Writing Progress

There is something about this photo that I can really relate to. Namely it's how I see my writing career after 6 years of actively chasing 'The Dream' of getting my stories published. 

I've got enough experience to know that it takes a lot of work to get an e-book written, edited, covered, published and marketed. 

My marketing hasn't been 'street worthy' since my mother passed. I know it, and I'm not going to make any excuses. It is what is and it ain't what it ain't. 

But like this old tomcat - I've licked my wounds and healed up. I may not be stronger than ever, but by damn, I'm older and wiser.

I haven't been idle - I've been working my butt off in the 'Real World' trying to keep the farm and family on track. Wow - that's been a chore.

But I'm back writing - The Emissary: Arrival, book two of Horsewomen of the Zombie Apocalypse is down to a final scene that needed a re-write. It goes to the editor in July. About the time I find out if The Emissary: Journey makes the finals at eFestival of Words. 

There are two more books after Arrival - in progress. The issue I'm wrestling with inside that series is one I've been blogging about - "What to Wear to the Zombie Apocalypse." I've realized that it's going to be much easier for people to grow their own food than it is for them to find clothing. So where will humanity obtain their clothing? Ahhh...that's the catch.

There's also "Tempest in a Teapot" which may get revived in another week or two. It lacks a satisfying ending right now. 

We'll see if putting out a couple of books this year can give my sales a much needed boost. I can always put "Let's Do Lunch" back into Kindle select, but I hate the thought of pulling it from every other shelf in the world for 90 days. 

Not sure how active I'm going to be on this blog. I've got plenty of fiber to mess with, so I might be blogging here: Jordan's Croft Fiber Arts.

As always - stay tuned.

Ya never know what I'm going to be up to next.

Good News!

I've gotten an email from Ashtabula Public Library - they would like me to do a reading and give a short talk about 'Swallow the Moon' - the paranormal set in Ashtabula.

I was planning to return for the Wine and Walleye Festival in August. They want me to come on August 18th. 2014 -- just a few days before the festival.

I hope I can schedule a few more readings at other libraries in the area. Dates and times will follow - I'll post them on Goodreads and Facebook as soon as the dates are set.

'Swallow the Moon' News

The good news is that "Swallow the Moon" immediately hit #49 on the FREE Romantic Suspense chart.

The bad new is that I didn't intend it to go free. It looks like I got frustrated with Kobo Writing Life (a seriously flawed interface) because you CAN'T PUT IN A DECIMAL POINT.

So I left the price at ZERO.

That was 2 weeks ago - it must have sold a copy or two - KOBO DOESN'T TRACK FREE BOOKS. So I wouldn't know. Amazon picked it up today.

So I've got a nice bump coming. Maybe for a week, or more.

So go ahead, if you don't have "Swallow the Moon" already - go ahead and pick up a copy.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #987 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)

• • #37 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Romantic Suspense

 

• •  

Road Trip!

Today marks the 7 day countdown for the Road Trip to Ashtabula and the Beach Glass Festival.

I wish I could say that I'll have copies of 'Swallow the Moon' to take with me. But I can't - the book is still in the proof stage and I doubt I can get copies in time. The project fell through the cracks while Real Life kicked my tush.

Regardless of setbacks (and there have been some doozies!) I've got the truck in the shop to get electric brakes, the tent camper is in the yard, waiting to be packed, and as of today I have a human traveling companion - hubby - as well Trouble for his very first Road Trip.

I called the campground to make sure there will be a space with electric (yep!) and the family has been warned that I'm coming into town, sort of. 

I've got a list of things I need to do - and a week to get them all done.

I didn't want to go by myself - Ashtabula isn't the safest place in the world. Some of my choices of traveling companion wouldn't work for a lot of reasons. The Fort Knox Kentucky area is just more progressive than 'Bula - some of my friends would get culture shock.

Hell, hubby gets culture shock every time we go to 'Bula - he says he's seen 3rd world countries that don't look as worn out and neglected as Main Street the last time we were there.

Speaking of narrow minds and shitty attitudes...some Troll dropped docs on a Face Book forum purporting to be "Open" for some minor lulz. Very minor - I actually sold a book because of him.

I considered opening an Encyclopedia Dramatica account to return the favor, but decided it would take up more time than it was worth.

Since the book isn't ready I didn't contact anyone about putting together a book signing. No book, no signing. But I might see what I can do at a later date. The camper makes going to 'Bula a minor financial project, not a major investment. (But I miss Cahill House! The breakfasts were incredible!)

I intend to post some pictures here from the Beach Glass Festival. It should be fun.

Stay tuned!

Back at Jordan's Croft

We are back at Jordan's Croft. I wasn't able to find everyone I wanted to see. However I was able to have quality time with more people than I expected to see.

I came home with a full heart. Full of connections, full of news from dear friends, long lost family and acquaintances thought long dead. I also felt sorrow for those who struggled, with a dash of hope.

Life is hard in Ashtabula. There are so many people, places and things that can distract and derail the unwary. A single bad decision can put a person into the depths of poverty, never to regain their footing.

While Main Street was a ghost town, complete with weeds growing in the streets, the Harbor is still trying to grow. Bridge Street has a Sunday Farmer's Market. Yes, it was tiny, four vendors – Maple syrup and sugar, artisan bread, two tables with farm fresh vegetables. But I saw people walking away laden with goods.

In my mind the Farmer's Market is a great step forward for the Harbor.

Why? Because only small-scale, value added products like bread, maple syrup and vegetables – will turn that economy around. Micro-businesses enmeshed in each other; trading money and services will help people survive, maybe in thrive in time.

There has to be money coming into the county that stays in the county. Grocery stores take more money out than they put in. All that food money comes in but there are only a handful of employees. Unless the owner of the store lives in town, the bulk of the money goes elsewhere.

In a small-scale economy the farmer grows food, takes food to market, person buys food. The farmer reinvests that money the next year (maybe to hire help) to grow more food. The person gets fresh food and better health in return. The farmer is the basis for all economies. Everybody has to eat. When the farmer prospers, the county prospers.

Ashtabula will never be an industrial center again. Never, ever - not even if they hold their breath until they turn blue. The lake is all they have to offer in tourism – the Harbor is it. Seasonal work, seasonal money – making enough in the summer to survive over the winter.

I hated living like that; it sucked in 1980's, it sucks now.

But for the citizen of Ashtabula – that's all there is.

Hope for the Hopeless Case of Ashtabula

My last blog was a commentary about a beautiful, but hopeless place on the shores of Lake Erie, Ashtabula Ohio.

Is there any hope?

I've been reading about "The End of Poverty" which focuses on Africa and the problems that fester there. The parallel with Ashtabula seems to be quite obscure.

It is, I think, a question of capital, instead of a question of government. Since there is no monetary capital to be found, and precious few skills for technical assistence, I have decided to get to the heart of the matter. Big industry isn't coming back, there are only going to be small businesses, very small cottage industries, in the county.

Little cottage industries could make a big difference, if there was a market place. Yes, I know, sounds lame, but what else is Ebay for crying out loud? Hundreds of thousand of cottage industries that became the giant market place.

"Build it and they will come."

A farmer's market and a flea market would do a great deal to help the 'average' person get some extra cash in their pockets. If it was located close to the Geneva Line, there would be access to the tourist trade. That would open up some real opportunities.

There are craftsmen and artists hiding in the woodwork. A fleamarket would bring out the junk collectors from as far away as Eire and Cleveland.

There are plenty of farmers to fill the farmers' market. The Amish would certainly come to the farmers' market. Every little town in Kentucky has both a farmers market and a fleamarket. We have 3 in our area, one is a big one with frozen chicken and fresh cheese as well as all the normal veggies.

Of course, it will never happen. It is so much easier to whine 'the government should save us' then to pull yourself up by the bootstraps.

Looking Back at Ashtabula

Recently my husband and I drove through the town I once called home. I was saddened to see that nothing had changed. Same old houses, same crumbling streets, and I've been told, the same crushing loads of poverty and hopelessness.

I spy on Ashtabula, keep in contact with a few relatives. Peek at the online newspaper to see if there is anything at all positive going on. Beside the fact that Lake Erie is blue instead of the somber brown of my childhood or the green I recall from my teens, there are no visible changes.

All along the lake front, from upstate New York downward there were little mom & pop shops, wineries, farms and so forth. But those petered out from the Ohio line until Geneva-on-the-Lake. As if there was a line of demarcation at the state line.

"Abandon hope all ye who enter here."

The big plants are gone. There are a few, jealously guarded, high-playing jobs, but not many. Not enough to give anyone any hope of better days ahead.

The schools limp along, churning out students, but what quality of skills do these hapless graduates possess? What of the dozens of drop-outs? There aren't enough fast food restaurants to employ them all. I know of one woman, a college graduate in her 50's who worked part-time at McDonald's because that was the only job she could get.

The Mall may have opened up hundreds of minimum wage jobs, but who wants to raise a family on minimum wage with no benefits? Thousands of ill-educated, often drug addicted residents don't even try anymore. They exist in the gray twilight, working some and stealing some, wheeling and dealing to keep their habit going one more bleak and hopeless day.

Tourism is touted as the big fix, but why come to Ashtabula? Geneva-on-the-Lake is pretty and has wineries. Ashtabula proper has nothing to draw in the tourists besides a few marina's on the Ashtabula River. (Just don't drink the water or eat the fish or go on to Bridge Street after dark.)

The lake is cleaner, but the myriad of toxic waste dumps are still oozing poison into the drinking water. Birth defects, mental retardation and cancer are higher in this county than another place besides the infamous "Love Canal." The EPA was gutted ages ago, there is no cleaning the toxins out of the river.

The local paper has no hope to offer. In fact The Star Beacon talks about an attitude they give a cute euphemism for it. but the attitude can be summarized by the rallying cry: "So what's the government going to do about it?"

Though some claim the attitude was imported from the hills of West Virginia, I can attest that it was alive and well in the 1960's thru 1992 when I left town. It permeated my high school in both the black and white students, teachers and all the people I came in contact with.

It is a sign of times, I suppose, that the average Ashtabula 'hillbilly' expects some government fairy god-father to come in and undo what nearly a century of corruption has done to the county. But short of having some FBI g-man, like a re-incarnated Elliot Ness come in to assasinate the "god-fathers" the status quo is not going to change quickly.

Does that leave me meeping the blues like some dying songbird?

No, because I never thought that "the government" was competent enough to save it's own backside, let alone that of some 30k lost souls.

What Ashtabula really needs is a dose of TRUE hillbilly attitude. Independence and self-reliance are neither prized nor taught in our society. They are the skills of the Depression's children, not the skills of the baby-boomers.