Since people have found out that I am an author, I get requests to edit their short stories or other writing ventures. It’s hard to say, “Actually, I HATE editing. But I finally did it on Monday when a friend called asking me to edit the first page of his memoir. I told him the truth. Editing a well-written piece of writing can be a joy, but when the work has so many spelling mistakes in it or is poorly written, it is a true chore. Having worked as an editor for a short period of time at a newspaper, I improved my writing a great deal by seeing how well others crafted their prose. Mind you, I was cutting New York Times and Associated Press articles for an English language daily in South America. I was “editing” professionally composed articles.

My advice is that if you truly don’t like to edit, then tell people that. It’s better to be honest than to begrudgingly read something you don’t like.
The same goes if you are a writer and you ask people to edit your work. If you don’t think they will do it with all their heart and will just do it because they feel like they have to, then be honest with them and ask them if they’d prefer you find someone else. Hiring a professional editor is a good idea because a professional can give you an objective opinion. If you can’t afford a professional, do a barter with them or find a retired school teacher who may not charge much.

In any case, be honest both as the reader and as the author.

Martina is a German author who writes in English.

1. Your name

Martina Osterndorff

2. Titles of the work you have on Bookrix

In her shell

3. What is your writing method?

I actually am a morning person in everything I do. Whenever I start early in the morning, I can go for hours. That also fits for my writing as for other things as well.

4. How long have you been writing?

I started back in second grade, already, when I began to rewrite those little texts we had in our textbooks. I kept on writing ever since.

5. How do you maintain your regular job while writing?

I still am a full-time student, so I actually am pretty free in organizing my time and space. That is how I can make myself some writing time when I really need it. I will be finishing my studies, soon and have no clew how I will be developing my writing maintenance then.

6. Do you have special places where you go to write?

Although it’s not very asthetic, I admit I just write on my old laptop. so i’m mostly sitting in my room while writing. I do keep a notebook, wherever I go, though, just to write down thoughts that cross my mind. I realized, that there are sentences that will never come back to you, once you didn’t wrote them down.

7. Do you want to make a living from your wordsmith skills or are you doing this for fun?

I would really like that, actually. I dreamt of becoming a writer when I was a kid. Athough, I feel there is still a pretty long way to go until I might be skilled enough, I keep on writing and following my dreams – no matter if they ever come true or not.

8. What are your stories about? Are they fiction or non-fiction?

My stories are mostly non-fictional, though never biographical. I love to observe small things and to analyze them in my stories. I observe the society, as it is and try to bring that observation into my stories.

9. Do you have a lesson in your stories? Do you have a philosophical or moral mission you are showing in your work?

My mission is probably to achieve a new view on society and to offer that view to others. I try not to judge, though.

10. What advice do you have for other authors?

Just be yourself, in anything you do. Although, you seem small in comparison to the world, you can still make a change.

11. Please write anything else you’d like for the Bookrix blog.

In the end, it should be all about the pure love for writing.

Tips from author Kitty Jellinek

What writing tips do you have for other authors?

“My Butchers Paper On The Wall” – Planning to write a book.

When planning a book, I take a large piece of paper, tape it to a wall and place the central idea in the middle. [I use a strong black marker pen].
Radiating out from the central idea, I write the first things that come into my head surrounding that idea on the paper.
So for instance let’s say I was going to write a novel on the “sea faring adventures of yesteryear”
My central idea “Old Sailing Ships” – surrounded by – masts, sails, halyard, forequarter decks, mainsail, scull and cross bones, pirates, eye patch, sea spray, barrels, wooden decks, ships officers, etc; etc; I just keep jotting down everything that flies into my head on the topic around the central idea.
Then I get myself a cup of coffee and study my jottings on the wall. If there are not many words written around my central idea – I know my schema is not sufficient – I have to do some research on the topic. If on the other hand the words surrounding my central idea flowed like water out of a barrel, I know that I have sufficient knowledge on the topic to write about it.
Looking at the jotted words on the wall usually gets my imagination running wild and a story starts to formulate around the central idea.

As the story starts to unfold in my mind I write headings for chapters on separate foolscap pages and paste them to the wall surrounding my butchers paper.
On the foolscap pages I write a list of topics to be covered within that chapter.
Once I have completed all my chapter pages I have completed the plan for my book.
Now it’s time to head to my computer and write up the content within my chapters.
I write as fast as I can – letting all the ideas flow. I don’t worry about style, punctuation, grammar, etc; at this stage. I just want to get the guts of the story down while it’s fresh.
Once I have the story down – then I start crafting my work – this is where I spend the most time, usually takes me around two years to craft a book of around 600 pages.

What suggestions do you have for social media marketing?

Be Social, in other words address others’ concerns, before ramming your concerns down their throats.

What works best for you to market your book?

In one word: MyScribeWeb.com

1. Your name

My name is Michael Alan Pennington. My web site can be found here.

2. Title of your work on BookRix:

My book is entitled “Zhena“.

3. What is your writing method?

I am currently assigned to a team at the Naval War College in Newport, RI. As part of my job, I travel a great deal all over the world (about a week to ten days a month). As a result, I have a lot of free time in
airports, on planes, and in hotels. This is the time I use for writing most. My brain does not idle well and I had always had a few ideas floating around in my head so about a year ago, I decided to see if I could make them work.

4. How long have you been writing?

I started writing a little over a year ago.

5. How do you maintain your regular job while writing?

As I said, as an officer in the Navy, it was always difficult to find time to write. With my current job, I have more free time while on the road. It’s still difficult to juggle my job, my family, and being an author but I’m finding it fun and challenging.

6. Do you have special places where you go to write?

I really don’t need anywhere special to write. It seems the more free time I have, the more I’m able to let my mind wander and ask myself, “What if?” That is entirely how my first novel “Zhena” came to pass. “What if there were Soviet sleeper spies in the US who were forgotten about when the Cold War ended?” I use the same thought process within the book as well.

7. Do you have any quirks when writing?

As a submarine officer, I’m trained to multi-task.  Thus I actually sometimes do better when I have a few things on my mind.  I will be working on whatever my current work project is and yet in the back of my mind, I’m still trying to advance my story.  When I have time, then I write down what I’ve thought about.  I never know how my stories are going to end.  I just take them to a logical conclusion after the “what if” question.  My main goal is to make sure the reader never says “oh come on, that would never happen.”

8. What’s inspires you?

I get inspired by current events as well as other authors. I like to look at news releases and see how I could apply them to current plot lines.

9. Do you want to make a living from your wordsmith skills or are you doing this for fun?

I would love to be able to write full time, especially after I retire. I realize it’s unlikely, but right now I’m just looking for fun as well as a little money on the side.

10. What are your stories about?

My one novel (currently working on the sequel) is about a woman named Susan Anderson. She is married to a submarine officer who is on deployment. She has two children and was raised in an orphanage. One day she received a mysterious phone call which awakens in her numerous latent abilities including martial arts and weapons skills. It also activates a mysterious “voice” which is continuously giving her advice on how to complete the current “mission” though she has no idea what the “mission” is. Her goal is to solve this mystery and keep the truth about it from her family before her husband returns from sea.

11. Do you have a lesson in your stories?

There is no deep morale meaning here. I just want the reader to have fun and not be able to put the book down.

12. What advice do you have for other authors?

For other authors, write about what you know. I know many people say this but it’s true. Every major event and place in my book is somewhere I have either visited or am familiar with. It made the writing flow so much easier and the story truly plausible.

I am currently working on the sequel to Zhena and it will be entitled Dohch. I hope anyone who reads it enjoys it and I keep them guessing till the end.

This week’s writing tips come to you from BookRix author, Kelly Abell.

What writing tips do you have for other authors? *

Write your back cover first. That way you know where you want your story to go and your basic outline is there. Then you can begin to fill in the details chapter by chapter. You may also want to build out character personality profiles before writing your story so you understand your characters and what little quirks they may have that might embarrass you later.

What suggestions do you have for social media marketing?

Keep your name out there. Blog or post something at a minimum daily if you can. Keep your posts interesting with information people like to read. It could be something a little personal about you as an author, fun facts, or tibits on writing.

What works best for you to market your book?

Word of mouth mostly. That and getting interviews with blog sites. I also had an article written on my in my local community newspaper and that seemed to help get the word out about my book.

Are there any writing pitfalls about which you want to warn other writers?

Don’t allow yourself to become discouraged. It is easy to fall into a pit of despair as you wait to get something you’ve written published. Keep submitting and keep trying. Make sure your work is tip top before you send it in though. That helps to minimize the rejections. Oh, and write for the fun of it!

1) Your name: William Gough

2) Titles of the work you have on Bookrix:

Maud’s House: Sonic Theatre
Twenty-five years ago this novel was hailed when it first arrived. In 2009 I’ll be releasing the Sonic Theatre Audio-Book. Perhaps it’s time for you to meet Maud in this script for voices?

…REVIEWS OF “Maud’s House” – (the novel) :
…it’s clear that the richness of language as it is spoken in Newfoundland is in Gough’s literary blood.” Michael Harris(The Globe and Mail)/  “Maud’s House is a wonderful book, a treat to read, and one of the best books I’ve read this year, period…” Peter Gard(The Evening Telegram)/ “Maud’s House is… to laugh and cry over, and in the end to ‘dance.” Roy MacGregor, author of ‘The Last Season/ “Gough’s writing is…poignant, spare with the strength and subtlety of a fine woodcut…” E. Annie Proulx.

Deaths Of Friends I’ve Never Met
As a poet I become guardian of other people’s stories as well as my own & frequently I hear of death.  Such stories always change me.

Shinto Poem Field: Poems for Departed Friends
This is the place where I remember friends and relatives.

I add other poems here.

Singing Underwater: A Story of the Little Old Woman who Lives in a Fishbowl
No need to breathe air; releasing his poems from the afterlife;  having shared his green bicycle & married, placing a plum blossom in his lapel; now past being old, he lives underground – and his widow carries her tales like a comet. Yet another story of the little old man in a big room.

Inside The Painted Poem Cave
He doesn’t own any curtains; and now he makes paper from vegetables.  Having lost his green bicycle, and arranged plum blossoms in a vase, he becomes old and  meets a woman in the adjoining room.  Another story of the little old man in a big room.

My Room Has No Curtains
No longer imprisoned by curtains, recently released by vegetables, discovered back on his green bicycle, celebrated by plum blossoms; yet another boyhood story of the little boy in a big room.

Sonic Ocean
A powerful and evocative poem about childhood in Newfoundland.

Sonic Poet:  The Radio Drama Version of “Poet In A Pontiac
The reunion that brings former students to the edge – and over it.  Now – In Sonic Theatre Form.

MoonLight
This is my song for Caren in our 13th year of celebrating being together. St. John’s. Newfoundland. April 20, 2009. If I were to choose one book to represent my work – this would be it.

Dogs Of A Strange Town
“Dogs of a Strange Town” is a fable, a novella & a poem. William Gough tells the story of a Gargoyle who wants a child, and of a lost child who drifts from Piano Island until he floats to the shores of our world. This novella explores what happens when a Gargoyle Poet gives birth.

Vegetable Talk
Imprisoned by curtains, surrounded by vegetables, lost on his bicycle, caught by plums; another boyhood story of the little boy in a big room.

Celestial Guardian: The Stageplay
What happens when we realize that the greatest border of all is unguarded?

Poet In A Pontiac: The Stageplay
In “Poet In A Pontiac”: The Stageplay.”  the author sets out to create a word-movie on stage – an inner film that unspools in the mind.

You’ll find my Poem-Movie available with my other published books here.

3) What is your writing method? Do you wake up super early in the morning? Do you burn the midnight oil drinking coffee to stay awake while penning your passion?

Both of the above & more.  I write as I walk, but don’t carry pen, paper or notebook.   Most of the work is applied attention & disconnection from outcome.   It is always with me.

4) How long have you been writing?

First novella in Grade Six – 1956, Sci-Fi, and Poetry from the time I could measure and rhyme & learn that the world was something to discover – not be ‘taught’ about.  It’s an ‘is’ not a ‘becoming’.

5) How do you maintain your regular job while writing?

This is my regular job.  Sometime I make money, more times I don’t.  The job is its own reward – the payment is a bonus.  Sometimes I have no food, other times I have food.   The poetry is the food even when there’s none on the table.  And no table to put the ‘none’ on – lol.

6) Do you have special places where you go to write?

Varies.  Often, I prefer crowded coffee shops where there are other writers, the kind of place where there’s a table I always get if I’m there early enough (Thanks in particular to Cafe Sole in Boulder, Colorado, and the 14th St. Caribou Coffee in DC & ROCO on Salt Spring Island.)  And then we like to be tucked away in the woods & near the Ocean while we write. My other place that’s a favorite when writing is in a small cabin in the forest.

7) Do you have any quirks when writing? Do you need to shut off your phone for the weekend or stay away from family and friends?

Caren Moon (my wife) & I also shut ourselves away in our little cabin when we write – which is everyday. I tend to talk to my work – sometimes I hum while writing – believing that the art of silent reading has robbed us of out throat-music in words.  By humming or singing we make of the writing impulse something both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the head.  It becomes the neck of the bellows.

8 ) What inspires you?
The world – the people of the world, animals of the world, light, shapes, texture, strangers, friends, odd songs, shadows, being a profound mix of stardust and crap – all in the one being.

9) Do you want to make a living from your wordsmith skills or are you doing this for fun?

Both.  The ‘making a living’ is a giant snare, wherein the rich of the world snarl our tangled ideas, tighten the grip on the poor person’s neck & and bury us all by hoarding money so they may control the natural democratic delights of all beings.  Living is our job – and there is no boss.

10) What are your stories about? Are they fiction or non-fiction?

As a writer, all forms are open to us.  Everything is fiction.

11) Do you have a lesson in your stories? Do you have a philosophical or moral mission you are showing in your work?

I try to make it my view, to see my elusive thoughts, to hear my hidden words.  To understand that everyone I meet is my co-writer.  My readers also write each book anew when they read it.  They deserve access to my books in such a way that they are rewarded with low prices for the book they wish, and I am rewarded by a portion of the small fee they need to pay.  Flow – not stagnation is also the life-blood of money.   Husserl & Plato & Bergson are all writers – philosophy happens to be the spine of their writing – but they are writers first.  My readers can work out their own moral missions – I have little to do with that, nor is it my aim.  Freedom embraces all.

12) What advice do you have for other authors?

Write as if you’re on a grassy ledge which stopped your head-over-kettles fall.  Write as if night is coming.  Write as if there is growling from a cave at the edge of your ledge.  Write as if you’re falling.  Write as if you’ve smashed into rocks at the bottom of the cliff and yet still can write.  Write as if you are actually here – on this earth; spinning into words, spinning from air, burning with fire, drinking the deepest of deep well water.  Write for your life.  Because then you write for all our lives.

13) Please write anything else you’d like for the BookRix blog.

Thanks for this fine site.

I dream of a ‘buck-a-book’ site where all my books may be downloaded, each time a book is downloaded I’m paid something – books do not need to cost so much.  Period.

Keep all bookz inexpensive(I’ve added the z instead of s – to emphasize that books may be printed on pixels, labels steamed from old cans of food, paper napkins in restaurants, on ends of paper caged from closing paper mills.  Books are written in departing glances, arriving eyebrows – one lifted – one level.  Books may be written on a tombstone covered in ivy, hidden, letters worn to nub-stubs; and still there is the book.  Each of us walking, each of us, pages fluttered, torn, dampened, dried in the winds of change.  Like weathervanes, we spin, like veins we beat our lifeblood, paper words, grass words, earth words, sky words, lost words, found words. )  The delight of writing is for everyone – all peoples of the earth.

Keep access to knowledge affordable & you will have low prices for everything – as knowledge is obviously the most priceless of all modalities of the earth.  This is a question of balance – not of control.
Somewhere beyond mere borders there’s an old world waiting.  Remember?  The tools may be new, the dance is antique.