Hello and Happy Friday,
I’m working on publicity for You Don’t Know Me and I've committed to a book signing at my local Barnes and Noble in July or August, I have to secure the date because it’ll be along with another local writer. This will be my first signing at a book store and I of course don’t have much experience on what is needed to make a book signing a great one, though I’m sure the book store will advise me and I will “research” it of course.
As a matter of fact, I was going through some back issues of Writer’s Digest Magazine and found exactly what I needed, an article on how to work a book signing; it was right on time with some great pointers; but what really surprised me, was reading an article I really could use. It’s not that I haven’t gotten some wonderful and useful information from articles and stories I’ve read over the years in Writer’s Digest and The Writer Magazine: pieces on grammar, structure and plotting; advice from famous writers or lists of places to send my writing, its just this was the first time I needed advice on what to do when you've got an actual novel out in the world. Usually I’m devouring the stories on how to write, not those on what to do after you’ve written and published; I’m moving forward and I’m thrilled by it.
One book down. Now for the second one and the rest!
Write, write, write.
If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com
Until next time, God willing.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Hello,
I don’t talk very much about research though it’s important and it’s been on my mind because I’ve been asked, “How did you know about this or that? Or, “Where did you come by that information?” I always give the same answer, “Reading” meaning; research and though I don’t love it, I just realized I don’t mine it either because it’s a total necessity for me. I am not a rocket scientist and the subjects I love writing about I know almost nothing about, actually less than nothing so I have no choice but to learn all I can about my topic, yet the great thing about this is that what I need to know about I am one-hundred percent interested in which makes the learning, the research not a problem.
For the second novel in the Owen Story trilogy I had to learn about Gulag and found this was the name of the state system that developed the harsh prison system, not the name of the prison camps, it just eventually came to be that the camps themselves became known as the Gulag or Gulags, and reading about the history of the system kept me glued to the pages until I read numerous articles on the subject, it was riveting—at least to me. I’m blessed to write stories with very surprising plot points, twists and turns and steady prose I find interesting, wonderful and feel the reader will find just as terrific.
The research, the reading, the learning is just part of the deal and it makes my stories all the more real, believable and true which is exactly what I look for in the stories I choose to take my time—which is so precious to us all—to experience and hopefully, love.
Write.
If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com
Until next time, God willing.
I don’t talk very much about research though it’s important and it’s been on my mind because I’ve been asked, “How did you know about this or that? Or, “Where did you come by that information?” I always give the same answer, “Reading” meaning; research and though I don’t love it, I just realized I don’t mine it either because it’s a total necessity for me. I am not a rocket scientist and the subjects I love writing about I know almost nothing about, actually less than nothing so I have no choice but to learn all I can about my topic, yet the great thing about this is that what I need to know about I am one-hundred percent interested in which makes the learning, the research not a problem.
For the second novel in the Owen Story trilogy I had to learn about Gulag and found this was the name of the state system that developed the harsh prison system, not the name of the prison camps, it just eventually came to be that the camps themselves became known as the Gulag or Gulags, and reading about the history of the system kept me glued to the pages until I read numerous articles on the subject, it was riveting—at least to me. I’m blessed to write stories with very surprising plot points, twists and turns and steady prose I find interesting, wonderful and feel the reader will find just as terrific.
The research, the reading, the learning is just part of the deal and it makes my stories all the more real, believable and true which is exactly what I look for in the stories I choose to take my time—which is so precious to us all—to experience and hopefully, love.
Write.
If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com
Until next time, God willing.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Hello and happy Friday!!!
Happy to make it to this day to write to you; I just love writing in mostly all its forms. I have signed up to take editing and grammar classes in July at Cleveland State University; both are one day classes and I’m looking forward to them. I can always use a brush up. While writing I sometimes come across a piece in my work whose idea I need to get across perfectly but can’t find the words to convey what I mean because my vocabulary isn’t that large or my understanding of certain words and how to use them isn’t that great, so taking a grammar class at anytime is a plus for me.
And editing, it’s extremely hard for me to self-edit which is the case for most writers I believe. I am so bad at self-editing my work, I take it to the extreme by getting rid of things that are useful and possible crucial to the story because I’m afraid of being too wordy or using three words when one could do or paragraphs that have more than eight sentences, I cut most everything which is not the way to edit. So by taking a course on editing (and grammar) every chance I get, I can brush up on what I know and learn what I don’t so that when I approach the editing process it will be with less trepidation.
And its never too late to learn something new, a better way to do something especially when it comes to writing because for me; I always want to improve so that my writing is so seamless to the reader he is joyfully amazed at the story as a whole and only by knowing what I’m doing grammatically or learn what to keep in or take out can I leave my readers with that great experience.
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.
Happy to make it to this day to write to you; I just love writing in mostly all its forms. I have signed up to take editing and grammar classes in July at Cleveland State University; both are one day classes and I’m looking forward to them. I can always use a brush up. While writing I sometimes come across a piece in my work whose idea I need to get across perfectly but can’t find the words to convey what I mean because my vocabulary isn’t that large or my understanding of certain words and how to use them isn’t that great, so taking a grammar class at anytime is a plus for me.
And editing, it’s extremely hard for me to self-edit which is the case for most writers I believe. I am so bad at self-editing my work, I take it to the extreme by getting rid of things that are useful and possible crucial to the story because I’m afraid of being too wordy or using three words when one could do or paragraphs that have more than eight sentences, I cut most everything which is not the way to edit. So by taking a course on editing (and grammar) every chance I get, I can brush up on what I know and learn what I don’t so that when I approach the editing process it will be with less trepidation.
And its never too late to learn something new, a better way to do something especially when it comes to writing because for me; I always want to improve so that my writing is so seamless to the reader he is joyfully amazed at the story as a whole and only by knowing what I’m doing grammatically or learn what to keep in or take out can I leave my readers with that great experience.
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.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Hello, how are you this Friday?
I listened to an interview yesterday with Dennis Lehane, the writer of Mystic River, http://www.dennislehanebooks.com. It was a good one, informative for two reasons: first, Mr. Lehane had a hard time talking about his work, his writing process and at first you would’ve thought it was because he was nervous—he was and it came through (most writers have trouble talking about themselves)—but I believe it was more, its hard to talk about writing, your writing and how you do it because most times writers don’t have a clue how its done. The mechanics, yes; you sit down in front of the blank page and get on with it; the getting on with it is the mystery.
I have been asked the questions: “How did you know what would happen next? How did you come up with that character and what he should be doing?” The true answers to those questions are involved, my fist answer is: “I haven’t a clue” the next “it’s complicated, so complicated I can’t define it.” The closes I can get to my writing is that it’s a process of layers; ups and downs, starts and restarts, mistakes and upsets, breakthroughs and drawbacks that go on for a very long time until I “think” I’m finished with it, have tied up all loose ends and filled in all the holes to something I want to believe is very readable and enjoyable.
As writers we all have our individual “process” but to put words to how it works is hard to do, so I suggest if you don’t have to—don’t, it’s not as important as making it work for you whatever it is, to get the work done, creating the story no matter how you have to do it; this is what its all about: writing.
Keep at it, its absolutely worth it.
If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com
Until next time, God willing.
I listened to an interview yesterday with Dennis Lehane, the writer of Mystic River, http://www.dennislehanebooks.com. It was a good one, informative for two reasons: first, Mr. Lehane had a hard time talking about his work, his writing process and at first you would’ve thought it was because he was nervous—he was and it came through (most writers have trouble talking about themselves)—but I believe it was more, its hard to talk about writing, your writing and how you do it because most times writers don’t have a clue how its done. The mechanics, yes; you sit down in front of the blank page and get on with it; the getting on with it is the mystery.
I have been asked the questions: “How did you know what would happen next? How did you come up with that character and what he should be doing?” The true answers to those questions are involved, my fist answer is: “I haven’t a clue” the next “it’s complicated, so complicated I can’t define it.” The closes I can get to my writing is that it’s a process of layers; ups and downs, starts and restarts, mistakes and upsets, breakthroughs and drawbacks that go on for a very long time until I “think” I’m finished with it, have tied up all loose ends and filled in all the holes to something I want to believe is very readable and enjoyable.
As writers we all have our individual “process” but to put words to how it works is hard to do, so I suggest if you don’t have to—don’t, it’s not as important as making it work for you whatever it is, to get the work done, creating the story no matter how you have to do it; this is what its all about: writing.
Keep at it, its absolutely worth 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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