What We're Writing: Jenn is Blurbing

 Jenn McKinlay: Okay, so when I originally wrote this post I was officially out of contract, waiting to see if they publisher was interested in any more books from me. After fifty-plus manuscripts, you never know. I could have worn out my welcome. 

Well, I'm happy to say that yesterday I signed a contract (for something new that I can't talk about yet) so I remain employed, which I'm sure the Hooligans' colleges appreciate. So, what am I writing? Since I've been in the upside-down/in-between for a couple of months, I've been working on proposals, blurbs for other authors' books - so many blurbs! - articles, blog posts, you know, all of the things we authors write in addition to our books.

I could talk about any of the above for they all take huge amounts of time, but I want to focus on author endorsements. These are not easy for me. I tend to write long and I think blurbs need to be short (no one has time to read these things) but they also need to be accurate. Describe the book enthusiastically but don't give the plot away. Very, very, tricky. 

So here are a few of my recent book blurbs, and I want your honest opinion. Would any of these get you to buy the book? Or at the very least peak your interest? And do author endorsements matter to you at all or no?

Not for nothing, but there's a lot of pressure to gather endorsements and if y'all don't actually notice them or if they don't influence you to buy a book, well, that would be a relief actually. 

Ali Brady's UNTIL NEXT SUMMER beautifully captures everything that's magical and marvelous about long summer days, away camp, best friends, first kisses, finding your people and the place of your heart. When the Chickawah camp is placed in jeopardy, our protagonists try everything they can think of to save it. Rarely have I been so completely invested in the outcome of a story. In a word, it's Chicka-wonderful! Hey, if you know, you know and if you don't know you need to read UNTIL NEXT SUMMER! --Jenn McKinlay

"Ellen Byron's newest mystery series is a laugh out loud, make you snort, tale chock full of oddball characters in the delightfully rustic setting of an old motel. Come for the laughs, stay for the puzzler of a mystery that will keep you up entirely too late, trying to solve it." --Jenn McKinlay

Star Struck is a delightful addition to McCown's Hollywood Mystery series! With her years of experience in the industry, McCown crafts a zinger of a whodunit with all the glitz and glam a reader could want, along with a twisty turny mystery that readers will devour." --Jenn McKinlay

Confession: I have only bought one book because of an author endorsement and I hated it. I've never given them so much as a glance ever since. Shocking, I know.

What We're Writing Week: Julia Slowly Staggers To A Stop

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: No, it's NOT done yet, dear readers. This is absolutely the worst part of the book for me - the ending. I swear, if I could just publish manuscripts that were 5/8 done and crowdsource the endings, I'd get books out - gosh, who knows, maybe every three years instead of four!

My issue with getting over the finish line is partly me, and partly the nature of the genre. For me - honestly, I don't know. I always slow down here, and we know, I'm not that fast to begins with.

 Psychological barriers to completion? Fear of success or failure? Not wanting to let go? I've done a lot over the past years to improve my scheduling and organization; maybe now it's time for therapy.

The nature of the genre is such that the end of any sort of crime fiction is usually 1) the high point of action and 2) has to tie all the threads together. For the first, well, I'm known for my action sequences. I like them. The readers seem to like them. But they are HARD! Making sure the reader knows who is doing what, where in space and when in a sequence of events... sometimes it feels more like planning a multi-person jaunt through an unfamiliar city via public transportation.

As for tying the threads together - I can only point out I have more than one unfinished piece of very elaborate needlepoint. Oh, I just LOVE adding more and more and more threads. Figuring out what to DO with them... not so much.

However, I am progressing. In fact, if I didn't write such #$%& long books,  I'd be done now, or close to it. Alas, I don't seem to have any more control over the length of my stories than I do anything else. Truly, writing is a mysterious process. 

This is the place where I would usually put some hopefully interesting question that would stimulate lots and lots of backblog comments. Instead, I have a favor to ask. Will you, dear readers, be my accountability partners? I'm highly motivated by guilt (if you had met my mother, you'd understand)  so if one of you asks "Julia, have you written today" EVERY DAY until I finish, I'll be too embarrassed not to write. Don't all do it, for goodness sake, that would be a nightmare. Just one person.

TIA, Julia

What We're Writing--Debs Practices the Jump Start

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Every time I finish a chapter, or a chunk of chapters, I have to regroup. I wouldn't exactly call it "writer's block," more a "take a deep breath and regroup." I think there is always a bit of resistance to plunging into an imaginary world, maybe because it can be so scarily absorbing once you've dipped a toe in.

So here I am, plugging away on Kincaid/James #20, with all my writing prompts and boosters; the cup of tea, the journals, the pens, a couple of British home magazines for setting inspiration, but still, the dreaded BLANK PAGE stares back at me!

So what to do??

This is where the jump start comes in. I talk to myself (not out loud, although sometimes I do wander around the house muttering when I'm working out a really thorny plot point...) or maybe I should say I talk to the book. Maybe you could call this self-brainstorming? 

Sometimes I do this with some messy journaling in the running notebook I keep for the book-in-progress, but this technique actually works better on the computer. I'm a pretty fast touch typist and this lets me toss things out as fast as I can think them. Because I'm normally such a persnickety writer, this seems to  help bypass my constant mental editor--and that is hugely liberating.

It might go like this:

--Okay, so where's Gemma? Has she checked in with Duncan and the kids? Did she ever get a sandwich? Maybe she stops at Pret again--she's going to turn into a Pret sandwich at this rate. Will she go home or does she have time to visit the crime scene again before dark?

--Must get back to Melody? Her vp?

--Hawkins waiting for Max's return from mortuary, very nervous, has only done FLO in training course.

--Duncan, home, speaks to Kit about the phone call.

--Quill leaves Karo at the flat, he will drop her bike on the island, she can get train home later. Sets up pub meeting where?

All of these little snippets would go on in much greater detail. Before I know it, the characters start talking, bits of dialogue are creeping in, and suddenly I have the blocking for a chapter's worth of scenes, in some sort of logical order, and I've broken the blank page curse.

Here's a non-spoiler-y bit of the scene where Gemma does get her sandwich, jumping in as she's in the car with her new detective sergeant, Davey Butler, on the way back to her new police station.

Gemma nodded. “We can only hope.” She glanced at the time on the car display. “People should be getting home from work soon. When we get back to station, get a door-to-door started in those flats overlooking the canal. And let’s have a word with the residents in the end of that estate in Aberdeen Place, and with the staff of the pub that overlooks the access to the canal. What was it called?”

“Crocker’s Folly,” I think.

Gemma gave a snort. “That must have a story.”

“I think they have Indian food,” Butler said, his expression dreamy.

“Oh, don’t torture me.” Looking out, Gemma saw that they were passing the Savoy. She made a quick decision. “Let me out, will you, before you put the car in the garage. I’m going to grab a sandwich before I come up. Want me to pick you up something?”

“I had a bite in the London’s canteen. Not bad. Nigerian food today.”

“You’re a brave soul,” she said, raising an eyebrow at his pre-postmortem fortitude. Maybe he hadn’t been joking about the crime scene burger and chips.

A few minutes later, Gemma snagged the last cheddar and pickle sandwich from the cold case at Pret a Manger. She ate it slowly at one of café’s tables, then sat, nursing a cup of tea and taking a moment to marshal her thoughts.

When she’d jotted some notes, she tossed sandwich box and paper cup into the bin and stepped out into the street. Patches of blue had appeared in the early evening sky, and to the west, sunlight glinted from the rooftops of the National Portrait Gallery. Across the street, people were starting to gather outside the Chandos pub for afterwork drinks, a signal to Gemma that her opportunities for that day’s actions were fast fading—and that she’d better make certain the home fires were still burning.

I'd love to know if my fellow writers suffer from Blank Page Syndrome, and if so, do you use jump-starting techniques to loosen up?

Readers, do you have any little tricks to get going on projects that can seem daunting?