MY NEW WEBSITE IS UP!!

If you go to www.myralevine.com you'll see my new and improved website. I'll be taking this down in a while. THANKS!

This time I REALLY MEAN IT.

I launched the print and Kindle versions of "Revenge of the Soccer Moms" today, and put this web address right in the book, so now I have to keep it current. And so I shall.

Here's what I've learned:  Createspace is very easy to use, and they have 24/7 support by phone for your (my) stupid questions. Likewise, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for the ebook version is also very simple. I think if you have a question for KDP, however, you use the Createspace help line and they transfer you.

I've spent many (countless?) hours writing and rewriting and re-rewriting this book, but publishing it is basically free. I paid $25 to have Createspace get me a Library of Congress number, and send a print copy to the Library of Congress on my behalf, but I could have done that at no cost. I needed to spend my time hunting down what I hope were that last few typos...

Imagining the Afterlife

I'm back at the point in Novel #2 that has stumped me so many times, but this time I'm forcing myself to work through it. What will the Afterlife be like?

It's not like I'm obligated to get this right, or that I'll have any idea if  I'm even close, but it has to feel plausible to the reader. And it has to be somewhat original. I'm not giving any hints, but I think I've hit on a scenario that I would accept, as a reader or a dead person.

Time for Writing!

When I was about 12 and was chubby, had braces on my teeth, and took piano lessons, I would tell myself at the end of the day that I could count myself as a good person if I had 1) not snuck any cookies; 2) brushed my teeth; and 3) practiced piano. Needless to say, there weren't very many truly "good" days.

So now I'm 58, back on Weight Watchers, I have no braces, and I don't play piano. So the new list is 1) stayed within my daily WW points; 2) rode the stationary bike; 3) brush and flossed my teeth; 4) spent at least a solid hour writing.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Just took another look at Novel #3. I don't hate it. I'm going to work on it. I'm not indecisive, I'm a multi-tasker! 

Psyching Myself Out

Novel #1 is in the hands of two agents and an editor, so I tried to go back to Novel #2 (in progress), but then I thought I should move to Novel #3 (just barely in progress) because it's more like Novel #1 in genre, and I was told that if you find readers who like your first novel, you should give them something next that they're likely to enjoy. It could be a mistake, for example, to write a debut science fiction novel and then switch to romance, unless, I suppose, the romance is between lovers with tentacles.  But Novel #3 has stumped me. It's a little too close to my actual life, and maybe I don't have enough distance from the topic to do it justice. But I've been thinking about it for years.

So, I thought maybe I'd start by writing a short story about the runaway mom in Novel 3, to help me establish her character. And then I saw that Glimmertrain.org is having a short story contest in August, and I thought, PERFECT!  I'll write a brilliant short story and submit it. Two birds...one stone...

Not brilliant. Too much pressure.  I may go back to Novel #2. Maybe I'll add a character with tentacles.

How to Write a Better Novel

First, recognize that you probably don't know what the hell you're doing, and go find out. I worked on my novel for a year or two before I took my first class at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. No experience is wasted, but I didn't know how much I didn't know until I went to Iowa. I didn't even understand the course descriptions. "Story Arc?" "Types of Dialogue?" "Structure of a Scene?" 

No idea. 

Every summer I'd come back with new bullets in my gun, and I'd have to start my novel over. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but just a bit. Now I'm totally OCD about point of view--I learned how to switch POV, and when it's appropriate to do so, but it drives me insane when a writer gets sloppy about whose eyes we're looking through. 

The other smart thing I finally did was start reading more fiction. Actually, I listen, rather than read. If Audible.com ever goes away, I'll go with it. Listening to books and realizing that I was impatient with glib, cute dialogue forced me to stop writing glib, cute dialogue. One of my best instructors persuaded me that I had a literary streak, and I needed to use it. So over the last couple of years, as I've edited Revenge, I've tried to make the characters more real, more flawed, and less clever. I like books that combine genre with literary writing, so that I can believe in the characters and not just read about their adventures. 

That's enough for now. I don't read long, boring blogs.