Novel Chronicles

A Writer's Journey ...

2011-11-20T16:33:00.001-05:00

Iwasn't one of those writers who knew from day one that she wanted to be awriter. Like all things with me, it was a slow process, the seeds of which I didn'teven see when my gift was staring me in the face. It took some time for me tofind my calling, but when I did, I was scared to death. Writing a book seemedsuch a momentous undertaking. The stuff of the greats – Hemingway, Baldwin, Morrison,etc. Even with all the passion and talent in the world, writing 250 to 300pages of something seemed like climbing Kilimanjaro!

But Kilimanjarohas been climbed many times, one step at a time, and millions of books havebeen written, one page at a time.

Adecade into my writer’s journey, I have to admit that it's been sweet, sour, and bitter.All mixed into one.

Whenit's working and you're so lost in the world you've created, it's the mostmagical feeling, an incredible high, an inexhaustible energy source; the willof a creative force is working through you. When the last page is written andthe story is done, it's that magic that makes it difficult to leave the worldyou've created, to say goodbye to your characters. They haunt you for weeks,even months after the story has been written, and saying goodbye is almostimpossible.

Othertimes, you're lost in the forest and you don't know where you're going. You’rein total darkness and can’t see the light. You can’t find that thread thatweaves it all. You’re desperately hoping that special energy comes, but itdoesn’t… The motivations and deeper layers of your characters remain a mystery,comes to you in trickles, and, in the meantime, you're just skimming the surface, scraping thebottom of your creativity, and the story just can’t gain momentum. Thosemoments are hard, lonely, and facing an empty white page is like facing amirror. You're exposed and see the vulnerabilities etched in your face. Thefear in your eyes gets bigger, and it grows sharp teeth, which begin to gnaw atyour innards. Maybe I won’t be able to write anymore, create another story,finish another book. This is also part of the process of writing. Creativity resides sodeep within and to get to it sometimes means that you have to turn yourselfinside out, and, believe me, that's not always easy.

Sometimesyou pour your blood and guts into a story, and at the end of it, it lacks fire,momentum to transport a reader anywhere. So you fight the story, characters, goback to war just trying to extract a little bit of water from a rock, and atthe end of it, it still doesn’t work. Why? What makes one story work and another fall short? Or was it plainand simply you, the author who stood in its way? Or did you give enough or toolittle of yourself?

Andthere are darker times when you just want to give up, stop writing. Everyonehas their own meter of success, a destination point, and when it takes so longto reach it, and you’re just tired and worn out by the never-ending road, youfeel like letting go … Despite the fact that the business of publishing booksis hemorrhaging, and the harsh trickle-down effect for all the players involved,the rejections start to mess with your head. You find yourself wanting to putto bed your "silly notion" of being able make any real money fromyour craft. The dream starts to dim, like a star losing its light.

Youdoubt yourself, your talents, and question your desire to continue. Youcontemplate the idea of giving it all up, thoroughly discouraged by the discoverythat the very thing you love so much and hope for brings you a lot of pain…

I toldmyself this past week that I was going to give up writing for a while, writingfiction that is. I heard one of myfavorite writers say one day that he was not going to write any more books. Iremember the resentment in his voice, his face swollen with fatigue anddisgust. I couldn’t understand where that came from. He wrote so beautifully,his words sensual, his prose the work of a honed craft, a seasoned writer. Trueto his word, he hasn’t published a new book since. At the time, I was a newbie,a blade of grass freshly sprouted from the ever growing lot of aspiringwriters. It was unfathomable to me at the time what he was feeling or evensaying … Today, I can understand his disappointment, that anger, thedisconnect.

So, Iwas ready to put my pen down for a spell until I went to a book event called Page to the Stage hosted by Harlem's one and only Hue-Man Bookstore.

Seven writers share their stories (from non-fiction to fiction). Seven stories - allpersonal, inspirational, uplifting.

I wasreminded of many things.

That writingis a long, solitary road, which sometimes leads to dead ends. Accept andsurrender. But other times, it leads to new paths, greater light, and a deeperunderstanding of not only yourself, but of humanity. Be thankful.

I wasreminded of the power of books to connect, transport, and transform readers. Thepower of a story to make you discover something new about the world.

Thecreative mind is fragile and creativity needs to be nurtured, not rushed. I wasreminded that each journey, even though it doesn’t lead where you want it to,teaches us something about ourselves.

And, finally, I wasreminded that sometimes you lose your oomph along the way, but not giving up isjust the mental endurance you need to find it again.

Pleasecheck out the books of the authors listed below who shared their work at thePage to Stage event!!

MelvinVan Peebles – Confessions of an Ex-Doofus

PaulMooney – Black is the New White

Vernice“Flygirl” Armour – Zero to Breakthrough

CherylWills – Die Free

DeborahGregory – Catwalk

KeliGoff – GQ Candidate

VictoriaRowell – Women Who Raised Me & Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva

Pub Buzz – week of June 20th

2011-06-25T16:46:00.011-04:00

There is never a dull moment in publishing, so let’s get right to it.

Self-Publishing News!

ANOTHER self-published author, John Locke, sells over a million ebooks for Kindle and joins the “Kindle Million Club.” It’s a new day for self-published authors. At a 35% royalty rate (percentage for a $0.99 priced ebook on Amazon, 70% for $2.99 and up), you do the math … Show me the money, baby! No wonder the most successful (traditionally) published authors (aka Barry Eisler, J. K. Rowling!!!) are publishing their own ebooks and thinking of creative ways to do business with their books. Who can argue with that type of math! No one … We’ll be seeing more of this trend no doubt.

Read another great story about Amanda Hocking who the press calls a self-published phenomenon. This do it yourself author grossed over 2 million in sales of her ebooks on Amazon. More math that you can’t argue with! Now she’s signed with St. Martin’s Press to publish her next series, “Watersong.” She’s milking both those cows. You, go, girl!

When billionaire author, J. K. Rowling, was set to make a mystery announcement, the entire world waited with bated breath. Well, the wait is over. No, Rowling is not writing another Harry Potter book, but she is joining the self-pubbed ebook author club. Always keeping ownership of the digital rights of her Potter books (smart cookie!), Rowling will be selling the digital version of her books directly to voracious, can’t-get-enough Harry Potter readers/consumers. They will be available as of October on her own e-commerce platform Pottermore. GAWD! Does this mean that she’ll be getting a 100% royalty? Not so fast! Scholastic and Bloomsbury UK will be getting some kind of cut. Plus, they will be lending a hand to market this initiative. What’s interesting, however, is that for the first time, they’ll be on the lower end of that percentage. Times are a changing.

Some more math to think about:

“In the year ended April 30, U.S. e-book sales jumped 163% to $313 million, according to the Association of American Publishers, but the sale of adult hard-cover books declined 19% to $300 million. The figures reflect the reporting of 22 companies.”

Like the music industry before, we are definitely witnessing the overhaul of the publishing landscape. The rules are definitely changing, the players are shifting powers, and that’s a good thing. Writers have more options than ever to publish their books and create lucrative business deals around their work. I bet there will be more collaborations like this in the future for writers. Finally! At Last! That’s how it should have been in the first place, I say.

Book Industry News

Brooklyn indie Publisher, Akashic Books, is on fire!!!

They have a break out hit, Go the F*** Asleep, which has been topping the bestseller lists even before its recent pub date (June 14, 2011).

Listen to Samuel Jackson read the audiobook!

Akashic has ALSO launched a new imprint called Open Lens with an incredible trio – Hue-Man Bookstore owner, Marva Allen, pioneer agent, Marie Brown, and agent, Regina Brooks. Described as a new publishing platform for serious literary works (fiction and nonfiction) targeting an African American readership, aspiring authors from all over the world can submit their work for consideration.

So many literary writers feel that their chances of getting published are slim to none with the dominance of non-fiction (some agents don't even take on new fiction projects anymore), commercial genre fiction, urban lit, YA, vampire stories, paranormal romance, and the list goes on and on.

What a great venture. I’m looking forward to the kinds of books they will be publishing. Their first one is a nonfiction title, Makeda, out in September. Check it out!

Celebrity Books

Curtis Brown (50 Cent) has inked a deal to publish a book with Penguin YA publisher, Razerbill, on bullying inspired by his own experiences in childhood and adolescence.

Things to check out:

Check out this infographic about the best time to tweet and be on Facebook.

A quick summary:

5PM Eastern Time is the best time to tweet.
The best tweeting frequency is 1 to 4 tweets per hour.
Saturday is the best day to share content on Facebook.
Noon Eastern Time is the best time of the day to share content on Facebook.
The best sharing frequency on Facebook is .5 posts per day.

Check out this cool new online interview magazine I came across called The Talks.

Owners Johannes Bonke and Sven Schumann update it weekly with interviews of figures from film, fashion, music, art, and sports. To name a few of these notables - Valentino, Patti Smith, Sophia Coppola, Mike Tyson …

Is Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer still scandalous 50 years later?

Friday, June 24, marked the 50^th anniversary of the U. S. publication of the Tropic of Cancer. Banned for a whopping 27 years in the U. S., Miller was 70 when it was finally published in America. Flavorwire brings us 10 of the most scandalous passages in the book. Read on!

Just Jump!

2011-06-19T00:30:00.009-04:00

I recently went to Mexico and faced one of my biggest fears – swimming in the vast, open ocean. No boundaries, no safety net, no pool wall to hold on to, all kinds of marine life that could chomp off one of my limbs … Ok, I’ll try not to be dramatic.

But the fact is that I’ve always been deathly afraid of swimming in the ocean, fearful of drowning, of being caught in a tide that I can’t fight, encountering a ferocious fish (SHARK!) that would eat me as prey. I’ve had this fear as far back as I can remember, and I’m not sure how I got it or what spurred it on. I remember my swim class in college. Most of the young women who couldn’t swim were from the Caribbean, islands surrounded by water! Ridiculous, I know … shameless even. I marvel at those swimmers, snorkelers, scuba divers who jump into the ocean and swim with sharks of any kind, who plunge into the deepest blues to explore and discover, who let go and surrender, letting the tide drift their body in any which direction. Why aren’t they afraid of being hurt or dying? Why does fear never enter their hearts when they’re in a body of water that could swallow them whole?

This year, my challenge is to get past this fear. So, when my best friend and I went to Mexico, it was a great opportunity to take my first plunge. I went snorkeling for the first time in my life. My best friend always knew about my fear of the ocean. However, it was only until the moment I had to jump into deep waters that she realized just how bad it was. As the boat took us away from the shore, I tried to remain calm and pray the fear away. I kept telling myself that I could do it, that the fear was in my head. When the boat slowed and we reached our snorkeling destination, the fear was like a beast inside. When I sat at the edge of the boat and had to jump in, that beast was unleashed. I have never known that kind of fear. My entire body was paralyzed. I couldn’t breathe. My heart was pounding madly against my ribcage. I just couldn’t do it. The fear was so consuming that I turned into a blubbering mess, heaving and bawling my guts out, tears spilling from my eyes.

“All you have to do is jump …” my BF kept telling me.

I whispered to myself, “Just jump, just jump, just jump…”

The words were so easy, the action IMPOSSIBLE.

She promised to hold my hand until I got comfortable in the ocean.

The young skipper on the boat even jumped in to help me. Now there were two reassuring souls ready to be a buffer against my enemy - the ocean.

Well, I finally jumped … but I didn’t let go … I jumped into the water, but held onto the boat. My arm got banged up, but I was in …

My best friend held my hand until I got the hang of being in the water. The skipper even took a turn holding my hand for awhile … It became less scary and, although the fear was still there, it was slowly dissipating.

I was surrounded by beautiful fish and started to let go, a little … But it wasn’t enough, and I knew that I had so much more work to do to overcome my fear.

As we were returning back to shore, I couldn’t help but feeling disappointed in myself. Fear is a thief. When we surrender to fear, it takes so much away from us. It deprives us of opportunities, experiences, blessings, it keeps us from growing and reaching for our dreams, it boxes us in and prevents us from living fuller lives. It’s ok to be afraid, and we’ll always have fears, but we must surpass them.

Bottom line: the only way we can really live the life and achieve the things we really want is by overcoming our fears. LET GO and JUST JUMP. I’m discovering, slowly, but surely, that you’ll land just where you need to be.