Amanda Hamm's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"
This Time It's Really Done
By the time I finish a book, I’m sick of looking at it. I have huge passages of text memorized because I’ve read them so many times. Even when I love the book, which I always do or I wouldn’t call it finished, I just need to put it out of my head for a while.
This was a good thing with my first book. That was all the way back in 2007, before ebooks came into the mainstream. The cost to make changes in print was prohibitive. If a typo had clung on long enough to appear on a page, I didn’t want to know about it.
Things are a little different now that all my books are available as ebooks. If someone tells me that it says “him” instead of “his” in the third paragraph of chapter twelve, I can correct it with a simple upload. Hopefully, before anyone else notices. My ideal is to offer only books that have no mistakes, so I have embraced this change. But the relative ease of modifying the books opens up a new problem.
If, for example, I give a copy of my latest book (Weathering Evan) to my sister and two days later I get a text message from her that says only “Is it too late to suggest changes?” I have to think about that. (After I get over the disappointment of that being her only response to months of hard work. It’s a good thing I have to love her anyway.)
Is it too late for changes? I could change something. But should I? What if she believes I overused a particular adjective? What if she has a quibble with a major plot point? What if I agree with her? When do I get to call the book done and really done?
Though ebooks can be more fluid, I think it is important that everyone who reads one of my books is reading the same book. I am glad that I can fix typos in the ebook versions and I’m glad there haven’t been too many. But I have resisted the urge to make unnecessary tweaks, thinking it was best to leave well enough alone. Until now.
In the five years since I released that first book, the most frequent criticism has been that the ending was cut short. Five years being long enough to renew my interest in the project, I recently reread Dear Jane Letters and came to a similar conclusion. There could have been a longer ending. I wrote one. I couldn’t resist. And once I wrote it I couldn’t resist sharing it. Instead of simply replacing the ending, however, the ebook version now has both endings. Thanks to everyone who checks it out.
And thanks especially for any feedback!
This was a good thing with my first book. That was all the way back in 2007, before ebooks came into the mainstream. The cost to make changes in print was prohibitive. If a typo had clung on long enough to appear on a page, I didn’t want to know about it.
Things are a little different now that all my books are available as ebooks. If someone tells me that it says “him” instead of “his” in the third paragraph of chapter twelve, I can correct it with a simple upload. Hopefully, before anyone else notices. My ideal is to offer only books that have no mistakes, so I have embraced this change. But the relative ease of modifying the books opens up a new problem.
If, for example, I give a copy of my latest book (Weathering Evan) to my sister and two days later I get a text message from her that says only “Is it too late to suggest changes?” I have to think about that. (After I get over the disappointment of that being her only response to months of hard work. It’s a good thing I have to love her anyway.)
Is it too late for changes? I could change something. But should I? What if she believes I overused a particular adjective? What if she has a quibble with a major plot point? What if I agree with her? When do I get to call the book done and really done?
Though ebooks can be more fluid, I think it is important that everyone who reads one of my books is reading the same book. I am glad that I can fix typos in the ebook versions and I’m glad there haven’t been too many. But I have resisted the urge to make unnecessary tweaks, thinking it was best to leave well enough alone. Until now.
In the five years since I released that first book, the most frequent criticism has been that the ending was cut short. Five years being long enough to renew my interest in the project, I recently reread Dear Jane Letters and came to a similar conclusion. There could have been a longer ending. I wrote one. I couldn’t resist. And once I wrote it I couldn’t resist sharing it. Instead of simply replacing the ending, however, the ebook version now has both endings. Thanks to everyone who checks it out.
And thanks especially for any feedback!
Writing Reviews
No, this is not another post about how I wish more people would review my books. This is about my reviews. I feel as though I’ve become a harsher reviewer over the last few years. Even when I really like a book, my comments tend to focus on the weaker aspects. This is bad because part of the reason I starting writing reviews was to support other authors. I hate to think I might have offended a few in the process.
Recalling more easily my negative thoughts seems to be an unfortunate side effect of reading my own books. I lost track of how many times I reread the last one before I released it, each time hoping to find a way to make improvements. I’m afraid I read other books like this now, too. Even when I’m completely engrossed in an enjoyable story, part of me is wondering how it could have been even better.
Of course “better” is entirely subjective, as is the nature of all reviews, so I’m not trying to attach any particular importance to my own opinions. I’m simply trying to explain why sometimes even a 5-star review will point out something I didn’t love. I’m going to try to be better at keeping my reviews balanced. But in the meantime, I thought I’d spell out what the stars mean to me as a general impression of the book without regard to nitpicky observations.
5 stars – I enjoyed this one so much that I immediately went back and reread my favorite parts to keep it from being over. I probably read at least part of this book while I was supposed to be doing something else, like sleeping.
4 stars – I’m glad I read this and might still be thinking about it after I finished. There was something possibly indescribable about it that made it easier to put down than a 5 star book.
3 stars – I still liked this book, but there was at least one part that sort of bugged me. Maybe there was a character who got on my nerves or a plot point that didn’t quite make sense. I may have skipped a paragraph here or there to get through it, but I cared enough to find out how it ended.
2 stars – I found less that I liked than I didn’t. It may not be a bad book, but it wasn’t for me.
1 star – There was something inherently wrong with this book. It may have had hideous grammar or offensive content. I generally stop reading and move on rather than bother with a review for something that fits these criteria. Fortunately, I haven’t come across all that many anyway.
Recalling more easily my negative thoughts seems to be an unfortunate side effect of reading my own books. I lost track of how many times I reread the last one before I released it, each time hoping to find a way to make improvements. I’m afraid I read other books like this now, too. Even when I’m completely engrossed in an enjoyable story, part of me is wondering how it could have been even better.
Of course “better” is entirely subjective, as is the nature of all reviews, so I’m not trying to attach any particular importance to my own opinions. I’m simply trying to explain why sometimes even a 5-star review will point out something I didn’t love. I’m going to try to be better at keeping my reviews balanced. But in the meantime, I thought I’d spell out what the stars mean to me as a general impression of the book without regard to nitpicky observations.
5 stars – I enjoyed this one so much that I immediately went back and reread my favorite parts to keep it from being over. I probably read at least part of this book while I was supposed to be doing something else, like sleeping.
4 stars – I’m glad I read this and might still be thinking about it after I finished. There was something possibly indescribable about it that made it easier to put down than a 5 star book.
3 stars – I still liked this book, but there was at least one part that sort of bugged me. Maybe there was a character who got on my nerves or a plot point that didn’t quite make sense. I may have skipped a paragraph here or there to get through it, but I cared enough to find out how it ended.
2 stars – I found less that I liked than I didn’t. It may not be a bad book, but it wasn’t for me.
1 star – There was something inherently wrong with this book. It may have had hideous grammar or offensive content. I generally stop reading and move on rather than bother with a review for something that fits these criteria. Fortunately, I haven’t come across all that many anyway.
A Sorting Hat for books would be easier.
It’s time for me to assign the BISAC code(s) for my new book. If you don’t know, BISAC stands for Books Intelligently Sorted into Awkward Categories.* These codes, in theory, determine where books are listed with booksellers. Choosing the category should be fairly simple. I think for some books it is because some of the codes are pretty specific.
But this book, like some of my others, is about couples meeting and falling for each other. Romance you say? I hesitate even to start there. My feeling is that the lines between romance and erotica have blurred. Maybe I’m wrong but I think most people expect anything labeled romance to have a decent amount of sex scenes. And this is part of what choosing categories is all about. No, not sex scenes. It’s about managing expectations.
If someone picks up a book hoping to read one steamy scene after another and finds that in the entire course of the book, the hero only takes his shirt off twice (and has another one under it both times), that reader is going to be disappointed. It won’t matter that the book happens to be a completely awesome story of a witty yet socially awkward young woman finding friends and then true love.** The reader will still be disappointed that it wasn’t what he or she planned to read.
Romance does have several sub-genres and even sub-sub-genres. The closest I’ve come to pegging my books though is to put them under the Romance sub-genre of Christian books. My books are not overtly Christian though and this leaves room for disappointment in the segment of the audience hoping for a profound message.
Yeah, I could just call everything Fiction. But readers cannot even form expectations about a book if they cannot find it, which brings us to the more awkward half of assigning a category. Amazon and Barnes & Noble and most other booksellers have their own categories. (Yes, the S in BISAC supposedly stands for Standards.) They ask publishers to assign a code or two and then they use that information to determine which of their own browse categories is (are) most appropriate.
I don’t know how this is accomplished. I’m guessing it either involves committees and secret handshakes or a dartboard. I don’t have a lot of faith in this system. I have already been surprised at what they thought was a match. And once I selected the same codes for two books and found them listed under different categories.
Even if I was new to this, I’d have doubts based on my experiences trying to find books that I want to read. Barnes & Noble, for example, still uses the same price sorts for ebooks as it does for print. These start at “under $10.” (Yes, even if you’ve already found the section for Nook books under $5, you can still sort them by those under $10.) Not only are something like 90% of all ebooks under $10, I think very few people sorting by price would be willing to spend more than that. Amazon doesn’t instill much confidence when it admits under Indie Books that the category is “hard to define.” Independent is pretty straightforward, but Amazon tries to characterize it by including “cool” in the criteria since there is nothing at all subjective about what makes a book cool.
I suppose the sorts and categories don’t matter all that much to anyone who mostly reads what friends recommend. If you’re like me and can’t get enough recommendations or you recently read something that wasn’t exactly what you had in mind, I hope you’ll appreciate that there are an awful lot of people trying to figure out how to put books in front of readers who might enjoy them. Some of us are putting a lot more thought into it than others. But we are trying.
* Actually stands for something else.
** Tongue in cheek of course, but still look up The 4th Floor Lounge if that sounds appealing.
But this book, like some of my others, is about couples meeting and falling for each other. Romance you say? I hesitate even to start there. My feeling is that the lines between romance and erotica have blurred. Maybe I’m wrong but I think most people expect anything labeled romance to have a decent amount of sex scenes. And this is part of what choosing categories is all about. No, not sex scenes. It’s about managing expectations.
If someone picks up a book hoping to read one steamy scene after another and finds that in the entire course of the book, the hero only takes his shirt off twice (and has another one under it both times), that reader is going to be disappointed. It won’t matter that the book happens to be a completely awesome story of a witty yet socially awkward young woman finding friends and then true love.** The reader will still be disappointed that it wasn’t what he or she planned to read.
Romance does have several sub-genres and even sub-sub-genres. The closest I’ve come to pegging my books though is to put them under the Romance sub-genre of Christian books. My books are not overtly Christian though and this leaves room for disappointment in the segment of the audience hoping for a profound message.
Yeah, I could just call everything Fiction. But readers cannot even form expectations about a book if they cannot find it, which brings us to the more awkward half of assigning a category. Amazon and Barnes & Noble and most other booksellers have their own categories. (Yes, the S in BISAC supposedly stands for Standards.) They ask publishers to assign a code or two and then they use that information to determine which of their own browse categories is (are) most appropriate.
I don’t know how this is accomplished. I’m guessing it either involves committees and secret handshakes or a dartboard. I don’t have a lot of faith in this system. I have already been surprised at what they thought was a match. And once I selected the same codes for two books and found them listed under different categories.
Even if I was new to this, I’d have doubts based on my experiences trying to find books that I want to read. Barnes & Noble, for example, still uses the same price sorts for ebooks as it does for print. These start at “under $10.” (Yes, even if you’ve already found the section for Nook books under $5, you can still sort them by those under $10.) Not only are something like 90% of all ebooks under $10, I think very few people sorting by price would be willing to spend more than that. Amazon doesn’t instill much confidence when it admits under Indie Books that the category is “hard to define.” Independent is pretty straightforward, but Amazon tries to characterize it by including “cool” in the criteria since there is nothing at all subjective about what makes a book cool.
I suppose the sorts and categories don’t matter all that much to anyone who mostly reads what friends recommend. If you’re like me and can’t get enough recommendations or you recently read something that wasn’t exactly what you had in mind, I hope you’ll appreciate that there are an awful lot of people trying to figure out how to put books in front of readers who might enjoy them. Some of us are putting a lot more thought into it than others. But we are trying.
* Actually stands for something else.
** Tongue in cheek of course, but still look up The 4th Floor Lounge if that sounds appealing.
The Hartford Stories (a working title)
I have decided that my next book will be the first in a series. I never thought about writing a series before because sometimes, as a reader, I have been annoyed by them. I greatly dislike loose ends. There have been exceptions of course, but I generally prefer a story with a nice tidy ending. I want all the crumbs swept up and in the trash when I get to the last page. If it actually has the words “the end” typed out, I’m okay with that. I don’t mind revisiting a place or a theme. What I don’t want is to feel as though I’ve been tricked into having my next book picked out for me. (And if that book hasn’t been written yet…!)
In all honesty, it was a touch of laziness that sparked my interest in writing a series. I wanted to start a new book and it occurred to me that if I recycled my small town then I wouldn’t have to think of a new setting. And if a few minor characters made repeat appearances, they’d already have names! Names are difficult for me. This was a major selling point.
So Book 2 has a whole new story with a new hero and heroine. It will be an independent read that just happens to be set in the same imaginary town as Book 1. My concern now is that this series idea has grown on me almost too much. I recently had a conversation in my head that went something like this:
- Two books don’t really count as a series. I’ll need a 3rd.
- Since Book 1 covers most of a summer and Book 2 ends in the fall, I could make Book 3 a Christmas story. I love Christmas stories!
- Hang on. My current plan has me starting Book 3 near the end of January. How much will I be loving Christmas stories in January?
- That’s a good point. And I’d probably want to release Book 3 in the summer anyway. If I do that other idea first, I could make Book 4 a Christmas story. That would come out closer to Christmas.
- Oh my goodness! I think I’m losing my mind. What makes me think I can release 4 books in 1 year?
- Well, maybe I could. I’m almost halfway done with them.
- Halfway? Let’s check that math. I have one full draft in need of serious editing plus a cover and it doesn’t even have a title yet. That’s something like half a book. I also have about 3/4 of a manuscript, which is less than half a book. How is less than 1 half of 4?
- I know. I’m not bad at math. I guess I was suffering from a moment of flawed optimism.
- Hey! “Flawed optimism” has an interesting ring to it. That has potential for a book title. Is there any way I could make that a theme for Book 5?
In all honesty, it was a touch of laziness that sparked my interest in writing a series. I wanted to start a new book and it occurred to me that if I recycled my small town then I wouldn’t have to think of a new setting. And if a few minor characters made repeat appearances, they’d already have names! Names are difficult for me. This was a major selling point.
So Book 2 has a whole new story with a new hero and heroine. It will be an independent read that just happens to be set in the same imaginary town as Book 1. My concern now is that this series idea has grown on me almost too much. I recently had a conversation in my head that went something like this:
- Two books don’t really count as a series. I’ll need a 3rd.
- Since Book 1 covers most of a summer and Book 2 ends in the fall, I could make Book 3 a Christmas story. I love Christmas stories!
- Hang on. My current plan has me starting Book 3 near the end of January. How much will I be loving Christmas stories in January?
- That’s a good point. And I’d probably want to release Book 3 in the summer anyway. If I do that other idea first, I could make Book 4 a Christmas story. That would come out closer to Christmas.
- Oh my goodness! I think I’m losing my mind. What makes me think I can release 4 books in 1 year?
- Well, maybe I could. I’m almost halfway done with them.
- Halfway? Let’s check that math. I have one full draft in need of serious editing plus a cover and it doesn’t even have a title yet. That’s something like half a book. I also have about 3/4 of a manuscript, which is less than half a book. How is less than 1 half of 4?
- I know. I’m not bad at math. I guess I was suffering from a moment of flawed optimism.
- Hey! “Flawed optimism” has an interesting ring to it. That has potential for a book title. Is there any way I could make that a theme for Book 5?
My heroine needs a name. Anyone?
I’ve been making some decisions on my new series. The first book finally has a title: Andrew’s Key. Instead of “The Hartford Stories,” the subtitle will be “Stories From Hartford.” Is that better? I don’t know. I’m going with that anyway because I need to settle on something.
I finished the draft for Book 2 and immediately began work on Book 4. Now I’m committed to having at least 4 books in the series. You might think having 3 books in progress only commits me to 3 books. But I am way too stubborn to take something I’ve been calling Book 4 in my head and suddenly make it Book 3.
I have a few pages of plot and character notes. I’m sticking with my decision to make this one a Christmas love story, which is why I felt like skipping ahead to it right now. But one very important decision has yet to be made. As I said in the beginning, my heroine needs a name. I’ve been flipping through the phonebook and trolling baby name websites to no avail. I always struggle with names, but I seem particularly stuck this time. Most names make me think of someone I know or have known and if that person doesn’t look anything like the character in my head, then the name won’t work for me. It isn’t any better if that person does resemble the character because I don’t want to feel as though I’m naming a main character after a real person.
I know this might be a long shot… but does anyone want to suggest a character name? I could use the help. I still have a few minor characters to name so I might be able to work in some suggestions even if they don’t seem right for the heroine. Feel free to suggest first and last or only first or last.
I finished the draft for Book 2 and immediately began work on Book 4. Now I’m committed to having at least 4 books in the series. You might think having 3 books in progress only commits me to 3 books. But I am way too stubborn to take something I’ve been calling Book 4 in my head and suddenly make it Book 3.
I have a few pages of plot and character notes. I’m sticking with my decision to make this one a Christmas love story, which is why I felt like skipping ahead to it right now. But one very important decision has yet to be made. As I said in the beginning, my heroine needs a name. I’ve been flipping through the phonebook and trolling baby name websites to no avail. I always struggle with names, but I seem particularly stuck this time. Most names make me think of someone I know or have known and if that person doesn’t look anything like the character in my head, then the name won’t work for me. It isn’t any better if that person does resemble the character because I don’t want to feel as though I’m naming a main character after a real person.
I know this might be a long shot… but does anyone want to suggest a character name? I could use the help. I still have a few minor characters to name so I might be able to work in some suggestions even if they don’t seem right for the heroine. Feel free to suggest first and last or only first or last.
Soda or Pop: The Dialogue Dilemma
Where is the Hartford in my stories? There are several actual Hartfords in the US and mine is not based on any of them. It is based on my imagination. I have attempted as much as possible to make it feel as though it could be almost anywhere. In giving it realistic features, however, I’m forced to write what I know.
I picture a landscape similar to rural Ohio. I grew up in one of those small towns separated by large areas of farm land. The climate is closer to where I live now in North Carolina. When it snows a few days before Christmas, it is melted the next day. Even where this weather might not be typical, it is still possible. And during the summer I tried to mention that people were hot without saying exactly where the mercury hit.
The trickiest part of not pigeonholing the town to a particular area of the US has been the dialogue. Shortly after I moved from OH to NC, I made the mistake of calling a can of Coke a pop. People laughed at me. One of them asked if I had just arrived from the 1920s. What had been a perfectly normal word choice in one area was comical in another. Even after, well, more than a few years here, I still cannot bring myself to say the word soda. It feels foreign. Sometimes it’s good that my characters like to drink water.
The issue that has frustrated me the most is when a character refers to other people. I can’t use y’all because it’s decidedly Southern. But do more people say you all or you guys? Does one have a more distinct flavor than the other? Is it awkward to have characters use only names? What if one of those in the group is a minor character I didn’t bother to name because I’m bad at names? (Wait… I already wrote about that.)
There are likely other issues I haven’t even considered. I hope though that my town and its people are relatable even when I unknowingly slip in something Midwestern. I cannot escape my roots. Of course, my sister swears all of my heroines sound exactly like me no matter how different I believe they are. Perhaps making them sound like anyone is as much a lost cause as making them sound like anyone else.
I picture a landscape similar to rural Ohio. I grew up in one of those small towns separated by large areas of farm land. The climate is closer to where I live now in North Carolina. When it snows a few days before Christmas, it is melted the next day. Even where this weather might not be typical, it is still possible. And during the summer I tried to mention that people were hot without saying exactly where the mercury hit.
The trickiest part of not pigeonholing the town to a particular area of the US has been the dialogue. Shortly after I moved from OH to NC, I made the mistake of calling a can of Coke a pop. People laughed at me. One of them asked if I had just arrived from the 1920s. What had been a perfectly normal word choice in one area was comical in another. Even after, well, more than a few years here, I still cannot bring myself to say the word soda. It feels foreign. Sometimes it’s good that my characters like to drink water.
The issue that has frustrated me the most is when a character refers to other people. I can’t use y’all because it’s decidedly Southern. But do more people say you all or you guys? Does one have a more distinct flavor than the other? Is it awkward to have characters use only names? What if one of those in the group is a minor character I didn’t bother to name because I’m bad at names? (Wait… I already wrote about that.)
There are likely other issues I haven’t even considered. I hope though that my town and its people are relatable even when I unknowingly slip in something Midwestern. I cannot escape my roots. Of course, my sister swears all of my heroines sound exactly like me no matter how different I believe they are. Perhaps making them sound like anyone is as much a lost cause as making them sound like anyone else.
The Difference Between a Yam and a Sweet Potato
The title of this post was a working title for Jealousy & Yams. Even though I changed my mind – for various reasons – I thought I should point out that I know this difference exists because my cover shows the word yams on top of a picture of sweet potatoes.
I made this cover like I’ve made most of my book covers…
Step 1: Decide on a vague idea for the cover.
Step 2: Take tons of pictures of something related to that vague idea.
Step 3: Pray that one of those pictures looks something like a book cover.
Step 4: Ruin it with bad font or special effects.
Step 5: Start over.
Step 6: Make several versions of the same basic cover and show those to others for feedback.
Step 7: Be mocked for lack of artistic ability.
Step 8: Try again.
Step 9: Settle on a cover that is okay at best.
Interested in the specifics? For this latest book, I thought sweet potatoes might work so I planned to mash some for dinner. I arranged them in piles before and after washing. I took pictures of them peeled and unpeeled and whole and chopped. I snapped a few of them in the boiling water and I got one last shot of the peels – the garbage – only because I had captured everything else.
The image I liked best was of the sweet potatoes in the pan. They turned a brighter orange while cooking and I thought the eye-catching color might make a good cover. Unfortunately, one of the first people who looked at that version said it made him think of sex. I guess the bubbles in the boiling water looked like soap. He could not explain to me why soapy vegetables are sexy. Perhaps it’s a guy thing. Since I write clean fiction though, I couldn’t risk giving others the wrong impression. That cover went into the figurative scrap pile.
My second favorite image turned out to be the peels. Since that picture was mostly an afterthought, it turned out to be a bit blurry. No problem. We like sweet potatoes. I made some for dinner again the next week and snapped lots of pictures of my garbage pile. On another whim, I included the peeler.
Originally, the peeler was aimed downward. This made people think murder. No one has ever been murdered in any of my books. (Sorry if that’s a spoiler.) Inverting the picture made it clearer that it was a kitchen tool and not a murder weapon.
I set a precedent for font with Andrew's Key, the first book in the series, so that part was easy. The color, however, proved challenging. An actual artist would likely look at that picture and know what color would work best. I think I tried at least six different colors. I wanted to pull something from the background and nothing seemed to have enough contrast to make the words readable. I eventually used the very shiny part of the peeler. I'm still hoping people will open the book before they judge it.
It’d be great if I could stick to writing and pay someone else to design the covers. Even if this was in my budget though, I’m not sure how well it would work out. I’m afraid I would still have vague ideas about what I wanted and I’d drive the artist nuts trying to explain what was or was not working for me. Case in point: I recently created a new cover for Weathering Evan and I’m not going to tell you how many times I made my cover model change his shirt. Lucky for everyone, all this crazy indecision stays in my head when I’m writing.
I made this cover like I’ve made most of my book covers…
Step 1: Decide on a vague idea for the cover.
Step 2: Take tons of pictures of something related to that vague idea.
Step 3: Pray that one of those pictures looks something like a book cover.
Step 4: Ruin it with bad font or special effects.
Step 5: Start over.
Step 6: Make several versions of the same basic cover and show those to others for feedback.
Step 7: Be mocked for lack of artistic ability.
Step 8: Try again.
Step 9: Settle on a cover that is okay at best.
Interested in the specifics? For this latest book, I thought sweet potatoes might work so I planned to mash some for dinner. I arranged them in piles before and after washing. I took pictures of them peeled and unpeeled and whole and chopped. I snapped a few of them in the boiling water and I got one last shot of the peels – the garbage – only because I had captured everything else.
The image I liked best was of the sweet potatoes in the pan. They turned a brighter orange while cooking and I thought the eye-catching color might make a good cover. Unfortunately, one of the first people who looked at that version said it made him think of sex. I guess the bubbles in the boiling water looked like soap. He could not explain to me why soapy vegetables are sexy. Perhaps it’s a guy thing. Since I write clean fiction though, I couldn’t risk giving others the wrong impression. That cover went into the figurative scrap pile.
My second favorite image turned out to be the peels. Since that picture was mostly an afterthought, it turned out to be a bit blurry. No problem. We like sweet potatoes. I made some for dinner again the next week and snapped lots of pictures of my garbage pile. On another whim, I included the peeler.
Originally, the peeler was aimed downward. This made people think murder. No one has ever been murdered in any of my books. (Sorry if that’s a spoiler.) Inverting the picture made it clearer that it was a kitchen tool and not a murder weapon.
I set a precedent for font with Andrew's Key, the first book in the series, so that part was easy. The color, however, proved challenging. An actual artist would likely look at that picture and know what color would work best. I think I tried at least six different colors. I wanted to pull something from the background and nothing seemed to have enough contrast to make the words readable. I eventually used the very shiny part of the peeler. I'm still hoping people will open the book before they judge it.
It’d be great if I could stick to writing and pay someone else to design the covers. Even if this was in my budget though, I’m not sure how well it would work out. I’m afraid I would still have vague ideas about what I wanted and I’d drive the artist nuts trying to explain what was or was not working for me. Case in point: I recently created a new cover for Weathering Evan and I’m not going to tell you how many times I made my cover model change his shirt. Lucky for everyone, all this crazy indecision stays in my head when I’m writing.
This Never Happened Before
For most of my love stories, I began by imagining the couple. What makes them right for each other and how can I get them together? I usually change my mind about a lot of things in the early stages. I’ve given characters different names and different jobs and added siblings. I’ve decided that what I thought was a good idea was actually a bad, bad, horrible direction for the plot because no one would ever do such a thing in real life.
But I have never changed my mind about who was going to end up together.
My current project, which I have almost officially decided to call Collecting Zebras, was the first time I even considered it. The heroine for this one is named Angel Melling. She is my most… let’s say “aggressive” heroine to date. I’ve written several leading ladies who were not exactly looking for love and at least one actively avoiding it. This sort of limits the guys in the story. Angel, however, is on a mission. She’s pulling more guys into her story and she’s looking at every single one of them for husband potential. And so was I.
This was where my slightly hopeless nature began to get in the way. I found myself wishing I could pick more than one guy for her. It was the first time I felt bad for guys who weren’t a good match. I wrote one possible love interest out altogether because I envisioned too much awkwardness. I kept another in the storyline longer than I originally intended because I needed more time to discount his long-term potential. And I had to resist a strong urge to add another female character so things could work out well for everyone.
In the end I had to remind myself that this was Angel’s story. I only needed to make sure she got the happily ever after. I still feel bad about at least one guy though. This is me going on record to say that anyone who reads my book has permission to imagine a happy ending for anyone who doesn’t get one in the story. I may have even slipped in a hint in that direction.
But I have never changed my mind about who was going to end up together.
My current project, which I have almost officially decided to call Collecting Zebras, was the first time I even considered it. The heroine for this one is named Angel Melling. She is my most… let’s say “aggressive” heroine to date. I’ve written several leading ladies who were not exactly looking for love and at least one actively avoiding it. This sort of limits the guys in the story. Angel, however, is on a mission. She’s pulling more guys into her story and she’s looking at every single one of them for husband potential. And so was I.
This was where my slightly hopeless nature began to get in the way. I found myself wishing I could pick more than one guy for her. It was the first time I felt bad for guys who weren’t a good match. I wrote one possible love interest out altogether because I envisioned too much awkwardness. I kept another in the storyline longer than I originally intended because I needed more time to discount his long-term potential. And I had to resist a strong urge to add another female character so things could work out well for everyone.
In the end I had to remind myself that this was Angel’s story. I only needed to make sure she got the happily ever after. I still feel bad about at least one guy though. This is me going on record to say that anyone who reads my book has permission to imagine a happy ending for anyone who doesn’t get one in the story. I may have even slipped in a hint in that direction.
Tons of bible quotes in a love story are…
A) completely necessary. I can’t read a story unless it has a God-centered moral.
B) a nice touch. A little sermonizing helps me root for the main couple to get their happily ever after.
C) tolerable. Don’t force the lesson down my throat and I’ll go ahead and swallow it.
D) sort of like commercials. I’ll put up with them if that’s the price of a great story, but there better be a great story.
Anyone who has spent any time browsing reviews of Christian romances has seen that readers are spread among these camps. The same book might be called uplifting by one reviewer and sanctimonious by another.
I have to admit that I lean towards the C and D answers most of the time. I find lengthy prayers or bible discussions in a work of fiction something like the crowd shots during sporting events. If I turned on the TV to watch a hockey game, for example, I prefer that the people running the cameras don’t spend too much time showing me people in the stands. I don’t mind a few seconds if a kid has broken out some horrible dance moves in the aisle. But it’s usually shots of people screaming at the camera or chatting with each other or some guy eating a hot dog. That is not entertainment.
I read fiction to be entertained.* Most novelists try to appeal to the widest audience by relying on trite messages like “Trust God” or “Be forgiving” and every time the characters start talking about that theme or throwing out bible verses to support it I feel like I’m watching the guy eating a hot dog. Can we please put the camera back on the ice? I picked up this book for a story, not a sermon.
Is anyone thinking, “Wait a minute. Don’t you write Christian fiction?”
Yes and no. I like to think that I write books with Christian characters as opposed to Christian books. This is the difference between mentioning that a character said a prayer and writing out three paragraphs of exactly what was said to God. It’s the difference between writing a scene where a character runs into someone she knows while at church and writing out the lyrics to the hymn they sing and which part of the bible was read.
I rarely try to impart any particular lesson in my books. Because at least the primary characters are Christian though, they generally make choices consistent with a faithful person. Readers can (hopefully) be entertained without finding offensive content or preachy interruptions. And if you answered A or B, you are still welcome to read my books to look for a more subtle message. Maybe I’m deeper than I let on.
* Yes, I also read nonfiction when I’m looking for spiritual development. Maybe that’s why I don’t need it included in a narrative.
B) a nice touch. A little sermonizing helps me root for the main couple to get their happily ever after.
C) tolerable. Don’t force the lesson down my throat and I’ll go ahead and swallow it.
D) sort of like commercials. I’ll put up with them if that’s the price of a great story, but there better be a great story.
Anyone who has spent any time browsing reviews of Christian romances has seen that readers are spread among these camps. The same book might be called uplifting by one reviewer and sanctimonious by another.
I have to admit that I lean towards the C and D answers most of the time. I find lengthy prayers or bible discussions in a work of fiction something like the crowd shots during sporting events. If I turned on the TV to watch a hockey game, for example, I prefer that the people running the cameras don’t spend too much time showing me people in the stands. I don’t mind a few seconds if a kid has broken out some horrible dance moves in the aisle. But it’s usually shots of people screaming at the camera or chatting with each other or some guy eating a hot dog. That is not entertainment.
I read fiction to be entertained.* Most novelists try to appeal to the widest audience by relying on trite messages like “Trust God” or “Be forgiving” and every time the characters start talking about that theme or throwing out bible verses to support it I feel like I’m watching the guy eating a hot dog. Can we please put the camera back on the ice? I picked up this book for a story, not a sermon.
Is anyone thinking, “Wait a minute. Don’t you write Christian fiction?”
Yes and no. I like to think that I write books with Christian characters as opposed to Christian books. This is the difference between mentioning that a character said a prayer and writing out three paragraphs of exactly what was said to God. It’s the difference between writing a scene where a character runs into someone she knows while at church and writing out the lyrics to the hymn they sing and which part of the bible was read.
I rarely try to impart any particular lesson in my books. Because at least the primary characters are Christian though, they generally make choices consistent with a faithful person. Readers can (hopefully) be entertained without finding offensive content or preachy interruptions. And if you answered A or B, you are still welcome to read my books to look for a more subtle message. Maybe I’m deeper than I let on.
* Yes, I also read nonfiction when I’m looking for spiritual development. Maybe that’s why I don’t need it included in a narrative.
What's so funny?
When we say that someone has a “good” sense of humor, we’re actually saying that person has a sense of humor similar to our own. Because we don’t all laugh at the same things. We don’t think the same things are funny.
We try to narrow down the different kinds of humor with descriptive words like witty, wry, zany, wacky, droll and many more. These words still have different connotations to different people though so I don’t know which ones to apply to the humor that I try to insert in my books. I decided that the best idea is to show some examples. And then I spent way too long trying to pick something. It was difficult to find a scene from Collecting Zebras that I thought was at least mildly amusing but didn’t risk any spoilers. I came up with two very brief conversations. I guess banter is my favorite.
____
“My name is Angel Melling,” I said.
The woman nodded and yelled to her husband, “Angel.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Her name is Angel.” When he continued the blank stare she said, “Like in the song.” She began to sing “Angels We Have Heard on High.” She had a lovely voice and got halfway through the chorus before he nodded.
I had no idea what he thought he understood.
The woman turned back to me. “I’m Carol and that’s Walt. We’ve been married fifty-three years.”
“Congratulations.” I didn’t know if that meant they were celebrating an anniversary or simply liked to brag.
“You moved from the city?” Carol asked.
“I did.”
“You like Hartford?”
“Yeah, so far.”
Walt said, “Ask her how she likes Hartford.”
Carol waved off the question. I nodded at Walt to answer him. Carol said, “Are you married?”
“No.”
“Don’t you worry, sweetheart. Hartford has tons of eligible bachelors.”
“I think I only need one.”
She smiled at me. “That’s right. You just find the right one and settle down.”
“Gloria,” Walt said, “what grade do you teach down there at the school?”
“Um…” I glanced at Carol, who didn’t seem to notice that he thought my name was Gloria. “I’m a speech therapist.” I said it as loudly as I could without shouting.
“A gymnast? You mean like the gym teacher?”
“She said a speech therapist,” Carol said. She was shouting.
____
I’m Jill,” the woman said to me.
“Angel.”
She tipped her head forward. “Nice to meet you, Angel. I noticed you sitting with Walt and Carol when I got here so when I realized you were still over there as I was leaving I thought one of us should do something.”
“By one of us,” Seth said, “she meant me.”
“What did you say to get her out of there?”
He shrugged. “I said you were having some sort of girl problem.”
“What sort of girl problem?” Jill looked at me for clarification.
I said, “That’s it. He came over there and said, ‘Jill is having some sort of girl problem.’”
“What does that mean?” She looked back at her brother.
He shrugged again. “They’re nice. I knew they’d let her leave if I used the word problem and it had to be something I couldn’t help with.”
Jill playfully punched Seth in the arm. “What if they ask me about this imaginary and incredibly vague problem next time I go over there?”
“They won’t. Are either of you up for ice cream?”
____
If you enjoy these excerpts, let me know. Not because I like praise (although, who doesn’t) but because I’m still passing out advance copies of the book and I know you’ll want to read the rest.
We try to narrow down the different kinds of humor with descriptive words like witty, wry, zany, wacky, droll and many more. These words still have different connotations to different people though so I don’t know which ones to apply to the humor that I try to insert in my books. I decided that the best idea is to show some examples. And then I spent way too long trying to pick something. It was difficult to find a scene from Collecting Zebras that I thought was at least mildly amusing but didn’t risk any spoilers. I came up with two very brief conversations. I guess banter is my favorite.
____
“My name is Angel Melling,” I said.
The woman nodded and yelled to her husband, “Angel.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Her name is Angel.” When he continued the blank stare she said, “Like in the song.” She began to sing “Angels We Have Heard on High.” She had a lovely voice and got halfway through the chorus before he nodded.
I had no idea what he thought he understood.
The woman turned back to me. “I’m Carol and that’s Walt. We’ve been married fifty-three years.”
“Congratulations.” I didn’t know if that meant they were celebrating an anniversary or simply liked to brag.
“You moved from the city?” Carol asked.
“I did.”
“You like Hartford?”
“Yeah, so far.”
Walt said, “Ask her how she likes Hartford.”
Carol waved off the question. I nodded at Walt to answer him. Carol said, “Are you married?”
“No.”
“Don’t you worry, sweetheart. Hartford has tons of eligible bachelors.”
“I think I only need one.”
She smiled at me. “That’s right. You just find the right one and settle down.”
“Gloria,” Walt said, “what grade do you teach down there at the school?”
“Um…” I glanced at Carol, who didn’t seem to notice that he thought my name was Gloria. “I’m a speech therapist.” I said it as loudly as I could without shouting.
“A gymnast? You mean like the gym teacher?”
“She said a speech therapist,” Carol said. She was shouting.
____
I’m Jill,” the woman said to me.
“Angel.”
She tipped her head forward. “Nice to meet you, Angel. I noticed you sitting with Walt and Carol when I got here so when I realized you were still over there as I was leaving I thought one of us should do something.”
“By one of us,” Seth said, “she meant me.”
“What did you say to get her out of there?”
He shrugged. “I said you were having some sort of girl problem.”
“What sort of girl problem?” Jill looked at me for clarification.
I said, “That’s it. He came over there and said, ‘Jill is having some sort of girl problem.’”
“What does that mean?” She looked back at her brother.
He shrugged again. “They’re nice. I knew they’d let her leave if I used the word problem and it had to be something I couldn’t help with.”
Jill playfully punched Seth in the arm. “What if they ask me about this imaginary and incredibly vague problem next time I go over there?”
“They won’t. Are either of you up for ice cream?”
____
If you enjoy these excerpts, let me know. Not because I like praise (although, who doesn’t) but because I’m still passing out advance copies of the book and I know you’ll want to read the rest.
