Guest Bloggers – Page 20

Guest post by Helen Sedwick

Every writer knows the challenge of finding readers willing to critique our works-in-progress. We beg, barter, and guilt loved ones into reviewing just one more draft.

But there’s an easier and faster way to get a fresh pair of eyes to look at your work; online critique sites such as Scribophile, Writer’s Café, and Critique Circle. Some of these sites operate on a credit system; you earn credits by giving critiques and spend credits by posting your work for feedback. Others use an honor system. Some, such as Inked Voices, set up cloud-based, on-going groups. In my experience, these online communities are incredibly helpful and supportive.

But many writers worry about posting their work online. Will they lose their copyright? Will someone steal their work?

Good questions and an opportunity to explain what to look for when giving anyone rights to use or display your work, including critique sites.

Will you lose your copyright by posting online?

First, be assured that you own the copyright in your work as soon as you put it down on paper or type it into a computer. Posting the work online does not void your copyright, even if you don’t include a copyright notice.

Years ago, you could lose your copyright by publishing a work without a copyright notice or by failing to register it. That is no longer the case. Copyright attaches automatically.

What rights are you giving away?

When you post work on a critique site, you are giving the site limited permission to display your work. But it’s important to look at their terms of service or FAQs to make sure. Look for the following:
- You are granting them only a non-exclusive right to display your work.
- Their use is limited to their own site and the site’s business.
- You may terminate their rights at any time.
- When you terminate, the site may retain an archival copy only.
That’s it. No transfer. No right to publish. No right to resell your work.

Scribophile has a fun way of explaining it:

You keep all rights to the work you post at Scribophile. The short version is that by posting on Scribophile, you grant us the non-exclusive right to display your work (we have to display it, otherwise nobody could critique it!), and that’s it. We’re here to help you improve, not to cruelly steal your rights while twiddling our moustaches and cackling madly.

Writers Café, owned by Aresta Enterprises, is a little more formal, but just as clear:

Aresta Enterprise does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for via the Service, you grant Aresta Enterprise a perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify and publicly display such Content on the Service.

About the broadest provisions are those of WEbook which say: Member grants WEbook a non-exclusive, worldwide, unlimited license to copy, display, render, distribute, transmit, store, and otherwise use the Content covered by this section for all purposes associated with WEbook’s operation of the Site and WEbook’s business.

Those last three words “and WEbook’s business” permits them to use your work to advertise and promote the site. WEbook has a broader business model than most. It hosts collaborative projects where writers jointly contribute to a work. Online collaborative projects create a hornet’s nest of legal issues, and I would avoid them.

Can you still offer a publisher first-publication rights?

Yes. Because copyright law lags behind technology, posting work online is generally not considered “publication,” but is treated as a “display.” It cannot hurt to tell a publisher the work was posted on a critique site, but I have never heard of anyone treating postings of works-in-progress as a first publication.

Will someone steal the posted work?

Possibly. Someone could cut and paste your work. In reality, however, outright stealing of copyrighted work is rare. For most writers, obscurity is a bigger problem than piracy. Generally, these sites require people to log in to view postings, so if you find your work stolen, you may be able to trace who has read it.

Which critique site is right for you?

Writers may have to try several sites before they find they one that suits them best. Each organizes content differently and draws a different crowd. In addition to the sites mentioned above, take a look at:

Writing.com

YouWriteOn.com

Absolute Write Water Cooler, a huge and active forum that also facilitate critiques.

And there are many informal groups on Facebook, Goggle Plus, and LinkedIn.

If you don’t find a site you like this week, try again in a month or so. New sites keep popping up.

Bottom line, there is much to gain and little to lose by posting your work online, although I recommend you take a look at the site’s fine print before you submit. And until your most loyal friend, the family dog, is willing to read your latest draft, these online communities may be the more consistent source of valuable feedback.

For more information about the legal issues of self-publishing and blogging, check out my book and my blog at http://helensedwick.com/blog/.

Website http://helensedwick.com/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+HelenSedwick/posts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HelenSedwick

Disclaimer: Helen Sedwick is an attorney licensed to practice in California only. This information is general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for the advice of an attorney authorized to practice in your jurisdiction.

Helen Sedwick is a California attorney representing small business and entrepreneurs. She recently released Self-Publisher’s Legal Handbook to help writers navigate the legal minefields of blogging and self-publishing. Her historical novel Coyote Winds earned five-star reviews from ForeWord Reviews and Compulsion Reads and is an IndieBRAG Medallion Honoree.

Self-Publisher’s Legal Handbook was recently listed in the top five Publisher’s Weekly!
What’s in a Title by Guest Blogger Jane Merryman

Naked Lunch

A Crack in the Edge of the World

The Borrowers

Book titles. Delicious. They provide entertainment in themselves, never mind what’s between the covers. The words on the front offer promise, titillation, or confusion. Of course, some titles are strictly workaday: Wildflowers of North America; The History of England from the Accession of James II; Math Formulas and Tables. But other titles are delightfully misleading, some are curiously ironic, others are satirical or even nonsense.

A Moveable Feast

Fezzes in the River

Manhattan Transfer

The title may or may not be an exact pointer to what’s inside, but it’s definitely a label that fixes itself in mind and memory. Take Pride and Prejudice—it has a lilt to it. But do you really want to plod through several hundred pages of unillustrated text enumerating the consequences of a couple of vices, or would you rather read about landing a husband? From its title, you don’t know how much you might or might not enjoy reading this book.

As a librarian I’ve spent many hours “reading the shelves,” an actual entry on the official list of library chores. I select a block of shelves and check every book, making sure it’s filed correctly by Dewey Decimal Number, author’s last name if it’s fiction, or subject’s name for biographies. This exercise affords plenty of time to savor the mystique of the title, pushing aside what I know of the work itself. I’ve read The Great Gatsby, but to someone who hasn’t (yet), what is a gatsby? No matter, the alliteration is the hook.

One Hundred Years of Solitude sounds as if it could get soporific really fast, but it doesn’t. Men Are Like Streetcars, Memoirs of a Geisha, and The Plague all live up to their promise. War and Peace appears to have taken on too much. A Thousand Acres seems more do-able. Nine Stories is something I could definitely finish.

Some titles tell you right away that Things Fall Apart, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, and Friday the Rabbi Slept Late. At times they advise you to Play It As It Lays, to Go Tell It on the Mountain, or that You Can’t Go Home Again.

My Family and Other Animals, Chocolat —these titles make us smile in agreement. The Lexus and the Olive Tree, A Clockwork Orange, Up the Down Staircase, A Wrinkle in Time—these fill us with consternation.

The Naked and the Dead is one of those titles that leads us somewhat astray since it’s about the fully clothed and the living. Seeing Through Clothes might disappoint some readers with its lengthy footnoted discussion of the history of garments and fashion. Some books seem to be wanting to tell us about royalty—The African Queen, All the King’s Men, and The Prince of Tides—but they never make it to the palace.

Authors can lift their titles from other works, such as the Bible, Shakespeare, and famous and not-so-well-known poets, and give them a resonance that sticks with us. We have East of Eden and The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Winter of Our Discontent, and The Grapes of Wrath. In nursery rhymes writers found When She Was Good and When the Bough Breaks. A book of travel essays went to a play to find its title, The Kindness of Strangers, which helps explain its contents, but are the others so transparent?

Birds figure in many titles: The Maltese Falcon, The Painted Bird, Lonesome Dove, and Wild Swans. And of course mockingbirds, eagles, swallows, and blackbirds are all roosting on the library shelves, too. Little Birds, though, is not at all about ornithology.

Titles beckon—invite us to go on a Forbidden Journey, to take The Road from Coorain, to venture Beyond the Khyber Pass, and catch The Polar Express. They offer to take us to a special place, anywhere from The House on Mango Street, to Under the Volcano, to Hiroshima, or suggest that we stroll down Revolutionary Road, Half Moon Street, and Lonely Avenue. Bridges turn up uncommonly often in titles—bridges to Terabithia, of San Luis Rey, at Toko-Ri, over the River Kwai, and on the Drina—and lead us on fraught, hardly light-hearted journeys.

Need I go on? Haven’t you been tempted to read a book just because its title played with you? There’s a world—a universe—out there in books. Their titles might tell us exactly what is inside, what information we will tap into, what kind of adventure we will take off on. Some merely hint at the experience to come. Others don’t give us a clue, even after we’ve read the whole thing from foreword to appendix. But that doesn’t matter. Reading a shelf of titles is a pleasure in itself without even opening the books. Take Chocolat—’nuf said.

In my opinion, though, all books should bear the subtitle Great Expectations.

Jane Merryman specializes in copy editing: correcting grammar, spelling, punctuation, usage, and, as we say in the profession, infelicities.
Guest Blogger Clara Rosemarda reveals how to write with depth and clarity.

Clara writes:

Many years ago I took voice lessons from a master teacher. He worked with people
who believed they were tone deaf. I was one of those people. My voice seemed flat as the ground I walked on, and I was too embarrassed to sing unless I was in a group large enough to swallow the sound of my voice.

My teacher, robust and powerful, sat opposite me on the floor of his music studio. With full-bodied fingers born to make music he plucked the strings of his tambura going up and down the scale. Then he sounded a note and had me repeat it. At first I couldn’t reproduce the exact sound, but after a few tries and great concentration, I was able to. He told me I had a good voice which was a surprise to me. Once I got the hang of it, whenever I missed a note, he looked straight at me with his burning brown eyes, and asked where I had gone. Then he’d have me try again, and again, until I finally got it.

These few lessons taught me that the problem was not with my voice, but my inability to stay focused and present. Although I was capable of deep concentration in many other areas, the life-long belief that I couldn’t sing disrupted my ability to listen and to replicate what I heard. Frightened that I would get it wrong, I tried to think my way through instead of trusting that if I listened I would be able to repeat the sound.

Even though I don’t plan on giving a recital in Carnegie Hall or anywhere for that matter, I do enjoy singing now for the pure pleasure of it. Most importantly, I no longer consider myself tone deaf. I have developed the ability to concentrate when I’m singing, to listen deeply, and to be present with the sounds. When you are of two minds, neither one can be used to its fullest.

The same is true with writing. When your mind is concentrated on a single thought or image, when you ARE the writing, and not jumping ahead of yourself, or thinking of HOW you are writing, you will write with depth and clarity.

In the initial creation, all that is required is that you put pen to paper and keep your hand moving. Stay with your original thought, rather than allowing the editor to sit on your shoulder telling you not to say that, or how stupid this is, or what makes you think you’re a writer? To sound a clear note, you cannot be of two minds; your mind must be fully present and focused on a single point.

EXERCISES:
1. “His reflection in the mirror … ” Write for 1 0 minutes.
2. “Walking through … ” Write for 15 minutes.
3. “When I woke up that morning … ” Write for 20 minutes.
4. Read these pieces aloud to yourself, listening mindfully, as if someone else had
  written them. What did you, the reader, hear that you didn’t hear as you were writing?
CLARA ROSEMARDA M.A. is an evocative writing teacher, poet, memoirist, intuition counselor, and workshop leader. She has been in private practice in Santa Rosa, California for over thirty years where she works with beginning as well as mainstream writers. Clara teaches workshops at Santa Rosa Junior College and internationally. In her private sessions as well as her teaching she helps people connect to and act from their most authentic selves. She was co-creator and coordinator of the popular writers’ program, The Writer’s Sampler, of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Her prose and poetry are published in literary journals and anthologies. She is co-author and co-editor of the anthology, STEEPED: In the World of Tea (Interlink Publishing, 2004). Clara has two poetry chapbooks: “Doing Laundry” (a letterpress limited edition, Iota Press, 2013) and “Naked Branches” (WordTemple Press, Small Change Series, 2014).

Note from Marlene: If you have a chance to take a workshop with Clara. . . do it! I did and it was a transformative experience.
Guest blogger Daryl Hajek discusses a writer’s journey.

I was taught to learn to read and write at a young age, even before kindergarten. My parents had told me, because of my deafness, they were determined that I was going to learn to read and write. That was the beginning of my journey into reading and writing.

As Stephen King says, “Read a lot, write a lot.” I do this by reading two or three books (or ebooks) concurrently, but that’s a quirk of mine. I also write at least one hour a day, up to eight hours, depending on my mood or how I’m feeling.

Learn as much as you can about writing. Take a writing course or two. Get how-to books on writing. Join a book club. Network with other authors/writers online via social media.

Get a professional editor which is an absolute must, no exceptions whatsoever. Otherwise, unedited works show and may cause long-term regrets and embarrassments. It’s most important to learn from your editor, as well. I gained a healthy bit of edification from my editor such as eliminating redundancies and not repeating the same descriptive adjectives or adverbs in your narration, especially within the same sentence or paragraph.

Keep expositions to a minimum so as not to drag the story down and bore the reader.

Omit the following dead/boring/over-used words: was, actually, literally, quite, virtually, got, things, stuff, just, really, very, a lot, and action verbs ending in “-ing,” such as “running,” “skating,” “dancing,” and so on. Instead, use action words like “he ran,” “she skated,” “they danced,” and so forth. The reason is that these words weaken the author’s writing (in the narration), but it’s okay to use them in character dialogue because that’s how people talk. Equally, leave out clichés, idioms, and slang from the narration except for character dialogue.

Another thing to cut from writing are speech tags, such as “Gary muttered quietly,” “Melissa said bitterly,” and “Carl barked angrily.” They also make for weak writing. Stick with the traditional “he said/she said” way of writing. In fact, “he said/she said” is practically invisible to the reader’s eye. If the author needs to use speech tags, I’d recommend using them sparingly.

Avoid clichéd characters, such as the typical black-cloaked villain with those smoldering eyes or the golden-haired Miss Goody-Two-Shoes. Rather, make your characters realistic, like the average person, such as the guy next to you. But, don’t make those characters boring. Give each character a little something intriguing, add a certain idiosyncrasy (i.e., a nervous tic) or a condition (i.e., deafness or Asperger’s Syndrome).

As a first-time deaf author of general mainstream mass-market fiction, if I can do it, so can you!

Daryl Hajek is the author of Blood Blossom. He is currently at work on his next novel.
So, you’ve got your book written, or almost written, or you have an idea for a book, but you’re stuck dead in your tracks because you detest the marketing aspect of the book business

Amanda McTigue says, “No doubt about it: we writers love to write, hate to sell. How could it be otherwise? We’re the odd balls who’d rather spend vast quantities of time alone in our imaginations. And yet these days, we’re told not only must we craft (and sometimes publish) our works, but also find readers to read them: a daunting challenge compounded by our own dread. What’s a writer to do?”

Amanda shares resources on one of our least favorite challenges: marketing yourself and your book.

“The Psychology of Writer Promotion. How to Promote Yourself,” Chuck Wendig

“Book Marketing 101,” Jane Friedman

“Five Mistakes You’ll Make on the Way to Publishing Success,” Carmen Amato via Jane Friedman

71 Ways to Promote and Market Your Book,” Kimberley Grabas

15 DIY Tools to Promote Your Book,” Writer’s Store

Author, playwright, stage director and storyteller, Amanda McTigue has also worked for decades as a creative marketing consultant for such clients as Walt Disney Entertainment, Paramount Entertainment and design firms such as Thinkwell and The Hettema Group in Los Angeles. Her novel, “Going to Solace,” was cited by public radio KRCB’s “Word by Word” as a Best Read of 2012. She also makes regular appearances at Petaluma’s “West Side Stories” and “Get Lit.” She’s busy completing short stories and a second novel. Click here for Amanda’s Resource page.

Amanda will be the March 19, 2015 Writers Forum presenter.
Mona first posted “In memory of Karen Batchelor” on her blog, Envelope of Random Things.

In memory of Karen Batchelor

A year ago a talented, amazing woman left us too soon. I always felt she was a mentor to me, not just in my writing world, but about life in general. In memory of her I want to post what I call my mission statement. Ok, other writers out there, let’s send the world some stories! I can only hope that somehow I might continue her legacy in that way.

Mona’s Mission Statement

My mission is to be a mentor to upcoming writers struggling to find their way with the craft of writing. I hope to do this as a testament to the mentors who were there for me. I will do this by being an example of how crucial it is to continue in my quest for knowledge of the process of the written word and the power that is behind a great story. If this gets me to work more fiercely and with more dedication, then I know all is how it should be and the cosmos has willed it to be so.

Mona Mechling considers herself a dark Erma Bombeck. As a preteen, she began writing poems and short stories that went into a drawer. Her first published story was one in Vintage Voices when she was fifty. Life, family and friends are her inspiration.
The following is from Ted A. Moreno’s 12/16/14 email, “You Don’t Need Silence to Be Quiet.”

Sit back, relax and enjoy.

Ted writes:

Last night I sat in a filled auditorium and watched as my 9 year old daughter, along with scores of other elementary school kids, gave her first band performance. They played 5 notes.

When the curtain rose, she was right in my line of vision, wearing the white shirt and black pants her mom had picked up for her that afternoon. She sat with her clarinet, Taylor Swift hair, and sparkly eyes. She spotted me and returned my thumbs up sign with a huge grin.

And even though the auditorium was filled with hooting parents calling out their kids’ names, I felt a stillness within. It hadn’t been a really good day, too busy, but right then and there it got a whole lot better.

It wasn’t really all about pride for my daughter or happiness that my $22 a month clarinet rental was paying dividends. It went deeper than that.

I got quiet and present to my life.

This was my life: a wife, a 7 and a 9 year old, a home, music, business. It didn’t look like what a lot of other people have, but that didn’t matter. At that moment, it was perfect.

Call it grace, luck, an auspicious alignment of the stars, whatever you want. I just got out of my way and allowed some little bit of peace in.

You don’t need silence to be quiet inside, you just need to allow yourself the chance to connect with it. You see, it’s always there waiting for your attention. And what that is, is essentially, you.

Stop. Sit. Quiet. Give it to yourself because no one else will. Turn off the TV, put away the electronic gizmos, stop thinking. Listen, first outside, then inside. What’s the message waiting for you? In the sound of rain or the traffic or the barking dogs?

Even if you are in the middle of all the noise and hurry and haste, you can still be quiet. Breathe. Ask yourself, “What’s happening here?” Look and feel and get it. Step back from what is experienced and connect with the That which Experiences.

Even though it’s all moving all the time, the only constant is your awareness. It really is the only thing that is ever True. See for yourself.

Let me know how it’s going. I’d love to hear from you.

Ted A. Moreno, Success Performance Coach and Certified Hypnotherapist
626.826.0612

Click here for Ted’s website.

From Marlene: Ted’s hypnotherapy work is extremely effective and therapeutic. He listens carefully, offers helpful feedback and suggestions that aid in getting to the heart of the situation. He is extremely perceptive, kind and understanding. If you think hypnotherapy might work for you . . . Ted’s your guy.
Today’s Guest Blogger, hypnotherapist Ted A. Moreno, writes about reflection and the passage of time . . .

We’re still enjoying 80 degree temps here in Southern California. But it’s obvious that fall has arrived and that summer is on its way south.

Can you feel it? The morning chill, the early darkness, the long shadows of late afternoon. Leaves releasing themselves for the slow descent to the ground.

Autumn has always been my favorite time of year. Something about the shorter days and chillier nights make me pensive, perhaps because I was a winter baby.

For me, this is a time of introspection, of going within. It’s as if the fading fall light casts a different perspective that makes me take a step back to examine my life.

I’m getting more present to the fading away of a younger me. Remembrances of younger days seem to be visiting me lately. Not only the good times but the tough times.

At this stage of the game, they show up now only as fleeting images that seem to have no relevance anymore. They are dead, and increasingly, less useful to me.

Maybe the reason they come is to be released, to say goodbye.

(You may know that the title of today’s post is from the movie, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” You may also know that November 1st is Dia de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead.)

Like the fall and regrowth of the leaves every year, a human life is a cycle of bringing in and letting go, taking in and releasing, expansion and contraction.

Perhaps one of the more powerful things one can do at this time of transition is to see what no longer has life, bless it, and release it on its way.

Whether the dead are memories, beliefs, or ways of being that are no longer vital to who we are today, we can trust that letting them go is part of the very process of life, even if that letting go forces us to feel.

Let the passage of time wash away what needs to be cleansed. Weep if you must for what is dead and passed but let it go, you can’t hold the tide.

Stay awake and present during this time of coming darkness. The light of your awareness can allow you to see what the receding tide of time leaves uncovered: the jewels deep within.

Like the tide, feelings will also come and go. The happiness or sadness you felt back then is gone and dead. Why try to revive it?

What we can do is stand, fully rooted in our awareness and aliveness, and watch as the swirl of time and circumstance and people and feelings flow around us.

Note from Marlene: If you want to work on an aspect of your life that you think hypnotherapy might help . . . writer’s block? can’t sleep? anxiety? fears? . . . Ted A. Moreno is your hypnotherapy-guy-to-go-to. (Whoa. . . Say that three times!). He lives and works in Southern California and does extraordinary hypnotherapy over the phone.

Ted A. Moreno is a hypnotherapist, success performance coach, published author, educator and sought-after speaker who helps his clients become free from fear and anxiety, procrastination and bad habits such as smoking.

He is a Certified Hypnotherapist, Certified NLP Practitioner, and holds the Master Certification as a Therapeutic Imagery Facilitator. Ted is an Honors Graduate of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute and a recipient of the Director’s Award from HMI, awarded for exceptional professional achievement during clinical residency. Ted’s book, “The Ultimate Guide to Letting Go of Negativity and Fear and Loving Life” is available on Amazon.com.

Originally content from Ted A. Moreno’s October 28, 2014 newsletter.
Guest Blogger Jean Grant-Sutton writes:

This time of year I am reminded so pertinently of the glorious messy imperfection of life.

I see it in an amass of leaves on the ground that are so exquisitely beautiful in their array of color, but they make for a lot of clean up and clutter in the yard.

Great in the compost to make nutritious soil — glad for that.

I take comfort in reality.

Life is made up of much glorious messy imperfection.

I feel like I’m one of them

And I continue to practice acceptance for that.

It takes courage to be imperfect.

Click here for a great article by Roger Allen on this topic. I hope you enjoy it.

Integrative Yoga Therapist, Jean Grant-Sutton loves to share writings that stem from an understanding of life based on the ancient art and science of Yoga. She writes to connect and relate with others about the journey of being a human being.

Jean Grant-Sutton ERYT/1000, CMT is a teacher and educator of yoga. She is currently the Yoga Program Director at P.O.S.T. Wellness by Design in Petaluma Ca. Her many years of practice and experience as a retreat leader, studio owner and director of teacher trainings award her the talent to construct transformative experiences in her classes. She skillfully brings depth, clarity, ease, and joy to this ancient bodywork practice. Click here for more information about Jean Grant-Sutton and yoga integrative therapy.

Guest post by Helen Sedwick