I promise to blush while I shamelessly share all the wonderful comments readers have posted about The Call House: A Washington Novel.

More to come later. 
​Thank you to the readers who were kind enough to share their thoughts.

It's out. This book I've been living with for such a long time. 

As a reader, I know how hard it is to take a chance on a new author with a new book.
Fortunately, I've got the great people at Goddess Fish Promotions helping me get the word out. And I've lined up a few other sites to help, but beyond that I think I'll have to make it up as I go along. 

I know all that good advice about having a marketing plan and preparing a super launch, but here's the thing - I don't know yet if anyone will pick it up, read it, and like it. 
All I know is that I salute everyone who's done this already. And I wish us all good luck. 

If you'd like to give the book a try you can pick up the eBook here
The paperback should be out soon. 

Yes! With the help of a friend or two, I did it. Wrote the description. Put the ebook up on Amazon for pre-order with an official pub date of May 15.
​You can order a copy here

Here's the official description:
A war on vice In Washington, DC—a city constantly awash in scandals? Hard to believe, but it really happened.  Only not exactly the way it’s told here.

In an upscale residential neighborhood, in a perfectly respectable apartment building, one of the best-known, high-priced call houses on the East Coast operates quietly on the top floor. Everything goes along smoothly until the DC Police and the FBI try to outdo each other in waging a war on vice.

This funny, fast-paced novel casts Washington DC as the main character, not just the setting. And as the adolescent world capital fills up with trainloads of hopefuls, you’ll get to know Mattie Simon, who wants some adventure, and Andrew Stevens, the newly elected congressman, who only wants to serve his country. But Washington has a way of changing people—even when they get what they want.
​
C.P. Stiles’ crisp writing and sharp eye for detail keep you smiling as you take in a Washington that never dreamed of today’s scandals—but was on its way to them.

This isn't the first time I'm starting a novel. Not even the fourth. But it is the first time I'm trying to consciously pay attention to good advice. 

And top of the list of mistakes to avoid - Head hopping. Using more than one point of view. 

Evidently, I'm not the only writer who thinks, well if I want to follow one character in this scene and that character in another altogether different scene, why can't I simply be inside each character at different times? After all, I can hear each one's voice so clearly. I know each one's quirks almost as well as my own. 

But.

Even though I've seen practiced writers do it brilliantly (right now I'm reading J.K. Rowling's Casual Vacancy with more point of view characters than I can remember), head hopping is something novice novelists should avoid. 

I'm told - it confuses readers. They like a straight forward narrative and a character they can sympathize with. They like a story that isn't chopped up into little bits and pieces. 

I'm told - it shows an author's weaknesses. No control over material No ability to sustain a narrative. In the same way that too many section breaks after each scene indicates an author who's relying on gimmicks rather than craft. 

I'm told, and this is meant to be kind I'm sure, that even though Tolstoy could manage an omniscient narrator, I am not Tolstoy. Yet. 

So while it's fun to imagine a couple out to dinner, she's thinking if he spends one more minute talking about himself I'll spill my drink in my lap and leave. While he's thinking, that soft, teary look in her eyes means she's falling hard for me. I'd do better to focus on the waiter who's pegged them as a bad match and poor tippers. 

Still, there's hope.

I've also been told that once I've proven myself as a storyteller who can manage the material, go the distance with a single narrator and still create a world of characters, then on the next book. or the one after that, I'm free to hop into as many heads as I want. 
​

Photo is courtesy of the New York Public Library's newly available Digital Public Library of America. 

Look, we all know I need to exercise more and eat less. Get rid of all that stuff I don't use or need. Get more sleep and eat more vegetable. And maybe, do a little bit better at taking my dog for longer walks. Maybe more than once or twice a week. 

And we know that the book won't write itself. So I should be spending more time every day at least trying. 

But, as long as we're being honest, if I resolve to do all those things, I might pull the covers over my head on January first and go back to sleep. 

A new year should hold the promise of surprise. And there's nothing surprising about breaking my New Year's resolutions. 

A new year should hold the possibility of excitement. Yes. I'm thinking of how exciting it will be to finish my final draft. To publish my first book. To find my first reader. 

A new year should be a chance to start over and get it right this time. 

And to follow my favorite piece of writing advice from the poet William Stafford: "Lower your standards and keep writing."

That's what I wish for myself and you, too.

​Happy New Year!

If I thought figuring out characters was tough, trying to get a handle on plot is even harder.

On the one hand . . .

There’s that quote writers like to use from E.L. Doctorow - "Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." 

In other words, you don’t really need to know where you’re going – you’ll figure it out along the way. Somehow your unconscious or your words or your imagination will produce a story with a beginning, middle, and end. All you have to do is start with Once upon a time . . . then add your character, a tricky situation, and you’re off. Driving in the fog guided by your headlights.

But as one writer friend pointed out, driving that way gives her the kind of headache you get from clenching your teeth, tensing your neck and arm muscles. It’s exhausting.

Which is why there’s the other hand . . .

The mappers. The outliners. The writers who create the whole skeleton from beginning to end and then flesh it out. Call it the Three-Act Structure on steroids.

I often see the term “pantsers” to describe writers who drive almost blindly into the fog. Meaning “by the seat of their pants.” And just as often, Stephen King is held out as the best example of a pantser. Outliners are usually called plotters. They keep things clean and simple. 

Yesterday I sat in on a free webinar given by Jerry Jenkins hosted by Jane Friedman, called “Secrets of Storytelling: How to Write Compelling Stories.”

Unlike many free webinars that give you 15 minutes of teaser information and then 45 minutes of pretty hard sell to either sign up for a course or buy a book or hire a consultant, this was at least a full hour of good information. A lot of it familiar. Aimed mostly at pantsers.

Trust the writing. Don’t edit. Follow your instincts. Get it all down and fix it on the next draft. (He said it better, but that’s the gist.)

Evidently, you’re either a pantser or an outliner, you can’t be both. Any more than you an be an empty in-boxer and an email saver at the same time. You get the idea. Supposedly, most writers already know which one they are.

Clearly, I’m a pantser. But I’ve got enough notebooks full of dead ends that I know I need more than headlights.

While I can’t change my nature, I can at least learn what writers do when they’re organized. Fortunately, there are books that can help. (Wish I could remember who passed along a list of books to read to get me familiar with the outliner side of things.) 

Here's the list:

• Nine-Day Novel Outlining:Outlining Your Novel: Plotting Your Way to Success by Steve Windsor
• Super Structure: The Key to Unleashing the Power of Story by James Scott Bell
• Story Engineering by Larry Brooks. 

I’ve bought them but haven’t read them yet.

What I’m wondering is whether a pantser can pick up a few tips from the outliners? Read a few books and discover the secret?

Or else maybe we can get them to install a few streetlights?

Do you know which one you are?

photo: igoralecsander