Great Writing Blogs

I owe my thanks to a number writers who give up their valuable time to maintain writing blogs that both instruct and inspire. Today, to help celebrate the release of The Emotion Thesaurus, The Bookshelf Muse has declared this Random Act of Kindness Day, where writers (and anyone else!) are encouraged to thank those who have helped them.

This is a great idea, and a wonderful way to launch a book! In that spirit, here are blogs I have found invaluable:

1. Elizabeth Spann Craig (blog: Mystery Writing is Murder)
One of my favorite writers, Elizabeth Spann Craig, not only has a blog chalk full of great advice for writers, she also has an amazing Twitter feed (@elizabethscraig). I love the links she tweets, they both inspire and instruct. I highly recommend her writing.

2. Joe Konrath (blog: A Newbie's Guide to Publishing)
If anyone is the father of the indie publishing movement, it's Joe Konrath. Whether or not you agree with his perspective, his blog posts are timely, instructive and witty. Joe doesn't post as regularly as he used to, but when he does I do a little happy dance.

3. Kristine Kathryn Rusch (blog: Kristine Kathryn Rusch)
I thought I knew a bit about the business of publishing before I starting reading Kristine's blog. It turns out I didn't. Kris Rusch knows the business of writing from the perspective of a writer, an editor and a publisher. For anyone who would like to be a professional writer Kris' blog is a must read.

4. Dean Wesley Smith (blog: Dean Wesley Smith)
This is another great blog on the business of writing. Dean has written a number of series on both writing and publishing that are well worth the read.

5. Passive Guy (blog: The Passive Voice)
Passive Guy is a lawyer who specializes in contract law, especially as it relates to the publishing industry. He has a knack for finding great articles about writing and publishing and, occasionally, talks about what to look out for in contracts -- he calls them gotcha clauses. A must read for anyone seeking to be traditionally published.

These are five blogs among dozens that inform and inspire me every day, I hope they'll inspire you as well. Cheers!

Photo credit: What Orli Did

The Business of Writing: Using Google+

Mike Elgan talks about how he uses Google+ for all his social media. I had no idea Google+ could do all this!

Technology broadcaster Leo Laporte had me on his show, This Week in Tech (TWiT), recently. I mentioned that I publish all over the Internet automatically from my Google+ stream.

I said, for example, that I publish both a daily and a weekly email newsletter without doing anything. It just happens. Everything I write on Google+ is automatically posted on Twitter and Facebook, and it's made available as an RSS feed.
This is part of the appeal of Google+. It's the only service I'm aware of where you can do just about everything -- publish, chat, email and blog. You can even use it as a social network.

Read the rest here: Elgan: How I publish from Google+

One fantastic feature of Google+ that I've recently taken advantage of is automatically publishing my blog on Google+ as well as Blogger. It's easy!

All you have to do is merge your Blogger and Google+ accounts -- a procedure which at first seemed suspiciously Orwellian. I was hesitant at first, but am very glad I did. I prefer the look of my Google+ profile and it's easier for me to keep everything updated, not to mention that my blogs are now published to my Google+ circles.

If you're wondering how to merge your Blogger and Google+ accounts, here's how:

1. Go to your Blogger account, the main page.

2. Click the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

3. Select the fourth option from the top, which should be "Connect to Google+". This will bring you to another page which will explain in great and glorious detail what will happen if you merge your accounts.

4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, accept the terms, press the button, and you're done!

If you change your mind, no worries. You have a month to do so and reverse any changes made.

Cheers!

So That's The Ebook Business, Eh

Here's a Canadian perspective on the changes in the publishing industry of the last few years. It's one of the more comprehensive and even-handed discussions I've come across so I thought I'd share.

According to The Vancouver Sun, the book publishing industry in Canada does 2 billion dollars a year and ebook sales account for about 18 percent of that. Speculation is that ebook sales are going to continue to increase as more people make the switch to digital books, especially if prices on books go down because of the Department of Justice suit against Apple and 5 of the 'Big-6' book publishers.

It's difficult to estimate the effect lower book prices would have on the publishing industry because, although lower prices would mean less profit, they would also mean more sales. Additionally, writers in 2012 have many more options available to them for selling their work. For example:

Sunshine Coast author Lars Guig-nard has published three books on Amazon, starting with Lethal Circuit, and says he is making a good living on ebooks alone. He makes about the same amount whether he sells a book in electronic or traditional format.

On the other hand,

Vancouver author Timothy Taylor said he would not consider giving up his relationship with his publisher (Random House) to create a self-published ebook because he values the editing and promotion provided by a traditional publisher.

On the whole, though, Taylor was optimistic:

"It almost feels like we could open up new markets - people who aren't buying physical books might buy ebooks," Taylor said.

It's a lengthy article, but a good discussion. Check it out: Publishers try to read the industry's future

Photo Credit: The Voice Designs

The Fungibility of Books

10 minutes ago I had no idea what fungibility was. It's the quality of replaceability that certain commodities have. For instance. money is highly fungible. If were to loan Robyn a $10 bill, one I had drawn a happy face on, I would not be at all upset if the $10 bill she repaid me with lacked a happy face. That is, I was not expecting her to repay me with exactly the same bill. As a matter of fact I would have found it rather odd.

Books, though, are not fungible, at least not in my view. One of my favorite authors is Jim Butcher. If I were to lend Robyn, say, Jim Butcher's latest book, Ghost Story, and she repaid the loan by giving me his novel Stormfront I would have NOT thought the loan repaid. No one book is the equivalent of any other; like snowflakes, they are unique.

You might be wondering, What on earth is Karen on about? Excellent question!

One day, I want to write a post about the Department of Justice's suit against Apple and five of the Big-6 publishers, but this isn't the day. It has been suggested, though, that although there was collusion among Apple and the publishers that the collusion didn't amount to anything because books are -- wait for it -- fungible.

Here's how the argument goes: Sure, we raised prices on a small sub-set of books, the best sellers, but many other books either didn't have their prices affected or they actually went down in price. For instance, many self-published books can be purchased quite reasonably. So it was always possible for a person to buy a book at pre-collusion prices, just not the same book (i.e., not a best seller). So, no harm, no foul, right?

Um. Wrong.

I accept the economic statement, that many people aren't going to buy books at or beyond a certain price point, whether for reasons of poverty or principle, but I reject the idea that books are interchangeable.

White I agree that if the latest book by my favorite author was out of my price range I would not purchase it (I would either wait for the paperback, buy the ebook when it came down in price or take it out of the library), I do view this as a loss. That many other books are in my price range doesn't make it okay that the price of that one book was made high due to collusion.

I mean, I don't want to be contentious, but it reminds me of someone saying, "Well, it doesn't matter if your pet dies, you can always buy another." It's true but so not the point!

Anyway, that's my rant. I don't have them often, so I'm hoping you'll forgive this one. It was sparked by Joe Konrath's latest post, Simon Says. It's quite good, I'd encourage you to read it, especially the first bit.

Cheers!

Kindle owners can now borrow Rowling's Harry Potter books at Amazon.com

Amazon.com is offering Rowling's Harry Potter books in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

The Kindle Owners' Lending Library now features over 145,000 books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers. The Kindle Owners' Lending Library has an unusual and innovative feature that people love - unlimited supply of even the most popular titles. With traditional library lending, the library buys a certain number of e-book copies of a particular title. If all of those are checked out, you have to get on a waiting list. For popular titles like Harry Potter, the wait can sometimes be months. With the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, there are no due dates, you can borrow as frequently as once a month, and there are no limits on how many people can simultaneously borrow the same title - so you never have to wait in line for the book you want.
- Amazon.com

Access to the Kindle Lending Library is through Amazon Prime and costs $79 a year.

A Church of Trees in Kaiserslautern, Germany

Even though this is a blog about writing, one of my most popular posts was about a picture entitled, Church of Trees, Belgium.

It was a stunningly beautiful picture -- I can say that without blushing because I didn't take it! Writers, after all, get inspiration from many sources, not the least of which is the beauty of nature.

I just came across this picture by Jeremy Taylor (see above) and thought I'd share it, with his permission. :-)

Cheers.

Related posts:
 - Church of Trees, Belgium

Neil Gaiman Interviews Stephen King, King talks about Dr. Sleep

Neil Gaiman and Stephen King are two of my favorite writers, so I was looking forward to reading King's interview and it didn't disappoint.

I was hoping King would say something about the sequel to The Shining he's been working on, Dr. Sleep. Everyone I've talked to about King doing a sequel has looked at me and said, "He's doing a sequel?" as though they must have misheard.

I did it [wrote Dr. Sleep] because it was such a cheesed-off thing to do. To say you were going back to the book that was really popular and write the sequel ... People think of that book, they read it as kids. Kids read it and say it was a really scary book, and then as adults they might read the sequel and think, this isn’t as good. The challenge is, maybe it can be as good - or maybe it can be different. It gives you something to push up against. It's a challenge.

I wanted to write Dr Sleep because I wanted to see what would happen to Danny Torrence when he grew up. And I knew that he would be a drunk because his father was a drunk. One of the holes it seemed to me in The Shining is that Jack Torrance was this white-knuckle dry drunk who never tried one of the self-help groups, the like Alcoholics Anonymous. I thought, okay, I'll start with Danny Torrence at age forty. He is going to be one of those people who says 'I am never going to be like my father, I am never going to be abusive like my father was'. Then you wake up at 37 or 38 and you're a drunk. Then I thought, what kind of a life does that person like that have? He'll do a bunch of low-bottom jobs, he'll get canned, and now he works in a hospice as a janitor. I really want him to be in a hospice worker because he has the shining and he can help people get across as they die. They call him Dr Sleep, and they know to call for him when the cat goes into their room and sits on their bed. This was writing about guy who rides the bus, and he's eating in a McDonalds, or on a special night out maybe Red Lobster. We are not talking about a guy who goes to Sardi's.

King's explanation/description makes me want to read the book; it also nicely explains the title, which I was curious about.

Let me give you one more excerpt. Here King is talking about something he mentioned in On Writing .

I never think of stories as made things; I think of them as found things. As if you pull them out of the ground, and you just pick them up. Someone once told me that that was me low-balling my own creativity. That might or might not be the case. But still,  on the story I am working on now, I do have some unresolved problem. It doesn’t keep me awake at nights. I feel like when it comes down, it will be there...

This has just scratched the surface of Neil Gaiman's original interview with Stephen King. Gaiman has put the unabridged version up on his site, it's over 4,000 words and well worth the read.

Link:
Neil Gaiman interviews Stephen King.

Photo credit: NeilGaiman.com

Murder One by Robert Dugoni now $1.99 for two weeks

Robert Dugoni

I first met Robert Dugoni at the Surrey International Writers' Conference and decided that if he was half as good as a writer as he was as a speaker I was going to love his books.

He is and I do.

Being poor, though, I must confess I've taken most of his books out of the library so I was exited to hear about a special deal his publisher, Simon & Schuster, is running. For the next two weeks, until May 22, Murder One is going to be on sale for $1.99. At that price even I can afford to buy it!

Here are links to the venues where Murder One is on sale at the promotional price:

- Page of links at Simon & Schuster


- Murder One at Amazon.com
- Murder One at Barnes & Noble
- Murder One at iTunes

I'm not sure if the promotional price has kicked in at all the stores, but when I checked just now Barnes & Noble and iTunes, they did have the book on sale for $1.99.

Apparently this discounted price is part of a promotion for Dugoni's new book, The Conviction, that's coming out June 12, 2012.

By the way, the sale began May 8, 2012 so it should last until May 22, 2012.

Enjoy!

Short Story: A Night In The Country, Part One

This post has been removed.

The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt, Sylvia Plath

Having one of those days where the words won't come? Here are a few inspirational quotations for the writer in us all.

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.  The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.  ~Sylvia Plath

A word is not the same with one writer as with another.  One tears it from his guts.  The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.  ~Charles Peguy

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.  ~James Michener

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.  ~Anton Chekhov

Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.  ~Orson Scott Card

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood.  I'd type a little faster.  ~Isaac Asimov

These quotations were taken from Quote Garden.

Ann Voss Peterson, Long time Harlequin Author, Goes Indie

Ann Voss Peterson has been writing for Harlequin since 2000 but doesn't have enough money for her son's braces. Joe writes that, in paper sales, Ann has outsold him at least 5 to 1 but that he earns triple what she does.

Granted, Harlequin gave Ann, and many other authors, their break into the industry -- and she thanks them -- but if the company isn't going to give her a decent contract (20% ebook royalties on net but with "net" undefined) then they're practically pushing her, and other authors in the same boat, out their doors.

To announce her departure Ann is offering her new book, Pushed Too Far, free for the next few days. Get it on Amazon here: Ann Voss Peterson, Pushed Too Far.

Read Ann's guest post on Joe Konrath's blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, here.

Go Ann!

Whatever happened to Herbert Morrison?

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster. Herbert Morrison was the radio reporter at the scene of the accident, the person who described the tragedy as it unfolded.

Morrison's emotional description of events impressed me as a child, perhaps it even haunted me me a little. The horror in his voice, the incredulity. Thinking back on Morrison's reporting of the tragedy, yesterday and today, I'm struck by the fact that I have -- well, had -- no knowledge of what happened to him afterward. I needed to remedy that so today I'm dedicating this blog post to the late Herbert Morrison.

One for the record books
 There's a lot I didn't know about radio reporting back in the day. Everything had to be live so the very existence of Morrison's recording is somewhat unusual. In fact, when portions of Morrison's description of the disaster were "rebroadcast nationally by the NBC Radio network the next day ... it was the first time recordings of a news event were ever broadcast, and also the first coast-to-coast radio broadcast. (Wikipedia, Herbert Morrison)"

Morrison's life before and after the tragedy
Before his historic reporting of the Hindenburg tragedy, he was an announcer for musical programs for WLS Radio and he had recently reported on several floods. A year later he left WLS "to work for the Mutual Broadcasting System and that network's New York flagship station, WOR.

Morrison served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, and later became the first news director at WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the 1975 motion picture The Hindenburg, Herbert Morrison was employed as a technical adviser. He was portrayed by actor Greg Mullavy in the movie, but his recording was used in the film. He was also sent across the country by Universal Studios to promote the film.
- Wikipedia, Herbert Morrison

Morrison's audio recording of the Hindenburg tragedy
Here is a transcription of Morrison's audio recording of the tragedy, courtesy of Morrison's page on Wikipedia.

It's practically standing still now. They've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship, and they've been taken a hold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; it's—the rain had slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it just, just enough to keep it from — It burst into flames! It burst into flames, and it's falling, it's crashing! Watch it! Watch it, folks! Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get this, Charlie! Get this, Charlie! It's fire—and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my, get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames, and the—and it's falling on the mooring-mast and all the folks agree that this is terrible, this is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world. [Indeciperable word(s)] It's–it's–it's the flames, [indecipherable, possibly the word "climbing"] oh, four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it ... it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's flames now ... and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring-mast. Oh, the humanity and all the passengers screaming around here. I told you, I can't even talk to people whose friends are on there. Ah! It's–it's–it's–it's ... o–ohhh! I–I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk, and the screaming. Lady, I–I'm sorry. Honest: I–I can hardly breathe. I–I'm going to step inside where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah—I can't. I, listen, folks, I–I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed.

Here is Morrison's audio file overlaid on newsreel footage taken at the same time.



Apparently the original recording distorted Morrison's speech -- it ran about 3% too fast. I believe the file I've embedded, above, has been corrected for this. To see your yourself, you can compare this version with the version embedded in the Wikipedia article on Morrison.

In putting together this post I've drawn heavily from the Wikipedia article on Herbert Morrison, but I've only touched on a fraction of the material included there. It's well worth the read.