An expo, a reading, a photo shoot, and a book fest - in the next 8 days!

I'm buckled up and ready to go.
Tomorrow, Saturday October 15th, I'll be at the York Book Expo sharing a table with Michael Rausch. He's the cover designer for Risking Exposure and the illustrator of Mikey and the Swamp Monster. We'll have copies of the books ready to inscribe, plus activities for the kids and props from my historical research. I hope to connect with lots of new readers!

Tuesday October 18th, I'll be joined by Jeff Leeser, a photographer from Advance for Physical Therapists. They're running an article of mine as their cover story (!) in late November, and Jeff is going to shoot me in my writing area, and possibly a park. Then we're heading over to a Lancaster cafe/bookshop, The Rabbit and Dragonfly. Jeff arranged for me to do a reading there and share some about my writing and research processes. The friendly folks at The Rabbit and Dragonfly were all about it - just as warm and supportive as can be.


Next Friday and Saturday the 21st and 22nd, Michael Rausch and I will again share a table, this time at Celebrate the Book in Carlisle. We'll again have books to inscribe and activities to share, so stop by if you're in the neighborhood.

Good fun! I'll post some pics from the events here or on my website.

Final hours for the giveaway!

There are still a few hours left on the Goodreads giveaway of my new picture book Mikey and the Swamp Monster. Five print copies are up for grabs, and yes, books will be personalized for your favorite little monster if you'd like.

Can't win unless you enter, so give it a try!

Free for Kindle!

Through Friday only, Mikey and the Swamp Monster is FREE for Kindle!

This humorous picture book has garnered 5-star reviews and parents tell me it has become a "read it again!" favorite with the 3-6 year olds.

The talents of graphic designer Michael Rausch are there to enjoy. And yours for free. What more could you want?

Blast off! A new picture book has launched!

Drum roll, please... my long-awaited picture book has launched! Mikey and the Swamp Monster is my cooperative effort with talented graphic designer Michael Rausch. Available on Amazon in print and e-book!

New connections and a new book

One perk of our move to a new area is the chance to make new connections with people and organizations that matter to us. For me, that includes a finding a church home and a community of writers. We seem to have found a church home, which is awesome, and the library system led me to a terrific, established writers group. Unfortunately for me and my ongoing need for writer-ish infusions, they only meet once a month. Through my membership in SCBWI, I connected with two other fledgling writers' groups which have great potential. I located a member who I'll meet for coffee next weekend, and already met with fellow author Corinne Smith. Corinne and I chatted over breakfast about our books and the trials and tribulations of publishing. That single meeting lifted a veil from my eyes - uncovering the marketing angle.

What Corinne has done is create a uniform approach to her online persona. Her website clearly shows the coordination between her presentations, her publications, and her activities among Henry David Thoreau scholars and fans. Quite impressive.

Corinne is a generous guru who, by her example and her willingness to share links and info, has started me on the road to understanding how best to present my work and myself in the marketplace. I'm so grateful!

All that marketing info got my wheels turning. With the upcoming release of my first picture book Mikey and the Swamp Monster created with illustrator/graphic designer extraordinaire Michael Rausch, we're developing ideas about how best to handle the marketing. We have to 1) engage kids in the idea behind the story with activities and manipulatives, 2) allow parents to see that the book encourages imagination and imaginative play, and finally 3) get the book into kids' hands. The ideas are flying fast and furious - and fun!

Hopefully, all will be in place for an early August book launch. I'll keep you posted!

Character sketches from my (soon-to-be-released) picture ebook!

What's a good kids' story without great illustrations? Not nearly as much fun, I'd say.

 

These awesome characters will populate the picture ebook, Mikey and the Swamp Monster, which I hope to release by late October!

I'd written the story ages ago, and since retirement, pulled it out and tweaked it. With permission from my son Mike (whose childhood imaginings inspired the story), I'm getting the ebook ready to launch. 

For illustrations, I again called on the talent of the incredible Mike Rausch (a different Mike) to add visual life to my words. You may remember that Mike also created the acclaimed cover for my historical fiction novel Risking Exposure. 

Stay tuned!

Trying it on for size

I tend to be a do-er, the kind of person who's happy with a project and not content just sitting around. I've been known to 'find' things to do, especially physical work like washing windows or cleaning out a closet, just to avoid sitting.

My life has changed.

I'm a couple weeks post-op, still unable to use my right (dominant) arm for anything that requires force. I can keyboard if I keep my forearm propped up, I can read when the book is propped in a stand, I can drive a little with my right hand on the bottom of the steering wheel. But working or gardening, cooking or cleaning? Not happening, not for two more months. I've also got remnants of what can only be called anesthesia-brain, times when I zone out or find myself acting without forethought. Not the best time to make huge decisions or attempt new projects.

And yet it's the time I've been given. For a few years, I've wondered aloud and in prayer what to do with my time and my gifts once I no longer can perform or choose to perform my current job. This next two months is God's answer - try a few different things on for size, Jeanne, and see what fits.

Since my current ability to focus limits me to brief periods of concentration, I've spent the last few days pulling old short articles and stories I've written but never published. Some of them aren't worth salvaging, but a few are. So between breaks for naps and old movies, I've worked through some edits and found potential markets for three magazine length pieces. Plus, I've sent out my picture book manuscript with high hopes, sent writing samples to a couple publishers looking for freelance writers on assignment, and started to think about the revisions my novel needs.

The long and short is this - I'm using my time the best way I can: resting and healing my body, exercising my mind, and sowing seeds that may help me grow a new future.

What are those hand-clapping routines called?

A few months ago, I gave Addie a picture book called, "Miss Lucy had a Baby." The book was an illustrated version of the song we sang as kids, the one we accompanied with a complicated hand-clapping routine with a friend. What on earth did we call those routines? Patty-cakes? I have no idea, but you know what I'm talking about.

As with all books, "Miss Lucy" got me thinking... and I went back to the other songs and rhymes we sang as kids. Did any of them have a chance of connecting with kids in this century?

Since I was a city kid, we did a lot of jump rope and those patty-cake (?) games to songs. One of the jump rope songs went like this: A- my name is Alice and my husband's name is Andy. We come from Alabama and we sell apples. B- my name is Barbara and my husband's name is Bob. We come from Brooklyn and we sell bagels. You get the idea. The basics of the song might be fun, but the structure we used was way too rigid for this new generation. So I played around with the structure, my objective being a profile of America that shows our diversity and the many wonderful places and people we have. The resulting picture book out with some beta readers now, and hopefully I'll get some feedback soon. I plan to send it out to an agent in the next couple months.

But I'm faced with a problem. When I write the cover letter to an agent, how do I describe the origin of the story when I don't know what those hand-clapping routines are called?