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One Good Dog Is One Good Book

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:49:16 GMT

One Good Dog is a super novel, one that you do put down, but not because you want to: Because you can’t bear to see it end and you want to stretch it out as long as possible.

First of all, don’t read the Publisher’s Weekly review that’s reprinted on Amazon, as it gives away an emotional plot point near the end,for G-d’s sake. But never fear, no spoilers here.I’ll tell you less than you’d read on a jacket cover.

The novel has two protagonists, and the story of each is told in alternating chapters: first, there’s Adam, a Prince of Finance, who has overcome a wretched childhood in at least half a dozen foster homes to become reach his present position, in which he rules over a fiefdom of terrified underlings at the office and returns to a trophy wife at home. One day, with one impulsive act, he loses it all.(A note to all of us writers: This is a model of plotting.Take a character and turn his/her life around in the first chapter.)

Adam’s story is told in third person. But the other protagonist tells his story in the first person, directly addressing the reader. That other protagonist is a dog.

Doggie remains nameless until well into the book when he gets the name Chance. I confess I didn’t care for the name; it was a little obvious even without one character’s explanation of its meaning.But this is a small cavil indeed about the most delightful, entertaining and intelligent creation I’ve come across since Holden Caulfield broke the age barrier.

You see, Chance tells his story in the first person. This was a courageous and risky move by the author, but one that pays off brilliantly. Hasn’t every pet owner wondered what was going on inside their furry little heads?

Wilson had one advantage in taking this “Chance” (I kill myself, I really do):No one can argue with her interpretation of a dog’s thoughts.On the other hand, it’s hard to believe that a real dog has the understanding that Chance has.But I didn’t just suspend disbelief, I gave it a dose of Seconal and had a fine old time.

Part of the book is set in the world of dog-fighting. Two remarks on that: the author conveys all the horror of that “sport” (only Adolph Eichmann might call it a sport) without the blood and gore that some authors and readers seem to enjoy, and second, if anyone thinks that Michael Vick should be walking the street, I beg you to read this book.

Hey, you don’t even have to believe me, if you own a Kindle. Amazon will let you download a generous sample for free.Just read the prologue.Just the prologue.

Writing in the Wine Country

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:55:43 GMT

You don’t have to live in San Francisco, or another major urban center, to thrive as a writer. Anywhere in California will do just fine, thank you.

We all have the image of the writer working alone in the garret room with the slanting roof, maybe a window like the one in the women’s apartment in Friends. But if you are a writer you know that while the “real” work must be accomplished alone, one cannot survive long emotionally, nor make the contacts necessary for ultimate success, without a community of fellow writers for emotional support, feedback on technique, and – what everyone wants most – referrals.

As in so many areas, the Internet has arisen to fill many of the gaps created by physical isolation. In the past decade especially, I’ve seen an explosion of online writing communities and virtual classes that rival some MFA programs (though one must choose among them carefully).

But as much as I “heart” the Internet, there is not yet any substitute for three-dimensional human contact in real time.

As it happens, in the past few weeks I’ve made two trips to Santa Rosa: once to address Redwood Writers, the Santa Rosa branch of the California Writers’ Club, and once to meet ‘n’ greet at the Sonoma County Book Festival.

I put the two dates on my calendar on separate occasions, as the two invitations came independently from one another.But although I do believe in coincidences, I don’t think this was one. Little Santa Rosa, known for being part of the wine country and as the setting for Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt is also the center of a thriving literary community.

The California Writers Club was founded in 1909 (and so just celebrated its centennial) and currently has 18 branches throughout the state.Over the years I’ve visited about half a dozen.The chapters join forces for conferences and other activities but function independently for the most part.

Linda McCabe, the recent past president of Redwood Writers who extended the speaking invitation to me, says, “Interacting with other writers allows for a support network for improving my craft… as well as inspiring me to stop talking and actually perform the act of writing.… I feel fortunate to live in an area with such a vibrant and generous literary community.”

Besides its monthly meetings (which meetings play host to a speaker in the writing or publishing field), the club sponsors frequent panel discussions, contests, seminars, and even, this past June, an “Agents Day,” where both members and the public could have five minute conferences with a variety of literary agents face-to-face .(Which meetings give writers about a zillion times higher a success rate for those writers who submit query letters “over the transom.”)Redwood Writers also publishes an annual anthology of its members’ work.

Just three of many published Redwood authors are Persia Woolley, is about to be reprinted by Sourcebooks, Shelly Singer, author of thirteen mysteries, and Molly Dwyer, award-winning author of Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein.

Redwood Writers was a strong presence at the Book Festival, held in downtown Santa Rosa, where club members held readings and sold books.I attended the Festival for the second time with my friend, Lady of the Light author Donna Gillespie, so we were The Donnas in a sprawling land of music, poetry, food and books, books, books.It was hot, as in 95 degrees in the shade hot, but although I overheard someone complain that it was crowded, it sure wasn’t crowded by my San Francisco, festival-in-Golden-Gate-Park standards, as in “OMG, did they just tear down the Berlin Wall again?” Imagine this: There was inexpensive parking nearby and no lines for anything, be it lattes or Port-a-Potties.

I’m already looking forward to next year’s Book Fest but I have a feeling I’ll be back in Santa Rosa before then.

Chicklit from the Block

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 19:04:28 GMT

What’s a nice suburban dude doing writing Chicano-chicklit?

Something right, apparently, because Mike Padilla’s second book and first novel, The Girls From the Revolutionary Cantina (after the short story collection Hard Language ) is finding fans among readers of the genre. This from ChicklitClub.com: “I did not want to put this page-turner down, there is so much happening at once yet it all ties in brilliantly.”

“Initially, when people started applying the ‘chicklit’ to my novel, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it,” he says. “I didn’t want to be pegged in a specific category.”

He got over it quickly. “I’ve become comfortable with the label. In fact, I’ve embraced it in all of its positive connotations. The audience for ‘chicklit’ is enormous. I’d be a fool to reject that kind of readership. Every writer wants the largest possible audience for his work."

This is a pleasantly honest admission. (I’m not a big fan of the Jonathan Franzen “I’m too cool for this room” school of literary pretentions.

A first glance at the book jacket tells us that the story fits the chicklit mold: The Girls from the Revolutionary Cantina centers around a group of mostly 20something women from the San Fernando Valley who are juggling men, careers, friendships, and the rivalries that inevitably enter into that juggling act. They have something else in common, too: they’re all of Chicana descent.

Their attitude toward their heritage varies. “[Julia] had always been proud of her heritage. Ime, on the other hand, often downplayed hers.”

Every immigrant culture in the United States (which means most of us) has had to live the tension between honoring their roots and assimilating into the composite society known as “America.” Padilla has a poignant story that dramatizes the dilemma. His father “felt that speaking English and being as American as possible were important for his success.” Finally he banned Spanish speaking at home and even forbade Mike’s mother from going to the local Spanish-language movie theater. “My mom says she cried for two weeks, but my father wouldn’t budge.”

But the wheel turns quickly. The latest craze among affluent New Yorkers is hiring Spanish-speaking nannies so that their children will grow up bilingual.

And so, in just this one generation, Padilla Son has become Padilla Author, and he isn’t writing about the struggles of a newly-arrived immigrant struggling to fit in, but about a new generation. These are girlfriends from the San Fernando Valley, and they include Ime, a career-obsessed real estate agent and party-animal Concepcion. “The Revolutionary Cantina, where the women hang out, with its pictures of Mexican revolutionaries on the wall, harkens back to a history they are only vaguely aware of. It highlights the growing distance between their past and present."

Padilla may be happy with the chicklit label, but he’s not exploiting it. He’s already written two-thirds of his next book and, “I’m exploring male friendship now.” Not only that, but it has all male characters. “It’s primarily a father-son story, Latino characters, a small family in Northern California in the early ‘70s against the backdrop of the Vietnam War coming to an end."

Historical fiction? A bildungsroman? Or maybe a whole new genre: “Latino Dad Lit."

Scribd.: the New Self-Publishing Highrise

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:38:51 GMT

You send a manuscript to New York agent. The agent sends it to an editor who buys it for a lot of money. Soon your book is on the New York Times bestseller list. A dream? Well, as Bloody Mary sings in South Pacific, “You gotta have a dream/If you don’t have a dream/How you gonna make a dream come true?”

Time for some different, but no less marvelous dreams.

In a recent post I warned that self-publishing on Kindle was not a ticket on the bullet train to success. But everyone from the editor-in-chief at Random House down knows that the publishing landscape is changing rapidly, and that the power is shifting to the people. The big new skyscraper on that landscape is Scribd.com: a website where writers can upload their manuscripts, from short personal essays to novels of hefty length, and make them available to the reading public for sale or for free.

No-nonsense words from a no-nonsense woman, whose writing is anything but. Her memoir-in-progress, My Drop Dead Life deals with the sudden death of her husband, Erik, which Hyla and her infant daughter witnessed in their kitchen one Easter Sunday night. Hyla was seven months pregnant. Erik was 29. Hyla is now happily remarried and the mother of four but together, she and new husband/father Evan are dedicated to keeping Erik’s memory alive.

Hyla Molander is one satisfied Scribd. author. She explains, “If you do sell your work, Scribd. … takes 20% of the profits. Authors keeps 80%, as opposed to the measly 15% given by the traditional house.”

Hyla recently gave an interview to Jane Friedman at Writer’s Digest. In it she describes a long process of writing proposals for agents who first encouraged her but ultimately declined to offer her representation. “Then, three months ago, Tammy Nam, VP of Content and Marketing for Scribd, was the guest speaker at our Writing Mamas Salon at Book Passage.” (I quote from this interview with the generous permission of Hyla and blogger Friedman, but I hope you’ll read it in its entirety as it contains a large amount of useful logistical information, as well as more links to launch your daily web adventure. In fact, the interview started my daily web adventure when I clicked on Jane’s blog, a touching and relevant corner of the Internet.)

Tammy Nam explained how to use Scribd. “as a way to grow our audience. … So, the next day, I uploaded an essay, ‘Grieving Daddy’s Death.’ It was as simple as selecting the Word file and clicking ‘upload.’ I classified the piece under Creative Writing/Memoir and added tags such as grieving children and death. … The following week, I uploaded the first chapter of Drop Dead Life, and I couldn’t believe the response. In 24 hours, it had been read by 3,000 people. The excerpt was placed on Scribd.’s ‘Rising List,’ received all five-star ratings, and many applauding comments that this mama on a mission desperately needed. Within seven days, 7,000 people had read the first chapter of my memoir, and inquiries about where these strangers could purchase the book came rolling in.” (Recently, two editors at major houses have contacted Hyla expressing interest in her memoir.) I should mention that Molander isn’t just techno-savvy, she’s applied that savitude. She’s put serious time and effort into getting her words online. But that is what we all have to do. Like it or not, readers increasingly choose their books via the Internet, if only in the form of a recommendation from a friend sent by e-mail.

Walt Whitman wrote in the 19th Century,

Oh, to be alive in such an age!

When miracles are everywhere

And every inch of common air

Throbs a tremendous prophecy of greater marvels yet to be.

After the past decade, I can no longer begin to imagine what greater marvels are yet to be, but I await them eagerly.

A Hand in History

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:57:07 GMT

It has been said that "the Internet is word of mouth writ large." (Why yes, it was first said by yours truly. Thank you for asking.)

And so it was on the Internet that I “heard” about Lincoln’s Hand, a new mystery by Joel Fox.

Recently published by Echelon Press, the novel introduces series hero Zane Rigby, an FBI agent with more baggage than will fit under the seat in front of him. “Zane is… not so much the macho studly type we often see in FBI roles, but a man, a good man who takes his job seriously.” ( Book Suite Reviews)

But Zane has just bungled a case, and let a dangerous terrorist escape capture. Although the bad guy is still on the loose, Zane is assigned to a follow up on an entirely different matter: The FBI has just received what appears to be the dismembered hand of Abraham Lincoln, and Zane is sent to find the body that matches the hand and the person who kidnapped the body. As horrifying as it may be to think of Honest Abe’s tomb being desecrated, it’s not a threat to anyone living, and Zane feels the sting of the demotion. As in all good mysteries, though, complications quickly arise, beginning almost the moment Zane lands in Springfield, Illinois. The historian for the local Lincoln museum is his own long-lost true love, Claire, now married and the mother of a paraplegic son. Claire blames herself for the accident that put her son in a wheelchair and is subjecting him to dubious experimental treatment, secure in her faith that a doctor who is at least half mad scientist will restore the use of his legs.

Then there’s the half-mad Congressman McClavity, a man obsessed with Lincoln, and the unfortunate teen runaway who gets caught in the crossfire. We also get to follow the unknown terrorist whom Zane let get away as the former closes in on his next target.

As in any good mystery, most things are not as they seem. And as in any good novel, Lincoln’s Hand is about more than its plot. It’s a story of midlife redemption, which Zane achieves through his own relentless pursuit of the truth behind these disparate puzzle pieces.

As author Kelli Stanley says, “Lincoln’s Hand will make you look twice the next time you take out a five dollar bill.”

Cheap, but not Always Easy

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:45:12 GMT

(First posted on FoxandHounds.com August 6, 2010)

On a busy New York street a young man stops an older passer-by. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

The older man puts a hand on his shoulder. “Practice, my boy. Practice.”

Old joke; just as true today.

More titles are available than ever before, thanks to affordable self-publishing, and print on demand (“POD”), among other technologies. This is a great blessing for both those who read and those who write: there are no longer just a handful of gatekeepers at the entrance to bestseller Heaven. That doesn’t mean, though, that You Can Become a Rich and Famous Novelist without Really Trying.

Self-publishing on Kindle has become particularly popular. (Note: there are other avenues to digital self-publishing, including Scribd.com, but I’ll stick with Kindle as the stand-in for our purposes, just as I might write “Kleenex” instead of “facial tissue.”) It seems so easy. You’ve written a fine book but six agents have turned you down. Pop goes the Kindle! Let the masses decide.

They will, and sometimes in your favor. Joe Konrath is a bit of a cyber-legend thanks to his success on Kindle. In April of this year he wrote that he was selling 180 books a day. But his first digitally-published books were from his backlist, books that publishers had let go out of print, thereby returning the rights to him.

Konrath generously shares his strategies for maximizing both your exposure and your profits with e-books. For him it was a matter of making a number of titles available at bargain prices (as low as $1.99) in order to build a fan base willing to buy future titles, often at a higher (but still cheaper than a dead tree book) price. ( jakonrath.blogspot.com)

Given his track record, Konrath’s further advice has that much more weight: “If you're a new author, reading this and thinking about the fame and fortune you'll make on e-books, I urge you to try the traditional route first. Find an agent. Land a deal with a big NY house.”

Author Lee Goldberg (a friend of Konrath’s whom he credits for inspiration), has had similar digital success. To the Kindle self-published he advises, “It’s all about how the cover will look in postage-stamp size when you're browsing Amazon...which is how most people will encounter your cover for the first time. To me, that means bold, simple, striking images...an uncluttered cover with clear, readable type. You also need to create something of a branded look, so your books are easily identifiable from the everybody else. (sic) My Kindle experience has really proven to me that covers DO matter...maybe more so on the Kindle than with a printed book. One of the great things about the Kindle is that if a cover or title aren't working, you can change them within 48 hours. You have the flexibility to react to the marketplace. Changing my covers—and, in some cases, the titles—of my books has made a huge difference in sales.”

But when asked, “What advice would you give to a first-time writer thinking of publishing on Kindle?” he replied, "Don't do it. I still think selling your book to a publisher, and getting wide distribution in brick-and-mortar stores, is the way to go...and will always be my first choice.” (Kindle-author.blogspot.com)

I’m not at all convinced that it will always be his, or anyone else’s, first choice. What we know in August of 2010 is that if you publish on Kindle, they may or may not come. Even Goldberg admits that his second largest-selling e-book, The Man with the Iron Badge, is a distant second to his first, The Walk. Another writer Jon Merz, has confessed online that he envies the money that Konrath is making and wonders what he’s doing wrong.

So, at some point, might quality actually enter the equation? If so we should all listen to the legendary advice and spend at least as much time honing our craft as devising marketing strategies. In other words, “Practice, my boy (or girl). Practice.”

Martha Alderson Plots to Help Us All

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:15:04 GMT

Martha Alderson says, “Plot is more than just ‘what happens, what happens’ – it’s the characters’ reaction to the events, how they’re transformed by those events and, in the end, how it all connects thematically.”

It’s so true that it sounds simple – until you try to do it. Then it might seem overwhelming. Martha has gained an international reputation for making it simple again. She does it not by reading your work but instead by studying your list of scenes along with your interpretation of the message you want to convey. So if you were hoping to distract her or any other reader with your soaring metaphors or searing insights into the human condition – nuh uh.

I have found that plot is the single most common element with which writers struggle. It is for me. There, I’m out. At the same time, with each book I read, published or pre-published, I become more convinced of its importance, yes, from a commercial standpoint, but "commercial" is just another way of saying, "what readers want to read."

So perhaps it isn’t surprising that Martha counts among her clients established novelists who brought strong plots to their early books, but now fear they are losing the edge and/or their audience as they add to their oeuvre.

And how did Martha become “The Plot Whisperer”? She says that plotting was as difficult for her as for anyone. She had to learn it, and by learning it she learned how to explain it to others.

“I have a background in special education,” she adds. “I learned how to break concepts down into smaller, concrete steps. I use the same technique to work with writers.”

As an alternative or supplement to consulting with Alderson via phone (or Skype) she has available a number of amazingly affordable books and DVDs available. Too many to list, so I’ll send you to Amazon for some, and to her website for even more at BlockbusterPlots.com. There you can also find her author interviews, related resources, and sign up for Martha’s free e-zine. Her blog, on a separate site, has been chosen by Writer's Digest two years running as one of the Best Websites for Writers, and for even more and frequently-updated plot tips and you can follow her on Twitter, @plotwhisperer.

Private Eyes Are Watching You

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:50:37 GMT

As Reece Hirsch says, next time you feel like you’re being watched, you probably are.

As a novelist, Reece Hirsch is the author of The Insider, a new legal thriller. As an attorney, Hirsch specializes in privacy issues.

Privacy issues are on everyone’s mind these days. When I first got a Facebook page I merrily keyed in plenty of personal info, including religious and political affiliations. (It was my first social networking site – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.) Being a San Franciscan, I didn’t think anything of having various liberal causes promoted on the sidebar of my page, but when an ad for “the best kosher restaurant in California” popped up I realized what everyone else seems to have known for a long time. They’re using my information.

An ad on my Facebook page is fairly benign; after all, the site provides a valuable service for free. In fact, Hirsch himself points out, “Some would say that personal privacy protections are eroding. Others, like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, would contend that our way of thinking about privacy is simply evolving, that we're enjoying the benefits of being more connected to one another and we're willing to accept an attendant loss of privacy.” I’ll buy that, up to a point. But just where is that point? In recent months, at least two children have been removed from airplanes, or denied boarding, because they had the same name as someone else on the “no fly” list. (In 2004 the late Senator Ted Kennedy was detained at several times at Logan Airport because of a similar problem.

So, will we look back on this first post-9/11 decade and compare it to the McCarthy era, or wish that we’d done more to protect ourselves?

Presumably Will Connelly, the hero of The Insider wishes that. In the first chapter he witnesses a colleague fall to his death in what first appears to be a suicide from the window of the 38th floor. Soon Will, to quote Hirsch, “is the prime suspect in a murder, the target of a S.E.C. insider trading investigation, and a pawn in a complex criminal scheme that involves Russian mafia and a ruthless terrorist plot to release sarin nerve gas on San Francisco’s BART train system.”

Like we need more stress during the commute hour.

You can read the first chapter of *The Insider* on Hirsch’s website, *ReeceHirsch.com* and Reece’s book on his website. He’ll be at Thrillerfest V in New York on July 10th in Manhattan, should you need an excuse to visit the Apple, which of course you don’t. If you already live there, don’t taunt me, okay? And keep an eye out for kosher restaurants.

Two Jobs -- One Role

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:41:45 GMT

Keith Raffel made a dramatic career change when he left behind the world of Sillicon Valley venture capitalists for a career as a novelist. Or did he?

Raffel has published two mysteries since he left his “real” job: Dot Dead and, just a few months ago, Smasher. They’re the first two installments in a series starring high-tech exec Ian Michaels, and each is set in a harshly competitive and sometimes even sinister world of Silicon Valley. Like all novelists with a strong sense of place, Raffel has taken his setting and made it his own.

We all know how brutal the business world is, and nowhere more so than in the “real” Silicon Valley, with corporate spying and intra-office backstabbing going on before you have lunch at your desk.

Besides, you have to work so damn many hours. As the saying goes, if you can’t come into the office on Saturday, don’t bother to show up on Sunday. Self-employed? You’ll be putting in a lot more hours.

But the life of a writer! Follow your bliss!

Never mind the truth under thatrock. What’s interesting is that Raffel found that being a novelist was eerily similar to being a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. “When you’re coming up with product ideas in the high tech world, you look for a niche that will make your product distinctive and competitive,” he says. ( http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/2010/03/not-new-career.html) Then “you need a compelling story about that product.”

No, none of us want to think of our books as products. But you’re better off if you start thinking now. When Raffel says, “You need to draw the listeners in and have them buy into your dream,” he’s not talking about pitching to an agent, he’s talking about pitching to a potential investor. (I love the phrase, “buy into your dream.”)

“It’s not enough to build a great software product nor to write a great book. You have to spend your time and ingenuity promoting them.”

Raffel has toured the country doing just that, but with his tech background he also knows the value of “virtual appearances.” You can keep track of his whereabouts, physical and otherwise at his website, www.KeithRaffel.com.

Mary Kole: Raising Readers for YOU

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:15:54 GMT

When Mr. Jobs declared, “Nobody reads anymore” (although my bet is that Stevie takes a peek at his own balance sheet once in awhile), many of us trembled.

So it is worth noting that almost all adults who do love books will tell you that the romance began in childhood. (My third grade teacher, Mrs. Ritter, was my matchmaker: She introduced our class to Little House in the Big Woods.)

Therefore, the way to prove Steve Jobs wrong is to expose children to books. When I say “books,” I really mean stories of any length, and it doesn’t matter if those stories are on CDs, or Kindles, or straight from your head.

To my mind, those who bring books to children are doing the Lord’s work. I’m not blaspheming or being facetious, which I have to make a point of saying because I know it’s hard to tell with me sometimes.

Mary Kole is doing that work by representing, as an agent, books for young readers. As an associate with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, she is looking for: “young adult and middle grade novels and truly exceptional, funny, quirky and character-driven picture books (she especially loves working with author illustrators).” I have quoted from her bio at the agency website ( www.andreabrownlit.com) where you can read about what she’s looking for in more detail and also what she’s not looking for. (A key part of finding an agent is querying the right agent. And always follow the agency's submission guidelines precisely.)

Mary also has a personal site, www.Kidlit.com. Don’t be fooled by the url. Kidlit features a blog that covers a wide range of writing-and-publishing topics. Should you put the C-in-a-circle copyright symbol on your work? (Hint: No.) What do you do when you have multiple offers from an agent? How do you structure a novel with more than one point of view? Is it fair to expect an author to have lived through a situation (such as addiction in the family) before he or she writes about it? You can e-mail her your own questions on “the craft of writing, agents, editors or publishing”at Mary@kidlit.com. (Keep in mind that anything you send might be featured on her site.)

When I discovered Mary’s blog I thought I’d discovered a hidden treasure, but I’m afraid I came very late to the party: Kidlit has just been chosen by Writer’s Market’s Chuck Sambuchino not only as one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers but also as one of his choices for the five best agent blogs on the Internet ( www.guidetoliteraryagents.com).

Books for young readers, on average, don’t command as much money as books for the voting age set. The Harry Potter books and the Twilight series are two noteworthy exceptions. If they’re part of a trend, that bodes extremely well for the future of the so-called dying publishing industry, because the teens and pre-teens who are loving those books will be loving more books twenty years from now. Maybe ours.