Ludington Daily News Column- December 2011

This past month, for my Get off the Couch column in the Ludington Daily News, I wrote about "Outdoor Women Who Inspire Me."

I quickly discovered that my list is way longer than the 500-600 words I get to share with readers each time. Here's a sample:

Outdoor Women Who Inspire Me

Of course I had a Dale Evans cowgirl outfit, a red skirt and vest with long white fringe, complete with six-shooters and a holster belt. What self-respecting tomboy in the early 1950s didn’t? When I became the owner of an air rifle in my tenth year (I guess Dad trusted his extensive instructions to guard me against shooting my eye out), Annie Oakley became my new hero.

At about that same age I learned of Sacajawea and Mary Jemison. Many fine hours were spent stalking the banks of our unnamed creek in my hand-laced moccasins from a kit, pretending I was leading explorers up the Missouri.

These columns are not available on-line, unless you subscribe to the Ludington Daily News. One collection of columns is currently available as an e-book, called Get Off the Couch with Joan, at Smashwords. I recently reduced the price to $1.89. It's really difficult to price e-books- they range is all over the map.

I'm formatting a second volume of humorous essays entitled Fall Off the Couch Laughing. It will be available soon.

Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp- 2 Chapters Done

Thanks to so many of you who have told me you are already awaiting the second book in the Anastasia Raven mystery series. It's begun! The name is Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp, and I've finished two chapters.

The plot is going to be more complex than that of News from Dead Mule Swamp, so there will be more to read. The most serious flaw of the first book is that it's just to short to be a full novel. I don't think I'll have that problem with "Paddy."

Here's the opening:

    “Knick-knack, Paddy- WHACK, give your dog a bone,” I sang, thumping the rubber bone on the rug. The large Irish setter named Patrick, Paddy for short, lunged for his toy, but I pulled it out of his range, and sang the line again, this time thumping the bone on the other side of the overgrown puppy. Paddy wasn’t my dog. He belongs to my cousin Vic, who was on a month-long trip to Egypt, doing research for the University of Chicago. Since I was the one family member with lots of space, and a house that could stand the dirt, I agreed to keep Paddy for all of July, and part of August.
    My name is Anastasia Joy Raven, and I live at the end of East South River Road, at the edge of Dead Mule Swamp. I’ve been here in Forest County since early spring. Most of my time has been spent trying to revitalize an old house that I bought with money from the divorce settlement. My ex, Roger, and his new friend, Brian, now occupy my former home in the Chicago suburbs, so I moved north and moved on. At least, I’m trying to move on. Some parts of that are going well, renovating the house, for instance.
    The house is a basic L-shaped farmstead with a two-story section at right angles to a single-story. I finished the living room project in June, and the result is a large cheerful space. I painted the walls in two shades of blue with white board-and-bead wainscoting and trim. Then I sanded and varnished the wide pine flooring. The result was clean and inviting. So far, the furnishings consist of a few secondhand pieces from the thrift store, set on a cheap area rug, but I have dreams of a country-comfortable look. When July began, I was still hunting for the right fabric to make curtains, but without near neighbors, having the windows covered didn’t matter very much.
    I stood up and tried to convince Paddy that his play time was over. He was just over a year old, full of energy, and large. He shed hair like a yak and shook mud balls from the swamp all over the house, including on my new wainscoting. But I couldn’t resist his cheerful disposition. Paddy-WHACK seemed to be his favorite game, but he’d only been here a few days. I suspected that he’d find pastimes a lot more mischievous before our six weeks together were over.
    That morning I faced the first problem that Paddy brought to my life. I didn’t really know what to do with him when I needed to go out, and I had a commitment today. I had to drive out to Hammer Bridge Town and spend an hour with a man named Corliss Leonard.

You can buy book 1, News from Dead Mule Swamp, for only 99¢ at Smashwords, Amazon, or iWriteReadRate.

Toby & Harry is Ready for Purchase!

My short story, Toby & Harry, is now available for purchase at Smashwords. This story is being managed by Twin Trinity Books where it was accepted for publication, and will soon also show on Amazon and the Twin Trinity site. Through this relationship, Twin Trinity provided editing services, the cover design, the mechanics of posting it, and will continue with publicity.

This story is unlike others I have written; it's definitely on the creepy side.

There are things that go bump in the night, and then there are kids who wake up with bumps from the night. Toby, a devious and disturbed little boy, only seems to love his teddy bear, Harry, even though Harry is worse for wear because of it.

Toby is the type of child who is hard for even his mother to love, but does he really deserve what happens to him? Guess you'll have to read to find out!

Download it now for only 99¢ at Toby & Harry on Smashwords

Keep Moving Forward

Since making all those phone calls about North Country Cache, we've packaged up books to send to the store that wanted more (and mailed them, along with several invoices), made a stack to hand-deliver to a local store, and have a review copy ready to leave at the Ludington Center for the Arts gift store.

I also found another venue to sell News from Dead Mule Swamp, so it's now listed at IWriteReadRate.

A long time ago I once read that anything worth doing is worth spending five minutes a day on. I've really taken this to heart because my life is so fractured and I always have so many projects going at the same time that it's hard to keep moving forward on them all.

However, I have learned that this concept really works. If I can manage to do some small piece of any project it does keep it moving forward. Even if there is some huge task... if I do a few small bits, after a while the rest of it eventually becomes doable.

Marketing- Follow-up on Consignments

Today, my sister-in-law helped me get organized and make calls to follow up on consignment placements of North Country Cache. I really despise doing this kind of work, so this feels like a huge weight off my shoulders.

Marketing is one of the most difficult parts, OK, THE most difficult part, of self-publishing. You have to get books into book stores for people to see them. Many stores won't buy books outright. They want the author to take all the risk by placing books on consignment.

Consignment is a huge risk. Not only do you need to do all the follow-up, finding out if books have sold and requesting payment, but there is a hidden risk as well. Independent bookstores can go out of business in a flash, and if they do, your books will probably disappear into a black hole and you'll never see any money.

At least four stores where I had books on consignment are just gone. In one case, I know that all six copies they had were sold, and I never received the money. In other cases, I don't really know, but suspect that the books all went to discount houses. Cost to them... nothing, since they never paid me for the books in the first place. Cost to me... at least the cost of printing each book, if not more.

Only one store that I called today wanted to order more books, and one store wants to return the rest of what they have, and I have to pay the shipping.

It's interesting how various stores feel about keeping inventory. Some stores won't keep your book in stock if they don't sell in a year. Others are willing to keep a few copies, apparently indefinitely.

Well, at least now I've done the checking on all these for a while. I wish I could say I won't do any more consignment sales, but that's not practical either. Sigh.

Review of News from Dead Mule Swamp by Cozy Mystery Book Reviews

Cozy Mystery Book Reviews has just posted about News from Dead Mule Swamp. This great blog reviews only cozy mysteries, and the owner, Bella, also runs some great giveaways.

Bella says, "It's fun discovering new mystery novels, and getting introduced to a host of new characters. That's how it felt when I started reading NEWS FROM DEAD MULE SWAMP. There are so many interesting characters... I was a little sad when it was over, because I wanted to read more about Anastasia and her new town."

Be sure to check out Cozy Mystery Book Reviews for more great reads.

Smashwords Now Offers Gift Giving Option

You can now give e-books as gifts at Smashwords. Here's how:

Any book that is not free shows an additional button under "Add to Cart," that is "Give as a Gift."

You will need to know the email of the person you want to give the gift to (there is a way around this). That person will be sent a coupon code to download the book at no cost to them after you pay for it.

You can alternatively use your own email address, then print out the coupon code and give it to the person (if you wanted to gift wrap it, for example).

The recipient will need to join Smashwords, but it's free... that's no burden.

Why not give some copies of News from Dead Mule Swamp as gifts? It's an inexpensive way to spread some fun!

Complete instructions for How Gifting Works at Smashwords