Balance Your Moods With A Who Or Two

Few wives have the distinct privilege of being married to a writer, a guy who eagerly strikes up conversations with sentences like, "Did you know in the middle ages the church actually embraced prostitution as a rape deterrent?" A guy who comes home from work proclaiming, "I just thought of a great way to kill a guy: decapitation by piranha!"

My wife is one of those few. Yessir, she doesn't know how dull her life would be without me. I research a lot of bizarre things, ponder things that most people never consider, and mentally visit some dark places that most people would rather not go, all for the sake of my own entertainment.

It's not always a joy though. I find that my moods sometimes ebb and flow with the content I'm currently steeped in. I recently finished a weeks-long study on medieval torture. It's nothing I haven't researched before, but not to this extent. After a while the depictions of the various torture methods and the descriptions of those who endured them start to get to me. It's sad that human depravity once knew such lows.

I bring this up because it's become increasingly important for me to maintain a better mood. When I was single, letting the more depressing and the disgusting things of life get me down wasn't so much of a problem because there was no one around for me to influence. Now that I'm married I have to think about my wife and her emotional well-being.

As writers, I think it's important to make sure we balance our mood swings, especially if we have spouses and/or children. Your family doesn't deserve your sour disposition just because you spent too much time reading about animal abuse or death or child molestation or serial killers. Find something that brings a smile to your face and turn to it often.

My Prozac of choice? Animated movies. I don't have children yet, but I have a surprisingly large collection of animated movies ranging from Disney classics to modern favorites from Pixar and Blue Sky studios.

A personal favorite of mine? Horton Hears A Who. Dr. Seuss is awesome, and though the movie takes many liberties with his work—as movies often do—I find the energy of Jim Carrey as Horton and the stammering wackiness of Steve Carell as Mayor Who a fun, stress-relieving, bring-me-back-down-to-the-simple-things kind of experience. The music in that movie is a joy as well. The music seems too orchestral for such a simple story, but it's a companion to Horton's outrageous imagination that strikes a wonderfully playful chord. If you haven't indulged in this whacky animated adventure, put it on the list.

John L. Monk Packs A Punch In "Kick"

For readers looking for quality indie books, you don't come across a modern action-adventure novel more tightly written and well crafted, than Kick, by John L. Monk. What an utterly original and exciting new book! It's one part super-hero, one part mystery, with a sprinkling of creepy, stirred together with a dash of sharp wit. The story follows Dan, an everyday kind of guy who has, unfortunately, committed suicide. As a consequence for his selfish life-ending action, Dan finds himself doomed to "possess" the bodies of society's criminals. Dan gets about three weeks in each body before he is "kicked out" by the body's original owner. In that time Dan makes it his mission to find out who they are, what wrongs they've done, and what justice they deserve.

It's a fascinating concept, executed in a fast-paced first-person narrative that hooks you from the opening chapter and doesn't let up.

John L. Monk holds a degree in anthropology, which makes him an ideal candidate to write a book so heavily involving the human psyche. Kick demonstrates his knowledge of human nature as he juggles a colorful arrangement of criminally-minded characters. John's story is strikingly original, fast-paced, surprisingly humorous, and lots of fun.

It's a shame that great novels like this can't get more exposure in the mainstream market. Kick is one of the few that deserve the attention.

Fool's Ride, the second book in this series, is also available, and, if I must say, is a wonderful follow-up. You can follow John on his blog at www.john-l-monk.com.

Three Things Every Author Needs To Do

If you're serious about getting published...

For your convenience, I've written that sentence a second time.

If you're SERIOUS about getting published, (did that drive my point home?) here are three things that are absolutely not an option.

Number One

You have to know your craft. There are grammatical quirks in the English language that still trip up everyone, but the best writers are those who never stop learning. Remember the day you finally mastered the difference between "their," "they're," and "there"? Or that time you Googled "semicolon use for dummies" and finally figured out how to use it? Keep doing those kinds of things. Always.

I recently finished laying out a book for an author who knew nothing about the underlying rules of creative writing. I wanted to rename her book "The Hyphen Chronicles," because, I swear, there were more hyphens in this book than I've probably used in all the books I've ever written. Compound adjectives that were hyphenated, not hyphenated, made into one word... There was no consistency. It was sloppy, amateurish, and sad. Please, take an English class. Take a creative writing class. Get plugged into a local writing group. There is no better way to keep your manuscript from getting shoved to the bottom of a publisher's or agent's slush pile than to completely ignore the widely-accepted basics of your craft.

Number Two

You've got to let people read your writing. I know it's your baby. I know you're scared to let it come under the gun, but better get that critique now before you send it out into the cold, hard world. I'm sure you're friends with an English teacher, a book-loving stay-at-home mom, a librarian, or someone who devours books like the apocalypse is coming. So recruit some of these people to be beta readers. Get at least a dozen people to read your work and tell you what they think. I guarantee they'll come up with valuable insights that haven't even crossed your mind, insights that will have the potential to immensely improve your book IF you're humble enough to take their advice to heart.

Number Three

Have your book professionally edited. In the absolute least, get it proof-read, especially if you're going the indie author route. If you want to be taken seriously by book reviewers, bloggers, or even readers, having a book that has been edited will help it stand out above the rest. I met an author recently who said he won't even read books for endorsements unless they have been professionally edited. I kind of admit, I agree with him. A book loaded with typos and punctuation errors is a pain to read, and it won't win you many praises from your peers.

Trust me. I've been on both sides of these issues. I've been the author who was too afraid to ask people for critique, and I've been the publisher who was face-palming himself over an atrociously written manuscript. Don't be just another first-time author. Learn your craft. Have your work critiqued. Get edited. Get noticed!

Why I Turned My Back On Big Publishers

Working with authors as often as I do, I find that many of them still haven't come to grips with the fact that the world of publishing has changed. Many publishers are finding it difficult to get on board with this as well. I work for a publisher, so I've seen this first hand.

The title of this post may give the impression that I am against publishers, which I am not. I applaud any author who finds success with a decent publisher these days, but the percentage of authors who find that success is becoming smaller and smaller because, like I said, publishing has changed.

My first novel was published when I was 17 years old, a medieval fantasy book for teens. It's not in print anymore so I have no reservations in saying that, well... it sucked. But it was my first experience with a publisher, and it wasn't a good one. Eight years later my second experience with a different publisher was better, but only because my marketing know-how had grown and my expectations were much more realistic. Still, the publisher was slow, not very communicative, and they didn't help my book at all apart from printing and design. I wrote a sequel to that second book and signed a contract with the same publisher. They sat on it for two years. The contract expired. I said, "Um, can I have my book back?" And we parted ways.

By this time, my disdain for publishers was growing.

Then Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series started becoming a cultural phenomenon. I had heard that the book was badly written, but I needed to see for myself just HOW bad it was. So I read it. Folks, it was more than bad. Ridiculous abusive relationship story aside, the narrative was bloated with some of the worst dialogue I've ever read, the biggest misuse of adjectives I've ever seen, and some absolutely embarrassing prose that left me shocked that any publisher would even consider printing this book. Moreover, this piece of so-called "literature" had millions of readers buzzing. How? Why? I mean... seriously? 

Twilight killed me zeal for writing for several years. That's how discouraged I was. And, honestly, I'm having a hard time not getting pissed off all over again with horribly written books like 50 Shades of Grey getting all the attention, but I've matured. Or maybe not. I don't know. That's beside the point.

To this day I am disheartened by the quality of books passing through mainstream publishers. There is no longer a focus on good writing, editing, or content. Publishers today are looking to fill a mold established by marketing executives who figure out what's popular, what will sell, who will buy it, and then search for the right manuscript to fill that prerequisite. Authors aren't picked by big publishing houses because they have amazing writing talent, they're picked because some secret focus group said so. It's all about the Benjamins, baby! 

On a recent 20-hour flight to Maui I had downloaded a bunch of free indie books to my Kindle for something to do on the plane. Most of them were pretty bad, but a few were, surprisingly, quite good. I mean really good! (I'll be posting reviews of some of these books in the future, so keep checking back.) These were books by writers who had taken the time to have their books professionally edited, proof-read, and designed. They had snazzy-looking covers and they were totally original, beautifully written, and unlike ANYTHING you'd find from a mainstream publisher.

These indie authors were onto something. They had latched onto the fact that the world of publishing isn't what it used to be. With so many writers elbowing for sales, and with print books becoming less and less in-demand, publishers aren't as willing to take risks on new and unknown authors. Thanks to Amazon's easy do-it-yourself publishing platform, authors now have more control of their work and retain more of their sales, but, unfortunately, that means they need to work harder and write more content in order to make substantial money. But the ones who do are the ones who thrive.

"Starling God" Lends Voice To The Voiceless

Author Tanya Sousa ventures into the unique realm of animal fantasy in The Starling God, a thoughtful and beautifully written story about the interconnectedness of our world. The book is a dramatically crafted reminder that we share this world with a great number of species. And that is no small truth. In fact, as the book suggests, it's a potentially dangerous truth to forget.

The story follows a rescued baby starling who is taken in by a woman with a heavenly bird sanctuary in her backyard garden. The starling soon learns from some of the other birds that he might be "The Starling God," a bird destined to help other starlings be more like the humans they revere. And so begins his quest to unravel the deep and often fragmented religion within the bird kingdom that views humans as gods.

Talking birds might seem strange outside of an animated movie, but Tanya introduces readers to her world in such a way that it doesn't seem off-putting in the least. The language of birds is rich, and stems from Tanya's own extensive study of the actual behaviors of animals and their clicks within the animal kingdom. The resulting story is a fascinating peek into the human world from the perspective of birds. At times we appear godlike. Other times we appear very, very strange and confusing.
Tanya writes with a rare passion, an articulate commentator on the world we live in from the point-of-view of the animals that she very clearly loves. Her message is profound, and the ending to "The Starling God" might even bring you to tears.

I've been familiar with Tanya's picture books for many years—including Fairy Feast, Ninny Nu's Organic Farm, and Life is a Bowl of Cherry Pits—and I'm glad to see her branching out into novels. Tanya's voice is unique and brave. I'm looking forward to what she puts out next.

Connect with Tanya on her website, www.radianthen.com, or on Facebook here.

The Stuff I Was Too Scared To Write About

I was sixteen when I wrote my very first medieval fantasy novel. In it, I wanted one of my female characters to be a prostitute. It wasn't because I was a red-blooded teenage boy, but because I've always had this fascination with really broken, morally ambiguous, lowly, fallen characters rising up against all odds to do... whatever they're going to do.

Ultimately, however, fear won out. I was too afraid that my mother would freak out over me writing about a prostitute. I was too afraid that I wasn't mature enough to handle the subject matter with the dignity it deserved, (and, actually, that last part is probably true.)

But times have changed. I've changed. And as a life-long student of the middle ages I've learned a lot about that time period. (My first novel included characters who gave their assents with "Okay!" even though that word didn't come around until the 1940s and had no meaning in the medieval lexicon. Oh, Craig *palms face*) The middle ages were brutal. Prostitution was everywhere, even embraced by the medieval church. You could die from a broken leg. People were tortured in the most heinous ways. Unless you were a noble or part of the royal family or the church, your life pretty much sucked.

When it came to starting Children of the Falls, I decided I wasn't going to pull any punches. I wasn't interested in being grotesque or overtly sexual for the sake of shock value, but I wanted to craft a story steeped in that moral gray area where evil can triumph and good can come from the most unexpected places. 

You see, the things in life that have been the most difficult for me to bear are often the things that shape who I am the most. The movies that rattle me, the books that disturb me, those are the ones that stick with me, that challenge my notions of justice and morality. This book is going to challenge me as a writer, and hopefully stretch the endurance of readers who love to be thrilled, but that's the point.

Sorry, mom.