Ann Benjamin's Blog, page 281

First lines of my novels…

Inspired by this post on Gawker.

Honestly, how could you not keep reading?

My personal favorite is one from Stephen King:��“The man in Black fled across the Desert, and the Gunslinger followed.” ��It’s the start to a brilliant journey.

A selection from my works:

After its inception, the penny, along with a number of others is transported in a roll of fifty coins to a bank in Kansas City, Kansas. ��– Lucky Penny, WIP

���And who exactly are you supposed to be, the Queen of England?��� The tone, a perfectly patrician blend of haughty, snooty and distantly respectful wasn’t at all dissimilar to what I���d heard in the past few weeks. – The Queen of England, WIP

I am the person Time forgot. – untitled Fates project, WIP

Some were born lucky and knew the love of both parents. – untitled Fates sequel, WIP

What about you, dear reader? ��What are your favorite opening lines?

Thoughts on quitting the real world.

“Today, I am essentially ���sponsored��� by this very loving man who shows up at the end of the day, asks me how the writing went, pours me a glass of wine, then takes me out to eat. He accompanies me when I travel 500 miles to do a 75-minute reading, manages my finances, and never complains that my dark, heady little books have resulted in low advances and rather modest sales.��I completed my third novel in eight months flat. I started the book while on a lovely vacation. Then I wrote happily and relatively quickly because I had the time and the funding, as well as help from my husband, my agent and a very talented editor friend. Without all those advantages, I might be on page 52.” – Ann Bauer, ���Sponsored��� by my husband: Why it���s a problem that writers never talk about where their money comes

This article struck a chord with me (and the comment section is an equally important part of the essay). ��Let me be upfront, I have been working in some capacity since that age of 13. ��Babysitting, then food service, then a paid internship type thing and after graduating college, a series of various full time positions leading me to today – a secure job in higher education. ��Some frustrating elements of my 9-5 job notwithstanding, I’ve recently been daydreaming about saying fuck it to the job (effective Jan 1 2016). ��By the end of 2015, I will have 4 unpublished manuscripts��(with ideas to write at least three more). ��The reason I’m even considering this option is because my husband has worked very hard in his career and we’ve been at a place for awhile where my income is extra. ��I realize I am very fortunate to be in this situation.

Here are the reasons I’m on the fence:

1. ��Lack of self confidence. ��Honestly, it’s the height of entitled narcissism to say ‘I’m going to stay at home and work on my novellllllllllllllllllllll.’ ��Also, it’s a big risk to quit the real world and believe that your books are going to generate enough income to justify staying home (no matter how much you like playing with your imaginary friends).

2. ��I’m actually good at my day job. ��Yes, my parents raised me with a great work ethic. ��Yes, I happen to excel at things when I put effort into them. ��Yes, I’m pushing for a promotion in my department (which I am well overdue). ��Yes, I enjoy interacting with people and being part of something larger. ��If I could find some sort of part time scenario with my current employer, I think that would be the perfect solution, however, the argument and reality of this is another thing entirely.

3. ��The rational side of me reminding me that the extra income is a really good thing. ��As a DINK and (probably) spoiled ex-pat, I’ve come to enjoy a certain lifestyle. ��My income makes that possible. ��Without it…I’d be giving up a number of these things.

4. ��Feminism. ��Choosing to stay home and not be an active contributing member of the workforce so that your husband can pay the bills leaves me with a bad taste. ��Were I at the point where I was selling enough books to match my current salary, I think it would be a lot easier to get over this one.

And on the other side of the column, the reasons I 100%��want to get out:

1. ��I feel most fulfilled when working on my stuff. ��Call me selfish, but it’s true.

2. ��What if I actually succeed? ��What if a full time job is holding me back from my full potential?

3. ��More time to travel, research and write. ��If I’m capable of producing a book a year and working full time, what might I finish if I did not have these constraints?

4. ��Leaving office politics behind FOREVER.

What say you, dear reader? ��Do you have a long term goal of being a full time writer? ��What does that look like for you?

Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

I’d downloaded this book late in 2014, but had my personal pre-reader (Hubs) check the book out first. ��While Hubs can be a slow reader, he cranked through Mr. Weir’s novel in record time, often laughing out loud and sharing funny lines of dialogue with me. ��I started reading last week and quickly finished the book. ��When reading, I had no idea it was a self published novel. ��While I can understand how it might be a difficult sell to a traditional publisher (there are A LOT of science and engineering terms), the story itself is quite unique, as is the protagonist. ��The tension of survival, supporting cast and race for survival (all with a sense of humor) make a very entertaining read. ��I’m quite delighted the book has been optioned for film and will be released later this year.

In reading how the book came to be so successful, the author shared much of the rough draft online, listing it for free for a considerable amount of time before making it available on Amazon. ��Between word of mouth and an initial low price point (.99), the popularity of the book grew. ��Score one for self publishing!

Definitely recommend!

 

Sentence of the day.

Having fun with recite.com and my favorite sentence from today’s work. ��Poor Rosamund, she’s not having the best coronation day.

On digital reading.

���According to a recent article in The Guardian, e-book retailers are now able to tell which books we���ve finished or not finished, how fast we have read them, and precisely where we snapped shut the cover of our e-books and moved on to something else. Only 44.4 percent of British readers who use a Kobo eReader made it all the way through Donna Tartt���s The Goldfinch, while a mere 28.2 percent reached the end of Solomon Northup���s Twelve Years a Slave. Yet both these books appeared���and remained for some time���on the British bestseller lists.���

-��Francine Prose, They���re Watching You Read, NY Review of Books

As an author, I would love to know if/when (?!) my books are put down. ��For my YA works, all are very quick reads, and I would assume they had mostly been finished. ��For Room 702, I am curious to know when people stopped reading. ��Essentially, a self published author’s goal is to have a sale, but I think we’d all like to believe that our work was being enjoyed by the reader.

As much as I write, I also thoroughly enjoy reading, and a scan of my e-reader would find almost exclusively completed reads – I will finish almost anything I start. ��My inability to get into Infinite Jest aside, I found an exception to this recently and with a book I sincerely wanted to enjoy. �� Scott Westerfeld is well known in YA circles, and Leviathan is on my list as a bit of steampunk research. ��However… ��I tried three times to get into the book, but found myself unable to connect with the characters or world. ��A quick look at the reviews on Goodreads helped me understand I wasn’t alone. ��To me, there was simply too much technical jargon and not enough story. ��I liked the premise enough, but also didn’t particularly care for the characters – they were a bit meh to me.

What say you, dear reader? ��Do you have a book that you were looking forward to reading, only to abandon it?

A good idea from my girl crush Anna Kendrick.

��I don’t usually watch or follow celebrity beauty trends, but when I happened on this NY Times article on my girl Anna Kendrick, I had to admit, I read the entire thing. (Shout out to Intuition razors!) ��Anyway, this part of the article jumped out to me:

FRAGRANCE

��I like to buy a new fragrance for each film. I���ll go out in the city where I���m filming and snap it up. The one I have for ���Into the Woods��� is Terry de Gunzburg Flagrant Delice, which I bought in London. But the one I���m wearing now is Orange Flower and Lychee by Kiehl���s, which is from ���Happy Christmas.��� I was feeling nostalgic. That���s the thing about fragrance: Memory is so attached. I also love buying fragrance for special times in my life. Like maybe if I got engaged, I���d buy one.

There’s something really wonderful about this idea. ��Not that I’m out filming movies, but I think the next time I start a book (or maybe, at the time I’m publishing) I’ll pick out a new scent, just for that novel.

What about you, dear reader, do you have a signature scent? ��Or do you buy perfume or cologne for certain occasions or periods in your life?

More cover shot sadness (and additional potential).

Still trying to find that mystical perfect image for Life After Joe.�� I had the idea it might look nice if there was a woman’s hands holding something (yeah, idk, just something that came to me).�� Using the searching terms woman holding urn, I got this magic picture.

In what universe would this stock image be used? How did I even find it?

I also managed to come across this sweet gem.

Ma’am, you and your fish need to please get out of the road. #kthxbai

 

However, the search continued and I found these two (one of which I did a mock up cover for – don’t worry, I would use a professional) (find the original image here).

And this one:

Too moody? Too sad?

And just today, I found this on Pinterest…

Too dramatic?

The struggle continues.

 

Am I Good Enough? (No, I don’t think I am).

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (EAFOL) takes place every March in Dubai.�� I went the first two years and enjoyed the lectures, and even attended a course (not that I thought it was particularly enlightening).�� I did not attend last year, mostly because I think we were still getting settled in Abu Dhabi.�� This year, I’m really looking forward to a number of the presentations – the even is well run and attended and hey, getting a bunch of people together who enjoy reading and writing is kind of my jam.

As I began looking through the program and noting which events looked interesting, one jumped out to me: Quick Pitch 1.�� This is a session with a literary agent.�� As I’m firmly in the camp of self-publishing, why would I need to meet with an agent?�� Furthermore, is my stuff even good enough to go in front of this guy?�� What if he tells me my ideas are crap?�� Why am I stopping myself before I start?�� I have all of the prerequisites required (first 5 pages of a manuscript, synopsis and blurb), so which book should I pick?�� Why am I hesitating?�� Why, after writing 10+ novels and publishing seven books do I not have the confidence for a five minute session with someone who’s opinion I don’t have to take?

Ugh.

Fortunately, I have some amazing people in my life, who both in no uncertain terms told me to just go for it.

I just need to sign up.

A note on naming people.

In writing a YA steampunk adventure/romance type book, the hunt for names is a real thing.�� In her worlds, Gail Carriger does this quite brilliantly.�� Although I’ve come up with some decent names so far, I was delighted to find (is there nothing the internet cannot produce), which can generate both male and female names.�� With a growing cast, this might be a helpful place for future characters!

For other works, I usually go to Pinterest, go to the ‘popular’ tab and just look at pinners to come up with random names for secondary characters.

RIP Adam (and thoughts on virtual friends).

TL;DR: I lost someone important to me���someone I���d never met before.

I never actually knew Adam. ��From the earliest days of my writing he was a champion of my work – cheering me on and chatting with me about my characters of AIM (yup, that old gem). ��He was wonderfully weird and felt deeply about things. ��Ten years younger and a world apart from me, we led different lives and our overlap began to stretch when I moved overseas.

Yesterday, via social media, I learned he had passed. ��I looked at my small screen in shock. ��I then began digging through past entries on various social outlets and thinking back to the last conversation we had. ��Could I have done more? ��Why did I let our friendship lapse?

The thing is, there are lot of people we interact with virtually. ��People we have never met and may never meet. ��The thing that was different about Adam was that I fully expected to run into him one day and share a meal or a beer with him. ��I have a list of people that I regularly think of and hope the best for. ��I think this incident was a wake up call to be more active with all my friends – virtual or present.

And, even if we are not close, dear follower, please know that I am ALWAYS around to listen.