Teagan Oliver's Blog, page 9

The Moment When Everything Changes

As writers, we're often given the advice that our stories should begin "the moment everything changes", when the world becomes different enough to be a catalyst to change the way things have always been done.

This goes along with the million other pieces of advice that we are supposed to deciminated and integrate... and all while we are to remain original and authentic. Sounds easy, huh?! I mean, really, within the first three chapters we need to introduce character, setting, motivation, conflict and good dose of imagination. And, if your writing a suspense or mystery you need to add in a few red herrings, a believeable crisis and maybe a dead body or two... So, how the heck do we do that when we have to start at a point where the characters are being thrust into a situation where they don't even know themselves or how they are going to react?

For years, I thought this meant that I had to start with an immediate action. For Obsidian, it was the moment when his friend's boat blows up and he finds himself witness to the horrific death. This is the catalyst that propels him to go beyond the boundaries of his job to investigate. For Three Truths it is something much simpler. Katie recognizes that her life has become stagnant and whimsically wishes for a change that is offered to her in the form of fairy godmother with matchmaking skills. Two very different stories. Two very different beginnings, but both have the same elements.

A change that is a catalyst and precipitates an awareness that causes the character to move beyond their normal "mode of operation".

Huh? What? This is no different than the advice we've been given all along. Why should I listen to you? No reason. Not really. Except that despite the fact that I've been fighting this instinct for years I have come to believe that the essence of the advice is good and true. Maybe with a little clarification.

Think about it. Fifteen pages of a character explaining about the shoes she bought or the way the moonlight is falling across the snow and we're all in for a snooze. I have limited time to read these days and we are all in an instant society, meaning you've got to catch my attention pretty quickly to keep me reading. I can't tell you how many books I've bought that I just stopped reading because I wanted to know one thing... "why".

Starting with a bang is great. It's needed for many books so that the tone can be set, especially if it's a suspense. But not all stories need to start with a boat being blown up. Some need to start with a whisper, with a hint that something much bigger is just a step away. Your reader and your character need to be breathless with anticipation, or anger, or curiosity, anything that will make them know that something is about to happen.

Ultimately, it comes down to motivation.
One of the biggest misconceptions beginning writers have is that they work so hard to set up the character's motivation at the beginning of the story that they believe it has to be strong enough to remain throughout. Not so. A good motivation is like a good character arc. It needs to grow and change, and sometimes, completely fall away. There is nothing so powerful as a character that must give up what they always believed was their greatest desire in order to benefit someone else. Think about it. Sometimes, it's not the major sacrifices that make the biggest impacts, but the smallest changes that create the biggest tremor in your book and your readers.

Have you gone BLUE?

The first time she went in for a colonoscopy she was only slightly scared. After all, she hadn't had any symptoms, nothing to indicate that there was any problem. She probably wouldn't have even been there had it not been for the fact that her brother had just recently been diagnosed with colon cancer and the doctors had suggested that all immediate relatives of age have a colonoscopy. There was no other history of it in the family and her brother was already well on his way for treatment. It was just a test. They wheeled her in to the viewing room, gave her the injection to make a little more comfortable and little less self-conscious about the procedure and the started with the colonoscopy. Ten minutes later she was back in her room. It sounded like a dream, most of the words the doctors spoke were fuzzy, hazed by the medicine, but one thing was clear, or rather unclear. They were unable to finish the colonoscopy because her colon was almost completely blocked with polyps.

This was the beginning of my mother's journey with Colon Cancer. I was there that day. I was the one waiting for her to come out of the procedure. I was the one they told that there too many polyps to continue. I was also the one who had to tell my mother after the doctors didn't come back for a long time. Sounds like I'm pitying myself, but that's not really the case. The words were probably more of a comfort coming from me then they ever could have been coming from a doctor or nurse. But the diagnose was the same. Regardless of who or when the information was delivered, the diagnosis was the same. My mother had colon cancer.

Ultimately, my mother went through it twice. Both times she had part of her colon removed and underwent treatment to kill of any lingering cancer. Both times the cancer came back. She lost her battle with cancer when she was just 63. Two years to retirement age. Too many years too soon. You hear so many talk about the courageousness of those with cancer, my mother experienced an almost Zen like transformation that made me think that in some way she found comfort and offered it to those of us around her. Nothing else seemed to matter after she knew the final diagnosis. It was what it was. The rest was just stuff, as she often told me.

The rest was just stuff. Very prophetic words and one that I try to rely on to this day when things get rough. Since my mother's death almost 9 years ago I've had three colonoscopy with only one instance of polyps. I don't care how rough the pre-treatment is I still do it. If your family has a history of colon cancer then you should, too.

March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month. Know your family history. Suck it up and do the prep and the test. And never take a day for granted.   

Judging a Book by the Cover

I'd love to say that it isn't done. That covers don't make or break the sale of a good book. But frankly, in this digital age there is more focus on the covers then ever before. And when the covers are good, they can make a book a bestseller. But when they are bad, they can relegate the book to obscurity.

We are a nation of impatient consumers. Everything you buy now is marketed toward catching your eye in a millisecond. As the Internet speeds up, phones and other media devices get faster and more efficient, and the time that people have to actually sit and read a book decreases, we have even less time to make an impact and intrigue the reader enough to buy the book.

For a long time I've pondered the need for a new cover for Three Truths. The evolution of this books has seen a covers that didn't work, despite the wonderful story it really does portray. But despite the fact that I knew it needed a new cover I had to wait until the opportunity came along to have just the right person create just the right cover for my baby. It was total luck that I found out that my friend Sabrina had opened her own digital imagery business. Sabrina is an author, mother, wife, and a darned good artist. And just for me she created the cover of my dreams for Three Truths. (Sabrina will be visiting the blog very soon!)

Want to see the evolution of a cover? This is the perfect way to understand the way imagery creates a visceral reaction in the decision to buy your book. Each cover was the best that could be done at that time, but neither ever offered the right amount of homage to the fairytale story. Want to buy the book now? The link is on the right side of the page.  :)

The was the original cover for the original book. It had a different title then and was published through an ebook publisher. It was my first sale and I was very excited, but looking back I know that the book did little to help sales. This is the one that my friends and I refer to as the infamous "goat-cat" cover.









This cover is a disaster of my own making. At the time, I was repubbing it as an ebook and learning the process on my own. I wanted nothing to do with any human aspect on the cover after the "goat-cat" cover and I didn't have the money to get a new professional cover for the book. The sales were less than good. (Is there a less than good that isn't horrible?) Either way, if were the consumer I would have no idea what the book was about or how great the story was. I wouldn't have bought it so why would I expect anyone else to buy it either?





So now I am happy dancing at the wonderful cover that Sabrina created for me. There aren't enough ways for me to thank her for the work she did. She understood what I wanted and was patient (always good with me) and she got my dreams for the cover.

Thank you Sabrina!

FYI: Writer Taxes Workshop

If you are a member of RWA you should know that there is a great workshop on
Taxes for Writers that is being taught by Trinity Faegan and offered through RWA University. Just log onto your RWA account and go to the RWA University links to join. It's the first day and already there's a wealth of information for treating your writing as a business.

Honestly, it's Time to Save Yourself...

A couple of weeks ago, a certain writer's list that I was on had authors who were complaining about the success of another author on Amazon. They maintained that his fantastic sales numbers and increasing presence were the work of a vast amount of money dumped into publicity and that he'd somehow had it easy because he started off published by a "traditional" publisher. While they were not totally mean and hateful toward said author, they were so busy "blaming" his success on everything they could find and missed the mark on everything they should have seen.

I kept my mouth shut.  And, if any of you know me personally, then you know just how hard it is to get me to keep my mouth shut when I feel someone is being wronged. (It's a family trait. Both my father and daughter have this dominant gene.)

The author was J.A. Konrath and I won't bother to mention the list. If you're on it, then you've already seen this discussion that went on for several digests, during which time I had a hard time digesting. I don't know what their personal motivation was for dissing him. But I can guess that it smacks of little bit of jealousy and a whole lot of envy. Either way, they were completely missing the point when it comes to Konrath, so I'll point it out... HE'S MAKING IT WORK AND IT'S WORKING WELL FOR HIM.

There is no magic bullet. There is no absolute formula, and if you're looking for it then you need to find another profession. Konrath took complete control of writing and his publishing. He provides a great book and he's invested his career into making it work. It shows. Just go to Amazon and look up his titles. I daresay he's got more listings than 90% of the authors who are digitally publishing. In a sense, there is something very traditional about him in that he takes his career very seriously and gets the writing done so that he can give the readers what they want. I've never met the man, but I've been around this block long enough to know that if all you do is talk about publishing books, then you'll never actually write them. He's analyzed, scrutinized, taken chances, and taken his lumps. But he's still out there.

His post on his blog A Newbie's Guide to Publishing  is making the rounds. (You can find the post here) It focuses on the blame game that is being played out against Amazon for a good many things, including the demise of the so-called "traditional" publishers and the impact of Amazon on markets. I think there's room for both digital and traditional... for now. No one knows the future, but I do know that the cost of printing books is prohibitive to getting good books to market and readers. Blaming Amazon for something like this is ridiculous. Things change. Deal with it. And if you can't, then you didn't belong in publishing.

It's evolution, people ... every market evolves, whether it's books, food, clothes, they are all subject to trends and advancements. Amazon didn't put Borders out of business. Borders put themselves out of business for a lot of reason, one of which was a failure to react to changes in the market in a timely manner. It's 101. The same could be said for those writers who stick their heads in the sand and refuse to look at the possibilities.

Let me tell you a dirty little secret... I went to college originally to be a travel agent. Okay, so not so dirty. But how many of travel agents do you see today? Most agencies have closed up shop. Oh, there are a few of them left, but believe me when I say that the increasing use of the Internet made that job obsolete. My education isn't completely useless, though. It helps me out a heck of a lot when I want to book a flight or look for a vacation package in some sunny destination (it is Maine here, after all). But ultimately, Travel Agents went the way of the dinosaurs. If people can do it all themselves and cut out the middle man and the extra cost, then they should do it. That's why companies like Expedia and Travelocity are going gangbusters!

Finally, getting back to the whole green with envy thing. My feeling is that if someone is doing better than you then that's the person you want to watch and learn from. Konrath blogs with regularity and he offers up all the knowledge he has willingly. He's a pretty open book kind of guy (pun intended). Take it. Take it and run with it. Take it and publish with it, and make your own publishing experience a success. Don't be a dinosaur, or play the blame game. It doesn't look good on anybody.

Memories of the missing | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Memories of the missing The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Photo taken from Maine Sunday Telegram 02/05/2012Cathy Marie Moulton's face is one I won't forget. But the catch is that I never actually met her. In fact, I was only 4 when she disappeared in 1971 in Jay, Maine. Up until about three years ago, I never knew the case existed. But once I did I knew I wouldn't forget her face.

It was New Years Day and I had a serious case of cabin fever. My husband wasn't feeling well, so I packed the kids into the Durango and set off on one of our famous road trips. I would just pick a direction and drive. I knew I wanted to go inland and North. Beyond that, I had no expectations. My daughter was riding shotgun, doing her homework in the car and my son was playing video games in the backseat. I was headed for Rumford area when we got the munchies and stopped at a small store near a bend in the road. The first thing I noticed was that a man had driven his tractor to the store to fill it up. The second thing I noticed was the flyer stuck to the door of the store. I remember looking at it and instantly realizing that I was seeing a picture from the past. The hairstyle, the format of the picture and the clothes she was wearing all gave clues to her age. It wasn't until I read the flyer that I realized that Cathy was missing and she'd been missing for quite some time.

As I made my way back to my car I had a hundred different thoughts running through my head. Who was she? What had she been doing? And where was she now? I remember looking at my own kids and trying to understand what it must be like to wonder where your child is.

As I writer, there were many times in all these years that I struggled with the idea of putting a story like Cathy's to paper. Not in an effort to detract from the real victims, but to perhaps, make someone remember.

Cathy Moulton is only one of those missing in the article. Each family has it's own story. Their own hopes and fears. If there is someone out there with information for these families they should come forward. Peace of mind is a balm for the soul. I wish all of these families to find peace and the answers they need.

As for me? I won't forget you, Cathy.

January Review: Blogging, Goals and the Reality of Life

The end of January... Thank goodness it's over. The month started out as a red hot flame and ended as an ember, but this was because exhaustion from a family health crisis, having my daughter return to college, pushing myself on both the day job and writing front, and the general winter blahs. Sounds like a long list of items that are downers, but in reality I actually got a lot accomplished this month. I moved forward on some goals and others need to be rescheduled. But isn't that why goals should be semi-fluid? So that we can adjust as necessary without losing momentum? In case you didn't catch my goals for The first few months of 2012, you can find them here , but for now, I'll post January's goals below and discuss what worked and didn't.

I. January - Prework: Print out SD and edit for content changes in prep for BIAW. In all fairness, I was so pumped going into January that I had this done before BIAW came along. It also completed my first writing goal for the month. I purposely picked something that was a short, doable goal so that it would give me the determination to go forward positively. And it worked, but I'm still editing because I want to have just the right amount of emotion packed into such a short story.


Writing Goals:
A. Complete 500 words needed to meet goal on SD and edit. I already commented on this above, but truly, there is something to be said for setting an easier goal to give yourself motivation to move forward. Too many times people set unreasonable goals and then get discouraged when they can't accomplish them.
B. Query online presses that acquire Novellas. I didn't do any actual querying because I don't consider it complete, but I did do a lot of researching into venues that I thought would be a good fit for the story. Now, when I'm ready to query the info will be at the ready.
C. Participate in BIAW. I participated, sort of. But I'm not afraid to say that my level of participation this month sucked. For a multitude of reasons I couldn't wrap my head around any new projects and in the end decided to work on the editing of my novella. Did I fail? No, I just changed my goal to suit the situation.

Promotion Goals:
A. Blog once weekly. I think I got all but the last week on this goal and I can justify that by saying that some weeks there was more than one post. I also found that by promoting my posts through Savvy Authors and on Network Blogs I increased the traffic to my blog. I'll give you the stats on that at the end of the post.
B. Write 1 article. Since I was on a blogging roll I decided that the best place to put my article on 10 Things I learned from Hosting on my Blog .
C. Put out a call for Guest Blogs. As you probably guessed from my link above I did have a foray into guest blogging. My friend and fellow author Diane Amos was a willing participant and let me test the waters on her with a fantastic post about her trip to publication. Since then, I've put my blog on the roll call at Savvy Authors and put the word out that I'm actively looking for authors to visit. I even approached a new author about her upcoming release. Stay tuned for that. I'd say I aced this goal.

Business Goals:
A. National Dues : Silly me, they weren't due this month. It's next month. So this gets slid to February's goals.
B. Maine RWA Dues: Paid. Done.
C. Organize Tax Papers and get info off old drive: This isn't done yet, but only because the old computer is in bad, bad shape. I'm just raising more money so I can get this information from it.

So, all in all, I consider January to have been a success. I promised the statistics from my blog as tracked by Google Analytics: Totals do not include September to December of last year as I found that the tracking was off for those months.
Total Visits:     2011=63           January, 2012=114
Unique Visits: 2011=40           January, 2012=98
Page Views:     2011=86           January, 2012=244
Bounce Rate: 2011=82.54%   January, 2012=65.96%
New Visits :     2011=60.32%   January, 2012=66.67%
Most would think these are paltry results, but if you compare it with the entire calculations for the previous year then I would say that these are a successful work-in-progress. There was so much more that I gleaned from tracking the progress and analyzing my blog and how I work with it as a professional tool that I haven't added here. I'm saving that for later. But for now, I'm okay with what I have as a foundation to build upon.

So, this leads me to February's goals:
II. February - Prework: Rework list of scenes for OH and list 10 ideas for articles


Writing Goals:
A. Finish Word Count for OH, adding required pages to meet goal.
B. Edit OH (this will be a continuing goal in conjunction with final edits on SD)
C. Edit Query Letter and find 3 outlets for book

Promotion Goals:
A. Blog once a week
B. Write 1 article and find 3 outlets for other articles
C. Host 1 Guest on blog

Business Goals:
A. Track Daily Progress and word count
B. Update Tax information
C. Track blog and sales information in database
D. Take 1 online class
E. Pay RWA Membership

You will see that many of these have repeated and some are updated. Either way, I've got a workable list to focus on for February. I'll let you know how it all progresses.
How did your goals for January fare?

Confessions of Intimidation

I don't consider myself to be a newbie to this publishing thing. I've been around the block long enough that I've gone from being the youngest member of my writer group to one of the ones that's been there the longest. To put it in perspective, my college-age daughter was in diapers when I started writing.
So, this would beg the question... Why in the world would I let one editor/agent discourage me from writing a story I truly want to write? 
I've sat on this story for nearly a year. I've stewed and hemmed, and fussed and fumed. And yet, I never went any further on the story that I was once so passionate about. Last year, before the beginning of the New England RWA Conference, those of us who were signed up for an agent/editor meeting were asked to send out 10 pages in advance. This was so that the editors/agents could have a chance to read through the material and determine whether the submission in question was something they were interested in reading. In theory, this was a great idea. But only if the editor/agent liked the submission. In my case, she found it boring and she used the word "lazy" in describing the method in which I had used to parlay some of the initial information.

Lazy.
Not exactly the word any writer wants to hear. Especially, when they were trying to write a book that they considered to be outside their comfort zone. Of course, I smiled and thanked her and then turned and walked away from the table with minutes to spare. But something of myself got left behind at that table. Some of my self-confidence. This is an edgy field, filled with competition, a lot of criticism and a good dose of maternal optimism when it comes to our work. We all want "our baby" to be the best, to have someone find it who will respect it and understand it and see why we feel it's the most beautiful, original baby in the world. 
But sometimes, our stories just aren't beautiful, original babies...
I haven't written a thing on the book since then. I haven't even opened the file. It has crossed my mind a few times, only to be pushed to the back burner in favor of more marketable projects. But lately, I've come to the conclusion that while the editor/agent's criticism was harsh and unfavorable... so was my response. This was something a quitter would do, giving up on something they believe in just to conform to the party line. My writing wasn't really lazy, but I was a quitter. And while I wanted to blame the lack of progress on the project on the editor/agent, I knew that to be truthful I would need to look at myself first. I let her intimidate me into conforming. I gave up. Not a pretty diagnosis, but recognition is the first step in changing the outcome. Working on the book again would be the next step and taking it in the direction I originally wanted it to go. 
I've always detested people who place blame for their problems on others. More often than not I am the first to admit when I've done something wrong (much to the amazement of my day job boss). So why should I blame this editor/agent for my lack of initiative? I can't. If I give up, she wins. If I continue, I can't fail. Either way, I write the book I want to tell.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

First, let me say that I haven't read this book. Yet. This is not a review. But it has definitely made it onto my TBR pile for a couple of reasons. One, the incredible cover is a complete draw and had me hooked as I walked by it at Barnes and Noble. Two, the storyline is so bizarre and the format so unique that it's destined to achieve attention. (I'll add a third... the author's name is Ransom Riggs, which is about the coolest name I've heard in quite some time.)

From Ransom Rigg's blog about the book:
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.


It's hard enough to write a book that stands out in a market as tough as Teen Paranormals, but this storyline is exactly what it means when burgeoning authors are given the advice to write what you know and to write the story that you want to read . After all, if you write what you like there has to be someone else out there that will enjoy it. I was intrigued enough from scanning the book in the store to come home and do the research online. Normally, I'd forget and it would be days later before I went back to Google the book.
There were a couple of other interesting facts from Mr. Riggs' blog. Since childhood, he's collected photos of people he doesn't know. I couldn't believe there was someone else out there who'd felt as I did as a child. I remember collecting photographs at yard sales and flea markets because I couldn't stand the thought that some unknown relative was being put out for sale, unnamed and un-revered. Now, after all these years, I wish I'd kept up with the collection. Perhaps, it's that fascination with the history of the nameless faces that helped me become a writer. I'm sure it had something to do with my becoming a ghost hunter. I never could stand the idea of anyone being forgotten.

There are good and mixed reviews on Amazon for this book. But I accredit this to the fact that there is no way you can put a round peg in a square hole. There is really nothing to compare it with, and as such, people are going to have a hard time with the inability to categorize it. As for me? I've always said that "non-typical" is a very good thing.

Happy Reading! I'm off to buy the book online...

10 Things I learned from Hosting a Guest on my Blog

Hosting on my blog is a new experience for me. It's something that I've thought of undertaking for quite some time, but until now I wasn't sure that I could do. Thursday, I hosted friend and fellow adventurer, Diane Amos, who talked about her path to publication with her latest Five Star book, Promise Me Forever. We talked about this for awhile before attempting it.

Neither of us was sure just what was going to happen, but in the end I was happy with the results. We ended up with 27 visitors for the blog and around 10 comments (I think). This may not seem like much, but considering that this is about five times the normal visitors/daily that I get I was pretty darned happy with it. There were a few things that I worked out along the way and I'll pass these tips on to anyone who may be interested in hosting or being part of a blog tour.

1. Decide the topic to be discussed keeping it to something that will be of interest to your blog readers. If you write a research blog, keep it to research. If you write a erotic blog, keep the tone the same.

2. Decide the type of blog post. Interview or general post. Either, will work well, but keep in mind that the interview requires a ton of pre-work and back and forth between the author and then you will need to put it together into a posting that will entice the readers. If you decided to have the guest post a blog on a certain topic then you'll want to find something that will interest the majority of readers.

3.  When to host the blog post. Really, any time will work, but keep in mind that you want to be available to monitor comments and help the process along by encouraging readers to the blog.

4. Which leads me to... mining your contacts. Not all the lists that you are on are going to appreciate it if you post about a guest on your blog for the day. It helps to know the rules of the individual lists and be sure to follow them so that you don't offend any potential readers. If you intend to do this often then keep a list handy.

5. Do as much of it ahead of time as you can. I copied the post into my blog poster and added pictures that I gathered from the author's site. I also added links for all the ways that they could be connected to their readers, either through Facebook, Twitter, etc. And finally, I added links to all the available books the author had available and made sure the links worked. Once this was done I set the blog to post at a reasonable time on the agreed date.

6. Make sure your blog is ready to host. I found this out through trial and error, but one of the biggest things that I realized to late was that my "follow my blog" app was too low on the page. Make it easy for the readers to connect with you and your blog. Give them the Facebook, Twitter and other assorted links at the top. Include the "follow me" app because this means that as you post they will get the chance to see your posts

7. Network Blogs is an app that's available through Facebook. Not part of it? Sign yourself up. This allows your blog posts to show up as a status message automatically when you post. Also, they can set to follow you through the Network Blogs page.

8. Ditto for Twitter. My blog posts automatically feed to my Twitter page and give a link to my blog. Utilize all avenues for getting people to your blog.

9. Check your comments often. Unless you are set for un-moderated messages you are going to have to approve all the messages that post to your blog. Do this often and encourage the author to check them often to comment on what is being posted. These are their potential readers.

10. Have fun with it. It's really not as scary as it would seem to undertake this type of effort. Because Diane is my friend it was a more relaxed experience (at least on my part).

I want to thank Diane for visiting the blog. She really wrote a great article that touched many people. Her books do the same thing and I wish her the best and many, many happy readers. :)