Your Characters

My good friend and editor, Jodie Renner, sent me an email this morning regarding a great article she posted at Blood Red Pencil blog. I asked her if I could plagiarize it. She said it would be fine. So here it is. At least part of it and a link to get the remainder. It's good stuff.

Sketching Out Your Characters

by Jodi Renner, Editor 

As you formulate the plot and main characters of your novel, start jotting down info on your protagonist and other important characters, and keep filling it in as ideas occur to you. This way, you can get to know them so well that, when they’re thrown into the thick of the action or interacting with others, you won’t need to wonder how they’d act or what they’d say in various situations — you’ll already have a good handle on their background, personality, strengths, weaknesses, preferences, fears, and goals in life.

Readers are quick to judge if they think a fictional person is acting “out of character” or inconsistently with their upbringing or personality.

Here’s a checklist to guide you in brainstorming and creating your main character’s personality and background. Of course, their habits will need to fit their personality profile — a careful, precise person wouldn’t have a messy office, for example.

Name — and as you go along, does it still fit the character? If not, you can always change it later, as you get to know him/her better.  Read More >>>

And after you finish reading all of that great info, check out Jodie's website for even more good stuff. If you're in the market for an editor or proofreader, she's very professional and charges a fair price for her services. Check it out. Just go HERE.

The Cover is Finished!

Lisa Dovichi, artist extraordinaire at Musa Publishing and Euterpre, has just sent me the final comp on the new cover for Lost in the Bayou. I think she did a marvelous job on it. Fortunate is he/she who gets her to do their book cover.

The book title in the paragraph above links to my miniweb site for the novel. It's a YA thriller set in Louisiana about this... oh, let me not let the cat out of the bag.

Just click the link and be swept away to the site. I hope it piques your interest and sounds like something you'll want to download to your Kindle or other eReader. Your YA readers should love it if they like scary things. But you'll have to wait a bit because it isn't getting released until December 2, 2011. So put it on your Christmas list!

I encourage you to leave a comment below.

Amazon Signing Authors to Cut Publishers Out of the Deal

I'm linking this post to a great story from IT World based on an article from the New York Times.

First, Amazon killed, or seriously wounded, the bookstores. Now they're trying to do the same to publishers. Will publishers handle the threat of digital distribution better than the music business?

The New York Times called this, “Writing Publishers Out of the Deal,” and since New York is the hub of the traditional publishing business, this story should sound the alarm bell for the publishers still burying their corporate heads in the sand.  More >>>

Musa Authors

If you're a writer or author, or maybe even a literary agent, you're probably aware of the buzz that's going on in the industry with the opening of Musa Publishing. If not, you can head over to Absolute Write and read about it. After you finish there, visit Facebook. And Twitter. The buzz is all over the blogosphere. The great thing is: It's all good! Everyone I have spoken with at Musa has been professional, courteous, and responsive.

If you haven't guessed, I'm a member of that author group, herd, flock, swarm, or whatever you wish to call it. We authors have started becoming acquainted with each other over the past week or so, and we're doing what we can to help each other out in our new family. Which is as it should be.

So here's my contribution:

1. If you are a Musa author, leave a comment with the title of your book. Also, if you'd like, leave a blurb so we know what it's about, and a release date if it isn't available yet. Link it to your website, blog, or wherever readers can get more info about it.

2. Email me with a short teaser about your book and I'll do as many posts as possible in the coming weeks. I'm thinking one post per week should give everyone a little exposure.
Finally, I hope you will slide over to the right sidebar and hit that "FOLLOW" button so we can get more readers and contributors on here. I may hit you up for a guest blog post at some point if you're interested in that.

If you're not a Musa author, but you'd like to check out the books we've written, you can go to the Musa Publishing site or search for Musa Publishing on Amazon.com

$10 for your Scrivener input.

Today I'm calling on each of you to add your input. We're going to talk a little about a writing tool called Scrivener.

A lot of the authors I speak with, and the blogs I visit, mention this product as the be-all and end-all when it comes to keeping writing clear, correct, and organized. Having always been easily influenced, I decided to take the plunge and download a trial copy. I must admit, it is a very robust writing tool, although somewhat intimidating for the beginning user.

So, with that said, I'm asking for your input. If you're a Scrivener user, tell us about it. What do you like about it? How do you use it? And what's the first step in getting started? In other words, if you were a new user, what information would you need in order to start using the program to create a new book? Be as verbose and detailed as you wish (you're a writer, aren't you?) If you'd like to give a step-by-step tutorial, or a link to a tutorial you found helpful, that's fine, too. We're taking any and all info that you can furnish. Think of yourself as a teacher. And there's a bonus for being helpful.

$10 Barnes & Nobel Gift Certificate.

In order to encourage you to participate, I'm going to send one of you a $10 Barnes & Nobel Gift Certificate. But there are some stipulations. First: There must be at least ten comments with some helpful information. Your comment doesn't have to be high-tech or lengthy. Just something to help the new user get started. Second stipulation: There is only one entry allowed per person. If you supply a YouTube link, you also need to include some additional information in your comment on what the video covers and why you found it helpful.

Final stipulation regards the deadline. I'll accept comments until the end of the week. The cutoff time is midnight (Central Time) on Friday, September 30, 2011. So be sure to add your comment prior to that time to be eligible. Winner will be selected by a random number generation system.

Good luck! And thanks for participating.

New Site

Since I utilize this blog for a multitude of things, I decided to create a new and separate site for the upcoming Lost in the Bayou book. But we'll get to that momentarily.

As previously mentioned, Musa Publishing is a brand new organization that's attracting a lot of attention and a lot of new authors. They are currently accepting submissions for their various imprints. The people I've worked with so far have been nothing less than highly professional, courteous, and encouraging. Here's the link: MUSA PUBLISHING.

And now, here's the link to my new site where you can get to know Lost in the Bayou a little better. But here's a word of warning: If you're easily frightened, be sure to lock the doors and windows before you visit: LOST IN THE BAYOU.

If you submit to Musa Publishing, please let us know what happens. We'd love to hear about it.

Release Date Announcement

It gives me great pleasure to share this news with my dear and faithful readers. I'm thinking we need to cue the drum roll here.

I have recently signed a contract with a publisher for my manuscript, Lost in the Bayou. I am very happy about this event. Today, I want to provide some information about this publisher and what they're currently doing and what they plan to do in the future.

The publisher is Musa Publishing. They are brand new, and they're going to be publishing works in numerous genres. Here is a LINK to their site. When you visit, you'll discover they have ten distinct imprints. Additional good news is that, since they're so new, they're still accepting submissions, so this might be perfect opportunity for you to get published.

I have spoken with several of their editors and staff, and I am very impressed with their professionalism. My editor, Meredith, is a gem and very experienced in the MG and YA genre. During the coming weeks, I'm planning on posting updates on what's going on, along with some snippets of the book and perhaps some information on the characters.

It's exciting, and I'd like you to share it with me as it unfolds. Oh, and since I entitled this with a reference to the Release Date, it might be appropriate to include that here as well. Lost in the Bayou is scheduled for release on December 2, 2011. If I can figure out how to have a virtual Release Party online, we'll certainly do that and you're all invited.

Keep writing!