Cover Art for my first novella, Simple Treasures

Please help me decide which is the best cover for my novella, Simple Treasures.

Simple Treasure Blurb

Newly released from a mental institution, Simple’s first job is caring for Emmett, a crusty drunkard dying of cancer on a ranch in Utah. Simple’s first fragile friendship is with Emmett’s grandson Jude, a gay youth in Gothic drag who gets nothing but grief from his grandfather. In an attempt to help both men, Simple, a Shoshone Indian, decides to perform a ceremony that will save Emmett by transferring his spirit into the body of a falcon.



Working to capture a falcon will bring Emmett and Jude closer as Jude and Simple’s growing love for each other blossoms, but all is not well. When the ranch, Jude’s future, and Simple’s happiness are threatened, more than Emmett’s spirit faces a bleak future.

Short Story Review: Song On The Sand by Ruth Sims

Reviewer: Alan Chin
Pubisher: Untreed Reads Publishing
Pages: 19

Tony Dalby is a wheelchair-bound man living his twilight years in a convalescent home. In his youth he had been a Broadway actor/dancer. Now he is a bitter, self-centered, irascible, old man with nothing to look forward to. He keeps his life history in a scrapbook—grainy photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, keepsakes. The staff at the home try to get him to stand, to walk, but he hasn’t the heart to even try during his therapy sessions.

But then Tony notices a sexy young man who shows up daily to visit Jesse, the victim of an accident that has left him a vegetable. After several days of admiring the young man from a distance, a chance encounter allows Tony to meet this young man, whose name is, Drew. Tony discovers that Drew and Jesse are lovers.

Driven to impress young Drew, Tony puts all his heart and soul into his therapy sessions, and over time gets to the point where he can walk with the help of only a cane. But then, for the first time in ages, he begins to think about someone other than himself. He tries to help Drew’s lover recover. As it turns out, Jesse and Tony had both acted in the musical, La Cage Aux Folles. This thin thread, they soon discover, has the power to turn tragedy into an unexpected joy.

Ruth Sims is one of my favorite writers, and once again she has managed to impress. This is a bittersweet tale of finding courage and compassion. It is beautifully written, almost flawless in its execution. The main character is completely believable, and lures the reader into his narrow view of the world, but then lets his world expand, giving both the character and the story greater depth.

Often times I can see where a story is going long before the last page, but throughout this tale I kept wondering how the author could possibly wrap up all these threads. Sim’s did so in a way that was both surprising and delightful. When I finished the last page, I sat in silence for a rather long time, not analyzing what I had read, but simply feeling the wonderful emotions that this story evoked.

Ruth Sims is a huge talent. And Song On The Sand is a little gem that I highly recommend to all readers.

For more information about this story or author, go to http://ruthsims.com

Writing Tip #29 Unlikeable Protagonists

Many writers, and I’ve done this myself, spend a great deal of energy making their protagonists jump through hoops in order to make them likeable. And admittedly, many readers demand that the protagonist be sweet and charming, or at least someone they can adore.

Yet, many of literature’s most interesting and often most beloved characters are despicable rogues. One of my favorites is Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs series of films. He’s a coldblooded killer, with no remorse at all. Yet, he fascinated me. Without Lecter, those movies would have been unbelievably boring. His dark character brought them to life. He stole the show. Look at any movie directed by Quentin Tarantino. I’ve never seen a likeable character in any of his films.

So what makes us cheer for a contemptible character? As a fellow writer, Damon Suede, put it: “Unlikeable behavior is not what makes a character unappealing, but rather the context of that behavior. We often want these characters to behave awfully, and take pleasure in the wreckage they generate. So I don’t think it’s actually likeability that’s the issue.”

What readers need is a way to interface with a character. Hannibal Lecter, for example, was in fact a ruthless killer, yet he became very protective of Clarice Starling. That protectiveness was a thread the reader could relate to. He also was a competent artist and loved classical music, two more threads. When talking to Clarice, he had impeccable manners, another thread. He was not at all likeable, yet he had elements that most viewers could relate to. The writers gave him traits that viewers found accessible.


Another great example is Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind. Selfish, conniving, ruthless. But going from riches to rags and living through the devastation of the war, we understand her perfectly. We connected, and we even sympathized.

So go ahead and make your characters all assholes. Just be sure that within the context you place them, give them traits that will be accessible to the reader. Place them in mounting conflict that explains why they behave badly. And it always helps to make the villains more despicable than the protagonists. :-)

If you find that your characters have become annoying rather than enthralling, then revisit how the context, stakes and escalating conflict affect their values and behavior, rather than trying to make them more likable.

A Trailer for my novel, Butterfly's Child

One of the sweetest guys in the world, Fausto Umanzor, has created video trailers for each of my first three novels. Today, he sent me a link to the trailer he just finished for Butterfly's Child. If you have a moment, please check it out at: http://animoto.com/play/hloc0bJJSPI4s89uyKsH3A

Thanks,

alan

Why I Tweet

I read a post today on an online writer’s list I subscribe to. The topic was should a book author use Twitter to help promote their books. I use Twitter nearly every day and I have some opinions on that topic. Twitter is another tool in a writer’s toolbox to help promote themselves and their work. It can be a powerful tool if used correctly, and a waste of time if not used correctly. I’d like to list a few things I’ve learned over the last two years of using Twitter:

What Twitter is Great At:

1. Driving traffic to your website and blog. In my experience, nothing is better at driving traffic to my sites than Twitter. Over the last two years I have accumulated nearly 7,000 followers. When I post a review or article on my blog, I also tweet a message about that post on Twitter with a link back to my blog site. I find that I usually get a one percent response, that is, I get an additional 60 to 70 hits on that blog counter. Same for when I post a free story on my website.

2. Getting your message out to thousands of people. Everytime I post a message on twitter, a potential 7,000 people will read it. But if the message is rather interesting, other people will retweet that message to all of their followers. If three or four people retweet the message, that message could be viewed by ten or twenty thousand people. Where else can you get your name and blog link to twenty thousand readers?

3. Meeting new people. Over the years I’ve met dozens of people who have become friends, and fans of my books. People sign up on twitter for two reasons. The first is to sell something (like me). The second, is because they want to make new friends. It is easy to make friends because that’s what most of those people are trying to do.

What Twitter is NOT Great At:

1. Passing large amounts of information. You only get 140 characters. That’s why you want to hit them with a short teaser, and then include a link where they can get the rest of the info. FB is much better at posting pictures and larger amounts of info.

2. Direct selling. If you post a message like “Please buy my book” people will unfollow you in a heartbeat. You have to be more subtle. You post a link to a review of your book. You post a link where they can read the first few chapters of your book. You post a link to pictures of your latest book signing. Most of your posts should not be about your book, they should be about you. Sell yourself, not your books. If you can get followers to like you, they will buy your books.

A Few Tricks to Know

1. Whenever someone interesting follows me, I send them the following direct message: “Thanks for following, Insert Name Here. Looking forward to your tweets. You can find out more about me and my books at http://alanchin.net”

You would be surprised at how many people message back saying they have looked at my website and like what they saw.

2. I like to retweet interesting message. Often times I have nothing to post, so I look for interesting things others have posted and I repost them. The original posters are always grateful, and you get to know them better. Your followers are grateful too for getting the interesting post.

3. I try to always be upbeat and positive. Nothing turns people off on twitter like negative whining.

4. When I post something, I normally post it several times over the span of two or three days, and I post it at different times of the day. Most people will not see it if you only post something once. Posting it several times will ensure maximum exposure.

5. I target certain groups of people to follow: 1) writers and people in the publishing business, 2) gay men who are mature enough to read novels, 3)Women who might read M/M. I’ve noticed that many writers I follow only follow other writers. I think that is a big mistake. I mostly go after readers, not other writers. That is the great thing about twitter, it lets you target your audience.

People I Don’t Follow:

1. Anybody selling something.
2. Anybody who is only looking for sexual hookups. (of which there are many)
3. Porn sites. (of which there are very many)


Lastly, I’d like to state the obvious. Twitter is a great marketing tool. Any author will get out of it what they put into it, that is, the payoff will be determined by how much time and effort you put into it.

Book Review: The Last Deployment by Bronson Lemer

Reviewer: Alan Chin
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (June 2011)
Pages: 221

How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq

Bronson Lemer joined the National Guard during his senior year of high school as a way to help pay for his upcoming college expenses, but he also had a secret reason for joining. For years he had lived in the shadow of his more athletic brothers, and because Bronson was gay, he felt the need to do something dramatic to prove to his parents that he was his own man. He wanted to make the family proud of him. He chose the National Guard because he assumed he could do his one weekend a month and never be sent to war. He was wrong.

In 2003, after being trained as a carpenter and serving five and a half years in the North Dakota National Guard’s engineering unit, Bronson was deployed in Iraq for a year. He left behind college, his family, and a lost love. He found himself in a war zone that he and his fellow soldiers called ‘The Sand Box’ – living in tents, sand everywhere you looked, 120 degree temperatures, and constant apprehension about the impending dangers.

Bronson spent a year in and around Bagdad using his carpentry skills to help rebuild the city. He had a deep conviction to aid the Iraqi people, but the longer his deployment stretched out, the more he felt the US military was doing more harm than good. On a more personal level, he struggled because of a lack of support structure. He didn’t have the close family ties, a wife or long-time girlfriend that most other soldiers had. He felt a need to reveal his sexuality to his buddies, so that they would understand him. But, of course, he couldn’t do that. His only release was in the form of letters to his lost love.

The Last Deployment is a well-written, often provocative memoir of the author’s struggle to reconcile military brotherhood with self-acceptance. If you are looking for gun battles and roadside bombs ripping limbs from bodies, then you should keep looking. The author never came under fire. This is a tale of internal struggle and the absurd nuances of a soldier’s life in the ‘Sand Box’. It is more about loneliness, fear and fitting in than guns and battles.

The author spent very little time talking about the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. I recall only one place where he summed up his views about it as: The policy creates an environment where it is OK to ridicule someone because of their sexuality because gay men and women cannot stick up for themselves or others without fear of being ostracized and outcast, and that is the last thing a soldier wants during a deployment. The policy reinforces ignorance and stupidity by forcing the people who are gay—the ones who would speak up and support gay men and women when others were ridiculing them—to keep their mouths shut. It also stifles a community that cannot grow, trust, or support each other because some of the members aren’t allowed to speak up or express who they are.

Being a gay man who spend four years in the navy, I was also surprised that Lemer didn’t talk about falling in love/lust with any of his fellow soldiers. That was one of the hardest things for me to deal with while in the military: feeling love for my buddies but being unable to divulge it in any way. What Lemer does express repeatedly was a feeling of not fitting in, mainly because he had to hide so much of himself. Now that was something I related to perfectly.

Lemer's chronicles of a soldier’s daily life in the ‘Sand Box’ make for an interesting and poignant read. It is also a strong argument why the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy harms morale, rather than doing any good. Regardless of how you feel about the war, this memoir is well worth reading. I can highly recommend it to all readers.

Writing Tip #28 Too Much Dialog Can Spoil the Soup

I love dialog. It brings one close to the characters, lets the reader know how the character’s mind thinks, reacts, persuades and complains. Dialog is one of the most powerful tools in a writer’s toolbox. I am of the opinion, that when it is overused, it tends to lose all its power.

I’ve recently worked with two other authors, giving them suggestions on how to punch up their stories. In both cases, I felt they were doing too much with dialog.

The first author started his murder mystery at the crime scene, but within a few pages, his team of detectives gathered in a room at the police station where they proceeded to do nothing but talk to each other for twelve pages. All the backstory was told through dialog during those pages. I can’t explain how excruciatingly BORING those pages were to read. My advice to this writer was, if he must use dialog to bring out these facts, then do it at the crime scene while the detectives are looking for clues. That way, they are doing something. There is action going on while they are talking.

The second author did something similar, trying to tell the story mostly through dialog. I’m sorry, I told him, this simply doesn’t work. You’re not writing a play, you’re writing a novel. You need action to move the story forward.

Dialog should not be used to tell the story. It should be used to punctuate the action in a story. Think of dialog as TNT. You want small controlled detonations in your prose in order to highlight certain ideas or actions or character traits.

In short, try to tell the story in the narrator’s voice. Don’t make your characters tell the story.

The other thing I’d like to point out about dialog is the way most people speak. If you pay attention while people talk, you’ll find that most people use very short bursts of dialog, fewer than ten words, before someone else responds and takes up the conversation. So having your characters constantly making long-winded soliloquies may not be the best option. Again, in my humble opinion, short burst are more entertaining and more in tune with human nature, thus it’s more believable.