Blog Tour

A decade ago I had a friend who was starting out as a writer, and she shared her dreams of a book tour. She’d travel around the world—at her publisher’s expense, of course—and hit the major bookstores, where she’d do readings and signings for standing-room-only audiences. Then reality hit. She never found a publisher and no one would be sending her anywhere. If she was going to do a book tour, it would be out of her own pocket.      

Just because you write it, doesn’t mean they will come. Her signings were hardly a case of sitting in a comfy chair, sipping herbal tea while her eager fans lined up. She stood for hours, hawking her books, schmoozing with customers, and chatting with the booksellers. On a good day, she sold 3 books. On another day, no books at all.


Out with the glitz and glam, and in with the independent book tour. Getting signings in bookstores wasn’t easy. The chains were reluctant to host them for her. She had more luck with local indie bookstores… but not much. One store might treat her like a rock star and be a pleasure to work with; others, less so.

Happily, it’s easier than ever these days to skip the indie tour since they are fading fast and you can do your own blog tour. 

Setting it up basically goes like this:

1.You plan months in advance

2.You research a lot of relevant blogs; creating a top-tier and second-tier list of blogs

3.You contact the bloggers and pitch yourself and your book

4.You follow up

5.You book dates

6.You come up with a giveaway. This is very helpful: it’s added incentive for people to read your guest posts and/or interviews, and it can stir up excitement, depending on what you give away. That’s right; you have to give something in order to get something back.  So be creative.

Remember when you’re setting up your blog tour to be professional. It’s easy to think that just because you’re emailing someone who isn’t a New York Times book reviewer, you can slack off with your inquiry, be disorganized, forgetful or even rude. Bloggers who agree to host or tour you are doing you a favor, one that will cost you your time and effort, as opposed to hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on promotion and advertising. So be prepared, keep your word, and do your best!

Earth Day

My freshman year in high school to commemorate Earth day http://www.earthday.org/2012 and to fight against air pollution I rode a bike to school.  Ordinarily I would walk but instead spent the entire day on my bike to make a difference.

My guess is that kids today are keenly aware of the modern environmental movement but whether or not they take part remains to be seen. From talking with a young set, some things are the same—they are bursting with ideas, are refreshingly un-cynical and their hip service ethos is setting the moral tone for the age.  I also find in groups some social entrepreneurs that think they can evade politics. They have little faith in the political process and believe that real change happens on the ground beneath it.

That’s delusion. If there is no rule of law your achievement won’t add up to much. Important issues always spark disagreement. Unless there’s a healthy political process to resolve disputes, everything will be destroyed. There’s little social progress without political progress. Unfortunately, today’s activists are good at thinking locally and globally but do they think nationally?

I rarely hear social entrepreneurs talk about honest courts or standards of behavior; it’s more uplifting to talk about sustainable agriculture. Are they missing something?  You bet. To fill in the gap I recommend reading the novels of Dashiell Hammett http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell_Hammett 

The noir heroes like Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon served as a model for a generation of Americans, and they put the focus on disorder and corruption and how one behaves in the face of it. Spade has a layered personality and hardens himself on the outside in order to protect his finer inner attributes. He makes no social class distinction and is not self-righteous; he is motivated by a disillusioned sense of honor. Under his mask, there is a basic sense of good and order where the bad should be corrected and crimes punished. He knows he’s not going to change the world but he does his job—and doggedly plows ahead.

While today’s kids might not wear trench coats or fedoras they can learn a lesson here. Moral realism would be an original supplement to today’s prevailing ethos. It would put the focus back on core issues; order and the rule of law. And while that may not seem like much, it is necessary and just might work against self-dealing and self-deception.

Give Peace a Chance

It’s been on my reading list for sometime despite last year’s allegations. During spring break, I was spellbound by Greg Mortenson’s (a former mountain climber) memoir Three Cups of Tea. I thoroughly enjoyed his traipsing but placing adventure aside; is there a nobler goal than that of helping educate young girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan? This book has given an answer to this question, though it has also shown how people want to believe stories of redemption.     


Three Cups of Tea tells the story of how Mortenson was nursed back to health by Pakistani villagers after an unsuccessful attempt to climb the world’s second tallest mountain, K2. As a way to repay the villagers’ kindness, Mortenson promises to return to and build a school for the children. The book recounts how the charity he founded, the Central Asia Institute, went on to build dozens of schools in the region.

Three Cups of Tea became an international bestseller, and Mortenson’s charity, the Central Asia Institute, received millions of dollars in donations, including $100,000 from President Obama. But a 60 Minutes investigation revealed that the central anecdote in the book—the author being nursed back to health by Pakistani villagers —wasn’t exactly true. Though he climbed the world’s tallest mountain, Mortenson didn’t come across the Pakistani village of Korphe until a year later. And he was not, as the book asserts, kidnapped by the Taliban. More troublingly, some of the schools he claims to have built were never built at all.

When the revelations surfaced, it ignited a firestorm of reactions. Readers were, understandably, feeling cheated because they were lied to. But perhaps they need to ask themselves why they were so willing to believe this story in the first place: is it because the story offered them a familiar paradigm—Eastern women are in desperate need of Western saviors. Nevertheless, shouldn’t we put aside our differences and remember when we cooperate to build schools we transform lives and build a better world.   

Did you read the book? What was your take on it?

Tomorrowland

Every time I’m out in public and watch kids I think about the difference today's technology will make in the lives of tomorrow's kids.  With kids rushing to emulate the lives of adults and childhood getting shorter will it be wiped out? Every time I see a baby garbed in black leather (with young parents that think it's cool) or a 6 year old dressed like she's going to a nightclub, I can't help but wonder... but I'll leave that for another post.

 

Since the new century began, we’ve seen so many changes. And when I think about all the things that have passed before me, I’m amazed at how many times I’m able to dredge up a personal connection to the departed way of life. It’s probably why I’ve discussed this topic before. Although I applaud medical advances and enjoy not having a zillion cables in and around my home stereo, I believe the biggest detriment to mankind will be the loss of human contact,  that will result in fear and more violence.  Still, I’m giving a social forecast for today’s kids and what the future will hold for tomorrow. 

The evening news: News for kids today is not world events but primarily the mundane aspects about celebrities. The news is on 24/7. And if you're not home to watch it, that's OK— it's on the Smartphone in your pocket.

Books, magazines, and newspapers: Like video tape, words written on dead trees are on their way out. There may be some books—but for kids today, stores that exist to sell them will be as numerous as record stores are now.

Paper maps: At one time available at every gas station. They're practically obsolete today, and the next generation will not know how to read one and will probably have to visit a museum to see one; that is, if museums are still around.

Recipe Boxes: Why would anyone need their Grandmother’s recipes when its' got stains and wear and tear from being passed from one generation to another?  You can go online and presto!—a recipe complete with a calorie, fat and nutritional content.

CDs: First records, then 8-track, then cassette, then CDs — replacing your music collection used to be an expensive pastime; sometimes purchased for pleasure or for a party.  Now you can have a party alone on the Internet.  Music is as cheap and as close as an Internet connection.

Film cameras: For kids today, the word film will mean nothing. In fact, even digital cameras — both video and still— are in danger of extinction as our pocket computers take over that function too.

One picture to a frame: Such a waste of space to have a separate frame around each picture, how sentimental!  Gigabytes of pictures and/or video in a digital frame encompassing every person you've ever met and everything you've ever done — now, that's efficient. Especially compared to what we used to do: put our friends and relatives together in a room and force them to watch what we called a slide show or home movies.

Forgotten friends: Remember when an old friend would bring up someone you both knew in school, and you'd say, "Oh yeah, whatever happened to her?" The next generation will automatically be in touch with everyone they've ever known even slightly via Facebook.

Hand-written letters and thank you notes: For that matter, hand-written anything. When was the last time you wrote cursive? Will the future generation know what the art of letter-writing was or what the word cursive means? Will the future generation filled with materialistic values and a preposterous sense of entitlement practice the grace of saying thank you in a note?

Talking to one person at a time: Remember when manners were a sign of being brought up well? It was rude to be with one person while talking to another on the phone. Kids today will just assume that you're supposed to text and maintain superficial contact with five or six other people while not having to pay attention to the person you happen to be physically next to.

After Hours: Today’s kids will not know what it is like to stand in a pub and argue the unknowable; in a friendly discussion.  The world's collective knowledge is on your computer stashed in your pocket or purse. And since you have it with you at all times, why bother remembering anything? Or for that matter, having your own opinion.

Watches: Quaint relics.  Who needs one when the correct time is on your Smartphone, which is always in your hand.

Anonymity: Not long ago if you didn’t answer your home phone or went for a drive nobody knew where you might be. Now your phone along with your car and public cameras everywhere can potentially tell everyone exactly where you are at all times. And we call this progress.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Is anybody as happy as I am that after a long hiatus Mad Men is back on the air? Finally, the handsome, irresistible Don Draper seems to be happy. Times and social mores are rapidly changing for the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce gang.  And if you ever miss part of the show as I did last Sunday night you can go onto their website http://www.amctv.com and get more information than you’ve bargained for; such as finding out that Betty’s obsessive-compulsive eating disorder included snacking on Bugles. Does that bring back memories? The show is known for its’ historical authenticity, visual style, and great story-telling, but it wasn’t until I went online to find show 503 did I find out what a detail-oriented website they have!  It features exclusive sneak peek and behind the scenes videos, episodic and behind-the-scenes photo galleries, episode and character guides, a blog, and a community forum. It contains all the promotional and marketing aids I discuss in my Blogging class.  While the television advertising niche is a far-cry from my students’ goals, the website serves as an example that one can study and emulate. And since some students have their eyes glued to their computer screens or cell phones as they text—while I lecture; later when I’m asked questions on material I’ve already covered—I can refer to the website and my life just got easier, thanks to the Mad Men example.  See for yourself.  

Philosophy on the Page

I’m thinking about my fiction class; and how I’ve begun something new— and how chilled the students are when I discourage them from writing what they know. I say fiction is an act of courage and humility, a protest against our mortality, and we, the authors, don’t matter. What matters are our characters, those constructions of imagination that can transcend our biases, agendas and egos.  Trust your powers of invention, I say. Trust the examples of the authors you love to read—and trust that your craft, when braided with compassion, will produce stories that matter both to you and to readers you’ve never met.

Most students accept it. Week by week, their stories are rewarding, and with each revision, and they have to revise— I feel more optimistic, more moved by their work. I’ve long believed that what has kept writers, from fully transcending their personal experiences on the page was fear of incompetence: I can’t write a plot that involves a bank robbery because I’ve never been involved in one, etc. But what if it’s the opposite? What if the reason we find it so difficult to cleave our fiction from our experience, the reason we hesitate or loath to engage our imaginations and let the story rise above the ground floor of truth, isn’t that we’re afraid we’ll do the job poorly, but that we’re afraid we’ll do it too well? If we succeed, if the characters are fully imagined, if they are so beautifully real that they quicken and rise off the page, then maybe our own experiences will feel smaller, 
our actions less consequential. Maybe we’re afraid that if we write what we don’t know, we’ll discover something truer than anything our real lives will ever yield. And maybe we encounter still another, more insidious threat—the threat that if we do our jobs too well, if we powerfully render characters who are unbound from our experience, they’ll supplant us in the reader’s mind. Maybe we worry that fiction’s vividness will put our own brief lives in a meaningless state, and the reader, seduced by literature’s permanence, will leave us behind. Maybe we feel threatened that if our characters outlive us—there is the possibility that the writer, not the reader, will be forgotten. 


What do you say to that dear reader/ writer?

More than simple words

A successful short story is a sophisticated form of fiction that readers love and publishers respect if it is commercially popular.   

An intriguing character, feelings, ideas and meaningful action in such a limited economy of words! And short stories are currently enjoying even more success with the proliferation of new ways to sell online.

A few students are so inspired by the story they write that they have goals of going onto a novel.   The process of converting your short story to a novel can reveal a great deal about the strengths and weaknesses of the storyline, which is why you never end after a first draft. In some cases, you may need to revise the old story.   

Here are some ideas on how to make it come together.  

Create a new outline
It’s essential to make a plan for the structure of a book, particularly when expanding from a short story to a novel.

An outline provides an opportunity to step back and see where you can flesh out the original incomplete material with more linked events.

Each chapter gives you the opportunity to add and subtract elements, move them around, and to insert more dialogue and visual description at key points.

Remember that outlines are never carved in stone, since they’re usually polished and revised once you start writing again and the book takes on a life of its own.

Conceptualize anew
When you create a longer work from a short story, you’re not just filling in the holes. You’re painting the picture on a larger canvas.

The rhythm of a novel is different, the pacing more ample, so breathe! You have the luxury of spending extended time with the characters so we know more about their history, where they’re coming from, and the deeper complexity of their motivation and actions.

What you thought had to be a brief and sketchy as a back-story may in fact become where the book actually begins and may very well be an opening hook.

Where you once had only one character, now you can have two or even three, each representing various aspects of the same theme with a variety of temperaments and behaviors.

There’s more room to write about the setting, visuals, colors, and the scents.

Deconstruct the original draft
Take apart what you have so far, and look for the holes. Study the characters. Are they alive, three dimensional, speaking and behaving in a credible and compelling manner?

Analyze the sequence of events. How can you expand on the existing scenes so they have more meaning and power?

Consider the novella
Collections of short stories may be organized as a group that can also be read as chapters in an episodic sequence that portrays a common theme, with a focused group of characters in place and time. In this, a collection of short stories may be read as a full-length work which can be greater than its parts.

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Have you wondered about this process?  Or are you assembling a collection of stories that work together in some way? Now you can write more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwus-6Hu0Kw&feature=related

I’d love to hear about your own ideas and experiences with this process.

A man’s fame lasts longer than his life

Here we are again St. Patrick’s Day which reminds me for being such a small country Ireland has made a large contribution to the world of literature.  All that cold nasty weather forcing people to be indoors must have encouraged imaginations to stir into rich prose mixed with humor.  So once again I have conjured a list of favorites. Five classic authors and three contemporary along with comments on why I find them extraordinary.

 

James Joyce- I read the Dubliners in College and loved that I wasn’t told what to think but rather I was left to come to my own conclusions; this is an evident contrast with the moral judgments displayed by other writers at that time. There is a lack of traditional dramatic resolution within the stories but there is plenty of room to think about what the short-stories actually mean.

 

Oscar Wilde- My all-time favorite Irishman.  His presentation of late-Victorian society, while simultaneously mocking them is exceptionally witty. With a gift for comical farce in the Importance of Being Earnest, every time I hear the line about being born in a handbag, and bred at Victoria Station, I burst into a roar.

Lady Bracknell: Are your parents living?

Jack Worthing: I have lost both my parents.

Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Do you smoke?

Jack Worthing: Well yes, I must admit I smoke.

Lady Bracknell: I’m glad to hear it. A man should have an occupation of some kind.

 

Samuel Beckett- I have seen Waiting for Godot more than any other production. Why? Because it takes on how we as individuals create value by affirming and living life, not by simply talking about it or philosophizing it in our minds. The play validates how each of us either creates value and the place of (or lack of) God in our lives. It has depth.  I see God and Godot as one and the same.

 

George Bernard Shaw- His ironic wit and his way of joking is to tell the truth, it’s why I love his quotes so much, such as— All great truths begin as blasphemies.  A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.  Youth is wasted on the young. Life isn’t about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself.  And of course his play Pygmalion which on the silver-screen became the 1930’s movie of the same name and later was adapted to the musical, My Fair Lady.

 

William Butler Yeats- His preference for using rhyme and strict stanza set him apart from the vogue of modern poetry. His creative imagination remained very much his own. An example is in The Drinking Song...

WINE comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That’s all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

 

Frank Mc Court- His memoir, Angela’s Ashes had me rolling from tragic comedies.  The misery and squalor of his childhood was brilliant. It was one book I thought of long after I put it down.  The film didn’t do the story justice.

 

Edna O’Brien- I was in awe when I read she wrote The Country Girls in a few short weeks. It;s lyrical portrayal of loving, sensitive, good women, being victimized by hard, callous men, and it’s publication hit the right note at the right time which is why it was banned in Ireland. O’Brien as a pioneer, set the road for women to write about relating to men sending out bulletins from battlefronts where other women dare not tread.

Nuala O’Faolain- She demonstrated terrific talent for being a counterpart to Frank McCourt.  Her memoir, Are You Somebody is so honest about her own shortcomings and dysfunctions at first it’s hard to like her but you will admire her. She floats from job to job–relationship to relationship without much thought to the consequences of her actions. It is not until she reaches a personal crisis at her parent’s death that she acknowledges the destructive role alcohol has played in her life—repeating familial patterns and the aimless way she has existed. It is then that she begins to emerge as a more introspective person and you come to love the person that she is.  It is truly beautiful.

How about you? The day inspire any stories?

Possibilities

Writing a great ending to a story is just as important as a riveting opening that attracts our attention and compels us to mentally linger over the story. Our response may be filled with joy, hope, happiness, or it may lead us to feel uncomfortable, frown, or contemplate the unknown mysteries of life.

I often say in my classes that I don’t believe there’s a predictable formula for every ending.  But, it’s essential to provide an emotional landing place, so the audience can feel a sense that their lives have been made richer for having heard the story. And while that may not be an easy feat, here are three tips to remember.

Find the right moment to end
It’s crucial to realize when it’s time to stop. The trick is to acknowledge mistakes and calamities without reiteration or blame, while at the same time avoiding any saccharine projections into the future.

Don’t end prematurely!
Sometimes the curtain falls with a surprising thud. Beware of premature endings that leave too many threads still unraveled. Crimes should be solved and the world saved from villains.
Most of my students write about themselves or an event in their lives. Focus on what makes a point, has a theme, and requires an enlightened ending, even though a life isn’t over. It doesn’t have to be happy, successful or inspiring.  What’s more important in a coming-of-age story are the resolutions of obstacles overcome, with experience and wisdom for anything that might follow.

Endings are about change
It’s disappointing for a reader to reach the end of a story only to realize that the characters and continuing events are basically at the same point as the beginning. 
Endings are about change. Fiction and narrative nonfiction stories are about overcoming major obstacles, quests, and transformations. The changes may not be all good. The story may be upsetting or depressing. But if no one learns anything and the challenges faced at the outset remain static and identical to those at the end, the story will seem pointless, unsatisfying, and without significance, not to mention the character staid.

Remember stories are about life which is why we respond to them.  Personally, my interest gets piqued by character-driven material— it’s one of the reasons why I love movies. I like to fall for characters featuring ordinary people who succeed in overcoming extraordinary challenges.   

What about you?
Are you working on the ending of a story? I’ll watch for any questions here in comments.

Nanu Nanu

I was reading somewhere online about the vast majority of indigenous languages still spoken in the United States that are on the verge of extinction.

Taken aback, I thought other than perhaps the Native-American tribes who speaks anything other than English in this country? I think that Americans are afraid of languages and resist learning them.  Its part of not wanting to give up control.  The melting pot  encourages a fusion of culture and language when it’s far richer to expand and motivate your left brain function. Our whole consciousness is framed by language and the loss of it serves as a break from identity. 

Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country looking for the few remaining pockets where indigenous languages are still spoken — from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of Louisiana. The resulting book is Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages.

Speaking three — okay truth be told, maybe only two and a half but having a good ear whenever I even say the word “schmootzik” Yiddish for dirty to my Coco when we’re at the doggie park I get blank stares as if I’m from outer space. http://www.bubbygram.com/yiddishglossary.htm

For anyone who speaks more than one language, some words have more power and pizzazz in a foreign tongue. It brings to mind, when I was growing up name-calling was “verboten” in our household and grounds for punishment.  Telling my brother who was eleven months older, that he gave me “asco” Spanish for nauseate was the ultimate insult and would leave me feeling very satisfied.

If I were to embark on learning a language facing extinction, I would choose Yiddish and here’s why.  

Before I met my husband I went on a blind-date with a man who spoke it fluently.  We were at an upscale restaurant breaking bread for the salad. I wasn’t the least bit impressed by his looks but I was about to find out what a wonderful conversationalist he was.  He told me that his father had said (in Yiddish) that he was so forgiving that a person could spit on his face and he would say it was raining.  I snorted my bread from laughter!   

There is a depth of Yiddish that shows complexity and humor.  It’s loaded with a secret code of expressions, including terms of endearments, complaints and insults. And although it is fading fast since the Jewish European wipe-out, my wish is that it lives on. So I’ll end with a Yiddish proverb: If one man calls you a donkey, ignore him. If two men call you a donkey, think about it. If three men call you a donkey, buy a saddle.

Perfect ten

It’s now March which means it’s Women's History Month.  To pay tribute to the month I’m listing the names of ten writers which I feel offer inspiring, bold and sometimes even disturbing stories of women — along with what makes them notable. It's important to dig into women’s stories, to experience first-hand how their storytelling evolved. These are my picks.          

Isabel Allende- I once saw her coming out of a Spanish language bookstore in Berlin as I was walking in, and out of respect for her privacy, I smiled. I could kick myself now for not having spoken to her. A gifted storyteller, The House of the Spirits and her other works have a focus on Latin women.  Her stories inspire, haunt and touch on the magical, and mythical in the lives of everyday people.

Zora Neale Hurston- How she maneuvered symbolism and colloquialisms in Their Eyes Were Watching God demonstrated originality and an incredible force of talent. Her work is regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature. 

Kate Chopin- Her depth of a woman's struggle within oppressive social structures received much public contempt at its first release of The Awakening. Its initial controversy may not be felt today but the depth of a woman’s self-actualization is as applicable today as it was then.  

Lillian Hellman- Her play The Little Foxes is intense.  I can’t say if it’s better as a book or as a performance because I've only read it. The story centers on a dysfunctional family and Hellman does a superb job of exploring the Apollonian and Dionysian struggle through wealthy southerners.   

Flannery O’Connor- She has a distinctive tone. Her prose sings. The songs are dark, tragic and sad. A terrific short-story collection is A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories.  She draws out the internal despair of her characters in a way that makes them feel palpable and real.  

Amy Tan- I don’t know another author who writes about mothers and daughters with more empathy than Tan. In The Bonesetter’s Daughter she depicts tumultuous relationships and most women will recognize enough similarities in the characters feelings and actions that will be eerie.

Jane Austen- Both society and the English language have changed in the nearly 200 years since the publication of Sense & Sensibility. Austen's language is as eloquent, warm, filled with bits of irresistible sarcasm as ever. The plot is very cleverly weaved and her heroines are given a vast space to express their thoughts and feelings, highlighting all the way through the differences between them.

Colette- A flair for drama and role-reversals.  She was divided into idyllic natural tales or dark struggles in love.  On my first voyage to France I was given the paperback Gigi by a girl-friend.  It was surprisingly different than the American musical film I had seen. The story of a girl being groomed into being a courtesan was marked by clever observation and dialogue with an intimate, explicit style. 

Sylvia Plath- Extraordinary psychological insights.  She echoed her own experiences as a rising writer in the early 1950s in The Bell Jar. It chronicles the nervous breakdown of a brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful, writer.  Her prose is clear; well-written; and steeped in isolation as she herself spirals into the darkest recesses of depression.

George Sand- A spectacular pleasure seeker. A mammoth of a book (800 plus pages, I had more patience back then) Consuelo, is the lively adventures of an 18th century Gypsy opera singer. A rare examination between music, religious fervor, love, insanity, travel, while tossing in numerous fascinating historical figures from the 18th century. Lively with powerful plot twists written in a spirit of independence.