Amy Tan has a number of bestsellers to her name, including The Joy Luck Club (adapted into a film), The Hundred Secret Senses, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Her entertaining 2008 TED address deals with all the ups and downs of the creative process. A great talk for writers who might need a little boost of confidence when it comes to believing in their own methods.
I found a great article in the Huffington Post by David Henry Sterry that talks about how important it is for an author to have a Facebook fan page. The article addresses questions like:
How many fans is enough to impress a publisher?
Should I set up a fan page for my book or or just use my personal page?
When should I set up my facebook page–when I start writing/once I have a deal/once my book comes out?
How often should I communicate via facebook? What is too much?
I’m worried about privacy issues. What should I do?
Should I put up pictures? Video? What kind of pictures should I load into my profile?
The article also links to other useful information like what are the essential elements of an Author page and facebook settings that you need to be aware of. If you are a writer I recommend checking it out.
Do you know someone who wants to be a novelist? If so, here are my top 5 picks for gifts to give to that aspiring writer:
A small Moleskine notebook: a budding writer NEEDS to have a small notebook with them at all times to jot down thoughts, ideas, and notes of all sorts. These are the fodder for characters and stories. Moleskine is the classic and known by most writers, but any journal or notebook that will fit in a purse or bag will do.
A flash drive and a subcription to Dropbox (or some other online storage utility). Every novel needs to be saved in at least three places in case of disaster. Any author will tell you that their biggest fear is that they’ll loose their work.
A writing program for their computer (or a case of writing pads if they don’t like to write on the computer). I prefer Scrivener but there are plenty of others that exist if you google it. Writing doesn’t need to be complicated. Word (for Windows) or Pages (for Mac) are solid word processing programs that will work. However, what a writing app or program can do is to simplify the formatting process for when they are ready to submit their novel. I like Scrivener because it has some simple functionality that allows me to write in scenes and chapters (making relevant “notes in the margins” if I need to. It also allows me to dump the scenes onto a virtual corkboard and move them around. This has come in very handy in the past. It also allows the writer to open up a full screen window while typing that eliminates all other distractions. You might be surprised at how helpful this is.
A good book about the craft of writing. You can find a few of my recommendations here. I’d also add Margaret Atwood’s Negotiating With The Dead to that list.
A subscription to the local gym. Not only will they need the social interaction to stay human while they are locked up trying to finish their novel, but they need a strong body to combat the aches and pains of being hunched over their novel for long hours trying to complete it.
The hotly anticipated Kobo Touch has arrived in stores and I thought I’d take a few minutes to give a brief review. I’ll compare it to the old Kobo and to the iPad, both of which I’ve used. The biggest concern I had with the new Kobo Touch was whether the page turn speed would improve. It turns out that I had nothing to worry about, it is much better.
Positives:
Improved page turn speed
Slimmer profile and good screen size vs. the old Kobo
It’s as small as a paperback novel but you can carry your whole library with you wherever you go.
Touch functionality to make it easier to use the dictionary.
Added the ability to highlight passages and store them for later use (which I find very useful).
New Kobo Life functionality including reading statistics.
Easy to read due to the e-ink technology. The iPad isn’t a great choice for reading outside because it is back lit.
Feels more like a book in your hand than the iPad does, especially if you buy one of the ‘book’ covers for it. When turned off, the screen defaults to the book cover–again, making it feel closer to carrying a book.
Easier to carry in your purse, or on a plane, than the iPad.
Has the ability to import books in other file types and to borrow books from libraries. Kindle just announced they are working to bring the library borrowing function to their e-reader, but they have not yet moved on allowing readers to import e-books they’ve purchased elsewhere.
Battery Life is phenomenal if you shut it off when you are not reading (vs. sleep mode). It takes a bit longer than I’d like to load the book when you turn the Kobo on, but it’s worth it in being able to go weeks between charges (depending on how much you read…I read about an hour a day, sometimes more). I’ve found this extremely convenient when traveling. On the other hand, my iPad needs to be charged on almost a daily basis–in fairness, I use it for more than just reading.
Negatives:
Fingerprints on the screen. This seems to be less noticeable on the iPad than the Kobo Touch. My guess is that it’s due to the Kobo not being back lit.
Single use gadget, unlike the iPad (I don’t consider this a negative, but some people would)
Only has a black and white screen. As a result, the iPad is, by far, the better choice for reading magazines in e-format.
Overall, the Kobo Touch is a significant improvement over it’s predeccessor and my preferred choice of an e-reader (e.g. when compared to Kindle, Sony, etc).
The choice to purchase an iPad over the Kobo Touch is really dependent on what you are looking for in a device. I’m a fan of single-purpose devices that do what they are supposed to do very well. That is the case with the Kobo Touch. However, if you are looking for something that will do more than just allow you to read books, and you don’t mind the higher price (iPad starts at $519 and goes up from there, Kobo Touch is $139) then the iPad may be for you.
If you haven’t seen it yet, Broadsheet press has posted a very cool video as part of a contest to win tickets to their fundraiser on June 30. How many Canadian authors can you pick out of the video?
This engaging novel takes us into the life of Christine, a woman whose memories are erased every night when she goes to sleep. She is told that her inability to keep memories for more than 24 hours is due to a car accident that happened 21 years ago. She wakes up every day feeling as if she is inside someone else’s body and in bed with a stranger. It’s a chilling scenario, made more so by the fact that she’s an ordinary housewife.
What struck me most about this novel is that it provides intriguing perspective on personal identity. How do we know who we are if we exist only in today, with no reference to who we’ve been in the past or who we might become in the future. How much does having something to look forward to tommorrow or next year, impact our happiness. How do you find purpose? The novel presents these ideas for consideration but never dwells on them or allows them to slow the narrative.
The novel is driven forward by the mystery that shrouds Christine’s life. As the story evolves, we begin to question everything she thinks that she knows. Is Ben the loving husband she thinks that he is or does he have motivation to deceive her? Is he hiding something from her, or is he truly a devoted husband who feeds her a ‘softer’ version of her past in order to make her days more comfortable? How do you trust someone who is a stranger to you every morning when you wake up?
This is a very approachable book with a clean style. The author doesn’t try to impress you by over-writing it. Instead, he gets out of the way and lets the story shine. There is nothing predictable about the story line–you’ll be kept guessing until the very end.
The best compliment that I can give is that the narrative was so compelling that I could not put it down until I finished it. That’s a rare experience for me.
I stumbled across an article in the Globe & Mail that questions to whether Canada is a good place to work as an author. Authors like Margaret Atwood and Wayson Choy weigh in on the subject. It’s an interesting read.
Jonathan Franzen talks about his controversial novel “Freedom” and the post 9/11 family. He also talks about his feelings on doing author vidoes. Interesting fact: this video took home the 2011 Moby award for the worst author video. In fairness, he does express his “profound discomfort at having to make videos like this” right at the beginning. On a certain level, the award actually validates the point he’s trying to make.
Jessica Westhead, a writer and editor from Toronto, has been named the Writer in Residence for Open Book Toronto. Her work has been published in some of the most prestigious Canadian Literary magazines. Her collection of short stories titled “And Also Sharks” was published in 2011 by Cormorant Books.
She’s put together a great list called Jessica’s Writerly Items on the Open Book Toronto website that I recommend you check out. She shares great suggestions for books and links targeted to writers.
Random musings about writing fiction, reading fiction and living (in reality).
"The older we get, the more...you realize there's a whole range of things you will never do, of things and people you will never be. As life becomes more and more limiting, there is something wonderful about being able to get inside the skin of people unlike yourself." ~Lee Smith
