The Truth About Writing

THE SLUMP OF 2009

Status: Just milling about.

Watching: Smallville, Season 6.

Listening to: Icon of Coil, VNV Nation, Infected Mushroom.

Reading: Star Trek: To Rein in Hell.

TOPIC: ONE CRAZY YEAR.

Some things change, yet some things still remain the same.

Reflecting on this past year, it was a pretty crazy one: Living with my in-laws for 5 months, getting our own place, and finally hitting a wall with my writing that has left a lot of unanswered questions, along with many unfinished journeys.

I haven't written much since September-October with my Airwolf novel and I'm still in a meloncholy state of mind: Where I want to write, but I'm not motivated enough to even start.

I've been trying to go over why I can't and my mind keeps drawing a blank. I'm beginning to wonder if being homeless againt for the second time in 15 years had destroyed some or all of my confidence in my abilities as a writer.

If being severely stressed out and severely depressed from those 8 months of being homeless--and at the mercies of both my wife's ex-friend and my in-laws--had something to do with the fact that I cannot produce a large amount of material for my writing.

I do know that it can be changed. I can feel it. At the edge of my perceptions, I can sense something's about to break free within me.

My writing obsession will eventually overwhelm me and nothing will be able to stop me from doing what I love most: Which is writing.

But I think it's going to take a little more time. But by then, I should be in full Writer Mode and putting away the pages like I always did these last 8 years. :0)

Sky

LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST STEPHANIE MEYERS.

Status: Writing on a variety of book projects.

Watching: James Bond movies from my PS2.

Listening to: Whatever's burned to my PC.

Reading: CHEEKY ANGEL manga.

TOPIC: PLAGIARISM ABOUNDS...

Like JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyers was recently handed a lawsuit--charging her with plagiarizing one of her books; from another unauthorized source.

Of course, Meyers denies that she plagiarized "anything" from her books, but one has to wonder why people like her can get so defensive about it--if they didn't do it in the first place?

Like Bush's supporters have famously said over the years: "If you're not worried, what do you have to hide?"

Plagiarism is becoming something of a growing epidemic within the publishing world these days--with more and more examples popping up over the past five years. (Or more.)

With the advent of the internet, it has become more and more easy to simply "lift" material (copyrighted or otherwise) from people's personal websites, or other different websites and claim it as your own--once the finished project is completed.

Stephanie Meyers and JK Rowling are most likely guilty of such crimes--which makes their claims of innocence all that more suspect.

No one in their right mind would think that either just didn't happen to dream up their book series independently and without any such public "influence".

If they did--as they claim--it's a load of crap. There are a lot of internal and external influences which makes coming up with something original all that much harder.

People these days have either fallen off of or gotten onto the band wagon--for that one, small, trip towards fame, fortune, and glory.

They constantly want to emulate their favorite authors, movie stars, and the like--and don't have to put in a whole lot of work doing it.

Writing a novel is becoming all that more challenging to do--because it is all too easy to fall prey to cheating and stealing your way towards the end of any given book project.

But denying it just casts a cloud over you--the author--and makes it all that more difficult to be seen as both credible and original.

Sky

***

"Twilight" author accused of plagiarism

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A writer plans to sue "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer, accusing her of plagiarism by lifting passages from an obscure book she wrote called "The Nocturne" and using them in vampire romance "Breaking Dawn," an attorney said on Tuesday.

J. Craig Williams, who represents "The Nocturne" author Jordan Scott, told Reuters by phone that the passages in question involve few word-for-word similarities but that the two books have similar plot and character points.

Meyer's publisher, Hachette Book Group, called the accusation meritless, saying "The Twilight Saga" is entirely Meyer's creation and that she knew nothing of "The Nocturne."

"Breaking Dawn," which came out in 2008, is the fourth book in the series of novels about a teenager, Bella Swan, caught in a forbidden romance with vampire Edward Cullen.

The "Twilight" books, which the publisher says have sold 70 million copies worldwide, are the basis for a movie series from Summit Entertainment. The first film, "Twilight," has earned more than $380 million at worldwide box offices, and the second, "New Moon," hits theaters in November.

In "Breaking Dawn," Bella marries the blood-sucking Cullen and the book follows Bella through a difficult pregnancy and her new life as a vampire.

In a cease-and-desist letter Williams sent to Hachette Book Group, he provided comparisons from the two books of a wedding, a sex-on-the-beach episode and a passage where a human-turned-vampire describes the wrenching change.

As another instance of similarities, Williams pointed out that characters in both books call their wives "love."

Hachette Book Group said in a statement that Meyer's books "have been a phenomenal sensation" and that "it shouldn't be surprising to hear that other people may seek to ride the coattails of such success."

Williams said Scott plans to file a copyright infringement lawsuit against Meyer this week or next in U.S. federal court.

"I think the fans have to read both books and make up their own mind, like a judge is going to have to," Williams said.

He said Scott does not plan to seek monetary damages.

Scott made chapters from "The Nocturne" available online as she was working on the vampire book, which she wrote in her teenage years and released in book form in 2006, Williams said. He said he did not know how many copies the book sold.

A VERY IMPORTANT PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE!

Status: Living with the in-laws. (Week 10)

Watching: Nothing.

Listening to: Recorded Music.

Reading: A bunch of mangas.

TOPIC: RABID FAN BASES

While I still have the strength and energy to type this out (sick once again--due to stress and a lot of other factors in my life), I wanted to touch base on the rabid fan issue.
Yes...

The RABID FAN.

Recently classified by scientists as an offshoot of the Homo Sapien race of mammals--rabid fans are an eclectic group of harbingers whom have this little nifty power to make their cousin species' sick with aggravation and deep-seeded annoyance

Why?

Because rabid fans can.

Their unique power structure stems from their obssessed love for any particular book or fad which has consumed their sad little lives--which ends being very badly for them.

They cannot discern reality from fantasy--having hooked onto the idea that their target in question will somehow respond and give back what was stolen from them in the first place:

Their lives.

How can you spot a rabid fan a mile away--or anyone else showing symptoms of unnormalcy?

A rabid fan's behavior is a dead giveaway. If they are acting completely out of character or seem to be fixated on something beu-faux specific...?

Steer clear of them and their little armies of gnawing teeth and explosive anger.

You don't want to get them angry. Not one iota.

They seem to believe that whatever made them rabid in the first place, might reciproctate and give them their undivided blessings in retrospect.

By saying, "Thank You!"--for hanging on and making the target's life all that less enriching and more self-important.

Rabid fans can be found dwelling in special groups, borrows, or tidy little holes with chains of flowers and other fauna designed to enhance their little abode--while showcasing a lot of their choice items which is the soul reason why they are rabid in the first place.

Rabid fans are easily spotted by their sharp claws, gnawing teeth, beady little eyes, and choice apparel reflecting why they are so rabid in the first place.

It can be a phrase, a word. a singular title, or even a picture of their dwelling fixation and undying love.

To say something bad about the rabid fans' target of affection (or love) is to invite disaster.

In such dreaded scenarios, the offender is usually found with their arms and legs ripped off at the seams, their impersonables torn completely away from their bodies and their clothes left tattered and in shreds.

In some documented cases, rabid fans have been known to take a trophy part of their targeted aggression and have it on display for the whole entire world to see.

Why?

Rabid fans don't like their god or goddess taken down a peg or beaten into a nice and juicy pulp.

So they have been known to congregate into tightly woven circles; throwing up all kinds of deflector-shield technologies in order to preserve or protect The One from his or her untimely critics or flame-bots.

Rabid fans often have been reported to not have much of a social life and one has to wonder if personal hygiene or grooming is ever required.

So far...

Scientists the world over have yet to confirm or document the inner workings of a rabid fan--only suffice to say that without some on-hand experience in dealing with them...?

All that is written here is pure speculation and shouldn't be taken with a grain of salt--for fear that angering these undomesticated rabid fans will somehow trigger and emotionally aggressive response.

So, the next time you run into a rabid fan or their base, please, please, please...!--give them a wide berth and go about your own lives.

If you ever value them.

End documentary.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WANTING TO SELF-PUBLISH

Status: Living with the in-laws. (Help! SOS!)

Watching: Nothing.

Listening to: The "f"-Word. (Cooking show.)

Reading: The Death Star. Page 327.

TOPIC: SELF-PUBLISHING AND WHAT IT MEANS


Self-publishing is nothing new. According to Writer's Digest, it's been around since the days of John Milton.

Defenders of self-publishing routinely point to such historic works like Aeropagitica as a celebration of the practice.

Businesses that offer such services can be traced back to newspaper ads from the 1930s--where they suggested that 'chapbooks' filled with poems would make excellent gifts or close friends and family members, but also warned against the idea that this route would lead immediately to fame and riches.

Because they are right.

Self-publishing is a gamble which shouldn't be taken lightly.

Even though print-on-demand (POD) and digital technologies have greatly improved the quality and layouts of self-published books since the 1990s--self-publishing still remains a "last resort" for those of us whom have failed to capture the attention and imagination of the mainstream publishing network.

But if you are considering self-publishing, then consider the following statistics:

• Very few self-published writers actually make enough money off their writing these days to sustain themselves.
• The average books sold in the United States comes to about 500 copies.

(So if you really wanted to make it--you'd have to sell ten times that amount or even fifty times that number--if you ever hope to go over the top.)

• The reported number of on-demand and short-run books in 2007 was 134,773; making the total number for that year (projected U.S. output) to be around 411,422.
• Fewer than 20,000 new books published make it into the chain stores.

(Which is why it is so important to shop around for alternative routes to pitch your books. Remember: Chain-stores--like Borders--cherry-pick what they think will sell and what might be a passing curio. If you ever looked at a chainstore's shelves--you'll notice that there isn't much space to be had for new books. And there's a lot of 'piling' to be had--or stacked books; one top of the other.)

• Sales by smaller publishers and self-publishing outlets reached an impressive $14.2 billion dollars in 2005. (The mainstream's bottom line for the same year--total--was about $26 billion dollars.)
• Authorhouse published nearly 1 out of every 20 U.S. titles in 2008.

So what does it mean to be self-published?

It means that you alone take control of every aspect of the development of your book: From content all the way down to marketing and publicity.

It has nothing to do with the vanity-press stigma--which so many critics of self-publishing and their supporters try and lump together as being one and the same.

Because it isn't.

Self-publishing is where you take control, vanity-press is where you pay someone else to do all the work and take most of your book rights away.

But if you do consider this route, you have to realize that no one else is going to step in and save your bacon.

You alone are the pitchman, salesman, and expert on what you've written and self-published.

If you want to make money, then you're going to have to stop making excuses and start getting your rear in gear.

But also be prepared for failure. So many self-published authors I know are obsessed with perfection, they don't consider failing while on the job to be a clear cut option.

I'm choosing self-publishing under my own imprint because I don't want to have to wait for the rest of my life for agents and publishers to decide if I'm good for them.

I already know I am. Now.

I'm choosing self-publishing because the odds of getting traditionally published is virtually impossible.

Why waste my life away beating my head against a brick wall?

We all know that agents reject 99% of all submitted query letters. We all know that 80-85% of all publishers require agent representation before being picked up. (And there is no guarantee that this will happen either. Keep in mind: Publishing mainstream depends on how the economy is doing and how much money consumers are spending. But since the economy is in the toilet and the mainstream is currently in a restructuring mode to survive this deepening recession...? Your chances of getting 'tagged' is not going to even show up on their To Do list.)

Self-publishing is my last resort. I've spent years doing the agent-train and getting absolutely nowhere with their generic response letters, and having been represented by 2 agencies in the past.

I'm quite capable of doing all the hard work myself and I can pitch my books like the best of them.

But I do it in my own way. I don't follow any of the concurrent models in use today; to pitch my works in under 90 seconds flat.

The other thing about self-publishing is that you have to invest your time, money, and effort into what you want to do with your unfinished book.

Why did I highlight the money word?

Because nothing is for free anymore. You want to take the cheap route--with half-assed cover art, cheesy editing, and poor writing (because you didn't want to spend the money necessary; when it could've made the difference?)--?

Be my guest.

If you want to take the self-publishing route with any hopes of being picked up sometime before you hit the Big 7-0--then you had better start writing like you mean it!

You had better start thinking like a bonifide professional and start spending the time, money, and effort to make sure that your books are in the best shape possible!

YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE TRADITTIONALLY-PUBLISHED--NOW--SO WHY WORRY ABOUT WHAT MONEY IS COMING IN OR GOING OUT?!?

Think about what your career--as a successful writer--is going to be about...and start making every attempt to reach those set goals!

Money is just a tool for us to use--not to hoard or covet like it's the best Danish Blue cheese around. (Which is pretty good I might add. Expensive wedges of heaven--but well worth the pocket change.)

• If you want to be published--later--by a traditional publisher, then start early.

Get yourself a professional editor and have him or her do the work. Because paying them what they are worth, will make all the difference in the world--and your odds of getting picked up later a bit better than they would be if you queried an agent with a book that looks like a copy-cat edition of Atlanta Nights.

Having your friends or family members doing it is just asking for the Grim Reaper to come and take a swipe at you before you're actually ready to kick the bucket.

They aren't professionals and wouldn't know jack about editing, grammar, or even proof-reading. (Especially true--since 36 million Americans (or 1 in 7) can't read past the 5th grade reading level.)

• Cover art is the #1 make-or-break, deal-shaker that can (and will) affect your overall book sales.

Picking a cheesy template cover from the 1990s or using off-the-shelf, first-generation (3D) computer software--to grace your book with--isn't going to impress your target audience any.

Get a professional cover artist to do the work. On average, some of the going rates are between $500 and $1000 a pop. (Or more.)

You can gripe all you want, haggle over price, but if you are really serious, investing any amount of money into your books will have nice payoffs for the future.

The question remains: Are you willing to go the distance? Well? Are you?

• Distribution is key to your success as a self-published author.

If you can find a good distributor, then your odds of reaching a much larger audience is better than those self-published authors whom are struggling to gain a bigger foothold in the money game.

Lastly, the one thing that self-published authors do the most (and make a habitual mistake doing) is querying agents soon after they get self-published.

Why is this such a bad idea?

Well...duh!

Agents thrive on money. But in their Rules of Acquisition operates on the principle of more. So much more dinero, that it often boggles the mind.

If you're self-published and you are thinking about going the traditional route, then you have to show these same agents that you are worth every penny pitched.

And by doing that, you're going to have to have some pretty impressive sales figures to get any agent's attention.

Say, 5K self-published books sold to start?

Which means...

You're going to have to buckle down and start making yourself known.

Much like myself. I've spent the last 7 years pitching my books, WIPs, and whatnot to my prospective audience. I've done it in such a way that I am literally attracting new readers to my blogs every day.

And it's not in the tens of thousands which some boastful writers claim, but in the the upper hundreds to the low 1000s each month.

I'm happy with that. I can live with the knowledge that my work and life experiences are reaching these people and then watching as those numbers increase over time.

Because--in order to be successful--you have to offer something that people will read time and again.

That's how you gain recognition and exposure these days.

That's how you become successful.

WRITING QUOTES (20 DAYS LEFT)

Status: Working on the storage unit angle--still hashing out a plan on how to fit everything in.

Haven't wrote anything on my books. Maybe some writing this coming Wednesday...?

Watching: Nothing.

Listening to: Lots and lots of taped music.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 555.

TOPIC: QUOTES FOR THE MUSE

Thought some people might like these quotes I found on the internet.

These are for the writer. Not for normal simpletons whom can't wile themselves around a stanza, a haiku, or a verse of prose. :0P

***

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate. ~ François-René de Chateaubriand

The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy — the good and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops. ~ William Saroyan

A writer — and, I believe, generally all persons — must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. ~ Jorge Luis Borges

Everything of value about me is in my books. Whatever extra there is in me at any given moment isn't fully formed. I am hardly aware of it; it awaits the next book. It will — with luck — come to me during the actual writing, and it will take me by surprise. That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. ~ V.S. Naipaul

Try to put well in practice what you already know; and in so doing, you will in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about. Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know. ~ Rembrandt

Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

As far as service goes, it can take the form of a million things. To do service, you don't have to be a doctor working in the slums for free, or become a social worker. Your position in life and what you do doesn't matter as much as how you do what you do. ~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet’s job. The rest is literature. ~ Jean Cocteau

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking. ~ John Maynard Keynes

History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, "Can't you remember anything I told you?" and lets fly with a club. ~ John W. Campbell

By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. ~ Mikhail Bakunin

In my books I have lifted bits from various religions in trying to come to a better understanding; I've made use of religious themes and symbols. Now, as the world becomes more pagan, one has to lead people in the same direction in a different way... ~ Patrick White

Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. ~ Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment. ~ Harlan Ellison

Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. ~ William Whewell

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true. ~ Bertrand Russell

I never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself. ~ Florence Nightingale

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is "mere". I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination — stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of which I am a part... What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. ~ Richard Feynman

The pen is mightier than the sword if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp. ~ Terry Pratchett

The poem... is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see — it is, rather, a light by which we may see — and what we see is life. ~ Robert Penn Warren

The true secret in being a hero lies in knowing the order of things. ... Things must happen when it is time for them to happen. Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a very long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story. ~ Peter S. Beagle in The Last Unicorn

I am not a novelist, really not even a writer; I am a storyteller. One of my friends said about me that I think all sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them, and perhaps this is not entirely untrue. To me, the explanation of life seems to be its melody, its pattern. And I feel in life such an infinite, truly inconceivable fantasy. ~ Karen Blixen

Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue. It is the very atmosphere of the mind; and when the mind is imaginative — much more when it happens to be that of a man of genius — it takes to itself the faintest hints of life, it converts the very pulses of the air into revelations. ~ Henry James

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free. ~ Charles Evans Hughes

I have never looked for dream in reality or reality in dream. I have allowed my imagination free play, and I have not been led astray by it. ~ Gustave Moreau

I always work on the theory that the audience will believe you best if you believe yourself. ~ Charlton Heston

Imagination is the queen of truth, and possibility is one of the regions of truth. She is positively akin to infinity. ~ Charles Baudelaire

If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run — and often in the short one — the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together. ~ Jack Kerouac

If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes. ~ Mickey Spillane

You imagine that what you can't understand is either spiritual or does not exist. The conclusion is quite wrong; rather there are obviously a million things in the universe that we would need a million quite different organs to understand ... someone blind from birth cannot imagine the beauty of a landscape, the colors of a painting or the shadings of an iris. He will imagine them as something palpable, edible, audible or olfactory. Likewise, if I were to explain to you what I perceive by the senses you do not have, you would interpret it as something that could be heard, seen, touched, smelled or tasted; but it is not like that. ~ Cyrano de Bergerac

Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision. ~ Penn Jillette

Philosophy is based on speculation, on logic, on thought, on the synthesis of what we know and on the analysis of what we do not know. Philosophy must include within its confines the whole content of science, religion and art. ~ P. D. Ouspensky

Try to remember this: what you project
Is what you will perceive; what you perceive
With any passion, be it love or terror,
May take on whims and powers of its own.
~ Richard Wilbur ~

A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and there is an invisible labour. ~ Victor Hugo in Les Misérables

Mistakes are part of the game. It's how well you recover from them, that's the mark of a great player. ~ Alice Cooper

Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men thoroughly, to judge events sanely, is, therefore, a great step towards happiness. ~ Stendhal

The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed. ~ Charles de Montesquieu

I don't want to express alienation. It isn't what I feel. I'm interested in various kinds of passionate engagement. All my work says be serious, be passionate, wake up. ~ Susan Sontag

At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it. ~ Yukio Mishima

The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find. ~ Sir Edmund Hillary

I believe that the Universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. This whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine. ~ Robinson Jeffers

If you cannot make knowledge your servant, make it your friend. ~ Baltasar Gracián

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote, and brings to birth in us also the creative impulse. ~ E. M. Forster

Sky

'Potter' publisher looks to promote next big thing

Status: Getting the storage unit and should start moving stuff over the next few days up until the first part of next week. (In theory.)

Wrote a little bit more on The Vampiress Hunter, but I plan on shifting to a little bit on The Price of Freedom and Stories of the Dead Earth.

Watching: Nothing.

Listening to: Nothing.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 555.

TOPIC: SOMETHING TO IRRITATE ME WITH EVEN MORE!!!!

Since Harry Potter has passed on, Scholastic has decided to try for something else with all the glitz, glitter, and endless migraines for people like myself whom are sick to death over the hype of Harry Potter, Twilight, and now this "39 Clues" saga.

Is it me or does this remind you of the days when reality shows started to be up and coming and then suddenly...everyone wanted to do it???

Because of Harry Potter, publishers have been milking this grandiose idea that people will be turned on by the thought of extravagant series that will wow the mass and woo the readers--and I'm just like: "Please...if there is a god out there...? Have him/her/it--shoot me!!!"

Put me out of my fucking misery...that's all I ask.

Getting traditionally published just isn't the same anymore. It really isn't.

It's now become a place where you have to come up with these asinine sagas that will grip the publisher, enthrall the target audience and bore normal people like me...? TO FUCKING DEATH WITH ALL THE OVERBLOWN HYPE!!!

(And here I thought Twilight was bad enough? SM's rabid fan base is getting their heart's desire by having Twilight out on the big screen this December 12th. But I don't expect it too all that well. The fall line up for this year's closing movie saga is piss poor and wanting. There's just nothing there to watch!)

So glad that I don't have to deal with the mainstream anymore. I'll be even more glad when the day comes when we don't have to become traditionally published just be called an "author".

But that's me. I still have a lot of writing to do--but not this month. It could be early next year when I start up again for real. (If things don't work out as well as I had hoped. We still haven't found a place yet. Housing's taking its sweet-assed time--despite our many unreturned phone calls--and the choices to pick is relatively slim to none. We may still end up having to get rid of all our animals. (Simply because--looking around--there is less space to camp out and nowhere to go. Everything's too overdeveloped.)

Anyway...here's the article.

***

NEW YORK - On Sept. 9, the U.S. publisher of "Harry Potter" will premiere a highly ambitious series with a mystery ending for readers and a couple of puzzlers for the industry: How big is the market for a multimedia story — and can a phenomenon be conceived by a publisher rather than created by the public?

"The 39 Clues" is a planned 10-volume set about young Amy and Dan Cahill and their worldwide search for the secret to their family's power. The first book, "The Maze of Bones," is written by Rick Riordan of "The Lightning Thief" fame and has an announced first printing of 500,000. Steven Spielberg has already acquired film rights to the series.

Designed for boys and girls ages 8 to 12, each book will have a different writer, including such best-sellers as Gordon Korman and Jude Watson. Backed by a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, "The 39 Clues" also features game cards, a contest with a $10,000 first prize and a sophisticated Web site that includes games, blogs, videos and thousands of pages of background.

"The word we always used was 'groundbreaking,'" says Scholastic executive editorial director David Levithan. "We wanted to be the first out there to introduce this kind of multidimensional thing."

A Scholastic team, led by Levithan and including about a dozen editors, thought of the series about three years ago, working from the idea of a treasure hunt. The essential outline, including the ending, was set by the publisher. Authors were asked to fill in the details, taking a thread, as Levithan describes it, and turning it into a blanket.

"It's a different kind of challenge," Levithan says. "To use a movie analogy, each director of the 'Harry Potter' films brings their own voice and their own vision to what J.K. Rowling has done. You still feel there's a consistency there, and part of the fun is seeing what they add to it."

Scholastic quickly decided that "The 39 Clues," its title an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps," would make an ideal multiplatform event. Readers might check out the Web site, just as kids who love online games might then turn to the books. A recent study by the American Library Association revealed that many librarians already use games to attract young people and, ideally, get them interested in books.

"I love the gaming aspect of 'The 39 Clues,'" says Jenny Levine, a digital specialist for the library association. "I could also see a lot of libraries forming '39 Clues' clubs the way they've had Pokemon clubs."

Books for all ages often originate with publishers, and countless best-sellers are made through marketing. But a blockbuster, whether "Harry Potter" or Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" novels, virtually always happens spontaneously.

"Harry Potter" was born in the brain of Rowling and immortalized by millions worldwide. The staff at Scholastic, and the British publisher, Bloomsbury, were sure they had a hit, even a classic, but not a record breaker. Other children's franchises, including "Clifford" and "Junie B. Jones," began simply as books and expanded only in response to public demand.

"I remember when 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' first came out; nobody knew it was going to be so big. That's how it works. You need the kids to grab onto a book and tell each other about it," says Beth Puffer, manager of the Bank Street Bookstore, based in New York.

"I can't think of a phenomenon that was presented that way from the start. This is a very unique situation."

Puffer and other booksellers are enthusiastic about "39 Clues," although unsure whether it will be a sensation. Kimberly Diehm, co-owner of the Neverending Story Children's Bookshoppe in Las Vegas, calls the first volume "a perfect tale" by Riordan, but says she has noticed little discussion about it among her fellow retailers.

Becky Anderson, co-owner of the Anderson Bookstores in suburban Chicago, says she is a little wary of the project's ambitions: "It was presented to us as the thing that's going to replace 'Harry Potter.'" But she was "blown away" by "The 39 Clues."

"We're investing big in this," she says. "I think we see it as a way to get some of those nonreaders into reading."

Other multimedia projects are being developed. HarperCollins is working with former Scholastic executive Lisa Holton on an eight-book series for girls. Dutton, a division of Penguin Group (USA), recently acquired a mystery trilogy by "C.S.I." creator Anthony Zuiker that will be complemented by an interactive Web site. Simon & Schuster will release "Spaceheadz," Internet sites and a series of chapter books co-authored by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita.

"In the past we've made the mistake of demonizing other media, saying all TV is bad, all computers are bad, and all books are good," says Scieszka, appointed last year by the Library of Congress as the National Ambassador of Young People's Literature. "Kids know that it's not true; there is great television and there are great games. I just also want to make sure that we don't forget what's unique about a book, losing yourself in an extended narrative."

"I think it will be fascinating to find out if this is a trend that we'll be seeing a lot more of," says Dutton senior editor Ben Sevier, who added that he and other publishers would be watching how the public reacts to "The 39 Clues."

"It's hard to manufacture a phenomenon," he says of the series. "It's an enormous risk, and it signals an enormous enthusiasm."

Sky

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Status: In the middle of a housing crisis and not able to write on my projects currently--even though a part of me is screaming to! lol

Doing: Taking it easy.

Watching: The shadows on the wall--as the sun goes by.

Listening to: "She Sells Sanctuary"--by Rare Cult; "Ten Thousand Fists"--by Disturbed.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 504.

TOPIC: NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS.

It's been a few busy days for this struggling writer. I went and got some packing boxes from Wal-Mart and my wife and I are getting ready to start packing up the remainder of our things rather soon.

We haven't heard anything from Oxford Squares Apartments, but it doesn't seem like all bad news to us. After all, no news is good news...right?

The weather has been oppressively hot and I've been suffering because of that. It wouldn't surprise me if my INR numbers dropped another full percentage point from last month's readings.

My garden's doing much better this time around and the Purple Haze carrots have started to blossom. I've been trying to figure out exactly what to put them in--but seeing how the styrofoam cups have been a massive boom for me...?

Why not use containers?

I've also started to write on my short stories again after 11 years of doing nothing with them. The 31 volumes of short stories has a broad range of topics from Native Americanism to time travel.

Each short story touches on some theme and runs about 100-200 pages minimum. I finished 4 from the first volume entitled, DreamScapes. But they need to be rewritten anyways.

So that's what I've been doing for the last few days--in an attempt to keep my mind off what will lay ahead for me and April. It's not going to be easy by a long shot.

Moving and having to compress everything is never easy. Being on such limited income is even equally hard and depressing--because I have to literally come up with a new payment schedule or something; just to make this work.

And it's going to be months before I go back to what I was doing before.

This is assuming--of course--we pass the credit check and are able to move at all.

No matter what--uncertainty still plagues people like me in situations such as this. It's just a part of the life we live.

No matter how much we try to change it for the better.

We are who we always will be.

Sky

THE CLOCK IS NOW TICKING...

Status: On page 1,700 of The Price of Freedom.

Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)

Watching: Nothing at the moment.

Listening to: Taped music.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 464. (Sorry! I read more than I first thought! lol)

TOPIC: NO BREAKS FOR THIS STRUGGLING WRITER--BUT SHOULD I BE ALL THAT SURPRISED?

I hate this! But what else can I do?

The city of Everett has it out for the poor and the disabled.

Namely me.

In 2 months--by October 1st--both my wife and I will be out of a house and home.

We knew this was coming 2 years in advance and still we couldn't do anything. When you live on such severely limited income as I do--you can't plan ahead, nor can you save any sufficient funds for that "rainy day".

All you can do is live in fear each and every day and wonder if you'll have a roof over your head the next.

This morning, we got a notice from the management that housing has denied us our next year's voucher based on the fact that it couldn't accept another rent increase--and so we have 2 months to find other suitable housing.

The only problem is is that the asking prices for most rents start at $800 for one-bedrooms and almost $1000 now for 2-bedroom apartments. (They wanted $962 for the coming lease year (2009), while last year we were paying an increased $862 a month in rent. Which would've sucked out another $140 on top of the $226 I already owe for my portion of the rent. (I found out from my wife what they were really wanting. Our housing coordinator must've gotten the earlier number wrong by mistake.))

I only have $537. And even if either me or April were working, we still wouldn't have enough to make basic ends meet. 95% of our last paychecks went to rent alone the last time we worked in 2000 and 2001.

And rent back then was much cheaper than it is now.

If we cannot secure a place by October 1st of this year, it's going to mean abrupt end to my publishing ambitions and everything else that I've labored hard over for the last decade.

I can't tell you when I will be able to resume my writing, but it's safe to say that The Starchild won't be published at all until at least 2020 or later--instead of 2011 or 2012. (As I had hoped.)

For this, I'm sorry. But life hasn't been easy for me and I've had to swallow my share of setbacks more than once.

This one's just another bitter pill that I have to take--because there is no avoiding what will happen to both my wife and I over the next several years at most.

I'm not angry--though I should be. I should be pissed and spewing hot lava from my guts. But I'm just oddly depressed at having to lose everything all at once and not being able to do anything about it.

Maybe I'm just finally glad it's over and I can move onto whatever else is going to be presented to us--minus what few creature comforts that we have to ourselves.

Our stuff is going into storage, but the fate of our animals is uncertain. Due to the fact that so many people have abandoned their pets after losing their homes to foreclosures--with animal and kill shelters are underfunded and overmaxed...?

There's really nothing we can do.

If there is a slim chance that we can squeak our way out of this mess, it's this: There's a small possibility that we can "port" our voucher from one housing agency to the next--and allow us to live in a much smaller one-bedroom.

If for one more year.

The only trouble is, I don't have the $325 needed for the transfer fee. Now...there is another possibility that the management will be gracious enough to let us make monthly payments while we live there, but we're not betting the farm on that happening.

If this doesn't work, and we aren't successful in finding a place in 8 weeks, I just want everyone to know that I didn't go down without a fight.

I've done everything humanly possible and nothing worked.

As for my writing--it's a moot point. I'm going to try and finish Starchild Duel and at least one chapter of Stories of the Dead Earth--to leave off where I need to go to next whenever (and if) I resume writing.

This could be many years down the road--so I just want you all to know this.

But I won't have any definite idea on when I'll be back to write and share more on my cool writing and other book projects.

Sky

MORE OF THE SAME TODAY

Status: Writing on A Girl Named Mystery. (2nd draft--2008 version.) Chapter 2.

Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)

Watching: Nothing at the moment.

Listening to: Taped music: "Beloved"--By VNV Nation; "Consumer" and "Shelter"--By Icon of Coil

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 414.

STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 78.

STAR TREK-NEW EARTH: BOOK 5 OF 6-THIN AIR. Page 45.

TOPIC: AND THE BEAT GOES ON...

I feel like this right now. After spending last night with my legs elevated from edema and water retention--today, I feel like I want to do something, but I'm not sure if it's writing-related.

To be sure, I want to write, but where am I going to find the energy? Everything just feels so apathetic and dead to me right now.

So I'm just going to take it easy and see what comes next.

(And no: It does not mean that I've lost either my touch or my edge. I just have some days where I'm not feeling like Mighty Mouse anymore--and need to recharge my batteries again.)

Sky

WISH I COULD GET PAID SICK LEAVE HERE!

Status: You guessed it: I'M SICK.

Doing: Playing on my new Disgaea 2 game I purchased a few months back. (This game is sooo twisted.)

Listening to: The Cars: Greatest Hits CD

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 252.

TOPIC: ....(someone give me a barf bag! QUICK!)

Several days ago I was hit with the flu. Or something like that. Intense pressure in my neck, the base of my skull...in my head...plus a raging fever and an urge to sleep more than I'm used to. (Not to mention my ears being clogged--like I've gone up a few atmospheres and someone forgot to decompress me on the way back.)

As a consequence, I haven't been in any real contact with anyone in my groups (save for a few people today), or done any serious writing on my Starchild Duel novel. Please forgive my lack of participation--but I've called in sick this week.

Until I get better. (Burping up grapes here.)

Thankfully, I had a little money left over from this past week's contributions and I had my wife (April) run to Wal-Mart to get me some cold medicine and decongestant. (The rest I dumped into paying another chunk of my Verizon bill off. I've got something like $53 left on it--after they gave me some new numbers. But that's not including next month's new addition. Still? That's better than $132.)

Let's just say that both helped me be a little better coordinated, but I'm still feeling like road kill at the moment. I won't be making a run to the doctor's unless I absolutely have to.

I was going to post a couple more interesting things today in this blog, but I haven't had the energy or the strength to do much of anything.

So please bear with me.

Sky

FRIDAY'S QUIET MUSINGS

Status: On Vacation; goofing off--catching up on some things

Doing: Writing this blog; surfing the net; answering e-mails

Watching: "The Jim Lehrer Hour" on PBS

Listening to: "What I've Done" by Linkin' Park; "Doomsday Clock" by Smashing Pumpkins (The Transformers soundtrack)

Reading: Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey (Page 173)

TOPIC: HOOKING YOUR READER

I had this posted on another group when the issue of hooking your reader came into question. If this sounds like a rant--it's because I'm very passionate about these sort of things.

***

I don't bother with hooking the reader. I just start out with something that I hope the reader will find interesting--and just write the story however it pans out in the end.

Trying for the dramatic angle for a beginning is really stupid. It just shows how amateurish you really are.

You can't just drop right into the tension pool and expect people to eat it up with a spoon. You have to build up the moment to that moment.

So it takes your hero 5 full chapters to find what he's looking for. And?

So what!

Will it kill the reader a little if he's not bashing in skulls or performing a Matrix-like move to eradicate his foes at this very second? Nope. It doesn't matter.

He's looking for something important and so he must journey with himself and the reader to search for that one elusive item. But in the meantime, it's dark, it's scary, and he has zombies chasing after his ass every step of the way.

Does it matter if he's avoiding confronting them instead of dragging out a can of patented Whoop-Ass and using it on them in the first page?

Nope.

But the agent will say: "Why is he doing this instead of fighting them? Why isn't there any action?"

Because...? I'm writing it this way. Will you people chill out a little? The action will come when it comes. Not before, not after.

But impatience rues the day and agents are not known for their patience. Neither are publishers. So out goes the little "Dora the Explorer" angle and here comes Neo the Zombie Killer.

The journey of that character gets axed and here is a guy with some cool martial arts moves and an attitude like Rambo on Prozac. (Suicidal in case you're wondering.)

The zombies are dead meat in a split second and both the agent and publisher are happy and titilating with one orgasm after another.

No prose, no need for personal recollection. Just another MDK (Murder/Death/Kill--from "Demolition Man") in action and the reader gets all that more desensitized by what he or she reads as a result.

Oooh! Wow! That was so brilliant! All that hard work put in so that the industry can butcher it into a chain of books that has as much shelf life as your standard house fly.

But this is what they want. Everything marketable has no chance of hanging around. Too many books out there competing for fame, fortune, and a spot on a milk carton or that box of Wheaties one of these days.

And the sad thing is? Most books never make the cut. And those that do are so overdone in themes and lacking originality--that all they are are just boxed pieces of commercialism and nothing else.

How much money did I waste again for buying this piece of crap?

So when we talk about hooks, my eyes glaze over and my head does that thing from the "Exorcist" or "Beetle Juice"--and I'm like, "Oh goody! Let's all do our readers in with senseless gore and violence!"

Who needs to really write well when we have this to draw inspiration from?

It certainly takes the starch and fun out of exploring the worlds we all sit down to create. Y'know?

So the important thing is to remember that hooking your reader isn't dependent on that all important action scene or some commercialized ploy designed to draw in a targeted--or benchmarked--readership.

Having a hook isn't just about the first page either. Hooking a reader is about the whole book being presented as a single entity to your audience. By giving them more to chew on than a single sentence, or a prospective fight scene--you're allowing the reader a change to absorb and assimilate their next favorite read.

And in order to do that you have to start embracing risk and shuck off what the industry tells you to do without question. Show your reader what your book is about by giving them every little bit and piece. In steps--if you want.

Over time.

Hook them through your words, your characters, and your ongoing storyline--not just what the first paragraph says or what the first five pages read like.

If the agents want to play mind games with your work, then tell them to go Cheney themselves. This is your book, right? So shouldn't you have the final say in what's in it that will interest the reader?

Why destroy yourself because the industry doesn't want you to hook your reader in your own right? Just becaused you're a beginner, it doesn't mean that you have to give up your rights to personal imput--because some agent tells you: "This is the way it's always been done." (Yes...maybe back in the 1960s!...what year and century is this again?)

Tell them that if they don't like it, they are free to find some other sucker author is more than willing to play the role of a complete kiss-ass.

People, being published traditionally revolves around two things: Money and control.

Control over your work. Control over YOU.

You want to be sheep to these individuals, then wear a fucking bell around your neck and go, "Baa-aaah!"

You want to take control of your own destiny, then look these people in the eyes and tell them that they can take a walk off a very short pier.

You want money, you want the fame, the fortune, and the whole ball of cheese? Then you're going to have to work for it!

Stop looking for the easiest ways out and start taking more risks with your life and your work as a writer!

If you want to hook your readers than you'd better start writing more than just a fancy-schmancy, snazzed up paragraph that begins with the words: "It was a dark and stormy night..."

Think about what you're writing and who you are intended it for. Most people I've run across say they are writing for their audiences. But boy oh boy...! Are they going to be fucking disappointed in the long run.

Especially when they find out that their target audience has moved on to bigger and better reads.

Wanna know a safer bet? Write for yourself. I can't stress this often enough. Sure, it won't bring in as much recognition, fame, or a publisher's contract. But you want to know what I found all this time? By doing it myself?

I didn't come away disappointed with the results.

My works have come away stronger, better organized, and more interesting than their previous first-gen counterparts.

And the hooks within aren't buried in the first paragraph, the first page, or even the first five pages either.

But the whole book!

The whole book should be your hook. The whole book should be more than enough to entice your reader to want to know more.

You can't do that with such scant information, a limited pitch spiel or a restricted time frame.

Readers these days are going to want to know the whole kit and kaboodle. They aren't satisfied with just being thrown tidbits anymore. And as much as the industry, some hawk of theirs, or someone else is going to tell you otherwise--these days, you have to constantly adapt and evolve the art of hooking your reader with your published books.

And the best way to go about doing that is by getting them involved from the start.

Show them everything there is about your novel. Not just the parts you think will guarantee a future sale. Every element written in has a part to play in your overall success as a published writer.

Most experts will commonly tell you to fixate yourself on just one thing and one thing only. In order to hook your reader, you have to go beyond the first page of your novel.

Show your reader what lies in store for your hero or heroine. Show them what they are up against. Tell them that what kind of a rough ride they are going to encounter as the novel unfolds.

Offer them personal insights and tragedies into your respective characters. Show them their victories and their failures. Happy endings or not.

Don't be afraid to immerse your reader into your own work. That helps them stay engaged with you every step of the way.

This helps you secure future sales against whatever advance you may get.

Because people will remember you and go, "Hey! I know that guy! He's got a great book coming out!"

And from there, he or she will go on so avidly about it, interest in your published tome will pick up in no time.

All because of how you hooked your reader.

Sky