picture

I’m really not one who gets into kids’ books since all I have is a cat. She only likes books if she gets to claw at them. So when my freind and fellow writer Ellen C. Maze sent me her book A is for Apple: A Horsey Alphabet, I thought, I like the cover. But when I read the book, I thought this is a great book for smaller children.


Each page has a picture of a Horse in a letter stance. For instance, Annie is in an A stance. Even better, the caption under the picture has words that begin with that letter. For instance. A: Adorable Annie ate all of the apples with abandon. Most of the words begin with A. So not only does the child learn their letters, they learn words beginning with that letter.


Ellen then takes the child through the barnyard of different horses to the letter Z. I think this would be a great trip book as well as a great bedtime book. So check her out and all her horsies.

Sometimes getting into those emotions hurts as we often must face our own demons. Those demons can be scary, but as with all demons, once you face them, they slink back into the wood work and you have left this incredible story filled with real emotions. It’s like a shot, it only hurts for a little while.

So anyway, I have her article posted below. I really suggest you read it in its complete form. It’s really good. Enjoy!!

Here’s the complete article Ratchet up your writing

Photo

As writers, we often romanticize the horrors of war. The good guy triumphs and the bad guy dies as he deserves. The warrior sees the horror of war, but he shakes it off because he’s the hero who always gets the girl. He’s the huge muscle man who can wield a sword and a shield like Flash Gordon. His eyes glare with superhuman strength and nothing gets in his way. He fears no man or beast, but fights whomever stands before him. He grabs the damsel by the waist, she kisses him and off they fly, swinging away from the bad guy, who lifts his sword, cursing his foe.

But what does reality say about war? It’s bloody, heartbreaking, horrifying.

My manager wanted to celebrate Administrative Assistant Day with her admin staff and took us out to lunch today. So as we sat around the table chit-chatting, someone asked my other coworker about her 19 year old son who is a soldier in Afghanistan. She paused, swallowed and searched for the words:

“Well,” pause,. . . hoping it’s something silly and small, but feeling a fist growing in my stomach, “He called me last week to say they were out on patrol and their convoy hit an IED. It killed his friend.” Horrified!!!! Then she said his words that changed the way I see war.

“Mom, I want to come home.”

We sat stunned as the realization that most of our soldiers are children, 18-19 year old kids forced to witness a grown-up world. Someone said, “I don’t know how these kids do it.” The mother said, she didn’t know what to say to him. There were no trumpets blowing, no parades, no spitting on the ground and lifting swords in triumph. Nope, just a little boy saying, Mom, I don’t want to be here anymore.

As I let her words sink in, I thought of stories I have read about the medieval soldier who shrugs off the death of friends with a simple “Farewell, my friend” and then he walks off into the sunset with a happy thought of his dead comrades and the fun times they experienced. I wonder how many soldiers said to themselves, I want to go home. I wonder how many wished their mothers were with them.

That’s the reality of any war, from Adam and Eve to the present day, I want to come home.

I don’t know if I can ever write the path of the hero again without thinking of this young man, forced to witness death at such an early age. My coworker said she hasn’t heard from him yet, but I believe he’s out there today, guarding the convoys and doing his job. But with scars that we as writers must see and respect in our characters. To not allow the character to witness the horror of wars is like telling this 19 year old soldier to get over it. He can’t and it will never leave him.

That little boy grew up in one horrifying moment and we as writers must also allow our characters to grow up. Allow them the respect of witnessing death and the horrors of losing good friends to enemies who want them dead, of the scars war creates and how it changes lives forever. To deny them this rite of passage is to kill the story, making it hollow and dull and making a character who isn’t human, not to mention disrespecting the soldiers who survived. Humanity sometimes is hard and difficult to bear, but we as writers, must bear that burden and bring it to life, no matter how painful. Even if it means the huge muscle man who wields the sword and shield says to his mother, I just want to come home, mom.

CS Lewis, the Narnia guy

PBS Downton Abby

I first fell in love with Downton Abby when I watched the first episode this year on PBS.  I love this show, love the house, and especially love each character and love to hate the evil ones.  It’s my wicked passion.  So when a Randy Ingermanson had an interesting article about the characters, I perked up. And he really hits the point, which is at the end of the article.   Here’s what he sent out in his newsletter. Oh, and please remember, his newsletter is copyrighted, so give him credit if you wish to use it.

Creating: Why Downton Abbey Rocks

Downton Abbey is the outrageously popular TV series set
in the home of an aristocratic British family during
the years 1912 through 1920.


On the face of it, the show’s popularity makes no
sense. 1912? What was happening in 1912? Oh yeah, the
Titanic, but what else?


Why is Downton Abbey getting such incredible reviews?
Why has it won six Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe? Why
has it become the best-selling DVD box set on Amazon?


In a word, it’s story. Downton Abbey is packed full of
story.


And what does “story” mean, precisely?


Story is characters in conflict. Characters with
impossible dreams. Characters willing to do anything to
reach their dreams.

Let’s look at the characters of Downton Abbey and their
impossible dreams.

Lady Mary Crawley is young and beautiful, the eldest
daughter of the Earl of Grantham. As the story begins,
her fiance has just died on the Titanic. Mary’s problem
is that she doesn’t have a problem with that. She
didn’t much love the guy, even though she was engaged
to him.


Why would any girl agree to marry a guy she didn’t
love? Simple. She was pushed into it. Mary is the
oldest of three daughters, but there aren’t any sons in
the Crawley family.


Unfortunately, the estate and the title and most of the
family money have been “entailed,” meaning that they
will be inherited by the nearest male relative, not by
Mary.


This is massively unfair, but the family has hoped to
make it less unfair by pushing Mary into marrying the
heir. Mary has gone along with this, until now. Not
happily, but she’s gone along.


Now the heir is dead and Mary doesn’t feel sad about
him. The only thing she feels sad about is that she
doesn’t feel sad.


Something is deeply wrong with Mary. She knows what it
is. She has no purpose in life. As the story begins,
her main purpose is to find her purpose.


Mary wants to make her own decisions in life. And
that’s impossible. Women in her position don’t make
decisions. They have their decisions made for them.


With the loss of her unwanted fiance, something snaps
in Mary. From now on, she isn’t going to have decisions
foisted upon her. She’s going to make her own
decisions.


If the only decisions Mary has power to make are bad
ones, then by heavens, she’ll make horrible, wretched,
idiotic decisions. But she will choose her own way in
life. She will. Starting now.

The news of the Titanic arrives on the same day that
the new valet, John Bates, arrives to begin his duties.
Bates is an old Army friend of Lord Grantham, and
lately some shrapnel has shifted in his knee, giving
him a serious limp. But nobody knows about his injury
until he arrives to begin work.


Unfortunately, Downton Abbey has zillions of stairs and
no elevators. How can Bates manage his duties when he
can’t carry things even on level ground? Will Lord
Grantham have to get rid of his new valet?


Bates is one of the show’s most likable characters. He
never complains. Never feels sorry for himself. Never
tells anyone about the failings of the other servants.
He’s honest and kind and decent. All he wants is to
have a job, and that is apparently the one thing he’s
going to be denied.

Bates has a rival. The head footman, Thomas, is young,
strong, and handsome, and he wants the job of valet.


Thomas has a massive chip on his shoulder because he’s
“different” — which is his term for the fact that he’s
gay. In 1912, that’s a serious problem.


Thomas will do whatever it takes to get the job of
valet, and if he has to lie and cheat to get Bates
removed, no problem. But whether he gets the job or
not, Thomas will never be happy. Because he’s
“different.”

Mary’s mother is Cora, originally from an American
family, now a middle-aged English aristocrat. Cora
desperately wants to get her three daughters married
off well to nice men. Now that the heir is dead, it’s
time to reopen the question of that wretched entail.
Why can’t it be broken?


Cora repeatedly asks her husband to get the family
lawyer to break the entail. And he repeatedly refuses,
claiming that it can’t be done. Cora strikes up an
alliance with her mother-in-law, Violet, who also
thinks that the best course is to break the entail.

Violet is an acid-tongued old woman who gets most of
the funniest lines of dialogue in the series. Violet
wants the same thing Cora wants — to get the daughters
married off, and most especially to see Mary keep the
family fortune. But neither Violet nor Cora can
persuade Lord Grantham to try to break the entail.

Why won’t Lord Grantham at least try? He certainly
loves his daughter Mary, and wants to see her married
well and prosperous. But breaking the entail would
probably not succeed, he’s convinced. Mary might get
the money, but never the estate.


Lord Grantham has poured his entire life into
maintaining the estate. He married Cora for her money
because it would enable him to keep the estate. Now how
can he separate the estate from the money? The estate
would die, and he can’t tolerate that.


For Lord Grantham, the solution is simple. Let Mary
marry the new heir. That would be young Matthew
Crawley, a third cousin once removed. He’s a handsome
guy, although (gack) he’s a lawyer. But even lawyers
can often be trained.


Lord Grantham’s plan is to train young Matthew to be
the new Earl. And to convince Mary to marry him. Why
won’t Mary do what she’s told? It’s the obviously right
thing. Lord Grantham loves Mary, but she can be so
infuriating sometimes.

Matthew’s certainly a nice guy, handsome, kind, honest.
If Mary didn’t feel forced to marry him, she’d probably
be interested. But Mary’s a stubborn cuss, and she
won’t be pushed.


So Matthew has no chance, even before she meets him.
Matthew has no chance, even though he falls in love
with her on sight. Matthew would do anything to
convince her to marry him. But nothing is enough. He
can’t have her, plain and simple.

There’s enough so far to make a movie, but not a TV
series. There has to be more, much more. And there is.
Practically every other character has something they
desperately want — and can’t have.


Edith, the homely second daughter of Lord and Lady
Grantham, would love to have a husband. But every time
she sets her cap for a man, her beautiful older sister
Mary steps in and flirts with him. Edith has no chance
for a man and she hates Mary. She’d do anything to ruin
Mary’s life. Anything.

Sybil, the youngest daughter, is interested in politics
and women’s rights. But what chance does she have to do
anything that matters? She’s been educated by a
governess, which means she’s learned nothing. She can’t
do anything, because it’s not ALLOWED, and that drives
her crazy.

Anna, the head housemaid, is a thirty-something woman,
not quite pretty, not quite plain. She’s sweet and kind
and she’s naturally attracted to the new valet, Mr.
Bates. But Bates has some dark secrets in his past,
things he can’t talk about.


Anna knows instinctively that Bates is protecting
somebody. But Mr. Bates won’t talk about it, and until
he does, Anna’s love is going unrequited.

Gwen, another housemaid, isn’t happy with her life in
service. She’s been taking a course in typing and
shorthand and would love to get a job as a secretary.


But nobody will hire a housemaid with no experience.
Gwen has no chance to pursue her dreams. Unless Sybil
gives her a hand, and even then, the odds are long.

Cora’s maid, Sarah O’Brien, is a bitter woman who
secretly despises her employers but adopts a fawning
attitude when they’re around. She’s in league with
Thomas to make life miserable for Mr. Bates, and
incidentally Anna. For no good reason. It’s not clear
what drives O’Brien, but her goal is clear — to make
everyone else miserable. She’s extremely good at that.

The housekeeper, Mrs. Hughes, is a quiet soul, but she
secretly wonders what her life would have been like if
she’d married the farmer who asked her many years ago.


But she’ll never know, will she? Unless . . . she gets
a second chance at love. Will she get that chance?
Would she take it?

The second footman, William, is a young man fresh off
the farm. He means well, but he’s none too bright, and
the highest ambition he can imagine is to rise to the
position of first footman.


William has a thing for the kitchen maid, Daisy, and
he’d be ever so happy if only she would notice him.

Daisy is a young girl from a miserable background. If
her self esteem got any lower, it would be underground.


Daisy is in love with the footman Thomas, who rarely
gives her the time of day. Thomas only ever pays
attention to Daisy because he knows it hurts William.


Daisy is too naive to realize that Thomas is never
going to love her because he’s just not interested in
women.

Mrs. Patmore, the cook, is slowly losing her eyesight.
She’s a kind soul, but she thinks she’ll be sacked if
anyone learns she can hardly see. Mrs. Patmore only
wants to keep her job, and she’s terrified, so she
takes out her frustrations on Daisy.

The butler, Mr. Carson, runs the household and
supervises all the other servants. It’s a constant
challenge. Mr. Bates can’t carry. Thomas is a conniving
SOB, but you can’t pin anything on him. O’Brien is
cruel and arrogant to the servants, but she’s always
sweetness and light around her employers, so there’s no
getting rid of her.


Mr. Carson feels that the honor of Downton Abbey rests
on his shoulders. It’s a heavy responsibility. Carson
desperately wants to maintain tradition, but that’s
impossible. The world is changing and soon it’s going
to be unrecognizable.


Butlers should have no favorites, but Carson loves Mary
like his own daughter and he’d do anything to see her
happily married.


Mr. Carson has a secret from his past, and it would
kill him if anyone knew. But the only person who knows
his secret lives far away. For the moment.

There’s more, of course. I’ve left out a few major
characters and all the minor characters.


But I’ve covered enough to make it clear what drives
Downton Abbey. Here is the secret that will drive your
own fiction to success, if you let it:


Every character in Downton Abbey behaves as if he or
she were the hero of the story. Each one desperately
wants something. Something he can’t have. Something she
will do almost anything to get.



When you write your novel, it’s tempting to bring in
characters solely to serve the story of your
protagonist. Characters who are there merely to play
the role of Sidekick or Villain or Love Interest or
Humorous Relief or whatever. Characters without their
own hopes and dreams.


That is the road to second-rate fiction.


Give each character a dream. Preferably an impossible
dream. Something your character will do anything to
get.


When a person will do anything to get what they want,
then anything can happen.


That’s why Downton Abbey rocks. That’s what will make
your story rock too.

And Randy’s right. When you dangle a carrot before the character, no matter who they are, they suddenly bloom, becoming more than just a person on a page to real live breathing being. They have a past, fears, loves, everything that makes us human.


Have you ever seen the anime Naruto? If not, watch some of the episodes on the website. Once again we have a ton of characters each one claiming to be the main character. Each one begs God to let this great thing happen or not let the horrible happen. Each one has a dream they are pursuing or a nightmare they are avoiding. So now the story weaves into a beautiful tapastry. They no longer support Naruto, letting him have center stage, but Naruto shares the stage, allowing each character the right to pursue what belongs to him.


Now the story is about a boy named Naruto who wants to be the leader of his village. Problem is he has a demon locked in him and everyone treats him like a freak. Not leader material. But he tries to prove himself, always reaching for the brass ring with is always out of reach. And again, each character fights for the center stage and that is why Naruto has lasted for years and years.


So be sure to make each character beg for something or pray that something remains hidden while keeping the MC the MC and the story arch flowing. Figure out what does each character want, not want, pursue or hide? That’s all. You don’t need a ton of info, just a little will do. Happy writing, dears.


And the PBS website has all of last season’s Downton Abby.

Although I do stand on soap boxes now and then and support causes, I rarely bring them here to the blog as this is a writer’s blog. But when a friend of mine posted this one: Koney 2012 I knew I had to add it to my blog. You see, Joseph Koney who lives in Africa decided long ago that he wanted power and the only way to get power was to intimidate little children and force them to fight for him and his LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). He forces the boys ages 13-18 to fight and the girls to be his sex slaves, although there are reports that children of all ages are captured.

Kony and four of his top lieutenants are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. They are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during a dark and vicious 20-year conflict in which rebels hacked off the lips, ears and breasts of their victims. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001428.html

I always like to have both sides of each story, so I did a quick search for this scumbag and this is what I found. Over the past 2 decades, Koney has forced over 66,000 kids to fight his sad little war. I’m sure most of those kids are now dead. Koney 2012 also claims Koney captures young girls and forces them into the sexual trade. THe sex trade is a hot trading business in parts of Africa so I don’t doubt the claims.

Human rights activists agree, however, that the abuses of the LRA are far worse than those of Uganda’s security forces. Over the past two decades, the LRA made it common practice to enter towns and kill the adults, take the male children as soldiers, and sexually abuse the female children. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/invisible-childrens-stop-kony-campaign/2012/03/07/gIQA7B31wR_blog.html?wprss=rss_world

These poor kids are forced to become soldiers, killing even their family members to ‘prove their loyalty”.

The report quoted by the state-owned New Vision on Monday warned of the severe consequences of abduction and forced soldiering on youth.

“Two-thirds of them are severely beaten, a fifth are forced to kill and nearly 10 percent are forced to murder a family member or friend to bind them to the group,” said the report.

“Those who had been abducted are more than three times as likely to have a serious physical injury or illness that impedes their ability to work. Abductees are twice as likely to report difficulties in family relations. They have nearly a year less education and they are twice as likely to be illiterate,” it added.http://reliefweb.int/node/226365

A young girl named Grace Akallo told reporters what had happened to her when lovely Joseph kidnapped her and her friends:

Among the participants was Grace Akallo, 25, a former Ugandan child soldier, kidnapped from her dormitory by rebels along with 139 other girls 10 years ago. Yesterday, she recalled her ordeal.

“They crashed the dorm windows with rifle butts and threatened to hurl a bomb at us,” she said. “We first hid under our beds, pretending not to be there. They could see us, they said, and forced their way in with their guns. Tied together with rope, the girls marched all night.”

Akallo said she was held for seven months by the followers of Joseph Kony, the messianic and charismatic founder of the Lord’s Resistance Army. During that time, she was forced to walk for miles, subsisting on leaves and sorghum. At a rebel base in southern Sudan, she was trained to handle guns and was ordered to steal food at gunpoint. “We were raped, all of us,” she said. Five of her friends were killed and two are still there, she said, adding, “I don’t know if they are alive.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001428.html

The goal of Koney 2012 is make everyone aware of this Scumbag. They want him arrested and left in prison for his entire life. This man must be stopped. By clicking the above link, you’ll see a video that describes more about their cause and how you can help. The more the world knows about this coward who hides behind children, the faster it will be to capture him.

Thankfully, the LRA has been weakened considerably over the past years and their number now around 250. But the threat is still there and the children of Africa are still in danger. Yes, we can just concentrate on our own USA, something we cherished during WWII and look where that got us. Lovely, huh?

A friend of mine, Nicole White, has started a Christian Independent publishing firm called Magpie Eclectric Press. Here’s a little bit about it. Enjoy!!

1) Why did you start Magpie Eclectric Press?


I started Magpie Eclectic Press first and foremost because of the strong passion I have for the written word. For years I’ve been considering the idea, but every time I prayed about it, I felt like God was saying, “No, not yet. Just wait a while yet.”

While I was waiting, I was doing research, and everywhere I turn, I come to the same conclusion… there just aren’t enough good Christian publishers for Speculative fiction out there in the world. There are plenty of good writers out there, many who might decide to self publish or else who might never get the chance to have their work see publication. This year, I felt in my heart that this was THE year to open Magpie… and so I started getting everything set up and prepared.


So, in essence, Magpie Eclectic was created out of a passion and love that I have for the written word, and this strong calling and NEED I have in my heart to help other writers improve and shine. In the process I’m sure I will learn many new and wonderful (and perhaps some not so wonderful) things as well.

2) What types of books are you looking for?


We are looking for anything Speculative, but we are especially looking for Christian Speculative. So, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thrillers, paranormal… and all of their subgenres.

The reason we opened our submissions to some books that might not be strictly Christian is because we recognize the entertainment and sometimes the lessons that can be learned from good clean fiction that might not be what some would call “Christian”. For instance, I think it would be GRAND if Magpie somehow stumbled across the next Cornelia Funke, Christopher Paolin, or Ted Dekker. Books like Inkheart, Eregon, The Sword of Shanara, Bran Hambric, The Personofid Invasion (through MLP), Percy Jackson, House, Imanuel’s Veigns, Frank Perreti’s book, Monster, and the Hunger Games … those are the types of books we are looking for; well told, well written christian Speculative fiction of any subgrene in the age groups of Adult, YA, and middle grade.

We are also open to some poetry collections. I am a big fan of well written poetry myself. Sometimes the most beautiful bits of inspiration come from a descriptive poem.

We are not, however, looking for books for Children, picture books, books that are very dark, or even demonic in nature, or books that stand against a Christian World View in general. While we accept some secular titles, we are still Christians here at this press… books that stand against what we believe in will not be tolerated or accepted.

3) Will your company put the books into the bookstore or is it mostly internet stores?

Our goal is to eventually get the books into physical bookstores, both in our area and the areas of our authors, as well as to offer books through distribution services such as Ingram. However, the majority of our marketing and sales is likely to be online. The internet is a wondrous place where authors and publishers alike can reach interested readers all over the world. ^_^ Here at Magpie, we will be doing all we can to push the author’s book forward in the literary world. We will need the author’s help, of course, but we won’t be slacking on our side either

4) What is the author’s royalty?


After the break even point for production costs, the author starts getting paid 40% of net profit. The net profit is the profit made after printing costs and service provider fees. Service provider fees are 40% of profit made after printing costs… so basically, the net profit is what is left after the printing cost is taken care of and after the service provider takes out their cut. Then the net profit is split so that the author gets their royalties, which is 40%. This is much, MUCH more than what any of the large publishing houses offer, and still much more than what many other small presses are offering their authors as well.

I know that some authors think that this percentage is still not enough of a royalty cut. HOWEVER, an author should remember that as a publisher, we will be working for our cut. We produce the book, yes, and that’s the upfront cost, but for as long as the author’s contract is maintained, we will continue to work to promote and sell and publicize our authors’ books.

Think of it this way. It would be as if an author decided to self publish and then hired a publicist and an agent to help them in marketing. As a publisher, we are multi-tasking. We produce, publish, and publicize… and at the same time we continue to handle the troublesome truths of dishing out the cuts to printers and service-providers, and so on and so forth. We are definitely working for our pay.

5) You said you used a POD style. What are the advantages of the POD style and what does that mean?

POD has the advantage of not having print runs which keeps surplus down and erases the need for warehousing altogether. This is a good thing for small presses on any kind of budget because neither the publisher nor the author has to worry about storage space or how much that might cost. It also means the consumer is getting the best type of product available… fresh off the press, ready to read, not tampered with. Who wouldn’t like a book like that? ^_^ Also, POD is environmentally friendly, since it only prints what the consumer orders, thereby aiding the movement to save our forest resources by eliminating the waste of printing on an excess amount of paper. So in the end, everyone is happy all the way around.

6) Does the author have to buy the books and then sell them himself?


No, the author doesn’t HAVE to, but it is HIGHLY encouraged. As we are a small press, we know that our marketing will only take an author’s book so far. However, with the author’s help, a book could go even FARTHER than it could with only the publisher working to market it.

Authors are encouraged to approach friends and relatives, talk to bookstore owners, speak at libraries and local schools, attend book fairs and craft fairs in your area, set up book signings, approach local newspapers, see about getting interviews with local news channels, or perhaps a radio stations. It’s also good if an author works to set up contests on your blog and website, and talk to people about hosting blog tours and mini book tours. We also ask that our authors look into building their online platforms so that they will have a following to support them when the book comes out for purchase. We will be doing much of the same work on our end; we really expect no less from our authors whose life-works are on the line. If an author’s book is important to them, they will work to market it.

With that said, an author is NEVER expected to buy a book at full price. First of all, Magpie Eclectic Press automatically offers ten physical ARC’s of the book against the author’s royalties to be negotiated and sent out to the author’s pick of endorsers who agree to read the book and review/endorse. After the 10 ARC’s, the author can purchase more books at an author discount of 40% after printer costs… and if an author purchases 50 or more books at one time, the discount becomes 40% + 20% after printer costs. An author may also send out as many PDF’s or e-books as they see fit. It’s also good to note that copies of an author’s book bought at an author’s discount actually counts towards the author’s production break-even point. This means that an author can even help to push themselves to break-even, and start getting paid that much sooner.

As mentioned before, authors don’t HAVE to do this, but it is much better all around if authors plan to work on selling and marketing their books both online, and physically.

7) Will you help the author market the books? If so, how?


Yes, yes, YES! Of course we will help market the book! We will be pushing the book into as many outlets as we are able to. We will be pushing for online marketing with FB, goodreads, our website, amazon (both kindle additions, and physical copies), barnesandnoble.com, smashwords, etc… We will also be trying to get the book into bookstores in our area, as well as having the book available through distribution channels. Our goal is to get Magpie books into Ingram, which is currently off-limits to publishers with less than 10 books available, but there are also other options supported by Ingram that support small publishers with less than 10 books to offer. Right now I’m looking into applications for some of those.

We are also planning to work with our authors to create other marketing options… we hope to help our authors set up mini/online book tours, blog tours, author chats, amazon blitz days, etc…

Marketing a book is a jointed effort between the author and the publisher. We will be working hard to make sure this book gets into the public’s eye, you can count on it.

8 ) Will you help in book signings?

That really depends on a few things… budget being a MAJOR one. We can definitely help authors set up book signings, and we might be able to help with costs for signings sometime in the future. However, at this point in time our resources are unfortunately limited, so unless our author’s live relatively close to our location, it is unlikely that we will be able to help very much in the way of book signings.

We CAN, however, offer the author marketing material that will be set against the author’s royalties. Such material includes pamphlets, bookmarks, posters, and business cards. ^_^ I would even like to provide authors with a special “book signing pen”. I think that would be pretty awesome… and as an author, I think I would appreciate it too.

9) How long before the book is available for sale?

This is a hard question to answer. Some projects may generally take longer than other projects as a given. I know that it may take months to get a book produced to perfection, maybe even a year, and my current goal is to have Magpie release a list of 2 to 3 books at a time as their first list and the “official opening” of the company. First finding the books that we want to produce, and then producing those books will definitely take some time. Hopefully within the next year (maybe two, if things don’t go very well at first), we will be able to release our first list. After that I expect that the process will go faster, a we will probably already have submissions waiting for review, and maybe we will even have some other books picked out to produce.

10) Will the Author sign a contract with your company?


Yes, the author will sign a contract with the company. This is a given for all publishing companies.

As a small press, we retain the right to publish your material in the formats agreed upon in the author contract. Terms of the contract will be thoroughly discussed to make sure that both parties are satisfied before anything is signed into agreement. And let me now make it clear that the stories our authors send us remains the authors property without exception; however, as a publisher, we will retain the right to printing and distributing. If it is ever agreed that the contract should be terminated – whether instigated by the author or by the publisher – the contract will be voided within a default 6 months (or agreed upon time span) of both publisher and author having signed a written termination agreement.

The reason contract termination is handled this way is to make sure that we, as the publisher, can try to sell out any of the author’s books that we still have in stock (in stock, here, meaning placed in bookstores, on amazon, etc… we would have to get all of that cleared out and taken down so that the author would be free and clear to present their story to the world at a different time under their own name or a new company name.) 6 months after the termination agreement is signed, all rights automatically revert back to the author… period. And we will renounce all claims to that story’s publishing rights or distribution rights. The story is and always will be the authors. End of story.

It is the author’s choice to publish with us, and our honored privilege. We don’t want to impose on that privilege, and a contract helps both the author and the publisher set boundaries so that both parties end up happy with the result of the product, and the service provided.

Hi All!! I don’t know about you all, but this Christmas season wore me out!! But I’m back in the saddle again. I’m starting up the writer’s group again and so I’m posting our latest session from the book The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction by Jeff Gerke. So enjoy, ya’ll!!!

Your hero’s inner journey:



The inner journey is basically what does he want from life, what is he looking for. He has a problem or an issue or an unresolved inner conflict. He can’t seem to make it b/c of this inner conflict. It can be anything: overeating, self-destructive, drugs, etc.

The Conflict:
The conflict comes from the subconscious mind driving the conscious which has a desire. The character isn’t aware of this desire that he has inside him. He has a horrible dissatisfaction of life and feels something is missing, but he doesn’t know what it is. This desire becomes the catalyst that eventually shapes his life and takes the entire story to complete. The character has layers that are over this desire. Take them off one at a time. The character never realizes he has this problem.

Freud and the psychoanalytic unconscious Wikipendia.org>
Sigmund Freud and his followers developed an account of the unconscious mind. It plays an important role in psychoanalysis.


This is where it gets boring. Just Psych mumbo jumbo. I didn’t use all of it.
Consciousness, in Freud’s topographical view (which was his first of several psychological models of the mind), was a relatively thin perceptual aspect of the mind. The unconscious was contemplated by Freud throughout the evolution of his psychoanalytic theory as a sentient force of will influenced by human drive that operated well below the perceptual conscious mind. For Freud, the unconscious is where instinctual desires, needs, and psychic actions were stored. Thus, while past thoughts and memories may be deleted or forgotten from immediate consciousness, they still, in some form, direct the thoughts and feelings of the individual from the realm of the unconscious.

Freud divided the mind into the conscious mind (or the ego) and the unconscious mind. The latter was then further divided into the id (or instincts and drive) and the superego (or conscience). In this theory, the unconscious refers to the mental processes of which individuals make themselves unaware.[27] Freud proposed a vertical and hierarchical architecture of human consciousness: the conscious mind, the preconscious, and the unconscious mind—each lying beneath the other. He believed that significant psychic events take place “below the surface” in the unconscious mind,[28] like hidden messages from the unconscious. He interpreted such events as having both symbolic and actual significance.

In terms of psychoanalysis, the unconscious does not include all that is not conscious, but rather what is actively repressed from conscious thought or what a person is averse to knowing consciously. Freud viewed the unconscious as a repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of mind by the mechanism of psychological repression. However, the contents did not necessarily have to be solely negative. In the psychoanalytic view, the unconscious is a force that can only be recognized by its effects—it expresses itself in the symptom. In a sense, this view places the conscious self as an adversary to its unconscious, warring to keep the unconscious hidden. Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary introspection, but are supposed to be capable of being “tapped” and “interpreted” by special methods and techniques such as meditation, free association (a method largely introduced by Freud), dream analysis, and verbal slips (commonly known as a Freudian slip), examined and conducted during psychoanalysis. Seeing as these unconscious thoughts are normally cryptic, psychoanalysts are considered experts in interpreting their messages.

Jung’s collective unconscious
Main articles: Collective unconscious and Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung, a swiss psychiatrist, developed the concept further. He divided the unconscious into two parts: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is a reservoir of material that was once conscious but has been forgotten or suppressed, much like the typical notion of the unconscious to Freud. The collective unconscious, however, is the deepest level of the psyche, containing the accumulation of inherited psychic structures and archetypal experiences. The collective unconscious is therefore said to be inherited and contain material of an entire species rather than of an individual.[29]


Luke Skywalker longing to become something great, but what he wanted all along was to find his dad.

Belief:
Character has one defining belief that has shaped her thoughts and choices, but is integrated with either inauthentic or inaccurate assumptions/beliefs especially about herself. This current belief cannot give her all she needs. She needs a place to go and grow. She is looking for a piece of the missing puzzle but can’t find it.

Luke Skywalker: Was always told he would only be a farmer, yet there was an yearning inside of him that longed for adventure. It wasn’t until Vader killed his family that he was able to finally leave and move onto what he longed to do.

Aragon: He didn’t think he could ever become king b/c of his ancestral past. His subconscious mind said, you can’t be king b/c you will make the same mistakes as your ancestor. His subconscious mind said, you can’t do it. It wasn’t until he left Rivendale and was forced into battle that he took his place as king and proved he could do it.

Conell’s subconscious thought is I failed in protecting my family, so I can’t be king. It wasn’t until he left the castle and was forced into protecting Imogene that he finally realized he wasn’t a failure. His desire was redemption, but his subconscious thought was I’m a failure.

According to Jeff:
For the Christian novel: God realizes this is an inner issue and loves him too much to let him go on this way. Good Christian fiction represents how God works for mankind. God will now work on him to bring him back into relationship with Him. The character will have to face this issue now or be destroyed by it. “The story is really about God helping the protagonist deal with the issue or learn a lesson from it. God sees how we destroy our lives and will sometimes allow us to face storms in order to fix our hearts.

“If great fiction is about bringing the main character to a breaking point over a sin, then all the event of the story are about bringing the character to that moment.” The more he must change, the more he resists which creates that conflict. He must change or die.

Or the character reaches that breaking point and decides he’s not going to change no matter what anyone says. He realizes he really is at fault. He acknowledges what has been causing all his problems. But through lust or pride or selfishness or just plain stubbornness, he decides he can’t or shouldn’t or won’t ever change. And so he pursues a course that leads to his own destruction.


Remember Darth Vader? He had to change or die. That was the choice he had to make at the end of the Star Wars movies. Same with in CAR movie. Lightening McQueen had to stop being selfish and realize he needed others or go back to his old life.

What is the character’s issue or flaw?
What is the knot that needs to be untied?
How will God use the story to bring him to a point of accepting or rejecting that change?

A few weeks ago, my friend Darren Zielinski, the man who wrote the essays on sword fighting on this blog, had a seminar for my writers. It wasn’t what I was expecting. It was better. Darren had spent months crafting practice weapons made out of plastic pipes and electrical tape. LARPers would be panting.

Darren-made weapons

More of Darren's weapons.

More, more, more!!! Larpers, beware!!

My own weapon.