My "Italian" writing

The good news: I made lots of progress today on the replotting of the first part of my novel. The bad news: Mark sneaked up behind me and FILMED it. Here's a snippet. This is what he calls my "Italian side" coming out, which is pretty funny, because as far as I know, I have no Italian heritage. The other irony is that I was so into what I was doing I didn't even hear him, and he was right there!

Now you tell me: am I the only person who talks to her computer this way? :)

Make 'Em Wait: Delaying Reader Gratification

Popular nineteenth century novelist and playwright Charles Reade once famously shared this advice on writing: "Make 'em laugh; make 'em cry; make 'em wait."

Today, I'm taking a few minutes to focus on the last facet, that of "wait time," in the art of storytelling.

To keep the reader flipping pages, the writer strives to quickly raise compelling questions by giving incomplete information in the form of intriguing dialogue or narrative. There's no shortage of advice on how to set hooks that appeal to reader curiosity.

To look at one example, here's a quick snippet from the opening of one of my recent romantic thrillers, Beneath Bone Lake (Lovespell, May 2009):

The boatman’s paddle dug deep beneath the moss-green surface, biting and twisting like a switchblade’s killing thrust. Pulse thrummed and muscles burned as he dragged the canoe forward, threading through a swamp-dank maze of pale trees, the ghost sentries of a forest flooded years before. Above, the skeletal branches reached skyward into silver, their bony fingers veiled in Spanish moss and predawn mist.

A harsh cry heralded a white egret’s low flap over water, and a higher-pitched, more melodic twitter warned the sun was close to rising. With a glance down at his watch, he swore, then flipped away the cigarette he had been smoking. He had to get moving, get the hell out of here because cold or not, the damned bass fisherman would be out at first light. He couldn’t take the chance that the silent incursion of an electric trolling motor would bring one close enough to notice that he carried no tackle — close enough to hear the splash as his loathsome cargo slipped over the canoe’s side.

By this point, the reader is (I hope) wondering who is this guy, why doesn't he want to be spotted, and (most importantly) what -- or who -- is the "loathsome cargo" he's on the water dumping?

After growing curious about these important questions, the reader might be mildly engaged if they were quickly answered. But tension is heightened with a "jump cut" (quick switch to a totally different scene) where Ruby Monroe, flying into Dallas after a year-long civilian work stint in Iraq, is extremely excited about the prospect of reuniting with her little girl and Ruby's sister, who's been caring for her. A new set of questions is raised, including the airport theft of an important item along with Ruby's family's failure to appear.

Now, with any luck, the reader should be caught up in Ruby's anticipation, worried that the body from Scene One isn't one of the heroine's family members, and compelled to keep flipping pages (with mounting dread) to find out what's really going on.

Rather than offering a quick pay-off, however, the story then forces readers to follow a chain of discoveries, revelations, dubious allies, and tantalizing possibilities to get to the questions' answers, the most important of which are delayed, delayed, delayed until the final pages.

But it's a balancing act, and no easy task, to keep the reader from becoming confused and/or giving up in frustration. To prevent these pitfalls, it's important that the author also raise lesser questions, which are answered at varying intervals. By satisfying reader curiosity on those counts and doing so in a fresh, novel, or unpredictable way, the author sets out the trail of breadcrumbs that will eventually lead the audience to a satisfying intellectual and emotional payoff.

Achieve this ideal balance, and you've effectively "bookmark-proofed" one page-turner of a read.

Question for the day: What was the name of the last "page turner" you read? How did the author make it "unputdownable?"

Writing Forgives You

Preparing for a university lecture this week, I found myself typing this rather unexpected sentence:

"Writing, my friends, is a forgiving process."

I looked up from the screen. I tried to conjure the incredulous faces of the undergraduates in Malloy 020. I tried to guess at their thoughts. (Is the woman mad? Has she seen all the red ink on my last assignment? Does she know anything about grades? Expectations? Standards? Honors? Does she know how hard writing is for me? Does she have any idea how I beat myself up over it--or how sometimes I just give up and don't care? Does she actually get paid for saying stuff like this? Should I forgive her?)

I reached for the keys.

"I marvel at it. At how forgiving writing is. Look at how you can take a pass at a sentence. And then another and another and another. Each time trying to bring it closer to what it is you are quietly, or urgently, trying to say. And writing allows you to do that.

"Writing is forgiving. Writing is forgiving. Time is not. Deadlines are not. Deadlines are stone. The trouble is, at various points in our lives, we're invited to confuse and conflate the two. School is one of those places where this can happen.

"But writing is not stone. Writing is range. Writing is luxury. It is not miserly. It is never stingy. We may experience miserliness in relation to writing--deadlines--what we call writer's block--sometimes it's the impulse simply to grunt toward the bare minimum, and see if we can get away with it--but as a medium written text is never miserly. It is ever, ever generous. It forgives you. It forgives you even that.

"Never doubt that writing is there for you. That it places at your disposal an incredibly successful, finely tuned, intensely tested technology we've all been sailing with for over three thousand years now. The rudder may fight you at times. But it is in your hands. It was made, in fact, for your hands."

"Try to remember this."

I try.

--MD

Photo Credit: Bruce Barone

One Smart Reader's Advice to Novelists

Over at Salon.com, reader Laura Miller's blog offers some of the best advice to novelists I've ever seen.

Check it out, and thanks, Laura, for sharing some absolutely true observations about what really keeps readers turning pages.

Of literary agents and magical goats: one writer begins her "journey"

I have a recurring dream. I'm fifteen again, and I'm back at my old high school in Virginia, sitting in a classroom. I'm dressed like a combination of Little Red Riding Hood and Oz's Dorothy, with red cape and braided pigtails. On the small, school desk in front of me sits my manuscript, dogeared and unfinished.

"Kathryn, report to the literary agent's office immediately," says my principal, over a loudspeaker.
"NOW?" I say, looking up at the speaker with fear. The speaker doesn't answer. I get up, my whole body shaking, and pick up my manuscript. Then I walk. Down a long hallway that seems to get longer and longer the more I walk, and then finally outside, to a sidewalk that never ends. I walk past bushes and rainbows and marigolds, until I finally see it in the distance. The old trailer I used to have my Spanish class in in high school, complete with a dancing Senora Pickeral.

I blink. She beckons me to come closer. I do, and the door opens. There is a bright, glimmering light, and then I'm inside, with the literary agent I want to send the book to.

Except--he's in a bathrobe, and I am completely embarrassed. I turn around and run. He calls me back.
"You're not ready!" I say. "I'M not ready!" I freak. He tries to take the manuscript out of my hands, I finally relent, and he starts to read. I can't look at him. I won't look at him.

He looks up and says, "I like it. Keep working on it." And the colors go psychedelic. Senora Pickeral does her funky dance. The earth moves.

And then I'm back on the path. Except now the path is covered with vines, and the marigolds are thorns. Everywhere I step, there are branches, grabbing me, scratching me, pulling my pigtails. I run, run, run as fast as I can, clutching onto the manuscript, but there are now hundreds--no, thousands--of lavender goats trying to butt me. I run anyway.

I make it back to school, clothes torn, hair a mess. Manuscript intact. I walk back down the now telescoping, collapsing hall, back to my English class, past my senior year English teacher, and sit back down.

I take out a pen and write.

Hang on! Colleen Thompson's "Touch of Evil" hits bookstores this week!

In bookstores this week: Touch of Evil, novel #16 from my home girl, Colleen Thompson. Here's a review by the fabulous Jo Anne Banker.

Beneath every innocent small town, with its friendly faces, the familiarity of family, and the comfort of acquaintances known since childhood, exists an alternate world of greed, gossip, petty jealousy, and personal failures that can easily slide into a touch of evil.

Sheriff Justine Wofford's personal failures have left her alone raising her nine-year-old, autistic son, Noah. She also finds herself under investigation by Texas Rangers when financial problems prompt her to accept without question extraneous funds that appear in her late husband's bank account. Too late does she realize the good `ole boy network of business men in Dogwood, Texas expect a return on their investment in the form of awarded county budget contracts and her "looking the other way" when necessary.

She's even blown the only good thing to come into her life recently, Dr. Ross Bollinger, an emergency room doctor who won Noah's trust and Justine's heart. But he broke it off with her after a torrid, six-week affair, leaving her once again alone.

A rash of hangings at Bone Lake, which appear to be suicides, leaves Justine with little time to focus on anything but her job, which includes butting heads with her red-necked deputies who believe the sheriff should be a man.

Ross Bollinger has been away for several months, incapacitated with a heart virus, and is shocked to find that his young cousin Laney has not only lost her boyfriend, but is the only surviving member of her zydeco band, the others all dreadfully dead by their own hand. When Laney is threatened, and Justine is attacked, Ross must again deal with his feelings for the town's sheriff, a woman who refused to give him anything but hot sex when he wanted so much more.

Justine doesn't believe the hangings are suicides, and will not close the files. Instead, she broadens her investigation, checking for similar deaths in the state, looking for any signs of foul play. When a deputy is shot, and her young son is threatened, the sheriff will risk all to solve the crime, including life and love.

Colleen Thompson has written the quintessential romantic suspense novel, filled with mystery and intrigue, situations that shimmer with ambiguity, only to come into clear focus when explained, and a romance filled with impossible conflicts overcome by the intensity, heat and emotion of true love. This is an exciting page-turner, with a stomach clenching climax and a sigh-of-relief ending.

Click here to buy.

GOFIGHTWIN Colleeny book! (And thanks, Jo Anne, for letting me multi-task the sweet write up!)

Make Your Own Book Preview Video

A few weeks ago, I posted my home-brewed book preview video for my brand spanking-new (as of today) release, Touch of Evil. After checking it out, several people asked me how to do it, so I thought I'd share what I've learned about the process.

This isn't meant to be expert or in-depth advice, just a few quick tips to get you do-it-yourselfers started. I also don't mean to hold up my book video skills as a super-fabulous example but as an illustration of some of the techniques I describe. (And if you're inspired to rush out and buy my new book, so much the better. I'll cop to that.)


1. If you're running Windows XP or higher (I'm presuming it's still on Vista and Win7), you should have a program on board called Windows Movie Maker. Here's a link from Microsoft to help you get started. Or if you want something more basic, try Wendy Russell's About.com post here.

Or if you're like me and hate reading instructions, open the program and start playing with it, then look up the questions that come up as you're floundering through the process.

2. Come up with a very brief, provocative way to share your story's hook. Looking at movie trailers, TV listings, and other book preview videos (there are tons on Youtube) will give you an idea what you should be after. Hint: Words are not your friend here. Get rid of every one you can.

3. Think about what images will best get across your message. Then legally obtain them. It's fine for you to use your book's cover art to promote your book. That's the way it's licensed. What's not cool is lifting material without permission and using it in your video. There are many places to find stock photos online, from istockphoto to Getty Images to many, many more. Prices vary widely, so be sure to shop around - and don't get carried away with too many images. Instead, focus on a very few to improve their impact. (You can use Moviemaker's special effects to add interest, as I've done here by using color shifts and zoom.

4. Find and purchase the right to use a piece of music that conveys the mood/tone you want in a compelling way. I recommend Productiontrax.com but there are many others out there. Just type royalty free music or royalty free production music into your favorite search engine. And don't confuse "royalty free" with "free." You will need to pay a set fee (varies from about $9.99 to $99.99 or more, depending on your choice) to avoid paying a royalty each time the file is accessed.

5. Remember, keep your "commercial" short. You just want to entice viewers with a taste, not risk losing their attention. And simple's best, too, or you risk losing your message with too many fancy tricks.

6. Check, recheck, and check some more with your friends (beta-testers.) Tweak as necessary before posting the file to your website, blog, favorite online bookseller, publishers, social networking site, and/or Youtube.

Though you can save money and have fun (if you enjoy this sort of thing, as I do) there are many compelling reasons to hire the pros to create a book preview video for you. (One of the best I know of, Circle of Seven Productions, has packages at many different price points, starting at $350. Check 'em out.) If you do decide to do your own, take extra care to avoid a cheesy look with 1. too much telling, 2. badly-handled use of images/effects, 3. self-aggrandizing over-selling 4. excessive length, and you can find your book video preview one more great tool for introducing readers to your book.

Pants on fire. Never. Good. Thing. (Can Cameron movie option survive implosion of Pellegrino's Hiroshima book?)

Baby Jesus and I cry a little every time this happens. A little over a year ago, I had this to say about a bogus Holocaust memoir that made a fool out of Oprah and editors at Berkley. Now, apparently the story told by an elderly WWII vet who claimed to have witnessed the destruction of Hiroshima turns out to be fake, and the mushroom cloud is rising over a book that received a starred review from PW, was lauded by the NYT as "sober and authoritative," and optioned by James Cameron for the big screen.

Last Train From Hiroshima, out from Henry Holt in January, is Charles Pellegrino's deep dive into the personal stories behind this pivotal moment in history, including gut-wrenching stories from survivors and eyewitness accounts from those who flew the mission. From the article that appeared in the NYT Saturday:

Mr. Fuoco, who died in 2008 at age 84 and lived in Westbury, N.Y., never flew on the bombing run, and he never substituted for James R. Corliss, the plane’s regular flight engineer, Mr. Corliss’s family says. They, along with angry ranks of scientists, historians and veterans, are denouncing the book and calling Mr. Fuoco an impostor.

Facing a national outcry and the Corliss family’s evidence, the author, Charles Pellegrino, now concedes that he was probably duped. In an interview on Friday, he said he would rewrite sections of the book for paperback and foreign editions.

“I’m stunned,” Mr. Pellegrino said. “I liked and admired the guy. He had loads and loads of papers, and photographs of everything.”

The public record has to be repaired, he added. “You can’t have wrong history going out,” he said. “It’s got to be corrected.”

But that's a lot easier said than done. I can't speculate on strain to Pellegrino's relationship with Cameron (he served as sci advisor on Cameron's current smash Avatar), but they seem to go back quite a way, and frankly, Cameron must know that when you do interview-based research, you never know if that great story you're being told is platinum mine or tar pit.

As a memoir guru, I lecture my clients within an inch of their lives about the importance of telling the truth and the futility of thinking one can get away with lying. All oral history is subjective and, to a certain extent, malleable, but I think everybody's mama taught them the blatant difference between being on an airplane over Hiroshima and not being on an airplane over Hiroshima. Obviously, we have to work hard to back everything up with vigilant research, but I'm not sure what an author can do to protect him/herself from someone who'd go so far as to fake documentation.

Meanwhile, I hate the doubt cast on all oral histories every time this happens. At best, I guess it's another cautionary tale.

Dueling Hesters: Two books that pick up where "The Scarlet Letter" leaves off

Sipping coffee from my favorite cup this morning. On the back it says "The scarlet letter was her passport to regions where other women dared not tread." These two authors dared. Deborah Noyes and Paula Reed take up the story of Hester and oops baby Pearl from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. (Click here for Kindle freebie of the classic.)

Deborah Noyes's 2006 debut novel, Angel and Apostle, got big critical love, including a PW review that ends: "Noyes engages with atmospheric charms of time and place...she delivers an ending revelation that would surprise Hawthorne himself." (Read an excerpt here.)

This month, romance novelist Paula Reed makes her hardcover historical fiction debut with Hester: The Missing Years of the The Scarlet Letter: A Novel. (Hey, nobody told me we're allowed more than one colon per title!) Reed is a high school English teacher, who works through The Scarlet Letter every year in class and says she always finds something new to love about the book. Quoth PW: "A few romantic trysts spice up the story and result in some un-Puritan-like scenarios...Reed has created an entertaining and unlikely sequel." (Here's an excerpt.)

Last week, Gordon Hauptfleisch at Blogcritics reviewed the two side by side, and Reed doesn't do too well in the comparison. (I suspect she'll be able to comfort herself with sales numbers that are likely to kick the other book's patootie.) Hauptfleisch is such a good writer himself, the item is fun to read, but it's redolent of genre bigotry, which doesn't leave room for the idea that these are two different literary perspectives from two different authors who dared to do what they do the way they do it.

Maybe it's too much coffee in the Hawthorne mug, but I'm thinking about a Pride/Prej/Zombies take on it, possibly titled "F#@kin' A!"...

Why We Need Stories

Here's a quote I just had to share, from Karl Iglesia's brilliant book,Writing for Emotional Impact.

Because life is often frustrating, illogical, and chaotic, we turn to stories for meaning and structure. We look for answers and for universal values because we want to know how to lead our lives -- how to treat one another, how to love, how to triumph over obstacles. We also turn to stories because they explain the world emotionally rather than analytically. One can say, then, that stories are our metaphors for life, our blueprints for living...

If you haven't read Iglesia's book, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's one of those extremely rare books on writing I've been actively highlighting, marking up with copious notes, and telling every writer I know they ought to have a copy. I own shelves of books on craft, but this is one I'm certain I'll be referring back to often.

And by the way, I paid full retail for my copy after author Pat Kay recommended it. So THERE, FTC. My motives are pure!

Moving the Spirit: A Creativity Workshop

Dear friends, just a quick post to announce I'll be leading a creativity workshop in Galveston, Texas this weekend--Galveston, that hardy community that is busy re-creating itself after the ravages of Hurricane Ike. The energy, the resolve, the will on that island is wonderful to behold and be a part of. Our workshop--I say "our" because this afternoon is something we'll all be creating together--will bring together local citizens as well as out-of-towners. My thanks to those of you in Galveston and Houston who have already signed up, and my thanks for spreading the word to your friends in south Texas.

But what is a creativity workshop, you may ask? It can be many things, but in all cases it is a quest to open our minds, re-ignite and recharge our spirits, build new creative energy and spark new ideas in the fellowship of others. Creativity so often strives and is experienced in solitude: yet it needs encouragement, thrives on recognition, warms in company, delights in concert!

More details from the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston, sponsor of this event:

"Moving the Spirit: A Creativity Workshop," led by author and creativity guru "Dr. Em" (award-winning novelist Mylène Dressler), invites you to take part in a lively afternoon of memory work, movement, word play, free-drawing and improvised sound and rhythm, all designed to spark new creativity and unexpected flights of imagination lying deep within our creative spirits. You need have no prior "arts" experience of any kind to attend and enjoy this fun workshop. Simply bring your hands, your heart and your love of play. This workshop is free to members of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston; a $10 donation is requested of non-members. Time: Sunday, February 21, 1-3 pm. Location: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston, 502 Church St., Galveston, TX 77550 (409) 765-8330

Your are most welcome to join in, my friends, as we dream, write, trace, listen to and move mind, body, and soul.

--MD

Photo credit: Bruce Barone

Lessons for the Long Haul

Next week, my sixteenth book comes out, but compared to many writing in the romance genre, I consider myself a novice, still learning so much from my mentors.

Recently, I had the opportunity to hear my good friend, Patricia Kay present an outstanding workshop on "The Emotional Connection." Pat's definitely a long-hauler in this business -- just this week she made her fiftieth (you read that right - 50th!) book sale. (Congratulations, Pat!)

I've learned so much from talking to, critiquing with, and watching Pat over the years that I thought I'd share a few of my favorite lessons.

1. The more you give, the more you get. Pat's given countless hours to teaching and mentoring young (both chronologically and in terms of experience) writers. She's taken time to read the work of aspiring and transitioning authors (this one included) and given honest, solid advice. Avoiding the temptation to turn into one those guru/divas who feels she infallibly knows all, she's instead turned the experience into a celebration of mutual discovery. In seeking out new books on craft or techniques, she enriches her own work.
2. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and we can recover from our stumbles. Without perspective, authors can be crushed by a rejected option book, failed submission, bad review (even by random strangers on Amazon), or disappointing sales. But long-haul winners climb back to their feet, their gaze already locked on the fascinating glimmer of another tale on the horizon. When the going gets tough -- and I can guarantee you it will at times -- the big girls lick their wounds, then shake it off, then gear up for the next round, and the next.

3. Stagnation's not an option. Unless you're continually learning, growing, and evolving as a writer, you'll end up bored, burned out, and permanently sidelined. A fascination with the challenges of publishing and a lifelong learner's attitude are essential ingredients.

4. It's all about the storytelling. Bestseller lists and awards are great (and Pat's seen plenty of both) but in the long run, the competitive trappings of success have to take a back seat to the joy of taking your readers on the journey to discovering your characters. If not, you'll spend your writing life obsessing over sparklies and perpetually jealous and dissatisfied.

Thanks, Pat, for sharing your wisdom and example. You've been a great role model.

Marion Maneker breaks it down to the dollar in "Want to Know What a Book Really Costs?"

Yesterday on Slate's The Big Money, Marion Maneker offered an excellent just-the-facts-ma'am explanation of the hard and soft cost breakdown on books and ebooks in Want to Know What a Book Really Costs?:

Publishers say the physical costs of a book—paper, printing, warehousing, shipping and handling returns—account for only about 10 percent of the total. Digital distribution does not erase the need to spend on author advances, editing, marketing, and other functions.

Yes, Virginia, that can be true. Strictly defined, those costs are probably close to 10 percent of the retail price of the book. As astonishing as that may seem to nonpublishers, I'm not so sure the numbers support the publishers' case for higher book prices. So I did a little math for Jack. And I tried to show my work.

Maneker goes on to break it down to the dollar, and the real deal might surprise you. Check it out.