Canadian Authors Association's Writers Q&A Buffet

On September 29th, 2006, I attended the 85th anniversary of the Alberta Branch of the Canadian Authors Association. It was a great party and after the meeting we had a fascinating Writers Q&A Buffet. We split into groups to pick the brains of four fascinating writers; Nikki Soared: What Women Want, (erotic romance); Janice MacDonald: Killing them Gently (Canadian Mysteries); Colleen Heffernan: Writing for the Future (writing for young people) ; Tim Bowling: Ideas on Fiction, Non-fiction and Poetry.

I reported on the bash for the Alberta CAA newsletter, The Branch Line, (available at http://www.canauthorsalberta.ca/) but I ran out of space before I could add my recollections of the Buffet so, for what its worth, here they are:

Colleen Heffernan: Writing for the Future: The Challenge and Joy of Writing for Young People

Colleen Heffernan the author of the 2005 Exploring Alberta award winning book A kind of Courage started off with her list of the five myths of Children's Writing:

1 - You make lots of money. (I wish!)
2 - Picture books are the best way to start. Picture books can be harder to write (smaller is not always easier) and tougher to get published. Many more middle aged readers are printed each year.
3 - Picture book writers must organize the pictures and find the illustrator. Wrong, the pictures and illustrations are the publisher's job. Typically it is done without any impute at all from the writer.
4 - Writing for Children isn't a literary pursuit. (Don't get me started on that one!)
5 - Picture books are easy - anyone can write one.

She also gave us some of her best reasons to write for children like the fact that each of us has a little person inside just wanting to say things.

Colleen stressing the fact that children must be respected and not written down to and on the topic of censorship of books by age, she was adamant that kids take from a book only what they understand. Explaining that as a child she read adult books with what some might call very adult themes, but these themes went right over her head. It was not until she became an adult that she understood them.

More information on Colleen's book is available at http://www.orcabook.com/BookWebPages/Teen/KindofCourage.htm


Tim Bowling: CAA's Writer-in-Residence

Tim Bowling, a new member and the CAA's new writer-in-residence, spoke on poetry, novels and writing in general. He explained that there is a fine line between poetry and the truth, adding that writing prose is difficult because it's less about form and more about tone; about the author coming through.

He talked about the importance of editing, especially with long projects as not only does your work changes over time, but so do you, about how easy it is, especially with prose, to fall in love with your own voice at the determent of the work and how poetry like any other work must always have a solid grounding.

Tim agreed that no mater what type of writing you do, it is hard work; it typically takes him two to three years to write a novel. He also stressed his belief that all writing has similar value whether it's a community history or a Giller prize winner and that once started the author has an obligation to the work, to get it done.

Tim also commented that with writing it often feels like every time you do something you are learning everything all over again. (And I thought I was the only one who felt that way.)

More information on Tim and his books is available at - http://nightwoodeditions.com/author/TimBowling

Janice MacDonald – Killing them Gently: Writing the Canadian Mystery Novel

A good mystery is a puzzle, set up in a closed world, notes Janice MacDonald, and you need that closed world so you don’t have 100,000 plus suspects to deal with. The trick is to pick a world that is interesting to the reader and novel, but not so novel that you end up spending half the book explaining it. The puzzle must be intriguing but not so overly complicated that you turn the reader off or leave them confused or in a state of disbelief at the end of the book. As a writer it’s your job to tinker with the formula just enough to keep them guessing.

Janice stressed that you need a body for a mystery because that is what breaks the circle; what wounds society as a whole, and allows the reader to step in and help solve the crime. Without a body you can leave the reader feeing that they are just a voyeur eaves dropping on someone else’s life. You also have to straddle the fine line between thrill and gore. Don’t leave the reader with blood on their face.

There is a big market for mystery books. They have a large following with some mystery “addicts” reading four to seven books every week, so unlike “middle of the road” novels, which probably don’t make the publishers cut, there is always room for another “decent” mystery.

Readers like mysteries because as with most genres, they are safe. The reader knows what they are getting. That there will have a beginning, middle and an end, with a plot and interesting characters. Janice also said that mysteries which aren’t too experimental or timely have a very long shelf life often staying in the publisher’s catalogue for many years.

Find more information on Janice’s busily life at http://members.shaw.ca/mystery3/cv.htm


Nikki Soarde – What Women Want

Nikki said that the erotic romance market is very hot right now; so much so that publishers have even been know to ask writers if they will write for them, something unheard of in this business.

Many of the books she’s written are available as downloads or e-books, long before they are available as bound copies, but Nikki says that doesn’t seem to diminish book sales. Many of her fans happily buy the e-book and then the bound version later.

The market for erotic romance is mostly heterosexual women and Nikki noted that almost anything two people (or even two aliens) can do together is fair game. The only thing that doesn’t seem to sell well is stories depicting two women.

A quickie, as they call it in the business, is a book which is 12,000 to 15,000 words; full length manuscripts run to 122,000. Her e-books sell for 2.99 to 6.99 depending on the length. Nikki receives around 38% royalties on e-editions and the standard 10 to 12 percent royalties on print editions.

A prolific writer Nikki’s site http://www.nikkisoarde.com/ warns you to “enter at you own risk”. If you go be sure to read the Mennonite connection.

PS - For those of you interested in writing for magazines don't forget I am doing a workshop, Periodical Writing: Know the Rules, on Saturday October 28, 2006, information is available at http://www.canauthorsalberta.ca/content.php?id=68 or at my web site http://lannyboutin.com.