ICRS Through the Eyes of a Newbie

ICRS…. Hmm? What is that, exactly? Retail, my friends. More specifically the International Christian Retail Show.

It makes sense for those of you who are published writers, or perhaps an author up for a Christy Award to make attending ICRS a priority.

Being a newbie, and a relative nobody in the book biz, you might be wondering why I went. My lovely unpublished manuscripts were not on display, I most certainly wasn't up for any kind of prestigious award, and I often got these double takes at my ID badge, as if people were wondering… “Should I know who you are?”

Nope, not yet folks, but stay tuned. :)

All that said, my experience was amazing and I thought I’d share 7 reasons why I think going to these shows is an excellent use of your time and finances.

1.  Get the 411. Whether we are published or not, we (us writers) are in the book business. There is so much to explore. And what better place to do just that, than in the Booksellers Marketplace!

2. Swag! As in FREE books! How can you go wrong there!

3. Celebrity sightings. Not only do you get to geek out (love you Katie Ganshert) when you meet a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, you can get an autographed copy of their book. Did I mention, for free? Let's face it, each of us are inspired by other great writers. It's always an honor to get to tell them how much their stories have blessed us.

4. Elbow rubbing. Since there are so many authors floating around you are bound to bump in to some you know or just admire. And since the atmosphere is so laid back, even more so I thought than conferences when it can feel pretty awkward or intimidating to walk up and interrupt an author, it is surprisingly easy to actually TALK with people at ICRS.

True story: I was lucky enough to walk the floor with Susan May Warren, one of my absolute favorite authors and a dear friend. Talk about a backstage pass! We ended up chatting with this well known screen writer and his buddy in the MOVIE biz! These are great connections to make. And yet, not the kind of people you bump into at a writers conference. (But don't skip the conference either! Oh, shoot, now I'll need to do another post. 10 Reasons Why You Should Attend a Writers Conference. Coming soon!)

5. Face time. What better way to remind those wonderful editors that you are still breathing, and yes, still checking your inbox regularly than to see them in person. Introduce yourself. Put a face with a name. Better yet to put a personality behind that name and become someone they can recall, or even see themselves working with. (Manners and appropriate conduct are a given.)

6. Fellowship. One of my favorite things about ACFW is that I get to meet up with all my amazing writer friends and spend some time with people who actually understand my crazy writer brain. ICRS is like adding another playdate. We even had a prayer room this year, led by the fabulous Rachel Hauck, myself, and an awesome local worship leader and close friend, Alyssa Schweich.

Did I mention that agents tend to frequent these types of shows? It’s always nice to get to have a coffee with your agent and catch up in person. It was one of my favorite things about ICRS this year. And I even got a highly coveted kilt shot to treasure forever. :)

7. Dressed and pressed in your Christy's best. It’s like the Oscars of Christian Fiction. Yes, I suppose when I walked in and saw all the tables were reserved for specific publishing houses (all of which I have no affiliation) I may have, for a few panicked moments, felt like a the new kid cruising the lunch room for a spot for a stray. But what an amazing experience to get to see a heavy hitter in the industry, Lee Hough, given the Lifetime Achievement Award. Get to hear my agent give a beautiful and charming keynote address about the power of story. Get to see my friends and their outstanding books receive recognition. I loved every minute of it!

There is an old saying, something like… Surround yourself with Greatness to achieve Greatness.

Go to ICRS. Put the cart before the horse and map out the steps ahead on your journey to publication, and bestseller lists, and awards. Go. See. Dream. You won’t regret it!

********************************************************************************

Amy Leigh Simpson writes Romantic Suspense that is heavy on the romance, unapologetically honest, laced with sass and humor, and full of the unfathomable Grace of God. She is the completely sleep deprived mama to two little mischief makers and would challenge anyone to a cutest family contest. Represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary Inc.

Reading outside your comfort zone

Author David Hewson says, “There are an astonishing number of people who think they can write books without reading books. Everything you need to know about writing can be found in books – and I don’t mean how-to-write books either.”

The best way to improve your writing is by reading. If you want to create words of beauty, you first need to foster the ability to recognise and appreciate beauty in the writing of others. It’s almost a process of osmosis. The word choices, the patterns of expression, the flavor of artful writing will get under your skin, and you’ll find it becomes less of a reach to create the same effects in your own prose.

The problem here is that many people resist reading outside “their” genre. It’s a safe-zone. You write romantic comedy, so you only read romantic comedy. You write Amish zombie thrillers, so you won’t read anything that doesn’t contain dead people in bonnets.

It’s important to stretch yourself if you genuinely wish to grow.

I love the story Gina Holmes shares, about how reading outside her comfort zone led to her first book contract. In an article for Christian Fiction Online Magazine, she explains:

“I grew up reading Stephen King, and so naturally when I decided to write a novel, I figured suspense was what I liked to read so it was what I should write. My first four novels were suspense. But then something happened . . . I started reading books like The Kite Runner, Memoirs of a Geisha, To Kill a Mockingbird, Watership Down, and authors like Charles Martin and Lisa Samson. I couldn’t get enough.”

You’ll notice these aren’t “genre” books. They’re either classics, or what we’d describe as “commercial literary” novels and authors.

Holmes describes this process of discovery as one of falling in love with words all over again. After four unpublished suspense novels, her newly expanding reading horizons inspired her to try her hand at something different. The result was “Crossing Oceans”, a quieter, more character-driven work of women’s fiction. The book was snatched up by Tyndale House and went on to win awards and become a CBA and ECPA bestseller.

Reading more widely is the best way I know to break out of a writing rut, stimulate new ideas and ways of looking at the world, and birth fresh inspiration.

Here’s my top three tips for reading outside your comfort zone:

1. Read commercial literary books, both CBA and ABA.

I’ve used this term once already – but what do I mean by “commercial literary”? I’m talking about books that hit the sweet spot between saleability – which, let’s face it, is usually driven by plot, or an engaging premise – and aesthetic/ emotional value, in which character development, emotional complexity, and the beauty of the words themselves are all supremely important.

If you haven’t read much commercial literary fiction, and don’t know exactly where to begin, let me suggest a “starter” list of books to check out. Here are some personal favourites, in no particular order:

ABA:

1. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

2. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

5. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

6. March by Geraldine Brooks

7. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

8. The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

CBA:

1. The Passion of Mary-Margaret by Lisa Samson
2. Blue Hole back Home by Joy Jordan-Lake
3. Feeling for Bones by Bethany Pierce
4. The Dead don’t Dance by Charles Martin
5. The Queen of Sleepy Eye by Patti Hill
6. Chasing Lilacs by Carla Stewart
7. The Moment Between by Nicole Baart
8. Daisy Chain by Mary deMuth

I could go on and on and on. (Can you tell these are the sort of books I love to read?)

2. Read prize-winning books.

Start with CBA prize-winning books, particularly Christy award-winners. You can find a list here.

But don’t discount secular prize-winning books, either. Exercise discernment – secular content can be gritty – but don’t let that stop you from dipping your toes into the remarkable pool of global talent. Try titles that have won or been short-listed for the Man Booker prize, the Orange prize, the National Book Award, and of course the Pulitzer.

Set the bar so high it makes you dizzy. If you always read books written at your level, you’ll never grow beyond that level.

3. Read classics.

There’s a reason some books stand the test of time. I’m first to admit that there are many classics I “should” have read, but haven’t. The good news is, most of these books are now in the public domain, so I’ve been collecting classics on my Kindle for free. No excuses now!

And lastly, just for fun…

How well-read are you?

The BBC released this list of 100 influential novels. They state that the average person will have only read 6 books out of the 100. How do you stack up?

The rules: it only counts if you’ve read it all the way through. (Sigh… my score would be quite a bit higher if I could only count the ones I’ve abandoned before the end!) And no, watching the movie does NOT qualify. (Darn it!)

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Alborn
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adam
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

So, what’s your score? Let us know in the comments! (Mine is 37. Hmmmm. Better than average, but well below halfway. I need to get reading! Who'll join me?)

Images courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Karen Schravemade lives Downunder and likes to confuse her American friends by using weird Australian figures of speech. When she's not chasing after two small boys or cuddling her baby girl, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website and Twitter.

What's Up the Street for Next Week

Congratulations are due to the Christy award winners announced this past Monday! What a great organization it is and a fantastic witness for Christ in the world of literature.

Maybe...someday...we'll be able to celebrate with fellow alley friends and authors who will be celebrating their own Christy success! ;-)


What's up for next week?


Pepper steps in as a substitute for Angie, who is away on vacation (yes, we all envy her). It's all about when the going gets tough on Monday.


Figure out some of the characteristics of a good critique group on Tuesday with Julia.

Christy-Finalist and multi-pubbed author Jennifer Rogers Spinola is Karen's guest on Wednesday!

It's conference season! Fine-tune that pitch with Angie on Thursday.

Plotting?? For a panster?? Cindy treads dangerous waters on Friday.


Sidewalk Talk...


Julia was the featured guest on Debra Wallace's blog. Check out a story excerpt here!

Christy Award winners courtesy of Wynn-Wynn Media

On Being Mentored: Featuring Lynn Austin-7 Time Christy Winner

Not all of us have the opportunity to invest one month to envelope ourselves in research for our story, yet we wish we could. Today seven-time Christy winner, Lynn Austin, tells about her exciting opportunity to research details for one of her book series.


Lynn was the keynote speaker at the Write to Publish Conference the first year I attended. She shared this story. Her messages were inspirational and engaging--I still remember what she said six years later! I've asked her to mentor us today.

Hi Mary,

     Thank you for inviting me to share my research process with your readers. The Chronicles of the Kings series was the first set of books I ever wrote. I was still learning how to research.


     Since this series about Hezekiah was set in Israel, I longed to see the setting for myself. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible, at first. 


     I began poring over every book I could find on Israel using Jewish sources as well as Christian ones. Since Isaiah was a main character, I read commentaries on the book of Isaiah until I felt as if I knew the prophet thoroughly. I also subscribed to a magazine called Biblical Archaeological Review which gave a host of information on discoveries and ancient practices. The magazine also listed volunteer dig opportunities in Israel—I made up my mind to go on one.


     My kids came down with chicken pox a few days before I was scheduled to leave—and then my husband got them, too! He is my biggest encourager; he told me to GO to Israel! Our oldest son, who was 14 at the time, went with me even though he was still recovering from the chicken pox. Crazy!

     We spent 5 days eachh week on the site, digging from 4:30 am (!) until noon. We spent part of the afternoon with the archaeologists, learning about the culture and the discoveries. We traveled from one end of Israel to the other, listening to lectures at all the sites (and I asked a million questions). It was amazing!


     Of course I knew my research had to include a walk through Hezekiah’s tunnel, still intact beneath modern Jerusalem. I didn't particularly like dark, tight, cave-like spaces, the tunnel was all of those things—plus it still contained ice-cold, thigh-deep water! 


     I walked through the tunnel with only a tour guide and one flashlight. Midway through, the guide turned off the flashlight. “See how dark it is?” I nearly had a panic attack! That's when I decided one of my characters (Eliakim in Book II) would have to experience what I did.


    The best part of the trip for me was to live in Israel for a month and keep a record of the sights, sounds, smells. These sensory details and weather patterns bring a story to life.


    I always purchase books to take home and remind myself of what I learned. Pictures help me a lot. I decorate my work area with photographs and drawings that take me back to the original setting.

     I actually enjoy doing research. But after completely immersing myself in the facts of the story’s time period, it becomes very “tricky” not to start spewing them out in my fiction. I would say that of all the information I collect, only a very small percentage of it ever shows up in the novel. The rest is in my head and my heart, creating an “atmosphere” in which the story is allowed to breathe.


    It took me much longer to research this first series than it does for books I write now. 
    
    I still spend at least one to two months researching and visiting the site (if possible) before I start writing. And I don’t stop researching. It’s an on-going process throughout the year it takes to complete each novel.


Blessings,




Thank you, Lynn! 


Lynn then blended sights, sounds, textures, information, smells, and tastes from Israel into her story as a weaver would fashion a design into tapestry. When such works of art are completed, the well crafted intricacies go undetected unless pointed out by a guide. 


Here--take a look for yourself--


--from Lynn's book Among the Gods (book 5) p.339


Joshua held the oil lamp in his right hand, feeling along the clammy wall with his left as he slowly groped his way through the meandering tunnel. He had only been inside it once before, with his father, but the suffocating darkness, the weight of the rock closing in around him, the terrible heaviness bearing down on top of him, were all so familiar it was as if he had been inside this tunnel many times. The icy water grew deeper as he sloshed through it, the passageway narrower, like his lungs as he struggled to breathe.


He inched his way forward, searching for nearly ten minutes before he found what he was looking for-Abba's inscription. He held the light close to read the words his father had chiseled into the stone, feeling them with his fingers. "Behold the tunnel..."


Those were the only words he managed to read before a spasm of coughing overwhelmed him. As he fought to catch his breath, the lamp jostled in his hand. The wick sputtered and sank beneath the oil. The flame died. Joshua plunged into total darkness.


"Abba!" he cried out in panic. But his father was dead, and his Heavenly Father was too far away to hear his cries. He knew that his own anger and forgiveness had separated him from God. They were the true source of his darkness, just as Miriam had said. When he'd turned his back on God, he had walked away from the only Source of light.


Joshua's limbs went numb with terror. He wanted to run from this terribly black void, but he was too dizzy and disoriented to move. He shivered, shaken to realize that Manasseh had lived in this eternal darkness, this midnight of the soul, for most of his life; now Joshua was lost in it too. How would he ever find his way out?
from Among the Gods (Book 5) p. 339, used by permission.




Have you visited the setting for your WIP/book in person or with a video media?
How has visiting the setting benefited your story?
How have you blended pages of facts smoothly into your book?


Lynn said she would stop by today to answer questions. What would you like to ask?

What's Up The Street For Next Week?

The 2011 Christy Awards were announced earlier this week on Monday! Some great books won from this year's lineup and I've included a few here in the weekend edition. Check out our NewsStand for a link to the full lineup.

Congratulations to the winners!

Coming next week...


Writing comedy? Pepper has tips on Monday for the funny writer in you!


Turn up the heat! Sherrinda is in the house on Tuesday with The Hot, Hot Days of Romance!


Mary continues her mentoring series with Point of View: Looking at the Master's Works on Wednesday.


Casey is your hostess this coming Thursday.


Friday brings Krista to the Alley to share on what it takes to make a great cast of characters


News Stand:

The winner of Cowgirl at Heart from last weekend's edition is Faith, Hope, CherryTea!

And the winner of yesterday's giveaway for Love Finds You in Groom, Texas is Faye!

Casey has been interview by Keli Gwyn on Romance Writers on the Journey. You can find the interview here on Tuesday July 19th

Check out the nominee's in the ACFW Carol Awards!

Click here for the complete list of Christy Award Winners

Couldn't attend the award ceremony? There is an archive of the Christy Award live blog and it has pictures!!

Baby Annabelle is turning 1 year old!! Check out Krista's site to wish this miracle baby a happy birthday!

What's Up The Street For Next Week?

THANK YOU to everyone who filled out our survey. The info we collected from all of you has been very helpful and will help us make the Alley even better!

Here's to ANOTHER year of fantastic posts with all you. :-))

Soooo....

WE HAVE WINNERS!!

We have FIVE alone from last Saturday's post. All of you have been contacted, so be checking your email if your name is on this list!!

~Courtney
~Jo
~Ralene
~CarolM
~Ariel

And the winner of The Rhythm of Secrets by Patti Lacy from Wednesday's post is...

~Beth Vogt

Congratulations Winners!!!

What's Up the Street for Next Week...

Monday brings Tangled to the Alley. Pepper shows the plot points to be found in the latest Disney film and how to apply them.

Tuesday we welcome author Kaye Dacus back to the Alley! A giveaway of The Art of Romance is being offered!

Are you a trendsetter? Mary covers the topic on her Wednesday  post.

Lessons Learned from a Pencil is Thursday's post with Casey as she blogs about what she has learned from a familiar plaque hanging above her writing desk.

Krista is your hostess here on Friday

NewsStand:

The Christy Award Nominees have been announced! Congrats to many friends of the Alley, including Siri Mitchell!

Check out Pepper's blog all this coming week for "review week" with Julie Lessman.

Does your profile picture need a face lift (no pun intended)?? Sarah has suggestions on her Monday blog.

Check out Casey's blog for a chance to win Mary Connealy's latest book, In Deep Trouble


Perhaps you'd like to read a Bible or missionary story this week on Mary's blog.