Rae Sanders's Blog, page 3

Rae Types – A Journey of a Thousand Miles Starts With a Single Step, But Where Are the Rest Stops?

The Easy Part:

Step 1: A few years ago, Annie and I wrote a little mystery book, Idle Hands, strictly for the fun of writing a story in a genre we love to read. We had no intention of ever letting our forty page book see the light of day. Completely underground it was. Writing Idle Hands gave us no end of pleasure and when we finished it we felt, well, hungry for more.

Step 2: After brainstorming a few ideas for a story, we set out to write a “real” book. They say to write what you know and since we never were big city girls it was obvious our murder in Final Sale had to take place in rural Iowa. Not to digress but a few weeks ago I read a blog somewhat critical of cozies, John Deere tractors and Iowa. Well, wait a minute.  I’m here to tell you, there’s a lot of interesting shit that happens in those corn fields.

Step 3: Along the way on our journey Annie and I balanced a seesaw of viewpoints from the relatives and friends with whom we shared our plan. We heard everything from “What, you think you’re a writer?” to “We always thought you should do this.” We listened to their opinions, soaked up the constructive criticism, then compromised by ignoring the negative and embracing the positive.

Step 4: To self-publish or not, that was the question all right and one we had to ask ourselves after we wrote ‘fini’. Our research pointed us in the direction of self-publication. We would have more control, it would be quicker, and it was a challenge. While Annie and I have never been very competitive with each other we are always up for a quick, controlling challenge. Could we do it? Other writers did it. Could we be successful? We couldn’t be sure but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Go ahead and throw the stone, it just might skip along. We wrote up a plan and tossed the rock.

The Hard Part:

Step 5: Social media, social media, social media. There’s a hiccup in everything and for us it’s been Facebook and Twitter. Especially Twitter. For me it isn’t so much the How as the Why. Or rather the What, as in What Is The Point of Tweeting? I suppose being confused is an age-related thing. We used to tweet in school but back then it was called ‘passing notes’ and it got you in a lot of trouble if you were caught by the teacher who then made you stand up in front of the class and read your note out loud so everyone knew what you had written only moments ago, just like Facebook except embarrassing.

I finally started to tweet, then learned that I wasn’t doing it right. The light bulb didn’t go on until I ran across the article “How to Get Noticed on Twitter—15 Tips for Writers” on Carol Tice’s website Making a Living Writing. Thank you, Carol, for flipping the switch.

So Annie and I have our website, our blog, I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Where else could we possibly be? Oh, yes, LinkedIn, Pinterest, MySpace, GooglePlus. The journey just got longer.

Annie Types – It’s a Guy Thing…or Fiction

Maybe I have been reading Fifty Shades of Grey a little too much.  Maybe it’s because I’ve just re-read the Twilight series and finally got the last movie.  There is so much to be said for vamp sex and so many inconsistencies, but I guess that’s why they call it fiction.  The multiple orgasms are why Shades is fiction, too, I guess.   No guy is that good.  Or determined or whatever.  But it occurred to me that ever since humans put on clothing one gender has been trying to get that clothing off the other gender.  I can almost see that caveman ripping the wolf-pelt bodice off his mate, throwing her to the cave floor and saying, “Come on baby.  I want to hear ya.”

Paperback Version of Final Sale

We are happy to announce the paperback version of Final Sale is now available to order from Amazon!  Click here to check it out.

Annie Types – Sometimes You Just Have To Be a Rebel

Sometimes you just have to be a rebel.  Harper Reed would understand that.  Maggie would, too.  In fact there are a lot of rebels in Bittersweet Hollow.  I want to be a writing rebel.  Take the use of clichés.  Webster’s says clichés are stereotypes and outworn, stale or trite expressions.  Please.  I find the proper use of clichés to be very useful.  Everyone knows what you mean when you use clichés.

Here are two examples: #1. Dumber than a post.  And #2.(which I really like) Just fell off a turnip truck. Now you could combine the two as in, Dumber than a post that just fell off a turnip truck.  Or, He was dumber than a turnip that just fell off a post.  Never put the post on top of the turnip, which is just silly and incongruous.  But nothing catches the attention of a reader more than being incongruous.  Say you are setting your scene at high noon and you mention that the stars are shining as brightly as turnips.  IF, and this can be a big one, IF anyone catches this incongruous remark, they are paying attention to your work and this can only be a good thing.

But I guess the star thing only works if you are writing science fiction and then anything goes.

Hope to see you in the Hollow soon.  We will start as soon as Rae gets her turnips planted.

Annie Types – I Lead Two Lives…or Maybe Four

Okay, I’m going to make a confession. I, Annie Irvin, lead a double life. Actually it’s more like a triple or quadruple life but that’s neither here nor there. My life is great, don’t get me wrong. I not only get to go live for a few hours in Bittersweet Hollow, which I really enjoy by the way, but I get to go other places under another name.

The problem is that under my other name in my other life I am looking for a literary agent. Looking for one of those elusive, almost mystical creatures, is like giving birth without the epidural while you have a root canal done. Painful, challenging and not a little depressing.

So I am looking forward to the next trip Rae and I make to The Hollow where Maggie is getting ready for her wedding to Fred. There may be murder done, lives changed, and old wounds opened, but it beats trying to find representation in the literary world.

Rae Types – It’s On the Way

In April Final Sale will be available from Amazon in paperback.  Annie and I are excited to be able to offer our book to readers who don’t have Kindles and have asked for a printed version.  As soon as Final Sale hits the bookshelf we’ll post it here and on Twitter.

Rae Types – Fifty Shades of Little Gray Cells

I love reading blurbs, those brief but descriptive paragraphs on the inside of dust jackets and on the back cover of paperbacks. Not only do those snippets become the deciding factor in my pick of books to read but they often make for a fun read in and of themselves. Whoever originated speed dating must have been a blurb reader. The action of choosing a book and choosing a date is the same for both. You spend a few pithy minutes weighing your options as you move down the line, hoping you will make a wise decision. Is this really the one you want to be alone with, maybe even curl up in bed with? Is this the one even your mother would like?

I’ve read the blurb for Fifty Shades of Grey but must admit I’m one of the few who haven’t read the book. Apparently I’m more into cozy mysteries than cozy sex. My favorite Agatha Christie character, Hercule Poirot, was a control freak (I hear Christian Grey is one of those compulsive guys, too) but, mon dieu, thankfully the little detective’s OCD focused on the orderly arrangement of things. He never enticed Miss Jane Marple to try on a pair of handcuffs. We never doubted that Jane kept her virginity intact to the very end or Hercule preferred mind games to sex games.

But what if something steamy had happened between the two of them? And what if Jane had been in charge? I can imagine the blurb would be something like this: When dominatrix Jane Marple meets Hercule Poirot she falls hard for him. Obsessed with his opulent handlebar mustache, she keeps him in her power by precisely arranging her crochet hooks on the dresser, winding her skeins of yarn into perfectly shaped balls, and making certain all her knitting needles are of the exact same length. Poirot falls prey to such wicked enticement, giving up the platonic company of Miss Lemon and the macho camaraderie of Hastings to spend all his free time in Jane’s den of shady pleasures. When not engaged in mutual gratification, Jane and Hercule solve crimes together, she with her shrewd knack for snooping, he by employing his little gray cells. Can their lust for each other last into their golden years or will it end when Jane’s knitting needles lose their click and Hercule can no longer keep his mustaches up? Now there’s a blurb even my mother would like.

Annie Types

Good morning everyone! I just wanted to share something I found the other day. I stumbled across this really helpful list on Donald Maass’s web page. (Yes, at his website or you can tweet him.) It was a list of exercises to do with your WIP (work in progress). I happen to have a work in progress so I of course printed out his list and I LOVE IT. Almost as good as taking a class except there isn’t the actual exchange of ideas and guidance from a lettered professor.

The one I am currently attempting to do is cut words. Anyone who loves words and loves to write them knows there has to come the time to cut some of them. Number 20 (there are 58 of these and more being updated all the time) was a five minute challenge to cut 100 words from your last 3 pages. The penalty was to cut 200.

It took me twenty minutes but I cut over 350. Tight writing! Now I just need to really work on tightening my rounded bum. Waiting for spring to do that. Later.