Getting by when times are tough

The economy is in the toilet and a lot of people have been hard hit by job loss, mortgage interest hikes, rising gas prices, reduced retail spending and everything else that goes along with a recession. At these times, major lifestyle changes may be required.

Over the weekend I watched the DVD The Company Men, which followed the lives of three men affected by their company's mergers and layoffs. Each of the men (and their wives too) responded in different ways to the events. It's a film worth seeing more than once, not only for the story and themes, but the dialogue is brilliant and so is the acting. (Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper.)

It got me to thinking about how people use money. One of the characters had spent money like it was an endless stream. His wife told him they needed to cut back, to put the house up for sale, to cancel the country club membership, and he couldn't accept these changes. It made him feel like less of a man to not only be unemployed but to stop spending money.

Anyway, it's an awesome movie and I give it 10 stars out of 5. And it prompted me to write a longer post on this subject over at my website. Where I also included a recipe for salsa. (I was going to give Marcie McGill's homemade cracker recipe but thought Salsa Fresca might be more appealing LOL.)

Writers Write

Today I am thinking about my older sister Julie. Today is her birthday, and she is someone I really look up to. We weren't that close during most of our adult life. She and her husband lived in Europe and I was busy with my large family. But after she came back to the States and went through a divorce, and my kids were older, we had time to bond again.

That's when she made a statement that changed my life.

One day on the phone I was moaning about my career or lack of one. Should I go for a master's degree? Should I teach?

"What do you want to do, Karen?" she asked me.  Without a moment's hesitation, I said, "To be a writer. I only want to write. It's what I've always wanted."  And she said, "Then why go back to school? Writers write. They don't keep going back for degrees. They write. If you want to be a writer, you have to write."

At that time, I'd finished Farm Girl and felt there was hope for me completing a novel. After my conversation with Julie, I resolved that I would finish the novel I'd been working on for ten years and I'd get other projects lined up as well. Whenever I wavered and worried about money, thinking I should be supplementing the family income with a guaranteed paycheck instead of  spending time writing with no guarantees, I thought of Julie's words.  

Writers write.

There's really no other way, is there?

Like all my family Julie's a really good sport about seeing herself show up in my stories. She is who I based Marcie's older sister Linda on. One reader said this about Linda-- "I especially loved Linda, Marcie and Cindy's sister-- I do wish we got to see more of her. She was fun!"

Happy birthday to my wonderful sister, Julie! Who I'm sure won't mind if one day Linda gets to be a main character in her own book.

Julie has always loved laying out by the pool to work on her tan. (She's the one sitting on the edge.)

At last, progress on the writing front

After a very long nonproductive writing lull, I am back in business, baby! I never really worried. (Too much.) After all, when your mom dies and you have a major move to a new home shortly after, really it isn't the time to stress over word count and delayed projects.

But I am now happy to report that I am very close to having my BuNoWriMo draft complete by June 30!

And something else-- House of Diamonds is heading to the typesetter this week! A cover concept is being finalized, and the release date has been set for fall. I'll be organizing a blog tour to promote it, something I never did for my previous books so I'm excited about that too.

What it is about:

Two sisters, one approaching opportunity, the other tragedy. Marcie McGill moves towards realizing her dreams, while her sister Cindy faces heartache.  Can their bond endure? 

House of Diamonds give voice to a beloved baby who had none. And shows the incredible power that comes to families when they pull together to overcome challenges. At these times, a house of pain can become a house of diamonds.  

It will be the last novel about Marcie and Shawn McGill, and Marcie's sister, Cindy. (My next one is completely different, although also women's fiction.) But I still had some things to say using these particular characters. House of Diamonds is as much Cindy's story as it is Marcie's

I have some last-minute editing to do. This is why I love having an editor. When I think it is done, she finds some issues that, once resolved, will make it so much better. 

Also, Uncut Diamonds has been dropped to .99 on the Kindle, to prepare for the launch of the (sort of but not really) sequel. You can get it here here here!!

Why I Like Bad Reviews

I didn't used to like them. A bad review would upset me for days, back when UNCUT DIAMONDS first came out. FARM GIRL was one of those books that most everyone loved, so I got spoiled. Then when my novel came out I figured it would be more of the same-- a huge lovefest of joy with readers thinking I was awesome and loving all my books and soon I'd be on Oprah, well you know the story. What writer hasn't followed the same train of thought as you complete your amazing work that you just know the world is waiting for?

Hey, I'm no different, I'll admit to my flights of fancy. But now I'm all grown up as a writer-- I have two books out after all LOL *pathetic, I know, I blame the procrastinating*-- and as I check Amazon and Goodreads reviews, I realize how glad I am for those horrible one-star reviews on UNCUT. Now that there's enough really good ones to balance them out, of course. If it was all 1 or 2-star reviews, I'd be in trouble.

But the bad ones give my work legitimacy. Someone checking out the reader reviews will see that I didn't stack the deck with friends and family writing fake reviews just to make me look good.

In fact, here's what I ask. If you read Farm Girl or Uncut Diamonds and didn't like it so much, will you please please please go to the Amazon site (link included) or Goodreads and give it an honest, not-so-much review?

Of course, a good review is much appreciated as well. UNCUT DIAMONDS is beginning to pick up on Kindle sales, and reviews can only help! If you go to the FARM GIRL Amazon site, however, don't buy it there, as WiDo is now running a special sale, available for $5.95 on the website.

So there you have it people. My take on why bad reviews can be good. If you give me a poor review, we can still be friends! Serious, really, I'm not just saying that. Ask Jessica Bell, she gave UNCUT an honest 3-star review which I think is just so cool.

Don't you get kind of suspicious when you go to a site and every review is a gusher? That's as bad as them all being 1 or 2-stars, imho. Because you're not sure that they are real. *Omigosh and I had planned on this being a short post. Aargh!*

I Support the Supportive Bookseller

Borders is the best indie bookseller that isn't indie. They have a policy of supporting local authors, whether published traditionally through a large or small press, or self-published. This means if you, the author, live near a Borders, you can call and ask to speak to the buyer. Give her a brief pitch and summary of your book, asking if she would mind carrying your title in the local section.

The answer will be "Bring it in so I can take a look." Take 5 copies and you'll most likely have a cash sale. Your local Borders will also be happy to schedule a signing. If you do well at the signing, selling 20 books or more, your title will automatically be logged into the Borders.com website and can then be ordered from any Borders brick and mortar store in the country.

I guarantee that, if you're with a small press, or without distribution, you won't get this kind of treatment from Barnes & Noble. And if you're self-published, your local Barnes & Noble won't even talk to you. But as soon as your book is listed with Amazon, then suddenly it shows up on B&N.com, linked from the Amazon site. That still doesn't mean it can be ordered in person from a B & N bookstore. It can't. They'll tell you to go home and get it online from B & N.com, which is another word for Amazon.com.

Where I live in the Salt Lake Valley, there are two indie bookstores and one chain indie. The chain indie will take books carried by a distributor. The indies will take them only on consignment. My publisher will not do consignment, therefore these two bookstores do not stock any of the books published by WiDo. Even though WiDo Publishing is out of Salt Lake City and has titles by authors who live here. I don't call that supportive, do you?

It seems to me that the indie bookseller should be supportive of the indie publisher. Right? Farm Girl is stocked in independent bookstores across the Great Plains states. Yet you can't order it from indiebound.org. It's not listed and doesn't show up in the search bar. If you don't live near one of the stores that carry Farm Girl, you'll have to order it from Amazon. Or from this website.

I am all for supporting the local independent bookstores. But why should I when they don't support me as a local author? My books have been well-reviewed, and Farm Girl does well at every store that carries it. (I'm pretty sure Uncut Diamonds will sell out in Ireland but that's neither here nor there.)

What reason do these local stores have for not doing business with my publishing company and stocking my books on a non-consignment basis? No rational reason that I can see, especially considering that it's stocked by a variety of other indies throughout the country. Just not here. Where I live. Where my children play. Where my husband and I sleep.(Godfather 2 throwback there lol.)

So when I want to buy a book, I drive past Barnes & Noble, I drive past Deseret Book (the local indie chain that said no to both my books), I drive 20 miles to get to Borders in Murray, Utah and there I spend money on books. When I was at the Orem (or was it Provo?), Utah Borders for a signing, I spent $40. If I'm traveling and I want to buy a book, I will seek out the Borders and give them my business.

I would love to support the independent bookseller but instead I support the supportive bookseller. That is Borders. Wherever you live, if there's a Borders, know this: they will support the local author. It's their nationwide policy. Long live Borders.

Library Fun & Games

Last night another author (David J. West) and I did a presentation at a local library. It was geared toward families, with me presenting Farm Girl for the kids, Uncut Diamonds for the moms and David presenting his debut novel, Heroes of the Fallen, for the older kids and the dads.

Several families, lots of kids, and a great time. Having raised ten children of my own in an environment of reading, books, writing and telling stories, I loved doing this event. It was the kind of thing my husband and I would have really liked coming to with our own kids.

It wasn't that successful sales-wise, but that didn't matter to me. Sales come and go, you win some you lose some. (Like followers lol, which I have just lost 2 in one week. What's going on with that?) What mattered was sharing the story of the little farm girl and the different life she had, with the country school, the differences in culture between then and now, and all that. What mattered was seeing how attentive these kids were to this story.

When I switched to the mom's part, I shared the story of how the cover of Uncut Diamonds came to be, then I asked how many were Irish? (None.) Raised Catholic? (None. And they're wondering what the heck I'm getting at. Good, I have their attention.) Then I say, "Looks like you're not my demographic. I've learned my demographic is Irish women raised Catholic. So you may not like Uncut Diamonds, but you can try it if you want." (Punchline. A lot of laughs.)

I'm here to tell you that this job (paid or not) can have unexpected rewards. There's more to it besides sales, selling books, money, success, fame, being on Oprah, having tons of followers on your blog (gosh, why did 2 leave me? What did I do? What did I say? Oh, please come back!) Wait-- where was I?

Right..uh...unexpected writerly rewards...and last night I experienced one of them at the community library in American Fork, Utah.

Here's what makes it all worthwhile....

So I wake up this morning and see this on my sidebar-- BOOK REVIEW-- UNCUT DIAMONDS. Barbara Scully, my 100th follower who won a copy of my novel, has read and reviewed it and liked it! Not only that but in a comment on one of my previous blog posts, she said that her mom read and loved it as well.

Please go to Barbara's lovely blog, From My Kitchen Table, and tell her thank you from me! (After reading the review of course, lol!)

I'm pretty sure neither of my two books currently out will ever make a bestseller list. (Although Farm Girl was the best selling title for several months in the local Red Cloud, NE book store. Does that count?) I'm pretty sure that I won't be making mortgage payments from my royalty checks. But what matters to me more than money is to hear from a reader like Barbara who says it's the kind of book she can wrap herself in and "I just love the main character Marcie McGill."

This kind of response makes it all worthwhile to me-- all the writing, revising, editing and rewriting, until finally miracle of miracles, I hold a book in my hands that scares me to death. What if people don't like it? What if they don't get it? What if, like one publisher who rejected it said, they think "the Seventies are boring. No one wants to read about them."

And who knew that my demographic would be Irish women lol? Or as Barbara herself said when she chose this as her prize, "I'm a child of the Seventies who loved the Osmonds, so of course Uncut Diamonds is my choice!"

Thanks, Barbara! You made my day!

Just Finish Already

This came up in the comments of a previous post. Ann from Inkpots and Quills said she needed to finish something, and I replied with this comment: "Ann, funny you should mention that little detail about actually finishing something. When I finished Farm Girl, I realized it was the first time I had a complete ms. in my hands, after all my years of writing. Even then, it was only 35,000 words! Embarrassing, huh?"

Without giving away my age, let me say that I've been writing for a long time. Finally, I complete a book-length manuscript, and it's under 35,000 freakin' words! My favorite rejection letter came after a week, from the University of Nebraska: "It's too short for us, but have you tried the Nebraska regional magazines?" Aaargh!! I finish my so-called book and find out it's not a book after all? It's an article for a magazine!

Well, fortunately, someone thought Farm Girl would make a delightful small book and was willing to invest in it as the first release of a new press. Short as it is, no one has complained. Not a single reviewer said it was too short. Still, needing to redeem myself as a "serious writer", my novel, Uncut Diamonds, is divided into two parts and comes to approximately 100,000 well-edited words, (including the Glossary of Mormon Terminology). Aha! Now that's a book.

This is what drives me to finish my next book. I spent too many years writing and not finishing. I know from reading your blogs that this isn't common to all writers. I see where many of you are prolific writers, churning out one full-length ms. after another. I admire you. I wish I were more like that-- more disciplined, more bursting with story ideas, more determined to spend the required time to write and to finish. More passionate about all of it.

Hats off to you finishers! You inspire me. And do you know the secret to getting published? Two words-- finish already!

From newspaper interview to fun discovery

The other day I had a phone interview with a reporter from my long ago past. I lived in Chillicothe, Illinois eons ago, graduated from the high school, then moved on never to look back. Somehow this reporter heard about my two published books and wanted to do an article for the local paper. I sent her copies of Farm Girl and Uncut Diamonds, which she read and enjoyed. I liked hearing her refer to my old hometown as "Chilli." (Hadn't heard that in years, but it sure took me back!)

Eager to see if the interview was posted online yet, I googled myself this morning. Hadn't done that for awhile, not expecting anything new really, except maybe the interview. Couldn't find the interview, (since I really need to allow her to write it first lol!) but I did find this:


A man calling himself The Curmudgeonly Professor had photographed the books he had recently purchased with a $50 Amazon gift certificate. And there's Farm Girl front and center! (Well, sort of front and slightly to the left actually.)

I was so tickled by this that I emailed him straightaway and asked his permission to use the photo on my blog, which he graciously gave.

This brings to mind the whole what-happens-when-you-google-yourself scenario. I've had thrilling little surprises like this one, and I've stumbled across mean-spirited reviews. The whole gamut, really. You never know what you'll run into when you google yourself or one of your books. Be prepared to have your day ruined, or to get a happy lift. Thanks to Dwight Blood, the curmudgeonly professor and his Amazon gift certificate, my day got a happy start to it.

How about it? Have you googled yourself lately?