Learn to Pitch Better by Watching Lisa Kleypas Chat About Rainshadow Road

Is pitching your worst nightmare? Do you quake in your shoes just thinking about it? Are you a fearful public speaker who would rather have all your teeth pulled (at once) than have to sit across from an agent or editor and pitch? If you are, read on!

I adore Lisa Kleypas. Not only is she a hugely talented author, she's a savvy businesswoman, too. Lisa is far beyond the pitching stage of selling books. But the following is a YouTube video I found on her Facebook author page that she did to promote the release earlier this year of her book Rainshadow Road. I think it's very instructional for those of us who are in the process of pitching their manuscripts to editors and agents.

I studied it carefully before I pitched my manuscript this past weekend at the fabulous New Jersey Put Your Heart in a Book Conference. 

Watch the video and see how she does it.

What I learned from watching this:

--Lisa speaks in a very conversational style, i.e., she's not looking clutching an index card with white knuckles and reading her pitch. She's informally telling you about her book, as if you were sitting across the table from her (yet it is carefully worded and the information is carefully planned).

--You leave excited about her book. Why? Because she's excited about it!

--She speaks about her characters like they are real people.

--She is confident in the story. She's not cringing or embarassed or chuckling nervously. She believes in her story--she's proud of it!

--She uses her hands for expression.

--She smiles and looks directly at the camera.

--She keeps it short.

--Now look at your pitch. Have you spent so much time getting it to be under 50 words or to 3 sentences that you've neglected to check for how conversational it sounds? Try reading it out loud, then changing the verbs to sound more like conversation--more informal. 

--My worst fear in the world is fear of blanking out when I pitch (well, okay, maybe not my worst fear but it seems like it at the time!).  I am an index-card clutcher and I suffer greatly. But this fear can be overcome. I know because I did it!

--The key for me was practice. Even if you have to write out a conversational-sounding pitch and memorize it by saying it over and over--DO IT. Make yourself practice in front of someone who loves you. FORCE YOURSELF. When I pitched to an editor and an agent this weekend, I was able for the first time to do it without index cards (although I did bring them with me just in case). But it took a ton of practice. Some people may not have to deal with this kind of stress but those of you who do...you know who you are! And if I can do it, you can too! 

--Remember, most editors/agents you pitch to will request pages from you. And guess what I heard at the conference from Bob Mayer? 90% of people who are asked for submissions at pitch sessions don't even send them? So don't be in that majority!  

--A pitch is a marketing tool. It's the first impression the agent or editor gets--of you and your book. Work hard to make it a good one. If all else fails, remember, it's only eight minutes. Anyone can survive that! If I did, you can too!

Love's Secret Fire: Debut by Rena Koontz

Check out the debut romantic suspense by Crimson Romance author (and my fellow chaptermate) Rena Koontz!

Undercover agent Adam Michaels (a.k.a. Mitchell) has been sent to a fire station to out a firebug. Who is targeting news reporter and radio personality Valerie Daniels with frightening emails. And Valerie’s beloved twin brother is a rookie fireman who just happens to be in all the right places at the right times to make him a prime suspect.

Sparks immediately fly between Adam and Valerie that have nothing to do with the scary fires being set.

But this book is more than just suspenseful. It subtly explores the strong bonds between brother and sister and between friends. The forbidden romance that blooms between Adam and Valerie is strong and full of feeling. Their country western date night was so satisfying and emotional it actually had me in tears. You can feel them falling in love and it’s a wonderful ride.

From the first page where Valerie forms the peas on her plate into the letter “D” to describe the dull date she has, the language in this book caught me. And this sentence describes perfectly the chemistry between Valerie and Adam:  “‘Mitchell,’” Adam’s deep voice oozed through the phone, sending a wave of heat through her like hot chocolate at a Friday night football game.” Love it!

Rena Koontz’s reporting background is evident in this suspenseful, well- researched book with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing to the end. There is a believability to the fire station protocol, intense relationships between the fire fighters, and the realistic crime details.

For more about Rena, check out her website here  

Why They Call It "Revision Hell"

I've recently had the great pleasure of coming back into the real world after a month of revisions. How you know you might need to detox if you've had a similar experience:

--An entire wardrobe of sweats is critical to survival (including my favorite sweats I call my writing pants). But the one time you wear them out (because you've deteriorated to the point where you just don't give a fig any more and all you want is just to be DONE), you will meet everyone you know--and they will all be dressed in their nice work clothes, making you feel a bit pathetic. Moral of this story: grocery shop early or late, or dress better going out!

--The mail pile becomes a mail avalanche.

--Ditto for laundry.

--You begin calling your children by your characters' names, OR

--You walk around the house talking to yourself (or others) in an English accent.

--Correlary:  You begin calling your husband's by your hero's name...

--...or (more commonly) your villain's!

--Instead of asking what's for dinner? your kids start asking you what kind of takeout we're ordering tonight.

--For company, you devise numerous ways to cheat on housework, stashing things in closets, closing doors, and tossing away everything en masse that has rotted in the fridge. You never put water on your kitchen floor unless totally forced.(i.e., some kid spills a sticky beverage that makes noise when someone walks on it or the dog barfs).

--So far, there is no shortcut I've discovered to cleaning bathrooms. (If anyone has, let me know!)

--Your back and fingers ache from scrunching yourself over a keyboard all day and skipping your exercise classes. Warning: skipping physical activity for fear of  "it takes too much time" is a hazard to sanity! (Will I ever learn this?)

--Every time you sit down at your keyboard, you start to twitch and your skin begins to crawl.

--You feel that if you so much as look at another cup of coffee you're going to hurl.

--You never want to see Thesaurus.com again.

--You feel that you can probably work on your manuscript forever and it will never be done. This is the hell part. Am I fixing it, making it better, or am I ruining it?? Will it ever be done?

--You finally get the courage to push send, and release your literary child into the universe, subjecting it to potential criticism and of course, rejection. This is reminiscient of dropping your first kid off at the first day of preschool. If only you can protect her from the bullies of the world! The kids that won't like her! But she has to go out into the world...and hey, preschool might have its knocks, but it's mostly fun!

Lastly, the nail biting continues as you wait in desperate hope, but not too much hope. Tempered by caution. And the experience of multiple "no's."  

You wash your hair, do some TJ Maxx therapy, clean your house, kiss your kids, see your friends again, maybe even make dinner and then...you start a new manuscript. You leave the outcome to fate, knowing you've done the best you can possibly do.

I think I can finally call myself a writer now. 

Peace-inspiring scene, the Atlantic coast this summer.

  

  

Fort George, Ontario, in the Eyes of a Regency-Era Writer

To celebrate that I am now a dot-com, I thought would share some pics from my recent trip to Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada.

Of course Mr. Liasson wanted to see the fort. "It's Regency period," he said in a tempting voice. Well, I succumbed, and it was great! Okay, it's not London, but look at what we saw... 


Here is the Union Jack flying atop the fort (well, you're only supposed to call it that when it's at sea, so I suppose I should say Union Flag.)

A British Canadian soldier twirling his musket. It weighs 9 pounds, 10 with the bayonet. I got to hold it--it was heavy!

Playing the fife.

Tunnel made of stone.

British officer uniform for the Canadian army is on the left. A New York State Militia Officer's coat is on the right. Both are circa 1812.

A musket, pistols, and a sword artfully displayed on a mantel. I LOVED THIS! Who says army guys aren't artsy!

No trip to Ontario area is complete without a visit to Niagara Falls. This is my artistic effort to capture the power and the intense drop off. (How would you like to be the person whose job it is to pick up that Coke can???)

A fun trip was had by all. (Mr. and Mrs. Liasson, after a happy weekend away :)

The Reluctant Debutante by Becky Lower

Love historical romance but are yearning for something unique and different? Give Becky Lower's debut a try! It's fantastic!
It's also on the top of the list of Surprising Good Books on Goodreads (see here for details).
See my Goodreads review below...
Oh, and Becky will be featured on the USA Today blog on their Happy Ever After page on Sept 11.
Way to go, Becky!



The Reluctant Debutante, Book One in the Cotillion Ball Series by Becky Lower
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book--Lower's debut--takes you from high society of 1850's New York City to St. Louis and the burgeoning West. Feisty red-haired Ginger Fitzpatrick, the oldest of nine siblings, prefers to be friends with Elizabeth Blackwell and Amelia Bloomer than empty-headed debutantes, and would rather work in her father's bank than attend the Cotillion Ball. Joseph Lafontaine, her brother's friend, is half-French Canadian, half Ojibwa Indian. He is upstanding, brave, and understands that his Indian blood prevents him from ever having Ginger. This story encompasses duty to family, the difficulties of sibling relationships, and the changing roles of women, all interwoven in the grip of a love that cannot be denied. Lower grabs you by the ankles and holds onto you tightly until you reach the page-turning climax based on the real Gasconade Bridge Disaster of 1855. This story will have you laughing, crying and begging to know what happens to Ginger and the rest of her eight brothers and sisters. Stay tuned for more from this talented new author!

The Good Read (or, What Makes a Book Good)

I came across the beginning of this spectacular book review by Susanna Sonnenberg of the San Francisco Chronicle. In it she defines what makes a book a good read.

Before you read it, I want you to substitute your name for the author, Karen Thompson Walker, and the title of your book instead of hers, which is The Age of Miracles.

Here it is:


"What do we ask of a good read? Escape, release, characters to believe in, situations that convince us, especially fantastic ones. We must be compelled from one page to the next at a pace that feels just right--not too fast, never slow. Often the good read is cinematic, suggesting the inevitable movie. Karen Thompson Walker has suffused her first novel, The Age of Miracles, with these qualities, and if you begin this book, you'll be loath to set it down until you've reached its end.

What, in turn, does the good read ask of us? Surrender.

I surrendered on page 7."

Books, Shakespeare and Company Bookstore, The Latin Quarter, Paris

http://www.freefoto.com/imagelink/?ffid=1351-06-2&s=s

There, now you have it. The perfect review that perfectly sums up (in my opinion) what we, as readers, desire most in a book.

Now we, as writers, simply need to go out and write that!!! Easy-peasy, right???

The RIGHT Kind of Conflict--from James Frey

I'm on vacation reading James Frey's How to Write a Damn Good Novel as I stare at the Atlantic Ocean. Life is always better when you can stare at an ocean all day!

Conflict, conflict, conflict. That's the ticket to success. We need it in every scene, the kind that impedes our character's goals.

Frey talks about the criticalness of conflict and how it uncovers the nuances of character. Here's what he has to say (see pages 39-43 of How to Write a Damn Good Novel):

• "First, plan your novel with rising conflict always in mind. Your characters should be facing ever-increasing obstacles, their problems should be multiplying, pressures on them should always be growing. As the conflict rises, the character changes.
• The kind of conflict we want is RISING conflict. This means the conflict is developed in a nuanced way to show the character slowly and subtly going from one level of emotional intensity up the scale to another. Frey says, for example, the character can begin being annoyed then progress through the scene to peevishness to mild anger to insane anger. What he's saying is, the better a writer you are, the better you are at making these subtle changes which show the reader the many facets of character.
• The character is fully revealed because the reader has seen her or him acting and reacting at each emotional level. The reader becomes gripped in the slowly rising conflict.

So how can you tell if you have rising conflict? Frey says you should look at your character's emotional level at the beginning of the scene vs. the end. "There should be a step-by-step change in the character from, say, cool to fearful, spiteful to forgiving, cruel to compassionate, or the like, in every scene. If there is conflict but no change, you have a static conflict."

Static conflict is bad. It means conflict without character growth. For example, two kids arguing over the television remote will have conflict but are unlikely to grow and change as a result of it. He also cautions against melodrama or jumping conflict, where the characters change but their motivations are off. You have intensity but no motivation.

"If the characters change emotionally a little at a time as a result of the conflict, you know the conflict is rising steadily, as it should."

So go out there and make sure you've got lots of conflict in EVERY scene, that it's slowly rising to show your reader the character's emotional growth, and always make certain you have an emotional change from the beginning of EACH scene compared to the end.

Incorporating these tips will make your scenes absolutely ripple with conflict--the right kind, that is!