Working Titlez

by Krissy Hawkins
Author Maralys Wills recently chatted with Gregory Kompes, the man responsible for “The Fabulist Flash, A Newsletter for Writers”, to partake in some Q&A. Read some of the author’s revelations below – from discovering one’s writing style to self-marketing tips and of course, the most important lesson for writers – perseverance.

When did you ‘know’ you were a writer?
Long before I sold my first article, (about our sons’ adventures in hang gliding), I saw myself as a writer. As I collected 129 rejection slips for poems, essays, stories, and first-hand accounts, I wondered how many rejection slips it would take to sell something. In my mind it was always “when,” never “if.” Still, writing for money altered my title. Now I was an author. Before, I’d been a mother with a typewriter.

How would you describe your style of writing?
Straightforward. Vivid. Full of scenes and vignettes. Often humorous. A story-teller’s quest for the unusual, the humorous, the dramatic, the ironic. But securely anchored in the real world.

What is your writing process?
Except for publicity chores (which are all too time-consuming), I write whenever I can find the time. Sometimes I push things away to “make” time. When I’m deeply involved in a project, I let ordinary “living” go by the board. Laundry, shopping, cooking—they all wait. I have no schedule. Every stolen hour in front of the computer becomes my “schedule.”

What was your path to publication?
No special path. At first I simply sent things out (129 things), until United Airlines Mainliner magazine “bit.” From then on, every published book was achieved a different way. I was agented for my first nine books, yet for five of them the sale would not have occurred except for something I did myself. Even with an agent, you have to be part of the process.

What is your favorite self-marketing idea?
Speeches. There is no second choice. I have searched high and low for something that works as well as giving speeches, but have yet to find it.

8. What are the biggest surprises you’ve encountered as a writer?
Read the whole interview here.

Reading Las Vegas to offer few frills but many thrills

By MAGGIE LILLIS
VIEW STAFF WRITER

Author Carolyn Schneider will be sharing memories of her Uncle Bing on April 28th.

 The month of April will make you laugh all the way to the library, if Reading Las Vegas: A Sure Bet organizers get their way.

The ninth annual adult reading incentive program will include authors known to spin a phrase while tickling the funny bone, program co-chairwoman Leah Ciminelli said.

The monthlong program also will include writing workshops, a murder mystery event and a book festival. Absent from this year’s festivities will be prizes, giveaways and the popular Reading Las Vegas tote bag due to budget cuts within the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.

Jennifer Schember, adult services coordinator, said this year’s theme, For the Love of Reading, emphasizes getting back to the basics of reading, without the frills of prizes and other incentives.

Read entire article

What reading device will my great-grandchildren be using in a hundred years? Will they still read books — you know, the ink on paper kind? Maybe a Kindle 23.5? Probably not. Whatever it will be hasn’t been invented yet.

But what of the documents, books, letters, family histories — to say nothing of photos — that exist solely in digital form on zip drives, thumb drives, hard drives. servers and such? Will those survive? Who will “move them forward” to each new generation of storage and viewing devices? How many of you have manuscripts, journals, stories and important documents saved to 5.25, and 3.5 inch “floppies” or residing on old computers that won’t boot up any more?

Last week, the Clark County commissioners presented their chosen memorabilia to be placed in a time capsule to be unearthed 100 years from now in 2109 –- the county’s bicentennial. The collection includes newspaper clippings, photos, DVDs, and books. I was honored that two of our Stephens Press titles have thus been preserved as future relics: Education in the Neon Shadow: The First 50 Years of the Clark County School District and Springs in the Desert: A Kid’s History of Las Vegas.

I was pleased, too, that this preservation for future generations is in book form. When the time capsule is opened, they’ll be able to immediately turn the pages and read the text. Meanwhile, the DVDs that were included may leave historians a bit befuddled as they figure out how to view them — maybe the descendents still starring on the reality TV show Pawn Stars will have a working DVD player somewhere in a back room.

For our books, we won’t be concerned. If time has proven anything it is that words on paper have endured for thousands of years. Reporters at the time capsule event were told that today’s news stories regarding the capsule would be included. As such LVRJ reporter, Scott Wyland, sent in his article this humorous message to future readers: “If it’s 2019 and you’re reading this, kudos if Lake Mead hasn’t dried up, the Strip is powered by the earth’s magnetic waves and you’ve found a way to travel between here and LA in 20 minutes. And oh, this is what a newspaper used to look like.”

In 2005, when we published Springs in the Desert, we invited the children of Clark County to predict the future. I’ll leave you with a few optimistic and perhaps telling predictions. And to Chris, Mitch, MacKenzie, Gaby, Serretta, Matteo, Mai Lyn, Kristen, Alyssa, Daniel, James, Michael, Trevor, Karina, Anthony, Samatha, Kenyada, Jose, Tara, Jesse, James, and Cass — your words, too, have been preserved for the future.

“Famous scientists will make a collar that can fit any animal. The collar has a big knob on it that you can spin, and then the animal can speak human languages.” — Jesse

“There will be no business in the future. Scientists will come up with gadgets that can give you everything you want, so there will be no need to spend all your time at work getting paid so little.”

– MacKenzie

“Las Vegas will become the capital of the United States, since it will be the center of attention for the world. The President will even want to move the White House to Las Vegas.”

– Jose

“To save more space and to attract more tourists, there will be hotels that float in the sky. There will also be a few lower hotels for people who are afraid of heights.”

– Alyssa

“Everyone will have a robot that goes to school for them while you stay home. Then, when school is over, it transports everything it learned into your brain.”

– Daniel

Note: Springs in the Desert (and the accompanying activities guide) can be found at www.kidshistoryoflasvegas.com and Education in the Neon Shadow is at www.educationintheneonshadow.com.

Spell it right!

The number of manuscripts I’ve seen — and even printed books — with this common misspelling is staggering.

Sometimes they’re long. Sometimes they’re short. But they’re always written by someone other than the author — preferably that someone is SOMEONE.

Someone well-known. Foreword writers can be an expert or authority in field that is the subject of the book or a celebrity who enjoys a relationship with the author or a passion for the book’s topic or purpose.

First Lady of Nevada, Dawn Gibbons, wrote a gracious foreword for 100 Years in the Nevada Governor’s Mansion. Siegfried and Roy were naturals to ask to pen a foreword for our book on the history of the legendary Stardust. Former governor Kenny Guinn was honored to write a foreword for civil rights activist Bob Bailey’s memoir and we tapped former Governor Mike Huckabee to write the foreword for Bayou Country about southeast Arkansas. Boxing champ George Foreman contributed the foreword for Fight Town. One of my personal favorites was visiting composer John Williams at his Los Angeles film studio bungalow to discuss his foreword for More Than a Parade, our pictorial history of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid provided the foreword for Silent Heroes of the Cold War. I would say that these and other luminaries have unfailingly been honored to be asked and very helpful and interested in the process.

Give some thought to who you know, or who you know who might know the person you wish to approach. If you have a noble cause or a subject close to their hearts, many famous folks will listen to your pitch to write a foreword. Don’t be shy — it can’t hurt to ask.

Once an agreement has been reached to provide a foreword, you should offer to send your manuscript for their review. At this point, you can gingerly feel out your SOMEONE as to their intention to write the foreword themselves, or if they prefer to have the author or editor write for their review and approval. Yes, that happens.

Can your SOMEONE be NO ONE? Sure. While your publisher is looking for any and all advantages to help sell your book — and the credibility or star power from a famous expert or celebrity may help — forewords can be written by anyone. A foreword’s purpose is to give the reader some perspective on the subject and/or the author before they delve into the text. Nor do all books require a foreword.

But if you have one, spell it right!

Writing is a solitary endeavor, and save for some tweaking by an editor, the storyline and characters are the author’s own. The author is in charge of what happens when, what each character does, says, and even looks like. So how did seven of the region’s best authors, all tremendously accomplished in their own right, deal with having to share?

John L. Smith said, “In school I often got into trouble for failing to work well with others, so I wasn’t optimistic that I could cooperate on a story with six  writers. Collaborating on a writing project was pretty new for me. But it was intriguing to participate in a collective creative writing project. And I think the story works.”

RESTLESS CITY will debut at this year’s Vegas Valley Book Festival. A signature project of the festival organizers, editor Geoff Schumacher invited seven of the area’s best-known authors to each write a sequential chapter in a yet-untitled book. The only provisions were it had to be set in Las Vegas, be fiction, and each chapter was limited to 3,000 to 4,000 words. Oh, and they’d have a short couple of weeks to write their chapter.

H. Lee Barnes. John Irsfeld, Brian Rouff, Leah Bailly, John L. Smith, Constance Ford and Vu Tran were game for this admittedly experimental project. Barnes set a high standard with the first chapter, and introduced his colleagues to a story we’ve come to label Vegas Noir. By the time John Irsfeld added his contribution, the title RESTLESS CITY was coined by editor Geoff Schumacher.

The concept of a serial novel was recently a bestseller in THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT by thriller-master Jeffery Deaver and a team of likewise bestselling mystery and suspense writers. I read THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT with great curiousity, wondering if I could sense the different voices from chapter to chapter. Yes, I could.

As I can in RESTLESS CITY. But not in a negative way. It is more of an undercurrent that something has shifted as the story moves on. Too, there was a greater anticipation as to where the story would go next as each new author took the reins.

According to author Brian Rouff, RESTLESS CITY required him to “step up my game”. Rouff said “Chapter three was a great opportunity because I got to delve into back story. John Irsfeld gave me a lot to work with. In turn, I finished my chapter with an old-fashioned cliffhanger for the next author. I hope the readers had as much fun as I did.”

THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT was such a success, that Deaver and his colleagues have produced THE COPPER BRACELET. Deaver was fascinted to “see how a group of authors with vastly varied writing styles and approaches to creativity produced such a cohesive thriller with a relentlessly fast-paced narrative”.

Vu Tran, the final chapter author said, “Writing the last chapter and trying to tie up everyone else’s plot and character threads was in turns a unique, infuriating, and fun experience. Complementing and resolving other people’s ideas was even more difficult than I thought it would be, but I ultimately found it very satisfying and educational.”

RESTLESS CITY is available at www.RestlessCity.com and will be available on Amazon and in local bookstores shortly. Both a print and eBook formats are being published. The book will debut at the Vegas Valley Book Festival with a reading by final author Vu Tran on Saturday, November 7 at 4:00 PM at the Historic Fifth Street School (on Fourth Street). Authors will be available to sign books.

Authors have been collaborating for years. Close to home, seven local authors have been writing a serial novel as a signature project of the Vegas Valley Book Festival. RestlessCity chapters have been released one-by-one by CityLife in the past two months, with the final chapter to debut at the Festival in early November.

Now the immensely popular fantasy writer Neil Gaiman is taking the concept to the masses. Starting tomorrow, October 13, at Noon EST, Gaiman (known as @Neilhimself) will launch a special round-robin interactive storytelling experience. He’ll tweet the first line of the story and then the rest is up to the crowd.

You can read the opening line of the story tweeted by Neil (or catch up with it in progress by visiting BBC Audiobooks America. Follow instructions on the site if you want to make your own contribution to the story which must be 140 characters or less.

When roughly 1,000 contributions (Tweets) are logged, they will be edited and compiled into a script which will be recorded as an audiobook. The final audiobook will be downloadable free on the BBC site and also available as a digital download at iTunes and other audiobook retailers. There are no plans to release a print edition.

Michele Lee Cobb, marketing director for BBC Audiobooks America, said the project is “a fantastic way to get more people excited and actively engaging with audiobooks.” Cobb said BBC was inspired to initiate the project following Britain’s Royal Opera House successful creation of a fan-twittered opera last month. “There’s a misconception still that audiobooks are only for a small, elite niche of book lovers and we want to explode that myth and tap into the possibilities of digital storytelling in a whole new way,” Cobb said.

Neil Gaiman is the author of the novels The Graveyard Book (New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2008 Audie Award for Best Audiobook of the Year), Coraline, Neverwhere, Stardust, Anansi Boys, the Hugo-and Nebula-winning American Gods, the Sandman series of graphic novels, and several collections of short fiction. Visit his blog at www.neilgaiman.com.

Our book designer, Sue Campbell, and yours truly have both been invited to be on faculty for the bi-annual East of Eden Writers Conference for 2010. Held in Steinbeck Country of Salinas, California, this is one of the premier conferences in the country, attracts hundreds of writers and a really top-notch faculty. The conference is sponsored by the South Bay chapter of the 100-year-old California Writers Club.  So honored!!

As attendees of my workshops and programs know, I heartily endorse writers conferences as one of the best ways for authors to learn the ropes about the publishing biz, meet fellow writers, learn tons about the craft of writing, and make important connections. How often do you get the chance to sit next to a literary agent at lunch? Conferences are held all over the world (I’m still waiting for an faculty invite to a conference in say, New Zealand or Iceland) and www.shawguides.com is a great resource for checking them out. Closer to home, the Las Vegas Writers Conference is held every April, and features a fine line-up of presenters.

The Voices in My Head, by Danny Gans and R.G. Ryan went to press this morning. Whew! Danny’s very personal biography will debut in a trade paper edition later this month while a special collector’s hardcover edition (with an audio CD) will be out in December. More on both to come. Danny poured his energy into everything he loved, from his family to his faith, from baseball to his career in entertainment. When it came time to document his life story, he poured his energy into this project as well. Sadly, Danny passed away the day after the manuscript was completed. His inspiring story remains, offering a compelling mix of touching tales and life lessons. Danny’s story, told in his own voice, from his own heart. We’re honored to publish The Voices in My Head.