Inkspot News - August 30, 2008

August Moon, the fourth installment in the Murder-by-Month series by Jess Lourey, has received a starred review from Booklist, which calls it, "...hilarious, fast paced, and madcap!" September Mourn is scheduled for a fall 2009 release.

G.M. Malliet's Death of a Cozy Writer made the #3 spot on the list of July 2008 Bestsellers in trade paperback at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ. She will be signing the book at Hard Bean Coffee & Booksellers in Annapolis, MD, on September 13 from 1 to 3 pm. If you haven't yet visited this store, you're in for a treat. It's a local institution, along with the nearby Naval Academy.

Worry is like a rocking chair. Keeps you busy; gets you nowhere.

By Deborah Sharp

I've found another thing to worry about as my book's October debut draws near.

It's a testament to my fretting powers that I could come up with something new, given my many present concerns. There's hurricane season, a fear of horrible reviews, and the possibility that my fellow Florida voters will fail to select a president -- again -- and the ensuing media firestorm will ensure that no one pays any attention to my funny little set-in-Florida mystery.

Anyway, smearage is my current worry. If you're left-handed, you understand: ink all over the trailing, pinky-edge of your hand; an inky smear on the page, obscuring whatever you'd intended to write. I took notes in pencil for 20 years as a reporter because of smearage.

So, how am I supposed to sign books, sans smearage? Any advice from fellow lefties about truly smear-free pens?

I have to warn you, though, even if someone posts an inspired answer to this problem, other imagined crises will keep my "worry chair'' rocking.

Suppose:

Amazon crashes, and all those pre-orders disappear for Mama Does Time (a dozen, easy, considering my husband and I have at least 12 cousins between us).

The truck heading south with my books is hurled off a bridge by a hurricane. Luckily, the driver survives, but my ruined books end up as an artificial reef.

Terrorists hijack the Internet, and I can't get access to my Google calendar or BookTour. I have no idea when or where I'm supposed to sign.

No one shows up for my signings. Or, too many people show, and we have no books.

I open my mouth at my first signing, and no words come out. Plus, I'm naked while everyone else is fully clothed, like those dreams we all had in high school before the big test.

Y'all had those dreams, right?

Point is, even if I lick smearage, another worry will arise. I'm a glass half-empty type . . . OMG, what if we don't have enough wine glasses for my launch party? Or, what if I forget my reading glasses, and I can't even see where to sign? Or, what if someone shatters a glass at a signing and an influential book critic chokes on a sliver . . .

Maybe I'll just sit and rock a while.

Chasing the Ice Cream Truck

It has been exceedingly hot here in Central Virginia. Temps have been in the high nineties with a heat index into the hundreds. That famous Southern humidity has been pressing down on all of us like a heavy hand, making us a wee bit short-tempered and very lackadaisical (and in my case, to the point of down-right sloth).

The thing that lifts me from my sultry stupor is the peal of the ice cream truck. This week, my son and I were outside when we heard the strains of All Around the Mulberry Bush. We jumped up and down in excitement and then I ran inside to grab my purse.

We waited at the end of the driveway, listening, bouncing with anticipation.

We waited at the end of our street, listening, feeling a bit concerned.

We waited at the end of our development, worried, anxious.

The ice cream man didn’t come. He circled the development next door and then left for the evening. It was only five-thirty. My son and I were crushed.

What’s a mom to do? Well, a normal mom might console herself and her child by a trip to the grocery store or a nearby ice cream parlor.

Not me. I went on a hunt for an ice cream truck. I mean it. I drove through neighborhoods with high populations of kids with the windows down. I asked kids running through the sprinkler and kids on bikes and kids drawing on the pavement with chalk if they had seen the ice cream man.

Finally, after nearly an hour of driving, we heard the music. It was a different song, but how lovely the strains were to our ears. The ice cream truck had parked opposite an elementary school and a line of eager children were awaiting their turn.

I did a U-turn that would rival NASCAR driving and slammed my mini-van into Park. We joined the line and craned our necks to view the menu. It was as I remembered from my own youth – there were still AstroPops, Push-Pop, Strawberry Shortcakes, Drumsticks, Orange Creamsicles as well as a plethora of new choices. I got my old favorite – the creamsicle and my son got a rainbow sherbet push pop.

We spoiled our dinner. We dripped on the upholstery of the car. We never felt so cool.

If the ice cream man rolled up in front of your house, what would you order?

We're all in Twaining

By Joe Moore

“Adam was the only man who, when he said a good thing, knew that nobody had said it before him.” –Mark Twain

I read a comment on an online forum recently that said all stories have been told; that when it comes to writing novels, there’s nothing new under the sun. I must admit that I’ve stood at the new books table in Borders, scanned the cover blurb of a dozen books and felt there may be some truth to that belief. Certainly in some genres, the majority of stories tend to blur after awhile.

So are there any original stories being told ? Absolutely. But you have to hunt for them, Unless you’re a reader that just wants to have the same tale told to you repeatedly, you must weed through a lot of clones to get an original.

One of the things leading to the feeling that there are no original stories left is something I’ve believed true for a long time—that all stories are based on only two motivators: love and hate. Every other emotion is a subset of those. I find that the more I think about it, the more it starts to make sense. If someone is motivated by revenge, for instance, their actions are probably based on a love lost or the hatred of the person who took away the love. If a character is motivated by jealousy, that could be caused by loving something that they cannot have or hating the person that stands in their way of getting it. So if there are only two motivators, how can someone write an original story?

Maybe it takes a great plot.

But I’ve also heard that there are only two plots in story telling: (1) A stranger comes to town. (2) An ordinary person leaves on an extraordinary journey (quest). Again, if you think about it long enough, there's a great deal of truth to this theory.

So if there are only two motivators and only two plots, how can there be any original stories?

Answer: Unique characters.

That’s all that’s left in the equation, and that’s what I believe separates originality from routine fiction. Some could argue that it's style or voice. But a great writing style can't save two-dimensional characters or a been-there-done-that plot. When I think back on my favorite books, what is it that made them so memorable? The plots? No. I don’t even remember most of the plots. The motivators? No. Those all boiled down to someone loved or hated someone else. What made them memorable was the originality of the characters. Jack Ryan. Dirk Pitt. Jason Bourne. Sean Dillon. James Bond. Dexter Morgan. Hannibal Lecter. These characters and others like them will live forever. It doesn’t matter if we remember the plot to their stories. And their motivators are shared by a million other stories all the way back to the ancient Greeks.

I find that’s why so many books have a 2-week shelf life while others have a permanent place on our shelves. They contain original, unique, captivating characters that live in our imagination long after we’ve finished the last page and closed the book. In our minds, the characters existed before the book began and went on after it was finished.

The importance of developing unique characters is something that many new writers usually don’t understand and veteran authors struggle with everyday. So whether our characters are riding into town or setting out on a quest, searching for love or bent on hate, there has to be something about them that is original and memorable. They must live on in the mind of the reader long after the book is finished.

So was Mark Twain right? Was Adam the only original author in history?

Inkspot News - August 22, 2008

On Sunday, August 24th Cricket McRae will be signing her newest Home Crafting Mystery, Heaven Preserve Us, at the Farmers Market in front of The Reader's Cove bookstore in Fort Collins, Colorado, from 11:00 to 1:00. If you're in the area, pick up some sweet corn and stop by and say hi!

Hamster - (Not So) Free to a Good Home

See this contraption? This is a USB hamster wheel. It plugs into a USB port on a computer. The faster the typing, the faster the little runt in the wheel runs. Isn’t it a hoot?

The last time my typing speed was tested, I was well over 100 words a minute. Bet I could make the little sucker run! Talk about being in a gym named 24 Hour Hell with Beelzebub as a trainer.

This little novelty is also not cheap or easy to come by. Everywhere on the web where it was carried, it was out of stock. It was also available only in Europe and retailed for close to $50 (U.S.) A little pricey in my book for a fun doo-dad. In my house, $50 represents three bags of cat food and two large boxes of cat litter. Or a tank of gas and a Happy Meal.

But electronic toys aside, I have quite a symbolic fondness for this little fake furry friend. You see, I just finished my second novel in under twelve months. No one put a gun to my head. I did this willingly. I knew I could do it and I did. Other writers I know also write two books a year, so it wasn't like I was breaking new ground. It wasn't even that difficult, as long as I stuck to my writing schedule and didn't let my lazy side and tendency to waste time rule the roost. And there were times I had to beat them into submission.

Then there were the days in the past year when I felt like the hamster. Like my stumpy little legs were pumping like pistons to keep my fat ass from being mangled by the wheel.

The real downside to writing two books a year is that as soon as you finish one, you have to start on another. Normally, I take four to six weeks off after I finish a novel. This time, I gave myself two weeks. But last night, with less than one week in my writing vacation under my belt, I got the urge to pull up my next manuscript and get to work. I didn't do it, but my fingers itched to make the hamster run. I'm pretty sure by this weekend the little rodent will be flying through the wheel like Usain Bolt.

What can I say? Sometimes you're the keyboard; sometimes you're the hamster.

But notice that the hamster is a happy hamster. That's because she's doing what she loves.

T Minus 30 and Counting

by Joanna Slan

I'm thirty days out from my "official" book launch of Paper, Scissors, Death: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-and-Craft Mystery, and I feel like a rocket at Cape Kennedy sitting on the pad waiting for the countdown to hit zero.

Yes, for the astute, the subtitle has been changed. It's a marketing decision I applaud because it gives me more latitude. Scrapbookers are now into Artist Trading Cards (ATCs), altered books, and cardmaking. So where they go, Kiki can go. That's terrific. Even if the subtitle has changed, the book will still be a scrapbook mystery.That said, I have worked very hard so the book would not only appeal to scrappers but to others as well. But I'm not stupid, I know who my primary audience will be!

It's been more than two years since Barbara Moore told me she wanted my manuscript. When I heard the print date, I groaned, but now, looking back, I see it was the best news in the world.

Why? Well, I've had ten non-fiction titles published, and I learned a lot from each. That said, I've learned more in the last two years than I did in the eight before. (It was in 1998 that Scrapbook Storytelling was released.)

What have I learned?

1. The promotional world has gone virtual. Back then, we added info about my website as almost an afterthought. I started an e-zine as a lark, almost. But today with gas prices the way they are, virtual promotion is not only state-of-the-art, but highly desirable. I got a call the other day from Gabe at Midnight Ink, and he mentioned almost casually that he'd just read my blog on my website. He complimented me on the blog and website, and I was struck once more by how very public our online presences are.

2. It's all about relationships. The booksellers I met last year have offered advice, introductions and help. The authors I have met--especially my dear pal Shirley Damsgaard--have taught me about the ups and downs of this business. They have kindly shared their promotional ideas and blurbed my book. The media folks I met at artsy events with my husband have given me publicity. In the end, as it is in the beginning, it's all about who you know.

3. Nothing you've learned is ever wasted. My "old" scrapbook world contacts have offered help. They've introduced me to the new people in the industry. Like a lot of young industries, once businesses figured out there was money to be made, large firms gobbled up small ones, so the players have changed. That said, wonderful people like Rebecca Ludens of about.com have been kind to me and my book. How long have I known Rebecca? Nearly ten years. And how about the "hard" facts I learned? The nuts and bolts about scrapbooking? Well, at almost all my events I will be doing both signings and scrapbook activities. Most of the booksellers are partnering with hobby stores so I'll have a bigger crowd.

I'll be continuing this list on my personal blog http://joannaslan.blogspot.com So stay tuned!

P.S. Happy birthday to the wonderful J.B. Stanley from all her fellow Inkspotters. Live it up and have fun today, J.B.!

P.P.S. Thanks for posting this for me, Keith.