I recently participated in a discussion on Authors Write Aloud with Richard White about “invisible women” …is there a gender bias in literature? You can watch the episode here:
And don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments!
Best Books #OpenBook Blog Hop
September 9, 2019
What are the best two or three books you’ve read this year?
This should have been an easy post to write. I can’t even remember how many books I’ve read so far this year. But the truth is, this has been a really bad writing year for some of my favorite authors. Either that, or I’m getting pickier.
But I won’t call out the ones that have disappointed me and I will concentrate on the ones that kept me enthralled.
First, kudos to J,D. Robb. I admit I’m not a big Nora Roberts fan, but someone suggested I try her sci-fi series. So, I asked for the first book in the series as a Christmas present—and I’m glad I did. (Naked in Death) I sunk into the story easily, and, while I didn’t read the book in one sitting, I devoured it rapidly. I’m not always satisfied in Nora’s endings, but this one it all the right points for me. I enjoyed it enough that I asked for the second book, Glory in Death, for another gift-giving event and I enjoyed that one, too.
Moving on…last fall I had the opportunity to meet Melissa Mayhue. author of several series, including The Magic of Time series. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a time travel series, so I started her book (All The Time You Need) with a fair amount of trepidation. I must say, she surprised me. I found how she handled the time travel aspect of her books well written and well explained. Getting other books she’s written is on my list of things to do. (and I do love being able to put in a good word for authors who aren’t big names!)
Those were physical books. Let me grab my tablet and see what stands out 
in my recent reads. Aha, there it is! Hook, Dead to Rights, by Melissa Snark. It’s a different take on the classic Peter Pan. Much different. The story had enough twists to keep me guessing who was the hero and who was the villain until near the end. The second book, Hook, Dead Wrong, is on my TBR list.
There you go! Three very different books. Maybe one or more of them will get added to your list of books to read!
September 9, 2019
What are the best two or three books you’ve read this year?
Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/p/984
Finding a Place to Write #IWSG
September 4 question – If you could pick one place in the world to sit and write your next story, where would it be and why?
The awesome co-hosts for the September 4 posting of the IWSG are Gwen Gardner,Doreen McGettigan, Tyrean Martinson, Chemist Ken, andCathrina Constantine!
There’s this little lake I know, not exactly in the mountains, but in the high plains. The altitude is about 8000 feet. It’s got a wonderful view of several mountain ranges, depending upon which direction you look. On a normal days, there’s at the most, three or four people there- more cows than people, but they are on the other side. The cows, that is.
Ducks, geese and the occasional seagull swim on the lake’s surface. Along the shoreline, songbirds play hide-and-go-seek among the bushes. Their songs mingle with the lowing of the cattle.
There’s not an electric plugin to be had, so once the battery on the laptop is dead, it’ll be writing with pen and paper. The nearest town, population under 600, is fifteen miles away.
But to sit there in the shade of one of the few trees (or bring my own) and write! No distractions, no cell phone service, no internet, no one bothering me. That would be heaven.
So I’m not going to tell you where it is. You know the song…you call someplace paradise, you kiss it goodbye. I’m not ready to for that.
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Egos and Writing
September 2, 2019
Does a big ego help or hurt writers?
I don’t know if my ego is big enough to answer this week’s question!
Here’s the deal: A writer has to have a bit of an ego to think they can take words and and mold them into a story that others will enjoy while, at the same time, doing justice to their characters. But that ego has to be small enough to allow the characters to tell you their story the way they want to. It’s a constant balancing act
Take my book Wolves’ Knight as an example. I’d planned out a romance subplot for Tasha, my main character, and even started writing the scene where she and the planned romantic lead got hot and heavy with each other. And promptly got stuck, because she started fighting me. She had a different idea about how things should go. I had to set my ego aside and swap up the plot to satisfy her.
A similar thing happened with The Baron’s Cufflinks. I’d written what I thought was a great chase scene, but something didn’t sit right. The action was great, the words were fine, but it just didn’t work. Then Harmony, my main character, convinced me it was because I’d told it all wrong. That wasn’t the way it happened. I put aside my ego, scrapped the scene, and rewrote it the way she wanted. I have to admit, it was better her way, but I still liked mine! It involved the sheriff and the highway patrol, a bad guy or three, and Harmony throwing her shoes at one of them. Thankfully, I was able to use pieces of it in the revised version.
On the other side, you have to have a healthy dose of ego to get out in the public and sell books once you have them written. To engage total strangers in a public setting and ask them to buy a book isn’t easy at first. I’ve gotten better at it, but I still have to psych myself up for each public appearance. There’s always the fear that no one will want to talk to you. Even on social media you need to interact with people you’ve never met.
(If you want to check out my books, you can start from my front page, here: http://www.pjmaclayne.com )
I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the other authors on the hop and see how their egos hold up to writing. You can follow the links below. But before you go, feel free to leave a comment.
September 2, 2019
Does a big ego help or hurt writers?
Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
Have Some Fun :)
Giving Up on a Book #OpenBook Blog Hop
Aug 26, 2019
Why would you, as an author/reader, abandon (stop reading) someone else’s book?
As I mentioned in a comment a few weeks ago, I take pride in reading completely almost every book I start. Almost is the key word here. Every now and then, I run into a book I just can’t handle, it’s so bad.
I won’t be naming any names. Most of them are wiped from my memory. But because of the bad books I’ve run into, I’m pickier about what books I buy. I’ll even take the time to read the reviews for freebies to escape my pet peeves.
The first and biggest reason is bad grammar. Typos, words spelled wrong, the wrong form of a word used, incorrect punctuation. Sure, a few errors here and there happen, even in books by traditional publishers. But when I pick up a book that has several a page, it makes it hard to slog through the entire story. If it’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad book, I’ll erase it from my ebook reader. (Thanks, Judith Viorst)
Next up would be boring characters and a boring plot to match. Ever run into a book where you ask yourself why the author even bothered to write it? The characters are flat and nothing happens. The main characters go to work everyday and that is somehow an existential crisis. I’ve never read one of those books the whole way through.
Image by Gerhard Gellinger from Pixabay
How about unrealistic story line? Let’s say in the story it takes an hour to get from point A to point B and you know in real life it would take three or four. Or it’s a mystery and the author has no idea of police procedure. I’ll let one instance pass, but if the book is full of similar mistakes, I can’t finish it.
What do I do with really bad books? It’s easy to get rid of an ebook. It’s a little harder to get rid of a paper version. I feel guilty passing it on to a charity and inflicted the pain on someone else. And it breaks my heart to put any book in the garbage. I have to weigh the end results and usually the garbage can wins.
I did a quick poll on Twitter to see what would cause other people to stop reading a book. I only got a few responses, but the clear winner—or is it loser?—was bad editing.
I’m curious-what’s your number one reason for not finishing a book? Even if it’s already been mentioned, feel free to chime in. Consider the comments section as an informal poll. I suspect there will be a lot of repetition in the blog hop posts this week. But I’m going to go check, anyway. Follow the links below to join in.
Aug 26, 2019
Why would you, as an author/reader, abandon (stop reading) someone else’s book?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
SpillingInkShow
I was recently honored to participate in the Spilling Ink podcast, where we discussed our books, writing, and life in general. By the way, I hate my camera setup, and I’ll have to change it up the next time I participate in one of these. Anyway, it was great fun to do. Many thanks go to Jason LaVell and Katie Salidas for the opportunity.
And I apologize, but there must have an issue with my internet connection which ended up making my voice garbled. (LAG!)
Literary Success #OpenBook Blog Hop
Aug 19, 2019
What does literary success look like to you?
At one time in my life, I would have defined literary success as getting my poetry published in a major magazine. I never accomplished that goal, although my poems got accepted by a number of smaller literary magazines. Each publication felt like success.
Then I started writing books. And to me, literary success felt like writing one good enough that I was willing to share it with the world. I wrote Wolves’ Pawn, decided it was ready, and released it to the world. While the world didn’t buy the book, each sale felt like a success.
Next came The Marquesa’s Necklace, and from the moment I published it I felt like a success. I wasn’t a one-book wonder. I’d proven to myself that I had more good books in me, and they weren’t all the same plot over and over. And that was success.
Each time a reader takes a moment to wrote a good review, and buys more of my books, that is success.
Once upon a time, when I was running a paid aid, The Marquesa’s Necklace made it into the top 100 for its genre. It only lasted for an hour or so, but that was definitely success.
Now, with each new book I write, success seems harder to achieve. I’m always shooting for more and for better, and it’s harder and harder to achieve. I’m an addict, searching for my next literary high. Maybe it’s a compliment from another author. Or selling enough books at an event to not only cover the cost of the event, but to make a small profit. Or gain new subscribers to my newsletter, or get more views on my latest blog post.
Would I like to write a nationwide best seller? Absolutely. Do I expect it to happen? Expect-no. Hope-yes. That would be the ultimate literary success.
In the meantime, I’ll remind myself to take joy in the small successes. Writing a line or a paragraph I know is way above average. Finishing my next book. Cheering a reader on as I see the books in a series being bought one after the other.
That’s what I define as literary success. Now, I’m off to find out how everyone defines it. Follow the links below to come with me.
Aug 19, 2019
What does literary success look like to you?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
The Hardest Part #OpenBook Blog Hop
August 12, 2019
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
When I first read this question, my thought was “But it’s all hard!” However, that wouldn’t make a very good blog post, so here we are.
After giving it some thought, the answer was simple. Beginnings. It’s hard to find the right place to start, whether it’s a book or a blog post. Often it takes me three or four tries to write the beginning of anything. (It took me three tries to get this far!)
Unlike the advice in song from The Sound of Music, Do_Re_Mi, stories don’t always start from the beginning. They need to start at some point that will draw the reader in. How bad would it be to have every book start with the birth of the main character?
Sometimes, it’s finding the right ‘voice’ to tell the story. When I wrote the prequel to the Harmony Duprie mysteries, I wanted to write in from Jake’s point of view. I tried four different beginnings, but none of them worked. Jake just didn’t want to reveal his secrets. Once I switched to Harmony’s point of view, the story came easily.
When I wrote The Marquesa’s Necklace, the first book in the series, I wrote an entire chapter that ended up being deleted. But it wasn’t a lost effort, because it helped me to develop Harmony’s personality. Plus, I used parts of it in my reworked first chapter.
In fact, I pulled out the first paragraph from the first draft. You’ll see why I got rid of it!
It was another quiet day in the library—just the way I like it. As an ex-librarian, I appreciate the times when only a few patrons are scattered in the stacks or perusing the racks of periodicals. Back then it gave me time to shelve books or straighten out the magazines. Now that I spend much of my time doing research for a writers’ co-op, these times are when I am most productive. None of my old coworkers object when I accumulate a large pile of books on the table I stake out as my territory for the day. They know I will put them back in the proper place before I leave. I don’t necessarily need all these books, but they create a wall I can hide behind.
The same is true for my Free Wolves series. Although the prequel to Wolves’ Pawn came to me a dream, writing the first chapter wasn’t easy. And I wrote it with pen and paper, so while I have the original somewhere, you aren’t going to get the original opening paragraph!
Each book I write, it gets a little easier to write a good first chapter. That doesn’t mean they don’t go through numerous revisions, only that I don’t end up having to delete the whole thing and start over.
By the way, endings can be hard, too. But I’m just going to leave this here and head over to check out what the other authors have to say. You can come with me by following the links below.
August 12, 2019
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/p/eeae40
Writing Kryptonite #OpenBook Blog Hop
August 5, 2019
What is your writing Kryptonite?
What’s the one thing that could make me give up writing?
I almost did, a few years back, but not on purpose. And you may have heard the first part of this before, but keep reading.
That was when poetry was my focus in writing. For many years, the words came easily. I have notebooks and binders filled with my poems. But somewhere along the way, I lost the words. I was doing good if I wrote two poems in an entire year. It hurt. It hurt bad enough that I considered giving up writing altogether.
But a story floated around in my head and wouldn’t go away. It wouldn’t work as a poem. So, I wrote it as a novel. At least, I tried. And words came back to me.
Now, I’m happily working on the fifth book in the Harmony Duprie series. But I’ve been tempted to give up. Why?
I’ve been hit by my Kryptonite-lack of sales. Why write when no one is reading? A book isn’t complete until someone reads it. Plus, it costs money to get a book ready for publication. If I can’t recoup those costs, it’s like throwing money away.
Interior artwork from Superman: Secret Origin vol. 1, 1 (November 2009 DC Comics)
Art by Gary Frank
But then I remember the people who encourage me and like my stories. The ones that buy them even if they don’t write reviews. So, I keep trying. That’s the advice you hear in the writers’ group-keep writing! Maybe one of these days I’ll write a best seller. (I also hear a lot of writers are having a hard time, not just me. Go buy a book even if it isn’t mine!)
So, I’ve been weakened by one form of Kryptonite but not knocked out. I’m still writing. (I should break 26000 words tonight!) Still, I know there are other forms of the nasty stuff. I hope I don’t run into them.
Because I have an idea for another series. I’ve written one draft of the book, but the time frame and location are all wrong. How would you like a story about a gritty female PI with a darker edge? She’d be no Harmony Duprie.
But while I think about it, I’m heading over to see what the other authors in the hop believe their Kryptonite is. You can too, by following the links below.
August 5, 2019
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.