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The Former Cop Says: It’s All About Balance

July 29, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as , ,
by Kathy Bennett
I was a Los Angeles Police Officer for twenty-one years.  From the title, you might think this article is going to talk about balancing on a roof while in a foot pursuit or running along a block wall.  No, that’s not what I’m talking about.  Let me give you a little background.
When I first hit the streets as a rookie officer, I can remember how every day seemed like a new adventure.  Each day held the promise of the unknown, what new things I’d be learning, what different experiences I’d be exposed to.  When my first set of scheduled days off came up, I was disappointed that I couldn’t go to work.  (Trust me – that effect wore off; but it took a while).  However I think every cop I’ve talked to had the same feeling.  The truth was, I couldn’t believe I was getting paid to do my job…it was that much fun. 
I remember working about a month, as sick as a dog, so my favorite partner wouldn’t have to work with someone else.  I had a ‘sick bag’ I’d filled with boxes of Kleenex and throat lozenges so I could get through the graveyard shift.  I also remember, as a training officer, working until one in the afternoon and having to be back at work at six-thirty the same night.  I could have requested to take a few hours of compensatory time off for extra sleep and I’m sure my supervisors would have agreed, but I felt it was my duty to be there.  I needed to find balance. 
But after twenty-one years, it became necessary for me to retire – in part to take care of my mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease, and to nurse a back injury I’d suffered on the job a year prior.  My retirement left me feeling anxious and remorseful that my dream of being a police officer was now over.
But I’d been fostering another dream for a number of years…more years than I care to say.  And that dream was to become a published author.  I’d tried for several years to actively acquire an agent and publisher.  About the time I was getting some interest, I started hearing about self-publishing and, for various reasons, opted to self-publish my book, a romantic suspense, A Dozen Deadly Roses.
After the release of my book, I was pleased to learn I seemed to be doing a little better than average with the sales of my book.  I started discovering Facebook pages of other self-published authors, book review websites, Kindleboards, Nookboards, Goodreads, Shelfari and on and on.  I learned that self-published authors spend a great deal of time promoting their books and trying to reach out to readers and have ‘meaningful relationships’ with those readers.
I joined groups, I read blogs, I commented on blogs, I joined blog hop tours, I gave away prizes.  I friended on Facebook, I followed on Twitter…I became exhausted, and a part of me felt insincere.  I discovered that I need balance.  It seemed like my butt was glued to my chair, but I wasn’t writing – I was busy promoting.
Then, I discovered I’d hit the Top 100 List on Barnes and Noble of Nookbook Police Stories.  A few days after that, I hit the Barnes and Noble Top 100 List of Nookbooks!  I’d like to tell you my place on those lists was directly related to all my self-promoting…but there were hundreds of other writers doing the same amount of promotion – if not more – and they weren’t on those lists.  I don’t know how I got on those lists.  I’m grateful I did, but I don’t feel it was related to my frenzy of self-promotion.
So what do I, a girl without balance, immediately do?  I promote more.  I reach out to book buyers who may have missed the fact I’m on those lists.  I make myself crazy.  So, I sit down to write this guest blog, and decide: enough is enough.  I’m jumping off the merry-go-round. 
Instead, I’m choosing to focus on finishing the revisions of my next book.  I’m going to develop REAL relationships with readers…as much as they will let me.  I have a good (and real) relationship with many of the people who visit my blog.  I hope my readers find me there, or on Facebook, or on Twitter or wherever else I’ve left my mark.    
Don’t get me wrong…I won’t stop my Facebook postings, or my tweets on Twitter, my comments on the Kindleboards, or the Nookboards.  I’ll still do guest blogs.  I’ll probably still give away prizes from time to time.  Those activities will be a part of my day, but I won’t let them consume me.  My efforts will be to make true connections with my readers. 
You see, for twenty-one years I was proud to say I was a Los Angeles Police Officer.  I did my job to the best of my ability with the hope of touching people’s lives for the better.  I want to to approach my career as a published author with the same amount of integrity and touch people’s lives for the better.  I learned as a cop it’s important to have balance.  Thankfully, I’ve learned early in my writing career, it’s just as important to have balance as an author as well.
You can find me at:
http://www.KathyBennett.com
http://Facebook.com/Kathywriteslapd
http://Twitter.com/Kathywriteslapd
www.Kathywriteslapd@sbcglobal.net
You can find my book, A Dozen Deadly Roses at:
Amazon: 
http://www.amazon.com/A-Dozen-Deadly-Roses-ebook/dp/B0054EU1KQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311563007&sr=8-1
Barnes and Noble:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Dozen-Deadly-Roses/Kathy-Bennett/e/2940012887757/
Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/64237
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Creating Better Heroes: Male POV for the Romance Writer

July 26, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as

 with Sascha Illyvich


August 15 – August 28, 2011


Note: this is a two week class
Enrollment Information at http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassAug11.html
COST: $10 for OCC members, $15 for non-members
Enrollment deadline: August 13, 2011
If you have specific questions, email occrwaonlineclass@yahoo.com


About the Class:
In this workshop, learn the ins and outs of character creation from a side of romance we rarely hear from, the male romance reader/writer! Erotic Romance author Sascha Illyvich shares with us tips on how to create more memorable heroes, avoid some common pitfalls and have more fun with our writing!

What you’ll learn from this class
·         Male Archetypes and how they affect our characters
·         How (il)logical men think and why they act the way they do
·         How to take any male character from any movie/story and modify him to fit your story
·         How to get your man to express his true “self”
·         What men REALLY care about and how to work with that for your characters*
·         A man’s self view*
·         The GAY MALE Viewpoint*
·         The Male Cycle of Emotions and how it compares to the female cycle of emotions
·         A man’s journey in life
·         What men really think
A few extras
Using character creations sheets (don’t groan!) that have all the relevant information you’ll need, you’ll be able to craft male characters that are just as deep as your female characters.  Getting inside the heads of your male characters is the most important aspect of “how to write” them. 
Cross gender writing can make or break an author’s career if they cannot portray the opposite gender clearly and accurately.  With the growing popularity of M/M romances, it’s becoming increasingly important for males to be portrayed in the proper light!  We’ll cover all that here and a lot more over the next week.

 About the Instructor:

Sascha Illyvich started writing eleven years ago.  His erotic romances have been listed under the Night Owl Romance and Road to Romance’s Recommended Read list, as well as nominated for the CAPA.   

He is the host of the Unnamed Romance Show on Radio Dentata and continues to write for Renaissance E-books, and Total E-bound.  Readers can find his work, plus free reads at http://saschaillyvichauthor.com

He edits for Renaissance E-books Intoxication Erotic Romance line and is also part of the WriteSex Panel, a blog group defining erotica for writers in any genre! Find them at http://www.writesex.net





Coming in September is Show and Tell: An Interactive Workshop with Shannon Donnelly  Both showing and telling are valuable tools for any writer–writers need both narrative passages as well as dramatic scenes, so each has its own place within any writer’s skill set. Learn when to show and when to tell. Enrollment information:  http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassSept11.html 


Check out our full 2011 list of workshops: http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html 


Want to be notified personally two weeks before each class? Be sure you’re signed up for our Online Class Notices Yahoo Group! Sign up at the bottom of http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html or send a blank email to OCCRWAOnlineClassNotices-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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Writer’s Block: Rejections?

July 22, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as , ,

by Bill Zeilinger

You can find Bill’s other doodles online at http://thosedesigners-drawing.blogspot.com/

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Top 10 Tips from Speaker

July 21, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as
By Erin Bauer
I just renewed my membership with RWA for the first time.   An easy choice, when I think of all the wonderful advice I’ve picked up at meetings and conferences over the past year.  Here’s a list of the top ten tips:
1.     Find the material that showcases your voice best.  Don’t change or repress your individual voice – find the right frame for it. (Jane Porter)
2.     Look for a critique partner who’s good at the things you’re weak at. (Tessa Dare)
3.     Writer’s block is a step in the natural growth of an author, the process of gaining new mastery.  Authors who work through their writer’s block think they are better writers when they get to the other side.  (Dennis Palumbo)
4.     Novelty is not the selling point of your book.  It might catch someone’s attention but it won’t keep their attention. (Zoe Archer)
5.     Every scene must have a goal. (Carol Hughes)
6.     Dialogue is faster paced than narrative.  Don’t bog down a conversation too much with musings or unimportant actions.  Important details about where your characters are and what they are wearing go before or after. (Joan Johnston)
7.     Think of characters and setting like an iceberg.  Only 10% of what you know about them may show in the book, but you need the other 90% in your mind.  (Terry Irene Blaine)
8.     Adverbs allow you to be lazy when choosing verbs.  When an adverb crops up in your writing, locate the verb it modifies and try to think of a different word that conveys just the right meaning.  (Anne Frazier Walradt)
9.     Take the tangent.  If your story veers off in an unexpected direction, find out where it’s going.  (Leanne Banks)
10. Readers may love or loathe a character that is done right.  Indifference is the response you should worry about. (Tessa Dare)
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Social Media and Your Author Brand

July 18, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , , ,

I see many of you on Twitter and Facebook. I’ve been enjoying meeting even more of you on A Slice of Orange Daily, created by our very own Blog Mistress, Marianne Donley. I even see a few of you on LinkedIn.

Where are my OCC peeps conspicuously absent?

It’s pretty rare for me to see more than a few OCC’ers in my hashtag chats, with the possible exception of #myWANA. Either you’re hanging out somewhere else (that you’ll hopefully mention in the comments section) or you’re not using Twitter as fully as you could be.

Note: If you’re scratching your head over this hashtag business, please read this post on what Twitter hashtags are and why we need them.

OCC authors are very in-the-know about the changes sweeping through the publishing industry. I am so thankful to belong to a chapter with such amazing resources, and so many generous authors. We’re lucky to be on the cutting edge of this upheaval, so I’ll skip over that part since you all are pretty up to date.

If you don’t feel “up to date” and want to read more about the changing state of publishing, it’s hard to find a better resource than Kristine Kathryn Rusch and her publishing industry blogs.

This brave new world of publishing demands that an author build a brand.

What does that mean exactly? Simply put, your brand is the picture that pops into people’s mind when they hear your name.

For established authors, this picture is usually tied to one (or many) of your books. For the new or unpublished author, you need to get started on forming that picture in people’s mind as soon as possible. Participation in social media is one of the easiest ways to do this.

For more detailed information on branding, here are some of the best blogs I’ve found on the subject from people who say it far better than I do.

Particularly now that so many authors are going the Indie route with smaller independent publishers or even venturing into self-publishing for their first book, author branding is no longer a “nice to have.”

Read the posts above and take a look at these two books: Kristen Lamb’s We Are Not Alone: A Writer’s Guide to Social Media, and Bob Mayer’s Warrior Writer. They will put you light years ahead of where you would have gotten on your own.

My personal observation is that people are seeking authentic connections and that, by branding themselves, an author is opening themselves up for connecting.

In my own experience on Twitter and both of my blogs, your Followers and your Tweeps become your friends. We spend time with these people, whether it’s chatting on Facebook, having a Worldwide Book Launch Party or sharing Sunday morning coffee.

Seemingly disparate people throughout the world are connecting through social media and enjoying the hell out of each other. It’s a beautiful thing.

Perhaps you don’t know where people are gathering on Twitter.

Fret no more…here’s the list of where my Tweeps and I hang out. This is your invitation to hang out with us. If you are hanging out somewhere else online, we want to know where that is!

Note: If I’ve missed any really cool hashtags, please let me know in the comments.

#myWANA – This love revolution started on Kristen Lamb’s blog (WANA stands for We Are Not Alone…I’ve linked to the book above)

#weWRITE – Hashtag started by Anna DeStefano and Jenni Talty based on their How We Write Wednesday Series. Note: There are no links allowed in this group – conversation on writing only…you’ll have to post your links elsewhere.

#PubWrite – these tweeps enjoy writing, sharing ideas and frustrations, and the occasional adult beverage.

#amwriting – writers from everywhere hang out here and encourage each other as they write. If this is your hangout, you might also enjoy http://amwriting.org/.

#amediting – writers from everywhere hang out here and encourage each other as they edit their works-in-progress.

#wordmongering – writers do timed sprints of 30 mins at :00 and/or :30 every hour. This is fun 24/7 and participants say they get so much writing done.

#Row80 – Hashtag started by Kait Nolan that I’m participating in. This is a writing challenge that lasts 80 days and requires that you publicly post your goal. For more details go here.

#nanowrimo – When November rolls around, the agony and the ecstacy of National Novel Writing Month can be found here. (Until then, we have Row80!)

What about you? Where do you commune with people on Twitter or Facebook (and why)? Are there groups of writers that you recommend above all others? Please share your discoveries with the rest of us!

~Jenny
http://jennyhansenauthor.wordpress.com
http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com
Twitter: @jhansenwrites

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