FREE E-Book - what a great "loss leader" idea!

You know how stores lure you in with good sales and while you're in the store you see other stuff you want/need and end up buying more than the sale items? The sale items are known as loss leaders because the store usually doesn't make any money on them, in fact they usually lose money but the store still comes out ahead on the profit they make from the non-sale stuff that people buy.

Of course "loss leader" was the first thing that came into my head when I saw this offer from St. Martin's Press for two free e-books written by Julia Spencer-Fleming. I'd never heard of her before but I thought what the heck, they're free books so if I don't like them it's no loss, right?

Like all writers, I love discovering a new "favorite" author and Spencer-Fleming is going on my author BOLO list. The two e-books are the first two books in Spencer-Fleming's Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series. Clare Fergusson is an Episcopalian priest and, as Clare explains it, she's chaste (meaning not have sex) not celibate (meaning not allowed to marry). The whole priest/celibate thing adds a touch of humor to Clare's encounters but also, interestingly enough, adds to the sexual tension between Clare and Russ VanAlstyne, the local police chief. Clare is automatically held to a higher standard than your typical heroine because she's . . . well . . . a priest.

Russ isn't your typical hero either. He wears glasses, has bad knees and is at least 10 years older than Clare. And as a Vietnam vet, he still carries baggage.

Spencer's website bills her work as "novels of Faith and Murder for readers of literary suspense". I'm hooked. I read the second book of the series - A Fountain Filled with Blood - first. I'd have to rate it as an excellent mystery with strong romantic elements. In addition to the scrappy Clare and wounded warrior Russ, the story held my interest because I couldn't figure out whodunit until the very end. And, Spencer-Fleming didn't wrap it up with a neat bow at the end, which is why despite the strong romantic elements the story doesn't qualify as a romance. The bad guy wins . . . sort of, and will no doubt show up in another story in the series.

Now I'm off to read the first book in the series - In the Bleak Midwinter. The free e-book offer is over, but it's well worth the $7 a piece for the books!

More About Politics

I'm sorry. I just can't help myself. When I started this blog the goal was to promote my writing and build a name for myself as a writer. Writing related stuff only.

Boring.

No, writing isn't boring. I love to write. But I'm not one dimensional and it seems somehow . . . disingenuous to limit myself to blogging about writing especially given the political and economic environment of today. There are so many interesting things going on in the world.

So. no more one-dimensional blog for me. Politics. Religion. The economy. Stupid criminals. You name it, it's all fair game.

Pesky Surveillance Measure Gets in the Way of Running for Re-Election

From the June 21 (Saturday) edition of the The Wall Street Journal in an article written by Siobhan Gorman and titled Many Democrats Object as House Passes Spying Bill.

The House voted 293-129 for a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecom companies from lawsuits arising from the government’s war on terror. The measure now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to win approval.

“Despite broad opposition from Democrats, the party’s leaders concluded Congress had to pass a surveillance measure. They faced an August deadline, when previously authorized
surveillance orders would begin to expire. Conservative Democrats in tough re-election races were clamoring for a bill. Party leaders wanted to pass the surveillance bill, so they could move on to issues where they would have more election-year traction, such as the economy, congressional aides said.

Still, 128 Democrats voted against the bill. Rep. Holt said the compromise measure "permits massive warrantless surveillance" and contravenes Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted search and seizure. The compromise bill turns the notion of innocent-until-proven-guilty on its head and "alters the relationship between the government and the people.

Let me get this straight. In their rush to get the pesky surveillance measure out of the way so they can move on to issues that will help them get re-elected, the House passed an electronic surveillance bill that Rep Holt (Democrat from New Jersey) says “permits massive warrantless surveillance” and violates our Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted search and seizure.

It’s not the surveillance measure that’s got me riled up. Well, it does but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post. It’s the rush to sweep this pesky issue under the rug so conservative Democrats in tough re-election races can have more appealing issues to wave before the voters’ noses.

What are we paying these people for? To get re-elected? Or to represent the people and run the country?

I’m one of those folks that held out hope when the Democrats took Congress in 2006 that our elected representatives would get back on track by putting the country ahead of their political careers and personal interests.

Silly me.

Networking - It Isn't About You

This link was shared on one of the writer's loops to which I belong. It's an interview with Stephanie Palmer - a consultant to creative types who are looking for help in getting their work in front of the right people. Of course, she's written a book Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience.

I find it interesting that some of the points she makes are the same strategies used by folks who are good at business development (in the professional services world thats a more PC term for sales).

Stephanie talks about building relationships. Real networking isn't about meeting people that can help you - it's about looking for ways you can help the people you meet. The end result is people that are willing to help you. It's about building genuine relationships where you see the person as a person not a stepping stone on the way to achieving your own goals.

How many of us miss this key point in our quest to meet the folks that will help us achieve our goals?

And how many of us eschew selling ourselves because we think that's our agent's job? True, it is your agent's job to pitch you work, but you still have to sell yourself to readers and editors and reviewers and so on and so on.

I can't tell you how many times in the last year I've heard (or read) authors with scorn in their voice talk about how they shouldn't have to market their work. Marketing's a dirty word it appears. But as a wise old friend of mine once said, sometimes you have to blow your own horn because nobody else is going to blow it for you.

People Watching

On my way home from Vegas! Hurrah! I'm not a big city hustle and bustle kind of person - too much farm girl in my veins.

More characters from my people watching excursions. Last night I walked along the Strip and observed. I wonder how many of the crowd were natives and how many tourists. Years ago my younger sister lived in Vegas and told me that the natives don't come to the Strip unless they work there. But surely . . . not even for a show???

I passed an elderly Asian woman with her silver hair in a punk style with patches of pink. She was dressed entirely in pink, including her pink translucent walking cane. Tottering along in front of Treasure Island, she smiled as if in her advanced years she knew something the rest of us didn't, something special for her pleasure only.

I'm waiting in the airport now with a family seated behind me in the waiting area. Mom, Dad and two kids one of whom is obviously newly diagnosed with diabetes. The parents' conversation focuses on how many carbs in the pizza the kids want and how best to handle the injection the child will soon need. And can they have ice cream during their layover in Phoenix.

People at the slot machines - I wonder why they never look like they're having fun? No smiles. No expression of pleasure in their eyes. Just staring and repetitive motion as they insert coins and watch the wheels spin around.

Plenty of time to people watch. In our zeal for a direct flight, my co-worker and I ended up with an almost seven hour wait between the end of our conference and the flight home. What were we thinking?!

I'm here trying to tune out the incessant click and hum and chiming of slot machines enough to write. He's wandering the airport shops and most likely trying to figure out how to have just one more cigarette before he has to pass into the no-smoking zone.

But yet another people watching interruption. Another traveler desperate to connect with something other than the airport activity asking to borrow my power chord. Dead electronics are never any fun but especially in an airport waiting area.

What's the point of my ramblings today? I'm procrastinating with writing but, unlike my procrastination habits at home, today I have nothing else to do.

Back to writing.

Characters everywhere!

I'm in Vegas this week for a day-job related conference. If Orlando, or more specifically Disney World, is the happiest place on earth, Vegas must surely be the most . . . self-indulgent. After all, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?

Melon breasted women with spray on tans and Barbie hair hanging on the arm of men older than Methuselah.

Middle-aged men sucking in the beer belly and preening in the mirrors in the elevator (I'm staying at the Mirage) checking teeth and smoothing well gelled hair combed back to cover the burgeoning bald spot.

Young women with their navels and butt cracks exposed, pouches of belly/hip fat bulging over the tops of too tight, too short skirts or too tight jeans. They walk swinging their hips and strutting through the casino - one with fur-topped, calf-high boots.

By the time this conference ends in two days, I'll have so much material for characters I won't know what to do!

I'm not a gambler and all the hyperactivity in Vegas puts me on sensory overload within a few hours after I walk out of the airport. But what a place to people watch! And I've got my Kindle to keep me company when the sessions get eye-gouging boring!

Kindle and the Age of the E-Book

Back when Amazon first released the Kindle, I did the happy dance to finally see an electronic reading device that was designed with the reader's experience in mind. Based on Jeff Bezo's comments during a Charlie Rose interview when the product launched, the Kindle was designed by readers for readers rather than by techies for readers. The design emphasis is on the device not getting in the way of the reader's experience of being pulled into the story.

When I got my tax rebate I just had to be a good citizen and do my part to boost the economy. So I looked at my wish list of expensive gadgets I think I just must have and ordered a Kindle. (It beat out a digital SLR camera that's more pricey but, hey, wait until income tax return time next year!)

The device arrived on my doorstep this week, just in time for an out-of-town trip. Of course, there's tons of stuff you can buy from Amazon to use on the device - books, magazines, newspapers, etc. I was a little disappointed that the selection of magazines, newspapers and blogs isn't as extensive as I expected. But all-in-all a good assortment.

I was even more thrilled to be able to download a book by one of my favorite e-book authors, *lizzie starr (published by Wings ePress). In the past, although I love her work, I've struggled to read her books because I had to sit at my computer to do so. Her Tales of the Double Keltic Triad series is wonderfully captivating (*lizzie I'm waiting for Toccata in Fuge!).

Downloading from a non-Amazon site took a couple of extra steps and a few pennies more but it's worth it if I can enjoy my favorite e-pubbed authors. I'm hoping more readers feel that way too and sales of e-books get a boost from Amazon and Kindle.

Are we thinking too small?

For those of us who've been pursuing publication without success for a long time now, why do we keep going? Romance Writers of America recently hosted three authors that took a long time to publish as part of their series of classes for RWA PROs. Two of the authors mentioned that they didn't break into print until they learned to understand the use of emotion in their work.

That stumbling block was in the back of my mind when I was reading Walking in this World by Julia Cameron. In reading her discussion about how we often rely on what is mirrored to us by others to find our way as creative people, I wondered how often we don't see something about our work - like the lack of emotion in the story - because it's not reflected in the mirror?

Cameron says "In this way [seeing only the part of our artist with which others are comfortable], quite inadvertantly we often get miniaturized. We often get fragmented."

So what's the moral of the story? Maybe it's that when we limit our exposure as artists to a homogenous group of people, we don't get an accurate view?

It's okay, but sometimes uncomfortable, to march to the beat of your own drummer.

Around 16% of RWA members are published in book-length romance fiction. That means that roughly 84% aren’t. It doesn’t appear that those published in novellas or anthologies are included in those numbers. So it’s not clear what the number for un-published RWA members is.

Just for the sake of argument, let’s say that another 16% are published in non-book length romance fiction and say that number includes those that are published by non-recognized publishers.

That leaves roughly 68% of RWA members who are not published in any form of romance fiction.

Why do we keep doing this?

My guess is that most romance writers would say they keep at it because they can’t not write – they’ve got a story to tell and they won’t have peace until they tell it. They’re happier when they’re writing. They enjoy the camaraderie, the sense of belonging when they’re with other writers. Having an outlet for their creative energy makes the other areas of their lives better too. (At least those are my reasons and the reasons I’ve heard dozens of other unpublished writers say again and again.)

Why do so many of us get stuck?

We go to RWA Chapter meetings. We go to conferences and enter contests. We start stories and polish those first three chapters until they shine.

Then we stall. We struggle to keep moving. We let a hundred and one other things steal away our writing time.

And then because we’re all this strange mixture of ego and insecurity, we beat ourselves up because we’re not writing. We cast about for the magic ‘thing’ that will solve our writing woes. The perfect plotting tool. The secret to effective self-editing. The magic motivator that will wipe away the procrastination and self-doubt.

Realistically, we all know there is no magic ‘thing’. There is only putting one foot in front of the other, moving forward one step at a time.

It’s tiring though, isn’t it? Wears you down to work and work only to be rejected again and again. In some respects getting one “good” rejection after another is almost worse because you know you’re getting closer. You just don’t know how close – a few months or a few more years?

I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those writers that doesn’t really have a writing cheerleader. Oh, my family is supportive. They make the right kinds of expressions and feign interest when I talk about writing. (I’m sure when I sell that they’ll swell with pride and push my book(s) on all their friends) My writer friends have to be supportive of me just like I’m morally obligated to be supportive of them. What kind of people would we be if we stomped on each other’s dreams?

How can we help our fellow writers that are struggling in that “slough of despond”?

In thinking about the answer to that question, I’m reminded of a colleague who attended training on working with adult learners. She came back talking about the need to distinguish between a value and a standard.

For example, my work ethic includes the belief that one should keep their personal calls at work to a minimum. That’s a value. If my employer has a policy about keeping personal calls at work to a minimum that’s a standard. When my values and the standards mesh everything is good. When they differ, I have to be careful not to judge those around me by my values. I have to be careful not to look down on a co-worker because she spends more time at work on personal calls than I think appropriate. If I do, I’m expecting her to live by my values – I’m judging her.

How does this apply to writing?

Writing and submitting in order to get published is a standard because it’s impossible to get published unless you write and submit. Believing you should write X number of pages or words every day or every week or even every month is a value. Believing you should attend conferences is a value. Believing you should serve on the board of your local RWA Chapter or volunteer for committees is a value. When we apply our values to others, we run the risk of becoming judgmental and that is never helpful.

So, let me ask again how can we help our fellow writers that are struggling in that “slough of despond”?

I submit to you that the answer includes encouraging them while at the same time respecting the path they must travel as a writer and striving not to apply our values to their journey.

WIGs

No, I'm not blogging about hair.

A few weeks ago my boss sent me to a three day seminar on leadership run by the Stephen Covey folks. I love this guy's work - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was a life-changer for me.

One of the things discussed at the seminar were WIGs - Wildly Important Goals. These are "the vital few goals that must be achieved to fulfill the purpose, or nothing else you achieve really matters much."

Covey says that a well crafted goal should:

• Be specific and clear
• Be explicitly linked to a purpose
• Be written in plain language
• Be broken into bite-sized chunks
• Be measurable
• Be deadline driven

When I applied these principles to my work related goals, I was surprised to discover that the things that should be WIGs were the things that I routinely shoved to the back burner. They're not very glamourous, down right tedious in fact. And they're not the kinds of things that generate public recognition.

So now I'm working on writing goals and trying to apply those same principles. It will come as no surprise that one WIG that applys to every writer is to write. Whether that be every day or every week or whatever works for you, if you're not writing you're not going to meet the goal of getting published.

To my mind, another no-brainer WIG is honing your craft. To me, that means more than "butt in chair". It means getting and giving feedback through critique opportunities. It means doing the research necessary to make your story and characters believable (and accurate). It means continuous learning about the craft of writing. It means networking with other writers or finding other ways to rejuvenate your creativity - filling the well (a Julia Cameron reference) or sharpening the saw (a Stephen Covey reference).

I've seen dozens of posts and articles about goals - it's the goal setting time of year. Almost all of the ones from my writing life focus on cranking out pages. It concerns me, though, that none of them talk about balance.

Anyone can crank out pages but what good does it do if you're cranking out crappy page after crappy page? Volume alone isn't going to get you published. Quality counts. And how can you work towards quality if you're not taking time to critique or research or increase your craft knowledge? How can you rejuvenate if you're not spending time interacting with the people that share your passion?

For most of us, finding that balance also includes juggling a job and family and myriad other obligations that we either can't or aren't willing to give up in order to pursue our writing. Yet, we beat ourselves up because writing every day doesn't work for us. If only we'd try harder or manage our time better we tell ourselves. Horse puckey! There's nothing wrong with finding balance in your life. Writing is ONE thing we do. Having balance in your life, relegating writing to fourth or fifth or even lower on the list of priorties doesn't mean you're (I'm) not committed.

So the next time I see a post or article touting "butt in chair" as THE Holy Grail of writing goals, I'm going to delete it or throw it in the trash! And a pox on the people that use number of pages produced in a day or a week as the standard for judging committment to getting published!