I was in the publisher's warehouse last week on the day when the first copies of BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD arrived from the printer and I took a couple of copies for promotional purposes. When I opened the first copy I had, it was on a page of my story, "The Missing CD."
I have been a journalist for many, many years and have seen my name in print countless times. I even have copies of my by lined stories from The New York Times. But this was different. The Missing CD is my first piece of published fiction. And I was thrilled.
I could complain about some of the copy editing but I won't because it doesn't matter. And because, overall, the book and my story look great. It is exciting to see this project reach its next stage. It's produced and is being distributed to bookstores and now we are in a big publicity push.
In addition to the launch party on June 12, we have another signing at a bookstore in Fishers in July. The editors have been on one local television program, and I anticipate newspaper articles in Muncie, Mooresville, and in two small papers in Indianapolis. An editor at The Star has a hand-delivered copy for review and I am hoping that a friend from my days at the paper will cover the launch party. (She is a social columnist now.)
I have my free copy and autographed it and sent it to my mother, who is in California on vacation and won't be back before the launch party. Three days ago I helped write out the invitations for the party, which are now in the mail. So, things are moving along.
What remains and what I plan to work on this week is getting more signings, expanding some coverage to other Sisters in Crime chapters and helping, if necessary, with the book trailer video. A local band is writing a song to specifically perform for the video.
So, what's next on the author front? I am still seeking an agent for AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. I plan to keep up the pressure with that. Plus I will read through it once more this week and decide if there is anymore I can do with it and it not, move on to my next project, which currently is untitled.
I plan to keep moving forward with efforts at getting a novel published. But I am also savoring the feeling of being a published author. It feels good.
Have a good Memorial Day. Enjoy your summer and thanks for reading.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Excerpt of "The Missing CD"
When I started blogging in December 2007, I intended to chronicle the struggles, trials and successes of an aspiring novelist. For the most part, I think I have done that -- though a few more successes would be welcome. However, I'm still in the process.
This is my 200th posting since I started blogging and so I decided to present to my readers an excerpt from my short story, "The Missing CD." This is from the last e-mail I got before the story went to the copy editor. I don't remember there being any major changes.
This story is in the upcoming racing anthology, BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD. All the stories in the anthology relate in some manner to the Brickyard 400 stock car race in Indianapolis each summer, or to NASCAR. The book should be in local bookstores in two weeks, and is available now on Amazon, as well as on the Borders, and Barnes and Noble websites.
The launch party for the anthology is Saturday, June 12, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Carmel on US 31 North. I hope to see some of you there. And I hope you enjoy the story.
Michael
___
The Missing CD
by
M. B. Dabney
Award-winning journalist M. B. Dabney is an avid race fan whose writing has appeared in the Indianapolis Star, NUVO, The Indianapolis Business Journal, EBONY magazine, and BlackEnterprise.com. He is an officer in the Speed City Indiana chapter of Sisters in Crime and recently completed, A Murderous Dispatch, a mystery novel set in a black newspaper. He lives in Indiana with his wife, two daughters, and their dog, Pluto.
Barbara Jean was the best waitress at Rosie’s Roadside Diner on Highway 77 north of Talladega, Alabama, near the interstate. She knew all the regulars and was cheerful and welcoming to a fault. And she was particularly happy about having her one-time high school sweetheart, Bobby Lee Stevenson, having breakfast at the diner.
Barbara Jean offered Bobby Lee a big smile as she approached a booth near the back. She carried a plate full of flapjacks in her right hand, and on her forearm, balanced a plate of fried eggs sunny-side up, four strips of bacon, and an order of grits. She set the glass of orange juice in her left hand on the table before placing the plates of food in front of Bobby Lee.
“Here you go, darlin.’” Barbara Jean called everyone ‘darlin’ these days. “You need anything else?”
“No, Barbara Jean. Thanks.”
One of the old men up front in the restaurant yelled to Bobby Lee.
“Why you down here, boy?”
Bobby Lee, who looked a lot like Cary Grant early in his film career, hadn’t lived in Alabama since his father moved their struggling NASCAR team, Johnny Eldon Stevenson Racing, to North Carolina, 10 years earlier.
“Just visiting some family. One of my cousins is sick,” he said, charging headlong into the food. “You know him. My cousin, Eldon, named after grandpa. And we got a weekend off this week before heading up to Indianapolis for the Brickyard.”
Another old guy said, “You guys looked pretty good last weekend. If it weren’t for that damned fool Tony Stewart crashin’ Kevin out you might have won that Chicago race.”
“We’ll get ‘em next weekend,” Bobby Lee said. “Our guy’s a pretty good driver. We’ll get there.”
The good folks of Talladega considered the Stevenson's a hometown team and no one wanted to mention the team’s fall from grace. For lack of sponsorship, the team was forced to hire a third-rate driver named Kevin Holmes who came with his own sponsorship money from a Southern grocery store chain. That deal, which Bobby Lee arranged, financially saved the team.
Rosie’s was surprisingly busy for mid-day on a Tuesday. A regular crowd of senior citizens was up front having donuts and coffee and talking NASCAR with two truckers, who were having full meals. But there was a lone man, a stranger, sitting at the counter toward the back eating the steak and eggs special, enjoying black coffee and reading the local sports page. He was tall and thin, and wore blue jeans. His cowboy hat was on the counter next to him.
“You finished, darlin’?” Barbara Jean asked Bobby Lee when she saw that he was done. Then she added with a slight flirt, “You need anythin’ else?”
“No, I’m fine, Barbara Jean,” he said, ignoring the come-on. “Just leave the check on the table for me while I go hit the john real quick.”
She nodded, wrote the check, and left it on the table as he headed to the restroom.
Bobby Lee spent a few moments in the restroom. No one was looking his way as he came out. And no one noticed he was carrying a white business-sized envelope in his right hand. As he passed the stranger at the counter, he dropped the envelope on the red vinyl stool next to him. The man didn’t look down and Bobby Lee kept walking. Once at his table, Bobby Lee grabbed his check and headed to the front to pay.
The cash register was on the end of a counter near the entrance and Bobby Lee had the crowd's attention as he walked up. He gave Barbara Jean a knowing smile as he paid the bill and tipped her more than 25 percent.
As everyone else in the joint was fawning over Bobby Lee, the stranger reached for the envelope, opened the flap and looked inside. He saw the left half of 10, nonsequential 500 dollar bills, and a picture of a newspaper sports columnist from Indianapolis named Henry Rennert.
The man with the cowboy hat tucked the envelope in his inside jacket pocket and motioned to Barbara Jean to refill his coffee. It was bitter tasting because it had been sitting on the warmer too long, but he drank it anyway. He was facing a 10-hour drive and needed to stay awake and alert. And once he arrived at his destination, there was work to do before he completed his job.
Three days later, on Friday morning, Henry Rennert was found dead in his Speedway home. Police said Rennert apparently was shot after walking in on someone burglarizing his home.
Friday, May 21, 2010
50 iconic writers who were repeatedly rejected
This was posted on the Internet earlier this week and I planned to comment on it here on my blog but decided to pretty much let it speak for itself. I may never write a Great American Novel, let alone ever get one published. But here are 50 reasons I don't feel like a nincompoop.
Have a good weekend. Thanks for reading and don't give up writing.
___
From Onlinecollege.org on May 17, 2010.
50 Iconic writers who were repeatedly rejected.
Here are 50 well-respected writers who were told no several times, but didn't give up.
1.Dr. Seuss: Here you'll find a list of all the books that Dr. Seuss' publisher rejected.
2.William Golding: William Golding's Lord of the Flies was rejected 20 times before becoming published.
3.James Joyce: James Joyce's Ulysses was judged obscene and rejected by several publishers.
4.Isaac Asimov: Several of Asimov's stories were rejected, never sold, or eventually lost.
5.John le Carre: John le Carre's first novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, was passed along because le Carre "hasn't got any future."
6.Jasper Fforde: Jasper Fforde racked up 76 rejections before getting The Eyre Affair published.
7.William Saroyan: William Saroyan received an astonishing 7,000 rejection slips before selling his first short story.
8.Jack Kerouac: Some of Kerouac's work was rejected as pornographic.
9.Joseph Heller: Joseph Heller wrote a story as a teenager that was rejected by the New York Daily News.
10.Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows was not intended to be published, and was rejected in America before appearing in England.
11.James Baldwin: James Baldwin’s Giovanni's Room was called "hopelessly bad."
12.Ursula K. Le Guin: An editor told Ursula K. Le Guin that The Left Hand of Darkness was "endlessly complicated."
13.Pearl S. Buck: Pearl Buck's first novel, East Wind: West Wind received rejections from all but one publisher in New York.
14.Louisa May Alcott: Louisa May Alcott was told to stick to teaching.
15.Isaac Bashevis Singer: Before winning the Nobel Prize, Isaac Bashevis Singer was rejected by publishers.
16.Agatha Christie: Agatha Christie had to wait four years for her first book to be published.
17.Tony Hillerman: Tony Hillerman was told to "get rid of the Indian stuff."
18.Zane Grey: Zane Grey self-published his first book after dozens of rejections.
19.Marcel Proust: Marcel Proust was rejected so much he decided to pay for publication himself.
20.Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen: Chicken Soup for the Soul received 134 rejections.
21.William Faulkner: William Faulkner's book, Sanctuary, was called unpublishable.
22.Patrick Dennis: Auntie Mame got 17 rejections.
23.Meg Cabot: The bestselling author of The Princess Diaries keeps a mail bag of rejection letters.
24.Richard Bach: 18 publishers thought a book about a seagull was ridiculous before Jonathan Livingston Seagull was picked up.
25.Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Peter Rabbit had to be published by Potter herself.
26.John Grisham: John Grisham's A Time to Kill was rejected by 16 publishers before finding an agent who eventually rejected him as well.
27.Shannon Hale: Shannon Hale was rejected and revised a number of times before Bloomsbury published The Goose Girl.
28.Richard Hooker: The book that inspired the film and TV show M*A*S*H* was denied by 21 publishers.
29.Jorge Luis Borges: It's a good thing not everyone thought Mr. Borges' work was "utterly untranslatable."
30.Thor Heyerdahl: Several publishers thought Kon-Tiki was not interesting enough.
31.Vladmir Nabokov: Lolita was rejected by 5 publishers in fear of prosecution for obscenity before being published in Paris.
32.Laurence Peter: Laurence Peter had 22 rejections before finding success with The Peter Principles.
33.D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers faced rejection, and D.H. Lawrence didn't take it easily.
34.Richard Doddridge Blackmore: This much-repeated story was turned down 18 times before getting published.
35.Sylvia Plath: Sylvia Plath had several rejected poem titles.
36.Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance faced an amazing 121 rejections before becoming beloved by millions of readers.
37.James Patterson: Patterson was rejected by more than a dozen publishers before an agent he found in a newspaper article sold it.
38.Gertrude Stein: Gertrude Stein submitted poems for 22 years before having one accepted.
39.E.E. Cummings: E.E. Cummings named the 14 publishers who rejected No Thanks in the book itself.
40.Judy Blume: Judy Blum received nothing but rejections for two years and can't look at Highlights without wincing.
41.Irving Stone: Irving Stone's Lust for Life was rejected by 16 different editors.
42.Madeline L'Engle: Madeline L'Engle's masterpiece A Wrinkle in Time faced rejection 26 times before willing the Newberry Medal.
43.Rudyard Kipling: In one rejection letter, Mr. Kipling was told he doesn't know how to use the English language.
44.J.K. Rowling: J.K. Rowling submitted Harry Potter to 12 publishing houses, all of which rejected it.
45.Frank Herbert: Before reaching print, Frank Herbert's Dune was rejected 20 times.
46.Stephen King: Stephen King filed away his first full length novel The Long Walk after it was rejected.
47.Richard Adams: Richard Adams's two daughters encouraged him to publish Watership Down as a book, but 13 publishers didn't agree.
48.Anne Frank: One of the most famous people to live in an attic, Anne Frank's diary had 15 rejections.
49.Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind was faced rejection 38 times.
50.Alex Haley: The Roots author wrote every day for 8 years before finding success.
Have a good weekend. Thanks for reading and don't give up writing.
___
From Onlinecollege.org on May 17, 2010.
50 Iconic writers who were repeatedly rejected.
Here are 50 well-respected writers who were told no several times, but didn't give up.
1.Dr. Seuss: Here you'll find a list of all the books that Dr. Seuss' publisher rejected.
2.William Golding: William Golding's Lord of the Flies was rejected 20 times before becoming published.
3.James Joyce: James Joyce's Ulysses was judged obscene and rejected by several publishers.
4.Isaac Asimov: Several of Asimov's stories were rejected, never sold, or eventually lost.
5.John le Carre: John le Carre's first novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, was passed along because le Carre "hasn't got any future."
6.Jasper Fforde: Jasper Fforde racked up 76 rejections before getting The Eyre Affair published.
7.William Saroyan: William Saroyan received an astonishing 7,000 rejection slips before selling his first short story.
8.Jack Kerouac: Some of Kerouac's work was rejected as pornographic.
9.Joseph Heller: Joseph Heller wrote a story as a teenager that was rejected by the New York Daily News.
10.Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows was not intended to be published, and was rejected in America before appearing in England.
11.James Baldwin: James Baldwin’s Giovanni's Room was called "hopelessly bad."
12.Ursula K. Le Guin: An editor told Ursula K. Le Guin that The Left Hand of Darkness was "endlessly complicated."
13.Pearl S. Buck: Pearl Buck's first novel, East Wind: West Wind received rejections from all but one publisher in New York.
14.Louisa May Alcott: Louisa May Alcott was told to stick to teaching.
15.Isaac Bashevis Singer: Before winning the Nobel Prize, Isaac Bashevis Singer was rejected by publishers.
16.Agatha Christie: Agatha Christie had to wait four years for her first book to be published.
17.Tony Hillerman: Tony Hillerman was told to "get rid of the Indian stuff."
18.Zane Grey: Zane Grey self-published his first book after dozens of rejections.
19.Marcel Proust: Marcel Proust was rejected so much he decided to pay for publication himself.
20.Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen: Chicken Soup for the Soul received 134 rejections.
21.William Faulkner: William Faulkner's book, Sanctuary, was called unpublishable.
22.Patrick Dennis: Auntie Mame got 17 rejections.
23.Meg Cabot: The bestselling author of The Princess Diaries keeps a mail bag of rejection letters.
24.Richard Bach: 18 publishers thought a book about a seagull was ridiculous before Jonathan Livingston Seagull was picked up.
25.Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Peter Rabbit had to be published by Potter herself.
26.John Grisham: John Grisham's A Time to Kill was rejected by 16 publishers before finding an agent who eventually rejected him as well.
27.Shannon Hale: Shannon Hale was rejected and revised a number of times before Bloomsbury published The Goose Girl.
28.Richard Hooker: The book that inspired the film and TV show M*A*S*H* was denied by 21 publishers.
29.Jorge Luis Borges: It's a good thing not everyone thought Mr. Borges' work was "utterly untranslatable."
30.Thor Heyerdahl: Several publishers thought Kon-Tiki was not interesting enough.
31.Vladmir Nabokov: Lolita was rejected by 5 publishers in fear of prosecution for obscenity before being published in Paris.
32.Laurence Peter: Laurence Peter had 22 rejections before finding success with The Peter Principles.
33.D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers faced rejection, and D.H. Lawrence didn't take it easily.
34.Richard Doddridge Blackmore: This much-repeated story was turned down 18 times before getting published.
35.Sylvia Plath: Sylvia Plath had several rejected poem titles.
36.Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance faced an amazing 121 rejections before becoming beloved by millions of readers.
37.James Patterson: Patterson was rejected by more than a dozen publishers before an agent he found in a newspaper article sold it.
38.Gertrude Stein: Gertrude Stein submitted poems for 22 years before having one accepted.
39.E.E. Cummings: E.E. Cummings named the 14 publishers who rejected No Thanks in the book itself.
40.Judy Blume: Judy Blum received nothing but rejections for two years and can't look at Highlights without wincing.
41.Irving Stone: Irving Stone's Lust for Life was rejected by 16 different editors.
42.Madeline L'Engle: Madeline L'Engle's masterpiece A Wrinkle in Time faced rejection 26 times before willing the Newberry Medal.
43.Rudyard Kipling: In one rejection letter, Mr. Kipling was told he doesn't know how to use the English language.
44.J.K. Rowling: J.K. Rowling submitted Harry Potter to 12 publishing houses, all of which rejected it.
45.Frank Herbert: Before reaching print, Frank Herbert's Dune was rejected 20 times.
46.Stephen King: Stephen King filed away his first full length novel The Long Walk after it was rejected.
47.Richard Adams: Richard Adams's two daughters encouraged him to publish Watership Down as a book, but 13 publishers didn't agree.
48.Anne Frank: One of the most famous people to live in an attic, Anne Frank's diary had 15 rejections.
49.Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind was faced rejection 38 times.
50.Alex Haley: The Roots author wrote every day for 8 years before finding success.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
BEDLAM
I was finally able to upload this image of the front and back covers of BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, thanks to my friend Seth (who always tells me I should get a MAC). The anthology will be in local bookstores during the week before Father's Day. (What a great gift idea!) The launch party is June 12.
I compiled and edited the factoids between the 15 short stories in the book, which was edited by Brenda Stewart and Wanda Lou Willis. They will appear on a local television (Channel 8) program tomorrow from 8 a.m to 9 a.m. to discuss the book and the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime.
Thanks for reading.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Foto befuddled
I am foto befuddled today.
I had planned to include in this post photos of the front and back covers of BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, the racing anthology the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime is publishing next month. It's a nice cover -- much better than the drawing you'd see if you pre-ordered the book on Amazon. (I don't know if anyone has.)
I finally saw the covers last night in an e-mail. I downloaded them to my laptop and tried repeatedly to upload them either into my blog or onto my Facebook page. But the covers are not jpeg files and can't be uploaded. Or, at least I haven't figured out how to do it yet. But I plan to. (I can e-mail them as an attachment, however. But there are too many people out there for me to e-mail. FB and my blog are easier.)
I am quite excited, however. As the book cover states, there are 15 stories of "bedlam, bafflement and bewilderment" in the anthology, all related either to the Brickyard 400 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway each summer or to NASCAR. All the stories are by members of Speed City SinC and edited by award-winning author Brenda Robertson Stewart and Wanda Lou Willis.
In between the stories are factoids -- historical narratives and statistical charts that I compiled and edited. Plus my story, "The Missing CD," is short story No. 12 in the book. I like the story and soon will post an excerpt of the story in my blog. And, of course, once the book is out I will be a published author.
HOORAY for me!
The launch party for the anthology is now scheduled for Saturday, June 12, at the Barnes and Noble bookstore on US 31 in Carmel. Many of the contributing authors will be there to autograph copies and, most importantly, there will be eats. So, if you are out that way on June 12, please stop by. And if not, buy a copy online. All the proceeds will go to support the education program of the chapter.
Brenda and Wanda will be on a local television this week and I am working on getting more coverage, and in arranging some book-signings. Part of my publicity effort will focus on promoting the book via the Internet, which means I need to GET A FREAKIN' COPY OF THE COVER ON MY BLOG! I am also working on doing some author interviews online, perhaps some audio excerpts and maybe a simple book trailer.
More on that later. For now, thanks for reading.
I had planned to include in this post photos of the front and back covers of BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, the racing anthology the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime is publishing next month. It's a nice cover -- much better than the drawing you'd see if you pre-ordered the book on Amazon. (I don't know if anyone has.)
I finally saw the covers last night in an e-mail. I downloaded them to my laptop and tried repeatedly to upload them either into my blog or onto my Facebook page. But the covers are not jpeg files and can't be uploaded. Or, at least I haven't figured out how to do it yet. But I plan to. (I can e-mail them as an attachment, however. But there are too many people out there for me to e-mail. FB and my blog are easier.)
I am quite excited, however. As the book cover states, there are 15 stories of "bedlam, bafflement and bewilderment" in the anthology, all related either to the Brickyard 400 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway each summer or to NASCAR. All the stories are by members of Speed City SinC and edited by award-winning author Brenda Robertson Stewart and Wanda Lou Willis.
In between the stories are factoids -- historical narratives and statistical charts that I compiled and edited. Plus my story, "The Missing CD," is short story No. 12 in the book. I like the story and soon will post an excerpt of the story in my blog. And, of course, once the book is out I will be a published author.
HOORAY for me!
The launch party for the anthology is now scheduled for Saturday, June 12, at the Barnes and Noble bookstore on US 31 in Carmel. Many of the contributing authors will be there to autograph copies and, most importantly, there will be eats. So, if you are out that way on June 12, please stop by. And if not, buy a copy online. All the proceeds will go to support the education program of the chapter.
Brenda and Wanda will be on a local television this week and I am working on getting more coverage, and in arranging some book-signings. Part of my publicity effort will focus on promoting the book via the Internet, which means I need to GET A FREAKIN' COPY OF THE COVER ON MY BLOG! I am also working on doing some author interviews online, perhaps some audio excerpts and maybe a simple book trailer.
More on that later. For now, thanks for reading.
What's next? Part III
In addition to some freelance work I need to finish this week, today I started a query letter to another agent from my A-list. All query letters must be carefully written but this agent has some very specific instructions on her website regarding how a query should look. So I am being particularly careful with this letter.
I also started some preliminary work on something new.
When I wrote AN UNTIDY AFFAIR back in November, I intended for it to be a one-off project. It was just that novel and nothing more. As I finished and started thinking about my next project, I was unsure as whether to go back and complete THE DEATH OF ART, the novel I had been working on prior to AFFAIR, or whether to start something new. I love DOA and it is half done. But I was undecided.
Well, I have decided to leave DOA on the shelf for the moment and write another novel with David Blaise, the protagonist in AFFAIR. In fact, this novel will be a prequel. It will be another murder mystery and will be set again in Philadelphia but several years before AFFAIR. And it will provide some very valuable background into Blaise, how he became a private eye and why he has problems with woman.
I generally don't like to outline stories but today I started outlining the story for the novel. Just as with AFFAIR, it will be a loose outline but will, in the end, probably be longer than the 10-page, handwritten outline I did for AFFAIR.
The story will be based on a sentence in the first chapter of AFFAIR. It was a throw-off sentence. It was just something that came to mind suddenly regarding a relative Blaise doesn't like but for whom he once did an unspecified favor. I wrote the sentence and rarely gave it another thought. But now, I plan to explore what that favor was.
I have no idea what I will title this project. I don't even have a temporary title. I plan to explore many aspects of the story as I outline it in the coming weeks but I have an overall idea what it's about and I'm excited about that.
So, as I continue querying agents, I will prepare to plunge into something new. I think that's the best way to go. Do the best I can with what I'm working on until it's done and then move on. And at the moment, from a creative standpoint, I am done with AFFAIR.
It's about time to move on.
Thanks for reading and keep writing.
I also started some preliminary work on something new.
When I wrote AN UNTIDY AFFAIR back in November, I intended for it to be a one-off project. It was just that novel and nothing more. As I finished and started thinking about my next project, I was unsure as whether to go back and complete THE DEATH OF ART, the novel I had been working on prior to AFFAIR, or whether to start something new. I love DOA and it is half done. But I was undecided.
Well, I have decided to leave DOA on the shelf for the moment and write another novel with David Blaise, the protagonist in AFFAIR. In fact, this novel will be a prequel. It will be another murder mystery and will be set again in Philadelphia but several years before AFFAIR. And it will provide some very valuable background into Blaise, how he became a private eye and why he has problems with woman.
I generally don't like to outline stories but today I started outlining the story for the novel. Just as with AFFAIR, it will be a loose outline but will, in the end, probably be longer than the 10-page, handwritten outline I did for AFFAIR.
The story will be based on a sentence in the first chapter of AFFAIR. It was a throw-off sentence. It was just something that came to mind suddenly regarding a relative Blaise doesn't like but for whom he once did an unspecified favor. I wrote the sentence and rarely gave it another thought. But now, I plan to explore what that favor was.
I have no idea what I will title this project. I don't even have a temporary title. I plan to explore many aspects of the story as I outline it in the coming weeks but I have an overall idea what it's about and I'm excited about that.
So, as I continue querying agents, I will prepare to plunge into something new. I think that's the best way to go. Do the best I can with what I'm working on until it's done and then move on. And at the moment, from a creative standpoint, I am done with AFFAIR.
It's about time to move on.
Thanks for reading and keep writing.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Rejections II
I have been popular in the last two days. I got three e-mail rejections. In fact, if you consider the timing in terms of open business hours instead of calendar days, the rejections came less than two hours apart. The first one was after 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon, and the other two came before 9:45 this morning.
I am only slightly bummed out but not particularly sad. I have gotten multiple rejections before and perhaps will again. I'm just trying to stay positive and ship off my query letters.
One of the rejections this morning was from an agent who rejected DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL back in July 2008. (I mention it in my first posting titled "Rejections.") So I know it was a form letter. But, it was an response. By my calculations, at least 50 percent of my query letters never get a response.
So, have a nice weekend. I hope to have dinner or drinks from an old friend from high school either Saturday or Sunday. And I have more queries to do.
Keep positive and keep busy writing.
Thanks for reading.
I am only slightly bummed out but not particularly sad. I have gotten multiple rejections before and perhaps will again. I'm just trying to stay positive and ship off my query letters.
One of the rejections this morning was from an agent who rejected DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL back in July 2008. (I mention it in my first posting titled "Rejections.") So I know it was a form letter. But, it was an response. By my calculations, at least 50 percent of my query letters never get a response.
So, have a nice weekend. I hope to have dinner or drinks from an old friend from high school either Saturday or Sunday. And I have more queries to do.
Keep positive and keep busy writing.
Thanks for reading.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
MOVE
First of all, MOVE is not an acronym. If I'm not mistaken, the full name is On the MOVE.
Today is May 13. And MOVE, a radical, urban, back-to-nature group -- yes, I realize that urban and back-to-nature in this case is an oxymoron -- had its last major confrontation with Philadelphia police 25 years ago on May 13, 1985.
City authorities wanted to evict MOVE members from their West Philly home. After a day-long confrontation (with authorities using bullets and full-pressure water hoses), police dropped a satchel of explosives -- read: bomb -- on the roof of the MOVE house in a misguided attempt to knock a fortified bunker off the top of the building. The attempt failed.
The bunker and the roof caught fire. The fire department did not immediately turn on water hoses once the blaze became apparent and, ultimately, the burning bunker collapsed into the second story of the structure instead of falling off of the house and into the street, as officials had hoped.
The resulting fire eventually went to five or six alarms, destroyed 61 houses, left 250 people homeless and cost 11 people, including five children, their lives. All of the dead were from the MOVE house.
Though the neighborhood was rebuilt, it was shoddy and now, 25 years later, the city owns 37 of the rebuilt houses and apparently has left them abandoned.
I mention this because the MOVE confrontation plays a minor, yet crucial role in my current novel, AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. Affair is a murder mystery and isn't in the least bit a political novel. But when I decided to have it set in Philadelphia, I wanted to use a major event as a backdrop for the developing murder story. And there is no event in Philly's recent history -- say, the last 50 years -- that is bigger than the 1985 MOVE confrontation.
In my novel, there is another body found in the debris left by the bombing and fire, though it is not in the MOVE house. It is in a house further down the block. Figuring out who it is and why they were killed is the mystery in the book.
I don't mind using that sad day as a prop in my story. It's attention-getting. And it is the biggest story I have ever covered.
But as I reflect on that day and the days that immediately followed, I remember working the story. I remember standing with other reporters watching the entire neighborhood burn to the ground. I remember a day or so later standing with a resident in front of the remains of her property. The only thing that was vaguely recognizable was the burnt frame of a window air-conditioner. Everything else she had was gone. And I remember standing on some one's porch looking down the block of burned down houses as the coroner removed the first of the 11 dead bodies. I wasn't suppose to be on the porch -- officials restricted the media's access -- but a kindly elderly woman let me into her home and I was the first journalist in the world to report that they had dead bodies and were moving them.
I hoped then that my reporting and writing accurately described the events without bias. And as an author, I hope my readers one day get a sense of the misery of that day and the following days. I made one of the characters in my book a resident whose house was destroyed. It was a time of incredible sadness but I still had a job to do and I think I did it well, remaining fair and balanced. I was respectful of the victims and didn't pull any punches for those responsible, though several of the city officials I respected and one or two I really liked.
Anyway, those are my thought for the day, in addition to the fact that I got a rejection e-mail today from one of my B-list agents. No big deal. I sent her a quick thank you e-mail and moved on.
Thanks for reading today and keep on the MOVE.
Today is May 13. And MOVE, a radical, urban, back-to-nature group -- yes, I realize that urban and back-to-nature in this case is an oxymoron -- had its last major confrontation with Philadelphia police 25 years ago on May 13, 1985.
City authorities wanted to evict MOVE members from their West Philly home. After a day-long confrontation (with authorities using bullets and full-pressure water hoses), police dropped a satchel of explosives -- read: bomb -- on the roof of the MOVE house in a misguided attempt to knock a fortified bunker off the top of the building. The attempt failed.
The bunker and the roof caught fire. The fire department did not immediately turn on water hoses once the blaze became apparent and, ultimately, the burning bunker collapsed into the second story of the structure instead of falling off of the house and into the street, as officials had hoped.
The resulting fire eventually went to five or six alarms, destroyed 61 houses, left 250 people homeless and cost 11 people, including five children, their lives. All of the dead were from the MOVE house.
Though the neighborhood was rebuilt, it was shoddy and now, 25 years later, the city owns 37 of the rebuilt houses and apparently has left them abandoned.
I mention this because the MOVE confrontation plays a minor, yet crucial role in my current novel, AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. Affair is a murder mystery and isn't in the least bit a political novel. But when I decided to have it set in Philadelphia, I wanted to use a major event as a backdrop for the developing murder story. And there is no event in Philly's recent history -- say, the last 50 years -- that is bigger than the 1985 MOVE confrontation.
In my novel, there is another body found in the debris left by the bombing and fire, though it is not in the MOVE house. It is in a house further down the block. Figuring out who it is and why they were killed is the mystery in the book.
I don't mind using that sad day as a prop in my story. It's attention-getting. And it is the biggest story I have ever covered.
But as I reflect on that day and the days that immediately followed, I remember working the story. I remember standing with other reporters watching the entire neighborhood burn to the ground. I remember a day or so later standing with a resident in front of the remains of her property. The only thing that was vaguely recognizable was the burnt frame of a window air-conditioner. Everything else she had was gone. And I remember standing on some one's porch looking down the block of burned down houses as the coroner removed the first of the 11 dead bodies. I wasn't suppose to be on the porch -- officials restricted the media's access -- but a kindly elderly woman let me into her home and I was the first journalist in the world to report that they had dead bodies and were moving them.
I hoped then that my reporting and writing accurately described the events without bias. And as an author, I hope my readers one day get a sense of the misery of that day and the following days. I made one of the characters in my book a resident whose house was destroyed. It was a time of incredible sadness but I still had a job to do and I think I did it well, remaining fair and balanced. I was respectful of the victims and didn't pull any punches for those responsible, though several of the city officials I respected and one or two I really liked.
Anyway, those are my thought for the day, in addition to the fact that I got a rejection e-mail today from one of my B-list agents. No big deal. I sent her a quick thank you e-mail and moved on.
Thanks for reading today and keep on the MOVE.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
A busy day
I have been busy today, researching story ideas to pitch to magazine and local newspaper editors, reading up on the latest news in the book industry, reading my friends' blogs and some agent blogs, and reading articles suggested in the current Sisters in Crime newsletter. Lastly, I have check my e-mail numerous for responses to my latest agent query letters.
What I haven't done is write. In fact, I haven't even opened my word processing software or called up either a draft query letter or my WIP.
It seems that the more I learn about being an author the more time I spend away from actually writing. I don't like that, of course. But it is a necessary thing.
Now it is true that I don't like writing much in the morning. I rarely write fiction in the morning and the last time I truly did any morning writing was last week when I was on deadline to finish a couple of articles for a newsletter I was working on.
But still I haven't even been using the creative part of my brain much today. Or at least not as it would relate to something I planned to write.
I know I am rambling on. But wish I could spend more time just writing instead of doing the business of making money through writing. It is a pipe dream that most writers undoubtedly share. But I'm just saying . . .
One final thought -- Nothing new on the health front. For several days I grew more and more anxious before my doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon. I was expecting good news but was prepared for bad news. But, I got no news. In fact, the doctor wondered why I had an appointment only six weeks after ending my radiation treatment. He said it was too soon to know anthing. I said I had the appointment because someone in his office set it up.
So, the good news is that I have no bad news. But I will have to wait some time now before I have any definite news.
I will mention it in this blog as is appropriate.
Thanks for reading and hang in there.
What I haven't done is write. In fact, I haven't even opened my word processing software or called up either a draft query letter or my WIP.
It seems that the more I learn about being an author the more time I spend away from actually writing. I don't like that, of course. But it is a necessary thing.
Now it is true that I don't like writing much in the morning. I rarely write fiction in the morning and the last time I truly did any morning writing was last week when I was on deadline to finish a couple of articles for a newsletter I was working on.
But still I haven't even been using the creative part of my brain much today. Or at least not as it would relate to something I planned to write.
I know I am rambling on. But wish I could spend more time just writing instead of doing the business of making money through writing. It is a pipe dream that most writers undoubtedly share. But I'm just saying . . .
One final thought -- Nothing new on the health front. For several days I grew more and more anxious before my doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon. I was expecting good news but was prepared for bad news. But, I got no news. In fact, the doctor wondered why I had an appointment only six weeks after ending my radiation treatment. He said it was too soon to know anthing. I said I had the appointment because someone in his office set it up.
So, the good news is that I have no bad news. But I will have to wait some time now before I have any definite news.
I will mention it in this blog as is appropriate.
Thanks for reading and hang in there.
Monday, May 10, 2010
It's late
It looks like the date for the launch party of BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, the racing anthology by the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime, will be pushed back from May 22 until sometime in June, perhaps to Father's Day weekend. The book is apparently at the printer but I still haven't seen the cover design. And while I have been told it is a vast improvement over what you see on Amazon.com if you want to pre-order -- and by all means, do pro-order -- the publisher hasn't released it to the chapter yet. So, we can't put it on our website, send out invitations and I can't order bookmarks and other materials to support the launch.
This is a bit distressing but I am told by others in the industry that's how things often work in publishing. So, this evening we will probably push back the date until we know we have the books in hand. That is, apparently, what the guy at Barnes and Noble store suggests.
I will update you all later on what is happening when I know it.
For now, thanks for reading.
NOTE: The decision has been made to postpone. More information later. mbd
This is a bit distressing but I am told by others in the industry that's how things often work in publishing. So, this evening we will probably push back the date until we know we have the books in hand. That is, apparently, what the guy at Barnes and Noble store suggests.
I will update you all later on what is happening when I know it.
For now, thanks for reading.
NOTE: The decision has been made to postpone. More information later. mbd
Saturday, May 8, 2010
My favorite character
In the Inkwell section of a recent Writer's Digest, they asked "If you had to pick just one, what's the best ingredient of a solid novel: The plot, premise, the style, the characters or the setting?"
The responses surprised me, though they shouldn't have. Some 50 percent said character, which, if I remember my math, means character equaled the combined total of all the others.
I shouldn't have been surprised, however, because I concentrate on character development more than anything else in a story. I do it, perhaps, to the detriment of other elements, like plot or pacing. The key is to show a character's, uh, character instead of telling the reader about a character's character.
I was thinking, who is my favorite character in fiction? Uncle Tom from UNCLE TOM'S CABIN is a good character, though in the black community he is much-maligned and generally misunderstood. But my true favorite is George Smiley.
I think Smiley first appears as a minor character in John LeCarre's first big international success, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. He was front and center in CALL FOR THE DEAD and several novels starting in the early 1970s.
Smiley was a professional spy and was introduced at a time when the spy archetype, in general, and a British spy, in particular, was James Bond. Bond was tall, handsome, charming, good with women, dashing, debonair. Smiley, on the other hand, was "breathtakingly ordinary." Divorced but with a beautiful, charming and intensely insecure wife who comes and goes in his life, Smiley was described as "short, fat and of a quiet disposition" and with a "fleshy, bespectacled face." His arms were too short or his sleeves were too long.
It was as if on a literary level Bond and Smiley were born twins, with Bond getting all the good traits and Smiley getting all the rest. Except, that Smiley was also exceptionally intelligent. Brilliant, really. His one true shortcoming was his wife, the Lady Ann Smiley.
(Read TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, my favorite novel, or SMILEY'S PEOPLE. Or see Sir Alec Guinness portray Smiley in the BBC TV/film versions of those novels. He was as brilliant as Smiley as he was as Obi-Wan Kenobi.)
I don't know if I can write a character as wonderfully complex, full-bodied and interesting as Smiley. But the favorite of my inventions is in my current novel, AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. She is a minor, though important character named Marie Toussaint. Marie is pretty, funny, shapely, considerate of elders, flirty and sexy. She is also insecure and impulsive. But acting without thought also saves her life.
Do you have any favorite characters? I'd love to know. Post a comment on my blog or my Facebook page.
Until then, thanks for reading and keep writing.
The responses surprised me, though they shouldn't have. Some 50 percent said character, which, if I remember my math, means character equaled the combined total of all the others.
I shouldn't have been surprised, however, because I concentrate on character development more than anything else in a story. I do it, perhaps, to the detriment of other elements, like plot or pacing. The key is to show a character's, uh, character instead of telling the reader about a character's character.
I was thinking, who is my favorite character in fiction? Uncle Tom from UNCLE TOM'S CABIN is a good character, though in the black community he is much-maligned and generally misunderstood. But my true favorite is George Smiley.
I think Smiley first appears as a minor character in John LeCarre's first big international success, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. He was front and center in CALL FOR THE DEAD and several novels starting in the early 1970s.
Smiley was a professional spy and was introduced at a time when the spy archetype, in general, and a British spy, in particular, was James Bond. Bond was tall, handsome, charming, good with women, dashing, debonair. Smiley, on the other hand, was "breathtakingly ordinary." Divorced but with a beautiful, charming and intensely insecure wife who comes and goes in his life, Smiley was described as "short, fat and of a quiet disposition" and with a "fleshy, bespectacled face." His arms were too short or his sleeves were too long.
It was as if on a literary level Bond and Smiley were born twins, with Bond getting all the good traits and Smiley getting all the rest. Except, that Smiley was also exceptionally intelligent. Brilliant, really. His one true shortcoming was his wife, the Lady Ann Smiley.
(Read TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, my favorite novel, or SMILEY'S PEOPLE. Or see Sir Alec Guinness portray Smiley in the BBC TV/film versions of those novels. He was as brilliant as Smiley as he was as Obi-Wan Kenobi.)
I don't know if I can write a character as wonderfully complex, full-bodied and interesting as Smiley. But the favorite of my inventions is in my current novel, AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. She is a minor, though important character named Marie Toussaint. Marie is pretty, funny, shapely, considerate of elders, flirty and sexy. She is also insecure and impulsive. But acting without thought also saves her life.
Do you have any favorite characters? I'd love to know. Post a comment on my blog or my Facebook page.
Until then, thanks for reading and keep writing.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
How stupid!!!!!
I am a complete idiot. I truly am. I don't know how to explain the depth of my stupidity.
I broke a cardinal rule in query letters. I had a typo. It was careless. And it was in the last eight letters I sent.
I have poured and poured over my letter, tailoring it to each agent. But the offending word is in a standard sentence about my writing past. It isn't a sentence I change because my past hasn't changed.
Though I have read the sentence a MILLION times, I never saw until 15 minutes that I used the word 'with' when I meant 'work.' How could I be so stupid?
Everything -- EVERYTHING! -- I have done in the past week to find an agent is now for nothing. I would say I hate myself but it's late and I don't have the energy.
Thanks for reading. (For now, that's all I can say.)
I broke a cardinal rule in query letters. I had a typo. It was careless. And it was in the last eight letters I sent.
I have poured and poured over my letter, tailoring it to each agent. But the offending word is in a standard sentence about my writing past. It isn't a sentence I change because my past hasn't changed.
Though I have read the sentence a MILLION times, I never saw until 15 minutes that I used the word 'with' when I meant 'work.' How could I be so stupid?
Everything -- EVERYTHING! -- I have done in the past week to find an agent is now for nothing. I would say I hate myself but it's late and I don't have the energy.
Thanks for reading. (For now, that's all I can say.)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Writing
I have a relative -- well, she's not actually a relative. She is the wife of one of my wife's first cousins. So in a way, she is sort of a cousin-in-law, if that exists in any sort of family relationship -- who is an educator but who wants to write a novel. Now that is a good thing. But there are literally millions of people who are thinking of writing a book and only a fraction of them ever start one and only a fraction of them finish.
Last fall at a family gathering, Jacqui described some of what she was thinking and it was interesting. The basic idea had some problems but it was certainly do-able. The closest genre category that it would fit into would be a cozy, but with some variation.
I have known Jacqui since we were all in college. My wife and I attended the wedding when she and her husband jumped the broom, which was the year before my wife and I got married. Nowadays, she told me, she is busy with work, in particular, but also with family and other stresses. And while she told me she is a bit of an insomniac -- she said for years she has gotten up at about 1 in the morning and can't get back to sleep for hours -- she said her life is so full at the moment it would be hard to write a book. So she intends to wait a while.
I was honest with her. I said she was making excuses -- good excuses, valid excuses. But they are excuses nonetheless. And I said most writers would kill to have several hours every day in which to write when NO ONE was likely to bother them. Who calls you or wants something from you at 2 in the morning? Only people half way around the world.
I truly think it is okay that she never writes her novel. I told her that, too. It's totally up to her. But I also said there will NEVER be the right time to do it. Ever since I have known her, she has been busy -- first with college, then with a husband and later with children (who are now grown) and work.
My point is, there is never a perfect time to write a book. To get the work done, you have to sacrifice time somewhere. In the March/April issue of Writer's Digest in the Questions & Quandaries section, Brian A. Klems said, in answer to a question, " . . . whatever it takes, you have to make the time to write. It's the one and only definitive prerequisite of being a writer."
I told Jacqui there will always be something in her life that is important to do other than write. But only she can decide writing has to be a priority. And when she does, she will start working on her book.
And finally, speaking of priorities, I intended to write this blog last night. I sat down, turned on the laptop at about 10 and . . . escaped into old auto racing videos on YouTube. I did that for two hours, at which time I had to go to bed. I knew I had a busy work schedule today and I needed the rest.
Again the lesson learned is that writing takes a dedication of time, but also it takes discipline. And it is the discipline that I still struggle with, not only in writing but in many other areas of my life. I think it will always be a struggle. I just have to force myself to do what it takes.
Well, that's it for now. Hope you had a good day. It was beautiful here.
Thanks for reading and don't give up.
Last fall at a family gathering, Jacqui described some of what she was thinking and it was interesting. The basic idea had some problems but it was certainly do-able. The closest genre category that it would fit into would be a cozy, but with some variation.
I have known Jacqui since we were all in college. My wife and I attended the wedding when she and her husband jumped the broom, which was the year before my wife and I got married. Nowadays, she told me, she is busy with work, in particular, but also with family and other stresses. And while she told me she is a bit of an insomniac -- she said for years she has gotten up at about 1 in the morning and can't get back to sleep for hours -- she said her life is so full at the moment it would be hard to write a book. So she intends to wait a while.
I was honest with her. I said she was making excuses -- good excuses, valid excuses. But they are excuses nonetheless. And I said most writers would kill to have several hours every day in which to write when NO ONE was likely to bother them. Who calls you or wants something from you at 2 in the morning? Only people half way around the world.
I truly think it is okay that she never writes her novel. I told her that, too. It's totally up to her. But I also said there will NEVER be the right time to do it. Ever since I have known her, she has been busy -- first with college, then with a husband and later with children (who are now grown) and work.
My point is, there is never a perfect time to write a book. To get the work done, you have to sacrifice time somewhere. In the March/April issue of Writer's Digest in the Questions & Quandaries section, Brian A. Klems said, in answer to a question, " . . . whatever it takes, you have to make the time to write. It's the one and only definitive prerequisite of being a writer."
I told Jacqui there will always be something in her life that is important to do other than write. But only she can decide writing has to be a priority. And when she does, she will start working on her book.
And finally, speaking of priorities, I intended to write this blog last night. I sat down, turned on the laptop at about 10 and . . . escaped into old auto racing videos on YouTube. I did that for two hours, at which time I had to go to bed. I knew I had a busy work schedule today and I needed the rest.
Again the lesson learned is that writing takes a dedication of time, but also it takes discipline. And it is the discipline that I still struggle with, not only in writing but in many other areas of my life. I think it will always be a struggle. I just have to force myself to do what it takes.
Well, that's it for now. Hope you had a good day. It was beautiful here.
Thanks for reading and don't give up.
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