The things I don't know. . .

. . . could fill a book. Okay, maybe a few books. All right, a friggin' encyclopedia.

I have always prided myself in learning broadly and felt confident I was a dependable repository of knowledge ranging from essentially worthless to absolutely critical. However the boundaries of knowledge keep receding further and further from my reach and. . . well, how's a girl to keep up? There are only so many hours in the day for reading, studying, researching, and gargling at the fountains of wisdom. And lately, I've been coming up a little short in some areas.

For YOUR enlightenment, I thought I'd share a few of the ideas and concepts I've tripped over and skinned knees on lately.

Tappas. . . which sounded like a 1950 brand of ovens to me. (Turns out, that was "Tappan.") My second guess was that it was a style of Brazilian gaucho pants that were last in style in the 70's. (I don't get out much.) Turns out, it's "meat," [Well, perhaps not. It turns out that what I heard was wrong-- it comes from the Spanish word "tapa," which means "cover" See, I'm always learning!]. Little tasty (meaty or cheesey or dippy) dishes that are served as apperitifs or light meals in trendy bars. Accompanied by trendy alcohol. Couldn't they just say food?

Feng Shui. . . which sounded like "funk sway" to me and reminded me of George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadellic. Or some such. Movin' and groovin', anyway. Turns out, it's a Japanese philosophy of spatial and architectural arrangement, the principles of which are meant to increase the flow of "chi" in our homes and lives and bring us into harmony with our surroundings. Not a bad concept. Now, if I only understood what "chi" was.

Consilience. . . which sounded like a bizarre blend of "silly" and "conscience." (Kon sil e ence). I had no idea where to start with this one, besides a dictionary. Turns out, it's a new expression of an old idea. . . that similar ideas arise or are deduced (inducted?) from separate fields of study and point to the concurrence or agreement of natural and philosophical concepts. Separate lines of inquiry ultimately leading to the same place? Sounds like a variation on synchronicity to me. Not sure it will catch on at cocktail parties.

Prions. . . sounded vaguely like a humanoid race encountered by Jean Luc Piccard and Number One in episode #46 of The Next Generation. Prions. Weren't they the blue ones with the funny little cone tipped antennae? Turns out. . . not so much. Prions are proteins with an attitude. They're proteins that enter cells and interfere with cellular metabolism and cause mega-illnesses. They've been determined to cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which is a nasty kind of encephalitis similar to Mad Cow. . . that can be spread through injestion. . . eating. There have been cases of prions causing clusters of fatal illness. . . and prions are one of the several boogeymen pointed to by opponents of genetic alteration of foods. Prions may be bad, but they must not be too widespread or we'd be hearing a lot more about them!

GMF. . . (NOT to be confused with GMC!). . . sounded like a new brand of mountain bike to me. Or maybe a new all-weather radial from Goodyear. Nope. GMF stands for Genetically Modified Food. And it turns out, there are precious few things on grocery shelves these days that don't contain ingredients that come from genetically modified (altered) plants and animals. Virtually all wheat, corn, and soybeans sold for human consumption in the U.S. are "transgenic". . . that is, have genes from other organisms inserted into their code. It ain't just "franken-tomatoes" anymore, folks!

Bioprospecting. . . sounded like biology and prospecting put together. And it is. Bioprospecting is the practice of going to regions identified as rich in "biodiversity" and looking for biological materials--especially genetic-- that may be useful in the "engineering" of food or medicine and can be patented by a bio-tech company. Said bological materials may include the blood of native peoples. A very touchy issue in some parts. And, yes, they're patenting human genes. All over the place. Did you know that patents have been granted for something like 20% of the human genome? Yes, YOUR human genes. Patented. You can't do whatever you want with your genes now. Except, of course, pass them along to offspring. Thank heaven nobody's patented that. Yet.

Polyamory. . . this one I got a handle on without a lot of sweat. It sounds curiously like a combination of "poly" (many) and amorous" (love). Well it is. Defined in the New Webster as: the state or practice of having more than one open romantic relationship at a time. Not exactly a new concept. . . so why haven't we heard the word before? Because before when we talked about it we called it "open" marriage, cheating, philandering, swinging, etc. . . and it generally had a stigma attached. Now we need a new term because we want to be able to talk about it without attaching fusty old moralistic labels. This is a sociological term for a new age.


Well, there you have a few things I didn't know. From time to time, I'll try to update you with neat new finds.

What about you? Got any new words or concepts you're fascinated with and willing to share? They don't have to be new. . . just new to you. . .

UMBA Convention - Helen's First

We're off to see the booksellers! Well, at least Kathleen, Lois, and I are.

The Upper Midwest Booksellers Association is having is annual convention in St. Paul, Minnesota today. I'm told I'm to bring promotional materials, but other than that, don't ask me what it's all about because this is my first AS A PUBLISHED AUTHOR!!

Kathy and I are setting up. Lois is coming later. Oh, and tonight is Midwest Fiction Writers 25th anniversary celebration and I get to go. Barbara Samuel is speaking, and then tomorrow Jennie Crusie and Bob Mayer are holding a day-long workshop. Book signing at the Mall of America Saturday night.

Busy, busy. I'll bring pictures next week!

Get High on a New Thing

About a month ago, I bought myself a shiny new car. Yep, I've been around forty years, figured it was high time I had a new one. As with all new things, a lot of care goes into keeping it shiny, new, and 'factory condition'. I bought special wipes for the interior. If I get stuck in the rain I drive home, then dry off my sweetie in the garage so it doesn't streak. And the wheels of this brand have a tendency to put out a lot of black brake dust, so every Sunday I'm out there polishing the wheel wells. Yep, I love my baby. It's my shiny new thing.


Now, yesterday, while I was parked in a department store lot, waiting for my son (he got a job, yeah!) something horrible ocurred. I saw it coming. I cringed, but there was no way to stop it. A mother and her three year old child approached to get into the car next to mine. The kid's face was riddled with gooey dark stuff. Chocolate likely, but I don't want to bring that luscious substance into this foul tale. We'll just say it was caramel, 'cause I can go either with with caramel. Anyway, the gooey kid eyed my shiny new thing, and...touched it! She smeared up my side window, and the mother simply cooed 'oh, sweetie, come on, don't touch.' But the damage had been done. She had defiled my shiny new thing! Needless to say I rushed home to give it a tender-loving shine and said a curse against all sticky three year olds. SIgh... (Okay, so I didn't curse any kids. Come on!)

Just ask my kids about mom's obsession with keeping new things new and they'll chuckle that nervous laughter of one who knows that maybe the offending party is a little off kilter. Any small household appliance that comes out of the box with an extension cord all coiled up neatly and twisty-tied? I never remove the twisty tie. It must remain factory condition. Even tf that entails rearranging the whole cupboard to allow the short coiled cord to reach an outlet.


And if there's a plastic film over an electronic device to protect the screen? That stays. I kept the plastic over my iPod wheel for well over a year. The plastic protecting the radio on my previous car remained well over six months. If it's sealed, but usable, it doesn't get removed.

What about those lovely smelling body butters and moisturizers you buy in the tubs? Open it up to reveal a perfect factory-impressed swirl on the top. Oh, I skim lightly in the direction of the swirl as to preserve it's loveliness as long as possible. Note to all skimmers: Do NOT allow The Hubby to use your body butter! The first time The Hubby goudged out a big chunk I think I had a heart attack. He had defiled the swirl! Oh, my heart aches.

Which brings me to books. First off, I never purchase the first book in the pocket at a store. Those books have likely been Touched By Others. I dig down for a perfect copy that isn't torn or smeared or bent. I have been known to not buy the book if there are no perfect copies, and often will drive to another store in my quest.

Now, when I read a hard cover book it can only be done with the book jacket OFF. Oh, I know, it's there to protect. Right. But what's protecting the pretty book jacket? I can't risk a bend or wrinkle or tear should I keep it on while reading.

And paperbacks. Now, my friends who know of my book habits find it odd that I will, in fact, dog ear a page. No problem with that. But crack the spine? I think not! I have been known to contort into awkward, squinting positions to read the text inside a book that I don't want to open too wide lest I should crack the spine. To crack a spine is book murder, I tell you. Are you guilty?

So tell me, ARE you guilty? Or do you like a pristine read as well as I do, one that looks as new after you've read it, as when you bought it. Tell!

Oh, and bonus points for anyone who remembers who sang the hit 80s song Get High On A New Thing.
M

Helen's Happy Hour

Welcome to happy hour. That's HHH to you!

That's me over there on the left, sipping-- okay, okay, gulping-- my martini and breathing a huge sigh of relief at having finally, finally, finished revisions on my second book. I normally never wear that bright of lipstick, but, hey, this is a blog. I can step out a bit, right?

Especially since these were hard revisions. After already
cutting over 100 pps from this single title manuscript, the Superromance line officially dropped another 10,000 words. I had to come up with another 35 pps I could live without. I've lost two entire subplots and hacked off a chunk of a third, but the main story-line survived. Yay!

As official bartender, I'm ready to celebrate, commiserate, discuss, ruminate, encourage, you name it. First one up to the comment bat, gets to pick the topic!

Oh, and I've been informed that as bartender I pick the martini of the day. You get to choose between the Johnny Drunken Appleseed (it's apple orchard season in Minnesota) or the Mr. Oddjobs Wedgie Orange martini.

The Burning Question

What was your best decade? Your teens, 20's, 30's, forties, fifties, sixties? Beyond? And why? In which did you have the most fun? In which did you accomplish the most? In which did you feel most at home with yourself? In which did you realize a dream ambition or put to rest old hurts and baggage?

Kathleen Has Used Up All Her Words

I know I've showed you this photo before, taken during my Writer's Runaway in the Little Hotel On the Prairie where a week of total WIP immersion helped me really get going on this one. But now I'm back in the real world, and one thing after another conspires to impede my progress. Mostly it's family stuff, and the truth is that whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, Real Time does more of a number on me these days than it used to.

Writing requires sustained concentration. I really had it going when I locked myself in this small space with nothing but the laptop (had to make friends with that little contraption--hadn't used one before--but now I like it) and a window on the prairie. I keep taking this picture out and trying to get back into this place mentally. But then comes the call or the writing on the calendar, and I go and do. When I get back, the words aren't there. Not even the crappy ones that will do for now until I find better ones.

So it's my day to blog, and blogging requires words, and I have no words. My brain is behaving like a stubborn child, refusing to do its chores. My theory is that if I start functioning in the left side of the brain, which is more cooperative, I can sneak over to the right side when that recalcitrant child isn't looking. So I start thinking about right vs left brain, and I google it because I can't ever remember which is which at the moment, and I find a quiz. Ah, distraction. I take the quiz, and it tells me I'm 40% left brained, 60% right. It could be worse, I guess. If I were 50-50 I'd be really conflicted.

Okay, words are coming now. My fingers are moving. I actually did something--got off square one. So here's a question for you: What do you think your percentages might be? Mine surprised me a little. Try predicting yourself first, then you can take the test here: http://www.blogthings.com/areyourightorleftbrainedquiz

Unthinking!

I may be a workaholic. Genetics, in fact, insist that I be. I never saw my parents in non-work mode until they turned eighty. At which time they began taking a few minutes to sleep at night. So when Deb D. spoke of receiving gifts you don’t realize you need, I knew exactly what she was talking about; right now I’m in super drive work mode. My book, Bewitching The Highlander, (which may or may not be the title that actually shows up on the cover) is due in New York in one week. One week! That’s the approximate time it takes me to peal an apple. Note: Workaholoics don’t necessarily work fast.

But here’s the kicker--my daughter’s big year-end horse show took place the middle of September--two weeks before my deadline. I truly felt I couldn’t be there, even though my universe revolves around her. My characters were being snotty, my plot was a tangled mess, and my villain refused to die. But in the end I remembered one sterling truth--daughters don’t stay young forever. So we packed up Sagacious Sage, the cutest horse in the solar system, and trotted off to the fairgrounds. For fours days we slept in the trailer, ate junk food, and spent a lot of time trying to keep our white horse white. In other words, I went into….unthink mode.

Turns out, it was the best thing that could have happened to my book. Maybe it was the Twinkies, maybe it was the icy water Tara kept hosing me down with while pretending to wash Sage, or maybe my little mind just needed a break. Because, glory be, when I returned home, exhausted and smelling like horse dung, my characters straightened right up. My plot magically untangled itself, and my villain finally croaked.

I admit that coming from a long line of overachieving ueber workers, I usually agree with that ‘just do it’ and ‘get ‘er done’ mentality. But sometimes it’s best to just unthink for a while. My methods, oddly enough, usually involve horse manure and a half a ton of complex carbohydrates. But I imagine their are other, possibly more civilized, methods.

What are yours?

Sunday Brunch with the Girls. . .

Welcome!
Sundays are days to rest , reflect, and recharge. So I thought today I'd take a moment or two to lift a Mimosa to our riders and readers, our book lovers and blog lurkers, our writing friends and this wonderful on-line community of ours.

Where would we be without each other?

I've learned a great deal from my on-line listmates and today I'll share my top five on-line writing lessons.

1. Conflict, conflict, conflict. It has to be in every scene I write, or it's not pushing the story forward. But conflict doesn't have to be Protag and Antag going at it fang and claw; conflict can be quiet, subtle, sexy, heartbreaking, even humorous. And there should probably be several ongoing conflicts if I'm going to sustain a 400+ page novel. Think about it: at any time there are all kinds of tensions and conflicts going on in the average human life. And we seldom write about Average characters.

2. That which doesn't annoy or discomfort me, probably isn't helping me grow. I love flattering comments and reviews; I suck in praise like nectar. But being called a genius or having my characters called the best in historical fiction (don't I wish!) doesn't tell me how I can improve my work. Having reviews or reader comments say that my book's start was slow or the characters fought a little too much, or that the ending was rushed-- that's something I can sink my teeth into and work to improve on the next book.

3. Someone will always do it better than me. And that's okay. Because I write my stories, from my experience and my heart. Being compared-- favorably or unfavorably-- to another writer is irrelevant. What I need to be is the best Betina Krahn I can be. Most days that's quite enough of a challenge.

4. There are a million roads to Oz. There is no one "right" way to do anything in a creative field like writing. What works like a clock for somebody else can bring me grinding to a halt. Believe me, I've tried "pantsing," "outlining," "spread sheeting," "color coded carding," and "post-it noting on the wall." None of them were are effective as my "synopsis and then write ignoring the synopsis" technique. Because no two writers write alike. For good reasons. I found a way that works and I'm hanging in there with it. While I keep my eye out for something better.

5. There is nothing new under the sun. No new plots. No new problems. No new publishing gambits. No new topics or subjects. . . only creative new twists and variations on the old ones. So relax and quit letting the pressures make you crazy. Enjoy painting and refining your colorful version of the wheel, instead of trying to invent it from scratch. Quit feeling like the Lone Ranger (note to self: pay attention here!) and get back to doing what you do best: putting the story on the page.

There you have them: my top five. Got any of your own you'd like to share? What have you learned from the on-line writing community? Have a seat, snag a mimosa, and let 'er rip.

Seven Days Out

Monday: Lois

Tuesday: Kathy

Wednesday: The Burning Question
(Might be a great day for a Happy Hour!)

Thursday: Michele

Friday: Candace

Debra and the Opposite of Synchronicity

I’m thrilled that Betina explored synchronicity yesterday because a firm understanding of those moments in life when the stars in the universe align and remind us that we’re all connected is going to make my problem a whole lot easier to blame on you.

Apparently…your dog ate my homework.

Look carefully at this blog. Do you see a humorous Deborah Smith interview about her incredible (I've read it!) new book CROSSROADS CAFE? I don’t see a Deborah Smith interview about any book. There is supposed to be a Deborah Smith interview about something! Yet there isn’t an interview here.

There wasn’t an interview in my email bin at midnight last night either. (Which is why my original working blog title was: There’s no time like the present for a good panic!)

Note to self: Good interview technique includes confirming that the interview subject actually receives your insightful questions.

Darned unreliable internet. It carries twelve trillion emails a day and it loses mine??? Oh, the world is connected all right and someone’s out to get me. It’s the oil companies. I know they…

:::an uneasy pause, followed by rustling sounds while Debra stuffs her paranoia back into its hole:::

Never fear. We shall corral Deborah and drag her here for your amusement. She really is quite funny, and CROSSROADS CAFÉ (ISBN: 0-9768760-5-1) is some book—starred review in Library Journal, an RT Book Club Top Pick, fab review in Booklist, given perfect 10s and 5 stars in review after review. If you can’t wait until she arrives, you can get more info on the book at www.Bellebooks.com. Check out the huge chapter-length excerpts! (Yes, multiple chapters, not a measly few pages.)

In the meantime…let’s talk about pets and synchronicity. We’ve always been “pet people.” Showed dogs for years. As an odd little point of pride, I owned the only Irish Wolfhound ever ranked in all obedience ranking (point) systems. Never bred many litters, but I do know my way around a puppy. One morning 18 months ago, I was quietly working in my home office and heard new-born baby puppy noises underneath my chair. Beneath the floor.

That was odd considering the fact we hadn't had dogs for quite a while. And when we did have dogs, I was pretty sure we didn't keep 'em under the floor.

Our last Irish Wolfhound had died a number of years before and we’d decided to take a break from dogs because of our hectic travel schedule. Moving and/or remodeling had also been on the agenda. At the time of the "puppy noises" we were in the middle of the mother of all remodels.

Workmen had forgotten to replace a door to underneath the house. A very young German Shepherd-Husky mix "momma-to-be" moved right in and deposited eight puppies. Directly under my office and my chair. Most people would have had her hauled away by animal control when the workmen said they wouldn’t come back until she was gone. She was starved, terrified, and nasty enough that you couldn’t get close to her. Nasty enough that my husband called her Cujo.

Yep, most people would have been too scared (and maybe too smart) to do anything but call animal control. But Cujo had her puppies under the office of a woman who was used to 160 lb Irish Wolfhounds that stood tall enough to look her in the eye. Who’d written articles on dogs and obedience for national magazines like Dog World. Who’d grown up with German Shepherds.

A woman who couldn’t say no. (see previous blog on "That Dixon Chick")

“Of all the gin joints in all the towns…” She walks into mine. The one place that won’t turn her away because she’s wild and scared. The one place that needed a dog and didn’t know it.

Her name is Sweetie.

She never leaves my side.

I really like it when the stars align.

Has anyone else been given a gift they didn't know they needed and now can't live without?

Betina explores Synchronicity

My family has always acknowledged that there are occasionally strange matches or instances of mirroring of circumstances and details in our lives. At first we called it "funny coincidences." Then we called it just "coincidences." And somewhere along the way we learned that other people had discovered it too, and given it a name: "Synchronicity." Similar happenings, details, meetings, or interactions that unexpectedly "match" or "coincide."

My earliest memories of this were when my family moved from one state to another and, oddly, my letter sweater from my previous school (a big red "N") and the school mascot (wildcats) matched perfectly. But it had happened earlier with my parents: both of their grandmothers were named "Pollyanna." (Okay, one Polly Anna, and the other Pollyanna, but close enough!) Interestingly, when I got married, my grandmother and my husband's grandmother had the same name: "Alma." A skeptic might say that was a generational thing-- that there were probably a lot of Alma's in that generation. What are the odds that my current fiance's grandmother was Alma, too? Well, she was.

Odder still was a meeting we had with a pediatric heart specialist who was filling in at our local Urgent Care when our son was young. He had driven up from the Mayo cCinic just one night to fill in and listened to Zeb's chest during an asthma attack and declared he had a heart murmur. Three years later, we had Zeb back in Urgent Care for another asthmatic attack (hadn't been there since the first time!) and lo, and behold-- the same cardiac specialist was on duty and made the same diagnosis. He told us he hadn't been there since that first episode when we'd seen him. He remembered us and was as astonished as we were. Afterward we took Zeb to a heart doctor, who couldn't seem to find the murmur this doc said he had. Still feel a little uneasy about that, after 16 years.

Ever gone halfway across the country on vacation and walked into a department store to find someone you know from home shopping there? Living in Minnesota, I had flown to Florida and driven down to Ft. Myers on vacation. I walked into Saks and found my mother's long-term neighbor and dear family friend at the jewelry counter! Neither of us had ever been to Ft. Myers before! Did it mean anything? I have no clue.

But I do find myself taking note of these coincidences and sometimes letting them influence the decisions I make. I see them as nudges from the Universe. Nods in the right direction.

Sometimes, they're just something to smile about. Like the fact that my beautiful new granddaughter "Kate" was born at 7:37 pm on Monday. (Hurray!!!) Interestingly, her mother, my daugher-in-law, was also born exactly at 7:37 pm. Hmmmm. Wonder what that means. If anything.

Maybe all it means is that we humans always look for meaning, for the truth behind the reality. Maybe they come to mean what we need them to mean. Or maybe the Creator or the Universe just throws them in for FUN.

What about you? Had any coincidences that have left an impact on your life or caused you to wonder what was behind it all? Have you ever let an instance of "synchronicity" guide your decision process? How did it turn out?

The Burning Question

How much attention to you give to "bad guys" in your
books? Talk about your best villain.

Helen's Call: Part One

Yes, I’m the newbie on the blog. I’m so new the ink has barely dried on my contracts, I don't have a cover yet, and I've yet to go through the copy editing process. I thought some of our readers might be interested in finding out about my journey. It was a long one!

This is the type of thing I'm hoping for on my first cover. Dangerous, I know, but I needed a visual aid for this post! The title is TREASURE and it's an action adventure set in The Bahamas.

A writer friend and one of my first critique partners, Connie Brockway, had me as a guest on her blog, Squawk Radio, right after I sold, and, with a couple minor revisions, this is the blog I wrote for her.

I got THE CALL from Harlequin Superromance, as in sold my first book, on March 31. And it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. I was ready to quit writing. Forever. Really.

Fifteen years ago, when my daughter was taking two hour naps every afternoon, I sat down to write my first book. What difference did it make that my college degree was in accounting? That CPAs aren’t supposed to be creative? I was a voracious reader. I’d gotten an A in creative writing in high school. I had a computer. If LaVyrle Spencer could do it, I could do it, right?

My first readers, mostly family, were patience and kind, which gave me the courage to join my first critique group. They weren’t quite so Minnesota nice. But I’m thankful for that. They taught me so much. I was an eager student, swallowing my pride and absorbing every tidbit of wisdom any reader, published author, agent, or editor bothered to offer. I went to conferences. I entered contests. I got deservedly sucky scores. I worked and learned and worked and learned some more.

When I finalled in the Golden Heart contest back in 1994. I thought, “This is it.” About a month later, I got my first agent (the day I came home from the hospital with my second child) and I thought, “I gonna sell for sure.” I didn’t. No one would touch it. How did I know that setting a romance in the Middle East killed a story from an editor’s perspective? They wanted to see anything else I’d written, but I had nothing else publishable and a newborn baby.

The let down was terrible. I am not a quitter. I have never quit anything in my entire life. But the Golden Heart is it, baby. If you can’t sell after that, what’s the point? I cried. I got angry. I couldn’t write. I was paralyzed, scared to death of putting tremendous effort into something that once again wouldn’t pan out. Fear is my worst enemy. I quit writing for almost five years.

Over time, creative urges sabotaged me. Stories bounced around in my head. I tried coming to terms with being a good writer stuck in a screwed up system. I tried developing more realistic expectations. I loved writing. Maybe a more marketable setting was the ticket, but I didn’t care if I got published. (Yeah, right. I’m the seventh of eight children. I crave attention.)

I wrote my third book for fun, something that excited me. (This ended up being my first sale.) It didn’t do great in contests. It didn’t sell. It didn’t get me an agent. But I’d enjoyed the process, so I wrote a fourth book. It finalled in the Golden Heart, along with my second book. I was a double finalist! This was it! I had three agents offering me representation. Three! But I’d been in nearly this exact position ten years earlier. I knew what could happen and what might not happen.

Sure enough, during the course of the next year, my worst fears were realized. In one of the most agonizingly slow processes know to womankind, one editor after another turned my book down. This, after several loved the book, but couldn't get more senior editors to jump on the bandwagon. Fear threatened to knock the legs out from under me. Again.

I’m not sure I can tell you what was different this time around, except that maybe sheer stubbornness won out. I think I simply refused to let anyone tell me what my dream could be. I’d quit writing when I damned well wanted to quit writing!

My agent stuck with me, bless her heart. (Yes, this is Tina Wexler.) Editors had loved my writing despite not being able to buy my book, so she encouraged me to rework my third book. I was skeptical, but I did it. In fact, I rewrote that darned manuscript three times for three different editors. Finally, it worked!

Ten years of serious writing, four completed manuscripts, three Golden Heart finals, a Maggie win, too many regional contest finals to count, three critique groups, two agents, and one study group later, I’m finally a published author.

Ever been scared to write? If you had to start all over again, would you still choose writing as a career?

In two weeks I'll post on why I think I finally got published.

Kathleen Returns From Writer's Runaway

I go away for a week and miss the welcome party for Deb Dixon--Hey, Deb, great to have you in the car with us!--the farewell to my buddy, Anne(you guys, that PALE IMMORTAL is not to be missed!)--and gorgeous evidence of Betina's shoe fetish (Man, talk about your blog full of, er, your BOOK OF TRUE DESIRES)about which I could wax nostalgic for a good long piece, having suffered with ECHFE (Early Childhood Huge Foot Embarassment). It affects one's relationship with shoes. But I won't go there today. (Man! Did I ever wreak havoc with punctuation in that paragraph! And the fact that I have to mention this just shows how I struggle to get out of my own way. Again, I digress.)

Instead, I bring photos from my Writer's Runaway. I escaped to Indian Country in south central ND, setting of the story I'm working on now. It (working title MYSTIC HORSEMAN, which will undoubtedly be changed) is a sequel to RIDE A PAINTED PONY (Nov 28, remember) and the advantage to that is in knowing at least one of the main characters pretty well. But they're two totally different stories--different tone, pace, focus, relationships--so shifting from one to the other is tricky.

I know what the story's about--sort of; surprises are part of the process--and I've named and begun to flesh out the new characters. I've moved into the middle stage of the writing. Not the middle of the book, but the middle part of my process. It's the toughest part, and it takes discipline. And I'd rather try to discipline anyone but myself. (Still, after all these years of living, I kid myself about such a thing being feasible.)

But the big problem is THE REAL WORLD. I needed to get my head into the heart of the new story, and I've been letting every worldly problem, real or imagined, distract me from THE WORK. Unlike most jobs, THE WORK isn't really part of THE REAL WORLD.

Yet, it is. First picture: sunrise behind the casino hotel. (Don't imagine Vegas, now. Or Mystic Lake, or anything close.) You don't get this kind of sky in my part of MN. Too many trees. Too many people, houses, roads. And they're the wrong people, houses, trees and roads for THE WORK. This story is about community and family and people who might have been born anywhere, but most of the characters are somehow grounded here. And being here reminds me of what that means--to be or not to be grounded in this beautiful, very isolated place.

Second picture: my work space for the week. Typical hotel room. I'm stuck here. No refrigerator. Despite the usual casino buffet, I lost a actually couple of pounds. There was wireless internet, but--key decision for my success--I resisted the urge to hook up. Satellite dish wasn't pointed to my favorite channels--well, except for HBO; I did get in on "Real Time With Bill Mahr" and "The Wire." Missed "Project Runway"! And I had no one around expecting anything from me or--and this is also key--who presumably needs me checking up on them whenever they get near me. I made a commitment not to call out and only broke it once or twice. Clyde called in once or twice a day. That was it! Otherwise, it was just me and the computer. Me and the notebook. Me and the head finally truly fully filling up with visions and voices.


Final picture: sunset on the statuary in front of the casino. No matter what title we end up with, I will always remember MYSTIC HORSEMAN. And this is why. The romance, the legends, the ideals, the expectations--some unfulfilled and some always floating around out there--are all weaving their way into the story. I'm so not into genre definitions, which is why the vagueries of "women's fiction" will just have to stop bothering me. I can't write a story designed to fit neatly into a more specific niche. I just have to write it the way I see it. And getting away for a week really helped me get a better focus during this middle stage of the writing. Highly recommend it. Will definitely do it again.

What do other people do to make the world go away for more than just an hour or two?

Susie's day to remember

I had a hard time writing this blog. It was supposed to be really profound, full of things I'd learned in the past year.

You see, September 17 for me is one of Those Days, the ones you never forget, like September 11 or the day Challenger blew up. We all have personal days like that, too, the ones for which we remember every detail in painfully sharp clarity, even though maybe we'd rather pull a soft and comforting haze over them.

One year ago today, my son was diagnosed with cancer.

We'd come off a tough year, personally, perhaps the hardest we'd had already. I thought things were getting better. I'd just won a Rita, something wonderful I never expected to happen, and I was away on a writing weekend with some fabulous friends, and we were having a ball. And then I got a phone call.

He was 18 then, two weeks into his freshman year of college, and a cough and a just-in-case x-ray, in the course of one Saturday morning and afternoon, suddenly meant a huge tumor in his chest and Hodgkins lymphoma.

He's doing well now, after completing his treatment in May, though I still wake up every morning with my head held low, reading to duck at the next blow. Every cough or hint of exhaustion has me worrying, with the kind of bone-deep terror that I'd never experienced before. I suppose - hope - that will fade someday, but not yet.

Maybe I'm just not profound. Or maybe it takes longer to learn what such things bring you. Mostly, I still think it really sucked. But I've learned a few things.

1) About 1 in 300 children will be diagnosed with cancer before they're 20. In your lifetime, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will get it. Yet, the gov (not to get to political, and I've been unable to verify this, but I heard it at a benefit and it's stuck with me) is spending more every 3 months in the Middle East than it spent in the last 10 years on cancer research.

2) There are some really, really lovely people in the world, who will help you in difficult times in unexpected and important ways. Sometimes people you barely know. And there are some awfully kind and impressive now-19-year-olds floating around out there.

3) Some people who you thought you could count on aren't always there, because it's just too hard. It's not worth the effort of being mad at them; they're already mad at themselves.

4) Nurses are the Best People On Earth. Period.

5) You can do everything right, work really hard and make excellent choices, and have Life whack you but good anyway. This is unfair, but true.

6) My kid is a lot stronger than I, or he, knew. I am, too, though - screw Tom Cruise - anti-depressents are useful and wonderful things. Young people will also get over needle phobias, squeamishness, and modesty extremely quickly in certain circumstances.

7) The frustrating insantiy that is the business of publishing doesn't need to make you crazy. I have gotten very zen about it, though a friend who has had much experience in such matters tells me it does fade.

8) The community of Survivors is an extraordinarily powerful, caring, and proud group.

Congrats on making it through, hon. Here's to another 7 or 8 decades of being a Survivor.

So what's the day you'll Never Forget? Has it brought you anything along the way?

Susie

Seven Days Out

Sunday: Susie

Monday: Kathy

Tuesday: Helen

Wednesday: The Burning Question

Thursday: Betina

Friday: Deb

Helen's Happy Hour

That's me, New Year's Eve in 1982 at Tony Jaros' in northeast Minneapolis. Only you have to image there's no gorgeous ocean view. I'm on top of the bar itself, balancing a Greenie on one foot and holding a cigarette between the toes of my other foot.

Oh, oh! The bouncers are coming! The bouncers are coming!

Cheers, Anne!!

And if none of the above makes sense, you probably haven't read Anne's post and related comments!

my dearest riders -- blog on!

when kathleen invited me along on this journey, i wasn't sure i could juggle all of my blogs. because you see i'm a blog addict, and at that point i'm not even sure how many blogs i had. right now i have four counting this one. wait -- five. wait -- six. wait -- seven. six and seven don't count because they're test blogs. but today is my last day at riding with the top down because i've simply spread myself too thin. but that doesn't mean i won't be back -- probably daily -- because... well, because i'm an addict.

i think deb is a fantastic addition, and i've admired her and her publishing company from afar for many years, so i'll definitely be back to pick her brain! and helen... can't say enough about helen. she keeps this place running. she puts our schedule together. she's there when the pictures are all screwed up -- which in turns makes the blog all screwed up. helen is definitely my sister.

best of luck, gals!

XXXXOOOOO

anne/theresa

PS: i don't want this to turn into a goodbye post, so....


tell us about the first time you got drunk.

come on.

you can do it.

i went to a party at THE CLEARING. on a farm in illinois. i was around 14. my "date" handed me a beer. i'd tasted my share of beer. from the time i was small, my grandmother used to let me sip her beer. german, you know. well, i guzzled this baby, and i swear my eyes were crossed before i was done. i couldn't see anything! i was talking really loud, and using huge gestures. and people were laughing their asses off, but i didn't understand why. every time i said something everybody roared. my older brother came over and asked my date how much beer i'd had. i don't think he believed it when jerry told him just one. i ended up having to stay the night at another girl's house because i couldn't go home. i never threw up, and i've never been drunk like that ever again. it wasn't like a regular drunk. it was trippy and euphoric.

youth.

Mentoring

Without quite knowing how, I've recently taken on the task of mentoring a young writer; a young woman in her late teens, not a relative, who wants to make writing her career. It's a little strange and I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.

I've mentored family before. When my sister's youngest was in grade school I helped him with his writing via email. We had lessons on the importance of using action verbs, how to use similies and metaphors, how to use opinion words vs. fact words, using smell and taste words to make his writing more descriptive. I gave him writing assignments like, "Write a story from the viewpoint of your gym sock" which resulted in a delightful story about being whirled around and around until he got so dizzy he got lost. I never actually critiqued him. My role as his mentor wasn't to make him a "better" writer, it was to show him the joy of expressing himself on paper and nuturing his budding creativity.

With this young woman, it's different. Yes, she wants me to point out where she needs to do more showing and less telling. Or where she might want to rethink her word choice. Or where she needs to strengthen a character's movtivation. But that's just technical stuff. That's the easy part. The second part of what she's looking for is not so easy. At least, not for me. Because what she really wants from me is my opinion on the saleability of her writing. Is it ready to be sent to an editor? Would an editor buy it? Would a reader?

I am reluctant to give my opinion on that because, well... my opinion is only my opinion. I 've read manuscripts I thought were wonderful that have collected nothing but rejections and, conversely, read published works that made me wonder what the editor was smoking.

So, any of you out there who mentor young writers... How do you handle the question of how saleable a manuscript is or how good the writer is?

Just exactly who is that Dixon chick?

A blog virgin
A published author (10 books & 7 anthologies)
A cult leader (GMC-more about that in a moment)
An award-winning quilter (a best-in-show even)
A publishing mogul (CEO of a respected small Southern press)
A glutton for punishment

Why that last? Because I can't say one of the easiest words in the English language. Heck, even a toddler has a better grasp on the word "no" than I have. So, when some pals I adore, respect and admire asked me to come play in their blog sandbox, I said yes. Even knowing I was going to have to scramble to find the time.

Like the rest of working America these days, I've forgotten that very important lesson I first learned as a toddler. If you don't set limits for the folks in your life and learn how to say "no" then you're going to be dragged to every rodeo, zoo and juice bar this side of the Mississippi. Why is it that once we grow up our vocabulary purges "no" and replaces it with "nnn-okay?" When we were two, we were quite uninhibited about the no-ing. Loud even. Our space, our toys, our "me time" was terribly important during the Terrible Twos.

Our "me time" should still be important.

Once when speaking with some writers of Romance Writers of America (I did mention that some of those books are romance, right? And that I've won some really cool recognition and awards like an RT Career Achievement Award for one of my romantic suspense books)...anyway...I once said, "No is a complete sentence." Geez! That was profound--if I do say so myself--and I'm hereby resolving to embrace that concept once more.

Right after I fit blogging into my routine.

And who wouldn't want to blog? To whip up sentiment? To get a few dirty little secrets off my chest? (Don't get me started on shoes and pool boys.) "Oh, the thoughts I could think, and the rights I could wrong," to misquote the Scarecrow. I was seduced by the siren song of unbridled blogging. Then I remembered that unlike a diary there would be actual people reading these thoughts. People who would grill me on my opinions and picadillos and maybe even call my mother to rat me out. My mother hates a good picadillo, not that that ever bothered me before.

(I'm from the South. Embarrassing my mother is something of a hobby, but I digress. The purpose of today's blog is to introduce myself.)

Hello. My name is Debra Dixon. DebraDixon.com I'm not in and have never been in a 12 step program unless you've heard me speak at writers' conferences on the Hero's Journey. In that case, you got me dead-to-rights and I am in a 12 step program--a 12 step plotting program for writers. I'm going to tell you the secret of bonding the readers to your characters and stories...Goal, Motivation, Conflict and the Hero's Journey. I have to credit Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler for gifting writers everywhere with an understanding of the Hero's Journey in story, but the GMC (Goal, Motivation & Conflict) grew out of a workshop I designed to help writers understand how a plot springs from character. GMC is a little nonfiction book I wrote that's now in its seventh printing. Who knew? "Goal, Motivation and Conflict--the building blocks of good fiction." www.GryphonBooksForWriters.com

I love the craft of writing. A good friend once told me that when I found writers, I found my tribe. She got no argument from me. Books have been some of my dearest friends and motivators since before I could tie my own shoes. (My mother wouldn't let me have my own library card until I finally "buckled down" and learned to tie my own shoes. I was adamantly anti-tie. It worked. I refused to be limited by the paltry two books she'd let me check out on her card!)

So, here I am. A fledgling blogger, hoping you'll welcome me as the days and blogs go by. I'll attempt to keep the sarcasm in my blogs to a minimum, but, really, have you seen the world lately? I'll be sharing bits and pieces of myself and my experiences and hoping to hear your perspective as well.

First I'd like to know if any of you are good at saying no? Or do you most often say, "Nn-okay." And then could someone figure out why my blog software spell check has left the building?

Get GETAWAY GIRL (you want it; you know you do)

[Date should read 9/12/06]
So today is the official release of my latest Bombshell, GETAWAY GIRL

Page down a few posts to read the August 25th interview Anne Frasier did with me about Getaway Girl. Thanks, Anne, for the interview!
And since we've been talking shopping lately, can I just say my heroine would sneer at high heels. How to slam down the accelerator while wearing those awkward things? Or to run away from the bad guys? Give her a comfy pair of Doc Martens and she's one happy chick.
Her shopping fetish? Cars. Fast, pretty cars. Her drive of choice? A BMW 5 series. (Check the cover art above, it's got a sweet silver 5 series on it; though my heroine prefers it in Barrique Red). Yep, that car will get her wherever she wants to go. Fast.
But her ultimate shopping fantasy? A Bugatti Veyron 16.4.

Sweet, isn't it? Yep, this little baby will set you back a quarter of a million dollars. While researching GG I happened across this car. The ultimate speed machine (according to the guys, you know). It goes zero to sixty in like less than four seconds. And it's like 1001 horsepower. Everything about it is extreme. So, I had to use it in the story. But it's very impractical for a getaway-car driver to be crusing around in something so, well, obvious. So I've found a rather clever way to include it in the story. Let's just say at the end, when the heroine confesses her love to the hero (no secrets revealed here! Of course, it's a HEA ending), does she confess love because she's standing in the hero's arms, or because she's looking over his shoulder at the Bugatti?
Oh, and another thing I learned from a very helpful Master of All Car Knowledge guy I met online? It's physically impossible to have sex in a Bugatti. Unless you want to damage some body parts (and I'm not talking the front quarter panel on the car). But I worked around that one, too. :-)
So if you want a fast, adventurous read, give Getaway Girl a try. You don't even have to like cars. It's not about the car, it's about the woman behind the wheel. :-)

Michele

Books, books, books

by Susie

I missed the acquisitive gene somehow. I, mostly, hate shopping. I looked at those shoes yesterday and, while some are quite lovely, I see them mostly as a piece of sculpture on my shelf, because really, what I think is "ow!" (Says she whose Merrill jungle mocs are kicked off at the moment.)

Pretty much all my shopping/lusting impulses are directed towards books. When we remodeled our house a few years ago, we put in an entire wall of bookshelves in my office, and a huge one on one (large) wall of my bedroom. The boys each have a bookshelf in their rooms.

It's not even close to enough. My attic space is filled with boxes of books, and that bothers me . . . I can't SEE them there. I want them out, where I can read those titles and think of how much I enjoyed them, or dream about when I'm going to read them someday.

Periodically I try and purge. Was it really that good that I have to keep it? (Yes, I do reread regularly.) If I haven't read it in the ten years since I've had it, will I ever? (Hey, there's always retirement.)

Getting rid of books is painful. It's very difficult to NOT buy one that sounds good when it's right in front of me. Don't tell me it will always be there . . . you know it won't. (I've been looking off and on for years for sets of the MAIDA and MARY JANE books I read when I was a child, with little luck.) So I have to get them, and really, a book is whole lot cheaper than a pair of Jimmy Choo's.

Unfortunately, both my husband and my decorator don't agree. But really, a girl's gotta have a vice. And since mine are pretty much limited to books and Diet Coke, I figure I should have what I want.

How about you? Hoarder or purger? Do you keep around mostly read or mostly unread? (I think I'm about 50/50. Which means the to-be-read pile is massive.)

Susie

Shoes, shoes, shoes!

Betina here.

Blame Michele Hauf for the content of this blog. She got me started looking for Louboutin shoes on line and when I spotted these red ones. . . well, my devout vow to give up excess and materialism went right out the window! Just look at these babies. Who could blame me?

Oooooo, baby. I want these shoes. Temptation in red satin, complete with snake!


And these make my pulse race, too.


And then there are these for. . . you know. . . more sedate occasions, like PTA Meetings and invitations to the White House Correspondents Dinner:



But it didn't stop there. I went in search of Jimmy Choo's. And lo and behold. . .

What is it about shoes that grabs us and makes us feel so passionately about them?

Do you remember your first pair of heels? What color were they? How high?

Mine were 2 inch black patent leather heels for Easter. Very plain and classic. I think I was 12 or 13, but I looked like 16, so I could "get away with it." Not long after that, I got some snazzy bone colored ones for summer. Skinnier heel. More grown up. I was thrilled.

By the time I was in 10th grade, I had half a dozen pairs of heels. . . all worn to church. . . including a great classic pair of red leather pumps with fairly pointy toes. I also had a three-inch pair of black shoes that would have made Hollywood proud. Looking back, I guess my mom was fairly liberal in allowing me to have so many heels and such high ones. She loved shoes and shopped sales so she could afford several pairs each year. My sister and I benefitted; when she found a good sale, she was always in the mood to be generous.

Memories. So very, very sweet.

I'm probably more daring with my shoes than with the rest of my wardrobe, which isn't saying much. I'm pretty boring sartorially. But I can dream, can't I? Like when I look at these Manolo Blahniks. . .

Oooooo, baby. I have no idea where I'd wear them, or even if. But I love the colors and the dangles and the heel. . . But see, in the interest of a thorough blog experience for you, I kept searching and tada! These little numbers took by breath away!

So, what is your shoe passion? Do you remember your

first heels? Do you have a daughter story to tell. . . her first heels? Wedding shoes?

Funny shoe "date" stories? Shoe tragedies or tales of unrequited shoe desire? Come on. . . live a little. . . indulge. . .

They say every woman should have at least one pair of Jimmy Choo's in her life. . .

Seven Days Out

Sunday: Betina

Monday: Susie

Tuesday: Michele's new Bombshell release GETAWAY GIRL

Wednesday: Deb Dixon joins the blog - Fresh mea ... er ... new voices - Hooray!!!

Thursday: Candace and Helen switcheroo

Friday: Anne's last day, say it ain't so, Anne. Say it ain't so. EVERYONE out there, say it CAN'T be so!

Upcoming: Deb Dixon will be interviewing Deborah Smith about her new release, THE CROSSROADS CAFE, from BelleBooks. Maybe Friday, 9/22?

An Interview with Literary Agent Tina Wexler

Posted by Helen Brenna

Tina Wexler, my agent with International Creative Management, has graciously agreed to blog along with us for the day and answer any questions all you readers, writers, published and soon-to-be published, have to ask of an agent.

So here’s the scoop on the smartest agent in NYC.

Tina entered the publishing world shortly after finishing an MFA in poetry. She landed a job at the Ellen Levine Literary Agency assisting two literary agents and helping with foreign rights. Soon, she was cutting her teeth selling audio and first serial rights. Around the time ELLA merged with Trident Media, Tina moved to the Karpfinger Agency to work solely in foreign rights. Wanting to move into the domestic market, she took a position at International Creative Management and started building her list of clients. She’s brilliant, by the way. Took me on, didn’t she?

Helen: So what made you want to become an agent?

Tina: First off, let me thank you for inviting me to participate in this interview series.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, when I applied for the job at ELLA, I wasn’t exactly sure what a literary agency was, let alone what I would be doing there. All I knew was that it had to do with books and that was enough for me. And it’s been enough for me ever since.

Helen: Your welcome, Tina, for the invite, but I should be thanking you for visiting our blog today. Of course the fact that you agreed shouldn’t have surprised me. Word on the street is that you’re a “nice” agent. Even editors have commented on this obvious anomaly. Are you absolutely positive you picked the right career? What’s your favorite part about being an agent?

Tina: How dare they call me ‘nice’! I’m ruthless. I’m difficult. I’m…kidding. Actually, I’m terribly flattered. I never understood why agents got such a bum rap. Sure, we have to stick up for our clients, negotiate sticky situations, and talk about money (who likes talking about money?), but that doesn’t necessitate being mean. I guess it’s the difference between being a fly in the ointment and a thorn in someone’s side. I’ll take being the fly any day. (Wait, that didn’t come out right!)

My favorite part about my job is being able to work with authors, helping their dreams of being published come true and working to keep that dream alive for many, many years.

Helen: Do you think you’d ever like to write a book?

Tina: No way. Writing a book is hard! : )

Helen: Tell me about it!! Just out of curiosity, what are you reading now?

Tina: One of my friends from Maine (where I grew up) recommended I read Kelly Armstrong’s BITTEN. I’m nearing the end and amazed that it took me five years to discover this series. I’m a nut for vampires and now I’m starting to think I should add werewolves to that list. I’m also reading FAT CAMP by Deborah Blumenthal. It’s a YA novel that an editor gave me over lunch. And of course, there’s the stack of manuscripts under my desk that I’m always making my way through.

Helen: Michele, Anne, did you read that? Vampires and werewolves? What kind of book, Tina, do you wish you could find, but can’t?

Tina: Good question. I’d love to find a good near-future dystopia story. A YA version of THE HANDMAID’S TALE would make me jump for joy. On the adult side, I love paranormal (see above), adventure, mystery…I’ve been looking to get my hands on a good love story where one of the characters is a veterinarian. That’s pretty specific, I know, but I have a weakness for animals in fiction (so long as they can’t talk—in the Disney sense of “talk.”)

Helen: If you have to guess, name one trend in publishing you think is doomed to go belly-up.

Tina: Yikes! These questions are getting difficult. Hmm…Belly-up. One trend that’s certainly being challenged is the business model of publishing itself. No advance; higher royalties. I doubt most authors will be on board for this potential change, though I can understand why publishers are trying to find a way to stop the cycle of unearned advances. Supposedly if it’s done right, the author earns the same amount as she/he would with the current business model, though I don’t know how eager agents will be to jump on board this particular train either.

Helen: Ouch, I don’t think I wanted to hear that. Just to clarify further, when you say higher royalties, does that mean more dollars AS royalties, so the same total earn-out for a particular book or a higher royalty percentage? (Please say a higher royalty percentage !)

Tina: Yes, the royalty percentage would be higher. So instead of earning 10% on each hardcover copy sold, the author would earn…I don’t know. 25%? I’m guessing here. This business model--giving higher royalty percentages--is based on the author not receiving an advance. Is that clear? It's a trade off. Higher royalties but no $$$ up front?

Helen: Yeah, that makes sense, and I like the concept!! We should put you in charge of a major publishing house. Okay, so on to some nitty gritty stuff. On average how many submissions do you get every week?

Tina: I get about 10-20 query letters a week. Actual manuscripts, 2-5 (though not all of these are full manuscripts; some are proposals, the first 5 chapters, etc.) The number of manuscripts I receive directly relates to the number of queries and the quality of the queries. If 20 queries come in and none of them are good, the following week no manuscripts will come in. If, of the 20 all 20 are good, well, I better not make plans for the weekend!

Helen: What’s your ideal submission look, read, feel like?

Tina: My ideal query letter is one-page, clear, concise, friendly yet formal, written in a style that shows me a bit of what you’re like without being precious, realizes I’m busy busy busy and so gets right to the point, and comes with a/an SASE. As for manuscript submission: unbound, double-spaced, single-sided. When it’s right for me, it feels like diving into a clear lake, having tea with your best friend, listening to a secret. It feels like home and like nowhere you’ve even been before. It’s well crafted, it’s polished, and it moves along smoothly. It grips me right from the start and doesn’t let go. It makes me sit up and take notice. It sings.

Helen: Give us your pet peeve(s) relating to submissions.

Tina: My biggest pet peeve is when people send me their complete manuscript without first sending a query letter to gauge my interest. Imagine, if you will, that everyone did this. That’s twenty Jiffy mailers holding twenty boxes with twenty 200+ page manuscripts inside of them landing on my desk each week. Just the thought makes my eyes water. If I want to see a manuscript, I’ll ask to see it. It’s presumptuous to think you’re just speeding things along by cutting out the query process.

My other pet peeve is the mass e-query, especially when the email list isn’t even hidden. Mass e-queries make me want to pull my hair out; if you can’t take the time to personally address me in your query, I can’t take the time to read your query. (Are you sure I’m nice?)

I really could go on. People do loads of silly things. Some of them are honest mistakes. Others are just lazy. Sometimes I think it’s because people don’t take the industry seriously enough. It’s hard work getting published, finding an agent. If you aren’t willing to put the effort into writing a strong query letter, researching agents, proof reading both your query letter and your manuscript, revising your manuscript, etc. then you aren’t up to the task of being an author. Because the work doesn’t stop once you land that book deal. That’s only the beginning!

Helen: I can only imagine what you see in your mail. I’m sure it boggles the mind. I guess the message here is for us authors to be professional in our correspondence with agents, editors, other authors. Aside from that, if you were to give aspiring authors one word of advice, well, okay three words, but only three, what would they be?

Tina: Listen. Write. Repeat.

Helen: What do you think is the most important thing for an author to consider when looking for an agent?

Tina: I think it’s important to remember that you are going to be giving your agent your baby, your hard work, your name, your dream. You want someone who will put in the effort, who has the resources to do so, and who you trust and respect—and like. Your agent is going to be in your life for a long time (hopefully) and you want to make sure this is someone you want in your life.

Helen: What do you think is the most important thing to maintaining a good author/agent relationship?

Tina: I think it’s important for both parties to do their best to communicate their needs and wants. Discussing expectations can go a long way in ensuring a strong relationship.

Helen: Have you ever had a relationship with an author go sour?

Tina: Relationships with clients have ended for two reasons: 1) because I wasn’t able to sell the client’s work and he/she wanted to keep trying 2) because I wasn’t enthusiastic enough about the client’s next project and so didn’t think it wise to send it on submission but the client does. This is probably the most confusing for clients; I think the reasoning goes like this: You’re my agent. You submit my work. Submit this. But that’s only one part of my job. Another part is to advise my clients on what the best move is in the trajectory of their career while also protecting my reputation. If I submit a manuscript that I don’t believe in or that I think isn’t the author’s best work, I’m doing a disservice not only to that client but to my other clients.

Helen: What’s the biggest mistake you see, or hear about new authors making?

Tina: Assuming that the hard work is over once you’ve got the book deal. Forgetting that the publishing industry, though peopled by book lovers, is a business. Thinking your publisher is supposed to do all the work (I’m thinking specifically about book promotion here). Chasing the biggest advance instead of finding the right home for your work. Switching from agent to agent to agent (See previous). Trash-talking people in the business (Publishing, though far-reaching, is a relatively small world. If you say it, we hear it.)

Helen: Hey, you’re cheating! That was … five mistakes. Is there anything even established authors may not come back from?

Tina: Getting caught plagiarizing seems like the biggest mistake you can make. I’m not sure how you recover from that—Maybe in a tell-all memoir?

Helen: Yeah, we heard a lot about that a few months back. Someone will probably think of some way to profit from the situation. That brings to mind another questions. Should agents be involved in building an author’s career?

Tina: Absolutely. That’s what we’re here for. Of course, some authors don’t need or want career advice; others do. I say, no man’s an island. Wait, no John Donne said that (what was I saying about plagiarizing?), but I agree with him.

Helen: And here’s my last question. Do you believe in love at first sight?

Tina: Ah, yes. Why do you think I struggle every day not to adopt a third kitty?

Thank you again, Helen, for having me on the Riding with the Top Down blogspace. I welcome any and all questions, comments, etc. If anyone is interested in sending a query, please contact me either at twexler@icmtalent.com or via post at ICM, 40 West 57th Street, NY, NY 10019.

Helen: Thank you, Tina, for coming along for a cyber-ride and answering all my tedious questions. I'm sure there are things you guys are dying to ask. Please go for it! Tina will be stopping by a couple times throughout the day to answer anything you’ve got up your sleeve.

And you can check out ICM’s website at: http://www.icmtalent.com/

Helen Introduces a New Rider

Deb Dixon is coming!


Yes, THE Deb Dixon, author, publisher and speaker, she of BelleBooks and GMC fame. I've finally bullied her enough, so she's joining our blog next week. Come and visit on Wednesday, 9/13, to welcome her on board.

Check it out: http://www.debradixon.com/

Getting back in the groove

I am, at long last, finally getting back to my work-in-progress. If you will recall, I left Annabelle and Dan on the floor behind the bar of the Inferno doing what comes naturally. They've been down there a while. A very long while, actually. So long, in fact, that had it been me down there with Dan I'd have hollered "Enough, already!" jumped to my feet (or maybe dragged myself to my feet after all that time), straightened my clothes, and gotten on with my life. Except...that's not what's supposed to happen next.

As you might guess, I am having a hard time getting back in the groove and getting on with the story as planned.

So, my question is... How do y'all get back into your stories after you've been away for awhile?

Kathleen Stalks the Secrets of PALE IMMORTAL

As of today, Anne Frasier's PALE IMMORTAL dwells among us.

Set in contemporary small town America with a well-drawn cast of characters, PALE IMMORTAL (just released!) is simply an irresistible read. I defy you to set the book aside after reading the Author's Note at the beginning. Legend has it that a vampire once roamed the streets of Tuonela, Wisconsin. An autopsy has it that town’s first murder victim in a hundred years was drained of blood. However, if you're looking for the typical fang-in-the-neck vampire story, this isn't it. Tuonela has its dark history and attending lore, but the characters are perfectly believable human beings. Mostly.

I'm a straight-shooter with endorsements, so this has nothing to do with friendship. I tell you true, the characters in PALE IMMORTAL drew me in and held on long after I finished the book. I'm not a regular paranormal reader. It's not that I'm offended by blood spillage or suckage. It's just that without good relationships and characters I care about, a book will lose me in short order. Beyond that, the premise has to work for me. You can't just hand me some ready-made hokum about monsters. You have to build a world I can buy into. PALE IMMORTAL does that in spades.

KE: So, Anne, I won’t say you had me at hello, because we do not go gentle into the PALE IMMORTAL night. But the characters had me early on. Can you guess my favorite?

AF: Graham is definitely my favorite, so i'm going to guess Graham. Am I at all close? Or was it Tuonela? :)

KE: You got it on the first try. Graham is one of the best teenagers I’ve read in a very long time. Graham’s mother drives non-stop from Arizona, dumps him on the doorstep of the village recluse, whom she says is Graham’s father, and takes off. During Graham’s first couple of days in Tuonela a pretty girl (Isobel) befriends him, but so does a group of Goth types who call themselves "The Pale Immortals" after the town’s infamous former resident. All this and the discovery of two corpses—one a bit fresher than the other—and poor Graham ought to be looking for a ride to Minnesota. You put this kid through some horrific stuff, but he keeps bobbing back up from the pits with that terrific, slightly twisted adolescent eye for the ironic. Sort of a blue collar Holden Caulfield. The “initiation” scene into the Pale Immortals is so Graham. He has to drink blood in near darkness, of course, and he remembers there’s been some stolen from the hospital. “For some reason that didn’t seem so bad. Already packaged and on a shelf. Kinda like grocery shopping.”

Where did this character come from? Did he evolve with the writing, or was he conceived as such a strong character with the story concept?

AF: I just happen to love that age. I love writing characters who are 16. They think they know everything and approach life that way. They can make you mad and break your heart all at the same time. I have to say teenagers come much easier for me than adults. I wanted to write Graham for about eight years. I wanted him to be the main character, and the adults would just be Charlie Brown adults, but I began to doubt that story would ever get written, so I used him for this book.

KE: Graham gives Isobel a CD with his favorite music, which he thinks about almost apologetically as upbeat, allowing to himself that “a young heart could only take so much.” He’s been abused and shuttled around all his life. And Isobel’s parents are classical musicians who are always gone. Vulnerable teenagers. Dare I suggest the dreaded T word? Do we have a bit of a theme going here? How does that fit with a story that borders on horror?


AF: This book is packed with themes. I happen to love themes! I think the book mirrors the isolation, loss of identity, and sense of displacement that's so prevalent in society today. The lack of a strong family unit. Another similar theme is the outsider. Both isobel and Graham are outsiders. So is Evan -- and even Rachel to some extent. Of course Evan is the ultimate outsider, yearning for answers he will never find and a life he can never have. People trapped by circumstance is another recurring theme and something a lot of people deal with in their lives. The weight of responsibility. Do you turn your back on the people who need you for the chance of a better life? No. At least most of us don't. There is also the recurring theme of the love of a father for his son. This plays out with three generations of Stroud men.How does it fit with a story that borders on horror? I can't explain my attraction to horror or the psychology of it, but for me it's very powerful. I think it some ways it can make us face what we most fear and move beyond it. Or maybe it's just the buzz. :D

KE: It’s more than buzz. Good horror forces us to look squarely into the face of our worst fears, and you’re doing it with themes that run the gamut—from the safety of home and community, parental love and commitment to the beast within and the danger of losing our children or driving them away. Lots to chew on here.

Evan Stroud is my favorite kind of hero—the wounded outcast. Because he has a potentially fatal allergy to sunlight and only goes out at night, people only half-jokingly call him a vampire. I loved Graham’s first inkling of trust when Evan serves him breakfast: “Would a vampire say something about a good breakfast? Would a vampire even fix breakfast?”

I’ve gotta say, I've finished the book, but I’m still thinking about Evan Stroud. He’s turned on his ear by the end—which means there’s more to come—but he’s totally sympathetic and totally human. Isn’t he?

AF: Haha. That's definitely the big question here, isn't it? Is he just a victim of subliminal persuasion? Of myth and superstition? Of paranoia? Or is something more going on?

KE: (Grrr. Where's my scoop?) Okay, so you left me thinking about Evan, but still smiling over Graham. He has such a distinctive voice. Notices the things kids notice. Like when the principal calls an assembly. "She hardly ever smiled, because being a principal was serious shit. And being a small woman who was also a principal was even more serious shit."

Talk about a little bit about juxtaposing Graham’s voice with Evan’s.

AF: I'm not sure I always pulled that off. I'm not as comfortable writing adults, so i struggled a little with Evan. Didn't want him to sound too pompous or grouchy, but also didn't want him to come across as too laid back or too similar to Graham.
KE: You pulled it off nicely. Evan’s voice rings true to the character’s situation, which is certainly unique. But I have to touch on Tuonela. You got me with the Author’s Note, too. I’ve wrestled on a couple of books with the question of whether to use an author’s note and where to put it. What was your thinking on this one?

AF: The author's note is something i wanted people to think about and wonder about. I wanted them to get up, walk to the bookshelf, and pull out a map to see if they could find Tuonela. I wanted to take the story outside the book and into the reader's own life. That has been a big part of this book -- adding layers outside the pages. I've never done an author intro before, and I'm not sure I would do it again. It was just something I did for this book because I had external plans for it.

KE: I’m still trying to figure out whether Tuonela exists. You actually had me Googling. You say that 90% of the time you won’t find Tuonela on the map, so I’m about to start buying maps of Wisconsin on E-Bay.
AF: Kathleen, you're doing exactly what I wanted you to do! Look for Tuonela. Just call me ambiguous. ;)

KE: It’s a delicious setting. Lovely small town, creepy past. “In Tuonela, twighlight never lingered and darkness always came quickly, like an extinguished flame or a dropped curtain.”

Our heroine, Rachel Burton, did the sane thing and got out while the gettin’ was good. But she’s back, and she’s the coroner of all things. What’s that about?

AF: That ties into the responsibility theme i was talking about earlier. At first she returned because of an ill parent. Then she didn't want to leave her father alone. Then the town needed her. But of course deep down the town was really calling to her. I've experienced this pull with my own hometown. Something is always calling me back, and I have to fight it because I don't think it's a good place for me. But it's always there, and I sometimes I wonder if I should just quit fighting and move back. I think many of us long for the roots and heritage of quaint town and a life that doesn't exist. And of course with Rachel we have to think that subconsciously she also stayed because of Evan.

KE: It’s funny—someone on the Romance Readers Anonymous loop mentioned Theresa Weir yesterday, wondered whether she was still writing. Someone else said she thought Theresa had morphed into Anne Frasier and listed your latest books. I don’t often post, but I jumped on the opportunity to report that PALE IMMORTAL is hot off the press this week. Described the setup and ended with: You've got a grisly murder in a small Midwestern town where nothing this exciting has happened in 100 years. Plenty of suspense and some pretty gory deeds, but this is a character-driven novel, and this romance lover was hooked from page one.

And that’s how I’ll end here, with both thumbs up for PALE IMMORTAL!

BE HERE NOW

posted by anne ~~

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BLOGGING EVENT OF THE YEAR.

WHAT: PROJECT PIMP SQUAD -- 100 BLOGGERS BLOGGING (imitated, but never duplicated)
WHEN: TODAY!
WHERE: Riding With the Top Down, Static, Anne's personal blog, and on every blog that posts about Pale Immortal. We are having a BLOG CRAWL. there will be jello shots, naked twister, and humiliating acts of public foolishness. come on! it'll be fun!

static -- doorway to blog crawl

WHY: TO IMMERSE OURSELVES IN THE JOY OF COMMUNAL BLOGGING. TO FEEL THE POWER OF THE BLOG. TO PARTY. TO GET DRUNK AND PUBLICLY HUMILIATE OURSELVES. Oh, and to maybe sell a few books.

(scroll to sunday's post for instructions.)

watch the Pale Immortal book video featuring music by The Chambermaids.



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Seven Days Out

Tuesday: Anne and her new release, PALE IMMORTAL (Anne's already thinking Happy Hour!)
Wednesday: The Burning Question (then again, there may be a surprise!)
Thursday: Candace
Friday: Helen's agent, Tina Wexler with ICM, is coming for a cyber visit - if you've got questions, she's got the answers
Sunday: Betina
This week's photo is one Anne found and passed along to me.