I walked into the Barnes & Nobles book store in the “The Shoppes at Webb Gin” shopping mall in Snellville, Georgia on Saturday and saw customer Nyadi Abasto checking out my two novels A Brownstone in Brooklyn and the National Award winning Ghost of Atlanta.
I’ve been waiting fifteen years to see a customer in a Barnes & Nobles store looking on the shelves and finding one of my novels. Now, that this happened, it’s a wonderful feeling!
What an honor and a blessing from God.
Hmm…now how can I get Philly Style and Philly Profile and Purple Phantoms on the Barnes & Nobles bookshelves?
Please click to check out my website for details about the books.
Enjoy a podcast of a chapter from Philly Style and Philly Profile: http://jtbookevents.podomatic.com/entry/2011-04-19T15_06_23-07_00
![juliusthompson2[1]](http://juliusthompsonthrillogy.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/juliusthompson21.jpg)
Where am I?
This is a question you DON’T want your readers to dwell on as they turn the pages of your novel.
Picking the setting of a novel is obviously a critical step.
You must craft a vivid and realistic setting to act as a canvass for your characters to perform. This setting/sense of place must be credible.
When you read great works of fiction, you know immediately where and what time period you are in. For example, Walter Mosley puts you in early fifties’ Los Angeles in Devil in a Blue Dress, Harper Lee sets you in the early twentieth century south in To Kill A Mockingbird and F. Scott Fitzgerald sets you in the roaring twenties in The Great Gatsby.
You must give your reader a sense of place and this will make it easier for your readers to exist in the “Fictive Dream” of your novel’s world.
A great author once said: “Characters interact with setting/sense of place as if its’ another character. The setting/place of place will change the character. In a different sense of place the characters will be different. The setting/sense of place will change the characters.”
In crafting your novel, ask yourself a couple of questions. What is the relationship of a particular setting to your novel’s main characters? Can you imagine him/her in a different setting?
What happens in novels, when the protagonists appear in a new setting—what does that appearance in a new setting have to do with “what the book is about”?
For example, my point of view character, Andy Michael Pilgrim, lived, interacted and changed in the three novels of the Julius Thompson Trilogy: A Brooklyn in Brooklyn, Philly Style and Philly Profile and Ghost of Atlanta.
In the progression of the trilogy, Andy’s early adult life was shaped by growing up in Brooklyn, New York and in the move to Philadelphia he was shocked in his young adult life watching the influence of drugs and gangs destroy young people’s lives. Finally, in returning to his beginnings in Atlanta, Georgia, as an adult, he was shaped by the negative memories of his past.
The three cities were major characters and forced Andy Michael Pilgrim to react as if he was confronting another living person in each novel.
As you craft your novel, ask yourself, “Where does the action take place?”
In reading your novel, the must reader learn pretty quickly in what place and time the story unfolds—in other words, where in time and space the story “is set.”
The setting is the backbone of your novel, upon which you will build a cast of dynamic characters. Research your setting so you can add very, very specific details to make your setting as realistic as possible. You must be very descriptive in your setting to pull and keep people reading your book.
In choosing the setting for your novel, ask yourself these questions:
1. What year is it?
2. What City and town do your characters live in?
3. What is the weather like?
4. What season is it?
5. What type of architecture is found in your setting?
6. What is the setting of your Novel?
7. How do you paint a picture of the setting in the reader’s head?
I hope these hints help you create realistic settings for your novels or short stories.
Happy Writing!!!!!!
Please click to leave a message on my website www.juliusthompsonnovels.com
Sitting in front of my computer slapping my head from side to side…
Finding an agent is so difficult that at times you want to slap your head from side to side and commit physical harm to your body.
Maybe, if I slap hard enough my brain will work in overdrive to figure out a way to make agents interested in my fourth novel: Purple Phantoms.
I feel like Don Quixote of La Mancha in chasing the Impossible Dream.
What a process!
I have the following qualifications:
***Three published novels: A Brownstone in Brooklyn, Philly Style and Philly Profile and Ghost of Atlanta
***2007 and 2011 Georgia of the Year nominations.
***My third novel, Ghost of Atlanta, won the 2011 National Gold Medal for General Fiction!
*** Ghost of Atlanta is on the book shelves of Barnes & Nobles and is selling at a good pace. That’s right it’s on the book shelves of the famous book seller!
***I’ve been a presenter at the 2009 AJC-Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, Georgia, 2010 Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, Virginia and the 2010 Buffalo Book Fair in Buffalo, New York.
*** I work hard at building a platform for my books and have crashed many barriers and I will work even harder to crash many more barriers to reaching my goal of becoming a well-known author.
***I’m a creative writing instructor at Evening and Emory in Atlanta, Georgia.
Yet, all this seems invisible to agents.
I work hard at writing my novels and I’m extremely dedicated in marketing my novels.
However, frustration sets in at times and erodes my enthusiasm.
I read on agent Linda Roghaar’s website a comment that is an aspirin that eases the pain:
“Don’t take rejection personally. More often than not a rejection is not about your writing; rather it’s that you’ve gotten it to the wrong person at the wrong time. Look at the package critically and send it out to another.”
Yet the agent front is silent for me…totally void of a positive response.
I’ve followed all the rules, my three published books are well received and have garnered national honors and recognition, but I keep getting the following form letter:
Dear Author:
Thank you so much for sending the (Blank) Literary Agency your query. We’d like to apologize for the impersonal nature of this standard rejection letter. Rest assured that we do read every query letter carefully and, unfortunately, this project is not right for us. Because this business is so subjective and opinions vary widely, we recommend that you pursue other agents. After all, it just takes one “yes” to find the right match.
Good luck with all your publishing endeavors.
Well, I’ll just keep sending out query letters and hopefully I’ll find that one agent who will say “Yes.”
Ooh…my head is still hurting from my palms constantly slapping my head from side to side!
Please Click to Leave a Comment!
How to use subplots to your advantage in crafting a novel?
Have you ever driven down one of those winding backwood roads in a rural area and couldn’t figure out how to get back to the main highway? Well, that is the feeling a reader gets when they read your novel and get lost in a tangling subplot.
Your goal as an author is to create a little depth to your novel, maybe a little suspense, but not take away from your main plot and pull your reader out of the “Fictive Dream” you worked so hard to create in the reader’s mind.
What is a subplot?
***A subplot is a secondary plot strand that is supporting a side story for any story or main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in themeatic signaficance. Subplots often involve supporting characters, those besides the protagonist or antagonist.
***Subplots are distinguished from the main plot by taking up less of hte action, having less significant events occur, with less impact on the book. Novels comment on one thing from multiple perspectives and with side trips here and there: This means subplots.
In a novel, you can take a side trip to give extensive back story or other reasons. However, the subplot isn’t a side trip, it’s a set of cohesive actions with its own main characters, goals, setbacks and resolutions.
Subplots are a sequence of events that parallels the main plot; it can closely resemble the main plot or it can diverge in significant ways in order to highlight the main plot.
For example from my first novel, A Brownstone in Brooklyn, Jesse Towns and the possible horrific selling of the brownstone without the tenants knowledge was an early subplot. This subplot lasted the first seven chapters, but it impacted the thematic development of the rest of the novel.
The Key for all subplots!
1. They relate to the main plot and intersect with it in some way.
2. Don’t swamp the main plot line with subplots. They must advance the story and show complexities in your characters.
Ideas for Subplots!
1. The main character can have more than one goal, usually relating to the main goal in some way.
2. Romantic subplots are common.
3. Secondary character’s concern and goal. One of the other characters is the hero of his/her own plot/?
As you craft your novel, your objective is to pick and choose when to use subplots to add depth and possible suspense to your book. Subplots are most effective in the middle of a novel as the reader moves toward the climatic ending.
Keep your readers on the main Highway, but don’t be afraid to make a detour to show a little extra scenery, fight some incredible battles and meet some new and interesting characters.
Happy Writing!!!
*****
Any questions or comments leave message at Julius Thompson novels…Please Click!
I’m animated! I’m excited! I’m energized!
I walked into the Barnes & Nobles book store in the “The Shoppes at Webb Gin” shopping mall in Snellville, Georgia on Saturday.
I was walking down the Fiction & Literature aisle. I was browsing and looking at the fiction books. The books were listed under the authors’ last names in alpha order. I found the “T” section when I saw New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor’s name. I paused for a second and then I did a double take at the authors’ names on the books placed on the top shelf. The books are located next to the novel, Home, at the left of the photo
My jaw dropped when I saw two of my four published novels on the shelves of a Barnes & Nobles Store. It’s hard to get one novel on the bookshelves of a brick and mortar book store, but two!
I stood and gazed for a few minutes, then did a little dance. I’m glad I had finished this exhibition when I looked and saw three little old ladies walk down the aisle. They were looking for books and talking amongst themselves. They turned and looked at me with a strange look.
I smiled.
I asked one of them to take the picture of me in front of the book shelf. She agreed, but then she asked her friend to take the photo because she was a better photographer. I wanted to scream, but held back that emotion
I’ve been waiting fifteen years for this to happen since the publication of A Brownstone In Brooklyn and Philly Style and Philly Profile.
Now, A Brownstone in Brooklyn and Ghost of Atlanta are on the Barnes & Nobles bookshelves at the same time! Wow…at the same time! What an honor and a blessing from God.
Hmm…now how can I get Philly Style and Philly Profile and Purple Phantoms on the Barnes & Nobles bookshelves?
It is the time to start your spring and summer reading with an award winning author Julius Thompson novel: A Brownstone in Brooklyn and Philly Style and Philly Profile!
Francis Grieff wrote after reading a Julius Thompson novel: “I like your crisp style, moving fast from one scene to another.”
A Brownstone in Brooklyn and Philly Style and Philly Profile E-books are now on sale. The original price is $2.99. For a limited time get the E-books for $1.50 in all e-book formats.
Please click on the links below and add the coupon code and get your discount for the novel of your choice.
Philly Style and Philly Profile:
Coupon Code: LP64R
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52558
A Brownstone in Brooklyn:
Coupon Code: AS25H
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/58281
Please heck out my new Philly Style and Philly Profile book cover and the new paperback: https://www.createspace.com/4236894
Philly Style and Philly Profile short synopsis: Philadelphia streets were never silent. Gangs wars on corners, screeching cars on avenues, and squealing steel trolley tires on tracks kept you alert for the next confrontation. Philadelphia playgrounds were sometimes silent. These were sanctuaries where you confronted your deepest memories. These were places packed with people, but on a summer’s midday, they were virtually empty. Streets made habitable again by the actions of a few good men.
I was asked to choose a quote from, A Brownstone in Brooklyn, to reflect on the unpredictable nature of life. How things are never the same and human beings have to adjust to life’s changing events. A Brownstone in Brooklyn is about growing up in the turbulent sixties, one of the most event filled decades in Black-American history.
A Brownstone in Brooklyn chronicles the life-altering events that shape the future of Andy Michael Pilgrim, a young man growing up in the turbulent sixties. This is a quote from Sister Love, a character sitting on the B-52 bus riding to her job at the A&S Department Store in downtown Brooklyn. She’s watching some young kids playing in the the water squirting from a fire hydrant.
What do you think? What is your reaction to this quote?
“The most special times in a person’s life are not meant to last forever. They’re like bubbles from a plastic ring dipped into a soapy solution. The soap bubbles rise, with the sun flashing brilliant colors, then bursts into a showery memory mist.” —Julius Thompson, A Brownstone in Brooklyn Please leave a response or email your response: http://www.juliusthompsonnovels.com
I Got a great response after reader finished Ghost of Atlanta: Francis Greiff wrote after reading Ghost of Atlanta: “I like your crisp style, moving fast from one scene to another.” http://www.juliusthompsonnovels.com
