Thirty Best Places for Book Lovers

#bookophilia  #authorsforum  #writers  #fiction

Mark Twain said, “In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.” 

If you suffer from bookaphilia, check out these venues!

The Brain on Fiction

#authorsforum  #writers  #fiction

According to psychologist David Comer Kidd, fiction does not just simulate a social experience, it is a social experience. Reading fiction can stimulate connectivity in the brain that will help the reader better understand other people in real life. Reading feeds the mind. Our brains on fiction give us enhanced performance. What good news--not that we needed an excuse for devouring books.

http://tinyurl.com/fiction-stimulates-brain

@tracynovinger
Facebook: Tracy Novinger, Author

Speaking a Foreign Culture

#nonfiction  #culturalintelligence  #travel

"We must learn to speak a foreign culture in the same way that we learn to speak a foreign language." E.T. Hall

A Long and Laborious Process

#authorsforum  #writers   #writing=slow-art

See: Ten slow--and--famous authors.

It is good for me to know that I am in exalted company, at least for the process taking me so long. Soon, I trust, I will have "Aruba Winds" finished, ready to unveil to the reader.

Creative Insight

#creativemind  @tracynovinger  #imagination  #imagine-thebook

British writer Rupert Thomson is called prolific. Thomson says the reason he is prolific is because he writes all the time, going to bed late and rising early. He also comments that he always finds that the work he produces an hour or two after waking is more valuable than what he writes at any other time. I like this comment because insight often comes to me in that early morning dawn of the mind between sleep and waking. I think the book “Imagine” explains well the origin of these valuable nuggets our creative mind hands to us.

“To write Fiction at All Is a Moral Act” - www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jason-holmes/rupert-thomson-interview-_b_5837914.html

19-09-2014

To Write Fiction Is a Moral Act

#fictionimportant  #novel  #civilization  #morality

Fiction is important. It allows one to understand how someone else feels and thinks. And because civilization begins when we imagine what it is like to be the “other,” to write fiction is a moral act.

“To write Fiction at All Is a Moral Act” - www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jason-holmes/rupert-thomson-interview-_b_5837914.html

19-09-2014

Publishing Today

#tracynovinger  #publishing  #novel  #debutnovel

Rupert Thomson, a prolific British writer, lived through a golden age, he says, when he was paid according to the perceived value of his books rather than according to the number of books he was selling. When economic jitters hit London in early 2009, publishers knew things had to change but they weren’t sure how. Thomson thinks since that time there seems to be concern about investing where there is risk and innovation--but for him that comprises all the writing going on that is really interesting. Another change, ironic he states, is that publishers are now are signing many first-time writers. One can’t have an unacceptable (read risky) track record if one doesn't have any track record at all.

There Is No Substitute for Good Writing

John Lahr: “I’m often drawn by tone and by the slant of the language. The way the sentences pop. A few well-angled sentences announce to me if this is a voice whose command I can trust or whose quirkiness intrigues. Style, after all, is metabolism. Even if it’s nonfiction, the writing has to have a pulse, something I can feel beneath the facts.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/books/review/john-lahr-by-the-book.html?emc=edit_bk_20140919&nl=books&nlid=53957551  

I Don't Read Mysteries, but...#2

#plot  #suspense  #characterdevelopment  @tracynovinger

I-say-I-don’t-read-mysteries-but #2... I am hooked on Robert Galbraith’s  (pseudonym of J. K. Rowling) Cormoran Strike series. Galbraith’s plots are tight, perfect, suspenseful. The characters are unusual, complex--totally outrageous. It is valuable to pay attention to how Galbraith/Rowling makes them live, breathe--and entertain the reader. One quickly becomes enamored of detective Cormoran who is oversized and hirsute, so broke he has to live in his office. He sounds like a Yeti. I can’t wait for the next in the series. Check out http://robert-galbraith.com/

I Don't Read Mysteries but...#1

#humor  #exoticplace  #culturalintelligence  @tracynovinger  #culturalnomad

“I-say-I-don’t-read-mysteries-but... then I become eloquent about Donna Leon’s Inspector Brunetti series. I love her voice, erudition and dry humor. In every book, I take a walk through Venice, seeing it, smelling it, marvelling at the sights. Endearing Brunetti is always anxious to see what delectable Italian dish his smart wife, Paola, is serving on a given day—and so am I. But what I most appreciate about Leon is her ability to write about the corruption, graft and warts of the local system and still convey her love for the wonder and beauty of Venetian life. I relate at a deep level to this because of my own love for the exotic and flawed places where I have lived.

P.S. Roberta Pianaro has written  “Brunetti’s Cookbook” for fans whose mouths water at Leon’s descriptions of Paola’s meals.

Structuring Writing Time

#writersforum  #managewritingtime @tracynovinger

Structure with flexibility works for me.

I was ready, anxious to start on my third book. I knew that this time, if I wanted to survive this business of writing, I needed to manage my time differently. For the first two books, I paid a high price not only in total hours of life invested but in some physical complaints, as well. A head full of ideas would wake me around 4:00 AM and I broke away only to answer a call of nature and get coffee to bring back to my desk. I would work at my computer until around 9:00 AM, then I would shower, dress and go to our office for a full day. I would often compulsively write again after dinner even though I don't work well at night. My back hurt me. I felt like I should always be writing. I can't--or won't--do that anymore, for several reasons.

• I have never had a problem making myself work; I have a problem making myself stop.
• I have always needed adequate exercise for a sense of well-being and especially to maintain my terminal optimism. I neglected that.
• In addition, I know I need to plan daily exercise in an effort to maintain the "physical plant"--with the hope of keeping my brain synapses sparking bright for as many years as possible. 
• I want to make sure I spend time on personal relationships, and especially with my very supportive, much-loved husband.

I was with a group of authors around the first of this year and someone mentioned something which I made a note to read. What a revelation it was! I wish I could remember where I read the useful suggestions to manage one's writing time. If the source bubbles up to me at some odd moment I will add it to this in a Post Script.

I set up a plan to fit my personality and lifestyle: I am most productive in the morning, worthless late afternoon and evening. Below I outline how I now structure writing time and what the structure does for me.

How I structure:

1. I get up around 6:15 AM, have breakfast, check email and dress for the day. I report to work in our home office at 8:00 AM Monday through Friday. I say I go to "work" at 8:00. I use the word work because it is my work.
2. I don't schedule any appointments in the morning; I don't make or take phone calls.
3. When I start writing at 8:00 I use the timer on my iphone. I set it for 45 minutes of writing. When it rings I get up from my desk and reset it for  a 15 minute break. I have rules for my break: Did I say that I don't make or take phone calls? I  don't engage in anything that requires me to  actively think about anything other than what I am writing. I eat a piece of fruit or I stretch. I make another coffee with the espresso machine. I might put a load of laundry in the washer and get a flash of insight about exactly what it is that I want to say about something or an effective metaphor might come to me--my unconscious mind still working and making creative associations . I don't put clothes in the dryer. The buzzer will interrupt me when I am not on break. I dry clothes in the afternoon.
4. The spirit of my rules is rigid, the letter flexible. Sometimes I set increments of 40 minutes and 10. Just because. The variation is refreshing. Other times I have wrapped up something I have been deeply into and stop 30 or 40 minutes early for the day. I know that I require variety within the four hours I set aside as sacred so that I do not feel trapped.
5. After work in the morning, I happily live the rest of my life.

My mantra: Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.

How I benefit:

1. I no longer get terrible "computer-back" spasms and pain in my upper back. My lumbar spine is not stressed or painful.
2. I exercise six days a week in the late afternoon and I choose one day off. I feel well, mentally and physically.
3. My breaks truly make me more productive and what I am writing is better sooner.
4. I don't feel guilty, antsy, like I really need to be writing when I am not. I have a gratifying sense of satisfaction.
5. My husband, on his own initiative, doesn't interrupt me when I write. Now we talk on breaks--which, by the way have become mutual breaks. Since we share two open office spaces that are contiguous, he started responding to my timer and works at his computer in the same increments that I work at mine. He likes the system. Also a compulsive worker, he says he no longer gets "computer-back" either! 

There are so many talented writers out there. I benefit from knowing about your experiences and methods. Whoever you are who shared your structuring strategy with the rest of us, thank you for the gift you gave me!

The Creative Mind...

#authorsforum #creativemind #writers  @tracynovinger

The creative mind...

...does amazing things! I was lost in a (brilliant, of course) flash of insight,
and my sunblock sat next to my toothpaste.

Yes. I did.

Books by Tracy Novinger

#culturalintelligence  #Aruba  #Caribbean #travelers  #historicalfiction  #WWII  #authorsforum  #writers  @tracynovinger

Aruba Winds: The Other Side of Paradise

A novel, coming soon.

Brazilians are so cordial they will say "yes" to almost any request,
even when they mean "no." When and why does "yes" means "no"?

"Communicating with Brazilians" was translated into Korean

by Pusan University of Foreign Studies.

Tips on how to follow "the rules" of different cultures with practical examples of intercultural communication misunderstandings.