Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Just like my mom once predicted, time has sped up as I've gotten older. When I was a kid, the space between Thanksgiving and Christmas used to stretch endlessly before me. Now I'm like, "Holy guacamole, is Christmas really this coming Sunday?"

Yes, it's really on Sunday.

Our tree is up, but so far it only has lights and ONE ornament, the ornament gifted to us by a co-worker of my husband. Each Christmas this man's family (consisting of a lovely wife and four kids), makes ornaments and then distributes them in person so the kids have the joy of creating and giving. It's the kind of thing I thought I would do when I had kids, but never did. This year's ornament is a gingerbread man, and I really want to eat it. It looks delicious.

Anyway, this is my evil plan for the tree. I am going to do nothing. That's right, nothing. I set the darn thing up, put the lights on, and vacuumed up the fake needles which fell off in the process. If no one else in the family makes a move to finish decorating it, this will be how it will look on Christmas morning.

A terrible photo taken with my son's phone, since I'm having camera issues.

 If the tree doesn't get decorated, it'll confirm my long-stated assertion that I have to do everything around here. On the other hand, if the family comes together unprompted, and joyously finishes the job, I'll have to admit that I'm just a big whiner. I'll keep you posted.

The time has gone by so quickly that I never got around to mentioning the really nice post featuring me on the Otherworld Diner blog. Just prior to Thanksgiving, writer Brenda Nelson-Davis asked if I'd be willing to list a few things I'm grateful to have learned on the path to publication.

This is what I came up with (probably only of interest to other writers):

1.Not everyone will love my books. In fact, there will ALWAYS be a certain percentage of readers who don’t. Negative reviews used to devastate me ... until I noticed that all of my favorite books had at least a few one and two-star reviews. Once I realized some people out there hated To Kill a Mockingbird, it got easier. My take on it is that I always do my best, which is the only part of writing a novel I can control. Ultimately, people will have their opinions. So be it.

2.The importance of writer friends. I love all my friends, but writer friends come in handy when I want to talk shop or celebrate something writing-related. When I first started hanging out with other writers, I had this immediate strong feeling that these were My People. Turns out I’m not as weird as I thought, or at least I’m weird in a way that makes sense.

3.There’s no competition. I can envy another writer for his or her rich use of language, or New York Times bestseller status, but when the day is done, writers are not in competition with each other. Like literary fingerprints, each author writes the book only he or she can write. Besides, there are an unlimited number of slots to be filled and new readers are born every day.

4.To trust the process. Partway through writing a novel I always reach a point where I feel like I’ve painted myself into a corner and I become convinced there’s no way to get the book to work. It's a scary place to be, considering the time and emotional energy I’ve already sunk into the story. At some point, I realized this is part of my writing process and there’s no need to panic. I still do panic (a little bit), but it’s reassuring to know I’ve worked through this problem before, and I probably can do so again.

5.That nothing matters except the work. Not the reviews, not the rankings, not the sales. Many deserving books never get their due. There’s a lot of heartbreak out there for writers. If you really love writing, that will carry you through.

Now I'm off to do some wrapping. Happy holidays to all of you. I wish you the best, now, and in the coming year.

Peace,

Karen

10 Tips for New Bloggers

Recently two different people asked my opinion concerning blogs. Are they necessary for authors? What to write about? How to get followers/traffic?

I'm far from an expert on the subject, but I get more traffic now than I did when I started out in 2004, and I've picked up a few ideas along the way. First of all, I don't believe blogs are absolutely necessary for authors. If keeping a blog feels like working on your taxes, don't do it. Life's too short. But if you do want to blog, the following tips may be helpful:

1) Content: People read to be entertained or informed, so if your blog posts manage to do one or the other (or both), you've done it right. How you do that is up to you. But beware-- if all of your posts are blatantly self-promoting, it's off-putting to readers. In my case, I believe my blog  primarily attracts writers since my most visited blog posts include those on publishing on CreateSpace and tips for marketing ebooks. That's fine with me. I'm glad to help out other writers, and my blog still helps me maintain a wider web presence for those readers who Google my name or search for the titles of my books.

2) Frequency: There's no hard and fast rule about how often bloggers should post. I believe it's important to do it regularly, whether it's once a month or once a week. I try to do it once a week. Sometimes I manage it, sometimes not. I don't lose any sleep over it.

If you get on a tear and write three blog posts at once, space them out so that they post, say, once a week for three weeks instead of three days in a row. Some hosting sites, like Blogger, allow you to upload numerous posts at the same time and schedule future release dates and times.

3) Visuals: People love visuals--photos, embedded videos, book covers, graphs etc. Don't overdo it, but if you can insert a relevant image to break up a large block of text, it's probably a good idea.

4) Titles: You can title a post whatever you want, but remember that certain words are optimal  in search engine results. Thus, it's better to title a blog post "Karen McQuestion wins the Pulitzer Prize," than "Hey guys, I won a really big prize!"

5) Length: Short is fine. I've had blog posts consisting solely of a photo with a caption. Determining the right length for longer posts is trickier. Unless it's really compelling reading, I'd stay under 800 words. Keep in mind that your audience is reading off a screen.

6) Appearance: Make sure your font is a readable size. Avoid dark backgrounds or anything that would make the reading experience difficult. The population is aging and so are our eyes.

7) Identify: A short bio at the top of the page is helpful. Oh, and a link to your website, if you have one, should be in the same area. Don't make people hunt for information. They may lose interest and wander away.

8) Interact: You can post a poll or ask a question of your blog readers. Part of the fun of blogging is finding out who's reading your blog and hearing their thoughts. Make sure your blog doesn't make them jump through too many hoops to leave a comment. Again, people will wander away...

9) Links!!! This is my number one pet peeve when I visit other people's blogs. I'll click on someone's name in the comments and it will take me to their blog. I'll read a post about their book and it sounds interesting, but if there's no link, I often let it go at that. That's a lost sale for the writer. If you have a book, make it easy for people to find your book. If your blog has the capability, put your book covers on your blog as clickable links, like I do in the right hand margin. If you can't do this, put clickable links at the end of each post. And when you mention a book in the body of a post, like for instance, Easily Amused, make it a link, and be sure it's an obvious link. Make it a different color, or bold it if you have to. And every single time you mention the book (Easily Amused) link it again. It seems redundant, but on a subconscious level, it makes an impact.

And since we're talking links, I think that when you link to other sites/blogs it's important to include the name of the author and the site name in the link, instead of just saying something like "here's an interesting article." It's nice for Google purposes and it's also good to give credit where credit is due. Your blog is not an island.

10) Numbers: If you're doing a listing, people seem drawn to numbers, especially a nice round number like "10." See if you can work that in somehow.


And that's everything I know about blogging. Does anyone have tips I may have overlooked? Feel free to chime in with a comment.

Thanks!

Karen

Interview with Dave Thome author of Fast Lane

Sadly, I've neglected this blog, and a lot of other things as well. The good news (for me, anyway) is that I've finally finished a novel called The Road Trip. Yes, it's true and I say it proudly. I even typed "The End" on the last page, even though that's a complete dork-move. It felt good though, typing those words. Very satisfying.

I realized, once I came out of my writing vortex, that I'd promised my friend Dave Thome that I'd post his interview about his new book, Fast Lane, quite some time ago, and then I didn't because I was in a self-absorbed, have-to-finish-this-novel haze. Now I'm going to be seeing Dave this coming Wednesday and we'll be spending at least two hours in the car as we drive to and from a Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum meeting, and the conversation could get really awkward if I still haven't posted his interview by then.

Here's the description of Dave's novel Fast Lane:

Lara Dixon is determined to bring down billionaire Clay Creighton, because she believes his Fast Lane media empire, promoting “fast women, fast cars and fast living,” helped bring down her marriage. She convinces Gina Wray, feminist owner of HardCoreGrrls.com, that someone should infiltrate Clay’s empire—and to her surprise, Gina says Lara should be that someone.

Lara’s mission: become part of The Rotation, three gorgeous women who attend Clay 24/7 in his lavish lifestyle. Every six months, Clay boots the most senior member and replaces her with fresh meat. Lara tones her body and her lying skills while a Fast Lane insider talks her up to Clay. When she finally meets Clay at his notorious Malibu play house, they hit it off immediately. It’s not long before Lara finds herself in The Rotation—and quite possibly in over her head.

For nothing at Fast Lane is what it seems. The empire’s Bambi-eyed C.O.O., Sushma Vishnuveda, viciously stalks Lara's every move. Taequanda, the senior Rotation member, is friendly but hides a secret, while Corynne, the other member, plays fast with the truth. Lara finds herself second-guessing everyone, even her perky personal assistant Tiffany.

And Clay…Clay is nothing like what Lara expected. She’s surprised as she learns what he thinks and feels. She’s startled at how much they have in common. And she’s drawn to him in a way she never dreamed possible, as he treats her the way she’s always wanted to be treated. She’s falling in love, but is he?

Pressure builds on Lara from all sides. How can she deliver the expose she promised Gina? How long can she keep her secret from Sushma? And what if she confesses all to Clay? Will he help her—or will Lara become just another woman booted out of The Rotation?


So without further ado, here's my conversation with Dave about his new book, Fast Lane!

K.M - What prompted you to write Fast Lane?

D.T. - My wife, Mary Jo, and I had been self-employed as advertising and journalism writers for ten years in late 2009. When the bottom dropped out of the economy, our accounts receivable got low and new work slowed to a trickle. Mary Jo knew a woman who was regularly publishing “erotic” romances online and thought she could break into that while waiting for business to spring back. That genre is not what I would expect her to write, but she was being pragmatic. So I thought, “If she’s man enough to do that, I should be, too.”

I had a bunch of ideas that could easily be adapted to the erotic romance genre. Plus, I’d read Penthouse Form when I was nineteen, so I thought I could write erotic romance. Honest-to-god, erotic romances written for women now read like male-oriented porn that women would have reviled and scorned thirty years ago. The only difference is that erotic romance is from the woman’s point of view.

So I started writing Fast Lane, but after twenty or so pages I realized that since there was no sex, it wasn’t an erotic romance. But it did have the makings of a romance novel, so I continued writing it as a cotemporary romance.

K.M. - I confess to not reading a lot of in this genre, so maybe it’s me, but is there always so much sex in romance novels?

D.T. - Hard to answer. Sex is the whole point of the previously mentioned erotic romances, so I guess they have to have a lot of sex. But I don’t think there’s been more sex in the romance novels I’ve read than in any other genre.

There seems to an idea in our society that sex and romance should not be related. But I think they can be as related as an author wants to make them--or as a couple in real life wants them to be.

A couple of romance authors who do a good job with sex are the queen, Jennifer Cruisie, who usually incorporates a lot of humor into her scenes. Face it: Sex is kind of funny lots of the time, and should be fun most of time--not just serious and breathy. The other is Donna McDonald, whose specialty is older people in new romances showing they can keep up with whippersnappers in the bedroom.

K.M. - Your blog is called Man Writing A Romance (ManWAR http://manwritingaromance.blogspot.com/). Why do you think there aren’t more men writing romances?

D.T. - Couple of reasons. First, I think a lot of guys think writing romance is unmanly. Which is kind of strange, since there’s usually a guy involved--and what’s more manly than getting a woman? Men are always thinking about romance. Listen to classic rock radio. How many songs are about guys pining away for love or whatever?

The second reason, I think, stems from the first. Sure, men can easily, in their minds, stick themselves into romantic situations. But romance novels--because the audience is going to be almost entirely women--pretty much have to be told from the heroine’s point of view and explore her thoughts, feelings and personal growth. I hate to think the cliche that men can’t empathize is a reason men don’t write more romance fiction, but it’s probably true. The thing is, if you’re a writer, you absolutely have to empathize with your characters so the readers will, too. So if you’re not a spy and you write a spy novel, you have some empathizing to do, right? If you’re not a woman and you write a woman’s novel...

It may be a stretch for a man to empathize with a woman--but so what? Stretch.

K.M. - You have a background in (among other things) writing screenplays. Any chance Fast Lane will someday be a movie?

D.T. - Oddly, it probably has a better chance as a novel than if I had written it as a screenplay. I’m not being cynical here. Right now it seems Hollywood is less interested in spec scripts and more interested in adapting materials that have a track record. That includes novels, graphic novels, short stories published on websites that have a handful of readers, You!Tube shorts. So the better Fast Lane sells as a novel, the better chances it has of being a movie.


K.M. - Thanks so much, Dave! It was a pleasure having you on the blog, and I wish you and Fast Lane  ( $2.99 on Kindle) the best of luck.