Music & Mind: emotions floating across the ether!

With eclectic taste in music, I'm nevertheless a classical music fan but of the sensual romantic kind. Take the overture for Sleeping Beauty, a touch of Romeo and Juliet, opera pieces too: La Boheme, Cosi fan tutte, and more. Yet, I love the occasional moment reflecting a smoke-filled cellar nightclub with lazy laid-back Saxophone music. All stimulate emotions in different ways, a tear here, sense of sadness, elation, love, rejection etc. All that aside, let the music speak for itself.

Morning by Andre Rieu: violin.




Romeo & Juliet

Welcome to Mona Karel

Please give a warm welcome to our Friday Friend, Mona Karel, and also a huge thank you, as she has stepped in at the very last moment to be with us today, in place of the scheduled blogger who did not deliver! Very many thanks, Mona.



Facebook and Twitter and Blogs, Oh My!
Way back when I first put pen to paper---or at least zipped a sheet of paper into the typewriter and applied fingers to keys---the main duty of a writer was, well, to write. Once you wrote, then you rewrote, you polished, you edited, then you submitted. You were accepted or rejected. Either way, you continued the process: Write, Rewrite, Edit, Submit. Your book came out, you signed a few copies at local book stores, and you went back to the process.

We now have such a brave new world. Instant communication with everyone, everywhere, all the time. For some people it’s right up their alley. For others (moi!) it’s being lost in London without a map. You think you’re speaking the language but you’re just not quite communicating.

At least that’s how I feel sometimes. And I bet I’m not alone. I fully embrace the concept of the electronic publishing world, and my Kindle is the first thing to be packed for any trip. E-publishing and small independent presses have meant life for off beat characters in stories written by clever writers who could never quite fit their square pegs into the round holes of traditional publishing.

Even in those not so long ago days of traditional publishing, unless one was of the elite in the publishing world, marketing fell upon the shoulders of the writer more than the publishing house if sales were ever going to go beyond the bare minimum. Now it’s expected, even required, that authors actively participate in book promotion.

All well and good and not impossible. For some it seems extremely possible, as they talk about throwing together a website and setting up a blog as casually as I once talked about braising pork country ribs then slow cooking in apple cider and adding cranberry salsa while cooking up brown rice in chicken broth. While others were keeping up with the digital world, I was concocting recipes. Which might have something to do with my shape, but I digress.

I admit to feeling intimidated by all the little icons at the bottom of a blog, encouraging people to F, to B, to G, thumbs up, Tweet, Twitter, let it all hang out and I have NO clue what some of them actually mean. I have finally decided I don’t need to stress over this any more.

After writing for too many decades to admit, I read the magic words from a publisher: "If you would like us to publish your book ..." My story of the immortal enforcer who is not a chest beating alpha hero, and the woman he’s been sent to punish found a home where they are appreciated. Mykhael and Kendra will make their debut in the world via the tender care of Black Opal Books
(http://blackopalbooks.com/wordpress/index.php/about/) in May. And I’m doing most what I do best to let the world know - writing about the experience and sending my words out to the world to read. I’ve created a blog for my writing persona at: http://monicastoner.org/ Come visit and share your experiences of your experiences in this whirlwind world of communication.

Thank you so much, Mona.  Like you, I'm still on the steep learning curve about modern communication!  We wish you every success with your book, and with your promotion and marketing!

Grumble Grumble

So here's what annoys me as a writer...

How do I get more than one or two reviews for each my books?

Now, I have to premise this by saying my publisher (The Wild Rose Press) has a fabulous marketing department and sends out all of their titles to a list of 20 or more reviewers. This is greatly appreciated by me as it saves me time in not having to contact so many reviewers on my own. Then, reviews and links are posted as they come in on our loop, so they are easy to find. Again, kudos and much appreciation on this. I know not all publishing houses work this way. I am very lucky.

My frustration comes in however, when the reviews are posted, and the same titles seem to appear again and again with reviews from different places and I hardly ever see mine. (I'm not saying these folks don't deserve reviews. Of course they do. I just want some, too. If there are only so many of them going around...I want my fair share.)

Now there might be other circumstances I'm overlooking: Are these 'more established' authors? (Name recognition means a lot in this business...however, out of my three published books so far, the first one has gotten the most reviews.) Are these shorter stories than mine? (After all, there are billions of books out there and only so many reviewers and so much time for reading. And obviously a full-length novel takes a longer time to read than a novella.) Are the covers of other books more eye-catching? (Of course this I have no control over, but I've been very pleased with my covers from TWRP and find them very striking.) Perhaps my titles don't stand out from the others in 'the crowd'? (So, how do I pick one that will?)

Even when I've requested reviews from sites not on the TWRP list, I haven't gotten them. What can I do to make sure my book stands out from all of the others? What do reveiwers look for when they request titles: length, title, cover art. author name?

Now, again, don't get me wrong. The reviews I have gotten have been fabulous (Check out my Buzz page if you'd like a sample). But I am greedy. For publicity, name recognition, and I'll be honest, just plain ol' enjoying the feeling of a pat on the back, I'd like more.

So there.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

What bugs me?

In addition to overused words and spelling/punctuation errors (which Francine and Magda have already covered), I would add the following:

Head-hopping – those rapid changes of POV which make it impossible to bond with any one character. I’d also include the omniscient POV here – or, as I’ve read just recently, the “god-like authorial stance high above” where something or someone is described from the author’s POV rather than through the eyes of the character.

Here’s an example of something that jumps out at me: a sentence, supposedly in the heroine’s POV – She was too modest to realise that he was enthralled by her beauty. My immediate reaction is - if she was too modest, then she DIDN’T realise it - and anyway how could she know he was enthralled or what enthralled him – unless she was a mind reader? (BTW I’ve adapted that sentence from a book I’ve read recently, so that the author probably – hopefully - would not recognise it!)

In the middle of the same heroine’s POV section – in fact two sentences later – came a head-hop: “That’s true,” George was forced to admit. Oops, we’ve now jumped to George’s POV, since how does the heroine know he was ‘forced to admit it’? If there had been some facial expression by George, then this sentence might have been far better written as George’s pained expression revealed his reluctant agreement. Yes, folks, we’re back to show, don’t tell. And show from the POV you are in at the time, not somone else's POV or from some all-knowing god-like perspective.

Dialogue with short back-and-forth sentences (say 10 or more times) with no tags of any kind or any other indication to show who is speaking. In the end, you either have to go back and count: her – him – her – him – her – him etc – or, more likely, you just give up and skip it! Irritating, and easily remedied – add a name somewhere, or an action by one (or both) of the characters.

Semi-colons used where there should be periods (or full-stops, as we Brits say). The novel from which I quoted above has a plethora of these. I was taught that a semi-colon was used between closely related clauses in place of a conjunction (usually ‘and’ or ‘but’) e.g. Everyone knows he is guilty of committing the crime; of course, it will never be proven, and not between two independent sentences which have no connection (as happened in this particular book).

I could go on about flowery, over-written similes and metaphors too, and the introduction of too many characters too soon so that you haven’t a clue who is who, oh - and too many synonyms for said. On ONE page of a recently read (admittedly 1980’s) novel, each speech had a different one – sighed, cautioned, gasped, promised, pleaded, reminded and murmured. Eek!

But before you start thinking that everything bugs me, I’ll just add this one last, somewhat different, annoyance – the ‘celebrities’ who write novels and get them accepted simply on the strength of their name. One wonders (in many cases) who actually wrote the novel and/or how much an editor had to tear his/her hair out to get it into publishable format. 

Okay, rant over!

Things that I need to get off my chest . . . Incorrect Use of Possessive Pronouns vs. Contractions

For today's blog, I'm donning my schoolmarm hat. Don't worry, kiddies. It's short and relatively painless. Memorize the correct usage of contractions versus possessive pronouns, and you'll go to the head of the class.

1) Your vs. You’re—Your is a possessive pronoun. You’re is a contraction. If you can’t break down you’re into you are, you should use your. Examples:

Your daughter is beautiful.

You’re (you are) my best friend.

2) It’s vs. Its—Another case of possessive vs. a contraction. It’s is a contraction of it is. Its is a possessive pronoun. Examples:

My dog likes to lick its paws.

It’s (it is) cold out today.

3) Their, there or they’re—There is the possessive of they, there means in that place or some place, there is the contraction for they are. Examples:

Their cabin is up in the woods.

They’re (they are) going camping over there.

4) Whose vs who’s—Whose is the possessive of who and who’s is the contraction for who is. Examples:

Whose sweater is this?

Who’s (who is) going to the prom?

Pet Hate: Confetti words in Fiction!

Why do romance novelists’ and chick-litters cast the word “Rueful” throughout their novels in like manner to that of confetti at a wedding? It’s a word oft used as though it performs some magical rite to proclaim a novelist a true romance novelist because they’ve used rueful as often as possible within their novel!

Oxdord Engllish Dictionary definition Rueful: expressing sorrow, genuine or humorously affected

Ruefully: adv
Ruefulness: n

Roget’s Thesaurus: Rueful in reference to -
distressing adj
regretting: adj
be penitent: vb

This horrid needless word is my pet hate. It’s caused me to scream. Yell arrrrhhhh countless times, and it’s had me throw the occasional romance novel at a wall.

Taking all the above into account why would a hero/ine smile ruefully when indulging in a romantic kiss, and prior to the kiss no reference to regret in delay of expressing passion. Equally there is no reference to sorrow for any reason. Neither is s/he penitent for his/her action.

Now, if a hero/ine is taking leave (regrettable circumstance and or conscience pricked) yep, hurrah, slip in a rueful smile by all means.

The same hurrah goes for a hero/ine if regretting lost opportunity of a little romancing: whatever! And, another hurrah goes for rueful character expression in relation to humorous slant on regret etc.

Throughout many romance transcripts few “rueful” come remotely within context to character thought and expression, so why is that beastly little word there?

Please, please, please I say to all romance writers, let a reader see you’ve embraced the joy of extended vocabulary, and icky words like Rueful (within context) are few and far between.

Also, I wish authors of historical romances would check to see if specific words were in use during their chosen era. A good dictionary will have circa: roughly the date the word came into usage.

Grump over with! ;)

Getting it off my chest.. and onto the page

I am in no position to claim any romance author is doing it wrong. If it sells, it's must be okay. Amend that: the self-published should not solely self-edit.
This is not to deny I prefer Eggplant Parmesan to fish sticks. I love a well-constructed plot, characters with backstory, and any phrase I intentionally read again.