Last week I mentioned that this week will be audiobooks week, and as promised, I went to the library and picked up a few audiobooks. I was amazed at the wide variety the small library close to where I live carries. There were fiction books of every genre as well as non-fiction. I picked up three titles, one of which is The Color Of Water written by James Mc Bride and narrated by Andre Braugher and Lainie Kazan.

Storytelling at its best

The story gripped me instantly. Maybe it’s the deep timbre and skilful inflection of the narrator’s voice combined with the story itself or the writer’s style. Maybe a combination of all three. But whatever it is, I’m having difficulty turning off my car engine and stopping the tape when I get to my house. The story, a black son’s tribute to his white mother, is told in a style which modern-day writers will call telly, but to me it’s storytelling at its finest. It conjures up memories of me sitting on the floor at my mother’s feet while she rocked in her rocking chair and told me a story. Mc Bride’s style reminds me a lot of Frank Mc Court, another of my favorite authors. It’s funny, yet poignant, hard-hitting, yet subtle, informative but by no means boring.

As I mentioned before, I’d never listened to an audiobook before. I thought it would be a struggle to maintain my interest, but so far it hasn’t been this way. It has made my ride to and from work much more enjoyable and all too short. Just as I would with a good print book, I find this audiobook hard to put down.

The ampersand

Did you know there were once twenty-seven letters in the English alphabet? The letter that is now extinct is the ampersand – & – which was a contraction of the letters e and t, which in Latin meant and. In English, the word and was used as the twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet, but when schoolchildren recited the alphabet, they would say “XYZ and per se and,” since it wouldn’t make sense to say “XYZ and.” Per se means by itself. In time the words were pronounced together and sounded like ampersand. By the late 1800s, the word had come to mean, “rear end, posterior, or hindquarters.” In case you didn’t know, APA style requires the ampersand to be used when citing sources in text such as (Harry & Smith 2008). This is different from MLA style which calls for the and to be spelled out. This is also new to me; et cetera, meaning and so forth, can be abbreviated &c.

Heat wave

Most of the country is expected to be in to 100s this weekend. We are used to that in the summer here in Florida, but the Midwest? How hot is it where you are?
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Summer is always a good time to stock up on office supplies for the rest of the year. Why? With the heat wave out there, you may want to stay in the cool indoors and get some writing done. Another good reason is to take advantage of the special savings at Office Max. Check them out here:

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Spark your creativity

A comment on my blog post How To Get Your Creative Juices Flowing said one way is to read a book that is so poorly written, you throw it aside and say, “I can write better than that.” I’d never thought of that one before, but when you really consider it, it makes sense. Read something that is badly written, then sit down and craft your own masterpiece.

Books published in serial form

And another comment from one of my friends on my post, Should You Blog Your Book. She reminded me that some famous writers, including Charles Dickens, first published their books in serial form, which is not the same as blogging, but it’s published in segments. So, I decided to look up books first published in serial form, and it turned out there are tons of them. Among the classics are Great Expectations (Charles Dickens), Little Lord Fauntleroy (Frances Hudson Burnett), The Adventures of Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi), David Copperfield (Charles Dickens), Far From The Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy) and The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas), just to name a few.

Audiobook week

Just last week I told a friend I need to get some audiobooks to listen to on my way to work, because I find I don’t have enough time to read. Lo and behold, next week June 25 – June 29 happens to be audiobook week. I came across Devourer of Books, a blogsite that will be having a series of posts on audiobooks and will be giving some away next week. If you are interested, here’s the link: http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2012/06/listen-up-audiobook-week-2012-details-and-discussion-topics/

Raining ducks

And now for a little bit of quirk. Did you know that ducks lay their eggs in trees? A female motorist in London said she was driving when she saw four newly-born birds fall like rain out of a tree. She assisted another woman reunite the babies with their mom who was waiting in a nearby pond. Nature expert, Tony Drakeford, said that ducks lay their eggs in trees and when they hatch, the ducklings fall to the ground. He explained the reason they are able to survive very high falls is because of their light skeletons and feathers. There are lots of ducks where I live, so from now on I’m going to be looking up whenever I walk under a tree!

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I couldn’t resist. I had a few quirky things lined up for my weekly post, but after watching Nik Wallenda walk a tightrope across the Niagara and into the pages of history, I decided to shelve the items I had compiled to write about something, someone, far more entertaining and far more inspiring. As I – and the rest of the world – watched Nik take step after death-defying step on a wet, unsteady tightrope from the US to Canada, I saw more than just a man who set out to follow his dreams. I also saw a man who

1. Honors his family legacy so much that he decides to follow in their footsteps. Nik Wallenda comes from a long line of death-defying, daredevil, entertaining Wallendas dating back to the 1700s. Most of them defied death to entertain and inspire others. Only three of them didn’t make it, including Nik’s great-grandfather who fell to his death in 1978.

2. Has confidence in God and in himself. While I held my breath and prayed many times during the walk, Nik seemed calm and confident, although we could hear him praying and thanking God during the most challenging times. Blinding mist, wrap-around winds and rushing waters could have easily caused him to lose his focus and his balance. At one point, when his father asked him how he was doing, Nik said, “I feel my hands getting numb, my body feels weak.” But he kept his eyes on the prize.

3. Perseveres despite the odds. Nik said it took him twenty years to get to this moment of success. For two of those years he sought permission from US and Canadian government agencies, who all rejected the idea. Sounds familiar? But Nik was not about to give up, and he reaped the reward.

4. Has the support of his family. Nik seemed so small and alone on that wire suspended 200 feet above the cascading, pounding waters of the Falls, but he knew that on the other side his wife, children and his dad were eagerly awaiting his safe return. His father even spoke to him during the walk.

5. Celebrates his victory. Nik is a born entertainer. When he dropped to his knees and blew a kiss to the crowd just a few feet from the tower, I thought, here’s a man who knows how to celebrate. We’ve seen athletes and entertainers cry after a big event, but not Nik. He celebrates with joy. One of the reporters said that Nik usually calls his wife from his cell phone, but he didn’t do it this time.

As Nik handed his passport to Canadian immigration officials, he was asked what was the purpose of his walk. He replied, “To inspire people around the world.” He inspired me, and I’m sure, a lot of people. As writers, we can emulate Nik’s example. There will always be challenges, but if we trust God, have the support of family and friends, and do not give up, we too will one day be able to celebrate our victory.

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Last week I posted the beginning of an article on the above topic. In the ending I give reasons why you should be cautious about blogging your book and what may be the safest ways to go about it.

My take on the whole thing? Proceed with caution. If you are writing a great humorous non-fiction book on, say, why teenager’s brains are programmed to make them text while driving, then you may attract readers and increase your blog traffic. But will they buy the book after they have read it? Another reason I may be reluctant to blog my book is because of copyright issues. If your book sounds like it has some viability, what’s to prevent someone from packagi ng it, giving it another title and selling it on Kindle?

Yet another reason I think blog posts may not translate into a good blovel is the matter of pacing. If you write mini-scenes which leave your reader panting for more after each one, your reader may become tired after a while and wish to get off the roller coaster. In order to pace your novel well, you are going to have moments when events rise to a crescendo, then fall in much the same way an orchestra presents a musical item. It’s this rhythm, not the constant cliffhangers of the blog posts, that makes the reader eagerly anticipate what is to follow.

However, I do think authors can build a platform about their novel before it is published, not by blogging their book, but by blogging about it (which I plan to do). You can write a blurb about the story, give some background about the setting – if it’s an interesting one – talk about how you came up with the idea for the book. Without giving away the story, you can post, each day, or each week, something about your progress. How many pages did you write, what did you focus on, what challenges did you have? Also, don’t be afraid to ask your readers to help you unravel those challenges. If you do, your readers will feel they had a part in writing the book and will be impatient to see it in print. Hey, what am I waiting for?

Any more ideas about blogging your book? Leave a comment below.

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Today I start a new column with the above title, which I hope will become a weekly feature. I’ll be bringing you information that is quirky, artsy, writerly or just plain newsy. I invite you to leave a comment and add any news of your own that you think may be of value to anyone, not just writers.

I heard this one on a Christian radio station:
Car dealer in Palm Beach, Florida to build a 341 foot high flagpole to honor 911 victims and responders. The flagpole is going to be huge, as you would imagine, to withstand hurricane-force winds and, if approved by the city, will cost only $800.000. Can’t wait to see it.

Potty Mouth Doll

Saw this on the evening news. A mom bought this doll for her daughter and is very upset over its use of what sounds like profanity. Mom says she wants the doll removed from the shelves. Toys R Us says the words aren’t cuss words and they refuse to remove the doll.

Compromised Passwords

If you are on LinkedIn your password may be one of the 6. 5 million stolen and posted on a hacker site. LinkedIn says, “To the best of our knowledge, no email logins associated with the passwords have been published, nor have we received any verified reports of unauthorized access to any member’s account as a result of this event.” However, some passwords were decoded and LinkedIn has locked those accounts and notified the account holders. Are we safe yet? You may read the post here: http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/06/07/taking-steps-to-protect-our-members/

BEA 2012 attendance up

Attendance at the Book Expo America is said to be up 5% to 14,057 for retailers, librarians and booksellers and 1% overall to 22,365. But that’s not all that’s up, according to Forbes. E-book publishers were also exhibiting alongside print and other traditional publishers. Names like OverDrive, Copia and Chafie Press were present. To learn more about these companies, read the post here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfarrell/2012/06/06/e-book-publishers-take-to-the-cloud-at-book-expo-2012/

World’s tallest man

This from the Huff post: 8 foot 3 inches Sultan Kosen of Turkey has stopped growing at the age of twenty-nine. Kosen, who suffers from acromegaly, has had to use crutches to walk, but four years ago he began a treatment at the University of Virginia which has caused him to stop growing. Kosen has held the Guinness World Record title since 2010 and actually grew a couple inches since then.

Anything quirky or interesting going on in your neck of the woods? Why not leave a comment and let me know? I may feature it next week.

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We live in an age where new words keep popping up faster than microwave popped corn. A lot of this has to do with the internet. Words such as blog, webinar, branding, social media were either not known, little used or meant something entirely different before the turn of the century. Now I’ve come across another one: blovel. This means a blog that has been turned into a novel or vice versa, I’m not sure which. However, some people think that writing a blovel can help an author build a platform, leading to a book deal with a major publisher. After all, that’s the reason many of us write, isn’t it?

One advocate of book blogging says it’s very easy to turn your blog into a book. Simply write a short blog post every day starting from the beginning of your book and at the end of a year you should have a book, er, blook. I’m sure you can figure what that is. While she admits that blogging your book lends itself best to non-fiction, she thinks it is also possible to turn out a good blovel. She advises that you
a) plan your story arc well,
b) divide your chapter into mini-scenes,
c)decide how you will weave your posts into a manuscript that flows.

These all sound plausible, however Jane Friedman, professor, media professional and former publisher of Writer’s Digest pleads, “Please don’t blog your book.” While Jane agrees that some blogs may make for excellent books, these are the ones that fall in the information category or are memoirs, like Julia and Julia. Jane’s reasons for not blogging your book are also straightforward and plausible. They are:
a) Blog writing is not like book writing. Think SEO, keyword etc.
b) Blogs can make for very bad books – unless it’s an e-book or an illustrated book.
c)If a book sounds like a series of blog posts, she considers it a failure.

In some of the forums I visited on the subject, one author brought up the very important of original work. Publishers tend to shy away from anything that’s considered already published, and if it appeared on your blog then it qualifies as published work. Another person said he has been blogging scenes from his book, but he has yet to acquire a readership.

I’ll continue this discussion in another post. Meanwhile, drop me a line and let me know if you think blogging your book is a good idea, or if you have done it what kind of results have you had.

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