10,000 hits

Climbing numbers

There has been an explosion in hits on this website. It started when I took out a Google Adwords campaign in June, 2011. I’d been averaging between four and five hundred hits a month; that June I hit 744 and was thrilled.

They’ve gone up each month since and I’ve watched the graph from Blogger go higher and higher. A year later, I’d reached 1000 visitors in a month’s time. In December I doubled my daily cost at Adwords – and the numbers went nuts: 2679 in January, 2703 in March, 3273 in April, 3674 in May, 6005 in June.

Now I did nothing special in June to create that increase. Cynthia Sax guest blogged and accounted for an uptick in hits that week, but nothing to account for a near doubling in hits. But July got busy and I just left things on autopilot while I went on vacation and then hid myself at our cabin to write my next book (which has a good start...I’m hoping to get more time there next week to write another chunk).

So you can imagine my surprise when the numbers started climbing all on their own. This month I crossed the 10,000-hit mark. Shelley Munro’s blog post brought in a significant number of visitors (over 300!), but again, nothing to account for the spike.

Where are the visitors from?

Until this month, the top two countries of my visitors have been the United States (number one every month) and Canada (number two every month). The UK and Germany trade places in third and fourth (every month).

THIS month, however, the US is NOT #1 – Pakistan is. The US is #2. Myanmar is #3, followed by Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Mexico and Columbia. You’ll note my usual top countries didn’t even make the list.

Now, I would love to know I have readers in those countries. Because Amazon separates out royalties by country, I know I have had sales in Germany, Italy and the UK this month. So I have an international audience. I just don’t think there are 10,000 of them.

I also use StatCounter because it gives me some information Blogger doesn’t. Because I use the free version, it only holds two days worth of data. StatCounter confirms Blogger’s ranking.

I suspect a rat. A robotic one.

Visitor length

The stat that StatCounter gives me that I find most important, however, is the one called “Visitor Length.” This tells me how long people stay on the site.

According to this counter, 79% of those who come to my site stay less than five seconds. Another 5% stay less than thirty seconds. In short, 84% of the hits were from bots. These are sites that ping the site to see if there’s a way in to hack or leave a spam message. Thankfully Blogger is good at blocking them from doing their damage.

What that means is that only 16% of those who come to the site do so because they intended to. Because they want information or to participate in the latest workshop.

At first, that number depressed me. Sixteen percent? That sounds terribly low.

But then I did the math and realized that 16% of 10,000 is still 1600 people. Sixteen hundred people! That’s HUGE! That’s four times the number of people from two years ago. And if the same percentages were to hold true then as they do now...this site is doing quite well!

Reasons for rejoicing

• The number of real people who visit the site because they want to has quadrupled in the past two years.
• The Google Adwords campaign has brought people to the site. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing how many of those who are real are here because of that campaign and how many are bots.
• Guest bloggers are also good for business. Shelley and Cynthia hold the top-ranked posts of all time.
• My sales are up – my self-published book sales are double what they were last year. 
• Blogger is a good site for keeping the bots at bay.

What’s next?

I might suspend the Adwords campaign for a couple of months just to see what happens to the stats. My suspicion is that they will go down. Will my sales sink as well? Only one way to find out.

Thank you!

I am truly grateful for all those who visit because they want to. You are a quite bunch. Only a few leave comments and to those few, a special thank you. The numbers mean I’m not alone in the world, but your conversation helps me feel less isolated.

If you’re new to the site, be sure to sign up for my newsletter (sign-up box is in the top right corner). Check out the tabs at the top – you’ll find more information about me, about the books, about writing, up there.

Let’s see how long it takes to get to 20,000!

Play safe,

Diana

Scrapbooking and writing

Over a decade ago, when my daughter was in Girl Scouts, her troop held a scrapbooking party. Parents were invited to attend and we each were to bring a few photos. It was hosted by Creative Memories, one of the first companies to produce not only scrapbooking materials, but to hire artistic people to help you do something prettier with your pictures than slap them on a page and write the names of the people underneath.

Kate (my daughter) and I had so much fun we got hooked. I prefer regular-sized notebooks and plastic sleeves, however, not the larger scrapbooks that many choose to use. I document all the important events in our lives, clipping articles out of the newspaper (my husband is not only an artist, but also a theatre director, so his name is often in the paper), saving documents (awards, hospital wristbands, ticket stubs), as well as photos of places we've been and people we love.

With all this, comes journaling. Did you know "journal" has become a verb? It's the act of making a written record of each item. Of telling the story behind it. Sometimes its a line or two, other times its a full page story. This non-fiction writing is an important part of the scrapbooking concept. Not only the artistic placement of photos on a page (which I'm not very good at), but the telling of the story (which I can do quite well) is important. The two forms work together to give the complete picture because, let's face it, not all our pictures are worth a thousand words.

When telling these stories, it's important to keep the future in mind. Someday someone will pick up this scrapbook, open it and look at pictures of people who are strangers to them. They will wonder, "Why keep this piece of ribbon in this book? What is it's significance? Who would care about this?"

And your stories will answer that question. Through your words, you make those future viewers/readers understand you and your times. The details you add, the point of view that is uniquely yours, the style with which you write -- all these add up to give them insights into your life and times.

(The picture is of a page I did from out trip to Alaska. The trip took 13 days and the initial plan was for one 1.5" notebook for land and one for the sea portion of our trip. I'm still scrapbooking this trip; the first notebook was big enough for the first four days. Oops!)

Ready to give it a whirl?

Activity

Choose a small set of photos. If they're digital, think about printing them out, or you can use one of several online programs that allow you to keep them in the cloud (I'm old-fashioned. All my scrapbooks are hardcopy).

Mount the pictures - be artistic or not as you choose. Believe me, I'm not the one to teach photo placement or design of the page. That's my daughter's area (she now works at Michael's as a scrapbook consultant - see where that one-day workshop led?). Arrange them as you would illustrations of a story.

Then write that story. Remember, you still want to show the event, not tell it. Make the future viewers feel what you felt. Help them to smell the smells, hear the sounds -- they can see the sights in the pictures, so concentrate on the other senses.

Above all, have fun. This is your chance to write history!

Diana

Diana's Little Book of Poems

Yes, you read that right. Diana Hunter, writer of BDSM-kink erotic romances, has published a book of poems.

No, they're not THAT kind of poem. No kink. Just poems I've written over the years that I thought I'd like to share with you.



Check the Purchasing Info tab on the blog to buy or click here.



In the meantime, here's one just for fun:

My profile

I'm a writer, a weaver, a grower of children,

I'm a teacher, a gardener,  I sit in the sun.

I'm a book lover, a techie, a daughter and a wife,

I'm a baker and watcher, a lover of life.

To some I'm a wonder, to others a pester,

to some I'm a slacker, to others a jester.

Don't put me in a box with a lid and a label

I write sex and romance and the occasional fable.

But I also write history and epics and fantasy, too

And as you can see, bad poetry for you.

October 6, 2011

Once you've read the poems, please write a review on whatever site you bought it from. That'll move it up in the rankings so others can see it, too. 

Play safe!

Diana, the poetess

In media res

In media res. Latin for “in the middle of.”

Shakespeare successfully used this technique of starting scenes in several of his plays, most notably, Othello. Check it out. In every single scene, two characters enter already engaged in conversation. As we “eavesdrop” we learn important bits of information. Characters are developed, actions are plotted and we are engaged right from the start.

It’s a great technique.

Often writers choose to start with a description (Tolkien, anyone?) or a digression (Victor Hugo has entire chapters of these). Both are good tactics. They are not, however, the only options.

Shake up your writing a little (pun intended) and try starting a chapter in the middle of the action. Hook your reader, get them intrigued, then let the information out. This will help them stay interested in the story you’re unfolding.

Remember, YOU might know what happened before the scene, but is it really necessary for the READER to know? Are you overloading with exposition? Are you giving so much backstory that they’re screaming at you to get on with it?

In media res. Three Latin words that will become your best friends.

Activity

Go to your bookshelf and choose ten fiction novels at random. Alternately, choose ten short stories at random. How many of them start in media res? What do you think came before? As an exercise, choose one and write the scene immediately before the scene in the book. What were the characters talking about? How did they get onto this subject or in this place?

Alternate activity

If you already have a work in progress, go to the start of a chapter and determine the point where the most important information is revealed. What if you started there instead? How much of what came previous is actually necessary for the story?

Remember, digressions aren’t necessarily bad, but be aware of what choices you’re making. If you choose to start a chapter with description or a digression, both of which are legitimate techniques, choose to do it on purpose. Likewise if you start in media res.

Alternate alternate activity

If you’re staring a new piece, start smack-dab in the middle of a conversation between two of the characters (protagonist and his/her best friend, antagonist plotting to take over the world...you get the picture). Have fun and see where it takes you!

(You can also do this as a writing exercise just for fun. You never know when an exercise just might hit a home run and turn into a novel) :)

Play safe...and remember the tip!

Diana

Eight Tips for Naming Your Characters

 We're welcoming Shelley Munro today as our second guest blogger. She's got some great ideas, so read on!

Choosing the right name for a child can take weeks or sometimes months. Some parents pick out names for their future children when they’re mere children themselves. There are all sorts of things to consider when naming a child, and many of the same rules apply to authors when they name their characters.

When it comes to my stories I need to find the perfect names for my hero and heroine before I write a single word. Some authors call their characters A & B and slot names in later or change their character’s names at the editing stage, but I can’t. I think it’s because the names make the characters real to me – they become bona fide people with characteristics I can identify with. A person’s name has power.

Some of us have family names handed down from generation to generation while others are named after movie stars, pop stars or sports heroes. My name “Shelley” came from a book my father was reading. My parents were going to call me Michelle but decided that since the name would be shortened to Shelley, they’d call me that from the start.

When I search for character names I check baby naming books and online sites. Sometimes I’ll look at specific meanings of names and fit them to the character I have in mind. In my historical THE SPURNED VISCOUNTESS I chose names that were common during the Georgian period, while in FALLEN IDOL I wanted a plain name because my performer hero wanted to forget his famous background and embrace normal. I called him Bob.

Here are some things to consider when choosing a character name:

1. Will the name be shortened to a nickname? i.e. Samantha to Sam.

2. Do the initials spell anything? My grandmother’s initials spelled RAT and who wants their name turned into a furry creature?

3. Do the hero and heroine’s names start with the same letter or sound similar? Do the secondary characters’ names begin with the same letter too? You don’t want to confuse your readers with similar sounding names.

4. Check the number of syllables in the names. When you’re naming a hero and heroine vary the syllables so the names are very different. i.e. Michael Jones and Rose Williamson.

5. Make sure the Christian name and surname sound good together.

6. Are the names easily pronounced or can they be sounded out easily? Nothing jerks a reader out of a book more than a name that they can’t pronounce.

7. Google the names you’ve chosen for your characters. While lots of people have the same names, it pays to check them out anyway.

8. Choose names that work with your genre. i.e. if you’re writing historical romances, make sure you don’t choose a name that was first used in the 20^th century.

Suggestions for Name Sources:

1. Baby naming books. My favorite one is BABY NAMES FOR NEW ZEALANDERS by Anne Matthews. I like this one because I set many of my stories in my home country and like to give my characters a NZ-flavored name.

2. Online baby naming sites. Just do a Google search and you’ll come up with dozens.

3. The telephone book – especially good for surnames.

4. SPAM – yes, those annoying spam emails. Before you hit delete check out some of the names in the From field.

5. The closing credits on television shows and movies.

Conclusion: Naming a character is just as difficult as naming a child and authors must put a lot of thought into the matter so their “babies” aren’t teased or ridiculed.

(Diana's note: your activity is below Shelley's bio)

~ * ~

Shelley Munro is tall and curvaceous with blue eyes and a smile that turns masculine heads everywhere she goes. She’s a university tutor and an explorer/treasure hunter during her vacations. Skilled with weapons and combat, she is currently in talks with a producer about a television series based on her world adventures.

Shelley is also a writer blessed with a VERY vivid imagination and lives with her very own hero in New Zealand. She writes mainly erotic romance in the contemporary, paranormal and historical genres for publishers Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave and Samhain Publishing. You can learn more about Shelley and her books at http://www.shelleymunro.com.

WEBSITE: http://www.shelleymunro.com

BLOG: http://www.shelleymunro.com/blog

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/Shelley-Munro/e/B001JOWGNK

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/ShelleyMunroAuthor

GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/ShelleyMunro 

PINTEREST: http://www.pinterest.com/ShelleyMunro

TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/ShelleyMunro

Activity

If you already have a work in progress, write a journal entry as to why you chose the names you did for your characters. Do some research on the names (use Shelley's ideas above for information); does the research support your choice? How does that change/support your story?

If you're just starting a piece, use Shelley's step-by-step above to help you make your decisions. Once you've made them, write a journal entry that records the steps you took. Use this record to help keep you on track as you write your story.

Horsefly bites

Two days ago I got bit by a horsefly. It wasn’t the first time (that was last summer), but this bite is on my left ankle by the Achilles tendon and is making it difficult to walk. When you’re about to embark on a vacation, this is a complication neither looked for nor wanted.

But it has gotten me thinking about my stories.

In writing we tend to make life easy for our characters. They never have to go to the bathroom (or if they do, there’s always one close by). Their worlds are filled with easy-to-get to places, what they want is always on the shelf – or already in the pantry or cellar.

And they never, ever, get bit by horseflies.

Or deer ticks. Or mosquitoes, for that matter.

Why? Because it would complicate the story. It would pull us away from the main plot – we would digress. And that leads us to three options: either digress,  make it part of the plot, or don’t let the bug bite happen in the first place.

Let’s take them one at a time.

Digressions

I love Ray Bradbury’s comment about digressions in Fahrenheit 451. Guy Montag (the protagonist) is discussing the purpose of books with Faber (a momentary sidekick). Faber says, “Digressions is the soul of wit. Take the philosophic asides away from Dante, Milton or Hamlet’s father’s ghost and what stays is dry bones.”

While this is a direct play on words with Shakespeare, and Hamlet, no less (Brevity, thy soul is wit!), Bradbury’s words are well-spoken. When well-done, digressions can be the meat on the bones of the plot. They keep us interested – and keep us reading. 

Part of the Plot

Remember, as the writer, you are a god. And gods giveth, and they taketh away. How would a bite affect the character bitten? Peter Parker’s radioactive spider turns his life around. But your character’s bite might make him or her late for a very important date, might cripple her at an important juncture in her life, or might make him seem less attractive (who wants to date a guy who keeps itching his ass?).

Ignore it

You could, of course, write a scene where your pro- or an-tagonist gets bitten by something nasty (reptiles work as well as insects) and then choose not to include it into your story. You could also just not write it to begin with. But where’s the fun in that?

Activity

Choose either a current work in progress or start something new. Give one of your characters a particularly nasty bite (trust me, horsefly bites HURT!). Decide where the bite is and what kind of bite it is. Then ask yourself the following questions: How does he/she react to it? How do the people around them? Does it get infected? Is it a minor nuisance or a major event? What does that do to all the character's carefully laid plans?

Play with this and have some fun. And remember, inspiration can come from anywhere – even horrible bug bites.

Diana

Writing resolutions - update

At the start of January this year I wrote a post about my writing goals for the year and encouraged you to make some of your own. Mine are (in no particular order):

1) to write at least 250,000 words, both fiction and non-fiction
2) to publish something
3) to "sharpen the saw"
4) to read - a lot!
5) to enjoy my family and friends.

We're now halfway through the year, so this is a good time to take stock and see how you're doing. Pull out your goals and write a little about each one...how have you worked on accomplishing them?

As far as my word count goal, up until this month I've been very faithful in recording my word count at the end of each day. This month I was so subsumed in all the work involved in my day job, I didn't record a single word. It was easy to recreate, however, since most of the writing I did was non-fiction for this blog and several others. All told, from January 1st to June 30th, I've written 165,134 words -- well past the half-way mark. I'm thinking maybe I set my goal too low!

I've published only one new work so far this year, a title under my nom de plume: Mystic Shade. Under His Spell has done quite well. I've also re-released to a wider audience, Over My Enslaved Body, the first in the Jack Kariola slave series. The book has a new cover and is now available in the Kindle store as well as the Nook store and on Smashwords. Traitor Slave, book two of that series, will be re-released by the end of the month with a new cover and additional material in it (it was a novella and will be a longer novella or novel after a healthy re-write).

Stephen Covey's admonition to "sharpen the saw" is one I take seriously.  This year I took a yoga class for the first time and found the positions and relaxation techniques to be wonderful in clearing the mind. In a few days, my husband and I are taking our first vacation without the kids in 22 years, and that will definitely be a new experience. We're not going far, but will be together for six days all by ourselves. How wonderful!

Reading? My glory, have I been reading. I haven't blogged about every book I've read, but if you want my reading list, check this post and this one!

And the last item on the list is the one I unashamedly enjoy the most. Both my kids are back living at home as they pay off student loans and, while I moan about the lack of an empty nest, I really love having them here. They'll be gone all too fast, off leading their own lives, so I'm actually very grateful to get a few more years in with them before that happens.

And that's my update! Now go write yours :)

Play safe,
Diana

Reading...a lot!

June was a very busy month for me, unfortunately however, not in my writing life. I rarely had more than a half an hour to myself, not enough time to get any creation done. As a result, I edited a few pieces, dabbled a little here and there...and read. Easier to spend time waiting in line reading a book than writing one.

I picked up the second in Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris' Adept series (Lodge of the Lynx) at a library booksale (don't ya just love getting an entire armload of books for under five dollars?!). I already had volume one and several other unconnected Adept books, so I picked it up. But it's been such a while since I read the first, I re-read that one, then finished the second fairly quickly. I read Dagger Magic early in the week and finished it at the cabin this Wednesday past (sidenote: interesting that Amazon calls this #4 in the series. The actual novel only calls it "A Novel of the Adept" with no indication of a timeline).

Katherine Kurtz is one of my all-time favorite authors. Her Deryni series is partly what got me into writing my own stories. She's got a great attention to detail and certainly can do ceremony!

In cleaning out the English department office at school, I came across My Time in Heaven by Richard Sigmund. I mistook it for Dr. Eben Alexander's story. Sigmund's story was a quick read and an interesting view of what he saw when he died. I liked his comment in the preface: "Everyone who has an experience like this is going to see it differently." Sigmund is a Christian pastor and many of the symbols and images he saw were couched in that tradition -- because it's what he'd understand. He's very clear that what he tells is what he saw -- not what you or I would see because our approaches/philosophies would be different. We would have symbols we could understand. A cool read, even if they weren't my symbols.

Next up came Flowers From the Storm by Laura Kinsale. Wow. Just wow. Very few fiction books surprise me any more, but this one sure did. I read it in a day only because I couldn't put it down. I was glued. No spoilers but I'll tell you its a Regency romance unlike any other. Really, really good and I recommend it highly.

And then I read Wonder by R.J. Palacio. It's a young adult novel and didn't take but an afternoon but it made me cry. Twice! I am very grateful a teaching colleague gave it to me to read. It's a great companion piece with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (one of my top five favorite books of all time).

By then my transition was done and I was back in writing mode. Wrote 3500+ words on my Christmas story and finished off a chapter. And all this from Wednesday night to Friday afternoon! Gotta love being alone at the cabin. :)

Play safe!
Diana

Billionaires, Vampires And Reader Expectations

I'm pleased to welcome Cynthia Sax as the workshop's first guest blogger. She has a great set of ideas below, so read on...the activity is below the blurb. :)

“Read.”

This is the most common advice given to new writers. Why is reading important? Because readers have expectations for characters, for settings, for story premises, for genres.

Reader expectations define genres. In a romance, readers expect either a happy ever after or a happy for now. In a mystery, readers expect a mystery. In a horror, readers expect to be scared. If you deviate from these expectations, your story will no longer belong in the genre.

Reader expectations for characters, what I will be focusing upon today, are more flexible. Writers can and often should deviate from the reader expectations. Not every billionaire hero should be a clone of Christian Grey from Fifty Shades Of Grey. His story has already been told.

Before deviating from reader expectations, I like to know what they are. I do this by reading best selling books. I also ask readers.

Reader expectations vary by genre so it is important that the books and the readers are in my targeted genre.

When I tell young adult readers my hero is a vampire, they describe Edward from Twilight. This vampire sparkles in the sun. He dresses like a teenager. He’s awkward. He drinks blood but he doesn’t kill people. He often doesn’t even drink human blood.

When I tell paranormal erotic romance readers my hero is a vampire, they describe a black-trench-coat-wearing, pale-skinned, dark-haired, blood-drinking vampire. This vampire is smooth, sophisticated, alluring, controlled, and strictly nocturnal. He’s a killer.

These are two very different vampires.

If I were writing a very short story (2,000 words or less), my paranormal erotic romance vampire hero would be exactly the vampire readers expect. If I deviate from the reader expectations, the readers will ask questions. Why is he wearing pink? Why doesn’t he drink blood? How can he walk in the sun? Answering reader questions requires additional words.

Our readers are very intelligent. Any deviations from expectations including scars or broken items grab a reader’s attention. Why are there notches on the hero’s gun? How did he get that nasty scar? They’ll turn pages, reading to uncover the reason for the deviations.

In a longer story, if my hero is exactly what readers expect, readers will become bored. The hero will be ‘just like every other vampire.’ However, if I deviate completely from all of the reader expectations, readers might feel cheated. They’ll tell me he isn’t ‘a real vampire.’

One of the techniques I use to create interesting characters is layering expectations. My paranormal erotic romance hero might be a vampire AND a police officer. I’d then list the expectations for both ‘types’ and compare them.

If there are no similarities in the two lists, I know convincing readers that one hero can be both will be very challenging and require additional words, possibly overshadowing the story I wish to tell. In this case, there are many similarities. Both vampires and police officers take action. They’re physical. They can work at night. They prowl the streets.

Next, I looked at the differences. Vampires are loyal to their coven. Police officers are loyal to their department. Ohhh… conflict. Our hero has split loyalties. Can we use this conflict in our story? Maybe he works a case where the killer they’re looking for is a vampire. 

I also use reader expectations to show emotional changes. At the beginning of the story, our vampire hero dresses all in black. He meets a pink-loving heroine. When he falls in love, he adds a pink stickpin to his otherwise all-black outfit. Readers will notice.

This is why I love reader expectations. Any deviation from reader expectations is highlighted. It raises questions and creates excitement. Reader expectations is a powerful tool that I use to build all of my characters.

***

Title: He Watches Me

Blurb:

She desires to be seen. He wants to watch.

Anna Sampson has a naughty secret. Every night, she slips into her neighbor’s yard and swims naked in his pool. She fantasizes that the dynamic young billionaire watches her nightly nude aquatics, his brilliant green eyes gleaming with lust.

She discovers this isn’t pure fantasy. Gabriel Blaine has been watching her via his security cameras, and now that he has returned to L.A., he doesn’t plan to stop. That’s all he wants—to watch. Anna knows she shouldn’t allow him and she certainly shouldn’t want more, but she craves Blaine’s attention, needing his gaze fixed on her body.

Part One of The Seen Trilogy

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/He-Watches-Me-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00CD36FS8

Author Website: http://cynthiasax.com/

Blog: http://tasteofcyn.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.sax

Twitter: @CynthiaSax

Activity

Take a look at your current work-in-progress. What are the expectations you've built up for your reader? What personality traits, visual cues, pieces of foreshadowing have you layered in? Use your journal and write a reflective piece answering those questions (yes, answers can be in note form and don't need to be in complete sentences!) :)

Play safe!

Diana

 

Sell through

This post is part of a series I've been doing on the Business of Writing. Today we're talking about that all-elusive sell-through.

Sell through is publishing jargon that came into being when authors started getting advances. The publishing house would upfront the author a royalty payment of an agreed-upon amount (big name authors got big name advances, most authors got a couple of thousand as an advance). There would be no more money for the author, however, until the royalties reached the same amount as the advance. The "sell through" point.

In other words, if an author received an advance of $5000 on her book, she wouldn't see another penny until she'd sold enough copies that her part of the price totaled five thousand dollars. The book would have "sold through" (or past) her advance and her publisher would be happy. She would be too, because now she'd start receiving royalties again.

In self-publishing, though, sell through is probably more accurately called a profit/loss statement.

It is how you determine if a book has actually made you money...or not. It's another data point you can use to make decisions about promotional efforts, cover art...a whole host of business decisions! Remember, as a writer you are running a business. Whether or not you are self-pubbed, knowing your data is the best way to keep your career moving forward.

This is a spreadsheet for Tied to Home. As you can see, the book is a slow starter, but I've already earned a profit. Between the cover art and an ad I bought, I spent $80; the book has earned me a total of $152.56. This gives me a profit of $119.84. 

(And yes, these are actual numbers. I truly believe we do newbie authors a disservice by hiding what we make on a book. Most books I publish have a stronger start, but some don't even do this well. Be honest about what you do or don't make. How else will others learn?)

What these numbers for this book tell me is that I can afford to do more paid ads. The one I ran appeared in January (although I bought it in November - that's a fault with this spreadsheet that needs fixing. I want a better way of knowing when the ad ran to see if it made an impact on sales. A comment in the January box will probably be sufficient).

This spreadsheet also makes me feel good. Okay, so the book isn't taking off and selling a ton of books every month. But it is selling and I've made money.

It also tells me I might want to look at some externals. Although I've made a profit, the book isn't selling as well as I think it should. Knowing this, last week I changed the blurb in all listings to working that linked it to the rest of the books in the series. I also updated the title on Amazon to reflect that it is part of a series so that, if someone searches for "The Sweet Spot series" it will come up. Tied to Home is one of several stories written by the members of the Sizzling Scribes. All the books are set in Port Clef, Connecticut and explore love and romance--and sex, of course! Making sure all the books in the series point to all the other books in the series should boost sales for all of us.

(Working with a group of authors for promotional purposes is the topic of an upcoming post. :) )

The bottom of the page is cut off, but I have a separate page for each of my books. It helps me to keep track of what ads I've bought and where they are; for my older books I can tell if there's a pattern to the sales (again, another blog post for another day: looking for patterns).

Data is your friend. The spreadsheet above is one data point. You can use your sales records to see what platform it's selling best on as another. Each piece of information helps you inform your decisions, helps you run your writing business.

Activity

Set yourself up a profit/loss statement for each book. If it is a newly-published book, setting this up and keeping track will be easy.

If the book has been out a while, use your sales records and your account information to help you re-create the records. And if you haven't set those up...what are you waiting for? {g}

Play safe! If you find this useful, please pay what you can for the ideas.

Diana

Superman our Savior?

I went to see the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, under a little duress yesterday. Don't get me wrong. I love superhero movies, they really appeal to the fantasy lover in me and some manage to transcend the usual, let's-blow-up-everything-in-sight philosophy (see my review of Ironman here).

But really, how many re-boots of a story do we need? The Hulk got a TV series and two movies, Batman got a TV series and two re-starts. Spiderman's on his second recent restart (after a TV series as well). Then here comes Superman, having to prove he's superior with several TV series and THREE movie reboots!

To be fair, the second restart wasn't very good. There were plot holes wide enough to drive a train through and incredible leaps of logic. So I can understand the movie producers wanting to just forget that one and move on.

But the key words here are "move on." Don't tell me the same story all over again. Give me an episode. Not the same old story we've seen before.

WARNING: the rest of the post contains spoilers, so stop reading here if you don't want them.

So I went, expecting little that was new and much that was familiar: Jor-El sending his son to Earth as his planet imploded; the spacecraft and little boy being found by Midwestern parents who will raise him, his eventual move to Metropolis and the development of his alter-ego Clark Kent who gets a job at the Daily Planet.

All that was there, as expected. What was unexpected was the incredible backstory they filmed on Krypton. I suppose the producers wanted to get their money's worth out of Russell Crowe, an actor I don't really care much for. But, I have to admit, he was a powerful Jor-El. I found myself looking forward to each of his appearances as Superman's guiding force, once Clark accepts that he is not human.

The structure of the movie begins in a usual manner: on Krypton, filling us in on exposition. But once Krypton implodes, the movie's timeline shifts to an adult Clark Kent who moves from job to job, helping people and leaving as soon as people begin to suspect he's different. He's a man in hiding.

From there, the story alternates between present time and flashbacks to his childhood in Kansas. At first I was concerned. I tend to lose the main storyline if there are too many interruptions. But Zack Snyder, the director, handled them well and the story flowed seamlessly to get in all the story points. In fact, on retrospect, I think I preferred this structure to the straight, chronological storytelling that's usually used. Made this reboot something new.

But what I really wanted to talk about in my review were the incredible number of Christ references in the film. I noted the first one and thought, "Ah! An allusion. Nice touch." Then there was another...and another...and by the time he said his age (33) it was pretty obvious this remake wasn't just "truth, justice, and the American way." There is another, not-so-subtle subtext going on, from the way Superman hangs in the air, the dust haloing his body when he meets the US Army for the first time, to the wrestling with who he is (the "running away" section equals the 40 days in the desert Jesus took early in his career. And it is no accident that Superman comes out of the desert to meet with the Army - and the men who become his followers).

A good movie stays with you a while, and Superman did that last night, the Christ images weaving in and out of my consciousness as I toyed with this post in my head. Then, this morning I awoke my computer to check the headlines (my usual routine) and came across this story on CNN. I am not the only one to be hit over the head with the Christ references.

Now, to be fair, the article states that studios providing movie guidelines to churches is a regular practice. I know from experience the studios often put together study guides for schools, too. I have no problem with that. I just find it interesting that this movie has such an obvious parallel when I didn't see it in any of the other movie or TV incarnations that dealt with the man in the cape.

Not that it wasn't there. Heck, most superhero movies have savoir themes. Ironman does. So does the Odyssey if you really want to go there. Heroes are saviors. That's what they do. That's what we want them to do. People are in a jam and they need someone to help them out. Enter the hero.

But while Ironman had Biblical allusions, Jon Favreau (the director) didn't hit the audience over the head with them. They were subtle and you had to watch a few times to catch them. In Man of Steel, Snyder uses such a heavy hand that the allusions threatened to pull me out of the movie. And that's the objection I have. Let me find them, don't tell them to me outright. There's no art in that. And I like art in my movies (as well as a couple of well-done explosions).

All that said, it was a good movie and Henry Cavill is a good Superman (and, as one of the characters admits, "He's hot." I agree!). Amy Adams as Lois Lane is fun and I believe her every moment, even if she is in on his secret identity from the start (a story change I'm not sure I like). Kevin Costner has several wonderful moments as a dad trying to raise a special child and Diane Lane as Superman's mom has just the right balance of love and practicality. And yes, even Russell Crowe gave a good performance. :)

There is a great deal more to be said of this film, but I've only seen it once. I will watch this movie again and then I'll come back to discuss some of the other aspects of the film (the change in Superman's costume, a missed opportunity, the Colonel's sacrifice...among other things).

Yes,  in spite of the heavy-handed allusions, there were some levels to this film that are worth exploring deeper. Till then,

Play safe!
Diana

Workshop change-up

When I first started providing these workshops back on October 4, 2011, I never thought I'd still be going strong a year and eight months later. My initial plan was to post a pre-written set of workshops that had been honed over years of teaching them in real time as well as giving them in Second Life with an eye toward collecting them into a single volume that I'd offer for sale.

Then the publishing world imploded - or exploded, depending on where you're sitting - and I just kept offering new ideas, different ways of looking at the world and providing the occasional prompt (or two, or three) to help both beginning writers and those with more experience. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to put these in a book, but that's no longer my focus.

Over the past year and a half (plus some), my focus has become more on the reflective writer, on the whys and wherefores (a redundant phrase if ever there was one!) rather than on the how to's. Although I've done workshops on grammar, you really can learn that better from a site dedicated to the structure of language. There have been workshops on the business side of writing, the editing process, lots of workshops on characters and plot and theme. You can find the entire list of them here.

You might not comment, but I know you're attending to these workshops because my website hits double every Tuesday. I like to imagine you eagerly coming to the workshop, reading through it and then taking time to do the activity and finding out something new about your own writing. If'n you wanted to drop me a line (email or in the comments), and let me know what's worked for you, I'd love it. My ego is small, but it does need a sop now and again. :)

So what's the change-up the title of this post refers to? I think it's time to get some other writers in here to share their expertise, don't you? Guest lecturers, as it were. No one wants to listen to the same person over and over and over.

The first guest blogger will be Cynthia Sax. She'll be here Tuesday, June 25th to talk about "Billionaires, Vampires, and Reader Expectations." She has some great tips!

Next on the schedule is Shelly Munro on the naming of characters. Shelly is a long-time Ellora's Cave author who writes very hot love scenes! Her post is coming July 16th and I'm looking forward to learning a lot from her.

More guests will be coming on board in the next few weeks. If you are a writer and would like to see a particular topic covered or if you have a topic you'd like to write about, email me at diana@dianahunter.net and put BLOG PROPOSAL in the subject line. Include a brief outline of your post and we'll go from there!

Activity

I know I missed last week's workshop entirely and this week's is really an announcement, so I hope you're spending this time writing on your current work in progress! How many words per week are you getting done? See if you can up that by 10% this week. Write fast, write hard, write lots! I'll post my word count at the end of the week - see if you can beat me!

Play safe everyone, and welcome aboard Cynthia and Shelley!

Diana

over at the Scribes

My turn at the Scribes this week. Head on over and be sure to read the post very, very carefully! :)

If you haven't seen my guest spot at Susana's Morning Room, be sure to stop over there as well. It's not too late!

Diana

Giveaway

Apologies for missing this week's workshop, but I have something to make up for it: I'm a guest over at Susana's Morning Room. Read my post and leave a comment to enter her giveaway.

See you there!
Diana

Oh, my glory, it's Tuesday!

My apologies, everyone. The weekend totally got away from me and I have no workshop for today. By this point, you've probably already figured that out.

You have two options: wait until next week to write anything (bad option...don't do this one), or you can visit the Workshop page and revisit an old workshop to hone a skill you want to improve (good option...do this!).

Have fun and I'll see you next week with something new. Honest!
Diana

Prompting 1...2...3...4...

Every once in a while you need to walk away from your current work-in-progress and write something different. Different genre, different story, different something.

Today's your day to do just that. Set your timer for a time between 15 and 30 minutes, then choose a prompt from those given below and do something different. If you normally write romance, try turning the prompt into a mystery. If you normally write thrillers, write science fiction. If you normally write fantasy, try noir. Seriously. Write like Raymond Chandler -- it's a lot of fun and can loosen up your brain for your more serious writing later.

Pick a prompt and have fun!

Diana

Prompt 1 - Old lady on the beach finds a walking silver Liberty half-dollar in the sand. What does she do with her find? Choose your point of view: the old lady or a person who sees her pick it up. (Link provided for you young-uns who don't know what that is. Also for those not familiar with old American coins).

Prompt 2 - Man comes running out of a bank with a canvas bag in his hand. Why? Choose your point of view: the man with the bag, a teller inside the bank or a person on the street who sees him come out.

Prompt 3 - Person (you determine gender) trying to buy fruit from outdoor vendor drops a wad of cash in the process and doesn't notice. Choose your point of view: the person who drops the cash, the vendor or a person who witness the money drop.

Writing these workshops is fun but they need to make me money in order for me to continue. Please consider making a PayPal donation to keep them coming!

Star Trek Continues

Long-time readers know I'm a Tolkien Geek -- but did you also know I'm a Trekker? Have been for years. To the point where the new movie has me ticked off some. Too many explosions, too skimpy on plot, which is exactly what Star Trek isn't.

The people in the episode below, however, have got the spirit exactly right, even if its a little rough around the edges. Then again, the original series had some rough spots, too, so I'm okay with that. To read about their background and what they're working to accomplish, click here. To get up-to-date information about the newest episodes, you can join their Facebook page.

To get a taste, watch the first episode, "Pilgrim of Eternity" below. And if that face looks familiar, you are a Trekker, too! Michael Forrest, Apollo from Who Mourns for Adonis? making a return visit.



Want to know more? Here's their official site.

Tomorrow this blog will return to its originally scheduled writing workshops. In the meantime, enjoy this look back -- erm, forward.

Diana

Here Come the Brides Part II

Remember when I said, I work best on non-fiction when I’m 1) in edits, 2) have too many outside, real-life events that keep me from entering the world of my book?  I should add a third reason: sometimes I like to procrastinate. Currently I have a cold and just can’t seem to get my clouded head into my work in progress. Instead, I’m coming back and finishing installment two of the promised Here Come the Brides analysis.  

If you haven’t read Part I yet, you can find it here.

This part will deal with the women of the series, starting with...

The Brides

The brides of the television show came from New Bedford, Massachusetts, not Lowell, MA where the original Mercer girls were from. Why the difference? I suspect it has to do with the fact that Lowell is land-locked and New Bedford is not. In the interest of storytelling, when you only have forty-eight minutes of time to use (remember, a “one-hour” show needs to leave time for commercials!), it is far easier to have the brides in a sea-side town where you can simply dock the ship rather than have to add in an overland journey.

While Ada Mercer brought eleven ladies to the west coast, the producers of Here Come the Brides needed more if they hoped to have a long-running series with lots of stories to be told. Therefore, Aaron Stemple’s bet with Jason Bolt is for a grand total of one hundred young women. If only ninety-nine arrive, Aaron wins the bet – and Bridal Veil Mountain, the Bolt brothers' treasured legacy (rest assured, all one hundred arrive and the mountain is secure, as are all future story lines).

Of the hundred brides the Bolt brothers brought (try saying that ten times fast!), however, only two are given regular status in the world of television acting, Candy Pruitt, played by Bridget Hanley and Biddie Cloom, played by Susan Tolsky. All the other brides are extras who serve as background scenery for various scenes. While there are a few semi-regular brides in the first season, many speaking brides are played by guest stars who have entire episodes built around their characters.

The two “permanent” brides, Candy and Biddie, like the Bolt brothers are also appropriately named (see Part I post).

Candy is sometimes short for “Candice” but in the TV show, however, she is never referred to by any other name other than “Candy,” so we can assume that is her full first name. It is not a period name for any time in the 1800’s, the first of many anachronisms we will find. “Candy” as a girl’s name doesn’t begin to appear on the lists of popular girls names until 1943, where it appears as #907 out of 1000 ranked names. It peaks at #267 in 1969 – the same year the series has its first season. It may not have been a popular name in the 18th century, but the TV series made it popular in the 20th. The 21st century, however, has a different take, with one baby-naming site calling it “too sugary sweet and inconsequential for a modern girl.” Hmmm...apparently we are all still girls...but again, another post for another day!

(Sidenote: Bonanza, another western from this era, also had a character named “Candy” – Candy Canadice – who was male!)

Candy Pruitt is among the first to become engaged. Her ongoing relationship with Jeremy Bolt (played by Bobby Sherman) is unique among the relationships in the series’ version of Seattle in that we never see them take the final step to the altar. We get to see other brides’ wedding ceremonies, but circumstances always keep Jeremy and Candy from taking that final step. This, of course, could be explained in two ways.

One, keeping them apart gave the writers lots and lots of story lines. Each time viewers thought the two might actually make it to the church, something would happen and they’d be split for at least another week. The writers must’ve had a lot of fun finding new reasons for the two of them never to get hitched. The season two addition of Candy’s young niece and nephew added even more plot lines and reasons to keep Jeremy and Candy from tying the knot.

And two, Bobby Sherman was a bubblegum pop star who brought a weekly audience of young girls to the show, all of whom wanted to be Candy Pruitt and get to stare into those dreamy eyes (full disclosure here: yes, I was one of those girls!). To marry him off to Candy would close the door on his character’s availability, therefore ticking off an entire segment of the show’s core audience.

No, better to keep the two of them apart and keep both the story lines flowing and the audience tuning in.

Biddie Cloom, the other recurring Bride character, is doomed to be a spinster from the start. Her first name refers to old, unmarried women who are more worried about their neighbors and the latest gossip than anything else. Modern day slang version isn’t much better: college-age girls who are air-headed and drunk most weekends. Her last name rhymes with “gloom” giving viewers a short-hand synopsis of her life. Based on her name alone we know this woman is an empty-headed female who gossips, likes her drink and will never find a husband, even among the most needy men of Seattle.

I remember being offended by how people treated Biddie when I watched it all those years ago and I was never sure if I was angrier at the people of Seattle (including all the leading players) or at Biddie herself. As an adult watching it now, that same feeling came to the fore again, a discomfort whenever she did something wrong and got scolded for it.

With the wisdom of age, however, I’ve figured out why I was offended – and it had nothing to do with Biddie’s actions or reactions. Time after time the people of Seattle tell her she’s “silly” or call her “addle-brained”. In general, they treat her shamefully. Yes, she is silly, she is an air-head who often gets things wrong and yes, those traits can be played for comedy (Lucille Ball, anyone?).

But Jason and Lottie and even Candy never find the humor in Biddie’s character, all they find is the irritation. Susan Tolsky saw Lucille Ball as a role model for comediennes (Etter 48) and Ball had those who scolded her (“Lucy! You got some ‘splainin’ to do!”). So why was it funny when Desi did it, but not when the characters of Here Come the Brides scolded Biddie?

I think the answer lies in love. For all their marital problems, Desi and Lucy were in love (at least publicly). He forgave her for every mistake, every problem she created.

But no one loves Biddie. She’s an irritant, a social mis-fit who gets passed over or passed around on the dance floor, pushed aside or worse, patted on the head like a little girl while they sigh at her incompetence.

Susan Tolsky had a great sense of comic timing and a wonderful aptitude for pratfalls and funny faces. It’s too bad the writers missed an opportunity to use her talents to the fullest. She could have made people laugh out loud instead of squirm in their seats.

(In the interest of keeping this post from growing too long, I will wait for a future post to talk about the other brides. Miss Essie, for example, was semi-regular in the first season, but we’ll save her for next time and, for now, continue with some of the other regular characters.)

Lottie Hatfield (played by Joan Blondell) is NOT a bride, yet she is the unmarried saloon keeper, a no-nonsense woman who runs a “clean” bar, meaning no dancing girls or hanky-panky allowed. Only good, old-fashioned drinking, although she also serves meals. Her first name is often the diminutive of “Charlotte” but again, since she’s never referred to as any way but by “Lottie” it’s fairly safe to assume that’s her full first name.

And that name, at least, fits the time period. “Lottie” is a top-100 name for girls at the end of the 18th century, when Here Comes the Brides takes place. In the first film treatment (when it was still going to be a musical), the character name was Lottie, but she had a different last name, so I’m going with Nash as being the namer of this character. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Alan Marcus’ wife was named Lotte – a similar enough name to cinch the deal.

As for her last name, Hatfield, I could find no reference that would make anything of it. The long-standing feud between Hatfields and McCoys was certainly common knowledge in the 1960’s when this series was created, but I can’t find any evidence that our good saloonkeeper was of any relation. It could be this name was chosen just because it sounded good.

Because, age-wise, she is among the older characters in the series, Lotte plays the role of the mother-character, not only to the brides, but to the Bolt brothers as well. She also serves as the town’s conscience, reminding them to do what is right, keeping the men in line even while serving them drinks. When the brides have a problem, it’s to Lottie they turn as their mother away from home. When anyone needs nursing, Lottie is there to take care of them. When Jason needs advice, it’s often Lotte he comes to, pouring out his troubles so she can offer a solution.

Of course, we cannot forget the last of the cast regulars, even if he isn't a woman, the loveable sot, Captain Roland Francis Clancey (played by Henry Beckham). I am amazed, watching through these second-season episodes, at how many he was in, not just as a side character, but as a lead, working himself up to one of the town councilmen by the second-to-last episode (“Absalom”).

Captain Clancy makes a regular run between San Francisco and Seattle, which is useful when the writers want to take the action outside of Seattle. He also serves as the town’s comic relief. He’s often drunk (on at least one occasion with Biddy Cloom), which allows for a great deal of physical comedy. Today’s mores do not often find drunkenness humorous, but 1968 is not now and I have enough of 1968 left in my soul to find myself smiling at the predicaments Clancy gets himself into.

It is worth noting that Captain Clancy and Lottie Hatfield have an off-again, on-again romantic relationship. More off- than on- to judge by the rolled eyes and ticked-off looks Lottie sends in Clancy’s way when he’s being particularly thick-headed. These are also the oldest two characters in the series, but where people turn to Lottie for advice and mothering, they see Clancy more as a buffoon than anything else.

These differing views of these two characters makes for some interesting by-play both between them and among the other characters. I’m sure this was done on purpose by the show’s writers as it gives ample opportunity for storytelling. Because these characters are older, it also gives the writers a chance to delve into their backstories, bringing up people from their past to complicate their current lives. A smart move on the part of the writers!

Where Lottie remains a static character, however, her essential personality never changing, Clancy cleans up his act in the second season. He still gets drunk, but less often, becoming a respected citizen of Seattle, even if he still makes his regular runs to other ports. It would’ve been interesting to see further changes in this character had the show run to a third season. Would Clancy have run for mayor? I’d like to think so.

 *****

Okay, stopping here. There are still a ton of topics (and characters) to explore and I’m still having fun, so you can be assured there will a third post somewhere down the line. If you haven’t read the first, you can find it here.

*You may also note I quoted Etter’s book less often in this post. That’s because his book deals more with the actors playing the roles than it does with the characters they played. I found the same problem with his episode guides. There are no synopses of the episodes, instead, each listing contains information on the actors and writers rather than detailing what happened in the episode. A good source for finding out how some of the people involved in the series felt about the series, but not a lot of discussion about the themes and mores the series represents.

Diana

Over My Enslaved Body, a book by Mystic Shade, is now available on Amazon, Smashwords and at Barnes & Noble as well as at its original publisher, A1AdultEbooks.

I love the new cover, too!

You can read an excerpt here and find purchasing information here.

Remember, Mystic writes "for the shadier sides of our desires." This book is not for the faint of heart!

no workshop today

Sorry, folks. I often write these posts a few weeks ahead so I don't get stuck the night before trying to think of something to write about (I pretty much kicked that habit in college). Except this time, the last advance one  posted last week and I'm just not ready.

While I'm getting my act together, check out some of these other cool sites and I'll be back next week with new writing prompts and observations about the process of writing.

• Please consider donating to the Red Cross. They are going to be quite busy over the next few weeks.

• Tonight I'm involved in the JP Morgan Corporate Classic. My team can always count on me to come in last. I'm in Rochester tonight and my goal is to get a personal best (which means coming in at under an hour)!

• Need a new game to play? I'm loving GeoGuessr.So far my highest score is just a little over 9K. If you beat me, put your score in the comments!

• And, if you haven't seen the great work of Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choirs, go listen to VC1, VC2 and VC3. Then sign up for VC4!

Play safe,
Diana