Book Review--HANNAH COULTER by Wendell Berry

HANNAH COULTER is like modern Faulkner.  In sentence structure, tone, scene, and subject matter,it is reminiscent of Yoknapatawpha County (Faulkner's fictional county in Mississippi).  The story held little suspense, marginal character development, and no discernible plot.  However, the narration of an old woman reminiscing about her life held me in sway.  It was like listening to an elderly grandmother weaving tales while crocheting and swinging on the front porch.  I could almost hear the squeaking of the chains on the swing and the clicking of the darning needles. 

However, even though the narration was strong, I believe it was also its weakness.  At times, the circular usage of a word transcended the poetic intent to become irritating.  My wife and I both read the book and made great fun of this.  One reflective word, like "love" or "live," would be repeated like:  "We would live in our love and love the life we lived.  Nathan and I found solace in our love because it was our love..." and so on.  About the middle of the book, the narrator slips into this fugue of reflexive use of key words and phrases to the point where it almost became a drudgery to continue.  Rather than waxing philosophical, it became pedantic.  But, I carried on and in the end decided to love the one I was with (tee-hee). 

I can recommend this book to most folk who can do without car crashes (although there is one hilarious account), people being shot, detectives solving cases, conspiracy theories, court drama, zombie apocalypses, or shiny vampires.  It is a novel about place.  It is a novel about acceptance, growing old gracefully, and the distorted lens of nostalgia.  It is an unassuming novel that laments simpler times, simpler ways of life, and the encroachment of "civilization."  In this way, it connects again, perhaps more fully, with William Faulkner's works in a thematic way.

Tag, You're It!

I read an interesting blog post today by agent Kristin Nelson that you can find here.  The hot topic this week in publishing concerned "discovery."  Meta data key words reflect one way that end users search for books (and other products online). It got me to thinking about my own "meta data," blog labels, and "tags."  In the past, I have just randomly selected some words that I thought people might search and then find my book.

I did not know that tools on the internet existed that track meta data and searches.  If only I had known.  This would effect the words I choose.  Especially considering that on Kindle Direct Publishing they only allow you a total of seven meta data tags.

My debut book, DARK MOUNTAIN, is a thriller/suspense novel that has elements of paranormal/occult and some elements of horror (especially if people actually ingesting blood makes you queasy).  I chose to use meta data tags for "vampires" and "werewolves" but I declined to mention them in the description.  Then, I also have this dark cover with the tag line, "Sometimes evil runs in the family."  My other five tags were, well, embarrassingly bland.  My name.  The title of the book.  "Thrillers," "suspense," and "Oklahoma authors."

I have changed them now, almost 9 months later.  My tags are now, "Stephen King,"  "horror,"  "vampires," "paranormal thriller," "occult," "Lee Child," and "suspense."  We will see if this increases sales.  This will be an interesting experiment.

My newest book, CRY ME A RIVER, is a suspense/thriller with elements of romance, adventure, and espionage.  It takes place in Colombia.  It has an assassin, a rogue DEA agent, a handsome photographer whose family owns a drug cartel and the woman who hires him.  Of course, she doesn't know his past and soon she becomes a pawn in the fight to protect the family business.

The meta data tags I chose for it seemed fitting, but lo, I have only sold two copies since December 6.  I thought with the Christmas rush and the fact that I gave away over 500 copies of DARK MOUNTAIN, that I would get some attention drawn to this book.  I think it has a catchy cover, but I think that maybe the market is flooded right now.  I don't know.  I think it is the better book.  So, I am experimenting with the data tags on this one as well.  I chose "Lee Child," and "Clive Cussler" for this one as well as "romance," and some other tags that have been getting hits.

We shall see.  I will give it thirty days before I evaluate other ways to boost my sales.  How about you guys?  What are the key words you search for when you are seeking your next read?

De Ja You

Plots are a dime a dozen in fiction.  One author, Christopher Booker, would have us think that there are only truly seven plots in fiction:  Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth.  Whether you agree with his assessment, regardless of the finiteness of plots, there are thousand upon thousands of STORIES.  An unlimited, unfathomable, inexhaustible supply of tales. 

And yet, sometimes, we can find similarities.  It would be easy for one to attribute this to influence.  I read Stephen King and then write a story about a girl lost in the woods, or attacked by a dog.  How many stories have been written about authors who have a "dark side" and it comes out to kill?  I could, if I sat and thought about it, come up with hundreds of other examples from authors ranging from Virgil, to Homer, to Shakespeare, to Hemingway, to John Irving, to James Joyce and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

But, what if I said I opened a book to peruse it and found a story strikingly like my own?  One which I had never before picked up?  What if I said my own story is barely published and originally written in 2008 while the book in question was published in 2010?

Some would want more proof.  Alright.  I have published the story in question, the first chapter of a fantasy "Work in Progress," on my website.  You can find it here.  It is the January excerpt.  While you are there on my website, take 2 seconds to enter the contest by answering one simple question.  There is a small prize in a drawing to be held at the end of the month.

Now, the published work, by an author which I like, SM Stirling is here.  You can read the sample (the first chapter) and compare for yourself.

You can see that I don't have a naked person running through the woods, but I do write something similar:  a panther that is able to communicate via telepathy.  Ok, his is a tiger with black on black striping and eyes of molten sulfur (great imagery, I am sure you agree), while mine is a true panther, but there are similarities.

Now, this got me to thinking about every time I have read a fantasy that tread over the same dwarf, elf, and dragon cliche, or every police procedural that walked that familiar path of evidence, motive, accessibility, and concurrence.  It also reminded me of the similarities of romances:  boy meets girl, boy is a bad boy and girl finds out too late, etc. 

I understand that as authors, we tap into the "Muse," and use our imaginations to concoct new, exciting, never-before-written accounts.  We explore and create new worlds, our own sciences, our gods, religions, societies.  We use our existing world and twist history or create new futures.  Yet, every post-apocalyptic story seems similar in ways, don't they?  Fantasy worlds, no matter how divergent, are familiar and share elements.  Every genre has its iconic elements.  Zombies lurch, vampires bite, dragons fly, women are swept up by the leading guy, and police solve crimes. 

I am not trying to be negative here.  I am saying that we share something.  We share the wonderful world we live in and the thousand upon thousands of stories that have been and will be created.  I think there is a wonder in it.  Whether we are succumbing to influence or calling upon a common human theme of love, abandonment, grief, hope, triumph, quest, voyage, or death, we share a common story.  We share a connection.  There is no shame in what we have in common.  There is no shame in our differences either because even in our individuality, we have something in common.

What about you?  Have you ever come across a story like your own, even a simple element?  Or have you read two books and found so many similarities that it made you wonder?

Production is King

As I watch the success of fellow self-publishers, I try to maintain a sense of calm.  I have one book, Dark Mountain, published so far and have had a mediocre first two months. I have learned a ton.  Perhaps the biggest thing that I have learned so far is to be patient. 

Failure tends to demand that reaction, doesn't it?  The Colts have a miserable season with Manning in the stands and the ownership flips the entire organization on its tail.  Be patient.  The economy is in the toilet, unemployment is rampant, drug use on the rise, housing prices plummeting, foreclosures skyrocketing.  Be patient.

So, the only remedy I can truly see is more production.  Write.  Write some more.  I wrote recently about a difficult scene in my current work-in-progress, Cry Me a River.  What a bunch of whiny dreck.  I just wrote it.  Powered through it and ate up 15,000 words in three days.  Finished with a 8,000 word flourish. 

The remedy, you see, is to get behind a keyboard and do what you do best.  So, with another productive week ahead (20,000 words should get me to the end of the book), I will get the next book out before November.  And, soon after that, I plan on having the first of a series of adventure/suspense novels, my Jake Monday series, ready for editing.

The more novels you have, the more legitimate you seem as a writer.  It is then easier to cross-market, to brand, to develop a fan base that no longer just reads your books in obscurity but recommends them to friends and family, tweet about them, adds them on Goodreads, and buys the merchandise.

This is truly a wonderful time to be a writer.  We can never lose sight of that.  But, in this new world of publishing, production is king.  Do you find an author with a "long tail" (multiple books published, big back-list) to have more legitimacy, or does this even factor in when looking for that new book for your Kindle/Nook/Kobo/Ipad?

The Scene You Don't Want to Write

I have been struggling recently with a scene in my new novel, Cry Me a River.  I have done everything I can to procrastinate, avoid, and fret.  I have researched, I have worked on other projects (this blog, for instance), I have socialized on Facebook and Twitter, and I have read books.  Now, three days have passed and I have written a grand total of 455 words. 

The problem is, the scene causes me emotional and physical pain.  Why? Well, when dealing with emotions in my writing--anger, disappointment, joy--I try to embody those emotions within myself while writing.  I feel this allows me to portray those feelings with more honesty and realism.  The scene in question deals with the death of a loved one (a daughter's ashes are being returned to a Colombian village).  To properly be "in the moment," I have to emphathize with the mother, with the bearer of the ashes, and with the missionary who had enabled the relationship with the American husband that took the daughter from her home country. 

Some of these emotions, I have a difficult time processing.  I do not willingly want to expose myself to those raw feelings.  They are too visceral, too heart-wrenching.  So, I hem and haw, waste time and don't do it.  Can I write the scene without tapping into those emotions? Sure.  But it wouldn't ring true.  I want a masterpiece, not a soap opera or a television drama. The risk is that without embodying those emotions while I write, I will overdramatize them.  Melodrama:  something I want to avoid.

The task at hand is daunting, but not impossible.  Like many people, I am stalling.  The truth is, I WANT to write this scene.  It is a pivotal, powerful scene, full of conflicting emotions, drama, and love.  I want to write that.  I want to feel those things.  With sadness, grief, anger, love, joy, disappointment, and desire, we are attuned to life.  We know we live if we experience these inner tragedies and victories.  My book is about embracing life, and so this scene is important.  Perhaps that is why I am stalling:  I want it to be perfect.  I want it to be powerful.  I know that means it will take a toll on me as a writer, the creator, if I want it to convey something to you, the reader. Is that so bad?

Off to work I go.  I hope to have it finished by Monday.  I will let you know how it goes.

Self-Publishing Basics Part 2: Creating A Cover

Books are judged by their covers.  This is one truism (or "truthiness") that seems to always apply.  If you have decided to self-publish, let me recommend that you take some time to study book covers.  Look at covers that have caught your eye and covers that are appropriate for your genre.  By this I mean BEST SELLING covers for novels in your genre.  Some covers out there, especially among self-pubbed books, are very amateurish.

I chose to go a little outside my genre (thrillers), and incorporate some imagery and cover format that had worked to draw my eye.  I have always been partial to a solid block of color behind the author's name/title of the book.  Some cover artists can blend the type into a dark spot of the cover art, or a place where there is a solid color.  This allows the title to "pop" and also allows the reader to delineate between the image and the title.  The two should connect, by the way.  The image should reflect in some way either the title or the theme of the book.   Unless there is a murder at the picnic, a bucolic scene with a field of flowers, a bench with a family around it laughing does not a mystery cover make.

Covers are art.  That is the way you must see it.  This art can be as simple as type face over a solid color, photo images and type or illustration/painting with type, or any variation of those.  The point of the art, the point of the cover, is to draw potential readers to pick up the book, to click on it and read more.

Now, I by no means am an expert at this, but I have a good eye.  I have read thousands of books and have perused libraries and bookstores for three decades.  I know what stands out.  I have watched the trends.  I notice when a book cover for a particular novel (i.e. Game of Thrones or The Stand) changes.  I notice when a cover I find appealing, but is outside of my reading circle--romance, for example--catches my eye and then becomes popular.  For sure, the popularity of novels is not dependent upon their covers, but on their contents.  Some books succeed IN SPITE of their covers.  The Stand was one of them, Stieg Larsson's Girl series is another.

The practical side of the cover is the design of it in preparation for print.  Many of the Print-On-Demand publishers like Create Space and Lulu provide tools to make this task easier.  But, just like many other areas of self-publishing, you must don another hat, develop another skill.  If you don't have proficiency with Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign or some other design studio software, I recommend that this task is one that you hire out to someone that does.  A good graphic artist, a cover designer, or even a graphic design student can provide the PDF document or JPEG image you will need to provide your cover.

Another practical consideration you must keep in mind is the art/photography.  I am not a photographer.  I used to be a fair illustrator but have not honed those skills in decades.  Find a photographer you like or subscribe to iStock photos or eShutter or some other online stock photo marketplace.  You can get pictures there royalty free for less than a dollar.  Or, if you like the personal touch, digital photography is an art form in itself.  If you would like to marry that talent with your talent for writing, then that could be your best option.

The beauty of self-publishing is that YOU have the control.  YOU make the decisions.  However, it is also the burden you bear because, in the end, the success or failure is on you as well.  You have to have good content, a good story told with craftmanship.  You have to have an attractive cover that draws in readers.  You also have to have a good marketing plan that puts your title, your name and your brand in front of as many people as possible.


NEXT UP:  EDITING

The Self-Publishing Choice

I am writing this in anticipation of my proof copy for my debut novel, Dark Mountain.  Over the next week or so I plan on writing some blog entries that cover some aspects of self publishing: formatting, choosing a POD publisher, marketing, Amazon, pricing, making a book trailer, designing a cover, making a website and branding.  Today, though, I thought it best to start at WHY I decided to self-publish in the first place.

To truly understand this decision, I have to first establish my love for writing.  I knew at the age of 12 that I would someday be a writer.  I loved books and when I wrote my first story (a sort of "Children of the Corn" knock-off), it was for an Eighth Grade English class.  I really liked my teacher, and so when she gave us a writing assignment, I really wanted to impress her.  So, having some drawing skills, I took some art paper and made a scary cover with blood dripping from the words and stapled my hand-written story inside.  I even embellished the back cover with blurbs and fake reviews.  Needless to say, she was duly impressed and gave me some very positive feedback.  I never looked back on that dream that began that day on the second floor of Weston Junior High School. 

In college, I eventually got my English degree (after flirting with Pulpit Ministry, Computer Programming, Teaching English, Teaching English as a Foreign Language and Library Science).  I knew to be a writer that all the Creative Writing courses I could take would never really advance me in my career.  They were helpful, for sure, but I wasn't prepared to live on the income of a starving writer.  I'm still not and so I have a real job in addition to writing.  I wasn't attracted to the stodginess of journalism and even though I have a salesman heart (that's what I do now), I didn't want to move to Chicago, New York, Miami or Los Angeles to work for an ad agency or marketing company.

So, I took classes, read books, researched online, and wrote as much as I could discipline myself to do with a young family and the demands of life. In other words, I produced nothing because I felt I had an excuse.  I lamented my diminishing skills (they were actually getting better), my lot in life (I have, for the most part, always moved forward), and dwelt in the Land of Pity and Self-Loathing for almost a decade.

Then, something awoke in me.  I began keeping a writer's notebook.  I began and stopped several books (some of which I plan on finishing).  I tried to get published.  I wrote articles for a homeschool publication in our state.  I wrote and produced a newsletter for our homeschool support group.  I kept honing my skills.  I kept reading literature. 

Then, about eight years ago, I got more serious. I subscribed to writer's groups, critique groups and searched for ways to expand my writing.  Eventually, I began to call myself a writer.  I let that define me and even started a blog, wrote some short stories and published them on Smashwords for free.  I subscribed to industry blogs and kept up with the publishing industry on a daily basis.  I researched agents (that was new to me:  early in my writing I had been sending to slush piles, but all that had changed). 

Then, in 2009, with several novels started, a bunch of notes for others and ideas swirling in my head, I discovered NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month.  It is in November and it challenges aspiring writers to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  It is an accomplishment, to be sure.  I participated and actually succeeded in my first attempt.  The result was mediocre.  I recognize good stories.  Dark Mountain Mean was just ok.  I put it aside, began a more ambitious novel that required massive research and kept me up at night with excitement. 

Meanwhile, Dark Mountain Mean languished on my computer, stewed for almost a year.  I pulled it back out in 2010 when I was unable to get my NaNoWriMo off the ground.  My fantasy project flopped about halfway through and I knew I wouldn't make it.  So, I picked Dark Mountain Mean back up and began the daunting task of writing the final 25,000 words and editing the mostly crappy first 50,000.   Tracey, my wife, agreed to read it while I edited the first part and finished the last part.  She actually pushed me.  She finished the first part and begged me to continue writing.  She was interested in reading about how it ended.  Her excitement lit a fire under me. 

I now knew--KNEW--I could write well.  I was finally beginning to think I was publishable AND had the discipline to finish.  But, even after completing the first draft, I knew I wasn't finished.  I began the second edit with my wife's notes in hand.  I fixed inconsistencies, bad story arcs, some spotty grammar, some sketchy moral fallacies and that took a year.

Eager to get some more positive feedback--Tracey's excitement was contagious, but she is my WIFE--I asked some folks if they would interested in reading it.  My college-bound son, Nate, and a friend from church volunteered.  Another year went by.  I began to query agents while I waited for more feedback.  I got several rejections. 

All this time I was waiting, watching.  I was a Team Big 6 proponent.  I had read (and participated a little) in self-publishing.  I was immensely disappointed in the quality of the writing.  It went beyond the bad grammar, poor formatting, amateur cover art and poor premises.  The story-telling was awful.  Just dreadful.  I am no high-brow reader, even though I can recognize the difference between Henry James and John Grisham.  I am an eclectic reader, perhaps the most widely read person I know:  everything from Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Camus to Star Wars, Forgotten Realms and Magic the Gathering. I read Stephen Covey, CS Lewis and Larry Burkett as well as biographies on Jim Brown, business books, sales training books, and motivational and devotional books.

The simple fact is:  most self-published books were sub-par.  They thankfully didn't charge much and often were free, but even that sometimes didn't make up for the poor writing.  But, I digress.

The point is, I was firmly NOT in the self-pubbing camp.  I wanted an editor. I wanted an agent.  I wanted the clap on the back that comes from acceptance into this community.  But, the longer I researched the publishing industry, I realized that the timing, the money and the hassle weren't really what I was expecting.  Agents, other writers, and  publishing professionals laud the experience as worth it, as all part of the "way things are."  The longer I listened to that, the more it sounded hollow.  I saw the same lack of editorial care with traditionally published books, I saw the hackneyed titles and regurgitated plots. 

The longer I listened, the more Amazon and Lulu and CreateSpace and Smashwords, even, looked more logical.  At least, to me.  I had made a timid attempt at getting represented.  I struggled with my query letter.  It doesn't do my story justice.  I felt rejected, because I was.

One day, I made the decision.  I knew I wouldn't go back.  Although, I might.  If offered, I would accept.  But, I want them to come calling to me, not the other way around.  I will self-publish even if it means the only people who buy my book are people I know.  I don't want to do it for any other reason other than it is my dream and I refuse to let it die.

I can't wait for the proof copy.  I already know I will have to do some more work on the cover.  In fact, I have already uploaded a new cover and edited the interior again (the 5th time).  I have about 50% of the marketing in place (website, Amazon Kindle Select, social media) and about a dozen people lined up ready to make a purchase or a download.

I am already satisfied.  To me, that little feedback from people who haven't even read my book yet sustains me.  It's like I am in Eighth Grade all over again.