#50:  I hope you caught my guest blog post on Donna Carrick’s Carrick Publishing website.  If not, take a look.  It’s a brief look into my career as an indie author.  Somewhat related was my blog post “Why blog?” posted on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  These two posts are directed more to writers, but readers might enjoy this glimpse into what makes writers write.  [Note: Donna Carrick is author of the award-winning The First Excellence and her hubby, Alex, has several collections of short stories, one of which I reviewed.  I’m waiting for a collaborative effort—it should be good!]

#51:  I enjoyed Mike Nettleton’s guest post to my blog posted on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  Although it was more a rebuttal to a comment I made in the review of his new book Shotgun Start, Mike makes some insightful warnings to writers about their perception of characters versus the readers’.  [Note:  Mike Nettleton and his wife Carolyn J. Rose have co-authored two hilarious mysteries.  She also wrote Hemlock Lake and An Uncertain Refuge, two intensely serious mysteries, the latter about spousal abuse.]

#52:  Now that fellow authors Mike Nettleton broke the ice with a guest blog post and John Betcher with a guest interview, maybe other writers will stand up.  Except for my potential censorship (see my rules in “Steve’s Writing” and in the note to #60), this process is relatively painless.  It’s also a win-win-win for everyone:  for readers, new perspectives into the crazy minds of writers and an introduction to new works; for writers, additional avenues to build name recognition; and for me, added, interesting content for my website.  [Note: your guest post doesn’t have to be original but it has to be interesting.  I don’t get kickbacks from the media parasites, so you won’t get them from me.  However, don’t get me in trouble with copyright issues.  If you’ve sold a post to someone and signed all your rights away, it’s your problem, not mine.]

#53:  So…have you begun your holiday shopping?  For those looking for holiday sales, you can get $2.00 off the sci-fi thriller Full Medical with a Smashwords coupon (see “Steve’s Writing” for the coupon code).  This means that the “Clones and Mutants Series” (Full Medical + Evil Agenda) can now be yours for only $5.98.  That’s a lot of reading fun!

#54:  In addition to the above sale, all my eBooks are bargains and available for less than $10.00.  They also contain many hours of entertainment at bargain prices.  In particular, for young adults, adults young-at-heart, and cat lovers in general, check out The Secret Lab…available for only $0.99.

#55:  If you want to completely avoid strong language, sex, and violence, don’t read my books.  Even The Secret Lab has some sexual angst and a wee bit of violence.  Nonetheless, my books are generally about as clean as an episode of House or Burn Notice, and you won’t find gratuitous foul language, violence, or kinky sex, meaning that I generally don’t add them to the plot unless they’re an important element.  If you’re a prude, don’t read my books.  Moreover, if you want erotic scenes between vampires, werewolves, or Ken and Barbie, you won’t find them in my books.  Sorry….

#56:  A new trend?  I have seen famous thriller writers Harlan Coben and Lee Child endorse other writers’ works recently.  Usually famous writers shy away from this and for good reason:  do it once, and every writer out there will try to land an endorsement.  Their e-mail cup will runneth over with requests.  (The only request I ever made to Lee was permission to use the quote you see running across the top of this website.  His administrative assistant responded in the affirmative.  Maybe it’s her cup that’s running over?)  Here’s a possible take:  the Big Six are hunkering down and trying to guarantee that their “sure things” (famous and established authors like Harlan and Lee) remain sure things.  Nah!  That couldn’t be true, could it?

#57:  Recommended reading:  The WD (Writer’s Digest) interview with Ms. Diana Gabaldon.  I was struck by the similarities between our two careers as a writer.  So, why aren’t they interviewing me for WD?  Could it be that I haven’t sold 17 million books?  Writing success is often fickle and authors have to be patient.  Still, Ms. Gabaldon’s background and mine are very similar, we both write across multiple genres, and we both criticize the publishing establishment (read: legacy publishing—she was lucky to find an agent who cared).  Makes you think….

#58:  Also recommended reading:  The WD article by Ms. Elizabeth Sims titled “Namedropping.”  While I think her ideas for choosing characters’ names are helpful, she doesn’t go far enough.  Need a Japanese surname?  Google Japanese surnames and look at the lists (you’ll also get a peek into Japanese culture).  Need a Japanese first name?  I use a book of baby names (one that includes what each name means).  However, I use many of Ms. Sims’ tricks too.  Naming my characters is an important process in developing their identities for me—it keeps even the most secondary of characters interesting.  (“Understanding the Minor Characters’ Role” by Orson Scott Card, extracted from his Characters & Viewpoint, published by WD, is not nearly as useful.)

#59:  The entire WD issue mentioned above is on novel writing.  As usual, it’s a mixed bag, and heavily geared to the legacy publishing paradigm.  When is WD going to come out with an eBook subscription, by the way?  Their out-dated treatises on writing, like Mr. Card’s—again, biased towards the Big Six—should also be available in eBook format.  Or, maybe they should come out with modern versions.  Catch the train, WD, or it’s going to leave you at the station!

#60:  You’ve all experienced them, those swirly little curly-cue characters that are supposed to check that you’re not a computer bot-spamming the comments section of a website.  They irk the hell out of me!  Half the time they don’t work.  The test usually comes up after I’ve written a lengthy comment (really, all they have to do is test for length—who wants one-line comments like “atta-boy” or “that sucks” anyway?).  I keep a list of egregious websites.  Putting the test on yours is one way to get on that list.

Moreover, there are two facts that website designers, who are usually generation X-ers, don’t consider:  (1) there are many baby-boomers using the internet and they have lots of money to spend online; and (2) the baby-boomers aren’t getting any younger—failing eyesight will start to make them fail these tests, even if they’re programmed correctly.  More often than not, the letters and numbers not only look like belly-button lint, they’re only a few shades of gray darker than the background.  What are website designers thinking?

If you design your own website or control some of its design standards and you use these tests, I’d like to put your feet to the fire.  Here’s one boomer you’re driving away from your site.  Maybe I’m over-reacting, but I just had this experience with a well known site (I’ll refrain from including the name here—the person that runs it is nice and well intentioned).  I think I made a good comment to another author’s post, one that added something not considered in the original post and the previous comments.  Unfortunately, after four tries with the bot-spam-tester, I gave up, sort of—I was able to copy the text that I wrote and included it in an e-mail message to the person(s) running the site.  When this happens to you, you should do the same.  Strike a blow for sanity!

[Note:  I’ll never ever have a bot-spam-tester on this website.  You will not have to strain your eyes when you make a comment to a blog post (I’m assuming you choose a big enough font size for your own eyes).  WordPress does a good job of eliminating the obvious spam and I censor your first effort, but only the first (that means “approve” or “disapprove”—this allows me to eliminate the occasional Viagra ad that gets through and those comments by jerks who think writing four-letter words is cute).  So, comment at will!]

#61:  Do you enjoy reading these newsy posts?  Would you like each week’s edition as an e-mail newsletter?  Too bad!  I think newsletters are passe and will go the way of the Big Six and brick-and-mortar bookstores.  Moreover, writing this post and managing it via my website software is much easier than trying to maintain a database of e-mail addresses and/or paying for an e-mail service.  I prefer to spend my time writing, not performing internet acrobatics.  If you like these newsy posts, keep reading them here.  If you want an e-mail newsletter, copy and paste each week’s offering with your e-mail software and send the e-mail to yourself.  You have my permission.  There, I’ve done my curmudgeonly deed for the day!

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Friday, December 2nd, 2011 at 4:00 am and is filed under News and Notices from the Writing Trenches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.