December 16th, 2012 
Recently, a reader mentioned my use of specific products in my books, and called it “distracting.”
First of all, this reader I mentioned is from New Zealand, and I write toward an American audience. These product names and brands I might use are all familiar to American readers, and so it does create a clearer picture for them than it would a reader who might not even recognize what that some brands are. So the tendency to want generic, might be predicated on a need for familiarity. This is precisely the reason I don’t read books with foreign settings, or books like The Hobbit…I don’t want to be lost in that landscape, confused about what everything means. I detest that in my own life, in my own landscape. I like familiar things. They ground me. I like specificity. It keeps things clear.
Second, it not only provides more elbow room for variants in references (i.e., “she headed for the Audi.” “She headed for the car.” “She headed for the A7″) but it’s also a device for character development. For instance, not salad dressing, but Miracle Whip. Not wine, but Barefoot Pink Moscato. Not phone, but iPhone. Not shoes, but Napoli Trekkers. Not car, but Audi A7. Not coffee, but Hazelnut with White Chocolate Macadamia nut creamer (and in a mug with a cute kitten on it)….
SIDEBAR: I also recall a reader mentioning that my character’s use of electronic cigarettes was distracting. Again, this is a product not yet in the common usage lexicon, psychologically. So a reader will notice it more. The same was true for tobacco in fiction, until it became passé to have characters smoking. (Watch any old black and white movie and you will suddenly notice how EVERYONE is smoking. It will seem odd and distracting).
Also, a character is partly elucidated by the choices they make, to include the products they use, the cars they drive, the clothes they wear, the food they eat…Brand suggests many things–taste, income, personality, beliefs, weaknesses…so using a specific brand name is intentional. It helps me communicate what I want you to know about a character.
Over the years I’ve read many books in which the author used only generic references to everything. Wine, 
drink, sandwich, sedan, convertible, phone, coffee….and I always had the thoughts, what kind? I wonder if this character likes white or red wine? I wonder if this character buys American or foreign? I wonder if this character likes expensive shoes or cheap ones? It kept me from gaining a full appreciation of that character, and tended to make them cardboard cutouts–and I find THAT distracting.
One might argue, the story’s the thing. Yes, the story is the thing, (nice of you to bring that up) but there would be no story without the characters and who they are. Character is equally important. And that means any device that allows the reader to understand them on deeper levels, make them seem like real people in their lives, is one more chance to draw that reader in and get her to read your book.
It’s so satisfying to sit at my desk and write to the sound of the ocean. Only this time, it’s not in my earbuds, but outside my window. Our move to Dunedin placed us within walking distance of the beach, and the rhythmic breath of the waves at shore soothes me. The cool, robust breeze from the water sometimes spits through our windows like a fire hose, but it helps regulate the temperature in this upstairs master suite, high above almost all other houses on this hillside. It’s Summer here, though luckily for me, the fall and winter-loving, heat-intolerant moi, there really hasn’t been much heat yet. Weather is weird everywhere, as I understand it.
finally create some normal routines.
Thus, over the years, I have managed to produce work in myriad categories. Fourteen, at last count. But it has become clear to me in recent months that my approach has not been wise. This diversification has only managed to erode the ground under my literary feet, and prevent me from getting a proper foothold in the market–especially when so many other writers have established theirs. And they are the ones who enjoy better sales. There’s a reason for that.
It seems that most of THOSE-WHO-READ (myself included, though I made the error of thinking other readers behaved differently) tend to pick the type of book or author they like, or both, and then they continue to read that book/author. When they run out of an author’s work, they seek other authors who write in a similar genre and/or with a similar style. Thus, the readers who buy my books have read whichever genre of mine they are drawn to, and then discover there isn’t another book in that genre from me, and they move on to find those other authors they might also like who have books available which they have not read. This does not encourage a strong, growing readership.
probably would have existed by now, after 29 books. Had those 29 books been in one genre, I would not have taken such a hit when digital publishing swelled to its current oceanic level. According to factzone.com, in America, a new book is published every 13 minutes. This groundswell of publishing is attributable to the ease with which we can now publish our work. Yes, that means more bad books from bad writers mucking up the booklist for the rest of us, but it also means more freedom, and demands that we employ smart-marketing techniques. Hence, the issue at hand with my diversification.
The Next Big Thing Blog Hop, wherein writers talk about their current Work in Progress (WIP), has apparently been going strong for 26 weeks, and so many writers have taken part, that I had a hard time finding the originator of the idea… I could have found it, eventually, but then, that would have me spending way too much time on Google, and not enough writing. I’ve been guilty of that before. Guilty of that often. Guilty. Most of the time. Did I mention I’m legally changing my middle name to Google? But this NBT Blog Hop thing has taken root in cyberspace and it’s spreading. It’s like an Internet fungus. Okay, that was too pejorative to say about a vocation I love. Kudzu? No…let’s see….how about it’s blossoming like a well-tended garden?
It sprang from the first draft pages of my AKA Investigations Series, Book 3. I was getting so bogged down in the plot machinations, filling my dry erase board and desk pad and index cards with scribbles and bubbles and off-shoot ideas….and suddenly my main characters had been pushed into the background, and the secondary and tertiary characters were taking over the story. So in a fit of brilliance (which looks very much like a Grand Mal seizure, and may or may not have come from Kate–though she doesn’t have seizures when she has ideas) I figured out that maybe I was trying to write two different books–maybe this other one wanted to be written first.
combination. But this one did not lend itself to much humor and I had to intentionally go back and add some levity by creating some other characters. It worked out well, because those characters turned out to be important to the plot. But Syzygy is written in Third Person Limited, from various Points of View. My books are generally either First Person Limited or Third Person Omniscient Narrator. Thus, in this book I was taxed with the need to write from the mind of characters I neither liked nor fully understood. I had to write their thoughts, when those thoughts were abhorrent to me. I had to imagine what their motivations were, and how they would respond to certain situations, when I could not even fathom being in that situation in the first place. I also found that tense and point of view was a real beast for me to keep control of. I made some very amateur mistakes and am thankful for the proofing and beta reading Kate has been doing for me…she has spotted many things I missed, and forced me out of my comfort zone.
