Paul Lesko, IP Attorney

Whenever I have a copyright question, instead of doing a google search and praying, I shoot him an email. As he says in his interview, following any copyright advice on the Internet is not a good idea. I consider myself lucky that his advice is just an elevator ride away. However, this April, any one who attends the Missouri Writers’ Guild annual conference will get a chance to pick his brain, as he’s presenting a breakout session on copyright law.

If you don’t want to wait that long, or you can’t make it, you could win a consultation with him by checking out my Q&A and leaving a comment. Here’s snippet:

Just while researching my questions, I learned so much. That caused me to worry, though. How was she going to add anything more to the interviews already out there. How was I going to think of questions that allowed her to add new thoughts to the conversation?

To achieve this, compared to my past interviews, I asked a different kind of question. A more personal question about my own writing fears. How much energy should I spend obsessing over commas, grammar, spelling, etc. Are there any mistakes beginning writers are allowed to make without their manuscript being tossed into the recycling bin?

Her answer didn’t disappoint.

Jane: Let me allay your fears. Any agent or editor who rejects your work based solely on random surface-level concerns (stray punctuation errors or grammatical snafus), isn’t someone you want to work with. Great writing shines through stray surface-level errors—assuming those errors aren’t so numerous that they become distracting.

To be crystal clear: I’m not talking about the kind of bad grammar and punctuation that immediately reveals a writer who hasn’t even begun to master his craft. I’m talking about people who’ve probably been at work for years, and have the requisite skills to be a writer, but may not be flawless from a mechanical standpoint.

I’m a college writing professor who sees error-ridden work daily—but I can still spot fabulous voice, insightful observations, and provocative point of view through all those errors. Surface errors can be fixed. Boring stories can’t.

Continue Reading on the Missouri Writers’ Guild Blog >>>

We received167 entries from children in St. Charles County schools. Thankfully, I didn’t have to read all the entries. My critique partner Camile Faye was the contest chair. She, a former college English professor, and two retired elementary school teachers read through the entries and then each sent me their top ten.

For three days I received new entries in the mail. Like presents wrapped in manilla envelopes. Those were three days of happiness. Then I realized I had to pick a winner. Great gnashing of teeth ensued.

How was I supposed to pick a winner from stories that featured such wildly creative ideas like a well-spoken beetle, a dreaded vampire squirrel or flying dinosaurs. I was also surprised to find stories that addressed complex issues like the grief of losing a friend to cancer and the courage needed to face a bully.

The first time I realized I might be good at this writing thing was when as an elementary schooler, I won a children’s writing contest. Now as a judge, I had the power to inspire – or not – a child not unlike my past self. That thought was intimidating.

To keep myself from being intimidated, I formulated a ranking system for each child’s entry. They received points based on their story elements, plot and story structure, grammar and spelling, and  following directions.

This past Saturday, we held an award presentations for the winners. (You can see pictures from the ceremony on the Saturday Writers’ Blog) The parents treated their kids like mini-movie stars. Their devotion to ensuring their smiling child was forever captured in digital format, seemed slightly absurd, but I couldn’t blame them. I expect myself to be the same way as a parent.

Some children were absent. Afterward, I gave their certificates to their teacher. As I handed them over to her, she asked me, “Where are the rest of them?”

“Pardon me?”  What did she mean by the rest of them, I thought?

“I was told all the children who entered would receive participation slips.”

I know she saw my look of disbelief before I could straighten my face. If only agents and editors gave participation slips for submissions.

“…if a book is extraordinary, I don’t care if it’s about faeries, dragons or stamp collecting. A great writer can make any subject gripping.  So, a fantasy or science fiction novel would have to have three-dimensional characters that I come to care about immediately, a detailed, fascinating world that makes me feel as if I am a part of, and a tightly structured plot that holds my attention from the start to finish.”

Read the full interview with her over at the Missouri Writers’ Guild Conference Blog.

Last night, I watched a Season 3 House marathon while doing a marathon of dirty laundry and folding. The gist of House is basic: somebody gets sick, then House cures them while being a jerk. To keep the story interesting there’s always a subplot that runs over multiple episodes. The subplot over these episodes was a quarrel between Dr. Cameron and Dr. Foreman.

Foreman had stolen an article idea from Cameron, which he’d later gotten published in a medical journal. As a writer, I was rooting for Cameron. Foreman had broken a cardinal writing rule.

Then, at the end of the episode, the screenwriter gave Foreman a chance to explain himself. Dr. Cameron told him she believed they were both wrong and should apologize to each other. She recited a heartfelt apology and then waited for him to reciprocate.

He didn’t. Instead, he told he has nothing to apologize because they’re not friends, they’re colleagues.

Click. Did you hear the light bulb switch on? It did for me.

If you haven’t worked a day job where you experienced constant criticism and feedback on your work, then you will have a harder time dealing with rejection from agents, editors and publishers. Because, unlike the people at your average writer group meetings, they’re not trying to be your friend. They’re interested in being your colleague. Friendship will come later, if you’re lucky.

It can be used as a marketing tool. You can design one in photoshop or illustrator like the logo for the Meso Foundation’s 2011 conference:

It can be used as a way to check your keywords on your website. You can go to www.wordle.net and enter any website address that has a feed and it will automatically create a word cloud for you. Here’s what a wordle from the Writer’s Digest looks like:

It’s also a great way to see what your common words are in your story, or you can enter a grouping of words to make your own. Here’s the one I made as an example. It’s about the Missouri Writers’ Guild:

To control the size of the words, just enter them multiple times. So the large words, I wrote 10-15 times. The medium sized words I wrote 5-8 times. The small words I wrote about 3 times, and the tiny words I entered once.

Head over to www.wordle.net to create your own.

With that interview, Susan graciously donated a copy of her most recent book LITTLE BLACK DRESS to give away to one lucky commenter. Commenting closes tonight, so you still have a chance to win.

Even if you don’t win, Susan’s answers to my questions were fantastic. Basically a mini-class on women’s fiction in of themselves. Here’s a quick sample:

Nine Simple Solutions for Procrastinators

By Christine Kane

Irony: As I started to write this article, I thought, “I’ll just go play one Sudoku game first.” I caught myself in the act and marched to my laptop.

People who say that procrastination is about laziness are probably the same people who think that anorexia is about not eating enough.

Procrastination isn’t about laziness. It’s about fear. It’s about perfectionism. It’s about overwhelm. We all experience it, and there are some tricks to help you get moving again.

Here are 9 ways to break the procrastination habit:

1 – When you get an idea, do some little thing to begin.

When I read Stephen King’s book On Writing, I noticed something. I noticed that when Stephen King gets an idea, he writes it. Immediately and imperfectly.

Most people get an idea. Then they sit there. They wonder if it’s a good idea. Then, they wonder if it’s a good idea some more.

Got an idea? Begin it now!

2 – All hail small chunks of time!

Lots of us complain about having no time. My guess is that we all have lots of time. It just doesn’t happen to be all at once.

Are you waiting for many hours of spare time to begin your idea, your project, or your taxes? Stop waiting! Learn to use the spare half hour that comes up here and there. (I gave myself 45 minutes to write this article just to take my own advice.)

3 – Agree to do it badly.

Set a goal to do it badly. Set a goal to show up. Let go of doing it ALL, or doing it WELL.

Some of my coaching clients’ biggest victories have a lot more to do with getting over perfectionism and fear, than they do about getting it all done perfectly.

4 – Commit aloud.

Call a friend and say something like this: “I’m going to spend the next half hour working on creating my new product.” Then go do it.

Call the friend after the half hour and make her congratulate you. Repeat daily.

5 – Define quantities.

Nebulous goals make for nebulous results. “I’m gonna get my office organized” is a lot like saying, “We oughtta do something about Global Warming.”

Most procrastinators have a hard time defining quantities. We think everything needs to be done NOW.

When are you going to do it? For how long? Which part of your office? The file cabinet? Or your desk?

Define the goal and acknowledge its completion.

6 – Install this System Upgrade into your Mental Hard Drive: Less is More.

Have fewer goals. Have no more than three priorities for a week.

Why?

Because you’re not lazy. You’re just trying to do too much.

Find out what it feels like to accomplish one thing instead of not quite getting to everything. Wow – what a difference this makes!

7 – Do it first.

My first coach made me write songs first thing in the morning. He told me to schedule the 2-hour chunk as my first activity upon waking.

Why?

“Because you’re telling the universe that this is your priority. And then the universe lines up everything to align with your priority.”

Action grounds your priorities. It makes them real. It also makes your day easier because you’re not wasting energy thinking about this thing you’re supposed to be doing.

8 – Avoid nose-bleed activities.

Email, voicemail, web stats – any activity that bleeds itself into your whole day becomes a non-activity. It becomes a nose-bleed.

When you do it all the time, you never complete it. You just let it slowly drain the very life force from you. Define times for these activities. Then, turn off your email, your cell phone, your web stats, until that time comes.

9 – Don’t ask how you “feel” about doing the activity.

Have you ever committed to getting fit? And then when the alarm goes off, you lie in bed thinking, “Do I really feel like going to the gym?” (Like you even have to ask!)

Change this pattern. Make your decision the night before. Commit to getting up and going right to the gym, the computer, the blank canvas. Don’t have coffee and sigh and think, “I’ll probably feel more like it at lunch time.” You won’t!

If it’s a priority, don’t waste time asking yourself how you feel about doing it. Feelings are an easy out.

————–

There. I did it. I wrote this article. And now, I don’t even want to play Sudoku! How about that?

Christine Kane is the Mentor to Women Who are Changing the World. She helps women uplevel their lives, their businesses and their success. Her weekly LiveCreative eZine goes out to over 20,000 subscribers. If you are ready to take your life and your world to the next level, you can sign up for a F.R.E.E. subscription at http://christinekane.com.

Instead of cleaning up that clutter, I used to cheat. Once I’d reached a point of critical mass, I’d push everything into a box – throw out a teeny bit – and then shove the box in a walk in closet.

Unfortunately, I recently moved to an older home with no walk in closets. Moving was a wake up call regarding just how much paper resources I had accumulated. Here’s my list. Any of it sound familiar?

Writing magazines: I promised myself I’d get around to reading.

Books on writing, etc: Friends, family and English professors who know how much I’m committed to writing have passed along their old textbooks, yard sale finds, etc.

School Notebooks: In one box, I found my old high school honors English notebooks.

Mail: My fiance and I are paranoid about identity theft, having both had our credit card numbers stolen. As a result, we moved 3 full boxes of mail that we kept telling ourselves we’ll burn at some point. Unfortunately, we no longer have a fireplace, either.

Clips: I have a love hate relationship with these. It’s impossible for me to get near these boxes/portfolio binders without spiraling into nostalgic college & first job memories that take hours to reemerge from.

Knick-Knacks: Some people have knick-knacks for decoration; I keep knick-knacks because I see a story surrounding them. However, they’re doing me no good hiding in ugly cardboard boxes.

Those are my clutter problems in a nutshell. Clearly identified. Now that I know what they are, here are my solutions.

Writing magazines: Clip out the articles that I like and then compile them into a binder with sleeves and recycle the rest. If I really like the entire issue, then put it into a shabby chic magazine rack next to my reading chair. However, I am not allow to overfill the rack and must consolidate regularly.

Books: If I haven’t read it in the past 3 years (I hate getting rid of books), then give it to the Goodwill or make a flower. If it has a pretty cover, then turn it into a notebook.

School Notebooks: Admit to myself, that it’s time to move on. If I need to refer back to anything in those notebooks, I can just do a google search. Recycled as needed, see above link.

Mail: Buy a shredder & a trash can. Set up a mail station.

Clips: Organize these by publication. Frame the ones I won’t use, but I really like. Organize the rest into clip books. Begin scanning them and saving them electronically.

Knick-Kacks: Inherit my mom’s old dish hutch and display the best ones as decorations throughout the house. Storing the rest in the bottom of the dish hutch.

Now I just need to implement. Let’s see how far I can get today.

In the interest of full-disclosure, this is not the first time I have interviewed these men. They work on the police force in a Missouri town where, as a reporter, I worked the police beat. I’ve interviewed Chris on multiple occasions, for several stories including a 2-hour police chase, a UFO sighting and a shoplifting feature. In addition, they are members of the Missouri Writers Guild, of which I am the publicity chair.

While you won’t find any UFO sightings in their debut book The Light Bringer, it does have a supernatural element, in addition to being based on their real life experiences from working on the force.

To get us started, Chris, could you explain to us what The Light Bringer is all about?

MF & CD: The Light Bringer is a full length novel of supernatural suspense fiction that revolves around the deaths of 16 different people.  The main character is a police sergeant recruited by a federal agency to assist with the families who’ve lost loved ones.  As he delves into his assignments, he finds that his duties take him beyond life itself where good and evil conflict.  The story encompasses the mysteries of death and focuses on the question of “why do people die?”

What kind of research did you do when you were writing the book? Because you were both cops, did you have much research to do?

MF & CD: The first half of the book incorporates incidents based on real events which we took from our personal and professional lives.  Many of the procedures involving police protocol and technical aspects of law enforcement came with very little research as we are familiar with such.  The later portions of the book involve supernatural elements derived from research we did involving varying beliefs, religions and historical accounts, to include aspects of Greek and Norse mythology.

What was the writing process like with a co-author?

MF & CD: Writing with a co-author could be a challenging process but as both of us have worked together for many years and share very similar values, the process was easy.  It enhanced the book because we had the opportunity to bounce concepts, thoughts and creative ideas off each other from a variety of different angles.

How did you two come up with the idea?

MF & CD: We talked for many years about writing something that revolved around the numerous tragic situations that we’ve seen over the course of our careers.  The idea evolved as we continued to talk about how we could create a story from these events which would stimulate thought on following the right path in life, along with sending a message of hope and inspiration.  The end product produced a work of fiction combined with some real life experiences.

What do you hope readers will take away from The Light Bringer?

MF & CD: Although it is a work of supernatural fiction it’s our sincere wish that the story will inspire hope in those who live with despair from the tragedy of death and loss.  The message we want to project is that the length and difficulty of the walk we take after we leave this earth is reflective of the way in which we’ve live our life.  Many people have made mistakes in their life that they feel are unforgivable; however the message in our book portrays that it’s never too late to change.

What does your editing process look like? Did you go through many drafts?

MF & CD: As first time authors the editing process was long, tedious and at times frustrating.  We started with a chapter by chapter edit focusing on characterization and flow.  Next we progressed to removing extraneous content and then onto fine tuning smaller details.  The edits involved going over the manuscript numerous times.  Our literary agent was extremely thorough and a perfectionist, but in the end we appreciated the many edits as it was an excellent learning experience that led to publication. When it was presented to the publisher the senior editor complimented us on how well polished it was.

What inspires you to write? Most musicians have bands that inspired them to enter the music world, what inspires you?

MF & CD: Our inspiration stemmed from those situations which weighed heavy on our souls.  Seeing people in extreme pain and grief from losing their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters or children drove us to try to make sense of those tragedies and attempt to form answers in our own minds – even if those answers were fictional.

What literary character do you relate to the best?

MF & CD: Our main character is a police sergeant who was created through combining personalities, backgrounds and values that are reflective of our own.  His greatest attributes are his compassion and ability to empathize with others.

Many writers describe themselves as “character” or “plot” writers. Which are you?

MF & CD: Although we can relate to many aspects of our main character, our writing style dictates that we’re “plot” oriented as the message of the book far exceeds the importance of the characters.

What is your writing quirk during your writing process?

MF & CD: Some of our annoying writing quirks revolved around the typical types of writing we’ve done as police officers.  It was, at times, difficult to keep the police jargon out of the story whereas it seemed very natural and common to us but out of place to our literary agent.

Other quirks such as the process in which we wrote centered around the development of three documents which included the working copy of our manuscript, a character list and a series of notes pertaining to ideas we didn’t want to forget.  This last document allowed us to develop any portion of the story at any time as those concepts evolved.

What has been one of the most surprising/shocking thing(s) you have learned about yourself or the publishing world on your journey to being published?

MF & CD: We’ve been in many situations that have required courage but didn’t realize how much it would take to go out publicly with a story that displayed our personal feelings and beliefs.  Enduring and persevering through the process of attaining an agent and getting published has taught us many things about ourselves and our lives, most specifically how the good people around us were the real reason to why we succeeded.

As all of our research, referring to the chances of becoming published authors, indicated that we would fail, the people in our lives who cared about us, kept pushing us forward and believed in us, were the ones who defied the odds – not us.

Writing this book has sharpened our awareness of the degree in which we are committed to our values.  Although the saying cliché, we still believe “everything happens for a reason” and as we’ve said many times throughout this endeavor we have discovered that in those moments of despair their often comes great clarity in what to do.

God bless and stay safe.

Chris & Mike, as always, it’s a pleasure. Thank you for taking the time to stop by Sarah’s Notebook and tell us about your book. If my readers are interested in learning more about Chris & Mike, I’ve posted their bios below & you can find them and the book at www.thelightbringerbook.com.

THE AUTHORS:

Chris has over nineteen years in Law Enforcement at various levels up to and including Assistant Chief of Police. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and Northwestern University School of Police Staff Command. He is trained in various aspects of Law Enforcement and holds degrees in Human Resources and Business Administration.  Chris lives with his wife and children in Missouri.

Mike has spent over 30 years in Law Enforcement, the last 19 as a Police Chief Mike has numerous certifications in various areas of law, forensics, investigations and criminology. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and served  22 years in the U.S. Marines where he retired as a Captain. He oversaw operations for twenty-seven military installations worldwide.  He holds degrees in Political Science and Human Resources.  Mike lives with his wife in Missouri and has three grown children and a granddaughter.