NOT REIMBURSED

Sometime ago I read an article stating that the FTC stated every blog writer must now make a statement when writing reviews or making recommendations for books or products. We must let readers know whether or not we have received any kind of compensation for praising the writers we read. Sounds very inept (or should I just say stupid and get it over with?) to me. But here goes.

To all of my readers who have heard me praise the following readers or their work--I, do not personally know these authors, their agents, promoters, or book distributors. I purchase the books or magazines with their work in them with my own money--and have not been paid to write a good (or bad) work about them or their work.

The following writers have been discussed in my blog:

Natalie Goldberg, Charles Martin, James Lee Burke, James Patterson, Kenneth Koch, Lisa Jackson, Robyn Carr, Zane Gray, Charlotte Harris, Jane Eyre... Oops, she didn't write a book, did she?

This could take forever, folks, and I think it is so ridiculous I refuse to be a party to such time consuming affairs. So sue me!

Sue me for what? I didn't get compensated, remember?

P.D. JAMES

One of my favorite authors, P.D. James, died recently. She lived near London, wrote wonderful detective stories, and was my idol. Not that I enjoyed all of her books, but I admired her work ethic, her longivity in this publishing world (she was 90 and has just published a wonderful book for writers, "Talking About Detective Fiction" and her depth of research to create a "real" fiction world.

in 1983, Phuyllis Dorothy James, was awarded the Order of the British Empire; then in 1991 she was named a life peer of the United Kingdom and given the title Baroness James of Holland Park. In 2000 she was a member of the House of Lords. And all the time she wrote.

She always said she gained the knowledge that she used to write her mysteries from her own life. She entertained her own siblings with her storytelling, but she waited for years to write her first novel. Her husband became ill so she went to work--eventually administering the Forensic Science Service of the Police Department.

Though I admit to not reading all of her work, I am a big fan of her character, both in books and on TV, Adam Dalgliesh. She decribes this character thus: Middle-aged widower, commander in Scotland Yard, London. His wife had died in childbirth and he has no romantic entanglements. He is tall, dark; rather moody and writes poetry for a hobby to help him cope with the pain of his job.

P.D. James gave him the qualities that she felt are important in a man--courage, intelligence, generosity and sensibility. He has a fondness for architecture claret wine, and reads biographies. And he would never be caught dead fabricating evidence!

I also enjoyed her character, Cordelia Gray, a female PI, which has been portrayed on many TV. P.D. James said she always enjoyed this charater.

It was interesting to me, as a writer, to read what is always on her desk as she writes: a dictonery and thesaurus, a pad of lined paper, and a collection of ball point pins with black ink. No computers for her, I presume. At least, not on the first draft.

I will miss just knowing she is still out there somewhere at her desk writing those perfectly researched mysteries.

HOW DID THEY WRITE

Recently, I was reading about some quirks of writing habits among famous writers. I wondered if I had some--not the same--but ones original only to me. Do I write better in certain places? At certain time of day or night? Do I only write on the computer, or with pen and pad first? Is there a certain color of ink I use to write, or sign my name?

I write most anywhere. If I am meeting a deadline or doing final edits, I am only comfortable in my office at the main computer or on my laptop. If I'm writing off the top of my head, or creating a first draft of a story, I take my Acer mini to Jack's Pond, Discovery Lake, or Starbucks. Or out on the patio.

Once upon a time, I could write into the wee hours of the night. Now, I am into writing in the morning or early afternoon when I feel fresher. If I'm on deadline or editing a story or piece, I can work at night but the creative side of my brain, my imagination, is not as active late in the day as it used to be.

I often don't begin writing on any electronic device. I use a yellow-lined pad and a pen. If writing a story, I begin writing and continue until my first spurt of inspiration is run through. Then I will go to the computer, input it, print off the last page for my next beginning point. When writing an article or essay, I complete the first draft before going to the computer. I believe that by putting my work on the computer at this point, I am editing/rewriting the first draft.

And I do have this one quirk regarding ink. For example, when writing in my journal, I swtich colors of ink with each days entry. I think it gives my journal a more colorul, insightful look to my work. And when I autograph my books at a book signing or to send off through the mail, I create my message and sign my name in purple ink. Maybe it is something to do with the poem --when I grow old, I will wear purple.

Here are a few habits of the famous: John Nichols (The Milagro Bean Fields) writes in the tub beginning at 4 a.m. He writes by longhand on the back olf junk mail.

Tennessee Williams wrote "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on his favorite writing material--an assortment of hotel stationery.

Robert Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) wrote his book on index cards.

Count Leo Tolstoy and William Burroughs both used scissors and paste to "rearrange" the drafts of stories.

Toni Morrison writes on yellow legal pads with "a nice number two pencil."

John updike wrote with pen or pencil, no computer for him.

Ernest Hemingway wrote standng up.

What are your habits, or quirks?

WHAT BARB IS READING TODAY

I did manage to do some reading for fun on my cruise. But I didn't complete this book until I returned home. When I tell you the book was published in 2000 you all will probably groan. I do read more current material but when I find an author I enjoy I go back to find his/her other books. Elizabeth Adler is one author I intend to read until I have exhausted her publications--which from her website: www.elizabethadler.com means I will be reading for a long time.

This book I read was "In a Heartbeat", a book I would catagorize as romantic suspense but others might say is mystery. Whatever you call it, it is one great read:

The opening is only two pages and does grab you but the beginning of the second chapter pulls the reader right in: "He's not going to make it." The "he" in this case is Ed Vincent who has been shot four times at blank range and, although in a coma and unable to speak at this point, hears and understands every word spoken around him. When the police detective, who will be your favorite secondary character ever!-asks him who killed him, he manages to utter one word, "Zelda." The race is on to find a shooter, possibly a murderer, because it is doubtful whether Ed Vincent is going to live.

The story is told from three viewpoints--Ed's, that of Homicide Detective Marco Camelia, and the voice of "Zelda" (Melba Eloise Merrydew). It is a rush to find a killer and all the intrigue of who, what, why, is there but the story of the unforgettable connection between a man and a woman is what kept me reading to the more than satisfying ending.
***

Until I read the first book I can't remember seeing the name before. But since Random House is her pubisher, I am just behind the times. The author lives in Southern California somewhere and the first book I found listed was "Fleeting Images" (1987). "Meet me in Venice" (the first one I read by this author) seems to be the last--or at least the last listed online. I have a lot of catching up to do.

SOUTHERN WRITER, I AM

Souhern writer. I have been told I have a southern voice when I write fiction. I hope that is true. As a daughter of the South, I grew up with the creations of writers of that region. Although I have found some great new authors from that area in recent years and read their work with enthusiasm, I am amazed to admit I remember those dead writer's work better than the new.

An article in "The Oxford American," a great southern magazine, gives us a glimpse into the resting places of some famous Southern writers. It also offered some of the epitaphs on their tombstones.

Do you remember Edgar Allan Poe's tales? He was considered a Souhern writer and is buried in Baltimore, Maryland--a state some still consider more southern than northern. When first assigned to read him, I was taken back by the darkness of his stories. But the more I read, the more I was hooked. Some say Poe was the author of the first mystery. Maybe that was how I became an avid mystery reader/writer. His tombstone had no epitaph at first; then when family managed to come up with money to engrave "Here at last, he is happy," the stonemason broke the stone while carvng. And when friends collected money for a new stone, Poe's birthday was the wrong day in January. Mystery? Or just the spirits getting even for all those chilling stories?

"Look Homeward, Angel," the most famous book by Thomas Wolfe, was written in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina where he is buried. On his tombstone are words from that book--"The last voyage, the longest, the best."

I remember reading Marjorie Kinnan Rowlings, "Cross Creek" when a youngster. I loved the description of Florida, never knowing I would live in that very area as an adult, and the relationships warmed me, a child often alone except when in the world created by books. On her stone is written, "Through her writing she endeared herself to the people of the world." Especially this young girl.

In the era I grew up in the South, reading authors of color was not promoted. I never knew much about Zora Neale Hurston until Alice Walker went to the Garden of Heavenly Rest Cemetary in Fort Pierce, Florida, to place a momument on the unmarked grave of this famous author who died in poverty. Carved on her tombstone are the words: A genius of the South. Novelist Folklorist Anthropologist.

I find epitaphs in old cemetaries interesting. Once I traveled through several Western states, visiting old graveyards and making rubbings of creative epitaphs. I wish I still lived in the South to go on a search for some of my favorite Southern writers. Good excuse for a trip home?

HAPPENINGS ON THE WAY TO A BEST SELLER

I have just completed a book. "Rejectiion, Romance & Royalties" by Laura Resnick (2007). A seasoned writer of romance and fantasy epicis as she calls them, I enjoyed her honesty, her humor and the many tips she offered writers of all genres and status. One of the most interesting chapters was one where she collected the horrors of what that masterpiece book you've sold to a wonderful publisher can look like when you receive your first copy.

Here are some of the slips:

One author's name was left off the cover of her book. Another had such an awful cover design, bookstores would not put it on the shelves (too risque? too macabre?).

An author received her book and the middle 40 pages was missing. Another had her title and name on cover and title pages, but someone else's book printed inside the cover. Still another had many pages printed upside down. In both of these instances, the author had been sent a galley copy to check for errors--these mistakes were not on the galley copy.

The story I have heard about James Mitchner's book, Texas, was also repeated in this book. His massive book was printed with 64 pages missing. Thousands of copies were sent out; recalls for them were sent out. Not too many were returned. Does that mean they wanted to keep it as a souenier thinking it might be worth a great deal of money one day? Or did they not read the huge tome?

And how steamed would you be if the publisher had accepted your work, signed a contract with you for a certain number of words and then, during the printing process, cut the number of acceptable words--so he just wacked off the last three chapters of your book--leaving your story with no climax, no ending?

One author appeared at a bookstore for a signing and found that the store had ordered copies of a children's book by an author with the same last name. Now, how do you sell your book when there are no copies to be sold? Do you do a quick read of the children's book (okay, you can read fast if it is a picture book) and speak about this other author's great product? Do you cancel the whole thing? Or do you pull out your business cards, hand them out and offer the buyers a discount to order your book at your web site or at your email address?

If any of you writers have ever had a bad experience with the IRS, or whatever the taxing entity in your country is called, you will appreciate the author whose publisher sent to the IRS an outrageous amount of earnings for the author. Can you imagine how long it took her to straighten out that mess?

Some of us who have not often (or ever) been published might welcome some of the problems these authors have just to see our creation on any bookstore shelf and in the hands of readers. However, these kind of missteps cost many authors a readership they would have earned had it not been for the publishers or printers errors. Writers must be as vigilant as possible, joining with the publisher as a partner to get the correct work out, to market that work, and to urge everyone in this loop to do their best work.

BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS

Isn't it ironic what we writers will do to make a living? Not that I'm an overwhelming success but I've done all sorts of jobs. I've filed credit receipts for an oil company, sold telephone equipment, typed tax returns (before computers!), managed an office, been a foreign-customer coordinator for an aerospace company, packaged sports cards and collections to be sold on QVC, and taught creative writing classes, just to mention a few. And I continued to write while doing so, as more famous writers have done.

William Faulkner must have been an odd Southern postmaster. I wonder if he wrote while sorting? Did he read the mail, or merely observe the people who came into his post office for character sketches, ideas?

Zane Grey was a dentist. Alex Haley wrote while in the Coast Guard about his own "roots." Bricklayers do beautiful work but there were none of his profession in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath"--only toiling Oakies.

How could a management professor write such stirring tales of past-prime people and forbidden love in "The Bridges of Madison County" and "Border Music?" Robert James Waller certainly knows how to manage his own writing.

I have met some wonderful writers in classes I have taken, and students in my own classes. Former military writing great masculine tales based on what they experienced in their war; a bookstore owner who created characters any reader would have sworn were right out of a history book; a young teacher who wrote (and had published) seven romances in one year in order to be able to write for a living; and the woman who had been confined to a wheelchair since an automobile accident twenty years ago, a writer who put herself into the characters minds in order to walk again, as she put it. They are all writers, no matter what professions or disabilities they might have, and they all have stories to tell, or important experiences to pass on.

We writers are secretaries, stockbrokers, laundry workers, doctors, civil servants, policmen, even retirees. We are of all professions, all backgrounds, all sort of people. None of this really matters, certainly not to our editors/publishers or readers--they only want us to write well enough to engage minds in our work, to sweep readers off their feet, to sell those books or magazines.