)O( Tea Witch’s Musings )O(

So the latest email advertising the FWA conference drops o my mailbox and I discover I’m presenting a NEW way to look at the basics of fiction writing.  Now I knew I was doing a seminar on the beginning fiction writing, but I didn’t know I had to come up with an entirely new way of looking at it.  It’s amazing what a little pressure can do.  i’ve come up with my approach and even started on a powerpoint presentation.  More work to go but hey, the conference isn’t until November.

A couple of years ago I objected to the attempt to exclude an erotica seminar from a conference I was attending.  The seminar was placed on the schedule and I attended it.  At the end, we were given some erotic assignments to try.  I was working on a mystery manuscript for Nanowrimo and didn’t want to throw off my word count, but decided to let Patrick write some erotica stories as part of the novel.  This resulted in some fun gay vampire scenes that I figured no one else would see.  But Michele, my editor, bugged me to submit them somewhere.  So now “The Taking of Dove” is planned for an October release with Cobblestone Press.  (And Patrick is rather pleased with himself.)

Tropical Storm Alberto is heading our way and near hurricane status.  But the spring dry season has gone on for so long we’re not sure if this is a good or bad thing.  If winds don’t get to high Alberto could dump enough rain to take care of some of the brush fires in the area.  Since those are causing car crashes and endangering houses, Alberto could save lives and money.  But if the winds get too high, Alberto could do more damage than the fires.  So, we need a little bit of a rainicane this time round.  

A writing group I work with was presenting character sketches last week so I handed out a page about Patrick.  Then someone asked me if I’d ever visited Cassadaga.  Well, yes, I have.  So then she asked if I found it spooky.  No, not really.  Not on a sunny Florida afternoon.  The response to that was “oh, so you aren’t intuitive that way.”  Perhaps I’m not. Or perhaps Cassadaga’s spirit just isn’t a spooky one.    

I now have a “plog” on Amazon.  It shows up on the page for my book and apparently to those who have purchased the book.  Now all I need to do is figure out what to put in a plog and how often I should plog.  A bit fun and perhaps something that will help sell books.  I could plog about my characters.  They really are more interesting than I am. 

Went to Seminole Springs Antique Rose and Herb Farm.  A friend was there doing a book signing for her cook book so I joined in for an impromtu book signing with her. We sold a handful of books, gave away some cards and had lots of fun.  Book signings can be more fun when they aren’t in bookstores. 

Still waiting for book 2, but things are moving again with my publisher.  Hopefully soon.  

 

It’s the solution to all those typos lurking in your manuscript.  National Novel Editing Month.  One month.  Fifty hours of editing.  You didn’t have anything else planned for March, did you?  Go to www.nanoedmo.org and sign up!

Self-published books are such fun. The last was a bad typo, but here is a vampire with a tendency toward bad puns:

“I sit here twenty odd years later from what changed me forever. I changed gravely since then. . .”

The book is available here.

Now, I’d find the punning vampire more amusing if the book’s author had given us some clue that his vampire knew “I changed gravely” is a really funning thing for a member of the undead to say. But I don’t think the author knows this. Since the author did ask for reviews of the work, I read the free first chapter preview. In it the vampire spends more than 1,600 mistake-filled words telling us about himself. I told the author I found his character wonderfully egotistical, but I don’t think the author understands sarcasm any better than puns.

I just read a bit of writing advice that advised me that walked, turned and crossed are dead verbs.  I’ll admit it.  I’ve used these common verbs in my own writing.  I probably will again.  It’s hard to write a 100,000 manuscript without anyone walking, turning or crossing a room.  But minutes after reading this article, I read a bit of a fantasy story submitted to a critique group.   My congratulations to the writer.  No one walked, turned or crossed.  No, they slithered, slipped and scrambled.  And that was in the first fifty words.  After wading through a few paragraphs of these “living” verbs, I longed for a simple walked, turned or crossed.  Simple words serve a purpose.  They allow the other words to stand out against the background.   Without them the story can feel over-written. 

Read the advice.  But tell the story.

Lulu.com has come up with a titlescorer that predicts if your book will be a bestseller.  They offer statistical evidence that a book is judged by its title, if not its cover, but I’m a bit leery.  I tested “Tea and Witchery” and came up in the 35% range.  Which is right where “Lord of the Rings” scored when I ran it through the tool. Does this mean Orlando Bloom is going to play the part of Patrick in the movie version?  Anyway to test your title go to: