30 December 2016

Crowd sourced market research

#1 
Social media is a fabulous market research tool. You have many friends, and potentially the entire user base, to ask questions of. So I boldly decided to ask a question before going to print.

After I finished a first draft of the cover copy and design, I posted it on my Facebook page and asked my friends if they would be enticed by the front cover to pick the book up if they saw it on the shelf. Furthermore, I asked if the back cover description would make them want to read it.


29 December 2016

Holiday blues

I have been seriously unproductive during the holiday season. We were taking care of a close relative through several surgical procedures which was draining, a young relative was sleeping rough on the streets of Belfast causing worry, the darkness didn't help, and preparations for ten guests at the Christmas table introduced  a moderate level of stress. And the announcements of deaths among the world's influentials just kept escalating with every day, lending a macabre air. That trend is likely to continue as the boomers reach that vulnerable age. Climate change is taking its toll on the Arctic with record-breaking temps. At least the weather was mild here with only a few days of heavy winds.

I am trying to get myself back into writing mode but we have interruptions every day. Today the weather was lovely -- sunny, warm, and exceedingly mild. So I worked in the garden, which always needs attention, but that took away from writing.

Today, I amused myself by creating yet another website. I claimed my personal URL on Strikingly. That's a new service that picks up your LinkedIn profile and creates a website instantly from scratch. I had to make a few modifications, but about a half hour later I had a beautiful contemporary website, live and free. You can't beat that. Happy holidays!

Check it out. Every writer needs one.

Image result for strikingly

26 November 2016

Ode to the comma

There has been many an ode to the comma written. I've even heard people say that a comma can save lives! Consider this simple sentence.

Let's eat Grandma!
Let's eat, Grandma!

It's become really interesting for me, because I am an American living in Ireland and writing for the British market. I try to stay away from colloquialisms. But confounding the issues is the fact that styles can be markedly different for English of different countries. The comma being one of the culprits. 

24 November 2016

Grammar tips and tricks


Image result for english language confusion images

Certain words in the English language are very tricky. Having grown up speaking Ukrainian at home, I found English so much more confusing. So I have to go back and remind myself periodically of the rules to apply when writing in English. Today I tackle some confusing choices of terms.

21 November 2016

Major edit completed

Yesterday, I completed a major edit of my first novel, The Naked Truth.  I like to call it a murder mystery set on the high seas. Essentially, I created a fictional story based on our sailing adventures. I didn't want to just write our story which has been done by so many. I wanted to create characters who experience something unusual, while making use of the experience of sailing through the Caribbean and across the Atlantic. I really didn't know where the story was going and how I was going to resolve it until about 3/4 of the way in.

This was my third edit. In the first edit, I caught many mistakes, fixed prose, converted prose to dialogue, and just cleaned up overall. So now I had a second version. Then I gave it to my editor (husband) to read.  He edited and annotated as well as giving me a page of comments in general. I think every sentence had suggested changes.This was version 3. That was a little hard to take, but I bit the bullet and made most, not all, of the edits he suggested. He was absolutely right.

16 November 2016

On the speaking circuit


We have been invited on several occasions to deliver lectures based on our books. Our anchoring book was actually born from a lecture. When people came up to us after the talk wanting to buy our book, we said, "What book?" That's when we set out to write Happy Hooking.

Now we have Cruising the Wild Atlantic Way of Ireland, and as it turns out, British yacht clubs need speakers to talk about subjects of interest to their members. Ireland happens to be of great interest, especially since the Troubles are still in the collective 'recent' memory of retirees with the time and resources to go off cruising.


15 November 2016

The Power of Punctuation

I loved reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves. To think of writing an entire book about the comma is beyond me, but I had to read it with that enticing title. And then I saw this photo with a notice which no doubt was the result of spacing issues.



I have become really attuned to punctuation. Stray commas get wiped off the face of the earth. Semicolons are used with reserve. Periods are definitive, except in poetry. Colons and ellipses are inserted sparingly. I want my prose to be crisp, but not to a fault.

And then I face "The Frustration of Autocorrect" and the confounding nature of writing in American but living in Ireland. Oh, woe is me.





09 November 2016

The business of self-publishing

This past weekend, Alex conducted a seminar on Self-Publishing for Success as part of the Rolling Sun Book Festival. It was a great experience. It was well attended, there were lots of good questions, and lots of good feedback afterwards. His basic tenet is that everyone deserves to be published.

It was an interesting experiment to see if there was a market. Indeed there seems to be. Now he has to write a book based on the seminar. A bit backwards, but effective nonetheless.

Is there a book lurking inside you?

05 November 2016

Volunteering

I have been an avid volunteer most of my life. I was a scout leader and scoutmaster in my youth, I joined the Board of Directors of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association and assumed major leadership roles, and I am a member of the Ocean Cruising Club Committee and serve various communications functions. My husband and I started the Sail4Kids Make a Memory Cruise.

Yet, now I find myself searching for a more meaningful volunteer role to fill.  I have valuable skills that might be put to good use on some Board. My question is where do I apply them to make the biggest difference while fulfilling my own needs, whatever they are?

I find myself wondering what I believe in most strongly. Saving the earth from man ranks up there. Saving the animals from man, especially in the ocean, ranks way up there. Helping people comes into the equation but not quite as strongly. Certainly, I will never get involved in politics. Where will I find fulfillment?  So I thought I might try a few things on for size.

I've just gotten involved with Fighting Words. It's a very interesting initiative that encourages children to write stories. It was very interesting to see what happens when young children are given permission to express themselves freely. It's free for the kids to take part. Check it out. http://www.fightingwords.ie/



23 October 2016

Influence



Yesterday I attended a workshop on writing short stories that get published with a young writer named Nuala O'Connor (Ni Chonchuir), who has several collections of short stories, poetry and novels to her credit. She has a very gentle manner. She teaches creative writing on occasion, and in this case, Mayo County Council's art council hired her to do a workshop at the Linenhall in Castlebar. Attendance was free and Alex and I were quick to join up.

Although the format of the workshop would not have been my choice, I did learn some very useful tips.  Armed with lists of to dos and not to dos, I am about to tackle my list of short stories again. I have a collection under the working title "Joy of Sailing", which I have to edit and find a new title. I have several beginnings of sci fi short stories that I need to expand. I have already edited Alex's short story, The Invitation, with a completely different eye than last time.

Thank you Nuala and MayoCoCo, for the inspiration to get back to work in new directions.

02 October 2016

Inspired by a great...Edna O'Brien, Country Girl



At the book signing. I'm telling her how much she inspired me. 
Last night, we saw Edna O'Brien, perhaps the most well-known living Irish author and playwrite, being interviewed by Sean Rocks of the great radio programme Arena.  She walked on stage tentatively, taking small cautious steps like a frail old woman. But she was dressed in her favourite things -- flowing black lace skirt, black and beige ruffly blouse, with a black sequinned jacket, black stockings and black suede ankle boots -- feminine through and through. You could feel her clothes delivering comfort and a touch of glamour in an uncomfortable setting. Her hair was perfectly styled, softly framing her face in reddish tinted swooshes. She made me smile.  An old woman comfortable in her skin and her presentation of it.

24 August 2016

Getting paid and having time

Image result for winter is coming game of thrones


I have been hired to write blog posts for a website that promotes sailing and travel in Ireland and Scotland, things I happen to be passionate about. Unfortunately, I cannot tell anyone that I am the author of those blog posts as I am the ghost writer.  Anyway, it's great fun to write about things that I know and love and get paid for doing it. This internet world can be fulfilling at times. What it means, however, is that I have less time to do my own work.

I was away for almost six weeks this summer between the US and Ireland, which has set me back in my writing endeavors. Now, I'm trying to kick start my writing habits. It's a bit of a struggle as I also try to catch up with everything else, like gardening and laundry and friends. I suppose 'winter is coming' which for me will be a good thing. I love winters in Ireland. We get every excuse in the world to stay home.

10 June 2016

Quote: Double-handed sailing

Double-Handed Sailing 

is after all like 


Single-Handing Half the Time

- Daria Blackwell


02 May 2016

Quote: End of the world.



 Don't worry about the world ending today. 



 
It's already tomorrow in Fiji. 

Daria Blackwell

28 April 2016

Citizen of the world

This week, I took part in a ceremony during which I was granted Irish citizenship. I was one of a thousand people swearing allegiance to a new country, the place we call home.

In some ways it was a bit strange after the years of pledging allegiance to the United States of America as a child in school every day. But I am still American. I retain my US citizenship, which makes me a dual citizen. I am now actually a citizen of the EU and the US, which covers a lot  of territory. Both are democracies so there is no conflict.

In a sense, I've gone full circle. My parents left Europe to make a new life in the US. I left the US to find a new life in Europe. It feels good to be back here where I've found home.


27 April 2016

Gender bias



To make it more interesting, I'm going to write the character in my next novel as male, with the full intent of converting her to her rightful status as female. I am doing this to free myself of gender bias.

I have found that I, too, am guilty of gender bias even as a feminist. I found myself buying girls soft pink things for Christmas and giving boys cars and tools.  So this year I reversed it. I gave the boys soft plushy toys and the girls got flashlights and the oldest got a penknife, something I would have killed to get as a kid.  I'll have to talk to her to see if she appreciated it or thought I was nuts.

So my thinking is that if I write the character as a male but then change her to female, I may have succeeded in  removing that bias. But can I remove it if I know that it's going to change,  Only time will tell.

PS The girls loved their gifts!  Yahoo. The older one is a fisherman and she wanted a knife badly. Success.

26 March 2016

Getting distracted

The past few weeks distracted me completely from the routine of writing I had established.

First, I had a party to deal with.  Alex's 60th birthday and our 20th wedding anniversary.  It was a good party, catered by the Bay Leaf restaurant at our house. About 30 friends and family members joined in, some from as far away as England. We enjoyed it, but it will be another 10 years before we do it again. Stress!!!


26 January 2016

Does mental illness instigate creativity

I have had some of my most intense creative moments in times of depression. Not that I've suffered depression that often. But when I did, I seemed to feel more deeply, more dramatically. That caused an outpouring of emotion onto paper, perhaps thinking that would revive me. If depression gets too deep, however, it can paralyze. Been there, too.


24 January 2016

Back cover blurb

We have the opportunity to promote our books at upcoming conferences at which we are speaking. So I had to stop everything and write the promotional copy for the novel I am editing under duress to finish quickly.  
This is critical. Crafting the back cover copy is almost more important than writing the book itself. It's what's going to make someone pick up the book and decide to read it. Isn't that the point of writing a book?  Then back cover copy must be the most compelling part. Fortunately, my background in copywriting is coming into good use. 
What do you think?  Would it make you want to read the book?

19 January 2016

Technology and Art as Inspiration




Sasha Sykes
Caliology II
Bird’s Nest in Resin
18cm H x 24.5cm L x 24.5cm D, 2015

Tomorrow I drive to Dublin to help a dear friend who broke her leg and must attend a meeting but cannot drive or handle the stress of public transport. So as part of the deal, I am planning a day of inspiration.  As I have just finished my first novel, I am already planning my great American novel. What will be my subject?  It will be about the sea.  It will be about the human condition.


16 January 2016

On finishing the first draft


Just a few moments ago, I finished the first draft of my first novel. How does it feel?  Wooo-hoooo! Celebration time!

I grabbed my husband Alex and said, "I finished it," with finality.

He said, "Finished what?

I bashed him and said, "You know, only the thing I've been working on forever."

He laughed and said, "So now, the real work begins."

He could have given me one moment of glory. One moment of respect. One moment of success. One moment of cheer.

Naw, I guess you never deserve to expect anything.

Right. On to the next phase. Reading what I wrote.

Psssst. I read the first chapter already. Found a few small typos. But I LIKE it.

I am celebrating on my own.