Don't miss "The Writer on Wheels"!

Today, I'm super-excited to be featured on Ruth Hunt's excellent blog, The Writer on Wheels! I met Ruth through the online school www.writingclasses.co.uk, where I tutor creative writing classes, and via Twitter, where I first discovered a blog post she wrote about fictional characters with disabilities. This caught my attention because 1) it was so well written and 2) I have been working on-and-off for years on a murder mystery where the main character is a wheelchair-user. Reading Ruth's article helped give me the confidence to go back to my novel, and I am more determined than ever to finish it one day!

Ruth has created a whole series called "The Writing Process," where she interviews guest writers; it's worth checking out for the insightful questions and answers!

Genre-bending mind games!

When I was trying to find a literary agent for my novel Rest and Be Thankful, I worried a lot about genre: what genre was my novel? Did it "fit" properly into a specific category of fiction? How should I market it? Was it like other novels in that particular genre? My novel is part mystery, part coming-of-age novel, and part travelogue. It doesn't really fit the "cosy" mystery or "hard crime." The main character is 13, but the story isn't solely about the "teenage" stuff other young adult novels seem to be about -- romance, fitting in at school, etc... -- although it does cover some of these topics. It's kind of a mixture!

But mixtures don't always work in the literary world. While writing queries, I struggled with trying to market my book -- sometimes I said it was "women's fiction," since the main characters were all women. Other times I called it "literary fiction" because I felt it was quite literary! But it's also plot-driven and, at it's heart, is an adventure story. I got lucky -- Pilrig Press, based in Edinburgh, chose to publish my novel as "crime fiction"!

Right now, I'm reworking the novel for the American market and am aiming it more for young adults. It still doesn't feel like the "typical" YA novel I see in bookstores, but choosing a specific audience has helped me focus my writing better. After reading one of John Green's YA novels, I realized I had just scratched the surface of my characters' lives -- writing for a younger audience, while telling the same story, made me feel a little freer to dig deeper! So, maybe genre isn't just an annoying marketing ploy by the publishing industry! Maybe it helps writers to really focus on who they want their audience to be. Any thoughts?

What, Why, and How I Write...

Marianne Wheelaghan

Scottish writer, teacher, and entrepreneur extraordinaire Marianne Wheelaghan invited me to participate in the blog tour What, Why, and How I write. Marianne runs the online writing school www.writingclasses.co.uk, which offers classes in creative writing to students from all over the world. Besides teaching and running a school, she's also written two books (The Blue Suitcase and Food of Ghosts) and is working on sequels to both!
Here's Marianne's contribution from earlier this week: http://www.mariannewheelaghan.co.uk/

And here are my answers:
 

Me!

What am I working on?
Right now, I'm working on several different projects – a novel for 12+ year-olds that I hope to publish this summer, an ebook about self publishing, and an online course about epublishing for the writing school www.writingclasses.co.uk. My long-term goal is to start a micro-press based in North Carolina, which will focus on educational and children's books.

How does my work differ from others in the genre?

Well, I have a hard time conforming to “genres”! My middle-grade novel started out as a murder mystery for adults, and I decided that because the main character is 13, it might work better as a book for kids. Changing “genres” really freed me up because I felt less pressure to be “literary”! I think writers tend to be very hard on themselves, and writing for kids (who I believe are more open minded) helped me just focus on the story and characters and not worry so much about literary devices or how “smart” I sounded!

I love writing mysteries, but my stories don't really fit into the “cozy” genre or the “hard boiled.” I think my work falls somewhere in the middle – not cutesy enough to be a cozy mystery, but not dark enough to be noir!

Why do I write?
To be honest, I'm not sure! I just know that I like the way I feel when I write – sort of out of time, not constrained by stereotypes and pressures to be and act a certain way. I'm pretty shy by nature, and writing lets me speak my mind in a “safe” way, through metaphor and characters, who can do whatever they want! I also love reading, and I love stories – so, all these things sort of go together, don't they!

How does my writing process work?
It changes, depending on the circumstances. When I was a kid and young adult, I wrote in notebooks and later retyped things on the computer. It took me a long time to actually get to the point where I typed my stories first. Now, I don't have the patience to write long-hand!

When I was younger, I was much more romantic about the writing process – besides writing on paper (which I thought was “better” than on the computer), I only wrote when I felt inspired, etc... But now that I have two children, I know that I must force the inspiration and write whenever I have the opportunity! Otherwise, chores, walking the dog, laundry, and everything else gets in the way!

My nominee for the next "stop" on the tour is Lisa Logan, who co-authored Publishing and Selling Your Ebook on Kindle with me! And she's also written a great paranormal thriller, House of Mirrors, and an excellent collection of short stories called Of The People.

Don't miss out! NC Literary Fest this weekend!

It's that time again -- the North Carolina Literary Festival has returned to Raleigh, and it's this weekend, free and open to the public of all ages! Every two years, the festival rotates between the libraries of UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and N.C. State. This year, the festival takes place at the new space-age Hunt Library at N.C. State's Centennial Campus. It's worth it, just to see the library, which has a 50-foot "robot" that finds your books for you! Our State magazine recently published an article about the library.

Don't miss out on this free event, which features tons of authors (including Jill McCorkle R.L. Stine, Junot Diaz, and tons more) speakers, and events for the whole family!

"Buy a book and stop a crook!"

What a great idea -- a book festival to promote literacy and cut crime rates! I just discovered the Book 'Em North Carolina Writers Conference and Book Fair, which features authors, publishers, and literary agents:

February 22, 2014
9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
ROBESON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
LUMBERTON, NORTH CAROLINA
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

 

The goal of the Book 'Em Foundation is to "raise public awareness of the correlation between high illiteracy rates and high crime rates." There will also be arts and crafts and face painting for the kids, so bring the whole family!



Do free editing websites actually work?

Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you know how hard it is to catch those last-minute mistakes! You may have had your best friend, mom, and co-workers read your manuscript for clarity and general ideas, but they can’t catch everything. Maybe you've seen free tools offered online, like Pro Writing Aid -- do they work? And what's the catch?

http://prowritingaid.com/en/Analysis/Editor is a website where you copy and paste your text into a viewer. Click "Analyze," and the tool produces a list of problem areas in your document, such as spelling, cliches, overused words, and grammatical mistakes. With the free tool, you can click on some these problem areas to get more details -- for example, when I analyzed the first two pages of one of my short stories, I found out I had used the word "probably" way too many times!

The tool is definitely not foolproof – you can only submit 4000 characters at a time, and for the complete collection of error reports, you have to pay for Premium membership (at $35 per year, that’s not too steep). But in highlighting one or two areas that need revising, it gives you an idea of what else might need work in your manuscript, such as passive voice or redundancies.

Another tool is http://www.grammarly.com/. This one is a little bit sneaky in that after the software "analyzes" your text, a new page appears with a list of "critical writing issues." But it doesn't give you any specifics -- unless you sign up for the free 7-day trial. The first time I clicked "Check your text," the software said I had 24 errors. The second time I did it (with the same text), the software said I had 7 errors! My theory is that the software is not really checking the text -- it's just for show so that you will sign up for the free trial. Reviews for the paid service are decent, however: http://www.writing-skills.com/grammar/review-grammarly-app/.  If you sign up for a year, you'll be paying $11.66 per month. So, Grammarly is more expensive than Pro Writing Aid, but perhaps you get more for your money.

While online tools may be useful for blatant errors, it’s always a good idea to hire a professional proofreader, if you can afford one. Proofreading is NOT the same as copy editing – proofreaders check documents in their final stages for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. A proofreader will also check for typos and details like formatting and layout, but he/she won’t drastically alter the text or make any stylistic changes to improve the flow of the document or how well it reads. You’ll need a copy editor for those types of revisions. The Editorial Freelancers Association website is a great resource to help you find editors (of all kinds) in your area.

For more handy tips, check out Publishing and Selling Your Ebook on Kindle. I'm co-author, along with writer friend Lisa Logan, and we hope to create a whole series of writing guidebooks in the next two years!

Which books inspire you to write better?

I'm back!! Got sidetracked with freelance work, kids, fevers, sickness, writing the 1000th revision of my novel, and life in general... But part of that time was spent reading a young adult novel I had seen EVERYWHERE and finally picked up -- John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. Yes, I see now why it's, like, ranked #1 in the Kindle Store on Amazon. It's frickin amazing!! I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail here about why I liked it -- unique and compelling characters, excellent and often hilarious dialogue, tight storyline, full of emotion....

My point is that while reading this novel, I started having all these insights about what my own (attempted) young adult novel was lacking. I found places that needed ... well, just MORE. I hadn't gone deep enough, I realized. I'd just touched the surface of conflicts. Reading John Green showed me what it means to peel back the layers of an idea, one at a time, and keep going and going until you reach the core. And then go further -- tell why that idea is important, relate it to the rest of your story. Later, refer back to that idea. It's called following a thread, I guess. But I'd never seen it done quite so well (at least, as far as I can remember) as in John Green's work. I hope the lesson sticks with me! Anyway, I bough the hardcopy of The Fault in Our Stars so I can re-read it when needed.

That's another thing -- very few books I've read I actually want to read again. Bridget Jones's Diary, yes. Rebecca, yes. Agatha Christie books, yes. But not much else. What books have inspired you to become a better writer? Which authors have taught you valuable writing lessons? And which books do you pick up again and again, learning something new each time you read them?

Camellias, severed legs, and sweet tea!

Hello, Everyone! Summer is coming to an end, but why not prolong the essence of heat, humidity, mosquitoes, and sweet iced tea with some Southern literature? Here are a few reads I've gathered up...

Conveniently, Deep South Magazine has published a list of "End of Summer Reads," including The Last Camellia by Sarah Jio. In this loosely-Southern novel, the characters search for the last surviving specimen of a Charleston camellia, along the way stumbling upon long-hidden crimes!

The excellent book review site Cannonball Read 5 features a review of Nowhere But Home by Liza Palmer, a snappy Southern romance-esque novel with a twist -- the main character Queenie is a chef who ends up making the last meals for death row inmates!

North Carolina author Lisa Logan recently released Of The People, a collection of inspiringly eclectic short stories, featuring "nuns, Vietnam War veterans, car thieves, insanely jealous husbands, and a sweet old aunt who keeps her severed leg in the deep freezer." I've read this one, and it's great -- darkly humorous and poignant, reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor's gothic style.

And, finally, if you haven't already read Mindy Friddle, you should check out her latest novel Secret Keepers, which won the 2009 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. Her protagonist is 72-year-old Emma, stuck handling the problems of her grown children in her South Carolina hometown. Botanicals and family secrets intertine in this serious-but-comical Southern novel.

And now for something completely different...

Just had to mention a visit I took last week to the lovely Niche Gardens, outside Chapel Hill, NC. It's a lovely place, tucked away like a hidden forest, with metal sculptures and wandering cats! They specialize in native plants, as opposed to invasive ones, and have extended weekend hours in the fall.

 

Painted mailboxes at Niche Gardens!

 

Means "Pot full of flowers" according to my husband!

New novel explores Scottish--NC connection!!

I've very excited to announce that my new novel Rest and Be Thankful has just been released on Amazon by Pilrig Press!! The new press is based in Edinburgh, my hometown, and is quickly becoming a major player in the U.K. publishing industry!   

I started working on the novel around 2006, after a trip to Scotland with my mother. We'd rented a car with my aunt (nothing like the aunt in the novel, by the way!!) and had driven from Edinburgh to Ullapool, along the way getting a flat tyre and having to detour to Inverness airport where the rental company refused to pay for us to get a new tire, even though we had insurance! But it was still a great trip, especially since I had never been that far north before -- we drove past  Bridge of Orchy, and Loch Ness and all the places mentioned in the novel (except the fictional village where they meet a Norman Bates-type character!). I took notes on some scraps of paper I'd found in my backpack, and when we got back to NC, I kind of just let it all sink in.

My friend Catherine introduced me to the novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard, and I got wrapped up in the diary-type style of The Light Years. I began writing a rough draft of a novel set in Scotland, using a similar style -- the diary entries of Katy, an American 13-year-old girl who travels from North Carolina to Scotland to try to reconnect with her estranged Scottish mother. Then I added the point of view of a wacky aunt with man trouble! Over the years, I added the mother's point of view, but eventually I took it all out, except for Katy's voice, and made the story hers alone. After all, that's where it started, with Katy, and her wish to be closer to her mother. Along the way, some very nasty stuff happens... But you'll have to read the novel to find out more!!