First Reader

The idea of writing for your best reader, whether it is your best friend or your mother who loves everything you write, is not a new one. Many writers have such people in their lives -- a first reader -- someone they trust, someone who reads a first draft and understands where the story is going even if the writing is not quite there yet.

And when the story is being written and rewritten, somehow this first reader sits close by, not literally you understand, but in the reader's mind. Like when you are writing something really funny, part of the pleasure is making this first reader laugh.

So, I like this idea. But the trouble is, I've never been able to decide: who is this one person I'm supposed to be writing to? Sometimes I think it's my sister because she was there growing up with me in a small town. She would get the references to the steep hill going out of Wiarton and at the base of it, the beer store that always caused a lot of traffic congestion. She would laugh at my jokes.

But sometimes it's not her at all. Sometimes it feels like I'm telling the story to my neighbour who doesn't know anything about Ontario or snow or growing up in a small town. But she knows birds and I'm writing about birds so she's my first reader.

Maybe I'm not monogamous.

I'm reading Elizabeth Hay's fabulous novel, Late Nights on Air. There's this scene where Gwen asks Harry about his imaginary listener (both of them work in radio.)

"That person you pretend you're talking to when you're on air?" She looked up. "Who is it?"

Harry smiled, "My imaginary listener? He's a man in his sixties who comes home tired from work and he goes down to the basement to his workbench and builds model boats. And while he's doing that he listens with rapt attention to me."

Whether you have one kind reader, or a cast of kind readers, or an imaginary reader, I like the idea. It keeps me writing. It creates an intimacy I don't think my writing would otherwise have. I think I take risks knowing that I can hang onto this reader's hand and they'll yank me up again, dust me off if I fail.

Now...back to writing.

Child Narrator/Wise Author

If you are writing a story/memoir in which the narrator is nine years old and you are wondering how you combine a nine year old's voice with the wisdom of a forty-something author, this blog is for you!!


The best example of this is Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women. I keep it on my desk at all times.

The character Del starts off as a nine year old just as you want to do. Del narrates the story and by the end she's about eighteen or so. So right away, it's a good model to show the developing narrator. It is told in first person, but 3rd is fine too if you're doing that lovely "limited third person" which is so close to first person.

So all lights are green. If you could just pay close attention to what Munro is doing in terms of narration, everything will be cool. It's a combo of young girl and this "other component" let's call it "the narrator." First, let's look at the young girl's voice. Here's an example from Lives of Girls and Women.

"Can you write?" said Uncle Benny to me, at his place, when I was reading on the porch and emptying tea leaves from a tin teapot; they dripped over the railing. "How long you been goin' to school? What grade are you in?"

"Grade Four when it starts again."

"Come in here."

He brought me to the kitchen table, cleared away an iron he was fixing and a saucepan with holes in the bottom, brought a new writing-pad, bottle of ink, a fountain pen. "Do me some practice writing here."

(Okay so the scene continues like that. Now let's look at a bit of narration).

He could read very well but he could not write. He said the teacher at school had beat him and beat him, trying to beat writing into him, and respected her for it, but it never did any good. When he needed a letter written he usually got my father and mother to do it.

Okay, notice the adult narrator voice never intrudes over top of the child voice. The vocabulary stays in a nine year old's grasp. The child is in reporting mode. So where is the wisdom coming from? Ahh, that's coming from the author/narrator. It's really subtle but what the author/narrator chooses to focus on is the key. The author/narrator is focusing on a serious topic: literacy.

So, in conclusion. The voice is the nine year old child's. The author's voice never intrudes -- only her wisdom, only her sensibility if you will.

Don't know if this helps you, but I hope so!!!

All you need is a COMPUTER to read an EBOOK

Here's how it's done if you want to read an ebook available on Amazon.com.

1. Go to Amazon.com
2. Put the author's name into the Search: Laurie Elmquist
3. Click on the book you'd like to purchase: My Mother's Dress.
4. On this page, you'll find details about the book such as a product description and editorial reviews. It's a good idea to read these so you know what you are buying. My Mother's Dress is a single essay (5000 words).
5. At the right of the screen are three options. (You will choose the third!!) The first is Buy it Now. The second one (scroll down) is Sample a Selection. The third option is: Read books on your computer or other mobile devices. (This is the one you want to click on to get the FREE app.)
6. You will see a list of options:

• GET KINDLE FOR PC





• GET KINDLE FOR IPHONE





• GET KINDLE FOR BLACKBERRY





• GET KINDLE FOR IPAD





• GET KINDLE FOR ANDROID

If you want to read ebooks on your computer, it's the first one.

There's lots of reasons why you might want to sample the experience of an ebook without the expense of buying a Reader. This blog tells you how you can be up and reading for as little as the price of a book -- 1.99 for My Mother's Dress (smile!!)

I hope this blog entry is helpful.

Novels do not take place on a regular day!

My new novel is underway, a delicious stage where anything is possible. It's a good time to consider that readers crave exciting experiences and extraordinary insight. They want to be taken on a journey. I'm trying to ask a lot of What if? as I go.

What if the ice on the lake isn't as solid as my narrator thinks it is? Or a question like this: What's the worst thing my narrator could do? Remember that novels do not take place on an ordinary day. They pull together all the extraordinary bits in a year or ten years and distill it into something full of tension and intrigue, and yes....even in a literary novel. Especially in a literary novel.

My Mother's Dress -- second ebook "short"

If you have ever crocheted or been given a blanket (poncho, vest, hat, sweater) crocheted by a loved one, you will enjoy My Mother's Dress. Besides being about a dress, it's a story about surviving Ontario winters. When my family moved from the city to the country, my mother wasn't exactly prepared for the adventure, especially the isolation of winter. You'll find the story on Amazon.com.

My ebook is for sale on Amazon.com

What a great feeling to post my first ebook. The collection is called Back to the Land and the first 2000 word memoir is called My Father's Parrot (available at Amazon.com).

I'm already hard at work on my second one, My Mother's Dress, which will be published by the end of the summer. I'm hooked on the idea of presenting them as ebooks. I like having input into the cover concept. I like seeing the books for sale on Amazon. I've been working on them for the last ten years, so it feels wonderful to publish them.

I hope you enjoy the books.

My Father's Parrot

Lately I've been blogging about my first ebook, a memoir called My Father's Parrot. I thought I'd post a picture from the 70s of my father with Lapa. He's feeding the bird a grape.

Parrots only bond with one other person (usually it's another bird but a person will do). My father brought out the best in our parrot. He could flip the bird over on his back and tickle his belly, he could get Lapa to dance an old-man shuffle, and he could get him to talk and imitate the noise of the vacuum.

Becoming an Indie Author

In order to publish my own books, I've established a company called Wildwood Ebooks. I've registered it with British Columbia. Name Search: $14.00 and Cost of Registration:$ 72.00 (You can do your name search for free, but I didn't know this at the time.)

I've applied for an ISBN number for my ebook.

Now onto preparing the manuscript!

I'm following the requirements as specified by Kindle Direct Publishing, but I've decided to upload an html document, rather than a .doc file. It's a bit more complicated, but I've gone this route because various people said that it will yield a better result.

Cover Art: I've given the following information to the designer:

Horizontally: minimum of 500 pixels
Vertically: minimum of 1280 pixels

Be sure to Save at 72 dots per inch (dpi) for optimal viewing on the web.

The cover will be delivered to me as a JPEG and then I'll insert it into my document.

So far so good!!

Converting your file to an ebook.

One of the biggest questions I had at the beginning of the process was how to convert my file to an ebook. Was it something I could do myself? Did I have to hire a company to convert the file for me? If so, what company? Who was offering a file conversion service?

Short answer: there are companies who will convert your file for you. The charge seems to be around $150-$200. Remember, you're just paying for file conversion. You don't have to give up any royalties or control over the process. One such company is eBook Architects (Joshua Tallent) who came highly recommended to me. Wait time for your converted file: 10 weeks.

Joel Friedlander has put together a list of eBook conversion service providers but when I try to put the link in here, it always disappears. Not sure what that is all about, but I'd suggest you Google ebook conversion directory and see what turns up for you.

But I decided not to go with a conversion company. I decided to create a Kindle ebook and distribute my ebook through Amazon. The site is Kindle Direct Publishing. Now, if you watch the Youtube video, it looks really simple and maybe it is. You just load up your doc file (not docx) and Kindle Direct Publishing converts it for you.

Trouble is, some people say you are better off loading an html document into Kindle Direct Publishing. I decided to create an html document rather than run the risk of poor results. I used something called Emerald Editor, also called Crimson Editor, to create an html document. Then I used Mobipocket Creator to edit my html document and preview it. Then I uploaded this version to Kindle Direct Publishing.

So this route is more work than handing over your file to a conversion service, but it doesn't cost anything. It makes sense to do the conversion myself since I'm going to be putting up a series of short ebooks. Thankfully, you can get help from the Community -- a discussion forum on Kindle Direct Publishing. Also, I'm learning about html simply by googling questions like: How do I centre text in html?

It's been a steep learning curve, but at least I found a way that worked and didn't cost me anything.

Ebooks -- Covers

Moving ahead on my ebook cover. The designer asked me to go online and have a look at feathers since I wanted a feather on my cover. Not that the designer will use these feathers, but they will give her some idea of what I have in mind. I wanted a feather that looked like it had been through the wash and I wanted a parrot feather. The name of the memoir is My Father's Parrot.

I sent Dee two feathers from Google Images that are not the right feather but had qualities I was looking for. One was all rumpled but too pointy. Another had the right attitude but was too stubby.

Next, I looked at thumbnails. I went to Amazon and had a look at ebooks and chose three that I liked and two that I didn't. Surprisingly, because I consider myself a minimalist, I liked a book cover with big type on the front. I liked it because I could read the title so easily. Another one I chose on the basis of colour. I liked the warm, sunset red colour. The third I chose because of the whimsical image and how it drew me in to want to know more.

Out of the two covers I didn't like, one had type that was so small I couldn't read the title or author's name. Why else are you looking at a cover? The second one was a cover that I kept seeing again and again as I scrolled through the ebooks, which I thought was really odd. Was it some sort of commercial cover available through a program? It wasn't the same author and the topics seemed to vary wildly. Anyway, I just wanted to steer away from anything that looked similar.

In addition to these pics which I emailed to Dee, I gave her the title and author name and a request for no caps and a round font. "Round" is not very specific but I wanted a font that didn't take itself too seriously.

Dee wrote me back asking me what size I wanted to see in terms of a proof. Right away, I knew I wanted to see a thumbnail size (1 inch x 1 1/2 inches) and I requested to see an e-reader size. My ereader is a Sony and the screen measures 3 1/2 x 5 inches. I'm not sure if it costs any extra to see two sizes, but I thought these two sizes were important to preview.

That's all for covers!

Taking the Next Step: Ebooks

Let's talk book covers. It was fun to go into the bookstore with my friend and graphic designer, Dee. She began by asking me, "What stands out for you?" What followed was the kind of discussion you always dream of having where you get to match the cover to the content of your book.

Authors rarely get a say into their covers and maybe there's a good reason for it, but yesterday I couldn't find one. With Dee's knowledge of design and my knowledge of what was in the book, we came up with a terrific concept. Since each entry in the memoir will be its own 99 cent book, we needed a design that we could use about twelve times, altering the image and background colour.

Since, the book is about the back-to-the-land movement, I'm favouring 70s colours like lime green which was the colour of my parents' walls. Very 70s. Not only were the walls lime green, they were textured with a very sharp gritty substance, so whenever anyone scraped against the wall, they left some blood behind. But that's another story.

So, I'm feeling good about the process so far. I've got design and production covered. Last night I wrote up some of the information at the front of the book such as the disclaimer and copyright information and a list of contributors. I wrote up the author biography. The memoir is edited and ready to go. Dee will deliver the cover as a JPEG.

But what then? How do I convert the doc. file to the necessary ebook formats? Today, I discovered that Mobi is the format for Amazon and ePub is the format for Sony, B&N, and Apple. I need to find out a lot more about conversion. Who is doing it and what does it cost? Online, I found a company out of England that will give me both formats for a total of $160. They called it their standard conversion package.

I checked into Bookbaby which starts with a $99 fee, but adds on $39 for converting a PDF and then about $20 for an ISBN number and an annual fee of $19. But it wasn't the money that made me nervous; they take over the process too much for me. They convert the file but they also "deliver" it. Then they also collect your money for you. So when Amazon pays the author royalites, it goes to Bookbaby. Bookbaby doesn't take a cut of it, but they do charge an annual fee. It's not the kind of arrangement I'm looking for.

I know I can deliver the book to Amazon myself and cut out the middleman. But how?

I'm still exploring all my options, but I'll let you know what I find out.

Why just talk about ebooks? Why not do it?

I've decided to test the ebook waters. I'm going to take one of my memoirs called My Father's Parrot and sell it on Amazon for $1.99. It's 2000 words in length. It's part of a series I'm writing called, Back to the Land and it's a humorous account of how my father hauled his family out of city-life and into rural Ontario.

It starts with my father's purchase of a parrot and his dreams to give this parrot a better life. In order to build the bird an aviary, we pack up everything and head north where land is cheaper and the living ain't so easy.

But before I get ahead of myself, I thought I'd document all the steps I'm taking to learn about ebook publishing. Like anything, it's going to require some work. Here's what I've done so far:

Step 1: I've decided to go through Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon's self-publishing site. It is full of good information.
Step 2: Talked to my friend who is a graphic designer and asked her if she'll help design a cover. According to everything I've read, covers are very important. I need a brand, a cover that my readers will recognize and say, "Ah, the latest chapter of that Back to the Land saga -- that crazy father and all his zany ideas."
Step 3: Looked at Amanda Hocking's covers. Not that my memoir is about vampires (although there are plenty of bats) but Hocking's got the right idea when it comes to thumbnails, branding, and colour.
Step 4: Booked myself an author photo shoot with a fabulous photographer: Ryan Rock. Also a friend!
Step 5: Edited my manuscript. I was very fortunate to have My Father's Parrot edited by Pam Chamberlain who put together the anthology, Country Roads, and who is currently putting together an anthology about animals and their importance in our lives.
Step 6: Started to make notes about formatting the book. I've been reading about Amazon's requirements.

So, already this project of mine is involving a graphic designer, a photographer, an editor, and me. Oh, and I can't forget, the friend who initially sent me all these wonderful articles that got me excited about ebooks, so that makes five people so far. It really does take a village! I'll let you know how it goes.

Sell a Short Story as an E-book for .99

I never thought about selling one short story as an ebook. What a concept!

This article has some fascinating information about ebook publishing and authors who are making good money from their books. It opened up my eyes.

http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/03/07/the-economics-of-self-publishing-an-ebook/

Amanda Hocking E-book Success Story

She's 26 years old and she's selling her e-books like hotcakes. Here's an article about Amanda Hocking:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110324/ap_en_ot/us_books_amanda_hocking

E-books

I just read a very informative article about creating e-books. You might want to check it out:

http://reviews.cnet.com/how-to-self-publish-an-e-book

Suspense

I awoke after last night's writing with some thoughts about this question of when to cut away from a scene. So let's say you get the action up and running. That's good. In fact, that's a feat in itself. Get the action happening on stage, get it happening to the right person, build some tension and then cut away.

But I realized, last night I'd cut away too soon. It's not enough to introduce the big dilemma if you don't play with it a bit. So this morning I went back in and added another scene so the reader could enjoy the suspense of the thing a bit more. I wanted the reader to feel like I do when I watch a good movie and I'm hanging onto the dog, and telling the person on the screen, "Don't do that. Don't turn the door knob. Don't go inside."

I'm not writing a thriller but I understand the importance of suspense, at least I'm starting to. It takes a long time to understand where to cut to a new scene in order to build suspense but also when to LINGER in order to create suspense. I'm starting to listen to my body more when I write, if that makes any sense. I'm starting to feel my way through the story.

I read a graphic novel recently that might work well here as an example of this idea of lingering a while in order to build suspense. The novel is Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs. The story opens on a Monday in 1928. A woman is dusting and a man rides by the house on his bicycle. The woman shakes her dust rag out the window at the exact time that the cyclist rides by. He thinks she's waving at him and he smiles at her and tips his hat. Tuesday, it happens again. The shake of a rag, the big smile from the cyclist and an even bigger wave of the hat. Wednesday, you think it's going to happen again, and the reader anticipates that Ethel and Ernest might exchange a greeting. But no. The writer, wisely, introduces some suspense. Wednesday, Ethel is at the window but gets pulled away by the voice of her emloyer. It is raining and the cyclist rides by in the rain, but no Ethel. Thursday, no cyclist. Ethel stands at the window waiting for him until again she's pulled away. Friday, again no cyclist, but lots of rain. Saturday and the weather has improved. The cyclist rings the doorbell, presents Ethel with a bouquet and asks her to the movies.

It's such a simple example, but you can see what would have happened had Ethel and Ernest met on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday. The passage of time and the rain and the forlorn expressions on their faces made the pleasure of their meeting all that much better.

I'm going to try to keep Ethel and Ernest in my mind. Delay gratification. Delay, delay, delay.

Building Blocks of Plot

Here are some steps that may be helpful to you in terms of structuring the plot:


1. Initial philosophy revealed, the status quo established. (The story doesn't have to start here, but you should know your central character's baseline.)

2. Inciting incident. Something happens to kickstart the action.

3. You have one central character and only one. She wants something intensely and it is this intensity that will motivate her to act. (No passive central characters.)

4. She struggles to achieve her goal. (And you see to it that her struggle is as difficult as possible). Escalate the difficulties. Struggle implies a protracted effort. In the scenes that build the character resists change. Holds onto belief system.

5. Midpoint of the story/chapter, the character is closest to achieving what she/he wants. Within grasp but he or she loses it.

6. Crisis: The character faces such questions as: Do I give up? Do I change what I want? Do I dig my heels in deeper? Do I fool myself into thinking I don't care? What am I made of? Biggest dilemma of her/his life. The central character is the furthest away from success. Zero hope.

7. Climax: Show how the narrator has changed. What does the character do?

8. Resolution: End with a different belief system. As a result of her struggle, she gets what she wants or does not. Maybe she gets something else, but there is a resolution.

Lines Blur Between Adult and Teen Novels!

After a busy fall semester teaching creative writing, I'm once again back at my desk as a full-time writer. Whew. The hat feels a bit loose like I've lost some weight.

I'm revising my novel which my agent tells me reads like a young adult novel. I'm embracing her expertise and the idea that my novel will appeal to sixteen-year olds and others who are young at heart.