Successful People Read

Last month, Christina DesMarais wrote why we should read. Take a look at her article. It’s short — and eye-opening.

Today, I’m going to riff on her points.

Want to Be Open-Minded and Creative?

Then you need to be reading fiction. A study by the University of Toronto revealed that short story readers were essentially more open-minded than essay readers. Why? Because fiction encourages you to think and ponder. It stimulates the imagination. Lets you wander outside your box.

Much fiction, even much commercial fiction, is at base philosophy. The author is exploring different world views or philosophical questions — all disguised as a story.

Fiction sows the seeds for reflective thought. And in our current environment where people no longer dialogue, reflective thought can challenge some of our dearest and most cherished assumptions. And possibly re-open those dialogues.

Want to Live Longer?

If you do, then read a book. A Yale study found that book readers 50 and older lived nearly 2 years longer than non-readers or magazine readers.

Reading books develops thinking skills and concentration, as well as improving vocabulary. And a greater vocabulary allows one more nuanced verbal expression.

Reading a book for at least 30 minutes a day creates cognitive engagement. In other words, it gets your brain active. And many studies have shown that a key to defeating dementia and ill health in old age is to be mentally active. Reading helps us do that.

Improves Your Writing Skills

Whether you write on paper or type on your laptop, if you want to improve your ability to communicate by the real or virtual page then you need to read.

Reading a wide array of literature exposes us to different metaphors, allusions, words, illustrations, styles. All of which can enrich your own. 

If you are looking to express yourself better on the page, then read a book.

Reduces Stress

And who doesn’t want to do that?

Reading takes us into other worlds. And because we have to create the images of the fictional world in our mind, it takes us out of our present situation and transports us someplace else. By doing so, we get our mind off of our troubles for a little while. And that is good for our health.

Reading Provides Entertainment

Reading is an age-old means of entertainment that you can enjoy by yourself or with others. Reading a book with your family or a loved one is a fabulous way to spend time together.

It’s convenient too. Just open the book and you are there. Just turn on your e-reader or tablet and you are ready for fun.

What’s more, a book allows for interactive entertainment in a way a movie or TV show doesn’t. You can pause and reflect on a scene. Argue with the author. Discuss with a friend. All this can be done far easier with a book, than with video.

But I Don’t Have Time to Read

Actually, you probably do. As with anything in life, it depends on what you value. Those things you value, you do. So look at what you are doing. If what you are doing is so important it can’t be set aside, okay. And if those important things fill up every hour of your waking day, then they must be important.

However, I seriously doubt you don’t have wasted time in your day. Time spent in idle chit-chat. Time spent staring at your phone. I don’t have a smart phone. I find it difficult to imagine what the heck is so mesmerizing about those darn phones. 

Then there is time spent in commuting to work. What do you do in the bus or train or car pool?

Even at just 30 minutes a day, it’s possible to read a book a week. I know that sounds impossible, but it really isn’t. Try it. Pick out 3 books. Assign each book to a week, and dedicate 30 minutes a day to reading it. 

If you find that you don’t read fast enough, and some of us don’t, I’m a rather slow reader, don’t worry. Simply set aside 2 weeks to read the book. After all, that’s what the library gives you.

The point is to read each day something you enjoy. It can be poetry, short stories, essays, novels, non-fiction. What you read doesn’t matter as much as reading. Although I’d recommend a mix. Remember variety is the spice of life. And no spice = bland.

Those Who Don’t Read

The Pew Research Center discovered that 26% of American adults did not read even a part of a book in the past year.

That is a ghastly statistic.

As the number of non-readers increases, so does the number of violent acts. Are they related? That would make for a very interesting study.

At the very least, we are growing a population less prone to think, less likely to live longer, and less likely to have good mental health.

What Do I Read?

That’s easy: whatever you want! But mix it up, as noted above.

I read a lot of non-fiction while researching when writing my novels and stories. Consequently, I tend to focus on reading fiction. And I also happen to enjoy fiction more than non-fiction. I also read poetry on occasion.

I’m also partial to today’s indie authors and authors of the past. Undoubtedly, you have your own favorites — even if you don’t know them yet.

Years ago I worked in a library. The head librarian was a mystery lover and one day we were talking about mysteries. I said I liked Sherlock Holmes, but otherwise wasn’t all that interested in mysteries.

She took me over to the bookshelves and handed me a volume of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe. I took it home and read it. It was love at first read. I never looked back.

Today, I find myself reading lots of mysteries. Thank you Marilyn Gray for a lifetime of splendid enjoyment.

Here are a few authors I happen to like. They write well and are very imaginative. Just click on the name to go to their Amazon page.

Crispian Thurlborn writes horror and fantasy.

Ben Willoughby writes horror and fantasy.

Steve Bargdill writes imaginative mainstream fiction.

Jack Tyler writes steampunk adventure.

William Jackson writes… Well, wherever you put it, it’s entertaining!

James Vincett writes military science fiction.

Cordwainer Smith wrote highly imaginative science fiction.

Rex Stout wrote the incomparable Nero Wolfe mysteries, and other genres in his early days.

And if you want to check out what I write, here’s my Amazon page.

You can also check out my Facebook page where I post on Mondays the Book of the Week.

Comments are always welcome. Until next time, happy reading!

Characters Are Fiction

Sherlock Holmes-one of the most memorable characters in fiction

The other day fellow author Jack Tyler posted on his blog advice to writers: it’s the characters.

Characters do indeed make the story. But much more accurately, characters are the story. Think about a novel. Any novel. What do you remember about it? Or a movie or TV series. Any movie or TV series. What do you remember? The plots? Or the characters? Unless it’s The Twilight Zone, it’s the characters you remember. Dorothy. Columbo. Proxy Snyder on Colony. Scarlett and Rhett. Nero Wolfe. Scrooge. Sherlock Holmes.

Generally speaking, we readers read a novel or short story for the characters. People we can relate to who are in a crisis. There is a certain vicarious experience we go through when we read a work of fiction and identify with the hero or heroine. Their struggle becomes our struggle. Their win, our win.

Even in that most well-worn of story forms, the Hero’s Quest, the calamities and the setting and the nature of the obstacles to be surmounted may change, but in the end what we read the story for is not the plot. We already know the plot. It’s the characters. The hero. We read the Hero’s Quest for the hero. His (or her) journey becomes our journey.

The Hobbit is Bilbo’s story. Sure it’s an adventure tale. And we like adventure tales. But what makes The Hobbit unique is Bilbo Baggins. Not the world in which Bilbo lives. That is window dressing. Bilbo makes The Hobbit what it is. Not the orcs, not Gandalf, not the elves, not Middle Earth.

We don’t read the Hero’s Quest for the story. We know the story. We read the Hero’s Quest for the Hero (or Heroine). Is he someone we can relate to? Is the hero us? If he is, we read. If he isn’t, we put the book aside and pick up another. And this applies to any other book or story that we find memorable.

Anthony Trollope, a master at creating believable characters, told future writers what he believed to be the secret of successful fiction. Here is his advice (from his Autobiography):

“A novel should give a picture of common life enlivened by humour and sweetened by pathos. To make that picture worthy of attention, the canvas should be crowded with real portraits, not of individuals known to the world or to the author, but of created personages impregnated with traits of character which are known. To my thinking, the plot is but the vehicle for all this; and when you have the vehicle without the passengers, a story of mystery in which the agents never spring to life, you have but a wooden show.”

As Trollope advised: “…when you have the vehicle without the passengers…you have but a wooden show.”

And sad to say, there are a lot of wooden shows out there. Part of the reason we readers must endure these wooden shows is due to writers who write commercial fiction and don’t have the ability to rise above their formulas. These writers, hoping to earn enough with their keyboards to quit the day job, quite often have no idea how to tell a story. They simply follow the plot beats on the chart. If they didn’t have that chart they wouldn’t have a clue as to what comes next in the story.

As a reader, one of the reasons I steer clear of today’s most popular genres (at least for the most part) is because those genres are filled with the works of hacks who provide nothing but a wooden show. Many of these writers are only interested in the dollar. They are in a gold rush, looking to get rich quick.

Of course one hopes they will learn the craft sufficiently to rise above the wooden show. But to do so, they need to write. Not write to make a buck. Just write. And by writing, learn.

Now I’m not averse to money. I think virtually all writers would like to earn a significant chunk of change from their writing. Me included. Shoot, even Shakespeare wrote for money. But there is a difference between simply writing for money and writing because you just have to tell a story.

Lawrence Block wrote over a hundred trash novels in the ‘50s and into the ‘60s. They were what he cut his writing teeth on. Many of them are being republished now. 

I remember him writing somewhere that maybe he stayed too long writing those trash novels. But when he stopped and started writing “the good stuff”, he knocked the ball out of the park. Evan Tanner. Bernie Rhodenbarr. Matt Scudder. Ehrengraff. Just a few of the many memorable characters he created. Block cut his writing teeth by writing. Not by hiring beta readers, or editors, or submitting his work to creative writing workshops. He wrote and improved his craft.

Too many writers today want instant glory. They are mostly young, and grew up being pampered in school. Everyone’s a winner. Hogwash. The real world says otherwise.

One young woman in a closed Facebook group said she uses editors because she doesn’t want to risk losing readers. What? How is an editor going to make something unreadable readable? He/She can’t unless he or she becomes a co-author.

These writers are afraid of failure, so they are doing whatever they can to avert it. Failure, however, is part of life. Letting one’s readers tell you your book is crap, is a tremendous learning experience. In the days before Kindle, editors did that at magazines and publishing houses. Today, for indie authors, the reader takes the place of the editor. Most of today’s young writers don’t understand that.

If you writers want to write for a living, write. Write lots. Publish whatever you can. Let your readers tell you what works and doesn’t work. After all, they are the ones you are writing for. They are the ones who will buy your books.

Of course we readers share in the blame when it comes to mediocre formulaic writing, peopled with lackluster and wooden characters. We share in the blame because we tolerate such writing. We do so because we are either ignorant of quality writing, or we simply don’t care.

If we readers don’t care, then writers won’t either. They’ll shovel whatever crap or swill they can our way — just as long as we buy it and help them quit the day job.

This reader, however, as Popeye said, Can’t Stands No More!

I’ve been so disappointed with the current crop of writers who are award winners and New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestsellers — that I no longer even look at the book if it has one of those tags on it. We readers have let the mediocre rise to the top.

What I do instead, is search history’s dustbin for those forgotten treasures from the past. Many are free because they are no longer under copyright, or can be found very cheap on the used market.

I’ve also started looking for the hidden gems on Amazon. Those books that have never found their way into the top million. Yes, that is million. I’ve found fabulous, character-rich reads in many of those books. I’m doing my best to get the word out on those hidden treasures. Aargh, matey! There be buried treasure here!

Every week I post a Book of the Week on my Facebook page. Do make a point to check it out. However, because money hungry Zuckerberg has monetized pages, not all of my 105 followers see my posts. At most 25 do. If I want them all to see the posts, I have to give the Z man $5 to boost the post. So do make a point to check out the Book of the Week each Monday. Good reads are there to be found.

This week’s Book of the Week is Tales of Horror by Bryan C Laesch. A superb trio of monster stories. Give it a read. You won’t be sorry.

Past Book of the Week authors are Dusty Sharp, Zara Altair, Simon Osborne, Jacquie Rogers, and Andy Graham. Writers guaranteed to bring you a respite from your day, or just plain give you a good time.

Characters are fiction. If, my dear fellow readers, you’ve been caught up in the thriller hype. You know, the pages-turn-themselves kind of crap, where the writer simply piles on more and more problems — usually paying little attention to character development. If you’ve been sucked into the fast is better mentality, take some time to experience character-driven fiction.

While character-driven fiction may be slower than the hyperdrive thriller, it doesn’t have to be and often isn’t. Tom Clancy’s novels don’t lack for character — or action.

The plot-driven stuff is fine if you just want a snack. If, however, you want the full-meal deal, you need books with fabulous characters. Because they are like Tootsie Rolls: they last a long time.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

You Don’t Own Your Ebooks

Cthulhu reading an ebook he discovered he doesn't actually own.

I was surprised to learn I don’t own my ebooks. And neither do you. I know that’s no surprise to most of you. However, I’ve always been a late bloomer and I just came to the realization this past weekend that I don’t actually own my ebooks.

How did I come to this revelation? My wife and I are preparing to move and I was looking at all my books and taking mental inventory if I wanted to move all of them. Suddenly my mind made the leap to my ebooks. How do I resell the ones I don’t like or have no further use for? The answer I came to was I can’t.

Further investigation revealed that I don’t buy ebooks, and Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, don’t sell them. I am buying a lifetime use license, in effect. And at present there is no mechanism for me to resell the license. When Amazon, et al, sell me the license it is with the understanding I won’t resell. 

So what do I do with all the ebooks I no longer want. I have dozens that I’ve read or started to read and don’t like. Sure I can delete them. But that is like throwing a five dollar bill in the toilet and pulling the lever to flush it. Why on earth do I want to do that?

The short answer is, I don’t. But right now, I’m stuck with all those ebooks I no longer want. Unless I just flush them down the toilet.

Some people have made the argument that buying an ebook is like going to the movie theater. If I don’t like the movie, I’m just stuck with a bad experience. The same with ebooks. I’m just stuck with a bad book.

Most young people, it seems, don’t find this strange. I think this is because the entertainment industry has brainwashed them (because they grew up with all this digital content) into thinking that reselling digital content is wrong. But how is digital content any different than a paperback book? There is no difference, really. It’s all content.

Oh, sure the argument is made that books are fragile and deteriorate. Which is hogwash. I have perfectly readable books that are over a 100 years old. However, I have all manner of digital content I can no longer use because I no longer have the readers to read it. Digital content is extremely fragile.

Just think about what happens when mobi and epub books can no longer be read. And since technology is rapidly advancing, that could be in my lifetime — and I’m 65. Remember floppy discs?

What guarantee do I have that my latest tablet will let me read the old digital content? I have none. Because someone somewhere will probably want to make money to convert my old books into the new formats. And if publishers want to convert their old digital format content to new formats, that will be up to them. If they don’t, that content is lost and gone forever. Just think of all those books, that are ebooks only, and they don’t get converted. Gone. At least with paper, they still exist. All the books. The good, the bad, the ugly.

So the argument that digital files don’t deteriorate is misleading. They might simply become unreadable. Which is tantamount to deterioration. It has the same end result.

Now what to my wondering and searching eye should appear? But that Amazon (as of at least 2 plus years ago) is working on creating a used ebook market. And in 2014, a Dutch court ruled that Dutch company Tom Kabinet could continue to resell digital content because the company actually was operating in a gray area of the law.

This is how it could work if Amazon created a used ebook market for Kindle. I have an ebook I no longer want. I offer it for sale in the used marketplace. When I get a buyer, Amazon takes a cut of the sale price — and may pass a cut onto the publisher, as an inducement to get their agreement to resell — and then deletes the item off my Kindle and transfers it to the new owner of the use license. In effect, I’m selling my use of the book to someone else.

Personally, I like this idea. The main argument against a used ebook market is that it will drive down the cost of new ebooks. But I don’t see the Big 5 lowering book prices simply because there are libraries and used bookstores. So I’m inclined to think the argument is a non sequitur that ebook prices will fall by force if there is a used market. After all, new books have to be sold for there to be used books.

As a publisher of my own content, I would get paid for the sale of the new book AND get a cut of the resale price. To my mind, that is a win-win. Sure I wouldn’t get the new book price on the resale, but maybe that person wouldn’t buy my book new to begin with. But if they buy my book used and like it, I could reap benefits down the line.

I hope Amazon goes through with this project. I think it will benefit readers immensely. And, if publishers get a cut of the resale price, it will help indie author-publishers as well.

As always, comments are welcome; and, until next time, happy reading!

How Ecotherapy Can Improve Your Mental Health

April in Minnesota

Today we have a guest blogger, all the way from Vermont: JP Choquette. I ran into her on one of those many closed Facebook groups, and I’m glad I did. Not only did I find a neat person who writes suspense novels and the cases of a cool private eye, Tayt Waters, but I also found a very interesting blogger.

One of the wonderful things she wrote about not long ago was ecotherapy. I’d never heard of that term before, but soon realized that ecotherapy is really something we all know about. We just don’t   think of it as therapy.

So without further ado, I’ll let JP take over and tell us all about this simple and effective tool to improve our lives.

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Do you suffer from anxiety or depression? Or just have that general sense of malaise more days than not? If so, you might benefit from the healing (and free!) practice of ecotherapy. 

What’s ecotherapy? It’s basically nature immersion. I first learned about it as a valid treatment used by counselors and psychotherapists several years ago while researching an article for Urban Farm magazine. My interest sparked the article and the research conducted for that article led me to better understand this unique form of therapy. If you live in a winter climate like me, you’re likely half-starved for any green growing things about this time of the year. March is a cruel month in northern areas because while you know that spring is coming, it still seems an impossibility as more snow falls outside your window. 

Ecotherapy was the basis for my latest suspense novel, Shadow in the Woods, in which two mental health counselors take a small group of clients into the backwoods of Vermont for an intensive ecotherapy weekend retreat. When the group must take cover in a sinister cave due to an unexpected and violent storm, the trip turns into a nightmare. That initial article I wrote on this topic was the kernel of the idea for what later became this book. 

Happily, you can enjoy all the benefits of ecotherapy without any of the drama. This practice doesn’t require special outdoor gear, hours and hours spent in nature or even leaving one’s house. Read on for five easy ways that you can experience the little “lift” that ecotherapy offers today. 

5 Easy & Free Ways to Enjoy Ecotherapy Today

1. Tune into YouTube. Enjoy listening to the ocean waves crash? Prefer the sound of a babbling brook, a thunderstorm or bird chatter? YouTube offers a lot of great videos that can be the soundtrack of your day. I frequently listen to thunderstorms or horse hooves clopping along while working on my suspense novels. Whether you like the sound of a crackling fire or the surf, you’ll find a wealth of options on YouTube. 
2. Care for a plant. Ecotherapy doesn’t have to be this “big thing” that takes hours and hours of your time. Something as simple as caring for a houseplant, tending its soil, watering it and refreshing it’s leaves with a damp rag can benefit one’s mental health. Nurturing acts make us happy. Adding in the care of a green, growing thing makes the act even more pleasurable. 
3. Walk or jog. Despite my best intentions to exercise outdoors nearly every day, even in the dead of winter, I usually wimp out. Walking or jogging on freezing cold, dark mornings is just too much to ask sometimes. On those days, I fire up my laptop and enjoy “treadmill TV,” special videos that other walkers and joggers create. Choose to walk along the cliffs of Dover, the beaches of Maui or the wild trails of Oregon. Best part? You don’t have to bundle up to enjoy, just slip on your sneakers and get going. 
4. Hang a photo. While researching the article that I wrote on ecotherapy, I learned that something as simple as looking at a picture of nature can improve our wellbeing and our general sense of health. Is this one of the reasons that so many hospitals feature nature scenes? Indeed, studies have proven that looking at scenes of natural settings can increase the speed of healing. 
5. Get outside. If it’s not unbearably cold and/or dark, go for a walk, a ski, a snowshoe or a short hike outdoors. The fresh air, sunshine (even through gray clouds) and sight of trees and other natural elements have been proven to increase our endorphins. 

All of us can use an emotional lift from time to time. In addition to the mental health benefits you’ll enjoy from practicing ecotherapy regularly, you’ll be positively impacting your physical health as well. I hope that one or more of these tips will help you. I’d love to hear about the ways in which you incorporate ecotherapy in your days. Please leave a comment below.

***

Thanks, JP! I’ve started spending time with virtual fireplaces on YouTube!

Here’s JP’s book featuring ecotherapy:

Get it at Amazon!

And here’s a bit about herself:

J.P. Choquette lives and writes in northwestern Vermont which is still snow-covered at present. She practices ecotherapy as frequently as possible while working on her next suspense novel. Learn more about her by visiting http://www.jpchoquette.net

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, enjoy a stint with nature - virtual or real!