Tuesday, July 30, 2019
KMN Books: J. Arlene Culiner pens Great Romance & Characters ...
KMN Books: J. Arlene Culiner pens Great Romance & Characters ...: Let's offer a big hello to J . A rlene Culiner who pens engaging tales with quirky characters. She's here today to tell us about her...
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Once Upon A Word: J. Arlene Culiner pens Great Romance & Characters ...
Once Upon A Word: J. Arlene Culiner pens Great Romance & Characters ...: Let's offer a big hello to J . A rlene Culiner who pens engaging tales with quirky characters. She's here today to tell us about he...
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Ten Tips for Surviving a Writers Conference as an Introvert, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer
 |
The Somerset House Conference, artist unknown
|
Whether we’re giving a reading to a small club or
attending a huge conference, these occasions can be more arduous than facing a
three-headed cat-dragon if one happens to be an introvert. Stage fright,
claustrophobia, agoraphobia, anxiety, and just plain shyness are all triggered
by events like these. Some people bask in the spotlight; others of us do not.
The Author/
Introvert Connection
Writers are notoriously known to be introverts. It
makes sense. Who else would choose to hole themselves up alone in a room for
hours on end immersed in one’s own thoughts and imaginings? When the other kids
are yelling for us to come out and play, we shut the blinds and pretend we’re
not there. When given a choice between going to a party or staying home, home
wins out every time. When we do go to
the party, we wind up talking to the cat. Sound familiar? That is me, for sure.
Some people think introverts make better writers
because they are more aware of their surroundings, more at home in their heads.
But writing is only half of a writers’ job. The other half is shameless
self-promotion in the form of readings, presentations, author events, and
conferences, all of which require taking our introverted little self out in
public. What could be more alien or abhorrent to a true introvert than talking
in front of the masses? Public speaking scares most people, but for an
introvert, it’s a version of absolute hell.
“Writing is
something you do alone. It’s a profession for introverts who want to tell you a
story but don’t want to make eye contact while doing it.” —John Green
Good news!
There are solutions, and no, it’s not imagining the
audience naked. For me, it’s slipping on an alter ego, one that can withstand
the rigors of crowds and confusion; one that is not the least bit bashful or
shy.
Let me introduce you to CatWoman.
CatWoman is part Wonder Woman, part
Audrey Hepburn, part Hillary Clinton, part my mother, and part cat. She is smart,
talkative, friendly, assertive, and sometimes a little bit loud. She is
thick-skinned and cannot be offended or hurt. These are her super-powers.
I first invented the CatWoman template years ago when I was in the antique and
collectible business, so I guess she’s part hawker as well. I needed her
because, on my own, no one would notice me, let alone buy my wares. I used my
high school acting experience to develop
a persona that worked for the situation. Now I carry her into my
writer’s life, not to sell stuff, but to sell myself.
 |
| Leonid Pasternak, The Throes of Creation |
An introvert
takes on the WRITER’S CONFERENCE, 9 More Tips
The world is a scary place. People may not like me. I
may mess up and forget words. Things may screw up that are out of my control. I
may spill coffee down the front of my dress. But whatever happens, CatWoman can deal with it. I have to believe in her, because otherwise I
would never leave my house. But establishing an alter ego is only one tool in my
toolbox. Here are some others:
2. Find a safe place.
Even the most crowded convention center has somewhere out
of the way where you can be relatively alone. Find it and establish it as your
base camp. When you begin feeling anxious, go there. I always rent a room at a
conference hotel and spend as much time there as necessary. That breather is
often the difference between exhaustion and having a great time.
3. Take naps.
Speaking of exhaustion, cats have the answer. There is nothing like a
nap to revitalize your overwhelmed senses. Like rebooting your computer to refresh
the operating system, a period of rest can do wonders. If you don’t have a room
to retire to, as long as you don’t snore or drool there is nothing wrong with
taking a few nods in an out of the way place.
4. You can’t do it all.
Especially with big conferences, there is often more on the schedule
than any human can manage. Accept the fact you may not be able to attend every
lecture, participate in every workshop, listen to every presenter, plus go out
and party with the group after the sessions are over. Get notes from friends
about things you missed, and congratulate yourself for doing what you could.
5. Establish boundaries.
So you don’t like to sit with the group; you prefer not to eat in
public; you can’t stand people who wear perfume; you don’t drink. Each one of
us is different and has different likes and lifestyles. Doing what works for
you while calmly establishing your boundaries is usually well-received and
accepted.
6. Eat well.
Does the excitement of a conference ruin your appetite? Are you so busy
you forget to eat? Is the event poorly planned with meals ignored in the
schedule? Your wellbeing is up to you and eating regularly is part of that.
Keep something healthy like granola bars, nuts, or yogurt in your bag, and
don’t be afraid of eating in public. Eat when food is offered, whether hungry
or not— you don’t have to eat much. Most importantly, eat healthy when you do
eat.
7. Stay hydrated.
Most conferences have figured out humans need water, and thus provide
it. If not, it’s easy enough to bring your own. Drink it! Dehydration can cause
dizziness, unclear thinking, lack of energy, irritability, and more. And please
remember that twenty-seven cups of coffee doesn’t count as hydration.
8. Don’t penny-pinch.
You just spent big bucks on conference admission, a hotel, and airfare
to get there. Factor in enough funds so you can do whatever you need to do
without worrying about the cost. Yes, sometimes room service is required.
9. You are not alone.
If you are feeling the tightness of the crowd closing in on you, look
around. Chances are you are not the only one. In fact, as I mentioned, many
writers are introverts. Often if you put it out that you aren’t terribly
comfortable in the situation, someone will agree with you, and then you have an
instant ally. Chances are, you can do each other good.
10. Never apologize for being who you are.
It
took me a long time to stop comparing myself to others. You know the ones—
those self-assured, confident people with the winning smiles and a gregarious
manners. But over time and after meeting and talking to those people, I found
out something wonderful! They are just like me. They have hopes and fears,
strengths and weaknesses. They do their best, and so do I. Now I can admit my
shortcomings without apologizing for them. Like Popeye says, “I am who I am...”
I hope some of these tips will help next time you are
faced with a public appearance. However distasteful, we need to get out there.
Our stories are worth it, and so are we.
 |
| William Blake - Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing |
This article first appeared in the SPAWNews July 2019 Newsletter.
Check out more blogs
by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer at:
Happy reading!
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Fire Star Press: The Book Tour by J. Arlene Culiner
Fire Star Press: The Book Tour by J. Arlene Culiner: Episode Six : a Boomtown (almost the Wild West) I break my journey westward across Canada in Thunder Bay, ...
The Book Tour by J. Arlene Culiner
Episode Six: a Boomtown (almost the Wild West)
I break my journey westward across Canada in Thunder Bay, once known as a wild place, a Gomorrah. Originally called Prince Arthur’s Landing — this was a landing stage for immigrants arriving by steamer from Toronto, some 780 miles east — the city’s name was changed because the word “landing” wasn’t to the taste of residents who preferred a more upmarket image.
After silver was discovered in 1868, Thunder Bay became as wild and woolly as any American boomtown. “Ruffians and rebels, the poor, the uneducated, the pioneers with a hunter-trapper mentality” all flocked into town, but many a get-rich-quick dream came to naught. Salaries disappeared into the bottomless pockets of greedy boardinghouse landlords or were spent on doctored alcohol in the many tent saloons with their sawdust floors and spittoons, or in the bawdy taverns that opened at dawn.
In the summer, vicious stray dogs roamed the streets and scavenged for food — they were used in dog trains in winter. The crystal-clear waters of Lake Superior and the Arthur Street stream became dumping grounds for human waste and offal; cholera and typhoid epidemics spread like wildfire; and by 1870, there was sufficient pollution to guarantee that the waters remained contaminated for the next thirty years.
When the price of silver collapsed after 1890, an economic depression followed. But the Canadian Pacific Railway line, completed in 1883, guaranteed that immigrants continued to pass through town. Some disembarked and settled.
In 1893, a case of smallpox was reported in one of the carriages of an immigrant train traveling between Schreiber and Thunder Bay. Everyone panicked. The passengers were forbidden to disembark, and local natives threatened to shoot anyone who did. As a precaution, the train’s windows and ventilation shafts were closed down.
The desperate passengers — there were seventy-four men, women and small children packed into one carriage — said there was no water left, the toilet was blocked, and there was no air to breathe, but the train continued to shunt back and forth along the line all night.
The next day, it was finally permitted to stop outside of Thunder Bay where a small patch of land was staked out so the immigrants could walk around and fetch water. Local women did take pity on these unfortunates, and they provided them with clothing and food.
***
Determined to see what’s left of the past, I head into town. The bus terminal is on a busy four-lane road way out in the back of beyond, so I go up to the smiling young woman at the information counter and ask for directions to the center.
Her smile immediately disappears. “What do you mean, the center?”
“Downtown. Where the library is. The main part of Thunder Bay.”
She reflects for a good long while. “Well, there’s the shopping mall across the road. You’ll find everything you want there. Winners, McDonald’s. All the chains.”
“No. It’s the old center, I’m looking for.”
She frowns, turned to her co-worker. “She wants to know where downtown is.”
“The old part,” I prompt. “The original part of town. The area that existed long before the shopping mall.”
“There’s only the mall,” says the second young woman with bland certainty.
There must be something left here that isn’t a mall, so I set out along the roaring road, then duck into a Mexican food joint.
The sweet young thing with flaxen hair behind the counter greets me: “Hi. How’s your day been so far?”
I think that’s a rhetorical question — or, at least, I hope it is. “Could you please tell me where the town center is?”
“Well, there’s the mall just up the road.”
I do find the center…eventually. It’s a mile or two away, past the fast-food joints, the furniture warehouses, tire centers, gas stations, used car lots, and video rental shops. And there are still a few vestiges of the past too — not a whole lot of them — but a few. Some turn-of-the-century square brick buildings do lend the town some atmosphere. But in the library, I find photos of all that has vanished: high, elegant Victorian frame buildings with broad terraces; red brick vernacular architecture; tree-lined roads.
***
A very curious story is told by Joseph M. Mauro in his, Thunder Bay: A History: The Golden Gateway of the Great Northwest.
In 1908, the Paquette Dam on the Current River burst, and floodwaters severely damaged the railway bridge, causing a westbound freight train to derail. It plummeted down into the swirling waters of the river, killing train engineer Joseph Savard, brakeman Albert Inman, fireman James Mc Bride, and two hoboes who happened to be aboard. Albert Inman shouldn’t even have been on the train; he had traded places with someone else because he didn’t want to wait two hours for his scheduled run. The only two to survive the wreck were rear brakeman Ed Geroux, and conductor George Roos.
Shortly after the crash, Geroux moved west, but within a few months, he died in another accident. Roos resigned from the Canadian Pacific — perhaps he was worried that his luck just might run out — and started a small business in the town of Schreiber, 127 miles away. Only a few months later, he died in a canoeing accident. Thus, within a year, the entire crew of the ill-fated train had died in accidents: rumor said that fate had pursued them.
***
There are no longer tent bars on the main street, of course, and the spittoons and sawdust have vanished along with the scavenging dogs. In the bars that remain, video clips have replaced talk of silver, but perhaps there’s still a bit of that old-time spirit in Thunder Bay: in 2012, this city had the highest per-capita rate of homicides in Canada; in 2014, the per-capita rate of homicides in Thunder Bay was more than double the 2012 rate.
I return to the bus station to wait for the night bus to Winnipeg. On the television screen right above my head, there are exploding vehicles, screams of suffering, hysteria, great violence, car chases, and police sirens: this is the modern Hollywood version of today’s Wild West.
***
There are, of course, other versions. What could be more fun than our recently released anthology, Hot Western Nights? For anyone looking for a softer, sweeter, more romantic version of the Wild West, here are six stories to keep you smiling.
• True love takes Nash and Jewel by surprise in Karen Michelle Nutt’s, Fake Marriage With a Dash of Desire
• Dan Loomis helps a beautiful young woman fight off thugs in Duty by Angela Raines.
• In Diamond Jack’s Angel by Elizabeth Clements, saloon owner Jack Williams must protect Angela, the very independent woman he has always loved.
• Amy and Ryan Jansen try to mend their marriage in A Summer to Remember by Julie Lence.
• A deputy marshal finds unexpected love when carrying out a man’s last request in Give My Love to Rose by Kaye Spencer.
• And, in my own story, The Lady Piano Player, Essie Delevaux escapes her violent husband and, to her surprise, finds love with a most delicious hero.
More about my books and passionate life can be found at http://www.j-arleneculiner.com and http://www:jill-culiner.com
Friday, July 5, 2019
Facebook Changes Impacting an Author Near You
As authors, we're expected to use social media to interact with readers and market our books. Unfortunately, the rules keep changing and rarely are those changes to our benefit. The newest Facebook changes are no different.
Facebook wants to make user interactions more "intimate." As such, groups are becoming more important and are what Facebook's almighty algorithms will begin focusing on. If you are an author (like me) who doesn't have a Facebook group for your readers, you need to consider setting one up ASAP. However, once you do this, as the group administrator YOU are responsible for everything in the group so you'll need to set it up so you have to approve all memberships requests and all posts. Why? Because Facebook is watching. If Big Brother sees anything in your group that they feel violates their Terms of Service (ToS), they have the option of shutting down not only your group but your author page AND your personal page and you will have no recourse, no way to request a trial by a jury of your peers. Sounds fun, right?
Okay, so now you have created your group and allowed members into its hallowed electrons. You begin making witty posts and members begin giving them the old "Thumbs up." That's a good thing, right? HAHAHAHA Don't be silly. Liking a post means absolutely nothing to the Facebook algorithms. Love, Shock, and Laughing interactions mean the algorithms will allow more people to see your posts. There's an easy fix for that right? You'll just tell your readers to be sure to use those options when reacting to posts. No, you won't. You see, Facebook will consider that to be click-bait and is one of the many reasons they can potentially shut you down. So, you'll need to be more creative with your wording.
And if your members give posts Mad or Sad reactions? Well, that implies negativity and Facebook can't have that. Negativity reflects poorly on you as the group administrator and once again - say it with me now - can result in you losing everything.
This is just scratching the surface. There are videos online going into more detail. If you need me, I'll be over here alternately pounding my head on my desk and crying.
 |
| Extremely appropriate image courtesy of www.depositphotos.com |
Until next month, happy reading (and writing)!
Sign up for my
newsletter here: http://madmimi.com/signups/112968/join
Amazon Author Page: http://amazon.com/author/isabellanorse
Website: http://www.isabellanorse.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorIzzy
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/isabellanorse/
Monday, July 1, 2019
And the beat goes on. By Michael E. Gonzales
In
the last couple of years, I’ve not done much reading of other author’s work,
though I have bought several books I do intend to read.
Recently, I
read, and very much enjoyed, William Nash’s USA: Eliminated! (The Jupiter
Factor Series) (Volume 1). Also, at my son’s insistence I read Ernest Cline’s
Ready Player One.
What
I find now is that I read other’s work with a different set of eyes, writer’s
eyes, if you will.
I
imagine many writers do the same (I’d hate to think I’m the odd man out). For
me, I look for the beats. You know, from Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat”?
I’ll
identify the tone of the story being set, the introduction of the theme, the
background story, and when the author changes the world and thereby sets the
story into motion.
Not
a bad thing, all in all, but lately I’m reading with a highlighter, I make
notes in the margins, it’s like collage all over again (without the beer and
cold pizza).
The
way I see it, if your reading a book that made it onto the New York Times best
sellers list, you should pay attention. What is the author doing that I’m not?
What’s the author’s style of writing? How has the author organized the story,
and so on?
As I
sit here typing I note the books on the shelf to my left: The Writer's Guide to
Creating a Fictional Universe, Shaping the Story, Breaking into Fiction, Your First
Novel, Novelist’s Boot Camp, Save the Cat, Science Fiction and Fantasy, and
many more. I have found all useful, but I’m now learning from the within the
pages of successful author’s works.
I
really don’t want to change my writing style, but improve on it. I want to
establish good writing habits and develop my inner sight to better see where
the story needs to go and remain focused.
I’ve
rewritten the beats, for no other reason than to clarify them for myself. I
offer them here for your consideration:
·
Intro
of main characters
·
Intro
of villains
·
Description
of situation – creation of conflict
·
Situation
is bad, heroes see a path to resolution.
·
Heroes
are pushed into action.
·
Initial
success, just enough to get the attention of the bad guys.
·
Situation
worsens for heroes.
·
Hero
questions his actions.
·
Events
strengthen hero’s resolve.
·
Hero’s
actions raise the stakes. Love/loved ones are threatened.
·
Hero
forces final conflict.
·
Hero
is victorious, just barely, villain gets just deserts.
·
Heroes
live happily ever after.
(I
also have a version should the hero not succeed in his quest, another if he’s
an anti-hero).
Please follow me, like me, and all that computer stuff:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)