Category: Uncategorized

Because I have events in the next couple of months that will involve speaking, I decided to pull up my tips from a year ago and review them. (I haven’t done any public speaking for a couple of months and I get rusty quickly.) In case anyone else is in the same boat, I’m running the post again here:

Five years ago, public speaking was a dreaded, but necessary, horror for me. You’d have had to shoot me with a tranquilizer dart and prop me up at the lectern to prevent me from looking like I was about to pop out of my skin. If you’d looked up the phrase ‘nervous wreck,’ it would’ve pictured me for illustration.

Nowadays I’m speaking in public so often that the biggest danger is that I look bored. Frequently, I am bored! If you’ve been listening to someone repeatedly give the same spiel, as I’ve listened to myself, then boredom does set in.

A while back, Helen Ginger did a great series on public speaking at the Blood Red Pencil blog with a lot of wonderful tips.

I have a few tips of my own, learned the hard way.

Bring water. Sometimes the venue organizer will provide it, but more often they’re so busy that they don’t think about it. I’ve had coughing fits before and just had to get up and leave. (I’m sure SWINE FLU!) was going through everyone’s mind.

Bring money. If you’re speaking in a library or to an organization (and are selling books), bring lots of ones and fives. I’ve forgotten to bring money to several of mine and when the people asked if I had change, I said, “No. But what do you have?” Bartering at its finest.

Arrive early. I don’t like surprises and events are very different from each other: with microphones, without mikes, standing, sitting, sharing your time with other writers…it’s just good to know what’s expected of you before your talk starts.

Arriving early also puts me more at ease. If I meet people as they arrive to listen to me, I feel a lot more comfortable talking to them later.

Watch eyes and faces. They’ll let you know if you’re getting too boring. If I signs of sleepiness, I’ll change my talk’s course.

Too short is better than too long. Notice when you’re starting to ramble. This can be a symptom of being too comfortable with public speaking, but there’s also a nervous rambling that happens with newbie public speakers…I did it whenever I lost my train of thought or forgot what the original question was. Now I just wrap up my segment quickly when I feel blah blah blahs coming on.

Have fun. Be funny. Those in attendance are so appreciative if we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

How about everyone else? Any good tips to share?

My July 6th release is right around the corner. Click here for my book release contest. Entering is easy…and you might win a $25 bookstore gift card, a signed copy of “Delicious and Suspicious,” and a “Delicious and Suspicious” tote bag. :)

Maybe it’s because it’s Walmart, but I get annoyed every time I’m at the checkout because the sign says 12 items or less. It should be 12 items or fewer.

This, of course, makes no difference at all. The point is the same—if you have 13 or more items, don’t stand in that line. (Although people do. That annoys me too, but that’s a whole other issue.)

And when I took my dog to the vet the other day, I drove on a road that claimed it was a boulevard. A boulevard, by definition, is a wide street or thoroughfare. But it wasn’t wide at all—it was a winding two lane country road that was acting pretentious.

I’m the first to admit that this blog is rife with errors and typos because I’m bolting through my posts. But I take a lot more care with my manuscripts—they’ll be as error-free as I can make them before I submit them to my agent or editor. Although I know they’ll still have errors (with any luck, just minor ones)— the errors will bug me to death, even if no one else notices they’re there.

But Jane Friedman, editor of Writer’s Digest, wrote a post recently that surprised me. She states:

But if I have a pet peeve with writers (both beginning and published), it’s their unrelenting obsession & unforgiving attitude toward errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Ouch.

She goes on to say that “perfect grammar has nothing to do with great writing.” Ms. Friedman calls it a “surface level” problem that sucks up energy better spent toward content and craft.

This post makes me wonder if I’m just off-base with my nit-pickiness. It’s probably just English majoritis on my part.

How thorough are you with your editing? Do grammatical errors and typos trip you up as a reader, or are you able to overlook them?

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week. If you’re looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand corner of the blog (on the black header right above my blog name…next to the Blogger symbol…the small search window is next to the magnifying glass) and the roundup with your subject will come up. To narrow your search down on the page, do a CTRL+F, type your subject, and hit enter.

Purposeful Daydreaming: http://dld.bz/jksy

The dirty writing rule happy authors swear by: http://dld.bz/jksw

Writing New Worlds to Life: http://dld.bz/jksh

Follow the yellow brick rules: http://dld.bz/jkrP

Writers–how to toughen up: http://dld.bz/jkrG @JodyHedlund

The Hero’s Journey Part 10 – The Road Back: http://dld.bz/hUPx @JustusRStone

7 Interview Tips That Help You Get the Killer Quotes and Color Your Story Needs: http://dld.bz/hUKE @WritersKitchen

When Your Writing Bores You (Writer’s Digest): http://dld.bz/hUK8

When is doing a single-book contract ideal and when is a multi-book contract best? http://dld.bz/hUKw

Resort to trickery to force yourself to write: http://dld.bz/hUKr

Big publishers have reason to be happy about how the book market is evolving: http://dld.bz/hUKd

Significantly Speed Up Your WordPress Blog in 9 Easy Steps– http://dld.bz/hUJV

How to throw out your 65,000 word WIP – And Use The BEST BITS To Build a Better One: http://dld.bz/hUJK @DeeScribe

Inherent Contradictions in Character: http://dld.bz/hUJu

Revision Indecision: http://dld.bz/hUJy

Dude, you write books? The 3 classic reactions: http://dld.bz/jkpc

Ethics of Review Copies : http://dld.bz/jgxm

8 Oddball Writing Tips: http://dld.bz/hUGE @yaHighway

Top 5 Twitter transgressions for writers: http://dld.bz/hUGu @yaHighway

7 Things to Do on a Plane (the writer edition): http://dld.bz/jhes @nomadshan

20 Warning Signs That Your Blog Content Sucks: http://dld.bz/hUC8

4 Things that Big Bloggers tell You that You Shouldn’t Ignore: http://dld.bz/jhbD @LiteraryNobody

How one writer successfully faces her writing demons: http://dld.bz/jgPk @elspethwrites @margotkinberg

5 ways to tell your WIP is progressing (LOL): http://dld.bz/hUFq @Amanda_Hannah

Scene transitions–don’t follow your characters around when they’re being boring: http://dld.bz/jgNF @authorterryo

Authors and the media–tips for interviews: http://dld.bz/jgEx @

Building Your Book/Author Website: http://dld.bz/hUEW @QueryTracker

How to Write Drunk: A Revising Technique: http://dld.bz/hUEr @paulocampos

Best fantasy books for children (Salon): http://dld.bz/hUEn

How one writer uses crits in her editing process: http://dld.bz/hUDB

Urgency vs action in your writing: http://dld.bz/hUDt @TeresaFrohock

10 Errors that Drive One Agent Crazy: http://dld.bz/hUCG

Why I Don’t Care About Grammar (and Why You Should Stop Worrying)–Writer’s Digest: http://dld.bz/hU5H

12 Secrets to Selling More Books at Events (Huff Post): http://dld.bz/hU5t

Things to keep in mind when writing for children: http://dld.bz/hHus

Does your mood affect your writing? http://dld.bz/jdSd @ territiffany1

How well do you know your characters? http://dld.bz/hHqG

The importance of taking editorial advice: http://dld.bz/jdHv

Are Agents Underpaid? http://dld.bz/jdRJ

What to remember if you have the unagented blues: http://dld.bz/hHud @ authorsampark

Summer Mystery Conferences & Conventions– http://dld.bz/jdGZ @JanetRudolph

Put your reader to sleep: http://dld.bz/hHrk

What 81% of agents expect on the 1st page: http://dld.bz/hHr7

Don’t just be a ‘good’ book marketer–be a great one: http://dld.bz/hUJr

The Rise and Fall of the Mass Market Paperback. Part 1: http://dld.bz/hUHV & part 2: http://dld.bz/hUHZ @ereads

Quotations: Writers on Religion: http://dld.bz/hHnA

For fantasy writers: Dwarves and Gnomes: http://dld.bz/hHn6

List of Gender-Neutral Names for Writers Looking for Pen Names: http://dld.bz/hHnh

Food writing moves from kitchen to bookshelf (Guardian): http://dld.bz/hHne

Daily Writing Goals: Why Are They So (Bleeping) Difficult? http://dld.bz/hHna

Are video games the next great art form? (Salon): http://dld.bz/hHmH

How to write the breakout novel: Part 5 – A Vivid Setting: http://dld.bz/hHmD

How to Clean Up Your Formatting in a Query: http://dld.bz/hHmt

Multiple POVs: http://dld.bz/hHme

Tips for handling transitions: http://dld.bz/hYBb @authorterryo

Ready to query? http://dld.bz/hHkJ @calistataylor

Different paths, same destination: http://dld.bz/hYA5 @elspethwrites

Problems with writing in first person: http://dld.bz/hHk7 @ClarissaDraper

Newton’s first law of writing: http://dld.bz/hHkh

How to Network Effectively– http://dld.bz/hHkb

Setting as tone reinforcement– http://dld.bz/hHhH

Getting rid of the boring stuff in our writing: http://dld.bz/hWMP

Hooking the reader: how Rowling and others pulled it off– http://dld.bz/hHjj @LisasWords

Technology and Books– http://dld.bz/hHkq

Ethics and Professionalism and Blogging– http://dld.bz/hHjb

8 Ways To Bring Your Creative Passions to Work– http://dld.bz/hWM4

12 Ways to Make Your Blog Posts more Credible– http://dld.bz/hHjC

How to Keep Inspired When Blogging Gets Tough: http://dld.bz/hUHB

Confused about irony? The Oatmeal explains the 3 most common uses: http://dld.bz/hUHt @Oatmeal

Making Sure Our Novels Are Worth Reading– http://dld.bz/hD3q

Alphabet soup–how one writer was bounced from editor to editor (New Yorker): http://dld.bz/hUSN

The Google Wave: http://dld.bz/hD34

5 ways to create sympathetic characters: http://bit.ly/aP8w8y @p2p_editor

What makes a book review worth reading? http://dld.bz/hUCM @ bibliophilicboo

Single Or Double Space– http://dld.bz/hD3s @BubbleCow

Ten of the best good doctors in literature (Guardian): http://dld.bz/hD3r

Writing Jobs: 3 Reasons You’re Not Getting Hired as a Freelancer: http://dld.bz/hD3j

Tips for writing realistic sex scenes: http://dld.bz/hUhZ

Jarring elements to avoid in your manuscript: http://dld.bz/hUds

7 Things That Can Go Wrong & Generally Do: http://dld.bz/hUcF @VictoriaMixon

Finding the Story in the Story (the triggering event): http://dld.bz/gwkT

Playing With Your Blocks (build a lasting monument) — http://dld.bz/hD2S

Some insights on the picture book illustrating process: http://dld.bz/hD2K

Context and Subtext: http://dld.bz/hD28

The Value of an Unpublished Blog Post– http://dld.bz/hD26

The 3 main reasons why published authors are struggling right now: http://dld.bz/hD2z

6 Common Publishing and Marketing Mistakes: http://dld.bz/hD2w

The central action of a story: http://dld.bz/hD2u

Freelance Writers: Be Careful Out There: http://dld.bz/h7E4 @carsonbrackney

The Secret to Getting Published– http://dld.bz/h7E2

Video Games Are Art and Genre Fiction Is Literature– http://dld.bz/h7Ez

The Inciting Incident of Our Story: http://dld.bz/h7Ef

From One Young Writer to Another: Being Your Own Editor: http://dld.bz/h7Ed

Kill Your Darlings . . . http://dld.bz/h7Ex

Four Steps to Finding Your Ideal Writing Voice: http://dld.bz/h7Dz

7 pieces of wisdom from Socrates: http://dld.bz/h7Dd

What to do when a foul person achieves great success: http://dld.bz/h7CH

Your Excuses About Writing Are Vitally Important! (Writer’s Digest): http://dld.bz/h7Bu

How To Handle a Bad Review– http://dld.bz/h7Bt

Marxism as Science Fiction: http://dld.bz/h7Br

The plan and central action of your plot: http://dld.bz/h7Bk

Is quirky a good thing? http://dld.bz/h7Bf

Top 10 books written for teenagers (Guardian): http://dld.bz/h7AV

Submission Purgatory– http://dld.bz/h7AR

Don’t tell friends they *should* read something: http://dld.bz/h7Ax

Writing Sex and Sensuality– http://dld.bz/h7As

The Tangled Web We Weave (Experimenting with New Territories in a Book): http://dld.bz/h7Ad

Too Cliché or Not Too Cliché? – That is the Question– http://dld.bz/h79Z

The Emotional Side of Setting– http://dld.bz/h79K @CPatrickSchulze

Context is Everything– http://dld.bz/h79E

Writing a synopsis can rock your novel: http://dld.bz/hHp7 @dirtywhitecandy

Interfering characters: http://dld.bz/hHh5

Subtle word changes can make a big difference to your manuscript: http://dld.bz/h797

Walking the tightrope between translation and interpretation (Guardian): http://dld.bz/h792

Balancing family and writing– http://dld.bz/h7Av

Queering SFF: Writing Sex—To Do, or Not to Do?– http://dld.bz/h77Z

All you ever wanted to know about critique groups: http://dld.bz/h79z

Blogs writers can’t live without: http://dld.bz/hEVN @AngelaAckerman

Plot Tip: Showing character emotion–not telling: http://dld.bz/h79n

ElizabethSCraig’s Twitterific: http://dld.bz/hEKG and a post on how to open multiple links in Firefox: http://dld.bz/hEKH @ClarissaDraper

Cryptomythology: Imaginary Myths for a Modern Life– http://dld.bz/h78Z

A 3-Step Recovery Plan for Over-Writing– http://dld.bz/h78X

What does Fantasy teach us? — http://dld.bz/h787

Working as an Author and Illustrator Team Before Submission– http://dld.bz/h785

Why Writers Need to Emerge From the Cocoon– http://dld.bz/h78y

20 Questions to Ask When You’re Struggling– http://dld.bz/h78n @PauloCamposInk

8 Habits of Highly Excellent Bloggers– http://dld.bz/h78e

Being Too Close to a Manuscript– http://dld.bz/h77U

Staying within your world–and keeping it believable: http://dld.bz/h77w @annastanisz

An agent says that writers should enjoy their pre-published time more: http://dld.bz/h74v

Public Speaking Basics For Authors– http://dld.bz/h727

A Better Way to Interview Characters– http://dld.bz/h74m @CPatrickSchulze

Healthy Writers Are Happy Writers! 5 Fitness Tips for Writers– http://dld.bz/h74g

Literary life today–including the new world of promo for authors (Telegraph): http://dld.bz/h73D

One Writer’s Top 10 Poetry Picks : http://dld.bz/h73m

When to sell your writing. When to pawn it. http://dld.bz/h3Fv @catewoods

“Can I have your book?” When authors are asked for free copies of their books: http://dld.bz/h3E9 and http://dld.bz/h3Fh

Memorable Characters– http://dld.bz/hq7m

Interested in freelance writing? Here’s what you need to know, first: http://dld.bz/hAd7

My July 6th release is less than 2 weeks away. Click here for my book release contest. Entering is easy…and you might win a $25 bookstore gift card, a signed copy of “Delicious and Suspicious,” and a “Delicious and Suspicious” tote bag. :)

From time to time, I’m going to run a post on the basics of looking for a publisher or agent. I frequently get emails from folks who are looking for very general, basic information—and sometimes they’ve just discovered the online writing community.

The biggest moment in my writing career came with the realization that I wanted to be published by a traditional publisher. Oddly, the big moment wasn’t when I was accepted by a traditional publisher or when I found an agent to represent me–but when I decided that was the course I wanted to take.

Here are some tips to help with your journey to publication:

Read other books in your genre before you write. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t too far out of line with my efforts.

I’d also recommend turning to the community of blogging writers online. They’ll offer encouragement, support, industry information, and technical advice. There are many blogging writers that I link to in my sidebar that will give you a great starting point.

Get other people you trust to read your book. First readers who give truthful feedback in an encouraging way are incredibly helpful. If you don’t have any family members or friends that fit the bill, you can try online critique groups—you’ll read their work within a certain time frame and they’ll read yours. It may take some tweaking to find the right group. If you Google “online critique groups” you’ll get plenty of hits. I’d stick with a group that writes your genre.

Okay, so your manuscript is in pretty good shape. This means you’ve revised it many times. Others have read it and offered suggestions. You’ve read many books in your genre. Your manuscript doesn’t have grammatical or spelling errors.

Now it’s time to branch out. What kind of publisher fits your needs? A small press? Or something larger? If you’re interested in submitting to a smaller publisher (and there are many out there), then you can frequently submit without an agent.

You can learn publisher guidelines online at publishers’ individual websites. You can also go to your library and check their reference section for a recent edition of Literary Marketplace (which you can also get an online subscription to) or Writers Market.

Found a publisher that interests you? Go to your library or bookstore and read some of their recent releases. How does your book stack up? Do you need some more revising?

Do you need an agent in order to submit to your publisher? Try the listing of agents at Writers.net and AgentQuery.

Is the agent or publisher reputable? Check sites like Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors to make sure your choices are scrupulous. There are many folks out there who prey on writers.

Write your query for your publisher or agent submission. Check sites like Query Shark, The Rejector, Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent, and Pub Rants for advice on writing a sound query.

Write a clear synopsis of your book. It shouldn’t have teasers, but should concisely tell your story in a compelling way.

Submit your query or your cover letter and first fifty pages. Make sure you’ve addressed your letter to the right editor or agent and have spelled their name correctly. Your manuscript should be formatted to a standard template. Be careful not to use unusual fonts or colored paper or anything unprofessional.

Expect rejections. Hope for the best, but plan for setbacks. If you’re fortunate enough to receive some feedback with your rejections, consider revising your manuscript via their suggestions.

The important thing is not to let your research and work immobilize you—let your research strengthen your resolve to make your book the best it can be…and then submit it.

Good luck!

My July 6th release is less than 2 weeks away. Click here for my book release contest. Entering is easy…and you might win a $25 bookstore gift card, a signed copy of “Delicious and Suspicious,” and a “Delicious and Suspicious” tote bag. :)

I’d like to welcome Rick Chesler to Mystery Writing is Murder. Rick holds a Bachelor of Science in marine biology and has had a life-long interest in the ocean and its creatures. When not at work as an environmental project manager, he can be found scuba diving or traveling to research his next thriller idea. He currently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii with his wife, a cat and some fish. His book, Wired Kingdom, was released May 2010.

First of all, thanks to Elizabeth Spann Craig for having me as a guest on Mystery Writing is Murder! I thought I would write a bit about how our backgrounds can influence our writing. The old cliché says, “Write what you know,” but I can’t help but feel if everyone did that, literature as a whole would be shortchanged. The whole point of writing and reading is to imagine things you haven’t experienced before, to explore new worlds, concepts and personalities.

That said, it does help to be writing about something to which you have some sort of connection. Arthur Conan Doyle was not a professional detective himself, but his medical school training and work experiences enabled him to imagine in fantastic realism the intricate details of those famous fictional cases. Did you know that while in med school, Doyle took a position as a ship’s surgeon on a whaling vessel that sailed to Greenland?

As a marine biologist, I’ve never even seen a blue whale (although I’ve been in the water with other kinds of whales), much less tagged and swam with one, but in my new thriller/mystery WIRED KINGDOM I’ve managed to do just that. Having a foundation in marine science enables me to write with some semblance of authority, and to incorporate a few technical details that add realism to the story. It’s not exactly what I would call, ‘write what you know’ but more like ‘write what you can convincingly get away with.’ Real life can be a bit…well, mundane at times, right, so the point is perhaps to take the familiar and make it unfamiliar, to infuse our sense of normalcy with an element of excitement.

But exactly how this element is introduced is critical. The devil is in the details, as they say, and to be able to negotiate those details a writer needs some background and experiences to draw upon. Sure, research helps, but there’s a big difference between someone researching something they know nothing about for the first time and researching based on past experience and knowledge to clarify details.

With research based on past experience, anything becomes not only possible, but convincingly, even alarmingly so. A seemingly random killing in a small town that exposes the strange interrelationships of its residents, perhaps, or a whale tagged with a webcam that films a murder at sea. Anything that expands upon a writer’s background and experiences in such a way that it fills the story with convincing detail and vivid realism. For me, some of the background that would find its way into WIRED KINGDOM began with my personal experiences of scuba diving around the world. You can check out some of my diving videos here:

http://www.affairedecoeur.com/blog/?p=79

So, while there certainly doesn’t need to be a direct connection between the writer and the work, most of the time there will be some past history with at least one element of the story. We’ve all heard of M.D.’s writing medical thrillers and lawyers writing legal thrillers, but there are successful examples of these types of books written by non-professionals, too. The goal of the novel first and foremost is to entertain; everything else is a distant second.

I’d like to close by saying that I’m happy to answer any questions or to engage in further discussion in the comments section. Also, for those who’d like to find me or my book, here are my key links:

Author site
WIRED KINGDOM book trailer
Facebook fan page

Thanks again for having me!