Tuesdays with Story

Tuesdays With Story Writers Mail, June 16, 2010
by Jen Wilcher

Tuesday Night at the Bookstore

Kim got an agent!

Kim – Pat wondered if the font size shift was intentional. Kim said she using the font to show thoughts fading in and out with distance. Pat K thought she could get rid of it. Clayton suggests that the publisher is going to want to set everything in the same typeface, and not mess around with size. Bill doesn’t think that holds true as long as the font is a fairly simple one. Jerry judges from the length of our conversation, there’s a problem there. A long discussion of magical power follows, is magic inborn, or can one learn magic? Shel wants to know if there’s a difference between humanness and humanity. Cathy had a favorite line! Jerry didn’t believe that Ryoko would turn to jelly when faced with the river because she can fly. Kim explains Ryoko has a phobia of water, but Pat didn’t understand why she would run toward it, if she did.

Jen – Wants to know if the scene where Biff almost attacks Walter is more dramatic. Pat K didn’t read the original, but he didn’t find anything humorous in it. Pat found the whole idea kind of funny, not ha ha ha, but funny weird. Bill got mixed up in the first paragraph between the father and son and who spent seventeen years where. Judith wondered if there was a reason she went into so much detail about what Peter and Walter were wearing, but she liked the flow of it. Greg didn’t find the descriptions earned. Bill thought it worked. Millie wondered about re-writes. Greg thought the story was interesting, humorous even.

Judith – Pat K asked for an explanation of ‘reverse racist.’ Clayton liked the set up, looking forward to more. Pat thought she did well with contentious issues associated with a road trip, regardless of race. Pat K sympathized with Marshall at the beginning and wondered if this was a contemporary story, which it is. Pat had a question about blocking and one character seeing the hat. Kim wanted to know where they were driving to. Clayton wondered if Marshall and Sam were going to end up in the front seat together some time.

Nicole – Kim really liked it, but she was still trying to figure out what it was about. Greg thought that was part of the experience, figuring out what it was about. Millie thought it was a prose poem, not so much a short story. Pat K thought some parts were better than others – parts he really liked and other parts that frustrated him. Kim thought it was okay because it was poetry, but both Pats disagree. Pat wants to know what the title of the poem meant because that was really the only part she says she didn’t get. Clayton was wondering about the ‘you’ and the ‘him’ in the second stanza, but that worked for Pat. Jerry had a question about the italics. Kim got it, but Jerry didn’t. Neither did Pat K. A discussion about sloughed-off blood follows.

Millie – Judith thought she captured the period well. Pat thought the character uses a couple words a good Catholic girl wouldn’t use in the time period. Even if she only thinks it, Jerry found it out of character as well. Nicole thought she comes across almost too sweet. Bill suggests the author think of it in terms of who their readers are. Jerry had a problem with the key – Erin takes the one key off, but Jerry thinks she needs to take the whole set of keys. Some people in the group know a little too much about keying cars, uh-hum. Kim wondered if other people in the restaurant would notice what was going on.

Patrick – Kim had a question about the mem-plant – could memories not be tampered with? Whatever is in the mem-plant is still better than human memory. Nicole thought there was a nice balance between info and grossness. Greg thought the main character witty and entertaining. Clayton wondered if the android was the corpse – it’s not. Judith wondered if this was a novel. Pat thought the images were great, only a few trite ones that stand out because the rest are so well done. Pat notes that cops just don’t change. Jerry had a question about the six shots the cop took from a distance – maybe he would land one or two, but not six, unless he was standing over him filling him with holes.

Who’s Up Next

June 22: Terry Hoffman (chapter, The Journal), Kim Simmons (chapters, The City of Winter),
Jack Freiburger (???), Randy Haselow (chapter, Hona and the Dragon), Holly Bonnickson-Jones (chapter, Coming Up For Air), Dan Hamre (???), and Jen Wilcher (on stand-by, chapter, And So We Meet Again).

June 29: Fifth Tuesday at Terry and Jan Hoffman’s home in Oregon.

July 6: Kim Simmons (chapters 39-40, James Hyde), Jerry Peterson (chapter 11, For Want of a Hand), and Greg Spry (novella/part 2, Goodbye, Mars), Pat Edwards (poems), Elijah Meeker (???) , and Clayton Gill (chapter 13, Fishing Derby).

July 20: Kim Simmons (chapters 41-42, James Hyde), Randy Haselow (chapter, Hona and the Dragon), Nicole Rosario (???), Jen Wilcher (chapter, Memories Awakened), Judith McNeil (radio play/part 2, “South to Sunday”), and Patrick Tomlinson (short story/part 2, “Downloading Death”).

August 6: Kim Simmons (chapters 45-46, James Hyde), Jerry Peterson (chapter 12, For Want of a Hand), Greg Spry (novella/part 3, Goodbye, Mars), Randy Haselow (chapter, Hona and the Dragon), Amber Boudreau (chapter 15), and Clayton Gill (chapter 15, Fishing Derby).

Fifth Tuesday
It’s next week, June 29 at Terry and Jan Hoffman’s place in Oregon – 4694 Holm Road for your GPS. Terry also email you a map earlier this week. If you have not already done so, email Shel Ellestad, and tell him you are coming and who you’re bringing as a guest. Yes, guests are welcome. Also tell him what you are bringing for the food table.

And write your Fifth Tuesday challenge story now – a commencement speech aimed at a target audience such as ghouls, kindergarteners, Divas, trolls . . . whatever group you wish. Your choice. 500 words or less. Email your story to Jerry Peterson, by 6 p.m. Friday, June 25.

‘Vanity’ Press Goes Digital (Thanks Alicia)
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER And JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG

Writer Karen McQuestion spent nearly a decade trying without success to persuade a New York publisher to print one of her books. In July, the 49-year-old mother of three decided to publish it herself, online.
Eleven months later, Ms. McQuestion has sold 36,000 e-books through Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle e-bookstore and has a film option with a Hollywood producer. In August, Amazon will publish a paperback version of her first novel, “A Scattered Life,” about a friendship triangle among three women in small-town Wisconsin.
Ms. McQuestion is at the leading edge of a technological disruption that’s loosening traditional publishers’ grip on the book market—and giving new power to technology companies like Amazon to shape which books and authors succeed.
Much as blogs have bitten into the news business and YouTube has challenged television, digital self-publishing is creating a powerful new niche in books that’s threatening the traditional industry. Once derided as “vanity” titles by the publishing establishment, self-published books suddenly are able to thrive by circumventing the establishment.
“If you are an author and you want to reach a lot of readers, up until recently you were smart to sell your book to a traditional publisher, because they controlled the printing press and distribution. That is starting to change now,” says Mark Coker, founder of Silicon Valley start-up Smashwords Inc., which offers an e-book publishing and distribution service.
Fueling the shift is the growing popularity of electronic books, which few people were willing to read even three years ago. Apple Inc.’ s iPad and e-reading devices such as Amazon’s Kindle have made buying and reading digital books easy. U.S. book sales fell 1.8% last year to $23.9 billion, but e-book sales tripled to $313 million, according to the Association of American Publishers. E-book sales could reach as high as 20% to 25% of the total book market by 2012, according to Mike Shatzkin, a publishing consultant, up from an estimated 5% to 10% today.
It’s unclear how much of a danger digital self-publishing poses to the big publishers, who still own the industry’s big hits, whether e-book or print. Many big publishers dismiss self-published titles, noting that most disappear, in part because they may be poorly edited and are almost never reviewed.
But some publishers say that online self-publishing and the entry of newcomers such as Amazon into the market could mark a sea change in publishing.
“It’s a threat to publishers’ control over authors,” said Richard Nash, former publisher of Soft Skull Press who recently launched Cursor Inc., a new publishing company. “It shows best-selling authors that there are alternatives—they can hire their own publicist, their own online marketing specialist, a freelance editor, and a distribution service.”
Amazon has taken an early lead, providing service tools for authors to self publish and creating an imprint last year to publish promising authors in print and online.
This month, Amazon is upping the ante, increasing the amount it pays authors to 70% of revenue, from 35%, for e-books priced from $2.99 to $9.99. A self-published author whose e-book lists for $9.99 on Amazon’s Kindle e-bookstore will receive about $6.99 for each book sold. The author would net $1.75 on a similar new e-book sale by most major publishers.
The new formula makes digital self-publishing more lucrative for authors. “Some people will be tempted by the 70% royalty at Amazon,” Mr. Nash says. “If they already have a loyal fan base, will they want 70% of $100,000 or 15% of $200,000 for a hardcover?”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704912004575253132121412028.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_RIGHTTopCarou

Not So Typical Poetry
During a Science Lit class I took in college, my professor (the only English professor I ever had) Dr. John Coletta had us read poems by Robert Frost. However, these are not your typical Robert Frost poems. They were about science and not the “nature” poetry Frost is famous for. Here is my favorite of the ones I had to read –Jen

“Accidentally on Purpose”
by Robert Frost

The Universe is but the Thing of things,
The things but balls all going round in rings.
Some them mighty huge, some mighty tiny,
All of them radiant and mighty shiny.

They mean to tell us all was rolling blind
Till accidentally it hit on mind.
In an albino monkey in a jungle,
And even then it had to grope and bungle,

Till Darwin came to earth upon a year
To show the evolution how to steer.
They mean to tell us, thought, the Omnibus
Had no real purpose till it got to us.

Never believe it. At the very worst
It must have had purpose from the first
To produce purpose as the fitter bred:
We were just purpose coming to head.

Whose purpose was it? His or Hers or Its?
Let’s leave that to the scientific wits.
Grant me intention, purpose, and design – –
That’s near enough for me to the Divine.

And yet for all this help of head and brain
How happily instinctive we remain,
Our best guide upward further to the light,
Passionate preference such as love at sight.

BOOK REVIEW: FOREIGN BODY by Robin Cook (Thanks Millie)

Robin Cook once again exposes a ‘Big Box’ medical group operating in Los Angles, intent on destroying the success of ‘medical tourism’ to India.
Three protagonists are featured, the main one being Jennifer Hernandez. Jennifer is a fourth year medical student at UCLA, about to graduate with a specialty in general surgery. Her beloved grandmother, who has raised her, goes to India for hip replacement surgery. Uninsured, she chooses the twenty-five thousand dollar procedure, plus a stay in a luxury hotel in India, as opposed to the same surgery in Manhattan, which would cost over eighty-thousand dollars.
While listening to CNN, Jennifer’s world is shattered when she hears the announcer tell of the post-operative death of Maria Hernandez. Shock and grief grip Jennifer, and she prepares for a trip to India. Her grandmother had been in good health, and Jennifer’s intuition tells her that something must be amiss.
Upon arriving in Delhi, Jennifer listens to CNN International, and learns of another death in the same high tech hospital, and under the same circumstances. She goes to the hospital for answers, but is given little information, and is pressed to decide immediately between cremation and embalming. Jet lagged and numb, she now becomes angry. She refuses to make the decision on such short notice. A third death occurs, and suspicion propels Jennifer. Now treading in dangerous waters, she proceeds to contact the widows of the other two deceased. All are being pushed to decide immediately on cremation or embalming. Both these victims had also been healthy before the surgeries. At this point, Jennifer demands an autopsy, which she is adamantly refused.
Jennifer realizes she needs help, and calls her mentor, Dr. Laurie Montgomery, and Laurie’s husband, Dr. Jack Stapleton to come to her aid. These two had been lovers in Dr. Cook’s book Critical, and are now married. They are chief medical examiners and pathologists in Manhattan.
They feel that Jennifer’s instincts can be trusted, and hastily prepare for a trip to India. An emergency room doctor who is an admirer of Jennifer’s unexpectedly arrives also. The quartet becomes involved in a precarious investigation, which takes them from the luxury of their hotel through the bowels of Delhi and its environs. Their lives, especially Jennifer’s, are in danger at all times.
Dr. Stapleton befriends an Indian doctor, who aids the group. He eventually leads them to the sacred city of Varanasi, where only the prominent Hindus are cremated. The sinister plans of the two American CEO’s, meantime, appear to be working, as many United States appointments are cancelled. The deaths, reported by an apparent spy, headline the CNN news nightly. As the protagonists pursue their investigation, Jennifer disappears.
The tangled, life threatening search for justice, and the attempts to expose the nefarious plot of the ‘Big Box’ medical group, make for a thrilling read. Robin Cook is the master of the medical drama. You will become immersed, not only in the plot but in the graphic sights and smells of India.

Newsletter duty roster:
July – Greg
August – Clayton
September -Kim

The Last Word… (thanks Jerry)
kudos (KOO-doz, -dos) – noun: Praise, honor, or credit. From Greek kydos, meaning praise, renown.

The word kudos is a relatively recent addition to the English language. It entered the language as university slang in Britain, in the early 19th century. It’s a singular word, in Greek and in English, but its plural-like appearance prompted some to coin a singular form by dropping the letter s. Many dictionaries (including the OED) now list the word kudo, though marked with an “erroneous” stamp. If the current trends are any indication, chances are over time kudo will drop the black mark on its reputation and become a well-respected word in the language, just as no one today objects to using the word pea (instead of pease) or cherry (instead of cherise). – Wordsmith Anu Garg