We  had our SEVENTH  “virtual” meeting of the Carmichael Rotary Club, May 12, 2020. President Vicky Boatwright, recognized consort and compatriot Jay Boatwright who, after performing the "Pledge", gave a very appropriate "Thought for the Day" as follows: 

 

 

 

 

Ken said that his presentation was for those who might be interested in writing a novel. He started 12 years ago and was interested in fiction and got the idea for his first novel while involved in a case in Modesto. Ken thinks that one needs to start with an idea. In preparation Ken took classes and read books, some are:  Stephen King on writing, Anne Lamott, who wrote “Bird by Bird” and describes that to start writing a novel, she recommends write “shitty first drafts”. He took courses online and attended “Left Coast Crime”, an organization which puts on an annual mystery convention.

So, Ken learned certain “rules” and has suggestions, which he used on his first Mike Zorich novel “Contempt of Court”.  The idea started when on a case in Modesto, he didn’t want to give over his “discovery” to the other side. The judge issued an “order to show cause”. The idea germinated.

Ken’s suggestion is “Write what you know”, and you can do an outline of the story or just write by “the seat of your pants” – organically -which Ken favors. Next, gather your characters, in Ken’s novels, his protagonist or hero is Mike Zorich and the antagonist is the judge who is against him. Then, you can have a “helper” and maybe a “love interest”. Maybe also some “role players”. You should write a sketch of every character. He has clipped photos of people out of magazines to look at and refer back to them,  Ken writes 10 to 15 pages every day – he says it is fun for him. It is best to show a character and just tell about him. For instance, you can say the character drove his car, through winding streets to Ancil Hoffman Golf Course, met and talked to some interesting members and then gave a talk. Makes more interesting to use dialogue.

Another suggestion is to write short chapters so that you keep the reader’s interest. This is how modern novels are written. There should be a “storyline” that traces a period of time and the main character should learn something – should be a beginning, middle, and the end. Mick Zorich, the hero, is running on the American River bike trail, gets beat up and the assailant takes the keys to his car, and then bad things happen to him – this is the gist of the story, he has a girl friend and they have sex (not easy to write about), and humor was brought in by fellow lawyer who tells a lawyer joke.

Once you are done with the draft novel, then it needs to be edited. Most likely the story is too long and you need to pare it down – most novels are 100,000 words, make copies and ask others to read it. You can hire professional editors who will give you a lot of input.

The next thing is to try to get the book published. Ken said he sent his first book to 40 or 50 publishers and got rejected. He self-published in Amazon for free, but you have to hire people to make the novel suitable for publication and had “printing on demand” POD – that cost ½ of the publication and at most, Ken gets ¼ of sales. Ken won First Prize for Category, “Legal and Mayhem” competition in 2014 with “Contempt of Court” and was a finalist in the “Thriller and Suspense” competition in 2016 for “Fatal Reunion”. His first novel took 5 years to write, the second and third about two year each. One interesting fact is that 85 percent of novel readers are women.

His books can be purchased on Amazon.com. What an interesting presentation, even though it was “virtual” and we could only get the “audio” because of a glitch, Ken’s passion came clearly through.

President Vicky thanked Ken for his presentation and informed him that, in honor of his presentation, a book, (hopefully a mystery novel) will be donated to the Carmichael Public Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library). Ken mentioned that his books can be found at both libraries.