"A Place to Nurture Genius"

On a recent trip to Grand Manan Island, NB  I was surprised to learn that Grand Manan won third place in Readers Digest’s “World’s 7 Best small islands.”

“Connected to mainland New Brunswick by ferry, the island is home to charming fishing villages, the vertiginous Southeast Head sea cliffs and the idyllic Swallowtail Lighthouse, the second-most photographed lighthouse in all of Atlantic Canada.”

This quote is part of Tim Johnson’s island description for the Reader’s Digest Contest announcement.  What the announcement doesn’t tell you becomes the caveat of my blog.

I was surprised to learn of the contest win, but delighted too, because the island is home to my eldest son, Michael E. Simms. Michael makes his living as a commercial fisherman on the Bay of Fundy.

A few years ago Michael showed us a rustic cottage nestled in the trees near the cliffs at Whale Cove, North Head, one of the six villages on Grand Manan.  Michael had a reason for showing this isolated, charming cottage. I had been pestering him with questions about the island; his answers to be part of the research for an article I was writing.

“This cottage,” Michael said, “is part of the estate of a renowned American author, Willa Cather. Like you, Mom, she was a writer and teacher. She lived here and wrote books in this cottage.” I was flattered by the comparison but assured Michael that my writing was not likely to ever achieve Cather’s fame.

Willa Cather (1873-1947), novelist and short story writer, one time editor of McClure’s magazine, wrote during the first half of the 20^th century. My Antonia is often thought to be her most enduring novel, but it was One of Ours, written in 1922 which won a Pulitzer Prize. L.K. Ingersol writes about Willa Cather in Shadows On the Rock.

“Not too much has been written about her connection to this Bay of Fundy island. There is ample reason. During her lifetime she said little about it, probably nothing to the public and hardly more to her close friends. . .The very fact that it was rather out of the way and visited by none of her friends made it all the more desirable. Had it been otherwise, she would have probably dismissed it from her mind. It was then, actually a workshop, a place to nurture genius.”

Her companion and confidant, Edith Lewis, was with her on Grand Manan Island. Ingersol writes that “the two companions found solitude without loneliness at Whale Cove. It was ideal for their work and after three years they built a cottage of their own.

In 1926 they bought several acres of land and the cottage was built for them by local carpenters.

Much later Lewis mentioned the cottage in her book Willa Cather Living, “the cottage was a rather rough little place, with many inconveniences, but it came to have great charm. Above the rooms was a large attic from which one could look out over the cliff and the sea, and this Willa chose for her study.”

I first saw the Willa Cather cottage while visiting our son in 2007. I remember peeking in the windows, marveling at the care obviously given to its upkeep, imagining her sitting at her old Oliver typewriter listening to birdsongs or the sound of the sea. I snapped photos of the cottage and the view, vowing to re-read one of my favorites of hers, Death Comes For the Archbishop.

During an August visit this year we toured down Whistle Road once again. Drawing near the Willa Cather cottage, it was time to enjoy a sumptuous dinner at cliff-side’s  Inn at Whale Cove Cottages –a very special treat from our son!  Browsing through brochure descriptions of the rental cottages on the premises, I experienced a second island surprise!

WILLA CATHER COTTAGE

Built by the American author in the 1920’s this cottage is secluded and has a Cliffside water view.  There are two bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, two fireplaces, activity room and kitchen.  $1000.00 per week Sunday to Sunday

A rental cottage!  Perhaps not a use that will perpetuate Willa’s memory, but if the $’s were available I can think of no better retreat to inspire a writer than this beauty spot at Whale Cove, North Head on Grand Manan Island.

          Enjoy the photos of the cottage, Willa’s sea view and Swallowtail Light. whether you are a reader or a writer, you may want to be inspired as Willa Cather was on that remote island.

                                                                            *****

Back to this author 's musings, my conscience niggles over a promise I made to my  readers: An excerpt from my new book,  PROMISE KEEPER.  A synopsis and excerpt appears on my Author Page at Red Room's literary web site. If you open the the following URL mypromise will be kept.       http://redroom.com/member/mary-fremont-schoenecker/books/

Self-Publishing versus Traditional Publishing? Good Question.

Each has it’s pro’s and con’s. With self-publishing: you pay for it all, the set up, the printing, the distribution, the marketing & promotion, you buy all your copies to sell or give away. If you have a non-fiction platform, then self-publishing is probably a good way to go. You can control the content, it’s printed faster than traditional publishing (which can take 18-24 months), and you already have a built in audience.

For fiction, I’m torn. Personally, I prefer traditional publishing. They pay you, you don’t pay them. But to get national or world-wide distribution you need an agent to get into the big publishing houses. That’s easier said than done. Another option, is to use smaller publishers that don’t require agents. The advance is smaller, but they do the printing and distribution. You still have to market and promote regardless if it is fiction or non-fiction, small publisher or large, self published or traditional.

Here is what I experienced when my first novel was ready to sell. I couldn’t find an agent for FEISTY FAMILY VALUES after exhaustive attempts. So, I went with a smaller publisher. My advance was small but they put together a wonderful product and distributed it to all the big booksellers (Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon). They also shared the book with big reviewers like Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, etc. Unfortunately, my novel wasn’t reviewed by the biggies, but I did get several good reviews from the smaller reviewers they notified. If you self-publish you have to do the digging for reviewers yourself and pay for the books you send them. My publisher gave me a dozen books free just for that purpose.

Another option would be e-publishing, like Kindle and Nook, etc. If you have a contract with a publisher and they have the electronic rights, they’ll get your e-pub book done for you. My contract was for print only, so I did my own e-publishing, through Kindle and Nook. It’s not hard and I don’t have to share as much of the profits as I would with a traditional publisher. That’s another thing. Self-publishing is on your dime, but all the profits are yours. With a traditional publisher you share with everyone and their dog, getting as little as 8-10% of the retail list.

If you self publish, the editing is also on you (you can always pay a freelance editor), whereas a traditional publisher will have editors who will review it multiple times to make it the cleanest, best product it can be for no additional cost to the author.

MY ADVICE: Do your homework before you make a decision on whether to self-publish or traditionally publish. Your skill level, available time and budget are key.
To read more about B.D. Tharp, her novel and other writing, visit http://bdtharp.com.

Setting: Writing What We Know Vs. Doing Research

Setting: Writing What We Know Vs. Doing Research

by Jacqueline Seewald

This topic has been discussed previously on Author Expressions. But I believe it’s
important enough to consider again. So I’m offering my own take on the subject.

You’ll notice that a lot of mystery and romance writers set their novels in places they either live in or have lived in. This may seem provincial, but in fact, it makes for good writing. If we know a place well, we can create a realistic setting, an intriguing background for our novels. Setting is one of the important components of any piece of fiction—plays short stories or novels.

Not all of my novels are set in New Jersey. However, most of them are.
This is because I was born in New Jersey and have lived in the state
my entire life. I like to write novels that have authenticity of setting.
All my YA novels like STACY’S SONG are set in New Jersey.
My children’s picture book A DEVIL IN THE PINES was published
in New Jersey by Afton Publishing; a faction book, that can be found in
both school and public libraries. The book explores the Jersey Devil

and the Pine Barrens using fictional characters. The setting is crucial.

My adult mystery series, featuring amateur sleuth Kim Reynolds, librarian,
is--you guessed it--set in New Jersey. These three novels:
THE INFERNO COLLECTION, THE DROWNING POOL,
and my new novel THE TRUTH SLEUTH are set in Central New Jersey
where I lived for forty years. I also taught English
at the high school and middle school as well as the university.
So again this led to authenticity in the novels’ settings.

THE TRUTH SLEUTH, for instance, is largely set in a NJ high school.

Do I consider research unimportant? Absolutely not! Every novel requires
a certain amount of research, some more than others. My paranormal historical romance TEA LEAVES AND TAROT CARDS required extensive research. And I enjoyed
every minute of it. I’ve been a fan of Regency romance for many years and wanted
to do my own version of such a novel. But to do it right, I had to research the
details so I made no mistakes—or as few as possible.

I believe the best novels combine elements of what we actually know with research into what we need to find out. I’m no fan of info dumping in fiction, but writers need to read and discover a lot more information than they will actually use in their novels.

What is your opinion? Do you prefer authentic contemporary fiction, well-researched
historic fiction--or perhaps you have a preference for fantasy, science fiction or
horror novels which create imaginary worlds? What suits your fancy?

Fashions, oh my!

The fourteenth century was a period of change and experimentation in the fashion world, as evidenced by extant paintings. Men began to wear tightly fitted clothing, sometimes so short as to be immodest, while other more conservative men kept to the long gowns and robes.

Wool was the most common fabric, because it could take dye, and served as a good insulator in a time when the only window covering was often a wooden shutter.

14th century dressmakers

Fabrics could be printed now, most commonly by woodblocks. Other decorative fabrics were embroidered wool, and gold and silk threads, only obtainable by the rich.

Edward III established an embroidery workshop in the Tower of London, to provide suitable garments for the royal couple.

Linen was commonly worn next to the skin, and cotton was used for padding and quilting. Silk was most desired, and most expensive.

During the middle part of the 14th c. people began to wear parti-colored clothes, even two different colored hose, especially at the English court.

Belts crept lower and lower, and by the end of the century, were worn low on the hips, as they are now. So you see it’s true; if you wear a style long enough, it will come back into fashion!

Keeping the Door Open

Anyone who has published anything anywhere has probably had the experience of receiving unexpected and usually unsolicited feedback from a reader or another writer (not that they're mutually exclusive), and recently I started thinking about this. I'm not the most adept with (no longer new) technology, and a reader pointed out a slip I had made and how to correct it. I was pleased with the advice because I might otherwise not have caught on, and thanked her. She emailed me back with a note that she was relieved that I wasn't offended.

Instant publishing through blogs, websites, ebooks, emagazines also means instant feedback. We put our views on the Internet, with direct access to us, and this surely invites a reaction, and the reactions come in. Most of us are used to the benign comments that are complimentary, encouraging, supportive, and we occasionally get the argumentative ones that tell us, usually politely, that we're all wrong. But sometimes we get the snarky ones from readers who are just looking for an opportunity to score a hit. The trolls.

These people are not limited to the Internet. One reader of a Joe Silva mystery novel wrote to me that she wouldn't commit murder under the same circumstances that drove the character in my book, and I must say I was very glad to hear that. I commend her for her self-discipline and virtuous character.

Some people clearly don't mind being trolls or snarks, but most of us can hear that voice in the back of our heads saying, "No nice person would say anything like that," when we are tempted to give as good as we get. We restrain ourselves, proffer something polite, and move on.

The real problem with this instant publishing and instant critique isn't the hurt feelings or wasted time. The real problem is the same one that infects every other aspect of life. Bad money drives out good, nastiness pushes aside more thoughtful, useful comments, and we begin to delete without reading emails from any name we don't recognize.

I've been fortunate to have received only a few snarky emails (probably because I have a modest readership), and the unsolicited comments I do receive have been interesting, useful, and intelligent. I would hate to lose this connection with readers, so I keep my email open, remain optimistic, and thank everyone who takes the time to offer something that might benefit me. They are generous and helpful, and I'm glad to count them among people I reach. I can't promise this will last forever, but so far it seems to work.

Please welcome Keith Cronin

Will you tell us about ME AGAIN, the characters and the plot line?

ME AGAIN is the story of two young stroke victims - Jonathan and Rebecca - who meet in a hospital. Jonathan has been in a coma for six years, and has lost his memory. Rebecca's personality has been radically changed by her stroke, making her a stranger to her husband. They are drawn together by how badly they fit in, and by the fact that they each understand what the other is going through. Ultimately they've got to decide what's more important - who they used to be, or who they can become. Although the book explores serious topics, there are a lot of funny moments. I'm going for kind of an "American Nick Hornby" vibe, with a mix of serious emotions and self-deprecating humor.

What inspired the novel? What was the seed for the story?

ME AGAIN grew out of an unfinished short story that I had abandoned and forgotten about. But I keep all my files, and one day I was idly re-reading some drafts I hadn't looked at in a couple of years, and I really fell in love with the voice in that story fragment. So I started thinking about how I might expand it into a larger story.

There were a couple of main inspirations. The Tom Hanks movie Castaway left a big impression on me - I thought that the incredible effort he made to get home only to find the world had moved on without him was just unbelievably heartbreaking. So I put Jonathan in a similar position, having him come out of a coma from which he was never expected to awaken, only to face a group of family and friends who had already made peace with the idea of him being gone forever. And to make things even harder, I took away his memory, but gave him an oversized conscience. He feels guilty about not remembering these people, so he tries to disguise that fact, and pretends to recognize these strangers who seem to know him all too well.

My other main character's situation was inspired by a real life scenario. Years ago, I had a friend whose sister had a stroke - a young woman who was recently married. The stroke changed her personality dramatically, leaving her young husband confused and alienated. I always felt that was such a heartbreaking, seemingly no-win situation, and the thought of it haunted me over the years. So when I began drafting ME AGAIN, I put Rebecca in a similar predicament. At the time I didn't know how major a character she would be, but ultimately Rebecca's conflict - and eventual transformation - become the climactic focal point of the book. That's what's so exciting about fiction: you never know where it will take you, or what it may teach you.

How did you write it? Over a long period, or did you have the story in mind?

As far as having the story in mind, I was basically fleshing out a "what if?" premise, not really sure where it would take me. And because I am an overly ambitious idiot, I began working on ME AGAIN while I was also in grad school working on my MBA, and working a fulltime day job, and spending many weekends on the road touring in a band. To say I was stretched thin would be an understatement, and in the long run it probably slowed down the process of completing the book. There were also times when Real Life intruded and halted the book's progress entirely, but then when I'd return to it, it would seem more fresh and new to me, so maybe that was not entirely a bad thing. All told, it took about two and a half years to complete.

Tell us about your writing background. How did you start writing novels? What was your journey to publication?

Both my parents were journalists, so writing is in the family DNA. But I didn't start to get serious about writing until my late 30s. I took a job as a technical writer, writing computer manuals, and discovered that some of my coworkers also dabbled in fiction. That made me curious, so in the late 90s I started studying the craft of fiction, and made several abortive attempts at writing a novel before I wised up and decided to start by taking smaller bites. I then shifted my focus to short stories, and managed to publish a few. But in my heart I wanted to write book-length fiction, so I finally finished my first novel, a mafia comedy, and secured a major agent around 2005. I had some nibbles, but ultimately the book went unsold, so I went back to the drawing board.

I started ME AGAIN in 2006, and began querying agents in the summer of 2008. I got another major agent, but pitching the book during the awful economy of 2009 was an uphill battle, and she finally gave up on the project. I was ready to throw in the towel myself when an online acquaintance from Backspace - a discussion forum for writers that has been my most valuable resource for many years - reached out to me and offered to refer me to Five Star, with whom she had published her first novel. I was in "what the hell" mode, so I sent them my manuscript, not thinking much about it. Next thing you know, they made an offer! I think sometimes you have to let go of something before it can actually happen for you. I would just like to get a little better - and a lot faster - at knowing when to let go!

What are you working on now?

I'm in the early stages of a modern-day, rock n' roll re-imagining of a classic 19th-century novel. But I'm one of those people who doesn't like to jinx a work in progress by revealing too much, so that's all I can tell you!

Your website tells of your other creative talents. Tell us about yourself.

Ever since seeing The Monkees on TV as a little boy, I wanted to be a drummer. So I followed that dream, and immersed myself in drumming at an early age. I was playing professionally by the time I was 14, and went on to study music at Indiana University. From there I embarked on a roller-coaster music career that has taken me from cruise ships to theme parks, from biker dives to giant arenas. In the late 80s I toured with guitar hero Pat Travers, and in the 90s I connected with E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, and I played in his own band for the past 15 years, until his death this summer. Working with Clarence was an amazing experience, and through my association with him I was also able to perform and record with Bruce Springsteen. I still can't believe Clarence is gone, but am immeasurably grateful for the amazing experiences I had while touring with him.

Where can readers find your books?

At the library! Five Star specializes in selling beautifully made hardcover books to libraries, so if you want to check out my stuff without spending your hard-earned money, try your local library. (And if they don't have ME AGAIN, please ask them to consider ordering it.) But you will also be able to find my book at your favorite online booksellers, such as Amazon or IndieBound (a great site that will direct you to independent bookstores in your area). The book should be available the second week of September.

I'd like to add that 25% of everything I make from ME AGAIN is being donated to the American Stroke Association. Stroke is the third leading cause of death, and the leading cause of adult disability. My hope is that my little what-if story can do something to help change that, while still managing to entertain people on airplanes and beaches.

Links for additional information:

Website: http://www.keithcronin.com/writer.html

Video book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAooOPnkuKA

Writers are often thought of as wordsmiths. We experiment with words.  We change, delete, substitute, alter and embellish words. If infamous doesn’t do the job in a sentence, maybe villainous would or how about ill-famed ? It’s a good thing the English language is flexible! The basic wisdom learned from writer’s workshops is ‘you shouldn’t stop to revise’, but many authors have their own marked idiosyncrasies.  I’m committed to overwriting as I go. I could be labeled a quintessential experimenter because I continually go back to the pages I’ve written and tweak, change, delete words and reconstruct sentences. Admittedly, it slows my writing but that’s my style and it grows from what to leave in and what to take out. “Start over until it sings” could be my by-line.

Author Elizabeth Lowe says ‘Voice is the writer’s fingerprint.’ Much of my voice and style is inspired by past experiences – family, people I’ve met, journey’s I’ve taken. I try to establish my voice through my characters. When people learn that I was the youngest of nine sisters and four brothers, their eyebrows lift. “Ten girls!” they say, “There’s your book. There has to be a story in that family.”

Actually, there is something from my maternal great grandmother in the first book of my contemporary Maine Shore Chronicles series. In Finding Fiona, the character, Tanté Margaret’s grandmér Hetty is prescient, a seer, and healer. In French she was called a  Guèirsseur. There is a Scot in the time travel twist of Finding Fiona’s plot and if grandmér Hetty had been Scottish, she would have been called a ban-lichiche. Perhaps you can tell that I love to find foreign words that fit into my story line. My readers have told me they like the ethnic characters found in the Chronicles series, and especially they appreciate the French and Gaelic phrases sprinkled through the dialog.  Book Two, Moonglade takes up where Finding Fiona left off. It is a blend of mystery and romance with the same regional flavor and strong family dynamics.

Chronicles series Book Three, Promise Keeper will be released from the publisher, Five Star/Cengage on  October 21^st.  It explores the bonds of family and the resiliency of the human spirit. Danger and intrigue foil protagonist Paul Fontaine’s search for a stolen painting and the woman who donated it to his gallery. Tanté Margaret continues as a secondary character- but a very important one- she is the Promise Keeper in Book Three. My readers’ favorite ( so they tell me)  continuing character in the series is Tanté  Margaret, the  reluctant clairvoyant.  

Tanté finally has a book of her own in my current work in progress. She is a woman of faith and her point that her gift is from God is one that I could also make. I feel that my writing has been a gift from God. I’ll close with a paraphrased quote of Eric Liddell shared by my friend and fellow author, Sharon Irvin – “When I write I feel God’s pleasure”.  In French, I would say moi aussi. Me too!