C.M.J. Wallace's Blog

Congratulations to my book covers' designer, Hillary Frances Eleanor Coy, on her promotion to studio manager for MILK Vellum Productions, one of the two production studios for the prestigious MILK design company!

Here’s the most important thing I’ve learned from GR discussions: Up your meds before reading the threads.

Below are some others.

1. Authors shouldn’t comment on reviews.
1a. Authors should comment on reviews.
1b. Authors should comment on reviews, but only on the good ones.
1c. Every review is good, even if it’s bad.

2. Build a platform before writing your book.
2a. Write your book and then build your platform.
2b. Write your book while building your platform.
2c. Platforms don’t matter; write your book.

3. Reviewers who rate books 1 or 2 stars are trolls.
3a. Authors who berate reviewers for rating their books 1 or 2 stars are trolls.
3b. What’s a troll?

4. Reviews are for readers alone, and authors should keep their noses out of it.
4a. Authors can learn from reviews, so they’re for authors too.
4b. Authors are readers. Reviewers are readers. Ergo, authors are reviewers and both of the above are true even though not all reviewers are authors.

5. You must use Twitter and Facebook for marketing.
5a. Twitter and Facebook aren’t useful in the least for marketing.

6. Reviews are absolutely necessary on Amazon.
6a. Reviews can’t be trusted because of sock puppets. (Who didn’t like sock puppets when they were kids? But in this case, they’re evil.)

7. Readers put great stock in reviews.
7a. Readers don’t give a flip about reviews and don’t trust them because of evil sock puppets.

8. Some reviewers will no longer write reviews because of trolls.
8a. All reviewers must write even more reviews to combat trolls (the author variety, which may need to be designated as troll type 1 to distinguish them from troll type 2, the reviewer who dares to gainsay the trolls henceforth to be known as type 1).

9. Trading reviews is verboten.
9a. Authors need reviews and should collect the little devils any way they can, even at the risk of becoming troll type 1.

10. Author interviews are fun and informative.
10a. Author interviews are a waste of time and few people read them. Besides that, they induce brain death.

11. Editing doesn’t matter.
11a. Lack of editing will send readers running from a book faster than a good ol’ boy from a Gay Pride parade.

I can’t say for certain whether these observations are valid or warped and cracked; I’m of two minds.

Here's a fun link to grammar Nazi humor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N....

This poem was scribed by an anonymous wit and speaks of the woes of reading and speaking the English language:

I take it you already know
Of touch and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there,
And dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s dose and rose and lose—
Just look them up—and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk it when I was five.
And yet to read it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five.

I recently received an e-mail from a junior high English teacher who read Sing the Midnight Stars, book 1 of my Rift series. She said she had two seventh-grade students who were aspiring authors and that her class was working on an assignment that included “giving advice to someone in a particular field to help them become ‘great’ [and] specific and deliberate ways to practice [one’s] craft in order to achieve greatness.”

I was pleased that she asked me whether I’d be willing to give them some guidance, but her e-mail continued with some very disturbing information about the public school system. She related that schools are “moving away from stories and really focusing on informational text” and that the goal of becoming a writer was “not exactly encouraged in the educational system.” Considering the editorial wreck that is the state of many books, magazines, newspapers, etc—a direct result of our steadily degrading public education system—those admissions didn’t surprise me at all.

In any event, I gave her students the following advice:

Excellent writing stands on a foundation of solid editorial skills. Any aspiring writer must strive to master the mechanics of grammar and punctuation. They’re the bones and sinew of the written word, and if they’re weak, your writing will collapse. This is a good place to start your writing career, and you can learn these skills while you’re learning to write.

The art of writing stems from reading: reading great works by masters of the craft, and reading many of them. There isn’t a writer who ever existed who didn’t start by reading. Be careful what you read, though, because popularity doesn’t necessarily equal excellence. Stephenie Meyer’s stories draw huge audiences, but she’s a terrible writer. That statement’s subjective, of course, but writers such as Stephen King agree with my assessment.

What should you read? Because of the degeneration of our public education system, which started in roughly the late 1960s, it’s difficult to find books published after about 1980 that aren’t riddled with errors in spelling, punctuation, and usage; even J. K. Rowling’s books are full of mistakes despite how important they were to the world of young readers. It doesn’t mean stellar books aren’t still published, but be aware that they’re far more elusive than they used to be. Tell avid readers what you’re trying to do and ask them for recommendations. Read the classics. They’re not all easy to read, but you’ll expand your vocabulary and learn a little about older writing techniques, which you can use, although you might not think so at first. Once your grammatical skills are good, you’ll be able to judge outstanding writing for yourself.

When you write, emulate authors whose work you admire. Dissect a book to discover what made you love it (or hate it!). Was it the style, the use of imagery, the elements of the story, characterization, the way the plot was woven? Deconstruction can help you discover ways to improve your writing.

Practice writing in the style in which you hope to excel, and practice is the operative word here. Writing well is hard, hard work. Not just grammar and punctuation but also shades of meaning come into play. There are more than 600,000 words in the English language, three times more than the next-wordiest language can boast. I suggest reading a dictionary (what?!), but not as if it were a book (whew!). Develop the habit of reading a few random definitions a day. You just might find that it’s fascinating, and I guarantee that your vocabulary will increase, which is important for mature writing.

So what are the lessons here? Read. Write. Read. Write. Then do it all over again.

I found out yesterday that Sing the Midnight Stars received a B.R.A.G. Medallion. Big grin here. :)

My book will soon be listed on their site, http://www.bragmedallion.com/, where you can find many other indie works that have been through a rigorous vetting process.

Need a laugh? Read this: http://slightlyviral.com/beware-sugar....

Wouldn't it be a shame if there were no bad reviews?

I haven’t updated my site for a while for several reasons. First, there’s the distinct possibility that no one actually looks at it, and so its unchanging status wouldn’t be remarked anyway. (Don’t picture me sobbing into my espresso here; I’m simply stating a fact. That, and I can’t stand espresso.)

Second, I’ve been thinking about this whole indie thing and wondering about the value of pursuing self-publication of my series. A while back, I offered an editing test on Goodreads in the hopes of finding good editors I could recommend. As I pointed out before, that venture ended in the failure of every applicant and a spiteful, abusive e-mail full of profanity from someone who took my test. (But I’m happy to say that one of the editors who failed was eager to learn from me and is a joy to work with; we’ve become friends, which made the whole endeavor worthwhile.) Then, about a month ago, I ran afoul of a very nasty person on a Goodreads thread just after I’d disentangled myself from a malicious, libelous author who took exception to my review of her book and whom I also encountered on Goodreads. As a result, I had to ask myself what in the world I’m doing this for. I stopped interacting on the site and only just recently started again. I used the hiatus to reevaluate my goals, my priorities, and my opinion of what I and other indies are trying to do.

The sad fact is that there’s a great deal of bitterness, disappointment, anger, and frustration among indies, and at times it comes out—at least on Goodreads—in the form of lashing out at others who comment on threads and write reviews. I believe these attitudes stem in part from unrealistic hopes and unfounded faith in writing ability.

Several recent threads have discussed related issues, including the problem of the indie image and why more people don’t read self-published authors.* The type of unbalanced, vicious reaction my review engendered is one explanation. Another is the tone of near hysteria and a completely self-centered “notice me” attitude among many authors that’s repellent and becomes obnoxious in their manner of marketing, which some have shrewdly labeled spamming. Yet another is that the majority of self-published books are indeed schlock and a waste of time and money for various reasons, such as lack of editing, hastily contrived covers and stories, unimaginative plots, and the main culprit, truly horrendous writing. If these same writers tried the traditional route of publication, their work would rightly be rejected out of hand by agents and publishing houses alike. With the exception of two self-published books I’ve read, were I an acquisitions editor encountering the indie publications that have crossed my literary sphere of influence, there’s not a single one that I’d consider or even read beyond the first page.

How do you thresh the chaff from the wheat in the indie world? Slog through books until you find a good one? That’s not realistic (and possibly not survivable!). There are probably thousands of lousy indie books for every decent one published, if not tens of thousands. Well, then, should you make sure it has some seal of approval such as an IPPY Award? Honors such as that one are just the result of an arbitrary panel’s opinion and an expression of their biases and preferences, not necessarily an indicator of a book’s quality.

The simple answer: don’t bother with indie books. And this is coming from an indie author.

But that’s just the simple answer. Should we all give up writing? Should we never read another indie book? Of course not. Even people bereft of stellar writing skills (Stephenie Meyer and Suzanne Collins, for example) can sell books. Part of it is luck: reaching the right audience or agent or publisher at the right time. Part of it is prevailing taste; my opinion of what’s excellent writing—not counting editorial deficiencies—is just that: my opinion. It has nothing to do with you and your predilections, which may include Mmes Meyer and Collins, come to think of it.

I know there are gems out there among the indies. It’s a matter of finding them, but I haven’t figured out how to go about doing that.

As for me, I’m going to continue writing because others are encouraging me to do so. My editor worked on a book whose author won a major award for it in Chile, and she has great faith in my writing. So I’ll listen to these people because they believe in me.

Odds are high that my books will never be well known, although they’ve sold in four countries. Not many copies, it’s true, but I’ve received wonderful comments from people who’ve met me only through entering the world I created. Knowing that someone loves my characters and world, that I’ve struck a chord with them, is my goal, my priority. I’m taking a leaf from the greatest book ever published and learning to be content in whatever my circumstances, including the realm of writing and publishing.

And it’s enough.

*See J.M. Gregoire’s excellent wake-up call to indie authors at http://jmgregoirebooks.com/2014/01/03.... Caveat: She doesn’t skimp on vulgarities, so if that offends you, you’re better off not reading it.

I’m one of the many, many GR users who are mostly anonymous but do come out of the woodwork just enough to avoid being classified as lurkers. Lately (read: post–September 20), my latent militant streak has emerged, and it’s led me to open my mouth and protest censorship. Off-Topic: The Story of an Internet Revolt nicely encapsulates the censorial process Goodreads personnel engaged in and the reactions of the site’s prominent reviewers who were the most affected.

To those who insist that what Goodreads has done isn’t censorship, I respectfully direct your attention to certain definitions in Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary:

censor
1: a person who supervises conduct and morals: as a: an official who examines materials (as publications or films) for objectionable matter
b: an official (as in time of war) who reads communications (as letters) and deletes material considered sensitive and harmful
2: one of two magistrates of early Rome acting as census takers, assessors, and inspectors of morals and conduct
3: a hypothetical psychic agency that represses unacceptable notions before they reach consciousness

censorship
1a: the institution, system, or practice of censoring b: the actions or practices of censors; especially: censorial control exercised repressively
2: the office, power, or term of a Roman censor
3: the exclusion from consciousness by the psychic censor

I particularly like point 3 of each definition because both dovetail so well with GR’s TOS.

I waited about a year after I read book 1 to start book 2, which took me four tries, and now I remember why I was dragging my feet. I’d forgotten that the series is a medievalesque soap opera/war epic with very little in the way of fantasy to recommend it as such. I got about halfway through this one and quit.

There were four things that contributed to my annoyance with the book. First, it starts by using the shopworn device of a prophecy. Sigh. Is anyone honestly captivated by that cliché anymore? Second, it reads like a telephone book on page after page; I chose a typical paragraph and counted the number of people Martin names: twenty within seven sentences. Third, he bandies the names of medieval armor and clothing about just as freely as he does people’s names. In just a few chapters, the reader has a near-encyclopedic knowledge of them, like it or not. And it continues unabated. Fourth, Martin uses the crudest term there is for female genitalia, which I won’t repeat here because children use this site. That continues unabated also.

I may eventually finish the book, but only because I hate to quit reading a series.