Setting goals

So this is it for me in 2012.  Even babes have to prep for Christmas so after this week we’ll be silent for a couple of weeks.

I’m a huge believer in coals, long and short term.  However, they have to be under my control, doable and realistic.  Saying I want to write two manuscripts this year is a good goal.  I can control it; I know my writing speed so it’s doable and realistic.  Saying I want to write a New York Times bestseller is a bad goal.  It’s based on orders and you can’t control how many copies of your book are printed.  That goes for all accolades.  Think of them as lightning strikes and not part of the norm.

Here’s a great way to incorporate goals into your world.  First, see above.  Second, write them down and place them somewhere in your line of vision.  Make long term (3-5 years) and short-term (1 year or less) goals.  Create almost a contract with yourself.  One of my goals for 2012 was to try to break into a new market by writing at least three proposals.  Since I can’t control editors, all I could do was make myself work toward what might get me in front of editors.  (Notice I didn’t say sell).  Another of my goals was to try a different (for me) genre.  Not only did I find out I loved it (Sorry Babe Amy who is kind enough to proof for me but hates gore a goo), I also found out I can carry it off.

My long-term goal is almost always the same – network more.  Unfortunately I live in the middle of  chapters so my choices are to spend an hour driving 3 hours back and forth from STAR getting in well after midnight or getting up at 5AM to dress and shower and drive 3 hours to make an FRW breakfast meeting.  Yahoo hates me so I’m pretty bad at loops, too.  But again it will go on my goals list.  Just because you didn’t make it one year doesn’t mean you can’t keep reaching.

Happy Holidays!

A quickie for Thursday

I do not like cranberry sauce, not freshly made or in a can, I do not like it Sam I am.

So my solution . . . Pineapple stuffing.  It gives that same sweet/tart but without the cranberries to yuck it up (though my sister adds cranberries to hers).

Here goes (easy as pie)

1 can crushed pineapple

8 slices of white bread cubed

1 stick of butter, softened

1 cup sugar

4 eggs beaten

Mix butter, sugar and eggs, fold in pineapple and bread cubes

Bake in a greased pan at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

This is also great with pork chops or really any part of a pig.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Real or fake?

Crafting a character is like giving birth, only without the pain and drugs.  Well, I guess it could include drugs.  Over my 20-year career I’ve seen hundreds of version of how to get to know your character.  The one thing I’ve learned is there is no right way.  Only you can determine what and how much you need to know in order to make your characters jump off the page.

I touched on this topic at a workshop I did for Florida Romance Writers this past weekend.  My approach has changed over the years and I now use WriteWayPro© exclusively.  It’s an organizational software program that has many helpful features. Among the most precious to me is the ability to upload a photograph.  I’m a visual learner, so being able to create a character info sheet with a picture there really speaks to me.  I get pictures from soap opera sites (they have cast members from birth to death, so good pickings), off facebook, off magazine sites – you name it, I’ll harvest it.

Once I have a photo, I do my general history.  Height, weight, hair and eye color and I even give them a date of birth.  Why?  You wonder.  If you’re doing a series you may need to have your character age, so giving them a birthday keeps you from going back into an earlier book for the answer.  I’m also hung up on birth order.  The oldest child in a family is often the most responsible one.  The middle child is the peacemaker.  And the baby craves attention and is more of a free spirit.  The baby of the family is also more suborned since he/she is accustomed to getting his/her own way.

I’ll admit, I used to go through a whole series of questions but I’ve slacked off.  Shame on me.  Only about 80% of what you know about your character should come out of his/her mouth.  Instead you want to convey their personality through action.  Remember that baby in the family?  If she flies off the handle over something insignificant, you’ve shown her flaw without telling me.  Show don’t tell applies to characterization too.

So now I ask three questions I learned from NYT best-seller Leanne Banks:

What is the characters secret wish?

What is the character’s greatest fear?

What is the character’s super power?

Those three little questions will help you build conflict almost instantly.  For the sake of this blog, let’s do one for a hero in a romance novel.

Name:  John Doe            35 6”4, Black hair, Blue eyes, 195 pounds

                                           DOB 7/29/97 – has tribal tattoo on left arm

                                           Only child, parents deceased

Secret wish:  To get married and have a family

Greatest fear: Intimacy, has been hurt in the past

Super power: Eidetic (photographic) memory – see, no tights and capes, just a trait unique to him that no other character has.

So from the wish, fear and power I know I have to pair him with a woman who loves intimacy but doesn’t think she’s ready to settle down yet.  Voila – instant conflict.  All I need to do is decide why she’s gun shy and then come up with a compromise position – if not one of your characters gives up everything for the other one and that’s just a bad idea.  When I read that I think those people might stay together for a year or two before the resentment builds and they either get divorced or have some intensive therapy.  And yes, I do know they aren’t real but I do get invested when I’m reading.

Most importantly, you have to come up with a system that gives you the knowledge you need to write a well-rounded character.  Trust me, they don’t come to you as you’re writing.  If you wait for that to happen, be prepared to do a lot of drafts.

Happy writing!

Boundaries

The biggest challenge as a self-employed person is time management.  And even the best of intentions can be derailed by a pace-stopping interruption.  As sad as it is to say it, mine usually comes in the form of a family obligation or requirement.  My husband and daughter are fairly well trained but every now and again a situation crops up that completely screws up my work schedule.

Driving is the biggest cause for interruption.  I’ll be on a roll and suddenly I have to stop mid-paragraph to drive my daughter to some class or function.  Number two on the list is my husband’s politeness.  Again I’ll be on a roll and he’ll stick his head in the office door to offer to make me dinner or some other kind but concentration-breaking nicety. 

My solution?  When I’m on a tight deadline I place crime scene tape over my office door as a warning.  The warning isn’t always respected.

I’ve also developed a bad habit.  When I’m interrupted, especially if it’s last minute, the first paragraph when I get going again is usually an info dump of the chapter to date.  I don’t realize I’m doing it but when I go back in to read, I can spot any instance where my butt has left the chair.

So what should you do?  Guard your time.  Let everyone know that you’ll be unavailable.  Don’t answer the phone unless it’s an emergency.  Know your pace and map out your schedule.  I work on a chapter schedule.  If I sit down at my computer my goal is to write one chapter that day.  I know that takes me roughly six hours, so I let everyone know I’m not to be disturbed.  I know others who work by word count.  Be realistic in your estimates and deadlines.  For example, I don’t schedule anything between Thanksgiving and the New Year.  Why?  I learned from experience that A- life is too chaotic then and B- publishing pretty much grinds to a halt in December.  If I set a winter deadline I always set January 31^st.  Turn away the moochers.  People often confuse being self-employed with not working.  When my son was young every time there was a snow day or a teacher conference my neighbors would call on me to watch their kids since “I didn’t work.”  It took me a very long time to explain that I was working and no, I am not a babysitting service.  Don’t feel guilty.  It’s no different than any other job, it’s just location.  Your friends and neighbors will understand eventually and you can be proud of yourself for setting boundaries.

Do you have any time management tricks?

True believers

In this season of all things that go bump in the night, I’m just not a believer.  Well, unless I’m reading a Stephen King novel and then I know the true meaning of being scared snotless.  But I don’t thinks that’s the same thing as feeling the ghouls and goblins, witches and warlocks of the day.

I’m not big on superstitions.  Bring on the black cat.  Let me break a mirror.  I’ll gladly step on any cracks in the sidewalk.  Sorry, but I’m not phased.

Just for fun, about 10 years ago a friend dragged me to her psychic.  According to her, it would be the best thing for me.  My son had just died and she felt certain this psychic could ease my pain.  As much as the psychic tried with the “I’m seeing the letter L,” or “I’m sensing chaos in your aura,” I thought it was a load of bullshit.  My sister’s name starts with an L (as does my grandmother’s name and the name of our first pet) and of course she’d sense the chaos – why else would anyone stoop so low as to consult a psychic?  She saw my wedding ring and said something about discord with my spouse.  Well, my spouse and I have never so much as had a fight in 31 years – opps, wrong again.

On an unrelated note . . .  BARGAIN HUNTING will be released tomorrow!  Don’t forget to buy it, download it or however you like your books delivered.  You can read an excerpt on my website 

Happy trick or treating!

The S word

Nope, not that one, but I am quite fond of it.  We’re delving into the idea of shopping.  Now I come from a long line of shoppers.  We’re talking a trip to some mall every weekend.  End result – I learned to loathe shopping.  Then something magical happened.  The Internet.  Not having to go into a store is very inviting to me.

So where do I spend my net dollars?  I’m a HUGE Groupon junkie.  I’ve literally saved hundreds of dollars by using that site on everything from Botox to car washes.  (For the car, not my botoxed forehead).  It’s really very simple, you just register and you get daily emails various deals, goods and services.  There’s no minimum, no requirements, no strings at all.  In two years I’ve only been screwed once and Groupon’s customer service made good on the voucher so I didn’t lose a dime.

I eBay.  Not a lot but since I learned how to play the game, I’m actually pretty good at finding values and bargains.  I kinda got hooked when I started writing Finley Tanner novels, since a running joke in the series is that she’s building her dream Rolex from parts she buys on eBay.  I actually had my jeweler tell me the parts and I went hunting and sure enough, they were all on eBay.  I buy a lot of Coach on eBay.  I’m very careful and check the advertised merchandise against the Coach website.  YSL – forget it, too many fakes.  D&B – good deals to be found.  Betsey Johnson – more goodies just hanging around.  My tip?  Try misspelling the name.  For example type Betsy Johnson and you’ll find some merchandise that doesn’t show up on the search under the correct spelling.  My other tip?  Plan to man your computer during the last seconds of an auction.  I got my daughter a brand new Nook, in the sealed box for $47.50.  It had been steady at $25.00 for 3 days but I swooped in at the end and outbid the other person with a mere 2 seconds to go.  Make sure that final bid doesn’t go in until your opponent can’t re-raise you before the end of the auction.
My new philosophy – if you can’t get it online, you don’t need it!

Blatant self-promotion . . . 8 days until BARGAIN HUNTING is released.

I hope you’ll dash out and get your copy and/or download it from any of the major retailers . . .  From Fresh Fiction:

Bargain Hunting
Rhonda Pollero
Reviewed by Tanzey Cutter
Posted October 12, 2012
Mystery Amateur Sleuth | Mystery Woman Sleuth
Finley Anderson Tanner, fashionista/paralegal extraordinaire, is torn between the two gorgeous men in her life -- her boss, lawyer Tony Caprelli, and the law firms' private investigator, Liam McGarrity.  But Liam is the hunk who really makes her tingle in all the right places.  In the past, they've come close to consummating their relationship several times, but something always happens to hinder the final act.  Just how much sexual teasing is a hot-blooded woman expected to take?

Then Liam shows up at Finley's house late one night with a gunshot wound needing a place to hide and get patched up, and she knows she'll do whatever it takes to protect him.  With much probing and prodding, Finley finally gets Liam to confess that five years ago he left the police force after he was falsely accused of shooting a teen during a drug bust.  Even though he was never found guilty, he was forced to resign.  Now, Liam's gun from five years ago has been used to kill his ex-partner -- and he's again a murder suspect.

It doesn't take long for death threats against Finley to start and with an excess of possible suspects, Liam, Finley and Tony are kept busy sorting out details and following leads.  But will they live long enough to bring the bad guys to justice?

The really good thing about this fifth outing for Finley is the progression of her relationship with Liam, and we finally learn more about his background.  It adds a special dimension to the sleuthing and the final outcome of the mystery plot.  Don't miss BARGAIN HUNTING, a fantastic entry in this exceedingly enjoyable mystery series.

When things get ugly

Myth – authors always have input on their covers.  When I sold my first book in 1993 (yes, I am that old), I had no idea what the process was when it came to covers.  Harlequin sent me something called an Art Fact Sheet and it was about ten pages long.  It asked questions like the color and style of hair for the hero and heroine; the location backdrop; 3 suggested scenes for the cover (turns out that was a waste of time – they never once used the scenes I painstakingly wrote out on the sheet); a synopsis; clothing and a bunch of other details, large and small.  And FYI, I did them on a typewriter, and since I can’t type, I dreaded the Art Fact Sheet.  Now this process is done online.

Then about 30 days (if I was lucky) before the book was released I could suggest something called an Iris and that is a color image of the cover flat.  Or in some cases, I’d get the cover flat directly from my editor.  That was the first time I saw the cover.  On more than once occasion I loathed the cover.  But with Harlequin there are no changes.  They publish something like 177 titles a month worldwide so they aren’t going to stop the presses because Rhonda (or Kelsey Roberts as the case may be) wasn’t happy with her cover.

So what did I do?  Lie.  I’d always tell my editor the cover was fine or sometimes I’d lie and say I loved it.  I did have one editor who would call me and say, “I’ve seen the cover and you’re going to hate it.”  Which brings me to another myth at Harlequin – editors have almost no clue or say regarding the covers.  They are created in a different country and usually the editor is seeing the cover at the last moment as well.  There have been times when I didn’t see the cover until I walked into the store and the book was on the shelf.  I think it served me well to keep my mouth shut.  Of my dozens of Harlequin covers, the one I hate the most is from a book titled Handsome as Sin.  Only problem?  The guy is ugly as sh-t.  I actually had people attend a book signing and refuse to buy it based on the hero’s appearance on the cover.  Here’s a peek:

 Handsome as Sin

Then I did an anthology for Random House and that wasn’t much better.  They did send us the cover, ask for our input, and then ignored all of us.  Red Hot Santa looks like his back is covered in tumors.

Then I found Mecca.  When I moved to Simon & Schuster I had a completely different experience.  We actually had cover consultations and I was encouraged to share my thoughts.  And if I didn’t like the cover, they made changes.  They also did branding – utilizing an element, in my case a skull, in all the covers.   What a joy it was to know I was part of the process.

So my advice?  When you have to – lie.  Better not to be labeled a problem author than gripe about a cover that’s already set in stone.  And if you’re lucky enough to have a say in the matter, be conciliatory.