Author Olivia Boler

January 2nd, 2012 by Olivia Boler

Of books and puppies

Happy New Year, people! Okay, it’s January 2, but it’s still a new year, and better late than not at all. Yesterday, I was busy cuddling up to my friend’s new puppies, Jem and Scout, who are adorable mini Goldendoodles, and here’s a heartstring-tugging picture of them:

Jem and Scout, photo courtesy of Theresa H.

Are you totally melting? Believe me, they are just as adorable as they look.

As you literary types know, Jem and Scout are characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, brother and sister, and Scout is the narrator. This is one of my favorite novels, so in honor of Harper Lee (and all of you who named your children after the esteemed authoress), I’m sharing a list of the books I read in 2011. I started keeping track of what I read each year about 10 years ago, when friends kept asking me to recommend books and I could not readily recall any titles off the top of my noggin. My mother-in-law also inspired me to try completing a book a week, for she sets herself the goal of reading 52 books a year. I’ve never reached that, although I came closer than I have since first having kids, reading 38 books last year.

I do wonder if my Kindle and e-reading programs on my iPad, iPhone, and computer have something to do with this. I’m certainly not less busy than I was in 2010, when I read 27 books. Far from it. A writing colleague, Claire Light, mentioned on her blog that reading on the Kindle had increased her speed of reading by about 100 percent, if my memory serves. And if you check out her blog, you’ll see her 2011 reading list reaches 130! How would reading on these electronic devices help? I’m guessing it’s their portability, or the fact that when I check out e-books from the library I have to get them back in 3 weeks. What do you think? Has e-reading made you a faster reader?

OK, here’s my list:

*Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Matched by Ally Condie
*The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
*Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
Summer at Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs
Evermore by Alyson Noël
*Refresh, Refresh by Benjamin Percy
Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett
The Matchmakers by Jennifer Colgan
*The Genius in Children by Rick Ackerly
†Octavia Boulevard by Yvonne Daley
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
*The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen
*I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson
†Family Poems by Larry Beresford
If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This by Robin Black
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Switched by Amanda Hocking
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Torn by Amanda Hocking
*One Day by David Nicholls
*State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer
The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher
†It Only Happens Now and Then… by Mary P. Hamilton
*A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
†Roads Without Hills by Charles McKinnon
*†Damascus by Joshua Mohr
Ascend by Amanda Hocking
*The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
†Count Edweird Lefang’s Rhymin’ Halloween by Eddie Morales
†Cold Comfort by Ellis Vidler
Sleeping With Paris by Juliette Sobanet
*You Know When the Men are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

* Olivia’s Favorites † Read for a review or article

Tags: 2011 reading list, Amanda Hocking, Ann Patchett, Claire Light, e-book, e-readers, Kindle, puppies, Siobhan Fallon, Suzanne Collins
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing | 4 Comments »

December 25th, 2011 by Olivia Boler

A Life-changing Book Review of Cold Comfort by Ellis Vidler

Here is my holiday gift to you, dear blogging friends: a book review!

Typically, I write book reviews for pay, but for this one, my reimbursement is the thrill of possibly winning a new Kindle e-reader. Even if I don’t win the Echelon Press contest, I will be victorious nonetheless, because I really enjoyed reading Cold Comfort, which is marketed as a romance and suspense, but really, the romantic elements are sort of incidental, IMHO. The story is a thriller that centers on a perfectly ordinary woman, Claire Spencer, who runs a Christmas tchotchke store (hey, how about a little holiday reading material, right?) and is being targeted for murder. Through a friend, she enlists the help of Ben Riley, a broad-chested ex-Navy man who seems to have endless governmental connections and manly man talents for getting out of dicey situations. He carries a Glock, so that tells you a lot, but he also paints moving seascapes and is haunted by the memories of the clients he hasn’t been able to save.

The story is told from both Claire’s and Riley’s 3rd-person points of view, and the author, Ellis Vidler, does an excellent job of distinguishing their voices. Claire is a no-nonsense lady and Riley is really a dude’s dude. Out of curiosity, I looked up Vidler on Smashwords just to find out if the author was a man or a woman, because I just wasn’t sure, and that is a very good thing (I will let you discover the answer for yourself). The story hits the ground running so to speak, with Claire attacked in the driveway of her Williamsburg, Virginia, home within the first few paragraphs. Who is after her? She’s a nobody. Or is she? The mystery spins along at a fairly speedy clip with twists and turns that keep the reader guessing, and anxiously swiping those digital pages to the very end. Borrowing from Goodreads rating system, I give this one 4 out of 5 stars.

And with that, to all a good night.

Tags: book review, cold comfort, echelon press, ellis vidler, goodreads, Kindle, romance, Smashwords, thriller
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing | No Comments »

December 21st, 2011 by Olivia Boler

Flower Bowl Spell cover revealed!

Isn’t that just always the way? You finally get some down time, and then that cold you’ve been fighting decides to jump on your back and give it all its got. So, even though I just got my edits from my talented and hard-working copy editor this morning, I can’t dive right in. The cold doesn’t help and the down time is fast disappearing. There are kids at home on winter break, relatives to visit, freelance work, holiday gifts to be wrapped (we observe Christmas, although in a secular way. My 6-year-old has been asking about the meaning behind it all, so I gave her a rundown of pagan winter solstice coupled with the birth of Jesus Christ. She absolutely loves Jesus now and weeps when she thinks of him dying on the cross.)

Anyway, I did get some beautiful cover designs from Fena, my cover artist, and this is the one I decided on after getting opinions from a few close friends who are familiar with the story:

The book centers on a magickal urban witch (yes, I opted for the “k” in magick to distinguish it from magician magic, at least in my mind) and fairies, and Fena really captured that without being cheesy. No, it’s not a young-adult novel or written for children, although I think there is definite crossover appeal with the former.

I also created a Facebook Author Page, so be sure to “like” it, and please spread the word! I’ll put writerly updates and thoughts there. I also need to set aside a day to revamp my website. I actually want to start using WordPress to build it and need to find a day to give myself a crash course in doing that.

That’s all for now. Happy holidays!

Tags: copy editor, cover art, e-book, edits, facebook, Fena Lee, magick, Olivia Boler
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing | 5 Comments »

December 14th, 2011 by Olivia Boler

Can you feel the excitement???

I’m waiting for my sister-in-law Andrea to show up and take my author photo, and thought I’d check in since I’ve got all this pent-up nervous energy. I’m not crazy about gettin’ my picture took, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. And Andrea will make me look decent. Hey, I even got my hair cut yesterday, which came with the usual lecture on using a good conditioner (yes, I only go to the salon about two times a year, which is partly why I haven’t found a permanent stylist—I’m too embarrassed by my split ends).

So, my manuscript is with my copy editor, hurray! I worked on it over a few days, and decided to format it for Smashwords first. I did the best I could, but got hung up on details like using page breaks or not, and whether to put the acknowledgments (still drafting that) at the beginning or end. Really, quite dull. But oh so very important! I’ll worry about KDP and CreateSpace later.

Another option I found out about while lurking on the Kindle Boards (really, I should just go ahead and officially join), is PubIt, which is Barnes & Nobles’ version of KDP. Several authors on the Boards do all four plans (Smashwords, KDP, PubIt, CreateSpace) for each of their books in order to reach as many readers as possible, so I think that’s what I will try. Each one has slightly different formatting requirements, so it will be a lot of busy work, but in the end will save money.

And now the sexy news: I got my book covers! Fena created two beautiful covers, but I’m not quite ready to share them yet because, task master that I am, I’ve requested a few, um, tweaks. She’s really so talented and approachable. When I get that all ironed out, I will debut whichever one is the winner. Or maybe I’ll ask you all for your help.

Also, I’ve been thinking of putting up the prologue to the novel I’m publishing, The Flower Bowl Spell, on this blog. Would that be a fun thing to read?

Tags: cover art, e-book, independent publishing, indie publishing, KDP, Kindle, print on demand, PubIt, self-publish, Smashwords
Posted in Writing | 5 Comments »

December 8th, 2011 by Olivia Boler

The nit and grit of indie publishing—edit, draw, format, shoot

Procrastination. There’s always something to procrastinate about. Until this very moment, I was procrastinating about writing a blog entry. But now, in order to procrastinate walking the dog and getting back to my freelance work, I’m logged on and ready to update you, my bloggish friends, about my latest publishing news. Poor dog.

So, I found a copy editor for my manuscript. She’s lovely, a friend of a friend. We live on opposite coasts and have only communicated via email, Facebook, and She Writes, but I have faith in her. I am also excited to see what she’ll do to my book. For my book. My writing friends have read it—some have read several versions of it—but there’s nothing like a fresh pair of eyes, you know? So, I have to send her a final final copy by next Wedensday, and of course I haven’t cracked that baby open in many a moon. But I will because…

I’ve been doing my author-services research! And I know I’d like to get the manuscript in shape for submitting it to Smashwords and Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). For some reason, and I should know this, but have yet to get it straight in my head, I need to do both because Smashwords can convert my book to a format readable on Kindle, it does not deal directly with Amazon. Is that right? If anyone knows, please tell me. I need to get on the Kindle boards and confirm this. I am also going to use CreateSpace to make old-fashioned paper pulpy copies available, and I think that conversion process is a bit less painless, but I could be wrong. I won’t know until I try.

On other fronts, I’ve discovered a cover artist, a teenage girl in Singapore named Fena. You can check out her work on her website. I really like her stuff, and am amazed at her talent. She’s also very sweet. I know this because we’ve communicated via email. Of course, the Internet is bizarre that way. Fena, if you’re out there, could you please confirm you’re not actually a middle-aged man in a Tucson, Arizona, trailer park? Just kidding.

And last but not least, I’m getting a new author photo taken by my wonderful and talented sister-in-law, Andrea Price. Check out her gorgeous wedding photos on her website. She might even help me revamp my old, tired, long neglected website. Which is here, just in case you’re curious.

The dog is chewing on my pant leg. Ta ta for now!

Tags: author photo, copy editor, cover art, e-book, independent publishing, indie publishing, Kindle, print on demand, publications, self-publish
Posted in Writing | 6 Comments »

November 29th, 2011 by Olivia Boler

Olivia is a Nano Winner!

So, I just reached a wee bit over 50,000 words, which means I am a 2011 Nanowrimo winner. Yay, me!

I still have two key scenes to write. Okay, maybe three. Fifty thousand words just ain’t enough.

In the next day or so, I hope to get back to more blogging with updates on my publishing efforts. And yes, there are so many. It’s a manic, sleep-deprived time, but such is life.

In the meantime, enjoy the end of November and the Nanowrimo craze! If I can do it, so can you!

Tags: 50000 words in 30 days, independent publishing, indie publishing, nanowrimo, nanowrimo winner, Olivia Boler, self-publish, upmarket women's fiction
Posted in Writing | 4 Comments »

November 18th, 2011 by Olivia Boler

Please pass the chocolate. Now. NOW! Please.

It’s a good news/bad news kind of day, and let’s just say I’m trying to figure out the tone I should take here on this public little blog of mine. I’ve already mentioned that I get a tad, shall we say, sensitive, when it comes to the rejection of my work. I think I’ve been able to mostly work out in private all the usual angst (a taste: feeling like a loser, calling myself a loser, wondering why I have wasted so much of my life, etc., etc.), and am ready to move on (cue the crazy laughter: ha, ha, ha!).

So, the bad news: both ebook publishers I approached back in August, rejected my novel, my precious words! The first gave me a straight form letter, meaning I have no idea why they didn’t want it (Voice in My Head: “Uh, ’cause it sucks?” Shut up!). The second gave me an encouraging form letter of which I will include a bit here:

“Though we aren’t able to accept this manuscript, it is always possible that future manuscripts may find a home with us, and we hope you’ll consider us for future submissions. Additionally, please remember that publishing is quite subjective, and what doesn’t work for one publisher may work for another so we wish you the best of luck in placing this manuscript elsewhere.”

For those of you unfamiliar with rejection, the stuff about the pub biz being subjective is a very standard line and not all that comforting when you’ve read it 100 times. But the first part about how they “hope you’ll consider us for future submissions” doesn’t come up every day. So that’s kind of nice. I guess.

So, yes, it’s time to move on. That means I have to go into “bid’ness” for myself now. Which means I’ve got to roll up those shirtsleeves and pony up the money (“Oh, kids, I’m not sure you’ll be getting Christmas presents this year since Santa has to bankroll Mommy’s publishing dreams!”) and make this book a reality. I have to banish the doubters that live in my head (and outside of my head run all the literary agencies, publishing houses, and contests that have rejected my work—crazy laughter again because there are so many!) and just listen to the nice people (in my head and out) who tell me to keep going. (This is usually the point in the post-rejection processing where I blame my writing friends for not being truthful about my abilities. Why haven’t they ordered me to quit, if not writing than at least trying to publish? OK, now I’m making them angry at me. If they are reading. Sorry, guys! I know you mean well.)

Primal scream time à la Charlie Brown: ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Oh, you’re still reading? Then you probably want to know what the good news is. Well. I have a roof over my head. I have a loving, supportive family. I have my health, such as it is. And I am over halfway done with NaNoWriMo, having clocked in 29,181 words as of yesterday. I guess I’d better get to my 1,667 for today.

And what will I call my publishing company?

Happy Friday, people!

Tags: e-book, giving up, independent publishing, indie publishing, moving on, nanowrimo, rejection, self-esteem, self-publish
Posted in Writing | 6 Comments »

November 9th, 2011 by Olivia Boler

Getting down to the funky business of writing

Not to toot my own horn, but [beep beep!], it’s Day 8 of NaNoWriMo, and so far, so good. I’ve somehow exceeded the 1,667-per-day requirement (to make it to 50,000 words by November 30), and even managed to write over the weekend when my family was in the hizzie. And they actually did not feel neglected as I shut myself away for a few hours to get the job done!

I don’t have many “writing buddies” on NaNoWriMo, so if you are doing it, be my friend there! My handle is livyink. I’m also doing a Facebook NaNoWriMo page with fellow scribe Jeremy Nisen, so check that out too, and leave your comments, observations, gratitudes, affirmations, complaints, etc.

By the way, Anne Milano Appel, a translator of Italian works into English, mentioned my post about reading your work aloud in a Hersilia Press blog today. Read what her experiences have been like.

In addition to finally getting some writing done, I have to say, the best thing about this year’s NaNoWriMo (Could I please just shorten it to NNWM? Does that stand for something horrible I don’t know about?) is engaging with other writers about writing instead of concentrating the conversation so heavily on publishing. Of course, publishing is a business, but it feels like the past few months have been spent by yours truly doing nothing more than marketing and promoting something that I haven’t even had the time (or made the time) to do.

That’s not to say I’ve escaped the business side of publishing all together this fine November. Family and friends who haven’t logged on to this blog o’ mine yet have been “hearing” from those who have that I’m “starting a publishing company.” Say what? I did not get that memo. I suppose I’ve been living in denial that I will have to approach self-publishing (if my book gets rejected by all the e-publishers I’ve queried—there’s still hope, folks! A golden sliver of hope.) as a business. Yes, I have skimmed Amanda Hocking’s extremely inspiring and honest blog posts about the hard, sloggy work involved (not to mention the money one has to shell out). I recently read a very helpful post on the Making Baby Grand blog with guest author Robyn Bradley that reiterates much of that.

I would love to know, fellow bloggers, whether you’re self-published or traditionally published or still figuring out the business side of writing, how much time you spend writing and how much businessing? 50-50? 60-40? 70-30? Does blogging count as writing or writing business or a little of both? And whatever your answer, are you OK with it?

Tags: Amanda Hocking, anne milano appel, facebook, Hersilia Press, independent publishing, jeremy nisen, making baby grand, nanowrimo, robyn bradley, traditional publishing
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing | 11 Comments »

October 31st, 2011 by Olivia Boler

It’s Halloween, so what will you write tomorrow?

Hey everybody, Happy Halloween! What are you going to be? I’m going to be a writer. Who wears a pointy hat.

So, tomorrow is November, which means the beginning of NaNoWriMo. Write 1,667 words each day until you have 50K at the end of the month. Cake walk. Today, writers all over the globe are blogging about their plans. Can you feel the energy sparking? I can.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a new idea for my month of writing. I’ve been debating working on either the sequel or prequel to my witch novel. But there’s another story I told in movie script form a few years ago, and I’ve always thought it would be a kick to write it up as a novel. I attempted movie writing in my early thirties,converting one of my novel manuscripts. It was great fun, and helped when I decided to write yet another and very much needed draft of the novel.

Movie scripts actually make helpful road maps for novel writing, because you’re down to the bare essentials of dialog and action. Interior thoughts pop up in voice-overs, maybe, but overall, visuality is king. With a movie version of your book, you can figure out what might be slowing things down (i.e. making readers yawn and reach for the remote). There’s another script I wrote based on a classic British novel, one I gave a 21st century makeover, and that’s the one I might tackle tomorrow. I suppose I should decide soon, but indecision is part of the thrill!

Fellow bloggers, have you ever written a screenplay? I’d love to know what you think of your experiences. In the meantime, don’t eat too much candy—you don’t want to be be logy tomorrow for the Big Day. Cheers!

Tags: British novels, Halloween, modern versions of classic stories, movie scripts, nanowrimo, novel manuscripts, prequels, screenplays, sequels
Posted in Writing | No Comments »

October 26th, 2011 by Olivia Boler

Reading your stories aloud is a good thing

Two nights ago, I attended an unusual reading of two of my friend Siobhan Fallon‘s short stories from her collection You Know When the Men Are Gone. It was at Z Space, a gallery and performance venue in San Francisco, presented by Word for Word and part of their Off the Page series. They’ve also performed stories from other books like Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.

An ensemble of actors read the stories while acting them out, complete with he said and she said, and all the description of internal thoughts, action, and place. The two stories, “The Last Stand” and “Gold Star” are linked by a central character, Kit, who is a wounded soldier returned from the Iraq War (all of Siobhan’s amazingly written stories are about the soldiers and families of Fort Hood, Texas during this war), and seeing them played out was truly an unforgettable, moving experience.

It also reminded me about the importance of reading our work aloud to get an idea if it’s working or not. Of course, once your story or book is published, readers will be living it out on the movie screen of their imaginations, silently (for the most part, one hopes!), but the hard work you do as the writer—and that includes going hoarse from mumble-reading drafts to yourself as you pace the floor in front of your computer—will make it come wonderfully alive.