Saturday Sites: Regency Research

As any blogger knows, posting every day keeps your readers returning to keep up to date.  Blogger's wonderful little statistics charts and graphs serve as a very visible reminder of the visits you're gaining or losing, and the compulsion overtakes one to keep that trend always moving upward.

Unfortunately, to blog every day one have something to write about.  Many bloggers have specific subjects for specific days, such as Monday Mysteries or the Sizzling Kiss.  The only one I have found so far that I've embraced is Flash Fiction Friday which I picked up from my friend, Laura Besley's blog.  (Look for a guest post from her on September 4th).

Saturdays are particularly tricky for me (as I'm sure they are for bloggers and readers alike), but I've finally hit upon a solution:  Saturday Sites.  In this column, I hope to share with you the sites and blogs I have discovered this week, hopefully all with a common thread.  First up:

 Regency Research

English Historical Fiction Authors 

This very useful open Facebook group encourages participation, which the members do with gusto.  Conversations abound, as does the information shared.

Many scholars of the genre participate, so this group proves an excellent resource for  authors focused on any British era.  I have had my questions immediately answers, solutions to my quandaries solved, and friendly advice given.  This group is a treasure trove for historical writers.

They also share information about general writing, sales, dealing with difficulties, etc., and provided excellent support to one another.  The strength and camaraderie of this group recently put a pirating website out of business.

Guest Post: Showing Emotion In Dialogue-heavy Scenes

I decided I wanted my first guest post to be a special one, so I invited Angela Ackerman, author and blogger full of all sorts of of wonderful tips and tricks to bring life to your writing to grace these pages.  (Note:  I was going to scatter this excellent article with images of Collin Firth doing his silent-but-oh-so-expressive Darcy best, but then thought Angela's excellent words should to the talking.)  Enjoy! 

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Showing Emotion In Dialogue-heavy Scenes

Very few things pull people in like conversation. After all, when someone speaks, they are making themselves vulnerable to others. How? Because words are steeped in thoughts, beliefs and emotions. They have meaning. Power.

When I talk to someone, what I’m really doing is sharing a piece of myself with them. And they in turn listen, weigh my words, and then judge me by what I say. It’s a bit intimidating when you think about it, which is why most people think carefully about what to share, and what to hold back. Protecting ourselves from feeling exposed is instinctive, because it is tied to survival.

This creates a big problem for writers trying to form realistic dialogue scenes. Our goal is for readers to pick up on the thought process and emotions of a character so they can understand motives. But if dialogue is too honest, and characters share too much about what they feel, the conversation will ring false. Add this to the complication of Point of View (where the reader is not always privy to a character’s direct thoughts) and suddenly showing emotion becomes extra challenging!

So how do we show readers what a character is really feeling when they don’t say it in dialogue?

The answer of course, is body language.

Editor's Notes: The Who, What and Why of Producing A Book

NOTE: With my new position as editor-in-chief at Xchyler Publishing, I've found myself writing a lot of correspondence, explanations, and outlines of the procedures required to create a book. One memo in particular that went out to employees and authors consumed far too much of my day, and since it's pertinent to this blog, I thought I'd make the most of the effort and post it here as well.  Double-duty? Sure. Wise utilization of resources? Absolutely.

The College Interns, the Gatekeepers:

Euphemistically called "editorial assistants", these screeners are very important for lots of reasons, but especially because they may mean failure or success for both author and publishing house. Consider the first eleven editorial assistants swamped under slush piles who rejected J.K. Rowling's query for Harry Potter. You can be dang sure they've been kicking themselves for almost twenty years. (It's kind of scary, actually, to think of our fates in the hands of unpaid college interns).

Interns screen the initial query letters sent by authors, which usually contain a short jacket-flap blurb, an overall outline usually 1-2 pages long, and the first 10,000 words or three chapters of the manuscript. Hopefully, with much guidance and mentoring, the interns decide to either ask for the full or partial manuscript, send them a rejection notice, or invite them to revise and resubmit. For R&Rs, the publisher does not agree to publish but will reconsider the manuscript if the author brings their skills up a notch or three.

Marketing:

If the manuscript shows promise, Marketing and Editorial then get together and decide if there is a market for the book. If positive, the author is presented with an offer, then a contract, and everything goes into action. Working with the author, they will also decide on a release date for the book. Several factors will influence this, including but not limited to seasonal trends and genre. Books need fresh releases when people who buy them are in the mood to spend.

I'm Somebody's Liebster Blog

The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have 200 followers or less. It helps people to get to know you as a blogger while introducing your blog to new viewers.

I was tagged/nominated for a Liebster Award by the fabulous Hira at over at Views and Reviews.  Thanks, darlin'!  (About the Liebster)

The strain Hira shared with me included 11 of everything, but in the interest of reader lack of interest and the (admittedly interprative) original spirit of the award, I'm going to compromise with five.

Here are the rules:

1. Each person chosen must provide 5 facts about themselves.
2. Answer the 5 questions that the blogger who tagged you has given, then think of 5 questions for the people you tag.
3. Choose 5 people to receive the award and link them in your post.
4. Be sure to tell these people that you've tagged them.
5. Don't tag the person who tagged you.

Five facts about me:

1. I have been married to my husband, Dallas, for 32 years. I have three sons, three DILs, two granddaughters and four grandsons.
2. I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
3. I write too much . . . way too much. (As in, Robert Jordan too much.    War and Peace too much.)
4. The first website I built was back in 2001, before blogs were invented.  It shared my son's missionary letters and pictures.
5. I am a literary omnivore.

Blogger Tools: Badge Grabs

Okay.  One more really quick post tonight.  Most bloggers don't take very long to find out that one of the best ways to increase traffic on your blog is for other like-minded bloggers to share links to your blog.  The best way to make your link visible is to make a badge.  Bloggers like to swap badges/buttons (two names, same thing).  You can find a few of my favorite sites here.

Badges can be simple or snazzy, a few minutes fiddling on Adobe Elements or  Techsmith SnagIt can produce something simple (which is what you want so other people can use it), the real trick is getting the code for your blog that makes the script that makes the badge code grabbable.  Like this:

<div align="center"><a href="http://amindwandering.blogspot.com" title="Perpetual Chaos of a Wandering Mind"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx1KDiiuSRZTQQEB3BJHsRnWaWZ-JD6nCg6m0y1jHn6BeJn7VDE44TPQah-PN1JIJKizN5gBD4mtZOG91R5xlhXejfGEuCQoS4nyEMLiCqvTTS2ofvE0wXmIIoPwetaWPTM_oUNmeGvsnE/s170/badge170.png" alt="Perpetual Chaos of a Wandering Mind" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Without that spiffy little window of code that bloggers can cut and paste, you've got nothin'.  I can produce the code in the window, but danged if I can figure out how to make the window, but, lucky me!  I found a site that does it for you for free.