Chewing the Fat with Bettye

2012-01-24T11:08:00.000-06:00

January 24, 2012

Presenting the book trailer for Isn't She Lovely?

Enjoy!

2012-01-21T11:22:00.002-06:00

January 21, 2012

Sometimes I just sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits

What I'm thinking about--besides polishing my manuscript--is how to set up an old standard, my Movie Trivia contest. I haven't done this in recent years as I've made my conversion from traditionally published to indie published author. With my latest eBook, Isn't She Lovely?, coming out in February, the same month as the Oscars are held, the timing is right.

I have high hopes for this eBook (as I do about every new project I do), but since it's an eBook and there's no postage involved, I'd like to give away more than one. I'm thinking maybe a grand prize of my five eBook titles (including Isn't She Lovely?) and four gradually lesser prizes, all consisting of eBooks (four titles, three titles, two titles, and one title, respectively) to those who place, with more prizes added if the participation warrants.

Then the length of the contest has to be determined. I'm thinking one question per day from February 1st through 15th, with the winners announced on the 16th, before I leave for vacation (this should be close to publication day, if all goes according to schedule).

Back to my thinking...

2012-01-13T09:43:00.000-06:00

January 13, 2012

First Look: Isn't She Lovely?

Let me say this. I get soooo excited in the period leading up to release of a new book, like a kid on the last day of school before summer vacation. For one, there's that undeniable sense of accomplishment. There's also the joy of crossing off yet another To Be Written on the rather long list of books I want to do before my time is up.

Since I've been indie publishing, the excitement of seeing a new cover has often spurred me to put the pedal to the metal and get the thing finished (I often write my final scenes and polish with a printed color picture of the cover propped up nearby for incentive).

When it came to my upcoming eBook, Isn't She Lovely?, I told my cover designer, author Sean D. Young, that I wanted the picture of my heroine to be the most prominent, since she's the "She" of the title. I also wanted the hero's picture to be prominent (I chose individual pictures rather than one photo of them together because I could find no pictures of couples that matched the appearance of both characters), with a smaller picture of a damaged front bumper, as a car accident plays a significant role in the story).

Here is what she came up with:

I was thrilled; it was perfect.

A little about the book: Isn't She Lovely? is my first mainstream romance. It's a romance at heart about two single parents (he is widowed, she is a divorceé), but there are enough other things going on, including the hero and heroine's difficult relationships with other people (in his case a foundering one with a feminine companion, in her case a strained one with her former husband, who is the father of her children), that make it a little different from a standard contemporary romance, even a single title...for as any romance reader knows that romantic and/or sexual involvement with other people is a no-no in the genre.

The hero of the story is the attorney general of Illinois who is in the midst of a gubernatorial campaign. I deliberately timed this story to come out in a Presidential election year, when so many of us are absorbed in politics, to make it especially relevant.

The complexity of their lives makes for richly drawn characters, which I love to create and expand upon...just yesterday I decided that I need to add a dog to the story, since most city children who move from an apartment into a house want a puppy. I do want to caution readers that this is not a story of instant romance between the hero and heroine, or even instant attraction; they meet under circumstances that would make this both unbelievable and a rather unfulfilling reading experience. I have written sexy stories before (The Heat of Heat comes to mind), but since I'm indie publishing I'm not restricted to writing only one type of story. Still, I hate to think I might disappoint readers, so I can't say this loudly enough: Readers who want the hero and heroine to engage in sexual activity shortly after they meet will most likely want to skip this eBook. As with my most recent eBook, A Kiss of A Different Color, the relationship develops gradually. Most readers who reviewed A Kiss of A Different Color appreciated that, and once you read the excerpt of Isn't She Lovely?, you'll see why a rush to sleep together won't work.

The excerpt can be read at the Bunderful Books website. Read it, and enjoy!

It's impossible for me to predict an exact publication date...it depends on my editor's schedule, and she has a life outside of editing my books! But I'm striving for sometime next month, February. Valentine's Day would be nice...

2012-01-10T19:41:00.000-06:00

January 10, 2012

View from the Bottom

Three days ago GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney used a poor choice of words when talking about people's right to change service providers when they are unhappy with the service, in this case insurance.

Those words, of course, were, "I like to fire people..." The news has been on this like a rat in a garbage dump ever since, as have Romney's competitors. Rick Perry even created a ringtone of Romney saying over and over, "I like to fire people. I like to fire people. I like to fire people." I have to admit that I found that amusing.

But enough already. I'm tired of all this righteous indignation over remarks that were largely taken out of context, expressed in an unfortunate manner. Romney stepped in it. So what.

In contrast, Newt Gingrich stated last week that "If the NAACP invites me, I'll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." Likewise, Rick Santorum stated, "I do not want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money, I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money." Then he denied that he used the word "black" when it was clearly spoken on the audiotape.

The fact that Romney's remarks got so much attention when blatantly racist remarks by Gingrich and Santorum largely go unchecked sends a distinct message about where the priorities lie...and it ain't pretty.

2012-01-03T00:46:00.001-06:00

January 3, 2012

It's good to be alive and (almost) 55

Ah, 2012. It still sounds weird to my ears, in that way new years always do until I get used to them.

Looking back on 2011, in terms of accomplishment, it was definitely one of my better years. I changed my eating habits and dropped enough weight to fit into single-digit-size jeans...and I'm keeping it off. I finally got a good portion of my garage cleaned out, courtesy of warmer-than-usual temperatures through year's end. I started an exercise routine. And I bit the bullet (or, perhaps more appropriately, swallowed the prep) and underwent that colonoscopy I've been putting off for nine years.

On the writing front, I found a writer's software package that I simply adore (Scrivener for Windows). I finally completed and ePublished a storyline that first formed in my head back in 2006, when I saw a report on NBC News about the bounty of jobs in North Dakota while unemployment elsewhere soared. That gave me the basic plotline for an interracial romance, but a basic plotline does not make a book. It didn't all come together until about a year ago, shortly after I'd published The Heat of Heat and was trying to decide which project to work on next.

Now on to 2012. God willing, I'll celebrate my 55th birthday in six months (usually smack dab in the middle of the year, but this being a Leap Year, the first day of the second half of the year). I'm looking forward to shopping during special senior days and picking up that extra 10% to 15%, and ordering off the 55+ menu in restaurants!

Not only is A Kiss of A Different Color completed and selling briskly (with low-key promotion that didn't involve making a pest of myself on Facebook), to mostly favorable reviews (the first review I received was just 1-star, followed by mostly 4's and 5's), but less than three months later I am now completing a new eBook, which I may have up for sale as early as by the end of this month (you can read an excerpt of Isn't She Lovely? here). From there it is on to a mainstream project I'm very excited about, which will be my first project done entirely with the Scrivener software. My goal is to have it done by the fall.

Will I make it? I don't know. But I'm sure going to give it my all!

Wishing you all the best in 2012! What do you hope to accomplish this year?

2011-12-26T09:48:00.000-06:00

December 26, 2011

Indie Publishing: Four Authors Dish

I recently had the idea of hosting a virtual roundtable among authors who have dabbled in indie publishing to share their experiences and thoughts. I invited three of my author friends. As is not unusual among writers but might seem odd in other professions, I have not actually met any of these women in person, but we have either corresponded or chatted online over the years. All three ladies accepted, and I want to take this opportunity to thank them.

Here’s our conversation. I hope you enjoy it! Please forgive the formatting glitches, font changes, highlighting...this is what happens when you try to piece together information from different sources into one document. This would be unacceptable in an eBook, of course, but this column is 100% free!

Feel free to ask us questions, either individually or collectively, or contribute your own opinions.

At the virtual roundtable:

Angela Benson
Chicki Brown
Shelia Goss
Bettye Griffin

I listed everyone alphabetically, and I must say that this is the first time in my life that I, with a pen name that starts with the letter “G,” am listed last! As an aside, the fact that the participating authors' last names are either B or G (my own initials) is purely coincidental...

Authors, let’s start by having you introduce yourselves to everyone who’s reading this:

ANGELA: I'm Angela Benson. I've written 12 novels, two novellas and a nonfiction writing book for six different publishers. My first book, Bands of Gold, was published by Kensington in 1994 as part of their Arabesque line of African-American romances. My thirteenth book, Delilah's Daughters, will be published by Avon sometime in 2012 if I make my January due date. (That's a big ‘if.’) I've been fortunate to receive several industry awards in my career, including awards from Romantic Times Magazine, Affaire de Coeur Magazine and the Romance Slam Jam. I recently indie published five of my backlist fiction titles, three contemporary romances and two Christian romances, as well as my nonfiction writing book

SHELIA: Hi, I'm Shelia Goss. I write in multiple genres: romance, women's fiction, suspense, Christian fiction and young adult. I have over thirteen books published, and I'm currently indie publishing my romance stories.

BETTYE: My name is Bettye Griffin, and I’m a compulsive writer, LOL. I write women’s fiction and contemporary romance. I had six mainstream novels and ten romances traditionally published, plus I’ve independently published three more romances to date (2011). I am strictly indie publishing now, with my titles available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and the Sony eBookstore. I have never won a single award, have been dropped by two publishers, and have never been able to legitimately claim bestselling author status, but regardless of these factors I'm doing reasonably well.

CHICKI: My name is Chicki Brown. I write multicultural romance and women’s fiction and have been self-published for eighteen months. My latest release, I Can’t Get Next to You, a faith-based romance, is available on Kindle and Nook.

I won Grand Prize in the Black Expressions Book Club Fiction Contest in 2004 and 2011 Fiction Book of the Year and New Author of the Year from Shades of Romance Magazine.

QUESTION: Why did you make the decision to indie publish?

SHELIA: Before I got with a traditional publisher, I started off as an indie publisher. Last year, after visiting J.A. Konrath's blog on a regular basis, I decided to publish my unpublished romance stories as eBooks independently to test the waters.

ANGELA: I'm only publishing backlist. I did it because I had the rights to the books and I wasn't doing anything else with them. Also, because of some health issues, I haven't published any new work in the last two years. Bringing back some of my old titles was a way to keep my name and work in front of readers.

BETTYE: I think it’s important for established writers to stay active in terms of output. My own production is nothing to write home about, but I can say that I’ve been actively publishing since my first book came out at the end of 1998.

CHICKI: I guess you could say I made the decision to self-publish when I just got sick and tired of the traditional submission process. I’d been writing for almost ten years before I published in June 2010. After signing with two well-known agents and still not being able to get a contract, I chose to try my hand at the new option author Joe (J.A.) Konrath was raving about on his blog at the time–electronic publishing directly to Kindle. Nook wasn’t in existence until several months later. Looking back, I can say without hesitation this was the best decision I’ve ever made.

BETTYE: I started self-publishing when I couldn’t sell what I felt was a charming contemporary romance that I called Save The Best For Last (the problem, I suspect, was that readers were demanding that sex occur earlier and earlier in books, and this particular story called for it to happen in the latter part of the book). I felt the story deserved to be read, so I published it in June of 2009, initially as print on demand (POD), and soon after that for Kindle. At that time I already had the rights back to my first two Arabesque novels, which I planned to reissue (I’ve since done one of them). In the 2-1/2 years since, I was dropped by the house who was publishing my women’s fiction titles (the second time that happened to me in my career). A writer with less confidence might have gone away quietly, but I’ve never had any doubts about my abilities. I kept writing and now publish exclusively through my own imprint, Bunderful Books.

QUESTION: Angela and Shelia, both of you still traditionally publish. Have you encountered any flak from your publishers for doing your own thing?

ANGELA: I haven't had any discussion with my publisher about it. I think they'd appreciate me doing something to keep in touch with readers who like my books.

SHELIA: No one has talked to me directly. I've heard that some don't like you doing things independently, but a person has to eat. Since there's no contract violation, I don't see why it should be a problem.

BETTYE: It seems to me that if readers discover new writers whose work they enjoy, they are highly likely to look at their other books, so it sounds like a win-win all around to me. But I do wonder if having indie published makes a writer persona non grata. In my own experience, an editor at a major New York house who demonstrated an eagerness to see a project I queried her about was never heard from again and did not respond to requests from neither myself nor my agent, and I wonder if my having gone the indie route had anything to do with that cold shoulder. At any rate, it soured me on the idea of trying to get back into trad publishing.

QUESTION: Chicki, your situation is unique among the four of us in that you were previously unpublished and did not have an established audience. Yet you had success with your very first eBook. I’m sure there are aspiring writers who’d love to know how you did it, so do you have anything you want to share?

CHICKI: First of all, let me make one thing clear. I am not selling huge numbers of books like Amanda Hocking or some of the other Kindle millionaires, but as an unknown without an established audience, I am thrilled to have developed a faithful following in less than two years. I attribute this to having spent two years studying the changes that were taking place in the industry. Reading the blogs/sites of those authors paving the way in this arena taught me the details of the process e-publishing process. Joe Konrath’s Newbie’s Guide to Publishing became my bible.

My advice to aspiring e-book authors is to learn everything about e-pubbing before you even consider putting a book out there. Now there are scads of great, informative sites out there which offer free education. The amount of information you need to know about formatting, cover art, differences between e-tailers, and marketing can be overwhelming. It’s not something you can learn in 30 days.

I’m glad I created a website and blog three years before I published. It was a place for me to share my thoughts and also helped me to develop a following.

BETTYE: Yes, I do believe that previously unpublished writers should have a strong web presence; it will help with their sales. And, just as there are eight million stories in the Naked City, there are varying degrees of success.

QUESTION: What are the things you like and hate the most about indie publishing?

ANGELA: I like having control over my work—everything from content to pricing—but it’s more work than I imagined. I hate the work involved in having control over my work. To sum it up, I have a love/hate relationship with indie publishing.

Reading and enjoying my old books has been an unexpected reward of indie publishing. I had a really bad experience with the publication of my second book and since that book I've never read any of books after they're in print. So reading Friend and Lover, The Nicest Guy in America, The Way Home, Awakening Mercy and Abiding Hope was pretty emotional for me. I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with the characters all over again. It was as though I was meeting with old friends after being separated for a long time. I know that must sound weird, but it's how I felt. It was especially gratifying to read the romances I'd written before I transitioned to writing Christian fiction. I was able to experience a little of the life journey that I was on at that time. I was able to see how my writing has changed over time in some ways, but how many of the elements in the stories I write today were present in my early works. Overall, getting those backlist titles ready for re-publishing was a very insightful experience.

BETTYE: I know what you mean, Angela, in terms of falling in love with stories you’d written ages ago. I had the same fond feeling come over me when I was preparing the document for my second book, A Love of Her Own, which remains one of the most poignant love stories I’ve ever written.

SHELIA: I'm in control of all aspects of the book (cover, content, publication date). I get 100% of the profits and get a true sense of how my books are selling. I also sometimes write outside of a normal genre, but there's still an audience out there for those books so as an indie publisher I can publish those books that don't fit the "norm."

CHICKI: I absolutely love the freedom to write what I want without having to follow the traditional rules. To give you an example of what I mean, when I first began submitting the manuscript for Have You Seen Her? I received several rejection letters from major romance publishers saying they couldn’t publish it because my character was involved with another man at the beginning of the book. What?? The story is about a woman that makes the decision to escape from an abusive marriage. The whole point of the story is that she’s bound to a hateful, violent man. Even though she doesn’t realize it at first, her heart is longing for true love, and she meets a man who offers her everything her heart has been longing for. I don’t want to give away the entire plot, but if that’s not a romance, what is?

Now I can write the stories in my head without fear that they might not fit the so-called rules.

What I dislike the most about being an indie author is the amount of time I have to spend marketing. Writing is creative, and it feeds my soul. Marketing is logical, and it drains me, but I realize it’s a necessary part of being a published author. What I need is to find a healthy, productive balance between the two tasks.

ANGELA: Chicki, I have to agree with you about the marketing and promotion. I’d much rather spend the time writing. I’m not comfortable asking people to buy my books. I’m trying to be active on twitter and facebook, but they don’t feel natural to me. I’m much more comfortable blogging, so I’m trying to integrate that with twitter and facebook. I’ve also started a mailing list to keep in touch with readers who like my work. Wish me luck!

CHICKI: I'm just the opposite, Angela! LOL! I struggle when it comes to blogging and trying to come up with something fresh to write about. I really don't enjoy any of the promotion chores, except Facebook and Twitter, which have become my addictions. What I absolutely love about Twitter is how easy it is to get a "tribe" of people who will faithfully retweet for you. I need all the help I can get. The secret to Twitter is give and take. Follow other authors and retweet their messages a couple of times a week. Facebook is slower, but reaches a different audience. Hang in there, once you meet folks you enjoy chatting with, you just might end up in a Twitter 12-step program with me.

BETTYE: I also love the freedom to write what I want without restrictions. My upcoming eBook, Isn’t She Lovely? (which will be my 20th title!), features a hero who is involved with another woman at the start of the book and a heroine who is still involved with her ex-husband (although this is alluded to rather than shown) when he visits town. Both involvements stem from loneliness and vulnerability on the part of the hero and heroine, and I feel it’s important to include because this is how real people behave. I will never write a romance where either party goes without companionship for years because they only had one true love; this is simply not believable human behavior to me. I also love being able to check and track my sales numbers and getting paid within 60 days after the close of the month.

In terms of dislikes, I’ve always done my own promotion, so that’s no big deal. I initially had a hard time with formatting, but I now use the same template for all my eBooks. The Nook’s requirement for section breaks rather than page breaks can be a painstaking process, though, but I take the time to do it because it makes my product look better if there are clearly defined breaks between chapters.

QUESTION: Any predictions for the future of indie publishing?

ANGELA: I'm still figuring out the present so I haven't thought much about the future. That said, I do believe the eBook revolution really is a revolution. Anybody who wants to be a writer can see their work published. People can accomplish different goals with their writing. No longer does your book have to meet some publisher's sales goals; all you have to meet are your own goals. That's very liberating. I see more young people publishing. I see more older people who thought their time had passed publishing. And I really believe there is an audience out there for all of us. Finding them will be a chore, but I believe we're up to the task.

SHELIA: I think we will see more and more authors go the indie route. Writers now have more options than what we had, say, about ten years ago.

CHICKI: The publishing industry is changing so rapidly it makes my head spin. I honestly don’t know what the future will bring, but I do know this is the first time in modern history where authors are in charge and not editors and agents.

With so many changes and options available to today’s scribes, I believe it will become increasingly more important for the creators to be knowledgeable about their legal rights. For example, just recently Amazon introduced a new option, which has many authors questioning the value of such a radical idea as far as their literary and financial goals are concerned. Beyond that, I’ll leave the predictions to the “e-prophets.”

BETTYE: I wouldn’t warrant a guess, because I didn’t even see the current conditions coming. I just hope the freedom and ease of indie publishing is a lasting thing and not just a fad.

QUESTION: I suspect many of us will say the same things, but what tips would you give to those considering indie publishing, whether new writers or those who formerly wrote for trad publishers?

ANGELA: 1) Indie publishing is not a "get rich quick" scheme. It requires hard work, dedication and perseverance.

2) Cross-promoting with other authors is effective and can save you a lot of money.

3) I paid to scan and format my backlist titles, but I think authors can do this for themselves if they have the time. It's not hard but it is time-consuming. I don't recommend doing your covers yourself, though. If you're going to spend money, spend it on covers first.

BETTYE: I just tried the scan thing myself. I did find the original manuscript for A Love of Her Own on a 3.5 disk (remember those?) and managed to get that old 3.1 version of Word read in my current version of Word (thank heavens I saved my external 3.5 drive!). Aside from grammar corrections here and there, the editor at Arabesque changed just two words in that entire manuscript, so I felt pretty comfortable reading over my original draft and making improvements here and there. My other books required more changes, so I decided to have other titles scanned so I can work from the actual published book rather than from my manuscript. They did a good job, but it isn't 100%, so the manuscript will require a thorough going-over before I ask the public to shell out their hard-earned dollars on it!

SHELIA: 1) For those who wrote for trad publishers: Don't knock it unless you've tried it. As long as it's not violating any of your current contracts, I would encourage writers to test the waters.

2) For new writers: If you go the Indie route, realize that this is a business. Only go the indie route if you're prepared to be the CEO, CFO, Bill Collector, etc. :-)

BETTYE: Shelia, there are quite a few veteran writers out there currently without contracts, and I can tell you firsthand that it’s no picnic being dropped. But no one can stop a true writer from writing. I like to think that inactive, previously published authors aren't knocking indie publishing but rather prefer to have the support of a publisher. There can be a number of reasons for this: The ability to say they have a publisher, for one. So many people are putting out less-than-quality books, and even established authors have published backlist titles riddled with errors--probably using their original manuscripts rather than the edited versions--and the number of poor quality books creates a stigma that all indie published titles are bargain-bin crap. I do believe that a well-produced eBook will eliminate this, at least on an individual basis. Also, a lack of confidence, a need for validation, and what I suspect is probably the #1 reason, an unwillingness to take on the definitely daunting role of indie publisher. It can be bad and hideously ugly, but also very rewarding.

CHICKI: 1) Don’t put the very first book you’ve written up for sale. Put it away and begin working on book #2 while you’re learning the craft and the business. You will be amazed at how much your writing will have improved from that first book. Have You Seen Her? was the first book I published, but it was the fifth one I’d written.

2) Join a local or online critique group, so you’ll have other eyes looking at your work. We all think our writing is golden, but when you get impartial opinions on your work, you start to see what needs to be improved. There are loads of online critique groups. Just be sure to find out how critiquing is handled before you join.

3) Once you have a completed, critiqued project ready, have it professionally edited. I didn’t have the money to do this with my first three books, and believe me, I heard from readers about typos (even though the manuscripts had been read by five other people) Once the royalties started coming in, I was able to hire an editor for books four and five.

4) Figure out how and where you will market your book before it’s published. The average e-book author spends several hours every day marketing and promoting their work. Do you know how the world will even know your book is among the one million+ books on Kindle? A young aspiring author said to me recently that she planned to have her marketing done by Kindle. She had no clue that there is no such animal. Getting your book on book blogs, reader forums, e-book sites, social networks, etc. is the author’s responsibility, and it’s not an easy task. There are posting rules, and if they’re not followed, you will be banned from these sites.

BETTYE: Excellent advice, all. I did want to point out, even though I know Chicki is already doing this, that new and improved eBook files can always be uploaded as errors are identified, so new readers won’t see them. I’m always changing the excerpts in my titles to reflect new or coming soon eBooks, or just books I’d like to give a push to.

I discuss my experiences in indie publishing in more detail in my blog column of this past fall, Clawing My Way to the Middle: Lessons in Independent Publishing.

QUESTION: If you want to give a shout-out to anyone who helps you present the most polished product possible, here’s your chance! Aspiring indie authors are always looking for reputable cover designers, editors, formatters, etc.

BETTYE: My covers are designed by Sean Young of Young Creations. Kimberly Rowe-Van Allen (be sure to get rid of the underlines in the linked email address, which I had to add to deter spammers) does my edits. I hope to have an interview with her up on the blog soon. I do my own formatting, but I recently used Blue Leaf Book Scanning to scan print versions of my books. This allows me to work with my books as they went to press and revise from there rather than from my original manuscript.

CHICKI: I also do my own formatting, but I have to give props to Kimberly Matthews-Hooker, who created the cover for my upcoming release and to T.J. Walp for her excellent editing.

ANGELA: Cheri Paris Edwards of Purely Paris does my covers. I've used Nina Paules at eBook Prep and Pam Headrick at A Thirsty Mind for formatting. Both are great.

SHELIA: I do my own ebook covers and format my manuscripts for the different ebook distribution sites. I would love to know about someone who formats for print, though, because some of my clients ask me and I don't know who to refer them to.

BETTYE: Shelia, formatting for print is pretty easy. There’s information out on the Net to guide you through this, telling people what margins to use, how to set the printer offset for binding, etc. I'd suggest the support boards at Create Space (I think a no-obligation registration is required for access). I did my own before I moved exclusively into eBooks. Thank heaven for the Internet; I also found instructions on how to take a manuscript written with the ancient Word 3.1 and open it with Word 2007.

QUESTION: Tell everyone not only about your new or upcoming projects, but why you decided to do that particular story, where the idea came from, etc. When is the scheduled or anticipated available sale date, and is it indie or trad?

ANGELA: My new project is my indie published backlist title, Telling Your Tale: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Fiction for Print and eBook. It’s only available for the Kindle for now. This book was originally published by Berkley Books as Telling the Tale: The African-American Fiction Writer's Guide. I've updated it since the original publication to reflect the eBook revolution and to broaden its appeal but the content is essentially the same.

Telling Your Tale is for the person who really wants to write a good book. It's not a marketing book; it's a writing book with exercises and activities that help the reader hone their writing skills. I'm also publishing a companion workbook with all the exercises and worksheets downloaded in a Word document.

CHICKI: My January 2, 2012 Kindle/Nook release is an interracial, inspirational women’s fiction. Isn’t that a mouthful? The title is Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing (love those old school R&B song titles). It’s the story of a happily married couple who faces the ultimate betrayal in their marriage.

The Real Thing is the second book I ever wrote, and needless to say it took some major rewriting to get it into publishable condition. I decided to finally publish it, because this was the sequel to my first manuscript, which was a “book of my heart.”

BETTYE: Chicki, I admire you for giving a publication date ahead of time. I so wish that Amazon would allow indie writers to make our work available for preorder. I don’t see the big deal if we download a file (so they know the book is finished, which I see as the major obstacle to offering this) and give an on-sale date at least three weeks in the future. Personally, I’d be willing to postpone my on-sale date to build some interest and get preorders. By the way, I like R&B titles, too. I have a great one for my mainstream to be published later in 2012, but I’m not ready to reveal it yet...not even a hint, LOL.

My next project, Isn’t She Lovely? is a politically themed (appropriate for an election year) mainstream romance that is sure to tug at your heartstrings. The eight-year-old son of a struggling divorced mother is hit by a car driven by the troubled fifteen-year-old son of the Illinois Attorney General, who is running for governor. The lives of the divorcee and the widower begin to intertwine as their children forge a friendship, and both learn that there is much more to the other than what they originally believed. This is the most emotional story I’ve written. I expect it will be available around late January or early February of the new year. An excerpt is posted at my Bunderful Books website (Bunderful Books...because good writing is always in fashion).

SHELIA: UnAuthorized is a suspense novel I collaborated on it with another author, John A Wooden. I've always wanted to challenge myself and write a novel with another writer. The story idea originally started with my web series. John liked my storyline and we decided to create a full length novel based on my original concept. As one of the reviewers said, "UnAuthorized is an engaging read and a great ‘whodunit’ tale of love, deceit and murder." I like to write what I like to read. The book is indie and is currently available for Kindle, Nook and other ebook reading devices for $2.99. I'm excited about 2012 because I plan on writing more suspense novels.

BETTYE: You did a fabulous job with that cover, Shelia! I do think that indie writers have the best chance of success with suspense, thriller, and interracial romances.

ANGELA: Bettye, another author friend talks about the large audience for interracial romance e-books. The response to her interracial romance was great, but it didn’t seem to spill over to her other books. She’s now writing another interracial romance.

BETTYE: I was disappointed initially to see that I had no spillover, either. Even now, two months after I published A Kiss of a Different Color (which was selling before I even announced to the world that it was available for sale), only The Heat of Heat (a sexy story but not an interracial one) is listed on the "Customers who purchased this item also purchased..." list. Most of the titles on that list are other interracial titles. But while I'm enjoying AKOADC's success, I'm not going to make a career out of writing strictly interracial romances because of the earnings potential. I have no plans at the moment to even write another one. Personally, I can't imagine being that limited in either my reading or my writing. And while I like money as much as the next person, but for me it's not about the money, it's not about my ego (obviously, LOL), it's just about the story. Writing purely to make money takes the joy out of it, and if there's no joy, there's no point. But that's just me.

QUESTION: How do readers keep up with you?

ANGELA: The best place to start is my web page. I'm also on Facebook (angelabenson or angelabensonbooks) and twitter (eAngelaBenson).

CHICKI: I have a website and a blog. Twitter: http://twitter.com/@Chicki663. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chicki.brown.

BETTYE: Through this blog, my author website, my publisher website, and my personal and Bunderful Books Facebook pages.

SHELIA: Readers can find out more about me at www.sheliagoss.com. I'm also on Facebook and Twitter. Both can be accessed via my website.

BETTYE: Thanks, everybody, for your participation! I wish all of you a happy, healthy, prosperous, and productive 2012!

2011-12-19T07:52:00.000-06:00

December 19, 2011

It's not copycatting; it's imagination at work

About two weeks ago I watched a charming made for TV movie on the Hallmark Channel called Debbie Macomber's Trading Christmas. (Have you noticed the trend of including the author's name in movie titles lately, which makes any title longer than two words an unwieldy mouthful, i.e., Ann Rule's Everything She Ever Wanted, Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married, etc.? But I digress...)

The movie was about a woman in her 40s who lives in the Pacific Northwest impulsively arranging to surprise her daughter, a college student in Boston by flying to spend Christmas with her. The daughter had made plans with her boyfriend and didn't tell her mother about it until the last minute, when it was too late to change plans, because her mother had arranged to exchange houses with a writer from Boston, a real bah-humbug type of dude for whom Christmas represents nothing more than a chance to finish his latest manuscript.

Well, the mother goes to Boston and promptly accidentally triggers the alarm on the house, prompting a visit from the police as well as the writer's brother. Meanwhile, out in Washington State, the writer is called on by the mother's best friend, who'd been out of town and wasn't aware that her friend had taken off for the East Coast. Sparks fly, and romance ensues for both.

The storyline, obviously based on a book by Debbie Macomber (that title is a dead giveaway), reminded me of the 2006 holiday movie The Holiday that starred Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz as two broken-hearted women on either side of the Atlantic (actually, Cameron's character lived in L.A.) who impulsively agreed to trade houses over Christmas while they tried to heal. This is one of my favorite movies, with wonderful character development that made it run longer than the average romantic comedy. Not only are both stories built around the theme of trading houses over the holidays, but two of the leads are siblings (Ms. Winslet's brother, a sexy book editor who withheld some important facts about himself from his love interest, Ms. Diaz, was played by Jude Law). I found myself wondering if Ms. Macomber had seen this movie and been inspired to write her book.

Then my writer's mind went "Hmm." I recalled that the prolific Debbie Macomber has been putting out a Christmas story every year for as long as I can remember, and it occurred to me that I might have been wrong to assume that she had been inspired by The Holiday when it actually might have been the other way around (or just a coincidence, since great minds do think alike). I did a little research to see which had actually come first, Ms. Macomber's novel or the similarly-themed Hollywood movie.

It turned out that the book upon which this movie was based, When Christmas Comes, was published in 2004. The Holiday wasn't released until two years later. So...my bad.

Just as authors are often inspired by real-life news stories, it's not so unusual for the same basic idea to be developed by two different writers. Some things are to be expected--there are two network dramas being filmed to air in time to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic next spring--while others come out a few years apart but have similarities. I found both of these stories to be highly entertaining, with a hint of similarity but the definite feeling of two different storylines. I own The Holiday on DVD, and I'll be recording Trading Christmas when it airs again...tonight, as a matter of fact.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-11T15:13:00.001-06:00

December 11, 2011

Soundtrack to A Kiss of a Different Color

As I write, I often envision my books as movies unfolding, and while I don't have the skills to compose a score (often the same refrain arranged differently to fit the mood of the particular scene), I do imagine existing music playing in the background. I'd like to share with you some of the music I heard as I wrote certain key scenes from my latest novel, A Kiss of a Different Color: I hope you enjoy them!

In the scene where Jon shows Miranda his family's dance studio and puts on a song they waltz to, this is the song (Cassandra Wilson's cover of the classic standard Polka Dots and Moonbeams):

In the romantic scene where Jon and Miranda kiss in front of the fireplace in the shadow of his mother's Christmas tree, this dreamy original Christmas composition by jazz artist Michael Franks, My Present:

And finally, the movie performance Jon and Miranda adapt for their own performance in the dance school competition, from the movie The Band Wagon, Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse Dancing in the Dark.

2011-12-06T01:14:00.000-06:00

December 6, 2011

What this writer is reading

I've been diligently working on my WIP, Isn't She Lovely? (a poignant story of second chances that is sure to tug at your heartstrings), and not doing a whole lot of reading, but keeping up with my favorite blogs. Naturally, I read J.A. Konrath's blog, an absolute must read for any indie writer. Eventually I will list these on my Blogroll, but haven't had time yet). I thought I'd share some of the columns that caught my attention:

Over at Writer Unboxed, Juliet Marillier explains why NaNoWriMo didn't work for her. It's the same reason it didn't work for me. I'm too vested in quality to just churn out words, and I don't do first and second drafts. Instead, when I (finally) finish, I'm ready to polish and publish.

Also at Writer Unboxed is an interview with romance author Barbara Freethy, one of my she-roes. This established romance author published her considerable backlist with great success, and it sounds as if she is putting out some new material, as well as continuing to publish traditionally.

Ray Rhamey talks about the most efficient way to include dialogue tags in your writing, again at Writer Unboxed (lots of tips to be found on this blog).

I loved Dean Wesley Smith's blog about finally hearing from a publisher he'd queried...two years ago! Check out Dean's Think Like A Publisher series as well; lots of good information there.

Over at Marketing Tips, a site that hasn't been updated in quite some time, Dan McGirt gives valuable tips on marketing your novel the second time around (in eBook form).

Bob Mayer, at his blog Write It Forward, advises uncertain writers on What to Write.

Every Saturday (sometimes Monday), my buddy Patricia Woodside shares writer tidbits at her blog, Readin' and Writin'.

As odd as it sounds, there's much more to being a novelist than simply, well, writing. There's a wealth of information out there to assist us...take advantage of it!

2011-11-27T14:22:00.001-06:00

November 27, 2011

A peek at my next project

I'm happy to say that my new eBook is coming along nicely. My countdown calendar gives me 7 weeks and 20 hours for my desired completion (prior to my editor tearing it up, LOL). This is an unlikely love story I'm tentatively calling Isn't She Lovely? and is shaping up to be the most layered, complex romance I've ever written, really more of a mainstream storyline, since I break several romance rules. One of the many good things about being an independent publisher is that I'm in charge, and there are no rules!

I started writing this story with one man and one woman who had well-defined backgrounds, each struggling to cope with the circumstances of their respective lives, he with the loss of his wife in a fiery car crash he and his son witnessed; she a divorced mother of two trying to make ends meet as she takes baby steps toward getting a college degree. To this I added one inciting incident that made their paths cross, in which his troubled teenage son through reckless behavior causes an injury to her young son. After that, the story pretty much plotted itself...the characters' personalities and those of the people close to them dictated the action.

I happen to think it's an exciting, fast-paced story that readers will be able to identify with (but of course, I'm biased). Today's reader tastes being what they are, though, I'm sure that some will complain that it takes too long for the hero and heroine to burn up the sheets. Given the circumstances of the hero and heroine's initial meeting, bringing sex into the equation too early would turn my project into some silly fairy tale. I mean, what kind of woman would look at the father of the boy who caused her son a grievous injury and want to jump his bones? Can you even imagine anyone behaving in such a manner? This heroine hasn't much use for either the father, whom she feels is a ruthlessly ambitious politician who is sacrificing his troubled son, or his son, whom she feels is being neglected by his surviving parent, but also feels he is more than a little spoiled.

I will probably use a disclaimer in my marketing efforts warning potential readers that this is more of a mainstream romantic novel than a single title romance with instant attraction between the hero and heroine (and trust me, there will still be people who miss it, just as people continue to ask me why they haven't seen my latest books on store shelves).

Yes, I've written books where the air has been thick with sexual tension from the very first meeting of the hero and heroine...in both The Heat of Heat (one of the main character's dress gets caught in a man's zipper while waiting for an elevator) and A Kiss of a Different Color (an unexpected dance dip inadvertently pulls down the neckline of the heroine's blouse, captivating the hero), and even in the tamer Save The Best For Last when the heroine experiences the equivalent of a taste bud orgasm and is embarrassed when the hero reminds her he's there. But I'm all about the individual story rather than writing the same kind of story, and in this story, at least the beginning, this type of action is inappropriate.

What's your opinion? I'd love to know.

2011-11-24T23:06:00.001-06:00

November 24, 2011

Black Friday Sale!

It’s technically still Thursday night here in Wisconsin, but it’s after midnight on the East Coast.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. While you're sitting in your armchair getting those Black Friday bargains on the Internet (or after you get home from duking it out in person), download some good reading courtesy of sale prices of my Bunderful Books eBooks: For today only, four eBook titles are on sale at Smashwords!

eBooks regularly priced from $2.99 to $3.79 are just $1.50 to $2.99.

To order, visit my author page at Smashwords , select your eBooks in the format for your particular device (Kindle, Nook, Sony, etc.) and enter the following codes at checkout to get the sale prices:

A Love of Her Own, normally $2.99, sale price $.99 with code PR77D
Save The Best For Last, normally $3.29, sale price $1.99 with code VC76W
The Heat of Heat, normally $3.49, sale price $1.99 with code ZE72Z
A Kiss of a Different Color, normally $3.79, sale price $2.99 with code QV68Z

Remember...the sale is only for today and only at Smashwords.com. As always, I wish you good reading!

2011-11-17T22:03:00.000-06:00

November 17, 2011

Off to Florida

Going down to see the littlest Underwood, born November 15th. Isn't he precious? This makes two grandchildren for my husband, one granddaughter and one grandson. Grandma Bettye can't be more proud!

2011-11-13T22:15:00.000-06:00

November 13, 2011

Giveaway Winners

Congratulations to the following winners of my eBook Giveaway:

Paula Cadwell
Margaret Faria
Earline Bentley
Cynthia Medley
Adrienne Dortche

I will be contacting the winners to arrange for eBook prize distribution. Thank you to everyone who entered. I wish you good reading!

2011-11-12T15:21:00.000-06:00

November 12, 2011

I guess if you build it they really will come...

The deals of Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) have been a part of American life for many years now, with some people camping out all night in the cold to be among the first to grab special early morning deals. In recent years there have been reports of violence erupting, which I suspect that in these tough economic times might continue as cash-strapped customers desperate to provide a nice holiday for their children go to extremes.

This year the stores themselves can be accused of going to extremes. Some stores, like Kmart and Toys R Us, have been open on Thanksgiving Day in recent years during morning and afternoon hour, offering bargains to lure shoppers in. This year more stores than ever are moving up their store openings to midnight on Black Friday: Target, Macy's, Best Buy, and Kohl's among them. Walmart, not to be beaten, is opening stores as early as 10PM Thanksgiving night.

I personally don't think this is a good idea. Not only does it rob the store employees of the opportunity to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with their families and friends, but it also cuts into consumer family life, with people excusing themselves after that apple pie a la mode to go to bed until it's time to get up to go shopping. So much for after-dinner conversation. I did all my shopping online last year after Thanksgiving and got wonderful bargains and free shipping to my local store...and I didn't even have to get dressed to do it.

There's a thin line between a desire to be first and a fanatical drive to do so. I mean, isn't 4 and 5AM early enough? Must stores really feel it necessary to cut into the actual Thanksgiving holiday?

Of course, if no one showed up the stores would have no reason to open so early. As Thanksgiving weekend approaches, I find myself thinking, wouldn't it be a victory for home and hearth if the stores opened at 10PM and midnight and no one showed up until 5AM?

I know, I know. Fat chance of that happening. But I find it a lovely thought nonetheless...

Will you be shopping in the stores on Black Friday?

2011-11-10T08:11:00.000-06:00

November 10, 2011
The Interesting Buying Habits of Readers of Interracial Romance

One of the nice things about books on Amazon is the feature that shows what other books readers are buying when they buy a particular book. This is handy for both readers and writers. I've found it interesting that until I started Bunderful Books to publish my stories, there was virtually no crossover of sales between my mainstream and romance novels; people apparently bought either one genre or the other.

It's been just a few weeks since I released my latest independent title through Bunderful Books, A Kiss of A Different Color, and I've noticed something else: There seems to be no crossover between this, an interracial romance, and my other contemporary romances. Out of 30+ pages of other products people who have purchased AKOADC have bought, none of my other titles are listed. Instead, the great majority of other titles are also interracial love stories.

Shucks! And I was thinking that this book's success would spur sales of other titles.

2011-11-07T15:28:00.000-06:00

November 7, 2011

Scrivener for Windows now available

This is a happy day. The Scrivener writing software is finally available for download, after months of constantly updating the new betas the creators made as they ironed out bugs. I absolutely love this software...it has everything a writer needs to go from concept to final draft, and an easy corkboard view that tells you at a glance the status of each. I've already downloaded and registered my copy. This is definitely $40 well spent.

I am one happy writer.

2011-10-31T23:04:00.000-05:00

October 31, 2011

It's NaNoWriMo time...but not for me

To all you East Coast writers gearing up for the official Start of NaNoWriMo at midnight on November 1st, I wish you a productive 30 days of writing. I won't be joining you this year. I just finished the tax return, just put out a new eBook, had an outpatient surgical procedure this morning, and am gearing up for a phone call about a new grandbaby, at which time we will jump in the car and head to Florida. I think I've had enough stress...

2011-10-30T18:19:00.000-05:00

October 30, 2011

A Few Words About Marketing

From time to time aspiring writers contact me and ask for any advice I might have about independent publishing. I always refer them to the Indie Publishing and Writing categories of my blog, but someone recently told me that she’s already had her manuscript professionally edited and asked for the name of my cover designer (Sean D. Young of Young Creations, whether she should consider eBook, print, or both, and also for any tips on how she, about to put out her debut novel, could develop a readership.

The good news is that it doesn’t matter much whether you publish traditionally or independently, unless you are the next Kathryn Sockett, marketing is going to be your responsibility. Publishers only get behind established superstars or those they feel they can build up into superstars.

In terms of format, I would advise that you consider skipping the print option altogether. You can always have a print book made at a later time if your sales warrant it. eBooks are increasing in popularity, and they also cost less to produce...an important factor when a writer is on a budget.

As a formerly traditionally published writer, I was fortunate to have already had a readership when I started indie publishing, but of course I wanted to expand on existing readers. Some of the things I did were to widely circulate my book trailers prior to release to help build interest and to cross-market my eBook excerpts with other authors who write similar genres to get more readers after publication.

Because published authors are busy people who aren’t going to have time to read your book to determine if they want to include it in with theirs, only the book trailer option is going to be available to those previously unpublished. A book trailer doesn’t have to be a Spielberg production, but make it as good as you can (no typos in the text, please!)

Get on Facebook and befriend book clubs and reading groups who are open to the genre of what you’ve written and ask if you can post your trailer on their wall. Join genre Facebook groups (romance, mystery, thriller, etc.) and ask if you can post your trailer on their wall (or, if you see other members are doing this, go ahead and post).

Your website (and you definitely should have a website) should have an excerpt to the book plus links to purchase sites (plural).

Also, consider writing a brief prequel to your story and offering it as a free download, and make sure it includes an eLink to the purchase page for your book in the corresponding format (a link to a Kindle eBook won’t be of any benefit to someone with a Nook). You'll want your prequel to have an air of completeness about it, though (no cliffhangers, please). It’s not fair to leave the reader hanging, with their only option for resolution to buy the book. You want readers to want to buy your book, not trick them into feeling the have to (you want readers, not enemies). And yes, I know that some published authors have put out books that don’t have defined endings, but I personally wouldn’t recommend anyone do this.

Contact book review sites and ask if you can send them a complimentary copy (Smashwords coupons come in handy here; you can make a 100% off coupon and provide the reviewer with the code) in exchange for a review. The caveat is that they might not like your book, which means you won’t like their review, but that’s the chance all writers take with the public at large.

I don’t much care for marketing one’s book as “in the tradition of (insert name of Bestselling Author here)…” but the fact is that you do want to approach readers who enjoy stories in a similar vein to yours about your new book. Sites like Goodreads are good for this purpose; you can see who’s read and enjoyed which books. Message them and tell them about your book; invite them to download your free prequel and read your excerpt (provide links to both). All they can do is ignore you.

Run a contest on Facebook, your blog (you definitely should have a blog) or both to win a free download (again, Smashwords is a good choice for this, because of the coupon and the availability in all formats—although I have to wonder how good the formatting really is). Consider an eBook giveaway on reader sites like Goodreads. Their traditional Giveaways site is for print books only, but they do have a special eBook giveaway group.

If you can locate any blogs that feature new author interviews, ask to be interviewed. Also look for blogs that allow guest posts. You can always mention your new book plus links to your excerpt and free prequel in your two-sentence Bio.

Those are the tips that come to my mind right away (I’m writing this between answering the door to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters). Finally—and this one is really important—after you publish, devote most of your time to working on your next project instead of tracking your sales numbers!

2011-10-29T10:38:00.000-05:00

October 29, 2011

A tale of two reviews

My newest eBook, A Kiss of a Different Color, received two reviews this week, one on the Barnes & Noble site, one on the Amazon site.

The Nook reader entitled her review "Wonderful" and gave it 5 stars. The Kindle reader entitled her review "DNF" (I don't know what that means, but since she gave it just 1 star, it can't be anything good--my guess is "did not finish?").

It just goes to show, two people are not going to get the same thing out of the same story. The Nook reader said it was a "really good story." The Kindle reader said she "just could not continue" beyond the first third of the story. The Nook reader said she really liked the way I showed how the main characters got through the racial issues and work issues and enjoyed a "very passionate romance." The Kindle reader said that while racial references are fine, it became too much, and that the main characters "lacked chemistry."

I find the differing opinions fascinating. One says the hero and heroine were passionate, the other says they lacked chemistry. Wow. Can two interpretations possibly be any different? But I have always maintained that people will get different things out of a story, and this is a perfect demonstration of that.

The Kindle reader states that by a third of the way through the story the main characters should at least have some kind of dating relationship established. I believe I'd established pretty well why the heroine was skittish about that (I even mention it in the summary), but I have to consider that this may be part of the problem. Romances usually are written according to a formula, but since I'm publishing my own work and don't have to answer to a publisher, I let the story unfold naturally with the characters acting within the personalities I created for them. But the bottom line is that the Kindle reader (who has written a favorable review of at least one of my other titles), simply didn't like this book. And that's just the way it goes sometimes.

Every writer hopes that readers will like their book, but I think most writers know that it's not possible to please everyone. The writer who expects universal praise of their book is a first cousin of the attorney who represents himself in court (and you know what they say about him). Who among us hasn't looked forward to a book, only to find ourselves totally indifferent to and/or unmoved by the storyline? (This is one reason why the reader in me doesn't find novel sequels particularly appealing. Like movie sequels--the one exception that comes to mind being The Godfather, Part II--I usually don't feel the sequel is as good as the original.) Why should I expect a book I've written be idolized? Because I wrote it? That takes an imperialistic outlook I just don't have (thank God).

Yes, myself and other authors put our blood and sweat into creating characters and storylines we hope will be memorable. But that's no guarantee that readers will gobble up the words we've written and want seconds. We're asking readers invest their time and money in our work. Some readers will wish they hadn't made the investment. It's not someone out to "get" me. It's not a case of the person writing the review being somehow jealous of me. There's no vendetta involved, only an honest reader opinion. And while it is one person's opinion (a very frequently heard author refrain used to dismiss negative reviews), so are the positive reviews we receive. The fact is that majority of people who read our books are not going to take the time to write a review, whether they loved it or hated it.

What it really is? A crapshoot, just like most other factors about publishing. We as authors have to get over it.

Now, back to my work-in-progress. I'm loving this story...

2011-10-29T00:52:00.000-05:00

October 29, 2011

eBook Giveaway!

In honor of my mother's 93rd birthday today (that's her in the tiara at the celebration her fellow workout folks gave for her at the "Y," where she still works out three times a week), I am having an eBook giveaway!

Save The Best For Last...The Heat of Heat...A Love of Her Own...A Kiss of a Different Color

There will be five winners, each of whom can choose one of the above titles as their prize. This contest is being run through Smashwords, so each winner will be able to choose the format for their particular eReader device, including text for those who don't have eReaders!

To enter, simply send an email to contests@bettyegriffin.com with the heading eBook Contest between October 29th and November 12th (which would have been the 62nd birthday of my late brother Gordon). Winners will be chosen at random, and the winner names will be announced on Sunday, November 13th, by 6PM Central Time, both here and on my Bunderful Books Facebook page.

Good luck, and Happy Birthday to my mom!

2011-10-25T05:53:00.000-05:00

October 25, 2011

Release Day!

My latest eBook, A Kiss of a Different Color, is now available for Kindle, Nook, and any other type of eReader via Smashwords. Order your copy today!

As always, I wish you good reading!

2011-10-17T08:09:00.000-05:00

October 17, 2011

The book is done, now what?

One of the best feelings in a writer's life occurs when the current work is completed. There's a rush of adrenaline as your brain processes the fact that the project that has played such a dominant role in your life is done, baby done!

This was especially happy news for me, because the completed work--my soon-to-be-published eBook A Kiss of a Different Color--was started way back in 2006, five long years ago. I knew the basic premise of the story, but I didn't have a strong conflict. As every reader and writer knows, with no conflict there is no story. I put it aside to work on contracted projects and came back to it periodically to try to work it out, but it wasn't until earlier this year that a strong plotline finally came to me. This story had germinated for so long that my editor asked me to clarify the time setting because she was confused. An exchange early in the story has the heroine stating she's not familiar with pomegranate, and my editor pointed out that in recent years, this fruit has been featured in many bottled fruit juices, which made that piece of dialogue seem more like 2006 than 2011.

So now that the book is done, what happens next? For me, it's a cinch: I get myself organized for the next book...in my case the next several books.

In the weeks while I am working on the next-to-last set of edits, I traditionally create quite a bit of new text for my follow-up projects, because editing isn't really writing and usually gives me a frenzied desire to create something new.  I end up with half-organized snippets of text in a dozen or so files. My latest preferred method is to dictate into my handheld recorder that comes with a special version of Dragon software, which I then plug into my computer and it transcribes what I've dictated. I save each file by date and bring my handheld with me everywhere, whether driving or out walking. I remain grateful to my friend and fellow author Roslyn Carrington (AKA "Simona Taylor") for introducing me to Dragon, which I also have installed on my laptop for direct dictation that is transcribed as I speak).

I am, rather ambitiously, working on actual narrative and dialogue for a contemporary romance and a women's fiction, a re-write of my 2006 novel One on One, plus plotting out a follow-up to a plot thread I started in The Heat of Heat that readers have been asking me for. Somewhere in there I will also work on another release of a previous title in eBook format...one of the more recent ones that I won't have to tinker with (One on One has changed so much that I'll have to file for a new copyright).

My first step is to organize all those scattered documents into one file by dates within each project, with page breaks between each project. I did that yesterday. Then I cut and paste the text into the existing MS Word document (I used to start my projects in MS Word), and then cut and paste by chapter into Scrivener, my new preferred software for writing a book. Scrivener is especially friendly toward my sometimes haphazard way of writing, as I don't write sequentially and often have gaps in my story.  From there I mark the status of each chapter as being a first draft, revised draft, or to be written as I fill in notes about what should happen in missing areas. I'm in the process of doing this now.

Somewhere in there I am able to get a word count for each project, and I was thrilled to see that I have over 62K words for my contemporary romance WIP, which I actually finished outlining several years ago.  I am eager to publish this story (working title Isn't She Lovely?) because it has a political theme at its core, and with the presidential election coming up in a year it will be particularly relevant. I'm feeling pretty good about being two-thirds done with this, to the point where I feel that it might be ready in the late winter rather than mid-spring.

I have yet to determine the word counts for my women's fiction project, but I do know that a little bit of writing at a time adds up to a lot of text. Just as some writers prefer not to edit as they go along, I prefer not to check my word counts in the beginning.

So that's my process. I've got to drive down to Gurnee, Illinois this morning, so I'll be taking the back roads rather than the highway and will be dictating all the way! There is no rest for weary writers...

2011-10-15T13:48:00.000-05:00

October 15, 2011

The Week in Review

Ah, politics! Chris Christie, after removing himself from consideration, stated he was not ready to endorse anyone. Two days later, he endorsed Mitt Romney. There were a few news stories about the endorsement, but Romney's numbers went nowhere. Instead, there's a new guy on top of the totem pole.

The latest catchphrase: 9/9/9. Herman Cain has made it to the top of the GOP field with his oft-proclaimed solution for our country's economic woes. I predict that this severely flawed plan (which includes a 9% federal sales tax on top of all the local taxes being paid for gas, clothing, and other merchandise, and to even include groceries) will never go anywhere, but it just goes to show, if you're the only one offering a plan, people will listen. Cain's rivals for the nominations have nothing except criticism for President Obama, and that will only carry a person so far.

MSNBC's Chris Mathews asks "Is Cain able?" My answer is, not with that current plan, he's not. But stay tuned for the next segment of The Great GOP Hope...

On the publishing front, I completed A Kiss of a Different Color and expect to publish within two weeks. Now I'm organizing my notes that I've been working on recently so I can get started working on my next two projects (yes, two projects; I'll be working on them simultaneously...and that doesn't include my next re-release). A blank page terrifies me; I'm a big believer in always having something on paper to build on. I'll be blogging about this in a day or two.

Enjoy your weekend!

2011-10-11T08:54:00.000-05:00

October 11, 2011

Clawing my way to the middle, or Lessons in Independent Publishing

Just six short years ago my writing career was going gangbusters. I’d been publishing contemporary romances since 1998. In 2005 I broke into my first love, women’s fiction, and for the next three years I did a book per year in each genre.

The first bomb dropped in 2007, when my romance publisher dropped me. They gave no reason, other than they were currently drafting a letter to me (it came just eight short months later, so I'm glad I didn't hold my breath on that one). I continued with my women’s fiction, had a hit in 2008 with a novel about four friends from childhood and the challenges they faced as they faced their 50th birthdays (Once Upon A Project), but by 2010 things were looking pretty bleak. My numbers were down. I found myself wondering if I would still have a contract after my present one was fulfilled. But I kept writing.

After getting yet another rejection for a marriage of convenience story I really liked, I decided to publish it myself, in print and in eBook form. It did well enough where I proceeded to get my rights back to my other romance novels (a process that took quite a while to complete, since the more recent books were not yet eligible for rights reversion) with the plan to re-publish them myself.

A few months after the publication of my well-received mainstream novel Trouble Down The Road in 2010, the other shoe dropped. Despite submitting a proposal that my editor loved, she was not able to convince management to offer me another contract. I was on my own.

Since then it’s been a whirlwind of learning. A few things I’ve noted as I’ve clawed my way to the middle of the indie publishing world:

The immeasurable value of a good cover, good cover copy, and good content. I know, you’ve heard this one before. There are still a lot of people who are skimping, but it’s got to be the trifecta, folks. Focusing on the content but not the outer appearance can result in being ignored by readers. Face it, it’s human nature to be drawn to the pretty and reject the ugly. (In other words, people tend to be shallow.) On the other hand, focusing on the outer appearance with an unedited, poorly formatted content is the equivalent of that guy from high school who played basketball all afternoon and then put on clean clothes and went to the party without showering first. (In other words, it’s going to stink.)

Experienced New York-based freelance editors can be very expensive. When it looked like my usual editor might not have the time to devote to a 95K manuscript, I asked a freelance editor for a quote. The number was less than what I’d put down on a new car, but not much less. Most writers cannot afford this. Try English majors at the local college, or English teachers. And be prepared to work harder. If you’re not using an experienced editor experienced with plot development, you’ll have to make sure that your story flows well and that the plotting makes sense. It's not enough for a book to have few or no typos or other errors, all that will be for naught if the plot is convuluted. It's true that the Big 6 have also skimped on their editing lately as well (I’ve read books by bestselling authors that I suspect were simply spell checked and then sent to press; the decline in the writing quality was that obvious), but that’s no excuse. Just like Presidential wannabees always get in trouble when they compare themselves to JFK or Reagan, it won’t behoove the lesser selling writer to compare themselves to huge names. These folks will likely continue selling big, even with declining quality. On the other hand, readers are not loyal to authors new to them, so put out a quality product and make them want to read everything you publish.

Fortunately, cover designers are more affordable, particularly if you are doing an eBook. I personally don't feel that a cover designer should charge as much for an eBook, which is a front cover only, as they do for a print book that needs a back cover and a spine. You might have the talents to do this yourself, but be honest about any shortcomings between your cover and that of a professional. Remember: Homemade brownies are good; homemade book covers not so much.

Most writers can manage to create good cover copy, but do edit and improve upon it frequently before you publish (of course, eBooks don’t actually have back covers, but you’ll need this to promote the book). You also might want to avoid anything that starts with: "Eva Mae Smith had it all..." because that's been done so often. Likewise, formatting can also be learned by the author, if not mastered, and because of that I’d recommend going into the Preview screen at each individual retailer and checking the formatting thoroughly for anything that's out of whack. If it proves to be too much, there are services out there who offer eBook formatting.

Cross-marketing can help sales. If one of your critique partners is ePublishing, or if you know an indie published author, ask if they would consider swapping excerpts; you will include an excerpt of their work at the end of your eBook if they will include an excerpt of yours. Obviously, this works best if you write in fairly similar styles (not just genres, which can be broad). You wouldn’t want to include a sexy romance sample with a sweet, not-much-sex romance, or pair Christian fiction with a violence- and profanity-ridden crime story.

Once you have enough eBooks, consider publishing bundles at a price cheaper than it would be if purchased separately. Once people start reviewing your books, new readers might decide to take the plunge and buy the bundle. This is especially effective for books with related plotlines, for instance, a previously published rights-reverted novel paired with brand a new indie published sequel, but is not a requirement. You’re in charge, and you can do what you want.

Since you're in charge, give pricing very careful consideration. Charging more than $4.99 for a short eBook, or one riddled with errors, or both, is not a good idea. Of course, no writer thinks their work is riddled with errors, but a good way to make the determination is by asking yourself if anyone else besides you has proofed it. Less recommended, but equally effective, is to simply wait for the reviews and see how many of them complain about the misspellings, typos, and repeated and run-on sentences in the content. Would you pay a premium price for a floor model that’s been on display for months and has a few dings in it? No, you’d want them to knock off 15% or 20%. So why pay extra for a book of less than stellar quality? You can always increase the price of your book once the kinks are out.

If you're a slower writer who tends to be longwinded, like myself, consider writing a shorter novel or even a short story to keep readers happy between full-length novels, perhaps a prequel to an upcoming book or to one you've already written, and price it accordingly.

If you're reissuing previously published works, ask yourself if it would benefit from being updated…or at least stick a date at the beginning to inform the reader of the setting, i.e. “2002.” My heroine in A Love of Her Own (originally published in 1999) “had been meaning to get one of those new cell phones” and drove an Oldsmobile, ha! And yes, I did make the story more current. Life has changed a lot in the past dozen years.

Remember that the opportunities for making improvements in eBooks are endless. Found an error or two in your text that you and your editor missed (or that your editor caught but you missed when making corrections)? Download a new file so new readers won’t see it. Cover copy can continually be tweaked, and so can the cover itself. I do have one cover (the one for my indie publishing debut, Save The Best For Last) that looks gorgeous in person but doesn’t photograph all that well, and having the designer tweak it is on my to-do list. The same holds for formatting. I used to format with the first line of each new paragraph indented, until I noticed on the Kindle preview (the actual preview authors can view after downloading, not the preview you see when you sample a book, which comes out differently) that any new paragraphs that fell at the top of the Kindle page were not indented. Unclear paragraph breaks will confuse readers, so I changed all my indie eBook formatting to the block paragraph style with an extra space between paragraphs. (The Kindle preview potential buyers look at as samples is formatted differently, putting in both indents and an extra space between paragraphs, which to me looks awful, but that’s out of my hands.)

Remember that Kindle isn't the only game in town. There's the Nook and the Sony reader. You can be missing out on potential sales by publishing only in one format. Sure, you can tell non-Kindle owners that they can download the application and read it on their computer screen, but I know I wouldn't do this. If it's not available for Sony I won't be reading it. I do take my time about getting my book listed in the Smashwords catalog until I’m fairly certain I’ve gotten most of the kinks out. Once my eBooks are picked up by Sony, Kobo, Diesel, etc. I’m not sure if they can be tweaked, so I’m very cautious.

This is an exciting time to be an independent author, and I plan on making the most of it, because with the speed with which things are changing, who knows what things will be like in another year?

2011-10-08T13:32:00.001-05:00

October 8, 2011

The Week in Review

Chris Christie is not running for President, and neither (gasp!) is Sarah Palin. It's looking more and more likely that the eventual Republican nominee will likely be one of the currently declared candidates. Good news for the Democrats, in my opinion. No one has really caught fire.

Rick Perry's hunting grounds continue to be discussed. I personally found it ironic that Herman Cain spoke out against it. I mean, Godfather Pizza is not exactly an ethnically sensitive name, is it?

The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth passed away at the ripe old age of 89. This in itself is miraculous for a man who had more physical attacks directed at him than anyone else in the Civil Rights Movement, including a bomb that went off in his bedroom over 50 years ago, at which time his mattress curved around him and saved his life. He spoke his mind and was rarely wrong. Some will say it wasn't fair that Rev. Shuttlesworth's death was overshadowed by that of Steve Jobs a few hours later, but the reverend wasn't about the fame game. Even during his accomplishments as a pivotal figure in the movement, he took a back seat to MLK, Abernathy, and others. But he outlived them all, surviving long enough to become a revered figure in Birmingham, the city once so hostile to him. The city renamed its airport Birmingham-Shuttlesworth in 2008. He lived long enough to see Barack Obama become the first black President the same year. Fred Shuttlesworth's efforts for black Americans to live their lives with dignity and the rights automatically granted to other Americans will never be forgotten.

Steve Jobs' life was 33 years shorter than that of Rev. Shuttlesworth, but Jobs crammed many accomplishments into the 56 years he was given. He remained active in technology development while living with the pancreatic cancer that eventually killed him. Like the reverend, Jobs could be obstinate and argumentative..and like the reverend, he got the job done. This child given up for adoption at birth, who later dropped out of college, will go down in history as an innovator in the vein of old-time greats Edison and Ford.

Two losses for America. Two gains for Democrats. Let time march on...

2011-10-07T00:19:00.000-05:00

October 7, 2011

No rhyme or reason

I've known for some time that one of my traditionally published mainstream fiction titles is selling quite well on the Nook, with a sales ranking hovering around 10,000. I finally got around to checking how it's doing on the Kindle. It doesn't even have a ranking. Now, does that make sense?

Go figure.

2011-10-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

October 1, 2011

Coming Down the Home Stretch

The manuscript for my upcoming eBook, A Kiss of a Different Color, is in the edit stage. This is a happy time for any writer, because it means that completion and ultimate publication are soon at hand (of course, this happens a lot sooner for an independently published eBook than it does for a traditionally published novel).

I had originally planned to publish the revised version of One on One first, because this was a story in which the terrorist attacks of 9/11 played a large role in the heroine's life, but when I moved up a pivotal scene to earlier in the story it ended up changing the entire dynamics, and there will be extensive rewriting involved. I decided I had to miss the commemoration of 10 years since the attacks, but overall it will result in a better story.

But editing is a process that can't be rushed through. It's a writer's chance to put their best foot forward, to make their words shine. In addition to general cleanup, grammar, missing or extra words, character's names that change mid-story (or are duplicated--I noticed I had two minor characters named Ralph and changed one to Anthony), continuity errors within the storyline, etc., I have to make sure the story contains plenty of sensory images that enhance the reading experience, things like the smell of the food being cooked or eaten...the feel of a dog sleeping at your feet...the touch of bare skin beneath fingertips. This is a fine line, because while I want to give the reader a sense of imagery, I don't want to bog them down with it.

So I'm working in conjunction with my editor to bring you the best story possible. We are not professionals (the rate a professional would charge is equal to about 3 times my monthly royalty, too rich for me; my name is Griffin, not Konrath), but between the two of us we have a good enough grasp of language, punctuation, and storyline to create a project that will pass muster.

Back to my edits. Look for A Kiss of a Different Color, coming soon! For a sneak peek, click here to read a new excerpt.

2011-09-26T08:39:00.000-05:00

September 26, 2011

Happy Endings

I recently read a novel that featured a heroine ("lead character" might be more fitting, since she wasn't a nice person) who had some serious mental health issues, and as I read I kept wondering how the story would end, because I saw no happy ending here.

To my surprise, the story did have a happy ending, kind of like putting a Band-Aid on a child's boo-boo and have them go from crying to smiling. While I understood the author wanting to end on an upbeat, positive note, the ending struck me as just too sunshiny to be believable.

When I submitted the synopsis for my novel If These Walls Could Talk (originally published in trade in 2007, in mass market earlier this year), it had a dreary ending that in hindsight, I'm surprised the editor approved. As I wrote the story and got to know the characters better, I decided I wanted to give them hope, and I changed the ending to give one couple a second chance and to give the impression that another couple would do all right as separate entities. I informed the editor of why I made the change, and she had no objections. I shudder to think of how the book would have been received had I kept the original ending.

Women's fiction, unlike romance, allows for endings other than the happily-in-love fade-outs. Regardless, women's fiction often ends on a happy note, because writers like ending optimistically, and readers enjoy stories that end that way.

The novels of the late bestselling novelist Jacqueline Susann tended to end unhappily, with characters settling for what they had, usually empty marriages in which they looked elsewhere for fulfillment, in their hopes for their children, wealth and status, etc. I always felt that the point she was trying to make was the old standby, "Money doesn't buy happiness."

While looking for some new books for my eReader this weekend I came across one by an author who usually writes romances, a rather somber-sounding story about a woman driving alone who crashes and is unable to call for help, and as she hopes for rescue, she reflects on her life and makes plans for her future...a future that, according to the reviews, doesn't come to pass because she is ultimately not rescued. Some readers who wrote reviews expressed huge disappointment in the way the book ended. Now, this was an independently published novel, and indie authors tell the stories they want to tell, so just because someone wrote a few romantic stories doesn't mean all their books will be the same. Still, I think we as readers expect the endings of stories, to be hopeful, even if the story contains some sad elements within.

How do you like your endings? Happy, within reason? Happy, even to the point where it doesn't seem realistic? How do you feel about sad endings?

2011-09-18T14:42:00.000-05:00

September 18, 2011

Roll Film

As many of you know, I'm fond of old movies. Part of the reason for this is because I've already seen a good number of them and don't feel as if I have to give them my full attention. I know when parts are coming that I don't care to see...usually related to how African-Americans are depicted.

Filmmakers have done black Americans a great disservice by featuring the caricatures of the slow-witted, cowardly (if men), no-sacrifice-is-too-great black servants. Actors like Willie Best (often billed as "Sleep 'n' Eat") and Butterfly McQueen specialized in these types of roles. I never fail to cringe (and often change the channel) when actress Juanita Moore tells Lana Turner in the 1959 version of Imitation of Life, "Just let me do for you." (In other words, she'll work for no pay.) On the other hand, I cheer at scenes like the one in Christmas in Connecticut (1945) where restaurant owner S.Z. Sakall asks one of his black waiters about the meaning of the word "catastrophe" and the waiter tells him in an intelligent manner...or that Clark Gable/Jean Harlow movie I saw from the 1930s in which Gable pleads with a black minister to marry him and Harlow (the minister, at first reluctant, eventually agrees)...or how in Cass Timberlane (1947), Spencer Tracy calls his maid, a woman clearly older than he is, not by her first name, but "Mrs. [Surname]."

I've always admired Hattie McDaniel for playing her roles with such honesty and feistiness; only once did I see her insisting on taking care of a family for free (yuck). Clarence Muse also always appeared dignified, and then there was foxy Theresa Harris, who played Barbara Stanwyck's best friend in Baby Face (1932), even though she was also her maid.

The other day I saw a movie I hadn't seen in many years...1970s star-studded Airport. It's been 41 years now since this film was released, but one thing that stood out to me was how well black Americans were represented. Sure, they showed black skycaps, but the role of head of security at the large Midwestern facility, with many men working under him, was played a black man, the same actor who would portray Alderman Fred C. Davis on Good Times a few years later. Among the passengers on the Rome-bound flight were actors playing an Army officer and a doctor, respectively. The army man was shown offering assistance, and the doctor was shown wearing his stethescope and and attending to the injured.

This might not seem like a big deal to modern audiences, but for me, familiar with the stereotypical "Yassir" dialogue of older movies, it represented a real turning point, possibly the first movie with so many positive African-American images.

See you at the movies.

2011-09-16T12:41:00.000-05:00

September 16, 2011

Gone Blogging

I did an interview on the blog of my friend, author Donna Hill, so check me out! Comments always welcome (hint, hint!)

2011-09-10T08:13:00.001-05:00

September 10, 2011

Hear ye, Hear ye!

My 3-book Bundle is being featured today at CheapReads.com. Three full-length novels; 1 low price!
http://dailycheapreads.com/2011/09/10/bettye-griffin-bundle-1-a-love-of-her-own-save-the-best-for-last-work/

As always, I wish you good reading!

2011-09-07T22:23:00.000-05:00

September 7, 2011

A Quote From Author Bob Mayer

"Readers don’t care if a book is published by Random House or a goat. They just care if the book is good."

I think that's a damn good observation, but I'd love to hear what readers think...

2011-08-30T15:55:00.000-05:00

August 30, 2011

Say what?

I've been reading a number of bargain books by independent authors lately on my eReader. Except for one that was virtually unreadable due to poor writing and obvious print copy formatting used for the eBook, they are enjoyable storylines reasonably well told, and I keep turning the pages. But the occasional overlooked item, like having a character jump up from their chair when they are never shown sitting down from the time they enter a room (which they presumably did on their feet), will have me going back to see if I missed something.

Similarly, the use of a wrong word can be jarring. I remember reading a newsletter from an author years ago. She meant to call it "Worth Noting," but someone made a typo and it ended up being called, "Worth Nothing." Ouch.

For years a line in one of the most beautiful R&B love songs ever written has nagged at me. In For the Love of You, composed and performed by the legendary Isley Brothers (and covered by several other artists), Ronald Isley sings of being "here with a lover unlike no other." What he should have said was "here with a lover who's like no other." Saying that she is unlike no other means she's just like any other woman he's ever known...not exactly complimentary. Just Like a Woman, anyone?

The best way to avoid this? Read it back out loud, slowly, and absorb what you've written. You'd be surprised at the errors you catch.

Happy writing!

2011-08-26T04:35:00.000-05:00

August 26, 2011

Dress Code: Casual

Just to clarify, when I said the other day that I decided that all my eBook re-releases of my backlist titles will have a similar layout, I didn't mean that all the models will be wearing white shirts and stonewashed jeans. That part was merely a coincidence...

2011-08-25T08:35:00.000-05:00

August 25, 2011

New Look

I finally got around to updating both the look of my blog and all my widgets (my romance work-in-progress still reflected 11,600 words).

So what do you think?

2011-08-21T22:16:00.000-05:00

August 21, 2011

Not as simple as it sounds

For the last few weeks I've been juggling several projects, one of which is the eBook release of my 2006 Arabesque romance, One on One. This is a story of a love affair that blossoms four years after the heroine lost her husband in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Here's a look at the eBook cover:

You can click HERE to read an excerpt. If the layout reminds you of the cover for the recently re-released A Love of Her Own, it's no accident. I thought it would make for a nice sense of continuity if all my backlist titles had a similar look to them, even if the storylines themselves are not related. What do you think?

Readers have contacted me, asking what's taking so long for me to get my backlist available as eBooks. Sure, it might sound simple: Get your rights back from the publisher (that alone can take months). Write new copy for the sales page. Get a new cover designed. Upload the story, and voila! The copyright is already in my name and doesn't have to be re-registered unless the story has changed significantly, and even with that authors have, I believe, three months from the time of publication to register with the Library of Congress.

Well, it's not as simple as it sounds. For one thing, the manuscript has to be re-formatted for eReaders. I've found a format that pretty much works for all (and I have checked random pages of all in the sample views that each eReader provides for authors) and have created a template, into which I drop the text and apply the correct formatting for chapter headings, text, breaks, etc. That part is pretty easy, or at least it was once I had it figured out.

The biggest issue is that of the content, and there are several reasons for this. First, it's not a good idea for writers to simply format their original manuscripts and put them up for sale. The biggest reason for this is because the manuscript they wrote is not going to be the same as the book that was originally printed, because of edits done before it went to press. As writers, we don't have the edited book as a saved document file; the edits are done on paper and entered into the documents within the publishing house (and even if we could get our hands on the press-ready edited document, it is the property of the publisher, and author use of it is prohibited).

Second, tastes are different now than they were just a few short years ago. Readers, at least some of them, want to see less sexual tension and more sex. This can be tricky. In One on One I moved up the intimacy between the hero and heroine from two-thirds of the way through the story to one-third. Even this will be not be soon enough for some readers, but I know better than try to please everyone and frankly have to be more concerned with what works best for the story. But changing even the teensiest bit of the plot can render much of what is said later irrelevant or downright incorrect, so the entire text has to be gone over thoroughly to keep the story flowing smoothly.

Third, most of our skills are continuing to evolve, and a story retold by the same writer later in their career will probably be a story told better. Because it is our story and we are publishing it, we are free to make any changes to it that we fell will enhance it.

We also need to allow time for edits. Freelance editors are often quite busy and won't always be able to get to our projects as soon as we send it to them. This can take several weeks. Then we have to decide which of the edits we want to use. Input of corrections can be tedious, so it's equally important that we make sure we don't miss anything. I know for a fact that in the past I managed to miss some corrections I specifically remember my editor telling me about. Readers are pretty good when it comes to forgiving a few mistakes, but make too many and they might think twice about buying more of our work.

So that's the process. It can easily run several months from start to finish, and we are often trying to juggle re-releases with producing new work.

A writer's work is never done...

2011-08-05T11:23:00.000-05:00

August 5, 2011

Popping in

I've been quite busy these last few weeks. I wrapped up my time with my mother, who came up to Wisconsin for a 7-week stay with us (while she'd hoped to escape the oppressive Florida heat, the heat wave we had brought unusually high temperatures frequently above 90 degrees). My husband and I attended his family's 40th reunion, held this year in St. Louis, and while there toured the family hometown of Crystal City, Missouri. I did the happy dance upon the return of the rights to the remainder of my Arabesque titles, which I plan to re-release in eBook form. And, of course, I've been writing, balancing two projects, one edging closer to completion and the other the most ambitious project I've ever tackled, with a structure still to be determined, with anticipated publication dates for this fall and next spring, respectively.

Here's a link to a sneak peek at my fall project, the title of which I will unveil with the cover at some future date. It's fairly polished, although not as sparkling as it will be in the final version. Enjoy!

2011-07-20T12:29:00.001-05:00

July 20, 2011

Taking Stock

A few weeks ago I marked two years as an independently published writer (at the time I was still under contract to a traditional publisher and preparing a book for them, but it turned out to be my last book via that route). I barely noticed the milestone; at the time I was busy bringing out my first backlist title, A Love of Her Own.

I have learned so much in those two years...and some things I realize I always knew. I referred to my first Bunderful Books title, Save The Best For Last, as having been independently published from the beginning, since it seemed the most appropriate description. The phrase is now widely used, usually shortened to "indie" publishing.

Back when I was still traditionally published, in 2009, I did what I decided then would be my last book signings in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas. It was just too much trouble, and the days of my selling 60-85 books in areas where I was well known (my hometown of Yonkers, New York and the city where I lived for 17 years, Jacksonville, Florida) seemed to be behind me once I moved to the Midwest, reduced to 15-20 books. When my last Dafina title came out in 2010 I set up no appearances at all. Two years later, it has been announced that Borders will be closing all of their stores. While it's nice to have correctly predicted the wave of the future, the thought of all those people losing their jobs does make it sting.

There are a number of people who've had great success with independent publishing, and who are generous enough to share their thoughts and ideas. Much of it is just common sense that occurred to me prior to hearing them say it:

Present a quality product. Get a professionally created cover that looks like it came from one of the Big Houses, have the content edited, and if you can't handle formatting, have this done professionally as well. An eBook shouldn't have page headers in it. No skimping! A book with a nicely done cover with the inside raw is the equivalent of working out all afternoon and then putting on fancy duds and attending a party that evening without taking a shower...it's going to stink.

The more products you have in the market, likely the better you will sell. This is similar to traditional publishing...only the very successful have the luxury of putting out a new book every two to three years. Everyone else would do better to strive for a goal of having a new project for sale every four to eight months. This is a goal I'm still trying to reach. I'm a slow writer...but my first draft is going to be my last, so it's not as bad at is seems. The recent acquiring of my entire romance backlist has helped, although I won't even publish a backlist title without revising it first. There's always room for improvement, even in a book deemed good enough to be traditionally published.

Include an excerpt from at least one other book at the end of each eBook, remembering that this can always be changed to reflect more recent released as simply as downloading a new file.

Everyone makes mistakes, but with an eBook they can be corrected with simplicity. As I notice things like missing open or closing quotes and other imperfections I download a new file so at least anyone reading it from that point on will have a copy as perfect as possible.

Be up front in informing readers about which books are reprints...some readers might not recognize it as a title they've already read, especially with a new cover.

There's nothing like common sense and an ability to tell which way the wind is blowing.

2011-07-16T12:21:00.005-05:00

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Keeping it Real

For my women's fiction work in progress (WIP), I'm in the process of writing a dramatic scene where the reader is let in on the other half of a family secret first revealed at the beginning of the story. I know I'll be going back and revising this scene frequently, because (a) I'm writing out of order and will need to make sure it flows correctly, and (b) I want to make sure the dialogue is in keeping with the pieces of the puzzle the reader already has, because technically they have been introduced to the background but it wasn't completely explained (and I hope no one will be able to guess). In other words, I want it to ring true, not false.

Did you ever see the HBO movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge? There was a scene early on at a party where a woman was singing and the agent wanted to know who it was. The camera zoomed in on three young women, a brunette, a blonde, and a black woman who was, of course, Dorothy Dandridge. All three women introduced themselves to the agent, who said he wanted to make whomever was singing into a star (something else a little silly, because Dorothy Dandridge did not possess a particularly good singing voice, but I digress). The blonde was Marilyn Monroe, at that point still a few years away from the superstar she would become. The brunette "star wannabe" introduced herself as Ava Gardner, and therein lay the problem.

In 1951 Ava Gardner was a household name and had been for several years. In addition to her acting career, she was also notorious for an affair she was having with Frank Sinatra, who was married at the time (they married late that year after his divorce). Her pleasant singing voice had also been featured in the movie The Killers as well as on the soundtrack for the hit movie Showboat released that year (even though she was dubbed in the film). She would not have to introduce herself to any man in America, particularly a Hollywood agent. Offering to make her this star into a star was just plain silly.

In that same movie there is a scene where Dorothy brags to her agent that she is accustomed to Jim Crow, having been a performer all her life (including at the whites-only Cotton Club), and had traveled all over the South, then is shocked when she is told she cannot use the bathroom. That struck me as about realistic as plastic dog poop. Yet this phony-sounding scene was used to promote the film.

Writing is hard. Good, believable writing is even harder.

2011-07-08T00:57:00.004-05:00

Four things independent authors can do that are guaranteed to piss off readers

In addition to being a writer, I'm also a consumer, and in light of the rapidly growing independent eBook projects out there, I see authors making mistakes that, in my humble opinion, are only going to serve to annoy their readers (because they have, or would annoy me). I'd like to share some of these with you.

Of course, if you're doing any of the below and are meeting with good sales and reviews, then just ignore this post. You obviously have nothing to learn from me.

Here we go:

1) Not mentioning that your eBook is a short story or novella. I can't say this has happened to me personally because I always check the file size, but I've seen plenty of reviews from pissed-off readers who thought they were getting a full-length novel...especially when the price being charged is not 99 cents, but $2.99, the same price as many full-length indie novels. As a guidline, all of my eBooks are over 400 KB (and I'm sure if you're reading my blog you've read all my books, tee-hee), so if an eBook is just 60 or 80 KB it's going to be short.

Which brings me to my next point...

2) Charging $2.99 for a 20-page short story. It's not nice to fool readers.

3) Putting out a backlist title with a shiny new cover and a book description that fails to mention that it was previously published. Truth in advertising, folks, because as I said, it's not nice to fool readers into buying a book they've already read.

4) Putting out a book with a shiny, professional-looking cover that is unedited (or poorly edited) and full of errors. No one among us is ever going to be perfect, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for it. At least make an attempt to have the inside product look as nice as the outside packaging. What would you do if you rented a room for the night in a hotel with a beautifully decorated lobby, then got to your room and say dingy sheets and filthy carpeting? You'd go to the front desk and demand your money back and never stay there again.

Did I say it's not nice to try to fool readers?

2011-07-06T14:55:00.005-05:00

I hear screaming. Is it murder...or is it eBook formatting?

In this odyssey of publishing independent projects, where I wear all the hats because I'm too cheap to pay anyone other than the all-important cover designer and editor, I am discovering the importance of the proper format for eBooks. I am reading a book now with free-for-all indentations and occasional page headers that show up mid-text (not to mention spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, but that's a column for another day). Much as I like to rush through anything not related to the creative process of writing, I shudder to think of one of my books appearing like this on an eReader, and I have begun the tedious task of re-formatting some of my books that were formatted before I knew what I now know.

A few major points I've either a) learned, b) decided, or c) always knew about but feel they're worth mentioning:

I have learned that the Kindle will not indent any paragraph that falls at the top of a page (and this happens more often than you might think), making for an uneven, inconsistent, and confusing read. My research has uncovered that this is a glitch in the Kindle...and considering this invention is not exactly new and there's been plenty of time to iron out kinks, I find this glitch worthy of poking out my lower lip. I therefore will use block style paragraphs with a space in between for future formatted novels.

I have learned that even-size fonts will always show uniformly on eReader screens, whereas odd-size fonts can show at varying sizes. My preference for 11-point font is the major reason I am mired in formatting hell right now, but my beautiful prose absolutely cannot show up on eReaders looking like mismatched junk. Now I make my text 12 point and my chapter headers (as well as the first letter of the first word of every new chapter) 14 point. I built in the bold on the chapter headings, but I have to manually adjust the first letter of the first word of each chapter to show as bold and italic, since it is part of a word and paragraph, specifically.

I always knew that headers don't belong in eBooks, but feel this is worth mentioning. Do not include headers in your eBook! It's distracting to be reading and to be interrupted by a line that says "[author name]/[title of book]/[page number]" at uneven intervals.

I have learned to use page breaks (it is recommended for reasons I'm not sure of to use the Insert function for this rather than the Ctrl/Enter keystroke combination) to avoid large spaces, sometimes even pages of blank text. It's vexing to have to hit the page down button on your eReader...and multiply the aggravation factor by the number of times you have to hit it before getting to a new page. I also now put page breaks at the end of chapters, since I read someplace that this is the preferred format. Hey, I'm easy.

I've noticed that some novels' formatting includes a table of contents. After considering this briefly (for about 30 seconds), I have deemed this unnecessary. My reasoning: There is no table of contents in my print book, so why would I want to put one in my eBook? I write novels, not how-to manuals or other nonfiction. eReaders have the function of being able to pick up at the exact page where you left off, so why bother?

I'm still maneuvering my way around breaks, where so far my efforts to build line spacing into the paragraph style have been unsuccessful and I have to do something special with each occurrence to keep the line spacing consistent. Still trying. Like everything else, I'll figure it out eventually.

Finally, in an effort to save time to indulge my creativity, I have built a template of the various paragraph styles I use in an eBook, into which I will type all future projects directly.

Back to my formatting.

2011-06-27T22:36:00.005-05:00

It's Heeeeere!

The eBook version of A Love of Her Own is now available for purchase, and I'm having a 72-hour sale...through Wednesday, June 29th, this eBook is priced at only $2.99. This is my way of saying thanks to my readers.

So get yours today from Amazon (Kindle) or Barnes & Noble (Nook). And as always, I wish you good reading!

2011-06-06T09:53:00.008-05:00

Coming Soon

Presenting the cover to my soon-to-be-published eBook, A Love of Her Own. This contemporary romance was originally published by BET/Arabesque in 1999. I have updated it for the 21st Century and revised it because a good book can always be made better. It will be available online this summer.

Want to read an excerpt? Click here.

2011-05-29T03:08:00.010-05:00

The Week in Review

Lately I find myself thinking a lot of the old Bible story, where God was so disgusted with mankind that He instructed Noah to build an ark, load it with his family and a male and female of every animal species, then decimated the earth with flooding. It's starting to feel as if He is about to do it again, between the deadly earthquakes, tsumanis, and tornadoes that have been striking all over the planet. Hurricane season starts next week. Heaven help us.

The worlds of poetry and music lost an icon this week. Gil Scott-Heron, master of the spoken word and self-described "bluesologist," passed away after becoming ill upon returning from Europe at the young age of 62. He was a talented and deep-thinking brother who, like so many artists, struggled with addictions throughout his life. RIP.

In politics, Sarah Palin announced a motor trip through the East Coast, fueling speculation of her intent to run for President. Personally, I think she's just looking to shine the spotlight on herself, as Mitt Romney becomes the latest Republican to announce that he's going to announce his candidacy (a redundancy reminiscent of those old "pre-engagements") next week, and Michele Bachmann's people say that she will announce, either yay or nay, sometime in June when she visits her hometown in Iowa. I expect it to be a yay. As for Palin and her oxygen-sucking tactics, she's just a female version of Donald Trump, with better hair but no intent of running.

Some folks criticized the President for traveling to Europe, including a trip to a hamlet in Ireland (population), where a maternal ancestor lived before emigrating to the States. Imagine the flak if he'd dared to venture to Kenya to view his paternal roots!

This is Memorial Day weekend, honoring those who lost their lives while in service to our country, God rest them.

This weekend is the traditional kick-off of summer. On this holiday weekend three years ago we moved into our current home. I was stunned to see that we had to run the heat at night/early morning, and yes, the heat kicked in last night as well. It gets cold in Wisconsin. But at least it's supposed to be about 70 on Monday, plenty warm enough to barbecue.

A bit of personal news: Our family has new baby twins, a boy and girl (pictured above), just home from the hospital. This is especially meaningful for me, because this is the centennial of my father's birth. He would be so tickled by his great-grandchildren, none of whom he ever saw in person...the ones who just entered the world; the oldest one, who, incredibly, graduated high school this week (pictured above on his prom night), and all the ones in between.

So how was your week?

2011-05-26T11:26:00.004-05:00

Anatomy of a Novel

I've gone quite a while without adding anything to my Ideas Word file. And that's fine with me.

It's easy to come up with a basic plotline for a book. It's harder still to write a complete synopsis of the same. But the hardest part by far is to actually write the book. Every phrase has to be scrutinized for cadence and flow. Every aspect of the plot has to come together. The reader has to understand certain background factors without feeling like they're on information overload or being preached or talked down to. Word overuse must be eliminated. All pressing loose ends have to be tied up by the end of the book.

In other words, writing is hard.

I am presently working on a project that I started outlining about five years ago. That's right, five years. I saw a news report that said that with all the layoffs elsewhere, the job market was thriving in the unlikely location of Bismarck, North Dakota. Right away my imagination went to work. Bismarck, North Dakota. I've never been there, but who among my readership has? With a low percentage of African-Americans among the population, I realized I'd never done a fish-out-of-water story, and here was the perfect scenario.

I quickly came up with a premise...how the hero and heroine (this is a romance) would meet. Since "meet cutes" are one of my strengths, I wrote an opening chapter and sent it to my personal editor, Kim. She loved it and bugged me for more. But I couldn't get beyond that because I had no real conflict, and without conflict there is no story. Anyone familiar with my work knows that I avoid the standard can't-ever-love-again-because-I-don't-want-to-be-hurt scenario, which in addition to being more common than rain in April, is staler than a four-day-old roll. If that's the best I can do, why bother to spend years developing a story in the first place? Why not just write the first dull, unimaginative plot that comes into my head?

Stuck on this--even Kim, a harsh taskmistriss, eventually let up on her demands to see more--I turned my attention to other projects in subsequent years, periodically pulling this one out and adding to it. I wanted to do a scene at a ski lodge...it was North Dakota, right? Check. I wanted my heroine to be forced to spend the holidays with the hero's family rather than with her own, and I came up with a plot device--a natural-sounding one, of course--to make that happen. Check. I wanted plenty of sexual tension woven throughout the story. Double check. I even wrote a love scene so sizzling that I ended up waking my husband from a sound sleep at 3AM on a weeknight (and believe me, when he went back to sleep he had a smile on his face). I even had a wonderful title. But still no conflict.

As usual, I didn't worry about it. I remained confident that an idea would strike me eventually, even though it was taking years. Haven't I always maintained that no story will be written before its time? And, most important of all, didn't I have other projects that had no such issues?

Sure enough, one day a year ago it started to come together, after four years of germinating. I suddenly had my conflict. It just came to me out of nowhere. I added other layers to the story, and voila! It was done!

So now I'm writing, with the goal of trying to have this out by the end of this year at the latest. (I'll have to safeguard the title until just before release.) I've been writing up a storm, to the point where I had to take a few days off and rest my brain. It's moving along nicely, and unless an event arises that takes me away from writing or I realize that something about the plot doesn't work, I should meet my goal.

Patience. Persistence. And keep pounding those keys. It will come together.

2011-05-21T12:10:00.003-05:00

The Week in Review

Donald Trump (the Chump) made it official...he's not running for President. He then hemmed and hawed about an invitation he accepted from the Iowan Republican Party to be their keynote speaker at a major fundraiser before finally pulling out. I'm still scratching my head over why they would invite an undeclared candidate to be the main attraction...what did they think would happen if he decided against running (and many said it would never happen)? Maybe he dismissed them as a bunch of goobers who don't count, but in Iowa, as one man put it, "A man's word is his bond." So in Iowa, Trump is in the dumps.

We all had an a-ha moment at the revelation about Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child. For now the salacious reporting seems to have died down, with the press camped out on the quiet street where the boy lives with his mother (in a nearly $300,000 house...payoff, anyone?)disrupting everything, after the mother's name, photograph, and even the name of the street she lives on was published. I was afraid the media wouldn't rest before they got a shot of the minor child. But I have to say...it makes me ill to think of Arnold puffing out his already overdeveloped chest as he watched both his wife and his housekeeper walk around with swollen bellies, knowing he impregnated them both. Ugh.

President Obama is having a major disagreement with the Israeli government over his suggestion that the pre-1967 borders be a starting point for future negotiations. Republicans were quick to jump on the President, saying he's anti-Israel, calling his words "dangerous," "a disaster waiting to happen," and accusing him of "throwing Israel under the bus." Yet President Bush II while in office said he supported use of the post 1949-borders...which essentially the same thing, referring to the agreement time period after the 1948 conflict and before the 1967 conflict. I'd love to see the GOP contenders explain why it was all right for Bush to take that position but not for Obama. Yeah, I know why it was all right, but I'd like to hear them explain it. Because it's purely partisan. These "party animals" are getting on my nerves.

Finally, Tim Pawlenty plans to make his candidacy official next week, bringing to mind that song from Porgy & Bess: "I've got Pawlenty of nuttin'..."

Have a great weekend!

2011-05-17T07:13:00.003-05:00

Nothing Like Having to Clean Up Afterward

Strauss-Khan, Schwarzenegger...what's up with the politicians and the maids?

Arnold "terminated" it, all right.

2011-05-14T13:10:00.004-05:00

One Scene at a Time

With everything else involved in being a publishing do-it-yourself-er...expanding a germ of an idea into a complete novel, getting it down on paper, getting it ready for prime time, maintaining a website (actually two, for Bettye Griffin and Bunderful Books, respectively, etc.), making book trailers (I still haven't done a revised one for If These Walls Could Talk, which was re-released two weeks ago), maintaining a Facebook presence, and the rest, it's hard to carve out time to simply write, which is the favorite activity that got me into this in the first place. Add that to the fact that I balance three projects simultaneously...doing ruthless red pen pre-publication edits on one and writing the others, and it becomes even more of a challenge.

Obviously, I do this in small steps. I'll devote a morning to edits, an evening to writing my story with the wounded hero, and the next day, worn out by that hero's angst, I'll start writing my story with a charming rogue of a hero and his pursuit of the weakening heroine, and on and on. I find myself breaking it down into scenes; while my husband is snoring I'll be thinking about the next scene I want to do. And I rarely write in chronological order; I believe in writing the scene that I'm feeling the most (I synopsize my storylines before I write, so it's not as though I don't know what happens next).

With this piecemeal approach to novel writing and focus on scenes, I was delighted to learn about a software package that allows writers to create novels one scene at a time, then link the scenes in the order they want and import it to a dedicated word processor. The program is free as the designers are working out the kinks in preparation in putting it for sale (at which time the free download will be discontinued) later this year.

If you're a piecemeal writer, you might want to give it a look. Here's the link.

2011-05-11T05:22:00.004-05:00

What's in a Name?

As I work to complete the revisions for my upcoming eBook release (actually an updated version of my well-received 1999 Arabesque romance, A Love of Her Own), I am simultaneously working on my next new project, which ideally will be for sale by year's end.

The writing is going splendidly. But what to call it?

This is usually a dilemma for me. The title A Love of Her Own seemed perfect for a story about finding love in the face of infertility. My current work-in-progress is a mainstream romantic story (in other words, the characters behave in a natural manner without those pesky publisher restrictions that say they can't do this and can't do that) about an active state official and gubernatorial candidate whose son injures the son of a struggling, divorced single mother. Both father and son witnessed a fiery car crash in the Caribbean that killed their wife and mother, respectively, and their emotional scars remain even after four years.

That's all of the plot that I want to give this far ahead. I haven't written the back cover copy yet...and yes, even an eBook that has no back cover still has to have copy. While some of the titles I've been tossing about are better than others, none really get me excited...

Suddenly
Suddenly, You
In an Instant
From Shadow to Spotlight
Then Came You
Very Special
Lost
A Compromising Situation
Isn't She Lovely?

What about you? Do any of these titles speak to you, grab you? And if you can think of something that does, feel free to share it. If I use it you'll be able to read the book before anybody else and, of course, for free.

2011-04-27T20:37:00.005-05:00

Chop-shop publishing, the wave of the future

Dear Editor:
I recently downloaded two new books to my eReader, both of them kickoffs of new series, one of them from your house and the other from another major publisher. I found them both to have excellently structured, highly entertaining plotlines, but I will only be reading the next entry from the series put out by the other publisher.

The other book was a wonderful story with execution to match, and I was able to lose myself in the story and eagerly keep turning the pages. The book you published was also a wonderful story, but far from a pleasurable reading experience. Rather, it was a tedious read that I largely skipped over, because you failed to do your job of polishing the author's writing. In all my years of reading I have never read a book published by a major publisher of such poor editorial quality. This was written by one of your top-selling authors, and she deserves much better. This book read like one of those dreadful, error-ridden self-published works: Bad punctuation (not even remotely following the Chicago Manual of Style), misstatements of facts, and unpolished writing. One thing it didn't have was misspelled words. This suggests to me that the manuscript was spell checked, but nothing else before it was put into production.

This is no way to treat a bestselling author who brings in plenty of revenue for your house, and since I have read other books you've published by authors who are not African-American (as this author is) and never noticed them to be lacking in quality, I have to wonder about the reasoning behind publishing a book in such a state. I must tell you that the first thing that comes to my mind is those so-called "separate but equal" policies of the past, like public schools in black neighborhoods getting out-of-date textbooks for their students while the latest and greatest went to white students...in other words, not equal at all. At worst, it's blatantly discriminatory, i.e., the way supermarket chains deliver fruits and meats past their prime plus other subpar products to their stores in black neighborhoods.

In my opinion you have done this author a grievous disservice by not giving this wonderful story the editorial attention it deserved, perhaps because your management feels that her largely African-American readership won't notice anything amiss. But to this African-American consumer, it read like the first draft by a first-time author, not by a seasoned writer, and it reeks of editorial neglect.

I know that some writers' work will need more TLC before it is ready for publication than others, but this should not be apparent in the finished product; that is what editorial staffs are for. I also realize this is popular fiction and not a literary work, but a thorough line editor would have removed those excessive "had"s and "was"s that were used to distraction in the narrative, often twice and occasionally even three times in a single sentence. A skilled line editor would have pointed out that there is a three-hour time difference between Eastern and Pacific Times, not two. A skilled line editor would also make sure that any reference to the Almighty is capitalized, not a lower-case "he" that is used for mere mortals. I understand that your bottom line is profit, but quality should stand for something.

I don't blame the author for my unhappy reading experience, I blame you. The author did her part by delivering her manuscript. She had a right to expect her work to be polished like a freshly minted copper penny as she turned her attentions to meeting the deadline for her next project, but you let her down...big time. The result was a book far substandard than those published by your colleagues in the industry (and other authors within your house), and the loss of at least one consumer (me). I read for enjoyment, not to be jarred out of the story again and again by subconsciously counting all the errors and word overuse. The only reason I kept skimming was to determine whether I correctly guessed a pivotal plot twist not revealed until the final pages.

In the name of all things literary, I implore you to give your authors, particularly your top-selling authors, the editorial support they need and present the best possible product to the consumer...not just something that's been spell checked in a rush process to get it on the store shelves, and certainly not because you feel that it's all right to give African-American consumers inferior products. Because it's not all right.

Sincerely,
A Consumer

2011-04-22T19:14:00.004-05:00

Busy, busy, busy

I haven't blogged in a bit, and those plans I had to change the look of my blog have fallen by the wayside. Here's what I've been doing...writing!

I've been filled with a new sense of wonder as I set to work, turning a page blank save for a blinking cursor into words to what I hope will be compelling story. I've been buoyed by the modest success of The Heat of Heat since its release four months ago and reader response to it. I have an eagerness to stop dawdling about all my story ideas and actually get the darn things written. Finding the box that contains disks with my old manuscripts, plus figuring out how to open a document saved in an ancient version of Word in 1999 into Word 2007 only increased my drive to get going.

Next up will be a revised, updated version of my second romance, A Love of Her Own. It amazes me how much the world has changed in a dozen years. The car the character drove, her lack of a cell phone...these references are terribly outdated in 2011. I also thought about having the hero and heroine make love earlier in the story, more in keeping in current reader tastes, but I decided against this. The story seems to be flowing just right, and the characters are behaving the way they've been drawn.

I'm still reading over it and making revisions and am about 60% of the way through, so I'm still open, of course. Anything that needs changing to strengthen the story will be changed.

A Love of Her Own should be available for sale later this spring through Bunderful Books (available at online retailers only), and will be offered in eBook format only.

I'm going to share part of a review someone wrote on one of the popular reader review sites with regard to The Heat of Heat:

"The different pace of each of the three romances was very appealing, because it attested to the fact that falling in love is an experience that's very different for everyone. The Heat of Heat was a beautiful and engaging reprieve from the 'pack and shack' and 'hump 'em and leave 'em' approach to relationships today. It is definitely MUST READ material."

This reader understood precisely what I was trying to do...appeal to romance lovers in general with a story that had something for everyone. Now, can you blame me for wanting to create more stories for readers after reading such a wonderful review?

What's your take on the hero and heroine hitting the sheets earlier and earlier in romance novels? Do you a) like it, b) feel it makes the book less romantic, or c) does nit not matter as long as the behavior fits the characters? I'd love to know!

A Happy Easter to all!

2011-03-27T14:44:00.007-05:00

What a Happy Day!

Anyone who knows me knows I love movies. That line, said by Eddie Murphy in Trading Places, is one of my favorites. I was mixing up a new batch of homemade laundry detergent when I realized I was 1/2 cup short of washing soda. I thought I'd moved an extra box from my car trunk into the garage by the door. I didn't find the washing soda, but I found something I'd been looking for for quite some time...a case of old 3.5 computer disks that contained my original manuscripts for my older, pre-laptop titles. I immediately pulled out my old 3.5 external USB drive, hooked it to my computer, and tried to open the file. I got an error message that said, essentially, that files in this older version of Word are blocked by my registry policy settings. It sounded like something terribly complicated, but I nevertheless clicked on the provided link for more information. There I discovered that the files weren't so old that they couldn't be opened; I just had to set up a Trusted Location on my computer. Following the steps provided, I did just that, moved one file to the new location, and just like that it opened in Word 2007!

I've had the rights for my first two books for about two years, and I've planned on re-publishing them as eBooks since I started Bunderful Books at around the same time. The delay came in locating the disks, which had been in storage in Florida for two years before we bought our home up here and were somewhere in the garage. Then there was the worry that once I found them I might not be able to open them, even with an external drive that reads the now-outmoded 3.5 disks. I decided to leave it to Fate...if it was meant to be, it would be.

I love happy endings, don't you?

Now it's off to the store to get that washing soda.

Have you ever come across something important while searching for something else?

2011-03-16T04:57:00.005-05:00

Life imitates art imitates life...

There's nothing new about TV shows and movies basing their plots on what's been in the news lately, as any fan of the late original Law & Order franchise knows (that show covered the Central Park Jogger, the Lisa Steinberg murder, the James Byrd dragging murder, the O.J Simpson "If I Did It" book, the Chandra Levy disappearance and murder, the Bernhard Goetz subway shooting, the Michael Jackson child abuse trial, and others). But what is interesting when actors whose own lives parallel the lives of the characters.

One such situation that comes to mind is Judy Garland, who is widely accepted to be the basis for child performer turned drug-addicted superstar Neely O'Hara in Jacqueline Susann's blockbuster Valley of the Dolls. This unflattering portrayal did not stop Garland from accepting a role in the 1967 film version, not that of Neely O'Hara, for which she was too old to play, but that of of big-voiced Broadway legend Helen Lawson (a character said to be based on Ethel Merman). In the end Judy was fired because her pill habit caused her to miss one too many days on the set, and the producers got Susan Hayward to do it.

I saw two such situations this evening on Turner Classic Movies in films starring Jean Harlow, whose centennial is this month and who is the featured Star of the Month. The first, Bombshell, featured Harlow as a big movie star who had a conniving agent, a friend/assistant who embezzled her money, a sponging family, and a man who came to her rescue...for a while. This story was actually inspired by 1920's star Clara Bow, known as the It Girl, who had a conniving agent, a friend/assistant who exposed her sex diary in a series of lurid headlines and a nasty court trial, greedy relatives, eventually finding happiness in marriage that failed. But Harlow also had a family notorious for sponging off of her and trying to control her life, arranging for husbands and abortions. In a scene in the movie she screams at her family, calling them a pack of leeches. One has to wonder how she felt saying those lines.

The other movie they showed was called Reckless, which was inspired by 1920s torch singer Libby Holman, who married into the wealthy Reynolds tobacco familiy in 1931. Seven months later her young(er) husband was dead of a gunshot wound, some months before his 21st birthday and the $17 million inheritance that went with it. Orginally thought to be a suicide, the coroner eventually determined it was murder. Holman and a friend were suspected as murderer and accomplice, but not charged at the request of the scandal-fearing family. It's said that Harlow didn't want to make this movie because of her own similar experience; her second husband shot himself just a few months after their wedding.

I've got a partially worked out story that was inspired by the untimely death of Michael Jackson (and yes, I started outlining at the time of his death nearly two years ago). Have any of you writers been inspired been real-life incidents?

2011-03-09T11:41:00.004-06:00

The Publisher Also Rises

It didn't come as a surprise to me to see that another major publisher is jumping on the eBook bandwagon. Harlequin, of course, launched their eBook divion, Carina Press, last year. Now Avon Books has started Avon Impulse, an eBook (with option for readers to get the books in print form if they prefer) program especially for fiction. Their 25% royalty rate on eBooks is considerably higher than the 6% or 8% being offered by some other places I won't name. In what I think is a stroke of genius, all unagented writers will now be required to submit through this imprint's website. Whether their manuscripts are ultimately chosen for Impulse or another imprint at Avon will be at editorial discretion.

Interested? Visit their website for more information. And good luck!

My prediction: Other publishers will follow.

2011-03-08T23:37:00.003-06:00

Joy to You and Me

I've been doing quite a bit lately...I mean, quite a bit. I won't go into a whole lot of detail; let's just say I've been extremely busy with work, busy with household chores, busy writing, and busy doing line editing for a couple of fellow authors. I have so much on my plate that at times I ask myself how the heck it all gets done...but strangely enough, it does, although I should probably be crying from frustration and feeling like I'm drowning rather than soldiering on.

The other day it occurred to me why I'm doing the latter rather than the former.

I take time out for joy.

When I spend a difficult day lugging a 35-pound carpet shampooer to clean three floors worth of rugs, the next day I'll meet a friend for a leisurely lunch. A full day of running errands is followed by baking biscuits or cookies or a coffee cake for my husband, enjoying a few pages of an eBook while they bake. Blowing the snow from the driveway and shoveling areas where the snowblower won't work, like the front steps, and I get in the tub and turn on the whirlpool jets. Rushing to get a birthday greeting with a gift card in the mail so it's received on time, even though I can barely fit it in to my schedule, is followed by my spending an hour chatting with my mother in Florida. It might put me behind schedule, but a surprising number of chores can be put off to the next day without serious consequences.

These may be little things, sure, but they go a long way toward keeping me on track and maintaining my emotional health.

Feeling overwhelmed? Try to put some balance in your life and make time to do things you enjoy...just for the joy of it.

2011-03-03T20:06:00.005-06:00

Research, research

I'm currently working on a multigenerational story of family secrets, which I knew from the beginning would present numerous challenges. There are always facts to confirm, little things like names of the local schools or pertinent local history (i.e., you can't write about Boston in the early 1970s without mentioning the busing crisis). It's tricky to write about a timeframe when you either weren't born yet or were too young to have memories.

Case in point: I read a book a few years back that was loaded with errors, references to songs before they were recorded, stating how the characters "finally" got a color television (in the late 1950s, when these were very rare), etc. Since this book was published by a mainstream publisher, a good line editor should have caught these errors, but that's a column for another day.

An ambitious project like this is going to require plenty of research, and even seemingly simple things have to be questioned. When mentioning what is today known as the Kenosha Chrysler plant, it occurred to me that maybe this was known by another name in 1952. I checked, and sure enough, at that time it was the American Motors Corporation.

Just a few pages later I was writing a scene at a graduation party when I suddenly realized that I haven't the faintest idea what music was popular in 1952. I do know that this pre-dates the rock-and-roll era, which began around 1954. Since this scene is set on the South Side of Chicago, I figured blues would have been the "in" thing. A little digging and I found that one of my favorites, Big Mama Thornton's version of Hound Dog, was out in the early 1950s. Then more digging found that Big Mama didn't record this song until the spring of 1953, over a year after the party scene in my story, so I skipped it in favor of a hit by Ruth Brown and another one by someone I never heard of that apparently topped the Billboard R&B charts that spring.

I kind of hope that my next reference is to a movie. I can come up with a movie title from just about any year without having to look it up! But something tells me I'm going to be doing a whole lot of research...

2011-02-28T07:39:00.003-06:00

At the movies II

Unrealistic situations can always be found in the movies, like all those spacious apartments in New York City lived in by everyday people, those ready parking spaces in that same location, and how no one is ever buried on a sunny day, to name just a few.

I love the movie Mildred Pierce, but there's one part of the premise that seems downright wacked. It's a stretch for me to believe that, even in 1945 when the movie was filmed (and the novel it's based on was set in the 1930s, during the Depression), that a woman who waits tables and bakes pies for the restaurant where she works can afford to catch up on overdue bills, pay a mortgage, plus pay for dance classes for one daughter and for a good voice coach for the other, and have the all-purpose household help...

Can you think of any movie situations that you couldn't swallow? Did it detract from your enjoyment of the movie?

2011-02-25T21:49:00.004-06:00

At the movies

As a lover of movies, I'm enjoying Turner Classic Movies' presentation of 31 Days of Oscar. Every time I see the 1953 Best Picture winner, From Here To Eternity, I have to wonder if the producers meant to have Burt Lancaster's respond the way he did when Deborah Kerr informs him, "I'm wearing a swimsuit under my dress." His reply: "Me, too." Since he wore a suit and tie rather than than a dress, this line always seemed out of place to me in an otherwise near-perfect film (albeit one that requires much reading between the lines due to the motion picture code in place at the time). Being a writer and interested in character development, I wonder about this every time I see the movie, and I've finally decided I think they deliberately chose not to rephrase the reply.

The deciding factor for me was the rather goofy grin that accompanied Lancaster's character's response, which clearly showed a man besotted with the woman he's with. He didn't care about making sense; he wanted to take that famous swim and kiss in the waves.

Have you ever seen a movie where a line seemed out of place? Do you think it was an oversight or done on purpose to fit the character?

2011-02-19T04:21:00.004-06:00

What do you do if...?

I noticed that a reader of Roslyn McMillan's new novel, We Ain't The Brontes, commented that she didn't get the title.

I personally thought the title was fabulous, since the novel is about sisters who write, shades of the famous Bronte sisters in the eighteenth century (there were actually three of them, but Emily and Charlotte were better known than their sister Anne). But I have read books where the author references something I'm not familiar with. I simply look it up. It's not a big deal, as long as it doesn't happen, like, on every other page, and when this does happen it's only been once in a book. It almost seems a shame for the significance of the title to go not understood and therefore unappreciated.

Have you ever read a book where you didn't understand a term or reference? Did you look it up, or just skip it and keep reading?

2011-02-07T16:48:00.004-06:00

Details count

Recently, a reader familiar with Suffolk County in New York informed me that the area's electric company hadn't been called LILCO (Long Island Lighting) in about twenty years. I mistakenly referred to it by its old name in The Heat of Heat. I was annoyed at myself for not checking that detail, which would have taken only a few minutes.

My most recent annoyance came from a book someone else had written. I was recently reading a hardcover book by a bestselling author about a woman on the run who is using an assumed name. This character's truck broke down, and the local auto parts man gave her a check for $700 for salvage. The narrative read that she went to the local bank and cashed the check "with no trouble." My eyebrows shot up like someone had just insulted my mama.

No way would this happen.

With fraud so prevalent, no bank or check cashing place in the country would cash a check without a picture ID. The author did explain how the character got hold of a deceased person's social security number to give to her employer, but simply glossed over this rather important detail of how her heroine waltzed into a bank and came out with seven hundred bucks. Did she hope no one would notice? Didn't the line editor point out how implausible this was? Or was her suggestion vetoed because this couldn't be explained, with the powers-that-be deciding she could get away with it because she's a bestselling author?

Readers will often point out when something totally out of left field occurs in novels. I was surprised that no readers mentioned this, perhaps because it was so casually stated. But details do count, and it's those little things, like the name of the local power company or cashing a check, that give a book credibility.

So writers, be sure to check your facts.

2011-02-01T11:47:00.004-06:00

The Kindness of Strangers

This morning, like many people in this region where a blizzard is coming, I planned to go to the supermarket to pick up a few stock items. It did snow a little last night, but the winds are so fierce that it really didn't stick to anything...or so I thought. As I backed out of my driveway, I promptly got stuck in a drift at the curb I hadn't previously noticed.

While shoveling the snow from around my tires, I noticed a car slow down as it passed, but since I didn't recognize the car, I didn't look too closely. A few minutes later a man approached on foot and offered assistance. He quickly assessed my situation and determined that the snow around one particular wheel was keeping me stuck. He took the shovel and had me out of there in about two minutes.

It turned out that he lives in the house on the corner of the side street, and it was he who had driven by and saw I was stuck. I explained that I had called just last week to have our snowblower serviced (my husband couldn't get it started) and that they hadn't been to pick it up yet because they're backlogged. He made the incredibly kind offer to bring his snowblower around to get rid of that snow drift for me, since I was on my way out and he was about to do his property anyway. When I came back he had cleared not only that hump of snow at the curb, but also some smaller piles in our driveway.

That was so kind of him. I never even saw this man before (and trust me, when you're African-American living in a city where just 7% of the population is that minority, you tend to notice these things).

I'm going to pick up a gift certificate for him from Subway. The least I can do is buy him lunch, and give him an autographed book to give to his wife. But what makes me feel so warm and fuzzy is that this stranger went out of his way. When I failed to look up as he drove by, he trudged around the corner to offer assistance. In this day and age, when the news is full of news about cruel acts...well, it just makes me get misty-eyed.

Has anyone done you a real kindness lately? And have you done a kindness for someone lately?

P.S. About that blizzard...before I set out for the store, I made arrangements to have our property plowed when it's over tomorrow. I can handle a snowfall of 6 or 7 inches, but any more than that and it's time to call in the big guns.

2011-01-31T10:51:00.004-06:00

Gone Blogging

Today I'm the guest of Patricia Woodside at her very popular literary-related blog, Readin' 'n' Writin' with Patricia. Stop by and see what I have to say about the state of publishing in general and Bunderful Books in particular, and feel free to leave a comment!

2011-01-29T14:47:00.004-06:00

And now, an unsolicited opinion about what makes a good book review

I was having an email chat with a reader who mentioned she really doesn't know what to say when she writes her many book reviews, so she usually justs offers a rather detailed summary of the storyline.

Most on-line booksellers have a section where they repeat the back cover copy, so while detailing the plot doesn't hurt (like spoilers without warnings, argh!), it probably isn't all that helpful, either. A sentence or two to introduce your review or intertwined with your thoughts is probably more efficient. An ideal book review, in my humblest of opinions, would also contain at least some (certainly not all, unless you don't mind rather lengthy reviews!) of the following:

What the reader thought of the book in general. A couple of examples: Was the premise unusual? Done with a fresh slant, or maybe a little blah? Did it seem contrived or unrealistic, or natural and real? If it was a mystery, did it keep you guessing? Or did you know whodunit? If the plot contained a surprise, did you see it coming or did it catch you off guard? Were there too many characters? Was it a pleasant reading experience, or do you feel that was five hours of your life you'll never get back (ouch!)?

What the reader thought about the characters. Were they likeable? Well-defined? Motivations explained? Not?

What the reader thought of the author's style. A few examples: Was there a tendency toward too much repeating? (I've been guilty of that one, but I've gotten a lot better!) Was the dialogue natural-sounding or stilted, the narrative passive or alive? Did the story start right away, too slowly for your taste? Were the details of the scenery just right, too detailed, or did the reader feel like they were being told and not shown?

What the reader would have liked to see explored in more depth, or could have done without knowing? I've read a couple of books where the characters were into knitting, and by the time I was through I felt like an expert on yarn. Even books I've overall loved have had some parts I didn't care for.

How did the reader feel about the ending?

And most importantly, would the reader recommend it to other readers?

All authors want the reading public who have invested time and sometimes money in our stories to feel it was time well spent, but we know that won't always be the case. When readers write reviews that say simply, "Wonderful!" with no supporting information, I have to wonder if they're friends of the author (and if they say, "Terrible!" I wonder if they're enemies of the author). A good review can be helpful for both readers and authors.

As always, I wish you good reading!

2011-01-22T20:33:00.007-06:00

Fact vs. Fiction

I remember being surprised when The History Channel began running promos of what appeared to be yet another miniseries about the Kennedy family with the rather salacious tagline that it would go behind closed doors to reveal the inner goings-on.

The History Channel is associated largely with factual data, documentary-style programming with newsreels and, pre-movie, still photographs or drawings. What were they doing producing a miniseries? There's always more than one cringe-worthy scene when miniseries are based on real people, usually the scenes involving pillow talk that are obviously clearly the product of the screenwriters' imaginations, not based on fact. Much of the everyday scenes are simply invented, or dramatic license taken with the actual unfolding of events, and they don't always sit well with the families of those being portrayed. You might recall a number of years back, how the mother of the late Melvin Franklin sued the the producers of The Temptations miniseries for depicting her son passing away in her Detroit kitchen in a wheelchair when he actually died in the hospital (I believe in L.A.).

The Kennedys as a whole have been written about to distraction, remarkable when you consider that not one of them ever wrote their memoirs. Did Jackie every have a phone conversation with Marilyn Monroe? Who knows...but its been depicted onscreen. Did Jackie threaten to leave JFK because of his philandering? Who knows...but a showdown makes for good entertainment, right?

I remember thinking that something didn't quite ring true when one of the productions had Jackie making the suggestion that JFK, only weeks before the 1960 election, call Coretta Scott King and offer assistance after Martin Luther King was sentenced to four months of hard labor in a Georgia prison camp for a traffic infraction. In Kennedy brother-in-law Sargent Shriver's obituary earlier this week, it stated that this suggestion actually came from him. (This is probably mean of me to say, but Jacqueline Kennedy just didn't strike me as being the type to be concerned about such matters as civil rights of black people.)

Anyway, the thought of airing a miniseries loaded with creative license simply wasn't in keeping with The History Channel's reputation. So I, for one, wasn't surprised when they announced that they would not be showing the miniseries after all. With other networks passing on the opportunity to air the show, citing numerous historial inaccuracies, this was a costly blunder for The History Channel for sure. As for inaccuracies, I recall one Kennedy reenactment showing Bobby Kennedy sitting outside by his pool in shirtsleeves when he received word of his brother's having been shot in Dallas...and Bobby Kennedy's residence was in Virginia. Anyone who knows Virginia weather knows that in late November you just don't sit poolside, and I was very surprised no one caught that.

I've got a feeling the miniseries will pop up somewhere, even go to DVD. I'm rather looking forward to it. My husband is a history buff, and we'll get a kick out of determining which scenes Kennedy staffers and intimates objected to as being false.

2011-01-17T07:43:00.010-06:00

Chewing the Fat with Guest Rosalyn McMillan

Today author Rosalyn McMillan stops by Chewing the Fat. Rosalyn's new novel is about to be published, after a hiatus of 10 years! Her last novel, This Side of Eternity, came out way back in 2001.

Rosalyn's new novel is called We Ain't The Brontes (love that title!), is available for preorder at online booksellers now and will be in stores everywhere on January 25th. So let's get started!

Bettye Griffin: Welcome, Rosalyn! I'm going to start by asking the obvious. Ten years is a looooong time between books. What've you been up to all that time?

Rosalyn McMillan: Working, selling cars, furniture, bridal dresses, and Jenny Craig. Throughout all that time I still wrote novels. I have nine books completed.

Bettye Griffin: It just goes to show, no one can stop a writer from writing. Tell me, was it difficult to get back into publishing after being gone so long?

Rosalyn McMillan: Yes. I was told that I was blacklisted. They said I was a diva, an alcoholic. I couldn't get a book contract to save my life. Urban Books took a chance on me.

Bettye Griffin: Wow, that's cold. I'm glad you eventually got a contract, and keeping with the success-is-the-best-revenge mode of thinking, I hope you have Urban Books' biggest seller to date!

About We Ain't The Brontes...It sounds to me like you took a basic idea of two sisters in the same profession (which likely came from real life, since your real-life sister is megasuccessful author Terry McMillan) and ran with it with the writer's 'What if?' scenario into purely fictional territory with baby-daddy drama and other plot twists. Because of your storyline's basic premise of two novelist sisters with varying levels of success and because of Terry's portrayals of sisters to her main characters, including one who tries to do everything her sister does (not necessarily based on you, of course), I have to ask...how's your relationship with your sister?

Rosalyn McMillan: My relationship with Terry is good. She just bought me a new laptop last month. She's always surprising me with gifts and money. She knows what I've been through a tough period, and she wants to help.

Bettye Griffin: It just goes to show that the real thing is usually pales in comparison to the fictional. Now, tell us a little about the new book and your motivation for writing it (as a writer I know that's a silly question, for we all write what we think would make a good story, but readers are still going to want to know).

Rosalyn McMillan: I wanted to write about two African-American literary sisters who deal with sibling rivalry. I believe that sibling rivalry is a very raw subject in families these days. I feel strongly about this subject matter because I know of several sisters who have spoken to each other in years; famous and infamous.

Bettye Griffin: I've always been fascinated by plotlines about the complex relationships between sisters, and I for one am greatly looking forward to reading the book!

***** ****************************************************************************

Okay, everybody, Rosalyn will be dropping by throughout the day, so if you'd like to ask her anything, please do. And remember...We Ain't The Brontes is available now for online preorder, or check your favorite bookseller on or before January 25th to pick up your copy!

2011-01-15T15:54:00.004-06:00

Here we go again

I'm watching the Hallmark Movie Channel. How many times have I seen those movies, usually Westerns but sometimes in Amish country, where a cynical man comes to town, gets injured, and is taken in by a young widow with one child, only to have her melt his heart and fall in love with her? The answer is lot...but strangely, I don't get tired of them.

Do you like this plotline? If so, which is your favorite of the movies you've seen with this story?

2011-01-13T12:09:00.003-06:00

Thrifty Thursday tip, 01/13/2011

As the level of your bottle of dishwashing liquid goes down, add some water to it. Dilution will not affect the amount of suds you get (as anyone who has added water to the last drops left in the bottle will know), and it'll last much longer!

2011-01-06T06:17:00.003-06:00

Thrifty Thursday Tip, 01/06/2011

The Flexible Spending Account. Enrollment is probably going on at your place of work right now. Don't be left out. Make a reasonable estimate of your anticipated medical expenses: Copayments for doctor visits, anticipated surgeries, and anticipated dental work; prescription medications, eyeglasses and contact lenses, and submit that figure to your payroll department. The funds will be deducted from your check on a pretax basis, and you will then be reimbursed for after making your claim (some employers offer automatic reimbursement of prescriptions).

I was just told by a friend on Facebook that non-prescription purchases no longer qualify, effective this year. That's really unfortunate. Those purchases really add up, and some stores, like Walgreen's, used to mark the receipts with FSA-eligible items, like over-the-counter medicines, bandages, saline solution, and more, to make it easy to determine if it could be submitted for reimbursement. Bummer.

Anyway, if you run out of funds (you'll want to use everything you put in, or you lose it), move up that colonoscopy/mammogram or other screening (these usually involve lab expenses as well), or having that troublesome cyst taken off. And if you go over, see if you can postpone the procedure to 2012. An eye exam can easily be put off a few months. A toothache, of course, can't.
Happy savings!

2011-01-01T16:21:00.004-06:00

Welcome to 2011

Happy New Year to all of you! I wish you health, happiness, prosperity, love, and most of all, good reading.

I'll bet you guys thought I died or something. I'm alive and kicking and grateful to see another year. I have been somewhat neglecting my blog, though, and that is something I plan not to do in 2011.

Part of the reason I haven't been around much is because I've been so busy getting my latest Bunderful Books release available for sale. The Heat of Heat went on sale a few weeks ago and is available online only (not in stores) in print form at Amazon.com and in eBook form at Amazon.com, BN.com, and Smashwords.com (in just about any format your eReader takes). In addition, you can get autographed copies of the print version at a discounted price, plus free shipping to US addresses, from my Bunderful Books website, BunderfulBooks.com. It's January now...time to get some heat!

Later this month author Rosalyn McMillan will be dropping by at Chewing the Fat to talk about her new novel, We Ain't The Brontes, after a long publishing hiatus, so stick around!

All the best to you and yours in this new year!

2010-10-04T22:15:00.003-05:00

Book Trailer, The Heat of Heat

I finally got around to fixing this; I'd forgotten to replace a sample photo with the real deal.

Hope you like it! You can head on over to the Bunderful Books website to read an excerpt.

2010-10-03T15:00:00.005-05:00

The Week in Review

Eddie Fisher and Tony Curtis passed within 7 days of each other. Let's see...Eddie Fisher wrote in his autobiography that his first wife, Debbie Reynolds, was a shrew; and that his second wife, Elizabeth Taylor, was a slob who allowed her children and dogs to poop anywhere. Tony Curtis's autobiography contained blunt remarks like, "I fucked Yvonne DeCarlo." (That's Lily Munster, y'all, and underneath that ghoulish makeup she was quite the beauty).

I wonder if God enrolled them in the same class on what a gentleman says?

2010-09-08T22:27:00.005-05:00

A Love Letter to RAWSISTAZ as they celebrate 10 years

Dear RAWSISTAZ:
I confess. I've always been impressed with how organized book clubs are, how they put together events to showcase authors, whether simple book discussions or large events to which people travel from far and wide.

But doing it all online: Maintaining a strong presence on the web with an informative website, overseeing official chapters that abide by RAWSISTAZ principles that carry your name in major cities all over the country, holding contests, having a roster of book reviewers, organizing and hosting either a live, in-person event or an online conference every year, maintaining a blog with thoughtful articles, and more...it just boggles my mind how much all of you do to give us readers of African-American fiction a place to learn about all the latest and upcoming book releases, and a place to interact with one another.

I felt so gratified when RAWSISTAZ accepted my first independent book project (Save The Best For Last, published in 2009 by my own Bunderful Books) for review, and even more so when the reviewer gave it 4 stars and described it in glowing terms. I felt as though this gave me validation, to have my self-published work given the same recognition as the books I've had published by traditional publishers. You just don't know how much it meant to me.

I am happy and proud to be able to tell the world that I love RAWSISTAZ. All my best to you as you begin your second ten years.

Love, Bettye

P.S. This is being posted somewhat late...I always seem to lose a day when the week starts with a holiday, but it doesn't mean I love you any less.

P.P.S. I would have loved to have included one of your logos with this posting, but it seems to be copy-proof.

2010-09-02T17:41:00.004-05:00

Interesting

My books that are available in e-book format are outselling those available in print, according to Amazon.

Call me old-fashioned, but for me, there's nothing like holding the actual book in my hands. Of course, I've been slow to come around to new technology in the past, and this may be just another of those eventualities where I'm late to the party.

How do you do most of your reading, through actual books or e-readers?

2010-08-30T11:12:00.002-05:00

First Look...The Heat of Heat

This sexy contemporary romance is coming your way from Bunderful Books in November. You can read an excerpt on my newly designed web site. If you read the excerpt, I'd love to hear what you think!

2010-08-18T08:28:00.003-05:00

So how was YOUR day?

Yesterday at work I took a call from one of the hospital's radiologists, Dr. "Smith," who said that his colleague, Dr. Jones, dictated the x-ray results of his patient, Patterson, under the name of Dr. Smith's patient, Peterson. Dr. Smith said he would be reading the x-rays of Peterson and would be dictating them, while Dr. Jones would re-dictate Patterson's results under Patterson's name instead of Peterson's. All I had to do was remove the erroneous transcript on Peterson that really belongs to Patterson, and all would be well.

It's not a job, it's an Abbott and Costello comedy routine! Who's on first...?

2010-08-17T06:51:00.004-05:00

Is it just me?

Am I the only who is put off when the leading man of a romance novel takes one look at the leading lady and can identify the label inside her outfit ("She looked luscious in a black Armani suit.")? It seems to me that the only time a man should know this would be if he was there when she was getting dressed. Wouldn't this work better if it was part of the narrative or in the heroine's point-of-view than the hero's?

I think men who cook are sexy. On the other hand, men who recognize the work of designers of women's clothing make me question their masculinity...not the impression romance writers want to give for their heroes, I'm sure, and certainly one that clouds my perceptions.

2010-08-13T10:44:00.003-05:00

Links, I've Got Links

I did an interview with Deb Owsley of Simply Said Reading Accessories at her blog, so please do drop by, and feel free to leave a comment!

Also, for those of you who haven't yet read Save The Best For Last, you can read the first 30 pages at Scribd.com. Warning: It's a sure thing you'll want to order a copy after you read the excerpt!

Have a great weekend!

2010-08-04T09:00:00.003-05:00

Finding your strength as a writer

I was quoting some of my reviews from Trouble Down The Road when I noticed a similarity between two of them. One reviewer said:

"The reason I enjoyed it so much is because even though the books are fiction, Bettye Griffin touches on a lot of real life issues. She develops each of the characters so thoroughly that the reader will most likely identify with one or more of the characters."

And then there was the reviewer who said:

"I enjoy reading Bettye Griffin's mainstream fiction books because she writes about real family life situations."

The similarity, of course, is the references to "real life." I've always been a realist. Even my romance novels are more about real people with real issues who nevertheless manage to fall in love rather than fantasy-fests that suspend reality. These might not be the most popular storylines, especially in these times when difficulties abound, but it's me.

I'm okay with that. Trying to write something I'm not really feeling would be as fake as green contact lenses...and it would look just as bad.

Clearly, writing about everyday drama is my strength, something I do quite well, and some people find the results both interesting and relatable. So I am now going to begin writing my next mainstream women's fiction, which is about a long-held family secret that comes to light after 50+ years and threatens the very fabric of what had previously been a rock-solid family from Zion, Illinois. I do have a title, but I won't reveal that until much closer to the publication date. I'm very excited about this project; it's my most ambitious to date.

How do you like your fiction? Real life, fantasy, or a balance of the two?

2010-08-03T07:57:00.003-05:00

Getting my write on

There've been some recent changes in the direction of my writing career, the details of which I'll share at a later date. I took a close look at my writing habits and decided I've been entirely too lazy when it comes to my writing. I've been terribly late with the manuscripts for my last two books. It's time to step it up, especially if I want to get my next Bunderful Books novel, The Heat of Heat, available for sale by November.

My new goal is simple: 1000 new words per day, at least 5 days per week (anything extra is gravy). Now, 5000 words per week will mean 16 weeks for an 80,000-word manuscript, 20 weeks for a 100,000-word manuscript, so I'm hardly talking Zoom City here. But, considering that this is a new manuscript and I'm simultaneously doing edits and rewrites for The Heat of Heat (which don't count as new words, even if there are plenty of them involved in the process), I've been very pleased with my progress. And I'm noticing that while 1000 words is my self-imposed minimum, I frequently do more than that (yesterday I did 1945). So, just two weeks in, it seems to be working pretty well.

Keep an eye on my progress meters. I'll have one for every project I write on.

2010-07-17T15:37:00.004-05:00

Post-Travel Musings

I've been racing to keep up with the flood of ideas that are popping into my head. From the day we left for our vacation, my imagination went into overdrive. There's the snippet of conversation I heard between two people at the gate at O'Hare who learned they worked for the same organization (they each wore the logoed polo shirt) and shared what type of work they would be doing in a specific Asian country. There were the multiple black and white men I saw with Asian women on the streets and restaurants of Bangkok. The hotel we stayed in, which is also a service residence with laundry, pool, workout room, and parking. The dozens of shopping malls and open markets I saw, some disperse, others dedicated to food, electronics, or high-end retailers. Talking with people during the long plane ride and learning the reason for their travels. Talking with my husband's former classmates and learning where they live today (anywhere from Virginia and Arizona, the Philippines, Australia, or right there in Thailand) and what they do.

In addition to the sights and sounds, I also read some creative, imaginative novels during my trip, one women's fiction and one contemporary romance. Both were refreshing. The women's fiction took a very unusual premise and, although it dragged in spots for me, made a highly entertaining story out of it, and I felt like I hadn't read that story before. The romance, although with too many people for me to process introduced in the opening chapters and a character whose background remained unclear to me through most of the book, was also refreshing, as it provided realistic language and behavior, something not always seen in romance novels.

So, armed with plenty of ideas for future stories and some well-written novels to hold up as beacons, I prepare to lose myself in the wonderful world of writing. My next Bunderful Books, The Heat of Heat, should be out in a few months. The way I'm feeling, I might have it finished next week!

Isn't it wonderful?

2010-07-08T21:59:00.003-05:00

APOOO reviews Trouble Down the Road

APOOO Book Club gives TDTR 4 stars and says: "Trouble Down the Road is a page-turner of "No, she didn't" and "You have got to be kidding me." The twists in the story are not over the top even though the reader sees them coming. It has a strong storyline and characters the reader can follow throughout the book. The enjoyment of the read and the ending make you overlook the characters that were getting on your nerves. I recommend this book to those who love suspense and a good drama."

Have you gotten your copy yet????

2010-06-30T11:14:00.003-05:00

Vacation time!

I'm at O'Hare Airport waiting to board a plane to Hong Kong (where we'll switch planes and continue on to Bangkok), and all I can say is, these people ought to be ashamed of themselves. I've been sitting on the floor for the past 40 minutes because there are no outlets near the chairs, WiFi has to be purchased (Boingo, anyone?), and this gate is fast becoming standing room only. You'd think they'd have at least as many seats at the gate as there are on the plane...?

2010-06-23T10:41:00.005-05:00

Reviews, reviews, reviews

A couple of new reviews on Trouble Down The Road I'd like to share:

Romance in Color gives it 4+ stars and says: "Bettye Griffin brilliantly refines thesee characters and weaves realistic scenarios into a poignant artistic guide to marital survival. The sage problem-solving skills exhibited by the characters are delightfully surprising. Emotions run high as the multidimensional characters weigh the costs of marriage--advantages and disadvantages--and realize that dirovce is not always a wise choice.

"Trouble Down The Road is a captivating melodramatic read with all the ingredients for a blockbuster movie--sexy characters with wealth, illicit affairs, deceit, lies, prestige, status, and dysfunctional extended family members. I highly recommend reading Trouble Down The Road as well as the previous books that introduced the characters."

OOSA Online Book Club gives it 3.5 stars and says: "Trouble Down The Road was a good read. There were plenty of issues and drama that comes along with having that almighty dollar. I enjoyed it. It will amaze you some of the actions that were taking place in this novel. Nice summer read that will pass the time."

Have you gotten your copy yet?

2010-06-10T08:45:00.006-05:00

Coping with the critics

I was very concerned when a reader posted on Black Expressions (where Trouble Down The Road is a Main Selection) that she loved the story, but was put off by all the typos. She said one or two would be okay, but asked if anyone looked at the content before it went to press.

Since I'm a very careful proofreader, I was troubled, wondering if somehow the folks at Black Expressions could have inadvertently done something to my file. Then my editor (bless her) sent me a couple of book club editions, and I soon saw it was the same file as the trade paperback, just with a hard cover.

So why the 3-star review (that the reader said would've been 5 stars if it hadn't been for all those typos (?)? The only thing I can think of is that she mixed up my book with someone else's, yes, possibly even the part about loving the story.

As a writer, I'm objective enough to know that everyone's tastes are different, and it's relatively easy for me to read why a particular reader didn't particularly enjoy my work. But when a reader says something that's just plain wrong, for whatever reason, that's a tough pill to swallow.

While I'm venting, I also want to mention the Romantic Times review, which concluded by saying that readers might want to see an end to the drama and a happy ending for all. This makes me wonder if the reviewer thought Trouble Down The Road is supposed to be a romance with a happily every after. I've always felt a little frustrated when readers don't seem to be able to distinguish between romance and women's fiction. Every romance is women's fiction. Every women's fiction is not a romance. It's not fair to the writers to want them to write the same kind of story every time.

Are you able to tell the difference between romance and women's fiction? Do you feel authors who write romance should only write women's fiction with happy endings?

2010-06-07T09:04:00.004-05:00

Madison Avenue blew this one

Is there anyone else out there who thinks that Toviaz (bladder control medication) commercial is just plain silly? You know, the one where the daughter looks like she lost her best friend because her mother had to go to the restroom while she was trying on wedding gowns? The mother feels she's putting her bladder in front of her daughter. I feel she should be more concerned about the brat she's raised, and I want to tell her not to worry, she'll have plenty of time to spend with her daughter after the new husband decides he doesn't want a wife who feels the world revolves around her and divorces her!

2010-06-06T21:17:00.004-05:00

When Black doesn't really mean Black

I found it amusing that popular author Lori Foster's book Back in Black was shelved with the black-authored books in a store. I guess somebody thought the book was about black people. And the rack was full, suggesting no copies had been purchased.

Location, location, location!

2010-05-27T08:17:00.003-05:00

Book Promotion (yawn)

It's been one month since my latest novel, Trouble Down The Road, was published. It's been a remarkably easy time for me. You see, for the firsttime in my writing career I have not scheduled a single booksigning appearance. There are no bookstores in the city where I live, and truthfully I am not well established enough up here to put on a signing anyway. I used to do quite well in the stores in my hometown of Yonkers, NY, and in Jacksonville,Florida, where I lived for nearly 20 years. Once you get accustomed to selling 50 to 90 books at a signing, selling 15 to 20 just doesn't cut it...especially when you factor in the travel time from my home in southeast Wisconsin to downtown Chicago, the Southside, Northwest Indiana, or Milwaukee. So I decided to just skip it.

To tell the truth, the one thing I miss the most is the time I get to spend with friends who live in those areas, like Donna Deloney and Sean Young. But aside from that, I'm perfectly content to do whatever promotion I can from my chair at home, venturing only as far (or in my case, as near) as the area booksellers to sign store stock.

I find I can even take or leave that small effort. At a stop at a Wal-Mart in Gurnee, Illinois, a wealthy suburb north of Chicago (it's home for a number of professional athletes), but with enough black people to warrant their carrying a limited selection of black-authored novels, I encountered the lady from Levy (the vendor who stocks Wal-Marts in the Midwest with books, music, and DVDs). I introduced myself to her, with the intention of asking her to order TDTR as well as the mass market version of Once Upon A Project, when she promptly informed me that her company doesn't purchase manuscripts for publication. Of course, I know Levy is not a book publisher. But I felt no burning desire to tell her I was already a published novelist. I was content for her to think I was an aspiring writer trying to break in to the business, so I merely tucked the business card I'd been about to hand her back into my purse and headed for the next store.

I'm not quite sure where this ho-hum attitude came from, but I suspect it has something to do with my getting older and reorganizing my priorities. I get the most enjoyment out of crafting stories, and at this point life's too short to be spending it on things that seem to take more time or involve more aggravation than they are worth.

Do you find yourself becoming more laid-back about certain aspects of lifeas you get older? If there are any authors reading this, do you still schedule book signings for your new books?

2010-05-19T10:56:00.004-05:00

Won't you be my neighbor?

Just heard that Vanessa Williams is moving to Wisteria Lane for next season's Desperate Housewives now that her gig on Ugly Betty is over. I like this. I always thought she would be an ideal neighbor to add some color to that show, being about the same age as three of the 45-ish leads (Eva Longoria Parker is the baby of the group). Alfre Woodard never fit in to me; while still pretty, she's clearly a woman in her mid-to-upper 50s (and that plotline they put her in was just silly).

Maybe I'll watch more often this fall. I've kinda fallen off in my regular viewing.

Do any of y'all watch the show?

2010-05-16T09:21:00.003-05:00

And now a word from our sponsor

I just love that commercial for the gizmo that has Gene Wilder's Pure Imagination as the soundtrack. A close second is the commercial that shows in flashbacks how a future U.S. President's parents met, also for a gizmo, cell phone, I think. As far as I'm concerned, these gizmo people have the most imaginative commercials. Too bad I can't remember the products they're selling.

How about you? Do you have any favorite ads?

2010-05-13T12:46:00.003-05:00

What's love (or most other stuff) got to do with it?

When going over the galleys for Trouble Down The Road, I found myself frowning at my biography page. It then occurred to me what the problem was, and I picked up my red marked and drew a line through three words: “with her husband,” as in “She makes her home in Southeastern Wisconsin with her husband.”

Now, before any rumors get started, my husband and I are still very much together. (I think of him not as my second husband, but as my last husband.) But, as my recently eliminated-from-my-author-biography spouse would put it, “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?” The real question here is, "What does that have to do with my books?"

The answer, of course, is, “Nothing.” It occurred to me at that moment that my marital status really doesn’t belong in that little “About the Author” paragraph, which is usually limited to the mention of my most recent novel or what number novel this particular book is, my general geographic area, and an invitation to visit my web site or to befriend me on Facebook. If I'd made a bestseller list or won any awards, or had a book optioned for film, I'd mention that, of course. Maybe if I'd majored in creative writing or English in college I'd mention that as well, but because I was an Accounting major, what's the point in saying where I went to school?

I'll never forget reading a bio of an author whose book I enjoyed, and in that one brief paragraph she got in her husband’s full name, the name of his employer, plus his profession. I knew more about the spouse than the author, which made no sense to me. She was probably just trying to pay homage to him for his emotional support while she wrote (anyone married to a writer knows they have to give their spouse plenty of time to work), but it ended up looking like the husband had a major insecurity problem. By the way, this author is still writing but has changed her bio.

Another issue that has become popular in recent years, among black authors if no one else, is whether authors write full time, i.e., have or don't have outside jobs. I’m not sure when this originated, or even why. I personally don't understand what a writer does with the rest of their time has to do with their book. Is this some kind of code to determine if authors are making a living wage from their books when included in interviews, or a proclamation to the world that the author is doing well financially if it comes directly from the author? For the record, at least here if not in my bio, I will state that I personally don’t do anything full time, not writing and not work.

What do you think? Does anything not writing-related, aside from a geographical area, really belong in an author biography? Is this really the place to mention our spouses, children, cats, dogs, hobbies?

2010-05-10T13:23:00.007-05:00

The Stuff Books Are Made Of

On a simple trip to the post office this morning, I checked my box and found a letter addressed to me from an unknown person marked "Photo, Do Not Bend."

Inside was a picture of a family member taken 74 years ago.

Also included was a nice notecard of introduction and explanation.

Now, it wasn't as though I didn't already know of the situation pictured, but what if I hadn't? It would've have been quite a shock. And what if the note included had a sinister tone to it rather than friendly?

My writer's mind is working already on creating a story.

Here's the picture I received...but I'm not talking beyond that. You can read about it, or at least a twisted, much more interesting version of it, in a future Bettye Griffin novel.

2010-04-30T06:50:00.003-05:00

Gone Blogging, Part II

I'm wrapping up my blog tour today over at Shelia Goss's blog, where I talk about sequels. Hope to see you over there! I also stopped in at Angela Benson's blog.

Here are the links. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Angela Benson's blog
Shelia Goss's blog

2010-04-27T09:42:00.003-05:00

Gone Blogging

It's release week, which means I'm on the blogs of anyone who will have me.

Here's where I've been so far:

Sormag
Readin' and Writin' with Patricia
White Readers Meet Black Authors
Elaine P. English (my agent)

Stop in and say hello! It's a crazy life, but I love it! I wish you all good reading.

2010-04-24T10:29:00.004-05:00

The Week From Hades

Wow. Has this been a killer week, or what? I barely recovered from getting the tax return done when I had to get my husband ready for a trip out of town from Sunday to Thursday (which he didn't tell me about until the previous Wednesday night), had to design, print, label, and mail an announcement postcard for Trouble Down The Road, had to finalize copy for my mini-blog tour (kicking off today at SORMAG), had to get that mainstream synopsis finished once and for all, and on top of that, I had a flat tire (why does this always happen when Bernard is out of town)?

Maybe we'll go to the movies tonight. I hear Death of a Funeral is supposed to be pretty funny. Chris Rock is one of my favorite comedians, but an actor he's not. Anybody seen it?

Right now I'm listening to some of my favorite un-cool music, like Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford and the them to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly by Hugo Montenegro (okay, so I personally think both of these are cool). What are some of your favorite un-cool songs?

A good weekend to all!

2010-04-15T11:53:00.004-05:00

Gone Blogging

I've been busy with taxes, so forgot to mention that earlier this week I did a guest column on the blog of my agent, Elaine English. It's not too late to pop in over there, and feel free to leave a comment!

2010-04-02T09:42:00.005-05:00

Husbands Behaving Badly

I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty tired of hearing about these cheating men who embarrass their wives with their infidelities. It's even worse when the wife has praised or defended him. I still wince when I think of Hillary Clinton's claims of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" in defense of Bill, who knew damn well what he was doing with that intern, but let her go out and stick up for him anyway. And, of course, the news has been following all the developments since John Edwards came clean about impregnating another woman while his wife was coping with a diagnosis of incurable cancer, and we all know that coverage of Tiger Woods's indiscretions practically reached saturation coverage, with his sex partners coming out of the woodwork like termites.

The latest to be embarrassed is Sandra Bullock, who credited her husband with changing her life for the better, teaching her so much about love, etc., in a widely seen Oscar night interview with Barbara Walters. Not two weeks after bringing home her statuette, it's revealed that her husband was sleeping with another woman while she was away on location. Presto bingo...she's now on the cover of every tabloid, the rumors are saying that she's pregnant (at age 45), and women are coming forward for their 15 minutes of fame by saying they fucked him.

No one knows what goes on inside a marriage, and some women, like Mrs. Woods and all those political wives, have never spoken to the press about their relationships with their husbands. I guess that does little to lessen their level of embarrassment, but Ms. Bullock is a celebrity in her own right, and it was a natural series of questions answered with sincere answers. It's not as though she was going around telling the world about her wonderful marriage, in that nauseating way Kathie Lee Gifford used to do on morning TV before it was revealed that Frank Gifford had an affair, a humiliation that finally made her shut up.

I'm sure Ms. Bullock will get through this. The way things are going, it will only be a matter of time before the next big cheating scandal breaks!

2010-04-01T07:11:00.004-05:00

Welcome Guest Blogger Shelia Goss, author of Hollywood Deception

Today my friend Shelia M. Goss is stopping by with a guest blog. Shelia has a new book, Hollywood Deception, from Urban Soul Publishing, the official publication date of which is next Tuesday, April 6th (that means you might spot it on store shelves this weekend, folks!) I don't know about y'all, but I love a good Hollywood-themed novel, and I'm looking forward to reading it. I love the book's first sentence: 'Modesty and simplicity were rarely used to describe Hailey Barnes.' Already whets my appetite; I'm ready to get my read on!

Heeeeeeeere's Shelia!

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One thing Bettye and I have in common besides our love for the written word is our love for movies. I love her movie trivia during Oscar month. This year, I wasn't able to participate because I was under a deadline. Go check the archives because she has some good trivia questions for movie buffs. When I came up with the idea for the Hollywood Deception Red Carpet tour, Bettye's spot here on the web was one of the first places I thought about. I'm grateful she agreed.

I love everything "Hollywood." There's no coincidence that when I decided to be a writer that the very first book (Roses are Thorns) I completed was about a Hollywood starlet.
I didn't realize however until after my book Double Platinum that I had a new series on my hands. I cleverly titled it the Women in Hollywood Series. One of the characters from Double Platinum bugged me for her own story, so Hollywood Deception was born, and readers will get an exciting, unique and insightful look into the world of Hollywood through the eyes of ex-model/talk show host Hailey Barnes. Here are a few things readers are saying about Hollywood Deception:

“Hollywood Deception reads like a true life Hollywood story. I couldn’t stop turning the pages.” ~ Kay, a reader

“Glitz, Glamour & LOADS of Drama…Ms. Goss once AGAIN keeps me turning the pages with another ENTERTAINING, yet fictional glimpse into the fast-paced lifestyle of a celebrity.” ~ Sweet N Sassy, Book Reviewer

“With Hollywood Deception, Shelia Goss has done it again. Love, lies and delicious drama! Pick this book up and you won't be able to put it down. Be ready though - this fun novel is not a passive read. You'll be yelling at Hailey, relating to her, wanting to slap her and cry with her all at the same time. Hollywood Deception is an all around good read full of scandal, just the way we like it. Well done, Ms. Goss!” ~Abiola Abrams is an Author, Media Personality, Host of Kiss and Tell Live erotica in NYC, and Kiss & Tell TV. Viewers also know Abiola as the host of BET's short film show and Miss Picky of VH1's Tough Love. http://www.abiolatv.com/

Hollywood Deception is not just about the glamorous life of a celebrity, but it also deals with the downside of Hollywood fame and fortune. My editor says it best:

“Shelia addresses with understanding and clarity, the serious, and ever-growing crime of stalking (in fact, according to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, in 2005-2006 3.4 million people in this country reported being stalking victims). Readers will be engaged by her believable and fully developed characters.”

Hollywood Deception is available in stores or online from any of the online outlets such as Amazon.com, BlackExpressions.com, Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Shelia M. Goss is the national best-selling author of six novels of women's fiction: Hollywood Deception (2010), His Invisible Wife, My Invisible Husband, Roses are Thorns, Paige’s Web, Double Platinum and and three young adult books: The Lip Gloss Chronicles series: The Ultimate Test, Splitsville, and Paper Thin. For more information, visit her website: http://www.sheliagoss.com/ or http://www.thelipglosschronicles.com./

From this post, I guess you can tell, I absolutely love and have a fascination with Hollywood and yes, I love writing about it too. As much as I hate to admit it, I do watch the entertainment shows to get the latest news on what's going on in Hollywood. Am I the only one?

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Thanks, Shelia! Much success with the new novel!

2010-03-30T10:23:00.006-05:00

When the past is sharper than the present

My godmother passed away last week. Unfortunately, I was unable to travel to Florida for her homegoing services, but her family seems to be taking the loss well. She was less than two months away from her 93rd birthday and had been in failing health, and as so often happens, she just slipped into the next world.

My godmother and my mother, who will be 92 later this year, have been friends for over 60 years, at a time when they were both young mothers living next door to each other in Elmsford, a hamlet in Westchester County, New York. My mother was somewhat numbed by her friend's passing. I've been thinking a lot about both of them the past few days, as well as my mother's sister, herself looking at turning 94, and the subtle changes about them that I've noticed.

The major change is in their memories, which have shifted from present to past. My godmother told me how vividly she remembered the day she first laid eyes on the man whom she would eventually marry, who was 17 to her 12 and quite handsome. She always referred to him as "My Gordon," which was probably as much as an endearment as it was to distinguish him from his best friend, my father, who was also named Gordon. When looking at a picture of her two oldest daughters as children, she recalled the ruffled dresses they were wearing and how difficult they were to iron (this was before cotton blends or the steam iron had been introduced). But sometimes she had difficulty remembering much more recent events.

Similarly, my aunt can rattle off happenings dating back to her childhood, but often cannot remember things that happened five years ago.

My mother cannot remember where she was or what she was doing when word came through that President Kennedy had been assassinated back in 1963, but she can remember exactly where she was when she heard that President Roosevelt (Franklin, not Teddy...she's not that old) had died in 1945, 18 years earlier. (For the record, she was waiting tables at a Chock Full'O'Nuts restaurant in New York City, and she said how everyone cried and the restaurant promptly closed for the day. She even remembers how the other waitresses were unfriendly toward her - I think they were jealous of Mom's good looks.)

The last time Mom was visiting she was watching a classic Bette Davis film, The Little Foxes, and she remarked, "I always loved Herbert Marshall." (He was an actor, largely forgotten today, who played important, if not necessarily leading man, roles in the Thirties and Forties.) I was amazed that Mom remembered his name...I had coached her several times when friends visiting from England came to dinner on their names, and when she asked the husband to pass the butter she trailed off, unable to remember the simple name of Paul.

The next day we driving somewhere and I had one of my home-burned CDs of standards playing (you know, the type of music my parents used to listen to while we were growing up). When a duet between an icon performer and a young performer on her way to becoming an icon began to play, Mom said, "Oh, that's Judy Garland. I'd know that voice anywhere." When I asked her about who Judy was singing with, a singer still active today, she struggled to remember, snapping her fingers and saying, "Oh. Oh. Oh." Finally she said, "She's got a big nose." Yeah, it was Barbra Streisand.

I wonder, if I live that long and am fortunate enough to still be lucid, if I will remember the past more accurately than the present. I don't remember the JFK assassination at all, although most of my friends do (I was 6 when it happened). Will it come back to me? I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Have any of you noticed this in the elders you know?

2010-03-23T09:15:00.003-05:00

Enough Already

These Republicans are really getting on my nerves with all their whining and protesting to repeal health care. How's this? Let's vote them out of their jobs in November and see how they like paying $800 per month to pay for health insurance for themselves, $1200 if they have families.

I have health insurance...but I also have compassion for those who don't.

2010-03-22T09:55:00.003-05:00

Publisher's Weekly reviews Trouble Down The Road

Trouble Down the Road, Bettye Griffin. Kensington/Dafina, $14 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-7582-3162-8

The oh-so-complicated passions and power plays in a Jacksonville, Fla., suburb emerge in Griffin's sticky melodrama (after The People Next Door) about just how low some women might go to snag a rich man, even if he belongs to someone else. Middle-aged Suzanne Betancourt is married to her former boss, radiologist Bradley Betancourt, and, in a frustrating twist of fate, lives next door to Bradley's ex-wife, Lisa, and her second husband and children. If that's not bad enough, she suspects that Micheline Trent, the young wife of Bradley's golfing buddy, wants her man. Micheline's got crazy baggage of her own, as do the neighbors down the street, whose son gets quickie married to Suzanne's pregnant sister. Readers may have trouble keeping up with the large cast and all the twists that Griffin packs into this tart and torrid tempest, but those who crave their drama fast and furious will surely enjoy.

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Are you listening, drama lovers? Have you ordered your copy yet?