Would You Read On? hosted by Diana Flegal

Thank you for stopping by for today's installment of Would You Read On?

Today's contributor has offered us the first page of his YA novel. Let us know in the comment section below, if you would read on or place this back on the shelf.

Chapter 1

A scream ripped my attention from the airline magazine. In the next instant, a muffled explosion erupted somewhere outside the airplane.

“They’re shooting at us!” a man shouted.

The Boeing 747 shuddered into a gut-wrenching dive. Instantly my trip to Israel as an exchange student transformed into a pandemonium of shrieking, shouting, terrified passengers.

“What’s happening? Who’s shooting?” I yelled into the chaos.

Was it a fighter jet? Or maybe missiles shooting up from ground launchers? From where I sat in the middle, I couldn’t see whatever the passengers at the windows were shouting about.

A second explosion rocked the airliner.

The grandmother beside me clutched my arm and dug in with eagle talons. “We’re going to crash!”

I still didn’t know what was happening, but in that instant I figured the old woman was right. Only seventeen years old—and I was about to die.

Yellow oxygen masks dropped from the overhead bins. Just as I reached for mine, a final explosion practically blasted my ears off. Just that fast, the airliner was gone! Instead of airplane, I glimpsed alternating blue sky, brown earth, and tumbling wreckage as my body somersaulted through icy air. My lungs gasped for breath.

In terror I shut eyes and uttered a final prayer: “God! I’m yours!”

WOULD YOU READ ON?

Last weeks contributor was published author Marlene Banks. Marlene takes true moments in Black American history and brings these unknown stories to light by wrapping them in fiction. Her third title releases Oct 1st and is titled Greenwood and Archer. Greenwood and Archer continues the story from Son of a Preacherman, a Feb 2012 release.  Connect with Marlene at her FB page.

Well-turned Phrases by Andy Scheer

“Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.” —George Orwell

I've considered that advice this past week as I've been reformatting some curriculum for the writer's group I work for part time.

In a lesson on writing style, the course advises:

“Good writers try to get out of the way of their own messages. They don't try to impress with beautiful words, nice turns of phrase, or fancy sentences that draw attention to their writing ability. … If a sentence draws attention to itself or to the writer, it has to go.”

“Kill your darlings,” Stephen King says, “kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings.”

It's a fine balance—avoiding cliched expressions and finding fresh metaphors that communicate powerfully, but also subtly. This past week I've been re-reading Stephen King's massive novel 11/22/63—taking the time to appreciate some of the nuances of his craft.

Here are some of his well-turned phrases I discovered on my second reading:

● In small towns certain names seem to sprout like dandelions on a lawn in June. (p 126)

● . . . ordered a shore dinner, which came with clams and a lobster roughly the size of an outboard motor. (pp 126-127)

● . . . the color of water beneath a sky from which snow will soon fall. (p 152)

● . . . flooded the room with enough fluorescent light to take out an appendix by. (p241)

● . . . the fall colors began to bloom—first timid yellow, then orange, then blazing strumpet red as autumn burned away another Maine summer. (p 270)

● . . . long autumn afternoons, most hazy and warm. Dusty gilded light slanting down through the trees. At light, a quiet so vast it seemed almost to reverberate. (p 270)

● . . . staring . . . with his mouth slightly hung open. It was the expression of a farmer who sees dinosaurs cropping grass in his north forty. (p 325)

● It was more than a smile; his face was transformed with the happiness that's reserved for those who are finally allowed to reach all the way up. (p 328)

These phrases must not have been his darlings, for which I'm grateful. They're certainly not ones I'm used to seeing in print—or especially in anyone's first draft.

Update from Joyce

Hello everyone. 

  

Since you don’t hear from me very often, I thought I would bring you up to date on what is happening at the Pittsburgh office, besides the day to day activities.

I was able to attend the ICRS in Orlando in July.  Kathy, my assistant here in the Pittsburgh office went with me.  I couldn’t have done the conference without her.  We had a great time.  We roomed with Diana Wallis Taylor, one of my clients. I met with 26 editors in two days.  Since I hadn’t been to ICRS the last two years, it was good to reconnect with editor friends and to meet a couple new ones. It was also great to see many other friends on the convention floor.  Kathy heard “Joyce & I go waay back.” quite a few times.   I think my first CBA Convention was in 1980. 

 

My birthday was in August and I got three birthday cakes.   I’m watching carbs now. 

Many friends sent cards and messages on Face Book.  It is nice to be remembered.  Thanks to all.

Now I’m getting ready for the ACFW which is only two days away.  I’m having a dinner for my clients and their spouses. It will be at The La Hacienda in Colleyville, TX at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, September 19.  The manager of the restaurant says it is about 10 minutes from the airport.  Terry is having a get together for his clients on Friday night at the hotel.  At last count I will have 21 authors attending the conference. That’s only the jhart authors, not the whole agency. Terry will have 19 authors there.

 If you write fiction, I cannot recommend this conference highly enough.   You will have the opportunity to network with other authors, connect with editors and attend many good workshops. 

God bless and keep you in His care.

Authors Marketing Websites and Blogs

Regardless of whether you're published or unpublished, you need to make an impact on the Web. The difference in being published is that you want to make an instant impact to sell your books now.

Why then, are some websites so hard to find? How many times have you seen an advertisement with a URL address and think to yourself that you didn’t even know they had a website? Or how many times have you found something that looks really promising from a search engine description, only to find that there was little to offer when you got there?

The two largest mistakes include: 
1) Designing a really fabulous website and then only performing basic marketing measures to promote it. 

2) Hardly taking the time to build a well-designed website and promoting it like crazy. Neither technique will work. You must develop an online marketing plan and follow through with it. You cannot cut corners and skip chapters. It doesn’t work like that.

Do you even have a marketing plan? If you do, does it include online marketing? How old is your marketing plan? When was the last time you updated it? The answers to these questions could be the solution as to why you might not have the success you want.

Unfortunately, people look at marketing the same way they view fitness. It seems like too much work. Starting out we have great intentions, much like joining a fitness center in January because of a New Year resolution. We go full force with determination until we burn out or life gets in the way. Marketing isn’t something you can do for a while and stop. It isn’t a business fad, and it isn’t a business hobby. It is your business. Think of it as your house or rental payment. As long as you need somewhere to live, you will pay a mortgage or rent payment. Marketing is the same. As long as you are writing books, you will need to market your books to keep selling them.

Marketing plans are designed for a reason. When written effectively, updated appropriately, and followed consistently, they work.

Marketing plans fail because of three things:
1) They aren’t written and designed for you--to meet your writing needs and your schedule. You don't want a boilerplate template of someone else’s marketing plan. You need something that is realistic for you. Your writing pace, publication deadlines, family needs, obligations to other jobs and/or church are different from other writers. Therefore, your marketing plan should be realistic to other needs in your life.

2) Marketing plans are not updated consistently each year or proactive in taking advantage of new developments and technological advancements, as well as changes that take place in your personal life.

3) People don’t follow-through consistently with their marketing plan. Somewhere in the middle they want to make adaptations without proper planning and research, or they give up altogether. 

What about you? Have you fallen prone to one of these 3 situations? What steps have you taken to fix and/or improve things? 

Guest column by Terry's Client Linda Apple

“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.”~ E.L. Doctorow

Thirteen years ago I decided to be a writer. Little did I know what this decision would cost me. Little did I know how this decision would enrich my life.

I entered this world of words ignorant, hopeful, expectant, and maybe just a little bit cocky. It didn’t take long for me to be humbled. To my great astonishment, the world wasn’t waiting to hear what I had to say! I kept writing trying to find the right recipe, but most of my efforts failed.

Thank goodness for my writer friends who encouraged me to keep at it. However, I’ve found that words get into the writers veins and really, I couldn’t have stopped for long.

I’ve heard about writers who say they have to write because the stories in their heads demand to be told. I didn’t have such stories or demands. But what I did have was the desire to connect with people and encourage them. It took several years of writing to finally discover this was my niche, my voice.

The reason I’m writing this blog is for those of you who are just starting out. It is so easy to compare your writing experience, style, success—or lack thereof— with others. Let me assure you that there will always be someone more successful and always be someone less successful than you. That is the journey. As you write you will discover yourself, your style and voice, and just where you fit in.

Don’t get confused by other writers. At conferences you will hear a broad spectrum of advice, which is often contradictory. Treat this abundance of information like a buffet. Take what resonates with you and leave the rest. Take small steps until you feel ready to run. Then burst out and sprint. If you fall, that’s okay. This may be a sign to try a different path. Above all, be patient with yourself.

Explore, Learn, Write! 

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Linda has cut her writing teeth on short work publishing an amazing fifteen stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul books and stories in six anthologies. She is the author of two non-fiction books, Inspire! Writing from the Soul and Connect! A Simple Guide to Public Speaking for Writers. She has a great platform as she is a sought after speaker for workshops around the country and just served as President of the Oklahoma Writers Federation.