Category Archives: #amwriting

Ask a Writer

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While people-watching, I overheard an inquisitive young man ask his mom a series of questions. All her answers were quick and untrue. Not at all helpful. And I couldn’t help but think, she’s not a writer. Probably not a reader, either. Can’t recall the exact questions posed, but the following is close. Only this time, I’ve included a writer/reader’s response as well. 😉

Why is the sky blue?

Easy answer: So birds can see where they’re going.

Writer says: Sunlight reaches Earth’s atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in the air. Blue light is scattered more than any other color because it travels as shorter, smaller waves.

Why are leaves green?

Easy answer: So they look pretty, honey.

Writer says: The green coloration of leaves occurs due to a pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll plays a crucial role in the process of photosynthesis, which is how plants convert light energy into sugar to fuel their growth and development.

Why can’t Fido talk to me?

Easy answer: He’s a dog.

Writer says: He does. Dogs communicate all the time. Most can easily recognize at least a dozen or so words — never say “walk” or “treat” unless you mean it — and the smartest ones can reach vocabularies of hundreds of words. They don’t speak using human sounds because physiologically they can’t make the same sounds.

Other animals can speak in human language. Koko the gorilla communicates in sign language and has a vocabulary of around 1,000 words.

Even animals that have no contact with humans use some form of language to communicate. And many humans can decipher the words and expressions of all sorts of animals, from house cats to wild elephants. When all else fails, look at the body language. All creatures communicate, even if they never utter a sound. Pay attention and listen. Fido is talking to you.

Can trees talk to each other?

Easy answer: Don’t be silly. They’re trees.

Writer says: Trees of the same species are communal, and will often form alliances with trees of other species. Forest trees have evolved to live in cooperative, interdependent relationships, maintained by communication and a collective intelligence like an insect colony. These soaring columns of living wood draw the eye to their full canopies, but the real action takes place underground, inches below our feet.

“Some are calling it the ‘wood-wide web,’” says Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees. “All the trees here, and in every forest that is not too damaged, are connected to each other through underground fungal networks. Trees share water and nutrients through the networks, and also use them to communicate. They send distress signals about drought and disease, for example, or insect attacks, and other trees alter their behavior when they receive these messages.”

Scientists call these mycorrhizal networks. The fine, hairlike root tips of trees join together with microscopic fungal filaments to form the basic links of the network, which appears to operate as a symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi.

For young saplings in a deeply shaded part of the forest, the network becomes a lifeline. Without sunlight to photosynthesize, they survive because big trees, including their parents, pump sugar into their roots through the network much like human mothers suckle their young.

Why do whales breach?

Easy answer: Because it’s fun.

Writer says: Communication plays a vital role in the social lives of whales, and breaching is one way they send messages to others in their pod. The powerful splash and sound from breaching travels vast distances underwater, allowing whales to communicate with individuals far away. Breaching serves as a long-distance visual and acoustic signal, alerting other whales to their presence and/or signals important information, such as mating readiness or the location of food sources.

Also, territory is crucial for whales to establish dominance and secure resources. Breaching can display strength and power. When a whale breaches, they showcase their physical prowess and send a clear message to other individuals or competing pods that this area is their territory. This behavior helps establish boundaries and reduce potential conflicts between rival groups.

While breaching is visually striking, it also serves a practical purpose. The forceful impact with the water removes parasites that attach themselves to the whale’s skin and inside their mouth. The sheer force of the breach is enough to dislodge unwanted hitchhikers, which helps the whale to maintain good health and hygiene.

Breaching can also assist whales and dolphins in a successful hunt. The force and sound of a breach disorientates and intimidates prey. Orca — aka Killer Whales — who belong to the dolphin family, will launch out of the ocean to create the loudest impact. The family pod of Orca work as a team to breach around prey to disorientate, confuse, and panic that individual.

Breaching has also been used to assist whales and dolphins to get a better visual on their surroundings. Although not as common as a spy hop, a breach enables them to see above the ocean’s surface and navigate through busy areas near the coastline.

My point is, writers are curious creatures who view the world through a different lens. We’re filled with information from multiple trips down research rabbit holes, and we love to share what we’ve learned. Can’t put it all in our WIPs, so it often spills into real life. 😀

What have you learned during research? Ask and answer your own question using the same format. Or just tell us. We want to know.

 

Epigraphs

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I love epigraphs, those sparkling word gems that a writer places at the beginning of the novel. The epigraph is a chance for the author to share what was on his/her mind when writing the book, or perhaps an intriguing hint of what’s to come. If done well, it will compel the reader to turn the page and begin reading.

Back in August 2021, James Scott Bell wrote “The How and Why of Epigraphs.” While I can’t improve on Jim’s post, I’ll add a few things I’ve read recently.

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According to masterclass.com

An epigraph is a short standalone quote, line, or paragraph that appears at the beginning of a book. The word epigraph is derived from the Greek epigraphein meaning “to write on.” The use of epigraphs varies from book to book, but generally, authors use them to set up themes or place the events of their story in context. Epigraphs are most commonly a short quotation from an existing work. Epigraphs usually appear offset by quotation marks at the beginning of a text, but there are no set rules dictating how writers use them.

 

Epigraphs can be quotes from other works, quotes from famous people, Biblical quotes, or they can be newly-minted words by the author for his/her specific work.

Here are ten examples of epigraphs to inspire and encourage us:

 

FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley

“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me Man, did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?” –John Milton, Paradise Lost

 

 

 

CORALINE by Neil Gaiman

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.” –G.K. Chesterton

 

 

 

ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy

“Vengeance is mine, I shall repay, saith the Lord” –Romans 12:19

 

 

 

Version 1.0.0

 

DISTANT STAR by Roberto Bolano

“What star falls unseen?” –William Faulkner

 

 

 

 

 

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” –John 12:24

 

 

 

A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh

“I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” –T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

 

 

THE QUIET AMERICAN by Graham Greene

“This is the patent age of new inventions,
For killing bodies, and for saving souls,
All propagated with the best of intentions.” –Lord Byron

 

 

 

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN by Colum McCann

“All the lives we could live, all the people we will never know, never will be, they are everywhere. That is what the world is.” –Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project

 

 

 

INTO THIN AIR by Jon Krakauer

“Men play at tragedy because they do not believe in the reality of the tragedy which is actually being staged in the civilised world.” —José Ortega Y Gasset

 

 

 

THE END GAMES by T. Michael Martin

“Everything not saved will be lost”. –Nintendo “Quit Screen” message

 

 

 

So TKZers: What epigraphs have you used in your books? Do you have a favorite epigraph?

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Here’s the epigraph from Lacey’s Star:

“The truth is bitter, but with all its bitterness, it is better than illusion.” — Ahad Ha’Am

Available at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

Significant Events

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Significant Events
Terry Odell

picture of a family arriving in the US in 1938Significant events can be individual, familial, national, or international.

I was at a family reunion last weekend, and seeing so many cousins in one place was a visual lesson in the strength of DNA. No problem knowing we were all related. What was missing was the generation that included some we fondly remember as the crazy old aunts. Looking around, the cousins of my generation realized that to a lot of the others in the room, we were now the old guard and undoubtedly would be thought of as the crazy old cousins.

Many of the maternal side of my family hailed from Danzig (now Gdansk), and were lucky enough that one of the crazy old aunts had the foresight to push the family into selling their goods and getting the hell out of there. Their arrival in New York was on the maiden voyage of the SS Noordam. A reporter was sent to cover the arrival of the ship, and when they saw the passenger manifest with Anker after Anker, they figured there was a story there.

Another branch of the family lived in Berlin, and their patriarch was of the “This too will pass” mindset. Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938, opened his eyes, and they began their plans to leave. That’s a significant historical event that might be more significant to their family than others.

September 11 Memorial

Image by Foundry Co from Pixabay

For most of us who are old enough to remember, September 11th, 2001 is a date that won’t be forgotten. We remember where we were, what we were doing, when we heard the news.

I was home, working on my part-time day job, which was entering registration data for an upcoming conference. As was typical, most of the attendees waited until the day before the early bird pricing was going to expire, and I was swamped. My husband called, said a plane crashed into the twin towers. My first reaction was, that’s a terrible accident, but I’m busy. He said to turn on the television, which was in his office in the next room. I did, and it took a moment or two to register that it wasn’t an accident at all. I turned up the volume, went back to my data entry, but turned on the ‘real’ television in the living room and bounced back and forth between work and watching for updates.

John F. Kennedy's gravesiteThere are other major historic milestones. Another for me was the assassination of JFK. I was in high school history class, which was being taught by a ‘student teacher.’ I don’t know what they’re called in other regions, but this was part of the required curriculum for anyone wanting a teaching certificate in Los Angeles, and it was late enough in the semester that the teacher himself felt he could leave the room and leave her in charge. I don’t remember their names, but I remember he came into the room and interrupted the lesson and announced the assassination. Everyone’s first reaction was that he was playing up the curse that presidents elected in years with zeroes would come to a bad end. Then we noticed he was crying, and the shock hit us. School was dismissed for the day.

pearl harbor memorial

Image by wojoan from Pixabay

Few of us still remember Pearl Harbor Day, but that was another one where people knew what they were doing when they got the news.

Today, we should take a moment to remember 9-11 and those who lost their lives, and the repercussions throughout the world.

How do you handle historical and significant events in your writing? If your characters are boarding a plane, do you consider the security hoops they have to deal with? Do they even know what it was like before the inspections were put in place? Do you include mention of the pandemic? I read books obviously written during the pandemic by authors who assumed it would be long gone before their books came out, and they got it wrong. Or elections? Do you mention current administrations? The floor is yours.

How can he solve crimes if he’s not allowed to investigate?
Gordon Hepler, Mapleton’s Chief of Police, has his hands full. A murder, followed by several assaults. Are they related to the expansion of the community center? Or could it be the upcoming election? Gordon and mayor wannabe Nelson Manning have never seen eye to eye. Gordon’s frustrations build as the crimes cover numerous jurisdictions, effectively tying his hands. Available now in ebook, paperback, and audio.
Like bang for your buck? I have a new Mapleton Bundle. Books 4, 5, and 6 for one low price.

New! Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

The Chronology of Story: Foreshadowing

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“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

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 As we all know, stories are the recollection of events that happen through time. In January, I posted an article on flashbacks in story-telling. Today, I’d like to go in the other direction with foreshadowing.

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To begin, let’s look at the difference between flash forward and foreshadowing.

A flash forward takes the reader to a point in the future. A good example is Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol where Ebenezer Scrooge is taken into the future by a ghost to show him what will happen after his death if he doesn’t change his ways.

* * *

But foreshadowing is different, and despite what Hawthorne said, a shadow may indicate events to come.

According to masterclass.com,

“Foreshadowing is a literary device used to give an indication or hint of what is to come later in the story. Foreshadowing is useful for creating suspense, a feeling of unease, a sense of curiosity, or a mark that things may not be as they seem.”

Foreshadowing may be direct or indirect.

* * *

Direct Foreshadowing overtly states an upcoming event or twist in the story.

For example, the prologue of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet specifically states that the two lovers will die in the story:

“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.”

 

Another example of this straight-forward form of foreshadowing is when the author simply makes a statement about the future.

I recently read the novel Tom Lake by Ann Patchett where the first-person narrator recounts to her three daughters the story of her love affair with a famous actor. Late in the book, the narrator explains to the reader that she has told all of her past to her children – well, almost all. “And I am done, except for this: I saw Duke one other time, and of that time I will say nothing to my girls.” So the reader knows that an event which is explained in detail to the reader will not be related to other characters in the book. (Sort of a negative foreshadowing.)

* * *

Indirect Foreshadowing is a more subtle way of hinting at future events or outcomes in the story.

 

“If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third act it absolutely must go off.” –Anton Chekhov

 

 

 

 

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus talks to Jem about courage after the death of Mrs. Dubose.

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

That conversation foreshadowed Atticus’s own courage in defending Tom Robinson.

In an early chapter of Tom Lake, the first-person narrator betrays her best friend by stealing the other girl’s boyfriend. That event foreshadows a similar betrayal later in the book when the same thing happens to the protagonist.

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So TKZers: Do you think foreshadowing is a useful device in novel writing? Have you used foreshadowing in your novels? Can you think of any examples in stories you’ve read?

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Private pilot Cassie Deakin declares her distrust of handsome men in the first paragraph of Lacey’s Star. That statement foreshadows her flawed decisions on trust throughout the book and almost gets her killed.

Available at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

(Re) Reading the Classics

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“Every rereading of a classic is as much a voyage of discovery as the first reading.” —Italo Calvino

* * *

After a friend of mine shared a bunch of quotes about the classics by Italo Calvino, I went in search of a good list of classic literature. Well, it was like going in search of a glass of water and finding yourself on the shore of an ocean.

It turns out there are many different lists of classic literature, some with hundreds of books on them. It made me wonder who gets to decide what books are labeled as classics.

“We use the words “classics” for books that are treasured by those who have read and loved them; but they are treasured no less by those who have the luck to read them for the first time in the best conditions to enjoy them.” —Italo Calvino

* * *

Goodreads lists one thousand seven hundred and ninety (gulp) “must read classics.” The ranking on their list is driven by reader votes. Here are the top ten plus a few more that I thought deserve consideration.

 

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

 

 

2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

 

 

3. 1984 by George Orwell

 

 

4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

 

 

5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

 

6. Animal Farm by George Orwell

 

 

7. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

 

 

8. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

 

9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

 

 

10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

“The classics are books that exert a peculiar influence, both when they refuse to be eradicated from the mind and when they conceal themselves in the folds of memory, camouflaging themselves as the collective or individual unconscious.” —Italo Calvino

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Here are few more books that were further down the list. I had to stop the total list at twenty-five or I would never have finished this post.

 

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Iliad by Homer

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

“The classics are books which, upon reading, we find even fresher, more unexpected, and more marvelous than we had thought from hearing about them.” —Italo Calvino

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Some of the books listed above had an enormous impact on me. I’m afraid I may have read others when I was too young, and I need to revisit them.

 

 

So TKZers: How do you define a classic novel? Have you read any of the classics listed here? What books would you cite as classics that I haven’t included? Which books have you re-read? Which would you like to re-read?

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It’s not a classic (yet), but Lacey’s Star is an entertaining and thought-provoking mystery.

Available at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

Lost (and Found) in Translation?

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by Debbie Burke

@burke_writer

A Japanese-born friend recently gave me a new challenge that pushed me to closely examine how to use words, language, nuance, and idioms.

Yoshimi Yamamoto-Derks had been asked by her former teacher to translate his writings from Japanese to English. He is a Nature Essence producer and the subject was essences, described on this website. His series of short essays was a combination of poetry and philosophy meant to expand one’s thinking and emotions in more positive directions assisted by the use of various essences.

Yoshimi Yamamoto-Derks

Yoshimi also works with flower essences, as described on her website Inspired Energy Healing. In this photo, she demonstrated her techniques to me in the middle of a canola field in full bloom.

Yoshimi Yamamoto-Derks and Debbie Burke

When we initially talked about her translating job Yoshimi explained some concepts were already difficult to comprehend even in her native tongue. She asked me, “If Japanese people have a hard time understanding, how can people who speak English understand?”

Simply plugging Japanese characters into Google Translate to change the words to English wouldn’t work.  A simple translation like “Where is the restroom?” is concrete and straightforward. But philosophical and emotional concepts are intangible and difficult to verbalize.

Yoshimi’s comprehension of English is excellent, especially in subtle differences of tone and nuance. But she was struggling with effective ways to express her teacher’s poetic writings. After she translated his essays from Japanese to English, she asked me to review the English version for comprehension and readability.

She sent a four-page Word doc which I red-penned, rearranging sentences for clarity and flow, deleting or changing a few words. But I still had a number of questions, so we met in person to discuss them.The screen shot below is blurry but shows the many strikethroughs, as we reworked the descriptions.

Each essence has a name that describes its purpose. For instance, the essence “Mercury 360 Degrees” improves communication. “360 degrees” refers to the ability to look in every direction for understanding.

Yoshimi’s initial translation read: “As if today were the very first day it was born, communication between people and between beings flows directly.”

The subject of the sentence needed to be more specific than “it.” We decided it meant communication and the writer was describing how communication begins. After rearranging the word order, we came up with: “If today were the first day of birth, communication flows directly between people and between beings.”

The next paragraph was more difficult: “Be free from any influences and transcend the filters of the world I create, and just to listen from anyone, and to create relationships in a new paradigm beyond illusion.”

We split those thoughts into two sentences and used parallel construction to make them easier to understand.

“Transcend the filters of the world I create to be free from any influences. Listen to everyone and create relationships in a new paradigm beyond illusion.”

 

Another essence name was “Respectful Concession.”

Original version: “Not to forget respect equally to everyone who you encounter and see.”

That one was easy: “Remember to equally respect everyone you encounter.”

 

Flame Sword essence said: “I cannot stay as I am. I would like to accomplish myself.”

Hmm. How does one accomplish oneself? In Japanese, the phrase works. But in English, the verb accomplish acts on the object myself, which doesn’t make grammatical sense.

Revision: “I cannot stay as I am. Without accomplishment, I cannot complete myself.”

The description goes on: “Burning away everything that appears in my path without hesitation, an unstoppable flame of complete accomplishment.”

After reworking: “An unstoppable flame of accomplishment burns everything in my path without hesitation.”

 

The next section titled “Retraction” was particularly tough:

“I have been bound by what I said and swore previously, remove the wedge from the ‘castle in the sand’ that I have built upon it.

Retract all what I said and swore that had created my world, and return to ‘myself’ that it is possibility itself.”

A comma splice in the first sentence joined two distinct thoughts that didn’t link to each other.

The first was how past statements restrict present thoughts and ideas. Okay, that’s easy enough.

But the “wedge” and “the castle in the sand that I have built upon it” stumped us. What did wedge mean? Driving a wedge into sand didn’t make sense because as soon as the wedge is removed, sand immediately fills the empty space. A castle built on sand indicates a lack of strong structure to support it. Was the wedge meant to represent a metaphorical Jenga game? Could a wedge be removed without the whole sandcastle falling down?

Yoshimi texted the writer in Japan, which is 15 hours ahead of our location in Montana, and asked him what he meant. A short time later, he texted back a photo of the interior wood framing of a building. An arrow pointed at the wedge, which is evidently Japanese construction jargon for a support piece that holds framing together.

He also included an example sentence: The business plan was built like a castle upon sand.

Okay, that matched our initial impression of a flimsy, unstable foundation. Once we removed the troublesome word “wedge” from the concept, it made much more sense in English.

Revision: “I have been bound by what I said and swore previously. I built a world out of illusions and now I must repeal those illusions to return to the possibility of myself.”

We also changed the section name from “Retraction” to “Repeal.”

 

Blue Dragon Eyes essence helps to:

“Discern what is not me and cut away and purge unnecessary energy.”

Because energy is generally perceived as a positive quality, the adjective unnecessary gave the wrong connotation. We consulted the online Thesaurus for better descriptors. We found superfluous, excessive, needless, exorbitant, etc. None sounded right.

I mentioned the English idiom of “spinning one’s wheels.” That means expending energy uselessly while accomplishing nothing. Yoshimi agreed that was the correct concept. We kept digging deeper in the Thesaurus. Unproductive, pointless, wasted, unprofitable. We finally settled on two possibilities: Unproductive or fruitless (which was more in keeping with the poetic style).

Yoshimi’s final revision: “Discern what is not me. Cut away and purge unproductive energy.”

 

The last example turned out to be funny.

Essence name: “Start to Create the New World.”

“You pen visions you truly desire.”

To me, you pen visions means that you write down your deepest wishes to help make them come true. I explained that pen can be used as a verb in a poetic, somewhat archaic way to say write. For about 10 minutes, we talked about how to preserve the poetry in the writer’s thoughts yet still be clear to the reader.

Then Yoshimi reread the sentence again. “Oh!” she said. “That’s a typo. Pen should read Open.” We had a good laugh over how one small typo can inadvertently take on significance that was never meant.

After more than two hours, we had taxed our brains to the max.

As TKZers are aware, expressing yourself in your native language is challenging enough. Trying to understand and accurately interpret idioms, jargon, shades of meaning, nuances, and connotations is difficult. Converting them to a different language requires a whole ‘nother level of concentration and contemplation.

Even one word can change the meaning of a sentence. “Purge unnecessary energy” is quite different from “Purge unproductive energy.”

This exercise taught me insights into divergent thought patterns and styles of expression. Explaining the subtle underlying meanings of words and ideas forced to me sharpen my own verbal skills to make my explanations clear, accurate, and understandable.

Years ago, I worked at a business with mostly Spanish-speaking employees. One day, a young man named Ricardo was trying to describe how angry the business owner had been with an especially troublesome customer. Ricardo said, “The boss look like he was going to eat him.” You couldn’t say it more clearly and vividly than that!

One final essence is called “Repose in Dream.”

After our brain workout, Yoshimi and I both reposed well in dreams that night.

~~~

TKZers: If you speak another language, what concepts, words, or jargon do you find difficult to express?

Please share your favorite idioms.

~~~

Limited time Summer Special! Try Instrument of the Devil, the first book in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series for FREE! If you like it, binge on more fast-moving adventures featuring the spirited, intrepid investigator. 

Series sales link

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming soon! Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, Tawny Lindholm Thriller #9

Cover by Brian Hoffman

It’s IBM PC Day

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“I think it’s fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we’ve ever created. They’re tools of communication, they’re tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.” –Bill Gates

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I’m not sure I can agree with Mr. Gates about PCs being “the most empowering tool we’ve ever created.” There are a few other foundational things mankind has invented that are pretty good: the wheel, the printing press, indoor plumbing 😊. But Bill Gates isn’t the only person wired about the use of personal computers. You can find plenty of other quotes to store in the same file. For example:

“The digital revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing or even of printing.” –Douglas Engelbart

Whether you soar to such heights of computerized adoration or stay with your hands firmly fixed on the keyboard, there’s no doubting the obvious. Personal computers have revolutionized the practice of writing books.

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For example, Elaine Viets wrote a TKZ post a couple of weeks ago about typewriters that took us back to the days of mammoth Underwood machines, carbon paper, and whiteout and made us appreciate even more our personal computers and software.

“I am thankful the most important key in history was invented. It’s not the key to your house, your car, your boat, your safety deposit box, your bike lock or your private community. It’s the key to order, sanity, and peace of mind. The key is ‘Delete.’” –Elayne Boosler

* * *

So it’s only right that we celebrate August 12 as IBM PC Day since that was the date in 1981 when IBM released its first personal computer, the 5150.

IBM was late getting into the personal computer market, arriving after Apple, Commodore, and Tandy had already grabbed a share of the new users. But given the opportunity for growth in that field, IBM jumped in and developed the 5150 in just one year.

In order to get to market quickly, IBM contracted with a little-known software company named Microsoft to supply the operating system for the new PC.

The reaction to IBM’s entry in the personal computer domain was immediate. According to Wikipedia,

Reception was overwhelmingly positive, with analysts estimating sales volume in the billions of dollars in the first few years after release. After release, IBM’s PC immediately became the talk of the entire computing industry. Dealers were overwhelmed with orders, including customers offering pre-payment for machines with no guaranteed delivery date. By the time the machine began shipping, the term “PC” was becoming a household name.

Sales exceeded IBM’s expectations by as much as 800% (9x), with the company at one point shipping as many as 40,000 PCs per month.

The phenomenal success of the IBM PC changed the face of personal computing and created a watershed moment in the history of writing.

* * *

Although the ability to record words has been around for thousands of years, the strides made in the last fifty years have been dramatic. Along with the advent of the personal computer and word processing software, a host of applications have arisen to help authors get their books written well and published quickly. Thewritepractice.com lists ten of the best software apps for writers:

  1. Scrivener
  2. Google Docs
  3. Dabble
  4. Google Sheets OR Microsoft Excel
  5. Vellum
  6. ProWritingAid
  7. Publisher Rocket
  8. Atticus
  9. Freedom
  10. Microsoft Word

These advances (and more) help us write and deliver our books in a timely manner. But they are just tools for the writer. The real work comes from within as noted by JK Rowling below:

“I wrote first 2 Potters by hand and typed them on a 10 yr old typewriter. All a writer needs is talent and ink.” –JK Rowling

* * *

So TKZers: How have PCs changed your life? What was your first PC? Do you use any of the software listed? What other apps do you use to help you get your books written and published?

 

It’s the twenty-first century. Cassie Deakin learns that cops may have sophisticated equipment, but it still takes clear thinking and hard work to corner a murderer.

Available at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

Where Does My Book Belong?

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Where Does My Book Belong?
Terry Odell

a wall of bookshelves full of books with a big question mark

Back in the days before I even gave writing a passing thought, my reading tastes ran to mystery and science fiction. Later, when I was toying with writing an original piece, I headed for the mystery genre. My daughters, who were reading sections as I wrote them, told me it was a romance. What? I’d never read a romance. Later, I learned there were sub-genres of romance, and one, dubbed romantic suspense, was included under the romance umbrella. I’m still irked that they didn’t call it romantic mystery because suspense is a different sub-genre under the mystery umbrella. I asked, and was told that the powers that be had decided to lump all mystery sub-genres together in the romantic suspense category.

For the record, writing a Romantic Suspense, be it mystery, suspense, thriller, police procedural or any other mystery genre, means you’re effectively writing two stories, with two protagonists who are almost equals, each with their own character arc. They can be working together or in competition, but they have their own GMCs. Not easy!

Readers of any romance genre bring their own expectations, and if there’s “romance” anywhere in the book description, they want—at the very least—a promise of a Happily Ever After. Of course, you have to solve the mystery, too. Or, in the case of my Blackthorne, Inc. novels, which are “action adventure romance”, you have to catch the bad guys.

Readers in bookstores—or libraries—gravitate to the shelves that hold the genres they’re looking for. When I was shopping my first true mystery, Deadly Secrets, it was turned down because the publisher wouldn’t know how to categorize it. Yes, it was a police procedural, but it had a “cozy” feel, and I was told to pick one, rewrite, and resubmit, or submit something else that fit their cubbyholes.

I was fortunate with the timing for this one—indie publishing had just become a thing, and I could publish it myself. Which I did.

Of course, all publishers, be they indie or traditional, have to fill out categories and keywords for their books. Something to let readers know what to expect. But ebook publishers can choose more than one category, because the shelves in online bookstores are almost infinite. You no longer have to be a huge best seller to warrant shelf space in two departments (think JD Robb, whose books can be found on both the romance and mystery shelves in brick and mortar stores).

When I returned from my trip through the British Isles, I thought I’d write a simple romance. (Motivation—write off the cost of the trip.) It didn’t take me more than a few chapters to realize I had to include mystery elements. The category romance genre (think Harlequin) wasn’t working for me.

Now, I’m writing a novel, Double Intrigue, set on a Danube River cruise. (Same motivation as above). As with Heather’s Chase, the book set in the British Isles, my intention is to subtitle it “An International Mystery Romance,” thus connecting these two books.

Here’s my dilemma. My main characters are not law enforcement by any stretch of the imagination. Not even amateur sleuths. Their relationship begins simply as two people who meet on a cruise. Their goals are completely different. One, Shalah, is a travel agent who’s got her big chance to prove herself and move up in the company she works for by documenting her trip so the agency can sell the itinerary.

The other main character, Aleksy, is from Prague, and he’s involved in some shady doings in the art world.

Because I’ll be including “romance” in the metadata, their attraction must end up fulfilling a romance reader’s expectation, which, in this case, is a promise of that HEA. I don’t wrap up my books with 2 kids, a dog, and a white picket fence.

Aleksy appears to be in line to succeed the current head of the “institute,” but does he want to continue doing what he’s spent his life doing? Is the institute on the verge of being discovered for what it really is? Would he be arrested? Is his best option to get off the cruise ship and disappear?

Oh, and then there’s the “twins separated at birth” trope that shows up, too. Contrary to expectations, Shalah and her newly found sister aren’t getting along well.

What about the “mystery” angle? Can I even call it a mystery? There’s no crime being solved on the page. No cops or detectives as major players. What other shelves could it fit on?

How would you classify this book, TKZers?

One more thing. Speaking of travel, I’m leaving Sunday for a trip to the Faroe Islands. It’s a photography workshop. Maybe I can come up with an idea for another book. And another tax write off. And some more “Wanderings” posts for my new Substack. This week, it’s about my trip to Croatia.

How can he solve crimes if he’s not allowed to investigate?
Gordon Hepler, Mapleton’s Chief of Police, has his hands full. A murder, followed by several assaults. Are they related to the expansion of the community center? Or could it be the upcoming election? Gordon and mayor wannabe Nelson Manning have never seen eye to eye. Gordon’s frustrations build as the crimes cover numerous jurisdictions, effectively tying his hands. Available now in ebook, paperback, and audio.
Like bang for your buck? I have a new Mapleton Bundle. Books 4, 5, and 6 for one low price.
New! Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings
Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

Deadlines Can Be Deadly

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by Debbie Burke

@burke_writer

Vilde Odmundson, designer., CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Deadline. The very word strikes fear. It promises dire consequences if it’s missed. If your work isn’t finished by the boss’s deadline, you’re fired. If your past due payments aren’t received by the deadline, the bank repossesses your car. If you ignore the IRS tax deadline, your life becomes a living hell.

What are the origins of the dreaded word deadline?

According to WarHistoryOnline.com:

The earliest known uses date back to the 1800s, where the Oxford English Dictionary discovered the usage of “dead-line” in reference to a fishing line with a weight on it to prevent it from moving. In the early 1900s, the word was used in the printing industry as the name of a boundary line on a printing press, beyond which text will not print.

 

The most gruesome use of the term apparently originated at the notorious Andersonville POW camp during the Civil War.

[Camp commandant Captain Henry] Wirz added the so-called “deadline.” This was a literal line of wooden planks or fences placed about 20 feet inside from the outer walls. Orders were given to the guards that any man who crossed the deadline, even by a hair, would be shot on sight without warning.

If a writer misses a deadline, the editor/publisher can’t shoot you, but your career may be dead. They will remember your name, and not in a good way.

Deadlines are important. My professional writing career launched because a friend couldn’t make her deadline and recommended me as a substitute to the editor. That began a long, fruitful relationship with a respected magazine.

Waking up in the middle of the night, realizing my TKZ post is due that morning, is a horrible feeling I don’t want to repeat. I’m compulsive about deadlines (some say anal) and usually turn in stories ahead of time.

That early-bird mentality means editors sometimes call and say: “Hey, I need 750 words by Thursday. Can you do it?”

Yup. Those rush jobs are paychecks that I otherwise wouldn’t have received.

External deadlines are powerful motivators, especially for newer writers. They build discipline and accountability. I need to write 10 pages for critique group on Tuesday. I have to finish that short story/poem/play to meet the contest deadline next week.

Writers who self-publish often struggle because they don’t have that external deadline. When we impose a deadline on ourselves, we can come up with a gazillion reasons to put it off. But are those reasons or excuses?

Side note: A recent hot topic on the Authors Guild discussion thread has been about launching a book around election time. Some authors are asking their publishers to delay their release dates until after November, fearing their books will get lost in political furor. Books already have a tough enough time attracting reader and media attention. This reason may be worth considering if you plan a book launch in the next few months. 

Since going indie, my goal has been to publish at least one book per year, and I’ve met that with eight books since 2017.

But…more than a year has passed since April 2023 when the last book, Deep Fake Double Down, was released.

Cover by Brian Hoffman

The ninth book, Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, has not met my self-imposed deadline.

Readers keep asking when the new book is coming out. That’s a wonderful problem to have! But I don’t like my vague answers.

In the spring I said, “Summer.”

Then I updated to “Labor Day” because that marks an annual event with other Montana authors, described in posts here and here.

In early July, I looked at the calendar and realized how quickly September 1 was coming up.

I still had to finish the book, edit, get feedback from beta readers, make corrections, format, upload, receive and review a proof. Printing books takes four to six weeks, if there aren’t delays. All that had to be done by Labor Day. Aargh!

I raced through the climax and did a fast edit. I explained the urgency to beta readers and gave them a chance to say no. They are all wonderful friends, but a week turnaround is a damn big ask. Several understandably declined because of their own deadlines. The rest agreed. They came through and offered great suggestions.

But…one long-time critique partner sat me down and said, “Deb, this isn’t as good as your other books. You rushed it and it shows. You’re too good a writer to put this out for your readers. They’ll be disappointed.”

Whap! 

Other betas had alluded to some problems, but I deceived myself into thinking they were easy fixes to be whipped out in a day or two.

Nope.

My friend and I spent the next three hours at her dining room table going through the marked-up manuscript. She was 100% right–the problems went deep.

Actually, I’d sensed that all along but pushed my concerns aside because I was fixated on meeting the Labor Day deadline.

Her critique made me think. How important, really, is that deadline?

If the new book isn’t available to sell at the annual event, what are the consequences?

No one dies.

I still have eight other books on the table. If I lose a handful of sales, so what? I’ll have postcards printed of the new book cover and people can sign up for my newsletter to be notified of the pub date.

In other words, missing this deadline doesn’t matter, except to my pride.

If I make the deadline but put out a substandard book, in the long run, I’ll lose more readers than I gain.

I never want people to think, “Gee, she used to be pretty good, but she’s sure gone downhill.” 

An old saying goes: “There’s never time to do it right but there’s always time to do it over.”

Not for books. For them, a different saying applies: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Deadlines teach good work habits and keep writers from procrastinating. But they can also be blinders that prevent an author from recognizing and fixing problems with their work.

Thankfully my friend yanked those blinders off and made me see what was really important.

As I work on the rewrites, I give thanks she was honest with me. 

When will Fruit of the Poisonous Tree be ready?

I dunno. A week, a month, three months? Whatever time it takes to be the best I can make it. 

The day after I resigned myself to giving up the Labor Day deadline, the other two authors emailed me about our upcoming book appearance. Construction has closed a bridge which cuts off one of only two roads into the little village of Bigfork. The other road will be occupied that weekend by a major car show. Parking is a mile-plus hike and access for those with disabilities will be next to impossible.

Due to these logistic issues, we decided to skip doing the event this year. What a relief from the frantic push I’d been making since the beginning of July!

Deadlines are great unless they force you to make a choice between speed and quality. They often give a much-needed nudge to finish. But this experience taught me to follow my instincts rather than the calendar.

~~~

TKZers: Do deadlines help your writing?

Has a deadline ever caused you to publish a story that was below your expectations? Please share your experience.

~~~

Until Fruit of the Poisonous Tree is published, the other eight books in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series are for sale at all online booksellers.

The first book, Instrument of the Devil, will be FREE on August 2.

Should Writers Fast?

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In anything, there has to be that moment of fasting, really, in order to enjoy the feast. —Stephen Hough

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Here on TKZ, we occasionally make reference to life style choices that affect our writing. We talk about the kinds of food we eat, the hours of sleep we get, and the types of exercise we do. However, there’s one behavior I don’t think we’ve covered here: fasting.

Although I don’t fast frequently, I do a 24-hour fast once a year, and I’ve occasionally tried shorter term fasts. (Translation: not very often.) Although I’m certainly not an expert on fasting, I’ve noticed a couple of things.

Besides being uncomfortably hungry, there’s another facet to denying oneself food: the effect it has on the brain. I have noticed a clarity and focus that comes with fasting that may be a benefit to authors, and that can be accomplished even with shorter, intermittent fasting.

 

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting (IF) isn’t about what you eat. It’s about when you eat it. There are different approaches. Some people don’t eat between say 8 p.m. and noon the next day. That’s a sixteen-hour fast. Others may eat regularly five days a week and eat only one meal on two non-consecutive days.

 

A Little Background

According to Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Mark Mattson

“…our bodies have evolved to be able to go without food for many hours, or even several days or longer. In prehistoric times, before humans learned to farm, they were hunters and gatherers who evolved to survive — and thrive — for long periods without eating. They had to: It took a lot of time and energy to hunt game and gather nuts and berries.”

So, it seems our bodies are programmed for intermittent fasting.

 

The Benefits of IF

But why would we want to deny ourselves the pleasure of food? First, there are some pretty compelling health benefits associated with fasting, including weight loss, protection against type 2 diabetes, and reducing inflammation.

A 2019 article in The New England Journal of Medicine adds to those benefits.

“Until recently, studies of caloric restriction and intermittent fasting focused on aging and the life span. After nearly a century of research on caloric restriction in animals, the overall conclusion was that reduced food intake robustly increases the life span.”

Living longer means having more time to write! But there’s even more good news from that same NEJM article.

“Studies in animals show that intermittent fasting enhances cognition in multiple domains, including spatial memory, associative memory, and working memory [emphasis added]; alternate-day fasting and daily caloric restriction reverse the adverse effects of obesity, diabetes, and neuroinflammation on spatial learning and memory.”

Enhancing cognitive ability is an added bonus to the long life.

 

How Does IF Work?

According to the New England Journal of Medicine article cited above

“Glucose and fatty acids are the main sources of energy for cells. After meals, glucose is used for energy, and fat is stored in adipose tissue as triglycerides. During periods of fasting, triglycerides are broken down to fatty acids and glycerol, which are used for energy. The liver converts fatty acids to ketone bodies, which provide a major source of energy for many tissues, especially the brain [emphasis added], during fasting.”

Pushups for the gray cells!

 

The Effect of Fasting on Writing

A recent LinkedIn.com post features the experiences of author Gin Stephens and makes the case that IF is good for writers for several reasons, including

Sharper Brain Function

Noteworthy is the biological impact of IF on brain function. Fasting promotes neurogenesis—the growth of new neurons—which is linked to improved cognitive function and creativity. Moreover, the state of ketosis achieved during fasting periods can elevate mood and brain function, providing a fertile ground for creative thought. This biological edge can be particularly beneficial for writers seeking to push the boundaries of their imagination and innovate within their work.

 

Discipline and Structure

The discipline required for IF can spill over into writing practices. For creatives, structuring their day around a fasting schedule can bring a sense of order and discipline that benefits their work. The routine of an eating window encourages better planning and prioritization, skills essential for both successful fasting and successful writing.

* * *

Note: I’m not advocating any type of fasting for anyone. You should do your own research and talk to your doctor before making any change to your routine. But the research is interesting, and there is a veritable smorgasbord of information online to feast on.

So TKZers: What do you think about intermittent fasting? Have you ever tried it? If so, does it help your writing? Do you think you might give it a try?

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Hungering for a good read this summer? Satisfy your literary taste buds with Lacey’s Star: A Lady Pilot-in-Command Novel.

On sale now at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.