Category: GKP Writing News

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GKP Writing News

Designing Book Covers

There are two things a prospective reader looks at first: title and cover. The title must sound interesting. But designing book covers is a real challenge for me.

My Challenges

Since I do my own covers, the design must be one I can draw. Animals and plants are much easier for me than people.

Photographs are a good source of ideas for me. So I want a design that can be partially photographed.

Cover Considerations

People seem to like seeing people on a cover. Some genres seem to require having people on it. “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” should have Mindy on the cover.

Since I try to put a book out as an eBook as well as a print book, the cover must be easily seen on a mobile screen as well as on a big cover. This is more challenging than you might think.

cover for "Waiting For Fairies" by Karen GoatKeeper
This cover began as photographs of mushrooms and a white deer-footed mouse. This was sketched onto drawing paper for painting with watercolor. This was then uploaded onto a computer and darkened.

Designing Book Covers

Nothing is more irritating about a book cover than when it has little or nothing to do with the book. DVD covers are notorious for this.

Publishing companies have a staff of cover designers. They send over a synopsis of a book. An artist comes up with a cover. The author is stuck with it.

This doesn’t concern me as I self publish. The reasons are many and I might address them another time. It does leave me doing the writing, editing, illustrating and designing book covers, then trying to do marketing so readers will notice my little book among the thousands of other titles published each year.

cover for "Capri Capers" by Karen GoatKeeper
This cover began with a photograph as I really did have a baby goat in the house for a couple of weeks and she napped in a chair. The chair was old and ratty so I looked at a chair ad to redo the chair. This was sketched, painted with watercolors, uploaded on computer to add the background color and titles.

“Hopes, Dreams and Reality”

As with the title, I had to do a lot of thinking about the cover. It was so tempting to find a cover looking at a sunrise or goats or chickens. Anything but Mindy.

But Mindy needs to be on the cover. She needs to be fighting the storm.

That left me putting on a show out in the yard. Luckily we have no neighbors. I got to set up my camera on delay, press the button and race over to pose holding my umbrella as though fighting wind and rain as the sun lit up the yard.

I needed a rain slicker, but don’t own one. Oh, well.

Maybe I am now ready to take my fast sketch and do a real design. And the watercolors will get used again.

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GKP Writing News

Writing Projects

How many writing projects in progress at the same time are too many? I’m trying to find out, I guess.

Writing Projects List

At present I have two science projects going. One is rewriting “The City Water Project” as teaching units. The other is writing units for “The Chemistry Project”.

There are also two novels. “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” is being looked over by some friends before I do a final rewrite and edit. In the meantime, I am brainstorming cover ideas.

And I am trying to finish the draft for “The Carduan Chronicles: Arrival” Since I haven’t worked on this one since last October, this entails reading through seventy pages of manuscript trying to not do a total rewrite to get back into the story.

Then there is the idea for a picture book. I have the idea, the setting, possible characters and the perfect candidate for a character model in mind.

bloodroot flower for writing projects
This bloodroot flower is one of the first Ozark wildflowers to bloom. Even though the Dent County Flora page is complete, I still enjoy seeing them and can’t resist taking another picture.

Is This Enough?

I don’t think so. It is wildflower season once again. That means the “Dent County Flora” books are again open.

Already I’m trying to get out walking and have even completed pictures for a plant to enter into the “Dent County Blues” book. Another tree, a new one, has bloomed and I only need to get some seed pictures and the tree picture to complete it.

Virginia bluebells flower picture for writing projects
The Virginia bluebells page for the Dent County Flora is done. But I saw this plant in bloom and loved this view showing the side of the flower as well as how the flowers staart out one color and usually turn blue as they open. I have found plants whee the flowers stay pink.

Getting Books Off the Writing Projects List

The only project close to being done is “Hopes, Dreams and Reality”. If I can keep to schedule – and I’ve already overshot it, the book will be published in May.

cover for "The City Water Project" by Karen GoatKeeper

“The City Water Project” teaching units are supposed to be done in May. I will get them done as it is mostly just adjusting the book into pieces and changing some explanations.

The problem with these units is setting up yet another account, this one with teacherspayteachers, to sell them. Since I am already juggling accounts with Amazon, Smashword, IngramSpark, Goodreads, Pinterest, NaNo (National Novel Writing), iNaturalist and Flickr (also new), my five to six hours a week of internet time is spread very thin.

Justification: I’m not bored.

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GKP Writing News

Finishing Novel Drafts

“Hopes, Dreams and Reality” is finished. Or is it? Finishing novel drafts is tricky.

The first rough draft is only an outline of a story. It allows the writer to create characters, try out plotlines and subplots and follow the story to an ending. My rough drafts are often a mess and only expand on my novel idea.

Enter the First Draft

That leads to a rewritten draft. This is my first real draft. By now I know my characters fairly well. That means I know how they will react in a given situation which can totally nix a plot.

If the plot won’t work with these characters, I have two choices. I can create new characters for the plot, if I like the plot. Or I can rewrite the plot to suit the characters, if I am happy with them.

One way or the other, I am finishing novel drafts to this point. And this draft may sound really good. Maybe good enough to keep?

Probably not. And the truth is in writing a second draft. This is not a carbon copy of the first draft, although they may be very similar.

finishing novel drafts like for "Hopes, Dreams and Reality"
My new novel seems to finally have a title:”Hopes, Dreams and Reality”. The draft is done and only needs a final read through. Finishing novel drafts is more a decision to stop tweaking than a lack of things to tweak.

Going For That Second Draft

My method is to make a copy of the first draft. Then I retype this draft one chapter at a time.

As I retype the draft, I think about it. What’s missing? Description? Explanation? A scene?

What doesn’t work? Is there too much description? Does something not make sense?

Does the ending belong? Or is it too over the top? Is all the groundwork laid for it?

Finishing Novel Drafts

How many more drafts will I write? Any after the second one will probably be pretty close to that one. Should I stop?

No matter how many drafts a writer does, there are things to change. A sentence sounds rough. The grammar stinks. These go on and on appearing with each reading.

I am to that point with “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” now. This is a new type of novel for me so I have asked a couple of friends to look it over. Then I will read through it once again.

In the meantime, I am returning to Cardua. Then I can look at this novel with fresh eyes.

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GKP Writing News

Writing Dialogue

I like using dialogue in my writing. It seems to move the story along well and reveal lots about the characters. But writing dialogue has challenges.

My new novel, tentatively titled “Hopes, Dreams and Reality”, has a couple of dialogue challenges.

Only One Character

The entire novel revolves around Mindy. For much of the novel she is alone. Her phone is dead and she is in a dead zone for cells. That leaves only her cat and the animals to talk to. And they have no answers.

That leaves me floundering. She can remember things others have said. She can make up conversations with absent characters. If all else fails, she can talk to herself. This last can reveal a lot about her attitudes and inner conflicts.

Language

My biggest challenge is language. Cussing and swearing are commonplace in today’s books and media. I do know quite a few of these words.

However, I grew up at a time when such language was not commonly used in public. And I find its ubiquitous use annoying. It robs these words of their impact and language of its richness by reducing the vocabulary used.

When writing dialogue, I avoid using these words.

cover for "Capri Capers" by Karen GoatKeeper
“Capri Capers” has some dastardly villains in it as well as some would-be villains. The decision to use no cussing was easier for this book as it was a take off on a 1930s movie serial. Such language would have been inappropriate here.

Should I Use Some?

One of the novel scenes is a big argument. Both characters are upset, furious. I’ve written it without using any cussing or swearing. Does this rob the scene of impact? Would it be more realistic to use some of these words?

The decision is mine. I don’t want to use this language, so I have chosen not to. This is my personal choice due to my background.

Finishing the Novel

As I edit the novel draft, now complete, writing dialogue will be part of that edit. It will be a challenge as this novel has been a challenge.

Will my choices work? I rarely have others read my novels as drafts. This one will be an exception. Their opinions will hopefully answer this question.

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Author Website

When I finished my first book, “Goat Games”, I wanted very much to sell a few to help pay for the time and printing costs. I was assured that the key was to have an author website.

Having tried to play by the rules all my life, I dutifully started an author website. I didn’t know much about having one, wasn’t online at home (still aren’t) and I made lots of mistakes.

As the number of books increased, the number of pages increased. The backlist of blog posts went up. The number of visitors crept up. Book sales didn’t.

cover for "Goat Games" by Karen GoatKeeper
When writing this book, my first one, I traveled in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri to meet goat owners of different breeds to write breed pages. It took months to devise all of the puzzles. And the information pages and trivia had to be researched and added. I queried publishers and was turned down as goats are a niche topic, one that doesn’t make a lot of money. So I published and printed the book myself, something that is expensive to do.

Getting Noticed

It seems I am woefully behind the times as this is most of my online presence. The only social media I’m on are Pinterest and Goodreads. I do have author pages there and on Smashwords and try to update these monthly.

All these various accounts take a lot of time I don’t have. Since I am not online at home, my internet time is about five hours a week at the library. It doesn’t go very far.

So Get Online

That’s not simple here in rural Missouri. My home is surrounded by hills blocking signals. Therefore, the nearest cell service is a quarter mile hike away.

Internet service from the phone company or satellite services is barely above dial up. There’s lots of talk about better service, but every notice I’ve seen indicates it will be expensive for service inadequate for running a website.

My Author Website

Maybe this site will attract some of the visitors I used to have before my last hosting service had so many problems with my site. I am slowly getting the site organized.

I’ve had contact with computers since they ran on stacks of punch cards. That doesn’t mean I know much about them. I don’t. And learning about new things with so little time is difficult.

The new Contact Page is a case in point. Each week I negotiated my way through another step. It has left me with an account for running email campaigns I don’t do, a cloud account I don’t use and spam cluttering up my email. It would help if I could limit my contacts to English.

At least I do have an author website. And I will be adding a new book page soon as my new novel has a complete draft and is in edit.

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GKP Writing News

Writing Endings

Sooner or later a writer comes to the end. Writing endings should be easy.

However, a story needs to have the right finale. That isn’t easy.

Different Genres, Different Endings

In a romance, the couple gets together at the end. In a mystery, the problem gets solved. For a thriller the ending is exciting.

Readers of each genre know what type of ending their story should have. If it doesn’t, the reader is disappointed.

Because a reader expects a certain type of ending, doesn’t mean the reader wants to know what the ending is. A story must be very, very good to make a reader not mind having a predictable ending.

How Does a Writer Know When to Stop?

There are two endings in a novel. One is the end of the action. The other is the end of the story.

For the first, the plot builds up to those last exciting moments. Often a dangerous situation rises to a climax. Will the main character survive?

Once the climax passes, all the pieces of the plot must be tied up. How did the detective arrive at the answer? What happens now?

The happy couple embraces. The detective explains. Someone saves the day. And everyone goes back to their lives. This is The End.

cover for "Dora's Story" by Karen GoatKeeper
When I started writing this book, I had an ending in mind. As I wrote it, the ending seemed more and more not the right one. It’s important for a writer to recognize when a story has changed enough to make the best ending different from the one first in mind.

My Novel Is Ending

Writing endings is usually easy for me. I’ve created the story, the plot and know where it leads.

In the first draft the ending rolls onto the page. It doesn’t change much in other drafts because it fits the story.

This novel has problems. The rough draft has an ending. Fine. It sort of fit, but didn’t feel right. It felt contrived.

In this second, maybe third draft I found I had made a major mistake at the beginning of the third part of the story. No problem. I would correct the mistake and blend into the original draft.

There is now a completed new draft. And I am left writing endings for this new draft. And looking for a title.

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GKP Writing News

Looking For Her Story

March is Women’s History month. I’ve been looking for her story. It’s often not in the history (His Story) books.

There are two good places to go looking for her story. I’ve been reading books from each.

One place is historical fiction. “Something Worth Doing” by Jane Kirkpatrick is about the struggle for women’s suffrage in Oregon. One woman, Abigail Dunwithy, led the movement for over forty years trying to convince the men running the state that women, the women they depended on to provide homes, raise children, develop homesteads and businesses, deserved the right to vote. Even her own brother fought to keep women from voting.

Women went to jail and insane asylums trying to earn the right to vote. They wanted to be seen as real people with the right to earn a living and keep their wages, the right to own a business, the right to make decisions concerning their futures.

Telling Her Own Stories

Another good place to look is autobiography and biography. “I Am Malala” tells of the ongoing struggle for women’s rights in Pakistan. Her view of the rise of the Taliban and the present fight for the future of Pakistan explains so much of what we read about in the news. Her fight is for all children, regardless of who they are or where they live, to have the right to an education.

An unlikely book is “The Egg and I” by Betty MacDonald. Embedded in this book is the place of women in the 1930s in Washington state. One woman got married, was taken to a ranch and not been allowed to go even to town for twenty-seven years. Even the author was expected to help her husband achieve his dreams regardless of hardship, health or personal dreams.

After the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his wife Eleanor emerged from his shadow and became a world figure fighting for women’s and human rights and world peace. “Eleanor: The Years Alone” may be about her, but is a history course about the United Nations and post war U.S. politics as she was involved with both.

Personal Story

Even though these were interesting, they were long past. I’ve seen so many changes in my lifetime. I grew up at a time when women had few choices in life. Wife, mother, nurse, teacher, secretary were the acceptable ones. And those with jobs were expected to quit when they got married.

Women wore skirts. At my high school a teacher could make you kneel on the sidewalk to make sure your skirt was the proper length.

When a girl went to college or university, she was expected to get an mrs degree. All I got was a bachelor of arts and my grandma considered me a failure. No counselor or mentor had time for a girl.

Being Challenged

Today so many careers and opportunities have opened up for girls. But these opportunities are being challenged. Go looking for her story, find out where women’s rights came from and decide whether they are worth fighting for. Otherwise you may lose them.

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On Library Shelves

February is Black history month. Since Missouri is joining the rush to ban books by Black authors, I’m trying to read a few before they are yanked from the library shelves.

The local library is one of the main reasons we moved here. It has moved to a new, bigger facility, added DVDs, audio books and eBooks. It is part of a consortium of Missouri libraries so the range of materials available is huge.

Librarians and Books

This is a conservative town. When the librarians add books to the library shelves, they take this into consideration. The idea is to have books people want to check out to read.

Browsing down the aisles I see lots of mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction and romances. Westerns have their own section. The nonfiction area has books on religion, gardening, pets and livestock.

There are others, if you search. “I Am Malala” is there in the biography section along with John Wayne.

Young Adult Section

If the legislature has its way, this is where the purge will focus. “The Hate You Give” and “On the Come Up” are there along with books on suicide prevention, drugs and gender.

Such subjects might disturb some readers. The legislature wants to take them off the library shelves, burn them, make sure even those who want that information can’t see it.

That leaves those wanting information listening to people on the streets who may or may not know anything. It leaves people ignorant.

Perhaps that is the purpose. Controlling what is on library shelves controls what people know so they can be fed anything and have no way to know what is true and what isn’t. We deserve better. We deserve encouraging knowledge about our past and ourselves.

In the meantime, I will go back to my latest book “You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey” by two Black sisters, Amber and Lacey Ruffin, about some of the crazy things said to and done to Black people often in ignorance of how a Black person would perceive it.

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Chemistry Equipment

I taught chemistry at small, rural schools. They didn’t have a lot of money for chemistry equipment. Still, I had the basic stuff.

It’s possible to buy beakers, flasks, balances and more online. Unless a student is really serious about a chemistry career or one involving a lot of chemistry, such an investment seems unnecessary to me.

Why Am I thinking About Chemistry Equipment?

I’m busy making up more puzzles for “The Chemistry Project” and wanted more word search types. That takes a list of words. So, I looked up things commonly found in a well-equipped chem lab.

Many of the names like Erlenmeyer flask, Florence flask and graduated cylinder are long. That makes such a puzzle challenging to create.

For those unfamiliar with these terms: Beakers are the cylindrical glass containers. Erlenmeyer flasks are the conical containers. Florence flasks have thin necks and a round bottom with a flat place so they sit on the lab bench. A graduated cylinder is a tall tube calibrated in milliliters (cubic centimeters) for measuring out liquids.

glass jars are homemade chemistry equipment
Glass peanut butter jars make good home substitutions for beakers. They, measuring cups and other containers doubling as chemistry equipment do need to be glass. Glass tends to not react, melt, dissolve, contaminate and is easy to look through. Spoons should be stainless steel.

Home Equivalents

Since I don’t have the professional equipment, I went looking for substitutes. Empty glass peanut butter jars work as beakers. Eyedroppers work as dropper pipets.

The scales I use were purchased. They aren’t as nice as the three-beam balances, but they do work for the Investigations I do.

Water can be massed to be more accurate for volumes. If I come up with a tall, thin jar, I can even mark it out as a graduated cylinder.

What About Chemicals?

It was so nice to walk into my supply closet and pick out various chemicals. There were various metallic nitrates for flame tests. Different acids for experiments.

Now I rely on the local markets and stores. It’s amazing how much you can do using sugar, salt, rubbing alcohol and Epsom salts.

Perhaps a good part of this making do for chemistry equipment, is having to examine each Investigation for its true purpose. And that is the point of chemistry: to understand how and why substances behave as they do.

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Encouraging Literacy

There’s a push in St. Louis encouraging literacy among students usually shoved aside. St. Louis schools have long been having problems trying to meet state standards and innovative approaches help.

Many of these students live in poverty. There are few, if any, books in their homes. Parents who read set an example for their children.

Why Promote Literacy?

Reading is basic. If a student can’t read, that student fails in every subject as all of them require reading.

In my area the schools rely on something called AR. This has a reading list and students are required to read books from it, take a comprehension test and go on to the next. It sounds good. It isn’t.

Teaching Reading

When I was in high school, my mother became involved with Laubach Literacy teaching illiterate adults to read and write. One out of five adults in the U.S. was statistically reading below a fourth grade level, unable to fill out an employment application.

One young man, just turned 16, was a student. My mother found he could read. He hated to. The only books he read were technical ones, difficult to understand. The key was finding books on topics he enjoyed. Reading was not drudgery, but fun.

Books come on all subjects, on all levels, in so many sizes. Somewhere there is a book to interest almost any student.

Love of Reading

Forcing students to read doesn’t encourage reading. It discourages it. That is what caught my eye about the St. Louis approach. It uses videos and comic books to interest students. It makes reading fun.

The material doesn’t shy away from vocabulary. It introduces new words, big words. My Laubach background says to repeat a new word five times and this program seems to do that.

cover of "For Love of Goats" by Karen GoatKeeper
A third piece of literacy is speaking. Just because you can talk, doesn’t mean you know how to speak clearly as when leaving phone messages or doing presentations. One way to promote good diction is saying tongue twisters. “For Love of Goats” is full of tongue twisters and alliterations, perfect for helping with pronunciation and growing vocabulary.

Reading and Writing

Reading is the beginning. It’s a great way to get information, explore the imagination. Writing lets students tell others about this and exercise their own imaginations.

So many students hate to write. School lessons are often tedious and, like with reading, forced assignments on given topics.

This is where an approach like NaNo’s Young Writer’s Program comes into play. You can check it out at www.nanowrimo.org.

We hear so much about making our country great again. The first step to acomplishing that is by encouraging literacy.