Best Selling Lists

PBS recently posted a list of the 100 most popular American books of all time, called The Great American Read. I took a look at the list, which was filled with best-sellers. Since I spend most of my time reading romance novels, it came as no surprise to me that I was only able to cross off maybe 30 of the PBS list. Determined to expand my horizons this summer I went to the library and picked up one from the list.

Shouldn't have started with The Handmaid's Tale.

As most of you know, I've been rereading Stephen King's great book On Writing. One of his mantras is that in order to become a great writer, you need to write a lot and read a lot. Given the man's schedule, I was surprised to find he reads about 80 books a year. If he can do it...

But not with The Handmaid's Tale. Too depressing. I like happy endings. I write happy endings. But I don't think Margaret Atwood would appreciate me putting a happy ending on her book.

Fortunately, Stephen graciously supplied a list of the best books he's read. I'm taking back The Handmaid's Tale and selecting one from Stephen's list instead. Maybe The Secret Life Of Bees. 

How about you? What are you reading this summer?

Stormy Weather

June 1st is the official start of hurricane season, a fact I didn't really care about while in Ohio. It's a different story now that I'm in North Carolina.

The past few nights have been filled with the weather folks urging all in the viewing area to get their hurricane preparedness kits in order. I had to do a Google search to find out what is considered essential in such a kit. The list is this: Food bars, water, AM/FM radio with batteries, candle, emergency bright stick, whistle and waterproof matches, in addition to emergency medical supplies. Whew! I'm going to have to stock up slowly. It may take all summer to compile my kit.

Which makes me realize this latest necessity in my life isn't that much different from my writing kit. I started out slowly, becoming a PRO member of RWA, joining the local chapter, taking classes, attending workshops, all in an effort to compile my writing toolbox, a term used by Stephen King. Along the way I added to the toolbox, turning PRO status into PAN when my first book got published, continuing to enter contests and attend workshops, working with an agent. I added in an editing software program to the mix. I slowly compiled things into my writing toolbox, and six years after my first book was published, I have come to the realization the toolbox will never be completely filled. There's always something new going on in the publishing industry, which is changing at such a rapid pace, it's hard to keep up.

What's next on the horizon? As I gear up for hurricane season, I'm also gearing up for big things to come in the second half of the year, writing-wise. I'll be re-releasing the first four books in the Cotillion Ball series, and am hard at work on the Regency series and my brides book. Lily, Iris and Poppy are eager to show off their men to you, and Jake is ready to tell us who has won his heart. Stay tuned!

Words of Wisdom From Stephen King

I'm rereading Mr. King's book On Writing, which was lost during the move, and recently repurchased.  I feel a particular kinship with Stephen King. We're the same age, for a short time we had the same publisher, both of us had a unfortunate encounter with poison ivy toilet paper when we were young, we both were editors of our high school papers. Of course, his career far surpasses mine, but it's nice to know he struggled in his early years, as we all do.

Here's what he has to say about his career. "I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction and poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint, or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all." 

So Stephen had someone try to make him feel lousy about his writing, too. More that we have in common.

So what's the take-away? Don't let anyone tell you you're wasting your talent, or make you feel lousy. Keep your nose to the grindstone and keep cranking out your stories. You'll get better every time you type "The End" on your works and sooner or later, you'll be able to look upon those who made you feel lousy and wish them well.

In that vein, I'm pleased to announce that Book Baby #19 was just awarded a Crowned Heart by Ind'Tale Magazine and is featured on their YouTube feed. You can see the whole thing here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YbBugDLmK8


Or, you can just take a look at the ad they created for me here:

Here Come The Brides

No, this post is not about Meghan and Harry, even though it's a fairy tale in real time, something we romance writers love to slobber over.

My bride reference refers to my WIP, which started out with a one mail order bride idea. Actually, I had thought three of them, the heroine and her two sisters. But mail order bride books are extremely popular in the western romance market, and my bride was only slightly different from all those who had traveled the route before her. 

What made my manuscript different was the fact that my bride in question was one of a group of sixteen women who were all traveling west to find their mates. Similar to Westward The Women, a movie about a wagon train full of women, filmed in 1951, I place sixteen women in the care of one brave man, Jake Shelton. If you're familiar with my Cotillion Ball series, you'll remember that Temperance Jones chose Basil Fitzpatrick over Jake in Banking On Temperance. In that book, Jake tipped his hat and rode off into the sunset. Not this time. Not if I have anything to say about it. 

I realized the hook to this book is the fact he's agreed to help his sister, who runs a matchmaking business, to shepherd these ladies west. Over the course of six months, Jake's ladies will prove to him they are strong women, just as Roy Whitman found out in the movie. Some of these ladies stand out in the book, and deserve their own stories about what happens after Jake drops them off and sees them get married. And of course, there's the one who captures his heart. 

So instead of the Bride Of Baxter Ridge, the name of the book has been changed to the working title of The Angelica Train. Is this my new, multi-volume series? Could be. I've learned a lot about the Oregon Trail while writing this book, as my sticky map of the trail attests to. And I wrote about a portion of the trail in my most recent post on History Imagined. 

https://historyimagined.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/the-oregon-trail/

Still Learning

I attended an RWA chapter meeting in the Carolinas yesterday. I was drawn to it by the speaker, who was going to talk about deep POV, but I had never attended any of their meetings and didn't know anyone. I sat across from a lady and we got to talking. She's pre-published, still working on her first manuscript. She asked me the same question and when I told her how many books I'd written, she asked why I was even there. I explained that I felt I was still learning, too, and if I could walk away from the meeting with one nugget of info, I'd be happy.

So what did I learn? Glad you asked. I learned about enneagrams and that there are nine basic personality types and only three core emotions that drive a person's backstory–fear, shame and anger. I'm going to take the test later to determine what my personality type is, but I gave some thought last night to my characters in the mail-order bride story. Fear drives my heroine, shame drives the hero, so I guess I intrinsically knew this nugget before yesterday. But it was good to have it spelled out.

The icing on the cake was I got to spend time talking about writing with a group of ladies who "got" it. A new tribe? I don't know yet, but a few new friendships, yes. I'm feeling quite "cocky."

No More Waiting!

I'm pleased to be able to announce that the demise of Crimson may turn out to be a good thing. Tara Gelsomino, the executive editor from the company, has decided to form her own business, a literary agency, and I'm pleased to be one of her first clients. We plan to continue my Regency series, which was begun by Crimson.

I'm also finishing the first draft of a mail-order bride series that takes the brides from a matchmaker's office in Boston to the mountains of Montana. If you've read the Cotillion Ball series, you may remember Jake Shelton, the wagon master who was set to take Temperance Jones and her family to Oregon, until she admitted her love was not Oregon, or Jake, but instead it was Basil. Well, Jake's back and this time, he won't be denied in love. Imagine a cowboy with a wavy shock of hair, blue eyes and a wide-brimmed hat and you have Jake.

So, a new liaison, a new couple of stories, and a new outlook. Seems only fitting, since I'm in a new house in a new state. And it's only April.

Going to be one hell of a year.

The Waiting Game

Lately, it seems I've been playing the waiting game. As many of you know, Crimson Romance is no more, so I applied to get my rights back on my books. For those who are unfamiliar with traditional publishing, here's what happens: the contract stipulates the publisher retains the rights to your book for a specified period of time, usually from three to seven years.

If the publisher goes bankrupt or shuts down, rights revert back to the author automatically. In this case, even though Crimson is now defunct, the parent company, Simon & Schuster, is still in business and holds the contract. So in order to regain control of my books, I must send a request. The stipulation to getting the rights reverted to me is that the particular title has to garner royalties under a certain threshold for two consecutive six-month periods.

In my case, this is proving exceedingly hard to figure out, since the books are involved in various bundles. It didn't help my progress any to have the wrong email address for the man in charge of deciding who gets rights back, so I've been late to the game for some time. So, he's working on figuring it all out and I'm waiting.

But what happens if I have to wait until my books fall under the threshold of sales? Simon & Schuster has no interest in promoting my works and my sales have fallen off since the announcement. Do I continue to watch my declining sales and applaud the fact that I'll get the rights back sooner? What do I do with the hole in my bank account? What do I do with the books once I do get the rights back?

So many questions, and right now there are no answers. Some could view this as a setback in my career, but I choose to view it as an opportunity. In the immortal words of Ayn Rand–"The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity."

I've taken the first step by asking for my rights back, and am poised to take the next rung.