Summer Reading by Megan Crane

I have a week left until I head off for my summer vacation and I can't wait.  

Partly, this is because I'm going to Australia and New Zealand for a few weeks.

I know, I know.  Poor me. 

But aside from how much fun I plan to have and how pretty it's all going to be, what I'm really excited about is all the reading I'm going to do--and not just on the very long plane ride!  

Some of my favorite summer memories involve sitting around with this or that group of people--family, friends, neighbors--and reading away a lazy afternoon, or well on into a long, bright evening.  I like to read all the time, but there's something about reading in the summer that's different.  People call it "beach reading" or other derogatory things, but the books I happened into over the summer are what taught me how to imagine.  How to dream.  

I read fat, swollen paperbacks and musty hardcovers.  Whatever I could find in our extended family's rambling old house in Cape Cod.  Leftover and left behind books.  Old favorites and discarded books.  Moomintrolls and moonstones.  Thrilling love stories and lovely little mysteries with cats and jams.  Princesses and goblins, houses hewn from logs in the great big woods, odd old poetry collections, strange biographies of people I'd never heard of then or since.  As much a part of summer as fireflies and marshmallows, salt on my face and sun in my hair.

This summer is shaping up to be no different.  

On the way back from a conference in July I fell into Proof Of Their Sin by Dani Collins. 

I don't think I took a full breath for the length of my flight!  Big, deep, dark, and fantastic.  Everything I want in a book!  I can't recommend it enough.

I also read My Darkest Passion by Carolyn Jewel.  This is the latest in her My Immortal paranormal series, which I've been completely in love with for years.  I can never seem to get enough of the rich world she's created, filled with mages and demons, witches and spells.  This book was harsher than some of the previous ones (no pun intended--that's actually funny if you've read the books, I promise), but all the better for it.  As usual, I loved the characters and wanted more the moment I finished!

Highly recommended!

But then there's all the books I haven't read yet.  

I've been saving the new Sylvia Day Crossfire book for a long afternoon with no interruptions, which I see in my near future.  

And I'm in a frenzy of anticipation for the final book in Meljean Brook's Guardians series.  

One of my well-read cousins recommended Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. 

I picked up Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller after seeing it (and reading the first few pages) while I was staying at my uncle's place in Montana.  

A cool woman at a great dinner party recommended Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell.  

Then there are all the books in the Corretti Dynasty series--I wrote one of them, but I want to read everyone else's!  

And who knows what other books I'll discover out there?  Stuck on a hotel shelf, recommended by a new friend somewhere, or sent to me by an old friend who thinks I'll like it.  And best of all, I'll have the lazy days and long evenings to enjoy them all.

Happy Summer Reading!

Megan Crane is sometimes known as Caitlin Crews.

They would both rather be reading.

(Pictured: summer adventures a while back as a precursor to a really good book by a campfire.  If memory serves, one by Shannon McKenna.)

Reinvention: A Writer's Tool

by Maggie Marr

I suppose as writers, in some ways, we reinvent ourselves every time we sit down to begin a new story.  We are creating a world inhabited by fictional characters and so, we are 'reinventing reality'.    I tend to subscribe to the idea that as authors we have a core story.  A story that we tell over and over and over again with different characters, settings, and dialogue in an attempt to make sense of our world.  Authorial reinvention, to me, doesn't mean changing that core story.  Authorial reinvention, to me, means trying on new genres, and with those new genres, perhaps pseudonyms.

If my definition of authorial reinvention is a writer attempting new names and/or new genres I guess so far I've been reinvented two times.

First there is Maggie Marr the Women's Fiction Writer.  Women's Fiction is the genre where I got my first deal as an author--that moment when I received 'the call.'

I love writing Women's Fiction.  I feel that this genre is where I express one of my deepest beliefs; that friends are the sustenance of female life.


Next there is Maggie Marr the Romance author.  This was my first authorial reinvention.   The foray into Romance was a result of my love of reading romance and also a writer friend *ahem* Ally Carter, suggesting that I write a romance book.  The first one was The Billionaire's Proud Mistress which became Can't Buy Me Love.  I entered this book into a Harlequin Presents contest and was first runner-up.   And my winning created quite a dust up!  I used a psuedonym and 2 out of the 4 winners were previously pubbed authors--which the rules allowed--however there were some disgruntled entrants.

Courting Trouble was my first foray into full-length contemporary Romance.  I love this book.  I wrote the hell out of it--seriously--used every tool in my box--which is interesting because while the reviews for Courting Trouble are excellent, the book's sales are relatively low.

Next up I ghostwrote a young adult book for an unnamed celebrity--actually I've done this twice.  The experiences have been ...  interesting.  And I can't show you the covers because well--that's what ghostwriting means.


What have I learned as an author by reinventing myself?  I've learned that each time I try something new I stretch my abilities, I become a better author, I maintain the excitement for my writing--which a reader truly can feel.  I gain confidence in my voice and with my mastery of my craft.  Reinventing, I guess, is also about growing as a writer.  My growth comes from using my solid craft foundation but placing that craft in different containers whether those containers be a screenplay, a TV pilot, a young adult book, romance book, or women's fiction book.  I will continue to expand and grow--I will try on different genres and in that way keep reinventing myself but the thing that remains solid and the same is that I will always be a writer.

What is my next reinvention?  Well I have a genre I'd like to try next ...  So I will.  Just as soon as I finish the latest book.



Margaret 'Maggie' Marr is an author, attorney, and independent producer.  She has written for TV and film.  She practices entertainment law in Los Angeles and specializes in representing authors, producers, screenplay writers, and directors.  Her next book--Hollywood Hit--Book 3 in the Hollywood Girls Club Series, publishes Summer 2013.

Trying to Simplify by Melissa Clark

I suppose it is just human nature that writers get pigeonholed into certain categories. I was a "tween TV writer", then a "ChickLit" author, "Women's Fiction" author and now I'm writing a "YA novel". My resume tells of that and so much more. I've taught, tutored, ghostwritten, written nonfiction, flash fiction, a few plays, a screenplay, I've filled hundreds of journals.

Which brings me to the question: Why can't a writer just be a writer? 

As it stands, these are conversations I have had:
"What do you do?"
"I'm a writer."
"What do you write?"
"Well, I used to write short stories, then I wrote children's television and now I write fiction."
"What kind?"
"I've heard my books described as 'chick lit' or 'women's fiction', but I just like to say I write fiction."
"What's 'chick lit?'
"A term someone came up with."
"You?"
"Definitely not me..."


Wouldn't it be easier as:
"What do you do?" 
"I'm a writer."
"What do you write?"
"Stories."

Because at the end of the day, isn't that what they all are? The play, TV shows, books, even the journals - stories written from the heart through the hand.


-----

Melissa Clark writes stories.

How do our lives as writers affect our children?

by Michele Young-Stone

Recently, I was reading an article in the New York Times about the memoirs of children of famous writers: William Styron, Saul Bellow, and John Cheever.  It was a fascinating article and it got me thinking about the impact my writing might have on my son.

For starters, we writers have to have extremely thick skin.  One mantra that I recently taped above my desk reads: This is my book.  This is my book.  My story.  My book.  My fucking art!!

My son, who is eight, thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever read, so he immediately shared it aloud with our house guests.  He knows that I hate the F word (fart), but I'm not so offended by the other F word, so I sat calmly by, amused at his attempt to shock the room.

My book.  My fucking art!!

Sometimes I need a reminder.  Sometimes I feel pulled in multiple directions and I have to remind myself that ultimately the buck stops with me.

_______________________________

My son has had a big part in my writing and publication journey.

He came with me on the day my novel debuted.  We went to see it on a bookstore shelf.  We bought a copy.  Next, we visited the library.  A month later, we saw it in Hudson News in JFK airport.  He knows that I was holding him in a Baby Bjorn, one month ol, when I graduated with my MFA in fiction writing; the early draft of my first novel was my thesis.

He was an infant when I got my first feedback from my illustrious agent, Michelle Brower.  She remembers hearing him in the background.  I was trying to breastfeed and simultaneously take revision notes.

He's been to New York a half dozen times, and even made paper towel airplanes with my genius editor in the bathroom of the French restaurant across from Random House (my former publisher).

He got on stage during my first and subsequent readings, and he sometimes says, "I might be a writer when I grow up."

I don't know if he'll be a writer.  I think that an electrician might be a good career path.  We all need light, but no matter what he decides, I hope that my profession is having a good impression on him.  The obvious difference between me, Cheever, Styron and Bellow (aside from their well-deserved fame) is that I am a woman.  I don't take a break from being my son's mother because I'm writing.  It's not

1950s America.  Domestic duties are allocated more justly, and my son knows that when I am writing, I am "not here" in the sense that I shouldn't be cooking or washing dishes because the water will boil away.  The sink will overflow.  Trust me.  It's happened more than once.

I guess that what I'm getting at is that no matter what career path a parent takes, the child is going to be affected.  My mother was a nurse and my father was an Industrial Arts teacher and Jack-of-all-trades.  They were just as capable to be neglectful terrible parents as Greg Bellow reports Saul Bellow was.  It doesn't have to do with the profession, no matter what that profession happens to be.  I think it's more about priorities and responsibility.  It's a balancing act.

Ultimately, I am grateful that my son has watched me pursue and be successful at my life's dream. That's the biggest impression I hope to impart upon him.  You can do and be anything you want in life. You just gotta work hard and go for it.



Michele Young-Stone is the author of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, available wherever books are sold (nearly).  She has two books under contract with Simon & Schuster.  She is a very proud mom.  Follow Michele on Facebook.    And Twitter.

8 Tips For Writing Great Dialogue

By Ellen Meister

If you're a fiction writer, great dialogue can transform your prose from bland to sublime. But it can take a lot of work to make your characters sound natural. Here are some tips from the trenches ...

1. Focus on voice

Read the dialogue out loud and listen to your characters. If their voices aren't distinct, go back and revise, keeping in mind that each character has his or her own vocabulary and verbal tics, dictated by personality, age, education level, attitude, etc.

2. Know what to leave out

In real life, conversations are filled with pauses, repetition, interruptions, interjections and all sorts of stalling tactics that may have no place in your fiction. Dialogue that reads like a transcript will leave readers cold, no matter how authentic it is.

3. Say good-bye to hellos

Don't get bogged down in greetings between your characters. Yes, in real life people say hello, how are you, nice to meet you, etc., but you will drag down your prose if you include these in your fiction. 

4. Include indirect responses

Nothing livens dialogue like having your characters respond to questions with indirect answers. For example, consider this perfectly fine exchange:

"I brought it there," he said. "The ... the lady. She asked me to."

"The small woman in a hat?"

"Yes, that's her."

          But notice how much more life it has when the question is answered indirectly:

"I brought it there," he said. "The ... the lady. She asked me to."

"The small woman in a hat?"

His eyes went wide. "You seen her?"

5. Dialectic spellin' ain't gettin' ya nowhere

Don't make the mistake of thinking dialectic spelling adds to the authenticity of your dialogue. In fact, it pulls the reader out of the story, as he or she struggles to decode the words. It slows down the experience and makes the reader more conscious of the author's presence. Instead, focus on word choice to make the point about your character's accent.

6. Don't use synonyms for "said"

Stephen King has noted that "said" is an invisible word to readers. That is, we barely notice it. But if you substitute it with one of the dozens of synonyms, such as stated, declared, intoned, exclaimed, remarked, replied, uttered, muttered, etc., your prose will sound stilted and overwritten.

7. Omit tags when possible

When only two characters are involved in the conversation, you can often omit the dialogue tags entirely.  However, don't go more than four lines without giving the reader a clue as to who's speaking.

If multiple characters are involved in a scene, you have to give some indication of who's speaking for each line of dialogue. However, you  don't have to tag every line. A bit of action can serve as a cue.  Example:

            “I mean, you can’t move in period.”

            He laughed. “Okay, I get it. I won’t pressure you about the garage anymore. At least for now.” He snapped his fingers at the waiter. “Can we see menus, please?”

8. Don't put exposition in dialogue

 If you're tempted to use dialogue to fill the reader in on backstory, ask yourself if a person would  actually say that. If not, put the exposition into the narrative, where it belongs. For instance, see if this sounds believable to you:

"Katie, the last time we saw each other you still had your arm in a cast from that terrible car accident you were in. Are you feeling better?"

Here's a possible rewrite:

She shook his hand and he was impressed by her grip. The last time they saw each other she was still in a cast, recovering from the car accident. "You look great," he said.

Do you have any special tips for writers who want to give their dialogue an extra edge? If so, please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks!
________________________________________________________________________
Ellen Meister is the author of four novels, including FAREWELL, DOROTHY PARKER, which is in stores now. She teaches creative writing at Hofstra University Continuing Education and runs a Facebook page for fans of Dorothy Parker. For more information, visit Ellen's website at ellenmeister.com.

Necessity is the Mother of Reinvention

by Marilyn Brant

While this is in no way big news to anyone who grew up with me, what I thought I wanted to do with my life when I was a kid was "to become a rock star." Clearly, I was a very original 7th grader. (And oh, yes, I am definitely mocking my sensitive, lyric-writing, junior-high self.)

There were only three tiny problems with my plan to achieve the kind of global Top 40 domination that one-name megastars like "Madonna" and "Prince" had:
1. I could carry a tune, but I was a long way from possessing anything that approached a 'rare and natural' vocal talent.
2. I had acute stagefright and actually hated performing musically in front of anyone.
3. I was too anxious and too unwilling to take the steps needed to improve #1 or manage #2.
You know, I just really liked the fantasy...

So, I did not study much music in college, despite my deep love of the subject, until it turned up as a requirement for my major. All future educators had to take this beginners' guitar class. (I think some "Sound of Music"-loving administrator in the department was secretly convinced that all elementary teachers should be able to mimic Fraulein Maria and sing "Do Re Mi" in key while strumming.) Up until then, I'd played a couple of years of viola -- horribly, by the way -- and a few years of piano -- more successfully, but that's not saying a lot. Guitar was a brand new instrument for me, and the first time I tried to tune it, I broke two strings.

However, my classmates and my instructors did not know about my childhood daydreams of rock stardom or the lingering sadness that washes routinely over such a dreamer whenever she realizes she's given up on a passion without ever really trying. So, I decided I'd do my absolute best in this class. Give it my full effort. Pretend I wasn't scared to the point of nausea at the mere thought of singing/playing in front of everybody. Besides, I had no choice. I wouldn't graduate without those 3 effing credits.

The results were pretty gratifying. I picked up the basics of the instrument in just a few weeks. Delighted in the calluses on my fingertips, much as it hurt to develop them at first. Sped through learning the required songs and had the assistant professor listen to me play so I could get them checked off the list. Most of all, I was shocked to discover that the assistant thought I was one of the best guitarists in the class (though, keep in mind, this was a group of all beginners), and other students were starting to ask me questions like, "Hey, have you ever played before?" I did not say, "Only when I was imagining myself onstage as Pat Benatar." But I did feel that warm, inexpressible joy inside at getting to -- in a very small way -- acknowledge a dream I'd once had, confront a longstanding fear, and reinvent my self image. Not as a future rock star, of course, but as someone who could, in fact, play and sing in public. At least when necessary.

My final performance piece -- in front of the professor, the assistant, and a bunch of classmates -- rocked. Well, rocked in a country music sort of way (it was a John Denver song, LOL), but I not only got my required class credits, I managed to work up just enough courage to audition for our university's musical not long afterward. And I even got a part. A small chorus role in our college's summer production of "Li'l Abner." The rare and natural vocal talent I heard from some of my castmates during the show convinced me that I'd truly be out of my depth if I tried to compete with any of them professionally, but the gift I received was in getting a taste of the reality of singing onstage, not just the fantasy of it.

I thought about that whole experience a lot during my years as an aspiring writer. Sometimes being in a circumstance where we just don't have a choice in doing something or are limited in our options can be an odd blessing, particularly when it comes to figuring out who we are, what we really want, and what we're genuinely capable of doing. The reward is the confidence and courage that come from meeting an unforeseen challenge...and the knowledge that in some new, similarly unexpected circumstance, we could probably do it again.

p.s. What's a song or two that you love? Any that you wished you could sing onstage? If so, did you ever do it?!

~~~
Marilyn Brant is a national bestselling and award-winning author of contemporary women's fiction and romantic comedy. Her novel A Summer in Europe (Kensington 2011) was a Rhapsody Book Club top 20 bestselling title in "Fiction & Lit," and the Polish-language version was just released last month. Her next story, a coming-of-age romantic mystery called The Road to You, will be out in early October. It features the road-trip music of the 1970s, so there was much (private) jamming to Led Zeppelin, Boston and Bad Company while writing it. Also some Bee Gees, but don't tell anyone. ;)

You Aren't One Person, Anyway (Writing IS Reinvention)

by Samantha Wilde

Once upon a time, I had an incredible career as a ballerina. But then, the teachers at my dance school measured my bones and decided I simply did not have the genetic connective tissue to hit the big time. I was thirteen.

Once upon a time, I worked at factory in Indiana pressing RV decals onto their backings. Except I kept coming in late for my five a.m. shift and they fired me. I was nineteen.

In the middle, I worked as a chamber maid, a babysitter, a cashier at the pharmacy, at a chocolate store, at a bookstore, at a music store, for a cleaning company, as a personal assistant to an elderly professor, in end-of-life care, at a flower farm, as as staff writer for a newspaper, as an ad exec for a newspaper, (as a babysitter again, as a cleaner, again), as a hostess at Chi Chi's, at a florist, as a nanny, for a Jewish newspaper, as an exotic dancer (just kidding. I wanted to see if you were still reading).

But I wrote my first book at age six and never stopped. I wrote books through each of my jobs, I kept writing through seminary and my yoga training, writing what I learned, what I cared about, what I didn't understand, my best ideas, my worst ideas.

In my unpublished life, I am a poet and a short story writer, a memoirist as well as a novelist. I'm an incredible essayist. And I can even craft a sexy Zen koan.

How does anyone do just one thing? Or write one thing? I have so many hats, my family chipped in and bought me a few more heads so I wouldn't have to keep changing them. When my husband and I argue, he hopes I'm wearing the minister hat (she's super loving and patient and if you get mad at you, she'll say, "Let's pray about this!). When my kids mess up, they hope I'm wearing my yoga teacher hat. "Breathe, relax, feel, watch, allow." They like that last one best.

I ALWAYS wanted to be a mother.

Sometimes I think I should have been a stand-up comedian. And when I don't feel that way, I'm absolutely convinced I ought to have become a nun (Episcopal until I became Buddhist). I would so long to join the Amish and spend my life in anonymity, farming, birthing children and wearing an apron. But then I'd also like to be the world's most famous liberal TV evangelist. If I could sing, I'd be a folk singer. If I was rich, I'd adopt a hundred children.If I was famous, I'd have my own talk show.

For the record, I've never wanted to be a hairdresser. (But see, I never said, I'm every woman.)

Choosing to become a minister and choosing to become a yoga teacher and choosing to become a full-time at-home mother and choosing to become the writer of humorous women's fiction drew me into a constant and fluid dance of reinvention. In yoga, every breath is a new beginning! In ministry, you get to be born again! You can;t find anything more reinvented than that. As a mother, every morning with my children presents a chance to try anew, with fresh ideas I learned about while reading another parenting book at night. As a humorous women's fiction writer...

Well, here is the smallest box I live in. Why do writers have to change names to become new again? Our we so attached to our novelists that we don't recognize how nobody is only one person, anyway? Every writer I know, without exception, can write in several genres, has secret books in them different than their working "voice." The scandal is not the drive and desire to reinvent (or the necessity), but the surprise it generates from others.

One of the best things about writing is the infinity of directions any sentence can take you, how with a word, the plot changes. Writing is reinvention. Sometimes we reinvent ourselves when we write. Sometimes we reinvent our pasts. Sometimes we reinvent an old story. Sometimes we reinvent an old idea.

Sometimes, I sit at my computer with that wanting to write like a song on my lips and it doesn't matter one bit what comes out. It's the writing that urges me on. When I slip into it, I have a hundred careers and I am all those people--and it is freeing to at once be me and not me. Well, I'm not one person, anyway. Are you?

You really get reinvented when you let your four year old choose your outfit!

Samantha Wilde is the author of I'll Take What She Has and This Little Mommy Stayed Home. She is an ordained minister and a yoga teacher, and the at-home mother of three young children. She really wants you to like her--or one version of her anyhow. You can also check out her Wilde Mama blog or follow her on Twitter: @whatshehas.