organization

Organization: The Science of Optimism

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I love organization books and tips.

When my children were babies and I was dogpaddling in a sea of dirty laundry, I happened on an organization book by Pam Young and Peggy Jones called Sidetracked Home Executives. The sister authors recommended an index card system of chore scheduling and you know how much I love index cards.

But eventually, I grew into other organization books. Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was my bible for a while. His focus is on determining the relative importance of each task in the greater scheme of your life. If your life’s dream to juggle porcupines you will prioritize for practicing that skill over, say, washing the bugs out of your kitchen light fixture.

Then I stumbled on Getting Things Done by David Allen.

Allen’s philosophy of listing every single thing you want and need to do in your life is another way to decipher what is important to you. It’s a good way to de-clutter your brain. A bit like Marie Kondo’s Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Although you don’t end up with a satisfying collection of eleven bulging boxes of goods to unload at your local Goodwill at the end of the session.

So I was delighted to happen on Anna Carrasco Bowling’s June 28th blog entry.

In it Bowling describes how she organizes her daily goals. She color codes the items in large groups. Essentials and big ongoing projects like editing or drafting different manuscripts each have their own color.

But what I love most is the category Bowling calls Problem Solving. She defines it as “anything I need to do before I could get down to business, or could affect my ability to write that day.” What is so brilliant about this, is the idea of scheduling time to think.

We all schedule our time, but what gets written on our lists are physical activities. There is a time for cooking, for cleaning, for writing, for bill paying, even for play.

Rarely do we block out time on our calendars for thought.

We should. Because thinking is the hardest part of our work. And the easiest to avoid.

So next time I write a to do list, I’m pulling out my colored pens and focusing on what’s most important in my day. Problem Solving.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

Public Opinion

Public Opinion and Cookie Recipes

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Public opinion can be devastating.

Remember the first time you realized someone didn’t like you? A classmate, or perhaps one of those playmates you had to get along with because your mother was friends with her mother. Maybe it was the neighbor boy across the street who always called you names while you waited for the bus.

As we grow up, we stop expecting to be liked by everyone. But then, we have children. And we relive that difficult realization all over again. It’s worse watching your child process social rejection than experiencing it yourself.

One of the hard parts of writing novels is how much you hope other people will like them. I’m not accustomed to worrying about whether people like me anymore. And I’m beginning to think that might be a reasonable approach to writing novels as well.

Of course, if you want readers, you must supply a product a reader can enjoy and want more of. There is no point in whipping up a batch of olive-cauliflower-limburger cheese cookies if no one can get past the smell long enough to take a bite. You certainly won’t be selling a boxed set of them.

So I’m not saying public opinion doesn’t matter.

But I do think, as authors, we have to remember our novels are not our children. Well, obviously. Children bear a disturbing resemblance to deciduous trees, but no novel will leave a chicken wing behind his bedroom door for a week. No novel will climb into your bed at five in the morning with a soaking wet diaper and ask for a cuddle.

Novels are not our progeny, they are our products. If someone didn’t like your product, you wouldn’t run into your room to lick your wounds. Instead, you would ask how it might be improved. Then you might take that information and turn your olive-cauliflower-limburger cheese cookies into chocolate mousse tartlets and make a fortune.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

Friday

Friday is One Day We Can’t Do Without

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Don’t Cancel Friday!

Recently I drove by a local church which hosts an annual fair for the weekend. But this year the sign listed the times the fair was open with the following caveat: Friday has been cancelled.

Really? Was my first thought. And then: is this a temporary cancellation or a permanent one? I mean I can see cancelling Friday occasionally, the ones with papers due, final exams or a bathtub which needs scrubbing. But if this is a permanent situation, I am concerned.

Cancelling Friday leaves us with six days a week. The immediate issue is, of course, the iconic Beatles’ song, Eight Days a Week. When there are seven days per week, the chorus sounds like a cheerful exaggeration. But if we lose Fridays and establish a six day week, the lyrics lose their punch.

I don’t have to tell you how catastrophic that would be.

For Muslims, Friday is the Sabbath,  for Jews it is Sabbath Eve. In either case, cancelling Friday would lead to general crabbiness among the many folks who depend on that day to rest and rejuvenate. It would be the  religious equivalent of cancelling nap time.

Never a good idea.

All of these reasons are important, but the most significant impact of going Friday-less from my perspective is the library book issue. First, I go to the library most Fridays so I don’t have to be book starved on the weekend.

More importantly, at present the books are due two weeks, fourteen days after I take them out. If we cancel each Friday, I will have only twelve days to finish my reading. This means something in my calendar will have to give. Because it certainly isn’t going to be my reading schedule.

So I’m not complaining, because cancelling Friday might just be my best excuse ever for not scrubbing the bathtub.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

Book Review

Book Review: Nick Petrie’s Burning Bright

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Book Review Wednesday strikes again!

Whether I’m reading a romance, a suspense novel, a mystery or even non-fiction, I’m a sucker for good writing. Which is why this week’s book review is about Nick Petrie’s Burning Bright.

I plucked it from the library shelf primarily because I am fond of Blake’s poem, The Tyger, which should tell all of us authors something about the impact of title choice. I checked the book out and brought it home not because of the review quotes on the back cover but because of the endorsement from Lee Child on the front cover.

If you write a novel whose main character is like Petrie’s Peter Ash, you can’t do better than an endorsement from Lee Child.

And, true to that endorsement, Peter Ash has a lot in common with Jack Reacher. Both are former military and have super hero level physical and mental skills. Both men wander about the country avoiding permanent attachment to things and people. Although, in Ash’s case, this is an attribute he would like to change.

Which makes me curious to find out how Ash will grow emotionally in the next book and the one after that.

But the real reason I will read the previous novel in the series, The Drifter and wait impatiently for the third, is because of sentences like these:

“He had wide, knuckly hands and the thoughtful eyes of a werewolf a week before the change.”

And this:

“A beer truck came at them, eating the whole lane.”

And, oh my goodness, this one:

“A car drove by, the sound of its tires on the still-wet pavement like painter’s tape peeling off the roll.”

There is a sensory precision in these gifts of sentences. And Petrie tosses them into the mix of his story with the careless precision of a master chef. Taste it for yourself, and tell me what you think.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

perfect

Perfect. Exactly What You Don’t Want.

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Perfect is not the goal.

You can learn how to write a perfect first draft by taking college level courses, by hiring a coach, by lots and lots of practice and, my personal favorite by going to a pub.

Last week, my husband and I were on the road in Portland, Maine and happened to choose Andy’s Old Port Pub for dinner. The food was good but the music was better.

The Unsinkable Ronda Dale and her pick up crew of excellent musicians served up a platter of blues, country, R & B and a whole bunch of other songs you probably recognize but don’t remember the words to. Some of the attendees were friends but Ronda drew strangers in too.

As customers settled into their seats, Ronda included each one in her performance. Some picked up a microphone to join her in a song. Those who were too shy to sing, were handed rhythm instruments. Ronda didn’t ask if you had music experience before handing out shakers or if you had performance skills before sharing a microphone. Because perfect was not the point. Fun was.

And this is also the thing to remember about beginning a manuscript.

If it’s perfect, you are doing it wrong.

Writers have issues with first drafts. Okay, I have issues with first drafts. But I’m guessing you do too. It’s safer to get sidetracked into fixing errors than to risk a leap forward.

This is an excellent way to remain at not quite perfect chapter three for the rest of your life. Fun? Not.

And this is wrong, because writing, like musical improvisation is a chance to play and chances to play don’t come along often when one is a responsible adult with boring obligations like taking out the trash every Wednesday night and bringing the cans back in every Thursday..

So, if you visit Portland on the second Tuesday of the month, stop at Andy’s Pub for the most fun you’ve had in a while. If Ronda invites you to sing, say yes. Even if you can’t sing and you don’t remember the words.

And if you want to finish that first draft, take a piece of paper, nail it to your wall and inscribe it with the following in big red letters: It’s a frickin’ first draft. It shouldn’t be perfect.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

Energy

Energy Currents and the Writing Cycle

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Writing with Energy.

Yesterday evening, energy flagging, I pulled my car to a stop at a deserted rotary. In the shadow of an overpass, a black sign board crouched. The letters, upper case for seriousness were picked out with yellow bulbs. They glowed in the twilight.

Night Work Begins.

I wasn’t sure whether the pronouncement was meant as a warning, a promise, or a prediction. Maybe the person who chose the wording ran out of space for the date on the front and had to put the rest of the message on the back of the sign. Perhaps the head of the DPW ordered something prosaic in the vein of Road Work Ahead.

Instead, that employee created a shimmering invitation, a tantalizing whisper of mystery.

Because each word pulses with an energy of its own.

I associate night with quiet endings, projects laid aside, lingering caresses drifting into dream. But the thriller reader in me links darkness of night with obscured vision and hidden menace.

Night can symbolize danger but also promise. Midnight, the tipping point into tomorrow, has a distinct sort of momentum, an excitement of its own. Midnight is the moment of change.

Beginnings invigorate even while they are scary. Beginning a new relationship, a new direction, or even starting that novel you always dreamed of writing creates as much energy as it consumes.

And work? The act of writing surges with energy.

Even on days I hate the process, I use energy to hate it. On days I love it, my writing carries me as much as I carry it. But even when the words come easily, when the plot falls into place and the characters do exactly what they need to do, it’s due to night work.

I write, plot, edit and re-edit during the day but huge leaps happen overnight.

The energy we absorb, redirect and share during the day doesn’t dissipate when we close our eyes. It snaps and sizzles its way from one idea to another, interconnecting thoughts and ideas in ways we cannot predict. And could not have linked as easily any other way.

Some of my best writing happens when Night Work Begins.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

Book Review

Book Review: Good Naked, Reflections on Writing

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A book review on a Monday?

Normally I do a book review, if I do one at all, on a Wednesday. But this one couldn’t wait. Because even two days without Joni B. Cole’s Good Naked on your shelf is too long.

I generally borrow a book from the library and sample it before making the leap to purchase. A book has to be compelling and enduring to make it onto the seat of glory which is my writer’s bookshelf. You know, it has to have a long shelf life.

Members of this elite group have to be useful resources without being egotistical. Okay, Stein on Writing is egotistical, but he’s entitled. And it’s nothing personal.

The Elements of Style is more like a dictionary. You can be fond of it, and I am. Still, it’s hardly something you turn to when you are looking for consolation.

But last time I visited the library, I accidentally ended up in the non-fiction section of new books. And I was lured into sampling Cole’s delightful guide to writers.

I’m a sucker for a serious writer who laces her work with a puckish sense of humor.

And Cole does.

Good Naked is a coherent account of the challenges and joys of writing. But it’s also a series of freestanding essays. Each one addresses a single writer issue with a kind of brisk compassion you hope for in a good therapist. Cole discusses handling destructive criticism, the mythical literary advantages of being a tortured soul and writer’s block in a way only someone who has dealt with these issues can.

Each essay is like the conversation you wish you could have over a cup of tea and a plate of scones on the back porch of your friend’s home overlooking the river. Boats laze in the sun. A bee bumbles through the overgrown rose bushes. And you are laughing because what your friend is saying is so funny but also so true.

I’m buying Good Naked. Because when I am stuck, it’s good to be reminded I’m not the only person who has ever fought this particular battle before. And to remember that the sorts of battles writers fight with their spiky pens, laser sharp pencils and laptop shields are winnable.

Good Naked belongs on every writer’s bookshelf.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

humans

Humans. Polite Laughter, Please.

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It occurred to me this morning how oddly vulnerable we humans must look to all the other animals. For all intents and purposes we are like turtles with clothes instead of shells. We are not equipped with fur, or scales, or leathery hide to protect us.

More to the point, we humans don’t seem to have the sense we were born with.

Unlike dogs, we wander off from our pack and then reappear with no discernible food in our mouths to share with other pack members. We mostly eat things other humans have decided not to eat. And we throw away food which is perfectly edible and often pleasantly smelly.

Unlike cats, we never lick our backs clean. Our reflexes are too slow to make us good mousers. And we seem to have no sense of fun. Even those humans who eat other animals don’t usually play with their prey first. Plus, as a species we seem to have an unusual fondness for dogs, which is a weakness from a cat’s perspective, to say the least.

Birds don’t even pay attention to us. What’s the point? Humans are too foolish to bother with. We drop perfectly good seeds on the ground and walk away without eating them. Unlike seagulls, we can’t dive into a bay and come up with fish in our mouths. When we are lost, we can’t flap our arms and soar into the sky to check out an alternate route in the vast quilt of land below.

We are slow, uncoordinated and bad at noticing the world around us. Despite our ability to communicate with each other, we don’t always work reliably as a pack. A mouse has a better sense of self preservation. We ignore weather to our peril and are often caught outside our dens when it is raining or snowing.

Still, we have some useful attributes.

Humans do have senses of humor, like dogs. We give cats something to laugh at. We give donkeys, birds and porpoises someone to pity. And like bees, we can tell stories.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

marigolds

Marigolds and the Dangers of Popularity

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Secret Yearnings of Marigolds

I planted a raised bed garden this Spring and made sure to include lots of marigolds. You would be surprised just how many articles there are online extolling the virtues of marigolds. Well, maybe you wouldn’t. But I was.

Turns out marigolds, in addition to being sturdy and adorable and a kickass name for a romance heroine, are excellent garden friends for almost any veggies you might plant. Tomatoes flourish near them. So do basil, broccoli, eggplant and a whole bunch of other tasty companion plants.

Marigolds never have problems finding a Saturday night date.

Not only to they make other plants happy, marigolds have a reputation for repelling garden pests, like aphids and certain types of beetles. This argument is common and fervent online, although according to some articles, scientists disagree. Apparently there is no actual proof the pests dislike marigolds. And after all, why would they? Everyone else seems to like them.

Still, I think it must be hard to tell exactly how aphids and beetles feel, given the language barrier. Imagine a therapist leaning back in her armchair, pad of paper and pen in hand. She squints earnestly at her patient, an aphid who seems slightly lost on the vast meadow of velvet which is the couch. “When you see a marigold, how does it make you feel?”

It might be more useful for that same therapist to sit down with the marigolds in my garden. I should think few events are more traumatizing to a marigold than having its stem bitten in half by a starling. This has actually happened repeatedly. It may be frustrating for me but I keep reminding myself it is far more frustrating for a marigold.

Because no matter how much a marigold appreciates being popular among the vegetables, it has always aspired to be popular with birds too. And now, poor thing, its hope has been dashed.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

value

Value. Pricing Your Book for Success

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Price is not the same as value.

This is the second installment in a brief series about marketing for novelists. In the last entry I discussed writer’s resistance to marketing. Now it’s time to talk about putting a value on your work.

Choosing a dollar value for each novel, each story, each page, each word you write isn’t easy. All the hours you spent thinking, writing, thinking about writing and writing about what you thought, are what make a book valuable from your perspective as a novelist.

But the value of your book from your point of view is not necessarily the value of your book from a purchaser’s point of view. A reader is taking a risk on your story. She doesn’t know how brilliant you are nor does she know if she will even like the story until she tries it out.

One way to get a sense of perspective is to check other author’s prices. If you price your newest oeuvre higher than a recent release from a well known and beloved romance author, for instance, only your mother will buy it.

Your goal is not to sell ten copies to your mother at an ego gratifying price.

Your goal is to sell one hundred copies at a humbling but more effective price.

The common wisdom online is to price low or to give away for free the fruit of your labor. This makes sense from a marketing standpoint if you are looking to impact on great numbers of people. It makes more sense if you are looking to impact on the algorithms which are the basis for ratings.

Better “sales” rates can mean better placement on the vast online book shelf stacks which are Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. The books which have the most traffic in a library are often the ones on eye level which makes them more likely to be chosen.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.