STRENGTHEN YOUR SUBMISSIONS STRATEGY, Part 6 by Max Jason Peterson

So much of getting traditionally published requires patience and stamina—and hard work. It can get very tiring, especially when making a sale takes so much work shopping a piece around. Part of the reason I wanted to share these strategies in the first place is to give you hope. Rather than get discouraged by the number of submissions that haven’t netted a sale, or doubting the value of your piece (or worse, your writing abilities), you can use your statistics to keep your eye on the big picture. My hope is that, in addition to helping you get past the sting of rejection to get your piece right back out there quickly, you’ll come to see each rejection as a stepping stone to the next acceptance. After all, if it takes me an average of forty submissions to sell a short story, receiving rejection number thirty-nine can be pretty exciting. Beyond that, statistics kept over time can also help you narrow in on categories in which you’re especially successful—so that you can build on that success. Take a look at what types of material (short stories or poems? Mystery or mainstream?) are yielding sales with the fewest number of submissions. That might be an area to concentrate on as you create new works and figure out where to send them. So, in this installment, we’re going to look just a little bit more into yearly statistics.

HOW TO MURDER AN ICE CREAM CONE by Judy Fowler

 

The dog days of August are upon us. My urge to plot out crime stories has temporarily abated. In the lull, there’s always time to kill an ice cream cone.

My friend Nikki kills hers by biting the bottom out first. I use my mother's technique. Bite off the peak of the ice cream first. Catch the drippy parts near the top of the cone. Another bite off the top and you're ready to relax and lick away the ice cream that remains.

After that? Dispose of the evidence in whatever’s left of your napkin supply after deciding what to do with what's left in the bottom of the cone.

For celebratory memory-making, Proust’s famous cookie has nothing on recalling moments shared doing in a couple of ice cream cones.

Yesterday after a swim in the Chesapeake Bay, my thoughts (followed by my feet) wandered over to Dairy Queen. As I attacked the top of my cone, I had a memory of running along the hot sand at Jones Beach as a kid. In my sticky bathing suit, I hopped from foot to foot hoping I wouldn't drop the change I'd been given to buy a paper cylinder of Neapolitan ice cream—so I could return to our blanket with a sticky grin.

After my chiropractic appointment recently, I pulled into a shopping center to see if my Weight Watchers location was still there. It wasn't, but the Carvel store was. For $4.50, that first taste of a soft-serve vanilla cone transported me back to Glen Cove, Long Island in the 1960’s. In those years Mom celebrated our mutual survival of my dental appointments by nosing her car into the parking lot of a Carvel stand to share a cup or cone with me. She’d brand the little wooden spoon or the swirl at the top before we finished it off with a smile. 

On summer visits to upstate New York, Mom introduced us to homemade ice cream from deep containers at a store near where she grew up. I discovered vanilla fudge. Mom bit into maple walnut. Sisters, Dad, and brother chose butter pecan, real strawberry, and pistachio. That half hour spent ordering and devouring ice cream cones while standing around the over-stuffed car was a time-out from packing, driving, and arguing—and it switched each of us into "We're on vacation!” mode.

My grandfather loved ice cream in summer—especially someone else’s. I was six and had barely dipped my spoon into the junior-sized hot fudge sundae he’d bought me when he pointed to something I just had to see. By the time I got turned around in my chair again, most of my sundae was gone.

Such a crime is shocking. “Pop!” I cried. “You ate my ice cream!” The adults and children near us made faces at him but he never apologized. 

Dogs are usually prime suspects when ice cream is missing. To ensure a good time is had by all in Montreal, its summer ice cream stands offer each pet an ice cream-covered dog bone—on the house.

Memory-making moments with family grow fewer as I get older. But I had one last great one in August, 2019. Mom and I took one of her “let’s just drive and see where it leads” road trips between New Hampshire and Vermont. 

We spotted the ice cream stand near Quechee Gorge.

At age ninety-nine, Mom looked terribly small sitting in my passenger seat. I figured she'd want a small cup. I assumed she’d worry about dripping on her skirt and blazer. 

Never assume. She’d grown bolder with age. And she didn't give a hoot about her weight. She asked for a double scoop chocolate cone. That was Dad and my brother’s territory. 

A few minutes later, I warily passed her one of the two I’d ordered. We began to lick them to death. 

It was hot outside so we stayed in the air-conditioned car but left the doors open in case the dripping cones overwhelmed us. Mom's left a chocolate stain that's still on my passenger-side floormat. 

Her technique didn’t fail her. We ate, laughed, got serious about our task, and then she beat me to the bottom. Little evidence remained to be disposed of. We were giddy all the way back to her senior residence.

Better ways may exist to do in an ice cream cone. No one was more fun to share that experience with than my Mom, who once had the novel idea of capping off a cavity-laden dental visit with a trip to the soft serve stand.

 

 

 

 

 

AUTHOR WEBSITES: IS IT A MUST HAVE FOR ALL WRITERS? by Sheryl Jordan

 

I keep putting off building up my author’s website. Recently, I decided I need to get it fully up and running soon. I have my domain and have had it for several years. I added ‘stuff’ to it years ago but haven’t kept it up to date. I didn’t like it and made some changes, but it still isn’t where I want and need it to be. So, I just let it sit dormant (I know this is terrible for a writer to do). I obviously have no experience in creating a website, so I started researching how to create a fabulous website that is user-friendly and fully functional as well as showing who I am and what I do.

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS Part I by Teresa Inge

What is influencing and who are influencers?

Influencing can be applied to any individual who can influence behavior in their followers through influencer marketing. 

What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is used with influential social media accounts to promote products. Influencers typically have a large following and a reputation for expertise on a topic. Marketing is based on the high trust social influencers have built up with their followers. Their recommendation is social proof of a brand’s validation.   

IS THE PEN STILL MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD? LONG LIVE THE QUEEN! Agatha Christie- Part 1- Intro By: Kimberly Thorn

No not that Queen! But the Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie! What self-respecting mystery writer (or reader) doesn’t acknowledge the Queen of Mystery? No one! She did many great things during her prolific life. For example, she is the third bestselling author of all time, with the Bible and Shakespeare earning the first two spots! That, in and of itself, is a major accomplishment, especially considering she was a woman. Another Christie accomplishment is that she is the most popular playwright! She has had more of her plays performed than anyone else! Although, you may be surprised to know that she contributed so much more than just her writing to the world! And that her contributions are still being enjoyed by the current generation and will be around for future ones.          

First things, first though. There is an elephant in the room that I’d like to address.

 

I am sure that some have heard the big debate that has happened over the last few months involving Christie and her works. There are some that think that Christie’s work is out of date and that it contains offensive language. That her stories need to be “softened.” They also have called her true character and purpose into question. Others vehemently disagree, saying that her original works should be left alone. That she wrote what she wrote on purpose. That her works showed ALL areas of life honestly: it was the good, the bad, and she even represented the ugly. That it tells of another time, but that it CAN still be relevant today, if we are careful.

No matter which side you are on, this debate has caused Christie fans not only to be in an uproar but it also has caused much damage within the Christie community itself. What was once a very diverse set of people, from literally all over the world, who were only first unified by their love for Christie’s contributions has resulted in a major division. Some fans have left groups because of this division.  As a huge Christie fan, this is my first and foremost reason for delving more into Christie, right now. I had intended to wait and reveal another author, but I feel too strongly about this matter to wait any longer. While I enjoy a healthy debate, I am heartbroken at the anger and discord that this debate has caused within an otherwise once loving and acceptable community of her fans.  Although Christie cannot defend herself nor can she answer our questions, I am learning about her to find out the answers to our questions. Or at the very least, to seek answers to ease the tension and create a healthy debate. Do we fellow Christie fans not owe it to her, as well as ourselves, to find the truth (or at least attempt to find the truth)? Personally, I think Christie would want more from us as fans. Let’s face it, Poirot and Miss Marple would seek to find the truth and not wrongly accuse someone of anything without those facts.  I hope you will join me on this Christie adventure!   

Some of the questions I will seek answers to in the following weeks are as follows:

 

How much do we actually know about her: specifically, her life and her writing?

What motivated her to write? Especially what she wrote?

Did she write what she wrote from experience, prejudices, etc?

How did she influence the mystery genre?

Why is she considered the “Queen of Mystery”?

How did she help change the roles of women in the early 19^th century?

Is it true that poison was her favorite means of murder and if so, why?

What are the “Christie clues”?

Do you think you know the answers to these questions? Or, do you have your own questions that you just absolutely HAVE to have the answer to? Did I miss asking a major question in this debate? Drop me a comment and let me know. If I can answer your question, I certainly will!  

TO CATCH A THIEF: ART FRAUD DETECTIVES FIGHTING CRIME by Yvonne Saxon

Art fraud has been around for centuries. It’s known that the Romans copied statues and passed them off as Greek. So many Old Masters (think Da Vinci, Raphael, Vermeer, and Rembrandt, for starters) have been copied, that there’s an Old Master forgery ring whose extent even the biggest auction houses and the top art specialists don’t know. It's not just paintings that are being counterfeited, either. Artifacts, statues, books, prints, etc., are all being stolen, copied, faked, and fabricated. For example, art dealer Tatiana Khan, owner of  Los Angeles' Chateau Allegre gallery, was paid $1,000 to copy Picasso's "La Femme Au Chapeau Bleu." She then sold the copy for $2 million to a buyer. “Fake art is the third largest criminal activity on Earth after drugs and weapons” according to a source.

LEARNING FROM THE BEST WRITERS by Maria Hudgins

 There must be a thousand books on "How to Write." If you read them all you wouldn't have time to write.So what are a few really good ones? How do you know if a book on writing is good? How do you know this author's advice is right or wrong? That's easy. Read a bit of it and if you are having a hard time putting it down--the author knows what he's doing. This topic, after all, is dry as dirt. It's right up there with "How to change the duvet cover," or "How to clean a bathroom," or "Filling out your 1040 form."

The best book on writing I have ever read is Stephen King's "On Writing" which, by now, has probably gone through a dozen editions. I couldn't put it down. I've read it more than once and not because I didn't remember his advice. It's wonderfully entertaining. I can't forget his description of pretending to be a circus strong man when he was two years old.

I've been looking at a website called Master Class and I see a lot of today's top writers are contributing their best suggestions.One click gives you samples of their advice and I have clicked on a bunch of them. I would tend to favor the words of authors that are my personal favorites. If I enjoy them, I think, so would others. My taste in stories is not unusual. I'm pretty typical. It's not free, but at $120/year, it's cheap for what you can get if you really use it.

This may sound stupid, but I learn a lot from listening to a favorite author on audio. It doesn't matter if the author is doing the reading or not. Some writers are not good readers, and some are. Listening frees your mind to think only about the story. When you aren't thinking about the words on the page or how many pages are left in this chapter, you become more aware of the structure. Why is the writer giving you all these details in one chapter but not in another one? Where is the viewpoint character and what are his eyes seeing? If she parks her car, does she immediately open the door? Does she remember to pick up her purse? Why does the writer skip over all the details sometimes with a brief, "Next morning, he flew to Chicago?" Details are tedious if they don't move the story forward.

Sometimes I can just lie in bed with my eyes closed and realize that I'm working!