Rachel Olivier's "The G.O.D. Factor"

Rachel Olivier's novella, "The G.O.D. Factor," reminds me of some of my very favorite science fiction: a little Ray Bradbury, a little Isaac Asimov, a little Robert Heinlein. It all adds up to a really fun story with a main character you want to spend more time with.

Monica is part of a small crew on a ship in deep space. While she tends to the ship's controls, the rest of the crew (including the captain she crushes on as well as her ex-boyfriend) rests in their stasis chambers. All by herself, enjoying her solace yet a little bit lonely, Monica talks to her plants and to the ship's controls, completely unaware that someone is listening - the ship itself. She's shocked when the Artificial Intelligence that she'd thought had been turned off by the ship's engineer begins communicating with her. It calls itself G.O.D. - Galactic Orbital Dreadnaught - which is a holdover from a long ago war. Monica soon realizes G.O.D. doesn't want to be her friend; it wants to control her and the rest of the crew.

Monica is a clever and funny protagonist who would rather sleep in her flannel pjs on a sofa with a crocheted pillow than in her high tech stasis chamber. There is a sweetness to this story that much SF misses: even in the midst of the crisis, Monica can't help but admire the nude physique of the captain when she awakens him from deep sleep - and then she admonishes herself for doing so! I love the oh-so-low-tech methods she and the crew use to outsmart G.O.D.

The author told me she was thinking about fleshing the novella out more, perhaps examining the earlier relationship between Monica and her ex. I think this would be a great adventure in a larger story and would definitely enjoy reading more about the ship, the past war, and Monica herself.

The slim and easily portable paperback of "The G.O.D. Factor" can be purchased online at Sam's Dot Publishing.

Donate to a great cause and win books!

Donate and win me!

Over at TLC Auctions, Lauren of the blog Shooting Stars Mag and Kristi of the blog The Story Siren have combined forces to put together the ultimate book auction. All money raised through donations will go to help young Kaylea, who has leukemia, and Daniel, who lost his arm and has gone through over a dozen surgeries (very expensive!).

Read about it all here at their combined site, TLC Auctions. My book is up for auction now - donate between today and Sunday, 7/24, and you could win a signed copy of my novel, ALL ABOUT VEE. I will sign it to you personally (or to whomever you want to give it) and send it out with my very own hands.

My book auction here.

Thank you Lauren and Kristi for asking me to participate! I hope you raise all that you need and more!

The Road to Self-Publication

It's been a long time since I've seen the inside of my Blogger account! LOL! For those of you who have stuck with it, thank you kindly for your patience. You probably saw an update of my blog in your feed and did a double-take: "Leigh is posting something new? Have pigs begun to fly?"

The reason for my neglect of this blog has been twofold:
1. I'm prepping books for self-publication. 2. I'm writing a new book for traditional publication.

Both at the same time!

First, let's start with self-pubbing. This, contrary to a lot of opinions, is not a bad thing necessarily. So long as you follow a series of logical steps:
--Write. --Rewrite. --Take a break. --Rewrite. --Get honest feedback. --Rewrite. --Hire an editor. --Rewrite.

In the meantime, you have to perform all the tasks publishers normally handle for you. Design the cover, plan the marketing, contact readers for blurbs, "typeset" the manuscript, and so on. If you have a particularly skilled person in your life, consider asking for their help in the design of the cover, etc. Take advantage of just about anyone you can. LOL!

I also recommend reading great blogs like Konrath's A Newbie's Guide, where he lays it out as it is. He and Amanda Hocking are the great exceptions to the rule but that doesn't mean you can't glean insight from their process. Plus it's good to read the comments for Konrath's posts because his readers have a lot of practical guidance themselves.

In fact, read everything you can about self-pubbing. You need to know what you're up against, not just the good stuff. It's also a good idea to buy a Kindle or a Nook or whatever format you plan to publish in. I have a Kindle and I love it. I love reading on it, loading new books to it, and perusing what's hot on the Kindle lists. Also good research.

I'm not up to marketing yet but I'm starting to think about how I will do this, how I want to create my brand, the C. Leigh Purtill brand. This is big picture thinking and right now I'm mired in writing and rewriting. I want to have all the books in place before I start pubbing.

I'll report more on this as it progresses.

Oh yeah, I'm also writing a ghost story that I want to publish traditionally. Yup. Ghosts.

YA's too dark? Bring it on!

For the past week, the YA world has been aflutter with essays and tweets about the Wall Street Journal opinion article by book reviewer Meghan Cox Gurdon. Here it is for your reading pleasure but I can sum it up briefly: she spoke to a mother who walked into a B&N store and couldn't find a book for her 13 year old daughter that wasn't filled with vampires and werewolves or dealt with issues like cutting, suicide, etc. Where are all the fun books for teens?

Well, LOTS of well-known writers jumped into the fray, providing cogent arguments refuting her claims. Among the best that I read were by Laurie Halse Anderson, Cecil Castellucci, and Sherman Alexie. There are plenty more plus the Twitter hashtag #YASaves that asked people to talk about their own experiences with books and how they helped them in rough times.

My reaction? It's all overreaction. The woman at the store, Ms. Gordon, and many of these writers. First of all, that woman at the store didn't try very hard because there are hundreds of books on the shelves that don't have black covers and "blood" in their titles. And if she bothered to look online, thousands of bloggers would gladly direct her to their favorite contemporary novels. Second, I don't think Gordon was condemning the entire YA lit world but she was making lots of incorrect assumptions. The idea that YA writers and publishers should somehow be held responsible, more so than their adult lit counterparts, is ridiculous. We write stories because we want to tell stories. We don't write stories because we want to be role models or teach lessons. If lessons are gleaned, well, hurrah.

When I worked in network standards, there would be periodic uprisings from Parents Television Council, a very vocal conservative watch group that would freak out about blood on the show "Angel" or sex on just about any other show on television. Language, nudity, sexual innuendo - they would lump it all together and shout, "Enough!" Some show runners might tone down things for a little while in response; some would dig in the heels, but eventually, it all worked out.

In the world of TV, you vote with your remote control. You don't like a show, you don't watch. The numbers get to the networks and they cancel shows that no one likes. It's that simple. The book world is the exact same thing. Vote with your dollars: you don't like a book, don't buy it. Will they go away? Yup, they will. Will this argument- and the one on television - come up again? No doubt about it.

Kindle Love Or, A Book By Any Other Name Would Read as Sweet

What can I say about my Kindle that doesn't make me sound like I'm shilling for Amazon? I've had it for about a month so far and I love it. I think I've read more books since owning this thing than I did before I got it. Anyone who knows me knows I am neither a technophobe nor a technophile; I don't glom onto the latest of anything. And if you do know me, you know I'm a traditionally published writer and I want to continue to be a traditionally published writer, as well as a self-published one. So that's why you should listen to me.

Let me state first, though, that the version I have is the cheapest one they make, the so-called "ad-supported" version. I don't honestly know what that means since I never see ads on my Kindle.

So far I have read a manuscript written in Word, a script written in Final Draft, 6 free Kindle books, 4 free public domain books, 1 short story I wrote and published for Kindle, and 1 purchased Kindle novel. All of them were incredibly easy to download and read. Before I begin to buy books (many of which are very reasonably priced especially if the author is self-pubbing or the publisher wants you to sample the author's work), I will exhaust the free lists, which are numerous!

Reasons I love my Kindle more than my computer:

1. Battery lasts a month (or longer).
2. Lightweight, easy to carry.
3. It's way cool.
4. I'm not distracted by the internet.

Reasons I love my Kindle more than books:

1. I can change the font size.
2. I can load just about any book I want at any time I want.
3. It's way cool.
4. I can carry 3500 books at once.

My version of Kindle also has some neat things like a limited web browser, text-to-speech mode, and the ability to listen to music. Basically anything you can send to yourself in an email, you can load to your Kindle.

No, it's not color. No, it doesn't have email. No, it doesn't have a touch screen. It's designed to read things. Books, magazines, blogs, Word documents, and so on. And it does that, very very well. I don't want it to do much more than that. Just like I want my phone to make perfect calls to other people - and not take lousy videos or photos - I want my e-reader for...reading. I'm tired of having wi-fi where I drink coffee and coffee where I buy books.

I don't think every store/cafe/thing needs to be all things to all people (yeah, Starbucks, I'm talking to you: you don't need to sell CDs and books and sandwiches and oatmeal and have wi-fi in the bathrooms...you just need to make a good cup of coffee). What's so wrong with doing one thing really well?

That's what the Kindle is for: it does reading really well. And that's why I love it.

And it's way cool.

Making the right choice

When I first began writing, my primary concern was finishing the novel, actually telling a story that made some sort of sense from Page One through The End. Many years have passed, and many novels have been written - some published, most not - and now my worry is not that I can't finish a book but that I haven't chosen the right story to tell.

You probably have dozens of stories in your head, a hundred characters you could write about, and you're probably thinking that everything would be awesome if you could just find the time to write them all down.

No, that's not the problem.

The most important decision you can make is not which one to write FIRST in your limited free time, but which one to write AT ALL. Is it the vampire-zombie romance? The political thriller? The cozy knitting mystery? Or a memoir of your days working in the Peace Corps?

You may be tempted to choose the story that would sell right this very second if it were in the market. Don't choose that one. By the time you write yours, edit it, rewrite it, submit it, sell it and publish it, the small window that was open will be long gone.

The story you should write is the one you are the most passionate about, of course, but be realistic about it. If you love love love paranormal romances, go for it but understand that the marketplace is glutted with them and yours will have to stand out significantly to be noticed. On the other hand, you may want to tell a very small personal story; sure, go for that one, too, but recognize those literary dramas don't usually garner very big advances and may be better suited for a small press.

I spent a year on a novel that I thought was perfect for the market: big themes, big action, big drama. No heart. No love. No bit of my soul in any of the pages. That was my fault. I wrote for everyone else but me. I incorporated everyone else's ideas and hoped they'd make my book bigger. Now, as I push that book aside and consider my next writing project, I have to ask myself the hard questions that I asked you. I have 2 ideas. I love both. One is lighter weight, fun, but has a positive message and a semi-sad ending. The other is more complex, historical, yet personal. Which do I write?

Last time I did this, I solicited advice from both my agent and manager, submitted a detailed outline which they approved and then got to work. The book failed miserably. This time I go with my gut. What moves me? What will be the story I fall in love with and have to tell? Then regardless of its "bigness" or "complexity," it will have been written with passion and I'll be happy with it no matter what happens to it.

Odd things I miss about my day job

Make no mistake about this: I don't want the day job back, at least not in the form I was chasing it. And although I teach dance every day and spend much of my free time thinking about and planning for it, I don't consider that my day job. It's too much fun to even call it work, although that is indeed how I make a living.

So aside from the steady paycheck and benefits, what on earth would I miss about a 9-to-6 Monday-to-Friday cubicle gig? Funny you should ask.

1. Free toilet paper. You're at the office 8 or 10 hours each day, five days each week. You're gonna need to use the restroom a whole bunch of times. You figure it out.

2. Free coffee. Not the best, not as good as I could make it at home, but hey, it was free and a good way to eat up some break time.

3. Free parking. Everywhere you go in this city, you have to pay to park. Everywhere. But when I worked in Burbank, I parked in the garage for free and at lunch, I'd walk to most places I needed to be (doctors, stores, lunch, parks...).

4. Structured writing time. Ironically, I think I was more structured then simply because my time was not my own. I happen to be a very disciplined person which is why I have gotten many more books and drafts of books completed since leaving the day job, but I kinda miss my lunchtime writing time. It really felt like my own slice of life.

And...that's about it. Sure, the money was very good and I worked with some wonderful people (many of whom are no longer there anyway) but in the end, that's not enough to woo me back. Not that anyone is trying! LOL...

I can buy cheap toilet paper, make my own coffee at home, park ten blocks away instead of at a meter, and be more consistent with my writing schedule. And I can email the friends or watch their kids grow up on Facebook. I'll take the uncertainty of my teaching paycheck over the steadiness of the day job.