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Missing a Meeting

April 6, 2013 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , ,

I unfortunately won’t be at the upcoming OCC meeting. It sounds wonderful, but I’ll have family in town. And family comes first! Especially since the visitors will include my little grandson, who’s ten months old. He, and my son and d-i-l, live in Chicago.

I saw them just over a week ago, too, on a Florida trip that I blogged about in my weekly Killer Hobbies blog. Great trip, one on which I’d intended to do a lot of writing. But despite the best of intentions, I spent more time with family than writing. Since then, I’ve pretty much caught up on what I’d hoped to accomplish, which makes me even happier that I did what felt best at the time.

Will I get much writing done next week? Maybe not. But I’ve fortunately met the most compelling of my deadlines, so I can afford to have fun and spend time with family.

So how about you–does family come first, or your writing, or your day job, or other obligations? Or are you able to juggle them all so nothing is ignored?

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The Writing Bond

April 3, 2013 by in category Writing tagged as ,

 

Louisa Bacio

It’s either me or her.
            I’ve worked in industries with that either/or mentally. When I first started out in the magazine publishing business, there was a serious lack of women on staff. Rather than the more senior members acting as mentors, in camaraderie, they viewed the new blood, i.e. me, as competition.
            If you haven’t experienced the situation, you’ve probably seen the movies: Business can be cutthroat. Kill or be killed. Push out or be fired. Thank goodness the romance industry isn’t that way!
            During her keynote luncheon speech at the SoCalRWA Conference, best-selling author Julia Quinn expressed a need for more established authors to help new ones out. To paraphrase, she said something like, “It’s not like if you recommend a bookseller, they’re suddenly going to stop shelving as many of your books to sell another author instead.”
The fear may persist “ If I tell others of this really cool new publisher, or call for submissions, then other writers may be chosen instead of me. At the heart, the author’s work stands on its own. It doesn’t have to be an either/or situation.
At the 2013 March OCC/RWA  meeting, Susan Squires announced a new PRO opportunity, where she will work with a PRO member on their completed manuscript for two months. The experience includes a complete read-through and suggestions on the rewrite. It’s a huge undertaking, and Susan deserves major kudos for the offer.
This year, we’ve pushed hard to take our writers to the next level. With the Book-in-a-Year program, we’ve already had several members complete their first full-length novel. Guess what’s next? Yep: PRO. In order to make PRO, a writer needs to submit to an editor or agent, and then fill out the required paperwork with RWA Nationals. The designation indicates a member who is ‘actively’ pursuing a professional writing career. The next level up is PAN. The requirements for PAN are not as straightforward as a few years ago “ with the recommended changes for those self-published. For those authors traditionally published, whether, in eBook or print, they need to earn $1,000 in sales/advance in order to make PAN. While some categorize PRO as those who are “rejected,” that’s not necessarily the case. Perhaps a writer has had a piece accepted, but they simply haven’t hit that $1,000 threshold yet? They’re still considered PRO. It took me about nine months and three statements for my erotic paranormal The Vampire, The Witch & The Werewolf: A New Orleans Threesome to earn enough to reach PAN status.
Another incentive we’ve focused on this year is Write for the Money. A mere $1 equals 1 goal. The closer we get to the next meeting, the more I’m focused on making my goals so that I can toss my slip of paper into the pot. Someday, I’ll win.
Keep up that energy. We’re here to support all levels of writers, and we rejoice in hearing the good news.
Now, what’s your goal for the month? How about the year?

— Louisa Bacio

http://www.facebook.com/LouisaBacio
http://www.Twitter.com/LouisaBacio

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OCC RWA April Online Class

March 26, 2013 by in category Archives

OCCRWA Proudly Presents: header


April 15 – May 12, 2013

Understanding Men

with Debra Holland

About the Class:
Do you wish you had a better understanding of men?  Now is your chance to improve your real-life relationships with men and enhance your male characters all through taking the same course.
In the four week online class, you will learn how the male brain and hormones makes a man think, feel, and behave, especially in relationships. We will review research about male sexuality. We will also discuss how men are portrayed in romance novels versus how men are in real life.
Dr. Debra will considerably expand on the workshop she has given at the 2001 and 2011 National RWA Conferences and around the country to various RWA chapters and conferences. Although this class is geared to writers, non-writers will also find the class helpful in improving their relationships with men.
Debra Holland


About the Instructor:
USA Today bestselling Author, Debra Holland, wears several hats when it comes to writing.  As a psychotherapist, she writes nonfiction books. The Essential Guide to Grief and Grieving is her first nonfiction book.  Debra also writes fiction: Historical Western Romance, Contemporary Romance and Science Fiction.  Her Montana Sky series, sweet historical Western romances, is published by Amazon’s Montlake imprint.
Debra holds a master’s degree in Marriage, Family and Child Theraby and a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Southern California.  She a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

Enrollment Information
This is a 4-week online course that uses email and Yahoo Groups.  The class is open to anyone wishing to participate.  The cost is $30.00 per person or, if you are a member of OCCRWA, $20.00 per person.
To join the class, please click on the link.
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Placebo: it’s all in your mind….

March 24, 2013 by in category Archives

I was surprised when I examined the literature that came with my first prescription migraine drugs.  There, in minuscule print on tissue thin paper folded about 20 times, was the FDA approved statement of drug effectiveness (along with a host of other information) and a visual–a graph charting the drugs efficacy Vs a placebo, two lines heading up, one ever so slightly above the other.

In order to be endorsed as a valid medication, a drug must deliver some tiny percent greater effectiveness than a sugar pill.  This didn’t seem like a very high bar to clear!  But one look at the chart showed the unexpected, but irrefutable fact that the placebo had significantly positive impact.  The bar was in fact quite high indeed! 

Did this feed into the physician’s dismissive “its all in your head” “hysteria” “maladie imaginaire” ?  For me, it was incontrovertible evidence of what we all know, but can have difficulty acknowledging: the incredible power of our own mind.

In many–though not all–cases, we can will things to happen.  And while the power of belief is accepted in many areas, it can be scoffed at or dismissed in others. Though mankind, whose ever-present default position of being the center of the universe (!), all knowing and all controlling, can take this too far.

It’s why snake-oil salesman are able to succeed, along with faith healers, talismans, the power of positive thinking, and mind-over-matter. Change may not have a physical reason for happening, but sometimes, if there is a spiritual/emotional reason, that in itself may create an opportunity, a pathway, to open your mind and allow your body to follow.

Believing is seeing, and if we can allow ourselves to accept new things/beliefs, we will likely see new things, even as we look at the familiar.

Believing is also tasting–I remember being at a high-end conference and heading for the dessert table, where there was a large bowl of unlabelled pale yellow pudding.  I thoughts…lemon something?  Took a sample.  No, just light and blandly sweet tasting.  Our table speculated as it what it was.  Vanilla Pudding?  Seemed too plebeian for our exalted venue.  Then it clicked: white chocolate mousse.  Everyone dashed off to have some.  It’s blandness had been transformed to an elegant delicacy.

This insight has lead me to strive to ignore all warnings about the relative merit–or negatives–about all digestibles.  My understanding of what is “good” or “bad” for me has become crystal clear and easy:

  1. Whatever I like is good for me
  2. Whatever I don’t like is bad for me.

And you know, I can tell the instant I put something in my mouth whether it is good or bad for me.

This insight, of course, is coupled with the overarching truth of moderation in everything.  To which I also add the key ingredient of appreciation…

Enjoy!

Isabel Swift

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Ranting About Units of Measure and Lazy Writing

March 19, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , ,

Monica Stoner w/a Mona Karel

When did ‘ton’ evolve into a generalized unit of measure?  At one time, a ton was 2,000 pounds. Yes, there was metric ton and no doubt some other scientific variations but it all came back to a method of stating the weight of an item.  Simple, exact, precise.

Suddenly we have a “ton” of ideas, a “ton”of fun, a “ton” of jobs to do. I might expect to see this sort of casual expression among middle school students and young people but it has become pervasive in the work of what I thought were professional writers. Which leads me to wonder if this has become standard usage. Whatever happened to such wonderful words as ‘plethora?’ ([n.] excess) Granted we might not encounter the word in common usage but should that mean we choose an inappropriate word instead?

Will we encounter the same spreading misuse as we did when a well known author applied ‘laconic’ ([adj.] brief statement, concise explanation) to her hero’s raised eyebrow. Granted eyebrows aren’t capable of extensive speech but this usage is far beyond the definition. Sadly I find she has established a trend of lazy writing when a quick perusal of the thesaurus might suggest, well, a plethora of more correct adjectives.

To exacerbate the situation, I just received a message about a FREE GIVEAWAY book. Is this phrasing supposed to make me want the book more? To be honest, I figure if the promotional notices show such disrespect for our language I’m not likely to check out the book itself. Free is too expensive when I waste time on poorly written books.

Then you have the brilliant new idea that word usage isn’t as important as story telling and content. According to this theory if a writer can’t remember the difference between your and you’re it doesn’t matter as long as their characters have appeal. And here I wondered how we devolved to using ‘ton’ to identify something other than a large unit of weight.
Maybe I’m just in a crabby mode. Words do have an exact meaning and we write for the joy of sharing those words with others.  Unless of course we’re writing to silence the voices in our heads.
Is there anything that rubs your writerly self the wrong way?

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