C. L. Norman

So often I read or hear the advice, “act like a professional.” Act like a professional even before you sell that first story, even before I have any contact with the professional publishing world. Everytime I wait for the advice to be elaborated. How exactly does a professional writer act? I haven’t yet heard what this means among professionals.

Here I offer up what I think acting professional means:

• Dress with Style: From my observations of sci-fi/fantasy authors at signings and conventions, style of dress isn’t a set pattern.  Office folks dress in suits and ties and dress suits. Writers don’t dress all in the same fashion. They do all seem to have their own style though. One person may wear leather vests and cowboy hats, another long flowing dresses with scarves. This style they have adopted seems to be for official ‘appearances.’ Unofficially they may dress very differently.
• Research & Share: I don’t mean researching for those details that make stories real. I mean researching on the craft of writing. Most every author I have talked to or heard speak reads widely and often. They read from many genres, fiction and non-fiction. And they share the insights and knowledge with others freely.
• Follow Through on Commitments: Deadlines are met. Or if they can’t be met, plenty of notice is given so that the person expecting results can plan for the delay. Appointments are attended. Emails are sent. Writing time is shown up for. This one sounds the easiest but as a dyed in the wool procrastinator, I know this isn’t anywhere near easy but it is also the behavior that most distinguishes the amateurs from the pro’s.
• Public Mood is Always Positive: Aches and pains and woes in their personal lives aren’t shared with others. Criticism is listened to with patience and tolerance, at least outwardly. Response to criticism is done politely, sometimes with a touch of humor. Blogs, emails, and conversations with the public aren’t places to rant and complain but to educate and inform.

These are four behaviors that I have observed in the writers I have encountered. I try very hard to live up to these guidelines and act like a pro. Maybe one day I will be in a position to know the secret pro handshake and learn why certain things have to be kept secret, how to respond to fan emails, and how to communicate with agents and publishers about my work.

What do you think? How does one “act like a pro” in the writer world?

        

Looking back over the last week:

Haiti

The terrible earthquake in Haiti has been all over the news and the social networking sites. My heart and prayers go out to those enduring the tragedy and those rushing in to provide aid.

Books This Week

I have finally managed to get back in my reading groove. I had been feeling like I couldn’t read like I use to because I should be writing. Instead I have ended up feeling smothered and very unlike myself. This week I am back in my reading groove.

I read Grave Suprise and An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris this week. I gotta say that Harper Connelly and her ‘talent’ is so intriguing and fun. I am thoroughly enjoying the pace of these books and the who-done-it plots are surprising but not cheating solutions. I am still not sure how I feel about the relationship between Harper and Tolliver yet but I have already found myself recommending these books to others.

I read Belle by Cameron Dokey. It is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, another of my favorites.  This tale had enough differences to make it fresh and engrossing. If you like fairytales, I highly suggest this one.

I also read Dying Bites by D. D. Barant. This combines a portal story (ie Narnia books) with an Urban Fantasy. In the world Jace, the protagonist, ends up in, humans are a very small minority and supernaturals dominate. I enjoyed this book enormously and can’t wait for the next one in the series.

Movies

Last night, my husband took me to see The Book of Eli. Wow. I loved it. It had action. Post apocalyptic setting. Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. One of the big reveals at the end was awesome in that clues had been so well seeded throughout the movie that it was an “ah ha!” moment. My husband and I spent the whole drive home pointing out those clues to each other. There is every likelihood that we will be owning this film when it is released on DVD.

Writing

I am finally getting myself back in the writing groove after the chaos and vacuum that is the holiday season working retail. Stories are living in my head and pressuring me into putting them on paper. My habits are still rotten but I am working on them.

How did your week go?

        

I work in the mall in a bookstore. I have worked in the mall in a bookstore on and off since my first job at B. Dalton’s in August 1991.

I think I have seen holiday shoppers in all shapes, sizes, and colors in that time. Some are full of the holiday spirit; polite, patient, and understanding of the over-busy retail clerks and the ever shrinking stock. Others are full of some other spirit; rude, impatient, angry when they don’t find that specific item they were looking for.

I like to think that I don’t know my customer’s private lives. Maybe something awful is happening at home and that is why they are acting so terribly. I smile bigger, take a deep breath, and try even harder to maintain my patience. Other times the rudeness has reached such a level that I become grateful I am not a manager and I can pass the customer off. Or maybe the customer will get so fed up they will stomp out of the store and come back another day when their mood is brighter.

These are the days when we see most of those cranky shoppers. The lines are long, the ‘good’ books have sold, and there are only so many employees to go around. Tempers get short. Frowns and grimaces are on nearly every face. 

I call this time of year the ’swipe and go’ period. The customers don’t want to hear about the offers for this or that. They don’t want to hear about special programs. They just want to hear their total, swipe their card, and leave. It can be very frustrating for the store clerk and a strain on their smiles.

Christmas Eve this all changes. For some strange reason, even though time has nearly run out, shoppers on this day relax. They smile. They joke. They listen to the offers and promotions. They feel the spirit of the holidays and it becomes a pleasure to work with them. This is the time when suggesting a new author becomes easy. Convincing the shopper to go home with something different than they originally came in for is an opportunity to share more of my favorites. Not only the best selling ones.

I like working on Christmas Eve, at least the early shift. I see the spark of Santa in every face that passes through the checkout line and it puts me in the mood for the evening when Santa-in-full arrives. 

So if you are one of the shoppers heading out today, take time to smile at the clerk helping you out. Bring Santa out a day early.

        

I’ve read several articles about how blogs can be used by writers to gain a following and be noticed. And I have to admit that that was the main reason why I started a site for myself. However, at this moment in time and probably for at least another 3 to 6 months I hope I do not get noticed, at least on a large scale.

I hope a few friends and family wander on in to my den of thieves and post a comment or two. I hope those comments inspire me to think and reflect and learn from my blogs and thereby improve.  I also hope that the act of writing posts on  a regular basis will improve my writing. And maybe curtail my tendancy to babble on.

I also hope to learn how to keep on task and meet a deadline. I have set myself the goal of writing a new post at least three times a week. I have had this site up for three months and I haven’t met that goal yet. So I changed the goal. I am now going to write a new post every day. This way if something crazy happens around the house that prevents me from writing, I should get those three posts I want.

Attention I wish I wasn’t receiving is from the spammers. Gah! I have made it a daily ritual to visit my site just for the purpose of deleting all of their posts.

So while my writing improves from the daily practice, I hope you, my few and far between readers, enjoy my posts and feel free to comment. I would love to hear what you have to say.

        

How many of you work or have worked retail? Come on, raise your hands. I know most of you have at one point in your life. Have you noticed how the holidays start earlier and earlier every year?

It use to be the new calenders didn’t arrive until fall and now they are arriving weeks after the old calenders have been clearanced out. Halloween titles and product start arriving in the store in late July. Followed very quickly by the Christmas titles and product.

Yesterday I set up a required display in the store. A display sent down from on high (ie New York) with a required title list. This list only has 7 titles on it. The date is September 29th. Three, yes three, of the seven titles on that list were Christmas titles. Happy Holidays!

You may think I am complaining about this and while it does strike me as weird, I love it. I was born in December and I love the whole holiday season and if it is getting longer that is just more to enjoy.

My parents were divorced before I was three and during the holidays my sisters and I celebrated everything twice. Once with mom and once with dad. Then you throw in my birthday, again once with mom and once with dad, and the holidays were the best time of the year. I saw my parents, my grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, that strange gentlemen in the corner I have no idea how he is related to me, everyone. I also received presents of course. Never a bad thing.

Now many people in my life have passed on and the holidays are not so full of family but I still see my dad and my sisters and some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. As for the strange gentleman in the corner, I know his name now. I do more giving of presents than receiving as I have four kids of my own and many neices and nephews and cousins once removed. The holidays are good times.

Now I need to figure out four costumes, two girls and two boys before the month is up. And find my Christmas music.

        

Procrastination

Folks keep suggesting scheduling writing time, setting specific goals, and sticking to them. This is always in response to me whining (and let’s face it, I do whine) about my procrastination habits.

These habits have been cultivated since grade school. I loved school and learning but I hated doing homework and studying. However since I tested well and found it all very easy I could get away without learning those daily habits of sitting down and working every day after school.

That lifestyle choice is coming back to bite me in the . . . writer’s chair.

The last couple days I have been trying to set myself goals. Planning a writing schedule out weeks in advance is no good for me. I ruled that out the first time my kids invaded my writing area to ask me for help with their homework or help build the Mystical Island of Metra’Nui or the phone call from work pleading with me to come cover someone’s shifts. These are the things I cannot plan for.

So I set my goals small and not too far in advance. For instance, this morning before work I knew I would have about an hour free after getting ready for work and before waking up my second daughter for school. I felt a 200 word goal was fair for this time period.

It felt good to finish it.

This evening’s goal was 500 words and between kids, cooking dinner, balancing the checkbook, and the monday night TV show line-up I am addicted to, I finished it. It was a lot harder tonight. Sleepiness encroaches and fight scenes do not come natural to me yet.

Opening My Big Mouth

I had this idea a couple days ago for a monthly event at the bookstore where I work. I thought an Open Mic night would be very cool. And a  good opportunity to both read and hear others read their work. I still think it is a good idea.

I approached the lady in charge of arranging the events in our store and now I think I may be running this new event. And instead of starting after the holidays, which was the hazy idea I went to her with. We will be starting in November. November 11th at 7pm to be exact.

This is very neat and I don’t mind the extra responsibility. Much.

Now, I need to keep writing voraciously between now and then so my writing skills improve as much as I can get them so that I have something to read at the kick off of this event. Something I won’t be too embarrassed to read.

I use to be a drama major in high school and college. I do the weekly storytime in our store in front of kids and adults numbering between 3 and 35. Reading won’t be the issue. Feeling comfortable enough in my writing skin to read my own work is.

Another milestone for me to hurdle (or possibly trip) over on the road to Professional Writer Status (imagine a serious announcer voice saying that in stark even tones).

        

I work at a bookstore and one of my duties is updating the frontlist bays. Unless you work in the book business, you may not know what a “frontlist bay” is.  A frontlist bay is that set of shelves at the beginning of the different genre sections that has that pretty “New Arrival” sign on it. The one with all the covers of the books displayed in such a way to show you what is new or has just been released.

Recently the way our store handles the frontlist titles has changed. It use to be that while all new release hardcovers were displayed prominently, mass market (pocket sized) and trade paperbacks were rarely placed there. Now anything new, usually three months or less, no matter the format it is released in, is displayed in these bays.

This means that if you are a new author and only one or two copies of your small mass market books is sent to our store, your book gets equal display space next to the more established authors. The book won’t be stuck in the backlist section with a narrow spine being the only thing visible.

We have seen more folks picking up those books by the new authors. And as we all know, more people picking it up means more people buying.

As a potential new author, this is very cool. I hope to show off my sweet cover art to the world and draw readers in like bait hooks a trout.