Book Reviews Given & Book Reviews Sought

A couple of weeks ago, Amazon.com prevented me from posting a book review because I hadn’t purchased $50.00 worth of products (I’m not sure if this just means books or other things) from them. Fair enough. It’s their rules and I have no issue with that. Amazon’s been battling with fake reviews, paid reviews, and writers’ trading positive reviews for years, so I guess they’re clamping down and attempting to improve credibility.

By the way, see Anne Allen’s insightful blog about a host of other Amazon measures to clamp down on other types of cheating. Unfortunately, innocent authors are getting caught in the net, and Anne explains it clearly HERE:

Usually, I buy ebooks because they are cheaper and delivered instantly. As a Canadian, I would pay 30% more for a paperback from amazon.com. But what frustrates me and many other Canadian authors is that because I have a Canadian account, I’m not allowed to buy ebooks on amazon.com either. In other words, their restrictions (we’re not allowed to even gift books on amazon.ca) won’t let me abide by their reviewing rules. Needless to say, I’ll be sticking with amazon.ca and Goodreads, and might even start posting reviews here on my blog.

As an author, I might have an even harder time getting reviews on .com from Canadian reviewers, but I’ll keep trying! In fact, I am indeed looking for reviewers from any country for my 5^th Casey Holland mystery, Knock Knock, published in Nov. 2017. If anyone’s interested, please let me know at debra_kong@telus.net. Here’s a short blurb:

A series of violent home invasions is terrorizing Vancouver seniors. When the latest invasion kills Elsie Englehart, security officer Casey Holland is devastated. Determined to protect other seniors on her watch, Casey escorts an elderly man home only to find herself ambushed by a knife-wielding assailant. Healing from serious injuries, Casey struggles to regain control of her life. She needs to get back on the job and finish preparations for her upcoming wedding before everything falls apart and more people die.

The back cover blurb is posted on the home page of my website at www.debrapurdykong.com

I can send an epub. PDF, or mobi version. Thanks!

Arthur Ellis Shortlist Nominees Announced

Last night, the Vancouver branch of Crime Writers of Canada enjoyed a terrific evening of discussion, nominee unveiling, book buying, and cake to celebrate Crime Writes of Canada’s 35^th birthday this year.

Turnout was great at the VPL’s central library, and it was lovely to catch up with writing colleagues and my favorite mystery booksellers, Dead Write Books. Owners Jill and Walter have been one of the few constants in my writing career, and Vancouver is lucky to such knowledgeable independent booksellers. By the way, they also own White Dwarf Books, for all you fantasy and science fiction fans. Check out their website HERE.

I think this was the fourth or fifth AE Shortlist panel I’d been on over the last decade or so. If there was an award for the panelist who’s been at this writing/publishing game the longest, I’m pretty sure I would have taken one! It was great fun to sit beside two panelists who’ve just had their very first titles published. I remember those days, and wish them great success!

Please take a look at Crime Writers of Canada’s website for a complete list of this year’s nominees. The photo, by the way, is a picture of the Arthur Ellis hangman statue that winners will receive. Some categories also have cash prizes, so if you’re a Canadian crime writer with a book coming out in 2018, you might want to think about entering this fall. You don’t need to be a CWC member to enter. Winners will be announced on May 24^th at gala in Toronto. For more info check out this link.

Save the Date for Arthur Ellis Shortlist Night!

Wednesday, April 18^th is a big night for Crime Writers of Canada. At various cities across the country, CWC members will announce this year’s Arthur Ellis nominees in a variety of crime-writing categories.

I’ll be participating in a panel discussion before the big unveiling, along with colleagues A.J. Devlin, Judy Toews, and Iona Whishaw. Our moderator will be prolific crime writer and CWC chair, Cathy Ace. As you’ll see from the photo, we’ll be at Vancouver’s main library on Georgia Street. For other locations, please visit CWC’s website HERE.

Established in 1984, the awards are named after the nom de travail of Canada’s official hangman. (Yes, Canada once had one). The Arthur Ellis awards celebrate excellence in crime writing. Eligible books were published in 2017, with the exception of the Unhanged Author, which awards a prize to the year’s best unpublished novel.

It’ll be a fun night and I hope to see you there!

The Facebook Conundrum

I’ve spent the last few days pondering my future with Facebook. Frankly, I’ve never been overly comfortable sharing much personal info about me or my family on FB, and I can’t remember the last time I posted something on my personal page.

Marketing gurus keep telling me that having an Author Page on FB is an essential, as it’s the best way to connect with potential readers. So I have a page, and I post these blogs there weekly, plus any new publishing announcements, etc. It’s open to the public, but after all the brouhaha about Cambridge Analytica and our not-so-private social networking lives, I’m in a conundrum as to whether to keep any FB presence.

I’ve never posted my real birthdate and I’ve started deleting unwanted apps, but this is probably too little too late. I also have a sneaking suspicion that other companies, aside from Cambridge Analytica, are still busy hoarding our personal info to sell to whomever wants to sell us something or persuade us politically.

These days I’m also on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Goodreads. All the others I’ve let fallen by the wayside or closed, as I just don’t have the time to keep them up to date. So, I’m wondering what all of you authors and artists are doing about your social networking presence. Have recent developments changed your approach to networking? Are you inclined to look elsewhere than FB to develop new connections, or do you think that FB will pose tighter restrictions on how information is acquired and sold, and allow you to delete shared material, as they claim they will?

Please, let me know your thoughts, oh and by the way, because the gurus say I should, here’s my FB Author’s page and a few other links, although I’m sure this is more info than you really need or want. But just in case… 🙂

www.facebook.com/pages/Casey-Holland-Transit-Security-Mysteries/139005706175139

Website: www.debrapurdykong.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DebraPurdyKong

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/1391841.Debra_Purdy_Kong

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/profile/public-profile-settings?trk=prof-edit-edit-public_profile

 

Five Reasons to Write Short Fiction

For the first decade of my writing life, I worked solely on short stories and the occasional personal essay. I wrote everything from 100 word ‘postcard’ fiction to 3,000 word pieces in different genres. I wound up with fifty published short stories, and even won a few writing competitions. It was a great training experience for full-length novels, and here’s why:

• With only a limited amount of writing time, it allowed me to create finished, polished work
• I learned how to make every word count
• I learned to meet deadlines
• I learned to accept rejection and benefit from editorial critiques
• I built a list of publication credits, which helped acquire a book publisher

Back in the day, I was fan of Canada’s literary magazines and subscribed to a number of them, so many in fact that I had stacks of unread issues, which took a long time to get through, but I did. I also learned that guidelines are firm rules, not suggestions. If my 2,000 word piece was actually 2,200 words, it could be automatically discarded.

One big reason for publishing success was that I listened to editorial advice. If I was lucky enough to receive feedback, I incorporated suggestions, resubmitted, and wound up published. The experience certainly helped me understand the process when I worked with book editors.

These days, I spend too much time working on novels to return to short fiction, but I still love reading the work of others in my writers’ groups. They remind me of those early days. They inspire me to think that writing both short fiction and full-length novels is doable at this stage of my career.

This must be why I was drawn to the attached link from cbc.ca, which lists Canadian literary magazines and journals now accepting fiction. Regardless of where you are in your career, I recommend giving short fiction a try.

http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/a-guide-to-canadian-literary-magazines-and-journals-open-to-submissions-1.4242191

 

#amblogging Editing in Bits and Pieces. Yikes!

As I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs, I like to work on more than one writing project at a time. It keeps my goal-oriented life focused and on track…mostly. One goal I completed last year was to finish the first draft of my first urban fantasy novel. It was a satisfying moment because I’d been thinking about the book off and on for about eight years.

During that time, I’d been writing and publishing mysteries which is my comfort area and something I know well. An urban fantasy that is centered around Wicca and witches required more research than I thought, and a wild stretch of imagination. As it turns out, it’s also stretching my editing skills.

Unlike my 70,000 word mysteries, this 100,000+ word book has five sections and over 70 chapters so far. Some of the sections take place in different periods of time. The book is written in present tense, which works for the sections set in current time, but I wondered about the sections set in the past, since they basically provide backstory.

After reading Manuscript Makeover and mulling it over, I decided to go back and write the sections those backstory sections in third person. By this point, though, I was already 250 pages into the second draft.

So, I’m back to section two (set in 1953) and am starting again. It’s slow-going as I’m not only changing the tense but adding new aspects and depth to the plot and characters. At the same time, I’m bringing earlier pages of that section to my writers’ group and making notes on section One that I’d thought was in pretty good shape, only it isn’t after all. I’m also waiting to jump ahead to pick up where I left off in section four (p. 250) before reworking the tense changes. All this going back and forth is leaving me dizzy, and I’m not sure that it’s working as smoothly as it could. That I only have a small amount of time each day to devote to it doesn’t help.

I remember listening to Diana Gabaldon speak at several Surrey International Writers Conferences (she even presented me with an award once), talking about how she writes a novel in pieces and at different places, then eventually knits them altogether. To this day, I don’t know how she does it. Having experienced a taste of editing in bits and pieces at different points in my manuscript, I’m beginning to think that the straight, chronological approach works better for me. I’ll know more once the second draft is finally finished. At this rate, however, I have no idea when that will be.

#amblogging Need Inspiration? Watch the Olympics

I remember writing about my admiration for Olympic athletes in the past, and for me it applies even more today than it did back then. I’m not an athlete and never have been. I am an author who’s always been passionate about writing.

Over the years, I’ve learned to deal with rejection, obstacles, setbacks, and occasional outright disappointment in my work. I’ve also learned the importance of perseverance, commitment, and finding new ways to improve and keep on learning.

Sounds a lot like what Olympians experience, doesn’t it? It’s incredibly interesting and moving to hear about the things they went through just to earn a spot at the Olympics.

We all keep going because this is how we choose to live our lives and because it matters to us, win, lose, or draw. This is why I’m still writing, still working toward goals, and still taking on new challenges.

Of course, writing is far less punishing on the body. Nor do we have TV cameras showcasing our successes and failures to the world. Unfortunately, we don’t get a nice shiny medal if we actually publish a book, although wouldn’t that be cool?

When You Find a Good How-To Book

In my quest to read more nonfiction and improve my writing skills, I picked up a book that was recommended to me several years ago. It was a good decision. Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon is one of the best how-to books on editing I’ve read in a while.

One of the great things I’ve found about how-to books is that they trigger ideas for improving my plots, characters, settings, and so forth. It happened several times throughout this book, which has caused me to go back and make key changes to the second draft of the urban fantasy I’m working on.

Now I find myself with three sets of notes to type up. One for the book review I’ll post. The second is a quick summary of editing tips I specifically need to address in all of my manuscripts. The third is to incorporate all of those notes I scribbled down about the urban fantasy.

The last section is entitled ‘Marketing’, but it’s not about promoting and increasing visibility. It’s about properly preparing your manuscript to submit to publishers. Lyon offers some really great tips on writing query letters and a synopsis. If you’re a fiction writer, I strongly encourage you to read this book. With any luck, new ideas will spring up for your work.

 

Follow-up to My Goodreads Giveaways

I didn’t know if there would be much response to my recent Goodreads giveaways, especially since I rarely participate in Goodreads groups. I didn’t promote the contest on their site, except through a blog post. But I did promote elsewhere, which seems to have worked out well.

The giveaway for my 5th full-length Casey Holland mystery, Knock Knock, began on Jan. 3^rd and closed on Jan. 24^th. 951 people entered the draw and 432 people added the book to their ‘Want to Read’ list. There were two winners.

 

The giveaway for my 2^nd Evan Dunstan mystery novella, A Toxic Craft began on Jan. 10^th and closed yesterday, Jan. 31^st. 680 people entered the draw and 285 people added the book to their ‘Want to Read’ list. Also two winners.

So, all I really want to say is a huge thank you to those who entered the draws for copies of my books. It’s a great way to start the year. Now I just have to work on the rest of my promotion strategies.

 

Compartmentalizing My Life

I have a part-time secretarial job at a university. I’ve worked in a couple of different departments over the past five years, yet only a handful of colleagues from each department know that I’m a mystery writer who spends her free time plotting crimes and coming up with intriguing ways to kill people. You can see why I don’t advertise this fact, right?

Marketing-savvy folks will likely be aghast at my reluctance to discuss my books, and tell me that I’m throwing away plenty of selling opportunities. But the truth is I simply don’t feel that comfortable talking about writing while I’m being paid to do other things. And when you only work four hours a day, you don’t get lunch breaks to sit and chat.

 

Occasionally, on quiet days, someone will ask me a few questions, and I’ll answer them, but I don’t encourage these types of conversations. This week, a colleague asked to purchase a couple of books for birthday presents. While I certainly obliged, I handed the books discreetly to her while no one else was around.

Everybody has a private life and personal challenges, or hobbies…important parts of their lives that they don’t spend much time, if any, yakking about at the office. It seems only natural to compartmentalize our lives. There’s a time and place for each of those boxes to be opened and explored. I’ve learned to pick and choose my times wisely.