Finding What Works

 

This week my buddy, Adrian McKinty, has a post on up his blog about how the idea of writing 1000 words a day is not for everyone.

Well, of course it’s not for everyone, you say, no single method is for everyone. You need to find what works for you and stick with it.

Or, stick with it until until you move on to the next method.

At least that’s the way I feel about it now. I don’t think it ever gets easy to write a book but I do think it’s possible to learn from your experiences and not repeat every mistake. I’m at the point in the book I’m working on now where everything feels like a big mess and I’m wondering why I ever thought I could write this book in the first place. All these loose ends will never come together, there’s really no point in any of this and any ending I tack on now will just be a cheat.

I’m going to do that anyway because that’s exactly how I’ve felt with every other book I’ve written. But I learned a few things from each of those to help me here.

I learned that there will be rewrites. Editors will point out problems to me and I’ll get another chance to fix them.

I learned that no matter how much I think the ending I finally put on the book works there will some people who just don’t like it. And some people who will.

It probably wouldn’t help me to write 1000 words a day but like Stephen King said, amateurs wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work (I know how ridiculous it is for me to use any sentence that has the words “Stephen King” and “us” in it, but there you go) so I’m just going to keep plowing through this till the draft is done.

But that may not be the right method for anyone else. Maybe it would be better to take a break and think about it for a while or start writing something else and come back to it. I’ve used both those methods in the past and I may use them again sometime.

What works for you?

Favorite books of the year...so far

The year is half over. Hereis a quick post with my 6 favorite books of the year so far.

Half World by Scott O'Connor

The CIA ran the MKUltra project, officially, from 1953 to 1973. During that time the Government took citizens off the street and drugged and abused them in order to find ways to control their minds. This was done all over the country and in parts of Canada. Perhaps the most well known of these sites was in San Francisco where some have argued that CIA administered LSD started the counter culture. A quick Google search shows that notable test subjects include Ted Kaczynski, Ken Kesey, and Whitey Bulger. The official documents pertaining to the project were destroyed. You can see from this reductive summary that this has all the ingredients of a potent brew. O'Connor makes the most of it. Half World is scary, and paranoid and haunting. The first part is like a great paranoid 70's movie and the actions will cast a shadow over the rest of the novel.

The Contractors by Harry Hunsicker

The Contractors is a crime thriller that takes place along the Texas-Mexico border. It has non-stop action, morally compromised characters, and a real world setting, what's not to love?

The Fix by Steve Lowe

There have been a number of great boxing novels over the years (The Professional, Fat City) and boxing and noir have long gone hand in hand. Boxing is described as The Sweet Science. If you apply yourself to the strict and rigorous study of this science you can succeed and, through, hard work, make it to the top. It has meritocratic elements and anyone can make it regardless of race, economics, personal history, etc. But because it is also a kind of food chain there can only be one at the top. As such someone is always gunning for you. The Fix portrays all of this in a quick novel that will appeal to all fans of boxing, noir, and crime fiction.


Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Weird, lush, surreal, alien landscape explored by characters who may not be who they say they are sent by a shadowy government organization. Book one of a trilogy that will be completely published by the end of the year. Can't wait to read the others.

And the Hills Opened Up by David Oppegaard

Deadwood meets Cthulhu? Not quite but close. Great characters, unlikely heroes, and a quiet, creeping dread. 

The Door That Faced West by Alan M Clark

The story of the Harpe Brothers told from the perspective of one of their wives is a stunning portrait of early America and a compelling and entertaining story.

Release Week Madness

By Kristi Belcamino

I expected this post to be all about post pub partum (a term I cribbed from Lisa Alber!) And I’m sure that is going to come, but nearly a week after my book was released into the whole wide world, I’m still flying high on cloud nine.

Here is my release week in a nutshell:

Highlights/Recap

* Waking up the morning of June 10^th and having my husband call the kids into the room and say, “Does your mother look any different today? Well now she’s a published author.” That and the dozen red roses he gave me really made the day seem special.

(I spent the entire day doing Italian mama things with my kids, playdates, doctor’s appointments, double-header soccer game —although I did have a beer—I really didn’t do anything special so it was nice my husband made such a big deal.)

* Getting reviews from PEOPLE I DON’T KNOW. Who are not related to me and who don’t even know someone I know. This has been amazing. To see total strangers love my book and take the time to put a review on Amazon or a website. So dang cool.

(I am bracing myself for the bad reviews. I know it happens to every author. I’m always amazed when my favorite authors get bad reviews. But I’ll deal with that when it comes.)

* Having my favorite author in the whole world, Lisa Unger, tweet this:

“If you haven’t read @alafairburke @Slaughterauthor @LindaCastillo11 @KristiBelcamino @jennifermcmahon @hank_phillipi start today! #lovethem.”

Best. Tweet. Ever.

For so many reasons. Simply being mentioned in the same tweet as those other authors is mindboggling to me. But having Lisa mention my name? Wow. Thanks, Lisa. You are a class act.

* My first media interview. For the first time, I was on the other side of the table being interviewed by a newspaper reporter. The book editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press was so wonderful and kind that it was painless, but still an odd experience. I hope I didn’t say anything stupid.

(Babysitter fell through that morning so I dragged my two kids along on the interview. It went surprising well in spite of that.)

*The day after my book release, I escaped to the beach for the afternoon with friends. We sat and watched our kids swim and play and I didn’t check my Amazon ranking or respond to comments on Twitter and Facebook for a few hours.

(I had spent most of the previous day on social media – despite a good friend’s advice to avoid it – thanking people who liked my book or bought it, and, yes, I admit, looking for new reviews on Amazon and how the book was ranking in sales.)

*Appearing on websites of so many wonderful people: The Reading Café, Dru’s Musings, Chuck Wendig, Jenny Milchman. These visits were super fun and I tried really hard to interact with anyone who took the time to read the posts and comment.

(Again, it’s amazing to meet people this way who are excited about my book.)

So, all in all, I had an amazing release week for Blessedare the Dead. I didn’t have any expectations for what it would be like and I think that was probably the right thing to do because I was pleasantly surprised by how exciting and fun it was. And the fun isn’t over yet. The paperback comes out next month and I’m going to have a big party to celebrate at my favorite mystery bookstore, Once Upon A Crime.

So thank you to everyone who made my release week so wonderful! xoxo