I've sent Her Handyman off to my editor, the talented Helen Ginger.
While I had a little downtime I gathered everything together about the book and put it into a 7 pocket folder.
I also sorted out lots of other papers on my desk and put them into two pocket folders with huge mailing labels stuck to their tops saying what they were about.
For a brief time I'm organized, but soon I'll be going at Blessing or Curse, the sequel to Forever Young.
Then once again chaos will reign!
Morgan Mandel
I may have mentioned this somewhere before, but if so, I don't remember where.
I can be mean. I like to make my characters sick.
In Two Wrongs, my debut mystery, which will soon be re-published on Kindle, I gave the villain dyslexia.
In Killer Career, I let my main character get hypoglycemia, which I suffered from for a while myself. I've since learned how to control it.

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Forever Young
Blessing or Curse |

I'm almost through editing Forever Young-Blessing or Curse, but there's still time to add extra touches. One item I'm kicking around is whether or not to give a hobby to my main character, a 55 year old widow who turns 24.
Should she have one? Will it make her more well rounded?

My main hobbies, which have exploded into consuming occupations are writing and social networking, followed closely by reading. I love acquiring new gadgets, like my iPhone and kindle, but that's not exactly a hobby. I'm not sure if watching DVDs would qualify either. Television watching is out. Though I'd love to do so, I hardly ever find anything worthwhile on TV to watch anymore.

I took piano lessons for a few years and tried cross stitching. That was almost 30 years ago. Even further in my past, as a child I played the accordion, took tap and ballet lessons, and even went around collecting coins from change, sidewalks and park grounds.
I'm not sure if any of these hobbies would work for my character. Do you have any suggestions? Or maybe you'd just like to share your hobby.
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| Morgan Mandel |
7 Comments on Get a Hobby, last added: 10/6/2011
Today, I'm inviting everyone to leave links for your group blog, your own or others. There are many great ones out there, and we need to get the word out.
I'll start with mine -
Acme Authors Link - http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com/ - where I blog every Wednesday -
A great group of romance and mystery authors sharing experiences as authors in our genres and writing tips in general.
Make Mine Mystery - http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/ -
As the name implies, we're mystery authors. Our posts reflect that, as well as observations on the writing craft.
The Blood-Red Pencil - http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/
A group of editors and authors, who share tips on writing and editing.
All of my group blogs also host guests on occasion.
Those are mine. What are yours?

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| Morgan Mandel |
 Morgan Mandel's current romantic
suspense,
Killer Career, is 99 cents on
Kindle and
Smashwords.
Her debut mystery, Two Wrongs,
will soon be re-released on Kindle
and Smashwords starting at
99 cents.
Soon to come - A thriller -
Forever Young-Blessing or
Curse.
Real time has a way of escaping. Summer flashes by so quickly before you know it its time to get the Christmas list going.
Don't let this happen to you when you write. You need to keep your readers grounded. You can't let time of day, day of the week, month or season escape, or your readers will get confused, or even angry.You can cheat on the year, if you want to keep it generic, but you need to be consistent. For instance, you can't describe a 70's happening when you want the book to occur in present time, unless you're doing a flashback.
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Forever Young
Blessing or Curse |
While editing Forever Young-Blessing or Curse, I found spots where I'd meandered from the timeline, saying in one place three months had passed, then later I'd unintentionally jumped back to one of those past months.
It gets tricky to keep track of a timeline, but it's essential to do so. The best and easiest way to do this is by keeping track as you go along, but of course I chose the hard way. I wrote what I wanted and then had to face the consequences when I edited. I had to go back through the chapters and figure out exactly when each event took place and make corrections. For that, I started taking notes, but found that too tedious. I then proceeded to write events on a printed calendar, but couldn't fit them in, not to mention that after typing for so many years, my handwriting is hard for even me to read.
Inspiration struck and I did what I should have done at the beginning. I told Microsoft Word to find me a calendar, and it offered me a nice selection. I chose one with lines and columns on one side, holidays underneath, and on the other side the actual calendar for the year, with all the months, days and dates. With this calendar I can type in what I want and even change the column headings if I so desire. Mine say Events, Date, Time and Day. So far it's working pretty well.
I'm happy with my new way of keeping track of the timeline. Now I can be sure my readers and I both know the answer to the When Is It question.
What's your way? Or, maybe you'd like to try mine.
http://www.morganmandel.com/http://spunkyseniors.blogspot.com/ Killer Career now 99 cents
on Kindle and
Smashwords.
Some authors write the book of their heart. They enjoy the experience so much they can't and won't write any other way. When they're through, they have a quandary. What's their audience? Who will read their book?
Others right away target a specific audience before even starting their manuscript. They don't have as much trouble finding an audience.
Then there's another category. They write the book of their heart, plus have a good idea who might like it. They have the ideal situation, unless they're wrong about who'd really like their book.
For my upcoming paranormal suspense, Forever Young - Blessing or Curse, I'm hoping to belong to the last category, and also hoping the senior audience will enjoy it. If younger ones like it, that will be an added boon I'd love to happen.
What about you? Which category do you fit in? If you know your target, what is it?
Morgan Mandel
http://spunkyseniors.blogspot.com/Every Thursday a new post about a
Spunky Senior. July 7 Maggie
Toussaint goes kayaking!
My romantic suspense,
Killer Career, is 99 cents on
Kindle &
Smashwords.
Why I Won't Read a Book - These are some, but not all of my reasons for not reading a book.
1. Too much description - I like the basics, such as a general idea of a character's appearance, or habits, or surroundings. If I'm inundated with details about every little aspect of locale and its history, I'll put up with it for a while, but if it continues, I'll stop reading and go onto a book that flows for me.
2. Details I don't want to read - This is a delicate and highly subjective subject. Since I'm being honest, I have to include my own take on the matter. I don't like reading books dwelling on every little detail of a person's sex life or acts. As I mentioned, this is subjective, and I know many will disagree. I respect their right to do so. Many books sell because sex sells. Many readers look forward to such scenes, but I find them boring if they keep going on and on for infinite pages. I get the picture. I know how it works. I don't need the minutiae. That's not saying I expect characters to abstain. I just don't want certain aspects to take over the book.
3. Political or religious views I don't agree with - Again, I respect every person's right to not have the same standards or beliefs as I do. However, if an author tries to cram their standards down on me, I won't put up with it. Exceptions are if what a character says or does in a book makes sense within the framework of his own conscience or life experience and the author has done a good job explaining the reasons. Then I might continue reading.
4. Sloppy editing - Almost every book will have one or two errors, but when they multiply and become so obvious they get in the way of the story, it's too irritating to put up with.
5. Character names - Certain character names will turn me off, no matter how well written a book may seem. I can usually tell this on the first page, and won't even buy the book. I like names that are easy to read, not ones I can't pronounce out loud.
6. Too much backstory right away - I get irritated if at the beginning of a book the author throws in all kinds of explanations or events which happened before. Hints are better. However, if backstory is included later in a book I can handle it better.
7. An author's past writing history - If I've been disappointed by an author before, either because of the quality of a book, or an ending I particularly hated, I'll think real hard before deciding whether or not to read another book by that person. Usually, I won't, unless the first few pages really entice me.
8. A boring topic - This is obviously subjective, but that's okay, because I'm giving my reasons, which may be different than yours. I'm tired of books or movies about people doing daring heists. I just don't care about them. That's only one example of what bores me.
These are only a smidgeon of my reasons. Do you share any of them? Or, maybe you disagree. Share with us your reasons for not reading certain books.
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| Morgan Mandel |
Morgan's Romantic Suspense,
Print link -
Killer CareerOther links -
31 Comments on Why I Won't Read A Book by Morgan Mandel, last added: 6/25/2011
I'm thrilled to announce that my almost done paranormal thriller, Forever Young-Blessing or Curse, now has been blessed by a beautiful cover!
I have Rob's son, Stephen Walker of
http://www.srwalkerdesigns.com/, to thank for patiently collaborating with me and making it seem easy to achieve a professional product. When you're a pro, it is.
I know if I'd done it myself it would have taken much more time and effort than I was able to afford, not to mention my doing so would not have producted such great results!
I'd already seen the marvelous examples of covers Stephen had done on Rob's many covers at Amazon, so I knew I wanted him for my own.
Thanks, Rob for recommending him!
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel
Congrats on getting to the formal editing stage.
And good for you with your organization. My computer desk looks like it exploded...sigh.
Mine is barely under control, but not for long. It's not in my nature to be too neat. Wish it were.
Morgan Mandel
Congrats Morgan!! Helen always does a wonderful job editing.
Good Luck!
DL Larson