Get Your Writing Noticed: #1 A Series Introduction

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I will, over the next 8 months, write a series of posts about getting our writing noticed.

I propose to cover the following items in turn:

1. Writing fiction for the 21st century. Making our writing accurate, fantastic, sensuous and gripping. The evolution of fiction.

2. Writing non-fiction for the 21st century. Grabbing the reader up front, digital first, key words & participant voices.

3. Theme – the make or break element.

4. Pace – keeping our writing moving.

5. Emotion – making the reader feel something.

6. Meaningful social media – building a real following on social media.

7. Advanced social media for writers – what works and what doesn’t.

This series of posts is a free of charge service. One post will be published each month between now and the end of the year. If you have thoughts or comments on any post, or questions, please submit them at any time.

One of Grainne, the Pirate Queen’s castles in Ireland. Grainne lived 400 years ago. I was inside this castle last month. It’s a few hours drive from where I live. Click on it for a clearer image.

The Jerusalem Puzzle gets interesting

I am right in the middle of editing The Jerusalem Puzzle. At present Sean and Isabel are in Cairo and there’s a lot going on.

One of the challenges for a contemporary mystery writer, who writes about such places as Jerusalem and Cairo, is that so much is in flux in these cities. Sure, I follow Egyptian newspapers and Israeli newspapers, and I have linked to one of each for you, their English language versions, and I read books and articles (see my reading list here on Goodreads), but glimpsing where these countries might be in 12 to 24 months is a real challenge.

There are deep pressures at work, some of which I witnessed when I visited the Palestinian territories, the Negev and Jerusalem earlier this year.

Driving towards the Sinai Peninsula February 2012

Some of the other considerations I must keep in mind are the religious views of the people in these countries and the right wing shifts, the violence and the polarisation taking place in many European countries.

I see my role as a storyteller, someone who reports what happens to people caught up in a serious escalation in this area.

I see the good and the evil and the impact of forces almost beyond our control.

I hope you will enjoy Sean and Isabel’s story as it unfolds in Jerusalem and Cairo.

Please wish me luck in the next few weeks as I finish my final personal edit of The Jerusalem Puzzle. After that Harper Collins will conduct a deep edit and I will be back to the manuscript again in July to work on it.

I wish you all the best with whatever you are working on and thank you for following the story of The Jerusalem Puzzle as it unfolds.

The Jerusalem Puzzle takes a big step forward

Last Friday I finished draft one and two of The Jerusalem Puzzle. I call it one and two because I go back every day and edit what I wrote the previous day.

The Jerusalem Puzzle is written!

On Monday I started on the next edit. I plan to have it finished by mid May, when I will send it to Harper Collins.

I was pleased that both yesterday and the day before I was able to do my target of editing ten pages a day. This means, for me, that it’s fairly smooth already. That doesn’t mean to say that there won’t be changes and suggestions from Harper Collin’s editors, but it’s a lot smoother than The Istanbul Puzzle was at this stage.

I guess writing day after day, year after year is finally paying off.

As for the novel, I like it, if I’m allowed to say that. The main mysteries that were held over from The Istanbul Puzzle, what’s in that book they found, for instance, are solved in The Jerusalem Puzzle. Someone at the heart of the story dies too, but I can’t tell you any more about that.

It’s set mainly in Jerusalem, with some chapters in Cairo and the Judaean Hills. It’s about contemporary Israel too, with the very real threat of war hanging over the country, a threat that comes alive during the novel.

The Jerusalem Puzzle is due for release January 17, 2013. There may be an early chapter released at Christmas by Harper Collins.

I hope you enjoy it when it comes out. Next month, May, I will be sending an outline to the next in the series to Harper Collins. Once that is agreed I will tell you the title. We might also have the cover of The Jerusalem Puzzle to show you around then.

Thanks for all your feedback and support. I truly appreciate it.

 

 

 

My new social media blog

Hi,

I have created a separate social media blog called Social Media is Dynamite. You can find it here.

I am creating a new blog for a number of reasons:

1. This lpobryan blog can stay focused on The Istanbul Puzzle, the next books in the series, and on posts about writing and my journey to making a living as a writer.

2. The new blog will focus on the impact of social media, what I have learned about social media, and how we can use storytelling techniques to make social media more engaging. I am also planning to write a guide to social media. My qualifications for this are 20 years in IT & marketing, most recently in online services, and my escape out of the publishing industry slush pile via social media.

I hope you will visit my new blog and join up there too. If I can help you with any aspect of social media, or writing and getting published, contact me in whatever way is most convenient to you. My email is lpobryan (@) googlemail.com

2 months after getting published – the reality!

Thank you all for following my progress.

As you know my first novel, The Istanbul Puzzle, was published Jan 19 by Harper Collins UK.

The last two months have been very busy. There was great excitement in the first few weeks when the book was reviewed very positively in the UK Telegraph newspaper, The Irish Independent, The Lancashire Evening Post and The Examiner. I was also pleased to be interviewed on TV3′s AM morning television program, the Ryan Tubridy show on RTE radio and on some local radio stations. All that was great.

I was delighted too, and it makes me very hopeful, to learn that The Istanbul Puzzle has sold to be translated into 8 foreign languages: Spanish (world rights), Italian, Greek, Polish, Czech, Turkish, Serbian and Slovakian. I look forward to supporting the publishers in all these territories.

My goal is to support myself and my family from my writing. It’s a big ask. Only about 5% of published authors earn over £75,000 a year, never mind the millions that people often think published authors earn. My earnings to date are very limited, given that I only got a small advance and will have to wait until everyone has paid up before getting anything from any sales. One of things that has stuck me forcefully in this process is that with the publisher’s system of only being paid twice a year for royalties you had better have a job or a rich spouse supporting you, even long after you get a publishing deal, if you want to survive.

I expect to start earning enough simply to live on about two years after getting the three book deal, that is about a year from now. That will be the point that I have two books out, and the second is being sold to foreign languages, and I start getting royalty payments from the first and second books mid year after earning out my advance.

As I was made redundant four months ago I am living on borrowed time too. So I have decided in the next three months, before I have to go back to the nine to five, that I will write a guide book to social media, called Social Media is Dynamite.

I intend to make it a practical guide to how to get the most from social media. It will feature my experiences of how social media helped me win a three book publishing contract and some of the things I have learned that enabled me to build twenty thousand followers and many great relationships on the way. I also plan to offer social media consultancy. If any one needs help with social media let me know.

UK sales are good, The Istanbul Puzzle is selling in the tens of thousands, and it is holding up well on the Kindle charts. If you liked it please tell your friends and review it on Amazon whatever you thought of it or even just like it. I am working on the next installment, The Jerusalem Puzzle, right now. I am on the ending at the moment. It will be a multi part ending, which I hope will pull together some of the loose threads left dangling from the first book.

I will keep you posted on progress occasionally (monthly most likely) and I look forward to your comments, bad or good, in the meantime.

Here is a picture I took a few weeks ago when I was on a research trip in Jerusalem:

A monk collecting candles

The Accessible Author – What now for fiction?

One of the things that has changed, in this new socially-enabled world we live in, is the accessibility of authors.

This is not just about me. Writers such as Chuck Palahniuk (The Fight Club), Paul Coelho (The Alchemist) and Margaret Atwood (The Handmaids Tale) are all Tweeting. These are among the most popular authors in the world. There are lots more at it too. Here is a list of 100 mainly US authors for starters http://mashable.com/2009/05/08/twitter-authors/

What I’m interested in is, what this means for authors.

There has been a tendency for authors to be unavailable in the past.

When I grew up the idea of contacting an author was something you might do, but only on the rarest of occasions. You expected to be rebuffed. Many authors didn’t even give interviews, never mind tell you the quotes they like from a master in their genre.

Part of this was presumably due to the cost involved in responding to letters. Authors also adopted a mantle of inaccessibility. Whether it was a natural inclination to shut themselves away, a desire to appear superior, or a perceived need to maintain a cloak of mystery is hard to say. Each of these probably had a role to play.

But all that is in the past now. If you don’t play the social media game, especially as a new author, you risk becoming lost in the flood of hundreds of thousands of new novels and non fiction books being published every year.

So what does this mean for the author, both now and in the future? For now it will require a change of mindset. If you want to despise the internet go ahead. When paper was introduced in the middle ages, making volume production of books possible due to paper’s lower cost, the vellum and parchment lovers despised the new medium and denigrated its ability to expand the reach of authors. Those who despise the internet now, an increasingly social medium, have a similar mindset. This post is addressed to the rest of us.

The Seven Golden Rules of Twitter (being open about your real interests, not where you are, engaging with people, following people, adding your opinion to RTs and posts, being positive, teasing, providing insights) force a writer to come out of their shell. It’s great therapy for the isolated. And a support tool to make us all smile. I certainly have felt supported and have had many enjoyable moments reading the comments of my online friends.

But does all this have a greater significance for writers? Will it affect how we write and what we write about?

I believe that the Internet, our easy accessibility to people and facts, will fundamentally change the stories writers tell.

Being able to contact people, to get their views, is very useful, Being able to find out information without having the luxury of free time to visit great libraries, combined with an easier access to people, will change the stories written in the next 50 years.

Since before James Joyce literary writers have focused on the individual, his or her feelings, internal doubts, interpretations of the world they encounter in any given day. Only a few had experience of the wider world. To write about how a waitress serves you coffee, what the turn of her head might mean, as Raymond Carver does so well, became the ultimate goal for many literary and stream-of-consciousness writers.

I believe that internally focused literary age is coming to an end. Sure, there will be great writers who continue to do that well, but much modern literature is likely to open up to what the world is really about, savage murders in New Orleans, the secrets of Istanbul, the reality of romance in a modern London. Such stories are less cerebral, more tactile, more grounded. The internet and social media is likely to drive this popular literary revolution even further.

If you want to write about the reality of the world, real people, hard facts, your goal is now achievable. It’s time to write 21st century fiction. Don’t let the Ivory-Tower-Literary-Luddites fool you. They are less relevant than ever and will soon be about as popular as early twentieth century experimental poets are now.

Don’t you agree?

The Istanbul Puzzle Book Launch Live on your Screen!

January 18, 2012 at 6:30 PM GMT – 1:30 PM in New York on https://twitter.com/lpobryan

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This is it! Thank you all for following me over the last year or two. Finally The Istanbul Puzzle is being launched and you are invited!

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As well as the physical launch there will be a live broadcast from a major book shop in Dublin, Ireland.

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The Istanbul Puzzle is a new thriller from Harper Collins. You can watch the event, as if you are there, by clicking the link that will appear on the @lpobryan Twitter feed or https://twitter.com/lpobryan at 13:30 New York time (18:30 GMT).

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I hope you enjoy it. There will be interviews with other writers, a short speech at 19:00GMT and a clue to the riddle at the core of The Istanbul Puzzle if you attend. And there’s a prize if you solve that!

The 7 Most Useful Books on How to Write Fiction – for those who didn’t get it yet!

These are the books on writing that excited me most when I read them. The ones I felt were going to be most useful to me. The Oxford dictionary defines useful as, “which can be used to advantage; helpful & beneficial.”

Here is the list:

1. Solutions for Writers by Sol Stein. First published in 2005 this is the essential guidebook on how to write for our times. Broken up into sections and covering both fiction and non fiction it contains a mother lode of practical advice on issues from the writer’s job, to the Keys to Swift Characterisation, to adding Resonance.

What grabbed me about this book though was the focus on practical advice. Almost every page of my copy has a section underlined and a corner turned. This is the book I turn to again and again. If you can only afford one book on writing make it this one.

2. Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, by Donald Maas. First published in 2004 this is the workshop book for Mr Maas’s famous Writing the Breakout Novel book and training modules. Its three sections cover a wide range of topics under the section headings Character Development, Plot Development and General Story Techniques.

I went for the workbook version because I like to fool myself that I’m focused on the practical. The exercises at the end of each chapter made real sense to me too. They made me think about how to apply the excellent writing observations Donald describes so well. My copy of this book is heavily underlined and there are notes sticking out of it. I also return to Donald’s book at critical points in the development of a manuscript. This workbook should definitely be in your library, especially if commercial success is something you aspire to. If you want to write and then starve, you definitely won’t need it.

3. Conflict, Action & Suspense, by William Noble. First published in 1994 this book provides step by step guidance on setting the stage, creating and building suspense and bringing it all to a gripping conclusion.

My copy is poodle eared. For me suspense is one of the most important aspects of any novel. It’s why I keep reading. It’s what keeps me turning those pages. It’s what Michael Connelly does to make me want to buy every book he writes. What Harlan Coben does to make every book he writes go to the top of the bestseller lists. If you want to write suspense well, this is the book for you.

4. A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman. First published in 1991 Diane’s book is a grand tour of the realm of the senses. In it she describes the evolution of the kiss, the sadistic cuisine of eighteenth century England, the chemistry of pain and a lot more.

Structured into chapters for each sense, including synthesia (yes, it’s the combining of constituent elements into a single or unified entity), this unusual and thought provoking book is a treasure filled garden for those who are interested in helping readers see what they see and feel what a character feels.

5. The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman. Subtitled, A writer’s guide to staying out of the rejection pile, Noah’s book covers a lot more than just five pages.

Sensible advice about creating an opening hook, the use of phony adjectives and absolutely incredible adverbs is mixed with sage advice on how not to use metaphors, like stale confetti, and how not to turn melodramatic. The life and death of a writer are contained in these pages. For anyone who wants to avoid having their work head straight for the great landfill in the sky this is an excellent book.

6. Bullies, Bastards & Bitches, by Jessica Page Morrell. First published in 2008 Jessica’s book is dedicated to those who want to get to know a character’s sinister side.

For me, there is something endlessly fascinating about the dark side. You could ask my psychiatrist what that means, if I had a psychiatrist. But actually it’s simple. Great stories need great conflict. And great conflict often comes from situations where some of the characters insist on being bullies or bastards or bitches. If you want to understand the differences between unlikable protagonists, anti-heroes, dark heroes and bad boys read Jessica’s wonderful book. It may open up a whole new dimension for you.

7. The 3rd Act, by Drew Yanno. Drew’s book helped me understand how to build a good ending. It’s mainly aimed at script writers and it features lots of references to many of the best movies of all time. But I don’t think that makes it any less relevant to fiction writers.

There are so few books about how to construct a good ending this one deserves a place on your shelf not only for that reason, but also because it makes planning the build up, the final battle and the denoument so much more pleasurable when you understand how the masters do it. The check list at the end of the book is worth the price of admission alone.

I don’t suggest slavishly following the rules in any of these books, but to know the rules is useful, particularly if you’d like to bend them, and then break them, with your fist in the air and your hair flying out behind you. I hope you enjoyed the list.

My Summer Read & An interview with Glenn Meade

Glenn Meade is one of the most successful Irish authors of this generation. His novels include the international bestsellers The Sands of Sakarra, Snow Wolf and his latest compelling blockbuster The Second Messiah.

Earlier this year I asked Glenn some questions about his writing. Here are his answers:

1. Glenn, when did you become interested in writing, what drove you to write your first book?

At age four, as I hid under the dining room table in my grandmother’s home in Cabra, I discovered I was in the company of an escaped prisoner from Mountjoy jail (this isn’t fiction, it’s true).

It was Stephen’s Day and he’d absconded while out on Christmas parole–he was a friend of my uncle, who suggested he hide in the house–and the Guards were out searching for the escapee along Cabra’s Mulroy Road.

He told me to keep quiet and read my Dandy Annual. He gave me sixpence.

That’s the first time I realized I could make money from hardbacks, and it’s driven me ever since…

2. How and when did you get your first break, your agent or your publisher, and what was that like?

I wrote a number of stage plays, without much success. I’d had great fun in the process–theatre was lots of laughs but often impoverishment. I had always wanted to write a novel so I sat down and set myself a work schedule of writing six days a week until the novel was done.

It took me longer than I thought–18 months–and I wrote in in longhand, over 500 pages, which meant eventually having to transcribe in onto a computer. It was damned hard work–I still remember the pain of writing and re-writing, and the exhaustion of trying to write and keep a full time job that often involved 50/60 hours a week.

3. What do you think the secret ingredient of your books is? What is that makes them sell?

That’s always a hard one. I’m not sure there is a secret ingredient–there are many ingredients that go into a successful novel but I think above all it’s the emotion the tale imparts and the interest the reader has in your characters. Memorable characters make memorable novels.

Characters, plot, emotion. Those are the three main ingredients. What you do with them as a writer sets you apart.

4. Which of your own books are you most pleased with in terms of writing craft and what makes you feel that way?

Ressurection Day, was the most complex and involved, and required acres of research material. I look back on it as a big accomplishment. It garnered great reviews and media attention but didn’t sell as well as my other books.

Web of Deceit was the most fun to write.

Snow Wolf, Sands of Sakkara, and The Second Messiah all gave me pleasure, too–once they were completed.

5:   The Devil’s Disciple shifted your territory with its theme of serial killers and having a female central character. What aspects of writing the Devil’s Disciple did you enjoy most?

Visiting Greensville penitentiary in Virginia–a chilling place–and getting to meet some real psychos, including the Beltway Sniper.

6: What is your daily writing routine? Are you mostly in the States now?

The writer’s life would be ideal–were it not for the writing.

I write in the mornings for 3 hours, then take a long break and write again in the late afternoon/early evening for another 2 or 3 hours.

I spend some time in the US, for research.

7:  Can you tell us about your current book?

The Second Messiah.

In the desert near Jerusalem an archaeologist is murdered after he uncovers stunning evidence in a Dead Sea scroll about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The two-thousand-year-old parchment containing enigmatic references to not one but two messiahs is stolen before it can be fully translated.

In Rome, a charismatic American priest with long-hidden secrets is elected pope, setting off widespread panic among some of the faithful who question whether he is the anti-Christ or the world’s new savior.

As the conspiracy over the scroll explodes into a political and religious standoff, two people find themselves on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of unknown assassins in their search for the truth, pursuing a trail of clues that follows history’s footsteps, from forgotten biblical villages to Rome’s gruesome underground catacombs.

Archeologist Jack Cane and Israeli police officer Lela Raul must solve the mystery of the Second Messiah and uncover the real secret behind the message of Jesus before they are permanently silenced and the scroll and its contents are forever lost to humanity.

US Publishers Weekly review:
The Second Messiah
Glenn Meade. Howard, $22.50 (464p) ISBN 978-1-4516-1184-7

The Irish-born author (Snow Wolf) teeters on the edge of genius and sacrilege with this thriller about a subject known since the time of Christ. When archeologist Jack Cane discovers ancient documents that point to the existence of another messiah, he also quickly finds out that both Israeli and Catholic authorities have reason to possess, or suppress, such documents.

Racked with the pain of personal loss, he meets up with an old friend, Lela, who is part of an Israeli police team investigating multiple crimes, including a cold case involving the possible murder of Cane’s parents–also archeologists–20 years earlier. Some who have avoided Christian fiction or only dipped in will find this departure from the mold refreshing, even while some regular readers of Christian fiction may find certain passages revolting.

Fans of Davis Bunn or Dan Brown won’t bat an eye at Meade’s unblinking look at the Vatican and the religious secrecy that fuels such novels. With a plot that screams, a controversial edge, and characters with attitude and something to prove, this has all the makings to be the next Da Vinci Code. (Aug.)

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4516-1184-7

Thanks for the interview Glenn. The Second Messiah is my choice for a Summer read.

I met Glenn at the Listowel Writers Festival a few years ago. His generosity to aspiring writers is legendary and real.

First Cover Art

Hot of the screen, just for you, our first glimpse of the cover art for The Istanbul Puzzle.

I like it. No……I love it. Seeing it printed and stuck to the cover of a large paperback book sends tingles through me.

This is really happening! The Istanbul Puzzle is coming out January 19, 2012 – paperback and ebook! Scroll down and look to the right if you want to pre-order from Amazon!