jdlwhitehead

Search Engine Fun

One of the ways that technology has changed the writing game–writers used to have to spend time in libraries paging through volumes of books, encyclopedias, and magazines to find the particular facts needed to bring verisimilitude to their work. Having just the right details could bring a story to life.

(Or you could, you know, just make everything up. That’s why they called it fiction.)

But now we have a wealth of information at our fingertips–the World Wide Web (except for the parts corrupted with propaganda, AI, and misinformation. But that’s a rant for another day.)

So writers love to trade stories on the weirdest things they’ve ever looked up on a search engine and to joke about how some of those searches, especially from the crime writers, likely land us on various and sundry watch lists at law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world.

Which brings me to what I know has been my oddest search engine request that I’ve ever done. This past week, I typed into the search bar the words “Klan rallies” with much trepidation. What would I actually find?

I was doing research for a scene in my work-in-progress, set in 1970’s east Tennessee. It was after much of the worst of the 1960’s terror of the Klan was broken, but pockets of Kluckers were still active in some communities. So I imagined my protagonists stumbling into a rally by accident.

Almost immediately I found a press account of an initiation in 2004 (yikes) in Tennessee documented in a local newspaper article indexed by the Southern Poverty and Law Center. I scanned it and figured out exactly how the scene would go down.

I tell this story to show how sometimes it takes staring into the abyss for us humans to understand how to bring justice and fairness to our worlds. I took information about a dark spot in America’s history and transmuted it into a scene that says something about how ordinary people cope in the face of this kind of evil. And sometimes that means us writers must do things that make us uncomfortable for our art.

Including looking up weird topics on the internet.

Happy writing!

Beta Readers Round One

So I heard back from several beta readers on Looking for Home. The verdicts were interesting.

Most of them agreed that minor characters in particular definitely needed more development. I had already realized this fact myself, so hearing it from readers was affirming–I wasn’t just being overly critical of myself. So now I am working at deepening roles of many of my side characters so that they get at least a bit of a semblance of a story arc.

As far as plot, the readers were almost unanimous that the pacing and the surprises were on point. One reader said it started off entirely too slowly for him. So I plan to go over that part carefully and see if there are parts I can cut, rearrange, what have you in order to not spend so much time setting the scene.

Almost everyone agreed that the story was easy to follow. Events made sense in the context of the story and were consistent for how I had set the world. One reader, however, was really unable to read past the heart of the story in the first third of the book. She told me she didn’t read stories that had that kind of situation as a plot element. She gave me her feedback on what she had read, and it was very insightful and useful. I apologized to her for the book being upsetting–and that I appreciated her candor and courage.

So now I have all kinds of ideas running around in my head for improvements. We will see where this goes. Next deadline is mid-to-end of May so I can turn it over to an editor friend of mine. Wish me well!

Storyboarding Fiction

I went to the Southern Literary Festival in Blue Mountain, Mississippi at Blue Mountain Christian University this weekend. What I did was give a talk on how I constructed most of the stories in Hurricane Baby. It was often not as neat a process as this pattern makes it seem, but I did apply it to most of the new stories I wrote for this version of the book. I used the story “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” to illustrate the moving parts of the story.

SET THE SCENE: Answer the questions who, what, where, how, and why your characters are in whatever situation they find themselves in at the start. Always include action to bring the reader in. The reader sees Tommy wake up the morning after Hurricane Katrina, gets a sense of what he’s been through and where his head is at, and learns a bit about the character as well.

RISING ACTION: Get the characters moving. Show the reader what is happening in the world of the book. This piece of the story needs to set the events in the story in motion. Tommy Hebert gets a text message asking for people to come help a family in Mandeville. So he goes out on his boat and meets other men, his best friend Mark, and Mandeville cops who take them to the destruction.

MEAT OF THE STORY: You relay the most important part of the story here. This event should have the potential to cause a change in the characters who experience it. This is where the action is: this is where the heat is. In this story, Tommy and the other volunteers work to dig out Amy Thompson and her baby, Avery Thompson, out of the destroyed house. Tommy and a fireman are able to rescue the baby and get him to the hospital to be helped. But Amy Thompson has a heavy beam on her legs, crushing them–and Tommy finds out later that she didn’t make it.

CLIMAX: For me, the climax is not when there’s a big reveal of information to the characters and the reader. It comes when it’s revealed how the characters react to the big event/the meat of the story. In this story, Tommy is sitting in his house waiting on Mark, and a thirst for something to drown out Amy Thompson’s screams comes on him–and he succumbs to it.

DENOUMENT: The denoument is the fallout of the characters’ reaction to the climax. Tommy drinks three beers before Mark can get to him and starts a fourth as he comes in. They talk and decide Tommy’s in no shape to do the cleanup they had planned–neither physically nor emotionally. Mark leaves, and the reader is left with Tommy continuing to drink and the question of what happens next.

So this process is just one way to organize a story, but it’s been a very effective way for me to think about how to make all the events in a story/book fit together and flow naturally in a cause-and-effect manner.

No more book events in April as it’s usually a busy one for family in our house. Keep writing!

Highs and Lows

Let’s talk about the low point first.

I suspected as much, but I got the official notification on who won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction Award, and it wasn’t me. Which was a bummer. It’s one thing to not win an award because you wouldn’t dream something like that anyway. But to be nominated unexpectedly and then not win feels a little different.

But no matter. I called out the winner on Facebook and congratulated him and encouraged everyone to buy his book. It costs nothing to be gracious even when disappointed.

But one high–the nationwide Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference and Bookfair was in Los Angeles, California this past week, and Hurricane Baby: Stories was there! My publisher, Madville Publishing, had a booth there and they took my book with them! I saw a photo of it because my MFA program was also there, and they hunted Madville up and posted my book on their Facebook page. So nice to see my book in such an exotic locale.

And another high point–this Friday, I went to my hometown high school where I graduated from in 1988 and spoke to the junior and senior classes about having a vision for their life, and setting goals, and executing plans to achieve those goals. I was told before the event that this was a pretty unmotivated bunch of students.

But I didn’t approach them that way. I told them I was just like them back ages ago when I’d been a high school senior, but that I had a vision of what I wanted my life to look like and I worked until I achieved it. It seemed to perk them up somewhat. They asked me to read some of the book, and when someone asked where they could find it, I handed out my bookmarks and told them how to order. I hope I inspired someone at least a little bit.

So what’s ahead? I plan to start working back on Looking for Home on April 1–hopefully my beta readers’ feedback will come in and I can start incorporating what they have to say. And Friday I am conducting a breakout session at the Southern Literary Festival in Blue Mountain, Mississippi at Blue Mountain Christian University. I’m going to talk about how I constructed the stories in Hurricane Baby by a pattern, then I’m going to give them a silly writing prompt I hope they can have fun with.

Happy reading and writing this week!

What an Interesting Development

I track several things on the Amazon page for Hurricane Baby–sales rank, number of reviews, some sales numbers. Until recently, I didn’t think much about price.

I would see the price occasionally dip to $18, $17.99, $16.50–small changes from the cover price of $20.95, but nothing to really wonder about–until after the first of this year.

Then I noticed the price dropped to $8.50 for the paperback version. (The Kindle version is $9.99.) I thought that was odd but assumed it would be short-lived. Next thing I knew, the price was $8.48. Then $8.12.

I really started to pay attention then. It kept dropping until it reached $7.99 a few weeks ago.

I wrote my publisher asking if she had any insight as to why this had happened, Her answer was “not a clue”.

Hm.

So I turned to Google for answers. I input “Why did Amazon discount my book”. I got various websites proffering reasons that largely fell into three camps:

A) The book is selling really, really well and they discount it to sell more, or

B) It’s a completely algorithmic decision, or

C) it may be a case of setting your book up as a “loss leader”, hoping that a low price will cause shoppers to buy even more products than just the one book.

Another possible reason is Amazon may have ordered too many, and they want them out of their warehouse. That doesn’t sound likely since my book is print-on-demand–the book is assembled in response to the number of orders.

I was glad to find out it wasn’t necessarily a case of Amazon being ready to remainder the book and selling copies at fire-sale prices to get rid of them, which had been my first thought.

So we will see what happens in the future for my Hurricane Baby, the little book who could. Hope everyone has a good week!

PS 3/24/2025–I posted this last night, and then I looked at Amazon and found that the book has gone back up to regular price! That’s an interesting coincidence!

New Bookstore Visit!

Bob and I went to peruse the offerings at the Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival in Fairhope, Alabama this past weekend. We saw many, many unique arts pieces and gift items and couldn’t resist buying a few of them to give as gifts or keep for ourselves.

Our most unusual finds this time were acoustic gramophone speakers made out of various boxes–a slot holds your phone and whatever song you are streaming spills out of a gramophone bell. They’re just amazing-looking and -sounding! So we got his-and-hers–Bob’s is made out of a repurposed The Empire Strikes Back lunchbox, and mine is made from a decorative replica of my original Peanuts lunchbox! Very gratifying find.

Then after looking at all the crafts and artwork and jewelry, we made our way to the venerable Page and Palette Bookstore, now in its fourth generation of ownership in the same family since 1962. The building also boasts a coffeeshop (Latte Da), a Yoga Studio (Plot Twist Yoga), and a bar (The Book Cellar).

We went in and looked around and then I decided to pitch Hurricane Baby: Stories to them to stock in their store. I left my bookmark and told them it was available through Ingram, and the girl said they’d probably order a few and see how they did. Which made e feel good. She brought up a signing, and I asked if I’d have to bring the books, and she said yes. So I’m not doing that.

If I’d been thinking, I should have stopped at every booth offering book-related items and pitched my book to them. I did hand out a few that I talked to, but not many. Live and learn.

Next weekend our family goes back to Natchez for a little R&R with my youngest daughter this time. So we’re going to enjoy that. The next Friday I go to my hometown, then the weekend after that is the Southern Literary Festival that I do a workshop at for undergraduate students. Wish me well!

Moving Right Along

So I have finished all the podcasts I was scheduled to interview for. One is supposed to come out this Tuesday–day after tomorrow. Another one, the podcaster said it would be out in June. I thought one other was supposed to have come out already, and the one I interviewed for last Thursday, I’m not sure when it’s coming out. I have three others I have reached out to that have not responded, but I think I’ve done enough in enough places to suit myself.

So now I move back into appearances. I go to my old high school in a couple of weeks, then the Southern Literary Festival at Blue Mountain Christian University in north Mississippi the first weekend in April. Two events in May, one in June, a Zoom appearance in July, and two events in August.

I have three other possibilities for August–they’re set but we need to nail down the exact dates. One in Starkville, another in Jackson, and another by Zoom. And I may get picked up by another book club. But that one is very iffy. And then there’s the banquet for the MIAL awards in July at Mississippi University for Women.

Y’all.

Just typing all of this out is unbelievable. I never thought I’d get to promote my work in so many different places. I had a lot of help to get here; people have been so receptive when I’ve just called them up or hit them up by email to see if I can do a program. It’s just been amazing. I don’t think I can emphasize that enough. Just amazing.

Riding the crest of the wave and seeing where the current takes me next! Happy writing!

The Many Sides of Terror

I’ve written here a few times about terror and writing and publishing. The terror of people actually reading your work, the terror of writer’s block and of never being able to write again, the fear of presenting your work–all of that is real.

Today’s terror is whether I can make lightning strike twice. I have a work-in-progress out for beta reading, and I’ll do a rewrite after that, then send it out for a deeper reading to get the opinion of other writers on my text. Then probably another rewrite.

But what about after that? I go back to the rounds of sending it off for queries. I don’t have any kind of deal with my current publisher to submit it to them first, though I probably will do that once they open for queries again. I have a publisher I met last year at a conference that’s interested in it, so I’m definitely going to send there first.

But what if they don’t like it? What if I haven’t sold enough of Hurricane Baby? What if, what, if, what if?

I’m learning to ignore the “What if?” question. It doesn’t do me any good to ruminate over that. All I can do is work to advance the book and get it in as many hands as possible. I have to write the best book I can right now and ready it for querying with as much care and concern as I can muster up.

What about writing terrorizes you? List it in the comments. Happy writing!

Networking is Your Superpower! Event

So I went to this event on Thursday and spoke to a good number of ladies about setting goals and meeting them. I was very shaky and thought maybe it was nerves–but when it continued after I got home, along with chills and sweats and aches, I went to the doctor. Diagnosis: Flu.

But it was a good event. Less turnout than they typically have, but I just threw myself into the talk and Q&A with all I had–talking about the system I set up for accomplishing my goal of writing and getting a book published. I also provided examples from my freelance career and getting my MFA.

But it boosted my own resolve to say all those words out loud and be a living testimony that yes, you can do what you set your mind to, just like my mama always told me. I talked about setting realistic goals, setting mini-goals that bring you closer to your big goal, etc. I think it was a good talk, and the ladies who came thanked me for sharing with them.

And then they gave away two copies of my book that I signed for them. That was fun. They asked me to pick two numbers–the girl who organized the event had written names down and numbered them as each person came in–and the names that corresponded with the numbers won the books.

I was going to go back to the Mississippi Philological Association this coming weekend, this time in Ole Miss, but I’m not going to risk getting anyone else sick with this flu. So that’s sad. But more opportunities are on the way anyway, so I think it’s going to be okay.

Happy writing to all!

The Numbers

I’m going to sound vague on exact numbers in this post. But I do want to talk about was and was not in my first royalty statement for 2024.

First off, my publisher believes that the wholesaler, Ingram, has not paid for any books sold in October, November, and December. By my publisher’s calculations, the figures for late August and September account for half the units shipped so far, and the other half of the units should be recorded as completed sales after the fourth quarter payments come in.

Number two, even with the wonky sales numbers, I sold enough to earn out my publishing costs–the publisher paying for editorial, design, shipping, and other fees. So that was great news that the publisher has broken even on me.

Next, the statement shows only two books being returned to the publisher. Returns come from either a consumer who returned the book for a refund or from bookstores with stock they did not sell. So for me it looks like the gamble of having bookstores order my books for events is not backfiring on me. That’s a great feeling!

And finally, the publisher has only five books on hand, which means I’m coming close to having another print run if people continue buying the book. Not printing too few but not printing too many is a delicate balance for a publisher, and I’m looking good on that front.

Now–the money for the publishing costs comes out of net sales. I barely crossed that boundary with books sold listed in my royalty statement. Then I’m entitled to a portion of the sales left over, which rendered my payout nearly invisible to the human eye–low enough that the publisher can’t cut a check for it so it will carry over into the next year.

But you know what? That’s up to God. That’s his money, and he knows best how it can be used and when he needs it. All I know is that I am a debut author whose publisher is not in the hole for having taken a chance on me. That makes me feel GOOD!