Just so cool.

I received the package on a Thursday. Bill didn’t open it, waiting for me to come home from work to rip open the padded package revealing a Steely Dan t-shirt and “Eminent Hipsters” by Donald Fagen. I entered the contest on Facebook, an unusual way to do so, but hey, I won!

Bill promptly took the t-shirt. “Hey, I really like this.” That’s fine, I thought. I had the book which is what I wanted anyway. Bill just watches TV and listens to music. He was the one who listened to Steely Dan anyway. You can’t fight over what you don’t share.

So here I am reading the book with my feet curled up on the sofa. "Eminent Hipsters" isn’t a biography, but rather Donald Fagen writes about musical influences in his life, musings per say. The stories are not contiguous, but rather jump around a bit, much like the swing and jazz music that Mr. Fagen is so passionate about. “Hey, dear, did you know that Steely Dan was influenced by Jazz?” I ask my husband. “Yes, of course.” He replies. He doesn’t even glance at me, like I don't deserve eye contact because everyone who listened to Steely Dan would know this. Duh.

I listen to the melody of a song. Bill can’t carry a tune but remembers the words of every song he cares about. So it’s useless for him to sing a tune for me to remember what the music sounds like. “You hear the music all the time.” He tells me.

It isn’t until we get into the sedan and he puts the car in drive that I realize I do know this music. The CD is already playing, convenient as it was never removed from the last time we were in the car. “You know there is a line about a Steely Day t-shirt.” He tells me. “You’re kidding!” I reply. So here we are driving around the long route, listening to Steely Dan, Bill singing off-tune and me humming along with the melody. Eminent Replace-Hip-sters.

Do reader reviews really matter?

Every once in a while certain topics by authors and readers peak and furiously travel the social media networks. The activity slowly ebbs when anything that possibly can be said and commented on, liked or disagreed with, has run its course. Recently the topic of paid reader reviews came up.
A paid review is when an author contracts with a service to provide stellar reviews of their work. The idea is that when a potential reader sees the positive review they will purchase this book because of it. So, what are paid reviews good for? Does this strategy work? I don't really know. I am not sure this is wise for any author to do. It seems to me that the money could be spent more wisely elsewhere when trying to promote your book.
How many reviews does an author pay for? When actual readers rate the book, doesn't the average rating change? How much weight do readers give reviews as a factor in their purchasing the book? These are questions I haven't seen anyone bring up.
Let me add my two cents.

Selecting a book from the ratings:
1. I select a book to read based on recommendations by other readers who share a similar taste in books that I have. I trust their ratings, although sometimes I disagree with them.
2. Generally, a book that has made it's way to the best sellers list has done so because they have sold a lot of copies. I don't think an author can pay for enough reviews to propel a book to the best seller list.
3. I only read short reviews. I don't have time to read reviews longer than, say, about 5 lines. They bore me.

My Ratings:
1. I do rate the books I read, mostly on Goodreads under the pseudo name Julie. (My daughter created the account and figured anonymity was best)I try to also add the same review on Amazon, and Barnes and Nobles sites. When I feel like it. When I really like the book.
2. Very rarely have I not completed a book. I love most books. Two times I put a book down because it was too intense for me. It wasn't because the book was bad by any means. I didn't rate those books. One book I stopped reading because it changed in the middle to a very different kind of book and I thought the author lost their way. If I really didn't like a book, I ask myself if it was because I don't normally like the genre. I don't think it is fair to other readers if I rate it based on what I like. I remember reading the review of a paranormal romance book. The reader didn't like it because of what made it, you guessed, a paranormal romance. Duh. Why did they even read the book?
3. Confession, I did rate a book with a 1 out of 5. I admire the author for having a best seller. But I just couldn't like 50 Shades of Grey. I still read it to the end to see what it was all about. It was like fingernails on a chalkboard. But I don't berate other authors who loved it. It wasn't the genre, I have read other erotic books that I loved. Just. not. me.

Should authors sweat ratings?
1. No
2. Don't answer negative ratings. I have seen authors or their representative skewed for doing so.
3. Have you ever gotten good advice from someones ratings? No. Instead, get good beta readers.
4. Don't sweat bad reviews. As a reader, I have seen plenty where I feel like they have just copied and pasted, no real info in their posts. I have seen reviews on books that haven't even had ARC's published. Like, really? Are you just trying to pump up your numbers to be on some list yourselves? Readers like me just brush them away like a buzzing fly. Ignore them!

So, if you are an author, I hope this gives you a different perspective. TTYL

Back from the Orlando Indie Book Fest

I have attended my first indie book event. I feel like I should be sporting pom poms and cheering for the authors 'cause I think that is truely is a significant event signaling a cultural change in our mind sets about indie writers. Well, not my mind set because I have enjoyed many books written by indie authors for several years now. However, there are frequent articles about indie books verus traditional publicated books. Let me make a few observations:

1. Indie authors foremost are readers who also write what they love to read.
2. Indie authors write hoping that others will enjoy their work, whether they sell just a few books, or enough to make a living at it.
3. Indie authors are reaching out to each other, being supportive and sharing information ranging from book covers, to editors, to formating, to interacting with bloggers and readers.

And now, they are finding that if they create a book event, people will come!

The book event I am refering to was the Indie Book Fest in Orlando August 3rd. In one room was about 40 tables of authors with their books. I read some of the books, but was introduced to many more authors and books I hadn't seen before. Although most were of the YA/NA genre, interspersed where sci-fi, erotica, and dystopian. Even a few childrens books. Tables ranged from very professional looking, to a little sparce because it was perhaps a first time event for the author. But everyone was excited to be there, and loved to talk about their books and their stories.

In the other room the set up was for a panel of about 5-6 authors with topics ranging from NA versus YA, so you think you can write, and what makes guys swoon-worthy. The audience could ask questions as well.

There were a few bumps, as expected for any first time event. I think that the authors would have enjoyed attending the panels but many didn't leave their tables. I thought I was late, but the panels didn't start until 9. This wasn't clear on the agenda. I think it would have been helpful to have the people who had info for writers such as book covers, editing services, promotional products, etc could have had their own corner where attendies who write could spend more time to chat and gather information for their writing endeavors. I would like to know about blogging, perhaps there could be a table for bloggers.

Overall this was a really great event. The key is to interact. Authors tend to be shy. But talk about their passion, and you will find a friend and a ton of new books to read.

So Psyched! Going to an indie book fest!

Two weeks away! I am SOOO excited to be going to the Indie Book Fest in Orlando. I am driving up from Miami, and my daughter is driving down from Tallahassee. Not only do we get to hang out together, we get to go meet some of our favorite indie authors.

It's kind of been an evolution over time for me as a reader, my indie author fandom. I have my daughter, "The Girl", to thank, although she tells me she has created a demon out of me. Hmm, demon book reader. Yes, I read about demons, ghosts, vampires, gods and goddesses, werewolves, and harpies. Just to name a few. So I am not insulted.

In 2011, we bought our first e-reader, a Nook. It's not that we were really interested in changing our book reading habits, but that was the year The Girl came back home after graduating college. We all were expecting it to be a short stay while she found her dream career. It was also the year of no jobs or job prospects in her selected field. So she joined the ranks of kids with a degree working at the local grocery store as a cashier. Ask her what code apples or bananas have. I dare you.

The Girl had always expressed the desire to be a writer since she was little. But, she thought she had to have a "real" job to support herself while she wrote. Ok, fine. Well, this didn't work out as planned. So plan B, she started to write, sent out her query letters, and waited. And waited. And... Excitement! Per agent request: send out the first three chapters! And waited, and waited... and "sorry, not at this time".

So, in between the whining, (Oh, my favorite line is "do you want some cheese with that whine?") job searching, working, moping, The Girl did her research. And with a mom's sage wisdom, I tell her to get off her ass and finish it. Yeah, Tiger mom parenting, I know. She tells me about Amanda Hocking, a self published author making substantial money from her books. She tells me about Goodreads. She writes some more, she reads, she creates a pen name, and continues to research how to be self published. So, in 2011, her first book came out. A paranormal YA book. And I would love to tell you more about that except that The Girl has told me I can't. Sigh.

Excitedly I started to "watch" her goodreads page. And I noticed that to the side where other books similar in the genre. With my new Nook, I started to download some of these books. And, wow! I was in book heaven. From there I started to follow author pages. From there I discovered more books, more authors, and book events like the Nashville UtopYA event, web sites like Ourbooksourvoice blogspot. And this in turn led me to the Indie bookfest in Orlando, almost in my back yard. WHOOT!

I love supporting Indie authors. As a group, they are also avid readers and get just excited and animated as I do about reading and book news. And, they are gathering in Orlando! I will be honest, I haven't read everyone's work, and I have about 80 books I have purchased and yet to read. I know, I shouldn't have looked. *bends head in shame* But, now I get to meet them in person! I plan to make a I Love YA pin to wear. I don't plan to embarass my daughter, but that will happen at least once. And we will be dragging her dad along. So they can roll their eyes at each other because of me.

So, if you are the rare person who has read my fledglng post and you will also be at the indie book bash, Hi! Dam glad to meet you! See you there!

What is writing?

"So, how much writing did you get done today?" I asked the girl while stretching my legs out on the couch in the living room. This was the first real question after the cursory "hello, how are you doing?" that never really needed an answer but was asked anyway, even of ones own daughter. I snuggled into the couch pillow just as I started my advance towards the real questioning.

"I haven't been very productive today, but I did update my website." She replied.

"Ok, going to it now." I open up my Kindle to the web search and press the first icon on the page. "Ah, I see it."

"I didnt' say you had to read it now." I can sense in her voice the border between annoyance and irritation. She didn't mean for me to go to her site. I don't care. I read what she wrote hoping not to find typo's or egregious running on sentences. So far so good. I tell her so.

"So, have you read my blog lately?" I ask her. What comes as natural as breathing to her is like plucking another grey hair to me. But as she is the only one besides myself that knows that my blog exists. I ask her to read it.

"Just a sec. Got it." She hesitates and I flip flop the cell phone to my other ear.

"And?" I query. "What do you think? I wrote this post with the changes in the sigh story from what Kim told me."
The girl starts to laugh.

"What?" Now my alarms are going off. I didn't think it was that bad. In fact I thought it was better than the previous post.

"This first part. It's like a book." She tells me.

"Ok, what does that mean?" I mean really, what did that mean?

"Well, you wrote it in first person. This whole post is a story." A simple answer. But I still didn't get what she meant.
"Where you wrote she looks over her magnified glasses and glares at me is first person versus writing in third person. This part is a story."

"Oh, really. Hmm. So you like the story?" I ask her.

"I am so not the girl. Really mom, you had her say masterbation!"

"Yes sweetie, you are not the girl. You would never act like that. Like, ever. This is just writing."
Sigh

Digital dementia

When I was a kid, mom would send us out to play in the rain and mudpuddles out front of the house by the driveway. We would toss in sticks, dead leaves, stones into the water as if the result would be different. The stones would sink, and the sticks and leaves would catch in the spiky yellow grass like a fly in a web. 

Our world was tiny but our imaginations were large. We learned by doing, seeing the consequences of our actions. Then we would throw our imagination into our play. The water was a sea. The leaf was a boat. The stick was a whale and the stone a meteor from the sky.

When my kids were small, we wouldn't let them play in the rain, or with dirty sticks and leaves. We wouldn't let them feel what it was like to get their rainboot stuck in the mud or hear the sucking sound they created as they tugged their tiny foot up.  We denied them the sudden separation of their foot from their warm boot and the splash of white sock into grainy wet sucky muck.

We let our kids play with the newest technology tools.  They needed to be competitive.  They learned the way the technology trained them.  When you push this key, that page pulls up. Every time. This leads to this, then that, every time. We wanted them to develop their analytical minds. They weren't afraid of the next generation phone, tablet, video console, computer.

Our brains are wired differently from our childrens. Our experiences built our brains, neuron upon neuron, synapse upon synapse. We share the same template, but not the same thought processes. And yet we are the ones who provided this clean, precise, neat world.

What have we created?

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/26/new-digital-dementia-plaguing-young-tech-users/

BTW, if you write science fiction this is the science that can be a fiction theme. (this is a blog about books, right?)

Writing, it's just brain science!

    

     We know that our brain develops rapidly during our development from conception until "adulthood". We have two hemispheres, and we know that one side is our creative side, and the other is the analytic side.  There are people we meet who we sometimes can immediately identify which side is working for them by their personality, the creative writer or the analytical book editor.
       We also have a new term of "neuroplasticity".  This means that we have the potential to continue to learn and adapt regardless of age. The key to plasticity is the introduction of a stimulus or event over and over again.  We use this in therapy for patient's who have suffered a hemispheric stroke to teach surviving brain cells the control lost by the damaged brain cells. We used to think that after two years the patient couldn't regain any additional motor control.  We know know that they developed "learned disuse" of the extremity.  Their brains learned that their arm was not useful and therefore eliminated the use of the arm with activities.  The old adage, "Use it or lose it" really is true.
     In therapy we also know that to gain proficiency you must push the patient beyond a threshold of comfort.  The brain needs to be challanged to make those synapses grow a new pathway. The path may be rocky and lumpy, but the arm won't work at all if that head to hand connection isn't made.
    
So what does this mean for the writer?
      I follow author blogs, and the most successful writers will tell you to write, and write and write some more. Write every day. The more you write, the easier it will become.  It doesn't matter that you think you are too old, you aren't!  Lee Child of the  Jack Reachers series is an example of someone who didn't publish a book until much later in his life.
     Most writers will tell you writing is a love/hate relationship.  This means that they are pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.  How else will their creative synapses spread into a new thought of what their character does next, or the situation they are put into develops?  An author can't improve their manuscript if they don't receive feedback of grammer or context.  The pain of edits can help to produce a much better story in the end.

Coming next:  Digital dementia

Really, Kim?

Ok, so I showed my friend Kim my first public "writing".  I put that in parentheses because although that's what it is I am no author. But anyone who can put one word in front of the other can write. Right?

Even so, I found myself defending what I wrote.

"Why do you need me to say I was folding laundry, Kim. What else do you fold? You fold clothes. Dishcloths. Whatever. You don't have to say you are folding laundry. I don't want to take away from the conversation."

 "Ok, fine." Kim argues. Yes,she did not agree with me. What she really meant was "You are wrong, and I am right."  I can tell because she looks over her magnified glasses and glares at me as if to dare me to say anything more. And mainly because she isn't done. Not yet.,

"I can't tell who did the hair swirl. Who is saying what? It doesn't make sense to me!" Now she is finished.

 

I sigh. Yes, I did. And I took a breathe because I realized that I needed to listen, really listen and respect my friend, my reader, who I asked to read and give me her honest opinion. And a writer should never ever write a running sentence like I just did.

So, here is my first edited writing based on a readers input. 

 

Sigh.
A breath.  Slowly inhale and hold for two seconds.
Purse lips loosely. A pause....and slowly exhale.
     "Mom, you're doing it again!"
     "What?" Head turns towards prickly teen. Eyes squint.
     "That. The sigh. this is the tenth time this morning." The girl neatly pulls her sharply ironed hair into
a tight perfect ponytail.
    "Really. Hmm, I didn't notice." I go back to folding.
    "Could you, like, you know, stop it?" The girl harps.
     "I reserve the right to sigh. This is the mom sigh.  It is sadness. It is resignation,
frustration, exacerbation, and wtf.."
     "Giggle, snort." Hair swirl and hand wave by the girl.
     "WHAT?!" I tensly grip the basket.
     "Exacerbation. It sounds like masterbation!" 

Sigh

Sigh-fi

Sigh.
A breath.  Slowly inhale and hold for two seconds.
Purse lips loosely. A pause....and slowly exhale.
     "Mom, you're doing it again!"
     "What?" Head turns towards prickly teen. Eyes squint.
     "That. The sigh. this is the tenth time this morning." The girl neatly pulls her sharply ironed hair into
a tight perfect ponytail.
    "Really. Hmm, I didn't notice." Back to folding.
    "Could you, like, you know, stop it?"
     "I reserve the right to sigh. This is the mom sigh.  It is sadness. It is resignation,
frustration, exacerbation, and wtf.."
     "Giggle, snort." Hair swirl and wave.
     "WHAT?!"
     "Exacerbation. It sounds like masterbation."

Sigh

Just ask a reader, duh!

     Do you remember the 80's movie "Gung Ho"? It starred Michael Keaton who works for an auto company that closes it's doors down resulting in people losing their jobs.  He goes to Japan to beg an auto company to move to their community and keep the factory going.  What happens is the clash of very different cultures as they struggle to produce... cars.  The American workers and the Japanese business men have very different ideas on how to bring the public....cars.  Get the picture? The end product is the car but never once is the public car buyer even mentioned.  The car buyers are forgotten, and only the publishers and writers (oops) factory owners and workers are mentioned.
    So, is it important to even bring up the reader as part of the equation of book sales in today's conversation of indie/traditional book sales? Hell yes! How are the authors/publishers getting money from their books? Duh! Us, the readers. Yes, it is all about us. Us, us us.
     The books listed first in our kindle or nook book store are at the top of the sales list in the genre we are interested in. We are looking at the cover, the story, the price.  Probably in that order. Today's indie books have some awesome covers and chances are they are at the top of the heap because other readers have deemed them to be good reading. Authors simply don't have enough friends and family to push them up that far in the rankings. Indie authors reach out to each other and as they savor some success they are able to buy better covers and reach out to the reader by their websites, facebook and/or twitter. So what if they promote their books this way. (you mean traditional publishers don't use media to promote their books? Rigggght.)  Indie writers share information and are perhaps the friendliest people I have met on line.
  That doesn't mean I don't buy a traditional pubbed book on my kindle or nook (yes I have both!).   I have my favorite pubbed authors, but it hurts a little to pay almost 3 to 4 times the price of an indie book.  I love to read but in the past how much so was limited on my meager book allowance.  Eating and paying bills seemed to rise to the top of the heap in priority over my TBR list. I have read more books in the last 2 years than I have in the prior 10. Isn't this good for publishing world?  A reader who buys more books than ever?
   It also doesn't mean I only buy e-books.  I have been known to buy the hardcover of a book I  have already on my e-reader when I adore the story. I have been known to drive my husband crazy when I drive an hour to the closest indie book store to buy a hardcover book I have already read and get it signed by the author.  (BTW, it was Wool by Hugh Howey. Amber, do you have a treatment for us crazed fans?)
     So writers, give us readers a bit of credit.  Bridge the culture gap.  If you are traditionally published, continue to do so.  If I like your writing, I will buy your book.  But don't diss the indie author.  I like their writing also.  And I will buy their books.
    I do think traditional pubbed authors need to get off their high horse and stop trashing the indie wave  (Mr. Green).  It kind of makes them look like whiners You all are a lot more alike than different.  It's just a culture. The readers are the same.

And so writers: in the words of the Japanese CEO Soh Yananura, "I like you. You make me laugh."