Hello,

I hope you had a great holiday and will have a wonderful New Year to come. If you get a chance read this blog: http://www.gspitsit.blogspot.com/ its wonderful. Its written beautifully and has a great message regarding priorities, making yourself a priority and not being someone else's
option, its a terrific post and really hits home about the human condition and its failings that usually end up hurting others. The premise of the post is priorities and how our priorities differ from one another and what you may think should be a priority, someone else might not. There are people out in the world who don't think writing is a priority--or should be--for most writers, but is more like a self-indulgence that can be done or not and it's definitely not something should be at the top of anyone's priority list. I of course believe it's wrong, I do list my writing at the top and although it doesn't come near where my children and family stand; its still up there and I pay attention to it, to its details, baby it, agonize over it, rejoice in it and make it work for me when I can by putting in the time and effort just like you would do for anything or anyone you truly love.

So, we all choose our top priorities and writing is one of mine and one of yours too I know, and its a great thing especially when love of it--of doing it--is one of the reasons why and that's a blessing.

Write, keep at it no matter what, keep it at the top.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing.

Lori

Hello and Happy Christmas,

The holidays are upon us—sometimes literally--they can be a heavy burden incorporating trying to make sure everyone gets what they've asked for, fighting traffic and pushing through crowds to get to that crowded shopping mall, concerned about overspending or under spending on those you love and worrying if you’d get everything done before the day arrives; it can be way too much.

As a writer, my saving grace is to write through all this and I hope it’s yours too. It may not be true for all writers, but when I can catch a break from all the hoopla and pressure to focus my mind, concentrate on any aspect of my writing; fleshing out a character or a situation the character’s in, doing research to move the story along, working on the story itself and getting a page done or even half a page written, its like taking a mini-vacation in the midst of a storm. I feel good then, as if I’m actually doing something instead of running and getting nowhere like everyone else during this time of year.

So, I’m writing when I can and fortunately it’s pretty often and I feel very blessed this year to be able to do so. I feel blessed for a number of reasons this year ( not just for the writing) the list seems endless and it’s a good one: my sons, my family, my friends, my health, a job I like, publishing my first book, a number of things and I’m going to keep at all of them to make sure next year is not just as good, but great.

Write all you can, it’ll make the season merrier.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Hello and Happy Friday,

You get anything written today? I hope so because every word helps doesn't it? At least I think so, because sometimes it can be hard to get a few sentences out let alone a page, so the few words you produce that eventually become a sentence, then a paragraph until an entire book is created, its wonderful.

I had my first interview today about the book. The interview was for the Sun Press News Paper and was conducted by this beautiful young woman named Holly and to my surprise I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, part of it was because the interviewer was easy going, she asked thoughful questions and the interview didn't take to long though the main reason I didn't faint from nerves at the prospect, let alone doing the interview, was because I told myself 'don't you flub up your first (it could be your last) interview so get over the nervousness.' And I got over it because I know, the only way to get my book out there is to promote it as gracefully, as positively, as succintly and as professionally as I could and babbling nervously, not being able to tell the readers about my book and encourage them to go out and read it emphasizing it would be more than worth their while, is not my objective, getting readers for You Don't Know me, is.

I know I'm not the most out going, vivacious person out there; able to sell igloos to eskimos, but one thing I do know, my novel deserves a champion to rally for it positively every chance I get, to be its number one cheerleader, so if I get a chance at another interview I'm going to work hard and put out my best effort so that my novel can have the chance to be found by great readers.

Keeping writing; there are really no excuses not to is it.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

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Hello and very Happy Friday to you,

I’m very happy this Friday because finally, finally, my novel You Don’t Know Me has faced the challenges of being self-published and won; its out there now, available on Lulu.com and also on Amazon and soon other places.

I urge you (you knew I would) to get the book, as a paperback copy or download it and let me know what you think. I’m asking for your review, your suggestions, your critique, your comments, whatever you want to give me because I would love to know how readers feel about the characters, the story line and what improvements I can consider for the second book in the Owen Story trilogy.

So, give it a look and let me know by e-mail or with a comment. I would greatly appreciate your feedback and above all else I hope it's a story you'll enjoy.

Keeping writing.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing.

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Hello,

Are you writing today? I am a few lines here and there that are coming together into a great novel though slowly and surely which is the best way for me. Like you I’m sure; I do a lot of research because I’m not terribly smart( though you probably are) and I need to get what I’m writing, right: I research hard, it’s the blood flowing through my body of work. I was going to write more on this topic; then I read an article about the book and movie, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death by Jean-Dominique Bauby.

I realized how being able to write is such a gift, no matter how you do it and that there are no obstacles to the determination to write as beautifully exampled by Mr. Bauby who suffered a stroke that left him with a condition called “locked in syndrome”. He was paralyzed except for one eye motion and a few other minor movements. Mr. Bauby’s mind was untouched and was filled with so many things to say, to write, that he; dictating by blinking his left-eye lid, created in fourteen months his novel. What is there to say about the awe-inspiring determination to be heard, to write? We’ll find a way to do it no matter how we are physically or mentally.

I’m proud to be—at least in my mind—a writer like Mr. Bauby who will try and write despite any obstacles though I can’t (wouldn’t want to) come even close to the challenges he had to overcome. I’m just as proud to be a member of the club of writers who had a member like Mr. Bauby who died seventeen months after his new writing life began.

Keeping writing; there are really no excuses not to is it.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving,

I just wanted to wish you a happy turkey day for those who celebrate and just a happy day for those who don't.

I will have four days away from my day job, so I'm going to get in as much research for the second Owen Story as I can with some added writing which would be great because I feel I'm getting into the heart of the new novel so I want to keep the momentum going.

I hope first you get a break from your working life and next that you can spend most of it with the people you love as I will, and of course the rest of the time, writing. Talk to you next Friday.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello, how are you this Monday morning?

I'm posting today instead of this past Friday because I had a problem logging on.

I’m reading a book called Fangland and I won’t give you the author’s name because to me the book is not good, not good at all and I was surprised by this though you may wonder why. There are supposedly more bad books out there than good ones and every one knows this, but when you run across a bad book you are nevertheless surprised and I think that’s our fault. You pick up a book, read the storyline, think its going to be really special, you have high hopes for it so you buy it, start reading and is utterly disappointed it turns out not to be anywhere near as great as you wanted it to be. But the question is: why not? Why wasn’t Fangland better?

First, the main characters were not people you cared about, there didn’t seem to be any attribute that adhered me to the characters or their situations, they were not so much plastic but were boring and almost unbelievable. Second, though the story line sounded interesting the crafting of the story was terrible, it jumped so jarringly from one character to another and their thoughts, you could literally hear the transition and that made it worst because I didn't like any of the characters in the first place. And third, the writing got in the way, wordy speed bumps all the way through with some of the descriptions so out of place and strangely florid or ridiculous it made me roll my eyes—I clearly read the trying too hard.

So I didn’t finish the book—couldn’t—it took to much out of me and it made me wonder, could my book be the same? Then I thought, no way, I couldn’t do such a disservice to he folks I want to read my novel. First, I worked to make it readable from page one, no jarring lines that the reader tripped over, using only the words necessary to move the story fast forward, to keep the reader turning the pages. Second, I tried to make each character original and outstanding but human with all the foibles, failings and freshness of anyone. And lastly, storyline, it had to be great with every twist and turn able to catch the reader with glee making them unable to put it down until the story was told.

I had wanted to enjoy Fangland, the name itself led me to believe it would be great, but no such luck, but it did do one thing for me, make me aware of how I don’t want to write, of characters I wouldn’t want to create, of what not to do. I believe those who chose to read any of my work deserve to read something great for taking their chances with me. Keep writing.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Hello,

If you check out my blog today I have changed its color, added a note or two and brightened it up a bit with new color, it’s the least I can do and I literally mean it, it’s the least amount of computer work I can do, I have no outstanding computer skills or talents. I look at my friend GiGi’s blog with its pictures and links and know it would take me forever to figure out how to add those touches to my own blog and these aren’t big additions. Those are small examples of my lack of skill, a larger one--that has caused me restless nights of late--was trying to format You Don’t Know Me to submit to Lulu for publishing. Though I read the instructions carefully regarding what I needed to do, I could not manage to format my novel in the exact way needed for it to be uploaded to Lulu; I had to contract the formatting out and at a pretty penny, thinking all along, if I had better skills I could have done it myself. I also wasn’t sure about my ability to successfully complete the uploading of the book to Lulu and not wanting to make a mistake that would set the novel’s debut back further, I contracted this out too.

It’s funny how, as writers, we want to control every aspect of the writing experience and most writers might, I just can’t, specifically regarding the self-publishing route where all the best companies are of course technologically based where the process has been streamlined to hitting a few computer keys though the key is knowing which are the right keys, I just don’t know it and have to seek help.

To be honest, the process is not all that cut and dried like I thought it would be, there are a number of elements that must be in place, must be just right if you want to be successful at submitting a novel to the best self-publishing companies and the least of it is if you have a good story. You want your book cover to be great to capture attention but it has to be formatted correctly (again) or you’ll have trouble submitting it, you need to make sure the novel has the right elements and not story elements but to be written in an acceptable font, some of the pages have to be in a certain order and those pages have requirements such as making sure you have proper gutters—it took me a minute with this one.

It was a lot to take in for me, again maybe not for most writers who are better at computer tasks than I am, for me though I tried, but was not successful at the tasks. I felt badly for about a minute at not being more computer gifted until I realized it didn’t matter because I’ll have the same thing a writer with more computer skills will have: a complete, touchable novel anyone can read and enjoy; this can’t be beat.


Keep writing.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Hello, how are you?

My truly good friend, Gigi has started her blog it’s: http://gspitsit.blogspot.com/ and its great and I’m not saying this because she’s a great friend but because it’s a terrific blog for the same reasons a really good book or story is good, because it gives you everything you’re looking for and more and gives it to you in a clean, down to earth form and rhythm that glues your attention. I compare the way she writes her blog to the way one of my favorite writers, John Sandford writes his novels, specifically the Prey series. I recently finished Mr. Sandford’s latest, Dark of the Moon, it was wonderful for a number of reasons, most important, the novel’s voice—as I call it-- was original, realistic, compelling and funny, so easy to follow and be drawn into you feel you understand the world these characters live in whether you like it or not.

Gigi’s blog is the same, easy to get into, you understand exactly where she is coming from with the issues she presents—one of the blogs is on Breast Cancer--because she presents them in a non-flowery, no-nonsense real way so the truth of them can’t be ignored. Mr. Sandford’s novels and Gigi’s blog also have in common an ease in which they seem to be able to write words of substance –I envy this—and to be able to get to the point of their story in a minimalist fashion by choosing only the best words, the ones that count and putting them in the perfect order to get their idea across, the story across, it makes what they do seem so easy and like magic when it's not.

Both the blog and the novels are informative too, one of the things I love about reading good work. I always get helpful pieces of information when I read a Sandford novel, in the last one I learned that DEA agents whom don't get much press, do a tough job and are not to be underestimated. From Gigi’s blog I realized how hard hitting breast cancer is to women of color though the face of breast cancer seems to belong to others.

Like I said, both writing forms give me everything a great read should and it’s how I want my writing to affect readers. I know it takes talent, learned or natural, to reach this level but I have faith in myself that if I keep working on it, keep trying, never giving up, I’ll get there and I hope you’ll enjoy my writing enough to come along for the ride. .

Keep writing.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Hello,

You Don’t Know Me, is still in process of getting out there. I wanted it ready for it’s debut on October 19, 2007 but it wasn’t to be and for those looking for it, it will be out soon but the problem was with me, I didn’t format the novel correctly for the upload to Lulu so I have to have their specialist prepare the manuscript to be converted into the pdf then to be uploaded to Lulu and it will take them a few days to get to it. I was disappointed it wasn’t easier for me to follow Lulu’s instructions in formatting the novel, then creating the pdf and finally uploading it; it just wasn’t easy for me, I needed outside expertise, I found it but it still takes time.

I’m shooting for the end of next week to have the novel uploaded to Lulu but it’s really up to the company preparing the manuscript—Integrative Ink--when they’ll have it ready for me. I’m working on patience as I patiently wait and what’s helping is that I’m concentrating on writing the second novel in the Owen Story trilogy and working on ways to get the word out about the first novel, You Don’t Know Me: creating press kits, placing postcards I had made up and researching other avenues of promotion.

Since this is the first time I’m publishing my novel with all its ins and outs I’m putting the experience down to one of learning, a good thing, so that I’ll be more prepared for publishing the next one and will know exactly what to do and can look forward to smoother run when I publish the next novel. Another good thing about this experience: my novel is completed, its done and all is left is to get it out for those to read; that’s more than good, it’s great.

Keep writing, let me know if you have any books out to read and enjoy.

Write well.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello and Happy Friday,

Today was suppose to be the day of the launch of You Don't Know Me and I'm ready for it, eager and I hope you were too but unfortunately there is a delay. The writing is complete but my book cover hasn't arrived yet; one of the most important pieces of the novel. I had to have the cover made up as you know by someone else and there was a delay. I will have it in my hand by the end of business today and get the book out for its presentation on Monday. I can't wait until its complete and you're able to order it from Lulu.com and I tell you it'll be worth it, you'll love the story, if you don't (though I can't imagaine why not--it has everything) let me know, if you do love it still let me know.

Keep writing, I will, the next in the Owen Story trilogy. Go get the book on Monday.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at:matwrite1@aol.com, I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I received a very nice e-mail this morning from the Public Relations officer Ms. Soppel at my local library. I wanted to put some of my postcards at the library announcing, You Don’t Know Me but because the library has limited space it has room for mostly educational and non-profit information, good to know, yet she did extend the invitation that as things progress and I move to doing public book talks to contact her because it might fit under educational opportunities. It was nice of her wasn’t it?

I know I’ll get to the point where I must speak in a public forum—to sell books you have to be seen whether you want to or not---its just one of the scariest aspects of getting my book out there. Public speaking is a hard one for a lot of people and especially writers as you know, we like to write the books and not necessarily talk about them in public; think J.K. Rowling, one of the most popular writers ever but is uncomfortable reading and speaking in public.

It’s funny, on the one hand if anyone asks me to come speak about my book I will jump at the opportunity while on the other hand, I will be terrified to do so (I read recently that most people would rather die than speak in public) nevertheless I’ll do it because it’ll mean more people will learn about my novel. So, I’m going to get some books on public speaking that may give me some techniques I can use to tamp down my fear a little or I may even take a public speaking class, I’ll do whatever I need to do to get out there an promote my book because I feel it’s a great story and it'll take me to get out there and let people know it.

Write well.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I hope you’re doing well this Friday,

I’ve been listening to a number of books on tape lately some good, some not so good and I was thinking how I would love to have my book done in audio form. My friend Gigi said it’s not hugely expensive and I could probably find someone with a great voice at a good price; I'd love to do so I'm working on it; as a matter of fact, to hear or see my book anywhere is something I'm always working on.

I believe—and I know you do to—getting your book out in as many good or positive forms as you can is a win: books—on—tape, excerpts in magazines and news papers, excerpts on line in websites and blogs, video excerpts, short readings at libraries, readings at book clubs, e-books; any and all the great venues you can come up with to get your work known and loved is the key to success even if only five people become enamored with your work.

I dream about having a book signing at one of the major book stores and only the five show, they’re five strangers of course—not my mother or best friends—who love my novel, love Owen, who have a thousand questions about him and his story lines, who just can’t wait for the next Owen Story novel to become available. We sit around at a table and chat about the book and writing. Would my dream be better if hundreds showed up wanting the latest Owen Story novel? Maybe, but the thought of having five enthusiastic readers—even one--who can’t get enough of Owen Story --to me--that’s what its all about.

Write well.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello and Happy Monday,

I know I usually blog on Friday but didn't get the chance to so I wanted to make sure I at least dropped a note to you today.

I hope you've been writing, I have but not as much as I would like to so I'm going to treat myself to a writing day. I'm on the right track with my second Owen Story novel and to keep that momentum going I want to take a day off--far to little time really--to get into the nitty gritty of the story and get all the storylines down on paper as my blue print. I want to put more speed behind the writing of the next book for a number of reasons: one, I believe I have a better handle on how the scenes in this novel will play out so that I can write it faster; two, I have learned to write better--Yeah!!!--which gives me more confidence as I write so that I don't agonize over every line, every word which has made me a hesitant writer meaning it takes me twice as long to get my book done; third, the first Owen Story novel will be available in approximately two weeks and because I believe in it, believe readers will enjoy it I know they'll be looking for the second in the trilogy and I want to be able to give it to them sooner rather than later.

In light of all this I will soon be taking my writing day to get fully into the second Owen Story novel and I'm looking forward to it because those kinds of days make me feel such a writer and its the day I can concentrate on making my story the best it can be, where I can read passages over again to delight in them, where I get rid of the bad writing, find the holes in my story, flesh out the characters and move the novel to the next level; so many wonderful things to do that my writing day can't come soon enough and I wish it could be days instead of only one. I hope you get a chance to find a writing day, two, three or more if you're lucky.

Until next time God willing,

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

You all know I’m getting the first Owen Story novel out so it’s a number of things I have to do to make sure its successful. I want to do all the right things: get the word out by mentioning it on the blog, distributing postcards that give a little taste of the book hoping people will want more and I’m doing press kits; you know informational packets about the book and a little about myself. Doing these things is great; I have only one--not problem--but issue I’ll have to deal with in the first week of October; its regarding the press kits. Inside the kit, I have to also include a photo of myself and even though it's something I need to do, it still leaves me cold. I’ve read all the information I can on making a proper press kit and unfortunately not one has said a photograph of the author is not necessary. So the other day I set up an appointment with a photographer who appears to be a very good one in the hope he can make me look—I don’t know—better? More intelligent? The type of person you can trust who writes terrific novels you just have to read? All of this of course.

I hope my photographer is a magician and that he can get a good photograph out of me to add to my press kit and though I’m making a slight joke out of this because I --like a number of people—hate taking pictures, I will take my session seriously and do the best I can because bottom line: its for the good of the novel. I need the picture as part of a nice press kit introducing us (the novel and myself) to garner interviews to promote You Don’t Know Me; it’s all I’m after. So if I have to smile from here to kingdom come while someone snaps away then so be it, my press kits will be done and sent out, the postcards announcing the books arrival on every doorstep then the book sent to Lulu for publishing and then we’ll see. Write something good.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I’m on the home stretch with the first Owen Story novel and I do feel a little sad I’m done with it but on the other side of the coin and a wonderful thing too; is that I feel exhilarated in moving on to the next book though I thought I’d feel the opposite. But for some reason finishing--I mean completing the first; totally completing it --has just opened up so many new ideas and story lines for the second that I know I’ll be all right writing it and the ‘fear of the next novel’ has turned to joy. Can I make it as good as the first—no—better? Well, I have to; the second novel has to be better than the first at least in a number of substantial ways if it’s going to hold together as a trilogy. Take for example the Lord of the Rings. I liked The Fellowship because it was a good story line and it placed the characters; The Two Towers, loved it. I was familiar with who the characters were and their roles but the storyline ramped it up for me, it was surprising, intense, unforgettable so that I couldn’t wait for the last movie. The Return of the King was good and I wouldn’t have missed it because it connected the previous movies to a successful end. The movies were a truly satisfying trilogy and its how I want the Owen Story novels to be.

I know I have a long road a head in writing the next book but I’m looking forward to the process with a greater enthusiasm than I thought I every would. I welcome the challenge of getting deeply into the second novel and making it great; then completing the trilogy with the third; this will definitely be tinged with sadness yet the fact I would’ve gotten there and its up to me to create a wonderful ending for the series will be a dream come true.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

****SPECIAL EXCERPT--YOU DON'T KNOW ME****

The night of the New York City Policeman’s Ball is shattered by the murders of a young officer, the police commissioner’s wife and Lorna Story, the wife of rising star Detective Owen Story. How can three murders take place in shouting distance of a room full of cops?

Devastated by his loss Owen delves into her death discovering he didn’t know her at all; that she had led a life involving secrets, sex, power and domination and had been strangely involved with Simon Chandler the ambitious police commissioner who drops the hammer on Owen turning him into the most wanted criminal in the city.

Owen runs for his life along a path strewn with obstacles: arrested by his brothers-in-blue in a bloody confrontation, party to his own mind-blowing escape and the last standing in a shoot out. With the help of an old friend and his partner, Owen manages to discover the killer—who was yet not the killer—in a bizarre twist of events not even God could have stopped.


"Lori A. Mathews knows how cops breathe, bleed, talk and suffer---and how they die. You Don't Know Me throws the reader headfirst into a world of violence, crosscurrents, intrigue and betrayal. A great story that will keep you up all night."

Marc Lecard
Author of Vinnie's Head

CHAPTER 1

“They’re all killers you know,” Felipe Montez’s voice trembled even as it rose over the pounding rendition of Benny Goodman’s, Don’t Be That Way. “I’ll step out and one of them’ll shoot me, blow my head all over this clean white kitchen then laugh about it; they’re like that you know--killers. You think I’d lie to you, Jose?”
Jose Ulloa, his co-worker shook his head as he went about collecting the loaded garbage bags.
“They’d think I was stealing instead of making an honest living here,” Felipe straightened to his full five feet two inches and spat in the sink where he was removing dirty utensils from a plastic tub. “How does one of the best nights in the city turn out to be the worst night of my fucking life you tell me,” he glared at Jose who passed by him with the bags.
“And you’re no better wasting your night off doing a favor for Sam-the-Man; no way I’d done it; not tonight. I wouldn’t be here now if Karas wasn’t on my ass about taking too many days off. Can I help it my mother’s sick and needs me? Man, if I could help it I wouldn’t be fifty miles near this place,” he jerked his head toward the kitchen door, “and los puercos.”
He put a hand on his pot belly, the other in the air, closed his eyes and rolled his hips to the music coming from the ballroom, “I’d be out in the street listening to Celia and dancing with a caliente little mama who can’t wait to get me home and naked.”
“You’re complaining as usual,” Jose said and bumped open the kitchen’s screened back door. “And dreaming as usual too,” he added as he left.
He walked down the alley thinking that the music was so loud outside it seemed to bounce from wall to wall. He was feeling good tonight and for once didn’t mind hauling the trash down to the rat-infested dumpster. No one else had wanted to work this evening’s shift and for two good reasons; reason number two, it was a warm and gorgeous night rarely seen in New York in late October, too beautiful to sacrifice to work. Reason number one, the most important, was because of who was attending the gala function in the main ballroom.
Sam, the head busboy, had begged to switch shifts with him. He’d come with his broad red face plastered with a grin, as he asked the favor in bad Spanish and had even sweetened the deal with an extra thirty bucks for what he’d called ‘Jose’s trouble’.
Though he would never tell Sam this, he would’ve taken his shift anyway and not because the man had practically gotten down on his knees and begged or for the extra cash, but because he had no problem helping out a co-worker, even one like Sam-the-Man who called him a ‘spic refugee’ behind his back.
At the dumpster Jose tossed over the bags; one of them missed the opening and dropped to the other side. He stood deciding if he should just leave it there, but if he didn’t retrieve it, rats by the truckload would tear it apart and he’d be left with a bigger mess to clean up.
He walked around back of the dumpster and screamed; a high pitched wail of terror that drowned out the thumping music and everything else except for the sight at his feet. A man and two women lay dead, obscene amounts of black blood pooled around their bodies, this was bad enough, what was worst were the rats; ten, more than ten and all the size of puppies slunk back and forth across the corpses sipping at the blood. As he watched frozen, one of them, its whiskers heavy with dripping blackness, took a nip out of the soft flesh underneath the dead man’s chin, sat up on its haunches and stared at Jose as it chewed.
At this, Jose’s nerve broke, he ran screaming and throwing terrified glances over his shoulder as if he were being chased by a rat welding a torn off body part. He slammed face first into the backdoor and didn’t feel it as he snatched the door open and almost fell into the room.
He collided with Felipe who dropped a tray of dirty glasses, the breaking glass sounded like gunshots, “Policia, policia,” Jose screamed and ran pass Felipe who stared after him.
Cursing, Felipe bent over the sea of broken glass at his feet. It took him a minute to register what Jose had yelled before he turned toward the fleeing man and yelled back, “Policia? Who needs a fucking cop? Ain’t it bad enough the place is crawling with them.”

Hello,

We know for the most part we write alone even those who write as a team usually write their part of the story by themselves, it’s our routine. Yet I realized the other day as writer’s we’re not all together islands; we need the help of others to make our writing work for us, to make it a reality, a novel. Some writers are part of a reading group, their writing comes out better when it’ shared with the group, when opinions are offered as well as criticism that may or may not change the writing though it helps most of the time. As I’ve said before I can’t edit my own work so I send it out to have it done and I appreciate the effort done on my behalf, its definitely better than I can do and it makes my writing better every time. Because I’m self-publishing the first Owen Story novel I knew I needed a great cover for the book one that would be an attention getter, one I would be proud of seeing in a book store and since I can’t draw a straight line I had to have it done for me and my brother Marty, who’s an artist, helped me out. He did a great job creating the book cover I wanted, it’s wonderful and you’ll see it soon.

Yes writing is a mostly solitary art though not one-hundred percent and I wouldn’t have it either way. There are aspects of the writing process I can’t do but I’m willing to go to the best to have those things done because in the end and due largely to the talents of others, I have a great book.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

My co-workers and I received some news the other day; our jobs are in jeopardy because we will be merging with another board, another company, so it means changes and possibly not in our favor. My co-workers have been murmuring all day about it, wondering what’s going to happen to our jobs. I wondered too then decided not to and for two hugely important reasons: one, I cannot do anything about the merger other than do my job the best to my ability until I don’t have to anymore. Two—the most important reason—if I no longer have a day job, I can write during the daylight hours, live my dream of the perfect writing life: up early, exercise, a cup of coffee while I write until its time for my children to wake for the day, drive them to school and even stay for an hour as a classroom volunteer, then back home to write and read until its time to pick them up. Heaven. I'm going to indulge in this until I have to look for another position.

Will any of this happen? I don’t know; the only thing I do know is that I’m not going to worry about something I can’t change, I’ll deal with what comes my way, make it work and no matter what: keep on writing because it’s something that can’t be taken away from me.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Hello, how are you this Friday?

I read the other day that J.K. Rowling was writing a mystery novel and I wasn’t a bit surprised. I believe everyone loves a good mystery or detective novel. When you think about it Ms. Rowling’s can write anything she chooses and of course do it wonderfully so why did she choose the mystery genre? Oh, there are so many reasons: the challenge of writing a great mystery, one that is complex and layered but understandable and readable complete with surprises, twists and turns that don’t conclude until the last page; character development: the memorable, original characters you can create, an ensemble, readers can’t forget and want to follow from novel to novel; the situations—endless situations--that create a mystery needing badly to be solved for life or death and finally the detective defined as you want him or her to be, a policeman, a hotel maid, a taxi cab driver, an oil magnet, your choice and you can give him all the life you can imagine—good or bad.

So I’m not surprised Ms. Rowling’s is writing a mystery novel, so am I (a few of them) for all the right reasons I’ve given and one more: the love of the mystery/crime/detective genre and wanting to be a part of the renowned list of great writers who’ve created the best work in it: Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Chester Himes, Ed McBain, Ruth Rendell, John D. MacDonald, Sue Grafton to name only a few; who wouldn’t want to join that list? I know I do and it looks like Ms. Rowling does too.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I’m not a fan of rock and roll music, especially Indie rock I’m more of a soul music lover but there is one rock band I have recently become enamored with after all my years of living and not once finding favor with this kind of music; yet this one band I truly enjoy. The band is the White Stripes, I know everyone has heard of them they're just that wonderful. Why I like them so well is of course because of their music, its inventive, complex but simple, beautiful and some songs unforgettable. Yet, in addition to their music it’s the band itself made up of Jack and Meg White, singing and playing three instruments: guitar, drums and piano—just that basic--no huge ensemble, no flashy fire breathing shows; they don’t need all this, they have the one thing that replaces all the hoopla—deep and rich talent.

I listened to a radio interview the two did and Jack White, the lead singer, said this one thing so true and I paraphrase it here, “No matter what you did some people are going to like it, some people aren’t…I can’t think about that anymore, concern myself with it, I can’t think about if its going to fit…” I believe Mr. White was saying you have to be true to yourself--in his case play and write the music he loves--and not concern yourself with whether others will like it or not; its what you think and love about it that counts and only feeling this way will give your work (writing, music, painting, wood-working, whatever) the clean, clear truth of it you can be proud of.

I try very hard, daily, to cultivate this attitude and for the most part I'm successful, I write the stories I love hoping others will love them too though this isn't necessary but if I come across one reader who enjoys my novel and looks forward to my others then I’m good; but if I never come across a reader who likes my work, this won't stop me from writing.

So stay true to yourself, your work, your writing, making sure when your novel (or novels) is complete it’s exactly what you want it to be, you are terrifically happy with it so that once you send it out in the world you aren’t concerned with who will like it or who won’t because your most important goals have already been reached: a novel you've written and feet great enough about to present to all; the rest is beyond our control and will take care of itself. So don’t worry, just write your best, the rest will be okay.


If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello to you this Friday,

I’m re-editing You Don’t Know Me, I'll be sending it out soon as a self-published book. This will be my second review since the novel came back from the editors. I asked for only a basic edit for grammar, punctuation etc so I went through the novel correcting the errors I needed to, leaving those that were not errors but my writing choices. Now I’m going through the novel again for content and style error and story issues that can be changed or made better that would make the story have greater flow, make it seamless; I’m half-way through this process.

I’ll go over the novel a third time after putting it aside for a week for fresh eyes. I’m not ruling out a forth look though just to make sure I’ve caught all the bad stuff. Is this excessive? To the point I’ll never get my novel out because I can’t stop reviewing it with that fine tooth comb to catch every error, every uneasy word, to find a better word to use or shorten this paragraph, or change ‘he said’ to ‘Owen said’, and on and on--yes, it’s excessive… no it’s not, because I believe I have to work harder than the other guy writing his book, that I need to go that extra mile to make sure my novel is the best it can be and if going over it a forth time is the way to do it then there will be a fourth review.

I'lll submit my book for publication and soon but not until I get to the last page and realize there is nothing left to do to it, it’s as good as I’m going to get it; this does happen. I look at it this way, everyone wants to write a book—who wouldn’t? Writing can be indescribable, wonderful, at least when writing well, so who wouldn’t want to do it so in face of all that competition, to get my writing out front I have to be hardworking, patient, to persevere against all odds, to be relentless at making my book the best so that fourth review? It’s nothing in the cause for my book and in the immense pride I'll feel at--finally-- presenting to the world. I know it’s a feeling you understand well. Keep writing.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello to you this Friday and to Ashish Jansri, thank you,

I was wondering…how do you separate your book from the pack? Hundreds of books are published a year through traditional publishers and self-publishing. If you’re published with Scribner for instance, is it something done for you or only if you're John Grisham? Though I’ve read even getting a book deal with a major house doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a large book party or go on publicity junkets around the country to get the word out about your book.

What seems to propel books these days to great sales and possibly on to those bestseller lists is word of mouth, meaning its left up to the readers to decide, not the publishing houses or the lists but the reader who takes a chance on your novel. But what makes them take the chance word of mouth? I suspect it’s the chicken or the egg phenomenon with selling books too. The question then is how to get the word of mouth going for your novel. I think first and foremost you have to write a great story all readers will enjoy, the fantasy reader finding many things to like in your mystery novel.

In addition to writing an interesting thoughtful story with terrific stay-with-you-characters and riveting situations that charge at a pace that gives the reader only a few chances to catch their breath (my idea of a wonderful book and its what John Grisham does) you have to find ways to get the reader to realize your book is something special and it begins with you starting that positive word of mouth and backing it up by “showing”, by offering excerpts of your novel on your website or blog and asking readers to respond to it; getting positive blurbs or reviews of your book by writers you admire and post them out in the world, do interviews radio and in print touting your book, appear at book store signings, ask book clubs to read your book letting them know you’ll be happy to discuss the book with the group, those are just some of the ways to get that word of mouth running wild and if you come up with more inventive ways please let me know.

One half of the battle is writing a wonderful story you love and you know readers will love too; the other half is getting people to read that story but we’re all up to the challenge aren't we. Write well.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello to you this Thursday instead of Friday,

I was eager to write to you so I’m submitting today. I found a great new website: http://crimesistahs.blogspot.com/. I don’t visit websites too often, the few I have are those of other writers and I’ve mentioned them in past entries so when I do come across one (it’s a blog on writing of course) especially one I hadn’t been looking for and find that it’s wonderful I have to let you know—let everyone know.

The Crime Sistahs can be found where I blog—blogspot which just made it better. One of the reasons why I like The Crime Sistahs is because it’s kept by crime and mystery novelists which of course gives me a new list of crime novels to fall in love with. I spent a lot of time reading on the site and was thrilled to discover it’s the kind of place that has everything and not just what a crime mystery writer would want, but any writer seeking advice, information, enthusiasm, a good laugh and encouragement. Reading the entries you get the sense these hard working successful writers want you to be successful too, they want you to make your writing dreams come true and are willing to do whatever they can to help you make it happen.

The site is low key and infused with the warm and engaging personalities of the writers. The entries began 10-23-2005 and just reading a few of them makes you want to read every one in the archive (I’m going to try) because you know you'll find something of use in just about every entry, for example: in the entry dated July 20, 2007 the writer Angela Henry, who writes the Kendra Clayton mystery series lets us know about the first annual St. Martins Minotaur/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition being held right now and to send our novels out to them.

In the entry dated July 16, 2007 by Patricia Sargeant the writer of You Belong to Me, she imparts good advice on plotting she received from an editor at the Romance Writers of America conference and in another entry by Angela she tells what its like to have a book launch party and the scary anticipation of having another on a grander scale. As you can tell the entries are more than worth reading, more like essential.

So when you’re taking that momentary break from writing visit The Crime Sistahs site and do some reading keeping a lot of what they’ve written in mind. Think of it as just one more sturdy brick added to that solid foundation your writing is built upon.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello, how are you?

Like most writers I read a lot of different novels: non-fiction and fiction of course: horror, science, literary. I’ve read many Stephen King novels so tried my hand at writing a couple of horror short stories, one titled The Eye and I enjoyed writing them realizing it was a stepping stone on to the road to finding my own niche and when I finally did there wasn’t a need to again write outside my chosen métier (one of my favorite words) of crime mystery fiction in all its forms.

Because I read urban fiction too and as a black woman supposedly familiar with the “black experience” should I want to write about it? No, no and no a thousand times. What I want to do is write with enthusiasm, joy and anticipation that wakes me each morning and that only happens when I write what I love and not what “I should” because of various silly reasons.

Writing is challenge enough and to write what you don’t enjoy or don’t love because it’s popular or worst yet, you think its going to make you rich, forget it; though rich does happen to some writers, the thing is, those writers keep on writing when they don’t have to because it’s just something special about writing well isn’t it? I believe it’s because it’s one of the few mostly solo occupations you truly can’t find personal fulfillment in if you don’t love to do it. So do it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello and happy Friday!

Are you writing today? I hope so, I’m writing a little mostly editing You Don’t Know Me. I got it back from the editing service the other day and though it’s a basic edit; making sure words are spelled correctly, punctuation is correct, use of the proper word, I still found some of the suggestions not to my liking so I kept the text as it was.

I wondered though if this had been an edit by a popular editor at Penguin Worldwide for instance would I have agreed immediately to all suggestions then done them at the speed of light with no back talk versus hesitating over them now ( and not making a number of them) as suggested by the editing person contracted with Lulu Publishing.

Because it was Penguin would I feel obligated to make all corrections and changes because it’s Penguin and I would feel so grateful they had a greed to publish my book I’d do whatever asked. I try not to think about it because I want to believe I would not make any changes I felt would tamper with the story or the characters or at the very least bring forth my own arguments why I would not make the changes; the problem is I’m not so sure. Deep deep deep deep down, I know I’d be open to any suggestions and probably make the changes. Yuck.

But for now I don’t have that problem to prey on my mind, I smile as I decide I won’t make this change or the next, that I’ll use my word instead of their’s and it feels good to be in control and know my story is going the way I want it to; the way I wrote it

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

Today I was taking care of the business of writing you know, sending out e-mails for blurbs, running to the post office, sending off packages of work to be read, all the stuff that comes in between the writing. I got it done so I'm back to the writing. Those things have to be done to get your projects known by readers and what I did isn't even half that has to be done: interviews (if you can get them) keeping your website up to date even writing articles, so since it has to be done, try your best to do it with a smile.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

Sometimes it gets hard to write, the words will not flow, my story seems too hackneyed at best and uninteresting at worst and I have to ask myself why am I doing this? It happens to all writers once in a while. I have three ways to get out of this mindset that doesn’t plague me too often thank goodness. The first and best cure to getting myself out of the rut is to read the work of author’s I love. I just finished The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook and working on The March by E.L. Doctorow. Both novels are terrific and the writers make it look so easy and because they can it expires me to keep working on my project in an effort to someday get to where they are in their writing abilities: to get the reader to fall into the story and become entangled with it to their joy. And the only—only—way to do it is to write.

To keep writing is my second cure to the writing blues, just write. It can begin as bad stuff but as I go along a few good lines I can use end up on the page and even sometimes a couple of great ones form and really get me going. I just have to sweat through it and keep writing.

My last cure all for those impossible times is the dream I carry of writing a novel other people will love. We all have to work to make our dreams come true right? And the only way to get my novel out to the world is to write it, no way around it, so the blues, writer’s block, self-pity, lack of confidence, fear, whatever we want to call it; when it gets in the way (try and not let it) but when it does, try my cure alls and I promise you’ll feel much better and have your completed great novel to prove it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Hello and I missed writing to you last week, I really did,

I’m back from vacation, of course somewhat regretfully; and I did write while on vay-k. I spent—a lifetime it seems—standing in lines at Disney World waiting to catch a glimpse of Mickey Mouse and at Universal Studios waiting to be terrified during the Revenge of the Mummy thrill ride. So to pass the time I was lucky enough to write, I took a notebook along just for that purpose.

I was able to finish an outline for You Don’t Know Me while shuffling forward at baby steps. I was also able to write a few pages for the new Owen Story novel: Begin at the End, while I stood still in an endless line of bodies and sweated in the Florida heat. I was happy and surprised I got something completed it made all that waiting and sweating worth it though the rides were good too.

So I did have a great time with my family, a lot of fun with my kids. I saw a number of awesome sites, I ate a massive amount of great food, I met some nice people from not only around the country but from around the world and I wrote. No one could have had a better vacation than I did and oh, how I miss it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

It's Friday, yeah!!!

I will be going on vacation so may not blog next Friday though if I get a chance I certainly will. Will I write on vacation? Yes, of course and why not? I'lll do all the vacation things with my kids, see the sights, get a lot of sun, but I'll find time to write because it's what I do and I have to do it everyday to help keep me going. And what if I get a new idea or think of something that will move my current story forward? What? I jot down a note and keep playing volleyball? Maybe, but after the game I will sit and write for a while. Writing is a vacation to me, the freedom to express my thoughts and take the time to write them out without the clock ticking over my head. I work, have a family, other things to do to keep my life going so taking a vacation to do the things I love will always include writing.

You'll hear from me soon--whether you want to or not.

If you have questions or comments I’d love to read them and reply, so please email me at: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello and happy Friday,

I hope you’re getting a lot of writing done. I’m doing my best though some times the business of writing gets in the way and it can be humbling. For my book I’m sending out requests for blurbs or reviews from other writers and I hate to ask it of them, I know you understand. It’s tough to write as it is, to read and re-read a hundred times your own work, throw in the other things you must do to breath; to live, you have a headache, there are only so many hours in the day and to be asked by another writer you don’t know to take the time to read and review their work? Who needs it?

It’s understandable but we have no choice either. We need to ask those writers to read, to judge our work hoping, praying they will and give it a positive review because it can be the little push needed to get that one person to read our book; just one good word. We look at those blurbs when we pick up a book and if an author has more than one and they all are raving, well, we give that book more of a look don’t we? And most times we take it home with us. We want the same done of our novel and a back cover full of those positive reviews could be the push a reader needs to take our novel on.

I still dislike having to ask for a blurb but I do it anyway, I even ask for one from very popular authors like James Patterson. The writer can of course say no and probably will but as writer’s we’re used to “no” and rejects yet we move forward and keep trying, its wants makes us writers after all.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Hello

I read this passage in the cover story in The Writer Magazine www.writermag.com, the story was titled “Writers and Money.” The passage is a quote by author Jason Shinder, “Don’t wait for things. Offer things. Think about what you can offer that’s different and try to create an organizational life around it.” I felt this to be such a profound comment and a generous guideline work on incorporating it into my life.

We’ve all heard the saying no story is original and because of this truth, as writers, we must make our stories, our novels original, and different so they get up and shout in an ocean of similar work: ‘ I’m different, I’m special and will make it more than worth your time to read me’. Sometimes this seems an impossible task doesn’t it? It’s not. There are tons of writers brave enough to complete projects and present them—their babies—to the world by any means necessary and we have to be part of that group of fearless souls. It takes perseverance and dedication and not just in writing but life too and sometimes I have to dig deep down to find them, yet I believe in my work so much that I know, as I know God is great, that readers will enjoy my novels and look forward to the next one. You must feel this way too and work it because if we don’t believe in our work, no one else will.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello

Did I mention earlier that I submitted my novel to an editor to have it corrected for grammatical errors and character inconsistencies? I recently got the first two-thousand words back reviewed and I have to say, I didn’t like many of the suggestions I received, I actually felt my insides shout and rebel at some of the suggestions. I had no problem with some of the errors corrected for example, I forgot to put a question mark at the end of a question; it was great that the editor caught that one and others this was the reason why I wanted—needed—an edit.

My issue was the suggestions that would alter, in my opinion, the flow, the feeling of the novel. For instance I was told “Direct thoughts are better in italics”. The problem is that Owen has a lot of direct thoughts and to see all them in italics sounds unbearable, it would be the same as driving down a street of smooth pavement and running over unseen jolting road bumps making you crazy; not good at all. I believe reading a good novel—a great novel—happens when you don’t run over the words; aren’t even aware of them and just get story.

I feel so great about my novel the way it is;, have enough confidence in it that I’m just going to request the basic edit to alert me to put the question marks at the end of questions and nothing more. Am I taking a gamble not adhering to the deeper suggestions for change? (I didn’t forget the question mark here) Not at all because I’m wedded for life to the foundation, to the pull and tug of the story, to how it’s built. I won’t change the structure of the story because it makes the book and of course, You Don’t Know Me is a great book and that’s what I’m after.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello

I hope you all are doing very well and of course writing a lot. I’m continuing to work on my second novel in the Owen Story trilogy and it’s going pretty well for me. I’m completing a page or two a day and for me that’s equivalent to another writer’s ten pages a day.

I believe the key is to just keep writing, whatever comes out, hell or high water; it’s the only way, the best way to write. Overcome all the daily obstacles and get those few precious pages done for the day; it’s worth it because the next time you look around you have a novel—yeah!!! Then the rewriting begins. Ha Ha.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello

I was running on my treadmill this morning, you know how it is, a daunting leaded task to get started. I feel as if I can could do a million other things instead of getting on that treadmill including counting all the dust bunnies under the couch. I start out slow, plodding along until I awake fully, get the gears oiled and going, my legs and arm get warm and loose, I pick up a steady rhythm, get my breath under control and keep at it until time passes without me realizing it and I’m done.

Writing is like running (most of the time) isn’t it? When we first sit down in front of the blank page, its clean white looks as vast as the solar system. We put down the first word, our first thought and sometimes it takes a while to get that “first.” We struggle over a sentence, if it’s the right words, if the character is meant to take you this way. We get a few more sentences down, then a paragraph, plodding along, most times uneasily, sometimes at a pretty good pace.

We feel ourselves getting hot after a while, really sweating out the thoughts, the words, the sentences, finding it not as hard as it was in the beginning. We keep going, one page, two, five, ten and the time goes by until we have a story, a screenplay, the insides of a novel. We stop here, breath easier and feel good we’ve done our part for the day.

Yes, running can be like writing and for me both (writing more) is worth doing. What I gain in the end; a healthier me and great writing, I can’t live without.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello

Have you copyrighted all your work? I hope you have. I’ve sent my book off to the United States copyright office, a forty-five dollar deal but worth every penny as you know. I of course have the right to the works I create and I don’t believe anyone would take my work as their own but I also believe in doing my part by copyrighting with the registry office just in case. I also submit my screenplays to be registered at the screenwriter’s guild.

I don’t believe sending your work to yourself through the mail is good enough anymore to be called “copyrighting” your work. With my work and yours too we just want to make sure we cross our t’s and dot our i’s when it comes to legally protecting our precious.

If you know of any other avenues of protection, please e-mail me and let me know the information will be appreciated.


If you have any other comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello

I’m submitting my book, You Don’t Know Me next month to Lulu publishing and I’m excited about it and of course scared too. But I heard something on the Sopranos the other night (yes, I love writing crime fiction and watching it too) and the character Christopher said something like this—I paraphrase, “Face the fear and do it anyway"—do what you love to do or believe you were made to do. He’s a major mafia guy who happens to be absolutely above board on this one.

His comment really lessened my fear quotient about putting my book out in the world without agent back or a major book publisher behind me, his words made me realize those things don’t matter what’s important is following your dream (cliché though it may be) and making it a reality because life is so short its unbelievable so you want to make your life the best it can be; I do.

So there’s still a little fear there and it’s okay, its healthy natural but what’s not okay is not to do it, not to find any means I can to get my novel out because it’ll make me feel wonderful and because I know--know absolutely-- others will love the story and the characters.


If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at my new e-mail address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I read the other day in the Writer’s Magazine www.writermag.com how this writer loved having a day job as a teacher more than he loved being a full time writer. While reading the article I thought: he’s joking. How could he love having a day job as opposed to writing full time? I can understand him loving his job, teaching young minds to be great but still…

Then I thought about it. I like my day job, it pays the bill of course but one of the more important reasons why I like my job is that I feel when I do find the time to write while working, taking care of my family and other things, is that writing in between is like getting a special present or having a little holiday during my regular life. It’s such a joy to write so getting it in on those wonderful snatches of time: a day off to write, writing on a quiet Saturday afternoon or writing on my lunch hour or at four in the morning, makes the writing experience that much more precious and when its really going well—wow.

So I can understand that guy loving his day job—many people do—I like mine too and mostly because I’m blessed to be able to add actual writer to my resume, its the gift that keeps on giving as long as I keep putting pen to paper between the report to my boss or helping my kids with their homework the writing always fits in somewhere.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at my new e-mail address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello and Happy Holidays,

The other day I received an e-mail from this person who saw a message I left on Fodors the travel site asking for information on the Western Sahara for my novel The Geography of Love. The person opened the letter with a question: Are you the Lori who is a writer? The question made me smile “the writer”. I said yes with all my heart I am “the writer” because if I don’t believe it and prove it to my self again and again, no one else will believe it either.

My belief in myself as “a writer” can wax and wane depending on how the writing is going. If it’s not going well because I hadn’t researched enough, don't feel smart enough to write this story or didn’t complete more pages I wanted for the day, then I feel less a writer and more a failure. But when my writing is sailing along, every word the right word, filled pages are flying one after the other (though rare for me) I know then I’m the best writer I can be.

If I had to list who I am, my qualities, no matter how my writing is going, “writer” would make one of the top three defining myself. It was nice to get that message asking if I am the writer; of course I am and always will be.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time God willing,

Lori

Hello,

Right now I’m listening to a book on tape as I edit my novel. First, I’m always a little uncomfortable at editing my own writing though I’ve read a number of books on the subject I believe I’ll read one more as I complete the editing to make sure I don’t miss anything. It sounds all well and good yet no matter how many books I read or techniques I try I’ll miss something, it’s natural for writers to do so—to miss a lot I know this by experience—whether I go over my novel ten or one hundred times. I will be sending it out for editing, I’m not arrogant enough to believe my techniques are good enough; I need a professional editor whose job is to see all the mistakes keeping my novel from being the best it can be.

Back to the book on tape; it’s not very good though it has a few moments not great ones, you’re not at all surprised at what’s coming but it makes me think what you’ve probably thought time and time again as you’ve read someone else’s work—or listened to it—how did this person ever get published? I used to think it was a mystery, its not. Novel’s get published all the time whether good or bad. The writer happens to be at the right place at the right time, catch the eye of the right agent or editor or know someone who is willing to mentor and help get the writer where he wants to be and failing all this write something so great, like J.K. Rowlings does, no one can pass it up.

I suggest going for the latter it seems easier and not something everyone else seems to be writing about—serial killers for instance, a serial killer story on every corner—but writing about what you love whether popular or even heard of but you love and think is great. I believe this way the rewards will follow and to me it doesn’t mean just a book deal or having your book at number one on every booklist in the country but being satisfied in the work you produced, you love every character you created, you had a good time writing the novel and look forward to writing the next; those things are what gets me up every day to open my notebook, take up the pen and write; it makes me feel special and I know it does the same for you.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello everyone,

We’ve made it to another Friday. Have you been writing? I hope so because I have and it’s been going well though slowly, I write slowly but I'm trying to work on it. One of the reasons I write so slow is because I think I need to get it right the first(the first time for me is ten rewrites) time though that’s not possible and I don’t know why I worry about it.

I love when I’m able to just go for it, write all that’s flowing through my head get it down then go back later on with the red pencil. This frees up my writing and it doesn’t take from the story, the story is still there and I’ve gotten down the gist of what I think and feel at the moment and that's what’s important; a great thing.

Because I’m writing the second novel in the Owen Story trilogy I want to get it done in a timely fashion and I feel that I know so much of the story I can get it down and it won’t take me forever. So I’m going to do just that, get the entire book down and not worry around the first write up, just run for i, then go back later and streamline it. I’m going to try anyway. Wish me luck.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I’m working on the second novel in the Owen Story series or trilogy. I’ve finished the first You Don’t Know Me and will try my best not to “tinker” with it again, I’ve been “tinkering” with it for four of five years and its past the time to move on. As some writer’s know it’s hard to move on to the new novel because of a host of issues including fear but it has to be done and the kicker is, the new novel in the series has to be--in my opinion--better than the first which is a huge challenge but I’m up for it.

I keep thinking of the movie trilogy The Lord of the Rings. I enjoyed the Fellowship of the Ring it was good, but I loved the second, The Two Towers which made me look forward to the Return of the King which I liked. But the key for me was the second story(movie) it cemented me to the first, to the characters and the storyline making the third movie a couldn’t miss for me and for millions others too. I looked forward to it with anticipation and regret because it was the last. I want people who read my Owen Story novels to feel the exact same way.

So I will give one-hundred and twenty percent into the writing of Begin at the End (working title I think) and that means research, rewrites, evaluation by others (I can’t see the forest for the trees) rewrites, recording, what ever needs to be done to make the second novel terrific, to adhere Owen and the other characters to the reader’s hearts so they tell everyone they know to read the novels as they look forward to, can’t wait, to read the last in the Owen Story trilogy.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

A lot of us want to be very successful writers but you know there are millions of people who don’t, who want to be just as successful at the thing they love. I hadn’t thought about this until my best friend, Kim Henderson, opened her own bakery selling her specialty cupcakes, cookies and all the yummy treats you can imagine. Opening the bakery was her dream while mine is becoming a successful writer and a dream is a dream. My friend’s making her’s come true motivates me to do the same for mine; it puts fire under my pen.

Everyone knows someone doing exactly what they are made for in life, I believe in using this as my push, my inducement to write my books believing that my writing may inspire others not just to create their novel but to do whatever’s necessary to make their dream lives real even if its to create food people love; to paint like Picasso, to make exotic jewelry or buy a farm growing organic vegetables, its all love for dreams.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I was reading in The Writer magazine yesterday a story about dialogue. I love dialogue don’t you? My problem-- and it may be yours too-- is I don’t use enough of it. I was re-reading one of my stories and realized I had too much to read and not enough being said by the characters. I realized the information being read could be said—and briefly—by the characters getting rid of a number of unnecessary lines allowing the reader to get to the meat of the story, into the lives of the characters I want the readers to love.

I’m nixing many of the excess paragraphs or useless passages in my Owen Story novels (in all my work) to make sure the stories move at a fast pace and to show and not tell; anything to improve my novels so readers will love them right?

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

Do you sometimes believe everyone in the world is writing a book? I occasionally believe it, yet what I seem to believe more is that just about everyone has written a book and some of them have written five or more and not just written books but had them published and read by millions. There are of course authors such as James Patterson—though not many—who are so prolific it’s amazing. He has more than one writing project-soon-to-be-published novel going at one time in addition to a new novel of his that's in book stores at the moment.

When I’m reading an article about a writer they all seem to have written ten novels. Or when I listen to public radio everyone interviewed seems to have several published books to their credit and I think, sheesh, why does it take me so long to write one novel let alone two? I don’t believe in writer’s block or any other roadblocks to writing for me those are excuses for me not writing; I can always find ten minutes here or there between laundry loads or before my children get up in the morning to write a line or two, a paragraph or even a chapter. All those lines and paragraphs do eventually add up to a novel and hopefully a good one.

But why does it take me so long to create this novel though I’m steadily writing it? Other writers can write two or even three books at a time or at least a book a year so why am I not a faster writer? I thought about this and researched it a little and came up with a few writers who I believe have the same complexity I’ll call it and it hasn’t hurt them one bit: Donna Tartt author of the wonderful ‘The Secret History” began that novel in the 1980’s, it was published in 1992 and her next novel ‘The Little Friend’ wasn’t published until 2002, ten years later; just two great works to her credit. Then there’s Thomas Harris the creator of Dr. Lecter. Mr. Harris has written five novels, and its more than six years between each novel. I've stopped beating myself up about how long it takes me to create a novel.

There really shouldn’t be any time constraints on creating a novel because quality is the key here. I try to make every word count in the story and get rid of the useless ones so that every word matters to the novel's progress. I try and flesh out each character, erase all the strings so the reader gets story and not just words, a story and characters they can believe in one-hundred percent; it takes so much time to get this right or as close as I can get it.

My first Owen Story novel has taken me six years to get it where I don’t sweat every page and can even smile a little when I read it. The second novel in the trilogy will take me at least another year and a half if not longer to get it manageable. Do I wish I could write faster? Sometimes I do but if it means tossing in any old character, overlooking the bumps and creating a so-so work; then I’ll always take it slow. Writing a novel is hard enough so why not go the extra one-hundred miles and make it worth while, make it stand out from the rest, a work you’ll always be proud of even if it’s the only novel in you.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I have completed one stage of the rewrites for my crime/mystery You Don’t Know Me and now the work really begins. The stages. I’ve completed the preliminary rewrite where I reread what I’ve saved on the computer. I take out as many of those “ly and ing” words as I can, toss out the junk readers don’t read and tighten up the story as much as I can. Next I’ll print off the pages and read them into my recorder. I don’t trust very much what my eyes see on the computer, I believe they miss more than they should. I feel the most comfortable reading off the printed page anyway; I think I catch more mistakes that way. And by using the recorder I know I hear them, they blare at me, I can’t help tripping over them. When I listen it enables me to make the changes and smooth out the story so that it flows; it feels wonderful not to stumble over story as I go along-- to just enjoy it and I imagine the reader will appreciate this too.

After I record its back to edit the changes into the computer copy and more reading. It's a long process isn’t it? Yet it works for me. Of course I wonder if it’s just a form of procrastination because I fear getting my story out so I go through all these forms of rewriting. I’ve thought about this quite a bit and decided that yes, it’s 5 percent all that but the 95 percent left is my determination to give those who choose to read my work a great story they can't put down, a terrific adventure, genuine characters they love and want to visit with again and all this takes so much time, effort, many mistakes along the way, fixes, so many rewrites—it’s the only way.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I’m working on two pieces, a children’s book—don’t let anyone tell you it’s easy writing children’s books; its not—and a flash fiction story. Both projects have been critiqued by professional editors and did they do their jobs well; it would've brought tears to your eyes. The children’s book editor wrote a four page critique that was so far from glowing it took me two days to read because every negative made me wince. He took every element of the story apart and examined it in every direction. The flash fiction editor did the same and this piece is less than three-hundred words. Was I upset at the deconstruction of my work? Of course, because I thought I was a better writer than that (see how much I know) but my greatest emotions were humility, gratefulness, acceptance and eagerness. I’m going to do exactly what both editors suggested; there is no question I will follow their guidelines, why? Because they know better than I do--you already know how much I know.

I’m too close to my work, all writers are and if I get someone who knows how to edit and who is willing to look at my work dispassionately and let me know what works and what doesn’t I’m happy about it. How many chances do we writers get to connect with those who genuinely want to help make our work the best it can be, who take the time and effort to help us succeed? It’s about as many chances we get to see a rainbow.

So, I’m going to follow all the suggestions I’ve been given for both stories because they will only make the stories even better, maybe even wonderful and in the end isn’t that our only true goal.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

We writers write all the time though it’s not always putting pen to paper, at these times we ruminate over how to write, what to write or over some thing interesting we’ve heard, seen or learned; we read and we even watch television, something like the Discovery Channel or not, regardless of what we do, we are at all times writing; we can’t help it. We writers of course have good days and bad days like every one else where it’s almost impossible to get out of bed, but we do and what propels us writers is the possibility of writing well; starting a new story, finally completing the project or novel we’re working on; coming across a new idea we cannot get out of our heads that compels us to write right now or even reading the work of one of our favorite writers that motivates us to do all we can to join that auspicious group.

It’s time for me to get back to my writing---prompted by just writing today’s blog—and the book-on disc I’m listening to: The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld; so that someday soon someone will read my work and be inspired to get on with their own so others will someday read theirs, keeping the continous circle of loving to write and read forever alive.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I read the other day from an on-line newsletter I receive about writing, that to get better at my writing I should read everything I can, fiction, non-fiction, magazines, medical journals, most everything I can get my hands on and I agree with this recommendation, its one of the best ways to learn to write next to writing. The writer went on to advise that I should also imitate the writing style of the writers I love to read so that I can grow my own style; I don't agree with this recommendation. It sounds more like copying to me and it takes up time that I could be using to create my own style. Though I don’t believe in imitating other writers, I do adhere to the advice of writers I love to read and utilize there suggestions in my own work. For instance: Elmore Leonard‘s number 10 rule for writers is “Try to leave out the part readers tend to skip”. This piece of Dutch wisdom I try my best to do even if it means kicking out parts of a story I thought I loved and enjoyed writing , if I get the feeling its just taking up space, its gone.

Stephen King and Elmore Leonard suggest avoiding the use of too many adverds in my stories especially the “ly” ones, they don't move a story and waste space. They also suggest I try my best to use only the verb “said” to carry dialogue and let the character and the story tell you what is going on and how the character is feeling. These two pieces of advice from writers I admire, I incorporate into my own writing and don’t have a problem doing it because it makes my writing better, it gets rid of the junk, smooth’s my stories out and allows them to shine with my style with out unnecessary distractions (useless adverbs, description and details readers most often skip) getting in the way of the story.

So I don’t believe in imitating other writers and I try not to do it in my writing, but I do believe in incorporating their advice on writing well into my own novels because it works for some of our most well-loved writers (John Steinbeck, Larry McMurtry, Annie Proulx, Ernest Hemingway, Margaret Atwood) and it works for me.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I will be self-publishing my crime mystery novel: You Don’t Know Me, featuring Detective Owen Story in March. On the one hand I am thrilled by my taking my career in my own hands and publishing the work I love, but on the other hand it’s scary but not so much as I would’ve imagined and you know why? Because I girded myself against the fear; put on my writer’s armor and went for it. What's this writer’s armor? It’s making sure you give your readers the best book you can make it; putting time, energy and attention into its every detail.

When working on my book I not only do the research, try and make sure the details are right but the ascetics of the story, how it flows, how it sounds, has to be spot on as well. After the third re-write, I record the story so that I can play it back and listen to it’s flow, catch awkward words which believe me, stick out like an orange cone in the snow as you're listening. I try to make each word count and get rid of ones, even entire passages, that aren't necessary, that don’t move the story or makes it clunky. I make sure the story is consistent, it makes since, there are no continuity mistakes and the characters are outstanding and believable. I keep working on the book until I believe it’s a page turner the reader can't put down and long after they do, they remember and love the characters and want to visit some of them in again in a next novel. A tall order I know, but its done by writer’s all the time so there’s no reason for my novel to be any different; its just up to me to write it that way and once I feel I have it there—no fear. Voila!

So, I’m publishing my first crime mystery novel and I’m looking forward to it because I believe it has all the elements for a great story readers will enjoy. Of course there’s a chance I could be wrong but I have faith in my novel and all its elements, faith in my writing and in the end that’s all we need.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori