Art and Commerce by Melissa Clark

The marriage of art and commerce has always been such a complex conversation, and I don't claim to have any answers... just lots of questions. 

I'd made money from my television writing, appreciating every penny and putting most of it away into retirement funds, but in my opinion books were different.

I always felt that writing a book was like an all encompassing psychology project. Now that I've written four I find that I grow and learn more from each one, and this experience has more value to me than money.

I'm well aware that not everybody feels this way. Take Elmore Leonard for example, who said the following:

"I always had that in mind: to write for money. You could make money, instead of trying to be literate about it." 

While I appreciate his clear point of view, this was always the exact OPPOSITE of how I felt about writing. I WANTED to be literate. The advance for my first novel was merely icing on the cake of a heartfelt endeavor.

Still, a writer has to pay the bills, and wouldn't it be nice to be able to do so from the thing you love doing most in the world?

Sigh.

No answers. Just lots of questions. 

Maybe I'll go work it out in a new novel.


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Melissa Clark's television show, "Braceface" is now streaming on Amazon. Her two published novels are here and here. Her latest two are looking for a home.

With Love on 9/11

By Ellen Meister

My post about what happened to America on September 11, 2001, begins with a recent story about my 18-year-old son.

A few weeks ago, I dropped him off at college. I knew it would be difficult, but it was even harder than I had expected. He’s my middle child, my stoic, the boy who went from a chatterbox toddler to a strong, silent Gary Cooper type overnight. Only he was five years old at the time.

Still, our hearts were connected. He has never had to tell me how he felt. I could intuit it. Always. So when I hugged him goodbye and left him at his dorm, I felt like I was leaving a piece of my own heart behind.

Melodramatic? Sure. But there’s more to the story.

Four years ago, the kid had a health crisis. I won’t go into details, except to say he lost so much weight so quickly that by the time we got a diagnosis he was down to 89 pounds. I thought I might lose him, and believe me when I say those were the scariest months I have ever lived through. A mother doesn't get over that kind of thing quickly. Or ever.

And also, he still gets treatments for his illness and probably always will. So I wasn't just saying goodbye to an 18-year-old college freshman, I was letting go of a kind of vigilance that had been woven into my psyche.

When I posted my feelings about this grief on Facebook, most of my friends were supportive. But one woman, who had recently lost a family member, thought I was saying my grief was as devastating as hers, and took exception. Of course, I didn't argue with her about it. I understand that her loss is real and permanent, while mine is … merely a terrible feeling I will get over. But. I have the right to this feeling. It’s not better, worse or in any way comparable to hers. It just is.

And this brings me to some thoughts about September 11th. When I saw that I was scheduled to post a blog on this day, I panicked. It wasn't that I thought I had nothing to say, but that I had no right to say it. After all, I hadn't lost a husband or sister or child or best friend on that day, as so many had. And I would never, ever want to undermine the magnitude of that loss.

Still, the hard knot of remembered pain revisits me with brilliant clarity every September 11th. The vivid blue of the sky that day … the TV screen in my bedroom, where I sat alone watching the live broadcast of a “freak accident” that had just occurred …. the chill of understanding when the second plane came into view … the blankness of confusion when the buildings seemed to disappear into a cloud of brown powder. I can’t possibly be seeing what I think I’m seeing, therefore I am not seeing it. And then, a leaden, inarticulate string of days in which the word apocalypse seemed to coat our throats and thoughts with dry gray dust.

So there’s sorrow and grief and remembering. And no, it’s not the same as it is for those who have lost loved ones. Their grief is unimaginable. Still, I’ll let myself feel the sadness of this day just as I let myself feel pangs of sorrow at releasing my son from my arms. And later, I’ll let myself feel hopeful about his future. Because despite everything, I know he is capable of such greatness.

See? I wrote about America after all.

______________________________________________________
Ellen Meister is the author of four novels, including FAREWELL,DOROTHY PARKER and THE OTHER LIFE. She lives in New York and teaches creative writing at Hofstra University Continuing Education. For more information visit ellenmeister.com. 

Travel: A Master Class on Viewpoint

by Marilyn Brant

My soon-to-be released coming-of-age
romantic mystery, The Road to You,
involves a road trip down historic Route 66.

There are dozens of reasons why I love to travel. The sensation of being en route somewhere. Of simply moving from one place to another. The fun of seeing sites in person that I'd only read about. Of tasting foods that are new to me, more unusual than I'm used to, spicier or sweeter. Meeting people with backgrounds quite different from mine. The mental, physical, emotional and social challenges of dealing with circumstances I've never before encountered. The thrill of forging connections between prior experiences and new ones. The pure adrenaline rush of novelty.

And I love all kinds of journeys, too: Flights to foreign lands, cross-country road trips, train rides through mountain passes and even the occasional river ferry.

But the thing I love the MOST about traveling is that, for a writer (or for anyone, really), it's a master class on point of view. I had a chance to observe this firsthand and somewhat dramatically when we took our son, who was 13 at the time, to England and Wales for a short visit last spring. It was his first trip abroad. His first passport. His first time buying anything with a foreign currency. (As an avid coin collector, this made a huge impression on him.) There were a lot of firsts.

A year and a half later, his "Mind the Gap" t-shirt is almost too small on him and his memories of the British Museum have faded a bit, but he still talks about that one older gentleman we met on the sidewalks of Chester. A man who spoke with an accent so thick that my Chicago-born son couldn't understand more than a few words. "And he was even speaking in English!" our resident teenager still declares with awe and amazement. "He was so nice, and he was trying to be really helpful, but I had no idea what he was saying!"

Yep.

My romantic women's fiction novel,
A Summer in Europe (Kensington Books),
features a Grand European Tour across the
continent -- from Rome up to London.

Because it was our job to try to understand. We were the foreigners there. We were in his country. And the man's kind words to us (whether we decoded more than a handful of them or not) were a tremendous gift. I can no longer recall if his directions ultimately helped us find the site we were looking for, but his attempt to share something valuable with us was greatly appreciated -- both for its own sake and because it firmly planted the realization in my son's head that our little Illinois suburb wasn't the center of the universe. That this 70-something gentleman thought we were the ones with the accents. That, no matter how well we might be able to navigate our way through the American Midwest in our Honda, we were just lost tourists wandering on the cobbled streets of his English hometown.

Above all, our short, pleasant conversation with that lovely man became a tangible event that I could point to when I later spoke with my son about expanding his worldview beyond the confines of his junior-high environment. Trying to help him see that every single person is the hero or heroine of his/her own story, and that we relate to the people and situations around us through our own unique lens. That we need to strive to keep this in mind when we interact with everyone.

No parental lecture on the subject ever worked as well as that 5-minute live demonstration, though. My son remembers that guy in Chester -- quite probably, much more vividly than the kindly old gentleman remembers us. But the experience underscored something so important to me as both a mom and a writer: That being masters of viewpoint is at the heart of our job. To help our children see the world just a touch more perceptively. To help our readers experience our characters' lives as if breathing the air along with them. To give both our kids and our audience a clearer window into the journey of someone else...so they'll be better equipped to describe their own.

What are some of your favorite places to travel? 
___
Marilyn Brant is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction, a founding member of the new Women's Fiction Writers Association and a lifelong travel junkie. Her next novel, The Road to You, will be out in early October. For more about the story or to enter a contest for one of five signed paperback copies, please visit her Goodreads page!

...AND WE HAVE A WINNER!

Congratulations to Anne B, winner of the book giveaway contest who wrote:

Anne B.September 3, 2013 at 10:46 PM

I would like to read Mother, Mother. It's good to see an author write about NPD and dysfunctional families, so that more people can read what it's like to grow up in this kind of family. Thanks for the giveaway.

Anne, we have forwarded your email to the publisher so you should be hearing from them soon.

Stay tuned to this space for more book giveaways.

Cheers!

The Girlfriends

If Writers Were Good Businessmen…

Judith Arnold

“If writers were good businessmen, they’d have too much sense to be writers.” – Irvin S. Cobb

I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but I've made money as a writer. Decent money. In some years, very good money. Enough money that writing has been my sole profession since my first book sale. 

Shortly after we got married, my husband goaded me into taking a year off from my job teaching bonehead English at a local college to see if I could earn money as a writer. This was a leap of faith for both of us. His job at the time paid very little. Knowing that if I failed I'd have to go back to teaching bonehead English was the greatest motivation in the world. I was determined to make money with my writing, if only to save myself from college students who weren't quite sure how to spell "the." And I did it. Within a year, i'd scored my first sale.

“The profession of book-writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.” – John Steinbeck

 Since that first sale, I’ve had up years and down years, six-figure years and four-figure years. My husband and have I budgeted carefully, living off his income (which fortunately improved over time) while saving my income for major purchases: cars, real estate, vacations, college for our children. Even when I was enjoying an up year, I always prepared for the possibility that the following year would be a down year. One year my books might be flying off the shelves. The next, my editor might leave, the market might shift… Who knew?

That was pretty much what happened to me a few years ago. My editor at Harlequin and Mira left, and the remaining editorial staff didn’t know what to do with my books. The romance novels I had written so reliably for years saw their sales plummet. Ebooks began to transform the entire publishing industry.

A couple of four-figure years ensued…and I adapted. I got the rights back to many of my novels and embarked on a new life as an independent publisher, revising, updating and reissuing those older novels as ebooks. I’m earning a nice income from them. I found a publisher for my new projects, which also brings in money. I’m working harder than I worked ten years ago, or twenty. But yes, I’m making a living as a writer. In fact, for the first time in all my years as a published author, I’ve finally hit the USA Today bestseller list this year with three different books that have spent a total of eight weeks on the list.

So, what’s my advice for how to make money as a writer? Work hard. Write beautiful, well-crafted books. Get lucky. Work harder. Study the market. Be flexible. Budget wisely. Work even harder. Take chances. And if all else fails, consider writing something more lucrative than fiction.

“I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.” – Philip Dusenberry

***

USA Today bestselling author Judith Arnold’s newest release, The April Tree, is featured in Amazon’s Monthly 100s this month, and is on sale in the Kindle store at the special discount price of only $1.99. It’s also available at Barnes & Noble , Kobo, and Bell Bridge Books. Her latest indie-published releases are the ebook Hush, Little Baby (Amazon  I  Barnes & Noble  I  Kobo) and the audiobook edition of Safe Harbor. For more information about Judith, please visit her web site.

Hoping this Road Doesn't Lead to Perdition by Jenny Gardiner

Hello! With good luck (and hopefully great weather) by now I should be well on my way to Rome! I left August 25 for a month-long trek from the Swiss Alps to Rome. Yes, by myself. With a 15-pound pack on my back and a great deal of optimism. By now I probably have freaked out, gotten lost, slept in some terribly uncomfortable beds in a convent or monastery along the way, but also met amazing people, learned a great deal about being resourceful, and please, dear God, finally figured out how to understand my Garmin GPS. I hope you'll follow me as I undertake this journey. I am walking part of an ancient pilgrimage route known as the Via Francigena, which extends from Canterbury, England to Rome. Walking the VF in its entirety would take three months to traverse, so I decided to take on a more manageable chunk of it. I hope to walk about 16 miles a day, and I will post on my blog while I am on the road. I hope you'll stop by and follow my adventure, and you can also find me posting on Facebook and Twitter (see below links). My blog will have details, including information about The International Rescue Committee, a charity I'm raising funds for while I do my walk (which I hope will total about 500 miles by the time I complete it). Hope you enjoy it! Jenny


  Sleeping with Ward Cleaver

Slim to None

Anywhere But Here

Winging It: A Memoir of Caring for a Vengeful Parrot Who's Determined to Kill Me

Accidentally on Purpose (written as Erin Delany)

Compromising Positions (written as Erin Delany)

I'm Not the Biggest Bitch in this Relationship (I'm a contributor)

And these shorts:
Idol Worship: A Lost Week with the Weirdos and Wannabes at American Idol Auditions

The Gall of It All: And None of the Three F's Rhymes with Duck

Naked Man On Main Street

find me on Facebook: fan page
 find me on twitter here
 find me on my website

BOOK GIVEAWAY

Dear Readers,

We are giving away a book to a reader who follows this blog AND leaves a comment in the Comments section below, along with your email address. This is a hardcover book, not an ebook. Throw your hat in the ring for a chance to win! Winner selected by Random.org and contest open until next Sunday, Sept. 8 at 12:00pm EST. Winner announced on next Sunday's blog! Good luck!

MOTHER, MOTHER by Koren Zailckas. 

When Zailckas’s memoir Smashed was published in 2005 it took the world by storm. The riveting, absorbing story of her teenage alcoholism was a tour-de-force, sold over a half million copies, and has become a touchstone of the memoir genre. Now, she turns her considerable talent to fiction writing, with a darkly suspenseful debut novel that is taut, compelling, and ultimately terrifying.

While authors get their inspiration from many places, Koren didn’t need to look further than her own childhood when she decided to tackle the topic of a dysfunctional family. Growing up, several members of her family showed traits and characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, including her own mother. She decided to write MOTHER, MOTHER in part to challenge the assumption that all mothers are compassionate and kind. Deeply personal, Koren’s first foray into fiction showcases her brilliant, firecracker prose, a page-turning plot, and an unmistakable voice.

Early Praise for MOTHER, MOTHER:

"Koren Zailckas's Mother Mother is disturbing in the best possible way: believably. The slow, subtle darkness at the core of this book starts as a trickle and grows to a flash flood, and not once does it stop feeling absolutely authentic. Zailckas has written a gut-wrenching exploration of narcissism, dependence and family. It's an amazing book." –Kelly Braffet, author of Save Yourself
“A riveting fiction debut…it’s the kind of book that keeps you up at night, featuring a mother to rival Medea or Mrs. Bates…The shocking and violent denouement shows Zailckas to be a consummate storyteller.” –Publishers Weekly
“Zailckas crafts an intriguing mystery surrounding this family that will keep readers on edge as she slowly peels back layer after layer of deception.” –Booklist
“A hall of mirrors reflecting chaotic maternal psychological mayhem reminiscent of Mommie Dearest or Push or Ordinary People.”–Kirkus Reviews