Monday Author Website: Caroline Tiger

In my aimless surfing, looking for good author websites, I've discovered a few interesting things.

First, there are a lot of "5 Elements Your Author Site Needs" pages out there, all with varying suggestions, and many without a real idea of the function / purpose of an author site.  In my technical writing classes, I repeat time after time:  know your audience and your purpose.  If you haven't identified these, you're going to waste a lot of time writing copy that's not going to get read or used the way you intended it to be read or used.

Second, there's not a lot of what I'd call "real" information out there for authors on website building.  Yes, authors know that they need to follow the rules of web design and the rules for writing copy for the web.  But no one really addresses the extra elements that author sites need and, if they do, they don't go into enough detail for my liking.  I want to know more, damn it!

Thirdly, and call me nit-picky if you will, there's often no rationale behind why element or concept x should be included in your site.  Personally, I want to know why something should be there, especially if I'm spending time and money to add it!

Anyway, enough blathering, and on to today's site.

Caroline Tiger's Web Site

This simple, easy-to-navigate site provides the reader with connections to Caroline's latest book and articles, gives a brief overview of who she is and what she does, and links to her three blogs.  At first glance I like the site, and can see why it ended up on one of the lists of "good author websites" I surfed through last week.

The layout is easily scanned, the links across the top of the page are simple and clear, and the page is not overly lengthy.  No scrolling is required on either my desktop computer or my iPad in vertical orientation, and only minimal scrolling is required on the iPad on horizontal orientation.

The information is clear and concise, and her "About" section gives an information-packed overview of who she is and what she does (and has done).

A closer look, however, reveals a few problems, none insurmountable, but a bit off-putting, just the same.  While I like the set-up of the home page (brief about section, recent book and blurb, and recent articles), the most problematic for me are the artifacts in the Welcome text, which can easily be edited out.  In addition, the font size shows up quite small on every computer/monitor/smartphone/tablet combination I've tried ... it doesn't seem like a big thing, but even little problems or irritants to a potential audience can result in that audience moving on to another site.

That being said, I quite like her "Books" section.  It's easy to see what she's written, there's an informative little blurb for the top three books, and she's included a small image of the cover.  I also like the mouse-over text for each image, which begins "Read more about book x."  I'd like to see the same type of blurb for the books in the "Other Books" section on this page, and I'd also like to know which of the books listed is the referent text for the Financial Post's comment, as this isn't information that's listed anywhere.

My only other quibble with Caroline's site is that it doesn't appear to have been updated recently, and neither have her blogs, which might make a reader move on to another site, if it seems that nothing much is happening at the moment.

Regardless, I like this site, and it's drawn me in enough that I'd probably go looking for her books the next time I'm in the library.

Monday Author Website: All Things From My Brain

This post is first in a series on author websites.  I''m interested in what works for readers, what keeps them interested in an author (and that author's works), and how authors can use their websites to attract and keep a diverse and lively audience.

All Things From My Brain

I found science fiction author Patrick Hester's blog (and website) while, ironically, looking for information on how to prevent Scrivener from doing odd formatting things when I cut and paste text from elsewhere into it.  I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find a number of good tips for using Scrivener, so I'll be sure to be returning.  

The addition of useful information (on whatever topic is relevant) is excellent, especially if it's updated frequently.  Patrick's Scrivener Quick Tips are a regular feature on his site, so I'll be sure to revisit Patrick's site for further tips.  And revisiting is certainly something that we want to see ... I've lost track of the number of cool sites that I visit once and never return to, either because they're static or because there's nothing there to draw me in and keep me returning.  

Of more interest, however, than Patrick's Scrivener Quick Tips, is the Writing Progress sidebar that Patrick has placed on the right-hand side of his blog, underneath the usual authorly stuff (Follow Me, links to his latest books, and an Other Stuff I've Written section).  

I quite like the idea of showing progress.  I've seen it used elsewhere, but think that it works particularly well for authors as it gives readers, waiting with bated breath for the next installment my their favourite author(s), an idea of how things are progressing, what to expect in the upcoming months, and when they might expect to see excerpts and complete works.  In some ways, it may even help keep us writers on track, knowing that we've got those numbers out there for readers to see.  

I like the graphical representation, rather than a list of dates, as it gives readers an at-a-glance view of what's coming next.  As a fan of authors who sometimes take a very long time to write (Jean M. Auel, Diana Gabaldon, and George R. R. Martin, just to name a few), I'd love to see this because then I'd know to expect something this year, or next, or even the year after.

Gim Suey Chong: Our Quiet Man

Raymond Douglas Chong, author of Orchid Flower Love Poetry, has just had a short historical piece posted at the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation's website.  The piece, published on the Immigrant Voices page, is titled Gim Suey Chong:  Our Quiet Man.

Written by Raymond and his brother Michael George Chong, this short piece briefly describes the life of their father, Gim Suey Chong, a fourth-generation "sojourner to Gold Mountain, America."   

Take a few minutes to read about the trials, tribulations, and successes of this intrepid man!

Feast or Famine

The title of this blog is just so true ... sometimes Mommy writes, and sometimes she doesn't.  The last few weeks have been a good example of both.  I got a lot of writing (well, more like editing, but revising and rewriting does count, in my book) done while we were on vacation in Surprise, AZ.  When I came home, a day-and-a-half before the rest of the family so I could teach my Monday morning class, I was feeling energized and looking forward to a full afternoon and evening with the house to myself before I had to pick everyone up at the airport.

Then disaster struck, and back to Arizona I went, travelling while our youngest son was in surgery to fix a badly broken arm.  We dealt with the hospital, prescriptions, travel plans to return home, and took care of my poor little man, who was a real trooper through the whole ordeal.  We got home (on a direct Phoenix-Saskatoon flight!), my mom came to stay for a week, and we thought the worst was over.  Then when we went for his one-week x-ray and checkup, the unthinkable had happened:  the pins and the bone fragment had moved, and they were going to have to do surgery a second time.

We're now a week out from that second surgery, they're happy with where things are (even though the alignment isn't quite perfect, but that would've required a much more risky and complicated open reduction, rather than the closed reduction that was performed twice), and the cast should be off and the pins out next week.

So, did I do any writing?  Ha ... not a jot.  I haven't even made it to the gym, used the treadmill at home, or even done any yoga.  But things are beginning to return to normal, and I think my brain is starting to shift out of mommy-emergency mode into normal-mommy mode, so I'm hoping the next several weeks will be more productive ;-)  I've got a backlog of editing that I'm just beginning to get a handle on, and the fact that we still have feet upon feet of snow is keeping me from procrastinating in the garden.  The launch date for my next project is fast approaching, so I do have a bit of writing to do there ... and, surprisingly, writing non-fiction on a tight deadline isn't a problem at all.

Self-editing: what do writers need to know?

I've been working on a number of rather disparate projects over the last several weeks, which is beginning to make me feel a bit scattered.

That being said, one of my topics certainly is related to each of these projects, and that's the topic of self-editing.  It's something even I'm not overly fond of doing, but it's definitely something that needs to be done.  Sometimes it's relatively easy, and sometimes it's an horrendous uphill slog in the middle of a raging prairie blizzard.  Regardless, it's something I have to do, even if it requires a minimum of an afternoon and two (!) complete pots of tea.

I've been reading a bit, of late, on this obviously popular topic--a quick Google search for "self-editing" results in 31 600 000 hits.  Understandably, Browne and King's Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is on my list of things to read, despite critiques that damn it with faint praise.  We'll see what I think when I'm through it.

So the question is:  what do writers really need for advice, as a checklist, as a toolkit, when it comes to self-editing?  Help with line-by-line editing is certainly on that list, as are dealing with plot and characterization.  What about self-editing poetry? What else should be there?  What else would help you, as a writer?  I'm curious.

Artistic integrity

I had an interesting Facebook conversation last night with author Eric R. Asher about artistic integrity.  It's an intriguing topic, one that has made me run screaming for the metaphorical hills on more than one occasion.

There are times I think "artistic integrity" is over-rated, times that usually occur when someone, for example, decides to single-handedly reinvent every single one of the grammatical and stylistic rules of the English language, then gets perturbed when I suggest that they might want to make their prose (and it's usually prose, rather than poetry) a bit more accessible to their audience.  This usually results in a conversation in which that someone pulls out the "artistic integrity" card and says, "I'm an artist, I can do what I want" (complete with obligatory comma splice).

That being said, I think that "artistic integrity" is important, most of the time.  However, it takes a certain amount of experience and talent to recognize when you're using true artistic integrity, and when you're doing the former.

As Eric said, it's a fine line between the two.  And I agree.  There's certainly something to be said for not following the rules (regardless of your artistic medium), but I think that, in order to do so, you have to be able to prove that you can totally rock the rules first.  And I think that's where the problem lies, when artists decide that they don't need to know the rules at all.

In writing, especially prose, the rules matter a fair bit.  And, I'll agree, rules are made to be broken, but I think that you need to understand the rules and why they're there before you go about breaking them willy-nilly.  If I can't make heads or tails of what someone's written, I'll likely seriously question their use of "artistic integrity."

The luxury of a quiet afternoon

I have the luxury of a quiet afternoon at the moment, and intend to take full advantage of it.  The boys are having quiet time in their room, D’s gone off to the gym, to get groceries, and then to attend a board meeting, and even the dogs are being lazy.  I’m in the midst of a mountain of laundry (thanks to lice, blech!, and the youngest’s wet bed from last night), have buns rising as I type, and have been back and forth with an editing client, trying to arrange a meeting.  This is the most focused, and least distracted, I’ve been in a while. 

When I read articles about making writing fit into our busy lives, I see the almost inevitable suggestion that we lock ourselves away somewhere, ignore everything else, and write.  I’d love to do that, but I can say, as a busy, working mom to two boys, it just doesn’t work.  If I ignore the laundry today, I’ll end up paying later this week when I still have laundry to do that should’ve been done on the weekend.  There are certain things that make our house function, and I’ve come to the conclusion that those are the things that absolutely must get done, even if it means interrupting my writing time.  I likely have about two-and-a-half hours this afternoon, but I’ve scheduled that around the things I know need to be done. 

I have two blog posts to write, a scene from my novel to finish, a writing prompt to respond to, and a handful of poems that need to be edited.  I don’t have an exact schedule, but I do know that I’ve got 35 minutes from the time I put the laundry on until it’ll beep at me, so I’m aiming to get my blog posts written and scheduled during that time.  Then I’ll print off the writing prompt so I can think about it while I’m folding the laundry so that, when I’m done folding, I can sit down and write in the 25 or so minutes I’ll have left before I need to address the laundry again.  The next load of laundry is sheets, which require less folding, so I’ll have about 30 minutes afterwards, during which I’ll work on the novel scene.  I keep this process up, scheduling around things, until my time’s up, or until I get interrupted by the boys, whichever comes first. 

Don’t get me wrong.  There are certainly things I can ignore.  If you saw my desk right now, you’d wonder how I got any work done at all as it looks like a stratified cross-section of an archeological dig, complete with the last three weeks’ worth of detritus and papers.  It can wait, and so can the lunch dishes, which I’ll address while I’m tending to supper.  In the meantime, I’m writing, distractions and all.