M.J. Compton's Blog, page 61

Telephone Woes

I know I’ve written about my loathing for telephone solicitation before. In case you missed that rant, you can find it here.

I have a new strategy for live callers.

“Thank you so much for calling. You can find my books on Amazon dot com. . . No, no you called me. I’m an author and this is my place of business . . . I pay the phone bill. . . check out my author page on Amazon, or go to my website. I have books available on Barnes & Noble and Kobo and . . . no, no, you called my place of business. Do you call your supermarket and pitch them whatever it is you’re selling? Then what right do you have to call my place of business and not buy one of my books?”

The caller usually hangs up before I can finish the spiel.

I still need to deal with robocall. I’ve heard NoMorRoBo works really well. I just need to hunt down an account number and a password to register the house phones.

Work-In-Progress Wednesday: Anne B. Cole

It’s Work-In-Progress Wednesday, and today I’d like to welcome Anne B. Cole!

MJ: November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Do you participate? If so, do you find it helpful? If not, why not?

ABC: I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2014. I didn’t participate in the traditional way—writing an entire book. Instead I worked on my third book in the Souls Trilogy, Souls Endure, my current WIP.

NaNoWriMo is helpful because it gave me a passion to write everyday. I believe I wrote 22 thousand words that month—the most I’ve ever written in a single month. Now days, I aim for 500 words /day.

MJ: If you didn’t write, what would be your creative outlet?

ABC: Hmmm. I love to garden and run but neither is very creative. I love to cook and bake—that could be creative with the limited time I have to fix dinners some nights:)

MJ: Other than writing, what would be your dream job? Why?

ABC: I love the outdoors and I’m a teacher, so my dream job would be to be a ‘naturalist hiking guide’ at a national park.

MJ: Describe your ideal/dream writing space.

ABC: A screened in porch (with windows during the colder seasons) with a view of fields/woods and perhaps a pond. I love watching the birds and squirrel that visit my window where I write now. Here is a picture of a squirrel in my peach tree from my real writing window.

MJ: What do you love most about your WIP hero?

ABC: I love Sam’s loyalty to Gretta. No matter what the circumstance, he strives to help and protect her.

MJ: What do you least like about your WIP heroine?

ABC: Gretta tends to need more self confidence, so I put her in situations where she is forced to adapt and become stronger emotionally and physically.

MJ: What genre is your current WIP?

ABC: Supernatural Suspense—with time travel into the past, so there is a bit of historical fiction along with the paranormal elements. Yep, I’m a genre bender! I tried to fit my books into a cozy single genre…it didn’t work:)

MJ: How did you come up with your hero and heroine’s names?

ABC: Great question! I’ve taught many, many kids through my teaching career so picking names is difficult for me.

I chose ‘Gretta’ because years ago one of my preschool students had a new baby sister named Gretta and I fell in love with the name. ‘Dobbs’ is a very old family name.

I chose ‘Sam’ because I love the book, Green Eggs and Ham. ‘Daggett’ is a road in my home town in Pennsylvania.

MJ: How did you choose the setting for your current WIP?

ABC: The primary setting for Souls Endure—Delos— is a sacred Greek Island. With Sam and Gretta faced with breaking the final curse on Gretta’s ring, I needed to place them in a setting where gods, curses, and mythology all could contribute to the plot.

The first book in the series, Souls Entwined, was set in Milos, a Greek island near Delos. The second book, Souls Estranged, was set in the United States. I missed the island setting and knew I had to return to it in the final book.

 

MJ: Can you share the opening lines of your current work in progress?

ABC: Yes. This is from Souls Endure:

Thunder rumbled in the distance. Raindrops speckled the sidewalk, yet disappeared within seconds in the heat of late August. The homeless man adjusted his grip on the dagger still concealed in the folds of his new jacket.

He knew what he had to do.

The man who gave him the jacket had relayed instructions without words. Despite the pain he would inflict, his actions were necessary for the protection of the young couple.

He would complete the task without question.

MJ: Your current release, Souls Estranged, is Book Two of The Souls Trilogy. Where can readers find it?

ABC: It’s available at Amazon.

MJ: How can readers stay in touch with you?

ABC: I have a blog, and I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

MJ: Thanks again for stopping by. Good luck with your books!

 

 

SOL: Football

I hate football. I loathe and despise the game. I’ve always felt there was something inherently wrong with a “sport” in which there are players whose sole purpose is to knock down other players.

On March 17, 2014, the Washington Post’s Tom Boswell wrote a thought provoking article questioning the future of the money-making machine. You can read the article here.

“[Football]’s billions in wealth built on decades of human wreckage.”

Every year, high school athletes die from football-related injuries. Yes, athletes in other sports–particularly basketball–die, but not directly due to injuries sustained while playing. (Basketball players tend to die of heart-related conditions.)

Professional football players are retiring early and refusing to allow their own children to play the game.  You don’t hear about that in baseball.

Given the way football is worshiped, there is no surprise when young players believe themselves above moral behavior. Yes, basketball players lie about their age, but one doesn’t seem to hear as many . . . criminal stories about them as one does about football players.

The only good thing about football are the novels by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

 

 

 

 

Creating Characters

Creating believable characters takes a lot of work. There are so many resources to help a writer that choosing a method borders on a brain drain.

Still, I have to wonder: did Thomas Hardy know Tess of the D’Ubervilles’ astrological sign?

Did Charles Dickens plot Oliver Twist‘s archetype before he penned the novel?

I’m pretty sure Jane Austin didn’t read Elizabeth Bennet’s tarot cards before she wrote Pride and Prejudice.

And Charlotte Bronte certainly didn’t define Jane Eyre by her Enneagram type or her Myers-Briggs classification.

So why am I surrounded by books, decks of cards, and charts?

Reading By The Season: October

OCTOBER

AMMIE, COME HOME by Barbara Michaels.

I’m on my second or third paperback copy of this book. They keep falling apart on me!

The story actually takes place in November. There is not a hint of Halloween.

The author skillfully weaves the autumn weather into the story, adding to the atmosphere. This is a must-read for fans of haunted houses. Except maybe it wasn’t the house that was haunted . . .

Planner Planning

Last year, I decided to resurrect my planner. Several parts of the restructuring worked out really well.

A friend of mine mentioned she was downloading free, printable planner pages. Doing something like this never occurred to me! I embraced the idea. And now that I’ve finally jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon, I have a lot more ideas from which to choose.

There are many sites offering a variety of options. The ones I seem to like best only come in 8.5 x 11 size. And quite a few of the sites are from professional housewives/mothers and from people who home school. While I like the looks of the pages, the content won’t work for me. Here’s an example of what I mean. Parts of this page are perfect. But making the bed isn’t on my to do list.

I wish I were graphically able to create my own. I’m just not that clever.

Here’s what I settled on.

I think I’m going to love them.

Now I need to find something for blog planning.

Stalker Songs

I like to create custom mixes of music. Recently, I realized two songs I happen to like are really kind of creepy–and stalkerish.

Elvis Presley’s “Kentucky Rain” is about a guy chasing after his run-away wife.

REM’s “Superman” threatens to track down a woman, even if she goes a million miles away.

So I Googled stalker songs. Eeesh! There are a lot of them.

“Every Breath You Take” (The Police)

“Run for Your Life” (The Beatles)

“One Way or Another” (Blondie)

“Private Eyes” (Hall & Oates)

These songs were all hits. That’s what’s really scary.

Reviews

My local RWA chapter recently held a program on reviews. It was an insightful presentation and sparked passionate dialogue. Does one read reviews or ignore them? Are bad reviews are good thing? Does one respond to a review, good or bad?

Here’s my take on the topic. I love reviews, good or bad. It means someone read my book.

As far as I’m concerned a bad review lends legitimacy to the review process. If several reviewers find the same flaw in the book, then I need to seriously consider what they’re saying. I prefer to think of those types of reviews as constructive rather than bad. If a book has all four-or-five star reviews, I wonder if it’s not a stacked deck.

Never ever ever engage with a reviewer on a review site. It’s unprofessional. One of the newer, unpublished members of the chapter said, “But I would be thrilled that an author wanted to talk to me!”

My response: then friend me on Facebook. If you are my friend on Facebook, you will be my buddy. We will swap recipes, share stories about our children, and recommend books to each other. I love interacting with my readers . . . on Facebook. It’s casual, the way a friendship should be. But not on Goodreads and not on Amazon.

Do you write reviews for books you’ve read?

Why Extroverts Are Happier Than Introverts

A recent Washington Post article claimed “extroverts are on the whole happier than introverts.” I was outraged when I read that (and thrilled when I read the Thoreau quote near the end of the article. Well, DUH!).

There’s a reason extroverts are happier: our culture is made to revolve around them. The needs of introverts are ignored. If peace and quiet reigned, if everyone had their own office (instead of a cubicle), if everything wasn’t a damned group activity, introverts would be happier than extroverts. The capacity for happiness is not in the makeup of the personality; it’s in the makeup of society.

And who did this survey? Leave me alone already!

Work-In-Progress Wednesday: Julie Doherty

Today I’m pleased to welcome author Julie Doherty.

MJ: The first full week of October is National Great Books Week. As a reader what do you consider three essential elements of a great book and why?

JD: Great books have the perfect balance of interesting characters, a fascinating plot, and superb writing. Great books also teach us something. They take us on a journey, let us slip into someone else’s skin, and allow us to lose ourselves in other realms when our real worlds are less than satisfying.

A book goes from great to sublime when it does all of this with lyrical sentences containing just enough detail for readers to envision the scene. Too much description spoils the journey for me. It’s a bit like someone sharing vacation photos. I’m interested at first, but the moment you start pointing out the details of every photo, I’m going to pray a fire alarm goes off.

MJ: If you didn’t write, what would be your creative outlet?

JD:  It definitely wouldn’t be dance. I have two left feet. I’ve been a singer, a calligrapher, and a canine artist.

MJ: Other than writing, what would be your dream job? Why?

JD: I experienced my dream job for exactly eight hours back in the nineties when the City of Harrisburg needed temporary help transcribing Civil War letters, some from a general to his wife. *fans self* I can’t describe how privileged I felt to touch those letters, let alone read their contents.

MJ: Describe your ideal/dream writing space.

JD:  A room with a locked door and no telephone within earshot.

MJ: What do you love most about your WIP hero?

JD: His determination to regain custody of his son. I also love that in spite of horrific emotional trauma, he has retained his sense of humor.

MJ: What do you least like about your WIP heroine?

JD: Her low self esteem. Who could blame her, though? I mean, her husband left her sitting in the fertility clinic while he was out impregnating a twenty-something airhead. It takes a while to recover from that.

MJ: What genre is your current WIP?

JD: Contemporary romance with elements of fantasy.

MJ: How did you come up with your hero and heroine’s names?

JD:  I chose names that fit their personalities.

MJ: How did you choose the setting for your current WIP?

JD:  Since my heroine (Ann McConnell) owns the farm where my second novel takes place (SCATTERED SEEDS, releasing today, woot!) I had to set my WIP in Pennsylvania. She unearths a gold torc there and embarks on a journey to Scotland to research its origins. Most of the story takes place on the Isle of Iona and around the Oban/Taynuilt area.

MJ: And can you share a bit of this WIP?

JD: I’m tentatively calling this one SCENT OF FOREVER.

With birds chattering in the trees above her, Ann stared at the footprint of her ancestors’ cabin. Time had reduced its log walls and roof to ruddy banks around a flagstone floor. Only the hearth and part of the chimney wall remained upright. The rest of it lay in a heap, just like the pieces of her life.

She would repair the chimney—starting today—but her dismantled world? That would take a different kind of mortar.

MJ: Love the title! I understand you have a book being released today.

JD: Yes, SCATTERED SEEDS is available through Amazon.

 

MJ: And how can readers stay current with you?

Social media links:

 

AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Scent-Soul-Julie-Doherty-ebook/dp/B00SZ0SKUE

BOOK TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBuB3WC3FGU

GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/532434.Julie_Doherty

TWITTER:  http://twitter.com/SquareSails

FACEBOOK:  http://www.facebook.com/juliedohertywrites

WEBSITE: http://www.juliedoherty.com

MJ: Thanks again for joining me today, and good luck!