Eventually

To go a bit further along the road laid by my last blog post, it might be expedient to work on the
virtue that's not always accessible to the author: patience. The threads of impatience start to weave their basketry into the brain the instant one half of a novel is laid down in draft form.
Authors are impatient to finish, to start on rewriting, impatient to finish that as well, so their beta-readers can have their first glimpses of this long-awaited new work. Then authors are extremely impatient to hear back from their readers with praise (or otherwise), and how they can go about improving an already tremendous novel.
They can't wait for their editors to finish, already! Get on with it, hurry. Authors want to get the work typeset, formatted, out there in the queue for uploading to the ethereal place they cannot even imagine; that literary sausage-machine from which each book emerges into the world. And then from there into the metaphorical brown paper-bag. The book pops, warm from recent production, in front of the eyes of the readers of the world.
The world! Impatience for a book to be available to the world is so strong in an author that hardly any are of the opinion that waiting is good for them. Why should anyone wait? The longer a book languishes out of sight - out of the reach of purchasers - the longer it might take for them to access acclaim.
Acclaim? Renown? Okay - fame, perhaps. Or at least knowledge of one's name in a tight band of faithful followers of their particular genre.
It happens eventually, they believe, all these hopeful authors who cannot wait to type that last full stop. It's inevitable that good work will rise to the top and receive attention. Eventually, readers in their thousands will line up to buy that last full stop. How long is "eventually"?"

"It has been well said that an author who expects results from a first novel is in a position similar to that of a man who drops a rose petal down the Grand Canyon of Arizona and listens for the echo" PG Wodehouse.

Results are not only hard to get, they are also hard to gauge, to measure, to ascertain with any reasonable accuracy. It's almost impossible to know whether anyone actually reads one's work, unless a review is written and posted somewhere.
And authors are so impatient for reviews.
Eventually can be a very long time. Overnight success does happen - but it takes ages. The myth of instant acclaim, however, is so well ingrained in popular storytelling about celebrities of all kinds that it's now impossible to erase. We can't destroy the myth that if writers all do exactly what the last miracle author did, they'd all have the same kind of success.
Elementary mathematics and common sense show us it's impossible, of course. How can all authors be equally famous? How can even a third of all authors currently impatient to see a surge in sales have their wish come true? It's been proven a dozen times that there aren't enough shelves in the world, enough reading devices, enough readers, to make this happen.

Patience, then, must be accompanied by reason. But how many impassioned eager creative people have that? If one had reason tempered by an understanding of statistics, by probability theory, and perhaps a touch of practicality, one would take up a career in anything but writing.
Leave a comment - speak your thoughts. Define your own way of seeing impatience. Or perhaps you might have a new way to explain how long "eventually" is!

Hopes and expectations

I could just as easily title this post "Learning from someone younger", or "Receiving enlightenment from a youthful sage". Without going into the identity of the young person who is the fount from which this blog springs, I am riding on a mere glimpse, today, of how an author can truly benefit from listening.
We talk, we rant, we deliver workshops to those who would listen. We write reams and reams of words. We read the writings of wise ones who went before - in a book world that was vastly different, of course, pre-2009 - but emerge more or less unaltered.
Then a young person says something, in that inimitable enthusiastic, clear, bright way they have ... and realization, if it were a liquid, would have drenched the tablecloth. Refilled the yellow cups, flooded the plates and cutlery, made mush out of napkins and leftover Stroganoff.

Image: knorr.co.uk

There's a difference, I learned, between hopes and expectations. And one must never confuse the two. Hopes are rather like dreams - we can have them with impunity. Hope is never denied, even to those with the most unrealizable of dreams. We can always hope.
Confusing hopes with expectations, however, can be dangerous, defeating, and the result can be just plain depressing. Expectations require some consideration of an outcome, which is always limited by environment, participants, income, location, ability. Hope is eternal and needs no real results. Anyone can hope. We might continue to hope long after the lottery is drawn, the ship goes out, the parcel is lost in the post. But expectations need input, and an understanding of real elements necessary to bring them about.
One can mark up what I mean: it can be easy to visualize the difference by listing hopes and expectations in the same way as one would pros and cons. Do it: draw a vertical line down the middle of your page and list Hopes on one side and Expectations on the other. Do this for each aspect upon which you are imagining some sort of result. It could be a response from a distant person, a batch of seeds to sprout, a tax refund to arrive, or yes ... book sales.
Your hopes are understandable, legitimate, vital, even. One needs to hope. Hope is a basic human attribute. Without it, we lack ... well, we lack hope. If we are denied hope, we rebel.

The hopes on that side of the page are all appropriate and valid. But list the expectations, and suddenly a sense of realism, of down-to-earthedness, of real possibility, descends, and if care is not applied, it can be crushing to come to this realization. What we hope for might not ever happen, because it's improbable, impossible, or both. I can hope that my Stroganoff might turn out as tender and delicious as that of a first-grade chef, but the reality is of course limited by my utensils, skills, ingredients, knowledge, and time. My expectations must be similarly limited.
Learning this makes me take a pair of garden secateurs to my expectations: trim them down to what is in fact, in obvious fact, truly possible. My long list becomes drastically shorter. I am brought nose-to-nose with the reality of what it is I imagine might happen.
How do you distinguish between hopes and expectations? Have you - until now - felt they are much the same thing?

Reading for pleasure - an encounter with Margaret Sutherland

It took me a long time to figure how to breathe new life into my blog, but it did not take long at all for Margaret Sutherland to respond positively and accept my invitation to be here. Her patience and lovely disposition match her elegant, insightful writing. Prolific and comprehensive, her fiction takes the reader from country towns in Australia to the vast world inside the heart.

Here's how she sees that world:

Hello, Margaret! Tell us a bit about your novels - why do dogs figure so significantly in your recent fiction?

Dogs have been part of my life for several decades. A new dog usually turns up unexpectedly. Jo was a stray, Jessica sat withdrawn in a pet shop cage, Pixie was inherited, Beau was a foster dog, etc.

Most dogs share similar characteristics. They are intuitive, and transparent in showing their feelings. They can be zany and playful, patient and forgiving. They are vulnerable to the vagaries of an unpredictable world. They have deepened my ability to nurture and to play. That’s why my recent romances always include a dog. I draw on what I have learned to love about them.

Why are you writing romances now?

World problems are overwhelming. Romance gives the reader a break from gloom and introduces a note of happiness and  optimism.

You have worked in a number of fields. How do you bring work experience into your writing, if at all?

Yes, as well as publishing about 10 novels and several collections of short stories and memoir, I have worked as a nurse, a mother and wife, a laboratory technician, a bank teller (briefly!) and as a music teacher. I’ve used all these situations in my fiction. I am a writer who keeps close to life as I understand it.

I have worked in hospitals and community settings. My short collection, ‘The Last Party’, deals with life from the birth of a premature baby to the death of a splendid old woman. Short stories were my most popular genre. I cut my teeth on them, and many are republished in my book, ‘A Quintessential Love Affair.’ Some of those stories could have been expanded into novels. For example, my three years of nursing training were condensed into a single story, ‘Particular Friends’, and a full year of living in Papua New Guinea became the setting for a short novella, ‘Dark Places, Deep Regions.’ Of course, these are not autobiographies. They are fiction.

Tell us a bit about teaching music.

It is lovely work. I meet young children, teenagers and adults. Over time, many become friends, who share their lives and even buy my books! It can be sad when pupils move on. I try to be an encouraging teacher. I think that belief in oneself works better than criticism, so I aim for the positive. From the most gifted to the average, every student will benefit from learning to play an instrument. And yes, several music teachers play a role in my stories, especially in ‘The Sea Between’, a historical novel set in New Zealand and Australia during the First World War era.

Are locations as important as a reader might think when reading your title, ‘The Taj Mahal of Trundle’?

Although most of my books do have a carefully-placed setting, in fact the Taj title is pure irony! I just couldn’t find a better contrast than between an imaginary laid-back country town with its run-down shops and flapping awnings, and one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. The title represents the gulf between dreams and reality. It is a story about the migration of an Indian family, the Lals, to Australia, and the adjustments a migrant faces. I am an expatriate from New Zealand myself so the theme interests me. I used the same theme of migration in ‘Leaving Gaza.’

Margaret Sutherland's most recent release

Some authors struggle to find time to write, whereas others seem to be writing all the time. What are you like?

In retrospect, I could have worked harder. When nothing was nudging me to write, I just dropped it and did other things. Mind you, that’s where I found new material. Now, yes, I am working most days on writing matters, but getting to an actual day of writing is very rare. There are the associated duties now. Writing a review, drafting up an interview or blog, social media, reading craft articles, learning some new computer programme or wasting hours with a technical hitch, checking sales, giving a library talk … oh, there’s so much to pull you away from the writing. One just tries to find a balance. I wish I had more time.

What do you read for pleasure?

I read something from the tumbling pile on my bedside table. At the moment, Sol Stein’s ‘How to Grow a Novel’; Robert Macklin’s ‘Dark Paradise’, about the history of Norfolk Island; Chinese Take-Out’ by Ian Mathie, a novel based on the defection of a Chinese biochemist and his wife at the time of Tienanmen Square; ‘That’s Life’, a magazine that takes me back to the days of babies, fashion, beauty, cooking, horoscopes and all the paraphernalia of the young family years … and of course, my trusty Kindle, crammed with goodies, including romances by my fellow authors at Secret Cravings Publishers.

Where can readers see more about your books?

My website has all the information, covers and trailers. www.margaretsutherland.com

Thank you, Margaret, for this brief but informative visit to my blog. It's been an excellent way to revive these pages - and who knows, people might notice what we are both saying and doing in this writers' world.

The year in review

Pic: johnmannophoto.com

The year speeds up towards the end, like many things nearing their finish. The older one gets, the faster time goes... and it doesn't only seem that way. Time really progresses at a faster rate, it's out of our control, and I'll not go into the science to prove it. You know what I'm talking about. A saucepan lid, a spun coin, or spinning top will gather speed as it girates towards the end of its agitation.

And agitation seems to be the key word around Christmas and Year's End: we swear we won't do it again next year, and yet we fall into the same pattern. It's fun while it lasts, but goodness knows it doesn't.

So 2013 ... phew - a tough one, eh? Yes - full of a number of perplexing details and travails that are gratefully behind us now. What a hard one it was. Demanding and testing. But a lot of boxes were ticked, a number of triumphs and hurdles were gained and leaped, on the home front and professionally. Another novel out, and another one started. Covers, prices, and advertising campaigns tried, tweaked, tested and more or less set in place. Decisions made for next year. Resolutions replaced with tempered plans.

Comparisons with preceding years are inevitable when December is over its halfway mark. Calculations are not exact, but it seems book sales are more than double those of 2012, which is gratifying and encouraging. Such encouragement, of course, is accompanied by the demand to do even better in 2014, which exacts more hard work and machinations.

Careful calculations and estimates, forecasts and predictions, however, indicate that next year will be arduous like no other since, so reason and prudence hold one at gunpoint. What's the best way to proceed with the prospect of a very demanding year ahead? The answer is: slowly, and with all the sense and restraint one can muster.

Finishing the new novel is postponed until 2015. Planned novellas are on hold. Publicity and promotions will proceed at a fraction of the furious rate of 2013. Time spent online will be rationed, cleverly and with sensibility. Everything will hopefully slow to a manageable pace.

Have you made the same kind of decision? What does 2014 hold for you - agitation, or the tranquillity that comes from knowing you are in control?

Technology that changes time?

Like something out of Dr Who, life has changed dramatically in the last decade.

Even time has shifted and morphed. You know this - it's suddenly Christmas when you are still fishing Easter egg silver wrapping from between the sofa cushions. It's your birthday again, before you have successfully re-gifted that green sweater and those dangly earrings.

Suddenly, it takes longer than five hours to read a book. [And it's not so much fun doing it under the covers with a torch, either.]

But the most amazing thing that's happened since you were little is that single days have morphed into seasons. What was once Christmas Day now starts end October and is called The Festive Season, or just Christmas. Valentine's starts selling right after that - for weeks. Easter is longer than one Sunday - it's longer than Advent, which used to feel short but is now in-ter-min-able. Halloween goes on for as long as a pumpkin shell takes to moulder and turn black.

Pic by Ad-shor

And this hasn't just happened because you're ageing. Oh no - it's because of what people lovingly call technology. It's nothing of the sort, of course. It's just the media we use for rapid communication. And the faster we communicate, the longer holidays get. And the faster communication gets, the longer advertising campaigns last.
The year is now chopped into seasons that have little to do with the weather, but what's happening in the shops: what decorations are up and what music is playing. Winter isn't winter any longer. Neither is Spring. And because of produce being imported all the year round, seasons are eternal, even though the year is over in no time.

So you might think it's still summer because hey - look at all the grapes in the shops! But it isn't. And as the years get shorter and shorter, the seasons get longer and longer. Look - you try to work it out, because I'm still dumbfounded.

4 aspects that make you a brilliant reader

You're a reader, I'm a reader ... everyone's a reader, baby - that's the truth. Well, in our bookish world everyone is. But readers ain't readers - they come in all varieties. And there are aspects that distinguish the ho-hum from the brilliant.

So - are you a brilliant reader? And what makes one shine?

1. You understand genres
Readers who understand genres, categories, and ways in which books are grouped in libraries, in bookshops, and on book retailers' sites find books easily. When they finish one book, they can quickly find another to start on, by similar authors, in a similar category, in a similar style.

2. You seek authors who are consistent and prolific
Avoiding disappointment as a reader can be tricky - it either means you stick very closely to what you know, without taking risks on new and unknown authors, or you randomly 'pick from the pile' - which sometimes dashes expectations and leaves you dissatisfied. Having a list of authors who have rewarded you, and knowing their books come regularly and satisfyingly good is valuable. It saves time and money.

3. You thank your favourite authors
Money is rarely enough for authors. They love to hear their readers enjoy what they write. It's hard lonely work, which is often unrewarding. A review on a popular site, even if it is a two-line comment, makes a huge difference. A brilliant reader lets authors know how they're doing.

4. You are perceptive and selective
Brilliant readers don't read anything and everything. Sharp and focussed readers assess books carefully, understand what they like best, seek it out in astute ways, and choose well. A brilliant reader keeps an ear to the ground for good releases. Staying aware of what favourite authors are doing, following their blogs, awaiting their releases, and discussing books and writers on social media is a great aspect. It makes a reader confident that the next book they choose is one they'll finish, one they've chosen carefully ... one they'll definitely enjoy.

Be a brilliant reader. 
What makes you one? Leave a comment with an aspect I haven't mentioned.

How to procrastinate [like a successful author]

Career authors are weird creatures. Female or male, young or old, seasoned or relatively new, they have strange habits that are rarely found in the general population. They are so unusual one can find articles in the The Guardian about their habits.

They keep strange hours. They eat peculiar foods. Their personal relationships are often the most curious within any community. Even their taste in music and other arts is a bit off the wall.

When new writers start to court the possibility of turning professional, and taking up writing books as a career, these things begin to gnaw. Will they have to adopt strange and unusual behaviours? Will they alienate family and friends? Will they have to keep their money in a sock? Now let me say right away that being a career author does not necessarily mean that one drops all other occupations. On the contrary - you will find it's necessary to hold on to anything else that provides regular money. A career author can also be a career accountant. Or teacher. Or roof tiler. Or magazine layout artist.

A career author is one who habitually and compulsively argues about writing, thinks about writing, writes about writing, obsesses about writing, and occasionally writes. One of the habits most writers take up is drinking addicting liquids, eating addicting foods, and finding ways to avoid writing.

Pic: vickcourtney.com

Yes, I've finally arrived at the P word. Procrastination is one of the weird habits one must adopt if one is to be considered a career writer. Even though there are those among us who shame the rest with a productive stream of publications - startling evidence which is hard to refute - they too go through phases of extreme lethargy when it comes to writing. And extreme energy when it comes to finding pursuits with which to distract themselves. Any and all chores and tasks become attractive. Washing the car, weeding, photographing insects that stray into the house, or sketching wild animals visible from the safe perimeter of their fences, whittling whistles, rearranging the sock drawer ... there is not a writer on earth who will not recognize this behaviour and nod.


Knowing how to procrastinate is the territory, the bailiwick, the province of the writer. There must be some manual somewhere that shows them how. To save you the search, here are just a handful of tips, which will bring you safely and without confusion into the realm of the career author.

1. Make lists of non-urgent household tasks to promote to very urgent the instant you have time to write.
2. Invite, attract, and allow family members into your study at all times of day.
3. Permanently switch off the message-taking or voice-mail function on all your phones.
4. Acquire a fledgling pet that needs intense full-time care, or have a baby.
5. I won't even mention social media. [Oops - does that count?]
6. Grow vegetables and keep chickens.
7. Knit socks.

With these points in mind, it should never be impossible to avoid procrastination again. You will not feel uncomforable telling people you are an author, because your habits will surely confirm you could not possibly be anything else.

The democratization of publishing

Pic: audioboo.fm

Anyone can busk. I could take a ukelele out to the mall tomorrow, and having paid for my spot, can strum away to my heart's content. But perhaps not to the contentment of the hearts of those who stop to listen ... or hurry quickly away.

Because you see, I can't play the ukelele.

The book world has become a mall in which many are strumming an instrument they cannot yet play. New writers are there practising, and some readers might stop to 'listen', and even throw in a coin as encouragement. Some might not even notice that these newbies can't play, which is fine. It's okay for people to entertain each other at any level.

So what, you ask - is it acceptable for sub-standard writing and amateurish books to flood the market, to be bought by unsuspecting readers? Well - the answer is complicated and far too complex to put inside one of these blog boxes, but the short answer is yes.

Yes! Yes? Yes - when an industry is democratized, anyone can play. Writing and reading do not make much noise, so it's all right to 'busk', even if you still not have achieved 'the' standard, something that used to be decided by gatekeepers before all this democratization began. When something is democratized, it is by definition decided by the people. In this case, the people who read and buy books. The process is known to us - we vote. We also vote with our wallets when we purchase books, and we buy what we want. It's not so hard to find out if a book reaches our standards.

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Democratization reduces something to its most useful level. So the factor, the criterion by which books are regarded now, is UTILITY. If readers feel a book is useful to them, for reasons of entertainment, edification, or education, they buy it. Your book, dear literary busker, is graded, rated and ranked only by this expedient. But ... but this is economics, you cry in disgust.

Very, very basic economics, I'm afraid. Because in addition to not being able to play a ukelele, I cannot do much with economics, maths, or metal work. I am useless at sailing too. But I can write a mean book. I have written and published several, all on my own. I'm an independent author who has been 'busking' for some time. And amazingly, people stay to listen, because by their judgement, and no one else's, they regard my books to be useful to them. Because no one else has decided but me whether the books are 'good', or 'ready to go', it's up to readers to decide whether they want them.

Democracy is probably not perfect, but it's the only system that works well for decisions that involve transactions and interactions between people. It might just work for creating, buying, and selling books. Because you see, it is perfectly possible to walk away.

Tell me what you think about the concept of utility and democratization of industries.

Why a novella?

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Writing a novella is not the same as writing a short story. Nor is it quite like writing a short novel. It's a form that needs special attention, and it can be a bit tricky, especially if - like me - the author is used to writing tidily within one specific form.

I usually write long novels - they are full of references, the research can be intense and time-consuming, and the writing style is very intricate and complex. The characters are well-defined and sculptured, and the locations play an important part. There is also quite a bit of subtlely built-in back story.

I also write short fiction, and in my early days as a writer did cultivate quite a following in that form. I won several prizes and commendations for stories, and had scores published in magazines and journals.

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The novella eluded me, because I did not understand it well. I'm still grappling with its subtle aspects. Level of detail, depth of characters, descriptions of places, atmospheres, and things... hm. It can be quite challenging.

The novel depends on subplots. The short story hardly has any. The novella ...?
The novel depends on back story. The short story merely hints at it. The novella ...?

I had to sit and think about just those two aspects, and I definitely had to read a few novellas. And then I thought I hit on it and wrote Inverted Delusion, a historical novella about the infancy of photography in Belgium, which went through several rewrites and several resurrections, until I got it to the form it's now in, and it enjoys moderate sales.

The Latin Cushion was a sharp and angular departure, both in form and in writing style for me. It's a detective novella which takes place in current-day Perth, my city of residence, which I have never written about before. It's also a genre in which I have little experience. So on all counts this is a new venture for me.

A detective who works in the Perth western suburbs was created in my head when I started looking for a protagonist. He is fully-formed now, but it took quite a while to decide about character, build, attitude, back story, and working style. I also had to think of some sort of weakness or flaw which makes fictional characters human and interesting.

I had Cloud Maslin (and his strange name) in about a week of concentrated scribbling and thinking. And now he - and his first case - are available to read with a brand new cover and a fully-fleshed story of over 20,000 words. I invite you to try this for size, quite literally.

If you are a writer, tell me if you have ever attempted a novella, and if you have, how is it faring in sales and opinions from your readers?

If you are a reader, what do you think of the novella as an entertaining and satisfying form to read?

A reader's dilemma solved

Choosing a really good read is becoming increasingly difficult. You know how it is - the more choices you face, the tougher it is to decide.

Today's book market is teeming with an abundance of offerings. New authors are coming on at the rate of hundreds a month. In the time it takes a reader to finish one novel, another two dozen are added to the choices for the next selection.

No matter what readers' favourite genres are, everyone can be safely reassured there will be plenty for them to read in it, forever. It is safe to say stock will never be depleted. One might read everything a particular author has written, but moving to an author with similar themes, style, subject matter, and tone is not difficult any more. The market always provides something similar, slightly divergent, or totally innovative. Of that we can be sure.

There is no shortage of books. That's a wild understatement. The reader's dilemma, then, is to pick and choose amongst the plethora of available material. How is one to be assured of quality and interest with every choice? That is the question.

- One way is to join a newsletter that supplies links to new releases.
- Another is to scour reviews to find like-minded readers who can recommend good entertainment.
- Yet another is to keep an ear to the ground for new books no one yet has noticed, and be the one to announce a great discovery.

Finding a new author whose writing is great, whose genre is yours, whose stories and characters are sound ... well, it's like finding gold. Reading everything an author has to offer becomes a must, and waiting for a new release becomes exciting, something to look forward to.

It's ideal to have two or three prolific authors on a reading list: they are sure to provide reading matter at a reading rate that's comfortable; for one's wallet, for the capacity of one's reading device, or space on one's already groaning book shelves.

If you are an avid reader, tell us how you make your reading choices.