How to write a novel - - Other Stuff Like Promotion

James O. Born

Pl ease allow me one more week to talk about the release of my latest novel in relation to writing your own novel.  Next week we really will continue our discussion of dialogue with input from our own Jacqueline Winspear and Patricia Smiley.

In terms of writing, I've had a pretty good couple of weeks.  It's not often you can say that.  Over the weekend I finished a rough draft for a novel that will come out way in the future.  But I realize I have to stay ahead of the curve and one way I can do that is working every day.  I don't even generally take time off between books.  But it just happened that this week marked the release of Border War and I was asked to do several things by the publisher.  One of the most interesting was appearing on my co-author’s TV show, Lou Dobbs Tonight. I even had to dress up for it.

 

Click here for the full video of the interview

The first week of a release is an exciting time with friends sending you e-mails and texts as well as editors rushing around with last-minute ideas for promotion.  This is really the first book I've had come out since I had a Facebook account.  It's interesting to see who contacts me through Facebook and some of the comments they leave.  It makes me realize how much has changed in the ten years since my first novel came out.  I couldn't begin to predict what it will be like in ten years.

But once again I returned to my central thesis of all of my posts since January.  The most important thing is to write the best book you can.  It doesn't matter if it takes extra months or even years of editing and revision, a book that's put together in a sloppy manner and doesn't hold the reader's interest will probably not go anywhere.

A book release is fun, a milestone and marks accomplishment but it doesn't do anything to help you write.  In fact it is a huge distraction.  Just ask Jackie after her last book tour.  I'm not even sure she's back in the country yet.  I hope that is her decision and not the US government’s.

As I said, in the coming weeks we will talk about dialogue, and other issues related to story and in the future we’ll talk about such practical things as proper use of time and even technological issues.

For my quote this week I was beaten to the punch by Patty on Monday.  I really did have the EL Doctorow quote and I’ll use it in the future.  Instead, I just have a cartoon I like.

Don't Mess With The Duke: John Wayne Fans Torch Me

From the messy desk of Paul Levine...

Ouch.  That'll teach me.

I messed with John Wayne, and his fans are not happy.

In a blog entitled "Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, and My Dad," I thought I was writing a paean to actor Jimmy Stewart, who distinguished himself in World War II.  In fact, he won two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the French Croix de Guerre.  In a nutshell, Stewart was offered cushy stateside service but chose to pilot combat missions over Germany.  He started the war as a private, ended as a colonel and later became a Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve.

Then I waded into dangerous territory.  I called John Wayne a "pretend hero" who was content to make war movies and allow Republic Pictures to seek deferment-after-deferment for him.  All of which is true.

Perhaps I underestimated the symbolic importance of the actor to many people.  Or maybe I just don't get it.  Now, I can understand hero worship of AUTHENTIC World War II combat veterans like Audie Murphy, Jimmy Doolittle, and Pappy Boyington.  I appreciate the celebrities who valiantly served,  instead of seeking deferments.  Besides Stewart, I could point to Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Rod Steiger, Kirk Douglas, and so many more. 

I just don't think Wayne gets combat credit for making "Flying Tigers" or "Sands of Iwo Jima."

But here are some of the blasts I took from readers over on my Facebook Author Page.

Martin Williams: "What a prick."  (That got four "likes.")

Liam O'Flaherty: "Talk all the trash you want.  John Wayne would have slapped the taste out of you and your Daddy's mouth."  (Two "likes.")

Actually, Liam, in real life, Wayne had trouble in a fistfight/wrestling match in Mexico with the much smaller Budd Schulberg, author of "What Makes Sammy Run?" and screenwriter of "On the Waterfront."  To be fair, both men were stinking drunk at the time, a not-uncommon event for either.

Scott Redfield:  "Paul, you completely miss the impact that John Wayne had in inspiring the young people in the U.S. during the war.  You owe him an apology."

Actually, I think Scott is right.  I missed that point, and I'll apologize just as soon as Wayne apologizes for supporting the Vietnam War.

Douglas R. Colley: "A nobody making controversial statements just to gin up interest in himself."

Gee, I thought I was ginning up interest in Jimmy Stewart.

Dennis Neyland: "I'll never buy any book you write."  (Two "likes.")

Another reader chastised me for not enlisting after the September 11 attacks.  Just what we needed in Afghanistan and Iraq.  A 53-year-old private!

But the 9-11 reference makes me think of another hero.  Pat Tillman.

He gave up his football career.  He gave his life.  Nothing pretend about him. 

Paul Levine

Why my trip to Las Vegas was sorta kinda like writing a novel.

Patty here…

Last week I went to Las Vegas. The last time I was there was around 1978 on a road trip with my parents. It’s changed.

Not knowing much about Las Vegas, I checked for reservations at hotels I’d heard of. All of the rooms were booked, unless I wanted to pay a grand or more a night. As I found out later, Saturday was the Mayweather/Maidana welter-weight fight and people from all over the world were in town to see it. Finally, with the help of triple A, I found a room at kitschy New York New York.

My trip began with optimism and good cheer, but driving along the 15 Freeway I saw three burning cars and one head-on collision. It's only a four-hour drive from Los Angeles. Not a good omen. After checking into the hotel, I felt as if I had to walk miles in the desert, searching for the elevator to my room. I went down dead-end alleys and up elevators that didn’t stop on my floor. I had to ask several people for directions. On my journey, I noticed:

1. People are allowed to smoke in casinos. This was a shock to me. These days, Angelenos are practically forbidden from smoking in their own homes.
2. The restaurants are in the casinos, which allows cigarette smoke to drift into your martini.
3. Casinos are dimly lit, massive and endless. It is nearly impossible to find your way out of a casino into the fresh air. This is by design. They don’t want you to leave the casino…ever. They distract you with loud music, flashing lights, not to mention 200-pound drunk people stumbling toward you in the elevator. I assume this has not changed. It’s always been this way. 

Since I hadn’t been to Vegas for a while I wanted to take a look around. My recollection was that you could walk down the strip and duck into the casinos and have a look. If that were ever true, it isn’t any longer. You can’t just cross the street in most places. You have to walk up and down stairs and escalators to get to bridges that cross streets. There are free trams that take you to the next casino or two but not all the way to your destination. The signage is poor and you often have to walk forever through a casino (see #3 above) to find the tram entrance. I was never able to do this without asking at least two or three people for directions.

I was beginning to think I’d never survive Las Vegas. Then a funny thing happened on the way to Caesar’s Palace. I stumbled into the Paul Smith boutique in the Aria shopping mall and met a delightful young salesperson from Orange County who gave me a tourist’s primer of the wonders of Las Vegas. I told her I was off to Starbucks for a coffee and she said: “You can go there any day. Go to Jean Phillippe Patisserie. Great coffee and to-die-for pastries.” Ohh-la-la, a pearl of wisdom, if ever I heard one. Her coffee tip got me out of a grumpy funk and into a chocolate brioche.

So, how is my trip to Vegas like writing a book? For those of you who are new to publishing or those who have been away from it for a while, it’s changed. You have to adapt. But writing hasn’t changed. It's just as hard as it used to be. When you begin writing it’s as if you are on a road trip through the vast unknown. You know where you want to go, but sometimes you don’t know how to get there. There are ups and downs, false starts, detours and dead-end alleys. There are people and events that try to upend your goals. There are those who fail and wish the same for you. Ignore them. If you’re lucky, there will be folks along the way who point you in the right direction and a few whose tips inspire you in a new direction. You just have to keep your eye on the flashing marquee and keep driving toward your goal.

One of my favorite quotes is from E.L. Doctorow: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

Happy Monday!

Just Down This Little Alley

Or ….

Travels With Corinne

Or ....

Another of my long stories

from Jacqueline

 I first met my great friend Corinne when we started working for an airline in 1976, which as we all know was in the Neolithic Age - that great era for airline travel, when flight attendants were still known as “Stewardesses.”  We wore little hats, white gloves in summer and black leather gloves in winter; flat shoes in the cabin and black “court” shoes (what WE Americans call pumps) for greeting passengers.  How we ever finished the training course, I will never know – because we were serial gigglers from the time we met, becoming room-mates in a series of houses and flats. 

We’d both taken this particular job with the same goal in mind – world travel, without having to pay for it.  And we both didn’t see it as a long term career goal - we both had other fish to fry. So we made a pact from the day of our first flight – we would try to be in the same place at the same time so we could make an itinerary of adventures and not end up with the rest of the crew partying in the captain’s hotel room drinking gin and tonics, which pretty much taste the same wherever you are.  We also discovered that we were pretty good travel companions, each of us knowing when we needed time alone to do a few things independently, yet still have someone to hang out with – or indeed, to run from strange men in various countries around the globe.  Believe me, we have stories!

 We were rostered for our first “real” flight together. The airline tried not to have more than two new girls on any flight, and your first flight was invariably a short there-and-back to somewhere like Alicante – and if you know anything about flights from London to Alicante, you will know that they were (and probably still are) full of what we used to call “Lager Louts” on drink-as-much-as-you-can sojourns away from rainy England.  Most of them came back red as tomatoes and with peeling noses.  

The new girls managed to get to the destination without making any terrible errors.  Neither of us spilled drinks over a passenger, and we knew our emergency drills backwards.  During the hour’s layover while the aircraft was cleaned, the ground crew transferred large boxes called “Sky Packs” from the hold to the cabin.  They contained the passenger plastic meals for the return journey.  Corinne and I were charged with lifting these Sky Packs into lockers for take-off, after which they would be put on a cart and distributed to the passengers.  Each meal comprised a plastic tray with little plastic dishes of chicken, salad, cole slaw, jelly (jello) with fruit, and a cup to receive the horrible instant coffee or equally disgusting tea.  Cutting a long story short, I don’t know what got into the two of us, but lifting the boxes up into the lockers seemed to be beyond us, and we dropped each one. Upside down.  And we thought it was hilarious!  We were laughing to beat the band, knowing that the poor passengers  would be eating jello with chicken and cole-slaw on top – thank heavens for duty free liquor sales and sozzled passengers, that’s all I can say.  I think our friendship was cemented right there.

No jpg could illustrate the dreadfulness of those on-board meals.

One other reason why we travel well together  - note the present tense; we’re still at it – is that I have a fairly good sense of when I am in the company of a sleaze ball, and that element of another person’s character sometimes goes over Corinne’s head. She’s more trusting than me.  I should add here that for almost 35 years now Corinne has been a highly regarded probation officer and social worker working at the coal face of child advocacy.  She’s passionate about her job, and I have nothing but enormous admiration for her – though perhaps not on the day she managed to get us caught up in a very “troubling” part of Barbados, which didn’t look like this:

 Corinne had met a young local who said he could show us the “real” Barbados.  I was skeptical.  I had my doubts.  But not Corinne, who said it would be an experience not to be missed. And off she went – with me running to catch up.  I knew I could not let her go alone, which is just as well, because we were in trouble before even reaching the shanty town – though I had kept a mental note of the twists and turns we had taken to arrive at a place where the locals called out to us “Whores!” and the young man who was leading the way was grinning from ear to ear.  Corinne looked at me.  “I think I’ve made a mistake,” she said.  “No kidding,” I replied, then said, “Follow me.”  I led us back along twisting paths and through a banana plantation.  We arrived back onto the main road with great sighs of relief – mine was short lived because the next thing I knew, Corinne had flagged down a guy in a real junker of a car, asking him to take us to Bridgetown. The car did not look like this:

 “It’s OK, we’re not like the other Greek men,” said the guy with the blonde curls and a look of Adonis about him.  We were on Crete this time, and I told Corinne I was pretty sure this pair were exactly like all the other Greek men we’d met – they all claimed to be shipping magnates and all wanted to take us back to Parthenon-inspired mansions.  I thought about my prediction later, as we hid, pressed against the sea wall in the pitch dark, listening to the shipping magnates go back and forth on their motor scooter searching for us.

We crept back to the safety of our hotel in the early hours.

Then there was the time in Carmel that neither of us will talk about – suffice it to say, we chose not to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind that day, and have regretted it ever since.  

And of course there was the adventure we had flagging down the aircraft in Bangor, Maine, because we wanted to go home for Christmas – seriously, it really happened. I stood in front of a DC 10 just beginning its approach to the taxiway and waved my arms. It worked.  Of course, you couldn’t do that sort of thing now, and I’m not sure you really could do it then. 

I should have kept a photo of that one, because it beggars belief.

The wonderful thing about my friend Corinne is her persuasiveness.  She has managed to sweet-talk us into free hotel rooms in a few places, various upgrades and complimentary meals.  When we were in Crete, Corinne discovered that a photographer was in the midst of a shoot for a new hotel brochure, so she offered our services as models to give the shots more character.  This enhancement of “character” involved Corinne lazing on a lounger with a magazine and me slogging back and forth up and down the pool to demonstrate that it was swimmable.  But she scored free meals for us for the entire week of our stay – we were only 22 at the time and not exactly flush with money, so it was a good deal.

Fast forward a good number of years.  A very good number of years.  Since my father passed away, I’ve been spending more time in the UK, so Corinne and I decided to try to fit in some adventures – a few days here and a few days there. Once you’re in Europe, there are so many places to visit within an hour or two’s flight time, and with airlines such as EasyJet, you can do it for about $100 round trip – that’s pretty much what we paid to go to Marrakech last December.

We had two days in a riad (guesthouse) within the city walls of Marrakech, and then another night at the more expensive Kasbah Tamadot, Sir Richard Branson’s retreat in the Atlas Mountains.  And we had lots of adventure, lots of laughs - more than I can retell here.  We were upgraded to a suite at Tamadot, and met Richard Branson’s mum over drinks in the library – believe me, her sense of adventure and energy puts her son in the shade.  She’s 89 years old and would leave him in the dust if it came to a round-the-world race. 

But sure enough, old habits die hard.

            “This boy says he can take us to the tannery market.  It’s where the Berbers come in to sell skins,” said Corinne. It was our first day in Marrakech.

            “A tannery?  Skins?” I said.  “That’ll stink. I don’t want to see that.”

            “Oh, come on, it’ll be an adventure. It’s just down this alley,” she added.

            The boy was insistent, and off they walked, so I ran to catch up. And I promise, I tried very hard to memorize every cobbled street, every shadowed path - but it took us the best part of two hot and sweaty - and sometimes scary - hours to get out of the winding thoroughfares of the Medina.

 In London, in March, we were trying to find a certain “off the beaten track” café recommended to Corinne by a shop assistant.  My feet were aching and we were once again on a wild good chase.

            “Let’s go down this little alley,” I suggested.

            “You and your 'just down this little alley!'” said Corinne.

            “Me?  Me and my little alley?” I said.  "That's rich!"

  We’re thinking of Denmark for three days in August, or maybe even a quick trip to Paris on the Eurostar.  More alleys. More adventures with Corinne, the best travel companion I’ll ever have. 

           
Have a lovely weekend - wherever your travels may take you ....

Yes, I Am Employed !!!!!

James O. Born

As a working writer, I always try to have a project underway. In this environment of shrinking advances and declining book sales, surviving as a writer has become more difficult. In my weekly columns about how to be a writer, I strive, more than anything else, to give a realistic view of what it's like working day in and day out on a single novel, which, in many cases will never be published. But it's not all doom and gloom. Almost 10 years ago this week my first novel, Walking Money, was published by Putnam.  Over the next decade I managed to sell four more novels to Putnam as well as two science fiction novels to Tor/Forge, a division of Macmillan books. In addition to that, I have had the opportunity to work on a number of other projects in all areas of publishing and in TV. I do not have one complaint about my career in publishing so far. I have found that the people I work with are unfailingly interesting, engaged and professional. I have yet to meet an editor I did not like. That may be one of the reasons I am offered opportunities to work on unique projects. It's all part of an interesting career journey, which is about to take a slightly different path.

On May 6, Tor/Forge will release a crime thriller which I cowrote with nationally recognized TV journalist and host Lou Dobbs. It was a leap of faith for me to work so closely with a partner on a crime novel. Now, after being involved in the project for more than two years with Mr. Dobbs, I can honestly say it is been a great pleasure. So much so that we have already started work on a sequel.

Border War is a crime novel that follows the lives of federal agents on a task force located in El Paso, Texas. The interwoven stories of small time criminals, Mexican drug lords, crooked businessman and law enforcement depict life along the border in a realistic way.

You can read an excerpt of the novel at Amazon and visit my Facebook page or the Lou Dobbs Tonight page for more information.

I am scheduled to appear on his show on Monday, May 5.  The show airs on the Fox Business Channel starting at 7:00 EST and replying several times during the night.

The fun part of writing a blog like this is finally expressing what I have kept relatively quiet for two years. In addition to Border War, I have also sold a novel about a specialized police K-9 unit in Florida. The first book in that series is due to be released in about a year. It follows the careers of three young K-9 officers, each with their own unique background. It shows their commitment and love for their canine partners and all the fabulous things these dogs can do. It is the result of a great deal of research and my ability to be able to meet and interact with actual K-9 officers through my day job as a law enforcement officer. There's no reason to talk too much about this book so far from publication, except I wanted you to know I haven't been sitting around watching TV for the last few years.

Next week we will get back to the business of writing novels as we talk more about dialogue and its importance in every novel.

If you get the chance visit my author Facebook page here and let me know what you think.

Thanks for all the support over many years,

Jim Born

Donald Sterling, Vladimir Putin, Federal Judges & Federal Inmates

From the messy desk of Paul Levine...

What do Donald Sterling and Vladimir Putin have in common?

Well, first both are megalomaniacs...to say nothing of being international sex symbols.

Sterling, at rest, watches his Los Angeles Clippers play.

Putin displays his qualifications to rule Russia, or perhaps appear in Playgirl magazine.  (Actually, I have no idea if there is still a Playgirl.  Somebody call Burt Reynolds).

Both Sterling and Putin are filthy rich.  Sterling has $1.9 billion in net worth.  U.S. intelligence agencies estimate Putin's hidden wealth in various Russian energy companies, among others, to be between $40 and $70 billion.  (How do you say "corruption" in Russian?)

Finally, both men must be curbed: Sterling for his blatant racism, Putin for his dangerous expansionism.

Sanctioning Donald Sterling and Vladimir Putin

Apparently, the NBA Constitution does not directly allow the league to force Sterling to divest himself of the Los Angeles Clippers. Impose sanctions so severe that Sterling is forced to sell.  Start with the forfeiture of all television revenue, a ban on signing all free agents, and a loss of all draft choices until ownership changes.  Then encourage a minority group, perhaps led by Magic Johnson, to purchase the franchise.

Sure, there will be litigation. So what!  The NBA can afford the legal fees.  Do something big, NBA Commissioner Silver.

Now, onto Putin. USA sanctions against rogue nation Russia should be so punishing as to force Putin to remove his hotels from Boardwalk, i.e., Crimea, and go home to play.  While it will require EU help, we could crush the Russian economy.  Yesterday, the USA announced additional sanctions involving some companies and persons close to Putin.

Go farther!  Or further, as the case  may be.  Take Russian banks out of the international loop.  Destroy the Russian stock market.  Isolate Putin. Make the Russian people, currently all atwitter about his strength, realize he's a pariah.

Federal Judges Ignore Conflict of Interest Laws

In law school ethics, you learn that a judge cannot sit on a case involving a company in which he or she owns stock.  But Judge James Hill, of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (that's one step below the Supreme Court) ruled in favor of Johnson & Johnson, despite having a six-figure stake in the company.

In all, a new report reveals that more than a dozen federal appeals court judges violated conflict-on-interest laws over the past three years!  For shame!

Bravo to Obama on Sentence Reductions

In his first term, President Obama only commuted the sentence of ONE federal inmate.  Now, the government is poised to release hundreds, or even thousands of non-violent drug offenders (and others) who received excessive punishments under idiotic sentencing guidelines, some of which have been repealed.

Here are some details, from the blog of Florida Super Lawyer Marcia Silvers:  

There is no automatic right to early release.  However, under new Justice Department guidelines announced earlier this week, commutation of sentence will be favored for federal inmates who:

• are serving a sentence that, if imposed today, would be substantially shorter;
• have a non-violent history with no significant ties to organized crime, gangs or cartels;
• have served at least 10 years;
• have no significant prior convictions;
• and have demonstrated good conduct.

A petition for clemency will not necessarily be denied if the inmate fails to meet all the criteria. For example, someone who has served less than 10 years might still have an excellent chance if he or she fulfills the other criteria.  

Contrast this with earlier times. Remember those eight inmates whose sentences President Obama commuted last December.  In his previous five years in office, he had commuted only one other sentence. Overall, since becoming President, he has granted only nine out of 10,490 commutation of sentence petitions.  That is about to change in a big way.

The complete blog post can be found here: "Commutation of Sentence: The Window Opens,"  Full disclosure under federal conflict-of-interest laws.  Marcia Silvers is my wife.

Paul Levine




I

The End...or is it The Beginning?

Patty here…

 I just finished my latest novel and was feeling a bit proud of myself until I realized I wasn’t really finished. There was more to do before I gave it to real people to read. The first thing that needed attention was the timeline. While I’m writing I try to keep track of dates and times. I learned this from the editor who shepherded all my Tucker books through the perilous waters. After sending her my second book, she said, in effect, that she had no doubt Tucker could save the world but probably not in one day. Of course, she was right. I’d larded in so much action it was not possible or believable that anybody could run that fast in a twenty four hour period, except maybe a gerbil spinning on its wheel.

My books have all been set in Los Angeles. It takes time to navigate traffic in this city. I have to take that into account. With this current novel, I kept track of days, hours and sometimes minutes in the first half of the book. Then I switched several scenes around and what had once been day was now night. After that I gave up keeping track and accepted that I would have to fix it later. If you have an easy way to do this, please let me know. Here are some timeline aids I’ve used:

1. Excel spreadsheet. Across the top I put the dates. Along the side I put the times. Then I read through the manuscript. As a scene happens, I insert the time in the appropriate column. In the date column, I make a note about what happened in that scene. I keep doing this until I reach the end of the manuscript, at which time I have a complete record of all events and when they occurred. 
2. An old-fashioned appointment book. You can buy these at Staples or similar office products stores. I buy the one with four columns so I can track the protagonist, the antagonist and two other characters during the course of the novel. I do that because one behavior leads to another. When your heroine does something, your bad guy reacts. Events in a novel should be causally related. How people react to events in their lives causes conflict and moves the story along. 
3. A regular run-of-the-mill calendar. This is usually my last option because the spaces are too small to include notes but it's great for keeping track of broad, sweeping events.

While I’m reading through the manuscript, I keep a tablet by my side on which I ask myself questions like:

• Aren’t her muscles sore from horseback riding the day before? The character said in the manuscript that she thought they would be.
• When did you tell the reader Detective Garcia was on vacation? That came as a surprise. It should come earlier.

The next read through is dedicated to copy editing. I aim for perfection, even though I never quite achieve that goal. Here's where I use the “find and replace” option for stuff like: is the proper abbreviation for Los Angeles LA or L.A.? And names! I hope you keep a list so you don’t forget who's who. In this book Tiffany became Chloe in one chapter. Good thing my error antennae began vibrating when I read the wrong name.

Okay, so now that I’ve corrected all things correctible, I’m finished…really I am. Except that last scene, maybe the angle of the parked car is slightly off. A diagram. Yes! That’s what I need. And measurements. I’m off to get a sketchpad and ruler.

Happy Monday!