Issue 6

While reading over reports written by my daughter’s classmates, I became aware of how many people take it for granted that Wikipedia is a dependable reference source. After all, the typical researcher is directed to Wikipedia by using a search engine, and immediately discovers it is an encyclopedia. So it must be filled with factual and reliable information that can be trusted, right?

Wrong. Wikipedia, an open content encyclopedia, contains articles that have been written anonymously by countless individuals from all over the world. The material can be written or edited by anyone with access to the Internet. Yes, I said anyone. Degrees or other credentials are not necessary when writing for Wikipedia, and no formal peer review process for checking facts is required. Articles are often submitted by self-proclaimed experts, so there is a good chance the contributors may not be truly knowledgeable or competent enough to discuss their chosen subject. In other words, any article could have been posted by a person who is actually uninformed and clueless.

There is no consistency in the quality of material found on Wikipedia. Some articles are outstanding, filled with helpful and pertinent information, written by professionals, knowledgeable in their fields. Other articles, however, lack experience or professional skill and are created by amateurs. The information is not only incomplete and inaccurate, but written with a lack of authority, making it almost impossible for a reader unacquainted with a certain subject to know what information to rely on.

In conclusion, when reading articles on Wikipedia, an individual should always consider the possibility that they might not be factual or completely truthful. Wikipedia may be a good beginning to see what information is out there, but it should never be used as a primary source for serious research.

Lisa Martin owns Martin-McLean Literary Associates LLC. She represents established authors as well as new writers.

By Lisa Burns
Joseph-Beth Bookseller in Pittsburgh’s South Side is gaining national attention for not allowing erotic poet Jan Beatty to perform a reading of her newest poetry in its downtown store over the speaker system. Beatty’s newest poetry anthology, titled Red Sugar, (University of Pittsburgh Press) is a collection of erotic poetry.

According to Joseph-Beth marketing director Chad Showalter, Beatty worked with the Pittsburgh store to have an author event in conjunction with the release of Red Sugar. The local marketing team leader reviewed the manuscript and became concerned that the sound system reaches all parts of the store, including the children’s department. Based on those terms, according to Showalter, the marketing team leader decided the store could not host the event. After this decision, Beatty’s publicist called Joseph-Beth and asked them to reconsider. Joseph-Beth came back with a couple of different options:

1. An in-store signing without a discussion
2. A signing plus discussion, but not through the store’s sound system.

The publicist declined both options, saying they were not acceptable.

Showalter tells WNW, “I’m disappointed we haven’t been able to work anything out with Jan Beatty or her publicist. Joseph-Beth’s main goal is to always maintain an environment suitable for family members, including parents, adults and children. That is our commitment, and we are proud to maintain a positive shopping experience for all.”

Joseph-Beth continues to prominently display Red Sugar in the local section of the Pittsburgh store. When asked if Joseph-Beth would ever consider Beatty for an author event under the new guidelines, Showalter replies, “Those continue to be two ways we would like to have Jan Beatty in our store events lineup. I think we’ve worked very hard to have Jan Beatty involved in our store. We are happy to support Jan if she decides to appear at Joseph-Beth.”

Calls to Jan Beatty and her publicist were not returned; however, she tells the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, “My position is that the store needs to contact me to apologize and to let me read with no strings attached.”

“I am disappointed that we have not been able to work anything out with Jan. It is our intention in presenting these two options to Jan that her event at Joseph-Beth would be a smaller, warmer event for Jan and her friends,” says Showalter.

The general opinion around Pittsburgh, home to Jan Beatty and Joseph-Beth, is that Joseph-Beth has gone above and beyond what has been expected in making an author event for Jan Beatty possible, given the store’s family atmosphere.

Agree? Disagree? Tell us at editor@writersnewsweekly.com or join the discussion on facebook.com.

By Lisa Burns

Hemingway could write ten words about a subject on the back of a matchbook and I would declare the result brilliant. Why? Because in ten words he would simply say what he wanted to say and say all that needed to be said. The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway’s “tiny” novel, is that ten words on a matchbook. I first read The Old Man and the Sea when I was nine, then again at twelve, then fifteen, then once again at nineteen. When I was nine it was a great fish story and I felt really sorry for both the marlin and the old man. At twelve I envisioned myself as the little boy who had learned so much about fishing and the sea from the old man. By fifteen I knew where my life was going and I knew my great love and my great nemesis was a man I would never meet except on the pages of his books…Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea inspired me and caused me moments of despair. The story and the writing were both seemingly simplistic, yet I was so caught up in his writing and that fish story that I wanted to throw away all the extra words in my life and live a big life in a small way. I wanted to write a massively impressive story with the perfect blend of the precision of a true craftsman and the ease of a barroom storyteller. I wanted to appear like a gold-medal Olympic figure skater who makes skating look so easy that an out-of-shape slob could do it.

But, just as an out-of-shape slob can’t skate like an Olympian, a writer who is not dedicated to their craft will never come close to Hemingway. I don’t mean writing like Hemingway; I’m talking about understanding and effectively executing the craft while adding your own distinct signature to it.

Don’t know the story? Here it is in a nutshell: Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, has a run of bad luck. He knows it, the village knows it and the young fisherman who loves him knows it. But what the heck, when he is given a couple of fish, he decides to use them as bait. He gets in his boat, ventures beyond the shallow coastal waters and ends up in the Gulf Stream, where he hooks the largest marlin he has ever seen. The marlin struggles for his freedom and his life; Santiago struggles because he is a fisherman and it’s his job to catch the fish. After a great battle, both Santiago and the marlin are bloodied and tired but Santiago prevails…for a brief moment. Smelling blood, dozens of sharks circle the boat, and while Santiago does his best to ward them off, they rip off and devour the flesh of the great marlin. By the time Santiago reaches shore, all that’s left is the skeleton of the “great fish,” an exhausted but “lucky” old man, the boy that loves him and a reader crying their eyes out. Why do we cry? Because Hemingway has clearly and beautifully shown us a truth that we knew but could not articulate: For every triumph there is a loss, and the true victor in life is the one who can persevere in the face of both

Doug Kurtz

1. Your book is about bio-terrorism and corporate scandal. How do current events play a part in your writing?

Bio-terrorism and corporate scandal function more as backdrops in Mosquito than as central forces in the story. My interest in them arose as I worked with my protagonist, Ben Baxter, who’s an adventure tour guide struggling with post traumatic stress issues. I wanted to torque Ben’s personal conflicts by getting him embroiled in events that would really motivate and develop his character. Once I knew that he’d be up against a corporate version of bio-terrorism, I started looking into current events to find a viable storyline. At the time I was writing, a lot of big corporate scandals were happening, as was some interesting research in biology. To get the right backdrop for my story, I put the two together.

On the corporate side, these very normal-seeming people were being caught in complex, underhanded schemes, and always seemed so humbled and humiliated. From this, Dana Carmichael, another character, was born. I put her at the center of an embezzlement scheme involving a biological sciences conglomerate called GEOSol. Because Ben’s story takes place on an adventure tour through major US national parks, I wanted the GEOSol scandal to involve the park system somehow. Then it was just a matter of figuring out the mechanical and biological angles of the embezzlement scheme, which ended up using mosquitoes to infect isolated wildlife populations in the parks. Some of this came from current events and some from current science—but most of it is straight-up fiction.

I don’t feel drawn to the news for story ideas—I’d rather start with a character and look for motivation—but I think using current events in fiction can be a great way to add a layer of character identification. If a character is concerned with the same things that readers are, then there’s something extra in common, and that creates interest and immediacy, and in some cases higher stakes. The danger I think is relying too heavily on headlines and subverting a character’s personal conflicts and motivation, which to me are always more interesting to read about than something happening in the news.

2. What is your favorite book, and how has it inspired you?

Oh, man, this is like asking my favorite ice cream flavor—impossible. I admire different books for different reasons, and would be hard pressed to narrow it down to one. I think my greatest influences were books I read as a kid. C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia come to mind—the sheer adventure of traveling to other worlds. I loved Jack London, too—his outdoorsy characters, and all the dogs. Animals play a huge role in my writing. Old Yeller, My Side of the Mountain, White Fang—books like these really hooked me as a young kid. I also loved The World According to Garp, by John Irving. This, I think, still tops the list of the most engaging books I’ve read. I tend to focus on authors whose skills and talent are way beyond mine, because it helps me to think bigger and stretch myself. Lately, I’ve been reading Ian McEwan for his psychological precision. His characters’ inner worlds are razor sharp and always emerge into the exterior world in surprising and disturbing ways. I love this, and it’s something I would like to emulate in my own characters. I thought Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections was an amazing book, and I go back to it often to marvel at the ingenious sentences and characterizations. I love Don DeLillo, too, and David Wallace, and Martin Amis, and Jhumpa Lahiri—anything that makes me ask, How did they do that?”

3. What is the writing process like for you? Do you develop characters first, then plot lines?

I usually start with a character and a setting that interest me somehow. For example, with Mosquito, I asked, “What might happen to a psychologically fragile tour guide on a cross-country adventure tour?” A problem, or conflict, usually emerges, and then I take it from there. Once the thing starts rolling, the plot begins to take shape and drives the protagonist along his or her arc, and vice-versa.
My stories tend to be pretty involved and complex, so I have white boards all over my office to track what’s going on with the different characters and plot lines. I find that having a visual component to my writing really helps when it comes to tracking all the threads that have to be pulled through.

My first drafts are absolutely horrible—painful to read, especially for me. A typical sentence might look like this: “And then he goes into house and finds a thing that maybe somehow determines what happened in the scene when the car went into the ditch.” There’s a lot of explaining things to myself the first time through, a kind of hybrid between writing about the story and actually writing it in scenes. I don’t worry too much about the furniture until the house is built; details come after I get the big picture worked out. The second draft is when everything comes together and starts to click for me, and subsequent drafts are about fine tuning and polishing.

For me, and for a lot of writers I work with, it’s important to remain flexible throughout the drafting process. I might have a good sense of where I want the story to end after I write the first draft, but in the second draft things can change direction, sometimes dramatically. I’ve learned that there’s a big subconscious component to my writing, and the story often knows where it wants to go before my conscious mind catches up, so flexibility is crucial. So is trust. The more complicated the story, the more drafts it takes me to get it right, and the more flexible and trusting I have to be with myself and my process. The novel I’m working on now seems impossibly complicated and never-ending, but because I trust my instincts and remain flexible to the end, I know it will eventually gel into the vision have for it. For me, one of the great rewards of writing fiction is paying attention to and “evolving” my personal process. I love it.

4. How long did it take for you to write Mosquito?

It’s hard to say exactly, because I was doing a lot of other things while I was working on it. I’d say it took about two years to produce a draft that read the way I wanted it to. Once agents and publishers entered the mix, I did a couple of rewrites, and that added on a lot of additional time. By the time everybody was happy and the book was in print, four or five years had gone by.

Everybody writes at a different pace and with different intentions, so I think it’s important to get comfortable with yourself and not worry too much about timelines. What’s most important to me—and most satisfying—is getting the project to work the way I want it to, however long it takes.

5. Are you currently writing any other books? Are they mysteries? Can you ever see yourself writing something other than a mystery?

I’m just about finished with the second draft of my next novel. There are definite mystery elements to it, but I wouldn’t call it a mystery, per se. I like to think of it as character-driven suspense. I never want my readers to stop wondering what’s going to happen next. There’s always conflict developing and resolving, on every level of the book: plot, character, internal, external, etc.—always multiple threads being pulled through every scene, chapter and section. If you can put the book down without canceling an appointment or missing your bedtime, then I haven’t gotten something right. I want to create engagement in every sentence and put my readers in a deep, exciting, suspenseful, mysterious, disturbing, elating dream. Whatever category that puts me in—mystery, suspense, thriller, etc.—I’ll take it.

As for other writing projects, I have a couple of non-fiction ideas in the works that stem from my life coaching business. I primarily coach other writers, and I’ve found that developing a positive outlook and mindset regarding writing is just as important for long-term success as learning the technical aspects of the craft. There’s a myth that a writer has to be disturbed to produce good work. This is nonsense. Writers can harness and build their personal power to maintain motivation and inspiration for the long term, and learn to counteract the limiting thoughts and beliefs that often hold them back. My next project is a self-help book for writers that focuses on these ideas, but I don’t want to give too much away just yet.

Click here to read Doug Kurtz's column The Write Mind

Lois Duncan

Lois Duncan is the author of 48 books and is best known for her young adult suspense novels. Her books have been chosen as American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults. DreamWorks is filming a major motion picture based on her 1971 children’s book, Hotel for Dogs.

Q: What is your writing process?

A: Writing a book without a mental outline would be like making a long road trip without a map. With one exception Who Killed My Daughter, the true story of our family’s investigation of the murder of our teenage daughter - I've never written a book without knowing the beginning, the end, and the major dramatic scenes along the way.

Q: What can writers learn from reading other writers?

A: We can assimilate writing techniques from authors who write better than we do and become inspired to emulate them. We can recognize the faults in the work of poor writers and seek to avoid them. We can keep up to date on current trends in publishing.

Q: What are the rewards of writing for young adults?

A: When I receive e-mail from young readers who say, "I hated to read until my school librarian gave me one of your books. Now I read all the time!," I feel that I've made a real difference in somebody's life.

Q: Why is winning a writing award so important to one’s career?

A: I don't know that it is, unless it's a major award and receives national publicity.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

When I tell people what I do, I usually get a blank stare—the same one I’m aiming at my computer screen right now as I try to come up with a topic for my inaugural column.
Life coach for writers? Sounds great. What is it?

Like ice cream, or writing a novel, it’s a tough thing to explain, and adjectives don’t do it justice. Cold and creamy? Ambitious and long? Firsthand experience is the best explanation, but I can’t deliver that in 350-500 words, and my brain’s going cold. So now I’m at the freezer, wolfing down Haagen-Dazs.

Writers. We come in every shape and size, with a wide range of quirks and neuroses, with bad habits and good, in every imaginable flavor. But despite our variety, we face the same obstacles, and the greatest among them is usually ourselves.

Take me. I’m a pint down and colder than ever. Every writer I know has agonized over the blank screen, the new chapter, the looming deadline. What freezes us in these moments—perfectionism, guilt, fear of rejection—varies depending on who we are, but we can all learn techniques for breaking the ice. Here are eight:

1. Take a break. Too simple? Maybe, but it often does the trick. Don’t stay away for more than a few minutes before getting back to work.

2. Switch modes. Writing isn’t always about the text itself. Try revision, or talking it out, or writing about what you’re about to write. Then see what happens.

3. Toss things up. Go to a coffee shop, write in bed, ditch the laptop for paper and pen.
A break in routine can unfreeze the mind.

4. Breathe. Your brain needs oxygen to function, but breathing often takes a back seat to cherry vanilla. Five deep breaths can change everything.

5. Get busy. If your mind’s blank, don’t just sit there. Try clustering, list making, brainstorming, or a creative writing exercise to loosen up.

6. Write crap. Everybody does. Think of it as fertilizer, and give yourself kudos for shoveling it. Without it, the good stuff can’t grow.

7. Have fun. Start with an idea, chapter or character that excites you. Other ideas will snowball as you go, and then you can circle back.

8. Acknowledge yourself. Take credit every time you put energy toward writing, even if you’re just daydreaming. Every thought matters, and facing the blank screen is far less daunting when you embrace it as part of the process.

Today, number seven did it for me: fun with ice cream. And you want to know what’s really great? These techniques are as useful in life as they are in writing. Try them next time you’re stuck at the freezer, and see what happens.

To get started and get where we’re going, we writers need skills to manage ourselves. That’s what The Write Mind is all about. And it’s no empty pint.

Have a question for Doug? Click here to submit it to THE WRITE MIND.

Doug Kurtz is a published novelist, certified life coach and the owner of Write Life Coaching (www.writelifecoaching.com). He earned his MA in creative writing at the University of Colorado, where he also taught fiction writing. He currently lives in Boulder, where he’s busy coaching other writers and working on his next novel.

I recently read an interview with John Irving, the author of such classics as The World According to Garp and (one of my personal favorites, A Prayer for Owen Meany. Irving explained that he didn’t consider himself a great writer, but did believe that he is a great rewriter. Reading that quote, and finding a brilliant editor within the walls of Sterlinghouse Publisher, changed my entire writing career.

You must rewrite! Don’t let anyone tell you any different. Of course, the great author that lives inside of us all would have you believe that you nailed it on the first draft, but I have been writing long enough to know that it certainly isn’t the case. I am almost embarrassed to send the first draft in. I feel that my editor is sitting there, shaking her head, wondering what made me believe I could write.

Yet there is always hope. Each draft makes the story better. Every corrected grammatical error allows the story to flow more smoothly.

The one major rewrite lesson of my life concerned my book, Desperation. Of course, I felt as if I had nailed it – I had written my Grapes of Wrath but my editors felt differently.

“I need you to change the point-of-view,” my publisher explained.
“Okay,” I said. “Sounds easy enough.”

Ten minutes later, after hanging up the telephone, it hit me that changing my point-of-view was not easy at all.

“I need to rewrite the whole book!” I screamed.

Yet months later, knee-deep in the process, I knew that my publisher and editor had been right. I made it a much better book by putting in the time, distancing myself and establishing the story lines.

Just as a way of clarification: One thing that drives me absolutely crazy is when someone posts a sign with a misspelled word. Who could ever do that?

Cliff Fazzolari is a professional writer and prolific author. He is on the Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo PICU Parent Advisory Council. He currently resides in Blasdell, New York.