Sex & The City ... Twitter style

I’ve never hidden the fact that I LOVE TWITTER.  I love it.  In 140 characters, usually less, I have made some of the most amazing friends.  I have found a community of writers that love to share their thoughts & their opinions.  They have the same snarky wit as I do and these people genuinely care about each other’s lives outside of the writing realm.
A couple of days ago my friend Hope needed a blog post to make her laugh. 
NO pressure, right?
I tried writing about my adventures in the Royal Wedding.
Talked about wearing my barrette Tiara to a political dinner for my husband’s city commission.
The minis ALWAYS provide enough antics for a funny blog post …
BUT...
None it felt right.
Last night, as I was going through Wills n Kate Royal wedding withdrawal, I flipped across Sex and the City, the first movie.  Of course, every writer sees themselves in the Carrie roll; published books stacking up on a bookshelf, Big making an ass of himself, and then there was the part where Carrie was stood up at the altar. It made me sit up and, yes, I cried.   Not because she was left at the altar, but because she had three friends that rallied around her. They got rid of the guests, went on the honeymoon, and moved Carrie back into her old, sold apartment while Carrie was catatonic. 
I have friends like these.
I have friends in the real world like those women and I have friends in the Twitter world like these women.
*cue the funny girls*
Run-down of my Sex and the City Twitter cast.

Samantha  = Beth.  Good lord this woman can turn your cheeks to a blush in no time.  She’ll talk hand jobs right next to blowing bubbles with the kiddies.  Beth is a bulldozer marketer that is constantly working to better the people around her, encourage them to push through the hard times (no pun there) and genuinely sees that her success is not only in the publishing of her books, but in the publishing and nurturing of others.  She’s no nonsense and, yes, she’s working her way on to the naughty list one lump of coal at a time.

Charlotte = Hope. Two words, hooohaaa and hand-mirror.  Don’t know what I’m talking about??? It’s a Sex and the City episode you must Netflix, Hulu or you tube because that episode IS my darling friend, Hope.  I say erotica: she blushes. I say stiff upper lip: she blushes. I say bow-chica-wow-wow … yep, she blushes.  I would have it no other way!  This woman loves her family. She loves her children and she loves her friends.  If there were a Big in our world she would stomp a foot and say, “I rue the day you were born.”  Of course, she’d probably pee her pants instead of going into labor.  She’s a self-proclaimed socially awkward person—which, on a side note, is a load of horse doodie— carving out pieces of time to write a novel that I KNOW will make you gasp & possibly blush.  You’re perfect Hope. Embrace the awkward and own it.

Miranda – Trisha. Work , work, work, work, work.  I promise you this woman has the Seven Dwarfs theme song running loops in her head. Positive and perky she’s always figuring out ways to write and promote her book and the works of others. She runs a book blog and she’s always there to run a fresh set of eyes over your WIP.  All of this and she’s an amazing mother to a teen age boy. *gasp* yes, a teenager and a boy with no nanny!?!

My twitter world is growing and growing. I’ve met amazing book bloggers like Brandi Kosiner,  Julie B. (she’s like Cher & Madonna, first name only.) , Andye & Amy and Jenn, just to name a few! So many wonderful people that I’ve had the privilege of meeting all in 140 characters or less.

MWAH, Tweeple.  And a special MWAH, Hope.

A Tale of the Tell

Poker players say that everyone has a tell; something or some movement that they instinctively do when confronted with a good a hand, a bad hand, or a bluff. Poker players don sunglasses, hats, tape their hands to their sides, I even saw an ad for a poker helmet.  It looked like a biker's crash helmet that guaranteed to hide all your tells. There’s a website, www.Poker Tells.com, that helps new poker players learn how to spot these behaviors. The website defines a poker tell as:


“Any behavioral pattern that a player exhibits which can tip you off to what they hold.”

Poker players go out of their way to make sure these uncontrollable slips in truth don't come through. 

Why?

Because if you saw a poker player scratch his nose every time he had an unbeatable hand you'd fold.
If you saw that same poker player cluck his tongue when he was bluffing you'd call the bluff.

People are the same way.

When I was a little girl my mom always knew when something was bothering me. I would twirl strands of my hair around my finger. Over and over and over again these strands of hair would flip around my index finger until I got whatever was bothering me figured out in my head or my momma would ask me, “what’s bothering you?”
My husband sucks in his lower lip and his top lip goes paper white when he’s angry.
One of my brothers says “Not a problem.” When he’s doesn’t know the answer. He also ends a lie with the phrase, “I believe.”
My oldest son folds his hands in his lap and rubs his thumb when he is disappointed or his feelings have been hurt.
My middle son scrunches up his eyebrows when he feels left out.
My youngest son cocks his head and grins a thirty-two-tooth grin when he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t.
These are all tells and in my current Work In Progress I use a handful of these tells to breathe three dimensionality into my characters. The characters become believable to the reader and even better they become signs to my reader when a character is lying, hurt or done something they shouldn’t. Tells let you experience the character without being told what they are feeling or what they are hiding.

So I ask you:

What tells are you using in your Work In Progress?
Are tells part of your character worksheet?

If you aren’t using tells look around; start observing those closest to you and make a list of their tells.
Your characters will thank you.
Your editors/agents/critique partners will thank you.
Your reader will thank you!
Trust me.
A male can only run a frustrated hand through his hair so many times. And there’s a physical limit to how many times a female can bite down on her lip without causing a deformity.

Now go study your tells.

The Cream Always Rises!

What the heck does that mean?

If milk is left by itself, it homogenizes. While getting its homogenization on, the lighter fatty portions rise to the top. Need a visual? Oil and water. The fatty oil sits on top of the heavier water. Once the homog party is done the fatty portions are skimmed off the top and made into … yep, cream!
Yummy cream!

So, what’s that gotta do with books?

Traditional Publishing vs. Indie publishing.

Shh, put the pickets down. Take of the team shirts and just listen…

I’m not taking a side.
And I’m not saying one is the water and one is the oil… because they’re both amazing platforms and, yes, the cream always rises to the top.

The cream is the author.

You know there just is no way to write an Indie publishing piece without mentioning Amanda Hocking. Many say she’s a flash in the pan. Many say she’s the exception to Indie publishing. I don’t think so and  --if you believe the New York Times-- St. Martins Press bet at least 2 million dollars and a 4 book deal that she isn’t.
We can argue price point, and quality and “flooding the market” but in the end, Ms. Hocking had to deliver a damn good story.
Does that take away from traditional publishing?

NO!

I think all of us at one point in time picked up a book and ten pages, ten minutes or ten chapters into it, closed the book looked at it and said, “What the hell was the publishing house thinking!”
To that reader, not the cream.
To another, maybe the cream of all cream.

The Cream Skimmer = The E-reader.

I love e-readers because I get the sample pages! If you don’t have me in those first sample pages then, sorry, I’m not buying the book. I don’t care if you’re Traditional, Indie or meat on a stick! I’m not buying ya.

All of that to say: Write the best book you can. Then Revise, Edit, Polish, Revise, Edit, Polish and submit.

Submit to the agents.
Submit to the editors.
Submit to the Betas.
Submit to the Indie’s.
Submit to the process.

But ultimately the person who decides whose book is the cream are the readers. And when they speak, trust me, the whole world listens … and then picks out a team t-shirt with a hot dude on it. But, that’s another post.