The Artist’s Way
April 29, 2009 by A Slice of Orange in category The Artist Way by Gillian Doyle tagged as Artist's Way, Gillian Doyle
“All artists must learn the art of surviving loss: loss of hope, loss of face, loss of money, loss of self-belief.” – Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY.
In November of last year, my widowed mother was diagnosed with mid-stage Alzheimer’s. In January, she required a full-time caregiver in her home. In late February, she suffered a psychotic breakdown and had to be admitted to a secure facility. Thanks to a change in medication, she has come back around but her memory is deteriorating rapidly. In some ways, she is not aware of losing track of minutes, days, weeks. For the rest of the family, it is sad and frustrating and stressful.
While cleaning out my mother’s house, I found a poem titled “Don’t Quit” that she had tucked into a drawer. Ironic, yes. Her mind is shutting down. Her eyesight is failing from cataracts and glaucoma. The neurologist is concerned that she is beginning to show signs of renal artery failure. And yet here is this scrap of paper with words of hope. I don’t know when she clipped it. Or from where. It could have been years ago. Maybe it helped her hang on this long. She’s 88 years old now. Her mother was only 62 when she had died of complications from Alzheimer’s.
When I decided to share the poem in my blog this month, I discovered that it ties in nicely with Debra Mullin’s blog entry on yesterday’s A Slice of Orange, in which agent/author Lucienne Diver states: “Don’t give up and don’t let rejection get you down. Rejection is part of the process. . . . you’ll never make it to the goal if you get disheartened and stop along the way. “
Don’t Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won, had he stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.
– Author Unknown
Until next month . . .
– Gillian Doyle
http://www.gilliandoyle.blogspot.com/
http://www.gilliandoyle.com/
A Fantasy Life
April 27, 2009 by A Slice of Orange in category A Fantasy Life by Janet Cornelow tagged as Janet Cornelow, Janet Quinn
By Janet Quinn Cornelow
Debra Young, who some of you know and who has been my critique partner for years, went to the last OCC meeting with me to hear Blake Snyder. He was an interesting and entertaining speaker with a great deal of information. Because I couldn’t go home after the meeting – the Orange Oil Termite people were there and I’m allergic to oranges – Debra and I went out after the meeting. While eating banana splits and making ourselves sick, we talked about Snyder’s points.
Debra and I meet the third Saturday of every month, so I decided that we should take one of his suggestions to heart and make a headline and a movie poster for our current projects. Of course, since neither of us have the ability to actually draw or put a movie poster together, we were suppose to come up with just the idea.
Our meeting came and Debra had forgotten what I said to do and I hadn’t had time. My online classes had kept me very busy that week. So as we ate fajitas, we came up with headlines and movie poster concepts. It really makes a person think about what it is her story is about. It does clarify the concept so that it can be explained to someone else.
My current project is Sam, the never-ending-story. (After I finish him, it is onto an urban fantasy and slaying monsters.) For Freedom’s Treasure, we came up with – When love is at stake, freedom is the ultimate sacrifice.
Figuring what type of movie poster would attract attention and make someone interested in your story is a bit more complicated. It is like designing a cover for the book. I am terrible at that. I never know what I want on the front of my book. However, we did come up with something. Now I wish I knew how to make it so I could post it on my website. Sam is standing in the foreground, in chains, protecting Jubilee. In the background are fields with crops growing. Up on the left, smaller, are the slave hunters looking for Sam and Jubilee.
We decide on the chains because the first time Sam was introduced in The River’s Treasure, he was in chains. Although he isn’t literally in chains anymore, figuratively he is.
Debra and I did go over the bullet points that Snyder came up with. Me, I’m still stuck on the one that says theme. I used to be a high school English teacher and I still can’t do theme. Debra wasn’t any help on the point. I think I’ll just skip that one and keep going.
Advice to Myself as a Newbie Author
April 22, 2009 by A Slice of Orange in category Advice to Myself as a Newbie Author by Shauna Roberts tagged as Advice to Myself as a Newbie Author, Tricia Mills, Trish Milburnby Shauna Roberts
http://ShaunaRoberts.blogspot.com
Today’s Guest: Trish Milburn
Trish Milburn is an eight-time Golden Heart finalist and two-time winner—once for Romantic Suspense and once for Young Adult. She writes YA as Tricia Mills for Razorbill (Heartbreak River, April 2009) and contemporary romance under her real name for Harlequin American (Her Very Own Family, May 2009). She is a former magazine editor and still puts those editorial skills to use as a freelance copy editor and writer. She has her own blog and is a regular contributor to the Wet Noodle Posse, Romance Bandits, Supernatural, and Harlequin American group blogs.
In what little spare time she has, she enjoys reading, traveling, watching TV and movies, and hiking.
Trish, if you could travel back in time to before you were first published, what advice would you give yourself?
1. Do not take rejections personally. There were so many times, particularly early on, where they felt personal when they weren’t. I could have saved myself a lot of tears and hurt feelings if I’d had a tougher skin from the beginning.
2. Related to No. 1: Remember, this is a business. Sure, we deal with creative works and we get emotionally invested in our books, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that those books are, in fact, products that we want the publishing companies to take a chance on selling. All our decisions should at some level be made through the prism of good business sense.
3. I live this one, but I think it’s important for all new writers to remember that old saying, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Publishing might seem like a big world, but it really isn’t. Editors become agents; agents change agencies; other writers cross your path. Trust me, if you say something negative about an agent, editor, publishing house, or fellow writer, it’ll come back and bite you. I’ve unfortunately seen it happen to people.
4. Constantly learn. Read writing how-to books (but don’t necessarily absorb them as gospel), other books in the subgenre you want to write, novels in other genres (I like mysteries), nonfiction books, and magazine articles. You never know where inspiration will strike, and all this varied reading opens up your mind to so many possibilities about plots, characters, and writing styles.
5. Try lots of different subgenres or styles of writing to see which one fits you best. You may discover you like and are good at more than one. I like the freedom of going back and forth between writing my Harlequin American romances and my teen novels.
6. Support fellow writers, whether by buying their books, attending their book signings, giving them publicity on your blog, talking their work up to friends and family, or other means. I believe when you help others, good karma comes your way. Everyone benefits.
7. Jealousy has no place in your life. Don’t compare yourself with another writer, particularly one who started out about the same time you did and seems to be having more success. That way lies madness. Each writer’s journey is different. It took me eleven years to sell, and though it was hard to keep going at times, I believe I learned so much more and now appreciate the wonder of selling books more because it took me so long.
8. Even after you sell, don’t stop appreciating every single positive—each new book sale, each fan letter, each positive review. I just saw an interview with John Grisham on BookTV, and he said that he didn’t ever want to take any of his success for granted. I feel the same way.
✥✥✥✥✥
To learn more about Trish, please visit her Web page at http://www.trishmilburn.com or her blog at http://www.trishmilburn.com/blog/. You can purchase her April young adult release, Heartbreak River by Tricia Mills (Razorbill), and her May release, Her Very Own Family (Harlequin American), at your local bookstore as well as online. Click on your favorite online bookstore below to go directly to the purchase page.
Heartbreak River by Tricia Mills: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders
Her Very Own Family by Trish Milburn: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders
3 0 Read moreWriter on the Verge — Of Malice!
April 18, 2009 by A Slice of Orange in category Writer on the Verge by Kate Carlisle tagged as Kate Carlisle, Silhouette Desire, Writer on the Verge
At the end of this month I’ll be attending my first Malice Domestic mystery conference in Arlington, Virginia. I’ve heard about the Malice conference for years and I’m very excited to be going with my first book out and available. There’s a speed-dating-type event where authors switch from table to table to meet readers, and I’ll also be sitting on a panel called “I Hear Voices.†I’ll see my agent and also meet my editor for the first time so there will be a bit of business going on. And Saturday is the Agatha Awards ceremony so there should be some dressing up. I’ll be sure to report back on everything that happened!
What are you on the verge of doing? Have you ever been to a mystery conference? Yes? How about sharing some mystery conference tips? 🙂
Meanwhile, I want to jump on Maureen Child’s bandwagon and shout out the news about the very fun new Silhouette Desire blog on eharlequin.com. I’m the newest author in the group and so far, we’re having a blast! Come by and comment if you have a minute. We’re giving away prizes every day this month!
Kate Carlisle is the author of Homicide in Hardcover, the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association’s No. 1 paperback bestseller for February 2009.
6 0 Read moree-maginings: $50.00 Laptops?
April 16, 2009 by Linda McLaughlin in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as Amazon Kindle, ATT, e-books, e-maginings, netbooks
Are $50 netbooks in our future?
Consumer Reports said that AT&T will start selling netbooks for as little as $50, but of course, with a content contract. Spurred by the popularity of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, they are also planning to enter the ebook market.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Netbooks, like the Acer Aspire and MSI Wind, have become increasingly popular, and prices are dropping. My DH bought his MSI Wind earlier this year and the price has since dropped by $100.00. I imagine a lot of people will find the idea of a $50 netbook irresistible. I also suspect AT&T knows it will make a lot more money on the monthly contract fees than they lose by selling the computer well under purchase price. In life, the devil is often in the details.
FWIW, this is the opposite of the Amazon Kindle business model. The Kindle 2 costs $359.00, but there is no contract and no monthly fee. The base price includes connection charges to download books, though there is a small fee to search the web or upload your own content.
I don’t think these two things are mutually exclusive. Those of us who prefer a dedicated e-book reader will go for the Kindle every time, and those who want internet connectivity and general computing power, including e-books, will go for the netbook. And the gadget freaks will want both. One of these days, I’ll end up buying a netbook.
Which would you prefer?
Linda McLaughlin
http://flightsafancy.blogspot.com/
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