Category: Blog

Last week I attended the Ozark Creative Writer’s 50^th-anniversary conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It was a beautiful weekend and a great conference. I pitched my book to five publishers and one agent. Only one publisher declined, and that was because they do not publish historical fiction after 1920. My story ranges from 1939 to 1969. The experience of the whole weekend was golden. This was the first time I’ve ever pitched any of my work, and it felt good to share my characters with publishers. I sent my emails this week to the publishers, and after changing the ending, I will email the agent next week. Writing is a lot of work. However, it is extremely fun to do. I don’t know what will happen, but I would appreciate your good thoughts and well wishes. After all, history doesn’t write itself.

Next week I’ll be indulging in my other passion: collecting playing cards. The annual 52 Plus Joker Playing Card Collectors Club convention will be in Schaumberg, Illinois. I’ll be there surrounded by thousands of decks of cards and a wonderful, and knowledgeable, group of people. Decks can tell so many stories, especially used casino decks. Who held the winning hand with these cards? Who lost everything they had? How many people touched this deck of cards, and how can their stories be extrapolated to a dynamic tale of adventure, or woe, in the keyboard of an author? The same can be said of the really old decks, the one now turning a hundred years old. Who first bought them, and how did they end up on a table for sale in Schaumberg, Illinois? I believe the answer would be difficult to find, but it would be a great journey. After all, history doesn’t write itself.

At the writer’s conference, four of my fellow aspiring author’s were in attendance as well. Between the five of us, we one over fifteen awards. It was fantastic to see each of us being applauded for our work. I placed third in two historical fiction contests and won the “tell a story in all dialogue” contest. All the writing I’ve done, all the workshops I’ve attended, all the critiquing I’ve taken, all the work I’ve done to build my platform, it’s getting me closer to being a published author. It’s a long journey, but well worth it.

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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. Since my last blog post, I finished reading Carl Hiaasen’s Skin Tight, Pope Benedict XVI’s God is Love encyclical, and Jim Toomey’s Happy as a Clam: The Twenty-First Sherman’s Lagoon Collection. All three are reviewed on GoodReads.com. Currently, I’m reading The Boston Raphael by Belinda Rathbone. If that is not following my own advice, I don’t know what is. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

Last weekend I was in Kimberling City, Missouri, a resort town on Table Rock Lake that is associated more with Branson, Silver Dollar City, and all the amazing shows on a winding, congested road through the town. The very nice and wooded condo was a great place to relax, mainly because there wasn’t Wi-Fi in the condos themselves. You could shlump up to the Activity Center and surf to your little heart’s content, but it would have really been nice to access the World Wide Web from the condo. So that’s why I missed last week.

Sky is another background / minor character in my manuscript. Although she is shouting in my head right now saying she plays an important part and should not be labeled as such. She’s a working girl in Eustace’s bordello where my main character, Bill, works. Sky is obviously not her real name, as the time frame is 1939 and I seriously doubt anyone would think to name their precious daughter Sky in 1911, her birth year.

Sky is a high school graduate and even managed to take a college course or two. However, her college days began a few weeks before the stock market crashed in 1929, leaving her family unable to continue to pay her tuition. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and she eventually turned to the world’s oldest profession to sustain herself as the economic downturn trudged on for years.

Sky bonded quickly with her fellow sister and soiled swamp dove Ariel at the brothel in the shotgun house in Bayou Cove, Louisiana. I do have a happy ending for her in my mind. However, it is not mentioned in the manuscript. When I do get a publisher, if they feel Sky’s story should resolve better, then I’ll write it up. Of course, if they don’t, then watch this blog and I’ll post it here. I believe you’ll enjoy her story, 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 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 reading Carl Hiaasen’s Skin Tight. I should finish it up this week. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

Well, the call to action in my previous post flopped like a fish on a sidewalk. I don’t understand it, but I’m going to soldier on. History doesn’t write itself.

My main character’s mentor is his Uncle Eustace. From time to time he is simply called Uncle U. Eustace served in World War I. During one of the battles he was captured by the German’s and remained a prisoner of war for some time. He was the subject of many unspoken chemical experiments. In 1919, the year Bill is born, Eustace is liberated from his POW camp. He prefers not to talk about what the German’s did to him, even to me. He’s now an angry individual and believes the world owes him something for all the misery the war put him through. He is harsh and aggressive to just about everyone he comes across. His main goal in life is to make money. He turns to the oldest profession in the world and sets up a bordello in his shotgun house.

Eustace lets his underachieving nephew work at the house of ill repute by washing the sheets and running the ledger one day a week. Bill started this work at the age of 15. Eustace is not at all happy when Bill spends his time with Anne Marie instead of working. He does teach Bill one lesson the young lad carries with him throughout the rest of the book.

Eustace could be the spitting image of Ebenezer Scrooge before Jacob Marley haunted him that fateful night. With a man that harsh as a role model, what does it leave in store for Bill? You’ll have to read the book when it gets published.

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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 finished Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility this past week. The book lays the groundwork for his Theology of the Body. I haven’t picked my new book, but it’ll probably be a Carl Hiaasen book as I need a light read after the heavy and dense Love and Responsibility. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

As I mentioned nearly three weeks ago, I set a goal to finish revising my story by the end of August. Unfortunately, I did not reach that goal. However, I did make excellent progress, and I’m down to the last forty pages. According to my critique group, I have to rewrite the ending and add at least one chapter. So there is is a little more work to do than just adjusting a word here and there. It will be done by the time I attend OCW (Ozark Creative Writer’s) Conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in early October.

I’ve been blogging now for a little over three months. I still have a manuscript and no book. I will continue to strive to find a publisher. I’ve talked about research opportunities and how I’m not a marketing genius. I believe it is time I hear from you. Please send me questions and I’ll do my best to answer them in next week’s blog. I won’t reveal all the juicy details of my story, but hopefully, I will spike your interest so that you continue to read the words that I put your screen. Please use the email link at the top right of the page to send in your questions.

History doesn’t write itself. You should know that by now if you’ve read my previous blog posts. But even the history that is written much more is out there waiting to be uncovered and explored. Not all stories need to have a historical reference in them, A Song of Ice and Fire or The Lord of the Rings for example, but the history you create for your story needs to be believable and accurate. George R.R. Martin published a 300-plus-page tome called “The World of Ice and Fire” that lays out the history of Westeros. I would say less than one percent of this history is mentioned in his books. However, he has the whole history of the entire continent. He knows the story of each town and family and how they interact with each other. When you have that much information that you don’t even include in your manuscript/book, you have done a tremendous job of making your story believable.

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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 continuing to read Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility. The book lays the groundwork for his Theology of the Body. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

History doesn’t write itself, but it can be an excellent base for your story. I visited the Pea Ridge National Military Park in northwest Arkansas yesterday and learned some interesting facts about the Civil War. It is a great park and if you are ever in the area, check it out. It doesn’t get the attention of Gettysburg, Bull Run, and Sherman’s March, however, it tells a great story. I don’t want to spoil it all by telling you who won the battle, but I want to talk about how little-known historical events can make your story.

Romeo and Juliet has been adapted many times in many ways. They’re all roses by different names. You don’t have to have a completely new idea for your story, although it helps tremendously. Research the Battle of Pea Ridge. You get all the characters, their movements and the outcome. You can easily adapt it to your two armies fighting story. All you have to do is change the names, change the location, add something that could have happened, but didn’t, even change the outcome if you like, and you have a new story. A story based on historical facts. You can use history to write your story. Just remember, history doesn’t write itself.

The world is full of historical events. If you are struggling with your story idea, see if it fits into a historical event, or two or three. Pull from here, pull from there and pretty soon, you’ll have an original story. Be creative, you’re a writer, after all, not a marketing strategist.

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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 continuing to read Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility. The book lays the groundwork for his Theology of the Body. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

Living is getting in the way of my writing. I have a desk job and work four ten-hour days. I don’t see it as a high-stress job, but the pace is maddening. The mental fatigue drains my physical energy. I worked nearly six hours of overtime on Friday, which prevented me from working on my manuscript as normal. I continue to work on it, but spending almost fourteen hours in front of a computer screen can really wear you out. At least it does me. It is a great job for me, and I do enjoy the work I do. My boss is supportive and is working diligently at getting more help. I just have to preserve until that help arrives. Any good thoughts you can spare, I would appreciate them.

I want to return to research in this blog post. My story takes place, primarily at a brothel in the swamps of Louisiana. It’s been over two years since I visited Pierre Part, and that’s probably the closest I’ve come to experiencing a swamp. My critique group says I describe the swamp just fine. The point I want to make is this: just because my story takes place in the Louisiana swamp, I can go to another swamp and get almost the same experience needed for my story. A swamp is a swamp is a swamp. If your story takes place in a forest in Maine and you live in Oregon, you don’t necessarily have to travel to Maine to get the full effect of the forest. Wind blowing through trees, sounds of leaves crumpling under your foot sound pretty much the same in any forest. Go to a forest in Oregon, get the sights, sounds and smells that you need and write on.

The only drawback I see to this type of research is if there is something that you can only experience in one location, and you’re trying to replicate the uniqueness elsewhere. That won’t work. Maybe a good example would be trying to do research in the man-made caves under Louisville, Kentucky and passing it off as what happens in Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. That won’t work.

I hope you see the point I’m trying to make. If your story takes place in Sherwood Forest in jolly ole England, but you can’t afford the trip, go to a nearby forest to get the sounds and feel necessary to describe the woods in your story. Be creative with your research, but above all be accurate. There is always an economical way to get the information you need. You just have to be creative sometimes. You’re a writer, after all, it’s what you do. And remember, 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 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 continuing to read Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility. The book lays the groundwork for his Theology of the Body. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

I’ve been working on revising my manuscript since late March of this year. I have twelve chapters left. I’ve given myself a goal of revising those twelve chapters by the end of the month. I do believe I can do this. The last chapter involves quite a bit of re-writing as my critique group didn’t like my original ending. Writing a book in your spare time takes quite a while. I hope my hard work is rewarded later with a publishing contract.

I do have an idea to boost my social media presence. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to implement it until after I attend the Ozark Creative Writer’s Conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in early October. I submitted part of the back story of one of my characters for one of their contests. Their rules state that all submissions cannot be published at the time of the conference. After the conference, I’ll share the back story with you. Thank you for your patience.

There’s probably a lot more to say, but I’m drawing a blank. It’s been a long week. I’ll sign off here and go root for team USA in the Olympics. I may get inspired. 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 I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility arrived on Wednesday of this week. I’ll be reading this book for several weeks. The subject material is dense and takes a while to understand what the future pope is saying. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

Last weekend, I checked the authors.me website to see how the submission process was going at Pandamoon Publishing. I sent the first draft of my story to them at the end of May. I saw they declined to publish my story on July 25. I wasn’t distraught about this, but I do want to share my feelings.

Below is part of the email stating the decision to decline publishing my story. The publisher at Pandamoon Publishing wrote the email.

After lengthy consideration by myself and our team, we must pass on the opportunity to publish your story.

I read this as more than just a slush pile intern read my manuscript. Several people at Pandamoon read my story. They liked the premise of my story. Things that I believe contributed to the declination include:

• The mistakes that inevitably filled the first draft that I sent them
• The amount of adult language I use
• The sex scenes in my manuscript

There may be other reasons, but I’m comfortable with these reasons. The biggest joy for me was that several people read my story and considered publishing it. My plan for August is to finish the revisions and prepare the manuscript to be sent out again in September and October.

So, I may not get published this year, but 2017 has 365 days it. Surely I can hit one of those days.

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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 finished Humanae Vitae: Of Human Life by Pope Paul VI. It’s only eleven pages but contains the building blocks that form the basis for St. Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. I also read K. K. Allen’s short story Soaring. My review is on Good Reads. I’m waiting for Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility to be delivered. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

The associate pastor at my church will from time to time give “Random Thoughts” homilies. I don’t know how random his thoughts are, but in the end, the sermon covers what we need to know about the readings for that week. If he can do it, surely I can. Welcome to today’s blog post on random thoughts.

I do encourage aspiring writers like myself, to enter contests at the writing conventions they attend. The contest can force you to write on an unusual topic, and nearly all of them have word limits. The smaller the word limit, the more precise words you have to use to express your character’s thoughts so a reader can relate to him or her. I wrote a contest story this week about three young adults on a mission trip. Originally, the theme was going to be romantic, but I turned it into a tragedy. You never know where your characters will take their story. Remember, history doesn’t write itself.

As a bonus, when you do become rich and famous and get the “New York Times Best Seller” stamp on your book cover, you can publish all the short stories and contests stories you wrote those many years ago in one tome. This will give your audience a peek into your work before you were famous. Write on and keep what you write. If you make repeated appearances at the same event, you could take your characters from year one and advance their story in year two.

And speaking of the “New York Times Best Seller” stamp on your book cover, I shopped at my local Barnes and Noble recently and saw a majority of the books with that prized blurb on the cover. It is hard to find a book for sale that wasn’t a New York Times bestseller. Does Barnes and Noble only sell New York Times bestseller books? I hope not. The world is full of talented authors that aren’t master marketers. We write.

My last random thought concerns George R.R. Martin. He wrote a fabulous series called A Song of Fire and Ice. He’s still writing the series. HBO based Game of Thrones on this series. It took him five years to write and publish book four in the series. It took him another six to do the same for book five. Six years have passed since A Dance with Dragons hit the shelves. During this time, he’s done quite a bit of marketing promotion for Game of Thrones. The time he spent marketing took him away from writing. I do wish him good health because I do not want A Song of Fire and Ice to end up like Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Writers need to write. Marketers need to market.

A few random thoughts from an aspiring writer. We write because spending time with our imaginary friends brings us great joy. Let us write. Let the marketers market. 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 I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I finished Rediscover Jesus: An Invitation by Matthew Kelly. I also read two short books on prostitution in the West. The first book was Tainted Ladies: Female Outlaws, Renegade Women and Soiled Doves of the Wild West by Vickie Briton. The second book was Madam Dora DuFran – Cat House Queen of Deadwood Gulch. I reviewed all three books on Goods Reads. Up next is Humanae Vitae: Of Human Life by Pope Paul VI. This will start a six book endeavor of reading the basis for St. Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

Welcome back, followers. I know you missed me last week, and I’m sorry for depriving you of my wit for so long a time. I drove my parents up to the suburbs of Chicago for a family reunion of my Dad’s cousins. I heard numerous family stories and wrote down many of them. History doesn’t write itself. We drove back Sunday in heavy rain until Springfield, Illinois and then sunny skies.

As mentioned in previous posts, I’m a writer, not a master marketer. Facebook tells me my author page spikes in views when I update the blog. I know people are reading, maybe not the whole thing, but I do get visitors. Is that enough for an aspiring author who doesn’t have a book yet? For me, yes, but I can’t speak for others. After all, I’m not a master marketer. I’m a writer.

Writing stories for the Ozark Writer’s Conference contest entries has kept me busy this summer. Working on them is on my calendar for this afternoon after running a few errands. The contests are challenging, one is to tell a story, with a beginning, middle and end, in only 99 words. Authors prefer to use more than 99 words. However, I did enjoy the work, and I hope the contests judges appreciate my effort.

I still have three weeks before the publishing company makes a decision on my manuscript I sent them at the end of May. I believe in my little story of a romp in the swamp at a Louisiana bordello. I hope they do to and not my inability to bring the masses to my website, Facebook page, and Twitter account. I’m a writer, not a master marketer. Granted I could increase my odds by doing multiple submissions, but I hope my preference not to put pressure on the publishing company of being in competition with others favors their view of me.

I will continue writing new stories and revising my manuscript. I will continue to excel in my woefully underachieving marketing skills. I’m a writer, not a master marketer. I believe you can liken this to the proverbial groom. He says to his blushing bride, “Just tell me what time to be there, and where ‘there’ is at.”  To my future publisher just tell me what book signing to go to, what conference to sign up for and how you want me to assist your marketing department in promoting my book. I’ll be there. Let those who know how to market, market. Let the writer write. I’m a writer, not a master marketer, and history doesn’t write itself.

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 finished Once, There Were Sad Songs by Velda Brotherton. My review is here on Good Reads. Currently, I’m reading Rediscover Jesus: An Invitation by Matthew Kelly. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.