Let's Launch This Thing!

Okay, so we're really rolling now. The Book Launch for Matinicus (my double mystery set on the Maine island of the same name) has officially been scheduled, so if you're a planner like me and you're going to be anywhere near Portsmouth, NH on Thursday evening, May 17, please join us at RiverRun Bookstore for a short reading and signing followed by a reception just down the street at the Portsmouth Athenæum. If you've never been the Athenæum, this alone will be worth the trip. Portsmouth's oldest cultural institution, its four floors are home to thousands of books, documents, centuries-old maps and all manner of ephemera relating to NH's Seacoast. Hope to see you there!

FYI...The cover for Matinicus is just about finalized, so be sure to check back!

Changing Publishers

Okay, I promise to be better about keeping you updated. Been offline for a bit while I regrouped. The long and short is that I needed to change publishers to guarantee my vision of Matinicus (the first book in my Maine Island Mystery Series) as both a tree book and an e-book. 

So here's my rant...While it's true that e-readership is very much on the rise and the costs of putting out paper books have become nothing short of ludicrous, it's also true that the world is chock full of people who still prefer to curl up in their favorite chair with the real thing. And when all is said and done, it's about making your readership larger, not smaller. A no brainer, really--well to me anyway. But apparently not to my former publisher's bean counters, who decided to nix my softcover version. That was all it took for me to jump ship. Scary to give up a sure thing for something as ephemeral as artistic vision, but well worth it in the end. So, after a few months of teeth-gnashing and sleepless nights, I'm back on track with "real" books and all manner of e-versions due out in May. Yeehaw!

The other biggie is that I finished the draft of Reese's Leap, sequel to Matinicus, and have sent it off to readers for commentary. One long-time reader came back with the comment "Boy, you do paint those baddies well," and I'm hoping she's right. Murderous scumbags bent on twisted, seemingly unwarranted revenge are too easy to get wrong. Tentative pub date for this one is spring, 2013.

And here's another promise...this one to share the cover of Matinicus as soon as it's ready!

Hunter Huntress Available Now in Kindlle!

Yeah, okay, I know. You've been after me for over a year now. So here I am to tell you that Hunter Huntress is finally available in Kindle format. This is HUGE for me. Back when SnowBooks made me an offer, I never realized that publishing a high-end softcover with a British house would be so limiting--especially one with no US distribution or marketing in place. I was the marketing department; I was fulfillment. Egads.

Now, suddenly, it's available all over the world at the click of a mouse. I'm giddy with the possibilities. Not only that, but later this fall, Matinicus (the first in my series of Maine mysteries) will also be out as a Kindle with softcover to follow, which means I've got learn everything there is to know about marketing ebooks and fast. So much to learn, so little time.

Got any tips for me?

Come On By and Say Hi!

This is just a quick down and dirty...

I'll be at the Manchester NH Public Library tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. for a reading/discussion of "Hunter Huntress." I'll be talking not just about the book itself, but how I get ideas for plot and character, the important role of dreams in my work and my next book--"Matinicus"--a double, century-spanning mystery due out in the Spring. Come by and check it out!

Spring Cleaning

So yeah, okay, I'm a little late with this one. Tomorrow night is the solstice, after all. Have to say, though, I've never been big on the cleaning chores. In this case we'll blame deadlines of the writerly sort. Now these I'm a real stickler about. One manuscript just sent to the publisher, another I'm trying to finish up to get off to my first readers. Hmm...what to do.

I decide to simplify the cleaning bit, focus on a room a day. Sounds manageable. So I start with the bedroom, do a 360, sigh. Kind of overwhelming, what with all those little bookshelves I had my husband build in. Seemed a good idea at the time. Now I see them as the little dust collectors they truly are.

Hmm...more simplifying is called for. How about I just tackle those piles of unread fiction by my bed? Let's see...there's Stand the Storm, The Beekeepers Apprentice, Cutting for Stone, the latest by Chelsea Cain (absolutely love her chilling Sweetheart series), a book by famous mystery authors on the writing of mysteries--now how did that get in there?

I'm like a kid in the proverbial candy store. Where to start? Should I stack them by size? Alphabetically by author? Sub-genre? My gaze lights on Spencer Seidel's debut novel, Dead of Wynter. Why not read now, I reason, stack later? Okay, then. I drop onto the futon, put my feet up and tuck in.

Still spring for another 24 hours, after all...

The Dog and Pony Show

One of the most time-consuming parts of being a writer (besides the actual writing bit, of course) is the marketing involved in spreading the word about your book. Unless you're a big name like Stephen King or Dennis Lehane, a lot of the leg work can fall to you. Getting press kits out, lining up appearances, developing an interesting "talk"--not to mention all the follow-up involved--eats up a lot of time. Even then you don't know how many people, if any, will show up to see you. Kind of scary.

When I started down this road, I thought I'd hate this part of being published--the lining everything up, the actual showing up and putting myself on the emotional line. Strangely, though, I don't. I find I like it--a lot. I've developed a kind of "dog and pony" show wherein I incorporate readings from Hunter Huntress into a presentation about the writing process itself, how initial generative ideas become incorporated in narrative, how dreams feed creativity, the responsibility of the writer to conduct thorough research and manuscript vetting to ensure accuracy and authenticity--stuff like that.

So if you're in the Durham, NH area on Wednesday, May 25th, come give me a listen at the Durham Public Library beginning at 7:00. The dog and pony will be raring to go!

Kindle Me

Well, my birthday's come and gone, thank God. A real non-event now the years are piling up. Ironically, it's only recently, and after some 20+ years together, that my husband's up and started remembering the date on his own. Kind of like an old watch you've long ago given up on that suddenly, inexplicably, starts ticking rather reliably on its own.

Traditionally, birthdays in our house mean an actual dinner out at some place other than the Scottish restaurant at the corner (McDonalds). This year, though, my husband got it in his fuzzy little brain to surprise me with a Kindle, never mind I wasn't even sure I wanted one. First thing I downloaded was Kate Atkinson's latest: Started Early; Took My Dog which I Started Late (ha-ha) last night and hated, hated, putting down, it was so good. Bodes well for my electronic experience, I'm thinking, though I may have to keep a couple "real" books propped open in my lap while reading so I can get that "book smell" I love so much.