Donny & Marie: Final Act

(If you are just stopping by my blog you can catch up on the Donny & Marie saga by reading my last two posts).

Thanks for all the positive thoughts you sent me last week. Marie's publicist did get back to me but said that Marie was too busy at this time to do an interview. So, now it was on to plan B--a true test of my patience. I would have to wait until the day of the show on Wednesday to see if I could add the Meet & Greet on to my ticket.

The day of the show arrived and we head to the box office where I tell the tatooed ticket guy what I want to buy.
"Sorry, the show is all sold out," he said "and there are no more VIP tickets available."
"What? You're kidding," I shook my head. "I can't believe this."
Sorry was all he could say.
"All I want to do is meet them after. This stinks," I said.
"Oh," he said, "if all you want to do is meet them, let me see if I can add that. You're seat will still be the same though."

So after punching in some keys on the computer, he says it is a go and he hands me the extra VIP ticket. Woo Hoo!

The night of the show arrived and I got a special VIP badge and an 8x10 photo of each of them before going to our seats. I was so excited.

The show itself was amazing and had all the bells and whistles you would expect in a Vegas show. There was singing, dancing, jokes, and more singing. The highlight for me was when Marie sang an opera number. It was fantastic.

After the show I got ushered to a holding area and where I stood in line with all the other fans waiting to meet the famous duo. I felt like Ralphie from Christmas Story when he was waiting in line to see Santa. As the line moved slowly along, I thought of all the questions I wanted to ask--all the profound things I wanted to say.

Then it was my turn. I was ushered over to Donny first. I have to say, he is just as handsome (if not more so) in person. I introduced myself, gave him a hug and then all coherent thoughts vanished from my brain. It was just like Ralphie when he finally gets to sit on Santa's lap and all he could do was stare at him. That was me. All I could do was stare and smile. Donny asked where I was from and I did answer that, but it was all a blur.

Then I was instructed to turn around for the photo (think the Christmas elves with Ralphie-moving him around, only these "elves" were nice). Marie comes up and we take the photo. Then I am facing Marie (who is also gorgeous up close) and my moment with Donny was over.

My brain finally started to reboot at this time and at least I got in a few comments and questions. I told her I was a writer, I said my husband brought me here for my birthday and I that I am looking forward to reading her book. I was just starting to relax a little, when the Donny and Marie "elves," tapped me on my shoulder signaling my turn was over. When that didn't work, they gently took my arm and guided me away. I wanted to run back and give Donny and Marie both a hug or yell something memorable as I walked away, like, "I love you both!" but I didn't.

I left smiling on the inside and the outside. I had to sit down for a minute to let it all soak in. I was grateful for the chance to see the incredible show and to meet them after. They were both gracious and friendly even though they must have been exhausted. Donny & Marie clearly love what they do.

What's next, now that I can check Donny & Marie off my bucket list? I am not sure, but I think my Donny and Marie adventure is not over yet.

So I will leave you with this.
"May tomorrow be a perfect day. May you find love and laughter along the way. May God keep you in in his tender care till he brings us together again."

Writers Digest Conference

This past weekend, Writers Digest hosted a conference in New York on The Business of Getting Published. The Writers Digest team posted live reports from the conference floor, offering full coverage of the event! I think this is such a great idea.

There were over 100 posts that happened during the weekend. If you want to learn more from the conference visit: Writers Digest Conference. All the topics are in the Blog Archive column on the right side.

Enjoy!

What's Your Pen Name?

Earlier this week at a Northern Colorado Writers coffee we did a fun activity where we came up with our pen name. You start with the name of your first car and then the last name of a favorite singer. I had a Mustang and one of my favorite singers is Steve Perry.

So my pen name is: Mustang Perry

What is your pen name?

Donny & Marie Update

I wanted to take a minute to update you on my Donny & Marie Las Vegas adventure (You can read my previous post to get caught up to speed). First off, thank you for all your great suggestions. I have high hopes that I will get to meet my favorite duo.

The one suggestion that seemed the easiest to do was Pam's of rounding up money and upgrading my regular tickets to the Donny & Marie show to the VIP which includes a meet & greet after. My parents stepped up and offered to pay for the upgrade and I thought I was home free.

Not so. My husband did not buy the tickets to the show through the Flamingo where they are performing and because he went through an outside vendor, the Flamingo won't upgrade the seats and the other vendor doesn't sell the VIP seats. I talked, begged and pleaded with four different people, but no luck. The only thing they said I can do is check in with the box office the day of the show and if there are still VIP tickets available, I can upgrade then.

Disappointed, I resigned myself to the fact that I am going to have to be patient and wait until Wednesday to see what I can do. Then I thought about the other suggestions people made. I am not good at lying or at stretching the truth so the ideas of faking an award or press credentials were clever, but I know I wouldn't be able to do. I'd be a mess.

But I do have writing credentials, so I thought about combining that fact and openly disclosing that I am a big fan. Now I needed to find the right person to talk to.

I was able to track down Donny's manager and Marie's publicist and send them both an email explaining that I am fan and coming to see the show this week. I also said that as a freelance writer and director of Northern Colorado Writers, I am always looking for article ideas (which is so very true). I went on to explain the ideas I have, (which I am really excited about) and included my credentials. I asked for a 15 minute interview.

One email bounced back, but Marie's publicist responded asking when I am seeing the show. I answered the email, but haven't heard back from her again.

So now, I need your help again. I believe there is power in numbers so please send out happy thoughts to Marie's publicist and to the Flamingo box office. I will meet Donny & Marie, I will meet Donny & Marie, I will.....

I'll continue to keep you posted.

Kerrie

More About Passive & Active Verbs

In Tuesday's post I mentioned one way to tighten up any writing is to eliminate passive verbs. Yesterday, Ray Rhamey, a blogger with Writer Unboxed addressed this very issue. His post explains why passive voice doesn't work and has great examples. He even shows a couple of examples of when passive voice is better, which I found very interesting.

I highly recommend stopping by Writer Unboxed and reading this amazing post: Activate passive narrative—most of the time

Dear Kerrie: Revisions

If you have a writing conundrum, leave your question for me in the comment section.

Dear Kerrie,
My real goal is to write a novel, but I already failed with three previous attempts. The problem I have is I have to do so many revisions to get the story to flow, and to eliminate grammar errors. This is not so bad when you are working on a five to nine page story. But when you have a three-hundred page novel, the scope of the revisions is daunting. Is there anyway that I can overcome my fear of revising the same writing for many months? Revisions are excruciating, and I don't know how do avoid them, except by writing a better first draft. This ideal goes against many other writer's ideals. Once again. Thank you so much for your help,
Bill

Dear Bill,
I personally have not tried writing a novel yet. My experiences come from shorter pieces--magazines, newspapers, personal essays.... But, I have critiqued manuscripts and some needed heavy revisions. If I were in your shoes, I would first look at the big picture first and not worry about the grammar errors yet:

* Find the slow points in the story and either rework or eliminate

* Figure out if you are starting your novel in the right place. Many times authors can cut the first chapter or two and it strengthens the beginning. Your catalyst should happen in the first 10% of the book. This is the point in the story when your character's life goes from ordinary to extraordinary. The point where the character can't go back until the problem is solved. So for a 300 page novel, this event should happen before page 30.

* Check the dialogue and make sure it moves the story along.

Once you have looked over the big picture items, then I would go back and look at the grammar.

* Cut out passive verbs (You can read my past post about active-vs-passive verbs)

* Get rid of "that."

* Check punctuation

Basically focus on one component of the novel at a time. Don't try to rework everything all at once.

~Kerrie

**Those of you novel writers out there, what advice do you have for Bill with regards to revisions?

A Dream Come True?

This blog post may seem like it is not related to writing in any way (except for the part that I personally had to write it), but I think--no I know there will be a story that comes from it.

My husband surprised me with an early birthday gift. He is taking me to Vegas in a couple of weeks! I like going to sin city and I really like the idea of getting away for a few days. But it gets better. He also got us tickets to see Donny and Marie Osmond perform at the Flamingo.

This last part made me scream and jump up and down. I have a been a Donny and Marie fan since I was eight years old and their variety show was on t.v. I remember having a Donny and Marie coloring book, I remember anxiously waiting to watch the Love Boat episode that had Donny on it and I remember wondering if I was a little big country or a little bit rock and roll.

Over the years I have followed their careers and lives. I am not a fanatic about it. I don't know the names of all their children, I don't own all their albums and I don't know their birthdays (I take that back, I just learned that Marie is going to turn 50 on October 13).

But I am fascinated by them. I read Donny's memoir, Life is Just What You Make It: My Story So Far and I will be reading Marie's, Might As Well Laugh About It Now, that recently came out. I love to watch and listen to Donny in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I even voted for Marie each week she was on Dancing With the Stars last season and I will do the same for Donny this season.

I scared the bejeebers out of my daughter last year when I screamed after hearing that the whole Osmond clan was going to be on Oprah. I DVR'd the episode and watched it over and over.

Bottom line (this is absolutely true) is they are on my Bucket List of people to meet before I die.

Now I am going to see them in person (insert another scream). My dilemma is that I need to figure out how to meet them (since they are on my list). My husband didn't see the need to pay the extra $125 per ticket for the VIP tickets that included a photo op, even though he knows how much I love Donny and Marie.

So, what are your ideas? What can I do to meet my favorite duo? (this is where the writing part comes in) Please share your ideas with me--I will seriously consider trying them all, not matter how crazy they may seem.

Help me Writing Bug readers--you are my only hope!

~Kerrie

Imagination Library: Getting Kids Connected With Book

Dolly Parton has a passion for helping kids get excited about reading and this excitement is spreading across the country.

"In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort to benefit the children of her home county in east Tennessee. Dolly wanted to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families. She wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income. So she decided to mail a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child under 5 in Sevier County. With the arrival of each book, every child could now experience the joy of finding their very own book in their mail box. These moments continue each month until the child turns 5—and in their very last month in the program they receive Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come."

In 2000, she expanded her program to other communities. You can check to see if your city has a sponsor. If so, you can sign up your child or grandchild who under 5, and he/she will receive a book a month until the age of 5. It doesn't matter how old they are when they sign up (newborn or 4 1/2).

If this isn't available in your community, maybe you can see about finding a local sponsor who is willing to take this on.

This is a great program that encourages reading in young children who will eventually go on to read our articles, books and blogs.

visit her website at http://www.dollysimaginationlibrary.com

Dear Kerrie: Ghost Writing

If you have a writing conundrum, leave your question for me in the comment section.

Dear Kerrie,
I have a question that I'm wondering if you can answer or point me in the right direction. I was recently the writer on a book project for a company, and one of the people involved has asked me to help her be a writer on her book. Do you know how such arrangements are usually handled in the industry as far as payment to the writer (by the hour, page, a set fee or a percentage of the royalties)? I would most likely be named as the writer on the book.
-Alexa

Dear Alexa,

Dictionary.com defines ghost writer as, "a person who writes one or numerous speeches, books, articles, etc., for another person who is named as or presumed to be the author." So, what you are being asked to do is ghost write this book.

There is an easy way to find out what the current industry standards are for different types of writing jobs. In the front portion of every Writers Market is a section called, "What Should I Charge." Here you will find a chart that explains low, medium and high averages of various jobs like copyediting, PR for businesses, newsletters, reviews...and ghost writing. It shows these with a per project, per hour and other rate.

In the 2009 Writer's Market, ghostwriting an as-told-to (which is what you are doing) ranges from $50-$100 per hour or $5,500-$51,000 per project. You are going to need to decide which approach is going to work best for you.

Some things to think about:

• How much time do you anticipate spending on this? If this is your first ghostwriting project, it might be hard to tell. If that is the case, an hourly might be better. Then you will have to decide if you want to be paid as you go or when the whole project is complete.
  
  
• Do you want to do the writing for a minimal charge, but then get royalties as well?
  
  
• Is the book being published by a traditional publisher or being self published? If the person hiring you is going the traditional route, is there already a publisher interested? If not and the person still wants you to write it, then I would highly recommend going with an hourly or project payment (maybe even get it in portions as you finish different parts). That way if the book doesn't get picked up by a publisher, you still get paid for your time.
  
  If it is being self-published, is this a person who is a speaker and is able to get the book in front of many people each year. If so, then royalties might be a way to go if the person has a good book keeping system. If the person is not a speaker, then it might be more difficult to sell (therefore making a case for a per hour/project rate).
  

I know this is a lot to think about-but remember it is a business. As a writer, you need to be compensated for your time. Good Luck!

~Kerrie

p.s. Are there any readers out there who are Ghost Writers? Do you have any additional advice for Alexa?

-

Book Review: Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript

Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript
by Chuck Sambuchino
321 page, workbook-sized, soft cover book
Published By Writers Digest Books, $22.99

My Rating: 5 pencils




After I finished reading the book, Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript by Chuck Sambuchino, I said to myself, “Where have you been all my writing life?” This book is to formatting as Strunk and White is to grammar.

As a full-time editor for Writers Digest books and a part-time freelance writer, Sambuchino understands the dynamics of the publishing world from many different facets.

Right away in the introductory section entitled, The Basics, we understand the importance of laying out our submissions correctly.

“Proper formatting will result in a clear and professional document that meets editor’ expectations and secures their attention. Without proper attention to formatting, good writing often ends up in the rejection pile.”

The challenge for writers is to understand and apply all the different rules. Sambuchino addresses the basics like queries, title pages and cover letters as well as the proper layout for a synopsis, a picture book and even a soap opera script.

Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript is broken down into five main parts: fiction, nonfiction, children’s writing, scripts and verse. But from there it keeps going. For instance, in the fiction section, the sub categories are short stories, novels, genre novels (mystery, romance, science fiction and horror), comics and graphic novels. In these subsections, Sambuchino provides information about formatting a query, cover letter, synopsis, and manuscript for each of these specific genres.

Over the past decade as a writer, I have read many books and articles about formatting. I have learned the basic rules for manuscripts, articles and queries, but I don’t recall reading specifically about the correct layout for the front and back matter of a book, the table of contents or how to format the dedication and acknowledgement pages. This book has it all.

A huge selling point of this book is all the examples including query letters (some even include comments from agents and editors), screenplays, articles, letters and manuscripts.

But this book doesn’t stop there. Every section is packed with do’s and don’ts, like when sending a query for your novel, “Do address your letter to a specific agent or editor,” or “Don’t state that some other agent or editor rejected your novel.” There are also insights from industry professionals and information specific to a variety of genres.

The goal of most writers is to be published. Sambuchino has taken out any of the guesswork involved with sending in submissions, therefore significantly increasing the chances of being published.

Because of its user friendly layout, practical information and helpful tips, Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript now has a permanent home in the reference section of my personal library.