Flogging the Quill

Last Holiday Bookshelf, a reality check, a bookshelf poll

There was just one submission left, so I’ve added my writing book so it wouldn’t be alone. And, after all, ‘tis the season to give writers books, right?

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To Promote the General Welfare Edward Wallace Richbourg
Dean Granville has one thing on his mind ... convincing his girlfriend to marry him ... until he's arrested for murder. Dean covers college sports for the Washington Post, aiming to become a White House correspondent.

Virginia Governor Eugene Simpson has designs on the presidency. But he makes the mistake of vacationing in The Bahamas with his mistress. Several people have reasons to want Simpson out of the way. The timing is perfect.

As Dean begins to investigate, the trail leads him back to Virginia and Washington, DC for the showdown with the murderer of the governor and his mistress.

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Flogging the Quill, Crafting a Novel that Sells Ray Rhamey
Laura Abbott, Amber Quill Press: “As an owner and managing editor of a publishing company, I’ve read many submissions that were near-misses. If the writers had had the benefit of this book, they’d be published now. Witty, funny, and engaging, this is a must-read for the burgeoning storyteller and serious novelist.”

Dan Conaway, literary agent, Writers House: “Ray’s book provides the sort of practical, sensible advice that really can help you become a better writer.”

Tess Gerritsen, bestselling author: “A must-have for any novelist--published or aspiring. It’s one of the most readable, entertaining books on writing out there.”

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Reality check

With writers putting their books “out there” on the Holiday Bookshelf, it got me to thinking about the “reality check” of reader reviews that these writers are exposing themselves too. Most of the ones I get appear on Amazon, so I looked mine up.

 

You never know

The Vamipire Kitty-cat Chronicles is, to my way of thinking, just a humorous romp, a spoof of vampires and a social satire. Harmless, I thought. But it received one 1-star and two 2-star reviews from people who disliked it a lot. However, enough other readers agree with my take on it to keep the average rating at 4 stars.

Considering the goodly number of writers who have bought Flogging the Quill, Crafting a Novel that Sells and given reviews, I’m really honored by the average of 4+ stars. I like to teach and mentor, and to have feedback that I’m helping other writers  makes my day.

 Do you have any review stories about your books?

 More bookshelves?

Let me ask you this: I think I should do more “bookshelves” for writers to showcase their books. I could do it one week a month. What do you think? Tell me on the poll. Multiple choices can be made.

Happy Holidays!

Ray

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© 2011 Ray Rhamey

Flogometer for Kendra and Holiday Bookshelf 5

 

The Vampire Kitty-cat Chronicles Ray Rhamey
Vampire mythology is upended when Patch, a calico tomcat, is turned into breakfast--and a vampire kitty-cat--by a starving vampire. Narrated by Patch in a deliciously snarky cat take on the world, he struggles to find a new life, as it were, in which he's tried for murder, almost shotgunned into undead pieces, kidnapped twice, and turned into a (shudder) politician. As it turns out, life doesn’t get any easier after you’re dead.  5-star Midwest Book Review: “Superbly crafted by an inventive and skilled storyteller. Enthusiastically recommended for anyone who would enjoy a terrifically original and thoroughly entertaining yarn!”

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Lyon’s Legacy Sandra Ulbrich Almazan
Lyon’s Legacy--Scientist Joanna Lyon despises her great-grandfather, legendary TwenCen musician Sean Lyon. Her uncle wants to clone him, even if he has to send Jo through a wormhole to an alternate universe where Sean still lives. Fearing the clone will be mistreated, Jo agrees to go so she can secretly sabotage the project. Then she learns she won’t be allowed to return home without Sean’s DNA, and other time travelers want to make sure she doesn’t tell her ancestor how he dies. Can she still thwart her uncle's plan, and what will she have to sacrifice to do so?

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White Russian Edward Wallace Richbourg
Alexei Kikalishvili demands justice for the brutal murder of the parents of eight-year-old Maria Tarpischeva. Ten years later, with Maria, the reigning Wimbledon champion, financially secure and able to live on her own, he aims for revenge. He doesn't realize how much trouble that's about to cause him.
CIA agent Yuri Skurikov offers Alexei a Hobson's choice: assist Yuri in foiling the sale of a Russian submarine by the Merchant of Death to a Colombian drug cartel or face prosecution for murder.
The flippant, even irreverent, Alexei often entertains during his tragic global quest for revenge against the Russian Mafiya.

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Blood Scourge G. Dedrick Robinson
U.S. Destroyer attacks the submarine carrying its new superbug. Years later, it kills people on a remote Philippine island. The CDC's Dr. Kristin St John thinks the outbreak is contained but Russian educated virologist turned terrorist Rishad Zharmakhan obtains a sample to unleash in American cities. Kristin tries to stop a missile strike on Zharmakhan's lab, fearing it might disperse the virus rather than destroying it, but it's too late. Now mutated into an unimaginably virulent strain, hundreds, then thousands are dying.

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Send your published book for a place on the bookshelf. I've just one more book to put on the shelf next Monday, so if you'd like some exposure to holiday book buyers, submit your book according to the directions here.

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Flogometer for Kendra: would you turn the page?

Kendra sends the opening to A Girl Called Graye.

City of Destiny, Oregon Territories, 1880

Ms. Ophelia Mudd knew precisely how to deal with wayward girls in her care. A firm hand, hard work, and no coddling. Oh yes, Ms. Ophelia had more than one theory about how to care for degenerate children. Her girls weren't destined for extraordinary things, Prince Charmings, or any other flights of fancy. Or so she thought.

 It would be nice to think that Ms. Ophelia merely had the girls' best interests at heart, but alas, that was not the case. Ms. Ophelia was a true wart of a woman in both personality and appearance. She looked as if she’d been squashed by some giant compressor, causing her chin to sit squarely on her chest. Her breathing, perhaps affected by her diminutive neck, made little whistling noises with each breath she took as she shuffled from place to place with arms too long for her podgy body. A mobile lung followed along where ever she went, puffing and hissing as it squeaked along the floor on large iron wheels.

 On this bright Sunday morning Ms. Ophelia lined up her girls from eldest to youngest in the long drawing room for inspection and lecture, as she did every Sunday. She walked along the line in near silence, saving for hisses from the mobile lung. Steel tubing coiled from the puffing machine and around Ms. Ophelia's head like a thin metallic serpent, resting on her hairy upper lip with its two blunt fangs inserted into her flaring nostrils.

Yes for me

This made me think of the first Harry Potter novel, which opens with colorful, detestable antagonists. There's no protagonist here yet, but there it tension in the air--what will this creature do to the girls? The voice and the writing were strong for me, and this is one of those cases where voice adds enough impetus to get the page turned. Oh, there are little edits I would suggest, but they are minor.

That said, I would look, if I were Kendra, for a way to get the nature of her caretaker onto the first page, perhaps trimming some of the description. The reason is that this seems to be a steam punk paranormal story, and the more clues up front the merrier. Here’s the relevant narrative from later in the story:

Betel Daggett was a scruffy old man with blackened teeth and lips as red as fresh blood. The deep wrinkles in his face could have hidden coins within them. Most of all, and possibly the real reason Ms. Ophelia hired him, was the white-faced terror he inspired in the girls. Their fear was justified, but not for reasons any of them dared imagine. Betel Daggett was what Daytimers would call a vampire (albeit a very old, very kind, and very wise vampire).

Comments, please?

Ray

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Submitting to the Flogometer:

Email the following in an attachment (.doc, .docx, or .rtf preferred):

1. your title
2. your 1st chapter or prologue plus 1st chapter
3. Please format with double spacing, 12-point font Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins.
4. Please include in your email permission to post it on FtQ.
5. And, optionally, permission to use it as an example in a book if that's okay.
6. If you’re in a hurry, I’ve done “private floggings,” $50 for a first chapter.
7. If you rewrite while you wait you turn, it’s okay with me to update the submission.

© 2011 Ray Rhamey

Holiday Bookshelf #4

Finding Magic Ray Rhamey

Annie is a gifted healer with mental abilities that enable her to slow aging, cure disease, heal a heart from the inside . . . or crush an enemy’s as it beats. She hides to escape persecution that has haunted her people through the ages, but a Homeland Security agent penetrates Annie’s disguise. On the run as a suspected terrorist, an even greater threat arises when a kinsman bent on avenging the murder of his son creates an unstoppable killer plague. Annie is the only hope for billions of people . . . if she can evade capture.

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Remix Lexi Revellian

Caz Tallis is living her dream, restoring rocking horses in her London workshop. When she finds shabby but charismatic Joe and his dog asleep on her roof terrace, she is reluctantly drawn into investigating a missing rock star and an unsolved murder. Then she discovers Joe is not the ordinary guy he says he is. Should she continue to trust him, or go straight to the police as James, her best friend, wants her to?

She has to discover who is lying to her, and who is telling the truth, before she too becomes a target for the killer...

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No Time to Cry Rose Campion

Sue wants just two things from life, lots of dough and her very own Prince Charming. With Walt Stanlee wrapped around her little finger, the son of the richest man in town, she's on her way to getting the dough. In the midst of fending off Walt's pleas to get married until he comes up with more cash, she falls for the suave and debonair Alex as hard as a load of bricks dropped from an eighty-story building. Running off with him to be married, this small-town mistress of the scam, soon lands herself in a situation involving blackmail and murder.

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Piercing Through the Darkness Emerald Barnes

It’s on the edge of her memory like a word on the tip of her tongue, but Kandi can’t remember what it is to save her life. Despite being a cop, Jimmy can’t protect Kandi from the one thing that haunts her. She’s in danger and doesn’t even know it. After it happened, her brain repressed her memories of the accident, and now, she’s taking a Biology class under a man who wants to see her dead. The memories have started coming back, and it feels like she’s miles away from him.

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The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken Mari Passananti

 The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken tells the story of Zoë Clark, a young woman who sets out to find a man to solve her problems. Instead she finds herself facing her own shortcomings, testing her oldest friendships and realizing that she has the power to make herself happy.

Packed with snappy dialogue and playful wit, The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken will strike a chord with any woman who’s ever allowed herself to think, My life would be perfect, if I could just meet the right guy.

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If you would like to submit a book for the Holiday Bookshelf, see the directions on this FtQ post.

Happy Book-buying!

Ray

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© 2011 Ray Rhamey

Flogometer for Sheri and more Holiday Bookshelf

We the Enemy Ray Rhamey

In this action-packed political thriller, reforms in Oregon compel criminals to tell the truth in court and guns are limited to nonlethal weapons. Opposition is fierce, and the president aims to restore the status quo by stopping the man behind reform, Noah Stone. He sends Jake Black, former Secret Service agent. But Jake is drawn to Stone’s work. When attacks threaten to destroy it, only Jake can save it. He faces the question of his life—who is the enemy, Noah Stone or Jake Black? 5-star Midwest Book Review “A unique thriller with plenty of twists and turns, highly recommended.”

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Eiko Kenan Brack

Eiko is martial-arts fantasy about a young girl; raised by the assassins who killed her family. When she comes of age, she becomes their next target. Eiko follows a dangerous and fascinating journey as she grows from child to young woman, along the way experiencing a world few could understand.

Eiko is the type of story that I have always wanted to see on the screen, written in a way that shows a very tragic character who overcomes harsh adversity, through very violent means, but in the process finds her own humanity.

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The Unfinished Song: Initiate Tara Maya

Dindi dreams of becoming a Tavaedi, one of the powerful warrior-dancers whose secret magics are revealed only to those who pass a mysterious Test during the Initiation ceremony. The problem? No-one in Dindi's clan has ever passed the Test. Her grandmother died trying. But Dindi has a plan...

Kavio is the most powerful warrior-dancer in Faearth, but exiled from his tribehold for a crime he didn't commit, he decides to shed his old life. But when he rescues a young Initiate girl, he finds himself drawn into a war. He must decide whether to walk away or fight for her...

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GRAND OBSESSION:  A Piano Odyssey  Perri Knize

A Washington Post Best Book of 2008 and a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” now in paperback.  This lyrical, intimate memoir of one woman’s mad quest to recapture the lost sound of a grand piano is about finding and pursuing passion at any age.  As heart-stopping as a thriller, Grand Obsession takes readers around the globe and immerses them in a subculture of fascinating, real-life piano characters.  Knize’s epic journey to understand her piano’s elusive power reminds us that reason can’t always account for what calls to us, but answering that call can lead to life’s most profound experiences.

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Animals Don’t Blush David Gross

The confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers is a region of the USA steeped in histories of the mountain man, fur traders and the northern upper plains nomadic tribes. I joined a veterinary practice there in 1960. Our clients were determined, independent-minded folks who expected their veterinarian to be physically tough, knowledgeable about all species of animals, and skilled in the practice of the profession. Our animal patients were usually stoic but never embarrassed by anything they did or done to them. The characters in this book are those people, those animals, and that time and place.

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The flogging: Sheri has sent the opening to Favors.

Lounging on a bed in her t-shirt, shorts and slippers, Julie Fielding looked across the room through the dingy window at the setting sun. She felt older than her 28 years; tonight’s solitude was a welcome pause in the whirlwind of events that had become her life. Tough, yes; but at least Julie’s experiences were grounded in the tangible, for the time being, that is.

Julie watched as magenta and azure-mixed clouds spread as brushed liquid over the darkening sky. Slowly they turned to red and tangerine, then finally to blue-grey shadows lined with piercing gold and white. An occasional whooshing of cars on the nearby interstate and faint voices were superseded by a door slamming one room over as male occupants argued about whose turn it was to pony-up for gasoline. Julie rose to her feet to turn on the nearby floor lamp and continued to the window, tugging hard to close the thick curtains on a mid-September’s eve. After checking the adjacent door’s lock, Julie turned and all but tossed herself back onto the floral polyester comforter-covered bed. Cigarette-laced air filled her lungs, causing the threat of a cough. She reached for the nearby T.V. remote in the dim-lit room and set to clicking before stopping on the 80’s sit-com “Cheers”.

Her green eyes soon grew heavy, lulled into relaxation by the faint dialogue from the television characters. She pulled a pillow out and began to cuddle up when the familiar cricket (snip)

Nope.

There’s some pretty description and clean writing, but for me this didn’t raise and story questions, and that left me lacking the tension needed to turn the page. This character is on her way to a new town and a new house after a divorce, but this chapter and what I saw of the next don’t go near a story--it’s mostly “throat-clearing,” the author’s idea of information we must have to understand the story. Perhaps--but the time to give that is during the story, not before, when you’re trying to hook a reader’s interest. My advice: find the place where something really happens to this woman to start the story.

Comments, please?

Ray

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Submitting to the Flogometer:

Email the following in an attachment (.doc, .docx, or .rtf preferred):

1. your title
2. your 1st chapter or prologue plus 1st chapter
3. Please format with double spacing, 12-point font Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins.
4. Please include in your email permission to post it on FtQ.
5. And, optionally, permission to use it as an example in a book if that's okay.
6. If you’re in a hurry, I’ve done “private floggings,” $50 for a first chapter.
7. If you rewrite while you wait you turn, it’s okay with me to update the submission.

© 2011 Ray Rhamey

Holiday Bookshelf

This captivating book by a design client is at the printer’s now. I’ve read this one, and highly recommend it. Black Wings by Kathleen Toomey Jabs. From the back cover:

LT Bridget Donovan suspects the worst when her former Naval Academy roommate, Audrey Richards, perishes in a botched take-off from an aircraft carrier. The Navy says it's an accident, but facts don’t add up. Could it be suicide, or murder? Donovan's unofficial investigation into what really happened, both during their past Academy days and in Richards’ final hours, forces her to examine the concepts of honor, justice and the role of loyalty in pursuit of those ideals.

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I’m pleased to announce the publication of my novel, The Summer Boy

It’s 1958, a time of innocence. In this “novel of Texas,” a ranch hand is murdered and bad things start happening to Jesse, an average kid working a summer job on a ranch. And then there‘s Lola . . . the boss’s daughter is a firecracker of a girl, and her bold ways send death their way. It will take all of their heart and courage to survive. What readers say: “The Summer Boy brought back memories of first kisses and fogged car windows.” “The story is alive. I kept reading even when my eyes were closing at night.”

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No One Knows You’re Here by Rachel Howzell

Crime reporter Syeeda McKay is in the pursuit of Los Angeles’s most active serial killer. Over the last twenty years, the Phantom Slayer has hunted African-American prostitutes working in one of the worst parts of South Los Angeles, killing eight victims in the alleys off Western Avenue, and then disappearing into the shadows. But Syeeda doesn’t know that the killer has turned his sights on her.

Detective Adam Sherwood has been handed the Phantom Slayer cases. Together, he and Syeeda must figure out who is doing the killing . . . before Syeeda becomes his next victim.

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Lethal Remedy Richard L. Mabry, M.D.

Dr. Sara Miles’ patient has an overwhelming infection with Staphylococcus luciferus, universally fatal and resistant to all conventional medications. Only an experimental antibiotic, developed and administered by Sara’s ex-husband, Dr. Jack Ingersoll, can save the girl’s life. But potentially lethal late effects from the drug turn up, sending Sara and her colleague, Dr. Rip Pearson, on a hunt for hidden critical data that will let them reverse the changes before it’s too late. (This book is Christian fiction in the medical suspense genre.)

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Thin Blood Vicki Tyley

A stockbroker’s wife disappears. Blood on his hands and an adulterous affair with the missing woman’s younger sister sees him charged with murder. Ten years later, journalist Jacinta Deller decides to investigate, only to become embroiled in a warped game of delusion and murder.

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Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble D. Robert Pease

Noah lives for piloting spaceships through time, dodging killer robots and saving Earth's animals from extinction.

Life couldn't be better.

But the twelve-year-old time traveler learns it could be a whole lot worse. His mom is kidnapped and taken to Mars; his dad is stranded in the Ice Age; and Noah is attacked at every turn by a foe bent on destroying Earth... for the second time.

If you're looking for an out of this world, action-packed adventure, and love such books as Percy Jackson or Artemis Fowl, then Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble needs to be your next thrill ride.

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The Illusion of Certainty  Greg Messel  

The Illusion of Certainty follows two storylines. Marc is a successful businessman who seems to have everything—a great job, a beautiful wife, a house in an upscale neighborhood of Portland, Oregon and two great kids who are preparing for college. But, Marc is unsettled by the sudden change in his wife is distant and unhappy. What’s going on?

Then a successful young attorney, Alexandra Mattson, meets a handsome young cop, Sean. They seem to made for each other and begin to merge their futures in a world of uncertainty.

But, the only certainty in life is uncertainty.

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More to come tomorrow, along with a flogging. The above are presented in the order received.

Any other folks interested in the Holiday Bookshelf? Check the previous post for directions.

For what it’s worth.

Ray

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© 2011 Ray Rhamey

Flog your book on the FtQ Holiday Bookshelf

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’Tis the season to be gifting with books. As you know, I occasionally flog my books here, and I will again. But I thought it would be fun to create a “Holiday Bookshelf” where FtQ readers could flog their books here on FtQ. So . . .

You're invited to present your published novel here on the “Holiday Bookshelf.” Just send me a cover image and a 100-word blurb about your novel plus the link to wherever you would like to send folks to either find out more about your book or to buy it.

Requirements for placement on the Holiday Bookshelf:

1. That your novel is currently published and available. It can be an eBook or a hard copy, or both.

2. You send a book-cover graphic. It would be nice if you sized it at 72 ppi and 100 pixels in width, but I can resize it if you don't have the capability.

3. A 100-word description of your book. Anything longer than that will be rejected. This is an exercise in discipline.

4. A link: the web address/URL of the web page to which you would like readers to go.

5. Your name

6. Include in the email your permission for the image and description to be posted on FtQ.

Understand that, unless I'm acquainted with a book, I'll have to make clear that I don't have an opinion or role in any of the books offered by writers.

So, in an email that includes “Holiday Bookshelf” in the SUBJECT, send me attachments that include the above elements and I'll look at it for inclusion. I'm pretty open, but I reserve the right to not post things I find objectionable. I anticipate posting batches as they come in over the next couple of weeks.

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Let’s start the Holiday Bookshelf with a shout-out to the excellent books of two of my design clients. As I work on a book, I get to know both the content and the author, and these two are worthy of a look by you. Click on the linked title to go to the website.

Laced with the author’s cartoons, Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak is a humorous memoir by a very funny man, Mark Saunders. I’ll just let one of his blurbs do the talking.

Mark Saunders arrives in San Miguel de Allende with his wife and finds dust and dogs, twisted ankles, fireworks, cactus and much more. He’s the classic American innocent abroad, part clueless tourist, part critic, and always a lover. It’s a book for every life adventurer, particularly those reinventing their lives or retiring, first for the humor, which crackles on every page, then for the curious, tolerant attitude, and finally for the story, which chronicles the changes in two lives (actually four, counting a dog and a cat) that transpire when they leave the safe and familiar and create a new life. Foster Church, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Discovering Main Street

In this satire for mothers and daughters, The Mother Daughter Show delivers smiles and a recognition of the angst that accompanies parenting. From the back cover:

At Barton Friends–a D.C. prep school so elite its parent body includes the President and First Lady–three mothers have thrown themselves into organizing the annual musical revue. Will its Machiavellian intrigue somehow enable them to reconnect with their graduating daughters, who are fast spinning out of control?
By turns hilarious and poignant, The Mother Daughter Show will appeal to anyone who’s ever had a daughter–and anyone who’s ever been one.

So send that email with your book cover and blurb for the Holiday Bookshelf.

I want to give you the info on my latest book, but this post is long enough and I want the spotlight for these two deserving books.

For what it’s worth,

Ray

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© 2011 Ray Rhamey

Flogometer for Ray plus shameless stuff-promotion—help me out?

We the Enemy is launched!

Okay, I’m pretty excited by this, so please bear with me. After an investment of 10 years and considerable bucks on professional editorial input, I’ve put it out there. It’s available in paperback and ebooks of all sorts at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

In the tradition of FtQ, I offer below the first manuscript page. IF you want to turn the page, there’s a link that takes you to a 2-chapter sample. But first . . .

Hey, it’s just 99 cents!

All the ebook versions are priced at 99 cents—did you know that there’s a free Kindle reader for your computer? I want to make it as easy as possible to make readers familiar with my work, so this is partly a marketing effort. At very low risk, readers have a chance to discover a writer they like to read.

The paperback is cool

Yeah, I may be biased because it’s my design, but it’s a really nice book to have and to hold. The paperback isn’t 99 cents: it’s priced at $13.95--production and sales costs need to be covered.

Pass the word?

Whether you like this piece of my stuff or not, it’s possible that readers you know will. So please forward, tweet, or whatever this post to other readers. I thank you. My wife thanks you. My cat thanks you (by the way, you’re a lot better off if you stay on her good side).

Okay, flogging time

Even though We the Enemy is published, I can change it if I learn things that I want to incorporate. That’s the cool thing about ebooks and Print On Demand. So please read and comment as you will (and, hey, even if you vote to not turn the page, why not click the link and have a taste of a little more?).

And remember, this is “stuff.” It’s not about me, it’s about the words and how well they do or don’t work with you. Here goes . . .

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Ray has sent the opening of We the Enemy, a near-future speculative thriller.

The young woman laughed and swung the child back and forth.

Words came from Jake, but he couldn’t make them out because they were muddied and slow, as if made of molasses.

The woman frowned at him. She pulled the child in and said underwater words that made no sense. The look on her face was angry. Wild.

A nasty mechanical buzz blasted him—his alarm clock yelling at him. Jake groped and turned it off, then realized that he was holding his breath, his jaws clenched.

Why?

As he did every morning, he turned to a snapshot in a plain black frame on his nightstand—Amy in her favorite flowery party dress, forever five years old. He touched the tiny silver crucifix hanging from the frame by its chain. Amy wore it in the picture.

Why could he see her face in the photo but not in his memory? The crucifix glittered, and he couldn’t look at her picture any more.

He swung out of bed and his foot came down on an empty wine bottle. God, his head hurt—the price of self-medication. He scowled at all the damn sunshine coming in the window.

Should he blow off his meeting with the attorney general of the Unites States? After she’d come all the way to Chicago to keep the meeting secret? Should he stiff a woman who has lots of (snip)

To turn the page, click here.

Hey, thanks!

Thanks for reading and voting and commenting. And for spreading the word.

End of stuff promotion (for now).

Ray

Submitting to the Flogometer:

Email the following in an attachment (.doc, .docx, or .rtf preferred):

1. your title
2. your 1st chapter or prologue plus 1st chapter
3. Please format with double spacing, 12-point font Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins.
4. Please include in your email permission to post it on FtQ.
5. And, optionally, permission to use it as an example in a book if that's okay.
6. If you’re in a hurry, I’ve done “private floggings,” $50 for a first chapter.
7. If you rewrite while you wait you turn, it’s okay with me to update the submission.

© 2011 Ray Rhamey

We pause for a brief commercial message—and appeal for help + video!

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There’s a person out there named R.B. (a.k.a. the Grinch) who has commented on what a terrible thing I’m doing, using my blog to talk about my own publishing efforts. You know what? I don’t care. I’ve spent a gazillion hours not only writing a novel but in doing countless other things to try to break out, things that might ultimately benefit you some day—consider it a pioneering effort. For instance:

• Designed the book and its cover (just one proof away from done)
• Set up printing and distribution with Lightning Source and Ingram
• Created free podcasts of the novel
• Created ebook versions (they are now officially published)
• Created, with a friend’s help, the video below
• Created a website, www.vampirekittycat.com
• Designed graphics for garments, mugs, water bottles, and opened a store
• Sent ARCS out for blurbs and reviews—see the peachy one from Tess Gerritsen below
• And come up with the BuzzBlast contest to make spreading the word (your part in all this) fun and prize worthy
  

I hope you’ll join me in challenging the status quo, the conventional wisdom that a writer can’t succeed in publishing a novel—much less write one that people like R.B. will, after looking down their noses, deem worthy of reading. Listen, the publishing world is changing, and I—and you—may be its future.

In fact, if you read on, you’ll see how this effort could possibly affect you through the new imprint I’m using for this book, Platypus. But first, some fun.

Tess Gerritsen, bestselling author of Ice Cold says this about The Vampire Kitty-cat Chronicles,

"What a pleasure! Quirky and laugh-out-loud fun. Ray Rhamey takes the vampire novel where it's never been before, into the realm of sheer hilarity."

If you enjoyed the video and would like to use it, you can get the code for embedding it in your website or blog by right-clicking on the player image.

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BuzzBlast contest starts now! It's simple, and everyone has a chance to win. Use email or Twitter to spread the word according to the contest rules here. No purchase necessary.

Folks, for this to work, I really need your help in spreading the word. I'm not asking (or expecting) anyone to buy the book, just let people know about the website. They'll make their own decision. After you visit the BuzzBlast contest page, take a look around the website—there are podcasts, the video, a sample from the book, and reviews and endorsements.

There are currently two contest periods, this week and next week. Read all about it here, and take a look at the fun stuff you could win.

Even if you don’t enter the contest, PLEASE consider emailing or tweeting as many people as you can and send them to the website: www.vampirekittycat.com. A shortened URL for tweets is http://bit.ly/7TPGjy. That’s all -- no selling (unless you want to). If the website and my product have what it takes to succeed, they will. That’s a publisher’s gamble, but you can make a huge difference in bringing people in to make their own judgements.

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The future of publishing is us

We’re the writers who provide the fuel that powers publishing. If we can get through the barriers that face us, our work will reach an audience, and we may even make a buck or two. But I believe that there are many novels like mine that don’t fit into the status quo definitions of what is publishable that languish, unread.

So, if this effort for The Vampire Kitty-cat Chronicles succeeds, I’m going take what I've learned and open up my teensy publishing company to submissions from writers who want to try the indie route to breaking in. I call it Platypus.

Unbeaten paths to worthy reads

That’s the theme line for Platypus, and here’s what it’s about. The platypus breaks all the rules—it’s the only mammal that lays eggs, is venomous, has a duck bill, a beaver tail, and otter feet—and it does just fine, thank you very much.

It can be the same for novels that don’t slip tidily into genre pigeonholes. Platypus authors take readers on unique paths to entertainment, truth, and enjoyable reads.

I hope you’ll visit the page on the publishing website that tells you more. This is new, and will be refined and developed over the months as I wrestle with publishing my kitty-cat story.

It’s not vanity publishing, and not like the iUniverse-type operations, but a true partnership. We share the work, we share the income. We don’t expect much, either—there are no promises, no guarantees.

I'm signing off for today. Please visit vampirekittycat.com. We will resume regular flogging Wednesday, but I will still keep promotional elements up on the blog.

ARCHIVES

© 2010 Ray Rhamey

Micro-Tension, an excerpt from the new Donald Maass book

Donald Maass, one of the top fiction literary agents, contacted me and other bloggers to offer short excerpts from his forthcoming book, The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great. I chose the one on Micro-Tension. I cover this in topic one of the sections in my book with Tess Gerritsen’s take on what Don had to say in one of the workshops she attended.

A literary agent in New York, Donald Maass’s agency sells more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas. He is also the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), and Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004).

I have all of his books, and have ordered the new one. They’re well worth it. What you may not know is that Maass is also a published novelist and a keen analyst of fiction. For his Breakout book, he analyzed 100 successful novels to detect the commonalities that contributed to their success. The reason he sells them so well is that he understands what makes them sell, and how to make that happen.

Here’s the description he sent of his new book, and then the excerpt. And thanks, Don, for your contributions to all of us wannabe novelists.

In his new book, New York literary agent Donald Maass illuminates the techniques of master contemporary novelists. Some authors write powerhouse novels every time. What are they doing differently on the page? Maass not only explains, he shows you how you can right away use the techniques of greatness in your current manuscript.

Micro-Tension
Conflict is story. We hardly need discuss that any further. Every novelist who’s gotten beyond the beginner stage knows it. What many do not grasp, though, including many published novelists, is that what keeps us turning hundreds of pages is not a central conflict, main problem or primary goal.

Think about it. If that was all it took to get keep readers involved to the end, then all you would have to do is set a principal plot problem at the outset. Then you could indulge yourself however you like for hundreds of pages.

Imagine.

Of course it is not like that. Conflict must be present in smaller ways throughout. Most novelists understand that too, or say they do. Despite that I am able to skim vast swaths of virtually all manuscripts and portions of many published novels.

What is it, then, that keeps us reading all the way? Is it conflict within each scene; a character in every chapter who has a clearly stated goal? Is it avoiding low-tension traps such as back story, aftermath, landscape and weather openings, empty exposition and unneeded dialogue? Is it keeping the action moving? Is it throwing in sex and violence for occasional jolts of adrenalin and allure? Is it luck?

What keeps us reading every word on every page of a novel is none of that. Consider the page turners on your shelves that do open with weather or scenery, or quickly dump in back story, or linger in aftermath and indulge in exposition. How do those authors get away with it?

Conversely, think about those highly-plotted, action-packed novels that didn’t hold your attention. Think about the violence that moved you not at all and the sex scenes that you skipped. Weren’t those novelists doing it right, writing by the rules? How come, then, you set those novels aside?

Holding a reader’s attention every word of the way is a function not of the type of novel you’re writing, a good premise, tight writing, quick pace, showing not telling or any of the other conventionally understood and frequently taught principles of storytelling.

Keeping readers constantly in your grip comes from the steady application of something else altogether: Micro-tension. That is the tension that constantly keeps your reader wondering what will happen—not in the story, but in the next few seconds.

Comments, anyone?

For what it’s worth.

Ray

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Tips & Subscriptions Your generosity helps defray the cost of hosting FtQ.

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Public floggings available. If I can post it here,

1. send 1st chapter or prologue plus 1st chapter as an attachment (cutting and pasting and reformatting from an email is a time-consuming pain) and I'll critique the first couple of pages.
2. Please format your submission as specified at the front of this post.
3. Please include in your email permission to post it on FtQ.
4. And, optionally, permission to use it as an example in a book if that's okay.
5. If you’re in a hurry, I’ve done “private floggings,” $50 for a first chapter.
6. If you rewrite while you wait you turn, it’s okay with me to update the submission.

ARCHIVES

© 2009 Ray Rhamey

Book Launch! You can pre-order Flogging the Quill

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 My book, Flogging the Quill, Crafting a Novel that Sells, is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. I should be printing and shipping within 2 or 3 weeks, and early orders will be tremendously helpful. This is a self-publishing enterprise.

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Free e-book for friends of FtQ
In appreciation for all of the readers who visit and contribute to this blog, I'm making a free PDF copy of my book available until April 1, 2009. In return, I ask you to sign up for "NewsNotes," a sporadic email notice about workshops, appearances, and new books. I also hope you'll post a review on Amazon.com, and spread the word to friends and fellow writers. To sign up, go to my Friends of FtQ page on the website .

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The final proof is ordered, and, all being correct, the print order will go out by the end of this week. I hope you'll visit the website and read the reactions of publishing pros. Meanwhile, here's my press release copy:

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Flogging the Quill is a one-book remedy for a host of beginner-novelist ailments, and a tune-up for published novelists.

Rich with advice and coaching from editor/author Ray Rhamey, Flogging the Quill, Crafting a Novel that Sells, ranges wide but with a single focus: lifting a novel manuscript to a publishable, professional level.

The first section, covering the craft of storytelling, includes lessons on creating tension, creating the character “care factor,” what drives a plot, the six vital story ingredients, and tools for spotting shortcomings in a narrative.

In Description, writers learn how experiential description can characterize, plus how to handle the tricky character-description hurdle, staging, and overwriting.

The Dialogue section helps writers avoid leaden overuse of dialogue tags, enliven a dialogue scene with action beats, and deliver the sound of dialogue.

The vital “when to tell, how to show” lesson in the Technique section has been praised by literary agents and college teachers. The section also coaches on point of view, including the problems “head-hopping” can cause with readers.

With the Words section, Rhamey reveals unique insights to the good and bad of using adverbs in a fiction narrative, and guides writers in weeding out weak, wasted, and wrong words.

Computer tips that make writing more productive are included, plus a “workout” section where writers apply lessons learned to real efforts by beginning novelists.

This all-in-one volume draws on the deep understanding of an editor and writer who brings to the task experience in advertising, screenwriting, editing novels, and writing them. Rhamey is the author of the internationally known “litblog,” Flogging the Quill.

As top New York publisher and editor, Lou Aronica, says, “Rhamey offers the kind of advice that could make a huge difference in a writer's prospects.” Bestseller Tess Gerritsen adds, “...it’s a must-have for any novelist.”

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For what it’s worth.

Ray

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Public floggings available. If I can post it here,

1. send 1st chapter or prologue plus 1st chapter as an attachment (cutting and pasting and reformatting from an email is a time-consuming pain) and I'll critique the first couple of pages.
2. Please format your submission as specified at the front of this post.
3. Please include in your email permission to post it on FtQ.
4. And, optionally, permission to use it as an example in a book if that's okay.
5. If you’re in a hurry, I’ve done “private floggings,” $50 for a first chapter.
6. If you rewrite while you wait you turn, it’s okay with me to update the submission.

ARCHIVES

© 2009 Ray Rhamey