I am. I totally dig hanging out with my girl friends, and hubby and mine’s couple friends. I love going to parties. I love to throw a party. Every year hubby and I throw a huge Christmas party. (This year however it isn’t going to happen. Too many deadlines to contend with. But next year I’ll make up for it and throw the mother of all Christmas parties.). We have the perfect backyard for outdoor entertaining. We entertain quite a bit during the summer. Most Sunday dinners we have to add a table and chairs. The family knows you just have to bring yourself, but a nice bottle of wine is always welcome. And we do go through the wine.

I think one of the reasons I enjoy socializing so much is because of who I socialize with.

Last Saturday I spent the day celebrating the Christmas season with my fellow Black Diamond RWA chickies. I didn’t really want to leave, but well, Amanda has a life. Saturday night, hubby and I went to a friend’s restaurant and had dinner. I felt like Norm walking into Cheers. We knew everyone! It was a warm memorable evening.
Sunday, I spent a wonderful afternoon with the Fog City Divas at Diva Monica’s house. I really didn’t want to leave, but well, Monica does have a life.
Monday I spent with my mother-in-law and her ladies’ group at a really nice restaurant for their annual holiday gathering. They were so sweet and so supportive of my writing. Most I didn’t know, but I guess my mil likes to blab about me to them. I was so enjoying their company I didn’t want to leave. But, um the restaurant made me.
Last night was Bunko night. Another great group of gals. We drink, eat, socialize, drink, toss the dice, socialize, drink, have dessert and open some really nice gifts. The hostess last night made me leave.
This Saturday is my monthly SFA-RWA meeting. I can’t wait! I get to be with friends. Writer friends! Yippee!

My husband and children are social animals as well. My oldest daughter and her boyfriend like to cook for their friends. My youngest daughter loves to throw parties, especially backyard pool BBQ parties. My oldest son is always a gracious host (with my food and drink and backyard!). My youngest son is always at some gathering or another. I suppose the fruit doesn’t fall from the tree.

But what I have noticed with my kids is the same with hubby and I: We have a good solid group of friends. We know we’re going to have a good time.

But on the flip side, I like my solitude. No, I take that back. I crave it. I must have it. I like being in my office shut off for the world. I can disappear for days, weeks even. But when I surface, I want human interaction.

How about you? Social animal? Or not so social? Are you the hostess with the mostest or would you rather just pass?

Continuing on my HEROES theme, did anyone watch the Volume Two finale on Monday night? They made up for all their problems (none of which kept me from watching the show–I think we tend to be more critical of shows we love, but that’s a topic for another blog.) To recap last weeks commentary, I felt that there was a pacing problem with the season–too slow at the beginning then too fast after FOUR MONTHS AGO. I loved the set-up–they just took a little too long. FOUR MONTHS AGO should have been episode 3 or 4, IMO. And then to make up for the slower beginning, they went hog-wild in introducing too many threads.

I’m not going to give away any spoilers this time . . . I pegged one of the heroes dying, but the second one shocked me. Yet, it worked fabulously well, and I’m surprised I DIDN’T see it coming (okay, I actually suspected it during the last five minutes, but it was still a shocker.) And, I think I know who killed him and why, but I definitely won’t say anything other than I think the killer came from the future.

The climax was perfect. Everything in the episode–even the subplots–led to that final climax. And those I knew were heroes, true heroes, were indeed heroic.

Everything clicked. The subplots were interesting, the main subplot (with Mohinder and Sylar) set up Volume Three: Villains (yes, I’m loving THAT. Fan groups were wrong!) And the climax was not only completing this story, but setting up conflict for Volume Three. Ideal in a series.

So I was thinking about climaxes in general. In television series we tend to expect the season finale to set up the next season–but we still expect some sort of big story conclusion. In books, even in series, we expect to be emotionally satisfied with the conclusion. If the author leaves a major thread open, we’re frustrated. We don’t want to wait to find out what happens. This isn’t to say that a thread can’t be left unresolved, if it fits with the story. Sometimes, it’s the minor threads that start subsequent books. But the BIG story needs a conclusion one way or the other.

Climaxes can be unsatisfying in other ways as well. For example, they can drag on–and on–and on. Other times, they can be over so quickly you expect the dead guy to rise and have another go at the hero. Is that it? you might think.

I’ve been thinking of climaxes because of an editorial comment I got about TEMPTING EVIL. I’m getting the copyedits today, and my editor sent me some notes of things to address in the copyedits. Mostly minor things. But at the ending she asked that I expand a bit on the climax, she felt that it was over too quickly. Then I get a comment from my other editor who loved the ending and called it wonderfully “succinct.”

Hmm. Now what do I do? So I told my editor that I would look at the scene critically and figure out why she felt it was too fast. I think I know. I didn’t have a lot of set-up to the actual final confrontation. I mean, the whole book was set-up, but the actual scene did come quickly. I, personally, think the resolution is to show what’s going on AROUND the actual climax and how they all come together, as opposed to drawing out the actual climax. But I’ll know more when I get to that part.

The climax is so important to the story. We’ve all been disappointed when a GREAT book was a dud at the end, where the climax didn’t hold up to the promise of the story.

What are some of your pet peeves about story climaxes?

No, this post isn’t about Rhonda Byrne’s book, which, in my opinion, provided no huge revelation. The ‘law of attraction’ was taught to me by my grandmother many years ago. Only she called it common sense and relayed it to me this way: “When you spit in de air, you can’t ever move out de way fas’ enough so it don’t wind up back in you face.” Translation—whatever you put out in this world (words, actions, thoughts) you get back. Being a kid, I had to test her theory of course, and spent many an afternoon attempting to dodge airborne spittle. She was right. It finds you every time.

That spit theory remains with me to this day, and I’ve found it to be applicable in every aspect of life, even when marketing books. Here’s what I mean….

When it comes to marketing books, no matter what budget you have to work with, the key is to make even the smallest marketing effort really count. That said, we’re still left with the question: How do you know what works and what doesn’t? How do you qualify and quantify your marketing efforts.

That question is not an easy one to answer, unless you’ve managed to hit on something that causes a direct (and drastic) rise in sales, and that increase can only be attributed to one particular effort. For example, one of the most effective “Right now!” marketing tools I’ve used having a book trailer created for A House Divided, then distributing that trailer to certain movie theaters in a test market. Within a week of the trailer’s release, my sales in that test area quadrupled. Only then could I say, “Hey, this really works!”

So if it works, why don’t I do the same thing for all of my books and tackle every major city? Because it’s friggin’ expensive. I know it works, but it works in short bursts. I wanted longevity, so I had to figure out what would cause my readership base to grow without breaking me financially.

The answer was in the spit theory. For me, what has always worked best, aside from that one movie trailer blip, is meeting booksellers and buyers face to face. I make sure to get to know the person as a person, not just as a bookseller. Are they married? If so, what’s their spouse’s name? Do they have children? If so, what ages, gender, and what are they into? What does this person like to read and why? What’s their biggest goal in life? What do they want to be doing in 5 years, 10? If they could retire tomorrow and have plenty of money to get by, where would they go? What would they do? And why?

To make meeting people count, it only makes sense, to me, to really get to know the person. We’re inundated every day with advertising and folks begging us to buy one widget or another. Why would I want to be just another blabber mouth trying to sell something? How do I make myself different to this buyer? I make myself different by caring about, TRULY caring about what’s important to them. Once you do that, the book buying/selling is almost a side product because you’re accomplishing something far, far bigger. You’re giving another human being something we all crave…..an ear. Everyone, in every walk of life, longs to be heard.

Is all that effort time consuming? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Absolutely. If I put out the effort to make that person important, whose name do you think they’re going to remember at buying time? Whose books are they going to hesitate to strip and ship when it needs to be moved from a particular shelf? Whose books do you think they’re going to consider putting near the register or in the customer service area even though the publisher didn’t pay for that space?

Whether I meet a book reader/buyer face to face or mail out bookmarks, mugs, ink pens, and/or thank you notes, I make certain to remember that I’m touching a PERSON in some small way. And remembering that perpetuates the spit theory. If you treat marketing as an act of giving instead of selling, that giving will ALWAYS find its way back to you.

So share a little…when was the last time you gave a spit? What did you do that came back to you?

There is a reviewer of mystery and suspense fiction that is becoming rather well-known, and not for a good reason. This “reviewer,” and I use the term loosely, has written over 125 reviews on Amazon. Darian Ray, “Mystery Author,” is the reviewer. Of course, when one Googles Darian Ray, one does not find a published mystery author. In fact, there is very little information at all to be found about Darian Ray.

Now, everyone knows that anyone can put up an Amazon review, and bad reviews come with the job description. Not everyone is going to like every book. One man’s treasure is another man’s trash, and all that. But this is a case of someone who is PURPOSEFULLY and intentionally setting out to write bad reviews.

One only has to look at the reviews by Mr./Ms. Ray to see that. Now I am going to put in a disclaimer here, right up front, and reiterate it at the end. This is NOT sour grapes. I have never been reviewed by Ray, and I would like the Amazon people to note this blog. Should one of my books get TRASHED by Ray after this date, December 4, 2007, well, you will have firm evidence that this person is not a legitimate reviewer, and is, in fact, someone with a rather large and hefty ax to grind against the mystery and suspense community of writers.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog. For example, here is one of Ray’s reviews:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad writing, July 31, 2007
By Darian Ray “mystery author” (United States) – See all my reviews
I started this book, read about 20 pages and give up. First of all, I didn’t believe these people for a second! Not an instant. Very poor characterization. BUT the worst thing was the writing. I cannot BELIEVE the author was a former newspaperman! The test is rife with adverbs – very lazy writing. No thanks, I’ll read a book by a good writer.

Okay, not nice, but everyone is entitled to their opinion, right? Here’s another one.

1.0 out of 5 stars BORING, November 6, 2007
I plodded along and got half way though this book and just quit. NOTHING happens! How this can be labeled a thriller is beyond me – talk, talk, blah, blah and mor talk. NOTHING HAPPENS! I don’t even know how it got published, let alone got so many glowing reviews. NOTHING HAPPENS! I gave up because I couldn’t stay awake while reaing it – oh, did I tell you? NOTHING HAPPENS – it’ BORING!

Sense a trend?

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, October 15, 2007
I’m sorry but I couldn’t read this boring book. I stopped in the middle, read the ending to make sure I was correct in my assessment – I was. Like another reviewer, I figured out VERY easily what was happening. It’s a short book but I still couldn’t finish it – too much inner dialogue and a very slow pace. Too bad – it could have been a good book.

Or this:

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Overly long and boring, September 27, 2007
I don’t know what it is with Mira books but they are all WWWAAAYYYY TTTTOOOOOO LLONNGGG! Do they pay by the word? Maybe it’s because there were mulitple authors but this dog of a book just dragged and dragged and…I knew from the beginning who the stalker was – it was so obvious the authors might as well have put a red flag there. I scimmed most of the book to find out if I was right – I was. This book goes into the trash – not even worth recycling.

I’ll spare you from the rest, but they are all pretty much the same. You can check them out yourself. I think in the entire mess there were TWO books this person liked, and if I was that writer, I’d be wishing I didn’t have that kind of fan.

So, one has to ask, why do this? Why purposely set about destroying and demeaning an author’s work?

Well, there are a few things to consider here. One is that anyone can review a book on Amazon, and as long as you register, you can “agenda” your little heart out and probably nothing will ever be said. Two, Darian Ray writes terrible short reviews, filled with typos, misspelled words and unwieldy and clunky language. Pot? Kettle? Black? Three, nobody is taking this person seriously. How can they? With more than 120 negative reviews? Why are you even READING this genre?

All thing considered, we know that no one should let one of these reviews bother them, nor should they stay up nights taking Ray’s “criticism” seriously. But it still stings.

Being the curious sort that I am, I see a mystery here. Who is Darian Ray? A sad, lonely little man, who sits hunched over a computer and chuckles as he disses the work of authors who got the contract he can never attain? A group of literary writers with great disdain for genre fiction, setting out to sabotage the work of genre authors? Harriet Klausner’s evil twin?

Does Ray desire to become the anti-HK? (Harriet Klausner, who has written over 15,000 reviews.) If so, Ray has a ways to go.

All in all, I find it interesting, but promise it won’t keep me up at night. How about you? What’s your take on Darian Ray? Ideas about who he/she/they might be?

And further, do you pay attention to Amazon reviews when you are buying books? Do you BUY books at Amazon? Am I writing too many blogs about Amazon (don’t answer that)?

REITERATING: Darian Ray has never reviewed one of my books, as of this date, Tuesday, December 4, 2007.

I’m sure you’ve all heard the story: A British teacher in Sudan was charged with offending religion for allowing the school children to name a teddy bear “Mohammad.”

In Sudan, the offense is punishable by 40 lashes, a jail term of up to a year or a fine.

Want to guess the sex of the teacher?

Female. A woman.

Do you think this would have happened to a male teacher? I doubt it.

Now after much international outrage, the teacher was convicted of insulting religion and the penalty is 15 days in jail. She has said she is being treated well.

I don’t know if that’s true or the teacher was afraid to say otherwise. I would be if I were her. There are multiple death threats against her and concern about getting her safely out of the country and back to Britain once she has served her sentence.

Can this really be about a teddy bear’s name? Or is it something else, something more disturbing? Like maybe the clerics in Sudan don’t want a woman teaching their children?

Look at history; anytime you want to control a county in some form of dictatorship, two things are done: Limit access to information and control the women.

To control women they must incite tremendous fear in them. Nothing like a good old fashion whipping to get the job done. Just the thought of being whipped is enough to scare most people into compliance.

An even more sickening example is the gang rape victim in Saudi Arabia that was sentenced to 90 lashes because she got into a car with an unrelated male (and was subsequently gang raped). When her lawyer appealed the case, her sentence was increased to 200 lashes. In this article, the Saudi Justice Ministry explains that the reason the rape victim is being punished is that “new evidence came to light” although the new evidence wasn’t mentioned that I could see. So basically, seven men gang raped her, but new evidence AGAISNT HER came to light. And, he goes on to defend, they also increased the rapists’ sentences too; from two to three years in prison, to two to nine years. (Apparently the rapists won’t be whipped).

It’s complete bullhocky. They are making a clear example of this woman to keep all women in line. The implication is that since she got into a car with a male not related to her, she not only clearly deserved the rape, but a brutal whipping too.

As depressing as all this is, at least the voices raised in protest stopped the teacher in the Sudan from a whipping for naming the teddy bear Mohammad. I think blogs played a part in that by spreading the word and keeping the plight of the teacher in the news. I hope the same will happen for the gang rape victim in Saudi Arabia.

Frankly, I think the men who handed down this sentence are the ones who should be whipped. All of us women should raise our voices loudly to protect a woman who is being victimized over and over. We’re all about the power of words, right? Let’s flex that power to send our own message to the thugs of this world: We will not stand silently by while you try to subjugate women in such an atrocious, vicious, inhuman manner.

What do you all think?