Working Titlez

Author appearances and readings aren’t always the laid-back affairs they seem to be. Just as there is much anticipation felt by audience members, there is also pressure on the author’s part. These masters of the written word are expected to be as captivating in person as they are on the page.

To help ensure an enjoyable experience for all involved Chuck Thompson, author and bookstore-appearance veteran, recently shared with ShelfAwareness his tried and true “Six Rules for Better Readings.”

1. Don’t Read for More Than Five Minutes at a Time. Ever!

For the book I’m promoting now, To Hellholes and Back, I usually spend 10 minutes giving a little behind-the-scenes background on the book, then read two segments from different chapters. The first segment takes three minutes to read. The second takes four or five, depending on the audience member dragooned into service for Rule 2.

2. Get the Crowd Involved

Q&As are nice, but events are much more lively when you find creative ways of engaging the audience.

For Hellholes I’ve been doing a couple different bits. Often I recruit someone from the audience (there’s always an itchy extrovert at these things) to read a piece of dialogue with me from a section about haggling with street vendors in India. I have my ad hoc confederate take the part of wily merchant and read from a script with their lines in bold-face. I make sure they get the best lines–jokes often come off funnier when someone from the audience reads them for the first time.

I also occasionally ask for a die-hard soccer fanatic in the crowd to offer a rebuttal to a two-page screed in which I delicately point out that soccer is evil, stupid and anti-American, a corrosive influence on our nation’s vulnerable young. Soccer fans get extremely uppity when you criticize the lamest sport in the world, so this gambit also tends to yield superb emotional results.

3. Easy on the Visuals

More than 15 travel slides and it starts to look like you’re bragging, not edifying. Any PowerPoint feels like a business presentation.

4. Hand Out Gift Certificates

The first thing I do when I walk into a bookstore is buy two or three $20 gift certificates. This is a good way of conveying appreciation to the store for hosting me and a way to thank audience members brave enough to pretend to be sleazy merchants or debate soccer with me. Anyone who gets on stage with me gets a gift card.

When promoting a book called Smile When You’re Lying a couple years ago, I passed out index cards and had people write questions for me on the cards. I told them to be sure to include their names on the cards for a gift-certificate drawing at the end of the Q&A. This kept people around and interested until the end of the event.

5. Cut Off the Q&A Early

Don’t mistake a few questions for mass interest. Some blowhard or aspiring writer will always hang around asking questions until the lights are turned out. Most people get fidgety after 35 or 40 minutes. By that time, they expect to be getting their books signed and on their ways to the 20 other things they have to do before the night is out. If your mother never told you, I will: it’s always better to leave a party 30 minutes early than 30 minutes late.

6. Don’t Be Afraid to Say Something Stupid

Writers are expected to be smart, which can make getting in front of an audience intimidating. The typical writer reflex is to become overly thoughtful or cautious when speaking off the cuff. At readings, this makes them about as appealing as a damp sock.

I try to speak at readings the way I do with friends over drinks. Even if I wind up saying something dumb, audiences are generally forgiving, and it rarely makes them like my book less. If all that people wanted was what’s in the book, they’d just stay home and read, so I’ve never seen the point of giving them more of the same when they’ve come out to see me.

By following these rules I’ve managed to have, if not always good crowds, at least a good time at readings.

Read the full article here.
Excerpt from ShelfAwareness 2/10/10

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.

By Guest Blogger Beth Schwartz

I have recently taken up a new hobby. Well, not exactly new, I am just pursuing it in a different way. Always an extremely avid reader, I have joined, or more like was recruited into, a book club. My mother loves to tell the story that I was so consumed with reading as a child that she would ask me to set the table for dinner and I would try to do it while devouring every word of a Nancy Drew mystery. She would watch in distress wondering, “How did I manage to raise such a little nerd?”

As for my newest bibliophilic pursuit, I belong to a very young book club having only just completed our third book. We started out with extremely high aspirations and read the textbook-like Twelve Caesars – about what else but the twelve Caesars – which was not a favorite of the book clubbers and was universally panned if even nary a cover was ever opened. Next there was the self indulgent opus The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch that is at 730 pages as thick as a phonebook. It was an improvement over our first book, and offered much insight into the Dutch culture, but still was not dearly loved.

This month we finally went for a more mainstream choice that was more manageable in size as well as an Oprah pick – Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It was a pretty good read but it wasn’t exactly a page turner. But as I have found in my limited book club experience, that’s really not the point. The idea is that because someone different picks the book each month, we are introduced to reading material and, in turn, ideas we would have never taken the time to pursue on our own.

But even better than opening up our minds to new cultures, reading genres and stories we might have ordinarily dismissed, is the camaraderie created by a group of women who come together each month. Gathering with my fellow book clubbers and discussing the month’s reading material to glean their opinions, comments and interpretations has been a very gratifying experience.

Although at first resistant to joining the book club as I love the solitary aspect of reading, I have found it still allows me to find my escape while at the same time delve into and explore the book at another level. It has even led me to the conclusion that I probably would have enjoyed many a book a lot more had I incorporated group discussions.

But that’s not where the learning ends for this ambitious group of book lovers. We have been called high maintenance because we also insist on broadening our culinary horizons. Based on our chosen book, we also bring a dish along that relates to it. For instance, this month because Eat, Pray, Love takes place in Italy, India and Indonesia, a dish from any of these cultures could have been in the offing. I made an Indian dish that I would have never even considered making before, if not for this activity.

As the dog days of summer ensue, spend some time with yourself. Broaden your world and take up a new hobby or put a twist on one you already enjoy.

Beth Schwartz is the editor of Luxury Las Vegas magazine, also part of the Stephens Media family. She blogs at www.luxurylv.com/truly-scrumptious.

Red Room is the online home of many of the world’s greatest writers. It’s a prestigious place for the literary community to promote their work, express themselves, and connect with their favorite authors. Author Geoff Schumacher is one such member and was recently named Red Room’s ‘Rising Star’. Click here to visit Schumacher’s author profile and discover more about this acclaimed author – from reading his blog to finding out about his writing influences and upcoming projects.

My colleague Geoff Schumacher recently presented a workshop on journalism for the Las Vegas Writers Conference. Included in his handouts was this essay about writing. I thought it deserved to be shared with other writers and lovers of writing, so I sought his permission to post it here.

“I write because I can’t do normal work like other people.”

Orhan Pamuk, winner of 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature

“Words on a page give the world coherence.”

Alberto Manguel, Into the Looking-Glass Wood: Essays on Books, Reading, and the World

Photo courtesy Scriatic (CC)

Writers write. If you’re a writer, you can’t help yourself. Putting words on paper, or onto a computer screen, is part of who you are. Writing helps us understand and give order to our chaotic lives and to a turbulent world.

Most writers want others to read their work. We want attention, validation, reassurance, fame. We want to be praised, questioned, challenged. We can’t help but write, but we like it better when our words are disseminated widely.

Despite our economic troubles, there never has been a better time to be a writer, because there never have been so many avenues to publication. Consider: You can set up a Facebook or Twitter page in about two minutes and start publishing your words to your friends and colleagues. Or you can set up a blog in about five minutes and start publishing for all the world to see.

These may seem like mundane forms of publishing, but I disagree. I have 255 friends on Facebook. If I write an essay and post it on my Facebook page, it is immediately available for perusal by 255 people who, because they know me, are likely to take a look at it. How would you have accomplished such an endeavor 30 years ago? If you wrote an essay and wanted to share it with your friends and colleagues, you would have had to make photocopies and either hand them out or put them in the mail to reach those 255 people. That’s a lot of copies, a lot of envelopes, a lot of addresses to track down and a lot of stamps. This process also would take a lot more time – days, maybe weeks.

Of course, we also would like to be compensated for our writing. We want our writing to be a money-making venture, not just an obsession or hobby. This complicates matters, but it’s not an unreasonable request. In order to be paid for writing, though, we must write something that a publication is willing to buy. This often means writing that is substantially different in style and substance from what we might post on Facebook or in a personal blog.

More often than not, what we’re talking about is journalism: facts, figures, interviews, research. We must be thorough, accurate. We must explore multiple perspectives. We must delve into subjects we might not otherwise care about. And then, once we’ve gathered the materials we need, we must organize all those facts, figures, quotes and multiple perspectives into a coherent and entertaining piece of writing.

It looks easy. It’s not.

But it’s also not brain surgery. Journalism is a craft that requires a set of skills that can be developed by most people who know how to read and to write a clear sentence.

The most important trait of a good journalist is curiosity. Successful journalists are innately curious about how things work. They follow a road to see where it leads. They ask lots of questions and genuinely want to know the answers. They aren’t afraid of talking to strangers. They aren’t satisfied with the conventional wisdom.

Successful journalists also are persistent. When they ask questions, they expect answers. They aren’t deterred by roadblocks. They know there is more than one way to get the information they seek.

Sometimes, journalism isn’t such a serious business. But writing a restaurant review or reporting on a ball game still demands the same skills needed to uncover the Watergate scandal.

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Geoff Schumacher, a veteran journalist, is the director of community publications for Stephens Media. He is also the publisher of CityLife and Big Island Weekly. He has written two books, Sun, Sin & Suburbia: An Essential History of Modern Las Vegas and Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia & Palace Intrigue (Stephens Press) and is working on two more. Schumacher was recently named editor of CityLife Books, a Stephens Press imprint. He writes a weekly column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. For more information, see www.geoffschumacher.com.

Author Lander Marks takes The SPQ. Ms. Marks is the author of Artist’s Proof, a debut novel filled with mysteries, plot twists, and shocking secrets that keep the reader trying to guess how the story will end. An automotive industry executive, Marks is also the author of Reservations Required: Culinary Secrets of Las Vegas’ Celebrity Chefs (Huntington Press).

1. How long did your manuscript take, start to finish? Eight years.

2. Did you do special research? I traveled to Europe, New York City and contacted experts in the most specific areas of the books content, i.e.: Holocaust art restitution, Vatican, cruise business and art auction professionals.

3. How long before you held the first copy in your hands? One year two months from contract signing.

4. How do you write? When the mood strikes or certain time of day for writing? Word count goals? I am a sporadic writer but constant note taker, article clipper and outline modifier.

5. Do you outline first? Yes, and constantly revising.

6. Do you listen to music while you write? If so what type of music? I listen to music (all kinds) when meditating which often leads me to thoughts and feelings about my writing projects.

7. What is your favorite adjective and verb? Be creative. Think. Create.

8. Which book have you read again and again? My own.

9. What is your favorite book title (not the book, just the title)? STICK

10. Which author would you most like to meet, living or dead? Walter Mosley or Lillian Braun.

11. Would you rather get paid to read or get paid to write? Paid to write.

12. What is the strangest comment or experience you’ve had about your book or writing? The ultimate ending to my recent book, Artist’s Proof. I discovered the painting by Hungarian artist Bela Kadar among my art collection, after the book was completed and at the printers. It was as if Bela had been haunting me for eight years to get this story finished and only after it was done did the painting reveal itself, and another chapter in the tale of Artist’s Proof became a legacy to this period of art, literature and heritage. Amazing.

13. Your best advice for novice writers? Plan your story and really think it through before you begin. Outline, outline, research, research. Begin with the end in mind. Otherwise you will waste seven years!

14. Your best marketing techniques? Face to face appointments with meeting planners and bookers involved in the subject matter of the book.

15. The future of printed books . . . ? Good stories or great timely information will always be in demand. A printed book will always be treasured. The Bible is a great example. Still the Number 1 bestseller every year, since record keeping began.

16. What piece(s) of fiction gave you that “Ah ha, I know this is what I want to do” realization? MetroGirl by Janet Evanovich.

17. What are you reading now? Buddhism without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor.

18. What is your biggest reader pet peeve? Predictability! Cliché storylines, lack of character development.

19. What is your biggest writing pet peeve? Lack of time and solitude.

20. What’s the best piece of writing advice you ever received? Kill your babies.

21. What writing tool can you not live without? The EDITOR!

22. Many writers say that until they decided they didn’t care what their mommas would think, they held back. And when they let go of that concern, they felt free to write. Did this ever apply to you? It didn’t until I published a book and began to wonder if my perceived audience didn’t appreciate my character’s language and attitude.

23. Do you have a website/blog where readers may learn more about you and your work? www.readartistsproof.com

Today I’m interviewing author Betty Auchard. Betty’s first book, Dancing in My Nightgown, the Rhythms of Widowhood is her memoir of losing her husband of 49 years, getting through the grief, and learning to live again—in a whole new way. Far from being a morose downer, Betty’s stories are touching, inspiring, upbeat, and even funny. Betty had a lot to learn having married at 19, and never having lived as a single person before. Betty’s quirky, loving, and funny personality makes her one of my favorite authors to know and to work with. In this interview she shares her thoughts on the writing process:

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started writing. Did you always have a secret desire to be an author?

My secret desires were to be invisible, to fly, and to play the piano. My unconcealed desires were to be a movie star and an artist. I became an artist, so I still have time to become a movie star. But all my life I loved writing letters and telling true stories because I saw, and still do see stories in everything. And I’ve always jotted things down that I didn’t want to forget—sort of like a grocery list for my life.

Becoming a widow at 68 when I had never been single before meant I had more to write about than ever. I wrote about everything that was happening to me because life felt like the twilight zone. It was unreal. I had no way of knowing then that writing was my tool for healing.

Grief recovery was the hardest work I’d ever done in my life and grievers must be allowed to babble about the same old things over and over. It’s the only way we can accept that our loss is real. Writing was like talking to paper. If I felt good I wrote about it. If I felt bad I wrote about it. One day I saw that Postum (Denny’s favorite beverage) was on sale and I almost put a jar in my cart. I was so blindsided by that unconscious act that I had to abandon my grocery cart and run outside to cry. Naturally, I wrote about it. I knew that someday I would look back on my experiences and realize how far I had come.

Writing was more important to me than eating. Naturally I lost weight, but gradually, I regained consciousness and the act of writing took on a life of its own. I became aware that my journaling on junk was starting to use a lot more paper and my writings were becoming pretty good stories that I liked a lot. One thing led to another and I started taking writing classes. This all happened over about six months. By six months I was in love with telling about life from my point of view which sometimes made me cry, but it felt good; like vomiting from my eyes. Sometimes my quirky point of view made me laugh at myself. As hard as I tried not to come off as a widow I always revealed that I was one. It made me feel vulnerable. I may as well have worn a talking T shirt that shouted, “This Lady Lives Alone.” But, to be honest, I liked my stories so much that I practically forced strangers to read them. I knew then that Betty, the Writing Beast had been born.

2. Tell us about your writing habits. When you write do you need music? Or quiet? Is there a special place, time or ritual you use to get in the groove? And has this changed over time? For example from the time you wrote the first draft of the first book until now as you work on the second?

Eleven years ago when I wrote all day long in my nightgown, I didn’t know how to use the computer so I did a lot of writing in bed where the light from the window was perfect. If not there, then I wrote in my lounge chair where the good lamp was located. I wrote on a lined tablet on a clipboard, and used only a fine tip Pilot Precise pen. My thoughts landed on paper as easily as I talk.

Once I learned how to use the computer I relocated upstairs to what used to be my art studio and is now my computer room. I first TELL myself the story out loud a few times and then I start typing without stopping, typos and all. It’s still a lot like free writing but it’s on the screen and I feel as though I’m still talking.  I write best in the mornings when my brain is awake and lively. But I still write at night or any old time I’m in the mood or when I know I won’t be interrupted.  Sometimes that’s into the morning hours. I let other things go unattended, which is slothful but true.

My best writing time was two months ago when I treated myself to a hotel room. I checked into a Holiday Inn Express, 25 miles away so I wouldn’t be tempted to dash home for any reason. I told my children not to call or e-mail unless it was really important and a request for a recipe was not important. It was wonderful. I stayed one week, went home for one week, and returned for one more week. I ate sparingly and used the small fridge and microwave in my room for simple food.  I managed to get ahead on my second manuscript. The cost? About $2,000, but I told myself that I deserved it.

When I think a story is finished, it’s imperative that I read it aloud. Only then do I hear what is clunky or awkward. The sound of the words and the cadence of a sentence are critical. A radio is distracting and never on when I write, which means that it is never on. I watch TV only when I eat something or to watch Dexter or The United States of Tara. The truth is that I sit way too long at my computer because I’m in love with it. And where the day goes I’ll never know. Time just races by when I’m in the writing zone.

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Some years back, puttering around a used bookstore, I came across a first reader, Many Surprises. Picking it up and leafing through the pages, a growing sense of familiarity overtook me. Monte Vista Elementary School. Miss Bird. First grade. I suppose we must have worked first on the alphabet and the sounds of the letters. I don’t really recall that. What I do remember is the day the teacher put us in a circle on the floor and passed out a copy of Many Surprises to each child. We preceeded to “read” about Jane and Billy, Miss Bird helping us sound out the words. All at once, I “got” it. It made sense. I could decode these collections of letters and spaces into words. I was in awe. I was R E A D I N G. Reading! What a gift this new skill would be for my entire life. I discovered the magical world of the book. To be transported to another time, another place, merely by opening a book. I became a bookworm. I would rather read than nearly anything. My mother was a regular library patron and as soon as I started reading, checking out books for me became part of the weekend regime as well. The Ontario Library on Euclid Avenue was a Carnegie-funded edifice (talk about a philanthropist who made a difference!) of speckled gray granite. The children’s department was in the basement (in Southern California, a basement was a novelty in itself). It was cool and dark with the musty smell of old and well-used books. I thought it was heaven. Since these books had to last me a whole week, I’d select an armful, and the librarian would make me put half of them back. There was a limit, after all, something like three or four. After a while, the librarian would overlook the limit requirement and let me take home five or six. Eventually, I’d read the entire young children’s collection, several times over. I’ll never forget the day the children’s librarian took me by the hand and led me upstairs to find my mom. A discussion ensued concerning letting me check out books from the adult section. It was agreed that the adult librarian would have to approve anything I took, but I was granted this very special exemption. The librarian, who was initially very disapproving of this notion of a CHILD reading these books, took it upon herself to make selections for me. Now I was reading REAL books — you know, the big thick kind with pages of words and no pictures. I was happier than ever when I discovered the simple world of kid’s books was now this deliciously complex place of plots and characters and story arcs and subplots in the “big” books. If I was hooked on books before, I became an addict. Besides the library, I was able to build a small book collection of my own. We’d often go to the Goodwill or Salvation Army, and I’d be allowed to select one used book (they sold for five cents each). The pickings were somewhat slim. Mary Poppins, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Elsie Dinsmore, Litte Women (my favorite!), Trixie Belden, Tom Sawyer — I still have them all. Christmas or a birthday usually brought a coveted and brand-new Nancy Drew. Nancy, who always drove a convertible, had a boyfriend Ned and a BFF George, seemed to live a life of impossible adventure and independence. When I was nine, my Aunt Evelyn gave me a copy of Lamb’s Shakespeare for Children. I still have it. I read that book over and over and over. The Tempest. A Mid-Summer’s Night. The Taming of the Shrew. All dumbed down a bit to a suitable level for children, but curious and a bit incomprehensible to me. Years later, when we read Shakespeare in high school, I felt like I was visiting an old friend. I can’t possibly define the difference reading books has made in my life. Here I am, all grown up and a grandma, no less, and I still marvel at the joy and magic that is reading.

Sue Campbell, a Colorado resident, is an experienced art director and book designer of many years; she is also the principal designer for Stephens Press titles. In this interview with Working Titlez, she shares her knowledge on what makes an effective cover design, how the process works, and what inspires her creative efforts.

How important is color in book cover design?

Color is always important in design. Color is hard-wired in our brains. It means things to us on a basic human level, but it also has cultural meaning so we must be careful with how we use it with respect to cultural connotations. Certain colors evoke emotional responses—it reminds us of events or experiences. And it also acts as a language, one that we learn and with it make associations. For example: we know that darker colors mean mystery and fearful happenings—tension. It makes sense then for thrillers to often appear cloaked in dark and mysterious images in dark colors that evokes a bit of unease.

Should color trends be followed?

By trends, if you mean what is fashionable or popular in a given year. No. I don’t think so. I don’t personally follow color trends because color is so significant. Particularly in book cover design. Because colors are rich in meaning—the decisions to use them need to be made in consideration with the subject matter, genre, target audience, and the feeling you want people to get when they see the cover. People may be surprised that we don’t just pick blue or red or green because that’s the author’s (or our) favorite color. Of course, sometimes you have to do that too. That’s an ill-considered way of making those kinds of design decisions though.

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