Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 218

Thoughts on Distribution

My daughter got it into her head last week that she wanted an easel and a beret for Christmas. She sat on Santa's lap and told him on Saturday.

Actually, she told anyone who would listen to her.

On Wednesday, a flyer from a large national toy store arrived with our paper. It was advertising the type of easel she was asking for at 50% off.

So I was off to the toy store. :)

Unfortunately, when I got there, I discovered that there were no more easels in the store. In fact, they'd been out of those easels for weeks.

The clerk got on the store's computer. "Atlanta has 78 of them at the main store. Want to go to Atlanta?" We burst out laughing. (Southern joke here—Atlanta scares us all to death to drive in….most folks there drive 100 mph and weave in and out of traffic. Plus the fact, of course, that there are five million people in the Atlanta metro area.)

The clerk kept on looking. There were 100 easels in Orlando (not exactly a quick drive from Charlotte...more like 8 hours.) And they couldn't ship from another store without charging me for shipping…even if I picked it up at the store.

So I was a little irked. The clerk looked sympathetically at me. It would have been a guaranteed sale.

With books, distribution has always played a key role in a book's success. If it's available in a lot of stores, its chances of being bought are increased.

I've found that Penguin, in particular, has amazing distribution…and that it gets amazing placement on shelves. I've found my book on endcaps, on new release tables, and on special displays. That has little to do with me and a lot to do with them and their clout with bookstores.

Distribution has also always been a reason why self-published books have faced such huge odds. Unless the writer went through a company that distributed through Ingram or Baker and Taylor, then the book couldn't even get to the bookstores, unless the author went to each store with a load of books in his trunk. And then the author had the bookstore manager to make his case to.

Now, however, I feel like ebooks are starting to really impact the publishing landscape.

I think visibility is still going to be an issue—maybe getting your book on the landing page of Amazon or Barnes and Noble—but distribution will be as easy as a download.

To some degree, I think this is going to level the playing field a little bit. I'm sure that publishers are feeling ambivalent about it.

To me, though, it's all about the books. I just want people to continue reading…despite all the modern-day electronic distractions that compete with their attention and time.

I love the idea that, if we want to read a book, we have the capability of reading it immediately—without even having to hunt it down in a store. I love the ease of distribution.

But I'll miss my bookstores.

What are your thoughts on the ebook revolution? Mixed, like mine? Are you seeing the advantages more than you used to? Advantages like accessibility of books—and lack of physical distribution?

Choose Your Own Mystery—by Enid Wilson

Thanks Elizabeth for hosting me. I met Elizabeth at a Blog Book Tour Yahoo Group last year. That's when I first learned about the term cosy mystery from her blog. I read romance my whole life. My experience with the genre of mystery and murder comes mainly from television series such as Poirot, Miss Marple, Mid Summer Murder, CSI, Law and Order and so on.

There is sometimes too much blood and gore in modern crime series to my taste. I also tend to refrain from writing murder myself. But in my latest novel Fire and Cross, Pride and Prejudice with a mystery twist, I stumbled upon the murder plot rather unexpectedly.

At the beginning, the story was intended to be a short one of 3,000 words. I set up a what-if scenario: Mr. Darcy was engaged to a mysterious lady since his youth, with a beautiful garnet cross as the promised gift. Suddenly out of the blue, Miss Caroline Bingley came bearing the exquisite jewelry. Was Mr. Darcy really engaged to her?

The short story resolved the true identity of the mysterious lady very quickly. But when I posted it online, readers demanded to know more. How did Miss Bingley get hold the garnet cross? Who was helping her? Why did she do it?

So I wrote on a bit longer and published it again in serialized format. Readers had more and more questions and I weaved the plots thicker and thicker. With the disappearance of one of the main characters, the suspected murder attempt on another, the speculated link to a French spy, Fire and Cross grew to a novel of over 70,000 words. It has somewhat become a "chose your own" interactive mystery.

Below is an adapted excerpt from the novel. Charles Bingley was interviewing his sister's driver. I've hidden the name of the other possible culprit as "the other woman".

**********************************

"The Mistress met the other woman a few times."

"Where? And how many times?"

"Hmm, I think in Cusworth Hall, at the Friars Inn at Doncaster and at the Charing Cross Inn."

"Just those three times?"

Harold scratched his head. "As far as I can remember."

"Were there any other people with them, during their meetings?"

"Well, at Cusworth Hall Miss Bingley was visiting the Barrymore sisters. There were many other people there too. I'm not sure."

"And at Charing Cross? Was the Mistress acting strangely?"

"Hmm, I'm not allowed to say."

"Tell me at once!" Bingley said angrily. "This woman could be a danger to my family. I need to know."

"The Mistress dressed as a gentleman, then."

Bingley's lip tightened. "And did they meet up with anyone?"

"I think he was a Frenchman."

Bingley's face lost colour. "Who was he?"

"I heard the Mistress called him Pierre."

He sighed with relief. Caroline met up with the jeweller to make a duplicate of the garnet cross. "How did the Mistress get injured?"

"I don't know. We moved to a new townhouse a few days ago. I was sleeping. I heard some screams and then I followed Marie into the Mistress's room. The Mistress was unconscious, with blood on her head. We didn't know any doctor in Stoke Newington so we brought her back here, as fast as we could."

"And did you do any errands for Miss Bingley or the other woman yesterday?" Darcy asked, taking over the interrogation as Bingley seemed to have run out of questions. Darcy needed to establish if Harold was the one who had delivered the macaroons who poisoned one of the Miss Bennets.

"Errands? Hmm, I took them to the river."

"Did they say why they wished to go there?"

"They wouldn't say anything to me. I'm just a servant. The Mistress dressed as a ... as a gentleman, as usual, when she went out."

"But did you overhear their conversation?"

"I was not close enough to hear anything, but they did seem to be arguing …"

"About what?"

"… about you, Sir, Mr. Darcy."

"Tell me exactly what you did hear."

"I didn't hear clearly. Just something like she had not been helpful enough for the Mistress … um … to become your wife. And she was blaming the Mistress for losing her temper by getting drunk. She blamed her for ruining her own scheme."

"I am not sure I understand your meaning. Who blamed whom?"

"The other woman blamed the Mistress."

"Did the other woman say what the scheme was?"

"Hmm …" Harold thought for a moment. "I don't remember. But she said something in another language."

"What language?"

"I don't know no other language."

"French? Italian?"

"Could be anything. Ah, but the other woman greeted the Frenchman at Charing Cross in his language. She must have spoken French."

Darcy and Bingley gasped. The French spy possibility was looming again.

"Did you remember the French words the other woman said?"

Harold scratched his head. "I don't know, ruler ... erm … fur … I can't say it correctly."

*****************************

I once read that a successful mystery writer should map out every detail of his plot before he begins the writing. I failed on that account miserably as I added and changed subplots all the time, depending on readers' speculation.

However the writing experience was fun. I tried my best to surprise the readers. Some of them had guessed correctly who the culprit was at some stage but they did not suspect the true reason behind the murderous attempt. In the end, there was a death in the novel but without a murder.

Well, what do you think of cosy mystery over blood and gore crime? Share them here.

Thanks again Elizabeth for hosting me today. I'm delighted to give out an ebook of Fire and Cross in pdf format and a lovely souvenir to one lucky reader. Please head over to http://www.enidwilson.com and register for news and leave a comment here. Warning: The novel and my site contain explicit adult content.

Contest ends Saturday, December 18th and is open to worldwide readers.

Big hugs from hot and sunny Sydney, Enid.

Fire and Cross Details:
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Steamy D Publishing (December 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0980610575
ISBN-13: 978-0980610574
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
Available on Amazon

Thanks for coming by today, Enid and best wishes for your new release. Hope y'all will leave a question or comment for Enid and your thoughts on gorier thrillers vs. puzzle-type mysteries.

We're Not Falling Behind

Just a quick post today on keeping motivated.

During NaNo, I noticed on Twitter, Facebook, and writing blogs that there were writers who mentioned that they'd gotten frustrated with NaNo and stopped participating.

Many times, they mentioned that they felt like they'd fallen behind everyone else—and couldn't catch up.

Every day is a fresh start—not a chance to catch up. Just a chance to meet that day's writing goal.

If I get behind on my goal and tried to catch up on that day plus write my usual amount, I'm going to try putting off my writing time. Because it's double my usual writing goal.

Unless I'm really under a deadline crunch (not a personal deadline, but a publisher one), then I've made a rule for myself that I don't play catch-up.

I'm just picking up where I left off and meeting my goal for that day. Any other day is over and done with. Somehow, for me, it's easier to pick it all back up again after I've told myself that.

I can only imagine the writers who felt like they needed to write 2,000 words a day for NaNo—and then missed a couple of days. They were trying to write 6,000 words to catch up.

I know we're right up on the holidays and that's another time where it's easy to miss daily goals.

If you do, consider just forgetting about those lost days and, whenever you're able to get back to the writing, just pick up where you left off.

Do you ever get that "left-behind" feeling? How do you respond to it?

And please join me tomorrow for Enid Wilson's guest post, "Choose Your Own Mystery."

Boring Stuff That's Important—Backups and Password Changes

I'm hooking together two totally different things in my post today, but felt that they were connected because topics bore me to death. :)

Password Protection

I was watching the news Monday night and one of the big stories is, of course, the Assange case.  Specifically, the hackers that are bringing down websites that have cut off support to Assange or WikiLeaks.

What alarmed me most was this story (featured in the LA Times) that explains how hackers broke into the Gawker blog (a cluster of big-name blogsites, if you don't visit there) and, among other things, displayed a text file of 200,000 emails and passwords.  Many of the users had used the same passwords over and over again on different websites—so hackers also took over their Twitter accounts, etc.

I think we all know that we shouldn't reuse passwords.  We shouldn't have the same password for our Facebook account that we use for our online banking and for our blog.  This article from ZDNet explains the reasons why we shouldn't. 

ZDNet said that the main reason people reuse passwords is for convenience—they simply can't remember a variety of user names and passwords.  The post advised using a password manager and not even trying to commit these passwords to memory.    The post author mentioned free apps Password Safe and Splash ID (which is also accessible from smart phones.)

While we're doing boring things to protect ourselves, we should also make sure we're:

Backing Up Our Data

Our computers work well—until, of course, they don't.  I know I've lost text before, and I think it's practically inevitable if you write over a long period of time…unless you're super-vigilant, like we all should be.

I save my manuscripts to our computer server and also take the easy route and email myself the drafts.

But there are lots of different choices and some of them only really require thought in the setting-up phase of the backup, and less in the implementing of it.

This article ,on the Query Tracker blog, has a nice overview of the different ways to save our data:  from flash drives and external hard drives, to sync software, online hard drives (like the popular Dropbox, which is discussed in this post on the Slushbuster blog), and online document managers.

While we're at it, we should be backing up our blogs.  I've heard some real horror stories from bloggers I know about losing all the content on their blog.  Considering the problems I've had with Blogger, I've been trying to be good about backing up the blog.

Here is an article on the Guide to Literary Agents blog that discusses how to backup a Blogger, WordPress, and LiveJournal blog.

Have you ever been hacked or lost data?  How vigilant are you?  I know I'm trying to do better. :)

Writing Links Archive—an Experiment

There are things that I love about Blogger.

Mostly that it's free. :)

And now I've invested too much time into this blog to change over to anything else. So Blogger and I are stuck with each other.

It does like to crash. And I have a feeling I'm pushing it to its limits.

Clarissa Draper and others suggested that it would be good to have a separate page on the blog to serve as a compilation of writing links. Because Blogger can be a pain to search (sometimes you can only search so far back into the archives), I thought it was a great idea.

This way, you can pull up a page with all the writing links in one place and do a control F to search the topic you're interested in.

Since I knew there were a lot of links, I first saved them to a Word file in case Blogger went down.

The Word file had 269 pages of links on it.

Sure enough, Blogger crashed. :)

So I've divided the links onto two separate pages—Twitterific Archives #1 and Twitterific Archives #2. There are clickable tabs for them under the blog heading. I'm planning to add to the archives each week, after posting Twitterific. Obviously, this will take more pages, eventually. :)

The reason I'm doing this? It's because I've noticed that whenever I try to pull up writing article resources, it's a real hit or miss process.

Trying to find an article on POV, internal conflict, scene structure, dialogue? The highest ranking posts in Google for any given writing search is frequently an assignment that a college professor has posted (an assignment on the topic, not a resource), or a vague article by a content mill site that doesn't address the topic in any kind of depth. It's just not what writers are looking for.

Trying to find industry-related information in a searchable database? Unless you go to individual agent or editor blogs and search on each of their sites, you're going to get very spotty results on a Google search. Some of the biggest results from the search will probably be self-publishers.

There's got to be a better way of doing this, but I can't think of it right now. So the temporary home for the archives will be here on the blog.

If I had the time, I'd love to catalog this information by topic, etc—but I don't think that's going to happen in the foreseeable future. :) At least, though, I'm hoping this compilation will give a starting point for research for writers on writing and industry-related topics…and direct them to posts that have actually been written by writers, agents, and editors.

Because the experts on writing are writers—who are in the trenches, writing.

If y'all could let me know if there are any problems opening the pages, searching the content…or loading my blog? If there is, then I'm going to set up a separate blog for the writing links and just put up links to it that way. I definitely don't want to make the blog crash or make it hard to load for folks who have a slower connection.

Thanks, y'all!

Twitterific

Here are writing links that I've posted to Twitter for the past week.

If you're looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand corner of the blog (on the black header right above my blog name…next to the Blogger symbol…the small search window is next to the magnifying glass) and the roundup with your subject will come up. To narrow your search down on the page, do a CTRL+F, type your subject, and hit enter.

7 Tips for Finding the Best "Real-People" Sources (for freelancers and novelists needing primary sources for research): http://dld.bz/Am84

6 tips to keep your online writing persona fresh: http://dld.bz/A2Nj @ZiggyKinsella

Prioritizing Your To Do List – Pick the Most Efficient Target: http://dld.bz/Am8h

5 tips in responding to criticism: http://dld.bz/Am7U

Printing Your Book: Should You Go with Print-on-Demand? http://dld.bz/Am7N

Living With Nice Writer Syndrome: http://dld.bz/Am7v

5 Ways to Make Your Blog Stand Out From the Crowd: http://dld.bz/Am7u

Writing enigmatic characters: http://dld.bz/A2Nx

Genre sales report--Women's Lit (from a publishing insider): http://dld.bz/Am7q

How to Begin a Story: http://dld.bz/Am7j

The secret ingredient to a strong author platform: http://dld.bz/Am6K

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Peppermint Bark! The bark that's better when you bite! http://bit.ly/gDEb63 @CleoCoyle

Create a Social Media Optimized Email Signature: http://dld.bz/Ae2N

How to learn from critique partners: http://dld.bz/Ae2d

Writing mantras: http://dld.bz/AezC @bluemaven

Tips on writing for children (video): http://dld.bz/AezK @thecreativepenn

Nurturing the writing life: http://dld.bz/Aez5

26 Tips for Enhancing Your Facebook Page: http://dld.bz/AeyR

Writing authentic dialogue: http://dld.bz/Aey6

6 Questions NOT to ask a Writer: http://dld.bz/AexW

A Writing Lesson about Pettiness from Poe: http://dld.bz/Aex7

Don't be afraid to dream big: http://dld.bz/Aq5x

8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content: http://dld.bz/Aex4

Things Every Story Needs to do: http://dld.bz/Aexp

Interesting interview with Writer's Digest editor Jane Friedman on writers and social media: http://dld.bz/Aq44

Lazy writing: http://dld.bz/Aexg

Best Articles This Week for Writers 12/10/2010: http://dld.bz/Aq5m @4kidlit

Put Resilience In Your Writers Toolbox: http://dld.bz/AewR

Observations on sci-fi sales from a publishing insider: http://dld.bz/Aew9

The Uses of Repetition in Writing...and in Life: http://dld.bz/Aewx

Nailing Your Teen Voice: http://dld.bz/Aewf

The Ultimate Guide to Novel Queries: http://dld.bz/AevJ

Gift ideas for the ten major species of science fiction fan: http://dld.bz/AevE

9 Practical Ways to Start Attracting an Audience to Your New Social Media Account: http://dld.bz/Aev3

Tips For a Healthy 2011 Reading Diet for the Crime Fiction Lover: http://dld.bz/Am55 @mkinberg

Tips for creating inner conflict for your characters: http://dld.bz/Aevk

Getting Primal & Staying Simple: http://dld.bz/9Vh5

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Mystery Cookies: Getting in on the fun! http://bit.ly/gcCXbx @CleoCoyle

The 6 Degrees of Show vs. Tell, Rated by Quality: http://dld.bz/9Vhz @victoriamixon

For the stressed-out writer: The Minimalist's Guide to Inner Peace: http://dld.bz/9Vcp

Making the most of Amazon: http://dld.bz/97Re

Tips for handling harsh criticism: http://dld.bz/9UT7

On using your Bookscan for good, not evil: http://dld.bz/AgD7

The Case of the Misplaced Modifier: http://dld.bz/9UTb

Amazon Gives Authors Free Access to Nielsen BookScan's Sales Data: http://dld.bz/AgCS

5 Ways to Effectively Manage Your Online Reputation: http://dld.bz/9UST

An agent on common problems he sees in query letters that fail: http://dld.bz/9USF

Squeezing writing into an overcrowded day (10 minutes is better than nothing): http://dld.bz/AfN7

4 Scientific Tips that Help You Get More Blog Comments: http://dld.bz/9USb

Getting Google to notice your ebook: http://dld.bz/9URY

Write what you know—what you know you have to write: http://dld.bz/AeRz

As One Writer Sees It: Top Ten Reasons to Publish with a Small Press: http://dld.bz/9UR3 @KarenGowen

Authors on Twitter: The Danger of Being Too Clique-y: http://dld.bz/9URd

Scholastic Lists Children's Books Trends for 2010: http://dld.bz/9UQG

Blind spots--a writer's fatal flaw: http://dld.bz/9UQs

Lost your inspiration? An exhaustive link roundup to help you get your mojo back: http://dld.bz/9UPQ @4kidlit

Winter storm writing: http://dld.bz/9UPD

The best time of day to publish blog posts (and Facebook updates, etc.): http://dld.bz/97R3

Making the most of Amazon: http://dld.bz/97Re

Seasons in Fantasy: http://dld.bz/97QZ

Monstrous Post on Monsters: http://dld.bz/97Qm

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Avery Aames's Parmesan Gelato http://bit.ly/h2A9RQ @CleoCoyle

Genre sales--Mystery/thriller: http://dld.bz/97Qc

Sequence Outlining: http://dld.bz/97PQ

13 Steps for Establishing a Popular Writing Blog: http://dld.bz/97PF

Writers on Writing: On Writing by Stephen King: http://dld.bz/97P9

2010 Writing Goals: Your Race to the Finish Line: http://dld.bz/97Pr

How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method: http://dld.bz/97NW @bubblecow

Showing off the best material in your blog archive: http://dld.bz/97NM

Ten Things Writers Say, and What They Really Mean: http://dld.bz/97Nu

Don't show your writing to your mother or your lover: http://dld.bz/9WdX

In Praise of Long Books: http://dld.bz/97Nq

Playing to your writing strengths: http://dld.bz/9VEh @jammer0501

Amazon Reviews Hijacked by Paid Hacks? http://dld.bz/97MW

Sorry, Your Services are no Longer Required: Eliminating Characters-- http://dld.bz/9UNc

Thriller writing--the dos, don'ts, and don't-even-think-about-its: http://dld.bz/97MC

Ritual, Routine & Habit in Storytelling: http://dld.bz/9qCs

7 Ways to Get Your Book Discovered on Amazon: http://dld.bz/9qCa

Four Professional Editing Techniques that Boost Blog Post Value: http://dld.bz/9qBW

Tips for writing strong characters: http://dld.bz/9qBK

Plot development basics: http://dld.bz/9qBt

7 Ways to Help Writers Survive the Holidays: http://dld.bz/9qAJ

The 15 most-read Poetry Foundation & Poetry magazine articles of 2010: http://dld.bz/9pWB

Reflections On Two Years Of Blogging: Lessons Learned: http://dld.bz/9pW2 @thecreativepenn

Why You Should Write Without Excuses: http://dld.bz/9pVV

What we talk about [to ourselves] when we talk about writing: http://dld.bz/9pWY

10 graphic novels that make great gifts (for people who don't read comics): http://dld.bz/9pWZ

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Tortellini Pasta Salad http://bit.ly/gdFzgh @CleoCoyle

Creating a Book Readers Can't Put Down: http://dld.bz/9pVu

Grabbing your reader in the first 10 minutes: http://dld.bz/9pVk

Tips for crafting strong sentences: http://dld.bz/9pUR

Your Writing Future–Are You Investing or Gambling? http://dld.bz/9pU4

Anatomy of a Successful Press Release for Book Promotion: http://dld.bz/9pTZ

3 Signs Your Story's Characters Are Too Perfect: http://dld.bz/9pTx

6 ways to profit from writing a nonfiction book: http://dld.bz/9pTs

What agents don't like about some writers' blogs: http://dld.bz/9pTf

10 Reasons Roundup Posts Rock: http://dld.bz/9pTc

6 Ways to Persevere: http://dld.bz/9pSZ

Tips on plotting: http://dld.bz/9pSV

A publishing insider's insights on the fantasy genre's sales and outlook: http://dld.bz/9pSx

Get Your Eagle Eye On: 10 Tips for Proofreading Your Own Work: http://dld.bz/9mTe

5 ways to market copywriting services: http://dld.bz/9mSU

The reasons behind literary reviews http://dld.bz/9mS9 and why reviews are worth expressing: http://dld.bz/9mSD

The new cover for my June 2011 release, "Finger Lickin' Dead!" :) : http://dld.bz/9Gaf

Democratization or Disinformation? A warning about print-on-demand publishing services: http://dld.bz/9mSt @victoriastrauss

How To Create A Facebook Fan Page For Your Book Or Author Brand (video): http://dld.bz/9mRZ

Semicolons and commas: http://dld.bz/9mRP

5 great blog posts for writers: http://dld.bz/9mRF

Tips for freelancers on keeping their writing fresh: http://dld.bz/9mRD

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Crime Writers' Cookie Swap and Congrats to Krista Davis! http://bit.ly/ebPk8I @CleoCoyle

The quixotic pull of your future novel: http://dld.bz/8Y7x

Inspiring Readers with Ordinary Characters: http://dld.bz/8Y7f

Query trends: http://dld.bz/8Y6V

What one writer has learned from her manuscript being on submission: http://dld.bz/8Y6B

4 Articles on Self-Publishing: http://dld.bz/8Y6h

Formatting Your Manuscript: http://dld.bz/8Y6e

Publishing for the Uninhibited: Adventures in Kindle Land: http://dld.bz/8Y6d

Keeping track of our story: http://dld.bz/8Y5M

Why it's good to write, even when you're writing poorly: http://dld.bz/998N

5 Tips for Productively Editing Your Writing (Huff Post): http://dld.bz/8Y52

Excel For Authors – Agent and Editor Research: http://dld.bz/8Y5u

5 Things Writers Should Do BEFORE Release Day: http://dld.bz/8Y5q

Putting Feelers Out Before Leaving Your Agent: http://dld.bz/8Y5e

4 Ways to Find a Critique Partner: http://dld.bz/8Y5b

Feeding Your Spirit to feed Your Writing: http://dld.bz/8Y4y

Suffering from Writers Block? 7 Tips to Get You Back on Track: http://dld.bz/8Y3U

A tip for making your characters stronger: http://dld.bz/8Y3D

An industry insider's thoughts on the mash-up genre: http://dld.bz/8NXY

Writing lessons from "The Bachelor": http://dld.bz/8NXx

Bigger Isn't Always Better: Independent Publishing in the Netherlands: http://dld.bz/8NqA

Awesomely Effective Email Communication: http://dld.bz/8Nqv

Getting your manuscript at a discount: http://dld.bz/8NpV

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Chocolate Insanity http://bit.ly/enO8da @CleoCoyle

Types of book and chapter openings: http://dld.bz/8NpF

Providing Emotional Clarity: http://dld.bz/8NpA

Has Project Gutenberg Failed Copyright Law? http://dld.bz/8Np5

The Importance Of Tracking World Rights: http://dld.bz/8Npt

Royalty Rates: http://dld.bz/8Nne

Adding a Facebook "Like" Button to Blog Posts: http://dld.bz/8Nmf

Turning Expectation into Anticipation: http://dld.bz/8Nkq @camillelaguire

Mystery writer's guide to forensic science--Poisons, VIII: http://dld.bz/8NjP @clarissadraper

7 tips for author websites: http://dld.bz/8Fp6

Achieving a state of flow: http://dld.bz/8Fpg

Tips from an Editor (Now an Agent) Who Knows: http://dld.bz/8Fn7

The term 'high concept': http://dld.bz/8D24

Writing without electricity: http://dld.bz/8D2f

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Emily's Cake http://bit.ly/fBMMGB @CleoCoyle

Accentuate the Positive: Hope and the Aspiring Writer: http://dld.bz/8Dvg

Great characters are like peanut butter: http://dld.bz/8Du9

10 Checkpoints for a Scene: http://dld.bz/8Duw

The Most Dramatic Publishing Event of 2010? Easy, the Introduction of Agency Pricing for E-books: http://dld.bz/8Dub

Mistakes to avoid when querying agents: http://dld.bz/8DtR

2 sides of marketing: what makes people buy your books: http://dld.bz/8DtJ

The use of cliffhangers in crime fiction: http://dld.bz/9qvT @mkinberg

Enigmatic Characters

As writers, we spend a lot of time getting to know our characters and developing them. We learn how they'd react in different situations. We know people who remind us of our characters. We want to get to the point where we know instinctively how the character would respond to conflict.

But how much of this information do we actually need to share with our readers?

At the start of every school year, the parents at my children's schools are requested to send a letter to their child's teacher, telling about their child in a way that would help the teacher get some insights into working with him.

My middle school son's letter is in a Word file. I sent almost exactly the same letter to his 8th grade teachers that I sent to his first grade teacher. I tweak it a little bit each year and send it off. He's industrious, cheerful, smart, funny, popular. He tells me everything that's on his mind (I don't know how much longer that could last, since he's now a teen.) Basically, he's an open book.

I also have a letter for my daughter's teacher in Word. Every year I open it up and squint at it—looking for ideas from the previous year. I spend a lot of time on my daughter's letter each year, but most of the time I end up with, "She's a mass of contradictions. She's artistic and complex. I love her, but don't understand what makes her tick. If you get any insights, please let me know!"

I think we need open book characters, such as my son. But then I think that enigmatic characters—inscrutable characters that the reader can't quite figure out—can be entertaining, too. As a reader, I've enjoyed tons of characters who weren't easily figured-out. Many times, they kept their thoughts to themselves.

I think that there still would need to be some consistency there, so the character wouldn't be too frustrating for the reader. When I read inconsistent characters, I just wonder if the author even had a handle on the character.

Clues along the way are important. Clues to what motivates them, what makes particular conflicts difficult for them. I think the readers need to feel like they're making progress in learning what makes them tick. It's nice if there are small insights (rewards) for the reader to discover all along the way.

I think the majority of enigmatic characters that I've read have been secondary, or supporting characters. Writing an enigmatic protagonist would be a special challenge.

In your writing, do you have any characters who are difficult to figure out or understand? As a reader, do you enjoy reading enigmatic characters?

Querying

I've had a couple of writers email me lately, looking for help with crafting a query letter.

I'm always hesitant about offering help, myself, in that area. My agent queries never did get off the ground, although my query for Pretty is as Pretty Dies netted me at least one publisher. :)

To me, it's just sort of a chore—eliminate unnecessary words, fit in the word count and genre, give an interesting summation of your plot, and tell a little about yourself. The idea is really just to tempt the agent or editor into asking for more.

I have, though, come across some really useful information lately that I think would help writers who are looking for some querying help.

There have been blog posts recently, stating that the best time of year to query an agent is January. So what better time to brush up your querying skills?

At the top of my list is a series Writer's Digest editor Jane Friedman is running— "The Ultimate Guide to Novel Queries"": http://tinyurl.com/3ye2u3m

An agent with querying tips: http://dld.bz/8vQN

9 tips for querying: http://dld.bz/8vPW

An agent on what *not* to do during the query process: http://dld.bz/7xUm

Your Query Submission Checklist: http://dld.bz/7xTU

An Agent on Addressing Your Query: http://dld.bz/6tzv

Smart Querying for Unagented Writers: http://dld.bz/6mah

An agent on seeing the words "utterly original" in a query: http://dld.bz/3BK8

This Query Sucks (or how to fail and still succeed): http://dld.bz/zzaj

Elements of a query letter: http://dld.bz/yDEu

Good luck with your querying!

Squeezing Writing In

Twice in the last week, I've read posts by parents who want to write more, but have real obstacles in their way.

These lovable obstacles are their children. :)

As my children have gotten older, my approach has definitely changed.

And I want to say that squeezing writing in isn't for everyone. It's not particularly enjoyable to write that way. But it was something I felt really driven to do (before I was published), and then deadlines made it necessary after I was published.

For what it's worth, here's how I do it…and my children don't seem too warped (yet) by my approach. And, yes, I was at home. Moms who work out of the home will have to scrunch their time in even more. Some ideas: write during your commute (using a voice recorder if you drive or use a pocket notebook if you're on public transportation), write more on weekends, write really early in the morning, write late at night.

We're talking about 10-30 minutes a day. You can write a book in just minutes a day—I promise. I've done it. It helps if you know what you're going to write that day.

(This plan was built when my daughter was a baby—I didn't write regularly when my son was that little.)

When I had an infant: Naptime was writing time. Was this relaxing for me? Probably not. :) Maybe I should have been napping or vacuuming or something, instead. But I was able to write then.

When I had a cruiser/young toddler: I put board books within her reach so that after naptime, she could "read" to herself for an extra 10 minutes. Yes, she ate the books half the time and threw them against the wall the other half—but I had those extra 10 minutes. So then I could do housework/rest and write.

When I had an older toddler: Well…there was Teletubbies or Sesame Street. I know what the American Academy of Pediatrics says about little ones and TV. But I haven't yet noticed any permanent damage from the 20-25 minutes that she watched TV while I wrote.

When I had a preschooler: Some of those preschool hours were spent writing. Sometimes I'd do all my writing on preschool days, keeping the non-preschool days writing-free (and all about her.)

I also made little deals with my preschooler. If she would give me 25 minutes with no interruptions, then I'd play Old Maid with her (or any game of her choice.) I'd set a timer and I'd keep my promise. I told her that she only needed to interrupt me if it was an emergency (and we talked a long time about what constituted an emergency. Spilled yogurt? Not an emergency. Feeling sick? That's an emergency.)

School-age: This is where I am now. :) I plan my writing the day before (not an outline, but some bullet points as far as what I plan on writing.) I have notebooks in my car for dead time in the carpool line.

I'm flexible with my writing—but I'll plan on writing early to make sure I get it in. Because sometimes life gets in the way of writing—I'll get a bunch of phone calls or I need to get promo done, or the plumber needs to make a house call, or one of the children ends up sick. Instead of writing off the writing day, I'll flip my schedule around so that I'm writing at night, instead.

A special note about the after-school hours and summer vacation: Playdates. Lots of playdates. If each child has a friend over, everything goes wonderfully. And I'm happy to take the children and their friends on activities. I've taken kids skating, bowling, swimming, and to free summer movies with my notebook and pencil and laptop in hand. Usually it goes really well and no one gets bored.

One thing that I've tried to do…and haven't always accomplished, but have tried really hard to do…is to be fully present with my children when I'm with them and it's not my writing time. I don't think about my story when they're talking to me. I don't check my emails or look at my Facebook or Twitter if they're telling me about something that happened at school, etc.

And it's always my plan to get everything done while they're at school. It doesn't always work out that way, but it's my goal.

As I mentioned, if you're really missing writing and feel like you really need to write—this plan works well. If it makes you feel stressed out (and I had my days) or if squeezing in writing makes you dislike the writing, then don't do it. Children get older and time frees up!

But if you're frustrated by not being able to write or can't see how to fit it in…give it a go.

Oh, and one more point—please set attainable goals. Maybe start out with 10 minutes of writing/brainstorming time each day. Then move up to a page a day (double-spaced). My personal writing goal was a page a day for a long time—a target I knew I could hit if I wrote a few minutes every morning and a few more minutes each evening.

What are your time management challenges and your tips for how to work around them?

Thoughts on Research

Through the years, we've had a strange sort of holiday tradition where I put up a Christmas wreath on the door and Christmas candles in the windows and call the outdoor part of the decorating done—and the children ask for a Light Show Spectacular.

This has gone on for the last 10 years.  Each year, I've said, "We're really not the outdoor lights sort of people."  And each year the kids have grumbled under their breath.

This year, my 13 year old son called me on it.  "What does that mean?" he asked.  " 'Not the outdoor lights sort of people.' ?"

It means that we're the sort of people whose blood pressure goes up with tangled lights cords.  It means that we're the sort of people who don't have enough extension cords.  It means we're the sort of people who worry about fire hazards.

But…this year I felt pressured into giving it a go.  And it was exactly the sort of disorganized headache I thought it would be:

I went to Walmart (a headache in itself)

I got ten boxes of lights

That wasn't enough lights.

My son and I put net lights on the bushes. They tangled.

When we plugged them in, we' found I'd gotten 2 different colors.

We discovered that we could only light the bushes on one side of the house.  I ran out and bought an extension cord at a hardware store.

I went back to Walmart and they were out of the kind of light we had most of.

I drove 30 minutes to another store. They were also out.

I decided to light only the bushes directly in front of the house.

I discovered that several of my usual decorating standbys, the Christmas candles, were broken.

The store I drove to didn't have any left.

The second store I drove to had a different kind than the one I had.

I called the third store, across town.  They said they had them and I drove there…but the clerk had misunderstood. They didn't have them.

I drove 35 minutes to another store that said they had them. They didn't have enough of them—and they were way too expensive.  I bought them anyway.

They actually weren't the right kind.

You can see why I told my children that we weren't lights people.

For me, research is like lights.  I go to many different places, looking for a very specific, particular thing.  Sometimes I can't find it, sometimes I think I've found the right information, but it's actually not what I need.

And—it's time-consuming.  And frustrating.

This is why, if at all possible, I put off research until after I've written my story.  I'll put notes to myself in my margins in Word's Track Changes that I need procedural information, etc.  Then I'll rewrite those parts in the second draft.

I also have tried to find as many primary sources as possible.  Sort of like one-stop shopping.   If I can call and ask a source directly, then just verify that information, it does save a lot of time.

I've got a new project to work on and it requires a good deal of research.  I think, though, if I research while I'm writing the mystery, then I'm going to get that crazy, stressed-out, time-consumed  feeling that I got from driving all over town looking for Christmas lights. 

I know, though, that a lot of writers have made peace with research and like to research while working on their book—and some genres, like the historical genre, it would be hard to piece together even a basic plot without research.

What's your research technique?  Save it until the first draft is over?  Research as you go?  If you do research as you go, how do you quickly find the information you need—without getting distracted or going off on tangents?