Publetariat

Hi,

My name is John.

I’ve written quite a few newspaper columns and, now, a book.

I’d love to hear feedback on it – good, bad or otherwise.

This is my first foray into this branch of writing. Until not very long ago I was in sales (hated it) but then the economy changed drastically and, as a result, so did my career!

I like my new line of work – a lot…

If you’re up for taking a look at my book – Online Dating Sucks… but it’s how I fell in love – you can find it here on Amazon: (paste this link into your browser)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009ZYYDVE

Amazon will give you a free look – most of the first chapter anyway. I’d love to hear what you all think!

-John

This post, by Keith Cronin, originally appeared on Writer Unboxed on 12/11/12.

I write this hoping that there will actually BE a new year. After all, there are those who maintain that the world is ending not just soon, but specifically tomorrow. They base this belief on an ancient Mayan calendar (which some have observed bears more than a striking resemblance to the top of a gigantic Oreo cookie).

But on the off chance that the Mayans got it wrong – which could be a simple matter of the slip of some poor stonemason’s chisel – I’m going to hold on to my characteristic glass-half-full attitude, and put forth some ideas on how you might want to approach next year – or at least whatever portion of the year remains before our cosmic Oreo is completely consumed.

I’m big on new year’s resolutions. I don’t know why, since I’ll admit I’m not that great at actually following through on them. But I think there’s something strangely satisfying in the act of at least making the list, of attempting to get our ducks in a row to face our next trip around the sun. It gives us a general direction to follow, before life presents us with the inevitable fork (or other piece of cutlery) in the road. It’s sentimental, I know, but I really do like entering each new year with the mindset of starting fresh, of picking something to focus on and saying, “THIS is the thing I’m going to do this year.”

And I think this can be a particularly helpful exercise for writers. Why? Because being a writer is hard. We face many obstacles and distractions. So I thought I’d try to help carve through some of them, by offering ten items for you to consider adding to your own Post-Mayan-Apocalypse To-Do List (or, PMATDL). Let’s begin.

 

1. Read more.

I know, this is pretty basic. But haven’t most of us lamented at some time or other that we simply don’t have time to read? That’s not good. In fact, it’s a showstopper. As Stephen King puts it:

Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

But Stephen doesn’t just scold us. In his book On Writing, from which the above quote is drawn, King points out that if we always keep a book handy, there are plenty of opportunities to read, as long as we learn to take satisfaction “in small sips as well as in long swallows.” Whether you’re a fan of King’s fiction or not, it’s hard to argue with his logic.

2. Complain less.

I noted above that being a writer is hard. Yeah, but here’s the thing. So is being a plumber. Or a brain surgeon. Or just about anything other than being a Jersey Shore cast member. Nobody’s got it totally easy, and – more important – nobody really wants to hear how hard your life is, particularly when it comes to being a writer. After all, this is something you volunteered for, not something you’re being forced to do (even if you’re the type who considers writing to be your “calling”).

On top of that, don’t forget that the people you’re complaining to are also your potential readers. Who wants to buy a book from a big old crybaby? Do you really want that to be your platform? (Keith pauses to make a mental note to add “Stop saying that godawful word platform” to his own list of new year’s resolutions.) But the most compelling reason to complain less is that it gives you more time to write.

3. Back up your computer.

If you’re not already doing this, put this at the top of your list. We’ve all heard the horror stories, and it’s way too easy to assume that those terrible things only happen to other people. Sorry, but it’s all too likely that there’s some nasty computer gremlin out there with your name on his list, and he’s coming to get you. Be ready.

And it’s so easy, there’s really no excuse. I’m a big fan of Carbonite, which has been a lifesaver to me and my family multiple times over the years. But there are other solutions out there. Look for the ones that back up your data automatically without requiring you to remember to do anything – this eliminates both the hassle and the excuses.

Don’t put your hard work at risk, folks. Back it up. Do it now – I’ll wait.

4. Try something new.

Read the rest of the post on Writer Unboxed.

Publetariat editorial staff are off from now through Christmas. We will resume our normal posting schedule at 6pm PST on Wednesday, 12/26. In the meantime, users can still access their blogs, all the usual site content and the forum. Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating!

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This post, by Diane Morrow, originally appeared on her One Year of Writing and Healing blog. It is reprinted here in full per the blog’s Creative Commons licensing terms, and seems especially appropriate at this time, in the wake of the Newtown tragedy.

There’s a story by Anton Chekhov entitled, simply, “Grief”–also sometimes called “Misery”–which speaks beautifully, I think, to what grief may require–and to how the process of writing might contribute to the healing of grief. Not so much the erasure of grief. And not, certainly, the erasure of memories. But the healing of grief.

I’ve included a brief piece about this story below. I’ve also included links to a brief summary of the research on writing about grief, several writing ideas, and a list of resources–both books and websites.

I. The Chekhov Story

When the story begins a cab-driver waits at twilight in the snow for a fare. His son has died the previous week. He waits a long time in the snow, and then finally—a passenger. As the evening wears on, the cab-driver attempts conversation with three different passengers. Three different times he attempts to tell his story—what has happened with his son. Each of the three interrupts him. One closes his eyes to stop the story. One informs him that we all must die. One simply gets out of the sleigh. Still later, the cab-driver attempts to stop and speak with a house-porter, but the house-porter tells him to drive on.

There’s so much that the cab-driver needs to tell. Chekhov writes:

One must tell it slowly and carefully; how his son fell ill, how he suffered, what he said before he died, how he died. One must describe every detail of the funeral, and the journey to the hospital to fetch the defunct’s clothes. His daughter Anissia remained in the village—one must talk about her too. Was it nothing he had to tell? Surely the listener would gasp and sigh, and sympathize with him?

The details must be told. And then—that gasp—that sigh—from the listener.

At the end of the day the cab-driver returns to the stables. He begins to speak to his horse:

Now let’s say you had a foal, you were that foal’s mother, and suddenly, let’s say, that foal went and left you to live after him. It would be sad, wouldn’t it?

The horse munches his hay and breathes his warm breath—and does not interrupt him. And that is how the story ends—with the cab-driver telling his story, finally, to his horse.

Perhaps what grief requires, as much as anything, is that the process not be interrupted. That it find a time and a place in which to unfold–with a companion (when possible) and without (too much) interruption. And, perhaps, at least for some of us, writing can play a role in this process.

Writing as a companion that does not interrupt? Writing as a prelude to telling the story to a companion?

II. Research on Writing About Grief

An Introduction to the Research on Writing About Grief

III. Advice about Writing to Heal Grief

A Word of Caution About Writing and Healing /a>

IV. Writing ideas for Healing Grief

Falling Apart

Lifelines

Considering a Package

Listing What Remains

V. Resources for Writing to Heal Grief

Here I’m including brief pieces I’ve written on selected books and websites that can offer company in the healing of grief. (This list is a work in progress and I plan to continue adding to this list.)

On Broken Vessels. A collection of essays by Andre Dubus.

On When Things Fall Apart. A collection of brief essays by the Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron.

On Grief, Loss and Recovery. A website.

On Writing the Heartache. A Website

The site is now back online, fully functional and secure. We’re still wrapping up testing in some areas and making some cosmetic tweaks, so you may notice a few minor changes in the coming days. Note that Google has declared the site clean, but reports it may take some time for all the earlier malware warnings to be removed in Google search results and in the Google Chrome browser.

We plan to be back to normal and posting again tomorrow at 6pm PST.

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Here’s a great opportunity to participate in a holiday giveaway for readers that can also help drive more traffic to your blog.

We are helping to organize a one day promotional event for 99 authors, 99 books, all for 99 cents each for one day only. The event is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. All genres and age groups will be included. There will be rafflecopter giveaways that total $990 worth of prizes! For the participating bloggers, you will be entered to win $500 for posting! 

Participating blogs will be sent the promotional posting information, easy to copy/paste, that will include the link to find the titles and for your readers to enter the giveaways. You will not have to post all 99 titles on your blog. This is to help gain awareness for the event as a whole. There will be an event banner to show your participation. If you are interested in participating, please fill out this short form.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: you can read more about the event via links in the original organizers’ post, here.]

Promotion in conjunction with The Indie Bookshelf and Jillian Dodd.
Below are some of the participating authors. A full list to come later.

Young Adult:

Jillian Dodd
Michelle Warren
Andrea Randall
Tiffany King
Ashley Wilcox
Jen Sterling
Sarah Billington
Lani Wendt Young
Michelle Mankin

Other authors:

C J Lyons
Diane Capri
Bob Mayer
Jen Talty
Steena Holmes
B C Burgess
Christine DeMaio-Rice
Cheryl Bradshaw
Maggie Myers
Elena Aitken
Melissa Brown
Charles Sheehan-Miles
Tammy Coons
Blaine Reimer
Colin Falconer
C A Kunz
Raine Thomas
C C Mackenzie
Suzanne Rock
Patricia Sands
Joanna Penn

 

 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s blog.

This post, by Sonya Chung, originally appeared on The Millions on 11/5/12.

1.

I have to wonder how it happened. In early 2009, I wrote on my newly-minted blog:

It’s a pretty weird time on the planet — the economics of everything, the tools of mass communication, the rise (rise? emergence? triumph? hard to say…) of self-publishing and DIY arts production and distribution. Everything’s spinning and turning — exhilaratingly for some, nauseatingly for others.

I was leaning toward nausea at the time. In all things, I was analog. I worked slowly, and I liked material, concrete things. Like books, pens, paper. My first novel was a year from release, and I’d been told, by everyone I knew in the literary world, that I should start a blog. Reluctantly, awkwardly, I did.

In 2010, in an essay for the anthology The Late American Novel, I wrote:

Realistically: the printed book, in hard cover at the least, may well go by the wayside. By all accounts, digital technologies and the market are pushing print, as we know it, to the margins […] All this may well be the reality of the moment […] My hope, on the other hand is that the above trajectory is not a foregone conclusion; or if it is, not a permanent one.

I also wrote that I hoped the pendulum swing toward digital would swing back, to a future time where “Those of us who write will write better books. We’ll pare back on blog-blabbing, will be freer from self-consciousness, quieter in our heads, slower and less distracted, more imaginatively limber and inventive.”

It is now the dusk of 2012, and I am going on my fourth year writing regularly for a major online literary site — the one you are reading right now. And in a few weeks, I will be involved in launching yet another digital literary venture… but more on that in a moment.

How did it happen? Mine is an unlikely Web byline, and yet, more often than I ever would have imagined, I have been “recognized,” at a party, or in an email exchange, even at an artists’ colony, for my essays and reviews at The Millions. You’re the one who wrote that piece about…

Seriously? I think. You read that? Part of me is still in 2009, dizzy and disoriented from all the spinning and turning.

2.

Back then, along with being told to start a blog, I was told to read blogs.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Millions.

This post, by L.J. Sellers, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

Thrilling: adj., producing sudden, strong, and deep emotion or excitement 

Doesn’t that pretty much describe all great novels? Yet according to librarians and bookstore owners, traditional labeling defines thrillers as fast-paced, realistic books that focus on plot more than character and have a high-stakes conflict as the heart of the story. And by high stakes they mean a lot more than a single life—or a series of selected lives—must be at risk. Whole cities or ways of life must be in peril.  

But now, with many writers labeling their own work, just about any story with a crime or an element of suspense is called a thriller. Just as one example, Amazon’s #1 book on the thriller list is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, a story of a marriage gone bad and a missing wife. It’s all about the characters. Readers love the story and many have labeled it thrilling, and being a fan, I plan to read it. But it’s not technically a thriller.

(Above: My new book sure looks like a thriller)

As a member of International Thriller Writers, I’ve written many features about new releases for the Big Thrill newsletter. With some, I’ve scratched my head and thought: Why is this called a thriller? The stories usually sound terrific, but still, I would call them paranormal suspense or historical mystery. 

But I’m guilty of thriller labeling too. My Detective Jackson series falls under crime fiction, police procedurals, mysteries, and suspense. But a year ago, I added the word thriller to the subtitles (Detective Jackson Mystery/Thrillers) to let readers know that they aren’t traditional mysteries that can be solved at a leisurely pace and that there is plenty of action and a major element of suspense. 

Also, labeling the novels thrillers expands their metadata and allows more readers to find them. But are they really thrillers? Traditionalists would probably say no. Murders, assaults, and robberies in a midsized Oregon city don’t represent high-stakes conflict. My new publisher, Thomas & Mercer, doesn’t plan to use the thriller label. So in January, the series goes back to being the “Detective Jackson Mysteries.” But I hope Amazon lists the books in the thriller category, anyway. 

Because I want to reach as broad an audience as possible. Still, I wonder how much readers care about labels. Some readers love thrillers of every kind, and they judge a book by its cover, description, and word of mouth reputation, rather than by its category. Other readers actively dislike thrillers, and won’t bother with any book labeled that way. Further discussion reveals that what they mean is they don’t like spy stories or novels with big explosions or long chase scenes. So for some readers, thriller can have a negative connotation. 

My website says “Author of provocative mysteries & thrillers” and I’m happy with that. In addition to my Jackson series, I have three standalones—all highly suspenseful, but with no spies, explosions, or car chases. 

What does the term thriller mean to you? Does the label make a book more enticing?

Publetariat staff will be off in observance of the American Thanksgiving holiday from now through the weekend. We will resume our normal editorial schedule of posting on Sunday, November 25 at 6pm PST. In the meantime the site will remain online and members can still use the Forum and post to their member blogs. We wish all who will be celebrating a safe and happy holiday.

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This post, by Dawn Goldberg, originally appeared on her Write Well Me blog. 

No matter how much we want and love to write, unless we’re terribly disciplined or have deadlines (or an editor/agent looming over us), our default activity is not writing. In other words, if we have a spare minute, a break between activities, the rare gift of an unplanned hour, do we write? Or do we fill it in with stuff that "needs to be done"? Or take a much-needed nap? Or call a girlfriend and relax? Or make plans for dinner? 

I will write – after I take a shower and get dressed – and after I make the bed – and after I do the dishes. 

Why do I delay? Why do those things come before writing? 

For one, those other things are calling at my attention, nagging me, so I tell myself that I’ll write better if those nags are quieted. But the list of nags must be quite long because there are a lot of times that I never seem to write. 

Secondly, I might be afraid of writing. I’m not where I want to be in my project. It’s stalled. I want it to be perfect, compelling, and impactful, and I’m afraid it’s not. Or it feels hard to get started, so it’s much easier to do other things.

And – here’s what I’m afraid of the most – maybe I don’t want to write badly enough more than I want to take a shower, get dressed, make the bed, and do the dishes. 

When I was teenager in Texas, I’d get up in the summer early and go run. The heat, no matter how early in the morning, was oppressive. Step outside, and one hits a wall of heat. Yet, I’d invariably get up and go run in that awful furnace. Why? Because I’d rather do that than deal with my parents when they got up in the morning. Running in the heat was preferable to being around my parents. I would rather run.

So what do we need to create so that writing IS the default activity and it is THE thing we would rather do than anything else?

 

1. Be aware of what DOES get in the way. Pay attention. Are they always the same things (chores like cleaning the house, work tasks like returning emails, etc.) that you do instead of writing?

 

2. Understand why you would rather do those things. Are they nagging items? Are they delaying tactics? Are you afraid of something?

 

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes 6 additional, informative bullet points, on Dawn Goldberg’s Write Well Me blog.

This post, by Dawn Thurston, originally appeared on MemoirMentor.

Thanksgiving is a week away and Christmas is not far behind. The holidays resurrect all kinds of childhood memories. Why not spend some time this season committing your memories to paper. Even if you don’t have time to write a complete story, jot down ideas as they come to you during the holidays, ideas that can be developed later into a polished piece. Here are some suggestions to guide your thinking:

 

• Keep your stories personal. What was meaningful to you? What did you look forward to? Does one Thanksgiving or Christmas stand out more than the rest? Were there any disappointing moments? What are your favorite Christmas carols? What childhood traditions have you carried over to your own family? How are holidays different today than they were when you were a child? What was your favorite part of the holidays? What food did you like? These are just a few questions. The point is, make it your story.
   
• Anchor your story in its era. People of all ages love the movie A Christmas Story, a memoir-style story of a 1940s Christmas told from the perspective of nine-year-old Ralphie Parker. The film is lush with period detail, and yet its recounting of a child’s joy, longing, and disappointment seems to capture aspects of everyone’s Christmas memories. My children swear their Christmases were just like Ralphie’s, even though they’re decades apart.  Include details that communicate your childhood era. For example, when I was a child, Christmas trees were decorated with colored lights and tinsel. By the time I became a teenager, tiny white lights were all the rage. So were flocked trees. For a brief time during those years, the late ’50s, I think, some folks favored ghastly aluminim trees, standing them in rotating bases and training colored flood lights at them–a kind of bizaare extension of the Space Age, I guess. Your childhood years had their own set of holiday fads. Red Ryder BB Guns? Cabbage Patch Dolls? Slinkies? Get them in your story.
   
• Include sense details. 

 

Read the rest of the post on MemoirMentor.

This post, by Bear Weiter, originally appeared on Booklife.

 

I’m not a write everyday kind of guy. I wish I was, and I have been at times (working on a novel seems to bring that out of me). I read comments from other writers who put in at least a few hours every day (if not more), working on their craft. I kid myself at times by thinking “they’re professional writers, that’s their job,” and while there’s a kernel of truth there, I know they all suffer from the same hecticness and interruptions as I.

 

 

The ideal is just that—writing for several hours a day, uninterrupted, churning out so many thousands of words at each sitting. During these times there would be no email, or phone calls, and no other projects demanding their share of time.

The reality for most of us is that life can’t be put on hold. There’s family, and work, other commitments, and other distractions. For me specifically, I work for myself—which means I need to be responsive to clients if I wish to continue working for myself. My work is full of ups and downs (busyness wise), and when I’m busy it’s best that I remain busy.

It is during these times when you need to realize what your priorities are. Is writing—or some other creative endeavor—critical to you? Is it worth sacrificing at least a little time to keep it going? I assume if you’re reading this then it is—I know it is for me.

There’s the big solutions—organize your time, plan, prioritize, keep lists, block out your calendar, etc. Or, you can take smaller steps—take snippets of time from other activities: write while watching TV (if this is family time, join in on the TV watching but wear headphones so you can focus on your work), while eating breakfast or lunch, during your commute (please not while driving!), in bed before falling asleep or when you just get up. Steal a half an hour here, an hour there, whatever you can get away with.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Booklife.

This post is from Steampunk.com.

 

This is a good question that is difficult to answer.

 

 

To me, Steampunk has always been first and foremost a literary genre, or least a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy that includes social or technological aspects of the 19th century (the steam) usually with some deconstruction of, reimagining of, or rebellion against parts of it (the punk). Unfortunately, it is a poorly defined subgenre, with plenty of disagreement about what is and is not included. For example, steampunk stories may:

– Take place in the Victorian era but include advanced machines based on 19th century technology (e.g. The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling);

– Include the supernatural as well (e.g. The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger);

– Include the supernatural and forego the technology (e.g. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, one of the works that inspired the term ‘steampunk’);

– Include the advanced machines, but take place later than the Victorian period, thereby assuming that the predomination by electricity and petroleum never happens (e.g. The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling); or

– Take place in an another world altogether, but featuring Victorian-like technology (e.g. Mainspring by Jay Lake).

“It’s sort of Victorian-industrial, but with more whimsy and fewer orphans.”

– Caitlin Kittredge

There are probably plenty of other combinations I’ve forgotten, but that’s steampunk as a genre in a nutshell. Steampunk has also cross-pollinated its way into other genres, so there is steampunk romance, steampunk erotica, and steampunk young adult fiction. I haven’t spotted any steampunk picture books yet, but I won’t be surprised when I do.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Steampunk.com. 

This post, by Gayle Carline, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

One thing all fiction writers must do is build tension in their stories. No matter the genre, the main character must have a goal and be thwarted at every turn from achieving that goal. The cop wants to catch the serial killer, but is given false leads. The sleuth opens a cabinet that holds an important clue, but is conked over the head with a teapot. The handsome cowboy is set to ask out the cute barmaid, but is told by her psycho-stalker roommate that she’s a lesbian.

It’s always something.

One of the things I have to do is put my P.I. in dangerous situations. I don’t like danger myself. I don’t walk down dark alleys, don’t snoop around where I’m not wanted, and have never been in a physical fight, unless you count the time my mare bit me and I smacked her with the hose. I don’t even open other people’s medicine cabinets when I’m visiting, unless I’m looking for dental floss to dig out that piece of overcooked brisket wedged in my molar.

Honest, that’s all I’m looking for.

If I made a horror movie, it would last exactly five minutes. When I heard the weird noise outside, I would not go out looking for the source, carrying a candle and wearing a negligee. For one thing I don’t own a negligee. What I would do is call 911, turn on all the lights, gather every weapon and sharp object in the house and barricade myself in the back bedroom. And… credits roll (police sirens in the background).

So putting Peri in the line of fire is not easy for me. I like Peri. I don’t want her to be injured or killed. But I’ve read armchair detective stories and I’m just not as interested in the action if the main character is not in the thick of things. Secondary characters in danger don’t get me as involved as when it’s happening to the protagonist. So Peri must go where I don’t want to tread.

Apart from my own fear, I confess, when I begin to write a scene where Peri is going down the dark alley or snooping around, I am actually afraid that the scene is going to get out of my control and Peri will be boxed into a corner with no escape. I have written plenty of scenes where I want them to go in one direction and my characters revolt and march off the opposite way. What if the danger doesn’t go the way I plan? What if the villain is a step ahead of her and she walks into an ambush?

I know what you’re thinking: just rewrite the scene. (Okay, you’re probably thinking I’m loony as a Toon, too, but let’s leave that for another post.)  

I’d like to think I can rewrite the scene, but I can’t. I mean, I can, but the original version will haunt me. All the time that I spend revising that chapter so that she gets a phone call just before she opens the door, which delays her enough to figure out that she’s being set up, I’m still thinking: nice dream but I know she really walked straight into that gunfire. 

So when I begin an action scene, I decide on the outcome first. Is Peri left unconscious? If she gets shot, where? Once I know how she will survive, then I imagine rewinding the scene and playing it backward, so to speak. This way, I can direct the action from the start so it ends my way.

After all, I can’t depend on my characters to do it for me.

So, writers, how do you thrust your characters into the line of fire? And readers, how much do you trust an author to take you to that edge without driving you over it?

Publetariat’s staff is off in observance of Veterans Day, which is a national holiday here in the United States and is also observed in some other countries as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day. No new content will be posted to the site until 6pm PST on Monday, 11/12/11, when we will resume our normal editorial schedule. Members can still post to their own Publetariat blogs, and the forum will remain open, but new registrations, moderated comments and contact form messages will not be processed during this break.

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