Imagine my surprise, after being a bit out of touch recently, to learn that the Absolute Write website is gone. For details, see this post by Teresa Hayden. I wasn't a frequent visitor to Absolute Write, though I did get their newsletter and I did enjoy perusing the articles from time to time. Apparently, the site was yanked after a complaint by one of the agents on the 20 worst list. Check it out, y'all (I'm dusting off my Southern lingo…..ha!).
Hey, y'all! It's been a while since I've posted, and my only excuse is that life has been demanding more of my attention lately. Big things happening in the next few months here in Hawaii! For one thing, my husband is retiring from the military. For another, we've decided that Hawaii is not the place to hang our slippahs on a permanent basis. I love Hawaii, and I'm sad to be leaving, but it's for the best.
We have tossed the continental U.S. into a hat and drawn a place. No, not really. 🙂 In fact, we've decided to go where the computer/tech jobs are awesome and where we have family. We've chosen Huntsville, Alabama as the new location. We won't be making the move for several more months, but things are going to get hectic around here very soon.
And that's the news with me. I hope to get back to posting on a regular basis. We've had company this past month, which always messes up my online time, and I've been pondering some other things lately. You ever notice how life throws you curve balls when you least expect it?
Take care of yourself while pursuing your goals, or you may find yourself in a place you didn't expect. Women have a tendency to put the kids and spouse first, which leaves little left over for ourselves. Put yourself first for a change, and the rest will fall in place. That's my cryptic wisdom for the day. 🙂
Aloha, friends.
So what do you do when you have the writerly blues? I just can't seem to get back to work lately. We've had company, which has been a blast, and summer's coming (not that that makes a big difference in Hawaii, but it's a mental thing). I had a new idea last week and wrote several pages, but I'm still stumped on SEDUCING EVANGELINE.
In other news, saw MI 3 and THE DA VINCI CODE. MI 3 was okay. I' m not a big fan, but it wasn't too bad. DVC was pretty good, I thought, but I didn't have the book interfering with my viewing pleasure. I have no idea if the movie takes liberties or not, but I liked it.
What about you? Any big Memorial Day weekend plans? Summer fun getting in the way of the writing? Is it permissible to take time off, or should you spend every free moment you can manage to grab working on something?
I did a bad, bad thing. I fell out of my ivory tower. I succumbed to the cable company's temptation of free installation and a reduced price package. And I'm already fascinated by Dog: The Bounty Hunter. Ha!
Anybody else watch this thing? These people are characters! If you tried to write it, no one would believe it was real.
I've lived on this island for 2 years and never seen the guy. I'd remember him if I had. Who could forget him, huh? Now I'll be on the lookout when I go downtown.
In one of the episodes I saw, he snagged a woman right next door to my friend's house. LOL! My friend's car was there and everything. I don't remember him mentioning it so I wonder if he even knew when it happened. Now I'll have to ask….
Kills me how they subtitle the locals when they speak. Is it really that hard to understand?
Anyway, company arriving later today. This visit's short though, so I should be back in a day or two. 🙂
Aloha.
Wow, there's not a lot I can say about the brouhaha going on over at AAR. As an aspiring-to-be-published author, I'm reading with rapt attention, let me tell you. And these ladies terrify me. I'm an English major and I hope like HELL I can find dangling modifiers and split infinitives and all that jazz. But I just know that some are bound to get past me (hell, they get past me on this blog). And then what? Here's Adele Ashworth defending her book, but according to the Smart Bitches, it isn't defensible. (Bear in mind that I have not read the book, nor read a sample, so I'm not coming down on one side or the other here.)
FOR THE RECORD, every single reference you sited as incorrect, in this post and the other where you copied sentences, has been taken out of context. It's like reading a love scene aloud, by itself, over the radio or to a bunch of non-romance-reading friends. It sounds silly, and yes, maybe even pornographic. But when read as a whole, romance novels are neither. You've taken my sentences apart, and although I suppose I'm flattered that you spent so much time on it, I'm a little unnerved that, although you haven't said so in words, you're apparently touting yourself as a far better writer than I — with my sentences and words taken apart piece by piece, and most importantly, out of context. Frankly, by your comments, I seem like a totally inept writer who, along with the publishing community, is attempting to “bad-grammar” you out of your hard earned money.
Is the author responsible for every misspelled word, dangling modifier, split infinitive, etc, in her text? Does the reader have the right to demand perfection, or as near to perfection as possible, in the book she plunks down her cash for? (I know that typos irritate the crap out of me. Grammatical errors usually make me stumble, but not always. Damn, I'm doomed….). Can grammatical errors be taken ‘out of context'?
Ashworth continues….
Still, you have continued to take apart my FICTION novel as if it's YOUR duty to expose me as an incompetent writer who has written a foolish story. I have to say, I kind of resent that. If you don't enjoy my books for what they are, please don't read them anymore. Since you think you know the English language so well, please, write a book yourself. It's not as easy to do as you may think.
So what do you think? Is anyone right? Is anyone wrong? Is there a middle ground here? I don't know about you, but this stuff makes me want to hang up my pen and go play in the ocean all day. I'm already an obsessive proofreader, but sometimes it takes days for me to understand just why a particular sentence I wrote bothered me so much.
In truth, I feel for Ms. Ashworth. I also feel for the readers who demand quality and feel they didn't get it. Oh man, that ocean is looking good right now…….
Interesting conversation on writer names taking place over at Kristin Nelson's blog. It starts here and continues for a few posts.
I have to admit that this is a purely esoteric rant because ultimately, what author name you use isn’t that big of a deal. This is purely something that annoys me and really isn’t a huge issue in the grand scheme of things.
I want to talk about author names because ultimately, promoting your work and getting published is all part of one big package of professionalism.
And, I think writers are potentially too hung up on their formal names (as in using first, middle, maiden, and last name). [Uh oh….]
I wouldn’t blame you if you are scratching your head at this moment, so let me explain. If you write literary fiction, I think using three names is fine as long as there is a memorable rhythm to it (Jonathan Safran Foer pops to mind).
Otherwise, three names is overkill and potentially not in your best interest (in terms of name recognition, ease of finding you in the bookstore, etc.) It can sound pretentious and if you are writing a big, bad thriller, it’s potentially defeatist. It’s James Patterson, Lisa Scottoline, Iris Johansen, John Grisham, Robert Crais, Lee Child. Boom, boom, boom.
Oh dear. Well, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the name I want to publish under, which is really a cart before the horse approach, but it IS a career decision and I didn't want to give it too little thought at the last minute, if that makes sense.
I am not absolutely tied to using my real name, which really is Lynn Raye Harris. Lynn Harris is a total no go. There is an actress (nude pics available, apparently), a comedienne/author with a column on MSN, a personal injury lawyer, a gay black author (add an E. at the beginning), and who knows who else. My maiden name is worse. Hard to pronounce unless you're from Texas (there's a town of the same name, though different spelling) and just not too terribly attractive emblazoned across a book cover to tell the truth.
So I have considered a pseudonym. I have a few picked out, but actually deciding on one now and building a website–well, that really is shoving the cart over the cliff, isn't it?
Yes, I have a website (and this blog) under my real name. I mostly did that because I wanted to learn how to build a website before it was necessary. Changing things to a pseudonym isn't really that hard, and it's not like I have a ton of name recognition on the web anyway. Folks on blogs know LRH, but how hard would it be to introduce a new name if necessary? Not terribly, I think.
So, yeah, I'm open to a name change. I'll make the best business decision I am capable of. And it may be ditching the legal name for a fictional one. I haven't crossed that bridge yet, so no major decisions necessary. But I want to be prepared.
Am I upset about the idea of having books out and not having my real name on them? At least one person in the comments trail of some of Kristin's posts refuses to consider anything other than her real name. That's her decision. But I can take it. I really want to build a career, and if that means LRH may write literary fiction at some point and Betty Business will pen the romances, so be it.
What about you? To pseudonym or not, that is the question…..
