Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary Day

For the last week of my holiday and up till today, I have been reading very early Canadian history. During that time I met Mrs. Simcoe. She was the wife of Governor Simcoe of Upper Canada whose time in this province (present-day Ontario) has left so many marks. (I grew up a mile north of the Governor’s Road, built by and named for Governor John Graves Simcoe.
Amazingly his wife came with him to this untamed country and kept a journal of her time here. Below is the present-day version available on the web. The picture here is not how she looked. It is one she donned Welsh ancestral garb for; she did not dress like this all the time.

The copy I got from the library is pictured below, with all its fadings and tears, its yellowed pages and its vintage binding from 1965 when Mary Quayle Innis edited and published it. The original diary covers the time the Simcoes were in Canada, September 17, 1791 until October 16, 1796.

I was excited about doing this research for another book but not prepared for the pleasure I would get from meeting Mrs. Simcoe. I would have loved this book even if I weren’t doing research. I even kept it five days past the library due date so that I could finish it.
The chapters are headed as follows:
1. Journey to Canada
2. A Winter in Quebec
3. Journey to Niagara
4. A Year at Niagara
5. Life at York (later renamed Toronto)
6. Life at Niagara
7. Visit to Quebec
8. Niagara
9. York and Niagara
10. Departure

I learned many things about life in my country at that time and much more about Mrs. Simcoe. We tend to think of women from that time as frail creatures but she was anything but. She was artistic and many of her drawings provide excellent views into life of her day. An astute observer of her surroundings, both nature and human, she provides insight into the lives, foods, medicines and geography of this new world.
I’m taking it back to the library in a few minutes so you, too, will be able to take it out and voyage back to 1791.

Have you ever happened upon a great book to help with your writing?  Or a book whose author absolutely got it right?  Consider leaving a comment and telling us about it.

My Lovely iPad2

A while back my husband and I enjoyed a holiday in Hilton Head with friends.  We rode in the back seat of their car for two days down and two days back, a situation which was fine, except that we had to entertain ourselves.  Usually when we go on this trek, we switch drivers every couple of hours.  Not so this time.  I was fortunate to have my iPad charged up and ready to help keep me engaged.  Here is what I wrote at one point:

An iPad in the backseat for a long trip can make the miles fly by.  It’s like slipping on that eagle’s wings and letting go of the road’s tedium.  I lose myself as I catch the updraft of imagination, floating over the miles in fresh air, free-falling.  My breath held, I urge my words to surge from my fingertips onto the page before the batteries die.  Mine and my iPad’s.

Well, it’s not Pulitzer stuff but you can see my thoughts became fanciful and I enjoyed just mucking about with words and sounds.  Surely this is one of the best things about writing.  Not to mention how losing myself in the words can fill hours and hours of time in complete delight.  I forgot about my right butt muscle that I’d pulled in a freak accident the day we left for home.  I moved into my head and let the words captivate my thoughts, edging out the drone of the tires on the road, the horns of the passing semis, and the sheer boredom of sixteen hours sitting in one spot in a car.

Whether this bit of prose is anything that will go anywhere is doubtful, but I did take my right brain out for a ride and loved it.  I also wrote three lists: one of things to do, another of things I didn’t want to do but must, and a third of dreams worthy of a bucket list.  And a couple of blog posts, and emails, and plans for our next vacation.  I’m still referencing those lists and pulling things from them to shape into writing.  Amazing.

What do you do when stuck in a similar situation?  Do you take out your smartphone and play games?  Or do you jot down character traits as you observe the people around you?  (That’s a favorite one of mine.)  Consider leaving a comment with your solitary writing-oriented secrets.

But underneath the loving-life persona lurked questions and doubt.  Was there not more to life?  She understood the lyric, “Is that all there is?” and continually looked for new fulfillment.  She swam, walked, biked for a healthy heart.  She read, read, and read some more for her mind.  Ideas excited her, especially those which came unbidden as she thought about what she was reading.  And then she expanded to writing.

Her first book was for her husband and two grown children, the self-published account of her childhood, growing up in a loving family of thirteen children on a farm in Oxford County.  She inserted pictures, each one a song of her childhood.  Her children were entranced.

Then she wrote a similar book of her love affair with her husband and their joy in raising their boy and girl.  Again pictures prompted memories and she laughed and cried as she composed at the computer.  Another popular, self-published volume.

Her thirty-something son challenged her to write:  “Mom, you’re sixty years old, in perfect health, with lots of writing skills.  If you don’t write that novel now, when will you?”  And so she started.  And she wrote.  She wrote of history, and love, of war and death, of babies and heartache.  She wrote a novel of over 100,000 words.

Now she is stuck in a rewrite funk, trying to decide how best to bring this baby to its birth day.  And she has put it aside for a few weeks while her life smooths out again and she regains the strength and, yes, the fortitude to persist.

And so I am here.

The above is the bio I wrote for our inaugural writers’ group meeting three years ago.  Well, they loved it, we met for two years, disbanded, and I moved on.  Various other writing experiences have moved me closer to my goal.  This blog’s purpose is to record my journey and I quite like the discipline of writing posts twice a week.  Most importantly, I love the dialogue in the comments, both here and on LinkedIn.  Thank you, commenters all! (And pardon the extra picture!)

We writers have to watch out for those same bumps along our road.  Here are some things to remember when next you grab your stomach as you careen over one of those writing bumps:

1.  Remember why you write in the first place.  Does the act give you satisfaction?  Is that why you started?  Hold on to that thought and enjoy your writing.

2.  Try to keep some sanity in your life by knowing that the publishing world is in turmoil and writers are often paying the price.  We are asked to write great books, have impeccable research and unique ideas, go to loads of conferences and workshops, pay for edits before ever submitting our works, and, oh, by the way, have a dominant social media presence online.  Part of the reason for this is that in days gone by, writing was solitary.  Today a writer’s reach is global; hence, we may be asked many more marketing things because they are so accessible via our computers.  Do what you can do, and remember number 1.

3.  Try not to fall into the trap of writing to rigid guidelines.  Often they are what a certain editor or agent wants because that formula sold once and may again.  Of course you want to grab their attention, but remember that every one of them will want some different variation.  Be true to your own wants, and remember number 1.

At the end of the road, we writers need to be happy with what we’ve done.  Fitting our books into rigid guidelines so that they become formulaic, with each succeeding one a version of the first, can bleed out your creativity, just as surely as the ‘doctors’ of old bled out their patients’ vitality.  Of course, if selling is the only thing you want, follow whatever road will work.  But if you need more, listen to your inner self.  Decide your goals and act accordingly.

At 12:23 last night I took an unusual step for me.  I quit a writers’ group.  One whose guidelines I had worked very hard to follow.  Lying in bed, sleepless again, I figured about 40 hours would see me to the end of the first set of tasks, and none of that time was working on my own writing.  Then I would need to start the next requirements.  All of this with little help for my own work as the genres are so different.  Historical fiction needs editors who know it.  Finally, I stole out of bed, turned on my computer, and wrote the notes needed so that I could return to enjoying my writing journey.

This morning I have been picking up the pieces, repaving, filling in the holes, and trying to ensure that I won’t hit this particular bump again.

What do you do when your writing hits a snag?  Consider telling about one you hit and sharing what you learned from it.

Thanks for having me as your guest today Elaine. I enjoyed writing about my transformational journey to author. I’ll be looking forward to responding to comments. Leave a comment today on On Becoming a Wordsmith and tell me about it HERE to enter to win prizes in celebration of the upcoming release of Little Red Riding Wolf.

From Writer to Author, the journey of a year

When Elaine asked me to write about my journey to being an author, I had to stop and think: when did this journey begin. Was it when I first discovered as a tiny girl that these marvelous books had people who wrote them? That was when I first remember saying, “I want to be an author.” What about when I finished my first story in fifth grade and my Language Arts teacher told me I was very creative? Or was it when I took my first real creative writing class in college?

Pinpointing a spot to start writing about my journey is tough. But after thinking about it I realized that all of these moments, while important stepping stones, were not where I started thinking about myself as an author. Even when I finished my first full length romance novel and sent it in my first query, even that wasn’t the moment. I didn’t start thinking about myself as a real author until I sat in a room with seven amazing women at Margie Lawson’s house and I realized that all of them were real authors, so I must be one, too.

At that point I changed. I had an “Ah-ha moment”. I went home looking at everything differently. It was like the time I first got glasses and realized the hazy green blanket on the mountainside could actually be seen as individual trees. I could see where I was going. That day at Margie Lawson’s I started my journey.

I went home and Gloria Richard shared her list from Sherry Isaac of all the things we needed to do before we got published. Buy business cards, get a headshot, get a website. None of the things that I had because: why did I need them? Only real authors needed a website. But I realized that if I wanted to become a real author, I needed to walk the walk. I got a website within a few months. The business cards took a little longer, and the headshot really took another year and a half. Something about getting a picture taken was tough. But one day I dragged my photographer husband outside and told him to shoot. And presto, I had a real author headshot. I was official.

From there the steps kept forming up like dominoes in a line for me to knock down. Start blogging, keep writing, formulate a business plan. I took classes and read books on how to blog. How to write a business plan. How to become a plotter (okay, that still is a WIP). Each step took me farther and farther along my path. And I started doing the thing that really makes you feel like an author: I started telling people I was writing.

By the time I submitted Little Red Riding Wolf to the editors at Passion in Print Press it had been a whole year since my epiphany. I was walking the walk, I was talking the talk. But I still didn’t feel quite there. In fact, even after my contract came in the mail, I continued to feel not quite there. Until the edits came, and I realized that I was just like every other author out there. I was in the process of defending my decisions or (more frequently) realizing that the editors were right. The negotiations for the final manuscript were upon me, and I was comfortable with being a real author at last.

I now say to people that I am an author. I carry my business cards and hand them out. And guess what? I’m no longer faking it to make it. I really am an author, with a real book coming out and maybe another on the way. There will be more ups and downs as I try to make it to the next place in my journey, a successful author. But I’ve taken the hardest step, the step of changing the way I think about myself. And isn’t that the journey we all take?

What kind of changes have you made in your life? Are you in the middle of changing who you thought you were? Does it require practicing being someone else in order to become that person? Or have you done this in the past? I’d love to hear your stories so leave a comment and once you do hop on over HERE and enter to win prizes, including Rocky Mountain Chocolate Gift Certificates and copies of Little Red Riding Wolf.

Jessica Aspen writes paranormal romance near the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. Her books are full of elves, were-wolves and sexy men who walk on the dark side of the knife. She loves dark chocolate, walking the dog, hiking and is obsessed with her new lap-top. Jessica is also obsessed with writing and learning about writing. She is a member of RWA, CRW, FF&P and PRO. You can find Jessica the first Friday of the month at http://ParanormalFreebies.com and most days during the week at http://jessicaaspen.com

Follow Jessica on twitter @jessicaaspen and on Facebook.com/Jessica.Aspen and don’t forget to enter her contest HERE to win novellas, chocolate and more!

Come into the woods with Little Red Riding Wolf, Jessica Aspen’s spicy paranormal novella due for release February 18^th from Passion in Print Press. What if Little Red Riding Hood was a werewolf and a sexy forest ranger wandered into her woods?

Fraternizing with humans is taboo, but when feisty werewolf Red runs into hunky new forest ranger Evan Brewster, she jumps on the opportunity to let loose her desires. Evan is stoked when he meets the petite red haired hottie, and combined with his new discovery of wolves in Colorado, thinks his career and life are made. Then Red pushes him away, her hostile brother threatens his life, and things begin to spiral out of control. Caught between her sexy lover and her pack can Red trust Evan with her secrets, or must she sacrifice her human lover and her heart?

Jessica Aspen writes paranormal romance near the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. Her books are full of elves, were-wolves and sexy men who walk on the dark side of the knife. She loves dark chocolate, walking the dog, hiking and is obsessed with her new lap-top. Jessica is also obsessed with writing and learning about writing. She is a member of RWA, CRW, FF&P and PRO. You can find Jessica the first Friday of the month at http://ParanormalFreebies.com and most days during the week at http://jessicaaspen.com

Follow Jessica on twitter @jessicaaspen and on Facebook.com/Jessica.Aspen

And will they survive all the electronic devices, the movies, the audio formats?  I did a little thinking about this the other day; the chart below holds some of my musings:

And then I thought of the years of joy I’ve had with my books.  In my previous home I had a lovely library which I filled with fifteen hundred books, each  a treasure.  They lined up like soldiers on the shelf, a testament to my love of words and to the power of words.    And even today with my reduced number, taking them off the shelf and rearranging them by author is a particular pleasure.  I love to hug them like special friends.

So, no.  Books will never be obsolete.  There is just too much tactile pleasure involved in their reading, sharing, and enjoying.

What are your thoughts?   Especially comment if you have a point I haven’t mentioned as this is a huge topic, of interest to the world these days. 

Sameer was a new friend I met in an extreme editing class. He read his work with a certain joy and just seemed to relish the class and everyone in it. His prose was almost poetry, his style was so soft and delicate. The words slipped over my senses like the silk I brought home from China. I had thought he might spice it up a little. But that was not Sameer’s way.

For our class he brought in sections of his novel, which we diligently critiqued. And the fact that I remember what his writing was is a measure of the impact his pleasant, philosophical words had on me. Sameer didn’t seem very old, maybe 25 or 35, (I don’t know) but his ideas were well thought out and I learned a lot about his religion. It was impossible not to like him.

For our final class lunch, he brought a delicious seaweed dip, and we enjoyed it so much he promised to forward the instructions to us. True to his word, a couple of weeks later the recipe arrived in an email. Finding the exotic ingredients was a story in itself, but I did, and the result was great. Now my pantry always contains sheets of seaweed and I actually know that a vegan mayonnaise exists.

Sameer published one book, at least, before he died. I know because I was one of those he asked to read it. Soon after he died his father sent notices to Sameer’s email contacts, a sad duty, I’m sure, but one I appreciated. Sameer’s father didn’t say what had taken his son, but I replied with kind words I hoped would help.

A year or so later, another email came. Same address, same odd ripple of sadness at seeing it. This time Sameer’s father was announcing a collection of his son’s essays soon to be published. What a wonderful way to keep Sameer’s memory alive.

Sameer taught me about joy, about daring to get his work out there, and about making a fantastic dip with seaweed. His father taught me about keeping the memory of a loved one alive in the best way he could.

So today I encourage you to remember people you’ve met, whose lives have ended. What have you learned from them? How do you remember them now? Do they enter your own writing in some way? Share in a comment, if you will.

10 Ways to Get Publicity

1.  Start a blog about your experiences in your area of expertise.  I have two.  One is more personal, where I put trip photos and family anecdotes when I get around to it.  The second is my writing blog where you are reading this post.  I publish Tuesdays and Fridays and am pretty faithful to that schedule.  Quite a lot of people automatically get an email with a link every time I post.  I love those people!  And a lot of them comment, too.  Double bonus.

2.  Get on Twitter and tweet about your posts, your conferences, your writing friends or anything else that relates to your purpose.  Don’t overdo the automatic tweets.  I’ve deleted some people who clog up my timeline with hundreds of tweets a day where they try to sell me something.  Rather, offer people help in your area.  Retweet great posts you find or offer a how-to booklet you’ve assembled, digitally or the old way.  Give something to get something.

3.  Talk about your writing and make as many connections as you can in the field.  People see you are working hard at your writing; therefore, they think of you for interviews, etc.  This happened to me last week and I joyfully accepted an offer to be interviewed about my writing journey as it pertains to the London Writers Society.  Thank you, Pat!  You can find the article here.

4.  Business cards are so convenient to give people your email, your website, and your book titles.  You can do your own easily and print them out as you need them.  This means you can update them and don’t have to throw out 450 of a 500 order because your website has changed.  Be sure to get the great quality ones which snap apart after you print them and leave no telltale nubbies.

5.  Offer to do talks for groups on topics which relate to your books.  Church groups, seniors groups, school classes, all depending on the nature of your book and the audience you’re aiming for.  Of course, take copies for purchase and hand out business cards or bookmarks.

6.  Make donations to events like the local music festival and make sure your name and ‘author of the greatest book in the world’ appear.  You will be listed in the program and in any coverage of the event.  As well, your name will be read out when the award is presented; in fact, you may even get to present it. The recipient will probably send you a thank you and, for sure, you can tweet the winner, etc.

7.  Write a column online or in your local paper.  Or even create a Fiction Friday news bulletin that you leave in specific approved places for people to pick up.  Restaurants or medical waiting rooms have people waiting and looking for something to help them fill the time.  Let them read your blurb where you advertise book readings you’re doing, signings, writing courses you’re teaching, along with other more general material with a wider interest.

8.  Offer to do a monthly video show on your local cable station where you interview people in the writing business, do readings from your own writing, either stand-alone pieces or sequels.

9.  Take your laptop to a coffee shop on a regular basis and write there.  People will be intrigued so have a supply of business cards in plain sight on the table.  Find a place where you are comfortable and the owners are happy to host a writer.  It gives their place class!  Remember J.K. Rowling writing the Harry Potter books in a coffee shop?  This could be you.

10.  Do a regular podcast where you might serialize your book.  Terry Fallis did this and it led to loads of followers, the Leacock medal, a number of interested publishers finally, and now his third book coming out in September of this year.

Make sure your marketing forays are creative, upbeat, innovative and welcomed.  People are not inclined to think positively when you have annoyed or worse, bored them.

What is the best type of publicity you’ve found to get your name out there and to sell books?  What marketing ploys do you detest?  Come on, now.  I know you love telemarketers!

Some of the projects he mentioned were Claire Letemendia’s The Best of Men, of particular interest to me as it’s historical fiction, Andrew Kaufman’s The Waterproof Bible, Hothouse Flower by Margot Berwyn, and The Film Club by David Gilmore. Oh, and Skim, by Marika Tamaki, an amazing project using drawings in a novel way.  All sounded great and are unique, very original projects.

Any time I can listen to a writing expert for six hours, I’m there. And, usually, I get a great payback for my trouble. This session made my two-hour drive well worthwhile. Here is a list of just a few of the tidbits Sam mentioned.

1. 90% of books don’t earn back their advance.
2. Pre-emptive offer and option are two types of offers authors might receive.
3. 95% of movies come from books.
4. In Canada authors don’t have to pay back what a book doesn’t earn of the advance. In the US, apparently they do.
5. Within the first 30 pages the book must show what the stakes are, introduce a sympathetic character with a problem, and introduce the central relationship.
6. A query should include the hook, what the book’s position in the market might be, and the author’s bio.
7. Never tell the ending of your book in the query letter.

Participants had the opportunity to have their prepared query critiqued and, naturally, I grabbed the chance. One of my better decisions. Getting personal time from a roomful of writers and a professional agent helped me hone my query letter.

Monday morning I launched it with all the good wishes of a luxury liner setting sail. Bon voyage!

What workshops or conferences have you attended lately?  Were you glad you went? Consider leaving a comment about your experiences.

Writing a novel is a little like playing checkers.  There are lots of different moves, not all of them good if you want to be successful.  Going out to the London Writers Society and joining one of the critique groups really helped me jump over the red checker with my black one.  Now I’m fairly flying down the board to the end, ready to shout, “King me! King me!”

Before I get there, though, I have more learning to do.  Right now, I’m contemplating finding historical fiction writers to work with me in a group because they read the genre and love it, as I do. I have appreciated all the criticism, good and bad, over the last four years, but must confess to wondering how valid people’s points are when they write about chickens traveling the world and I write about real wars and chopped off legs. They’re not quite the same. And a great crime novel also has a very different feel from a marvelous historical novel.

Attending the Algonkian-Niagara conference was another leap.  I learned to write pitches and got requests for partials from a great agent and a New York senior editor. In the next few weeks I’ll be moving these pieces down the checker board.  And this weekend I am excited to be attending a workshop near Toronto with a well-respected agent, Sam Hiyate, owner of The Rights Factory.

Part of the reason for going is still to hobnob with other writers, for sure, but mainly I’ll be honing and improving my first 20 pages, my 1-2 page synopsis and my query letter.  “King me! King me!” I’ll be shouting, the whole time.

What are pivotal moments in your writing career?  Is there a person or course that has ‘made all the difference’? Consider leaving a comment below.