Pirate Notes - Part 1

How do you like my current pirate hero, Gerard Butler? Of course, in my wip he is Captain Lucas "Bloodstone" Barrett and we are having a load of fun getting him and my heroine Travea together for a happy ending!

Pirates – Part 1


In our Atlantic waters pirates had their greatest days in the 1600’s and 1700’s. Piracy was often a form of freedom for the outcasts of society, as well as attractive to some second and third sons of nobles who saw it as a way to gain the wealth they didn’t gain from birth order. Of course, pirates have been around a lot longer than this time period and still operate in many parts of the world today.

Caribbean pirate ships didn’t roam around hoping to chance upon a victim; they were smarter. They patrolled known shipping routes, especially Spanish treasure routes from the Incas to Spain. During much of this time, many governments (particularly England) supported piracy, encouraging it as a cheap way to get expensive goods into their country. England and other governments issued “letters of marque” which gave their own “privateers” as they called these type captains, permission to attack and plunder ships of their country’s enemies.

Piracy became so prevalent at times that honest sea-faring trade almost ground to a halt. Then the governments would begin working against the pirates. They withdrew letters of marque, tracked down the pirates, and hanged them in public.

An amazing story of this kind is emblazoned in the history of Charleston, South Carolina, my home state and favorite city.

In May of that year, the notorious pirate Blackbeard blockaded Charles Town Harbor with his large pirate fleet, captured and plundered nine ships of much gold and silver, and took all the passengers captive including a member of the Charleston legislature, Samuel Wragg. In a message to South Carolina Gov. Robert Johnson, Blackbeard demanded a large supply of medicine in exchange for his captives. The meds, which Blackbeard did not find on the ships he plundered, were needed to relieve a pirate’s recurring nightmare, syphilis.

The Charles Town leaders capitulated and sent the meds. The captives were released and Blackbeard and his fleet sailed off to Ocracoke, North Carolina, in the gayest of pirate spirits.

However, there’s another amazing footnote to this story.

When the South Carolina leaders gave in to Blackbeard’s demands, it seemed that feelings of shame, indignation, and revenge were outranked by fear. Actually, knowing Southerners like I do, since my family has lived here for many generations, and what history has now recorded of this incident; it was wisdom that outranked the lot with revenge simply being reserved.

In Part 2 I will share, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of this story.”

Drop by again and keep writing!

Guest Blog: Are You Ready to Contact an Agent?

Today I am sharing Erica Verrillo's interesting article, from a link on The Steve Laube Agency blog.   Get a cuppa tea and enjoy this timely information. Thanks to Erica and Steve!  ---Elva Cobb Martin

Are You Ready to Contact an Agent? Take This Short Quiz and Find Out

Today’s guest is Erica Verrillo. Erica is the coauthor, with Lauren Gellman, of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Treatment Guide (St. Martin’s) and author of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Treatment Guide, 2nd Edition. Her short stories have appeared in Million Stories, Front Porch Review, THEMA Literary Magazine, 580 Split and Nine. Ms. Verrillo’s first screenplay, The Treehouse, was completed in 2011.

Erica says, “Although creativity is the chief concern of writers, I know from experience that the publishing world demands that writers also be businessmen – that is, if they want to become authors. It is very easy these days to simply self-publish, but in order to become a successful author a good working knowledge of how the publishing world works is essential.”

Follow Erica on Twitter or visit her Facebook page to learn more. Enjoy!

Are You Ready to Contact an Agent? Take This Short Quiz and Find Out

You’ve finally completed your book. You’ve had it critiqued – brutally – and done more revisions than you care to count. Your proofreader has made sure there’s not a single error in the entire manuscript, and now you are confident that your work is ready to be published. What next? Obviously, you need an agent. So, after searching AgentQuery for agents representing your genre, and consulting Jeff Herman’s Guide and the most recent Writer’s Digest, you are sitting down to compose the perfect query letter.

Stop. You’ve skipped some steps.

Before you can even think about contacting an agent, there are several important questions you must be able to answer. Why? Because, if an agent calls you, she or he will ask them. (I know this from painful personal experience.) You must be prepared to reply with compelling answers.

This short quiz will tell you if you are ready to take on the publishing industry.

1. Have you written a one-page summary of your novel? Do you have a “hook,” an intriguing sentence that will draw your audience into your story? For example: “A man wakes up one morning to discover that every single person he knows is trying to kill him – even his wife and kids – and he has no idea why.” Can you keep your agent’s full attention for three minutes while you describe (verbally, or in writing) the rest of the story? In short, if your agent asks, “What’s your book about?” can you sell it? 20 points

2. Have you researched your market? Who will buy your book? Agents rely on numbers because publishers do, so you have to be able to say, with accuracy, how many people are in your demographic. (Hint, “adults” is not a demographic. College-educated, married women with small children is a demographic.) 20 points

3. What is your competition? Your agent will want to know the titles, authors, publishers, and year of publication of other popular books in your genre (or field). There are two reasons for identifying your competition: 1) You have to prove that there is already a market for your kind of book, and 2) You have to prove that your book is better or different. (Give specifics.) 20 points

4. How will you reach your market? Do you have a platform? You may think that marketing is the job of your publisher, and it is. But agents must convince editors that not only is there a market for your book, but that you have the credentials, and visibility, to promote your work. In the old days, BI (before internet), this was done through book tours, signings, and talks. You can still do those things, but what agents really want to know is how many people are reading your blog/website. (Publishers are fond of the number 10,000, so it helps to be able to say, “My blog/website has had 10,000+ page views.”) If you have published other books, how many were sold? Do people in your field or niche know who you are? Do you have any famous contacts who can give you endorsementS? 20 points

5. Do you, in Michael Larsen’s immortal words, “harbor a consuming lust for success,” and are you “irresistibly driven to do whatever it takes to make your books sell?” Your agent will expect you go the whole nine yards, and to comply – eagerly – with whatever sports metaphors your publisher will hurl at you. This is no time to be a shrinking violet. You are going to have to step up to the mat and bat a thousand. 20 points

If you scored a hundred, congratulations! You are ready to contact an agent.

If you answered, “I don’t need to do that,” “I can’t do that,” or “Huh?,” to any of the above questions, then get to work!

How to score 100 on the test

1. Fortunately, there are a many good books about pitches and proposals. I recommend Michael Larsen’s How to Write a Book Proposal. (This book is also useful for fiction.) Larsen really understands the publishing industry, so you can rely on his advice. To get the hang of preparing pitches, start with a pitch for a book you haven’t written. If your one-sentence hook can make your friends want to read the book, then move on to pitching your own work.

2. To determine your demographic, check the Alexa ranking for every well-trafficked website related to your genre or field. Alexa includes a demographic profile for high-ranking sites. Identify all the organizations or groups that might have an interest in your topic. What is their membership?

3. Amazon is one of the greatest research tools of all time. To identify your competition, look up the bestsellers in your genre. What books are on the top 100 lists? Who publishes them? Use the “look inside” feature to compare those books with your own. (Google Books also allows generous previews.)

4. Building a platform takes time. But you can accumulate 10,000 page views in a few months if you blog about interesting topics – and if you do some social networking. Advertise your blog posts on Book Blogs, Goodreads, and LinkedIn groups. You can precycle your posts on blogs that get more traffic than yours. You can recycle your blogs, as well, on sites that accept reprints. Look up the top 50 blogs in your genre on Blogrank and read them! High-ranking blogs invariably contain lots of insider tips, trends, news, and industry gossip.

5. Getting writers to harbor a consuming lust for anything other than writing is a tall order. Writers are an idealistic lot, deeply committed to exploring the human soul while crouched in front of a keyboard in a dim, unheated garret. Before you contact an agent, you need to go through a metamorphosis – from idealistic writer, to practical businessman. When your agent asks if you will do anything to sell your book (mine did), there can only be one answer.

Resource: The Steve Laube Agency  Sign up for the agency blog at www.stevelaube.com  I highly recommend it.

ML Tyndale's Forsaken Dreams Book Review by Elva

Book Review by Elva Cobb Martin www.elvamartin.com 3/30/13


Forsaken Dreams – author MaryLu Tyndale

MaryLu has done it again! If you’ve read any of her other series like Legacy of the King’s Pirates, Charles Towne Belles, or the Surrender to Destiny series you will know exactly what I mean. Forsaken Dreams is Book 1 of another exciting series, Escape to Paradise.

The heart-tugging story of Widow Eliza Crawford and decorated, war weary southern Colonel Blake Wallace begins somewhere in the Caribbean in May, 1866, just after the Union won the Civil War. We find Eliza on Blake’s ship, the New Hope, along with a cast of interesting characters, colonists-to-be, all preferring a new life in Brazil versus life in Charleston under the Yankee yoke.

Eliza and Blake are attracted to one another from the start. But both harbor secrets and painful pasts they want to forget and which threaten any dreams of a new beginning.

Eliza has been rejected by her southern family because she married a Yankee officer and by his family because she was southern. The only peace she found was serving as a nurse on the bloody field of battle. Since the war, and the death of her husband, she has suffered great distress and ostracism. She dreams of a new life in Brazil where no one will know her sad past. But one person on board remembers who she is and who she married.

Blake suffers from war nightmares and the loss of his entire family to Union soldiers’ cruelty, something he will never forget or forgive. Wanted by the Union for supposed war crimes, he organized the expedition to Brazil, and longs for a new life far from the horrors of war.

The two seem to be finding new love until a foolish, drunken young woman reveals to the shipmates Eliza’s marriage to a Union soldier. Then hatred like Eliza has seldom experienced breaks upon her, even Blake’s attitude toward her changes immediately.

The emotional wars Eliza and Blake both battle are further complicated by many troubles, hardships and even demonic attacks at sea. Will they survive and be able to forgive and love again? You are kept on the edge of your seat as wave after wave of challenges, interspersed with tender romantic interludes, separate them again and again.

In addition to the central story of Eliza and Blake, the other colorful characters have their own stories the reader wants to hear more about. This is a crew with a medley of their own problems to solve, not so different from human troubles in any age. I look forward to MORE in this Escape to Paradise series.

Besides an engrossing read, MaryLu’s creative writing gifts are so evident in Forsaken Dreams. Once again she proves her skills with deep point of view, endearing characters, emotional description, and movie-scene plotting that keeps you glued to the pages.

And like icing on the cake, by the end of Forsaken Dreams, you’re left with the warmth of the powerful spiritual messages of forgiveness and how active love and servant hood wins out over the hardest hearts. These two are woven throughout the story and renew your faith in God and man. And it may even prod you to pursue again your own Forsaken Dreams. Get the book! You’ll be glad you did.

We will sell if we keep at it!

Copied--
Zane Grey couldn't sell a single story his first five years as a writer. George Gershwin composed almost one hundred melodies before he sold his first one--for $5. Somerset Maugham earned only $500 in his first ten years as a writer. S.N. Behrman, an American playwright, wrote plays for eleven years before he sold one.

So keep at it! Never, never, give up. Keep studying your craft. Keep pursuing.
Elva Cobb Martin

Reject the Rejection

(copied)
There is no failure except in no longer trying. The Bible says: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." (Heb. 10:23)
    In 1902, an aspiring young writer received a rejection letter from the poetry editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Enclosed with a sheaf of poems the 28-year-old poet had sent was this curt note: "Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse." He rejected the rejection, however, and went on to see his work published. His name was Robert Frost.
   In 1905, the University of Bern turned down a Ph.D dissertation as being fanciful and irrelevant. The young physics student who wrote it rejected the rejection and went on to develop some of his fanciful ideas into widely accepted theories. His name--Albert Einstein.
   In 1894, a sixteen-year-old found this note from his rhetoric teacher in Harrow, England, attached to his report card: "A conspicuous lack of success."  The young man rejected the rejection and went on to become one of the most famous speakers of the 20th century.  Winston Churchill.
  Two thousand years ago a man and his pregnant young wife were rejected by a hotel manager... but you've got that story from the gospel of Luke, Chapter 2.
 Reject the rejection you may receive today, and go on to real achievement.

Vote Pro-Life, Pro-Godly Marriage

Please vote Pro-life, pro-godly marriage on Nov. 6 and help us get God's blessing and wisdom again for America. Vote Republican.

Loving God and America,
Elva Cobb Martin

Resubmitting my novel after changes

This week I finally finished making suggested changes by an agent and resubmitted my inspirational romance to her. She asked for the One Sheet, the Proposal and the full mss to be hardmailed.  Wow! I printed out 307 pages, thumbed through them again and still made changes, which meant reprinting changed pages.
But now I've sent that baby off with my blessing for $13.50 at the US Post office. It's a relief and that's why I now have time to blog! And get on with my Book 2 idea of a prequel.  Yes, I polished up a One Sheet on the prequel and also enclosed it as the last sheet in the agent's package. That night I woke up almost in a sweat. WHAT IF she says she wants the second book and how soon can I get it ready?  Can I do a second book when it took me 30 years to write this first one?  Yes, I did say 30. Kinda. I wrote the first draft of this novel 30 years ago. But the Lord called me into the ministry and I stuck the whole big box of research and the first draft which was typed on a Selectric typewriter up in my attic. When I  retired from full-time pastoring, I pulled the box down and have been rewriting ever since. But NOW that child (teenager/young adult?) is on its way to a New York agent. NEVER GIVE UP on YOUR novel dream.

A great quote heard at a homeschooler's high school graduation service this week which was so spiritual and blessed I had to fight tears several times: Here's the quote:

"If you've been called to be a missionary, don't stoop to be a king."

    And one touching sentence of a father's blessing to his graduating daughter as her video shots rolled by:
"Lord, whatever you don't protect her from, perfect her through."

Graduation the way it was meant to be with God and parents fully involved!

Blessings,
Elva Cobb Martin