How watching Survivor can make your writing better...

If you're looking for character motivation, it doesn't get any better than Survivor, whether it's for villains or heroes writ large or small..
Just watch.
Case in point, this last season.
If you ever want to know how cult leaders, Adolph Hitler or even the kids in the high school clique operate, just watch Coach.
Seriously.
Talk about a cult of personality. For forty days the charismatic sonofagun successfully managed to get his people to do anything he wanted even as he convinced them that Ozzie (another character) was the enemy.
Not one of them seemed to realize that the biggest obstacle to winning a million dollars was... Coach.
It went right down to the wire. Top three. The only thing Coach forgot was the people he was loading onto the jury.
It's basic human nature on a small, intimate scale. Want to know why the good guys don't win? Watch Survivor where the 'good' guys have only won once or twice - and usually by default. Although Ozzie played a cleaner, more honest game - actually sacrificing himself at one point in a very dramatic, and silly, move - it was Coach's personal portrayal of himself as a 'Christian man' that kept him alive, no matter how many principles and people he sacrificed to accomplish it.
Want a petty character who'll do anything to win/succeed/triumph, then watch Jon a few seasons back - who told everyone his grandmother had died just to gain votes. (His grandmother was very much alive.)
I remember one season where all the attention was on the two 'big guys', the muscle men, one of whom everyone liked and rightfully so. It came down to a contest of strength and endurance, loading bags of sand onto the contestants. Everyone expected it to come down to those two.
But it didn't.
With quiet dignity and true courage, it was an attorney from Chicago who won, bearing up beneath the ever increasing bags of sand as both the big men fell by the wayside. Although he stood up for his team, no one noticed.
Even afterward the focus was on the two big guys failing, especially the  popular one, and not the one who'd won the contest. He was voted off shortly later for being an ineffective leader, which he wasn't. He just couldn't overcome the cult of personality, the focus the network and the host had on another character. It's one of the realities of life, the unsung hero.
BTW, he became the love interest in one of my novels. No, I'm not telling which one, you'll have to read them and guess. The one that gets the answer right gets the series of their choice, free. (It's an easy bet that most of you won't get it right.)
Seriously, though, if you want to understand motivation, character and how people can justify even the most heinous actions, just watch Survivor. After a while, you'll get it.
Even watching host Jeff Probst in action as he asks the questions at each tribal council is an education in and of itself. In a few moments he skillfully picks apart the fragile bonds between the tribe members, or exposes one person's machinations against the others.
Or not.
Although I understood the basic motivation of the characters in my current work in progress, especially the villain, a part of me that struggled with it. I'm not a follower by nature so I had trouble understanding how even basically good people could follow someone like him. Until I watched one of the people in the current Survivor.
Then I got it.
There's an intrinsic human need to be liked that could be easily perverted, and was.
Survivor is a fascinating study in human nature. I can't wait until next season.

Egypt - of women and libraries... history repeats itself

Watching the news out of Egypt, I could have cried. Like the long ago Library of Alexandria, the richest and most celebrated library of the ancient world, it burned by 'accident' when the protesters threw Molotov cocktails at a neighboring building. The Library of Alexandria burned in much the same way, depending on the story.
“The burning of such a rich building means a large part of Egyptian history has ended,” the director of the institute, Mohammed al-Sharbouni, told state television over the weekend. The building was managed by a local non-governmental organization.

So much knowledge lost. 

According to some accounts the Library of Alexandria burned as the Roman Emperor Aurelian tried to save his ships from Zenobia of Palmyra, an Arabian Queen. The fire spread to the Library of Alexandria, as Hypatia, mathematician, astronomer and the last scholar of the library, tried to save it. (According to some reports.) 

Ironically, considering current events, Hypatia was murdered by Christians who accused her of creating turmoil. They stripped her, dragged her through the streets and flayed her with pot shards. 

But history has long recorded the complaints of the upstart, educated women of Egypt. 

If the military government had only read their history, they should have known better than to attack one. I can only cheer as the women in Egypt rise up in protest against the army stripping a woman, then dragged her through the street as they stomped on her. 

They are demanding a return to the Egypt of old, and the rights they once were given, that celebrated and honored it's strong, intelligent and capable women. They are not standing silent as their rights are assaulted but standing up and fighting for the rights.

Ladies, I salute you.

Servant of the Gods
http://www.amazon.com/Servant-of-the-Gods-ebook/dp/B0062PXJT6

Numbers.... Normally one wouldn't shout "I'm Number 3!"..unless...

it's one of my books on an Amazon Best Seller list. Or any other for list for that matter. For however long it lasts, at this moment this was true...

Now, there's a wow. I'm hoping it goes higher, but I won't complain if it doesn't. That's pretty darn good.
I'm also trying not to let my writing be about a numbers game, that's not why I write. I write to tell good stories, something that has real meaning and truth behind them - even the romances.

I'd waited for this a long time. Many of you may know I tried the traditional route, sent query letters, collected the rejection slips. Cried. Wrote more query letters. And finally got accepted by a mid-level press.
In the midst of it all, my father died. Before I could ever put a book of mine in his hands. He'd never believed I could do it, neither he nor my mother. Only one person ever had, until I met my husband, and that was me.
Only to find out that the traditional route wasn't all I hoped it would be and that the path I had chosen wouldn't take me where I wanted to go.

So, I went Indie. It was such a risk to take that step, to put that first book up. It wasn't Servant of the Gods, it was Song of the Fairy Queen, a stand-alone heroic fantasy. A really good book, great story, heartbreaking romance.
Sales were lukewarm but grew steadily. I got some great reviews. They say indie publishing isn't a sprint it's a marathon, and they're right. I first published Song as an e-book in February 2011 but she'd been on Amazon as a print release since June 2009. Talk about a tough nut to crack! Sales were a trickle but they grew.
They grew more as I entered the Indie market and posted my first e-book.
When the cover of Song was declared a finalist in the  EPIC Ariana Cover Awards, I was over the moon.
Then there was Heart of the Gods. That's how it started out. One book, beginning in ancient Egypt, morphing into a contemporary thriller. It was such fun to write, but I realized it was far too long, it needed to become a series...*smiles* and suddenly there were a few more books circling in the back of my mind. Heart of the Gods became two books, Heart and Servant of the Gods, a tale of ancient Egypt and a love that lasts beyond time. Even I cried at the end of Servant.
People keep telling me that I write good stories, that sometimes they cheer,  sometimes they cry, and sometimes they look at things in a different way.
I hope to keep writing stories that make people cheer and cry. But more than anything, I hope I keep making them look at life in a new way.

Servant of the Gods
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0062PXJT6

Song of the Fairy Queen
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004774N2S

A Sign of the Times?

Okay, I'll admit it, it's been a while since I was in my favorite bookstore. (That picture isn't it, by the way. ) Even so, I was shocked.
Where were the fiction books?

They were tucked away in a back corner of the store on the second level.

Oh, there were the New Release tables on the first floor, and two long shelves of New Release Hardcover fiction, but other than that there was only the discounted book racks. I had to go looking to find the rest.

Nothing on the first floor, only non-fiction, self-help, travel etc.

Children's and YA were on the second floor as you stepped off the elevator.
Toys now filled the space Mystery had once occupied and educational toys where shelves filled with fantastic flights of the imagination had stood. Philosophy and psychology where Romance had once filled the aisles. (Are they trying to tell us something?)  Then, finally, fiction. Four or five lonely aisles in the upper back corner of the store.

Now, don't get me wrong, I own a Nook, and I love it. I know I've also debated a time or two whether to buy the cheaper e-book or the slightly more expensive paperback, and I've set down the much more expensive hardcover of an author I collected for years (although it was because their child wrote it, and I'm not sure it's as good as the parent's books were). But, but.... but... This was a bookstore! Yes, they were still selling books - but not much fiction. The last time I was there four or five rows was the space allotted to Romance alone, not all fiction. Were they just pushing their latest gadget? What about the folks looking to purchase a bunch of romance novels for their non-e-reader friends?

Exactly who is to blame here? Bookstores or publishers? (It's not the writers, in most cases we have no power.) Was the low number of print books a business decision on the part of the bookstore? Or was it because the price of those books from the publishers has gotten so high  the bookstores can't afford to keep the stock?

I have to admit that part of my problem with print is the same - it's too expensive. Personally I believe that's why so many discount bookstores have popped up and the popularity of e-books has taken off - and not just because of the new gadgets. Like so many other things, movies, sports games, what used to be a cheap form of entertainment has now become expensive and all of that increase can't be blamed on electronic devices. A standard paperback novel now costs $10 and a hardcover at least $16. Even a Harlequin romance is $5. When money is tight, that's a hard hit to the wallet. And they wonder why sales of print have fallen off?  It makes far more sense to put your name on the waiting list at the local library...or wait until the TV movie comes out. Books are starting to compete with video games in price - especially if you're not a re-reader. As libraries close or cut back due to budget cuts that effects far more than just the bookstores or publishers, that effects literacy. Books have now become a luxury where once they were the refuge of the poor.

Rather than making books more appealing or offering more selection  - taking advantage of computerization and logistics - instead publishers are increasingly dumping their backlist books rather than pricing them at a discount.  Thereby giving more fodder and more fuel to the growth of discount book franchises, e-books and companies like Amazon. A tragedy to all of us who love books, but a blow to the campaign to increase literacy.

How to Publish Your Novel in the E-book Age Press Release

How to Publish Your Novel 

In the E-book Age 

Press Release Information 

Valerie Douglas 

3799 C. R. 114, Cardington OH 43315 

419.560.2973 – valeriedouglasbooks@gmail.com

                               www.valeriedouglasbooks.com

Amazon.com bestselling novelist, EPIC Ariana Cover Award Finalist and local writer Valerie Douglas will be holding a free seminar on December 10^th at 1:30 PM on How to Publish Your Novel in the E-book Age

Where:

In the Meeting Room of the Northside Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library 1423 N. High St., Columbus OH 43201

For the first nine months of 2011, e-book sales were up 137.9% at reporting publishers, to $727.7 million. Sales at all print trade segments were down in the same nine months. What does this mean for writers? It’s a new era. The printing paradigm has changed from the agency model controlled by a limited number of print publishers, to e-book publishers, and now, finally, to the author model. For the first time in history, writers are actually in the driver’s seat when it comes to their publishing options. With the advent of e-books and the multitude of choices available, authors are now driving many of the decisions as to how to publish and with whom, not agents or publishing houses.

Making the right choices, though, can be difficult. The information available is confusing and sometimes contradictory. How to Publish Your Novel in the E-book Age is designed to help the beginning writer or new author make the right decisions for them.

“As the author of nineteen novels, published traditionally and independently, I know the advantages and disadvantages of both. Knowing how difficult it is, I want to help new writers determine what the best options are, as well as avoid the pitfalls.” – Valerie Douglas

A fine pair of boobies *grins*

Red -footed boobies

I don't suppose there's anything scarier than that moment in the doctor's office when they say those lovely, fateful little words - "Now, it's probably nothing but we need you to go back to have these tests redone..." In my case on my mammogram.
They were quick to reassure me that what they were seeing was probably just an anomaly. Nothing major. But my grandmother, aunt and a cousin on my father's side - that I know of - all had breast cancer, although my parents didn't really talk about it. My grandmother and aunt had died of it.
I've always had a sort of love/hate relationship with my breasts. At times I've been oddly proud of them (not too big, not small, so no complexes, you see). However, they did sometimes draw unwanted attention. As a drunken Naval Officer once said to me in a bar in Key West - "your mother must have said seven hail mary's to get you." She didn't, but you get the drift.
So I'd always had regular breast exams and mammograms but I'd been through a brief time when I'd been struggling. Doctor's visits were low on the totem pole compared to keeping a roof over my head and the electricity on. It's not that I wasn't working, my health care program just sucked.  It's just tough when you have to choose between the bills you have and adding a new one. The next person who tells me they don't want to support poor, lazy people getting better health care will get bitch-slapped. Fair warning. Until you've been there, shut up.
So, there they were, little calcifications that might or might not be 'something'. Most medical folks will probably say the same thing - probably nothing, but better to check.
It was a rough year in a lot of ways, personally and professionally. It had started well. I'd married my husband at the end of the previous year, and with his support I had quit my day job on the strength of two novels I'd been fairly certain would be accepted. No two ways about it, though, the loss of my income did leave us more vulnerable.

Dude, your feet are blue...

Then I lost my beloved pet, my cat Bay, a friend and companion of 21 years. The two novels were rejected and I'd become estranged from my mother.
But life never times things well. *wry grin*
The second mammogram explained away the first problem but gave the doctors a new reason to be concerned.
Time for a biopsy.
And, of course, being me it couldn't be in someplace easy to get to, but required weird contortions so they could do the needle biopsy. They were quick to examine the sample right there and assure me it WASN'T cancer. Hurray. However...I'd need a followup mammogram in a year. They'd inserted a tiny metal clip in my breast so they'd know where to look.
So a bizarre anniversary. It's been a year. Tomorrow I go back to have that followup. I'm okay with it. A little nervous but that's to be expected. In all likelihood there will be nothing there. Of course, that's what I thought before...but *grins* we won't talk about that. I'm an optimist, always have been. In a week I'll see my doctor, and she'll tell me my cholesterol is through the roof (an inherited condition), my liver enzymes are a mess (same condition) and, hopefully, that the mammogram was clean.
I can deal with the rest. Moving on....