ALWAYS THINKING TOWARD THE NEXT STORY
When you’re a writer like me, and no, I’m not saying all of you are like me, I’m always thinking. I’ll admit my mind’s quite a bit in La La Land. I don’t mean “Ellay,” Los Angeles, Hollywood, or whatever you want to call that La La Land. I’m in my own La La Land, which is my dream world, where I come up with all this stuff that goes into my stories.
CURENT WORK IN PROGRESS (WIP)
Since I’m considered a “pantser,” in other words, a “seat-of-the-pants” writer instead of an outliner, I start with knowing A and B and everything in-between is an adventure. In other words, it’s a total surprise that develops as I write. My path to success is that I write so linear, I rarely get myself into a plot issue because I always have B in mind. I’m always working toward that point, so everything I dream (or La La Land) up, is working toward that goal.
I’ve mentioned this numerous times here at Fred Central. I get my inspirations from just about everywhere. It may be the most innocuous thing that strikes my fancy, or something profound. Whatever the case, I catalog that in the back of my brain, or maybe if it’s something I don’t need for a good while, it becomes an addition to one of my post-it notes above my computer monitor. It’s to the point now that a few of my post it notes have the sticky dried up and they’re now falling off, so I have them stacked on the computer tower.
THE NEXT STORY
Though I’m pretty set with Detach And His Search For Gold, with six manuscripts in the can, that doesn’t mean I don’t have room for more. In fact, I started number seven (West Virginia Gold), but got sidetracked with the first Meleena’s Adventures, so number seven of the Gold series languishes with just a few chapters.
That doesn’t mean I don’t have ideas lingering for further adventures. I’ve just saved my energy for more immediate priorities, at the moment. In fact, I came up with a great premise for book number eight tonight at dinner with friends. We’ll see if that one ever comes to fruition.
I’m currently done editing with the publisher on Gods Of The Blue Mountains, book number two of the Meleena’s Adventures series. Though that’s not the end of the process, I’m also writing book three and reading it to my writer’s group. Right now, my focus is on Meleena and my readers are screaming for more of her.
While I’ve had the basic concept for the fourth Meleena story in the back of my head for almost a year now, last night (as I write this), I finally came up with a conclusive A and B. It just happened. It’s not completely refined, but it’s there.
Keep in mind that A and B will never be written down beforehand. I never have and never will. The basic concept will be in my head and stay there until I sit down and start the book. It’ll never be an outline. What it will be is Chapter One and The End, when I get to them.
As for the Gold series? West Virginia Gold also has A and B in the can. I’ve had occasional ideas for further adventures (including the one I just came up with tonight), but they can wait, since I already have five other completed rough manuscripts.
SUMMARY
Now that I have the big picture for the fourth Meleena story, I can let it sit for a while, move on to other things.
You may ask, well…some of you…what about other novels? What about one-offs, or short stories, or whatever? Another series?
Don’t worry. That could very well happen as well. If the muse strikes, I’ll catalog that in the back of my head as well, and save it for a future date.
I just need the time to do it all.
That’s the problem with any writer!
Happy writing!
A RADIO FORUM (INTERVIEW)
I recently did a radio forum (interview) with author, entrepreneur and radio host James Kelly. He hosts the web site Aspects of Writing out of Henderson, Nevada. I had an absolutely wonderful experience as a last-minute guest.
I’ve talked about interviews in several articles here at Fred Central. Now, I have several videos under my belt as well as a phone interview. This forum was set up in such a way that I was a panelist and was able to give advice similar to what I do here, but at the same time was also interviewed as part of the setup to a forum on writing.
Two for one!
HOW IT STARTED
James Kelly was a guest speaker at one of our Henderson Writer’s Group meetings, which I attend every Monday evening. He gave an excellent presentation and afterward, I thought it would be a hoot to be a volunteer guest on his show. Later that evening, with one of his cards in hand, I e-mailed him and volunteered my services and gave him this web site and told him about all my articles and my platform on writing.
I soon got a call and he asked me if I could do a last-minute show. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it that weekend. However, we kept in touch.
That was almost a year ago. At that time, I was under the impression we’d choose one of the subjects I talked about in my articles and took it from there.
Anyway, I kept in touch with him all this time.
A RECENT DEVELOPMENT
I’d just sent him an e-mail to say hello and he asked me if I was available for another cancellation. This time I was. I asked him about subject matter and he already had a script and everything. I go “as script?” Yup. I didn’t know that he plans these shows out ahead of time so when he calls in for his guests, he already knows what he wants to talk about. We don’t choose out subjects. He does the research on us first and decides the subject matter.
That’s okay with me.
I happened to fill a gap with the subject Writing With The Character In Mind.
Cool. I can do that!
TRIP TO THE STUDIO
I followed his directions and went to his studio, which was set up in a conference room in an office building in Henderson, Nevada. It was upstairs and since the building was deserted on this Sunday afternoon, we had the place to ourselves.
I met our cohost, Janet Coursey, and we had a nice chat while James set up the audio and tried to get the video link going with the other author on the show, John Brage from Kansas City, Missouri. It took a bit to get the kinks worked out of the audio with John. This is something that pops up occasionally with any home-brew radio pre-recording setup. I must say that given this is on James’ own dime, it was very professionally done and the final results are quite good.
THE SHOW
We first started in with mini-interviews about our writing and books and James switched between me, John and Janet and a little about himself and then we went into the subject of character. It was a lively discussion and we had a great time.
In the end, we all got to have our say and it actually went a little over. James will surely cull the best moments to cut it down to the proper time limit for the final product, which was an hour according to the video final result.
We were also being taped on camera as well. I was pretty much ignoring the camera, however I was looking at the computer screen with John on it, when talking to him. This took my face away from my mike, which made my voice dim at times. James had to tell me to talk into the mike a few times so I’m sure he had work to do to clean up my audio so I could be heard properly. There were also a few glitches with the audio feed from John’s end over the line from Kansas City.
SUMMARY
Overall, it was a fun interview and panel discussion. I got to plug my books. Not just Lusitania Gold but also Treasure Of The Umbrunna and got to talk about writing in general. It was a fun afternoon. The results can be heard through this link at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/aspectsofwriting/2018/02/26/writing-with-the-character-in-mind
James’ web site is http://www.aspectsofwriting.com/
Happy writing!
FACEBOOK AD RESULTS
I recently had a very successful book signing. As part of the buildup and marketing campaign to that book signing, I once again turned to Facebook to try their advertising.
I recently posted the article, Reaching Readers On Facebook, telling you about the experience. Now that the book signing is over, I want to go over the actual results of the advertising campaign. Though I’m dread to use foretelling in novels, here, I can. The results weren’t pretty.
IN THE BEGINNING
As a quick reminder, for those that are new to this site, last year, when Lusitania Gold first came out, I spent a lot of money on Facebook publicity around the book launch. At the same time, I also plugged my previous published novel, Treasure Of The Umbrunna. The total outlay was over $100 and included my ad to first the West Coast, then the entire You Ess And A and finally the western half of Europe.
The result? Plenty of hits (several hundred), a few engagements, three or four comments, one of them nasty (stop sending me ****ing spam), and zero sales.
LUSITANIA GOLD
In my latest article, Reaching Readers On Facebook, I only blasted the local Las Vegas area and a fifty mile radius that included Henderson, Boulder City, Pahrump, Indian Springs, etc.
I spent a total of $21. According to their statistics, I reached 322 people.
- I got 39 likes, 3 from people I know, 1 from a friend in Holland.
- 0 feedback.
- 2 shares.
- When I personally commented on the promo, THAT generated a few separate comments and likes from friends that already subscribe to my site. However, that was on the separate pages that those comments created (go figure).When I did my book signing at Barnes & Noble, not a single person that bought a book or showed up and talked to me were ones that found me from the Facebook advert.Let me be clear. I had a very successful book signing. I personally sold nine books and that same day, someone bought three other copies but somehow missed having me sign them. To me, that’s a killer day! However, unless one of those three that slipped in a bought without contacting me were Facebook people, I still have to mark my campaign off as a big fat ZERO. FAIR WARNINGON THE OTHER HANDHowever, to draw in new readers, it leaves a lot to be desired.Once they know you and like you is one thing…A BIG issue.
- Happy writing!
- Drawing them in is still an issue.
- I’m just saying.
- I do most of my news and events through Facebook with my two sites for the books. In that regard, it works well. I also still use my (this) web site. Facebook is a great communicator for letting people know what’s going on. In that respect, it works well to get immediate info to fans.
- If you’re contemplating using Facebook advertising, all I can say is buyer beware. It may work for some people, but so far, I’ve batted a solid zero after using it twice.
- My book signing was a success, it just didn’t have anything to do with Facebook or my $21.
- My $21 resulted in a big fat ZERO.
- The final result?
CONFERENCE TIME OF YEAR AGAIN – 2018
Wow, how time flies. April isn’t far off and it’ll be the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference time again. Since I’ve been going every year since 2005, this will be my 13th conference in a row. In a way, this is like my Christmas time of year. Since writing is more of a passion – a calling for me rather than a hobby, just like astronomy, I look at it the same way as my star parties when we go out to remote dark sites to observe the stars. I don’t expect most of you to look at the upheaval of your life and the expense of such a thing in the same way. That’s why I write a fresh approach to the same subject year after year here at Fred Central.
I know many of you have no desire to scroll through the 200+ articles I’ve written on the subject of writing craft, though I’d love it if you did! In that case, you’d find probably a dozen articles on writer’s conferences. To save you the time, especially for those new to my site, I’m presenting it fresh for you today (well, this is 2017’s article, tweaked). For those of you that have been around awhile and haven’t attended a conference, maybe it’s time and I can talk you into attending.
LEARNING THE CRAFT
There are many reasons to attend a writer’s conference. One of them is to learn the craft. Our conference is made up of training sessions that go on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each session covers various subjects that deal with writing, pitching, marketing, publishing, editing and everything you need to hone your skills. Folks, this is the meat of what you need to succeed at this passion/hobby/business. These sessions are held by experts in the field. This is the time to get first-hand knowledge, ask questions and learn valuable stuff you might never learn in an easier way.
This year, there will be an extra day, Sunday, where Jane Friedman is holding a workshop on The Art And Business Of The Author Platform. This workshop costs extra but it’s an intimate session, a one-on-one time with the master, who’s also the keynote speaker Saturday night.
NETWORKING
You’ll never find a more concentrated gathering of like-minded people, plus experts in one gathering. You not only get to talk to other writers, you get to mingle with publishers, agents, editors and marketers. You’ll hang out with them and pick their brains. You’ll have meals with them, chat them up in the halls between sessions, talk to them in the main room between events or just hang by the front desk and grab whoever walks by. Folks, this is the golden opportunity.
PITCHING YOUR WORK
If you have something ready to pitch, or even if you just want to practice, this is the place for you. The event is set up so you can schedule pitch sessions with the various agents and publishers. This is your chance to plug your story and see if they’re interested. There’s nothing better than face-to-face with an agent, rather than an anonymous letter or e-mail. I’ve had 100% success rate getting their attention, even if I’ve ultimately had 100% success rate at getting rejected. On the other hand, I obtained a step up over others in that these agents and publishers had a familiar face to attach to my work. I also obtained success in finding my publisher at this event, though not through the normal pitching process (a different story). At other conferences, often you have to pay separately to pitch to an agent. Here, that’s all part of the fee. Also, because of the limited attendance, you almost always have the ability to pitch to every agent you want to.
IT’S A GREAT THREE DAYS
We keep hearing over and over that the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference is one of the best in the nation. In fact, the Self-Publishing Mastery – The Independent Writer’s Home http://selfpublishingmastery.com/five-u-s-writers-conferences-not-to-be-missed-in-2018/ called our conference one not to be missed in 2018 and we came in at number three. That’s not a bad endorsement!
Because it’s smaller and more intimate, it’s a more quality event. We attract a quality staff and quality people. It pays for what most get out of it and we get lots of repeat attendees. I highly recommend it.
You can check it out at: http://hendersonwritersgroup.com/las-vegas-writers-conference/
Happy writing!
