More fun than the movies?

by Jen Black 

Alba Series, Vol. 1

Finlay was the recognized heir to the throne of 11th Century Alba. When the king began a plot to install his grandson, Duncan. Finlay finds his girl is married off to his cousin, his best friend joins the opposing side, and Duncan plans to start a war. Life becomes especially difficult when Thorfinn of Orkney and his sister take a hand in the game.

Question from the e-mail: How do I know if I am a writer? Maybe I'm just kidding myself. I don't have any unique experiences or special talents...

Answer: A writer is "One who writes." Sit down in the chair and write something.  BINGO! You are a writer.

Being a good writer only takes one more thing than that.  NO, it's not talent! It's regular practice. Yes, a beginning writer needs to do more than sit in a chair once. He or she needs to do it regularly. Every day is good, but even every Saturday afternoon, is "regularly."

Don't worry if you can't find time to do that --  then you have an answer to your question. If you are a writer, you will find your joy in that chair and be unwilling to give it up.

With practice and study you can learn techniques that will improve your writing. I have been writing a long time (I taught writing for more than 25 years) and I am STILL learning new techniques.  But no matter how many magazine articles, or writing blogs, you read on how to improve your writing, nothing will replace the practice. This is why those NFL guys don't only show up on Sunday.

I have it on good authority that anyone can do it. I once paid an obscene amount of money to attend a conference where Jean Auel (Clan of the Cave Bear, etc. ) was scheduled to speak. She said, "I can't teach you how to write. The way to become a good writer was to keep on writing. There is no substitute for practice." She told us that she read a book about cave people, wondered what it would be like to live in their culture, then sat down at her dining room table and wrote a nine page story, that turned out to be the outline for her series of books. From the first nine pages, to the hundreds of thousands of words in those books was a lot of practice.

"Writing is hard work, but the more you do it, the easier it gets." Then Ms. Auel sat down and proved research was important, too, by knapping a perfect Folsom point out of a piece of  flint.

I agree with her about practice. There's no real substitute for doing the work.

But I do think that study, and tips from professionals can help speed the work along. And as for having no experience...the author of the book at the top of this page, Jen Black, has never lived in the 11th Century. But as a reader, she showed it to me so thoroughly that I felt as if I had been there.  When I looked up from her book, I was surprised to see the TV across the room.

So here's the way to tell  if you are a "real" writer. When folks ask, "What makes you think you're a writer?" or "Why would anybody want to read that?" or "Wouldn't you rather go to the movies tonight?" You know in your heart that (even though it can be the hardest work in the Universe), that spending the evening writing, will be more fun than the movies.

So when people ask me why I still write, I just smile and say, "Because I can't help it, and it's fun."

Now here's a question for all of you?  Why do you write?

HotCougarCheese/DipRecipe

By Ludima Gus Burton

Love knows no age limits Kay Holland, a fifty year-old widow, doesn't want to be called a cougar. Although fifteen years separate them, thirty-five year old, Drew Lawrence, isn't her cub! She must, however, overcome her own doubts of the age difference, his son and her daughter's opposition and social prejudice to reach her happy ending.

Hot Cougar Cheese Dip Recipe

ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped fine
• 1 large shallot, chopped fine
• Handful of flat-leaf parsley, washed, dried, and chopped
• 12-16 ounces cream cheese, cut into small cubes
• 1/4 - 1/2 pound Cougar Gold* cheese
• 1/2 pound gruyere cheese, coarsely grated (Swiss cheese works well too)
• Cayenne pepper, to taste
• Salt, to taste
• http://public.wsu.edu/creamery/

directions

• 1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  
  
• 2 Heat olive oil in pan over medium high heat. Add shallots and garlic and sauté for 30 seconds or so, just enough for them to sweat and open up the flavors. Set aside.
  
  
• 3 Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl. Add shallot and garlic mixture, season with pinch of cayenne and salt and combine.
• 4 Place in individual ovenproof ramekins or a large ovenproof dish. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or longer if baking in a larger dish, until cheese is melted and bubbling. Finish under broiler for a few seconds until top is caramelized.

Author Intrustion

A really enjoyable book!

Gerald Hedgerow, son of two famous writers, one a novelist and the other a poet, has finally achieved success on his own . . . or rather, with the help of Miss Grainger, his pen-named alter ego. Unfortunately, though, this sweet, even-tempered agony/advice columnist offers fame at a steep price.

Question from the e-mail:  When I read my story in my group, they said it was "just full of author intrusions."  I nodded and thanked them, but haven't a clue what that means. Help, Arline.

Answer: Author Intrusion is a viewpoint mistake, where the author tells the reader something that the viewpoint character can't see or know.

The viewpoint rules say:
1. ONLY one character's viewpoint per scene. The reader should only be inside the body of the viewpoint character, see with her eyes, think with her brain, feel with her heart.  If anyone else's thoughts are important for the reader to know, the best way is to s how them by the actions of the second character.

2. The Second Character can't THINK that the viewpoint character is giving him a load of BS,   but he can  say, "SURE!" Or be sarcastic, or grit his teeth and give Main Character a "Who do you think you're kidding?" look. Or stare at the ceiling and shrug.

3. So before you write any scene, decide whose scene it is establish the viewpoint character by using his or her name in the transition, to keep the reader oriented.

After that, you have to be careful not to show anything your viewpoint character can't see.

Author Intrustion Mistakes I have made:

Hope stood at the rail of the steamboat, watching the shoreline drift past. Her cheeks were ruddy from the wind, her bonnet crooked, and the shoes that pinched her feet were still covered with flecks of oyster shell, from the muddy dock. 

Hope can't see her own cheeks, OR her bonnet, unless she's looking at a mirror and that's been done too often, and too often badly. That is Arline Author, sticking in her two cents, TELLING the reader Hope has wind-burnt cheeks and her bonnet has been knocked askew. She can see her own shoes, though, so that's all okay.

READERS never notice this stuff. But critics and other writers surely will. And editors will make fun or reach for the return envelope...

On the other hand, you can describe gestures and inner feelings and emotion in a pov character.

Hope stood on the deck of the Lily Austin, ignoring the passing shoreline and terrified of what would happen, when she finally reached Killraven Island.  She had no job, no money, no place to live and had accepted her only friend's invitation to pay a short visit... How long could she stretch that?

When we show a detail only other characters can see, it's called "Author Intrusion" because the writer is telling the reader something that the viewpoint  character can't possibly see, feel, or know. If you put the reader inside the body of the viewpoint character the reader should only see, think, and feel, what that one character does. 

One way around this problem (I still catch myself doing it, so I surely know how to fix it) is to use one of the character's other senses, to get the point across. A blushing protagonist can't see her cheeks blush without a mirror, but she might "feel her cheeks grow hot" or her "try to swallow back the tide of embarrassment and wish she could drop right through the floor." This was the hardest viewpoint lesson of all for me and it took me seven long years not only to learn the rules, but to learn what they actually meant.

Happy Veteran's Day!

by Steven Clark Bradley

Today, America faces enemies that make the world of the Cold War seem like much brighter times. Islamic forces have declared Jihad on America causing the greatest threat to the life of the United States since World War II. 

 

 

Mom's Apple Pie

Original recipe makes 1 - 9 inch pie Change Servings

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
   
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  
• 2 tablespoons cold milk
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 6 Fuji apples, cored and sliced
  
• 3/4 cup white sugar

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar
  
• 1/2 cup butter
•  

• Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  
• To Make Crust: In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, oil, milk, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar and salt until evenly blended. Pat mixture into a 9 inch pie pan, spreading the dough evenly over the bottom and up sides. Crimp edges of the dough around the perimeter.
  
• To Make Filling: Mix together 3/4 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle over apples and toss to coat. Spread evenly in unbaked pie shell.
  
• To Make Topping: Using a pastry cutter, mix together 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar and butter until evenly distributed and crumbly in texture. Sprinkle over apples.
  
• Put pie in the oven on a cookie sheet to catch the juices that may spill over. Bake 45 minutes. 

Catching UP!

GoodNews!

Shelley has more than 100 of out titles listed at Smashwords. Only a couple hundred more to go.


No books went to press or back to pres this week:

Galleys that went out, or went out again, this week:
   
A SNUG LIFE SOMEWHERE,  by Jan Shapin
   A Snug Life Somewhere is about Penny Joe Copper, daughter of a roustabout shingle weaver, who is caught up in a 1916 union tragedy known as the Everett Massacre. Her brother Horace is killed, as is the cousin of a radical organizer, Gabe. When her love affair with Marcel, a music student seven years her junior, is thwarted, Penny Jo is pulled into Gabe’s campaign to avenge the “Everett Martyrs.” 


VENDETTA, by Ian Welch
   Ethan is alone and destitute on the other side of the world. His Dad is murdered, their business fails, his Mum unable to cope takes her own life. This is too much of a coincidence, rumors indicate one man is responsible. Ethan learns the truth, but what can he do? He is dealing with a powerful adversary, a man who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals.

  LIVING THE CALL, by Barbara Garro
    By listening and answering God's call to serve...consider being a lifeboat and keeping people afloat. Hold out a ladder to raise people up. We are all God has to serve Him on our planet. Do you believe that? Or are you thinking God can do everything Himself.

Work continued or began on the following:



TOBY MARTIN: State Fair Security, Vol. 5, by Barbara Grengs
   The only event interrupting the summer blahs for Toby Martin, girl detective, and Freddy Galvin, boy foil, is the Great Minnesota Get-Together: the one, the only, the Minnesota State Fair!

BLEEDING HEARTS: Killian Kendal Mystery Series, Vol. 1
   Winner of the Stonewall Society's 2002 Pride in the Arts Literary Award in the Whodunit Category! 

REAP THE WHIRLWIND: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 2,  by Josh Aterovis.
   Suicide, or murder? That's the question in the second Killian Kendall mystery. Will Smith suspects murder when an old childhood pal drowns, and asks his friend Killian for help in solving the mystery.

LIVING THE CALL, by Barbara Garro
    By listening and answering God's call to serve...consider being a lifeboat and keeping people afloat. Hold out a ladder to raise people up. We are all God has to serve Him on our planet. Do you believe that? Or are you thinking God can do everything Himself?

MOONLIT BAY, by Elena D. Bowman
  A Paranormal Mystery Novel.

A STORY BOOK, by Elena D. Bowman 
   This is a sample of literary short stories from an author who already has several books with us. The theme of the collection is a writer’s connection with the creator.

California Seafood Stew

A GHOST OF BROTHER JONATHAN’S takes Shannon Delaney on a cold-case quest to investigate a mystery surrounding one of California’s legendary shipwrecks… of 150 years ago: “More questions? Have at it,” Marta said. Marta’s blue eyes glittered with excitement. Advance copies of paper book on sale now. Ebooks, coming soon.

California, Seafood Stew

a hearty dish for ghost hunters

There's nothing like a night of ghost-hunting to stir the appetite. This makes a good dish  for gathering around the table to discuss what you you have seen and heard.

Serves a dozen hungry ghost-hunters.

• 2/3 cup and 1 teaspoon butter
• 2 med. sized red onions, chopped
• 6 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
• 2  (14.5) ounce cans stewed tomatoes
• 2(14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups white wine
• 1.5 pounds large shrimp - peeled and deveined
• 1.5 pounds bay scallops
• 18 small clams
• 16-1/2 mussels, cleaned and debearded
• 1-1/2 cups and crabmeat
• 1-1/2 pounds cod fillets, cubed

Directions

1. Over medium-low heat melt butter in a large stockpot, add onions, garlic and parsley. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until onions are soft.
2. Add tomatoes to the pot (break them into chunks as you add them). Add chicken broth, bay leaves, basil, thyme, oregano, water and wine. Mix well. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.
3. Stir in the fish, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels.  Bring to boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer 5 to 7 minutes until clams open. Add crabmeat. 
4.  Ladle soup into bowls and serve with warm, crusty bread and plenty of butter.

• PREP 10 mins
• COOK 45 mins
• READY IN 55 mins

Submission Question

Just after private detective Jack Watson vowed not to be choosy about taking any case to end a lull in business, who walks into his office but his ex-wife. Dr. Victoria Pressler. The famous psychologist also known as The Mind Bender, had once made Jack’s life pure hell. Now she wants him to figure out if her new lover, a handsome young tennis player, loves her -- or her money.




Question from the e-mail:  Why are your submission guidelines so complicated??  Why are you so particular about what you want to see in a ms. after it has already been accepted? Isn't that the editor's job?

Answer: The simple answer is you can save us time and get your book finished and on sale faster, with fewer things that have to be changed. If you follow the guidelines you will save us a lot of time and your book should certainly get finished faster.

The unfairl part is that if people who "blow off" the guidelines and just send what they have as "good enough," are ahead of you, it will definitely delay your book's production time.

That's because we use the file they send us to set the type.  If there are few mistakes, that saves us time and the things we ask you to do in our submission guidelines, will be beneficial to all of us. Yes, it will take you more time and trouble to prepare the files as we ask. But if you blow it off, then we still have to do it before we can go to press. Worse, it doesn't only affect your book's timing, because we are already working on that. BUT it delays Every Other books waiting in line behind it.

Just now, all we have to do book production is me. I edit the files, set the type, do the layout...you get the drift. Shelley is concentrating all her time on marketing our books in wider outlets. That means I get to do her job and mine, too, while she does her best to get your books noticed in more places. The good news is that the work she is doing will result in more sales for many of you, so given a bit more time and patience, things should improve. I figure we might be back to normal about this time next year.

Also we have a lot of books that we accepted before Shelley started working on marketing exclusively. We have signed contracts for those books and have promised to complete them, and have every intention of doing so. But things ARE going more slowly just now. I am working as quickly as I can and still produce the quality books we are known for. In order to be as fair as possible, I have a list and do the books in the order they were accepted.

I wish it could be more quickly and that I could answer "Yes," to everyone who has asked me if their book would be on sale by Christmas.  All I can say is, I hope so. Our philosophy is that we accept as many good quality books, chosen by professional writers, as we can. Some of you have been waiting a long time, and we do apologize for that.

Together, Shelley and I did two or maybe three books per month. In the last two months, I did 8 books, attended to payroll, and suffered computer problems. Yes, I am going a bit crazy... Please try to be patient.

It's true that doing both the print files and e-books at one time is a quicker process. Thank goodness for that. Over the weekend, I put 8 new e-book titles up for sale on our site at WriteWordsInc.com, on amazon.com, on Nook, and at Kobo and ARE/Omni, and then passed them along to Shelley to do at Smashwords.

Why are we so intent in our pursuit of Smashwords? Because last month they sold more e-books for you than amazon.com. Shelley has 100 books for sale there now.  We have 350 titles in our inventory
and Shelley will get the rest of you up there as soon as she can.