Dread NOT the Back Cover Blurb, for You Can Do It!

Recently I was at Westercon and the topic of writing the back cover blurb came up. You know, those couple paragraphs that describe your book and sell the reader on it. Great ones encapsulate the story and lure you to buy the book. It's the second thing people look at after the cover. If they like the cover, their next move is to pick up the book, flip it over, and read the description to find out what's inside.

One of the authors on the self publishing panel said she hated writing back cover blurbs. I said I actually liked writing the back cover blurb and had written them for all my books, published and un-published. 

I began writing the back cover blurbs with Tea Times Three, then an unfinished novel that I hoped to one day complete. I wrote it is as an exercise to help me finish the book. I continued to write back cover copy and wrote one for Carmine Rojas: Dog Fight which was actually the paragraph describing the book in my query letter. 

I began to do it seriously when I found this blog post by Cat Rambo Notes From Michael Stackpole’s “How To Write a Novel in 21 Days”. Using his plan you write the back cover blurb on day 16. The back cover copy should consist of no more than six sentences. It sounds like an impossible task, to boil your work down to just a few lines. But I went and I counted the number of sentences on the back cover of other, published novels, and by gum, he was right! Most blurbs are just that long. That's not to say they don't cheat with a semicolon here and there too squeeze in an extra long sentence. But that really is the average.

I found that it really helped me focus on the plot, the core conflicts (just like he said it should) and best of all, it will help you write the dreaded query! And you don't have to wait for Day 16 either. If you have a book idea you can always start there. Or write it midway through your first draft when you feel more secure about the plot. Write it when you feel inspired to write it.

Tips to keep in mind:
-Establish your main character(s) quickly.
-You don't need to include the entire plot- get to the inciting incident ("but when").
-Include the stakes! What does your character need to accomplish and what stands in their way?

Breakdown of the original blurb for Tea Times Three:
The sleepy town of Midswich Maine is shaken when three witches arrive and open a tea shop. Bruleé, Anglaise, and Caramel just want to start over in a new place, far from their troubles. Unfortunately Pastor Austin and a pack of upright citizens have other ideas.

Can the witches stay in their new home and save their business? Or will they be run out of town before anyone can even try their magical teas?

Even as they make friends their days may be numbered.

The first paragraph introduces the main characters, the setting, and what the main characters hope to accomplish. The second sentence of the first paragraph introduces the character who stands int heir way, Pastor Austin and his upright citizens. 

The second paragraph raises the stakes for the three witches. Can they save their business or will they be run out of town?

The last paragraph, just a sentence, introduces some hope, they are making friends, but it may not be enough. 

Whole swathes of both plot and characters are left out of the back cover description. The reader will discover those on their own when they buy the book and read it for themselves. They don't need to know everything upfront. If they did, why buy the book?

If you feel intimidated by the task, practice! Write a blurb for a book which has already been published. Or for one that you've read. Before too long you should start being able to tell what to add and what to cut. I will also say that it takes a few drafts too! Don't be afraid to write two, or four, or seven versions. 

Like Me. Friend Me!

I find it so funny that a few short months ago Facebook was not my friend. Not at all. I definitely didn’t “like” FB. When I first created a profile it sat there. I rarely posted. I mean for months. Sometimes I’d go on and make a brief comment on a post by one of my “friends”. I didn’t get FB, and using it confused me. Months would go by and I wouldn’t event visit FB.

Fast forward a couple of years and FB is now my friend. I talked about my use of FB as an author. Now I’m having great fun as a reader. I joined several FB groups. Two are readers groups that invited me (and other authors). Two are authors groups networking and sharing information. The other group is a hybrid of sorts. Reading In Black was started by author Deatri King-Bey. But the group is also for readers. Of course we authors are major readers/book geeks as well. The over arching goal of the group is to discuss mystery, thriller, horror, Sci-Fi, fantasy and paranormal novels written by and about POC (people of color).



I’ve discovered a long list of authors writing books I didn’t know existed. One example Steampunk written by and featuring POC. I didn’t know! I also have fallen in love with a genre called Sword and Soul – epic fantasy based on African traditions, culture and history. My first taste Griots, an anthology. I’m in love (huge Game of Thrones fanatic).

Since Fringe and Person of Interest debuted their fall season first episodes 9/28, those of us who are fans geeked out to discuss the story lines, actors, scripts and more. I’ve also been buying thrillers, mystery and paranormal novels. We discuss movies, so it’s not just about books. Though there is a lot of book talk. Saturday night (9/29) someone posted that Lake Placid, The Final Chapter would be on the SyFy channel. Spontaneously several of us started posting hilarious comments on FB while watching (silly dialogue, too stupid to live characters, who gets eaten first, etc.)

So I invite readers of the genres we read and write to stop by and consider joining up. We’re not just having a blast, but you’ll be able learn about wonderful books.
I’m writing a book I want to be on sale for the holidays. Now I have to make myself stay away from FB. 360 degree change. Seriously.

News And Shameless Self-Promotion

Now that Devon Archer has moved on from Novel Spaces, we will have occasional empty blogging slots that our writers will use for promotion and news.

I believe I am the first to take advantage of this opportunity, and I have several pieces of news to share.


Campbell Award


I am in my second (and last) year of eligibility for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. If you are eligible to nominate works and people for Hugo Awards, you can nominate as many as five people for Campbell Award at the bottom of the Hugo ballot.

Please consider nominating me for the Campbell Award. Last year, it took only 40 nominations to get on the final ballot, so your five votes really do count.  

A list of people eligible to be nominated for the Campbell Award is posted at Writertopia. Clicking on a name will take you to a page telling you what work made that person eligible. Most pages also have a bio and a list of fiction publications and awards. My own page is at http://www.writertopia.com/profiles/ShaunaRoberts.

You don't need to nominate five works or people in every category on the Hugo ballot; in fact, you can leave entire categories blank. If you vote, the nomination ballot must be received by March 11. Thanks.

Novel Sale

Hadley Rille Books, the science fiction and fantasy press that published Like Mayflies in a Stream, will be publishing my novel Ice Magic, Fire Magic.  

Ice Magic, Fire Magic is a fantasy with strong romantic elements. Its heroine is a woman who is  incapable of doing evil and who must become the ruler of her world. Meanwhile, evil people who want to seize her power are out to stop her.

I wrote the novel to explore in more depth the good Kirk–bad Kirk dilemma: Can a person who is all good be an effective leader?

Ice Magic, Fire Magic has some cool elements I had fun creating. The land is sentient and chooses the ruler. The rulers are true servants of the people, and they go barefoot as a constant reminder that they should serve, not be served. Two species of humans share the land; one species wields magic, and the other relies on advanced technology. Women and men work different types of magic; their magic is complementary, and both kinds are needed for the land to thrive. A lonely, 1000-year-old evil spirit tries to influence both the good heroine and her evil opponents. And then there are the ice dragons and fire lizards.

The book is scheduled for publication in 2013.


Story Sale

My fantasy flash story "Moonlight, Reflected in Dewdrops" was published in the January 2012 issue of 10Flash Quarterly. You can read it for free at http://www.10flashmagazine.com/10flash-fantasy/moonlight-reflected-in-dewdrops/. 


 New e-Books

My novelette "The Hunt, " despite having been published twice, is hard to find. This science fiction mystery is one of my favorite pieces I've written. So I've put it up at Amazon.com as an e-book. You can find it at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006WEVR7I.

I hope within the next week or so to put up my 1983 dissertation for Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) on mating behavior of Nicobar pigeons (Caloenas nicobarica) at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Although mating behavior has been studied extensively in other pigeons, to my knowledge my dissertation remains the only such work on Nicobar pigeons, so it will be useful for a few specialists to have it available.

Of more interest to Novel Spaces readers, this spring, if all goes well, I will e-publish my epic fantasy novel Shrine of the Heavens. More on it later. 

World Fantasy Con: Can You Mix Science into Fantasy"

I went to World Fantasy Convention (WFC) 2011 in San Diego at the end of October, and the second panel I attended was on mixing science into fantasy.

The panelists were Greg Benford, Yves Meynard, Brent Weeks, L.E. Modisett, Darryl Murphy, and Edward Willett.

I did not stay for the whole panel because I wanted to get a good seat at the animal show. (Yes! The San Diego Zoo brought exotic animals to WFC, and for an hour talked about their adaptations. Very cool.) But even in what I attended, I learned several interesting things I'd like to share with you.

Edward Willett says that he likes to write fantasy in which the magic does not break physical laws of nature. However, after his steampunk fantasy was published, he received criticism that by having coal- and gas-based inventions that could be built and work in real life, he had taken all the magic out of the story.

Most or all of the panelists agreed that magic in fantasy should have rules (at least in the author's mind; it's okay if the characters themselves do not understand the rules) and that the rules should make sense. One panelist pointed out that if magic is not given rules, explicit or implied, then tension and drama are reduced because anything can happen (similar to the tension-draning effects of deus ex machina solutions in literature in general). That is such a great observation that I will repeat it again:

If magic is not given rules, explicit or implied, then tension and drama are reduced because anything can happen.

The panelists agreed, though, that some authors and readers particularly like figuring out rule-based magic, while for other readers, the wonder of the magical world is what they read for. Harry Potter's world may not make sense, but who wouldn't want to attend Hogwart's Academy?

Willett said that George R.R. Martin says that magic stands in for all the things in our real universe that we can't control. I searched today for the quote and didn't find it. However, I did find a recent interview with GRRM in which he says that for magic to work in fiction, it has to be mysterious. He does not believe in creating elaborate rules. (Full interview here.)

Modisett thinks also that magic especially appeals to people who wish things were other than they are. (Shauna's note: Perhaps this partly explain fantasy's appeal to children, who are loaded with so many unwanted rules and restrictions physically and socially.)

Personally, I prefer rule-based magic. It usually takes me out of a story if, for example, Michelle Pfeifer transforms into a twelve-pound hawk with nothing left over, breaking the law of the conservation of mass-energy. But if a story is good, I am willing to suspend belief. I loved Ladyhawke despite the unbelievable magic and many anachronisms.

What about you? Which type of fantastical story do you prefer? And why?

******
Los Angeles Appearance

I will be at the Los Angeles Science Fiction Convention (LOScon) this Friday, November 25. I speak on the panel "10 Beginning Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them" from noon to 2 pm; I sign copies of Like Mayflies in a Stream from 3:00 pm to whenever the next scheduled author shows up; and I will be on the panel "Short, Short Stories" (about ultraflash fiction) from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm. I hope to see you there.

Until next time (December 6)!

—Shauna Roberts

Reading Into Things

After a couple of weeks of long hours at the keyboard, I took a day off writing. So what did I do? Other than reading, I spent a few hours hanging out on Goodreads reviewing books I’d previously read.

What can I say? I love books. From the moment I learned to read I devoured every piece of text I could get my hands on. And the writer-to-be showed up because I couldn’t keep from “rewriting” in my head the things I read. I couldn’t keep from putting myself into the story. I consumed Walter Farley’s horse books and imagined thundering down the track on a fast stallion somewhere between Black and Flame. I read the dog stories of Jim Kjelgaard and Jack London and ran arid lands and ice floes with Desert Dog and White Fang and others of my own invention. I read sports stories, space stories, and westerns, and I dreamed myself into every one of them.

Even today I’m fully as much of a reader as I am a writer. I generally read at least three books at a time, and there’s no telling what genre those might be in. Right now I’m reading a poetry collection from a famous naturalist, a mystery from an old friend, a classic western, and a graphic novel about Mars and swords. I’m enjoying every one of them.

They say a writer has to write, and I agree. But I also think a writer has to read. I know I have to. If I go more than a few days without writing I start to get uneasy. But I don’t think I’ve gone more than one day without reading at least a few pages for years. I don’t even know how it would feel to go a week without reading. I don’t want to know.

I read. I write. The two feed off each other and enrich my life.

So how about you. What are you reading today that has captured your imagination? What are you reading that has enriched your life?

Wow! A book in print

I'm a geek girl. I'm comfortable around technology. So you'd think that the medium of my work wouldn't matter. But, to be honest, I felt an irrepressible sense of joy when I realised that one of my books was released in print. This week! Pity the dead trees, but still! Print!

Not that it's anyone's fault but my own that I haven't been in print till now. The truth is, up to this point, I've only written mostly novellas, and those puppies tend to run no more than 30,000 words. Not viable. So this is my first published novel, even if it isn't the first novel I've ever written.



Guarding His Body. I'll be honest with you, I've always had a hidden fascination with the Whitney Houston/Kevin Costner movie, "The Bodyguard". Okay, there was heaps of overacting in it, but the concept stayed with me. Except...what if it was the other way around? What if you had a female bodyguard guarding a male body? Wouldn't that be something? And how exactly would that work?

Suave, and slightly arrogant, Frenchman, Yves de Saint Nerin, thinks he's hired a gruff Aussie to guard him during a sojourn to Australia. Hell Collier is the bloke's name. Must be a rough'n'tough type, right? Except, "Hell Collier" turns out to be Helen Collier in her first ever solo bodyguard assignment. And each finds that the other isn't quite what was expected.

The book is set in Brisbane, Australia, a beautiful sub-tropical city on the eastern seaboard of Australia. I know that people rave about Sydney and Melbourne but, to me, Brisbane has it all -- the lovely weather, the proximity to the world-famous beaches at the Gold Coast, and a laid back atmosphere. I was happy to revisit the time I lived there through the novel.

The heroine is Australian -- a capable woman with a hint of vulnerability and an ache for a dream that she thinks will never be fulfilled. After all, what man feels comfortable in the presence of a woman who can easily physically tie him in knots with very little effort? The problem is, Helen intimidates most men and she despairs of ever finding a partner who'll appreciate her for who she is.

When thinking about the hero, I'll admit I scouted further afield. Now I realise this is a gross generalisation, but it seems to me that European men are a bit more comfortable in their own skins than most others. My hubby, J, for example, is not ashamed to say that he loves pink roses and that he thought of writing romance when in his early twenties. He's also a delightfully masculine, hot-blooded Pole who's a perfect match to my more brusque manner. A well-mannered and sensitive Klingon male, is how I think of him! I decided to pair a much tamer version of him with Helen to see what would happen.

Anyway, that's my stealth promotion of my new book, in case you didn't realise it! My publisher liked the idea so much, she commissioned a series and I'm about to start on the second book of three next month. I know I've started late, but this year has been a roller-coaster for me, as it has for most people. All I can do is hang on, keep writing, and hope people enjoy what they read. Thanks for giving me the chance to share.

Six Reasons to Attend the World Fantasy Convention

Writing conventions are expensive. You have to pay the convention fee plus buy meals and pay for a room in a fancier hotel than you would usually stay in. You may also lose income for the days you take off work.

I have attended the Romance Writers of America’s yearly conference several times and think it well worth the price. This past weekend, I attended the World Fantasy Con (WFC) for the first time—the theme was Edgar Allen Poe; hence the con's raven logo at right—and found that con just as valuable. If you are a fantasy writer or fantasy fan, here are some reasons you should attend the 2010 WFC in Columbus, Ohio.

1. Books, books, books. I brought home almost my weight in books, and almost all of those books were free, with a total value far higher than my conference fee cost. Generous publishers supplied enough giveaways for each WFC attendee to receive a large bag stuffed full of books.

2. More books, books, books. When you visit a traditional bookstore, your selection consists primarily of books from major publishers. You miss out on the innovative, off-beat, and just plain weird offerings of small publishers who sell primarily through the Internet. SFC provides several types of opportunities to learn about such books, and the dealers’ room offers the chance to look them over and purchase them.

3. Stargazing. If you swoon at the sight of your favorite authors, take smelling salts to WFC. Fantasy authors are in abundance, and some are happy to meet fans or beginning writers.

4. Autographs. The long evening autograph session gives you plenty of time to get all the books you brought with you or bought at WFC signed. Also, the program contains pages for collecting autographs from authors whose books you don’t have with you.

5. Networking. One of the best things a writer can do for her career is to meet other writers. Writers of all levels come to WFC, as do some artists and publishers. I am not the master networker some of my friends are. Even so, I met some writers to interview on my blog For Love of Words as well as a blogger who will interview me in 2010, an artist I’d love to have illustrate my next book, several famous people, a few magazine editors, and some talented writers.

6. Promotion. In addition to meeting people informally, I sat on a panel at WFC and signed my new book Like Mayflies in a Stream at the booksigning. I sold several books and passed out a hundred or more bookmarks (not bad at a conference limited to 1,000 attendees). What a great way to get my face, name, and book better known.

Hope to see you at WFC next year in Columbus!


Thanks for dropping by today. I’ll be blogging again at Novel Spaces on November 22, when I talk about reasons for writers to be thankful.

—Shauna Roberts