[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

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Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 10/25/12 ~ and…

I’ve dumped a Trick or Treat bag full of goodies I want to share all over my dining room table.

“Wait,” you say.  “We’re too old for this nonsense.”

I say, “Who made it a rule only kidlets got to go trick or treating last night?” 🙂

So, before you put away your favorite scary costumes and wash off  your glittery, fairy princess makeup, let’s see what’s in the neighborhood for readers and writers. Warning: Be sure to hold onto your flashlights in case the lights go out, and please don’t get grabbie. Manners, please!  There are enough treats here for everybody.

Fill your bag with treats, but watch out for the tricksters!

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TRICK  OR TREAT FOR WRITERS

  Muse dances your story down the wrong path into a dark, scary forest you can’t escape.

  Hero finally realizes it’s not indigestion burning in his chest, but love for his heroine.

  Heroine hides in the pumpkin patch and refuses to come out and play.

  The Cover Goddess of the Meadow blesses your new release.

  Wicked critique partners slash and burn through your weekly page offering.

  Chapter is finished in record time and pronounced “perfect” by the villagers.

  The editorial wizard who understands you and your writing has the gall to go on maternity leave in a distant castle far, far away.

  You type “The End” on page 425 of your tome and the angels weep for its beauty.

  Your computer crashes, taking three months of unsaved work to the fire pits of Hell.

  Your tome tops the N.Y. Times Best-Sellers List proving magic does drip from your fingertips.

TRICK  OR TREAT  FOR READERS

  The next tome in the series you’re waiting for is lost in a scheduling shipwreck on the high seas.

  The villain in the scary story you’re reading is so real, he slinks out of the shadows behind the fainting couch and grabs you by the throat.

  You get to the end of the tome only to discover the story sailed off without you and you have no choice but to buy a berth on the next ship to finish your journey.

  The local tomestore has a 50% off sale on all of the tomes you want to buy.

  Editorial Gremlins drive you crazy littering the tome you’re reading with typos and grammatical mistakes designed to drag you down into a viscous bog.

  You not only meet the model who posed for that sizzling tome cover you love so much but you get your own clinch picture taken with him, sans shirt.

  The heroine in the tome you’re reading is TSTL (Too Stupid to Live) and should be eaten by the nearest fire-breathing dragon…with catsup.

  Each of the tomes on your cobwebby Keeper Shelf is autographed, capturing the author’s soul in ink forever.

  A favorite author travels to a new genreland filled with trolls you can’t abide and you’re unable to follow her.

  The N.Y. Times best-selling tome-writer you love talks to you regularly from the ether cloud and invites you to sit beside her in the inner castle.

 HAPPY *AFTER* HALLOWEEN FROM KAREN’S TRICK OR TREAT BAG!

See you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….

[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

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Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 10/25/12 ~ and…

I’m continuing where I left off last week when I mentioned how much I love social networks and the friendships I’ve made across the country.  I spent two glorious days last week visiting with friends I made online.  I thought you might like a peek at what we did.

I spent the night in Colorado Springs with Linnea Hall(http://www.amazon.com/Linnea-Hall/e/B004LL0OFA). We met when I went to Tennessee to speak at her chapter couple of years, but we’ve chatted ever since. When I heard she was coming to Colorado for several days, I just had to find a way to go play. And did we play!  We didn’t have much time around her conference, but was able to dash out before it got dark to explore the Garden of the Gods. It was doubly fun for me because, long as I’ve lived in Colorado, I’ve only driven through the area once.

It truly is beautiful, one of the reasons why I love my Colorado Rockies!  See for yourself….

Love the red color of these rocks!

Looking west where the sun has gone down but the sky is still light enough to take pictures.

Love all the different strata colors.

Fascinating erosion variations.

Balancing Rock!

It’s all fun and games until some silly tourist knocks the rock off balance…Linnea! 🙂

My friend, Linnea.  Last stop, Balancing Rock, before too dark to explore.

We drove out of the Garden of the Gods park into Manitou Springs where I knew the BEST restaurant for the hungry and adventurous.  Stagecoach Inn has been around forever (some say it was the original stage stop 100 years ago) and has a few specialties I wanted to introduce to Linnea. Specialties she can’t get back in Tennessee anyway…like Rocky Mountain Oysters (yummm, a fav of mine). Yes, we’re talking Bull Bullocks, “balls” for the less squeamish. Done right, they can be great eating, and Stagecoach does it right! We also tried their smoked pheasant soup. We rounded our meal off with buffalo pot roast and homemade berry cobbler.  We were stuffed when we were finished, even had leftovers to take back to the hotel, but it was well worth it!  It gave us the energy we needed to sit up into the wee hours of the night in our pajamas talking.

The next morning, Linnea went back to her conference schedule and I dashed off to a friend’ s house fifteen minutes away in the foothills.  Lori Kander is a friend I met on a MySpace readers’ group, if you can believe it!  We were online friends for years before she moved to Colorado and we finally met. I got to see her lovely new home (well, it DID take me a while to get down to her!) and we spent several hours visiting and brainstorming her new book.  (I wonder how many of us who read prodigiously end up picking up a pen to put to paper.  I’m sure there are lots!)  Sadly, I left my camera in the truck when I arrived and we got sidetracked by what is turning into a great book, so I have no pictures of Lori or the foothills around her to share. I’ll be sure to share her photo when she publishes her book — she will — and I highlight her on one of my Book Bench blogs.

Around the fun stuff, I had a tough decision to make. I had already scheduled to conduct my 4-week online workshop, The “W” Plot…Or The Other White Meat for Plotters, several times through the next year.  But I have some surgeries coming up that forced me to cancel all of them except for January’s date with STAR (Southern Tier Authors of Romance).  My online workshop career will have to go on hiatus for a while. I’ll miss the fun of exploring student plots but I just can’t take a chance I can’t give everyone 100%.  When I take the schedule back up, I’ll be sure to make an announcement.  Thankfully, I have made my workshop available on my website at www.karendocter.com for those who still want the full class lectures, so I’m not completely deserting my fellow writers!

Interestingly enough, directly on the heels of sending out my cancellation emails, I received an invitation to go back to Phoenix to do my full day, “W” workshop for the good folks at Saguaro Romance Writers. I did the workshop for them several years ago and had a great time, so I’m looking forward to doing it again.  I decided I could do the physical workshop for them since it’s only one day and it’s not scheduled until October.  Still, going to keep the rest of the year open so I can work on getting back on my feet and running…literally.  Hmmm, maybe not. But walking would be nice!

I’m sure I have lots of other things I could share today, but I’ll refrain.  I really need to get this posted since it’s running about fourteen hours behind schedule. 🙂  Wishing you all a wonderful week!

See you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….

[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

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Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 10/18/12 ~ and…

Have I mentioned how much I love social networks — okay, today I love them 🙂 — and the friendships I’ve made across the country, hmmm, the world?  With a click-clack of my keyboard, I can keep in touch with new and old friends I would probably never have met any other way.  I’ve been riding Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads for a long time. Before that, I had a huge bunch of friends on MySpace.  This blog has been a staple of my day for several years now.

I’ve made thousands of friends.  Yes, they are friends. I talk to everyone daily.  I share jokes, writing triumphs, boohoos, wonders and “huh?”s.  I commisserate, encourage, and celebrate with my friends. And sometimes, when I’m really lucky, I get a chance to meet one or two in person.

And, you know what?  It’s not like I’m meeting strangers.

Right now (this posts tomorrow), I’m sitting in a hotel room almost 100 miles from home waiting for one of those friends to get out of her class. She’s flown to Colorado from Memphis to take these classes, and the first thing we did when we knew she was coming was start making plans to get together while she was here.  Oh, we have met once before…when I went to Memphis to conduct a workshop for her chapter.  But, that was almost two years ago and we talk daily on Facebook. Thanks to Facebook, we’ve become more than teacher/student in a one-time meet. We’ve become friends.  When she gets here, I will have this blog ready to post, we’ll grab some dinner and sit and chat…just like we are old friends who haven’t seen one another in a while.

And this morning (still writing this for tomorrow 🙂 ) after my Memphis friend runs off to her class, I’ll pack up my things and drive a few miles to the home of another really good friend I met online…on MySpace.  Hey! Told you I’d been on the social scene a while! She and I met on a reader’s group that focused on one of our favorite genres, paranormals, etc.  We talked there daily for several years before she mentioned she was moving to Colorado, less than 100 miles from my house in Denver.  The first time we met when she came to my house, it was like we’d been friends forever too. No awkwardness. Just plain fun.  I’ve been remiss in getting to her house for a return visit so we’ll grab some lunch and talk books and writing. She’s picking up her keyboard to pen a novel! How cool is that?

These are two very dear friends I wouldn’t have gotten to know if it hadn’t been for social media like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, even this blog  I wouldn’t have missed the opportunity for the world!

Whenever I find myself railing at the way a network is behaving or the amount of time it sometimes takes to wend my way through the timelines so I can find what I want, I remind myself of the reason I go to each digital playground.  Several times daily. These are my friends and the networks are the only way I’ll ever meet most of them.  And, if I’m really lucky, there comes a day when I can hug one of these friends up close and chat like we do each and every day.

Toddling off to play now. Have a wonderful day, my friends. Would love to meet you all someday!

See you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….

[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

~~~~

Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 10/11/12 ~ and…

I’m musing today.  I can’t speak for other authors but I have to admit to a bit of confusion (dare I say frustration?) about the apparent disconnect in the book publishing industry between what we’ve all been trained to expect from our books in the past, both as writers and readers, and the market of today. Things are changing so fast that it’s almost impossible to keep up or make conscious decisions before something new happens to change the tide in another direction.

Case in point.  Something happened this week that reminded me that I’m still lagging, both as a reader and a writer, in a publishing mindset that’s been around, well, forever. I won’t get into the specific event because it’s not the event that’s important to the discussion, but the subsequent musings it prompted.

I can remember the first time I picked up my new Kindle. (Only last year!) I’d put off adding any more electronic “stuff” to my beleaguered life as long as I could.  When I started considering the possibility of publishing my own book through the wondrous “new” technology of digital publishing — yeah, I was one of the last bastions of a land line phone only two months ago, too — I decided I needed to get a Kindle of my own.

Hmmm, where was I? Oh, yeah….lagging mindsets.  I swear it’s senility but my kids do occasionally tell me I’m not that old.  Or maybe I’m imagining that, too. 🙂

Let’s talk about my reader mindset.  Although I loved so many things about my new Kindle, like the ability to make the font bigger so I could actually read the book — okay, no more snarky remarks about old ladies and dinosaurs, please — there were certain things I didn’t like about reading on a machine.  Of course, all comments aside about type size (print book fonts are getting smaller to help publishers save printing costs, that’s good economics), I like holding a book in my hand. I like knowing where I stop reading when I toddle off to make dinner for my family.  I love the smell and feel of a print book. I love sifting through my 24-foot long, 8-foot high wall of paperback novels.

I miss these things when I read on my Kindle.  I no longer know how many books I have waiting for me to open their pages. They’re tidily tucked into my Kindle bookshelves but they’re no longer lined up side-by-side for easy skimming. I read across the genres and sometimes I feel like reading a historical. Sometimes I like reading suspense. And sometimes, I just want to pick up a cute little contemporary or a paranormal or a…well, you get the picture.

With a leather cover wrapped around my Kindle, one that opens up like a book, I can recapture the feel of a print book…sort of.  But I love throwing my leather book thong between the pages of my print book when I stop on page 85. I love knowing I’m on page 85. I love knowing that, by eyeball estimation, I still have approximately two-thirds of the book to wallow in before I finish. Yes, I have a love affair with my books but that’s a whole ‘nother topic!

It bothers me I don’t know these things when I read the same book on my Kindle.  Why?  Because I don’t feel the same sense of completion when I read that invisible “The End” that tells me the book is finished. I’m still used to closing the binding on that physical book and I don’t know how to get that same closure when I finish an eBook. I know I’m 25%, 60%, 85% through the story on my Kindle. But I want page numbers. I want to know that I got my money’s worth.

As a reader, it frustrates me that I’m unsure whether I’ve just read a full length novel of 50,000 to 100,000 words, or a novella.  When I hold a skinny book or a fat book in my hand, I know exactly what I paid for.

Which brings me to the other side of my musings.

As a writer, it frustrates me that my readers don’t really know if they get what they paid for either.  I know I write full length novels as traditional publishing standards fly.  My contemporary romantic comedies are the same size as the Harlequin Temptations (Satin Pleasures anyway, that may be changing with my next book 🙂 ) because the story was aimed at that publisher.  My romantic suspense is longer but that’s to be expected because it’s single title…again as the traditional publisher flies.  But on the digital devices, you really can’t tell.  It’s all too easy to feel cheated without a physical book weighing in on your senses and my suspense might feel as “light” as my contemporaries to some readers.  I hope not!

I’m a realist and I know there’s not much I can do to  influence reader perceptions especially when the traditional publishing benchmarks are masked or no longer apply. The story is finished when it’s finished. The last thing I want to do is add “fluff” to a story to make it appear bigger. If the story is told in novella length, that’s how I’ll sell it.

I like to believe I’m moving around this digital world fairly well. But questions pop up and knock me sideways once in a while, reminding me that I’m still a baby in Indie publishing, as most of us are since the digital world is still evolving.  How many of the traditional publishing expectations should writers carry over into our digital publishing?  How much do I, as a reader, have a right to expect of the authors I’m buying? I think we’re still all kind of wandering in the dark on both sides of the question. There doesn’t seem to be any easy answers.

Maybe tomorrow, there will be.  🙂

See you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….

[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

~~~~

Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 10/04/12 ~ and…

I’m going in a slightly different “muse-y” direction this week with my diary entry. It’s been a great week, got a lot of things done, but looking down at my desktop I’m almost overwhelmed by the number of different lists staring back yelling, “Me, next! Me, next!”

I’m a list-maker. With the number of pies my fingers are dipping into every day, if I didn’t have lists to check my lists I’d be running nekkid in the street and babbling nonsense. Well, maybe not nonsense. It’s more likely I’ll be making lists of the characters my killer is knocking off. Whatever is being muttered, you can guarantee the men in pristine white coats will be hauling me off to the room with squishy walls and then what would happen to my lists?  I do have a sense of responsibility…not to mention a rather persistent Type-A psyche.

Anyway, when I turned my attention to what I’d share this week, it just made sense to make yet another list.  Think David Letterman and his Ten Top Things…only a lot more fun(ny?)  Okay, maybe it’s just me that thinks I can make a fun(nier) list.

Top Ten Things This Writer Needs to Make the NY Times Bestselling List

In no particular order.
Except #1 tops the list.
And I can’t write without a laptop, and…
Hmmm, never mind.  No particular order!

 1.   Gallons of Exotic-Flavored Coffee, preferably delivered at the top of the hour by a barrista with six-pack abs & a sexy smile.

 2.   Laptop with 42-hour battery so I’m not tethered to the office wall and can write poolside. Oh! I need a pool, too!!

 3.   Hours of romantic and inspirational writing music to get me in the mood.

 4.   Story ideas, people who continue to the do the things they do to provide my murderous and romantic inspiration.

 5.   Empty email Inboxes, magically addressed by email elves.

 6.   Private chef to make meals to help me lose weight while giving me strength to create and gentler curves to fit into my slinky, NY Times Bestselling author celebration clothes.

 7.   Press Secretary to handle all of my promotion so I can write the Bestseller.

 8.   Housekeeper to control the dust bunny ranch and put Peppermint Patties (little mints just won’t do!) on my pillow when she turns down my covers.

 9.   36 hours in a day, not necessary as long as the email elves, secretaries, and housekeeper do their jobs.

10.  And, last but not least, readers who think everything I write is “golden”!

I said it’s what this writer needs.  Needless to say, I’m still working on my list.  🙂

See you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….