IWSG: On the Road Again

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to the IWSG page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! If it links to Google+, be sure your blog is listed there. Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.

 This month's fantastic co-hosts:  J.H. Moncrieff, Natalie Aguirre, Patsy Collins, and Chemist Ken! 

IWSG: On the Road Again

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: If you could use a wish to help you write just one scene/chapter of your book, which one would it be?

Before I get to the IWSG question—which is kind of a fun one—let’s play catch-up on the news. First and beyond all expectations (though I hoped for it), I have beaten the draft of Death By Library into a shape I’m willing to share with beta readers.

If you’d like to give the book a read, let me know! It is Book 4 of the series, but will stand alone (and it’s always good to have readers who haven’t read the previous books). I really need at least 2 more readers, and the schedule is lax—I don’t even want to see it again until June!

Here’s the gist of the matter, since that effort hasn’t left me time to polish a blurb:

JJ has a new job at the library, and everything is looking peachy. But when things in the stacks turn deadly, she has to figure out who might have killed the local gadfly. It’s not like she has a lot of spare time. Her personal life just keeps getting more chaotic, and there’s never enough time to spend with her sweetheart, police chief Ron Karlson. That’s especially true with Thanksgiving on the horizon and her mother coming to visit!

This is unquestionably the fastest turn-around I’ve ever done from first draft to something I can share (of course, that’s because usually I alternate, and in January I edit the book drafted a full year earlier; this time I ploughed straight through). I like the continuity this provides, and may try to keep it up.

On other fronts: after 2 months of semi-settled life in Christchurch, NZ, we have gone back on the road/trail. In fact, this is posting automatically while we are kayaking and hiking in Abel Tasman National Park. I’ll respond to comments and make visits as soon as I can! This is kicking off 2 full months of travel—I don’t expect to be settled again until  June. The thought is kind of daunting—especially when I consider that we aren’t 100% sure how things will work when we finally get back to California.

Now for the question: if I could use a wish to help me write just one scene (of the book just finished, I’ll say), I’d pick the one where we unravel the mystery. That gave me trouble, and I’m hoping my beta-readers won’t tell me I failed :) That’s a good scene to pick anyway, since so much depends on that moment being convincing and reasonable, but not visible from a mile away.

How about you? Share your news, or tell me what part of a story is the hardest for you to write!

Writer’s Wednesday

My big news for this week is that I really will have a draft of Death By Library ready for beta-readers  within the next few days. I have two readers lined up (I hope you remember who you are!) but would love to have some more. Please contact me or leave a comment if you would like to read a draft form of the 4th book in the Pismawallops PTA mystery series. I will warn that this is definitely a working read; there is quite a bit of work to be done yet. I am sending it out sooner than I might ordinarily do largely because I’ll be on the road for the next two months, so unable to do much on it myself.

If I were really organized, I’d have a blurb ready to entice you to want to beta-read. I’ve been too busy trying to get the draft done, though, so I’ll just have to say...

JJ has a new job at the library, where things turn deadly when a local news gadfly goes a bit too far...

Of course, her personal life is as chaotic as ever, as she prepares for Thanksgiving with her mother in her way, and an unexpected visitor complicating matters, all of which leaves her far too little time to spend with Ron Karlson!


Work has begun on the cover, as well, and I’m excited about the possibilties there. Danielle English promises to make another perfect cover!

In other news, we are down to our last few days in Christchurch, NZ. We hit the road again April 1, and won’t really stop moving until... June? So I’m not expecting a lot to happen with my

writing in that time, though I’ll take a shot at some short stories.

The blog will also go back to occasional and random postings, once I run out of the reviews, photos, and comments and getting queued up now!

So be sure to sign up for email notifications of new posts, so you won’t miss any pictures of cool places or news about the new book!

Beta Readers, Editors, and Friends with Opinions

If you have a contract with Megapublishing, Inc., they may take care of everything to do with editors.  For the rest of us, some huge issues lurk around the question of finding readers for your MS.  Issues like: when where what why and how.  I certainly don't know the answers to all of those.  In particular, I haven't figured out how, if you need to hire an editor, you go about finding a good one (other than the usual word of mouth advice; if taking that I'd want to a) know the other author pretty well, and b) check out their work to see if the editor succeeded).  But, as always, I have thoughts and opinions.

When: I'm still experimenting with this.  In the past, I have waited to inflict my work on share stories until I've gone pretty far into the editing process.  I'm trying now to share more as I go--not necessarily with an editor (I'm not ready for that until I finish drafting the story, at least) but with a beta-reader, someone who will mostly just enjoy the story (or not) and maybe pass on a bit of a reaction, let me know if I'm completely out in left field.  Also: if you give a reader part of a story, they may help hold you accountable for writing the rest, so as to find out how it comes out.  This is a good thing.  Later, of course, I need a story editor who can help me sort out where I'm going wrong, and finally a line-editor to catch the last of the typos and small errors.  I'm pretty good at this, but no one is perfect, especially when editing her own work.

Where: Okay, I just put that in because it's part of the litany.  But I could make it an answer about where to find a beta-reader.  I find them at work.  Try the PTA meeting.  Your book group (I at one point managed to get my book group to read my MS and offer critiques.  They were very kind, somewhat helpful--and out of that experience I connected with two other writers to form a writing group that is still the basis of my editing exchange).

What: The "what" changes as you work through the project.  As noted above, you might want someone to kind of do a reality check early on, and let you know if you should continue or rethink.  Later, you need the various forms of editing on the finished draft.

Why: If you have to ask this, you probably should keep your day job.  Seriously.

How: This one's the killer for us Indie folks.  We don't expect to make a lot of money from our books, so shelling out the big bucks for a pro editor doesn't seem very feasible.  So here's my take on it: while a pro is probably best, any reasonably competent editor is better than none.  So you find a grad student in the creative writing program or a wanna-be English teacher, and work out a deal.  Maybe they aren't perfect.  But they will, if at all competent, be able to tell you where your story stops making sense, and when you've changed point of view three times in a single paragraph.  Join a writer's group and let them critique the work.  And finally, your proofreader could be anyone who is really good at spelling and details.  Actually, it's not so much about spelling (your spell check will tell you it's "weird" not "wierd") but about knowing the homophones, having a good vocabulary they can gently point out that you meant "ablution" not "ambulation" or that most likely in 1873 they didn't use the expression "put the pedal to the metal."  Ask your Mom or that cousin who always sends back your email with corrections.

Oops, I think my "how" drifted back to "what."  Where's an editor when I need one?