Mid-Willamette Valley RWA

LOVE YOURSELF FIRST!

2012-02-02T02:53:00.000-08:00

Current Project: LEGACY series
Status: Preparing for launch of first book on March 1!
Posted by: Genie Gabriel

I had decided to base my February blogs on the topic of "love." A bit trite perhaps with Valentine's Day this month, but let's approach love from a different angle: self-love.

I've been receiving e-mails from the self-professed Queen of Self Love, Christine Arylo. A very funny lady and a bit over-the-top for me sometimes, but she makes some good points. The main one is you have to love yourself before you can truly love someone else.

Perhaps that's why character arcs in my stories are so important. Usually my heroes and heroines have suffered some pretty serious trauma. It may have been physical, but has definitely left its emotional mark. These characters must overcome their own emotional trauma before they can fully love their perfect hero or heroine.

Here's one of the ways Christine Arylo suggests loving yourself:
"Take a Self-Love Soak. Candles. Bath. Bath Salts. Music. Lip Liner. Beautiful Bar of Soap. Undress. Write words and sonnets of love all over your body with the lip liner. Get into the bath. Gently rub the soap over the love words and feel them soaking into your cells."

As writers, we often squeeze writing into an already full life. So taking care of ourselves is pushed even farther down on our priority list. However, during February--and every month--I invite you to do something special for yourself. Take that self-love soak. Or prepare a meal of your favorite foods. Or go for a walk and look for beautiful things in nature. I'm noticing daffodils and other spring flowers coming up strongly already!

I'd love to know how your pamper yourself, so please share.

Self-hugs to you all!

How Much Sex is Too Much?

2012-02-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

Current Project: "Hims" has a new name: Beyond a Heart
Status: First twenty pages have entered a contest :)

Have you ever read Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy? If you haven’t, you’re seriously missing out. If you like spunky female protagonists and romances, and have even a passing tolerance for historicals, you should enjoy it. Ms. Heyer’s writing is wonderful.

Last summer when my fourteen year-old daughter was bored she asked me for a book. Hmm, what to give her? She had been reading Anne McCaffrey’s Pern and James Patterson’s Max, online manga and Graceling, by Kristin Cashore, while she waited for the 4^th Eragon book. Seeing a pattern here? If it had a dragon in it, at least one that wasn’t the villain or the victim, she was all over it. No dragon? Hmm, then throw in some magic or adventure and she’d try it.

I hesitated to give her any romances both because of her age and her reading preferences. But The Grand Sophy, that’s a story out of the ordinary; she would probably like it, right?

Right. She devoured it and asked for more Georgette Heyer. I gave her These Old Shades. Watching anime with subtitles hadn’t prepared her for all the French, of course, but she liked it anyway, and ever since she has been more open in her reading preferences. Last week, after another request for something new to read, I gave her Gail Carriger’s Souless, the first in the author’s steampunk series (I love this series title), The Parasol Protectorate. My daughter really liked it and quickly picked up the next one off my shelf, Clueless.

But last night she came in and said she might not finish Clueless; there’s too much technology in it. She wants something from an older time. I had just finished Mary Balogh’s A Summer to Remember, set in the late regency period in England, and thought it might fit her requirements. It has a few sex scenes, but they’re not too bad, and she’s fifteen now, I thought, it should be okay. She started on it right away and about five pages in came and told me she was already in love with the hero.

Then this morning one of those sex scenes popped into my head. Uh, er, that was quite a bit more, uh, detailed, than I remembered it being last night when I gave her the book. I tried to self-talk my way back into the parental comfort zone. It’s only a few pages out of hundreds, it’s not Lora Leigh or Emma Holly, for goodness sake, just a mild scene of consensual premarital sex between loving adults who will end up married. Probably. I still haven’t managed to completely quiet the internal fit I’m having. I will most likely talk with her about it, see what she thinks. She’s a pretty level-headed kid.

But this whole thing brought up another issue that I’ve been dealing with in my writing: how much sex is the right amount?

I write light. Funny. Cheerful. I sometimes read dark but I don’t have any interest in writing it; I’m not even sure I could.

I write so light that several times, after a first reader has looked at a dozen or so pages for me, I’ve been asked if I’m writing Young Adult. At first I just said, no, keep reading, you’ll get to the sex scenes, but after a while I got tired of hearing it. I actually went back and increased the sexual tension in the very first scene, even though I hadn’t wanted to, hadn’t felt the story needed it, felt, in fact, that the initial nature of the heroine was innocent enough that it was wrong to do so. I don’t get asked that at all anymore about that story, but that first change had a cascade effect, and the whole voice and flavor are different now. The manuscript actually went off track because of this. I’ve put it to simmer on the back burner of my brain for a while and started writing something else.

So, what is the right amount of sex? The Mary Balogh book I gave my daughter has nearly 400 pages and only about 9 of them include sex. The rest of the book is eminently suitable for a reader my daughter’s age, perhaps even younger. If Ms. Balogh had left out some of the details, written, in fact, a little more in the way that Ms. Heyer did, I wouldn’t even be thinking about this. But would I have enjoyed it as much myself?

Part of this question is about readership, which ultimately leads, if you’re lucky, to income. If I publish a particular work as a Young Adult romance, women might buy it for their older children and then read it themselves. They might then recommend it to their friends and their friends’ daughters.

On the other hand, some women might only be interested if it were marketed strictly for adults. There are, after all, many more adults than teenagers with the money to buy books. And, I think, a lot of teenagers would be embarrassed to be caught reading much of what is currently called romance (as opposed to works from the romantic period of art and literature, 1770 to 1870, such as Poe, Shelley, Tolkien, Austin, Dickinson, Doyle, and Dumas).

Another consideration is length. No, not that length (geesh!), the length of the story. A young adult novel typically comes in at 40-50k words, whereas an adult work of that word count would be considered a novella and would have an entirely different marketing strategy. Getting a few sex scenes worked into a shorter story also requires a different writing strategy. The pace is different, too. And there are subject matter considerations as well.

Everything about writing for any particular market seems to come down to balance. Sacrifices must be made. And if one doesn’t write with a particular market in mind, which can be risky because of the timing, then when the manuscript is finished it may be less likely to be picked up, due, ironically enough, to marketing concerns. I have heard many stories about books-of-the-heart never finding a publisher, not because its poorly written, but because it’s a genre crossover.

I have read, and I agree, that a great sex scene is more about the emotions of the characters than the technicalities of Tab A and Slot B. So why must a lighthearted, funny story loaded with double entendre and rich emotion instead of porn-style graphics be any less appealing to an adult than to a young adult? I am baffled by this, and yet it is an issue that I have had to face repeatedly.

I haven’t resolved this issue to my own satisfaction, no pun intended—no, really!—and I fear that my writing may continue to stall out until I do so. I waffle back and forth between my desire to write what I want—to me it feels a lot like Heyer-inspired sci-fi it but has recently been compared to Jane Austin(wow!)—and my desire to publish something so exciting that its popularity will rage across the planet like wildfire…like Harry Potter or Twilight. Wait, which pages were those sex scenes on again? I can’t seem to find them…Oh well, back to writing Fun with Muffy and Dick.

Weekly Progress Check-In

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter's weekly progress check-in.

Did you meet your writing goals last week? What do you plan to accomplish this week?

(The best prize is achieving your writing goals, but as an extra incentive, we will award gift cards from Powell's bookstore to the chapter member and the non-member who check in for the most weeks in 2012.)

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Cover Design

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

In my continuing journey to learn about self-publishing, this week I'm going to discuss cover design.

First, the technical. Here are the basic facts about book covers for the Kindle: Kindle publishing

Next, I found a really good talk on book covers by a librarian, looking at how readers judge covers: You CAN Tell a Book by its Cover.

I found this article fascinating, because she noticed things like how the font on the cover lets the reader know what kind of story will be inside. She looks at fonts, colors, images, and puts together a way to quickly find a particular kind of book on the shelf in the library. This got me thinking about what a cover is trying to convey. It's easy to get caught up in pretty pictures and forget that what you're creating is an ad for your book. (After reading this talk, I immediately scrapped a bunch of really pretty but impractical art designs I had found on stock photo sites.)

Next is a really good article on cover images, full of useful information about design and formatting. This blog post talks about the difference between the tiny thumbprint images used in search results versus the large images that are used for the actual cover seen when reading the book on the Kindle: Kindle Cover Size

I hadn't thought about the idea that book covers online are not usually seen in all their full-size, carefully designed glory. They are usually seen as tiny images readers glance at among a sea of other, similar images. This was a new concept for me to consider, and again, made me reconsider my approach to designing my covers.

The next useful article I found was by a long-time cover designer who compares designing for print versus designing for ebooks. He is another who emphasizes the need to consider what your cover looks like as a small thumbnail image: Ebook Covers.

"A page of search results will show very small thumbnails—60 x 90 pixels—that are extremely challenging to carry off as any kind of good design."

"A beautiful illustration that would be a powerful eye-grabber under the spotlight in a bookstore may become a tiny incomprehensible blob when displayed on a website." --said Michael N. Marcus, commenting on this post.

The designer's advice: use one, dominant object of focus, something still recognizable at a small size.

Next article, again discussing print versus digital design and the demands of each, from the NYT.

"We often get requests to make the type bigger," said Mario J. Pulice, creative director for the adult trade division of Little, Brown & Company. "Because when it’s on Amazon, you can’t read the author’s name."

Starting to see a theme here?

Another article on covers from CBS News.

"A good cover tells you what kind of book it is - without giving too much away. . . . Which is why a romance novel often has the clinch. Books aimed at women (Chick Lit) may feature some article of clothing, a shoe, a dress . . . while jackets on crime novels are usually dark, with a shadowy character or weapon as part of the design. "

So, what did I learn from all this research?

•Remember that the first thing readers will see is a TINY (60x90 pixels) image of your cover.

•Think of your bookselling as a "campaign," not an isolated cover image. This was an idea repeated by many experts. How does the cover relate to the title, description, the excerpt, the design of your website, the author page on Amazon? Think of it as a package and make sure all parts tie together into a coherent whole.

I decided my own design goals were:

•Something simple, something not beyond my limited design skills, because I don't want to pay someone to make me a cover at this point.

•Something with a theme or idea I can carry over from book to book, because I'm writing a whole series.

•Something giving a hint of the flavor of the story, but not too much detail.

•Something not strictly screaming romance, because I realized if I put a nekkid guy on the cover it would really annoy people when they find no nekkid guy inside the book. (If you have nekkid guys in your book, DO put them on the cover. Sexy sells like hot buns!)

•Something that has a resemblance to the most successful books in my subgenre, but is distinctive enough to stand out.

So, how to go about all this?

Try this exercise. Go to the current top Kindle romance bestsellers.

Look at the SMALL images on the page in front of you (don't click on them and look at them full size). Which ones catch your eye? Which ones look interesting to you at that small size? Now, look through the books and pick out a half-dozen bestsellers that are in the same subgenre as your book. For me, these bestselling Kindle books are closest in voice/style/plot to mine:

Keep in mind your choices will look completely different than mine. Don't choose the covers you think are the "prettiest," but the books closest to the style and flavor of your work.

I had been mistakenly designing a "suspensy" cover, with sharp graphic designs and a block font that conveyed DANGER in capital letters. Big mistake. I write suspense, but it's small-town, a-woman's-journey-to-find-herself with a hint of suspense, not nail-biting thrillers. Looking at these covers sent me in a completely different direction.

I noticed most of the books like mine had author names in a serif font and titles in a script font (the big-name authors naturally had their names big; because I'm not a known author, my title should more prominent on the cover). I also noticed that it's hard to keep a script font readable at such a small size. I tried many fonts before finding one I felt was fairly readable when small, and said romance without screaming it. You think fonts aren't important? You can spend hours on this alone. Try these on for size:

I also saw that most of these covers do not emphasize suspense elements, even though some of them have those elements in the story. Neither do any of them have a "clinch," or even a couple or a bride on them (as many of the bestselling romances do--again, if your book is all about those things, put that on your cover to let people know). But most of these covers are scenic, emphasizing the location and atmosphere of the story. The bestsellers have lovely artwork that I'm sure was custom-painted for them by talented artists. Clearly that's beyond my budget. What could I do that would have a similar effect without breaking the bank?

This is what I came up with:

•The design ties in to my new website design for Pajaro Bay, creating a coherent image for the series.

•Text is fairly readable even at small sizes, and it's a script font that conveys that it's a "woman's" book.

•The images are simple enough to be recognizable at a small size. They are really nice photographs that do look great when blown up to a large size. Most e-readers don't have color yet, and the images look clear when in grayscale, too.

•Location/setting is emphasized.

•There's some hint of danger in the ambiguity of the cover, but it's not red and black with shadows lurking in the corners.

In the full size, the covers emphasize that this is a series ("A Pajaro Bay Romance") and tout my credentials ("Golden Heart Winning Author"), but neither of these things is readable at the small size.

The full title that will be visible in the listing will show that these are romances ("The Honeymoon Cottage: A Pajaro Bay Romance"), and the description and excerpt will give more of the flavor of the book.

Are they perfect? Not by a long shot. But it's a start on developing a theme and image that can carry through to the rest of the marketing.

And lest we get too serious about all this, here is a completely different (and hysterical) take on romance novel covers.

So, what current books do you think are closest to your own writing style? How would you (or do you, for our published authors) convey the flavor of your stories to a reader using only a 60x90 pixel image?

Next time I'll talk about blurbs, excerpts and author pages. Until then, happy writing (and marketing!).

Barb

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Bring Out Your Characters!

2012-01-24T01:05:00.000-08:00

by Deborah Wright
Twitter: @DeborahBWright

I thought I'd do something a little different in this post. This is an invitation to share something about one of your characters. Maybe it's backstory or something about their likes/dislikes or why they have a particular habit. It can be just a line or two or a longer scene, if you'd like.

I've been working on the new book and thought I knew my heroine's motivation. I was wrong. I assumed she'd started her journey because of a desire for revenge, but every time I tried to use that, it was like trying to stuff a big square peg into a tiny round hole—it just didn't fit. Finally, out of exasperation, I asked her why she left the relative safety of her home to venture out into the dangers of the outside world. This is what she told me:

    Hope’s Gran died the morning of the summer solstice. They cremated her that night on a bier set atop the celebration bonfire built by Hemming, the local hedge-witch. Hemming might not be much good at magic, being a better herb-healer than witch, but he had enough Power to turn the flames incandescent. The pyre burned white-hot and sparks shot twenty feet in the air, making everyone step back several paces to avoid being scorched. Hope thought Gran would have enjoyed the show.

     The following day she buried all but two handfuls of Gran's ashes in the shade of the Crooked Oak on the rise across from the farmhouse. Gran had loved that tree, and not just because that's where Grandpa Jerry was buried. She'd drag her rocker from the porch to sit beneath its branches of a summer eve and watch the sun slip behind Whistler Peak. She'd rock back and forth and say there was no place on earth she'd rather be. The cynical might claim that's because there wasn't much left of the world beyond their tiny valley tucked away in the Siskiyous, hidden from the worst of the Sundering. Hope preferred to believe Gran meant exactly what she said, Sundering or no.

     Early the next morning Hope packed water and a lunch and half of Gran's remaining ashes and set out to hike Whistler Peak. Her goal was the Outlook, a rocky outcrop a little over half-way up the mountain. The temperature rose steadily as the sun climbed the sky, leaving the brief coolness of the morning behind like a forgotten memory. Bees and other winged insects hummed around her as they zoomed through the trees searching for wildflowers, and small birds chirped and twittered overhead. Each step of her leather boots on the trail stirred puffs of dust which hung motionless in the heat before sinking back to earth. Sweat soaked the neck of her tank shirt, a sticky trickle working its way down between her shoulder blades. Hope ignored the heat and discomfort with the ease of long practice and kept walking.

     She'd lived in Mystic Valley all her life, as had five generations of Devlins before her, and she was as familiar with the mountain trails as she was with her own nose. As her climb grew steeper the dirt path gave way to rock, Valley Oaks yielded to Black Oaks and they to Douglas-fir, and the earthy fragrance of pine and mountain loam scented the air. Hope stopped for a moment at a turn in the trail and looked back over the Valley. She could make out the farmhouse and the Crooked Oak, but she wasn't high enough for what she'd come to do.

     She reached the Outlook an hour or so past noon and sat on a flat rock in the shade to eat her lunch. Two Red-tails circled high, gliding on the air currents, hunting for prey hiding in the alfalfa and wheat fields. On the eastern edge of the Valley, Jacob Root's cattle rested in the shade of the oaks, out of the blistering heat of the mid-day sun. Hope brushed the last crumbs of her sandwich onto the ground, a treat for the squirrels and chipmunks, and cradled the small container of Gran's ashes in her hands. It was time.

     "I could wish you'd kept your secret and never told either one of us, but I guess that doesn't matter now. I’ll find Kellan and bring him home. I promise."

     She stood at the edge of the Outlook and opened the container. "I followed your wishes. You're resting beside Grandpa, just where you wanted to be, but I know you loved the Valley, too. Watch over us, Gran." As she swung the container in a wide arc an unexpected breeze stirred the air and carried the ashes away, out over the Valley. Tears stung eyes she'd thought already cried out and she turned away to start the long trek south in search of her brother.

So, that's Hope's reason for leaving Mystic Valley (well, most of it, anyway). Now it's your turn to bring out your characters. I can't wait to meet them!

Weekly Progress Check-In

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter's weekly progress check-in.

Did you meet your writing goals last week? What do you plan to accomplish this week?

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Finished my Anthology
Status: Trying to decide which book to edit.

Source: 500px.com via Tay on Pinterest

It seems there is not a common thread these last two weeks of blogging in January. I thought the picture appropriate considering the weather this week. I will try to link this post to writing but somehow I doubt if I can. Maybe if one looks at the summoner of storms as a paranormal figure.

However, this was not where I was panning on going. Looking at the pictures of Turner I wonder at anyones common sense. Even before the '96 flood everyone is talking about, I remember driving over the bridge to Turner on Delaney Rd. and watching Mill Creek rise. All around that bridge is a flood plain. I wonder at anyones sanity at building a subdivision here. Perhaps the people who bought, I feel so sorry for them, never had the opportunities to watch Mill Creek flood the area. I think all of downtown Turner and Aumsville are underwater.

Hmmm... now how to relate my little rant to writing. I suppose common sense could be the theme. Common sense can dictate many things. Hey, perhaps some of you out there can make sense of this. I know I can't. I've scheduled 6 blogs today on the Angels blog. Trying to get ahead of the game. And I think my mind is a bit foggy.

I did tell Deborah I would at least post a picture.

HOW DO I KEEP TAKING THAT STEP EVERY DAY?

2012-01-19T01:03:00.000-08:00

Current Project: LEGACY series
Status: Doing edits to book #4
Posted by: Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel

I am an impatient person in some ways. I want my story finished NOW! I want to be physically fit and sleek NOW! I want property for my doggies and me NOW!

As you might guess, none of these longer projects has happened NOW.

So I've listened to other ways to accomplish these kinds of bigger goals, and heard the numbers of how taking one step forward every day can yield impressive results:
--Barb is writing 1000 words per day and, at that rate, will have 365,000 words by the end of the year.
--A friend told me if I lose one pound a week, that's 52 pounds in a year.
--If I save one dollar or five dollars or however much a day, or put all my change in a cookie jar, it will add up nicely at the end of a year.

Definitely impressive. However, sustaining new, healthy habits--or taking those daily steps--is many times the biggest challenge for me. Like making New Year's resolutions that have been trampled beneath everyday living before I turn the calendar to the next month.

As I'm focusing on that one step every day, I'm also learning strategies to support these new habits in a holistic way: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Following that strategy, getting fit means eating healthy foods that are good fuel for my body and moving my body (the physical); releasing old emotions/habits/self-talk that weighs me down (the emotional); and holding a vision of myself at a healthy, ideal weight (what I consider the spiritual or higher self).

Probably even more valuable is I have given myself permission NOT to be perfect. Sometimes I want cheesecake. So I eat cheesecake with great enjoyment and don't feel guilty. And I continue with the rest of my steps toward getting fit. I don't use this "lapse" as an excuse to forget the entire goal.

And I'm also starting to apply this holistic approach to writing and promotion, though the process has been bumpy at times.

At least I have my goals:
--I'm making forward progress with my stories, but I want to be more productive.
--I'm integrating promotion into my daily routine, but in balance with other things I want and need to do.

Here are my steps from a physical angle:
--BICHOK: butt in chair; hands on keyboard
--Reclaim my priority of writing BEFORE the rest of the world claims my time with e-mails, blogs, errands, etc., etc., etc.

From an emotional angle:
--Dig into what's holding me back, then get rid of that baggage.
--Give myself permission to not be Superwoman and maybe, just maybe, schedule some flexible time each day.
--Leave the "new, bright, shiny" alone! Schedule it on my very detailed database to do after my current priorities are met.

From a spiritual/higher self angle:
--Allow time to dream!
--Print out those book covers and envision them at the top of a best-seller list!
--Imagine cashing six-figure royalty checks and deciding how to spend them. :)

I have to tell you, though, I'm looking forward to progressing from shaky baby steps where I am now to giant strides toward impressive results. How about you? Are you in the baby steps stage toward your goals or are you striding forward with purpose?

On Snobbery

2012-01-18T07:40:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Sadie and William
Status: Still writing first draft, plotting.

I tend to be a reverse success snob; the more popular a thing is the more I resist trying it, buying it, seeing it, reading it. So when a new writing- and romance-reading friend strongly recommended a book by Jude Deveraux, and author popular enough to trigger my problematic snobbery, I was in something of a pickle. This friendship was still fragile, and I wanted to nurture it. I bought the book.

I didn’t read it. I put it on my “to be read/recently read” shelf and ignored it for three months.

This is not all that uncommon for me. When I am engrossed in a series, I sometimes buy the newest book and leave it on this shelf for a month, just to savor the anticipation, especially when I know the next one won’t be out for quite a while. In the meantime I read other things. But three months is a long time.

Each time I was ready for a new book I passed up the Deveraux, again and again, feeling more internal pressure and guilt each time. Eventually it became too much to bear. I opened the book.

Within a few pages I was interested. Soon I was caught. I couldn’t put it down. The story was just too good, the story-telling too fine, to abandon. The last few satisfying pages moved me to tears, and I read them again immediately.

I decided, and told my friend, it was the most romantic story I had ever read. I began thinking about the components of a truly romantic story. I had never before thought about romance in just that way. It was a revelation. I set a new goal someday to write a story as just as romantic. I will continue to explore the elements of truly romantic stories.

So, dear children, what is the moral of my tale? There are several choices; friendship, snobbery, preconceptions, open-mindedness, inspiration. You can choose your favorite. I have benefited from them all.

Weekly Progress Check-In

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter's weekly progress check-in.

Did you meet your writing goals last week? What do you plan to accomplish this week?

Adventures in Self-Publishing, Part 1

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Back when dinosaurs walked the Earth, I won the Golden Heart in the Romantic Suspense category with In Deep Water, a sweet romance set at a lighthouse in the coastal village of Pajaro Bay.

Since every writer on Earth (and his brother) is now self-publishing books on the Kindle, I've been feeling left out of the fun. So I have decided to publish my dear old first manuscript, In Deep Water, and use it as a learning experience to see how this self-publishing game is played.

I think it goes without saying that even if I'm doing this mostly for experience, and not expecting to become the next Amanda Hocking, I still want it to be my best work. So I'll be revising the manuscript over the next month, working to update it and polish it up until it's the best story I can make it.

While I work on the text itself, I'm finding I have to learn how to:

•design book covers

•format text for the Kindle

•write my own blurbs, descriptions and sales copy

•figure out the bizarre world of pricing

•publicize my work

•put my book up for sale and then evaluate what happens over time, hopefully learning from my mistakes and deciding whether I want to do it all over again with another manuscript.

Whew.

So far I'm completely overwhelmed, but I'm also having loads of fun. Creative control is a heady thing, and I can see how this could become addictive.

I'll let you know what I find out, and I welcome your advice and feedback as I play in this new (to me) playground.

In my next blog (Wednesday, January 25), I'll post what I've learned about cover design (pixels and image rights and display fonts, oh my!).

So are you self-publishing? Or have you considered doing it? What do you think about this new part of the book market?

Barb
http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

It Takes More Than Talent

2012-01-10T01:05:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Post-Apocalypse Fantasy/Romance
Status: Just Started Writing!

Have you ever read an amazing story or a thought-provoking essay or some other wonderfully crafted piece of writing that was written by someone with no desire to be published? Did you think: Why wouldn't that person tackle writing for publication? It's obvious he or she has the talent...

Let me tell you a little story. I was a competitive swimmer as a kid and it's kind of funny how it all started. I was nine years old and loved the water, but I didn't really know how to swim. Oh, I could float and paddle around and get by, but I didn't know how to do any of the competitive swimming strokes (freestyle/crawl, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly). I was just happy playing in the water.

I spent the first two weeks of the summer when I was nine staying with family friends out of town. When I came home, my father told me he'd enrolled me in a swim school being run by my brother's high school football coach. I'd be able to learn how to swim properly and be taught by someone my folks trusted. Only—Dad had misunderstood. Coach wasn't running a swim school, he was coaching a summer league swim team.

My first "session" ended up being a one hour practice at the local high school pool. My very first time in the pool I was expected to line up behind the other kids my age and when it was my turn, to swim to the other end...25 very long yards away. There were two reasons I didn't freak out or just walk away right then and there. First, I wasn't afraid of the water, and second, I was in the swim lane next to the pool wall. I figured I could always grab the wall if I couldn't make it. My turn came and I jumped in and did my best. I grabbed the wall a couple of times, but I made it to the end. I learned later my dad walked along the edge of pool, just in case, but when he realized I wasn't giving up (or drowning), he went back to his seat on the spectator steps.

I thought I was done, but oh, no, that was just the beginning. We swam like that for an hour. Over the course of the next few weeks, I was taught to swim each of the four competitive strokes. It turned out I was decent at all of them and particularly good at freestyle and backstroke. I ended up competing in my age bracket at swim meets in the Individual Medley (all four strokes), the freestyle, the backstroke, the freestyle relay and the Medley relay, and I usually came away with ribbons of one sort or another.

For the next six years I swam competitively. I dutifully put in the two hour morning and two hour evening practices every day during the summer and then competed in the swim meets every weekend. And in the winter, I continued with the two hour evening practices Monday through Friday. I swam because I could, because it was expected of me, and because I'd committed to swimming for the team (and once committed, we never quit); I didn't swim because it was my passion. Still, I continued on until I couldn't stand the thought of one more race, and at the end of that swim season, when I was 14 years old, I retired from competition.

I believe I had the talent to take my swimming further—who knows, perhaps even to Olympic level competition (yeah, right :). But what I didn't have, though, was the desire. I was competitive enough for me, but I lacked that burning ambition—that need to excel and win at all costs—that an Olympic athlete must have in order to succeed. Talent wasn't enough. I swam with kids who weren't as coordinated as I was, but who wanted to win far more than I ever did and who continued to work hard and push for the next level of competition. Most of them were successful.

I don't regret a moment of my time in the pool. Nor do I regret not trying to be more competitive, because that just wasn't for me. My swimming experience did teach me a valuable lesson. Being talented is great, but even more important is having the desire to succeed at something. If you really want something—I mean, really want it—you're more likely to make the effort to put in the hard work required to attain your goal.

I think that's a lesson most successful writers learn at some point. Sure, there are those few writers who are innately talented, but there are so many more of us who struggle to tell our stories in precisely the way we envision them. I count myself among the later group. I firmly believe that if I continue to put in the hard work of improving my craft and putting my work out there, eventually I'll attain my goal: a career as a published writer. You might say it's what drives me.

So, what drives you?

Cheers!

Debbie
www.Deborah-Wright.com
Twitter: @DeborahBWright

Weekly Progress Check-In

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter's weekly progress check-in.

Did you meet your writing goals last week? What do you plan to accomplish this week?

I've Become a Workaholic

2012-01-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Ghost Dance
Status: Waiting for edits

Push to promo, and I've learned so much. I have an extensive backlist that has never sold very well. I didn't know what to do to promote my books. Since retirement, last June, I have had the time to sit down at the computer and explore cyberspace. For all of you out there just beginning, realize you must take baby steps. No one can learn everything all at one time. Now I find I spend way too much time with blogs than I do on writing. I'm trying to become a bit more left brain and start scheduling my time. Unfortunately when one works with photo shop and other on line whatever... one hour can easily turn into three.

I love the new lending library at amazon and I am diligently trying to find out more about it. I understand one must be a certain type of member (prime?) to use it. And I understand one has to pay extra for it. Books can be sold for free on this site and they are put there by the author. Books are not automatically put there.

Paty, is that what you did for your Christmas novella? And what is it called?

As with Genene I plan on putting my two novellas on this site for free. The one from the valentines Day Anthology is called The Gift and is set during the War Between the State. This is one of my
favorite times in history.

The Gift

Star Crossed is the name of my novella in A St. Patrick's Day Tale. It is set in Ireland in 1813. The story came from a tale my mom used to tell me about how my great grandfather used to be friends with every one during the week but Sunday after church the protestant boys and the catholic boys would gather and have a good round of fisticuffs.

This cover is still a work in progress:

Star Crossed

NEW YEAR'S JUMP START!

2012-01-05T02:58:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Promoting Valentine's and St. Patrick's Anthologies
and editing LEGACY series
Status: Zooming!
Posted by: Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel

I didn't make resolutions or set goals with the turning of the New Year. I did that a few months back to save what little was left of my sanity. My first three novels were re-issued back to back in a month's time at special prices.

Great promotion move, but an incredible increase in my workload. Because the promotion for those books paused only slightly before sliding into promotion for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day anthologies, which wrap up as I'm deep in promotion for my new LEGACY series.

So I set my goals for the upcoming two years back in October. Yeah, I'm not doing anything by the "rules" for setting New Year's goals and resolutions. However, my series of at least nine books will be released every two months beginning March 2012. So until the end of 2014--or later--most of my life will revolve around writing, editing and promoting my LEGACY series.

And keeping myself and my doggies happy and healthy. :)

So setting goals for one year beginning in January didn't work for me.

And instead of just writing down a list of goals on a cocktail napkin, I set up a database with a detailed schedule. (I did tell you I wasn't following the New Year's rules. :)

So I'm about three months into my goals/resolutions. I'm meeting most of my goal deadlines, have survived the holidays, and am adapting to surprises. One of those surprises was coming up with covers for my novellas that were published in the anthologies I mentioned above.

The cover for "St. Batzy & the Time Machine" was drafted and just needed to be finaled. However, I loved the style of that cover so much, I completed three versions of a cover for "Chasing Rainbows" before I came up with one I loved as much as "St. Batzy." (Just had to share, so they are posted here--hopefully without the spacing going completely weird. :)

Now those are done, I'm getting back on track with edits and other projects that are on my "to do" database.

Most people probably don't go as detailed as I've done with goal setting. But do you make New Year's resolutions and set goals? And how do you keep yourself on track with keeping those resolutions and meeting your goals?

P.S. That's one of my dogs on the cover of "St. Batzy & the Time Machine." And, yes, if I had a time machine in my back yard, I think he would really be traveling back and forth through history, and digging up all kinds of mischief!

The Muse

2012-01-04T07:35:00.000-08:00

Current Project: "Hims," about Sadie and William: romance, sci-fi, light, slightly steampunk,
Status: Short story morphing (being pushed by the Muse) into something longer.

So, what's in a Muse?

Sometimes I wake up in the morning with an idea so compelling that I have to grab my dream book and write the idea down that instant, or I will lose it. Sadie and William's story started out that way. Luckily it was a weekend morning, because I wrote for two hours without stopping for more than a potty break and some coffee. It became a full first draft.

Wikipedia says: The Muses... in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge...

Director Albert Brooks made a film called "The Muse" in which Sharon Stone's eponymous character is a demanding, annoying crazy lady who nevertheless inspires Brooks' character in spite of all the trouble she causes. Or because of it?

Judy Collins has said, "When inspiration does not come, I go for a walk, go to the movies, talk to a friend, let go... The muse is bound to return again, especially if I turn my back!"

And Piers Anthony has said, "One reason I don't suffer Writer's Block is that I don't wait on the muse, I summon it at need."

Elizabeth Gilbert has some very interesting things to say about The Muse as well. "Listen, you, thing, you and I both know that if this book isn’t brilliant that is not entirely my fault, right? Because you can see that I am putting everything I have into this, I don’t have any more than this. So if you want it to be better, then you’ve got to show up and do your part of the deal, okay? But if you don’t do that, you know what, the hell with it, I’m going to keep writing anyway because that’s my job. And I would please like the record to reflect today that I showed up for my part of the job." For more from Elizabeth Gilbert, you can watch this great video: http://stranglingmymuse.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/are-you-the-genius-or-is-the-genius-working-through-you/

I am a writer. I have not known this for very long, less than two years, and I'm in my 5th decade. It's not the only thing I am. I'm also a mother-daughter-wife, a quilter and church-rummage-sale volunteer, an indifferent cook, a dog-and-baby-lover, the person at the movies who has to bring Kleenex even if it's a comedy.

But there are definitely some stories that have come to me to be written. If I don't write them, the writer they finally get may not tell them the way they wish to be told. They had to bonk me on the head with increasing force, but I finally got the message. I am responsible to these stories. They need me.

I must do my part, must sit down and write, for them to happen; I must find the time, the quiet, the space; I must pee and eat, feed the dogs so they'll sit quietly with me, and make sure I have my coffee. I have had to train my family to take their questions elsewhere when I'm writing. I have had to train myself to ignore their questions when I am writing. Because my Muse is waiting for my fingers and mind to be in place so the ideas can flow.

My Muse and I are partners. We have to work together for stories to get written. The Muse inspires; I wrestle and guide.

What's in your Muse?

Weekly Progress Check-In

2012-01-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter's weekly progress check-in.

Did you meet your writing goals last week? What do you plan to accomplish this week?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

The Mid-Willamette Valley Romance Writers of America® would like to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year for 2012!

The publishing industry is experiencing rapid changes and the future may look bright or bleak depending on how you view it. Speaking only for myself, I believe there are more changes to come and that those changes will mean more opportunities in publishing than ever before. BUT--those opportunities are only as good as the book you write. That's the bottom line, isn't it? Without a book that people want to read, the rest doesn't much matter.

If you've always wanted to write a book, or if you've written a book, but don't know what to do next, or if you're an experienced writer and published author, think about joining Romance Writers of America®. "Romance Writers of America® is dedicated to advancing the professional interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy."*

If you're already a member of RWA--or are in the process of joining--please consider joining the Mid-Willamette Valley Chapter of RWA. We're located in Salem, Oregon, but we have remote members from as far away as the Monterey Bay area of California. Living close enough to attend monthly meetings is a plus, but MWV-RWA offers much more--online workshops (free for members; workshops are currently being planned for 2012), a chapter-members only online discussion group, and participation in our Chapter blog.

New members are welcome to attend a free meeting before joining. You must be an RWA member to join the Mid-Willamette Valley Chapter. Membership runs from January-December, and annual dues are $25. For more information about the Chapter, see our website at www.MidWillametteValleyRWA.com and read about How to Join.

Cheers!

Deborah Wright
President, Mid-Willamette Valley RWA

www.Deborah-Wright.com
Twitter: @DeborahBWright

*Description from the www.RWA.org website

'Twas the Night Before New Year's

2011-12-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

Current Project: revisions
Status: moving along
'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE NEW YEAR'S

(withapologies to Henry Livingston, Charles Dickens and Dr. Seuss)

‘Twas the night before New Year’s, and all through my home,

There was no one awake; I was up all alone.

My husband reclined with the cat on his lap,

Dog dozed on the hearth near the fire’s pop and snap.

I curled on the couch, read romance on my Kindle

And hoped that my horrible funk would soon dwindle.

I munched on dark chocolate, drank peppermint tea,

And mourned opportunities now lost to me.

When out on the deck someone pounded the wood,

I shivered and wondered who’s upto no good?

On my way to the kitchen I shook like a leaf,

Afraid I’d discover a big scary thief.

The rain-soaked boards glistened in the porch light,

Shadows danced gracefully through the black night.

Then what to my sleep-deprived eyes did appear,

But a wizened old man sporting two pointy ears!

He was dressed all in brown, wore a cape of gold feathers,

His angelic smile split a face of tanned leather.

I instantly recognized Old FatherTime,

He waved a bright wand and then sang out this rhyme:

Fee, fie, foe, fum!

It’s New Year’s Eve; Why so glum?

You’ve blessings a-plenty tocelebrate

And time to re-live them—it’sjust half past eight!

Then, dancing a jig, he crossed the red rug

And grabbed my cold fingers and gave a hard tug.

When magic exploded like fireworks around us,

I couldn’t believe the next place that I found us!

Intensive Care Nursery, babe wrapped in fleece,

Doctor-signed papers that gave her release.

My tiniest granddaughter would be okay,

My heart swelled to bursting with joy on that day.

In dribbles and drabs,

In bits and in bites,

Father Time showed me blessings

The rest of the night.

I’ve family closer, good friends within reach,

Trips to the desert, the plains, and the beach.

Living my passion for words as I age,

Entwined with my husband, my heroic sage.

So many hours later back home by the fire,

My spirits could not have been lifted much higher.

I gave Time a hug to express my elation

And thanked him for spiritual recalibration.

“You are welcome,” he said. “But now I must fly!

Then, in the magical blink of an eye

He was gone and I gazed at the clock on a shelf

And I laughed when I saw it in spite of myself.

‘Twas the morning of New Year’s; cat stretched and dog yawned,

I told my dear husband the old year was gone.

“But the new! Oh, the New Year has come, full of promise!”

A toast and a tumble in bed paid it homage.

So to all you sad people I say, “Never fear!”

Contemplate, meditate, celebratethe New Year!

© Sarah Raplee, 2011. All rights reserved.

Quote of the Day

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

More quotes about concentrating amid distractions:

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." --Goethe

"The best advice I ever came across on the subject of concentration is: Wherever you are, be there. When you work, work. When you play, play. Don't mix the two." --Jim Rohn

"It's not what's happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it's your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you're going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny." --Anthony Robbins

And, lastly,

"You can always find a distraction if you're looking for one." --Tom Kite

Dealing With Holiday Stress

2011-12-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Plotting Stage
Status: Just about ready to start writing!

I hope everyone has been having a wonderful holiday season. This time of year is a distraction in itself, isn't it? So many things to do: decorating, shopping, parties, special dinners, and more. And so much external pressure to do more, buy more, be perfect. It's no wonder so many people feel so stressed at the end of the year.

There are myriad ways to cope with the stresses and distractions of the holidays, but only one way that's right for you. I can only tell you how I cope. I used to spend hours in the shops looking for that perfect gift for family and friends. Then I began working in High Tech and with each promotion/change of job, my work life became more and more stressful and time consuming. Where I used to look forward to Christmas shopping, the idea of spending hours of my precious time outside work wandering around stores now depressed me. Getting into the holiday spirit became more difficult with each passing year.

A few years ago I decided I'd had enough. Mr. W was just as stressed as I was and, really, there was no reason for it. We don't have little kids to shop for (and I know that makes a huge difference, believe me) and we certainly had more than enough stuff ourselves--and so did our extended families. What was the point of all the shopping or thinking everything had to be perfect? We made a pact that we'd only exchange a small gift or two and that we'd limit the family shopping to gift cards or the occasional special item (but only if we happened to see something--we wouldn't go out on shopping excursions). It's amazing how little stress I feel now at Christmas.

The same thing goes for decorating. Some years I feel like putting up a lot of decorations, other years...not so much. I think last year all I put up was the porcelain tea light nativity. This year? We had a sleigh and reindeer on our front lawn, a wreath on our door, a small fake tree in a pot (the cats ignore it, where they'd feel compelled to climb a real one) and my Dicken's Village scene on the coffee table. Oh, and the nativity, of course. The house felt very festive without a lot of fuss.

And then there's New Year's Eve. Many years ago we also decided to stop accepting invitations to New Year's Eve parties, because we never ended up going--and then we just feel bad. We both hate driving on New Year's Eve--too many amateurs on the road--and the weather is invariably crappy. We much prefer celebrating together in our cozy home with our choice of champagne and hors d'oeuvres and watching our choice of entertainment (The choice this year? Top Gear (UK)!). It isn't that we're anti-social, we're just happier not dealing with the hassle on this particular night. If the night is clear, we have fun going out on our front porch and counting the number of fireworks displays we can see. The record count was last year -- it was so clear, we saw 9 different displays (I claimed 11, but Mr. W didn't see the other two)!

Obviously, I'm not saying that this is the way everyone should approach the holidays. It's just what works for me. Do I miss all the fuss? Honestly? Not really. We still watch Christmas movies and have a nice dinner, usually a steak of some kind. And we exchange our small gifts, because it's still fun to open a present on Christmas morning. Maybe it's just a change in my attitude, when it comes right down to it. I don't believe everything has to be perfect at Christmas. After all, some of my best memories are of things that didn't quite go as planned.

What are your strategies for dealing with the stresses of the holiday season? Do you pull out all the stops and love it? Or do you prefer a simpler holiday--or maybe something in between?

Deborah Wright
www.Deborah-Wright.com
Twitter: @DeborahBWright

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter's weekly progress check-in.

Did you meet your writing goals last week? What do you plan to accomplish this week?

Distractions Can Be Fun!

2011-12-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Umm...that's a toughy. Reissue of my Highland Series
Status: The last of the three books will published today. Highland Song should be seen on amazon in a day or two.

Source: fridgedoor.com via Karsen on Pinterest

For me distractions come packaged as grandchildren, my youngest and her husband who are here visiting, exercise and my blogs. Oh...did I forget cityville? Yeah, I hate to admit it but I did.

I was astonished to see Genene's lists and--and--my gosh it is like her plotting. My idea of lists is usually on a scrap piece of paper which I inevitably lose before I finish the items listed. LOL, but I have a way of keeping most everything I need to do in my head. The most important at the forefront. If it is not that important, sometimes it never gets done.

I have embarked on a VBT using goddessfish as my promoter. At first I had a terrible time keeping track of everything. I managed to get all my interviews and articles answered and sent back to goddessfish. I have to say the process has been invaluable and I've learned a lot about my writing style and my methods of plotting, tracking as well as avoiding distractions. There were things pointed out by my commenters that truly surprised me.

Now both rogues angels and my personal blogs are hosts of other VBTs. I've had to make folders, and more folders for each author. At first, until I found a way to keep everything straight I was losing interviews or not sending them. Now I finally think I have all figured out.

Somehow I digressed from distractions. sigh...

Maybe my worst distraction is my digression...food for thought.

TURNING DISTRACTIONS INTO PRODUCTIVITY

2011-12-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: LEGACY series
Status: Editing fourth book
Posted by: Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel

If distractions are pulling you under for the third time, Paty's post yesterday has some great advice: focus and limit.

FOCUS your attention on what you want to get done and LIMIT the time available for what distracts you.
Of course, this might not work as well if your "distractions" are small children or dependent family members. :)

With this post, I'm going one step further than Paty's advice and show you a tool I use to be productive: my "to do" list that grew into a database.

If your eyes are rolling back in your head because you don't even write a grocery list, I'll just say Happy Holidays before you quit reading. :)

However, if you're detail oriented or would like to get more organized, this might help. As always, please feel free to adapt the pieces that are helpful and ignore the rest.

First, a bit of background. I've been working on my LEGACY series of at least nine books for several years. I knew I wanted them released close together so people didn't forget about them or grow tired of waiting for the next book. In addition to having most of the writing done on these books, it meant a steady stream of promotion.

I wasn't going to have time for tempting distractions, and I wasn't going to drive myself into exhaustion like I'd seen a number of authors do when promoting their books.

I had the opportunity to practice writing and promoting at the same time when my first three books were re-issued two weeks apart. A good promotion move, but a bit of a shock to me, as I'd been out of the promotion game for most of the past two years.

But I lined up some blog stops and signed up to be part of an online party that ran for four days, 24 hours a day. I set up a database to keep me on task. When were my blog posts due? What day was I blogging so I could be available to respond to comments? And was it time to feed my doggies yet? Yes, "real life" does continue with all its expectations even though you're writing and promoting.

I set up a database so I didn't forget any blogging dates. It was really very simple. Just a few headings with the info for each blog filled in below. (You probably can't read these unless you magnify your screen view a lot, but hopefully this will give you a general idea of how I set up my database. And it doesn't have to be complex. Mine has a lot on it because I have a lot going on right now.)

I was delighted when I realized this database was keeping me on track.

Soon other projects ended up on the database. Then important family events that would take a chunk of time out of my day. Now, most of my life is on the database. If it's not on the database, it probably won't get done. LOL!

Of course, color crept in. Pale green to separate the weeks. Then purple to separate each day. Big projects had their own color. Urgent pieces to do were highlighted in bright pink. Projects waiting for someone to get back to me were pale yellow.

A bonus is I've been moving completed projects to the end of the database, so if I ever wonder how I'm spending my time, I can look at that list and know I'm being productive.

This level of organization isn't for everyone. However, if you sometimes feel overwhelmed and need some help focusing, a database could help you empty your head of all the competing ideas and look at one day at a time. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and giving in to distractions, be productive and reward yourself by allowing some time for a bright, shiny distraction!

And if you made it all the way to the end of this blog post, I'd love to hear what your favorite distraction is. Go ahead--indulge!

2011-12-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Logger in Petticoats
Status: The End- doing final edits

Yes, I've learned over the years I am my biggest distraction. If I'm researching I can get off in a whole different direction not even related to the story I'm working on.

New ideas for books come to me and I have trouble staying focused on the book I'm writing. I've learned to use an hour a day to work on the new shiny project and use it as a carrot to keep me moving the other book forward because I can't play with new shiny until the project I'm on is finished and ready to be published.

I can also use the excuse of waiting for a reply from someone to keep checking e-mails rather than writing. But then I make myself a pact that I can only check e-mails first thing in the morning during my hour and a half e-mail and promotion time, at noon when I take a writing break or in the evening. If I stay on this structure I get more writing done.

Then there's Tink. When she needs outside I get up from my desk, walk down the stairs, and let her out. But on the way I can usually find something that needs done that distracts me long enough for her to come back in or I lose my train of thought and when I sit back down at the computer I have to reread the scene and get my brain running again.

Or there could be deer or calves on my lawn that I sit and stare at. Or the cows, or just the sun shining on the mountains, the sunset, the sunrise, the blue sky....As you see if I want a distraction I can find one. That's why it's in my best interest to remember a book doesn't write its self. I have to sit my butt in the chair and tap the letters on the keyboard for a story to appear so I have to fight the distractions and write the book.

So the best way to avoid distractions is to focus and don't get up until you've hit a set amount of words each day. Keep the focus and the words will come. I guarantee.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter's weekly progress check-in.

Did you meet your writing goals last week? What do you plan to accomplish this week?

Welcome Distractions on the Journey?

2011-12-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Revisions
Status: Slow Progress

I've come to the conclusion that some distractions aren't distractions at all, but gifts that fill my 'emotional bucket' and make me a better writer. Time with family, travel, having adventures, learning new skills, meeting interesting people, reading - all of these fill my bucket and help me to grow as a person and a writer.

For me, writing is a Journey, not a Destination. Every journey is achieved step-by-step. As long as there's progress, you're still on the journey. That's the way I see things.

In order to be happy on the journey, the key is to enjoy what you're doing and try to find balance.

May your journey be filled with both!

Quote of the Day

2011-12-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Today's quotes are about focusing on our work despite the distractions so common at this time of year:

"When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools." --Michael Leboeuf

"Our thoughts create our reality, where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go." --Peter McWilliams

"A man of sense is never discouraged by difficulties; he redoubles his industry and his diligence, he perseveres and infallibly prevails at last." --Lord Chesterfield

But, alas,

"Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short." --Adam Hochschild

Major Distraction or Daily Motivator?

2011-12-13T12:16:00.000-08:00

I tackled a major distraction over the weekend: I cleaned my office! Technically it wasn't something that interrupted me per se, but it was something that distracted me on a continuing basis. Over the last few months, as I put all my concentration into finishing the book, my office gradually disappeared. It got to the point where even the cats had a difficult time finding a path to the window. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but it was close. Understand, I only seem to have this problem with my office. The rest of the house is neat and tidy.

The process of drowning in a sea of clutter was a gradual one. First there was the accumulation of paper littering the desk, all related to the book, of course -- research notes, character info, plot ideas, maps, snippets of dialogue, and more. I like the physical feel of pen on paper, so I jot and I doodle and I scribble. I rarely get around to transferring any of my handwritten stuff to the computer until I actually use it in a scene, and then I usually don't stop to throw away the paper (assuming it isn't buried under a mountain of *other* notes).

Then there was the floor. That started with a good intention. Bring up a couple of plastic bins from the garage, I thought, and throw all the paper from the desk into them. You can go through the bins later, but in the meantime, the desk clutter will be gone. That bright idea was 9 months ago.

Yeah. You can see it coming, can't you? Pretty soon, I had stacks of plastic bins, full of stuff, covering the floor in front of my desk. I was beginning to feel like George Carlin.* Yet somehow my desk just kept on accumulating stuff on top of it.

None of this interfered with my ability to work on my computer; none of it interrupted me. It did, however, distract me. I'd look at my office every morning and long to clean it up, but I knew it would take days to do it right. And the thought of devoting days to a task that wasn't writing the book was something I just couldn't make myself do. I know I was playing a psychological game with myself, but it felt like if I prioritized cleaning the office over writing, I'd be giving up, somehow. I'd be telling myself I wasn't going to finish, so what did it matter. I know it isn't logical, but it's how I felt.

What finally sent me over the edge, though, was inheriting 6 boxes of more stuff as the incoming Chapter President for Mid-Willamette Valley RWA. Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful to our outgoing President--the boxes are neat and organized. It was just...6 more boxes in my office! I wanted to cry. I made a pact with myself that when I finished the book (I was very close) I would clean my office before I started another project.

I did finish the book by the end of November, thanks to NaNoWriMo. Maybe, in the long run, I should consider my messy office as the final motivator to finish the book! I took a few days off, but this last weekend, I did it--I cleaned my office. So, there are still a couple of things on the floor and those 6 boxes are under the desk, and there are a couple of short stacks of paper on the desk, but it's manageable. And I feel energized and ready to start my next project--without the distraction of a messy and cluttered office. Whew!

How about you--do you find that a messy workspace is a distraction? Or, maybe you manage somehow to keep your work area tidy and never have to face this problem (if you do, I envy you).

Deborah Wright

www.Deborah-Wright.com

* George Carlin's classic routine about "Stuff" -- boy, can I relate! :-)

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter's weekly progress check-in.

Did you meet your writing goals last week? What do you plan to accomplish this week?

Ah, Distractions

2011-12-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Editing Highland Song
Status: Haven't started but will soon

Source: Uploaded by user via Chris on Pinterest

I am fortunate that I no longer have little children or older children to find other things for me to do. I babysit my granddaughter twice a week and I plan on not accomplishing anything those days. So, if I'm able during nap time to blog, write, or otherwise become productive I count that as a plus.

So what is a distraction? I think blogging detours me from my writing but unfortunately if I wish to make some money from my books, I have to promote which means getting my name out there in cyber space. I have learned a lot by seeing other peoples blogs. Gosh one I was on recently had over one thousand followers. Whew... how on earth did she accomplish this? Time, creativity and promotion I would assume.

I wish I could be as organized as Paty. I can't seem to say this time is for this and this hour is for that etc. If I could do this, I know I would be more productive. I believe one of my distractions is my exercise program. When I run in the morning, I'm so exhausted I can't seem to sit at the computer and put words down.

So my question to all of you is---drum roll please--what distracts you from writing? And what puts the fireworks into it?

DISTRACTIONS--CAN WE USE THEM TO OUR ADVANTAGE?

2011-12-08T01:54:00.000-08:00

Current Project: LEGACY series
Status: Editing finished on book #3; time to edit book #4!
Posted by: Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel

I think most people have heard the quote, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results."

I've become more aware of this cycle in my own life recently, and am trying to change what I'm doing or at least how I'm thinking.

How can this apply to distractions?

Like Paty mentioned in Wednesday's blog post, I also have trouble saying "no" to family. Yet if I didn't set parameters, I'd get very little done. So I've hit a time limit compromise with family (and other distractions) by saying "I'll be writing for an hour, then we can go do…"

This can also work for distractions like e-mail or checking blogs--big distractions for me. I limit the time spent on e-mail to, say, half an hour, then switch over to writing. This has also made me faster at checking e-mail and less likely to follow links and get distracted on the Internet with what could be endless articles or videos.

Promotion is also a big distraction for me. Yes, I need to let readers know my books are available. However, if I don't take the time to write another good book, I won't have readers for long. So this distraction has taught me to become even more organized and to find a balance between writing and promotion.

To paraphrase another familiar saying, distractions don't have to be problems, they can be opportunities!

Man can I relate...

2011-12-07T08:13:00.001-08:00

Current Project: Logger in Petticoats
Status: 48,000+ words

To the topic this month: Writing with distractions. Holy cow! I have had them in spades this year. And next year isn't looking any more promising. My daughter from Alaska and her three will be returning in January until the end of March. I love them and enjoy spending time with them but they drastically cut into my writing time. They don't mean to, but with an open air loft that I write in and three small kids playing. quarreling, and having to see what Grams is doing really makes it hard to write.

Then there's the part of me that can't say "no." I tend to do more things than I should. But I'm getting better at saying the "N" word. It's easier to do than shut out family.

From now until Christmas my goal is to write hopefully two chapters a day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. I have to finish this book. I want it ready to do final revisions and editing the first week of January. Which means I have to get 30,000 more words written between now and then.

So wish me luck... and quit distracting me! ;)

Paty

www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com

*Note: Those are not caged animals they are my grandchildren. Who really do need a cage. 8^)

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter's weekly progress check-in.

Did you meet your writing goals last week? What do you plan to accomplish this week?

Distractions Getting You Down? What Are You Afraid Of?

2011-12-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Revisions Blindsight
Status: 25% complete

I’ve come to the conclusion that distractions are in theeye, ear, mind, etc., of the beholder.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that insisting on a ‘perfect’environment for writing is one way to notwrite. We often view obstacles as roadblocks when we are afraid. After wework through our fears, we view obstacles as problems to be solved.

Then we find solutions.

So if you find yourself distracted to the point ofnon-progress, take a step back. What are you afraid of?

Although I can tune out visual distractions fairly easily(like a messy desk), I have a hard time tuning out auditory distractions whenthey reach a certain decibel level. Since my husband’s hearing isdeteriorating, but he likes to watch TV and hates closed captioning, this hasbeen problematic. I don’t like to isolate myself in my office when he’s home inthe evenings, but that’s when I write blog posts, catch up on email, etc.

All summer, while I felt overwhelmed by visitinggrandchildren and by the revisions waiting to be done on two manuscripts, Ikept asking my DH to turn down the volume, although I knew he wouldn’t be ableto hear and would have to turn it up again. Then a few weeks ago I realizedthat if you keep doing what you’ve beendoing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve got.

Why was I stuck in a ridiculous rut? Why was writing achore instead of a joy?

Fear. Iwas afraid that I’d never get the revisions done. I’d missed several deadlinesalready.

I gave myself permission to take ‘as long as necessary’to polish my manuscripts. As an unpublished writer, I can do that. So what if Ipitched my book at a conference and got a request before it was polished? Atleast I had a good premise and presented it well.

My sister and I partnered to help us both get our writingback on track. We meet online most mornings for a couple of hours and reportour progress to each other. We’ve both made steady progress and our productionhas increased over time. I’m on track to finish one manuscript by the end ofthe year.

Writing is a joy again. I’m feeling happier than I havein months.

And, guess what? A few days ago, I boughtnoise-cancelling headphones to wear when I work at night in the living room.

(Bonus:they’re great for webinars, too! And my DH, God bless him, has made anappointment to see if hearing aids have progressed enough to help his unusualpattern of hearing loss. Ten years ago, they hadn’t. But technology has come along ways in ten years.)

WINNERS!

2011-11-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Weekly Progress Check-in for 2011.

Paty Jager checked in every single week (a total of 48 weeks), and is our chapter member winner. It's no wonder she's been having so much writing success with that kind of work ethic. Congratulations, Paty!

(Genene Valleau was a close second at 44 check-ins, and I think it's no coincidence that these two members have been extremely productive this year. A great incentive for the rest of us to participate regularly in the weekly updates.)

Our non-member winner is Annabeth Albert, who got back into her writing mid-year and checked in 26 times. Send me your mailing address offline (to mail @ barbaracoollee . com) and your prize will be on its way to you.

Congratulations to everyone for their hard work this year. The weekly check-ins will continue through December for those trying to finish up year-end projects, and then we'll have a new set of prizes available starting in January.

Quote of the Day

2011-11-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

On the last day of November, we celebrate our progress in NaNoWriMo:

"Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing. It's one of the most enjoyable moments in life, period." --
Nicholas Sparks

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

Today is Monday, November 28, 2011.

This is the final "official" weekly check-in of the year! Post in the comments how your year went, and let us know if you met your own personal writing goals.

We will announce winners of non-member prizes soon, so check back to see if your name is posted as a winner.

Our chapter members will receive prizes at our holiday party in December.

Congratulations on all your hard work this year. We'll post weekly check-ins for the month of December as well, for those who are writing through the holidays. Be sure to come back the first Monday in January to set new goals for 2012.

Passing Thanksgiving and heading into Christmas

2011-11-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Promoting the Highland Series
Status: virtual tour begins November 28th

Source: Uploaded by user via Chris on Pinterest

Highland Honor is the first of the three books series. I'm truly excited about this tour. Everything about Goddessfish promotions is professional. (No they didn't ask me to do a plug for them) I am hoping to sell a lot of books. I have twenty stops in four weeks. I can't wait to see how this will turn out. It was a lot of work putting together articles and interviews for the tour but it was also fun. I think the hardest part was keeping everything organized. I put one interview in the trash and I thought I sent one back but had not done so. The people at goddessfish are very patient. I would think you would have to be to do this. And did I mention organized? They have to be soooo.... organized.

Nano is something I have never done. I either sit down and write or I have other projects that have more pressing needs. Although I have challenged myself to write more in other months. Until this year I have been working in November. Now I know some of you work full time and still accomplish the goal of writing your book in a month. It just wasn't something I could do. But I so applaud those who do this challenge whether they succeed or not.

So Go! Fight! Nano!

THE CASE AGAINST NaNoWriMo

2011-11-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: The LEGACY SERIES
Status: editing book #3
Posted by: Genie Gabriel

Yes, I'm about to embark on a blasphemous path. I'm going to give you some reasons NOT to participate in NaNoWriMo. Please, don't throw rotting vegetables just yet. If you've committed the unpardonable and are struggling to keep up with your word-count goal of National Novel Writing Month, you can probably add reasons of your own to this list. And if you're writing almost 2000 words a day, you probably don't have time to read this anyway.

So, here are my reasons not to join the NaNo craze.

1. Are you crazy? The holiday season is bearing down on us with all the sympathy of an earth-destroying asteroid. Who is going to make sure the retail stores make their way into the black if the entire population is (gasp!) doing something creative and productive?

2. Are you crazy? Who would go on a crash diet on Thanksgiving day, with Christmas candies, cookies, pies and other yummy desserts just around the corner? So why draft a book now? Wait until tomorrow or the next day or the next…

3. Are you crazy? I have three books to promote during November and another two to edit. I'm way past the time when my words on a computer can be a crappy draft. Everything I'm writing now has to be polished to a gleaming finish.

4. Are you crazy? Sitting at the computer for eight or ten hours a day does nothing but broaden my fanny and make my back ache. I would be frozen in hunker-down mode and have to be pried out of the chair with the jaws of life.

5. Are you crazy? Why would I want to scale back my writing to a mere 50,000 words a month? I have deadlines to meet! Doggies to feed! A mortgage to pay!

Hopefully you've guessed by now I wanted a chuckle this morning and took it out on you--the blog readers.

For those in the throes of NaNoWriMo, I wish you luck in meeting your goals. For those who aren't participating, you have 341 days (more or less) to come up with a reason NOT to do NaNo next year.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope you have much for which to give thanks!

Plugging Along

2011-11-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Logger in Petticoats
Status: 42,000 words

No one has thrashed me enough with a wet noodle this month or I would be farther along on this WIP. Something I'm learning from this project is I have to have my heart fully engaged in the story for it to flow smoothly from my fingertips.

Don't get me wrong I love my hero and heroine and I love the Halsey family, but because this premise is my second choice for this book I've had a harder time getting it written. That and outside influences have made my writing feel like I'm grinding my fingers in a meat grinder.

My goal is to have this book finished and polished by mid December. That means I have to seriously dig in and get to writing so once Thanksgiving is over I have to stick my nose to the computer monitor and my fingers to the keyboard and not look up until the dang thing is done.

Easier said than done this time of year!

How are those of you on a schedule or doing NaNo coming along? Better than I have?

I received the cover for the final book in the Spirit Trilogy. If doesn't quite match the other two but not a whole lot I can do about it.

Paty Jager
www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Outlining

2011-11-21T06:00:00.001-08:00

Most Recent Read: Destined, by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Current Read: Ganymede, by Cherie Priest
Planned Next Read: Magic on the Line, by Devon Monk

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA's weekly check-in. Every Monday we encourage members and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

Today is Monday, November 21, 2011.

Are you on track to reach your goals?

There are 40 days left in 2011.

How are you doing? If you have gotten off track, this is the week you can regain your momentum. Tell us how it's going, and set a fresh goal for the upcoming week. A page a day is a book in a year. You can do it!

NaNoRevMo Update

2011-11-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Current Project: NaNoRevMo
Status: In Progress

How’s it going? Hmmm, let’s see:

My goal is to finish revisions and polishing of my lastmanuscript.

Maintaining laser-like focus?
When I’m writing, yes. But I’m not writing as much as I’d like. Between houseguests, a convention, blog administration, and online training for migrating the RCRW website to MyRWA, I’m not all that focused.
Write in parallel with a partner?
This has been happening three days a week. I like it because it’s like I have an appointment to write.
Making amazingly fast progress on revisions and polishing?
Nope, but making faster progress than I was before NaNoRevMo.
Planning to continue?
DEFINITELY!!!

Quote of the Day

2011-11-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

Some quotes for NaNoWriMo from Nora Roberts, an expert at writing well and writing quickly:

"I don't fiddle or edit or change while I'm going through that first draft."

"I generally write a first draft that's pretty lean. Just get the story down."

"You can fix everything but a blank page."

Go With The Flow

2011-11-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

Writing isn't easy. It takes discipline to find the time to write, assuming you're not a full-time writer, and then to actually sit your backside in a chair and do it. You can always find excuses to avoid writing and usually they're things most people would find reasonable—you need to clean the house, go grocery shopping, make dinner. And at the end of the year, it takes a near herculean effort not to succumb to the Big Excuses—holiday planning/decorating/meal cooking/gift shopping. I mean, the holidays are already stressful enough and you don't want to let your friends and family down, right?

Wrong. You've forgotten one very important person: You. When you, as a writer, don't prioritize your writing and always (or mostly) let other distractions take precedence, you're letting yourself down. I don't mean your writing absolutely has to come always first, but it should be important enough to come first a fair amount of the time. It's called balance, something we could all do with more of in our lives.

That's one of the reasons why I think NaNoWriMo is great for a lot of people. I'll freely admit it isn't for everyone. But for some people, NaNo has turned out to be the one month of the year they're able to truly prioritize their writing as task numero uno. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because they can point to the website and say, "See? I'm participating in a national event. I just can't do x-y-z until I've reached my word count for the day." Or, maybe it's the feeling of we're-all-in-this-together comradery at the write-ins that spurs people on to continue writing.

It's as if once you start writing, the words suddenly just keep flowing. My advice: Go with the Flow. Make it a habit and keep going. (Surprise! For those who only write during NaNoWriMo, if you keep writing after November the words still flow.)

One note. Don't forget to back up your work! My rule is: Save Early and Often. Turn on automatic saving, manually save frequently, and create an archive back up after each writing session. Since I use Scrivener, I back up my Scrivener project to a zip file.

Another back up suggestion—save your back up file to multiple physical locations, in case of a disk crash. My two favorite "off computer" back up locations are an USB flash drive and Dropbox. If you've never heard of Dropbox, it's a cloud service and it's free for up to 2GB of storage (you can pay for more storage, but honestly I've been using it for months and haven't begun to make a dent in my storage space). You can access it from multiple devices (PCs, Macs, iphones, ipads, other smart phones, etc.) and you can share files with other people, if you choose, using different levels of permission. It's an amazing service.

So, find time to write and write as much as you can (turn off your internal editor!). Save your work frequently and copy your back up files to multiple storage devices. And above all, have fun!

I'm a bit behind on my NaNo goals, but I'm plugging away and writing every day. How's your NaNo journey going?

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA's weekly check-in. Every Monday we encourage members and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

Today is Monday, November 14, 2011.

Are you on track to reach your goals?

There are 47 days left in 2011.

Sooo many blogs and sooo...little time!

2011-11-11T07:38:00.001-08:00

Current Project: Sharks
Status: one more chapter

Source: finecraftguild.com via Chris on Pinterest

I'd like to wish everyone a very happy and fun fillied Thanksgiving with lots of wonderful food and quality time with families.

Nano, nano finish the damn, I mean darn, novella. I've never taken so long to finish anything in my entire life. Procrastination did not play a part in the slowness of this project. The demon on my shoulder was the lack of inspiration. As usual though my characters took over and started writing the manuscript. Wow, thank you Lilly and Jacob for deciding what I could not. Thank you for stepping in, poking me in the arm, and taking over, telling me what you wanted. You two are my inspiration. And thank you Bentley for becoming the best bad guy ever.

I do not have the time to write 50,000 words in a month, at least not this month. But I decided to use nano to my advantage. My simplistic goal, finish the book by the end of November. I think it will be completed in the next week and the lead weight sitting on my shoulder will be lifted.

I also decided to try goddessfish promotions as I am rereleasing my Highland series. My virtual tour begins on November 29th and goes to December 23. I have answered interview questions and written articles for 18 different blogs. I am giving away a $50.00 gift card at Amazon to one randomly drawn commenter and a clan MacPherson book mark at each blog to one randomly drawn commenter. Now that most of the blogs are completed, I can sit back and watch. Hopefully I will sell lots of books, receive great comments, and meet new friends.

Any one know a way to make the picture smaller?

NaNoProMo

2011-11-10T04:28:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Promoting Rock'n'Romance trilogy while editing LEGACY series
Status: Moving forward
Posted by: Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel

I liked Sarah's NaNoWriMo twist so much last week I came up with one of my own: National Novel Promotion Month.

This seemed appropriate as I'm doing a lot of promotion this November and early December for the re-issue of my Rock and Romance trilogy.

So what could NaNoProMo mean? Perhaps being a guest on as many blogs as possible. Launching a new Web site. Or signing your way from week to week at in-person booksignings. Radio, television, online--getting your name and news of your book out to potential readers. Doing some type of promotion every day.

Also perfect for me is the timing of an online marketing class sponsored by MWVRWA that's going on now. The instructor is making me think. And plan. And execute marketing strategies for myself and my books. I'm getting ideas for future marketing as I realize how much more I could be doing.

Then there's the irony Paty talked about yesterday: getting caught up in other things that pull you away from writing. Making so many commitments that book deadlines slip up on you or, worse, slide by unmet. I've become very aware of finding the balance between writing and promotion since I have three re-issues during a one-month period: THE ROCK STAR on Nov. 1, THE BODYGUARD on Nov. 15, and THE LEADER OF THE BAND on Dec. 1. I want as many people as possible to know about these books.

However, I also need to keep moving forward with edits on my LEGACY series that will begin releasing next March.

That means the rhythm of my writing life this month is edit, promote, edit, promote. Not much in tune with NaNoWriMo, which pushes writers to just throw words on paper or on the computer screen to get a draft. I'm at the other end of the spectrum--finishing and polishing and promoting books.

So let others draft their novels during NaNoWriMo--I'm promoting mine this month with my own NaNoProMo!

Where are you are in the process of producing your book--writing a draft, doing final edits, submitting your manuscript, promoting? Or have you taken a rebellious stand to simply READ this month?

NaNo Whato?

2011-11-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

Current Project: Logger in Petticoats
Status: 21,000 words

I've not tried the NaNoWriMo challenge before. Mainly because I am a self motivated writer. I beat myself up enough if I don't make deadlines and don't need to rely on other methods to get the job done. However, I've found the more books I have written and the more promo I need to do, the less time I find for writing.

I'd hoped to be about double the word count I have by now but things just keep taking me away from the computer. I planned to make this my own personal NaNo month and so far, it's not working. This week I spend two half days at schools teaching them writing basics from an authors standpoint. Well to go to town for that I end up doing other errands so I get only a couple of hours to work on the writing. My goal for next week is to spend every day in front of the computer and get my words really flowing. So do the NaNo dance for me when you're doing your own.

When I have a new post in two weeks, you can see if I've added any words or if this will be the first time I dont' make a deadline I've self imposed.

NaNo, NaNo!

Paty Jager
www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA's weekly check-in. Every Monday we encourage members and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

Today is Monday, November 7, 2011.

Are you on track to reach your goals?

There are 54 days left in 2011.

Geisha Marketing for Authors

2011-11-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Mid-Willamette Valley RWA's next online workshop will be "Geisha Marketing for Authors," taught by Deborah R. Magnus.

The definition of Marketing is: The process by which one creates customer interest in products or services. The definition of Geisha is: An entertainer whose skills include performing various arts such as classical music and dance.

The Geisha Marketing for Authors workshop is specifically designed and presented to show the true art of marketing, to imbue the power of passion, skill, creativity, understanding and talent to create a successful book marketing plan. If an author is now to do jobs like Publicity, Marketing or Promotions, they need to know the ropes. Each day one segment of Geisha Marketing will be explored, discussed and an assignment will be given. Assignments will be responded to and solutions explored.

1)   The Training for Geisha Marketing
a.     Tools, goals and creating perfection
b.   Polishing speaking, appearance and pride

2)   The Art of Geisha Marketing
a.     Building an Author Platform
b.   Building a Book Platform
c.     Social Networking at its best

3)   The Beauty of Geisha Marketing
a.     Marketing harmonies outside the norm
b.   Commitment to what art you have and will perform
c.     Finding and cultivating new lovers of your performance

4)   The Performance of Geisha Marketing
a.     Consistence, continuity and patience
b.   Short and long performances
c.     The harmony of presentation

5)   The Reputation of Good Geisha Marketing
a.     Follow up, building upon and the poetry of the "T" (testing) Ceremony
b.   The Geisha Marketer's agreement with their readers

The workshop will be held from November 7th through the 12th, and costs $25 for nonmembers (chapter members may take the workshop for free).  You can enroll through our website at http://www.midwillamettevalleyrwa.com.

About the instructor:
Deborah Riley-Magnus has a twenty-seven year professional background in marketing, advertising and public relations as a writer for print, television and radio. She owns Paradigm Warriors, a small Author Success Coaching business focused exclusively on publicity, marketing and promotional solutions for authors.

She is also a writer, represented by Wylie-Merrick Literary Agency for fiction and non-fiction. She produces several pieces weekly for various websites including her author and writing websites and industry blog. She belongs to several writing and professional organizations and teaches various workshops on Author Success.

She has lived on both the east and west coast of the United States and has traveled the country widely. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she currently lives, works and writes in Los Angeles, California.

My Twist on NaNo This November

2011-11-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Current Project: NaNoRevMo
Status: Just started

My Twist on NaNo ThisNovember

I’d hoped to write the first draft of a new book this yearduring NaNo. However it turns out that I have another priority. I need to do afinal polish of my last manuscript.

The siren call of procrastination tempted me to do NaNoanyway. I love the energy of NaNo, the intense focus and the feelings ofaccomplishment. I have three stories planned and ready to go. Plus writing anew story is fun and exciting.

But a writer must be self-disciplined enough to followthrough. She must be willing to work when it’s hard, to do the not-as-much-funsteps necessary to make a book the best that it can be, and to do them as manytimes as necessary with a particular story. She must control the urge toprocrastinate.

Then inspiration struck: I could do my own version of NaNoto serve my own goal!

I call my project NaNoRevMo.I’m channeling my NaNo energy into polishing pages with laser-like focus. Mysister, Diana McCollum, and I partnered to write in parallel as often as we can.We report our progress to each other. And I’m on track to reach my goal.

NaNoWriMo, I salute you! Once again, you’ve inspired me.

Quote of the Day

2011-11-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

This month the Mid-Willamette Valley chapter is concentrating on NaNoWriMo and/or BIAW.

When it begins to feel overwhelming to draft a novel in a month (or a week!), remember:

"Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You only see as far as your headlights go, but you can make the whole trip that way." --E. L. Doctorow

Ready, Set, Write!

2011-11-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first day of NaNoWriMo!

Have you written your first words yet? Yes? Way to go! Keep up the good work! No? Why not? Time's a-wastin' if you want to write 50,000 words this month, so get cracking!

I'm only half-joking about that.

I've participated in NaNoWriMo every year since 2003. My first NaNo I wrote over 125,000 words. I've never duplicated that feat and my other NaNo attempts have been a bit of a mixed bag in regards to the number of words written, but I count each a success. That's because I've learned something important about my writing during each one.

My first NaNo taught me that I can write novel-length fiction. Diving into a couple of NaNos with only an idea and a couple of unformed characters taught me that I'm not a pantser. NaNo has taught me that I have to turn off the internal editor in order to get the words on paper. It's also taught me I can write fast, so long as I have a pretty good idea where I'm going, and that I can carve writing time out of just about any hour of the day when I need to.

I know the fact that NaNoWriMo is held in November drives a lot of people a little crazy. And so it should. Who wants to try to write 50,000 words in a month with one of the biggest holidays of the year? The thing is, though, if you can muster the discipline to write 50,000 words in November, of all months, then imagine what you could do in, say, March?

The real key to NaNoWriMo, at least for me, is to set a daily word goal and make sure you reach it. Then, if you can, write past it. If you break it down, 50,000 words in 30 days comes out to 1,667 words per day. That's the goal I set for myself in my first NaNo, but each day I tried to write more than that, usually doubling my goal. I told myself I was creating a cushion for the holidays, but I found when Thanksgiving came that I still managed to find time to write. Of course, by that time I didn't have to write—I'd already written something like 75,000 words—but I was having so much fun writing I didn't want to stop.

So, what's my goal this year? I need to come close to duplicating my first NaNo. I know it can be done; I've done it before. If you're looking for me this month, I'll be the one over there in the corner madly typing away at the keyboard.

If you've decided to participate in NaNoWriMo and would like to share your experience, I'm "dbw" on the NaNo site. I don't participate in the forums and I don't generally go to local write-ins, but I do try to post my word count. Just don't expect the site to be useable for the first day or so. It's kind of like most fitness centers the first couple of weeks of January—packed with people with good intentions who stop going after they realize how much hard work it is. After the first couple of days, the NaNo site generally settles down.

Good luck, all you NaNo-ers out there! Keep us updated on your progress.

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA's weekly check-in. Every Monday we encourage members and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

Today is Monday, October 31, 2011. (Happy Halloween!)

This is the last day before National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins. Do you have plans to complete any projects in November? What do you hope to accomplish in the next month?

Good luck reaching your personal goals for November!

I Babies

2011-10-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Current Project: Sharks
Status: Almost Done and with twists

Technology pertaining to infants. My almost 2 year old granddaughter is an I baby. What you say is that? It is a baby who has grown up with an Ipod in his/her hand. She can find netflix but can't quite get the show she wants. She knows the symbol for skype and want to call ne ne, her aunt Jenee. I really feel inadequate. I'm still trying to navigate my new android. I know, I know I just don't have the time to stare at my phone and push icons until I see something I want.

Can anyone possibly imagine what the technology will be in the next 10 years? OMG I think all babies should be I babies or they might be left behind. I can't imagine. I just can't think about it.
And as a retired math teacher, I can't believe I'm saying this. Is there really a reason for our children to learn their multiplication tables? Give them a calculator and forget the headaches! (no I don't think I just said that).

I remember about 10 years ago when my parents were debating a computer. I said "You have to stay up with technology."

Wow! I will forever remember those words. But I'm not sure anyone will be able to keep up with technology or be able to pay for it.

What do you think technology will be like in 1o year? And what do you think about I babies? good or bad?

LOVING THE INTERNET

2011-10-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

Current Project: Preparing for re-issue of my Rock 'n' Romance series
Status: New covers done, text rechecked for minor errors, all sent to publisher... Now on to promotion!

Posted by: Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel

Ack! I have the need for an automatic blog generator today. Because in spite of the automatic reminder that today is my day to blog--and my old-fashioned reminder of jotting a note, I forgot to write my blog yesterday and schedule it to post just after midnight as I usually do. (By the way, I looked up "auto blog writer" on the Internet and there are some options--which I choose not to take--so you're stuck with my own words. :)

While I was on the Internet I decided to look for excuses of why my blog wasn't written and posted. Of course there were sites for this, but I didn't look deep enough to see if "the dog chewed up my blog post" was among them. Besides, my dogs would rather lay in the sunshine that is now streaming across my back yard. Though I could legitimately use "my small white dog was barking at the back fence and I had to bring him inside so he could sit in 'time out' while I wrote this blog." I probably shouldn't confess he came in one door and out the other that one of the other dogs opened. Sigh. Need an automatic door closer...supposed I could get one of those online too!

Back to technology...

My thoughts this morning turned to what type of technology would help me as a writer. Others have discussed or given links to software that will help generate or organize stories. Since I like to use storyboards or vision boards, I searched for those. Yep, software--some of it free--to generate those also.

How about software to write story outlines? Yes. Character sketches? Of course. Ideas for plot twists? Lots of them.

Guess I'm a bit old-fashioned in that I prefer to do some of the work myself--or maybe I can see myself spending hours searching out these software packages and not getting any actual writing done.

However, in my Internet search, I also thought of ways to give my characters more depth. Up came blogs written by police officers (or lawyers or whatever). Though this type of search can also be amusing. I wondered if cowboys blogged and came up with a lengthy listing of blogs for the Dallas Cowboys football team. Um, not what I had in mind.

It's probably obvious I'm a fan of the Internet--at least most of the time. I've found so much information that's helpful to me in writing. Yet sometimes I also search and search but can't seem to generate exactly what I'm looking for.

How about you? Please share your most amusing or odd or productive or frustrating search for something on the Internet?

2011-10-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

Current Project: Galley edits for Spirit of the Sky
Status: working on it

So since my first blog on this topic earlier in the month nothing has changed about my inability to use technology.

I do have my website up and running, but my printer is still not talking to the new computer and in desperation , I hooked the old laptop back up just to make copies. Which means putting info I want copied onto a flash drive and then putting it in the laptop and printing.

What's funny is I couldn't wait, back in the 80's, when I was writing on a typewriter for the day I could afford a computer. I helped in the kids' school in the computer technology room to learn how to use the beasts and the instructor would let me use the computer in between classes to write my stories and put them on a big square disk.

Finally, the day arrived I could get computer. I bought a Mac. That's what they had in the schools and I told my husband that way I'd have help if I ran into problems.. But man was that an investment back then!

It was wonderful to be able to delete and enter words all over in the document without having to retype everything!

But then I came to another problem, the Mac's back then didn't play nice with other computers and when I wanted to critique with other people they couldn't read my stuff and I coudln't read their stuff. So I floundered along until the day came when I threw my hands in the air, told my dh I needed a computer that talked with everyone else and became a DELL fan. I gave the Mac to a friend of the family who was headed off to college and have been happy with my choice ever since.

Except for the fact I am so darn technology challenged that it takes me days to figure out how to do some things on some programs. And after all these years I still don't have the fearlessness it takes to push keys and see what happens. I'm always afraid I'm going to mess something up. Because usually, I do!

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA's weekly check-in. Every Monday we encourage members and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

Today is Monday, October 24, 2011.

Are you on track to reach your goals?

There are 68 days left in 2011.

Weekly Calculations:
If you write 1 page per day, you can write 17000 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 2 pages per day, you can write 34000 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 3 pages per day, you can write 51000 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 4 pages per day, you can write 68000 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 5 pages per day, you can write 85000 more words by the end of the year.

So how are you doing? If you have gotten off track, this is the week you can regain your momentum. Tell us how you're doing, and set a fresh goal for the upcoming week. A page a day is a book in a year. You can do it!

PRIZES: The best prize is reaching your personal goal and finishing your book. But if you need an extra little incentive, remember: any chapter member who reaches her personal goal by the end of the year receives a prize at the year-end party. Non-members can win, too. Non-members who show up for at least 20 weekly check-ins will have their names entered in a drawing for a gift card from Powells, the world's largest independent bookstore.

Learn About Marketing with Deborah Riley-Magnus

2011-10-21T08:00:00.001-07:00

We are pleased to have Deborah Riley-Magnus as our guest blogger today. She will be teaching the online workshop "Geisha Marketing for Authors" for us November 7-12, and has offered to give us this preview of her topic:

Geisha Marketing for Authors vs. Hide-Under-the-Blanket Marketing.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word … marketing? Don’t be afraid, just spit it out. I already know what you’re thinking.

“Oh no! Will I need to become one of those authors? The kind that talk about their work all the time? The kind who think about nothing but selling books? Will I need to be like a used car salesman? A slimy manipulator? Can I get away without doing any marketing at all because really, I’m just too shy (or too busy, or too important, or above all that stuff, or all I want to do is write)?”

Um … no. Let me start by addressing your concerns. First, you will not become one of those authors because true marketing has nothing to do with irritating repetition. You will not be thinking about selling your book all the time because marketing is an ongoing component of being an author and creative thinker. Good marketing is a second nature, not a disruptive activity. If you market like a used car salesman, you’ll turn people off. If you come off like a slimy manipulator, you’ll turn people away.

Can you get away without marketing at all? This final concern is the primary reason for my workshop, Geisha Marketing for Authors. Unfortunately, no matter your reason for not wanting to market, you must market. The state of the publishing industry has unceremoniously dropped all that responsibility on the author’s shoulders but I’m here to tell you … this is a challenge and a huge benefit. Controlling your destiny is the key to this, so don’t look at it as a sad, terrible turn of events, look at this as a great opportunity.

Marketing is nothing you thought it was. Marketing is an art, and an effective marketing strategy must be creatively developed specifically for you and the book you wrote. The Geisha Marketing for Authors workshop covers the primary elements to help you to understand, craft and implement marketing exactly the way you and your book need it to be.

The definition of Marketing is: The process by which one creates customer interest in products or services. The definition of Geisha is: An entertainer whose skills include performing various arts such as classical music and dance. This workshop ties together the elegant art of the ancient geisha with the power of effective marketing. It is five days of exploring possibilities that work and don’t overwork the author because hey, you’re supposed to be writing your next book, right? Here’s what we’ll be covering:

The Training for Geisha Marketing

Tools, goals and creating perfection
Polishing speaking, appearance and pride

The Art of Geisha Marketing

Building an Author Platform
Building a Book Platform
Social Networking at its best

The Beauty of Geisha Marketing

Marketing harmonies outside the norm
Commitment to what art you have and will perform
Finding and cultivating new lovers of your performance

The Performance of Geisha Marketing

Consistence, continuity and patience
Short and long performances
The harmony of presentation

The Reputation of Good Geisha Marketing

Follow up, building upon and the poetry of the “T” (testing) Ceremony
The Geisha Marketer’s agreement with their readers

Marketing is personal, based on you and your book. Powerful marketing strategies come from powerful creative ideas and that is the primary goal of this workshop … to take the amazing creativity you put into your book and expand it into a marketing tool like no one else’s. All those other authors making that ruckus and noise on twitter and facebook, shouting that you really should buy their book, have not looked at marketing this way. They are doing what everyone else does.

Good marketing is developing a new or more creative path to better results. Are you up to the challenge? If so, Geisha Marketing for Authors is for you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Deborah Riley-Magnus is an author and an Author Success Coach. She has a twenty-seven year professional background in marketing, advertising and public relations as a writer for print, television and radio. As an Author Success Coach she focuses exclusively on publicity, marketing and promotional solutions for authors.

Deborah produces several pieces weekly for various blogs and websites including her author website and Unruly Guides, and an author industry blog, Deborah Riley-Magnus,Writaholic. She teaches online and live workshops as an Author Success Coach.

Cold in California, book one of The Twice-Baked Vampire Series, was released in July, 2011. Her non-fiction, Finding Author Success: Discovering and Uncovering the Marketing Power Within Your Manuscript will be released in November, 2011. In January of 2012, she will be launching a new online publication called the Whispers of the Muse Literary Magazine.

She belongs to several writing and professional organizations and is a member of the WriteSEX blog group as the marketing, promotions and publicity expert. She can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she has lived on both the east and west coast of the United States and has traveled the country widely.

Hook Up with Tech Stars Like NiteCruzr

2011-10-20T00:30:00.000-07:00

Current Project: Revising Blindsight
Status: Moving Forward

My most recent helpful techdiscovery is a virtual hunk named NiteCruzr. I began stalking him after Ispotted him several times on the Blogger Help Forum, where I’d gone indesperation when Blogger’s stock Help answers didn’t help. (Find the forum byclicking on ‘contact us’ in the new Blogger interface.)

Anyhow, this technical giant of aman oozed answers (over 50,000 of them so far.) He is a Star contributor,someone who knows a heck of a lot about Blogger and helps thetechnically-challenged, apparently out of the goodness of his heart. He doesthis for fun, at (you guessed it) night.

When I got over my shyness andclicked on his name link, I learned he blogs. He blogs a lot.

about Blogger at www.blogging.nitecruzr.net
about Microsoft Windows networking, security, and support at www.networking.nitecruzr.net
about blogging at http://groups.google.com/group/nitecruzr-dot-net-blogging/topics

He’s worth his weight in virtualgold to the technically-challenged. (On a side note, he blogs about cooking at www.recipes.nitecruzr.net A Renaissanceman!) The good news is, you can (virtually) stalkhim, too. And others like him.

You’ll find them on forumsassociated with blog or web hosting services ( WordPress, GoDaddy ), software programs (DreamWeaver, Microsoft Office Forums), and onforums devoted to personal computer users (MacTalk.Bleeping Computer .) In anutshell: you name the technology; it’s got a forum (probably more than one.)And those forums have Stars who can (and usually will) answer your questions.

So venture out, ask your mostvexing questions, and hook up with tech stars. You’ll be glad you did.

Quote of the Day

2011-10-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." --Arthur C. Clarke

Here are some links to the scads of writing software available--who knew there were so many companies offering "quick" and "easy" ways to write your novels?

Have you tried any of these? What kind of writing software appeals to you? Or would you rather just be left alone with a blank screen or paper & pen to find your own way to tell your stories?

Note--the quotes below each are the designers' claims about their products, not mine!

CharacterWriter3.1
http://www.characterpro.com/
"Character Writer is a cross-platform software package that offers both character-generating and story-generating tools in one easy-to-use interface. Instantly generate character profiles and descriptions. Get instant help writing your screenplay, movie script, play or novel."

Contour
http://www.marinersoftware.com/products/contour/
"Have a great idea for a movie? Then get it out of your head and onto the page! Just answer these 4 questions: Who is the main character? What is the main character trying to accomplish? Who is trying to stop the main character? What happens if the main character fails? "

Dramatica Pro
http://www.dramatica.com/
"Dramatica Pro asks you all the questions about your story that you should ask but probably forget to ask. Dramatica Pro works with you to develop stronger, richer characters that leap off the page while weaving your themes into your plot seamlessly. Plus, it helps you identify and eliminate unwanted story choices before they become problems."

FinalDraft
http://www.finaldraft.com/
"FinalDraft is the number-one selling scriptwriting software in the world."

Master Storyteller
http://www.writersstore.com/master-storyteller
"Master Storyteller explores both the Art of Storytelling and the Craft of Story Structuring."

New Novelist
http://www.newnovelist.com/
"NewNovelist novel writing software breaks down the process of writing a novel into manageable chunks."

Power Structure
http://www.write-brain.com/power_structure_main.htm
"It will give you a Playground of the Mind™ : innovative, graphic methods of looking at your story, its conflicts, character development and more so that you can easily spot weak areas and strengthen them."

Power Writer
http://www.write-brain.com/power_writer_main.htm
"It erases the line between story development and story writing by fully integrating the outlining and development tools directly into the word processor."

Q10
http://www.baara.com/q10/
"Full screen. Focus on your work... A single self-contained executable file. That’s all. Easy to use with a pendrive, so you can carry your writing environment with you everywhere."

Scrivener
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
"Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft."

StoryBase
http://www.storybase.net/software/software.html
"Storybase 2.0 provides direct access to an amazing clipboard of narrative writing prompts that can be personalized with your characters. A sure cure for writer's block, Storybase 2.0 can help your writing project come alive."

StoryWeaver
http://dramatica.stores.yahoo.net/storyourstep.html
"StoryWeaver is a step by step approach to story development that takes you from concept to completion of your novel or screenplay."

StyleWriter
http://www.editorsoftware.com/StyleWriter.html
"StyleWriter mimics an expert editor checking, cutting and rearranging your words to produce a clear and readable style."

The Writer's Software Companion
http://www.writers-software.com/
"Imagine a tireless writing coach standing by your side, a coach with all the writing and teaching credentials you could ask for."

WriteWay
http://www.writewaypro.com/
"You're serious about writing a novel. Now, get the tools you need to take your story ideas from initial concept and characters through completed manuscript."

Writer's Blocks
http://www.writersblocks.com/
"With Writer’s Blocks, you enter ideas, notes, or any type of information into movable blocks of text ... Zooming out gives you a visual overview of what you have written. The blocks can be easily dragged and dropped around into a coherent structure."

WriteRoom
http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
"For Mac iPhone, iPod, & iPad users to write without distractions. WriteRoom is a full screen writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you're used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing." (The PC version is called DarkRoom, available here: http://they.misled.us/dark-room)

WritersCafé
http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/
"The heart of Writer's Café is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay."

Writer's Dreamkit
http://www.dramatica.com
"The Writer's DreamKit StoryGuide handholds you from initial idea all the way through to completed narrative treatment, inspiring you and supporting you along the way."

A Technology Freak of Nature

2011-10-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make and I think I'll just go ahead and say it and get it out of the way. I'm the last person you should ask for technical advice. Why? Because I'm a tech freak—the kind of person technology loves. And by technology, I'm talking about the hardware/software, not the people who make it.

That's right. I'm one of those odd people for whom things just work. And when there is a blip, most things right themselves fairly quickly. Only rarely do I run into hardware or software with a fatal bug/flaw that I can't coax into working well for me (I'm glaring at you, MS Word). Hell, I've even coaxed most PCs I've had the misfortune to own to do what I want them to do and I know next to nothing about the various flavors of the Windoze operating systems. (Trust me when I say this isn't bragging on my part—I couldn't tell you how to do anything on a PC that I've already done.)

I spent most of my career at Sun like this. I'd test software and have no problem with it; I'd watch my neighbor across the hall go through the exact same installation steps and the software wouldn't work at all. Who knows why?

It's the reason for the blank look that generally crosses my face when someone asks me for technical help or hardware/software recommendations. I'm never quite sure what to say. Most of the time I fall back on the generic, "You should buy what you're comfortable using. Don't let someone talk you into [hardware / software] just because they like it."

I realize that for a lot of people, technology is a struggle. It doesn't live up to the marketing hype, sometimes struggles to do what the tech specs claim, and in a lot of cases, doesn't really make your life easier. Unless you're a freak like me. I can't explain it; it's just the way I am.

The bottom line? If you're in the market for technology, be it hardware or software, don't be an impulse buyer. There are usually multiple solutions for anything you want to accomplish. Do your homework. Google is your friend. Read online reviews—from more than one site. Ask your friends for their opinions (but take their enthusiasm/hate with a grain of salt). Find a store that will let you get your hands on the hardware/play with the software before you buy.

Just don't ask me; I'm a technology freak of nature.

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA's weekly check-in. Every Monday we encourage members and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

Today is Monday, October 17, 2011.

Are you on track to reach your goals?

There are 75 days left in 2011.

Weekly Calculations:
If you write 1 page per day, you can write 18750 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 2 pages per day, you can write 37500 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 3 pages per day, you can write 56250 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 4 pages per day, you can write 75000 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 5 pages per day, you can write 93750 more words by the end of the year.

So how are you doing? If you have gotten off track, this is the week you can regain your momentum. Tell us how you're doing, and set a fresh goal for the upcoming week. A page a day is a book in a year. You can do it!

PRIZES: The best prize is reaching your personal goal and finishing your book. But if you need an extra little incentive, remember: any chapter member who reaches her personal goal by the end of the year receives a prize at the year-end party. Non-members can win, too. Non-members who show up for at least 20 weekly check-ins will have their names entered in a drawing for a gift card from Powells, the world's largest independent bookstore.

Where do I go from here

2011-10-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

Current Project: Sharks
Status: plugging along

I have nothing new to add and I'm really stymied as to what to write. I use photoshop and photobucket with much to learn. The online tutorials are difficult for me because I don't know the basic vocabulary. I am a work in progress and try very hard to follow the directions. It can be so frustrating when no one can tell me where I went wrong.

For writing I use the word program that is on my computer. I don't even know the name. I'd run downstairs and ask my husband (so I'd sound a little bit more informed) but he is not home. I don't know how to use all of the icons at the top (I don't remember what that is called).

A couple of days ago my daughter corrected me when I used the term download. "Mom, that's an upload." Ok, so who cares? She knew what I meant. And now I don't remember which one is which. But I can do both--upload and download.

Maybe this would be easier for me if I learned the terminology. Like Genene, I am really happy I will not be expected to blog on this topic a third time. I most likely will not continue on with this ramble for the second blog.

Hopefully, my friends and fellow writers who blogged before me have helped you with technology.

Where do you go for help? And Genene, now that I'm thinking about it, we have to get together sometime and go over that airplane tutorial. I messed Jenee up so bad when we tried in NY, she couldn't remember how she did it.

LEARN AS YOU GO

2011-10-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

Current Project: LEGACY series
Status: editing book #3

Posted by: Genene Valleau

Several people have commented they have technical expertise in some areas, while they struggle in other technical areas. I fall into this category.

Some software hums along for me and I'm quite happy spending hours at my computer. Other software I have a passing knowledge of and we've come to an understanding of sorts. Then there's the software that equates with having someone pull out your hair one strand at a time.

There are a number of software packages I use in connection with writing. For graphic design, my "happy for hours" software includes Photoshop and InDesign. I design book covers in Photoshop. I also work in Photoshop to develop many promo items like bookmarks, posters, flyers, etc. Though I cross over to InDesign and its page layout capabilities to finish many of these items, and I use InDesign to format presentations and make handouts.

I pretty much zoom around in these software packages and feel comfortable trying new things. Though the other day Photoshop shut down unexpectedly when I was working on a book cover and lost all the changes I had made to the document--even the ones I had saved. It reverted completely back to the version I first opened. It was weird and I was baffled and felt a bit betrayed. Guess my computer and that software were made by humans after all. :)

I also get around pretty well in Dreamweaver since that's what I use for Web sites. (My apologies to Paty--not trying to rub salt in her Web site wounds.) Though I many times do a draft of how I want my Web pages to look in Photoshop, I use Dreamweaver to write the HTML code for me. However, there are a lot of features I want to learn in this software. I know it can do a lot more, but I've focused on the design end of Web sites and not on the behind-the-display technical stuff that Debbie and others can do.

I wouldn't recommend the software I use to anyone who's not going to be looking for jobs as a graphic or Web designer. It's pretty expensive and rather complex until you get the hang of it. However, like any software, I think the more you use it, the easier and more comfortable it becomes.

Then I descend to the next level of software expertise.

Word and I get along well enough for me to write my stories, though I don't trust it like I do my design software. Hey, it's a personal relationship built through years of working together. :)

I also use Excel for basic databases. Many years ago, I worked with fairly complex databases, then moved away from them. So I'm relearning what this software can do as I use it to track my LEGACY series. I have to admit, though, when it baffles me I usually just let the software have its way rather than fight with it or try to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

When I get beyond page layout, photo manipulation, and basic word processing and databases, I fall into the abyss of a non-techie.

I have a Facebook page and one in MySpace, though that seems to have fallen off most people's radar. I've never tried Twitter, though I supposed I "should" as I move into promotion mode again soon. My cell phone is a basic model I can use to make calls and, hopefully, realize that ring tone is mine and answer it. Texting is not fun and my kids have given up trying to show me the more "advanced" features.

It's not that advanced functions aren't cool or that social media isn't a great place to keep up with friends and fans. But I don't have room in my head for that stuff with all the stories fermenting and taking shape. (Yes, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

I know I will learn other software packages. I'm eager to develop book trailers, though I know some people say they don't help sell books. They look fun and will be a challenge I'll enjoy. Fortunately, I usually pick up on software pretty quickly and, if I use it a lot, it sticks with me. That's one of the major reasons I learn as I need the knowledge. If I don't use something on a fairly regular basis, it soon falls out of my head. Then I'd have to relearn everything when I could be using that time to write stories!

I guess the main message of this meandering blog post is not to worry if you think you're a techie or non-techie. If you need some technical knowledge, learn it when you need to or find someone to help you or and an expert to do it for you. If you don't need the technical knowledge, don't worry about what others say you "should" know. It will just take up space in your head where you could be plotting stories. :)

So, is there a software or technology you've been eager to try? Or are you content--and don't need--any more techie stuff in your brain?

So non-Techie!

2011-10-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

Current Project: Spirit of the Sky
Status: doing edits

Wow, this is one month when I'm really glad I don't have to do three posts.

I just spent nearly a week rebuilding my website on Go Daddy. It took me one and a half days just to get the site figured out to upload the information I wanted and then another day to figure out how to get it placed the way I wanted. I'm still not crazy about how the blurbs hug the book covers, but I decided to wait until I need to update it next month to work on that some more.

When someone points out a program to help with writing I put my fingers in my ears and sing. It took me years to finally get word figured out to format my manuscripts and then the track changes for when I edited. I'm still struggling with publisher when I use it because I dont' use it every day only when I want to make up promotional materials.

The one thing I feel confidant about is Power Point. I love doing Power Point presentations. They're easy!

I've used movie maker to make a book trailer but all the buzz I've heard about how the trailers really don't help your sales, I've decided it isn't worth my time and effort.

While I love the technology of ebooks for their convenience and the ability for me to upload my own writing, I will always use a print book for research. It's easier to flag the pages I want to reread or have the information I need than hunting for them in a ebook doc.

And speaking of ebooks, I'm happy to say I've figure out the formatting for the ebook outlets and don't understand when others find it difficult.

So what about you? Are you technically adept or technically challenges? If you're technically challenged like I am, what is your worst nemesis?

Paty Jager
www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Weekly Progress Check-In

2011-10-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA's weekly check-in. Every Monday we encourage members and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

Today is Monday, October 10, 2011.

Are you on track to reach your goals?

There are 82 days left in 2011.

Weekly Calculations:
If you write 1 page per day, you can write 20500 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 2 pages per day, you can write 41000 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 3 pages per day, you can write 61500 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 4 pages per day, you can write 82000 more words by the end of the year.
If you write 5 pages per day, you can write 102500 more words by the end of the year.

So how are you doing? If you have gotten off track, this is the week you can regain your momentum. Tell us how you're doing, and set a fresh goal for the upcoming week. A page a day is a book in a year. You can do it!

PRIZES: The best prize is reaching your personal goal and finishing your book. But if you need an extra little incentive, remember: any chapter member who reaches her personal goal by the end of the year receives a prize at the year-end party. Non-members can win, too. Non-members who show up for at least 20 weekly check-ins will have their names entered in a drawing for a gift card from Powells, the world's largest independent bookstore.

Getting off on the Right Foot

2011-10-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Mid-Willamette Valley RWA's next online workshop will be "Getting off on the Right Foot," taught by our own Paty Jager.

This two week course will help you get to know your characters and their backstory to catapult you into the correct spot to start your book. You'll brainstorm until you find the best first sentence, paragraph, and page that will capture the attention of a reader and draw them into your story.

The workshop will be held from October 17th through the 30th, and costs $25 for nonmembers (chapter members may take the workshop for free). You can enroll through our website at http://www.midwillamettevalleyrwa.com.

About Paty Jager: Wife, mother, grandmother, and the one who cleans pens and delivers the hay; award-winning author Paty Jager and her husband currently farm 350 acres when not dashing around visiting their children and grandchildren. She not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

She's held officer positions and been a member of RWA for twelve years. Other groups she belongs to are EPIC, COWG, Women Writing the West, and several online RWA chapters. Wild Rose Press has published eight of her books with one more to release in May 2011. Paty's contemporary western, Perfectly Good Nanny, won the 2008 EPPIE for Best Contemporary Romance. She teaches workshops at RWA conferences and monthly meetings, to other writer groups, and online writing workshops.

You can learn more about Paty at her blog: http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com, her website, http://www.patyjager.net or on Facebook.