Writer of All Seasons

In relation to my career as an author, I want to give some insight to the title of this blog, Superman Disposition.

First let me start by saying that there is a difference between ‘writer’ and ‘author’. A writer has not yet been published, but an author has. This means publication in any form, not just books.

So, genre writing – what is it?  Genre writing is writing to a specific theme, context, historical era, or character preset.  For example; fantasy, western, vampire, sci fi – those are all genres.  Genre writers are the writers that write in only one genre.  All their books would be about sci fi, or all their books would be about fantasy, etc. Literary writers are that small percentage of writers who will cross genres.  Genre writing is generally mainstream, and extremely marketable, because the demographic is easy to target.  The writers know what their respective demographics are interested in, and can direct their techniques to specific groups of people.  Literary writing is a lot more challenging to market. Since the genre, themes, settings, and character presets are always changing, it’s hard to know exactly what demographic will be interested in a work at what specific time. That’s the bare bones of it, and I won’t go into too much detail because there are extensive resources out there to read up on the subjects if it interests you. Actual blogs by authors on the subject are the most fun.

It would be interesting to have a percentage of genre vs literary writers, but such a thing does not exist. If I were to guess, I would say the percentage is somewhere along the lines of 85% vs 15% respectively.

I am a literary writer. Even my most mainstream work, THE REALITY FILTER, can not be put into a specific genre in its own, because it is not simply a ‘murder mystery’.  It is not simply a ‘thriller’.  It is not simply a ‘psychological drama’.  It is all of those things, and does not follow the rules and guidelines of any of those genres. 

The other main point that makes me a literary writer is the fact that to date I have written or am in the process of writing 12 novels, and none of them are the same genre from the one before.  I am a special case, and I have not yet heard of another author who does this.  There are pros and cons to this approach to a writing career, the most obvious one being the marketing aspect.  When marketing a book, I am essentially starting over in the process with each new publication. One demographic may have liked one book, but the next one that comes out, they may not. Then I have to go out in search of a new demographic that does like the new book.  There is also the question of keeping the previous demographic interested, therefore my name must be the brand that they want to buy, no matter what I write.  The pro side is, after I have say, 3 books out, I have 3 times the size demographic than a genre writer with 3 books.  The genre writer is selling to only one targeted demographic, but I am selling to 3 different ones.

In short (really that was quite long), Superman Disposition is titled as such because I have taken on the challenge of multiple identities in my career, and they are ever-changing. Just like Superman – mild mannered reporter by day, crime fighting superhero by night. 

The Blog

I received a comment recently that posed a lot of questions I don’t normally get asked, and that is about blogging.  So it occurred to me that maybe there are a lot more people pondering these questions and just not asking.

I’ve been blogging actually for many more years than I have been on WordPress.  I was sharing my writing on Livejournal way back when it was cool, and G+ had not yet taken over the online journal revolution. But Livejournal was a more private community, and there was not much room for growth as a blogger, because the platform wasn’t really meant for that type of journaling. I moved to WordPress after looking at its various competitors and determined that I could do what I wanted with my blog in only one place.  It is clean, it is neat, it can help you to any stage of blogging you want it to, and it will let you do your thing without much resistance when you want.

On that note – if you are not a programmer or don’t have much working knowledge about how to write a website, use your chosen platform’s templates for your blog’s design. This will virtually erase the chance of there being any compatibility issues when switching internet browsers.

So, I’m not a career blogger or anything like that (though that would be the ideal life), and I only blog to share my experiences in my writing career with fellow writers and writing enthusiasts, and also to share my work with my audience.  In that sense I think I’m a typical writer – I tend to disappear for weeks even months at a time because I’m working on something and have become to engrossed in it that I forget about my audience. But every writer is that way, and I don’t think you can make a truly avid blogger out of a writer. A journalist, sure, but not a writer. Having said that disclaimer, there are a few tricks I’ve learned over the years both blogging and in marketing.

1. Keywords.  Tag everything, put keywords everywhere. It is how search engines will find your blog when people are looking for info on your topic. The more keywords you have, the better chance you will be found. Make use of SEO guides. They have invaluable information that is easy to learn on your own. Posting something with only pictures?  Use alt tags to get your keywords in there, because search engines don’t discriminate alt tags from real text.
2. For first time bloggers, it’s hard to get noticed out there in the blogosphere with everyone and their dogs (literally) blogging about your topic.  How many writers out there also blog about their work?  How many beauty bloggers are there out there?  You have to market yourself with one true quality that sets you apart from the pack.  Why should people read your blog?  What is it about your personality that people are going to love?
3. Along with point 2, is it important to always stay current with trends in whatever industry you’re blogging about, and make posts about what’s popular. You’re a beauty blogger?  Well, BB Cream is the latest beauty craze, so make a post about it!
4. Being a blogger is all about research.  Essentially what you’re doing is communicating information to people who trust you about your experiences with products, services, trends, and anything else.  It’s not just a conversation with your best friend, it’s possibly introducing many people to something, giving them information about it, giving them background knowledge, and giving them your educated opinion.  They trust you because you have all that information, and they trust that you are not misinforming them. You have a huge responsibility, really, and while blogging is a lot of fun, it’s also a lot of hard work.

So I hope that has shed some light on being a blogger.  As I said, I am not a career blogger, but I do have extensive knowledge of web marketing and I know how to entertain an audience, so that’s where my credibility lies.

1638 in Edo Japan

So let me set the stage that is TETHERED ROMANCE – in Edo (now called Tokyo) Japan, 1638. 

The Tokugawa Shogunate was in power, and the purity of Japan’s religion and culture was “threatened” by the invading Christians, mostly coming from Brazil. The Shogunate was of the impression that Japan was an island, it was self sustaining, the culture was strong because everyone was the same.  A policy of isolation was in place in 1635, called Sakoku, and it said that no non-Japanese person was to enter the country.  They had rules for some necessary trade, but that was all. Christianity was banned, and a civil war was brewing as the Shogunate tried to vanquish the Japanese from practicing it, and destroy any means for the Portuguese to spread it.  Many Shinto shrines were destroyed.

Seishin was born in 1621, and was twelve years old when the war began in 1633.  That is where his story also begins.  He is 17 during the main events of his story, in 1638. All the elements for him to thrive were right – the civil war separating the men and women, the blasphemy and religious obsessions that shunned him, and the lonely and hard working samurai that he worked for.

There was no other time or place in the world that he could have existed.

The TETHERED ROMANCE Reveal

TETHERED ROMANCE is the next of my novels that I am preparing to begin sending out to the battlefield of the publishing world, and seeing how many sharks out there will bite.  From today, I can say the manuscript is ripe for the picking and everything is aligned to begin the journey through the process of the industry.  Along the way, I want to share the experience, as this is not the first time (in fact, I am quite seasoned) I’ve made this journey, and I feel that it will help a great deal of new authors out there to gain the courage to make the adventure themselves.

Please refer to Superman Disposition’s Facebook Page for updates as well.  The decor over there has changed to reflect TETHERED ROMANCE’s setting, Edo Japan, 1638.

To start off, I would like to post an introduction to the world of TR. Then, as the journey is unfolding, I will be posting segments of the story, and updates about the publication.

TETHERED ROMANCE began as prose that I whipped up after the main character’s face (Seishin) popped into my head.  I began writing the prose with no direction, no back story to the main character, just some monologue.  I had about half a page when I was done getting it all out of my head, and I fell in love with Seishin’s voice and character.  I knew that a half page of nothing was not enough to satisfy his voice in my head, and that he had to have a novel.

In Edo era Japan, 1638, main character Seishin, a male geisha turned vampire, exploits the weakest sides of the human condition while seeking a side of himself he can come to love.  As a Rounin, a swordsman without a cause, fighting to hang on to an honorable samurai life, he struggles with his disposition; a training Samurai by day, and a renowned Geisha by night. Thriving from circumstances of the civil war that separates the population, Seishin works a nightly scandal appeasing the samurai he is apprentice to, proud to bear the tabloid existence. But revenge is what he seeks as his hate for the greedy monster in him grows, and revenge is what carries him across the ocean to England in his attempt to escape his sins.  He is driven by his vanity and ego, and his belief that love is the root of all evil leads to his downfall.

Stay Tuned.

Good Morning!

I just posted in Glitter and Gore about the Great Vitamin A debate, and I encourage you all to read it, even if you are not beauty-enthused, it is good brain food.

I also explained on Glitter and Gore that yes – you may have noticed I have been away for so long the process of posting on WordPress has changed!  Let me give you some background before excuses.

I suffered a “life crisis” at age 21, and I think now that I am approaching 27 in only 2 and a bit months, I am entering one again. My every day has been filled with full time dead end jobs, bill paying, being a wife, and it seems the only enjoyment I get now is playing with my (almost year old) kitten Legion.  I noticed that 2012 just slipped on by me, and I coasted through it, just going with whatever came my way, and drifting farther off the path that I wanted to be on. When the new year came, I made it my only goal to make something happen for myself in 2013. I had capsized, and now I am righting myself.

The first thing that had to change was my dead end job. My contract ended, and my full time position was over. I had one day of freedom before I started another job – almost full time – and I had a 4 hour drive on that day of freedom to think about where I would go.  I started to think about more aggressively pursuing my freelance work, and even start my own business.  I thought about starting to save to buy my own house for myself, my husband, and our Legion. Most of all, I thought about how my writing career had been suffering.

I found inspiration again. Ages ago, when it was the big hit, my husband bought me The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo DVD. I got as far in as the rape scene, and I could never watch it again. Recently though, I had been thinking about what a terrible waste it was that I never watched it, and that I was missing out on what was probably a very attractive story.  So it came on TV, and I fast forwarded through the rape scene so I didn’t have to watch it, and ended up absolutely loving the rest. I was compelled to read about Larsson’s inspirations and process for the story, and so came my inspiration.

The reason we write is to create worlds that others can relate to, and yet get lost in. To create hope where there is none, and to create glory, and triumph. We write because our reality is not good enough, and because we know there are others who know their realities are not good enough either.

The Ability to be Creative on Cue

As told by Chatelaine article in the August 2012 issue.

This goes back to my post on Brian Tracy’s webinar, saying that everyone has a book in them, you just have to have the right tools to get it out.

Creativity comes from imagination, and most of us grow out of that as we enter society.  “…everything you see, from the chair you’re sitting on to the light over your head, it was once just an idea kicking around in somebody’s brain.”  If you look at children playing, you’ll see the raw state of imagination. It’s not forced, like in most other people who are not children. The sad thing is that once those children enter the school system, the rigid structures of society will being to crush their imaginative abilities.  So how, now that we are grow up and are told we are left brain functioning creatures of society, do we get that creative imagination back?

Creativity is about desire and curiosity – the desire to share/change something, and the curiosity to explore every outlet to get the desire fulfilled.

At the University of Southern California, research is taking place to better understand the process of creativity in the brain, and therefore eventually be able to help enhance creativity in people.  They are now beginning to understand that creativity is not only a right brain activity, but the left (detail oriented and logical side) brain is involved just as much.

To harness all your creative power, you need to exercise your brain just like you would exercise your muscles through learning new things, and practicing.  By learning new things, you’re filling your brain with more and more things that it can then combine and create something original with.  These exercises that work are things like puzzles, word games (crosswords or word searches), number games (sudoku), anything that gets your mind working in a dimensional way, rather than a linear way.  The goal is to improve memory so you can take in more knowledge, and change the linear way you think so your brain can make more combinations or your repertoire.

Inspiration comes when the mind is relaxed, and can start floating around all those pieces of information and putting them together. That’s why your inspiration comes when you’re in the shower, or relaxing to go to sleep.  For me, the inspiration for THE REALITY FILTER’s main character Ren, came when I was walking.  He would only speak to me if I was walking, and otherwise, I couldn’t write him at all.  But now that THE REALITY FILTER is finished and published, I always expect something like that to happen again.

Inspiration moves quickly through the relaxed brain, and is not retained for very long, so you have to record it immediately.  So you don’t let the inspiration slip away, it’s a good idea to carry a tape recorder or small notepad. Also keep something by your bed.

 

 

Unrelatedly but still related, my little kitten Legion is almost 3 months old now, and has been living with me and my husband for a month. She is as crazy as they come, but is most adorable when she is chasing toys or just beating the crap out of them. She is certainly suited to her name. She runs so fast, at times she is actually many.

When Aberdeen, my first cat passed away almost 4 years ago, I hadn’t realized at the time, but I stopped writing. I hadn’t realized because I was so engrossed in getting THE REALITY FILTER published, and in the evenings when I would open another novel to write, let it sit for an hour and close it untouched, that was good enough for me.  Now that Legion is here, I am writing again, and not only is TETHERED ROMANCE complete, but GOOD FAITH IN MEN has gotten an excellent start.

The Writer’s House is Not Complete Without a Cat

Meet Legion, the new addition to my family.

My husband and I moved into a bigger house on July 1st, but had been waiting for Legion’s arrival since she was born, May 15th.  Now she is 8 weeks old and is home with us, getting used to this giant space.

She has been home only since 11pm July 10.  She kept us up all night while she got used to us, and yesterday we made great progress.  She has already learned her name, comes when she’s called, and has decided what her favourite toy is.

Legion is a Caliby – she’s part calico and part tabby, which makes her black and orange colouring very rare. The trademark tabby M on her forehead only just came out, and before it was so pronounced, we mistook it for lines like devil horns.  Legion was named after the demon himself, “I am Legion, for I am many”.