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.
My Words Fly Up
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.
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.
The first time I watched this music video, I hadn’t looked up a translation of the lyrics. It didn’t matter. It is a beautiful, poignant song, beautifully song. But if you’d prefer to know, lyrics are below. “Far away the sea” A quiet port of shelter Of a greater future Perhaps already lost In the …
When I was talking to a friend about my two new books, Lost Mothers and Every New Beginning, she asked me what had been the original idea for Lost Mothers, that first spark that had lit the fire that became the novel. This is my favorite question—as I imagine it is for many writers—because it is so easy to answer. In my experience, there is always a moment, an incident, a conversation, even the appearance of a stranger, something a writer saw or experienced that sticks with her and either slowly or quickly grows into a story idea, a group of characters, an expanding tree of story lines. I know what the original idea was for every book I’ve written.
I seem to be caught in a time warp with what I’m reading these days. It began with my interest in women detectives. A couple of months ago I searched Google for fictional women detectives, looking particularly for books set in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Among others, I found The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie King, first published in 1994. I read it, loved it, and mentioned it to a few friends who also read mysteries. They all nodded and said, Oh, yes, they knew it, and they’d read it … oh, about twenty years ago. How did I miss this marvelous series for twenty years?
Tomorrow is the day. Well, one of the days. Tomorrow, May 1, is publication day, the day my two books—Lost Mothers and Every New Beginning—will be available from Amazon as e-books. Although they are $3.99, I am selling them for a brief time for $2.99. Not quite two for the price of one, but hey, they’re both good, so why not buy both?
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I had to delay the publication of my two books, Lost Mothers and Every New Beginning, because I got bogged down with the proofreading process. It simply took longer than I expected. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that that is still the case, and I am postponing publication again.
My cover designer, Nika Dixon, has been working hard on the covers for Lost Mothers and Every New Beginning. My agent, her assistant, Nika, and I agreed that the original covers that were used when these were published as e-books are great front covers. Since the books will now be published as physical books as …
In one of my writing classes last week, a long-time student, Vicki, made two comments that inspired this post. First, she talked about a new writing exercise she was practicing. She writes for five minutes without stopping, and everything she writes is one sentence. “It’s not that hard once you get used to it,” she …