A simple solution

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Crystal King

So simple that I should slap my hand to my head and say, “duh!”

I’m not the best at taking an entire day to spit out my novel, which is mostly what I have relied on to do since I began it (oh too long ago). Which means if my weekend gets away from me, nothing gets written. And the more weeks that it happens, the harder it is to come back and sit my ass in the chair.

This year I set forth with three main goals for myself to accomplish over the next five years.

  1. Become healthy…healthier than I’ve ever been in my life.
  2. Really learn Italian and to easily carry on a conversation with a native speaker.
  3. Finish and publish at least 1 novel.

I have specific goals to help me accomplish each one of these, the most primary being to journal, every day, a la Julia Cameron‘s Morning Pages. In fact, that was my one New Year’s Resolution…to write 3 pages every morning, every day, without fail, first thing when I get up. So far this year, I have accomplished this goal, save for one day when I was dealing with acute vertigo (see this post) and for that I think I get a free pass. It’s the one thing that I know will help me stay on track and accomplish all three of those goals above. This is the second time I’ve embarked on the Artist’s Way. The first time changed my life profoundly…the power that they have to help me get out of my own way is amazing.

Notes in a Moleskine notebook

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To that end, I often find that in the AM when I’m writing, my poor tired head often doesn’t know what to write. So on the days that I’m struggling with what to say, I’ve made it ok for myself to not do 3 pages in my Morning Pages notebook but to use my Moleskine journal and continue on my book chapters for at least 3 pages in it. In doing so I’m spending about 15-30 minutes a day writing on my novel. Every day. And it’s easier than I ever imagined. I don’t usually write more than that because I need to get my day going, but the story flows easily–far more so than I ever anticipated being able to do first thing in the morning, sometimes sans coffee.

So today when I sat down to work on my chapter, I pulled out my notebook and instead of struggling to get the words out in a massive 5-6 hour session, I easily transcribed my written chapters from my moleskine, rounding out a full chapter in the space of an hour or so. It flowed, it poured out of my fingers and I can’t tell you how delighted I was to be able to not feel like I have to spend the entire day locked to a keyboard all day trying to push out the next words.

This is the “duh” bit. If I could write my Morning Pages every day, why on earth wasn’t I writing on my novel every day? And so now I am. Little by little but enough for a chapter every week. Which is a good thing because I have a milestone birthday coming up in June and that’s when I want to have the first draft done. If I write a little every day, then it’s easy. And I’m no longer beating myself up for not writing (the more I beat myself up the less I want to do it too, I’m so sadly self-fulfilling).

So finally, I’m doing what so many established and famous authors have always said to do..write every day, without fail.  And so I am.

Duh!

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Summer Reading Pick: Jenna Blum’s “The Stormchasers”

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Crystal King

As many of my readers know, I have the great fortune to be associated with Grub Street, one the best independent writing centers in the country. For me Grub is a constant source of inspiration, excitement, motivation and warm fuzzy feelings. I tried to explain a bit about it when fellow Grubbie Catherine Elcik profiled me for Run for Grub. Run for Grub is a perfect example of how amazing the Grub community is. Catherine felt so inspired by her Grub experience that she decided to turn her marathon training into fundraising for the writing center, giving students who can’t afford classes the opportunity to apply for scholarships. How cool is that? If you want to wish Catherine well on the upcoming marathon or pledge a few bucks to help writers grow in their craft (or read her excellent profiles of Grub Street writers), make sure you head on over there to say hi.

And speaking of Grub Street writers, some of my fellow Grubbies have come out with new books which would make the perfect additions to your summer book bag! And while I’m biased because I know them, it doesn’t mean I don’t know a damn good book when I read one. Plus the accolades these writers are receiving speak for themselves.

Let’s start with NY Times bestselling author, Jenna Blum, a writer whose charm lights up any room she enters. Her first book, Those Who Save Us, is a deep, sometimes disturbing, but incredible tale of a woman and her daughter and how their lives were effected by the events of WWII and Nazi Germany. Her new book, The Stormchasers, is a dramatic story about a woman looking for her long-lost bipolar twin who chases tornadoes in the midwest. I didn’t have the luxury of lying on a beach, so I sucked it down in two long evenings (with my husband kicking me more than once because I was reading far too late into the night and it was annoying him).  The characters are compelling, the chasing is exciting and if you want more convincing, I’ll let Jenna tell you herself:

Storm chasing is so crazy and exciting. I ended up watching countless videos of tornadoes on YouTube after I read this book!

I’ll highlight another great summer Grub Street novel in my next post!

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Bookmaking as art

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Crystal King

I ran across a really wonderful blog today–that of Ross Macdonald, who is a movie prop maker. He shares how he made the prop for a thriller/horror (I’m assuming) movie about an evil book. The book is gorgeous.

Click through to his site to see the inside (even more beautiful) and the steps he took to make it. Now I’m really intrigued to know what the movie is!

He researches meticulously when he puts together his creations, blending both modern techniques with old fashioned sensibility and design. The end results are less of a movie prop and more art.  Definitely a blog to add to my RSS reader!

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Social Media Resources for Writers

Posted on September 11, 2009 by crystalking

smbandwagonI’m teaching a sold out class tomorrow at Grub Street on Social Media for Writers.  One of the things that I do for the students is give them access to a list of social media resources that I’ve compiled that may be helpful for them as readers and writers. I thought it might be useful for others as well.

Currently it contains links to great sites with information on blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, creating book trailers, podcasting, social networks and email marketing.

To access the list, click here.

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The End of Hardback Books, Part Deux

Posted on September 3, 2009 by crystalking
Twilight

Image by Astrid Walter via Flickr

Just a follow up note on my last post about Hachette’s freak out about eBooks. According to The BookSeller:

Hachette Publishing pushed its earnings before interest up by 61.1% to €112m in its half year to end-June, according to results put out by its parent company Lagardère Publishing. The French group said the “excellent performance” was “all the more remarkable given that the publishing sector is actually contracting slightly in all the markets where we operate”.

It added that much of this growth was due to the success of the Stephenie Meyer saga, not only in the US but also in France, the UK and Australia.

Twilight‘s sales on Kindle, Sony Reader and apps on iPhone are bound to be a big chunk of that, considering that the books in the Twilight series have consistently been on the best seller list of both physical and digital book lists.

Reminds me of a 1995 Newsweek article on how the Internet won’t ever go anywhere or make companies money.

Seems like Nourry needs new PR people who can help him know when to keep his mouth shut.

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French publisher predicts end of hardback books

Posted on September 1, 2009 by crystalking
Various titles on a shelf
Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday the Financial Times published an article about how Arnaud Nourry, CEO of French publishing group Hachette Livre, the world’s second largest publisher, lashed out at Google, Amazon and ebook retailers, stating that ebooks will, essentially, rip the bottom out of the publishing industry and kill hardback books.

This is not a terribly new argument. Since Amazon came out with the first Kindle publishers have been freaking out about how ebooks will  be the end of the industry.

I can understand why, but I’m not sure I buy it. Yes, publishers are going to have to radically and drastically change the way they do business. Authors will have to work harder to drive book sales. Out of copyright books now have a greater opportunity than ever before to compete with newly published volumes.

This doesn’t signal the death of an industry. Not at all. Rather it’s a significant change–one that was inevitable with the technology advances of our age. We’ve been predicting this day for decades. I mean, come on, just take a look at the original Star Trek to see Kirk holding slim tablets to read books and reports.

I understand the worries of authors and publishers. After all I hope to be selling my book in a year or so and I can’t imagine I’ll be excited about the prospect of a small advance or a complete lack of an advance. But I really do believe it is just a blip as the publishing industry re-invents itself. After all, it pretty much has to. People will never stop reading books. How they read it will change but there will always be people desperate for the next Harry Potter-like phenomenon or the new Dan Brown novel.

On the Slate Big Money blog, Marion Maneker argues that the real problem with publishers is not that they are seeing new book sales slowing…it’s the sale of backlist books. Some of that, I imagine, could be due to better accessibility of public domain books. I know that I’ll probably be unlikely to go out and buy a Jane Austen novel when I can just download it into my Kindle for free.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t buy hard copies of new books. I do, and a lot of them, despite the fact that I buy just as many ebooks for my Kindle. I collect signed first editions. Some books aren’t well suited to digital format. Some books I just want to own and keep on my shelves.  I think this true of most people who own ebook readers. We’re all going to keep buying physical books…but what types of books we’re buying is definitely changing.

That said, I don’t think that hardbacks are going to fall by the wayside anytime soon. It just might mean that it isn’t where publishers will make the bulk of their money. There will always be a collector’s market.  I can still buy brand new vinyl LPs, for example. It’s going to be a very long time before physical books go away.

It might mean market consolidation. It might mean creating systems to take a cut off of enhanced downloads or on-demand publishing machines. It might mean going the way of what really helped DVD sales take off–adding bonus content that people will pay extra for (interviews, maps, short stories, etc.).  No one likes change, but when publishers begin to see this as an incredible opportunity instead of the end of an era, it will truly be an exciting new aspect for the future of books.

Speaking of Dan Brown, Knopf Doubleday is hoping that ebook sales will go through the roof when his latest novel is released this month. It’s exciting to see a publisher with a fresh look toward the future:

The technology that allows readers to read books on a handheld screen is improving just at the moment Brown’s The Lost Symbol hits the streets. For Rickett, the possibilities, including books with scored soundtracks and video inserts, are just becoming clear.

I will never want to give up the idea of reading over viewing content, but I would LOVE to have some of my books enhanced with material that would make the book come alive. Interactive maps where you can see where your characters live, photos of places, creatures, situations, creepy music that starts up just as a scary scene in the book occurs…I can see how all of that could make books all the more exciting.

Arnaud Nourry is not quite wrong, but he’s really not right. This is just the beginning of an interesting and exciting revolution in the way the world acquires, accesses and interacts with the novel and the authors of the novel.  It will be a story of the survival of the fittest. And with Nourry’s attitude, he might as well start preparing to sink back into the mud from whence he came. Others will walk right over him as the publishing world evolves.

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Self-published Kindle author gets contract with Simon & Schuster

Posted on July 12, 2009 by Crystal King
Check out this website I found at teleread.org

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Reading vs. Writing

Posted on June 24, 2009 by crystalking
Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus

Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus

I have been writing (including a small stint with the moleskine at the bar where my main character’s mother decided she was going to do something unspeakable!) but lately I have to admit to doing more reading than writing. So what has captured my attention?

I’ve been trying to go through my list of books I should read before I die. I add to the list all the time and I often swerve from it (tab 2). It seems a little insane, but I have to admit to reading books that I would never have imagined. It’s been one of the best things I’ve decided to do–create and go through my crazy list and try to read as much as I can. I’ve finally understood a bevy of new cultural references…the Cellini Venus in “How to Steal a Million” is supposed to have been by Benevenuto Cellini, for example. In the movie, Oscar Wilde, Wilde refers to Cellini when he’s in the mine with the Colorado miners. If I hadn’t read his autobiography, I would have been clueless.

I read Catcher in the Rye finally. I discovered Herodotus. I realized that I am not a fan of Jonathan Franzen’s Corrections. My eyes boggled at the Satyricon. I was fascinated by Journal of a Plague Year. I was surprised by what a page turner The Magnificent Ambersons turned out to be.  My eyes, my mind and my heart have been moved.

This is all made so much easier by the fact that I read books like a child can suck down candy. I devour them. I read so fast that I honestly burn through books, which is both good and bad at times. Books I love end too fast!

But in general, my most recent reads include:

The Autobiography of Benevenuto Cellini

This rather longish autobiography is one of the most entertaining I’ve read in ages. Celllini, a goldsmith who lived 1500-1571 was self-important, name-dropping (Michaelangelo, the Pope, various Dukes, Kings, etc.), talented, innovative, charismatic, worldly, and wonderfully entertaining. He traveled all over Italy and France. He knew all the nobility in various cities, including Popes, Dukes and even the King of France. He killed a couple of men but the Pope always pardoned him. He fought in the Siege of Rome. He designed and created golden dishes and coins as well as marble and bronze statues. He had many lovers and he had many enemies. He spent some time in jail. And I turned page after page, enamored of his rich, likely embellished and over-the-top life.

Kafka by the Shore by Haruki Murakami

WOW. Many are probably familiar with Japanese sensation Murakami, especially his book the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but this was my first foray into his works. I’m still reading this book but it won’t be long before I finish–it truly is a page turner. A 15-year old runaway, a man who can talk to cats and make fish fall from the sky, a librarian who looks and acts like a man but isn’t quite. It is all fascinating reading and I can’t wait to see where it will take me. Already I know that I want to read all his other books.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

I decided to go along with the masses on this one and join in on the Infinite Summer. It’s not too late to join up…it officially started on the 21st, with the idea that if you read 75 pages a week over the course of 92 days of summer, you’ll get through all 1000 pages. I started a bit early and am on about page 130 or so already. It’s a strange book but I find that I have a strong affinity to it because of its Boston area setting. I know where the Mt. Auburn Club is. I know where Brighton is. I understand the funny New England characters. I’m not so keen on the drug-laden bits (not because I’m a prude but I find that I have a weird physical fainting reaction to graphic shooting/snorting/getting fucked up-almost dying type scenes…and no, not freaked out by needles!!).  His attention to detail is amazing and I love the descriptions. I’m reading this on Kindle, which means that for footnotes I can easily flip to the note and get right back to the text which is nice. I’ll be plugging away on this here and there and most likely will finish long before the end of summer.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This isn’t on the main list of books but I am SO glad I read it. One of the best fantasy fiction picks that has come along in ages. Loved this story and I’m desperate to read the next one which, of course, isn’t out yet. The hero-in-hiding, Kvothe, tells the tale of his life to a bard that passes through his in. It’s a tale that is woven with intrigue, foreshadowing and it just plain sucks you in. I loved this book.

I should read a bit less, I suppose, and write a LOT more. That’s the goal for the summer. Had a great session with my writing group tonight and I do feel energized, so hopefully more words will spill out soon.

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What Amazon Does Not Want You To Know About the Kindle (Max Book Downloads)

Posted on June 21, 2009 by Crystal King

http://justanothermobilemonday.com/Wordpress/2009/06/20/what-amazon-does-not-want-you-to-know-about-the-kindle/

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Is there such a thing as a Churchhill gene?

Posted on May 14, 2009 by crystalking

“Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than it has taken out of me.” ~ Winston Churchhill

Today in the mail I received an early birthday present (YAY!)  from one of my oldest and dearest friends. The gift included some shot glasses, each with a quote from a famous author.  Interestingly enough, only the day before, I ran across an article from  the British Prospect Magazine, exploring the relationship between many creative types and their love/hate affair with the bottle.

 ”I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.” ~ Dorothy Parker

cocktailThe article is is intriguing and may explain about the intricate relationship that some writers have with alcohol.  Essentially, “A 2004 study carried out at the University of Colorado found that around 15 per cent of Caucasians have a genetic variant, known as the G-variant, that makes ethanol behave more like an opioid drug, such as morphine, with a stronger than normal effect on mood and behaviour. “ 

But even more important: “The effect of alcohol on this group is not the same as an opiate. The euphoria is much less pronounced than, say, heroin, while alcohol still exerts depressive effects. A drink too many and the soporific effect predominates, overwhelming the endorphins and sending even the G-variant drinker to sleep. This may be why Francis Bacon, by his own admission, worked well after a few drinks, but not when drunk.” 

I can attest to this same feeling of having a creative burst after one or two drinks, but like Bacon, not while drunk. There is a certain thing that seems to occur– a sense of free flowing thought, of creative opening, of wanting, quite desperately, to pour out my heart onto the white page. It completely negates the terror that I might have when I see a blank page (the kind of terror that makes it preferable for me to go pick lint off the carpet rather than write). Instead, I feel the very strong urge to create, although, time and place when I feel this euphoria may not be conducive to writing (i.e. out at a bar, at a party, etc.). But on the chance occasion when I do have a couple glasses of wine by my side when I’m writing (not always the case because I’m often locked up at the library), I feel as though the words come a bit easier. 

The danger, of course, comes when the creative spirit doesn’t know when to stop the drinking and keeps going in the futile attempt to ever find that alcoholic muse. It is a fine line that the Muse walks, a bit too much and *poof* she’s gone. The New York Times joked that perhaps that is when it shifts into the “Poe” gene. 

I do feel that I am probably in that 15% because the description fits me perfectly. Fortunately I’ve always been cognizant of that line where the Muse visits and where she disappears, because my writing tapers when that moment passes and drinking more wouldn’t help and so I stop, fold up the laptop and wonder if the same euphoria will hit next time. 

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