Oh that name!

The second most popular blog post I have is from Jan. 4, 2008, and is called, What's in a Name, Part II. In that post I discuss the possible name of the book I was about to start. It was about the murder of a black newspaper publisher and the novel, still unsold and unrepresented, is called DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL.

I worried that no publisher would risk taking on such a non-PC title. Or that they may be brave enough to take the chance since I am an African-American writer. Nothing so far.

But given that that blog posting is the second most popular posting I have, the title must strike a cord somewhere.

I haven't decided on what the title will be for the novel I plan to write in November. It probably won't be something as interesting as Jungle-bunny Journal. But maybe . . .

Haven't had a lot of time this week to query or blog. But I have been working hard mentally on an outline for the NaNoWriMo novel. Perhaps more on that in the coming weeks.

But for now, have a good weekend. I have a booksigning for BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD tomorrow in Bloomington and another one in Speedway next Saturday.

Thanks for reading.

The Death of Art

I had intended that my current project, THE DEATH OF ART, be finished by the end of last month. I didn't make that deadline. At the moment, I am hoping to finish the first draft before heading for a vacation in five weeks. it will be close.

The novel is coming along well, however. I continue to discover things about my characters and about the story. Although at the moment I am in a slow period, both in the writing and in the story, the story itself is unfolding well. I am editing and re-writing more as I go along, a departure from the past. And that is one of the reasons I haven't finished yet. But I can't let that be an excuse.

Once I finish, however, I may change a major event of the story. In doing so will present a real surprise to the book but I'm not sure it will work. I won't know that until I get to the end and I try it. I am willing to do whatever is necessary to improve the book.

On the publishing front, I still don't have an agent for A MURDEROUS DISPATCH and I'm going to start directly querying a select number of publishers. And I may change the name back to DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL. I have a couple of publishers in name so I will have to decide something about the soon.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and keep writing.

The Dispatch

I started making the change today, the change for the title of my novel, "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal."

I also changed the name of the newspaper in the novel. It was the Indianapolis Courier-Times, or C-T for short, and now is the Indianapolis Dispatch.

So the new title is, "The Dispatch." The title is now about the newspaper and about the murder of the publisher/owner of the paper.

Yesterday, I was thinking about "The Murderous Dispatch," but my wife thought that was redundant -- murder and dispatch expressing the same idea.

I like The Dispatch, although I love Jungle-bunny Journal. But it is probably best to error on the side of caution, at least for the Amazon contest.

So that's it for now.

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

Sending it out for proofing

After I finish this short post, I am going to ship my novel off to a good friend who copy edits so that she can proof the manuscript. Whenever I reread large material I have sent out, I almost always spot errors or which I had worded something differently. I don't self-edit very well.

The novel isn't quite where I wanted it to be at this point but my friend, who has a small child, only had time to read it over the weekend. So I will just have to take my chances. She is tremendous at proofing, however.

I haven't worked much on my pitch letter for the Amazon contest and I will need to finalize that in the next 10 days. It is a combination of query letter and book summary in under 300 words. They are critical words, of course, because moving to stage two of the contest is based solely on the pitch letter. None of the judges read any of the novel in the first stage, and the 3,000- to 5,000-word excerpt isn't posted on Amazon until the second or third stage, which doesn't come until in March. At the beginning, everything rides on the pitch. But then, isn't that always the case?

Thanks for reading and don't give up?

What's in a name, part III

It's coming down to the wire on a final decision to change the name of my novel,"Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal." Actually, the decision has been made. For at least the Amazon contest and for my first pitch session with an editor in March, I will change the name. The decision left, then, is what to change the name to.

Just like Jungle-bunny, I want a name that stands out, that is memorable. But perhaps I am, and have been, too close to this project for too long. So over the weekend, I asked Angela for some suggestions because the names I was coming up with were not shaking me to my socks.

Since then we have come up with several possible choices, including some quite good. But I still don't have a great choice. I even last night considered changing the name of the newspaper in the novel from the Courier-Times to the Dispatch so I could use the word dispatch in the title.

Nothing yet.

So I will continue with whipping the novel into shape for the Amazon contest. And perhaps a little later a title will sinpsire me. I hope so.

Until then, thanks for reading and keep writing.

Poor old 2008

This is my 96th -- and last -- blog entry of 2008. Not a bad output but less than I should have done. Overall, however, it has been a good year for my fiction writing. I still don't have an agent but finding an agent was only one objective this year.

The first and foremost objective was to become a better writer. And I think I aced that. As I look back at my fiction before this year and compare it to what I have done this year, there is little comparison. I like "Fighting Chaos" and it will always be special to me but this year's writing is much better.

In my first blog entry in 2008, which was on Wednesday, Jan. 2, a was still planning a murder mystery novel. I said I probably wouldn't start for several weeks and had not yet decided on how the victim would killed. I was thinking it would be poison. (Most of the blog, however, dealt finding names for characters, which is a problem I still wrestle with.)

Well, I started the novel about a week later, finished the first draft in May and the victim, George Wilson, is hit in the head and killed. (I thank Mariska Bogle for that idea. She suggested both the victim and the method.) And while I thought I had finished the final and seventh draft more than a month ago, I am pouring through it once more, preparing it for a writing competition at the beginning of February.

But that's not all.

I joined the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime and joined a critique group. Along with study and practice, the critique group is one of the reasons I have improved so much this year.

In addition to the finishing the novel (which is currently named "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal"), I wrote a 7,000 word short story for the racing anthology our chapter is putting together. I am also writing some of the factoids that will go between stories.
And I went to Philadelphia to begin research for my next novel, which is called, "The Death of Art," and have written two chapters. And while constantly re-writing Jungle-bunny has kept me from having completed more of DOA, I still plan on completing it over the winter.

And then the search for an agent will be renewed.

In 2009, I plan to increase my blog output, attend at least two writers conferences other than NABJ, find an agent, finish DOA, and plan and start whatever I will write after DOA.

So, it will be a busy year. I look forward to it.

Thanks again for reading, have a happy New Year and keep writing.

Something bold

I started something bold yesterday. The decision to do it wasn't easy months ago but when it re-surfaced two days ago, it was easy because it seemed so right.

I am rewriting "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal" in first-person.

I resisted this idea for months because, as a journalist, I'm far more comfortable writing in third-person. In fact, other than writing editorials for the Philadelphia Tribune, which were first-person plural, I have only written a handful of articles in first-person throughout my entire professional career. To tell the truth, I can only remember four instances.

But this venture, for me, is bold, radical, revolutionary. I was struggling with how to improve the novel and this came to mind.

I started yesterday, eliminating any and all chapters in which Jason Crown does not appear. That means I cut the novel down from 78,000 words to about 45,000, 5,000 short of what I need for the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest in two months. But some of the information in the eliminated chapters will still be needed. I will just have to include it in another way.

I lost a lot of writing that I loved, particularly a scene between two teens in which the girl tells the boy she is pregnant. That was a particularly well-written chapter but it is no more.

After I go through everything I currently have, I will have to consider what is missing and how I need to add it. There will be a number of scenes I will have to add. In the end, I imagine the novel will top out at about 70,000 words.

So, that's it. A lot of hard work ahead but it is new and exciting. And I'm just waiting to see where it goes. If nothing else, I still have numerous earlier versions in third-person.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Contests

I have decided to enter a contest with "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal" early in the new year. And I may change the title.

This is a big decision for me and, while I will continue looking for an agent, it could complicate things in that area. The contest is called the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

The last contest I entered was last year. It was the Writer's Digest annual contest and I entered my screenplay, "Loss of Consortium." And while I didn't win, I got an honorable mention in the screenplay category, which was quite something since it was my first screenplay. But at the time I was concentrating on finishing my first novel, "Fighting Chaos," and decided against pursuing anything with screenplays.

I didn't enter the Amazon contest last year with Chaos and I'm glad I didn't. It really wasn't good enough and still isn't. The story will need to be overhauled and I'm not willing to do that at the moment.

But I have grown since writing Chaos and Jungle-bunny is in much better shape to begin with. So I am going with it.

I will write more about the contest later but it runs for one week, Feb. 2-9. The entry form and related materials can only be submitted then. It must be fiction, 50,000 to 100,000 words in length, in English, by an individual author, unpublished. While free, the contest requires a 'pitch' letter (the requirements of which I am still trying to determine), biographical information and a 3,000 to 5,000 word exempt of the first part of the novel.

The grand prize, which will be announced by late may or early June, is a $25,000 contract with Penguin books for the publication of the novel, plus marketing of the work. Last year, a number of the 10 finalists who didn't win the overall prize got noticed in the industry and ultimately got publishing contracts.

I am not putting all my eggs into a single basket but this is a basket I can not ignore. the organizers -- Penguin and Amazon -- expect as many as 10,000 entries and the contest is judged in stages, starting with the pitch letter. But If I could make it to the quarter- or semi-finals I will have gone a long way.

This is going to require a lot of preparation and hard work pouring over the novel again and again and writing it yet one more time. Plus there is the pitch letter. I'm not sure what to expect with that. But I am going to get it done in time to submit all my material early in the morning on Feb. 2. I'm not going to wait.

This means, of course, that additional work on "The Death of Art" will be put on hold, or at least work will be dramatically slowed. The focus has to be on Jungle-bunny.

What to do with the title? I don't know. The content guidelines forbid 'offensive' or 'disparaging' material but that is still vague. It error on the side of caution I will probably rename the book.

Anyway, that is it for now. More later as additional information is available. Wish me luck.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

The opening

I am past the beginning of the (hopefully) final rewrite of my current novel, "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal." But I still find myself conflicted over the beginning.

I watched the beginning of the 1941 version of "The Maltese Falcon." I have seen the film at least once in the last year and re-read the book earlier this year. And I was amazed again at how effortlessly Dashiel introduced the hero, the villain and the conflict of the story at the beginning. It was compelling, which, I suppose, is why it is a classic.

In my critique group yesterday another one of the writers was happy to be getting a prologue for the work she was reviewing. But it struck me again how much a prologue can slow down the story. They can be done successfully and often are done successfully. But as a novice, I'm not sure I can pull that off.

Which brings me back to Jungle-bunny. Early on, several people who read the beginning thought my second chapter, which has a backstory, should be the first chapter. And in the fourth (or fifth version, I forget which one) it was. But I was also though I needed to introduce my hero sooner and develop him more fully so that people care about him and his problems, and root for him throughout the story.

But that would mean keeping my first chapter as the first chapter, which is the way it currently is.

In the end, I think I am past the objective reality stage and totally into the subjective. There is little telling what a particular agent will want. For some agents, a prologue, which in this case includes a backstory, is a red flag. For others, it is not.

I guess I must remain confident in my story and my writing because I'm not sure there is one right direction to follow.

And so I am starting Jungle-bunny with the chapters as I originally placed them.

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

Fonts

I have just spent an hour viewing a writers discussion on a forum on the subject of fonts. The concensus was that it is best to use Courier New (doubled spaced, with 12-point type and 1-inch margins) instead of Times New Roman. The thought is that it is easier on the eyes to read and gives you a better page count, which is important to publishers. (Editors look for word counts but publishers pay the most attention to page count because paper cost more that ink.)

I have always perferred Times but I converted an earlier version of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal" into Courier and saw a huge difference. For one, I must not have my margins set correctly. The 74,300 words of that version should fit in slightly more than 297 pages (doubled-spaced, 12-point, 1-inch margins) because there should be 250 words per page. But I have 326 pages, or about 227 words per page.

The other difference is readability. Courier is easier on the eye sight, although I still prefer the look of Times.

I am still working on the final draft of Jungle-bunny, most specifically reworking the opening to make it more compelling. It is in Times, of course, but tomorrow I plan to convert it and fix the margins. In that way, I will be more prepared to taking the next step in the publishing process.

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

Looking an a reason to reject

Ten months ago, while I was working on a re-write for "Fighting Chaos" and researching agents to query, I sent off an e-mail query to an agent. The agent promised a response in two to four weeks. I agonized over sending the query but I sent it anyway.

As I have been reading, agents and their readers get so many query letters and so much material to consider, they don't have the time to dig deep into someone's material or letter before deciding what to do and moving on. Thus, they are looking for reason to reject.

This is sad but, of course, it makes perfect sense. Just this morning I got a stack of letter to read. I know I'm not interested in it all and don't have the time -- or just don't want to spend the time -- going through it all. So I go through it with the thought of what I intend to throw away.

It's been a few weeks since I sent out a query letter as I have concentrated on the final re-erite of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal." But I know it's going to be viewed in much the same way as I used to when I would get press releases in the mail. If didn't see something highlighted with the who, what, where and whens, I was less likely to read it. And it needed to be near the top. On average, a press release had seven seconds to get my attention before I would throw it away.

It's not an easy world out there but I am determined to break through.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Some feelback

I had a lunch meeting with a fellow writer today who is the only wirter who has seen the entire "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal" manuscript. The others who have it currently are none writers.

And, thankfully, Debi liked it. There are some style things that we disagree on but she likes the story, she likes the plot and the plot twists, and she likes the pacing __ AFTER about page 100. She says the first 100 pages are slow.

And she thinks the alternating chapters style I have in the first half is okay and isn't the problem with the pacing.

She suggested I beef up one of the minor characters to allow for him to be more of a red herring in the murder mystery and that I should introduce the real killer more. I'm not sure how to do that without ruining the surprise when the killer is revealed.

Also I need to develop Jason a little more because the reader doesn't care enough about him and they don't care enough easily enough.

However, she says it just needs tweaking, not a total overhaul. It turned out to be something that was very encouraging on a day when I needed to be encouraged.

So keep writing.

A start

I am still working on the final draft of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal," mostly just tweaking things here and there. And while I should have kept my focus on Jungle-bunny, I wrote the first two chapters of my next novel, "The Death of Art." I may change that title __ I have thought of something else __ but I'm keeping it for now.

Death of Art will have a Prologue, a short first chapter and a longer but regular length second chapter. It is the second in a series with Jason Crown.

It is about 3,400 words, nearly 5 percent of what I project as its future total length. I did about 750 words last Thursday and everything else on Sunday afternoon after church and into the evening.

I wrote them because I hadn't decided on what to give to my critique group for this month but didn't want to provide another chapter of Jungle-bunny Journal. They have seen chapters 1-4 and I didn't see much value in getting comments on work I have already dealt with. There is only one person in my group who has seen the entire manuscript and I have already weighed her comments and used everything that I thought was useful.

In Death of Art, I used the niece of some friends as inspiration. She was nearly the correct age but had the overall look I wanted in the murder victim. Too bad. I guess I should mention that to her one day. "Hey, I have some good news and some bad news. You inspired me and I used you for a character in my novel. That's the good news. The bad news is I killed you off near the beginning of the book."

I missed a couple of book signings over the weekend. I always like them and I like supporting authors but they can also be a bit of a downer for me. I wonder if and when I will be able to do a singing. Oh well . . .

Back to work. I am looking forward to completing the final touches of Jungle-bunny and to moving on to Death of Art. The story isn't as complicated but I think it will be just as much fun.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

An update

Lots of small things to say at the moment.

I visited the Barnes Foundation several days ago and went to the public library to do more research on Albert Barnes and his art. Also discovered a couple of new sources to tap into in the Philadelphia art scene. It's been a very productive, and yet restlful, time in Philadelphia for the last three days.

AND I helped stack 165 bales of hay in my friend's barn in 90-degree heat. I was sweating in places I didn't even know about.

Yesterday I got the first critique of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal" from a friend who is a non-writer. She liked it a lot, found humor in parts that I wasn't sure were there and, importantly, found a major style inconsistency. I haven't done anything about that yet but plan to as soon as I get home.

I sent several more query letters but no responses yet. Never sure what that means. Perhaps I am being carefully considered and perhaps I'm just in the slush pile. Only time will tell.

My writing critique group meets this Saturday and I am looking forward to that. It's not a month in which they are looking at my writing but it is always fun and interesting to critique others. One of the short stories I read this month was truly surprising and that is always a good start. And it's from someone who has my complete novel. I trust her and her opinion, although I don't always agree with her, and she writes well.

Lastly, and on a personal note, I learned last week a friend has cancer. It is treatable and they are scheduled to go in for surgery next week. She is a dear friend and has always encouraged my writing.

I pray for her full and complete recovery.

Well, that's it. It is 9 in the morning and I am about to stuff my things back into my bag and hit the road back to Indiana. It looks nice outside and I'm driving a convertible. Should be fun.

Thanks for reading and Write On.

Re-write

I have completely gone through the novel and have started the re-write. I reads well but there are still a couple of problems, mostly dealing with research. I am having a particularly hard time with asthma __ the symtoms and what causes an asthma attack.

I have several friends, including one author, who are going to read the book. And I plan to send it to them in the next week. Two are from out of town __ including one in England __ so they will get it via e-mail. The last person, the author, is local and we will probably get together in a local coffee shop or bookstore.

I am still very nervous about the book. Is it any good? Is it interesting? How well is the story told?

I know I must sound like a Nervous Nellie but I can't shake it. I haven't developed a good sense of perspective and I wonder if I ever will.

I have started writing down little notes regarding the next novel. It will use the same main character as is in "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal," Jason Crown, but it will be set in Philadelphia where he will be attending an NABJ convention. And, like I think I mentioned before, the story will evolve around art at the Barnes Foundation in suburban Philly.

I haven't decided who the villian is yet so I have much work to do. And there is a lot of research I will need to finish on the Barnes Foundation, although I have some background in that area having previously written about and having visited the Barnes.

Keep writing and thanks for reading.

On being worried

I finished the first draft of my murder mystery yesterday, and I am excited and ready to get back to work on it. I am truly ready to start looking for an agent and I can't do that until the first couple of chapters have been worked over more.

I saw a fellow writer today during a booksigning and she reminded me I should let the novel rest for a while, one or two weeks, and come back to it with fresh eyes. But I generally lack that level of perspective. I doubt I will have that sort of perspective for months if not years. And I can't wait that long.

Is it any good? I have not earthly idea. How is the writing? I don't know. There are some sentences I particularly like __ (It said less than she intended and more than he expected.) Or (Life was no easier for the modern-day inhabitants of the houses than it had been for those generations earlier, except now they could watch their betters on stolen large screen televisions hooked up to illegal cable.) Or (She was followed by five other women whose varying body types made it impossible for any of them to look good in their dresses.) __ but is it possible to like every sentence? I don't know.

Is the story any good and do I give it justice? I don't know.

Those are all worries but there isn't much I can do about them. I just want to get back to having my hands in the middle of the novel. So I just might print it out tomorrow morning and start. Will that help? Will reading it straight through now and charging back into it then improve it? Who knows. I just know I am ready to get on with it.

At least I will be re-writing instead of writing. Oh well . . .

There are just a few random thoughts. Don't let it stop you from writing.

Good luck and thanks for reading.

It is finished

I finished the first draft of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal" yesterday evening at 6:35. It is 73,000 words, which is 7,000 less than I originally thought it would be. I know I should let it sit for about a week or so before I touch it again but I am excited and will probably print it out on Monday and start my first complete read through.

It has several problems and several places where I need to complete some research. And the was rushing at the end and I fear the final parts that I wrote are pretty rough if not downright dreadful. But it is completed.

After I clean it up a little in the next couple of weeks, I will have a couple of people read through it. But first I need to research how many times I used the word "that" in the novel and probably eliminate at least half of them straightaway. I am also sure I have too many commas.

But all in all, I am proud of myself. I got it done.

I will probably cut about 7,000 to 8,000 words in the first run through but as I fix the problems another 5,000 to 7,000 words will probably be added. We will have to see about that later.

For now, Jungle-bunny is done. Next the real work begins.

Thanks for reading. And don't give up.

Death of a title

I was talking to a colleague last night whose opinion I respect and afterwards I decided I will ultimately have to pick another title for my murder mystery novel, which currently is titled, "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal."

It's not that it isn't catchy. It is catchy. It would draw people's attention, which is necessary for the book to sell. But she pointed out something I knew but had never completed considered.

The book is a fairly standard murder mystery __ a person is killed and we follow the ups and downs of our hero as they try to figure out who did it and why __ and isn't political in any way. But the title is political. Very political.

A book with that title will likely create a public debate as to the title's appropriateness and, in a larger sense, race relations in this country. I would spend more time discussing the title than promoting the literary merits of the book itself. It would shift the focus away from what I want it to be.

All that makes me sad. I can't see why people can't just see the title, have a little chuckle, buy the book (if only out of curiosity in the title) and move on. The book is just a book __ a novel whose purpose is to entertain. It's not a book about race relations.

I have had the title for years __ about 10 years, actually __ before I started the book. I had the title before I even considered writing a book set in a Black newspaper. But now I will have to come up with another title. Nothing immediately comes to mind, although the first draft of the book is nearly complete. But a title will come in time.

I have considered keeping the title until after I start looking for an agent again, just to see what their reaction would be. But in the end, I don't want the focus of the novel to be on the title. I want it on the storytelling.

Oh well . . .

Have a good day and don't give up on writing.

Critiques

I joined a writers group last month and have read a couple of chapters of three other authors in the last month. It has been very helpful in seeing how other writers work and how they produce. All of the others are in my local chapter of Sisters in Crime and they are published.

What is good about being in the group is that I see that I'm not suffering alone with plot, character development and dialogue. And that is a huge help.

And today, for the first time, I got feedback on the first two chapters of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal." The comments were generally positive and provided a perspective that I just can't get alone at my laptop.

Some of the more minor suggestions I will implement immediately by doing a search and replace throughout the text. But others will require some hard thinking on my part. For the latter, I will let the comment in my brain until I start my second draft and consider them in my detail then.

One such suggestion is that I switch the order of the first two chapters. That may work but then it may also relay the real narrative of the story.

Like I said __ it will require some hard thinking.

However, that is always good. It is difficult, if not impossible, to get out of one's skin and look objectively at one's work.

Well, that's all for the moment. Sorry I haven't written more this week. I promise to get back on the stick next week.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

What's in a name? Part II

For some time I have toyed with a title for my next novel, which will be a murder set in a Black newspaper. It comes to mind because in reality I came up with the title long before I had even the slightest idea what the novel was about. It’s a title I really love.

What’s in a name? For a publisher and from a marketing standpoint there’s probably quite a lot in a name. And I doubt anyone but the bravest publisher is going to like this one. The working title is “Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal.”

The book itself will not be controversial. Although the plot is a little complicated at the moment, it’s a standard murder mystery and the reader will travel along with the hero as he tries to figure who did it and why.

But the title is a grabber. And I like the alliteration. Jungle-bunny Journal rolls easily off the tongue. I love it. If I weren’t a Black person I would never be able to use it, which is probably why no publisher will touch it. So I will keep it merely as a working title (and not tell anyone but you).

About a decade ago while I was working at The Philadelphia Tribune, a Black newspaper in Philadelphia, a reporter and I were talking about what we considered an insult on the paper by some public official. And she and I came up with a number of terms that we were sure the official probably used in private to describe The Tribune, such as the Darky Dispatch.

But my favorite has always been the Jungle-bunny Journal.

So that’s the name. We will have to see how it flies once I get the book written. And I will update my blog on the issue when the time comes.

I will talk to you next week.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.