It's What I Didn't Do That Was Stupid

I can only blame myself.

When I wrote Thimble Fingers I created an entire village. Well really, it's an outdoor mall made up of cottages, each one a specialty shop. I named streets, I described the stores. I described the owners and other people attached to the stores. I made up this little universe.

And I didn't keep notes.

I guess you can't keep notes if you don't make them.

This is not a problem if it were one book. But this book is the first in a series. Each book focuses in on the life of a shop owner. They walk the same streets and meet the same people as my protagonist in Thimble Fingers did.

Which means I have to be careful about where I put the shops in relation to the mall, what the stores look like, who runs them, the names of the shops, the spellings of the people and so on and so on and so on.

I was fine until I sat down to write the second in the series and I had my characters walking along one of the streets and I couldn't remember the name of a shop.

Now mind you, I had only mentioned the name of the shop once and it was just glossed over, but now I wanted to visit that shop, but I couldn't.

So what this means is that I'm doing what I should have done all along. I've created a spreadsheet with all this information. Well I've created the spreadsheet, now I have to put in all the information.

Which means going over my already published book line by line to find the info.

This is taking forever. How could I have possibly had all this in my head at one point? There's like a million characters and a few thousand stores and - okay not really, but there is an awful lot. And I managed to keep all the characters relationships straight and it's really a wonder that I could do all that.

For the most part I still can, although it was a bit of a wake up call when someone on Shelfari made a list of characters - quite nice of them and very impressive - and I didn't remember the names of some of them.

So now I am making lists of all these things because even if I remember it now, I won't remember it when I get to book five and I'll want to visit a character that was mentioned in passing or a store that was talked about off hand.

And while I'm making this spreadsheet I'm realizing that I'm going to have to have a page of notes for each character and each store.

I thought it was good enough to have a rough map and a list of the stores, but when I went to my original notes I discovered that some of the names of stores and streets had been changed.

My thirteen year -old daughter is shaking her head at me. "Why didn't you do this before?" she asked.

Well, who wants to stop and make spreadsheets when the characters are doing such crazy things? I had to find out what was going to happen next.

I keep telling myself that this is indeed part of the writing process even though it sure doesn't feel like it and even though it's taking a long time it will save me time in the long run.

I have to tell myself that a lot. It's hard to remember to tell myself that when I keep banging my head repeatedly against my desk.

There is going to be a lot of chocolate eaten around here.

The Socialist Experiment that Wasn't Socialist - Or a Real Experiment

There’s this story going around the internet – what story isn’t – about a professor who is teaching his students about socialism. Although, he’s not really teaching them socialism because this is not what socialism is. Anyway, it’s passed around by people who don’t believe in welfare programs and figure that it’s okay to let children starve. Here it is and the problems with this experiment, which by the way, never actually happened. It’s just a made up story. You can also check it out at snopes.

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. The class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so tey studied little ...

The second Test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else. All failed to their great surprise and the professor told them that socialism would ultimately fail because the harder to succeed the greater the reward but when a government takes all the reward away; no one will try or succeed.

Okay, sounds pretty clear, doesn’t it. If there’s no reward then no one does the work. I can’t argue with that. I know that people need rewards. 

But the experiment isn’t based on reality.  You have a group of students who all have several things in common. They all are there because they believe in some form of education. Otherwise they wouldn’t be there. They all have the same chance at success. There’s no barriers to any of them. Sure, a couple of them may have a learning disability which they’ve learned to cope with, a couple more may have kids that make it harder to do the work, and quite a few of them have jobs, and one has an insane school workload and another  is serving on various school committees which limits their time, but overall, these students are all equal and have roughly the same chance.

Now if you want to make this experiment more like life, then the professor would have to divide the students up into groups. Group A has no limitations. Group B can only use research found within the college itself. Group C isn’t allowed to use the school library. Group D can’t talk to any one about their research, so no interviews or outside help.  Group E  can’t use computers at all but they are still expected to hand in a type written assignment. Group F can’t use their hands.  Group G can’t start work on their papers until the day before it’s due.  Group H will not get an A or a B no matter what they do.

Unfair? Yep. That’s life. Obviously those that are in limited groups are going to have far more obstacles than those who have less limitations and certainly Group A has the best chance of success.

What is often seen in life, is that Group A will be very critical of Group H for not getting an A and naturally Group H is resentful of Group A’s success and if they can’t succeed it would be equally natural for them to give up trying.

In the above scenario, if everyone is graded together then naturally they will not succeed.

Unless they help each other.

That does not mean that those who have plenty do the work of those who don’t, but it does mean that they offer help and try and bridge the gaps that exist.

The truth is, that we expect so much more from people who have little than we do from people that have a lot. Why is that?

Baby A (lets call him Rich) is born to parents who come from a long line of wealth. Dad went to Harvard, Mom went to Columbia. There are servants, private schools, trips to Europe and lessons in horseback riding, tennis, and foreign languages.

Baby B, Tom, is born to a single mom (recently divorced) who works making minimum wage. He goes to the local school and when he comes home there really isn’t any place to do his homework because there’s too much noise and distraction in the small apartment which he shares with his Mom and sisters. 

When Rich graduates from high school he gets into Harvard because his dad went there. Rich struggled in school, but his parents were able to hire a private tutor to help him through it. Rich parties and at one point he gets arrested but charges are dropped because of connections that his dad has. Eventually Rich graduates and instantly gets a job in his Dad’s company which he doesn’t have to apply for. When Rich decides he doesn’t want to work there, his Dad calls up one of his Harvard Frat friends and finds Rich a job in a company that’s better suited to Rich. When Rich gets married Mom and Dad present Rich and his new wife with a brand new house as a wedding present. 

Tom manages to get through high school as well, even though he also works at a part time job to help support the family. His grades suffer because of his outside job that takes up so much of his time and he doesn’t have many options as far as college. He can’t afford college anyway and he doesn’t dare take out a loan. Mom taught him not to get into debt.  It would just be another bill to pay. When the store that he works at closes down, he can’t find another job. He goes from place to place but his clothes are a little rough, or he doesn’t have the skills, or he doesn’t have enough education.  Tom doesn`t have connections to get a job. No one wants to give him a chance because there are shinier kids out there with better prospects.  Tom decides to go to a different city for a chance so he hitchhikes to a different town, but things aren`t better for him there, and he ends up sleeping on park benches asking for hand outs. Meanwhile, his mom has lost her job and can`t help him. 

Sure these stories are cliché, but that`s because they happen.

And yet people will criticize Tom for not doing better and admire Rich for succeeding. Rich would have had to screw up badly to not succeed and Tom would have had to be an extraordinary individual with a lot of luck to achieve a fraction of what was handed to Rich. 

So back to the experiment. Without help everyone in that class will fail, not because there`s no reward to those who have no limitations, but because it`s impossible to succeed when you don`t have the tools of success. The only way for the class to succeed is to ditch the "every man for himself” mentality and work together. Will there be slackers? Of course. There’s always slackers. But there are enough people who will work so that the slackers don’t heavily influence the outcome.

And the reward for the stars? Well, certainly they don’t get any better grade than anyone else in this class, but if any of them need a letter of recommendation, who is the teacher going to give it to? The ones who earned the A’s because he knows who they are. In fact if there’s anything those A students need from that teacher, they will be likely to get it. The work and study skills carry over to other classes as well where they will be rewarded for their efforts. And let’s not forget the lessons they will have learned by helping others.

In the end, we all get rewarded for our efforts even if it isn’t immediate, because the one that passes out the rewards, does know us best.

New Old Book!

Roses and Daisies was first published a few years ago by Millennial Press. It was traditionally published, meaning that it went through the process of being sent out and rejected until it was finally accepted, edited and printed at the expense of the publisher. Which I am grateful for. It's nice to say you are a traditionally published writer and I'm blessed that Millennial Press was willing to do it and believed in the book.
 

It tells the story of a tragedy in a Mormon family. Many people came up to me and told me how it affected them, made them cry and caused them to think. I had one interesting conversation where a reader who loved the book saw something in it that I hadn't thought of, but I decided that she was right. See, I'm brilliant. I even write things that I didn't know I was writing.  It received good reviews.. It also caused some controversy because I had a non-Mormon character drink a glass of wine and she didn't get hit by a car or have some other catastrophe happen because of it. It was subsequently pulled from shelves because unlike the rest of the book world where controversy can make you millions, controversy does not sell books in the LDS world.

Of course when I wrote it, I had no idea I was writing something so controversial. Sadly, saying that it's controversial keeps many people away and the ones that would be interested because it's controversial will be SO disappointed.

I have since received the publishing rights back and with a new cover (that my thirteen year old daughter designed with my tweaks), and a few minor changes (more poetry at the beginning of chapters which had been initially cut), and the wine drinking still in the book, it is now published as a kindle ebook. I am also looking into print on demand for my books.

I still have paperback copies of the original which are for sale but if you want it on your ereader you can find it at Amazon.

And if you want to read reviews and the first chapter you can do it here.

See, I`ve never been afraid of a little controversy.

Confessions of a Non-Outliner (Because Confessions of a Pantser Just Sounds Wrong)

I like to make lists.

I like making grocery lists, book lists, to-do lists, and lists about the books I'm going to write.

I also like maps. Especially road maps that guide me in the direction that I need to go.

You would think then that I would be one of those writers who make up outlines.

I've tried. There's all kinds of different ways of doing it. There's an entire blog devoted to this called Paperback Writer which is not about channeling the Beatles. There's an outline that embraces the snowflake, which is not a good thing for a writer trapped in Alberta winters. Phyllis A. Whitney, who wrote over a hundred books in her over one hundred years on earth (not an exaggeration)  wrote a book called Guide to Fiction Writing where she goes step by step through the process of outlining so that when you sit down to write you only have to connect the dots. Agatha Christie wrote her books backwards. I read a story about climbing mountains and how outliners get to the top in record time while those who don't outline get completely lost and get eaten by wolverines or sasquatches.

Writers swear by outlining. Remember in school when you were told to write an outline before writing the story? I wrote the story first and then wrote the outline. How could I write the outline when I didn't know what the story was? It's like telling someone all about your trip before you go on the journey.

And there's my shame. I am a seat-of-the-pantser, and yes that is a phrase that outliners use for people like me. Or worse - pantser.

I've tried outlining. I stare at blank screens and blank paper and have no idea where to begin. On the other hand, first sentences, first paragraphs, first pages, first chapters are no problem for me.

After all I can't tell a story I haven't lived yet.

I write like I read. I start at the beginning and go step by step through the story. I don't jump ahead. I hate that. I belonged to a round robin group once. Each person would write a small section and then the next person would pick it up where it left off. It worked fine until someone decided they didn't like where it left off so decided to write something at some point in the future. The whole thing started falling apart at that point because other writers started doing that and then pieces wouldn't fit.

I was feeling kind of bad about being a seat-of-the-pantser because real writers write outlines. Until I read an article in Writers Digest about it and then another from a writer friend.

I am not alone!

I love cross stitch. (Notice the smooth segue).  Usually I work other people's patterns but a few years ago I tried my hand at designing. Turned out once I had designed it, I didn't want to stitch it. It felt like I had already done it.

And maybe that's what outlining would feel like to me.

Not only that, but I would probably feel like I had to stick to the outline. After all outlines are supposed to keep you on the path and not send you off on treacherous and winding roads that could lead you to the wolverines and sasquatches.

But it's the path that the wolverines and sasquatches are on that have the adventures and give new dimensions that make the writing exciting.

When I wrote Thimble Fingers a character appeared that I hadn't known would. He didn't take over the story, but he added an element that I hadn't forseen and made the story richer.

I rarely know what my characters are going to say and have found myself laughing over dialogue, or even stranger, made me stop and say "I didn't know that." Now THERE'S a surreal experience when you start writing things that you didn't know, but your characters do.

I often have no idea how a character is going to react to a situation, which leads to other situations.

If I don't know that, how can I possibly outline it?

Interestingly, I have come to conclusions, or solved a mystery and found that I did indeed already foreshadow it, or left the clues without even realizing it.

Now that's weird too. How did I do that? And even if I hadn't, that's what rewrites are for.

Now I'm not saying that I will never outline. I can see the use for them and they are very helpful for many writiers. I just don't know if I can. It seems to me like a way of delaying the actual writing while still saying that you're writing.

Besides, I don't want to spoil the book by knowing the ending.

The Lousy Book Cover Examination

I agonize over book covers.

I recently read a post from a writer that said that a writer needs to hire someone to design their book covers. That's all well and nice if you can afford to do it. In fact, if you can afford to do it I encourage you to do so.

But there are writers like me who simply can't, so we have to design our own. We take pictures, search for free images, download fonts, and play around with whatever programs we have on our computer, usually Microsoft Word or Open Office.

We do what we can with what we have. It does not mean that we don't care about our work. It means that we're poor.

So it's bound to happen that horror of horrors, there are bad book covers out there among the self-published.

It's also bound to happen that there's a website that posts those bad book covers.

And it's also bound to happen that the authors of those books get irate and scream copyright violation.

Which is stupid.

When you put out a book, you have to show the cover. The purpose of this is to encourage people to buy the book. You leave yourself open to bad reviews, and mocking. There is nothing you can do about this. In fact it might be argued that being on a website like Lousy Book Covers brings attention to your book, especially since the owner of the website links to your amazon account enabling people to buy the book. That is a good thing - even if your book cover is being mocked. It is certainly not a copyright violation to have someone post your book cover. You wouldn't complain if they gave you a rave review while they posted it, you can't then complain if it isn't the positive experience you want it to be.

I actually find the website Lousy Book Covers (note I linked to it twice) to be helpful. It's good to see the bad as well as the good. Now no one is saying these books themselves aren't good. There may be some gems there although some of the titles need help as well.

I am by no means a designer, but I liked looking at the covers and seeing what not to do. So I thought I would put up examples here and examine what went wrong. I am also linking to the amazon account so that you can buy the book if you so desire. I have no idea what the books are about and I'm not recommending them, but it's only fair that if I'm pointing out the book that there should be a link.

It was hard to choose, there were so many.

This is something like Finding Carmen Sandiego. Where's the title and the author? It's there, but you have to go on a search for it.

Okay this is from first grade where you cut out pictures from magazines and made a collage. Now there's nothing wrong with putting different images together, but it shouldn't look like a six year old did it. It actually looks a bit like a commercial for Good Year tires. I think it's Good Year tires. It's that tire guy who is made of tires. See they're really good for traveling in the Rockies in the winter.

Bad artwork. In fact it seems the majority of the bad book covers are done by the same three twelve year olds.

By the way, why is that guy feeling that girls breast? Even if that happens in the book (which I have no idea if it does) it's probably not a good idea to put it on the cover. And how come she has perfect posture while he's carrying her but she can't hold up her head? And is there a wind to make her hair blow that way?

Okay, so the actual cover isn't bad. The picture is pretty, the design is fine (hey that rhymes). It would make a nice cover for a Mother's Day book, or a poetry book, or inspirational quotes.

But this book is about an Al-Qaida bomber.

Yeah.

It kind of helps if the cover gives a hint of what's going on. Even if the cover is basic black and has no graphics that would be better than the mixed message here. Does the bomber write poetry about his mother?

Another 12 year old's art project.

From what I gather the cowboys and Indians who are flying the planes and sailing the ship are fighting over the frog having a nap on the surfboard.

And just to be sure we do know what book's genre is it's stated right on the cover. "An action-adventure, science-fiction, suspense, thriller, comedy, love story."

Which doesn't explain the frog. Seems to me that sunbathing surfing frogs who wear hats and carry canes belong in the fantasy/juvenile/fairy tale genre.

Is it possible that the frog is a cowboy frog or an Indian frog? In that case shouldn't it wear a cowboy hat, or a feather headband, or a Bollywood outfit (depending on what kind of Indian we're talking about here).

I am so confused.

It's obviously a cook book because they put food on the cover.

I always wanted a cook book that explained all about slicing tomatoes.

Doesn't this make you want to run out and buy it?

Every Christian needs a chainsaw.

I did not know that.

I had better hurry and get mine. I don't have one. I might be left out of heaven without it.

Who knew that the chainsaw massacre guy had it right all the time.

Now can we talk about the ugly colors.

Unlike the first example where you have to find the title, this author wants to be sure that you all know what the title of the book is. It's printed on the cover twice. And to make room for it, he had to squish up the pictures and make everyone misshapen. And to make sure it's all about witch hunts he repeated the phrase twice within the title. So that's four times the phrase "witch hunt" is used.

I guess this book is about a witch hunt.

I'm wondering if it's anything like my Witches Brew Ha-Ha, who are green witches with long noses.

What happened to his leg!

Did the dog bite it off?

Is it Texas' fault that this cowboy has no leg?

To be fair, the link will lead you to a cover that isn't quite so traumatizing.

So many fonts, so little time. I just can't decide which one I like best. I know! I'll try them all! And while I'm at it, I'll post the first chapter right on the cover!

I apologize for the lack of a link on this one. I think the author was so ashamed she went into hiding.

Can't say I blame her.

There's a gopher museum in Alberta where they dress up stuffed gophers and pose them in various positions. Weddings, funerals, golf tournaments, rock bands. This particular one is part of the southern belle series where Lincoln was president and living in a tree and slaves were tanned white male models.









I certainly hope my book covers are better.

Superpowers

My writer friend Jenn Quist wrote a post on super powers. It's wonderful and introspective and incredibly smart. You can find it HERE. Jenn is about to join the club of traditionally published authors. I have no idea what her book is about, but I have read her work and she is talented. Her post made me want to write something about super powers but mine won't be so smart. Not a science reference involved.

A few years ago I was playing a board game with Son One and Son Two. Of course the topic of super powers came up. I don't remember what they said although I think one of them put invisibility on their list. Frankly I don't see much use for it unless you want to sneak into a movie or listen to what other people say about you when you're not around. Although why you would want to do that I have no idea. Either you'll hear things you don't want to hear, or no one will say anything about you because you really aren't all that important.

Anyway, I said I wanted to fly - duh, who wouldn't other than people with height fears which is not my problem. And I said I wanted to time travel.

Son One said, "You can't have time travel because then you would go back to your teenage self and warn you not to marry that guy and then I wouldn't be as good looking as I am."

Yeah, as if his good looks only came from his dad and I wouldn't have been able to find another good looking man.

I've also decided since then that I want to be a shape shifter. Then I could be slim and gorgeous forever. Well, maybe not forever but for as long as I could shape shift. I have no interest in shifting into animal form, but if I could make myself magically lose weight, wrinkles and pimples, then why not? Other people can change their clothes and hair, I could change my entire body. I realize that's not a very feminist standpoint, and it would make it hard for my friends to recognize me - on the other hand it would make it easy to hide from my children - but I don't care if it's not politically correct. I'm not much for political correctness anyway; it shifts too much.

I would also like to be able to wiggle my nose and have things instantly done, like Samantha on Bewitched, which I realize many people no longer know who that is. She was a TV witch who could wiggle her nose and her house would be instantly clean but she was married to a control freak dictator who didn't want her to be all she could be and insisted that she clean house the regular way. I guess he just couldn't handle that there were some things she could do better than him, including his job. She was the one that came up with all the ad campaigns while he took the credit. Anyway, I wouldn't use a power like that all the time. I like doing some things, but cleaning is not one of them, so poof, my house would always be immaculate and I would have a beautiful garden because I love beautiful gardens but hate gardening and kill everything anyway. We would have some pretty amazing meals too.

So what would your super powers be?

*****

Update on Thimble Fingers. It's free at the moment but that free is about to run out any second. It's had over 2000 downloads and is in the top 200 of Free Kindle Downloads. It's number 7 in humor and number 8 in women's fiction. Which is pretty amazing since it's only been up for a few days, has only two reviews (both 5 star) and is from an unknown writer.

Now I realize those numbers probably won't mean much until it goes back to being something people pay for. And once it goes back to being for sale those rankings will drop off into oblivion. Then it will really matter if people want to buy the book. Still, I'm going to focus on the positive right now.

To get a copy go to Amazon. You don't have to have a kindle to download or read it. You can read it on your computer or another device - as long as it's not another ereader. And write a review. You don't have to use words and phrases like - "split my gut laughing", "so heartwarming it made me cry" "outstanding" "should be on the best sellers list" and "absolutely the funniest thing since the Gilmore Girls" but you are more than welcome to use any of those phrases if you get stuck.

Witches,Needlework, and Roses

I have two new books out on Kindle and one has already received a five star review!

The Orchards of Marina Colleen Book 1: Thimble Fingers

Yes, you did see a post earlier about me agonizing over the cover of this. I finally decided on this one. Amazing, no. But hopefully it will do the job.

This is the first in a series. There will be more Orchards of Marina Colleen books and I'm already working on book two which will focus on the owners of another store within the outdoor mall.

Yes, a mall people. For those who like shopping and even for those who don't, it's an outdoor mall with an ocean beach and a bunch of quirky characters that are quite likely to break out into a dramatic play. Although customers seldom can tell the difference between the planned plays and the real life dramas going on around them. And for you crafters out there, this particular shop is a needlework store. Some of you cross stitch die hards will recognize the names of real life designers. To read more about this book you can find it here. You can also pick up a copy there and post a review. By the way, this one already got five stars and no, I didn't give it to myself.

Witches Brew Ha-Ha*

This is the first in my witches series. It all began innocently enough. I belonged to an online prompt group. Every day a prompt would come through and we would each write something accordingly. It's amazing how differently writers can write about the same idea, words or pictures. The witches appeared in all their green skinned, long nosed glory and took over. Soon almost every prompt inspired another witches story and before long I had a book in front of me. A little rewriting and some reconstruction and there was their story that they demanded be told. I hope you enjoy it. You can read about it and get it here. Reviews are most welcome and greatly needed.

Now some other good news. The publishing rights to  Roses and Daisies, which was so kindly published by Millennial Press a few years ago, has reverted back to me. This means that it too will be coming out any day now on Kindle. Look for a new cover! Oh wait. Let me give you a sneak peek.

My thirteen year-old daughter helped me with this cover.**

I'm really grateful that I had the opportunity and experience to be traditionally published. Now it's time to go in a new direction. Not that I would pass up on another opportunity. I am always open to the possibility.

I feel so much more in control now that I have dived into self-publishing. My career isn't put on hold waiting for someone else. I can bring my writing to the public and now I hope that people will like my work.







*Witches Brew Ha-Ha cover picture courtesy of digitalart  www.freedigitalphotos.net
** Roses and Daisies cover photo courtesy of Clare Bloomfield  wwwfreedigitalphotos.net . Torn paper courtesy of bplanet wwwfreedigitalphotos.net