My Words Fly Up
Time to Reprint
Many years ago, I published a number of books—five romance novels and Free Fall, a coming-of-age novel. Recently, I reread my first romance, Tailor-Made. I had forgotten how much fun I had writing it; and, considering it was my first book, it’s really quite good. Reading it again got me thinking. Maybe it’s time to reprint.
The Urge to Create
My urge to create can vary from a background murmuring, like a stream, to crashing ocean waves. When the waves hit, I have no problem setting myself in front of a notebook or computer and writing. But, if too many tasks in my everyday life smother that urge to create, until it’s barely a trickle, I can easily ignore my writing.
Songs That Tell Stories
Back in the day, when I lived in New York in the 1980s, a new singer-songwriter was getting a lot of attention—Suzanne Vega. I bought her first album as a cassette tape, and then had to buy it again because I wore out the tape. Eventually I bought the CD, which I found recently when I was reorganizing my music collection. I immediately played it, and aside from being transported back to that other place and time in my life, I was struck—again—by Vega’s wonderful imagery and lyricism.
Rewriting and Writing New
As I mentioned earlier, back in 2016, I have resurrected a book I wrote in 2000 that both my agent and I loved. When Paige suggested I try revising it, I was skeptical, worried I would be unable to modernize the story. (Technology, which had a major influence on the plot, has changed radically in the past seventeen years.) Yet as I began revising, I realized that many of the changes, which required both rewriting and writing new, were quite simple. The two major revisions I made led to the introduction of two new characters, one for each revision. Those characters shifted a few other plot points, and it became apparent that both characters would play an important role in the last third of the book, which I already knew would need to be almost completely rewritten. The first two-thirds only required revision work, some minor, some (with these two new characters) major.
Now Available in Paperback!
I am thrilled to announce that my two most recent books, Lost Mothers and Every New Beginning, are now available in paperback! This has been a long road for both books, from the original idea (Lost Mothers has a particularly interesting backstory, which you can read here), through the many revisions, the editing and proofreading, and finally the actual publishing process. For anyone who hasn’t been down this road of writing and publishing a novel, I assure you it is a long and often frustrating trek. But the end result, being able to write those words “Now Available in Paperback,” is well worth it.
Next Step
I’ve taken the next step toward the publication of my paperback books! I received from CreateSpace proofs of both of my books, Lost Mothers and Every New Beginning. They look terrific. Wonderful cover art, thanks to Nika Dixon, and great blurbs—and thanks to Martha Barron Barrett, Brunonia Barry, and Doris Parmett for those.
Be Social
MY WORDS FLY UP
In which I blog about the days I write and the days I don’t write; about teaching about writing; about reading (which is never enough); and occasionally about music, because sometimes a three-minute song can tell as good a story as a novel.