New Mattress?

Tomorrow, my new mattress is supposed to be delivered in the afternoon. That's sooner than I expected, but it's not a moment too soon! {Hopeful Smile}

I'm SO looking forward to sleeping on something comfortable again! {REALLY BIG GRIN}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! {REALLY BIG GRIN}

Ours has been good, in a mostly quiet way. The biggest excitement was when a relative called. As far as I'm concerned, that's a very good Christmas. {BIG SMILE, REALLY BIG GRIN}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

{sigh of relief}

Hilo has a bookstore again. It's called "Books, Nooks, and Crannies." If you know the town, it's right above Koehnin's Interiors, facing Waianuenue.

Mom and I investigated it on Sunday. It isn't big, and it doesn't separate science fiction and fantasy from the rest of fiction. It carries a mostly non-specialized selection of fiction and non-fiction. I particularly liked the selection of books in the Independent Readers (Juvenile) and Young Adult sections. It serves coffee if you're interested (I'm not). It has a few chairs and a love seat to sit and read in. The love seat was quite comfortable; Mom and I took advantage of it when we done checking out the store. Mom sat there after she bought what she'd found. I sat next to her while I looked over four potentially interesting books; Masques by Patricia Briggs was the only one that actually came home with me. {Smile}

Mom overheard some lady asking about a book she'd ordered. So next, I want to take Dad and check out their book-ordering capabilities with a few of the books I found for Mom-gifts while poking around online. {Smile}

This is just such a relief. Part of me feels that this isn't much of a bookstore. It's small, and so are the fiction sections; so small, they're only differentiated by age. Still, it's still a general bookstore. It's got enough interesting books, going in to browse doesn't seem ridiculous. That makes such a difference, I feel more like myself than I have in months. {relived smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Happy Thanksgiving! {Smile}

I hope everyone who celebrates it has a Happy Thanksgiving. {SMILE}

And I hope everyone has a nice day. {BIG SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Finding books

I'm sorry I fell silent again. Early July, I found out that the local borders was closing as quickly as they could empty out their store. {pause} They closed on the 21st of this month. They're THE big bookstore in town - the only one to have a science fiction and fantasy section. So I've been rather upset. {half-smile}

I've also been looking into options. The local options are poor for assorted reasons, from too small to too unweildy. (The public library is big, but they aren't set up to help readers find fantasy. {small smile})

That leaves on-line options. I've been using on-line sorces to fill some of the gaps Borders misses, but now I need to cover things a lot more thoroughly. So far it looks rather confusing. If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them. {Hopeful Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Thoughts on trying to get published

A fair while back, my friend, Tia Nevitt, wrote some suggestions for trying to get published. The suggestions were variations on "write what is popular/will be popular." In other words, try to be part of a short-term or longer-term fad. {pause}

On one hand, it sounds good, as long as you can finish writing, polishing, and shopping around the story before the fad is past. {bite lips} That's the trick: getting it into shape and sold while the subject is still popular now, and hasn't fallen out of popularity. {bite lips}

That's why neither of my two major mentors liked writing for popularity. Both Vivian L. Thompson (author of many children's picture books and retellings of Hawaiian legends for all ages) and my father, Roger E. Baldwin (author of an introductory genetics text and Hawai'i's Poisonous Plants) taught me that trying to write to popularity is entirely too good a way to end up holding half-finished and half-polished manuscripts about things that used to be popular, but aren't any more. {half-smile}

They also taught me another approach to writing for publication. It's not as glamorous than being part of Today's Big Thing. However, it doesn't leave you stuck with Yesterday's Big Thing either. {Smile}

They both suggested following publishing's "conventional wisdom" until you've become established. The conventional wisdom is the set of rules that "everyone knows" in publishing, book selling and libraries. They're pratically never based on systematically gathered information, or even unscientific polls. They're usually explanations somebody thought of for some pattern of book-choosing they thought they saw. As such, they're very often wrong, sometimes ridiculously so. Even when they do have a point, they often miss something. {half-smile}

I don't know them all; there are a lot, and I'm terrible at memorizing. However, a few I've run into recently include "boys only read books about boys, while girls read books about both boys and girls;" "no one wants to read about handicapped people being handicapped;" "teens don't want to read about old folks in love;" and "Don't kill off a good guy in a kids' book."

When you're first trying to get published, it's best to follow most conventions whether they're right or wrong. Publishers and agents have heard them so often that breaking the conventional rules of publishing will usually make them look at a manuscript, and say "Well, I like it, but..." and rattle off which ever rule you broke. When you're new, you want to avoid that "but." It will make them set aside your manuscript "to think about it." It is possible they'll pick it up again, but they're more likely to reject it than a manscript they like that doesn't make them say "but." {half-smile}

You don't have to follow these rules forever. Once you're established, you can start breaking some of them. But first you have write a few successful stories. I think - and Dad agrees - that means writing at least three. The first story shows you can write a successful story, the second shows that you can do it again, and the third shows that the second wasn't just riding the coat-tails of the first. {lop-sided smile} If one of those
three wasn't as successful as you think the publisher would like, wait
another book or even two before you start breaking the rules. Still,
three, four, or five books isn't forever. Eventually, you can start
breaking rules, because the publisher knows you write books that sell.
Past success trumps these rules most of the time. {Smile}

So that's the method I was taught. I don't think it's actually not incompatible with trying to write something popular. You can do both at the same time or not, as you choose. Myself, I'll follow this. I rather not get stuck with a bunch of stuff that used to be popular. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Merrie Monarch Again

Well, that was a good festival. {SMILE}

The local paper is bragging about their online write-up at http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com .

The TV was advertising DVD's available at http://www.kamehamehapublishing.org/ . However, at least one close friend and one relative shouldn't be too quick to order from that site. {Smile, wink}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

P.S. I had the wrong address for the DVD's. I've now corrected it. {Smile}

A.E.B.

Hula time! {SMILE}

For those who don't know, the Merrie Monarch Hula festival is a huge hula competition my home town of Hilo hosts every year. Last night - the first night - was Miss Aloha Hula, the young womens' (18-25 years old) competition. Tonight will be Hula Kahiko (old-style hula). Tomorrow will be Hula Auana (new-style hula). A new station is televising it this year. To see the videos, check here: http://www.k5thehometeam.com/ . {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Easter {Smile}

Easter went well, if quietly. We didn't make it to church, because we just weren't feeling up to that and later too. However, we had Paella (particularly fancy Spanish fried rice) with a friend. Then Dad, the friend, and I watch Return of the King on TV. {Smile}

As I said, it was a quiet but nice Easter. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Happy Easter! {Smile}

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it. {SMILE} And to those who don't, have a nice day anyway. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin