MONDAY'S MUSINGS: AMAZING PEOPLE

Did you have a restful weekend?

I imagine many of you are just about blogged out after April’s A-Z. It takes a lot out of you, doesn't it? I've also found it to be fun and many of the topics fascinating. Don’t you love seeing the creativity our blogging community? It reminds you how disparate our community is in interests. Even though I didn't comment much due to my shoulder and typing difficulties, I did read some great posts.

I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to Kat Sheridan for expert handling the blog in April during my absence. If not for her, my blog would have been on hiatus for the month. I had actually cancelled several guests due to the upcoming surgery and recuperation time. She offered to host Over Coffee for me—that blew me away for a number of reasons. For one, I know she’s in the middle of researching and writing her latest book and I know the work involved with the blog posting 3 times a week and herding cats, erm, guests. And it was April A-Z challenge and no way would I ask someone to take that on, friend or no.

Kat has been an occasional contributor and host Over Coffee for a couple of years. I've been around and participating in the A-Z for the last three or four years and am familiar with it. Kat, on the other hand, wasn't. I mentioned that she could handle the blog however she wanted during my absence. Kat has a wide range of interests, is well read, and has a wicked sense of humor. I love that about her—never dull and boring. You can imagine my surprise when she wanted to do A-Z, in our quasi way of three times a week. I sent her all the information on A-Z and the links. She was a real trooper and dove right into A-Z. I was impressed with the interesting subjects chosen and participating guests willing to contribute.

None of this would have been possible without some amazing people. I want to thank my writing group, The Writing Wombats for their support and help as well as Central Ohio Fiction Writers members who helped and their historical romance group that stepped up as guests and articles. My thanks to Mark Koopmans for the offer to help with articles if needed. I also want to thank all of you for the support you gave Kat in my absence.

I’m 5 weeks post op. The shoulder is healing at what feels like a snail’s pace. I still tire easily. My range of motion and manipulation is still limited. I can type with two hands, but only in short duration. So even taking up the reins of Over Coffee again, I’m still wobbly. And now, new pain from intensive physical therapy—I call it the Midwest chapter of the Spanish Inquisition, J Hate those pretzel maneuvers. Commenting will still be tough for me. Just be patient with me. I will get around to y’all as I can. It's not a lack of interest or caring just pesky limitations. J

Any favorite posts in A-Z you like to share with me? Did you have a favorite post from Kat’s hosting the Over Coffee? Did you do anything fun this weekend you’d like to share?    

BUILDING ANTICIPATION IN YOUR STORY

A story is more than a series of events tied together or slapping a pat ending on the work and calling it a book. There has to be continuity and a reason for events and the reader has to be with you and with your characters to be satisfied. We have to prime and keep them involved enough to continue turning those pages. 

Professional editor, Beth Hill, talks about the importance of building anticipation in our readers so they want to know what happens next. 

Beth's blog, The Editor's blog, is listed as one of the 50 best blogs by and for editors (by Online Universities.com).  

When readers anticipate that something is going to happen to characters they've  come to know, come to like and maybe admire—whether or not they know for sure what that something is—those readers get involved and stay involved in a story. So anticipation is an emotion you want to induce in the reader.

As a writer, you have to be the one to fold in that sense of anticipation.

So how do you set up anticipation for the ending? You build it into every chapter and scene.

Ways To Build Anticipation

~  Set a clock ticking or a calendar’s pages turning—indicate a time or occasion by which the main character must succeed at his tasks in order to save whatever needs saving . . . the world or his child or his marriage. Periodically remind readers of the clicking clock and/or keep the calendar pages turning visibly—keep readers aware of the passage of time. 

~  Hint at possible outcomes and indicate what could happen if certain acts are not completed. 

~  Show negative outcomes for small infractions of the rules (stated or implied) so that character and readers anticipate even worse outcomes for large infractions. 

~  Connect events so that one leads inexorably to the next. Show those connections. Have readers anticipate even more connections because they've seen how events are linked, how events lead to particular outcomes. 

~  Set into motion a chain of events that cannot be stopped or slowed. 

~  Introduce inevitability—one circumstance, if it comes to pass, will inevitably produce the next. 

~  Show characters fighting with everything they have to stop or derail the inevitable. Show the cost characters pay for fighting against a certain happening or event. Show the toll it takes. Make the anticipated outcome have an effect on the story’s current events even as they unfold. 

~  Give characters new resolve as the story marches on—give characters reasons to keep going. Give characters new tools to use in the fight. Show a character’s inner strength coming out as the story heads toward the end. 

~  Don’t let characters go too long without thinking or talking about a future they are trying to head off or the one they are trying to create. Show characters planning for a future after the anticipated big moment. Show them planning celebrations of success as well as future battle campaigns in case they fail. Keep characters aware of the future—through dialogue or actions or thoughts—so that readers are also aware and anticipating. 

~  Show a character’s emotions when his actions bring the unwanted showdown closer. Conversely, show a character’s relief when he does something to delay the feared ending. Keep characters emotionally involved in anticipated outcomes so that readers will likewise be emotionally invested. 

~  Introduce surprises, both positive and negative, to keep characters off balance, to make them have to recalculate possible end scenarios and re-evaluate their commitment. This will keep readers aware of the end the characters anticipate. 

The point is to set up anticipation and maybe even dread in both characters and readers. Keep them pushing toward or pulling away from those outcomes. Make possible consequences drive action and response.

You can always change either the climax or the story events so that the two truly match—you can’t produce a climax or ending that you didn't build toward. Sure, you can tack on the ending that you want, but if you didn't create anticipation for that ending, the reader won’t believe in your story’s conclusion; you've got to have a setup that matches the end.

But endings should come naturally out of the elements that you mixed into the story.

Include anticipation in your writing so that readers have reasons to stay involved and turning pages.

                                                                                                                    

I love the written word, the ability we have to create worlds and emotions with well-chosen phrases. It’s my intention to share tips and insights and encouragement with writers at all levels, to help you craft stories that will entertain and satisfy your readers. That will help satisfy you as writer as well.

I am both writer and editor. My editing focus is on long fiction, primarily novels. I also mentor beginning writers.

Beth has many articles on writing craft on her website A Novel Edit, and she covers craft and other subjects on her blog, The Editor's Blog.

MONDAYS MUSING—SUNSHINE AND WRITING

The last few days have been beautiful and warm. Lots of golden sunshine this weekend.  NaNo or no, the idea of sitting in my office at the computer has been an anathema to me. I spend over thirty hours a week sitting at that blasted computer and that’s just for work. I probably spend another twenty dealing with blogging—probably more. So, while I have been writing I've chosen to savor the sunshine  this weekend and spent quite a bit of time outside (especially with our first snow in a matter of days, sigh) and took the time to relax and rest. It’s been grand.

I have been having fun with my NaNo story. It’s been in my head for sometime. I've researched and gotten the feel of the world. It wasn't my intention to write it as a NaNo entry and given my current schedule, I wasn't even planning on taking part this year. However, many in my writing group (I've mentioned them before and we've been together for over six years), do the NaNo every year. Let me say, moaning about my schedule cuts no ice with them, lol! So, with a strong boot in the ass encouragement from them; I’m in.

Realistically, I doubt I will get 50k done in November but I will get a substantial amount done which is what I need to do. It will also get me back into taking the time to write fiction daily and buying out the time I have—usually early morning—to add to the story. It does help me stay on track knowing others are doing the same. It gives incentive to keep going even when I get stuck, like I am right now. I put that section aside and am working on another scene while my mind mulls over the other section. Of course at the rate I’m going I might hit 50k by Christmas. J

Are you doing NaNo this year? How’s it going?

Guests this week:

Wednesday:  Historical romance author, Amanda Forester. Midsummer Bride Love is one experiment this scientist hasn't tested
Friday: Anne Cleeland, Daughter of the God-King In the dark, mysterious tombs of Cairo, a thrilling puzzle awaits to be discovered

WRITERS—TURN WEAKNESSES INTO STRENGTHS

Today, I'm featuring some words of wisdom from a friend of mine, Beth Hill. You've read other contributions from Beth both on craft and some of her short stories. 

Beth is a fiction editor and an excellent story content editor. I've benefited from her knowledge and I've always appreciated her easy to understand advice. In today's topic she reminds us of the importance of not only identifying one's weaknesses, as a writer, our strengths. Be sure to check out other timely articles on craft at The Editor's Blog  

Writers have personal strengths and weaknesses. What one writer nails every time, another might struggle with again and again.

Writers have two options for producing better works based on their knowledge of strengths and weaknesses. They can either play to their strengths, featuring the skills they do well as they craft entertaining stories. Or they can turn their weaknesses to strengths by working on those weaknesses, whittling away at them until each time they write, they nail that issue that used to give them fits.

Perfecting a skill may take a while. It may take a long while. And it may not be fun, that repetition and practice and boring effort. But the focus on eliminating a weakness and making it not only a neutral element—something that won’t work against the writer—but a strength—something that actually works for the writer—will serve those writers for years. Why limit yourself to a few skills you’re comfortable with and know you manipulate well when you can also learn new skills and better position yourself to meet new writing challenges?

Identifying your weaknesses

Don’t know your weaknesses? Pay attention to critiques, especially when several readers comment on the same element.

If your dialogue doesn't work, you’ll hear about it if you’re letting others read your work.

If failure to plot tightly is your weakness, spend time learning how to plot.

Learn more than the basics. Stretch yourself.

Learn the importance of character arcs. Learn how to weed out clichés. Learn how to make use of setting, how it affects characters and tone and pacing. Face up to your limitations rather than hiding them.

Learn and practice and overcome your personal weaknesses one by one.

Any combination of writer strengths and weaknesses can be worked and finessed to produce an entertaining book, but weaknesses can overburden a story. And they can tax a writer so much that he doesn't develop a story the way he should. Most of us don’t want to spend time on difficult tasks that promise little pleasure or minimal reward for the effort.

A writer doesn't start out as an expert in every skill.

A partial list of elements a writer can be weak in or excel at—

plotting
characterization
chapter-ending hooks
dialogue
description
conflict
word choices
pacing
sentence construction
resolution
foreshadowing

Can you say that you’re an expert at each? What about the skills I didn't mention? Are you as equally skilled at every task required for writers to produce entertaining and engaging stories?

If not, why not work on one of your weaknesses, actually follow a plan to improve your writing? Why not become skilled at just one writing element that gives you fits? (And after that, take on a second element that needs work. But I don’t want to overwhelm you. One skill at a time works just fine.)

Books and the Internet and writing groups are wonderful resources. Tap into them. Make use of available tools to perfect your skills. Turn weaknesses to strengths.

Don’t settle for being a writer; strive to be a better writer. Better than you were last year. Better than you imagined being. Better than just good enough.

                                                                                                                                               

Freelance fiction editor Beth Hill.

I love the written word, the ability we have to create worlds and emotions with well-chosen phrases. It’s my intention to share tips and insights and encouragement with writers at all levels, to help you craft stories that will entertain and satisfy your readers. That will help satisfy you as writer as well.

I am both writer and editor. My editing focus is on long fiction, primarily novels. I also mentor beginning writers. My editing service is A Novel Edit.

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Guild of Spies - An Interview with Author L.B. Beckett

Sia, thank you for letting me be a guest hostess today! 

Today you are going to learn a new word and be given a perfect example of it. 

The word is “uchronia”. The “u” part of it comes from the word “utopia.” Most folks think that means “a perfect world”, but it actually comes from the Greek “ou” meaning “not” and “topos”, meaning “place." So, “not a real place.”  The second part of the word comes from “chronos”, meaning “time”. So “uchronia” means a place that doesn’t exist and a time that doesn’t exist. Think of JRR Tolkein’s Middle Earth as a good example of it. 

Uchronia also applies to the new novel, Guild of Spies, by L.B. Beckett. In a time that is vaguely turn-of-the-century/Victorian, the secretive, vaguely China-esque country of Tem decides to finally allow visitors from the Western world. The first delegation consists of a politician, a minister of trade, a cultural minister, a historian, and a translator. 

And of course, a spy. 

Dian Von Camff, ostensibly a dilettante “lady adventurer,” finds herself in a land where politics and intrigue are woven into the very fabric of life, where rituals and customs must be strictly observed, the slightest whim of the Emperor must be obeyed, and the “Hand of Tem” is everywhere. Her “minder” in this dangerous new world is Counselor Sen Ari, a man with secrets of his own.

I was fortunate to interview the author and delve further into this work of intrigue, secrets and romance.

KS: What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

LBB: Most of the book was fun to write, honestly! Just as a little bit of background: I wrote Guild of Spies a number of years ago when I was between more “serious” projects—which is to say, ones that I thought might get me published and get me started on a real writing career. The problem was, I didn’t know what that next “serious” project was going to be—I just didn’t have any ideas at the time. I’d learned enough about writing to realize that like most skills, you need to practice, so I decided that I would write this book purely for fun and to keep my chops up. I wasn’t putting any expectations on myself other than to write every day. So the whole thing was kind of a romp.

There were a lot of scenes that I enjoyed writing. I think where the whole thing really took off was from that first scene between Dian and Sen Ari, the first of their many conversations that take place on several levels at once. I loved writing anything with the Emperor, especially that very dark moment when Dian is called to his observatory in the middle of the night. The second meeting between Dian and the Minister of Rituals was a lot of fun, because he’s very polite, but obviously not a nice person. A lot of the “action” of this book takes place in conversations, and all of that verbal fencing was a kick to write.

KS: I love the place and character names in this book and the fact that some of them are what I call “Easter Eggs,” meaning they have a layered sort of meaning. For instance, the delegation is from “Albion,” which is an ancient name for England. You also have countries named Aquitaine and Khalabad. How you came up with these names? And why “Tem”?

LBB:  I wish I could tell you that I had some master plan or intellectual construct for the names, but the truth is, I just made them up as I went along. As mentioned, this was a book that I wrote for fun, just to write without a lot of expectations, and a part of that was avoiding research (which is usually a large part of my writing process). So, I set it in an imaginary place, where I could do whatever I wanted without having to respect actual facts or real history. I picked names that had the sort of resonances that I wanted for the places I was making up. With “Tem,” I just liked the way it sounded!

KS: What exactly is “The Hand of Tem”?

LBB: The Hand of Tem is several things at once. It’s a faction of fundamentalist extremists, sort of like the Taliban, that becomes an unofficial militia and creates a lot of chaos in Tem. What isn’t known is the extent to which The Hand of Tem is a genuine grassroots movement and to what extent it’s being manipulated by powerful forces in the Temish government.

KS: Dian Von Camff is by nature (and necessity), aloof, distant, an observer (making her the perfect spy!). Councilor Sen Ari Of Tem is a man of rules, rituals, and secrets. What makes these two perfect for each other, and how did you get them to “open up” to each other?

LBB: It was a challenge. When I was beginning the draft, I honestly didn’t know how much of a romance there would be between the two of them, how it would develop, what their feelings toward each other would be. Both of these people are very guarded, and they both have hidden agendas. Both have reasons to pursue each other to advance their own interests. So their relationship of necessity had to develop slowly. It starts with a mutual attraction, but acting upon it would be extremely risky for both of them. It advances because of a shared secret that binds the two together up to a point, but still, neither one can be open and honest with the other. The lack of honesty and trust, while understandable, leads to some devastating consequences.

Beyond attraction and beyond manipulation, they’re drawn to each other because they have a similar approach to life—both are close observers who rely first on analysis rather than emotion to make their decisions—or, that’s what they tell themselves. In reality both of them have a lot of passion that they try to cover up. Dian’s aloofness and distance cover up a deep well of anger and the truth about her life before the Guild. Ari’s loyalty and devotion to duty cover up a rebellious streak and a love of power games, of winning.

What draws Dian to Ari is that he’s smart, he’s funny, and he seems to genuinely respect her, in particular her strength and “spirit of adventure.” That’s the part she’ll admit. What she’s less likely to cop to is that he’s a man who seems to want to take care of her, and she’s had very little of that kind of support from the romantic partners in her life.

What draws Ari to Dian at the beginning is that she’s absolutely not a woman he should get involved with—a delegate from a foreign nation traditionally considered an enemy of Tem. One of the ways that Ari’s rebellious streak expresses itself is in an attraction to women that are going to get him into trouble. We find out as well that living and working in the viper pit of Temish politics, he’s lonely and isolated, and it’s very tempting to open himself up to an outsider. Also, Dian is smart, she’s interesting, she challenges him, and she knows about a world outside Tem that he’s very curious about but has never gotten to experience.

Whether this mutual attraction and compatibility is enough to transcend their very different backgrounds and conflicting loyalties is something that you’ll have to read the book to find out!

KS: Guild of Spies is a BIG book, but it’s worth it for the delicious unfolding of the intrigue. Reading it reminded me of a Japanese tea ceremony, where every slow gesture and ritual holds a deeper meaning. It’s available in two parts, “The Open Hand of Tem” and “The Hand of Tem Closes,” but I’d advise going ahead and getting the combined version, Guild of Spies, because once you start, you’re not going to want to stop!

• What other examples of "uchronia" have you read? Do you find made-up worlds as appealing as I do?

In a country of secrets, even a spy has her limits...

The Guild recruited Dian Von Camff when she was little more than a child. She’s served this secret organization ever since, performing covert missions to advance their Grand Conspiracy. Now she’s been given her most difficult and important assignment to date—infiltrate an Albion diplomatic delegation to the reclusive Imperial Kingdom of Tem.

Once in Tem, Dian finds herself surrounded by strangers who play dangerous games at the highest levels of power. Chief among them is Counselor Sen Ari, a Temish official who takes a special interest in Dian. But what are his motives? When Dian saves the life of the Emperor himself, she becomes enmeshed in subterranean plots whose objectives she can only guess—and even the best spy the Guild has might not be good enough to survive the unleashed fury of the Hand of Tem. Purchase at Amazon, Barnes & Noble.

 

Monday Musings: From The House Of My Faddah

This is on my newest coffee cup.

I was born, yonder, in the house of my Faddah. Wait, wrong origins. Sorry, I was channeling Tony Curtis’ character Myles, in The Black Shield of Falworth.

Still, it’s not too far removed from my origins as a storyteller. My father was a fabulous storyteller, as many Celtics can be. He would have made an excellent warrior bard. He entertained his children and wife with stories on many an evening. Hot summer nights we’d sit outside and do round robin stories with each of us taking turns. The story might have started as a dream Dad had, or something he saw from his travels, and he’d embellish it with details. Dad told his stories in installments. While Dad worked he’s be thinking up the next installment for us. We loved it.

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. As kids, my brothers and I would also make up stories to act out in—‘let’s pretend’. We took turns making up adventures to play pretend and they, too, lasted days. A living adventure series. We couldn’t wait to get outside for the next adventure—which worked great for mama because we had to do our chores before we were free to play. Ah, waiting was agony for us!

My parents encouraged the free reign of imagination. There were many times Dad and Mom would get rid of the TV set, entirely—not a TV to be found at our house. Instead we were encourage to listen to or play music and we had tons of books to read, we are all good artists and crafters, great singers, and good conversationalists. And, we all can tell stories. J  

As long as I can remember, I’ve told stories. My mom still has some drawing from when I was 4 and 5—think comic book style—of stories I made up. Then came Barbies and more stories, only Barbie was rarely allowed to be a princess, mostly, she and the GI Joes (Gads, do you remember how wimpy looking Ken was?), were taking part in some kick ass adventure of discovery and danger.

I don’t think I consciously thought of writing as a career, but I did win contests as a kid for poetry and stories I did and some were even published. Any project I had in school had as much time spent on the creative words as the nuts and bolts of the project. I had teachers who encouraged me to develop my skills, but painting pictures with words was as natural as breathing for me. I figured everyone could do it and why were they making such big deal about it—until I got older.

College was the first time I actually considered writing. That was about the time I was taking some clinical psych courses that involved detailed journal entries of children and adults I dealt with. I always got A’s on that, not only for the applied technical content but also for telling a compelling story on each of my clients. Always, there had to be a story at the heart. My professors would always add on the comment page that I should really consider writing because I could paint pictures with words. About that time I was also working part-time with radio and newspapers writing up articles and in radio doing the scripts for commercials. Every job I’ve had used my writing skills. It’s something I’m good at.

I have various notebooks filled with stories and several complete novels written. They were fun to write—it was always something I did on the side and it fed my creative side just as much as music and art do. Frankly, my life was so full I simply didn’t have time to pursue publication for fiction. I had a demanding high power job that consumed most of my time and utilized much of my creativity. I hardly had any inspiration left over, although I still wrote fiction. 

I moved from the San Francisco area, settled in Missouri, to be near my family. I left behind the corporate world for a different sort of life. Fulfilling dreams of being a mom and ranching, raising hay, vegetables, creating flower gardens, horses and Great Danes.  My life is still full, fulfilling, but in a different way. Much of my storytelling was channeled towards my son, but still...I found myself thinking much more about my writing.  There are a lot of stories out here beyond the back forty.

Friends and a few family members who had read my stories urged (okay, browbeat) me to move forward with it. Finally, I decided to enter one of my stories in a contest a few years ago (2007). I placed at the top 25%. I decided to query them. Got some positive feedback and joined a writing group which I’m still part of. All this showed me just how much I didn’t know about this business of writing. For me, that was unacceptable. The need to know has always a driving force for me. Knowledge of a path always gives me confidence to continue to walk it and if I get knocked down, the ability to dust off the dirt of the pratfall, stick a bandage on the boo-boos and move on.

I’ve spent the last few years learning about my craft. I’ve read and reviewed books to learn current market expectations, did judging gigs, experiment with various promotion platforms, and gained name recognition. In 2009 I created my blog. For me, it’s never been a race for followers (although I love them) but sharing other writers’ journeys, what they’ve faced and overcome. What they’re still overcoming despite their successes.

What’s next? That’s still work in progress and is still evolving. Definitely more writing, and the editing what I’ve already written and more querying.

From the house of my father to who I am today has been a living story. I’ve enjoyed it all.    

MY FUNNY VALENTINE WITH JOHN PHILIPP

It's my pleasure to have award winning humorist, John Philipp, visiting with us Over Coffee. He is one of the authors—some of the funniest writers in America: the people who win humor contests, syndicate columns, appear on comedy stages, create the jokes on TV—of My Funny Valentine. I had a chance to chat with him about his writing and My Funny Valentine. 

Share a bit about John Philipp with us. You’re originally from the east coast, aren't you? Did California’s sunshine blue skies and temperate weather lure you to the west?

 
I was born outside New York. Lived there for 20 years and then Cambridge, Mass for about the same time. Like all red-bloodied American men I was lured to California by Annette Funicello and everyone named Bambi. Also my boss made me go.

Ironically, I met a "Bambi" and married her but she would never let me call her that.

Among other things, you’re a humor columnist. How did that come about? Did you wake up one day and say, hmm, I like making people think and chuckle; I think I’ll start writing humor?

Seriously, I wrote humor because I wasn't good enough to write fiction — and not patient enough to learn how. Humor has a quite payoff. You tell a joke and people laugh or don't. With a short story, first you have to get it accepted. In those days, editors frowned on simultaneous submissions. So you'd send a story in, wait four months, get a form letter rejection, and send it somewhere else. If you persisted, eventually you'd sell it 12 years later. I was never much for delayed gratification.

Who were some of the humor writers that influenced you and how?

I love almost all humor. My first steady humor exposure was to Art Buchwald. We got the NY Herald Tribune at home, and my dad thought Buchwald was hysterical. Perhaps that's one reason I valued humor. This could be a story about a young boy who learns to write humor so his dad will love him but I discovered at age two that my dad did love me so I didn't start writing humor for another quarter century.

I know you’re very good with writing satire and humor and you’ve won awards for it. I also know that writing humor isn't as easy to write, as people would assume. Do you keep a notebook to jot down ideas to develop later?

I do. Articles in the newspaper, something in a cartoon, something someone says in the locker room, I get ideas all day long. Some ideas get developed during the day, usually when I'm in the steam room because that where my muse hangs out (A column about that is coming out shortly — as soon as her lawyer okays it.   

Typically, how long does it take you to put together a humor column?

I have no idea. Most often a short paragraph of a concept gets typed into a file. Maybe a week or a month later I'm going through my pile and I see that and write more. Or, I hear something that fits that topic and I dig out the file and add it.

Other times, like in the steam room, I play with an idea and organize it in my head, go home sit down and an hour later the complete first draft is done.

Not only do you write a humor column for a newspaper, but you also write one for a social media site-Gather. How long have you been doing that?

I've been writing for Gather for four years. Mostly I posted copies of columns I had already written but I did write some just for gather, including some of the "How to Write Humor" articles you included here once.


Yes,  you did a 5 part series on writing humor, in June of 2009. I'll link the the introductory article. At the end of the article are links to all of the articles in the series.

You also write fiction. Is it also comedic? Would you care to tell us a bit about it?

 
Usually my fiction is semi-serious, often with a surprising ending. But I just finished the first draft of a novel involving four generations, Jews in Europe during the war, a 13-year-old girl molested by her uncle, etc. Not much humor there except for her teddy bear, Monsieur Flaubert, who she talks to and I use as a device to get inside a young girl's mind.

True story. I read an article about survivor guilt and decided to write a story about a guy who fakes a heart attack to escape a hostage situation and then a bomb explodes and everyone else dies. He wrestles with, in this case, deserved survivor guilt and eventually gives himself a real heart attack — think "Crime and Punishment."
I started writing the story last week. The man is on his way to the bank. He's mad at his wife who doesn't appreciate his hypochondria and he starts fantasying leaving her and she's on her knees begging him back and pretty soon I had this sad, funny character on his way to an adventure.

So, the story will be humorous. And when it's out of the way, I will go back and write the serious, tragic one.

Available print and e-book
Amazon, Barnes and Noble

 

My Funny Valentine is not your typical Valentine’s Day stories. How did you become a part of this project?

One of the other humorists told me about it. It was fun. It was the "Book of the Day" on the Kindle site yesterday. They've started another one about funny car stories. I'll probably submit to that for the fun of it. It's primarily a marketing vehicle for the writers in it and it gets you an "Author page" on Amazon.

What is the title of your contribution to this book?

Don't Surprise Your Valentine. Surprising your sweetheart with a non-traditional valentine's gift is the leading cause in the United States of mid-February ER visits.

Any lessons you've learned, as a writer, you’d like to share with us?

Read voraciously, especially the type of writing you want to do. Some of it will stick on you and it improves your "ear." You read something you write and you can tell whether that rings true or not.

Write as much as you can, as often as you can, you don't have to do anything with that writing if you don't want to. But you will get better. Someone recently said that mastery of anything is doing it 10,000 times. Get started.

Be part of a writing group — you are blind to your mistakes and will often miss your own brilliance. I have found that learning how to critique others is the best training for learning how to write better myself.  

John, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us. 

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John Philipp is a weekly humor columnist for four Marin County, California newspapers and has won numerous humor and memoir writing awards. His humor columns are posted at Gather. His wisdom (with Phil Frank's cartoons) is posted at Thought~Bytes http://thoughtbytes.gather.com/ 

You can also find John on Facebook, where he offers Daily Ponder and Thought Bytes.

MONDAY MUSINGS: Insecure Writers And Lessons Learned

"...the inability to fight self-doubts is one of the biggest things that prevent a writer from becoming published.  And it’s probably one of the reasons published writers stop writing." Christie Craig, How To Ward Off A Gremlin

I think anyone who creates has insecurities. It’s the nature of the beast. Creative works come from within the artist and are highly subjective because it’s our interpretation of what we see or feel. This is true whether we be actor, musician, artist, or writer. We create from our inner landscape and present it to others for their enjoyment, perhaps education, and for sure entertainment.

When we put our work on display we’re putting a piece of our inner self out there. It’s hard to detach your feelings from this labor of love and yet we must if we’re also to be objective enough to recognize whether something we’ve created is good, mediocre, or just plain sucks.

I’ve written for sometime. I’ve always told and written stories. Most of them sit in the hell no drawer. They satisfied what I wanted to say or do at the time. When I started writing for publication it was a whole different playing field. I know I tell a good story. I also know I’m a good writer. However, those two things don’t always coalesce into a viable story as I discovered with my first critiques—which happened to be from a contest.

I didn’t belong to a writing group then—in fact I had no contact with any other writers, and while I read voraciously but still didn’t *get it* as far as what was good writing in today’s market and what wasn’t. I’d never analyzed it. I should have.

The first public eyes that saw my story were judges in a contest. Oh. My. God. This was a first chapters contest. Other writers entered—something like fifteen hundred—and there were rounds of voting from fellow writers and professional judges. I thought what I wrote was good or I wouldn’t have entered it. I edited the manuscript several times, cut thirty thousand words, and then had a friend who was an award winning journalist proof it.

And then I started reading other entries and the critiques/comments attached to those entries.

Holy shitake mushrooms. What an education. Brutal even.

I knew the first day my story wouldn’t place in the top five (I finished in the top twenty-five percent and didn’t make it to the round three). Not that my two chapters were bad—it wasn’t, but based on what I was reading I knew the manuscript wasn’t good enough and I didn’t have the social network to succeed even had it been.

I knew I had a lot to learn before I would be published. I’m not one to back away from a challenge—and believe me, it was a major challenge.

Lessons learned on my writing journey:

• Writing is a business. You have to learn and apply the most current information. As with any business, you have to be constantly perfecting your basic skill set to get ahead.

• You need objective critiques of your work and that excludes your mother who thinks anything you create is wonderful. You need constructive critiques from someone who knows the business and writing.

• When receiving a critique, you need to be willing to listen and learn.
  The first one I received from a friend, who is also a traditionally published writer, I thought it was bleeding to death from all the red marks—but that’s a story I'll tell another time.

• You really do need to associate with other writers. You need a good support system in place. After the above-mentioned contest, I—who has never been much of a joiner—became part of a wonderful group (my Writing Wombats). I get support, current info, and a good kick in the ass when I need it.

• You need a social network and name recognition long before you query your first book.

• You need tough Rhino skin and a strong will to succeed.

It hurts like hell when you fall off one of these horses. If you never get back on you'll never get hurt like that again but you'll never win the coveted prize, either. Only you can decide if the pain is worth the gain.

• Believe in yourself. If this is what you want to do—don’t give up. If you get knocked down get back up and fight off the self-doubts.