Titles - and a secret

What I'm reading: Master of Craving, by Karin Tabke

Names. By now, everyone (me included) is saturated with discussions of the new iPad (there were clearly no women on the team that came up with THAT name). This was an old spoof on the iPod, but it's just as appropriate now.


Naming things can be a headache. I hate coming up with titles for my books. When I started learning the business, everyone said not to worry about it because the publishers would change it. That was fine with me. Only my publishers never have, so what you see represent my struggles to find those perfect words.

Titles are the last things I come up with. WHAT'S IN A NAME? got its title the day I wanted to enter the manuscript in a contest and I had to write something on that "Title" line. Since the book dealt with people pretending to be someone else (or is it someone elses?), the title seemed appropriate. Even though that wasn't really what I had in mind when I wrote it, as long as it worked, I was happy.

How Can You Like an Antihero?

What I'm reading: Master of Torment, by Karin Tabke

Last week's reads, especially 3 of Barry Eisler's John Rain series got me thinking about "heroes." As authors, we want readers to care about our characters. If they don't care about the protagonist, why should they finish reading the book? It's especially critical for a series, because a reader who doesn't like the character isn't likely to read the rest of the books. I know I follow a series when the characters draw me in. We want our heroes to be heroic. They might not be saving the world, but they should be acting honorably. What would we do if we were in their position? For a romance, the hero had darn well better be a good guy.

What happens when your hero has unlikeable qualities? Why do readers keep coming back for more when the hero is more of an antihero?

My cop contacts told me about the television show Dexter, where the main character kills people according to his personal code, instilled in him by his father. But he only kills "bad" people, those who have escaped the legal system, which gives it an interesting twist. Definitely not your typical hero.

Dexter is in its 4th season, so people are willing to accept the characters "hobby." Likewise, John Rain has come back five times since the first book. What makes people connect?

That Magic Decoder Ring

How do you read? Decoding or Sight Words? And yes, this will get to a 'writing' topic, so hang in there. Please.

When I volunteer for the Adult Literacy League, training new tutors, one of the things we discuss is how people learning to read must be able to decode the markings on the page into meaningful words, sentences, and paragraphs. There are many ways we do this.

What does a reader do when confronted with a word he doesn't recognize?

We use our phonics skills, but they don't always work, since the English language is rooted in too many other languages that don't comply to those "rules." They work much of the time, however, so the ALL recommends using a phonics based approach as a basic starting point.

Another tool: In our training sessions we talk about Word Patterns, or Word Families, which might also draw on phonics skills. Can you compare the word to another that you already know? For example, if the student can't read the word "Shake", but can read "cake" and "bake", the tutor can use this as a way to help the reader recognize that "ake" makes a specific sound, and from there, can extrapolate how to form other words that end in "ake."

Of course, it won't always work. My favorite example is laughter. Change the "l" to a "d" and the words sound nothing alike. (Unless you're in my family, in which we've been know to refer to our dafters.)

RT Recap 2

What I'm reading: Hidden Prey, by John Sandford

Thanks to Jenyfer Matthews for sharing her slice of life yesterday. Now, back to my RT recaps.

Thursday morning, I joined a group of mystery writers in hosting a breakfast mixer. I was also part of a panel with CJ Lyons, Carole Nelson Douglas, Jana Oliver and Lori Avocato as we discussed writing a mystery. My contribution – how to balance the romance and mystery in romantic suspense. I didn't do a formal handout type presentation, because these were informal panels, but I'm always happy to answer questions. And being the only author on the panel whose books are actually shelved in the romance aisle, my comments were very different from the others.
Lunch was an opportunistic meeting of someone from Desert Breeze Publishing, a new e-press that was hosting a meet-and-greet in the hotel restaurant. I'm not proud. If there's food, I was there. And they did sound like they understand what it takes to break into the world of e-books. They gave us a CD with excerpts and submission guidelines, which I'll explore when life gets back to normal.

I attended an afternoon session given by Barry Eisler, Rita Herron and Jennifer St. Giles on "Creating the Ultimate Page Turner."
Keep Reading...

Eisler (in addition to being very easy on the eyes) knows how to work a group. He realized women were reading his books after their husbands finished them, and set out to reach female readers from the get go. I've been to a lot of conference workshops in my short writing career, and this is the first time the presenter stopped to introduce himself (and give a business card) to each person in the room before the workshop got underway. I doubt anyone in the room didn't know who he was, but it's a good lesson for us lesser-knowns. And for authors, conventions like these, in addition to being fun (Eisler's comment: Where else can you say, "Will I see you at the Faery Ball?") are definitely places to network, and RT is reader-oriented as well, which is another great way to get your books known. When you write for relatively obscure presses, it's vital.


Important writing lesson from the workshop: We are afraid of what hasn't happened yet. As writers, it's important to keep the tension escalating. Although I don't write thrillers, I think this premise translates to my mystery-based stories as well.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay for the last session, as I'd promised to help out at a fund-raiser for the Adult Literacy League. Michael Connelly and Bob Morris were speakers, so I was still getting some great information. In addition to a last workshop, I had to miss the "Faery Ball" but I'll bet it won't take too much blog-hopping to get the scoop on that one.

Please come back - I'm breaking up these recap posts rather than throw everything out all at once. Plus, there's Friday for the next Homicide - Hussey story, so RT Recaps might stretch out into next week. I'm still working up my notes from Raz Steel's "Phony Male Syndrome" workshop.