My favorite part

My critique group doesn't meet for several more weeks and my material to be submitted to the group isn't due for another 11 days. But I decided to get ahead of the curve, for once, and submitted 20 pages of THE DEATH OF ART last night.

It was not the next group of pages of DOA the group would otherwise have read. I submitted pages two months ago, when it was last my turn, but for some reason the file attachment couldn't be opened by other group members. I would have submitted those same pages this time except that I decided to jump ahead.

The pages I submitted included the scenes that I enjoy most from the book, including the first big surprise in the novel. I decided to jump ahead because I wanted to get the group's take on those pages before Bouchercon in October. While I will be looking around, hoping to make contact with an agent at that time, this book isn't what I will be shopping. But I wanted to feel confident in the writing and getting some impressions from this part should do the trick.

On another note, I have to go to the doctor today for an examine and I'd have more to write about but I have to leave. I will delete this part later if I have the time and add more impressions on writing. But until I do, thanks again for reading and ever, ever give up on writing and on getting published if that is your goal.

Have a good writing day!

A release form

I signed a release form today so that my short story, THE MISSING CD, can be published next year in BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, the anthology my local Sisters in Crime chapter is putting out. In the story, a newspaper sports columnist is murdered while doing research into some possible misdeeds by a NASCAR team, and his girlfriend, TV anchorwoman, is forced to find some missing documents and discover his killer.

It's a little long at 6,500 words but it is a fun story. I am heading the marketing committee that is promoting the book.

Also this week, I printed out about 175 pages of my current novel for Angela to read. I planned on giving her another 25 plages or so but I was apparently running out of ink. Angela hasn't started reading, as far as I know, so haven't had any feedback yet.

I have been encouraging a relative -- actually, she is the wife of one of my wife's cousins -- to write a book, a mystery, really. She is in a reading group, which is good, and she told me several weeks ago she wanted to write what is known in the industry as a cozy. I think she'd be good at it once she got started.

I saw her briefly at a family event yesterdday but she hadn't started it yet. And maybe she won't ever start. But I hope she never looks back with regret.

I am surprised at how much knowledge I have on the industry and can provide to her. I can only imagine all the knowledge that I don't have that is out there.

I also last night answered a friend's questions regarding copyright. She wants to write a book of poetry and is worried about someone stealing her ideas. I told her it is prudent to be cautious and to establish ownership. But I also told her it is unlikely there are lots of people out there looking to steal material from an unknown, unpublished poet.

Well, that is all for now. I just wanted to write down a few thoughts. Have a good weekend and thanks for reading.

Keep writing.

Reading something into Obama's Book Bag

I just read an article online about what President Obama is reading while on his vacation in Massachusetts this week, and what can be learned about the man from his vacation reading. No much as far as I can tell.

There are five books, all by white men. But that is neither surprising nor alarming. (What is alarming is that he doesn't have one of my books. I'd send him the material to read. I have got to get him to read DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL.) I can't discern anything about him from the list, which includes:

THE WAY HOME, a crime thriller set in Washington written by George Pelecanos.
LUSH LIFE by Richard Price. It is a story about race and class in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Environmental revolution is covered in HOT, FLAT AND CROWDED by Tom Friedman.
Kent Harut's PLAINSONG.
And my favorite is JOHN ADAMS by David McCullough.

McCullough's book is the only one I have read, and also enjoyed. It was years ago when I was still living in Philadelphia. It was long before the HBO film series by the same title, which I also enjoyed.

If I were president, which I wanted to be when I was 17, what would I take? Probably much of what I took on vacation two weeks ago (except a book on writing). There was a mystery, a general fiction, one history, one on baseball and a book on writing.

The only one I finished that week was the mystery. (It was the 14th book on Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I need to get the 15th book.) The only one I didn't touch was on the one on history.

Reading is essential for a writer. What can be discerned by my vacation reading list? Probably no more than can be learned from the president's reading list.

Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.

Sends those queries

I'm going on another major agent push. I need an agent and there are agents out there looking for new talent. Why not me?

The new Writer's Digest, which came in the mail while we were on vacation, lists 24 agents looking for new writers. I have all the resources for finding and researching agents, I just have to get back into it.

I haven't done a major query push for a while. I have lots of excuses for not having done it -- and many of the excuses are valid -- but in the end they are just excuses. And I know agents aren't going to come knocking on my door. I have to go out and find them.

So I have revamped my standard query letter and am ready to go.

The inspiration for all this was an author who was the guest speaker last Saturday at our local Sisters in Crime meeting. Her name is Madelyn Alt and she lives in northeast Indiana. She is a delightful person, a very good writer (judging from book excerpts on her website, which itself was also very good), and an inspirational speaker. She seemed to understand what I am going through because less than a decade ago, she was also going through it.

On another note, an author I met two years ago and whom I like a lot is coming to town. Hank Phillippi Ryan, a broadcast journalist in Boston who has now written three novels about an investigative broadcast journalist in Boston who solves murders, will be at The Mystery Company in two weeks and is going to Bouchercon in October. I really look forward to seeing her again.

So that's me for now. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Some helpful advice

I went to an author talk and book-signing this evening to hear a totally delightful author named Julie Kramer. She has two books out in a series -- STALKING SUSAN and MISSING MARK. And, like me, she is a journalist. She done quite well for herself, having gotten great reviews for her first book, published last year, and is now out promoting the second, published this summer.

I bought her first book, of course, and had it signed. And I plan to purchase the second book after I finish reading the first.

I asked a lot of questions afterwards and would have stayed to ask more except that the store was closing up shop. But she gave me a couple of very good pieces of advice -- one which I knew (and hadn't yet totally taken to heart) and one which is new to me and will probably prove to be very helpful.

The first is to be able to describe your novel in a single sentence. I know that but I have a hard time coming up with a single thought to express the entire work. Julie, who didn't outline her first novel ahead of time but did outline the second (mostly, apparently, because the editor insisted), came up with a single line for her novel BEFORE she wrote the manuscript and before she even knew who the killer was. I didn't do that.

In fact, now that I think of it, I don't even write the headline for my stories until after I have written it. I have a hard time thinking of my writing in such a simple, direct way. However, I do know I will have a hard time getting someone interested in my work without that simple, direct statement.

I came up with something back in March -- actually, my wife, the marketing diva, came up with it back in March -- and I am going to revisit that, re-familiarize myself with it and go forward with it to see how it works.

I gave Julie my card, which I'm sure she will promptly lose, and told her I will see her at Bouchercon in October and would have a sentence for her by then.

The other piece of advice was new to me but was also excellent. She said read the debut novel of my favorite successful authors to focus on why their characters intrigued me. What wonderful advice. My favorite novel is TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. And while it was not John Le Carre's first novel, it was the first in a series. And I love the way he developed interesting characters that I cared about. It is very character-driven and, if he were trying to get his first novel published today, would probably have a hard because there is so much backstory and so little action. But it is still an excellent book. I read it every 18 months to two years or so.

And I have looked at Janet Evanovich's first Stephanie Plum novel. It is in first person and I write in third but there is something urgent about the way she introduces characters and plot quickly, even before you are totally aware of it.

I will have to give the entire idea of reading deovels some thought and, perhaps, will let you know how it goes.

Talking to a successful novelist has its ups and downs. The downside, of course, is the question of why I haven't made that jump yet. There is a certain envy going on there. But the upside is that someone has made it and so there is no reason to think I can't.

So I will stay positive and keep working. And so should you.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Racing anthology

As you know, I am in the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime, and SinC is publishing another racing anthology next year, BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD. For the anthology, I wrote a story (which is too long) and edited the fact inserts that will go between the stories.

Just yesterday I just got the first electronic printout of the anthology to look over. And for the first time I saw my name listed as an author. It was exciting. Just think! Me? A published author. Wow.

I just back from vacation and was busy with work all day today and haven't had the time to look over the printout yet but I hope to get to it by Friday, or at least by the weekend. I know I don't have to look over it all but I plan to read the entire 176 pages. After we send in any changes or corrections who have, the publisher will make the changes and then we will proof it again.

I am coming along slowly with the marketing committee and one member had to drop out yesterday due to health reasons. But we will muster on. I still want the plan in place my October so we can really push forward during Bouchercon.

Just think, in eight months I will no longer just be an aspiring novelist. I will be a published author and aspiring novelist. Sounds great to me.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

The perfect book (perhaps)

Tucked away in a small area the size of a walk-in closet on the east end of the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia is a wonderful seller of new and used books. I try to visit the site whenever I am in the Terminal Market, which is an expereince in and of itself. There are hundreds of volumes cramped into the bookseller's little space. And there are gems to be found, though it takes some effort.

There are some broad categories -- fiction, religion and the occult, African-American, history, poetry, classics, Civil War, to name a few. But the books don't seem to be arranged in any decernible manner. On one wall -- and all the walls are small -- I found D.H. Lawrence and Dan Brown, Alice Walker and Agatha Christie, T.S. Elliot and somene named Mervin X.

There are new books and old, used books. Everything seemed dusty and everything, judging from the many volumes I picked up and examined, was overpriced -- way overpriced!

Which is why I spent so much time weighing whether to buy one book, which at the moment is nearly a perfect book for me. It is THE ART OF RENOIR by Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia. Published by the Barnes Foundation in the 1930s and undoubtedly out of print for my entire lifetime, the book I saw was an early edition but not a first edition. And the bookseller wanted $25.

Since I might be able to find a copy at the Foundation and if not, perhaps, somewhere online, I decided against buying it. And if nothing else, I can have someone go back to the Reading Terminal Market to get it.

In the book, Barnes analyzes Renoir paintings. And he should have some insight into the subject. The Barnes Foundation collection has more than 180 Renior paintings.

But it is particularly good for me at the moment as I continue writing my current novel, THE DEATH OF ART, which involves the murder of a woman who works at the Barnes. Even without that, it looked like a fascinating book that I might like to have just because.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Persistence

Reading Donald Maass is quite informative, and somewhat depressing. His book, WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL, doesn't pull any punches. And frankly, it shouldn't. But that doesn't mean it is any easier to take.


Regardless of all the practical information -- and there is a lot -- the one overriding impression I have gotten so far is that you must be persistent -- persistent in working to improve your craft, persistent is advancing your craft and persistent in promoting your craft.

I wish there was a shortcut for that. But, of course, there isn't.

And in the end, persistence is the reason I started this blog and is the one piece of advice I want to continually offer to any readers who happen upon my postings, as well as to myself.

So thanks again, Donald Maass. Perhaps I will have the chance to thank you in person in October at Bouchercon in Indianapolis (and maybe have you sign my book).

Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.

Purchasing another book

Amongst the e-mails I got today was one from Writer's Digest promoting an August discount for online courses. And the course this particular promotion was for is called "Writing the Breakout Novel." It starts in about two-and-a-half weeks and will use Donald Maass' bestselling book of the same as a guide.

Now I would love to take an online class. I would particularly like a course on writing a breakout novel. But money is money and I don't have a lot to spare. I have to be quite strategic in my spending. It's why I'm not in Tampa this week for NABJ's annual convention. And even with the $25 August discount, the course will still cost more than $300. That is more than I care to spend particularly when there are other options.

Since the course is based on Maass' book, it is cheaper to just buy the book and read it. It is a bestseller, as I mentioned before, and is available at Borders for $16.95. It is discounted to something like $11.99 at Amazon.com, but with the delay in getting the book -- I only have to drive two miles to the nearest Borders, which takes only minutes, as compared to several days for delivery from Amazon -- and the cost of shipping, it makes sense to just go buy the book.

But once I have the book, what then? The problem with self-improvement books is that they take time to read and have so much information it can be difficult to remember and condense it all. And I am impatient to get started on using the tools the book will provide.

There is an added problem, however, at least for me. It is the problem of reading and studying how to write a breakout novel and NOT actually writing the breakout novel. I have learned so much about publishing in the last two years but it hasn't seemed to have moved me any closer to getting an agent or in getting published. And that is frustrating. How will this book be any different for me?

Having said all that, after I finish this post I am off to Borders to buy Donald Maass' book. (I put it on hold for two days.) Maass will be at Bouchercon in October and is giving a workshop. Between the workshop and purchasing the book, I will have saved a lot more money than I would spend on taking an online course. And I will get to meet the author.

That's a bargain that is hard to beat.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.