[This post also appears on the website: http://writersinkofgreaterphoenix.weebly.com]
By Shari Broyer When I was a child, I was extremely accident prone. I was always falling down and hurting myself someway: banging my head against something or barking my shins, forearms, elbows… Back then, I threw myself headlong into things without any thought of the consequences and was always getting into some scrape or other. Over the years, not that much has changed. I’m still getting into some scrape or other—the difference now is that these scrapes are generally more emotional in nature than physical, and I’ve also come to realize, due to some of the outcomes, that these are no accidents. Everything that happens, every misstep or supposedly wrong road taken, is leading us forward in this journey through life. None of us knows the full ripple effect of our actions. Even some of the most horrific instances of “evil” in history—such as the holocaust, or 9-11—have elicited bravery and goodness in the most unlikely people. The saying, “There is no such thing as an accident,” is only part of a famous quote by Napoleon Bonaparte. The entire quote is actually, “There is no such thing as an accident; it is fate misnamed.” But Ella Wheeler Wilcox said, “There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” And just this morning, well before I sat down to write this, I stumbled across a gem in the book, The Last Ride, by Nicholas Sparks, Grand Central Publishing: “Moments of circumstance, when later combined with conscious decisions and actions and a boatload of hope, can eventually forge a future that seems predestined.” (Italics mine.) The sentence struck a chord in me, so I wrote it down, completely unaware at the time that I would be using it in this piece. What all my “accidents” and these two seemingly opposing ideas mean to me as a writer is that “EVERYTHING”, as another old adage goes, “is grist for the mill”. Or, as I wrote in a poem as a young girl, “invert and multiply”. Some of my best works have been borne of my angst over something that I’ve felt has gone wrong in my life—yet another so-called “accident”. Witness my Amazon best-selling short story, Jesus on a Park Bench, which I wrote when I was so down and out I feared ending up homeless. And it has been no accident that all my stops and starts in life, all my detours, have led me to the place I’m in now, one that finally makes room for my long-banked embers of creativity to flare into flame. These “accidents” have given me so much to work with when writing, even at a very young age. When I was only sixteen, a neighbor—impressed by the notebook of poetry I had shared with her—said, “You’ve already experienced more in your young years than most people do in a lifetime.” That observation still holds true. I’m sure I’ve already experienced more lives in this one than the proverbial cat, and like the cat, I somehow still land, if not on my feet, at least where I’m supposed to, even if I don’t recognize it at the time. If I had followed my highest calling from the beginning, I might have become a famous author by the time I was twenty. Or, I might have foundered because I ran out of things to write about, perhaps have been a “one-book” sensation. Instead, I got lost. I turned down this road and that, in search of what, I knew not, not consciously. I look back and realize that I wasn’t really lost, “I [was] exploring,” as my friend, Jana Stanfield, wrote in one of her songs. Now that I’m older and can’t physically explore as much, I’m on an inner journey, one that requires a re-examination of all my “accidents”, being grateful for both the good that’s come of them as well as the “bad”, always aware that I can use both in the pages I produce. I’ve made the conscious decision to answer the call in me to write and I’m taking deliberate action. Right now, besides this blog, I’m writing a deeply personal story, fictionalizing a “chance encounter” with a man who was then killed in a freak “accident”. I don’t know why his life ended the way it did, but I do know that meeting him and spending the last few hours of his life with him that night affected me profoundly. I also know that I have to write his story, and I have no idea where putting it “out there” will take me. I’m simply following my inner compass, which, in the end—despite all the “accidents”—has never steered me wrong.
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George Sirois (Top 50 bestselling Kindle author of Excelsior) tagged me for this blog hop. The link to his official page is: www.georgesirois.com
Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing: 1. What is the working title of your book? Fish Story: A “Tail” of True Love 2. Where did the idea come from for the book? This was a short story I wrote when I was still married to the love of my life. (I still wish that our story could have continued on as happily as this one does.) The hero is patterned directly off of him (so much so that he recognized himself immediately when he read it and got mildly offended that I wrote about his “geekiness”!). When I first wrote it, I worked part-time in a mini mart that offered live bait for all the fishermen who came to fish in the lakes and rivers of that area of the Sierra Nevadas. I think that’s what gave me the idea to put the fishing spin on it. I dug the old short story out, saw that it could be developed into a novel, and started working on it. 3. What genre does your book fall under? I never stick precisely to one genre, but this one comes closest to romantic comedy. 4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? The cast would have to be young, since my main characters are all in their twenties, so I would want Victoria Justice to play Gilda, the heroine; Daniel Radcliffe to play Louis, the hero; AnnaSophia Robb to play Angel, the antagonist femme fatale; and Chord Overstreet to play Gerald Grouper, the antagonist male (this actor is particularly appropriate since he’s already played Trouty Mouth on Glee—tee hee). 5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? A new twist on an old line, or is it a tangle—lots of laughs for readers as they follow the antics of Gilda, a reluctant “fisherwoman” who spies “the big one” on the horizon and is compelled to catch her Grouper come hell or high water with the “help” of her best buddy, Louis and the hindrance of her nemesis, Angel. 6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Not sure yet which. It’s still a work in progress. I’m leaning toward a combo, if that’s possible. 7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Since the “first draft” was actually a longish short story, it didn’t take long. About a month, off and on. 8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Hmmm…that’s a tough one. While my stories often have elements common to other stories, I’m often told that my ideas are “fresh” and/or “quirky”. For example, the story started out to be a love triangle and has evolved into a quadrangle. So, just guessing, you might compare it—somewhat—to the books in the Nerd series by Vicky Lewis Thompson. 9. Who or What inspired you to write this book? As I said above, my nerdy ex-husband (who turned out to be anything but a nerd) inspired me, but I also have mega-muses who bombard me constantly with new ideas, and so I also have to bow to them. (I think I have all nine commonly known muses and then some!) 10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? I took the first four pages to the San Diego State University Conference in January of this year for an on-the-spot critiquing session, and I was the only one who didn’t come under the “fix this” fire of our facilitator, author Louella Nelson. She and the others—male and female alike—in the room were all laughing as the pages were read; Louella said she loved the “chutzpah” of it, and several people told me they were already “hooked”. ;o) I really think the fact that fishing terminology is used makes it funnier, even if you’re like Gilda and you hate fishing. My take on participating in the blog hop? When George first invited me to participate, I thought it would be fun, a great way to notice and get noticed. And answering the Ten Questions was fun--BUT finding five other authors who were willing to participate in the hop WAS NOT. I know a lot of published authors. I belong to Indie Book Collective and the Desert Rose Chapter of Romance Writers of America. I emailed some of the authors I know in Desert Rose personally. Only one, Shanyn Hosier, accepted the invite. Then I put the call out for participants on both LOOPS within these two groups. One person, Frankie Blooding, from IBC, answered that. Finally, I asked Robert, a personal friend, author of The Stolen Concept (whose upcoming book--The Iceman--I edited). HE didn't have a blog, so I set him up with one just to get a third participant. (And his web designing company's software is anything but user-friendly, let me tell ya!) It was like pulling teeth just to get the three "tags" I got. I realize how this little rant sounds, but I can't believe more authors didn't want to take advantage of this opportunity! I have enjoyed visiting the sites of those who did participate, and I would like to ask them to PLEASE leave comments, so I know they visited me, in turn. The authors I’ve tagged who ARE participating are: Frankie Blooding: http://www.smblooding.com/blog/ Shanyn Hosier: http://www.shanynhosier.com/ Robert G. DeMers: http://robertgdemers.com/blog/ Check them out! Awesome things start happening when you dare to do something you’ve never done before. Like becoming a volunteer staff member of Indie Book Collective, a cooperative of independently published authors with the mission statement: “The goal of the Indie Book Collective, founded in 2010 by Carolyn McCray, is to give authors, both indie and traditional, the marketing tools to create massive, positive change in their careers with long term sustainable sales, through industry relevant education, strategic sales events and innovative marketing programs. The Collective is committed to paying forward the knowledge and experience we gain for the overall good of authors and industry professionals because together, we accomplish far more than apart.” I attended the RWA sponsored Desert Dreams Conference in late April of this year and met Kelli McCracken there at a little “after hours” party sponsored by Taylor Lee, fellow author and member of RWA Desert Rose Chapter. We started talking about our books and the ghost in Chaparral Suites, the hotel where the conference was held, and then she told me about IBC. Since I already knew and very much liked Amber Scott, another author who was also involved with IBC, I told Kelli I’d take one of the brochures and look it over with a view to doing “something” for the organization. I joined IBC in May, but didn’t really get my feet wet until July when I did my first volunteer book review for YourNeedToRead, an affiliate of IBC. Then, I did a second review, which just recently posted to the site. I have yet to take advantage of any of the “perks” offered to volunteers, such as attending the online classes free. But, because I’m a staff member of IBC, I have actually had a very recent experience that I consider a “perk” even though it wasn’t offered through IBC but rather, through another staff member of IBC, George Sirois, Top 50 bestselling Kindle author of Excelsior. On July 10, 2012, George sent out a group email to IBC Staff Members saying he had an idea for a challenge. I had just finished self-publishing my first novel, Ether Man, on Kindle, and since I wasn’t quite ready to go back to work on my second novel, I was up for his challenge, originally called “6 Days to Amazon”. The idea was to write a short story, edit it, get a cover done for it, and have it ready to launch for free on Kindle within 6 days, August 1-6, 2010. I posted on his site that I was “in” and sent him my email address, then waited to hear from him as the days passed and the challenge loomed closer. On July 30, we who took on the challenge were reminded by George to keep an open mind, and basically to get ready to rumble. On August 1, as pondered what in the heck I was going to write about—I still hadn’t come up with anything and here it was Day 1—I was digging in my jewelry box and came across my great aunt’s ring that had been passed on to me when my aunt died, and something clicked. I had the name for my story, Aunt Lottie’s Ring. (Yes, my great aunt was Lottie, and yes that’s really her ring on the cover.) I also “borrowed” a few other things from fact for this story, such as the descriptions of clothing, cars, buildings and euphemisms of the Roaring Twenties which I looked up online. But a title was basically all I had, so instead, I spent my time Day 1 creating a title page, author page, and “also by” pages. I’ve always been a “fly by the seat of my pants” kind of writer—I get an idea and just go with it, spinning my tales as I go along, listening to the guidance of all of my nine plus muses, but this was really hanging out on the breeze, since I didn’t even have the basic concept yet! Still, they’ve rarely ever let me down, and I trusted them to come up with something… I had the first the glimmer of what my story would be about when I wrote about the old aunt who dies at the age of 120 (my aunt Lottie was also very long-lived, but not that long; she died at 96), and the great-great niece who survived her. The niece goes to view her aunt and sees a heretofore never worn engagement ring on her finger. I knew then that the niece, still single, would feel compelled to place the ring on her own finger and that something strange and scary would happen as a result. I just didn’t know what. Day 2 (Friday, August 2): I attended the film fest screening of stage actor and friend, John C. Brown. He produced a documentary about the life’s work of Irving Benson, “The Last First Comic”. The screening was at the Yavapai College in Prescott, AZ, and I went with another mutual friend because John, who lives in CA, and who I hadn’t seen in over two years, was going to be there. I knew this would be a “blow off” day, but, as it turned out, it really wasn’t. When I finally got back home that night, I emailed George that I had done the groundwork, written one page, and had the concept down fairly pat in my head. Not 100% true, but I knew the muses would come through with the “rest of the story”, as radio personality Paul Harvey used to say. Day 3: Another supposed “blow off" day. I watched the academy award-winning movie “The Artist”, at a friend’s house, swam in her pool, and had dinner there. Day 4 (Sunday): The images I had roiling around in my brain—all the vaudeville and burlesque shows of Irving Benson’s (the first last comic’s) early days; the silent film images of “The Artist”; picturing my Aunt Lottie young and newly married in the 1920’s and also remembering how incredibly young she still was at 96 when she died—coalesced and combined to present me with terrific elements for “Aunt Lottie’s Ring.” And I was off and running until… I cooked dinner that night on my little old electric stove. I had dished up the meal and had moved pots and pans off burners to cool. Then I saw a piece of potato that had fallen into one of the burner plates, and without thought, I lifted the burner to take it out. The still very hot electric coils hadn’t yet begun to cool down. After I let out a scream that could be heard throughout my apartment building, I grabbed ice and stuck it to my thumb (which was fortunately the only appendage I’d lifted the burner with). Still the burn was deep, and I had to keep ice on it all the rest of that night until I went to bed. Every time I took the ice off even for a minute or two it would burn like fire all over again. Day 5: Despite all the icing, the thumb still blistered and still needed yet more icing the next day. I posted that I hoped to finish the challenge, and I prayed that I could, but I couldn’t do another thing on the story that day. I type with all my fingers, and the thumb was still too sore for that. Day 6: I worked like a fiend to finish the story now that my thumb was semi-operational. I stopped only to enlist the help of my neighbor downstairs because I needed a ring box in which to position the ring for the cover I had in mind, and to take pictures and design the cover. I finished the story at exactly 11:51 PM, and crossed the finish line by emailing it to George on the stroke of midnight. Whew! It was a wild ride, but it wasn’t over with yet. Though I had completed the story on time, I still had to await George’s approval on the formatting and the seal that he would add to the cover. I have to commend him. Even though he himself didn’t finish the challenge, he was a great source of moral support to the three of us ladies who did. He was very kind and helpful; always commending us, putting the stories into correct format for eBooks himself, designing the winner’s seal and then, when I decided I’d rather have it in gold than white so it would show up better against the ring box, he changed that, too. Not only these things, but he informed us, as soon as he was aware of it, that there was a glitch with putting our stories up on Amazon for free, we’d have to use Smashwords, and the challenge would have to be renamed. (I can’t help it; I have to take credit for it—the change to “6 Days to e-Launch” was my idea. And George was man enough to admit my rename was better than what he’d come up with.) Then he wrote a story-specific preface for each one of us. What a guy! I’ve never met him in person, but I already feel that I’ve made a wonderful new friend. Still the very worst challenge was yet to come—uploading my story to Smashwords. It was a very involved process, and when I got to the area in which to choose the category my story fit into, the “working” icon hung up and wouldn’t let me proceed to the next step. It went around and around for over an hour, during which time, I impatiently bypassed it and filled in the rest of the form, uploaded my cover and story and hit “publish” hoping it would go through. It did, but I got the message that I hadn’t chosen my categories correctly, so I went through the process all over again, and this time, I stopped to really read through the terms. Good thing I did! It was then that I discovered (or so I thought at the time) that the “promo” pages I’d inserted at the end of the story (with the exception of my “About the Author” page) would have to go, AND I would have to tweak that “Author” page to meet the conditions set by Smashwords. Frustrating! I had hoped that I could use my little free story to promote my other works that aren’t free. However, Smashwords did allow putting links to your social media and your website up on your bio page, so there was some promotion, after all. THEN I discovered that I had inadvertently published “Aunt Lottie’s Ring” twice, a glitch I resolved correctly by unpublishing the version I hadn’t yet gone through the process of assigning an ISBN to. Another whew! But, all was finally done and the story was available free until I decided to give it a price. George recommended a month’s time. As of August 16, it had only been up on Smashwords for two days, and it had already been downloaded a total of 71 times and added to 10 personal libraries. I've since discovered, while reading through Mark Coker's Style Guide (he's the founder and president of Smashwords) that the stuff I'd originally put in for promotional reasons, and then took out, could stay in. It was really confusing. I highly recommend reading ALL of the free Style Guide Mark offers to those publishing via Smashwords BEFORE publishing. So, back went all that stuff. And a Table of Contents done Mark's way. I've republished the short story several times since the first time to get it to meet all the qualifications needed for all the e-retailers Smashwords deals with. It's finally reached Premium Status (8-23-12) and will be available on all those platforms in about a week, so I've priced it now, too. What an awesome experience, as I’m sure my co-winners, Brandy Banks and Linze Brandon will also attest. Here are the links to their stories: Hunger by Linze Brandon: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/213647 Fairytale by Brandi Banks: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/213586 And here’s the link to George Sirois’s site: http://www.georgesirois.com/ Thanks, George! What is the meaning of the word, “charm”? My 1956 Webster’s Dictionary, a hefty tome full of words and meanings almost lost to us today, defines “charm” as:
[French: charme; Latin: carmen –a song, a poem, charm.] 1. A word, character or other thing imagined to possess some occult or unintelligible power; hence a magic power or spell; an enchantment, an incantation. 2. That which has the power to subdue opposition and gain the affections; that which can please irresistibly; that which delights and attracts the heart; a fascinating or alluring quality; in the plural, the beauties of a woman’s form and face; as, she influenced many by her charm. 3. A song or a melody. (Obsolete) 4. Any object worn or carried in the hope of bringing good fortune or averting evil; as, he wore a charm to avert seasickness. 5. An ornament worn on the person; as, a watch chain and its charm. It is extremely interesting to me, as a writer, that the word “charm” has its origins in the French and Latin for poem or song, and that the very first definition is “a word, character, or some other thing imagined to possess some occult or unintelligible power.” I am not a religious person—I consider myself to be spiritual rather than religious—but I do own an amplified Bible, another hefty tome, and it is also extremely interesting to me that the first passage in this great book is the story of how God spoke words to form light out of the darkness that was the void of the earth and He then spoke words to form everything upon the earth. Another passage of particular interest to me is John 1:1—In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. So, “charm”, then, could be construed as a word with the unintelligible, or incomprehensible, power to, attract, influence and delight others. “Charm” is a Christ-like power. In my own writing, I have created quirky, funny, endearing characters, and I have charmed others with my words. I have given them to others as gifts, and I have read them aloud on several occasions. I have made people laugh and cry and powerfully moved them. But what I failed to see, in all the years I’ve been almost effortlessly doing this, is that my words are my charm, they come from a place of incomprehensible power deep within me. Perhaps the feeling that I was NOT charming came from being overshadowed by my mother, a woman who could sing like a songbird and “charm the birds off the trees” when she wanted to. I began to hide out at an early age, to go off by myself and daydream, to create worlds in which I was the charming one. And perhaps other writers have done the same thing, hidden away, believing they were somehow unworthy, their true light obscured from themselves and others. Feeling that they didn’t fit in with the rest of the world, they created a different world with their writing, a world apart from the “real” world, a world in which they were no longer socially inept—or worse, outcasts. How many writers seclude themselves, scribbling like “mad”, afraid to show themselves to the “real” world for fear of rejection? How many writers don’t even show their works to the “real” world for the same reason? How many masterpiece manuscripts lie gathering dust in a drawer or moldering away in some dark, dank closet? What great works will never see the light of day because their authors don’t deem them worthy? How many of my own “charming” creations have I shared with a select few yet failed to do anything more that would shine their light unto the world? This sounds grandiose, but it’s not. How many years have I “back-burnered” my intent to become a bestselling author, sticking only a toe in the water here and there, winning a contest here and there, getting a poem or short story published here and there, but never following through completely? I’ve hidden away in the woods and only peeped out from among the sheltering (and obscuring) branches for much longer than I care to admit. If only all writers could realize the true power they wield. “In the beginning was the Word…” The Word… The most powerful entity of all is The Word. Everything else stems from it. A popular tenet today is: “Thoughts become things,” but actually thoughts become words, and words become things. Before anything can be created, it must be thought of, even in the mind of God. And then it must be spoken (or written)—The Word. Once an intention is voiced, it can then be acted upon and brought fully into being. Writers have been a major voice for change throughout history. Their words have created thoughts in the minds of others, put words in their mouths, and caused them to act upon those words. Pretty powerful, heady stuff. So who are we to hide our lights, lights that lead the way, under a bushel? Who are we to cower away in some forlorn cave? If our words “charm” even one other person—uplifts them, moves them, influences them to think or act differently, causes a change for the better in any way—they have not been written in vain. And in today’s world, the “real” world in which an author has to also be salesperson and promoter of their works (whether traditionally published or not), it behooves every author to rely on their inner “charm” to create an outer world that supports them in this endeavor. If we have “charm” enough to write in a way that influences others, then we have “charm” enough to speak or read in public, to create an online and offline supportive community, and to promote and sell and speak out on behalf of our “charming” creations. It isn’t being prideful. It is necessity. We live to write, why not let our writing help us live a much richer and fuller life by embracing, rather than shying away from, our inner, natural ability to “charm”? © 5-15-12 Shari Broyer, All rights reserved. |
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