Whine-Free Week: Day Four
Day four was, I believe, a success. I worked out on the floor last night, as opposed to the cash register, which is where I’m normally stationed. The store was pretty crowded, so my whole shift was spent reshelving books people leave lying around, and helping people find what they were looking for. It’s a lot more tiring than the cash register, but talking to people about books is (of course) fun.
There was some excitement, too. I noticed a lot of teenagers hanging around last night, which (in my naiveté) I thought was a pretty cool thing. Then I saw the security guards – one uniformed, one plain clothes – hanging around the restrooms. Turns out the kids were doing drugs and flushing the evidence down the toilets. The security cameras right outside the restrooms even caught one girl dragging a boy into the girl’s room to…um…”chat”, I’m sure. Video was later shown to a shocked mother who apparently didn’t believe her baby would do such a thing.
The scary thing about bored rich kids in suburbia isn’t what they do in the public restrooms. It’s the way they so easily manipulate their parents into believing they would never do those things. Once again, I’m left with a huge appreciation for the many amazing parents I worked with when I taught high school who managed to maintain authoritative, respectful, and (believe it or not) friendly relationships with their teenagers. No small accomplishment.
Whine Free Week: Day Three
Cute. Innocent. Just like Chucky.
Yes, I skipped a day. Thursday was very much not a day sans complaining for me, and if you follow me on Facebook you’ll know why. For the sake of keeping today pleasant and whineless, I will not elaborate, but suffice it to say it started with this blog post.
Friday was lovely! It snowed! Well…it flurried! Which, in Houston, is enough to cancel school, send everyone into the depths of their closets looking for an actual, honest-to-goodness coat, and dominate the news with speculation on driving conditions, canceled high school football games, and our city’s imminent doom in an onslaught of falling alien crystals.
It was also a wonderful day to work in a bookstore, surrounded by giant windows so I could watch the snow fall, selling books to a happy crowd of Christmas shoppers. Lots of teachers came in yesterday, and I learned about an interesting item called Elf on the Shelf. It’s a stuffed elf. And a shelf. You install the little shelf on the wall of your home/classroom, place the elf on it so he’s facing the children, and tell them he is making note of who’s naughty or nice, and reports to Santa every night. Then you hide him at night, perhaps move his position, so the kids think he’s gone. One parent confessed to having him sitting at the breakfast table, mouth surrounded with crumbs, when the kids came downstairs one morning.
Funny? Yes. Sadistic? Perhaps. It might not be a surprise if, in a few years, child psychologists are faced with little ones lying on the couch, weeping at memories of the evil elf snarfing down pancakes in their kitchen. But according to most of the parents and teachers I talked to, behavior is noticeably better under the watchful eye of the elf.
Whine-Free Week: Day Two
I’m a little late. But after eight hours surrounded by holiday shoppers, along with a Fancy Nancy book signing, where both author and illustrator spent two hours surrounded by exhausted moms and dads and crazed 5 year old girls toppling shelves and covering everything in glitter and hot pink feathers, I wasn’t in the mood to blog about my complaint-freeness.
But honestly, I don’t think I complained once. Although I may have in an email. Really, it’s the emails that are getting me. That and Facebook – but that was today, and therefore for another post.
In the meantime, here’s something pretty cool to get excited about – the One O’Clock Lab Band at the University of North Texas (my alma mater) has been nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble for their CD Lab 2009! Director Steve Weist was also nominated for Best Instrumental Composition for his tune Ice-Nine on the same CD.
I’ll say it – my school rocks. This isn’t their first nomination either – I believe Labs 76, 77, 89, and 91 were all honored as well. I’m pretty proud to be a graduate of the UNT College of Music.
Nothing to whine about there.
In which I wax on about the glory of salad…
Tonight, we went from planning on leftover soup for dinner to a full-on Indian feast. Mom made this fish recipe, using tilapia and ginger-garlic paste. We used coconut oil to fry them, and added curry leaves to crisp in the oil before putting in the fish. The curry leaves, which have a really unusual (and awesome) taste, flavored the oil, and they were nice and crunchy.
I tried this curried potato recipe, which is both easy and freaking delicious. It had that perfect kind of heat where your nose isn’t quite running but your mouth is dancing. I used chickpeas instead of tempeh. If you like curry, really really really try this one. It doesn’t take long at all, and it’s just seriously good.
We also had na’an, palak paneer, and salad. With all that, it seems silly to go on about a salad, but I really love this one. I used to gobble up salads drenched in Ranch or blue cheese. I switched to olive oil and vinaigrettes, but I still needed a lot of it. Then in Brazil when I tried being a raw foodist for a few months, I figured out how to make an awesome salad without dressing.
Take a big variety of greens – romaine, spinach, kale, parsley, cilantro, arugula – and vegetables of all colors like carrots, celery, red, green, yellow, or orange peppers, cucumbers, purple cabbage, onions, and chop all of it to little bits. Add some lime or lemon juice, sea salt, any herbs you like, and the secret – a very ripe avocado. With tongs (or your hands), mix and smoosh the salad around. The juice and the squishy avocado coats all the veggies like a dressing. It’s good with a little olive oil too, but I swear, if the avocado is ripe enough you don’t need it.
And now I’m hungry again.
Whine-Free Week: Day One
So today was my first official whine-free day. It a cold, gray, thank-goodness-I-can-work-from-home-in-my-sweatpants kind of day, so I really didn’t have too much to whine about.
It was actually kind of difficult, not because I whine a lot (I hope), but because I’m including complaints as no-nos. (Wait, does this sentence count as a complaint?) I emailed a ton of people today, and found myself checking my “sent messages” box to see if I’d complained in any of them.
I did complain once tonight, though, and caught myself really quickly. Overall, just having an anti-whining goal put me in a pretty good mood all day. There are times when complaining is good, even necessary, but most of the time it’s just not. It rarely makes me feel better, either. So I think the simple act of considering everything I say (or type) and judging how negative it is, and how negative it will make me and others feel, is really worthwhile. It’s not good to bottle up irritation, but if you can honestly accept in your mind that putting a complaint out there isn’t going to do any good, I think it can help the irritation fade.
That’s Day One, anyway. Tomorrow holds a 2:30 – 11:00 shift at Barnes & Nobles, amongst all the joyous holiday shoppers. We’ll see what fades and what is bottled.
But I don’t wannaaaa….
She's sure not thinking "My, that looks tasty!"
On her amazing blog Living Holistically, Matador editor Christine Garvin recently featured a piece about Whine-Free Week. What is it? A week sans whining, of course!
The inspiration came from an article Christine wrote a few months ago called Quitters Unite: The Joys Of Complaint-Free Travel. The piece mentions a movement started by a minister in Missouri called A Complaint Free World, where he challenged his congregation to go 21 consecutive days without complaining.
Baby steps, guys, baby steps. Just seven days of swallowing my irritated thoughts. No griping when the Internet goes out (again). No cursing the heavens when I walk outside into a random 80-degree-Houston-Day-In-December. No bitching at my dog as she poops, not in one spot, but in a crouched dance across the backyard, leaving me to chase her with a rake and a pan, trying to find her little brown gifts in the grass as she drops them off.
Nope.
What do I expect to get from this? Mostly, I expect to feel good, after an initial day or two of irritation at my inability to express my irritation. Occasionally when I find myself complaining, it’s followed by a bit of guilt, because compared to so many others in this world, what do I really have to complain about? Smiling and laughing are good for your health and stress levels, and I hope that I’ll be doing even more of both with this little experiment.
And I’ll be blogging about it every night. Yes, that’s right – seven blog posts from tomorrow to next Monday from a woman suppressing her angst! Aren’t you excited?
Stuffed
A short post, because three days later I still have turkey and stuffing leaking out of my ears…
My first Thanksgiving since 2006 was fantastic! We cooked. We baked. We ate. We blogged about it (after getting a towel to wipe off the turkey sweats):
If you celebrated Turkey Day this year, how was it?
MMMMANGOS!!! I mean…hobbies.
In all the excitement of my FIRST THANKSGIVING IN TWO YEARS (!!!!!!!!), I nearly forgot to jump in on Road Trip Wednesday, brought to you by yaHighway!
Today’s question:
What hobbies do you have besides writing?
Two definite hobbies of mine are reading (of course) and cooking/eating. Reading about cooking/eating is particularly great. I’ll read nearly anything. I’ll eat pretty much anything too, come to think of it. I try not to watch too much TV, but I’ll admit an addiction to food and travel shows, Anthony Bourdain and Iron Chef topping the list for sure. (If my title and picture here seem odd to you, I highly suggest catching an episode of the latter at some point.) MatadorTV has also kept my eyes glued on my laptop screen even more than usual over the past few weeks.
I’m a musician, and while that’s definitely something enjoyable, I wouldn’t call something I’ve studied since I was twelve and received a bachelor’s degree in a hobby! But then, I wouldn’t call it “work” either, because the word work often seems to represent something you do solely to make money. Playing music isn’t work in that sense at all.
Same with the writing. I’m not paid to write fiction, so I suppose that’s a hobby, but I do earn money as a freelance writer. It’s not a hobby…it’s not work…what is it? (Answer: It’s awesomeness, is what it is.)
My goal for awhile now has been to make a living off these “hobbies”, or things I enjoy. It’ll take some time, but I’m on my way. Just yesterday I started a seasonal job at Barnes and Nobles to kind of help supplement this change in my work life – but even so, talking to people about books? Is that really work either?
If you make it through this post, I’ll give you a cookie
Over the past few days, I’ve been following the craziness developing at Harlequin, a major publishing house. From their Publisher’s Weekly announcement:
Author Solutions has teamed up with Harlequin to form Harlequin Horizons, a new imprint for self-published romance authors. The imprint will recruit writers in two ways: authors whose manuscripts have been rejected by Harlequin will be made aware of the Harlequin Horizons option and authors who sign with Author Solutions will be given the opportunity to be published under the Harlequin Horizons imprint. According to an Author Solutions spokesperson, the imprint will offer special services aimed at the romance market, including unique marketing and distribution services. All services are on a pay-for-service basis.
In other words, Harlequin, a traditional publisher, is now branching out into vanity publishing. Many people have a lot of negative things to say about vanity publishers, which function by, in short, having the author pay for everything. And by everything, I mean editing (if they choose to have it edited), printing, and marketing. For some people, I think this is a good option, particularly in the non-fiction world. If you have a platform and want to establish yourself as an expert in a certain area, and you have money to invest, why not print and publish a small amount of books to market towards a very specific clientele?
With fiction, however, it’s just a different monster. And when I say non-fiction, I’m only talking about a small percent that I believe can benefit from being self-pubbed. With fiction, that percentage is infinitesimal.
If you want a good, funny, plain-English breakdown of all that transpired, I recommend taking a quick look at author Jackie Kessler’s take. Here, from what I’ve gathered, is what Harlequin Horizons has to offer aspiring novelists desperate to see their work in print:
An editorial review of $342. Not a full edit, mind you. A sample edit of about one chapter to give you a feel for how they edit and what types of improvements your manuscript may need. $342.
Line editing at $.035 per word, and content editing at $.42 per word. Oh wait, you want both? Like a traditional publishing house provides, at no cost to you, the writer? That would be developmental editing, available for just $.077 per word. Hmm…my first novel is 72,000 words. So an edit would be $5,544. Excuse me while I sob hysterically into my coffee.
How about manuscript prep? Let’s take a look at what we’ve got…
Data Entry (Standard) – $4.00 per page (That’s $1,000 for a 250 page book.)
Image Scanning – $6 per item (B&W), $12 per item (Color)
U.S. Copyright Registration – $204
Library of Congress Control Number – $90
Phew. My first book, which I spent nearly a year writing and editing outside of my regular work, is now up to $7,216 out of my pocket in order to take advantage of this Harlequin Horizons “opportunity.”
But my book is printed! It’s done, in all its Harlequin glory! It’s on the shelves, it’s being marketed…right?
Yes, thanks to Harlequin Horizons! My book will be…
On Google and Amazon Search Programs ($90)
On Barnes and Noble Online ($90)
Promoted to 1 million readers via email! ($2,875)
Glorified in a Book Trailer! ($4,799)
Reviewed by Clairon ($600) and Kirkus ($600)!
Given a Single Page Press Release! ($360)
Wait, my book needs publicity…how about a publicist for 3 months ($11,999)!
Oh, and don’t forget the all-important spot in the NYT Book Review ($875).
So, there you go. A debut author finally sees her book in the hands of eager readers for…um…just under $30,000. But at least I get all the profit when my book sells big. Yup. All…50%. (Harlequin pockets the other 50%, for all their hard work in spending my money.)
Harlequin, did I mention I write, teach, and play music for a living? That’s more than I made my whole year in Korea. And by the way, I made a pretty decent book trailer all by my lonesome, the only price being one very fun Sunday afternoon. Call me crazy, but I’ll stick to querying agents and paying for things. You know. Like food.
Again, what they’re offering is on par with what most vanity publishers offer. And depending on the situation, self-publishing or vanity publishing is a good option for some writers. But I would venture a guess that, for the majority of hopeful authors submitting their work to Harlequin, vanity publishing is not the way to go. And very, very few can afford it.
And why should they pay, even if they could? The way traditional publishing works now is so money flows towards the writer, not from him. I mean, pretty much all novelists wrote for free at first. When you write your first book, unless you’re Sarah Palin (and I dearly hope you aren’t), you have no guarantee it will sell. So once you go through the process, the struggle, the madness of finding an agent and an editor and a publisher, isn’t it about time you start seeing a check for all your hard work?
The problem with Harlequin adding a vanity imprint is that they seem to be enticing struggling writers as a way for them – them being Harlequin – to make more money in this economically difficult time. They claim on their website that they’re giving writers an opportunity to “publish their books and achieve their dreams” – offering this “opportunity”, once again, in a rejection letter. It’s not about the hopes and dreams of aspiring writers, it’s about taking advantage of aspiring writers to increase the bottom line.
And unfortunately for writers, both aspiring and published, the following organizations seem to agree:
“With the launch of Harlequin Horizons, Harlequin Enterprises no longer meets the requirements to be eligible for RWA-provided conference resources. This does not mean that Harlequin Enterprises cannot attend the conference. Like all non-eligible publishers, they are welcome to attend. However, as a non-eligible publisher, they would fund their own conference fees and they would not be provided with conference resources by RWA to publicize or promote the company or its imprints.”
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
“Until such time as Harlequin changes course, and returns to a model of legitimately working with authors instead of charging authors for publishing services, SFWA has no choice but to be absolutely clear that NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA. Further, Harlequin should be on notice that while the rules of our annual Nebula Award do not expressly prohibit self-published titles from winning, it is highly unlikely that our membership would ever nominate or vote for a work that was published in this manner.”
“MWA’s November 9 letter asks that Harlequin respond to our concerns and recommendations by December 15. We look forward to receiving their response and working with them to protect the interests of aspiring writers. If MWA and Harlequin are unable to reach an agreement, MWA will take appropriate action which may include removing Harlequin from the list of MWA approved publishers, declining future membership applications from authors published by Harlequin and declaring that books published by Harlequin will not be eligible for the Edgar Awards.”
Then the CEO of Harlequin responded:
“We have heard the concerns that you, our authors, have expressed regarding the potential confusion between this venture and our traditional business. As such, we are changing the name of the self-publishing company from Harlequin Horizons to a designation that will not refer to Harlequin in any way. We will initiate this process immediately. We hope this allays the fears many of you have communicated to us.”
Yup, that’s the answer. Change the name. If that’s not a band-aid on an open, gushing wound, I don’t know what is.
This all means that, while Harlequin published authors will not lose their memberships with these organizations, authors who will be published under other imprints (not of the vanity variety) of Harlequin may not be able to apply or membership or be eligible for these organization’s prestigious awards like the RITA, the Nebula, and the Edgars. I’d be pretty heated up if I were a Harlequin published author right now.
The logic behind this – trying to generate more money by charging writers – makes about as much sense as breaking into Bill Gates’ house to steal a Macbook. Hello, Harlequin – we’re writers. No, worse – we’re aspiring writers. We’re broke too! How about maybe taking a look at this whole ebook thing? Kindle? Nook? iTablet? Any of those ringing any bells? Like it or lump it, if publishing houses want to continue to be a lucrative business, there’s got to be a better solution than this.
And for all you starving writers who made it through this post, here it is, as promised:
