Fellow Author Request Support for Novel and Small Press

Author and poet Kate Evans is asking fellow writers to support her debut novel, For the May Queen, which will be officially published in October. Besides helping a novelist get off the ground, those who purchase the novel for $12.95 when pre-ordered can support Vanilla Heart Publishing, a small publisher.

As one blurber states, the eighties-era novel "is a compelling coming of age story. Through a first-person narrative that is as intimate and engaging as the finest memoir, Evans takes the reader on the humorous and chaotic journey of spirited Norma Rogers as she navigates her first year of college."

Better yet, authors can learn a thing or two about marketing from Evans, who will be doing a one-hour online interview about her book on Sept. 20 on BlogTalkRadio, an organization to remember when you're launching your own book.

Besides teaching in the English Department at San Jose State University in San Jose, CA, Evans is the author of the poetry collection, Like All We Love, and a book about lesbian and gay teachers, Negotiating the Self.

Happy writing!

An Opposite Perspective

If I could give a gift to everyone, the gift would be this: the curiosity to find out what life is like for someone in completely opposite circumstances. If you're rich, they're poor. If you're from a western culture, they're from an eastern culture. If you're male, they're female.

This ability to drop who you are for awhile to live in someone else's world, even for a moment, is, as far as I can see, the only way to truly open your mind rather than do what most people do: look for details/opinions/facts that support what they already think. This skill seems doubly important for writers, given readers look to authors for, among other things, help in deciphering human nature.

I'm constantly amazed by small comments that open my mind to new perspectives. Not long ago, for example, I was talking with a man about the ideal coaching strategy for girl athletes. My theory was that girls need to know, above all else, what they're doing right. Such positivity allows them to continue improving in those areas while weening them away from bad habits.

The man, who has two daughters, agreed. Then he explained his perspective, that a positive response for a male is when the coach doesn't say anything, which means the coach has no complaints. Job accomplished, it's time for the winners to move ahead.

Simple ideas, perhaps, but sometimes those simple ideas are the easiest to miss and the most fruitful when you think about them, especially in relation to your writing. As a female, I now have one more clue into more realistically-portraying a male character.

What opposite perspectives have caused a profound shift in your thinking? Let me know.

Here are a few sites that further examine opposite perspectives:

Teaching Recent History From Opposite Perspectives, a 2007 Washington Post article

Blogging Challenge: Blog the Opposite of You

The Heart of the Matter: Perspectives on Emotion in Marital Therapy by editors Susan M. Johnson and Leslie S. Greenberg

Happy writing!