Heart Art - It's Not Just for Valentine's Day

"Lost Heart" Acrylic by MMSikes

There's something about the heart image that intrigues us. For quite a few years, Heart Art has fascinated me. I enjoy searching the Internet for heart images. They come in all shapes and colors. I've found lovely pastel paintings in many different heart compositions. One particularly memorable painting features a heart shape cut in a wall that is defined by the clouds and color of the sky showing through.

"Hilltop Hearts" Acrylic by MMSikes

I like to explain to the children I teach that hearts are not just for Valentine's Day. I show them a variety of art works in various colors, sizes, and formats. After seeing these creative pieces of Heart Art, the children always go on to paint an amazing variety of beautiful images that are not Valentines at all.

I love Heart Art and like to display it year round. Valentines are nice, too.

Happy Valentine's Day coming soon!

Organizing Your Work and Your Life

In my own personal life, one theme keeps jumping up. It's organization. How can one organize his/her life so that it's more productive and less confusing?

This morning, the local CBS show had a very brief segment on the subject that started me thinking about how to put their suggestions to work for me.

1. Don't keep a bunch of different calendars. Keep only one.

       I make the mistake of having three or four calendars, one for my school activities, another for writing, yet another for my artist life, and a fourth for personal events. What a mess! A few years ago I was keeping a very nice calendar of everything in my Day-Timer book. It was bright orange and made me smile every time I looked at it. Since that year, I haven't found another pretty orange book, and I've gotten away from the organization it brought into my life.

2. Create boundaries for your life and stay inside of them.

       Know your limits and learn to say "no". That's a hard one because it's easy to believe you can do more than is possible. There aren't any 25 hour days or 8 day weeks although many of us need them.

3. Set goals that are long-term as well as for what you must for today and for the week.

       My husband has always been good at planning his day and the week. He makes a list of what he wants to accomplish and checks items off as he does them. I've never wanted to take the time to do that which is a big mistake. I'm going to start creating my lists.

4. See the big picture. Create a map for your life and refer to it often.

        As a visual person, I see this as a very helpful device. Writers create storyboards for their books. Why not a storyboard for your life?

5. Prioritize your activities to put the most important goals first.

        I've always had a tendency to procrastinate and wait until the very last minute to get my most important activities accomplished. That means a frenzy to complete a book on time or get ready for an art show. Perhaps people who procrastinate need to feel the heat on their backs. Maybe that's the best way for them to accomplish their goals. I don't know. I'm going to plan now to prioritize in the future.

6. Organize your plans and put together those things that can be done together. If you are going to be in an area for a meeting, schedule other things in that same area and do them the same day.

        That's a commonsense goal, and I suspect we all try to do that whenever possible.

Organization can prevent one from getting overwhelmed. It can put us in control of our lives.

I'm going out and look for another pretty little orange book today!

What About that AntiqueTypewriter?

When I turned on CBS Sunday Morning, I caught the last part of Bill Geist's segment on, of all things, typewriters. It fitted right in with Marilyn Meredith's blog post about her publishing journey that started on a typewriter. Mine started there as well, so I was fascinated by the Geist tale, especially when one of the young people he interviewed said he thought it was a new invention!

"A new invention." I loved the thought. Especially since throughout our house I have a wide variety of typewriters stashed away. There's the very old Underwood that belonged to my father. Somewhere I have the Royal electric typewriter on which I wrote my first stories for the Richmond News Leader. Hidden away in a closet, I have my portable electric typewriter on which I typed the early drafts of my first novel. That was before I got my first computer, an Apple IIGS that has the signature "Woz" written above the words, "limited edition".

The Geist segment mentioned "type-ins" which I didn't quite get. He said sales are brisk at a New York flea market. Someone said that writing on a typewriter made them feel like a real author. One man commented that there is something romantic about writing a letter on a typewriter. A young woman enjoyed the dinging sound at the end of each line.

A bright green typewriter was considered beautiful, and the keys were smooth and "sexy". Some of these sentiments may be carrying things a little too far. I was never too fond of having to go back and erase my mistakes. Even after erasing, the manuscript always looked a little messy. At least to me.

It is fun to know that appreciation of typewriters may be actually growing. And Geist reported some of these antiques are selling for as much as $500. Wow!

Meet Guest Author Marilyn Meredith

Changes I've Seen in the Publishing World

by Marilyn Meredith

Though others might view the changes in publishing in a different way, what I’m going to do is write what I’ve seen since I began submitting my work to publishers.

My beginnings with the publishing world began with a typewriter and carbon paper to make copies. Personal computers and the Internet had not yet become available. The only publishers to send your precious manuscript off to were the big name New York publishers or the vanity publishers that would publish anything for the price of a down payment on a house. (Remember, I’m talking about the long ago world.)

You could send your entire manuscript off to a publisher inside a self-addressed and stamped box if you wanted the manuscript back in case of rejection. And of course you wanted the manuscript back because the only copy you had was one made with carbon. It was possible to send this same manuscript out about five times before it got so dog-eared, coffee stained and smelling of cigarettes that you had to retype the whole thing. (And yes, I did get a book published after going through this process and nearly 30 rejections, but I knew nothing about promotion and all I did was send letters to my friends and set up a couple of bookstore signings.)

I graduated from a regular typewriter to an electric powered that you could correct. It wasn’t long before I bought my first computer. I won’t go into how different it was than the ones we use nowadays. Most everyone knows the quick changes in computers.

Email was the next big change, and along with that came the Internet. More publishers popped up all over—electronic publishers. I submitted to one of those new folks right away, thanks to the Writers Digest Market book. (Now you can find all the publishers online.) One big problem, it wasn’t easy to buy and download a book and when you did, it had to be read on the computer.

The Rocket e-Reader changed that, a book could be bought and downloaded to a handy device that was backlit and turned off if you fell asleep while reading. Of course other e-readers tagged along behind.

The savvy e-publishers asked for manuscript submission to come as attachments to email. It took a long, long time before traditional publishers realized how much time and money this saved. (Of course the money saved was the authors’, so the big publishers probably didn’t care.)

How books were published became the next new thing when Print-on-Demand came along. Of course the big publishers still used the old fashioned methods—and still do for their hard back books. It took awhile for everyone to understand that POD had nothing to do with the quality of writing, only that it was a means of printing a book that was quicker and cost a lot less money.

E-publishers began using this new POD process to print their authors paperbooks for those who preferred to read the old-fashioned way. (I’ve heard everything from loving the smell of a book, to wanting to be surrounded by books.)

Other small, independent publishers began using POD and making their books available as e-books.

Marilyn Meredith

Amazon began selling books over the Internet, both e-books and paper. They came up with the Kindle to read the e-books on. Barnes and Noble took the hint, came up with the Nook, and they are second behind Kindle, though there are many others too.

Then Amazon began their own publishing outlet for the Kindle. Authors, by following directions, could put their own books up for sale for the Kindle. Some authors have done this, big names and unknowns, and have been making more money than they ever did through traditional publishing. This hasn’t worked for everyone, because the author must do a lot of promoting to let people know about their book(s) on Kindle.

The traditional publishers finally woke up to the e-publishing phenomena and jumped on the bandwagon and started putting some of their books on Kindle and Nook. Their big mistake is that they price the books to high. Many of the e-reader owners like getting a bargain and buy books under the $3.99 range and less.

Independent authors are learning that they need AISN or ISBN numbers for their e-books, and that their books need to be edited if they don’t want to receive terrible reviews.

Where do I fall in all this progress? I’ve chosen to stay with my small independent publishers because I don’t want to learn how to format for all the different ways you can be e-pubbed. I like the covers my publishers’ cover artists come up with,  and I don’t want to design my own or pay someone else to do it.

Authors do need to know that there are many small independent publishers out there who might be looking for the exact kind of book you’ve written. Finding them and reading and following their submission requirements (they all seem to want something different) takes a bit of work, but believe me it’s nothing compared to what it used to be.

If an author has the time and patience, going through someone like Amazon to see your manuscript in print and as an e-book is definitely possible.

And of course, the next important part is promoting your book whether you do it online or in person. (Hopefully both) But that’s the subject for a whole other post.

This is a condensed history of the changes in publishing. Some phases took awhile, others not long at all. If you are aware of what’s been going on, it will help you make the decisions as to how you want to be published. 

BIO:

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over thirty published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest Bears With Us from Mundania Press. Writing as F. M. Meredith, her latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novels are No Bells and Angel Lost, the third and forth from Oak Tree Press. Marilyn is a member of EPIC, Four chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the Central Coast chapter, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. Visit  her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/

Thank you, Marilyn, for being my second guest on Notes Along the Way. I always enjoy reading about you and learning more about your writing journey.

The Art of Book Reviews and the World of Writing

We all know that book reviews are important to the author. They are certainly important to the reader who often wants to know a little more about the book other than the blurb from the publisher.

I just read a blog post on Marilyn's Musings about a new book by Mayra Calvani and Anne K. Edwards, veteran reviewers. In her post, Marilyn Meredith lists their "Ten Commandments of Book Reviewing" which promote honest, tactful reviews that don't give away too much of the story. They also urge reviewers not to overwhelm themselves with more review copies than they can handle in a timely manner.

Over the past several years, I have written reviews for Reader to Reader. I love reading books, but even with the few reviews that I do I can get overwhelmed. I've always enjoyed books by Diane Chamberlain and am reading her latest book for review right now. As an author, I believe we should attempt to stay in touch with the writing of others as well.

Tomorrow Marilyn Meredith will be guest author on Notes Along the Way. I hope you will stop by and read about the changes she has seen in the publishing world.