Woodworking...Wordworking...Craftsmanship

I got into a short conversation the other day about how crafting a story is a lot like woodworking, or for that matter, virtually any artistic pursuit. I'm going to stick with woodworking because I'm familiar with the process...and I'm pretty darn good at it.

I'm a pretty good writer too.

The parallels are incredible. When I get the tingle that there's a story to be told...a book to be written...the ideas begin to form, jumbled and raw, scattered about like so many trees felled and awaiting their fate.

And like the jumble of oak or walnut or pine I need to let the raw logs season a bit. I need to sort and organize and select.

And I need some help. I need someone to bounce ideas off of, often in what-if conversations or I've- been-thinking conversations. I need someone to saw the logs into raw lumber so I can see what might be worth using and what might well become firewood and eventually...ashes.

Finally the raw lumber is seasoned, the ideas are mature enough to be useful, and the project begins to take shape.

Being a plotter is, to me, crucial in both wordworking and woodworking. It is very important to have the basics laid out just so or the story will lack structure and integrity, or at the very least will waste my valuable time and energy as it wanders off in useless directions. With woodworking, the boards from the stack must be inspected closely for color and grain as well as size. The craftsman hates to waste valuable stock. There is method to the madness.

There is no shame in having a plan to begin with. An outline. A schematic. A blueprint.

There is also no shame in veering from the plan. Perhaps a bit of cherry as an accent might look striking against the dark moodiness of the black walnut. Perhaps the slats of the chair would look good just a bit taller or just a bit thinner than the original plan.

The rough cuts are made. The writing begins. You'd better have your tools sharp and at hand.

I do not believe there is any place for liquor in either the woodshop or the wordshop until the day's work is done and the dangerous maiming tools are put away. Nothing can send your story to near irrepairable places than a couple of beers or a toddy.

Now, standing back and admiring the days cuts...the dadoes, the tenons and mortices, the first sense of the construction...that can call for a contemplative drink or two. Reading over the day's work is much the same. But resist the urge to turn on the tablesaw or the router. Resist the urge to make major changes in the story at this point. The results can be bloody.

The story begins to actually take shape, to make sense, to have a soul and a direction. The project begins to look like something other that bits of wood and flecks of sawdust.

This can be a very dark time. Decisions made now can affect the rest of the story. A variation from the plan can make make the chair wobbly or lopsided.

Early mistakes can be caught as well. A mortise cut on the wrong side of the leg can be fixed by recutting a rail and moving the tenon to match the mortise.

A character flaw can be fixed. Tension can be introduced and heightened. A side arc that isn't working out can be shaved off. This is the stuff of the craft, the very essence of building and writing. It is exciting and gratifying...messy and tedious...and you wouldn't want it any other way!

There becomes, often, a temptation now to hurry things along at this point. That urge must be supressed in both the woodshop and the workshop, I think. Hurrying makes it much more likely that you will make a mistake, and at this point, with so much time and effort put into the creation, do you really want to chance making a mis-cut? Do you want to cut a board that's been through a half dozen processes so far--seasoning, planing, thicknessing, rough sizing, test fitting--do you really want to cut that board a half inch too short?

When I get the urge to hurry toward the end in my writing I have taught myself to set it aside for a time and remember that this is a novel. I'm not on any sort of deadline. I tell myself to try to turn the urgency and excitement into a sort of dogged determination. I take a break. I find something else to do, like a visit to the shop to make a little sawdust and splatter a little glue.

When you write, you have to use all of your tools. When you do a lamination, you regret not buying those clamps that were on sale last week or month. When you are crafting a novel, you regret not having a broader vocabulary and knowledge of punctuation. Thank you, internet and spell check and online thesaurus. Thank you.


And finally, the thing is finished...sort of. The book is written. The chair is carefully glued together over a period of days. It's a living breathing thing now. You feel a great sense of accomplishment. You feel freaking GREAT!

And then you realize that you are far from finished. You feel lousy, at least for a while. There are still things to do. The chair needs the rockers attached and the seat upholstered. Sure , it's a real live chair and solid as a rock, but it isn't quite done yet.

The story needs attention too. An awkward chapter needs revising.  You discover that one of the characters has been acting out of character for the last 30 pages and needs to be disciplined. Your main character has picked something up and never put it back down again...

So you begin to edit. Slowly...carefully...thoroughly...you begin to edit. You attach the rockers to the chair.  You hand sand the rails and slats with finer and finer abrasive until the wood is as smooth as a baby's butt.

Now you're done. Now the chair can be sat in.  The book can be read. The chair rocks. You think the book rocks too, but sadly, you don't count, now. 

It's time for the book to be read. I hope you have a group of readers that will review your book and give you an honest critique. It's almost as important as the craftsman having a sharp chisel and a well tuned saw. You might have to go so far as to pay someone to do that...an editor. There's no shame in it, and if you can afford it, I would recommend doing just that.

Another observation I've made is that when you are doing those very last final copy edits...do not get sucked into the story! It's so easy to do, but do not get sucked into the story. Find and kill the bad commas. Make the parentheses behave. But do NOT get sucked into the book.

Finally!  The end! Time for the rocking chair to go to its new home...the first grandchild's bedroom. You hope the hours spent crafting the chair will bring comfort and joy to the rock-er and the rock-ee.  You hope it will bring nothing but sweet dreams and comfort..

And finally the book is done. It's time for it to go to new homes, to be read and enjoyed by all. It occurs to you that if it makes people laugh, you too are pleased. If it makes them think, you are proud. If it makes them cry, even just a little bit...you are humbled.

I can think of no finer compliment to recieve than to be considered a craftsman, whether you are talking about my woodworking skills...or my word-working skills.

Thank you, most humbly, for your kind words these past few weeks.

Fred Limberg

Please click on the link below.  It will take you to the  Ferris' Bluff page on Amazon.com. You can read the reviews and buy the e-book.  Thanks again,  Fred

http://www.amazon.com/Ferris-Bluff-ebook/dp/B0058U7X4I/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309527424&sr=1-1

The all-important Back Cover!

While Evan is slaving away on the graphic for the back cover of Ferris’ Bluff for the actual book, it’s becoming critical that I decide on what to have printed there.  Sure, it would be easy to work up a witty blurb enticing readers to check the book out, but what I really need are some quotes—you know—some of those witty snippets you see on all the popular books.

But since I don’t know any of those famous people or have much of a track record, I guess I’ll just have to make some up. Hell, most of them sound made up anyway.

“Ferris’ Bluff—a better thriller than I ever wrote”— Michael Connerly—bestselling author

“Ferris’ Bluff is a damn fine thriller, even if it isn’t set in Florida and doesn’t have a single fish in it”—Randy Wayne Whight—author of lots of books

“I could pronounce every name in that book! Good job, Mr. Limberg, and welcome to the club”—John Lescroart, award winning author

“Ferris’ Bluff, a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat, unless you’re reading in bed. Then, not so much” Woodly Allen, author, filmmaker and clarinetist

“I really liked Fer…Fersh…Fairest…$#!t. I really liked Fershist Buff…Ferliss…Fersh…f^#&! Read Fershish Bu…Blush…$#!T!  What the bleedin’ f*%k! SHARON???”—Ozzy Ozbourne— Rock God

“At first I thought the f&%#er had ripped off my main character, the capable loner with a sense of duty, but no…he invented his own, and it’s a damn good one”—Lee Childs—thriller writer extraordinaire

“Great story, great characters, villainous villains, and even a neat romantic arc, but dude…you definitely need more guns in a story like this. Granted the Hi-Power and the PSG-1 are both really cool guns, but you need more guns”—Steven Hunter, bestselling author and respected movie critic

“Ferris’ Bluff is the kind of book that you can’t put down, like a lot of mine are” John Stanford—bestselling author

“Stunningly brilliant! Brilliantly Stunning! A tour de force! Riveting! Smashing! A debut worthy of Broadway and the red carpet! Absolutely Smashingly Brilliant and Stunning!”—Book Blurb Generator—used by dozens of real authors who haven’t got time to actually read the frigging book

“If you buy one book this summer, buy mine—but if you buy two, buy Ferris’ Bluff after you’ve bought mine”—Tom Glancy, the king of techno-thrillers and really long novels

“Layered well thought-out plot, characters that come to life as soon as you meet them, and an ending that leaves your ears ringing…Ferris’ Bluff has it all” Diane Grobenstein (one of James Paterson’s hundreds of co-authors and soon to be on the best seller lists)

Hope you got a chuckle out of this. I did. That’s kind of sad and telling isn’t it…

Please feel free to add your own back cover blurbs in the comments section—I mean, c’mon, a guy can’t have too many brilliantly smashing reviews, can he?

From my pal, Lilian

o          If you’re a fan of thrillers, adventures and chases and stuff,
Then do yourself a favour – invest in “Ferris’ Bluff”.
Once you’ve started reading, you’ll be rooted to the spot
As the action just keeps going and the pursuit is getting hot.
There’s even a little sweetener for those who like romance
But I won’t give it all away –buy the book and take a chance.


“Ferris’ Bluff” by Fred Limberg, as recommended by Lilian (Verse_Artiste) Kendrick

Yesterday...no, not the Beatles song

Yesterday I was just hanging out on my boat in the marina, sipping an icy Negra Modelo (or 2) and listening to a ballgame on the radio.

Bliss.

I felt like I was taking a break from work, believe it or not. If you've got an e-book recently published online you know what I'm talking about. Hours of bouncing from link to link, forum to forum, trying to get a handle on just where the readers are lurking so you can give them an e-pitch...

It's kind of fun and interesting, for sure...but draining. And you never know if it's working. Short term, a couple of sales overnight feels like a victory, though maybe a small one given the hours you were clicking away. 

Long term? Who the hell knows.

Back in the day, when I was starting up the plumbing company, I was the master of what was called
Guerilla Marketing--you know...non-traditional ways to advertise. What are the non-traditional ways to promote on the internets? For cryin' out loud, what are the traditional ways to advertise?

Also back in the day, the best advertising was 'word-of-mouth'.  I have no doubt the same is true here in The Matrix...no doubt at all. I just need some mouths, I guess, which brings the conundrum full circle.

But it beats waiting for a rejection letter or e-mail for a book you KNOW kicks ass by a mile...and gives you a perfectly good reason to open another icy beer...

The "VALUE" of your work

I got into a discussion yesterday about pricing and the value (or lack of it) of a book. It got me thinking about all sorts of things, business related and ego related.

When a new product is launched the maker has to entice and encourage others to try it, and thus choose that product over another that might be similar. Let's use crackers as an example, because as we all know, most writers are a little bit crackers.

There are lots of different crackers already on the market. Some are salty, some cheezy, some good for you, some wholesome, some not so wholesome. Your new cracker is similar to the others of it's kind, comes in a similar sized well-designed package, and should have a similar shelf price to the Ritzy ones and the Elvin ones. Eventually, you'll get that price because you've produced a really good cracker but when it's introduced you need to nudge the buyer into choosing your new cracker over an established brand.

You could offer a money back guarantee, but in truth...that's implied and available with every sale, anyway.

You could pack 20% more crackers in the box for the same price, and with crackers, that is a good incentive.

Or you could have a sale. You price your new crackers at 20 or 30 or even 50% less than the other crackers on the shelf. People notice! They say,"what the heck, I'm gonna give these a try!" and they buy a box.

You don't make any money on that sale (not with crackers, anyway) but lo and behold--the customer liked your crackers! They served them at a party! They mentioned them to a person or two or three.

Suddenly you get a call from the market that they are out of your crackers and they want to order more!

And this new batch is priced at or near(er) the price point of the Ritzys and the Elfies!

The VALUE of the product didn't change, merely the cost. So it is , I think with e-books.

I see nothing wrong with pricing Ferris' Bluff at 99 cents, other than the fact that my ego takes a hit with every sale! It's not going to be that price forever, and as it gains an audience and continued 5 star reviews, a price of $2.99 or whatever the market will both bear and allow (think about that one!) is not out of the question.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when the crackers went on sale the Ritzy's and the Elfies were a little pissed off cause, see, that strategy cost them some sales in the short term...and if the quality of MY crackers remains high, it will cost them market share in the long run.

Hey, that's business.

Enjoy reading Ferris' Bluff at a bargain price. Choose to spend your precious reading time with MY book, not somebody else's.

Just don't read it in bed...the crumbs, you know....

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058U7X4I

From Amazon.com/UK

5.0 out of 5 stars This is so good., 6 July 2011

By 

I bite - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ferris' Bluff (Kindle Edition)

My first taste of a Kindle book and, wow, this one blew me away. Fred Limberg puts together a story as carefully as a brain surgeon, wielding words like a laser scapel, sharp, insightful and pin-point accurate. The prose is a joy to read and the plot builds like the layers of a well-constructed pyramid. And don't think the apostrophe in the title is misplaced; it's not, as becomes apparent as the story unfolds. It's a variation of the stranger-comes-to-town genre. Ace soon falls foul of the town's 'Boss-hog' and soon uncovers enough hidden chicanery, murder and greed to satisfy the most ardent thrill-seeker. Ace puts himself on the line bringing his past to town with a final satisfying scene where good whups evil.
Great characters in Ace, Annie and Leets, great action throughout, keeping the reader glued to the screen. Love and tenderness has a place too with two wounded souls finding each other in the mayhem of a small town in Arkansas. At the price, you get much more of a bang for less than a buck. Buy it, read it, love it.

Wouldn't it be nice...

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a place on the big honking internet where a person who likes to read thrillers could log on and see what's new and tempting?

Just, you know...thrillers.

Oh, wait, there are about a thousand of them...damn it! And that's not counting the 800 pound gorilla that is Amazon, the 600 pound orangutang that is B&N, and the pesky chimp that is Smashwords!

With Ferris' Bluff out there now my thoughts are turning to promotion and trying to think of ways to get people to notice the book and maybe buy it. I'm not close to worrying. Panic isn't even on the radar, but a guy has to wonder.

Oh, I'm sure there are any number of people who, for a reasonable fee, will tell me everything they think I need to know about promoting my book on the internets. I'd even consider hiring one if they would agree to take their fee on a per-book-sold basis. I don't think that's gonna happen.

I'm learning about the kindleboards and forums. That's kind of interesting but time consuming (what isn't?). I've found a listing of e-book reviewers to submit the book to. That's interesting too, but it immediately made me think of the bad old days of querying and querying and querying. I'll be doing it, though, because that seems to be what's done.

And no, I ain't worried about getting a bad review...not one bit!

For the first time since I sold my business (almost 6 years ago, now) I'm having to think about time management and prioritizing tasks. That sounds like work! It is work! This was not in the handout! Writing is supposed to be storytelling and communing with your muse and coming up with witty shit and quirky characters...not scheduling your day.

When's a guy supposed to write?
I got editing to do. When am I supposed to work on Dodge or First Murder?
How many hours should I spend on forums and blogs?
How often should I blog?
How many times can I pimp Ferris' Bluff on Facebook before people start hating me? (and how many books can I truly expect to sell there?)
Should I be tweeting? Tweeting sounds stupid. I don't tweet. Should I be tweeting?
What the hell is a blog tour?
I gotta make the final decisions about the design of Ferris' Bluff for the POD.
Back cover art...can't forget about that.
The lawn needs mowing. Can I strap my laptop to the John Deere and musti-task? Will the wireless internet thingy reach that far?
When's a guy supposed to actually write?

Well, I signed up for this so I guess the best I can do is just keep learning and plugging away and calling on 30 years of business skills (dusty, but not forgotten) to help me get it all done.

And maybe hire a kid to mow the grass...

3 FOR 3!!!! Ferris' Bluff is out there folks!

Stage one is now complete! 

Ferris' Bluff is available on Amazon (for Kindle only at present), through B&N (for the Nook), and through Smashwords for just about anything else you can read a book on.

I can't say enough good about my team--yeah, I consider them a team--Team Freddie!

Amy and Tina at 52 Novels are great to work with. Through a hail of gunfire, even, they tweaked Ferris' Bluff so it works on all the e-platforms and looks GREAT!

We had a little trouble getting the damn thing up on Smashwords, and we still aren't real sure why things just started working this morning, but it's up and available for sale. I have no doubts that it was my fault it got glitchy, but Tina sorted it out. If you are looking for folks to help you format your work I highly recommend them.

Props to my illustrator, Evan Simonet, for the cover art too. He's amazing. See, I had this picture I found somewhere--it's the one I used on Authonomy and have associated with Ferris' Bluff for a couple of years now. Well, I didn't own the rights to it. Evan turned it into a graphic, added Ace and Annie and the other stuff (I helped!...with suggestions only...) and came up with the complete cover. You can track him down at esimonet(at)hotmaildotcom if you think his cover art style would work for your book.

Some people have commented that it looks a little cartoonish. I guess some people think all book covers should fit some kind of photo-mosaic mold. I think its cool. I hope to hell it helps sell some books!

Kelley, my wife (aka the Sainted One), is also part of Team Freddie. She's become a pretty good critic over the years and gives me good advice early on now as I write these stories.

I've set the price for Ferris' Bluff at $2.99 for now on all three platforms, but if you buy it on Smashwords this weekend use the coupon code SK73M and it's only .99(why isn't there a cents sign on this stupid computer?).

What the hell...as soon as I post this blog I'm going to hop over and set the Kindle and Nook prices at .99(still no cents sign, damnit!) for the holiday weekend and into next week too! And be sure to leave a review when you're done.

Happy reading and have a wonderful 4th of July. I'm heading out on the St. Croix later today for a bit of boat floating, maybe a bit of fishin', and a couple of frosty adult beverages to celebrate!

                                       FERRIS' BLUFF...ONLY .99 CENTS!

Okay, it might take a little time for the price changes to show up on Amazon and B&N, I just found out. Hang in there!