Kate LeDonne on What Makes a Writer Successful @originlbookgirl #AmWriting #Fiction #BYNR

Have you included a lot of your life experiences, even friends, in the plot?

Absolutely! A dash of one, a snippet of another. A crazy quilt that becomes characters in a story, a plot, themes, settings...

How important do you think villains are in a story?
Exceedingly. Best compliment I've gotten is someone hating my villain, Peter Graves.

What are your goals as a writer?
To write books and screenplays and create media that isn't a crashing bore.

Can we expect any more books from you in the future?
Yes.

Have you started another book yet?

Several projects going, yes.

Are you reading any interesting books at the moment?
I am currently reading “The Constitution of the United States”, “The Federalist Papers”, “Vanity Fair” by William Makepeace Thackery, “Beautiful Chaos” by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (for about the 25th time) and a periodical called Imagine FX.

Are there any new authors that have sparked your interest and why?
Stephen Chbosky. His book and film, “Perks of Being a Wallflower” is a story I really relate to. I was stunned at the similarity between his book and my book. I wanted to hug him after seeing the film.

What are some of the best tools available today for writers, especially those just starting out?

Twitter, and all of the various author websites, and book blogs. It a super fast way to connect, ask questions, roll things around and make progress. I'm also a fan of Lightning Source. They make it possible for anyone willing to do the work to publish their book and get worldwide distribution.

What contributes to making a writer successful?
Patience, discipline, persistence, and just never, ever giving up. You also need to keep your own counsel and develop rhino hide. Many are critics, but few have actually written and published an entire book. You've got to let that stuff go in one ear and out the other.

Do you have any advice for writers?
Don't be a pretentious jerk. Be yourself. Be disciplined and organized. Take frequent breaks.

Do you have any specific last thoughts that you want to say to your readers?
Always be who you really are, no matter what. Trying to impress people with some facade won't get you anywhere with anyone who really matters.

Fasten your seatbelts for a white-knuckled ride on the looney wagon and trip down memory lane with a band of misfit teenagers. Kiera Graves and her small posse of true blue friends plot ways to escape their cowtown; and play a game of keep away with her Machiavellian family to help her survive high school and make it to college.

Courage under fire, the closest bonds of friendship and blossoming romance keep this tale of coming of age and survival buzzing with excitement, heart, and warmth.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - General Fiction

Rating – PG-13

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 Connect with Kate LeDonne on Twitter

Website http://kateledonne.com/

@GaryTroia's Publishing Journey & What You Should Know #SelfPub #AmWriting #WriteTip

So, you’ve written your book, found an agent, your agent has matched your book with a publisher. What next?

1. It can take one year before your book is in print. Throughout the year you will receive two or three rounds of edits, then copyedits, then line edits. You’ll be asked to proof the cover copy of your book. A bio and a professional headshot will be created. Blurbs need to be written. At least 3 months before publication your book will be sent to reviews and the press for pre-publication reviews and to bookshops. 
2. You may or may not be lucky enough to have a publicist, either way you still have to market your own book. If you are fortunate enough, you might have a book tour. But touring Authors around the country is expensive, don’t expect any-more travelling by coach! You need to market yourself in any way possible, talk to local papers, radio shows, apply to be a guest at local conferences or speak at libraries, book clubs or schools. And don’t forget social media twitter, Facebook etc… 
3. You get to select your book cover. This is very unlikely, the book cover is usually the work of an art department, with the opinions of everyone from the editor, publisher, marketing and PR departments. Everyone has their say but you!
4. You still get rejections. It’s true. Just because you have a publisher doesn’t mean that your new manuscripts or proposals won’t be rejected. 
5. You will still be poor. If you are extremely lucky your book will make enough money so you can quit your job, the average book advance is a mere £3,000-£5,000 then you have to wait a year until it is in print-then if you’re fortunate enough to sell tens of thousands of copies you may be in a position to quit your day job.

For the first time ever, this collection of short stories by Gary Troia brings together, in chronological order stories and memoirs from Spanish Yarns and Beyond, English Yarns and Beyond and A Bricklayer’s Tales into one complete volume.

“Excellent! A collection of short stories about depression, alcoholism and drug use. Very compelling reading. I read this short story collection all in one go.” (Maria, Goodreads.)

A Bricklayer’s Tales is the ultimate “I hate this job” story, written as a collection of short stories and memoirs, each one revealing a snapshot in the life of Ray. Troia captures the tedium of working in a low paid, menial job and living hand to mouth. This book of short stories is sad and questions the reader to ask questions about their own life. This book achieves clarity without trying.

Ray has three expensive hobbies: drinking, drugs, and running away. Without the income that Bricklaying provides, he would not be able to maintain his chosen lifestyle, so he compromises his principles and continues with his trade.

A collection of short stories and memoirs that include:

The Cuckoo’s Egg. Boyhood antics lead to tragedy.

My Grandfather’s Shed. The making of an English key

No Comb on the Cock. Gypsies, champion fighting cocks, and career choices.

What I Did In My Summer Holidays In 1000 Words. Could having an idea ever be considered a criminal act?

My Best Mate’s Head. Did a weekend of boozing save Ray from certain death?

The Shetland Isles. A trip to sunny Benidorm, a chance meeting with some Glaswegians, and a cold, miserable job in Lerwick.

Pointing a House in Islington. Too much alcohol and cocaine don’t mix well on building sites!

Angel Dust. The peculiar story of a man whose new life in America leads to conversations with Ancient Greek philosophers

Peyote. Hippies, LSD and an idyllic refuge

Return Ticket. Handcuffed and ready for deportation. A sad departure from the States

When I Joined a Cult. Sober dating as Ray discovers religion.

Bilbao. How very, very English!

Teaching Other People. The grass is always greener-the escape from bricklaying.

A Week in the Life of Ray Dennis. With the prospect of no money for food or alcohol this Christmas, Ray has to find work quickly.

Catania. A meeting with a Sicilian fox, some Neapolitans, and a man with a camel haired coat.

Advert In The Art Shop Window. Will a new building job in Spain be the start of a new life?

Gaudi. A flight to Barcelona for a kebab, and a look at the Sagrada Familia.

The Day My Soul Left Me. “To be or not to be? That is the question”

How Not to Travel to The Alhambra. Hung-over, the wrong fuel, the car breaks down. Will they ever make it to Granada?

The Road To Ronda. A terrifying drive to Ronda, was it worth it?

Poking A Carob Tree. A new home and new neighbours, just in time for Christmas.

Spain Reborn.No more commuting to London. Lets celebrate!

Home From Home. A parallel world where the Spanish have taken over Weymouth.

Three Common Carp.An epic battle with a whale and marlin it is not.

Mrs. McClintock. An absurd farce in which a Glaswegian couple retire to Spain

Steak, Egg and Intensive Care. A harmless dinner leads to hospitalisation.

The Unchangeable Chameleon. Can a leopard change it’s spots?

A Bricklayer’s Tale. The story of a disillusioned, alcoholic bricklayer

A collection short stories and memoirs of British dark humour.

 Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - Fiction, Short Stories

Rating - PG-16

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Connect with Gary Troia on Facebook & Twitter

#Author Diane Mulligan Deals with Bad Review Blues #AmWriting #AmReading @Mulligan_Writes

Dealing with the Bad Review Blues

As my friends know, I am Josh Ritter is my celebrity soul mate. In my humble opinion, he is the best lyricist of my generation. He’s amazing and if you’ve never heard of him, definitely check him out.

A few years ago, when his album The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter was released, I read an interview in which the interviewer asked him if he worried about upsetting his fans by departing so drastically from his previous efforts. His response was something to the effect of this: If you’re an artist, you should be upsetting people.

I think what he meant was that artists aren’t trying to please everyone. They are trying to express their vision. If you try to please everyone, you end up in a Fahrenheit 451 world where everything is sanitized and simplified and boring. But if you stay true to your vision, you might inspire strong emotions in people, which is what art is supposed to do. When some people feel strongly that a work of art is amazing, others will undoubtedly dislike it.

Or at least, this is what I tell myself when Watch Me Disappear gets a bad review.

Novels, like any other art form, are subjective and personal. What one person likes will be off-putting to another. All you have to do to see objective proof of this is to look up your favorite book on GoodReads.

For instance, one of the best books I’ve read in a long time is Barbara Kingsolver’s latest, Flight Behavior. I loved it from page one and have recommended it to all my book-loving friends. It has gotten 491 four- or five-star reviews. Obviously a lot of people agree with me. It has also gotten 52 one- or two-star reviews. 7% of people who read it didn’t like it. It is possible that some of the people I recommended it to will read it and wonder what the heck I liked so much.

In a more dramatic example, consider The Great Gatsby, one of the most beautiful novels of all time. Over 550,000 people gave it four- or five-star reviews, but over 120,000 gave it one- or two-star reviews.

Knowing all of this only makes it a marginally easier for a writer to read a bad review. It’s like overhearing someone bad-mouthing you. You go through life well aware that not everyone is going to like you, but it shakes your confidence when you actually hear someone put you down. Or course, in life, most people have the good grace not to be confrontational about their dislikes, but online, in the world of books, everyone is a critic and manners are nonexistent.

That my first novel has a very respectable average 3.56 rating out of 45 reviews on Goodreads should not be a source of such distress (consider that it got four-stars on much respected IndieReader.com and was a Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book Award finalist in 2013), but in the indie book world, 3.56 doesn’t sell books. If you want to sell books, you need five stars. That’s how you get noticed Amazon’s algorithms, that’s how you become discoverable.

The pressure to get five-star reviews has led some indie authors, among them a number of the best-selling darlings of the self-pub movement, to the odious decision to pay for reviews. I don’t mean paying someone to read and review his or her book. I mean paying a “book promotion” company a certain dollar amount for a certain number of top reviews. The “reviewers” had no obligation to read or actually like the book. As if self-publishing didn’t already raise suspicions about quality.

Some indie authors have also taken the childish approach of scolding and verbally attacking people who gave them bad reviews. Another great way to gain respect for self publishing.

I think the solution is by taking the long view. Are you in it for big sales or are you in it to tell great stories? Do you want to be a rising star in world of self-publishing or do you want to be a writer? If you want to tell great stories and be a writer, be a professional about it. Do your best writing, put it out there, and when you get a bad review, give yourself a few seconds for a pity-party and then get back to your writing.

To my fellow authors, I leave you with a word from Nathaniel Hawthorne (no stranger to the bad review):

“When [the author] casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him, better than most of his schoolmates or lifemates.”

To amateur book reviewers, I leave you with a word from Yeats (also no stranger to criticism):

“I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

What is it about guys with guitars in their hands that makes them so irresistible, even when they are obviously self-centered jerks? If Abby and Maggie could answer that question, maybe they could finally get over Nathaniel. There's just something about him when he picks up his guitar and gets behind the microphone, something that makes sensible women act like teenyboppers instead of rational, self-respecting adults.

Abby was first sucked in by Nathaniel's rock 'n roll swagger four years ago when a drunken fling turned into a series of drunken hook-ups that became something like a relationship. Now, as New Year's Eve promises a fresh start, she wants to believe he's finally going to grow up and take their relationship seriously.

What does Nathaniel hope the New Year will bring? An escape from the disappointing realities of his life. He's thirty-four years old and he's barely making ends meet as an adjunct philosophy professor, which was always only a backup plan anyway. Nathaniel's real goal was always to make his living as a musician, but his band, The Latecomers, broke up a couple of years ago, and he hasn't picked up his guitar in months.

When he decides to spend the holiday with some high school friends instead of hanging out at the bar where Abby works, he gets the happy surprise of reuniting with his long-lost friend Maggie. Newly divorced, Maggie has just moved back to her mother's house to regroup. Nathaniel and Maggie were supposed to be the ones who left Worcester forever to conquer the world. He was going to be a rock star. She was going to take the world of art by storm. He's never gotten farther than Boston, and her best efforts only left her broke and heartbroken.

As they ring in the New Year together, Nathaniel decides it's time to take control of his life and to start making his dreams come true. He thinks the first step will be easy. All he needs to do is break up with Abby and finally admit his feelings for Maggie. But the New Year has more surprises in store, and nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

Buy Now @ Amazon & Smashwords

Genre – Women's Literature

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Diane V. Mulligan on Facebook & Twitter