No Genre Fiction!

I like a challenge. I like to be challenged and I like to challenge others. It helps our brain come alive, our creativity become fresh again and most important it keeps us moving forward.

I've been trying my hand at poetry. Now I'm not a poet. I write cute little rhyming poems. Nothing major or deep thinking about them, but one of the poems I have started writing, has challenged me to turn it into a children's picture book, along with my own illustrations (I'm not an illustrator either) But for me it's a challenge.

Anyway...I write romance novels and started thinking of short romance stories to submit to magazines. So I googled "submitting stories to magazines" and I found a few different sites that list magazines that take unsolicited submissions.

Here's one list for the UK http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/short-stories/magazines/

And then there is this one US  http://www.everywritersresource.com/topliterarymagazines.html

And this one http://www.christopherfielden.com/short-story-tips-and-writing-advice/short-story-magazines.php#ShortStoryMagsUSA

Now what I've found, is that quite a few of the magazines say they only accept "No Genre Fiction"
Now I must not be the brightest person, because I had to google to find out what they meant by "No Genre Fiction"
I guess I should have paid more attention in my English 101 Story Composition class in college, But at that time I had never thought about writing and two weeks into the class my brother passed away unexpectedly and for a minute there, I almost dropped all of my classes, but I knew my brother would want me to finish. It was the last semester I needed to graduate. So I ended up writing all my stories for the class, about my brother as a dedication to him. In fact one of those stories is published in Patti Roberts book titled
"I Believe" (My story is titled "Do you believe") And you can pick up "I Believe" for free here on Amazon

So what exactly is "No Genre Fiction" Well my understanding of it is, it is a fictional story with NO romance, mystery, zombies, ghosts, no paranormal, no sci-fi, no...What! How do you write a "No Genre Fiction?" Better yet what do you write about? And some of them even say they accept stories with up to 10,000 words!
I might be able to come up with a paragraph or two, maybe even a page, but 10,000 words? Yikes! Your stories have to be things that happen in everyday occurrences. Things that could actually happen and yet they must be fiction.

   Well, I've come up with a few ideas that might work with those guidelines.

How about;

Shopping for a new dress.

Or

My son's baseball game.

Or maybe

Working in the yard on a beautiful day.

   These are just some off the top of my head. 

What kind of ideas can you come up with, that you think would work great with, "No Genre Fiction?"

   Have you ever written "No Genre Fiction?"

Could you challenge yourself to do so?

You can read some "No Genre Fiction" stories for free at Carve Magazine.
Just click on the link http://carvezine.com/fiction/#.UcBs7-e-2uI

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Leave me a comment!

"The Romance of Dracula" By Charles E Butler

Today I want to give you a peek at 

"The Romance of Dracula" By Charles E Butler

The Romance of Dracula is Charles' first book and the sequels, Vampires Everywhere, The Rise of the Movie UnDead are in preparation. 

And Introduce you to Charles

Charles E Butler was born and raised in the Yorkshire town of Leeds in the UK. He is a writer, actor and artist of independent comic books. He quickly developed a taste for the fantastic through comic books and the movies. His own short films under his Su asti banner are submitted to festivals and have been viewed as far afield as New Orleans. He has written vampire essays for various sites on the Internet and his special tribute Dracula and Werewolf pages can be found on Facebook. 

Canadian Film maker Anthony DP Mann was in England shooting a documentary about Dracula and interviewed Charles for the short film, as he was impressed by Charles' book. Anthony's movie "The Terror of Dracula" is at www.newdraculamovie.com and is also doing very well online. 

"The Romance of Dracula" is a review of the fourteen Major film adaptations of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Complete with illustrations of the fourteen major Counts. From Max Schreck to Marc Warren, The Romance of Dracula is the most concise account of the Count on screen. The Epilogue concentrates on the Count's further/major appearances in fantasy horror films and the book takes interesting side-roads into the exploration of the myth through The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), the original Fright Night (1985) and The Shadow of the Vampire (2000). An engrossing must-have read for the casual onlooker and the ardent aficionado.


  

The Romance of Dracula on createspace

https://www.createspace.com/3573229

And the e-book is available in the UK here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Romance-Dracula-personal-celluloid-ebook/dp/B004LB4UMS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1337717788&sr=1-1

And the paperback in the UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Romance-Dracula-Charles-Butler/dp/1463736630

And the e-book for the US

http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Dracula-personal-celluloid-ebook/dp/B004LB4UMS

And the paperback for the US

http://www.amazon.com/The-Romance-Dracula-personal-celluloid/dp/1463736630/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

Charles also has a book out titled "Detections in A Scarlet Vein"

http://www.amazon.com/Detections-Scarlet-irrelevent-investigation-ebook/dp/B006M6LXZ2 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Detections-Scarlet-irrelevent-investigation-ebook/dp/B006M6LXZ2 

And last but not least you can find Charles and "The Romance Of Dracula" on Facebook 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Romance-of-Dracula/157273041028907 

Another Rejection Letter

I know the title sounds horrible, but...
Yes, I did receive another rejection email yesterday.
And at first I was actually happy because...
I have been thinking of self publishing this particular book.
It's the first book in my series "Chris' Journey Turning Different Corners"
And then I was depressed...
What's wrong with this book? It's a great story!
And then I was...Hmm...I don't know...Understanding, maybe?
I have read countless blogs about querying and they tell you,
                       "Do your homework!"
And they are right! From the beginning I have questioned my genre with this particular story.
Is it a "Romance?" Yes, basically speaking, but it has all these other variables to it.
It starts out with "Chris" being a 12 year old foster child and gets to 18, falling in love,
having sex, getting married, and then tragedy strikes crashing her world down around her,
Then there's abuse, and new friends, and turning points, acceptance, and closure at the age of 22,
but no HEA, because...That's where book two comes in...

Okay, so to sum it up, this is what the rejection letter said;
"Unfortunately, after careful consideration of your manuscript, we have determined that it does not fit our needs"
And they are right! Even though the agents and publishers I have queried are looking for romance novels and series, mine really does not fit their needs.
They aren't saying it's not a good story, just that as a romance novel,
it doesn't fit with the typical ones that they publish. I also know, from doing my homework,
that the last book in the series (Which was originally written as a stand alone) would fit,
but I want the first three books out there first and then I'll look into querying the final one.

Just remember "Rejection letters" can be a good thing!
Just keep doing your homework and don't give up on your dream.

Me? A Writer?

First let me wish you a Happy Monday. Good morning everyone! I'm afraid this is going to be a long post so grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable. :-) I got up and found 99 new emails this morning.
I follow a lot of blogs. 99 isn't too bad though as long as I tackle them all today. Last week there were over 2000 unread emails and let's just say I was a little slow at checking my emails.
But...My post today is about me being a writer. I have been reading a lot of author interviews on blogs and usually the first question is;
"When did you know you wanted to be a writer?" And you will usually find answers like;
"When I was 9. I started writing short stories or describing my grandma's sugar cookies or, when I was 5, I wrote everything."

Personally, when I was 5, I was having imaginary tea with Elvis while sitting at my little table and chairs in my bedroom. I wasn't thinking of becoming a writer, but I had a great imagination! My "When I grow up, I want to be..." Was usually a teacher, or a secretary working in an office keeping everything organized for a business.

I, like all of you, have worn many different hats from wife, to mother, or father, to animal lover, and have had different jobs. Some interesting, fun, and exciting, others not so much so, but they all taught me valuable things. I was the cleaning lady for the YWCA, I worked in one of those little photo booths that they used to stick in parking lots where people would drive up and turn in their film and a couple of days later they'd drive back up and pick up their pictures. I even got robbed there during my first 3 weeks! Now that was scary, but I hung in there until the owner closed the place down about a year later.
 I worked for the school district off and on for 17 years. I was a noon aid, a food service worker, and even a reader for the blind in those 17 years. During my last year I decided to go to college.
Wow, me starting college at 40. I decided I wanted to change my age group and open a board and care for the elderly. I retired from the school district, rolled over my retirement to a traditional IRA and it was off to school. I lost my mom at the end of my first year to colon cancer and lost my brother at the beginning of my last semester a year and a half later to congestive heart failure, but I went on to graduate and got my A.A. degree. A few months after losing my brother I got a job working for a rental car company and my goal to open a board and care got pushed to the wayside.

 A few years later, while still working there, I decided I wanted to be a gift basket designer and was doing well enough at it that a few years later, I even opened a gift shop designing custom gift baskets and party sets. I decided to close my gift shop after 3 years due to the economy and a business partner who was going through a nasty divorce and failed to tell me he hadn't paid the rent in 7 months. My landlord was a great guy and I could have stayed open, but decided it was time to move on. And that was in February 2011. So here I sat wondering what to do. Throughout all these years I have had fantasies running through my head and the one at that time was so strong that in May I decided to sit down and write it out. In fact I was on the third chapter and decided I better google how to write a story. I didn't know what POV or HEA was. Heck I had to google how to write a sex scene! So here I am, not quite into a year and I'm a writer. Who would have thought that all those fantasies and my imagination would lead me to here.

Am I cheating?

This is my Tarot for today. Hi Karen! Here is your Daily Tarot Card for Sunday, February 5

"The World card suggests that my alter ego is The Conqueror, whose superpower lies in graduation to the next level. Today I am free. I have accomplished my mission and feel on top of the world. I will enjoy the experience to its fullest. I have come full circle on my path to success. My job is done, my dream fulfilled, and I have them eating out of my hands. Accept and embrace the journey taken. It has served great purpose in my growing wiser and stronger, and has provided a sense of relief in that now it's complete."

As some of you know, I self published my first book this past week. For me it was an experiment to see if I could do it. Don't get me wrong, it's a good story. A novelette though, not a novel. It is a classic traditional romance, like the ones I used to read all the time and Romance is what I write. And I am happy, but why do I feel like I've cut in the lunch line? There are so many great writers that are sitting waiting for a publisher to pick them up and here I cut in front of them and self publish, shouldn't I be waiting in the line behind them?
And I'm not picking on others that are self publishing, I have read books from a couple of self publishers and they are awesome. You wouldn't know they were self pubbed, unless they told you. Great stories, well written, awesome covers, and I support them 100%
I am working on another book, this time a novel, or so I hope, that I will self publish also, but I will continue querying my series to agents and publishers for the time being, so I don't feel like I'm cheating? No, I don't think that's the reason. I know everyone has their reasons for choosing self publishing over traditional and I believe that we all have to make the choice that works best for us, just like we do with all the choices we have  to make in our lives.
As for my Tarot, I can't agree with it totally because, I don't believe, "I have come full circle on my path to success. My job is done, my dream fulfilled, and I have them eating out of my hands." Nope don't agree at all,
I know that I still have a long way to go!

How much is too much?

I love to read. I always have. But am finding now that I'm writing, that we tend to get caught up in word count.
Yes you need to describe your characters and set your scenes, but do you really need to describe the mole on the right hip of her third cousin? Unless there's a certain significance to it.  Do you have to have their agenda minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day? How much is too much? And how much is not enough?
When you pick up a book and it drones on and on, do you lose your interest, thinking to yourself, "They really didn't need all that" Can your story be told in 25,000 words compared to 50,000? How much is lost when you cut back, or add more? I guess the big question is, "How much do you put out there vs. how much you let your reader's imagination work?"
And once they read it will they remember it, or at least a part of it?

I used to read Romance novels when I was younger, now I write them and read other genres, but I can remember this one novel (I read it like 20 years ago) well the basic outline of it, as if I read it last week.
It was a Harlequin novel, I have no idea who wrote it (and that's the sad part, but I have always been terrible with names) but it has stuck in my head and I wanted to share just the basic plot of it with you and we will see if I can keep it short, I don't know I get kind of wordy sometimes.

This is what I remember;

There was a count, duke, whatever (See, what he was didn't make an impression on me) He lived in a big castle. (Where? I don't remember) He had been injured and had lost his sight temporarily or at least they hoped it was only temporarily. So a young, overweight, plain looking woman was hired to take care of him. All the mirrors had been removed and placed in the basement. (Still don't know why, because his eyes were bandaged and he couldn't look in them anyway) She had low self esteem and he was a cranky person with the attitude of "Why me?" Kind of like "Beauty and the Beast" Anyway, every night after he fell asleep she went down and went skinny dipping in the pool and over time she had to take in her clothes so they would fit. Now remember there are no mirrors to look into. Over the course of let's say six months, he was falling in love with her. She was kind and caring. Something he had never experienced before. So on the day the bandages were to be removed she didn't want him to see her, in her mind she was fat and ugly. So when they removed the bandages and he could see, she wasn't in the room and he went searching through the castle looking for her. Finding her, she told him he didn't want to see her, because she was ugly and not good enough for him and he took her down to the basement where the mirrors were and made her look in the mirror at her own reflection and she was beautiful. She was in great shape from the nightly swims, and her hair and skin glowed from eating right and on and on...

 I am looking at this from a reader's point of view and not the writer's point of view.
Put yourself in your reader's shoes for a minute...
How much is too much and what will they remember?
Hopefully they won't be like me and forget who wrote the book.

Just a last note check out http://www.genreality.net/its-all-about-the-details, I think their blog post works well with mine today!

Heroes and Heroines

I was reading a friend's post this morning on facebook how the heroine is so bad she makes your eyes bleed. Yep she really did say that. And I told her that's what I was going to blog about this morning.
You can check out her FB page here!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001562406287

What makes a character so bad that you roll your eyes at them? Are they too sweet? Too demanding? Too emotional? Or just plain ditzy?

Most of the reviews I've read where they complain about the characters, they are referring to the heroine and not the hero.

Also, Do men view the characters the same as a woman does? Maybe we need to have a review contest of sorts and compare the results. :-)



I know when we watch movies we will make comments like,
 "What did he do that for?"
"Why do they make these people so stupid?"
" I could have done a better job of acting!"
Well you get the idea....

And I'm not talking a specific genre, I'm talking all of them.
I know characters are going to different in all genres,
but overall character traits are basically the same.
We all have the same emotions, sadness, happiness, sexy, soft, tough,
no matter if you are reading a romance,  paranormal, horror, or comedy.


What traits endear you to the characters?
What do you want to see in the characters?
Do you want to see the softer side of men?
The tougher side of women?

As always would love to hear your viewpoints!
Have a great day! And keep writing!

Styles of Writing

  I am writing an erotic romance novel and it's been years since I've read one. I prefer Stephen King for my reading pleasure now. I love his style of writing, how he draws you in and keeps you mesmerized till the very end. That is my goal for my first novel and all others that follow is to give you a story that you just can't put down. Hopefully pulling you in and keeping you mesmerized to the very end.