E.D. Martin's Blog, page 26

Weekend Writing Warrior 1/24/16 #8Sunday

Outside a house in a rural southern Indian village

For January’s Weekend Writing Warrior posts, it’ll be random excerpts from random stories.

Today’s is from “Weekend,” another story based on my trip to India a couple years ago. We visited a village where everyone seemed to be like Akoy, even the mayor.

* * * * * * * * * *

Akoy steals a glance at the clock on his office wall: 4:08. The meeting with his client was supposed to be over by now; he was supposed to be on the road by now, but his client was running late – “Traffic,” his excuse every week. Akoy always wants to ask him why he doesn’t leave earlier if he knows he’ll always have this problem, but he’s just a junior clerk and his client is a Very Important Person who wouldn’t listen to him.

Finally the client stands, and Akoy hurries to his feet too. He reaches over, shakes the client’s hand, and ushers him into the lobby, and then after typing up a few quick notes, Akoy shuts off his computer and hurries out to his motorbike.

The open highway stretches before him, beckoning him home. The wind caresses his skin, bringing him scents of home, and the cows along the road low greetings to him, reminding him where he belongs.

Home.

* * * * * * * * * *

Post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

If you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

And then sign up for my mailing list to get a FREE ebook short story, “A Place to Die,” about a guy in hospice who’s in denial about his illness.

Media Monday: Old people

The book: Nag Nag Nag: Megan and Emmett Volume I by Kathy Steinemann

The music: “Shoot Me” by Nik Kershaw

I read a lot of heavy stuff – literary classics, dark thrillers, textbooks – and so it’s nice to come across light, funny stuff. And that’s exactly what Kathy Steinemann’s book, Nag Nag Nag is.

It’s a collection of stories about a couple, Megan and Emmett, who’ve been married over 40 years. They know how to irritate each other, and frequently have fun doing so. But at the same time, they’re still in love, which is evident not only by their bursts of passion, but in the way they irritate each other – it’s loving and playful, not spiteful at all.

Throughout the book, readers discover humor in the mundane, from a camping trip with their grandkids, to a burglary of their house (foiled by their cat), to a simple trip to the grocery store. This humor is sweet, often crude, but realistic and refreshing.

The music to go with the readings is a fun song by British 80’s pop sensation Nik Kershaw. He’s traded in his teen crush status for middle age, and his songs reflect that. “Shoot Me” is a catchy song about his thoughts on aging. Megan and Emmett aren’t quite to this point yet, but I can clearly envision them having a conversation that follows a similar vein.

Weekend Writing Warrior 1/17/16 #8Sunday

Hut at the commune farm – perfect for napping in

For January’s Weekend Writing Warrior posts, it’ll be random excerpts from random stories.

Today’s is from “Farm,” set at a commune place I visited on a trip to India a couple years ago.

* * * * * * * * * *

Finally they come to a clearing surrounded by six willowy pines surrounding a lone one in the center where the manager gestures for them to sit on the benches scattered around or on the pine needles blanketing the floor.

Once everyone is settled, he nods and says, “Close your eyes, listen to the forest, breathe in the scents on the wind – become one with yourself.”

Seated cross-legged beneath one of the pines, Sonia does as instructed. She’s greeted by a warm wind, swishing branches, freshly-turned dirt, and an overwhelming desire to take a nap. She lies back in the bed of needles, her scarf as a pillow, and closes her eyes.

She opens them a moment later to find she’s still in the clearing but no one else is. Startled that she’s lost her group, that she’s overslept, she tenses, about to jump up and leave.

A voice stops her and says, “Stay.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

If you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

And then sign up for my mailing list to get a FREE ebook short story, “A Place to Die,” about a guy in hospice who’s in denial about his illness.

Weekend Writing Warrior 1/10/16 #8Sunday

Rangoli at a Tamil Nadu ashram

Ever have one of those times where you plan to work on a project, but then you find yourself working on something else instead? Yeah, that’s me right now. In light of that, I think January’s Weekend Writing Warrior posts will be random excerpts from random stories, at least until my brain is able to focus on one project for an extended length of time.

Today’s excerpt comes from “Dust,” a short story I wrote while taking a class in southern India a couple years ago.

* * * * * * * * * *

Dust is everywhere; it blankets the streets and sidewalks, stray dogs and trash. Dust is disturbed by passing buses and motorbikes and rickshaws, mixing with their exhaust to form a perpetual haze throughout the city. Dust, along with the odors of garbage and spices and a million people crammed together, is inescapable.

Gheeta, a creature of the streets, has been surrounded by dust for so long she no longer notices it as it cakes her bare feet, decorates her sari and hair, and flavors whatever food she is lucky enough to obtain.

She hobbles along a street near a bazaar that attracts both tourists and locals. A tumor on the bridge of her nose has rendered her nearly blind, with just enough peripheral vision to avoid vehicles when she crosses the street. They wouldn’t intentionally hit her – too much bad karma – but to be safe she follows groups when she can, groups like the one approaching now, made up of Westerners. Perhaps they’ll be generous and give her many rupees, not knowing their value in her country.

“Feed Gheeta,” she keens as she approaches them, pantomiming scooping food to her mouth.

They continue walking.

* * * * * * * * * *

Post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

If you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

And then sign up for my mailing list to get a FREE ebook short story, “A Place to Die,” about a guy in hospice who’s in denial about his illness.

Resolutions: 2015 review and 2016 goals

Every year I set goals for myself and periodically evaluate them. Here are 2015’s:

1. Write and submit at least one new short story every month, with the goal being at least 10 publications this year.

Did not happen. At all. I didn’t complete a single short story all year, let alone submit one.

2. Write the rough drafts for a seven-part novella series, and maybe even publish one or two of them.

Book one is half done. The rest are in various stages of plotting – but the overall series is progressing.

3. Have at least one novel published, with another one polished enough to publish in 2016.

Didn’t happen. My next one, A Handful of Wishes, needs serious revisions.

4. Publish at least two long short stories (10k+) or short story collections.

Almost. I have one more pass of edits before I hit publish on “A Place to Die.”

5. Improve my marketing strategy in order to increase my fanbase (as measured by newsletter subscription, Facebook page likes, and social media interactions like comments, likes, and favorites), sales, and reviews.

Partly. I doubled my newsletter subscriptions. I also did a lot more promos this year (Facebook and book list ads, author events), but it didn’t have much of an effect on sales. And social media interactions didn’t really increase either. But I did get a bunch of reviews.

6. Read 100 books.

I read 62.

7. Get healthier: cut out my daily breakfast Pepsi (not sure how the lack of caffeine will work when I generally only get 4-5 hours of sleep) and eventually almost all soda; go out to eat once a week or less; eat more fruits and veggies and less processed, sodium-drenched foods; use the gym membership I’m paying for; ride my bike to work when it warms up; etc.

I did this for awhile, but then backslid when I started my internship this fall. However, I lost 15 lbs this year and haven’t gained it back yet, so that’s something.

Overall, I sucked when it came to writing new stuff in 2015.

Part of the problem is that I have horrible time management skills. I tend to procrastinate then cram at the last minute (studying, writing papers, reading journal articles, etc). But the thing is, it works. For the past couple years of grad school, focusing on the immediate next project, rather than planning ahead, resulted in A’s. I have very little incentive to not procrastinate.

Also, I had a lot of free time this fall. Yeah, I was taking 3 classes and doing an internship and teaching a class, but compare that to 5 classes while working full time. I’ve found that I work better under pressure; when I have free time, I tend to waste it on activities that help me unwind (for example, funny cat videos) but don’t do anything for meeting my goals.

So for 2015, knowing that, I’m going to focus on using my time more wisely. Here are my goals:

Write at least 30 minutes a day, which I’ll track through 750words.com.
Finish something every month, whether it’s a short story, series novella, novel, or whatever.
Publish at least 4 of those finished things – ideally, something every 3 months.
Continue the focus on increased marketing, same as last year: increase my fanbase (as measured by newsletter subscription, Facebook page likes, and social media interactions like comments, likes, and favorites), sales, and reviews.
Read 100 books.
Continue the focus on being healthy – riding my bike more, cutting back on the meals out, eating a more balanced diet, etc.

What are your goals for 2016?

2015 book roundup

One of my goals for 2015 was to read 100 books. I read 62 – more than last year’s 56, but still not there. My son is getting into longer chapter books, so I included some of those this year (I didn’t last year). I didn’t include textbooks or journals that I read for school.

This list only includes books I finished. There are dozens that I started but didn’t finish (often not even the first chapter) either because they were poorly edited or didn’t hold my interest.

Here’s a breakdown of what I read:

2 (3%) were either kids or young adult; the rest were adult.
3 (5%) were nonfiction and the rest were fiction.
14 (23%) were single short stories (yes, I realize it’s cheating to include those), and 10 (16%) were short story anthologies.
I know the authors of 29 (47%) of the books; 7 of the authors (9 of the books or 15%) of them are also with my publisher, Evolved.
6 (10%) were in a series. I tend to binge read those. A couple more were also in a series but the other books haven’t been released yet (or hadn’t been after I read the first one and I didn’t track the next ones down later).
5 (8%) came from Buzzfeed’s list of 32 Books That Will Actually Change Your Life, which I started in 2014. These were some of the best books I read this year.
15 (24%) were books I’d downloaded at some point (probably free) and found on my Kindle; another 13 (21%) were books that randomly caught my eye, something I’d wanted to read for awhile, or were based on a movie I watched. All the rest (55%) were either recommended or written by someone I know or follow online.

Best books I read in 2015:

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pamela Smith Hill – I practically have the Little House books memorized, so this was a must-read.
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates – Yates is one of my favorite short story authors, and this collection contains some of his best works.
The Viper and the Urchin by Celine Jeanjean – a great steampunkish adventure involving a squeamish assassin and a mouthy street kid.
Those Buzzfeed books, especially The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk.

If you challenged yourself to read a set number of books in 2015, how did you end up doing?  What were your favorites?  Anything you particularly disliked?

Weekend Writing Warrior 1/3/16 #8Sunday

It’s a new year, so let’s go with a new story! This month I’ll be pulling from a novella I started a while back and plan to finish next, “Dark Paradise.”

Celly’s always been the good girl, but there’s something about bad boy Duke that she can’t get enough of. He wants to be the guy she thinks he is, but his past isn’t something he can easily walk away from.

This is the very beginning of the story.

* * * * * * * * * *

Celly ignores the knock on the front door, but her little brother Tommy does not.

“Where’s Celly?” she hears Mona ask, even though her friend knows exactly where she is, where she always is.

She doesn’t hear his response because Mona is pushing into her tiny bedroom, just a twin mattress on the floor and a desk she dragged home from in front of a neighbor’s house and some crates full of clothes. Her whole life could fit into the backseat of a car, and she sometimes dreams of that, of throwing all her stuff back there and taking off, to New York or L.A. or Mars, but she doesn’t have a car.

“Why aren’t you ready yet?” Mona asks.

Celly is lying facedown on her bed, and she doesn’t lift her head as she says, “I’m not going.”

“Of course you are,” Mona says as she tugs on her arm, trying to flip her onto her back or maybe off the bed. “Everyone goes to the fair.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

Thoughts on author events

At the Iowa City Book Festival with EP author Timothy C Ward

I’ve done three author events in the past couple months: The Iowa City Book Festival in October, a local author book fair at a nearby mall Thanksgiving weekend, and a reading/book fair event at a local library the first weekend in December. Here are my thoughts:

The success of these events depends entirely on how you define success. I didn’t sell many books, but I did a lot of networking. I represented my publisher, Evolved Publishing, for the first event, and we gave out a lot of information about them to people either looking to get published or not satisfied with their current publishing situation. For the other two events, I chatted with a bunch of local authors.
Being prepared matters… For each event, I had a ton of books (both mine and other EP authors’), bookmarks, and business cards. For the publisher events, I also made signs with cover images by genre, so readers could more easily find what they were interested in. Conversely, I had a couple people wanting a print copy of The Futility of Loving a Soldier at the mall event, but I didn’t have any yet (poor planning on my part). Fortunately they came back for the library event, but that’s not something I can always count on.

Posing with my biggest fan – my grandma

…but not as much as human interaction… Some of the tables at the events were pretty empty and the books weren’t great, but the authors chatted up passersby to make some sales. As an introvert, I’m not very good at this, but it seemed effective.
…or location. The IC festival was outdoors and COLD. We were tucked away, off the main pedestrian walkway, and a lot of people didn’t know we were there. Same with the mall book fair; although indoors, we still didn’t have a great location – nowhere near the mall’s bookstore, for example. Like with all sales, if your customers don’t know you’re there, you won’t sell anything.
Plants make you feel better. After sitting ignored or not having any sales, it’s always nice to see a familiar face. My grandma, for example, comes to all my local events, and someone from my in-person writing group usually stops by too. Having people you know drop by (and hopefully buy a book) will make the event more bearable.

Overall, even using a fluid definition of success, the events I did weren’t successful. I came out ahead financially (barely), but it was still a sizable chunk of time to do each event. I may still do events next year, but it’ll be ones that are close and don’t require a fee. When your time is limited, even exposure and networking can be expensive.

What are your thoughts on multi-author events? As a reader, do you attend? As a writer, are they worth your time?

At a local library event

Weekend Writing Warrior 12/27/15 #8Sunday

This month’s excerpts are from my short story, “A Place to Die.”

When Libby Starr spends a summer helping out at her mom’s bed and breakfast-turned-hospice, she doesn’t expect to spend her time babysitting someone like Mr. Calloway – a young, vibrant financial planner with a mischievous streak. But Mr. Calloway is sicker than he seems, something neither he nor his family want to acknowledge. Can Libby help him accept his fate without losing her heart?

Libby and Mr. Calloway were stargazing while waiting for the Fourth of July fireworks to start, when he had a seizure. Although he objected at first, he agreed to go to a nearby hospital to get checked out.

* * * * * * * * * *

Mom came over and stood next to me as an EMT shut the ambulance doors, and together we watched it drive away, then she wrapped an arm around my waist as I laid my head on her shoulder.

“Will he be okay?” I asked.

She was silent before answering in a low voice, “I don’t know.”

“Why do you do this?”

“Do what?”

“They’re dying – every time you see someone here, it could be their last minutes alive. Why do you open our home up like this?”

“After what your dad went through, how can I not do this?”

* * * * * * * * * *

Get the rest of my story FREE when you sign up for my mailing list. Then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

Weekend Writing Warrior 12/20/15 #8Sunday

This month’s excerpts are from my short story, “A Place to Die.”

When Libby Starr spends a summer helping out at her mom’s bed and breakfast-turned-hospice, she doesn’t expect to spend her time babysitting someone like Mr. Calloway – a young, vibrant financial planner with a mischievous streak. But Mr. Calloway is sicker than he seems, something neither he nor his family want to acknowledge. Can Libby help him accept his fate without losing her heart?

This week picks up immediately after last week. Libby and Mr. Calloway are stargazing while waiting for the Fourth of July fireworks to start.

* * * * * * * * * *

He squeezed my hand as the first fireworks exploded above us, and as another shot up, then another, his grip on my hand tightened until he was crushing my fingers.

“Ow, let go,” I told him as I tried to pull my hand back.

He didn’t respond.

“I mean it, Mr. Calloway; you’re hurting my hand.”

Still no response.

I looked at him, but he was no longer looking back at me – his eyes were rolled back in his head, his mouth slack.

“I need a nurse!” I screamed, startling the guests around us.

Was this what death looked like for him?

* * * * * * * * * *

Get the rest of my story FREE when you sign up for my mailing list. Then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.