Check out this great new postcard my graphic artist made for me. Thanks, K.M. Guth!
If you come to an event I’m at, you can get your own copy. Check out the calendar on the front page. (So far, none of them have been cancelled.)
I apologize for the poor photography. I tried about five different ways to get a good shot, and nothing I worked. I kept getting shadows or glare no matter how hard I tried.
March 9, 2020
Are audiobooks considered reading?
I don’t listen to audiobooks. I have, but only a few, and never while driving. I know myself well enough that it would be a distraction. Heck, the other day, I parked on a different floor than normal in the parking garage and didn’t realize it until I entered the building because I was so deep inside Harmony’s head. (For those of you who don’t know, Harmony Duprie is the main character in my mystery series.)
Now, I have listened to a few audio books in my distant past. I was devouring the James Bond books, and there were some the library didn’t have on the shelves. I found an audio download of the books and grabbed the ones I needed to fill in the gaps. (Back in the day when audiobooks were on cassette or CD.)
And quickly realized how big of a difference the narrator makes. And that listening just didn’t cut it for me. I didn’t get the same satisfaction from listening to someone tell the story as I did from holding a book in my hands and reading it.
When I read, I like to take my time and savor some parts of the story and rush through others. (I’m looking at you, sex scenes. The rushing part. Most of you are boring. I can’t imagine listening to sex scenes.) I can’t do that when someone else is reading the book and I’m listening. I have to move along at their pace.
But just because it’s not my preferred method of reading, doesn’t mean it isn’t a valuable experience to someone else. And if it works for them, I’m good with it. Different people learn in different ways, I see reading is the same way. I wouldn’t say that someone who reads braille isn’t reading, only that they use a different medium. Same with audiobooks, in my opinion.
So, is listening to an audiobook reading? I’ll come down on the side of yes. Information is being exchanged, just in a different format. The reader is being entertained or informed. In a way, it hearkens back to the days of the village bar, when most people couldn’t read and only the very wealthy could afford to own a book.
That’s my take on it, anyway. Now I’m going to hop on over to the other authors and see what they have to say. You can go too, by following the links below. And don’t forget to leave a comment and join in the discussion!
March 9, 2020
Are audiobooks considered reading?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
When I first saw this question, my instantaneous response was “Yes, of course!” Then I got thinking about it and couldn’t come up with a solid example.
I could mention going for walks in the fall and shuffling through fallen leaves, but that seems like a stretch. Or building snowmen and going sledding in the winter. The truth is, I want my characters to develop their own traditions.
Like the way Harmony, the main character in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries, always carries dog treats so she can give one to her landlords’ dog, Piper. Or the way she always pats some part of her car, Dolores – the roof, the hood- the trunk- before she gets in. Or how she counts the stairs going to her apartment on the third floor. But that may not be as much of a tradition as a symptom of her un-diagnosed ADD.
I tried harder in my urban fantasy/paranormal series, The Free Wolves, to create traditions as part of my world building. That was a necessity because part of the conflict in the series in tradition vs the modern world. To create a character who supports traditions while at the same time breaking those traditions frequently made for some great tension.
Here’s a quick snippet from Wolves’ Knight that highlights the conflict:
“In here, between us, I’d appreciate it if you call me Gavin. I’d get rid of the title if I could, but that’s not going to happen.”
“Pack tradition is hard to change.” Tasha used her free hand in a futile effort to return her hair to a resemblance of neatness.
“I didn’t realize how hard it would be.” Gavin frowned. “I thought that as our generation came into power, we’d be able to change all those things we talked about when we were younger. It never ceases to amaze me how many people our age are happier sticking with tradition because it’s easier.”
You can find out more about my books by checking out the other pages on this website.
So, the answer is no. I haven’t included family traditions. I leave it up to my characters to create their own.
March 2, 2020
Share how you keep your characters, storylines, etc., organized. Do you use an outline? Notecards? Post-its all over your walls?
As many of you know, I’m what is called a pantser. I don’t plot out my entire story ahead of time. I usually know the beginning and the end, but the middle is a mystery until I get there.
That doesn’t mean I don’t have to keep track of my timeline. My current work-in-progress, The Samurai’s Inro, runs over four weeks. There were times, as I wrote, that I lost track of what day of the week it was. Harmony is a creature of habit and follows a schedule, so I had to know if it was her day for the self-defense class or to clean her refrigerator. I ended up having to go back and “walk” thru the days, to make sure I didn’t send her to work at the library on a Sunday. I ended up with three different pieces of scrap paper scattered on my desk to track her calendar. Then, because I lost track of one of the papers, I had to go back and start all over.
By the way, I love to throw Harmony off her schedule.It’s loads of fun figuring out how she would react.
And you’re right, it’s not an efficient system, if you want to call it a system at
all. But it works. Well, most of the time.
What’s more difficult is tracking a series over the course of several books. I’ve started a “book bible” for the Harmony series, but haven’t kept up with it as good as I should have. What color is Freddie’s hair? How about Sarah’s? I frequently have to go back to earlier books to get the details, and when I do, I add them the the file. (In fact, let’s play a little game. The first person to tell me what Janine’s last name is (she’s the chief librarian, remember?) will win a free ebook copy of the Samurai’s Inro when it is released. That’s a couple of months off. Leave your answer in the comments)
The Free Wolves series was a whole different creature when it came to tracking the stories. Because each book is a stand-alone story, with only the slightest of overlaps in the characters, I didn’t have to work as hard to keep things straight. They also weren’t quite so linear- I didn’t cover every single day- so I had more latitude in how each story flowed.
I’m currently working on the next-next Harmony book, and I’m 3 or 4 chapters in and still on day 1. (I’ve written everything by hand so far, and have’t the foggiest idea what the word count is.) I need to start keeping track now so I don’t end up in the same situation I was in with Inro. Will I? Somehow, I doubt it!
And that’s how I do it- track my stories, that is. I’m pretty sure we have some plotters on this hop, and I’m going to go check them out and see if they can inspire me to join their ranks.
Happy reading!
Share how you keep your characters, storylines, etc., organized. Do you use an outline? Notecards? Post-its all over your walls?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
February 24, 2020
What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
The sad truth that this is even a topic for discussion tells you much of what you need to know about my decision to go indie at the start of my fiction writing career. It was not the only reason, but it played a part.
The biggest problem I see is the poor payment most authors receive. I’ve never signed a publishing contract, but I’ve heard about the minimal amounts signed authors get after paying off their advances. A quick search revealed that most authors get in the area of $1.25 per book that sells for over $20. And that’s after they’ve paid off their advance.
But the authors who work with the big companies know what they signed up for. So it’s not exactly unethical. What is shady is companies will use “interesting” accounting practices to count the number of books an author sells. And authors have no way to verify the figures provided by their publishers are correct.
All of that is bad, but not what I consider the worst. What I consider the
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
most unethical is how hard it is to authors with traditional publishers to get the rights back to their books. Publishers will only promote a new book for a short period of time (if at all) , but contracts give them rights to the book for several years. Even then, if the author is self-promoting their books and sells copies through the publisher, it extends the life of the contract. (And the number I was quoting by an author in this situation was low. Really low.) Meaning an author who works hard and makes their own success may never get the rights back to their stories.
I’m sure there are (unfortunately) other examples and that’s why I’m heading over to see what the other authors (with more experience in the topic) on this loop have to say. I’m sure it will reinforce my decision to be an indie author!
February 24, 2020
What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
February 17, 2020
Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?
When I first started writing the Harmony Duprie Mysteries, I had some early critiques that pointed out her seeming lack of emotions. The thing is, despite her eccentricities, Harmony is a logic-driven personality. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel things deeply, she just doesn’t show that side of her persona easily.
It also makes me wonder how often this question is asked of women vs. men, and of female characters vs. male characters. There are still lots of people in today’s world that believe that women are emotional creatures driven by hormones and therefore somehow “less” then men. Obviously, I’m not one of those people.
There are times when writing Harmony is like walking a tightrope. Too much to one side or the other, and I lose what makes her who she is. Just because she keeps her emotions tightly controlled doesn’t make her heartless. It’s just means that she’s weighing her options carefully.
I hold that the same is true for writers. Not every book is driven by emotions. There’s good vs. evil and right vs. wrong. Sure, human emotions play into these plots, but they aren’t necessarily the focus.
On the other hand, emotions are what drive readers to like or dislike the
Photo by Marcelo Moreira from Pexels
characters, to feel a part of their story. If all emotions are stripped from a book (is that even possible?) readers won’t find anything to relate to. And how difficult would it be to write an engaging story with no action and only emotions? There’s the tightrope again.
Back to the original question. I’m going deep here. One of the characteristics of a sociopath is shallow emotions. At the same time, they can be charming and manipulative. And isn’t that what a writer is doing when they write a book? Attempting to manipulate the reader?
Oh, and we’ve entirely skipped the whole idea of non-fiction books that are factual, not emotional. (Text books, anyone? Technical writing?)
So, yes, I believe that someone could not feel emotions strongly and still be a writer. For fiction books, I’m not saying they’d be a good writer, but yes, they could be a writer.
I’d love to hear your take on the topic. Just scroll down a ways. Keep scrolling, you’ll get there. While you do that, I’m off to see what the other authors on this hop have to say.
February 17, 2020
Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
February 10, 2020
Would you like to be a bestseller or have a smaller, more manageable following?
Truth? I want to write a bestseller. Sure, the money wouldn’t hurt, but the virtual pat on the back would be better. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a world-wide acknowledgement of their writing skills?
Yes, I know there are people who write one bestseller and than never reach that level again. Still, that’s better than writing four or five books and never finding your audience, right?
And just maybe, if I wrote a bestseller, I could afford to hire a Personal Assistant to help with my social media. Because frankly, I don’t do a very good job on my own. Even if I had a “manageable” following, I don’t think I would do them justice. (I try, guys, I try.)
There is a down side. I absolutely love getting out and talking to people at book signings. If I was a best-selling author, would I lose that ability? I hate the idea of “sign the book, now move along.” There’s no personal interaction in that scenario. (That’s me, talking to someone at the Deadly Realities book signing last fall. I don’t even know when this picture was taken. I was too busy paying attention the the person on the other side of the table. Yeah, I’d miss that.)
Still, the money might give me the freedom to spend more time writing. And travelling to meet more people. That would be a win.
So, I’ll keep writing and dreaming of getting my big break. And maybe one of these days I’ll write a bestseller.
In the meantime, let’s go find out what the other authors on this hop choose. Just follow the links below.
February 10, 2020
Would you like to be a bestseller or have a smaller, more manageable following?
Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
There’s a simple answer to this. No.
I’ve never written a story or a poem that was inspired by a story. On the other hand, I’ve got photos of real places I’ve been to that inspired a poem or bits of a story. The photo below inspired a poem about learning to breath again at 12,000 feet.
And then there’s the library that inspires many scenes in the Harmony Duprie mysteries.
February 3, 2020
How do you keep track of the books you read?
Oops! Did someone say I was supposed to do this? Keep track of what books I’ve read? Because I don’t.
Yes, there have been times when I picked up an interesting-looking book and started to read it only to say “I’ve read this before!” It’s a good thing the ebook apps tells me if I’ve bought a book or how much of it I’ve read, because I’d never remember on my own.
I’ve got several stacks of books on the bookshelves in my writing room. If they are in a stack, that means I haven’t read them. Once I’ve read them, they get added to the shelved books, tucked away in storage, or given away. Oh wait, there are exceptions. Some of the books in the stacks are there because they are the wrong height to fit in the empty spaces on my shelves. And then there’s the stack on my desk itself. Those are (supposedly) on the top of my to-be-read list. That’s the only sorting system I have.
The truth is, I’ve got no idea how many books I’ve read in my life. Lots. And lots more. And I’ve never felt the need to keep track of them.
One exception- series. And that’s easy (mostly). Naturally, I want to remember the last book I read in a series. When they’re in physical form, that’s as quick as a glance over my shoulder. And with ebooks, it’s not hard to figure out if you sort by author.
I’m really curious- does anyone actually track the books they read? Put them in spreadsheets or some similar system? Tell me about your system in the comments. Because now I feel like I’m missing out! (And will probably feel guiltier once I read the other posts in the hop!) You can come with by following the links below.
February 3, 2020
How do you keep track of the books you read?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
January 27, 2020
What are your favorite writing-related blogs?
I would love to have time to read many of the blogs and listen to the podcasts with helpful information for writers, There’s a lot of them out there. Heck, we even stray into that territory on this blog hop. But the truth is, I don’t have time. Instead, I depend on a number of newsletters that act as aggregates for the best blogs out there.
The first one I want to mention is put out by ALLi. (The Alliance of Independent Authors) I’m going to join that group one of these days, but for now, I receive their weekly newsletter for non-members. They cover both the craft and the business of writing. They lean heavily on posts from their self-publishing advice center, but also bring in other experts.
Another good one is put out by Jeffrey Bruner of The Fussy Librarian. (It’s The Fussy Librarian’s Author Newswire.) You may be familiar with the advertising that this organization does, but they are more than just a book listing. Topics they covered lately included story openers to steer clear of and how to create a business plan.
I also get a newsletter from Author Media. It’s focused more on advertising, but pulls from a variety of ‘experts.’ Truth is, I’m not sure how I got on this list, but it’s worth the time to to check out the blogs and podcasts they share.
And one more- if you use Draft2Digital for any of your book publishing, they do a monthly podcast. It’s an interesting look into how their business model works, plus helpful tips for authors. I use them to distribute to Apple so I get the notification when they will do a podcast, but they also post it on Facebook.
And a bonus. Author Terry O’Dell often talks about the process of writing on her blog. Yes, it’s aimed at her readers, but it speaks to writers in general. It would be worth your time to take a peek. https://terryodell.com/terrysplace/
January 27, 2020
What are your favorite writing-related blogs?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
