Notice: Undefined index: SITELOCK_IP_HEADER in /hermes/bosnacweb09/bosnacweb09ab/b1160/ipg.portlandwritersmillo/WP/wp-content/plugins/sitelock/sitelock.php on line 38
Writers Mill https://www.portlandwritersmill.org Writers helping writers Tue, 23 Jan 2024 23:56:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://i0.wp.com/www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/cropped-Header-copy.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Writers Mill https://www.portlandwritersmill.org 32 32 78052653 Writers’ Mill Minutes 20240121 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/23/writers-mill-minutes-20240121/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/23/writers-mill-minutes-20240121/#respond Tue, 23 Jan 2024 21:13:26 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11621 Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 20240121 ]]> Writers’ Mill Minutes – 21st Jan 2024

There were only three attendees in the library meeting room this month – perhaps not surprising given the recent weather. Many thanks to Christine for setting up there, and to Matthew for being in charge. Meanwhile we had ten members online – a smaller meeting than usual, but a lively one! We celebrated achievements of 2023 and discussed our goals, both personal and group goals, for 2024.

If you’ve not yet given your input on topics for 2024, the poll is still online at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/10/topics-for-2024/, so please help us help you by leaving your votes. Please help us know what genres interest you most by responding to the other online poll at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/23/what-genres-can-we-help-you-with/

Other interesting links mentioned during the meeting are Dame Judi Dench’s Shakespeare: the Man who Pays the Rent: https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Man-Who-Pays-Rent/dp/1250325773 It comes out in in the US in April, and the audible version (already available in the UK) is really good. And Let Shakespeare Serve The City: https://www.pdx.edu/news/let-shakespeare-serve-city-psu-and-partnering-arts-organizations-celebrate-400-years-bard

Writers’ Mill Monthly Ezine

Lyndsay gave us our ezine prompt for January, and the response was amazing. Lots of great pieces. If you’ve not already enjoyed reading them, go to https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/jan-2024-ezine-contest-page/jan-2024-entries-voting-page/ and follow the links to see what you’ve been missing.

  1. MOST VOTES went to Sheila Deeth for the poem “Then Sings My Soul”
  2. SECOND place was tied:
    1. Francis Kohler for “Betty May”
    1. Judy Beaston for “Good-Bye My Son”
  3. THIRD place was also tied:
    1. Zita Podany for “Leaks, Caulk, and Ladders”
    1. Karin Krafft for “My Best Friend Sophie”

OTHER ENTRIES were:

  • Escape! our 6-word story entry (YAY!!!!!) from Darlene Forsman
  • Happiness in a Name BY Jean Harkin
  • Henku BY Ria Russell
  • Joy BY Mark Knudsen
  • Kitkit Grows up Happily on a Cold and Frosty Morning BY Sheila Deeth
  • Lovely Conflagration BY Robin Layne
  • Oh, Happy Days BY Peter Letts
  • The Art of Machine Learning BY Clayton M. Davis
  • Times That Are Special BY Jessie Collins
  • Yes, I Can BY Judy Beaston

UPCOMING WRITING PROMPTS (for contest/ezine):

Send all entries of 6 (or fewer) to 1200 words to: Contest @ PortlandWritersMill . Org (remove spaces)

  • February – Deadline is Sunday, February 4th
    • THEME provided by Elizabeth: When I’m Daydreaming I…
    • A fascinating follow-up to our January “Euphoria” Theme, whether you wrote for that theme or not. Here we pump the brakes, stop the train, act like ATLAS and hold up the world… And then let our inner muse step off onto a pristine beach, or a quiet, isolated country trail, meandering all the special sights in Europe—but in your imagination (daydreaming).
    • Dive in – or take a walk into adventures – and compose a story, vignette, essay, poem and then do share it with us.
  • March: Deadline is Sunday, March 3rd
    • THEME provided by Judy: Season of Mystery
    • Inviting all mystery writers AND mere lovers of the mysterious inherent in the season of Spring.
  • April: Deadline is Sunday, April 7th
    • THEME provided by Nora: What Have I Done?
    • Oh, dear! Tangled circumstances have run amok!
    • OR have they? Could this be taken in a positive light?

Celebration of Achievements

Each year we write our goals on pieces of paper (or Sheila writes them for us if we or she are not present in person). Goals are anonymous and generally take two forms:

  • This year I’d like to…
  • But I’d really like to…

So, for example:

  • This year I’d like to write something for a few Writers’ Mill prompts, but I’d really like to submit something every month
  • This year I’d like to work more on my novel, but I’d really like to finish it
  • This year I’d like to collect my cat stories together, but I’d really like to self-publish them too.

Goals are kept anonymous, and the aim is not to see yourself as a failure for not meeting your own goal, but rather to celebrate that we’ve all achieved something that someone thought worth setting as a goal during the year.

GOALS FOR 2023

Sheila took the papers out from the box (an attractive red and green box made for us by Becky Lovejoy’s mom back in 2007!) and read the goals, then asked for a show of hands for who had achieved them. Results, just from members present at the meeting, were encouraging!

  • Develop previously drafted ideas into complete pieces: 5 people had managed to develop at least one idea.
  • Play with writing nearly every day: 6 people achieved this!
  • Find a critique group that works for me: 4 of us (in the meeting) are in successfully critique groups, and one had succeeded in finding a group during the year. (Please email groups @ portlandwritersmill . org if you’d like to join a group. If the email bounces or doesn’t receive a reply, please email admin.)
  • Complete a draft of a novel or novella: 2 had completed novels, 3 had completed novellas. Yay!
  • Complete a short story, or a book of short stories: 7 had completed short stories, but books take more work.
  • Branch out into less familiar genres: 1 member succeeded here (and in style!)
  • Take at least two writing workshops: 1 is taking a workshop currently, 1 had taken two. We hope to have a writing workshop at one of our meetings this year, led by Nancy Linnon in September
  • Restart a novel / novella / book: 2 members did this last year.
  • Sell at least 10 copies of my debut novel: 2 members achieved this (Yay!) and one had sold a few copies of a few books.
  • Enter every Writers’ Mill contest / write for every prompt: 4 of us had managed this, and 9 had entered at least a few.
  • Submit at least 5 pieces to literary journals: If you count our anthology as a literary journal, 8 people succeeded here. But if you don’t count our anthology, we still had 5 who had submitted at least 5 pieces!
  • See my book released / get something released: 8 got something released, and 1 had a novel released last year (Yay!)
  • Get an agent / work with an agent: One member has been working with an agent. We hope to have a talk this year about agents, editors and publishers; how to find them; and what they do for us.
  • Work out which short stories to include in a novel: 1 member succeeded in collecting together paper files and ordering, adding to, and including them in a novel.
  • Finish something: Yay! 1 member has done this, though you might say any of us who’ve submitted entries for our writing prompts have also finished something.
  • Write more: I think we all wish we could do this, but only 1 member felt they had.

GOALS FOR 2024

We went around the room introducing ourselves and setting our “think I can” and “wish I could” goals for 2024. These goals will be hidden away in the green and red box for the end of the year or the beginning of next year.

Writers’ Mill Planning for 2024

Some of you have already taken the online poll at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/10/topics-for-2024/ to help us choose topics for 2024. We took a poll during the meeting as well, on the grounds that people who are present in a meeting should be awarded additional influence. The in-meeting results are below, but please continue adding your votes to the poll if you haven’t already done so. We will refer to it as we look for speakers, and also as speakers ask us what we’d like them to talk about.

  • Using Word efficiently to style, format, edit, etc: 8 members would like help here
  • Other writing, editing, word and image formatting programs: Experience has shown that “free” programs can be less user-friendly than ones that we pay for. 1 member would be interested in learning more about free programs. 4 were interested in more expensive programs such as InDesign and Photoshop, etc.
  • How to find and work with an agent, editor, publisher… and what do they do for you anyway? This one was popular with 8 people expressing interest. We have a speaker lined up, but haven’t chosen a month for this yet.
  • Grammar, spelling, writing conventions: 6 members would like to learn more here.
  • poetry types and conventions: 6 members were interested here. Poet Carolyn Martin will return to speak in April, National Poetry Month. She has been a very popular speaker at our group in the past (and not just with poets) so don’t miss this!
  • More group critiques: We had very few group critiques last year – we used to enjoy them regularly in the second halves of our meetings (with speakers being given the first hour). 7 of us were interested in reviving them, but we will need volunteers to give us writing for critique, and volunteers to lead critiques. Please contact critiques @ portlandwritersmill . org to be added to our schedule.
  • More writing prompts during meetings: This one was less popular, with only 4 votes.
  • What do “real” writers do? How do they get published / sell books / become famous…? We’ve had several “real writers” speak to us in the past, and this is a question we often ask them. 5 people voted for this.
  • How can we become visible as writers – websites, social networking, newsletters, blogs…? Only 4 people voted for this, but in later discussion there was more interest expressed in how to get a blog or website working.
  • Writing advice: plotting, story arcs, and/or writing without a plot: This one was popular with 8 votes. Some of these writing advice topics might be covered in Nancy Linnon’s workshop in September. Sheila’s been taking some classes too and would be willing to talk sometime.
  • Writing advice: creating believable characters and character arcs: 9 people would like help here.
  • Writing advice: world-building. We’ve had speakers talk about this in the past, and we’re trying to get one for this year. 6 people expressed interest.
  • What about playwriting, scenes, monologues, songs… other writing formats? We got 2 votes for playwriting, 1 for scenes, 3 for monologues and 3 for songs,
  • Writing realistic dialog: This got 6 votes, clearly something we should work on
  • Creating settings, places, and spaces for scenes to take place: This got 8 votes.
  • Research: We added this topic. Sheila will add it to the online poll. But she forgot to count how many people voted for it.

One book was highly recommended as we discussed these goals: Dame Judi Dench’s Shakespeare: the Man who Pays the Rent: https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Man-Who-Pays-Rent/dp/1250325773 It comes out in in the US in April, and the audible version (already available in the UK) is really good.

Also of interest is Let Shakespeare Serve The City: https://www.pdx.edu/news/let-shakespeare-serve-city-psu-and-partnering-arts-organizations-celebrate-400-years-bard

What Genre are You Interested in?

Next we discussed genres of interest to the group. Select your genres from the online poll at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/23/what-genres-can-we-help-you-with/ if you who missed the meeting:

  • Fantasy (2)
  • Romance (2)
  • Historical (6) – Maryka Biaggio has spoken to us in the past. A local author, she writes about real people, recreating the reality of lives behind the facts in the historical record. We will try to get her back. Donna Fletcher Crow might be another possible speaker, who writes about historical characters and events, with some mystery and some inspirational books.
  • Inspirational (2)
  • YA (3)
  • Action-adventure (3) Walt Socha is a former member. We’ll see if we can get him to speak on historical writing, research, action-adventure, sci-fi, and more.
  • Mystery (2)
  • Children’s fiction (1)

Other Goals for 2024

Other goals for 2024 include

WEBSITE:

  • We’d like to get rid of the error message and delays on the website, and ensure that our emails get through. Please remember to check the website itself in case you are missing emails (Sheila always posts the minutes, and Judy has lots of info on contests on the site). A quick show of hands indicated that, of Sheila’s three newsletters containing the link to today’s meeting, one member only got the third, most got the first, and only one or two got the second. (Sheila received the first and second but not the third. Judy missed the first, and Sheila didn’t recieved Judy’s email about the contest!) One possibility is that we have too many names on our list. Another is that the website has too much history stored on it. Nora might be able to work with Ron.
  • We can’t put the meeting link on the website (or we’ll get zoom-bombed). Make sure you have the link (if you need it) well before the meeting. And if you don’t have it, please email admin to ask for it. But don’t wait till the day of the meeting because your admin will be busy that day! Remember, at present it’s the same link every month.
  • We can’t put the password on the website, as we want to keep your writing private and unpublished. If you don’t have the password, check your emails. If you still can’t find it after checking your emails, email admin. But please check first.

ANTHOLOGY:

  • Do we want a topic for the anthology, or should we just collect together any writing from the group, as we’ve done most years?
    • Advantage of topic is it makes collecting and ordering pieces easier and maybe makes a more enticing collection.
    • Advantage of generic is it makes it easier for everyone to take part and maybe creates a more eclectic general-interest collection. We voted for generic, same as the last few years
  • Timing:
    • We usually ask for all submissions by end of 1st Sunday in September.
    • We used to make a pdf copy available to everyone for at least 1 week before release at November’s meeting, but we haven’t been able to do that in the last few years.
    • We decided to ask for submissions by the end of the 1st Sunday in August, bringing everything forward by a month, so the pdf version will be made available to members after October’s meeting.
  • Tasks:
    • Coordination is possibly the biggest task:
      • Collation: collecting entries into one file with consistent styles and formats, probably includes pre-editing according to whatever rules we’ve chosen (see below). Sheila would love someone to help with this.Editing: see below. This is done by a team of volunteers, but someone needs to act as buffer between editors and authors to provide consistent communication and results.Sorting: like a musical playlist, we need someone (or a team) to choose the order of the entries.Illustrations: how many do we want? How do we want them chosen? This needs someone to coordinate again, and again, Sheila would love some help.Formatting – ebook (Sheila at present) and print (Zita)
    • Coordinator might be in charge of collation, pre-edits, putting it all back together after it’s reordered, etc. Or we could have individuals do each task but… the more individuals, the more places it can fall apart.

Topics we didn’t have time to discuss, but which are worth everyone thinking about, related to the anthology:

  • Illustrated or text only
    • Advantage of illustrated is it looks really, really nice and Zita does a fantastic job!
    • Advantage of text only is it’s easier!
  • Editing standards:
    • Use of ellipses, quotation marks, double spaces, etc
    • “Rules” of format – new line for new speaker etc. How strict do we want to be?
    • “Rules” of “best” writing – again, how much editing do we want?
    • major edits vs minor edits
      • Major edits
        • Advantage: provides consistency of style and content
        • Disadvantage: discouraging, takes lots of time, and who chooses what should be consistent?
      • Minimal editing –
        • Advantage: fast, encouraging to writers, it’s standard for non-famous anthologies, it lets each person’s style shine
        • Disadvantage: maybe it doesn’t look quite as professional or literary (but who defines that?)

Next Meeting

Topic to be announced later. Next meeting is on the 3rd Sunday of Feb, Feb 18th. And don’t forget to write for the “When I’m daydreaming” prompt – deadline Sunday, Feb 4th.

]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/23/writers-mill-minutes-20240121/feed/ 0 11621
What Genres Can we help you with? https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/23/what-genres-can-we-help-you-with/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/23/what-genres-can-we-help-you-with/#comments Tue, 23 Jan 2024 20:40:54 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11619
Loading poll ...

Click the genres that interest you most. Leave a comment if you want us to add more genres to the list.

]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/23/what-genres-can-we-help-you-with/feed/ 1 11619
Topics for 2024 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/10/topics-for-2024/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/10/topics-for-2024/#comments Wed, 10 Jan 2024 01:49:14 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11603
Loading poll ...

Please add further suggestions in the comments and I will add them to the poll. (If you can’t see a place for comments, click on the header “Topics for 2024” then keep scrolling down to find it.)

Let’s make this our best year ever!

]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/10/topics-for-2024/feed/ 6 11603
Writers’ Mill Minutes Dec 17 2023 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/18/writers-mill-minutes-dec-17-2023/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/18/writers-mill-minutes-dec-17-2023/#respond Mon, 18 Dec 2023 22:40:06 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11489 Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes Dec 17 2023 ]]> Fourteen people joined us for December’s Writers’ Mill meeting – a smaller number than usual, but perhaps everyone’s busy this time of year. Seven attended in person at the library and seven online. I promise I’ve tried to take good minutes for those members who were absent and the ones who couldn’t hear the speaker online. Unfortunately, sound and room setup are complicated for hybrid meetings, but we’re glad you’re all persevering!

Mollie Hunt was a wonderful speaker, and we all had a great time. In person, we were able to share in the Book Exchange and to buy some of Mollie’s books. Online members exchanged book recommendations which will be included in these minutes.

CONTEST NEWS

Liz announced the voting results for our December e-magazine. The topic was “The Last Time I was in…” and those of you who haven’t read the ezine should look for it at  https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/dec-2023-contest-page/dec-2023-entries-voting-page/

  • Submissions receiving MOST VOTES is a TIE between
    • Nora for her poem “The Last Time I Was in Santiam Pass” (this was her first Ezine/Contest Entry), so thank you for joining us Nora, and congratulations!
    • Judy for her story “I Buried My Ex-Boyfriend”
  • SECOND most votes went to Karin for her essay “My Grandparents’ Garden” and
  • THIRD went to Sheila for her story “Doggert”

OTHER ENTRIES were:

  • A Short Visit – by Peter
  • Happy Memories – by Jessie
  • Of Man and Beast Episode 2 – by Robin
  • The Last Time – by Mark

UPCOMING CONTESTS

word count limits, anything from 4 or 5 to 1,200 words: any genre: deadline end of the first Sunday of the month: entries go to contest@portlandwritersmill.org: and PLEASE use your own creative title, not the name of the theme!

  • January 2024 – Deadline is January 7th
    • Host: Lyndsay Docherty
    • Theme: Euphoria
    • OPTIONAL challenge to consider three rarely used words which categorize Euphoria in different ways.
      • Confelicity – joy in someone else’s joy
      • Apricity – joy in the natural world’s beauty
      • Eucatastrophe – joy in the favorable outcome of dire events
    • PLEASE use your own creative title for the piece, not Euphoria
  • February 2024 – Deadline is February 4th
    • Host: Elizabeth Maggio
    • Theme: When I’m daydreaming, I… Finish the sentence and continue into your essay, story, poem OR just let the response become the inspiration for the story, essay, or poem that you create.
    • There is NO requirement to include the words of the theme, and PLEASE use your own creative title.
  • March 2024 – Deadline is March 3rd
    • Host: Judy Beaston
    • Theme: Season of Mystery: Compose a mystery story or merely focus on the sensory blossoms that accompany this mysterious time of year when we transition from bare branches, not-much-color to the vibrant awakening of Spring.
    • PLEASE use your own creative title

DETAILS for these three themes and – soon – April’s theme, can be found on the website under UPCOMING CONTESTS located below the CONTESTS header. https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/

SPEAKER

Mollie Hunt is a cat writer and award-winning author of the Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries, the Tenth Life Paranormal Mysteries involving a ghost cat, the Cat Seasons Sci-Fantasy Tetralogy and a COVID memoir In her spare time, she pens a bit of cat poetry as well. Notes from her talk are below, or find them at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/18/cats-on-the-keyboard-with-mollie-hunt-dec-17th-2023/ on our website. Mollie’s website is https://molliehuntcatwriter.com/ and you can send any questions to molliehuntcatwriter@gmail.com . Find her handout by clicking on the link at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/handout-cats-keyboard/

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

  • From Robin: “Coiled” by H.L. Burke. A fantasy novel set in an ancient Greece background
  • From Robin: “Cinder” by Marissa Meyer. The first of a series based on fairytales in a SF future setting
  • From Nora: “The Anubis Gates” by Tim Powers. It somehow combines time travel, sorcery, and Samuel Coleridge, while remaining believable!
  • From Endrya: Jamie Ford’s “The Many Daughters of Afong Moy”, a story about Afong Moy, the first Chinese Lady in the United States and her descendants of many generations, Historical Speculative Fiction. She was a real person and met President Andrew Jackson!
  • From Robin: “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts” by Maxine Hong Kingston. It was required reading in 2 of her college classes. And Robin had the privilege of meeting the author
  • From Judy: “This Time Tomorrow” — an odd but fascinating sort of time-travel and yet not — story. By Emma Straub

WRITING EXERCISE

We ended the meeting with the story dice, using their images to provoke discussion on character, scene, and plot.

To set the scene, Sheila rolled three dice, giving: horseshoe magnet, smiley face, and fountain

For the character (protagonist) she rolled: a directional arrow, bee, and happy/sad masks

And for plot (suggesting this might be the end point of the story) she rolled: eye, arrow, and dice

Discussion ranged from magnetic fountains to dancing bees, and the resulting short story (and poetry) ideas covered fantasy, a wonderful children’s book idea, humor, pathos and romance. If you weren’t there, try it for yourself – give yourself ten minutes and write something. Try to include a sense of Euphoria and you’ll have your submission for January’s ezine ready made!

NEXT MEETING

Our next meeting is Jan 21st

Sheila invited us all to look at the schedule page on the website. At present, it doesn’t go beyond today, but she will update it shortly for the new year. Underneath the schedule you’ll find lists of past speakers and topics. Please think about topics you would like us to cover, speakers you’d like us to invite back, etc.

At January’s meeting we will review the triumphs of 2023 (you will all have triumphed), and we’ll make plans for the year to come. PLEASE be sure to join us. It’s your chance to help steer the Writers’ Mill in a direction that’s helpful to you!

Meanwhile, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and be sure to make time to WRITE!!!!!

]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/18/writers-mill-minutes-dec-17-2023/feed/ 0 11489
Cats on the Keyboard, with Mollie Hunt, Dec 17th 2023 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/18/cats-on-the-keyboard-with-mollie-hunt-dec-17th-2023/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/18/cats-on-the-keyboard-with-mollie-hunt-dec-17th-2023/#respond Mon, 18 Dec 2023 22:35:45 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11486 Continue reading Cats on the Keyboard, with Mollie Hunt, Dec 17th 2023 ]]> Mollie Hunt currently has around 16 published titles: 11 mysteries in two cozy series, 1 standalone novel, 3 science fiction novels, 1 memoir, and 1 book of poetry! A common theme in her books is cats because…

Why Cats?

Cats aren’t just cute. They have a place in our world. They interact with humans. And we can learn from them (as Mollie makes clear in her memoir).

Why Cozy Mysteries?

Cozy mysteries are clean, no swearing, no grotesque violence, and always have a happy ending – think “Murder She Wrote” on TV.

Mollie enjoys reading them, and so began writing them. Cats drive the story, and cats drive her to write. But there are lots of cozies out there. If you’re going to write them, you have to decide how your books will stand out. What will make them special?

How do you write Genre Fiction and make it Different?

Mollie uses epigraphs (tiny blurbs) at the beginning of each chapter in her Crazy Cat Lady series. These give the reader tidbits of information about cats, their lives, their needs, etc. and make her books different from anyone else’s. You just have to think of something to make your series special. But Mollie doesn’t just write Crazy Cat Lady novels.

How do you write in more than one genre and not have them all sound the same?

Mollie read to us from Cat Summer (science fiction), Cats Eyes (Cat Lady mystery), and There’s a Cat Hair in my Face Mask (memoir). The writing voices sound completely different.

  • Her science fiction novel is written in third person, with slow evocative descriptions to draw the reader in.
  • The Cat Lady novels are written in first person with a fast, breathless narration that’s part of the character.
  • The memoir is first person again, but much quieter, more thoughtful and contemplative.
  • She didn’t read from her paranormal mystery series, but says that paranormal stories are more directly story-driven.

It’s good to read in your genre and have a sense of what readers expect when you decide what voice to write in.

How do you create a New Voice for a New Series?

Go into it thoughtfully.

  • Punctuation helps to change the flow of sentences:
    •  A cozy mystery will have lots of Oxford commas. Clean tidy sentences.
    • Science fiction has fewer commas, longer flow.
  • Point of view – 1st or 3rd person – changes the voice
  • Choice or words, and repetition of words
  • Poetic or just-the-facts language
  • Start with the idea that this will be a different story and see what happens

There are lots of different ways to express yourself. Difference genres. Different purposes.

How do you write Mysteries?

Mollie might begin with just a title. She doesn’t know where the story will go, and her writing feels like reading (only slower), waiting to learn what comes next. At some point she has to choose between possible endings. One thing might look obvious, but something more complicated might work for a better mystery. Then she’ll have to go back and rewrite some earlier sections, add clues and red herrings, and clean up the story so it works.

Agatha Christie wrote the endings first. Mollie writes till the ending presents itself, then writes the ending and fixes the rest of the story.

Is Writing Hard Work?

Yes. If Mollie didn’t love it, she wouldn’t do it. Very long hours. Can be really boring. But she loves it.

She’s often working on more than one book at once – it’s relatively easy to keep the stories separate, but when they’re ready for publishing, there’s a lot of effort involved – hard to publish more than one book at the same time

Mollie writes every morning after feeding the cats. You have to commit to spending the time at it.

It takes about a year to write a book.

What is involved in writing a Book?

  1. The first draft comes first. This is where she writes from beginning to end, puts XXX in all the places she hasn’t had time to research yet, and learns what the end is going to be, and it’s perfect! Don’t try to do all your research while writing. Find out what you need then research it after the first draft.
  2. The second draft is where she gets rid of the XXXs, realizes how stunted the dialog was, finds words repeated over and over in one paragraph, spots what doesn’t work in the plot, etc. She uses Word and Googledocs to edit. They both have advantages, and using both means she gains from both.
  3. Third draft, and Mollie’s still fixing things, but now it’s time to…
  4. Read the story aloud. Or let Word or Google read it aloud. When you hear your words aloud, you’ll find more things you want to fix.
  5. Give the book to her editor. Mollie reminds us you can’t edit yourself. You will always miss stuff. It’s important to have an editor that you trust:
    1. An editor who will give meaningful advice
    1. But who won’t tell you what to do.
  6. She will also be working with a cover artist.
  7. Then she’ll send her book to beta readers. Beta readers don’t already know the story. They’ll spot the places where the author knew exactly what was happening but didn’t convey that information to the reader. Mollie will assign questions to her beta readers:
    1. Did you know…?
    1. Were you confused when…?
    1. What did you like/not like? Etc
  8. At this point it’s time to make a proof copy of the book, uploading the manuscript and cover to Amazon KDP (just like we do). Unlike us, Mollie doesn’t hit publish straight away, but instead buys a proof copy because you’ll always find more things when the book is in print that you missed when it was on the computer.
  9. Sometimes she’ll fix errors and buy another proof. It’s an advantage of independent publishing – you can keep changing things.
  10. Then she publishes the book. But if a reader spots a typo, she can always go back and fix it, again and again!

What Drew Mollie to Writing?

Initially Mollie trained as an artist, but the whole having to make money off art thing put her off.

In 1995 her husband took a trip and left her with the computer. It had WordPerfect on it, and she started writing. Wrote 40 pages (saving them on a floppy disc so she wouldn’t hurt the computer) and was hooked. Soon 40 pages was 400, and the book was never published.

David Gerrold says your first million words are practice. Mollie completed that first million then, in 2011, wrote Cats Eyes, her first book. She queried agents and publishers, got some interest, some advice, and lots of rejections, then got bored and started another book.

Her advice is keep writing, start another book, and don’t get discouraged.

A high school friend said “Let’s publish Cats Eyes ourselves.” She formatted and edited the book, then published it, and Mollie started another book.

How do you Decide what to Write?

Mollie writes cozies because she likes reading them. She likes scifi/fantasy too, and poetry, so she writes these as well. She doesn’t enjoy memoirs – they don’t guarantee a happy ending the way a cozy does – but she felt compelled to write one. So, write what you want to read or what you feel compelled to write.

How did she write her memoir?

She keeps a journal, and she used the internet to find out what was happening between Feb 2020 and the middle of 2021. Covid caused lockdown, and she and her husband were locked down with cats. The cats were a major influence.

Memoir uses your own voice. It might include language you wouldn’t put in your novels, political ideas you’d not want to impose on mystery readers, a personal choice of detail. Writing memoir bounces your brain around – everyone should write one says Mollie.

What is Independently Published?

Mollie says her books are independently published, not self-published. They’re not “self” published because other people help – her editor, cover creator, etc.

The pros of independent publishing are:

  • You have control. You don’t give up any rights. Your  publisher’s not going to go out of business, and they’re not going to retain the rights to your book when they do!
  • It’s flexible. You can go back in, edit out the typos etc, as often as you like, at no charge (no charge with Amazon anyway)
  • It’s fast. When you’re ready, you publish. No long waits.
  • You can buy your own book cheaply to hand-sell. Publishers will want their cut, so if you have a publisher and you try to buy your own book from them, it costs more.

There’s a downside of course:

  • Sales and publicity are all up to you (though in practice they may well be all up to you if you have a publisher)
  • A publisher might enter your book into contests. That’s all up to you now.
  • Book stores often won’t take books from Amazon. (In Sheila’s experience, they won’t take them from other self-publishing outlets either). Your book might be available on their website but not in their store. Even Powells and Annie Blooms don’t take independent books!

How do you Market Books?

Social media is a popular approach to marketing, but don’t try to do it all. It helps to keep the cover, your face, and cats (in Mollie’s case) in front of potential readers on Facebook, for example, but it’s not going to generate lots of sales.

Mollie has used Amazon ads. You have to pay for them. They’ll help you make the “sponsored ad” with cover picture, details, etc.

Mollie’s website started out as a free blog on WordPress. Now she pays them so she can have a good web address: https://molliehuntcatwriter.com/

She has about 200 people subscribed to her newsletter, and she handed round a sign-up sheet. Sheila has about 20 subscribers and has given up sending out the newsletter. Mollie says she shouldn’t give up. Newletters keep readers in the loop, and they make you write.

NIWA is a local organization of independent writers. They take your books to events and sell them there. Plus they’re a great community who offer lots of advice. They’re well worth joining. https://www.niwawriters.com/ Mollie reminds us, you should always give back as well as gaining from a group!

Mollie says never say no when you’re invited to speak to a group. We’re glad she didn’t say no to us!

Where do Reviews fit in?

Reviews can be hurtful, so Mollie tries not to read too many of them. But sometimes they really give you a boost.

Mollie once had a review that said her book didn’t feel believable because with so many cats the protagonist would have to do more vacuuming. She hadn’t included vacuuming in the story as it’s boring, but now she includes it every once in a while.

Don’t take reviews to heart.

Summary

  • Don’t get discouraged. The first million words are your practice.
  • Don’t stop writing. If you can’t get it published just now, write another book.
  • Don’t give up – on writing, on putting your book in front of facebook friends, on sending out newsletters.
  • Don’t take reviews or rejections personally. Just write another book.
  • And write another book!
]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/18/cats-on-the-keyboard-with-mollie-hunt-dec-17th-2023/feed/ 0 11486
Writers’ Mill Minutes, Nov 19th 2023 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/writers-mill-minutes-nov-19th-2023/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/writers-mill-minutes-nov-19th-2023/#respond Mon, 20 Nov 2023 23:29:36 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11377 Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes, Nov 19th 2023 ]]> 9 in-person and 11 online attendees were present to see the upload of this year’s anthology to Amazon. We were delighted to welcome new NaNoWriMo participants, and very much hope they might join us at future meetings too. If you’ve not already signed up for our newsletters, please go to the SignUp page on the portlandwritersmill.org website and follow the instructions there. (You’ll get the instructions in an email from admin @ portlandwritersmill . org, so make sure you flag those emails as “not spam” when they arrive.)

NANO NEWS

November is the month when we upload our annual anthology, but it’s also National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) so the meeting started with a few questions for attendees:

  • Who is doing NanoWriMo (National novel writing month in November – several members and visitors said they are)?
  • Who has done Nano in the past (more hands went up)?
  • Who has something already written that they’d like to self-publish on Amazon (several people have)?
  • Who thinks they might have something soon that they’d like to self-publish (several more)?

Sheila promised to (try to) write good notes to send out in these minutes. But don’t forget, if you want any steps described in more detail, make sure you come to January’s meeting where we’ll discuss plans for topics and speakers for 2024. Also, you can find detailed notes from previous talks at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/help-2/anthology-help/ on our website.

WEBSITE BLUES

Sheila demo-ed the website (and its problematic error message) and begged for assistance. The technology is moving faster than the team can keep up with it. Please would anyone who has website experience, or who has children or grandchildren with experience, email admin @ portlandwritersmill . org. If you were the one who spoke to Sheila, please would you email us too! The site is created with WordPress and hosted on iPage (or BlueHost, I think). Then we can discuss how to add you to the volunteer list, and how to give you access to fix our site!

CONTEST NEWS

Our monthly prompt inspired some amazing and varied writing for the November ezine, which can still be read (and commented on) at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/nov-2023-contest-page/nov-2023-entries-voting-page/. Clayton gave us the writing prompt and announced the winners (those who gained the most “votes” from readers as favorites):

  • FIRST – Judy Beaston for “Jolene”
  • SECOND – Lyndsay Docherty for “Both Sides of the Barriers” (poem)
  • THIRD – TIED RESULT –
    • —Karin Krafft for “Just Keep Pushing Through”
    • —Sheila Deeth for “What Lay Beyond the Fence”

OTHER entries (all truly excellent reads) were:

  • Crossing the Corpus Callosum – By Gary Romans
  • Escaping From the Gravity Well – By Peter Letts
  • Every Step Matters – By Judy Beaston
  • I Believe (poem) – By Joe Mendez
  • Of Man and Beast, part 1 – By Robin Layne
  • The Bike Ride (poem) – By Dian Hillard
  • Time’s Barriers – By Jessie Collins

UPCOMING CONTESTS (send entries Contest @ PortlandWritersMill . Org, 1,200 word limit, any genre, up to two entries per person, and the deadline is always the end of the 1st Sunday of the month)

  • DECEMBER – Deadline end-of-day, Sunday, December 3rd
    • THEME: The Last Time I Was In… HOST: Elizabeth Maggio
    • When was the last time you were in a place, perhaps with someone, doing something that left a good or bad memory? Call up personal memories or invite a character (perhaps one you’ve used in stories before) to regale their tale of “The last time I was in…” (or, as Sheila pondered, “The last time I was in trouble with my mum!”)
  • JANUARY, 2024 – Entries accepted from Dec. 4-Jan. 7th. Be sure to weave time for writing into your holidays!
    • THEME: Euphoria (intense feelings of wellbeing and happiness) HOST: Lyndsay Docherty
    • How? What? When? Where? Why?…. Have fun and do read the information under UPCOMING CONTESTS about the January theme BECAUSE… January also is a month with an optional challenge for those who want to impress the world (just kidding) – or just to spark some alternate ways of writing to this month’s theme.
  • FEBRUARY – Entries accepted from Jan. 8th – Feb. 4th
    • THEME: When I’m Daydreaming, I… HOST: Elizabeth Maggio
    • A fascinating follow-up to our January “Euphoria” theme, whether you wrote for that theme or not. Here we pump the brakes, stop the train, act like ATLAS and hold up the world… And then let our inner muse step off onto a pristine beach, or a quiet, isolated country trail, meandering all the special sights in Europe—but in your imagination (daydreaming).
  • MARCH – Entries accepted from Feb. 5th – March 3rd
    • THEME: Season of Mystery HOST: Judy Beaston
    • Initial thoughts on this reflect both the mysteries of Spring AND the mysteries of life, whether just how amazingly mysterious we beings are OR the mystery writer’s weaving of fiction appearing as fact and the hidden puzzles we readers try to solve.

ANTHOLOGY UPLOAD

This year’s anthology includes entries from most of the contests/ezines from Oct 2022 to Sept 2023, making for an intriguingly eclectic mix that your volunteers managed to combine into a smoothly flowing whole. Altogether, 19 authors, plus 9 editors, 3 content organizers, 2 formatters, and several additional illustrators  gave their time to create this book. We hope you’ll all take advantage of the cheap offer ($5.77) and buy Christmas presents before we increase the price (to $9.95) at the end of the year. (Kindle copies are $1.99).

Sheila had a PowerPoint presentation prepared to provide a visual guide through the day’s upload, but she probably had too many windows open on her computer. PowerPoint crashed. Zoom crashed. Zoom crashed again and mild panic ensued, so she gave the presentation “freeform” without PowerPoint.

What We Learned

Find notes from Sheila’s presentation at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/how-to-upload-your-book-to-amazon-from-sheilas-talk-nov-19th-2023/.

By the end of the process, we had kindle and print versions of the anthology uploaded, and were just waiting for Amazon’s approval of both books. This was received later on Sunday for the ebook, and on Monday for the print version – YAY!

We repeated the whole process then with another volume, in hopes this would help people remember what happened and how to use the tools. We will be happy to give talks on how to use other tools – Styles and Format with Word, InDesign, Photoshop, etc. – in 2024 if members want us to. Just be sure to attend January’s meeting and let your voices be heard.

DATES TO REMEMBER

  • Oak Hills Holiday Bazaar – Sheila and, hopefully, other Writers’ Mill members will have their (and our) books for sale the Oak Hills rec center: 2400 NW 153rd Ave, Beaverton, OR 97006 on Friday and Saturday, 1st and 2nd December, from 10am to 4pm each day. Email admin @ portlandwritersmill . org for more info.
  • Ezine submissions (The Last Time I was in…) due by the end of Sunday December 3rd. Send entries to contest @ portlandwritersmill . org
  • Next meeting, Mollie Hunt: How and Why (cats, cozies, series, publish, etc.), Sunday December 17th
  • January’s meeting when we make plans for 2024, Sunday January 21st

Links From Today’s Presentation

]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/writers-mill-minutes-nov-19th-2023/feed/ 0 11377
How to Upload your Book to Amazon, from Sheila’s talk, Nov 19th 2023 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/how-to-upload-your-book-to-amazon-from-sheilas-talk-nov-19th-2023/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/how-to-upload-your-book-to-amazon-from-sheilas-talk-nov-19th-2023/#comments Mon, 20 Nov 2023 23:26:13 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11378 Continue reading How to Upload your Book to Amazon, from Sheila’s talk, Nov 19th 2023 ]]> Sheila had a PowerPoint presentation prepared to guide us through the upload of this year’s anthology, but Zoom and PowerPoint both crashed. Fearing the computer might crash next, she proceeded to give the talk off the cuff instead. By the end of the following day, our latest anthology was on sale at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNPQ2F92/. Get your copies soon, before the price goes up!

What do you need on your computer, to create a book on Amazon?

The absolute minimum

  • A document – .doc or .docx, made by Word, Googledocs, LibreOffice, or whatever program you choose that produces .doc files.
  • An EXTRAS file containing
    • Title and subtitle
    • Author name(s)
    • Blurb for the Amazon page
    • Back cover blurb
    • Some guesses at keywords
    • Why? Because it helps avoid typos when you’re uploading the book.

What does this get you when you upload to Amazon?

  • An ebook and a print book. But…
    • Some chapters aren’t in the contents list, some start on new pages but others don’t, some images are bigger than others, some pages only have a couple of lines, some paragraphs end with single words on a line…
  • A generic book cover, made with one of Amazon’s images. (Amazon has a gazillion images, but also a gazillion users; it’s almost certain any image you choose has been used by someone else.)
  • The sort of self-published book that gives self-publishing a bad reputation.

A Better Approach (1)

  • Download KindleCreate (free) from Amazon (Calibre is another, similar free program)
  • Start a new project, by loading your .doc or .docx file into KindleCreate
  • Choose which of the items it suggests for the contents list are appropriate, then
  • Edit in KindleCreate, adding all those chapter headings that it missed, and fixing those that it formatted incorrectly
  • Maybe reinsert images where they didn’t work and choose appropriate (matching) sizes – your images will all appear inline with the text on kindle.
  • Experiment with drop caps and other neat things for your first paragraphs of chapters, etc.
  • And save (export) the .kpf file (for kindle and print)
  • Then read the .kpf file with the (free) KindlePreviewer (downloaded from Amazon) to make sure it looks right. Edit some more to fix problems, and you’re done.

DON’T FORGET to READ your document while you’re “fixing” it. It looks different in KindleCreate – the fonts, page size, line spacings, etc. are all different, and you’ll be amazed how many errors you find while rereading your document in a new form. Then…

  • Choose your own image for the cover as well, to make it unique

What does this get you when you upload to Amazon?

  • A good kindle book.
  • A pretty good cover, though you might wish you could have positioned the text better or used a nicer font
  • A very amateur-looking print version where some chapters end with just two lines on a page, and some paragraphs end with just one word, and images are all inline, large, and clunky.

A Better Approach (2)

KindleCreate gave you good control over your ebook but not over the print one. We’re not professionals, but we want to produce a book that looks as close to professional as possible. So we’re going to let KindleCreate do what it’s good at, and use something else to format the print book.

Remember where I said READ your document in KindleCreate? While you’re reading and editing, make all the same fixes to your original .doc or .docx file. That way you have a good, clean .doc or .docx ready to create a print file from.

  • Choose your print book size (say 6”x9”)
  • Download (free) templates from Amazon and select the one you want.
  • Copy your document into the template (or copy the template’s formatting into your document, if that’s something you feel comfortable doing.
  • Then FORMAT your document – make a nice front page, update the contents (to keep page numbers correct), decide what you want headings to look like, reposition images, alter the line spacing as needed to avoid two-line almost-blank pages, use manual line-breaks to avoid single-word ends of paragraphs, etc.
    • All this can be done with Word, and can probably be done with other word processing software, but
    • If you’re using Word, you should be aware that images will jump around, paragraphs will slide onto “next” pages randomly, etc. Be patient. Be very patient. And eventually it all works out.
    • InDesign is a much better program for formatting your book, but it’s expensive and has a longer learning curve.
  • Save your book as a pdf (but you still need to be able to edit it – if you’re using a Word doc, you still need the Word doc available when you upload).

You can improve that front cover too, by adding your own title and author name. Microsoft Draw is a good basic program. Photoshop is much better. There again, if you have Photoshop, you might want to design the whole cover. Download a (free) pdf cover template from Amazon (you need the book dimensions and number of pages) then add the front cover and create a spine and back cover to fit (and save as pdf).

What does this get you when you upload it?

  • A good kindle book.
  • A cover with well-placed text (though you might wish you’d had more options for the back cover)
  • A well-designed print version where you controlled how pages, paragraphs and chapters ended and where images were placed.

What do you need on your computer, to create a good book on Amazon?

  • .doc or .docx file formatted for print (or whatever file InDesign uses if you’re using InDesign), so you can add the ISBN to the print version
    • All print books have to have ISBNs, but ebooks don’t need them
    • Amazon provides free ISBNs, but you won’t know what number they’ll assign till you’re ready to upload.
    • An Amazon ISBN can only be used on an Amazon book, so you can’t reuse it, say, on a version uploaded to IngramSpark.
    • Buying your own ISBNs can be expensive (you get them from https://www.bowker.com/isbn-us ) but it does mean your book will be recorded as published by you (or buy your company) instead of by Amazon. That said, bookstores won’t take books printed on Amazon anyway (or they’d be paying their competitor!).
    • Amazon will add a barcode, including the ISBN, to your back cover. It won’t insert the price in the barcode though. If you want the price included, you’ll need to create your own barcode (use online software) and create the whole cover, not just the front image.
  • .pdf file (prepared earlier from the doc, or from InDesign)
  • .kpf file (from KindleCreate)
  • .jpg file (for your cover – if you’re uploading a complete cover, it will be a .pdf file)
  • And that EXTRAS file!

HOW TO UPLOAD YOUR BOOK

Go to https://kdp.amazon.com/ and log in with your Amazon credentials. (Yes, you need an Amazon account, but you don’t have to let them store your credit card. Whenever you make a purchase, give them the card, and remove it from your account straight afterward if you want.)

They will ask for (and you must give them):

  • Your tax ID so they can tell the IRS every time they pay you (they have to, so they really need it).
  • Your bank account info so they can pay money into your account. (At present, you can’t use Paypal or mailed checks, but you can create a separate account just for Amazon if you’re worried.)
  • Yes, they really do need this information. If you want to self-publish and sell, your seller needs this info, and Amazon will be your seller.

Then you arrive at your bookshelf:

How to Upload Your Ebook

  • Click the big yellow button labeled “+” (but remember, internet programs change all the time. It might be green by the time you want to use it. It might be labeled “New” or something else. But its meaning will be clear).
  • Choose “kindle book” first – it really doesn’t matter, but it feels simpler (and again, remember things always change).
  • I’d suggest you don’t use DRM just ‘cause it’s a pain.
  • Copy that title, subtitle, author names, Amazon blurb, keywords etc from your EXTRAS file. Copying means your less likely to make a typo. Typos in your book can be fixed simply by re-uploading. Typos in the title live forever.
  • Choose your categories – a real pain since they keep changing, and won’t even stay the same between the print and kindle books. But it has to be done.

Then you move to the page where you upload your interior (.kpf) file, and your (.jpg) cover. (If it’s just a cover image with no text, you’ll use the Covercreator to design your full front cover. See Print Books below.) Amazon will promise to let you download your book “soon”, then change its mind so can’t download it – that’s life. But you looked at it with KindlePreviewer didn’t you? And you can check it now using the Preview tool.

  • Check that the contents entries point to the right chapters
  • View different font sizes, different orientations, and convince yourself it looks good.
  • Then use the “back” button at the top left – obscurely, this button has remained in the same place, with the same confusing purpose, for years!
  • Approve your book back on the original page and move to the next.

At this point you can enroll your book in special kindle programs, if you want. I don’t, as I don’t want to have to keep track of what’s going on, and I don’t want to be restricted to not selling my books on other platforms.

Then you set the price and royalties.

  • 70% royalties pays you 70% minus the (unspecified) download cost
  • 35% royalties pays you 35% regardless.
  • The minimum price for a big book, or a book with images, will be around $1.99. I suggest leaving it at that price. People who don’t know you might risk $2 to check our your ebook, and might decide they like you enough to buy your print books. But people who don’t know you are unlikely to shell out $10/$15 or more for your print book, just on spec.
  • You can set individual prices in different countries, but it’s safest to let Amazon use the current exchange rate.

When you finish, Amazon will ask if you want to create a paperback too. I’d suggest you answer “yes”.

How to upload your print book

A lot of the answers will already have been filled in for you when you start your print book. You still have to choose categories (today anyway) and they don’t offer the same selection for print and ebooks. I expect they’ll fix this soon.

On the uploads tab, you start with a free Amazon ISBN. Cut and paste this into your Word doc (or InDesign doc) and save a new .pdf file. Then upload the pdf file.

If you haven’t created a full .pdf cover, you’ll use Amazon cover creator at this point.

  • Choose the front cover image you used for the ebook.
    • If you used an image with title and author included, you’ll have to choose the cover “style” that matches. Otherwise
      • Choose the same style of cover as you chose for your ebook. The title and author names will be added automatically.
      • Be careful choosing the image. If you give Amazon the same image, it might spread it across the front and back, changing the appearance. If so, be prepared to create a similar image – perhaps the same image reflected on the left, or the same image with a pale-colored background on the left, or… so that the front cover image stays on the front cover. (You can use Microsoft Draw to create your “full-cover” image from your original.)
  • Add text to the back cover using you EXTRAS file
  • Change the back cover color, text color, etc – there are color sets, which are quite limited, or you can choose the color for each section separately using the small arrows on the left (as long as they don’t move).
  • You can also change the text color for a particular selection (say a paragraph) using the popup menu (as long as it doesn’t change).

Preview your cover, then preview your book. Flip through the pages. Make sure nothing looks untoward. Then click on the “accept” button.

And finally, set the price.

  • Print price is the price to print a copy. We are using the library’s Amazon account. The library can purchase our books at print price, plus postage. And postage can be a lot.
  • Minimum price is the minimum price Amazon will sell your book at. This gives Amazon its profit but pays no royalties (to you or, in this case, to the library).
  • Higher prices give you and Amazon more profit.

We set our prices to the minimum until the end of the year, so members can purchase Christmas gifts cheaply. At the end of the year, we will up the price for the print book to $9.95.

  • Too high a price means no one will take a chance on us.
  • Too low a price means no one will think we’re worth thinking about.
  • $9.95 seems a good happy medium
  • Royalties from print sales in the new year will go directly to the library. Royalties from ebook sales go straight to them straight away.

What We Learned

We repeated the whole process with another volume, in hopes this would help people remember what happened and how to use the tools. We will be happy to give talks on how to use other tools – Styles and Format with Word, InDesign, Photoshop, etc. – in 2024 if members want us to. Just be sure to attend January’s meeting and let your voices be heard.

And good luck to all those writing, editing, formatting, and preparing to upload their books!

]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/how-to-upload-your-book-to-amazon-from-sheilas-talk-nov-19th-2023/feed/ 4 11378
Writers’ Mill Minutes, Oct 15, 2023 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/writers-mill-minutes-oct-15-2023/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/writers-mill-minutes-oct-15-2023/#respond Fri, 20 Oct 2023 00:52:56 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11279 Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes, Oct 15, 2023 ]]> Our librarian Christine set up the zoom and room, and we had 19 members in total at October’s meeting – 6 in person and 13 online. Sheila started the meeting by reminding in-person attendees to face the microphone when speaking and avoid talking among themselves. Online attendees were reminded to switch on captions and use speaker view, especially to watch our speaker, David Porter, during his talk. David asked if the talk was being recorded, but we can’t record without setting it up before the meeting, and letting everyone know. Maybe it’s something we should think about doing more often—what do you think?

Ezine

Michael Fryer announced results from our October “Why Me?” contest—all great submissions which can be read in October’s ezine: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/oct-2023-ezine-contest-page/oct-2023-entries-voting-page/  

  • FIRST place, with most votes goes to Elizabeth Maggio for “A Touching Compromise”
  • SECOND place goes to Max White for “Death in Mosier”
  • THIRD place gets to be a TIE between Peter Letts for “Whynot the Robot” and Judy Beaston for “The Best Dishwasher Loader”

OTHER ENTRIES were:

  • A Wonderful Surprise sent in by Jessie Collins
  • How Did You Celebrate Your 30th Birthday? Sent in by Dian Hillard
  • Just Change Course sent in by Judy Beaston
  • Little Joe’s Blue Collar sent in by Sheila Deeth
  • When the Whole World Wonders Why! Sent in by Lyndsay Docherty
  • You Can’t Set German Shepherds on Fire Tonight sent in by Gary Romans

UPCOMING EZINE TOPICS:

These all have 1200 word limits (but fewer words is great—challenge yourself to write a 6-word story!). Any genre, just don’t try to offend. And send your entries to contest @ portlandwritersmill . org (remove spaces!). Deadlines are always the end of the 1st Sunday in the month (and meetings are on the 3rd Sundays).

  • NOVEMBER – deadline is Sunday, November 5th
    • THEME: Pushing Past Barriers, Host is Clayton M. Davis
    • Suggestions:
      • When in your life have you hit a wall and decided to push past it? How did you overcome it?
      • OR maybe you decided to not even try and turned back around?
    • How to enter:
      • As always, 1200 words or less / Essay, Fiction or Poetry
      • Attached doc or docx file preferred, will accept PDF and if needed, or you may paste it into the body of the email.
  • DECEMBER – deadline is Sunday, December 3rd
    • THEME: The Last Time I Was In…, Host is Elizabeth Maggio
  • JANUARY 2024 – deadline is Sunday, January 7th
    • THEME: Euphoria
    • Note—this month also contains an optional challenge
  • VISIT the UPCOMING CONTESTS page for further details: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/

Writing a Family Mystery (Fact or Fiction?) with David Porter

David Porter is a much-valued member of our group who wrote regularly for our monthly contests, provided wonderful images for our anthologies, often writing for them too, but more recently took “time off” to work on his family history novel. He spoke with us just over a year ago, and we were delighted to welcome him back with an update on what he’s writing, why, how, and what decisions the writing makes him ponder. Find notes from his talk at: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/fulfilling-that-writing-commitment-david-porter-oct-15-2023/

Anthology News

Sheila announced that the anthology is progressing well. The absolute deadline for any additions or changes (potential images, permissions for images, revised versions of submissions, etc.) is the end of Sunday Oct 22. But PLEASE get your changes to her sooner so we can move forward more easily.

At present, images are included in the master file with annotations in black if the author has requested or approved the image, in blue if the author has said they like the image but it’s okay not to include it, and in red if the image is entirely optional.

The anthology will be uploaded to Amazon at our next meeting, November 19th.

NaNoWriMo News

Just a reminder, Nanowrimo at our local libraries include:

  • Thursday, October 26th at 6:30pm: Plotting a Story Roadmap at the Bethany Library
  • Saturday, October 28th from 2-3pm: NaNoWriMo Kickoff event at BCLM
  • Wednesday, November 1st at 6:00pm: Write-in at CML
  • Thursday, November 2nd at 6:30pm: World Building Workshop at CML
  • Saturday, November 4th from 10:30-12:30: Write-in at Garden Home Library
  • Thursday, November 9th at 6:30pm: Romance Workshop at Bethany Library
  • Tuesday, November 14th from 5-7: Write-in at BCLM
  • Saturday, November 18th from 2:30-4:30: Write-in at BCLM
  • Sunday, November 19th from 1-3pm: Writers’ Mill Meeting and Self-Publishing Workshop at CML
  • Saturday, November 25th from 10:30-12:30: Write-in at the Garden Home Library

More info at https://library.cedarmill.org. This is your chance to get that novel started and/or finished, or just hang out with lots of writers.

Jean reminded us to visit Second Edition, next to the library, where we can purchase wonderful things including framed photographs by Jean (Sheila bought one straight after the meeting). Proceeds support the library.

Then Sheila closed the meeting with a reminder to sign up for emails if you’re not already receiving them. If you have a writing friend who isn’t getting the emails, please help them sign up!

Happy Writing!

]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/writers-mill-minutes-oct-15-2023/feed/ 0 11279
Fulfilling That Writing Commitment: David Porter, Oct 15, 2023 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/fulfilling-that-writing-commitment-david-porter-oct-15-2023/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/fulfilling-that-writing-commitment-david-porter-oct-15-2023/#respond Fri, 20 Oct 2023 00:49:50 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11277 Continue reading Fulfilling That Writing Commitment: David Porter, Oct 15, 2023 ]]> David Porter started writing bad poetry at age 12 and soon progressed to good. In 1968 he was at PSU and was already being published. In the ’70s and ’80s he wrote freelance articles, poems, and short stories, getting published in the Oregon magazine and NW magazine (inside the Oregonian). Meanwhile he wrote grant proposals, newsletters, presentations, etc for nonprofits for 40 years. He’s even written Beaver Board Historical Markers! Plus many book reviews.

In 2019 David published a book of poetry called Clearing the Sky of Thickets (https://www.amazon.com/Clearing-Sky-Thickets-David-Porter/dp/035924839X/) Everyone who’s read it agrees it’s a really good book, but it’s not going to make his fortune. David said his aim is to be read, not to make money from writing – a very practical aim, in a world where so many books compete for readers’ attention.

For several years, David wrote entries for Writers’ Mill contests and helped put our annual anthology together (see November’s meeting!). But he had a long-standing commitment to write something for his family, so he took a leave of absence to research the intriguing mystery of a great-uncle’s long-ago disappearance. In July 2022 David gave a talk about the process of researching and writing his novel. And this month he updated us with more information, more intrigue, and lots of fascinating tidbits of history and writing hints.

William Dodican was born 1867 and died on October 15, 1905 (the same date as our meeting!). Letters relating to his death were collected, wrapped in blue ribbon, by David’s paternal grandmother, and given to David in the ’70s. David’s grandmother and her siblings were raised by two sibling aunts after the death of their parents. And Aunt Mollie, one of these two, was deeply involved in trying to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.

The letters survived a house fire, and in 2009, as jobs and dreams crashed, David decided it was time to look at them—now slightly singed. He scanned them into the computer (initially just 1 or 2, but now 90 documents altogether!), and ordered and analyzed them. Scanning the letters means he can look at them without further damaging the paper or obscuring the text. And the first surprise was that these were not letters written by Aunt Mollie, but replies to letters she had written. She had clearly written lots of letters in search of more information.

  • Lesson for writers: Keep your work on the computer, and keep it backed up in case of disaster!

Since 2022, David has written 50,000 words, in 27 chapters, based on information he has discovered. He’s not sure how or when the editing process will end. But he does want to confirm the right pieces are all written in the right places. And when he has enough confidence, it will be done.

  • Lesson for writers: It can take a long time and a lot of words to complete your book. Then you really do have to edit it. And you have to be willing to consider big changes, like switching chapters around, to make it flow better for the reader.

William was a qualified bartender. When he caught the train from Chicago to San Francisco, he was probably hoping to find work. And it should have been relatively easy. But he got off the train in New Mexico and his body was found some time later by a cowboy.

  • Lesson for writers: Plans go awry.

Aunt Mollie received a letter from the cowboy who found her brother’s body. David researched why a cowboy would have been there, and was impressed by how articulate the cowboy appeared to be. A comment about the metal around the body being fake brings thoughts of gold and fools gold.

  • Lesson for writers: Don’t make assumptions about real people or about your characters.

The station master replied to a letter from Mollie. He described how her brother got off the train (at a stop for water, not a station) and insisted it was going in the wrong direction, then set off walking. Was he confused? Drugged? Drunk? But it was someone else that her brother spoke to, and that other witness seemed to have disappeared—Mollie’s letter to him traveled around the country before it was finally returned as undeliverable. Is there a mystery there?

  • Lesson for writers: Be ready to explore lots of avenues, and if your book is based in a particular time, remember to research people’s jobs, lifestyles, travels, levels of education etc.

Some questions clearly arise: Why was he allowed to wander off alone (and apparently somewhat incapacitated)? Why was no search made when he didn’t arrive at his destination on the train (his luggage arrived without him)? Why was there no missing person report until after the body was found? And why was it so hard for Mollie to get answers from people—were they afraid they’d lose their jobs?

  • Lesson for writers: Ask questions.

With the only witness vanished, there could be no further clues. But there is information from the sheriff (who had to pay for a horse and wagon to take the coroner to the body, only to find it too decomposed to carry! They buried it in the wilderness). And there is information that David has uncovered, about how sheriffs and coroners worked in those days. All of it’s useful to his book. But now he had to decide, what kind of book would this be?

  1. A summary—a coffee table book with photos collecting together what he’s learned.
  2. Fiction—murder mystery, spy novel… this was soon after the time of Billy the Kid, not long before the time of Roswell.
  3. Scholarly work—adding records and information about time and place to the letters
  4. A dramatized version of events, allowing him, as author, to get into the heads of the characters, so he can tell the tale with real and invented scenes, without being cavalier about time and place.

One of David’s favorite writers is Erik Larsen, who writes dramatized history (historical fiction). This is the direction David chose.

  • Lesson for writers: Know what you’re trying to write. If you don’t know, take the time to find out.

David researched the family history (emigration from Sligo, Ireland in the 1820s, Spanish American war!), the use of trains (people were just beginning to travel to California), the mail service (how did Mollie receive her letters?), technology, geology (gold in New Mexico), writing (Bram Stoker—did Sligo and the cholera epidemic influence the writing of Dracula?), what people might do on a train (Mickey Finns, swindlers’ card games), what people might talk about (Einstein, relativity), how people died and how bodies decomposed, how they celebrated and what celebrations might be cancelled when bad news is received… All these ideas give rise to chapters in his book, and to scenes that he can dramatize in his writing. Lots of research, and lots of choices to be made.

  • Lesson for writers: Realize you will have to make choices. From beginning to end isn’t the only way to tell your story. And sometimes it’s not even clear where the beginning and end should be.

David has access (as do we) to lots of resources to help visualize events. Google earth, Google street view, websites about obscure topics, etc.

  • Lesson for writers: Google is your friend.

David’s talk inspired many questions—about the events long ago, train timetables, drugs and alcohol on trains, etc. To find out more, you’ll have to read his book. But other questions concerned how David hopes to get published. Will he look for an agent? A publisher? A small publisher? Self-publish?

  • Lesson for writers: Think about how you want to get your book published. If you’re self-publishing, be sure to come to November’s meeting!

Publishers can let you down, and have let several of our members down (deliberately or by accident). According to David’s research, you might need to sell 5,000 books before you are considered saleable, but how? Marketing is a major problem—most publishers leave the author to do the marketing. And then there’s the question of how market, where’s your audience, what genre do you say your book is?

  • Lesson for writers: David knows his book is “like Erik Larsen’s.” Know which books and authors would be put next to yours on the shelf.

David’s poetry book was published through Lulu. He had help from copy-editors, graphic designers, and a good photographer. The print price, per copy, is around $3, which makes it possible for him to give away the book, as a way to get readers.

  • Lesson for writers: Who will your readers be? How will you find them? And how will you make your book look as good as possible—be aware that you might need help.

We all learned a lot, and were thoroughly intrigued by David’s mystery and his presentation. We’re looking forward to learning when and where the book is published so we can read it. Thank you David!

]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/fulfilling-that-writing-commitment-david-porter-oct-15-2023/feed/ 0 11277
Writers’ Mill Minutes Sunday September 17th 2023 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/04/writers-mill-minutes-sunday-september-17th-2023/ https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/04/writers-mill-minutes-sunday-september-17th-2023/#respond Wed, 04 Oct 2023 22:35:28 +0000 https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/?p=11264 Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes Sunday September 17th 2023 ]]> Twelve participants attended online, and three were present in the library meeting room, for a total of fifteen. Zita Podany led the meeting in Sheila Deeth’s absence. Christine Wong managed the technology from the library, with assistance from Matthew McAyeal who coordinated the Zoom chat with library attendees. Jean Harkin took Minutes. We welcomed new attendees, Julia Hardy and Andrew Kim.

Jean announced awards and participants in the September “Fall, Falling, Fallen” contest (with challenge to write sentences without active verbs (scesis onomaton):

  • FIRST – Lyndsay Docherty for “The Fallen Unforgotten”
  • SECOND is a tie (there is NO third this month)–Peter Letts for “Words,” Gary Romans for “A Scesis Onomaton Ode To FALLen Minor Celebrities Who Were Major Celebrities But Only in Their Own Minds”

ALL THE OTHER ENTRIES: 

Jean Harkin – Falling For A Challenge (host entry)

David Fryer – Chasing Waterfalls

M.L. Lyons – Felled in Love (one act play)

Judy Beaston – Fire Fall

Sheila Deeth – Roller Coaster Ride (poem)

Robin Layne – That Wretched Prince

Jessie Collins – When Bad Becomes Good

Next month’s contest theme is “Why Me?” hosted by Michael Fryer. Deadline for entries is Sunday, October 1. Any genre, under 1200 words. Find out more at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/oct-2023-ezine-contest-page/.

Other future contest themes and deadline dates are November 5, “Pushing Past Barriers,” host Clayton Davis; December 3, “The Last Time I Was In . . .” host Liz Maggio. More details on these can be found at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/

Zita announced that the library is offering programs of special interest to writers of fantasy, sci fi, and romance in October. See https://library.cedarmill.org  for full details. There will be a special focus on navigating NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. A list of the special NaNoWriMo events is included at the end of these Minutes.

Zita, who teaches at Portland Community College, presented a program on how to design a website, using screen share to show how she expertly used the Google Sites tools to create and publish a website. She began the demonstration with the caveat that the presently free Google Sites has recently been purchased by Square Space, and changes might follow, as they did when Square Space took over Weebly website builder. She advised setting up our own Google Sites website as soon as possible before changes take place. A website on Google Sites is presently free, but you would need to register your domain either through SquareSpace or another domain registrar.

To begin setting up a free website, if you have a Google account, you can directly access Google Sites by clicking on the “waffle” or 9-dot icon. Zita then showed how to set up a title page, home page, install images (best upload your images into your Google Drive. Create a Website folder in Google Drive and upload images to that folder to keep all website-related items together), placeholder text, navigation tabs, additional pages to the website, adding a footer section, creating a link, using Google’s ‘insert’ section and icon tools, and setting up a video slide show. She provided tips and advice as she deftly navigated through the website draft to the publishing stage. After publishing the website, it is possible to then look at it as it would appear to visitors to the pages.

Some of Zita’s wisdom gained from experience is as follows:  Home page should have no more information than an introductory “elevator speech” of 3 minutes. Images for a website should be as small as available, no more than 300 pixels wide. There are tabs at the top of Google Drive page for Google-provided images. Moving images around: Zita cautioned against distorting or stretching images while moving them around the pages. Hold the shift key to resize proportionally; do this before grabbing the image handle. Images for a slide show should be of similar width and always the same orientation, either horizontal or vertical.

Shift enter is a handy bit of information. Using these computer keys will start a new line when you don’t want to start a new paragraph. Print fonts. Arial and Verdana are best; both crisp, dark enough, large enough to read easily. Open Sans is good too. A footer section is a good place for  copyright information and links. Selecting a color for this section is a good idea. Use the “chain” icon on the Google Drive to create a footer.

Copyright precautions for websites and anything published: Illustrations from Pixabay are often used for publications. But “royalty-free” does not automatically mean an image if free to use. It is necessary to look at the content-license summary to determine whether an image is copyright-free to download and use. These new categories of Pixabay images will severely impact usage, choices, and attributions for the Writers’ Mill anthology as well as personal websites. User beware!

There were questions from the group about images for the anthology and whether a list of titles will be provided. Zita said that when Sheila returns home, she will be sending emails to editors and content organizers. Possibly a request for specific images will follow.

Guest speaker for October 15 meeting will be Writers’ Mill member David Porter who will give us an update on the family mystery story he is investigating and writing, continuing where he left off with his presentation to us in July, 2022.

]]>
https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/04/writers-mill-minutes-sunday-september-17th-2023/feed/ 0 11264