Mistakes . . . I Mad(k)e a Few by Ariella Papa

I am not a perfect person.

And I write characters who aren’t perfect.

Also all of my books, both traditionally and independently published, have had typos.

There.

I almost want to stop with that admission, but I can’t. The last book Momfriends that I independently published contained a number of typos. In spite of the fact that I had a copy editor and that a couple of people proofed the book a bunch of times, typos are a fact of life. There is no longer a team of people working to make my book perfect. And if there were, I would probably have to charge more than $5 for the digital copy.

I get bummed out when I read reviews by people who claim to love the story, but then go on to discuss the typos and remove stars. These are all people who paid $2.99 for my book, but have a bone to pick. Everyone is entitled to her opinion, but it reminds me of people who like to shout out in the middle of a theater (or quiet living room) while watching a movie about all the geographical inconsistencies they see. Is it relevant?

I choose to believe that my readers are well-intentioned and that they don’t realize that those kind of comments are not a critique of a giant publishing house, but me. Maybe I should be flattered that they don’t know that it’s just me, but it still stings.

And yes, I should be beyond caring about reviews after over a decade of being a published author, but I direct you back to the first line.

It’s one thing to take issue with my writing or any writing. We all shoot for a certain level of professionalism, but even books that cost much much more and that are published by the BIG 6 (5?) contain typos. I started composing a list of those books, but then I stopped. I’ve had long conversations over cocktails with friends about this very thing. They jokingly point out typos of major books in the paperback edition and I just get angry that no one calls those out. But, I decided not to put my list into this post because then I become one of them.

What matters to me is the story. That should be what a book is judged on. Then maybe the cover. (I know, I know)

Does one listen to indie music or watch indie film expecting Beatles level production or Michael Bay style CGI? I don’t think so. But all of the sudden because this is “literature”, there is an expectation that I have a team of proofreaders, stylists and royal tasters.

I’m starting to sound bitter and I don’t want to be. With every post I like to work from a place of gratitude, so I will say that, annoying as it is, reviews like those that point out typos remind me to be more mindful and vigilant about my work. I guarantee that my latest independently published novel A Semester Abroad has at least one typo, but I also guarantee it has many less than past novels. And isn’t the cover so pretty? The story is almost as good.

Anyway, what mistakes have you made? Or what bothers you about reviews? Do you have tips for being better about reading reviews with a grain of salt?

And finally, apologies for any typos in this post.

Ariella Papa's latest novel A Semester Abroad is the way to get away this summer. 

Confessions of a Lazy Ass Writer - by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

“All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery. Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”— George Orwell

They say admitting that you have a problem is half the battle, right? So here goes: my name is Wendy Tokunaga and I am a lazy ass writer. I haven’t always been a lazy ass writer. In fact, I have always been rather proud of my work ethic when it comes to writing. You could always count on me to be the one to cheerily encourage fellow writers to be productive, to tell them to find any bit of free time to write and, yes, to finish-finish-finish. And, heck, I’ve written a good five or six novels and an MFA dissertation. After all, it’s not like I haven’t taken my own advice.

But the truth is that I’ve been neglecting my latest WIP, having undergone a serious bout of stuckness over the past couple of years that I’ve been working on it off and on. I honestly like the book and I don’t want to work on something new (not that I have ANY ideas for another novel, mind you). I have a good 46,000 words but I’m not sure how the story should end nor how things will wrap up. And I know there are still things to add. This is kind of scary. So I procrastinate.

I have several people who are willing to read the draft and I promised them that it would be ready to go sometime in early July. My thinking was that if I gave myself a deadline, then I would finish. Usually this would work, but it’s not working at all right now. And lo and behold, it’s already early July and I haven’t even looked at the thing for probably two weeks. Maybe three. I’ve been busy with other stuff—editing clients, a student manuscript tutorial, songwriting with my husband, tweeting, Facebooking, cleaning out the litter box. But this is no excuse.

I even felt lazy about writing this blog post. But when I did research about “lazy writers” I found that most of the hits I received weren’t about my predicament, but about writers who employ lazy “writing skills.” Things like not proofreading or doing minimal research, not staying on top of current trends, telling instead of showing, relying on clichés, employing hackneyed plots, utilizing poor grammar, misspelling words, constantly using pet phrases, etc., etc. And I realized, well, at least I’m not THAT kind of lazy writer. Something to be proud of. I think.

So maybe I should just stop feeling guilty. I’ll get to this novel when the time is right. Yes, I’ll finish it—eventually. In the meantime I’ll just go with the flow. I’ll embrace all the girlfriends here and elsewhere who are in prolific phases right now (and that seems to be just about everyone!) and know that I’ll be there again someday.

But now I think I’ll loll in the hammock and sip some lemonade. Or maybe a mojito. Or perhaps a chilled glass of Viognier, and simply get back to writing when the time is right.

So will you girlfriends give me permission to be a little lazy?

Thanking you in advance,

---The Lazy Ass Writer

Wendy Nelson Tokunaga is the author of the novels, "Midori by Moonlight" and "Love in Translation" (both published by St. Martin's Press), and the e-book novels, "Falling Uphill" and "His Wife and Daughters," and e-book short story, “The Girl in the Tapestry.” She's also the author of the nonfiction e-book, "Marriage in Translation: Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband." Her short story "Love Right on the Yesterday" appears in the anthology "Tomo," published by Stone Bridge Press, and her essay "Burning Up" is included in "Madonna and Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop." Wendy holds an MFA in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco and teaches for Stanford University's Online Writer's Studio Novel Certificate Program. She also does private manuscript consulting for novels and memoirs. Follow her on Twitter at @Wendy_Tokunaga, friend her on Facebook and visit her website at: www.WendyTokunaga.com

Another Year, Another Me

I'm not certain I wanted to be
writer at age two, but by three
the bug had definitely bit me! 

Thanks so much to the Girlfriends Book Club for having me here during this Authorial Reinvention cycle – because that is a topic that hits so close to me, as I’m pretty sure that I have reinvented myself about as often as, oh, summers in Texas cross the 100+ mark (in other words – often!)

But at eight, I knew!

The thing about being an author is that it’s one of those jobs that is inextricably intertwined with your life.  In other words, I can’t really talk about how I’ve reinvented myself as an author without also talking about the changes in my life during the time that I’ve been writing. 

For example, that “inextricably intertwined” thing I mentioned a moment ago?  Lawyer speak.  Yup, when I first started the journey to become a published author, I was practicing law.  Working loooooong (billable) hours and managing to squeeze out moments of creativity in cleverly crafted briefs and legal memos.  (Really, you might be surprised.)

My first book! I
still love this cover!

Although I’d been writing my whole life in fits and starts, it wasn’t until I was practicing law that I got serious about it.  After never quite managing to get a legal thriller off the ground, I tried my hand at contemporary romance—and found that I loved writing hip, sexy stories!  My second manuscript sold to Harlequin Temptation in 1999 and suddenly, my identity changed.  I wasn’t “a lawyer” anymore.  I was “an author.” Pretty dang cool!

Coming in October!

But life is ever changing, and so was my writing.  While I loved the contemporary romances, I was weaned on paranormal, and I started also writing a series of romances featuring superheroes (back in the day when it was near-impossible to sell a paranormal.  Yes, that time really existed!) and then, when I had my first child, I shifted away from romance and toward my own spin on chicklit, reinventing myself (and sort of inventing a genre) with "paranormal mommy lit" and the book Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom.  (I'm excited to say that I have the rights back to these books, and an all new book featuring Kate Connor will be out in just a few months, Pax Demonica!)

If you need proof that writing
twines with life, here's me and authors Dee Davis
and Kathleen O'Reilly (my critique partners) at
my eldest daughter's baptism! 

Did I mention that whole new-mom-reflected-in-the-writing thing?  I recently re-read the early books in the series while proofing them to get the books ready for their new life as digital indie releases, and it was a walk down memory lane, as so many of Kate's toddler's "isms" came from my own daughter's habits, likes and dislikes.  (She used to call margarine "butter cheese," for example, and yes, that made it into a book!)

Here's an old pub photo

About the time that Carpe Demon came out, I had another life change:  I gave up the practice of law and became a full-time writer.

In China with the oldest and
our newly adopted youngest daughter!

And then another life change on the heels of that one when we adopted our second daughter (that whole "I'll have more time to write now" thing just went out the window.  And then we decided to homeschool, and I did that until the last academic year when our oldest started fifth grade.  (The youngest will do her first year in public school this coming year.  Am I excited?  Why yes, I am!)  And in addition to all that life stuff, I took on a new name, J.K. Beck (so I was juggling Julie Kenner for most stuff and J.K. Beck for dark, sexy paranormal romances.)

But the changes weren't done coming!  Especially in this day and age with publishing changing so rapidly (it's exciting!) and now I'm reinventing myself again.

Here's my new pub photo,
10 years later!

I've come full circle on the sexy books and have stepped up that game with the Stark Trilogy, a New York Times bestselling series of erotic romances that I write as J. Kenner.  I'm having a fabulous time writing these books (and a new trilogy that I'll announce soon!) for Random House's Bantam imprint.  The third book, Complete Me, comes out in just a couple of weeks on July 30, and so far I've been thrilled with the advance reviews! (Books 1 and 2 are Release Me and Claim Me.)

Coming July 30!

At the same time, though, I'm not only indie-publishing my backlist, but working on new books like Pax Demonica (and others that I'm psyched about!)

I've gone from lawyer to lawyer-author to author-mom to author to entrepreneur-author.

Honestly, I'm excited to see what's next!  And you can follow along with me if you want!  Pop over to my website, follow me on Twitter, or hang out with me at my Julie Kenner or J. Kenner Facebook page!

How about you? Does change excite you or make you nervous? Have you "reinvented" yourself?

A New Adventure...

I've written four, 300 page books on the Bombay Family of Assassins and one, 125 page novella. All took place in present day.

So why would I do something like SNUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON, a collection of short stories through history featuring the Bombays?

Well, we shall see. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon now - and goes live everywhere on July 22.

There are a couple of reasons why I attempted something so different.

1) I've had a few fans ask if the Bombays have been involved in any famous past assassinations. The idea intrigued me - I love history. If I could get a Ph.D. just for fun someday - it would be in history. I'm a total nerd.

2) I wanted to continue the Bombay Series, but I'd retired the family from the business in I SHOT YOU BABE.  How else could I bring them back as assassins in the family business?

3) I wanted to try something new - and a collection of short stories was a challenge more tempting than I could resist. I always quote Oscar Wilde here: "I can resist anything but temption."

4) Self-publishing makes something this experimental possible - I could never have sold this idea to New York.

So it's a grand risk - and one I'm willing to take.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Leslie Langtry

RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE by Brenda Janowitz

My third novel, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE, came out yesterday.  And I'm feeling a million different emotions all at once: excitement, fear, happiness, joy, terror.... you name it.

It's not the first time that I've had a book come out.  In fact, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is my third novel.  But there's something about putting your work out there into the universe for all to see.  

And judge.

I was recently chatting with a memoir writer about how we put ourselves out there as writers.  I was telling her that I found it brave, the way she was able to tell the truth.  But then I thought about it: isn't that what we do as fiction writers as well?  Sure, I won't have family members coming to me to complain about the way they were portrayed in my novel, but aren't we truth tellers, too?  Aren't we trying to tell the world what we think, how we think, and how we process it all?

RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is about three generations of women with a culture all their own.  When Hannah finds herself spending the summer with her glamorous grandmother, a widow six times over, at her sprawling beach-front Hamptons estate, she learns that there’s more than one recipe for happiness. 

A story of mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandchildren, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is a quirky story about correcting the mistakes from your past and trying to create a future for yourself. 

Julie Buxbaum called it "a great summer read" and Ellen Meister said it was a "wise, tender and poignant story." Melissa Senate said "this gem of a novel sneaks up on you with just how powerful it truly is."

It's the most personal book I've written to date.  It is, at its core, about how I see the world, what I think about relationships.  It reflects who I am now, the person I've become, and it's terrifying to think that I've put that out there, for all the world to see.

I just hope you will all enjoy it.

I’m the author of SCOT ON THE ROCKS and JACK WITH A TWIST. My third novel, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE, was published by St. Martin's on July 2, 2013. My work’s also appeared in the New York Post and Publisher’s Weekly. You can find me at brendajanowitz.com or on Twitter at @BrendaJanowitz.

The Ooze: When Fiction Crosses the Line

by Susan Crandall

A good writer can crawl inside the skin of his or her characters.  She (from here on out, we’re going with the feminine, sorry boys) can see through their eyes, breathe what they breathe and feel what they feel.  Some writers are better at it than others.  I’ve always found it interesting to examine this as I critique fellow writer’s works-in-progress.  Some writers focus first on the outside forces, the details of the scene, the action, the plot.  Others focus on the motivations and emotions of the characters.  In the end, whichever you tend to do in first draft, we all have to cross that line and venture into the territory that makes us least comfortable as writers.  It’s the ability to blend both seamlessly that allows our readers to experience the story on a visceral level.

Me?  I’m a character-first writer all the way. I build them and then I begin crafting a story around them.  From that first step, I’m walking in their shoes (which is why I do very little plotting beforehand).  Never has this been more evident to me than with nine-year-old Starla Claudelle in WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD.  This character nagged me incessantly before I even started writing the book, whispering in my ear, spouting her wry observations.  She’s fiery, impulsive, a champion for the underdog and brave beyond words.  In other words, she’s the opposite of me as a child—except for the underdog part.  So to create this character, I really did have to concentrate and focus my thoughts to view the world through her eyes. 

But is there such a thing as getting too deep inside your character?  Perhaps.  Perhaps not.  I supposed the end proof is in the readership.  We shall see. 

So here is some of the fallout I recently discovered about going deep.

I was so entrenched in the point of view of Starla that her voice came shining through as if she were telling her story without me sitting between her and the reader.  Which made this book unique (good).  It also made it impossible to switch to any other character’s point of view (bad?).  I did try it—because readers generally like to crawl around inside various characters’ heads and follow them through parts of their lives where the main character isn’t a participant.  But it was just too jarring to shift from Starla’s sassy narrative into any other character.  Even though many of the characters in this book, Eula and Starla’s father in particular, would have made good storytellers.

Starla told her story in the moment, with her nine-year-old understanding (think of Huckleberry Finn), not as a recollection from the perspective of adulthood (think of Scout Finch).  So, I had to finesse the reader into understanding that although this was what Starla thought and understood, she was operating with only her nine-year-old consciousness and might actually be wrong or misconstruing (neither good, nor bad … just more challenging as a writer).

And then there’s the non-writing issue.  I call it The Ooze.  Sometimes when you’re living so many hours a day deep in another life, in another time, that character begins to inhabit and influence your real life.  Of course, when you’re character is a nine-year-old girl it isn’t nearly as dangerous as if, say, your character is an international spy or a serial killer.  Still, that nine-year-old from 1963 can cause you to blurt out un-adult-like comments that draw many a raised eyebrow.

WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD is my first novel written in first person, so maybe Starla Claudelle stepped so easily across the line between fiction and reality because this was a new experience for me.  Or perhaps it was because of the kind of in-your-face, don’t-mess-with-me character she is.  Whatever the reason, I found myself spouting Starla-esque observations and using 1963 vernacular—sometimes at the most awkward moments.

As I said, my personality couldn’t be farther from Starla’s.  I was an obedient child.  A rule follower.  A conflict avoider (hmmm, still am that).  But I found Starla’s attitude lingering in me after I’d closed my file and backed up my work.  I felt myself being more “prickly.”  Things like, “crap on a cracker” and “don’t get your back up” and “mind your own beeswax” and “truth be told” and “love it enough to marry it” started seeping into my personal dialog.  Wildcats became catamounts.  Purses became pocketbooks.  Music once again came on records and Walter Cronkite became the voice of reason.  I developed a slight Southern accent after listening to Starla talk in my head all day long.  I dropped my g’s in every -ing word.  And I found myself using totally unPC phrases.  When I’d spent the entire day thinking in 1963-speak, I once actually referred to African-Americans as “colored” when talking to my daughter-in-law.  I certainly meant no disrespect, but how embarrassing!  (One thing that incident did was emphasize the vast changes we’ve made in our attitudes over the past forty-some years.  Thank you baby Jesus -- Oh yes, that was another Starla-speak that oozed over.) As I got deeper into the book, the harder it became to mentally step back into the twenty-first century.

It took several weeks after the book was finished to get my language all straightened out again.  Now that I’m going on book tour and doing readings nearly every day, I imagine Starla will begin regaining a foothold in my daily dialog.  I’ll welcome her back … I’ve really missed that little firecracker.

WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD

July 2, 2013, Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster

July Indie Next List

Summer Okra Pick

A coming of age story set in 1963 segregated Mississippi.  Starla Claudelle's sometimes funny, sometimes dangerous journey to find true family in an unjust and confusing world.

Susan Crandall

www.susancrandall.net

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusanCrandall