Sister Scribe

As far as my reading goes, I just finished Suzanne Brockmann's latest release, Hot Pursuit.

This is Alyssa and Sam's continuing story and one of Ms. Brockmann's best. As always, she introduced a secondary romance, this time between Danny and Jenn. I can't wait for her next release to find out what happens with them. If you are a romantic suspense fan, I highly recommend  I didn't blog about Into the Fire because I must admit that I gave up on it before I reached The End. For some reason the story just didn't hold my attention.

On another note, when I went to Malaika Adero's editing workshop last Saturday, she talked about Simon & Schuster's development of e-books that contain video. Since I love new technology, that subject fascinated me. 

This article from the New York Times explains it in detail.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/books/01book.html?_r=1

Take a look at the vook for Promises by Jude Deveraux and tell me what you think of this new concept.

As most of the fiction writing world knows, the RWA convention was held this weekend in Washington, DC. I'm really interested to hear the final attendance count, because I have the feeling I'm not the only who didn't have the funds to attend this year.

Going to a conference like RWA is an expensive venture, running over $1,000 for the three days - $400+ for the conference registration, $300 for hotel, $100 for meals, $100 for books and incidentals.

One thing I've learned from being a member of RWA and my state chapter, Georgia Romance 'riters, many of these women would sell their first born in order to attend National, as the annual convention is fondly called. They enter contests, write short stories for the trues (confession magazines), hold yard sales and even pilfer from the grocery money to pay for conference fees. I've also learned to never say, "I don't have the money" when asked if I'll be attending, words that bring horror-stricken expressions to the faces of die hard conferees, the women who consider winning the Rita or the Golden Heart equivalent to discovering  the Holy Grail.

They don't understand that if I had an extra $50 a month, I'd use it to buy some clothes, which I haven't done in almost eight years.

What I do during conference week is to take advantage of the online workshops given by well-known authors specifically for the benefit of those who remain at home. The one I did this time was called, "Left Behind and Loving It" over at Paperback Writer. The workshops were great.  Also, when the RWA conference CDs/MP3s are available, I will order the ones I really want.

Right now I am reconsidering renewing my RWA membership. I honestly don't get much out of the national organization. It's the state chapter that has been a wonderful blessing. But the way the systen is set up, you can't join a state chapter without national membership. Major rip-off, in my opinion.

If you read a variety of author/industry blogs, you know that the value of RWA membership is a hotly debated topic. A lot of successful, multi-published authors consider it a waste of money, especially for pre-published writers. The truth is that even though RWA National is a huge convention, the 2,000 writers that attend are a very small percentage of romance and women's fiction writers. Truth is the majority of writers do not attend.

There's an interesting entry over at NINC by Sam Hunter on the conference.  And another from Romancing the Blog. Also one by Bob Mayer on the subject of conventions.

Thanks to the continual rain in the ATL, my progress meter stands at 40% today. Last Wednesday I mentioned that HOLLYWOOD is written in first person. After a recent critique, one of my local critsisters was told that books written in first person won't sell. I hate when authors say things like this to new writers but don't fully explain the reason for the statement.

If you're writing romance, an entire book in the heroine's POV alone doesn't work because it leaves out the hero's thoughts and feelings, which is absolutely necessary.  But even with a romance, first person can work if it's what I call "alternating" first person.  Eric Jerome Dickey's Milk in My Coffee is a great example of this.

He stayed in the hero's head for one chapter then changed to the heroine's for the next. It worked beautifully. Most of his other books are also written in FPPOV. Since I was addicted to Dickey's books for several years (until he got a little too raunchy for my taste), and this might be the reason I love FPPOV.

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez did a fabulous job of alternating first person POV in her Dirty Girls Social Club books. These books also dedicate each chapter to one of the main characters. They are what gave me the inspiration to write HOT FUN from the POV of the four women in the beach house. It's not that I don't care about the men, but it is a book written by a woman for women, after all.

Author Kristin Billerbeck has written all of her incredibly popular Christian "chick lit" books in first person.

Diana Peterfreund  is another successful author who uses first person in her Secret Society Girl series.

In my opinion FPPOV is becoming more acceptable as it becomes more popular. One of the best articles I've ever read about writing in first person can be found here. I totally agree with the writer of this article who says:

"First person point of view is the most reader friendly. It's intimate. The reader feels like the character's best friend. In fact, the viewpoint character will often confide in the reader things he wouldn't tell his best friend."

Writing in first person is the most natural for me. Somehow it puts me closer to the character than third person. The tricky part is avoiding the "I's" as much as possible, and that's not an easy task. My critsisters are diligent to point out when my writing has drifted into I-ville. Since I haven't been able to sell any of my third person manuscripts, I'm giving first person a shot.

What's your point of view on first person point of view? Do you read it?  Do you write it?

See you Friday! 

My name is Chicki, and I’m an e-book bigot. Well, I was until recently. Since March 8th thru 14th is Read An E-Book Week, I figured this was a good time to confess my sins.

In spite of the fact that I am a technology girl and am always excited by the latest gadget or gizmo, as a bibliophile, I love the feel of a real book in my hands. E-books downloaded to my computer have never interested me, maybe because I have a problem reading on the screen. I know you can print them out, but then you still don’t have an actual book. In the past year I’ve downloaded several e-books, none of which I read. If I can’t throw it into my purse and take it with me, I can’t be bothered.

I’m probably cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I have even resisted submitting my own work to electronic publishers for the same reasons. You can’t do local signings with an e-book. You can’t get it into a bookstore.

Now with the development of electronic readers such as the Kindle and the Sony e-reader, my opinion has changed dramatically. So far I’m enamored by the Kindle and all of the cool stuff it does and absolutely love the idea that Amazon keeps a record of all the books you purchase. If you “lose” them, Amazon can replace them. The adjustable font size and pages that turn get me all geeked up. The major issue I have with this amazing tool is the price. It will have to drop at least fifty percent before I buy one.

Of course e-book piracy issues abound, but these come with the territory and will be dealt with as the publishing industry figures out better ways to curtail illegal duplication.

If you want to find out more on Read an E-Book Week or download one of the badges like the one above, you can go to http//www.ebookweek.com .

Oh, I feel so much better now. Confession is good for the soul ...

I almost forgot that February 3rd was my three-year blog anniversary.

A lot has happened in the past three years. One of the most important things has been the change in our economy. It seems everywhere you turn the pundits are bemoaning the current state of the economy. In addition, they all seem driven to prophesy about the future – which none of them could possibly know, thus causing panic. Americans are prone to panic.

I’ve always had a positive outlook on life, and I'm not naïve or a dreamer. Anyone with eyes and a television can see that this country is experiencing a financial crisis, but this isn’t the first one. And it won’t be the last. I’m sick and tired of the way people have jumped on the “doom and gloom” bandwagon. Why can’t people look for the positive in this mess and speak that instead?

When millions of people come into agreement and speak the same thing, incredible things can happen – for the positive or the negative. I am reminded of the biblical account of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11:1-9 God had to confuse the speech of the people to stop them from building a tower to heaven.

"If as one people speaking the same thing they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

Since the beginning of time nations have experienced political, social, financial, religious upheaval. There is an ebb and flow to life, and during the hard times people learn lessons they would not have learned otherwise.  As the psalmist said in Psalm 119:71: “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”

My family shakes our collective heads when we hear the financial experts telling Americans how to get out of their financial messes, because what they are advising is what we’ve always done:

-   Don’t charge anything

-   Bring lunch from home

-   Shop at discount stores rather than high-end department stores 

    or boutiques

-   Do your own home improvements

-        Do your own minor car repairs

-   etc., etc., etc.

One of the suggestions I keep hearing over and over again is “stop buying gourmet coffee and make your own. This one just cracks me up. In my mind spending $6.00 for a cup of coffee is insanity, but there are families that spend ten to twenty dollars A DAY on Starbuck’s.    Puleeaase! Not when you can buy six dollars worth of ground coffee beans, get a can of Redi-Whip and a jar of cinnamon or whatever you need to make your fancy schmantzy brew and have enough coffee for the entire week!

The problem isn't only with Wall Street CEOs. Many Americans have to admit that they have been selfish, wasteful and unnecessarily extravagant. I’m talking about regular folks, like the young woman in Atlanta I read about recently who was facing bankruptcy yet had close to $40,000 worth of high-end shoes in her closet. She, like many in the nation had a halfway decent job and figured the good times were going to last forever.  The girl didn’t even have a savings account because her priorities were on her feet. I know that 40K would feel really good to her now if it were in her credit union instead of the closet floor. Even if she tries to sell the shoes now, nobody is going to pay top dollar for Manolos that came from someone else’s sweaty feet.

When it comes to the publishing industry, I believe what’s happening right now is a wake-up call. The industry desperately needs to change. While the big brick and mortar bookstores are reporting continued losses and small independent bookstores are closing, Amazon.com declared amazing increases in sales. Why?  Price, convenience, availability of books. Personally I hate going all the way to the bookstore only to discover they don’t have what I want and have to order it. It’s just easier to log onto Amazon. An added bonus is no shipping and handling if the order total is twenty-five dollars. Brick and mortar bookstores had better wake up before they become completely obsolete. If the powers that be will pay attention put archaic practices behind them, a revolution in the book business will result.

Last week Peter Olson, the former chairman and CEO of Random House wrote an interesting blog for Publishers Weekly entitled, “A Long Winter.” His observations about the future of the publishing industry were fascinating.

We as a nation are going to come out of this wiser and stronger than we were when it began. In the process many of us will have learned lessons that make our lives richer and more meaningful. Many will understand for the first time that their lives are not defined by the accumulation of material things, or designer labels. Others will discover that “necessity is the mother of invention” and as a result will create new products and technologies

Things will get better. They always do.

I'm in Publisher's Weekly today!  Honestly. I'm not lying.

On Saturday I went to the Georgia Romance Writers monthly meeting at the Atlanta Hilton Northeast. We had a few visitors this time, one of whom was columnist and blogger for Publisher's Weekly, Barbara Vey.

Today she wrote about the meeting and included the photo she took of our group. I'm seated on the right in the bright pink blouse.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/880000288/post/1290039729.html

I'll be back later to talk about what we learned from author Tanya Michaels on Point Of View.