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June 21, 2017
SPEAKER FOR JUNE 2017: Malcolm Nãea Chun
As a researcher and scholar, Malcolm Chun has worked throughout his life with Native Hawaiian agencies and organizations, and has accumulated years of cultural experiences, both in Hawaii and while living among other Polynesians and Pacific Islanders. His Ka Wana series of books is a part of the Pihana Nã Momo Native Hawaiian Education Program.
In his most recent work, Chun has made has made the history and culture more accessible (almost irresistible) to the layman by wrapping them in a compelling mystery that makes the historic characters come alive.
About the speaker: You may know Dr. Chun from his frequent appearances on PBS in interviews in Hawaiian documentaries. Most recently, he was seen in addendum segments to the “Victoria” series, where he detailed the friendship between Queen Victoria and Queen Emma.
Usual works are acadamia in nature on Hawaiian Kahunas and medical history. Noted that even though bookstores declining in US, they are still around in Europe. US stores not buying due to fear of being stuck with unsold stock. Most demand is in Romance genre.
Recommends to always copy write in your name not publishers.
Hawaiian facts: there is no word for breakfast, lunch and dinner in Hawaiian since they had no set meals and only ate when hungry. No kisses with lips – they were into nose touching.
Recommends to base story from research verses researching a story. Feels story comes out of research.
Learn what your readers really want to know and get them to really know your characters.
In story have 2 to 3 whodunits to keep interest.
Facts- Viena has over 300 Captain Cook memorabilia.
Artist Nai’a Designs- B. Nakamure who works for Kamahameha Press.
SINC SCHEDULE EVENTS: https://don-vicki.wixsite.com/sistersincrime. We will begin to arrange a schedule of events/speakers for the year so that you can plan ahead. This schedule will be posted on our website under the Events tab.
SINC HI MEETINGS: Due to the Blaisdale event we will NOT be having a meeting in Dec 2017. This will be reflected in our Schedule of Events posted on our website.
QUESTION: Is there any other month were we need not have a meeting.
Group voted to cancel August 2017 meeting.
SINC NATIONAL GRANTS: Is currently revising the grant requirements and asks for our opinion on the edits:
There will no longer be local, regional, national categories with different dollar amounts. Each chapter will be able to apply for one or more grants up to a total of $1000 per chapter annually.
There are two new requirements: Neither promotional swag nor food & beverages will be reimbursed. Acceptable uses of grant funds are booth/table rental fees, entry fees, booth/table décor (signage, banners), speaker fees/travel, facility rental, event insurance, pre-event marketing materials, and advertising (event-specific).
Gay made request for funding to support Youth Creativity Writing Project
SINC NATIONAL GRANTS: I have applied for a grant from national for $250 to be used for the December Blaisdale event 12/15-17. We also have some funds available from book sales that will help pay for our booth.
NEW AMAZON BUY BOX REPROCUSSIONS: Here’s what happens to your money when you buy a book from Amazon itself: A certain percentage of the cost goes to the publisher. (Amazon’s terms vary from publisher to publisher, but that share is usually around 60 percent.) The publisher uses that money to pay the author, cover its expenses, and contribute to its profit margins. Amazon pockets the remaining 40 percent for its own purposes. Here’s what happens to your money when you buy a book through Amazon but from a third-party seller: Amazon gets 15 percent of the total sales price, including shipping, plus a flat rate of $1.85 per item. The rest goes to the third-party seller. Not a single cent goes to the publisher, which means nothing goes to the author — but Amazon has made a profit either way, and without having to shoulder the expense of shipping and warehousing. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/73542-new-amazon-buy-button-program-draws-ire-of-publishers-authors.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly&utm_campaign=bfd5b66923-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0bb2959cbb-bfd5b66923-
AUTOGRAPH LAW: Last year California set an autograph law that requires sellers to produce a certificate of authenticity and maintain detailed records of every sale for seven years. Sellers must, among other things:
Note the purchase price and date of sale,
specify whether the item is part of a limited edition,
note the size of the edition, anticipate any future editions,
disclose whether the seller is bonded,
divulge any previous owner’s name and address,
If the book was signed in the presence of the seller, specify the date and location of the signing, and identify a witness to the autograph.
Failure to disclose any of the required details, or to keep the certificate for the full seven years, results in outrageous penalties.
http://blog.pacificlegal.org/california-threatens-shut-small-booksellers/
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/73557-bookseller-suing-california-over-autograph-law.html
The Best 25 Rules for Good Writing - Steven Taylor Goldsberry/handout
THE GOLDEN DONUT – an award Gay told us she was working on this year for the Police Academy Conference. Guidelines; 200 words exactly, including title. Contractions are considered 2 words. Prize is free registration for next conference.
A 3-Page Book on Writing -- The Best 25 Rules for Good Writing by Steven Taylor Goldsberry
l. Write like you talk.
2. Tell your story fast. Please include every detail.
3. There are no rules for good writing. Those who break the “rules” successfully are the true artists. However: learn, practice, and master the rules first. “You cannot transcend what you do not know.” — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
4. Never save your best for last. Start with your best. Expend yourself immediately then see what happens. The better you do at the beginning, the better you continue.
5. The opening paragraph, sentence, line, phrase, word, TITLE!—the beginning is the most important part. It sets the tone, lets readers know you’re a commanding writer. They are in the presence of a voice worth listening to.
6. The first duty of a writer is to entertain. Readers lose interest with exposition and abstract philosophy. They’re here because they want stories, want to see things. Be entertained. But they’ll feel cheated if, in the course of entertaining, you haven’t taught them a lesson in life. Remember that Horace said writing must “delight, and instruct.” Delight first.
7. “No ideas but in things.” -- William Carlos Williams “Not ideas about the thing, but the thing itself.” -- Wallace Stevens. Show, don’t tell, or editorialize.
8. Voice is more important than image: “Poetry is not a thing, but a way of saying it.” --A. E. Housman.
9. Story is more important than anything. Readers (and publishers) care a lot less about craft than content. The question they ask isn’t “How accomplished is the writer?” but “How good is the story?”
10. All these rules, pressed far enough, contradict each other. Such is the nature of rules for art.
11. Sentences are written like jokes. The punch line is at the end. Here’s a test: Rewrite the following sentence. “The pirate found eight perfectly cut deep red rubies at the bottom of a treasure chest.”
12. Write toward climax. Rule 11 applies to paragraphs too. (And poems). And chapters: a cliffhanger is a climax. Even a denouement ends with a climax. See the accompanying graphs for the “golden fishhook” icon of bait, curve, flash.
13. All writing records conflict. Give the opposition quality attention and good lines. Nothing is worse than a setup—making bad guys look incompetent so our hero can triumph. The power of the antagonists should equal that of the protagonists.
14. Like movie directors do with camera angles and scene edits, shift focus often. Vary sentence structure and type; jump back and forth in time and place; make a good mix of narration, description, exposition, and dialogue.
15. Five tips on dialogue: 1) More than appearance or action, dialogue reveals character. 2) The speakers must be arguing or sniping at each other, or 3) the speakers don’t react logically to each other’s comments. Readers must hear in the voices that something is wrong (conflict). 4) Or speakers are on a mutual path of discovery: “See this?” “Yeah, what is it?” 5) Dialogue does not summarize past events for the sake of the audience (that’s for monologue or narration). For “tags” use said almost exclusively. Less is more (always). Every synonym for “said” is longer than four letters. Read plays for instruction in economic tags.
16. Be careful of your diction. A single word, like a drop of iodine in a gallon of water, can change the color of your entire manuscript. Remember, action verbs are better than the be verb (is, are, was, were), the killer be. Crash, sing, hack, juice, spin, chop, fire your language. But pick the right word, le mot juste—e.g.,watch means one thing, look another, peer something else, and then there is see, observe, study, eye, spock, gander, spot, glance, notice, stare.
17. Provide the readers with a sense of closure. The last sentences of the novel echo something that happened early. Life comes full circle. “If I have a pistol in my first chapter, a pistol ends the book.” —Anne Rule
18. By the end of the work the conflict should reach some satisfactory resolution. Not always a “happily ever after” ending, but something important should be accomplished.
19. Revise, revise. You never, ever get it on the first try. Art shows up in rewriting. And keep it trim—your motto: “speed in communication.”
20. Avoid excessive use of adjectives and adverbs; trust the precision of your nouns and verbs. Verb form: the shorter the better. Avoid helping verbs and progressives. Avoid the passive voice. Avoid cliché and stock phrases.
21. Think about your readers. How will they react? Who are they?
22. Be interesting with every sentence. Be brief. Hemingway’s first editor at the Kansas City Star gave him this style sheet: “Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.” Hemingway later referred to that list as “the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing.”
23. If you can be misread, you will be.
24. Keep an open book by your favorite writer next to your work-in-progress for purposes of inspiration and imitation. Writers read. Writing is more craft than art, and anyone can learn it with discipline and practice. Also: “Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery—it’s the sincerest form of learning.”—George Bernard Shaw. When you write something as good as what your favorite writer wrote, you can sell it. The game is that simple. Now pick up your pen and get to work.
25. Finally, read your work aloud to yourself. Repeatedly, with each revision. And don’t just read, but act the words. Think of your writing as a script.
