Blog Tour: Henrietta and the Dragon Stone (The Five Kingdom #2) by Beth Barany.
Congratulations to my friend Beth Barany who is touring her second novel in the Five Kingdom series!
And if you want speak with Beth in person, she is participating in Day of the Book – March 8th at JFK University – only $20 for a whole day of authors, books and networking!
via Blog Tour: Henrietta and the Dragon Stone (The Five Kingdom #2) by Beth Barany.
We discussed what was a good question to ask writers during Newbie Writers Podcast Episode 21.
Without good questions, we cannot get great answers. It seems rather obvious, but people don’t always follow the obvious course.
I have walked out of author interviews. Not because the author wasn’t marvelous, often she was. What drives me from an presentation or key note or panel are the lame questions. At a recent book signing, Natalie Goldberg prefaced her question and answer period with the plea, “And don’t ask me what color pen I use to write.”
Fair enough. In the case of the pen question, I think sometimes we think that the writer possesses something magical that we in turn can purchase ourselves. Maybe Goldberg uses a magic pen, something that can be acquired at the Harry Potter theme park. We want to know where to get the magic. Maybe that’s a better question, where do you get the magic? I’ll guess right now that’s an unanswerable question.
But how can you get a great, interesting answer if the question is so terribly mundane? Here are some better questions to ask a writer next time you are in a conference or at a book reading.
I hope the authors will not only answer your questions, but thank you for the opportunity to utter an intelligent response.
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I’ve traveled with many, many items stuffed in my carry- on. The iPad seems to hold all the answers for a mobile traveler. Here’s what I discovered:
The Good: The iPad is marvelous for travel. It’s small, light and I can carry it with me at all times. (I was in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia so I kept the iPad in a gallon zip lock bag to protect it from the humidity).
Like a paper based notebook, The iPad turns on as soon as the cover opens, so making notes in Pages was easy. I opened it up, made a few notes, and closed it. For someone who previously traveled with a Mac Book, this instant access is like a tiny miracle.
I recommend the Pages app for ten dollars because even though the journal apps are fun, they aren’t as easily transferrable to the main computer. And so much of what we write is destine to our main lap top. I was also able to add photos to the journal entries to keep track of where and what I was doing.
The on screen key board takes getting use to, but I became fairly proficient. (Why? Because once I add a stand alone key board I have effectively created a lap top, which was not the point). The iPad works on busses, planes, trains, most modes of transportation (not motor bikes, I observed that a passenger must limit herself to texting by phone while perched on the back of a motorbike).
I loved the long battery life and I loved carrying one device that included email, all my reading material and all my writing notes and observations. I was able to download two books from Amazon and read them immediately while in transit thus continuing the vacation attitude of satisfying every whim, every want – right now.
A year ago the iPad was ubiquitous and if possibly, it’s more so now. Tourists carried iPad’s in Vientiane, played games on them while waiting at the boarder in Laos, read books on the plane to Bangkok, took photos in Angkor Wat. This seemed to be the new traveler accessory, considerably more flattering than a waist pack.
The Bad: The auto fill function is bitch when you are typing in foreign place names.
The auto fill will also thwart your efforts to employ polysyllabic words, so there is a great deal of back spacing involved during data entry. And the foreign words and phrases are not found in the spell checker.
The Ugly: The worst thing about the iPad is that though I could upload all my photos into it during the trip , and I could organize them during travel time, when the photos were ultimately upload into my lap top, all the categorization was lost, the albums did not synch and the photos ended up just consolidated into one huge event. So don’t waste your time organizing photos on the iPad. Work to correct all those weird place names the auto correct “fixed.”
Would I take it again? I still love the iPad for my books and reading collections. But if I really want to work, conduct on line classes, real correspondence and work on long writing projects, I still need the lap top.
On the other hand, if I need to keep all my electronics with me at all times, then the iPad is pretty awesome.
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In Episode 15 of Newbie Writers Podcast we discussed humor. Humor is hard.
You already know how fraught with danger the average joke is. The inability to tell a joke is a cliché in of itself. Did you hear the one about? It brings to mind the stereotype sales person, over dressed, over excited, and filled with exclamation points, trying too hard. Or worse, people like my lovely mother who cannot tell a joke without wandering off the subject in order to elaborate on unrelated points and descriptions only to return to the main story not only derailed but missing key points that would, in ordinary circumstances, help the punch line make sense. 
I was the first woman to burn my bra — it took the fire department four days to put it out.
~ Dolly Parton
One rule I’ve learned about humor is that the harder you try, the less funny you will be. I tell my public speaking students that unless they are very, very funny, forget the joke. But if they have a recent amusing antidote, tell that, it won’t be hilarious, but mildly entertaining can accomplish the same end as humor – to bring people together, to make them laugh.
Mark Twain wrote: “The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story is strictly a work of art — high and delicate art — and only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling the comic and the witty story; anybody can do it.”
Aside of American boosterism, Twain’s advice is sound, if we stick with what we are good at, and Americans are good at stories, we will succeed.
“Humor is just another defense against the universe.”
~ Mel Brooks
Light humor, like adding a funny icon to your PowerPoint presentation, is just fine. Or you can make a cute, off-hand remark to liven up a presentation. Make an insider comment that only your audience members will understand, it can be humorous as well as a bond between you and your audience.
A topical comment within a report or an email can be effective, if the report or posting is not meant to last. A topical reference in an annual report won’t work in your favor. It will age out and look not only silly but irreverent. You do not want to write papers or reports or articles that quickly become irrelevant — that would be a waste of time.
“Well I thought it was funny”
~ Stephen Corbert
The essential element of humor is to not work too hard at it. If it is NOT your nature to write wittily or humorously, you may want to just pass on the whole humor thing in your correspondence. Be sincere, be clever, be yourself, but don’t work to be funny, the odds that the whole endeavor will backfire are very, very high.
Save yourself. If you really want to be funny, just quote other people.
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What is a Novel?
From the abbreviated OED (the only version I can afford) the first listing for the word is:
A novel needs to be new, larger than a short work and offer some degree of realism. This is where the complaint, “the characters weren’t believable” comes from. This is where we get up in the idea that our plots and action need to make sense.
And we’re right. They do.
But more important, the novel, the characters and action, need to make sense within the world of that novel.
So when we suggest a degree of realism that does not mean you can’t create a fabulous fantasy world and populate it with two-headed beings who always disagree. It does not mean you can’t re-create OZ. What the definition of real, both by the OED and in your reader’s head, means is your world needs to make sense, and you need to make the rules of your world fairly clear at the onset in order for the reader to believe the ending.
The art in how you do this. Don’t launch into a lengthy description of the rules of your world. Do not give the reader pages of back story, how the world was invented, who was responsible. And beware the lengthy dialogue during which the space ship engineers says, “Well Jim, as you know, during the process of energy transference at light warp speed, the individual may or may not turn into a creature with two disagreeing heads.”
The art of world creation is to weave in the points of the world in between the action. Pay attention, allow the reader to figure out a few features as the story carries them through, and surprise the reader as you set up the plot.
Novels are something new. That’s what you get to create. But ironically, even something new needs to fit into our old way of understanding the world.
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My partner in Australia once challenged me to a slang smack down. Slang is the early indicator of word changes and language evolution. On many levels slang is academically interesting and worthy of serious study. For a writer and poet, slang can give your writing color and interest, but only in small doses.
But for Newbie Writers Podcast, we just wanted to be funny.
While Damien had a wealth of Australian slang at his disposal, indeed, I once listened to a young Aussie deliver a paragraph of instructions and I did not understand a word she said, I am from a slang free zone – Sonoma County. I was in big trouble.
So I appealed to the students in my Oakland class. Give me your inner city slang, I pleaded.
And they did.
And I won the smack down.
Here are a few examples from our show – Newbie Writers Podcast – Episode 11
Catharine’s Slang contribution:
Damien’s slang contribution:
So don’t be a boofhead, go hard, or go home.
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Instead of wooing an agent, many writers are working directly with niche or boutique publishers and finding the relationship very satisfying.
If you want to go directly to a small publishers, how do you approach him or her?
In our early days, Newbie Writers Podcast interviewed niche publisher Lyle Perez of Rainstorm Press
Here is some of Lyle’s Advice
Historically, Publishers have always sold to bookstores not to readers. Like publishers, author need to speak directly to their readers, so your book is not just a book, it is a blog, twitter feed, Facebook conversation, appearances, workshops, conferences, library readings.
And yes, even with a small, boutique publisher, your book can make it onto the shelves of a brick and mortar store.
We say, check out the boutique publishers, and see what they can do for you and your book.
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One of our earliest episodes for Newbie Writers Podcast was to define and figure out what the heck is a writer’s platform. Since this is still a troubling term for writers, here are a couple ideas to help you build your own platform:
A platform is what you stand on to make your point. So what is your point?
An easy way to think of this is: Why are your writing this book?
Non Fiction – the point and platform is often the theme of the book.
From this platform and theme articles, blogs, web site, twitter posts and audience segmentation will all flow. Think of the platform as representing your passion and beliefs, it’s what you stack all the social media and other books on. The bigger the platform, the easier it is for people to see you as you stand a head above the crowd.
Fiction – What is a central theme? Child abuse? A discovery journey? Find a solid theme that you are willing to discuss and expand upon for at least a couple of years, and you have your platform.
For instance, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin to express her idea that if she was devastated over the loss of her child, wouldn’t a slave woman feel the same? The story was about motherhood, the platform was the call to end slavery.
Once you find that theme, you can write articles blogs etc. about that theme and the tie it to your fiction book that addresses the platform issue.
Children’s books– Your platform can be reading is important and your book is an example of fine children’s reading.
Or the children’s book touches on a popular issue or theme. Again, be cautious of being trendy, you have to discuss this subject forever, it helps if you like it or believe in it.
Memoir, can be regionally targeted, time targeted, issue targeted. Whatever group you discuss will be the target group who will relate to your story, their shared concerns will be your platform.
And a caution about a book and a platform – how much do you like it? How committed are you? If you are passionate about a cause, or the subject matter of your non fiction book, you will love the endless conversations, the lecturing, the book signings. But if you wrote a book because it was trendy, you will soon tire of the subject – your platform – and you’ll become bored.
You will notice, and so will your fans.
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Books are the things you lose yourself into.
I had a bad day during which everything electronic was sparking, failing and frustrating (I’m looking at you iTunes and AT &T). Instead of taking it out on nearby humans, I quit everything and read a whole book.
You have heard, often enough, that writers read. Authors should read everything. We should read as if our lives depended on it. We should read as if we are still in school and reading is a class requirement, necessary for our job, something that we must do. Our response, reasonably enough, is to resist those requirements and go to the movies. Because the popcorn is better there.
What is forgotten during all these admonishments is the shear joy of reading. If you are a reader, then you know what it is to lose yourself in a book. That day I picked up a book thinking okay fine, I can’t get on line, I can’t watch TV, it’s too cold to hike, I’ll just sit here and read.
It was like taking a vacation. As I dove into the novel, not only were my troubles temporarily gone, so was my whole being. Reading launches you into exotic places, allows you to experience the world through someone else’s eyes, passions and ideas. It allows you to glance into the future or experience first hand what happened in the past. And for hours, you are not in your house or your car or your in-laws. You are on an exotic adventure.
Reading in this context is like getting away with something. No one knows where you’ve been, what you’ve learned. No one can tell. A good book gives you conspiracy and a shared experience: you and the author, a communication that transcends both space and time.
Don’t mind me, I’ve been far away.
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Sometimes I cannot ignore the signs, even if you work really, really hard.
The first sign was my friend Beth Barany just published her excellent book Twitter for Authors and she asked me to review it.
Then my client Julia Stege, who is on the verge of launching her first book, pinned me down (and oh lord that’s something else to manage) and offered to help me with whatever social media eludes me.
And that was, again, Twitter. As if a little bird told them.
For good information, reference Beth’s book and Julia’s Web site.
If you’re flummoxed about how to approach the damn thing, stay here, it won’t take long.
Once I realized that Twitter was really just a very large cocktail party juiced by illegal steroids, it made it easier to answer one of the first questions in Twitter for Authors: What kind of relationship do you want with Twitter?
Up until now, I’ve treated Twitter as a seething noise of one night stands. Then I thought it was only for other people because the music was too loud. Finally, with the party idea to help, I realized that what I wanted now was connection – even a few minutes connecting and conversing is valuable and worth the time spent. How many times do we leave a party satisfied because of a few marvelous one on one conversations?
To find those connection Julia told me to find and follow people I find interesting and who, therefore, would be interested in what I have to offer. And go ahead and have some fun (this was recommended by both these experts). Just as you have more fun discussing Renaissance Art instead of networking for your insurance business, a Twitter conversation about your favorite show or film may be just the connection you need.
Share the love. When we introduce people at a party we often say – hey, I think you’ll like Sue, she quilts just like you – we are part of the connections and will benefit even as we hook up our pals.
Like every advice column we’ve ever read, Twitter follows the age old trope of be interested in other people and they in turn, will find you flipp’n fascinating.
So limit how much you talk about yourself (As soon as you start over promoting your products, you web site and yourself, everyone else will stampede for the stuffed mushrooms). Share something, quote your friends, promote their books, it will make you look that much better.
I love a party, but if you don’t, then (staying with the party metaphor) Twitter maybe exactly the thing for you. You can take your time, respond when you want, and join conversations on your own terms. You don’t even need to worry about your hair.
Okay, one more question from Twitter for Authors; What does winning the social media game look like to you?
What does wining at a party or networking event look like? Is winning walking away with a date for the next night? Finding the perfect mate? Finding the perfect job or employee?
I think Beth makes a good point, if we don’t know what we’re after, it’s hard to get terribly involved or enthusiastic about the game.
So get Twitter for Authors, figure out what you want from Twitter and join the conversation. Talk to me, I’ll be looking for you.
@Cbramkamp
Beth will discuss her book and how to Tweet Better – on Newbie Writers Podcast Friday August 23rd. I can never keep track of what episode number it is. Just head to Newbie Writers.
I am migrating this blog to be part of NewbieWriters.com Until we have complete lift off, both blogs will publish simultaneously. Sorry Panda.
You are welcome to re-post this article in your own blog or newsletter – please include this entire statement, “Catharine Bramkamp is a Writing Coach and podcaster, find out if you’re ready to go from Newbie to Known visit http://www.yourbookstartshere.com or bramkamp@yahoo.com for a complimentary consultation.”
Newbie Writer's Guide 