By the way, I apologize for not having a memoir post on Monday. I had an insanely busy weekend and didn’t get a chance to write anything. I promise I’ll be back to regular schedule next week. Thanks for being patient.

Without further ado, I give you Barbara:

My Life For Sale

I can’t say I knew what to expect with any certainty since I’ve never had a book published before now. Still, I did read, research, take notes, make lists, and plan plans. I didn’t fall into anything blindly, but even so, there were, and continue to be, plenty of surprises.

Marketing 101

At the risk of sounding whiny, there are far too many days when I feel like a FOR SALE sign has been nailed like a bullseye smack in the center of my life.

Oh, but it all starts out so innocently. Months before a book’s release we’re hard at work, reading, learning, studying, and dissecting all things pertaining to writing, publishing, and marketing.  We shop through the multitude of online groups and organizations, considering over which memberships are most worthwhile for us to maintain, blogs to write/visit/comment on, tweets to investigate, FB connections to pursue and nurture.  All those things we’ve been advised to do if we ever hope to keep our little boats afloat on a decidedly turbulent sea. Frankly, there’s no way around it—love it, hate it—you still have to jump into the deep end.  And even if you can’t execute a perfect breast stroke, at the very least you’ve got to learn to tread water.

Riots of Color

In many ways, marketing has always reminded me of fireworks. Extravagant explosions of color and light, the occasional loud boom that threatens to split the world in half.  You’re hoping your audience will not only be drawn by the distraction, but left oohing and ahhing, thoroughly awed and impressed.

On Sale Now

Honestly, I get it. I understand there’s something of an uncertain nature and appetite inherent to the marketing beast. Which is to say that I don’t always know what it wants or even how to properly feed it.  That it requires a varied diet to allow for any hope of notable growth is the only thing I get for sure. And while it’s true that your book must speak for itself once it lands in a reader’s hands—the flip side of the coin is embossed with an image of your life.  Uh, huh, your life—or at least the bare-naked portion that’s been posed in the front window and clearly marked for sale.

The Business of being Social

Once upon a time buying a book was mostly about the book.  Not that we didn’t care two beans about the author, it was more a case of not having access to anything beyond whatever was printed About the Author on the back cover of the book. It was certainly a vastly different and much more private place in the BSM period (Before Social Media). Left field, prehistoric, beyond the horizon, a million miles from where we are now, when we’re so busy writing about writing that we don’t have time to write.

Truly the landscape has changed enormously in these times when the options of Social Media outnumber the stars. I’ve had plenty to learn and discover in the time since my novel was released. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I have in fact unearthed everything I need to know.  Yes, really—everything.

No Gimics, No Illusions, No Sale

Had I only learned overnight what I took me years to comprehend, I would have saved myself plenty of angst, irritability, and even some $$$.  But given my penchant for delayed-learning, hard-hardheadedness, and peachy-keen optimism, I admit I took the long route to reach the station.
Sincerity at all Times in all Instances.

And so, here it is in no particular order:
1.) Don’t say it if you don’t mean it,
2.) Spare yourself and others, comments, thoughts, or impressions that aren’t genuine.
3.) Avoid joining every group from here to eternity just because you think it’s a great plan to accumulate real estate.  That’s only a great plan in regard to REAL real estate.
4.) Become a member of only those groups that personally appeal and nurture your writerly soul, and not because it looks like a good place to park your name and plant your book.
5.) Don’t fake, flatter, pretend, or lie.
6.) Share when you’re able. Leave gifts of encouragement and wisdom when the opportunity arises.
7.) If what you’re putting out there is the genuine article you will avoid looking, sounding, and smelling, like a sleazy salesman toting a trunk packed with snake oil.

8, 9, and 10 … okay, so maybe I haven’t actually learned everything, but, still, I’m confident that I’m off to a pretty good start

Watch The Doors As They Close by Karen Lillis

100 pages

3/5 stars

Watch The Doors As They Close tells the story of Anselm, narrated by his nameless ex-girlfriend. Written in journal form, she takes us through their entire relationship, filling in the details of Anselm’s past as she goes.

The book starts out with Anselm having returned to Pennsylvania and The Girl talking about the journal he gave her. She decides to use it to write their story, not in the hopes that someone will read it, but simply so she can get it down on paper before she forgets. Their relationship is an interesting one – she says many times that they loved each other deeply, but that he never did anything to show that love. Like on her birthday, he didn’t do anything special for her.

I found the book interesting, but I didn’t really see a plot in it. It wasn’t quite stream of consciousness ramblings, but it didn’t feel like a cohesive story to me. That is not to say I didn’t enjoy it, because I did. I could totally relate to The Girl and those feelings of wondering if your boyfriend really loves you or if he’s just saying it to appease you. It’s a story of a normal life, which is something that I think most people are able to relate to (unless they’re in the 1%).

Really, that’s all life ever asks of you. Is that you go along, and experience what you experience, and feel what you feel, but that you don’t let your experiences bind you up and prevent you from living and seeing and feeling and loving. From moving forward.

I loved this line because it’s so true, and I think that’s the whole point of the book: to just get through life and experience whatever it is we’re meant to experience without letting it hold us back.

Disclaimer: I received this book via Outsider Writers review program. I was not compensated in any way for my review and all opinions are my own.

Words Are Just Letters, And Sentences Are Just Words

The idea that words are random strings of letters fascinates me. The mix of backgrounds that makes up the English language makes for an eclectic assortment of words that often must be memorized rather than sounded out and deciphered from root meanings.

Too often, I find that sentences are simply random strings of words. The dusty mind, or the racing mind, pile words on the heap in the hopes that a reader can make some sense of it. They are wrong.

Like a car on the road, language is meant to be used within a certain set of parameters. Just because I can write 50,000 words in a month doesn’t mean I should. Nor do those words necessarily mean anything once I am done. I congratulate all those who can accomplish such a feat, but what do those heaps of words mean? Without skilled revisions, they will simply remain a heap.

So my challenge to all you word-racers is: revise. A successful writer is someone who can revise and polish those words to the point of perfection. Take those words, love them by ripping them apart and putting them back together. Use the strong ones. Eliminate the weak. Make it as good as you can and then, but only then, let us all enjoy them.

You can visit Heather at her website.

February 11, 2012

Dear Agent,

My life has been a rollercoaster ride for the last several years. I’ve changed my career path twice, run from my problems more times than I care to count, and had my heart broken twice. Needless to say, I’m a little jaded. However, a few months ago I was spurred to begin writing my memoir and have recently completed it.

Complete at 95,000 words, Fragments: Stories of a Life (working title) takes readers on my journey of becoming a teacher, the struggles I faced trying to find my niche, and ultimately leads them to my current career as a writer.

Thank you for your time and consideration of my story.

Here’s the interview:

1. What inspired you to set your stories in Montana? Did you spend a lot of time there doing research?

Then, last week I had a headache, but I went to class anyway. I drank a Diet Coke, hoping the caffeine would make my headache go away. It did, but it also kept me up for another nearly six hours after I got home. Around 1:45, laying in the dark + staring at the ceiling, it finally hit me what my memoir needed to be about. I got up, grabbed my journal, and started writing. I have a long way to go, but I am confident about the start I’ve made. I just hope I can keep the momentum going and write something that other people might actually want to read. I’m not quite ready to reveal what I’m writing about yet, but it will be worth the wait.

What aspect of your life would you choose to write about? Have you ever tried to write about it before?

American Masculine by Shann Ray

182 pages

5/5 stars

I don’t read a lot of short story collections. I tend to prefer meatier novels that allow me to really get to know the characters and follow a story line from beginning to end. However, Shann Ray’s debut collection American Masculine was definitely an exception worth making. Winner of the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference Bakeless Prize, these stories read like a novel. There were recurring characters and themes that kept the stories flowing seamlessly from one to the next.

Taking place in Montana, with brief stints in Washington, the stories show us the face of everyday America. We meet families dealing with the struggle of addiction, husbands and wives facing divorce and the loss of children, and the ever-changing relationships between children and their parents.

I’ll be honest and tell you that I write in the books I read (unless it’s a library book). I mark passages that stand out or quotes I want to remember. I read American Masculine with a highlight nearby and I’m glad I did because the writing in this book is outstanding. I found the prose to be almost lyrical in style. Ray kept his style simple – there wasn’t a lot of flowery language and he really kept the emphasis on getting to know the characters. I was able to relate to some of the stories, especially The Miracles of Vincent Van Gogh, about a young man who sells loans to people and believes in love above all else.

I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite story from the book, because I enjoyed them all. I don’t re-read books, but I have a feeling this is one I’ll go back to in the future. It’s obvious Mr. Ray took his time writing these stories (and they’ve been published in other collections) and is absolutely deserving of having won the prize. That being said, I will leave you with a quote from When We Rise: The loneliness and the love that unburden loneliness are like a basketball in flight, the yearning and the longed-for affection, the heightened expectation, the resolution that comes of seeing the ball in the net (pg. 79).

Disclaimer: I received this book from Graywolf Press, as a prize from a Facebook contest. I was not compensated in any way and all thoughts are my own.

Call To Story

This is how it all began for me: a call to story. When I was a child, I filled notebooks with words and images, and danced my stories in the living room of our tiny mobile home, then later, on the stage. Whether I was dancing, acting, or writing, it was the story that called to me. Later, I studied journalism in college, worked as an editorial assistant, wrote newsletters, ad and brochure copy, magazine articles, essays, poetry, but the novel question always nagged at me. Could I do it?

So when National Novel Writing Month came around a few years ago, my good friend Kate Antea gently persuaded me. The challenge is to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. I had been thinking about this story for a few years. A story about the power of women’s friendship, about community, or the lack of it. So that’s how it started—this glimmer of an idea.

As I mentioned, I had the idea years ago, but there were articles and cookbooks to write in the mean time, along with a strong flirtation with romance novel writing. Along with all of my other work in November, I vowed to finish this novel. I wrote around my deadlines and promotion commitments on my pie book. I wrote late at night. I wrote early in the morning. And when I was lucky, I wrote all day long. The next thing I knew I had a novel—or at least the first draft of one.

In the mean time my fiction agent, Sharon Bowers, of the Miller Literary Agency took an interest in one of those drafts (might have been the fifth) and coached me along to write even another draft. (Angela Miller, of the same agency is my nonfiction agent, which is how I met Sharon.) The next thing you know, Sharon sold MAGGIE RAE’S SCRAPBOOKS to Kensington Publishing. Based on the first book, they want two more:
a series of books. Pretty cool.

So I’ll be writing a lot more fiction over the next few years. But never fear, there will be more cookbooks, articles, essays, and so on. I’ve found that one often feeds the other. And it may work against me in some ways, but I refuse to just write one way for one market or just cover one topic for the rest of my life. One of my goals as a writer is to push myself to broaden my writing “vocabulary” through exploring different genres,
topics, or venues.

Story is story. Whether it’s the true story about Mrs. Rowe, pie, my mom, or the fictional story of Maggie Rae Dasher, the call is the same.

Find Mollie on her website, Twitter, Facebook or e-mail her at molliebryan at comcast dot net.