Tuesday Chatter-What's in a Name?

I'll be taking the rest of this week and most of next off, so my grand plan to post to my blogs at least twice a week is already stumbling. But I'll pick up it again. This Tuesday Chatter is a rumination on names. My own journey to the proper name for my writing endeavors is ongoing. Currently, I'm searching for just the right name for the third in my Cameron Locke, PI series. The search for names for the first two pales in comparison to this one. But I'm not ready to publish it quite yet, so I still have a little time.

 What's In a Name?

Juliet: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

What shall we name the baby? Or in the case of a writer, what shall I name this essay, story, poem, novel? Sometimes we start with a name. Myself, not usually. Almost always the title grows out of the piece of writing.

Most of the stories and books, finished and partials, that are on my computer right now have names. But I'm thinking of putting a group of these Life Slices columns into book form. What to call it? Of course, Life Slices will be part of it, but I need a sub-title. Perhaps Life Slices: Ramblings of a Southern Writer. Nah, don't want it that long. Life Slices: Through Thick and Thin. Maybe. Or not. And it can't be too personal as many deal with other subjects than my own life though most impinge in some form. Comments or suggestions welcome.

The two novels I've finished have gone through numerous title changes. When I find a title I think fits, I know it. But getting there is often a lengthy process. I'll have sheets of paper with scribbled titles all around my workplace. Scraps of files on my computer hard drive with possible names,. first one moving to the top as first choice then another.

When my daughter was born a name was already decided on, if it was a girl. Can't remember if we had chosen a boy name. I suppose it was a given he would have been named for his father. That was before ultra sound pictures informed prospective parents of the gender of their baby almost before they knew a child was in their future. It was also the time when mothers were routinely knocked out with drugs before the birth. So as I was waking up in the recovery room a nurse asked me what we would name our daughter. I reeled off a name we had never even discussed, knowing as I did that it was not correct! Reason enough to avoid being drugged when having a baby!

Since I've hardly begun choosing the columns to include, I have time to choose just the right title. I hope.

Friday Ramble - Free Stuff

The telephone rang before I was ready to get up this morning. Unknown caller. I rolled over and in a few minutes it rang again. Another unknown caller. I didn't answer either one, but I did get up. I don't answer calls from numbers I don't know. Sure, I might miss out on something good, but at least I've saved some aggravation. This may partly explain the popularity of texting. Even telemarkets have learned that the person who owns my number is just not answering. I know this because yesterday I was engrossed in working on a webpage and accidentally answered a call on my landline. It's a corded phone so I don't have to press a button. The guy must have been one who'd been calling, because the first thing he said was, "You're a hard person to get hold of." I laughed, thinking it must be someone I knew, tho I didn't recognize the voice. But no, he was a caller for a fundraiser.
When I do by chance answer a telemarker, I try to be nice. Life is too short to be gratuitously unkind. And the Good Book does say "Be kind to strangers, they could be angels unaware." Why not on the phone, too? This tidbit neatly segues into my ramble into the past on this Friday, a column I wrote about four years ago. Understand this was a hypothetical situation!

Completely (Risk) Free 

Riiiight! How many times are we taken in by that phrase? I know I have been too many times to count. And its cousin, ‘If dissatisfied, cancel anytime.’ Uh huh. Just try calling the number you’re supposed to call to cancel your Clutter-Free Living subscription after six unread issues clutter your coffee table. If you persevere through half a dozen pass-the-buck call transfers, or manage not to be disconnected, you might get to talk to a live person. You very calmly explain that you wish to cancel your subscription and receive a refund on unused issues. The person oh-so-sweetly wants you to tell them why you could possibly be dissatisfied with such a stellar periodical. When you remind them you were told you could cancel for any or no reason, you get more circular talk. And to please hold while the representative confers with the ‘circulation manager.’ 
‘Circulation manager’ comes on the line to persuade you how much you need the magazine. You yell and scream and finally are told that yes, of course, your subscription will be cancelled. Relieved, gullible you hang up. Only to have to go through the same thing for the next two months when the magazines keep piling up. By the time the next-to-last issue is due to ship, your subscription might be cancelled. Three months pass and eventually a check for five dollars arrives in your mailbox.
Once upon a time we only got into these predicaments if we unwisely allowed a door-to-door salesman – or an earnest student ‘working his or her way through college’ - inside our front door. Now telephone solicitors calling from huge boiler room operations, and online offers too good to pass up, lie in wait for us multiple times daily. Online websites which charge for information are masters of this sleight-of-hand scam. Sign up and browse for free. Only once an account is created a credit card number is required before any useful information can be accessed. Humans are so constructed that once they’ve invested time in a project, they are more willing to invest money. Thereby are cyber millionaires created, from ‘free’ stuff. 

Tuesday Chatter-Notions

Long ago, maybe twenty-five years, maybe even thirty-five years ago, the writing bug bit me. Probably around February's Valentine Day, a print magazine, I think it was Redbook, ran a love story contest. I called mine Romantic Notions and with high hopes mailed it in. I don't remember what the prize was, maybe publication, maybe a few dollars and as I recall there was no entry fee. I do remember my struggle to type a clean copy with a carbon copy for myself. I told you it was a long time ago!
Since it was my first or second effort to write a story, predictably I didn't win. Through the years I hung on to that story, the premise always appealed to me. I kept writing others and finally one, not a romance, was printed in a magazine. Other things like continuing to work a job to make a living, different life events, caused writing to be a kind of spasmodic affair.
Then the modern marvel of personal computers burst on the scene. No more struggle with sheets of paper and carbons that smeared. Clean, relatively speaking, since in the beginning it was ink jet printers which can smear, printed matter! But who can really fathom the wide-reaching effect of the mushroom growth of the internet. Online magazine, ezines, sprang up. And several accepted some of my stories!
I kept copies of all the stories I wrote on five and a half inch floppy disks, then the smaller three inch ones. And occasionally tinkered with that first romance story. I also kept submitting stuff to agents and publishers, but only a couple of stories made it into print. But again, through the marvel called 'the internet,' I was eventually able to publish real books! With my name on them! And finally traditional independent publishers accepted some of them, too.
Fast forward to this year. I'm about to release the book that has germinated for all these years from that first love story. It's still a love story, but also became what is now my favorite genre, mystery, and named Sweetwater Deception.

New Design

Thought I'd put time to some use while waiting for approvals on new book and new editions of two earlier books. In between making corrections! Both blogs, this one and Post Oak Chronicles, had become stale, not just in content but layout also. Even I was getting tired of it! I'd just not bestirred myself to do anything about it. Then about a month ago maybe, I suddenly became eager to get back to work on the books and other writing related activities.

Funny how that coincides with canceling my Facebook page! FB is such a time-consuming activity. Any of my own generation will know what I mean when I say it is sort of reminiscent of that iconic description of television, lo, many years ago, 'a vast wasteland.' I doubt Mr. Z would appreciate the comparison. And not altogether true. FB did and does provide a means of keeping in touch with far-flung family members. The trouble comes when we try to keep abreast of everything else in the whole, wide world, interesting though it might be.

I suppose I should get back to some book editing. Before the siren of the wasteland calls me back to one of the better examples of the period, a classic Western series on an air channel. Yep, I cut the cord to cable and subscription tv some time ago. I finally wised up to the fact the time I have left on this 'third rock from the sun' is too valuable to just vegetate on the couch.

Springing to life!

Well, as the title says, I feel as though the soon appearance of spring will help my somewhat sluggish spirit to liven up. I've done little more than write emails and post to Facebook all winter, it seems. I managed to finish NaNoWriMo in November, more of a struggle than it has been for me. You'd think for the 5th time it would not have been so. Now that novel is waiting to be fleshed out. It's a story set in Georgia that I started years ago but never got back to titled A Killing at Cob Corners.
The new edition of my novel, Disguise for Death, was released by Wild Rose Press in December, which was very satisfying. It's available on Amazon as print and ebook and through the publisher, as well as other online sources.
Available on Smashwords, free this week, in ebook format is Sweetwater Deception. This novel is set in Georgia also. It began as Dana Pennington's short story, but the she and the other characters stayed with me and I wanted to give them a larger story.
As of January 1 this year, all rights to my two published PI Cameron Locke series novels reverted back to me. I am weighing the possibility of self-pubbing them and the third, which I have finished, or submitting them to another publisher or two. Not quite decided yet. Wish me luck!

Halloween - next?

Not too many kids this year, as usual. Some wore really cute costumes. Lot of temporary pink, purple temp hair colors! I was happy to see adults, sometimes both parents, with them. All were very polite and thanked me for the candy. There were no smirky attitudes as I've seen sometimes in years past. Very refreshing.
The next few weeks will probably fly by, as usual. The time between Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, goes so fast. I'll try to concentrate on each day as it comes, maybe that will slow the passage of time a little.
But one day I can't help looking forward to is December 13. That's the release date my publisher, The Wild Rose Press, has announced for the new edition of my novel, Disguise for Death!!

Lamb to the rescue!

Two posts in April! Wow, I'm on a roll. Still a little euphoric about the new book contract. Am anxious to begin working with editor on edits. Will be that much closer to publication of the new edition of Disguise for Death. Am also working on my third book in my Cam Lock, PI series. Title still up in the air. It will come. But I hit kind of a roadblock and have avoided working on the manuscript for a few days. Trust Kristin Lamb to come up with a blog post I think is going to help me get back into the story.
Kristin's blog post 
 Thanks, Kristin!
 Now to get back to work.

April Happy News!

I didn't get a new post in for March, but hey, good news is worth waiting for, right? (cue drum roll) I have a new publisher! Just signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press to publish a brand new edition of my novel, Disguise for Death. The book features Royce Thorne, widowed writer who turns amateur sleuth to clear her husband's son, accused of murder. I'll be working with my assigned editor to polish and improve the manuscript. No timeline for release since we have just begun the process. Stay tuned for more information.

Thoughts for February

February, a short month that holds Groundhog Day, the day for lovers, Valentine's Day, President's Day to honor two historical Presidents and every four years, Leap Day, February 29. Now there are four varied items as prompts for a story. Maybe I'll take a shot at it.

The weather in February is usually kind of nasty, if not snow and ice, at least cold rain and ice. This has not been the case in my area, though I know others to north and west have experienced some pretty nasty weather. Perhaps our time will come before Spring really shows off her finery. The unusually warm days here have deluded some flowers and plants into popping up. Some probably will not get another chance this year, if we do get hit with some really cold and snow later this month or in March.

I've not been as diligent in writing new stuff as I might have if the weather had been worse and I'd been stuck in the house. That's probably just an excuse, but a writer will snag any excuse that's handy. Trust me. Actually I do have a good start on my third entry in the Cam Locke, PI, mystery series. I like the storyline I have in mind and think it should be just as good as the first two. Well, some readers have told me they think the novels were good and I choose to believe them!

There could be some good news to share this month. I hope so. Stay tuned. And stay warm, if you're in a more frigid clime than East Tennessee.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I really didn't intend to take such a long hiatus from this blog. Different things just kept taking priority. I promise to do better next year!

Are you trying to find the perfect gift for those on your Christmas list? Maybe one or more is a reader. Here are four possibilities you might consider. The first three are authors I know personally who write great books. I know the fourth also, but you'll have to decide for yourself if her books, ahem, are good, should you choose to buy one! All the books are available from Amazon and other online booksellers or from the authors. Look for their Amazon author pages

Brookhaven Institute is a pretty name for a madhouse where throwaway kids can sometimes end up dead. Rooney is on the run, her state-issued tatters no match against the winter's fury. Surely the fates could be kinder. Order Rooney Boone

In 1910, prohibiting the sale of alcohol is the hot-button issue of the day. And sometimes the debate gets out of hand . . . In 1910, Julia Nye has an unconventional job as a typist for the St. Louis City Police, a first for a woman but not as unconventional as her desire to be a detective like her sheriff father. Order In the Good Old Summertime

First in a new cozy mystery series featuring Southern cooking that is to die for. Aspiring chef and small-town Virginia native Amy Flowers is ready to open her own café offering old-fashioned Southern food. But her dream may go up in smoke when someone kills the competition. Order Calamity Cafe

Private investigator Cameron Locke is only mildly-intrigued when an obviously well-to-do young woman hires her to locate a missing boyfriend. The client lies about everything from how they met to her own name, but she pays cash up front, and that’s good enough to put Cam on the case. Order Delusion for a Lonely Girl

Next Cam Locke novel

Some readers have been kind enough to let me know they enjoyed my first PI Cameron Locke novel, Requiem for a Party Girl. The next in the series, Delusion for a Lonely Girl, will be released by Oconee Spirit Press in September 2016. In this second book Cam finds herself caught up in two missing person cases, one male and one female. The male is the boyfriend of a very young woman whose body is later found on a creek bank by a hiker. The missing female is the daughter of Cam's former boss and the ex-wife of her (maybe) boyfriend, Detective Shac Lane. Before the case, which involves drug smuggling and human trafficking, is solved Cam and someone she has come to regard as a friend almost lose their lives.

Resolutions and Pavlov

Well, 'pun' my honor. I'm doing it again. Folks who despise that literary play on words called a 'pun' might prefer to skip this post. If so, that's okay, just come back next week, ya hear? Maybe I'll have another post to your liking.
I chose several of my favorites from a list posted online several years ago by an author I've only ever met online, Serita Stevens. I have no idea if they're original with her, but just to be safe, I'm crediting her.

The first one on the list is a pretty good definition of the type.

A good pun is its own re-word. Yup. Although with the Smart Phone-birthed textspeak, which some of us can't seem to grasp, in the future good puns may be hard to come by.

A hangover is the wrath of grapes. No doubt this wrath was endured by a few, or many, New Year's revelers a month or so ago. Of course, for some no holiday is required to be visited by it periodically.

A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter. How many of those earnestly proclaimed New Year's Diet Resolutions, if people still make them, have achieved that triumph even for a month, I wonder. Mine never did, so I stopped making them.

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell? One of my favorites, 'nuff said.

The short fortuneteller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large. Many of us don't need to hear Pavlov's bell. We just need to drive by a fast food place and we begin to salivate, not for small or medium, but usually for a large serving.

Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis. Ah, bread, the staff of life we've heard. That's what makes me salivate for a large whatever. Something like a nice bagel, crusty croissant, or preferably, a lovely frosted cinnamon raisin biscuit.

Lists

I make lists. I like to read lists. Evidently many people do since almost any magazine a person might pick up probably has an article with a list of something. Either a list of things to get done before Christmas or a list of items to never forget when leaving for a trip to the beach, like sunscreen.

The personal lists I make are usually practical, you might say. Things I need to get done around the house. Things I'm thankful for or lists of potential gifts for friends and family. But the lists I like to read are sometimes just interesting and not especially useful.

For instance some time ago I received an email with a list of these United States and what each is famous for. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the list. But diamond lovers and fans of the old Marilyn Monroe movie, Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend, might find the first one interesting.

Arkansas – only state with an active diamond mine.

Arizona – only state in the Continental US that does not follow Daylight Savings Time.

California – state whose economy is so large that if it were a country it would rank 7^th in the entire world. (Aside: also in about the same condition as some of those countries.)

Connecticut – home of Yale University, where the Frisbee was invented.

Georgia – State where Coca-Cola was invented

Iowa – Winnebago campers get their name from Winnebago County. And also the only state name that begins with two vowels.

Louisiana – has parishes instead of counties because they were originally Spanish church units.

Maine – so big it covers as many square miles as the other five New England States combined.

Michigan – home of Gerber, is the baby food capital of the world.

Missouri – birthplace of the ice cream cone. (personal aside: Hail to Missouri!)

Montana – a sapphire from Montana is in the Crown Jewels of England.

That's a dozen, only thirty-eight to go, despite the confusion of some officials in high places.

Open to More Learning

I have numerous writing advice and teaching websites bookmarked on my computer. I get caught up in what I'm doing and don't go to them as often as I probably should. One of those excellent teaching sites is by an author/teacher named Kristen Lamb. In one of her recent blog posts, she succeeded in convincing me that I must work harder to write so that flashbacks are mostly unnecessry. I KNEW that flashbacks can interrupt the reader's immersion in the story. But like many I believed they were almost a necessity. I. was. wrong. Now to get back to my work-in-progress and weed out those pesky things as much as possible! Thanks, Kristen.
  

Not Really Gone!

Can't believe I haven't posted since last December. I guess I hibernated during that long cold winter. And now we seem to have jumped right into a long hot summer.
We did have a little bit of spring. Thankfully, the two outdoor booksignings I've done for the new book, were during those not so hot days in May.
Trail Days in Damscus, Virginia was a fun event I'd never done before. The energy level was over the top, of the tent! Talked to a bunch of hikers who hike the Appalachian Trail. Some were through-hikers, who hike all of the over 2,000 miles of the AT. Others call themselves 'section hikers' who hike the trail in sections, as time and money allow. All I spoke with were extremely nice.
The other booksigning I did, also in May and also the first time I'd participated, was Plumb Alley Day in Abingdon, Virginia. This is a unique event. A four block section of Plumb Alley is blocked off for a one day unusual kind of 'yard sale' for whatever you have to sell. It's sponsored and administered by the Abingdon Kiwanis Club to benefit children.
Another exciting first for me was my interview on WJHL TV's  Daytime Tricities broadcast last week. Ann was an easy-to-talk-to interviewer and I thoroughly enjoyed my brief appearance.
I have a couple more events scheduled and others in the works. Stay tuned.

Sylvia's 2014 Retrospective

By the time this column is read, if indeed it is, another Christmas Day will have passed. Children will be playing with or breaking new toys. Thumbs of slightly older youngsters, of all ages, will be flying over keys of new smart phones. The strange spelling of their texts appearing on screens of their friends' phones faster than Santa disappearing over the rooftops.

The countdown will have begun to the beginning of another year. I think we all hope that 2015 will bring better things, though few may expect that hope to manifest. Television networks used to broadcast retrospectives of important events of the year just past on New Year's Eve. Whether they still do or not I won't know since I cut the cord of cable and satellite TV reception. Surprisingly, after having lived almost my whole (long) life with television as a constant, I have missed it very little.

So I'll do my own retrospective. In many ways this has been a sad year for me. The deaths of friends sounded a refrain of my own mortality. Death of a friend's husband reminded me that the coming January will mark four years since I lost my own husband of over fifty years. And just before Thanksgiving the loss of my youngest brother's wife at a much too young age was a blow.

 A close family. A member of my immediate family went through the trauma endemic to these times, divorce. The disruption has been hard on my adored great grandsons, even with all working to create a smooth transition. I trust that the power of unconditional love will heal any damage to their precious spirits. This is the gift we yearn to find during the Christmas season. Would that we all found much of that healing to take as our 'shield and buckler' in the New Year.

But the year brought good things to me also. A successful year as leader of a writing group. The continued presence of many long-time great friends. A long-sought book contract with a traditional publisher. These are the things I hope to build on and make 2015 a good year. May it be so for all who might read this.

Reflections on 2014

As the year dwindles toward another December, I'm reflecting on the joy and sadness my family and friends have come through in the last eleven months. Births and deaths and life events of many descriptions. Most recent and devastating in my family was the death of a much-loved sister-in-law. The evil of an extremely aggressive cancer took her life in a matter of months. While mourning her loss we can look back on many years of her whole-hearted involvement in reunions and other festive events in our lives, her family by marriage. We cherish her legacy, a son and daughter, numerous grandchildren, a great-grandson and next spring another.
My gratitude for her care of my brother during a very serious illness, without which we may have lost him a couple of years ago, knows no bounds.
Her strong support of my writing attempts, from the beginning, meant so much to me. On my last visit she read my most recent novel from cover to cover while I was there and pronounced it good.
Thank you, Debbie. We'll see you again some day.

Happy Days

One of the happier days of my writing life was when I recently signed a contract with a small independent press to publish the first book of one of my mystery series. The novel is Requiem for a Party Girl, first of PI Cameron Locke's cases. No info yet for its publication date, hopefully this year.

One of my goals for this year was getting two books published. That is, to self-publish two of my own books. Accomplished that goal by last month, May. The first, in February, was Life Slices, a Medley of Musings after Three Score and More, a volume of my Kingsport Daily News newspaper columns. Then in June I published Disguise for Death, a Royce Thorne Mystery, through CreateSpace. These two books, Amazon - Life-Slices and Amazon - Disguise for Death may be ordered online or via any book store or by emailing sylnick (at) gmail.com, remember to use the 'at' symbol before gmail.com

Then I decided to submit Requiem to one more publisher. And it was accepted. Thanks, Oconee Spirit Press.   

Get It In Gear

As the title says, I'm trying to 'get it in gear' (again) as far as my writing goes. Got a volume of my newspaper columns published, Life Slices, a Medley of Musings After Three Score and More. It's available in print or ebook versions.

Produced a video trailer for one of the two mystery novels I'll publish in April, Disguise for Death,  a Royce Thorne Mystery. The trailer is up on YouTube. Check it out here. Trying to get other publicity going for the books. Stay tuned.

Have not forgotten the two other writing help books I was going to talk about. I will get to them. Another by a favorite author will be out in May, Story Trumps Structure, by Steven James. Anxious to get my hands on a copy.

Incentive

Just checked my stats. Was shocked to see that in the last month this blog has been viewed by several folks. I appreciate that. Especially since I post so irregularly. No matter how often I vow to do better, time slips away and it's months some times before I write a new post.

Maybe I was also inspired by participating in the Kingsport Mini Maker Faire this past weekend. If someone hasn't heard of a Maker Faire, it is an event to showcase interest in whatever creative activity or hobby one spends time in doing. Hardly surprising that quite a number of participants were engaged in technology inspired pursuits, a couple in the robotics field.

Our spot at the Faire was arranged by Billy Crawford of Bubba's Book Swap. The purpose of the writers who manned the Appalachian Authors Guild and Lost State Writers Guild booth was to reach out to aspiring writers. We passed out information on how to get started, encouraged them to put pen to paper - or fingers to keyboard would probably be more accurate. Even though both Guilds have been around the region for a number of years and participated in lots of regional events and festivals, many have never heard of us. We hope to change that in time.