LOST IN A SEA OF FACES

{Face in the Crowd by Alex Prager} 

If you've ever been crushed in a sea of strange faces in a new city, you will understand why photographers are drawn to crowd shots.

The above photograph, Face in the Crowd, is by the renowned photographer, Alex Prager whose work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Vogue and W Magazine. 

 Los Angeles photographer Alex Prager has taken it a step further in her documentation of crowds:

staging imaginary scenes seemingly influenced by a mix of Alfred Hitchcock suspense, the Technicolor style of William Eggleston and the costume design of Cindy Sherman.

"I’m fascinated by the experience of being involved in other people’s lives accidentally,” Prager said.

“Crowds have always been an interest of mine. It may look like a sea of people, but there are so many interesting stories, all colliding silently.”
http://news.yahoo.com/alex-prager-photographs--a-face-in-the-crowd-202522976.html

{Cover by the legendary Leonora Roy}

 

Ms. Prager's words echoed my own sentiments in my novel, DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE. 

 

As Ada Byron Lovelace lay dying in 1852, Samuel McCord entered her life. 

Cut off from her "corrupting" friends by her mother and abandoned by her husband after a tearful confession,

Ada clung to the compassionate Texas Ranger who came to her bedside for help with a fateful riddle.

 

It took her to Egypt, against her mother's wishes, for one last adventure -- an adventure which transformed her death into unlife.

 

Now, in 1895, she is back with Samuel McCord in Egypt for another perilous adventure.  Why does she still cling to Samuel though he is married and she is in a loving relationship with another?

 

We wander into each others' lives by accident -- or they into ours.  Some lives cling to us or we to them by mutual interests or needs.

 

But years and events winnow those from our past down one by one.  When you have no one left from a cherished time, it is as if it never really happened.

 

Samuel is the last person left from the time Ada still drew breath. 

 

To lose him would be as if she herself were in danger of disappearing. 

Samuel was shaped by the same times as her.  He understands her jests, her way of looking at life.  He is her touchstone to sanity.

 

In DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE, lives, both alien and earth-born, collide in a tale of conflicting obsessions, needs, and dreams.  Not all survive the collision.

 

THE CURE FOR DISCOURAGEMENT

The cure for discouragement.

No. Sorry to disappoint you. I don't have it.

 Discouragement. That I have. In abundance.

I shouldn't. I walked into becoming a published author with my eyes wide open.

And even if I didn't, I had a crash course in it every time someone asked what I was writing.

"A writer? Oh, wow. That's neat. Where can I buy your books?"

The look in their eyes when I tell them I only have ebooks out says it all. Dreamer. Wanna be. No talent.

I bet you had the same exchange with friends and relatives. What did Mark Twain write? "Everyone is a crackpot until he succeeds."

Let's face it. When you set out to be published, you've guaranteed yourself a lot of pain.

But is that any different from an Olympic hopeful, a want-to-be NBA player? Success is promised no one.

Failure if we do not try is certain. And a gnawing, forever doubt will haunt us all our days if we turn our backs on our dreams.

We are creative. It is who we are. We have to write. Period. The end.

We are not defined by our failures. We are defined by what we have learned from them. Janet Reid, the literary agent, has a great blog: http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/

Periodically she posts tallies of her replies to incoming queries. On the last day of last year, she posted an array of statistics that hopeful authors could torture themselves with:

She started keeping notes sometime last summer. Between that date and when she posted her results, she requested 124 full novels.

Here's what happened:

Just plain not good enough: 21 (a novel needs to be in the 99th percentile-these were closer to 90%--not bad, but not good enough)

Good premise, but the rest of the novel didn't hold up: 11

Not compelling or vivid, or focused; no plot/tension: 10

Slow start or the pace was too slow: 9

I didn't believe the narrative voice: 5

Structural problems with the novel: 8

Interesting premise, but not a fresh or new take on familiar plots/tropes: 7

Had caricatures rather than characters: 2
Boring: 3
Grossed me out: 2
Major plot problems: 2

Needed more polish and editorial input than I wanted to do: 2

Good books but I couldn't figure out where to sell them: 7

Got offer elsewhere; I withdrew from scrum: 2

Great writing, just not right for me: 2

Not right for me, refer to other agents: 9

Not quite there/send me the next one: 1

Sent back for revisions with editorial suggestions and I expect to see them again in 2014: 9

Getting second read: 1

Got offer from me: 2

(the rest fall into the miscellaneous category of problems too specific to list here)
************************
How do you fight discouragement? With truth. And what is the truth we can find in Janet Reid's statistics?

It's not you. It's not that you are not cut out for this writing business. It's not your inability to get it.

It's just a problem to be solved. You have a head. You have intelligence.

You have perseverance {or you wouldn't have stuck with me this long.} Your query or your novel simply has a writing problem to be fixed.

Look at Janet's list above and study your novel, holding her reasons for rejections next to your manuscript.

Every carpenter needs a level. Use Janet's list as your level. You'll spot something in your creation that needs a bit of fixing.

Roll up your sleeves and start fixing. The cure for discouragement is getting back up and fixing that flat on your manuscript vehicle.

It won't fix itself. But you have creativity and a dream. You can do this.

Difficulties are there to spark creativity not defeat.

You want the formula for success?

It's quite simple really. Double your rate of failure. Hold on. Stay with me here.

You're thinking of failure as the enemy of success. It is its tutor.

You can be defeated by failure or learn from it. Go ahead. Make mistakes.

Make lots of them. Each one is a lesson learned. And success? It's waiting for you at the graduation ceremony.

I had a friend with useless legs and a near useless left arm. He went about in a motorized wheelchair.

And I cringed going out with him. Not because of his handicap -

- but because of his optimism.

He would literally ask any girl we met out. Waitress. Nurse. Pretty blonde in the same elevator. Any girl. It drove me crazy.

"Steve!," I finally moaned, after the flustered waitress left our table, having been asked out by a total stranger in a wheelchair.

"Why do you ask out every girl we meet?"

"Roland, it's statistics."

"Statistics?"

He looked at me with sad wonder at my inability to understand what was so obvious to him.

"Statistics. I've counted. You have to ask out 10 girls before one agrees. Well, look at me.

The odds go up to one in a hundred. So I mow through those hundred just as fast as I can. Oh, look! Here she comes back. I know she'll say yes."

And you know what? She did. She liked his spirit and sense of humor. And guess what else?

He went out more times than I did.

Learn from Steve. Learn from Janet's statistics.

Attack reality with intelligence, courage, drive, and humor. You will grow into a better writer, into a better human being.

"A problem is a chance for you to do your best."
Duke Ellington

*****************************

WHEN IT IS JUST THE DARK AND YOUR VOICE

At Meilori's it was that eerie hush between the dying of the night and the resurrection of the dawn.

Francene Lockett sat in the shadows opposite me.  

"I want my face to remain unknown, Roland.  

If your readers know what I look like, 

they will picture my face and not the faces of Alice Wentworth and Victor as they listen to UNDER A VOODOO MOON and BURNT OFFERINGS."

 

 

"I can understand that," I said.  "I've never asked - what do you do first when you start to record an audiobook?"

"When I receive a manuscript for audio book narration , I first read the entire book before making any decisions about who the characters are and what their voices sound like."

Francene started as Victor Standish jauntily sat down beside her.  "That would be hard to do with my book.  It would be hard not to read my dialogue and not know how gypsy I sound!"

"And modest," scowled Alice in her Victorian librarian accent.

Alice lightly patted Francene's hand as she sat down like a fairy princess on the other side of the suddenly pale voice actress.

"Do not mind Victor, Francene.  His bark is worse than his bite."

"While the opposite is true about Alice!" Victor winked.

Alice frowned.  "Which is something you are just about to find out, Mr. Standish!"

 To give Francene something else to think about than how her digits would look as finger sandwiches, I asked, "What next?"

 "Then I decide:

 What the story is about and in what style it is written in.

Who the characters are beneath the surface.

Where the story takes place - what dialects are predominate there and what is the tempo of speech in that locale."

Victor arched an eyebrow.  "Hey, that sounds like a lot of work before you even hit the "Record" button."

Alice smiled. "Yes that dirty four letter word for you -- work!"

 Francene nodded, 

"There is no time to make any of these decisions once in the studio so I go through the book again and color code each of the characters 

so I can quickly do the voice I have decided upon for each of the characters."

Alice cocked her head.  "How long does it actually take to record one hour of narration, Mrs. Lockett?"

"Francene, Alice.  Call me Francene.  

After three books, I feel like I know you.   It takes about 6.5 hours to produce each finished hour of audio book. 

It needs to be proofed and edited more than once with corrections So it is a big time commitment to produce a book."

"Wow," breathed Victor.  "So UNDER A VOODOO MOON took you 40 hours to record!"

Alice breathed in amazement, "That means my END OF DAYS took you 72 hours to complete."

Francene smiled, "It is worth it to achieve a completed book so that all who listen will take the story's  journey with me and listen again and again."

Victor said, "Well I hope people buy END OF DAYS what with THE HOBBIT coming out.  It has only one dragon.  But, Alice, you and Captain Sam took on a whole skyfull of dragons in a Blackhawk helicopter."

Alice turned to me, showing all her sharp, sharp teeth.  "Roland, would you encourage your friends to buy Francene's audiobooks.  I should think they would not want me to visit them and do the encouraging!"

Francene cleared her throat.  

"Alice ... that is so ... you.  But they can buy them for free if they join Audible for a free 30 day trial and then cancel before the month is up."

Alice sniffed, "Then, they have no excuse to give me should I persuade Elu to have me visit them through their mirrors."

I cleared my own throat.  "Ah, Francene, thank you for this ... lovely interview.  Francene?  Francene?"

She was gone.  Meilori's and Alice has that effect on some people.

WHAT MAKES YOU SO SPECIAL? Insecure Writers Support

But first ...
     Alex Cavanaugh and I are spotlighted in THE MYSTERY GYPSY DAILY today!
http://paper.li/gypsynovel

Karen Lamb has an excellent post today as well:
http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/what-makes-you-so-special-the-magic-to-selling-books/

Karen is much more wise than I.  But I thought I would mention a few things that might help us all.

Unless you are Alex or Hart Johnson or Talli Roland or Anne R. Allen, you -- like me -- are unknown.

What makes us so special?

 

 

We need to ask ourselves that question in thinking how to make ourselves stand out.

 

We're applying, in essence, for a job interview.  The job of entertaining a paying customer.

 

 

Why should a browsing reader pick us?

 

 

What do we have to offer that is unique in our tale?  Are we writing the same re-hash of an Alpha bad girl taking on supernatural foes with ease and lust?

 

Are we writing about a wallflower or goth girl lost in the high school crunch suddenly swept up by a GQ cover model vampire?

 

Are you 30 or over? 

 

 

How bored are you with teenage girls and their woes?  If you are, so are others.  The teens many authors are targeting are focused on social media now not novels.

 

The majority of habitual readers are past their teens usually.

 

Write about the pressures of entering the job market.  Write about the angst of having started the climb up the coporate ladder only to find loneliness your reward.

 

 

Is this all there is?

 

 

That is the question so many who read ask of their lives, of their relationships, of where they find themselves.
 

 

ADVENTURE.  LOVE.  MYSTERY.  THRILLS.  EXOTIC LOCALES
 

 

 

Those are some of the things many habitual readers seek in their books.  Provide it in a unique way, and you will be well on your way to being "hired."   :-)

 

As for pricing your ebooks:  Encourage readers to gamble on an unknown.  I suggest $1.99 to $2.99 depending on the length.

It's said that readers seeing such low prices will not respect your prose.  But they might take a gamble on it.  And respect must be earned.

How can you earn it from non-readers?

 

 

EXAMPLE:

 

 

You are in the Egypt of 1895.  Though your childhood was impoverished, you literally have the wealth of King Solomon.

 

Though you live simply, you have used your wealth to anger the Egyptian land aristocrats by buying the farms of peasants and giving it to them.

You have bought freedom for poor Egyptian young men being forced into military service. 

 

You have a death sentence on your head for breaking Oscar Wilde out of prison with your lifelong friend, Mark Twain.

 

You are hated by the Moslem followers of the Mahdi, who was murdered by your mysterious wife. 
 

 

There is simply no safe place for you in Egypt.

 

 

Yet, here you are because the wife you love with all your being is excavating in the time-lost site of Tanis. 

 

She seeks the Aegis of Sekhmet, the name of the goddess she bore so long ago the portraits of her then have crumbled into dust.

 

Into that Aegis she poured the searing parts of her mind she loathed and feared. 

 

Now, her people are in danger, and she must again become that monster of old -- the monster who may be so changed that she will no longer love you.

 

But you are Samuel Durand McCord,

 

and you will help the one you love though it cost you everything you hold dear.  Love is like that.  Anything else is self-love.

 

DEATH in the House of Life

 

 

COMING SOON.  WATCH FOR IT.

 

BLOODSUCKING FIENDS

BLOODSUCKING FIENDS.

This hilarious book was my introduction to the world of Christopher Moore.

His books are the only ones that will have me laughing out loud. He will do the same to you, too.

So read this fantastic book alone ... unless you like being stared at.

This vampire comedy is light, funny, and not at all hackneyed.

Between scenes of laid back workers bowling frozen turkeys on the graveyard shift in a supermarket, or snapping turtles loose in a loft and gnawing on designer shoes, this novel has comic charm to spare.

But it also packs an appealingly downbeat message about the consumer culture:

Becoming a vampire has given the twentysomething heroine "a crampless case of rattlesnake PMS"--

a grumpy mood in which she realizes that she can dress to the nines as a "Donner Party Barbie" ...

and still end up disillusioned and unhappy, just another slacker doing her own laundry and watching sucky TV 'til the sun rises.

Christopher Moore delivers fast-paced supernatual hijinks, with a peppering of pinpoint jabs at the inanity of modern urban living.

The dialog must be among the wittiest of any American author today.

It's one thing to chuckle over a funny quote; a real treat to laugh anew when deadpan rejoinders add a whole new twist to the humor.

Add a host of imaginative complications, and the reader had better hang on for this wild jaunt. Like Moore's other novels (Lamb and the sequels to this booK, You Suck & Bite Me, introducing Abby Normal) the satire is decidedly upbeat.

A fast summary of this horror, farce and fantasy mix:

Attacked on her way home from work in San Francisco's financial district, sexy redhead Jody wakes up under a dumpster

and gradually realizes that she has been transformed into a vampire.

Needing a safe place to hide from daylight and her attacker as she masters her new powers, she turns to Tommy, a 19-year-old aspiring writer from Indiana whom she's just met.

Becoming lovers, the two get an apartment together where Tommy avidly studies the mysteries of both vampires and women.

But Jody's vampire mentor, Elijah Ben Sapir, who's leaving blood-drained bodies all over the city, has it in for Tommy, as do the cops ...

who suspect the young man of the killings.

With the aid of both the rebellious young misfits he works with and an eccentric homeless man, the self-proclaimed Emperor of San Francisco,

 Tommy aims to vanquish Elijah Ben Sapir in order to save his beloved and himself.

Moore manages to let the redemptive qualities of his characters sneak through all the farcical shenanigans.

As a result, you'll cheer for the night-shift kids as they stumble all over themselves (and a few bodies) to find true happiness.

A book easily finished before sunrise ... with tears in your eyes ... not from weariness but from the sustained laughter.
***************
Here's Christopher Moore talking about the latest in his BLOODSUCKING trilogy, BITE ME :

 

ALEX CAVANAUGH & ME AT MEILORI'S for A TO Z BLOG

Hello, Everyone:

Sorry I am later than usual.  A robber last night in my parking lot has me in stitches. Only one knife wound: not so wide as the ocean or deep as a well -- but it will do.

A couple of days off, and I will be almost fine.  :-)

Now, if you want to have a fun, one of a kind interview go to BLOGGING FROM A TO Z CHALLENGE:
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2013/12/challenge-participant-feature-roland.html

Last night it occurred to me (among other things!)

that I could not remember if I have ever told you, my friends, how much your visits and comments mean to me --
how much your friendship has meant to me.

Thank all of you for being the special people you are.  Roland

A BESTSELLER BY ANY OTHER NAME IS LAME

Titles.

They are the things that get the reader in the bookstore to pick up the book.

But more important even than that,

they are the things that interest or push away a prospective agent.

The title is the key to getting your book read.

The quality or evocative poetry of your prose means nothing if you cannot get the agent or the reader intrigued in your book.

So how do you pick that sure-fire title? After all, doesn't it sometimes feel as if the mine has been pretty well worked out?

It seems as if all the great titles have been picked.

Secret:
It's always felt that way. Ernest Hemingway complained of the same thing. Samuel Clemens a century before him said it as well.

There are some signposts to guide your way in your search for a great title for your book.

1.) THE BOOK YOUR FATHER DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ!

A catchy title like that almost insures your book will be picked up. So catchy snags the interest of agent and reader alike.

But catchy isn't everything. Your title must accurately portray your book.

2.) SHORT shouts and penetrates like an arrow of prose.

Imagine walking down the book aisle and seeing the title, LUST. Come on, you know you're going to pick it up.

But again one word titles seldom catch the essence of your novel. You need more. But what and how? What do catchy and short have in common?

3.) MEMORABLE

The best titles are memorable. FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. THE SUN ALSO RISES. BLOODSUCKING FIENDS. THE GRAPES OF WRATH. BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE.

If it reaches out and grabs you, it will do the same for the agent and reader, too.

4.) THE DELPHI EFFECT

We want to know the forbidden, the secret, the dangerous ... ever since Eve that has been our curse.

Go down the aisle and see the titles:
THE SECRET TO SUCCESS. THE KEY TO SEX. THE FORBIDDEN PATHS.

Tell me you won't at least pick those books up.

5.) MAGIC

That element is elusive, slipping through your mental fingers like quicksilver. It is hard to put into words. But like with pornography, you will know it when you see it -- and so will the agent and the reader.

**
All right. We've deduced that the best titles are catchy, short, memorable, and evokes forbidden or secret knowledge. Plus they will possess that elusive element called MAGIC.

How to we come up with that catchy, short, evocative, and memorable title that sparkles with magic?

A.) THE BEST HUNTER GOES WHERE THE GAME IS.

Ernest Hemingway prowled the Bible and John Donne. He swore (actually quite a lot -- just joking) -- where was I?

Oh, yes. He swore that the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were rich mines for great titles yet to be chosen.

He believed that the Bible and great poems tapped the creative unconscious of readers. If you can't find something stirring in the book of Revelations, shame on you.

If we choose well, our book title will stir something deep and unconscious within the reader as he passes down the book aisle.

B.) LIFE AND TITLE CHOOSING ARE LIKE A POKER GAME.

Stay in there long enough and an ace will come your way. Time and patience. Those items you will need in spades.

Winning doesn't happen by accident in poker, life, or title choosing. You look at your hand, discard what you don't like, and draw new cards.

Keep at it long enough, and you will draw a Royal Flush.

C.) CAST YOUR MUSE UPON THE WATER.

Write down single words from the dialogue of your characters, then whole phrases. Then, write down place names, character names. List them by last then by first.

Write down pairings of opposites of names in your novel.

Write down the motto of your villain in the most eye-catching way. Did that spark the magic?

Get a book of quotations. Skim the pages. Look for something that jumps out at you. If it jumps out at you, it will jump out at an agent or reader.

D.) TRUST YOUR GUT.

Your instincts will jar you when you hit the right title. Savor it in your mind. Remember the best titles are short, catchy, memorable, and evocative of the forbidden.

Think THE LOVELY BONES.

Wasn't that a great title? It caught your attention. It placed apparently opposite words together, didn't it? And it sounded slightly forbidding, too.

Now, go out and do some title-poker. And keep your eye out for the magic.
***