Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Kim Lajevardi, Victoria Marie Lees, Joylene Nowell Butler, Erika Beebe, and Lee Lowery!
Nov 3 question -
What's harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?
Answer:
For me, writing the blurb.
The blurb requires me to think inside the box. Not even my box, someone else's box. What would make someone else want to read something? What intrigues someone who isn't me?
Because that which catches my eye and my attention rarely matches what grabs other people.
I tried to hire people to write my blurb for Fractions of Existence. But it didn't work. And more than one person said that I'd "gain more" from writing it myself.
I know my book. I know my characters. I could drop spoilers all over the place.
But I feel like I'm too close to be objective enough to write a proper blurb.
What do you think of my attempt?
(Also on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36273731-fractions-of-existence )
Happening at OperationAwesome6.blogspot.comWe have ongoing posts for your NaNoWriMo needs!
O'Abby talked about 👻 ghostwriting.
Brandy will have another installment of the Query Support Group coming soon.
And there are FIVE days left to win one of TWO copies of the enchanted new MG novel The Circus at the End of the Sea by Lori Snyder -- so enter now!!!
(Prefer a more adult read? Check out Paulette Stout's debut author spotlight.)
It's Native American Heritage Month here in the United States.
museumofindianculture.org
This is my local Lenni-Lenape museum, which has featured artifacts from other tribes as well for the last fifteen years or so. If you'd like to learn a little about the tribe of my ancestors, that website has several resources.
The Lenni-Lenape Indians NPR -- Here's an article of some interest.
TRUE: "Lenape Indians occupied the Philadelphia area almost 10,000 years before Europeans came to the region"
LESS THAN ACCURATE: "renamed the tribe, calling them the Delaware Indians, because they had trouble pronouncing Lenape (Leh-NAH-pay)"
People still can't pronounce it. I've heard more people say Len-a-pea or Len-ape ... first off, there was no one named Len or Leonard, so stop trying to put the N over there; secondly, the word does not sound like a pea vegetable or the primate known as an ape.
But the reason they called us Delaware is that we became the property of Lord Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, as was the state, river, and whatever else the Lord was granted. I do wish people would stop pretending that Native Americans were treated as human right away. We were classified as slaves or animals for a very long time. Some states are still, TO THIS DAY, creating ways to prevent us from voting.
(Example: Saying Native Americans need to live on a reservation to retain their native rights. But living on a reservation means you may only have a PO Box for an address. And anyone who only has a PO Box as an address is not allowed to register to vote.)
We've come a long way from being classified as low-valued animals, but we haven't fully achieved equality. I can say I'm doing better than some because I never lived on a reservation. Or I could say I'm doing worse, because I grew up away from the majority of my people. I know less than twenty of my own people. But I am grateful to those who took the time to teach me. I am the better for the knowledge, wisdom, guidance, skills, and stories that were passed on to me. Very few of us remain here, on the original lands, with the ancestors buried beneath our feet.
Final note:
I'm so proud of my cousin-in-law for getting the Encouragement Award!
Come congratulate our OCTOBER winners!. #WEPFF THE SCREAM Challenge @DeniseCCovey @yolandarenee @OlgaGodim @LGKeltner @jemifraser #amwriting #flashfiction #wepwinners https://t.co/cdikqBZDrE
— J Lenni Dorner (@JLenniDorner) November 3, 2021
Too bad it didn't work to hire someone. I'd like to do that for my title. Ha!
ReplyDeleteMy comment became so long, I rather emailed you :-)
ReplyDeleteRonel visiting for IWSG day That’s a Wrap! An Author’s Year in Review
I really like your post today. Thank you. As far as the blurb, I agree. Outsiders can see what the either can’t and help streamline. I’m one of those talkers or writers who takes the hard detailed road first. Simplifying is tough. Happy IWSG day :)
ReplyDeleteSlaves or animals - so wrong!
ReplyDeleteWriting the blurb yourself is best, but doesn't hurt to get a little help.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! I would love to have someone write my blurb or synopsis for me, but I think your friends who said you should write it yourself were probably right. I haaaate the process, but know it's stretching me as a writer (in a good-but-painful way).
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing about the origins of the "Delaware" name - that makes so much more sense than "they couldn't pronounce it" which is so obviously BS.
Gosh, J, your post stopped me in my tracks. First of all, I hadn't thought of the blurb issue as having to think 'what intrigues someone who isn't me.' Now, I'm even more daunted by writing my blurbs! Then, to hear about the history of your people and the tragedy that colonization wrought upon your noble ancestors and then the way those scars continue down throughout the generations following is harrowing stuff. The same thing happened to our native New Zealanders. In fact, one of the people in our Toastmasters group gave a speech this week about the Treaty of Waitangi. I didn't know that there were two documents, one in Maori and one in English. The translation of giving away their land to the English in Maori was that they were giving 'governing rights' to the English. They never knew they were literally selling this country to the oppressors. It made me weep.
ReplyDeleteYvette Carol
http://www.yvettecarol.wordpress.com
Hi J! Not sure whether you wrote all or some of what I read on Goodreads, but all of it was compelling ;-) I agree, it's hard not to give too much away.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to your cousin-in-law as well as all the other winners!