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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Could I have a finer compliment?

I spoke with my mother yesterday.  She's a wonderful, Christ-like woman (I hesitate to use the word "Christian" anymore; so many folks, not the least of which are politicians, have tainted it's meaning) who has always been a praying person.
She's finished reading Broken Road.  Said she found herself praying for the main characters before she realized what she was doing.
Don't know if I'll ever have a better review.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Do I Have the Write to Call Myself a Writer?

I am way out of my comfort zone. My former writing "career" was limited to one-page, emotional outpourings for family occasions, often years apart, until April 2010. That was when my husband, Mike, finally convinced me to begin writing down the thoughts for a story, born of a single idea, which had been rolling around in my brain for at least eight years. 
We spent hours discussing where to take that single idea and, although now I can't remember exactly when, finally fashioned it into its current incarnation. Its first life took form in a short story my youngest daughter wrote for a college writing project. Seven years later, Mike constructed the framework of the first four chapters and, not long after that, the characters told the story. Broken Road was written...and revised...and revised...and revised...². (That's "squared,” not a footnote.) 
The characters in Broken Road are almost literally like my children. They woke me in the wee, small hours of many mornings, often brought me to tears, and letting them go into the big, wide world is scary.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Listen to Your Mother

Writing Broken Road was a multi-faceted experience unlike any other I’ve ever known.  One of the most significant elements about it was how vulnerable I felt going into it, and even more so once the characters were well fleshed-out and had become my dear friends.  
At this point in my life, my self-protectiveness is a well-honed skill, so sharing the fact that I was writing a novel, much less the novel itself, was difficult and a pretty well-kept secret, except for a small number of people that Mike and I—well, Mike asked—to read it for advice on writing style and content.
I didn’t tell my parents or my siblings until the book was published.  I sent my parents a copy and my mother began reading it.  She’s a former school teacher and the very first person who taught me grammar, most noticeably correcting me when I would use “me” when “I” was the correct form. 
Less than a week after sending them Broken Road, Mike went to visit my folks for Christmas.  My younger sister was also at their apartment and there was a bit of discussion about the writing.  I mentioned that Mike and me (just kidding) had spent twenty minutes lightly arguing over a comma, and that I had won that argument.  Mother then said she had found a couple of places where the grammar was incorrect, but that didn’t bother me; I knew about several instances where that was the case, but it was written that way for a reason. 
Then she dropped the bombed.  She had noticed an error-not grammatical-but an error so huge it’s embarrassing, not only for my mistake, but because Mike and/or I (see; I do know what’s correct) have gone through this story no less than thirteen times and caught mistakes every stinking time, and we still missed this glaring gaffe.
I will not tell you what it is; won’t even hint at it.  It’s too humiliating, and if you’ve read the book and didn’t catch it, so much the better.
But, if I write another book, you can be damn sure my mother will be one of the first to read it!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

It Doesn't Get More Fun Than This

T
his is exactly what we wanted. This afternoon, a friend of mine called to say she wanted to read our book, but she didn't have a computer.  "Could I come by tomorrow and just get one from you?"  And this weekend, I got another call from a friend who was really wanting to speak with Cindy.  "I've bought a book to give to my sister-in-law for Christmas.  Could I come by and let you sign it?"


Cindy and I are ecstatic that people we know, and especially those we don't, are discovering our characters...well, Cindy's characters.  If you've never written a book, you might not understand what I'm about to say.  If you have, then you completely get it.


We love those folks like they are family members.


And we just love that others are meeting them.

Monday, December 12, 2011

It Really Is Fiction

A few folks have asked me if ‘Broken Road’ is autobiographical at all, and the basic answer is no. It is a work of fiction. But the main character and I do have some things in common-our taste in music, my hankering for a PB&J every once in a while, some issues with faith, and, so my husband says, some quirks of temperament.


Since the question has been asked, I feel it necessary to say that my parents are very different from Roxie’s. My folks have always been supportive, loving, non-judgmental people, and I would hate to think that anyone would draw conclusions about my wonderful mom and dad based on the fictional parents in the book.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

A Secret No Longer


Well, well, well.  Here we are in the local paper, the Log Cabin Democrat.  I know, I know, it's not the New York Times.  


But this is such a big deal to us because it all started with an idea.  I had the idea that Cindy could write a book.  She had the idea about Roxie going home and all the things that would happen to her when she got there.  


And now look!  It's right there in Cindy's hands, all published and dust-jacketed!  We're so grateful to Linda Hicks, who wrote the article and to the Log Cabin for running it.  If you'd like to read the article, just click here and it will open in another page.  

Thursday, December 8, 2011

And Here It Is!



Yes, ladies and gentlemen. We did it.  We figured out the instructions for converting a book to the Kindle format.  And we're dang proud too.  


What an amazing adventure this has been.  Cindy finished her book and we were suddenly learning new technologies.  And by learning new technologies I mean staring at the computer for hours, clicking links that in most cases did not get us any closer to our goal.  But we hung in there and figured a few things out.  


I still can't believe it. 

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Broken Road Goes To The Library!


Libraries have always been important to me. I’ve met so many interesting characters, from Ferdinand
the Bull in my preschool library, to Andy Dalziel in my early adult years at the Fayetteville Public Library.
In the last year, I’ve met three new characters in literature that I find fascinating.


Libraries are a place you can find yourself, and completely lose yourself. Reading is so much a part of
my personality that I truly cannot imagine what my life would have been without a library.


The picture shows Mike donating one of our books to the library at his high school.  That's Cindy Stage, the librarian with him.  I knew when I wrote Broken Road that I'd be giving it to libraries.  We're just starting that process now.  

Monday, December 5, 2011

It's a Great Day!


Many things make for a great day.  One of those is coming home and finding a couple boxes of your novel left by the postman.  We've got so many places we want to give these away.  Hopefully, we'll sell a few to make enough money to order some more, so we can give more away.  

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Will Wonders Never Cease?


Here we are in the Barnes and Noble online store.  We have Lulu's distribution package, which as far as I know was free, to thank. 


Broken Road has never had better friends.  We're in Lulu.com, the iTunes store, and now Barnes and Noble.  It's so easy to find us now.


And just in time for Christmas!  


Ha!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

The Good Deals Just Never End!


Right now, you can order one of the best books available on the web and have it shipped to your house for free!  When you get to checkout, just enter the code "sleighrides" and Lulu will pay the shipping.  And just in time for Christmas!
Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Coulda Knocked Us Down...



With a Feather!  I got an email from Cindy today.  She had written, "Have you seen this?"  And provided a link.  When it opened, one of my eyes fell out.  I used the other one to find it on the floor.


I've already admitted to anyone who would listen that the technology involved in this project has taken us way above our digital pay-grade.    In other words, when we launched the eBook on Lulu, we just clicked buttons, the pretty ones anyway and agreed to everything.


Little did we know that Lulu would make a deal in our behalf with the iTunes store.  Having investigated that, I've learned that the book is pending with Barnes & Noble.  


We can hardly believe it.


We really want to break into the Amazon book store, but that might be as difficult as actually breaking into a book store.