What a Year (so far) It Has Been!

It was not my intention to let this amount of time pass by. I will blame it on the 9 to 5 that takes most of my time. Maybe I ought to talk a bit about that thing that has seemingly consumed most of my life. I am a elementary school librarian. I have served in several districts and schools. My first job was in Green River High School. I was working there my first year when I met my husband to be, Dan.

Living and working in Wyoming was the catalyst for the rest of my life. I only worked at the high school for two years because Dan and I decided that I would stay home with our first child, Tommy. It was an easy decision and yet, it was difficult. It was easy because I wanted to be a stay at home mom. It was hard because of decreased income. With the Lord's help, we did it. Danielle came two and a half years later. I dabbled in writing as well as a few other things. Then came the decision to move to Tennessee. That is a long and complicated story that I won't go into now, but we had friends there so it wasn't like we just picked a spot at random.

It was quickly apparent in Tennessee that I needed to go back to work. Then, as now, I was the more hire-able and within 6 months I had begun my journey as a Tennessee public school librarian. Etowah City School, Niota Elementary School (my longest tenure), Birchwood Elementary School (my favorite assignment) and East Ridge Elementary School (my current assignment). To my astonishment when I did the math, I have worked for 31 years. I have a couple more left before I can retire, but I had no thought when I started in this path, that I would spend this much time in Library. I have been blessed at critical times and strengthened to be able to do the best that I can. As to the explanation about how time consuming my personal 9 to 5 is, let's just say that when an elementary school has over 1000 children, K-5, it's more like 7 to 5.

Anyway, here is the address if you are curious to see what an elementary with more than 1000 students looks like.   http://ere.hcde.org/

And here are a couple of pictures of what I do when not at work!

Reading Pete the Cat to my grandson during a visit this summer. 

Grandpa loving on the youngest grandchild in September. 

Me and author Jackie Mims Hopkins at a librarians' conference in October. Great fun!

It is a new year (well, second month in the new year, but still new enough). Hopefully a productive year. On the book front, I have send in a manuscript to a publisher. Fingers are crossed.

Also thought it might be a good idea to show off the book I was talking so much about in my first post. You have to agree, it is a wonderful cover! If you haven't already, I hope you read it, too! (Amazon.com)

Sometimes, when writing hits a wall, I do something else, like making rugs or embroidering ornaments. My cat, Skipper is helping to flatten a newly finished rug. He does a great job; he weighs 17 pounds. 

I have also tried to read as much as possible. Many, in fact all authors I have talked to say that a good writer  also reads a great deal. Sometimes I wonder if both activities are possible (especially in a 9 to 5 job) but I have managed to read some very good books. Caught up on some authors I read when I was younger, Anne McCaffrey and Andre Norton, Fantasy Baseball by Alan Gratz, the Wolves of the Beyond series by Kathryn Lasky, and am currently reading a non-fiction/autobiography called The Berlin Candy Bomber by Gail Halverson. He is very detailed, but still keeps it interesting. 

BTW I am still attending a writer's group, The Etowah Writers' Alliance. It is sometimes difficult to get there on time from work (you figure the distance between East Ridge TN and Etowah!) I sometimes wave as I pass my house in Cleveland on my way to the meeting. Great group and worth the trip!!  (Now I have to work on the writing prompt we got last meeting-- think, think, think....) 

Feel free to send suggestions on anything: books, writing, marketing, the like. 

My Literary Background

I wrote a lot when I was little. I imagined even more as I got older, but only managed snippets, newsletters and unfinished stories.  Only in the past decade and a half did I became serious and actually begin . . . and finish something. I wrote novels and short stories. I wrote as an escape from a difficult work situation. (After all, story characters do not call you to their office every other day to "chastise" you. Characters are forgiving; they only coax you to continue their adventures or give you suggestions as to what roads to follow.) After several not so great novels and unsuccessful forays into the world of mainstream publishing, I decided to venture into fan-fiction.  It was exhilarating! I could let my imagination flow. There was a ready made audience as well as wonderful editors (beta's) to help me improve.

I did this for almost a decade, all the while knowing I wanted to do more. I wanted to publish. I tried several stories that came to my mind, but creating a world of brand new characters is much more difficult than taking established characters and creating new scenarios for them.

Then along came the Mission San Luis Rey....

 I visited, I visited again and was smitten. I read some of the history and a plot formed. I began writing the story of Noki, Eti and Father Antonio while I was trying to find work in Las Vegas (and made another visit to the mission). I continued the novel when I returned to Tennessee. There were parts that drove me crazy and I put it aside for a while. The story wouldn't let me go, though. I researched deeper and was shocked to find the word Noki in a lexicon of the Luiseno language. It meant "my house." This was like some kind of epiphany and I realized the story it was meant to be finished. I had some really great editing work from another writer and the manuscript was finally ready. My House of Dreams could go to a publisher.

Now came the hard work. Finding a publisher . . . finding a publisher. No kidding, it was hard! Eventually, I decided to self-publish and found a fairly low-cost print on demand (POD for short). Anyone want to jump in with their publishing stories? Feel free! I was lucky, I had backers. My new publisher formatted the manuscript--it looked nice! It was a no-go trying to format a cover on my own even though I had a design from my artist friend and advice from someone who knew about that kind of thing. (If I recall that advice, it was go ahead and pay them the extra!)   The finished book with my friend's design (thanks Pat!) with professional set-up was beautiful!

....and it was difficult to sell. I had no clue on marketing; had little time to beat the bushes, so to speak, as I was working in a new school district in a school 45 min. from home. Marketing is an ongoing process where one keeps on learning and growing. Then came a transfer to another school that demands even more of my time. On top of that it became more and more difficult to ask people to pay fifteen dollars for a 180 page young-adult historical novel, especially when it was not even local history. So when I joined a local writer's group (Etowah Writers Guild) and one of the members told me of his success with CreateSpace, I checked it out. I could get My House of Dreams published with no up front cost to me and I could charge what I wanted for it. The per-copy price was cheaper for me and therefore cheaper for those purchasing. If I didn't have but a little bit of time to market and sell, at least no one was going to lose their shirt because of it. So I switched. My House of Dreams is now with CreateSpace and also in ebook form with Kindle. (That was also free.)

I have a recently completed two part set of novels in process of editing that I am excited about. These stories are young-adult science fiction, the genre that I loved so much as I was growing up. They deal with genetically altered, created mutants sent to live on a planet that humans cannot live on. It deals with growing up in harsh conditions, dealing with those who would manipulate and control their mutant creations.

In the past year I have ventured back into writing short stories. It is so much more enjoyable than it was a decade and a half ago.  I submitted several to short story contests. One, "Myths," about a dragon discovering something very unexpected and strange was selected for an anthology called aMUSEing Tales. It is published by Fantastic Publishing (http://www.fantasticbookspublishing.com/) and is available on Amazon.com.

I also recently came in second place in a contest on the Attic Girls site; http://www.atticgirls.net/ with my short story The Legend of Billy-Bob Flybottom; an old-fangled Appalachian tall-tale. It will be posted there in coming months.

I welcome any and all comments, suggestions and questions.