Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad ...

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Reviews

Deborah Raney

One of the hard things a published writer must learn is to toughen up where reviews are concerned. I hate bad reviews, whether from professional critics or ordinary readers on Amazon.com. I especially hate them when they aren’t as much about the book as they are about demeaning an author’s beliefs, religion, ethnicity, or personality. But bad reviews are a fact of the writing life, and there aren’t many multi-published authors who haven’t had at least one or two.

I’ll never forget my first scathing reader review (for Beneath a Southern Sky) and it’s still up on Amazon, along with several others, if you want to weep along with me! That review nearly paralyzed me for a few days. It didn’t hurt so much that someone didn’t like my book (okay, they HATED my book). I’m well aware that the type of book I write isn’t for everyone, and there are many different tastes in genre and style. What hurt was that it sounded like the reviewer didn’t much like ME!

When I go back and read that review now, I can be much more objective. I realize now that the reviewer probably has never met me. I don’t think he/she meant the words as a personal affront. But I can also still, after more than a dozen years, remember the deep pain I experienced when I first discovered that review. I actually broke out in a sweat and started shaking—and I’m not usually an excitable person. I shed some tears over that person’s words, and I have a feeling he/she would be surprised to know that.

However, I did something else after receiving that review. I removed an Amazon.com review that I had written months earlier for a book that made me angry. No, it wasn’t wrong of me to post a review respectfully outlining why I disliked this book. But I had made the same mistake I think my reviewer made—I made my review personal, commenting on the author’s personality, not just his writing. I didn’t even know the man, but like my reviewer, I failed to acknowledge that this author was human and had feelings.

My terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad review (and there have been plenty of others since) gave me two important things: a thicker skin for the inevitable bad reviews to come in my future; and a softer heart for other writers, who are real, imperfect people, just like me.

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Deborah Raney’s first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title and launched her writing career. Since then, her books have won the RITA Award, National Readers Choice Award, HOLT Medallion, the Carol Award, and have twice been Christy Award finalists. Deb is currently working on a five-book series for Abingdon Press Fiction. Deb enjoys teaching at writers’ conferences across the country. She and her husband, Ken Raney, recently traded small-town life in Kansas––the setting of many of Deb’s novels––for life in the (relatively) big city of Wichita where they enjoy gardening, antiquing, movies, and traveling to visit four children and a growing brood of grandchildren who all live much too far away.

Raney’s newest novel, Home to Chicory Lane, releases in August as the first book in the Chicory Inn Novels series for Abingdon Press Fiction. 

Posted by: Kelly Klepfer

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Intense and Marketable Novels? A Simple How-to - by Jennifer Slattery

Writing Intense and Marketable Novels

by Jennifer Slattery

Does the following make you cringe?

“Your story’s too heavy.”

“Too dark.”

“Readers are looking to escape reality, not read about tough issues.”

It was 2009, my first large writers’ conference, and quite a shock to my newbie ego. I came pumped and a bit over confident, one of those naïve storytellers who knew just enough craft to elevate my pride but not enough to justify such an elevation.

Needless to say, I left with a more accurate view of myself and my abilities. Unfortunately, I also began to question not only what I wrote, but who I am. Appointment after appointment, I heard that my writing was too intense. One solution was offered, again and again: Write something light, more humorous, to get your foot in the door.

Everything in me said, “No!” Because although I can enjoy light reading, I don’t feel called to write it. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t called to write or that I’d never be published.

It did mean I had a lot to learn about writing intense stories effectively.

You see, it’s not that there isn’t a market for the intense. I can think of numerous, very popular novels that deal with some very dark issues, such as Mary Connealy’s Calico Canyon, Kathi Macias’ Freedom Series, the Hunger Games, Maze Runner (all books I LOVED).

The issue was, I needed to learn HOW to write about intense or heavy issues without overloading or depressing my reader. Because here’s the deal—we all want real, and real can be tough; intense. But reality is handled best when it’s peppered with lots of humor and tact and sprinkled with a heavy dose of hope.

When writing about intense issues, consider:

1. Adding humor at strategic points throughout the novel. Some novelists will create an eccentric character specifically for this purpose. I’ve done this, but more often, I like to bring out the goofy in my main characters. Because we all have silly, less-than-brilliant moments inherent to our personalities. Find ways to exploit and expose those quirky traits, most especially following tense or dark scenes.

2. Know the whys behind the boundary lines, and when pushing them, your whys for doing so. Does your why have purpose enough to override the whys of the boundary lines? A dark or intense novel with graphic violence or vulgarity might be pushing things too far. To find the reader-gripping balance, one must constantly keep their reader and their emotions in mind.  

3. Continually remind the reader of hope. The darker the scene, the more necessary this will be. This can be done numerous ways such as showing the determined inner strength of a character, by showing a possible solution, or the help and support of a community.

The more I write, the more I realize there aren’t very many set rules in the CBA market, and even those are changing. It really comes down to knowing the craft, writing with skill, and always considering the effect each scene and the story as a whole will have on your reader.

Jennifer Slattery writes intense, intensely funny, and heart-pattering sweet missional romance for New Hope Publishers. Her debut novel, Beyond I Do, will release in the fall of 2014. She also writes for Crosswalk.com, Internet Café Devotions, is part of a jibillion blogs (according to her handsome railroader) and has a slight obsession with Facebook. When she’s not writing or gabbing, she enjoys going for long, leisurely walks with her husband and giggly shopping dates with her hilariously sarcastic teenage daughter. You can visit her online at http://jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JenSlatte or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Jenslattery.

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Called to Adventure ~ Dorothy Love

Called to Adventure: One Writer’s Journey through Plots, Proposals and Publication

By Dorothy Love

Author and screenwriter Christopher Vogler has identified a set of useful elements for developing plots. As I’ve used these elements over the years, expanding some, deleting others, I’ve become aware of the parallels between my characters’ journeys and my own.

Below are some of the elements Vogler discusses at length in the two volumes of his books The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters (Michael Wiese Productions). Thinking about these elements helped me to flesh out my stories. Maybe they’ll help you, too.

The Ordinary World. Where do your characters normally live? City, small town, fantasy island? What are their lives normally like? Routine? Boring? Challenging? What parts of their ordinary worlds do they love? What parts do they wish were different?

For many years my ordinary world was Dallas, Texas and the world of academia. I was good at it, but I didn’t always love it. Something was missing.

The Call to Adventure. There is your character, blissfully minding his own business, going about his ordinary world, when something happens that draws him out of it. Someone dies. Someone is kidnapped. A fortune is won or lost. And your character, no longer content with his ordinary world, must do something about it. The call to adventure establishes the stakes of the game and answers the question: what does your character have to win or lose?  

My call to adventure came when my husband changed jobs and moved us from Texas to Iowa. I was not at all happy about the move. “You want to write,” he said. “Here’s your chance.”

The Refusal of the Call Your character thinks, “Whoa, this is scary. I’m facing the terrors of the unknown. I’m not sure I can undertake this dangerous journey even with so much at stake.”

I was terrified to take the leap of faith required to actually write a novel and submit it for publication. What if I failed? I imagined a group of black-clad editors in some Manhattan high rise late at night wading through the slush pile and howling with laughter in all the wrong places as they read my story.

In developing your plot, you must create some other influence that comes into play that overcomes your protagonist’s fear. That other influence is often a mentor. Mine was Peggy Moss Fielding, a fabulous writing teacher who convinced me I had what it took to write and publish a novel.  

The Meeting with the Mentor. Feeling unsure and at the same time longing to fulfill the quest, your character seeks guidance from someone older and wiser. Indiana Jones seeks out his father and fellow scientist. Dorothy seeks the Wizard of Oz... The mentor gives advice, guidance, or maybe even special equipment necessary to fulfill the quest. Now, because so much is at stake, your character commits to the quest.

With Peggy’s instruction and encouragement I committed to my goal.

These elements combine to form Act 1 of your novel. In Act 2, your main character meets:

Tests, Allies and Enemies. In which your protagonist begins to understand the rules of the new world into which he has been cast. Think again of Dorothy on the road to Oz, or of the enemies and allies that gather at Rick’s Café Americain in the movie Casablanca. Armed with new knowledge and in the company of his allies, your protagonist approaches the place where the treasure may be found. In the stories of King Arthur, this place is the Chapel Perilous, wherein rests the Holy Grail. What is the Holy Grail for your protagonist?

For me, it was seeing my book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. But first I had to learn the vocabulary of publishing, the rules for submitting, the roles of agents and editors. And most importantly, the shape of a successful story.

The Supreme Ordeal. This is the black moment for your protagonist, when it seems all is lost, and death, either real or metaphorical, is a real possibility. This is the moment Peggy called “the huddled ball of misery” moment. Every story needs such a moment, when the protagonist and his goals are in jeopardy, success seems hopeless and things simply can’t any worse.  

For five years I experienced that huddled ball of misery moment, that profound sense of failure, each time a rejected manuscript was returned to me. I went through a couple of periods during which I wrote nonfiction and gave up the quest for publication as a novelist.

Now we enter Act 3:

The Reward in which the hero takes possession of the treasure, which might be a physical object, but might also be new knowledge, new understanding. Perhaps this is the point in which your hero and heroine declare their love for one another. Or your character experiences a renewed faith.

My reward came in the form of “the call” in which an editor at a small New York publishing house offered to publish my first novel.

The Return with the Elixir. Your protagonist returns with a special treasure or lesson from the Other World. The elixir might be love, or freedom, or wisdom, or faith. In Billie Letts’ novel Where The Heart Is, the protagonist, Novalee Nation realizes that one lie can change a person’s life and that truth can lead to finding the love she thought was beyond her. She realizes that she has more control over her life than she thought, and that she doesn’t have to remain a victim of fate.

For me, the elixir was the knowledge that with study and practice and determination I could in face write, revise, submit, and sell a novel. My sixteenth novel, Carolina Gold came out in December, and I’ve just turned in my next one to be published in 2014. May you experience this same elixir. There is nothing else quite like it.

Dorothy Love is the award-winning author of numerous books for adults, preteens and young adults. Her popular Hickory Ridge series, set in her native Tennessee marked her return to her writing roots in historical fiction and introduced readers to her trademark blend of history, mystery and romance. Love’s latest release is Carolina Gold (available December 2013). Her next book, a romantic mystery set in antebellum Savannah, will be published in 2014. She lives in Texas with her husband and their golden retriever and welcomes readers at www.DorothyLovebooks.com and at www.facebook.com/dorothylovebooks.

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FBI Agent Tutorial, What Do They Do? Pete Klismet

What do FBI Agents really do?

by Pete Klismet

One question I’ve been asked by more people than I can count is, “What do FBI Agents do?”  Another frequent one has been, “What is (or was) it like to be an FBI agent?”  

As I recount in the first chapter of my recent book, “FBI Diary: Profiles of Evil,” there is really no set or pat answer to that question.  I’d like to make the answer simple, but I really can’t.  When I received my appointment as a Special Agent in 1979, we had about 183 federal crimes to investigate.  When I retired in 1999, that list was over 270.  I have no clue how long the list is now.

In FBI Diary, I try to answer that question by saying “it depended on which of 59 field divisions you worked in, and to which squad you were assigned. In Los Angeles in the 1980s, I was assigned to an Organized Crime squad. Back then, it meant my squad investigated the Sicilian and Italian Mafia. It was all about gambling, prostitution, labor racketeering and control of the pornography industry, as well as a variety of other criminal activities they engaged in to make a living. We had several undercover operations going, one of which was setting up a pornography distribution business in the San Fernando Valley. Much to our surprise, five Mafia members showed up one day to muscle in on our operation, and we wound up taking out the entire Mafia family in Los Angeles. Eventually dubbed the ‘Mickey Mouse Mafia,’ these characters certainly were prime candidates for ‘Stupid Criminal’ recognition. It’s not usually a good idea to threaten to extort the FBI.”

Other squads in Los Angeles were dedicated to bank robberies, truck hijackings, interstate transportation of stolen property, foreign counterintelligence, white collar crime, and a myriad of other federal violations. Bank robberies in Los Angeles were a plague in the ‘80s, and continue to be. On Christmas Eve of the first year I was in Los Angeles, we had twenty-four, which was then a national record. It’s probably been long-since eclipsed.

As we progressed into the 80’s and 90’s, violent crime and drugs surged to the forefront, and priorities again changed.  The murder rate skyrocketed to over 20,000 in the mid-80’s, with drug gangs fighting for turf and simply because someone happened to be wearing the wrong color shirt or tennis shoes.  Agents were taken off other duties and dedicated to drug task forces, as well as working with local, state and federal officers to stem the tide of violent crime.

And then came the turn of the century.  Priorities changed again.  With the attacks of 9-11, the priorities of the FBI were drastically rearranged.  Agents who had worked criminal cases most of their careers suddenly found themselves trying to adapt to working terrorism.  The transition was difficult, to say the least.  Terrorism cases are an entirely different ball of wax, and I never worked one in over 20 years in the FBI.  We had no training in terrorism when I went through the FBI Academy, because realistically there was only a minimal threat back then.  Suddenly, terrorism became far more than a blip on the radar screen.  I don’t know this for sure, but I’d suspect that about half of all 10,000 FBI agents in the world are dedicated to terrorism full-time.

I did some research to see what the current priorities are now.  They’ve been switched around to where there are now two general categories, which are:

National Security		Criminal
1. Terrorism - International Terrorism - Domestic Terrorism - Weapons of Mass  Destruction 2. Counterintelligence - Counterespionage - Counterproliferation - Economic Espionage 3. Cyber Crime - Computer Intrusions  - Internet Fraud - Identity Theft		4. Public Corruption - Government Fraud - Election Fraud - Foreign Corrupt Practices 5. Civil Rights - Hate Crime - Human Trafficking - Color of Law - Freedom of Access to Clinics 6. Organized Crime - Italian Mafia/LCN - Eurasian - Balkan - Middle Eastern - Asian - African - Sports Bribery	7. White-Collar Crime - Antitrust - Bankruptcy Fraud - Corporate Fraud- Financial Institution Fraud & Failures - Health Care Fraud - Insurance Fraud - Mass Marketing Fraud - Money Laundering - Mortgage Fraud- Piracy/Intellectual Property Theft - Securities and Commodities Fraud - More White-Collar Frauds 8. Violent Crime and Major Thefts
			- Art Theft - Bank Robbery - Cargo Theft - Gangs- Indian Country Crime	- Online Predators - Retail Theft - Vehicle Theft - Violent Crimes Against Children

Many of these areas are specialties unto themselves.  Let’s say an agent is trained to work Cyber Crime.  He or she is going to need some very specific training to understand the federal statutes, and exactly how to conduct an investigation involving computer crimes.  Working and being trained in one of the many areas of White Collar Crime does not translate into a successful transition to Violent Crime, for example.  Everything about the crimes and federal statutes is different.  A former accountant would be more comfortable with White Collar Crime, while an ex-cop like me would transition well into the Violent Crime classifications.  And that’s exactly what I tried to do during my career, with some success.  However, I just happened to be named the 1999 Law Enforcement officer of the year by an international organization for both solving and convicting a group of people who were responsible for over $60 million in fraud.  Fraud?  Me.  Somehow I managed to figure it out, all the time while working in a two man Resident Agency.  Don’t ask me how!

Since this all seems fairly simple, cut and dried, let me throw a wrinkle at you.  There are 56 FBI field offices across the country.  Each has a headquarters city where most agents are assigned.  But, each field office has Resident Agencies, smaller satellite offices which, depending on the size of the area they cover, or the city they are in, can be manned by two to forty agents.  All of the violations you see in the list above can be the responsibility of the agents in those Resident Agencies.  You literally become a jack-of-all-trades, or what’s called a generalist.  You spend a lot of time flying by the seat of your pants, trying to figure out violations you’ve never dealt with before, and aren’t trained to investigate.  How do I know this?  I spent about fifteen of my twenty years in the FBI in RA’s.    If you wonder what I did, and how I survived, that is covered in the first third of FBI Diary.  And then they threw a new wrinkle at me.  If I didn’t have enough to do, and I certainly did, they wanted me to go through profiling training.  And that’s the rest of the story.  If you read the book, you’ll discover how I survived.  Barely!

Pete Klismet served two tours in Vietnam on submarines, attended college in Denver, then was a police officer in Ventura, California for ten years.  He was appointed a Special Agent in 1979 and retired from the FBI in 1999 after 30 total years of law enforcement service.  He was one of the original ‘profilers’ in the FBI, serving in four FBI offices.  He was named the 1999 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by a national organization.

Having recently retired as a college professor, Pete and his wife Nancy live in Colorado Springs, CO.

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