R.J. Minnick's Blog, page 14
March 1, 2014
Read an Ebook Week is back….
…and so is the sale at Smashwords!
The books in my Mackenzie Wilder/Classic Boat mystery series are on sale for 50% off between March 2 and March 8.
Visit the series site:
Mackenzie Wilder/Classic Boat Mystery
A series by R.J. Minnick
… and read some great ebooks.
January 25, 2014
What I have learned late that I recommend all writers learn early….
It is up to you to make things happen — and YOU CAN! We all feel helpless, especially when we are at the mercy of fickle readers, unreachable publishers, and people who don’t think what we do is work. But you have the power to change your situation. Keep after that agent or publisher. Try querying another magazine. Then Sit and Stay — as the latest meme says – in your chair until you finish that project; market it; start the next one. The more you do, the more opportunity you will have. What you write won’t be published from your hard drive. Well, blogs excepted, of course.
Feedback is good, but not all feedback is accurate. Think about what people say about your work. If you are positive they are wrong (and I am Not talking to the People who Assume that Everything they write is Golden; no one is that good), if you are normally humble about your work but you are positive this criticism is wrong no matter how thoroughly you consider it, ignore it and let it go. Other people’s egos, preferences, and ignorances (word?) get in the way. They can be wrong.
If you write well, people a) won’t know how old you are and b) won’t care. So, write your very best every time.
And do it every day. Yup. Every day. A little something. A lot of something. But write.
Yes, you can have more than one project going at a time — so long as you don’t use one as an excuse for not completing another. There are plenty of times we aren’t up to working on a particular project. Barring the demands of deadlines (for which writers should be truly grateful), you can work on anything you damn well please. So, can’t stand the thought of yet another alien chef murdering their 6-legged sous chef with a solar skillet? Set that one aside and work on your sonnet that would be just perfect for the poetry anthology you heard about. Or your how-to-knit-sweaters-for-your-nine-kids-and-three-dachshunds-in-under-a-month article for Busy Bee Needlework Magazine. On the other hand, if you are writing that article because you can actually do that, you don’t need my advice on perseverance and multi-tasking.
Remember to live life. It’s the best research you’ll ever have. And it has other benefits, too.
I’m all for working for long periods of time at one sitting. Focus is great, and you should capture all those moments when they appear. However, offset the sedentariness of the occupation by getting on your feet and getting out. It’s good for you AND your creativity.
When it seems you’ve used everything up, switch to another creative activity. It can be amazing how it will rejuvenate you.
Finally, and this is especially true when you have loved ones that understand your writerly affliction, remember to love those around you. Don’t let them think you don’t care. Not a story in the world is worth that.
some of Those I Love – December 2013
June 13, 2013
Ahhh, it’s nice to be finished
It is definitely nice to be finished. My new e-book, the second in the Mackenzie Wilder/Classic Boat Mystery series is now available at Smashwords. In Sweet Corn, Fields, Forever, Mackenzie meets Tory, an old friend of Jason Fields, who is a country musician, half of a songwriting/performing duo with her brother, Tyler McCloud. When their group tours the north country around Albany, things start to happen.
“Sometimes a new beginning is someone else’s end,
a circular relationship where time begins to blend,
You have to ask the question: where have we come, and how?
‘Cause the end’s in the beginning,
And the beginning’s in us now”
– from “The End’s in the Beginning” by Tyler McCloud
Jason Fields is opening his new research and design facility with a grand Open House. Before the event begins, he gives Dr. Mackenzie Wilder a personal tour — which puts an early end to the festivities. They discover the body of country musician Tyler McCloud, strangled in a first floor conference room.
They’re sure they didn’t have anything to do with his death, but Jason’s past involvement with country music and this particular family lead authorities to think otherwise. It takes Mackenzie Wilder’s faith in her friend and the staunch support of Tyler’s sister Tory to uncover “what Tyler did to get hisself killed.” From upstate New York to Charlotte, North Carolina, from Las Vegas to Nashville, the deaths and confusion mount.
Could Tory be at the center of it all? This may be one song she can’t sing or write her way out of. It will take their combined resources to stop the killing, at a cost far higher than the diamonds on a country singer’s costume.
Finishing this book felt as great as you might think. It’s done! No more plot twists. No more continuity checks. No more fine-tuning sentences and word choices.
Wait a minute. There’s a sequel, right? I have to figure out what’s happening there and start writing. And I have to revise the mainstream novel I set aside. And I have continue the other mainstream novel I set aside. Plus there’s the freelance work that has suddenly picked up. And the writing for my part-time job. And did I say I’d be ready to edit something for my publisher friend?
HE-ALP!
Okay, like the title of this blog says…a writer’s work is never done. I go from the euphoria of one completed project to the blood, sweat, and tears of the next – unfinished – one. [sigh]
To be both honest and fair, it’s work I love. And if you have to be overloaded and challenged, it might better be with work that you love.
the delight of creating a new story
the triumph of coming up with the right word or phrase
the ecstasy of a beautiful plot twist that ties up loose ends and amazes the reader
the joy of sales – not just for the money, however nice that is, but for knowing someone out there is reading and enjoying your work.
Okay, so I wouldn’t have it any other way. And boy, am I glad I have this at all!
Good luck with your next work.
March 5, 2013
Read an Ebook Week. Read one already? Read another!
Okay, so I’m stealing Chester Campbell’s idea and blogging for Read an Ebook Week. This is the week Smashwords.com sells many of its ebooks at a discount, some of them down to free. And it’s a great time to pick up my book Where the Bodies Lie Buried for free. This is the first in the Mackenzie Wilder/Classic Boat mystery series, and the second is due out very soon.
Okay, with the BSP out of the way, why was I writing this? Oh, yes, Read an Ebook Week.
Now, I’m a techie sort of person. Our whole family is. The day they announced the cut-and-paste feature in word processors is right next to the Fourth of July for me. Talk about freedom! I started writing when I was a kid. The labor required to retype an entire page because of an errant typo in the next-to-last line — that more than anything else delayed my progress as the next Great Writer of Our Times. Well, that and the fact that I might not really be that person. Ahem. So, yes, I love technology and how it makes writing easier.
My love of tech is obvious from my predilection for websites and blogging, my social network time, and the fact that I can sit and stare at a screen, fascinated by the simple fact that I can move a file from my computer here at home to the one next to it, to the one at my kid’s college dorm, and to one in Istanbul if I so choose (so long as I know someone in Istanbul, which I don’t think I do, yet). It’s also obvious from the fact that since my husband and I began with computers in 1983, we have only once had a hired tech person in our house, and we never take our computers elsewhere to be fixed. We have plenty of gurus here at home.
And yet. And yet. I’m one of the last people to say books are going away. Or who wants them to. Our house is overrun with books. Our kids’ friends could never understand it. We had books but no cable. And by books, I mean shelves stuffed to overflowing in Every Room. Including the kitchen. All the kids had books of their own on shelves in their rooms, too. One time a telemarketer called:
T: Do you have children?
Me: Oh, yes, as a matter of fact I have 6. (okay, so I never do anything small.)
T: Oh! Well, then you must know how important reading is, right?
Me: Certainly, we…
T: Do you read to your children?
Me: Most of them are past that stage. They read to themselves now.
T: Then you need books! We can offer …
Me: I can’t really buy any more right now. We’re pretty well stocked…
T: (chuckles) How many do you have?
Me: (chuckling right back) Well, just a minute. I’m right next to one of the bookshelves now. These are the books for the little kids — you know, about 16 pages each? Things like Berenstain Bears. Um, let me see… 3 -4 – 5-…….15…. Yup. Okay. On the top shelf I’ve got 500 books or so, maybe 496. There’s 3 shelves in this bookcase, and let’s see, we have at least 20 bookcases…. You see?
T: (gulp) Um. okay. Have a nice day.
And now, many years later, those books are packed away for the next generation, or given away, or destroyed by use. I love books.
So what’s with the ebooks? It’s another package is all. A package that can be convenient, efficient, and for a techie, a delight. A book may loses a little something in the repackaging, but it’s like wearing a raincoat one day and a parka the next. You wear — or use — what is appropriate. While your demeanor might shift some based on what you’re wearing, you are still you. The story is still the story. It’s just wearing a new jacket.
Radio didn’t die out when TV came along. It changed.
The movies didn’t die out when TV came along. They changed.
The movies AND TV didn’t die out when video media and cable came along. They simply changed.
Through all of these, books remained present. And hardcopy books will remain alongside ebooks on into the future. But ebooks will have their place. So download one today, from somewhere. Above all, read and enjoy!
PS: If you are a writer, Smashwords is a great place to consider self-publishing, if that’s something you are going to do. See what it has to offer.
July 14, 2012
Pause for Thought
I’m pausing in my writing to take stock of where I am. Where I am is inside the 2 chapters-to-the-end mark. The chapter I’m working on is the climactic one, and the next the denouement/book-closing cliffhanger. I’m satisfied with the story, although I think I’ve got a heck of a rewrite ahead of me.
The funny thing to me is that I don’t remember what I write, so revising from start to finish becomes an exercise in surprise. I’m excited about things, so I’m taking off again.
But, first, do you remember most of what your write? and how do you feel about cliffhanger endings in books?
from the next book in the Mackenzie Wilder/Classic Boat series
