Episode 17

Newbie Writers Podcast

January 21  (Catharine is eating locusts from street vendors)

Guest Jane Isaac and Lyle Perez.

The Ultimate Newbie Experience.

Jane is the living proof of a newbie becoming a published author.

What was the process involved? What sparked the story idea?

Dionne Lister asks: What has been the best part of the process for her? What was her reaction when she found out Rainstorm Press wanted to publish her works?

We pick Lyle’s brain on the initial reaction to reading Jane’s draft, what was it that made him want to publish it? What tips for new writers can be drawn from this?

We find out how Rainstorm Press is going and any new authors to look out for.

Jane’s been apart of Newbie Writers since 2007, certainly longer than I have. We ask what her thoughts on how Newbie Writers has changed, how it’s progressed.

Prompt:

“Nothing happens unless first a dream” – Carl Sandburg
spend twenty minutes on your dream. What do you really want to write? Not what sells, not what you think is “you” not what you think is trendy, just what you want to write, what you want to spend a year messing around with.
Really, twenty minutes – go!

Bring out your dead:

Contributed by Anne Naylor of www.becauseofbipolar.com.au
Too late she discovered she had married a psychopath.
It was the day after their wedding and they were in the presidential suite of a luxury hotel. They were finally on their honeymoon, about to start life as husband and wife.
He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her towards him. Magic was about to happen. They slid under the covers. He kissed her gently, then pulled the blankets over her head. She was confused. Why was he holding the blanket so tightly. He knew she was claustrophobic. She struggled against him, but he was too strong. He wouldn’t release her.
A foul stench filled the air. Surely not. He couldn’t have. He wouldn’t have. But undeniably, he had. The assault on her senses was silent, but deadly. Finally, after an eternity, he pulled back the blankets and she gasped as she gulped unpolluted air.
She was furious. Shocked and horrified. She berated herself for marrying a psychopath. Well, if not a psychopath, then a fifteen year old boy masquerading as a twenty-five year old man. He laughed, clearly very pleased with himself. ‘Welcome to marriage!’ he said. ‘What do you mean?’ she replied. She stared at him, bewildered. ‘It’s a Dutch oven’, he explained. A marriage ritual. It’s good luck.’
She thought it was surely a bad omen.
‘You’ll pay for this one day’, she said.
(And twenty years later, she did.)

Word of the week

www.worldwidewords.org

FUSTILUGS

In those moments when only insults will do, how good it is to turn to the inventive but unsung genius of everyday folk, whose local dialect is so often full of expressive abuse. This word, meaning a grossly fat or slovenly woman, is an excellent example.

It still has some small currency, mostly in Yorkshire I believe, though at one time it was widely known across a swathe of England ranging from Cumbria to Devon. That it will almost certainly be unknown to the object of your obloquy will add relish to your utterance, though it might not be too hard to work out it isn’t complimentary. It has rarely been written down outside dialect glossaries, but it did appear in 1621 in a long passage full of terms of opprobrium in The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton: “Every lover admires his mistress, though she be … a vast virago, or an ugly tit, a slug, a fat fustilugs”.

Shout Outs/ Sponsors:

Jane shouts out to the entire Twitter gang!

Damien says hi to Dianne Solberg and her Mum!

Rainstorm Press deal: newbie40 is the coupon. Gets you 40% off ANY purchase you make at www.rainstormpress.com

Where to find us:
Damien: www.newbiewriters.com
Jane Isaac: http://www.janeisaac.co.uk/
Lyle Perez: www.rainstormpress.com

Subscribe to us via email!

As work on my second novel progresses, I realise that word counts intimidate me. When I hear other writers aiming for 2 or 3,000 words a day on their book, every day, I want to climb back into bed and eat copious bars of chocolate. I admire their tenacity, their discipline, their focus.

Like of many of you, my lifestyle allows precious little spare time. As you all know, I have a day job, a family and a very naughty Labrador – all barriers (albeit welcome barriers – most of the time!) that keep me from my keyboard.

These days, I approach my novel in scenes, writing one at a time. I like to get into the heads of my characters. They don’t share my personality, so I need to feel theirs. I guess you might call me a ponderer. I walk across the fields with Bollo, my dog, and let the fresh air swim around me whilst mulling it over in my head.  I try to imagine the scene, picture it in my mind – how does it look, smell; what noises can I hear in the background? Then survey my characters, what is happening to them, how will they react?

Often I come back and write something. Sometimes, there isn’t time. If I’ve got work or family stuff to attend to, I just jot down a few notes. But I genuinely think that if I can’t feel my story, then my readers won’t either. And for me, this all takes time: sometimes hours, days, weeks even for a complex scene.

If you’re writing for something special, or doing a competition like Nano, then great – it’s a challenge. If it’s your job and you have a deadline, you have no choice. But, for me, it’s a hobby and a regular writing routine isn’t measured by a daily word limit. I count all the research, thinking and ruminating time too.

We all know that what works for one, doesn’t for another. As Newbies, we have to find the right habit to suit our own lifestyles. Writing should be an exciting, thrilling and fun experience. Like a great movie, or a good book. So, go find what suits you – write and enjoy.

Jane Isaac’s first novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, will be released by Rainstorm Press in February 2012. Jane is still very much a Newbie and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication!

I’ve always been fascinated by rainbows. As a child I was obsessed with chasing them, inconsolable when they disappeared into an empty sky. In adulthood they still make me smile, presenting a colourful element of mystery, magic and opportunity.

This week my time has been consumed with my website: meeting my web designer, discussing layout, writing content. A very exciting and engaging time (occasionally I pinch myself to make sure it’s real), but then he asked me that question – what about you?

Hmm. I love every aspect of writing. I’m in my element, filling my brain with new characters for a novel or researching, plotting and planning a new story. But ask about me, my own life, my inspirations, and I want to crawl into a little hole and hibernate.

After my recent interview with Peter Hobbs, many of you may be surprised to hear this. But it is so much easier to answer direct questions, especially if they’re asked in a humorous and quirky way. Being asked to sit down and write something about myself, makes my stomach fold.

It led me to think about my stories. When writing fiction we share our lives with imaginary characters, characters that are formed on the basis of what we have learnt, experienced, read, observed. Pieces of those characters inhabit our world, in some small way. We may not share their traits, but we researched them, formed them, know them inside out. (Depending on your genre, this can be quite a scary prospect.)

I considered this. If I can share my fictitious characters, a part of the world that only occupied my head previously, then why not myself? I am much more grounded (and a lot less interesting) than my major characters, that’s for sure.  So, I grasped my pen and wrote a few lines.

 As my website is finished, my book comes out and I bare a part my soul to the world, I think back to my little fascination and it gives me great comfort. I’m still chasing rainbows. Part of me hopes that I’ll never reach the end.

Jane Isaac’s first novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, will be released by Rainstorm Press in February 2012. Jane is still very much a Newbie and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication!

These past couple of months I have found myself in unchartered territory.  Honestly, I never expected to get a book deal and, perhaps naively, didn’t research what comes next.

I’ve talked about marketing and developing a platform already. I’m still navigating the learning curve there. I’ve done some more edits and I now understand how that all works.

My latest challenge was the book cover. How important is cover art? I’ve been a voracious reader of crime fiction for many years and it got me thinking – how much does the cover of a book really matter? Does anyone buy a book based on the cover?

My publisher house, Rainstorm Press, have been very supportive. They asked me for my ideas, wanted it to be something I was comfortable with and proud of. Hmmm. An Unfamiliar Murder is a crime thriller. I trawled my bookcases for ideas. But they are all so different, the only overriding theme was that they were all photographic covers and this seemed like a good idea, in keeping with the whole ‘keep it real’ theme.

Rainstorm put me in touch with their photographer. After much pondering, I chose a scene from the book, gave my ideas on colour schemes and sent the artist excerpts so that they could try to emulate the scene. I waited with bated breath.

Luckily, the photographer found an incredibly similar location and a very good likeness for one of my leading characters. We had to wait a few weeks before the leaves dropped off the trees for authenticity (the novel is sent in November in England), but the photos were taken.

The photographer sent me some stills and asked me to pick four photos that I liked best. Then she worked her magic and turned those stills into mock ups with different layouts of header and by-line. And I was able to choose my favourite.

It has been a great experience to be so involved with the cover art of my book and I’m delighted with the results. I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Jane Isaac’s first novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, will be released by Rainstorm Press in February 2012. Jane is still very much a Newbie, she doesn’t even have a website yet (one day…) and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication!

Hey here are the show notes to Episode 8- Publishing Part Deux!

Don’t forget our competition! Notes below this one!

Hey we have a permalink to the competition on the sidebar to the right. Can find it here:

http://www.newbiewriters.com/competitions

Intro
Bit of a recap on last show.
Hard copy
Electronic.

Hardcopy:
The Traditional way:
Get an agent (time, about a year)
Agent shops manuscript (time, about a year)
Publishers buys the book (no you will not get a million dollar advance) And it will take about two more years to release the book.
No more guarantees of support, marketing or help
If your first books fails to earn back the advance, you may not get a second chance.
Average royalty is about $1.00 per hard copy book.

Hardcopy
The new way:
POD – Print on Demand
Advantage is there is lower print cost, books are created as they are ordered – save trees!
POD is not necessarily Vanity press, rather a newer model that many different kinds of publishers are employing.
Simple but not necessarily easy
For fiction POD yourself or use Create Space.com

ISBN- What?

International Standard Book Number
For non fiction especially if you are doing your book as an extension of your work, become your own publisher and print with Lightening source.
You will need to go to Browker.com and buy ISBNs and then purchase the actual JPEG of the bar code for that number. Cost is about $175 or so.
And yes, bookstores will take your books, usually on consignment. But that’s pretty much what the deal is with “big” publishers anyway. If the books do not sell, the bookstore sends the books back – to everyone.

Use Smashwords.com to create your ebook format (free) and make sure you have a fabulous book cover – in ebooks, the cover (not the back) sells the book.
Pricing free to 12.99 for download. Depending on your strategy. Make more money per sale on e-books.

Competition Details:

‘Newbie Writers and Rainstorm Press have teamed up to offer the ultimate newbie experience!

We want to read about your worst nightmare! With Halloween still lingering creepily behind us, what a great chance to come up with a short scary story?! Take a dream you’ve had and turn it into a fictional horror story. One way to describe this contest is the idea that any experience can be turned into a story, so in this case, your worst nightmare can become your best story.  Send it to us! Catharine and Damien from the podcast will be the judges!

The best ten entries will be published in a collection by Rainstorm Press, with a copy going to each winning entrant. Current working title is “Newbie Nightmares.”

Out of the ten stories chosen, the top pick will not only be published in the collection but the author will receive the opportunity to submit a full length piece to have a novel published by Rainstorm Press. Final publication and publishing agreement will be at the discretion of Rainstorm Press.

This competition will run from the 10th of November 2011 to 10th of December 2011 with winners notified by email and posted up on www.newbiewriters.com on the 15th of December.

Entries need to be between 3,000 and 10,000 words and submitted in standard word document format. Please ensure the story is in the body of the email and not a file attachment. File attachments will be disregarded. Also ensure your name, the title of the story and the competition name are in the title and body of your email. This allows for better tracking of submissions for us.

Entrants must be previously unpublished (articles in magazines are okay) as we want to appeal to all those new writers out there. This could be your chance to have something published!

All submissions need to be mailed to competition@newbiewriters.com’

Terms and Conditions:

1. All entrants must be 18 years and over unless written consent is provided with submission from parent/guardian.
2. All works submitted will remain the ownership of the author and not Newbie Writers or Rainstorm Press. However, the ten (10) winners of the competition that will have their works collaborated and printed in the Anthology then become exclusive first time world rights for a year from publication date to Rainstorm Press. After that the rights move to non-exclusive rights. This will form part of an agreement contract issued to you upon being selected as one of the ten (10) by Rainstorm Press.
3. By submitting your work to this competition you are agreeing that the works are yours and original. Any copyright infringement will be solely the authors responsibility.
4. This competition contains no actual prize money, the prize(s) are in the form of a published works with each winning entrant receiving their own copy.
5. By submitting work to this competition, you agree that Newbie Writers and Rainstorm Press can use the submissions on their website to further promote not only future competitions but you as an author. If you do not wish for this work to be displayed on either site, then notify us via competition@newbiewriters.com
6. Each winning entry (10 total) will receive a contract from Rainstorm Press that will require your signature as a statement of agreement and to allow your works to be officially published.

*Bring Out Your Dead*
The Exhumation of Samantha Peterson
Samantha Peterson was the first body to be exhumed. The official cause of death was from natural causes, but the Peterson family didn’t accept the coroner’s explanation. In this day and age no one really dies from natural causes at the age of 52. They knew about Samantha’s secret experimental drug testing occupation and they had reason to believe the medication took her life.After six months of pleading their case to religious authorities and arguing through court spectacles, the Peterson family was granted full exhumation privileges. They were finally able to give their family closer once a private autopsy was conducted. No one expected what happen next.

Lyle Perez.

Writing Prompt:
(Even when away Catharine still comes up with the goods!)
What would you do with a gazillion dollars? (It used to be a billion dollars but we are accounting for inflation). This can be a list, a story, a cautionary tale.

Word of the Week from www.worldwidewords.org
SNOLLYGOSTER
This is another of that set of extroverted and fanciful words that originated in the fast-expanding United States of the nineteenth century. I see a snollygoster as a outsized individual with a carpetbag, flowered waistcoat, expansive demeanour and a large cigar. It actually refers to a shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician.

Where to contact us: podcast@newbiewriters.com
www.yourbookstartshere.com
www.rainstormpress.com

Outro

Hey we have a permalink to the competition on the sidebar to the right. Can find it here:http://www.newbiewriters.com/competitions

Here is the spiel:

‘Newbie Writers and Rainstorm Press have teamed up to offer the ultimate newbie experience!

We want to read about your worst nightmare! With Halloween still lingering creepily behind us, what a great chance to come up with a short scary story?! Take a dream you’ve had and turn it into a fictional horror story. One way to describe this contest is the idea that any experience can be turned into a story, so in this case, your worst nightmare can become your best story.  Send it to us! Catharine and Damien from the podcast will be the judges!

The best ten entries will be published in a collection by Rainstorm Press, with a copy going to each winning entrant. Current working title is “Newbie Nightmares.”

Out of the ten stories chosen, the top pick will not only be published in the collection but the author will receive the opportunity to submit a full length piece to have a novel published by Rainstorm Press. Final publication and publishing agreement will be at the discretion of Rainstorm Press.

This competition will run from the 10th of November 2011 to 10th of December 2011 with winners notified by email and posted up on www.newbiewriters.com

Entries need to be between 3,000 and 10,000 words and submitted in standard word document format. Please ensure the story is in the body of the email and not a file attachment. File attachments will be disregarded. Also ensure your name, the title of the story and the competition name are in the title and body of your email. This allows for better tracking of submissions for us.

Entrants must be previously unpublished (articles in magazines are okay) as we want to appeal to all those new writers out there. This could be your chance to have something published!

All submissions need to be mailed to competition@newbiewriters.com’

Terms and Conditions:

1. All entrants must be 18 years and over unless written consent is provided with submission from parent/guardian.
2. All works submitted will remain the ownership of the author and not Newbie Writers or Rainstorm Press. However, the ten (10) winners of the competition that will have their works collaborated and printed in the Anthology then become exclusive first time world rights for a year from publication date to Rainstorm Press. After that the rights move to non-exclusive rights. This will form part of an agreement contract issued to you upon being selected as one of the ten (10) by Rainstorm Press.
3. By submitting your work to this competition you are agreeing that the works are yours and original. Any copyright infringement will be solely the authors responsibility.
4. This competition contains no actual prize money, the prize(s) are in the form of a published works with each winning entrant receiving their own copy.
5. By submitting work to this competition, you agree that Newbie Writers and Rainstorm Press can use the submissions on their website to further promote not only future competitions but you as an author. If you do not wish for this work to be displayed on either site, then notify us via competition@newbiewriters.com
6. Each winning entry (10 total) will receive a contract from Rainstorm Press that will require your signature as a statement of agreement and to allow your works to be officially published.

Damien