A book seller told me about a woman who came into her store and asked if she had any posters of US sunsets. The Seller said she had posters but wasn't sure about any with sunsets and wasn't sure, even if she had any that she could guarantee they were US sunsets. As they were looking, the Seller remembered a calendar that she had in inventory that had nothing but sunsets seen from various places throughout the US, and asked if that would do. The woman looked at the calendar and was ecstatic and said that the calendar was absolutely perfect.

As the Seller was ringing up the sale, she asked the Buyer why it was important to have US sunsets. The Buyer said that she was from South Africa, which led the Seller to ask if the sunsets were that much different in the southern hemisphere, to which the woman replied that there was a difference but more importantly, the calendar was a gift to a woman in South Africa who was from the US and who the Buyer knew through her work.

The Seller asked what type of work the Buyer was in and the Buyer replied that she worked in a prison and that the woman for whom she was buying the calendar was a prisoner, who had been in the prison for 14 years and during that time, because of the location of the cell in which the US woman was held, the woman had not seen a sunset in all those 14 years.

I just thought I would pass this story on.

Writing -- good writing, is tough. I don't know how many times I have heard the comment, "Everyone has a book inside them just waiting to get out." Unfortunately, while that may be true, just getting the book out does not mean that it will be well written or ever read. Getting the book out, as tough as that can be, is the easy part. Getting the book out that is well written is difficult. For those that are serious about writing, you have to get serious about writing. There are few people who can pick up a pen, pencil or laptop and just immediately begin writing well. It takes practice, practice and more practice. It means reading about writing what makes good writing. It means talking to others who have gone down the same path and hearing what they have done to make themselves better. It means working at your craft, because that is what writing is -- a craft. It is an art form of expression. And, like anything else in life, if you want to continue to get better, you have to continue to work and learn. Learning is the key. It still doesn't mean your work will be read or published, but it does mean that your odds improve.

Query letters are harder than writing a novel. It seems every writer's website and book has the exact format that one needs to get the query letter read and enough interest raised to have the agent or publisher request the synopsis and 3 chapters. The only problem -- each source is tells the writer different things so that the writer end up more confused on how to write the query letter than enlightened.

With that said, I sent off a new version over the weekend. We'll just have to see how it goes. Of course I won't know, according to the agent's site, for another 2 - 3 months. So, I'll just keep using the new letter as I scout out agents that handle similar works.

God, this is fun.

Steve Berry, thriller writer, and I have been corresponding, which I find interesting since he is on a book tour that has him traveling all along the East Coast and out to the West Coast. But, he still found time to send a quick note. It just goes to show that the busier you are the more time you seem to find to keep in touch.

I do not understand "writer's block." Ideas for mysteries is not a problem for me. Nor is the writing of the mystery -- putting words down that flow and keep the story moving. I have more than enough ideas, so I do not understand writer's block -- at least as it pertains to coming up with ideas and putting them down on paper (heck, my first novel ended up, first draft, with over 150K words and I had to then work to rewrite it down to 120K -- so if anyone needs 30K words of description or dialog, give me a call -- I have more than enough).

The problem with my latest work, which involves a bit of history to bring the mystery to life, and which is not really a problem of writer's block, is to weave the history into the story without having long stretches of narative that helps the reader through the historical parts, which are critical, but to not bore them at the same time. I have started and stopped, changed and cut, moved and removed more than ever just to get the history in while keeping the mystery alive.

I am finding out that this is, in itself, a craft -- informing while keeping the edge to the story and mystery.

I wish I had started a writing career earlier so that I would have faced these issues a long time ago -- but it is what it is and I figure I still have a couple of decades left to produce. So I am having fun telling stories that I hope will be interesting and wanted by the public.

I went to a book signing the other evening. The author was Steve Berry, author of The Amber Room, The Templar Legacy, The Romanov Prophecy, The Third Secret and, just released The Alexandria Link. First off, he was entertaining and his story is a great one for all us struggling authors who are still looking for an agent and publisher.

More importantly, he had great advice for those wishing to publish. Keep writing, which is easier to say than sometimes do, but that is only part of his advice. But for that first part to be meaningful, one has to also follow the second piece -- keep honing your craft. Use each new work as a path for growth and improvement. Be critical of your own work.

We all know, deep down, when we have struck a great line, or great image or just a great scene. So, when you have finished your work, and mine happens to be the mystery novel, feel satisfied in your accomplishment but also review it to see how you can make the next piece better.

For me, what I have found is that I have to continue to work at tightening up my work -- how to say more in fewer words. My first try at a novel ended up being over 150,000 words -- much to much, by 20%, of what a publisher wants for both economic and readership reasons. So, I worked at cutting it down by 20,000 words. While I accomplished my goal, it would have been so much easier and probably made the end story more readable, if I had been able to write a tighter prose right from the beginning.

As for Steve Berry, he has a following, people who have read his works, who live to read the next work and who let him know when he has made a mistake in his history or references or in some small area of the book. I want that. I want people who enjoy my writings, who look forward to the next story, who are entertained and maybe even enlightened by what I have created.

The book signing went on much longer than is the norm because Steve Berry is entertaining. He enjoys talking to his fans and he makes them all feel as though he knows them and wants to know them better.

Keep writing Steve so I can keep learning.

One of the issues that I struggle with is the level of graphic description and language that I use in my work. On the one hand, a writer wants dialect that reflects the character – who he or she is, how that person with a particular background and psyche would speak. Also, you want the reader to feel, taste and smell the situation, to be repelled or shocked or drawn in so that they leave with the feeling that they were there, that they experienced what the characters experienced.

Conversely , you don’t want to go too far with the graphic description or language. You want the reader's imagination to become involved, letting the reader take the scene to a place that allows them to believe they were there – to feel the experience at a level that is comfortable or “comfortably uncomfortable” for them – letting them release that prurient and deviant being that hides inside, and that they can only let be acknowledged in the secrets of their mind through books and dreams.

Also, as a father, and even though my children are no longer children, you don’t want you children to read your work and get the feeling that their father is that person of whom he writes. After all, you want them to still respect you and not be embarrassed by what you may put out there for public consumption.

So, there is this dilemma that, as a writer, I wrestle with every time I put words on paper. They are, after all, only words. Yet, as words, they communicate, and you want them to communicate to the reader, allowing them to see a full human being, regardless of how nice or depraved they may be, without having those words also draw into question the character of the writer.

That is my dilemma. I am sure I am not alone with this dilemma, but when I have broached this subject within a writers’ group, I get strange looks. Maybe it is because the other writers write in more “mainline” or less edgy genre. Maybe I’ll find out someday.

My wish is that my first novel will get published and then I can concentrate more on my writing than on my business -- basically turning my writing into the cash flow generator. One of these days.

I have completed the first novel that is now with someone who has suggested that he can help me get published by introducing me to a NY Times best selling mystery author, which he did, and then she would take my manuscript to her publisher, which she has offered to do. The manuscript was too long for today's publishers, especially one from an unpublished author, so I cut it down to fit the requirements and then passed it to my friend. The problem is, he has been so busy that he has not had time to read it -- or he has read it and is reluctant to pass it along. I think, however, if it was the latter, that he would have told me.

So, I wait. I wait with a second novel 30% completed and a third, a collaboration with another writer, about 10% complete. The problem is, I could finish both if I had nothing else to do -- like make money.

I guess this is the life of the unpublished writer.

Today is Valentine's Day and the snow, or more correctly, the ice is still coming down. What was supposed to be snow turning to rain during the night, turned into something more resembling Italian ice. We are basically, iced in, which is what is more normal this time of year than the 70 degree temperatures we had in January. So we can't complain.

Since I work and write from home, I have a choice of deciding whether to work, to write or to just goof off. I've done a bit of each today.

I really should take the opportunity to sit back and do some deep contemplation -- about life, about time, about anything except work, which is what I have been attempting to do all day -- the work part, but getting nowhere.

With this posting, I have officially entered the blogosphere. We'll see how it goes.