Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Writing and Editing — some Helpful Books
Folks, over time I’ve probably read just about every book on writing and editing there has ever been — or at least it seems that way.
Now, you might be asking yourself why I’ve done this. Simple. I enjoy picking the brains of other writers and editors, and the easiest way to do this is by reading about their particular processes as written down in various books. Some are dry as dust, yes — but the best ones make you laugh, and think, and you’ll come back again and again to ’em in order to find some pearl of wisdom that you’d perhaps overlooked before.
The first, and best, of the three books I recommend is Carolyn See’s MAKING A LITERARY LIFE. Ms. See has fun with her subject; she uses witty commentary and true-to-life examples, but what I’ve gotten out of her book most is the value of being polite. (This is something my late husband Michael would’ve appreciated, I think. He felt people often were impolite for no reason whatsoever and had no patience with it. I have to agree that most of the time, I share his oft-expressed viewpoint.) Because being polite is the way to build literary friendships — expressing your appreciation now and again doesn’t hurt, either. (Ms. See believes you should write what she calls “charming notes” to other writers and editors because life is too short not to express praise when warranted. Though she also believes you should write these notes when you’ve received rejection letters, as a way to turn a negative into a positive — those types of notes are, “I’ve received your rejection and I will be sending you back something else in X time,” which also is a way to keep yourself on track and focused on the long-term goal.)
The second book is Anne Lamont’s BIRD BY BIRD. The title comes from something Ms. Lamont’s father once told her brother after he’d procrastinated about an assignment (this one on birds); it’s a way of saying, “Take things one at a time,” no matter how many things there might be in an assignment (or in this case, a book). Ms. Lamont’s wisdom, similar to Ms. See’s, has a great deal to do with real-life examples. Ms. Lamont admits her first drafts are very far short of perfection (she calls them a synonym for “crappy” that I won’t use here at my family-friendly site) and says the only thing good about them is that you’ve gotten something on the page — anything at all — and that a first draft is not supposed to be perfect so we writers shouldn’t beat ourselves up about that.
This is a very interesting attitude, because we all seem to have the tendency to say, “Oh, no! This is terrible! Why do I write, anyway, if all I can do is this trash?” But as Ms. Lamont says (and Ms. See does, too), the purpose of the first draft isn’t to be perfect — it’s to get it out there, so you can start working on what it will eventually be — good prose, a compelling story, you name it — and get on with the job.
Finally, there’s Sol Stein’s STEIN ON WRITING, which actually is more helpful as an editing primer because Stein explains what he does when he edits. The reason he does this is to help writers catch their own mistakes before they ever get to the editor, but I know that it’s very difficult if I’m in “editing mode” to shift out of that and just write because they’re markedly different things (writing a first draft is messy, as both Ms. Lamont and Ms. See pointed out). And if I think too much about editing while I’m writing, I don’t get much done because I think it’s “all crap, so why bother?” and that’s not good. (Instead, it’s counterproductive to say the least.)
So, read these three books, and see what you can get out of them — and don’t say I’ve never done anything for you.
Snowstorm here — a big one
Folks, I made it back from an errand in Milwaukee this evening (went this afternoon, mind), but it wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t easy.
For those of you who live in Southeastern Wisconsin, please, stay home unless you absolutely have to go out. Most places will be closed, and rightfully so.
I know it sounds hypocritical for me to say, “Don’t go out” considering I was out in it, but I wish I’d have stayed home. The snow blew sideways, with visibility sometimes less than a few feet in front of me. No roads were cleared off, including the Interstate (I-94); there are severe white-out conditions along with heavy wind gusts up to fifty MPH.
I’m a good driver, and I’m cautious, so I made it. But considering how many four-wheel drive vehicles ended up in the ditch, not to mention more than a few 18-wheeler trucks (a whole lot of those guys need to learn how to slow down, too, I might add), I feel very fortunate to have made it back this evening.
So don’t be stupid. STAY HOME.
My Holiday Prayers
The other day, one of my FB friends had something up that, boiled down, read like this:
“My holiday prayer: I hope those who need cures will get them, for those children awaiting adoption to be adopted, then loved deeply, and for everyone else to never have to worry about food, shelter or heat. Amen.”
I’d also like to add that dogs, cats, and other innocent animals are always in my prayers — I hope they find good homes where they’ll be appreciated and loved, during the holidays and all the days after.
Another good saying: may your days be free of care, and may your life be as long, and as happy, as you wish it to be. (That’s adapted from an old Irish saying.)
In other words, though the holidays are always problematic for me at best, I wish my friends, family and colleagues the best, during the holidays, and all the other days, too.
WinningWriters.com Mentions My Blog in their end-of-the-year Newsletter
Folks, I was very pleased to see that WinningWriters.com had mentioned my blog in their recent end-of-the-year newsletter — though I knew in advance that they were at least thinking about it as I’d heard from WinningWriters.com editor Jendi Reiter (herself an excellent poet) that they appreciated what I’d written in my second blog about their War Poetry Contest.
I once again do not know how to properly give links to WinningWriters.com as this isn’t a page I found a way to see without actually logging in, but I can cut and paste what they said, first about my blog:
*******
BARB CAFFREY’S BLOG: “More on the War Poetry Contest at WinningWriters.com”
We appreciate Barb Caffrey’s recent comments about our War Poetry Contest on her blog. Here is an excerpt:“Those fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq deserve our support, and our understanding. And the first part of giving our support and our understanding is to listen, to read, and to understand—not to shut out the soldiers who’ve given everything of themselves in order to derail the al-Qaedas and Talibans of this world so perhaps fewer innocents will die than would’ve died had our soldiers not given everything they have in the attempt.
“The War Poetry contest is a good way to keep the conversation going, and to understand exactly what is going on with our returning soldiers and how hard it is to deal with what most of us see as ‘normality’ after dealing with things that no man, or woman, or child should ever have to see. It also is a way to affirm the sacrifices of our men and women in a positive, life-affirming way.”
****** End cut-and-paste from Newsletter.
The kind folks at WinningWriters.com also listed my publication credits — more of ’em than I’d expected, actually, though I was very pleased with the “shout-out” — in this bit from the newsletter, once again cut and pasted:
Barb Caffrey has placed four short stories with e-Quill Publishing, a new e-book publisher in Australia: her original tale “The Fair at South Farallon”, a science fiction satire about aliens, friendship, and unemployment; “Iron Falls”, a near-future military suspense tale co-authored with Piotr Mierzejewski; and two stories co-authored with her late husband Michael B. Caffrey, “Trouble with Elfs” and “A Dark and Stormy Night: A Joey Maverick Adventure”. Three of Mr. Caffrey’s stories about Princess Columba and her shapeshifting cat/husband have also been released by e-Quill as a special anthology. Her poem “A Love Eternal” will appear in e-Quill’s anthology of poems about mortality. Visit their author pages (at e-Quill Publishing — www.equillpublishing.com). Ms. Caffrey blogs at https://elfyverse.wordpress.com. In other news, her poem “No Rest” was accepted by Midwest Literary Magazine for inclusion in their November issue and their anthology Bearing North.
********* end cut-and-paste.
I really appreciate them mentioning Michael’s work — his “Columba” stories — and that they mentioned my blog, not once, but twice.
I’ve known about this for a few days, but wanted to wait to post until Sunday — as Sunday is, for many, a day of private reflection where we might, occasionally, remember to give thanks for the good things which happen to us (along with condemning the bad ones, which tends to go on every single day).
Anyway, I’m very pleased about this; I just wish I knew how to give some decent links. But since I don’t, please go look at WinningWriters.com for yourself and sign up for the basic newsletter as it’s free — and as I’ve said before, I’ve found it very helpful and interesting.
BTW, the links that the kind folks at Winning Writers put in didn’t work when I cut and pasted them into this e-mail — I had to take them out (as they all referred back to WordPress’s “types of blogs” thing, which wasn’t what they should’ve done) — including the link to the War Poetry Contest itself. My apologies in advance for that error . . . I’m not great with links, but this is the first time a simple cut-and-paste did not work.
When Writing flows, Life is Good.
I know the title of this blog has to be an odd one, folks, but any writer will get the meaning — when we can’t write, we feel awful even if everything else is going right, while if we can, even if everything else is going to Hell in a hand basket, life is good.
This morning I woke up very early with one line of dialogue in my head, and started writing — about two and a half hours later, I had 3600 words of a new Elfyverse short story and was very well-pleased with myself. I had no idea the one line I had was going to lead to all that creativity, and yet what I have makes sense — I was able to set up the story well, get my characters going, and they’re chatting nicely. I’m unsure if this is a character study or if something’s going to actually happen, but whatever ends up being included in this story, I’m glad that my writing is flowing well.
How’s your writing going?
New Book Review — Read “The Crucible of Empire,” as it’s Outstanding.
Folks, I just wrote a review at the “sister site” Shiny Book Reviews for Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth’s excellent The Crucible of Empire. I had previously reviewed it at Amazon.com but I wasn’t comfortable with my review there, partly due to space limitations. At Shiny Book Reviews that isn’t as much of a concern; I now feel comfortable with my review of The Crucible of Empire and hope you all will read it.
Here’s the link:
But to sum up: if you love books that make you think along with appreciating the rousing space-battle action, you will love The Crucible of Empire. Can’t praise it highly enough.
eQuill Welcomes me, Michael, with Press Release
Lawrence T. at eQuill Publishing has graciously welcomed me and my late husband, Michael, with the following press release, available at this link:
http://www.equillpublishing.com/xcms_entry.php?xcmsentryid=30
Here’s the release in toto:
e-Quill Publishing is pleased to welcome two new authors, Barb Caffrey and her late husband, Michael B. Caffrey. Both are talented writers and have a large following world-wide. They have agreed to list some of their works with e-Quill Publishing.
In addition, it is now much, much easier to find sample pages for our stories — as you’ll see if you follow this link to Michael’s “Columba” collection:
http://www.equillpublishing.com/product.php?productid=41
The other stories all have sample pages laid out in this way, so it should be much easier now for people to see a bit of Michael’s (and my) writing before you buy. (“Try before you buy” isn’t just the motto for buying a used — excuse me, pre-owned — car.)
There even was a very wonderful comment someone left that said he (or she) had loved Michael’s “Maverick” story “Dark and Stormy Night,” that I hadn’t anticipated. This commentator said he (or she) would recommend any of Michael’s writing, or mine (or, presumably, both of us together).
eQuill is still a very young e-book publisher, folks, so there still may be snags as to how to find sample pages; please let me know if you continue to have problems there, and I will keep Lawrence (the publisher at eQuill) “in the loop.” (Because being out of the loop certainly won’t help.) But as the “Columba” stories show, they are there, and I find that very encouraging.
As for anything else, there may be more good news to report in the upcoming days, but I do not want to jinx it. Let’s just say that I’m glad my and Michael’s writing is starting to gain (or re-gain, in Michael’s case) a following, and happy am I that this is so.
——
Note: if you wish to read my or Michael’s stories in order to review them, please let me know. I believe Lawrence will be putting something up at eQuill for reviewers to let him know down the line, but for now, as the company is new, there’s no real mechanism except to go through the individual author(s). Just know that I will be glad — thrilled, even — to provide a copy for review.
Additional blog for reviews
The blog site Shiny Book Review is at the moment being shared by me and Jason Cordova; it is brand, spanking new, and we each have one book review up so far. More authors are to be added soon.
Check it out at:
http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/
The direct link to my review of Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth’s superlative THE COURSE OF EMPIRE is here:
The upshot of my review: if you haven’t read Flint and Wentworth as of yet, what on Earth are you waiting for? (In other words, grab this book immediately.)
Note I will still be doing reviews at Amazon.com as I have been for so many years — I’ll just be doing them at the new site, also.
Remembering 9/11/2001
It’s been two months now since I started my blog, but rather than talk about what I’ve managed to get accomplished in the past month, I thought it important to do something else.
Remember 9/11/2001.
We all know where we were on that tragic and senseless day; we all remember seeing the Twin Towers burn, the Pentagon get hit (but not critically), and remember the drama, heroism and self-sacrifice of the firemen and rescue personnel who flooded the New York city area afterward.
It’s now been nine years since that historic day, and yet, what have we learned as a nation?
We’ve learned that even the worst of tragedies can be exploited for political gain.
We’ve learned that crazy lunatics who call themselves “pastors” or “ministers” want to burn the holy books of other religions in order to somehow strike back at the terrorists who caused the Twin Towers to burn and fall.
And we’ve learned that the mainstream media will exploit even the craziest of idiots one way or another, while the diplomats and soldiers scramble to contain the damage the idiots can’t help but cause in their wake.
Somehow, I do not believe this is what anyone had hoped we’d be thinking about, nine years after the worst terrorist-caused disaster to ever hit the United States of America — and it’s sad, and beyond frustrating, that this is so.
The Terry Joneses of this world, who claim to be doing holy work, seem to be much more interested in the press clippings they amass rather than saving people’s souls or bringing anyone closer to the enlightenment of the Deity. That at least two other Americans have vowed to also burn the Koran, the holy book of the Muslim faith, on 9/11/2010 goes beyond shame, beyond any sense of retribution for what happened on 9/11/2001 — instead it appears to me to be all about the publicity, all about the fame, of those who would burn the Koran for gain.
Our soldiers overseas will have problems due to this — they are already having problems, from what Afghanistan Commanding General David Petraeus has said. And our State Department, which heads up our diplomatic branch, can only do so much to contain the outcry around the world — which is sad, considering we’re talking a very few crazy idiots who believe burning a holy work is a good idea.
But out of something this bad, this shocking, can come a slight silver lining. This week I heard representatives from both parties condemn this action in advance. President Barack Obama said that burning a Koran is a “recruitment bonanza for Al-Qaeda,” and conservative commentator and former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin said that burning the Koran is a horrible idea; that it’s unAmerican. They are both right.
Diplomacy is the art of the possible. Yet the Terry Jones of this world make it closer to impossible; what a shame, and a complete and colossal waste, that Terry Jones and these others must grandstand on such a day of mourning for the world. Because it undercuts the sacrifice of those who died on 9/11/2001 when others must grandstand for shock value — and it makes the United States of America look like a bunch of unschooled, uncivilized morons.
At any rate, remember 9/11/2001. Remember the sacrifice of our brave men and women who died that day, and the self-sacrifice of the rescue personnel who flooded the New York city area, and the national outcry of mourning. And do your best to ignore the idiots, while saying a fervent prayer that the yahoos who’d rather burn the Koran to make whatever statement they feel they’re making do not end up getting a bunch of innocent soldiers, diplomats, and civilians killed.
My blog’s one-month observance, 8/11/2010.
As of tomorrow, 8/11/2010, I’ll have had this blog for one full month now. So as Dan Patrick often says on his radio show, “What have we learned?”
So far, I’ve learned that there really are people interested in reading what I have to say on a variety of subjects — imagine that! And I’ve realized that even with my limited resumé to date with regards to fiction writing, I have something to offer those who haven’t been writing as long — namely, the voice of experience. (Though in small letters, not caps. Calling me “the Voice of Experience” makes me feel old.)
So far, I’ve done my best to frame the narrative, express my opinions on various subjects, and discuss my book, ELFY. (Thus the name for the blog site, “Elfyverse.”) I’ve also discussed publishing, e-books, writing, a few sports figures, persistence, oddities in commercials, and not to be outdone, I discussed the whole issue of how LeBron James attempted to frame his narrative — but failed — after his disastrous ESPN “The Decision” special.
Not too bad for one month’s work, eh? (What a shame I’m not getting paid for it. Then again, it does serve to keep me occupied and reasonably amused, so it has that much going for it.)
As for the state of the Elfyverse, I’ve completed two more chapters during the past four weeks for AN ELFY ABROAD, two more for KEISHA’S VOW (ELFY prequel set in 1954), and have completely looked over ELFY. I now have the option of figuring out where ELFY may best be split to perhaps interest a few publishers (ELFY is 240,000 words long, which is very long for a first-time novelist. Yes, Susanna Clarke got away with it in her novel JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL, but she had already sold at least one story in her alternate history prior to selling her novel, and the publisher knew it would have audience appeal and the backing of many critics. Or at least was willing to bet on the latter while hoping for the former. I have no such backers for ELFY, just my own will and strength, and of course the words and faith of my late husband Michael which must never be discounted or ignored.) — at any rate, such is the state of the Elfyverse at this time. More updates as they become available.
But be sure to stay tuned. ‘Cause I’m just getting started.
Barb Caffrey, who writes the Elfyverse — and anything else she pleases.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 