The Hopeful Writer

            Writing, or publishing, has become more difficult over the last few years. Publishing houses have merged or disappeared altogether, e-publishing and print-on-demand have risen from the ashes, advances are low or even non-existent and fine, once-proficient, writers have gone years without a print contract. Some have migrated to smaller publishers which can be a very good thing; others have given up altogether, which is definitely not a good thing.

            And yet, I visited The Doubletree Hotel in San Diego, California last weekend and watched hundreds of hopeful writers tote laptops, book bags and conference schedules from room to room in their efforts to learn, sell and promote their manuscripts. A leap of faith? Certainly. Do many writers actually sell books at these conferences? Hardly. However, they do meet with editors and agents, mix with other writers, hear answers to their questions and quite frequently move their manuscripts past the deadly slush pile into the priority, requested-manuscript-to-be-read-relatively-quickly list.

            San Diego was nostalgic. Twenty years ago I, a fledgling writer unpublished in fiction, attended my first writing conference there. It was hosted at the university and the lodgings, a local motel, left much to be desired. Still the speakers were excellent, the information valuable, the conference organized and, as it turned out for me, invaluably worthwhile. I met the woman who would become my literary agent, although it would be six years and multiple books later before she formally represented me, as well as the two ladies who became my critique group for the next twenty years. This 2011 we celebrate two decades of meetings, moral support and personal wisdom, which brings me to this conclusion: despite the changes in publishing, writing continues to be a craft that lures interesting people, people who are attempting to step outside the box of their daily lives and do something more, people who are inspired by and desire to inspire through the medium of the written word. I was proud of those people who gave up their weekend, proud of their goals, proud to be among them.

The E-Book Craze

I’ve been thinking about the new e-book craze and the startling statistics stating that e-book sales have surpassed print books. While e-books are good for authors…in a way, and good for readers…in a way, e-book publication has its drawbacks, too. Unless you’re Nora Roberts or Stephen King, who have more money than God, most of us would like to be able to pay the bills with royalties from our books. The most successful e-book authors boast of sales no more than 2000 units (books) a month.

            I did the math and $1.99 to $2.99 a month, the typical price of an e-book before taxes, the e-publisher's cut, cover art and promotion, doesn’t bring in enough to meet expenses even if our sales were in the 2000 a month range. Most are not.

            Why, then, do we bother with electronic publication? There are two reasons I came up with: to re-release out-of-print books, books that may have had a poor sell through or a low print run, books we spend laborious hours creating, strong books that deserve another chance to do well, or, reason number two: to bring out an original that hasn’t yet interested an agent or editor in the hopes that strong electronic sales will encourage those illustrious people to offer a print book contract and a large advance.

There are reasons why original novels don’t sell. An author might face resistance when he wants to branch out into a different genre, editors may feel a subject is overly used or there isn’t enough of an audience. Or, more than likely, the book may simply be a bad book, badly written, a weak plot line, characters that don’t engage, etc. Which brings me to the most important point: agents, editors and publishers are discriminating. In general, published works are very good. A trip to the bookstore typically results in a variety of books screened by agents, editors, copy editors and reviewers. How, then, in this brave new world of technology, does a reader discern which e-book is of the quality on which to chance his $.99? Comments are appreciated.

            Given all of the above, I’m including the cover of my new e-book original, WITCH WOMAN, out at the end of January 2011. I think it is an excellent paranormal, set during the Salem witch trials in the late 17^th century and in contemporary Salem. I hope you give it a try and enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

LEGACY - the cover

Presenting the new LEGACY cover.

Witch Woman

In two different centuries, four hundred years apart, the lives of Abigail March and her daughter, Maggie McBride, play out along parallel lines, both women blessed and cursed by a selective birthright. Born in the breach position at the exact moment when earth’s shadow slides across a full blue moon, their kind are destined to walk alone, to see truth behind words, in the blink of an eye, in the twitch of a muscle, in the whisper of a sigh. They are the chosen of the goddess, marked by a startling mutation, heterochromia iridium, one brown eye, the other blue.

 Abigail, wife to John March, a selectman in the rigid Calvinist community of Salem, Massachusetts, is not what she seems. An expatriate from Barbados, she indentured herself to the March family for seven years in exchange for passage to the colonies. Abigail is beautiful, even with those unnatural eyes, and soon captures the heart of the March’s oldest son. For ten years she has kept her head down, her emotions in check. But now she is accused of witchcraft along with her three-year-old daughter, Margaret. At the trial, she horrifies the community with a startling demonstration, opening a time portal into the future where she and her child can escape. But Magick proves fickle and Abigail’s rusty powers fall short. Only Margaret is sent into the modern world of 1974 where she is found, naked and without speech, by Annie McBride, a wiccan, in the Old Burying Point Cemetery.

Maggie’s unexplained arrival and her unusual abilities force her adoptive mother to leave Salem and live a nomadic life. Maggie grows up to become a clairvoyant, specializing in kidnapping cases. Not until Annie is near death does she learn the particulars of her adoption and the possible source of her troubling dreams. She returns to Salem searching for her past. Meanwhile, Abigail finds the time portal and slips through to an overwhelming modern world, assuming a new identity and hoping that Maggie will come to her. Unknown to both women are the dangers of the old world’s dark forces, a missing child in contemporary Salem, and Maggie’s “sight”  blurring and dim as her ties to old Salem strengthen.

Witch Woman - heterochromia iridium

    Heterochromia iridium refers to a difference in coloration, usually of the iris. It comes from a lack, or excess amount, of melanin and may be inherited or the result of disease or injury.
    Maggie, the main character in my soon-to-be-released e-book, WITCH WOMAN, has that interesting physical trait, one blue eye and one brown. Although we see animals exhibiting this condition fairly often, it occurs rarely in the human population. The odds are approximately one in a million. Usually, the affected iris is a much lighter shade of the normal eye, ie: topaz-brown, hazel-brown or blue-green combinations. Rarely do we see the distracting blue-brown that I created with the fictional character Maggie McBride, however, I did find that very same startling characteristic in the real Max Scherzer, a National League baseball player whose photo appears above. The wonderful thing about fiction is the way an author can manipulate facts to create an intriguing story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterochromia#Famous_people_with_heterochromia_iridum 

Weddings, Yesterday and Today

I’ve had occasion to consider weddings very carefully the last few months. My daughter and her fiancé are planning a September wedding. Weddings have changed a great deal over the last four decades. My own was small. Close family and friends gathered at St. Bartholomew’s Catholic Church with an afternoon reception held in my parents’ living room. People sat on couches, on the floor and hung out in the kitchen eating ham sandwiches and cake.

My parents were married by a Justice of the Peace in 1952. My mother wore a navy suit. My dad tipped the officiate $5. I have no idea who the witnesses were. My parents are deceased so there is no one to ask. The feeling was, as long as the bride, the groom and the priest showed up, as long as there was cake and champagne, as long as friends witnessed the occasion, the wedding would be a success. No one registered anywhere for anything. My sister’s ceremony was the same.

                Not so today. Today’s extravaganzas are planned to the final detail with lighting, a band, ceremony music, before ceremony music, cake tastings, entrée samplings, favors, video photography, engagement pictures, save the date notices and, to top it all off, a wedding planner who coordinates the day assuring that all will run smoothly. The cost is staggering.

                One would think cleaning out the bank is an American or California custom, but that isn’t so. In Ireland, too, weddings are huge affairs, shockingly expensive with men and women dressed to the nines, even more so than in The States.  Women wear hats or little frou-frou bands with flowers attached, revealing dresses and shoes guaranteed to break ankles. Men wear suits and ties. A band and full bar is customary as is a lavish feast with several entrees and guest lists in the 300s.

              I’m nostalgic for a simpler era and customs such as jumping over the broom or hand-fasting where after a year and a day if a couple didn’t suit, the two went their separate ways without rancor or fiscal hardship. All children from such a union were recognized as completely legitimate. I like the dowry idea, too, and the bride price paid to the bride's family. It seemed more equitable.

Maybe marriages shouldn’t be lavish affairs until the 25^th anniversary celebration. I like that, too. It’s a better idea, in my opinion, to celebrate a lifetime of love and tolerance with an expensive public affair. What, after all, do children know of hardship, commitment, loving a person and hanging in there despite all you don’t like?

Friends of mine are celebrating their 50^th anniversary on the 17^th of December. It will be a lovely affair and tasteful, hosted by their twin daughters. We’ll share food, wine, conversation and friendship. It is a grand thing to be married and in love after 50 years. It is even more than grand, it is inspiring and miraculous to share in the glow of knowing they would marry each other all over again.

               

Writer's Block

Writer’s block. That terrible, but common, phenomenon that hits all of us on occasion. I’m very skeptical about the writer who says she has so many ideas she won’t live to see them all come to fruition. Maybe. Maybe not. My guess is that writers have notions, rather than actual ideas. For example, I’d like to write about Irish travelers, ancient Egypt, Ruth and Naomi, all notions or subjects rather than plot lines with fleshed out characters and conflicts.

Sometimes writer’s block lasts for a few days, sometimes a few weeks, rarely more than that unless a serious, is this what I really want to do with my life occurs. My blocks happen when I approach the the middle of a story, when the flush of the dramatic beginning is over, before the climax and resolution. For me, this is chapter 9. Chapters 1 through 8 are a breeze, introducing characters, the hint of the problem, the rising action, and the roadblocks to the character reaching his goal. I can easily type my way to chapter 9 without an outline. But then it happens, the what next or what if stage that only deep thought, much discussion, more research, lots of reading and many discussions with my critique group remedy.  

The resolution is another challenge for me. I tend to like realistic resolutions, those that might actually happen. My agent constantly reminds me, “This is fiction, Jeanette. We mustn’t disappoint the reader.” Of course, she’s right... I think. I wonder if readers really want a fantasy ending. Personally, I find inspiration when an ending mirrors my own experience or that of others I know rather than the Hollywood ending. I suppose reality doesn’t sell books ...I think.