Dazed and Confused

Tuesday = Writers Plot Day

Yup, over at Writers Plot today, talking about my field trip to the food pantry.  It was a fun and sobering experience.  For details, click here. 

Amazon is playing with me--again

I don't get it.  Amazon puts DEAD IN RED on sale for 20% off.

Amazon yanks it off sale as soon as people start to order it.

Two weeks later, it's back on sale for $20.76 and eligible for free shipping (if you spend $25).

I don't get it.

Field Trip!

This morning Frank asked me, "Are you ever going to post something new on your blog?" 

Go figure!  We spend 23 out of 24 hours of the day together and even he doesn't know what's going on in my life

Things have been busy on the LLB/Lorna front.  I had a stupendous day of writing on Thursday--and nothing since.  *Sigh*  Well, that may change...soon.  More on that in a minute.

Yesterday I fulfilled a two-year dream:  I found a day bed for one of the tiny bedrooms at the cottage.  I wanted to keep the "girliness" my mother brought to the room, while removing the double bed.  That's about all that fit in the room.  We had been going to look at bricks for a tiny weedy space in the backyard, and on the way home stopped at a couple of garage sales....

Man, if I was still in business at The Craft Antique Co-Op, I could've bought a ton of stuff for my booth.  It's so hard passing by all these wonderful things.  But what am I personally going to do with it?  So I bought one plate (which turned out to be chipped, dammit) and...the day bed.

It's got a few problems, not the least of which being it belonged to a small child who scuffed it up.  But once I put the dust ruffle and all those lovely pillows and a few teddy bears, it'll be gorgeous.  And it was a third of what I figured I'd have to pay (or was willing to pay) to get it.  Always a plus!  It looks similar to this--but so far without any bedding.

Of course, that meant taking the damn thing apart to fit it in the back of the mini van, hauling it 40+ miles to the cottage, getting it into the cottage, hauling out the old bed, reassembling it and cracking myself in the hand (I have a bruised and swollen finger -- and shin), but it's together.  Doesn't have any sheets or anything on it.  That's another thing I have to find/get.  But it'll all work out.

Today is Mother's Day--Happy Mothers Day to all who deserve it (even if you are fathers).  We're having my folks over for a picnic supper.  Yum!  I'm making the stuffed mushrooms recipe from Murder Is Binding.  (I LOVE stuffed mushrooms.)

Tomorrow is the field trip.  I'm doing research for the third booktown mystery. 

SPOILER ALERT:

It concerns a food pantry.

END SPOILER.

That should be interesting.  My contact has already directed me to a very helpful website and I got lots of really cool information.  I'm very interested in the subject.  It sort of ties in with my interest in going Green, too.

We're also heading to Buffalo tomorrow.  It's a belated Mother's Day trip to visit my mother-in-law, but it's also an opportunity for me to connect with bookstores and (hopefully) sign copies of Murder Is Binding. 

Also on the horizon:  DEAD IN RED bookmarks have been ordered!

And that's what's happening around here.  What's going on with you? 

Getting back in the groove

I've had a hard time getting back into the writing groove.  And there's been more than a bit of guilt associated with the fact not a whole lot has happened on the writing front.  It's not that I don't have ideas--I do.  I've dutifully written them down.  I've brainstormed with pals (Hi Leann and Sheila!). 

It's not because I'm a lazy couch potato.  I can't even remember the last time I sat on the couch.  (Although I do seem to watch a LOT of Star Trek...but I do that in the evenings when I catching up on promo.)

So what's the problem?

Well, I think I figured it out.  For way too many years I did a job that involved a lot of boring, nit-picky research and assembling that information (via data entry).  I found the work to be tedious and I hated it.

...or did I?  In retrospect, it wasn't the work I hated--it was my management.  It was the work environment, where you were made to feel like a cog that could be easily replaced or worse--tossed out without a backward glance.

It used to be that I would squeeze in a little writing in between all this tedious, nit-picky work.  Now things have changed.  Writing is supposed to be my main job, and the tedious, nit-picky work (managing my MySpace pages, looking for promotional venues, putting together promotional material, research for the book) is the stuff I'm supposed to squeeze in when I'm not writing.

I don't know what to do about balancing all this stuff.  I used to want to write in the mornings.  Now I want to do the other stuff in the mornings--but when the afternoon rolls around, I don't feel like writing.  I have had some success taking a notebook to bed and writing before I go to sleep--but that's also my book-reading time.  (And I'm in the middle of one right now.  And I got a HUGE stack of books while I was at the Malice Domestic Conference, too.)

There just isn't enough time in the day to do everything.

Like that's breaking news, huh?

Tuesday = Writers Plot

Yup, that's where I am ... bragging about Murder Is Binding's good fortune.  Wanna see?  Check it out. 

Back from the land of the missing

I've had a cold (or "creeping con crud" as my friend Doranna puts it), and in the past four days I've folded, stuffed, licked, and stamped 444 envelopes--promo material to libraries.  I'm pooped. 

Is it surprising I took a test to see what my superpower should be?

Over at Poe's Deadly Daughters, Julia Buckley blogged about Ironman.  And she included a link for readers to find out their potential superpower.  The link is down there at the bottom.  Go ahead, try it.  Meanwhile, here's mine:

Your Superpower Should Be Manipulating Electricity

You're highly reactive, energetic, and super charged. If the occasion calls for it, you can go from 0 to 60 in a split second. But you don't harness your energy unless you truly need to. And because of this, people are often surprised by what you are capable of. Why you would be a good superhero: You have the stamina to fight enemies for days Your biggest problem as a superhero: As with your normal life, people would continue to underestimate you

What Should Your Superpower Be?

Tagged--again! Then a rant!

This time I was tagged by my pal Jared Case.  Here's the deal:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Go to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence. (A virtually useless step as the action comes next...)
4. Post the next 3 sentences
5. Tag 5 people and acknowledge who tagged you.

The book closest to me just happened to be one I picked up at Malice Domestic.  It's hot off the press, too.  STALKING DEATH by none other than my Writers Plot pal Kate Flora.  (It's the 7th book in her Thea Kozak mystery series.)

All around her, phones were ringing and a confetti of pink message slips littered the desktop.  She looked miserable and confused, which, under the circumstances was understandable.  No one was giving her direction or support.

Oh boy can I identify with the first part of that last sentence.  Apparently, my editor(s) are pretty happy with my work, because I haven't been asked to do much (any) in the way of revision for any of the four books I've sold.  I like to think that's because they like my work...but then I've had a couple of nasty reviews where people say I don't know grammar or the use of commas.  I have to admit I see no point in fighting with my copy editors--and I've blogged about how one publisher's CE wants it this way while another publisher's CE wants the exact same thing another way.  it all depends on the style book or dictionary they're working with--and it's important to pick your battles carefully.  Truth be told, even though I was a copy editor myself (for eight years), who but the really anal give a flying fig for commas?  I either use them too much, or not enough.  Apparently, these days it's all subjective.

Am I going to impale myself on a cedar (or any other kind of) stake because of a few misplaced commas or questionable grammar--especially in dialog (where I'm pretty sure these purists are so anal)?  Hell, no!  For me, and for 99% of the readers I'm likely to encounter, STORYTELLING is what counts.  In my opinion, Stephen King could use a stiff edit.  J.K. Rowling the same.  But is there any doubt that these two humans (as well as Nora Roberts and a host of other bestsellers) are probably the best storytellers on the face of the planet?

No.

I could torture myself for the typos that I (my spell check, my husband, my critique partner(s), and my copy editor) missed in the final version of my books, and I don't consider myself as particularly sloppy--but really, if you're that hung up on one or two errors per 80,000 words--you really need to get a life.  If you can't lose yourself in the story--if a misplaced modifier, a split infinitive, or a misused comma here and there take you out of the story--go read some dry-as-dust English Lit manual.  Me, I'll take that second print run thanks to enthusiastic readers and stick my tongue at you as I collect my next royalty check.

If you want good storytelling...read genre fiction.  (Something Oprah could stand to think about.)  Romance, Mystery, Horror, YA...whatever.  Because more than anything, good storytelling is far better than technical precision.  Trust me.  As a reader, and as a published author, I know this.

Now...to tag five more people for this meme.  This may be extremely difficult.  I'm associated with more people who do group rather than personal blogs. 

Still...

Lee Rowan, are you game?  April Henry?  Anne Malcom-Willey?  Dwight Wannabe?  Julia Buckley--are you game, too?

All the news that's fit to type

Okay, after a whirlwind month, I'm glad that the promotion is nearly finished.  But what a month!

It started with my signing on April 5th where...I sold out of all but one of the books the store had.  Yea!

But I found I couldn't buckle down and work.  Not with the Malice Domestic conference hanging over my head.  So I concentrated on getting ready for the conference (assembling promo material, etc.), sending out promo material, and impatiently waiting for my Library Journal review.  (Which is due tomorrow.)

The conference was this past weekend.  What a blast!  I felt like a movie star--so many people asked me to sign their books, programs, autograph books, and even their canvas book bags given by the conference.  The dealers room sold out of Murder Is Binding, including the copies I brought.  I also sold nine copies of Murder On The Mind.  My panel was a huge success (not that I spoke that much--I said the PANEL was a success--but I did make the audience laugh a few times). 

I got to hang out with a bunch of my friends:  Sheila Connolly, Judy Clemens, Kate Flora, Sandy Parshall, Hank Phillippi Ryan, rub elbows with members of the Sisters in Crime (national) board, meet lots of members of my Sisters In Crime Chapter, The Guppies, and best of all--I wasn't sick, like I was last time.  (Although I seem to have brought home a cold.  Bummer.)

I picked up lots of promo material from other authors to see if I could borrow any good ideas.  I'll have to study them all in the next couple of days and update my own stuff.

I also did two drop-in signings:  the first at a Barnes & Noble near the conference hotel (signed six copies and left two dozen bookmarks), and a Borders in Fairfax.  They only had one copy of the book, but the associate I spoke to was very nice, extremely enthusiastic, and reordered on the spot.  Since I wouldn't be back to sign the books, he had me sign a dozen bookmarks.

After the conference, I attended the Festival of Mystery, put on by the Mystery Lovers Bookshop.  I was the only author to completely sell out!  Of course, I only had 30 books in front of me and most of the authors had huge backlists (some as many as 100 books in front of them to sell). 

I returned home yesterday exhausted but happy.  Things couldn't get better, right?

Wrong!

First came word from my Five Star contact that she'd received a snippet of the Library Journal review:  "Bartlett has a deft touch and makes psychic abilities very real." 

Not ten minutes after I opened that e-mail, than she sent me another, telling me that Dead In Red will also get a Booklist review.  "Bartlett’s hero is complicated and mesmerizing, making for a gripping and energizing mystery."  (But I assure you, there is no pink bunny pounding a drum in this book.)

The day couldn't possibly get better than that, right?

I was wrong again.  I heard from my Berkley editor (not his assistant!) that not only had Murder Is Binding gone into a second printing (less than a month after its debut), but that Murder Is Binding is #8 on the Barnes & Noble mystery bestseller list.

Woo-hoo!  Happy Dance.

I'm waiting for the full Library Journal review then I'll finish up my library campaign letter and start folding, licking and stamping envelopes.  (Up to 750 of the suckers.)  So I'll have a busy weekend ahead of me.  But Monday morning it's time to GO BACK TO WORK.  No excuses! 

But I think I'll bask in the glow for another day or so.  This may never happen again and I want to enjoy it while it lasts.
 

Tuesday On Writers Plot

Before I left for the conference, I wrote a blog for this week's Writers Plot.  It's a trip down memory lane.  Take a look.

Libraries and book orders

It happened, and it only three weeks:

The number of library systems/library copies of MURDER IS BINDING has surpassed that of MURDER ON THE MIND--and in only three weeks.  (It took Murder On The Mind almost a year to reach 97 library systems--and I feel my "library campaign" was responsible for 30 of those systems.)

I'm pleased and bummed by this news.  Pleased, because I've already heard from a number of people who've read a library copy of Murder Is Binding.  (They liked it--hey, Mikey!) Bummed because I worked hard to get MOTM in libraries and so far haven't lifted a finger to get MIB there.  (I will be lifting a finger in the not too distant future.  I've got a large-print version coming out this summer, and libraries are the biggest audience for large print books.)

I'm proud I scored those extra 30 library systems for Murder On The Mind.  It shows an author does have some (limited) control over sales, but it wasn't enough.  It came too late.  The book went out of print in only 11 months.  (I know some Five Star authors who are still in print two plus years later.)

Last week I sent out a special issue of my e-mail newsletter (you can sign up in the box on the lower left) letting my readers know that Amazon was selling pre-ordered copies of Dead In Red at 20% off.  No sooner had the orders started coming in when they yanked the offer.  According to Ingram, 22 people pre-oredered the book.  (Hey, it moved up over 2 million in the rankings--but nowhere near what Murder Is Binding has done.)

So far only one library system has pre-ordered Dead in Red.  I'm waiting for that Library Journal review (due May 1st) before I mail out the first phase of my library begging letters.  I expect a better return on this campaign simply because of that one review from a highly respected source.  Do I really need to do this?  I don't know.  But since libraries are the main focus of my publisher, it doesn't hurt to cater to that audience.