What If You Could Not Fail

My Bad

In my most recent post I publicly castigated myself for not keeping track of all the books I read last year, but I did make up for it by listing some of the best new writers I read in the last twelve months—at least new to me. Some of them have been around for a while.

But I missed one. I thought about him when I wrote the column, but I forgot to mention him.

Roger Smith is a South African-born writer who pens mystery-thrillers set in his home country. This past year I read his third book: Dust Devils. Great story with an evil villain. Writing for the Barnes & Noble mystery blog, Jedidiah-Ayres named Dust Devils one his favorite books of the year. According to Roger’s website, Dust Devils is #1 in Germany and climbing the charts everyplace else.

I still have some money left of an e-book gift card, so I think I’m going to go back and get Roger’s first book, Mixed Blood.

The way I became aware of Roger was a social media success story, but I’m not sure if it was his success or mine. Once or twice a week I try to send out something on Facebook and Twitter, either news of a recent entry on this blog, a comment about a publishing-related topic, or a line from my novel--Rules for Giving. One day I received notice via my SmartPhone that Roger had started following my Twitter feed. I have to admit, I don’t pay all that much attention to my Twitter output. I just send it out and hope someone is picking it up out there in Cyberspace. Roger did.  

Roger and I exchanged some tweets and then a Facebook conversation and now we know each other, at least electronically. We figured out that neither of us sleeps much and we spend our waking hours in the middle of the night writing and surfing the web.

Correspondingly, I also checked out Roger’s books. I found that he comes from the school of let’s-not-charge-an-arm-and-a-leg-for-ebooks. His are priced at the $4.99 range. I purchased Dust Devils, and now I’m a fan.

So here it is, folks. Check out Roger Smith, another good read. 

What I Read This Last Year

It was not a new year’s resolution, but one of the things I did promise myself last year at this time was to keep better track of the books I read.  Alas, I read a lot of books, but I didn’t keep track of them. That’s my goal for 2012. 

I did, however, discover some new authors and some good books. Let me mention them, in no particular order:

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver—Great book, and I’m really excited about this author.  Very down to earth, with scenes and situations I could relate to, as can most people I know.  Pigs in Heaven, billed as the sequel to The Bean Trees is on my 2012 list, but I have been encouraged to read The Poisonwood Bible. Perhaps I can get to both of them in 2012.

The Underbelly by Gary Phillips—A writer I discovered at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.  The Underbelly is a story that takes place in Los Angeles, a city where my parents grew up and where I was born and still visit frequently. I also had the privilege of being at a seminar at the West Hollywood Book Festival where Gary was the moderator. Gary has another book, Freedom’s Flight, that’s on my list. He has written many more.

Simple Justice by John Morgan Wilson—This is the first novel in the Benjamin Justice series about a gay reporter for the L.A. Times who won a Pulitzer Prize for a story he wrote on AIDS, only to have to give it back and resign in disgrace when it was discovered that he fabricated the piece. Now he gets involved in various mysteries.

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb—This one came to me highly recommended (and compared to works by Pat Conroy), but I put it off for a while because, at 928 pages, it was a gargantuan work. But it was a good book. Lamb has a few others out there I might try to read, including She’s Come Undone and The First Hour I Believed. Both of these are big works (480 pages and 752) respectively, but Undone was a N.Y. Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club selection.

Bump by Diana Wagman—I saw Diana Wagman at a seminar at the Los Angeles Festival of Books and was compelled to purchase Bump, the story of three complete strangers in the aftermath of a car accident that brought them together. She has some others in her catalog, and her newest novel, The Care & Feeding of Exotic Pets, will probably come out in 2012.

Columbus: The Four Voyages by Lawrence Bergreen—I have already read Over the Edge of the World, Bergreen’s book about Magellan. It was a page turner and I highly recommend it. Columbus was not as compelling, but that was no fault of Bergreen, but rather the reality of the story. It was still a good book and I learned a great deal. Bergreen has written several other books, including Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, on my list for 2012.

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell—I read this one the year before last, the story of a former mob hit man who is in Witness Protection and has gone to med school and is now in residency as a doctor. The sequel, Wild Thing, is already bought and paid for on my Nook. It will be out in February. Bazell’s use of footnotes in Beat the Reaper was clever. It will be interesting to see if he keeps it up in Wild Thing.

In Broad Daylight by Seth Harwood—I love Seth’s books, and he is also one of the gods of self-publishing and self-promotion.  His latest book on podcast, In Broad Daylight, is my favorite of his—and I haven’t even finished listening to it. His new hero, FBI agent Jessica Harding, is great.  Can’t give you a link to this. Gotta download it from iTunes onto your iPod.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare—Last time I read Shakespeare was in college, but I read this one while in vacation. I got up at the butt crack of dawn each morning and plowed by way through. Shakespeare is not nearly as difficult as most people think. I knew what half the footnotes were going to say before I referred to them. Reading the Bard does take a lot of concentration, though.  It is hard to read him at home amid all the distractions. By the way, I tried to follow the Tempest with a reading of King Lear, but that one starts out depressing and just gets worse. I might go back and revisit Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet (even though I thought the prince of Denmark was kind of a whiner when I read the play in high school).

In 2012 I am going to keep a better log of what I read.  Maybe I will report more often. I am in the final pages of East Fifth Bliss by Douglas Light. Next on my list is The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness, one of several great books about religion by Karen Armstrong, a former nun. 

 

It is a Merry Christmas!

Tonight we depart from writing to spend a few minutes talking about something else. This is a reprint of a letter to the editor of the Daily Bulletin newspaper that I wrote three or four years ago which was published. It reflects some of my feelings about Christmas. 

It is a Merry Christmas!

I wanted to get that out of the way right up front.

It is a Merry Christmas!

Sometimes the need to be politically and socially and culturally correct compels us to lean too far and forget our own roots and values and culture, evidenced by the trend in recent years to substitute "Happy Holidays" for "Merry Christmas" during this time of year so as not to offend anyone.

I'm not going to be doing that this year.

Having spent my entire life in the ethnic patchwork of Southern California, I have often been in situations and settings where the culture was far different than the one in which I was raised. It might have been Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, Eastern European--the list goes on and on.

But each time I have been asked to share the customs of another culture--to eat their food, exchange their greetings or take part in their traditions--I have been touched. I have been touched that they thought enough to include me in their festivities. That they have taken the time to explain things to me makes it all the more meaningful.

We live in a society that is rich with difference and variety. There are few other places in the world like the United States, and to not take full advantage of it is a mistake. Everybody brings a little to the pot and we all take away so much more. I grew up in a home and culture where Christmas was celebrated. Your culture might include Kwanzaa or Hanukkah or Ramadan or Chinese New Year or countless other holidays. To not recognize any one of them means the pot is a bit less.      

So this year when I wish you a Merry Christmas, I am inviting you to take part in the culture in which I grew up.

I hope that you return the favor. 

It is a Merry Christmas.

Choosing Character Names--With a Tip of the Hat to Johnny Cash

Hello. I am on a ten-day vacation in Yosemite National Park and then Pismo Beach. As hard as it is to believe, there will be times when I will not have an internet connection. In the meantime, please enjoy one of my favorite posts from this last year. 

Names of characters in a novel are important. Not every character, but at least the major ones. When I first started writing Rules for Giving, I didn’t have a name for the protagonist, so I called him Jim. Nice and generic. That name didn’t work on a number of fronts, though, so I gave it some thought and came up with a new name—Gavin Oliver. When you read the novel, let me know what you think it means.

 

The same is true for the villain.  Her name is Willa Malin.  There’s a meaning to that. You don’t even need to read the book to figure it out. The name of the femme fatale—Tilda—also has a meaning attached to it, but in that case I must admit that I didn’t develop the name with a purpose in mind.  It was only later that I realized that the name had a connotation--an unconscious choice on my part.

I need to change the name of another character. The name I started with is the name of someone I went to elementary school with. It began as a place filler, but I’ve never changed it.  Now that the novel is complete and being reviewed by some alpha readers, it is becoming more and more critical that I change the name, but I can’t come up with something I like and that works.

A couple I knew had a child a few decades ago—their son is just a few months older than my youngest —twenty-six (geez, I’m getting old). They were so unprepared that they didn’t have a name for the kid for a week after he was born.

At one point I asked him:

“So, Pete, what are you going to name him?”

“Not sure. This whole thing kind of snuck up on us.” I passed on the opportunity to point out that they had at least a few months to address this topic.

“Any ideas?”

“I know I don’t want to call him Peter. That’s a bitch of a name to grow up with. But we want to give him something that’s going to give him some character.”

That’s the same way I feel about naming characters in a book, at least the major ones.  The names should have something to do with their character, or the role they play in the story.

Sometime this week I’m going to take time to make a list and see if I can come up with a new one for this character

 

New Books vs. New Books--Supporting Authors

I am enjoying an end-of-summer weekend at Laguna Beach, CA.  In the meantime, enjoy a blog post from last year. We you in a few days. 

There was a discussion on Facebook this past week started by my colleague, Carolyn Hayes Uber. See her at Working Titlez. It referred to an article in the NY Times about how publishers are sexing up their books in an effort to combat e-book sales (Note: That ship has already sailed. Too little, too late).

Here was Carolyn’s question:

What about you? Do beautifully crafted print books influence your buying decision? Or do you just want the words, thank you very much, don't need the embellishments? How is your browsing experience different online vs. in a bookstore? Where are you more likely to discover a new (to you) author or a serendipitous find you weren't even looking for?

My answer:

I find that overall my buying habits are price sensitive. If I can buy a used book on Amazon cheaper than the Nook version thru B&N, then I buy it. More and more I say to myself, "I have four books on the must-read list now. That book is going to come up at a used book store for pennies on the dollar. Wait for it to show up there. I won't be able to read it for another month, anyway.

If I am online I typically know what I am looking for. Many of my books come from recommendations from Facebook friends and fellow writers. If I have only one problem, it is that I have a hard time getting out of Costco without buying a book. I keep telling myself I have it to read while I wait in the check-out line, and when the time comes, I invariably toss it in among my purchases.

Carolyn pointed out that I should realize that as a future-royalties-earning author (I thanked her for her faith in my ability to someday make money as a writer), I must realize that used books to do not earn the author any money. All those used books on Amazon don’t earn the author squat.

I knew that, and it has been a quandary for me. What do we as readers, and especially as writers, owe the writing community in our purchasing habits? The truth is, it’s about 50/50 for me. Fifty percent of my book-purchasing power is spent on used books, either at used book stores or flea markets.  The other fifty percent goes for new books, mostly at Costco or as an e-book.  My new book purchases are also weighed on price.  I will support new and unknown authors who promote e-book versions through social media and their book is a genre I like, and it fits my budget (99 cents to $4.99 or so).

The other books I will purchase new are authors I just have to read. Michael Connelly and Lawrence Block fall into that category, although the last books I have purchased from them have been e-book versions (higher priced because they are published by the Big Six). Last year I purchased a used book on Amazon, Lawrence Bergreen’s Over the Edge of the World, the story of Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world. It was a page turner. So when Bergreen came out with Columbus: The Four Voyages this year, I bought it new. I popped for the hardcover because I knew there were going to be a lot of maps and charts that I was going to be referring to, and dead-tree books make this easier.

I think I just answered my question:

If you want me to buy your book brand new, and especially the hardcover, you have to earn it. I can rely on Michael Connelly to put out a good novel (with the exception of Nine Dragons, which I thought was a little weak).  I purchased a used book by Lawrence Bergreen, read it, loved it, and when the next one came out I popped for the hardcover—no questions asked.  These writers earned my money.

Moral of the story: I only have so much money. All you writer’s out there (myself included), if you want me to purchase your book brand new (so that you get the royalty), you have to KNOCK MY SOCKS OFF. You have to make it so that I can’t wait to read your next book.

You can also be like Seth Harwood and others like then, who release their books on podcast for free and e-book at reasonable prices. Seth also lets me get to know him through social media so that I want to support him.

I don’t mind spending my hard-earned money if I know I’m going to enjoy the product. 

Writing the Synopsis

For the last few weeks I have been immersed in developing a synopsis of Rules for Giving.  It’s not been an easy task. 

First of all, every synopsis I‘ve read made the book sound oversimplified and disjointed, with everything happening at once.  Those are the good ones. The bad ones don’t make any sense at all. I get lost.

Second, I keep getting different messages about the proper length—one page, two pages, three pages, five pages.  The only thing I’m clear on is that if a cranky editor asks for a two-page synopsis, then dammitt, it better be two pages—not one page or three pages or five pages. Two pages is the mostr frequently mentioned, so that’s my target.  I can expand or condense from there.

The Southern California Writers’ Conference I’m attending in February has some examples on their web page. They are both two-pagers.  Both have a dateline, although it is not really a dateline.  It lists the specific location. My novel takes place in Southern California—Pasadena to Rancho Cucamonga, with an evening in Laguna Beach.  The members of my writers’ critique group don’t like the location line, but I think it’s needed to establish a locale for the novel.

Then there’s the whole dilemma of length and conciseness. This has been a challenge. A synopsis is a “just the facts, ma’am,” approach to the novel.  It is meant to go over the major action, including the plot resolution. YOU MEAN YOU WANT ME TO INCLUDE A SPOILER! But editors want a synopsis that reveals all the surprises so that there are none if they decide to read the whole enchilada.

My goal is two pages, but I can’t seem to get it less than two-and-a-half pages or so.  I let it sit and over it a few days later and I whittle it down, a line at a time, and get it to two pages. Then someone critiques it, makes few good points, and we are back to three pages.

The “just-the-facts” approach also does not allow me to get in much of the depth of the characters. I can’t talk about how the IT fellow at the agency has an addiction to nasal inhalers.  Sometimes you catch him sitting at his desk with a nasal spray bottle hanging out of his nose (I used to work with a guy like this, ‘snot funny).

And what about the kick-ass Leo the Knuckle? She’s a six-foot- two-inch, lipstick lesbian that beats up bad guys and has a big gun with a silencer. The best I can do for her in a synopsis is say that she’s “charismatic.” Is that what they call it these days?

It is also interesting to gauge the different reactions of members of the writing community when it comes to the synopsis, too. Most writers abhor them. I’ve heard it many times: “If I could take a 105,000-word story and tell it in two pages, I would have.” Others, good writers, too, freely admit, “I suck at writing a synopsis.”  And at least one publisher said something to the effect of, “That’s one of those hoops we make you jump through.”

There is some good news.  I am currently reading The Writer’s Essential Tackle Box by Lynn Price. Price says that your agent, when you get one, is going to take that synopsis and turn it into something that will work for the publisher.  If so, that’s a good thing. At least the publisher won’t have to read my miserable attempt at a synopsis. Then I am really writing my synopsis for the agent.

Now I have to go back to my synopsis, which needs to lose another line to make it two pages—for the fifth time.

BTW, here are a couple of links to websites that talk about writing a synopsis for a novel. There are many more.  Click here and here.