I’m a Thomas Nelson Book Reviewer!

I have to say, I love the Internet and the opportunities it has afforded me lately. It’s sweet!

Today I discovered that I could become a book reviewer for the publisher Thomas Nelson. What that means is that if you have a blog, you can sign up to be a reviewer. Once you’ve signed up, you can choose one of their upcoming books from a small list of your interests. They then ship it to you. You read it, review it (200 words or more) and post it on your blog as well as on Amazon. How sweet is that?

Pretty sweet!

So, for my debut review, I will be covering Lynne Spears’ (with Lorilee Craker) new book Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame, and Family in a Tabloid World.

Now, it will be some time before I get the book and read it. But the review will be right here on my blog. And although I am not a fan of Britney Spears nor have I really followed her story, I must admit that my curiosity has been tweaked by how things have turned out for this family. This book, for me, is an insider’s view on what really happened and I’m sure Lynne is about to dish (at least a little bit): “I’m not terribly exciting, truth be told. But my family has had an exceptional journey—really, a wild ride—and people think they know us from what they read. But they really don’t know us at all.” Exactly! That’s why I’m so curious about her book! And of course, I am also curious due to the whole car crash factor. So stay posted! And if you have your own blog, come build your library, it is a fantastic deal for the publisher and for you!

Here Comes Halloween…Again

For me, the end of October means Halloween. It also means that my husband’s birthday is right around the corner and now, that NaNoWriMo is too!

On the subject of Halloween, I still have a gorgeous lion costume I was planning to take to a consignment shop. But like last year, it’ll languish in the closet for at least another 365 days. Sometime between now and the dawn of Halloween, I’ve got to find a 6’3″ Elvis costume. Hmmm…

However, I am getting off easy this year. I don’t have to dress up. I even missed the volunteer sign up for my daughter’s kindergarten class party. I tell ya, that sign up was full before it was even tacked to the wall. Yikes!

In past years, waaaay back when I dressed up as Pippy Longstocking.

That was a fun costume. I stuck coat hangers in my braids to make them stick up and dyed my coverall shorts blue. I even sprayed my blonde hair red. I really went to town on that costume. However, finding stripy leggings to complete the costume was difficult. So difficult, that I ended up sacrificing a pair of white longjohns and painting them, in all infinite wisdom, with the metal paint I had on hand from doctoring up my car.

Sorry, the editor won’t let me turn Mikey the right side up.

Let me tell you, it takes a long time for metal paint to dry on waffle long johns. In fact, they still weren’t dry when I went out to the bar. No worries, right? Well…the paint fumes might have been a problem if I had been a smoker and it only took a few days for the paint that had soaked through the fabric to wash off.

Have you ever dressed up as a literary character? Go over to Matt’s blog and vote if you have (or haven’t). And have a safe and happy Halloween everyone!

Publishers Go Belly Up

There’s been lots of hubbub lately about the economy. If you get the daily emails from Publishers Lunch you’ll have noticed that it isn’t that unusual to read a report of another bookstore going down. Occasionally, like the other day, you have a publisher declare bankruptcy.

If you are like me, you shrug your shoulders and move on. It happens.

However, as Kristen Nelson, literary agent and owner of Nelson Literary Agency, comments in her blog (Pub Rants), publisher bankruptcy can spell uh-oh for a writer. After reading her blog post and then the links provided in her comments section (Writer’s Block and In the (Red)), I became a bit concerned. You see, although writers often have a clause in their publishing contracts stating that their rights will revert back to them if something happens to the publisher, it isn’t always that simple. A judge who is overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings can declare that paragraph void and claim the income on a particular work as part of the pile of assets needed to pay off the guaranteed creditors. Yikes. Authors, as far as I know, are not considered to be guaranteed creditors. Meaning, they get the shaft.

It doesn’t seem right to me, but it is definitely worth thinking about if you are about to sign a contract with a publisher–even if the economy isn’t in the you-know-what.

Canadian Dollar and Book Sales

Once upon a time, not too long ago, people in Canadian bookstores were getting into fisty cuffs over book prices. You see the Canadian dollar began to soar to heights previously unknown. The problem is that in Canada books are marked with American prices and Canadian prices. The American price is always much lower than the Canadian price. (For example, a $3 difference for the average paperback.) It seemed as though Canadians got a bit tired of getting stiffed with unreasonable prices. And so they began throwing books back at Canadian booksellers when they wouldn’t give them the American price (in Canada). It seemed as though some folks forgot that just because the Canadian dollar was currently higher than the American dollar, it did not mean that we all got to pretend we were suddenly Americans in American bookstores and should be getting American prices. Nobody thought about the fact that these books had likely been purchased while the Canadian dollar was low and that there are usually increased costs in deliverying a book to Canada, both accounting for a higher list price. Plus, there is also the small fact that the Canadian dollar would not remain on the top of the heap forever. Eventually some books began to reflect the high Canadian dollar in regards to price and some booksellers honoured the American price from time to time. Yet, in the back of our minds, we knew it wasn’t something we could enjoy forever.

And now the time has come. The Canadian dollar, according to Publishers Lunch, has declined to its lowest point in three years. So what does that mean for booksellers and book buyers in Canada? Well, book prices are going to go back up, right?

“The plunge has been so quick that it leaves little time to react heading into the holiday season. Harper Canada ceo David Kent says that “there is a mad scramble to reprice US imported books; the difficulty is that there has been a yo-yo effect on the exchange rate” making it hard to set a new price level.” (Publishers Lunch, October 22nd, 2008.)

“If the Canadian dollar does not rebound soon more systemic repricing will be necessary though for now most executives have a wait-and-see approach. Davidar says “we’re being cautious about taking any new pricing decisions until we have a better sense of where the dollar will be in a few months’ time.” Practically speaking, broad repricing takes time. “It takes us from four to six months to change the prices on front-list titles; backlist would depend on when titles come up for reprint.” Hanson says “we are being careful about jumping too quickly. We don’t anticipate any changes through this holiday season.”" (Publishers Lunch, October 22, 2008.) That means lower prices still in effect! Yippeee!

“As Random House Canada president Brad Martin points out, consumers should be the winners in holiday buying.” [Yes!] ”"Books are even a greater value now then they were a month ago. This is a message that the entire industry in Canada should get behind as we move into the fall gift giving season.” With publishers’ margins taking a big hit, even more rides on those holiday sales. “We will have to sell more books to make up that shortfall,” Martin adds.”

So what is the moral of this story? Go buy some books! Forget about other gift ideas, books are where it’s at. To save the publishers, buy everyone on your Christmas list a book this year. I think I will.

An Investment in Uncertainty

Yesterday as we were lawyering up, our lawyer said something to me that hit just the right note.

We were in setting up our Wills and I asked about digital rights and whether I should be mentioning them in my will. Of course, she became curious about what sort of digital rights I had. So I explained that I was doing some writing that was not yet published, but that at some point it might be and the copyrights may be something that should be passed on. (Her recommendation was that I incorporate at some future point and all my business things would be mentioned in my will and become part of my estate, etc, etc. Basically, she wasn’t too worried about digital rights.) Anyway, as we were leaving her office, she asked me what I had been writing. At this point, I was a touch worried. Did lawyer-client confidentiality apply when we were standing outside her office? See, the thing is that very few people know I am writing (I don’t want the pressure and can’t handle the snoopiness from people I know–silly, eh?) and we live in a small town. For example, my husband used to work with the lawyer’s mother and he obtains services from the lawyer’s father and our daughter used to go to the same babysitter as the lawyer’s kids from time to time. In fact, our daughter had a bit of a crush on her son. Small world. Gossip travels faster than light, etc, etc. So I explained simply, “novels.”

But lawyers are curious critters. She prompted me for what kinds of novels. Really, lawyers know all sorts of ways to ask  questions and have no worries about doing so in order to get the answers they want. They can get really specific and direct so all you can do is answer truthfully. Dang, my diversion techniques and generalities were not satisfying her! I could feel myself blushing–especially when my husband stepped in and informed the lawyer that I was selling myself short. He’s so sweet. I brushed it all off with a comment along the lines of it being a bit of a long shot and that it takes a lot of time and work. She looked at me and kindly said, “It’s an investment in uncertainty, isn’t it?” And it totally is.

And it sure is a wonderful one.

NaNoWriMo Anyone?

Next month is NaNoWriMo time!

That means National Novel Writing Month. That means, in November, try and write a novel (50,000 words) minimum during that month. It’s a challenge with its own reward–a 50,000(+) word novel!

Anyway, I am thinking of doing this. Otherwise, I may stay in this editing loop that has got me mired. (Not a wholly unpleasant place to be. I’m learning lots and I like to learn.) I’ve written new scenes for the works that are supposed to ‘complete’ and I keep tinkering with. That means I keep ignoring the new story idea that’s been pestering me for over six months. Now given, I have learned a lot in the past while and it has been important for me to focus on fixing and improving and not just writing more junk with the same old errors and distracting myself from honing the new skills I’ve been learning. But now, it’s back-on-the-horse time with a great excuse to keep me focused and motivated and goal-oriented.

Let’s see…November has 30 days. If I wrote every day, that would be how many words a day? 1666 words per day. Wow, that’s quite a few. I know I can do it though. And you are allowed to do character profiling beforehand and have an outline (if say, you were the type of writer interested in that)–just no story words down on that screen! Which means that I might need this:

This and a whole lot of take-out.

In fact, the book I am reading for my book club, Water For Elephants, was written as a NaNoWriMo challenge. Cool, eh?

Interesting stats: In 2007 there were over 100,000 participants, with over 15,000 of those folks finishing with a 50,000 word or more novel. This year, I will be one of them. Oh yes, I shall! Want to join me? I promise to email you motivational pep talks!

Reaction Phrases

My instructor, Susan Meier, from my Can This Manuscript Be Saved class had us look for reaction phrases in our work as part of an assignment. Sure we as writers try and make the reactions make sense in things like dialogue. But honestly, I hadn’t really thought of ‘reaction’ as something separate. Something that had the power to affect the whole story’s tone. Even one small word or the way they handle something (reaction) could change your perception of a character. Holy crap, the power of words. Eeek.

Anyway, I have been skimming my manuscript looking for reactions that haven’t fit right. Luckily, I my critique partner has already gone through and pointed out the areas where she wanted to slaughter characters because of…yep, you guessed it, reactions and my word choices. Yikes. Small reactions had made one of my characters into a mean friend that was very unlikeable. Who wants an unlikeable secondary character who is supposed to be a supportive friend–and is mean instead? Yuck. So really, on the grand scale of things, I’ve lucked out in this case. Still, there are the odd places where I have the wrong word or a reaction is just so blah. Or, I’ve used the wrong words to describe something. The nice thing is that by going through and skimming quickly, I don’t give myself a chance to analyze or excuse what I’ve done. I just mark it and move on. Later it will be attended to with an unrelenting eye. (Yikes.)

Right now I am reading Jennifer Weiner’s book Good in Bed. It is a good read and although I get lost in it, at times I pull out and begin critiquing it from a writers perspective, which is a really weird sensation for me–a novice. I feel as though at times there is a focus issue, which isn’t strange at all. I think this was her first book and as agent Joshua Blimes said in his AQ chat the other night, it is a common problem of beginning writers. Still, I love the story and I love the protagonist, Cannie. What makes me bring her up is that she is an AWESOME example of the great use of reaction phrases in regards to creating a fabulous, believable, and very real character.

Cannie is an overweight, heartbroken, pregnant gal. She is talking to her weight loss doctor on the roof of the medical building after she’s decided to keep the baby and drop out of the weight loss program. Anyway, they’re chatting and she’s trying to figure out his sense of humour. He says he is funny. She is in slight doubt. Here’s the reaction that really speaks to Cannie:

“Oh,” he said. “So if you were to describe yourself, you’d say you were funny?”
“No,” I sighed, looking out at the night sky. “At this point, I’d say that I was fucked.”

See? If I had been writing that, I, in all likelihood, would have continued on with the ‘I’m funny’ conversation. Instead, Weiner looked at her character and thought about what reaction would be most true to Cannie and where she was psychologically at that moment and then delivered it.

So, off I go. Checking for reactions. Hopefully, I will have some good reactions like above that really add some punch to the story. And if not, well, maybe I’ll catch them on the next pass!

A Great Chat with Agent Joshua Blimes

Last night Agent Queryhosted a chat with agent Joshua Blimes of JABberwocky Literary Agency.

What a great chat. The AQ members brought lots of great questions to the table and Joshua took his time to answer each question thoroughly. Somehow, he still managed to answer over 40 questions during his hour in the spotlight. Wow.

He said he loves to discover a new writer and that often a new writer has a raw talent that needs to be honed. What, we aren’t perfect by the time we get accepted? Dang. And I’ve learned so much in the past year! Good thing I don’t mind learning! However, one of the biggest problems he sees in new writers (he having read thousands of first pages in his 20+ years in the publishing business) is that “while some who are good just can’t focus on how they need to advance the story”. I’ve been there! In fact, that is something I’ve dedicated the month of October to working on! I’m on the right track! Yay!

Keep posted for information on other upcoming chats.