Writers in the Storm

Ask an author why they write and you’ll get some variation of “to tell a story.” For most of us it started with the wonder of leafing through books picked up at a library or bookstore. We fantasize about the weight of a book in our hands, our name on the cover, picture on the back.

But times in publishing are changing. Traditional publishing isn’t the only way to go anymore. And you don’t have to have an agent to get published.

How are these changes affecting the publishing dream?

This week we’ll take a look at the evolution of the writing dream, an inside look at the thought process of authors at different stages in their writing career. Today, we’re starting with an aspiring author – that would be me. Wednesday, you’ll hear from debut author Laura Drake. And on Friday, multi-published Marilyn Brant will close out the series.

Part 1: The Aspiring Author’s Writing Dream

By Orly Konig-Lopez

A few months ago I was chatting with an author friend who had just self-published her debut. I was a bit deflated from a submission let-down and she asked, “Why are you still doing that? I loved your story. Just put it out there on your own.”

In today’s publishing market that is indeed a viable option. And I know a lot of aspiring authors who go that route—some quite successfully too. Is it tempting? Absolutely.

But it’s not for me. And here’s why: I have a dream. Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard that before and more convincingly. Hang with me for a second.

My dream isn’t a lofty one. I don’t expect to change the world. I have no delusions of millionairedom. I’m not running out to buy the perfect shoes for a red carpet appearance. I want to write the best book I can possibly write and see it published. I want to write something that will – hopefully – touch readers.

When I first set out to write a novel, I thought I could just hole up in my office and write. I took a couple of workshops, joined a couple of writer’s groups and guess what I learned? The more I interact with other authors, the stronger my writing becomes.

I belong to two critique groups (yes, two!) The feedback and encouragement I get from both groups is priceless. I’m also a member of three writer’s organizations (even a founding president of one—that’s huge for an introverted troll who really just wanted to sit quietly in her cave and type away a couple of years ago).

My writing has matured since I joined these groups and I’ve learned an incredible amount about the publishing industry. The more I learn, the more convinced I am that my dream of getting an agent and pursuing a traditional publisher is the right one for me.

Why? Because there’s still room to grow.

At this stage in my career I want that publishing knowledge behind me. I want an agent who sees something special in my writing, falls in love with my quirky vision and will help me make those stories that much stronger. I want to work with an editor and publisher who see a gem in my story and will want to share it with readers.

Sound naïve? Maybe. I know the industry is hard. Believe me, I have enough rejections in a folder on my computer to know that landing an agent isn’t what it used to be. But I also have enough encouraging rejections to keep me focused on what can be.

A few days ago, Laura Drake shared this quote:

I don’t plan on giving up. Will my dream ever change? Maybe. If in a few years I’m still picking at the mortar of my brick wall with a toothpick, yeah, I might reconsider.

For now, I’m sticking with my dream.

What dream are you pursuing? And why?

About Orly

After years of pushing the creativity boundary in corporate communications, Orly decided it was time for a new challenge. Three women’s fiction manuscripts later (plus a handful of picture books), it’s safe to say she’s found her creative outlet.

When she’s not talking to her imaginary friends, she’s reading or at least trying to ignore everyone around her long enough to finish “just one more paragraph.” Orly has also joined forces with some amazing women’s fiction authors to launch the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

You can find her on Twitter at @OrlyKonigLopez or on her website, www.orlykoniglopez.com.

by Susan Spann

Last month’s guest post here at Writers in the Storm took a look at wills in author estate plans. Today, we’ll look at the other common estate planning device: the trust.

A trust is a legal entity (a “fictitious person”) created by a trust agreement. Its purpose is to hold and manage property during the owner’s life and to distribute that property after the owner’s death.

The person who owns the property and establishes the trust is called the “Settlor.” That’s you, the author, for purposes of this discussion. The settlor can put as much (or as little) of his or her property into the trust as (s)he chooses, but anything not put into the trust will pass by will (or by law, if there is no will), and often that means a probate.

However, property in a trust usually bypasses probate, which means that if enough your property is placed in a trust, your heirs may not have to probate your estate at all.  That means a shorter administration period and lower costs.

Trusts allow for greater flexibility in distribution of an author’s assets after death, including intellectual property rights like copyright.

Unlike a will, which can often be written without the assistance of counsel, trusts almost always require an attorney’s aid. However, the extra cost of drafting a trust is usually more than offset by the savings on probate costs.

Most people (authors included) will create a revocable trust, a type of trust which can be altered or terminated during the lifetime of the person who created it. This allows for greater flexibility, and also enables the author to change beneficiaries and named trustees at will or as the settlor’s needs change.

Trusts are administered by a “Trustee.” During the settlor/author’s life, the settlor normally serves as his or her own trustee. The trust agreement states who will serve as trustee after the settlor’s death, and usually names at least one “successor trustee” who will serve if the named trustee dies first or refuses to serve as trustee when the time comes. Like all other provisions of a revocable trust, this can be changed during the settlor’s lifetime, but only if the settlor chooses to do so.

While trusts are often the most flexible way to hold and administer copyrights upon an author’s death, estate planning is a personal process and each author needs to investigate all the options to find the one which best suits the author’s individual needs.

Revocable trusts are not the only kind (though they are the most common). Consult an attorney to make sure you have the type that works for you. Also, consult your accountant, because some trusts receive different tax treatment or require the filing of special tax forms.

Thank you for joining me for today’s discussion of trusts as estate planning vehicles. Next month, we’ll look at how authors should choose the successor trustee or executor who will manage the literary estate after the author’s death.

Have you got a trust? A will? Are you just starting the estate planning process? Have questions? Hop into the comments: I’d love to hear from you.

About Susan

Susan Spann is a publishing attorney and author from Sacramento, California. Her debut mystery novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Thomas Dunne Books, July 2013), is the first in a series featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori. Susan blogs about writing, publishing law and seahorses at http://www.SusanSpann.com. Find her on Twitter @SusanSpann or on Facebook.

By Sharla Rae

When writing, we have to describe all kinds of people/characters. I’d venture to say that older adults or seniors are one of the most difficult people groups to describe.

Why?

Because what you see is not always what you get. Okay, this might be true with any age group, but it’s doubly so with the older generation.  There’s a world of experience and living under their belts and their faces don’t always tell the story.

Also, yesteryear’s elderly are now a cliché when compared to the modern seniors.

My grandparents had false teeth they’d take out at night and dunk in a glass of water on their bedside tables every night.
Current grandmothers, if they have the funds, opt for veneers or dental implants that permanently screw into the jawbone.

Both of my grandmothers were old timey one-room schoolteachers who never worked outside the home once they married.
Modern grandmothers prefer to stay active and often that means working until a ripe retirement age – maybe longer.

Fashion comes and goes but my grandmothers were never seen in anything but modest, below-the-knee dresses or slacks no matter the fashion. And if you had suggested an exercise program to her, they’d claim to got plenty of exercise cleaning house. 
Modern seniors exercise more than today’s youth and have bodies fit enough to wear the latest fashion, even if they choose to go for comfort instead.

 On the list below you’ll see physical descriptions as well as actions and doings of old people. Some phrases are unflattering, some humorous, some are clichés but all serve as an idea springboard.

Terms For Growing Older -- All Clichés

 Advancing years
Autumn of life
Declining years
Long in the tooth
Old as Methuselah
Old as the hills
Old fogey
Old fossil
Older than dirt
One foot in the grave
Twilight years
Winter of life

Word And Phrase Descriptions

 A little too ripe to be job hunting
Age-spotted pate
An Anachronism – as in old fashion, something old that is out of place
Ancient bones creaked
Ankles swelled with gout
Arthritic
Banging his cane demandingly
Battered shell of his youth
Bending forward to keep his balance
Beyond the first blush of youth
Bingo night is her social life
Blue-rinsed hair topped with a pillbox hat
Bushy salt and pepper brows
Cabinet of medicine, hot water bottles and Ben Gay
Cackles of the old biddy
Calcified grin
Called the shop girls girlie
Cemented in his ways
Changes his underwear after a sneeze
Cheated the undertaker once again
Codger, geezer, graybeard,
Contrary, and snappish
Crabbed with age
Crone, witch, hag
Crotchety old man with his
Damn young whippersnapper
Dapper old chap
Doddering along the park lane
Double-dumpling figure, bent with age
Dowager Queen
Dowdy old maid
Dried up
Drooping eyelids he could barely see out of
Dunked his false teeth into a water glass
Eyes bright with age
Face lined with experience and wisdom
Face was road map to his glorious past
Faded blue eyes
Faded version of his son
Feeble-minded, forgetful
Feisty antique of a lady
Forgot where she put her dentures
Frail old woman slowly shuffled
Fuddy-duddy
Fusty and set in her ways
Getting some action, he ate his fiber today
Gnarled hands knitting
Gramps zones out once in a while
Grandma and grandpa-might used a derogatory for anyone old
Gray dandelion hair
Growing love comfortable shoes and clothes
Grumped at the noisy children
Grunted and creaked with every move
Grunts when he sits, then sighs with relief only to grunt and rise
Hair a crown of faded glory
Hair billowed cobwebs in the draft
His get-a-long got up and went
Hoary, whiskered old fellow
Humped over and leaning on her cane
In his declining years
In his dotage
Infernal loud music
Infirmities aside, she was in good shape
Jowls flapped when he talked
Laugh like crackling paper
Laugh lines bracketing twinkling eyes
Long nose hair
Looked 45 but liver spots hands gave her away
Loved the decadent indolence of retirement
Matriarch who rules the roost
Matron aunt
Ol’ fart
Old and decrepit
Old duffer is deaf
Once a rock and roller, now he rocks only the chair
Patriarch of the family
Prune juice a staple of her diet
Rheumy eyes
Rocked and rocked and stared within
Room full of crooked backs, colorless hair and time-faded eyes
Ruminating on when she was young
Sagging skin
Sat on the tenement steps and watched the world go by
Senile and helpless
She’s a classic
Shriveled by half
Skin as thin and white as parchment
Skin like used tea leaves
Skin of leather
Skin stretched over knobby bones
Smelled of Chantilly Lace and moth balls
Sparse eyebrows with a chaotic growth pattern.
Stale, moldy and far-sighted
Stooped and bent frame
Strains to hear
Stroke left her expressions scary/endearing
Tottering and unsteady
Transparent blue-veined skin
Trapped behind the walls of age
Tufts of hair grow out of his ears
Turkey neck
Wattle neck
Wise old eyes widened with a twinkle
Withered skin
Wizened and shrunken like a fading rose
Wrinkled skin costumed a youthful heart
Young mind trapped in an old body
Youth was waning

 Definitions

centenarian -- person 100 years old or older

glaucoma -- hardening of eyeball resulting in poor vision or blindness; associated with                             aging

leucoma -- disease of the eye in which the cornea becomes white and opaque

noachian -- old enough to date back to Noah

octogenarian -- person in their 80’s

preadamite -- dates back to before Adam

quinquagenarian -- person in their 50’s

septuagenarian -- person in their 70’s

sexagenarian -- person in their 60’s

Dementia -- loss of cognitive ability

Alzheimer’s disease -- type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior.

 Links:

Playing Dr. Frankinstein – 5 Questions To Ask Your Characters Before You Begin

Keep Characters True To Themselves

If you’ve read my list blogs before, you know I love descriptions in Poems.

Poems about old age

Humorous poems on old age

Sharla has published three historical romance novels: SONG OF THE WILLOW, LOVE AND FORTUNE, and SILVER CARESS. SONG OF THE WILLOW, her first solo effort, was nominated by “Romantic Times Magazine” for best first historical. Her current work, HOW TO FELL A TIMBERMAN is in the submission process.

When she’s not writing and researching ways to bedevil her book characters, Sharla enjoys collecting authentically costumed dolls from all over the world, traveling (to seek more dolls!), and reading tons of books. You can find Sharla here at Writers In The Storm or on Twitter at @SharlaWrites.