A couple of weeks ago, I was madly preparing lists of things to do before I packed up and headed out on a family vacation. My husband's not a fan of travelling, so we only leave town for one week a year. By the third day, he's already starting to miss his big-screen TV, his office in our basement, his space, and his stuff.
I, on the other hand, yearn to get away. Book promotion is a seven-day a week job with long lists of things to do, and I welcomed the break away from my computer. More importantly, I needed time to stop thinking about publishing and promoting. It was time to get back to basics. To sit out on the huge sundeck overlooking the lake, and breathe and watch, and enjoy the quiet. Not just the external noise, but the noise in my head. The noise that says "oh, I should do this, and I need to contact so-and-so, and isn't it time to post another blog".
But I'm a writer by nature and ideas began to come while I was on that sundeck. So, I acknowledged them and jotted a few notes, but without rush or a market in mind. I experienced, quiet moments of pure creation. It was wonderful. And yes, I worked on an ongoing book some of the time, but in a far more relaxed state of mind than I was used to.
I want to create more of that quiet space in my everyday life, where my mind isn't pulled apart by the to-do list, domestic chores, and family responsibilities. It's a challenge, but I'm recharged, relaxed, and up for it.
To read excerpts of Fatal Encryption and Taxed to Death, visit
www.debrapurdykong.com
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Six Letter Word
Cancer is a six letter word. You wake up one morning, same as you did yesterday and the day before, but now everything is different, the color of the sky, the way the light falls on your favorite flowers, the way you look at life and your family, it’s all changed. Cancer has come through the back door, the disease has parked itself in the middle of your life and now you and all the people you love have to deal with the consequences.
Writing about cancer, using breast cancer as a back drop for fiction has taken me on a journey unexpected. Someone said I made cancer a character, if I did, it was not deliberate. My intention was never that. Most of us can relate to this disease because it has touched us in some way, left its personal stamp upon us, a family member or a friend. The six letter word has taken people away, shortened lives, taken young and old, no discrimination and no rhyme or reason.
I recently attended the Kickoff Breakfast for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. In a large convention hall with handmade quilts hung as decorations, hundreds of people sat bound together by the pink ribbon disease. At every table there were survivors, at every table someone had been touched by cancer. At the podium, speaker after speaker told their story, some coming back year after year praising the work of the American Cancer Society and others coming back to say somewhere in the middle of the months that passed from last year to this, they were diagnosed with cancer. The words spoken were touching and inspirational. People rallied to the cause and left pledging to create teams to walk on October 19th in Central Park.
I was there not because of the reasons that others were but because I decided one day like any other day that the character in my story would have breast cancer, that she would be a young woman, wife and mother who struggles with the loss of hope.
The slogan for Making Strides is: Hope starts with Us. Come join me and thousands of other folk on October 19th in Central Park. I’ll be there with Belly of the Whale, helping to pass on the message of hope and survival. Fight-the-fight.
Blog what you see, think, feel and hear…
Linda Merlino
Writing about cancer, using breast cancer as a back drop for fiction has taken me on a journey unexpected. Someone said I made cancer a character, if I did, it was not deliberate. My intention was never that. Most of us can relate to this disease because it has touched us in some way, left its personal stamp upon us, a family member or a friend. The six letter word has taken people away, shortened lives, taken young and old, no discrimination and no rhyme or reason.
I recently attended the Kickoff Breakfast for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. In a large convention hall with handmade quilts hung as decorations, hundreds of people sat bound together by the pink ribbon disease. At every table there were survivors, at every table someone had been touched by cancer. At the podium, speaker after speaker told their story, some coming back year after year praising the work of the American Cancer Society and others coming back to say somewhere in the middle of the months that passed from last year to this, they were diagnosed with cancer. The words spoken were touching and inspirational. People rallied to the cause and left pledging to create teams to walk on October 19th in Central Park.
I was there not because of the reasons that others were but because I decided one day like any other day that the character in my story would have breast cancer, that she would be a young woman, wife and mother who struggles with the loss of hope.
The slogan for Making Strides is: Hope starts with Us. Come join me and thousands of other folk on October 19th in Central Park. I’ll be there with Belly of the Whale, helping to pass on the message of hope and survival. Fight-the-fight.
Blog what you see, think, feel and hear…
Linda Merlino
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Fall is nearing!
I know it's been a while since I blogged, but I decided to take a break this summer from a lot of writing related activities. Now that fall is approaching, it's time to buckle down and get back to work!I'm currently a feautured author on a fantastic site called BestSelfPublished.com. They've interviewed me and this is one interview you'll want to check out! They had some totally different questions than I've ever been asked and it was so much fun! The link to my interview is: http://bestselfpublished.com/Interviews/Komm.htm. Be sure to check it out!
I'm still urging people to check out StoryCasting.com. Visitors are able to find their favorite books and "cast" celebrities to play the characters in those books! How cool is that? Be sure to check out www.storycasting.com and cast your choices for Sacrifice today!
So this will come as exciting news for those of you who don't know, but my family is expecting a new arrival next year! Yes, I'm currently pregnant with baby number dos and due in late February. My goal is to have Survival written and ready for edit before the baby comes to prevent major delays in its release. Keep your fingers crossed!
Also, my next signing is at South Point Chapters on September 13th, 2008 from 12-4pm. Come and say hi!
I'm still urging people to check out StoryCasting.com. Visitors are able to find their favorite books and "cast" celebrities to play the characters in those books! How cool is that? Be sure to check out www.storycasting.com and cast your choices for Sacrifice today!
So this will come as exciting news for those of you who don't know, but my family is expecting a new arrival next year! Yes, I'm currently pregnant with baby number dos and due in late February. My goal is to have Survival written and ready for edit before the baby comes to prevent major delays in its release. Keep your fingers crossed!
Also, my next signing is at South Point Chapters on September 13th, 2008 from 12-4pm. Come and say hi!
In the News: Self-Publishing success stories
Big Houses Benefit from Savvy Self-Publishers by Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly
Every so often a self-publishing Cinderella story makes headlines. In 2003 it was a home-schooled 20-year-old, Christopher Paolini, who sold his first novel about a dragon to Knopf, and in 2006 Kathleen McGowan got a seven-figure deal from S&S for her Da Vinci Code–esque Mary Magdalene series. And in the coming months, look for more self-publishing success stories, as the big houses get behind several writers who took the DIY route. So, are publishers becoming more open to self-published authors, or are self-published authors becoming savvier publishers?
This month, two originally self-published titles are making headlines. The Shack—William P. Young's feel-good Christian novel that sold more than a million copies before Hachette signed on to copublish it—debuted in its trade edition at No. 1 on the New York Times list on June 8. And, at the end of the month, Morrow will look for similar numbers for The Lace Reader; the imprint paid author Brunonia Barry more than $2 million in a two-book deal and printed 200,000 copies of her debut.
Ben Sevier, a senior editor at Dutton, has noticed that more self-published books are gaining traction. Sevier, who said he's “always looked skeptically on [self-published] submissions,” is singing a different tune these days. Right before BEA, he preempted a self-published techno-thriller called Daemon by a software consultant using the pen name Leinad Zeraus. Sevier signed Zeraus, aka Daniel Suarez, to a two-book deal for what's rumored to be a hefty sum. Sevier, who was immediately taken with the manuscript—he said it “took me two chapters to think I was reading the best high-tech thriller writer since Michael Crichton”—said the experience has been eye-opening: “It proves that great books are slipping through the cracks.”
Great manuscripts aside, Suarez and Barry had more going for them than strong prose. Both had managed to sell more than 1,000 copies on their own; Suarez also got press in Wired and blurbs from Sillicon Alley heavies like Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist) and Stewart Brand (creator of The Whole Earth Catalog).
Clare Ferraro at Viking signed neuroscientist and stroke survivor Jill Bolte Taylor, who became an Internet sensation after a snippet of a talk she gave at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference went viral. Taylor had sold nearly 8,000 copies of her clinical survival memoir, which she self-published through Lulu. My Stroke of Insight—which Viking crashed for a May release to coincide with Taylor's Oprah spot—was, Ferraro said, driven by the author's platform more than anything else. “If Jill hadn't had a book, I would have been no less interested in her.”
Agent David Fugate, of LaunchBooks in San Diego, inked a deal for retired professor Dennis Fried largely on the author's impressive self-publishing record. Although Fugate said he found Fried's Memoirs of a Papillon immediately touching and amusing—the book is purportedly the memoir of the author's pooch, Genevieve—he thinks it was the fact that the book had sold 20,000 copies that spurred Simon Spotlight Entertainment to acquire it. The book, due out in hardcover in 2009 as When I Want Your Opinion I'll Bark, benefited from what Fugate calls the “more democratic process” of publishing that exists today. Fugate explained that, with promotion being easier because of the Internet and printing more manageable because of online vanity presses and POD houses, an author can now “prove [his] worth.”
Nonetheless, Fugate warns it isn't easy. He estimates that most editors don't want to hear about a self-published title unless its sales are significant. “Three thousand to 4,000 seems to be the point at which they start to think, okay, this is something valuable.”
Reprinted with permission from Jerry D. Simmons' newsletter TIPS for WRITERS. See: www.WritersReaders.com.
Ben Sevier, a senior editor at Dutton, has noticed that more self-published books are gaining traction. Sevier, who said he's “always looked skeptically on [self-published] submissions,” is singing a different tune these days. Right before BEA, he preempted a self-published techno-thriller called Daemon by a software consultant using the pen name Leinad Zeraus. Sevier signed Zeraus, aka Daniel Suarez, to a two-book deal for what's rumored to be a hefty sum. Sevier, who was immediately taken with the manuscript—he said it “took me two chapters to think I was reading the best high-tech thriller writer since Michael Crichton”—said the experience has been eye-opening: “It proves that great books are slipping through the cracks.”
Great manuscripts aside, Suarez and Barry had more going for them than strong prose. Both had managed to sell more than 1,000 copies on their own; Suarez also got press in Wired and blurbs from Sillicon Alley heavies like Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist) and Stewart Brand (creator of The Whole Earth Catalog).
Clare Ferraro at Viking signed neuroscientist and stroke survivor Jill Bolte Taylor, who became an Internet sensation after a snippet of a talk she gave at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference went viral. Taylor had sold nearly 8,000 copies of her clinical survival memoir, which she self-published through Lulu. My Stroke of Insight—which Viking crashed for a May release to coincide with Taylor's Oprah spot—was, Ferraro said, driven by the author's platform more than anything else. “If Jill hadn't had a book, I would have been no less interested in her.”
Agent David Fugate, of LaunchBooks in San Diego, inked a deal for retired professor Dennis Fried largely on the author's impressive self-publishing record. Although Fugate said he found Fried's Memoirs of a Papillon immediately touching and amusing—the book is purportedly the memoir of the author's pooch, Genevieve—he thinks it was the fact that the book had sold 20,000 copies that spurred Simon Spotlight Entertainment to acquire it. The book, due out in hardcover in 2009 as When I Want Your Opinion I'll Bark, benefited from what Fugate calls the “more democratic process” of publishing that exists today. Fugate explained that, with promotion being easier because of the Internet and printing more manageable because of online vanity presses and POD houses, an author can now “prove [his] worth.”
Nonetheless, Fugate warns it isn't easy. He estimates that most editors don't want to hear about a self-published title unless its sales are significant. “Three thousand to 4,000 seems to be the point at which they start to think, okay, this is something valuable.”
Reprinted with permission from Jerry D. Simmons' newsletter TIPS for WRITERS. See: www.WritersReaders.com.
~Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author of Whale Song
Monday, August 25, 2008
A little back-to-school blues
THE THINGS SHE CARRIED
24 ct. Crayons
4 oz. Elmer's Glue
24 # 2 USA wood pencils
2 120 ct. Kleenex tissue
12 assorted pocket folders
3 120 ct. 3-subject spiral composition books
3 12x18 solid sulphite construction paper
1 12x18 50 ct. manila paper
3 washable Crayola Thin Classic markers
1 blunt 5" Fiskar scissors
1 package antibacterial towelettes
1 7" 12 ct. Crayola colored pencils
1 4x6 100 ct. plain index cards
1 vinyl pencil bag
1 peanut butter and jelly sandwich
15 green grapes
2 Fig Newtons
5 carrot sticks
1 juice cup
1 giant leap of kindergarten faith
...and a piece of her momma's heart.
-
Peace,
kh
Friday, August 22, 2008
Whale Song - "5 plus stars, amazing read"
"5 plus stars, amazing read...Just go read the book and you'll find out how amazing it is! It's completely heart wrenching...the whole book is just amazing. I seriously never wanted to put it down. Cheryl's use of words is amazing, like when she's talking about the killer whales or describing scenery. They just flow so easily across every page. My heart strings were being pulled the entire time and I absolutely loved it...I seriously recommend getting yourself a copy. You seriously won't be disappointed."
--Breanna, a reviewer for teensreadtoo. com
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