Hi, kids!
OMG before I get into some really common spelling/grammar boo-boos, I simply must share with you my latest snack craze. Holy cow, these things are good:
source: Blue Diamond (re-sized here)
Serious yum-yum.
Anyway. Where were we? OH! I’m going to list a few of the most common boo-boos I see in writing. Care to see? Well, carry on!
I was thinking about the song “The Gambler” today. Specifically:
“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em. Know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run.”
And I realized that’s a writing life.
How? Go see.
Hi, kids–
Got some groovy linkage here you might find useful for your writing and publishing selves.
Keith Cronin tells us: DARE TO SUCK! Great advice, because all writers (at least all the ones I know) go through a phase where everything they write or try to write feels like it’s no better than drunken monkey poo thrown liberally across greasy burger wrappers. That’s okay! Write it anyway! Or skip the scene that’s giving you nervous hives and write another one. The important thing is to keep writing, because you need that momentum (and if you want to find out more about Keith, click here).
Lydia Sharp says: It’s okay to watch movies and TV shows! Cuz you can learn cool things that translate into fiction writing! I agree. Catch her post about 5 ways novelists can benefit from doing that. And find more Lydia here.
Meg Wolitzer at the New York Times gives us some food for thought about the state of women’s fiction and women writing fiction. Go see. And find out more about Meg Wolitzer here.
The problem of knock-off ebooks at Amazon (that is, copy-cat books based on legitimate titles that Amazon posts). Check the comment thread, too, on that one. I guess my question on that one would be: If you know the title and author of the book you want, why would you buy a knock-off with a slightly different title/author? Hmmm.
And Stevie Carroll has a discussion about female friendships in fiction going over at Women and Words. Readers, you might want to check that out and offer suggestions to Stevie and others about books that have female friendships. Find Stevie at her LiveJournal here.
All right, friends. Happy reading, happy writing, and happy Tuesday! And please do feel free to provide links you think will benefit us here in The Situation Room in the comments. Cheers!
I just heard of the death of Sarah Dreher via one of my Twitter-mates. I suppose Twitter can be useful in that sense, though bad news is bad news regardless of the medium through which you receive it.
Dreher was a playwright and author, and also a practicing psychologist. She died April 2 of this year, a week after celebrating her 75th birthday. You can find an obituary for her here. She was a Lambda Literary Award winner, as well as an Alice B. Readers’ medalist.
I remember her best for her Stoner McTavish mystery series. I read the first one soon after I finished Radclyffe Hall’s Well of Loneliness, and it was a breath of fresh air after the sadness and tragedy embedded in Hall’s work. In Dreher’s work, I found a lesbian character who didn’t die in the end and who managed to get into a realistic relationship. Dreher’s McTavish series was probably the first genre lesbian fiction I read, and in a way, it was revolutionary and showed me what was possible in terms of writing LGBT characters and, more importantly, writing human characters.
Dreher never let a reader off easy, but her gentle humor and empathy for her characters — all of them, whether damaged, suffering, or searching — created nuanced and layered mysteries that were as much an exploration of the human condition as they were about lesbian and women’s identity against a variety of backdrops. Life is complicated. People are complicated. And Dreher knew that and gracefully wove it into her stories.
In 1997, she published Solitaire and Brahms, a novel about being a lesbian in the 1950s, and the ever-present tensions between public and private lives, a theme that seems to echo in some of her other work.
She contributed essays and writings to a number of projects, including Off the Rag: Lesbians Writing about Menopause, ed. by Lee Lynch and Akia Woods. “Waiting for Stonewall” appears in Sexual Practice/Textual Theory: Lesbian Cultural Criticism, ed. by Susan J. Wolfe and Julia Penelope. You’ll also find a contributed chapter to They Wrote the Book: Thirteen Women Mystery Writers Tell All, ed. by Helen Windrath.
You can find a collection of her plays here (published 1988), for a sense of how she brought her characters from page to stage and into the hearts and minds of audiences.
Dreher was busy in her non-writing life, as well. She was the co-founder (and, for the past seven years, president and clinical director) of Sunrise Amanacer, Inc., a non-profit organization concerned with the mental and physical health of underserved and non-English-speaking people. I like to think that the different facets of her life fed her creative mind, and allowed us a glimpse of who she may have been and the many possibilities there are for seeing each other and for those we don’t know. The prism of shared humanity offers many different views. I think Dreher’s was wide, encompassing, and always compassionate.
You can find her mysteries, plays, and novel at New Victoria Publishers here.
If you’d like to leave a comment in her memorial register, go here.
NOTE: you may have to cut and paste the link. Here it is:
http://douglassfuneral.com/wp-content/plugins/funeralworks_obituary_plugin/ajax-obituary2.php?Counter=1049
If that doesn’t work, go to http://www.douglassfuneral.com and type Dreher into their search function, upper right. My apologies; the site may require that you clear your cache or refresh your browser to get to her page.
Hey, peeps!
Hope your week is treating you well. Mine’s outta hand, but no worries.
So I finally got around to reading the May/June 2012 issue of Writer’s Digest. Writers, if you buy one issue of this magazine this year, make it this one.
There’s a big ol’ piece called “The New Era of Publishing: Making It Work for You” by literary agent April Eberhardt. It’s a good primer for coming to grips with how publishing is changing, and what that means for you in terms of finding the right model for how you want to proceed as an author, regardless of where you are in your writing career.
There’s also an article by e-publishing guru Jane Friedman, called “The Basics of DIY E-Book Publishing,” which is another crash course in that subject, with Jane’s easy-to-understand info and tips. You can find her HERE, too, for more awesome-ness from her guru-ness. (No, SRSLY. Jane Friedman is considered an authority in e-publishing. She’s currently a professor in e-media at the U of Cincinnati and a former editor of Writer’s Digest.)
The next piece is called “Today’s Best Strategies for Savvy Self-Publishers,” by Joel Friedlander, author of a book on self-publishing and an award-winning book designer. Go see.
And one of my personal faves, WD’s best websites for writers. This is their 14th annual “101 Best,” broken down by category like “Creativity,” “Everything Agents,” “Online Writing Communities,” “Jobs & Markets,” and “Publishing Resources.” A couple that readers here might find intriguing include WOW! Women on Writing, an ezine that supports women through every step of the process. Go here. The current issue is about the art of storytelling. Novel Rocket offers tons of interviews and advice from published authors and literary agents. Grammar Girl (she is freaking supercalifragilisticexpealidocious) takes on grammatical quandaries that authors of all levels deal with. Check it out. And one more, to whet your whistle — Coalition of Independent Authors, a group of self-published writers who created the Coalition to gain exposure for their work.
That is just a taste of the 101 entirely useful sites in this list. The catch? You have to actually purchase the print copy of this mag, as these groovy tips are not available at the website. However, there are lots of cool things on the site for writers in terms of tips, writing prompts, exercises, and workshops to consider. So even if you opt not to subscribe or buy this issue, the Writer’s Digest site offers some good info for all kinds of writers.
Happy writing, happy reading!
Happy Friday, peeps!
I’ve provided links to author Chuck Wendig’s writing tips in the past, because I love his irreverent, often profane take on this nutty writing life.
He just released his novel Blackbirds, and it’s getting a ton of well-deserved praise and buzz. Check out the sexy-time cover:
source: Angry Robot Books
Here’s what it’s about, from Angry Robot:
Miriam Black knows when you will die. She’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, and suicides.
But when Miriam hitches a ride with Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be murdered while he calls her name. Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim.
No matter what she does she can’t save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she’ll have to try.
Here’s part of the buzz, all from Angry Robot:
“Trailer-park tension, horrified hilarity, and sheer terror mixed with deft characterization and razor plotting. I literally could not put it down.”
– Lilith Saintcrow, author of Night Shift and Working for the Devil
“A gleefully dark, twisted road trip for everyone who thought Fight Club was too warm and fuzzy. If you enjoy this book, you’re probably deeply wrong in the head. I loved it, and will be seeking professional help as soon as Chuck lets me out of his basement.”
– James Moran, Severance, Doctor Who and Torchwood screenwriter
“Gritty and raw, Blackbirds sports a unique heroine in the form of Miriam. Both sympathetic and pitiable, she dances through Chuck’s brilliant turns of phrase and crisp writing to an illuminating ending which begs the question: Are we truly masters of our own fate?”
– Allison Pang, author of A Brush of Darkness
That might not be the kind of book up your alley, but what I also dig about Chuck is how open he is with and about his process. Here’s part of the story BEHIND Blackbirds, done in his “25 Things…” format. It’s worth the trip over. CLICK THIS LINK HERE OR BE FOREVER DOOMED TO THE WALK-IN FREEZER OF MORDOR!
Happy Friday, y’all, and may we all find that “god I love this novel this is the one that will take me to the fire goddess Pelé and buy our way out of her wrath with a cocky grin and a song and make sure I have plenty of party favors” novel within us.
Hi, kids–
Way bizzy at the ol’ workfest this week. Hope everybody’s doing well and that things are groovy.
So who exactly are you online? I ask because, as some of you know, Google revised its privacy policies recently and there was the hoop-dee-do about what Google knows about you, which made everybody wonder what all Facebook knows about you and that then should lead us to think about what corporations know about us (for marketing purposes) and on like that.
After Google came up with its new privacy policies you had to go through some hoops to make adjustments and…hell, I can’t remember what all was involved. The thing that struck me, however, while I was going through all those hoops was the profile that Google had come up with about me (because Google likes to tailor ads to its Gmail users).
According to Google, I’m a guy between 18-25, based on my “interests” and keyword mentions and whatever other formulas it runs on people so it can pimp various products to them.
Well, Google’s wrong about me on both accounts. But that’s okay. I like not fitting algorithms and expectations. It’s not something I try to do. That’s just how I am.
All of this made me think, again, about all of the people out there online, interacting with each other, revealing certain things about themselves, hiding others. Even creating entire identities. And who knows what they’ll do with the information you provide? Corporations have marketing profiles on you. Some of your social networking “friends” may not be who they say they are. And everything you put online is there forever.
Kinda creepy, don’t you think?
So there’s a reminder for you. Be careful out there.
Hi, kids–
We haven’t had a chat about the apocalypse (whichever one you want to deal with), so I thought I’d help you out yet again. Make sure you read all my helpful tips BEFORE the apocalypse, since AFTER, most likely we aren’t going to have electricity and thus, no interwebs access.
And I’m just weird enough to share this luv with you and get you all prepared for running away from zombies. Or hordes of scary survivors. Maybe both.
So let’s chat about the ultimate nomadic accessory. Backpacks.
Carry on…
I actually wrote “breast regards” in an email the other day and I almost sent it until I caught it. I had a good laugh about that. Kind of a weird Freudian slip. Or maybe not.
I’ll be walking in a fundraiser for a breast cancer foundation pretty soon that helps provide mammograms to women (and men) who can’t afford them. I’m a huge believer in mammograms as a screening tool, so I raised some money for this organization.
I was diagnosed last November with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), the most common form of non-invasive breast cancer (hence the reason I’ve had boobs on the brain).
I had no symptoms, no visible signs, no lumps. A mammogram picked up the problem, picked up that the cancer was in various places in my breast. So, I lost the breast. You can read a conversation between me and fellow author Anne Laughlin about our breast cancer diagnoses.
I was lucky. I was stage 0. The 6 or so lymph nodes the surgeon took had no evidence of cancer, and the margins (where my breast attached to my body) were clear. As a result, I didn’t need chemo or radiation. But I do carry a war wound across my left pectoral — a long, horizontal scar that slashed a new chronology into my life: before cancer, and after.
So I’m still a little raw, literally and figuratively. I’m still trying to figure out what this means, or whether it means anything at all beyond a healing wound on my chest and the prosthesis I wear during the day. I’m slowly getting used to the new topography of my physical self, slowly working on reconciling the before cancer days with the after cancer days, and savoring the many pieces of each day that before I might have missed.
And I’m looking forward to this walk, because for me, it’s become a metaphor: Taking steps. Steps toward something, like healing or some other personal goal, or taking steps for someone else who, for whatever reason, can’t.
Like the women and men who are battling this disease right now. I’m going to walk for them. And I’ve met survivors — a lot more since my own diagnosis, so I’ll walk for them, as well. I’ve also known women whose journeys came to an end because of breast cancer. I’ll walk for them, too, and for the friends and families of us all.
And I’m going to walk for myself, because I need the sense of moving beyond my diagnosis and my surgery, beyond the fear and the doubt and the anxiety and the long days spent waiting for test results, waiting on doctors, waiting on the phone, waiting for the next medical assessment.
Waiting isn’t moving.
Walking is.
So I’ll walk. For me, for you, for all of us, for all of them.
I’ll walk because I can, because I wake up every day now, and know that I can. And that is a precious, precious thing.
Happy Friday, all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Hi, folks–
I’m a member of Sisters in Crime (cuz, like, I write mysteries), and this Saturday they’re doing an event called Sisters Solve Mysteries.
Here’s some scoopage:
For 25 years, booksellers and librarians have helped women writing crime fiction find their audience. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Sisters in Crime, an organization created to promote the advancement of women mystery writers, SinC members are thanking librarians and booksellers for their efforts by spending a day helping out in their institutions.
For six hours on Saturday, April 21, SinC member authors will shadow booksellers and librarians to learn how they solve mysteries every day.
SinC authors will serve as booksellers or library volunteers for a day, doing whatever their library or bookstore manager asks of the regular staff: shelving, bagging, sweeping, assisting patrons, pulling holds, making recommendations, taking out the trash, checking in returned books, etc.
LINK
Click THIS LINK to find out if libraries in your area are participating.
And if not, well, that’s okay. Maybe you could organize an event through the writers’ groups/organizations you belong to and do something like this, that shows some love for your local libraries.
Because I’ll tell you what. NOTHING solves problems like a good librarian.
Happy reading!
And if you don’t have a librarian action figure, WHY NOT? Here. Now you, too, can be awesome.
Andi Marquette 