Paige Hawthorne: Blog

I organize my bookshelves by cubical. One author per. Connelly, McCall Smith, Perry, Child, Parker, Crais, etc.

Some of my favorites take up several cubbies and I keep them adjacent to each other.

Fine.

Then one day I decided to do some Spring cleaning. I took out all authors I wouldn't revisit some day. And, within the writers who made the cut, I deleted all of their books I knew I would never reread.

The first purge resulted in over 300 books. Hardcover with dust jackets. I took them to a used book chain, one that buys books and records and CDs.

$26. I was floored.

But the assistant manager, a pleasant girl, explained the economics of her slice of BookWorld. She told me most of my books would never make it onto her shelves. They'd be donated or recycled. In fact, she turns down donations on a regular basis. She's oversubscribed in fiction.

My dystopian book harvesting continues, but now everything goes to the library. Dystopian is a word we hear a lot these days. Like gravitas back when a Texan was in the White House.

Paige

A reader hipped me to the fact that it's possible for readers to make comments at the end of stories. And used Jay Cantrell's "Learning Curve" as an example.

Well, I'm on my own SOL learning curve and just figured out how to open my own stories to readers' remarks. Now 100% (both) of my stories are available for scholarly observations.

Oh, I also updated my Profile. Now that I've learned it can be done.

Enjoy.

Or not.

Paige

Just so you know … I actually read every one of my SOL emails. And, I occasionally copy & paste one in my Futures folder. These saved letters might contain a good tip on writing, they could suggest different styles, explain the inner workings of the reader scoring system. Or otherwise engage me.

I also cache some of the recommended-authors suggestions. A couple of you boyos promoted a local writer's first story:

"An Equine of an Alternative Hue" by Danny Sildenafil.

His pen name alone signals a sense of humor. And his story description contains what is, I assume, an on-purpose misspelling. In any case, I got a kick out of the Damon Runyon paean.

Danny's score is lower even than mine, but I don't pay attention to scores anyway. Who does?

Paige

As my reader ratings continue to plummet, it becomes time for introspection. For serious inner-examination. I have to ask myself … what the fuck is wrong with you guys?

Prose written at the Winter caliber should have readers throwing confetti parades for me.

But perhaps there's a low-score clue buried in the hate-mails. One consistent gripe is that my stories meander around too much. Why can't I start a theme and just see it through? Before starting on another narrative?

Several readers tell me they've given up reading me because of this zig-zag pattern.

So, I may experiment with "Winter's Voyage" by, sigh, going A, B, C. Who knows, maybe it'll be an improvement. But if I don't like the result, that emended version will never breath SOL oxygen.

Paige

A guy told me it's better to write: 'Winter said, "You are so wrong."'

That version is preferable to: '"You are so wrong," Winter said.'

He claims it's better to put the 'who' in front of the quote rather than behind it. It's a subtle reader prompt, an aid, to make narrative flow a bit more smoothly.

Of course boys have been telling me a lot of stuff for a lot of years, hopeful hands sliding up toward hopeful goals.

Paige