It starts as a documentary, and then turns into a rant. Enjoy!

Good afternoon!

So I've been sick the last several days.  I've had the kind of sickness where you can't sleep, eating is difficult, and you don't feel like moving in any direction at all.  Therefore, I spent the better part of the last three days on the couch.  And, since I was on the couch, I played in my Netflix account, looking for something fun to stream.

(As a side note...that last sentence is something my MOTHER would not have ever said.  In fact, I would have never uttered those words all in a row five years ago.  Ah progress!)

I love documentaries, and you can stream all kinds of wonders on Netflix.  Generally I dig through anything World War II, but this weekend I found something a bit different:  Meet The Fokkens.   The Fokken sisters, Louise and Martine, are identical twins who have been working the red light district in Amsterdam for the past 50 years. 

Let's read that again:  Those two sisters in that picture right there have been prostitutes for the better part of the last five decades.  Now one of them...and I'll be honest, I couldn't keep them straight because through the entire documentary they wore exactly the same clothes.  One had a little dog and one didn't, and that was the only difference.  Anyway, one of them is retired.  She has arthritis and wasn't able to bend as much as her clients wanted her to.  So...there's that.

The other one is STILL WORKING.  She sits in her little window and men come up to her and then she...well, she does what she does.  (And yes, there are some graphic moments of video and yes they are disturbing and no, you should not watch this with your children or your parents in the same city.)  And she says she has to keep doing it because her state pension isn't so good.

There's a state pension for prostitutes in Amsterdam?  They really are open over there, aren't they?

The retired one paints.  What does she paint?  Lovely water colors of rivers?

So, she paints pictures of genitalia.  Sometimes people are attached to them and sometimes not.  So...there's that.

Now the documentary is almost two hours long.  That's a lot of time to watch these two geriatric ladies have tea, walk that dippy little dog, and then one strips down to her underthings to spank old men while the other fills giant canvases with huge lady and man bits.

Okay, I'm an American and here these things are still shocking.  And maybe they should be.

Or maybe not.

There's a lot to be shocked about in this world.  War, genocide, rape, crimes committed against children, the cost of gas in the US when we are the #1 oil producing country in the world. (Another sentence I never thought I'd ever utter.)  Is it really shocking or disturbing, what these two ladies do?  Or is this just one of those pieces of real life where you look at it and you say, "Isn't that something?"

It's the same with writing.  I've read a lot of books and I'll read many more.  There isn't a genre I won't read, and if it's done well, I'll enjoy it.  I don't live in those books.  I don't live in that world.  Books give me an opportunity to look into another world for a bit and say, "Isn't that something?"

I read a very long article, and I forget the source, it was one of those things passed down on Face Book, that was basically chiding Amazon for making books so cheap.  Suddenly, the article was saying, books aren't special now that everyone can afford them.

That's not a quote, but it's darn close.

I'm sorry, what?

Are we back in the Dark Ages where the only people allowed to have books are the clergy?  (That didn't turn out so well, did it?)  We needed Gutenberg and his printing press to bring books, most famously the Bible, but books in general, to the masses.  Books are to be read.  They are to be read by EVERYONE.

Martha Merrill's Books...you can get all of mine there!

The article went on about Amazon's practices and what not...and no, I don't love seeing book stores closing.  But you know what?  Book stores, the big ones, are closing because people want to read and they don't want to have to pay a ton of money to read.  Did we learn NOTHING from "You've Got Mail?"  Ironic, I think, that the very pro Barnes and Noble author of the article was grousing about book prices on Amazon while B & N and others like it spent years pushing the indie book sellers out the door. Now the indie book sellers are hanging on and the internet is selling more books by more authors for way less money.  And indie authors, like me, are getting their books into indie book stores like Martha Merrill's in Waukesha.

If people cannot afford print books...and with print costs rises almost as fast as gas, they can't...they will not read books.  New stories, not only by indie authors, but by big names, will not sell.  Stephen King was, many years ago, on the cusp of the e-book generation.  J. A. Konrath is a prophet for e-book publishing.  The goal of any author is to get the story in people's hands.  Above all, we want to be read!  We don't just want to be read by people who can afford a $34 hardcover book.  We want to be read by EVERYONE.  

Don't have a Kindle or a Nook or an e-reader?  Don't need one!  Want to read tons of indie books  for $2.99 or less?  (many are free!)  Check out websites like Smashwords.com.  There you can download a book to your computer and read it there.  Not the most comfortable way to read it, but once you've paid for it, you can print it out and poof!  You have the file on your computer and you can still read it in the tub!  All for less than the cost of a cup of coffee at a gas station.

Is everything out there awesome and great and life affirming?  Much like Netflix documentaries, NO.  Some of those books are not great.  Everything is a crap shoot, whether you're going to a movie, buying a CD, or reading a book.  You might like it.  You might not.  At least, with online publishing, you're rarely out more than $2.99.  The upside is you can get in on the ground floor of an author learning his or her craft.  Isn't is super cool when we can say, "Well, I've been reading that author since her first book came out, and I've always known she was awesome."

Friends, there are links on this page to every single one of my books and right now, not a one of them is going to cost you more than $1.99.  I believe every one has the right to read a book and every story, no matter how disturbing I might find it, has every right to be read.

Now, go forth and buy my books...and then go read a bunch and then go forth and WRITE!

Watching TV can be research. Really!

Good afternoon!

I know I don't have to tell you fellow writers out there that sometimes the sheer act of sitting down and writing is hard to to.  Sometimes just sitting down is hard to do.  Real life doesn't always accomadate the writer's whims, does it?

So often I find myself telling people, "I just don't have time to write."

That's not completely true.

There are times in the day when I can, and I do write.  The hour before work starts when I'm sitting in my office because hubby and I car pool and I get there early.  I often crank out a couple hundred words in that hour.  My lunch hour is another time of the day when I either write more into my notebook or I'm reading, which is also a vital skill writers must have.

While nothing replaces the actual act of sitting down and putting words to paper...or flash drive...I have found something that, while it seems pointless and time wasting, is actually a solid basis of research for writers.

Watching TV can be a very helpful tool in avoiding cliched writing, and an even better tool in spotting good writing.

Case in point:  Recently I've started rewatching the early 90's sitcom "Wings."  for those of you not familiar, this was a show about two brothers who ran a tiny airplane business out of a tiny airport in Nantucket.  Surrounded by a goofy cast of characters, brothers Brian and Joe Hackett managed to just avoid bankruptcy and killing each other each week.  Back in the day, I really liked the show.  So, when I found it available on streaming through Netflix, I started watching.

The thing about watching reruns in the streaming mode is that there's really no break and one runs the risk of losing whole days to a "marathon."  Not that I've done that....no of course not!

The first couple episodes, my daughter sat with me and watched.  I asked her what she thought of the show.  She said, "I'm wondering why it sucks so much."  A few more episodes in, she was hooked.

That might seem like a waste of time, watching this TV show that was on the air 20 years ago.  But it's not.  Getting lost in a marathon of episodes, I can watch episode to episode how the characters grew, what made them better, what made the show better.  I can pinpoint the good writing, and note the cheesy cliches, and if those cliches worked or not.  And, as I draw closer to the final episodes, I can see what, if any, mistakes were made that crushed the series and sent it to its demise.  (Some TV series, it's obvious.  "Moonlighting" was horrible the minute Maddie and Dave slept together.  The infamous "jump the shark" concept of TV shows going into that murky water of cheesy writing was spawned by the "Happy Days" episode where Fonzie and the whole gang went on vacation and Fonzie had to "jump the shark" on his motorcycle.)

Now, I'm not saying we should all go and spend endless hours on the couch watching a rerun marathon of our favorite shows.  It might sound like I'm saying that, but I'm not.  What I'm saying is that if you find yourself spending quality time away from the computer, and sitting in front of the TV, use that time to study your craft.  TV, especially sitcom TV, is writing.  Not the sets, which generally don't change in a sitcom.  Probably not the acting, though some people are funnier and better at sitcom acting than others.  Many sitcom actors, however, do well in one part written for them, and then cannot move to another part.  As much as I love Matthew Perry...and I do love him....his Chandler Bing years will never be matched. How many shows has he been given that have flopped since "Friends" ended?  No, TV is generally about the writing. 

So it's okay if you take some time to watch TV.  But it's like with anything, don't say you're working on your writing career if all you're doing is snoozing in front of the tube.  Stay awake and take notes.  Not the hardest homework you've ever been given.

Now, go forth and WRITE!