Life's quite a ride

The importance of support

2008-02-23T08:07:00.003-05:00

As writers, we are necessarily loners. We have to be. It's not only the creating part that requires solitude but also the sheer time it takes to put those ideas on paper and then finesse those words into a story. I'd wager to say that most writers prefer their own characters to real people.

What's not to like? They come from your own mind, you're their God, even though if you've done your job well they develop a will of their own and often drive the story instead of you. Every character you invent, even the very evil ones, come from a small part of your psyche, even if you couldn't imagine doing one thing in real life those characters are doing.

Real people, well they're... real. Unreadable. Uninventable. Uncontrollable. That's tough for a writer who's used to control his or her world.

I've never been good in social situations, and up until a few years ago had difficulty getting past extreme shyness. What people took as standoffishness was simply pure terror. I've worked hard at overcoming that, with mitigated success. I also live in a different culture than I grew up in and sometimes I just don't get it. Them.

But there are also times when I feel lost and completely alone in a world (the writing world) where it is almost impossible to succeed in, and I end up sitting at my computer thinking "what the fuck am I doing this for"? Problem is, I can't see myself having a regular nine-to-five job (been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the burnout), so what else is there?

To me, that's where the Internet comes in. It has been, truly, a miracle for me. I belong to several groups, some with similar interests, some out of whimsy, some out of reaching out to different people. There's LiveJournal and Facebook, but there's also my Publishers Yahoo! Group and my SF Canada group. These groups provide me with contact from across the world, give me different perspectives on things because of culture, age, geographical differences.

So if I need to whine (very unattractive, I know) or ask for advice or information, there are dozens of people there to help. They may not replace physical contact, and I often need that from the few friends I have in my town, but they can be there at the touch of a button.

This week I was in a fug and needed a pep talk. I approached a fellow SFer through email and asked him for advice. He doesn't know me, in the sense that we've only communicated through our SF Canada group, but he very generously took the time to respond and give me a boost. He not only gave me a pep talk but gave me some very concrete suggestions that have perked me tremendously.

So if you're a lone writer out there and you feel alone in the wilderness, think about the various means you can communicate through the Internet. You'll often get support without criticism and generosity and kindness you wouldn't encounter on your street.

Read an ebook week 2008

2008-02-17T07:42:00.007-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Information:
Rita Toews

(204) 661-2734
r.toews@shaw.ca

website: http://www.domokos.com/readebookweek.html

How "Green" is Your Reading Material?

"Carbon Footprint", "Environmentally Friendly" and "Green". Have you considered these words when it comes to your reading material?

We're encouraged to buy, use and dispose with the environment in mind. While it's easy to recognize the negative impact of excess packaging and chemical content in many of the products we purchase, it's not so easy when it comes to books, magazines and newspapers.

We do have alternatives other than paper for our reading material. Many books, newspapers and magazines are created electronically. No trees are cut to produce them. No ink is used to put the words on the page. No fossil fuel is used to run presses or trucks to move them around the country. Heated storage facilities are not required to warehouse e-books until they are shipped to bookstores.

March 2nd-8th, 2008 is Read An E-Book Week.
E-books are delivered to the end user electronically. They are read on electronic devices such as the new Sony portable reader or Amazon's Kindle. They are destroyed with the push of a delete button, without ever taking up room in a landfill.

It takes 24 trees to produce a ton of printing paper, the type normally used for books, 12 trees are harvested for a ton of newsprint. Up to 35% of books printed for consumers (down from nearly 60% several years ago) are never read. They are used for window dressing in book stores, and eventually returned to the publisher for disposal in landfills. Given that a mature tree can produce as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year, a serious alternative to paper books, magazines and newspapers needs to be considered. That alternative is e-books.

Before purchasing your next paper book, magazine or newspaper, consider your carbon footprint commitment. Read electronically.

Read An E-Book Week, March 9-15, 2008

Found me again

2008-02-11T09:31:00.000-05:00

Some of you may have read my posts on the withdrawal symptoms I suffered from Effexor . Some also commented they were experiencing similar problems. Some emailed me personally to tell me they'd tried to get off Effexor several times and gave up because the withdrawal symptoms were so severe they couldn't function.

I was lucky to have the luxury of working at home and having no other responsibility than myself -- my husband can take care of himself -- and when I was disabled I could zombie-out and let the world go by. Not everyone is capable of doing that.

I've been off Effexor since September 2007 and I can pretty much say I went through hell. And you know what? If I had to do it over again, I'd go off the drug in a minute. Once I went off it and read about the symptoms (especially the brain zaps, but also the muscle cramps, the constant nausea, the diarrhea), I was reluctant to go back to my doctor because I knew what he was going to do: put me back on it. A few times before, when I'd talk to him about feeling "not right", he'd up my dosage, telling me I "wasn't there yet". I ended up taking the maximum dosage, 300mg, and still feeling lousy. That's when I decided that, although Effexor did help me when I needed it 6 years ago, it wasn't what I needed anymore. Unfortunately, although my doctor agreed that I should go off the medication, I wasn't as certain about his ability to listen to my symptoms and believe them, especially after I'd read so many people saying their doctors discounted their symptoms as being "in their heads" (well, duh). So I decided to tough it out and found some ways of alleviating the worst.

But what is this feeling of feeling "not right" when I was on Effexor? I could function well, no more panic attacks, anxiety, or blues attacks. I could write, got involved in all sorts of internet groups, volunteered. Yet, I didn't feel like me. There was a kind of buffer, something between me and the world that made me feel off all the time. I started not to care about a lot of things, from personal relationships to my personal hygiene. Oh, it wasn't drastic, but there was a constant lassitude that made me become more and more passive, or slow. The sleeping problems, the insomnia, for which I'd originally started taking Effexor, were still present: now I needed another pill, Desyrel, to counteract the other effects so I could sleep. I'd wake up groggy and not really rested.

Ironically, I was beginning to see myself as more depressed and dissatisfied while I was on Effexor than I was before I started taking it. Since I stopped taking the drug, my, I'm finding myself again. My brain is sharp like it hasn't been in a long time. I've returned to some of my old activities, like cross-stitching and painting, that I'd stopped doing because my hands were constantly shaking. The world around me is more vivid. I laugh more.

I'm not there yet, and sure, there are parts of my old self I would've probably hoped not to see again. I'm moodier and more sensitive, and I haven't completely chased the diminished energy levels I suffered while on Effexor. I still get muscle cramps and severe tinnitus, and sometimes still brain zaps. I've gained 12 pounds -- exploded, really, and I can put that directly at the drug's door (it acts on the brain's norepinephrine, so it's like quitting smoking).

But I'm getting there. I like myself better. I found myself again, the person I knew, with all her faults, quirks, and weirdnesses. Like any 12-step program, one day at a time. That's all I'm looking at.

The rush is on

2008-02-04T21:51:00.000-05:00

My second novel, "The Wildcat's Victory", was released on Thursday. It was scheduled for January and just made it under the wire. It's on Double Dragon's site right now and should be out in POD on Amazon by the end of the week. I should post the links when I get them.

I have a virtual book tour booked for March and am just starting to get things done in preparation. Then, my editor has a blog tour going right now for her YA fantasy and I'm preparing a blog interview for her -- maybe we could do one here. (?? Dom?) I don't know if they sell a lot of books, but the cross linking should drive a lot more traffic. I'm also supposed to start a new blog for my blog tour -- with some promotional coaching. I may shift everything to it if it gets better traffic than my other two sites -- keeping to two blogs, it and this. I've decided to suspend my rant blog and post on a discussion group instead -- Canadian Content.

Another couple of jobs showed up this last week. I was already secretary of a local constituency association and the treasurer is moving away -- so I took that over temporarily because of the election. Election being the next job, the writ was dropped today. Will be doing my bit to get rid of the second worst government in North America -- the Alberta Tories.

The Wildcat's Victory --
http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.php?ISBN=1-55404-538-X

Bad books: they piss me off

2008-01-31T06:35:00.000-05:00

As a writer, I'm naturally critical of other writers. It's a "déformation professionnelle," a result of what I do. A lot of the times I'm awed and humbled by the talent, imagination, creativity and skill of the writers I read.

Lately, however, I've been annoyed by the quality, or lack thereof, of some of the books I've read. Devil May Cry, by Sherrilynn Kenyon, is a case in point. This book is so bad I can't even push myself to finish it. I don't have the stomach for it.

I'm not really a fan of paranormal romance --usually vampires who reform because of a "pure" woman-- but I thought I'd pick up Kenyon's eleventh Dark-Hunter Novel since I'd read and heard that the series had gathered a cult following. Her blurb states that Kenyon "has more than ten million copies of her books in print in twenty-six countries," so I thought okay, this might be worth a try. BIG mistake.

What's to like about this book? The setting? There's none, really, except for a casino in Vegas or the occasional visit to Mount Olympus. The characters? The female protagonist is a mix of Goody-two-shoes and kick-ass bitch (when the story needs it) and the male protagonist is a bitter, hard, distrustful, deep-in-his-soul-hurt ex-god who melts in love with miss Goody-two-shoes in about five minutes. The story? They are fighting an invincible force of demons -- except when they kick the demons' asses-- who will inherit the earth if they're not stopped.

Add to that teleportation, pitiful sex scenes, healing powers, and a bitch-goddess-who-must-not-be -killed, and you have Devil May Cry.

Oh, and did I mention the writing? It's so bad it's an insult to readers everywhere. Unless it's an indication of the expectations of readers out there, which depresses me no end.

But in case you don't believe me, here are a few extracts that might convince you:

"Sin smiled in spite of himself. Her humor should irritate him, but instead he found it a refreshing relief from the seriousness of the situation. Honestly, he couldn't remember any time in his life he'd enjoyed more than this time with her. And all things considered, this had to be the worst part of his existence, since they were only days away from Armageeddon."

"any time in his life"? This ex-god is about nine thousand years old. He's just realized his twin has become a super-vampire monster, his mother is imprisoned lest she destroys the entire world, and the girl's mother is the one who stole his godhood. Hmmm.

"She stuck her tongue out at him in a playful gesture that somehow managed to be adorable on her.

What was wrong with him?

"Just be a spoilsport, why don't you?"

He supposed he was. He wanted to be playful like her, but he wasn't. A the end of the day, he was all about doom and gloom and he couldn't help wondering what his brother was up to.[...]

"...I can't let the Dimme out and I can't allow Kessar to win in this. Whatever it takes. Whoever I have to sacrifice. I will do what I have to to keep them away from the innocent."

She couldn't imagine the strength inside him that would allow him to carry out such a thing. She laid her head on his chest and held him close as she tried to fathom the source of his courage [...] He was incredible."

Had enough yet? I have. Even with that kind of writing, if the story were compelling, I'd keep reading. But it's not. After 150 pages, the action hasn't started yet.

Am I too critical? Don't think so. Getting published, let alone read, is so incredibly hard. There are hundreds --heck, thousands-- of writers who are struggling with awesome material and not getting anywhere because publishers prefer a good bet like Kenyon. I find it more than frustrating that this kind of stuff is getting published while other more deserving authors are bypassed because they're unknowns.

The conclusion in all that? Cult following, my keister. It's "we made money from the first five, so let's farm out more. The suckers will buy them."

Consider this a wake-up call. Censure? Readers are subjected to it every day by these publishers' bad, bad choices.

The importance of taking notes

2008-01-28T06:40:00.001-05:00

I have, in previous posts, stressed the importance not of being Ernest but of writing every day. Last week I was reminded of something else very important when you're writing a novel: taking notes.

See, if you spend all your time writing and you're immersed in it every day several hours a day, every detail is immediate and alive for you. The reality, however, is that life interferes, just as with my buying/selling a house saga.

Which means that I forget. My new story happens on a planet way off the beaten path and it not only has a different climate and geography it also has a different flora and fauna, a dialect close to scandinavian, different names, etc.

Then there are details of what my characters look like, said at certain points in their journey, decided, wanted to do, have done, when and where.

When did the lawyerly man visit Nor'Winds? Was it the second or third day of Sarena's arrival at the ranch? What as the name of her tranek again? What's the name of that root they use to make cloth? What is the color of Alysisa's eyes?

Going back into the story to remind yourself can be a big waste of your writing time. A bigger waste of time than jotting down as you go along the decisions, big and small, you make.

Aha, you'll say, but if you'd written and outline and sketched out your characters before you started writing, you wouldn't have to take those notes.

Possibly. On the other hand, an outline is exactly that: a preliminary draft or plan. It is subject to change, and probably will change considerably, as you begin to write your story. I may have thought my main character would behave in such a way or make that decision but suddenly it doesn't make sense. He's taking his own life in hand and goes... that way. Or I may decide that I don't like the glacial age I placed my story into and change it to the desert. Or my main characters now hate each other instead of falling in love.

Worse, halfway into writing the first draft I may decide that my protagonist couldn't have made that particular decision so I change the outcome. I can't afford, however, going back to that specific decision and edit it because if I do that, I'll enter editing instead of writing mode (more on that) and won't finish the story.

How's a girl to remember all these changes and shifts in direction? Throughout the years, I've developed some loosely structured categories. I fill them up as I go along. I'll also often make a sketch of the house or place where my character(s) live so I can refer to it. Here are some of the categories I use during my first draft:

Characters: Every person that enters and exits my story goes in there. I'll enter as much detail as possible on them, and not only physical characteristics but who they work for or what they do, what their nickname is, what the relationship with my main characters is, etc.
Features of the story: From the name of the flowers that bloom for one day on Samhain to the number of legs a tranek has, to the orientation of the protagonist's house or the street it is on, any detail that I may have to remember later on and reuse.
Scenes/details to remember: whether my protagonist is contemplating his second sunrise on his new home planet while he's making a life-changing decision or whether one of my secondary characters decides to go into Charlie's for a pint, if these scenes will have a sequel later on, I jot them down.
Changes: I don't like my main characters hair color, or I've decided that she would never act a certain way, I'll jot it down. It'll get changed in the second pass.

So there you have it. Taking notes will not only save you time, but will help you on those subsequent drafts you'll be writing.

What, you thought only one kick at the can was enough? Think again. More on that in a future post.

Post-partum?

2008-01-25T13:34:00.000-05:00

I haven’t been able to settle myself and write – even critique others’ writing, since I finished the edit changes of my new novel and sent the file off to my editor on Monday. Not having heard back from either editor or publisher that they received everything A-okay, as we used to say, is also putting me on edge. This blog entry is a tentative move toward clearing out the cobwebs of ensnarements past and setting out on new paths.

Perhaps the editing wouldn’t have been as traumatic if I’d not had to fight with software for a week. My editor uses Track Changer in Microsoft Word. Being a purist with a strong distaste for corporate sharp practices, I use Word Perfect. I also run a much older version of Windows than is currently producing obscene profits for Bill Gates. In order to be able to handle files sent to me by people who are slaves to the system and use late versions of Word, I also have the free download of Sun Microsystem’s Open Office software.

I started by running the Track Changed doc file in Open Office – until it balked at my choosing to reject some of the insertions my editor had added. (The novel has elements of engineering and military description that she was obviously not familiar with, but her initial queries and tactful questions eventually gave way to outright directives about matters she did not understand.) I could easily have smoothed over the human misdirection but after a short fight, the software decided to no longer give me the opportunity to either accept or reject the changes.

I had been keeping up a copy of the file in Word Perfect, so when I asked her for a new working file in rtf I only lost a day transferring the changes. I used a new copy of the doc file that I took from the original e-mailed edits as my guide. Two days later my rtf copy in Word Perfect went crazy. Two lines of text per page and large chunks of text – whole pages – missed out. Reluctantly I switched to Open Office with the file to continue working. That lasted until next day, when Open Office couldn’t handle the file either – the same two lines of text per page, but these appeared sideways, in landscape mode.

Deciding what to do, and contemplating having to start all over again with a new file. I noticed that the original file had magnified to over 2 Meg in size and wondered if that might be a symptom of the problem. I decided to switch to Wordpad – remembering the way I use Notepad to strip all the formatting residue from files I want to send in clean text. Opening the file in Wordpad – fingers crossed because I didn’t know if it would refuse to open something so large – I found all the pages filled with text, and no blocks of text missing. I saved the file and opened it again in Word Perfect. Perfect was the word – no problems at all now. The file that had collected so much irrelevant formatting and correction trash because of the buried Track Changer commands had shrunk back to a clean 740 kb. Only another one day wasted – but I didn’t have to start all over again – I was almost on the last lap. I’d promised the completed edits for Sunday, but deciding to be safe, I elected to read the whole novel from beginning to end to do final edits and ensure no software bombs were hidden in the pages. I managed to send it off Monday evening.

Why do I feel as if I’ve just given birth?

Writing withdrawals

2008-01-14T06:31:00.000-05:00

It's been a very difficult two months for several reasons. If you've read previous entries, you'll know that I've been suffering from Effexor withdrawal symptoms, that we were in the process of buying a condo and of preparing our house for sale. Experts say that moving is one of the most stressful elements in a life, after a death or a divorce.

I've been managing fairly well but there's a consequence to all this "new" activity I hadn't considered: I'm not writing.

It's not that every minute of my time is filled up, it's that it's hard to get into the mode where there are a million things to think about. Every time I mention writing habits, I always say to try to write every day, if only a few words. I'm not sure I ever explained why: it's that you lose momentum and, after a short while, you stop dead.

See, even though writing is my life, my passion, my job, I don't feel like doing it any more. I don't think it has to do with me needing to find a new job. It has to do with routine. A well-known author --cant' remember the name-- said that if she waited for inspiration, she'd write two days a year. And that's it.

Writing is all about routine. Some call it discipline, and it is that, as well, but it's also a way to get the brain trained into writing mode. A mode where it goes into painful contractions if it's not used to use words.

After a while, like any withdrawal symptoms from any drug, the effects go away and you're left with only the memories of it. This is not whining self-pity; it's a hard realization for me, because yesterday I tried to think when I last wrote, and I couldn't remember. I started to panic.

So today, this morning, I'm getting back into the routine, if only for writing that single page that will get me going. Time to train the brain back into doing its calisthenics, and producing those endorphins that give me such a rush.

Rejected Manuscripts

2007-12-26T05:10:00.001-05:00

It's been crazy in our house for the past two weeks. We've put an offer on a condo and are putting our house on the market in January, which means de-cluttering and, most of all, clearing things out since we've decided to update the carpets --whatever's left, which isn't much-- and freshen up the paint in the basement.

Clearing out 21 years of accumulated junk is more than daunting. Sometimes it's depressing and sometimes downright heartbreaking. We're going into a much smaller place so we have to be ruthless. Both my husband and I are pack rats, for different things, but we both love books. Getting rid of our books has been a wrench and we've already kept more than we should. What the heck, we figure we'll cull again once we see what kind of space we have.

While sorting books, I came across Rotten Reviews & Rejections, edited by Bill Henderson and André Bernard and while I go through it giggling and being amazed at people's lack of foresight, I thought I'd spend a couple of posts talking about rejections and reviews, interspersing them with some of those same from authors about authors (we are our worst critics), from publishers, newspaper people, etc. taken from the book mentioned above.

My work in progess (what we call, in writer's parlance a wip) is quite different from what I usually write. It started during NaNoWriMo this year and has taken a life of its own so I decided I'd like to see if I can find another publisher for it. This is like not putting your eggs in the same basket principle; I'm not, however, looking forward to the process.

Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, 1865: "We fancy that any real child might be more puzzled than enchanted by this stiff, overwrought story." Children's Books

Looking for a publisher, or even an agent, can be an exercise in frustration. As a writer, you believe in your story, in your writing. You want to put it out there because most writers write to be read. (Any writer who says differently should be journaling instead). The fact that most writers would like to write full time and can't is a source of frustration. Writing full time means giving up food and shelter because, unless you sell a lot of books, you basically make little if no money.

"But... aren't writers loaded?" Ha! There are literally tens of thousands of writers, fiction and non-fiction, and I'm talking only in the English-speaking language. If you chop the heads off the J. K. Rowlings, Stephen Kings, and Doctor Phils, who allegedly rake in millions, the average yearly salary for a writer is in the four digits.

The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain, 1934: "...I think it is only a matter of time before you reach out into more substantial efforts that will be capable of making some real money as books."

So when you send out your manuscript to a publisher and agent, it's not only your hope that it will be published that goes with it, but also your hope that, maybe, you'll be able to afford one day to do what you love full time.

The disconnect comes right here: publishers are strictly a business. They don't exist to help up-and-coming writers, or to present new, talented writers to their readership. Publishing must be, to survive, a low risk business. That's why publishers would rather publish well-known writers (that's why you see so many reprints) than throw good money after bad on an unknown. There are additional factors, as well, of course, such as the sheer volume of --often very bad-- manuscripts they receive. The number, let alone the quality, would daunt and discourage any editor. Add to that a decreasing readership and the disconnect between hopeful writer and publisher becomes the Great Divide.

So are we silly idiots or great dreamers? Depending on the day, I feel like one or the other. Or both.

Tiles, loaves, and plots

2007-12-22T19:06:00.000-05:00

You don’t mind if I carry over a topic from my other blog www.serial-adventure-fiction.blogspot.com here do you? Thanks. My stollen I was baking yesterday when I wrote an entry in the other blog, turned out fairly well. Quite edible even if they didn’t close up around the filling. My wife says to reduce the amount of filling (sugar and cinnamon) and I think I might also double the amount of yeast, but not too bad a result from interpolating across two book recipes.

Having a busy writing life, you might be excused for wondering how I have time for such flights into the wild unknown. Well it’s all the fault of the tile setters. They were to come to lay tile in the bathroom on Wednesday . . . then it was Thursday . . . then. Well, they arrived this morning. With the threat of having to cross my legs for a whole day hanging over me I just couldn’t settle down to working on the next chapter of the novel in progress. I did manage some material in trial introductory chapters for the next novel in my Iskander series, but I’d been mulling that over for weeks – months even.

They are using Quick-set for the tiles and promise the whole job will be completed early this evening when they come back to grout. I had intended to tile the bathroom myself – even bought the tiles about ten years ago – but just couldn’t work up the enthusiasm to start. Well, we’d laid about 500 sq ft ourselves some years before that and although everything came out well, it kinda dampened our enthusiasm for doing more. There still is more to do but what the heck, the house was built in 1984, so leaving a few jobs for later is a minor detail. I’d much rather be writing.

Talking about trial introductory chapters, you wouldn’t happen to know an early test to indicate whether a plot and scenario is going to work, do you? Each one of the three novels published or under contract for the series has a somewhat different dynamic. Deadly Enterprise, the first release has Gisel Matah my feisty security officer acting as a guy’s bodyguard, pursued by enemies as she takes him to an enemy city. (Think Frodo making for Rivendell.) The second, The Wildcat’s Victory, has her as a director of events when she leads troops into dangerous action. (Aragorn becomes the King of Gondor.) The third, Arrival, is a prequel when she’s a sixteen year old brat who grows up into this competent warrior over the course of an eventful five months. (Merry and Pippin coming of age.) For the next novel I want to show her in an executive position, military governor of a turbulent city, while she struggles to keep the lid on the plots of a host of enemies – and become a new mother at the same time. This time my protagonist doesn’t have an objective and a plan, other than to stay alive, while a number of antagonists assail her position as governor from all sides. It seems backwards from the general structure of hero struggling against outer forces to attain a goal, but perhaps its not too different to work.

Will close with season’s greetings to all.

Swimming against the Current.

2007-12-14T15:56:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the intro, Dom.

Hello, I’m Christopher Hoare, the new addition to the writers of the blog. Trailowner is the name I used to sign on to Blogspot for the blog I started back in 2006. It was supposed to be an advice and commentary site for people traveling off-road, since I’d been involved with off road travel since 1959, first in the British Army and then oil exploration in the Libyan Desert, Canadian mountains, bush and the Arctic. That direction for the blog didn’t attract attention – I guess there’s a certain machismo attached to getting stuck in mudholes that prevent the participants from seeking experienced input. I quickly switched the blog to my rant site whenever I needed to let off steam about public affairs.

I live in a small hamlet in southern Alberta tucked up against the Rocky Mountains at the entrance to the Crowsnest Pass. Looking north from our place one sees first the CPR Crowsnest line, then Highway 3, and down in the bottom of the valley the Crowsnest River on its way to meet the Castle and the North Fork to become the Oldman River. Retired from surveying in oil and gas exploration I now write full time.

The community is classic western, filled with cows and cowboys, and with a European outlook I’ve never pretended to fit in. That consideration was moot until my first novel, Deadly Enterprise a sci-fi adventure, was released this July. People are interested – I’m known fairly well, my wife and I have been here for 32 years – but the first questions usually is, “Is it a Western?”

Not exactly. It’s a story blending the future with a 17th century alternate world and the action takes place in an alternate Europe – a journey from what we call England to a city at the mouth of the river that today forms the boundary between Germany and Poland. It doesn’t have cows or cowboys, but it does have horses – and the female protagonist is somewhat of a swordfighting equivalent of a gunslinger.

I’m pleased to have placed or sold about 35 copies locally in the past three months, but most of my promotion is conducted on the internet to cajole readers to the e-book site and the POD paperback site on Amazon. I have to wonder what the response would have been if I’d worked on a historical western along the lines of Fred Stenson’s “Lightning” – that incidentally closes at a location on the Crowsnest River below the community where I live. (Fred described the place at a reading I helped organize for the Alberta Centenary.)

I have used the view from my deck as the basis for the map of Rast, the location for a fantasy novel that will be released in a year or so by Zumaya Publications. The Livingstone Range has become the Foghead mountains and the Porcupine Hills the Meronin Hills. The transition to prairie and the whole sweep of the land as far as the patriarchal kingdom of Easderly (Ontario & Quebec) has become the Undulains. I resurrected Palliser’s assessment for the land south of Hwy 3 because I needed a desert, which I imported from Cerenaica in Libya, complete with the Sebket es Sahiba – a salt marsh that now covers the Blood Indian Reserve and the town of Cardston. I hope I’m not visited by a lynch mob from the area when this new geography is revealed.

Those thoughts lead me to pose a question. Science fiction and fantasy writers do not write regional fiction, but how strongly does the geographical and demographic location of the writer figure in their output?

A new contributor to the blog

2007-12-14T07:54:00.000-05:00

If you looked at the right side of the blog, you'll see that there is someone new there: Trailowner. I'm not quite sure why he calls himself that, but Chris Hoare is a fellow Canadian Writer whom I invited to contribute to the blog.

If you read his bio, you'll see that life has definitely been a ride for him, so he should provide us with some interesting insights into the world of writing and life in general, especially since he lives somewhere in the boonies (well, it is a small village) in Alberta, Canada, a province whose face has changed many times over the years.

If you want to read more about what Chris is doing or thinking, follow the road to http://trailowner.blogspot.com

Airbrushing pictures

2007-12-13T06:28:00.001-05:00

The Digital Photoshop Retouching site here shows how it is difficult, and how it will become more and more impossible, to know the truth through digital photographs.

Some of these "improvements" are quite dramatic and supports my contempt for Hollywood's beautiful people and those who think that what they see is the real thing. It's all a fake, guys.

Hook, Line and Sinker: Blogging Basics

2007-12-06T07:38:00.000-05:00

Well, at least I don't have to tell you what a blog is; you're reading one right now. But if you're thinking of starting a blog, or have just started and wonder where to go with it, this post's for you.

The first question you must ask yourself is why you want to maintain a blog, and the key word here is maintain. I don't have any statistics on the time it takes time to get a blog established but you're not the only one out there, so it won't happen the first time you write a line. In 2004, ClickZ Network reported that there were over 4 million blogs and that this number was doubling every two months. Technorati is now tracking 81.3 million blogs. Kind of a needle in a haystack, isn't it?

Here are a few tricks that may help you bring readers to your blog and, more importantly, get them to come back.

The Hook: Determine what your blog is going to be about. Is it a personal journal you want your friends to read, do you have political ideas you want to disseminate, or do you have a field of expertise you want to share with others? Or do you just want to communicate about a topic in particular such as books, cars, Elvis? As broad or as narrow your subject is, you must then stick to it. Some people maintain two or more blogs because the topics they want to discuss are incompatible with each other.

The Line: Now that you've decided what you want to write about, then you have to add content. Blogging can be a work-intensive, time-consuming endeavour. A blog is made of a series of entries or posts, to each of which visitors can comment. There are several important aspects about posting:

Frequent posts: You must post often, at least three times a week or on a regular schedule. The beauty of a blog is its dynamic nature. If you have little to say on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis, then a website, which has more static information, might be better suited to you. If you don't post often, if you have no new content for weeks or months, people will give up on you and go elsewhere.

Keep posting: It may take one or two years before you develop a faithful readership. That means posting without much feedback on whether people like what you say or not. It can be discouraging and disheartening (like a lone voice in the desert). If you have a very busy life, and barely have time to surf the net, then blogging may not be for you.

Use tags efficiently: Tags are a way to categorize what you write. Search engines such as Google use semantic algorithms that search on keywords for websites and tags and keywords for blogs. Carefully select the tags for each of your post so that people searching for your topic will be able to find you. You'll often see what are called "tag clouds" (see right beside this post). Those are all the tags used on a blog; the larger and darker the letters, the more posts pertaining to that tag. Try to find tags that are used by other people. For instance, I found that the tag SF was used by very few people, but that sci-fi is the most used tag. Although my books aren't exactly hard sci-fi, I use this tag because it will lead more people to my blog.

Use web syndication services: Web syndication is "A publishing format that lets people view headlines of the latest updates from their favorite blogs and Web sites all from within a single newsreader program. The major syndication formats are RSS and Atom, and most newsreaders support both formats. See RSS and Atom." (Answers.com) Most syndication services are free (bloglines.com is one). Bloglines will be able to show you what the RSS for your blog is, then you can add it to your blog so that people subscribe directly to your blog and are told when you updated it (still, you have to post often).

The Sinker: So you've done all that and you're ready, or you've improved what you were already doing. No doubt you've thought about starting a blog because you'd been on others and decided it was a neat thing to do. But there's one thing that no one talks about and may make the difference between seen as a nice, cooperative blogger or as an opportunist: netiquette. Netiquette is short for Net etiquette (in the same way blog is short for Weblog). Here are some important dos and don'ts:

Capitals and bold letters: On the web, typing your words all in capital letters or in huge, bold letters is the equivalent of shouting. Don't do it unless you mean it.

Hyperlinks: There's noting more annoying in a post than when someone gives a url (a website address) without the hyperlink or hot link. A hot link is an address you can click right away that leads you directly there instead of you having to cut-and-paste the address. A hot link requires either simple html code (we'll talk about that in another post) or you can use the smart editor that most free blog hosts, such as Wordpress , provide. To be live, the address requires http:// before the address. Make sure it's there.

Linking to sites, blogs or pictures: Give credit where credit is due. If you read something on another site or blog and you want to repeat that information on yours (even if it's only a link to another site), thank the person you borrowed it from in your post. As part of the Web2 social network, it's standard practice to spread news this way, but you must give that person the credit. As far as pictures, do not link to the address of the picture. This is considered very bad form. If you want to use a picture, copy it instead of linking to it (after making sure the picture isn't copyrighted). When you link to a picture, you're using someone else web resources (they're paying for those) so essentially you're stealing from them.

Double- or triple-dipping: So, you reason, I wan't to get my name out there so I'll have three, four, fifteen blogs with the same information. Ha! Someone's already ahead of you, especially the algorithm-writers of search engines, like Google. Since search engines use interpretive semantics and volume of visits to rank websites and blogs, you'd be doing two major things wrong by doing this. First, you'd be spreading your visitors over several blogs, reducing your volume ranking. Second, when Google and the other major search engines look at exactly similar content on several sites, they decide it's either advertising or spam and discard all the sites from their ranking. So you're worse off than before, and you'll never appear on a search. It's not enough to change a word here an there in each post; the posts have to be substantially different to be picked up separately. Google also does something interesting; one mention (such as the url of your blog) on a high-traffic blog is weighed more heavily than a hundred mentions on blogs with little traffic. Food for thought, and a future articles on strategies in blogging.

So, there it is: hook, line, and sinker. Now go catch'em.

Follow-up to brain zaps

2007-12-03T11:03:00.000-05:00

It's been five days since I wrote about brain zaps, and I'm still getting them. I also still have that tuba playing in my ears, and nausea. A couple of other symptoms I developed I hadn't associated with Effexor that I forgot to mention:

cramps in my legs and arms: they're akin to the brain zaps as it's very acute pain shooting down my legs and arms
muscle twitches: sometimes so pronounced the muscle caves in. It's kind of fun to watch and it doesn't hurt (much) but it can get annoying.
mood swings: I' m not the most patient of people in the first place but these days everything is pissing me off. I know it's because the serotonin and norepinephrine levels in my brain are readjusting, but that makes me a real bitch to live with.

Will it ever end? Everything I've read had at least a couple of people saying they tried to stick it out but went back on it. I totally understand it now. I'm tired, I feel ill, I want it to be over.

I mean those damn symptoms, not life in general. No, I like life. It always takes you for a ride. This one's a hell of a roller-coaster.

Brain zaps: they're not a myth

2007-11-28T16:25:00.000-05:00

They're called brain zaps, brain shivers, or brain shocks, but when I began having them, I thought I was the only one who'd ever experienced them. My doctor certainly didn't warn me about them, I suspect for the simple reason that he doesn't know about them. Either that or he doesn't believe in them, which wouldn't surprise me a bit.

In turns out brain zaps are one of the myriad of withdrawal symptoms people experience when they try to get off an anti-depressant such as Effexor. According to a short article at Wikipedia, "phenomenon is most commonly associated with paroxetine (Paxil, Seroxat), fluoxetine (Prozac), venlafaxine (Effexor), sertraline (Zoloft), duloxetine (Cymbalta), fluvoxamine (Luvox), citalopram (Celexa) and escitalopram (Lexapro)".

I started taking Effexor, an anti-anxiety and anti-depressant six years ago. Since then, I went through the big M (menopause) and felt that my life, my body, and my emotions had gone through a lot of changes due to all this hormonal roller-coaster I was for a month. In hindsight, I'd probably been on that ride for a lot longer but with my doctor telling me I was more than likely anxiety disorder (my mother also suffers from it) than perimenopause symptoms, I took the drug.

This year, however, after deciding I hadn't felt "myself" for too long I decided, with my doctor's knowledge and approval, to reduce and then quit taking Effexor. I was taking 300mg, the prescribed dosage for anxiety when I started.

Unfortunately, I can't remember when I started weaning myself off it. But I can remember shaking uncontrollably especially in the afternoons for a long, long time. Silly me, I never associated it with cutting down on Effexor.

Three weeks ago, I decided to go off it completely, from 75mg to zero. Again, because I hadn't been warned of side effects, I didn't associate what I was feeling with quitting Effexor. Finally I added two and twenty and came up with four. Thanks to the internet, I now know that I haven't been the only one suffering from the collection of horrible symptoms I've been suffering from. So I decided to add my two cents to what my own withdrawal symptoms are (apparently I can expect some, like brain zaps, to last maybe two months or longer) and how I've been coping with them (which is not very well).

brain zaps: think of an electric current that "zaps" through your brain or between your brain and your skull, followed by about 10 seconds of dizziness and disorientation. They've been compared to epilepsy. How I cope: I stop and wait until the world re-establishes itself. It's worse in the afternoon, so I'll lie down for a half hour or so.
nausea and vomiting: I was beginning to think that I was building an intolerance to alcohol (those couple of glasses of wine sure packed a punch) since I would get up with nausea in the morning. How I cope: throw up, rinse your mouth, brush your teeth, and take half a Gravol.
the shakes: they could be so bad sometimes I couldn't even type (not a good thing for a writer). How I cope: copious amount of water which seem to help me. I always feel dehydrated.
numb lips and fingers: it was getting so bad that I thought maybe I was having a heart attack or something of the sort. It's now much better. How I cope: not much to do in that case.
tinnitus: sometimes it sounds like a tuba is playing in my ear. It's a whoa-whoa kind of sound and it drowns everything else. How I cope: Listen to my music with earphones. It may be one evil for the other, but at least they're sounds I like.
diarrhea: man, this one is a pain in the... well you know. It's not pleasant, especially when it comes out both ends. How I cope: Let it all out, stay close to a bathroom, preferably in your own house.
sweating: in my case, cold sweats, as opposed to the furnace-like hot flashes of the big M. How I cope: I keep a warm sweater or a wrap close by and wrap or shed as needed. As soon as I'm wet through, I change.

The official Effexor site does address some of these very briefly, stating that they can happen if you stop taking it too fast. From all the forums I read, this isn't quite the case. With each drop in dosage you experience the same withdrawal symptoms, whether you take a year or the next six to go back to zero. In fact, many people were so ill from cutting back or stopping that they went back to taking it.

Not me. I'm through with it. I've begun researching alternative methods to curtail my anxiety disorder: a Litebook in winter to help with the low level of sunlight; dietary changes, including lots of Omega 3; exercise.

These symptoms I've had for nearly a year, now that I know what they are, scare the bejeezus out of me. I have only one brain, for goodness sake, and I can't exchange it. Not yet anyway. I may have to go the chemical route in the future again but before I take anything like that, I want to be able to say that I've tried everything else first.

Gotta go lie dow, now, my brain zaps are getting worse.

Sojourns In Nature

2005-11-01T07:20:00.000-05:00

From time to time, I talk about a photographer I found on the web. I confess I don't know much about photography in general or in particular, but I know what I like.

What I like, very much, is the photography of Robert Servranckx. Robert started out a few years ago, taking pictures of his two labs, Gryphon and Syrah, and found a passion for the medium. And the passion is paired with an incredible eye, especially for birds. Gustav Verderber, another awesome nature photographer, initially gave space to Robert on his website. It is a measure of the quality of Robert's photography that Verderber has now ensconsed Rob's photos with his own.

Well worth the visit.

Rats, he's gone

2005-10-28T08:53:00.000-04:00

I couldn't pass this one up, it's too delicious. New Zealand scientists tried to discover why rats are so difficult to eradicate by dumping a single rat on a deserted island then trying to catch it. Him, I should say, because the darn rat showed almost human intelligence. He evaded traps, baits, and other nasties for four months, then was finally found on another island 400 meters from the island he was dropped on. On top of it, the rat had a radio collar!

"After 10 weeks on the island the rodent decided it had had enough. It swam 400 meters, the longest distance recorded for a rat across open sea, to another rat-free island where it was eventually captured in a trap baited with penguin meat several weeks later."

Huh. Talk about survival of the fittest.

It's in the BAG

2005-10-27T07:57:00.000-04:00

I've been increasingly enjoying the BAGnewsNotes entries, which are political commentaries based daily media pictures. Michael Shaw is a clinical psychologist whose research "involves the psychology of character and the everyday presentation of self. His research has dealt primarily with symbolic expression, the process of visual narrative, and the psychological function of metaphor."

This bent is evident in his analyses. They are incisive, sometimes funny, often quirky. Well worth a visit.

The Cliché Finder

2005-10-26T06:58:00.000-04:00

Cat got your tongue? Do you work day and night not to use clichés? The truth is out there, in the form of the Cliché Finder. Just pop in a word, click the search button and voilà! It's a sad sack who can't use it to do a clean sweep of these overdone expressions. This is the work of Morgan Friedman, who looks like a very busy man.

It's so easy to write

2005-10-25T08:52:00.000-04:00

Ink Slinger again, but this time his website. Paul Guyot has an interesting take on why people think it's easy to write:

"There are two reasons, actually. The first is what I call the Summer Vacation syndrome. Every person has, at one time, had to write something. In elementary school it was the "How I spent my summer vacation" essay. In high school it was the "Analysis of manuscript," formerly known as a book report. In college it was the "Thesis."

I hadn't thought about it in that particular way, but it struck me as quite true. Everyone in school had to write some kind of essay or story, and were graded on it. If you got an A, doesn't that mean that you're good? That it's easy to write?

To paraphrase Lawrence Block, many writers want to have been published. They want the hardcover with their names on it in Chapters, or Barnes and Noble, or on amazon. That is the accomplishment. Never mind having to spend time perfecting the craft. I'm not talking about spelling and grammar, although both are necessary basics. I'm talking about mastering character motivation, structure, description, style, tone, setting, conflict, action, suspense.

Plot? Sure, that's important, too, but these days there are too many good stories badly written. Case in point, The Da Vinci Code, which has been on the best seller lists (but we know about these, now, don't we?) for months and is a badly written book.

This seems to reinforce the idea that it's okay not to know how to write well, as long as the story is sensational enough. And of course, if you're a celebrity, then even the story itself doesn't count. They're selling their names, not the content of the book.

Doesn't matter. I'll continue to try to perfect my craft because, even though I'm not a literary writer and never will be, it's important to me to give my readers the best experience possible. I want them to say, at the end of the book, that words flowed so well they couldn't put it down.

Miscellany

2005-10-24T08:27:00.000-04:00

An interesting informal survey at Ink Slinger on the importance of a striking book cover. People do judge books by their cover.

A revealing article at Independent Publisher on bestseller lists and book returns. Those lists are not what they seem. The article also mentions the Book Standard's "real" bestseller list, based on numbers of books sold rather than numbers of books ordered by bookstores.

In Wired News, an article on businesses blocking blog sites at work.

Why I love my Library

2005-10-24T08:09:00.000-04:00

Last week I went to a book sale that benefited the Friends of my local library. They advertised 8 miles of books at up to 80% discount, and they delivered. I admit it, I went into a feeding frenzy and came out with $70 worth of books. Most of them unknown authors (to me anyway), except for a Salman Rushdie and a Nora Roberts I intend to give away.

Well, the authors were unknown (to me anyway) for a reason. The books are crap. The writing is crap. The stories are crap. Sigh. And I paid good money for them.

Then, last week again, I picked up Squeeze Play from R. J. Kaiser at my local library. It looked interesting. Wrong. The writing was crap. The story was crap. I stopped reading after 80 pages. The difference? Reading that book didn't cost me a penny.

Gotta love the library. Go get some books, people. Encourage your local library.

How many have you read?

2005-10-21T09:21:00.000-04:00

And having seen the movie doesn't count. Chapters Indigo has come out with its Top 100 Readers' Choice. Here they are, from first to one-hundreth:

The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, J. R. R. Tolkien
Anne of Green Gables
Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling
Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J. K. Rowling
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone, J. K. Rowling
Fall on Your Knees, Ann-Marie MacDonald
The Stand, Stephen King
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom
Dune, Frank Herbert
The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
1984, George Orwell
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follet
The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
I Know this Much is True, Wally Lamb
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
The Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M. Auel
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Confessions of a Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
Gift and award Bible NIV, Various
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
The Cound of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling
The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Interview with the Vampire, Ann Rice
Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Bridget Jones' Diary, Helen Fielding
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Shogun, James Clavell
The English Patient, Michael Oondatje
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
The World According to Garp, John Irving
The Diviners, Margaret Laurence
Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
Mot wanted on the Voyage, Timothy Findley
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind
Emma, Jane Austen
Watership Down, Richard Adams
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
Blindness, Jose Saramago
Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer
In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Oondatje
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
The Secret Life of Bees
The Bourne Identity, Robert Ludlum
Th Outsiders, S. E. Hinton
White Oleander, Janet Fitch
A Woman of Substance, Barbara Taylor Bradford
The Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield
Ulysses, James Joyce

In cases like this, thank God for libraries.

Currently Reading...

2005-10-19T08:01:00.000-04:00

Under the Duvet: Shoes, Reviews, Having the Blues, Builders, Babies, Families and Other Calamities, by Marian Keyes.

In Under the Duvet, Keyes talks about her (somewhat dysfunctional) life in a series of essays, most of which were published in the Tatler. From her loathing of gardening to her dark days with alcohol abuse, she unveils her thoughts and feelings about the terrors and bliss of living, in a very Irish way. It's not only the language that's different (crisps instead of chips, boot instead of trunk, etc.), it's the mindset of being a woman in Ireland. Typically, the women in the essays are more fleshed out than the men, which makes the poor men always sound dense and unenlightened, while the women put up with it because that's just the way it is. Despite the cultural differences, it's easy to relate to many situations she's gone through: learning to drive, going through house renovations, spending Christmas with your family (when you'd rather be elsewhere, like in Groenland).

Okay, Under the Duvet is not literature. But it's fun, and a touch of levity in life has never hurt anyone.