GENRE-BENDING EVOLUTION?

EVOLUTION OF A WRITER

 

Day was (and I won't name that day, lest I end up with an expiration date stamped on my forehead) that if a book featured cowboys and Indians, it was a WESTERN.

Unless said cowboy fell in love with a beautiful Indian princess, then we had a LOVE STORY.

Then a cowpoke fell for another cowpoke.

With the explosion of genres on the writing scene, perhaps the time has come for  a GENRE CZAR; someone to categorize all books, genre-wise.

But wait! We already do have that czar...sort of. Amazon wants tag words to categorize a book so those looking for your genre can find you. Great idea, but what IS your genre? And how do your readers, some of whom might not even know they'll like your book because it doesn't fit nicely into a particular genre, find you?

Take my Hetta Coffey series as an example. First in the series, Just Add Water, won the EPPIE AWARD for BEST MYSTERY.

Great! But is it really a mystery?
Okay, so there is some mystery, but the words "humorous" and "light" need to get plugged into that description, unless I want disgruntled reviewers (as one did) grousing that it isn't much of a mystery. So now we have a HUMOROUS MYSTERY, featuring a woman with an unusual career, a snarky attitude, and a lousy love life who is looking for a man in all the wrong places. In her case, countries.

So, whaddaya got?
Well, it could be:

ROMCOM (romantic comedy): Sort of...there is both romance and humor.
CHICKLIT: Fiction genre which  addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. This according to Wikipedia. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series qualifies here. Not bad company.

But wait! Those two genres are sure to send men running in the other direction, and I want men to read my books. Those who do love Hetta Coffey's fierce independence and irreverent attitude, so I don't want to scare them off.

So, how about NAUTICAL ADVENTURE? The men are back, but their wives and gal friends are thinking: Clive Cussler. Again, not bad company, but runs the risk genre-bending the truth, although Just Add Salt, book two in the series is definitely an adventure at sea. 

So how do you warn (or entice) readers who might like the book, but don't know it yet because it doesn't fit neatly into a genre category?

Here's my shot in those seven tag words for Amazon: Mystery, humor, nautical adventure, chicklit, romcom, vampires. Okay, just kidding about the vampires.

What do you think?

 

 

Jeez, who wrote that stuff? Dusting off a half-written book, and resuscitating my blog.

Hetta's back!

After being MIA for far too long, Hetta Coffey has resurfaced in the Sea of Cortez, and it doesn't take her long to find trouble.

I spent last winter afloat in the Sea, breathing life back into Hetta. I had Just the Pits (at the time entitled: Just Have No Friggin' Idea) almost written, then stashed away to mellow. Out of sight, out of mind?

But we all know Hetta does not take well to mellowing. Nag, nag, nag. Jeez, can't a writer get a vacation once in awhile?

Anyhow, as those of us who write will do, I dusted off the manuscript and went back to  work. Okay, so that dusting off part is no longer true, as Hetta's new adventure was stored in a memory bank that is obviously much better than mine. Did I really write that drivel?

I'd like to claim I slaved away over a hot pc all winter long, never enjoying the wonders of being on the boat again, and underway headed south, but I would be, say, lying. Yes, I did put in a couple of hours a day, but mornings at anchor are for coffee on deck, communing with the dolphins and the like. It's when the wind comes up in the afternoon that I was compelled to get back to my work station, and that nag, Hetta.

The good news is Hetta considers herself my must and takes over, so I just follow her lead into her next fiasco. As many have learned, following Hetta anywhere in an iffy proposition, but this time I gave her a new skill to add to her already gilded resume: sleuth. Not that she's not nosy enough, mind you, but now she's putting her natural snoopiness to good use, even if her detective skills are less than sterling, or
and subtle. Luckily, she has her BFF Jan around when the Velveeta disappears!

Now on Amazon

Mexico, a writer's paradise...or is it?

So, I live on a boat several months out of the year. Preferably at anchor. Lots of time to write, right? Wrong. 

Conception Bay, Baja California, Sur, is where we spent this winter. At anchor. With sketchy Internet, no electricity or running water on shore, and  25 miles from the nearest town, it is a wonderful place to hang out. Just the spot to write, write, write. Wrong.

Living on the hook requires a vast amount of time spent, well, living. Groceries come from miles away, electricity if self-generated with generators and solar power, water is made from sea water (11 gals an hour, we use about 5 gals a day),  basics are not so easy to come by.

There are a couple of small places to eat on shore, but social life is what the hearty beach dwellers, RVers, and boaters make it. Card games abound! Painters gather to paint. Dancers gather to dance. And writers? Far as I know, I was the only one within twenty five miles last year.

But what do I do all day that keeps me from turning out a novel a month? Here's a typical morning in the life of Jinx and Mad Dog (my first mate) at anchor.
4:00 am  Mad Dog gets up, has coffee, reads.
6:00 am  Mad Dog takes first nap of the day
7:00 am  Jinx wakes up, has coffee, gets on Ham nets. (My call sign is KC6YMJ) These amateur radio nets are crucial to cruising. This is where we get the weather for that day, and what is coming. This bit of info dictates the day's activities. If it's gonna blow over 25, we have to move to a safer anchorage. If under 12, we can safely leave the boat and go do "stuff" on shore.
8:30 We dinghy in to the beach, Jinx walks, Mad Dog plays cards with guys on the beach.
10:30 Late breakfast on beach or back on boat
11:00 Mad Dog takes second nap of the day. Jinx writes...or reads...or makes ice cream...

Days fly by, and suddenly winter is over and it is time to head back to Arizona. Surely in Arizona there is plenty of time to write? After all, electricity comes from a pole, water from a pipe; it's a friggin' miracle.

Now it is time to put on paper all the ideas I jotted down this winter, meanwhile doing all the promoting of my books that didn't get done without good Internet. So what am I doing? Blogging!

But next year on the boat I will, yes I will, turn out at least one book. Honest. Cross my heart. Really. I mean it.

By popular demand, a re-blog on DYI Kindle e-books; I did it, and so can you

DYI KINDLE e-books.

I did it!

Okay, that I should be a we, because my husband is the one with the patience, but between the two of us we converted all seven of my books into Kindle and put them on sale for .99 with only one exception, Troubled Sea at 2.99. We tried to do the ninety-nine cent bit with this book, as well, but Amazon deemed the file too large, which is a heads-up when writing my next book; keep the word count down. You can see all of my books on Amazon at
http://amzn.to/ro70QS

We also used Smashwords for all other digital formats, but that's a whole 'nother blog.

The tedious—but in the end, rewarding—exercise began with my decision to reclaim the rights to my books, and take over my writing destiny. This was not the easiest decision to make, as there are many authors out there who would kill for a publisher, but as a purely business decision, I think I did the right thing.

So now what? Pay someone to convert seven books? Not on my budget. We tackled the project ourselves and now I'm sharing with you what we learned. Was it easy? Nope. Was it worth it? Yep.

When I ended my publishing contracts, I asked for, and was granted, the rights to the cover art. This was a huge help, because the books were already for sale on Amazon, so we got to skip the new cover art process.

We are not techies, so I am going to lead you through these DYI steps in plain old English that even we understand. READ THE WHOLE BLOG FIRST, THEN BEGIN**.

1. Establish an account with Amazon Digital Text Platform. READ THE FINE PRINT! Yeah, I know, a pain in the you-know-what, but it will save you time, and even more pain.

2. Your manuscript MUST be in MS Word. If it is not, you gotta make it so.

3. Open your MS Word manuscript, SELECT ALL, and COPY.

4. Close MS Word.

5. Open Notepad in your computer's program list under Accessories. Then click EDIT and PASTE. (This will put your file in Notepad. Notepad will remove all previous formatting from your MS Word file.)

6. Click on EDIT and SELECT ALL in Notepad.

7. Click on EDIT and COPY.

8. Open a new file in MS Word.

9. Click on EDIT and PASTE. This will put the file from Notepad into a new (CLEAN) MS Word file to work with.

I know, this seems a little convoluted, and I am sure there are other, easier, methods, but this one worked for us, seven times, and was entirely FREE (my husband's favorite word.)

10. You now have a clean new file to work with. Go to your toolbar and click on the "start new paragraph sign" (if you can't find it, hit ctrl+shift+8) so you can see the paragraph marks and space dots (no double spaces between words allowed) in your manuscript. Click on EDIT, and SELECT ALL.

Format FONT to Times New Roman, 12 point. You can adjust font sizes as necessary for chapter titles, etc. later. We had NO luck with other fonts.

11. Click EDIT, SELECT ALL. (VERY IMPORTANT) and Format paragraph as follows:
Alignment Left
Outline level Body Text
Left and right 0
Special First line
By .5
Spacing before and after 0 point
Line spacing Single
Click OK

SAVE AS: Your book title

Now comes the fun part. You have to edit the manuscript. Change font sizes where necessary for chapter headings, and (this is important) insert page breaks at the end of each chapter. Make your manuscript look like it is supposed to, and for crying out loud DO NOT USE TABS.

**Whenever you see a warning in all caps and bold, rest assured this was a mistake we made.


If you do not have any photos in your document, SAVE AS Web Document (HTML). You will now have two* files to use for uploads; one in HTML FORMAT AND an MS WORD DOCUMENT. Hang in there with me, there is a reason for this.

It is now time to see how your book looks on a Kindle. To do this, guess what? you have to have access to a Kindle ebook reader. Use the email address that you set up for downloading Kindle books, and send an email:
(your username) @free.kindle.com
SUBJECT: convert.
Attach your WEB (HTML) document to this email (if no pictures)
Attach the MSWORD document (if there are pictures)
See, I told you there was a reason for two* types of documents!
Send the email.

Turn on your Kindle, make sure the WiFi connection is on, and within minutes, just like magic, your book will appear. If everything looks good, you are READY TO PUBLISH!
If not, go back to your word document, correct, save as Web Page, and re-upload to Amazon. I think I did this at least ten times for each book.

When you have it right, go to YOUR Amazon's Digital Text Platform account, follow the instructions, and upload your book.

If you have followed instructions, your book will be available for sale at Amazon Kindle store within a few days. If not, start over. Try it, let me know how it works for you. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at jinxschwartz@yahoo.com or kindlejunkie@yahoo.com.

All good things must end: Last day of Mystery We Write Christmas tour

I AM LOOKING FOR YOUR COMMENT! LAST CHANCE TO WIN A FREE e-book.

After two weeks of blogs by fifteen authors, we have reached the part where we give away the books we promised. This entails going back to all the blogs, seeing who commented, then drawing names from from a hat to keep it clean. I will be doing this on Sunday or Monday, so you have time to go the the following blogs, look up my blog, and make a comment!

Here is a list of the blogs:

Nov. 25 – Earl Staggs http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com/ 
Nov. 26 – Anne K. Albert  http://anne-k-albert.blogspot.com/ 
Nov. 27 – Beth Anderson http://www.bethanderson-hotclue.com/blog/
Nov. 28 – Ron Benrey http://blog.benrey.com/
Nov. 29 – Pat Browning http://pbrowning.blogspot.com/
Nov. 30 – John M. Daniel http://johnmdaniel.blogspot.com/
Dec. 1 – Alice Duncan http://aliceduncanblog.blogspot.com/
Dec. 2 – Wendy Gager http://wsgager.blogspot.com/
Dec. 3 – M. M. Gornell http://mmgornell.wordpress.com/
Dec. 4 – Timothy Hallinan http://www.timothyhallinan.com/blog/
Dec. 5 – Jackie King http://www.jacqking.com/blog/

Dec. 6 – Jean Henry Mead http://mysteriouspeople.blogspot.com/  and http://theviewfrommymountaintop.blogspot.com/
Dec. 7 – Marilyn Meredith http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/
Dec. 8 – Mike Orenduff http://thepotthief.blogspot.com/

Earl Staggs, my fellow Texan and last, but by NO means least, guest on this MYSTERY WE WRITE blog tour

BOOK GIVEAWAY! Earl will be giving away a print copy of Memory of a Murder and a copy of the Short Stories fo Earl Staggs (e-book version) to lucky commenters randomly picked at the conclusion of this tour. Don't wait to leave your comments, because this tour is rounding up!

Derringer Award winning author Earl Staggs has seen many of his short stories published in magazines and anthologies. He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine and as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. His novel MEMORY OF A MURDER earned thirteen Five Star reviews online at Amazon and B&N. His column “Write Tight” appears in the online magazine Apollo’s Lyre. He is also a contributing blog member of Murderous Musings and Make Mine Mystery. He hosts workshops for the Muse Online Writers Conference and the Catholic Writers Conference Online and is a frequent speaker at conferences and writers groups.  Email: earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net  Website:  http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com/

Today Earl shares with us: HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED

Once he’d figured it all out and knew whodunnit, Adrian Monk, everyone’s favorite OCD TV detective, would say, “Here’s what happened.”

Then he would tell how the crime occurred. As he described it, the audience viewing at home saw the event take place on the screen exactly as it happened in the past.

What better way to let an audience know what happened in the past than with both a narrative retelling AND a visual reenactment?  They can do that in movies and on TV.  Writers do not have that luxury, but we still have to tell our readers, “Here’s what happened.”  We call it backstory.

We have different ways of presenting backstory. We can have the narrator stop telling the current story and tell the backstory.  If it goes on for a long time, however, we run the risk of   boring readers and tempting them to skip over the “info dump” completely.  Imagine Monk telling what happened without the visual reenactment.  His show would never have lasted as long as it did.

One way to bring in backstory -- our version of a visual reenactment -- is to “show” what happened before, complete with dialogue and action exactly as it happened.  That requires, first of all, a clear transition to the past so readers aren’t confused about where they are in the story.  Once that’s done, the scene plays out just as it did before. Here’s an example, beginning with a transition:

Jane would never forget the day Dan left. She’d walked in the door and saw his bags packed in the foyer.  She’d hurried into the dining room to find him sitting at the table.

            “What’s going on, Dan?” she asked.

            “I can’t take it anymore.  I’m leaving.”

            Yada, yada, yada.

When the reenactment is finished, another clear transition is needed, of course, to bring readers back to the present without confusion. 

Another way to work in backstory, and a favorite of mine, is to bring it out in dialogue between two characters as part of the current story.  Like this:

            Jane knew Margie had something on her mind and waited for her to speak.

Margie took a sip of her wine and set her glass on the table, rotating it slowly with her hands. After several moments, she said, “Jane, you never did tell me why Dan left.”

            “I’m not sure myself. I came home and saw his bags packed and sitting in the foyer.”

            “Didn’t he say anything?”

Jane turned to the window and looked out. “I asked him what was going on.  He said he couldn’t take it anymore and he was leaving.”

            “Couldn’t take what anymore?”

            Yada, yada, yada.

Another method is a quick flashback.  Here’s how that might be done:

Dan had left two years ago.  She’d entered the house to see his bags packed and sitting in the foyer. When she asked him what was going on he said, “I can’t take it anymore. I’m leaving.” She still didn’t understand why.

A short flashback like that is not a major intrusion to the current story and chances are, you won’t lose the readers. It lacks the immediacy and drama of a reenactment, however.

In a story called, “That Night in Galveston,” I used a slightly different form of flashback. Amanda Barnes is kidnapped by a crippled, disfigured man with a gun and forced to drive to a vacant warehouse. She doesn’t remember the man and has no idea why he is doing this.  As she drives, little bits of information she’d wiped from her memory from twenty years before flash from her subconscious mind.  Here’s one of them:

Darkness. . .waves crashing against a pier. . .sounds of an amusement park in the distance. . .someone down on all fours. . .screaming. . .begging. . .

Shortly after that one, there’s this one:

Three men standing over him. . .yelling. . .kicking. . .swinging something. . .

And a little later, this one:

Gordie standing over her. . .pulling her to her feet…forcing a pipe into her hand…“Hit him, you little bitch, or I’ll hit you with it”. . .

Amanda is pulled into the past even further when something flashes from before she ran away from home and hitchhiked to Galveston.

A thick, burly man entering her bedroom. . . holding a finger to his lips to say, “Don’t wake your mother. We don’t want her to know our secret.”. . unable to breathe under his weight. . .biting her lip to keep from crying out from the pain he caused her inside. . .

This altered flashback method worked well in this particular story. It was a graphic, dramatic, and efficient way to bring out the backstory. I liked it so much I gave it a name:  “backflash.”

In many of our stories, we can’t get away from backstory. We have to tell our readers, “Here’s what happened.”  Part of our challenge is to do it in such a way that readers are not confused or bored and with minimal interruption to the current story.

By the way, if you’d like to know how Amanda escaped her fate, “That Night in Galveston” is one of the sixteen stories in my collection, SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS.  You’ll find more information about it over on my website:  http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com

While you’re there, you can visit with my special guest for the day. 

You can also read Chapter One of MEMORY OF A MURDER, my first mystery novel, which earned thirteen Five Star reviews.

And please don't forget to sign up for the drawing on December 9. The first name drawn from those who leave a comment will receive a print copy of MEMORY OF A MURDER.  The second name drawn will have a choice of an ebook or print copy of SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS, a collection of sixteen of my best short stories.

 

Anne K. Albert, my MYSTERY WE WRITE guest for today. And she's the one who organized this blog tour!

Anne will be giving away e-book copes of Frank, Incense, and Muriel to some lucky commentors at the close of thie MYSTERY WE WRITE blog tour (December 9), so comment away and good luck! See below for details.*

Anne K. Albert’s award winning stories chill the spine, warm the heart and soothe the soul…all with a delightful touch of humor. A member of Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and married to her high school sweetheart for more than a quarter of a century, it's a given she'd write mystery and romantic suspense. When not writing she loves to travel, visit friends and family, and of course, read using ‘Threegio’ her cherished and much beloved Kindle 3G!


So, heeeers Anne!

Thanks for featuring me, Jinx, on Day 13 of the second 2011 Mystery We Write Blog Tour. What a fantastic virtual ride this has been! I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am.

Speaking of rides, I understand you live part of each year on a boat moored in the Sea of Cortez. How exotic! Being more of a landlubber, myself, I spend a great deal of time writing in my van. Weather permitting, of course. I call it as my ‘cone of silence’. It’s an ideal place to just focus on writing. There are no disruptions, no internet connections, no telephone calls, and no friends or neighbors to distract me. It’s a sanctuary in every sense of the word.

Jinx – Describe your writing process.

Many authors plot their stories. They know the beginning, middle and end before they put a single word to paper.
Writing for me is more akin to being a fly on the wall.
I sit at the computer, or grab a pen and pad of paper, and focus on my characters. Like magic, I’m transported to their exact location and time. I’m there with them. I see, hear, feel, taste and smell everything they do. And like my characters, I have no idea what will happen next. Nothing is more exhilarating that watching the story unfold, and thinking, “Wow. I didn’t see that coming.” It’s a total rush!

Jinx – Tell us about your book.

FRANK, INCENSE AND MURIEL is set the week before Christmas when the stress of the holidays is enough to frazzle anyone’s nerves. Tensions increase when a friend begs Muriel to team up with a sexy private investigator to find a missing woman. Forced to deal with an embezzler, kidnapper, and femme fatale is bad enough, but add Muriel’s zany yet loveable family to the mix and their desire to win the coveted D-DAY (Death Defying Act of the Year) Award, and the situation can only get worse.
I’m proud of what readers are saying.
     One on Amazon said, “Anne K. Albert's…wit shines through this lightly suspenseful novel and her characters ring sweet and true. Can't wait to read more about Muriel, Frank and the rest of the gang.”
Author Marja McGraw said, “Laugh out loud funny in places, and that's my favorite kind of book. I was totally entertained by Frank, Incense and Muriel.”
     Night Owl Reviews gave it 5 stars and a Top Pick Award. “If you’re looking for a story with a little bit of humor, a whole lot of suspense and plenty of insanity, then you’ve found the perfect story.”
Frank, Incense and Muriel is also recipient of the prestigious 2011 Holt Medallion Award of Merit. J If you’d like to read a sample, click here: http://amzn.to/pg67sx

Thanks again, Jinx. I’ve enjoyed my virtual visit with you today. Happy writing, happy reading, and of course, happy boating!

Visit Anne online at her website http://fictionforyou.com/ and blogs http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/ and http://muriel-reeves-mysteries.blogspot.com/. She is also on Facebook www.facebook.com/annekalbert and Twitter www.twitter.com/AnneKAlbert.

*Remember to leave a comment and be automatically entered her comment-to-win contest.
CONTEST DETAILS: Comment to WIN! Three names will be selected at random from comments on all 14 of Anne’s Mystery We Write Blog Tour guest appearances. Winners will receive an e-copy of FRANK, INCENSE AND MURIEL, book one of the Muriel Reeves Mysteries. Visit http://tinyurl.com/3hzpqvv for her schedule and contest details. Good luck!

Didn't win? You can buy a copy http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Incense-and-Muriel-ebook/dp/B004CLYDRO/