Talk about the weather

Destiny Sets - read the first chapter free online

My mother always told me don’t talk about religion or politics. You’ll only get into arguments. So what about when you are writing? Should you mention them then?

I feel a hearty Yes coming on.

After all, you are not supposed to talk about those things because they lead to arguments. People feel strongly about them. If you leave them out of your books, you leave a big hole in your characters.

So where do you draw the line between well rounded character and someone that is just a vehicle for your own beliefs?

The question holds the answer. Is this really the character speaking? Is that a legitimate point of view for them to have, and would they really say that out loud?

One of my favourite authors is John Ringo. His characters are often quite pronounced in their beliefs. Occasionally he can stray into the realms of proselytising  but it’s rare. (Or maybe it’s only when I disagree with him that I notice it.) Most of the times, it rings very true for the character, even if they are complete blow hards. And the characters around them treat them accordingly.

That is the other litmus test for me. Do the people around the character react in a realistic way? When proofing, I often try to put the other character’s hat on and think about their reaction while this is happening. It can drive your editor mad when your point of view shifts mid stream and you didn’t notice, but it really does make for a more realistic flow to the action.

So what do you think? Should we talk politics or the weather?

The Worst Thing

The surest way I have ever found to get myself out of writer’s block is to ask, “What is the absolute worst thing you can do to your character?”  Bujold put me on to the idea and I love her for it. Find the one thing that would really disturb the character and do it. This tends to work in two ways.

1. You really have to get to know their motivations to answer that question, and
2. They start to do all sorts of interesting things to avoid it.

One of my favourite characters that I have ever written was born from just this process. The world I was writing was based very strongly on survival of the fittest. So what if they met someone who was surviving quite well but was in a wheel chair? How would they cope?

To my considerable surprise, the main character fell head over heels in love with her. Who knew he had it in him? As I typed, I could see it unfold and really threw me. No one reacted the way I thought they would. I really got to know them in a whole new way and the characters became a lot more real. Just like us, facing adversity really made them grow as people and gave them substance.

            One of my favourite movies is Soapdish. A line in that movie goes something like, “I’m normal, who wants to watch me on TV?” While characters can be normal people, they should always be given something extraordinary to overcome, losing the farm, finding their father’s murderer, finding the ‘Forgotten Crystal of Doom’, whatever the genre, giving them something to battle makes them interesting. And what should they battle? Well ask yourself – what is the worst thing that can happen to them? And see what happens.

Senior Women Sleuths

By Jean Henry Mead

Because there are 87 million baby boomers nearing   retirement, some 8,000 of them a day slipping into senior citizen status, a growing market for mystery novels is in demand for those who want to read in their own age bracket. Previously called cozies, senior sleuth novels are less violent, devoid of graphic sex and the language usually lacks the F-word. My kind of mystery novel.

Senior women sleuths have been featured in mystery novels for nearly a century, but didn’t occupy center stage until some fifteen years ago when there were thirty of them solving murders. Among them Carolyn Hart with her Henrietta O’Dwyer Collins series and M.C. Beaton whose Agatha Raisin character resides in her native Scotland. Beaton, whose real name is Marian Chesney, describes Agatha Raisin as an updated Miss Marple.

Women over fifty have generally been dismissed as out of touch with the real world, with few notable exceptions, and unworthy of respect. Hart stresses the fact that “Women must be valued not only when young and beautiful but when they age. I wanted a character that didn’t have to pretend. There are more seasons to life than summer.”

I agree with her assessment that anyone who thinks “”women over 60 are fluffy and feeble little old ladies” are dead wrong. I was honestly unaware of either mystery series when I dreamed up my own senior sleuth novel, A Village Shattered. My protagonists, Dana Logan, a mystery novel buff and her friend, Sarah Cafferty, a private investigator’s widow, live in a San Joaquin Valley retirement village in central California, where dense fog hides a serial killer. While the two women sat discussing the first murder of their friend and club member, I realized that Dana resembles actress Gina Davis and Sarah looks like Shelley Winters, a distinct difference in their appearances. But together they have more crime solving knowledge than the newly-elected sheriff.

The two 60-year-old widows are in good physical shape and Dana still jogs and downhill skis. Sarah, on the other hand, loves to eat and is what she calls “pleasingly plump.” They’re not doddering old ladies, but quite capable of solving crimes. In Diary of Murder, the second novel in the series, due for release next spring, I placed both women in a motorhome in the midst of a Rocky Mountain blizzard as they make their way to Wyoming to investigate the death of Dana’s sister, a mystery novelist. Her brother-in-law says it was suicide, but Dana knows better.

I confess that I’ve never had more fun writing as I’ve had with my Logan & Cafferty senior sleuth mystery/suspense series.

About the author: Jean Henry Mead is the author of eleven books, three of them novels. A former news reporter, magazine editor and photojournalist, she now devotes her time to writing the Logan & Cafferty senior sleuth series as well as western historical novels. She’s also working on a children’s book, The Mystery of Spider Mountain.

Her mystery novel, A Village Shattered, released this month
from  Amazon.com (http://tinyurl.com/5alkkr) is also available in ebook form from Fictionwise-ePress (http://tinyurl.com/6rdzm5), where it is currently #1
on the publisher’s bestseller list. A book trailer is also available at “YouTube:  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9mVh6Z6GGg).

Jean’s webpage is: JeanHenryMead.com.

Cassie Exline, US Author on the challenges of being an International Author

Being from the U.S., the difference in language, or I mean the spelling of certain words is a hoot. For example: adding that extra “u” or “s” instead of a “z”, which is the British way, can be confusing after reviewing their story. Not too long ago it was pointed out to me, by an editor, that I’d spelled a word in my story the British way and I had no idea I’d done it.

If that’s not enough, the different meaning of words can make for a lively discussion and a lot of laughs. Having an editor from another country is interesting. More than once, I’ve read a comment and had no idea what it meant. It’s been a great learning experience and makes me more understanding of others.  Also makes me work harder to make my writing clearer for everyone to read.

For me my biggest obstacle or problem is-Time Zones. Makes for a dicey problem when getting to the different publishing house loop chats on time. It’s been difficult working with editors or timing chats because of a different zone, whether here in the states or authors in a different country.

Right now, I’m training with an editor and she’s not around when I’m online. So it’s email and play the waiting game. Takes longer to get the work done, especially when I have questions and can’t move on until she helps me.

Of course being friends with Marc, I’ve learned UK time. I know he’s around until 12 noon my time (Eastern) and then he’s gone. So if I need to ask him anything, my deadline is noon. Fortunately, most loops seem geared to eastern time, but we do hit the glitch with some of the house members who get the zones confused. Chats set for daytime hours prove difficult. Since I have a full time job, that doesn’t often work for me and I miss opportunities to support as well as promote to get new readers.

With Savannah being in Canada, our time matches. So it’s easy to keep in contact with her. The only problem might be that I’m an early bird and she’s a night owl. Nothing we can’t overcome.

Time zones are a must to understand in order to keep in contact with other authors so we can to hit the promotion trail-on time.  No one wants to show up to the party late or too early. It’s been quite a learning experience doing the loops.

~

Cassie Exline

Tree of Buried Secrets, recently named Book of the Week, is a contemporary romance and available at Lyrical Press.

http://www.onceuponabookstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_25&products_id=56

Coming Together: With Pride is an anthology, featuring my story, Fire & Ice, and available at Phaze in ebook or print format.

http://www.cassieexline.com

http://ww.myspace.com/cassieexline

http://cassieexline.blogspot.com

http://cassieexline.wordpress.com

http://twitter.com/cassieexline

Guest Post: Brit Author Marc Nobbs talks about the Challenges of being an International Author

As you may know, the world is in the midst of a deep financial crisis. Banks are failing the world over, share prices are tumbling. And the UK currency, Sterling, is falling against the Dollar and the Euro.

It’s the manner that it’s plummeted against the Dollar that interests me because, as a Brit who is published by a US based publisher, I get my royalties paid in Dollars.

For a long, long time now, the British Pound has been at around $2 to the pound, which is great if you’re jetting off to Florida for your summer holidays, but not so good if you’re exporting your goods or services there.

For example, both Jaguar and Land Rover (although owned by Ford until very recently) set the price of their cars in Sterling, so when the Dollar is weak, the cars cost more in the US. On the bright side, when the Pound falls, the price of the cars in the US should fall too (So hopefully they’ll sell more).

So I’m one of the few Brits that is happy to see Sterling at around $1.70 instead of $2. That’s because the cost of my books, such as Charlotte’s Secret and Lost & Found are set in dollars and, as I said, my royalties are paid in Dollars.

So that cheque for $50 is now worth £5 more than it was at the start of the year. And if Sterling keeps falling, it’ll be worth even more. Think of all the extra chocolate I could buy.

Of course, I’m still at a disadvantage. That cheque my publisher sent me not only took longer to get to me than to my publisher’s US based authors, but it was drawn on a US bank. And unfortunately, my UK bank (well, technically they’re a Building Society but let’s not split hairs) is going to charge me to cash it. As it happens, the charge is about £5.

I remember once I sold three ‘Flash’ (500 words long) stories to a website at a rate of $5 each (or 1cent per word). They sent me a cheque for $15. The exchange rate at the time made it worth about £7.50. So after the £5 charge to cash it, I was left with £2 (or $4). That’s about 0.16 pence (or 0.32 cents) per word.

Does your brain hurt yet? Mine does. All I can say is, Thank God for PayPal.

I can’t even begin to count how much PayPal has saved me over the past couple of years. PayPal doesn’t charge me for changing my money from Dollars to Pounds. So that’s a saving of £5 (or 5 big bars of Dairy Milk) each time I get paid – which soon adds up I can tell you.

Such are the trials of being an international author. And I haven’t even mentioned the differences between the two languages. I tell you, don’t get me started on the need for the letter ‘u’. Or the uselessness of the letter ‘z’. I could go on for hours. Ask Cassie, she knows.

–

Marc Nobbs
REC Nominated Author of Contemporary Erotic Romance
Turning Romance on its head

Nominated for Best Author of Contemporary Erotic Romance
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Romance_erotica_connection/surveys?id=12835841

Nominated for Best Female Charater in a Contemporary Erotic Romance
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Romance_erotica_connection/surveys?id=12835851

Charlotte’s Secret, A Contemporary Erotic Romance
Available Now from Phaze Books
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=Charlotte%27s+Secret/exact_match=exact

Lost & Found, A Contemporary Erotic Romance
Available Now from Phaze Books
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=Lost+and+Found/exact_match=exact

http://www.marcnobbs.com
http://www.myspace.com/marcnobbs
http://marcnobbs.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/marcnobbs

Opportunities for You!

You know with this economy you might think that opportunities for writers are drying up.  But that’s not so, and we have a line up of writers coming here to Rule of Three who are going to tell you about concrete things you can do to jumpstart your writing career.

First off, in case you missed it, Julie Bonn Heath did a wonderful article on writing for anthologies this weekend ( just scroll down for her hands on post.) She will be blog touring with her book, Then Along Came an Angel, so check her blog.  Anyone who comments during her blog tour (at our site or another) will be entered into a drawing to win books.

Next week, we have 3 blog guests, Cassie Exline, Marc Nobbs and Savannah Chase are a bit like Rule of Three.  They are three different writers from three different countries and they’re going to tell you some of the obstacles they’ve faced with that along the way. I had a sneak peek at some of their posts and I have to tell you they’re telling it just the way it is.

Keep checking back all next weekend as they take turns posting.

And coming in December, we have Jean Henry Mead, author of A Village Shattered, who will tell you why you should think about writing a senior sleuth novel.

All in all, I’m excited about our guests and I hope you are too.

Writing for Anthologies by Julie Bonn Heath

Julie Bonn Heath

The anthology market offers great opportunity for publication for both new and seasoned writers. My first opportunity for publication came through an anthology book and helped me brand my name as a writer. This led to hundreds of articles published, speaking engagements, blogger jobs and my own compilation book, “Then Along Came an Angel: Messengers of Deliverance”. For seasoned writers, anthology writing can assist with keeping your name in the game, further developing your platform and even bring appearance opportunities.

Because I teach anthology classes, I receive questions about the current anthology opportunities in regards to the economy and I am pleased to let you know that although the small story markets decreased sharply a few years back, the current economic situation is not greatly affecting the opportunity for publication through anthologies.

Here are some of my tips for publishing in nonfiction anthology books:

Spruce up your writing skills. I recommend reading, underlining and re-reading the book “Writing for Story” by Jon Franklin. Make sure you read the award-winning stories within the book that Franklin has written.

Choose a story from your life or someone else’s that evokes emotion and has a defining moment of a lesson learned or impact. If you have a memoir in you but hesitate to send it out because “memoirs aren’t selling well”, smaller stories in anthology books may be the answer for you.

Format your story with the title and your by-line at the top. Double-Space and use size 12 Times New Roman Font.

Write the story as if it is fiction-using dialogue and thoughts throughout. Watch for passive verbs. Then re-write it. You aren’t done with your story until it shines. Note: Do not do this all in one day. Let your story sit a day or two before going back to make changes.

Send it to your critique partners or read it to your writing group. Consider all suggestions.

Finalize your story and write another as you look for markets.

Find market listings through: Chicken Soup (link to http://www.chickensoup.com/form.asp?cid=possible_books), Adams Media (link to: http://www.adamsmedia.com/Default.aspx?tabid=495), Funds for Writers (link to: http://www.fundsforwriters.com/) and TheContestingAnthologist (link to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheContestingAnthologist/?yguid=178686743). If you are on Yahoo or Google Groups, I recommend that you do an “anthology” search to see which groups actively discuss anthologies and provide market information.

BIO:

Julie Bonn Heath (www.juliebonnheath.com) is an author and PR/Marketing Consultant. She offers blog tours as one of her many services. She has stories in the anthologies “Classic Christmas”, “Nudges from God”, “Living by Faith”, “Then Along Came an Angel” and the upcoming “Chicken Soup for the Friend’s Soul”. Read stories from her angel book and view tour information with Joan Wester Anderson at http://www.thenalongcameanangel.blogspot.com

Domestic Violence? Give Respect.org!

In so many ways, these seem like the toughest of times.  Families have been shaken by the economic downturn.  Stability seems gone, and many of us are scared about the future.  The political climate has heated up, at times almost beyond reason.  Wall Street is being pitted against Main Street.

In times like these, the best answers may be the simplest.  Put one foot in front of the other and keep going.  Make the best decisions you can.  Find partners who share your values and goals.  Treat other people with respect.

That’s how we’re tackling one of the world’s most serious and intractable problems – domestic and sexual violence.  With Respect.

Last year, with our friends at Macy’s, we envisioned a national awareness campaign that encouraged everyone, whether they had a connection to the issue of domestic violence or not, to give respect in their lives. This September, we announced the RESPECT! Campaign^SM and launched a new site — GiveRespect.org — that invited the nation to rally for respect with us, and give respect online in any number of ways. By donating, by telling a friend, or by buying a respect bracelet and wearing it proudly. In just a few short weeks, we’ve already seen more than 25,000 acts of respect across the nation, and we’re encouraged that the effort will continue to grow!

And the most incredible thing about respect is that when you give it, you get it back.

Every day, through this new campaign, we learn about the stories of courageous survivors and advocates for the cause, like Christine and Narelle, who are speaking out every day to end the suffering and give hope to those who are victims.

Recently, our partners at Alpha Chi Omega released a video of a domestic violence survivor, Carolyn Cox, who in 2004, was nearly killed by her husband. For 43 years, she silently wished the man she’d married would treat her with respect and decency, and thankfully today, he is behind bars.  She is one of many sharing her story (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doP0sEHvOEk) to help young women understand  what a healthy, respectful relationship should be like. We admire Carolyn, and all those like her who are changing the conversation in this country and building a foundation of respect for future generations.

Together, we can and will build a new kind of society. One that encourages decency and respect. A society where boys and girls are taught that violence does not equal strength, and where individuals across the globe stand with courage, lead with conviction and speak with one voice to say, “No more”.

We need your help to achieve this. Please reach out to others and take a stand for respect at www.giverespect.org today. And tell your friends — starting on October 30, when you give respect, Geoffrey Beene gives back^TM. For every act of respect, Geoffrey Beene will donate $5 to the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and when you donate, they match it!

With Respect,

The Family Violence Prevention Fund

Dress your writing in its best before sending it out the door

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Leila Kalmbach to the Rule of Three guest stage.  Leila is a freelance copyeditor, proofreader, and writer.  She produces an excellent newsletter called Typo of the Month, which tells the story of a different embarrassing or expensive typo each month.  Please e-mail Leila directly to sign up for Typo of the Month.  Leila can be found online at www.eyeforink.com, or reached at eye.for.ink@gmail.com.

                                                                                                                                           

When you were little, you were taught not to judge a book by its cover. But you do it anyway, don’t you? We all do. That’s why you wear a business suit when you want to be seen as a professional, a slinky dress when you go to the bar with friends, and an old ratty T-shirt when you’re home alone with no one to see you.

Okay, maybe you don’t do all of those things. But you see my point: You make judgments based on surface details, and you expect others to also.

And yet, when submitting a piece of writing to an editor, publisher, or agent, many people don’t bother proofreading their work. They figure it’ll get proofread before it’s published. They figure these people are trained to look past surface errors and see that the story is well-crafted, the sentences are alluring, and the words pop out from the page.

And maybe they will—but don’t count on it. The surface details of spelling, grammar, and punctuation are like the business suit for your writing. They show the reader that you pay attention to detail, and they allow the reader to get truly lost in your writing. After all, it’s hard to pay attention to the message when you’re caught up in figuring out whether that comma should have been a period, or whether “invenst” should say “invest” or “invent.” In that way, your writing itself is seen as stronger when it’s free of typos even though the content is exactly the same.

With that in mind, I offer these tips for proofreading your work:

-Spend some time away from a piece before proofreading it. When you know what a sentence is supposed to say, your mind doesn’t spend as much time processing the words. This makes it easy to overlook errors.

-Read through the piece slowly, at a time when you feel awake and alert. Reading it out loud may help you to slow down and really look at the words.

-Try to turn off the part of your brain that focuses on meaning, and just focus on the surface details.

-Keep your eye moving steadily by keeping your place on the page with a pen or pencil. When we read, we don’t actually look at every word. Our eyes skip over words and our minds fill in the blanks based on what we expect to see. This is why typos are sometimes hard to catch. Make sure you read every single word, especially very short ones, which our eyes skip over most often.

-If possible, get a friend to read the piece as well.

If you have a piece that really needs to be perfect, consider hiring an editor to proofread or copyedit it. Different style guides have different rules, and a good editor can give you a leg up by putting your piece in the style used by the publication you’re targeting.

Remember, we all judge books by their covers. If you don’t pay attention to typos in your writing, your own book may never get the opportunity to be judged by its cover in bookstores around the world.

Writers Need Love Too

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Don Lafferty to the Rule of Three stage.  Don is a writer and networking extraordinaire (our words – not his).  His book – A Field Guide For The Rookie Coach http://rookiecoach.org/ - is due for release in 2009.   Don has agreed to share some of his networking knowledge with us. [insert applause]

We all know the writing life can be a solitary existence. Day after day investing long hours crafting pages of prose or scouring the Internet for research material can make for some long stretches of alone time. And this is absolutely necessary if a writer is going to push through to the finish line, whether your passion is a novel, short story or a magazine article.

The other pursuits of the writing life – self promotion, researching potential markets, agents, publishers and new ideas – can be more effectively served by including a strong networking strategy among the tools you employ to build platform.

There are networking options for every personality.

You can start with a MySpace page focused on your writing career, and by joining all the writing Yahoo Groups you can find. Simply “listening” in these buzzing online groups will open doors to unforeseen possibilities and direct your writer’s mind into uncharted territory, and neither will cost you a penny.

More outgoing souls should seek local writing groups who meet face to face. Visit with a handful of different groups and eventually you’ll find one that’s a good fit for you.

I scored on my very first try.

Several years ago I found myself living that solitary writing lifestyle, but clearly feeling like I needed something more, so I found a local writer’s group through the Web and attended their next open gathering where I met a bunch of people just like me…only different.

For the next three hours I listened to other writers talking about their personal journeys, their process, their frustrations and their accomplishments. This meeting led me to attend a local writer’s conference where I met more writers, editors and agents. I was pumped.

In these few short years I’ve learned more about the writing life, published more and been paid more than in all the previous years combined. I’ve met hundreds of people in the writing world and made some good friends along the way. Not a single day goes by that my writing network doesn’t present me with an opportunity to publish or take me down some unexpected path.

It’s the reason I’m here with you today.

So gather up your best work and jump into the writing world. Be prepared to talk about your writing, take care to keep track of your new connections via email and online social networks, and when you think you have something to offer, don’t be shy. Everything you give to your network will come back to you again and again.