writing | Bertram's Blog

Tweet-y Bird

November 13, 2009 — Pat Bertram

I received a direct message from someone I was following on Twitter. (Notice I said was following? Anyone who sends me junk gets unfollowed.) The message included a link to a site that promised to automate my Twitter. It will find followers for me, it will Tweet for me, and it will read the feed for me. Well, perhaps I exaggerating a bit when it comes to the last point, but the first two are true. It makes me wonder what the point of it is. Who are we tweeting to? Birds? Bugs? Bots?

Even without signing up for the various sites that purport to help me live a tweeter life, I still participate in a bit of automation. Whenever I post a blog, WordPress automatically updates Twitter, which in turn updates MySpace and LinkedIn. Perhaps I am missing the point. I do know Twitter is supposed to about real people talking in real time about real subjects, but I have yet to participate in a real conversation. Occasionally I RT (retweet) someone’s update, sometimes I remember to return a #FF (Follow Friday), but for the most part I don’t see anything I want to comment on. As I said, I could be missing the point.

I’m rethinking my social networking time. After my blog tour, I’m going to be spending way less time on the computer. (Eyestrain, anyone?) I want to go more for quality than quantity. I used to friend everyone on Facebook I could, but now I unfriend anyone who spams me. I have a particular dislike of people who arbitrarily stick me in a group in order to send me junk, because even if I delete the message, I keep getting messages as long as anyone in the group responds. Don’t get me wrong — I like getting messages that are sent to me, specifically, and I always respond. I just don’t like anonymity. (If you knew me in offline life, you would be laughing at the irony of such a statement. Offline, I am the epitome of privacy.)

I’m looking forward to taking a step back from online activities. So much of it seems counterproductive, even foolish, that I will be better off working on my poor neglected WIP. At least I will have accomplished something.

Don’t worry, though. I bet none of you will notice any difference. I’ll still be blogging three or four times a week, will keep up with my discussion groups, will respond to genuine messages.

I’ll even tweet. And if I don’t, WordPress will do it for me.

: : : : : : : : : :

Posted in blogging, internet, life, writing. Tags: #FF, Facebook, Follow Friday, retweet, RT, social networking, spam, Twitter. 13 Comments »

Message in a Blog-gle

November 12, 2009 — Pat Bertram

When Margay Leah Justice from Moonlight, Lace, and Mayhem invited me to be a guest, she said, “November is going to reflect the themes of gratitude in honor of Thanksgiving, so if you can work up a post along those lines that ties to you as a writer and/or the theme of your book, that would be great, especially if you could tie the two together.”

Of all the topics I’ve discussed during my blog tour, this one gave me the most difficulty. I have plenty to be thankful for, it’s just that I couldn’t think of a single original idea. So, what did I do? I did what I always do when I have a writing problem to work through — I blogged about it. A couple of days ago, I posted this note:

I’ve agreed to write an article about giving thanks, and I have no idea what to say. I am thankful for many things — for my online friends, for my fans (odd to think I actually have fans!), for my publisher who understands my books even better than I do — and yet it’s not the sort of article I would want to read, so I’m looking for a different angle — a hook — and not finding it.

The wonderfully generous and supportive A. F. Stewart commented: I’m thankful for art, nature, Hugh Jackman, that I have an almost zero chance of being eaten by a shark or velociraptor.

My good friend Joylene Nowell Butler commented: Giving thanks for literary critics. What would our little corner of the world be like if we weren’t aware of some literary critic ready to pounce on our books and scream bloody murder that we wrote a disgusting book! Makes me pay attention to every tee and every I.

Susan Helene Gottfried, who maintains the incredible Win a Book site, commented: turn the topic on its head. When did you FAIL to be thankful? How did that teach you the value of giving thanks?

Great ideas, all of them, but Ms. Stewart’s comment gave me my hook. I am thankful I have almost zero chance of being eaten by a velociraptor, but my hero in my poor stalled work-in-progress is in such a danger. (Or he would be if I knew what a velociraptor was.) So, here is my hook: I am grateful that I am not a character in one of my books!

I am also grateful for my blog readers. They never fail to offer support and suggestions, and they are not afraid to let me know when I am wrong.

Thank you.

You can find today’s blog tour stop here: Grateful to be an Author

: : : : : : : : : :

Posted in blogging, internet, life, writing. Tags: A. F. Stewart, blog readers, giving thanks, Joylene Nowell Butler, Margay Leah Justice, Moonlight Lace and Madness, Susan Helene Gottfried, velociraptor, Win a Book. 2 Comments »

Thinking Inside the Box

November 11, 2009 — Pat Bertram

Sometimes it amazes me that there is an entire world one can enter through the portal of a electronic box. The only reason this doesn’t always amaze me is that I tend to take the Internet for granted, which, perhaps, is a sign of my addiction. The cyber world is infinitely fascinating and filled with exciting possibilities. A potential friend could lurk behind an anonymous blog view. A possible fan might discover one of my books because of a guest appearance on a blog. I might learn something new on a discussion thread, or I might read a comment that fires my imagination.

I’ve put my addiction to the Internet to good use. I’ve wanted to do all I can to give my books a good send-off, and since I started from zero, I had to learn how to blog, to discuss, to connect on the internet. That in itself satisfied my creative bent for a long time, but now the doubts are starting to creep in. I’m getting known as a blogger and a promoter, but am I getting known as an author?

At Sun Singer’s Travels, author Malcolm Campbell asks: Are you tired of spending more hours a week on Facebook than you are writing? Are you tired of writing more words on all your blogs than you’re writing in all your novels? And, do you ever wonder if you’re becoming less yourself by trying to think of a constant stream of posts, status updates, comments and links that match all the latest trends enough that somebody will notice and stop and look for a moment?

Such interesting questions, ones I hadn’t asked myself until recently. I used to think that I am more myself online than offline, but now I am beginning to wonder if I am losing my offline self. Are my posts and comments reflecting me, or are they creating me? Am I still a writer, or have I simply become a blogger? I know that whatever I am doing is helping establish my online presence, but will it sell books?

I do believe in the Internet. I think the future of books (or at least my books) will come from online promotion, but I’ve begun to realize that promotion is a marathon, not a sprint. It also seems silly at times, a matter of “The House that Jack Built.” Every day I write and promote an article on my blog that promotes the blog where I have another article that’s supposed to promote the book that I wrote. Whew! Sometimes I even write a second article to promote the one on my blog that promotes the one on someone else’s blog that promotes the book that I wrote.

I have ten days left of my Daughter Am I blog tour, and then it will be time to re-evaluate my online life.

All these words just to announce today’s blog tour stop: The Challenge of Research. You can also register to win a free print copy of Daughter Am I.

Description of Daughter Am I: When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents — grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born — she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead. Along the way she accumulates a crew of feisty octogenarians — former gangsters and friends of her grandfather. She meets and falls in love Tim Olson, whose grandfather shared a deadly secret with her great-grandfather. Now Mary and Tim need to stay one step ahead of the killer who is desperate to dig up that secret.

Daughter Am I is Bertram’s third novel to be published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC. Also available are More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.

: : : : : : : : : :

Posted in blogging, books, internet, life, writing. Tags: blog tour, blogger, book promotion, Facebook, Malcolm R. Campbell, online presence, Sun Singer's Travels. 2 Comments »

Musings From My Notebooks

November 10, 2009 — Pat Bertram

Today is the 24th day of my Daughter Am I blog tour, and I am wearing down a bit. Mostly that’s because I’m still staying up way too late, though recently those long hours on the computer have nothing to do with my tour. Well, that’s not strictly true — my mind has been going blank when it comes time to write the next guest blog, so I play games on my computer while I try to rev up ideas, but it’s not helping. I have tomorrow’s guest post written, but for the next day I’ve agreed to write an article about giving thanks, and I have no idea what to say. I am thankful for many things — for my online friends, for my fans (odd to think I actually have fans!), for my publisher who understands my books even better than I do — and yet it’s not the sort of article I would want to read, so I’m looking for a different angle — a hook — and not finding it.

Lately I’ve been searching through my old Daughter Am I notebooks for ideas. It’s odd for me to see all the preparation I did for the novel, all the stray thoughts I jotted down, all the reminders. Here’s one of my reminders: Have Teach tell Mary that the whole point of the Syndicate was for them to become big enough and strong enough to make deals with but time politicians, to go into partnership with the biggest criminal of all — the government. Teach apparently has no use for the government, but then, he has no use for most societal organizations, not even the mob despite his distant ties to organized crime.

Here’s a note that came from a book by economist Antony Sutton: “History suggests that gold will once again be made illegal in the U.S. and subject to arbitrary seizures by a police-state apparatus.” I wonder why I didn’t use that for the book? Perhaps I didn’t want to dilute the shock of that happening in 1933.

You can find more musings from my notebooks at Meritorious Mysteries, where I am guest blogging today. Now if I can only find something to be thankful for!

: : : : : : : : : :

Posted in blogging, books, internet, writing. Tags: Antony Sutton, blog tour, Daughter Am I, guest blogging, ideas, Meritorious Mysteries, notebooks, organized crime. 12 Comments »

My Journey As a Writer

November 9, 2009 — Pat Bertram

During my Daughter Am I blog tour, I have talked a lot about my writing life, I have done several interviews, I have even shown photos of my workspace, but today’s stop is by far the most candid. I worry sometimes that I’m telling too much — do people really need to know what an incredibly long journey my quest to become a writer has been? It’s an unending journey, to tell the truth. In the past eight years, I have learned how to write, but I want — need — to become the best possible writer I can be, and so I continue to learn.

I also worry that this long hiatus where I haven’t been writing will kill the urge to create, yet I know it’s in the times of not writing that my brain collates what it has learned, and so when I sit down to write I don’t have to think so much about not using adverbs, for example. I simply don’t use them. I first noticed this trait during the writing of A Spark of Heavenly Fire. I wrote the first fifty pages or so and then stopped for the summer. When I went back to writing in the fall, I felt more assured, more competent, and the writing came easy. Well, easier. Writing is never easy for me, except when it comes to stream-of-consciousness blogging. That I can do!

I always need to stretch myself as a writer, so I doubt I will ever become prolific. I also doubt I will ever do any sort of sequel that uses characters I’ve already created, unless, of course, I decide it will be a challenge. I seem to have the strange propensity for writing books I don’t know how to write, and so I always seem to be starting from scratch. I’m not the first writer to discover that writing never gets easier– it just gets harder in different ways.

I’m straying a bit from the subject, which is today’s blog stop. This is a special day for me. I am at Sheila Deeth’s blog, and she has been a staunch supporter from the moment we met online. It’s no wonder she asked such an interesting question, and it’s no wonder I let down my guard and answered.

So, please visit Sheila and me as we discuss: One Writer’s Journey.

Daughter Am I Blog Tour 2009 Schedule

: : : : : : : : : :

Posted in blogging, books, internet, life, writing. Tags: blog tour, learning to write, one writer's journey, Sheila Deeth. 10 Comments »

Live Chat and Dead Darlings

November 8, 2009 — Pat Bertram

This seems to be a slow weekend here on the Internet. I can never figure out where people disappear to or why. What could possibly be more fascinating than roaming cyberspace? 🙂 I realize in some places the weather is too nice to stay inside, in other places it’s too nasty to do anything online. Many writers are involved in National Novel Writing Month. Many others are busy procrastinating. And me . . . well, here I am, still virtually book touring.

Today’s stops:

Beth’s Book Review Blog — Reading Fiction to Make Sense of Life’s Disorder

Writer’s Sanctuary –- Passion and Puzzles

Facebook — Live Chat: Fate, Writing, and the Power of Three

Dragon My Feet — Dead Darling From Daughter Am I

The Dead Darling stop is actually yesterday’s but I liked the parallelism of live chat and dead darling. Speaking of the live chat — it will be tonight at 8:00pm ET on Facebook. You should be able to follow the chat without belonging to the Second Wind Publishing group, but if you wish to participate, you will need to join. I hope you do. I’d enjoy discussing writing and the writing life with you.

Click here to buy Daughter Am I from Second Wind Publishing, LLC.

Click here to buy Daughter Am I from Amazon.

Click here to download 30% of Daughter Am I free from Smashwords.

Click here to read the first chapter of Daughter Am I.

: : : : : : : : : :

Posted in blogging, books, internet, writing. Tags: blog tour, Dead darlings, Facebook, live chat, virtual book tour. 4 Comments »

A Store Walking Down the Street

November 7, 2009 — Pat Bertram

I recently came across this sentence in a novel: “It was the kind of store I loved to see walking down the street when I was a kid.” Whoooo. I’d like to see any kind of store walking down the street!

I was thinking about that particular gaffe while I was walking down the street today. I happened to see something that made me realize the sentence wasn’t totally ludicrous — a house rolling passed me. Okay, it was being towed, but still, it was moving along the street instead of being securely attached to a foundation.

Something else I saw: a henpecked rooster. Not a pretty sight! That poor thing was pecked raw by the hens. I will never again use the word henpecked, though to be honest, I’m not sure I ever did.

Many words outlive their usefulness and become meaningless clichés, such as pitch black. Does anyone today even know what pitch is? I had to look it up. It’s a black, sticky substance from the distillation of tar. What about hair the color of a raven’s wing. Have you ever seen a raven’s wing up close? Perhaps you saw a crow. I don’t know enough about birds to tell the difference, but I do know that comparing hair to a crow’s wing doesn’t portray the same poetic image. And why are writers still referring to the squeals of stuck pigs? Some clichés are of more recent standing, such as a stuffed briefcase. If you saw someone with a briefcase, how would you know how full it was?

Clichés, poorly constructed sentences, and unnecessary bits of exposition should be eliminated during the editing process. Today’s Daughter Am I blog tour stop includes a segment of Daughter Am I that remained in the book up until a week before publication. It’s not a bad excerpt, but it added nothing except a bit more history to a novel that already had a lot of history.

You can see the segment here: Dead Darling from Daughter Am I.

Click here to buy Daughter Am I from Second Wind Publishing, LLC.

Click here to buy Daughter Am I from Amazon.

Click here to download 30% of Daughter Am I free from Smashwords.

Click here to read the first chapter of Daughter Am I.

: : : : : : : : : :

Posted in culture, writing. Tags: blog tour, cliches, Daughter Am I, henpecked, pitch black, raven's wing, stuck pig. 6 Comments »

He Mumbled, Groaned, Hissed, Spat, Purred, Whispered

November 6, 2009 — Pat Bertram

As part of my Daughter Am I Blog Tour festivities, I am exchanging blogs with Aaron Lazar. I am blogging at Murder by 4, and he is blogging here. Lucky for me!

Aaron Paul Lazar writes to soothe his soul. The author of LeGarde Mysteries and Moore Mysteries enjoys the Genesee Valley countryside in upstate New York, where his characters embrace life, play with their dogs and grandkids, grow sumptuous gardens, and chase bad guys. Visit his websites at www.legardemysteries.com and www.mooremysteries.com and watch for his upcoming releases, HEALEY’S CAVE (2010), FIRESONG: AN UNHOLY GRAE (2010), and ONE POTATO, BLUE POTATO (2011). Aaron talks about dialogue tags:

When I first started writing over a decade ago, I exulted in every new dialog tag I could think up. I preened over “he croaked” and purred over “she grumbled.” Finding new and inventive ways to say “he said” became my quest.

My early works were peppered with gloats, murmurs, and barks. I even started a most coveted (only by me) list.

How many words can you think of to say “he said” or “she said?” Here are some, in no particular order:

Mumbled
Murmured
Expostulated
Grunted
Groaned
Whispered
Purred
Spat
Huffed
Croaked
Barked
Choked
Queried
Cackled
Harrumphed
Stuttered
Muttered
Moaned
Hissed
Grumbled
Whined
Sang
Twittered
Tittered
Griped
Yelped
Cried
Stammered
Shrieked
Crooned
Wheedled
Retorted
Pressured
Cajoled

How many more can you think of? There are probably hundreds.

…

Okay, now that you’ve wracked your brain for tantalizing tags, let me tell you one very important lesson.

DON’T * EVER * USE * THEM.

What? Such brilliance? Such innovative thought?

Yeah. Sorry. Forget it. Never use anything but “said,” “asked,” or an occasional “whisper” or “mumble.”

Once in a great while, if you feel you really need it, slip in a “spat” or “croaked.” But I’m here to tell you that dialog tags, for the most part, should be invisible. “Said,” is invisible. “Asked,” is invisible. “Barked” stops the flow of the dialog. Anything that makes your story stutter needs to be eliminated, including these juicy but totally distracting tags.

Got that part?

Now that I’ve encouraged you to use “said,” I’m going to retract it.

Forgive me, but that’s just the way it is. If you can avoid a tag altogether–through the clever use of action “beats”– then more power to you.

Here’s an example of changing a passage from lush useless tags, to he said/she said tags, to using beats instead of tags:

Case A:

          I maneuvered the van around the next pothole, and was about to congratulate myself for my superior driving skills when a series of washboard ruts nearly popped the fillings out of my teeth.
          “Want me to take over?” Tony wheedled.
          “Why? Am I making you nervous?” I retorted, gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.
          “Of course not, sweetums. You’re a great driver. Just thought you might want a break,” he crooned.
          We rounded the bend and the road disappeared. The crater before us could hold three elephants. Big elephants.
         “Whoa! Watch it, honey. Don’t wanna blow a tire,” Tony groaned.

Case B

          I maneuvered the van around the next pothole, and was about to congratulate myself for my superior driving skills when a series of washboard ruts nearly popped the fillings out of my teeth.
          “Want me to take over?” Tony said, leaning on the dashboard.
          “Why? Am I making you nervous?” I said with a frown.
          All smiles, he said, “Of course not, sweetums. You’re a great driver. Just thought you might want a break.”
          We rounded the bend and the road disappeared. The crater before us could hold three elephants. Big elephants.
          “Whoa! Watch it, honey. Don’t wanna blow a tire,” Tony said in a panic.

Case C

          I maneuvered the van around the next pothole, and was about to congratulate myself for my superior driving skills when a series of washboard ruts nearly popped the fillings out of my teeth.
          Tony braced himself on the dash. “Want me to take over?”
          My knuckles turned white. “Why? Am I making you nervous?”
          “Of course not, sweetums.” He forced an innocent smile. “You’re a great driver. Just thought you might want a break.”
          We rounded the bend and the road disappeared. The crater before us could hold three elephants. Big elephants.
          Tony’s frozen smile barely hid his panic. “Whoa! Watch it, honey. Don’t wanna blow a tire.”

***

These examples aren’t beautifully written or perfectly rendered. But they should give you the gist of what I’m trying to illustrate today.

Add your own examples below, if you’d like. Let’s see some Case A, B, and C’s in the comments section!

: : : : : : : : : :

Posted in blogging, writing. Tags: Aaron Lazar, blog tour, dialog beats, Dialog tags, dialogue, he said, writing: dialogue. 17 Comments »

Blog Tour — Update and Downside

November 5, 2009 — Pat Bertram

I’ve passed the halfway mark of my Daughter Am I blog tour, and already I’m feeling sad that it’s going to come to and end. I was a bit nervous in the beginning about making such a blogging commitment, but it’s worked out great. My hosts have been very kind, my commenters generous, and the stops have been varied enough to be interesting. You can see the entire schedule here: Blog Tour 2009. The beautiful thing about an online book tour is that if you missed a stop, you can still come to visit, and I will always be there to greet you.

The only downside of my tour so far came today when today’s host didn’t post my bloggery. So I posted it. You can find the interview at: Dragon My Feet. Dragon My Feet is my procrastination blog. It was supposed to be the place where I talked about everything I was doing to procrastinate, yet somehow I never got around to posting what I intended. By default, it’s become a book blog. Now that I mention it — if you have any promotional materials you would like me to post, such as an interview, a press release, a review by a friend, a blurb, send it, along with a jpeg of your book cover, to pat(at)patbertram.com. I’ll be glad to post it on Dragon My Feet. Don’t forget to substitute @ for (at) when you send the email.

I planned to do a recap to let you know what I have learned so far about blog tours, but I haven’t learned much. At least I don’t think I have. Nor am I sure I’d do it again. Don’t get me wrong — I’d like to. I really have been having fun. It’s just that it seems so presumptuous to ask people if they will be a host for the tour. It’s a lot of work for them, and I’m not sure what they get out of it. Interestingly, I felt just as presumptuous when I was asking authors if they would like to be a guest on my blog.

If I do it again, I will have the articles written ahead of time. So much less pressure! On the other hand, I did write a lot of articles ahead of time, but then I posted them on my blog, so it sort of defeated the purpose.

Be sure to check back tomorrow — Aaron Lazar, author of the LeGarde mysteries, will be a guest here while I am a guest at his MurderBy4 blog.

Don’t forget, you can download 30% of Daughter Am I free at Smashwords.

: : : : : : : : : :

Posted in blogging, books, internet, writing. Tags: Aaron Lazar, blog tour, blog tour update, Dragon My Feet. 12 Comments »

Big Bird and the Military

November 4, 2009 — Pat Bertram

Sesame Street is forty years old today. When the program first launched, it was touted as a show to help kids learn and to show them that learning is fun. I never understood why they needed talking toys to instill a love of learning. I thought then, and I still think that learning itself is fun. You don’t need to play games while learning to find the fun and excitement of expanding your brain. But apparently, even when I myself was young, I didn’t get it. And now I’m wondering if all those Sesame Street children didn’t get it. Where are all those creative and brilliant adults that the show was supposed to produce? It seems as if both the Internet and shows like Sesame Street encourage passivity and an expectation that learning is always be easy and fun, colorful and noisy.

Oddly, as I was thinking these thoughts, I happened to notice an article suggesting that kids today are too fat, dumb, or dishonest to join the military. (75 Percent of Young Americans Are Unfit for Military Duty.) These would be second generation Sesame Streeters, first generation Internetters.

Perhaps the over-forties are every bit as passive as the under-forties, choosing the easy fun of video games, television shows, and films over books. Not that it matters, except that I have books to sell, and I wonder what my demographic is. (You did know I would come around to that, didn’t you?) I have never understood how one chooses a demographic, though I have finally realized that’s what a genre is for — finding your demographic, which is a population who will be more receptive to your book than any other population.

Today, I am a guest at Un:Bound for Ravenous Wednesday, which is so not my demographic. On the other hand, they have welcomed me and made me feel at home, and they are readers, so — despite my lack of flowing tresses and lethal wings — perhaps they are my demographic. Ah! Now I have you intrigued! You can find me, an interview, and a lively discussion at: Ravenous Wednesday with Special Guest. That special guest, of course, is me.

Click here to buy Daughter Am I from Second Wind Publishing, LLC.