Hello and Happy Monday!!!
I know I usually blog each Friday but didn't get the chance to, so I wanted to get a note in today.
I have been feeling under the weather for the last few days, cold and cough, flu like symptoms but I've been self-medicating and feel tolerable today. Though I haven't felt one-hundred percent it of course hasn't stopped me from doing the things I have to and need to do: taking care of my sons, working (I'm swamped at work) and of course writing. Someone could say 'You don't need to write, put it off until you feel yourself again.' That's a thought, but a passing one for me, whether or not I feel like writing doesn't enter into the occasion, I write anyway, its what I do.
Yesterday, I'm lying on the couch, my fever is blooming, I'm watching I Love Lucy on DVD and hear a name that fills my brain (Yes, it could have just been the fever making talking). I think about the name, change it a little--fine tune it--and reach for my notebook. I write a page filling out this character whom I have pages on but no name; the name adds that something and truly gives this character his flesh and blood.
I write no matter how I'm feeling or what I'm doing because all it all, it makes me feel good. And though I was feverish, I was smiling too as the- character-with-the- new-name filled in my blank page.
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
Monday, January 28, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Hello and happy Friday,
Are you writing? I am; here and there and it’s coming out like puzzle pieces, a small section here, a longer section there, sometimes one line. This works best for me, every writer has their way of doing things, of writing,I’m no different though probably slower. I need to write lines, then gather them together in front of me and make something out of it and the good thing about this for me is that I do have a good idea of what that something should be. I guess it’s my writing process. What’s your process?
Not to change the subject but I have to say this, today I listened to two books on tape: one was “When the Women Come Out to Dance by Elmore Leonard; the other “A Killing Night by Jonathon King, man what a difference. I know it’s the author’s unique style that makes the difference so obvious. Listening to Mr. Leonard is like listening to Pavarotti at his prime, on the most beautiful summer night of your life, with the person you love the most in the world sitting beside you holding your hand. Listening to Mr. King is like reading a three hundred page book on tax law, at three in the morning, alone, in an office cubicle with terrible lighting while scratching the bad case of poison ivy crawling all over your body; yes, that bad.
I have a number of goals I want to reach when writing—so do you--and at the top of my list is to someday settle into my own natural style, rhythm and flow that is so easy for readers to recognize, feel comfortable with and most importantly, enjoy, so that when they hear or are reading one of my novels it will always be like listening to Pavarotti on a summer day with the one you love. Getting to this place in my writing takes practice, time and could possibly never happen, yet it’s a goal I’m striving to reach; that sense of professional uniqueness that is on the money every time and stands my writing out from the rest. I want readers to get that same wonderful feeling about by novels I get when I pick up an Elmore Leonard, knowing without a bit of doubt I’m getting something special, funny, surprising, riveting and worthy of my time every time. Who doesn’t want their writing to be in Elmore Leonard’s league? In his league, you are there and it’s not an impossible dream; work at it; I do everyday.
You do it everyday too.
If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com
Until next time, God willing,
Are you writing? I am; here and there and it’s coming out like puzzle pieces, a small section here, a longer section there, sometimes one line. This works best for me, every writer has their way of doing things, of writing,I’m no different though probably slower. I need to write lines, then gather them together in front of me and make something out of it and the good thing about this for me is that I do have a good idea of what that something should be. I guess it’s my writing process. What’s your process?
Not to change the subject but I have to say this, today I listened to two books on tape: one was “When the Women Come Out to Dance by Elmore Leonard; the other “A Killing Night by Jonathon King, man what a difference. I know it’s the author’s unique style that makes the difference so obvious. Listening to Mr. Leonard is like listening to Pavarotti at his prime, on the most beautiful summer night of your life, with the person you love the most in the world sitting beside you holding your hand. Listening to Mr. King is like reading a three hundred page book on tax law, at three in the morning, alone, in an office cubicle with terrible lighting while scratching the bad case of poison ivy crawling all over your body; yes, that bad.
I have a number of goals I want to reach when writing—so do you--and at the top of my list is to someday settle into my own natural style, rhythm and flow that is so easy for readers to recognize, feel comfortable with and most importantly, enjoy, so that when they hear or are reading one of my novels it will always be like listening to Pavarotti on a summer day with the one you love. Getting to this place in my writing takes practice, time and could possibly never happen, yet it’s a goal I’m striving to reach; that sense of professional uniqueness that is on the money every time and stands my writing out from the rest. I want readers to get that same wonderful feeling about by novels I get when I pick up an Elmore Leonard, knowing without a bit of doubt I’m getting something special, funny, surprising, riveting and worthy of my time every time. Who doesn’t want their writing to be in Elmore Leonard’s league? In his league, you are there and it’s not an impossible dream; work at it; I do everyday.
You do it everyday too.
If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com
Until next time, God willing,
Friday, January 11, 2008
Hello good morning and good Friday,
Okay, I’ve mentioned this what probably seems like a thousand times and now I’m doing it again, my novel You Don’t Know Me is out in the world, great and so…? So I have to get more folks to realize it and to buy the book; a traumatically hard thing to do—at least for me. I’m following the general guidelines for promotion of the book or self-promotion depending on the way you want to look at it, so I have press kits I’m sending out, encouraging people who have read the book to write a review—good or bad, sending out copies of the book to people with influence in the media to get the word out and still there is more to do and one of those “mores” ( because it smells of self-promotion) I am leery of doing.
Well, my kid’s school is having a PTA sponsored cabaret with a raffle and some of the ways you can help make it successful is to work the cabaret, provide food or even donate an item to the raffle. My first thought was donate a copy of my book; my second thought---that’s self-promotion---but now as I write this, is it self-promotion or selling books? Okay, I’m donating something—they asked for donations—it just happens to be my novel. I would of course let the PTA representative know it’s an adult mystery crime thriller and it’s so entertaining and fast paced the reader won’t be able to put it down and if they can, I’ll give them a sweet treat of their choice. Hey, that doesn’t sound too bad, as a matter of fact its great promotion for the book so I'm doing it.
I've made the call to the PTA rep and offered my book as a raffle prize along with a sweet treat and I feel great about it for a few good reasons: I think I built the novel up pretty well, it’s a way to promote the book to garner more interest in it and I may get more sells a.ka. readers out of it; alright all the way around, yeah.
In the books I’ve read on promoting your book, you’re told to try any means at hand, to be innovative when coming up with ideas, to take chances, don’t let any opportunity to promote your novel pass you by and to keep at it; I figure I’m doing better than I thought or at least I’m keeping at it. I don’t expect my book to catch on overnight, it takes time even years plus other novels following for that to happen ( if it happens at all) but I’m patient and won't worry about it because its something beyond my control, all I can do is take every opportunity to promote my novels, to keep at it, not give up, do the best I can and most important than any of it: keep writing the books I love. You do the same.
If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com
Until next time, God willing,
Okay, I’ve mentioned this what probably seems like a thousand times and now I’m doing it again, my novel You Don’t Know Me is out in the world, great and so…? So I have to get more folks to realize it and to buy the book; a traumatically hard thing to do—at least for me. I’m following the general guidelines for promotion of the book or self-promotion depending on the way you want to look at it, so I have press kits I’m sending out, encouraging people who have read the book to write a review—good or bad, sending out copies of the book to people with influence in the media to get the word out and still there is more to do and one of those “mores” ( because it smells of self-promotion) I am leery of doing.
Well, my kid’s school is having a PTA sponsored cabaret with a raffle and some of the ways you can help make it successful is to work the cabaret, provide food or even donate an item to the raffle. My first thought was donate a copy of my book; my second thought---that’s self-promotion---but now as I write this, is it self-promotion or selling books? Okay, I’m donating something—they asked for donations—it just happens to be my novel. I would of course let the PTA representative know it’s an adult mystery crime thriller and it’s so entertaining and fast paced the reader won’t be able to put it down and if they can, I’ll give them a sweet treat of their choice. Hey, that doesn’t sound too bad, as a matter of fact its great promotion for the book so I'm doing it.
I've made the call to the PTA rep and offered my book as a raffle prize along with a sweet treat and I feel great about it for a few good reasons: I think I built the novel up pretty well, it’s a way to promote the book to garner more interest in it and I may get more sells a.ka. readers out of it; alright all the way around, yeah.
In the books I’ve read on promoting your book, you’re told to try any means at hand, to be innovative when coming up with ideas, to take chances, don’t let any opportunity to promote your novel pass you by and to keep at it; I figure I’m doing better than I thought or at least I’m keeping at it. I don’t expect my book to catch on overnight, it takes time even years plus other novels following for that to happen ( if it happens at all) but I’m patient and won't worry about it because its something beyond my control, all I can do is take every opportunity to promote my novels, to keep at it, not give up, do the best I can and most important than any of it: keep writing the books I love. You do the same.
If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com
Until next time, God willing,
Friday, January 04, 2008
Hello and how are you this Friday?
You Don’t Know Me is out in the world (please go get it at Lulu.com) and now is the challenge. You would think the writing is the largest challenge, it is; but I place getting the word out about the novel and getting people to read it runs neck-and-neck with the writing and often times surpasses it. I recently realized how much brainstorming and research must be done to try and figure out how to get the word out about the book; it’s a job in itself and with no guarantee of success.
Despite going in knowing your efforts to get people to buy your book may be a losing battle before you start, it’s not all bad. How can I say this when I lay it on so thick how hard selling your book can be? I say it for three reasons: one, the book's as done as its going to get so that worry is over and you can feel good about it. Two, I’m writing the next book in the trilogy and it feels great to dig into the characters and the new story taking my mind off for a while the business side of writing.
And third, there seems to be a template on how to try and sell your book; it doesn’t guarantee sells of course, but there are certain routes you can follow—most all writers follow I think—that can capture sells, for example: creating press kits introducing your book and yourself that may garner an interview about the book in print media, radio or television and can interest bookstores and libraries. You can do signings or have your novel read by a local book club where you can make an appearance to discuss it if they like. You can give talks about the writing process where your book can be featured; there is an endless number of resources that can help you create the best plan to get your book out to the public. Though I've said there is no guarantee you’ll sell one book (maybe to your mother if she likes you) I believe you can count on your novel selling if it has the right stuff: seamless writing, a great story readers feel they have not come across before and characters that stay with them long after the book is done and who they want to meet again.
Does my novel have this? I think so, but only the readers—I hope millions of readers—can tell me so.
If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com
Until next time, God willing,
You Don’t Know Me is out in the world (please go get it at Lulu.com) and now is the challenge. You would think the writing is the largest challenge, it is; but I place getting the word out about the novel and getting people to read it runs neck-and-neck with the writing and often times surpasses it. I recently realized how much brainstorming and research must be done to try and figure out how to get the word out about the book; it’s a job in itself and with no guarantee of success.
Despite going in knowing your efforts to get people to buy your book may be a losing battle before you start, it’s not all bad. How can I say this when I lay it on so thick how hard selling your book can be? I say it for three reasons: one, the book's as done as its going to get so that worry is over and you can feel good about it. Two, I’m writing the next book in the trilogy and it feels great to dig into the characters and the new story taking my mind off for a while the business side of writing.
And third, there seems to be a template on how to try and sell your book; it doesn’t guarantee sells of course, but there are certain routes you can follow—most all writers follow I think—that can capture sells, for example: creating press kits introducing your book and yourself that may garner an interview about the book in print media, radio or television and can interest bookstores and libraries. You can do signings or have your novel read by a local book club where you can make an appearance to discuss it if they like. You can give talks about the writing process where your book can be featured; there is an endless number of resources that can help you create the best plan to get your book out to the public. Though I've said there is no guarantee you’ll sell one book (maybe to your mother if she likes you) I believe you can count on your novel selling if it has the right stuff: seamless writing, a great story readers feel they have not come across before and characters that stay with them long after the book is done and who they want to meet again.
Does my novel have this? I think so, but only the readers—I hope millions of readers—can tell me so.
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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