Me — Interesting?

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I now have the information about the other authors that will be with me at the Nov. 15th book signing at the Lemstone Christian Bookstore in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This week I visited the store to talk to the owner about the book signing. While I was there I found out what I needed to know to report accurately about the authors. Kent Stock, Marion, Ia, from "The Final Season" fame has written "Heading For Home." His story about being a successful coach, teacher and business man. Karen Roth, San Antonio, Texas and formally from Cedar Rapids, Ia has her second book out. "My Portion Forever". Her first book is "Found On 16th Avenue". She writes about growing up in Czech Village in Cedar Rapids which last year was in the devastating flood.

　

　

When I can get the Internet to cooperate with me, I’m back writing blogs on a new monitor the size of a small television instead of the very small, ten year old screen I was using. I can’t believe what a difference screen size makes when I’m staring at it for a long period of time. Not that there is that much wrong with my eyesight as long as I wear my glasses. The fact is I’m feeling great, busy and full of purpose. It took a visit with a young neighbor girl to get me thinking about the generational gap between her and me and to bring this gap into prospective.

　

When I answered the phone one evening recently, I had to ask the caller to repeat her name. I want you to know I’m not hard of hearing. I’d heard right the first time, but I was too surprised to believe I had. It was the fourteen year old neighbor who lives in seeing distance of my home.

It seemed over night I watched her change from baby to toddler to an energetic child to a bashful preteen that didn’t speak when she came with her father to visit. Now a teenager, she was still very quiet this summer with a look on her face that said she would run for home if we spoke to her.

Her father described her as his Tomboy. Her attire was a shirt and jeans. Dresses were for a rare occasion. Most likely an occasion deemed appropriate by her mother. She went with her father to the barn to help with chores until she was old enough to do them on her own. Her love of animals led to her taking care of a flock of sheep and a horse. She worked with a lamb so she could enter the sheep exhibits at the county fair.

Out of the blue, she called me and got right to the point. "I have to write a story about someone for English Lit. I want to interview you for the story."

Not comprehending why she would call me for her assignment, I said, "Okay, but why me?"

"Because I think you’re interesting," she said.

I must admit I was baffled by that statement. We set up a time for her to come late one afternoon after school on a day between cheerleading practice and a football game. In walked a young woman who over the summer had grown a foot taller than me. Her long, dark blonde hair was styled. She had on makeup. Best of all, she was smiling as if she was happy to see me. Her father had told us a few weeks earlier he had lost his Tomboy. He was having trouble adjusting to the fact since the change happened suddenly. Now I saw first hand what he meant.

We sat at the dining room table so she could spread out the contents of the folder she carried. First thing she said in a very direct manner, "I can make the interview short and write three pages. That won’t get me an A." As she shuffled through her papers to get organized, she continued, "If I talk to you longer and write 5 pages, that would get me an A. I would rather get the A. It’s up to you how much you want to tell me. The teacher said not to talk too much if you would rather I didn’t stay long."

I told her she could take all the time she needed. Why would I want to rush her when I finally had her talking to me. I wanted to get to know her. I said I would do my best to answer her questions, but I warned her she might have to spice up her story. I was pretty sure I wasn’t interesting enough to get her that A. I offered to go over the story so we could do just that, spice it up. I could even proof read it for her while I was at it to make sure she got the A. She said she couldn’t let me do that. The teacher told the students to bring the stories to her so she could give them pointers on making the stories better before they turned the final product in.

"So where do we start?" I asked.

"From the moment you were born."

"That is going back a long ways. We may need a lot of time," I warned her.

Reading from a list of questions, birth was the first question the teacher had furnished to help the students with this story telling process. The girl wasn’t sure how some of the questions applied to me, but I encouraged her to ask me anyway. Once I elaborated enough that I unwittingly answered the next question.

I fear I was born in a much earlier generation than the teacher. Maybe she thought the students would pick someone more her age to interview instead of someone who could have been the girl’s grandmother. I came by that impression when I was asked the question, "How did the arts and craft movement play a part in my life or did it?"

Through my mind scrolled my childhood years in the Missouri Ozarks. Nothing about my early life was an arts and craft experience, but I was determined to give her an answer. Once in awhile we went to a western movie on a Saturday night in a vacant lot next to Schell City’s car repair garage. As for crafts, my family was in to crafts, but the main objective for being crafty was to make money. My father built flower baskets, with a log cabin look, from twigs. My mother made crape paper roses she dipped in paraffin. Back in the fifties, we didn’t have plastic or silk flowers. My younger brother and my part of this work was after supper. Mom gave us boxes of Kleenex in different colors. We folded a couple Kleenexes in accordion folds and wrapped a wire around the middle. The ends with the fold had to be cut off, then we carefully pulled each fragile layer of tissue paper to the middle. When we were done, we had a carnation. The flowers were arranged in a bouquet in the log cabin baskets and sold to neighbors for Memorial Day decorations to take to the cemeteries. Any basket left we spent the day delivering to cemeteries for our relatives. This story was noted. Maybe she could figure out a way to work it in.

Two hours and several pages of notes later, the girl gave me the last question. The time had passed fast for her and me as well. Since we never had really had a conversation I doubt she was prepared for how much I can elaborate on a subject when given the chance. However, she left happy with her interview and eager to turn it into a story. I asked her to let me know if she got that A.

According to her father, who came over recently to tell me after a talk with his daughter, she had been nervous about talking to me. By the time we finished, she was excited to relate to her parents all the experiences I had shared with her. Her father says she is very impressed with me. That is a two way street. What were the things she found most interesting about my life? It wasn’t that I write books and have been a CNA. What impressed her was the fact that I can vegetables we raise. She had me show her my pressure cooker and explain the process. The other thing was that I have for years did my own vet work as much as possible for my flock of sheep and goats. Though she takes care of sheep, she had never thought about giving shots or helping during a difficult birthing and all their food comes from the grocery store. Wow! I could do all that. Not what I would call interesting. These are things I have done for years. Just part of life as a person who lives in the country.

It didn’t matter that she wasn’t impressed when I said I was an author. I found this bashful Tomboy had turned into a polite, articulate, caring and lovely young woman. I told her to come back and visit any time she wanted, and I hope she does. Maybe I can get her to help me can green beans.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

More on The Reality of a Times Bestseller

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This post, from Lynn Viehl, originally appeared on GenReality on 11/6/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission. In it, she explains why it’s possible—perhaps even typical—to be a multiple-NYT bestselling author and still not be rich, nor even necessarily be entirely self-supporting. It’s a sobering wakeup call for all those aspiring authors who think if they could just sell that first novel, their careers would be set and their financial futures would be secure.

Back in April when I posted and discussed the royalty statement for Twilight Fall, my top twenty New York Times mass market bestseller, I promised I would post the next royalty statement that came in for the book. That arrived this week, so today I’d like to take a look at that and share some thoughts on how the book performed in the eleven months since the initial release.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: if you’re not familiar with royalty statements, it will be helpful to read Lynn’s post from April before continuing with this one.]

First, the actual statement, which you can view here.

As before, the only thing I’ve blanked out is Penguin Group’s address. This statement represents the sale period from November 30, 2008 through May 31, 2009. It was issued on August 18, 2009 and I received it on November 2, 2009.

On the statement my publisher reports sales of 7,550 copies and returns of 10,812 copies. The publisher released credits of 21,140 copies or $13,512.69 from reserves held against returns, but at the same time reserved credits against another 13,790 copies or $8,814.57, which reduces the credit adjustment to 7,350 copies or $4698.12.

Total sales for the novel now stand at 89,142 copies, minus returns of 27,479, for net sales of 61,663 copies. My credited earnings from this statement was $2,434.38 with no money due; it will probably take another six months to a year for the novel to earn out the last of my $50,000.00 advance.

So how much money have I made from my Times bestseller? Depending on the type of sale, I gross 6-8% of the cover price of $7.99. After paying taxes, commission to my agent and covering my expenses, my net profit on the book currently stands at $24,517.36, which is actually pretty good since on average I generally net about 30-40% of my advance. Unless something triggers an unexpected spike in my sales, I don’t expect to see any additional profit from this book coming in for at least another year or two.

One thing I didn’t mention in the last post is whether or not my sell-through, advance, and royalties are typical of an author with a top twenty Times mass market bestseller. Very few authors offer up their numbers, and even when they do they either go the anonymous survey route and/or don’t post statements, and publishers rarely give us any information at all, so it’s difficult to know. But based on my estimation of comparitive print run sizes, placement, distribution and a couple of other factors, I’d say no; my numbers overall probably run lower than most of the other authors on the list (of course if any other Times bestseller authors out there want to post their royalty statements, we’d all love to see the real numbers so we can establish a range.)

Speaking of comparisons, the publisher’s portion of sales on this book has grossed them around $453,839.68. I don’t have any hard figures on the publisher’s net, so I can’t give you the bottom line there. If I had to make a guess, I’d say they probably netted around $250K on this one.

What I’m taking away from this statement: returns were about what I expected; booksellers have been keeping these books on the shelves due to steady sales, and that helps.

My export sales are up, and they’re now constituting about 10% of my total sales, which is great. I’ve been reaching out to overseas readers for a couple of years now via blog promotion and I’m seeing a growing return on that investment. I’d love to see some foreign rights sales so that more of my readers could have the books in their native language, but unfortunately that doesn’t happen very often, and I can’t do anything about it because it’s all decided and handled by the publisher.

My income per book always reminds me of how tough it is to make at living at this gig, especially for writers who only produce one book per year. If I did the same, and my one book performed as well as TF, and my family of four were solely dependent on my income, my net would be only around $2500.00 over the income level considered to be the U.S. poverty threshhold (based on 2008 figures.) Yep, we’d almost qualify for foodstamps.

I finished this novel’s series in January of this year with the seventh book, which debuted eight spots lower than TF on the Times extended list. I’ve since moved on to writing a spin-off series, the first book of which is Shadowlight, which debuted at #17 on the Times list, two spots higher than TF. Shadowlight is now my bestselling novel to date.

What it boils down to is that you never know. I won’t find out for another six months how well Shadowlight initially performed or if TF will earn out in the next six months, which keeps me from obsessing over my sales. Either the books sell or they don’t; I have zero control over whether or not they appear on any list. My focus has to be on the writing (and Carrie did an excellent post this week to celebrate her series anniversary and to discuss excellent reasons to focus on the work; check it out when you have a chance.)

The overall response to the last statement I posted in April was quite positive and supportive, especially here at Genreality. A few places elsewhere, not so much. Several times since April I considered forgetting all about this follow-up post because I knew if I did it I’d be painting another great big target on myself, and no one wants to volunteer for that kind of duty. But I did promise my writer friends and you guys that I would do this, and I keep my promises. So I will duck and dodge one more time.

I know how important writer dreams are — sometimes they’re the only thing that keep us going — but I think they also have to be tempered by facing reality. To me, sharing an uncomfortable truth is better than perpetuating a myth. I know Publishing will never rise up to meet our expectations, but fiction belongs on the page, not in what we tell each other. Otherwise we risk becoming characters uttering lines of dialogue instead of working writers helping each other make good decisions.

So there you have it. If you’d like to share the info, please do; a link back to this post in return would be appreciated. If you’d like to express any gratitude, you can buy one of my books (or if my work doesn’t appeal to you, buy a book written by one of my blogmates. They’re all very talented folks.) And if you have any questions about the statement, let me know in comments.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: "comments" link will take you back to the original post on GenReality; scroll down to read, and add to, the comments there.]

Writing Wednesdays #15: Elements of Success

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This post, from Steven Pressfield, originally appeared on his War & Reality in Afghanistan | "It’s the Tribes, Stupid!" site on 9/11/09.

I was making a long drive this week, across the desert from L.A. to Phoenix, and I got to thinking about the elements that comprise success-particularly for people like us, e.g. writers, artists and entrepreneurs, who work from the heart and on their own, without any imposed external structure. What are the skill-sets we need? Over a lifetime, what challenges do we need to master?

In today’s post, I’m attaching a podcast of an interview I did with Jen Grisanti, who helms a Los Angeles-based consulting firm dedicated to helping talented writers break into the industry, shape their material, hone their pitches, and focus their careers. Her one-on-one consults with authors offer the insight of a personal studio executive. Considering Jen’s last job was as VP of Current Programs at CBS/Paramount, writers do, indeed, benefit from having their own “executive” – one who has worked with over 190 writers working in television, features and novels, and who is also the Writing Instructor for NBC’s, Writers on the Verge, and a blogger for The Huffington Post.

In addition to consulting, Jen holds monthly networking events and does a twice-monthly podcast, featuring interviews with movie-industry professionals and writers and artists of all kinds. This podcast would fall under #2 of my desert-drive list of the elements of success: Technique. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

  Elements of Success – An Interview with Jen Grisanti

[ Click on above link to open the audio file in your computer’s default audio player, or right-click this Download link and "save as" to download.]

 

1) Talent.

There’s a reason why you and I are not Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. On the other hand, it’s no coincidence that so often the greatest athletes, artists and entrepreneurs also embody the most ferocious work ethic. Talent may set the final limit to how good we can be, but it also can be stretched way beyond what most of us believe.

2) Technique.

This is an easy one because it can be taught. We can learn it-in school, from books and mentors, in seminars and workshops and coaching sessions. We can teach ourselves in the university of hard knocks. Jen Grisanti’s interview is in this category. So are the Iowa Writers Workshop, Robert McKee’s Story Structure classes (and his book, Story) and Noah Lukeman’s The First Five Pages.

Read the rest of the post, which includes elements #3-6, on War & Reality in Afghanistan | "It’s the Tribes, Stupid!".

 

But let’s go back to Number One in the elements of success. What skills do you and I need as solo gunslingers in order to call ourselves “successful” over a full career?

Veterans Day

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Today is Veteran’s day and I wish to thank all those who have served bravely to protect our freedom and to remember those who perished preserving our liberties.

Today I published an article for RedAdept on her Kindle Review Blog:

http://redadept.wordpress.com/

Thanks to all the Operation eBook Authors (232 strong) for supporting our troops.

"I believe that human courage must be matched by our very best efforts. As authors we may not be luminaries, but we all have a light to stand tall beside those who protect our right to be creative in ways not allowed universally. In that, we pay their courage forward with our creative thanks."

Edward C. Patterson

Using Twitter’s Lists Feature for Writing

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This post, from Meryl K. Evans, originally appeared on her Meryl.net site on 11/2/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

If you haven’t heard by now, Twitter now has Lists that lets you put Twitter users into groups. It doesn’t matter if you’re following someone or not, you can add anyone into a list or two or three. Here’s an introduction and a how to use Twitter Lists at Web Worker Daily.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: there’s also an embedded how-to screencast in this post, after the jump]

Round Twitter ButtonTwitter users have their own rules for who they follow and not follow. Some follow those who fall into a specific field, career and whatnot. Guy LeCharles Gonzalez follows those with some connection to publishing. It’s not elitist if someone doesn’t follow you back. They use Twitter in a different way than you and I do. Nothing against you. Really. I promise.

I follow thousands of people. It’s crazy, I know. But my work varies. Know that I do not follow every high quality tweeter who follows me. Some folks just talk about things I’m not interested in. Most of the people I follow fall into one of the following areas:

  • Work as writers, editors, publishers and related.
  • Tweet about casual games. After all, I run The Game Zen and write for Gamezebo.
  • Experts in social media and PR. This area changes daily and I want to keep up.
  • Experts in marketing especially business-to-business (B2B). For my work with InternetVIZ.
  • Make me laugh. I find lots of gems in Tweets to fill me with energy and smiles.
  • Those from the Dallas / Fort Worth area. Gotta stay on top of what’s happening in my neighborhood.
  • People who write about things related to disabilities and accessibility. Might find something worth sharing in my CI blog.
  • Gadgets, technology and web design. I cover this area often and have met a lot of folks in this field.
  • People who discuss general business. This one is broad, but they just don’t fall into any of the above categories.

I know it’s crazy that I have a bit of a list and a huge Twitter stream. Social networking is high on my list of things to do for my business. Writers could manage the people they follow and their lists in the following ways:

  • Create a writers list. This will be your water cooler, support system and colleagues in the same boat.
  • Create separate lists for editors, publishers, agents and gigs. I lump all of these into one because I have broader interest. Or you can make one list. It depends on your needs. If writers and these folks are the type of people you follow and nothing else — then use lists to narrow them down further.
  • Create a favorite people and clients list. Yes, you can make it private if you prefer not to share. This way you don’t miss a single tweet. This would most likely be a short list.
  • Follow other people’s lists. Why start from scratch? We’re not the only ones creating lists, so we can follow other people’s lists. I follow Simon Mackie’s list of Web Worker Daily writers.
  • Create an experts on X topic list. What’s your beat? Football? Finance? Fashion? Make a list for your frequently covered topics for instant access when you’re working on an article. No more trying to remember the people you read for the topic.
  • Create a list for learning. Plenty of Twitter IDs focus on tweeting writing, grammar and other tips.
  • Create a list for current events, conferences and projects. Hey, there’s lots happening on Twitter right now due to NaNoWriMo.

To see my lists, go to @merylkevans and look in the right sidebar. Click the list to see who appears in it. You can also “Follow the list,” which adds my list to yours so you won’t have to manage it. Just remember, you can’t edit other people’s lists.

Here’s a closed-captioned screencast on how to create lists.

Some developers behind applications that make it easier to manage your Twitter business are already working on adding the list feature. I look forward to seeing what they do.

I love these lists especially since I’m a freak when it comes to organization. Of course, you can find me @merylkevans; hope I make the good list!

You might like to read more Twitter articles.

How do you use the list feature?

Mythbusting the ISBN

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This post, from Laura Dawson, originally appeared on the LJNDawson blog on 11/4/09.

It’s probably not healthy to keep thinking about this. It certainly makes me a lousy conversationalist. Because in all the ruminating and talking and (if you must know) mad nattering to myself (luckily, I spend LARGE portions of my day alone), I keep coming back to the ISBN.

Bear with me. (I have already investigated, and there is no rehab facility that deals in identifier addiction problems, so that’s out.)

Last month, the AAP’s Digital Initiatives Working Group and BISAC’s Identifiers Committee conducted a survey among members to determine what publishers’ views actually are on the ISBN. Publishers have been told what to think, repeatedly – and we know how much publishers like being told what to think – so we thought we’d turn the conversation around and ask them what they thought. The results are not yet finalized, and when they are I will talk about them.

But I worry. Because as we expand book distribution from merely a paper-with-occasional-ebook business to an all-kinds-of-paper-and-lots-of-different-ebooks-plus-vooks-plus-promotional-packages-plus-print-on-demand-plus-subscriptions-to-book-content-plus-downloadable-audio – well, you can see where this is going, and it’s messy.

And I have been in more than one meeting where I have heard these exact words (and I am not making this up), “If only we had some kind of system to deal with this, some way of identifying content…”

Hello????

So, first, some mythbusting.

ISBNs are expensive.

Actually, no they are not! The new My Identifiers site will offer new pricing in January. A single ISBN will cost an author or publisher $125. Ten ISBNs are $250, or $25 per ISBN. A hundred ISBNs are $575. This is cheap!

An ISBN is just a bar code for a book, and if my books are digital, I don’t need ISBNs.

Not so! In using an ISBN for a digital book (or any book), a publisher creates an automatic web page for that book, which is populated by the bibliographic data in Books in Print (and can be edited or added to by the publisher). Bowker hosts that web page, and the hosting price is included in the purchase of the ISBN. Publishers can choose which booksellers will sell their titles on that page – or direct traffic specifically to the publisher itself.
The price of the ISBNs also includes a widget for each title, to put on your own website or to share – you can choose to display as much or as little of each book as you want.

 

Read the rest of the post on the LJNDawson blog.

Nov 15 Fay Risner Book Signing Lemstone Christian Bookstore, Cedar Rapids, Ia

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Book Signing Announcement

On November 15, Keystone author Fay Risner has been invited to a book signing at Lemstone Christian Bookstore located in Collins Plaza Mall across from Linndale Mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa from one to three p.m. Risner will talk about the two books the store sells for her – "Open A Window – Alzheimer’s Caregiver Handbook" and "Hello Alzheimer’s Good Bye Dad" the story of her father Bill Bullock’s struggle with Alzheimer’s.

　

I’m excited to be invited to this book signing at the Lemstone Christian Bookstore. The owners have been planning this event for months. The main hitch was trying to set a date that three authors could commit to.

 

Other authors at the book signing will be Kent Stock from the movie "The Final Season" the story about Norway, Iowa’s baseball team and Karen Ross from Texas with her newly released book about growing up in Czech Village in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sorry that I don’t have the name of either of their books, but will share those titles next week along with my story about meeting these authors.

I’d been forewarned for months that a book signing was coming soon, but a week’s notice has me rushing to plan my portion of the event. First I am very glad to have email. I alerted friends and family.

With such a short notice coming in on Saturday, I don’t expect much publicity to be done. I know the local weekly paper has a Monday noon deadline. Monday morning was going to be a busy morning for me between a dental visit and errands. I don’t own a cell phone which might surprise most people. That means while I was driving I couldn’t call the newspaper. That’s why I emailed my book signing article in to the office on Sunday. Also, I emailed a daily newspaper at the county seat.

Next, I made up a flyer to put up on every bulletin board in the area. That will catch people going to the bank, telephone office, post office, library or the local nursing home.

I plan on arriving at the bookstore early Sunday with a copy of each book. The bookstore has a supply, but I want customers to be able to see my books while they are speaking to me. "Hello Alzheimer’s Good Bye Dad" has a 1947 picture of my parents on the cover. The customers that will gravitate toward me are ones who are facing Alzheimer’s with a family member, or they fear the disease is in their future. What better way to sell a book than to come face to face with someone who was a caregiver (me) and see first hand what a healthy, youthful man (my dad) looked like before he fell victim to the disease. Plus, I share some of my family’s experiences that are in the book.

To pick up the book "Open A Window" and hold it long enough to read the reviews on the back doesn’t explain stories within that tells of the battles people faced with Alzheimer’s. I can convey that verbally in person much better. I just sold both these books to a dental tech. She read a potion of "Open A Window" before my last visit. She told me what she read made her cry because it reminded her of her grandmother’s struggle. Holding the book doesn’t make a customer feel emotions or empathy. Reading about the people in my book does that. In order to learn more about Alzheimer’s disease and understand what happens to people who have it, you have to buy the book and read it.

I’ll let you know next week about my book signing.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Publishing: How does the "mix" affect writers?

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Here’s a question for publishers and literary agents.  This morning, NBC featured yet another book tour interview.  This time it was a non-fiction (I’m assuming) tell-all from a former Miss California and gay-basher who, by the way did make a ….sex….tape.  Oh No! Not that!  Maybe she wrote it, maybe it was ghost written after her agent explained the money to be made, who knows?  It raised a question for me, immediately. 

I assume that publishers work with a finite number of books they can produce in any given year.  The number must be based upon market conditions and costs.  I do know that re-prints of existing books tend to be a hard decision if they’re not selling well — that makes sense, financially.  I also know that if a publisher produces both non-fiction and fiction, the mix proportion is probably determined in accounting ultimately.  They probably leave a certain amount of wiggle room, to take advantage of instant opportunities that come up — like this new hardcover tell-all that the world clearly needed (insert sarcasm here). 

You can’t fault the publisher for the amazing appetite for garbage the market seems to exhibit.  After all, BIG publishing is not a non-profit organization. Some smaller ones are, much to their chagrin, and not because they don’t work at it.  My heart goes out to them, as they really are trying to keep the art of literature alive.

My question concerns the impact to new authors and unpublished authors.  If there is a fixed number of books that can be published any year, doesn’t each book produced to take advantage of a perceived short-lived celebrity — like this new hard cover — reduce the chances for a publisher assigning a slot to a new author?

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but looking at the industry from the weary eyes of running a small business, it seems that the only answer is that for every 15-minute celebrity tell-all, one less real work of important writing must be overlooked.  With mainstream publishing still pounding the table, insisting that they are the "gatekeepers" of quality and good taste, the field seems to be getting mored tilted all the time against new authors, especially fiction writers that only write well.  Maybe we should all do sex tapes?

I’m tired of the old, tired publishing fable is that they will gladly publish a new writer’s work…if it "good enough".  Market conditions are part of the mix, and given what I’ve read and heard about, the definition of "good" changes constantly.

Am I wrong?

Remix My Lit: Literature That's Read and Write

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This is a cross-posting of a post that originally appeared on Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn website on 9/23/09.

I went to the Remix My Lit masterclass at the Brisbane Writers Festival last week, and came away inspired! It was run by Amy Barker, author of Omega Park and the notes below come from her presentation and ideas.

RemixMyLit.com is a project that took original works by authors licensed under Creative Commons. Then a whole load of new authors remixed them creating new works, also shared under the Creative Commons license.

Some of the best works were published in an anthology, ‘Through the Clock’s Workings‘, that can be downloaded for free here, a Creative Commons work you can remix and share to your heart’s content.

“It is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike licence. What that means is you can remix the stories, but only if you acknowledge the author, the remix is not for commercial use, and your new work is available for others to remix”. Remix My Lit.

What is remixing and why is it interesting?

Remixing is a term more commonly used in music, where artists remix each others work, or fans do the same (the project uses the example of Trent Reznor Nine Inch Nails The Slip album).

But it has been used in literature, most commonly with Shakespeare – endlessly remixed into films, stories, plays and other works. Baz Lurhman’s Romeo and Juliet kept the language, but totally remixed the location, scenes and time to create a fantastic version.

Shakespeare and other older works are in the Public Domain, out of copyright and available for anyone to use for any purpose. You can get free digital copies of Public Domain books at Gutenberg.org.

Public domain classics include: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Ulysses by James Joyce, Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, and of course Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, most recently remixed as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance – Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame Smith.

This is a ‘novel as mashup‘, certainly more recognisable that Bridget Jones Diary (albeit a better looking Mr Darcy!).

Whatever the literati think of these remixes, Seth Grahame Smith has made a lot more money than many, more original authors. He has 2 more books coming out, the next being “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters”. There are also rumours of a movie!

So you can remix/reuse public domain works, certain Creative Commons works and, I presume, other work you have express permission to use.

So why is that interesting?

Remixing is great for writing prompts and jump-starting creativity!

If you need some inspiration for your writing, there is literally a world of ideas just waiting for your brain to create something new! That is pretty exciting.

In the workshop, we did this fun exercise where we took the hard copy of one of the stories, ‘Cherished’ by Emily Maguire. We then proceeded to do a ‘cut-up’ – literally!

We all cut words out of the story and re-pasted them into a remix, some taking the angle to preserve some of the original ideas, and others making something very new with the same words.

You can read the original story in the free eversion here. It is short narrative.

You can see all the remixes of the original stories here.

Here is my offering (and yes, I’ve been reading too much horror!)

‘Cherished’: The Scott Sigler Remix

Behind a smear of pinkish sunless skin

her gums are dried blood

Her ragged bathroom belly

flaunting retro-blue-frosted polished stumps

stiff to the touch

squat reflection on her steel-blue veins

the rest of her remains, a goth-inspired charcoal

disposable beloved,

Emily, Cherished girl.

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The Remix My Lit logo is a derivative work of a CC Attribution 2.0 Flickr image ‘Street Art’ by Kim Laughton, aka ‘olivepixel.’

Ebook Drama Roundup

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There’s been a lot of hang-wringing, railing, theorizing and punditry about ebooks lately: pricing, devices, formats and DRM. Here’s a roundup of just a fraction of the buzz.

On October 23, Crain’s New York Business ran a piece entitled Analysts Warn Booksellers Of E-Peril. Sounds pretty melodramatic, but as it turns out, all the worrying and worst-case-scenario discussions can affect stock prices. The article ran within a few days of the launch of Barnes & Noble’s "Nook" dedicated ereader, and according to the article, "The shift from digital to physical books will ultimately hurt traditional bricks-and-mortar book sellers, analysts said Friday…" The article goes on:

The company could become a major player in the digital book business, but that actually may speed the downward trend in its revenue and profit, said Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter, who rates the company "underperform."

As the math currently works, each sale through a Nook is not just unprofitable but potentially replaces a higher-margin sale at stores," Mr. Balter wrote in a client note Friday. One obvious risk is that downloading books reduces the need to go into stores, he said.

Yet there’s a tiny ray of sunshine for B&N stock holders, in that the sale of Nook devices will temporarily increase B&N’s revenue picture. But that’s not necessarily a good thing for all the rest of us. On his Publishing 2020 blog today Joe Wikert wonders, Is the eReader Financial Model Upside Down?, saying:

I won’t buy a Kindle edition of a book that’s more than $9.99.  Why?  Besides the fact that I’m a cheapskate, I guess I’m still bitter about paying almost $300 for an original Kindle, so I expect to "make it up" with cheaper content.  I wonder how many others like me are out there.

I’d say quite a few.  Look at the Kindle book bestseller list.  Even though there are plenty of Kindle editions priced above $9.99 they rarely make the bestseller list. In fact, as I type these words 14 of the top 25 have a price of $0.00, one is $0.01 and the rest are at or below $9.99.  I only found three books in the top 100 priced above $9.99. Three."

Why can’t a device vendor go with more of a cell phone model, where the low price of the device is subsidized by the longer-term commitment to buying content?

According to Max Magee’s piece, Follow the Money: The ebook Pricing Wars, which ran on The Millions on May 28 of this year, Wikert is on target:

You’ve likely heard about Kindle owners who have balked at the idea of spending more than $9.99 for an ebook. With the Kindle going for $359, many Kindle owners have decided that their willingness to pony up the big bucks for the device was their side of an implicit bargain. In return, there is an expectation that ebooks will come at a discount to their physical counterparts, allowing Kindle owners to recoup their investment in the device over time. Any sign that this bargain is falling apart has been met with resistance by Kindle owners…

Okay, so publishers and consumers alike have a lot of financial concerns about ebooks. But what about the authors? J.A. Konrath has recently begun publishing some of his work for the Kindle himself, and on October 13 he posted a surprising comparison of Kindle Numbers: Traditional Publishing Vs. Self Publishing on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog. His conclusion?

My five Hyperion ebooks (the sixth one came out in July so no royalties yet) each earn an average of $803 per year on Kindle.

My four self-pubbed Kindle novels each earn an average of $3430 per year.

If I had the rights to all six of my Hyperion books, and sold them on Kindle for $1.99, I’d be making $20,580 per year off of them, total, rather than $4818 a year off of them, total.

So, in other words, because Hyperion has my ebook rights, I’m losing $15,762 per year.

Konrath is so pleased with his Kindle self-publishing results that’s he’s now beginning to dabble in iTunes ebook apps as well. Sounds pretty good if you’re an author, until you take a gander at Henry Baum’s piece, Ebooks are a Disaster, posted on Self-Publishing Review on November 4. Henry says:

I spent a long time designing the interior of my book – choosing fonts and font-sizes, etc. – only to have to delete all of that when creating the ebook. Given that people already chide ebooks for being a pale comparison to printed books, having an ebook be so different from the printed text is going to slow down converts to the platform.

The process of duplicating his interior formatting to the extent possible proved to be such a hassle that he eventually hired B10 Mediaworx to do the formatting for him, but even then it was no slide on ice. He adds:

We had a time of it, though, because the epub file wasn’t revealing the italics – which isn’t just a formatting problem, but an actual content problem. Italics can change the entire meaning. Turns out – after many emails sent back and forth – that the desktop version of Stanza does not work as well as the iPhone app, which actually does reveal italics in the epub file.  One example of the many possible ways that ebook formatting can go awry.

Unfortunately or fortunately for authors, depending on how you look at it, static text ebooks are just the tip of the digital book delivery iceberg. Last month I interviewed Al Katkowsky about the success of his iTunes book app, Question of the Day Book, and you’d have to be actively avoiding publishing news to avoid hearing about the Vook. Publetariat contributor Joanna Penn wrote about it on her The Creative Penn site on October 4th in a post called What is a Vook, and How Will It Change Publishing?

Publishers Simon& Schuster launched 4 ‘vooks’ last week, a combination of book and video to create a new medium for the reading/watching experience (video on What is a Vook here).

They are available in the Apple app store for the iPhone and are aimed at handheld devices, although are not compatible with the Kindle or Sony e-reader as they don’t do video. You can also buy them at Simon & Schuster’s website.

Following a video clip of Vooks in action, Penn notes:

  • There are opportunities for new sources of revenue for both publisher and author. The authors are getting ebook royalties (whatever that means!) but Jude Deveraux wrote her novella in 6 days and then worked with a film-maker. This is clearly not the 5 years Dan Brown took to write “The Lost Symbol”! These vooks may not replace the mainstream novel but they could represent a smaller, short story based product that could make authors money in between novels.
  • The ‘vooks’ have launched on Apple’s app store, and so the possibility of creating one as an indie author is there. This week I am interviewing Winged Chariot, who publish children’s books on the App store. I will be asking them how to create an app and will be posting more on this. I am determined to have my books as iPhone apps, but not for a huge price. I’ll let you know what I find out!

So authors, perhaps especially indie authors, have a brave new world of publishing opportunity at their feet, but it’s a world that demands that authors have either the techno-savvy to develop their own book "products", or the money to hire out for techno-savvy. Now if only we could get a handle on Digital Rights Management (DRM), that process whereby publishers and device providers collude to prevent consumers from sharing, moving, and generally doing whatever they want with their purchased ebooks.

The Nook ereader device introduces a new wrinkle in that discussion: ebook sharing. On October 25, Medialoper’s Kirk Biglione wondered, Is Book Sharing Really a Threat to Publishing? 

Although ill-named, the Nook is a worthy competitor to the Kindle, offering a number of features not found on the Amazon device, including LendMe, a feature that allows for controlled sharing of ebooks. While the sharing feature comes with a number of limitations, it would appear to be a small but important step towards making DRM-restricted content slightly more flexible for consumers. There’s just one problem — publishers want no part of the Nook’s LendMe feature.

Publishers Lunch reported last week (registration required) that many large publishing houses have indicated that they won’t participate in the LendMe program.

Later in the article, Biglione adds:

What Unnamed Publishing Executive seems to fear most is a sense of consumer entitlement. If consumers have the right to share ebooks now, they’ll expect to have that right until the end of time. Never mind the fact that consumers share print books all the time…If the history of digital media has taught us one thing it’s that media companies see the digital future as an opportunity to exert extreme control over how consumers use and interact with content.

It seems reasonable for publishers to want to protect their livelihood, but they may be barking up the entirely wrong tree if  a recent report out of Norway on the music-buying habits of filesharing pirates is to be believed. As reported by Ars Technica on April 20 of this year:

Researchers examined the music downloading habits of more than 1,900 Internet users over the age of 15, and found that illegal music connoisseurs are significantly more likely to purchase music than the average, non-P2P-loving user.

As a legalized version of file sharing, LendMe may have the potential to actually spur more ebook sales. And ebook sales are most definitely on the rise according to quarterly reports by the Inernational Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). On January 21st of this year on the Smashwords blog, Smashwords founder Mark Coker says of the quarterly report for period ending December 2008:

The IDPF today reported ebook sales were up 108% for the month of November, 2008 compared to the same period a year ago…

Dig beneath the surface, and the numbers are striking. Ebook sales are surging while the entire trade book industry suffers a decline…

For the five years between 2002 and 2007 (Click here for data, opens a PDF), overall trade book sales averaged an annual increase of 2.5% (lower than inflation, which means unit sales probably decreased), while ebooks for the same period turned in a 55.7% average annualized increase.

Granted, the robust sales growth for ebooks was off of a tiny base to begin with. But…fast forward to October of 2008, the date for which year-to-date sales are reported on the AAP web site , and you see overall trade book sales for the first 9 months of the year were down 3.4% while ebook sales were up about 58%. So the rate of ebook sales accelerated during the first 9 months of 2008 compared to the previous five years.

More interesting, for the month of October the AAP reported overall trade book sales suffered a 20% drop in the year over year monthly comparison, while ebook sales accelerated to 73% growth.

It seems that what we’ve got here is a mix of good news and bad news caught in a whirlwind of flux and guesswork. In the final analysis, I think there are only three things that can be said of ebooks with any certainty:

1) Digital books are here to stay

2) Publishers will not succeed in realizing the full potential of digital books until they can better comprehend the potential of the numerous media available to produce digital books, and consumers’ expectations of both the media and media providers

3) We have yet to see the best or final incarnation of the digital book; in the Vook and today’s ebook apps, we’re witnessing the infancy of a new type of book that is much more about dynamic content than it is about any specific delivery system (and we’re not just talking electronic files and gizmos – paper bound between two covers is a content delivery system, too)

Whether you’re a publisher, author or reader, you have a stake in the future of digital books and your opinion is no less valid than those of anyone quoted here. So, what do YOU think?

EBook Formats—Where are they Now and Where are they Going?

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For those of us who are more seasoned citizens, remember the battle between cassette tapes and 8-tracks? Remember the video format fights between VHS and Beta? Those seem very simple choices when considering what format choices we have today for ebooks. I certainly don’t claim to be the expert here, but hope those more knowledgeable will feel free to chime in with comments, which will expand our knowledge base. Please treat this as a forum.

According to my research there are quite a few methods to view ebooks, and, therefore, quite a few formats. What is a publisher to do? Stick to the most common format or publish his ebooks in several different formats? First, let’s take a look at some of the ebook devices, because they drive the formats. One term you should be aware of is DRM, or “digital rights management,” which refers to techniques that seek to prevent illegal copying or pirating of a digital work, like an ebook or music:

  • Computers (PC and/or Mac) which easily read the pdf format.
     
  • The Sony Reader primarily uses Sony’s proprietary Broadband eBooks (BBeB) format for documents with DRM but also supports RTF and non-DRM PDF.
     
  • The Amazon Kindle uses Amazon’s proprietary AZW format, which supports DRM.
     
  • Flip Book is an online connected technology that uses their proprietary format and plays on a computer (PC or Mac versions). It presents a 3-D appearance for those of us who like flipping pages and want something that looks like a book.
     
  • As the market expands, there will be more devices. For example, former HarperCollins President and CEO Jane Friedman has launched Open Road Integrated Media (ORIM) in partnership with film producer Jeffrey Sharp. They will use a proprietary format for their own devices. Barnes and Noble, not to be out done by Amazon, will be releasing a new device called the Plastic Logic e-reader. It will use the EPub format that has also been adopted by Sony. Yet Barnes & Noble’s e-bookstore won’t be accessible by Sony Reader. Amazon Kindle users won’t be able to download books from Barnes & Noble’s e-book store. And so the Tower of Ebook Babel continues to grow toward Heaven.

What’s A Publisher To Do?

First, in my opinion, it’s not worthwhile to use DRM features, because it treats all customers as potential pirates. That doesn’t make for good PR, and it adds more complexity to your sales process, which is never a good idea because it gives the customer the opportunity to become frustrated and opt out before the sale is made. Pirating is a problem, but it isn’t that big of one. Besides, pirates will always develop work-arounds, which may render DRM useless.

If you would like a free resource that rates all the different ebook formatting software packages, click here to obtain the Ebook Developers Association free ebook software comparison guide. Personally, for the time being, I will stick to a simple pdf version.

I’m going to wait for device dominance, unless the ensuing battle goes on for too long, then I will consider going to multiple format editions. How will I do that? By relying on a formatting service. One such that I found is Smashwords. Click here to learn how they produce multiple DRM-free format versions and publish the ebooks for you for 15% of the retail price. I consider that a good deal, especially if it takes you out of the fulfillment loop.

Ever the pragmatist, I have offered my approach; however, I easily could have missed something. So, here’s the opportunity for the experts to weigh in and present alternatives. As I said, please treat this as a forum.

Type Spec Can Lead To Revisions….

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Here’s one for you Indie Publishers and Authors out in the ether.  Choosing the right type SIZE is critical for your book.  I knew that.  I really did, but I chose the wrong size anyway, and it’s embarassing!

When you design your book, of course, 12 point type would be wonderful for everyone concerned, assuming that the number of pages and the cost of each book were not important.  12 point is very legible, even for folks with vision issues.  It does, however; increase the length of the manuscript.

Increasing the length of your manuscript, post editing, will increase the cost ofthe printing of the book.  I decided early on, that I wanted to keep the retail price of the book under US$12.  It still really rankles me that a trade paperback from an acknowledged author will set you back $14 to $16!  I guess my memories of $4.95 pulp fiction read while younger are to blame. 

Anyway, I didn’t think it would make sense for my first novel to cost the same amount as a blockbuster, so I adjusted the design.  I forgot — I guess lost in the crack between my desk and file cabinet — that you need to tailor the book for your readers.  My readers are interested in Irish Heritage, Celtic culture and archeology.  They’re also a bit older, let’s say, than most readers of upwardly mobile urban vampire novels. 

10 point type kept the original book cost down, but made reading tough for older readers, so I gave in after a few really great readers suggested larger type. Thanks to POD technology, I can issue a new, larger type edition without missing too many beats! I’m also very happy to report that the new revised edition only runs 32 pages longer — the equivalent of 3/32" of spine width.  No major cost increases have resulted.

I’m going to offer to exchange earlier editions at my cost, which should make somebody happy.  Well — at least I’ve learned something!  When choosing type point size ALWAYS consider the age and vision of your primary readers. Always.

The new edition should be available on Amazon in 10 days or so, and I’ll announce it here and on my website. 

Target Practice: Creating your own marketing plan…

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While waiting, this past week, I had to learn to lay a brick floor – repetitious, but very satisfying when you’ve hung up the rubber mallet and swept up the last of the sand. In a similar way, a writer with a story needs to repeat a few simple steps, to be sure that when the story becomes a book, and the book is published, it will be found by the right readers.

 

 

 If a writer has publishing their work as one of their goals, then these steps may well be as important as the agony of learning how to write by producing unavoidable dreck. Also repetitive, but ultimately satisfying. The first step is to ask yourself, just who is going to want to read this story. Who needs to read this story. (OK, if you write non-fiction, you may not think of your work as a story, but in fact, it is a story. It is the story of your involvement in following the material information, and the subsequent story of how it affects the reader. Readers always like stories) Asking who will read it is the critical starting point to developing a Marketing Plan. Indie Authors can always pay someone to write a marketing plan for them, but it won’t be anywhere near as effective as the one you prepare — mentally, within yourself.

Your Test/Focus Groups

You may know several readers who would want to read your work. The initial group usually involves family members and friends, whose criticism may not be all that useful. They may enjoy reading the work immensely, but it would be almost impossible to separate out their feelings for you, the intricacies of your relationship with the actual reading. At least it is a beginning, and I’m sure they have all been curious for some time.

Among them, may well be readers who want to share the book with the next circle of friends, or with a specific friend, and when that happens, you have a great opportunity. Ask why. Why would this interest this person. What kind of person is this? What are their interests, their background? Everything you can discover will help you begin to separate your perception of your own work from first-born child to new product.

Split Perceptions

Creating this split in your perception is very important to letting your work tell you who to market it to. Writers don’t always write “to order”. Many fiction works seem to create themselves, and what you have when finished can be as much of a surprise to the writer as to the reader. You will always approach your first-born with love. The love that eventually teaches you to use a firm hand in guiding your writing into the beautiful expression it can grow into.

New product.

You’ll need some time to develop a realistic definition of just what kind of book you have written. This will tell you, if you learn to observe, who will want to read it, and who will be willing to pay for it. If you can list the attributes of your writing as you see it, then compare it to information you have gleaned through open discussion (which friends and family members will undoubtedly feel all too willing to engage in), you may be surprised at the outcome. Your book may, in fact appeal to a different reader than you had in mind, assuming you did have a reader in mind, besides yourself! If this realization comes, it will be invaluable, so guard it carefully. It will be your road-map to marketing your new product.

Expand Your Test Group

The next step is to begin to broaden the reader-interest circle outward so that you can gain understanding of the interests of readers you don’t know. Keep in mind the fact that Agents and Publishers will be in a very outer circle at this point, and, for the benefit of your sanity, concentrate on readers. There are four easy places to get ideas about readers. More specifically, how your book will appeal to them – or not. Libraries, Booksellers (bricks and mortar as well as online) and Reader’s Forums. Some of you may belong already to writer’s groups or reading clubs.

Librarians Don’t Bite

Start at your local library. Try to spend a few days there, off and on, if you have the time and your day-job allows. Watch what kind of books, similar to yours are checked out or taken out of the stacks to actually read. Anyone who will take a book out of the stacks and sit is either dodging home or work, or is a really committed reader. You’ll want to speak with the librarian, asking questions about the authors and books they see moving out of the stacks and if any in a similar story-line or genre to your work, are being read repeatedly. See if any books like yours are in the stacks and if any reader reviews are available on them. If you have access to reader reviews, watch what comes up frequently. How are the reviews similar? Positive comments as well as negative are important to your understanding of why these people checked out or read this book. When reviewers agree, the information is critical to being able to either craft your work, or to target your book’s market effectively.

Nothing is Free

This same research activity can be carried out at bookstores. Try to get a meeting with the bookstore owner or book buyer if at all possible, and try to get their take on books like yours. Their perceptions gathered day-in, day-out are really important. Ask them about the kind of readers you’re tentatively going to target. If they have any tips or suggestions, have them written in stone. Find out what other kinds of books your target reader will buy in addition to your type of book. This will give you a clear idea of how broad interests can run. It’s important to find out if there is content in your story that will hold a reader’s interest in several areas at once. If possible, strike up a conversation if you see someone ready to purchase or seriously considering a book like yours, but don’t interfere with their decision-making. If you pester too many customers, it’s good way to get thrown out of a bookstore! Be sure to support your local bookseller. Even if all you’re doing is gathering marketing research, buy a book anyway, every time you go in. They make great gifts!

Forums

The research that can be gathered in online writer’s and readers forums is also very useful, especially if your book appeals to the online generation. In my case, to target readers for my work, I have to also look offline, where most of my kind of reader resides. If you also write in a genre that may not be as appealing to younger, or more tech-savvy readers, then you’ll need to realize at some point, that your research will have to be more directed to where they are, not just online.

Another consideration to your interaction online is that most people will respond to questions differently face-to-face, than safely protected behind a keyboard and monitor screen. Keep this in mind as you look for similar comments and ideas that run through discussions. It is the similar points that may either be people adopting and promoting the prevailing attitudes of that particular forum, or real gems of information. Learning the difference will take some time and mean learning how to put frustration aside – at least it did for me! You’ll have to jump right in and get involved directly to get the full measure of what I mean.

The Right Approach

After you’ve spent some time gathering information in these ways, you’ll have a much clearer understanding of who your reader is. Now you’ll be able to position your book in the right places either physically, or online. This way, you’ll target your market, and get more bulls-eyes than if you simply threw your books into the air to see where they came down. This is what happens if your book is just put out there, with little consideration as to who is actually going to see it, especially in the net universe.

A Plan Emerges From the Rubble…

Follow your reader’s interests, and they will lead you to the most effective venues to showcase your book. This constitutes an effective, well-researched marketing plan and it cost you only time, observation and conversation, not lots of dollars. Most Indie-Authors, like me, have little extra left at the end of the month to pay other people to do what we can do for ourselves, if we take the time to learn to do for ourselves.

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Next week: Creating an effective showcase ad, now that you know who to show it to.

 

#fridayflash: Excerpt From Adelaide Einstein

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This week, I offer an excerpt from my novel, Adelaide Einstein. I think I’m going to have to keep alternating between original flash fic and excerpts from fiction and screenplays I’ve already written if I have any hope of keeping all my plates spinning!

 

There were a few minutes of silence, during which Adelaide recalled how excited and full of dreams she’d been when she arrived in this Golden Gate city all those years ago; meanwhile, Patty wondered why her mother had come all this way just to drop out of school and get married. She might as well have stayed in Earle like her younger sister. 

            “Mom,” she said, “why did you quit school and marry Daddy? Were you pregnant?”

            “Patricia!” Addie exclaimed, scandalized by the very idea. “Of course I wasn’t pregnant! I was a virgin until my wedding night!  I left school and got married because it was what I wanted.” She decided to make a slight correction. “It was what I…thought I wanted, at the time.”

           “I don’t get you at all, Mom. I mean, I know you’re smart and all, and you seem so happy that I’m going to college and I’m going to have a career. So if you think it’s great for smart women to have careers, why don’t you want one?”

           "Oh, Patty. It’s not that I never wanted a career. I think I got married too young to give it much thought. I hadn’t settled on a major in college yet, and the way I was raised, college was more a place for a young woman to meet her future husband than to get a degree. We used to say that so-and-so had been to college and got her M-R-S.”

           “M-R-S?”

            “Yes, missus.”

            Patty rolled her eyes. “That’s absolutely disgusting. Like that’s all we’re good for in life, to marry some guy.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I’m kind of pissed off at Grandma, now that I know she taught you that.”

            Having Patty feel protective of her gave Addie a warm feeling. She smiled. “Well, the important thing is that I’ve learned a lot, and I’m teaching you differently. And I’m not unhappy with the way things have turned out.”

            “Well, I guess as long as a woman is doing what she wants, even if it’s dropping out of college to get married, you could say she’s liberated. But you know, I think it’s really great that you’re going back to get your degree now.”

            “I’m not necessarily going to get my degree, Patty. I’m only taking one class, and not even for college credit. It’s just for fun, really.”

           “If I was going to take a class for fun, I don’t think it would be Concepts in Physics.”

            “Maybe you would if you knew the professor,” Addie said.

            “Why? Is he Brad Pitt-esque? Orlando Bloom-ish? Johnny Depp-like?”

            “No,” Addie laughed. “Nothing like that. He’s the cancer patient I met at the hospice, remember? I mean that he has a way of making Physics interesting and kind of fun.”

            “Don’t fall for it, Mom. It’s probably a trick, just like when my Algebra teacher started off the term by showing this cartoon, ‘Donald in Mathmagicland’. After the honeymoon period, it’s back to drills and quizzes.”

           “We had our first quiz already.”

           “On your first day? And you still think it’s fun?” Patty shook her head. “Sometimes I really wonder about you, Mom.”

            Adelaide was very pleased to hear it.

 

If you like this, you can read much more of it, from the beginning, for free on my site in pdf format. For you ebookish types, you can read most of it for free on Smashwords or Scribd.