Ballet Pensacola's Dracula

My brother and I attended the 7PM Saturday performance of Dracula, performed by Ballet Pensacola. It was a fresh take on the story and beautifully choreographed by the Ballet's Artistic Director, Richard Steinert. It began with a trap door opening in the stage floor. From this void, two "creatures" (Dustin Simmons and Kristopher Williams) extended limbs that appeared to be multi-jointed and literally coming to life from some long-dormant state. The effect of Lance Brannon's lighting on their musculature was dramatic in contrast to an otherwise dark stage. Their dance was strong and masculine, but graceful and modern. Throughout the production -- as if the creatures' evolution never progressed beyond the demon realm, their movements were always weirdly contorted. This was a wonderful counterpoint to the delicate, classical ballet danced by Kristen Springer and Kayla Bartlett in their roles as Lucy and Mina.

Following the creatures' emergence, "bats" crawled out of the open space in the floor until thirteen filled the stage. The bats, Ballet Pensacola's corps, were ingeniously costumed by Christine Duhon. Their sleek hair was parted in the middle; their leotards were patterned in an op-art check like something from an Escher drawing and had sleeves that were puffed above the elbow. They wore large pointed black belts and slim black trousers that flared from the knees. According to the choreography, the bats movements looked mechanical or flowing a la classical ballet and the full sleeves or the fluid hems helped create that impression. Ranks of bats dove in and out of each other, filling the stage. It was wonderful.

Dracula's brides were Goth chicks with cherry red hair and black skirts that hung in funereal strips over black leggings. Tyler Day's Dracula was lithe, dominant, and seductive. I loved the pas de trois where Samuel Joseph Mounce's Harker danced to save Mina from Dracula. Dracula's pas de deux with Lucy, culminating with his bite was sensual and romantic. Later, the creatures' attack on Lucy was an altogether different dance, a choreographed act of brutality. This was a very interesting ballet, by turns sensual or perverse, romantic or violent.

A dominant feature of Lance Brannon's set design was a steampunk conglomeration of cogs and wheels. The trapdoor led to an underground mausoleum with coffins and oven-style cypts like you see in New Orleans' multi-tombs. The storyline broke from Stoker's novel, but I won't tell you how -- just in case they perform it next year. I hope Ballet Pensacola will repeat Dracula as a Halloween tradition, just as The Nutcracker is for Christmas. If so, don't miss it.

Alex Kava Speaks at the Friends of the Library Dinner

I had such a good time with my friend DeAnna at a dinner for the Friends of the West Florida Public Library, Friday night. The speaker was novelist Alex Kava, whose thrillers have been New York Times bestsellers. Neither DeAnna nor I had ever read Alex Kava. In preparation, we read her latest, Hotwire. Well, now we're fans. Kava has a neat economical style that I can't quite pin down. You know all about a character's personality very quickly without having been aware of reading a description. She writes short chapters with cliff hangers. Her protagonist, FBI agent Maggie O'Dell, is easy to relate to on a personal level; she's kickass but also someone you might know. Hotwire's plot revolves around a possible government conspiracy and weird shenanigans with the nation's food supply. DeAnna and I would text each other, saying, "Man, I'm never eating out again!" or "I'm giving up meat!"

As a speaker, Alex Kava was wonderful. She was funny, self-deprecating, and warm. She talked a lot about what it was like starting out. How subjective the feedback was; one rejection letter saying, "it needs more detail" and the next rejection letter saying, "it needs less detail". And how there's a double standard for crime-fighting protagonists such that Maggie O'Dell really can't develop a drinking habit or swear a lot or cat around. She spoke movingly of her respect for the contribution that libraries and librarians make to community life. She encouraged aspiring writers to stay true to their vision and believe in themselves. She talked about her friends who live in Pensacola and who were in attendance. She spoke of her friends' mother having been a lifelong supporter of our library and of their father, on whom she based one of the characters in the Maggie O'Dell novel, Damaged. It turns out, she bought a house here in Spring 2004. This made the audience laugh ruefully. It was Fall 2004 when Hurricane Ivan made landfall at just under Cat 4 strength and devastated our region. Alex buckled down under the storm with her two friends and used the experience to write the plot for Damaged set against a hurricane.

Oh, and we did not make good on our vows to never eat meat or eat out. The dinner was delicious. Thanks, West Florida Public Library and Alex Kava, for a lovely evening.

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.

Amazing, Underrated Anne Brontë

Anne Brontë

I'm almost done reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, written by the youngest of the three famous Brontë sisters. Her work has survived under the shadow of Emily's and Charlotte's bestsellers, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, respectively. What I find truly fascinating (and tragic) is that her obscurity resulted directly from her sister's betrayal and the fact that, during her lifetime, she had to defend her writing to the world. That is such a shame. Of the three books -- Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall -- Anne's is the one that modern women can find most relatable. Over a century after it was barred from reprinting, the story still feels fresh and real.

The novel's focus is Helen, a woman who married Arthur Huntingdon, a handsome bad boy who swept her off her feet. Although she sensed his effusive passion for her was all on the surface, she hoped for the best. Arthur's shallow nature, innate cruelty, and self-centeredness creep into the new marriage but really shift into hyperdrive once a season of London debauchery and raging alcoholism kill his infatuation for his wife. The birth of a son only pisses him off more; it takes her attention away from him and besides, he can't possibly love the baby till it's old enough to show some love for him. It gets worse, not in the explosive gory way of a Stephen King novel, but in incremental stages from disappointment to despair and then desperation.

Charlotte Brontë wrote of Wildfell Hall, "it hardly appears to me desirable to preserve. The choice of subject in that work is a mistake, it was too little consonant with the character, tastes and ideas of the gentle, retiring inexperienced writer." The public was so openly derisive of the novel's plot that for its second printing, Anne wrote a lengthy defense of it as a forward. Yet Wildfell Hall was a runaway bestseller, sold out six weeks after its debut. Hmmm ...why was that?

Could it be that readers secretly felt Anne Brontë had spoken directly to them? Women had no legal rights as individuals. A bad marriage was for most an inescapable trap. Acknowledging this reality not only challenged the assumption that a woman's rightful and most exalted state was that of matrimony, it challenged British law. We have many options today, but once you reach a certain age, you've probably had the chance to feel dismay at realizing a man (or woman) you love is not worthy of it. You may have struggled to eke out some sanity and peace in a chaotic home ruled by your partner's unchecked addiction. You may have thought you could help your loved one become a better person over time. You may have singlehandedly tried to save the relationship by being perfect. You may have secretly started planning an exit strategy for yourself and your children. This was the situation around which Anne Brontë wove her plot. And she sure paid for it. After Anne's death in 1849, Charlotte Brontë refused to allow republication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights catapulted Emily and Charlotte to literary immortality. Anne became a footnote.

Consider yourself vindicated, sister.

I'm a Kindle Bestseller!

It's Official! The Entrepreneur is an Amazon Kindle Bestseller in the category of Horror Anthologies. It's a bloody sick little tale and I'm proud I thought of it.

A star pupil teams with the problem student on a business class project. But there’s more to this pairing than meets the eye, and soon the project is successful beyond their instructor’s wildest nightmares. There’s a market for anything, and demand can barely keep up with supply.

At 3,000 words and .99 cents, The Entrepreneur will creep you out for little money down and no time at all. (Available in non-kindle formats at Smashwords.)

I'm so dang happy :)

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.

What I Know About Kindle Singles

I hoped to get my Demontorium short stories into the Amazon marketplace as Kindle Singles. The Kindle Singles store is smaller than the Kindle universe. I'd have a chance to be more prominent right off the bat. Finding no info on the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) pages, I Googled. I reached  the January 26 Amazon Kindle Singles press release, a first-hand Singles submissions experience on ZdNet, a Facebook post on the subject from Steve Lewis, self-publishing guru and author of the Taleist blog, and the Submissions Guidelines right on Amazon's Singles bookstore page. First a word on what a Kindle Single is, as described in the press release:

"... each Kindle Single is intended to allow a single killer idea -- well researched, well argued and well illustrated -- to be expressed at its natural length. Available to both Kindle device and app users, and priced between $0.99 and $4.99, the first set of Kindle Singles include original reporting, essays, memoirs and fiction."

Here's what else I learned:

• Amazon's editors review your manuscript submission, just like a traditional publisher would. It's not a direct publishing option.
• The permitted word count is 5,000 - 30,000 words. This leaves my short stories out. My longest, The Entrepreneur, is just over 3,000 words.
• If accepted, your Kindle Single royalty can earn you 70%, even at a price point below $2.99. This is different from the KDP experience, where a price point below $2.99 rates a 35% royalty.

This is a good opportunity for writers, especially journalists who long to expand a topic beyond the amount of space usually alotted for their work. I say this because I believe readers look specifically for fiction they can read in the pockets of downtime available -- on a train commute, for instance.  However, authors on the KDP Community forum have expressed some confusion and frustration with the Singles process regarding such things as 1) longer than expected wait times for news of acceptance/rejection and 2) the perceived quality of accepted and published Singles. It seems Amazon is working itself into a space previously monopolized by traditional print publishers and the receiving end feels pretty much the same to authors.

I hope you can take this info farther than I can. The 5,000 word minimum rules me out, so for now, as we say in the South (US), "I don't have a dog in the race".