#MondayBlogs - P.J. MacLayne

How Soon is Too Soon? #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne May 10, 2020 May 10, 2020 Open Book

May 11, 2020

How soon is too soon to include a real-life event in a fictional story?

Let’s start with the most current event. You know the one I mean. I subscribe to a lot of book newsletters, and I cringed the first time I saw an ad for a self-help book with a quarantine related title. I think it was two or three weeks after most people in the US were asked to shelter at home. My first thought was – how does anyone pull together a meaningful book in that amount of time? And my second thought was – nothing like taking advantage of people in a time of crisis. Yes, I thought that was far too soon.

In the past week, I’ve started to see fiction books with titles like “Quarantine” and “Pandemic.” First, I despise the titles as being unoriginal. They certainly wouldn’t attract me to buy the book. Second, I wonder how well the book has been edited. Yes, I am aware that there are people out there that can write a book in less than thirty days, but I’m not among them.

What do I consider a reasonable time lapse to include a real-life event in a fiction book? It’s going to depend upon the event. For the tragedy of 9-11, it would have been at least a year if not more. For the space shuttle explosion, six months would have been a long enough of a wait. For the current virus? I can’t imagine turning it into fiction for entertainment while up to 2500 people a day are dying from Covid in the US, let alone the figures world-wide.

Now the first moon landing? Shoot, go ahead and use that before the dust had even settled. A presidential election? Have at it. The capture of a criminal? I’ll give you a soft maybe, depending upon the crime. The murder hornet? Better get that book written before they become a real problem.

It comes down to how many people have been hurt by the event and how deeply. I can’t imagine trying to profit from an event when people are still suffering. (Unless every cent of that money goes to organizations working to help the affected.)

My caveat to this discussion is that the author has to be mindful of their use of the event. Either disguise it appropriately, or make your use historically accurate. I don’t want to read about the first landing on the moon with fictional names.

So, that’s how I feel about it. Me, I avoid real world events with a passion. I don’t want to get them wrong.

I’d love to hear about how you feel. Share your thoughts in the comments. In the meantime, I’m going to head over and see what the other authors in this hop have to say.

May 11, 2020

How soon is too soon to include a real-life event in a fictional story?

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.

Killing Off A Character #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne March 29, 2020 March 29, 2020 Open Book

March 30, 2020

How do you feel about killing off one of your major characters?

If you’ve read my Free Wolves stories, you know I’ve killed off quite a few characters. Minor ones, mostly, but I’ve thrown in a major one here or there. Villains are easy to kill off in those books because it’s true to a wolf-shifter heritage. Staying ‘civilized’ is more of a challenge. And I’ve seriously injured my main characters, but they’ve pulled through.

In my Harmony Duprie Mysteries, I’ve set about writing stories that don’t necessarily include anyone dying. Yes, I’ve had a murder or two, but they were off-camera. The stories are relatively light-hearted, and don’t contain a lot of gore. We’ll get back to them later.

In the first book I wrote (the one that went through about four revisions before I decided the plot was flawed and it would never be published) I actually killed my main character in one version. It made sense for the story, but I knew that readers would hate me for it. So, I switched up the story and gave it a happy ending.

But I cried hard as I wrote my heroine’s death. And cried harder when I wrote her funeral. And cried more when the hero (her lover) scattered her ashes to mingle with those of her late husband. In the revised version, they got to stay together as they aged, a no-tears, happily ever after ending. It was a good ending, but I thought the original was better. (Can’t say I liked it, but it was better.)

Now, let’s go back to Harmony. I’m currently editing the fifth book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries, (The Samurai’s Inro) and I’m worried about her stories getting ‘stale.’ I love the character but she needed a shake-up. And the only thing I could come up with was killing of a major character- Eli, her lover. And I wasn’t happy about it.

Harmony and I have been known to have arguments about the plot of her stories, but oddly, she wasn’t talking to me about this idea. I didn’t know if she agreed with it or if she was mad at me for even suggesting it!

Well, as Harmony is wont to do, she let me know how this was going to go down in a dream. (Hey, I won’t reveal her decision now…that’s another book.) I’ve had several dreams about this book, leading me to places in the story I didn’t know it needed to go. I’m somewhere near 15000 words in a book that I haven’t officially started writing yet!

Let’s just say I’m okay with killing off a main character if it’s true to the character and to the story. It can be a fine line between that and not alienating the readers. If it’s well-written, true to the plot, and not done for the shock value, a good writer can make it work.

That’s how I see it. And if you follow the links below, you can find out what the other authors think.

Off topic: I hope everyone out there is doing okay. Things will get better. It’ll take some time, so hang in there.

March 30, 2020

How do you feel about killing off one of your major characters?

Audiobooks #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne March 8, 2020 March 8, 2020 Uncategorized

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?

Organizing My Stories #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne March 1, 2020 March 1, 2020 Open Book

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?

Unethical Practices #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne February 23, 2020 February 23, 2020 Open Book

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?

Keeping Track #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne February 2, 2020 February 2, 2020 Open Book

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?

Favorite Writing Blogs #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne January 26, 2020 January 26, 2020 Open Book

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?

Distracted? Who Me? #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne January 19, 2020 January 19, 2020 Open Book

January 20, 2020

What are your top three distractions and how do you deal with them?

Did I get a new email? What’s the latest reddit post? Are the clothes ready to move to the dryer yet? And what’s for supper? Oh, did I remember to set the alarm so I get to work on time tomorrow? What’s that? My daughter wants to video-chat?

Distractions! They’re everywhere!

Which explains why my most productive time is later at night when all the interruptions of the day can be set aside. No phone calls, email done and done, social media satisfied. Nothing but music in my headset and words on the screen.

But what are my top three?

First off, family. As they should be. They are my priority. Their needs come before my writing. Their wants are negotiable. My wants come first sometimes, and that’s okay. Whether things like laundry and cleaning are needs or wants is up for discussion, and may depend upon how well my writing is going.

How to I deal with this distraction? Honestly? It depends. Sometimes with a smile, other times with a sigh. It’s not one I can avoid. Nor do I want to. Avoid it, that is.

Second distraction. Work. Is that considered a distraction or an obligation? I am getting paid well, and it supports my writing, but wouldn’t it be great if I didn’t have to plan my life around it? But until I write that million-copy bestseller, work is part of my life. Thankfully, my boss understands if I occasionally take a moment to deal with writing “stuff” while I’m on the job. (From his point of view, my writing is the distraction!)

Last and probably the worst on my list of distraction. Social media. Any of it. All of you knew that was coming, right? It’s a necessary evil for an indie author, but man, it can be a time-killer. I love seeing all the cool pictures other authors post; but that doesn’t get a book written. Reading reddit forums can generate new book ideas, or just waste time. There are a lot of good podcasts out there, but it’s like mining for gold to get useful information from many of them.

But out of all three distractions on the list, this is the one I can actually control. I can disconnect from the wifi, or unplug the network cable. Chances are, I won’t do that.

I can use self-control. You know, only visit the pages I need for research. And only until I find what I needed to know. It’s possible, but hard.

And the winner is, I use surfing as a reward. I get so many paragraphs written, and I get to visit a “fun” page. I finish editing a chapter, and I take time to read some of the newsletters I signed up for from other authors. (I’ve got to cut back on those. You send a newsletter once a month? Cool. Once a week? Okay. Every two or three days? Overkill. Bye-bye!)

That’s my top three distractions, but I’ll give you a bonus one. Playing games on the computer. (Not the cool ones, I’m talking solitaire-type games.) Playing one or two rounds of a difficult game can help me focus my thoughts when I get stuck in a story. It’s more of a tool than a distraction, although it wouldn’t seem so to a casual observer.

That’s my list. What’s on yours? Follow the links below and see what distractions the other authors on this hop deal with.

January 20, 2020

What are your top three distractions and how do you deal with them?

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.

Harmony In Witness Protection #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne January 12, 2020 January 12, 2020 Open Book

January 13, 2020

Your characters have been placed in Witness Protection. What three truths about themselves do they want to keep?

I laughed when I read this week’s prompt and immediately thought of Harmony from the Harmony Duprie mystery series. She’d probably end up getting herself thrown out of the program due to not wanting to play by the rules.

After all, she’s tangled with some nasty bad guys who might want to get back at her. I can see her having to get into Witness Protection at least for a bit while the legal system worked through her latest adventure.

Image by Marco Oetjen from Pixabay

She’d have to give up Dolores, her salsa-red Jaguar, and that would make her unhappy. Dolores attracts too much attention and isn’t useful for hiding. Harmony figured that out long ago, and Federal agents would have a heart attack trying to protect her if she kept her car.

So, what truths would she keep?

She doesn’t have to worry about her hair color, she’s fine with wigs. She already switches between her glasses and contacts, so she’s good there, too. So, external characteristics are not the issue. Losing touch with her friends and having to make new ones, however, would throw her for a loop.

Especially Eli, her lover. He “grounds” her. He’d be unable to go into Witness Protection with her and still run his business. Of all her truths, he’s the one she’d want to keep and it would be impossible.

Now, the Feds should be able to find Harmony a job as a librarian in a small, backwater town where no one would think to look for her. Maybe even a place smaller than Oak Grove. She’d fit right in. So, that’s one.

She’d be able to take her mother’s African violet and her collection of first-edition books with her. A bit of home. That’s two.

I’m sure the Feds could fix her up with a way to access the funds she inherited. Not that she likes to spend that money, but she’ll need some help settling into her new life. That’s three.

And where is Jake, her ex-lover, in all this? He’d get such a kick out of slipping past the protections and finding Harmony, especially with Eli out of touch. I’m just not sure that he has the skills to find her. But there are things I don’t know about him, so he might surprise me.

There you go. Three truths and a bonus question. Sounds like a setup for a new book!

Now I’m off to check out the truths the other authors chose for their characters. Come with me by following the links below.

January 13, 2020

Your characters have been placed in Witness Protection. What three truths about themselves do they want to keep?

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.

Childhood Favorite Books #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne January 5, 2020 January 5, 2020 Open Book

January 6, 2020

What is your favorite childhood book?

Define “childhood.” Or let’s not. Let’s just say that I’ll talk about books I enjoyed after the age of ten. And I couldn’t tell you how far above ten for most of them!

We always had books in the house growing up. Old books passed on from other family members seemed to gravitate to us. There were more books than my mom could keep on her bookshelves in the living room, so they ended up in the attic. And I loved digging through the boxes, looking for old favorites and new discoveries.

That’s where I found my first favorites. The Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew. Out of the three series, The Hardy Boys were my initial favorite, but we didn’t have many of the books. It didn’t take long to gravitate to Nancy Drew, as other friends were reading the series and we traded books. Plus, it was easy to ask for another of the books for birthday and Christmas presents. I kept those books until I went away to college and passed them on to another fan.

My hunger for reading soon led me to more mature books. Ivanhoe. Rebecca. Frenchman’s Creek. The Scarlet Pimpernel. Even then I preferred novels that featured more action than romance.

(FYI-I have that copy of Ivanhoe on my bookshelf. It’s in sad condition, with torn and yellowed pages, but it’s still readable. It was originally owned by a school library, and is the Academy Classics for Junior High Schools edition, dated 1926.)

By the way, I suggest being careful if you go back and read some of your old favorites. They don’t always hold up to an adult perspective. The casual racism in the older versions of the Nancy Drew books can be annoying. And Ivanhoe? I need to remind myself that it’s historical and has to be read from that perspective.

It’s easy to see how those early favorites have influenced my writing. And why I struggle with using the British version of English over the American version. (Grey vs. gray, snuck vs. sneaked, labor vs. labour … you get the idea. That along with going through a phase of reading Barbara Cartland as an adult.)

I’m going to make a rash assumption that many of these books won’t appear on anyone else’s list. (Except for Nancy Drew.) So let’s follow the links below and find out!

Tag: #MondayBlogs