It Didn't Help Me Wade Into the Book

In terms of first lines I like what Kathryn Guare wrote in her piece on Writing Craft: The Challenge of Writing An Opening Line of Staggering Genius on the Alliance of Independent Authors Blog (see here) back in 2013.

Concluding pep talk to myself: the first sentence of a novel is exactly that—nothing more, and nothing less. It is the building block and the foundation from which to build everything else. It needs to work, but it does not need to be a work of art onto itself. If you like it yourself, then stop obsessing over it.

I like what she says. This is exactly the sentiment that I try to imbue to my series on first lines (see here). It's not the end all beat all of the novel, it's merely the first line the reader happens to run into. If anything I think the last line should be more important for that's the image you will be leaving the reader with (see here).

All that being said, the last line I read in Flashman and the Mountain of Light, the book I'm currently reading, it barely had enough oomph to make me want to read the second line, and Oh Brother! that second through tenth line almost had me closing the book. If anything this sample emphasizes how important a really intriguing first line is. If not for the history I have with Flashman (see here), this one would have gone back on the shelf.

“Now, my dear Sir Harry, I must tell you,” says her majesty, with that stubborn little duck of her head that always made Palmerston think she was going to butt him in the guts, “I am quite determined to learn Hindoostanee.” 

This at the age of sixty-seven, mark you. I almost asked her what the devil for, at her time of life, but fortunately my idiot wife got in first, clapping her hands and exclaiming that it was a most splendid idea, since nothing so Improved the Mind and Broadened the Outlook as acquaintance with a Foreign Tongue, is that not so, my love? (Elspeth, I may tell you, speaks only English – well, Scotch, if you like – and enough nursery French to get her through Customs and bullyrag waiters, but anything the Queen said, however wild, always sent her into transports of approval.) 

Fraser, George MacDonald - Flashman and the Mountain of Light

What does the learning of a foreign language by the Queen of England have to do with the novel? Very little actually. It's a stepping stone to the real mystery, but phew, like I said, made we want to give up quick.

I'm the Maggot in the Metaphor

Last week, for the first in this series, I wrote about how writing a novel is alot like a long hard road march (see here). Then I followed that up by discussing how it's not glamorous or fun (see here). And although both of these things are true, today I'm going to write about how all of that leads to the finished product.

I bought a composter a year or so ago to replace my homemade composter that I built years ago. The model shown in the pciture above is the very type that I have. I bought it (and borrowed the above picture) from The Gardener's Supply Company. (Best place on the web to go get gardening gear). Nevertheless, although I use the hell outta that sucker I never use a shiny new pail, nor wear my gardening clogs, nor smile quite so heartily as the fellow in the image above.

Instead, I fill that sucker up regularly. Banana peels galore, coffee grounds almost everyday, used G&T lemon wedges, cilantro stems from the night before's dinner, pumpkins that turned into jack-o-lantern's then turned into moldy, stumpy, rotted messes that sit on the porch too long after Halloween (these are actually the coolest things to throw into that sucker).

Over and over, for weeks and weeks, months and months I keep cramming stuff into that left side of the composter and I tumble it around. Then after about six months I switch to the right side and leave the left alone except for the occasional tumble. All the while the bugs are inside and making babies and turning that kitchen waste into fertile soil. After 6 months or more of sitting alone and steaming, that compost is ready to be put into my garden, now rich and ready to grow things.

Here's the simile so pay attention.

First, writing is a lot like using that composter. I write a ton of stuff and most of it is trash. It's not till I've tumbled it around in my brain and written a bit more and revised and edited and rewritten that it becomes at all worthwhile. When I'm putting it in it's like that rotting pumpkin. Usually, hopefully, when I put it into book form it comes out as something worthwhile.

Simile number two . . . I leave lots of my stuff on the shelve to age. Just like my composter allows me to leave my garbage alone just to tumble and age, I leave my writing to the same. I leave it alone and write on something else then I come back to it and fine tune it.

I'm working on my third novel now. Tentatively titled Vapor Trail, it is a follow up to On the Edge (see here and below cover image) and I'm hoping to release it this fall. I'm rewriting it for the final time right now and I'm stunned by how different it is from that first trash I put in. Characters names and types are changes. The plot is different. The setting has changed twice. It's a completely different story than the one I started. This is what got me thinking about that composter. I used that composted soil in my herb garden the other day and it was completely broken down. That's the way this story is now that I've tumbled it around and lead it age.

It used to bother me how much writing and rewriting was necessary to produce a finished work, but now I see that it's just a necessary part of the process. If I just threw the trash I wrote out on the web it would be exactly that (and truthfully, there's already a bit too much trash out on the Internets right now). It takes time to get it just right. Vapor Trail is in the tumble phase and the maggots are squirming around in it now turning it into something epic. The only problem as I see it is that I'm the maggot in that metaphor.

Book Review: The Fourth Deadly Sin or Makes Me Wish I Was Older in '86

I just finished Lawrence Sanders' The Fourth Deadly Sin, and basically I loved it as much or more than his other works. I enjoy talking and writing about the books I've read and have a whole series of em on this site (see here), but this one takes a bit of a different turn in that the cover design plays a significant part.

 I've never hidden my love for Sanders' writing (see here). I'm a McNally fanatic (though I don't do Lardo), and I'm really enjoying going back and reading Sanders' older stuff (see here and here). The Fourth Deadly Sin was published in 1986 which makes me with I'd been a better reader when he was producing these things.

The first I heard about Sanders was back in the early 2000's when my Uncle told me about him. I started reading the McNally series, if only because it was the easiest to find at the half price book place. I still remember that first McNally book I read and how I thought Archie was such a fun character. Sure, I've since found out he's a bit of a rip off from Rex Stout's Archie Goodwin from the Nero Wolf books, but Sanders brings his own flair to Archy McNally. Who can't love a fellow who wears a puce beret to go investigate.

Still, as much as I liked the McNally books, I think I like this earlier stuff first. After my first, and so far only trip to New York City this past fall, reading bout 1970's and early 80's New York is fun. Secondly I enjoy the fact that each book has a new character and a new angle. Recently so many authors and series are only considered if there's a viable character for multiple books. I enjoy the fact that Dick Francis and Sanders didn't conform in that way. Naturally I'm trying to emulate them with my books (see here and here).

The Fourth Deadly Sin was just as good as Sanders' other earlier works and makes me want to read more. That being said I did have one difficulty. Why is this cover decorated with a claw hammer? The murder takes place, Sanders makes a big point of this, with a ball-peen hammer, not a claw hammer. Having just finished a foray into cover design, successfully I believe (see here and above), didn't the cover designer care about accuracy? Or is a claw hammer just a bit more murderous looking than a ball-peen? Then again are covers that feature a couple of people running particularly murderous looking?

Regardless, if that's my primary complaints, Sanders should be quite happy.

Ran Across this Blog Called "The Self-Made Writer"

I found this blog through Google Plus and a couple of writer's links that I'm a part of. This one come via Deb Vanasse and her blog The Self-Made Writer. This is Ten Truths You Need to Know about Publishing, No Matter How You Do It (see here).

It's a good looking blog and I look forward to tooling around and finding out more about it, but this post intrigued me and I read it through. Some of the stats were a tad tough to hear, but based on her accompanying image that says "Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie" I'm thinking she knew some of the numbers would be startling to most writers. Still, some great nuggets of information for the aspiring author. My favorites?

There’s a content flood, and it’s not going to recede anytime soon. As reported by author William Dietrich in a piece published by the Huffington Post, an estimated 130 million books have been published throughout human history. That number is growing by the minute—and with e-books, titles stay in print forever. Bottom line: the supply of books far exceeds the demand.

This bullet goes hand-in-hand with some of the stats she comments on in other bullets. I'm stunned when I go online to find a book to read every now and then. The number of books out there is staggering. If you don't know what you're looking for you're going to get lost. I love the line; "The supply of books far exceeds the demands."

Wonderful books are overlooked, and some that aren’t so wonderful sell more than anyone could have predicted. As they say, there’s no accounting for taste. But if sales are steady, and if a title stays in print long enough and is popular within a niche market, it may in the end outsell certain flash-and-burn bestsellers.

This bullet made me think of a conversation I had with my neighbors on our back patio after a dinner party. It was about the time that 50 Shades of Grey the movie had just come out. Turns out several of us tried to read the book and among the four that tried, not any of us got through the first few pages and wanted to read on. Yet, that was a very successful book. Key words "popular within a niche market." It's finding that niche then development the foot hold into something more that's the goal.

Write what you love and make each book the best it can be. That’s the one aspect of publishing over which you have complete control.

Finally, and this goes directly against what I wrote a few years ago about why I writer (see here). Just write what you want and do it as well as you can. Be proud of what you wrote and hope that others enjoy it as much as you do.

Deb has some good points and despite being slapped with the truth, it's good stuff to know and helps to accentuate the positives. I look forward to more posts from her.

A Bit of Humor at the End

I got to the end of The Fourth Deadly Sin and actually finished a chapter too early. When I read the below line I thought sure that was the end. It goes so perfectly in my series for "last lines."

He looked up suddenly, and beyond the city’s glow saw the stars whirling their ascending courses . So small, he thought. All the poor, scrabbling people on earth caught up in a life we never made, breaking ourselves trying to manage. 

Philosophers said you could laugh or you could weep. Delaney preferred to think there was a middle ground, an amused struggle in which you recognized the odds and knew you’d never beat them. Which was no reason to stop trying. Las Vegas did all right. 

When he came to his brownstone, the lights were on, the Christmas wreath still on the door. And inside was the companionship of a loving woman, a tot of brandy, a good cigar. And later, a warm bed and blessed sleep. 

“Thank you, God,” he said aloud, and started up the steps.

But no, that's not it. There's a whole chapter more. And instead of ending with Delaney looking up at the stars, contemplating God and his life, he leaves the reader with a note of humor.

“Well, right now I’m in Sylvia Otherton’s apartment and we’ve been working on the Ouija board. You read about that in my previous reports, didn’t you, sir?” 

“Oh, yes,” Delaney said, rolling his eyes upward. “I read about the Ouija board.” 

“Well, the first question we asked, weeks ago, was who killed him. And the board spelled out ‘Blind .’ B-L -I-N-D. Then, the second time, we asked if it was a stranger who killed him, and the board spelled out ‘Ni.’ N-I.” 

“Yes, I recall,” Delaney said patiently. “Very interesting. But what does it mean?” 

“Well, get this, sir …” Estrella said. “Tonight we asked the spirit of Simon Ellerbee whether it was a man or a woman who killed him, and the Ouija board spelled out ‘Wiman.’ W-I-M-A-N. Now that didn’t make much sense at first. But then I realized this board has a slight glitch and is pointing to ‘I’ when it means ‘O.’ If you follow that, you’ll see that the killer was blond, not blind. And the board meant to say ‘No’ instead of ‘Ni’ when we asked if the murderer was a stranger. And the final answer should have been ‘Woman’ instead of ‘Wiman.’ So as I see it, sir, the person we’re looking for is a blond woman who was not a stranger to the victim.”

“Thank you very much,” Delaney said gravely.

Sanders, Lawrence - The Fourth Deadly Sin

Although I liked the ending about the stars much more, I think it's clever that Sanders finds for his readers a Ouija Board that has a problem with O's and I's. Who would have thought of that?

Shimmering Like a Butterfly's Wing

I love the morning series (here) . . . anyone who reads this site must know that by now. Heck, I'm even thinking about making a book that is nothing more than a compendium of morning quotes from novels.

Nevertheless, there was a second morning description in The Fourth Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders to go along with this one (here). In fact it was after I read this one that I realized that Sanders starts many of his chapters with descriptions of the morning. The man just loved mornings I guess.

The next morning Delaney felt equally optimistic as he and Monica set out with the Boones for Diane Ellerbee’s country home. “Looks like a splendid day,” Delaney gloated. And so it was. 

A blue sky shimmered like a butterfly’s wing. The sun was a hot plate and there, to the east, one could see a faint smudge of white moon. The sharp air bit like ether, and the whole world seemed scrubbed and polished.

Sanders, Lawrence - The Fourth Deadly Sin

Then a few pages later there was this one:

He lumbered over to Samuelson’s office at 79th Street and Madison Avenue. It was a harshly cold morning, the air still but the temperature in the teens. Delaney was thankful for his flannel muffler, vested suit, and balbriggan underwear. He thrust his gloved hands into his overcoat pockets, but he felt the cold in his feet, a numbing chill from the frozen pavement.

Sanders, Lawrence - The Fourth Deadly Sin

This second one occurs when the detective is on the way to confront the murderer. I like that he uses the morning as a springboard to give insight into the characters mood as well as his demeanor, and one other truly Sanderian aspect of characterization: the characters wardrobe.

Count me in the column of those who like it. He's got a way with words, why not lend that capability to descriptions of mornings.

In the upcoming book I predict Sanders may have a whole chapter to himself.

Point Missed

A friend of mine at work came to my office to discuss the post I provided on Monday (here). It talked about the long, hard slog that is road marching and how it is similar to novel writing. He said I really missed an opportunity with the picture. He's in marketing and is a weapons nut and thought I should have found a "sexier" picture than the one I uploaded.

That was kinda my point.

Sure I could have used this image of Rangers fast roping from an MH-53 and talked about how quickly we slid down, and how much it hurt the ankles particularly when you landed on your buddy who was stuck in the coils at the bottom:

Or this one of Rangers inserting on the sides of a Little Bird and described how much dust and grit gets into your eyes even when . . .  especially when you're wearing your eye protection or God forbid you do it at night and have to wear NODs and eye protection together:

Or even this one of an air field seizure and described how the first time I did it half of our stick landed on top of a bunch of parked planes and bounced off of em creating dents along the sides:

All of these are far sexier images of things we did. But that wasn't the point. One of the worst things we did each week were those damn road marches. And look at that fellow in the picture. He is having absolutely no fun (see here again). He looks tired and overwhelmed and fatigued. He has a SAW machine gun that looks  heavy and he's walking on sand, where each step you feel like you sink backward as you propel forward. Just sucks. That's novel writing.

So, thanks Joe, but go back and re-read and consider that poor road marching sucker again.

Meat on the Bone Monday

I like this little ole blog, but sometimes I think there isn't enough meat on the bone. There's fun stuff, and interesting turns of phrase, and some clever lines, and some news every once and again, but there's no long thoughtful pieces. So, today I'm starting to write some posts with a bit more meat.

I wrote a piece called Targeting Your Perfect Job a while ago for a blog called Hullabalog. To read the whole thing you can still find it here, but I will give you the high points as a part of this post. Basically I said that when going after a job you should attack it like we attacked objectives in the military. First we pounded it with artillery, then we raced in with Bradley's full of Rangers, we had Rangers fast roping onto roof tops of the target buildings, we had Rangers coming in from the wood line and finally we had air support the whole time. We hit every target like that, with a thought out plan that attacked the objective from multiple angles. I wrote about attacking job hunting the same way.

At first I thought about a post about writing novels with this same philosophy, but I realized that it didn't really fit the mold. Writing novels I find is not like what I described above. Selling and publishing is, but that may be a post for a different day, in terms of just writing a novel, it's more like a thirty-mile road march.

In the Battalion we had to complete a thirty-mile road march twice a year. Once a week was a ten-miler. Once a quarter was a twenty-miler. Once a half year was a thirty-miler. Road marching is rough. When I first joined the military I knew that this would be something I would have to do so I trained. I didn't train enough. The first road march was heavy and grueling and I think we only walked three miles with thirty pound ALICE packs.

By the time I got to Battalion a ten-miler with a sixty pound pack was nothing. My hardest challenge in this regard was in Best Ranger when we had a twenty-five mile march with an eighty-five pound pack. Missed it by "that" much.

What's all this have to do with novel writing. Just as road marching is grueling and monotonous, writing a novel is the same. There's no glamor in the writing part. There's no fast roping in. Or sitting on the edge of a Little Bird and jumping onto a roof. There's no parachuting, or Bradley's or motorcycles on the airfield. It's the hard slog, and grueling foot steps, and the tightness in the upper back and pinched neves in the shoulders from the shoulder straps. Writing a novel is an exercise in monotony and a mental and physical challenge as much as anything else, just in a slightly different way.

But also like a long road march, when you finish the since of accomplishment is unlike any other. We completed one thirty-miler in Oregon and it became a march to the sea. The deuce-and-a-half drove us thirty miles from the coast and dropped us off. When we made it to the ocean we dropped in place and rested, but we also felt pride in accomplishment. That's finishing a novel.

Guest Post: How to Get the Most out of SEO

The first in this series of Guests Posts comes from my new friend and fellow writer Elizabeth Cooper. Thankfully, for those of you who are tired of the topics I usually cover, she is writing about something totally new to this forum, SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

To find out more about Liz see her Google + page (here) or check out her blog (here).

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF SEO

As writers and bloggers we want to use the Internet to share our life view with the world. Our words need to be heard, yearn to be acknowledged by those around us. One of the best ways to have your words discovered by new readers is using SEO. SEO or search engine optimization is a way of affecting viability of a website for organic viewers. Here are a few easy steps to increase your SEO.

1. Title

The title is the first thing your readers will see. The easiest way to write a good title is to use what how, why when, have numbers and use keywords. An example would be 5 Reasons Why you should be an Awesome Blogger. Some more keywords could include easy, fun, free or simple.

See Jeff Goins post on writing catchy titles: http://goinswriter.com/catchy-headlines/

2. Include links

Link back to your other work on the subject or great articles you've read about the same subject.

3. Keywords

Have the keywords that are in your title, also throughout your post. Title your pictures after your keywords. This will help your post to pop up during searches.

4. Post regularly

Have a posting schedule and sticking to it can do amazing work for SEO. The more content you have the more there is to view when searching.

5. Use a Plug In

There are some great plug ins that will do most of the SEO work for you. Our favorite is Yoast. All you have to do is type a few simple words and Yoast does all the heavy SEO lifting for you. See their site for more, www.yoast.com/Wordpress/plugins/SEO 

6. Create Categories

On most hosting sites there's an ability to create categories for your blogs. With Wordpress its a really simple action on your dashboard. Pick a few topics that you write about and make them into categories. 

Search engine optimization can seem overwhelming and difficult process, but with these simple steps, readers will be able to find your site with ease

I Used to be a Tsundoku-er (or is it Tsundoku-ist)

I don't necessarily find much to commend about the website "BuzzFeed." Usually there are the inane articles about pop culture or the image essays about how some star has changed over time. Just today one can find flotsam such as The Complete Evolution Of Kylie Jenner In Photos (here) (I'm not even sure I know who she is) or a video (here) of a fisherman in Brazil getting piranhas into a feeding frenzy (I would recommend the latter over the former if you are interested in pure spectacle).

However, every now and then it's possible to run across something interesting and today was such a day.

I've always loved the word "schadenfreude", and now thanks to the post 28 Beautiful Words The English Language Should Steal (here), I know that "mudita" is the opposite in that it means: "Taking delight in the happiness of others or vicarious joy." Who knew? (Probably lots of Germans).

Nevertheless, I've found several pearls in this post, among them, fernweh, meraki, gigil, but it is the following that I found most intriguing and perhaps useful in writing:

Komorebi - Japanese for sunlight filtering through trees.

Tsundoku - Japanese for the act of buying a book and leaving it unread, often piled together with other unread books.

Mamihlapinata - from Tierra Del Fuego, South America meaining the wordless look between two people who both desire something, yet are equally reluctant to initiate.

Jayus - Indonesian for a joke so poorly told an unfunny you can't help but laugh.

But I would bet it's Goya, from Urdu, Pakistan, meaning the suspension of disbelief that occurs in good storytelling; a story that feels like reality, that most anyone who reads this blog would most want to attain.

Love to Know More

Wouldn't  you love to know more?

Since the re-release of my books with the new covers (quite pleased about those, see full cover below), I have had several folks purchase the books and one new review on my first novel, Toe the Line (see here), the story that takes place in Seattle and deals with a murder mystery around a triathlete.

The latest review is from "musiclover" who writes:

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me guessing the entire time. The ending was a little abrupt but it was ok anyway.

Ah man! I want to know what she found abrupt about the ending. Did she need more exposition? More details? More denouement? What?

When I was a youngster I loved reading Stephen King novels. I hated how long and drawn out his endings were. The Stand, IT, I think even Salem's Lot, all of them had such horrible, almost unendurably long endings. I just wanted it over by the time I got to those final few pages. I remember deliberately trying to be precise in my writing in the end of Toe the Line. I didn't want people to be bored. I wanted it to be a climax to the end that came in a whoosh.

I would love to talk to musiclover about her thoughts.

Still she gave me a 4-star review. I'll take a 4-star review. Toe the Line has gotten four 5-star reviews, eight 4-star reviews, and four 3-star reviews. As long as she gives me 4-star or 5-star reviews she can think my endings are abrupt.

I think what I will do is track down ole musiclover and see what she thought was so abrupt. Could be an interesting exercise.

Actually My Favorite May Not Be The Best On The List

This list (here) from Arika Okrent found on the Mental Floss website from April 5th, 2013 shows all of the lines for harsh, not made for television movies, sanitized to be shown to the masses.

Does it have anything to do with writing? Maybe not directly, but it does have a lot to do with poor writing. Seriously, no one could think of anything better for Walter to say when he says, "This is what happens Larry when you fuck a stranger in the ass" than:

Then, since he's ranting as he says it, the writer gets a second chance and tries "do you see what happens when
you fix a stranger scrambled eggs?"

What's disturbing is that as much as I like this one, for the absurdity of it, for who is saying it, and for the movie itself, it's maybe not quite as funny as the one for Snakes on a Plane.

As If There Was Any Doubt

The other day I made mention of the first line from The Fourth Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders (see here).

I asked why the line read that the chain mail sky was raveling instead of unraveling. Well, turns out Sanders knows more about the lexicon than I.

I will say this though, the next novel I write about a fellow who is slowly falling apart a la William Foster in Falling Down or Wilhelm Adler in Seize the day, that character's name will be something like "Larry Raveling."

Sure it will be a gimmick on my part, but how many people will be as erudite as Sanders and truly know the meaning of raveling?

Two Fer in the First Pages

After yesterday's raveling (see here), I was surprised to find another quotable line for this blog in the first few pages of The Fourth Deadly Sin.

Whenever I think about quotes about the morning, I think of Roger's comment from a few July's ago (see here). When I posed the question, "I wonder why authors love to write about the morning so much." Roger wrote:

It's because mornings are so much more vital. After you've said, "the evening sun cast an ochre smear over the dying sky", or something like that; what more is there to say.

Still, it's no longer in doubt. Whether because it speaks of new beginnings or perhaps they say just as much about the night but I haven't started a series on it, author's love writing about the morning.

By Monday morning the sky had been rinsed; a casaba sun loomed; and pedestrians strode with opened coats flapping. A chill breeze nipped, but New York had the lift of early winter, with stores preparing for Christmas, and street vendors hawking hot pretzels and roasted chestnuts.

Sanders, Lawrence - The Fourth Deadly Sin

A "casablanca sun" is right up there with "a wine dark sea." And I particularly enjoy the fact that he references (not too obliquely) the November chain mail sky from the first line (see here).

The First Line of the Fourth Deadly Sin

Other than quotes about the morning (see here) and Tuesday's post (here), I love looking at first lines (see all of them here). I love that so many people put so much thoughts into first lines. I truly love first lines that are horrid and over thought. This one I love for the prose.

The November sky over Manhattan was chain mail, raveling into steely rain. A black night with coughs of thunder , lightning stabs that made abrupt days. Dr. Simon Ellerbee, standing at his office window, peered out to look at life on the street below. He saw only the reflection of his own haunted face. 

He could not have said how it started, or why. He, who had always been so certain, now buffeted and trembling … 

All hearts have dark corners, where the death of a loved one is occasionally wished, laughter offends, and even beauty becomes a rebuke.

Sanders, Lawrence - The Fourth Deadly Sin 

Granted, Lawrence Sanders is among my favorite authors (see here) so his lines should naturally speak to me, but having recently been to Manhattan, having seen a sky that was "chain mail, raveling into steely rain", this one I particularly like.

Just can't get past the fact that I think the sky should be "unraveling" instead of "raveling."

200 Words . . . Tall Order

According to this article (here), a Maine Bed and Breakfast owner is selling her bed and breakfast in the same manner by which she bought it, giving it to the person who writes the best essay.

Janice Sage, the owner and innkeeper of the Center Lovell Inn and Restaurant, wants to retire. Rather than sell the inn traditionally, however, she is holding an essay contest to find the person who will treat the old place right. She is charging $125 per entry, and hopes to attract at least 7,500 contestants, netting her the $900,000 estimated value of the property.

My prediction . . .  she will get far more than 7,500 entries, and mine will be the toughest to reject.

The difficulty for the entrants as I see it is the 200 word limit. 200 words aint alot of space to get your point across. This post by itself is already 151 words. I have 50 more words to get my point across in this forum. Tough, tough, tough.

What I don't like about this article:

The rules don't say anything about essays written in calligraphy with a quill pen on a piece of faded parchment, but you should definitely do that. If you think you're going to beat that person, you just don't understand B&B culture. And the Center Lovell Inn will never be yours. Good luck, though.

Oh please, please, please don't go in for gimmickry. If that's the case I have no hope. I hate gimmicks. Delivery by horse messenger, an olde English school marm recitation, town crier style verbiage. No thanks!

I will say, my reaction to that above snippet makes me wonder if I really should be entering at all. Then again, does an innkeeper need to rely on gimmicks? I'll let you know after I've won.

New Covers

The other day, in an effort to spark my creativity and to help me buckle down and get to writing, I started looking up pre-made and custom made covers from professional cover designers. Anyone who has read this blog knows that I fashioned (or tried to) my covers off of one of my favorite authors, Dick Francis (see here).

Based on the face that I've sold two or three books with the new covers without any promotion (which is two or three more than I sold of the old cover design) I feel we can chalk up my old cover design philosophy into the ole loss column.

I'm quite happy with my new cover designs, and was pleased when the artist, having read the reviews of my books, recommended a new promotional campaign as she said "Based on the reviews, it sounds like you have a decent book." Sadly, I don't think my reviews, nor her covers, inspired her to actually buy a copy for herself. I comfort myself with the thought that perhaps thriller cum mysteries aren't her milieu.

Nevertheless, the new covers are quite spectacular, and the price of the novels is still quite unbeatable (see here and here).

Been Awhile

I know it has been awhile since I last posted a blog post, but I ran across something, in a trashy novel no less, and I thought, "Man, this would be a perfect post," so I decided to at least get it down for no other reason than I want to remember it. Additionally, it falls into one of my favorite series . . . my posts about authors' love for writing about the morning (see here).

I poured coffee and settled in for the long wait. A band of orange appeared on the horizon. A light blinked on in the apartment next to Spiro. Another light appeared a few apartments down. The charcoal sky turned azure. Ta daaa! It was morning.

Evanovich, Janet - Two for the Dough

It wasn't the best novel, but fun for a trashy novel and a short get-away from heavier fare (really even my heaviest fare is still quite light).