The Gilded Conference

I recently attended the Friday night readings on the opening day of the Spring Nebraska Writers Guild Conference. Here is my synopsis of the evenings proceedings.






The Gilded Conference
James M M Baldwin

A man spoke of aliens, He went on a bit long
His plan well thought out, But something went wrong

Sally took us back, The old west it was sure
To gun fights and saddles, And reckless murder

Jack's song, His explanation too much
Yes it was humorous, And well worth the punch

A Bipolar memoir, Some technical stuff
Not much about treatment, More feelings and such

Lisa's gripping screenplay, Left my stomach in knots
The emotion ran high, Should be awarded for all that its got

Escape Velocity, Flash fiction from Mac
Jimmy can do it, To Saturn and back

Connie's quirky novel, Dee a short story, Mary's tale of school snakes
Janet's Lockets and Lanterns raised up the stakes

Then Dana, Poor Dana, Sleeping toddler she wrote
Not a dry eye in house, And lumps in our throats

Marilyn recited a poem, Of Sixties and Sex
Ignoring advice from her mother, A rating need added the letter of X

Mary Jo entertained, With wielding of wit
No punches were pulled, Good bad and ugly was surely a hit

Lynn set out to conquer a quest, Connie, the morn after, destroyed a whole town
Ronda's dark tale left mysterious clues, Sabrina got hers in before things wound down

And finally yes finally, Lisa read without doubt
Of spelling a bee, The letter p not left out

To all involved, Deserved Congratulations
Opening night a success, Applause and ovations

Chasing Reflections

This morning I watched a Scarlet Tanager attacking its own reflection in the widow of a shiny red truck. Its bright red body caught my eye as it sat on the outside mirror. Maybe the little bird thought the truck was a giant rival. After repeated attacks, the red bird flew off and sat on a fence chirping its anger like a hoarse robin. I had to look up what kind of bird it was on whatbird.com. I had never seen one before. I also had never seen a bird challenging its mirror image.

It made me think about my own reflection? What do I see when I look in the mirror. Do I see who I really am. Some days I see someone unattractive and other times I see someone I'd like to be. Sometimes I like to pretend that my reflection lives in another dimension and when I walk away, he'll go off and live his own life. Although my reflection changes only slightly from day to day, perception can play a major part in how I see myself. So rather than be like the Scarlet Tanager, I'm not going to attack my reflection but realize that who I am comes from within.

How do you feel about your reflection?
How does your reflection treat you?

Jim

Shakespearean Coined Words

Advertising, circumstantial, compromise, design, employer, misquote, luggage, worthless and swagger are all words coined by Shakespeare.

I often get flagged by MS Word's spell check for using words that I think should be words but according to the MS dictionary they are not. I have a work in progress titled "War for the Unsouled," which technically is not a word but so for I've kept it because I like it. Maybe "soulless" would be better but I think my word fits my point better. I am not claiming to be on equal footing with the aforementioned William the Great; however, I am a self-ordained minister of the Coptic Unorthodox Word Usage Church.

Have you created any words in your writing? Anything you think that might catch on as much as the Shakespearean words?

Jim

You Want To Be a Writer

So, you want to be a writer? Okay. Let me ask you this. How thick-skinned are you? You're going to need to be like a duck and let everything roll off your back. You need to be prepared for rejection by the fistful. Are you prepared to spend years of intense work and loss of sleep while you balance your writing and your day job. Don't forget you're going to need a day job to support you while you toil away, year after year perfecting your craft.

What can you do to improve your chances. A college degree in writing is a good idea. Although it's not a guarantee. Then there's the reading. You're going to need to read a lot. You need to read books in the genre you're going to be writing in as well as books about writing. And there's no shortage of books about writing to choose from. There are a lot of things you need to know that you just can't pick up by reading. You also need to find a group of knowledgeable writers to help you hone your craft on a personal level.

You're going to need all the knowledge you can gather before you even start to write. Once you decide what genre you want to write in, you need to decide who your audience is. If you know who your writing for, it will be much easier when it comes time to market your work

Oh yeah, don't forget about luck. Almost every rejection letter I've received wishes me the best of luck. By now, with the number of rejections I've received I should have a whole truckload of luck saved up. Now if I could just access it. So as you journey down this road of writing, let me wish you all the luck in the world. You're going to need it.

Jim

Form Rejection

I wrote my first query letter in 2004. On January 27th of this year, I received my 127th rejection on numerous different projects. Not going into the emotions involved in receiving a rejection letter, have you received a one? Not only that, but have you ever received this exact same rejection?

"Thank you for your query. Unfortunately, I'm afraid this project isn't right for me, but I wish you the best of luck in your search for representation."

Of all the letters I've received, nearly a hundred of them are almost identical to this one. Obviously it's a typical form letter, but what a cop out. I research agents to find out which ones represent my genre. There seems to be a lot of agents casting a wide net, making it easy to fall prey to the dreaded form.

I've read some agent blogs about advice they gave to a writer via their query. How the obstinate writer refused to take their advice and never found representation, or how they took the advice and easily found representation and publication, or how they resisted the advice for years until eventually relenting and finding acceptance. Really? Does this actually happen? Apparently not to me. I would even appreciate a "you stink, get out of the business" letter. Better than a form. I'd love to hear from anyone that has ever received advice from an agent or editor based on a query letter.

Jim

High Hopes Once Again

Last week I diligently upload a novel to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards (ABNA). This will be my fifth entry into the annual competition: an effort that is not without emotional angst. Honestly, what would be the point of entering if I didn’t at least have some hope of winning, or at least making it through to subsequent rounds of judging?

The first year I entered I did not advance beyond the first round: a round which does not actually look at the novel but merely a three hundred word pitch. Yes I was disappointed but continued to submit elsewhere. The second year I was informed that I had made it through the first round, only to be notified a few days later that they had made a mistake and I had not advanced from the pitch round. Having the rug jerked out from under me hurt worse than not making it at all. They made up for their mistake by offering me a five dollar Amazon gift certificate. That made me feel better (NOT). The third year found me cautious when I received news of my advance to the second round where they judge the first 5000 words of the manuscript. It was true this time, but I did not advance to round three. I did receive a prize, two critiques from the amateur reviewers they have judge the first round. They had some good things to say but they also helped me see what I had done wrong. So after reworking the first section, I entered the revised manuscript in year four, only to find I did not advance beyond the pitch round once again. How could the same pitch advance one year only to fail the next?

So basically, here I am at year five; still holding out hope but not holding my breath.

What do you think of writing contests? Worth the stress?

Jim

World's Most Expensive Book

Not having any success trying to sell my books at .99 cents per copy, the following headline caught my attention. "Worlds Most Expensive Book Goes Up for Sale" That peaked my interest. Could it be an original handwritten copy an unpublished William Shakespeare play. Maybe it would be the earliest known written version of Homer's Odyssey. I clicked the link. The new headline read. "Birds of North America will be Auctioned for Between 7 to 10 Million Dollar." Surprise. IT WAS A PICTURE BOOK! I should have known. Don't get me wrong, I understand why this rare, multi-volume 3 1/2' tall hand colored version of every species of bird known in North America in 1800 is so valuable, but come on. This is more art than it is book. I wonder what the most expensive book of WORDS ONLY might be. I doubt it will ever be an electronic copy of my ebook story "Black Wolf." (available at Smashwords.com for only .99 cents.)

Jim

Daydreaming

Do you ever just sit and daydream about being some place else. Like maybe a warm sunny beach with cool waves lapping at the shore. Or maybe a rugged mountain top where you can almost just reach up and touch the sky.

When I daydream, my mind wonders to a much further place. Usually a planet or moon right here in our own solar system. Other times to an even further place in the galaxy like a star cluster or black hole. Sometimes my mind wonders to another time in the distant future sometimes to the distant past. What ever you dream of or where ever you dream about, the important thing is to dream. Dream a dream that takes you to a place that makes you happy.



Jim

Moving On Up

After nearly 120 rejection, each of which carried its own degree of dejection, I've decided to try something else. Rather than thinking that my stories and novels are just not any good, I've decided that my writing is not the type of formulaic writing that wins contests and gains the attention of literary agents. With that said, I still believe I have something to offer the reader. Therefore, I've decided to enroll with Smashwords.com and begin offering my short stories while I continue to refine my novels. So, if you have an interest in speculative fiction, stop over and browse my author page at Smashwords.com And if you have an extra dollar laying around, try one of my stories on for size. As of today, I only have one story up but will be adding more in the near future.

Jim

Wild Wednesday Leads to Thoughtless Thursday

Great story flowing onto the paper Wednesday night, so much so, that I stayed up past my usual 12:30 AM self-imposed curfew. The story intrigued me. I couldn’t stop right in the heart of the action. Finally, after two in the morning, the Mountain Dew wore off and I came to a stopping place that would be easy to pick up the next night. The next day went swimmingly until late in the afternoon when having only four hours sleep hit me. I made it through until last night when I sat and stared at the computer screen. I knew what I wanted to say but it just didn’t make it to the keyboard. A vacant spot the size of a tennis ball occupied my skull. Something was missing. I slept my usual six hours last night, so maybe tonight will be better.