Since GATHER THE BONES launched last week, I have been out and about on the blog circuit. While not officially a Blog Tour, I have donned my best hat and gloves and with my new, embossed calling cards in my reticule I have paid calls at the following blogs. So rather than post something new here, come and visit me at the following addresses:
Cathryn Hein - Friday Feast: Talking about growing up in colonial East Africa, why I don't speak Swahili and the food of my childhood. My favourite Prawn Curry recipe is included!
I think I can say GATHER THE BONES has been thoroughly well launched.
I really was at a loss as to how to send off an ebook but the Facebook party turned out to be a huge success. In preparing for it, I threw together a couple of videos and thought I would share them on my blog page. They are a little rough and the wandering eyes are caused by trying to read from a computer screen behind my Mac notebook which I was using to record the video.
So excusing a rather untidy office and an even scruffier author...
The first is the "Welcome" video in which I talk about how I came to write GATHER THE BONES.
The second is a reading from the story:
TO READ AN EXCERPT (the Prologue and first chapter) click HERE.
Join me today over at my Facebook author page for my virtual launch party. There will be a copy of GATHER THE BONES to give away, along with other goodies. I am also visiting the Australian Romance Readers today where I am giving away a copy of the book. Keep watching this blog and over the next few weeks there will be another opportunity to win a copy of GATHER THE BONES and other prizes as I visit other blogs. Details will be posted either here or on my Facebook author page. I'm looking forward to making some new friends. Alison
War leaves no one untouched The horrors of the Great War are not the only ghosts that haunt Helen Morrow and her late husband's reclusive cousin, Paul. Unquiet spirits from another time and another conflict touch them. A coded diary gives them clues to the mysterious disappearance of Paul's great-grandmother in 1812, and the desperate voice of a young woman reaches out to them from the pages. Together Helen and Paul must search for answers, not only for the old mystery, but also the circumstances surrounding the death of Helen's husband at Passchandaele in 1917. As the mysteries entwine, their relationship is bound by the search for truth, in the present and the past.
No new mother likes to be told their baby has funny ears or Aunt Georgina's nose and for an author, release day can be both exciting and frightening. You are sending your baby out for public scrutiny. Inevitably there will be those readers who don't connect with your writing and a writer has to learn to take the bad reviews with the good. We should be experts at rejection but we're not. We love our baby - even if it does have a huge nose and ears like Dumbo... So after a long, long break, my baby is now out in the big, wide world. Be gentle...
I am thrilled that award winning writer, Anna Campbell not only read the book but agreed to provide the cover quote. Thank you, Anna!
"GATHER
THE BONES is breathtakingly romantic. This moving and dramatic love story will
haunt you long after you turn the last page. Anna Campbell, author of SEVEN
NIGHTS IN A ROGUE’S BED"
For the time being it is only available as an ebook and can be found at AMAZON KINDLE, BARNES & NOBLE, Lyrical Press and other reputable on line stores. With ebooks, the reviews and feedback at these sites is so important so please leave a review or rating. It is also up on Goodreads. Tomorrow is party day...I shall be hosting an online Launch Party at my Author Facebook page . There will be readings, giveaways and other fun...so watch this space. In the meantime here is the Book Trailer for GATHER THE BONES (Or Gather the Bones - the movie)
The
horrors of the Great War are not the only ghosts that haunt Helen Morrow and
her late husband's reclusive cousin, Paul.
Unquiet spirits from
another time and another conflict touch them.
A
coded diary gives them clues to the mysterious disappearance of Paul's
great-grandmother in 1812, and the desperate voice of a young woman
reaches out to them from the pages. Together Helen and Paul must search
for answers, not only for the old mystery, but also the circumstances
surrounding the death of Helen's husband at Passchandaele in 1917.
As
the mysteries entwine, their relationship is bound by the search for truth, in
the present and the past.
At her breakfast talk on Sunday, Eloisa James, Romance Writers of Australia Conference key note speaker gave a talk on the "Ten Things I know Now". While it was not specifically one of the "Ten things", she spoke about the importance of friends and of finding your tribe .
What do we mean by "Tribe":
The Oxford dictionary definition is "..a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.."
It is our most basic human instinct, the need to gather in groups with a shared interest...which began with the instinct of survival. A group of hominids gathered together for food and protection. You can still see groups of hominids at your football match on a weekend - they are called Collingwood supporters (sorry, Australian Rules Football joke!).
Collingwood supporters on their way to the game...
Throughout our life we find ourselves drawn to different tribes. At school it was probably the "nerdy group" or the "cool group". Whichever group you belonged to (hands up here for the "nerdy" group), there was a shared collective interest and yes, inevitably, someone within that group would assume, generally by unspoken common agreement, a leadership role.
I lived in Singapore, as an Aussie expat in 2000-03. During that time I became acutely aware of the importance of my tribe. I was an Australian and the tribe would gather at the Australian High Commission to celebrate as a tribe (the opening of the Sydney Olympics and the Melbourne Cup celebrations). Then came to September 2001 and more personally for the Australians, the Bali Bombings of Oct 2002. It was this latter event that drew us back to the High Commission to mourn as a tribe (and those exact words were used by the High Commissioner in his address). We all knew someone who had been affected by that terrible event. The school choir sang "We are Australian" and I still cannot hear that song without tears. I have never been so acutely conscious of the need for the tribe to gather together.
The stereotype of the lonely writer in a cold garret with the single guttering candle is a myth, at least as far as I am concerned. I wrote my first book in isolation and in 1997 I attended my first Romance Writers of Australia conference. I can still remember every workshop I attended, every writer I met...even asking the renowned Valerie Parv if she was a writer when I met her in the lift (I have come a LONG way!). Like Eloisa James at her first conference I met people at that conference who I have grown up with as a writer. Bronwyn Jamieson and I were the finalists in the Emma Darcy Award that year. We both swore we would be published within the year...hmmm...it took us both a little longer than a year but we made it eventually and once again shared our traditional post conference Margeritas and reflected on our writing careers.
The "Historical" tribe at RWAus 12
Within the tribe there are sub tribes: The friends I made during my time as President of RWA, the Conference Committees, the Historical writers (who meet for their traditional lunch on the Saturday), the published authors group - they are all my tribes.
The ANZA Writers group at the launch of Pink Gins 2003
In Singapore I found a wonderful tribe of writers - the ANZA Writers Group, a shared experience that resulted in the publication of two successful anthologies of short stories. It is only in the last eighteen months that I have found a new Writers Group. Over the last twelve months we have met together regularly over numerous cups of coffee, shared our writing, our disappointments and celebrated our successes.
And then there is social media which has opened up the whole world. I have writer friends on Facebook and Twitter from all corners of the world. As a result my recent foray to RWA National in Anaheim felt like a coming home because I could instantly slot into my tribal groups - Hearts through History and the Beaumonde.
Meeting my new tribe...the Beaumonde...Anaheim 2012. Note the tribal uniform.
Fiona Lowe, winner of this year's RITA commented that after the RITA awards ceremony she felt quite confident leaving RITA with the Australians gathered in Anaheim because they were her people. I'm not sure if she said "my tribe" but we were her tribe. Those Australians present at the Anaheim conference brought the roof down when her name was announced. She was one of US and we were fit to burst with pride. I have never been sporting but I am sure for those Australians (or whatever country) competing at the recent Olympics, the feeling must have been the same.
Far from being an isolating profession, my writing life is rich and full (maybe a little too full!) of social interaction. I call Facebook my "cyber water cooler" (or if I am continuing the tribal metaphor)...our campfire...where the members of the tribe gather and share not only their lives but where the good places are for our sustenance as writers - blogs, publishers, editors, agents. The twenty first century tribal lair.
But there is nothing, NOTHING, in this world like that annual gathering, our tribal corroboree. It is punctuated with shrieks of delight as we meet up, alcohol flows freely, we dance, we party and we celebrate our successes. At the end of each Annual Awards Dinner, Anne Gracie conducts the "stand up", where one by one each great and small achievement is publicly acknowledged.
Thank you to all my writing tribes, great and small. I couldn't be a writer without you.
The video below is a tribute to the memory of those Bali Bombings and the time the Australian expats in Singapore clung together as a tribe mourning the loss of their own. I defy you to watch it without a tear...
After being on the highest of highs following the American conference, I hit the ground with a thump this week after a thoughtless comment on one of my lists, from a male, I shall call Mr. X, (no names, no pack drill) that derided both women and romance writers in the single strike of the keyboard (I do miss the swipe of a pen...!).
You know something? I am not ashamed to call myself a Romance Writer. I am out and proud. I like being around other romance writers. It is my tribe. It is a place where people write happy stories and they tend to be happy people.
When I wrote my first book I didn't even know I had written "a romance". I had simply written a story -- the sort of story I liked to read with plenty of action, a dashing hero, a strong heroine and, most importantly a happy ever after ending. I didn't know that books had "labels" and if you didn't fit neatly under that label you were condemned to a marginal land where you could never be published. What was worse I didn't realise that by adopting one of the labels ("Romance") I would be condemned to a world of the perpetual lip curl. A friend read my manuscript (written on our primitive computer using good old Word Perfect 5.1), declared it readable and suggested I joined the Romance Writers of Australia because they had contests for stories such as mine. I entered it and that year came second, went to my first conference, learned who Norah Roberts was and a romance writer was born...Only there was a problem, saying I was a romance writer out loud was almost as hard as I imagine it would be saying I was a born again Christian. People looked at me in a strange way (and I learned the lip curl) and I found myself making mumbled excuses and trying to explain my work as "really more historical than romance". The facts are there on the Romance Writers of America website for anyone who wishes to read them. If you like statistics...here they are. In short Romance Fiction accounts for $1.36 billion in sales each year - the largest share of the consumer-book market. More than a quarter of all books sold are romance and are read by approximately 75 million people each year. The nearest genre fiction (Mystery) doesn't even come close. If you want an indication of the popularity of romance fiction, here is a photo from the Literacy Signing put on by Romance Writers of America just a few weeks ago... Have I missed the point, but why is writing romance a bad thing...?
Many, many writers make a good living from writing romance. How many other writers can claim that? And you know something -- scratch any book genre, literary or other and I bet you find a relationship at its heart. It may not have a HEA but I'm betting there are two characters in that story who are attracted to each other. Romance is about the fundamental of human needs, relationships. It is about love. It is about overcoming obstacles. Even Mr. X's books have love at their heart (I know because I looked him up). So why did he feel he had to dismiss a group of women writers just because he considered them "romance writers" and therefore somehow unworthy?
Not your preconception of a romance writer?
In my stint as President of Romance Writers of Australia I came across this attitude often -- mostly from the press. Some cub reporter would be sent to interview me, no doubt imaging Barbara Cartland or worse, a housewife in curlers and slippers (they are UGG boots NOT slippers!). In a bored voice, she (or he) would ask..."And what do you do for your real job"? (Yes...they did say "real" job). When I answered "I'm a lawyer", you could almost hear their eyes widening and their back straightening as their preconceptions of romance writers flew out of the window.
Dear old Babs...she didn't really do us romance writers a lot of favours, but by jingo she sold a lot of books!
So what did I do about Mr. X? No point entering into a debate with people with those sort of preconceptions. All you can do is politely point out their mistakes of fact and walk away. They will continue to believe what they want to believe or they may think "Perhaps I was wrong?"
"There's no place like home...There's no place like home..."
Toto...it's time to leave the "Happiest Place on Earth" and return to the dull, drear Melbourne winter so this will be the last report from #RWA12. The first challenge will be packing - all those lovely books and the consequences of Tuesday's shopping spree have to be squeezed into a small baggage allowance.
Saturday promised another full day of workshops.
SESSION 1: EMOTION - Brenda Novak
Brenda Novak is one of the (many) NY Times bestsellers one passes in the corridor at this conference so I attended the first part of her presentation on Emotion with some excitement.
Layering a story with emotion is about active writing and techniques for adding that all important emotion to your stories included
Use of internal thought (sparing)
Dialogue
Deep POV
Action
Metaphor
Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the second part of her session because I wanted to hear Michael Hauge. I'm a bit of Hauge fan girl, having heard his Story Mastery workshop at home and I own the DVDs...and the books, but I wanted to hear how he contextualised his theories for romance writing.
SESSION 2/3: USING INNER CONFLICT TO CREATE POWERFUL LOVE STORIES - Michael Hauge
Yes, I'd heard it all before, but Hauge is a charismatic presenter and his exposition of the Hero's Journey is worth hearing over again. He makes it sound so easy...
On my recent Writing Retreat with the Saturday Ladies Bridge Club, we watched his DVD on the HJ and then sat down to watch Prince of Persia...with the timer on and lo...the Prince of Persia followed Hauge's Three Act Journey to the second. How does this translate into romance...I think, particularly in category romance, that first 10% (the hero in ordinary life) does not necessarily apply but in all other respects seems to follow the theory.
RITA Award winner Fiona Lowe and her "date"
Grabbed a quick, unsatisfactory lunch with Fiona Lowe and went up to my room with the idea of watching a little bit of the Olympics. Next thing I knew it was 3.00 pm and with a booking for dinner at 5.30pm, togged out in the glad rags, that was the end of my conference! I sat outside in the warmth and read a book for a little while.
The highlight of the conference has to be the RITA Awards. As I may have mentioned I was extremely touched to be asked by Fiona Lowe to be her "date" for the Awards. Fiona's editor at Carina Press, Angela James and senior Harlequin staff had invited us out for dinner. Because we had to be back at the Marriott and seated ready for the awards by 7.30, we met at a local restaurant for dinner at 5.30. Angela had organised a special celebratory dessert for Fiona.
Fiona and her editor, Angela James with good luck dessert
Like everything about the conference, the Awards were incredibly well organised. Golden Heart and RITA finalists had spent 2 hours in rehearsal that afternoon and we were all seated at tables at the front of the room. The MC was the delightful Victoria Alexander and was interspersed with little pastiches of our favourite romantic moments on film. Golden Hearts (for unpublished MS) went first and then the RITAs. Other Aussie nominees Christina Brooks and Trish Morey missed out and then came the Single Title Contemporary Romance category. Fiona had no expectations of winning and when her name was called out she sat there in complete disbelief. I was no help...jumping to my feet and screaming like a teenager at a Bieber concert.
As I may have mentioned Boomerang Bride was one of my favourite summer reads and thoroughly deserving of its win. The other big positive for this win is that it is a "digital first" ie it came out solely as an ebook. It is now in print.
So there we are...your Anaheim correspondent is now signing off and returning to Oz to gather her energy for the Australian Romance Writers Conference in two weeks! Thanks for bearing with me.
SO HAPPY (and a little unsteady on the unfamiliar high heels). Yes, your humble correspondent is the winner of the 2012 ROMANCE THROUGH THE AGES contest run by the Hearts Through History chapter of RWAm. LORD SOMERTON'S HEIR is currently with the agency who judged the final entries and we'll see what happens next... terrific night! My darling Sebastian Alder (the hero of LSH) is delighted and thanks everyone for their warm wishes.
So back to the business at hand...I am pleased to report your Anaheim correspondent woke feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. The early night worked wonders.
A light breakfast is served at the conference venue and it's a great time to meet new people. Having a funny accent helps break the ice. I just tell people now that it's a Melbourne accent...explaining the whole Out of Africa bit is just too complicated.
SESSION 1: CARE AND FEEDING OF THE WRITER'S SOUL
A panel of 3 predominantly YA authors, Elle James, Trinity Faegen and Jordan Dane.
A good positive affirmation to start the day...and a won a prize (THE POWER OF NOW - a guide to spiritual enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle which looks really interesting). Winning prizes is always good!
Key points I took from this: Don't let marketing/ networking/blogging/ social media take your creativity.
Manage your time, use calendars to organise your day.
Develop positive rituals
Drink hot tea...
Above all believe in yourself. Your stories come from your and only you.
PITCHING
Oh my...lions, and tigers and bears....
I had a 1030 pitch with Heather Osborn of Samhain. We were instructed to be there 15 mins early. You are marshalled on to chairs and once all 1030s are assembled route marched to the other side of the room and put in alphabetical order of the person you are pitching to. Trish Morey was in my group - a pair of irreverent Aussies! It did feel a little like we were being lined up to be shot and the poor girl standing next to me looked as if she was expecting a blindfold to be handed out. A bell rang and we were route marched into the next room where the editors/agents were seated at tables. A second bell rang and we had to find our editors PDQ. Talk about speed dating. Heather was very nice and glad to have a non-regency historical pitched to her.
I now hold Bob Mayer's advice close to my heart. He said very few people who are asked to submit from a pitch, do. By not submitting you are rejecting yourself.
After the trauma, Trish and I had a debrief with Carol Marinelli and Fiona Simpson over coffee.
LUNCH
Another networking lunch and a chance to meet up with fellow Lyrical press author, YA Karen Bynum. Kandy Shepherd joined me again and we were on a lovely table. I met Mary Oldham from Melbourne, Florida. The speaker today was Robyn Carr. I am embarrassed to admit I have never heard of Robyn but the speech she gave was an antidote to the high drama of Stephanie's speech yesterday...light and funny
Two Melbourne ladies
Fellow Lyrical Press author Karen Y. Bynum
SESSION 2: HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF GOODREADS
Firstly I am pleased to report Kandy and I got through the afternoon sessions without nodding off.
Patrick Brown, head of the Author Program at Goodreads took us through how to get the most out of Goodreads. It is reassuring to find out that most of the things I am doing is on the right path. Goodreads is a powerful tool with a long reach for authors but like all the social media you have to engage in targeted communities and groups. Interestingly Romance is one of the largest.
SESSION 3: THE SECRETS TO EBOOK PUBLISHING SUCCESS
Mark Coker Smashwords
I have been published with Smashwords since June 2010, when it was an itty bitty little enterprise. When I first put my two books up there, it was still a stigma to say "self published" - how the worm has turned. I have always been impressed with the professionalism and usability of Smashwords and seeing quiet, nerdy Mark speak was very encouraging. His little bitty company has quadrupled its users since I first signed on.
The universal messages coming out of today's sessions:
1. Author empowerment (yes, again!)
2. It all comes down to writing your best book and then writing your next best book.
Your Anaheim correspondent has a confession to make. After three days of going like a steam train, I hit the wall today (of all days) so I probably don't have as much to report as I should have.
Unlike our Australian conference, there are no "plenary" sessions" to kick off the conference. It is straight into Workshops and for every time slot there are up to 10 different choices covering topics relevant to career, craft, publishing and research, writers life interspersed with author chats and spotlights on different publishers. Spoiled for choice? To make it even harder I am a member of the PRO Community of Practice...this is for the "almost published" (as I don't YET qualify for PAN - the Published Authors Network).
As an alternative to the workshops, I attended the "PRO Retreat" this morning. The keynote speaker was a Chicago lawyer, Jon Tandler, on the topic of "Publishing Contracts Demystified". Those who know will know that I am a lawyer myself (although I've recently turned in my badge). We lawyers have a saying...if you act for yourself, you have a fool for a client and when it comes to publishing contracts, I paid for professional advice. Key issues he raised:
Term of Contract: Length of copyright is not unusual (given this is life of the author plus 70 years seems a very long time)
Understand what rights you are giving to your publisher
Registration of copyright (we don't have this in Australia but my Australian lawyer advised me to register my work with the American Copyright office)
Obligations and Indemnities of both parties
Make sure you check your royalty statements for errors.
Out of Print and Reversion Clauses
Competitive works and First Option Clauses
In summary READ your contract carefully and get independent advice. Do your homework with your publisher.
Following Jon Tandler was a panel of Publishers: Michele Bidelspach (Grand Central), May Chen (Avon), Debra Dixon (Belle Books) and Lindsey Faber (Samhain). This when I had begun to nod off but I don't think that I heard anything from them that was new or startling: Only 5% of submissions get picked up/ Looking for great story and voice - a submission that is less than perfect is fine / role of publishers in the self publishing world - they are there to do the heavy lifting and leave the author free to write the next best book.
A sit down lunch for 2000 people followed. I met up with Kandy Shepherd but it is a good opportunity to meet new friends. An interesting presentation on an RWA sponsored initiative called Love Between the Covers - a documentary on the Romance Industry - writers, readers, publishers and agents by documentary film maker Laurie Kahn (who I met). The little bit we saw looked like a positive contribution to the industry and we had one of the participants on our table, Golden Heart finalist and Aussie, Joanne Lockyer. Fortunately she kept her video camera in her bag!
Stephanie Laurens gives the keynote luncheon address at #RWA12
Keynote speaker was Stephanie Laurens. I've heard Stephanie speak many times on her favourite topic...the Business of Writing but this time was different. Her emphasis was on "Weathering the Transition and Keeping the Faith". Her main point was that the revolutionary changes that are going on in the publishing industry are about the means of transmitting the story from writer to reader. It does not alter the essential paradigm that a writer's success is measured by her readership, not which publishing house, self publishing vehicle etc. she has signed up with. We must keep faith in our calling and concentrate on writing great stories. "Take your passion and make it happen". She was so inspiring in her passion that it was hard not to feel caught up by her own emotion. Her conclusion..."There has never been a better time to make to be an author".
Oddly this was a theme echoed in the next workshop I attended after lunch, Ethan Ellenberg the agent who's topic was New Paradigms in Publishing. Like Stephanie he spoke about the impact of the changes to on line publishing, particularly self publishing. The message I took from him is that Self Publishing is a legitimate alternative BUT it is turning the author into a business with all the distractions that go with it (Stephanie would say it is distracting the author from writing the best book). It takes time, energy and money to self publish, limited print distribution, an overcrowded internet and the lack of interaction with editors and agents limits your ability to grow as an author.
At this point your roving reporter could no longer stay awake so I'm ashamed to say, it is no reflection on Ethan that I sidled out of the workshop.
So glad I am staying across the road which forces me out into "fresh" Los Angeles Air and sunshine. The conference facility is freezing and of course I had packed for summer!
No activities tonight...just a quiet dinner and an early night. I must be getting old.
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