Month: May 2017

I pray your week was as grand as mine. I received an email on Monday from my editor. He said the editing on my manuscript would begin that day. This afternoon I received the marked-up manuscript with notes about things to change. I have a lot of work to do! I’m very excited about it as well. There are two chapters, involving living people, that will need references to the living people removed, or dropped altogether if I want them included in the final book.

I also need to remove a bunch of swear words. My critique group at the Springdale Public Library mentioned I used too many swear words. I took out a bunch of them before submitting my manuscript to Oghma Creative Media. Now I need to take out more. I’m brainstorming ideas of how to take out the correct ones.

One thing I did learn about this first round of edits is this: if you use the local lingo of where your story is set, make sure you use it correctly. Don’t go off what an Internet site says is the definition of a word unfamiliar to you. I did this, and now I have another word to remove. I might be able to use it, but it would be sparse, now since I know what the meaning is.

Overall, listen to your critique group and your editors. They are trying to help you write the best story possible. Lastly, learn from their experience. They share it time and time again, but sadly, history doesn’t write itself.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I’m still reading Amy Stewart’s Girl Waits with Gun. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

I’m a big fan of letting my characters tell the story.I just type what they tell me to. However, sometimes it doesn’t work. I’m working on my second novel, and I have different point of view characters for each chapter. The ensemble cast stays together for most of the story, so it’s not like I have a group here, a group there and group way out yonder working, unknowingly, together to defeat the big bad guy. I tried chapter eleven from a soldier’s point of view. A page and a half later he stopped talking to me. I changed the point of view to a captain, and the chapter took off after that. Moral of the story is: don’t be afraid to change point of view characters if one isn’t working out the way you thought.

Years ago when I let my characters tell a different story, they changed it, probably for the better. In an unfinished epic fantasy tale, my small band of heroes arrived in a small town to convince a paladin to join them. At least that was my train of thought: go into town, get a paladin to join them, move on to the next town. Simple, right? My characters convinced the paladin to renounce his faith before joining the group.  Big change! However, a paladin who lost his faith is a much more interesting character and one I hope my reader would cheer for as he struggles to redeem himself. In this example, the characters knew the story better than I and gave me a plot point to carry through the rest of the story. Now I just have to find time to finish the story.

May 21, Sunday afternoon, come see me at Books in Bloom on the lawn of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Although I’m not an officially invited author, I’ll still have my business and trading cards available to pick up at the Village Writing School tent. I’m looking forward to meeting you. It’ll be a great afternoon and who knows what ideas will pop in my head. After all, history doesn’t write itself.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read.  I finished reading Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium: The Joy of the Gospel. My review is on Goodreads.  I’m now reading Amy Stewart’s Girl Waits with Gun. I bought this book last year at Books in Bloom and just now getting to read it. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

What a fun two weeks it’s been for me. I don’t want to keep you waiting any longer. This week, I received an email from the head editor at my publisher. I now have an editor assigned to my manuscript! Yeah! One step closer to being a published author. Also, with my story taking place near Baton Rouge, I found the Louisiana Book Festival website and hope to be in attendance at next year’s festival with many copies of Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure available. Selling books about Louisiana in Louisiana to Louisianan’s should be a great time. I’ll have to try the gumbo while I’m there.

Even though I am not marketing genius, see my previous blog posts, inspiration struck in early May to do a photo shoot to promote my book.  The photo shoot involves models who look similar to three of my main female characters and have them pose in lingerie. Bill’s is a house of ill repute, with a good reputation, so why not stick with the location and drum up interest in my forthcoming book. I spoke with a photographer, and he’s looking into the details to see how affordable this idea will be. I have my own homework to do by inquiring into studio space, or other locations, and props. Very excited, but I do have to stay within my as of yet unset and limited budget. Unless one of you want to finance this opportunity. Any help would be appreciated.

Lastly, one of my favorite literary events is coming up on May 21. Books in Bloom at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs is a fantastic, and free, event in northwest Arkansas where you can meet many authors in an afternoon, buy their book, and most of them will sign it. I hope to see you there.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read.  I finished reading Kathleen O’Neil Gear and W. Michael Gear’s Sun Born on May 4. My review is on Goodreads. I’m a little over halfway through Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium: The Joy of the Gospel.  I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

Rain can be fickle sometimes. It can be fast. It can be light. It can be wind-swept. It can be pouring. For those not living in the Northwest Arkansas area, over eight inches fell over the weekend. That’s a lot of rain. Several roads were closed, a few damaged beyond driveability, and every single road in Johnson, Arkansas, was declared impassible. Can’t recall that ever happening before.

Mother Nature does play a part in my story, Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure. I throw a rain storm and two hurricanes at my characters. It is interesting how they react to it. The hurricanes really did hit Louisiana at the time they appear in my story. It’s a good thing they were recorded because history doesn’t write itself.

I believe adding severe weather every now and then to your story tests your character’s character. Will they hunker down and ride out the storm? Or will they be out in it fleeing from the bad guy? How will the aftermath affect them? There’s only way to find out: throw in bad weather and see what happens. Who knows, it may be just the plot point your story needs.

Come see me Saturday, May 6 at the library in Farmington, Arkansas, from 1:00 to 3:00. It’ll be a fun time, a romp in the swamp even. And nobody wants to miss one of those.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read.  I’m finish reading Kathleen O’Neil Gear and W. Michael Gear’s Sun Born this week.  I encourage you to read a variety of topics.