Writing Archives - Page 24 of 36

Good News: My Career Grows

May 8, 2014 By Kerry Gans 3 Comments

Last year saw my first short story, TO LIGHT AND GUARD, published in Bewildering Stories magazine. That was a big milestone for me: my first official publication.

This year is shaping up even better! I had a poem, THE TOWERS STOOD, published in the World Healing, World Peace 2014 Poetry Anthology, and my short story DYING BREATH sold to Youth Imagination magazine!

In even more exciting news, my middle grade sci-fi retelling of the Wizard of Oz, OZCILLATION, was picked up by Evil Jester Press, and will be released in 2015! I am so excited to work with this group of enthusiastic and creative people, and to be one of their first middle grade novels as they expand.

Right now, my novel is with the editor, so I am waiting on pins and needles to get the feedback from her. I know there will be some hard work ahead to make OZCILLATION all shiny, but I am ready to tackle it. I will be approaching the novel with fresh eyes, as I have not read the book since I started querying agents waaaay back in December of 2012. I have come a long way as a writer since then and will probably see things in the book I want to change as well.

So what am I doing while waiting for my editing notes? I am editing two short stories that I hope will find homes this year. I am doing final preparation on my genealogy book for upload to the self-publishing Print-On-Demand (POD) site, likely by the end of this week. Then I will figure out how to format the genealogy book for ebook, and upload that. I’m sending querying to agents for my YA contemporary fantasy THE ORACLE OF DELPHI, KANSAS. I am also beginning to work on my marketing strategy, as well as optimizing my website and blog and other social media. Oh, and I’m working on another novel.

So, I’m busy.

The list, of course, does not include weekly repetitive tasks like blog posts, watching the 2 TV shows I allow myself to watch, reading, taking care of the business of life, and running around after my most important Work-In-Progress, my preschooler!

As much work as the coming year will be, I am looking forward to the challenge! How about all of you? What new bragging rights do you have? Share!

Working Vacation

April 24, 2014 By Kerry Gans 1 Comment

I know that most people return from vacation to a crushing workload of backed up emails, housework, or other work they do. I, on the other hand, have returned from my recent week-long sojourn farther ahead than when I left.

I work from home, with a preschool-age child. So I find that tasks that require prolonged concentration are difficult for me to find time to do. I have the time after she is in bed, but by then my brain is tired and I am prone to stupid mistakes (although this is a good time for creative writing for me). But most business-related tasks require attention to fine detail and often a half an hour or more of blocked time to accomplish competently. For example, I submitted the same short story to 5 magazines recently—and I had to format the story in 3 different ways to follow their guidelines. This is not a complaint—I understand why this is so. This is just to show why I need time to really pay attention to these sorts of details.

As a result, I have had a list of business-related items that I kept saying, “If only I could have a week without distraction, I could get all this done!”

This vacation was that week.

With Preschooler being entertained by Grandma, aunts, cousins, and Daddy, I was able to grab some focused work time. In this week away, I accomplished:

Submitting 3 Critique manuscripts to the Philadelphia Writers Conference
Submitting 3 Contest manuscripts to the Philadelphia Writers Conference
Spending several hours on Duotrope making lists of markets for my various short stories
Sent 5 queries out for my short story Dying Breath
Sent 5 queries out for my novel The Oracle of Delphi, Kansas
Edited 1/3 of my short story Finale
Read 2 Newbery-Award-winning novels
Critiqued a friend’s short narrative non-fiction piece
Wrote a blog post for my personal blog, The Goose’s Quill
Wrote the Thursday blog post for our group blog, The Author Chronicles
Kept up with social media platforms
Slept

I also managed to have fun visiting with relatives and enjoying the beauty of the countryside!

Many people might not consider this much of a vacation, but for me it was ideal. I get so worn out with trying to keep up with everything, and so frustrated pushing things off to the back burner because of time constraints. Getting so much of this done was a great weight off my shoulders, which allowed me to relax.

Do you find yourself working on vacation, or do you really get away from it all?

World Healing, World Peace 2014 Poetry Anthology

April 3, 2014 By Kerry Gans 2 Comments

I don’t normally write poetry.

One day, however, I was taking my daily walk when phrases started coming to me. They repeated themselves and grew. By the time I had finished my walk, a whole poem was in my head. As soon as I could, I wrote it down. I revised a little. I stared at it. I wondered, “Now what do I do with it?”

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure it was a poem. And even if it was, I had no idea if it was any good. My practical brain wanted to just put it away somewhere to gather dust because “You don’t write poetry, Ker.”

But it wouldn’t leave me alone. I felt like it was something, you know?

So I sent it to a friend, Diane Sismour, who is poet. I asked her if it was even a poem, and what she thought. She thought not only was it a poem, but it had a powerful message. And she said, “I know an anthology this would be perfect for.”

Really? An anthology? For this poem that just fell out of my head fully formed and demanding attention? Okay. No harm in sending it in.

Enter the World Healing, World Peace 2014 poetry anthology (available now). This is a 2-volume work with many poets in it (including Diane), and the focus is on world peace, world unity, and human rights. The publisher’s goal is to get 2 copies into the hands of the United Nations delegates, and one copy to every member of the US Congress. The publisher wants the voices of the poets to be heard, because we have something to say.

It is a worthy cause, and I am proud to be a part of it. This is not an opportunity I looked for, but rather a case of the right poem meeting the right person at the right time. This experience is the reason I encourage all writers to write in different formats, as the spirit moves them. Experiment. Spread your wings.

You never know what will fly.

If you are interested in the World Healing, World Peace initiative and want to see how you can help and be involved, check out the website.

Have you ever written something outside your zone that had success that surprised you?

Achilles’ Heel: A Physical Weakness Beyond Our Control

March 27, 2014 By Kerry Gans 2 Comments

We all know the story of Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War. His mother dipped him in the river Styx to make him immortal, but where she held him (his heel) was left vulnerable. He was later killed when Paris shot him in the heel with an arrow. Had Achilles been intelligent enough to wear a boot or some sort of protective gear over his heel, the legends might have been quite different!

Everyone has an Achilles’ Heel, some physical weakness they cannot control. Some people faint at the sight of blood. Some fall to pieces at the slightest pain. Some have panic attacks (which have a mental aspect but can be triggered by purely physical stimuli).

Me, it’s my stomach. Overall, I have a strong stomach. I never got stomach bugs as a kid. Threw up twice my entire life, and both were because of food poisoning. So when my stomach does act up, I shatter. I can’t concentrate and everything becomes a huge effort. I can handle pain or limited mobility (although gore makes me queasy) but when my stomach goes crazy, I just want to curl up and cry.

And my stomach goes haywire for no reason. What I assume is acid reflux blindsides me from time to time. No change in diet or exercise, just severe reflux of unknown origin. At those times, I feel like I can’t even force water down, the upward pressure is so bad. And the nausea and burning in the throat make me cry. When this idiopathic acid reflux strikes, it can take me weeks to get back to normal.

Which of course makes me think that my characters all should have an Achilles’ Heel. A food allergy. A fear of needles. Vertigo. The Achilles’ Heel should be picked with care—something that seems harmless at first, but eventually plays a major role in beating the overwhelming final obstacles.

When thinking of weaknesses in characters, I tend to think of mental or emotional wounds. But I can increase conflict by adding a physical weakness out of my character’s control—a betrayal of his own body.

What are some more Achilles’ Heels that would be fun to use in a story?

When Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

March 13, 2014 By Kerry Gans Leave a Comment

I know very well that writing a story based on real events can be tricky. I also know that things have to make sense in fiction in a way they rarely do in real life. I wrote an entire blog post on why events have to make sense in a story.

But I fell into the trap anyway.

I wrote a short story based in my experience of being robbed at gunpoint. At one point, the gunman said something, and my critique partner said, “He can’t say that.”

“But that’s what he really said!” I blurted, knowing full well I shouldn’t.

“It doesn’t matter. You can’t use it. In the story, it makes no sense.”

Grrr.

However, she was right, and that will be revised.

My critique partner also said something else that made me stop and think. She pointed out that my intention in writing the story will determine how much of the absurdity of real life I can get away with keeping.

If I write and sell this as a “true crime” story, much of what seems weird (but actually happened) would likely be accepted by the reader–because they know it really did happen that way. But if, as I intend, I am trying to evoke a feeling, immerse the reader in the moment, then I need to clear away the irrational, the coincidental, the odd. I need to make sense out of the chaos and guide them to the feeling I wish to convey.

I need to think about that in the rewrite. Why I’m writing this. What I want from it. What I want my readers to get from it. And then I have to remove anything in the story that will detract from that goal, confuse the reader, or break the spell of the story.

So when you write about something that actually happened, and a critique partner tells you it makes no sense, bite your tongue and nod. Because there are very few times when the random senselessness of life translates well to the page. Just go with it. It’s fun, really.

After all, you get to make sense out of life, and how many people do that every day?

Have you ever had a story based on true events where you could keep a lot of the “reality” and still have it work?

A Creative Spring Blooms

March 6, 2014 By Kerry Gans Leave a Comment

This has been a rough winter in my area—lots of snowstorms and unusually deep cold spells. So it’s not surprising that I have spring on my mind!

Spring is a time of renewal, and renewal is on my mind right now, too. I seem to be having something of a personal Renaissance. My Muse is coming out to play.

I’ve been lost in a creative desert for more than 4 years—ever since my daughter was born. When I say this, people look at me in surprise, because I have been turning out a lot of work during the past 4 years. Lots of words. But not much has been in creative fiction. Most has been blogging, working on a family non-fiction genealogy book, and revising of fiction works whose early drafts pre-dated my child. So a lot of words, but not a lot of new creative ideas.

Not only weren’t new ideas coming, I didn’t even FEEL creative. Nothing stirred in my brain or soul. I worried that I would never again feel the elation of a new idea, the exhilaration of writing in a flow state, the thrill of hearing a character talk to me. But then things started to change.

First, at the 2013 Philadelphia Writer’s Conference, I felt stirrings of creativity. Then, a short-lived but bright fire burst forth in August. But these spurts didn’t last, and I ended up feeling depressed all over again, as if they had been nothing more than mirages in my creative desert.

But over the past few cold, snowy, wintry weeks, I have experienced hints of a creative spring. For the first time in years, a character is speaking to me. For the first time in years, I reached a flow state while writing fiction. And for the first time in years, I woke up with a new novel idea in my head—half-formed, incomplete, but intriguing.

Unlike my earlier mirages, I think this Renaissance might stick. I’m not sure what has changed to revive my Muse. Perhaps because I am sleeping more regularly and reliably (although still not enough). Perhaps because I am getting a little more exercise. Perhaps because my child is in preschool for a few hours a day (barring snow days!) and I have more time to devote to writing. Perhaps it simply took 4 years to recover from the utter exhaustion that comes with a newborn.

Whatever the reason, this resurgence feels new. Different from the other stirrings. It’s almost too good to believe.

But I will believe, and hold on tight.

Because as a writer, it is in my nature to believe in miracles.

Have you ever experienced a personal Renaissance?

Finding Time but Losing Depth

February 20, 2014 By Kerry Gans Leave a Comment

As a stay-at-home mom, my schedule revolves around my 4-year-old daughter. This often means that my writing time is fragmented. I grab 15 minutes here, a half hour there. I have read tons of blog posts about how to squeeze the most writing time out of your day.

I never used to think I could write this way, but you do what you need to do when faced with reality. So I wring words out of my day, and usually manage to get a decent amount of writing done each day. I’m happy and left with a sense of accomplishment (no matter how small) when I see that at least one of my projects has progressed.

But. (You knew there was a “but,” didn’t you?)

I worry that I am sacrificing depth in this scattered writing style.

Pre-child, I could spend several hours at a time writing. I could “go deep,” getting lost in the world and the character. I would often finish a writing tear and look up, blinking, wondering where I was, what time it was—much like the feeling when you leave a movie theater.

I can’t do that anymore, and I think my writing has suffered. I find it hard to lose myself in my world or character in short spurts of time. No sooner do I feel comfortable than it’s time to leave. And since much of my snatched writing time also involves having my child around, my mommy ear is always listening for cries or yells that might indicate she needs help—or that ominous silence that means I really need to go see what she’s up to. So my full attention is not on my writing.

My biggest struggle at the moment is character. Readers do not connect to my characters. I used to do character well. I suspect that my “stolen time” model of writing is keeping me from plumbing the depth I used to in my characters, keeping me from finding their voices. If I can’t get lost in my characters, how can I expect my readers to?

I have also found that—for me—it is very hard to find that voice in revision when it is not present in the first draft. Character deepening in revision (and I like revising!) has never come out right. Perhaps I’m too caught up in the existing words on the page to want to change them enough to bring the character’s voice to the front. I don’t know.

All I know is I have three options: 1) find larger chunks of time to write (ha!), 2) learn to go deep faster, or 3) learn to deepen character in revision. I’m not sure which will happen. I’m not sure which will be successful. But something’s got to change for me to solve my character problem.

How about you? Do you find that writing in fragmented time lessens your ability to go deep? If you’ve mastered this technique, please share some tips in the comments!

Whiteout Conditions: I can’t see my characters

February 13, 2014 By Kerry Gans Leave a Comment

I’ve said before that I am struggling with bringing my characters to life on the page. Every time I think I’ve got it nailed, my beta readers shake their heads–they’re just not connecting with the character. But I don’t know exactly what’s wrong, so it’s frustrating.

My brain knows all the techniques I’m supposed to use to create that character-reader connection, but I just can’t seem to get it onto the page. Even more frustrating is that I used to think that character was what I did best. But I seem to have lost the knack, unable to find it amid the blizzard of other craft details I have to keep in mind.

Whiteout conditions: I can see no way ahead.

In the Little House books (I think), during one winter blizzard the family strung a rope between the house and barn so that they could find their way back and forth without getting lost in the storm. I needed a rope, a guide to help me find my way back to character.

So I went backward.

If it was true that I used to do character better than I do now, then older works might provide me with clues to the way forward. I dug out a short story I had written during my Masters degree, revised it, and gave it to my critique partners.

It worked. The character-reader connection bloomed.

So now I have my guide rope. I can look at that story and see what I did then that I don’t do now. More importantly, I now know I can do it. The answer to my problem is inside of me somewhere.

All I have to do is hang onto the rope until I get through the blizzard.

What about you? Have you ever “lost” a skill you thought you had nailed? How did you get it back?

CreateSpace vs. Ingram Spark

January 30, 2014 By Kerry Gans 7 Comments

Any of you following along will know I am trying to self-publish a Print-On-Demand (POD) genealogy reference book on my family in particular. I had decided to use Amazon’s CreateSpace because so many people suggested it and it has been around a while. What I found was that because of the length of my book, I could NOT use CreateSpace (more on that below), and so I went over to Lightning Source, another POD company people had suggested. Lightning Source’s POD arm for small or self-publishers is called IngramSpark.

The following comparison of the two resources is necessarily incomplete, as I could not complete the process with CreateSpace and have not yet completed the process with IngramSpark. But it’s what I have found so far.

CreateSpace is very easy to use. However, I found their Submission Guidelines to be missing or misleading in key areas. When reading how to format your book’s interior, it tells you the gutter margin for 3 different pages count ranges, all the way up to 1,000 pages. What they don’t tell you anywhere in the Submission Guidelines (it can be found elsewhere on the website) is that there are maximum page limitations based on trim size and color vs. black and white options. Based on their Page Count table, the maximum number of pages anywhere is 828 (not 1,000) and if you choose to do full color, 480 is your limit. My full-color book, unfortunately, is 508 pages. Due to the nature of the content, there is no way I can cut 30 pages out. Which is why I went to IngramSpark. (I did confirm with CreateSpace customer service that I was correct and I COULD NOT print this book with them.)

IngramSpark is also not difficult to use. However, it will require more money for you to get started. At this point in the process, I have run across several fees:

$49 one-time set-up fee per book (waived if you have a 50 book drop order within a certain amount of time after setting up your book)

$11 annual distribution fee (if you are simply printing for your family and do not want distribution, this fee is waived)

ISBN fee. IngramSpark requires you provide your own ISBN number. You can purchase one for $125, or you can purchase batches of them for less per unit through Bowker. CreateSpace allows you to either use an Amazon ID number (not the same as an ISBN) or to purchase an ISBN through them (I think it was $10) or to provide your own.

So it is more expensive to use IngramSpark. The question you need to ask yourself is: Can I make my book fit CreateSpace’s limitations in a way that will not compromise the book’s quality? In my case, because I have a lot of photos and documents and charts, the answer was “no.”

The actual interior design process is the same–upload a PDF to their website. I will say that IngramSpark’s gutter margins are MUCH smaller than CreateSpace’s, probably due to manufacturing differences, which allows me to have larger photos and charts.

I have not used the cover designer for either system yet, so cannot know how they compare. I also don’t know about the quality of the final product or the tracking and royalty payment facets, since I haven’t finished the book yet.

Having to switch to IngramSpark has set me back, because with the much smaller gutter margins I need to re-size all my photos, graphs, etc. The text, of course, was easy to readjust. Still, I am pleased that I have an outlet to get this book out there in the way I envisioned it, instead of having to present it in a non-optimal way to force it into CreateSpace’s limitations.

I am slowly exploring this self-publishing world, both in ebook and now POD. It’s a fascinating journey! I will bring more info on IngramSpark after I have completed the process and have more to share.

Have you done POD? What has your experience been?

Amazon Kindle and CreatSpace

January 9, 2014 By Kerry Gans 5 Comments

A while ago, I put my first short story, To Light and Guard, up on Smashwords. I did it mostly as a learning experience, and haven’t done much to promote it. I wanted to learn how to format a story to upload, and how all the technology worked. That’s much more easily done with a 3,000 word short than an 80,000 word novel!

To round out my education in the technology realm, I just last week got To Light and Guard for sale on Amazon. The process was much the same as Smashwords, just slightly different formatting rules. So now my story is available on both major self-publishing platforms, and available for all ebook formats, including PDF. (A Kindle-friendly file is also available through Smashwords, but the only way to get it listed on Amazon is to either sell more than $2,000 worth of the book or post it directly, as I did.)

The process on both was relatively painless, as long as you are able to read directions and pay attention to details.

I am now embarking on my first print-on-demand project—a genealogy book through Amazon’s CreateSpace. I am still in the process of learning how to format the book properly, and I am sure much tinkering will be required until I get it looking the way I want.

I probably chose a difficult book to start with, because mine includes photos and other non-text illustrations. This interrupts page numbering and makes things a little more complex. But it’s coming together.

I was slightly disappointed in the limits of size and lack of choice in paper type on CreateSpace—I was hoping for a slightly larger than 8.5 x 11 book, but in the end that size might be a blessing in disguise since all my pages are already 8.5 x 11. As long as I get the margins right, that might actually make it easier. I had also hoped that I could specify that the photo pages be on heavier, glossy paper, and the rest on regular stock, but I so far do not see that as an option.

The book is nearly done the preparation stage, and then I will upload it to CreateSpace and finish the process. I am eager to see it all put together and get an author copy to hold in my hands. This book represents years of research, and I hope to get it into the hands of other researchers who can use my work as a stepping stone for theirs. I know how excited I always was to find that someone else had done meticulous research on my line, and that I did not have to re-invent the wheel. I want to give that same thrill to other researchers!

I’ll let you know how the CreateSpace experiment works out. One thing is for certain—I am learning a lot!

Have you ventured into self-publishing? What has your experience been?

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