The Hardest Part of Writing

When I took my first writing class at Columbia College in Chicago, our professor told us on our first day of class that the most important part of writing is re-writing. As this elicited a groan from the class, he proceeded to tell us the story of Dostoyevsky. When he wrote Crime and Punishment, he started writing it in the first person. About five hundred pages into the book, his main character/narrator became mentally ill and was no longer able to process or describe what was going on around him. So, Dostoyevsky re-wrote the book in third person. This, of course, was before typewriters, let alone word processors or computers. Besides—he pointed out that re-writes counted toward the sixty-pages of original fiction that we had to produce just to pass the class. I averaged about a hundred pages per semester. I couldn’t tell you how many of those pages were rewrites, but now I couldn’t imagine turning a first draft over to anyone—even a critique partner. That is NOT the hardest part of writing.

So I have to learn to write a letter. And a synopsis in order to get the thing published. I’m a writer. I can do that. I can even take the rejection slips (or e-mails as the case may be). OK, so I got scammed by a fake agent. It’s just growing pains. It was disappointing, but I knew that money always flows toward the author and as soon as the “agency” asked for money, I withdrew my book. And I learned about Predators and Editors. Finally, I gave up on getting into print. There’s a flourishing e-pub business out there and the Romance Writers of America has (grudgingly) accepted that they’re real publishers. And as of last weekend, even Oprah admitted to enjoying a good e-book on her Kindle Reader from Amazon. So, I have a publisher. An e-publisher, to be sure, but it counts.

Then there’s the editing process. You mean to tell me that someone is going to mark up my baby with a blue pencil, or red lines and bubble-comments? Goddess forbid that blankety-blank editor should change a word of my masterpiece. I have a Voice! I had a great editor who respected my voice and helped me tighten up my manuscript. I'm all for tight manuscripts. No—that’s not the hardest part, either.

Now I have to promote the book. Market it. Sell it. If I could sell, I’d have made my first million twenty years ago with Shaklee. However, my sales skills went as far as selling a lipstick to a friend—and lending her the money for it. Then there was the water purifier thing. I tried pounding the pavement on a scorching day and bought a hat. Total sales: minus $15.00.

So—here I am. I’ve written my blurbs, joined just about every chat group I can find, dropped blurbs and excerpts everywhere. I don’t leave home without bookmarks, which I give away like candy. And I worked eighteen hours on a You Tube trailer—only to have it pulled five minutes after I uploaded it when some ******* flagged it as spam, even though the User Agreement specifically says that “promotions of artistic endeavors” do NOT constitute spam. I am now at war with You Tube, which is distracting me from promoting my book. I can’t get a hold of a real person to save my soul. Oh, I also made a banner. And maybe before this book goes off the virtual shelf, I’ll figure out how to upload it onto my blogs.

So—Rock Bound comes out in less than a week and this was supposed to be a happy blog. I did manage to get my trailer up onto my own website so you can see it at www.rochelleweber.com. And there are other places I can post it, as well. And if I ever get a real person, I will get it back up on You Tube!

Meanwhile, I will be chatting Monday on castlesinthesky@yahoogroups.com, and on Wednesday on Savannah Chase’s Yahoo Group, and Thursday at the Red Rose Forum. I also have an interview coming up on Billie Williams’ blog and will post that info when I have it.

So, that’s the hardest part of writing--Marketing and Promotion. Please make it all worthwhile—buy Rock Bound!

Rock Bound Coming November 6 from Red Rose Publishing

Wow, it seems like forever since I’ve blogged. So much has happened. Rock Bound is due out in a matter of weeks, and I’ve been working on a sequel, Rock Crazy. I’ve been editing for Red Rose Publishing, I’ve been telling fortunes (don’t ask) to raise money for promotion, I’ve been traveling and having problems with my left eye.

I really think it’s interesting that Rock Bound is due out the week of the elections. Hopefully, we’ll have a new Administration in place—a legitimate Administration, duly elected by the people of this country and committed to upholding the Constitution as it is written, not just the parts they like. Maybe we’ll be looking at a future in which writ of habeas corpus means something, and freedom of speech is truly freedom. (Hi, NSA!)

At any rate, for those of you who do not follow romance site chats, here is a taste of what’s coming:

Rock Bound – Blurb:

When the US Constitution is abolished and Congress is disbanded, Annie Peterson and Jake Johnsrud are among the thousands of people who descend upon the Mall in Washington, DC, to protest. In a massacre reminiscent of Tiananmen Square, many of the protesters are killed by US troops. The able-bodied survivors are conscripted into indentured servitude by the Luna Mining Corporation—a company owned by the President. Annie and Jake struggle to adjust to life on the Moon—Jake as a miner, and Annie as a doxy to "service" the men. Jake fights increasing feelings of anger and jealousy as Annie struggles to perform her job, while she resists her increasing attraction to him. Along with their fellow inmates, they fight to survive on the lunar "rock" that is their prison.

I hope you’ll check out my website, www.rochelleweber.com, and be ready to buy my book on November 6th!

Rock Bound is Back!

Yes, Rock Bound is finally back! It's rewritten and is coming soon from Red Rose Press. And you can get in on a really great deal if you subscribe to my newsletter, Rochelle's Revels, now. It's our first anniversary and we've planned a month-long scavenger hunt to celebrate. The prize is a beautiful watch and the details are in my newsletter, or you can go directly to www.redrosepublishing.com.

So, participate in the scavenger hunt, and join my Yahoo! group RIW_Author for progress updates. I'm working on the first round of edits and should have cover art and a release date soon.

Days that Will Live in Infamy

My friend, Raymond and I have each been studying the Thirty Years War, but in different ways. I met Eric Flint at a science fiction convention and spent an evening with him, and decided to read his books. They are a treasure trove of historical information about a subject to which I had never paid much attention—the wars between the Protestants and Catholics that swept Europe after the Reformation and, for that matter, the intrigues among the various sects of Protestantism. Raymond, who is an eclectic scholar and has been listening to a series of lectures about this era, pointed out the similarities between these European Christian wars and the differences between the Sunni’s and Shiites in the Arab world. He made the comment that the Christians haven’t participated quite so viciously in religious wars since then—until now. We are doing so, however, by our presence in Iraq and have done so through our support of Israel in many of the battles that have ravaged the Middle East in the past thirty or more years. My—what an interesting number. Thirty Years.

Our conversation continued and we talked about more recent wars and I couldn’t help but wonder whether the American people would have been quite so incensed about the attack on Pearl Harbor if the Japanese ambassador had managed to deliver their declaration of war to the White House before the attack. Apparently, hostility had been growing between our two nations and we had initiated embargos on Japan and were refusing to sell them raw materials and aviation fuel after they invaded China. They offered to leave China within ten years if we would lift the embargo and normalize relations with them. They guessed correctly that we would turn down their offer and while these negotiations were proceeding, they launched a fleet of ships on November 26, 1941, which took a circuitous route across the Pacific, evading detection and arriving at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. From the Japanese point of view, this was a pre-emptive strike. They expected us to attack them so they attacked us first. According to Japanese doctrine, they had every right to attack Pearl Harbor.

This is the same doctrine that the Bush Administration has demonstrated toward Iraq and may possibly demonstrate toward Iran. People have compared Bush to Hitler in the past few years, but perhaps we should also compare him to the Japanese Prime Minister. The difference, however, is that Iraq posed no threat to us when we attacked that country.

The comparison doesn’t end there, however. We have imprisoned people simply because they are Arabs and they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were civilian American and British people, including women and children caught in the Philippines who, were imprisoned just for being Caucasian. People were tortured, both for information and out of simple hatred. We haven’t marched any Arabians from one prison to another like the Bataan Death March, but we’ve had similar disgraces in such places as Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay.

There are World War II veterans who still have not forgiven Japan for the atrocities they committed back then. I wonder how much of the world will be able to forgive the U.S. for the atrocities we are committing right now? What a shame that we have sunk to such a low level, that perhaps we should replace Old Glory with the sunburst of Japan with the Nazi swastika imposed on the sun. Or better yet, the Jolly Roger.

Every Child Left Behind

In December of 1997 Alexzander Christopher Jones was eighteen months old when he started having diarrhea. He was living with his father at the time, and at first his dad was not concerned. He took Alex to daycare, told the manager that Alex was sick and went to work. Later that evening, the diarrhea had not abated, and now there was blood in it. That’s when Chris took Alex to the hospital, and called Alex’s mom, Christine. The diagnosis was that somewhere along the way, Alex had contracted e-coli. The prevailing theory is that someone at the daycare center did not wash their hands after handling a dirty diaper and then they touched something that Alex put in his mouth.

Alex stayed at Sara Bush Lincoln Hospital in Mattoon, Illinois for about two days. Then, his kidneys failed and the staff at Sara Bush realized that he needed more expert care than they could give him. They transferred Alex to the Barnes Jacobs Children’s Hospital in St. Louis. Alex was suffering from full-blown hemolytic uremic syndrome. Alex’s kidneys failed because his red blood cells were breaking down. They put him on peritoneal dialysis, and gave him transfusions of packed blood cells. However, peritoneal dialysis is not as efficient as hemo-dialysis, so toxins built up in Alex’s blood, and attacked his brain. He spent a day in a vegetative state, which culminated when he had a seizure along with respiratory and cardiac arrest three days before Christmas.

They kept Alex sedated for the better part of a week, taking him off of the respirator on Christmas Eve. Still, his parents and I took turns sitting vigil at his bedside while the doctors fought to save him. They replaced all of the plasma in his blood twice. By New Years, Alex was awake. Three weeks later, we were chasing him down the hallway with an IV stand while he was temporarily disconnected from his dialysis machine. Alex ended up spending a total of four months in the hospital. His parents, who worked in food service, both lost their jobs, as did I when I told my temporary agency that my grandson had taken a turn for the worse and I didn’t know when I’d return to Chicago.

Barnes Jacobs Children’s Hospital saved my grandson’s life and Medicaid paid the bills. Alex is eleven now (the photo is a couple years old). He’s in junior high, reading at the high school level and his last IQ test measured 127, which is pretty close to the genius level. He looks and acts like a normal kid and is no longer on dialysis. Alex is not completely healthy, however, and he never will be. His kidneys are functioning at around forty percent. The doctors predict that he will outgrow them sometime during puberty. At that time, he’ll need a transplant and the donor who is most likely to be compatible is his kid sister, Beth. Alex is not insurable and he still relies on Medicaid to provide the blood pressure medication and growth hormone shots that he takes every day. And he and Beth will have to rely upon Medicaid to pay for their transplant surgeries, as well as the immuno-suppressive drugs that Alex will need to prevent rejection of his new kidney.

Lately, there have been several cases of e-coli cropping up. Several hundred pounds of hamburger patties have been recalled. What will become of Alex and other children like him if funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program disappears or decreases? My Congressman, Timothy Johnson, rubber-stamps every measure that the current so-called Administration sponsors, and he voted to sustain the so-called President’s veto of the bill that Congress passed which would have expanded funding for children’s health care. The man who said there would be “No Child Left Behind” has taken measures to leave every child behind. I would have supported this bill even if I did not have a grandchild who was directly affected by it.

Congressman Johnson’s excuse for upholding the veto was that this program would provide health care for children whose parents’ income was upward of $80,000 a year. He inferred that this legislation would help children whose parents were wealthy. I frankly wouldn’t mind that. My youngest daughter and her fiancé have a combined income of about $60,000 a year, yet they live on a somewhat frayed shoestring. Between the two of them, they have four children, Alex being the oldest. They each pay child support in addition to the food and clothing they buy for the children on weekends when the kids visit or in the summer when the children live with them. Since Alex is not insurable, the cost of his transplant surgery would wipe them out. They would be bankrupt and possibly homeless. My oldest daughter is married to a landscape designer. Their net worth is somewhere in the six-figure range. But most of that money is tied up in the equipment Derreck needs to run his landscaping business. If my granddaughter, Colleen became seriously ill, they too could end up bankrupt and on the street.

Congressman Johnson obviously doesn’t know or possibly doesn’t care how many people are just one paycheck away from homelessness, or what the catastrophic illness or injury of a child could do to a family. He and his Republican cronies need to pull their heads out of the Middle East oil fields and pay attention to the needs of their most vulnerable constituents. Children should not have to die so that the wealthiest country in the world can afford to invade other countries and take their oil.