Some of the Best Writing Advice I've Gotten

"Sometimes you don't need to fix things; you just need to get rid of them." This came from John Feltman, an editor at Rodale Books I worked with - I'd struggled with a complex passage in a chapter I was writing about, I don't know, vitamin D, and John introduced the notion that sometimes the best thing is to cut the offending bit. I think of this when I'm struggling with recalcitrant fiction passages. If it just doesn't work after rewriting several times - I get rid of it.

"Don't engage the copy editor." My friend Jamie Ford gave me this advice when I received my first round of copy edits on a Saturday and didn't know how to deal with them. Mind you, it's tempting. It's tempting to answer the snide little questions and asides with detailed answers telling them how wrong they are (copy editors, before you get your knickers in a twist, I've worked as a copy editor and still sometimes do - there's a difference, a big difference, between constructive questions/suggestions and snideness). But this is a wonderful little phrase you can apply to many things in your life: Don't engage the [surly receptionist] [indifferent server] [person trying to bait you into reacting] [whoever is annoying you]

"You can't edit what you haven't written." This is from Reed Farrel Coleman, something he said to me when I was stuck at a point in Novel 2. I love revising and tweaking, but, well, you can't get to that point if you don't have words on the page. Nuff said.

"State fire law requires doors open outward." Okay, this has nothing to do with writing, but my dad would always say it whenever you tried to open an outside door by pulling instead of pushing. It may not be the message from the Great Beyond he wanted to leave me with, but there it is. I can still hear his voice: State fire law requires doors open outward.

Another 30 Copies of LEARNING TO SWIM ... and I'm Appearing at Malaprop's Friday Night

The wonderful marketing department at Crown has put another 30 copies of Learning to Swim up for a giveaway at Goodreads, ending in about five days. Plus you get a signed bookplate.

If you're anywhere in the vicinity of Asheville, North Carolina, come to Malaprop's Bookstore Friday, March 25, at 7 pm for my book event (I read a bit, talk a bit, answer questions and try to make you laugh).

In other bookish news, today LTS is reviewed at Devourer of Books, and Tuesday by Jen Forbus at Jen's Book Thoughts.

Hope to see you at Malaprop's!

For Your Reading Pleasure ... My Friend Meg Waite Clayton's New Novel Comes Out Today!

Meg Clayton and I met way back when, when neither of us had books published, and she and her husband Mac were instrumental in pushing encouraging me to finish my novel and then to apply to a writing conference that made a huge difference in my career path. I gobbled up her first and second novels - The Language of Light and The Wednesday Sisters - and now her third, The Four Ms. Bradwells, has just been released.

Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited for a long weekend as Betts awaits Senate confirmation of her appointment to the Supreme Court. Nicknamed “the Ms. Bradwells” during their first class at the University of Michigan Law School in 1979—when only three women had ever served full Senate terms and none had been appointed to the Court—the four have supported one another through life’s challenges: marriages and divorces, births and deaths, career setbacks and triumphs large and small. Betts was, and still is, the Funny One. Ginger, the Rebel. Laney, the Good Girl. And Mia, the Savant.

But when the Senate hearings uncover a deeply buried skeleton in the friends’ collective closet, the Ms. Bradwells retreat to a summer house on the Chesapeake Bay, where they find themselves reliving a much darker period in their past—one that stirs up secrets they’ve kept for, and from, one another, and could change their lives forever.

Once again, Meg Waite Clayton writes inspiringly about the complex circumstances facing women and the heartfelt friendships that hold them together. Insightful and affecting, The Four Ms. Bradwells is also a captivating tale of how far people will go to protect the ones they love.

A bit of praise:

"A stirring and compelling novel about women's changing roles." — Booklist

"A thriller of a whodunit, a tender love story among friends"— AnnArbor.com

“A stunning work of art."—Woodbury Magazine

Ah, You Clever FakeTwitter Followers

Time was, you could spot a fake Twitter follower (not a real person, an account set up for purposes of spam or more nefarious motives) from the lack of a bio, and from a thumbnail photo of a scantily clad or large-bosomed woman. Now they have bios, and clever ones:

Hardcore writer. Travel guru. Hipster-friendly web enthusiast. Subtly charming music buff.

Certified thinker. Student. Passionate food lover. General problem solver. Incurable communicator. Troublemaker.

Lifelong social media fanatic. Internetaholic. Devoted travel expert. Evil alcohol maven. Food buff. Organizer. Music ninja.

Freelance tv advocate. Pop culture guru. Hardcore creator. Writer. Professional zombie fan. Incurable internet geek.  

I block 'em. I'm not sure what the game is - to just send spam tweets, or worse. But what's important is that you not blindly "follow" everyone who is following you. Take the time to click through to the profile - you can tell from the tweets if it's a real account.

The Author's Dilemma (OK, Two of Them)

I'm visiting New York City, and yesterday I stumbled across copies of my book at the Strand - eight all told. At first I thought, cool! Then I realized 1) these books were brand-new, unread, for sale at $12 - less than I can get them for, and 2) they were review copies turned in for cash, unread - which means I don't get a dime when they sell (never mind that the folks who received them neither read nor reviewed them).

Here's my dilemma: to leave the books there, where readers can discover them for the bargain price of 12 bucks (they're $24 in stores, nearly $15 on dear old Amazon) and hope folks will fall in love with the book and buy more for friends? Or scoop them up at this bargain price - especially when I discover that authors get a 10% discount on their own books, which means a cost of $10.80.

A friend suggested a split approach: buy half, leave half. Probably a good plan.

Second dilemma: an "internet bookseller" (not someone with an actual store) emails me asking if I will sign books for him if he ships them to me with a prepaid label. At first thought, one might think, Yay, book sales! But here's the thing - probably this person is buying them on Amazon for a discount price, then I sign them, and he lists them at $55 as signed first editions. (Yes, they're up for sale for that much, and I haven't signed them yet.) OK, maybe yay for free enterprise. But what about actual bookstores who have gone out of their way to ask me to visit, to host me in their store: the one advantage this gives them (other than my entertaining presence) is that they then have a stack of signed books to sell, whether in the store or on the internet. Isn't accommodating this internet-only bookseller sort of a slap in the face to the bookstores who are hand-selling my book like mad?

It's a dilemma - fortunately one I don't have to resolve at the moment as I'm traveling.

New York Times, I Think You've Goofed

Yes, it makes sense to start charging people for reading your newspaper online. But $15 a month is too steep for many of us. A price of $5-$10 many people would do without a second thought. But for many of us, past ten dollars is the breaking point.

I'm predicting readership will plummet.

But not immediately, because faithful readers like me got an offer for a free subscription for the rest of 2011.

To be fair, I have to say that the description of what we will be able to access for free is about as clear as mud to me. Yes, we can read 20 free articles a month. Yes, we can read articles through links on Twitter and Facebook without them counting against the monthly limit. Yes, we can read articles we reach through Google, but only five times a day for "free." (Which, honestly, is a lot.)

What flummoxes me is this:

• The home page at NYTimes.com and all section fronts will remain free to browse for all users at all times. 

Because I'm not sure what "browse" means. Does it mean we can click through and read at will? If so, those of us who aren't comfortable with coughing up $15 a month haven't lost much. If it just means "glance at and admire," that's something else again.

Update: Got my answer: "You may browse the home page, section fronts, blog fronts and classifieds as much as you like, meaning that you can read the headlines and blurbs – anything on those pages.  If you click into any articles from those pages, that article will count. If you go back to an article you already read that month, it will not count again." So, okay, this subscription plan officially sucks - kudoes to the folks who can shell out $195 a year to read the Times online. But maybe it's good for me not to spend so much time online.

Some of the Reasons We Love Poisoned Pen

Because not one but three staff members (okay, one is a staff member's mother) chose Learning to Swim as a staff pick for March. (Thank you, Patrick, Lea, and Didi.)

Because somehow they made my book their #2 selling hardcover in the month of February (this for a book that was released only on Feb. 22) - so, yes, that is seven days.

Because they chose my book for their First Mystery book club (I am saddened to learn there is no Second Mystery book club, however).

Because they pulled in a wonderful batch of people for my March 16 appearance as a debut author, and made me (and my cousin Joan) very very welcome.

So if you are in or anywhere near Phoenix, take yourself over to The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale - what a delightful store and what a delightful batch of booksellers. 

Yes, those are all copies of LEARNING TO SWIM - unreal, huh?

Me and my wonderful delightful cousin Joan, who lives nearby

The inimitable Will's mom, asking me something apparently quite serious

I Almost Missed Petfinder's Adopt Internet Day

Petfinder is a bit dangerous for me right now - because I want to get a cattle dog puppy to replace the giant hole Bridget's death has left in my life - but I know that until I wrap up a few things (like my current book tour) I can't. But maybe you can.

This is Bendi, a 4-month-old Australian cattle dog in Madison, New Jersey, ready for adoption loving you with all her heart and being so damned loyal you'll never look back. Forget about going to pet shops. Get your next pet from Petfinder. That's where I found Bridget, 10 years ago. One of the best moves I ever made in my life.

Sara at BookPeople, Saying Something That Apparently Puzzles the Other Author

See, if I'm lazy enough, other folks post photos I can use. Here's me on March 13 at the wonderful BookPeople in Austin, appearing with Darryl Wimberley. (My computer is currently malfunctioning - bad LCD! hurry up, Mr. Dell Technician - so I can barely see this photo myself.)

Photo from BookPeople - used with permission!

The Gang's All Here - at Least Some of 'Em

Some of the folks at my Barnes & Noble signing March 10 in Nashville. (I swear, I'll post more photos soon - I'm doing a mini book tour now and have discovered that it doesn't leave time for things like uploading photos ... possibly because I'm the type who feels compelled to crop and adjust color as needed.) But this is a nice shot as it shows many of the people who were there - I think my brother was hiding. Unless he's the one who took this.

Yes, That's Me in the New York Times ...

I unabashedly lifted this photo from Steve Weddle's Twitter feed. Here's the whole article, in Marilyn Stasio's New York Times column.

Some other recent interviews/articles:

• Vermont Public Radio, Neal Charnoff, "Sara Henry on Learning to Swim"
• "Taking the Plunge," Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Chris Knight
• "Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry," I Love a Good Mystery
• Poisoned Fiction Review

I'll post photos of my NYC and Nashville events soon (which were sublime) - visited BookPeople in Austin last night and now I'm off to Murder by the Book in Houston and Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale.

A Sentence I Feel Compelled to Quote

I'm just now getting around to reading last month's Esquire, as I've been somewhat insanely busy, and cannot resist quoting this sentence from an article on James Frey:

The truth is that anyone who spends $40,000 a year to be taught how to write by writers who cannot make a living by writing, or who imagines that fairness and common sense have anything to do with the publishing industry, could probably use a lesson in how life really works. - Stephen Marche, "Is James Frey the Most Important Writer in America?"

There is so much packed into this one sentence that I'm not going to try to parse it, and much of it could be debated, but there's a lot to be learned here.

Note: In the interest of fairness, I must admit I've had a bit of a bias against MFAs since my encounter with a batch of them at a writing conference, after which I did not write a word of fiction for an entire  year before doggedly (perhaps stupidly) returning to the conference the following year with the exact same material (which garnered enthusiastic response from conference staff, and launched me toward publication).

Enjoy What You Have, When You Have It

If you have an intense little cattle dog that loves to swim, you take her to the river to swim every day the sun is shining and the water is warm enough

And if the little dog likes to collect shoes and hide them in her crate or lug them up into the bed, you learn to store some shoes up high, and to allow extra shoe-hunting time when heading out the door, and to not get annoyed when you discover shoes in your bed

And if she has a high-pitched bark that slips out when she's most excited, you learn to live with it

And because she loves alone time with you and likes curling up in the front seat of the car, you take her with you on every errand you can when it's neither too hot nor too cold

And you let her sleep under the covers in the crook of your knees because she is convinced that this is what she must do, and because resistance is futile when dealing with a determined small cattle dog

And you let her lay on the bathmat when you are in the shower or tub, because apparently she believes you are safe only when she is standing guard

And you put up with her little quirks, and she puts up with yours, and you love her all you can, so that the day you find out she has terminal cancer that has struck far too fast, far too soon in her life - you have no regrets.

Only tears.

Where's Sara? (She's None Too Sure Herself)

A few recent interviews and reviews:

• "A Quick Q&A with Sara J. Henry, author of LEARNING TO SWIM," Knoxville News Sentinel
• "Book review: ET Native's Book Drenched in Intrigue," Susan Alexander, Knoxville News Sentinel
• "Diving In," Sam Moxley, Chapter 16
• "Learning to Swim is a nail-biter, edge of your seat breath of fresh air," Cheryl's Book Nook

Coming up: Vermont Public Radio with Neal Charnoff, Mountain Lake Journal at PBS, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise (after they dig out of the current 30 inches of snow), and the New York Times (March 13).

If You're Near Nashville Thursday ... Come Visit

I'm having my "hometown" launch at the Barnes & Noble in Cool Springs, Brentwood, Tennessee, at 7 pm this Thursday, March 10 - and you are all invited. This should be a really cool event with some great people attending.

Note: I'm actually from Oak Ridge, 185 miles away, but that bookstore is long gone, and I haven't lived there for many moons. So I've adopted Nashville as my hometown. And it's where my main character is from.

Wherein Troy Chance Makes It into a Tournament - and You Can Vote for Her

I'm a bit surprised to see that Troy Chance, the main character in my novel, Learning to Swim, made it into Jen Forbus's fictional amateur sleuth tournament - okay, yes, I think I nominated her, but you apparently had to have at least two nominations to make it in, so I wasn't the only one!

So this is round 1 of voting, and if you like, you can go vote to keep Troy in the tournament - she's in category #18 against one Gervase Fen. And yes, if she makes it through, I'll be nagging you next week to vote again.

And if you haven't yet read any of my novel, you can sample the first chapter here for free.

Things I Have Learned About Interviews

Arrive early, because undoubtedly otherwise you will make a wrong turn and have to stop at a car dealership for directions (this for the radio interview), or there will be a sudden snowstorm the moment you arrive in town, obscuring all the street signs (hello? where's the TV station?).

Eat something before you go in, whether or not you think you are hungry, because the moment you step in the door, you will be.

And returning to the newspaper where you started your writing career is a wonderful experience (more on this later, once I've driven through the current snowstorm to catch a plane).

More book news:

• I blather on a bit in an interview by Paige Crutcher at the Examiner.
• Learning to Swim is a March pick at Northshire Bookstore. (Thanks, Sarah!)
• There's a fun review over at S. Krisha's Books.

I Have Fallen in Love ... with a Chair

I stopped by the Vermont rest area in Guilford the other day, on the off chance to see if my friend Bevan, who works there, was in. I wandered around and saw a rocking chair, and made the grand mistake of sitting in it.

I'm in love.

This chair is not only gorgeous, it is absurdly comfortable. It's handmade, of course, with mortise and tenon joints. Mmmm. 

It's called the Vermont Folk Rocker, made by Jim Geier in Starksboro, Vermont. And it's just about the most marvelous piece of furniture I have encountered.