​The last blog I posted was on March 27th.  What have I been doing?  Sold the country house in 1 day.  Moved out in 30 days to live in an 800 square foot apartment while our brand-new downsized house was being built.  Moved a lot of stuff into storage.  Move as little as possible to the apartment.  Lived without the stuff in storage for 5 ½ months and wondered why we needed it at all.
Moved into our downsized dreamhouse on September 3rd.  Had all the stuff in storage delivered to the house and stored in the basement on September 18th.  Sorted through all the stuff in the basement by September 25th making many trips to St. Vinny’s and recycling a ton of cardboard.  Bought new bedroom furniture for the master bedroom and all new living room furniture.
Then there is the artwork.  In our former 3000 square foot house we had a lot of art on the walls.  For years my guiding principle has been I must shake the hand of the artist to have it in my home.  I was successful.  Too successful with 26 pieces to hang.  I could use a curator.
During my absence folks continued to visit my website – an average of 2105 visits a month and an average of 80 visits per day.  The number of visits did decline as the months passed from a high of 2413 in April to 1891 in September.  I am surprised by the number of visits without posting.
In those six months I didn’t write a word – not a single one.  It was odd.  My life was so consumed by the move and building that I didn’t miss writing.  That is terrible to admit but true.
We did take a week trip to eastern Kentucky to research my next novel about pack horse librarians.  My publicist and dear friend Valerie Biel learned that Elizabeth Gilbert is coming out with a book on pack horse librarians this fall, scheduled for the holidays I’m sure.  I consulted with my writing friends and we agreed that unless I was writing a romance I should stick to my guns and write my novel.  No problem there.
To kick start my writing I’m attending an intense “weekender” the last weekend of October.  I have changed the name of the protagonist and made her Irish, I couldn’t help myself.  I learned in my visit to eastern Kentucky that the Irish are prominent there.  I also completely re-wrote the first chapter to scratch out backstory, add action and detail.  We’ll see how it goes at the end of the month.
During my hiatus I did ask myself – why do you write.  I write because the cosmos expresses creativity through me.  I believe the universe is conscious because I am conscious and sentient.   
    

Hiatus:  a pause or gap in a sequence, series or process.

Sometimes you make life decisions that require a change in how you think and how you live.  In the last month I’ve made several major decisions that for the remainder of 2019 will bring new challenges and a permanent change in direction.

Last summer I learned that stress can have a disastrous affect on a person’s health.  As I’ve aged I respond much differently to stress than I did when I was forty and I’ve learned a lot more about myself since then too.

 Drafting my story of twenty year old Adeline Dawson and her struggle to survive after the death of her husband during the depth of the Depression is paramount.  To be able to write her story I must give up some activities to continue on my broader life journey.

I posted my first blog in December 2011, hard to believe more than seven years have passed.  It has been the last few years that I decided to post a blog every Wednesday. 

To be honest readers’ responses have been silence.  I have the numbers on how many people visit my website and the blog page but they remain unresponsive.  My readers do not engage with me.  So be it.
In a few days I will be sixty-eight and the gift I’m giving myself is to take a hiatus from writing my weekly blog.  Oh, I’ll be back – not sure when.  The future blog may transform in content, length, frequency, I don’t know at this point.

Readers, thank you for the opportunity to share my writing journey with you.
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The journey continues.

​I want to share my experience with Facebook Ads without editorial comment or analysis.  The data will speak for itself.
 

1. Hired my publicist, Valerie Biel, to develop ads, select target groups, report on ad reach and book sales.
2. Created 6 target groups and ran ads over weekend to determine which group was most effective.
3. Two groups stood out and the other four groups did not work out.
4. Ran ad to the two remaining target reading groups for a week.
5. Had 24 sales from 248 “looks” for a sales rate of 9.68%

 
 
Gross Revenue:   $2.99 x 24 = $71.76
 
Amazon 30% of  gross sales  = $21.53
 
Publisher 70% of gross sales = $50.23
 
Author Royalty !0%  =  $5.02
 
Author Net Revenue  $5.02
Facebook Ad cost = ($131.00)
Publicist Cost = ($258.00)
 
Author Total LOSS from Sales = ( $125.98)
Author Total LOSS including publicist cost = ($383.98)

As writers we are always admonished to “show don’t tell”.  It seems simple and direct.  “Telling” is easy and frankly, lazy.  “Showing” takes craft and is a lot of work.

In my writing I have a crutch – The Emotional Thesaurus A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.  The authors state that the purpose of the book is to help authors brainstorm ways to express their characters’ emotion.

So, ask yourself, when you are feeling insecure – what does that look like?  I draw a blank.  The book lists insecurity and provides:  a succinct definition; physical signals; internal sensations; mental responses; cues of acute or long- term  insecurity; and cues of suppressed insecurity.  Let’s show you the example.
 
Insecurity:  feeling unsure of oneself or displaying a lack of confidence

Physical signals:  fidgeting, rubbing one’s forearms, rushed speech and stammering Internal sensations:  a roiling stomach and uncontrollable dry throat

Mental responses:  over-thinking problems or choices, agreeing only to avoid a confrontation

Cues of acute insecurity:   a bent spine, preferring to do things alone, difficulty making friends

Cues of suppressed insecurity:  deflecting questions or concerns, mimicking others who display confidence
 
These suggestions are not an ending point but a beginning point for a writer to brainstorm how to show what your characters are feeling in a scene.  Now let’s apply the technique:

Adeline had not slept well anticipating the first day of her new job.  At breakfast she stared at her hands and picked at her fingernails.  She left her bowl of oatmeal untouched.  She gulped down a cup of coffee, pushed her chair back to get up and announced: “I have, I need to, I’m leaving for work now.”
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It may be a crutch or it may just make me a better writer.
      

I thought one of the primary advantages of a traditional publishing contract was to work with an editor at the publishing house.  I was wrong.  When updating my publisher on the status of my fourth novel I asked for an estimated publishing timeline and a contract.  The response was that she wouldn’t consider offering a contract until after reading the manuscript.  Fair enough, I thought. 

I wanted clarification that I was expected to pay an independent editor.  My publisher’s response was: “What would you do if you were submitting to any other publisher.”

So, I needed a reality check and I contacted my friend and mentor Christine DeSmet.  She told me that in today’s publishing world only the “Big 4” New York publishing houses have editors working with authors.  For all the medium and small publishers, it is too expensive to have editors on staff so authors are expected to pay out of pocket for editing services.

At my friends’ suggestion I re-read the contract with my publisher.  It had language on submitting an “acceptable manuscript” which was listed in an appendix.  The requirements were all technical on spacing, punctuation, font type, font size and etc.  There was no language on editing services.

How did I overlook that omission?    When signing, I was so eager that I didn’t ask any questions, I didn’t negotiate and I didn’t read the contract carefully.  In the end it is my fault.

Of course, I will have the manuscript professionally edited.  I had all the books in the Irish Troubles Series professionally edited.
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I have learned a lesson and it is my wish that all the authors reading this blog learn a lesson too.

Every fiction author has their own way to write – determining plot, story line, characters, story arc, point of view and even grammar.  I still recall the first book I read that didn’t use quote marks when a character spoke – Kent Haruf’s Plain Song.  At first it was disorienting but as I continued reading it became very organic and I wondered why quote marks had ever been used.

I digress.  I want to write about character development.  A simple google search on character develop will lead you to many guides on how to create literary characters.  The ‘greatest of all time’ for characters has to be Charles Dickens and to the best of my knowledge he didn’t use any character development guide although he certainly could have developed one for the rest of us.

I find all of those guides mechanical.  It is like creating a character by the numbers.  Chose one for physical traits, one for psychological traits, one for personality traits mix and match and come up with Character X.  I don’t understand how any author can use this method because it is separate from the story.

For me a character is birthed from the story.  In my current manuscript draft the protagonist, Adeline Dawson, came to me from photos of pack horse librarians and then she brought me her story to tell.  All of her traits come to me from what she presents – a twenty-year-old woman, plain, short brown hair, curious, a wife in a coal mining town and ordinary in every way.  Then this ordinary woman has to respond to her husband dying in the coal mine.  The story is how she survived.  Likewise, Adeline’s friend, mentor and boss, Florence Pruett introduced herself and her relationship with Adeline.  It is because of Florence’s friendship that Adeline learns to survive and thrive after in husband’s death in Pike County, Kentucky.

It may sound hokey but my characters are all organic and not derived from a list or a “method” to create characters.  To all those who may use a list – carry on – it just isn’t for me.
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Are your characters organic?  Send me a response to this post.     

A few weeks ago I received a request from the Author’s Guild to sign a letter demanding that the Internet Archives Open Library stop scanning books and making them available online FREE.

What and who is the Internet Archives Open Library?  It is basically an online library with the noble purpose of making every book ever published available from one webpage.  If a book is not in the public domain and in digital formal the site provides links to where it can be purchased or borrowed.  Fair enough.
HOWEVER, last year Internet Archive began scanning books and making them available through e-lending without the author’s permission or knowledge.  Internet Archive believes they can this practice is legal because of the Controlled Digital Lending.  Never heard of that theory?  The theory is that a book can be scanned and made available as long as a few restrictions apply mainly that only one copy of the scanned book can be loaned out at a time.  This is called fair use.

Fair to whom?

In Capital Records vs. ReDigi the federal Second Circuit Court held that reselling a digital file without the copyright holder’s permission IS NOT FAIR USE because the resales competed with the legitimate copyright holder’s sales.  Even with this clear decision the practice of stealing our creativity continues.
Authors Guild encourages all authors to visit the Controlled Digital Lending site and check if any books are there.  I checked.  I’m safe.

Please go to: https://controlleddigitallending.org/ and check if your creativity has been stolen.
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For readers – please don’t use Controlled Digital Learning – you are reading stolen material.       

​As I mentioned last week my process of drafting my fourth novel varies from the process, I used in the Irish Troubles Series.  I began with the story idea and then began developing characters for the novel.

I wanted to use authentic southern names and specifically names from Pike County, Kentucky.  Once again, my research proves that the internet is truly a strange and wonderful place.  I googled surnames in Pike County, Kentucky and found a list with hundreds – hundreds of names.

My first idea was to have the protagonist be of Irish descent because I’ve learned that Irish are the third largest group in Pike County and I am familiar with Irish culture and traditions that could cross the Atlantic to Kentucky.  I tried out different names for weeks but nothing “sounded” right.

Then I took a different tact and researched common southern names for women.  You guessed it, I found a site with hundreds of names and developed a list of about 27 names that struck a chord with me.  I repeated the process with male first names and came up with a list of 25 names.

The next step was to name my protagonist.  I chose Adeline because it feels like a strong name and my character will need to be made of steel.  For a surname I didn’t use my list of Pike County surnames but selected a name that, at least to me sounded, strong – rock solid – Dawson. 

The working title is:  The Story of Adeline Dawson – Pike County Pack Horse Librarian.
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For the remaining characters I paired first and last names and then gave them an “occupation.”  For example – Earle Calhoun is the mine supervisor and Sterling Aldridge is the mine owner.  In total I have a list of thirteen characters who may or may not appear in the novel.
 
Let me know how you create characters.     

In January I interviewed Wisconsin author Kristin Oakley on my radio show ‘My World and Welcome to It’.  When I interview authors I always ask them what writing routine they follow.  I’ve discovered that all writers are unique and each has a different process to put words on the page.

Kristin smiled and confessed that she didn’t have a regular routine like writing every day or writing in the morning versus the afternoon.  She said when she is writing a novel it is always in her mind so that from her perspective she is working on it all the time even though she may not be hunched over her laptop.  I admired her honesty.  I am always dubious of those writers who claim to 8-10 hours a day grinding out page after page.

Like Kristin, when I’m working on a novel it is always with me.  For example, I’ve been searching for southern names to use in my fourth novel because it takes place in Pike County, Kentucky.  I found a google site that actually lists common surnames in Pike County which demonstrates once and for all that you can find anything on google.  However, my search didn’t end with reviewing this site; I also needed strong first names with a southern flare.

I searched through books in my home library thought of my own family members and people I’ve known.  I paid attention to names on the nightly news broadcast, movie credits and TV shows.  From all this I developed a list of both female and male first names.  My main character is Adeline Dawson and her best friend is Florence Pruett.

I worked on the initial scene and first chapter before I began writing.  I need to “see” the scene before I write – it plays out in my mind’s eye like watching a move.  I then write a draft and later go back and embellish with sensual detail such as smell, taste all things of the senses.  I am also a strong believe that the first chapter must have an inciting incident that propels the story and hooks the reader.  In the first chapter of my newest novel Adeline’s husband Eli dies in a mining accident and Adeline’s life changes forever – she must find her own way in 1935 during the Great Depression.
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So some days it may look like I’m far off thinking but I’m really working very hard.

 
Back in 1997 I attended my first Wisconsin Writers Institute.  I had a dream of writing fiction one day. I was raised in a small Midwestern town that instilled a “keep your feet on the ground” approach to life.  Attending the conference was a gift to myself to “someday” work on the dream.

That first conference inspired me to take the next step – to take a writing course.  I knew I needed to work on the basics.  Even Picasso admitted that he first had to learn traditional painting before he could re-define modern art with cubism and other innovations.

I found a class that met once a month in the basement of a local senior center from noon to 1:30 pm.  The instructor was Dr. Laurel Yourke.  Her approach was to teach one craft item and then assign us to write 2-3 pages on any topic that would demonstrate the craft item. 

During each class she selected several to read their piece out loud and then solicit comments from class members.  Dr. Yourke had very strict rules on making comments and suggestions positive and not negative.  Dr. Yourke made comments on each piece that she returned to each person at the close of class.  Most of the class members were already retired, I was the only person still working a full time day job.

I struggled the first year.  Frankly, my writing was terrible.   At the end of the first year Dr. Yourke asked me to consider taking another path and give up writing.  I begged her to give me one more year.  In the second year I worked on writing with more tenacity than anything else I had taken on.  At the close of the year Dr. Yourke told me I was the most improved member of the class.
Since then Dr. Yourke has retired and teaches private classes.  I re-united with her at a conference last fall.  I was proud to give her copies of my Irish Troubles Series.  She invited me to attend her select classes in 2019.

I will be attending what she calls a “weekender” in April with a small number of other students.  I must submit four pages by mid-February.  I have now come full circle with my first writing instructor.  I am honored and delighted to be accepted into her exclusive group of students.  Who could have guessed back in 1998?
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I have come full circle.