While You Wait For Book Three, Authors Die!

by

The title of this post is slightly sensationalist, but in a literary sense it’s actually very true. I mentioned recently that I’ve finally started reading A Game Of Thrones, which is the first book in George R R Martin’s A Song Of Ice & Fire series. This comment led to a few discussions in various places that has subsequently led to this post.

[Editor’s note: strong language after the jump]

When I mentioned that I was finally getting around to reading A Game Of Thrones a lot of people assumed that also meant that I’d only just bought it. Especially when, in answer to the question, “Why has it taken you this long?” I replied, “I was waiting for the complete story before I started.”

A lot of people do this, and fair enough. When you notice a big old fantasy series that you think catches your interest, it’s reasonable to assume there’s going to be a whole story told. Often these days a writer will sell a trilogy (or bigger series) to a publisher and that publisher will set a publication schedule to release those books over a relatively short period of time, maybe even inside a year.

However, if no one buys the first book, it’s very possible that books two and three will never see the light of day. An author survives on [his] sales figures. If [he] performs poorly at the checkout, the publisher will discard [him] like a greasy burger wrapper and think nothing of it. That’s business. It’s fucked, but it’s business.

Going back to Martin’s series, when people started telling me how awesome it was, I started buying the books. They’ve sat on my shelf for ages. I wasn’t going to read them until there was a whole finished set, but I bought them to ensure that Martin showed solid sales figures and stayed in favour with his publisher. (I ended up starting to read recently because of the forthcoming TV series, and I wanted to have read the books first).

Obviously someone like George R R Martin doesn’t need my help, but the same thing applies across the board. For example, I was on a panel recently with Paul Cornell and he talked about one of his comic series being cancelled. There was conjecture that the series was cancelled because so many people these days wait for the trade, rather than collect the individual comic books. If no one buys the comic books, the story is considered a failure and there’ll be no trade.

The same applies to big series of novels. If no one buys the first book, the author/story will be considered a failure and there’ll be no release of the rest of the books. The people that read the first one are denied closure, the people that were waiting for a whole series have missed the opportunity and, most importantly, the author is dropped and never has the chance to expand their career. This is a very sad result of market forces and it’s actually a false result.

So if you see the first book of a series that you think you might like, buy it! You don’t have to read it right away – consider it an investment in your reading future. Buy the subsequent volumes as they come out and you’ll end up with a solid reading experience once the whole series is finished. And you’ve done your bit to ensure the success of an author and their literary vision. Hopefully you’ve had a good read too. If you put off buying that first book, you could have actively participated in the failure of an otherwise awesome story and potentially stellar career. No pressure.

 

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

Aspiring Authors Fail To Click During E-Book Emergence

by

This story, by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal and was reprinted on the South Oregon Mail Tribune site on 9/26/10.

When literary agent Sarah Yake shopped around Kirsten Kaschock’s debut novel "Sleight" earlier this year, she thought it would be a shoo-in with New York’s top publishers.

"Her project was one of the most exemplary in the last decade or so," said Jed Rasula, Kaschock’s teacher, who has taught in the English department at the University of Georgia since 2001. "I certainly thought she’d find a New York publisher."

To the surprise of Yake and Rasula, the major New York publishers passed on "Sleight," a novel about two sisters trained in a fictional art form.

Coffee House Press in Minneapolis, a small independent publisher, now plans to publish the book, offering Kaschock an advance of about $3,500 — a small fraction of the typical advances once paid by the major publishing houses.

It’s always been tough for literary fiction writers, particularly first timers, to get their work published by the top publishing houses. But the digital revolution that is disrupting the economic model of the book industry is having an outsized impact on the careers of literary writers.

Priced much lower than hardcover books, e-books generate less income for publishers. At the same time, big retailers are buying fewer titles.

As a result, the publishers responsible for nurturing generations of America’s top literary fiction writers are approving fewer book deals and signing fewer new writers. Most of those getting published are receiving smaller advances.

"Advances are down, and there aren’t as many debuts as before" says Ira Silverberg, a well-known literary agent. "We’re all trying to figure out what the business is as it goes through this digital disruption."

Much as cheap digital music downloads have meant fewer bands can earn a living from record company deals, publishers and agents say fewer literary authors will be able to support themselves as e-books gain broader acceptance.

"In terms of making a living as a writer, you better have another source of income," says Nan Talese, whose Nan A. Talese/Doubleday imprint publishes Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, and John Pipkin.

In some cases, independent publishers are picking up the slack by signing promising literary fiction writers. But they offer on average $1,000 to $5,000 in advances, a fraction of the $50,000 to $100,000 advances that established publishers typically paid in the past for debut literary fiction.

The new economics of the e-book make the author’s quandary painfully clear: A new $28 hardcover book returns half, or $14 to the publisher, and 15%, or $4.20, to the author.

Under most e-book deals currently, a digital book sells for $12.99, returning 70%, or $9.09, to the publisher and typically 25% of that, or $2.27, to the author.

The upshot: From an e-book sale, an author makes a little more than half what he or she makes from a hardcover sale.

 

Read the rest of the article on the South Oregon Mail Tribune site.

7 Links To Encourage The Writer In You

by

Great information abounds on the internet, but it can be difficult to find unless someone leaves a “signpost” for you pointing the way. Here are seven links that can help you in your pursuit of your writing career.

  1. Writing in the Face of Fear — This post covers ways to overcome every writer’s fear of writing and adds a few good resources for the writer’s toolbox.
  2. When It’s All Too Much — Sometimes self-publishers, especially those new to the field, find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of “helpful” advice. This post points out that there is a need to take a break and just let the process take care of itself. 
  3. 5 Self-Publishing Lessons I Learned From My Toddler — With great posts come great comments. This post gave several readers some helpful ideas.
  4. 7 Ways to Stop Feeling Distracted and Start Writing What You Want to Write — This is a great post by Joanna of Confident Writing. The title says it all. 
  5. 7 Links That Will Make Editing Your Work Easier — Every writer knows editing is crucial, but sometimes we need a little help in the process. This post lists seven links that will do just that.
  6. Beating the Clock — Time is a scarce commodity, but there are ways to manage it. This post gives a couple of ideas and some advice on how best to manage your time.
  7. Deaf With Belief — If writers need anything, it’s encouragement. This post encourages self-publishers to believe in themselves regardless of what anyone else says.

There are always great posts out there, but sometimes you can’t find them. That’s why I like to leave signposts like these links for you on The Road to Writing.

 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s The Road To Writing.

F&FW: What To Give

by

Whether you’re in a workshop or not, giving feedback on other people’s stories helps you as a writer. A key question involves the formality of the response you give, and here my views are decidedly aligned with writers and others who focus on craft, and decidedly against critics and others who focus on meaning or worth.

For example, here’s a blog comment I wrote on a site a few months ago, on the subject of ‘critiquing’:

I don’t disagree with anything you say here. It’s a good introduction, and particularly so because you guard against giving the reviewer authority. Every writer will define themselves by their ability to listen to and sift responses. And of course that’s one of the benefits of a workshop: you can have confidence that issues that affected the majority are substantive simply because of the number of people agreeing on a point.

The one thing I might add here is that over my writing life I’ve de-emphasized the formality of the critiquing process to the point that I no longer even use that word. Why? Because the word is both formal and critical, and I find that both of those aspects of the reviewing process tend to goad the reviewer into responding as a critical authority.

When I respond to something, or offer to respond, I simply promise feedback. It’s a useful descriptor that imposes no weight of responsibility or attitude on the process. Too, because almost all feedback is useful, it allows for anyone to contribute — and there is always a shortage of readers. (To say nothing of trusted readers.)

If you’re a beginning writer and you have the opportunity to respond to someone else’s work, take it. Don’t worry about formal responses, don’t try to explain the author’s story to them and don’t try to write it for them. Just read the story, note your own reactions to what’s happening, and report those reactions.

Why is this important? Because what a writer is trying to do is create specific effects in your mind. Only by reliably reporting your experience with a story will the writer know if those effects were achieved. The job of the writer is to figure out why the intended effect may have failed in your particular case. Your job as a reader is to tell the truth of your reading experience.

This is one area where workshops tend to complicate the feedback process because of the social dynamics involved. Nobody wants to come off like an idiot in a roomful of their peers, and more than a few people will be determined to come off like geniuses. Not only does having the floor lead to words like ‘verisimilitude’ and ‘anthropomorphism’ being used more in a twenty-minute span than you will ever hear them used during the rest of your life, it prompts readers to pontificate about everything from the comma to the meaning of life, none of which ever really helps fix the story.

As a reader, if you genuinely believe you know why you had trouble with a work, go ahead and give your reasoning. But remember: the most important thing you have to give to any writer is your honest reaction. If a writer doesn’t have the craft knowledge to judge and act on what you’re saying, the complexity and detail of your analysis probably won’t matter.

 

This is a reprint from Mark Barrett‘s Ditchwalk.

What Do The Most Highly-Paid Authors Have In Common?

by

We write for many reasons. Money is not usually the top of the list but we would all like to be rewarded for our work and financial success is certainly a great goal.

Forbes.com released their list of the highest paid authors earlier this year. The top 10 earners were: James Patterson, Stephenie Meyer, Stephen King, Danielle Steel, Ken Follett, Dean Koontz, Janet Evanovitch, John Grisham, Nicholas Sparks, and JK Rowling

So what can we learn from them in terms of modeling success?

  • Write a lot of books. James Patterson has had 51 NY Times bestsellers and churns out almost 1 book a month now with a number of collaborators. While you may not like his writing style, he is certainly successful in understanding books are a product. Write to a formula, get them out there and people will buy them. Most of these writers are prolific with Meyer and Rowling as outliers (see the next point!)
  • Write a series. All of these writers have a series of books, some of them have multiple series with protagonists that people get to know and are keen to read the next installment about. Remember, it may take you a year to write a book, but it takes a real fan about 5 hours to read it. Then they want the next one! If you can hook people into your series, you will sell the rest of them to that reader and the books will keep selling.
  • Know your brand and write in a genre. Each of these names is synonymous with a genre. You know what you are getting when you pick up a Stephen King or a Danielle Steel. If they write in other genres, they use another name. These authors are brand names, instantly recognizable products. You need to decide what your brand is and where you fit on a bookshelf. Do you fit next to Patterson or Rowling or Sparks?
  • Understand it takes time. Most of the top 10 have been around for decades. Only Meyer and Sparks could be considered young authors, so it is encouraging to think that plugging away for years will eventually have some success. If James Patterson or Danielle Steel had given up after 2 books, would they be where they are now?
  • Write popular fiction. This may be controversial but if you want to make money, you need to write for the masses and avoid literary fiction. There is a clear difference between a best-selling author versus a best writing author. One makes money, the other wins literary acclaim and prizes. You need to be clear what you are aiming for. (That doesn’t mean bestsellers are not well written. Many of them are and we should all aim to write well. It just means they are not considered “literary” by the critics).
  • Create multiple streams of income. These authors do not just have physical books. Their ideas have been turned into other products including movies, merchandise, spin-off books, audio and digital products, games and even real world experiences (think Harry Potter world!). Yes, they are big names but you can create multiple streams of income for your books too.

What do you think about these top earners? Do you buy their books? How can you model their success?

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

That Simplest Of Ways To Improve Your Writing

by

When I completed writing my first manuscript, I sent my novel off to an editor so she could inform me just how many gracious platitudes I might receive from adoring novel lovers. As I’m certain you’ve already surmised, she utterly failed in her mission.

Though the manuscript contained more red ink that black when I received it, one specific note she made, and made, and made related to my use of the word, “that.” Beside the first such notation she indicated, and I paraphrase, the word can most often be eliminated from writing without losing any meaning or substance. Since then I’ve found we use the word so often in our everyday speaking it’s not even noticed. However, when I read it, that word jumps out to me these days.

I researched “Success with Words – A Guide to the American Language” for this blog post and, wow, did they go on and on about it. (And it published was by Readers’ Digest, of all people.) Regardless, for the sake of article length and purpose, suffice it to say the word is used as a pronoun, an adjective and a conjunctive.

Further, let’s stick with my editors’ suggestion, shall we? She offered a simple trick I still use to this day. She recommended I read the sentence aloud without the offending word and consider if it could be eliminated. If none of the meaning of the sentence is lost by this, it is unnecessary and I should cut it. Alas, I lost much of my word count during that exercise.

Let’s look at some examples.

“What’s the best way to get that accomplished?”

“What’s the best way to get accomplished?”

You see the sentence lacking the word loses something, doesn’t it? It doesn’t make sense. In this case, keep “that” in place. Another example follows.

“Organize your files so that you can find things with ease.”

“Organize your files so you can find things with ease.”

It’s obvious in this second example that the word is not necessary and may be eliminated, therefore, making the second sentence, and this one, of higher quality as it relates to writing.

The easiest method I’ve found is to perform this edit is to use the Find feature in your word processing program and go down the long list of things it spews forth. It won’t take as long as you think and once you’ve done this, it becomes second nature.

Now, there is a caveat I noted in “Success with Words” so I’ll pass it along. It said the word is often still acceptable in formal language. However, when was the last time you used formal language?

I personally tend to leave it in for certain characters in my novels’ dialogue. I now use it for the less educated of characters, whereas with my better educated ones I do not.

As you work through your edits, try this simple technique and I’ll bet you’ll be surprised just how well it improves your writing.

Until we meet again, I wish you only best-sellers.
 

 

This is a reprint from C. Patrick Shulze‘s Author of Born to be Brothers blog.

Indie Versus Traditional Publishing

by

This article, by Jess C. Scott, originally appeared on her site on 6/1/10.

This is a condensed version of my quite-long (35-page) advertising plan which I submitted for BUS 345: Advertising, in the Spring 2010 semester. The paper was written with regards to “establishing my brand identity as an author.” I scored full marks for the paper (yay).

# # #

Industry Analysis of Traditional Publishers

II. SITUATION ANALYSIS

2.0 Historical Context

According to Doug Grad Literary Agency, whose founder spent twenty-two years as a senior editor at four major New York publishing houses:

Publishers, unfortunately, have a copycat mentality, so once a genre gets hot, they quickly overbuy and over-publish until the marketplace is saturated and the public gets sick of the rotten imitations on the shelves. Look at what happened to the Chick Lit genre, and is happening to the Young Adult Vampire genre right now. (Grad, 2010)

 

2.1 Industry Analysis

2.1.1 Current Industry Climate

George Bernard Shaw, a famous and controversial 20th century English dramatist (whose first book was published fifty years overdue—when publishers would publish anything that had his name on it), had this to say about publishers:

I object to publishers: the one service they have done me is to teach me to do without them. They combine commercial rascality with artistic touchiness and pettishness, without being either good business men or fine judges of literature. All that is necessary in the production of a book is an author and a bookseller, without the intermediate parasite. (Bernard, 1990)

Independent publishing in the digital era offers what George Bernard Shaw dreamed of. Anyone can write a book, and get it in the hands of potential readers, without having to wade through a sea of literary agents and editors. The entire traditional publishing industry is made up of a series of costs, overheads, and ways of using up incredible amounts of time which might be used doing something productive. Big publishers will not look at unsolicited manuscripts from un-agented writers, and taking 6-12 months to respond to the submission of a full manuscript is considered an industry standard for “working in a timely manner.” The endless series of procedures for simply getting a book considered by a literary agent, are obstructive. Literature is competing with powerful media for space in people’s lives, and inefficiency doesn’t help (Wallis, 2009).

Authors also often have no say and/or control in the traditional publishing process. According to established author, critically acclaimed novelist, and National Book Award finalist John Edgar Wideman:


Read the rest of the article on Jess C. Scott’s site.

Fair Use Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers)

by

This FAQ, from The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), originally appeared on the EFF site on 3/21/02.

1. What is Fair Use?

In essence, fair use is a limitation on the exclusive rights of copyright holders. The Copyright Act gives copyright holders the exclusive right to reproduce works for a limited time period. Fair use is a limitation on this right. A use which is considered "fair" does not infringe copyright, even if it involves one of the exclusive rights of copyright holders. Fair use allows consumers to make a copy of part or all of a copyrighted work, even where the copyright holder has not given permission or objects to your use of the work.

2. How does Fair Use fit with Copyright Law?

Copyright law embodies a bargain: Congress gave copyright holders a set of six exclusive rights for a limited time period, and gave to the public all remaining rights in creative works. The goals of the bargain are to give copyright holders an economic incentive to create works that ultimately benefit society as a whole, and by doing so, to promote the progress of science and learning in society. Congress never intended Copyright law to give copyright holders complete control of their works. The bargain also ensures that created works move into "the public domain" and are available for unlimited use by the public when the time period finishes. In addition, as part of the public’s side of this bargain, U.S. Copyright law recognizes the doctrine of "fair use" as a limitation on copyright holders’ exclusive right of reproduction of their works during the initial protected time period.

The public’s right to make fair use of copyrighted works is a long-established and integral part of US copyright law. Courts have used fair use as the means of balancing the competing principles underlying copyright law since 1841. Fair use also reconciles a tension that would otherwise exist between copyright law and the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of expression. The Supreme Court has described fair use as "the guarantee of breathing space for new expression within the confines of Copyright law".

3. How Do You Know If It’s Fair Use?

There are no clear-cut rules for deciding what’s fair use and there are no "automatic" classes of fair uses. Fair use is decided by a judge, on a case by case basis, after balancing the four factors listed in section 107 of the Copyright statute. The factors to be considered include:

  1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes — Courts are more likely to find fair use where the use is for noncommercial purposes.
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work — A particular use is more likely to be fair where the copied work is factual rather than creative.
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole — A court will balance this factor toward a finding of fair use where the amount taken is small or insignificant in proportion to the overall work.
  4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work — If the court finds the newly created work is not a substitute product for the copyrighted work, it will be more likely to weigh this factor in favor of fair use.

4. What’s been recognized as fair use?

Read the rest of the FAQ on the EFF site. More in depth information about Fair Use issues can be found at Chilling Effects. 

Saturday Chit-Chat: A Plotting Workshop

by

This article, by Julie Leto, originally appeared on the Plotmonkeys site on 4/28/07.

Couple of weeks ago, I asked if it would be okay with the Plotmonkey readers if we devoted a little time to the writers who join us here on the blog. Since everyone seemed amenable, I’m going to hijack the Saturday Chit-Chat for the next few weeks to present my notes from a workshop I recently did for my TARA chapter called “Plotting With Your Pants On.” Ask questions, comments, request examples and clarifications…hopefully the other monkeys will jump in too with their commentary. (Except Leslie, who is off at a conference this weekend.)

Here it is…I’ll be presenting in parts.

Part One

Plotting with Your Pants On

In recent years, two schools of thought have emerged in terms of how writers plot their books. If you’ve been in RWA long enough, you’ve heard the term “plotter” and “pantster.” The plotter being the writer who carefully and meticulously plans out every key point in the scenes, chapters and “acts” (under screenwriting’s three or four act systems, which I’ll discuss next week), does character interviews, exhaustively researches and for all intents and purposes, comes off as anal and left brained.

The pantster, on the other hand, is so named because this writer works from the seat of their pants, rather than from any definitive plan. The original term for this was “misters,” a term coined, I believe, by Jo Beverly when she gave an RWA keynote address and wrote several articles on “Flying Into the Mist,” which basically outlined her process of sitting at the computer and typing away, letting the story tell itself organically without any definitive plot to guide her. This is all very creative, very right-brained, very…literary.

Over the past few years, there has emerged a sort of factioning that disturbs me as a writer. Assumptions are made about the creativity level of one author over the other…and frankly, about the talent.

I believe very strongly that these arguments are ridiculous. But it’s easy for me because I’m a switch-hitter. I “do it both ways” as it were.

Read the rest of the article on Plotmonkeys, and also see Part II. 

What An Indie Hip Hop Act (Or Any Artist) Can Learn From This Self-Published Victorian Era Mystery Author

by

This article, by Israel Vasquetelle, originally appeared on Insomniac Magazine on 9/19/10 and features M. Louisa Locke, one of our own Publetariat contributors.

Too many times, artists of all genres look only to their own immediate world for both creative and business inspiration. The problem is that those same ideas are recycled over and over again by many within that space. I remember when 50 Cent (and obviously artists before him) approached mixtapes as the ultimate way to saturate the market – one locality at a time. That was a phenomenal way for 50 and other artists to break in and make substantial names for themselves. The problem today is that nearly every rapper on the planet now has a mixtape.

Sure, this form of promotion and distribution can still prove to be a means to reach an audience, however, for the most part it’s noise. Today, mixtapes are a dime a dozen. Sometimes taking a step out of your immediate world, what every that may be, and looking at other forms of media can provide the most valuable insight. This is one of the reasons that for years I have continued to cover a variety artists and industry professionals’ stories of success within Insomniac. This has been done in hopes that their experiences will motivate others to find their own path to whatever they’re striving to achieve.

Maids of MisfortuneM. Louisa Locke recently published her first novel, a Victorian era mystery, and has managed to reach an audience despite not benefiting from the resources of a traditional book publisher. She’s not a household name, at least not yet, however, in the era of new media and the technology that makes it these channels possible, it’s not necessary to have a huge audience to find success.

Locke is part of a growing contingency of authors that have chosen to bypass the lottery-like odds that require the need to gain the limited attention of traditional publishers. Instead of chasing a middleman, she reaches a potential audience by utilizing the democratizing services of digital distributors and print on demand services that helped her to make her title a reality.

Artists seeking to get signed by labels should take a page out of this author’s playbook. With a little entrepreneurial spirit and the use of today’s technology, artists can reach their audience and maintain control of that connection. Until, this is something that was nearly impossible to achieve without a significant resources in the form of capital and a barrage of middlemen.Today, it takes talent, hard work and a bit of marketing savviness.

Traditionally, authors with aspirations of making it alongside bestsellers on bookshelves would need to convince gatekeepers of their potential to sell huge quantities. Obviously, only a tiny percentage of those considered ever garner a book deal. Once getting through that level of immense scrutiny, typically, for a new author, that means a small advance and a ticket on a waiting list that could last many months or years. Furthermore, for better or worse, the author’s words are subject to a barrage of changes and revisions by editors. If, and when the book finally hits the market, it will only receive the promotional resources of its publisher for a very short window of time.
 

Read the rest of the article on Insomniac Magazine.

Story Awarded Sixth Place

by

The results are in for a short story I entered this summer in White County Creative Writers Contests at Searcy, Arkansas. I was awarded sixth place for a version of the story I received second place for in an earlier contest. This time the story could only be 1500 words. That meant I had to do some drastic cutting and at the same time keep the basic story in tact. I managed to do just that, but I like the longer version better so that is my post for today. This story takes place during the Depression in the 1930’s.

 

The Unexpected Visitor

　

The two room cabin Rachel Archer rented wasn’t air tight, but it beat sleeping out in the open with the migrants. Sitting at her kitchen table drinking a second cup of morning coffee, she watched the freight trains slow down at the road crossing. Four men jumped on the flat cars and six leaped off. It was an ever day occurrence these days. Homeless and jobless men headed west, looking for work. The men disembarking were on their way back home after finding out there weren’t any jobs to be had. At night, the red and gold glimmer of a dozen or so campfires glowed in the timber near the cabin. Most days, at least a couple poorly dressed, unbathed men, looking half starved, knocked at the back door, expecting her to give them a handout.

Rachel picked the three folded sheets of tablet paper up off the table and reread them. Last week, the letter came from a fellow teacher, Mary Winters. Rachel hadn’t seen her for over a year when they spent a term teaching at the same school seventy-five miles away. She was delighted Mary was coming for a visit. In fact, her friend be arriving any minute.

Looking around the cabin, Rachel anxiously wondered what Mary would think of this place she called home. No matter what condition it was in or how cramped she was for room, Rachel considered herself lucky to have a place to live. The alternative was staying at a student’s home. This way she had privacy, and the door locked so she felt safe at night.

If only she could stop the nightly noises that kept her awake. Lately, the irritating gnawing under the kitchen floor had given her nights of disturbed sleep. What she heard had to be a rat. No mouse would be big enough to make that much racket. Suddenly a horrible thought came to her. What if that rat made his way through the wooden floor while her company was visiting? How embarrassing that would be.

Mid morning, Mary Winters knocked on the cabin door. Rachel greeted her with a hug. "Come in. It is so good to see you."

"I couldn’t wait to get here. I’ve missed our talks this last year," Mary said, returning Rachel’s hug.

"Me, too. Sit down at the table. I’ve kept the coffee pot on so we could have a cup when you got here. I expect you are about wore out from the trip."

"Not really, but the roads make for rough riding with all the pot holes and ruts. I thought that poor truck I hitched a ride on was going to fall apart before the farmer got me here," Mary said, laughing. As she sat down, she looked around the combined kitchen-living room.

"Not the biggest of home, but big enough for me. Beats bunking with one of the students," Rachel assured her. "I wouldn’t have a bit of privacy, and another family’s home life is so hard to get used to for me and them."

"I know that feeling. I spent the last term with a family of six kids. That might not be so bad, but the father made me nervous. I didn’t like the way he watched me all the time."

"Did he think you might steal something?"

"I don’t think that was his problem. I just made sure to never be alone with him," Mary admitted, ducking her head bashfully.

"You must get out of there. You are applying for a different school for this fall, aren’t you?" Rachel asked, appalled at what her friend had been going through.

"Already got a different school close by as a matter of fact so we can visit more often," said Mary, grinning.

"Wonderful!"

A train, traveling east, blew its whistle as it approached the crossing. Mary watched out the window with a frown. The freight train slowed down. Men jumped from the box cars and ran into the trees. "Did you have a good year here at the school?" Mary kept a troubled look as her eyes stayed glued to what was happening out the window.

"Yes, I had a nice size bunch of kids. Sometimes I wish I lived somewhere that didn’t get as much snow in the winter. I hate being snowed in for days on end," Rachel admitted.

"I know that feeling," Mary said in a distracted voice. Another train, headed west, slowed down at the crossing. Men ran along side and jumped on while almost as many men leaped off. Mary shook her head in dismay.

"Is something wrong?" Rachel asked.

"How are you so brave to live this close to the railroad tracks? Hobos keep jumping on and off the trains at the crossing."

"The hobos don’t bother me," Rachel assured her. "They do knock on the door once in awhile to ask for food. If I have extra, I give what I can."

"Doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. You shouldn’t encourage that sort of thing. Those men look desperate to me and that makes them dangerous," warned Mary.

"Perhaps, you’re just edgy because of what you’ve been through this last year. Those men are just down on their luck. How about some lunch? This afternoon, I want to take you over to the school and show you around. I have a car. When you’re ready to leave in a few days, I’ll take you back to town to catch a bus," Rachel offered.

After dark, Mary jumped at every little noise outside. Rachel laughed at how spooked her friend was. "Relax. There’s always stray dogs and cats prowling in the night, looking for scraps."

By bedtime, Mary still wasn’t convinced the cabin was a safe place to sleep. A series of sharp yips startled her. The racket came from the hillside in front of the cabin.

"That is coyotes on the run. They’ll be into some farmer’s chickens before morning, I expect," Rachel told her.

The yips came again. "Those animals sound like they’re right outside the cabin," Mary said, shuttering.

Angry voices, some talking loud and others yelling, drifted from the timber to the women through the thin cabin walls. "Sounds like the migrants are into a fight again," said Rachel with a sigh.

"Again," screeched Mary. "You mean this happens often?"

"Once in awhile. Some of the migrants are a rough lot," Rachel admitted, looking at her sideways.

In the bedroom, Mary put on her nightgown and crawled under the covers on the cot Rachel fixed for her. She tossed and turned, having trouble going to sleep in the pitch black room. In a trembling voice, she said, "Rachel, how do you know the difference between a dog prowling outside your door and a hobo?"

Rachel’s voice held humor as she said, "Simple. The dog can’t turn the door knob."

"Honestly, Rachel, you’re awful. That isn’t one bit funny," Mary said, pulling her covers up to her chin. "Do you have a gun?"

"Land’s sakes, no. Just go to sleep, Mary. You’ll be safe enough in here with me," Rachel assured her.

Mary listened intently at first in case hobos lurked outside. Finally, she slept fitfully, dreaming the cabin was surrounded by hobos. They peeked in the windows and rattled the door knob.

Right on cue as soon as the lights went out and the women stopped talking, the rat gnawed with gusto. Rachel held her breath, hoping that Mary didn’t hear the racket. Rumbling snores from across the room convinced her the noise wouldn’t bother Mary. Rachel fell asleep wishing she could figure out a way to persuade that nasty creature to move out from under her home. The sooner the better. She longed for a peaceful night’s sleep.

The next morning, Rachel, while filling the coffee pot at the sink, looked down. There was what she had dreaded for days. In front of the sink was the feared hole, with fresh wood shavings heaped around the edges. Slowly, she opened the sink door. Cowering in a shadowy corner behind a stack of iron skillets, the beady eyed, black rat stared at her.

Horrified, Rachel screamed. She forgot about her sleeping company as she yelled, "Oh my, he’s gotten in." She slammed the sink door.

Startled awake, Mary sprang off the cot. She pulled a butcher knife out from under her pillow. The picture of an unkempt, menacing hobo ran through her mind. At that very minute, he was stalking Rachel in the kitchen.

"Where’s he at?" Mary’s loud voice trembled. Her bare feet thudded on the floor as she raced to the doorway. Afraid for her life, she flattened herself against the bedroom wall to listen.

"Under the sink," Rachel replied in a disgusted voice.

Welding the knife with its blade up in the air, Mary peeked around the door. Bewildered, she looked around the room. Rachel, stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at the sink cabinet door. "How – how did he get in there?" She stuttered.

Looking over her shoulder, Rachel spotted Mary’s weapon. "That my knife?"

"If you had a gun, I wouldn’t need this for protection. I slept with it under my pillow," Mary replied sheepishly.

Rachel grabbed the broom, leaning in the corner. She opened the sink door and prodded back and forth with the handle. "Get out of there," she yelled.

Mary clamped her hand over her mouth and shrank back into the bedroom. She waited for the hobo to unbend from his contortious position and spring out of the cupboard. When he attacked Rachel, she’d have to be brave enough to stab him with the knife, but she didn’t know where she’d find the courage.

Suddenly, the rat darted out of the cabinet and ran in circles around Rachel’s feet. Doing a jumping dance, the frantic woman slapped the floor wildly with her broom. Mary peeked into the kitchen. She ducked back out of sight just in time to keep from getting hit when the broom came up over Rachel’s head. The rat headed for under the table. Rachel slapped the business end of the broom down at him, but missed. He hunkered by a far table leg, hoping that Rachel wouldn’t spot him.

Rachel rammed the broom handle at him, yelling, "Out from under the table, you creepy thing."

"He’s under that small table?" Mary cried in disbelief from the bedroom.

"He was," Rachel screeched. "He’s on the move again now."

A fast black blur, the rat, hunkered low and scurried across the floor, up the cupboard and under the wooden bread box lid.

Rachel cried, "Oh, no! He went in the bread box with my bread." Mary, clutching the knife, eased out into the kitchen. "Let him have the bread. You can buy more." Completely befuddled, she looked at the small box and whispered, "How could he fit in there?"

As Rachel turned her back on the bread box to answer, she felt a scratchy, fuzzy upward movement inside her left slack leg. She clutched her thigh and watched the lump continue to move up her slacks past her knee. "Oh, Mary, he’s in my slacks. What will I do?"

Thinking Rachel had lost her mind, Mary said, "Dear, he couldn’t be in there. Don’t you think you should sit down?"

"I can’t do that. I have to get shut of him," Rachel said, giving Mary a disgusted look. She yanked the back door open and ran out into the yard.

Mary followed her. Helplessly, she watched Rachel frantically jump up and down like she was skipping rope.

As the movement continued in Rachel’s slacks leg, she darted around the yard holding her leg tightly and screaming very loud. After she grew weary from the exertion, she looked down at her slack leg and begged, "Please leave. Please leave."

"Poor Rachel. I knew living out here on this prairie had to get to you. I just didn’t realize you were this bad. Please stop bouncing around," Mary commanded, grabbing Rachel by the shoulder. "You must calm down. I promise you there isn’t a hobo in your slacks."

That statement brought Rachel to an instant stop. Panting, she gave Mary a incredulous glare. "There isn’t a hobo in my pants. What are you talking about?"

Mary answered in a small voice. "I thought you thought you had a hobo going up your leg. What do you have in your pants?"

"Believe it or not. What’s in my pants is much worse. It’s a rat."

Mary turned loose of Rachel and staggered backed a few feet. "Really?"

"Really. I knew he was under the cabin floor, but I hoped he wouldn’t gnaw through while you was here." Rachel couldn’t feel movement in her hands anymore. She loosened her grip on the lump. It didn’t move. She shook her leg and cringed as she felt the tickling, furry lump slide down her shin. The motionless rat appeared and lay her shoe. Rachel gave a fast kick, sending the rat toward Mary.

Pale faced, Mary squealed and dodged sideways.

"Thank goodness, he’s dead," Rachel sighed, panting.

"He is, but I’m not sure I’m going to live through all this excitement," Mary said and giggled. "Tell me the rest of today is going to be calmer, please."

"Can’t never tell what will happen next around here," Rachel affirmed, laughing.

　

　

　

Limning A Controversy

by

This article, by Erin McKean, originally appeared on The Boston Globe site on 9/19/10. It will be of interest to any writer who’s ever wrestled over word choice: how esoteric is too esoteric?

It is probably a bit too harsh to call those upset by The Baltimore Sun’s recent use of the word limn in a headline word-haters, but I assume they’d be even more offended by the fancy word misologists.

If you didn’t catch the (admittedly brief) controversy, it went a bit like this.

On Sept. 7, The Baltimore Sun used the word limn in a front-page headline (“Opposing votes limn difference in race”). That same day, Carol N. Shaw sent a letter to the editor complaining about the paper’s use of the word, calling it “unbelievably arrogant and patronizing” to use a word that she, having graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Maryland, didn’t immediately understand.

Although the Sun has used the word limn twice before in headlines (and 47 times, total, in the paper’s history), those previous uses didn’t occasion much, if any, comment. The Sun’s level-headed and pragmatic grammar and usage blogger, John McIntyre, supported the use of limn in the headline, especially as it’s one of the limited stock of short verbs in English that are (as he put it) “neither scatological nor obscene.”

At first glance, it’s hard to see why limn should be considered verba non grata: It’s related, etymologically, to illuminate, and has been in use in English since the 1400s, at first to mean “to paint with gold or bright color” (as in illuminated manuscripts) and then (metaphorically) to mean painting a picture in words. That metaphorical use has proven to be irresistible to book reviewers, especially: Michiko Kakutani, the book reviewer for The New York Times, has been criticized for overuse of limn.

 

Read the rest of the article on The Boston Globe site. 

10 Simple Steps To Increase Your Digital Influence

by

This post, by Jeff Bullas, originally appeared on his site on 9/20/10.

What if you could shortcut the time it takes to be known as a thought leader or an expert or get elected to a position of authority and power or chosen for that important job that you want so desperately.

Just imagine when you wrote a book that it immediately sold in the thousands and maybe even appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Social media is sometimes viewed as just another way of communicating… and yes it is… but it is so much more than that if start to scratch its surface and dive in and start to leverage its power to spread your content globally and amplify the results. It can be used as a tool to promote your company and personal brand that can fast track results that can be astounding and the 10 people mentioned in this article I am sure would testify to that.

Social media is sometimes viewed as just another way of communicating… and yes it is… but it is so much more than that if start to scratch its surface and dive in and start to leverage its power to spread your content globally and amplify the results. It can be used as a tool to promote your company and personal brand that can fast track results that can be astounding and the 10 people mentioned in this article I am sure would testify to that.

There was a comment left on a post the other day and it was both expected and surprising.

“Why are cooperation, organization and collective action treated as new methods of achieving results … There’s nothing new to any of these interactions…the only “new” component is the current social networking apparatus (fb, twitter, etc.) and even these aren’t really new…and those are only variations on communications (primarily involving the internet) which we’ve been experimenting with now for more than a generation…but I worry about what we’re giving up for those advantages. I will worry even more if people unthinkingly give credit to social media for the achievements that would have resulted from their interaction without said media….”

Sure there are some problems with any new media with the fear of  the unknown or the concern with its possible diminishing of face to face interaction. The reality is that it increases real interaction both online and offline through reduced friction to keep in touch, be found and spread your knowledge and opinions in your niche.

I have found it facilitates face to face opportunities and intensifies my personal and professional interaction, engagement and collaboration and  it also breaks down barriers to communication by enabling multiple means to communicate and keep in touch that are both efficient and personal.

In fact my blog and my social media channels provide me with my own  multimedia printing press and marketing platform.

I think what excites most social media early innovators and adopters is the ease with which you can promote your ideas and opinions to large audiences without gatekeepers like traditional mass media costs and barriers that prohibited us sharing without getting permission from editors and journalists or power brokers.

The Influencer Project provides some more insights on what tips and actions you can implement to be digitally influential. Here are some thought leaders’ insights from the Influencer Project and I have added some actions you can implement or start to commence on your digital influence journey.

1. Hang out where your audience hangs out and get to understand them.

 

Read the rest of the post on Jeff Bullas‘ site.

The Language of Drunk(Acrostic Poem)

by

Three sheets to the wind, the boat meanders,
Hammered with repeated blows.
Euphoric, triumph will prevail.

Loaded with accessories,
Annihilates the blue screen of death.
Naggin-bottle, empty and sweaty.
Groggy from exhaustion and blows.
Under the weather deck,
Addicted in a weakened state,
Giddy, as dusk approaches,
Erunk, The past becomes present.

Oiled on troubled waters,
Fried from battling the waves.

Drunk with passion to reach
Rocky land in the far distance.
Under the influence, controlling my fate,
Newcastle, on the horizon,
Knowing, the safety of the harbor.

When Dreams Become Expectations

by

This post, by Nathan Bransford, originally appeared on his blog on 9/16/10.

There is a famous psychological study that shows that people who win the lottery and people who are involved in catastrophic accidents return to the same original base level of happiness after two years. People who make more than $75,000 are barely affected by further raises at all.

Success and fortune is normative. When we experience success, no matter how great, we first experience a blip of happiness, then we get used to it and start looking for what’s around the bend.

And for writers, as previously chronicled, this leads to the "If-Only Game." If I could only find an agent, then I’ll be happy. When you get that agent it becomes: If only I could find a publisher, then I’ll be happy. If only I could make the bestseller list, then I’ll be happy. If only I could have as many Twitter followers as Neil Gaiman, then I’ll be happy. We allow our success to be the new normal and aren’t satisfied even when we reach the next milestone because there’s always another milestone to be had.

But I think there’s another hidden danger for writers that can dampen writerly happiness: using our daydreams to get us through the tough times.

You know how it goes. You face a difficult time while writing, you don’t want to do it, you’re putting in such incredible hard work, and your mind starts drifting to your book being published and taking off and becoming a bestseller and being the next HARRY POTTER only more popular (don’t worry, we’re all J.K. Rowlings before publication) and sitting on Oprah’s couch and building A FLOATING CASTLE IN THE SKY TRUST US WE’LL BE RICH ENOUGH. And you use those dreams to power through the difficult stretches and redouble your efforts.

And that’s perfectly natural! No judging.
 

Read the rest of the post on Nathan Bransford’s blog.