tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64943505768330955912024-02-19T00:21:09.341-07:00ElaineMarie Alphin's BlogElaine Marie Alphin's Thoughts on the Writing and Reading LifeElaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-58464423925168260662011-07-28T09:16:00.006-06:002011-07-28T09:45:35.648-06:00Honor, Honesty and IntegrityThese are the virtues I have always admired and aspired to. I have searched for these virtues in selecting my friends and my associates. I was not surprised to glimpse them only fleetingly as a child and teenager, but for some reason I expected to see them more often in the adult world. Instead, as an adult I see more dishonorable people, more perjurers, more individuals who seem not only to not care about integrity, but not to even know what the word means, and those who do not seem to recognize it as a virtue worth possessing.<div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 161px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqENm-MKQNg3b2vlxVfz9DlR_30gI3dKhFzazrCsNq5LnV6rFHqN8ON_cwsNm9NHki7A8bBXgDF_MqzGdreKRwO7ycL0WjuAFOflmnp7PsZm9kUuVo9Oii9hY4wU1_kFrXMUgd_yU3p7us/s200/Slytherin.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634428754047158642" /></div><div><br /></div><div>Too many people I run into these days are calculating and out for as much as they can get, not caring who </div><div> they run over in their mad dash for success, or even for mere creature comforts. In other words, most of them would be sorted into Slytherin. There are times they do not even seem to profit, just to damage or defame someone else, and count it as some perverse victory.</div><div><br /></div><div>I know - that sounds more like the angst-ridden plot of a young adult novel. And such jealousy, such competitive undercutting would ring true for that age group. But as adults we tell teens that bullying, cheating, lying about each other behind their backs - it will all get better when they grow up. But the truth is, it won't. We can only arm ourselves better to deal with it.</div><div><br /></div><div>The handful of honorable men and women will attempt to surround themselves with others who possess the honor, honesty and integrity that they admire, and will remain shocked by the actions of the dishonorable people they encounter. The best attempt to change this that a writer can make is to honestly write about the dishonesty that young people can expect to find in the world they grow into, and to show them that the only possible way to change it is to hold the people with whom they associate to the same high standards they admire, and to shine the light on dishonor whenever they encounter it. Otherwise they (and we) will all remain the confused and frustrated teens we once were, who were shaken to the core when first we encountered injustice.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am currently on a writing retreat with my writers group. I have been looking forward to this retreat since last year's retreat. I have eagerly been anticipating this time away from ordinary, day-to-day life to concentrate on revising my new young adult novel. And I'm making good progress. But at the same time, eating away at my concentration is outrageous injustice that my family is facing - due to the dishonor and malicious perjury of business associates. It infuriates me and it erodes the very idea that there is any sense of honor in the world we live in. </div><div><br /></div><div>Every encounter with dishonor diminishes all that it touches - and makes it increasingly difficult to proceed with work and maintain one's own integrity. It is not fair to my family to put what they're going through out of my head in order to concentrate solely on my writing at this retreat, yet it's not fair to my book to let the injustice of the real world intrude into the world of my story. I'm trying to find a way to balance the two of them. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow, after our retreat ends, how well I've succeeded.</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-86237321490463021172011-07-10T17:10:00.009-06:002011-07-10T18:30:15.410-06:00Fiction Series RantAm I the only reader who detests fiction series? All right - not all series. Not completed series that astound me by how well thought-out the books are, and how perfectly they fit together and progress (think the Harry Potter series, for instance)<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 101px; height: 105px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSZdIRrTh4_Py41rpqzRm0fe8aJcCJr68HP_RbXQBxpYhSJWf_12EZjkS18FXO1JP-JBoSBnSksVFF-8XK3qCq-thjQ06LkIgdCkvyvSiUy8NK8ib46ojdf9GStPsh_30912aRapdiArD4/s200/HP+Series.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627866039705640082" />. But in-progress series books drive me mad. I start reading a book that doesn't advertise something frustrating on the cover or title page, such as "the first book in the X series," only to reach the end and realize by the lack of complete resolution that it's going to lead to a series, and I groan aloud.<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><div><br /></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 161px; height: 128px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyPLvUvGobnEpI9hHjHHRJnDE1cCIU5io8VHX_Muyp74Oef3v9tQ9yndrfSmTdHzGYDGWOvUZyp6fy2MEpFg6aMfKzwCRGQeTYKuyjeNtYVSRgo82P0nY2UZvWYWWU5vnf1onxFAysAQb/s200/Nanct+Drew.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627867606004866594" /><div>When I was a kid, I liked series</div><div>books like Nancy Drew or Encyclopedia Brown - a series that was really a collection of books or stories bound together by a central character. There were already a lot of completed books waiting to be read, and it didn't really matter what order I read them in. But today it frustrates me no end to stumble onto a series in progress. You have to wait at least a year for the next book, and with a lengthy series you have to struggle to find the patience to wait for the next and the next for years to come. Really - how many kids can hold on that long? At least the Harry Potter series grows with its readers. A ten-year-old who discovered Sorcerer's Stone and grew up with the series found herself only a little older than Harry by the time Rowling completed the series.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was fortunate to come upon the Harry Potter books partway through the series' publication process. Although it was agony to wait (relatively) patiently for the final books, I was able to read the first several straight through, one after the other without pause. And each book was complete in terms of plot, building to a satisfying resolution, even though the complete series built to one overarching plot beyond the individual books. What a delight to discover that minor details in Sorcerer's Stone had their payoff in Deathly Hallows!</div><div><br /></div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 90px; height: 124px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_N1574UeHHTSm7SeM506q7-_N_zv2VLs1K3llMjYIAHFgNbgZ7jcEUBft2IqAMFBsMjY0YrH4oK3yRczMwqCkkU2FB53TXsDYs2jhSvKgpI9m97Ab8Cm5FjDDs6JOt1UfjvRWtUA3RQb/s200/Hunger+Games+series.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627869311329359378" /><div>But few series are that satisfying. The plotting and writing are rarely of the same quality in each book. Even when individual books are excellent (such as the first two books in The Hunger Games series), the whole series fails on its payoff when the final book ends up relying on twists such as character inconsistencies that diminish the whole. And even though teen readers might have grown up with Bella in The Twilight series, they were betrayed by the breaking-down of the resolution pattern in Breaking Dawn which hurt the series as a whole.</div><div><br /></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoesHRE9AqhmG1lO2AxqEts2vBJaMIF9-Xc9GnYuR6lNi7PAINY90_guxgajPTXT8QkEkQJiw4IdT2WgBPh0hqoGUl43hqR3FYIO7xVTSeMYVtWQBszbTYtg98upEwwG7eFrk7zM2o2eiW/s200/Encyclopedia+brown+series.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627871303704625858" /><div>Chapter book series and some middle grade series are satisfying, both because they are shorter and written (and therefore published) faster, and because most of them rely on the Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown series rules: the same or similar characters in each book, with plots that can be enjoyed in any order, not leaving readers desperate to find out what happens next.</div><div><br /></div><div>YA authors, please consider writing more stand-along books. A sixteen-year-old reader who falls in love with the first book in your series will be in college and possibly graduated and married before the series is over! Her reading interests will have matured and, unless your writing skills are on par with Rowling's, she may never make it to the end of your series. However, if you write a single perfect book, she will read it and may never forget it. Isn't that what you really want?</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-9763567610358575652011-06-03T15:37:00.007-06:002011-06-03T16:01:28.044-06:00The Month that DisappearedSometimes so much happens in a month that it's hard to remember to write about it here. May was that sort of month. Between talking to readers about my books, answering intriguing questions about writing that made me think, celebrating special occasions (my husband's birthday and our anniversary both fall during the month of May), reading several new books by friends and other writers I admire, and writing an entire first draft of a new middle grade historical fiction WIP, May simply disappeared. And here it is June already, and I realize I've written nothing since April! It's not that I haven't been thinking about the writing life, but rather that I've been living it too fully to write about it.<div><br /><script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 140px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJdj4az83yPMY8KQGjPYn0BlY_gLMO2sFnGA5CgWSsL966QhC6La-6jEPidU9PyvvqNsxi2i0IskenkxmKf1iQ5vNi4aUan__HcF6r9AC3kagei5ONiEhlIZTDvx4jGj2a98wV6hsVHgBr/s200/Leo+Pic.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614113060662777810" /></div><div>May also brought me some writing good news! <i><a href="http://www.lernerbooks.com/anunspeakablecrime/">An Unspeakable Crime</a></i> won the Gold Medal in the Juvenile-Teens-YA Nonfiction category of the Independent Publisher Book Awards, otherwise known as an IPPY Award. As one of my friends pointed out: how cool is it to win an award that rhymes with Yippee!!</div></div><div><br /></div><div>For those who are interested in the business side of the writing life, most publishers pay writers their royalties twice a year: in April and in October. The royalties in April are paid based on sales figures in the second half of the previous year; and the royalties in October are paid based on sales figures in the first half of that year. Some publishers pay writers on 1 April and some publishers pay writers on 30 April, according to their in-house accounting procedures. So by the time the Post Office delivers my mail, I receive a portion of my royalties in May. That means I found out in May 2011 how my sales in the second half of 2010 went. (Not too badly.) But this May I got a surprise! </div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 135px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyn1YybeT_do-mmdzCF7qnllq8bMsi-6HKZd6hhdvtWT43oOZZBf3xLrAP0md1srMd7avPnd0yIfwuJy9tXCSsEbOT9u7sJZf3LKPky4dIT1YH37nWu-otynjeiOqJ_Qwq25KdkqBbjibl/s200/Counterfeit+Son.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614115455843935426" /><div>My royalties include book sales and subrights rights sales (sales of rights to businesses, as opposed to sales of physical or e-books). Some years ago, a movie company optioned one of my books, <i><a href="http://www.elainemariealphin.com/Alphin_Counterfeit_Son.html">Counterfeit Son</a></i>, and since renewed the option. Well, sometimes in the fall of 2010, they decided to exercise the option, and their payment showed up in my April royalty check, which I received in May. That means my book is going to be the basis for a movie!</div><div><br /></div><div>I think that calls for another May Yippee, even if it is June now.</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-78815602960990084822011-04-28T11:42:00.005-06:002011-04-28T12:08:23.635-06:00A Plea to Teachers and School LibrariansI love getting letters from readers (of all ages) and I always reply. However, it breaks my heart when I get a letter, as I recently did, that a student wrote six months ago and mailed to my publisher, confident (I'm sure) that I would reply within the week. Often, student letters write that they're doing a project for class, and ask specific questions for their project. <img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 154px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpA1MGrY9ocoZQX11PcmCg53KCR1Rlh_V10PGl83B-x7kU3kZr2smdoLSDWZqRqsgsIr5kIYD7x_qcl9SYtYixpsz1TppxhjpOgcdwQT-dchckBpeTNVRoBmDqNF-Rno7wdAgW3eZw9STG/s200/Letter.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5600697182360129218" />I answer the questions when I reply, but I know in my heart that my answers are going to arrive far too late to be of any use in a project that was due last semester, and that the student who wrote them will probably hate me for life and never read another one of my books.<div><br /></div><div>So, <i>please</i>, Teachers and School Librarians, if you are assigning a project to write to me (or to any author) or assisting students in figuring out how to contact me, do not tell your students to use the publisher's address. I'm not sure why, but it seems to take publishers a very long time to forward it to their authors. Of course, it also seems to take many of them a long time to answer their authors' questions and other correspondence as well, but we know the drill by now. Students can't be expected to know they'll have to wait so long.</div><div><br /></div><div>First, have your students check the author's web page. I have my snailmail address on my home page and a link to my e-mail address on every page. Most writers have contact information - if not their home address, their agent's address. Agents are much speedier than publishers about getting any correspondence to their clients.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you can't find any contact information on the author's web page, try Googling the author's name plus the residence information shown on the book's flap or the "About the Author" section in the book. Yes, we move over time, but that's a start. A little time spent Google-searching can save months of time waiting for a reply.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unless you're combining author research with teaching letter-writing skills, urge your students to e-mail for the fastest possible reply. I must admit that I've received e-mails stating that the student has a project due tomorrow morning and can I summarize the plot of my book, identify the climax, describe the characters, identify the theme, etc. for him or her? And I answer these also, although I confess I tell those students that I cannot do their project for them, but they have to read the book. Even with legitimate personal questions such as how I came to write that particular book, or why I had this character do that, it's better to e-mail earlier than the night before the book report or paper or project is due, in case I'm out of town and unable to check my e-mail.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's the thing about corresponding with authors: we do not want to disappoint our readers - ever. Please, <i>please</i> help us keep your students happy and satisfied by making it easy for us to answer them speedily.</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-73018084293087395112011-03-31T12:52:00.006-06:002011-03-31T13:26:09.234-06:00Balance Life and Writing with Kristi Holl<div><br /></div>We writers tend to look at our work and our process as the most important thing in our lives. We read books about writing, about specific techniques that will help us write better. We buy software to help us write faster and more effectively. We look for ways to wring out every last second of the day that we can spend on our writing. In other words, we frequently overlook our <i>lives</i> themselves. At best this leaves us crippled in our writing.<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><div><br /></div><div>Our lives shape our experiences, which shapes our writing. Most of us realize this. But do we stop to think about how the quality of our lives shapes the quality of our writing? Stressed lives produce stressed writing. But how can we escape the emotions and stresses that complicate our day-to-day lives? It seems as if it would be great to live in a safe, supportive writers' retreat year-round. But realistically, even the most imaginative writer I know realizes that's not going to happen. And it wouldn't be good for us if we could do it, anyway.</div><div><br /></div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MkdAUJZSVj3NDxCH6Cv_dhapl34y8Pb_UmpkOw-0PXIKfJh3kt1x5YidbtL18FlRsZCbItY0WSfWgZsxEQ7nop92r4BhxTGLkQZxNVDnusD2DH3DV-lyW3I79ofqgK2PcxsUkH4JW6gA/s200/WFA-book2-600x800.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590323613451601586" /><div>We share with fellow writers stories of writing through stress and dealing with writing issues like procrastination or writer's block, but when we're not with our writers group or enjoying daily coffee breaks or visits with writing friends, what do we do? I have a suggestion: we should all go to Kristi Holl's <a href="http://www.kristiholl.com/">website</a> and download her <a href="http://www.kristiholl.com/More%20Writers%20First%20Aid%20PDF.htm">More Writers First Aid</a> in pdf form or for your Kindle. It is one of the few practical how-to books on dealing with the emotions, stress and issues in our personal life that prevent us from doing our best writing and enjoying the process more than ever.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kristi (I'm delighted to disclose that she is a longtime writing friend of mine) also offers practical how-to-write booklets at her site, such as <a href="http://www.kristiholl.com/Mystery%20Writing.htm">Writing Mysteries for Young People</a> and<a href="http://www.kristiholl.com/Tension%20Techniques.htm"> 50 Tension Techniques</a>. Her years of experience and teaching allow her to give her readers simple, direct, easy-to-follow writing tips in these booklets. But the best writing tips are useless if you're strung so tight, or such a perfectionist, or a perpetual procrastinator, or someone who clings unknowingly to poor writing habits. Kristi's <a href="http://www.kristiholl.com/More%20Writers%20First%20Aid%20PDF.htm">More Writers First Aid</a> helps the writer, whether that writer has published many books or is only just getting started, recognize how she's sabotaging herself and shows her how to make wiser decisions about balancing life and writing.</div><div><br /></div><div>I admit, I was predisposed to like this book because of the teddy bear on the cover - I know I write better when I've got a teddy bear for company. But I wasn't prepared to love it until I began dipping into the book and recognized so many of my own problems in her practical advice in dealing with burn-out, rejections, facing fears, writing in pain, and derailing our own writing. What is so helpful about the book is that Kristi doesn't write from way above us lowly mortals, telling us how to solve our problems; she generously writes as if she has experienced every problem we face, and shares how she has lived through it, or triumphed over it. Reading this book is like having a terrific visit with a friend. Even if all your friends are busy, you know that Kristi isn't too busy to spend some time with you, and help you through that rough spot so you can balance the ups and downs of life with your writing to give yourself write better than you ever thought you could, and to be happier doing it than you've ever been.</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-54719697137273920672011-03-21T15:47:00.009-06:002011-03-21T16:07:02.036-06:00Jumping into the ebook market<div>When ebooks became the new trend, I wasn't really sure how they'd go. Would teens and middle graders really want to read books on their computers? Would they be willing to invest in ebook readers?</div><div><br /></div><div>It turns out that they are. And I can't blame them. I bought a Kindle two years ago and fell in love with being able to carry my library of favorite books around with me so easily. Last year my wonderful husband got me an iPad, and now I carry around even more books on it, as well as music, movies and the web. Now I wonder, would any of my readers actually want to read my books on their ebook readers?</div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 133px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyB69x3fXMIZ4lVadHl-x6HeJPpssFOfec_0bWsqGunL7uIB8qa2TY5YO6zjCT8wv_IUYFwfawTdZRaNdrCwDvnWR1NN_lmiNS7X15arNa-9kp9Hpjanu2bwbvxfarB4k-ThOC8QIrTYs/s200/Screen+shot+2011-03-21+at+9.50.19+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586654797608403314" /><div><br /></div>Several of my publishers have brought out some of my YA titles in ebook format, and I've been thrilled to see the books available, but with the delays in the length of time it takes publishers to inform authors of subsidiary sales and the royalties they've earned, I still have no idea whether anyone is buying them.<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><div><br /></div><div>So I decided to take one of my early ghost stories, Tournament of Time, and do a little experiment. I controlled ebook rights to it, so I formatted it for <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/">Smashwords</a> (much easier than I expected, using their helpful style guide) and uploaded it <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/48578">there</a> at $2.99. I'm also in the process of getting it approved for the iBookstore, since I love reading on my iPad, and I'm sure other iPad readers feel the same way - if given the opportunity to buy an ebook in a variety of formats, most of us would go for the iBook version that could be read on our iPad or iPhone. If you enjoy ebooks, mysteries, and English history, check out my take on the murder of the Princes in the Tower in <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/48578">Tournament of Time</a>. Decide whether you're Team Richard or Team Henry, then find out whodunnit.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've already had several downloads since the book came out this morning, so I'm thinking it's off to a good start! And I hope you enjoy ghostly history mysteries, and ebooks, as much as I do.</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-51353843009589221002011-03-09T00:35:00.004-07:002011-03-09T00:53:17.797-07:00The Second DraftWriters like to talk about the first draft, and then the excitement (or the torture) of revision. But for me there's a pretty major step in between those two parts of the process. That's the second draft.<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><div><br /></div><div>For me, the second draft isn't a revision, or a re-envisioning of the book I set out to write. The second draft is when I read through my first draft and add in details that I realize I left out in my rush to complete the first draft (the phase I like to think of as taking a roller coaster ride with my characters.) There's no time for pausing to consider the perfect word or the small, descriptive details that accompany the main action while you, as the writer, are riding the roller coaster. The second draft is the time to consider those.</div><div><br /></div><div>The second draft is also the time when I look at what I've written and recognize the subtle threads that are woven through the story as a whole. These threads may only peek through here and there in the first draft, because they may be so subtle that I didn't recognize their significance while I was on the roller coaster. Now they spring out at me in vivid relief, and as I work on the second draft I can pull those threads through, so they find their proper place in the book as a whole.</div><div><br /></div><div>The second draft is also the opportunity for adding in facts. I do a great deal of research before I get on that first draft roller coaster, but once I've taken off I always run up against questions that I discover I need to answer before the manuscript is ready to be revised. Interrupting the roller coaster ride in order to look up these facts can upset the flow of the writing, </div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 153px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXy4sw6J5ILvmmMeSehvhDqnJF4GFF_Ue4EnQN-tq_lvmNt2mE8MSo0dtfj_Ouv2nU83o_yRsIa7jJX_bhv1cqa47afkCKUeg33n6W7-PpKiGKvRapHfsFTGOjqjP1ZX65wPVuRvQGQDm/s200/Screen+shot+2011-03-09+at+12.41.15+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581983145012458210" /><div>so I leave notes or gaps in the first draft to remind me to find out about this or that, and the second draft is my chance to look up those facts and fit them in correctly. These can't be big facts that will alter the way your characters behave, or course, or how your plot turns out - those have to be answered before I climb on the roller coaster. But the second draft is my chance to research those little facts I didn't know I needed to discover when I first started writing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sometimes I don't even realize when my first draft turns into my second draft. This evening my husband asked how close I was to the end of the book. As I tried to explain that I'd already written the end, I realized what I've been doing these last couple of days was pulling threads through and adding in those descriptive details and those additional facts. I realized I've completed my first draft, and I'm partway through my second draft. That means my new book should be ready to give my critique group soon, and then read to revise and send to my agent. I've got to admit, I'm thrilled to realize I'm well into my second draft!</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-14822315456747109102011-02-15T09:44:00.007-07:002011-02-15T10:16:15.276-07:00Instant Gratification, Frustration, and the Internet<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Over the years, my book buying habits have changed. I used to walk into a bookstore, eager to spend the next hour or two browsing, actually reading some of each book I considered buying. I read various review magazines, and I might go into the store with a list of titles I was interested in. I'd talk with the bookstore personnel, and often come up with recommendations for even more books.<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><div><br /></div><div>Then online bookstores exploded into the market, offering many titles I couldn't find in my local bookstores. Nevertheless, I was slow to fill my bookshelves with online purchases. I liked to be able to dip into the book before committing myself to its purchase.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>All that changed with e-books. Now I could download a sample from the book to my e-reader (I got a Kindle first, and then an iPad), and satisfy my craving for a dip before buying. And, as I did on my bookstore trips, once I decided I liked the book I could buy it immediately: my yearning for instant gratification was not only encouraged, but satisfied.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, the internet changed more than just the ability to download e-books instantly. It altered not only book selling but review protocol. Librarians and other readers and writers always loved the joy of collecting ARCs at BEA and the ALA conventions, but as blogs spread across the internet, reviews came earlier and earlier, as if blog reviewers were excited to report "I just read this terrific book and I'm going to whet your desire for it, but you won't be able to see it for another six months!"</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>When I read an enticing review for a book, I expect that it may not be out until next month, but there's nothing so depressing as reading a review in November for a book that won't be out until April!</div><div><br /></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 86px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl8sycyGsQIG4Ikz4AcoxLPjNLgRbdvZJ7miXA0C_0_77ZsgHlEApYSEVtdx6YhG5ymAYU59zdBvb5_4JWx_YSbuo9XuSRfmkBxSWR0KNwXeakyyz4f2mISP7G6-ohA1IcrBxupzXFOZUF/s400/Screen+shot+2011-02-15+at+9.53.11+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573965888371166114" /><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The internet has set up the expectation of instant gratification, so as soon as I read a review that intrigues me, I immediately check to see if I can download a sample of the book <i>now</i>, and I fully expect to buy the complete book as soon as I finish that sample if I like it as much as I hope. I don't mind pre-ordering something I expect to enjoy if it's going to be released next week or next month, but I've grown too impatient to wait for four or five months!<div><br /></div><div>Blog reviewers, please wait to post your reviews until it's a little closer to the book's actual release date, to minimize your faithful readers' frustration. Chances are your enthusiastic review will excite me about the book, but by the time it comes out 5 months from now, chances are I'll have forgotten its title and why you convinced me I'd love it. Our online world has conditioned us to immediacy - we now expect instant gratification and have no patience for waiting. It's great to tantalize us with a list of ARCs you picked up, but couldn't you hold your reviews until closer to each title's release? I think it will lower my reading blood pressure, and make me love you more. Then again, I suppose blog reviewers are eager to publish their reviews as soon as possible - perhaps it's not fair to expect them to be immune to the desire for instant gratification themselves.</div></div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-14924173492998431242011-01-28T17:33:00.005-07:002011-01-28T21:53:43.255-07:00Take Time to Celebrate!I was very touched when I heard Marion Dane Bauer's story about not properly celebrating her Newbery Honor win for <i>On My Honor</i>. And I've taken to heart her advice to celebrate each step of the way. As writer, it used to be true that ours was a solitary journey, but thanks to our writers groups, thanks to the internet, thanks to Facebook, we're now active participants in a larger community that allows us to have virtual celebrations with our friends and colleagues any time we want! <script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><div><br /></div><div>I celebrate a good writing day by updating my Facebook status, and share good news about great reviews or awards with my writers group by bringing</div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 196px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis_E63loWCJFhStG8nYvU3Uhn61ydYsaz6bzS5enquu8O-daPlj4NrO5dyIxD0qflyWN0zWoeyfnhM7hc2KZS_qTZOl3aCQrciukwIz4RYarDmvjs5Gx3gdOFD21mQkMPBUIABJ2Je8eEZ/s200/Screen+shot+2011-01-28+at+5.44.51+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567464024494111250" /><div> chocolate to our meetings. (My previous writers group celebrated with cookies - different foods, but both great ways to share good news with your friends.</div><div><br /></div><div>Still, the writing itself, at least the first draft, is something done alone. And I do have a more private celebration ritual for good news or awards for one of my books - one that doesn't involve eating. I celebrate by getting myself a new fountain pen. It's a way to celebrate the writing, and my personal participation in it. No, I don't write my first drafts by fountain pen - but I write my notes for each book, and my journal, and my handwritten letters with fountain pens. I cherish the way the ink flows, and how a fountain pen solidly fills my hand. And I always love the way children and teachers point at it and say, "Look! A real writer's pen." </div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 111px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXvBFUJbdxOzLMUkZTrDclbxg4y2jVDfftFMVtP_b0uhwefDQBQNYJ5o8jobau5-agpnoSNAk_TlA2oZOJCtvExM56ehL-dVu3goCbmvlqHbUgYA_f_dv9JalID9Ul9vXV151WCZffvd9m/s200/Celebratory+Pens.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567464572480342930" /><div>My fountain pens aren't magic, but they're special to me, and I was delighted to start writing with the newest addition to my working collection, the silver one at the bottom in this photo. We all have good writing news to celebrate much more often than we give ourselves credit for: finishing a scene, finishing a chapter, completing a first draft, trusting our first draft to our critique group, completing a second draft, completing a revision, placing the manuscript, signing a contract, completing revisions for the publisher, seeing reviews, holding the first copy in our hands. Make sure you do something to celebrate each step of the way, with writing friends, and perhaps even a personal celebration ritual of your own.</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-18870385732863741782011-01-18T00:33:00.007-07:002011-01-18T00:52:00.585-07:00Tis the Season to Reward WritersNo matter what the Today Show thinks, January is the time for the children's and teens' lit community to reward writers and illustrators and to celebrate those awards. I love January! It's the time when I discover what I've missed in my previous year's reading, and have the opportunity to download as many books as I can afford for my iPad. Fortunately this past Christmas I was blessed with lots of ebook gift cards! I've just finished Moon Over Manifest (how could I have missed that one?) and Jenni Holm's Turtle in Paradise which I like more and more as I think about it more and more. I also loved A.S. King's Please Ignore Vera Dietz - I shall never see ghosts the same way again. And I'm still reading (and loving) Dash and Lily's Book of Dares.<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 140px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz8fR9wWSO-ft2YXGL_fhTBrj7kfbmIxUx2cnMU1Jem9obQvdcYes1K0QHyo6_VQFKUW70cndz99UPmTPMrzu6jgszjRdyUgnMHwB4TqqXHXPfGnypHb2B1JoBZ2vDAK87flI-Il9dw2Dp/s200/Leo+Pic.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563428945682373026" /></div><div><br /></div><div>This year I'm also delighted to announce that my book, <i>An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank</i> has been honored in the round of January award announcements. <i>An Unspeakable Crime</i> was named an Honor Book in the Social Studies - Grades 7-12 category by the Society of School Librarians International, and was also named a 2011 Sydney Taylor Notable Book for Teens. It has also been honored as a Cybils Finalist in the Nonfiction Book (Middle Grade and Young Adult) category, and a National Jewish Book Award Finalist in the Children's and Young Adult Literature category.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am overjoyed to share my book's recognition for the same reason that I'm delighted to learn about other books that have been honored: just as I am eager to read those excellent books I mentioned above, I hope that readers will discover <i>An Unspeakable Crime</i>. That's why we write, after all, in the hopes that someone will read our book, and any recognition that makes it more likely for others to read it is a wonderful thing. If you're curious and want to find out about this 1913 legal case, please click <a href="http://www.lernerbooks.com/anunspeakablecrime/">here</a> to watch a video about my research for this book. And many thanks to the organizations and committees that honored my book.</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-82667189216177845732011-01-09T14:46:00.005-07:002011-01-09T15:09:41.731-07:00Writers' Leap of FaithHappy New Year! Time for new resolutions, new starts, and new experimentation. Sometimes it's hard, however, to take a leap of faith and try something new, especially when it comes to writing.<div><br /></div><div>Have you found a writing method that works for you? A method of planning your novel and writing that first draft that seems foolproof? A method that has worked for you reliably in the past, one with which you feel comfortable? You're confident in your writing because you're familiar with it, and you can see your word count build up as your characters grow and work their way through a plot with a beginning, middle and climax that all occur at the right proportional points in your manuscript. Well, congratulations!</div><div><br /></div><div>But perhaps this trustworthy method isn't really serving you as well as if did the first time you experimented with it, and were delighted with the new aspects of your novel that it helped you discover then. Be honest: since you've been writing with this method, have you continued</div><div>making new discoveries and pushing your ideas to their limits? Sometimes you need to shake up your procedure, or you can fall prey to stultifying sameness that compromises the complexity of your ideas.</div><div><br /></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 84px; height: 116px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihZk9kvD2TFR6Ok8ufcofKGHWFZablodEorpQPOf_8n5HVwbE2V2IRkqRAkrp-YW2MnlPmdUq6eqoOcTMgsBpbLSWPWnQgbH9zh67xmapVTNpU7cAT3ZWz-kKvwrkkbvCPK5vEbjFG2Xtg/s200/Blockbuster+Pic.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560310573590965282" /><div>So start the New Year by experimenting with some new writing methods. </div><div>Check out Martha Alderson's terrific <a href="http://www.blockbusterplots.com/">Blockbuster Plots books and videos</a>. </div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 103px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBt5vq_s7rZBbKUJUOZFs-PSdudfPPsqxg9TfZYvgZS_M4v9j87ZXls74OfCeIg7_hyphenhyphenC6mJIFmIvmnRbazGMJcOYSuuE-YKHD4D-4M0YzAxqcG1zfUYeeP6Ma5LozkJEcKbKmVWmj0drDd/s200/Dramatica+Pic.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560310910337521058" /><div>Explore software like <a href="http://www.dramatica.com/">Dramatica</a> or <a href="http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php">Scrivener</a>. Check out my own book on <a href="http://www.elainemariealphin.com/Alphin_Characters.html">Character and Plot development</a>. These are all tools - they won't write your book for you, but they'll help you look at your idea through new eyes, asking new questions that might help you make new discoveries about your characters and their story, and explore avenues with exciting potential that you hadn't considered with your comfortable method.</div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh__7uCIyUXuc87Dx9Z8S4SxrBZTE-5DVe5YINgywNmnNZv2-rHu4ynlj3-CaRNOzrb11JFcG8sUeLbSWz_es0ClOoxPGcksdyZzvGp8PnOv9jqG-cAskOlszjy9DV3GfsFmWkaCRr_S8H_/s200/EB+Characters+Pic.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560311498483534370" /><div><br /></div><div>Never let yourself become complacent in your writing. Complacency can stifle your imagination and prevent you from tackling the hard questions that could force you to confront uncomfortable ideas. Those uncomfortable nudges are the very ideas that could elevate your comfortable book to something challenging and remarkable and new.<br /><script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-12871397787618978102010-12-23T08:33:00.004-07:002010-12-23T08:52:44.485-07:00Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, to all!<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />All my Christmas shopping is done - the presents are all wrapped and either under our tree or en route to friends by priority mail, the Christmas cookies are baked and frosted (and sampled), the groceries are in the refrigerator for Christmas meals. As much as I feel triumphant, however, I also feel a bit sad. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxaQaHa0alpoEqviOoMN3BOJH7lH-o_TUwJ2QfxL_0Xg28CvvmOCTKgWoIqOH6JLK8N8iiCsVHKMgjuCYPfcBEWMqNK7qyPH-uaR2C_DsIlaTdukmvbRkBOvPehXUCBvlJZxTGJs6fPtj/s1600/Picture+4.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 138px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxaQaHa0alpoEqviOoMN3BOJH7lH-o_TUwJ2QfxL_0Xg28CvvmOCTKgWoIqOH6JLK8N8iiCsVHKMgjuCYPfcBEWMqNK7qyPH-uaR2C_DsIlaTdukmvbRkBOvPehXUCBvlJZxTGJs6fPtj/s200/Picture+4.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553902205687889010" /></a>The preparations for Christmas, the anticipation of how my friends and family will enjoy their gifts - these are what I love best about the holidays, even more than Christmas morning itself and the fun of opening presents. I truly believe this is the season of giving.<br /><br />I wish I could be a spirit in every household to which I sent gifts - I'd love to watch my friends' children (and my friends) open the presents I sent them. But the best I can do is send some of my spirit with the gifts, and be thankful that my friends are mostly writers, who will write to tell me how those small pieces of my love for them were received. Then I can vicariously share in their holiday joy from afar.<div><br /></div><div>Spend as much of the holidays as you can with people you love. Christmas, more than Facebook or the internet, is about truly connecting with a larger community than your household. I believe we send gifts because we're reaching out to the people we care about, showing our love in boxes and gift bags. We do that many times during the year: on birthdays, at random moments when we just have the feeling a friend needs a lift. But this winter holiday season of Christmas is magical because nearly everyone reaches out to everyone else they know, and even to some people they don't know, through charity, to share that love, at the same time. </div><div><br /></div><div>Enjoy the holidays. Eat too much and laugh too much and hug beyond your personal space comfort bubble. Let the world in and revel in it. That's my wish for everyone whose spirit I've touched this year, and other years, and for everyone whose spirit has touched me. Give of yourselves, to share this magical season, until your heart overflows.</div>Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-45881682345658705422010-11-26T10:15:00.007-07:002010-11-26T23:27:56.504-07:00Genres - Helpful or Hurtful?<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />Genres tend to mystify me, and I'm not sure they're really doing much of a service to readers, labeling books in the simplest possible terms.<br /><br />I write novels. I admit I didn't think much about genres when I started publishing - I thought about the target age of my readers, but not the genre of the book I was writing for them. Then, after <span style="font-style:italic;">Counterfeit Son</span> was published, I got a phone call from my editor telling me it had been nominated for an Edgar Award. <br /><br />Wonderful! But I had to ask her, what was an Edgar Award? She told me it was for Best Young Adult Mystery. <br /><br />Wonderful! Except I hadn't thought of <span style="font-style:italic;">Counterfeit Son</span> as being a mystery. It was a novel about coming to terms with exactly how much responsibility one person owed another person. I was honored to be nominated, but the nomination was something of a mystery to me. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTf8P9MDMeUAUmDMef1xVI8iw4LPaejQWxer-JMtKzidunfdszLwGgvzj3DTw9mpaYS4wXkSk284gHBNhBEAVCOp-XzE47pAjpOz5QjxMOljFRh-fcG7gD6q34QnKvbCWX2m4313Mj3U7o/s1600/Picture+2.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 110px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTf8P9MDMeUAUmDMef1xVI8iw4LPaejQWxer-JMtKzidunfdszLwGgvzj3DTw9mpaYS4wXkSk284gHBNhBEAVCOp-XzE47pAjpOz5QjxMOljFRh-fcG7gD6q34QnKvbCWX2m4313Mj3U7o/s200/Picture+2.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543910515033989170" /></a>Then I began thinking about my other books, and I realized that most of them were mysteries - I'd used techniques of mystery to tell the story I'd wanted to write. I was even more honored when <span style="font-style:italic;">Counterfeit Son</span> won the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery. And the following year <span style="font-style:italic;">Ghost Soldier</span> was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery, another tremendous honor, even though I thought the book was more a novel about knowing when to hold onto family and when to let go, than a mystery.<br /><br />So genres can benefit writers unexpectedly. But I think genres can also do writers a disservice sometimes. I've recently finished a novel about the need to protect words and books from being twisted and misrepresented. It takes place in our world, perhaps a few years in the future, and I thought of it as sort of a foray into science fiction, or speculative fiction (a term I prefer). But with the current interest in dystopian literature, it's being called dystopian. And editors have rather specific ideas about what they want to see as dystopian. So when they read my manuscript, thinking dystopian, they have problems with it not fitting neatly into the dystopian template they have in their mind.<br /><br />Not so wonderful. I know genres can help readers find the sort of books they want, but I think that pigeon-holing can also cut readers off from books they might well enjoy if they came to those books without pre-formed expectations. What do you think? Do genres hinder more often than help, or vice versa?Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-52166200758070417402010-11-10T14:08:00.004-07:002010-11-10T14:54:37.198-07:00Old Friends<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />This year I joined a Facebook Group in which all the members are trying to read 100 books in 2010. Every month we all post the titles of the books we read. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxV6x5l7LRbFW_CflRkqCQBIA9VtnkrsFlCrjsBGgw2JHZImVxxWwijT3vn35GNgWO0N34x50q-h_s9m9Mn0G2ORmGWRbhkgBhlikGw5VyKXOoXqLPKDZFIWKoDNVaSCA67IcGKbX98fP4/s1600/Picture+3.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 132px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxV6x5l7LRbFW_CflRkqCQBIA9VtnkrsFlCrjsBGgw2JHZImVxxWwijT3vn35GNgWO0N34x50q-h_s9m9Mn0G2ORmGWRbhkgBhlikGw5VyKXOoXqLPKDZFIWKoDNVaSCA67IcGKbX98fP4/s200/Picture+3.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538042301710073330" /></a>This has been a fabulous source of recommendations for new books to read, and I'm thoroughly enjoying my participation. While I've discovered many new titles and authors this year, I also find myself returning to old friends, re-reading classics like The Outsiders, and Edward Eager's Magic books, and more modern classics like the Harry Potter books. And there's nothing that give me greater pleasure than receiving an e-mail from a reader who tells me he (or she) has read and re-read one of my books, like Ghost Cadet, and considers it an old friend.<br /><br />I really love discovering new books which will become old friends and be re-read in their turn in time, but there's no question that I also treasure my time curled up with old friends, especially when life gets difficult. There's nothing more comforting in tough times than a cup of mint tea and an old friend, although these days I more often than not find myself reading my old friends on my new iPad. I'm not clinging to old friends as a way to avoid moving forward in the literary world, either in terms of not wanting to discover new friends, or not wanting to use new technology.<br /><br />I guess I'm still a Girl Scout at heart, remembering when we used to sing around the campfire:<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Make new friends<br />But keep the old<br />One is silver<br />And the other gold.</span><br /><br />I'm not sure whether my old book friends are silver or gold, but I treasure both the old and the new. Do you find yourself returning to old friends as you read, also?Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-43726542101956836792010-10-02T15:46:00.006-06:002010-10-02T17:34:16.238-06:00Goodbye, Haunted House...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVi6QUL7AJKN_ZUjtKUXYkq-016n0Om_09H_DNIF6F7yAKcF_SK9cz0vIo5CWuxCxMIvybbenlRTvOKvPeF_LtvWw6o2Fnsmt7KDjJer_iGa_6KVc8FGbGIqGxG2rnlr-gO6W5Ji-UvyF0/s1600/3242+Gardenbrook+Lane.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVi6QUL7AJKN_ZUjtKUXYkq-016n0Om_09H_DNIF6F7yAKcF_SK9cz0vIo5CWuxCxMIvybbenlRTvOKvPeF_LtvWw6o2Fnsmt7KDjJer_iGa_6KVc8FGbGIqGxG2rnlr-gO6W5Ji-UvyF0/s320/3242+Gardenbrook+Lane.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523572356554169426" /></a><br /><script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />...I'm going to miss you.<br /><br />Since I write ghost stories for middle school readers, I often get the same question when I visit a school: "Have you ever seen a ghost?" For years I had to answer, "Not yet," which saddened my enthusiastic fans. Then we moved to Bozeman, and my husband found a haunted house for us at 3242 Gardenbrook Lane. He didn't know it was haunted, because the house's ghost chimed, and my dear husband is rather deaf. But I heard it, loud, clear, and irregular enough in its chimes that we often seemed to be carrying on a conversation as I responded in turn.<br /><br />At first, I'll admit, I was kind of spooked. I'd be minding my own business, writing, watching TV, playing games on my Mac, and then I'd hear this chime. I'd ask my husband, "Did you hear that?", knowing even as I asked that he wouldn't have. He didn't always hear the question. But the chimes seemed friendly, and after a while I started talking to the spirit, and discovered we got along very well. How wonderful it was to be able to tell young readers at schools that I might not have <span style="font-style:italic;">seen</span> a ghost exactly, but I'd heard one in my very own house and we had interesting conversations (even if the chimes sounded without benefit of a translator, we still seemed to understand each other).<br /><br />Where did the ghost come from? I don't know, and I never minded - we got on well together. Perhaps Keegan, the builder, built on a piece of land where someone had been buried in time long past? It was a new development - no house had been built there before, so someone could have been laid to rest beneath our home. It's possible.<br /><br />But now we're moving, so I guess I'll never find out. I hope the new owners, Steve Parks and Cristina Boyles, like my ghost friend and are nice to it. Or, if they intend to sell the house, I hope they find buyers who get on well with the ghost. I'm sure if they make it feel welcome, it will welcome them in turn. As for me, I'm left with photos of my old home, and with memories of the ghost who befriended me.Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-51229386177886749122010-09-08T09:56:00.004-06:002010-09-08T10:22:56.576-06:00Illegal Downloads of My (and Your!) Books<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />We all love to read a free book. That's why we have library cards. But these days too many people who love free books have computers instead of library cards and frequent online sites where they can download books for free - books which are for sale in stores - books whose sale <span style="font-style:italic;">should</span> bring authors income they have legitimately earned. I know I've been frustrated to find some of my books available for free downloads. Amy King has written a terrific blog post that nails the issue, so I'd very much like to refer you to her "<a href="http://www.as-king.info/2010/09/pirates-dare.html">A Pirate's Dare</a>."<br /><br />The one thing I'd like to add is that I can understand people who want to have an electronic copy on their ebook reader of a print book they've legitimately purchased and paid for . I have been known to purchase the print book for my bookshelf, the audiobook from Audible.com for my iPod, and the ebook from Amazon or iBooks so I can have the book with me even when I'm traveling between locations. However - there are some favorites that I cannot purchase because they are not available as ebooks. I can certainly understand why someone would type or scan in a much-loved book in order to have a personal traveling digital version - for private usage, until these titles became available for purchase. <br /><br />I wish the copyright holders of works by deceased authors who are not in the public domain would contract for their books to be available as ebooks - and I wish publishers would offer fair terms for such ebook editions. Everyone is trying to get as large a piece of the pie as they can: publishers are trying to give the authors as small a royalty as possible, authors are trying to get as large a royalty as possible (and I'm in that group), and readers are trying to amass as many books as possible. The sad thing is the larger the piece of the pie everyone grabs for, the less anyone gets. Unless you go to the library, anyway.Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-42154815810768874132010-08-27T21:37:00.008-06:002010-08-27T21:53:51.591-06:00Endorphins and Writing<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />My husband's work keeps him on the road, away from home way too much of the time - which means there are too many nights when it's just me and my teddy bear trying to fall asleep. Some nights I toss and turn, worrying about things that are beyond my power to control. I've found I sleep best when I lie in bed and think about the book that's currently in progress.<br /><br />I've heard that writers shouldn't do that, because either it keeps you awake all night or you forget any insights you had by the time you wake up in the morning. I don't find that's a problem for me. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGxGiItcR1kXG2uAg9__Nj32bPt-a-GfJFKqmtb1vlwJTX_wpdjQzySHcOwPq0ydajg4v6_wBP9RkGK0pgSlRGC_YqP5WtxHGQ7mlfyM5c8RwenA3kPtVzxfsOmkbjtrlfwkwzqdc_3-5c/s1600/Picture+2.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 206px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGxGiItcR1kXG2uAg9__Nj32bPt-a-GfJFKqmtb1vlwJTX_wpdjQzySHcOwPq0ydajg4v6_wBP9RkGK0pgSlRGC_YqP5WtxHGQ7mlfyM5c8RwenA3kPtVzxfsOmkbjtrlfwkwzqdc_3-5c/s320/Picture+2.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5510303016096465410" /></a>I keep my current WIP notebook within easy reach, and my teddy bear doesn't mind my turning on the light when inspiration strikes. As soon as a scene or an insight from my MC comes into focus, I'm sitting up in bed and writing it down, so it's safely preserved for my more wakeful writer persona of the next morning.<br /><br />And here's my discovery: writing seems to be as good as making love when it comes to releasing hormones! Making good love releases endorphins that activate the body's opiate receptors - in other words, endorphins make you slide happily into sleep. So does tapping into your book's soul. As soon as I've written down my new insight and switched off the light, I slip happily into sleep and have a good night. Okay, being with my husband is even better for a loving night's sleep, but it doesn't increase my word count or my character insights.<br /><br />Whichever option you have tonight, sweet dreams.Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-15948575964892426762010-08-18T10:00:00.006-06:002010-08-18T10:18:25.578-06:00On Fire<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />No, I'm not talking about Katniss, the Girl on Fire (though I do already have a cool Mockingjay t-shirt that I can't wait to wear while I'm reading the book, which I've pre-ordered). I'm talking about something a member of my writers' group said after I reported to them on everything I've been up to since landing my new agent, Jill Corcoran. My friend told me I was on fire with writing, now that I didn't have to think about the business aspect of the work.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikV4Du4dC7ObC2JQvU_uuts5nKsGaa5MTHxoQforZraM2lpRXIIPR9rj48rv4-Cfk4DEPzRM8XYZ2cF6gWKk-vTsX3HKM04apvbYGJvkOyjLlAO-_vRX8xP_JyxIl4NKJZDMLOwaRg3SwM/s1600/Picture+5.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 303px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikV4Du4dC7ObC2JQvU_uuts5nKsGaa5MTHxoQforZraM2lpRXIIPR9rj48rv4-Cfk4DEPzRM8XYZ2cF6gWKk-vTsX3HKM04apvbYGJvkOyjLlAO-_vRX8xP_JyxIl4NKJZDMLOwaRg3SwM/s320/Picture+5.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506784542182394738" /></a>I think she's right. Ever since I started writing, lo these many years ago, I've worked at submitting all my manuscripts on my own and dealing with the business end of the craft by negotiating my own contracts. But this business aspect has sapped more and more of my creative energy as publishers have made the business of being a writer increasingly difficult. Now that I've found an agent who believes in me and has shouldered that burden with gusto, I feel free to focus on the writing aspect. That doesn't mean I'm ignoring the concept of marketing entirely and writing in a vacuum, because if you're not cognizant of market demand you're not doing your creativity any favors! But I can concentrate on what I want to write, with the idea of how it fits into market requirements as a background to the work, not as the next phase of responsibility I have to take on myself.<br /><br />So I've worked on planning out three chapter books in a series and started a new YA novel, Fire at Will, and I feel as if I'm fizzing with creative energy and excitement. In short, I feel as enthusiastic as I used to feel when I started writing. I know I'll still have revision work with editors as Permanent Record and other books are sold, and I'm looking forward to it, as I used to look forward to every phase of this craft, but being able to focus on only the creative side of the business is incredibly liberating. My friend was right - I'm on fire with the thrill of writing all over again, thanks to partnering with my agent!Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-18956673736537324382010-07-28T16:49:00.004-06:002010-07-28T17:00:08.725-06:00My New Agent<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />I'm delighted to report that I have just signed with Jill Corcoran of Herman Agency!<br /><br />For more than 20 years I have marketed my books on my own, and while I enjoyed the excitement of researching new publishing opportunities and was grateful to the editors who approached me, recent mergers and editors moving more frequently from house to house made me decide it was time to seek a professional agent.<br /><br />Searching for the right agent is a lot like getting engaged! You need to get to know a potential agent to decide whether you'll be able to work well together for a start, and also to decide whether you'll be able to continue working together for a career. I've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Jill - and it doesn't hurt that she loves my new YA novel, <span style="font-style:italic;">Permanent Record</span>! So we've crossed the threshold and signed the contracts, and I'm looking forward to our new relationship, and to our future books, with enthusiasm.Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-70444504020123121332010-07-16T16:21:00.003-06:002010-07-16T16:41:31.916-06:00Politics and the Power of the Written Word<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />I've been reflecting on the debate among many of my colleagues about whether they should express their political opinions in their blogs or on social networks. Some are concerned that their politics might have a negative impact on potential readers. Others believe that they <span style="font-style:italic;">are</span> their political beliefs, so why not express those beliefs publicly?<br /><br />I have strong political opinions, but I believe they are between me and my voting booth. However, those opinions do spring directly from my philosophy and my ethics, and those are a matter of record. Every book I write is a public expression of my ethics. Any one of my readers already knows what concerns me, what principles guide me, and what I believe is important, or should be important, to citizens of the 21st century.<br /><br />So why not go ahead and announce my political leanings? Why not go the whole way and recommend candidates to support in the midterm elections, or the 2012 presidential election for that matter?<br /><br />Because there's no reason any of my readers should be swayed by my political recommendations. I'm no political pundit: I'm a writer. If a reader of my books finds that he or she agrees with my philosophy, it's very possible that he or she would choose to support a political candidate that I would also like. At the very least, the process of his or her choosing would reflect moral principles that I'd admire.<br /><br />But I can see real dangers in bluntly announcing my political philosophy, as opposed to showing my moral philosophy. While our ethics certainly inform our politics, it's way too easy to make a snap judgement about someone (and, by extension, about as yet unread books that person has written) on the basis of a hot button issue, rather than judging an author on the larger view of his or her moral principles expressed in their books.<br /><br />One author I used to admire greatly expressed a political opinion that demonstrated his extreme bigotry in a way that his books never did. I have since been unable to look at his books, even the ones I particularly loved, in the same way. If he had only kept his political opinions between himself and his voting booth, I would certainly have purchased, and probably enjoyed, his new novel. Now I shall probably never read it.<br /><br />While I am not worried in the least that my politics will brand me as a bigot, I would hate for those politics to chase away any potential reader who might disagree with me on a political issue, but who would discover that he or she shared my ethics if only he or she had the opportunity to be moved by the ideas expressed in my books.<br /><br />Writers do have the power to move the world, with the fulcrum of our books and the lever of our principles. At the ballot box, each of us is only one vote, but we can inspire thousands and thousands of readers with our books. Why would I ever want to run the risk of alienating a single potential reader who might be at odds with their interpretation of my political stance, but who could be inspired by the ideas expressed in my books themselves?Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-37916836729248897952010-05-19T18:12:00.005-06:002010-05-19T18:45:42.443-06:00Is College Required for Writers?<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />I've just completed the last of my school talks this spring, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was speaking to single class groups, and the terrific thing about that is that I'm able to answer so many more questions from each student. I closed this speaking season talking with elementary school students, but I've spoken with a great many high school students and middle school students this spring, and many of these older students ask me about college.<br /><br />Some of these enterprising students want to know what they should major in if they want to become writers. Some of them ask me whether they should go to college at all. These are important questions, and I try to answer them honestly.<br /><br />I tell them:<br />Don't take creative writing in college. Their teacher will teach students the way he or she writes, not the special way of writing that each student has within him or her. Instead, take classes analyzing great writers - I took classes in Shakespeare, Dickens, Kafka, Milton, and groups of novelists (18th c. American writers, for example, and an overview course in "the novel"). Seeing how other writers have created powerful literature will give students ideas about how they can come up with their own ways of writing moving stories or books.<br /><br />Write for their college newspaper, because the discipline of meeting deadlines with good copy will stand them in good stead in writing regularly for the rest of their lives.<br /><br />Don't go to college expecting that a degree will help get a job as a writer upon graduation, because there are no magic courses that will help them sell their Great American Novel. However, if they take as many different types of courses as they can, and open their minds and hearts to the information they can take away from those courses, from the professors they talk with outside the classrooms, from the students they meet and with whom they discuss life, then they'll develop their own unique ways of thinking. If they can think creatively and critically and for themselves, then that will become the soul of their writing. College is useful to broaden minds for writers; it's not a punchcard that will guarantee profitable work.<br /><br />I never took a creative writing course at Rice University. I majored in English, Political Science and History. I wrote for the student newspaper (Rice had no journalism department) and also wrote four novels before I graduated. College is for studying the world around you and beginning to apply what you've seen, before you have to make a living at it. Three of those books were, well, terrible.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLBLnAdSKGNaXbjmzridFUd9XjMNcyHr59hRz2SPF8jXXWC6UAPlGZK75dz-FtUnoEhM5gbNC6yTzH5cvbii3Wmz__tnAS1ETHqjPRfkGuuyy882pq3TbE77HT7KWSPBcqYhsXUq-1WXJ/s1600/Simon+Says.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 131px; height: 198px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLBLnAdSKGNaXbjmzridFUd9XjMNcyHr59hRz2SPF8jXXWC6UAPlGZK75dz-FtUnoEhM5gbNC6yTzH5cvbii3Wmz__tnAS1ETHqjPRfkGuuyy882pq3TbE77HT7KWSPBcqYhsXUq-1WXJ/s200/Simon+Says.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473144786385993746" /></a> They were practice novels, I suppose. But the fourth one had real promise. I kept working on it as I learned more about writing as a published author and finally, 25 years after I completed the first draft in college, Harcourt published <a href="http://www.elainemariealphin.com/Alphin_Simon_Says.html">SIMON SAYS</a>. To this day, I get more passionate emails from teen readers about that book than any other.<br /><br />College will give a future writer a handsome degree to hang on your wall, terrific friends you'll never forget, and the experience and intellectual background to see the world around you in a unique way that will forever inspire your future writing. Just don't expect a paying job to greet you on your graduation.Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-37691614513799563502010-05-11T17:35:00.007-06:002010-05-11T18:20:44.211-06:00Sleep Writing - Part 2<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />The last piece of sleep advice that conference speakers like to give writers is: "Record your dreams - you may find wonderful stories in them." I resisted this advice for years.<br /><br />Perhaps I was hampered by a story my mother used to tell me. She had a recurring dream in which she would get out of bed, sit down at a desk, and begin writing by hand. She would write through the long hours of the night and finally stop at dawn, with a stack of manuscript pages to show for her efforts.<br /><br />At that point my mother would wake up. She always remembered the dream in detail, and she knew she had written a bestseller. The only catch was - she couldn't remember a word of what she had written.This might be an understandable dream for a writer, but my mother wasn't one. In fact, she tried to discourage me from becoming a writer. "Be a doctor," she advised, "and write in your spare time."<br /><br />I, however, couldn't imagine writing in my spare time any more than I could imagine creating stories from my dreams. They made perfect sense while I was asleep, but they lacked coherence in the light of my computer monitor, and faded into wisps of insubstantial plot and character. So I was astounded to wake one morning from a vivid dream that would not let me go.<br /><br />I'd dreamed of a boy in a dark, smelly cellar. The boy stood in a small room, in front of the open drawer of a file cabinet, reading through a file of news clippings. And I knew exactly what he was doing. His name was Cameron, and he was the son of a serial killer. His father locked him in the cellar while he tortured and murdered the young boys who were his victims. Then the man made Cameron help him bury the boys in the cellar, but the smell never completely went away.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8KWqQ29oyyIgZRhaFFLC4vZGvEBDC88q0b6WTHlz0-b3csHUx5nj23HZo_ECOVJ3D_NU0DsDxDDJa10hCWX_9DteI3dGTmJTSX2-kIkYoFFCr95_72qrCLTk24Ma2KaiIk_t5E0qeyDra/s1600/Counterfeit+Son.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 136px; height: 193px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8KWqQ29oyyIgZRhaFFLC4vZGvEBDC88q0b6WTHlz0-b3csHUx5nj23HZo_ECOVJ3D_NU0DsDxDDJa10hCWX_9DteI3dGTmJTSX2-kIkYoFFCr95_72qrCLTk24Ma2KaiIk_t5E0qeyDra/s320/Counterfeit+Son.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470170983926646018" /></a><br />Serial killers always keep souvenirs from their victims, and Cameron's father kept news clippings about the search for the missing boys in a file cabinet in his cellar. But his son had found them and read them until he knew the dead boys almost better than he knew himself. And when his father was killed in an attempted arrest, Cameron decided to take on the identity of one of the murdered boys, and try to begin a new life with a real family, as an impostor.<br /><br />That morning, with the dream still fresh in my mind, I wrote what would become the prologue of COUNTERFEIT SON. Six months of research and writing later, the novel was finished. When the book was published, it was chosen immediately for the YALSA Quick Picks list and went on to win an Edgar for Best Young Adult mystery and quite a few other honors.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1tbyBBZQ8lwsPlGeP8wP-zIC4_Z_M-2pyGMHnX-dq3d0Qk-B2nBKdod47XzGPzXf5BQug7jz81OGIBOQ2JhXUvNhnMw9rWbwjpHFSHgC4fxejRP81DcvF47uBbGIIlVWf2O8qkfOBWQwg/s1600/Gatekeeper.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 137px; height: 198px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1tbyBBZQ8lwsPlGeP8wP-zIC4_Z_M-2pyGMHnX-dq3d0Qk-B2nBKdod47XzGPzXf5BQug7jz81OGIBOQ2JhXUvNhnMw9rWbwjpHFSHgC4fxejRP81DcvF47uBbGIIlVWf2O8qkfOBWQwg/s320/Gatekeeper.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470169051857982562" /></a>Do I keep a pad at my bedside these days so I can write down my dreams? You bet I do. Lightning doesn't usually strike twice, but I've since had another vivid dream that I turned into a story called "Gatekeeper" available from <a href="http://www.ipulpfiction.com/">iPulp</a>. Who knows what I'll dream tonight? I'm now a believer in making my sleep work for me.Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-49479518076984178472010-05-06T11:06:00.007-06:002010-05-06T11:35:20.478-06:00Sleep Writing - Part 1<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />I love attending writing conferences. I particularly love listening to writers share their techniques for maximizing their writing time. Much of this has to do with sleep. As Snoopy, the world-famous author, often said, "Sleep is life" and we writers often sleep when we could be writing. In fact, speakers frequently advise attendees to get up early and write while their family sleeps. That's probably terrific advice, if you're conscious in the early morning hours.<br /><br />At 5 AM I'm incoherent. I'm doing amazingly well if I can find the keys to pick out: "I am a writer. I am writing now." But progress on a book at that hour? Forget it. I used to write after my husband went to sleep, since I'm more conscious at night and better able to wake my characters up at late hours. While working on my latest book, however, I've been waking up around 7:30 or 8 (or 8:30 or...), lying in bed and thinking about the book, and getting immediately to work on it without any distractions (do not pass the kitchen, do not eat breakfast, do not watch the morning news). <br /><br />This is more in keeping with another suggestion conference speakers like to make: "Keep a notepad by your bed. Inspiration can strike while you're sleeping." When I'm deeply in the world of a book, I always try to think about it just as I'm falling asleep. And I'll often wake up with terrific ideas that came to my subconscious while my conscious brain was sleeping.<br /><br />I rely on this technique when I'm working through a problem with a book. When I was writing <a href="http://www.elainemariealphin.com/Alphin_Ghost_Soldier.html">Ghost Soldier</a>, I realized I'd done such a good job in the first part of the book of making Alexander frightened of a Civil War ghost and determined not to help him, that I had no idea how Alexander would end up making friends with the ghost so they could work together in the remainder of the book. So I slept on it.<br /><br />I woke up with the melody of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" running through my head.<br /><br />I already knew that Alexander spent his evenings sitting on the back porch playing his alto recorder to annoy his father. I realized he was going to start playing "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" one evening, deliberately playing it angrily, to hurt the ghost because he never got to march home to his family. But as Alexander plays it, he hears an eerie, reedy harmony weaving itself around his mellow recorder melody. When he looks around, he sees that the ghost has joined him, playing his own ghostly harmonica. It's a song the ghost knew well because it was popular when he was alive, and it doesn't hurt him at all. Instead, his harmony calms Alexander. Somehow it's hard to be angry at someone after you've made music together. The song opens Alexander up to listen to the ghost, befriend him and agree to help him.<br /><br />Where did the idea come from? Somewhere in my subconscious as I slept. And sometimes the subconscious can be even more generous in your sleep - but I'll cover that in Part 2.Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-86223571278441828632010-04-27T08:49:00.006-06:002010-04-27T09:29:05.114-06:00A Remarkable Concurrence of Events<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}</script><br />A coincidence is defined as "a remarkable concurrence of events without apparent causal connection." When I lead writing workshops, I warn writers to avoid coincidences that work to the main character's advantage. A malign coincidence that makes things worse for the main character can sometimes be okay, as readers are prone to believe coincidences for the worst much more than coincidences for the better.<br /><br />But recently I've been thinking about books that rely on coincidence and still work. I reread one of my favorites books, <span style="font-style:italic;">I Am David</span> by Anne Holm (much, much better than the movie!) and it occurred to me in this rereading just how many coincidences there were in it. David's final scene could never have happened without several critical coincidences working to help him. His meeting the artist in order to acquire a vital piece of information always struck me, from my very first reading, as way too convenient. Yet the book works for me.<br /><br />Right after that (a coincidence?) I read <span style="font-style:italic;">The Line</span> by Teri Hall, and was again struck by the remarkable coincidence that, of all the "Others" Rachel might conceivably meet, she meets a boy who knows someone she has always wanted to learn more about. What are the odds? Yet, again, the book works for me.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj51ngHuQjxMv970LEBBZ5vyXWRkDuC027zZdsgB8bjfXv-6awTAZu25FLT835t4gdDeX0MiS7TMQxvusTY2JWATfIPB6yHPzuEnptF8s2PRJhqoRjWbDqK1Qzc9MpXwU9x8vd81gcfO2IK/s1600/Counterfeit+Son.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 135px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj51ngHuQjxMv970LEBBZ5vyXWRkDuC027zZdsgB8bjfXv-6awTAZu25FLT835t4gdDeX0MiS7TMQxvusTY2JWATfIPB6yHPzuEnptF8s2PRJhqoRjWbDqK1Qzc9MpXwU9x8vd81gcfO2IK/s200/Counterfeit+Son.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464838474516192370" /></a>Then it occurred to me that some critics have called the end of my own book, <a href="http://www.elainemariealphin.com/Alphin_Counterfeit_Son.html"><span style="font-style:italic;">Counterfeit Son</span></a>, a coincidence, and yet it won the Edgar Award, which means it certainly worked for the judges, and it has worked for many readers. And I remembered how I met my husband, Art - a coincidence if there ever was one, that required my coming back to work at my college bookstore years after I had graduated, his masters professor going on sabbatical during Art's last semester so that Art ended up teaching a 300 level history seminar that usually attracted 5-10 students, and Art's having made so many friends among the athletes that 100 signed up for the seminar and he came to the bookstore to order more books at just the right moment for me to see him and fall in love.<br /><br />Even though fact is always stranger than fiction, and all writers know we shouldn't write anything that really happened in our lives exactly the way it happened as part of our fiction, maybe coincidences aren't all that unbelievable after all. But they certainly are remarkable.Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6494350576833095591.post-12521967516023765482010-04-14T12:40:00.004-06:002010-04-14T12:59:26.689-06:00If Music Be the Food of Prose...<script type="text/javascript"><br />var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");<br />document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />try {<br />var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9742350-1");<br />pageTracker._trackPageview();<br />} catch(err) {}</script><br />Many writers I know like to listen to music while they write, to get in the mood. Back in college, I used to listen to music while I wrote, but it wasn't so much to get me into the mood of the book as it was to take me out of the mood of the dorm. I'd sit at my typewriter in my own little corner of the room and play Broadway musicals and even sing along while I wrote. I must have been a lot better at multitasking then, because I wrote <a href="http://www.elainemariealphin.com/Alphin_Simon_Says.html">Simon Says</a> while listening to a lot of Sondheim, and the two have little in common beyond the S alliteration.<br /><br />These days I work better in absolute silence, which is actually much harder to come by than good music. Somehow, with someone else's perfect lyrics echoing in my head I have more trouble finding my way through to the words I need for the book I'm writing. But music hasn't entirely disappeared from my literary world I love to listen to music when I read, and often when I pre-write. And sometimes my reading points me in the direction of good music.<br /><br />Last night I finished reading David Levithan <a href="http://www.davidlevithan.com/">Love is the Higher Law</a>, a novel about three teens living through and reacting to 9/11. Two of them see reflections of their complex feelings about the event in the music they listen to and the concerts they attend. After I read the last page I went straight to iTunes to check out the songs mentioned in the book, and promptly downloaded two albums.<br /><br />As I write this, I'm listening to songs from the Singles album by <a href="itunes.apple.com/us/artist/travis/id475835">Travis</a>, songs I'd never heard before because I'd never heard of Travis. Thanks for the introduction, David Levithan.<br /><br />I guess I can still write to music, after all!Elaine Marie Alphinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130116746072382940noreply@blogger.com0