Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

What I’m (th)Inkingabout

Christmas break, loss and pendulums

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Life is always at the point of the pendulum swing.

Events over the Christmas break have started me thinking about how reality and how we think we will react to life’s swings of the pendulum are always different.

Several years ago, after my father died, my sister and I decided we were going to go back to the family’s old country and reestablish our connection with our father’s family. I was enthusiastic and pushed down all my concerns about going to the airport alone, flying more than twenty-six hours by myself and meeting family members we hadn’t even known existed. Waiting in an empty terminal for four hours for my sister to arrive, having not slept since I had left home; traveling about the country in trains, subways, and ferries as we visited different parts of the country, including the small island our grandmother was born and raised on; and building relationships with, essentially, strangers was both more daunting and more amazing than I ever could have imagined.

Making that journey had been an important goal to achieve as our father’s death had been unexpected. Certainly, he wasn’t in the best of health, but he wasn’t ill or senile and was quite ambulatory though largely blind due to diabetes. We had needed that future adventure to save for and plan while we coped with losing such a special man.

So I had an idea what my husband was going to go through when we were told to expect his father to pass sometime before Christmas. Sure we were expecting it. Sure he had long since forgotten who each of us were, and certainly, my husband was convinced he was prepared for the loss. I knew he wasn’t. Even with having been through it already, I wasn’t ready to lose yet another special man.

The call came a week before Christmas; the funeral preceded Christmas by two days. We held a solemn family gathering with his close-knit family. There were times my husband and daughter showed that they were handling the loss well, and other times when it would creep over their false calm and tear them apart.

We’re never as ready as we think we are because we can’t really imagine what we’ll be experiencing when we get caught up by the big events in life.

This would not be my blog if I didn’t make a connection to writing. When we design our characters we need to keep in mind that they may think they’re ready to deal with what is being thrown their way, but they aren’t. It doesn’t matter if it is the big climax scene or just a little event leading up to greater stress: running out of gas heading to a picnic or a dishwasher leak. It is never as bad, good, funny, sad or exciting as they expect it to be. And they never are ready.

#loss
#writing

We Write from Memory, for Memory and Sometimes to Memory

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Memory is essential for everything we do. We learn through memory, understand through memory, forgive and even forget by way of memory. We revisit our past and consider our futures all through memories built from ours and others recall.

Recently, chatting with H. M. Jones whom I met on GooglePlus just a week or so after reading her book Monochrome (filled with the underpinnings of what motherhood is, not to mention the very important feature of memory) got me thinking back on the other avenues of writing I had taken.

Jones invited me to consider submitting a poem to a women’s online anthology she has started up to give a voice to women finding publication difficult. I haven’t tried to publish any poetry in many years, so I was surprised at how intrigued I was by the opportunity.

Memory: I remembered my pregnancy-inspired poetry from nearly twenty years ago.  I am certain her book and the various topics we touched on in our discussions were the trigger. I checked out Jones’s Brazen Bitches anthology link on her H. M. Jones Writes website. I knew instantly which one of my poems belonged among the selection she had already posted.

I searched for the one I had in mind within my file of long packed away poems. It was just as I remembered it. I returned to those strong maternal feelings for a child yet to be born and realized that my daughter had reached the age when seeing this poem inspired by her beginning would show her what my hopes had been and what they still are.

I sent “Sister Clytemnestra” to H. M. Jones and held my breath that it was ready to speak for itself.

Memory: without it writers have nothing to give. It is through memory that we find a way to speak for those not yet ready to voice for themselves or not yet filled with remembering or the remembered.

When Hannah Jones (H. M. Jones) let me know that she would be adding my poem to the anthology, I felt exuberant, and the first thought I had was that my daughter must see this poem.

I have to admit I was more excited to show her than she was to see it. But she did read it and we talked briefly about its origins and inspiration. I was expecting a, “Gee, mom, you really were thinking about me.”

That’s not what she said though. She saw familiar mythology, and remembered texts she has read and studied.

I had forgotten she was an aspiring/growing writer herself. I realize now it will be a bit before the intent of the poem and its direct connection to her rises past the other aspects she was more focused on noting.

My daughter is a designer/engineer at heart. What grabs her attention fits more under the vocabulary of “foundation,” “process,” “structure,” and “skill.” She was busy dissecting not appreciating.

But I remind myself of memory. She will remember after a bit that the poem I showed her belongs to her more than anyone else. It may speak to others, but it was speaking to her long before she was listening. And one day, she will get past the what of it and see the intent I had that she become the women that she has grown into without ever knowing that was my wish until it had already happened.

#memory
#motherhood

7+ Healthy Writer Activities That Help You Be a Better Writer

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Health in all its dimensions.

I am a firm believer that being healthy leads to all sorts of benefits. As a writer, I especially want to do the things that add quality to my writing.  The more healthy I am, the better I think, write, plan, organize, and step into another person’s (replace with character’s) shoes.

  1. Sleep. We absolutely must sleep enough. For some writers, seven hours is optimum while others have different required amounts of sleep. So it is not that a writer must sleep a particular number of hours, but a writer must sleep the right number of hours.
  2. Drink enough clean, pure water. The brain needs water and it needs a specific amount. Just as writers need different amounts of sleep, their need for water differs too. It is dependent upon the climate lived in, the weight of the individual, how much exercise is practiced, whether or the writer takes medicine which effects water usage and even if the writer drinks other liquids which steal water. So it isn’t a particular amount, it is the correct amount that the body needs.
  3. Companionship which supplies trust, support, a kind shoulder, challenge, and encouragement. This helps keep stress down because there is someone who will be there during the rough times.
  4. Speaking of stress: this is one of the top destructive health issues. Read, listen to music, meditate, go for a bike ride, knit, play Sims: reduce stress by doing those things that make you relax and get away from the stress inducing actions/experiences.
  5. Eat food that supports the mind and body. Sounds simple, but it isn’t.  So this means no fast food, no sodas, no high salt chips, etc. It means eating for the body (and for the mind).
  6. Exercise at least thirty minutes a day (three to five  times a week) in a fashion that raises your heart rate, warms up your muscles, and challenges your lungs and your strength.
  7. This is the plus one: and it’s not a repeat of number 3. Hang out with people who look at things positively, are honest with you and want you to be honest with them, are fair minded and open to new ideas, and have few prejudices (I’m okay with people who aren’t crazy about spiders and snakes). If they are knowledgeable about things you aren’t, then you have bonus material in that friendship.
  8. For writers only:  write.

True — I have offered nothing new. But new isn’t needed. Do what are bodies and minds have always needed. It doesn’t matter that there is more technology. We still need sleep that rejuvenates, food that nourishes, love that makes us secure, friendship that brings us positive viewpoints, reasons to smile, support to get us through the tough times, and strong bodies fit to recover from illness, carry us through stress and open the pickle jar.

If you liked this post, please share it.

#health
#write

Why read my books? 15 reasons you should consider making a purchase.

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I don’t do much in the way of advertising my books. So I thought this week I would post some reasons for someone to read my Students of Jump series, currently up to book 4.  The following are the reasons that came to mind.

  1. You haven’t yet. Everybody needs to relax for a while each day. Relax with a book.
  2. You will be thinking about something other than what is troubling you.
  3. You will feel an affinity for at least one of the characters and want to know what is going to happen next to him or her.
  4. If you enjoy time travel stories, you’ll enjoy my books.
  5. There are no cliffhangers. Each novel stands alone.
  6. Each one is better than the one before.
  7. They have strong women characters.
  8. You can get them for a good price at all popular retailers and a number of online libraries.
  9. There is something to laugh about, cry about, and think about in each one.
  10. You can purchase my book in a variety of eBook forms for many ereaders: Kindle, Sony, Kobo, Nook and of course, computer apps.
  11. You can buy the first three books in a box set for only $6.99. That means each one is a bargain at $2.33.
  12. There are four books currently in the series.
  13. Potentially there will be nine or more books in the series. (That’s how many I have brainstormed on Freemind.)
  14. You’ll be able to answer the following questions: 
  • Will Brent come to terms with both his pasts?
  • Will Misty forgive her father, save her mother, or get her aunt’s gate painted?
  • Will Mack and Emily figure out who took Renwick mid time jump and keep each other safe from the same fate?
  • Will Quinn complete his time jumping test or take a forfeit to remain with an ever shrinking selection of pasts?

    15. Now the writer shouldn’t answer all the questions. I bet you can come up with the fifteenth one.

#StudentsOfJump
#Reading
#TimeTravel

10 Styles That May Help You be Smashwords Ready Before You Have to Be

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Before you write, set your styles.

There’s always a little bit of a high I feel after I have formatted a book for upload to Smashwords and I receive the email stating that I have no autovetter issues. But I don’t get that smooth upload through luck. I set myself up for it from the start.

I have a preset format that has me writing in Smashwords style before I type the first word. If you have uploaded to Smashwords once, you will know just what I mean, but you may not have set your MS Word to start you off right. If you are thinking about self-publishing your work with Smashwords, and it’s your first time, take the time to set up your document to meet the demands of the Meatgrinder.

There’s a bonus. My Smashwords ready novel will be 97 percent ready for upload to Amazon. I will only have a little front matter and back matter to change to meet Amazon’s requirements when I am ready to upload to Amazon.

It’s a pretty simple process to make yourself Smashwords ready at the start. Download the free Smashwords Style Guide and set up a four page document as if it was a book. Give it a title page, copyright page, chapter title, some body text and a bio with a few links to your author pages. In fact this can become your template for cutting and pasting into your finished novel when you are ready to format for upload. How great is that?! Now read that guide and apply the format requirements to this 1-4 page practice/template document. After this is done, you can open a new document based on these style settings.

With that four-page document ready for styles, you can set up what you need for that book you are going to write. I have created the following styles that I use in nearly all my books. They make preparing my manuscript very easy.

  • Body text: Modify your normal text to Times New Roman, font 12, first line indent .3, single spacing, everything else set to 0.  It’s important to do this first because all your other styles will be based on this one. (Look to the style guide for how to work the styles. It would be silly for me to repeat it, and the guide does a great job of showing writers how to do it.)
  • Book title: using your Normal style, create a new style setting the various qualities you want for your title: bold, italics, font size, font, center, no indent (I just use Times New Roman throughout). Label it.
  •  Chapter title: again (and I won’t repeat this any more) using your Normal style create this new style: bold, italics, font, font size, center, no indent. And add one more neat trick (thanks to Mark Coker). Click on the Line and Page Breaks tab under the Format/Paragraph pop up window. Put a check mark in the box “put a page break before.” This is great as it creates a reliable page break between the end of the previous chapter and the new one. I also increase the space above and below the written text (also recommended by Mark Coker). 20 above, 36 below to put the chapter title a little further down the page and the first line of text a nice distance from the chapter title. Play with this until you’re happy with the distance.
  • White space marker. I use markers for white space because simply adding returns can be confusing in eBook readers as the text that follows can appear as just a new paragraph rather than a change in time, viewpoint or character. So I use seven tildes in a row.  I type the seven tildes and click on my White Space style: center, bold, up a notch on font size and set .8 space before and after to clearly mark it as a separation often called white space.
  • Other chapter: the label does not explain well what this is for. I added this to my styles for this fourth book. I include not just Chapter and the number, but a title that focuses on a important issue in the chapter.  Originally I wanted to put these on one line together. But some of my titles were so long that they ran clear across the page. So I created an Other chapter style for the more specific title. It is based on the Chapter Title style but does not include the embedded page break which would have forced a blank page after my first line title when I put on the second line.  Chapter 1: The Dean’s Ghost works fine when it is short. But long titles don’t look right. Thus I do what I have below for all my titles and all it takes is a click on this style to make them look identical but act just that little bit different so I don’t have a blank page between my two lines of titling.

                Chapter 1

          The Dean’s Ghost
          

  • Time markers: in my first three books, my characters were moving about so much in time that I felt my reader would need a little assistance keeping track. So I set up a style for a time marker. Example: March 21, 2214, New Hampshire Complex, Langler Section. Bold, left justified.
  • Center: set up a style for centering based on Normal. According to Mark Coker, this is much more reliable than clicking the center button on the ribbon. Italics, bold and underline on the ribbon, however, are said to work fine.
  • Front and back matter. Mark recommends that front and back matter be left justified with no embedded indent. So I set up a style just for that based on my Normal style but without the .3 first line indent. And I added an 8 point space after to separate the left justified paragraphs.
  • Table of Contents look best either centered or left justified. I prefer left justified, so I made a style that had all the Normal text qualities but did not include the indent. And I use the Chapter title style for the title Table of Contents.

With these styles already set up in my styles ribbon, my manuscript was already free of most issues that cause autovetter problems and was largely ready for final formatting via the style guide.

One issue I found when I used the Pilcrow (backwards looking P thing in the ribbon that shows the the coding of your document) to check for unnecessary format coding was unexpected section breaks I did not insert. I don’t know what causes Word to insert section breaks, but they show up in the oddest places in my manuscript. When it comes time to get ready to format for upload, the first thing I do is activate the codes view (click on the Pilcrow) and look at every page, every line and every code. I get rid of extra spaces, tabs, unnecessary returns and most especially those pesky section breaks which will insert annoying extra pages. Then I’m ready to complete the format for Smashwords.

So if my husband did not keep chatting with me and asking me how much longer I’ll be, I would have completed my formatting for Smashwords in about 45 minutes. But that wasn’t the case. It took me about an hour and a half. And don’t forget to save as a doc rather than a docx which leads to a failed upload.  Happy formatting.

#writing
#smashwords
#formatting

The 10 problems that will make me giveup reading a book

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Poorly written stories make for a blurry book, lacking color

Lately, due to my lighter teaching schedule, I have been reading a book a week, minimum. (Last year, a book every two months was my average.) Usually I will read a book to the end, waiting for it to redeem itself if it is less than engaging. “Maybe the writer needed more practice and the end will show improvement,” I tell myself.

Often even a book that starts off rough will, over time, gain its feet. The adage the act of writing improves writing and every writer gets better as they continue to produce often applies. But some problems will bother me so much that I will have to remind myself that redemption might yet flower if I keep reading. But I have given up on a few books.

These are the top ten which will, if enough appear, convince me to give up on a book.

  1. Unnecessary sex – though it isn’t presented this way, it will have the effect of a quickie with a prostitute. I can ignore it once. But if it repeats, I will probably drop reading the book.
  2. Unnecessary swearing – and even worse, if the swearing is the same word and everybody who swears in the book uses it and only that one word.  I recently read a really great book that had this one flaw. It was as if the characters kept saying “um” or “like” every few words. Made me cringe every time, but it did not make me stop reading because it was an excellent story and thankfully, the swearing was not a constant, just consistently repetitive and frequently unnecessary.
  3. Introductions that tell how bad things are now without providing any real imagery, characterization or depth of story. Sort of a “by the way, first you have to know this.” Now you can read my story.
  4. Too many characters with different color eyes and hair or stripes or accents, and that’s all I get to tell them apart. Everyone sounds the same.
  5. One woman and every guy wants her or vice versa. And I don’t even like the character, so how am I going to be convinced every Tom, Dick and Harry will?
  6. The story plods along, I realize I have been reading for half the book and nothing has happened, and I still don’t know the characters well enough to want to continue the journey with them.
  7. The characters are really tense, but there was nothing to make them tense. Everybody is grumping along or sparks are flying every time they touch, but nothing led up to it.
  8. Really poor punctuation and sentence structure. I can deal with an occasional missing word, an unnecessary fragment, etc. A good story is a good story. And many a time I and others will trip over our words while we tell about something interesting. We don’t lose our listeners and the writer won’t lose this reader for an occasional writing issue. The story is everything. But really bad grammar and punctuation skills can kill even the best story.
  9. I put the book down (voluntarily) to go have lunch or chat with a friend and I can’t remember what I was reading. That is a really bad sign. I am about twenty pages into a book right now and have put it down twice. Both times I had to think a bit about what was happening before I opened it up to read more. Nothing is happening yet that is keeping my interest which is funny as the White House has just blown up, people are fleeing and a crazy man is on the loose. No real tension. The main characters are just walking away from the burning building.
  10. Using known characters and relying on the reader’s knowledge of them to carry the characterization. That is not the way to create memorable characters the reader is going to care about.

#reading
#books