Author Jen Meyers

Blog

On All Hallows’ Eve

This is such a pumpkin holiday in my house. We carved jack-o-lanterns (for the second time this year—we did it already waaaaay back in September), roasted seeds, popped a little tea light candle in the pumpkins at night and lit them to much oohing and ahing amongst the littles. (The littlest little was already asleep, which was too bad because she would have LOVED it. Well, there’s always next year. Or tomorrow night.)

We don’t go trick-or-treating because the idea of handing my kids a BAG FULL of candy just strikes me as insane. Really, they already have PLENTY of energy. No need to boost it. That’s not to say they don’t get sweets—don’t feel too bad for them. I bake, and I do it often. They are not lacking for sugar exposure, you can rest assured. It’s just limited to a healthy amount (if there is such a thing, which there probably isn’t, but I digress).

Anyway, we did some mad carving tonight. (Note to self: pumpkin carving is not a carpal-tunnel-friendly activity—youch!) And these are the results of my children wielding knives:

Riley's started with three teeth, but one didn't make it.

Torin's. I especially like the little lines above the nose. Looks like stitches. Creepy!

Cael's in mid-carve. Something distracted him and he left his poor pumpkin in a gruesome state.

So that’s Cael’s in the middle there, with the big chunk missing out of the back. I asked Cael what the hole was, hoping to hear how his pumpkin had met with some horrible fate, but he was just being practical—it’s a hole to reach into, if we need to. My theory was much more colorful—that his jack-o had a run in with a mad hatchet-bearing murderer. Oh! Like Lizzie Borden! (I totally just got distracted reading about dear Lizzie on that link there.)

As a side note, I grew up listening to a song about Lizzie Borden by the Chad Mitchel Trio. Funniest lyrics EVER. A snippet:
“Yesterday in old Fall River, Mr. Andrew Borden died,
and he got his daughter Lizzie on a charge of homicide.
Some folks say she didn’t do it, and others say, of course, she did.
But they all agree Miss Lizzie B. was a problem kind of kid.
‘Cause you can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts,
not even if it’s planned as a surprise—a surprise!
No you can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts,
you know how neighbors love to criticize.”

I don’t know who wrote the lyrics to that song, but it’s genius!

Where was I? Oh! Halloween. Right. The boys spent all evening then making the place as creepy as they could. There was spooky art taped to windows and walls. Like this:

Oh no! If that arrow's any indication, there's a ghost right outside our window.

Torin: Ha ha! Look! I hid the monster so it'll scare someone!

Dracula! (I think. Though he looks a little like a vampire elf with those ears.)

They also took it upon themselves to try to scare Steve. Like this.

Those pieces are taped to Torin's face. Of his own doing, his own idea. This didn't scare Steve, but it did make him laugh.

Riley taped a Frankenstein mask he made to his face. Don't think this scared Steve, either.

And Cael? Well, Cael used a LOT of tape. I stopped him at this point, as he was trying to afix Torin's face peices with a whole roll of scotch tape. Not sure Steve ever saw this. He might have only been scared as to whether it was going to hurt to remove all that tape.

Lots of good Halloween fun happening here. My dining room table is a mess with scissors, markers, and paper scraps, but my kids giggled their way through the evening and are happily asleep now. I hope you had a great night, trick-or-treating, handing out candy, or just hanging with your kids like I did.

Happy Halloween!

By jen | October 31, 2011 | Blog, fall, family |

Randoms

1. Our neighbors are mostly comprised of older retirees, aka surrogate grandparents. About a week ago, one lovely couple stopped me and asked if they could take Riley, my bird-loving 9 year old, to a talk about local birds given by a scientist from the Lab of Ornithology. It was not, she said, a talk for kids, but given Riley’s incredible passion for and knowledge of birds (and his proclamation that he, indeed, will be an ornithologist when he grows up), she thought he might like it.

Now, I don’t let my child get into just anyone’s car. I’m very particular about who I trust my children with. But this couple, these wonderful neighbors of ours, have my trust. And so they drove off with Riley on Monday night. (They also brought him back.) And he had a great time. Love our neighbors. And I love that they care enough for my kids and their interests to ask to take them places. Really, so cool.

2. I recently bought way too many concord grapes from a local farmer (and by “way too many” I mean like 12 pounds.) (I know. After the fact, I wondered what I was thinking, too. So did Steve.) The kids were thrilled and I was too until I got home with all these grapes and thought, “Oh, crap. What am I going to do with them all?” (Someday I’ll own a juicer, and such questions will be moot.)

So I made pie. Grape pie. I’d never had it before, and was a bit worried that it was going to taste like grape-jelly pie (I mean, really. What else could it taste like?), but I HAD ALL THESE GRAPES, you see. The pie turned out really good. Color me surprised. (And purple, after all those grapes.)

3. I had SO MANY GRAPES (I tell you, it was insane that I bought that many with no plan) that I froze some for a future pie and made grape jam, because that seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately, I ended up not realizing the jam was ready and let it cook too long. So instead of three 16 oz jars of homemade grape jam, I now have three 16 oz jars of grape tar.

Seriously. The stuff doesn’t move inside the jars. Even when I turn them upside down, so I’m pretty sure it’s going to be impossible to spread on bread (it will, rather, rip the bread to shreds when we try, which is not usually the result we’re after). I speak from experience on this. I made blueberry tar a couple of years ago. TRIED to use it, ended up throwing out several jars because it was just impossible.

I may try to use the grape tar as the fruit filling in these jam bars I make that are TO DIE FOR. This is the recipe here, which calls for raspberry jam but you can use any kind, and instead of walnuts I use almonds that I’ve run through the food processor (because I’m too lazy to chop them by hand). I often make it dairy free by using Earth Balance instead of butter, too, which is equally delicious. Also, I suggest doubling it and baking it in a 13 x 9 pan because you will be really sad if you don’t. (I know this for fact.) (And, you’re welcome. In advance.) :-)

4. I took the kids over to a friend’s house this week and we got to see first hand how baskets are made completely by hand—from harvesting the wood to the final product. What an amazing process it is, and these baskets my friend makes are gorgeous. They are strong and incredibly sturdy, and just wow, you know? I mean, you can tell when you see them or hold them in your hands that they were made with care, precision, craft, skill, and love. Look here to see for yourself. (But really, you should see them in person.) Serious craftsmanship going on there, I tell you.

5. It’s been an unusually busy week for us—we’ve been out and about every day. I’d say I was looking forward to relaxing this weekend, but we have the boys’ last two soccer games of the season, one Saturday, one Sunday. What I need right now is a few of days at home, not having to go anywhere. Next week! (I can’t tell you how much I look forward to that.) Hopefully those days will be spent curled up in front of the fire. (This is the beauty of homeschooling. We choose when and where we go. And when we don’t. Love that.)

Have a great weekend everyone!

By jen | October 28, 2011 | Blog, randoms |

Time Well Spent

Hey! Hi there. Can I tell you how lovely it is to spend an afternoon and evening with good friends? LOVELY. Really. Over the weekend we went off to a soccer game at 2:30 and got home after 10pm because we were wined (well, cidered) and dined by friends (whose son’s team had beat our boys’ team. Again.) who we haven’t seen for a while. You know. Just ’cause we all get busy.

But it was a lovely evening. There was a hockey game involved that I didn’t have to go to, but that Steve and Riley fully enjoyed. I spent hours talking with a person I dearly love. And we had exhausted kids at the end of it all. Win-win-win-win-win.

Oh! And in other totally unrelated news, I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while about some fabulous blogs I visit. So, I’m going to do that today. You know, because why not? No time like the present.

One of my favorite is Amanda Blake Soule’s blog Soule Mama. She has the most lovely way of looking at things, such a wonderfully warm writing style. Seriously, I just soak her posts up. If you haven’t found her yet, then go. Check it out. Read. You’ll thank me.

I also love Catherine Newman who writes these achingly honest and funny posts about motherhood, children, marriage, life . . . all as a precursor to some fabulous recipe she’s created or adapted. I don’t know how she segues so beautifully into the food, but she does. And the captions she puts on each photo for the recipe illustration are usually hysterical. You want great writing and a good laugh? Go visit Catherine.

Also, this is one of the funniest things I have ever read: Missing Missy.

And this, from the Bloggess, who is profane and could easily turn into a criminal mastermind, makes me laugh out loud every time I read it. (Which has been a lot of times. I read her newer posts too, but this one—oh, this one just gets me. In fact, I’m going to go read it again right now.)

Happy Monday!

By jen | October 24, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized |

The Sociopath Next Door

Can I tell you about the book I got in the mail today? It’s this:

The Sociopath Next Door

The quote there under the first set of eyes reads “A chillingly accurate portrayal of evil—the decent person’s guide to indecency.”

The text between the title and author’s name reads “1 in 25 ordinary Americans secretly has no conscience and can do anything at all without feeling guilty. Who is the devil you know?”

*chills*

Now doesn’t that sound like a fun read? (I know! I think so too.) I got it after reading a small excerpt from it and figured it could be used to create some very believable and dastardly-nasty bad guys in my books. Of course in the process of reading it, the book may in fact just prove to freak me out because it’s actually supposed to teach you how to identify the sociopaths around you and how to avoid falling prey to them.

So either I’ll be writing fantastically creepy antagonists or I’ll become paranoid that you’re all out to get me.

Hmmm. Anyone wanna take bets? :-)

By jen | October 20, 2011 | Blog, books |

“I have never been so excited about pee.”

So, I just said that to my mom on the phone just now. She called me from the ICU where she’s been since the wee hours of Sunday morning because she got a new kidney two days ago.

And it’s working. (The new kidney.) You guys! It’s working! I have literally never been this excited about pee before. In fact, I got a little choked up when she told me. Really. About pee.

She’d called me on Saturday from the hospital, while they were prepping her (which took hours, so it’s not like she called me in the midst of a medical whirlwind) to tell me the news.
Mom: Well, I have some bad news. I’m not going to be able to have my knee surgery on Wednesday.
Me: Why not?
Mom: Because I’m getting a kidney tonight.
Me: {can’t talk because I’m crying}
Mom: You still there?
Me: Yes. God, this just screws everything up.
Mom: Isn’t that the truth.

I cried again after I said goodbye and hung up, knowing she was going into surgery, worrying about that, and so overwhelmed with relief that she finally had a kidney. She’s been in kidney failure for a couple of years, just started dialysis this summer (which made her feel like a failure). (I know! She’s crazy.) And she wasn’t expecting to be at the top of the recipient list for another year.

But they called her at noon on Saturday to ask if she wanted this kidney that several people had already turned down. (I’m not kidding.) Ummm, YES.

HELL, YES.

Can I tell you how incredible that is? How incredible organ donors are? This weekend someone’s family was overwhelmed with sadness. And my family has been overcome with joy.

You, guys. My mom got a new kidney this weekend!

What did you do? ;-)

By jen | October 17, 2011 | Blog, family |

Books I want to rave about

. . . and will.

But not today.

While I want to gush about each book listed here, I just don’t have the time. I’m inputting changes from my editor and revising as I go along. And it’s S-L-O-W going. Painfully slow. Unbearably slow. Excrutiatingly slow. (But I’m not complaining.) (Much.)

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Books! If you’re looking for some great reads, let me give you a list of fabulous books I’ve read recently and can highly, highly, highly recommend. (That is to say I LOVED them.)

Almost all of what I’ve read for the past two years has been MG and YA, and I’m telling you it’s really the most creative and stellar writing out there in publishing right now. You don’t have to be a kid to love these books. They are so well crafted, intelligent, and intricate. Really. Read these.

  • The Magic Thief series by Sarah Prineas
  • The Dreamdark series (Blackbringer & Silksinger) by Laini Taylor
  • Chime by Frannie Billingsley
  • Graceling by Kristin Cashore (and the companion book Fire)
  • The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
  • The Attolia series (The Thief, Queen of Attolia, King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings) by Megan Whalen Turner
  • You by Charles Benoit
  • The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

So, as I wrote that list, I kept wanting to write in parentheses “I LOVE this. You have to read at least THIS one” after each and every book/series. Seriously. They are all incredible works that you should read. (And then hand them to your kids.)

Go. Go now! (You’ll thank me. Really, you will.) (Happy reading!)

By jen | October 12, 2011 | Blog, books |

Focus

My mind is steeped in formatting, finalizing, figuring out how to spread the word about the books, all while anxiously awaiting feedback about INTUITION from beta readers so I can get it up and out this week. That is turning out to take a lot of other planning since I make promises at the end of the short story that I have to fulfill or I’m going to make people rather unhappy with me (which would be the exact opposite effect of what I’m going for).

What am I promising? Several free chapters of INTANGIBLE. Honestly, I think it’ll be the first ten chapters, which is a little over 80 pages long. (Steve’s eyes just bugged out when I told him that.) BUT, if I’m going to post it for people to find who’ve picked up INTUITION, liked it, read the included preview of INTANGIBLE (which is chapter one), and come here looking for the free preview of the book, then I have some serious inputting of edits to do to get the first 80+ pages ready for show here.

So. There’s a wee bit more work involved than just polishing INTUITION and getting the file prettied up for uploading online. (I will be honest and tell you that I’m having way too much geek-laden fun figuring out html and making the format rock for Kindle and Nook. Seriously.)

Of course, at the same time, the weather’s getting cooler and my fingers are itching to pick up the knitting needles (and if they weren’t glued to the computer keyboard that’s what they’d be doing, carpal tunnel be damned). Torin suddenly wants to knit a pair of mittens, so I’m going to be knitting vicariously through him for a while. (Of course it won’t be entirely vicarious as he will require some help. Which will hopefully satisfy my inner urge to knit until after I get the book done and up for sale.)

It’s the season, I tell you. This is what fall and winter inspire in me: knitting and making/eating homemade soup. Oh, and sitting by the fire as much as possible once it gets cold. (Thank goodness I have a laptop.)

What’s the cool weather inspiring in you?

By jen | October 9, 2011 | Blog, book news |

Sneak Peak: Chapter One

We’re getting close! INTUITION will be out next week. We’re on schedule for a November release for the ebook of INTANGIBLE, and a December release for the paperback.

To celebrate here’s chapter one of INTANGIBLE.

ONE

“Shall she be the first to die, Seer?”

Luke’s head whipped up and he froze with the realization—she was talking directly to him. That had never happened before.

She spoke again, a taunt. “Yes, I think so. Her healing makes her the more dangerous.”

No. A chill tingled up his neck, settled under his dark hair. Not his sister. This one couldn’t be about Sera. Damn it, who’d said that?

There.

Holy. Crap.

Ivory satin skin, copper colored hair, her body a combination of hard and soft in all the right places. Divine. That was the only way to describe her. Luke found it hard to breathe looking at her. It pierced him, her beauty. She smiled serenely at him. And though her words had struck terror, her visage soothed him. He knew with sudden certainty that he’d do anything to make her happy.

Torchlight from sconces on the walls flicked amber across her tall angular form. As Luke gazed intently, however, her beauty quivered, disappeared to reveal a disturbing gauntness. Sharp cheekbones under pale as death skin. Collarbones stood out above the skin-tight black tank top. Hip bones jutted out just above the top of her taut black pants. Not an ounce of excess to her body. Nor an ounce of humanity in her glittering dark eyes.

Had he really thought she was beautiful only a moment ago? He studied her. She was sickeningly skeletal, yet then inexplicably alluring again. All at once terrifying, grotesque, and ravishing. What the hell was she?

Goose bumps spread up his arms.

This was the scariest vision he’d ever had.

His eyes settled on the wide gold disc around her neck. It was shaped like an Egyptian collar necklace and inscribed with ancient-looking symbols. It lay flat against her chest, wrapping all the way around her neck, the only adornment she wore.

He took a step back and noticed they were standing together on a dais next to a sleek, dark stone throne. A throne? Seriously? thought Luke. Where the hell was he?

As Luke turned back to her, she smiled suddenly, sending a chill scuttling under his skin. There was no happiness, no warmth in her face—only inhuman excitement. With a start, he realized what was about to happen.

No one else was here.

He was about to witness his own death.

In all of his seventeen years he’d never had a vision about himself before—he hadn’t thought it was possible. If it was, he wasn’t sure this was something he wanted to See. But maybe if he didn’t look at her, it wouldn’t happen.

His eyes scanned the room. Blood-red rock walls rose from a charred black stone floor with the deepest, darkest shadows lurking in every crack and crevice. Luke blinked hard. Did the shadows just move? He shook his head to clear it, trying hard to not look back over at the hideous beauty. It was a vast, vacant space that felt both cold and hot simultaneously. Luke went from shivering to sweating to shivering again.

Oh my god, Luke thought. Am I in hell?

Did hell actually exist?

A slight movement in his peripheral vision made him turn his head. He instinctively smiled at what he saw—his twin sister Sera. But in an instant the woman’s words echoed in his mind. Shall she be the first to die? A rising panic threatened to choke him. He scoured the room for a way out. A way to change what he knew with absolute certainty was about to happen.

 “The Children of the Prophecy must die!” Her sudden cry filled the whole room.

And then the woman’s gold necklace hurtled through the air, slicing into Sera’s neck.

“NOOOOOOO!” Luke stood up so quickly he jammed his knee into his desk and nearly knocked over the computer he’d been using when the vision had gripped him. His heart screamed staccato beats, his breath came in raspy gulps, his grey t-shirt was drenched. He tripped over his chair, scrambling to grab the small, wire-bound black sketchbook on his bedside table before the details faded away. He threw himself back into his chair and wrote in a near frenzy as his eyes fought to focus in the dim light. Every little detail of his vision went down on the page: colors, smells, the look of the room and the people in it, what they wore, words they said. Everything he could remember.

He wrote without thinking. Without order. Without pause. Lists of words, remembered phrases. Any clue that might help him figure out how to stop it from coming true.

He had to stop this one from coming true.

If only he knew how.

His visions always came true. Always. No matter what he did. He wrote them down, dissected them for clues. Then he tried to get there before the events happened. He did everything he could to thwart them. But it was impossible. They came to him either incomplete, incomprehensible, or too late. Recurring visions were the most difficult, for the information came in dribs and drabs, and he had to piece it all together. Once he’d sorted it all out there was never enough time to do anything about it.

What did he have to do to change the future? He hadn’t figured that out yet.

But he sure as hell needed to figure it out now. Right now. Holy crap. It was Sera. Sera’s life. His breathing quickened again just thinking about it. Threads of fear wove around inside his chest and ever so slightly squeezed. Sera.

He had to save her. Had to. But how?

Don’t panic, he thought. Keep calm. Figure it out. He shut his notebook and put it back down on the table, ran a hand through his short dark hair. A bright red 1:02 glowed on his bedside clock. Shivering from his sweaty shirt, he took a deep breath, swiveled his chair to the side, and stood up in one fluid motion. Pulling his t-shirt over his head, he replaced it with a soft green henley. He pushed the sleeves up to his elbows as he quickly padded the short distance down the hall to his sister’s bedroom, the khaki carpet swallowing his cautious footsteps. A nightlight stretched his shadow out long to the far end of the hall. He knocked quietly on Sera’s door, hoping he wouldn’t wake their mom.

He paused for a moment. What was he going to tell her, coming to see her at one o’clock in the morning? How was he going to explain that? It’s not like he could say, “Hey, I’m scared to death that you’re going to die because I just Saw it. Wanna help me figure out how to stop that from happening?”

Shall she be the first to die?

He didn’t have to say anything. He just needed to know she was okay at this moment.

“Sera?” He knocked again. Opening the door quietly, he said, “Are you up?” and stepped into her room.

It was empty.

 *****

Like it? Send this page to your friends by clicking below.  And sign up to follow this blog (located in the sidebar) to be the first to hear when this book is released.

By jen | October 5, 2011 | Blog, book news |

Indie as First Choice

I’m publishing my books myself—as my first choice, not as a last resort. To be honest, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with self-publishing as a last resort. Just because NY didn’t want to publish your book doesn’t mean it isn’t any good. It doesn’t mean no one wants to read it. Many indie authors have proven that to be fact. A few have even proven it to the point of making millions on their own. (And, if you recall, J.K. Rowling got turned down by all the big publishers when she shopped Harry Potter around. A small press took her on, but advised her to get a day job because she’d never make a living as a children’s book writer. So, the big publishers aren’t always right. In fact, they’re not usually right, if you think about how many books are published every year and how few of them are stellar works or fabulous successes. It’s a guessing game for them.)

I’m not going indie because I couldn’t get published traditionally. I’ve not been rejected by anyone. I’m going indie because I decided that going traditional wasn’t the smartest way to be published. For me.

Publishing traditionally was my goal when I started writing this book a year and a half ago. (Yes, it’s taken me a looooong time. I have four kids. It takes a long time to write and polish 98,000 words when I have no time.) In between writing times, I obsessively researched agents and querying. I wrote my query. Trashed it. Rewrote it. Trashed it. Rewrote it. Over and over again until I had a solid, well-written query.

In all my publishing research I came across Joe Konrath’s blog. I read a few things, noted his view on traditional vs. indie/self-publishing, but didn’t really think about it. That is, until this March when he and Barry Eisler put out this discussion, right after Barry had turned down a $500,000 two-book deal with St. Martin’s Press to publish the books himself. (Yes, you read that right.)

That got me thinking. At that point I wasn’t convinced it was the way for me to go, to self-publish, but it gave me a plan B. If it turned out no one wanted to buy and publish my book, then I could do it myself. It would be my last resort. Felt like a good plan to me.

Then, a month later, Konrath and Eisler put up part 2 of the discussion. My research took a new direction at that time. Instead of agents and queries, I started looking up indie authors and self-publishing. And bit by bit it sunk in: the future of publishing is ebooks, not paper. Someday everyone will be reading books on ereaders. Already textbooks are coming out as ebooks, more and more people are buying ereaders and sales of ebooks are rising exponentially. (Did you see this chart on the growth of ebooks Jeff Bezos of Amazon put up at the recent press conference? Scroll down. It’s under number 3.)

That is the future. No matter how much I personally love paper books, the future is decidedly digital. (There is a part 3 of the Konrath-Eisler discussion, if you’ve made it all the way through parts 1 and 2, and are interested to read more. It’s here.)

And I realized that what traditional publishers do best (and really the only thing I cannot do myself) is to get paper books into stores. But as bookstores go out of business and people start buying more and more of their books online, that function of a traditional publisher becomes less necessary or even useful.

The more I thought and read about it, the more I realized that publishing the book myself was by far the better business decision. And this is a business to me. I am not writing books for the sake of art—my books are not that artful. I’m not trying to write the great American novel. They are popular fiction meant to sell popularly. I’m writing with the hopes of making a living. And, at this point, the best way to do that is to publish it myself.

Just look at the math: A traditionally published author’s cut of an ebook is 14.9% of the price. For a $9.99 ebook an author gets $1.49 for each sale. An indie author’s cut of a $9.99 ebook is $6.99. That’s quite a difference. Factor in that ebooks never disappear from the virtual shelf to make room for new titles, as paper books do in a physical bookstore. So a publisher gets a huge cut of an author’s book forever. An indie author (and his/her children, grandchildren) gets the huge cut forever. As Joe Konrath is fond of saying, forever is a long time.

I have an advantage going into this, I will admit. I worked as a freelance copy editor and proofreader for the big NY publishers for a few years, as well as a writer and editor of educational texts for 12 or 13 years. I know all the steps a book must go through before it’s in print. I know how many times it gets checked over for mistakes or typos. I can reproduce that chain of production, find the people I need to produce a professional, high quality book. I’m lucky to have this knowledge and experience.

I have also been traditionally published before. I co-authored a couple of parenting books. My experience with the first publisher was generally horrible. They cut out huge chunks of important text without asking, without telling us, and refused to put it back in. You can bet I won’t work with that publisher again. Working with the second publisher, on the other hand, was an overall lovely experience, but it came with one large frustration—that my name, because I am not an MD and my co-author is, could not be listed first. My co-author, a very generous, intelligent, and sweet man, even lobbied for the name order. But to no avail.

I guess my biggest frustration with the whole process was the lack of say I had in most things. And that was one of my biggest concerns as I thought about traditionally publishing my novel. What if I hated the cover? What if they changed the title to something I didn’t like? What if they wanted me to change the story in a way I wasn’t thrilled about? I’d have no actual power as the author. Sure, the publisher might listen to my concerns, might be willing to compromise or see things my way, but they also might not. They don’t have to.

Plus, so much of the work I will do as an indie author to get the word out about my book (blog, Facebook, Twitter) is work I’d have to do as a traditionally published author as well. So, if I’m having to do all this work anyway, the future of publishing is ebooks, as an indie I get a significantly larger percentage of the purchase price and I maintain creative control, why would I go traditional? Turns out, I wouldn’t.

So, here I am. A new indie author. Will I ever consider going traditional? Honestly, I don’t know. If someone makes me an offer I can’t refuse, then I suppose I won’t be able to refuse it. But that would have to be quite an offer.

In the meantime, I’m happy doing it myself. I like doing things myself. And I’m a little excited to be on the cutting edge of the future.

By jen | October 3, 2011 | Blog, book news |

Randoms

My kids are outside playing in the wet, muddy grass, the boys swinging Ebba around (to her utter delight and my utter alarm) so I’m going to have to make this quick.

1. First, have you seen these photos of a lioness rescuing her cub from a steep ravine in Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve? Amazing. A mother’s love is a mother’s love, no matter what species.

2. This song sung by Brian Setzer has special meaning for me, especially today (see #5 below). So I thought I’d share it with you.

Sigh.

3. Have you seen all the hoopla with Amazon’s new announcements? At the press conference revealing the new Kindles, this chart flashed onto the screen behind Jeff Bezos during his presentation.

Yowza. How’s that for incentive to publish ebooks? Can anyone argue that paper books will become a thing of the past? Add to that all the people who will be buying one of the four new ereaders (one is only $79 and there’s a color touch tablet that’s a mere $199), and we’re going to see ebooks taking over the book market.

Which in all honesty I find both thrilling and heartbreaking. I love my paper books. I have overflowing shelves of paper books, and I always will. When I go to buy a book, I buy it in paper. I like holding books in my hands. I like studying the cover art. I like turning pages. I like how books look and feel. I am not personally sold on buying my books digitally. BUT, and this is a big but, I’m thrilled with this news because it means I might be able to make a living as a writer. There is a lot more space (unlimited!) for authors on the virtual book shelf, and books never have to be returned unsold to make room for what’s new. It’s a really good time to be a writer.

And regardless of how much I love paper books, in all reality it’s likely that my grandchildren will grow up with ereaders in their hands, and look with bemused smiles at my stuffed book shelves as antiques. (They’ll do the same with my CD collection.)

4. In other sorta-book news . . . over the weekend, I got all made up for the first time in YEARS (I’m so not exaggerating that) so Steve could take my author photos. (When the kids saw me with makeup on, they all said, “You look weird, Mom.” And I believe Torin and Riley had extensive conversations about how I looked like “a weirdo.” Contrary to their consensus, I think I actually looked just fine.) There were so many beautiful photos, it was hard to narrow it down. (I swear, this man could do this professionally.) But I have chosen a few for my profiles on the web. And I know which one will be on the books. Fun!

5. Hmmm, what else? Oh, yeah. Steve and I are celebrating our 11th anniversary today. Our first dance was to the song above. And Steve has taken the day off from work just like he does every year (though he tried to convince me he hadn’t, saying that perhaps he’d forgotten about it, that he had to go in early in the morning, etc. . . . He tried. I didn’t buy it.). (He also does that every year on my birthday—both take the day off and try to convince me ahead of time that he didn’t.) (Seriously, there are *reasons* I love this man. Many, many reasons.)

Okay, it’s raining now, and I have four wet, muddy kids coming inside. Looks like a good time for showers!

Have a great weekend everyone!

By jen | September 30, 2011 | Blog |