Split is Positively Rejected!

Happy holidays to all! 2008 has been an exciting year, and one of my highlights was having Split published. It provided a vast array of learning experience and even more exciting…

Split is Positively Rejected!

Recently, Humble Fiction Café entered our book, Split, into the 16th annual Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards. We did not win. I am happy to report however, that we received some fantastic scoring and commentary.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being excellent, Split received outstanding marks as follows:

Plot – 5
Grammar – 5
Character Development – 4
Cover Design – 5

Wow – I’m still excited by those impressive marks. The judge went on to comment that he liked the overall theme of the book, as well as the variety of voices and writers. He mentioned a few stories by name where he particularly liked the ending, and said all the stories were good reads! Additionally, he found value in the end of story explanations. The judge complimented Humble Fiction Café saying that through our writing he felt we liked one another and he sensed good will.

Equally beneficial, the judge also mentioned areas that could improve the book, such as stronger character development, and less focus on plot twists that occasionally resulted in sudden, sometimes violent endings. The judge felt there were too many stories with the character Beatrice, but also said they were all good so he wouldn’t know which stories to cut.

Overall, I think the commentary and our scores were outstanding. As writers, we value this kind of feedback because it helps us know what we did well, and how we can do better in the future.

If you haven’t yet read Split, I invite you to do so. If you’ve read Split, I would love to hear from you. What did you like best about the book? How do you think the book could be improved?


Happy Holidays!

Split and the Lessons Learned

by HFC member Sheryl

I’ll never forget the day that Split arrived and I was able to hold our newly published book in my hands. Up until then, I knew we had all written and contributed stories and poems for an anthology of dichotomies. We had worked on it for months. We had read and critiqued each other’s work, watching the stories become more cohesive with each re-write. We had shared back-story and helped one another capture it in an appropriate format. We had labored over each of our stories. Yet it was when I held Split in my hand, that it all felt real.

For those of you new to this blog, Split is a book of 27 short stories and poems, each reflecting a whole or one-half of a dichotomy, or two mutually exclusive or contradictory ideas. The contributing authors belong to my writer’s group, Humble Fiction Café (HFC), a diverse mix of extremely talented writers at various stages in their writing careers.

I don’t remember the month, but in 2007 we decided to challenge ourselves to write a book and selected the theme of dichotomies. There is war/peace, hot/cold, guilt/innocence, create/destroy, and many more dichotomies reflected in our stories. Some of us worked hard to contribute just one story to the book, while other (more prolific) writers provided more. We all hope you read the book and let us know your favorite(s).

There were many lessons learned throughout the process, which is exactly why we undertook this project (HFC does not receive any profit from the sale of this book). I learned, for one, that as many times as you re-write and edit a story, there is more that can be done. Until you put it away and declare it “finished,” it isn’t done!

I discovered that there is a lot of work that goes into editing and cover design. Our group was fortunate enough to have the talent of Kelli Meyer and Victor DiGiovanni respectively for these tasks, and for that, we are all truly grateful.

But wait, there is more. A book introduction had to be written, a back cover synopsis, bio's for each author, and even descriptions to follow each story embodying the dichotomy. Then the book had to be organized. Whose story would appear first, second, last? And what organization would make the most sense. After all, some of the stories written were by-products of another author’s story, borrowing characters or locations or some other common thread. Everyone within HFC contributed magnificently to these tasks.

Finally, while we are the Humble Fiction Café, I know I for one experienced pride in the completed product. For days, Split was all I could think about or talk about, and the smile would not wipe off my face. It’s not about how many copies are sold or whether or not a book makes a best-seller list (although wouldn’t that be grand?). It’s all about the enormity of the project, the completeness, the giving forth of all your efforts that provides the satisfaction.

Participating in the creation of Split was hugely rewarding. What an outstanding group of individuals to have pulled this off and with a remarkably good book to boot. Kudos to the HFC!

Make 8 Great!

8 as in 2008.

For me, 2007 seems in many ways to have just been a build-up to, or preview of, what 2008 will offer. I spent the last few days of 07 seriously ramping up for this year, getting into an ambitious, yet practical, mindset. No weight-loss or exercise goals. No "stop doing this" goals, or "start doing that" goals. I gave myself just one directive entering 2008:

Make this the Non-Stop Year. Make 8 Great!

No more wasting time. No more randomly surfing the net for hours at a time. No more turning on the TV just to "see what's on" (and then turning it off hours later.) No more avoiding the most agonizing projects. No more avoiding the projects I'm actually excited about. Just DOING something. Anything, so long as it's something that moves me forward either personally, spiritually, creatively, healthily, or whatever.

Seven days into the new year, I'm shocked at just how absolutely energized I still am. I've yet to allow myself to have an idle moment, and rather than the mind-numbing exhaustion I was expecting, I find it's just the opposite. Everything seems like a bright opportunity, even the things I normally dread on a daily basis.

I could bore you with more details (which I had, before highlighting it all and hitting the delete key), but already this year, I've accomplished more on all levels than I did the entire first two months of last year.

From an Humble Fiction Cafe perspective, the next big event on our horizon is the actual (self)publication of our "Split" anthology. It's taken a lot longer than any of us expected, but I think it's going to turn out a lot better than any of us expected, as well. My contribution was one of the stories, Spirit, as well as the cover and layout of the book. It's been exhausting, but incredibly rewarding. Kelli had the (in my opinion) far more arduous task of making our little book LOOK professional. Without her input and editing, this book would have looked a lot more amateurish. I've seen a good deal of sloppy, rushed, and dull self-published work, and I'm proud to say that on a technical level, "Split" is going to be pretty slick. All the members of Humble Fiction Cafe will be able to present this book to friends and family (and strangers) with confidence and pride.

While the professional merits of self-published work is debatable, the effect that having this tangible product in our writing group's hands cannot be underestimated. It makes this hobby REAL. Even though the book hasn't been produced (yet), I believe the effort that has gone into it has pushed all the members of Humble Fiction Cafe into a new level of belief that they aren't just playing around at writing, or spinning their wheels. Everyone has upped their game, and the results are already starting to show. 2007 has already seen several members win awards for their work, and others are finding success with their novels being accepted for inclusion in a series of books to be released starting in 2008. And success gets contagious.

There has been some debate about whether or not we should do a Big Project for 08, and while I was at first firmly in favor of a new end-of-year book collecting our efforts, I'm now thinking we don't need it anymore. "Split" showed us what we are capable of. It showed us the bare minimum of what we should expect of ourselves. Now's the time to take the training wheels off and WRITE that novel or screenplay or memoir we've been holding inside for our whole lives.

"Split" was a good warm-up. But that's all it is. I can't wait for the day in the (not-so-distant) future where we all look back on "Split" and groan at how comparatively bad our writing is compared to what we will be doing then.

So get off your butt! Get started on whatever it is you passionately want to do. The time is now!

Make 8 Great!