I am certain that I’m not
going to be the only one to mention that fact that I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S
ALREADY THE FIRST OF OCTOBER! Time to put on a sweater and sip a Starbucks
Pumpkin Spiced latte while watching my kiddos rake the leaves into a pile to jump in (let me be sure to schedule that).
My daughter went to
her first high school football game with her posse of friends and had a good
time. According to her, EVERYONE was there. So if you’re missing someone,
apparently they made their way to the LHS football game Friday night.
On that note, I
heard some disturbing news about some girls at another middle school who
are peer pressuring each other to burn their skin and rub salt in the wounds to
scar. Ouch. Sometimes, it is hard as a writer to walk the fine line of pleasing
the gatekeepers and my target market audience (tweens). Adults don’t want to
hear about this stuff but it’s real and my view is to write about it. I don’t
know about many coming of age books that are all rainbows and unicorns and I
know this bothers a lot of the parents out there but growing up is hard work. I
know I always appreciated honesty as a teen reader (and actually still do). I
always loved Judy Blume’s response to adults who say these topics are too
forward (and I’m paraphrasing here), that people who say their growing up was
all roses perhaps aren’t remembering very truthfully. I like that…not
remembering very truthfully. That cracks me up.
On that note, our
schedule is about ready to crack me up for realz. I am usually a complete Nazi
about leaving some time just to breathe but we are cutting it entirely too
close to the edge. Also, our cat is waking me up at 5am every morning for some
cuddle time because, needless to say, it’s the pets that get neglected
when we are so busy. Want to know how someone’s life is going? Look at how their pets are doing.
I received a
wonderful comment from the mother of a reluctant reader. She mentioned that it
is sometimes difficult to get her son to read. OMG, let me tell you, I feel her
pain. Hansel’s favorite subjects are recess and lunch. Getting him to read 30
minutes for his school reading log is like, well for lack of better
analogy…pulling teeth. No, a root canal. No, more like being forced to watch an
episode of Storage Wars while getting a root canal in 100 degree heat. There.
That’s it. That’s what it’s like. Unless I bribe him, which I MIGHT have been
known to do.
Anyway, when she
wrote to tell me her son loved BETWEEN and was waiting on the edge of his seat
for APART to come out I was floored. Number one, I’m always pleasantly
surprised when I hear about boys reading BETWEEN because the protagonist is a girl. Number two, how much do I love that fact that someone is
reading my book, no matter who they are? Number three, nothing will get me more
motivated to write than hearing about someone waiting for another of my books
to be written. So thank you for
sharing, I appreciate it more than you know! And, I get it. There are authors
out there that I would pay to read their grocery list while I’m waiting for
their next book to get released. So naturally, I am hard at work on APART.
Also, I decided to
re-enroll in Kindle Direct Publishing Select again. This means that BETWEEN
will only be offered on Amazon at the moment. At the beginning of September I
published BETWEEN on the Barnes and Nobles site to which I received absolutely
no sales at all and saw a significant drop in sales on Amazon. Before that
about a third of my writing earnings originated from the Kindle Owners Lending Library
(not an insignificant amount of money). When I read about the success other
kidlit authors were having with KOLL I realized I must go back. I’m not going
to lie, I’m in this to make money people so that I can fund my writing habit
with more writing. My next step is to get BETWEEN available for print on demand
(POD) so that I can get hard copies into the hands of readers. Um. Oh yeah, and
also finish the sequel.
So there you have
it. A uh, er— little update.
