Tip O'Day #457 - For Sale: Pure Unadulterated Crap

Guest blogger Robert N. Stephenson on “The Difficulty with Editing.”

In this fast-paced age of publishing and self-publishing, the first and most important aspect of writing seems to have vanished from the whole publishing process - editing, and I mean real editing, not the formatting you do yourself before you post the files to Createspace and Amazon.

The down side of almost all self-published books is that they are poorly edited. They often validate the impression that all self-published books are cheap and a waste of money.

Sometimes authors pays substantial fees to editors for their suggestions, but them ignore or argue against those comments. Yes, you are the author. You have all the rights in the world regarding how your book is presented, rightly or wrongly. It is true that you can reject all advice, based on what you determine to be art, or your artistic voice.

But, and this is a major but, if an expert suggests a change to make the story better, or to fix a flaw in the plot, maybe it’s best to follow some, if not all of that advice. After all, you are trying to sell your work to readers who expect value for their money. If you disappoint readers with shoddy editing and a poor story, they will not read more of your work and will often tell others not to bother. What's more, they will spread the view that ALL self-published books are rubbish. I will be quick to add that traditional publishing sometimes delivers stinkers because writers ignore editorial advice and stick to their artistic guns. However, the hit-and-miss rate of legacy publishers is quite a bit lower than among self-publishers - which is currently about 80% rubbish.

Why so high? As indicated, there has been next to no editing involved in the creation of these books (both fiction and nonfiction). For some strange reason, new writers often think they are the next JK Rowling and know everything there is to know about being famous. Yet they know absolutely nothing about being a professional writer and working damn hard to tell not only a good story, but a story that will move someone to say, “Yes, I was glad I purchased that.” It has been said in many forums that places like Amazon are overflowing with poorly edited crap.

Yep, pure unadulterated crap.

What is the cure? Dig into your pockets and pay an editor to get your book to a state of professional quality. The reason traditional publishers actually sell books is because they invest in the books they publish. If you believe in your work, surely you too can invest in yourself. After all, you are asking readers to invest in buying your book.

Robert N. Stephenson’s latest book is Uttuku, available at Kindle here. His work has appeared in many languages and he has received honors such as the Black Dog Award for nonfiction and the Aurealis Award for short science fiction. He teaches writing at several Australia colleges.

Tip O'Day #453 - The Bird is the Word

Guest blogger, author, life coach, and Toastmasters friend Sherri Gerek on humming right along.

A favorite quote of mine comes courtesy of Albert Einstein: “Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.“ I took this to heart these past couple of years as I meandered along an unseen path while writing my first book, The Hummingbird Way, Putting Hover, Zip, and Zoom to Work in your Life. I used my experiences with nature to draw correlations to human nature, often asking myself, what can I learn here? What might this mean to someone else?

After nearly thirty years in the corporate environment leading and developing employees in the travel and hospitality industry, I felt confident that what I had learned about communications and relationships could benefit others. I just had to find a way to share that knowledge, especially what makes us successful, and what it takes to foster good relations. As I transitioned away from the corporate environment to open my own coaching practice, I started the book. What I didn’t know then was that I needed a process for writing.

I smile thinking back to my initial approach. Let’s see, it’s Wednesday…I’ll write a couple of chapters today, and at this rate I will finish the book in a month. Now, you are likely reading this while wearing a knowing smile and thinking…this is not going to work that way. Right you are. When the end of the first week rolled around, there I was…staring at my computer still searching for the right words. In reality, I had the words but my internal editor was having a field day with my internal writer, which stymied the creative process. Why do editors do this to us writers? The difficulty getting started came down to my internal editor picking things apart, which resulted in my internal writer shutting down.

That’s it – writer on strike!

Once I realized what was happening, it was an easy fix. I had to find a new job for my internal editor, and I quickly assigned her to my monthly magazine column. Letting go of editing opened up this writer’s imagination. I began carrying a notebook with me because often the best inspirations bubbled up when I was far from the computer. Later, I would transfer ideas to sticky notes which I posted on giant story boards. Before beginning to write each day I would review the boards. Whatever happened to inspire me that day, I wrote about.

Not a month, but nearly a year later, I had finished the manuscript, cultivated a love for writing, and decided to create a series of books with themes drawn from lessons in nature. My internal editor and internal writer buried the hatchet and formed a great partnership. In fact, they are currently in discussions about the outline for the next book. It should be a real hoot! (Spoiler alert - there I go giving away the theme.)

Sherri Gerek is an author, speaker, certified professional life coach, and veteran sales and marketing director. Sherri wrote The Hummingbird Way to help guide other busy people, whether top executives or newbies starting to climb the ladder. You can learn more at Sherri’s website or on Amazon. Also, The Hummingbird Way was recently awarded 5 stars by Readers’ Favorite website.

Tip O'Day #444 - Really? Did I Ask For That?

Guest blogger Gary Ponzo on “Do You Really Need an Editor?”

Recently I've had some opportunities to work with editors for my published novels. Now, I've always worked with a critique group who would line-edit each chapter as I was writing, so I've been conscious of the importance of a keen eye to scrutinize my work. After I finished each book I would have an editor go through the manuscript for grammatical errors and that was helpful as well. But as time went on my books began to expand to Germany and audio rights and print options, I felt compelled to have my work fully edited by a professional editor. Why not?

Well, here's what happened with me. And let me state right now, these opinions are completely my own and have no bearing on the competence or abilities of editors. I truly believe they serve a real purpose, especially in a day when Indies are trying to compete with traditionally published books. There's a real need to look and sound and smell professional.

First of all, I had one editor go through my work and I noticed a trend. The editor kept adding semicolons. Everywhere. No kidding, maybe one every other page. My eyes began to gloss up from the interruption of rhythm. My sentences no longer flowed into each other. They now had a “;” to remind us we were actually reading words instead of a story. Okay, that's a personal choice, I get it. Maybe even technically correct. But that wasn't how I intended the prose to sound to the reader's ear.

Then I had another editor actually change the language one of my characters spoke in dialogue. This character was in the mafia and the editor was correcting his grammar. Changing his words to the point where he sounded like an English professor instead of a hitman. I began having questions thrown at me from the editor like, "I don't understand his motive here? Why can't you explain this better?" Well, the truth is, it would've ruined the plot. So then I started second-guessing my plot. Should I change it so the reader has full understanding? But I've left plenty of foreshadowing? It was paralyzing. I wrote three page over the next month because I was afraid to write freely.

So, do you need an editor? Almost certainly, but I would set some parameters. Tell the editor what you're looking for and exactly what you're not looking for. I think I've found someone who fits that description and I will use that person on the remainder of my novels.

When you work with an editor, just know what to expect when that page full of red ink paralyzes you. Trust yourself to know when the advice is sound and when it's opinion. Sometimes, that's not easy to distinguish.

Tip O'Day #432 - Singin' Them Rejection Blues

Guest blogger Faye Rapoport DesPres on “Submitting to Literary Journals? Expect, then Conquer Rejection.”

Rejection and discouragement: if you are submitting your work to literary journals, chances are you will experience both. There’s no way around it – rejections happen, and they happen a lot. Not every editor is going to love your work, and the chances of hitting the right editor on the right day at the right journal are slim. However, those chances improve greatly if you research the journals you are interested in, get to know the type of work they publish, send your very best work, and pay careful attention to the journal’s submission guidelines.

Even after you get hardened to the process (which is likely after you’ve been submitting for a while), it can be tough to read those dreaded words: “Thank you for sending us your work. Unfortunately, it does not suit our present needs.” Each time you get this message, as hard as you try not to care, it will probably feel like a kick in the gut. After a while you might get so used to this feeling, in fact, that you’ll do that odd thing that writers do – distinguish “bad rejections” (form letters) from “good rejections” (personal notes from editors, rejections that invite you to submit again, or, let’s face it, anything that isn’t a form letter).

I started submitting personal essays to literary journals about three years ago, after I completed my degree at the Solstice MFA Program in Creative Writing. The first year of submitting was torture; after one acceptance from a magazine, I received rejection after rejection from literary journals. I used to write to my former teachers in despair, only to have them respond by saying something to this effect: “Keep writing and keep trying.” Remember, they said, the only way to guarantee failure is to give up.

The first time one of my essays was accepted by a literary journal, I nearly missed the news. I was so sure I was receiving another rejection that I had to do a double take and re-read the editor’s note. I was riding in the passenger seat of our car (my husband was driving), and I put my hand over my mouth and said, “Oh, my God, one of my essays was accepted!” I think I was in shock.

Thankfully, over time, more acceptances arrived. For me, as for most writers, there continue to be many more rejections than acceptances. I maintain a spreadsheet in Excel to help me remember what piece I submitted where (and when). The sheet is color coded: plain black for submissions in play, red for rejections, blue for rejections that invite more work, and green for acceptances. Red far outweighs every other color (although the blue is getting more prominent with time). Green is the least common color on the sheet (when a submission turns green, I happily allow myself put the type in bold).

Like many writers, I have very thin skin. I can’t deny that it has been a huge challenge to stay confident in the face of all of those “Thanks but no thanks” rejections. Occasionally I even give myself a break from submitting just so I can catch my breath.

I once read a piece of advice from Joy Castro (www.joycastro.com), one of my faculty mentors and the author of several books, including the recent crime thriller, Hell Or High Water. Joy wrote: “You wanted this. You chose it. Get back up.”

Stick with it. I’m rooting for you.

Faye’s website is www.fayerapoport.com and her blog is http://blog.fayerapoportdespres.com/. Her essays, fiction, poetry, interviews, and reviews have appeared in a number of literary journals and magazines, including Ascent, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, Eleven Eleven, Hamilton Stone Review, Platte Valley Review, Prime Number Magazine, Superstition Review, In the Arts, Fourth Genre, and The Writer’s Chronicle.

Tip O'Day #430 - Fighting Past Rejection

Guest blogger Elizabeth Hoban writes on the turning points in a writing career.

One percent inspiration and 99% perspiration was originally scribed by a writer, had to be.

For many years, I perspired when it came to writing. After what seemed like forever, I submitted my clever thriller over and over, and was rejected enough times to compile a lengthy book with Sorry-not-for-us letters. I didn’t understand this disconnect. Mine was a perfectly polished manuscript from the moment I typed The End. Hadn’t I spent enough time on this? Every favorite word and riveting sentence that ever ran through my mind was in that tome. I had whole sections memorized verbatim. I didn’t need to revisit it until I received the galleys, right? I had completed the writing of a book and I deserved to see it published.

When a well-known agent at a prominent writers conference announced to her audience that the odds of winning the lottery were better than getting your first book published, the audience gasped. I may have cried. Before I requested a conference refund, the author/speaker went on to explain that surprisingly the odds in favor of publication grew dramatically with the second novel before a first novel saw publication, then the third before the first two, and so on. My novel, my opus, my first born had taken me ten years to finish, meaning I’d be taking the dirt nap before I could write another book. After condemning everything from my second grade teacher to the alphabet, I begrudgingly put my opus in a drawer and began a second novel. After all, I had raised two kids, owned a second home. In fact, I was a second born and writing may be my second career, so why not, why couldn’t I write a second book?

Two years later, I was amazed to realize how much smoother the entire process went with this child. Like an athlete or musician, I was becoming quite practiced at writing. My grunt work was getting done while I enjoyed the creative process. Dare I say I was becoming a seasoned writer? My therapist thought so, when amidst the conclusion of my second novel, I started a third. Say what?

All writers who persevere have had that moment, that career turning point when they want to sit and rest on their laurels and someone pulls the chair out from under them. Here I wanted to pitch my great book to agents and turns out they were only considering second book ideas at that conference. According to the pitch boss, publishers wanted writers with more than one idea. Needless to say, that conference was my wake-up call. Sometimes the advice that’s the hardest to take is the exact advice you should take.

Both my first book and second book are traditionally published. My second book was the first to receive a publishing contract. Coincidence, I think not. Write on!

Check out Liz Hoban's hardcover true WW2 tale, The Final Mission here and The Cheech Room, her fiction suspense-thriller here.

Tip O'Day #411 - Where's the NF Horror?

Guest blogger Anthony Servante visits from the Servante of Darkness blog to discuss “The Flowering Roots of Horror: Criticism and Creativity."

Ann Radcliffe was the first to argue that horror was not the object of the gothic novel (she wrote six of them and is considered the Mother of the Gothic form), that terror was the dutiful aim of such literature. When the gothic stories became gruesome and sensational (circa early 1800s), Radcliffe dropped out of the writing scene and her work “On the Supernatural in Poetry” was her last published critique of the romanticization of her beloved story form. To find any other literary criticism of horror, we’d have to look back as far as the Ancient Greeks, who argued that “horror vacui” was “a fear of empty spaces.” Thus artwork of the grotesque crowds every single space of the canvas with images, from the works of Dadd to Bosch to Crumb (and even Mad Magazine movie parodies where each caption is filled to capacity with absurd and sometimes horrific pictures and characters that backdrop the main characters of the movie being ridiculed).

Today, however, there is no longer any criticism of horror as art or literature. What I have been trying to do for the past few years under the pseudonym Anthony Servante (especially under the Servante of Darkness moniker) is to revive this critical spotlight on works of horror that meet the criterion established by critics of old and guide readers to new critiques of art, whether in horror, science fiction, fantasy, noir, or gothic forms.

While most writers veer toward fiction and fame, very few choose nonfiction in a field rich such genres as the supernatural, mystery, suspense, thrillers and, of course, gothics. As an academician, I specialize in works of the grotesque in art and literature, concentrating on German and English Romanticism. My interest extends to the Victorian Age because it spawned many a great monster (Dracula, Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Dorian Gray). As a reader, I peruse the monsters of today from new and old talents in film, art, and books. One day I decided to bring my academic writing to bear on my current readings. I decided to review today’s books the same way I critique the old literature. The only difference is that I don the Servante of Darkness garb for my reviews, but the result is still the same. I’ve had a hoot since I’ve been writing about the new wave in the grotesque.

I have followed the current trend in the Zombie Apocalypse and have interviewed authors on their views on the longevity of the genre. I have followed “cybernocturalism,” the self-publishing avalanche of horror eBooks. Some books are instant classics, while others are just plain bad, and the chasm between the two grows with no end in sight. The literature of Noir is being kept alive in the creative mind of Trent Zelazny. The Southern Gothic is alive and well with Ray Garton. Historic horror maestro Mark Rainey adds a dash of education to his works. Literature of the Absurd is modernized in the works of Gina Ranalli. The Weird Western, a new but important form of horror, has sustained new life with authors such as Ed Erdelac and Ian Rogers.

G.N. Braun has taken horror in a new direction with his work “Hammered” and my review of his book remains one of the top five read articles on my blog. The top three pieces in the Servante of Darkness are interviews with three rock legends: Roger Hodgson, the voice of Supertramp; Dave Lambert, guitarist and vocalist of Strawbs; and Tom Toomey, guitarist for The Zombies. That’s saying a lot about the staying power of Braun’s nonfictional biographic work.

Which brings us back to the lack of nonfiction writers in the field of horror and its neighboring genres. You don’t need to be a professor of literature to write a review or to point out a new trend. You simply need an opinion and a voice. There are plenty of avenues to get your opinion read: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and so on.

Radcliffe would be proud that her view of terror is still being written about and critiqued, and that the gothic form lives on today in literature and even music and cinema. Even the horror vacui continues in the work of Park Cooper and Barbara-Lien Cooper. It’s a brave new world for horror. And it’s a braver new world for those who write about its branches and growth. I am proud to be amongst them.

Check out this writer at Servante of Darkness blog found at http://servanteofdarkness.blogspot.com/

Tip O'Day #396 - Ads in eBooks

You’ve probably heard of today's guest blogger, bestseller Scott Nicholson – my Kindle is full of his books – who provided the following update of an article he wrote in December 2010. He says, “Amazingly, I finally made a prediction that came close to the mark… I’ve gotten out of the ‘writer babble’ business for two reasons: (1) I don’t know as much as I thought I did, and (2) it’s all changing so fast that even the boldest predictions of digital evolution quickly become laughable.”

I don’t even use traditional publishing as a reference point anymore, because that is so far removed from most writers’ realities that it may as well be Shangri-la or Hollywood. The indie vs. trad debate is now only meaningful for a small group of people, and they are all making way more money than you or me.

So you are in it, and if you are lucky, you made a nice little nest egg back when everyone was standing on the sidelines deciding whether indie was the way to go. Hopefully, you shook off the intellectual shackles that chained us to the agent speed-dating sessions at writing conferences and were hammered and locked into place by “publishing experts” with 20-year writing careers in the old system. You know the mantras: “Get an agent,” “Only hacks self-publish,” and “You can’t produce and distribute a book without the advice of publishing experts.” Basically, ego affirmation. Of course the experts didn’t want to lose their position of authority (and in the agents’ case, the intermediary status of being the first in line to get checks.)

But the gate was left open and the horses all got out of the barn, or something like that (come up with your own gatekeeper metaphor; I am writing this for free!). So now we have a market where the 99-cent eBook had a year’s run, and the pool was finally beginning to find stratification (crappy books sinking, good books nailing stable plateaus) when Amazon unleashed the latest version of indie roulette — the free eBook.

I'm on record as predicting the flat-text eBook era has an outside range of five years, at least for fiction — specialized non-fiction and manuals will continue to be valuable for their content alone. I believe eBook sales will continue, but certainly not with expanding profits for all involved. Now that there are thousands of free Kindle books available every single day, how long before readers come to expect and even demand free books exclusively?

That’s not even considering the impact of lending libraries, public libraries, and subscription services, which will soon create a Netflix type of system for most eBooks. Under such a scenario, it’s difficult to see the average book being worth more than a nickel a download.

Freebie roulette. Great for readers. Good for Amazon (maybe in the short term, but it is hard to figure the long term). Terrible for authors. At least for those authors who aren’t prepared for the future and the cataclysmic changes that will inevitably unfold.

The market is diverse enough to support many different price tiers, but writers who want to survive in 2015 will need to make money from free books, or they will soon quit writing.

I only see one outcome: ad-supported or sponsored books. At first blush, you'd think NY has an advantage, since Madison Avenue is right there. But can corporations, with their large structures, be able to compete when indie or smaller entities can react more quickly to present conditions instead of protecting some imagined status quo?

J.K. Rowling can inspire a Pottermore built around her brand, and James Patterson, Tom Clancy, and Clive Cussler have already built factories around their names (and, yes, V.C. Andrews, you can roll over in your grave two or three more times for all I care, because this is all your fault). But most of us are not factories or we wouldn’t have to indie publish.

This points out the new era of the branded writer. And not just "writer," but "content creator" and even mere "idea marketer." A personality is more suited to building brand identification and audience than a publisher is. I say "James Patterson" and you get an image. I say "Random House" and what do you get? Randomness. We've seen it here locally: "Ray's Weather" is where you check the weather and "Todd's Calendar" is where you click to find what's happening in the region — and both are ad supported. You can get the free content elsewhere but you don't get the human personality attached.

I'm already experimenting with the ad model because I believe it is viable. I am counting on Idea Marketing being one of my foundational pillars. I am not quite sure what it all looks like right now, but I look at it this way — you don't need NY in order to give away tons of free eBooks or to spread an idea or to build a social platform. You are the idea you want to spread.

Other authors will say “I’ll never sell out.” (Ironically, those are usually the authors who have given most of their incomes to agents and publishers…) I don't blame people for sticking with what worked in the past. It all goes to how invested you are in a certain system and how the alternative looks, and, of course, the turf where you’ve staked out your ego. Publishing-industry talk on eBooks uses phrases like "managing risk" and "cautious adaptation." That is why those of us in the trenches knew Barnes & Noble was in serious trouble when most in the “publishing industry” only realized it recently when BN’s horrifyingly bad third-quarter reports came in. They are working off of old data while I work off the data I got an hour ago.

And my data says this may be the very peak of the Golden Age of digital publishing. The $9.99 novel may be dead this year, since three-quarters of the current bestsellers are low-priced indie books. As fast as major publishers yank their name-brand authors out of digital libraries, ten new indies cram into that virtual shelf space. Maybe forever. James Patterson’s factory can’t run on $2.99 eBooks, but mine can.

But what happens when the $2.99 and 99 cents drop to permanently free? Where’s your sponsor? Are you willing to go there? It's not going to be as clumsy as an image of a refreshing Bud Lite popping up when the main character enters a bar (though it's not unthinkable at some point). Can you see Jack Reacher with a favorite brand of soft drink, or Bella Swan wearing only Calvin Klein? At what point is your willing suspension of disbelief shattered? At what point do you realize the ad is the only reason the book can exist at all?

My informal polling on ad-supported eBooks yields statements like: "I'll quit reading before I put up with that." I also remember saying I'd never carry a cell phone, or be on Facebook, or give up my vinyl albums, or start thinking that maybe nuclear energy is the best short-range answer to our energy addiction. Or that I’d ever read an entire book on a screen. And it really doesn’t matter what our individual opinions are. Free books are here, and Amazon is already using sponsorships to lower Kindle prices. The future has already arrived and we just don’t recognize it yet.

I don’t know the answer, but I am deeply invested in the question. So, ads in eBooks. As readers and writers, what is your opinion?

Scott Nicholson says he’s the bestselling author of “a bunch of books” and also released The Indie Journey: Secrets to Writing Success, found here, because some people still think you can buy the secret instead of be the secret. Follow him on Facebook, his blog, Twitter, his website, or Scott's newsletter.

Tip ODay #328 - How Readers Pick What To Read, Part 2

I asked some writer/reader friends on FB what factors help them choose a book to read, and their answers appear this week.

Elicia Stoops Clegg - The first page.

Jonnie Comet - Usually, the blurb. I like to read the synopsis and see the premise of the plot and what the characters will be like. I'm not that visual and visual images don't usually sell me without intriguing text. I also don't pay attention to reviews-- maybe because as a thinking individual I consider my opinion as valid and valuable as those people's, maybe more so.

Nick du Plessis - With nonfiction, I select based on topic and sometimes based on recommendation. With fiction, I choose based on personal recommendations and books by authors I have previously read.

Tip O'Day #323 - Reach Out to Others

Guest blogger Pat Bertram - I Am a Thirteen-Month Grief Survivor. ( A post from “Bertram’s Blog” on April 27, 2011, used with permission.)

Yesterday at my grief support group we were asked to complete the sentence, “After he died, I was surprised that . . .” Everything that happened in the thirteen months since the death of my life mate — my soul mate — has surprised me. No, not surprised me. Shocked me.

I was shocked that the end came so quickly. He’d been sick such a very long time, his health fading slowly, that his dying became our way of life. When he was finally diagnosed with inoperable kidney cancer, we were told he had three to six months to live. He had only three weeks. And those weeks seemed to evaporate in just a few hours.

After he died, I was shocked by the very presence of grief. My brother died four and a half years ago, and my mother died a year later. I handled both deaths well, so I thought I could cope with the death of my mate. I didn’t know, had no way of knowing, that one didn’t grieve the same for every loss. I didn’t know, had no way of knowing, that there was a physical component to the death of a long time mate, that it would feel like an amputation.

After he died, I was shocked by the depth and breadth of my feelings. During the last year of his life, and especially the last six months, he’d begun withdrawing from the world and from me. This withdrawal, this lessening of a need to be with others is a natural part of dying, and my response to his withdrawal was just as natural — an increased determination to live. He might be dying but I wasn’t, and I had to untangle our lives, find a way to survive his dying and his death. I thought I had successfully completed this task, but his death rocked me to the core of my being.

After his death, I was shocked by his sheer goneness. Because I’d spent so much time alone that last year, I thought life without him would feel much the same, but it isn’t like he is in another room or another city or another country – it’s like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I still have no words to describe the finality, the undoableness, the vacuum of death. He was part of my life for thirty-four years. We breathed the same air. We were connected by our thoughts, our shared experiences, the zillion words we’d spoken to each other. And then he was gone from this earth. Erased. Deleted. I still can’t wrap my mind around that.

After his death, I was shocked that I felt so shattered. So broken. And I am shocked that I still feel that way at times. I am shocked that no matter how strong you are, how well you are healing, grief can slam into you at any time, especially after a good day when you’re not expecting it, and the pain feels as raw as it was at the beginning.

After his death, I was shocked by the scope of grief. You grieve for the one who died and you grieve for yourself because you have to live without him. You grieve for all the things you did and the things you didn’t do. You grieve for what went wrong in your shared life and what went right. You grieve for the past and you grieve for the lost future. You grieve for all the hopes and dreams and possibilities that died with him. It’s amazing that anyone can survive all that pain, but we do, and that shocks me, too.

After his death, I was shocked by how complicated human emotions can be. You can feel sad and unsad at the same time. You can be determined to live, yet not care if you live or die. You can know in your depths he’s gone, but still listen for him, still yearn for him, still worry about him.

Mostly I’m shocked that I am still the same person I was before he died. Such emotional trauma should have changed me, made me stronger and wiser perhaps, yet I’m still just me. Sadder, but still recognizably me. Well, there is one change. I’ve always been a worrier, but now I try not to fret about the future, try not to wonder how I’m going to cope with growing old alone. After his death, I am no longer shocked that life can remain the same year after year. Nor am I shocked that it can change in an instant.

Learn more about Pat at her blog. She is the author of four suspense-thrillers from Second Wind Publishing plus a nonfiction book, Grief: The Great Yearning. She also moderates the FB group Suspense-Thriller Writers.

Tip O'Day #265 - A Personal Mission

Guest blogger Jeannie Walker on a story close to her family.

My true crime book Fighting the Devil: A True Story of Consuming Passion, Deadly Poison and Murder is about the killing of my millionaire ex-husband. He discovered his new wife and bookkeeper had stolen thousands of dollars from him. After he demanded the money back, he started getting sick. While he was in the hospital, doctors were mystified as to how an otherwise healthy, energetic man could become so deathly ill. He told everyone within earshot that his wife and bookkeeper were killing him. He died in the hospital while strapped down to his bed with restraints on his hands and feet and tubes in every orifice.

At the request of the Sheriff, I became a sleuth to help solve the murder. I did, in fact, help law enforcement solve the crime. My children filed a civil suit against the widow, which gained us access to medical reports and other facts which I used in the book. I also attended the trial and secured the court transcript.

I dedicated my book to the Sheriff, who sadly passed away before he saw any justice in this case. Although it cost me thousands, I self-published the book. I did not send the manuscript to any agents or publishers, mainly because I did not want to sign away any rights. The story has been in the national news and has been the subject of two TV documentaries.

Tip O'Day #261 - "One Sentence Tips I"

Over the holidays, I asked folks in my online network to share one-sentence writing tips. I’ve received sixteen so far, and will put up three or four a day while inventory lasts. If more tips dribble in, I’ll make room.

MaryChris Bradley and Melanie Jackson contributed variations on “Plant your butt in the chair and write.”

Gail Buesnel – “Dangle participles at your literary peril.”

Jonnie Comet – “All good stories are about characters.”

Dixon says: These are all excellent. MaryChris and Melanie remind us of the difference between writers and wannabes - the discipline to sit down and write something on a regular basis. Gail's tip makes me think of the poorly edited self-published books I've seen lately that were rife with misspellings, run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers, tense confusion, and subject/verb mismatches. If you're a lover of language, it's enough to make you cringe. Finally Jonnie reminds us that, even in a tightly-plotted tale, character is what keeps the reader turning pages.

Tomorrow will see concise tips from Kathy Dunnehoff, Ellie Mack and Charles O. Maul.

Tip O'Day #256 - "Blind Dates"

Guest blogger Mark Souza on how readers choose a book.

Readers choosing their next book are similar to someone searching for a date at a club or watering hole. Reviews are like exhortations from friends before a blind date. This is not usually enough to seal the deal. Your friends’ opinions don’t always jibe with yours. You want to see for yourself if you’re a match.

Say we have entered the Barnes & Noble Bistro and Bar on a busy Friday night. There are a plethora of choices, including the one recommended by your friends. The first thing you’ll do is pick out those you find attractive. The cover is the first evidence of what to expect. A good cover is one that makes the reader stop and look closer. Does it catch the eye? Does it set the tone for what’s inside? Does it look professional?

After narrowing our candidates to a handful, we’ll want to dig a little deeper. In our dating analogy, we’d sit down and start a conversation to find out what we have in common. In terms of books, this is where we read the blurb. Here we’ll learn about the genre and premise, and whether the author can write worth a damn. If an author can’t hold your interest for one paragraph, what hope is there of holding your attention over 300 pages?

Then we may crack the book open and read the first page or two. Readers look for voice, effective language, and a story that grabs them by the lapels on page one. Spelling and grammatical errors or lifeless prose are huge danger signals.

So whether browsing for a book choice, or looking for a date at the local watering hole, the selection process is same. Physical attraction often comes first and then it’s time to look deeper. A book has to convey a bevy of positive cues in a very short amount of time in order to be selected, and there is very little tolerance for shoddy appearance, obvious flaws, or flaccid prose. Take a little time and do it right.

Connect with Mark online at his website.

Tip O'Day #255 - Book Signings

Guest blogger Deb Peters has a different viewpoint on book signings.

I don't normally have my book signings at a book store, because I feel it is so impersonal and the book store only does it so people will buy a book – one you brought or one from their store. I have something different each time and I get all kinds of responses. I also get new readers who might not have known I existed. With me, you get to know the author and what drives her to write time after time in different genres for all different ages. Meeting me is like going to a book store but more personal. I am very outgoing and love people. I will not get offended if you do not buy my book. In fact, I will tell you which libraries my books are at. I want the reader to enjoy my books while I am still alive.

So what is a book signing to me? It's where you get to meet the author and learn about all their books. If you like one or two and you have the money, you can buy one. If the author sells out, they can order you one. If you already have one, bring it along, and the author signs every book sold and ordered and delivers it back to the reader. If you use reading devices to read, maybe you can just meet the author and let them know you liked or loved it.

Dixon says: It's interesting having followers from different genres in different countries - India, New Zealand, Germany, England, Denmark... The picture here is from Kosovo.

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Tip O'Day #254 - Writing Resolutions

Guest blogger Ellie Mack on making (and missing) goals.

I have magazine articles, and a shared column that I've been published in. So far, I have never submitted a novel for publication. That was my goal for 2011; however I wasn't as diligent as I should have been. Also, that pesky thing called bills has kept me pretty busy doing other jobs, cutting into my writing time.

I am currently pursuing some online articles, as well as continuing my novels. I have two completed novels but haven't finished editing them. I also have several in various stages of completion. I keep working towards the goal of being a published novelist but still, I can honestly call myself “published.”

Dixon says: I thought this guest post from Ellie would be appropriate for the first day of 2012. It seems not a week goes by without someone telling me, “I’ve always thought about writing a book.” The difference between authors and all those folks thinking about authorhood is simply this: doing something about it on a regular basis.

I don’t care if you only write one good sentence each day. In a few years, you’ve got a novel written. And as Sidonie Gagrielle once said, “Writing only leads to more writing.” After a while, one good sentence a day just isn’t good enough.

Happy New Year to you, and to those you love, and to those loved by nobody.

Tip O'Day #250 - "Precise & Effortless"

Guest blogger Curtis Oddo on choreographed writing – sort of.

The best books I have read, such as The Three Musketeers, have story lines that read like a well-choreographed dance. Precise, effortless, synchronized movements with no wasted energy, very creative, and a killer finale that makes people cheer for more. I actually think about that – dance choreography – when I write. It takes a lot of effort to work out all the details in a plot intensive story, but it is worth it.

I tried to do that for my first book, The Crimson Battle Axe, and will try very hard to do the same with the second book, based upon the same characters.

Tip O'Day #246 - Don't You Love NaNo?

Guest blogger Eileen Hamer on that dreaded first draft.

Some writers sneer at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) but for me it's a way to get that God-awful first draft done. Without the NaNo time constraints, I just piddle around writing when the inspiration strikes, which isn't often enough. I've written drafts of four novels in my Chicago Stories series as NaNo novels. They were all pretty awful, but serve as the framework for longer and I hope better novels. Of course, I'm one of those perverts who actually enjoy revising and editing.

My first novel, Chicago Stories: West of Western, will go up on Kindle soon (just waiting for the cover). Wounded Ex-Marine and Darkpool agent Seraphy Pelligrini has come home to Chicago to start a new life as an architect. When she finds an abandoned drapery workshop in a marginal neighborhood to rehab into a studio and loft, she doesn't know she's on the border between two street gangs. Her windows are broken, death threats painted on her garage, a dead body left on her doorstep and things only get worse.

I started West of Western as a NaNo novel, deciding the last day of October to try it. With so little time, I had to choose a location I knew well, so I wrote about the neighborhood I'd lived in for ten years. I sat down that first day and just started writing. I never knew what the next day would bring. When the month was over, I had the basis of a story I'd never have found otherwise. That was four years ago and the draft has been completely rewritten and revised since then, but nothing was as hard as getting out that first draft!

Tip O'Day #245 - Dream Up the Truth

Guest blogger John DeDakis responds to YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK.

Most writers are motivated to write because of things that have happened to them. And the first instinct is to write it as a non-fiction autobiography because the experiences are so vivid and personally profound. Often, well-meaning friends who've heard you recount portions of the story exclaim, "You should write a book!" But they don't realize just how hard that actually is.

One reason it's harder than most people think is that if you're writing non-fiction, your editor will need to know more of the facts and context of any given story than you - from your narrow and limited point of view - actually know. So, as you try to write FACTUALLY, you'll discover that you don't know nearly as many facts as you thought you did.

Of course you can set out to find those missing details, but, as a journalist, I can tell you that the process is time-consuming, expensive, and fraught with all kinds of difficulties. And perhaps the biggest difficulty is that if you're writing things that are unflattering about a person, you could get sued for defamation of character. Even though what you're writing is true, if the person's not a public figure, you could lose a lot of money defending yourself in court.

It ain't worth it.

Not only that, but publishers are less likely to want to make your story into a book because you're not well known, making it harder for them to sell the story of a nobody to the general public. Publishing is, after all, a business.

So.......? Here's what I suggest: Use those personal stories as a way to inspire your imagination. Change some of the details of the events and characters so that the real people won't recognize themselves, then build a story that still conveys the deeper "truth" you want to communicate. If you have a vivid imagination you'd be on firmer ground going in that direction. That's because you get to "dream up" the facts, something an editor of non-fiction won't let you get away with.

That's how I dreamed up my first novel "Fast Track." The book got its start because of two traumatic experiences in my life: a car/train collision I witnessed as a kid, and my sister's suicide. But, instead of recounting what happened in the style of a just-the-facts-ma'am journalist, I made up an entirely different story - a mystery/thriller - that still highlights themes and truths surrounding sudden death and suicide. I used my imagination to create a story that would resonate with people who don't know anything about me personally.

If you're able to camouflage the true events that happened to you and create a compelling story that still conveys a deeper "truth," you may be able to write not just one book, but ten, simply by using what happened to you as your creative muse.

John DeDakis is a senior copy writer on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." John is the author of two mystery-suspense novels ("Fast Track" and "Bluff"). He's currently at work on novel #3 - "Troubled Water." Visit his website at www.johndedakis.com

Tip O'Day #244 - Looking for Feedback

Guest blogger M.K. Graff on what works for one writer.

I write mysteries and so tend to read them 90% of the time, with a heavy concentration on UK authors as my one series is set there. I've found that a good writers group with a handful of people who KNOW how to critique can be invaluable.

Tip O'Day #241 - Can You Handle 10,000 Hours?

Guest blogger Tim Greaton reminds us that writers write.

Many famous authors are credited with having said, “Writer’s write…” and that is the truth of it. To sit down and begin a journey of words is the very heart of our craft. Talking about writing, thinking about writing, or even planning a writing project have little to do with the actual process of stringing words in a progression that is hoped to entertain or enlighten a reader. The late Jack Bickham used to say that the most important quality in any writer is the ability to sit down and refuse to get up until a certain number of words have been written. Ernest Hemmingway said, and I may be paraphrasing, “Write as well as you can and finish what you start.”

Clearly the message comes back to, “Writers write.” I recently saw a documentary suggesting that most successful athletes and musicians in our world today have achieved such great heights because they have practiced their chosen professions more than any of their peers, usually for a minimum of ten thousand hours. I believe that. It is also my belief that writers who strive to pass that same ten thousand-hour litmus test will ultimately find themselves among the finest writers of their generation. So I encourage anyone with a dream of making a dent in the literary world to…pull up a chair, grab your proverbial pen and simply begin.

Tip O'Day #239 - Rejection

Matt Hilton on Rejection. (This excerpt is from “Col Bury’s New Crime Fiction” blog of Feb 9, 2009. He interviewed Matt Hilton, author of the Joe Hunter thriller series, and the subject of rejection came up.)

Like all writers I’ve suffered the dreaded rejection slip on so many occasions I can’t remember. Between writing Aggro, and my deal for Dead Men’s Dust coming to fruition, everything I ever wrote – apart from a few articles for magazines - was rejected for one reason or another.

I came very close on a few occasions, and it was the advice that I was given that spurred me to keep on writing. Rejection can be depressing, but you have to look beyond the ‘thanks but no thanks’ message and pick up on any advice contained in the rejection letter. I took each rejection as a step along the road to publication, and after each I’d go back to my work and see what it was that wasn’t acceptable to the publisher and try to put it right next time round.

Expect rejection and you won’t be disappointed, so when the acceptance comes it is a great surprise. If you lay all your hopes in one place – or one step of the process – it can pull you down if you’re knocked back. But don’t give up, keep trying. If you’ve got the drive and the talent, someone will pick you up.