This Blog . . . The Tip of the Spear

When I was in the Military I was a part of SOCOM. SOCOM's unit patch showed a spear head that was shaped like a spade in a deck of cards. We, the common front line soldier or "bullet stopper" were referred to as the "tip of the spear" cause we lead the way. Take comfort dear blog reader that by stopping by this blog every once and a while you are reading at the tip of the spear.

For evidence of this, I give you the following:

First, on The Kill Zone (here), a post by Clare Langley-Hawthorne discusses a topic and an article that this blog discussed on June 29th (here). Doubtless that Miss Langley-Hawthorne has made more thoughtful and prescient comments, but it does show the tip of the spearness I am illustrating.

Secondly there was this article in the WSJ that I planned on blogging about today.This article on comics on e-readers by Kevin Simtumuang exquisitely titled Tablet + Comics = BAM! (here), was actually something that this blog tackled years ago (here).

I read this article, ironically enough in the print edition, on Saturday. It deals with the revolution that comics have had due to the tablet medium. He says:

The screens on some tablets (most notably the iPad's) have colors and text that just pop, like, well, pop art. This is especially true of comics from the past 10 years that were colored with the aid of computers—you almost feel closer to an artist's vision on a tablet than in print. Pixels to pixels rather than pixels to paper."

"The other ace up digital comics' sleeve? Comixology's Guided View technology. It turns reading your favorite graphic novels into a cinema-like experience, enlarging individual panels to fill the screen and whisking you to the next panel with a single tap. This feature makes comics readable on a tiny smartphone screen. On a large tablet, it lets you dwell on individual panels as if they were Lichtensteins."

You know what he doesn't bring up? You know what you can just about count on reading a year from now, as this is a tip of the spear comment? That the major problem with comics on the tablet is that most comics fans enjoy the collections that the comics inspire. Sure you can keep a comic or group of them on the iPad and go back and read them any old time, and that's fine. But you can't resell those suckers. I was never a big reseller of comics. I had years worth of Spidermans that now might have earned me a half cent per title. I threw them all out a couple of years ago. You see, I'm a reader. I like to go back and reread the comics. So for the most the iPad works great for me. But I do have a couple of ancient Spidermans collecting dust up in the attack. These are the ones I feel might be worth more. How do I buy and hold those?

It really makes one wonder if comic book collecting is about to go bye-bye. And if so, what will happen if some kid or fan can get the very same comics I'm storing up with my junk on their iPad for a buck twenty? Tip of the spear folks, that's why you're here.

Covers . . .There's More to Covers Than You Think

Anyone who has seen my novel (here) will see that I went minimalist in my cover design. I tried to let the designs in so many Triathlon symbols inspire me (here). I think for the most part I achieved that, but still I think it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi that more professional covers have. That being said I've seen quite a few designs from my contemporaries (here) and seeing them makes me happy that I went the minimalist route. Some of the designs seem a bit too much, too busy, too loopy and chock full of stuff.

That being said there are things I missed cover-wise for this release. I had a cover ready for the website I was designing (here) but hadn't gone beyond that. I didn't have one ready (formatted for an actual book) for CreatesSpace, I didn't have one ready (shrunk for tiny viewing) for Amazon and Smashwords, just like the web-marketing I didn't have enough ready.

I should have gone onto Smashwords and checked out their template and made sure mine fit the bill. I could have made the second stick figure, the one with the gun, wrap around the spine so that it looks like he's running from the back cover to the front. I could have had a back picture ready as well as a blurb or two (more on that later).

Suffice it to say there were alot of things that I hadn't considered with the cover that with a small amount of research would have cleared up. Again, its on the AAR list now, so I shant miss it next time.

Doubters Take Note

I had several people write me about my last post (here) that alluded to my series on the prevalence of morning description in novels (here). My take on is that for some reason authors love to write descriptions of the morning far more than the afternoon and evening. Those of you who doubted this and thought . . . ho hum. . . Nota bene that just yesterday I ran across another!


The following sunrise was something to behold. There was a rare break in the low, dark clouds that allowed visible rays of golden smoke to slide sideways across the hills. Juliette lay in her cot, watching the dimness fade to light, her cheek resting on her hands, the smell of cold untouched oatmeal drifting from outside the bars. She thought of the men and women in IT working through the past three nights to construct a suit tailored for her, their blasted parts ported up from Supply. The suit would be timed to last her just long enough, to get her through the cleaning but no further.

Howey, Hugh - Wool Omnibus Edition

It happens more than you think folks. Start looking for it in your own reading. It's there.

Onward to Commitment Book

I finished High Five by Janet Evanovich (here)  last week. This is the fifth in the Stephanie Plum series and probably the fifth one I've read. Like I wrote previously (here and here) that I like these books cause they help me recharge the ole brain cells after a commitment book. High Five was no different.

I recorded two passages. One I thought was interesting cause I wrote something similar in a short story years ago.

He smiled when he saw me .. . and it was the nice smile that included his eyes.

This other one I noted because I like to continue my series on mornings. Authors love to discuss the dawn . . . the sky turned from charcoal to pearl as the sun broke the horizon . . . that kinda thing. This is the way Evanovich describes it.

The sun was weak in a murky sky, and the air felt cold against my sweat-soaked clothes.

Not much else there. I liked this one because I believe it's the earliest one I've yet read. She was still developing the characters to a certain degree, there is still some mystery behind them. It did not make me think too much (which was the goal) but I knew what I was getting into when I opened it, I got into it and Evanovich delivered.

Climbing His Way To His Death

A good friend of mine recommended that I read Wool by Hugh Howey. I was impressed immediately by the reviews I saw online. I was giddy with anticipation that this might be the next Asimov or Vinge. These are my two favorite Sci-Fi authors (see here) and since I've read so many of their books, and I don't want to go back and reread them yet, I'm lost. I have nothing truly stellar to read. So although I was a tad disheartened with this first passage, I am still driving on with anticipation and verve.

The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do. While they thundered about frantically above, Holston took his time, each step methodical and ponderous, as he wound his way around and around the spiral staircase, old boots ringing out on metal treads.

Howey, Hugh - Wool Omnibus Edition

Again, I'm still working my way through and have been happy to see flashes of the spectacular that are so commonplace in Vinge's work. But so far, this just isn't as good as A Fire Upon the Deep or A Deepness in the Sky. It might be a bit too high a mark to reach I fear. It's not a bad first line. Maybe I should give him more slack.

E-Readers Reading Readers

There is a terrific article in the WSJ called Your E-Reader is Reading You by Alexandra Alter (here). It starts out with a compelling passage that states what will be discussed in the article. The fact that e-readers are now capturing data on whether or not "the reader quit after three pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling notes in the margins?"

 As a BA in the industrial cleaning and remediation industry I love dissecting data and trying to see trends using that information to make changes. I knew that e-readers and distributors were collecting data, I had no idea they were collecting so much. For example I didn't know this:

 Barnes & Noble has determined, through analyzing Nook data, that nonfiction books tend to be read in fits and starts, while novels are generally read straight through, and that nonfiction books, particularly long ones, tend to get dropped earlier. Science-fiction, romance and crime-fiction fans often read more books more quickly than readers of literary fiction do, and finish most of the books they start. Readers of literary fiction quit books more often and tend skip around between books.

 I am also a huge fan of the public highlighting feature on my Kindle. I love knowing what other's have highlighted and adding my notes and highlights to the public's database, so this passage wasn't too surprising.

 Amazon can identify which passages of digital books are popular with readers, and shares some of this data publicly on its website through features such as its "most highlighted passages" list. Readers digitally "highlight" selections using a button on the Kindle; they can also opt to see the lines commonly highlighted by other readers as they read a book. Amazon aggregates these selections to see what gets underlined the most. Topping the list is the line from the "Hunger Games" trilogy. It is followed by the opening sentence of "Pride and Prejudice."

But what was surprising was this blast from the past. Who doesn't remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series of books. Now they can not only have readers choose the adventure but model and change the adventure based on the input they receive from the reader.


Coliloquy's digital books, which are available on Kindle, Nook and Android e-readers, have a "choose-your-own-adventure"-style format, allowing readers to customize characters and plot lines. The company's engineers aggregate and pool the data gleaned from readers' selections and send it to the authors, who can adjust story lines in their next books to reflect popular choices.

Finally, back to "color me not surprised" was this snippet.


Kobo, which makes digital reading devices and operates an e-reading service that stocks 2.5 million books and has more than eight million users, has recently started looking at how readers as a whole engage with particular books and genres. The company tracks how many hours readers spend on particular titles and how far they get. Kobo recently found, for example, that most readers who started George R.R. Martin's fantasy novel "A Dance With Dragons" finished the book, and spent an average of 20 hours reading it, a relatively fast read for a 1,040-page novel.

I think this data is suspect. What kind of true George R.R. Martin fan takes such a long time to finish his books. I was easily done in less than 20 hours.

Less on the Website, but More on the Web

That title alludes to what I need to concentrate on next time. I spent alot of time and effort on building a website, and not enough time on web marketing. What do I mean? Read on to see.

I started building a DickHannahWriting website about three years ago. There's a reason I haven't provided a link. It's not done. I started on it ostensibly because I thought I needed one for marketing. Secondarily it went hand-in-hand with a project I was involved with at the company I worked at at that time (here . . . but don't hold me completely accountable, they've let it go to seed a bit it since my departure). It was a decent little website but sadly had even less content than decency. Since that time, I've started several stunningly good revisions, none of which panned out completely. I've since abandoned the project for  as no matter how I organize it, there is always too little content for a complete website. Needless to say the wasted hours on website development over the last couple of years grew and grew and grew.  

I should have spent more time on web marketing. What do I mean by web marketing? I mean those aspects of websites and e-publishing that are tangential but still inherent in so many of the portals where one can find my book. There is the Amazon book description (here), the Amazon author page (here) there is the (still absent) Facebook page on Toe the Line, the Smashwords author page (here) and the Smashwords book description (here) my BookBlogs author page (here) my Linkedin page and my banner ad (see the top banner in this blog).

 I'm not saying that each of these has to necessarily be unique or different, in fact many of them are direct cuts and pastes of one another, but I didn't know about most of them until I started down this path. I should have had them all prepped and ready by the launch of the book.

 The banner ad too has been used far more than I expected. I used it in forums in BookBlogs, I used it for the top of my blog, I used it in LinkedIn, Facebook, etc etc. Guess what? I threw it together at the last minute. I took a couple of features from discarded book covers and plopped them on the ole art board one evening.

 Had I known then what I know now I would have devoted more time to the banner ad and other seemingly less significant web marketing feature and spent less time on the silly website.  

Out of Order Last Line

This post is out of order. For some reason I always forget to log passages into my "Last Lines" series, even though there are some who would argue that last lines are more important than first lines. Last lines set up the following book in a series and/or provide the final word to the reader from the author.

Therefore, the last line of the last book I read:



O’Malley had already flown to the beach, taking the reporter with him. Morris hoped the Reuters correspondent would be able to file his last story on the war before he moved on to something else— an after-the-war story, no doubt. Reuben James had escorted the damaged America to Norfolk for repairs. He looked down from the bridge wing at the harbor he knew so well, mindful of the tide and the wind as he docked his frigate. One part of his mind pondered by itself What It All Meant. 
A ship lost, friends gone, the deaths he had caused, and those he had seen himself . . . 
“Rudder amidships,” Morris ordered. A puff of southerly wind helped Reuben James up to the pier. 
Aft, a seaman tossed a messenger line to the men on the pier. The officer in charge of the special sea-detail waved to a petty officer, who keyed the announcing system. 
What It All Means, Morris decided, is that it’s over. 
A crackle of static emerged, and then the petty officer’s voice. 
“Mooring.”

Clancy, Tom - Red Storm Rising

It sends a particular despondent and somber note to a long, long book that is full of action. It's almost like that moment sitting on the bench after a game that you helped your team lose, and realizing that it's not the end of the world.

Beginning the After Action Review

Whenever we completed a mission in the military we would perform an AAR or After Action Review. This would be a lessons learned session where everyone would get to talk about what went right with the mission and what went wrong. Although I'm still in the midst of self-publishing my novel, I think I can provide some AAR points on my efforts. Ergo, I am going to start having a series of posts on self-publishing lessons learned that way others who might be considering this option can learn from my mistakes and foibles.

It's Never Truly Complete/Edited

Toe the Line (here) was edited several times, and proofed twice. Despite that I am still finding problems in the text. Just last weekend I took my cousins marked up copy and inserted her edits. Far more than there should have been. The lesson learned here is DO NOT use multiple platforms for editing. I went from Kindle to MS Word and back to printed copy to make my edits. It was ridiculous, confusing, and I would swear it made for more problems than there were in the first place. Pick one (preferably paper) for that final edit and stick with it. Get a hard copy of your novel prior to announcing a release and have a trusted reader mark it up.

One of the editors recommended that I print it out and read the book out loud. This is just plain silly. Who reads a book out loud? My readers won't. I should have taken another few days, printed out an advance copy from Createspace (here) and read it as I expected my readers to read it. Next time I'll know better.

AAR Point #1 - I was way too fast in thinking that my novel was complete and completely edited. Won't make that mistake again. 

First Line Right Now

When I was a little girl I used to dress Barbie up without underpants. On the outside, she’d look like the perfect lady. Tasteful plastic heels, tailored suit. But underneath, she was naked. I’m a bail enforcement agent now— also known as a fugitive apprehension agent, also known as a bounty hunter. I bring ’em back dead or alive. At least I try. And being a bail enforcement agent is sort of like being bare-bottom Barbie. It’s about having a secret. And it’s about wearing a lot of bravado on the outside when you’re really operating without underpants. Okay, maybe it’s not like that for all enforcement agents, but I frequently feel like my privates are alfresco. Figuratively speaking, of course. At the moment I wasn’t feeling nearly so vulnerable.

Evanovich, Janet - High Five

Okay, okay . . . as anyone who reads this knows, Janet Evanovich novels are my secret pleasure. They are what I recharge with between "commitment books" (see here and here for examples of commitment book).

Still, one would think I'd pick a guilty pleasure that had a bit more engaging first line and passage. This one is a dog. Then again, her primary audience is the gals, maybe the gals find it more engrossing.