Goldilocks & the 3 Programs

I thought submission management software was supposed to make my life easier. I sure haven’t seen signs of it yet.

For any non-writers out there, submission management software helps you:

• track the editors you’ve got articles/stories with
• know the status of those article/stories
• alert you to what you need to follow-up on

Some programs can do more, but this would be the core functions for all of them.

I am now juggling about 125 active article ideas that I have to keep track of and this doesn’t even count any short stories, novels or copywriting project I may be marketing. In the past, I have lost track on some of those projects. I haven’t missed any important deadlines, but I have forgotten about story ideas that I needed to remind an editor about.

I did my research and after some careful consideration made my first pick. The program was a web download, which I thought would make my life easier. I could be up and running in an hour.

Right!

Here are the snags I hit:

• I had trouble accessing my PayPal account from their web site.
• I had to wait half a day for an access code.
• The program wouldn’t load on my computer.

I probably spend at least 2 hours trying to load it before finding out from the company that an installer problem with my type of system hadn’t been overcome yet. The company was quick to give me refund, but I had wasted a few hours with nothing to show for it.

 My second choice had a had been taken off the market until the company could overcome a similar type of problem it was running into like the first company.

My third choice was a free program called Sonar. It’s pretty basic, but it is free so I can’t complain. It is also easy to use.

Now, I’m faced with entering all of my markets, article and submission info. Like I said, I’ve got 125 active article ideas so it will take awhile, though I can see how the software help me once I’m up to date.

Sounds a bit like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

I’ll think I’ll go eat some porridge.

Fiction needs to make sense, life doesn’t

It is nice when you can get into a writing zone and just write page after page effortlessly. The other day I was in a research zone. I had a short blurb about an incident that seemed like something out of Disney’s Apple Dumpling Gang.

So I started looking into the story. I got very little information at first. I kept running into dead ends with my typical places that I check. Then I started checking the U.S. Census for the names in the story and things started breaking loose. One name led to another and another. I was able to track the names down in old newspapers.

Before I knew it, I had lost a couple of hours when I had only meant to use the time for both research and writing. However, now I’ve got a story that stretches over three generations of a family from a single mother who supported her family by becoming a successful merchant to her soldier son who followed in her footsteps only to have his store blown up to his musically talented daughter who was driven to suicide.

It will definitely be a different story than I imagined, but it will be a better one. While fiction needs to make sense when you plot it, that’s not always the case with real life. That’s what can make it so interesting to write.

To see how the story turns out, watch for my Looking Back column in the Cumberland Times-News in November.

The Mystery of History. Boring It’s Not!

Just a small, two-room school in a tiny company coal-mining town that became the center of national attention and local activity in 1949. It’s a story waiting to be told and mystery waiting to be unraveled. Photo courtesy of Jerry Andrick.

You would think that with history, things would be set in stone. I mean, history’s happened so the facts of what happened are there for everyone to see. That should make my job as a writer who likes historical topics easy.

Maybe. Maybe not.

I’ve run into two instances recently that have both frustrated me and intrigued me because they are a bit of a mystery.

This morning I’ve been culling through the internet, my research library and making calls to try and find out how a baseball league, that by all accounts ceased playing in 1930, was still competing in 1934. I went through an article I had from my idea folder and made notes about the season opening for the Chambersburg Maroons in the Blue Ridge League in 1934. I took the specifics of the event from the article and then started looking for background information on the team and league.

To my surprise, the league ceased operation in 1930. Every source I checked (2 books, some baseball internet sites, a newspaper sports editor) all tell me the same thing. The Blue Ridge League ended in 1930.

So how could the team be playing in 1934 and still have the original league teams in three states?

Now I’m curious. I’ve sent out some e-mails and made additional calls. Hopefully, someone will get back to me and we can track down what happened.

In the second instance, I’ve been working on a new book project about a small Western Maryland coal mining town. I wanted to put this project off because of timing issues with a couple of other projects, but it keeps pulling me back.

With this story, the facts weren’t that hard to get. The story my book is built around made national news for a couple of weeks. I’ve found plenty of stories, though many of them are simply wire stories that were reprinted. Finding pictures that ran in the newspapers will be impossible. Of the six papers I called, only one held out any hope of having pictures from 1949. The others said they had gotten rid of them long ago or just can’t find them.

The interested part with this story has been trying to find details about the events. With the newspapers that did original reporting thoroughly checked, I’m now trying to find people who were alive and living in the town then. This was 62 years ago in a town of 200 residents that is now a ghost town.

Most of them are dead, but I have tracked down a few people. They were youngsters at the time of the events I’m writing about so their memories aren’t that great about what happened. Still, they have given me some additional details and even some leads. My hope is that one of their parents kept a journal that will have some information.

So I keep digging, connecting dots and wondering why some people think history is boring.

What I learn teaching

I spent all of yesterday teaching seminars at HACC (Harrisburg Area Community College). I’ve always found from both teaching college classes and speaking at writers’ conferences that I enjoy the experience (though my mouth tends to go dry). I don’t know if I’d want to do it full time, but I always get something out of the speaking experiences.

I like being able to interact with people who share an interest in the subject I’m teaching. Yesterday, it was writing memoirs and the Daughters of Charity work in Gettysburg after the Civil War battle. In listening to questions I get from attendees, I learn where my presentation might be weak. By watching their body language, I can tell what topics attendees find more interesting than others. Then I can adjust myself accordingly to better meet their needs the next time I talk on the subject.

Personally, I tend to surprise myself a lot at how well I know most of the subjects. I don’t say this to be egotistical. However, even if I wanted to be a full-time instructor at most colleges, I couldn’t be since I don’t have a master’s degree. Yet, when I’m talking to a class about writing and they ask a question of me, I can generally answer it and many times, I can also relate it to a real-life experience I’ve had. With the classes yesterday, I had some work experiences in the past week that I was able to use to help answer questions.

I’ve been writing professionally for 23 years. I’ve worked with a wide variety of editors and bosses, media, subject matter and types of writing. Yes, there’s a lot I can still learn, but there’s a lot of steps and missteps I’ve made that can benefit other aspiring writers. In fact, the real-world experience that I bring to the discussion tends to be one thing consistently noted in my class evaluations.

For me, seminars and teaching has been a win-win. The attendees appreciate the information I share and I learn more about myself afterwards. It’s just part of my search for what I want to do when I grow up!

Just waiting for copies

It’s always a relief to finish a book. I sent the Battlefield Angels proof back today. However, as much as I would just like to forget all about it for awhile, I’ve got to start gathering information that I can use to help market the book when it comes out. This is always the roughest part with any book project for me and the economy isn’t making it any better.

The main reason is that I’m not a naturally outgoing sort of person. I can make myself do it when I’m writing for a newspaper or magazine, but when I can be, I tend to be quiet and fade into the background. I remember an old poster from school that read, “If you’re talking, you’re not listening.” I always thought that was something reporters should pay heed to. Listen to what’s going on and understand the situation before you start talking about it.

I don’t have a lot of time to sit back and understand a new situation, though. Despite the fact that I’ve had other books published, this is a new situation for me. It’s my first non-fiction book-length project. It also has a much larger primary audience than most of my books do. I’ve got high hopes for this book since it ties in with the Civil War market and the 150^th anniversary remembrances. So I’m hoping to get it into a lot of national park bookstores. Since it is also a Catholic book, I’m hoping to get it into Catholic bookstores, which would be a first for me.

I figure I’ll be crazily busy this last quarter of the year between booksignings, visiting bookstores, making sure the distribution channels are set and don’t forget the holiday going-ons.

I may be like Santa and just sleep all of Christmas Day.