TOM BIRD'S WRITER'S ROUNDTABLE
March, 2007 Newsletter
Here's a few thoughts that have recently popped in my mind which I wanted to share with you.
PLENTY OF EXCITING THINGS HAPPENING If you haven't done so lately, I suggest that you click onto my website (www.TomBird.com) and then enter my blog. Since I have been directing so much of the good news I receive to it, there is much you will want to read, including notes from students who have been swamped with requests from literary agents to read their manuscripts; exciting tales of many a new writer finishing his or her book; news about innovations that make writing easier and easier for each of us each day; and also an exciting story about a student of mine who has lost 50 lbs. since attending my February Retreat. It's all there. As you can see, I am trying to make my blog a community forum for writers just like yourself - one that inspires and offers routine insights which can better the efforts of us all. You also may check in on a consistent basis to get your regular fix of encouragement and exciting info. You may also consider sharing some of your own breakthroughs and insights as well.
WHILE PUTTING THE....
I recently took some time to review the insights from a few books, which I found helped me tune up a novel I am working on. While reading each of the following, I remembered just how helpful they are. The books I am referring to, and which I would highly recommend to anyone writing fiction, are: Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Al Zuckerman; The First Five Pages and A Dash of Style both by Noah Lukeman and Writing the Break Out Novel by Donald Maass. All of them are available for very inexpensive prices on Amazon.com.
AN EXTRA $100 OFF
Don't miss the note below on the Monthly Deals section I will be adding to my website. You may want to pay special attention to this month's deals, one of which reduces the price of my next Releasing Your Author Within retreat by an additional hundred dollars beyond the already generous, general discount, making it available for a student to attend the retreat for as little as $295.
THE PERFECT
A few weeks ago I was suffering through a sinus infection and couldn't sleep. So I just sat around watching TV through the night, a time during which, I discovered, the best commercials come on. To make a long story short, I ended up ordering a product called the Perfect Push-up. I am always looking for ways to consolidate my work out time and this product promised to work every muscle in your body all at once. Sounded too good to be true but I ordered the product nonetheless and boy was I impressed. After only one work out, every muscle in my upper body was indeed stiff. If you are into working out and would like to save time, I would highly recommend it. You can find out more info at www.perfectpushup.com.
CLOSING
Just a reminder that the book publishing arena will be substantially slowing down after Memorial Day. So if you have an idea you want to pitch, I suggest doing it soon or otherwise you'll end up having to wait until after Labor Day to get the interest you are looking for. To encourage you to take action, I have lowered the prices on my selective guide to literary agents and my query letter services through the end of April. See the Monthly Deals listing below.
THE BEST EDITOR IN THE INDUSTRY
I hear that Paul McCarthy may be taking on new clients. As you can see from the listing of his credentials below, Paul makes best selling authors. If you are interested, give him a call. Please tell him that I said “Hi.” So you can get an idea of who he is and what he does, I have included a copy of a review Paul did for me.
McCARTHY CREATIVE SERVICES
Working Worldwide with Creativity in All Forms and Media
“Striving for the Ideal”
Paul D. McCarthy
President and Editor-in-Chief
The Professor in Writing, Editing and Publishing University of Ulster, Northern Ireland New York Times hardcover bestselling author
625 Main Street, Suite 834
New York, NY 10044-0035
212-832-3428; fax: 212-829-9610
paulmccarthy@mccarthycreative.com
April 30, 2006
Dear Tom:
I just got finished with my editorial review of your novel, An Uncertain Fate. In a word, “awesome!” Although I knew it to be fact, I still couldn’t believe that this was your first novel. The only way I could understand how you’d so effortlessly achieved such a remarkable epic was to realize that you have a truly rare, natural, and God-sent gift for storytelling, at levels so elevated, that most novelists never come close to what An Uncertain Fate is, in their entire careers.
I’m expressing this appreciation in the full context of my 35 years of professional experience in a range of creative, editorial and publishing functions, so you’ll know that my marvel about your grand storytelling is very expert.
During my many years as a Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, I was fortunate enough to work with nine #1 New York Times and international bestselling authors, including two of the world’s finest and most popular novelists, Nelson DeMille and Clive Cussler, both of them true masters of the art and craft of fiction when I began working with them. I was also the editor for dozens of New York Times bestselling writers.
I’ve been a professional writer of fiction and nonfiction, like you, for 35 years and am myself a New York Times bestselling hardcover author. I’ve also been an active member of the National Book Critics Circle for more than 20 years, and brought a critic’s perspective to my reading. During the 30 years before and after I was an acquiring editor, I’ve been a literary & film agent, beginning that career at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency in the ‘70s, and continuing it in 1999, when I founded my global creativity company. During these last 7 years, I’ve been a creative editor, agent, author, publisher, university professor, international public speaker, especially about writing, editing, and publishing, and more.
After 35 years, when I began reading An Uncertain Fate, knowing it was a first novel, I thought I was prepared for what I was about to read. I wasn’t. From the first page on, I knew I was reading something special. As I continued reading, and comprehended how the novel was becoming ever more epic in its extraordinary richness of narrative, phenomenal plot complexities, and transcendental themes, all unified at the highest thematic/narrative levels, I kept thinking that your first novel couldn’t possibly become more than it already was, but it did. When I’d finished reading the incredibly dramatic climaxes and conclusions, I knew that the novel was still beyond my full editorial comprehension, and I was compelled to re-read it. After the second reading, I felt the same sense of “awesome!” but much more powerfully.
In its special, incomparable, epic way, your first novel is already at the level of very experienced world-class storytellers/novelists. As I said, in terms of how you did it, right away, I can only marvel.
Aristotle defined the three classic elements of drama as: time, place and action. An Uncertain Fate’s time and place could not be vaster or longer than they are. Within the novel, you encompass the entire universe and its billions of years. The active narrative spans the universe and the world, from 60,000 years ago, to recent millennia, and then the intense urgency of narrative and time compression, when so much that’s significant happens in days, and actual, noted, second by second action.
You’re also a natural, “born,” master of suspense. The way you knew how to build and then cut away from every scene, just as the exact point of maximum suspense for the reader, was so remarkable, I had to move beyond books to another media, movies, to think of a parallel: the finest film editing. You show that same mastery again in knowing each time, when and where to begin or continue a storyline or theme, so that the novel throughout always continues, concludes and begins in just the right way to give the reader the richest, most suspenseful, illuminating, inspirational and satisfying reading experience. Full understanding of the epic plot and narrative still eludes me, but the characters! From the most important to those in passing, with phenomenal imaginative diversity, they all came alive for me as soon as each entered the story. No matter how different they were, you made each of them, in fiction, as real as anyone I’d meet in life. In parallel with how I think about the themes, plot and narrative, each time I thought you couldn't introduce another amazing, real- to-life and life changing character, you did. Simply amazing.
Your novel’s transcendental themes, and what we come to understand from the narrative, characters, decisions and consequences, make An Uncertain Fate one of the most inspirational books, fiction or nonfiction, I’ve ever read in my life, and I’m extremely grateful to be able to tell you, what I know you’ve already heard from many thousands of others, that you and your novel have changed my life. That phrase has lost meaning from overuse, but I express it directly from my heart, in the true original meaning. After reading your novel twice, my life has changed. I feel it, know it, and am conscious of the difference between who I was as a person and professional, before the readings, and after. For that spiritual, transformative gift, which will have value the rest of my life, I can only say: thank you.
We have been friends and colleagues since we first worked together in 1988, and I’ve tracked, with respect and admiration, your creative evolution as an author of nonfiction, with books that of course span a range of important subjects and people. I have to give you all the credit for our continuing friendship over the last seventeen years. I knew when I began to read 2013 how much you’d given me in friendship, but now I know that with your novel, you’ve given me the greatest, most enduring gift, in all our years together. Let's talk soon. What I’ve written above is only the beginning of all the insights, thoughts, feelings, and many forms of appreciation that I want to fully share with you. If I were to write it all, instead of talking to you directly, my comprehensive response would be almost book-length itself.
Again, and in closing, thank you!
MONTHLY DEALS
I have done some tweaking to my website, which will be reflected in a slightly different version of it slated to appear within the next few weeks.
On the latest version, I will be offering monthly specials. Since you are one of my students, I wanted to make you aware of the deals which will be coming available from now until the end of April. You may want to pay extra special attention to the first deal, in which I will be offering an extra $100 off the next retreat for the first ten people who sign up.
Deal Number One
The first ten students to sign up for the “Releasing Your Author Within” Retreat by April 30th, will receive an additional $100 discount off of your price. The retreat will be held May 17th through 19th in Sedona, Arizona. As usual, there are generous discounts for IIWC candidates, returning retreat attendees, returning students, and those who register and pay before the early registration deadline.
The full price of this retreat is $695. The usual discounts are as follows:
IIWC candidates -- $200 Total Price $495
Returning retreat attendees -- $150 Total Price $545
Returning students -- $100 Total Price $595
If you register and pay for the retreat by the early registration date of April 17, 2007, you will receive an additional $100 discount off any of the above Total Prices.
Then on top of these already great discounts, as I mentioned above, if you are one of the next ten students to sign up for a retreat, you can take another $100 off your retreat fee. Please note that the class size of these retreats is limited to preserve individual instruction.
Deal Number Two
In an effort to encourage all you aspiring authors to take action with the submission of your query letters before the book publishing industry draws to a hiatus as summer nears, I will be offering access to the Selective Guide to Literary Agents Database for $59 (normally $78) through April 30, 2007.
Deal Number Three
In addition, I will also be offering through April 20, 2007 as well, a reduction on the price of the Query Letter Review service which is a two-time review of your query letter. For this limited time the price is reduced from $124 to $89.
Deal Number Four
During this same period, before April 30, 2007, you can purchase both the Literary Agent Guide and the Query Letter Review together for $139.
You can take advantage of any of the above deals either through registering and paying for products through this website or by contacting us at 928-203- 0265.
GARY, DEEPAK, DEBBIE FORD
As I mentioned before, I have been working with a consultant who was instrumental in bringing Gary Zukov, Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford and Byron Katie to their prominence. She tells me that she may be willing in expanding her clientele as well. If you are interesting in being considered, drop me an email. That way she won't be swamped with calls and emails. Once I hear from you, I will pass your letter of introduction onto her and she'll get back to you. In your letter, please take time to introduce yourself, what it is that you are or want to do, and why you feel you would be in need of someone who could do for you what she did for the above.
HELLO, MESA, KNOXVILLE, AND TUCSON
In case, either you or someone you know may be interested, that's where I will be appearing between now and the end of April. I have posted the dates and numbers to contact below.
UPCOMING CLASSES:
Mesa Community College
March 31, 2007, You Were Born to be Published
March 31, 2007, You Were Born to Write
www.mc.maricopa.edu
University of Tennessee
April 27, 2007 You Were Born to be Published
April 28, 2007 You Were Born to Write
Phone: 865-974-0150
www.outreach.utk.edu
LASTLY
I only have a few spaces in my Intensive Individual Writer's Course (IIWC) coming available between now and May. If you would be interested in filling one of them though, please give my assistant Jill a call to arrange a time when we can speak. She can be reached at 928-203-0265.
That's it for now. I hope all is going well with you and, most of all, that this letters finds you knee-deep in the midst of doing some very exciting writing.
Until next time, Tom
