Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Writer's Notebook: Writer Idol at the Boston Book Festival

In my last post, I talked about my fun experiences attending the Boston Book Festival.  The event brimmed over with sessions that were helpful for writers who are on the path to publication.  

The first of these sessions was called the "Guided Open Mic," with our expert guide being author and investigative TV journalist Hank Phillipi Ryan.  Here's a picture of the Arbor Room of the Boston Public Library, where that session was held. 

I got a chance to do a reading at that session and had hoped to get my work read at a second session.  This one was across the street at the Old South Church about an hour later. 

Imagine this scene.  The room is packed with about 250 people.  Up on the stage, a panel of four publishing industry veterans is assembled, with representation from the literary agent, editing and publishing communities.  The session was named Writer Idol. 

Now that you've had a chance to visualize the scene, here's a photo of the session as it was about to begin (it's fuzzy, but you'll get the sense of it). 

The ground rules for Writer Idol were:

1. Participants were asked to bring in a 250 word beginning to a novel or piece of non-fiction and state the genre.
2. The entries were put in a box and a woman actor pulled them out and read from them.
3. There were four judges: a couple of agents and two other people from publishers.
4. The entries were read until two of the judges raised their hands to stop.

Depending upon your perspective, this might seem like either a writer's dream or, more ominously, their nightmare. 

 

I would estimate that about 40 entries were read over a one hour period.   My entry didn't get read, but the process was fascinating, a kind of live slush pile. The judges had different perspectives, so sometimes one hand would be raised but the reading would continue. Only a few pieces were read through to the end.

 

The process was anonymous; nobody knew who the writers were. However, there were some passages where the audience totally broke down with laughter, which no doubt was tough for the writers of those pieces.

For example, it turns out the judges REALLY did not like references to certain bodily functions that get activated when a character gets squeamish. TMI, I guess. There were three entries or so that went there; they all got shot down immediately.

Other no-no's included overuse of flowery adjectives, misuse of large words, and overuse of cliches. I'd imagine most writers that participated in a writing group wouldn't be surprised by these things, but seeing the panelists stop the reading because of these gotchas offered powerful reinforcement on these do's and don'ts.

 

My conclusion: Great session.  It's one thing to hear about what agents and editors want to see -- or not see -- but it's quite another to see it all play out in real time.  If you submit your work to an agent, they'll read what you submit and analyze it line by line just as they did here.  So, yes, you want to make your work compelling AND avoid miscues that will take the reader out of the scene and cause them to move on to the next item in the slush pile. 

 

That's it for this post, but I'd like to mention that I'll be having a guest blogger join me later this week on November 19.   Pat Bertram, author of Daughter Am I and two other novels published by Second Wind Publishing is on a whirlwind blog tour this month.  She and I have a lot of fun chatting together online and we've collaborated on an interview where we both talk about our writing and muse about topics such as writing outside of typical genres.  Please join us. 

Writer's Notebook: Signs of the Seasons

Fall in New England is one of my favorite seasons.  I've lived in New England most of my life, but never tire of the variety this season brings to us. 

Yesterday, I rode with a business colleague through New Hampshire and Vermont.  It was Columbus Day, sometimes celebrated as a holiday in the United States, and often touted as a great weekend for viewing foliage.  Well, in most years, you won't see much but bare trees in Northern New England by the time that weekend rolls around.  Happily, this year is an exception.  We had copious amounts of rain in the Spring and enough during the summer so that the foliage this year is rich in colors of gold, harvest brown, and pumpkin orange, and many shades in between.  Smoke from wood fireplaces drifts in the air, stirring ancient urges to gather around the warmth.  As the temperature drops, we develop a taste for hearty meals such as stews, curries, and ragouts, washed down by mugs of hot cider, cocoa and pints of auburn ale. 

Frost warnings permeate the weather forecasts, but often the days are still warm enough to enjoy our favorite outdoor activities, be it tossing a football, riding a bike, hiking a trail or walking with your pet. 

For a writer, autumn presents backgrounds that tickle the senses, but the season also works as a metaphor for the passing of years and the progression toward mortality.  I've included scenes of Fall in my novels and the nip in the air, variegated colors of leafy canopies and harvest aromas can transport the reader directly to that destination, bringing it alive. 

As a reader, how to you react to seasons in writing?  Do authors draw you in with the vivid descriptions of the change that Autumn or Winter brings?  Or is there a hidden terror in these periodic changes of life and its rhythms? 

If you are a writer or another type of artist, how important are the seasons in your work?  Do they inspire you?  Do they transport your characters to new realizations or spiritual yearnings?  Let's talk about the seasons and how they affect your art.  

Writer's Notebook: Creative Blogs

It's been a busy Fall for me and I've been enjoying the transition from the summer here in southeastern Massachusetts.  I got back from a trip last weekend and discovered, much to my surprise and delight, that my friend Pat Bertram, author of Bertram's Blog, had been nominated for a Kreativ Blogger award for her blog AND passed the nomination for that same award and recognition to this blog.  

The award looks like this:  

I'm very pleased to be nominated for this award and it's much more meaningful when it comes from Pat, a blogger and writer who has done a remarkable job in the blogosphere and other social media in leading discussions about writing in a way that builds community among writers and helps us all get better at what we do.  

About six months ago, I recast this blog to focus primarily about writing and travel, with occasional forays into other areas such as personal technology and music.  I still find it hard to make the time to post regularly, but I'll continue to post when I've got thoughts, pictures or other cool discoveries to share.  So, to Pat Bertram and Bertram's Blog, thank you very much.  

Now for the fun part -- passing on the nomination to three other deserving recipients. My stint in the blogosphere has included lots of interaction with both the community of fiction writers and with my many colleagues in the telecommunications industry.  I blog on matters related to Voice over IP for the Dialogic Corporate Blog and like the split of keeping my business blogging mostly separate from this more personally focused blog. 

So what do I like in a blog?  I like people who are innovative and use their diverse backgrounds and expertise to comment on topics in multiple areas, bringing new insights from these connections.  

With that in mind, I'd like to nominate the following blogs for the Kreativ Blogger award:  

Fractals of Change - written by Tom Evslin - I've known Tom since we worked together on fax standards in the early Nineties and he's had a fascinating career and so-called retirement in the time since.  After leaving his post as CEO of Voice over IP startup ITXC, Tom launched his blog.  He comments on a broad range of topics ranging from the high tech world to public policy.  Like me, he is also a writer and self-published a novel a couple of years ago.  His is a fine blog that I enjoy even when his busy real life reduces the number of posts.  

Communications - written by Brough Turner - I've known Brough over ten years and he has typically brought keen insight and a unique slant to whatever catches his eye.  This past year, we've worked together at Dialogic, and it has been fun to be able to talk without the constraint of being competitors in the workplace.  In his blog, he tracks topics such as the pace of broadband development throughout the world and the social implications as people from third world countries suddenly have tools that connect them with the rest of the world.    

Coming full circle, the third blog I'd like to recognize is from a writer that I've gotten to know over the past two years from our online writing group on Gather.com.  The blog is The Paper Tiger, by Other Lisa aka Lisa Brackmann.  Lisa blogs about writing, her cats, life in Venice, California and, most of all, about her many visits to mainland China.  Lisa is a fine writer and her first novel Rock Paper Tiger, set in China, is due out next spring.  In her blog, we get a current view about what's happening in China for real people in places such as bars, restaurants, museums and so on.  It's not political so much as chronicle.  Lisa offers fascinating glimpses from a western perspective into an often hidden country. 

So, I hope my readers will take a moment to check out these blogs and see if you like what you read.  Please let me know what you think or if there are other blogs you think are a good fit for the creative blog criteria I outlined.  Until the next time  . . .

Writer's Notebook: Road Trip

Road trip.  The very words still set me a-tingle.  This summer has been a time of several trips and I've seen a lot, ranging from mountain vistas to vineyards to tossing seas.  As a writer, I've always mined my trips for material and one of my favorite things to do in a novel or short story is to take the reader to a place that I've been and try to bring it to life.  Set the scene, paint the details, sketch the moment.  Ah, that's part of the joy of writing.  

Tomorrow I go on my most common type of roadtrip, an airplane trip where I do a flyover of the countryside.  You see a lot less during the trip itself, but I find the many hours aloft are a fine time to dive into the details of writing extended scenes with few distractions.  I do most of this kind of writing longhand, which is highly portable and can be done at any time during the flight.   No need to boot the looseleaf notebook or close the pages just because the pilot wants to land.  

My last few trips were on the road.  I took my oldest son to college in western North Carolina recently and he and I drove through ten states over two and one-half days.  For me, the new places were in the middle:  Route 81 crosses from Pennsylvania into Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia in short succession.  

We started the second day in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the very name a harbinger of what was to come.  For on that day, we started in a rainstorm, then cleared a mountain passage on Route 78 and watched at the clouds broke, revealing the road which lay in front of us.   Within an two hours, the clouds had vanished and sun accompanied us for the rest of the trip.  

Around lunch time, we passed into West Virginia and decided to look for lunch in Martinsburg.  My wife family had settled in that area about 300 years ago, so we were curious about the town.   We drove through a residential area for about 10 minutes and began to wonder where the town center was, but finally discovered it.  The local architecture is beautiful, a mix of art deco and victorian styles, without a lot of more modern changes.  Here are a couple of samples of what we saw: 

After lunch at a Mexican restaurant downtown, we explored further -- the railroad station was just a few blocks away.   Martinsburg has a heritage of railroads and we saw an example in the roundhouse that was just across the tracks from the more recently modernized station.  

 

As all railroad buffs know, the roundhouse is where you would turn around the train in order to be able to change directions and go onto another track.  A much smaller example is found in San Francisco with their cable cars, but I'd never seen a fully enclosed building for this purpose.  Martinsburg clearly does not have a booming economy, but the people were very friendly and opened up when we mentioned the existance of family in the area.  

The road trip continued.  Our most spectacular day was on Friday morning, as we rode from Roanoke, Virginia to Tennesee and then into western North Carolina.  Here are a couple of glimpses of our vantage points:  

 

The mountains awed us as new scenes leaped up after each turn.   The two samples here are just examples of the many beauties to be seen on a drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains.  

I recently mentioned to my writing friends how remarkable I found these mountain vistas to be.  I have a feeling I'll be seeing mountains jumping into my fiction very soon.   And now, time for that next road trip.  

Writer's Notebook: Songs about Ireland

As readers of this blog know, I love to write fiction.  One of my other huge interests is music and from time to time I write songs. The reason I bring it up is that I'll be playing this weekend at an open mic night in Medfield, Massachusetts at North Street Coffeehouse.  

For the occasion, I've decided to play the two songs I wrote about my travels in Ireland.  As you might expect for a writer, there's a story behind each song.  Twenty-two years ago, I took my first trip to the isle and loved the unique character of its towns and villages.  I also had heard about Irish music, but the scene at small clubs just amazed me.  In place after place, musicians would gather in a corner and play a wide variety of Celtic music.  This was my real introduction to the Celtic sound and I couldn't get enough of it.  I thought about my experiences for quite a while, then I sat down and started to write a song.  The result was Irish Man.  I recorded a version for a song contest last year and you can hear it here on Gather.com.  

Last summer, I went to Ireland again, this time on a business trip to an area southwest of Dublin.  On the first trip, I hadn't spent much time in Dublin, so I made a point of taking a bus into town and checking it out.  Ireland had changed a lot since my first visit and Dublin is at the epicenter of the economic changes going on.  In Europe, the phrase they use to describe Ireland is the Celtic Tiger.  By the time I arrived, Ireland was beginning to feel it's own downturn, but the economy was still much stronger than what I'd seen on the first visit.  Dublin is a great walking city and I wrote about my walk through parts of town in another post here.  The city is steeped in history and in strolling from place to place, I kept running into references to the many writers who had lived and gone to school in Dublin.  I wanted to capture a bit of that, and that became the nugget for another song.   About a month ago, I decided the time and had and started writing words.  Perhaps thirty minutes later, I had all of the music and my first pass at the lyrics.  The song is called Dublin Walk and builds on the impressions built up by several walks through the city that week. 

I've played Irish Man in public many times, including once earlier this summer for a church group.  But this will be the first time I've played Dublin Walk for anybody other than my family.   I'm looking forward to it.  If you're in the area, stop by.   As an added bonus, my son has a band and they also will be playing.  The last time I went to this coffeehouse, we had a great night listening to all of the local talent and the headlining act.   This should be fun.  

Writer's Notebook: On the Trail

Yesterday, I wrote about 1400 words on my latest novel. Today, I woke up and decided that it was time to explore a new -- to me -- bike path.  I'm on vacation, so these are the kinds of choices I've been facing each day.  As noted in my last post, I'm in New Hampshire, in the Lakes Region, and we've been fortunate enough to have good weather.  In fact, one-third of my words yesterday were written during a rainstorm in late afternoon and the progress I made inspired me to continue and eventually to finish the chapter that was in progress.   

I've been a bit sore lately, so I chose an easy way out:  I drove to my preferred starting point.   The Cotton Valley Trail was extended about three miles since I last rode it, so I wanted to see this new stretch.  About five minutes into the trip, the path looked like this:  

  

I continued on and was delighted to find I was the only one riding this portion of the trail.  Around me, there were woods of maple, silver and white birch and old growth pines.  As shown above, much of the trail followed the original rail bed, but from time to time, a wooden platform signaled a transition to a path that paralleled the tracks.  The last time scheduled trains ran on these tracks was over twenty years ago, but the tracks have been retained on most sections and converted into a multi-use trail.  Biking is the most common use, but there are also rail hobbyists who run very small train cars on these same tracks, especially on the weekends.  

Later, I encountered a stretch of overturned roots and broken trees -- perhaps a micro-cell had wreaked this havoc in some recent year.  Eventually, I hit an area where the path ran adjacent to a flooded area, which looked like this: 

 

From here, it was only a short ride to the trail's end, where I finally encountered other bicyclists.   Here is the shot from that point.  

As you can see, the weather was outstanding, a great day for biking.  I turned around and really let loose on the way back, riding at a much faster clip than I had on the way out.   The rest of the day?   Swimming, kayaking and helping my son try out water skiing.  Later on, a neighbor dropped by with a margarita by the beach.   Not a bad way to close out our vacation.  Goodbye, New Hampshire, until the next time. 

First Day of Spring

It's the first day of Spring and a guy's thoughts naturally turn to Baseball!  Well, actually, a bit more than that at the moment.  The NCAA basketball tournament is going on and my favorite Uconn Huskies will be playing on Saturday, so I need to put aside time to check that out.   I've also been delinquent in watching the woman Huskies this year, who are heavily favored to win it all in their tournament, so I need to figure out when they'll be on.  

After a long winter, spending more time outdoors will be welcome. In my family, we like bicycling, so we'll be heading out to the back roads of our small town.  My youngest son plays baseball, so that season will also be starting up soon and we'll be out to root for him.  Winter laid a big load on Southeast Massachusetts this year, so the outdoor Spring cleanup is beginning and will keep us busy, but also give me another reason to get outdoors, which is a good thing.  

As a writer, I'll still spend time writing new pages in my spiral notebook and editing existing pages in my PC, but most of this will be in the evening, when the lure of the outdoors and a taste of Spring are not so prominent.  

So, Spring has arrived and in New England, we'll savor it all the more after the past 4 months of a severe winter.  

Taking on the Bleak Midwinter Blues

I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of reading, hearing and seeing bad news.  The financial pages have turned into a contest to see how bad it can get in countless industries.  In this kind of environment, I'm thankful to have a job, but companies expect more from those of us who are still in the ranks.  

This is a fine time to have a hobby you care about or to devote time to your friends and family.  There is also excitement in the air about the Obama administration and the winds of changes that will be coming.   So, on the personal side, it's not all bad news and it's important to try to keep your head on straight and spend time doing things where your efforts can make a difference.  

I'm in the wedge generation, with aging parents and kids that I'm still raising.  Whatever happens in the office or financial pages from day to day, my family still needs me to do those little things, such as being at the dinner table to talk about our days, helping my youngest son with his homework, and watching a movie on DVD with my wife.  

So, the next time you don't like the news, turn it off and pay attention to what's going on around you.  You'll probably find there's any number of things you can do that will make a difference in your life or for your friends and family. 

Why Faxes are still around

In the January, 2009 issue of Wired, there is an article called: Burning Question - Why are faxes still around?  Good question.  In the 1990's, I made a reasonably good living consulting with companies around the world about building, marketing and selling information about fax technology and its many offshoots with my company Human Communications.   During that time, computer based fax had a very good ten year run and the fax machine was everywhere, but the coming of the Internet threatened to change all of that.  

By the close of the decade, I was advising my clients to develop new business models that didn't depend so much upon fax.   However, at the same time, I was teaching them about the latest high speed fax (V.34 @ 33.6 kilobits / second) and about the new hot movement, Internet Fax.  

The conventional logic at the time was that the Internet was here and nobody needed fax anymore.  My view was much more complex.  I saw lots of good uses for fax as it existed, but wondered how people would communicate documents over the Internet.  

Now, it's ten years later, and fax is still alive and well.  It's not as sexy as it seemed to be in the early 90's, but fax machines are everywhere and fax servers are still very common in corporate offices, especially for receiving faxes that will be directed into email boxes.   Many corporate citizens never use fax at all, but it's a mode of communication that has fewer dependencies than email (can you read that attachment, does it contain a virus?) and reaches into the smallest office.  In my own case, it's still the preferred way to upload information to our corporate expense report system or to send on medical receipts to an insurance company.   

Fax.  It started running over telegraph wires, took all of the telephone technology developments in stride and now can run over the Internet.  It's not perfect, but it does the job of sending paper documents over phone or Internet lines very well.  So, think twice before you get rid of that fax machine or opt not to get the fax feature in your next multi-function printer.    

An Experiment: Making a DVD for the Holidays

I conducted an experiment today which turned out well. I decided my in-laws and my parents would enjoy a collection of family photos, and music that my son and I had recorded at various times during the year.

I pulled up the Windows DVD Maker under Vista, identified which photos I wanted to arrange in a slide show and then pulled in music that I'd recorded earlier this year for the First Tracks songwriting contest, along with with my recording of Calico Jack, a song written by two of my online friends.  You can listen to these recordings online here.  Then I asked my oldest son to contribute music that he'd recorded with his trio in the last couple of months.

In about two hours, I'd assembled the entire thing, a slide show with background music. The program has a useful preview feature, so I was able to weed out pictures with issues. Next, I burned the DVD. My in-laws were visiting, so I played the DVD for them after dinner. It provided an excellent way to share my travels and family pictures, not to mention the music. I've already burned another copy and printed out a jewel box cover to bring to my parents this weekend.

This technology stuff is pretty cool when it works!

Here's a couple of pictures that I used for the menu:  

Chinaman's Hat on Oahu, Hawaii

 

Carousel in front of Hotel de Ville, Paris, France

Happy holidays to all of my readers.