March, 2011

News and Stuff

Back from vacation just in case you wondered where I was last week and so this morning’s post will, I admit, be a little rushed. I had some interesting tidbits of news and a few links I wanted to share. (Yes, I meant to do this last week. Sigh.)

First off, anyone who has read classical Chinese literature is aware of a series of stories called “Journey to the West.” Even if you aren’t familiar with the title, you might have seen a Chinese mythical character called The Monkey King hooting and throwing his weight around. Well, it turns out this story has been opted by Hollywood and Neil Gaiman is the author. Gaiman wants Guillermo Del Toro for director. The mere thought has me itching with excitement. My only concern is that they have someone in charge of authenticity, but I look forward to seeing it. If you want more information, check out the link.

Many thanks to Tessa for this link to an excellent blog post on writing. It’s well worth your time.

Carolina Valdez Miller got AN AGENT (Woo hoo and throwing up confetti for you, girlfriend!) and has this amazing contest at her site. Also, be sure you check out the WHOLE site because after this one, there are interviews and one of them is with an agency sister who ALSO has a blog contest. It’s a blogosphere contesty world, folks. Enjoy!

What news have you heard that’s excited you recently?

As an Addendum to what I just posted, Janet Sumners (and Vicki Rocho) have a great contest going with prizes including a $40 Amazon gift basket or a 10-page critique by agent Sarah LaPolla, who took over from Nathan Bransford. Get thee over there and check it out!

Blogging Awards

I have put this off for far too long and subsequently lost track of a few awards given to me. My sincere apologies to the friends who gave them! If you remind me here or privately with a good strong (and sadly virtual) dope slap, I’ll be delighted to post your name and blog address in the appropriate spot. I hope I have not damaged relationships by not reciprocating before now.

I do, however, want to rectify at least some of the situation now!

Many thanks to Laurel Garver and Susan B. Kason for the One Lovely Blog Award. And I just discovered Susan Cook also just gifted me with this one. That did NOT influence my choice of giving her the award below. LOL I’d already decided to do that before I visited her.

I’d like to share that award with Vicky English’s Camelot blog (it’s about FAR more than Arthurian history and myth). She has excellent breakdowns on character and plot development.

And Cara Lopez Lee at Girls Trek Too. It’s a site for writers, travelers and everyone in between.

Many thanks to Rachna Chhabria at Rachna’s Scriptorium for both the Versatile and Grasshopper Awards. Rachna has probably realized by now that I’m disorganized and not the best at this sort of thing, but she nonetheless persists in being both a good friend and follower, and also an amazing blogger. If you haven’t checked out her scriptorium, it’s a must.

I’d like to share the Versatile Award with Janet Sumner Johnson at Musings of a Children’s Writer because her blog is both funny, touching and informative. She’s probably already receive and responded to the award which just goes to show she’s far more deserving of it than I.

The Grasshopper Award I’d like to share with Aron White at Mumbo Jumbo
and Susan Cook at The Pen and the Spirit. They’ve both got fresh, wonderful blogs and you should check them out.

The Sweet Blog Award was given by yet another thoughtful person whose name I didn’t remember to write down until it was too late. (Can we tell I AM kicking myself for this? I am. Really. Really. Hard.)

I’d like to share it with:

Susan Dennard who is so generous with her time and thoughts. (She has frequent posts where she’ll review queries and her comments are spot-on.)

And one last award given by someone forced to be anonymous. My poor friends really suffer for their friendship with me, I’m afraid. This is the Beautiful Blogger Award – one I obviously didn’t deserve, but will gratefully pass on to someone more worthy, like

Margo Berendsen at Writing at High Altitude is a constant commenter here who never fails to give me a sense of peace and awe. She is certainly a beautiful blogger.

Now, I am going to cheat a bit. You’re supposed to list seven things about yourself, but I’d be awake all night trying to do that for each of these awards, so I’ll just do it one time. (You can all breathe a sigh of relief.)

1. I’ve always had a “thing” for China – ever since I first read Marjorie Flack’s “The Story About Ping.” See the power a child’s writer has?
2. I first traveled to China at the tail-end of the SARS outbreak and never once worried about contracting the illness.
3. I’d traveled to England twice before going to China (I’m also an Anglophile and ADORE Wales and Welsh history – thank you, Susan Cooper) and without a doubt put myself in danger of Foot and Mouth AND Madcow Disease.
4. Which is why I am no longer eligible to give blood. Yes, I cheated and divided that one into two facts, but it really does peeve me that I can no longer donate. I was there in 1991 for one month too long.
5. I would LOVE to someday travel to Turkey. Yes, I have plot ideas in mind. Sigh. So many places and ideas. So little time.
6. I love to travel (duh) and yet I can still get motion sickness with a simple drop in altitude or a too-swervy road.
7. Testified to by the fact that I lost my cookies entering Japan’s airspace. In my defense, we flew through a typhoon. And yes, I cheated a bit on that one, too.

Sorry about all the cheats! The fact is, I’m writing this the night before I’ll post it and my five-year-old is stretching out her bedtime while I type. I need to go run her down. LOL

Japan’s Tragedy – Take Action

I wanted to share the following email communication I received this morning from a friend of mine in Tokyo. She has allowed me to share it with you all. 

"They say the tsunami waves bring all those heavy oil/gas kind of fuels of vessels/vehicles up on the ground, which ignite fires. Then there was this strong wind blowing, which spread the fires to the rest of the cities. The similar case happened about 20 years ago in Hokkaido. Actually, not only Tohoku area but also Kanto area including Tokyo got damaged. So many people in Tokyo are stuck in the city, since all JR trains operation got halted.

I remember in the Hanshin Earthquake, about 6000 people got killed. I am so sad and scared to know about the casualties this time. This time, up there, in some cases a whole community got gulped bu tsunami and just swept away, not just one.

It's so sad and i can't do anything."

There are so many pictures, so many stories in the news now about this horrific event, but I sometimes think, when we, the unaffected, are so far away, we tend to dwell on the horror without doing anything beyond offering a prayer. Don’t get me wrong, personally I think prayer is the first, best and last line in these circumstances. But there are things we can and should do for our brothers and sisters across the world.

Am I talking about sending money? You bet, but focused money through channels you can trust. Do you have a church home set up to help with disasters like this? I do. My church has a donation taken called “One Great Hour of Sharing” that covers anything from terrorist strikes to natural disasters. You can donate to OGHS through International Ministries, which has a website devoted ONLY to Earthquake/Tsunami relief for Japan. If you’re curious how they use the money or wish to know how the process works, click this link. I listed this one first because I’ve seen it work.

There’s the Red Cross and yes, that link will take you directly there. If you’re reading this on a smart phone, use that link instead or call 1-800-733-2767 (1-800-Red Cross).

Would you like to help send search and rescue teams? To donate to Doctors Without Borders, click the link and select the word “Donate” at the top of the screen. Please be aware, while I know these are legitimate institutions, I don’t know the ends and outs of how they use funds.

You can hear the helplessess in Mako’s note above. It made me want to do something and I plan to use one or more of the methods I’ve listed here. But more than that, I wanted to encourage Mako and others. When you see someone in danger, the first thing you do is throw them a rope. Give them your hand or something to connect them to you. What will you throw?

Marketing, Trading and Having Fun

Ma

Today I’m talking to Jeannie Lin (author of Butterfly Swords and The Taming of Mei Lin) about a new marketing tool she’s using: Romance Trading Cards.

Jeannie, thanks for agreeing to chat about this fun tool.

Jeannie: I think the reason why it took off was there were already a few authors doing them independently. I had spoken to a few authors previously about them since I wanted to do character cards. Then I caught wind of another Twitter conversation about doing romance hero cards. It felt like there was some potential there and all it took was the first handful saying, “Hey, if I do it, will you do it?”

Where it can get more expensive is artwork and graphic design. Many authors are using stock images as well which can cost around $10-$20 each for nice ones. Some are hiring graphic designers to do the work, which makes sense because they’re job is to write and graphics programs can be time consuming. I designed and created my own, but I had previously commissioned character artwork for Butterfly Swords from an artist I liked on deviantArt.com. So in truth my Ai Li and Ryam cards are a bit expensive.

One more link of interest

My apologies for breaking my schedule this week. Sick husbands, broken furnaces and needy cars still plague the Dixon household.

I needed a good laugh this week and this provided it. If you’re sick of hearing about the electronic future of publishing, check out this video. It’s hysterical.