by Stephen Campbell | Jun 9, 2014 | Reading, Writing
California Chrome Winning the Preakness - Creative Commons Image Via Wikipedia
It was a riveting story. Two older guys buy a broken-down horse, breed her with the cheapest horse they can find, and the offspring becomes a national hero. The horse that could finally put an end to horse racing’s 36 year wait for the next triple crown winner.
There’s much more to the story, but you probably know it already. The 77 year old trainer. The owners turning down millions for a partial interest in the horse, but that’s not the point of this post.
If this were a novel there are plenty of ways the story could go that would be satisfying, win, lose or draw. Endings that would cause readers to reach for the next book in the series, or another book the author has written.
Of course, the California Chrome story didn’t end the way most people wanted, and that’s where it gets instructive. If you write books for publication, you want a great plot, richly developed characters, exotic settings, and to take the reader into an exciting world. But then you’ve got to write (more…)
by Stephen Campbell | Jun 2, 2014 | Mysteries, Reading, Writing
Shamus Award winner Paul D. Marks tagged me to join the Writing Process Blog Hop. You can check out Paul’s writing process post at http://www.pauldmarks.blogspot.com. At the end of my post, I’ll tag three other authors who will blog about their writing process, by answering the same four questions on June 9th: Rebecca Forster, Will Graham, and Michael Haskins.
1. What am I working on?
I’m currently working on the second book in my series featuring Jason Hunter. The first book in the series, HUNTER’S GAMBLE, will be released this summer.
In HUNTER’S GAMBLE, Jason is tasked with finding the most successful sports gambler in Las Vegas, who disappeared after a multi-million dollar win.
To complicate matters, Jason, who lived and worked in a children’s center while recovering from some personal “difficulties,” also finds himself embroiled in a grisly series of murders.
My current work in process (WIP) is the second book in the Hunter series, and it takes place in Las Vegas as well.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
This is a trick question, right? How is anyone’s work really different? No –– it’s a real question? Okay – First let’s set the genre. HUNTERS GAMBLE is a crime fiction novel, and Jason Hunter, my protagonist, is a ‘sort of’ private investigator. What makes my work different is that Jason Hunter is different. He’s a former insurance investigator who lost his way after dealing with some significant personal tragedy.
He’s a man who is still in love with his wife, despite the fact she died four years ago. His best friend is a Catholic Sister who runs a boys shelter, and his oldest friend is a former sniper for whom the ends always justify the means.
To do the work required of him, Jason must access his old skills (more…)
by Stephen Campbell | May 27, 2014 | Blogging, Images, Photographs
What I’m currently reading: Deceived by Randy Wayne White
If you’re a blogger, you may use images you find on the web for your posts. The correct way to do this is either using pictures you’ve licensed, or those that don’t require a specific license for re-use. I use a lot of Flickr Creative Commons images, and they have always worked well for me.
But the Flickr search mechanism, IMHO, isn’t as good as the one provided by Google. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn over the weekend that Google Images has made it easier to search for images with specific copyright licenses. (Thank you Rocking Self Publishing Podcast episode #47)
So I decided to perform a test, but before I do a quick story.
When I grew up we had a beautiful Maple tree in the backyard of our house. That tree not only served as my instructor for tree climbing but also helped to teach me how much fun hard work could be. It did that by dropping it’s leaves each fall. Seriously, what kid doesn’t love jumping into a freshly raked pile of leaves.
I shared that quick story only to explain the rationale for selecting “Maple Tree” as my search term.
To run this search I took the following steps:
1. Go to Google Images
2. Select Search Tools, which brings up a secondary menu
3. Select Usage Rights
In my case, I selected “Labeled for non-commercial reuse” and clicked (more…)
by Stephen Campbell | May 19, 2014 | Listening
What I’m currently reading: THE CHASE by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg.
Creative Commons Image by francois
When I run on the beach, my preference is to listen to the sound of the shoreline. I enjoy hearing the sound of the waves lapping at the sand, the chirping of the shorebirds, and the roaring of boat engines in the distance. But for those times when I’m running somewhere other than the beach, which is more often than I’d like to admit, I listen to podcasts.
I started listening to podcasts years ago as a way of keeping myself entertained while I ran. That worked, but as my time became more limited I developed a list of shows that would both entertain and educate me while running. There are currently three that I listen to without fail each week. Two of them are long time favorites, and the third is less than a year old.
The Kindle Chronicles
The first on my list is The Kindle Chronicles, hosted by Len Edgerly. I was an early adopter of the Kindle and found Len’s show several years ago. Len is not a kid. He’s either my age or older and I love the enthusiasm and the perspective he brings to the podcast each week. He’s an unabashed fan of the Kindle platform. He’s built a great show format, which includes a news segment, a tech tip and an interesting interview guest. As a long time listener, I also enjoy following where he and his wife are located when he records his program.
While the show is called The Kindle Chronicles, the focus expands to e-books (more…)
by Stephen Campbell | May 9, 2014 | Writing
What I’m reading today – DAY OF THE VIKINGS, by J.F. Penn (HT to the wonderful Terry O’Dell for the idea of adding the ‘what i’m reading’ to posts.)
Original image via Flikr Creative Commons, courtesy of Cole Vassiliou
You know those people – the self motivated ones – who don’t need deadlines. Heck. You’re probably one of them. I thought I was too, but this writing gig is making it clear that I’m not. At least not right now.
I spent Wednesday. From 5:30 am to 11:30 pm in the revisions bunker. Then did the same thing on Thursday. Why? (Any sane person would ask that question, so don’t feel bad.) Because I set a deadline for myself two weeks ago.
You’d think with two weeks to get maybe 40 hours of work done, I’d break it up. Two weeks, 14 days = 3 hours a day. Heck. Take weekends off. 4 hours a day.
Easy Peasy.
Instead, I gratefully took weekends off. Then took Mondays (more…)
by Stephen Campbell | Apr 17, 2014 | Writing
Many of you who visit this site listen to the weekly podcasts I’ve done with mystery and thriller authors. That podcast was fun for me. Really fun, and I think I did a pretty good job with the interviews.
A typical interview involved reading the book we’re discussing, writing the questions, scheduling the show, writing the show description, doing the interview itself, and then cutting, posting, and running the show. All told about 10 plus hours per podcast.
I enjoyed reading the books and speaking with the authors, so it was time I enjoyed spending. But it’s ten working hours a week that could be invested in my writing.
While I’ve enjoyed doing the podcasts, I’ve missed two deadlines on my book, HUNTERS GAMBLE. My new, self-imposed deadline is to publish the book in June. That’s June of this year. I’m still in revisions and there’s a great deal of work (more…)
by Stephen Campbell | Mar 10, 2014 | Writing
As you may know, I’m not a kid. I was fifty-five years old when I decided I wanted to write. I’ve been taking classes, reading books, talking to authors, and, most importantly, writing since I decided it was something I really wanted to do.
Image via Wikipedia
I’ve written a number of unbelievably bad manuscripts while I’ve been learning, but I’ve gotten better. One thing that always concerned me was that I’d come to the business of writing too late. Surely you need to start when you’re young to be successful, right?
The short answer is no, but I didn’t fully realize it until this past weekend.
I had the opportunity to spend some time with Laura Lippman at Sleuthfest, in Orlando over the weekend. She’s the New York Times, best selling author of the Tess Monaghan series, as well as the winner of virtually every award for excellence in the crime fiction genre. When I mentioned the age issue, she shook her head, saying she knew of plenty of authors who started at around my age, including some that had achieved great success. She was far too polite to tell me to get over myself, and just do the work.
I’d missed Hank Phillippi Ryan’s keynote address on Thursday, but I purchased the audio recording. Hank’s a big star in the writing world and is a vibrant, glamorous woman. Imagine my surprise when, during her introduction, I learned that she started writing at age fifty-five.
So I did a little research, trying to find well known authors who had their first books published while they were, ahem, getting along in years. Here are just a few of the ones I found:
- Frank McCort, the author of ANGELA’S ASHES, had his first book published at age sixty-six.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Author of the Little House series, was first published in her mid sixties.
- Raymond Chandler had his first novel, THE BIG SLEEP, published at age fifty-one.
- Rex Stout was forty-eight when he published the first of thirty-three novels and thirty-nine short stories featuring Nero Wolfe. He was eighty-nine when his last book was published.
It looks like this whole second act career idea is not so wild after all.
Are you in your mid-fifties, and thinking of writing? There’s nothing stopping you. But do us both a favor before you dash something off and click that publish button. Take some classes, read some books on craft, put some time in learning how to write. Then, practice, practice, practice, while you’re continuing to learn.
From one middle aged beginning writer to another, it’s not nearly as easy as it seems like it will be when you’re reading. But, it’s not so hard that you can’t put the time in and write something that’s pretty good. If you’ve always wanted to write a novel, and you’re willing to put the time in, then do it. I suspect you’ll amaze yourself.
by Stephen Campbell | Mar 8, 2014 | Images
The Getty Images website, the home of over a hundred years of photography, is now offering the ability to embed images at no cost. The process is as simple as embedding a youtube video into a website.
Most web content producers have learned that finding images that can be used legally on a website, is not easy, or cheap. However, some don’t care and just use Google Images for whatever they need, without realizing that using those images creates a copyright violation.
This ‘no cost embed’ news from Getty Images, can help to avoid these copyright issues.
As you can see from the image below, which was embedded from the Getty site, they post a notification, and a link, to where you actually found the image. The photographer also receives credit for the image. A small price to pay, to avoid breaking the law or licensing the content.
This is an interesting development, and it may be one that will spread to other image providers.
You can get more information on the program here.
HT to @JamiGold for the news on this item.
by Stephen Campbell | Mar 5, 2014 | Writing
Like all new writers, I’ve been searching for the secret. The key that unlocks the door to writing success. The key that the big time, successful writers have that beginning writers must try and learn. In other words, I’m searching for the Holy Grail of writing.
Well, I got lucky and was able to discover this key at Sleuthfest 2014, in Orlando over the past weekend.
If you’re not familiar with Sleuthfest, it’s the annual conference of the Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. This year’s conference was the 20th.
The conference is primarily for writers, but there were a number of mystery fans there as well, taking advantage of the opportunity to learn from, and hang out with, some of the top writers in the crime fiction genre. This year there were three Guests of Honor. Laura Lippman, Ace Atkins, and Hank Phillippi Ryan. All of the three gave keynote speeches and sat in on a variety of panels.
The panels, primarily educational, ran the gamut from craft related subjects, like plotting, revising and the use of setting in books, to the more detailed and technical issues involved in this new era of publishing. Things like audio book creation, the use of social media to build author platforms, and techniques for partnering with other authors to cross promote one another’s work.
There were also opportunities to meet with agents and editors, as well as roundtable discussions with each of these well-dressed types.
I went to as many panels as possible, looking for the secret. Successful, published authors, most of whom had many books under their belts, populated each panel. Surely they had the secret.
I listened closely, took notes where I could, and then reviewed them at night, looking for this key, or secret. I had many questions on how things SHOULD be done if one hopes to become a successful writer.
One of those questions involved plotting. What do successful writers do about plotting? Do they outline, write a detailed synopsis and then use it as a blueprint for their bestselling novels? Well, I quickly got the answer to that question when a moderator asked the audience how many plotted their novels ahead of time. About half raised their hands. She then asked how many wrote by the seat of their pants. The other half raised their hands. Interesting. Obviously half were doing it correctly and half were not.
Then the moderator asked the same question of the panel. Successful, published authors all. Here was my chance to learn the secret. One by one she asked them. The first said she outlined, but her story often varied from the outline. The second said she never outlined. She just started writing. The third, said he based his story on either a cover idea, an opening sentence he liked, or some other general notion, but he didn’t outline. The fourth said he wrote a detailed outline. Always. Hmmm, fifty-fifty. Exactly the same as the audience.
Okay, maybe there wasn’t a secret to writing, at least when it came to whether or not to plot. But surely there was to editing and revisions. I had circled a panel on revisions because that’s an area where I knew there had to be a secret that I didn’t understand. Do great writers edit as they go, coming out with brilliant first drafts? Or, do they write quickly, and then shape the story during the revision stage?
With this question, there was a bit more uniformity, though statistically, there was no clear answer. One author quickly writes first drafts, and then shapes while revising. Two others took more time with first drafts, and then did second or third drafts that were close to what would be sent to their editors. The fourth, wrote only one draft, but edited, very closely, as he wrote.
Darn it! Once again, no secret. Each of those writers seemed to have their own process for writing a book. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place. Maybe the keynote speakers, the biggest, most successful authors among our group, would share the secret.
I arrived on Friday morning, and the Friday keynote speaker was Ace Atkins, the man hired to take on the Spenser series from the estate of Robert B. Parker. Ace is a fabulous and accomplished writer, but taking on the responsibility for one of the great P.I. series of my lifetime, turned him into a (more…)
by Stephen Campbell | Feb 7, 2014 | Strategy, Writing
Image courtesy of Kristin Nador WANA Commons
I read an interesting post from Hugh Howey this morning, titled, Submit. But Don’t Say Uncle.
His post is a response to a something he’d seen online, from a writer named Paul, who was desperate to be published, traditionally published, as a form of validation for his writing talents. This writer, who actually did self-publish, regretted his decision. He didn’t like being categorized as a self-published author, because he felt linked with those authors whose work was not up to his standards.
The idea of going the traditional publishing route is something that has to be considered by every author. It’s obviously one of the primary routes to publication. If your work is selected by one of the big five publishing houses, you’ll be able to have your picture taken, holding your book, at your local bookstore. You may see your book in airport bookstores, and your friends will be able to see, and buy your book, in those bookstores. That’s got to be an amazing feeling. I’ve spoken with a number of authors who are no longer traditionally published, and that’s the thing they miss the most.
There are obvious benefits of being published by one of the big five. But do those same benefits also accrue to those who are published by the smaller presses. I’m curious what drives authors to the presses who won’t be able to get their books into bookstores. The publishers who won’t offer advances that provide some real form of compensation for the work that goes into writing a novel. What’s the appeal of those publishing houses?
Is it simply being able to avoid the stigma of being self-published? Is that why authors would take deals that can’t possibly work out well? My favorite quote in Hugh’s post is the following:
In many ways, traditional publishing has become the new vanity press. Authors used to spend a lot of money for the ego boost of being an “author” and holding their “book.” Now they simply give up a lot of money in order to think of themselves as “real authors” who can hold their “real book.” It’s still ego and money lost. But I understand the urge. I get it. I can empathize with the need to feel good enough.
Of course, there are other reasons why an author might choose to go the small press route. The publisher may provide services the author is unable, or unwilling to acquire on her own. Things like professional editing, cover design, formatting, and a myriad of other tasks that don’t involve writing the book. The author doesn’t need to find the right people for these jobs, or to pay for these services. The publisher will do it for her.
The publisher is willing to place a bet on the author that the author is unwilling to place on herself.
The publishers who pay for these services, and provide the advances, expect to earn that money back and more. If not, why would they make the bet?
Everyone’s situation is different. In some cases going the small press route may make sense. But in many cases it doesn’t. I hear too many stories of authors signing with small presses, and regretting the decision. Sometimes before the first book is published, sometimes later.
Are there others reasons authors might go the small press route? Please let me know in the comments.
Image courtesy of Kristin Nador WANA Commons
