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I’m about as far as you can get from being a fan of Brittany Spears (don’t even know if I spelled that right), but ever since yesterday morning that song has been running through my mind. I hate that! Having a song I actually like lodged in my brain makes me want to scream, but when I get one I don’t like, it makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall until the pain chases it away.
So, where did it come from and why can’t I get rid of it? You’ve heard of the tip of the iceberg, right? Well, a post left on the author’s loop at one of my publishers yesterday morning was exactly that. As the day wore on, the iceberg slowly revealed itself and I am now at the point where I feel there’s no hope of avoiding the impending collision. It’s time to morph into a rat, head for the lifeboats, and desert this sinking ship.
Hence the song. You see, I’ve been through this before and when I felt the first minor shockwaves hit again, that damned Brittany Spears song popped into my head and it won’t leave!
The thing is, I’m entirely innocent in this one as I was in the last, so maybe I should change the words from, “Oops, I did it again…” to “Oops, they did it again…”
Who are they? All the epublishers out there who are making promises to authors that they can not or will not honor. Speaking from experience, being with a publisher who made promises and was unable to keep them–through no fault of their own–was bad enough. But when you’re with a publisher who chooses not to answer emails or certified mail, who ignores the concerns of their authors, and who responds only to the posts on the author’s loop that they choose to respond to, then the only thing you can do is conclude said publisher is one of those who will not keep their promises.
Will not is a thousand times worse than can not.
To give the publisher its due, they finally made an appearance last night, but their response to the many concerns voiced by the authors was far from satisfactory. They played the sympathy card first, the disapproval card next, and finally, turned up what I’ll call the WTF card–you know, the one that comes out of nowhere and blind-sides you, not because you didn’t know they had it, but because you can’t believe they pulled it out of their sleeve and played it.
This particular WTF card: they suggested we have a loop party on Friday where the authors could post excerpts, hold contests, and in their words, shake things up a bit.
See what I mean? Where is this coming from and WTF is the thinking behind it? Why would authors who aren’t getting paid for their work want to pitch in and bail out a sinking ship by putting more of their hard work out there? Granted, we might delay the inevitable for a while, but there’s no way we can do it by ourselves–we have to have their help!
We were also given a bottom line statement: “[the publisher] will pull out of this.”
That’s good, I like bottom lines, but all I have to say in this case is:
Dear [publisher],
I’m sorry, but I disagree, the bottom line here is your company is sinking down to the ocean floor, and that briny taste in your mouth is called dishonesty. Spit it out and rise to the surface before you choke on it.
Sincerely,
[Author]
Finally figured out how to add images–woo-hoo! Inserted the cover art for Unwilling Angel on the corresponding page, but I’ll add it here too–just for practice of course!
Isn’t that fabulous? The cover artist is C. J. England and I think she did a fantastic job! Don’t you?
Oh, in case you’re interested, the blurb and an excerpt can be found by clicking on the Unwilling Angel page on this site. Then, if you think you might want to read it–and I hope you do!–click on Twilight Fantasies in my blogroll and you’ll see me right there on the front page–first place winner in the Zuzu’s Petals contest!
I spent a great deal of time this past weekend on MySpace, updating my seriously outdated page. Through sheer determination and a lot of uh-ohs, I learned a bunch of things–how to change my background, how to add a fancy cursor, how to upload–download?–images and post them on my homepage–but the thing that stuck with me the most after all my time on there is how popular surveys seem to be on MySpace.
I don’t get that. I mean sure, I read them, but I never fill them out Besides, if I was going to take the time to fill out a survey, I’d probably choose one of those that promises something in return. You know, like those that pop up on the Internet at times, offering free laptops or a gift certificate to some restaurant or even money if you’ll just take a small survey–yeah, right!
So, I’m a survey voyeur. I read them, even think about how I would answer some of the questions, but you won’t ever see me filling one out. It’s not that I don’t have the time…well, maybe that is the reason. You see, I know how my brain works, and one suvey might take me hours to fill out. I’d agonize over every question and once I posted it, the chances are very good that I’d read back over what I wrote, cringe at some of the answers and think what a boring person I really am.
I don’t need a survey to point that out to me. I know I’m boring and I’m actually okay with that. I’m a homebody, one who’s uncomfortable being in the spotlight–unless it’s in front of a bunch of elementary students, that never bothered me at all–and one who could very easily become a hermit. Yes, that’s right, if I had my druthers, as my grandpa used to say, I’d cut myself off from the rest of the world without blinking an eye.
The thing is…if you’re an author, you just can’t do that. You have to put yourself out there, you have to promote yourself and your books, and you have to be a participating member of society, even if it is just in cyberspace.
And thank God for cyberspace. I don’t mind promoting myself or my books on the Internet, but I have a feeling next year when the two print anthologies which will include a story from me are released, I’m going to be wishing I’d stuck with ebooks. I know I’m already dreading it, but I’m going to have to suck it up and do what needs to be done…
…I’m going to have to put on something besides jeans and a sweatshirt, go out in public and talk to real, live people–and I’m going to have to be nice to them.
Oh, horror of horrors!
I’m not sure why that title popped into my head this morning, but it did so I’m going to go with it–and hopefully continue with it in the Fridays to come. I’m feeling…um, melancholy this morning. Or maybe a better way to put it would be pensive, because I’m not feeling sad, which is the first definition listed for melancholy in the dictionary. The second is pensive, contemplative. That describes my feelings better.
Also, I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers are following certain themes for their blogs as a way of coming up with ideas about what to write on certain days, i.e. Thursday Thirteen. The themes don’t appeal to me, but I like the alliterativeness of the titles–hence Friday Folly.
From Websters Dictionary; folly–1) a lack of good sense, understanding or foresight, 2) an act or instance of foolishness.
Like most people, I’ve had a few of those in my life and they fall under several categories; a) some which I regret, b) some which I learned from, c) some which, though stupid at the time, turned out all right in the end, and d) some which I can now look back on and say, “What the heck was I thinking?” My Friday Folly for today is one which falls under a) right now, but I hope will some day be included under c).
Back when I was a kid, I was on a softball team that sucked–and I mean, it really sucked. We were the youngest team in the league and we didn’t win a single game that year…think “Bad News Bears” without the happy ending. One fateful night, our game was rained out. I wasn’t in the mood to read, so I turned on the TV and as I flipped through the channels, I happened to catch a baseball game. I was a highly competitve kid and I played softball, so watching a baseball game seemed like a good idea at the time. I don’t remember who the opposing team was, but I do remember the winning team was the Boston Red Sox. And by the time the game was over, I was mesmerized.
The reason for my fascination? Tony Conigliaro, a hot-shot rookie, who before he was beaned in the eye several years later, showed promises of becoming one of those outstanding players who go down in the sports annals as one of the greatest who ever played the game.
As the kids today say, I was crushing on Tony C, and he returned the favor by infecting me with an incurable disease, a passion for the Red Sox. If you’re a Sox fan, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re not, all you have to do is watch the movie “Fever Pitch,” it’ll give you a pretty good idea of what it means to be a Red Sox fan. So, since the disease is incurable, I still root for them, and there are times when I curse the name of Tony Congliaro and times when I think he was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Unfortunately, right now, I’m cursing his name. The Sox have given up a 14 1/2 game lead in the AL East, which is bad enough in itself, but what’s worse is they’ve given it up to the Yankees. I know, I know, you’ve heard it all before, maybe even caught me talking about it on this blog–dare I hope?–but it seemed a good way to start this theme because it’s one of those things that happen in your life which will keep you guessing until the end.
The thing is, was it a gift or a curse? Well, thank goodness, the jury’s still out on that one and I can still hope that it’ll turn out all right in the end…
…but probably not this year.
No post yesterday, because Unwilling Angel was released and I was busy with all the hoopla that goes with having a book released. I tell you, it’s an aweome thing when you submit a manuscript then hear from a publisher that they would like to offer you a contract, but when it finally hits the cyber-space bookshelf–after weeks, or even months, of edits, countless hours spent working with a cover artist to find just the right cover, and days of pre-promotions, it’s a relief. You get–or I do–a feeling of whew, at last it’s done! Now I can move on,
The thing is, what do I do next?
I have plenty of options to choose from–five, count ‘em, five works-in-progress, seven completed books which need a home, more promotions for my new release, web site to be updated, etc., etc., etc.–none of which appeal to me at the moment. You see, after yesterday’s whirlwind, I need a break and I can feel my Procrastination Slut persona coming to the fore.
I’ve written about her before in my LJ blog, but I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned her here, so I’ll give you a bit of explanation. I have this tendency to shut down, especially when I have a lot of things I need to do. It’s irritating, but there it is. I’ve learned not to fight it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t dream of what it would be like if I banished her for good.
Hmmm…I’d have numerous books either out on the market or awaiting release, I’d finish off those WIPs and get them out to publishers in the blink of an eye, I’d compose query letters and synopses with little or no painful frustration, I’d be a computer-savvy wiz at promotions, and I’d know how to upload a picture to this blog–
–and that’s another thing, why is it when you click on the “insert image” icon on WordPress, you don’t get a “browse” option like you do on almost every other site in the cyber-world? Instead, you get seven fields which have to be filled out and most days, my brain is way too tired for that. Maybe while the Procrastination Slut is ruling, I should present this to her as a puzzle to be solved. She doesn’t like to work, but she has no objection to sitting on her butt and playing around with the computer. So, maybe if I don’t classify it as work, but dress it up as an…enigma (she likes fancy words), I can fool her into figuring it out, because I know there’s a way to do it, I just haven’t found it yet!
Anyway, the Procrastination Slut is back–hey, do you think that’s what’s wrong with the Red Sox, they’re putting off till tomorrow what should be done today, or more correctly, what should have been done weeks ago? I’ve been trying not to think about this, but I have to say it, Boston is through for the season, they may as well pack up their equipment and slink off the field with their tails between their legs. And I do mean slink. They have no reason to hold their heads up and I have no desire to give them a standing O. Come to think of it, they’d better keep their heads down, ’cause I’m sure there are a lot of fans in closer proximity than I am, who’d love nothing more than to toss a few balls and bats at them. A word of advice, boys; keep your batting helmets handy this winter, it may save you from a hospital visit. Oh, and during the post-season when you’re not playing, in between watching the New York Yankees win the AL and probably go on to win the World Series, maybe you should hit the Patriots up for some shoulder pads and a lesson or two on how to band together when times are tough–you obviously don’t have a clue. To put it in lingo you’ll understand…you suck wicked bad!
Okay, that helped a little bit. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program…the Procrastination Slut reigns supreme in my world and there’s no telling how long she’ll hang around. So, while she’s reclining on her chaise lounge (her version of a throne), popping bite-size Heath bars in her mouth (her version of chocolate truffles), and being entertained by her sister’s latest romantic thriller (her version of a court jester), I’m going to present her with a conundrum (I think she’ll like that word): How many cyber-space imbeciles does it take to post an image on WordPress?
Her answer (I’d bet money on this one): Ask me later, I’m too busy wasting time right now.
I can’t think of a single thing to write about right now. So I’m just going to do my personal style of…um, can’t remember what it’s called…you know, that psychic thingie where you have a pencil in your hand, you clear your mind, and let your pencil write without thinking about what you’re writing, only I’m doing it with a keyboard instead of a pencil–and jeez, I hope my editor doesn’t read this ’cause she’ll probably drive all the way up here from Georgia and shoot me for that run-on sentence.
It’s a ho-hum Tuesday in my neck of the woods. The sun is coming out, melting away the mist that’s hovering around the mountains and we’re supposed to have a high of 73 degrees today. It was down in the forties this morning when I got up and it’s almost like being back in Maine. Except here I have the mountains around me, which is something I really missed when I lived in Maine. Not that there weren’t mountains there, but we lived in southern Maine, about a half hour south of Portland in a little town called Saco. You had to drive some distance to see mountains, but I could get in my car and be at the beach in about ten minutes. That was nice, but I’m not a beach type of person, I much prefer the mountains. I guess that’s because I was raised in Knoxville, at the foot of the Smoky Mountains. or maybe it’s because my dad’s family is from Black Mountain, NC, and I spent a lot of time there while I was growing up. We always went to the mountains on vacation. I never even saw a beach until I was eighteen and went to Florida with some friends after my freshman year of college.
Stream of conciousness–is that what this is called? Hmm, doesn’t sound right, but what do I know?
Since I got up, I’ve been researching publishers, trying to figure out who I’m going to submit my manuscript to–you know, the one I just got the rights back for? I’ve got a list of five, one of which is located in the South and is looking for books with a strong southern presence, which Snow Shadows definitely has. It takes place in the mountains of North Carolina and is based on an ancient Cherokee legend–hard to get more Southern than that.
Next, comes the dreaded query letter–blech! I don’t even want to think about that right now.
Okay, I’ve got to say this and quit putting it off. Maybe if I write about it, I can put it aside. The Red Sox lost last night and the Yankees won, which means our lead in the AL East is down to 3 1/2 games. There are eleven games left and I’m afraid the prediction I made back in May is about to come true–the Yankees are going to come back and take the AL East. The Red Sox, well, the way we’re playing right now, we don’t even deserve to be in the wild card race, but we’ll probably make it. I just don’t think we have a snowball’s chance of going any farther (further–there’s those two words again, I’m going to have to look them up on Grammar Slammer and get them straight in my mind once and for all).
And as Forrest Gump said, that’s all I have to say about that. It’s too painful to talk about.
So, this ho-hum day is going to be spent in the worst possible way–well, okay, maybe not the worst possible, but it’s pretty bad in my book–drafting, and hopefully polishing, a query letter to be sent to the publishers I’ve chosen to submit to. I probably should read over the synopsis again, I’m sure it could benefit from a bit of polishing too. I should probably get busy on that right now…
The thing is, there’s this side of me I call the Procrastination Slut and I have a feeling she’s going to come to the forefront today. Which means I probably won’t get a thing done, at least, nothing of any value.
Oh, well, that might be the best thing considering my second book is coming out tomorrow, and I’ll be busy all day with promotions. I hope you’ll check it out, Unwilling Angel by Caitlyn Hunter at www.twilightfantasies.com. It’s a sweet paranormal romance along the lines of It’s a Wonderful LIfe.
Just a few kudos to StarDust Press and a heads-up to other epublishers out there who may be struggling, and also to those who’ve already gone under (especially those who are rumored to be starting up under a different name!) This is the official public letter from StarDust:
Dear authors and editors,
After much discussion and negotiation and evaluation, it is with regret that we announce StarDust Press is closing effective September 30, 2007. We are saddened that despite all our efforts, SDP is bleeding, and the investors have decided to cut their losses.
We know that you would all be concerned with this development, so we address all your concerns one by one below.
1. Authors and editors would be paid the royalties/editorial fees due them.
2. All books would be taken off the website and Fictionwise by September 30, 2007.
3. From September 30, 2007 onwards, all rights to the published books revert back to the author, and as such, you can submit them to other publication houses for publication.
4. For unpublished books, you may send to other publication houses as early as now.
5. For authors whose books are currently under edits, we would send you a personal email on the matter.
SDP was established to do legitimate business, however the environment wasn’t conducive to its survival. And so, we have no choice but to take this step.
Thank you for all your support and we wish for the best for you in all your endeavors.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reply to this email. Your question my also be the question of the others.
Thanks,
Raine
For StarDust Management
…and there you have it, the professional and classy way to go out of business. No harm, no foul–well, if you don’t count the seven months I spent waiting for news on my manuscript. Eek! Sorry! Chalk that one up to my pissy mood today. Truthfully, I’m grateful to StarDust for getting me started and for doing the right thing by bowing out before they were forced to.
The thing is, I should be dancing for joy. So, why aren’t I? I admit to a sort of half-hearted jig, but the things that are bogging me down are searching for another publisher and writing yet another query letter–Aha! There you have it! I despise writing query letters and tend to put it off until I can’t put it off any longer. Witness all the completed WIPs on my computer that are just sitting there gathering cyber-dust.
Jeez, whoever said you have to take the good with the bad, sure knew what they were talking about!
For me, this past weekend was one of extreme highs and lows, and in my mind, can only be compared to a roller coaster ride. It had the heart-pounding thrill of climbing that unbelievably high slope, the breath-stealing anticipation of reaching the top then teetering there for a few spine-chilling moments, and finally, the mind-blowing descent down the other side. By Sunday, I didn’t know whether to give in and enjoy the sensations or shut my eyes and scream, “Stop the ride, I want to get off!”
I climbed into the car on Friday night while it was hovering at the ride’s lowest point, held there by the Yankees defeating the Red Sox–a game we should have won and would have if our stellar and much-revered bullpen had performed the way they were expected to.
On Saturday morning, the car started its rickety climb up the slope when I received word from a publisher saying they wanted to include my short story “The Secret Life of Alice Smitty” in their PMS: Poison, Murder, Satisfaction anthology–see Saturday’s post “Happy Dances.”
Shortly after that, we reached the pinnacle when Josh Beckett led Boston to a 10-1 trouncing of the Yankees. It was a beautiful thing, especially since I actually got to see it! Of course, I had to watch it on Fox–do those people have any idea how incredibly dull and insipid their sports coverage is?–but even that wasn’t enough to dull my excitement.
Sunday morning the car was teetering on the summit when I received word from the publisher of my first book, “Death by Indifference,” that they were closing at the end of this month. This one was its own little roller coaster ride in and of itself. I was in turn, crestfallen, ecstatic, pissed off, and hopeful. Crestfallen because that meant my book would only be available till September 30th. Ecstatic because they’d had the good sense to close before being forced into bankruptcy as so many others in the epublishing industry have been in the last few months–thereby tying up the rights to countless books for months on end and causing unfair and unbearable distress to their authors. Pissed off because I knew for months this was coming, I saw all the red flags and ignored them. I’d signed a contract with them back in February for my paranormal romance, “Snow Shadows.” They more or less sat on the manuscript for seven long months, and I can’t tell you how many times I thought of writing them and pulling the book–patience is not a strong point of mine!–but I let it slide. How stupid is that? Hopeful because it means the days of wondering and worrying are over. As of September 30th, I can submit both books to other publishers and with any luck, they’ll see the light of day sometime in the future.
Sunday afternoon and we’re still teetering on the brink. My husband and I have been looking for a house for the past six months or so. We finally found not one, but two we like enough to make an offer on and now we have to decide which one we like more. They have a fairly equal amount of pros and cons, so the only thing to do now is weigh each pro/con individually and see where that leads us.
Sunday night, we plunged into the abyss when the Red Sox blew another game to the Yankees–I don’t want to talk about it!–then it was back up again when the Patriots won their game against the Chargers, hopefully silencing at least a few of their critics regarding the accusations of cheating which came to the forefront this past week. One of the other bloggers on WordPress, http://firedannyainge.wordpress.com, made a very valid point about this and I quote,
“The Patriots have lost quite a few players in recent years that weren’t too happy about not getting paid. Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Willie McGinnest, Adam Vinatieri etc… to name a few. Wouldn’t you think if this had been going on for a long time that one of these players would have blown the whistle if they knew?”
Well, duh, of course. Why didn’t I think of that? So, thanks firedannyainge for pointing this out and giving me ammunition to use against my husband who is a Colts fan.
So now, the hair-raising ride is over at last, I can climb with wobbly knees out of the car, and get on with my normally dull and staid life. The thing is, I have a sneaky suspicion I’m going to be feeling the repercussions from this particular roller coaster ride for a long time to come.
I know I’ve already posted today, but I can’t stop myself from posting again. I don’t think it’s against blog etiquette (is there even such a thing?) and frankly, I’m too happy to care. I just received an email from one of my publishers saying they would like to have my short story “The Secret Life of Alice Smitty” for their PMS: Poison, Murder, Satisfaction anthology. They’ve already asked for my short story, “Third Time’s for Keeps” for their Romance of My Dreams Anthology. That makes two that will be out next year in print. Woo-hoo!
That’s exciting enough, but the thing that really has me doing happy dances is the fact that “Alice” was the first short story I ever wrote and it was submitted a few years years ago to not one, but two, short story contests. It didn’t receive so much as an honorable mention in either one.
A little side note here: I’ve since learned, submitting to contests is like submitting to a publisher. Either do your research or suffer the consequences. By that I mean, read between the lines of the submission guidelines for each contest and try to get a feel for what they’re looking for. Read the previous winners–if you can find them. More important, find out all you can about the judges, because they are the ones who are going to be reading the stories and deciding on the winners.
My mistake, well, one of my mistakes, was in submitting to contests with judges that were looking for “serious” literary stories. ”The Secret Life of Alice Smitty” is about as far away from serious as you can get. It’s a humorous story about Alicia Smith, whose perfect life is turned upside down when her husband has bypass surgery and her live-in maid suddenly runs away with the yardman to live in a commune in New Hampshire. Alicia’s answer to all this upheaval? Alice Smitty, an alter ego with a homicidal bent. Who does Alice want to kill? Why, Alicia’s husband, of course.
The thing is when the book comes out next year with “The Secret Life of Alice Smitty” in it, I’d love to send a copy to those contests along with a smart-ass little “nyah-nyah” note.
I won’t do it, but it sure is nice to think about.
Gotta go spread the news and do another happy dance!
Okay, the Red Sox lost to the Yankees last night–again! The season is rolling to a close and those damned Yankees are making us look like fools. If we don’t do something, Boston’s going to replace the Yankees as the biggest chokers in baseball, topping their 2004 downfall in the ALCS when they were ahead three games and lost the next four to our beloved Sox.
That’s just wrong and I have two words to say to all of Red Sox Nation: Tessie Up!
This takes a bit if explaining–especially if you’re not a Sox fan–so I hope you’ll stick with me. It has to do with superstitions. If you’re a baseball fan, you gotta have ‘em. I’ve got a gazillion where the Red Sox are concerned. Given last night’s game, I’d have to say mine aren’t working, so I’m calling out to Red Sox Nation to Tessie Up! Because our boys need it. Desperately.
Where is this coming from? Well, this morning, I was following one of my own personal superstitions and reading the comments written by some of the Yankee fans to an article on AOL Sports about last night’s game. One of them said–and I’m paraphrasing here–”The ghost of Babe Ruth is back!”
Meaning, of course, that the Curse of the Bambino is alive and well and living in Red Sox Nation.
Can’t argue with that, especially since the Yankees have hacked away at our lead in the AL East until it’s down to a measly 4 1/2 games–and I’m afraid it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. If it ever does get better. So, we’ve got to do something to stop the Babe. We’ve got to counter-attack with Tessie.
What’s Tessie? Well, roughly, “Tessie” is a song from the early 20th century that was adopted by the “Royal Rooters,” a group of Red Sox supporters as their rally cry. Some people believe the singing of “Tessie” is the reason Boston was going to and winning the World Series pretty regularly back in the early 1900’s, back before 1918 when Ruth was sold to the Yankees. I’ve even seen it posited that the Curse of the Bambino is nothing compared to the Curse of Tessie. ”Tessie” is also credited with the 86 year drought because they stopped singing it after 1918. Then, in 2004, the Dropkick Murphy’s released an updated version of the song and when people started singing it at the games, Boston won the World Series again.
So, have they stopped playing “Tessie” at Fenway? Or, could it be that Tessie is a jealous ghost and we’re not giving her enough attention? If the fans at Fenway–and oh, how I wish I could join you–start singing Tessie’s accolades again, not just after the game but during it, will we salvage this season that’s slipping through our fingers?
Or, are they already singing it and Tessie’s ghost is getting her butt kicked by Babe Ruth’s ghost the same way we’re getting ours kicked by the Yankees? (I really can’t say because I’m down here in NC and I have to rely on ESPN’s pretty worthless coverage of the Red Sox.)
Thing is, we have to do something to give our boys a boost. So, to all the Fenway Faithful, Tessie Up! Don’t just smile when you hear it played after the game and think, “oh, what a catchy tune,” but open your mouths and sing. And not just when the game is over. Belt it out at the top of the second, the bottom of the sixth, whenever, and get all the people around you singing too.
Don’t know the words? You can find them here (along with a better explanation than mine):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessie
And let’s see if we can’t stop this humiliating downward spiral before it’s too late.
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