hopefully better) copy to go with the image. Then my art director friend helped me after hours to scan in the image into Photoshop and position the copy to make it look nice. My portfolio was full of ads constructed in this way: image from a real magazine ad plus my headline and copy. I showed my portfolio to one of the partners at my ad agency and he said I was on the right track, but they didn't have any junior copy writing positions open. So I decided to start freelance copy writing. That way, when a position did open up, I'd have some real-world experience to show. I went on a few interviews and racked up quite a few projects. But here's the interview that to this day haunts me:
By: Heather Davis,
on 4/29/2010
Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: giveaway, Stephanie Hale, Heather Davis, release week, The Alpha Bet, Add a tag
In celebration of her book about lies told... we are dishing about lies this week on the blog. You've heard some whoppers already - I mean, who can beat Tina's story about being a made-up physicist leading to meeting her true love - but I wanted to talk about a different kind of lie.
Did you ever see the movie The Usual Suspects? It's one of my favorites and has one of the best endings ever written in Hollywood. In the movie, Kevin Spacey says a line something like, "The greatest lie the devil ever told was convincing mankind that he didn't exist." It's a prophetic statement because it has much to do with the unfolding plot, but it also seems to point to a bigger idea about the world.
So what's your greatest lie ever told?
The longer I live, the more I realize the greatest lie ever told (and continue to tell!) is, "I can handle this on my own." How many times have I said those words, only to realize that I need my friends, family, and other folks to help me handle something.
Sometimes it's a good lie. Seriously, for perfectionists or overachievers, the lie that everything's fine and it's all going to work out, is almost a necessary mantra. It's part of optimism, a little bit of ego that helps you push through whatever task is at hand. The part that comes as a surprise is just how much you do need other people to help you get the job done. And, even more surprising is the fact that even though you are nowhere near perfect, it's okay to let them see you in your imperfection. They want to help you. And, P.S. -- they already know you're not perfect!
Need an example? Picture me baking four dozen buttermilk biscuits the night before my launch party for The Clearing and trying to manage those along with the other snacks, getting into a cute dress, preparing my talk, and packing for a vacation that was supposed to happen the very next day. When my handsome entourage of one came to pick me up, I just about collapsed into his arms from the sheer relief.
The reality is that you need your loved ones to help you out. You need your friends to cheer you across the finish line. Sometimes, I need reminding.
By: Marley Gibson,
on 4/27/2010
Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: contest, ghost huntress, Stephanie Hale, the guidance, The Alpha Bet, Add a tag
What an awesome week! Huge congrats go out to Stephanie for her brand new release, THE ALPHA BET! Can't wait to read it when my Amazon deliveries catch up to my traveling ways.
Oooo...pretty cover...
We're talking lies this week...and I've compiled a list of, perhaps, the greatest lies of all time. See what you think:
• The check's in the mail.
• I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
• I thought I already gave you that money I owed you.
• I promise I'll pay you back next Friday.
• Now we're even.
• I'm fine.
• We'll have the repairs on your car done by noon.
• You look like you haven't aged a day.
• No, I don't think that outfit makes you look fat.
• This is what it will cost to repair your car.
• If elected, I promise...
• You're going to love working here.
• I don't know what you're talking about.
• Please hold, and a customer service representative will be with you shortly.
• I'll only take a minute of your time.
• Our cellular phones will give you more freedom...
• 100% compatible with your existing equipment.
• I'm being totally unbiased.
• I'll call you.
• This will hurt me more than it does you.
• I'm doing this for your own good.
• Oh well, no harm done...
• I didn't do it.
• I don't know who did it.
• We are experiencing a peak level of call volume...
• You may already be a winner!
• This product was made in an environmentally friendly manner.
• I know it's none of my business...
• I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but...
• It's nothing personal.
• New and Improved!
• Trust me. We found and fixed the last bug!
• The software will ship on schedule.
And those last two lead me to my confessed lie. Yes...I sold vaporware. (Vaporware is a word used to describe products, usually computer hardware or software, not released on the date announced by their developer, or announced months or years before their release.)
For four years, I worked in the dot.com (or, as I'd like to call it dot.bomb) industry at a company called SureSell Multimedia. We sold software for home builders. It was a noble idea, but, as the term vaperware implies, we just didn't have the finances, the personnel, or the development team to quite pull off the final product. Still, as the marketing and events director, I sent out marketing materials, fancied up the website, went to tradeshows, demoed the software and did all I could to sell it. Mind you...the 1.0 version worked just fine, but to compete in the highly competitive tech market, our 2.0 version had to sparkle, shine, cook breakfast for you and your kids, and drive them to school afterwards. Suffice it to say...the software never came to fruition. I was on vacation in Paris when I got the call that the company went kaput.
The things we do for a paycheck, eh? LOL!! I think that falls into the category of a "necessary lie." Don't you?
CONTEST
So...what "necessary lie" have you told? For a chance to win a copy of THE ALPHA BET and a copy of GHOST HUNTRESS: THE GUIDANCE, let us know you're "necessary lie." Be sure to check out the other posts this week and comment to increase your chances to win! Come back on Sunday, when the list of winners will be posted.
Hugs,
Marley = )
~*~ Ghosts don't hang up their sheets on November 1st~*~
GHOST HUNTRESS: THE REASON, May 2010
By: Tera Lynn Childs,
on 4/27/2010
Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Tera Lynn Childs, Stephanie Hale, The Alpha Bet, Add a tag
Yet another release week, here on the Buzz blog. This time it's Buzz girl Steph with her fourth book, THE ALPHA BET. (Do you have your copy yet? You should! If not, don't worry, because you can win one every day this week. Keep reading to find out how.)
To help Steph celebrate, we're all supposed to share a lie from our past. This is tough for me because I never lie. Okay, I try to never lie. Partly because I'm really bad at it, but mostly because I think it's not very nice. Still, in the interest of Buzz girl solidarity, I will share my shameful secret.
Any writer who has ever been to writer's conference knows the joys (and terrors) of pitching your book to an agent or editor. This is a session, usually 8 to 10 minutes long, in which you try to convince them that you're book is the greatest book ever written, while trying to disguise the fact that you really think it might be total crap. Sessions vary from author to author and from agent to agent, but there are a few unwritten rules to every pitch.
- Be succinct.
- Be professional.
- Have questions ready in case there's a lull.
- Remember that agents and editors are people, too.
- Never, ever lie and say a book is finished when it's not.
I never set out to lie. In my defense, both times I was pitching to agents who NEVER EVER requested full manuscripts. It wouldn't even be an issue. They would request the partial (three chapters and a synopsis), which I had at the ready, and by the time they requested the full, the book would be done.
Only they didn't request the partial. The requested the full.
Rather than admit the books were unfinished (each was more than a hundred pages from being done) and potentially lose an opportunity, I just said, "Uh-huh. Oh, yeah, it's finished." Thankfully I survived both these situations because I am a VERY FAST writer and I excel under the pressure of a deadline. And I wanted a writing career way more than I waned anything as insignificant as sleep.
If I had the chance to do it all over, I would totally lie again.
Contest
So you see what kind of lengths I was willing to go to in order to become a professional writer. (Pretty much anything short of murder and animal cruelty was fair game.) For a chance to win a copy of THE ALPHA BET and your choice of OH. MY. GODS. and GODDESS BOOT CAMP, comment your answer to the following question:
What would or wouldn't you do to achieve your dream?Be sure to check out the other posts this week and comment to increase your chances to win! And come back on Sunday, when the list of winners will be posted.
Hugs,
TLC
OH. MY. GODS. and GODDESS BOOT CAMP (out now)
FORGIVE MY FINS (coming June 1, 2010)
By: TinaFerraro,
on 4/26/2010
Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Stephanie Hale, The Alpha Bet, Add a tag
We are celebrating Stephanie Hale’s newest release, The Alpha Bet this week, with a daily giveaway of a signed copy the book. So be sure to comment each day to be entered to win!
Relating to the theme of The Alpha Bet, we’re going to be talking about lies we have told. And I must start with the line I’ve tried to live by all these years: if you’re going to lie, make sure you do it well. In other words, do not do what I did...
Okay...back in my single days, I found myself in a nightclub in Copenhagen. My friends had disappeared, and I was sort of killing time waiting for them, when this guy about my age approached me. We started talking about both being Americans on vacation in Europe...and then he asked me where I worked.
I told him the name of the university, and that I worked in the physics department. Where I was, incidentally, the office manager. I expected the usual so-what-do-you-do-there, and he really shocked me by instead asking what I had written my Ph.D thesis on.
And suddenly, I had this scathingly brilliant idea. I mean, here I was in Europe, talking to some guy I would never see again. What the heck? So I took a breath and relayed the title of a research paper that one of our professors had just had published.
Funny, huh? I thought so. Until he responded with a physics-lingo-appropriate question. 
It turned out he was a physicist. And he was familiar with my “research topic,” my department, and my “co-workers,” (actually, my bosses). WHAT WERE THE ODDS OF THIS?
Happy, he started talking shop. Relativistic this-and-that, thermo-whatsis, hydro-whatever. While adrenaline raced through me. How could I get out of there? Where are my friends? And worst of all...if he showed up at my office, could I get fired for “impersonating a physicist?”
When it was my turn to speak, I impulsively blurted out: “I can’t...have this conversation. You don’t understand.” Then I really started lying. Because what better way to get out of a lie? “My--my husband and I divorced because we couldn’t talk about anything but physics. And I swore I’d never date another one. Or if I did, we wouldn’t talk about work.” (To be very clear, no such ex-husband existed.)
Stupid? Totally! Because of course, now to top things off, the guy thinks I’m interested in him romantically!
I made it through another hour or so, then my friends returned and we hit the door. He followed me, saying the next time he was at my university, he would look me up. Would this ever end?
So when I got back to my office a couple weeks later, I had no choice but to tell the front office staff what happened, so if he showed up, to say I no longer worked there. The story, of course, wen
Amazing? Wow! I'll take that. ;) I am loving this story although it was probably horrible to live through. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! Painful.
My example is much more minor, but it still rankles. Freshman year in college, I was at a very challenging science/engineering school. Once, my chem homework included a problem that had the abbreviation MeOH -- and all I knew was that Me wasn't an element, but I didn't know what MeOH meant.
So after trying several ways to figure it out, I solved the problem as best I could, and wrote "I looked up MeOH in three different chemistry textbooks and none of them said what it is" (which I had.)
My professor, when grading it, wrote "I find that hard to believe" next to that.
Grrr...
Cara
My junior year of college, I was falsely accused of possible plagiarism by my English professor. I had a ridiculously difficult schedule and totally muffed my first paper in that class because I had two lit papers and exams in two upper level math classes due on the same date. So, I spent more time on the other class's paper and knew I needed to really kick butt on that class's final paper to get my grade back up to where it should be.
I worked SO hard on that paper. I'd chosen to examine the biblical symbolism in the book (can't even remember which one now). I seriously looked up every proper noun in the work, just in case it might have some kind of Christian connection. And I wrote a FANTASTIC paper—the only weak point was the required quote from a piece of published criticism to support my thesis, since I couldn't find any critical essays about that theme. So, I went with a really vague quote that kind of supported it, and prayed he'd like my paper enough to overlook the fact I didn't go with an obvious thesis that had a lot of quotes available.
The professor didn't have any hard evidence I'd plagiarized. Instead, he suspected it because of the stark difference between the quality of my two papers. I showed him my pages and pages of research, and explained the process I'd gone through to form my thesis. As I pointed out to him, I'd had so much trouble finding a supporting quote that it would have been impossible for me to copy the ideas, much less the words, from anyone else. (He did mention that my thesis had been gaining ground within the literary community in recent years, but that the information was probably not available to me.)
Eventually, he reexamined my work and raised my grade on the paper from a D to a B, which annoyed me since he'd basically been saying that my paper was too good for me to have written—so why wasn't it worth an A?
That incident still burns me up. It's one thing to accuse someone of plagiarizing if their work shows some similarity to someone else's work, but it another to accuse an overworked English major with a high grade point average of cheating just because she wrote one mediocre paper. Grrr.
Yikes! Stressful, Wendy. I'm glad you lived to fight another day.
You *are* amazing, Steph! :)
Cara, that's so annoying.
And Elizabeth, I'm so sorry. After all that, it should've been an A.
Thanks, Heather!(fight, fight, fight) :)
usually if I'm accused of lying, it's because I am; I can tell a joke with a straight face, but I can't hide it when I'm hiding something. However, I often hide little things on my sister, just to keep her off balance, but then if she misplaces something for real, she accuses me. Go figure?
This happened during one of my study groups. I woke up that morning feeling particularly chirpy and giggly. It also happened that we were discussing sexually based offenses that day and my study group accused me of being embarrassed by the topic which explained my behavior. It wasn't true and I told them so but my friends refused to believe me. They thought they had me pegged and went on to give me a long lecture about how immature I was and all. Needless to say, that put an end to my cheery mood. There's nothing worse than telling the truth and no one believing it!
nymfaux, I hear you. Sometimes it comes back to (as my boys love to hear me say) nip you in the butt.
Llehn, that's actually kind of funny methinks. :)
Thanks for commenting everybody! Winners of Steph's The Alpha Bet will be drawn and announced soon!
Wow Harsh! Well I've been accused of lying, but not for anything as serious as that! Probably just my mum not believing that I haven't eaten her candy ;)
Today's winner is Elizabeth Encarnacion. Please send your info to [email protected]
Wow, Wendy, what a story! How upsetting for you! And what struck me was it was like the opposite of mine: you weren't lying and got accused, I was lying and kept waiting to get caught!
And what came to mind in the resolution of your tale was one of the final scenes from the movie, WORKING GIRL, and how she uses similar smarts to protect her reputation. Check that out someday if you haven't already seen it!
Interesting, Tina. I've seen that movie but I'll have to pay better attention. Nice connection.
Congrat's, Elizabeth!
And thanks everybody for commenting!
Well, I don't know if this answers your question, but I was once accused of plagiarism. Someone told me a poem I wrote was so good, it could only have been ripped off from some famous poet's work! :-0
Well, Bee, I can honestly say my poetry has never been complimented like that! :)
When I did a really good job on a test (Algebra test, all A's), my mom really thought I had cheated. I wonder, should I be offended by her doubt? :D