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...?

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?

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?

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!

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!

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?

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?