Tuesdays with Story

Tuesdays with Story
January 5, 2021

The first word . . . 

“Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.”
― Salman Rushdie

 Six people submitted this week.

— Jaime Nelson Noven (chapter 5-6, Outsleep). . . A lot of important things to chew on this week, including illustrating what makes Rice tick, in particular why she hates outsleep and why she’s a standup. We looked at other low birthrate stories and stories where kids live their lives in the limelight and ask what makes my story unique. We wondered what the media’s and her parents’ expectations were for her, how she would have subverted them, and how that would have affected her life. I’ll be working hard at connecting all these dots! Thank you.

—Amber Boudreau (Chapter 1-2 Dragoneer 2) Sequels are hard. Amber read from the beginning of her sequel to The Dragoneer, tentatively titled The Dragoneer Two, ahem. Jamie, who hasn’t read the the first book enjoyed it. John, who has read the first one, not so much. There was too much telling for him. Jerry wasn’t sure where the story was starting, in this world or another. Larry suggested slipping in somewhere at the beginning that the characters were in a hospital. Huckleberry thought the main character wouldn’t have fired a warning shot, but that may be remedied with a hostage situation. Readers may need a reminder that the protagonist has dragon-enhanced vision and can see very well in low light.

— Huckle Rahr (chapters 32-33, Wolf Healer)This week I got some great feedback on the ending of my book. I was challenged to focus on Jade’s overall arch over the entirety of the story. I was challenged to think about how her change to wolf would affect her inclusion in the pack. There were questions about if the last chapter had enough tension or if it were just too bland. 

— John Schneller (Chapter 33, Broken) Most people felt the pace and action scene worked in this chapter. The ending worked for some, disappointed some. Jamie reminded me that mountains have echoes and echoes should not be ignored in a scene that relies on deception. Huckle did not want to call the emerging warrior a boy since she saw him as getting stronger. Since I remember myself being scrawny at that age, I had a different picture. We compromised and the elk will now express his disappointment by evaluating Kotel as “Not much of a man.”  Thanks to all!

— Larry Sommers (Chapters 31, 32, Dizzy…) Jack and others felt there might be an opportunity for the pyrites to be extended into some kind of metaphor for Izzy’s new level of understanding, or his maturing relationship with his father, or something. Also, that Allie should defend Harold more to his son, Izzy. And that the war medals could be linked with the issue of pyrite vs. real gold somehow. Jerry felt surprised by the sudden revelation of Harold’s war record. And I have two characters named Cathy. 

— Kashmira Sheth (chapters 1-2 Nina Soni, Snow Spy). . . Kashmira submitted two chapters of her novel, Nina Soni, Snow Spy. Most felt that the book 5 of the Nina Soni chapter book series started well. Jack felt that Kavita’s voice needed little help and “awesome” needed to be defined. Jaime found a place where tense shifted and Huckle pointed out too many contractions. Amber wanted to know what Nina felt about the snow, how they walked home in it and if Kavita and her had a snowball fight. Thank you all.

Who’s up next . . .

Amber

Larry

John

Not sure who else is on…

Kashmira?

Amit?

Jack?

Mike?

Paul?

Our editor . . .

Kashmira Sheth runs Writer’s Mail this month. If you have something you’d like her to include in the next issue, send it on to her.

From Jaime Nelson Noven

Writer House Rules: Questions in Publishing

Q: How has 2020 changed the book business? 

A: An interesting article in Publishers Weekly was just published on this topic that I’d love to share with you. Highlights include:

• Diversity and Inclusion: Major changes were made in effort to diversify the voices and representations of voices in the books that are published, as well as diversity among staff and freelancers in all areas and at all levels of publishing companies. Entry-level salaries were raised to make it easier for low-income communities to consider a career in publishing. More than a thousand junior workers took a day off in order to protest the deaths of George Floyd and others. Authors began tweeting their advance amounts in order to highlight the inequality between authors of different backgrounds. This year, social justice books leapt onto the New York Times bestseller list and dominated for a while.
• Lockdown Effects: Book sales were down for the year, and bookstores suffered by being closed or partly closed for a good part of the year. E-books rebounded. Ingram’s book-buying platform Bookshop.org appeared in order to offer an alternative to Amazon and has already sold more than $50 million in books. The big annual U.S. book shows BookExpo (for people in the industry) and BookCon (for consumers) have been canceled indefinitely. 
• Changes to the Big 5: Penguin Random House bought Simon & Schuster, turning the Big 5 into the Big 4.

The last word . . .

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.”

— Zig Ziglar “Zig” Ziglar was an American author, salesman, and motivational speaker.