Great Advice: Ways to Build Your Platform

This is one of those articles I choose to put out here mainly because when I have time, I plan to go back and read every word and use it to promote my own career.  Unfortunately, here at Christmas time, with my son getting back from college in a few days, a graduation and a party looming and guests expected, I don't have time to do all the things that Christina Katz recommends in her article in Writers Digest: 

50 SIMPLE WAYS TO BUILD YOUR PLATFORM IN 5 MINUTES A DAY

Here are her main points, but you have to read the article to get into the specifics of how to do these things:

• Listen & Learn

• Create Context

• Contribute Content

• Cultivate Community

• Be Authentic

• Synergize Connections

• Produce Yourself

• Publicize Yourself

• Pay it Forward

• Strut your Stuff

Oh, and I just ordered her book for myself for Christmas:

A Blog That Changed My Writing! Thank You!

How to Hook a Reader and NEVER Let Go

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/how-to-hook-a-reader-and-never-let-go/

I saw a link to this blog post on Twitter this morning.  When I had a few minutes, I started reading it, and what Kristen Lamb said there blew my socks off.  Although I've been trying to include conflict in my first romance novel, I'd never broken down the conflict chapter by chapter before. 

I had tried to write my story in one sentence before. Here's what I had:

Problems presented by an old boat inherited from her mother challenge the girl's views of both her mother’s and her choices in life and love.

But Kristin said that that one sentence must include an active goal, stakes and conflict so I re-wrote it:

As Hadley rushes to sell the boat inherited from her deceased mother so she can leave the bitter memories of her childhood behind, she hires the perfect man for the job, but begins to suspect that he knows dangerous secrets about her mother’s life and death

Then Kristin said to figure answer several questions about every scene.  OK. (I'm thinking chapters here)

Chapter One:

Scene Problem: Hadley must get her mind around the problem of selling her boat

Conflict Lock: She and Kain actually have the same goal, but he is there to help her under false pretense, and is obviously keeping secrets and is not who he seems.  (Is that good enough--need to think about that)

Stakes:  She doesn’t realize that she’s being played.

Antagonist: I think it's Kain here.  We don't know why he dislikes her and wants her to leave quickly. We know why she wants to--she's open about that.

Answering these questions makes me wonder if my conflict is strong enough in Chapter One. I'll have to think about it.

Chapter Two really threw me for a loop. It's a lot of setting the scene and backstory.  Opps!

Scene Problem: Hadley has time to reflect on why this place is a problem for her and why she has to get out of here asap.  (need more conflict here!)

Conflict Lock: ?

Stakes:  ?

Antagonist:  ?

 Thank you so much, Kristin.  I read about authors who, after several books, realize their book had no conflict.  You may have saved me that agony. 

I am shamlessly mentioning her best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’sGuide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer, because I SO want to win s free critique from me on the first 15 pages of my novel from Krisin...after a make a few change...

I've been a bad, bad girl

Yes, I haven't been writing here much.  Just like everyone else, my life is crazy this time of year.  My hubby just changed jobs (and now doesn't have to commute to another city), and moved all of his stuff home from a tiny apartment where he stayed during the week. I have had to make room in closets for his stuff, and for me, that task is momentous! I mean, I need a closet for nightware (although I don't sleep in any of it) and one for outdoor coats and jackets, one for blazers and sweaters and the like, one for pants, one for skirts, and one for boots. I live in an eighty-year old house, and closets are small and few, so you can imagine what I've been going through.

My word count is actually lower because I recently  cut some parts out of my manuscript pretty radically. I really like my old couple characters, whom I'm writing about now.  And their house(s).  I'm still worried, though, and trying to determine if my book really works as a romance.  It's different than the romance books I have been reading as research.  I don't think my characters 'think' at each other as much as in most of those books.

I like that, but will readers?  Can't wait for my February RWI meeting (Jan's meeting is the day of the I'm giving for my stepson's graduation from law school so I can't go), when I intend to submit some chapters for critique.  I love meeting all these women who are as passionate about books as I am.

I'm doing my best to decorate my house more beautifully than ever (Just had a long comparison of techniques with the girl who cuts my hair this morning). Right now, my house a bit of a mess, with Christmas decorations that haven't found their home yet laying around, but by the end of this week, it will look very good...I hope.  

And my son is coming home from college in five days.  Yay! I just realized that now I can count down in days, not weeks!!

Well, how's your Holiday going?  

A Party from a Romance Novel

So . . . once I thought the party I'm giving in January was the party in my book.  Hummm. 

I love this Radko Ducky ornament.
We stayed in a hotel on Cape
Cod this summer that had rubber duckies
in the pool . . . But it's too much fun
to go into Margos in Utica Square with
hubby to pick out this year's ornament

That party is in the Summer at the Lake, so . . . maybe this party will be in another book. In fact, it already is! The book I'm reading.  It's an English book about a party thrown around the theme of Hollywood's Golden Era, all Vintage and stuff. 

Well, mine is kind of like that.

We have a very vintage tree.  I can only go to garage sales when I can sneak them around my hubby, but one of the things I always look for is vintage Christmas decorations.  Then I go to Margos and get a Christopher Radko every year, and shop at Tuesday Morning to find yet more sparkly, opulent (almost as good a word as succulent) ornaments. Oh, and I forgot the after Christmas ornament sales at Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware and Dillards. 

When my hubby asked what the theme of the party would be, I said "sprarkly and glittery."  We will have plenty of Champagne and clinking glasses.  I expect everyone to dress elegant.  We'd thought about having this party at Tulsa's best dinner club, but decided we want to show off our house (and our new art), but it will still be elegant . ..  I hope . . . If I can pull it off the way I want to. . .



I've been working on a playlist on Pandora for months for the party. Here's a link to it:  http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh591281181343162435&shareImp=true#!/stations/play/591281181343162435

And meantime, my writing . . .  uh . . ..  I worked on starting to put my Christmas village up on top of my kitchen cabinets last night, but today the boss is gone, so while the cat's away, this little mouse will write!

About All Those Wine Glasses . . . And Corks . . .

What do I need to do first to get ready for this party?  Well, first I have to get ready for the maids THIS WEEK!  First, I'm going to put my Christmas village on top of my kitchen cabinets, but I have champagne glasses there.  In fact, I have wine glasses everywhere. What does that say about me?  Oh dear . . . I think it means I like to entertain, don't you?

(Oh before I forget--read the coolest tip--to start fires--chimineas in summer and fireplaces in winter--all very romantic--fill a jar with a lid with rubbing alchol and put wine corks in it.  Ready to light a fire? Throw in a wine cork.  But keep that jar away from heat and fire, please)


Back to wine glasses and what to do with them. I think I need a cabinet just for wine glasses. Has anyone ever seen anything like that? I can't put them underneath my cabinets in the kitchen. I have lights there. I already have a glass rack on my Tiki bar (yes--I have a tiki bar), but it's full.

I've been looking out on Amazon and cannot find something to buy to help solve my wine glass problem.  Does anyone have an idea for me?  And if you do, maybe you could also help me solve my clothing problem (I should live in a closet) and my shoe problem . . . want a dog?

OK. I've started.

Anyway,  My husband is assigned to have new outside lighting installed.  I just took all the Champagne glasses that are only used during the holiday season down from the top of my kitchen cabinet.  Yuck. They are dirty.  I'm cleaning the junk out of our old German armoire in the dining room and putting Champagne and wine glasses there.

My husband asked me what the theme of the party should be. "Sparkly!" I answered. "Glittery.  People in beautiful clothes wearing diamonds and jewels.  Drinking Champagne."  


"I like the Champagne part." He smiled at me.  


I've been working on a Pandora playlist for a few months.  I seeded it with Sinatra (yes, my 30-year old stepson likes to sit in his old wooden Chris Craft at the lake and listen to Sinatra. It also has lots of Dean Martian.  The father of hero in the book I'm writing is modeled after Dean Martian-her mother after Natalie Wood.




On the top of the cabinet, I'm going to set up my Christmas village.

This should be a novel . . .

But I can't write it right now.  I'm trying to finish my first novel, and it's going well, but I have a lot of work yet to do on it.  


And now . . .  


The challenge.  Two months from today, I'll have a giant party in my house.  It's a graduation party. My stepson is graduating from Law School.  We'll have all kinds of guests from his fellow law students, to his co-workers from the oil company where he works, to his rag-a-tag party friends that he hangs out with at the lake to his fun and quirky friends from high school. Also, my son who is a freshman in high school in Connecticut will be there, and possibly some of his friends who are in schools scattered around the northeast.  And on our side, who knows, because my husband's and my life are in flux right now.

My Living Room and Tree in 2008

My husband turned in his resignation at a job he hated on the day he received a retention bonus for staying there five years longer than he planned or wanted to.  And the jobs he's looking at now could be here in Tulsa, in Houston, or, possibly in Pittsburgh PA.


So, while I'm decorating and hiring wait staff and planning catering, my husband may be living somewhere far away and our house may be for sale.  Or maybe not.


And my job?  I've worked there almost four years, but my company has been acquired by a larger firm. I think I'll probably have a job there until maybe next summer, but who really knows. I've been there before. I know that everything is on the table.


I have three crazy dogs who do their best to destroy our historical home as fast as I try to fix it up.  We need to get some outside lights installed and some concrete poured before then.  


But you know what, I've been looking forward to this party for years. I love to show off my home.  We have a new John Lennon print and Cuban painting to show off.  


This two months should be a novel, but instead I'm going to blog the experience.  Hold on. It's going to be a wild ride!