First Pages Would You Read On? hosted by Diana Flegal

The New Year has begun and many authors spent their holiday 'off time' writing, editing and rewriting their WIP. (Work in progress)

If you would like to have your First Page reviewed here some Weds, please submit it to diana@hartlineliterary.com. Place First Page Submission in the subject line of your email.

Please keep in mind we do not want material that would conflict with the Christian Worldview but will entertain, wholesome general market first pages as well as material for the Inspirational markets. We are open to nonfiction submissions as well.

Would you read on?:

At a quarter past six on the twelfth of August in Alexandria, Virginia, Kate Winston unlocked her brownstone condo in Old Town and disarmed the security alarm. With her hip she bumped open the door and stepped into the foyer. The sweltering humidity and endless hours on her feet at the mall had zapped the bounce from Kate’s auburn bangs, leaving her drained, cranky, and (now) careless. She tossed her keys into the porcelain bowl nestled on the antique credenza and began sorting mail. Had she lifted her eyes she would have seen the man’s reflection in the hallway mirror. But she did not. Instead, Kate ripped open an envelope and scanned her credit card statement.

A second later the man pounced, driving Kate into the credenza and sending the antique crockery crashing onto the Persian rug: the one she’d purchased for ten rubles at an outdoor bizarre in Islamabad. Clamping a sweaty forearm across her throat he pressed himself against Kate and growled, “Relax, sister. This’ll be fun.” But there was nothing fun about the way his hand roamed over her hip, across her skirt and down the outside of her thigh. Wiggling her right leg free, Kate lifted her foot and brought it down hard, grinding the heel of her shoe into the top of his barefoot. The assailant screamed, relaxing his grip. Not for long, but enough that Kate was able to reach inside her purse.

In a single fluid motion she whirled and fired.

The pair of silver hooks exploded from the stun gun, embedding themselves into the man’s black tee shirt and sending a rush of voltage surging through the wires. The man’s wiry body stiffened and for a few seconds he bounced on his heels, his hands twitching. Then Kate released the trigger and the attacker collapsed into a heap at her feet.

Looking for the Next Karen by Andy Scheer

When you've had great success at a writers conference, it makes sense to want to return. So I'm looking forward, in about six weeks, to return to the Florida Christian Writers Conference.

It's been ten years since I've been able to attend, but my memories remain strong. For years, when I was acquiring articles for Moody magazine, there were two annual conferences whose invitations I was able to accept: Mount Hermon and Florida.

While the Mount Hermon event deserved its reputation as the country's top Christian writers conference, for me the Florida conference was consistently more successful in meeting my most important reason for attending: developing and acquiring writers.

Shortly after I first arrived at the Florida conference, I was handed a stack of potential articles that conferees had submitted for critiquing. As I worked my way through the pile, four articles stood out: two by Karen and two by Elizabeth. The pieces needed work but showed great potential, so I made abundant markings in the margins and looked forward to meeting the writers.

Turns out that Karen and Elizabeth had come the previous year as newbies. Rather than being overwhelmed, they took copious notes, bought recordings of the sessions, and worked like Trojans to get their writing ready to show to editors the next year. That was when I came in.

I got to meet them, learn their stories, and coach them in their craft. And after a few years I counted them among my go-to writers—people I was sure to approach when I needed someone I could trust to pull off a particular article.

As I count the days to the March 1 to 4 event at the Lake Yale Conference Center in Leesburg, Florida, I hope to meet another Karen and another Elizabeth. There's nothing like a face to face meeting with a writer for building rapport, for coaching, and for brainstorming.

Such elite, emerging writers at any conference are few. But they're always there, and I long to meet them. But just as important are the writers with potential, but whose craft is not yet at the level I seek. Especially for their benefit, I'll also e teaching three workshops:

--Is Your Manuscript Ready to Edit? (on checking if a piece really accomplishes your goals)

--Teaching With Your Story (on using narratives in place of a didactic approach)

--Manuscript Formatting Shortcuts (on easy ways to dress your manuscript for success)

I hope to meet you there. Even if your name isn't Karen.

Little Distractions by Linda S. Glaz

How on earth did I get involved in so many “other” activities than merely my writing? Words, typos, unwanted punctuation!!!

Writers fill their work with a lot of extraneous words for starters and, unfortunately, a great deal of typos. How do they make it to the publisher and past without correction?

A couple years ago when I did online reviewing, I downloaded a book that seemed to hold a lot of promise. Story was great, but layout? Not so great. The novel, while not only being filled with 60+ typos, was also full of just, that, never, always, even, and enough !!!!!! to no doubt set a record.

When I wrote the pubber and asked if they needed proofreaders, I was told they didn’t at the time-hmmmm-nonetheless, I was put on a list in case they needed anyone else. They eventually did and I became a first reader for them. Later, a final reader. Now, I realize I’m a bit anal about such things, but come on, 60+ typos in one manuscript?

What stands out to you when you read a book? Something that really scrapes your nerves faster than a cheese grater does fingers. Is it men who growl, snarl? Women who whimper and sigh? Once or twice, okay, but when that’s all they’re doing, when do they have time to live out their stories?

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Move Over Klout by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Have you tried Klout? It's an online service where you give it access to all your social media accounts  and it tallies up your performance at socializing and how much influence you have on others, then it rates you in comparison to others who have signed up for the service. It's absolutely FREE.

However, it does have it's criticisms, such as the company’s privacy, transparency, and how it formulates its comparisons. I'm on Klout and to be honest, I'm not sure if it is a true measurement. My scores consistently range from 50-75. At the height of my book launch campaign, I was charting 75, but the highest rank one can get is 100. It doesn't seem to be able to differentiate daily Klout measurements verses and active online campaigns, which will obviously spike a person's score. After the campaign, it seems like you fall off a cliff. Other iffy comparisons is how someone like me could have as high a score as a celebrity or brand name companies who have a much higher influence status?. Thus, are some reasons for a few new competitors who are trying to take the measurement scale a little further, and ultimately, to more accuracy.

This past fall, Kred launched and focuses on analytics and marketing tools for brands. The company pays top dollar for unique access to Twitter's tweets. It synthesizes and sorts them in communities of interests. Klout uses a method of sorting influencers by topics. While it assigns people an influence score like Klout, each point is traceable to the tweet that earned it. This is a new feature that Klout doesn't provide. Right now Klout only tells you have may retweets you received over the last 90 days, but you have no way of being able to determine which tweets were retweeted the most and when.


Another alternative is PROskore, which appears more professional as it measures influence beyond social media, such as past job titles, education, and experiences.

Have you tried any of these platform measurement tools? What are your thoughts? Do you feel something like this would be helpful to determine if you're on the right right track with your platform building goals?

Headings and page numbers, oh my! By Joyce Hart

It seems so elementary to put a heading on your work and to number the pages.  However, it apparently is not, especially if you haven’t been to a conference or taken an online class. Or, if you’re not in a critique group.  Sometimes even experienced authors forget these two things.

Just in the last few days I have received several proposals with no heading and no page numbers.    Also important is the font – nothing fancy, just Times New Roman, 12 pt.  This is what the editors want and what I prefer. 

 

We like the heading done this way:  name of the book/your name and I like the page numbers in the lower right hand corner.   Why do we need this information?  We have lots of manuscripts in our offices. Well, some of us do, others run paperless offices.   I haven’t reached that objective yet.  I like to read from paper.  Sometimes I’ll read a few pages on the computer, but mostly I read from paper.  My eyes won’t take all that looking at the computer screen.

I’ll sign off for now on my little rant.  I hope this reaches some people who forget to do these things or ones who didn’t know they needed to do them. Probably the people who need this information don’t even know about our blog.

Blessings to all,

Joyce

New Year, Fresh Beginings, and Resolutions by Diana Flegal

January first is just a day on the calendar, but it offers us a chance to examine where we are and project our goals to where we want to be, spiritually, mentally, and career wise.

I like fresh starts, a change to begin anew and to make a new list of goals. My personality lends its way to lists. I get such a sense of accomplishment when I cross a task off; it gives me the incentive to tackle the next one. One of my clients, David Stearman, recently said in an FB post, "For my first job of the day, I try doing something I know will be successful; a sure thing. An early victory sets a nice tone for the coming day."

I do that with my lists. I write it according to difficulty, with the easiest one listed first.

A favorite movie of mine is, "What About Bob." I think many Christian counselors could use that movie as a tool in their sessions. The takeaway for me was: Get things done by taking baby steps.

Books are the source of much direction I receive from God. I read his word, yes. But maybe I have to have someone predigest it for me. When I read Max Lucado's, Cure for the Common Life I took notes, and took something away from it that I could apply to my life. I am better for it.

When I read Erwin McManus's Seizing Your Divine Moment, I was so excited to give myself permission to think outside the box. Love that about Erwin.

So when I enter a new year I gather books about me that I feel are going to make me a better person. Better at my job, better in my relationships, and mostly, a better daughter of God.

This January I am reading, Your 100 Day Prayer, Actively Waiting on God by John Snyder alongside of Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. I just finished the novel The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook. And for my continual quest to learn more about the writing process, I am just about done reading Cec Murphey's, Unleashing the Writer Within.

In my stack are two books with bookmarks in them that I will complete as I finish these others. Life Lessons by Elisabeth Kubler Ross & David Kessler (authors of Death & Dying) and When you Don't See His Plan by Nadine Hennesey with Rebecca Baker. Other stacks wait patiently for me beside my nightstand and on my bookcase.

I am curious what titles you are reading as you enter this new year. What books have bookmarks in them on your night stand? I pray your list of goals are realistic and that you have great success in fulfilling them.