Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Brainstorming

In my writing group, The Writin' Wombats, one of our members posed a question about brainstorming.  I started to write about it and quickly realized that I had a lot of related experience, some of which is relevant to writers and much which can be applied to just about any kind of project. 

In my novels, I've started both of them by doing a bit of free form brainstorming on paper.  I like to draw maps which show topics I'd like to write about and then start filling in the connections.  If a topic is dense enough in its possibilities and connections, it just might be a good candidate to build a novel around.  After brainstorming about topics, I've found it's a natural development to start building characters once you've got a nucleus of good ideas.  From there, it's not a big step to actually start writing prose or develop a chapter outline.

I really learned about brainstorming firsthand from one of my early bosses.  I'd brainstormed before this, but he was systematic about it and got me enthused as well.  It helps to have the right tools.  In his case, these were two large white boards, which virtually begged one to get out the colored markers and start putting ideas down.  One key aspect of brainstorming is to focus first and foremost on generating ideas and writing them down, then worrying about the quality of the ideas later on.  There's nothing that will shut down a good brainstorming session faster than trying to evaluate the ideas as they are being generated.  Hold off the tendency to criticize and let the ideas get out there.  Among other things, this opens up the possibilities for cross fertilization between ideas, where one idea builds on another, which leads to another and so on. 

When I had my own business, I knew I needed to do planning, but struggled to find the time.  I also needed to get out and get a bit of exercise.  My solution:  the planning walk.  I had an inexpensive tape recorder -- these days you could use an ipod -- and I'd use the walk to brainstorm about ideas for building my business.  I generated lots of useful ideas and managed to get out of the office.  

I've blogged previously about OneNote here and here, but this is another example of a tool that is very well suited to brainstorming, since you can take notes in a number of free from styles and even draw maps if that's what you'd like to do.  

So that's a few words on my experiences with brainstorming.  

Do you like to brainstorm, whether for writing or another kind of project?   If so, what kinds of approaches do you take?  Do you have any favorite brainstorming tools?  

Jazzy Notes at Newport

Last Sunday I attended the Newport Jazz Festival.  I'm happy to report it was outstanding and well worth the price of the tickets.  I'm a long time fan of jazz and also like to play jazz guitar myself.  So you might think this visit to Newport was just the latest in a series, but in truth, this was the first time I've gone.  Why this time?  The lineup on Sunday was outstanding, my oldest son is also now a huge fan of jazz and it fit our schedule.  So we ate an early breakfast and drove my car down to Newport. 

We had one wrong turn along the way, but still made it in plenty of time to hear the day's music.  We started by staking out a spot on the lawn.   The Fort Adams State Park, site of the festival, literally is a fort.  The main Fort stage faces outward toward Narragansett Bay and the lawn seating surrounds a small island of reserved seats.  We walked to the far side of the stage, close to the harbor, and migrated inward until we found a clear patch and set down our folding chairs.  We were about two hundred feet from the stage, but the sound was very clear and a large screen offered views of the action on stage. 

We promptly left that spot and headed to the other stages.  In this venue, everything is set up in relation to the fort, so we passed one stage set up under a canopy to the left of the fort (Harbor stage) and continued through an opening into the fort to find the last stage (Quad Stage), also set up under a tent.  Clouds from earlier in the day quickly burned off, leaving us with a warm day that required large amounts of sunscreen to fend off the sun and water to stay hydrated.  Hence, the tents were very popular. 

We began our day by taking a seat and listening to the Matt Wilson quartet.  The first song was wild.  Wilson's quartet played very open jazz ala Ornette and was accompanied by a jazz string section, which plucked along to match the avant garde stylings of drummer Wilson and his band.  The raucous music - laid down by the instrumentation of sax, trumpet and bass in addition to Wilson's drums -- built to a crescendo and then backed all the way down to the quartet playing percussion on tiny porcelain tinker bells.  Then the instruments returned and built the music up to a wailing finish.  The music was out there, but clearly good.  Whatever illusion I had that Newport's lineup would be mostly conservative was instantly demolished. 

Next, we returned to the main stage, where a sextet led by pianist Amina Figueroa played melodic latin-tinged jazz that reminded me of the early days of Chick Corea's Return to Forever in their pre-electric days.   The band was excellent and Figueroa's music was easy on the ears. 

During the break, we headed for the concession stands in front of the fort and found a Greek menu to our liking.  My son and I both ordered lamb gyros.  A few minutes later they arrived -- thin slabs of lamb, covered by a bed of salad, onions, tomatos and mint, all covered in a light white sauce, then stuffed into freshly warmed folding buns, shaped like burritos, but much tastier.  We also had mint flavored lemonades and a large combo plate of thick hummus and copious amounts of tabouli accompanied by slices of pita bread.  We walked over to the portion of the lawn by the harbor, found a set of flat rocks to sit on and tended to our lunch.  The food was all outstanding -- easily the best Greek food I've had in years.  So we were well fortified to take in more jazz for the rest of the afternoon. 

Here's a picture of the main Fort stage from where we sat. 

 
 

Next up on the Fort stage was Arturo O'Farrell's Latin Jazz Orchestra. This band truly was an orchestra and had at least twenty musicians playing at all times.  This group played with high energy and extends the tradition of latin jazz groups from bandleaders like Tito Puente and Chico O'Farrell. Arturo was very knowledgeable about the traditions of this music and offered expert commentary to go along with each song.  One of the band's early songs was the result of a commission.  The title: Wise Latina.  This music had a contemporary feel and featured several of the band's fine brass players.   A couple of songs later, jazz trumpet great Jon Faddis joined the group.  His hot trumpet offered the expected stratospheric high notes and rapid flurries of sound, but he also played with a tone which at various times reminded me of either Miles Davis or Dizzie Gillespie.  Later, the band played another composition which Arturo noted was consistent with the band's mission to extend the pallette of Latin jazz, in this case by bringing in Ecuadorian influences. 

There was much more music on this day and I'll write more in my next post. 

Writer's Notebook: The Blue Road

In the past year, our family has gotten exposed to a different part of the country.  My oldest son chose to attend school in the western part of North Carolia and it's given us a chance to see that area and get exposed to the local culture in and around Asheville.  Last June, my son and I attended an outdoor rock concert set up under Interstate highway 540, a program known as Downtown After Five.  The scene attracted a broad range of people, ranging in age from babies to octogenarians, but everybody seemed to be having a great time.  I blogged about that experience in my post Downtown After Dark.  

The highlight of that concert was the amazing musicianship of Randall Bramblett.  At that show, Bramblett played very soulful tenor and soprano sax backing up blues guitarist Geoff Achison.  I decided I needed to hear more of Bramblett's music.  I looked him up on Google and discovered that he's a highly respected singer-songwriter, though he is not well known outside of the American South.  I took a quick listen on Itunes to his latest album -- Now It's Tomorrow -- and decided to buy it.  It's been a favorite album on my Ipod ever since.  For some reason, the Itunes Genius feature picked out one particular song, Blue Road, and plays it more often than the others.  Blue Road is the story of the narrator's up and down experiences with a woman named Ginnie Lee.  Bramblett keeps saying he can't forget about her and wants to take her on the Blue Road.  

I'm not exactly sure, but I have a hunch the Blue Road just might be referring to the Blue Ridge Parkway, a two lane road that winds through the mountains for hundreds of miles.  On my last trip out of Asheville, my son and I followed a winding dirt road and eventually made it up the parkway.  We'd planned ahead, so we brought along a picnic lunch and sat ourselves down at one of the first overlooks.  The scene looked like this as we look over the shoulder of my son Jason:  

 

We'd finally made it to the Blue Ridge Parkway and this first view just offered a taste of what lay ahead.  

The Blue Ridge truly is a mountain road and follows a series of switchbacks which bring your car to higher and higher elevations.  A little further up the road, the views were even more spectacular, as we could look down to see the clear green waters of a river threading it's way through the valley against a backdrop of the Blue Ridge mountains.    

 
Writing in my journal at the time, I had the following impressions.  A glassy lake cuts through between ridges -- edged by sandy shorelines, like a mustard outline of the flat waters.  Above, curling humps and brazen points catch my eye.  The more distant hills fade into overlays of blue.  The scent of burning firewood wafts across to us from the visitor's center, while a flag flutters and bucks in the early May winds. 

Here's a shot of Jason drawing the scene in his sketch book:  

 

And that was just the beginning of what we saw that day.  Just ahead, a mountain ridge and tunnel pointed the way forward.  

 
Call it the Blue Road or the Blue Ridge Parkway, but this road offers views which quickly outstrip the adjectives one might apply to capture it.  If you're in western North Carolina, you'll want to go out of your way and see for yourself the many views available from this roadway as it follows a twisting path through the mountains.  Bring along a picnic lunch and take your time. 

For me, the Blue Ridge Parkway and Randall Bramblett are examples of the fine differences available when we choose to explore new territories.  In these places, we'll often find new geographic and cultural touch stones.   

Have you been to the Blue Ridge Mountains?  What were your reactions?  

Have you experienced regional artists that have exposed you to different worldview? 

It's summer and it's a fine time to stretch out, to find those new places and open yourself to novel influences. 

Writer's Notebook: Road Taken - Shepherdstown

Here's a post I wrote while on the road driving up to Massachusetts a couple of days ago.

Today we visited a gem of a town well off the beaten path - Shepherdstown, West Virginia.  Driving into town, you see two and three story buildings of brick, white painted stone and wood originally built during colonial times.

We parked and then took in our first views of a tasteful selection of boutiques, coffee shops and cafes.  For us, it was lunch time, so we sought the right lunch place.  Several places looked okay, but the menu choices at Stone Soup Bistro drew us in.

Our host said no seats were available inside, but would we care to sit outside?  We agreed to take a look. He led me down A stone path which led to an open garden with several tables.  We were alone save for blooming flowers, a wooden trestle and sunshine.  We were off to a fine start. 

My son stepped out to make a phone call and I relaxed in our private alcove. Our waiter came with menus and explained the specials.  My son ordered an herb tea to go with steak sandwich and I opted for their lamb gyro.

We bathed in the sun and reveled in the petite garden.  Soon the tea arrived, an infusion of hot water and herbs imbued with scents of chocolate and leather.  We drank the tea after steeping and it measured up to the aromatic prelude -- yum.

Next, the main event.  My gyro featured tender shoulder of lamb and fresh greens in a whole wheat wrap - updating this Greek comfort food in spectacular fashion.  My son had steak and cheese on a 
baguette; the morsel I tasted was tender and had a subtle hint of marinade.

After lunch we walked along German Street -- the main drag -- stopping in at shops that struck our fancy.  We browsed the bookstore next to the restaurant, which offered an eclectic assortment of new and used books, including works about the local area.  Across the street is a cooking goods store of astounding quality. My son caught a photo of me by their wine nook.

     

Writer's Notebook: Interlude in Paris

I just got back from a business trip to Paris.  It was hectic and I worked a lot of hours, but I still found time to enjoy a few of my favorite things about the city and explore new places as well. 

I stayed in a small village called Malakoff which is located just outside the Peripherique, the highway which loops about the city center.  Malakoff is unpretentious and has reasonably priced hotels and excellent Metro access, so it's a good jumping off point for getting around the city.  It also has cafes, restaurants and open air markets, offering a miniature slice of the more extensive set of options found a few kilometres away in the heart of the city. 

Here's a typical street in Malakoff. 

 

And here's a hint that the political climate here might just vary a mite from that found in the US. 

In the mornings during the week, I stopped in a couple of small cafes with my colleagues and I had a typical French continental breakfast -- cafe au lait, a croissant, possibly a baguette and orange juice.  The coffee in Paris is much stronger than typically found in the US and kick starts the day in fine fashion. 

The evenings offered a chance to relax and pick from a variety of menu choices.  Our first night, a large contingent of us headed to an old style restaurant called Nos Ancetres Les Gaulois on Ile-St.-Louis, just a couple of blocks from the Notre Dame cathedral.  This small island is one of the oldest parts of Paris and our room in the restaurant felt like a cave carved out of stone and brick -- not for the clautrophobic.  The food here was basic.  One would first choose from appetizers which were offered on large tables and consisted of mounds of cheese and sausage to be sliced on the spot, plus a variety of vegetables and breads.  All of this was accompanied by table wine; our group filled small stone carafes as a way to minimize the trips upstairs to refill a glass.  Later, we picked from entrees of various sorts of meat.  My choice was lamb chops, which were tasty, but not prepared in any sort of special style.  Later, the cheese course arrived and again we had a chance to pick off our own slices of soft or hard cheeses.  Dessert was also offered, but by then I was slumping after many hours without sleep, so a few of us returned to the hotel. 

The second evening was more distinctive -- a visit to a jazz club in the famous Montparnasse district called Le Petit Journal.  The concept was a good one: combine the supper club experience with fine food, hearkening back to a number of movies set in Paris where jazz and nightclubs played a prominent role.  And I must say, our fixed price menu did have fine choices and I was able to indulge in my preference for fish in both the appetizer and main course.  But the music was so-so.  The group included about 25 instruments and as a result, musicians packed in tight on the stage.  Most of the group was young, possibly even high school age interspersed with a few veteran jazzmen.  For example, the trumpet player had wild curly gray hair behind a receding forehead, but played credibly in a variety of styles. 

The music was mostly from the Duke Ellington songbook and worked well enough, though the ensemble work was not as tight as I've seen among some award winning jazz groups at Massachusetts high schools.  The main issue was the singer.  After a couple of instrumental pieces, a woman who resembled Carla Bruni-Sarkozy -- at least with her combination of medium length brown hair and rounded cheek bones -- joined the group.  Her breathy vocals -- think of Marilyn Monroe serenading JFK -- stepped through the lyrics, but it sounded like an academic exercise; her singing simply lacked soul.  At one point, I whispered to one of my French colleagues that it sounded like she'd learned the songs phonetically. Still, the combination of fairly good jazz -- from the musicians -- and fine food made the evening work and I thanked our host for setting it up. 

It was a late night and we got on the Metro for our return trip to Malakoff just before the subway lines closed at 12:00 midnight. 

I'll talk more about this trip and further adventures about town in my next post. 

Writer's Notebook: Playing the Blues

I'm taking a break from writing to play with my band, the Basement Blues Band, at a gig tonight.  We play a mix of blues and rock, with a variety of influences, including jazz.  If you are in the southeast Massachusetts area, come join us at the FUSF church in Franklin, MA at 7:30 (Saturday March 13) for the annual Chestnut Street Review.  Here's a link for more details.  There's lots of talented groups and individuals playing, plus great snacks during intermission.  I listened from the audience seats last year and had a great time.  This should be a lot of fun for all. 

Writer's Notebook: Interview with Boston Writing Careers Columnist

I'm pleased to report that I've been interviewed about my writing and blogging by Lynette Benton, who writes a column for Examiner.com entitled Boston Writing Careers.  Lynette posts regularly on a variety of writing topics with a Boston area focus.  She recently commented on one of my blog posts and shortly after that we agreed to do the interview. 

Check it out here at James Rafferty, Boston Area Writer, Part 1.  In this part of the interview, I talk about writing my first novel, Growing Up Single, and about other writing projects.  Part 2 will be posted soon.   

Writer's Notebook: A Trip to London Town

In January, business trips took me around the world.  Over the next week or so, I'll do a series of posts on the trips and the places I saw. 

First stop, London.  I'd come down with a cold over the weekend, so I dreaded having to fly under those conditions.  My strategy: take decongestants, drink lots of water and hope for the best.  I had an aisle seat and we flew during the day.  Happily, the nasty headaches and ear pressure I've sometimes experienced under these circumstances never materialized.  A van met our group at the airport, but one of our colleagues came in on a different flight to another terminal.  That added an hour to our trip -- Heathrow is huge and the best way to get around between terminals is by train.   We finally got into London at about 12:00 midnight and heard about the tragic Haiti earthquake just as we landed.  Much of the gang went out to drink, but I repaired to my room, nursed my cold and got a few hours sleep. 

I woke up the next morning and it looked like this.  Snow had fallen overnight and the inclement weather limited the visibility in our location on the Thames by the Tower Bridge.   

 

The local people told us that it had been snowing a great deal in the prior few days; we were just catching the tail end of it. 

Our meetings kept us busy during the day.  The first evening, our group went out to a medieval dinner experience.  We checked our coats and then were given outfits to wear right out of the middle ages.  In the spirit of things, I decided to try the beer, but whatever they were serving was godawful -- it tasted liked it had been sitting in barrels for ages and had gone rancid.  Nonetheless, we had a fun evening.  We were instructed in the proper behavior for guests in that era.  Whenever the King suggested a toast, we were to yell out: Wasail!  We practiced and got very good at this, though it failed to improve the taste of the beer.   We all sat down at long metal tables and were served community style.  When it was time for the next course of food, we made the requests by banging our fists on the tables.  We also adapted to this very quickly.  

In between rounds of food -- a murky soup served without benefit of spoons and hunks of chicken -- the court jesters did juggling tricks and the merry wenches danced with curtsies and displays of petticoats.  Bottom line:  a medieval banquet is a fair excuse to serve bland food and copious amounts of cheap alcohol, but the theatrical aspect of the evening sticks with you the longest. 

London is often foggy and we never did see the sun in our time there.  Here's another view looking out from the hotel across the river. 

Our meeting continued the next day and I managed to get all of my presentations done despite my sore throat. In fact, I had begun to recover from the cold.  That evening, we ate in at the hotel and this time the food was much better.   The salads were fresh and the main dishes offered real taste.  The wine also flowed in ample quantities, keeping spirits upright.  Afterwards, we engaged in a Nintendo WII driving competition.  I was not overly concerned when my vehicle spun out and went in the wrong direction, allowing me to head back to the room before midnight. 

The next morning, we had a fine buffet breakfast -- the breakfasts were consistently good throughout our stay -- as the combination of coffee, orange juice, smoked salmon and fresh fruit prepared me for the day ahead.  On this day, we had a customer meeting, but it was in walking distance, so we finally got to leave the hotel again.  We were in the financial district, which is not nearly as robust as it was before the financial crash, but managed to be quite lively on this morning.  After sitting in meetings for two days, the walk was refreshing. 

The meeting went reasonably well, and then we retraced our steps back to the hotel.  Our contingent was getting ready to leave, but we got to say our goodbyes over a light lunch.  By now, the weather had improved somewhat, but clouds still dominated the sky. 

Our route back entailed travel via the underground and by train.  We walked past the Tower of London, which looked very different than it had during my tourist visit during the Eighties.  Visitors now enter via a modern glass pavilion, analogous to the experience one has across the channel when visiting the Louvre in Paris.   New buildings, construction and the much older structures of the Tower collided visually as we walked by enroute to our station. 

In the station itself, we encountered the new phenomenon of the electronic ticket kiosques which fail to accept American credit cards, since most Euro cards now include a validation chip.  Our US bankers, showing off their wonderful sense of customer service, don't see the problem.  Right.  Why am I so surprised?  

Anyway, the regular ticket takers still accepted old school credit cards, so one of our group bought tickets for the underground for all of us.  We headed downstairs to board the Circle Line train headed for Paddington Station.  We no sooner got downstairs than an announcement from the speakers blared a message that the Circle Line train would not be running on the weekend.  After several other trains came by and there was no sign of the Circle Line, we wondered if the weekend had already begun in this fair land at 2:30 on Friday afternoon.  After about 25 minutes, the Circle Line train finally did arrive -- sorry folks, a few more hours before the weekend really starts -- and we boarded. 

I took a seat and watched the ebb and fro as young men and women wearing various colorful styles took their seats, chatted or got buried in books or MP3 players.  About thirty minutes later, we arrived at Paddington and ascended stairs and escalators into the main station. 

In my view, the best way to get to the airport is via the Heathrow Express, a high speed train that runs throughout the day and takes passengers all the way out to Heathrow -- a one hour car ride -- in just fifteen minutes.  We bought tickets and got onto a waiting train.  The train had plenty of room, so we just put our big bags aside and then settled into comfortable leather seats.  A while later, a blonde haired woman took the seat next to me and I admired the fine cut of her black dress while she talked non-stop with a somewhat older man who appeared to be her signifigant other. 

The train started up and soon we were whooshing through the suburbs outside of London at speeds up to 250 kilometers per hour.  The train entered a tunnel and we got off at the first airport stop.  The entire journey took fifteen minutes as promised.  

The rest of the trip was uneventful, merely a jet ride home to the Boston area after a week in London.  Alas, I was destined to return to this same airport within a week enroute to Singapore, but that's a tale for another day. 

Writer's Notebook: The Changing Face of Publishing and the Book

I recently read a very good post by blogger Mike Shatzkin about the future of the agent's job in an era where e-publishing is more common and big agent paychecks become much less common.  We also had the recent fiasco where Harlequin announced a self-publishing venture tied to their brand and immediately got hammered from all directions.  Clearly the publishing industry is going through an evolution and the rules are changing, but where will it go?

I certainly don't pretend to have the answers, but I've spent the past two and one-half years as an aspiring writer with a completed first novel and have looked at a number of different possibilities for getting that novel published.  I'm also past the midpoint in writing the first draft for my second novel.  So I've got some skin in the game and am very interested in seeing how publishing business models will change and how to get my books published in a way that will reach lots of readers. 

I'd prefer to go the traditional route of getting signed by an agent and published by a mainstream publisher, but there are other routes out there.  Just within the confines of my writer's group, the diverse and eclectic Writin' Wombats, we've got several writers who been published using the traditional approach of working through an agent, several who have self-published and built a readership that way, a few who have affiliated with small indy publishers that use POD (Publishing On Demand) techniques and one writer who has turned his self-publishing venture into a publishing company and is signing up other writers.  

The alternatives to the traditional publishers are numerous, but there are issues. In either the self-pubbed or indy publisher route, the writer must be prepared to do a substantial amount of self promotion to establish their personal brand and build a network of potential future readers.  Readers will want to have assurances that the quality of the indy or self-pubbed books is up to snuff, so there needs to be various new types of filters, such as reviewers who offer online book reviews and in essence, act as the first reader. 

What are your thoughts?  If you are a writer, have you gotten your books published?  Would you consider a non-traditional publishing path?  

If you are a reader, have you read self-pubbed books or content published by indy presses?  If you have, how did you find out about them?  Which ways do you think that books will be published in the next few years and will they be successful?   

These topics are fertile ground for discussion and I expect to write several related posts going forward.   

Writer’s Notebook: Collaborative Interview with Pat Bertram

 One of the joys of online communities is the chance to meet other writers.  I met Pat Bertram when she entered the Tru TV Crime contest on Gather.com and immediately liked her writing.   She also started a writer's group on Gather.com called No Whine Just Champagne which brought together writers to discuss writing craft, building stories, getting published, how to promote writing and a myriad of other topics related to writing.  She's currently doing a whirlwind tour of the blogosphere, talking about her newest book, Daughter Am I, just published by Second Wind Publishing.  Today she's my guest on the James Rafferty Blog as part of our Writer's Notebook series. 

Pat and I seem to have some similar ideas about writing, though she's finished more novels that I have. Let's have at it.

James: Pat, one of the intriguing aspects of your writing is that you haven't settled on a single genre. Do you have any thoughts about why your writing went in that direction?

Pat: It simply never occurred to me to pick a genre and stick to it. I remember when “genre” signified formulaic stories and mediocre writing, and I wanted to be a better writer than that. I also wanted to write books that had more than a narrow appeal. Libraries and bookstores used to be set up with a mystery section, a romance section, a science fiction section, and then all the rest of the novels. That’s what mine are — “one of all the rest”. Though that isn’t a genre. Drats.

James:  I had a similar experience.  I’d come to like books that had depth – great stories painted on a large canvas that challenged the reader.  I set out to write a book like that.  But it took me a long time to finish that first novel Growing Up Single, and by the time I had, the publishing industry had swung strongly in the direction of genre fiction.

Pat: With the huge proliferation of books published every year -- over 500,000 in 2008 --it’s almost impossible for readers to find new books by new authors unless the books are genre-specific, but it seems as if we all miss out when the emphasis is on genre.

James: A while back, we talked about how the best of all worlds for a writer might just be to establish their own genre. For example, Scott Turow did very well by opening up the legal drama genre and was quickly followed by John Grisham. Have you made progress in the direction of establishing your own distinctive genre?

Pat: I wish! After Wanda Hughes read my books, she sent me a message saying, “I now see what you mean about an unnamed genre. Kind of a big picture conspiracy, behind the scenes machinations and how that affects the little guy (or gal) on the street.” So, “conspiracy” could have been a good genre name, but I broke the pattern with Daughter Am I. Daughter Am I is more of a mainstream novel, though it could be classified as a mystery. My work-in-progress is a tongue-in-cheek apocalyptic allegory, which is a weird sort of story even for me.

The unifying theme in all of my books is the perennial question: Who are we? More Deaths Than One suggests we are our memories. A Spark of Heavenly suggests we are the sum total of our experiences and choices. Daughter Am I suggests we are our heritage. So, perhaps my genre is “identity quest,” though I can’t see that as ever being a big draw. My only hope is to build an audience for “Pat Bertram’s books.”

James:  Who are we?   I like that.  I think that sooner or later if the novelist wants to get beyond strict entertainment, he or she needs to take on bigger themes and say something about them in story form.  My favorite novel of recent years, Damascus Gate by Robert Stone, was set in the period of the first intifada in Jerusalem.  The novel could be seen as simply the narrative of a journalist facing a mid-life crisis, but he manages to weave in quests for spiritual enlightenment, vivid descriptions of day to day hell in the Gaza Strip and a romantic encounter with a potential soulmate.  If you want to understand why the Israeli – Palestinian conflict is so intractable, this book lays it out, but still manages to drive forward with a compelling narrative that kept me hooked from beginning to end. 

Pat: Most books that go beyond genre, and even many of those that don’t, seem to have some sort of quest at the heart, and mid-life-crisis certainly falls in the category of “identity quest.” It seems as if Damascus Gate is not only the story of a personal search for identity, but the search for a people’s identity or a country’s identity.

James: As a reader, my roots were in science fiction, but that eventually led me into the classics, literary novels and other genres like murder mysteries, as I followed paths carved out for me by my favorite writers. What would you say are your influences?

Pat:  I like to read novels that have it all -- mystery, adventure, romance, a touch of strangeness, a bit of truth -- but since I can’t find that sort of novel very often, I settle for just about anything. Non-fiction, genre fiction, literary fiction, whatever is at hand. I used to real a lot of science fiction, but when the science fiction gave way to science fantasy, I lost interest -- I like my science fiction rooted in the human world. If Kate Wilhelm were still writing science fiction, I’d still be reading it.

James: Yes, that kind of humanistic science fiction exerts a pull on me, though I’ve now got expectations that a strong SF story or novel will bring me to another place, tell a compelling and have a strong prose style.  I’ve recently been reading a Best of collection from one of the recent years and I’m impressed by how many of these stories really work for me.

Pat: One of the few books I’ve read recently that pulled me into another world was Heart of Hythea by Suzanne Francis. Her world mirrored ours enough that it was easy to get into the story and stay there.

James: Are you writing to reach a particular kind of reader?

Pat:  In a way, I’m the reader I was writing for. There were stories I wanted to read and couldn’t find, so I wrote them. The dichotomy of this is that I always wanted to reach a large readership, so it would have been more practical to write books that a large number of people would like.

James:  As writers, we need to be passionate about our stories.  The process of writing a novel is grueling enough, but the quest would seem impossible if we lost faith in what we’re doing and who we’re writing for.  When I do public speaking, I’m always thinking about who the target audience and  want to give them something special they won’t get from another speaker. In a sense, that’s much like the process of writing for that ideal reader.  We write and hope the reader will get it; sometimes they’ll see themes and connections that go beyond our conscious intentions.

Pat: Even though I write the books I want to read, I am always aware of potential readers and how best to show my vision so that they will be able to share it.

James: We've both entered writing contests and lived to tell about it. Would you do that again? Did you learn anything in particular from those experiences?

Pat: I don’t intend to enter any other major writing contests, though I might if I can figure out how to make it work for me as a promotion tool. I didn’t learn much from the experience, though I gained a lot. I’ve made many friends, I’ve become involved in a couple of writing groups that were offshoots of the contest, and in a roundabout sort of way, I became published because of the contests.

James:  Yes, novel writing contests feel like one of those necessary experiences that are good to have behind you.  We learn from them, but they are time consuming and the odds of winning in a large contest are quite slim.  But it is like a trial run for the whole process of building networks and promoting your work.  And getting to know the other writers I’ve met through the contests has been the lasting benefit. 

Pat: I was going to mention about how the contest was a trial run for networking, but recently I’ve become shy about asking people to read blogs or leave comments, let alone vote for an entry. It seems such an intrusion. I’d never again be able to do the kind of campaigning that was necessary for those online contests.

James: You've been very active in blogging and other forms of social media. Have these helped to build a readership? Do you actively measure the results of your community building?

Pat: Most of the people who bought my books came from the social media. Although I have thousands of “friends” there is no real way to measure my community building or to know if what I’m doing is effective.

James:  In my day job as a product manager, we’ve started to focus a lot on improving our online presence and Google (i.e. search engine) rankings.  Building a community through social media is a long, drawn-out process.  Getting people to buy books from writers they meet online feels like a paradigm shift, as mass media promotion (the old style) is augmented or superseded by social media.  I suppose actual book sales will be the key metric, but they are a lagging indicator.  

James: If you just had to choose two channels of social media, what would they be?

Pat: One channel would definitely be blogging. Something I never expected when I set up Bertram’s Blog, is how much I like writing and publishing my articles. I feel safe on my blog, away from the ratings rampage of other sites, and it gives me the freedom to say what I want. I don’t write about controversial topics, so I don’t have the viewers that other blogs do, but still, for some reason, my readership is growing. As for the other channel -- I couldn’t choose just one. I have discussion groups on both Facebook and Gather, good friends on both sites, though lately I’ve actually been meeting more people on Facebook. What I would like is to find another channel, a different and effective way of introducing people to my books, but so far I haven’t found it.

James:  Pat, if there is another effective social media channel for reaching potential readers, I have every confidence you’ll be at the forefront.  Thanks for joining us on the Writer’s Notebook series of the James Rafferty Blog.

Pat: Thank you for inviting me to be a guest on your blog, James. I’ve always enjoyed your comments on the Gather discussions, so having this opportunity to talk with you has been a real treat.  

 

Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado and a lifelong resident. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Daughter Am I is Bertram’s third novel to be published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC. Also available are More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.