Dust Devils

Have you ever seen a dust devil? They're rather amusing to watch as you're driving across Texas. Dictionary.com says that a dust devil is a "strong miniature whirlwind that whips up dust, litter, leaves, etc into the air." I've seen quite a few of those in the last few weeks. We point and slow down and talk about it until the thing is out of sight.

Occasionally I feel like a little dust devil. I move very fast, and I stay quite busy, but I'm not sure that I'm doing much more than stirring up dust, litter and leaves. Whether my passion is writing or knitting scarves for shut-ins, I'd like to think I can be more productive than that. So what measure can we use to determine if we're making progress? After attending the RWA conference last month, where many of the best and brightest and MOST SUCCESSFUL in the industry were gathered, I came home and re-assessed. This is the list I came up with.

1) Is what I'm doing resulting in more sales? As artists, we often avoid this direct question, but I think it's a valid one. At RWA Nationals, I went to many workshops by where industry leaders challenged me to think like a business person. If I'm spending a lot of time and energy on things that don't really produce, then I need to re-assess.

2) Am I using my time effectively? I like to think that I have unlimited time, but of course I don't. I have the same amount of hours in my day as Nora Roberts. If I waste 90 minutes of mine on Facebook, that would be my mistake. Facebook is no doubt a great marketing tool, but I need to set a timer, and limit my minutes there.

3) Am I refining my craft? I went to a workshop by Deb Dixon and was astounded. I've taught writing at the college level for 12 years. I didn't really think I had anything to learn about point-of-view, but I'd heard so much about Deb that I stopped by anyway. My goodness was I surprised, and I have pages of notes to prove it. I saw quite a few bestselling authors in the audience as well, and I have no doubt that's part of the reason why they're bestselling authors.

My list is longer than this, and some of it is specific to me, but I want to challenge you to look at your passion and determine what you can do to move yourself forward. Success is defined in different ways for all of us, and I wish you the very best of success in whatever you choose to do.

~Drue
DrueAllen@gmail.com

Value of an Agent

Is an agent worth 15% of your money? Can you even get an agent? I queried a LOT of agents before I sold, I had interest from a few, and I signed before I sold--so yes, it is possible. On to value . . .

1) When my agent sold my first book to Five Star, she didn't make much of a commission, but she continued guiding my career , submitting proposals to other publishers, and giving me advice on how I could branch out into other genres.

2) My agent often contacted me when she was contacted by publishers in need of proposals. I spent the next two years writing a lot of proposals. I never turned her down, because I wanted her to know I was willing to work to "make it." Publishers contact agents when they need something fast, when they have a "slot" open up, or when they need a writer-for-hire. We received a lot of rejections, but my agent - - -

3) kept encouraging me! She still hadn't made any more money. My agent kept working with me, kept directing my career. It began to feel like she was a harder boss than my real boss, but I was learning to trust her.

4) My agent always returned my emails. I never called her, as I never had any urgent questions, but she always returned my emails promptly. She also sent me regular correspondence showing which publishers had rejected my manuscripts and proposals. We were/are a team!

5) My agent had her pulse on what was going on in the publishing houses. The last proposal she told me to write, I told her no. I was tired. I have a full time job, I was working on a sequel to THE COST OF LOVE, and I didn't want to do another proposal. She responded to my no, with an "I understand" email. This was quickly followed with a "let me tell you why you're wrong" email. I decided to follow her advice.

6) My agent was able to negotiate contracts for another 4 books with 2 publishers. She was able to negotiate the due dates on these books, and she was able to increase the number of free books I'd receive as well as a few other perks.

I'd say my agent is valuable to me. One of those 4 books we sold because the publisher had a "slot" open up and needed to fill it quickly. She went straight to my agent. Good writing can be noticed by a publisher without an agent, but you don't always know where those "open slots" are. Personally, I think an agent is worth her 15%. I know this isn't every one's experience, but it certainly has been mine. I hope if you have an agent now, or have one in the future, that it's your experience too.

Drue Allen

DrueAllen@gmail.com

The Bar

The Bar, The Desert and the Range--that's the blog title I wanted, but it seemed a bit long.

I think most novels limit themselves to a few main settings. This is where the bulk of the action takes place and where the reader is comfortable watching your characters develop.

In THE COST OF LOVE, E.T.'s Bar is where Dean and Lucy work undercover. It is also where the community gathers to shoot the bull (not figuratively-that would be messy). This is where Lucy first meets the larger cast of characters, and where Dean was embedded before the novel began. It's where the main attack against the town is staged and where the people of the town finally must decide if they're going to pull together or not. It's also where the "mole" is hidden. The bar is a main setting in the novel, and it's important my reader feel comfortable and intrigued by it from the first time they step inside.

The desert around Roswell, New Mexico represents the larger world and to some extent what is at risk should Lucy and Dean fail. It's wild, it's beautiful, and it's the setting for the more out-of-control scenes. The reader isn't sure what's going to happen when my characters are set loose in the desert. There are love scenes, death scenes, fight scenes, even party scenes--all within the setting of the great southwest desert.

White Sands Missile Range is the largest military installation in the world at almost 3,200 square miles. It's where my story opens and where it closes. I have such an abiding respect for our military men and women, and I wanted to emphasize that by showing the importance of this facility. In my novel, the base has been compromised, which sets up the conflict, creates the opening murder, and leads to the closing conflict.

There are plenty of other settings in this novel--exploding airports, loud dancehalls, intimate bedrooms, lonesome highways . .. . but the bar, the desert and the range are the three places where I've set Dean's boot down and claimed the reader's attention. Every novel has anchor points. Those were mine.

Drue
DrueAllen@gmail.com

Real People

I'm the daughter of a World War II veteran (paratrooper, U.S. Army, 1941-1947). My husband graduated from Texas A&M, a member of the Corps of Cadets and commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He missed Vietnam by a few months. The last school I taught at I had the privilege of working with a man who was a former CIA operative. He served overseas for several years and through quite a few difficult missions.

All real people.

All people who have influenced my life to varying degrees, and merged into the person I created to be my main character in The Cost of Love--Dean Dreiser.

When our manuscripts are rejected, we receive comments like "I couldn't connect to your characters," or "The writing was fine, but it wasn't quite right for us." In truth, often our writing suffers from being stuffed with paper dolls. There's no excuse for that, since our lives are full of people who live and laugh, suffer and bleed, sacrifice and sometimes die in the process.

Whether we're writing a romantic thriller or a paranormal, we are responsible for filling our writing with people; after all, it's the people our readers care about. Best to make them real, make them breath.

All you have to do is look around you to find the inspiration. Recently I heard a song by John Rich, and it brought back to me in a few words all these people and what they had been through--my father, my husband, my friend, and yeah--my character, Dean. Real people with real stories.

~Drue

Titles, Themes, and Planting Ideas

HOW do you come up with a title? I know there is a better process than the one I have.
I slink out to the hammock with a tablet and stay there until I've compiled a list of 15 titles. Anything that comes to mind can go on the list. Then I trot back inside, type up the list, and blast it out to my closest friends and family. They pare it down for me.

The truth is I'm TERRIBLE at coming up with Titles. Encapsulate my entire work into an eye-catching 3, 4 or 5 word phrase? Also, you should google your title on Amazon to be sure it hasn't been a best-selling title recently. (Although a title can't be copyrighted, so you're free to re-use someone's).

In truth, a title is very closely related to that thing we were taught in high school English--THEME. It makes us uncomfortable to talk about theme. Most of us had high school teachers who slapped us with a D on the paper and wrote "WRONG" across the top. I graduated from college during a time when something called reader-response theory was in vogue. If you read it, and your response is genuine, then your ideas are valid.

I often tell my college students that the theme of a story is the meaning minus the specific character names. It's over-arching like an umbrella. Our title should suggest or tease that theme. Choose carefully, then enjoy the fun part . . . planting it deep in the story.

Lucy realized they would all continue to take the risks they needed to take,
pay the price required of them. They would do it for the people they cared
about. So Dayton, and any other children coming into this circle, could grow up
in the country they loved. Living without love was something she wasn’t
courageous enough to do. The cost of love? It had always been, would continue to be, high. Gazing across into Dean’s eyes, she’d wager love was worth any cost.
(excerpt from The Cost of Love)

UFOs, Thrillers, and First Love

What could UFOs, Thrillers, and First Love possibly have in common? They're all in my debut novel, The Cost of Love. Set in Roswell, New Mexico--the UFOs are a prerequisite. Chapter One opens with Dean evaluating a decomposing body, enough said about the thriller portion. And Lucy does find her first love, as silly as that sounds--though neither of us planned it that way.

But then novels often don't go as you plan them. I certainly never intended to write about Roswell the first time I drove through it, or when I sat in one of its little diners (quaint would be a kind word), or even when I hiked the Guadalupe mountains to the south. Imagination has a way of taking hold though, and when you sprinkle in a good dose of nightly news, a bit of research, and characters that won't turn you loose, you have a story that's not only fun to read, it was also a complete joy to write.

Story ideas come in all shapes and forms, and from many different places. What works for one book, might produce nothing for the next. A tried-and-true method for your favorite author might leave you staring at a blinking icon on a blank screen. You have to find what works for you, for this moment.

Writing and reading are mysterious that way. When you pick up the next novel you've been waiting to start, or flip on your e-reader, kind of makes you wonder though. Where DID that idea come from?