F³A: Things to play with

I went to the darkside.  Yes, by way of the e-reader. *bows to the book gods in apology*.  I bought the Amazon Kindle Fire.  Why you ask?  There are a few reasons.  First and foremost, friends I knew to be good writers were self publishing straight to ebook.  Drat!!!  There is one in particular, his name is Jeff Fielder, I've read his work and I think he's brilliant.  Anyhoo, he published some short stories in his book Voices in the Field and Other Stories.  Then you know what he did?  He put it out in paperback.  I told him he owed me $199 + tax and shipping.

Of course I was kidding because there are other straight to e books I'd like to read.  But that's not the only reason I bought the Fire.  In fact, reading on it is secondary (I still love the feel of a book in my hands and that book smell, yeah, you know what I'm talking about)You know that thing they call the iPad? Well, the Fire does most of what that thing does.  But cheaper.  And smaller (if you like that kind of thing).

The bad thing about my Kindle Fire?  I've had it about two weeks and still not been able to play with it.  Yes, that sucks.  I've pledged to spend some quality time with my Kindle this weekend.

Do you have an e-reader?  If so, what kind did you buy?  If not, what are your hang ups?

Oh, one more thing, Julia Karr, author of XVI (which I LOVED btw) is hosting some of us 2k12ers in her 2k12 Days of Christmas.  Check it out the deets here.

Friday Scribbles:

Christmas song of the week:  The Monkees Riu Chiu.  I saw this on their show and fell in love with it (it was REPEATS people, I'm not that old *cough*)

Movie of the Week: The Ref.  Funniest damn Christmas movie ever with Dennis Leary, Kevin Spacey, and Judy Davis.  If you've not seen this movie, you're not living.

Book of the week:  Still reading (slowly, not because of the book, because of my lack of time) The Wicked and the Just by J Anderson Coats.  Do you like war and cussing and medieval stuff.  Then buy it.  Now.  And I might add, J and I have become friends and she's kick ass awesome.

Quote of the Week: I've got two and they are both from one of my favorite books, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

"Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores."

"There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing."

That is all.  Happy Friday my friends.

Tuesday Tips: Elmore Leonard

A friend, Jeff Fielder, sent me these tips from Elmore Leonard (author of crime fiction and suspense thrillers) a couple years ago.  I think they may be the best tips I've received in my quest for publication.  I love them and live by them.

Using adverbs is a mortal sin (I guess this must be really important because it's in bold and unnumbered)    

1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a charac­ter's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead look­ing for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want.    

2 Avoid prologues: they can be ­annoying, especially a prologue ­following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in non-fiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want. There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday, but it's OK because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: "I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks."    

3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But "said" is far less intrusive than "grumbled", "gasped", "cautioned", "lied". I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.  

4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" ... he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances "full of rape and adverbs".    

5 Keep your exclamation points ­under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.    

6 Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose". This rule doesn't require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use "suddenly" tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.    

7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apos­trophes, you won't be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavour of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories Close Range.    

8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants", what do the "Ameri­can and the girl with him" look like? "She had taken off her hat and put it on the table." That's the only reference to a physical description in the story.    

9 Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.  

10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them.  

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

F³A: Random Bits of Nothing

It's been awhile since I did the Friday Free For All, so I thought I would get back to it.  Oh wait, crap, I didn't finish my Caregivers.  The last and most important was supposed to be teachers.  sigh.  But I have too much to say, so, I'll just give a shout out to some of my favorites. (and why were there not hottie guy teachers like this guy when I was in school?)

Mr. Anstett, the most awesome literature teacher in the WORLD.

Mr. Wilkinson, you are part of the reason I write.  Thank you.

As for my kids teachers, Mr. Allegro, Mrs. Gibson, Mrs. Harkness, Mrs. Jepson, Mrs. Willy, Mrs. Strong, you all rock in a BIG way!!!

Okay on to nothingness.

I finished the first draft of Cheesy yesterday.  Ah!  And today I'm going to try and take a break, although I don't think I'll be able to.  I think I'm going to want to start revising NOW.  I'm that excited about it.

In a couple weeks blogger Amy Munday is going to feature me on her Writer's Scribbles at her Unabashed Impropriety blog.  You should check them out.  My fellow vlogger and friend, Cat has one there.  Give her a read.

I also want to give a shout out to my two friends, Jeff and Tracy, who are new to the whole blogging gig.  Give them a read and follow if you will.

One other blogger I want to mention today is B. Miller.  She's got this pay it forward contest she's doing for the rest of the month.  Winner gets a $25 gift card to your book store of choice, OR if you are a published writer, she'll buy, read, and review your novel.

Here is my pay it forward story.  I was in the Fred Meyer parking lot with Rusty, and this woman approaches us and asks if we will buy her $25 FM gift card for $20.  She said they were going to shut off her electricity the next day if she didn't pay her bill, which was, if I remember right, $80.  We gave her $20 and told her to keep the card.

I'm not gullible people, and I know she could have taken the money and bought meth or crack or booze, but I just had a feeling.  I was walking through the store and we're filling our cart and I must have had a look on my face because Rusty said, "You want to give her more?"

I said, yes.  He asked how much, and I said enough for the whole bill.  So I went to the cash machine, got the money and went outside.  She was in her car.  I approached the window and said, "I sure hope you're telling the truth" and handed her the money.  She began crying. The look of gratitude on her face made it all worth while.  And we left the parking lot at the same time, she was in front of us for a time, and she was headed in the direction of the utilities building.  Of course, I suppose her drug dealer could have lived in that direction, but, I did feel good, and I had a good feeling about it.

I like to help people because many people have helped me along the way, and it does make you feel awesome.

I suppose that's all I've got for you today except for the...

Favorite song of the week: Okay, this may not really be the favorite song of the week, but it's been in my head since Monday so I'm giving it to Hey Soul Sister by Train.

Current Read: Alchemy by Mike Wood

Blurb: The summer of 1984 was a golden time in America. From California, where gymnast Mary Lou Retton was winning Olympic gold, to Cape Cod, where explorer Barry Clifford was discovering pirate gold, the nation seemed obsessed with the precious metal. But for 15-year old Al, that obsession hits a little too close to home when he finds a code-filled notebook belonging to his missing father that may contain the ancient formula for turning lead to gold. Convinced that his father’s sudden disappearance is connected to his secret experiments in alchemy, Al sets out to find the truth. He enlists the help of Cammie, a beautiful girl staying for the summer while her marine biologist father tracks a wayward manatee, and together they begin unraveling the mystery. But the closer they get to an answer, the closer they grow to each other, and as the end of summer draws nearer, Al wonders if they can break the code without breaking his heart.

Movie of the Week: Boondock Saints II these guys kick ass.

"I'm so f*c@ing smart, that I make smart people feel like they are retarded" ~ Eunice from Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day.

Okay, I think that's all I have.  Have a good weekend.

Ciao,

Megan

Top Four Ways to Get Through NaNoWriMo: #4

For those of you unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. This is a personal challenge, the only reward is your own accomplishment. In the month of November, writers from around the world commit to trying to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

Last year was the first year I participated, and I was a "winner", Mending Fences being the finished product. Of course, having to write 1,600 words a day is no easy task. You don't always get your best work, but you may have something you can work with, edit, revise, and turn it into something good, which I believe I have done with Mending Fences.

This year's novel will be titled Lockdown, a YA novel about a school shooting. (cover art done by my friend Jeff Fielder)

And one of the ways I'm going to get through this is by my #4, outlining.

I normally don't outline. But I thought, if I can create some of the characters in advance, and set a time-line, this may help me see it through.

So, that's it. Good luck to all of you participating in NaNo this year.