Tag Archives: books

St. George, or naming characters and the sometimes sensitive outcomes of this


Happy St. George’s Day! I do hope you are celebrating with something tasty, or wrestling dragons, or scaring snakes, or whatever suits your fancy.

St. George was one of the saints responsible for soldiers, as well as one of those fighting plague and leprosy. He, coincidentally, was born on the same day as Shakespeare (if you can believe any facts about that latter mystical person).

So he would have been an appropriate persona for a story about soldiers and tuberculosis, but that’s not why I chose George as the name for one of my characters in Spit & Polish.

Nor was it because my grandfather was named George, nor that there was a fellow in my writing group named George. I chose it simply because it was a name appropriate for the time period.

But then I got into hot water. You see, the George in my book is a bad guy. Not a super bad guy, just a man of his time, with the associated expectations of the late 1940’s. Men were meant to dominate women. All women lived for a man. Every woman wanted a husband, any husband, and any woman who said they wanted a career was just playing games. My main character, Ruth, is at first attracted to handsome George, but soon realizes he wants more from her than she can give.

George doesn’t take this well.

What this Saint’s Day made me think of is how easy it is for our readers to think we are writing about them or someone they know when we use their names or similar histories. The fellow in my writing group got quite hot under the collar as my George revealed his nastier side. Didn’t help that the group all commented about it every time he came up in my readings. Especially when he was bad. (The character, I mean…)

Other times, when I’ve written pieces, people often think I am writing about myself, or them, even when I don’t use their names. They get hurt, or angry, or even overly excited. But truly, it isn’t about them, or me! Most of the time, anyway.

from susanleighnoble’s excellent blog entry on the subject

Selecting the name for a character isn’t easy. I found it simpler to name my children, to be frank. (see what I did there?) I scour obituaries from the period I am writing about, read appropriate news articles for names, try them out over and over, and still somehow I end up offending someone. My bad female character, for example, was named Patricia, which I am sure someone thinks I directed at a person I know, but no. Again, it was just a name from that time. Though it was fun using it…

Because, truthfully, sometimes it’s a source of glee. The evil part of me enjoys teasing my readers with suppositions. Did I mean to imply that they are like the character? Or am I really assigning that behaviour to their cousin/uncle/father/town leader? It was particularly enjoyable when I wrote my first book, Recycled Virgin, playing with religious names and events. My readers spent the first pages trying to figure out who each character was meant to be, while I just smiled. It was fun searching for the various iterations of the name Mary over the centuries and cultures, though. I do love the research. But then I have to commit, and stick a name on a character, for good or ill.

And then I find out I have somehow named everyone with a name starting with B, so I have to go through and change most of them so readers (and the writer) don’t mess them up. We hope.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to write fantasy or science fiction, where I could make up names and avoid this situation…though I suspect there are treacherous paths even there. Naming characters is such a huge piece of creating them, and it is worth the time to sort them out properly. Maybe even clear them with people you love…;-)

I’m adding this lovely painting by Scot Gustafson because I love the way he has made the dragon the size to look St. George in the eye. In the sculpture we had in my house growing up, the poor dragon was so small George’s horse could have squashed it with his hoof. I prefer an even playing field. As did Ruth, in Spit & Polish.

Happy St. George’s Day! Why not take your local dragon out for a chummy drink, instead? Though it MAY annoy your horse.

On (Eeek!) Being Seen


Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

I was messaging with my sister this morning and telling her about my book self-promotion (which I dread) and my reaching out to a local bookstore to maybe take some copies. I typed “I feel afraid.”

She asked, “What are you afraid of?” and after a pause I told her I was afraid a. of them just laughing at me or b. them offering to carry my book. No way to win, I added.

But it’s a strange thing, being seen for creative things. It’s like you pour your brains and heart out onto paper or artwork, and then you have to step back and wait for people to look at them, comment, accept or dismiss them. It’s not like doing any other work I can remember, in terms of soul-wrenching.

I remember when I started in this writing gig, I used to send out self-addressed envelopes with submissions (yes, I am that old). I was living in tiny Annapolis Royal, NS at the time, and the postmasters all knew me. They also knew that if the envelope came back fat, that meant they’d refused my submission. If it came back thin, that meant there was a cheque enclosed.

So they’d wait to see me coming, all smiles if the skinny envelope had found its way to my mailbox. It was totally heartening and cheering.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Truth is, this kind of support doesn’t often happen. I’ve been so lucky with Spit & Polish that people are liking it, buying it, telling others about it. Not everyone, mind you, but enough people to make the experience encouraging.

But I still feel nervous, being seen. Having to trot my soul out for acceptance. Like most authors, I believe, every time you put something out you are being seen anew. Have you grown ugly chin hairs (rather too appropriate for me at this age)? Or are you swinging in with aplomb and grace?

Fingers crossed I don’t end up with proverbial lettuce in my teeth (as seems to happen more often as I age, but I digress) (and avoid arugula like the plague) as I step forward, waving Spit & Polish and my well-loved characters as I go… I’m already started on the sequel and need the endorphin rush of positive reviews…

Buy me? Or, hey, check out Somewhat Grumpy Press and their other books…

The joys of working with a small press


I’ve been having so much fun! Four years ago, when I published Recycled Virgin, I created Somewhat Grumpy Press, and decided I wanted a Pallas cat to represent it – but then I was coping with the pandemic, a pending move, and my MS, and I realized it was getting beyond me to manage.

So I gave the press to the current very capable publisher, Tim Covell, and he is racing away. He’s taken it into a more professional status, created the official logo, organized all the business bits of the press. The press has a stable of seven authors (so far) and has published eleven books! He’s worked hard to get them into bookstores of the brick and mortar kind as well as the online sources. It takes a lot of legwork.

I don’t know about you, but I find this impressive, given the pandemic, Tim’s other projects, and his full-time job.

In my travels as an author, I’ve also had the chance to meet Anne O’Connell of OC Publishing, and Cathy Mackenzie, of Writing Wicket. They also all run small presses and they all really work hard for their authors. It makes me want to support them.

And it makes it fun to do promotion for me and our books. I hate doing promotional things, but there’s something much more pleasant when you feel well-looked after by your publisher. I know my books are important to SGP, and that’s a feeling it’s hard to get from larger publishers, if you can even get them to publish your books. (He’s trying to get me to do TikTok, though, and I am not persuaded…but at least I can argue…and he’s done good promotion for Spit & Polish to date.)

There are lots of fraudsters out there – do check Predators and Editors and Writer Beware to be sure you are with a good publisher – but I highly recommend the small press experience. You may have to pay for some services (fair enough, given the time these things take), but as long as you take care, it’s well worth it. Do be careful of the presses who demand lots of money upfront, or people who offer services with an additional cost (like offering to film YouTube things for you as a high cost). You need to do your homework.

It’s important, too, to do your work beforehand – write your very best, get it edited a few times, get it in good shape, then contact the publisher. They don’t take every offering – their time is limited, too – but it’s likely you will get a friendlier response than the depths of silence often received from the larger presses.

I’ve recently taken training from the Editorial Freelancers Association and Queen’s University in developmental and structural editing. I’ve edited 5 books to date and so far they’ve been well-accepted. I’ve got two more pending and one in its final stages, but I might have room for editing your writing – if you need a developmental editor, please contact me, and we can talk. I’d love to help you turn your project into a successful book. You can reach me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and through here.

Have you had experiences with small publishers? Editors? Was it good? Bad? Indifferent?

On the joys (?) of revision


Photo by KoolShooters on Pexels.com

“Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.”
―Bernard Malamud

So went the quotation in my email from Writers.com. (I highly recommend this newsletter, btw) I have mixed feelings about this. Yes, adjusting prose to make it clearer and more bright, to enhance the emotions in your first draft, to make your words sing – that can be pleasurable. I personally like the hack and burn part of revision, too, where you look through your tome and realize this bit AND that bit, and also the other bit, could really be thrown to the wolves (or if decent, tucked into a file for use later).

But I am licking my wounds a bit. My publisher has sent out advance review copies of my book to people and of course (probably my fault as I was pushing for release), it went out with multiple typos in it. People have noticed and commented. Sigh. One or two (you know who you are, DP!) helped me find the more egregious ones. Bless them.

Since it was exposed to some of the masses, my publisher and I have gone back and forth and back and forth, correcting things — but I’m certain little errors remain. I’m equally sure some eagle-eyed readers will find them and helpfully point them out to me so that I can revise it again.

All of which leads me to the conclusion that I will hire a copyeditor for my next book. Editors are good things (of course I would say this, being one myself). They can see things that the author misses in all sorts of places. I love my editing work. It gives me the chance to REALLY read a story, see it in its wholeness, try to help the author bring forward what they want. I’ve had great pleasure in my editing jobs – I do mostly developmental and line editing, which doesn’t require me to copyedit. Phew.

Because I realize the limit of my capabilities. I am not a copyeditor. I need helpful eyes for this. And my glasses aren’t doing it.

So, just to liven things up a bit, I will send a surprise to anyone who spots a typo in the officially released Spit & Polish book. Send me a message here, and I’ll contact you. What will it be, the surprise? Well, you will just have to wait and see…

Meantime, why not join me today, February 27, 2024, for an interview about the book and the writing process (I imagine there will be some shuffling in shame about errors), today at 4 pm AT, 5PM Eastern, 12noon Pacific on Youtube, Facebook, etc. Or you can watch me and the wonderful Anne O’Connell of OC Publishing on her YouTube channel later. It’s so generous of Anne to have me on. If you watch the show, look through her other interviews, too. She is a very generous and interested interviewer.

And don’t forget to pre-order your discount ebook before the official release date of February 29, 2924. After that things will be full price… Check out Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books, and more. The paperback will be available February 29th everywhere – just ask your local store to order in a copy for you. Or you can order directly from Somewhat Grumpy Press, too. I do hope you enjoy it!

Self-promotion, or why I’ll never succeed in politics


This meme showed up on Facebook this morning and it made me laugh out loud. I’m battling with self-promotion. When I wrote my first book, Recycled Virgin, and launched it right in the middle of the pandemic, I just couldn’t force myself to do any promotion. Life felt too grim. So my first novel sunk gently into the muck. It is still available, and I think it’s worth a read, if I do say so myself.

Some other people say so, too – one Goodreads review that warmed my heart says: “Recycled Virgin” by D.A. Brown is an intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking exploration of a fictional premise that brilliantly reimagines a cornerstone of religious history. In this intricately woven narrative, the author takes readers on a captivating journey that questions traditional narratives, challenges preconceived notions, and offers a fresh perspective on a timeless story.

Hmm. I seem to have firmly stuck my promotional hat on. Those of you who read this blog, (and cheers to all of you who do. I really appreciate you!) have been somewhat awash in messages about the upcoming launch of Spit and Polish. I’m truly sorry if you feel overwhelmed. It’s all about the search engines…

Publishing a book these days is quite a feat. It’s easy to create a book, but will anyone ever read it? There are so many DIY’d books out there, many of them only responsible for the unnecessary killing of trees, it becomes hard to make an impact. There’s a sweet spot where the behemoth Amazon actually takes notice of your humble book and starts promoting you. This makes a huge difference, lifts your book temporarily out of the mire, shines a bit of effort from them upon it. All those “Amazon Best Sellers” manage the algorithm by finessing pre-orders, sending out piles of notices to their mailing lists (obtained by offering ‘freebies’ for a name). I’m simply not good at that.

I’d like to think my prose will pull people in and my book will take off independent of advertising, but realistically, I know that just ain’t so. So I’m writing this blog, and we are offering the ebook on the cheap for pre-order – won’t make me rich, but it might just make me noticeable.

But I really hate promoting myself. I can promote you and what you do with great ease – will gladly cheer on your books (especially if I’ve edited them) (stop it! More self-promotion!) But ask me to sell myself, and somehow, I’m just not convincing. When I did run for politics many years ago, I failed utterly in the “call people and ask for money” phase. My burgeoning career failed so promptly there was barely a ripple.

So please forgive me as I thrash about promoting my book. I’m kind of proud of it. I loved writing it and researching for it. I’m working on the sequel as we speak. I’d like it if you enjoy it, too.

I have had a sweet review posted by an early reviewer on LibraryThing: I love books where I identify with the characters, and Ruth was a very sympathetic and resilient character, with all the trials she went through. The author is planning to continue Ruth’s story in a sequel, so I will look forward to that. Highly recommended!.

And on Tuesday, I’ll be doing an interview with the inimitable Anne O’Connell from OC Publishing so you can watch me struggle to self-promote, and hear more about the book. Check it out (along with many other excellent interviews) on her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@OCPublishing

Returning to modesty


I picked up this book the other day – bought it new! Thought it might have some pertinence in our lives of TMI, loudness, lack of privacy or respect, rape culture writ large and small.

Well.

It’s not that the author is a nutter, exactly. I mean, she does have some good points about modesty and keeping oneself for those who honour you with a relationship. Though I don’t want to come straight out and talk about my misspent youth (which was about four years ago), I have found that intimacy is MUCH better with someone you like, or better still, love. I do feel that the “hookup” expectations are of more benefit to men, who enjoy that sort of thing, than to women, who often react better sexually in a place of safety.

Me, I always made certain I could physically take down the men I dated if I needed to.

Until one time, I couldn’t. And that was the end of taking the risk. Because someone took me, without permission.

So then you get to being distrustful and all that and maybe that isn’t where you want to be.

So she has a point.

Maybe being more hesitant, more modest, more unassuming would help things, reduce assaults. Fair enough, she encourages men to be modest, too.
But not very firmly. It’s mostly about women.

And then she starts going on about the shame – about how masturbation is a sin, about how lying with a woman who is menstruating is a sin, and all that stuff that simply makes sex and bodies “dirty”, and she loses me.

Yes, I want to be respected and treated with concern and care. But no, I’m not going to cringe in the dark, afraid of the sexual being that I am. I’m not going to insist men only hold my hand on the third date, and never kiss til the sixth or seventh.

Life is too damn short.

The author says she got hate mail when she originally published the book. I’m not surprised. It’s not so much her idea of abstinence that is offensive, because that is always a viable choice, but her slut-shaming women who take the pill, who have more than one partner, who enjoy their bodies. We’ve had enough of that, don’t you think?IMG_0264.JPG

Authors Beware—High Drama for Authors


Authors Beware—High Drama for Authors.

Well-worth-a-read discussion about pay for publishing presses. Way to break an author’s heart…

And hey, join SPAWN. Work together for decent treatment. http://www.spawn.org

Don’t ever get old: review


cover14292-mediumWhew. In the first pages excerpt of this book (available online from NetGalley) so much is told, so much is started. I am awash in books to read and yet I’ve put this one on my “to grab soon” list. Friedman can write, powerfully, and I’m dying to see if the rest of the book pans out.
Though I have to say I am building up a resistance to the following: Thrillers involving Nazis; anything involving autism; anything involving children being put in harm’s way; more stories about the Great Wars that focus only on the American/British side of things. Or the French Resistance. Or anything with the words “50 shades of …” in the title. Or female porn loosely written up as if it was a good, mind-nourishing tale of female submission and torture.

This book looks like it might have two of my resistance items. But it also has one of my favourite things – a crusty old main character, who isn’t any better than he should be, who is a bit selfish and crabby and still holds grudges. I love characters with grudges.

I’d have a lot of them, myself, except for the memory loss I’ve suffered with MS.

But grumpy I can do. So I want to hear what this fellah Buck Schatz (even love the name) gets up to. Must go round up the whole book.

Writing tips and tricks and techniques and all that bumpf…


I have a zillion “how to write” books. They seemingly multiply on their own in my bookshelf, but if I think my way through it, they all appear when I am feeling uncertain about my writing and feel the need for a “helpful book” to sort myself out. I buy them, maybe peek through a bit of them, and then toss them for the next novel.

Jodi Meadows, in Pub(lishing) crawl, has written a blog entry that really says all you need to do:

1. Read. Read lots and lots and lots and lots.

2. Write. Write lots and lots and lots.

3. Critique.

I’d probably add #4, since that’s where I fail worst: Send stuff out.

I think the critiquing and sending stuff out parts are the most important for me, anyway, at this point. Critiquing your own work is one thing, but learning to critique others’ is even better. The Canadian Authors’ Association has these carefully defined critique groups, with rules that are followed religiously and which result in real progress with writing. The process allows writers to hear criticism of their work without the duty to respond, and let’s them take away the critique and choose whether to use the info. Because of this everyone takes the time to write a careful, thoughtful comment on the story. I’m a member of the Early Reviewers and Member Giveaways groups on LibraryThing, and in exchange for free books, you are asked to write a review.

Some I’ve sloughed off, I admit, mainly because I either didn’t like the book or couldn’t remember it (argh!)(I do read a LOT).  But others I try to write a good review for, with few details of the story but creating the desire in someone to read it. It helps me see the good parts of some not great books, and the review as a whole helps me find the problems in my own writing.

The sending thing in is a battle for me. So I’ve made a pinky swear to send in at least one of my mystery stories for publication. I’ve got my class holding me accountable. That, and contest entry deadlines, mean that I do send things in occasionally. I realize I should be keeping track of them in a book somewhere, or on my computer, and I’m thinking now, ooh, I should get that organized RIGHT now.

But then I would be falling down on my #2 – time for me to write a lot. I am so far behind in Nanowrimo I may never catch up! Yikes!

When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.


Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus knows me well. I am helpless in the face of books. I read about them and long for them – hardcovers, softcovers, and the crack of readers everywhere, ebooks. Used, library, bought. I am helpless in a library – hundreds of books and all of them free! I always come home with way too many to read before the loan time expires.

Used book shops used to suck me in for hours before I lost my ability to stand for long periods. Now I bring my walker and sit…and buy. I dress in cast-offs from Value Village, I enjoy frequent nights of pasta and Kraft Dinner, but my bookshelves, virtual and actual, groan under their weight.  I am actually looking at purchasing MORE bookshelves.

But the thing about ebooks is that you can gather hundreds of them in one tiny space. So the feeling of being enclosed by books vanishes and you can merrily stack up “to be reads” in a secret cupboard that only you know about (well, and your credit card company).

Lately I signed up for Librarything http://www.librarything.com/, where I immediately volunteered to be an early reviewer. It is madness. You can skim through books coming out soon and then select ones you are interested in and the authors send it to you in exchange for a review!!! Life is very good. For an addict like myself, it allows me to feed my craze with no payment other than writing, which I should be doing already. It’s like cutting back on chocolate by eating caramels.

True, early reviewers have a time limit on reviewing, and many of the books are not as worth spending time with as others, but it’s fun to see what’s out there and sometimes you are very pleasantly surprised. I just finished reading “Dirty Little Angels” by Chris Tusa, for example, and initially wasn’t prepared to like it. All the characters seemed unlikable, no one to root for in it all, the geography was grim in terms of visuals and people. It seemed totally grey. And yet…I got sucked in. I found myself unable to put it down, this story of helpless people surviving in a nasty place. It took me a while to figure out that the protagonist was a girl (I blame reading it at night), and even before I did, I could feel affinity for her creeping in. Heck, I wanted to invite her over and give her hot chocolate, poor wee mite. But she isn’t a poor wee mite. She’s bristly and dangerous in her own way, but with an inner life that is seriously messing with her or saving her. It’s hard to tell.

I never would have picked up this book. But now I know the author and will keep my eyes open for more. So, library thing, you rock.