This was my first time coordinating (Paranormal) and judging (Historical Romance) in the WisRWA FabFive contest. In the words of Groucho Marx, I’d never join a club that would have me as a member, but Karen took a chance on me. Being a newbie, I worked extra hard to get it right.
Coordinating fit like an old glove. I love converting chaos to order. That’s why I’m the one at home who does the laundry at home. I draw the line at dishes, though.
Twenty-four contestants entered my category, the bulk of them arriving in a flurry during the last couple days. I edited format, organized the entries and got them off to fourteen different judges. Each entry was judged by three different people, so my twenty-four entries exploded to seventy-two separate documents! Naturally, a bunch of the judges waited until the last possible moment to do their judging, so a wave of critiqued and scored entries came back right at the deadline or a little beyond. I was happy to see that even the stragglers did a great job of critiquing. Only one of my fourteen judges was stingy when it came to writing comments all over the entries.
As a coordinator, I had the opportunity to read twenty-four pieces of unpublished work. I didn’t really need to do that as part of my assignment, but how could I resist? I also read all of the critiques. Let me tell you, seeing the entries through so many discerning eyes was a major educational experience. It will undoubtedly help me improve my own writing going forward.
Judging was a great experience. The poorest entries were the hardest to critique, of course, and I spent extra time on them. Hopefully my gentle explanation of concepts such as GMC and POV will encourage the struggling new writers in my group of entrants to read a few books on writing and become better novelists. I tried to help even the best writers by pointing out where sentence structure could be made more interesting or where the dialogue might flow better with fewer tags. There was a time many years ago when I thought about becoming a teacher. Judging brought out that side of me.
Finally, I made new friends among the judges and some of the entrants as a result of my FabFive participation, so I got something of lasting value from the experience.
Can’t wait till next year’s contest!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
pi
I had forgotten how good this movie is. I love picking up a book or DVD that has been set aside so long the story is fresh and interesting again.
Post-story funk
I need to be patient about my new novel . The first chapter is entered in three contests. Since most editors and agents ask to see the beginning of a book, I don't want to start querying until I receive judge feedback. It'll be important for me to put my best foot forward when submitting, and I want to correct any shortcomings the judges identify.
Then there's the matter of my test readers. Two in particular are important. My daughter plans to make some suggestions regarding the teen dialogue in the book. She thinks I may have sprinkled a bit too much urban slang into it. And my brother, a former English professor, is looking at my "Shakespeare-Lite" dialogue in the passages when my hero travels back to 1692 Salem. Two other readers (one a teenager!) liked the book.
So, I'm going to take my time with this project. When contest and reader input comes in, I'll go from there. A quick rewrite might be necessary to correct grammar and dialogue. I might decide to enter a few more contests. Meanwhile, I have a new project idea, tentatively titled Invulnerable. First two scenes are drafted, and I have a general theme in mind. I'm not excited about the story yet, but that will come soon.
Then there's the matter of my test readers. Two in particular are important. My daughter plans to make some suggestions regarding the teen dialogue in the book. She thinks I may have sprinkled a bit too much urban slang into it. And my brother, a former English professor, is looking at my "Shakespeare-Lite" dialogue in the passages when my hero travels back to 1692 Salem. Two other readers (one a teenager!) liked the book.
So, I'm going to take my time with this project. When contest and reader input comes in, I'll go from there. A quick rewrite might be necessary to correct grammar and dialogue. I might decide to enter a few more contests. Meanwhile, I have a new project idea, tentatively titled Invulnerable. First two scenes are drafted, and I have a general theme in mind. I'm not excited about the story yet, but that will come soon.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
On Writing
I finished my first novel in July 2008. The Martyr Club is a 90,000 word dark satire about religion, sex and violence. The book needs a rewrite before it goes anywhere, and I don't know whether I'm up to it. I'm not a dark person.
I didn't have any credentials for writing a novel, really. Yes I'm college-educated and did take a fiction writing class many years ago, but my entire career has been that of a businessman persuing the American dream, and I've had no training to do anything else. When creating The Martyr Club, I knew nothing about hooks, point of view, sentence structure, GMC or the myriad of other tools a fiction writer needs to capture a reader's interest.
So after finishing that book, I crammed. Stephen King's On Writing served as my first instruction manual, followed by Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools, Renni Browne's and Dave King's Self-editing for Fiction Writers, Noah Lukeman's The Plot Thickens, and Debra Dixon's Goal, Motivation and Conflict.
I also joined Romance Writers of America so that I could hang around writers and pick up ideas. I think of myself as a writer now. That isn't to say I neglect the business career that has paid the bills for so many years. But a businessman isn't how I want to define myself.
Last month, I completed my second novel, The Story Queen. I love the characters who came to life in this story and hope readers will, too.
Why do I write? At first I wanted to be famous. And rich. I wanted to be in US Magazine eating a hamburger with a caption beneath saying "Celebrities -- they're just like us. "
But now I write, because I find fulfillment that way. I'm proud of my stories and love turning a good phrase. I hate most of the books out there that follow the formula but lack the snappy dialogue and vivid descriptions that readers want. My books won't be like that. No matter the plot or genre, my books will contain passages that a reader might remember.
I didn't have any credentials for writing a novel, really. Yes I'm college-educated and did take a fiction writing class many years ago, but my entire career has been that of a businessman persuing the American dream, and I've had no training to do anything else. When creating The Martyr Club, I knew nothing about hooks, point of view, sentence structure, GMC or the myriad of other tools a fiction writer needs to capture a reader's interest.
So after finishing that book, I crammed. Stephen King's On Writing served as my first instruction manual, followed by Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools, Renni Browne's and Dave King's Self-editing for Fiction Writers, Noah Lukeman's The Plot Thickens, and Debra Dixon's Goal, Motivation and Conflict.
I also joined Romance Writers of America so that I could hang around writers and pick up ideas. I think of myself as a writer now. That isn't to say I neglect the business career that has paid the bills for so many years. But a businessman isn't how I want to define myself.
Last month, I completed my second novel, The Story Queen. I love the characters who came to life in this story and hope readers will, too.
Why do I write? At first I wanted to be famous. And rich. I wanted to be in US Magazine eating a hamburger with a caption beneath saying "Celebrities -- they're just like us. "
But now I write, because I find fulfillment that way. I'm proud of my stories and love turning a good phrase. I hate most of the books out there that follow the formula but lack the snappy dialogue and vivid descriptions that readers want. My books won't be like that. No matter the plot or genre, my books will contain passages that a reader might remember.
About The Story Queen
The first good story I ever wrote was done during an airplane trip to a forgotten destination. It's a ballad about a Medieval bum shanghaied to fight a dragon. The vagrant manages to escape and find the love of his life, but just as he kisses her, everthing scatters in the fading remnants of a dream. The story ends on an uncertain note when a dragon flies above the waking man, suggesting that his adventure may have been real. I called that poem The Vagrant.
Sometime later, I wrote The Story Queen to develop a side character. And after that, I wrote the Dream Shadow, to present the first two stories from a different angle and further explore the fine line between dreams and reality.
I was on a poetry writing binge at the time, in the late nineties, and not much of it was very good. However, I held out hope for these three poems, wanting to weave them into a picture book for children, perhaps adding others as well.
I never did.
Many years later, in late 2008 to be precise, I conceived the shadowy idea for a story about a teenage boy who is enchanted by a mysterious Irish girl. In the opening chapter of that novel, Rebecca pulls a book from a shelf and tells Michael that she'd like to read one of her poems to him.
I didn't know what Rebecca was going to read until I peeked over her shoulder and saw The Vagrant. From that inspiration came a novel called The Story Queen. I just completed the third draft of this book and feel that it's something special, whether it gets published or not. At the moment, it's in the hands of some test readers. I've also entered the opening in three different RWA chapter contests. Presuming the judges score favorably and don't suggest major revisions, I'll start querying agents and publishers.
Here are the first three stanzas that Rebecca read to Michael.
Sunlight bathes his face from blue skies overhead.
He blinks,
and sleep fades from his eyes.
Rising now from mounds of leaves which formed his bed,
he stands as morning dew drops dry.
Kneeling by a brook, he washes shaves and drinks.
Light beard,
blue eyes stare back at him.
Combing long blond hair, "adventure" he now thinks.
"A day
of magic is my whim."
As he walks through town a voice from shadows cries,
"Go in,
your fortune she will tell."
"No." The vagrant laughs. "The future care not I!"
"Go in!"
The voice a magic spell.
Sometime later, I wrote The Story Queen to develop a side character. And after that, I wrote the Dream Shadow, to present the first two stories from a different angle and further explore the fine line between dreams and reality.
I was on a poetry writing binge at the time, in the late nineties, and not much of it was very good. However, I held out hope for these three poems, wanting to weave them into a picture book for children, perhaps adding others as well.
I never did.
Many years later, in late 2008 to be precise, I conceived the shadowy idea for a story about a teenage boy who is enchanted by a mysterious Irish girl. In the opening chapter of that novel, Rebecca pulls a book from a shelf and tells Michael that she'd like to read one of her poems to him.
I didn't know what Rebecca was going to read until I peeked over her shoulder and saw The Vagrant. From that inspiration came a novel called The Story Queen. I just completed the third draft of this book and feel that it's something special, whether it gets published or not. At the moment, it's in the hands of some test readers. I've also entered the opening in three different RWA chapter contests. Presuming the judges score favorably and don't suggest major revisions, I'll start querying agents and publishers.
Here are the first three stanzas that Rebecca read to Michael.
Sunlight bathes his face from blue skies overhead.
He blinks,
and sleep fades from his eyes.
Rising now from mounds of leaves which formed his bed,
he stands as morning dew drops dry.
Kneeling by a brook, he washes shaves and drinks.
Light beard,
blue eyes stare back at him.
Combing long blond hair, "adventure" he now thinks.
"A day
of magic is my whim."
As he walks through town a voice from shadows cries,
"Go in,
your fortune she will tell."
"No." The vagrant laughs. "The future care not I!"
"Go in!"
The voice a magic spell.
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