Movie Night, Featuring Lying On Sunday

Welcome to Movie Night on NovelMatters. Today's feature is Sharon K. Souza's Lying on Sunday. Leave a comment to be entered into the NovelMatters movie-night giveaway. And have a fun and safe All Hallow's Eve.

Nightmare on Creative Street

Congratulations to Connie Reece, the winner of our book giveaway this month! Connie, you have won a copy of Patti Hill's latest release Seeing Things, so shoot us an email with your address please and we'll get it in the mail to you.

Since Halloween is Saturday, I thought I'd blog about the things that go bump in the writer's night. Things that kill creativity. Kill it dead.

How do we create life from lifeless tissue? The fact that I had to ask for my husband's help to think of a title for this post only confirmed my urgent need to figure this out. (Thanks, honey) Most writers experience dry times when the ideas just won't come. What are the causes and what are the cures? Let's button up our lab coats and pull the third switch!

I brainstormed a list of causes for lack of creativity and came up with: fear of failure, fear of transparency, feeling restricted by guidelines/formulas/word counts, burnout, real or imagined criticism, anxiety over deadlines, worry, feeling overwhelmed and stress about life in general. I'll admit that for me, stress is the worst culprit and maybe yours is listed, too. Maybe recognizing it is the first step toward overcoming.

The good news is that we swim in a rich gene pool. Our Creator gave us the desire to write and it's part of what makes us tick. We don't create alone. Here are some ideas for cures:

• Read widely. Feeding your mind with interesting and thought-provoking material results in interesting and thought-provoking writing. These new ideas can blossom into a story idea or influence the direction of your WIP.
  
• Write at the same time every day. This creates memory triggers that can flip on the power switch.
• Enjoy beauty. Find a quiet place that you love and take time to meditate. Don't write or think about your WIP. Take your lunch to the cemetery. It's quiet and peaceful, and no one knows you're there but God. Or listen to your favorite music without distractions, or take a scenic detour home from the grocery store and listen on your car stereo. It can help you get perspective.
  
• Practice ten or fifteen minutes of free style writing. Write about whatever comes into your mind. It's okay to write with abandon and flourish. That's how I picture the Lord pitching armfuls of stars into the galaxy at creation. Or choose a topic like your favorite childhood vacation or your favorite Christmas. The point is, do not stop to rewrite! No one else will read it but you.
  
• Write someplace new. Sometimes the same old ideas sit in my office, fish-eyed and lifeless. Taking my laptop to a different environment helps me get away from them and makes room for new ideas.
• Read about the lives of famous authors. They, too, suffered from periods of dryness and thought their writing was lifeless at times, and they overcame. You will, too.
  
• Get out and do something. If you spend all your time in your office bent over your laptop, you will not gather rich experiences that your characters can share. They don't want to be dull.
• Ask God to refresh you. Ask fellow authors, family and friends to pray. If God calls us to a ministry, He will equip us for the task.

This is just a short list of suggestions. What robs you of your creativity and what have you found helpful? Please share it with us!

Behind the Stacks - Judy Gann Explains Marketing to Libraries

Novel Matters is thrilled to host Judy Gann, a librarian with over twenty-five years experience, Judy Gann selects Christian fiction for a large library system in Washington state. She has presented "Behind the Stacks" library marketing workshops at writers conferences throughout the United States, including the Oregon Christian Writers Conference, Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, and the annual ACFW Conference. Judy is the author of The God of All Comfort: Devotions of Hope for Those Who Chronically Suffer (AMG Publishers). Visit Judy at her website.

Judy is here to talk books - library books. She knows the ins and outs, the dos and don'ts of marketing your book to the library system. She's here today, answering frequently asked questions about the nuts and bolts of marketing Christian fiction to libraries.

Behind the Stacks: Marketing to Public Libraries

Why should a writer even consider marketing to libraries? After all, if people borrow our books from the library, they won't buy them at a bookstore.

This is the number one misconception authors have about marketing to public libraries. To me, the key is to think of libraries as an additional market, not instead of bookstores, but as another piece of your marketing plan. As independent bookstores close at an alarming rate and chains stock mostly bestsellers, we need to find new venues for connecting with the audiences for our books.

The public library serves an entire population that doesn't frequent bookstores, reaching a new audience for your books. This is especially true during tough economic times. Library use has skyrocketed during the current recession. Library users are also great word-of-mouth promoters. They'll check out a book and tell a friend about it, possibly resulting in an additional sale. Many people borrow a book from the library, discover a new author, and then purchase the author's other titles.

For those of you who like statistics, a 2008 U.S. News/CNN Poll revealed Americans make 3.6 billion visits to libraries per year; 57% of adults visited the library in the previous year; and 80% borrow from the library. In addition, libraries spent $1.9 billion on books in 2007, and 60% of midlist book sales go to libraries.

There are a lot of libraries out there, Judy. Where should we begin?

There's no place like home. Begin with your local library. I recommend becoming acquainted with your library and staff while writing your book. The library has fabulous new online databases for writers doing research for their novels - far beyond what you'll find through general internet searching - and far more accurate. Introduce yourself to the staff. We love to help local authors, and take a vested interest in their book projects.

After you sign a contract, work with your publisher to submit your novel to the key reviewing journals used by library acquisitions librarians. These include Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. These journals require ARCs well in advance of publication date. Partner with your publisher. See what they are doing to market to libraries and build on their efforts.

When your book releases ask your local library to consider purchasing your book. (See additional information about how to approach libraries below.) Libraries are supportive of local authors. Partner with your library to do a reading or event, or offer to teach writing workshops for the public.

How should an author select the libraries to market to?

Begin with your home state. If your book is set in a particular state, also target libraries in that state. Virginia Smith has successfully targeted libraries in Kentucky - the setting for several of her novels.

There are approximately 16,000 public libraries in the United States. Obvioiusly, you can't target all of them. Use public library locators - online databases of public libraries in the United States. I recommend Library Technology Guides (http://www.librarytechnology.org/USPublicLibraries.pl) and State Library Web Sites (http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/statelib.html).

Beyond your local library, you want to target library systems rather than independent libraries. Library systems are made up of branches, and their book purchasing is done at a central location. They may include as few as one or two, or as many as eighteen to twenty or more branches, with the potential for purchasing multiple copies of your book. Independent libraries are their own entity with small budgets. They may purchase one copy of your book. This is a general rule and there are exceptions, depending on the topic of your book, reviews, etc.

What I like about the Library Technology Guide site is that it lists library systems and branches. For example, under "Texas," you'll find an alphabetical list of libraries by city and county. If the library is a system, branches are listed. A word of warning: this site hasn't been updated in a while. Check the State Library Web Sites guide for updated information about a particular library system or library.

Your own Sharon Souza is becoming a pro at using these locators to target public libraries with good success.

Who do you target at the library and what do you say to them?

Target the purchasing decision makers. These librarians are usually called acquisitions librarians or collection development librarians. In a large libary system they work at the main library or administration building.

Watch your wording when you approach staff with a copy of your book. Never use the word "donation." Donated books end up in our Friends of the Library book sales. Tell the staff you'd like them to "consider this book for purchase." Ask the staff to send your book to the librarian who makes the purchasing decisions for the library.

Before my last "Behind the Stacks" presentation I surveyed acquisitions librarians to see whether they prefer receiving e-mails or snail-mails. They overwhelmingly preferred snail-mail. Acquisitions librarians are inundated with e-mails from publishers and authors. A well-designed, professional flyer sent through the mail will stand out in the crowd.

Is there a particularly good time of year to approach libraries?

A library's purchasing of materials is tied to its budget year. If the library's budget year is from January-December, key buying seasons are late January to March - when we have new monies - and September to November - when all funds must be spent before the end of the budget year (usually money must be spent by Nov. 30).

What other thoughts would you like to share with us about marketing to public libraries?

A word of caution. Like other public agencies, public libraries are facing budget cuts. Yes, libraries continue to purchase books. But they are being far more selective. Sound like publishers and bookstores? We as authors must write the best books possible, work with our publishers to garner reviews from the key library review journals, and carefully target libraries, beginning with those in our local area.

On a more positive note, CBA fiction is "hot" in public libraries right now. Just as Christian fiction maintains a growing presence in general market bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, it's also gaining in popularity in public libraries. Librarians realize the quality of Christian fiction has improved greatly in recent years. Our library patrons, like bookstore shoppers, are searching for books that offer a good read coupled with hope. Where better to find this than in Christian fiction?

Ladies, thank you! It has been a joy to visit with you and your Novel Matters audience.

Thank YOU, Judy, for your wisdom and generosity. It is a rare thing to find someone so willing to share her knowledge and experience with others. You are a treasure!

ROUNDTABLE: Starting with the Basement

As a teacher, I loved introducing my students to Jane Yolen's books, especially "Owl Moon," a story rich in figurative language and evocative illustrations. After story circle, I would send my students back to their seats to write their own "Owl Moon" stories about outings with people they loved.

Imagine my delight when I discovered Jane Yolen had written a book for writers--Take Joy, A writer's Guide to Loving the Craft.

Okay, so it's not a new book (published in 2006), but it's new to me!

The book is full of practical insights into writing that do indeed re-spark affection for a craft that's keeping me indoors on a perfectly fabulous fall day. And with a deadline looming, some affection is truly needed.

Yolen likens developing theme for a novel to building the basement of a home during a Rocky Mountain winter. The ground must be warmed with heaters and fans to allow for digging. And

by the time the ground is artificially thawed, chances are the snow is flying. The holidays draw nigh. The price of lumber goes up. The contractor tightens the schedule, works on Saturdays, bribes the subcontractors to come at all.

However..."A story does not begin with the impulse to build a basement."

And so, most stories do not begin with the theme either. I've started with titles, characters, and a snippet of an idea. Never theme.

Oddly enough, once a story is started--and that can mean in the first through third draft--the foundation must be strengthened.

To find your theme, ask yourself what your story is about. It's that simple. The answer may seem boring, but if you've built a home, the foundation while critical, was probably ho-hum. Here are the themes of my stories:

A young widow must choose to live well after her husband dies.
A young woman (same widow, next book) learns to trust God in the midst of "storms."
A young woman (same widow, newly married) must commit to her new life while honoring her old life.

A mother and daughter come-of-age during turbulent times.
A mother seeks forgiveness and reconciliation with a grown son.

These are NOT pitch statements (Not one of these books would have sold!) and neither is a theme.

Once the draft is finished (whichever you choose), it's time to comb through and make sure that everything aligns itself with the foundation/theme with care that you haven't beaten your reader over the head with said theme.

Be subtle, yet consistent.

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When thinking of theme, the line from A Christmas Story comes back to me when Ralphie's teacher announces to the class, "I want you to write...a theme." All the kids groan, but Ralphie lights up! He knows exactly what he wants - a Red Rider BB gun with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time. I wish my characters were so focused. It would be so much easier to pin down the theme if only I knew what they wanted.

Sometimes I start with what I imagine my characters want, only to discover that a bigger, better theme has risen from the building materials. I start out with a root cellar with bare walls and a door and expand it, digging away the hillside and framing the open space. I also have to make sure the story and theme are in proper balance by not building an 8 bedroom mansion on the foundation of a summer cottage. If the theme is out of proportion to the story, it may not support such a heavy treatment, or if the theme is weighty, the 'house' must not disappoint.

Here are the themes for my stories:
A mother moves beyond tragedy to win the heart of her estranged daughter.
A woman overcomes the past in order to help a young woman close to her.

~

I'm married to a man who's been a builder since he was 21 years old. I've been on a lot of his job sites, and even helped him stand the first wall of the home we live in, so I know a bit about foundations. I love the quote from Jane Yolen, "A story does not begin with the impulse to build a basement." So true, and like Patti, I've never started a novel with a theme in mind. Instead, I've started most with a "what if ...?" My WIP began with a "what if ...?" followed closely by the working title, the significance of which is woven through the story.

~

The theme, for me, always arises from my "what if ...?" What if a woman discovers that everything she thought she knew about her marriage turns out to be a lie? The theme that emerged from that "what if ...?" A woman faces hard truths to move beyond her husband's infidelity. Or, what if a woman who chose not to have children decides to help her best friend have a child when the friend is unable to conceive on her own? Extreme friendship knows no bounds.

~

But I have to confess, themes aren't always so easy for me to identify, even in my own books. I find it difficult to reduce three or four hundred pages of story to one line. But really, discovering theme is part of the pleasure of reading -- or writing -- for me. Never, during the course of reading a novel do I think, "Ah, so this is the theme," but once I close the final page I like for the theme to settle over my mind like a gentle snow. No hail storms for me, thank you very much. I know, that's a terrible mix of metaphors -- foundations and hailstorms -- but you get the point. I don't want to be bludgeoned with theme. I want to reach my own conclusions, as I think most readers do. And it's very likely my conclusions might differ from yours, because everyone reads a book with a different life experience, and that will always affect the impact of the story on the reader.

~

Theme? We're supposed to think about theme? I have to confess that I'm plot and agenda driven. I want to tell a good story. I want someone to take action, to think differently after reading what I write.

I want to create a world that someone won't forget and that will stand like a boulder in the road of their thoughts -- that will require them now to negotiate with, or climb over, or intentionally and inconveniently walk around every time they think about a congruent situation.

I may start with a controlling image, or I may have a nagging question about "how things work in the real world," but my thinking about theme doesn't come out in sentences. I must be theme-defective.

~

My hand is up. I confess. I'm a theme junkie. I stuffed Talking to the Dead with themes that interest me - themes I see in life around me, some I wrestle with myself, and none of which I have answers for. I guess I build my house upside down, but themes come first for me.

I'm a concepts person. I never understood math; numbers refuse to speak to me, the turn their spiny backs to me and tilt their fractions in the air. But algebra? Ooooo baby. Loved it. Give me theoretical conceptualization any day of the week.

In addition to the overt themes of a young widow fearing her sanity because she hears the voice of her dead husband, I explored themes such as:

The Waiting Room - Kate spends a fair amount of time waiting in reception areas, lobbies, foyers, and waiting rooms. Each waiting room experience marks a new phase of her journey. There are many meanings and conversations readers could have about the waiting rooms.

Obsession - the ultimate anti-love emotion is obsession. The theme of obsession runs through the book and is expressed in different character's action. It's a dark theme, but it fascinates me.

Idolatry - Hand in glove with obsession is idolatry. Kate had idols, Kevin did, so did Heather and Donna. This was a theme nearly as strong as the main theme.

Emotional vs. Rational Responses - There is a tension in the book between the emotional and the rational. Neither one comes out a clear winner - but there is a discussion that can be found in the book about balancing the two in a third arena.

Somatic Experience of Emotions - Kate's feelings were overwhelmingly strong. All emotion is felt somewhere in the body as well as in the mind.

These are some of the themes in the book. I told you, I'm a theme junkie. And the way I understand theme is, I guess, different than that of my amazing blog mates. But that's okay, it all works out in the end.

How about you? What themes do you like to explore in your reading? Your writing? Are there themes you find yourself going back to time and again? Or do you enjoy a buffet of themes, never the same morsel twice? Have you found a sure fire way of identifying the themes in works you love or are writing? We're all ears.

Boo?

When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, I read ghost stories under the blanket as a child, I watched every vampire movie that came to town as a child. I adored Halloween as a child. But now that I am old(er) I have put away childish things. Most of them. Well... a lot of them.

It's of no significance that I married a man whose family - both sides - hearkens from the mountains of Transylvania.

Imagine my surprise to learn, upon giving my heart and life to Jesus, that the people in his church (at least the church I landed in) considered Halloween to be evil.

Evil? Honestly, it had never crossed my mind. And no sooner had I pursed my lips to utter the word, why? than somebody handed me a cassette tape on the subject by Mike Warnke, and he had been a Satanist High Priest in his pre-Christian days, and so he had the scoop on all things evil - only he didn't. We later learned he'd made up his whole life story.

But I didn't know that then, and everything Mike said made a kind of sense to me. So, a bit sadly, I gave up Halloween. Or I didn't give it up so much as I gave up liking it so well. There were still Harvest parties where we celebrated vegetables by eating candy.

A confession: there is still, for me, a particular cozy, anticipant joy associated with October. I love the electric chill to the air, the numinous cast to the light. The inscrutable sense that the veil between the physical world I see and the spiritual world I feel has worn quite thin, and anything - anything at all might happen.

I still love stories that lift the hairs on the back of my neck.

One of my favorite passages comes from The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, something the lion Aslan says to young Shasta who has just complained about the ghoulish time he has had:

"I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the tombs. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at night, to receive you."

I hope you're relieved to find I haven't made friends with the devil. It's just that I realize that his is not the only (or the most powerful) camp in the spirit realm. And the remembrance that there is a spirit realm gives me such comfort. Imagine if the physical world, the beauty yes, but also the violence and sorrow - imagine if that was all there was?

I'm reminded of something Walter Wangerin Jr. wrote in Swallowing the Golden Stone, about the safety of writing monsters into stories for children:

"Adults who write to their image of a child, rather than writing to genuine children, do in a real sense utter baby talk. And they miss the mark of a child's intense experience. They make a conventional assumption of pastel innocence, angelic goodness, fresh unsullied souls ("trailing clouds of glory do we come/from God who is our home") and in consequence their language lisps, their menu of topics is reduced to to the sugar cookie, and their attitude is offensive. Even as they presume to know better than the child, they present a teller and a tale too simple and simply less than a child can (and ought to, and wants to) experience. Simpletons tell simplistic tales."

Am I the only one who finds in his words deep wisdom for those of us who write for grownups? Let me tell you no simplistic tales.

Boo!

Life in the Third Person

It would be accurate to say that I spent most of my childhood in the third person.

Growing up in a household where there was mental illness, violence and uncertainty led, not surprisingly, to fear and distrust. I began to fear my surroundings (and with good cause) but often did not directly interact with them because much of the mistrust, I think, was of my own view of reality.

To escape, I hid under the weeping willow tree and read books. From the time we moved to Albuquerque when I was 10, I lived only blocks from a small branch library. I began by reading the “colored” fairy tale books –The Rose Book of Fairy Tales, The Red Book of Fairy Tales, etc., all the Wizard of Oz books, all the Nancy Drew books, many of the classics – and then devoured every single book, for a child or adult, about American Indians and Egyptology.

To my recollection, every book I read (except Black Beauty and that narrator was a horse, of course) was written in the third person, so I began to think in the third person. Though I kept a sketchy diary (a couple of lines a day, mainly speculating on family situations or that unknown territory of teenage boys), my real writing output was poems and stories.

In many cases, I would view situations around me with some degree of literary dispassion, as the recorder of a scene. It provided safe distance.

Perhaps that’s why I have been so reluctant to focus on personal experience in my own non-fiction writing. Writing my first published novel, Latter-day Cipher, was challenging but at least it was in the familiar native tongue of third person.

But it’s real problem for me in my present WIP, which is a first-person narrative.

Now, since it’s fiction, every reader will pick it up knowing it’s me supposing the first-person view of someone else. And that person is a real historical figure whose unknown history I am, well, supposing. I have to fight the sense that I am being presumptuous or even fraudulent.

And then there are the mechanics of recording someone else’s words. Anne Rice, in Interview with the Vampire, used the device of interview. Others have used the device of a long-lost last manuscript written by the first-person narrator.

Man, this is hard.

Does anyone else struggle with any such issues regarding writing in the first person?

The e-Reader Changing the Way You Read?

Just a reminder: this month we're giving away Patti Hill's fun new novel, Seeing Things. Leave a comment on one of our discussions for a chance to win.

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How has the emergence of e-books changed the way you read? Michael Miller, Executive Publisher at NavPress, which published my last two novels, wrote on his blog the road ahead . . . , "Consumers are moving away from retail stores and to virtual retailers ... The e-book and e-reader world ... will have an impact." Undoubtedly that's true, but how much of an impact? A recent NexGen Research study predicts that the global market for e-readers such as the Kindle and Sony Reader will exceed $2.5 billion by 2013. On the other hand, Steve Jobs discounts the potential of the e-book market because, he says, "People don't read anymore." Ouch. I can't begin to fathom that. My husband and I are voracious readers, as are our children.

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So, if NexGen Research is correct that the e-reader market will turn into a multi-billion dollar industry in a very short time, I can't help wonder, will it be a generational thing, where younger generations embrace the e-reader phenomenon, while the aging Boomer generation by and large clings to the familiar book format? Or will there be a blending of the two? Can a die-hard book lover be wooed into the world of the e-reader? Will a generation deeply submerged in the technology age eventually find traditional books obsolete?

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My book club discussed the subject this past week, and to a woman, everyone agreed they would not trade a "real" book for an electronic one. Granted, most of us fall into that aging Boomer category, but the two 30-somethings in our group were as adamant as the rest of us. We all love the smell of paper and ink as we crack open that first page, and the feel of a "real" book in our hands.

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And yet, as unappealing as the e-reader concept is to me as an exclusive way to read, I can see its merits in selected situations. Travel, of course, tops the list. How convenient to load a book or two onto a Kindle and save space in your suitcase for an extra pair of shoes. Textbooks are a close second on my list of the merits of an e-reader. I'm sure every middle and high school student on the planet would gladly trade a backpack full of books for one small reading device. Not to mention the savings college students could realize every semester if they could purchase textbooks for e-readers at a remarkably reduced rate. If you ask me, buying college textbooks is much like buying concessions at a movie theater or ballpark -- as close as you can get to legal extortion.

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Alright then, I'm curious. Can you see a world where books and ebooks find compatibility, or will traditional books eventually go the way of the vinyl record and 8-track cassette? And, of course, the looming question on the minds of writers everywhere is, "What will that mean for me?"

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I'd love to hear what you think.