It dawned on me the other day that when interviewing an editor who requests a sample, one of the worst things you can do is send something that’s really polished up and in great shape.

Why?

Because you’re not trying to dazzle your potential editor with your brilliance. If you’re that brilliant, you don’t need an editor!

What you’re trying to do is get a feel for the editor’s style. Do they notice things that are important to you? (If all they do is grouse about the color red you’ve chosen, for instance, and ignore the fact that Xavier the hero is staggering around the field with a sword run through his mid-section and a zombie is dragging him down from the back while it sucks on his brain, yet he’s holding the hand of the fair maiden who is leading him through a waltz in a field of daisies, and her long, flowing dress is completely devoid of bloodstains — but you needed to make sure that your book doesn’t read like an acid trip, well… you’ve probably found the wrong editor.)

Do you like the way your potential editor talks to you? Maybe you don’t like getting comments in the track changes comment field that read, “Why isn’t the maiden’s dress covered in blood? Wouldn’t there be spatter from the zombie’s antics? How can Xavier still be upright if the zombie’s pulling him backward, the better to get his brain?”

In order to get a feel for what the editor can do for you, don’t send your best work. Send work that’s still rough. Oh, not the first draft that you haven’t read over or run spell check on. (Although that’s a good way to alienate a potential editor. I can spot first draft quality at two lines.)

So yeah, there’s a balance. Not your the first draft that’s full of word puke on the page. But not your best.

In other words, send what you are ready to improve. Seek that hard, cold feedback that may sting at first but, once you’re a veteran writer, will encourage you and get your creativity flowing. You’re a professional, right? Seek out the constructive criticism.

But don’t dress to impress. You’re not paying your editor to praise you to the skies. You’re paying your editor so your readers will do that.

Besides, why would you wear a long, flowing gown and dance in a field of daisies while your man’s staggering around, impaled on a sword and with a zombie sucking on his brain?

(Get the metaphor? Do you?)

From website and network problems to computer problems, I’m being given a sign. If only I could figure it out.

BUT the best news of all is that the Featured New Book Spotlight returns next week.

Is your book in the queue? Your friend’s? Why not?

Get ’em in now. Here’s the details you need.

Is the ONE question too hard? Need something simpler? Go for a Line (or two) of Distinction. Promo doesn’t get any easier than that.

“This woman claims to be Lyla Stormbringer,” Roger said. Mutters passed through the group. “I have offered her the opportunity to prove herself. Lyla is known as a master sword fighter, skilled with the bow, and a great puzzle-solver. So I propose three tests, one for each strength. If she proves she is Lyla, we have found our champion. If she fails, we can decide her fate.” He turned to me. “Do you accept the terms?”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t like the sound of “decide her fate,” but I was in the game now. “I accept the terms,” I said, willing my voice to be steady.

Inside, however, I was shaking like a leaf. Never mind wearing stolen cuffs. This could be bad — really, really bad.

Pick up your copy today!
Amazon
Kobo
iBooks
Nook

I’m still basking in the return to posting here. Ahh, life is grand.

Let’s welcome author Susan Leigh Noble today, shall we? Her book came out two weeks ago, so it’s going to be new to most of us. It’s called The Heir to Alexandria, and here’s the song that makes her think of it:

I would like to thank Susan for allowing me to spotlight my new release The Heir to Alexandria. I struggled with finding a song that represented my story. There aren’t many songs that seemed to right fit for a fantasy novel. I finally chose Nowhere to Run by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

While my main character Alista is not running from love, I thought the line “Got Nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide” fit on two different levels. First, Alista cannot avoid going for testing as the heir to Alexandria. The one time she tries to run, she is brought back in chains. And second, the secret society, the Order of the Black Dragon, relentlessly pursues anyone marked for testing and with the use of magic, makes hiding nearly impossible.

Woot! Old school! Did you guys know I simply adore this sort of music?? Well, I DO.

So the book sounds like it’s got a bit of the dystopian to it, doesn’t it? Nowhere to run to? Yeah. Definitely.

Here’s the official book description:

Believed the descendants of the Gods themselves,
The Alexandria line ensured peace,
Until they were brutally murdered.
But rumor spread a maid escaped with the youngest daughter.

Now as the world rushes toward a period of unrest, the nations’ Kings continue their 200-year-long-search for the Heir to Alexandria – the one person who can bring peace and stability through divine power.

Alista has her own search – for the parents who abandoned her as a baby years ago. When her only lead proves to be a dead end, she heads to the capital with a reluctant escort. Grayson is just following his aunt’s order, but he would rather be on one of his solitary scouting missions for the Landra Guard. However, when Alista unintentionally curses a guard in front of the King’s court, everything changes for both of them.

Now forced to travel to Covington for testing, danger lurks at every turn as a secret society strives to prevent the return of the Alexandria line. Are Alista’s visions of the future enough to save herself and those traveling with her?

That doesn’t sound quite so dystopian, does it? In fact, this description makes it hard to not run out and grab a copy right now. (But it’s Amazon exclusive, so those of us who have different e-ink e-readers are left in the cold.)

If you’re so inclined, here’s the link. Use it for yourself and your friends.

Amazon

Connect with the awesomely named Susan:
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Whoa. THAT turned into a saga, one that never should have happened.

Know how sometimes, you make what you think is a good decision, but it comes back to bite you? Hard? Like, broken bones hard? And that it wouldn’t have if you’d known to ask the Very Good Questions your business coach told you to, except you never even knew the #1 question to ask involved stuff you’d never heard of, never even imagined was technically possible?

Yeah. Like that.

So… the past is over and done with and I’m setting my sights on bigger and better. I’ve got a couple of Featured New Book Spotlights to post, and even a Line of Distinction or two.

One note: You may catch typos in the form of strange characters on some of the pages and maybe even in the archives. If you’d take a second and let me know what you find, I’d deeply appreciate it. Things didn’t go smoothly… oh, the odd benefits of eight years of archives.

You’ll often see experts talk about torturing our characters, and the need to do it. There are good reasons for it.

Yesterday, for me, was a breaking point day. You know: one of those days where the day was going really well, I got good news, and then bam! Six things went wrong all at once and they mostly turned out to be minor — although the prospect of sticking me with needles is never minor — but for awhile there, I felt like I was Atlas.

Push your characters to this point. And like my day yesterday, it doesn’t have to be life-threatening stuff (well, for your character. For the doctor suggesting the needle? That might be another story). It can be stuff that hits within the span of an hour. A wallet that falls into that obnoxious crack between the seat and the front console. A gas cap that won’t loosen. Witnessing a car accident and knowing that if you don’t stop, you’ll kick yourself all day. *

In other words: maximum density can shove you to your breaking point, and fast.

When you (or your characters) hit these breaking point moments, it’s how they (or you) deal that defines character. It’s okay to want to curl up in a corner and cry, but it’s another thing to actually do it. It’s okay to fantasize about using the car’s undermounted cannons to blow the windshield out of the car tailgating you for doing only 20 mph over the speed limit. It’s another thing to actually mount the cannons. And it’s another thing entirely to be the person who pulls over onto the shoulder and puts your head down on the steering wheel, scared of how close the tailgating asshole came to climbing into your backseat by way of your trunk. And an entirely different character will flip the driver the finger and slow down to 20 mph below the speed limit, just to mess with the guy’s head.

Go there. No, not personally because those days suck (although they’ll remind you what you’re made of). But take your characters there.

The trick for success lies in the writing, of course. Conveying a breaking point can be difficult because while the stimulus is external, the stress is internal. Going overboard into overwrought is easy, but it’s even easier to skip the emotion entirely. One second your character is driving along, singing along to the latest Papa Roach single and the next? Bam. Explosion, of the emotional kind. Where was the build-up? Suddenly, this character seems… well, unstable, and not in a good way. More like what happens when meth production goes wrong.

Those quick emotional blow-ups are hard to swallow. The character’s motivation needs to be clear. As the writer, you need to take us into their head, at least a little bit. Let us feel the emotion build. It doesn’t have to be “His head started to buzz with his fury.”

Maybe it’s:

While the asshole in the black Chevy crept closer, she took a deep breath and reminded herself to be gentle with the buttons on the radio. Punching them so hard her fingers hurt wouldn’t make a good song come on, but man, a good song right then? Would let her breathe. Singing along ought to help calm her nerves, which were feeling more and more shredded as more and more of the Chevy filled her rearview mirror. She told herself not to, but she glanced again at that mirror and tried to swallow. If she had to stop fast…

Crying would feel good right about then, but it wouldn’t solve the problem of what to do about the stupid-assed mailbox. And right then, the mailbox took precedence over a good cry.

* These are examples pulled mostly out of thin air. Not all of ’em were part of my day yesterday. And no, I won’t fess up about which is fiction and which ain’t. It’s over. Time to move forward, into this fun fictional scene.

Out of the blue came an inquiry: do you post about m/m romances?

Of course, I said. I am an equal-opportunity promoter — it’s not as if my own books weren’t banned from certain sites due to Trevor’s adoration for the f word, and every other word found objectionable (and some that aren’t).

So without further ado, here’s Shiloh with word of what song makes her think of her new book, Bitten by Snake Oil (that’s a super title, btw. Maybe even a great band name.)

I’d like to thank Susan for giving me the spotlight for my new release Bitten by Snake Oil. It is a M/M erotic historical western romance with fantasy elements. So what song makes me think of my book? My story is written in first person from the point of view of my blacksmith Jed Riker. There aren’t too many songs written about blacksmiths. I thought I’d come across an old western song or maybe one from the Civil War. Nope.

I actually ran across this song while putting together a Pinterest board for Bitten by Snake Oil. I’d never heard it before. It is simply called Blacksmith Song by Tom Willoughby.

The music video is a homemade simple slideshow, but the words of the song speak to me and to my book. I know Jed Riker would love this song. Jed is proud of his work, is a respected member of Tumbleweed, a small Kansas town, and he works hard to support himself and his elderly mother-in-law. I am going to write a sequel to Bitten by Snake Oil and this song almost makes me want to give Jed an apprentice so he can pass on his knowledge.

Shiloh’s got a great point. When was the last time you saw a book about a blacksmith? Heck, I’d read it for that and that alone.

Ready for the description?

Since the death of his wife four years ago, blacksmith Jed Riker has been fighting his attraction to men. When sexy medicine-show man Peter Saint comes into Tumbleweed, Kansas, Jed buys his potion hoping for a cure, but receives vivid erotic dreams of the perfectly built salesman instead.

Jed’s uses all his strength and energy to fight the attraction in a town where the local preacher’s hellfire and damnation sermons promise repercussions if he dares to act on them. Can Peter Saint’s potions offer a solution and free the blacksmith to live and love as he wishes and not as his closed-minded neighbors demand?

 

Now there’s a question that resonates with many. Nicely done, Shiloh!

Pick up your copy.

Buy Links:

Decadent

Amazon | Amazon UK

B&N

Kobo

iTunes

Smashwords

Shiloh Social Media Links:
Blog: http://shilohsaddler.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shiloh.saddler?fref=ts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShilohSaddler

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/shilohsaddler/

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00H6CN5D4

And remember, if you read it and are moved by it (good or bad!), a few words of review at GoodReads and the point of purchase will help Shiloh immensely. The best way to give back to an author, other than buying her books, is to leave a quick review.

Welcome 2015!

I gotta say, 2014 wasn’t so bad. It was tough and the start was definitely rough, but overall, my mantra of Only the Good continues to be realized. I’ll take it.

So to give back, I decided to introduce a new promotional feature here at West of Mars, for authors of all ilk. It’s called Lines of Distinction, and you can read about it to your heart’s content, if you are so moved. Which, of course, you should be, since it’s all about benefitting you, your friends, and even random strangers, if you’re so moved.

Promo should be easy and fun for authors — and inspiring for readers. So join me and submit your own Lines of Distinction.

Let’s make 2015 a great year, full of fantastic fiction.

I sent my last project back to its writer last Tuesday, December 23, intending to take a long, well-deserved break. I’ve been feeling a little toasty, a little burned out, and there are things I want to catch up on and a new initiative to launch.

I spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with the kids and with friends. Because we don’t celebrate Christmas over here, Thursday was one boring day, with all our friends busy with their holiday and their families, and my family not bothering to travel to celebrate someone else’s holiday.

And then Saturday came along. It was a beautiful, warm day, so I packed up my bike and went for a ride. I got home and it hit:

That itch.

The itch to edit, to play with words that aren’t mine, to sit in my office and turn on the Spotify and concentrate and get lost in what it is that I do.

Sure, that list of stuff to do is a mile long. E-mails to deal with, posts to write, new initiative, some financial stuff.

But man, all I want to do is edit.

So if you’re on my calendar for January, get ready. I may be running a bit early ’cause if I take another week off? Bad things are bound to happen.

It’s Monday. Where’s the Featured New Book?

On delay. I’ve got fun stuff from author Shiloh Saddler, but I’m pushing to finish up this edit before Christmas Eve. Add in a sick kid and … yeah. The chaos over here has intensified.

Stay tuned. Good books and better tunes (or is that the other way around? You’ll have to come back and read to decide!) await.

So does this client, and wait until you read these books. Inventive as anything!

So here’s the deal. I use Triberr to promote myself and others. Even more than the promotion I’ve gotten out of it, I’ve gotten to know some really cool, diverse people. And yes, I often fill the Featured New Book Spotlight via Tribemates.

But every now and then, someone will pop up on my Twitter timeline, aggravated at what someone else wrote. This last time, earlier this week, it was a post I’d shared from a prolific author I’ve yet to read. HER post was a guest post from another author. So I’m what? Twice removed from the content of this post? Three times? If you click through, do you even SEE the West of Mars name anywhere on the post? Hell, I don’t even appear on the blogroll. But nope. I’m the target.

Pardon me while I sigh heavily.

It turns out that the guest poster is an erotic author who set a book in a nudist colony, and this nudist — and I’m not even sure HOW they saw my post, as they weren’t my followers in the first place — told me it was insulting.

I asked how.

They said setting an erotic romance in a nudist colony was insulting because it reinforced the stereotype that nudist colonies are all about the sex.

Now, I happen to know some nudists. They are pretty representative of the world at large: Some are all about sex, some aren’t. Some like the feel of the air on their skin, some like the people, some like not worrying about what their clothes say about them, some are all about the environmental benefits of doing less laundry. In short, it all kinds to rock the world, you know? And from where I sit, that’s a good thing. But then again, I used to live down the street from Mr. Rogers. Yeah, THAT Mr. Rogers.

So I disagreed and said that the story should be about the people first, the lifestyle second. What better way to dispel the stereotypes than to write a really good book that shows the stereotypes are wrong?

But no. The Tweeter told me I was WRONG. That when it comes to nudists, it’s ALL ABOUT the lifestyle, not the people who live it. And then they told me to kiss off because I clearly know nothing and have no desire to learn.

Umm… excuse me?

What makes a really good romance is that it is about the characters first and foremost. Readers want to connect to the couple; half the fun of a romance is envisioning yourself in the shoes (or, in this case, skin) of the lead characters. The setting becomes secondary, be it a Caribbean island or Regency England or a ranch.

Which means that in my viewpoint, setting a book in a place as stigmatized and as mysterious as a nudist colony is a good thing. The people who are going to pick it up are the people who are open to looking behind the fences, who are quite possibly looking for the truth about what colonies are like. These are the people with the open minds, the people who may even want those stereotypes to be debunked.

So back to my Tweeter. They (the avatar showed a couple, so who knows who I was being yelled at by) were insulted that stereotypes were being perpetuated. They refused to see any potential value in what this author had done, or to engage with her, who was responsible for the post and her research into nudists. And then the Tweeter insulted me directly.

Wow. What a way to convince people to see beyond the stereotypes. What a way to have a positive effect on the world.

Now, pardon me while I go shake my head and wander around for the day, unable to understand how a lifestyle is more important than the fascinating people (because all people are fascinating, in their own way) who live it. Because, you know… it’s obviously more important to live a lifestyle than it is to interact with your fellow man.

I love doing the Featured New Book Spotlight. I’ve hosted a huge number of authors for this spot, and not once has the song choice failed to interest me. It’s widened my music horizons and I’ve heard from readers that the author did such a good job on their post, the reader went out and bought the book. So I know this feature is more than just another link in a line of links. I know it sells books. People tell me when they buy.

But finding authors to fill the spotlight has gotten harder and harder, even as there are more and more authors out there, promoting their books aggressively.

So what gives? Is one question too many? Is it too hard a question? Is it that I’m not looking to run the same thing as twenty others? Or is it that now that West of Mars isn’t ranked in the top 125,000 anymore (according to Alexa), I’m not worth the time and energy?

The Featured New Book Spotlight is a free service, folks. Well, unless you want to reserve your date, and then I’m charging a measly five bucks. I see authors shelling out hundreds of dollars for book tours or book reviews, sometimes protesting they can’t afford to have their book edited.

Ahh, maybe that’s it. West of Mars has evolved over the years, from an author’s site to an editor’s business platform.

Don’t be worried I’ll try to sell you an edit. Sure, I may mention it if we chat (“If you’re ever in the market, come on back and I’ll work up a sample for you” is my usual refrain, if the conversation gets that far), but do I mean it? At the moment, sure. My door is always open to new clients. But mostly, I do it to be polite. To put it in your head that I’m here, and maybe you’ll share my name with your friends — either for the Spotlight or for editing work.

But that’s only if we chat and the conversation goes in a direction where I can bring it up. If we don’t, no loss. We’ve still had a nice interaction, I’ve been able to help you promote your book — and at the end of the day, helping each other is what matters. At the end of the day, I run the Featured New Book Spotlight because I want to see authors succeed.

So spread the word, will ya? Featured New Book Spotlight. Open to all authors, of any genre. Free unless you want to reserve a specific date. No hard sell for the editing services.

Consider this my labor of love.

And watch for something new and even more fun on the horizon, doubling your opportunity to play along and get word of your book out there.

The car saga dragged out for a few days. It was a dead battery, an easy (and thankfully cheap) fix.

But, of course, you can’t disconnect a battery in a car like mine without it affecting the radio. Ever seen me try to drive without the radio on? Yeah, not pretty. And no, I can’t hook my phone into it and play it that way, either. For one, the entire thing wasn’t working, including the clock. For another, those hookups were put into the model year after I bought my car.

So a fruitless call to the dealer and then a very helpful call to Acura later, the radio was up and working. Of course, none of the presets had saved. But the XM came back on immediately, which I hadn’t expected to be so easy.

The car died on Sunday. Last night, I set the final radio station. Four days later.

I’m not the only one around here who’s prepared. I don’t know if it’s my announcement of an upcoming rate hike or just that time of year or all my clients are hitting the same spot in their writing cycle or what, but January and February are now completely booked. Which means that for the first time in over a year, I’m scheduling 12 weeks out.

Twelve weeks! That’s crazy!

But I am SO not arguing.

After all, I have the costs of the car to pay off. And windows to replace before I turn into a Susan-cicle. (My joke with my contractor: That’s not cool. No, it’s frozen!)

But best of all, I can not stress for a little bit. I’ve got work, and I love to work.

It’s all good, right? Well, temporarily. Until something breaks, or until March arrives. March, historically, is my absolute slowest month, for some reason I haven’t been able to figure out yet. As in: so far behind the other months, I’d have to edit twelve different projects (SO not happening, although with my crack subcontractor corps?) to bring March up to the level of every other month of the year. Really weird.

The upshot of all this? I’ve got the car mess straightened out, and affordably, too. My calendar is full. My rates are still going up for anything booked after January 1. And I get up every day, so damn grateful for the best, most creative, inventive, hardest-working clients out there.

After my announcement of a rate increase starting in January, I’ve gotten a lot of mail from clients. Some are panicked. Some are happy to reassure me that they love me so much, they’ll pay that little bit extra. And really, it is a little bit extra. Twenty-five cents for every 250 words. Is that so horrible?

I know: many of you live as close to the edge as I do. And yes, it sucks.

But here’s how it goes on my end. Most of you know I’m a single parent. I said when I announced the rate increase that I’m not going to survive the winter without putting new windows in my office, and I sorta need to survive the winter. See above about being a single parent and all. My kids need me. So do my clients.

Throwing a monkey wrench into my budget is that not even an hour after getting home yesterday afternoon, I headed down to my car for the monthly Costco run. Had no reason to think anything could be amiss (although in hindsight? Maybe), so I get in the driver’s seat, put the key in the ignition, and … my dashboard lights up with blinking lights. And the engine won’t turn over.

Now, this is my baby, my car. She survived the night of broken glass. Hell, according to my body shop guy, she saved two lives that night — mine and my daughter’s. If I didn’t love that car before that night, I’m in her debt forever.

But she’s also going to turn ten this summer. While I have my mechanic keep up with the scheduled maintenance, sometimes, an aging car… you just can’t predict.

So… I’ve got a dead car in the garage that’s probably going to need to be towed.

Now, the good news in all this is that, unexpected maintenance aside, I am a Boy Scout. Be prepared, right? Last May, my Mother’s Day gift was … a second vehicle. One that can handle snow and gravel roads leading to Boy Scout camps (and the driveways at the archery ranges). One I can pack like crazy for a camping trip. One that came with a trailer hitch so I can use a bike rack without damaging the finish on my beloved baby. One that, right now, is running. (knock on wood)

Back to editing. Yes, my rates are going up as of January 1. Windows. Car trouble. We all have these problems and yes, I hate to squeeze my clients, but like I said in my last post about the rate increase, there are people who think nothing of telling me that even after a rate increase, I’m simply not charging what I’m worth.

It’s a fine line, a balancing act between what I need to survive, what I need to keep myself happy (which is steady editing work; I simply adore what I do), and the finances of my clients. But I gotta have windows, and I gotta have vehicles that do more than sit in my garage and taunt me with their refusal to start.

That’s my story, and hopefully, it’s one that’s not going to change again, unless it’s change for the better. My best friend is going to come over today and we’ll see if a good old-fashioned jump start will solve anything. Cross your fingers ’cause I’m afraid this may be the end of the road for my beloved car, the one that saved two very important lives a couple years back.

I got an e-mail from a client last week or so. I always ask my clients to keep me updated on how their books are selling, and Stevie was reporting in. Not all my clients keep me updated. Some tell me how things stand when they ask me to reserve a date for them. And some, like Stevie, drop into my inbox every now and then with status reports.

It’s all good.

What made this status report so cool was what Stevie added at the end: It was a report about how one of my other clients was doing. Client #2 had also been charting at Amazon, and Stevie was glad to see the presence of another West of Mars client on the list.

Classy move.

Let me tell you, I’ve been places. I’ve heard authors talk about how we’re all in this together. Heck, *I* talk about how we’re all in this together. That’s why I offer the Monday Featured New Book Spotlight to any author, not only West of Mars clients. I often wish I could do more to help my authors — and by “my,” I mean my clients, my friends, the casual acquaintances I come across.

Yeah, that sounds sorta self-righteous, but I do believe the cream rises to the top, and there’s some damn good fiction out there. There’s a lot of crap, too, and it comes from every single publisher out there. That’s because fiction is a subjective thing. Not everyone’s going to like what the guy beside them likes.

This is what makes life wonderful. Our diversity.

So remember that the next time you don’t want to help a fellow author. Or even if you do. You’re not losing readers by helping someone else. You’re looking for that spot where your audience overlaps with theirs, the people you can share.

Or, in the case of Stevie, you’re just being a class act, keeping an eye on a fellow author you’ve got something in common with. There’s nothing wrong with cheering from the sidelines. In fact, there’s quite a bit right with it.

We’re all in this together. Helping each other is good stuff.

I could blame it on the weather. On that fact that it was only November and for the first time in the eighteen years I’ve lived in this house, I’m wrapped in blankets as I work and eyeing my budget to see if I can afford to overhaul the computer system here at West of Mars so I’m not trapped in here while my windows leak cold air mercilessly.

Or I could point out that I haven’t done this in over a year, so we’re due.

Or I could reference a discussion I had with a casual acquaintance, who told me I’m not charging what I’m worth as a woman and I should go even higher than I’m going to, even though that may mean every single one of my clients may not be able to afford me — but at least I’ll be asking a price that I’m worth.

But the simple fact remains: it’s time to raise rates, as of January 1.

The new rates, for new clients only, will be:
Content edit: $3.00 per 250 words
Line edit: $2.25 per 250 words
Proof/copy: $1.50 per 250 words

It’s only a raise of a fraction of a penny per word. Current clients will continue to receive a lower rate, and the discount for active Pennwriters remains in effect. Look for me to offer more “book now and receive current client rate” offers, and for me to reward referrals more aggressively, too.

But there are a few more changes. The non-fiction department has proven to be more trouble than it’s worth, and as of January 1, I will no longer be offering non-fiction services — with the exception of author newsletters. Even if you’re not a West of Mars editing client for your fiction, we’ll still help make sure your newsletter (and yes, your bios. Don’t be this woman!) best represents you.

I’ll be updating the website shortly.

There’s more change on the horizon, of course. There’s some business stuff going on that’ll be new over here. I’m continuing to build my support staff, having taken on a bookkeeper and I continue to look for other skilled professionals, too.

So… yeah. 2014 was a heck of a year. A lot of tests thrown at me, and so far, it seems I’ve passed them. Now to conquer the test of continued growth… and an icebox of an office. That’s the next challenge.

Fixing those windows.

I’m not even sure how Mary Pat Hyland and I met. Over Twitter, I think it was — so for all you who don’t use Twitter to chat and network and make new friends, see what you’re missing out on?

So let’s get to business: Mary Pat, what song reminds you of your book?

This is a great question, and as part of my promotion for my new
collection of short stories, In the Shadows of the Onion Domes, I already
created a playlist on my facebook page.

This song, “Secret O’ Life” by James Taylor, I linked to the final story
in the book “The Reluctant Magnolia.” That tale is about a woman recently
widowed who is forced to downsize her life, painfully aware of the
downward slide ahead. But I think the universal themes in Taylor’s lyrics
fit all of the stories.

The connecting thread in this collection of eighteen stories is the fact
that they’re all set in the same river valley in Upstate New York. It’s an
area settled by a major influx of European settlers seeking manufacturing
jobs during the first half of the twentieth century. Each group bought
its own perspectives and unique flavor that remains to this day. (There
are many Orthodox churches throughout the valley and their “onion domes”
help define its skyline.)

These stories follow families, college students, couples, friends and the
recently widowed, each presented with the challenges of life, love and the
rapid changes that come with the passage of time. “Einstein said that he
could never understand it all,” Taylor sings.

Each tale has a different treatment. Some are sweet, others tinged with
bitterness, and since these take place in the childhood hometown of writer
Rod Serling, some carry a definite Twilight Zone vibe. Two are sudden
fiction, under five hundred words, and “The Reluctant Magnolia” is
novella-length.

I think of them all as drawings in a sketchbook, trying to capture moments
in this “lovely ride” we call life and reminding us to “enjoy the passage
of time.”

Okay, how about you? I’m fascinated. This sounds like the sort of thing I’d love to read, to savor a story each night before bed… it takes me back to my grad student days, when I was an MFA in creative writing and I read short stories the way, one each night, and thought about it as I went to sleep…

Ahh, the memories. I still remember how that bed felt; it wasn’t the most comfortable thing my money has ever purchased. But still… It was mine!

Back to the collection. Here’s the back cover copy, just in case you need to know more.

By the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers in New York’s
Southern Tier lies a verdant valley called the Triple Cities.

The shoe factories that originally drew thousands of immigrants from
across Europe have long moved on.

What remains are the distinct ethnic flavors of a gritty community
determined to overcome economic woes, adapt to the rapid changes in
society and find true meaning in life.

Consider these stories as pages ripped from a sketchbook. Some are quick
studies; others are more detailed portraits inspired by observed
characters, whispered gossip, overheard conversations and the local lore
of the residents whose neighborhoods are framed by the gilded Orthodox
Church domes that span this valley.

You’ll find that each tale has its own tone: some are humorous or
poignant, others are surprising and haunting.

Pick up a copy!

CreateSpace
Amazon U.S.
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

The book will be available via Smashwords and other ebook retailers in
late January 2015

(but I don’t wanna wait! Daddy, I want a golden egg NOW.)

Connect with Mary Pat. She’s fun to chat with!

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Color me shocked to read a blog post the other day that quoted a New York Times article written by an Eagle Scout. The guy was calling the Boy Scout Handbook a Work of Great Literature.

By its definition, literature is fiction. The BSA Handbook is, by its definition, not.

From Webster’s online:

Literature:

written works (such as poems, plays, and novels) that are considered to be very good and to have lasting importance

: books, articles, etc., about a particular subject

: printed materials (such as booklets, leaflets, and brochures) that provide information about something

Before you get in my face that the second and third points aren’t fiction, let me point something out: it’s only the fiction entry that gets noted as consider to be very good and to have lasting importance. That’s key here.

Other the Bible, which is in a class of its own, think of Works of Great Literature. What comes to mind? Moby Dick? The Scarlet Letter? Pride and Prejudice? Don Quixote? Beloved?

And authors you recognize: Flaubert, Garcia Marquez, Borges, Faulkner, Hemingway, Joyce, Shakespeare.

These ALL have two things in common: they are fiction. And they are old. I think Toni Morrison is the newest on the list I’m looking at.

Okay, a second look shows some Harlan Ellison and Chinua Achebe. On some radars, that’s old. (On some radars, I’m old. On some, I’m not.)

But you get my point, right? FICTION. Not real. And certainly not a handbook designed to teach you outdoor skills and the twelve points of the Scout Law.

As a Boy Scout leader (Trained Scoutmaster, Venturing Advisor, Wood Badge, and member of the Order of the Arrow) and as a parent of a Boy Scout, yes, I’ve read the Boy Scout handbook. It’s fascinating reading, and the centennial edition is beautifully put together. But it’s not a novel. It’s not a Work of Literature. (to be fair, it’s the 1940 edition that is being raved about, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen, although I’ve seen some old ones, including an original. But it’s still not fiction!)

And you know what? The New York Times shoulda known that. The author of the piece should have known that. He’s a Distinguished Eagle Scout and has won all sorts of awards.

Know something else? He defined what to him a Work of Great Literature is. So he had to share his definition with the world in order to make this argument. It’s one man’s argument. It’s not a generally agreed-upon one.

It saddens me. There’s simply no way I, who works in publishing, can agree with this classification. The Boy Scout Handbook is brilliant for what it is. A manual. A guide to survival, to skills that some think are dying out (they clearly don’t watch The Walking Dead). It’s a way of life, a set of values, a challenge to your knowledge.

But it’s NOT literature.

I think the friend who sent me a copy of Ruth Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires begged me to read it soon, and not let it sit on the TBR mountains forever. Which, of course, means… it sat on the TBR mountains for a damn long time. Too long, but there are very few books that don’t anymore. This is why Jett now runs The Rock of Pages.

But I needed something to read one day in a waiting room, and Garlic and Sapphires was sitting in a pile with one other book. Hardly a pile, right? Easy way to make a dent in the TBR mountains, eliminate a metaphoric peak. I doubted I’d even like it; I usually don’t particularly care for non-fiction.

For days, I did very little BUT read. And at some point, I surfaced long enough to think about the book’s structure.

Oh, sure, you can easily point to the way Ruth talks about her various disguises and hunt for their personas as the structure. The persona, and then the string of restaurants she visited. It all ends with the actual review.

Go deeper, though. Early on, Ruth tells us that moving to New York is going home. And early in her adventures, she does a lot of remembering. You can feel her revisiting the memories and putting them to rest. Her adventures and meals are the vehicle for her coming to terms with her past.

But the longer she’s working, the fewer those moments become. Instead, the new life she’s built creeps into the prose. We may not hear as much about her husband, but we hear more about her son. Politics at the paper. Becoming a celebrity. All this changes her, too, and as her friend and co-worker Carol gets sicker, her personas get meaner and harder to be around — and her friends, being true friends, call her on it.

It’s fascinating to see how the structure of the book ties in so nicely to Ruth’s own changes. It was totally unexpected, how she ties it all together, with food ever at the center, until this isn’t an inside look at being a restaurant critic anymore. Nope. It becomes a story of one woman’s personal journey, and how the people along the way touch her.

I don’t often find books that I can’t put down. It’s even rarer that I find non-fiction that I can’t put down. Go pick this one up — if you’re local, nab my copy before it winds up in a Little Free Library somewhere. It’s okay if you don’t see the brilliance in the structure the way I did. I’m the editor, after all. My approach to the written word is bound to be a bit different.

Jett dropped me a note. She’s come across a nine-book Rock Fiction series and wanted me to know that it’s one of the rare series where all the books aren’t named the same. You know: starting with the same first word, all being named after song titles (that’s common in Rock Fiction), or something else that makes it impossible to tell each book apart.

Am I the only one who struggles with this? These similar titles, either in words or theme, trip me up every time. I have to keep lists of what I’ve read to make sure I don’t both repeat what I’ve read — or skip books in the series, too.

Titles are hard. A lot of my authors struggle with titles every bit as much as they struggle with back cover copy.

I get it. I didn’t have the title for Broken until probably a week before I decided to put it out during Rocktober. I mean, you’re trying to come up with something that’ll be eye-catching, relatively different, and yet sums up the book perfectly. Sometimes, like with Trevor’s Song or Mannequin, it’s easy. Sometimes, it’s not.

So, yeah, I brainstorm with my clients about titles. Sometimes, that’s back-and-forth e-mail where we throw words at each other until the author goes, “That’s it!” and sometimes, I leave suggestions in my notes on the manuscript. It all depends on the client, who they are and what they need from me.

But I gotta admit, when they come to me with those titles that are similar, I cringe… and help them pick the best ones. Because, let’s face it: I’ve already read the book. Such as one reads when working.