Q&A with Jon Gibbs

Tags

GLVWG "Write Stuff", Writing Advice, Writing Conferences, Writing Craft

By Sara Karnish

A longtime friend of GLVWG, Job Gibbs will be presenting three sessions at the 2023 Write Stuff Conference: “The Three C’s of Conflict: Part 1,” “The Three C’s of Conflict: Part 2,” and “The Funny Pages.” Here is a complete conference schedule.

Writer bio:

Born in England, Jon Gibbs now lives in New Jersey, where he was Author-in-Residence at Georgian Court University from 2012 to 2017.

Jon is the founder of:

• The New Jersey Authors’ Network (www.njauthorsnetwork.com)
• NJ Writing Groups.com (www.njwritinggroups.com)
• The I are a writer! (and more) store (www.iareawriter.net).

His middle grade fantasy, Fur-Face, was nominated for a Crystal Kite Award. Originally published by Echelon Press in 2010, the second edition was released in November 2022. The sequel, Barnum’s Revenge, was published by Echelon Press in 2013. The second edition is due out this year.

Jon’s latest book, Abraham Lincoln Stole My Homework, is due out this year.

When he’s not chasing around after his children, Jon can usually be found hunched over the computer in his basement office. One day he hopes to figure out how to switch it on.

Contact him at admin@jongibbs.org.

Q: One of your sessions is called ‘The Funny Pages.’ What will we learn during this session?

JG: We’ll be looking at how humor comes in many forms, and how we can use it in lots of different ways, whether it’s to lighten the mood after a shocking or stressful scene, or show us a little backstory, or even to make us like a character we aren’t supposed to – Think the Sherriff of Nottingham in Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. 

Q: Humor is difficult to achieve in writing. What are a few key elements to ‘writing funny’?

JG: I think we all have slightly different ideas as to what counts as funny, but when it comes to using it in a book or story, I’d say the most important thing is that whoever’s writing it finds it funny. Also, consistency is important. Humor is part of our personality. If a story character switches between self-deprecating humor and one-liners to snarky jokes and sarcasm without any obvious reason, it can be jarring (at least, it is for me as a reader).   

Q: Can you give us a sneak preview of your ‘3 Cs of Conflict’ 2-part sessions?

JG: Using examples from books and movies, we’ll be looking at some of the many ways to insert conflict in a story, and how we can use it to do more than just provide an obstacle for our characters to overcome. We’ll also be looking at examples from attendees’ current works-in-progress to see how we can ramp up the conflict while also helping to move the character/story arc along. 

Q: What does conflict add to a piece of fiction?

JG: Conflict certainly isn’t everything, but without it, any story (and most of real life) would be pretty boring. It doesn’t all have to be car chases and brawling; in fact, most conflict is pretty subtle, but if it’s not there, readers soon start flipping ahead a few pages, or worse, simply put the book down.  

Q: You write middle-grade fiction. What are some must-haves for writing middle-grade?

JG: Usually, the main character has to be middle-grade age. Adults can help solve the story problem, but they can’t be the driving force behind it. Aside from that, I’d say the must-haves are the same as any other fiction. Characters the reader cares about, good story, etc. 

Q: How is writing middle-grade different than writing for adults?

JG: There are some basic differences, most of which are common sense. The official age range for middle-grade readers is between 8 and 12, so there’s an awful lot of scope for the type of story you can tell (as well as in how you tell it). Across the board, though, really bad language, sex, etc., are definite no-nos. 

Book-length tends to be a lot shorter – usually between 20K and 50k words. If there is a romantic interest, it’s subtle – think Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in the first few Harry Potter books.

Dog Days of Summer

Tags

Canis Major, Dog Days of Summer, GLVWG, Writing

From: Astronomy.com

Dawn Sooy, GLVWG Secretary, remarks about the constant heat during the last few weeks.

 **********

            My two dogs and I have just returned from a short walk. I took a deep breath of relief when I entered the house, the air conditioning slowly cooling my body. For some reason, the phrase “Dog Days of Summer” passed through my mind, so I decided to look it up.

Wiki has the following description, “The dog days are the hottest, most uncomfortable part of the Northern summer. The American weather and farming annual, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, explains that the phrase ‘Dog Days’ conjures up the hottest, most sultry days of summer,” I can attest to that definition, and I am sure many of us in this area are struck by the heat when leaving the house.

Another interesting fact is the ancient Greeks associated this time of the year with Sirius, a star in the constellation that today refers to as Canis Major, literally the “greater dog” constellation.

May publications refer to the “Dog Days of Summer”. To mention a few:  Homer in the ‘IIiad,’ John Webster’s 1613 stage play ‘The Duchess of Malfi,’ Charles Dickens in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and Richard Harding Davis ‘in The Bar Sinister.’”

So sit back, enjoy your pool if you are lucky, or grab a popsicle from the freezer. These days won’t last forever and soon we will be shivering in cold weather.

**********

 

Dawn grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania and has experienced the four seasons this state has to offer. She received a degree in Computer Science and worked in that field until 2014. Her interests are writing, reading, and fishing.

She is married to her husband, Bob and between them, they have four children. Recently her granddaughter had a baby and now enjoys the name Great Grammy Dawn.

Dawn has published five short stories, the most recent, “Dancing in the Moonlight”, is published in the GLVWG anthology Write Here – Write Now.  This collection is available for purchase through Amazon.com.

You can find Dawn at her Facebook Page, and coming soon, her new WordPress author site.

 

 

Meet Gisele Leck, GLVWG Publicity Chair

Tags

Gisela Leck, GLVWG, GLVWG Publicity, Write Stuff, Writing, Writing Groups

Gisele Leck, GLVWG Publicity Chair, offers ten great reasons to join us at the beginning of our new fiscal year, September 24.

**********

10 Great Reasons to Come to our Saturday Morning Meetings:

1. It’s only once a month.
2. No rush hour traffic.
3. Hassle-free parking.
4. No need to bring quarters since parking is free.
5. Free coffee.
6. Legitimate excuse not to study, do laundry, mow the lawn, etc.
7. Writers sharing their successes.
8. Writers sharing their failures.
9. Guest speakers who inspire.
10. People who get why you are writing.

September’s speaker is author Chris Redding, who will present a morning session on “How to Make Money Before You Hit it Big”. Hope to see  you there.

**********

Gisela grew up in Southern Germany before making the United States her permanent home. She studied at the University of Texas at Austin as well as the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis where she earned an M.S.W. Gisela lives in Bethlehem, PA, and teaches sociology at a local college. She loves writing, has contributed to GLVWG’s Anthology, and has finished her first novel. Her interests are many, including reading, acting, hiking, rowing, traveling, going to the movies, and trying out new recipes.

2014 – Meet Paranormal and SF Author Phil Giunta!

by Tammy Burke

reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com/2014/03/meet-paranormal-and-sf-author-phil.html on 3/6/2014

Hi Phil,

How exciting to have one of our own teaching at this year’s “Write Stuff” Conference and what intriguing sessions you’re teaching!

I have to admit, the description for your “Time Management for Writers” session gave me a sheepish moment because…well…I admit it, sometimes I’m terrible about getting off FaceBook! I’m wondering if we might get more of a teaser about what you’ll be sharing with us? I wouldn’t mind a teaser about “The Differences Between Writing Novels and Short Stories” too…please. 🙂

Phil Giunta: My focus with “Time Management of Writers” will be guilt. Yes, guilt…and why you shouldn’t necessarily feel it when you don’t achieve a specific word count per day or find yourself unable to spare time on a daily basis or the words just don’t flow when you finally find that hour or two. Writing time can also be spent in other ways. Editing the previous day’s work or research are also valid uses of writing time.

“The Differences Between Writing Novels and Short Stories” seem obvious, right? One is short, the other is long and that’s all folks, goodnight! Yet there are writers who have a challenging time keeping to word counts. Why is that? Well, there might be differences in the amount of characters needed to tell a story, the level of character development, character points of view, timeframe, pacing, and plotting. With novels you have a bit more elbow room than in short stories.

However, there are no absolute hard and fast rules for much of what we’ll talk about and I definitely look forward to audience participation. I stake no claim on omniscience. Every writer has his or her own unique methods and experience and I find that many writers are eager to share, which I encourage.

Your first book “Testing the Prisoner” presents an interesting combination about a person’s innermost psychology and the paranormal. Seriously creepy stuff here. How did this story idea come to you?

Phil Giunta: Testing the Prisoner began as a story of a broken family, child abuse, and—eventually—forgiveness. Suffice it to say that I have some personal experience in these matters and wanted to write a tale for all of those dealing with the same pain to let them know that they are not alone.

However, as I began writing the outline, my fondness for the paranormal crept in and I realized that it would be more dramatically told as a ghost story. So we have Daniel, our protagonist, estranged from his abusive mother for over a decade. On the night he learns of her death, he finds himself haunted by an angel and a demon. He soon learns that each is a manifestation of his own personality. They battle for one purpose—to convince Daniel to either forgive his mother or not, thereby determining the fate of her soul. The victim has now become the judge, jury, and potential executioner.

Yes, it’s creepy. It’s also emotional and dark, but is not personal experience often the source of an artist’s creativity? I recently read an article on The Creative Penn blog by Eric Praschan called “Using Real Life Fear and Pain to Springboard Your Story” and I firmly agree that if you can imbue in your characters the same emotions you felt while enduring a similar tribulation, the story will gain verisimilitude and truly reach your readers’ hearts.

Out of curiosity, how did you first become interested with ghost stories and the paranormal? And may I ask, have you ever been part of a paranormal investigating team such as the one your heroine Miranda Lorensen had?

Phil Giunta: I’ve always loved an atmospheric, suspenseful ghost story. Think of The Sixth Sense, What Lies Beneath, Stir of Echoes. By its very nature, the paranormal removes certain boundaries and in doing so, allows a writer to create scenarios and explore emotions not always possible in other genres.

Ironically, other than Edgar Allan Poe and very few others, I rarely read paranormal fiction. SF is my first love and I am an avid reader of books from the golden age of SF (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, etc) and just beyond that era (Bova, Ellison, etc). In fact, I’m developing an SF novel right now.

I can count on one hand how many paranormal investigations I’ve participated in and even those were years ago. I was never part of an organized group, just a few curiosity-seekers with still cameras and voice recorders.

However, like any good writer, research was in order when it came to writing By Your Side. The television series, Ghost Hunters, and other shows provided some assistance to that end.

Miranda had been a last-minute addition to Testing the Prisoner as Daniel’s old flame who also happened to be a psychic-medium. During a dinner scene, she mentions to Daniel that she belongs to a group of paranormal investigators. That, along with many other aspects of her character, led me to write By Your Side as a spin-off novel focusing on Miranda, her abilities, her team, and her life. Daniel’s story ended, but Miranda’s continues.

I understand “Testing the Prisoner” is on Podiobooks and “By Your Side” is on Prometheus Radio Theatre. Can you tell us a little bit about what these are and the benefits you are seeing by being a part of it?

Phil Giunta: A bit of background: My publisher for both novels is Firebringer Press, started by Steven H. Wilson. Steve created The Arbiter Chronicles, a podcast SF audio drama featuring a full cast of voice actors and earning him both the Mark Time and Parsec awards. Since he loves audio and has been podcasting for years, Steve encourages his prose writers to record their own audio books.

Prometheus Radio Theatre is Steve’s podcast site where listeners can, free of charge, listen to episodes of any full cast audio show that he has produced as well as audio books written and read by those published via his imprint, Firebringer Press. Audio books are serialized; typically one chapter per week.

Podiobooks.com offers all audio books free of charge. The site was founded by Evo Terra and Tee Morris. Tee, also a Parsec award winner, was the first writer to serialize a novel as a podcast audio book and Evo coined the term “podiobook”. Hence, the site was born and now hosts probably thousands of audio books. Evo and Tee also wrote Podcasting for Dummies. Many popular writers have their work on Podiobooks such as Scott Sigler, Nathan Lowell, and others.

The largest benefit I’ve seen is promotion and exposure. Though we give away the audio books, they have generated sales of the ebooks and paperbacks from supportive listeners. As I’m still a newbie, I’m not yet seeing stunning sales as a result of the audio books, but like anything worthwhile, it takes time. I’m focused on the long tail.

Beyond the above reasons, reading for audio is simply great fun, albeit time intensive for longer works. Listener feedback is often immediate. So far, I’ve been fortunate to receive many positive comments on my audio books.

Testing the Prisoner’s audio book had its first run on Prometheus Radio Theatre before being uploaded to Podiobooks. By Your Side will eventually end up on Podiobooks as well.

I understand you wrote fan fiction in the 1990s. Could you tell us a little about how this helped your writing and career? Do you think this contributed to writing the short stories in the ReDeus anthologies?

Phil Giunta: These are two excellent questions and yes, they definitely relate. For those who need a definition of fan fiction (or fan fic), it is simply fans of already-established universes writing their own stories based on those characters. To me, fan fic was a great training ground to hone my writing and storytelling skills.

Between 1995 and 2003, I wrote short stories in the universes of Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and several others. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but by 2003, I wanted to move on and pursue original stories with an eye toward getting published.

Couple that with the fact that for 20 years, I’ve been attending SF conventions in Maryland where many of my favorite media tie-in writers are guests. In the early years, I would take my stack of Star Trek comics and novels and have them signed by folks like Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Bob Greenberger, Howard Weinstein, and others.

Many of these writers would take the time to offer writing advice to me personally as well as host writing workshops and discussion panels at the conventions.

Flash forward to 2012. I received an email from Bob Greenberger in June inviting me, and several other writers that attend the Maryland conventions (including Steve Wilson as he and Bob are longtime friends), to contribute stories to the ReDeus series (more details about ReDeus in the next question). Bob knew I had published my first novel a few years before and was now including me on a dream project. I was, and still am, deeply honored.

So in two ways, writing SF fan fic definitely helped me contribute to the ReDeus series. I was already adept at the short story format and I had become friends with one of the series creators, which leads us to…

Speaking of Crazy 8’s ReDeus (the anthology depicting the world’s mythological gods returning), mythology has always been one of my favorites! Do you have a favorite pantheon? Can you tell us how this anthology started?

Phil Giunta: I’m not sure of the exact year when the project began, but the series is the brainchild of Bob Greenberger, Paul Kupperberg, and Aaron Rosenberg. The premise: what if all of the ancient gods from every pantheon returned at once? How would they look upon us now with our cars, aircraft, technology? How would they reinstate themselves as absolute rulers over their old domains?

I was only able to participate in the first two volumes (Divine Tales and Beyond Borders). By the time the third book was open for submissions, I was on deadline to finish recording the audio book for By Your Side, working on a novella, and about three months away from my wedding. Alas, I could not commit to Native Lands.

As for my favorite pantheon, I wrote about two: the Tuatha dé Danaan of Ireland and the little known Gaulish gods (of the Gaul Empire). I had so much fun with both stories that it’s challenging to pick a favorite. I will say that Irish mythology has a wealth of characters to choose from whereas much of Gaulish mythology has been lost in comparison.

It is my understanding that ReDeus will continue. So I hope to have an opportunity to return.

I understand your anthology, which you edited and contributed to, is launching this August. Congratulations! Could you tell us what it’s about?

Phil Giunta: I am so very proud of this. In 2011, I asked Steve Wilson if he would consider publishing a collection of SF, Fantasy and paranormal stories written mostly by as-yet unpublished writers. I had specific people in mind, some of whom started in fan fic, but had gone on to write original material. They just needed an outlet. My hope was that Firebringer Press could provide that opportunity.

Steve and I would also contribute tales, along with fellow Firebringer author Lance Woods. The plan also called for one illustration per story provided by Allentown artist Michael Riehl, who would also create the cover art.

Steve agreed on the condition that I serve as editor. 2012 was spent gathering and editing stories and writing three of my own. It was a wonderful experience and I could tell immediately that we had something special building here. We ended up with 13 fantastic stories from 8 writers.

The manuscript was submitted in February 2013 and accepted in October. The artwork is nearly finished as I write this, and Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity is set to launch at the Shore Leave convention on August 1 in Maryland.

I love your blog, Phil, especially the blurb paragraph about what you’ll find and then all these COOL links. How did you come up with that?

Phil Giunta: Thank you! Well, when I started my blog back in 2010, I simply needed material. I started with author interviews (including many of the aforementioned writers) and book reviews as well as SF convention news and announcements about my upcoming publications. Of course, I still do all of this, although the author interviews have dropped off a bit. Those will pick up again as part of promotion for our anthology.

At one point, I noticed that fellow GLVWG member Jon Gibbs had a feature called “Interesting blog posts about writing” each week on his blog. So, I stole the concept from him. Hi, Jon, hope you don’t mind!

I began scouring the interwebs for cool articles about the craft of writing, the business of publishing and the controversies that occasionally erupt (as when Joe Konrath takes someone to task or a vanity press like Author Solutions is caught fleecing writers…again).

Now, the collection of cool articles has become a weekly routine, though it’s potluck as to which day I post them.

And last question… so what’s next on the docket for you?

Phil Giunta: I have a novella-in-progress that will detail the first manifestation of Miranda Lorensen’s psychic-medium abilities when she was six years old. I consider it her origin story. The second draft is currently finished and awaiting revisions.

My medical SF story “First, Do No Harm” was accepted into a digital anthology called Local Magic by Antimatter Press. It is their first publication and is due out in Spring 2014.

I’m just starting to outline a SF novel regarding the journey of a generational ship, carrying the survivors of a dying Earth, across the galaxy in search of another habitable planet.

————————————————————-

A Pennsylvania resident, Phil Giunta graduated from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and continues to work in the IT industry. His first novel, a paranormal mystery called Testing the Prisoner, debuted in 2010 from Firebringer Press. His second novel in the same genre, By Your Side, was released in 2013. Phil has also narrated the audio version, available in podcast episodes at Prometheus Radio Theatre: http://prometheus.libsynpro.com.

In August 2012, he was among an exclusive group of authors selected to participate in Crazy 8 Press’s new venture, ReDeus, a collection of anthologies depicting the return of all the world’s mythological gods. The series was created and edited by veteran authors Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg, and Paul Kupperberg. Phil’s short story about the Celtic gods, “There Be In Dreams No War”, was featured in the premiere anthology, ReDeus: Divine Tales. He followed up with “Root for the Undergods”, a tale about the gods of the Gaul Empire in ReDeus: Beyond Borders.

Phil has recently finished editing an anthology titled Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity for Firebringer Press to be released in 2014, and is currently working on a paranormal thriller.

Visit Phil’s website: http://www.philgiunta.com

————————————————————

Tammy Burke, GLVWG member, 2011 conference chair and past president, has published around 400 newspaper and regional magazine articles. She has interviewed state and local government officials, business and community leaders, everyday folk and celebrities, in addition to helping write scripts for over a dozen television commercials and writing various business communications. Currently, she is in the revision stage for her first YA fantasy adventure book, the first in an intended series. When not writing, she works in the social service field and is a fencing marshal in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).

2014 – Meet Mary Shafer the Indie Navigator, Indie Publisher, Award-Winning Author, and More!

by Tammy Burke

reposted fromhttp://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com on 2/25/2014

Hi Mary,

Can I just say wow! How impressive the number of “hats you’ve worn!” From award-winning author to marketing consultant to indie publisher and professional speaker (and illustrator, freelance graphic designer, art director, etc.) …everything in the publishing industry from what I understand except distribution. I’m so glad you are taking part in this year’s conference!

Mary Shafer: Wow, thank you! I think in another point of view, the only thing impressive about my background is apparent. ADD. Truth is, I’m a true Gemini and I get bored very easily. Also always afraid of missing out on something if I don’t learn and try everything that catches my interest. Up till now, that has always kind of hurt me in a world where specialization is most rewarded, at least financially. But with the weird turn the publishing industry has taken in the past decade, having this diverse skill set has actually helped, and that’s one reason I launched Indie Navigator — because I remember what it feels like to be in that place where you know what you want to do, but have no idea where to start or how to get there.

I would imagine those taking your pre-conference workshop Indie Publishing Intensive better bring a notebook so they can capture all this excellent information you have listed. I was wondering if we could get a bit of a teaser on some of the things you’re covering?

Mary Shafer: Sure. Actually, I do encourage those who learn better by writing things down (as I do) to take notes. But for others, it’s not necessary. I always prepare very thorough handouts for each of my presentations, as well as making my Powerpoint decks available as PDF downloads for all attendees. I just post the download URL at the bottom of each slide so people can copy that down and that’s about all they really need, because I put any handouts, examples, etc. in the same folder they access for the slide deck download.

That said, here’s a bit of what they can look forward to in my Indie Publishing Intensive, which I’m really excited about. I’ve presented all the elements before, but never all together in one time and place. So this will truly be intensive — I’m thinking of it as more of an Indie Publishing Bootcamp, with the exception that we’re not actually going to go through any hands-on workshops. It’s just going to be an insane amount of real-world information — not hype or vaguely disguised wishfulness — shared in a four-hour afternoon. But I guarantee that anyone who’s been on the fence about whether or not to become an indie publisher won’t feel that way when it’s over. They will know what to truly expect as an indie/self-publisher, and will either feel energized and excited by the challenge, or will save themselves a lot of time, effort, money and heartache by resolving to seek a traditional publishing deal because they realize they’re just not cut out to be a publisher themselves.

What I’m going to cover includes content from several of my more popular narrated slide presentations. I’ve broken out the process into three steps: Possibilities, Publishing and Promotion.

Possibilities will explore in detail what to expect if you decide to take the traditional publishing route and, alternatively, if you decide to self-publish. This is the amalgamation of these presentations I currently give to writing and indie publishing groups:

• I Finally Finished My Book…Now What? – Options for modern authors
• 21st Century Books: What Is A Publisher, and Should I Become One? – Telling it like it is; the good, the bad and the ugly

Publishing will outline the very real considerations of what it means to actually be a publisher: setting up your business structure; choosing whether to publish only your own work or that of others, as well; apps and other technology that can help you manage day-to-day operations; sourcing vendors, etc. It encompasses some of the content of my presentation.

• Digility: Digital Agility in Publishing – bit technical, laying out important considerations for someone building a modern publishing house from scratch

Promotion offers guidance in the nitty-gritty of publicizing and marketing your publication products and authors – arguably as important as offering a quality product in potential for success. It includes content from these presentations I often give at writer’s conferences:

• Getting Published Ain’t For Sissies – Marketing for Nonfiction Authors: Finding your niche, building your author’s platform, effectively employing guerilla promotion tactics, creating a killer press kit, mastering modern technology to serve as your 24/7 personal publicity agent, and anticipating, identifying and leveraging trends.
• Takin’ It to the Tweeps: Twitter for Authors and Independent Publishers
• Your Book’s Website: Separate or Connected – Explores the advantages and disadvantages of single author/book sites and separate sites for each title inside a whole publishing web presence strategy
• Online Newsrooms: What You Need and How To Build It – A step-by-step tutorial on this most important yet often neglected element of any successful author and publisher website

As you can see, it’s truly an exhaustive amount of material, but that’s what an intensive is about. Attendees may leave feeling a bit overwhelmed, but they will no longer face the dizzying confusion of wondering what they should be paying attention to and what lies ahead of them depending on the route they choose. Plus, they’ll be able to refer back to my handouts and slide downloads again and again. I tried hard to formulate a way to share the hard-won knowledge I wish I’d had when I faced the need to become an indie publisher. I don’t want anyone to have to struggle that way.

One the things you mentioned in your bio is that you share what you know so other authors and indie publishers don’t have to learn the hard way too. (And thank you for that, by the way) I am curious…what do you typically find as the top three most common mistakes?

Mary Shafer: Among authors and would-be authors seeking publishing deals, the top three mistakes I see are:

1. Failing to invest themselves and perhaps a bit of money in making their manuscript as polished and fully edited as possible before turning it in to the publisher or publishing it themselves. (I consider this a cardinal sin, frankly. There’s no excuse for turning in or publishing shoddy work other than laziness or lack of caring, both of which reflect not just on that author but on all authors and indie publishers.)
2. Failing to build a promotional platform for themselves as an author “brand” before ever approaching a publisher.
3. Not understanding the publishing process, resulting in their having unrealistic expectations of the experience.

For indie publishers, I think the top three errors I see would be:

1. The same as #3 above: lacking an understanding of what to realistically expect from being a publisher because they don’t really comprehend the entirety of what’s entailed in present-day book publishing. Far too many would-be publishers are still stuck in the last century when it comes to grasping how drastically this industry has changed in the past 10-20 years.
2. Overestimating their own knowledge, skill sets and capacity to get the work done. There are few fields in which it’s so critical to know what you can do well on your own, and what parts of each project you’d be better off delegating to someone with the right mix of skill and experience.
3. Underestimating the start-up costs in money, time and energy it takes to become a truly successful publisher.

I’m certainly not pointing any fingers—I’m as guilty as the next person in not having really known what I was doing when I first got started as an indie publisher almost 10 years ago. But I have a rather unique background that provided me with the exact mix of diverse skills that allowed me to survive all my dumb decisions.

It is both fascinating and inspiring to hear tales of the “blissfully unaware” overcoming the odds — like the success you had marketing your first book when, at the time, it wasn’t expected to earn out. What did you do that perhaps others haven’t or didn’t do?

Mary Shafer: In addition to the relatively unusual skill set I just referenced, I’m also lucky to be a quick study. When I’m in focused mode, I can take in a great deal of information at once, process it quickly and almost immediately integrate it into current projects and apply it in place of less-than-effective activities I would previously have used to get a job done. Not unsurprisingly, this typifies why indie publishers are able to be successful in today’s ever-evolving book industry: we’re small, and so much more agile. Our lack of overhead and the structural inflexibility that plagues larger organizations allows us to adapt quickly to the rapid changes that have characterized book publishing for decades now. Other advantages I had were that I am a proactive seeker of new information, and I have the courage of my convictions. If I know I am capable of doing something, I just don’t listen to the naysayers.

In the case of my first book, though, I must admit that I wasn’t up against that — I simply didn’t know the prevailing conventional wisdom was (and still is) that first-time authors are pretty much expected to fail. This isn’t nastiness on anyone’s part, it’s simply an acknowledgment of how much work it is to create, publish and market a book. Happily, there are many first-time authors not just succeeding, but doing so at a level unprecedented before the rise of digital technology. My entire reason for doing the presentations I do is to dispel that myth. Yes, odds are against the first-time author, but that’s mostly because the majority of them are woefully ignorant, unprepared, arrogant, lazy or all of the above. Anyone who doesn’t fit that stereotype in fact has a good chance of succeeding not only with their first book, but also in the long term!

You mentioned a new “Wild West” of publishing. I like that term. Could you tell us some of the opportunity that’s available?

Mary Shafer: I call it that because, just as on America’s frontier in the mid-1800s through the turn of the 20th century, the industry is without most of the “laws” that governed it for centuries. There are no longer any hard-and-fast gatekeepers and exclusionary forces that served for so long to keep people out of publishing. The Internet has largely democratized access with a still-proliferating array of publication/distribution platforms, marketing and promotion services and tools, and apps to handle almost any business operations function. Provided people are willing to self-police against inadvisable business practices, poor production values and bad customer service, there’s no reason they can’t create and sell books very successfully to an international audience of repeat buyers.

Is it easy to determine if someone should consider self or indie publishing?

Mary Shafer: If it were, GLVWG would not have had to hire me to give this intensive. 🙂

I understand being in a Category 3 storm as a child along with having two tornadoes (yikes!) pass by either side of your house during the early 1990s left you with a bit of a weather obsession. How much do you think these experiences led you to the writing and publishing of your award-winning “Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955?” Also, I’m curious, what does a Skywarn Weather Spotter do?

Mary Shafer: Just to be clear, I was not in the main circulation of Hurricane Alma as a child, only in the outer bands — so I never experienced true Cat 3 storm conditions. But what I did was certainly bad enough to have made a lifelong impression. And yes, I do absolutely believe these brushes with Nature’s most violent forces played a large part in forming my weather obsession. SkyWarn is a program of the National Weather Service that trains volunteers from age 14-100 to recognize conditions amendable to severe weather and to use established criteria to spot and report actual severe weather conditions to local NWS offices. This is far easier and more immediate to do today, with smartphones that allow us to call in our observations or to report via a mobile Internet interface. You can learn more at SkyWarn.org.

I understand there is a story behind how “Word Forge Books” came into existence. Could you tell us a little bit about when, and maybe more importantly, how you decided to create it?

Mary Shafer: I had begun writing my book under contract with a new indie publisher in Doylestown in 2003, with guidance from a trusted colleague and friend who was, at the time, affiliated with the non-profit organization. Two years later, as I was in the final revisions of the manuscript, I was informed that the publisher had been forced to go out of business, leaving me with no publisher and no rights to my own work, since I’d already been paid a partial advance. Two wonderful friends/business clients of mine who supported my project graciously donated the $2,500 for me to buy back my rights, for which I’ll be eternally grateful. However, by that time it was far too late to find another publisher if I were to make my goal of publishing in time for the mid-August, 2005, anniversary of the flood, which I was going to use as the publicity “hook” on which to hang the launch of the book. Realizing that I had most of the experience and know-how I needed to get the book published, I decided that rather than throw away the three years I’d invested in the project, I’d just publish it myself. And so Word Forge Books was born. I named it as a division of The Word Forge, my freelance copywriting and marketing consultancy business.

It’s worth noting that in 2005, Facebook was just being born, most folks didn’t yet even have a website or know what a blog was, many weren’t yet even fluent on email, and Amazon.com was just getting on its feet. There was no Kobo, Smashwords, GoodReads or any of the other online tools that now make getting a book into the hands of readers such a relatively easy process. As has happened more than once in my career, my needs were ahead of the market, so I plowed ahead using the tools I had at hand. I try not to think now of all the money I poured into that pioneering effort and just try to be happy for my colleagues who won’t have to go through that now, when they try to do the same.

Less than a year ago, you started “The Indie Navigator” so you could focus on the consulting work on publishing…presumably one of your favorite parts. Could you tell us about that deciding moment and what you envision for its future?

Mary Shafer: It wasn’t any earth-shaking thing, really. I just finally realized that the majority of my new consulting clients in 2011-12 were authors and indie publishers, and that it would be far easier for me to brand myself that way. After all, one must take one’s own advice, no? So I found my market niche and am now working on building the Indie Navigator brand among those professionals. As for the future, I’m trying more to envision simply success, without too much detail around what that means. I’m learning, albeit slowly, that even though creative visualization (my way of manifesting what I want from my life) usually works best when it’s very detailed, sometimes those details can be limiting when they’re taking place in an industry changing as rapidly as publishing is. SO I’m just remaining open to following the needs of my market right now. I don’t need to lead the market — that’s an expensive and exhausting place to be, I’ve discovered. I’m happy simply helping people not make the same mistakes I did, and hopefully making their publishing experiences as rewarding and enjoyable as possible.

Last question, with as many “hats on your head” do you still have time to write? And if yes, what are you currently working on?

Mary Shafer: Sadly, I don’t have much time to write anymore, and that’s one thing with which I struggle these days. Still, I have had some success the last two years using NaNoWriMo as the disciplined framework upon which to work up to nearly 26,000 words on my novel-in-progress, “Lonely Cottage Road.” It’s a Civil War-era historical romance with a slight paranormal twist, whose theme is the importance of honoring the creative urge. How’s that for vague? It’s my first novel, and I’m looking forward to having more time to work on it as I consolidate some of my other obligations in the near future. I’ve recently finished some rather large volunteer commitments that had become tremendously time- and energy-consuming, and I’m also re-tooling how I make my living to produce more income in less time. We’ll see how that goes.

Meanwhile, as I do all that, I’m also laying the groundwork for a novel series called “The Storm Diaries.” It features the adventures of forensic meteorologist Stephanie “Stormy” McLeod, her special needs dog Oogie, and her best pal, metal detectorist T.J. Tanner in solving cold-case mysteries around severe weather events. This series will allow me to combine my three great passions — severe weather, treasure hunting and animal rescue — into what I hope will be a long-running novel series that will allow me to make a living while writing off as a business expense my research trips to the National Severe Storms Laboratory and the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, and my own storm chasing tours. You can learn more at StormDiaries.com, and follow me on Twitter at @stormdiaries, where I often live-tweet severe weather events all over the US. You might wonder why I’m doing all that so long before the first novel even comes out. I’m taking my own advice and building my author platform ahead of time so that when it’s time for the book to come out, not only will I have a ready-made market to promote to, I’ll even be able to fund the first printing with pre-orders!

Thank you again, Mary, for taking the time for this interview! I look forward to seeing you at the conference.

Mary Shafer: Tammy, thank YOU for the good questions and your willingness to write up the interview. I hope I’ve been helpful and not too overwhelming. Also looking forward to meeting you at The Write Stuff!

———————————————-
Mary Shafer. The Indie Navigator, is an award-winning author, indie publisher, marketing consultant and professional speaker. She shares what she learned the hard way with other authors and indie publishers, so they don’t have to make the same mistakes.

Entering book publishing in 1990 as an art director, Mary developed experience in most facets of the industry, including editing and marketing. By 1993, her first book was published by a mid-sized indie publisher. As a first-time author, her book wasn’t even expected to earn out. Blissfully unaware the odds were stacked against her, she used what she knew about marketing to tirelessly promote her book. It eventually went into three printings, selling 15,000 hardcover and earning her some attractive royalties. Her second hardcover came out in 1995, and her first self-published book sold out its entire first run of 2,500 copies in 42 days. Now in its second, updated edition and sixth printing, it has sold more than 6,000 print copies to date and is about to come out as an eBook.

In 2013, she launched The Indie Navigator brand to allow her to concentrate her consulting work on the market she knows best, publishing. She doesn’t want other authors to have to make all the painful mistakes she’s made, but believes that despite all the upheaval, this is the most exciting time to be a small, independent publisher and self-published author. In addition to her consulting work, she presents at writers conferences, to writers groups, publishing organizations and online to help authors and small publishers recognize the great potential for success in the new “wild west” of publishing brought on by technological innovation and the resulting changes in the marketplace.

Mary brings her knowledge and experience to every project she works on with her Indie Navigator clients (IndieNavigator.com).

———————————————-

Tammy Burke, GLVWG member, 2011 conference chair and past president, has published around 400 newspaper and regional magazine articles. She has interviewed state and local government officials, business and community leaders, everyday folk and celebrities, in addition to helping write scripts for over a dozen television commercials and writing various business communications. Currently, she is in the revision stage for her first YA fantasy adventure book, the first in an intended series. When not writing, she works in the social service field and is a fencing marshal in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).

2014 – Meet Melba Tolliver, GLVWG president & Founders Panel moderator!

by Tammy Burke

reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com on 2/24/2014

GLVWG “Write Stuff” Conference always offers so many varied choices. It’s sometimes hard to pick which thing to do and this year is no different. One of the new items on this year’s docket is Friday night’s Founders Panel hosted by GLVWG President Melba Tolliver.

Not only will you “meet the catalysts behind the dynamic group we call GLVWG” but you’re likely to get a personalized look at how changes in the writing world affects how a group evolves in response.

And that is a great way to get ideas percolating on an individual basis along with the obvious exposure to really fascinating stuff! President Melba Tolliver joins us today to give a glimpse behind the Founders Panel.

Hi Melba,

What a fascinating topic this year’s GLVWG “Write Stuff” Conference has for Friday night with the Founders Panel. I’m sure many will love to getting a real look at how our dynamic history unfolded.

First of all, who’s brain-child was it adding this to the conference docket? Will it be anything like GLVWG’s November program? Who is slated to be on the panel? Could you share a teaser of some of the things we might learn?

Melba Tolliver: The circumstances of GLVWG’s beginnings is a fabulous story and the telling of it in a panel discussion at our November meeting inspired Brenda Havens, WS co-chair and me to reprise it as one of the Friday evening events.

Hard to believe now, given the size of GLVWG’s current membership, but the group’s first meeting was called to order in a living room. Two good friends and very determined writers, Lorraine Stanton and Annie Kelleher, had spent a lot of time researching writers groups, and decided to start one of their own after cherry picking what was best about other organizations. Annie told me that she and Lorraine conceived GLVWG in the fall of 1992 and birthed it in Lorraine’s living room with 3 other writers the following spring. A month later, as word spread, they had a dozen members and it was clear that Annie and Lorraine had tapped into the hopes and aspirations of folks like themselves in the Lehigh Valley who loved writing.

At our November meeting, four of the very earliest GLVWG members, Deb Maher, Peggy Adamczyk, Joan Zachary and Jill Peters entertained us with tales of those early meetings, describing some of the concerns on the minds of the personalities who set the tone for the group early on. They also remembered some of the first Write Stuff conferences—really luncheons—at the Bethlehem Club.

GLVWG has had its ups and downs over the years suffering growing pains and overcoming what Annie calls “Founder’s Disease”, a malady that strikes when people who start an organization are reluctant to see it change. The November panelists shared their various insights on how GLVWG dealt with challenges in the past and how it might meet new and different ones going forward. One issue raised during the Q&A involved the fiction and non-fiction factions within GLVWG, whether both are equally served in a group whose members write across many genres.

Time was way too short and we could have spent the entire 90 minutes on changes in the book and publishing worlds never anticipated by the early GLVWGers. We’ll get into more of this, allowing more time for Q&A in what is sure to be a lively conversation. Deb Maher, GLVWG’s first president, and Peggy Adamczyk, who’s bringing her remarkable archive of GLVWG newsletters, will be back for the WS panel. Kathleen Coddington, former GLVWG VP, treasurer and librarian, and a writer with a passion for history, myth and magic, will join them.

I understand you are moderating the panel. Can you tell us a bit of your history with GLVWG? How did you discover the group? What drew you in?

Melba Tolliver: The late Bill Marley introduced me to GLVWG, suggesting I sign up for the WS conference in 2009. That did it. I joined the group and made my conference experience the first post on my new blog. I wrote about chatting with keynoter, Matt Birbeck, an award-winning investigative journalist and author, whose book on Sammy Davis, Jr. had brought him a movie deal.

When GLVWG librarian Rachel Thompson went on the road and and asked for a volunteer to take over for her I was happy to do it. I later moved on to be secretary and now president of the group.

What do you believe is the greatest thing a writer can get out of GLVWG?

Melba Tolliver: Support. Support. Support. Whether it’s a critique group or the Writers Cafe, you can get and give feedback on works-in-progress. In our morning programs or afternoon workshops members can educate themselves on any number of relevant topics and even serve as presenters themselves if they have expertise in a given area. A lot of networking happens in our group when members pick each others brains, exchange skills, or find a writing partner. If someone wants to volunteer to fill a leadership role, they can go for it and find benefits for themselves while helping the group. I like it that GLVWG provides so many opportunities to get and to give what’s needed.

With being a member for five years, holding offices such as librarian, secretary and president, you have had an eagle’s eye view of how the organization has grown and changed. What do you think are some of the biggest or most profound evolutions?

Melba Tolliver: I’m especially pleased that GLVWG has stepped up efforts to educate members about the tremendous changes in the book and publishing worlds. The late Bill Marley, Bart Palamaro and David Miller deserve much of the credit for keeping us current about independent author publishing. The technology has changed everything, even the way we in GLVWG communicate. Email, sharing through our blogs and social media was stuff not available to our founders. Not that I think we’re well served by everything available to us in this digital age. For instance, our library became obsolete when members quit borrowing books, turning instead to blogs and other resources for help with craft and research. So we reluctantly sold off most of our books (they found good new homes) and closed the library.

Thank you for undertaking the office of president this term at GLVWG. What do you think is the most important part of the office? How would you like to see GLVWG evolve?

Melba Tolliver: Keeping track of the various tasks of the board and making sure everyone knows in a timely manner what’s going on is what I find most demanding as president. I’d like to see us developing more partnerships with other entities. For instance, I recently attended an evening at East Stroudsburg University as it closed out its One Book One Campus year. They had chosen as their book “The Other Wes Moore” by the author of the same name who gave a wonderful, inspiring talk. The audience—ESU students and an entire HS class–put aside their cell phones and other devices to pay attention. I sat there amazed and wishing there was a way GLVWG could help support a program such as this.

We have so much talent in GLVWG, I’d like to come up with more ways to share it.

If memory serves me, wasn’t there recently a Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group Day in Easton?

Melba Tolliver: Last fall I made requests of the Easton mayor and Northampton County supervisor. Both responded and created proclamations for each of five GLVWG founders or early members (Stanton, Kelleher, Maher, Adamczyk and Barbara Haines Howett) acknowledging them and noting the work of GLVWG on its 20th anniversary. Additionally, and to my pleasant surprise, Mayor Salvatore Panto proclaimed November 23, 2013 Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group Day in Easton.

One thing my years of reporting taught me: it pays to ask (about and for nearly anything) the worst that can happen is you get a “no” and sometimes no response. So I’ve become pretty practiced in my asking skills.

Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview, Melba. GLVWG is such a diverse, dynamic and growing entity. It will indeed be a real treat for our conferees to interact with our Founders Panel.

Ladies of the Borobudur
by one of GLVWG’s earliest member –
Barbara Haines Howett

__________________________________

Melba Tolliver. Her writing has appeared in the newspapers Akron Beacon Journal, Amsterdam News, USA Today; the magazines Black Sports World, Good Housekeeping, Unique NY, Networking. A longtime broadcast journalist she has written news and features for ABC, WABC, WNBC, News 12 Long Island and the Food Channel. She has served as writer-in-residence at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY; Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; journalism teacher, College of Old Westbury, NY. Her honors include NEH Fellowship, University of Michigan; NY Urban League’s John B. Russwurm award; NY Association of Black Journalists’ Lifetime Achievement award; NY Women in Communication’s Matrix award; Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Molloy College, NY.

___________________________________

Tammy Burke, GLVWG member, 2011 conference chair and past president, has published around 400 newspaper and regional magazine articles. She has interviewed state and local government officials, business and community leaders, everyday folk and celebrities, in addition to helping write scripts for over a dozen television commercials and writing various business communications. Currently, she is in the revision stage for her first YA fantasy adventure book, the first in an intended series. When not writing, she works in the social service field and is a fencing marshal in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).

2014 – Meet “The Art of Falling” Author Kathryn Craft!

Tags

Kathryn Craft

by Tammy Burke
[originally posted on GLVWG conference blog http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com ] on 2/12/2014

Hi Kathryn,

What an exciting year for you with having your first book THE ART OF FALLING recently released and already going into its second printing, and having a second book WHILE THE LEAVES STOOD STILL due to be released next year. Congratulations! It is indeed a special pleasure to see “one of our own,” who has been a GLVWG “Write Stuff” Conference Chair herself, experience such an exceptional debut.

KATHRYN CRAFT: Thanks so much Tammy! The book was only six days past its publication date when I found out that it was selling beyond expectation, and that they were going back for the second printing. If my agent and the publisher hadn’t already had several back-and-forths on it when I discovered the email thread, I wouldn’t have believed my eyes! A dream come true.

THE ART OF FALLING uses a masterful and brilliant format threading a dual story — Penny’s present, trying to figure out how to live with her 14 story plummet, and a look at her past and her choices which put her on the balcony that fateful night. I’m curious, what was the deciding factor which made you tell the tale this way?

KATHRYN CRAFT: I discovered it by accident. My first opening showed Penny out on the ledge about to take the fateful plunge, and due to its high drama I suppose, this incarnation placed third in a state-wide novel opening contest. But I couldn’t sustain the tension. The question raised by this incident is “Oh no—will she survive?” The reader turns the page, sees Penny wake up in the hospital, and yep—question answered. Book over.

Important lesson learned: the story question must sustain the reader until the end of the book. And so began the intense period of learning about story structure that resulted in my work as a developmental editor and prompted the Incite Me! workshop I’ll be teaching before the conference.

Turns out the fall wasn’t the inciting incident: it was waking up afterward, and what Penny decides to do with that. The baker on whose car she landed, her hospital roommate, and the doctors all want to know how she parted from that balcony, but Penny doesn’t have the energy or the will to face it—she wants to know how she’ll move again, and live up to her disappointing body’s zest for life.

At this point I realized I had two strong story questions: what happened to make Penny fall from the very height of her dream career, and how would she make something of this extraordinary second chance from rock bottom? These questions “incited” the story’s two story lines, which I then interwove. Only at the end of the book, when Penny has healed, can she face the missing piece: that fall.

An inciting incident is rarely straight-forward. Because it must set up the entire book its facets can be difficult to craft. In the pre-conference workshop we’ll take a good hard look at this crucial story element so everyone can appreciate its ability to bind the reader to the protagonist for the length of the entire story.

I find it ironic that your protagonist, Penny, who is easy for a reader to get a deep sense of, never has a physical description written in your book. How did you do that? And why?

KATHRYN CRAFT: Although I employ hints from various characters as to what Penny looks like, I am not big on physical description in general, unless it adds depth to the characterization or pushes along the story line. But since I orchestrated the cast of secondary characters according to their differing relationships with their bodies and food, I do describe them to some extent.

Penny was different. Obviously, since she has an aberrant body image, what she looks like might seem to be of utmost relevance—but she’s an unreliable first-person narrator, so we wouldn’t be able to believe her anyway. I recognized an opportunity for the reader to enter the story more deeply by contributing his or her own body bugaboos to Penny’s body. I look forward to speaking to book clubs and hearing people argue about what Penny looks like!

In my mind, the Penny that needs expression isn’t about the parameters of her body. It’s the tender creative core that wants to find its way to the sun—and in that, Penny could be any one of us.

Do you think paying it forward by being a part of the writing community, such as previous board positions with GLVWG and now, the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference and the new Women’s Fiction Writers Association, has helped with your writing career? Also, what advice would you give someone new to volunteering and may be shy?

KATHRYN CRAFT: I met my own writing partner, Linda Glaser of Ithaca NY, at the 2005 Write Stuff conference. Linda is far from an extrovert, but knew she needed to emerge from her solitary writer’s life if she stood a chance of seeing publication. Her goal was to go to a different regional conference each year and try to meet a few people. That didn’t work out so well—she kept coming back to The Write Stuff year after year.

We ran the Friday reception differently back then and I remember Linda strolling in and asking quietly if this was an event tied to the writing conference. I said yes, but apologized that it was only for volunteers. She said, “How can I help?” and I went to get her a name tag. Working side by side we discovered similar interests and agreed on a trial manuscript swap—and the rest is history.

When I ran for my second term as GLVWG president, I overheard someone in the back of the room say, “What is she, a doormat?” I could only chuckle to myself, because here are the facts: thanks to my volunteerism I have tons of friends who are writers and friends who are agents and editors and friends who are published authors that have mentored me in numerous ways in thanks for hiring them; I’ve had opportunities to be on TV, radio, and speak at libraries; I had the chance to start programs that met my needs for learning craft and networking and reading in public; eventually I learned to the point that I could pass that knowledge along to others through critique and as an independent editor and by teaching my own workshops; my mentoring has earned me loyal readers. All of that made me a better writer, and even more, a writer who understands the publishing business.

I can see absolutely no downside to working alongside other writers to keep our literary community thriving.

It might just be me but I’ve seen more information on beginnings and middles but not as much for endings. I was wondering if we could have a little teaser about your upcoming session LAST WORD ON ENDINGS?

KATHRYN CRAFT: That’s what I thought, Tammy, and that’s why I developed this workshop. What author hopes that her reader will close the back cover, push the book away, and say, “I was curiously unmoved”? Not me! I don’t want to settle for anything less than “joyous,” “heart-warming,” or “gut-wrenching.” A story is first and foremost an emotional experience and I for one want that emotion to fill the reader like a satisfying meal rather than escape with one quick burp.

Here’s my teaser: if people are saying your ending falls flat, chances are the main problem lies much, much earlier in the book. 😉

You co-authored THE 7 DEADLY SINS OF SELF-EDITING with Janice Gable Bashman which was published in Writers Digest Nov/Dec 2012 and made their top articles for 2013. Congrats on that too! So out of curiosity, which of the 7 are you most guilty of, and how did you overcome it?

KATHRYN CRAFT: Tammy, you are the devil herself for asking! I’d say that from the start my main problem was gluttony—overstuffing the story with irrelevant conflict and tension. This was an outgrowth of an early piece of well-intentioned advice I’d heard, that “story is conflict.” While it’s true that without conflict there is no story, that quote is only part of the picture. I’ve now learned that story is about a “certain kind of conflict”—and having learned that lesson I am now sensitive to seeing the same issue in other manuscripts.

As a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com along with running semi-annual writing retreats, what do you find to be the most common mistakes writers make and what advice have you given most frequently?

KATHRYN CRAFT: I developed the specialty in developmental editing because of the overwhelming number of issues I see related to the same basic issues of storytelling structure. These issues manifest in predictable ways: fizzling tension, irrelevant conflict that pops the reader out of the story, lack of character orchestration, and a lack of cohesion that only a concerted focus on or subconscious adherence to premise can provide. The writer may have lost interest in her own story! I love nothing more than helping that writer deepen character motivation, raise the stakes, align the structure, and set her on fire to improve her manuscript.

Last question, Kathryn, what is next for you?

KATHRYN CRAFT: Next up is a story I had begun drafting as a memoir about my first husband’s suicide during the many periods that The Art of Falling was out on submission. Due out from Sourcebooks in Spring 2015, WHILE THE LEAVES STOOD STILL, is the story of a tense ten-hour standoff between one desperate man ready to take his life and the police, while the three women who loved him most, and the larger community, grapple with how best to find hope.

Thank you again for doing this interview! And all the best successes your way!

KATHRYN CRAFT: Thanks Tammy!

________________________________________________________
Kathryn Craft is the author of two novels, marketed as book club fiction, from Sourcebooks:The Art of Falling, and While the Leaves Stood Still (due Spring 2015). Her work as a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, specializing in storytelling structure and writing craft, follows a nineteen-year career as a dance critic (Morning Call, Allentown, PA). A former GLVWG president and Write Stuff conference chair, she now serves on the board of the Philadelphia Writers Conference and as book club liaison for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, hosts writing retreats for women, and speaks often about writing. She is a contributing editor at The Blood-Red Pencil blog and a monthly guest at Writers in the Storm with her series “Turning Whine into Gold.” She is a proud member of the Liars Club, a Philadelphia-based group of novelists supporting independent bookstores, literacy, and other forms of paying it forward. She lives with her husband in Bucks County, PA. Representation: Katie Shea Boutillier, Donald Maass Literary Agency. http://www.kathryncraft.com

__________________________________________________________

Tammy Burke, GLVWG member, 2011 conference chair and past president, has published over 300 newspaper and regional magazine articles and has interviewed government officials, business leaders, everyday folk and celebrities. Currently. she is in the revision stage for her first YA fantasy adventure book, the first in an intended series. When not writing, she works in the social service field and is a fencing marshal in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).