Author: ransomnoble

Published Writer: young adult and science fiction

Who do you know?

So many times you hear about people who “made it” – they knew someone. The road to success is long and difficult, and I think just about everyone has help along the way.

Most of us don’t know the celebrities personally. We don’t know the people who brought them fame and/or fortune. What we have instead is friends and family who will help us in any way they can.

I’m not going to win an Oscar, most likely, so you won’t see them drag me off the stage trying to thank the people who helped me. I’m okay with that – I’m a writer and I don’t really do screenplays.

What I try to do, though I think I’d better keep better track next time, is write acknowledgments. There’s one in the front cover of my book. I realized I forgot someone recently, but it’s probably too late to add them right now. My old neighbors let me use their fax machine when I needed to figure out how to receive a copy of my book. (My husband, ever helpful, kept asking why it couldn’t be emailed.)

I moved, and I still miss my neighbors. I have a new neighbor who seems cool, but they made my old house a really nice place to live.

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Geek Appeal

Read more here.

In the never-ending struggle against old age, the newest study says aerobic exercise helps.

So, as I get older, I’m supposed to exercise more. I’m also supposed to do fun puzzles to keep the brain stimulated. Am I missing anything? Oh, yes, and believe I can get to whatever age – with the stipulation that I will be happy, healthy, and mobile!

You’d think if it were that easy, anyone could do it.

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Author Appearance Scheduled!

Well, the first acceptance for me to do an author appearance is River Lights, Second Edition in Dubuque, Iowa!

I’m very excited to be on the schedule. They’ll assist me knowing when to start really hitting the promotional road to get the excitement up for this appearance. I haven’t figured out the program yet, though there are always a couple ideas bursting in my head. There’s a possibility I might speak on the radio!

I’ve always wanted to be on the radio. Something about listening to it for years, with a DJ as a relative.

Coming in September… more details as we approach the date. That’s one city off my list.

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Traveling with Baby

Throws the entire schedule off. Hers and mine!

I forget how much we almost have a schedule until we start messing with it by driving several hours to see family. Last time it wasn’t so pronounced. Hopefully she’ll manage to get back to something regularish… soon!

If you didn’t see the interview with Katie Hines yesterday, check it out here. I’m excited to say I’ll have another interview coming up, details when I get them.

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Editors

A magazine asked for editors on Twitter, and several people passed it on. Great thing about Twitter – I have food for thought.

Requirements include excellent language and grammar skills, which makes sense. How does one prove this on a resume? I bet prior editing experience would be good. What else? If you have no experience, how would you get there?

I have a friend whose grammar is stellar. She always corrects my Midwestern turns of phrase which leaves prepositions at the end. While I have some quirks, my grammar isn’t horrible. That said, I couldn’t prove it on a resume. Gee, I’ve had more calculus classes than most English majors think exist, but not a single literature course in college. Rhetoric fulfilled a requirement; we never talked about how to use the language. Somehow I ended up a writer anyway. Not that being a writer necessarily means great grammar or spelling or even good use of language. It helps. It separates the mediocre from the good and the great.

That still leaves me with how I’d prove it on a resume. I think the short answer is, I can’t.

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Who do you look up to?

When you’re focused on a goal, keeping it in sight with daily activities and marking progress. I know a lot of would-be writers probably wish to be someone like Stephen King, but I wonder if that’s just because he’s a household name by now.

[Not that Stephen King isn’t worthy of esteem, he’s worked very hard to get to where he is and deserves it!]

However, not all of us have that inner horror muse to titillate the masses. I struggle, though I know I have my fans, and I can accept that I might never have a name that’s known in every household. It won’t stop me from trying!

I think about that sometimes. Am I content to keep on with the small presses? It’s difficult to only be available online. I’d love to walk into the brick-and-mortar bookstores and see my books there. It’d be easier to put together book signings and appearances.

Then the difficult part of being an artist- the doubt- hits. What if I’m not good enough for that? On the other hand, if I never try, I’ll never know.

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Father’s Day

What do we expect out of a father character? Probably much the same we do in life – someone who lays down the law and is the disciplinarian in our family.

Not all fathers fit this bill. I’m not sure even most do today, but we still carry over the expectation from before.

I didn’t have one of those fathers in my book, The Art of Science. I opted instead to make the mother into the ‘bad guy’ parent, and the father the one who stayed home and nurtured the children more. It didn’t make him less of a parent or a man; it changed his style.

I’m thinking about the next book already. (what author doesn’t?) Maybe this time it’ll be someone more conventional who fills the father’s role.

Happy Father’s Day to the traditional – and not so traditional – fathers out there.

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Character Naming

See information about The Art of Science and an interview with me here.

If a story has a historical setting, or perhaps the writer wanted to know the name of a character would have been used or even common for a particular age group, the social security administration has kept some records since the 1890s.

Since 2000, they have detailed records of the top 1000 names for both male and female babies born in the US and some data about popularity by state. Data includes ranking with some statistical information about how probable the name is to find. If nothing else, it’s interesting to play with just to see how things change (like the fall of Emily from the number one slot this year to Emma – my, how similar they sound).

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Waiting-

I hate waiting for responses. It isn’t necessarily that I’m impatient. I can hang in there pretty well.

It’s just that once I know the usual response time has ended, I wonder what to do. Is it time to query? Should I wait another day? Another week? It isn’t so bad if I can send a friendly email to the editor, but sending through the post office? What if the original didn’t get there? (I know, send a self-addressed stamped postcard and get a response as soon as it’s there.)

If a response isn’t given in the time generally allotted, some markets just aren’t interested. Sometimes it’s difficult to know which is which.

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Editing

Every writer needs an editor. It’s not about how technically correct the writing is. It isn’t even about how great the story is.

A writer needs someone to look over the work. How many times have I read the big authors talking about how their spouses read over what they wrote for the day? So many talk about the editors of the old days who worked with writers to improve their works.

I listened to an author speak about a year ago, and one of her classmates from her MFA program read everything she wrote. It seems a natural pairing, an editor and a writer – even if the editor in question has no training.

Why? Well, no matter how many times I look at a manuscript, there always seems to be something I miss. Too close is usually the reason. I think that’s true of many of us, though all writers get to different points on their own before enlisting outside help.

But I think just about every writer I know does enlist outside help, an editor or whomever, at some point.

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