Sticky Notes Blog

A blog of writing news, tips, and inspiration from Fat Plum

Book Boot Camp

Fat Plum's Book Boot Camp kicked off on April 18th with a great bunch of recruits. Their works-in-progress cover the spectrum of business how-to, children?s fantasy, historical fiction, suspense and mainstream fiction. One camper exclaimed that she?d gotten her money?s worth in the first 10 minutes! That?s what we like to hear. We'll keep you posted throughout the six-week boot camp and share how they are whipping their manuscripts into shape.

Posted by Julie on April 27, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Writing tips

Book release trailers

Jim Munroe, author, indie publisher, and online marketing innovator, is promoting the rerelease of his first novel, Flyboy Lives! with movie-style trailers, one of which is online. The others will be screened at book readings across the country; I'm sure they'll be posted online eventually as well.

Jim has also recently released his second novel, Everyone in Silico, as a free e-book. I've read it (in print form), and would recommend it to anyone with an appreciation for science fiction speculative fiction, or an interest in marketing in today's culture.

Jim explains the rationale for releasing the free e-book this way:

The cover of [Carole Mathews's novel] The Sweetest Taboo has the tagline, "The best things in life are never free." I've decided to retaliate against this smug sentiment by releasing a free e-book version of Everyone In Silico. I've distributed thousands of copies of my previous novels in free e-book form since the 2000 release of Angry Young Spaceman, but not for EIS ? I was curious to see if it would impact my sales significantly.

It hasn't.

Plus, I've seen benefits on various levels for giving away e-books. For instance, a woman in Lancaster, England, recently hosted a launch, and it went really well ? the bar was full of excited people, and I sold close to twenty books. It wasn't until after the show that I realized that she didn't own any of my books ? she'd gotten to know my work via e-book. So, for being willing to lose one sale, I gained twenty sales.

Keep an eye on Jim Munroe and his organization, No Media Kings, to see what new ideas in underground publishing and guerilla marketing he comes up with next.

Posted by Cindy on April 26, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Publishing

Riley Dog

The website Riley Dog offers links to intriguing writing. For example, this excerpt from "inflammatory essays" by Jane Sprague:

dear editor
here is some of my blood.
print it.
jane

(Link via Stephany Aulenback at MaudNewton.com.)

Posted by Cindy on April 23, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Recommended

Twenty-Minute Stories

The third place winner of McSweeney's Twenty-Minute Stories Contest has been published: "Untitled" by Mickey Hess.

You become used to most things in the world, and you bring in somebody new so it all seems surprising again. Our friend Genny sends word that she is again pregnant. She and her first child, Mazzen, stayed with Danielle and I for a few days in the summer. Mazzen is two years old, and enjoys pulling things off of things. As she was leaving, Genny asked "When are you two gonna have your own little Mazzen?" But I was glad there is only one Mazzen, and that she was taking him home with her.

If you're not familiar with the Twenty-Minute Stories Contest, here are the rules and rationale behind it. In brief, the idea is that tight deadlines can force interesting results. That's been the case for many of these stories. Some of the stories that didn't fit in the print version of McSweeney's for which they were intended, and some that are particularly notable, are being published online. I recommend them highly.

For writers, the exercise of working within a time constraint like this one is a terrific one. Give it a try, and let us know what comes of it: email fatplum (at) fatplum.com.

Posted by Cindy on April 21, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Recommended

Meet Us at the Library!

Fat Plum's own Judith Burnett Schneider and Julie Long will be speaking this Thursday night (April 22) at Authors Night at Northern Tier Library at 7:30 PM. They'll discuss the creative and publishing processes for their respective books: The Frantic Women's Guide to Life, and BABY: An Owner's Manual. Also speaking is Jane McCafferty, CMU professor and author of the novel One Heart and the award-winning story collection Director of the World. The library is located at 4015 Dickey Road in Gibsonia. For directions, call the library at 724-449-BOOK. Whether you're a book worm or not, come stick your nose in our books!

Posted by Julie on April 21, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: What's up with us

Accidents and inspiration

Quote for today:
"Accidents and inspiration lead us to our destination." - Mary Chapin Carpenter

Posted by Cindy on April 19, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Inspiration

Smart Book Promoting

The Agatha Award winning mystery book, Red Card, co-written by a 15-year-old and his uncle 100 miles away, got some great coverage in Apple eNews, the weekly online newsletter sent to Macintosh users. They collaborated on the book using their Macs and iChat and iSight. Their technical savvy approach gave them a whole new market to target. Check out Apple - Pro/Words - Daniel J. Hale & Matthew LaBrot to get the whole story. A very smart marketing move.

Posted by Julie on April 15, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Publishing

Banff Mountain Film Festival

The Banff Mountain Film Festival road tour was in downtown Pittsburgh last night. It featured a selection of the many films on mountain subjects that were shown in November in Banff, Alberta, Canada. It was an incredible combination of adrenalin rush, inspiration, and thought provocation. You can check out other city stops on the tour at the Banff Mountain Festival's site.

Continue reading "Banff Mountain Film Festival"

Posted by Julie on April 15, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Diversions

Make a good first impression

Five openings I adore, chosen randomly:

"They put the behemoths in the hold along with the rhinos, the hippos and the elephants. It was a sensible decision to use them as ballast; but you can imagine the stench. And there was no-one to muck out. The men were overburdened with the feeding rota, and their woman, who beneath those leaping fire-tongues of scent no doubt reeked as badly as we did, were far too delicate. So if any mucking-out was to happen, we had to do it ourselves. Every few months they would winch back the thick hatch on the aft deck and let the cleaner-birds in. Well, first they had to let the smell out (and there weren't too many volunteers for winch-work); then six or eight of the less fastidious birds would flutter cautiously around the hatch for a minute or so before diving in."
From "The Stowaway" in A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes


"A few days before Christmas, in 1959, my father shot a man named Lyle King, and would have killed him, if not for a quirk of anatomy which had located Mr. King's heart an inch to the left of where by rule it should have been. 'Joe,' my father told me some time later, 'I meant to kill that sonofabitch, and I would have -- no joke -- if only his heart had been in the right place.'"
From "The End of Sorry" in The Least You Need to Know by Lee Martin

Continue reading "Make a good first impression"

Posted by Cindy on April 14, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Inspiration

Blogs and fiction

People are noticing that weblogs (online journals, like this one) can be a new literary form. Jim McClellan of the Guardian makes the argument that blogs have the "potential to be a new fictional form." (Thanks to Stephany Aulenback for the link. She also highlights Jim Munroe's forthcoming blog novel, An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil, which I hadn't known about but am now eager to see.)

The first blog that caught my full attention was that of Mark Phillips, a writer in San Francisco. Mark had submitted several of his blog entries to Inkburns, with the suggestion that the collection of them could make for an interesting piece. Mark's blog blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction, diary and writing journal, writing and art. We published a set of entries related to life in San Francisco, writing, and more.

In thinking about blogging as fiction, though, I also think of the serial I started for Inkburns, "Lift." The main reason for publishing "Lift," to be honest, was to have something to flesh out the journal in the early days, before we were known and had piles of submissions to consider. But writing it turned out to be a good discipline for me: it provided a monthly deadline, required thought and character development, made me work at writing more seriously. I don't considered it a finished work, but I do hope to revisit the characters and situations and create something with them that feels more cohesive and full than "Lift" turned out to be.

Posted by Cindy on April 12, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Literary genres