Sandwiches and Clichés

Recipe - http://bit.ly/sDFdfX

Sharon always opens Juicy Writing class with that date's reading from The Awe-Manac: A Daily Dose of Wonder by Jill Badonsky. Tonight, according to The Awe-Manac, it was National Sandwich Day and also a day to consider the worth and wonder of clichés. Sharon surprised us with a treat of tea sandwiches. As we munched on little white triangles filled with cream cheese-pineapple sprinkled with cinnamon, we wrote about our favorite sandwiches. I wrote a poem praising Day-After-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. Then Sharon went to the seventh page of Mary Balogh's novel, Seducing an Angel, traced down seven lines and picked the seventh sentence after that: "It is the season, Alice." Using that as a starting point, we could write using sandwich references or deliberately use clichés. I decided to do both and had a lot of fun. Here's the scrap of story I wrote:

It is the season, Alice ..., He immediately began scribbling, ...when a young man's fancy turns to love. Mortimer took a bite of his Monte Cristo sandwich and contemplated his next line as he chewed. Powdered sugar fell onto his Garfield stationary, but such was his concentration that he didn't notice. "Ah," he said, hit with sudden inspiration. He anchored the page with an elbow and wrote the next line of purple passion. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn if your eyes are like moonbeams and your lovely hair like thistledown. It is the milky smoothness of your voice, the hammy fullness of your communicative style, the sweetness and softness of your smile that I crave. To consume you would be heaven. "Heaven," he mumbled, popping the last big bite into his welcoming mouth. He closed his eyes and thought, 'Others' love is like a red, red rose, but you, my dear, are as sumptuous as my favorite sandwich.' "I'll write that down!" Mortimer exclaimed, powdered sugar and Texas toast crumbs flying on his exhaled breath to scatter across his letter. Mortimer was not handsome, but he had a way with words and an appetite he was sure Alice could not resist. He would marry her in April -- April was the loneliest month, after all -- and he resolved to be lonely no longer. He would teach her to cook on their honeymoon. They would never go hungry and they would live long and prosper.

Facebook Changes and Seven-League Boots

I had a Facebook-focused week. I created the Welcome on my new fanpage, Books by Naima Haviland, so that visitors get a free short story. I have a hidden motive for this: once you have 25 fans on your page, Facebook lets you assign it a shortened, official name. The official fanpage name is much more memorable than the rambling automated one Facebook initially assigns. That's a great advantage, from a marketing standpoint. So click-thru and Like me, people! And get a free short story ;-)

I noticed after Facebook's last round of changes, that the content I created with 3rd party apps wasn't showing up. In this case, if you reactive the missing app it shows up again (Your Page>Edit Info>Apps>[your disappeared app]>Add or Remove>[then click Remove, then go back in there and click Add]).

I attended a webinar walk-through of the changes Facebook has on schedule for October 1. For instance, after October 1, the iframes app that enables you to give freebies won't display your graphics anymore unless they are hosted on a secure server. The iframes developers are working to setup their own secure server but you can also host your graphics on FreeVPS, which I did with no fuss/no muss. The webinar was produced by Shelley Hitz, the Self-Publishing Coach, whose Get Your Facebook Done webinar series was instrumental in getting me started with my fanpage. In addition to showing us the adjustments we'd need to make to keep our fanpages visible, Shelley shared bonus marketing tips and resources that I am very excited to try out. I have implemented and plan to implement so many of the tips and resources I already gleaned from her newsletter and website, that -- as I said to Gigi, my hairstylist, while she undertook the sisyphean task of keeping me beautiful -- "I'm just glad Shelley Hitz is in the world". This past week, Shelley shared many article links regarding Facebook changes and just really helped keep her clients up to speed. Thanks, Shelley!

Also, thanks to Steven Lewis. I used his tutorials on formatting for Kindle to publish my Demontorium stories and I subscribe to his Taleist blog to stay informed on all that's happening in Amazon's Kindle universe.

And...David Gaughran. His book, Let's Get Digital, has lots of advice on marketing beyond Kindle and includes 33 successful digital authors relating their own experiences (info that is both grounding and inspiring).

And...Sharon Renae, whose Juicy Writing class reminds me that writing itself can and should be as fun for me now as finger-painting was in kindergarten. (I forget that when I'm all up in this marketing stuff). If you're not fortunate enough to live in Pensacola, she offers creativity classes online.

Among others, these folks gave me 7-league boots to take one giant leap forward.

Painting to Write

This time in Juicy Writing, Sharon reminded us that sometimes we work too hard. Tonight, instead of doing writing exercises, we would paint. I came into the session stressed and left completely relaxed. This is my painting you see here. 

I am a classic Type A. As fulfilling as writing and self-publishing are, I get really wound around the axle. I get really obsessive. I wake up every morning with an aching jaw from grinding my teeth and with my head a mental teleprompter endlessly scrolling a list of publishing tasks. I have to remind myself sometimes that I already have one stressful job. I did not choose to pursue my writing muse to give myself a second stressful job. It is precisely at those times when playing is just what my writing needs. 

To understand how this works, I recommend the book My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. She suffered a massive stroke to her left hemisphere and lived with only her right during the first long stretch of her recovery. What she unexpectedly found was bliss. She lost her ego, lost her agenda, lost the concept of linear time, lost her need to be top dog, lost even her sense of physical separateness. Without these qualifiers, she felt constant love and joy. As she regained use of her left hemisphere, she had to develop mental habits that disciplined her left's dominant tendencies so that she could maintain inner peace.

One of the ways I maintain balance is through creative play, like painting. For you it may be throwing pots on a wheel or playing a round of golf before noon while the air is still fresh and cool. Something that absorbs your attention and brings you into Now. Something that has nothing riding on the outcome. This transfers your mental energy from the left hemisphere of your brain, which collects data and makes predictions based on its findings, to the right hemisphere, where creativity reigns and anything is considered possible. As writers, we need both hemispheres working in partnership, but for many of us left is dominant and really stifles right. So let Right out for a frolicsome run!

If you're interested in something like I do, you might check out Sharon's websites, http://www.sharonrenae.com/ and http://sharonrenaeart.com/. She's starting an online series of classes soon. Throughout the next year, she plans to branch out into a number of intuitive and creative subjects. Her newsletter will keep you informed as these opportunities arise.

FB Webinars and Abolitionists

I took Shelley Hitz's free webinar on building a Facebook author page Wednesday night. It was like trying to take a drink from a fire hose full blast, so I'm glad she made the recording and an attendant PDF available. I will need those when I design my page. She advised on connecting your FB fan page to other social networking sites and apps, such as http://hootsuite.com// and http://socialbios.com/. She showed how to engage FB friends through use of FB's interactivity features. She's offering a 4-webinar subscription throughout July. I plunked down the cash,  because one thing the price includes is updated info as FB changes, so I figure it will remain a fresh resource for me. The link to her Self Publishing Coach blog is in the right column of this page.

Finished the webinar and thought to do a little writing so I'd have something to read to Sharon in Juicy Writing Thursday. I want to write a little scene between Charlotte and the Greeley sisters  that will show how close they are from body language and a few snippets of conversation. The ostensible purpose of the scene is to set up the Greeleys being at Eugenie's bedside when Malinde makes her final visit. But as abolitionists, the Greeleys are the moral conscience of the story, so even though their facetime is minimal, their impression of what's happening is important. And their presence in the story has big implications for Risa, my heroine's best friend and a fellow slave. The way I write, I have to know the setting -- what the room looks like. And then what the characters look like, their physical features and their clothing. Even though the truly important thing is their interaction (and I could write that first; it would be more productive) my inner comfort zone is that I need to walk past the scene and understand it a glance. Literally (mentally) I need to be an uninvolved spectator who just happens by and sees the people. What would I get from a glance? The tension in the room? Or the ease? Would I be impressed by their wealth? Moved to pity? Repulsed? I need that snapshot before plumbing the depths. Even when conversation comes to mind first, which happens during moments of relaxation, and I grab pen and paper to write it down, I have to write the setting and have appearance in mind before inputting the written conversation. so the upshot of Wednesday night was I went through The Bad Death to reacquaint myself with the Greeley girls' appearance and I looked through my photography books on Charleston's great houses to pick out the perfect setting for the scene. Found one, too. So tonight I'll start writing.

Last night in Juicy Writing, Sharon helped me organize a schedule for my writing/publishing tasks. She has a method of putting this to paper that is really visual and stress-reducing. Now I literally have it on paper, pinned to my bulletin board above my desk, that Saturday I will publish my three short stories to e-readers. Monday, I'll input Linda's edits to Bloodroom and I'll keep doing that till I'm done. I have been pinballing from one task to another, not finishing anything and getting wigged out. So this will help immensely.