WordPress For Android was listed at the bottom of a blog post I read this morning, so I wanted to try it out. Install was seamless as well as painless. Interface is nicely laid out, although I can’t see writing thousand-word posts on my phone.

The only drawback I see at the moment is adding images to posts. I suspect I can add photos pretty easily from the phone, and I can access the existing gallery. But a lot of the images I use come the web and I usually edit/resize them first. I won’t be able to do that, so I’ll have to plan ahead with some general images.

Still, for short quick posts or live-blogging, this should come in pretty handy.

Added: Seems I can only add images from the phone, not the existing gallery I’ve built up at the blog.

Added: I’ll be using this image as a default for posts made from the phone.

• Writing is not the solitary, highly competitive existence that keeps so many writers from getting started. At least it doesn’t have to be. It’s competitive in that it takes a lot of hard work to get published these days, but it’s not competitive in the sense that someone is going to take your perfect idea for a story and steal it. That’s not the way the professionals work.
• Most importantly, it doesn’t have to be solitary. Jonathan Maberry sang the praises of writers organization in general and Pennwriters in particular. He said PW is a “shining example” of what a writers organization should be and do.
• Read and support your genre! You’ll learn what’s going on in your genre, and you’ll support fellow authors. When the time comes, they’ll support you, too.
• I think the two best things you can do to further your career as a writer are to join a writers organization and go to writers conferences. PW is my first writers organization, and this was only the second conference I’ve been to. The last was some ten years ago and was a purely commercial conference, without the backing of a writers organization. I learned a good bit, but I felt like I missed out on the camaraderie and networking that I had heard so much about. PW was nothing like that. There were plenty of well-published writers who were happy to answer your questions. It felt like everyone there really understood PW’s mission that the group should “provide members with opportunities to improve crafting, promote their work and interact with industry professionals.”

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of links to lists of writers organizations. Even if you can’t find a local organization, you should be able to find a ‘Net-based group that’s good. And Pennwriters has Area 7, for members who live outside the state. There’s even a member in Alaska!

• http://www.forwriters.com/groups.html#orgs
• http://www.ebookcrossroads.com/writers-associations.html
• http://www.authorlink.com/conferences/writersorgs.php
• http://www.squidoo.com/localwritersassociationsbystate
• http://www.writerswrite.net/orgsrch.cfm?search=general
• http://www.google.com/search?q=writers+organizations

The main part of the conference kicked off Friday morning. There were several sessions during the weekend with conflicting workshops and I had a hard time deciding about the pre-conference sessions too. I ended up following the “Improve Your Craft” track for most of the conference, since the only feedback I’ve gotten from the only agent who’s seen Don’t Stop Believin’ has been that she couldn’t get involved with the characters.

Ramona Long kicked things off with the “Four Truths of Characters.” Every character has four basic facts or truths about them: Society (who they are in relation to the rest of the world); Family (who they are in relation to their family); Personality (everything about them); and Flaw (their weakness or vulnerability). We deconstructed some well-known characters (most from Pride and Prejudice), and it was amazingly helpful to look at Danny Cumberland from The Sad Girl through that lens.

My next session was “Psychoses and Psychopaths: Crafting Believable Characters” with Brent Maguire. This was a high-level session giving us background on lots of personality disorders and personality traits. Again, it gave me a new lens to look at some of my characters, and gave me and idea about how to handle one of them disappearing for a long time without killing her off.

Ramona was back for “Shaping Story Arcs,” and this was another big eye-opener for me, much as it was for Jeanette Grey. The important thing for me is that every character has an arc, and every major character must change. So how does Danny Cumberland change?

I took a workshop on Historical Fiction because I have had in the back of my mind an idea for a great epic Second Civil War novel, and I thought such a workshop would be helpful. It gave me some more books for my reading list, and a few ideas—especially “Be careful choosing your Truth during research.
That was it for my first day. I skipped the evening keynote, and after reading all the tweets, I’m regretting it.

Saturday morning I started off with Nancy Martin’s “Author-Agent Relationship” workshop. Best quote ever: “You can only write so much sex before you want to start killing people.” All sorts of tips here: Listen to body language when you’re talking to an agent – or anyone, for that matter. Read your genre! Visit the bookstore to see who gets thanked in your favorite books. Network with authors and agents at conferences. They really are normal people! Here’s the biggie: You’re looking for business partner, not a friend. If you become friends, great. But writing is a business first.

Nancy also pointed out that authors and agents want a lot of the same things in their relationships. They want good communicators. They want people who can help them make money (it’s a business, remember?). They want people who are passionate about their work. They don’t want jerks.

Agent Victoria Skurnick was next with the Dos and Don’ts of Finding an Agent. I missed part of the session as I was dealing with nails in my truck tires, but here’s what I did get. Younger readers are going away, but e-pubbing may be a salvation. 50% of agented books don’t get sold. Listen to consistent criticism – consistent being the key. Read agent guidelines. Even if the guidelines don’t mention putting the first few pages in the e-query, do it. She said most agents still read that.

The lunchtime keynote from Jonathan Maberry was uplifting, energizing, and eye-opening. He attended Pennwriters even with a book due Monday. He mentioned that after critique sessions Friday night, while I was whining about nails in two tires, he went back to his room and cranked out 6,000 words. Wow. I do 6k in a week, and I’m feeling good. The Really Cool Thing™ that he talked about thought was the idea of community. The fable that writing is a fiercely competitive and lonely existence is just that. It doesn’t have to be, he pointed out. Join a writing group. Hone your skills with other writers. It’s not a competition. No one is going to steal your plots. The one thing that every writer wants – to be published – is the one thing that will help the industry succeed, and that’s ultimately what writers really want. If the publishing industry fails in some way, then writers lose.

I did Saturday afternoon sessions about “The Geography of a Novel” and “Acting For Writers,” both giving me more tools to sharpen my work. Place can be a character, and land has a rhythm. Senses draw you to a place—all five of them. Habits grow out of place, like dimming your lights when you come to a gated entrance because that’s what you did at military installations. Live with your senses on.

Sunday morning sessions were about “Breaking in to Business Writing,” and “Travel Writing.” Lisa Kastner—a past president of Pennwriters, and published author—had a great roundtable discussion about business writing, and how our fiction can help and be helped by that kind of work. For example, to write a speech, you must gain insight into a person’s speech patterns. You need to know how they normally talk, so you can write something that sounds like them. Where could that come in handy for fiction? Lisa thinks, and I agree, that getting the byline and building the portfolio are most important at the beginning, even if the first couple of bylines are free. Keep in mind too that the church newsletter or similar thing that you write on a volunteer basis can all be used to build your writing resume.

Don Helin was similarly helpful about Travel Writing. You’re really only limited by your imagination he pointed out. Don’t write a travel brochure – write a story. Bring the destination to life. Look for sidebar details too. Research your destination before you go. Take quality photos, and most of all, have fun.

I’ll have a wrap-up post Friday with what I think of as the main takeaway points.

There were several pre-conference sessions on Thursday. I chose the “Many Genres, One Craft” track, thinking it would give me the most bang for the buck. Yes, I’ve got a novel done, but I know I need to improve my craft.

MGOC is a collection of lessons from the faculty, students and alums of Seton Hill’s MFA in Writing Popular Fiction. The pre-conference is described as Six workshops for craft and career. The three morning sessions focus on plotting with Victoria Thompson, character with Timons Esaias, and setting with Heidi Ruby Miller and Jason Jack Miller. In the afternoon, sessions focus on pursuing publication with Natalie and Matt Duvall, building a brand with Mary SanGiovanni, and investing in your writing with Michael A. Arnzen.

The sessions were shuffled a bit due to last-minute schedule changes. Tim Esaias started us off with his Character session. The takeaways from that were many:

• You can reveal characters through their “stuff.” We read excerpts from several books, including Devil in a Blue Dress, Empress Orchid and The Decanter of Tokay, and deconstructed the first pages to learn about the characters. Very revealing.
• You can find out more about a character from the way they describe stuff, such as Phillip Marlowe in The High Window when he first arrives at the Murdock home.
• Get your readers to care about your characters first. Then give them a reason to worry about your character.
• Think about what touched you in something you read, then do that to someone else.

Next up was Jason Jack Miller, talking about “Building A Vocabulary For Our Stories.” His handout led off with this line:

Be yourself, be our guest, be all that you can be. Be anything but a Be verb (or a dull noun).

Lots of tips here.

• Strong nouns and verbs can render descriptors futile, making your prose move faster.
• Action verbs create drama and don’t give readers a chance to slow down.

Jason had an entire page of discussion about how the devil is in the details. Vocabulary detail such as regional dialect cements the setting. Everything from local colloquialisms, food and restaurants to events in local history, and even smells.

Matt and Natalie Duvall introduced the FreyReDuv Plot Method, combined from the Freytag and Regis plotting tools. Very interesting concept, and I’m going to be giving it a try on my next story.

Heidi Ruby Miller gave a great session on building your brand. There were several such sessions throughout the conference, including a focus on social media.

Matt and Natalie came back with their “Paths to Publication” session. They asked us what publication meant to each of us. I came up with this big flowery twenty-word passage, but one of the other writers really nailed it: “Finding an audience.” The follow-up question—what’s the best path to publication—got a similarly short answer from the same writer: “Whatever gets me to my definition of publication.”

Michael Arnzen wrapped up the day with “Investing in Your Writing.” What does a writer have to invest? Plenty: Time. Ideas. Skills. Money. Property. “Every heartbeat is a moment you can be hitting a key.” His discussion included a comparison of investment strategies to writing and pointed out that writers who chase trends probably won’t catch them.

Thursday was a great day, and primed us well for the rest of the conference. More about that Wednesday.

Typewriter Photo R. Schmidt, Kronberg/ Germany, www.club-pac.de

Knight has written a rollicking vampire story with something for everyone: master vamps, gunplay, sexual tension between main characters, and a touch of vengeance thrown in for seasoning. As the husband of a Nazarene Children’s Pastor, I’m hardly in Knight’s target audience for vampire stories, but this isn’t just a vampire story. It’s about how people respond to crises and evil, and how those events bring out the best in people, sometimes in spite of themselves.

Knight’s descriptions of military action show a knowledge earned the hard way, especially when it comes to helicopters. It’s clear he’s got a slew of t-shirts. He’s not excruciatingly detailed in the action though, giving the reader just enough information to make the scene, and no more. The realistic interplay between team members reinforces the feeling that Knight has been there, facing the elephant more than once.

City of the Damned is a good, fast read, but don’t read it right before bed. You’ll leave a light on if you do.

Be sure to check out Knight’s blog too, so you can see what’s coming. I think we’ll hear a lot more about Stephen Knight.

The other person I’ll name is Mike Harden. I’ve always loved reading his columns. They could sometimes be called acerbic, and you really didn’t want to be on the wrong end of one of those columns. If his human-interest pieces didn’t move you, you needed to see a doctor. Even before I knew I wanted to write, I wanted to have the skills he had. When I was younger, I thought he had one of the coolest jobs around. He got paid to meet interesting people, and tell stories. That amazed me.

I recall reading about the decline and death of his mother. It wore on him, but he seemed to find some release in writing about it. He drew so many people into his stories around that time. I still recall the piece he wrote about her last dreams of being surrounded by children. When he chose her gravesite at Green Lawn Cemetery, he drove by it after choosing it, and realized he had put her near Baby Land, where she would be surrounded by children. I had the honor of escorting her funeral procession, although I didn’t know Mike at the time.

Several years ago, as I was starting to work on my writing skills, my wife noticed that he was giving a class on writing, and we found the funds to pay for me to attend that class. I spent a series of Wednesday evenings at the West Jefferson Library with Mike and perhaps a dozen others. I sweated out writing assignments that challenged me: a 10-minute exercise to write a story about a scene on a postcard; a 30-minute exercise on writing about death. But I grew in that class. More importantly though, I was told by someone I respected that I had a future in writing, and that he saw something in me. Someone I thought of as a great writer and storyteller was “immensely impressed’ with my writing.

I will never forget that feeling, and I will always treasure his words. Farewell for now, Mike. We are better for having your voice around, and worse now that it speaks no longer.

Such an innocent question.

I’m an airplane geek. I love aircraft. There was a time when I could spout the statistics of probably a dozen World War Two fighters and bombers on demand. When I was in college the first time, I even started taking flight lessons, and considered changing my major to something aviation oriented. I ended up with a whopping 10.2 hours in basic Cessna and Piper trainers before the money ran out, and all of that was over 25 years ago.

One of the advantages to living where we do now, just a few hundred feet from the approach path to KTZR runway 4, is that I occasionally get to see some really cool planes come by. For example, a summer ago, the B-17G “Liberty Belle” came in to Bolton, and fortunately for me ended up using runway 4, which put it on long final about 100 yards away, in easy machine-gun camera range. I got a few nice photos – few because I misread the article about when she was arriving, and wasn’t expecting her. Ah well.

One of the other advantages is that two of my neighbors are pilots; they like living where they do for its proximity to the airport. One of those neighbors owns a Van’s RV-6, which he often blogs about over at the PapaGolf Chronicles. Pilot Dave has also taken it upon himself to start building his own airplane, this one a Van’s RV-12. What does that have to do with the story? Well, one of the deals of building your own airplane is that you get parts delivered to your building place, which for him is his basement. And as you might expect, airplane kit parts aren’t exactly small. Van’s sends things in assemblies. The first one Pilot Dave received was the tail assembly, an eleven foot long box that he needed help moving from the back of the truck to his garage, where he could uncrate it at his leisure. When he first started talking about building the RV-12, I told him I’d be glad to help whenever I could. I thought it would be pretty good to be able to say I helped build a plane.

So when the tail kit and eventually the fuselage kit arrived, I was there both times to help move the Very Large Boxes ™ up the driveway. I told Pilot Dave early on that all I really wanted in return for my help was a flight in the new plane. In the past, he’s offered flights in the RV-6, but things haven’t worked out, until today. I knew it was a nice day; I had been out on the bike earlier. When I got home, that message was waiting for me on Facebook. Would I be around? You bet.

He called about twenty minutes after I got home, and picked me up five minutes after that, which was just enough time to get the old pictures off the camera and get it ready to go. I wasn’t sure how far “a quick flight around” would be, but I wanted to be ready. He pulled up in his topless Miata, and we headed to the airport.

I had spent some time around Bolton about 25 years ago, working a security gig for a balloon show in 86. It’s grown up a bit since then. We scooted through the security fence and around to his hangar/remote worksite, and there was Papa Golf waiting for us, along with part of the tail section for the -12.

I learned something about old planes today. The RV-6 is painted a bit like a generic military aircraft, and is marked with FU-466 on the side, just like most modern AF jets. I asked Pilot Dave about the marking, and it turned out that the builder of Papa Golf was an old F-86 pilot, and his plane had been FU-466, so that’s what he wanted painted on the plane. The N-number is 466PG, too. The FU is the plane type designator for F-86s, which I hadn’t known until today. So there’s your USAF trivia for the day.

Back to the story. Pilot Dave did a quick but thorough pre-flight, and before I knew it, we were heading down Runway 22. Winds were almost straight down the runway, so takeoff was pretty quick, but with the extra weight along (yes, me), we didn’t climb quite as quickly as Papa Golf could. It was kind of an interesting feeling tooling along at just over 100 miles per hour, and yet we were still over the runway. Just past Johnson Road, we banked right on a heading that would take us right over my side yard. I expected to see my kids out, looking up; they were very excited to learn I was getting a flight today. But no one was out to see me wave. Their loss.

Darby Dan Airport

We continued around toward the west, eventually heading over our old house; Pilot Dave did a nice turn around a point as I pointed out the lots in that development. There are times I miss the old house, but I like where we are now, too.

The Cockpit. Speed about 119 kts; altitude about 4,500' and climbing.

About ten minutes later, he asked the next innocent question, although it came out more as a statement. “You want to try it for a bit?” I was used to Cessna and Piper yokes; the RV is a stick-and-rudder plane. The stick had been banging against my leg off and on throughout the flight so far. My stomach had been mildly unsettled by some of the steep banks we had pulled, so I said “Oh, maybe not just yet.”

“Well, you’d better, because I’m not flying it right now.”

Oh.

So, there I was, around 1500 feet or so (right Pilot Dave? I wasn’t looking at the altimeter.), hand on the stick and tooling along at 140 knots or so. The RV-6 takes a very light touch on the stick, much less than I was used to. But it was very nice to actually fly a plane again. I didn’t try any turns; it had been way too long since I had been up. I remembered the mechanics of turns (back pressure on the elevator, slight rudder in the turn), but I had this brief flash of me inadvertently rolling us, and Pilot Dave yelling all sorts of mean things at me as parts fell off his plane, which I thought would be a bad idea. Maybe next time. The turns, that is.

Pilot Dave shook me from my reverie by taking control back and said something to the effect of, “OK, so what I’m going to do next is pitch up about twenty degrees, then roll it hard left all the way around.” He went on to explain why he needed to be quick (positive Gs needed to maintain fuel flow to the engine – rather important, that). He gave a three-count, there was the pitch up and ensuing weight gain from the Gs, and the next thing I knew, the horizon was pivoting around the spinner.

Holy. Cow.

I think, based on what I’ve read today, we did a barrel roll. There are specific differences between a barrel roll, aileron roll, snap roll, and slow roll. All I know is that it was exceptionally cool. I wasn’t thinking far enough ahead to look “up” to see the earth when we were inverted. If I ever get another chance, I’ll try an remember to do that. Pilot Dave mentioned that because of the seating in the -6 (side-by-side, as is common), the effects of the roll on the body are a bit more pronounced than they would be in a tandem-seating plane (typical of military aircraft), and he usually only does one or two when he does do them. Just. Wow. An amazingly fun thing.

We flew on to the north, climbing higher to get over Columbus to allow me to get a few photos, since I had brought the camera.

Downtown Columbus

Those photos turned out to almost be my undoing though. See, when you’re bouncing around in a smaller airplane, you want to be able to see the horizon. Having that visual reference helps keep your equilibrium, which helps keep your stomach contents where they belong. After we passed around Downtown, I saw we were near Greenlawn Cemetery. Did I mention that I’m also a bit of a cemetery geek? Seven years in the funeral industry will do that to you. At any rate, I thought I’d squeeze in one more photo. But given the cheapness of the LCD display on the back of my camera, I had to use the viewfinder. Then I asked my intrepid pilot to dip the right wing for a second for juuuust one more shot.

Greenlawn Cemetery, AKA Juuust One More Picture

The combination of quick right turn, one eye closed, and the other looking through an IttyBittyViewfinder™ was just enough to get just queasy enough that I had to ask The Question.

“Do you have a bag?”

“You’re not serious.”

“Well, not yet. But maybe.”

“That’s a shame, because I don’t have one.”

Great.

I felt terrible, and not just because of my stomach. Pilot Dave had really given me a great flight, and I had thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d hate to have to redecorate his plane. His regular co-pilots probably wouldn’t appreciate it much either. And I didn’t really want to use my Mustangs and Legends hat, but better the hat than my shirt. Maybe.

As it turned out, getting the air on, and keeping my eyes on the horizon, or at least pointed outside the aircraft did the trick. By the time we were on the ground, and Pilot Dave had the canopy open to bring gobs of fresh air into the cabin, I was fine. It was a little embarrassing in the end, since I’ve never had that reaction before. Then again, it was the perfect combination of circumstances.

But I had a great time. Hurry up and get that fuselage done. I’m ready to earn my next trip.

With all the noise and distractions, where’s a person to write?

One thing that’s helped me tremendously, I think, is a laptop computer. My wife and I bought a used Dell Inspiron 6000 several months ago, and we decided then that this was going to be for business use only. The only games installed are those that came with Windows. We’ve got wi-fi in the house, and the laptop came with wi-fi capability, so there are still the potential distractions of the internet. But I find that for some reason I can control what I do on the ‘Net when I’m on the laptop better than I can when I’m on the desktop.

The other capability the laptop has given me is that I can go elsewhere and still be productive. When I was away from the house, I used to use my Palm T|X and an infrared keyboard, but the Palm is getting old, and the infrared capability has died. I had considered trying to get it fixed, but we got the laptop first, and this is serving me well. At the moment, I’m hiding in the basement, which has reduced the noise considerably.

I also have an MP3 player that serves me well. My wife and kids got me a set of active noise-cancelling headphones for Christmas. I find I can put those on, kick off a random playlist on the MP3 player, and crank out words like there’s no tomorrow. When I’m in public, like waiting for the kids at the local rec center, I find that headphones not only make it easier to hear the music, but they tend to deter others from casual conversation better than earbuds. I’m not sure why that is, but I happily exploit it on occasion.

So where do you write best? What works for you?

What makes more sense for them? I-5? 101?

What about LA traffic? What’s the best way around or through there?

Neither person is a California native, but they’ve both been there for a while. The driver has probably been in California for 10 years or so; the passenger for about 4, off and on.

Comments or suggestions? Where might they stop if they leave Friday night? Give me some local color!

I posed a version of that question to my friend/editor Joy, and she pointed me to several authors: Brandilyn Collins, Dee Henderson, Terri Blackstock, among others. I’ve read a few of Dee’s works, and just finished Terri’s Cape Refuge (and liked it a lot). Dee’s O’Malley series involves a violent stalker. Cape Refuge opens with a double murder. Collins writes Christian suspense. Can I do this?

Brandilyn had a great post the other day about a great fan letter, which in turn linked to a not-so-great fan letter, and that one was the one that really moved me. It was especially heartening to get an encouraging comment from Brandilyn on Facebook.

So I’ve been reading Brandilyn’s blog on a regular basis lately, and today there was a link to Mike Duran’s excellent blog, Decomposing. He’s got some great posts about some topics I’ve really been struggling with, so I’ve got some reading to do. Between his and Brandilyn’s blog, and the AFCW reading lists (social issues and author comparison, I’ve got a lot of reading to do.