I searched for an idea for a new book.

One idea from the Block suggested tracing the journey of a five-dollar bill through five owners. How much or how little did the transaction mean to the different people involved? This suggestion reminded me of another old movie with Shirley Maclaine and an all-star cast, The Yellow Rolls Royce, which tracked three owners of, what else? a yellow Rolls Royce. I remember thinking what a clever premise, and now more ideas sparked to life.

How are different writers inspired when they have writer’s block? Tom Wolfe, journalist and novelist, claims most writers first search for a theme or a character, who more times than not turns out to be themselves. He’s inspired by a milieu or setting he knows nothing about. He chose Atlanta for A Man in Full in much the same way John Berendt chose Savannah for his “nonfiction novel,” Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I picked New Orleans for my only series, and though I’ve been there a number of times, my research took me to dark places in my mind that stimulated subplots I would never have thought about if my city had been elsewhere.

Annie Proulx claims yard sales and estate sales can serve as a treasure trove of inspiration. Think about that silver comb and brush set. Who owned it? Does it conjure a story? Barbara Kingsolver gets the interesting names for her characters from a baby book. John Irving always writes his last sentence first. That seems to open the floodgates for him. That would be putting the cart before the horse for me.

Amy Tam revives stories told to her by her parents. David Sedaris’s dozens of odd jobs―think Santa elf at Macy’s during Christmas and selling marijuana―are fertile material for his writing. J.K. Rowling took an ordinary kid, Harry Potter, and put him into extraordinary circumstances when he learns he can perform magic.

Elmore Leonard, one of my personal favorites, says, “Criminals are so much more interesting than people up at the country club talking about their golf game or their stocks.” Couldn’t agree more. Anne Lamott stresses fantasy in her assignment to students to write their acceptance speeches for the Pulitzer or their interviews with Charlie Rose or Oprah. If only. Anne Tyler keeps hundreds of index cards filled with lines she overhears, then pulls them out for inspiration. Isabelle Allende always starts a new book on January 8th, the day her grandfather died. She goes to her office early in the morning, lights candles for the spirits and the muses, and meditates. Fresh flowers and incense fill the room. Then she opens herself completely to the moment.

Personally, I like Nora Roberts’s philosophy. Writing is her job. She goes to work in the morning, parks her butt in a chair, and writes. That certainly works for her.

My story ideas always develop from a character and a “what if” situation. One page in The Writer’s Block suggests writing about your greatest fear. Mine has always been losing my sight, so I wrote a character who became blind in mid-life. It wasn’t difficult to project my fears into my heroine as I put her into frightening positions. I felt her. I was her.

Being hindered by writer’s block is a new experience. Something has always generated an idea when I least expected it, mostly at night when the lights are out. Thumbing through The Writer’s Block has stimulated some story plots, and now I want to chuck my bogged-down WIP and start a new book. I have a great idea.
What spurs your imagination when you’re in the throes of writer’s block? How do you break free?
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November 8, 2013

Does Crime Pay?

Former forensic accountant, now crime novelist, Colleen Cross, asked me to post on her blog, Crime Writer Spotlight, about the crimes in my books. I jumped at the chance. This was originally written in July of 2012. I've updated a couple of things, corrected a couple too. Here's the original link: http://tiny.cc/y8485w

I love cons. Not the guys in prison, although one of my book’s heroes is an ex-con, but the kind of cons in books and movies where there’s a very fine line dividing the good guys from the bad. Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block, and Donald Westlake come to mind as authors who test the ethics of the main characters.

“The Sting” is one of the best movies ever made about crooks ripping off crooks. Who can forget Paul Newman’s Henry Gorndorff as he and Johnny Hooker, Robert Redford, put one past crooked businessman Doyle Lonnegan, played by Robert Shaw? Then there’s The Grifters, a much darker movie about a con man. There are so many more where the theme is greed, as it is in all the books and movies where a con or fraud takes place.

I’ve written six books―nine, if you count three under my pen name―and most have some kind of fraudulent dealings.

In Hooked, my heroine is an ex-call girl whose illegal offshore account is discovered when the feds dig into the affairs of an old client, a Brooklyn mob boss whose accountant buried her money, unfortunately not deep enough. The New York Sex Crimes Division, in collaboration with the IRS, offer her a deal―work undercover at a high-class brothel to find out who’s murdering prostitutes, and they’ll give her a pass for failing to pay Uncle Sam his share of illegally-earned money—after she pays back taxes and penalties. That’s right. She was skimming off the top to save for an early retirement. The cops basically blackmail her until she does what they want. Damned if she does; damned if she doesn’t.

In the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, Mind Games (and Goddess of the Moon, unpublished at the time of this blog post), Diana has been a con artist most of her adult life. She’s a psychic entertainer who’s been called every name in the book ever since she was six-years old, but fraud is the one that sticks. Is she? Hmm, yes. Sometimes. Arranged seating at her performances paid for with credit cards allows her computer hacker employee to glean information she can use in her act. Then there are telephone records, email accounts―well, you get the picture. There are reasons why she pretends to be a charlatan, of course, but she’s still a cheat even though she really is psychic. Sound complicated? It is.

The unethical careers of my female characters are explained up front, but the other two books written under my name, InSight and Murder Déjà Vu, have business scams that, if explained here, would give away too much of the story. I will say one of them has to do with pharmaceutical fraud and the other with a Ponzi scheme, and both require the expertise of a forensic accountant to expose the fraud, as does Hooked. These schemes result in the deaths of innocent people, none of which are perpetrated by my main characters.

Save for crimes of passion, most mystery/suspense/thriller books have some sort of greed-generated crime that entails cooking the books. In the real world, one doesn’t have to look far to see the behind-the-scene chicanery perpetrated by the rich and crooked who will unlikely spend one day in prison for their fraudulent ways. The crooks in my books always get caught (well, one sort of unethical person did get away). In real life, not so much. Makes you wonder if crime really doesn’t pay.
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October 5, 2013

The Fallout from Writing Edgy

This is a post from Ellis Vidler's Unpredictable Muse, written on November 12, 2012. I made a few updates. You can read the original here: http://tiny.cc/q37h4w


A lot has been said lately about reviews. Who’s writing them? Who’s trading them? How honest are they? Let’s put aside that writers have writer friends, and for the most part, we support each other. There’s nothing wrong with that; we are a supportive group. Are we more generous when reviewing our friends? If I’m being honest, I’d say yes. Rarely will a writer with any ethics flip off a one-star review, because we know how hard it is to write a book. A writer’s subject matter and how she portrays her characters have consequences when it comes to the judgment of her readers, and in turn their reviews. How offended is a reader when the storyline conflicts with their respective beliefs or when a character does something they find personally reprehensible?

My books have darker subject matters and characters who often cross ethical lines. Romances take the hardest hits. Readers become invested in the relationship between the hero and heroine, and they want the story to turn out the way they want. If it doesn’t, watch out. Mysteries and thrillers have a little more leeway, but here again, there are limits.

HOOKED has received a slew of two-star reviews, mostly on Goodreads, where people can drop a one or two star bomb without explanation. (No, Polly, you can’t please everyone.) Tawny Dell, the heroine, is a high-class call girl who decides she wants out. Does she ever apologize for choosing that lifestyle? No. She’s smart, with a PhD in art history—come on, this is fiction after all—and she doesn’t consider herself a victim because she never was. There was no kumbaya moment where she regrets her former profession, no epiphany where she “sees the light.” There’s a graphic prison scene in MURDER DÉJÀ VU that’s not for the faint of heart. I could have implied it, but I described it instead because it was important to the character of my hero. I’ve had a lot of comments when the hero says he’d like to take the heroine to bed. He uses a word to refer to other times he’s had sex, which didn’t apply to my heroine, yet many people read that it did. Boy, did I hear about that one. One of my characters—I won’t mention which book—murders someone in cold blood. I made it look like self-defense, but he would have done the dirty whether or not I fudged the scene, and the reader knows that. In MIND GAMES, the first in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, Diana admits to being a fraud. She is and she isn’t. Does that make her unethical? Well, yeah. The way she’s devised her act definitely puts her in the questionable column. I had written the N word in that book, more than once. A critique partner flashed red flags all over the place, and I took them out, except for a less offensive variation, if there is such a thing. Diana’s father is a racist, and it’s a word he’d use. I got around it. The reader knows what he’s going to say it before she stops him. This one time, I gave in to political correctness, and I hated that I did. I didn’t feel true to myself or the story. In my newest book (this blog post was written in November of 2012. Since then I’ve released another book), GODDESS OF THE MOON, there’s a whole bunch of possible reader turn-offs, and I’m waiting for the reactions from my first readers. (Got very little flack from that book. One can never tell.)

So, writers, back to my original question―Do you try not to alienate readers by tweaking a book to make it more acceptable, or do you write the story the way you know in your heart it has to be, pitfalls included? If you write edgy storylines, are you ready for the fallout―those one and two star reviews that zap your confidence just a little? If you do, relax. You’ll get used to them.
Then, of course, there’s always the possibility that a reader thinks your book plain sucks. There’ll be a few of those too.
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Published on October 05, 2013 16:13 Tags: edgy, reviews, unpredictable-muse

August 30, 2013

Post from Wordpreneur - July 16, 2013

I was fortunate to have Wordpreneur ask to do a feature on me. You can find the original at http://wordpreneur.com/14808/peeps-po...





Unlike other authors, Polly Iyer didn’t start writing stories when she was a child — she drew pictures. An art major at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the first few decades of her professional life naturally revolved around art-related fields. “I thought of story ideas,” she says, “but they were always visual, as if they were movies. I never considered writing anything down.”

Then a story idea start gnawing away at her psyche, like some ideas do, thirteen years ago. That got her to sit down in front of a computer and start writing.

She hasn’t stopped since. She’s pumped out a number of mysteries and thrillers, like her Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, “all with a touch of romance and characters who sometimes tread ethical lines.” And true to her background, she often works in some artistic element into her stories, such as a character that is “an artisan, performer, a docent at a museum, or even a writer.”

She says she hasn’t cracked the national bestselling ranks, yet, although a couple of her titles have made it to Amazon’s Top 100.

In all those years of publishing, however, none of the books were her first, the original idea that got her veering off on this whole different career path. Until now. After thirteen years of numerous revisions and rewrites, Polly’s happy to finally share her book, Threads, with all of us. (And personally, I would find it really eerily interesting if Threads ended up being Polly’s first national bestseller.)
How Polly Got Started Self-Publishing

After going through three professional edits, Polly started querying agents about her first book. No bites. But she kept at it, writing a second and third book, sending out queries for those too. “I received a stack of rejections,” she recalls, “but I kept sending them out, kept getting rejections.”

She got herself an agent too. “We hit it off. She liked my work, answered my emails, and did her own round of querying editors. A couple came close to contracting my work, but no one did.”

What finally moved her to self-publish? Time. Although her prospects for getting traditionally published were still promising, the process was taking too long, and she realized she wasn’t getting any younger. By that time, she already had quite a number of books written and ready to go.

“My decision at that point to self-publish was a no-brainer. Using my art background, I created my own covers. I’ve now published six books under my name and three under a pen name.” And the best part? “I’m having the time of my life!”

Self-Publishing Tips and Observations

“I have one suggestion for anyone considering self-publishing a book: Get a good editor. Typos and grammar mistakes are the kiss of death for a writer.”
“It takes years to learn the craft of writing. Take courses, join critique groups, and learn what you think you know but don’t.”
“You have to be very thick-skinned if you want to be a writer.”
“The fact that there are so many ways to read a book now has more people shutting off their TVs and bringing them back to reading.”
“I believe electronic publishing has hurt the big publishers because they were late getting into the game. They still price their ebooks too high in most cases, but they’re catching on by offering older books by successful authors at a lower price. This is good for authors and for readers.”
“There will always be those readers who like the feel of a paper book in their hands, and that’s fine. Self-published authors are able to print their books at little or no cost. There’s enough talent and platforms to please everyone — writers and readers alike. It’s a win/win for the literary world.”
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Published on August 30, 2013 19:29

August 5, 2013

Blog post from March 10, 2013 - Debra Goldstein's "It's Not Always a Mystery."

Good Books Find Readers – Despite Breaking The Rules

Certain things make me grumpy. One is when I finish reading a book then pick up another in the same genre that sounds almost exact. The plot is different, marginally, but in many ways, you know what’s going to happen because there’s a recipe writers follow for that particular genre. I’m sure it’s based on the successes of many bestsellers, but after a while they all start to sound repetitive, at least to me. Is this the result of the demand of those who control what we read, namely agents, editors, and publishers?

Some genres have to adhere to the rules or they become something else. Romance, for instance, has to have a Happy-Ever-After ending because without it, the genre ceases to be a romance, by definition. Even a possibly-together-ever-after ending doesn’t cut it. Readers of that genre expect the Hero/heroine to ride off into the sunset and be together forever. Wedding bells are a bonus. Romantic suspense, which I usually write―all my books have a romance, kind of―is a little trickier, but nevertheless must adhere to the HEA ending. I was speaking to a multi-published romance author recently and mentioned I had just watched the movie, Casablanca, and declared it a romance. “No, no,” she said. It’s a love story but not a romance. She was right. There is no happy-ever-after in Casablanca. But I still think it’s one of the most romantic movies I’ve ever seen.

Then add Conflict to the formula. This is a must and where I have a problem. The writer must find a way to keep the H/h apart or in conflict. I don’t like when the conflict goes on too long, because it becomes forced and contrived. Gone with the Wind is neither a romance nor a love story. So what is it? I honestly don’t know, but Margaret Mitchell sure knew conflict, and readers ate up GWTW when it was written almost 75 years ago. They’re still buying and loving that classic because of the push/pull of the hero and heroine. Conflict.

There are two ways to write conflict in a romance or romantic-suspense: the H/h have an instant dislike to each other for whatever reason, or the story provides the conflict. The latter might put the H/h on opposite sides, but the story is creating the discord. In my not-quite- romantic-suspense book, Hooked, my heroine, an ex-call girl, is coerced by the handsome cop to work undercover at a brothel to find a murderer or go to prison for all the money she stashed in an overseas account and never paid taxes on. (I love characters who cross ethical lines.) She gave up the life, and now the cops are forcing her back into it. Needless to say, she’s not happy. The cop, on the other hand, feels guilty. To make matters more difficult for him, he’s attracted to her. She’s smart, beautiful, and royally pissed at him for doing his job. I won’t mention how it ends, other than to say it’s not a classic romance, but it is romantic. Thoroughly confused?

Mysteries create a similar problem for me. The murder should appear as close to the beginning of the book as possible to draw in the reader. But should it? Yes, for the most part. But there are stories where the author must set the scene or develop the characters so the reader is invested in them before something in the story can take place. I suppose those who read mysteries expect that, but I’m a character-driven reader, and I want to care about them from page one. My book Murder Déjà Vu is considered a romantic suspense/mystery. There are only two pages of conflict between the H/h. The first two pages. They like each other almost immediately. To make matters worse, the body doesn’t show up until page thirty-something. Did I break the rules? Yes, but I believe I needed to develop the story first in order to make sense of what happens later.

Agents and editors are always looking for the next best thing in genre fiction, but what they really want is a clone of another author’s recently successful novel. How many Harry Potter imitations hit the bookstands after the book became a phenomenon? What about the copycats of The daVinci Code published after that success? Why didn’t a publisher pick up Amanda Hocking before she self-published and sold millions of copies of her fantasy books? Or E.L. James, whose Fifty Shades of Gray books have generated shameless counterfeits and opened up erotica, or so called Mommy Porn, to the masses? Those writers made their genres become the next best thing. How many of those in publishing are kicking themselves for not grabbing these future blockbusters at the outset? Lack of imagination? Not having their fingers on the pulse of the reading public? Adhering to the rules? I think so.

Good books that don’t fit a specific genre are rejected all the time by agents and editors because they don’t know how to sell them. Where do they fit on library and bookstores shelves? Can’t place them, reject the book.

Ebooks might be the answer, and self-publishing a means to that answer. No shelves. Just a blurb that gives readers a description to decide if the book is something they find interesting. It is happening, and cross-genre books are coming more into their own. I, for one, am glad. New fiction recipes are being created every day. I think I’ll call them Originals.

A good book is a good book, and a good book will find readers. There are quite a few authors finding that out every day, and the reading public is much richer for it.
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Published on August 05, 2013 11:17 Tags: breaking-the-rules, debra-goldstein, it-s-not-always-a-mystery