When Your First Time Is At A Romance Convention

I did my first panel this weekend, at the Lori Foster Reader & Author Get Together. If you've never been to a romance convention, you should go simply to be in a room full of 500 women where the word "penis" is bandied about fairly frequently. It's an open, over-the-top, chatty atmosphere.

I fit in just fine.

Even with such a welcoming group, when it was time for me to stand up and talk about NOT A DROP TO DRINK, I was a little nervous. I'd never pitched to anyone other than my family and students, who are kind of duty-bound to appear interested. Plus, my audience was more the type to read about people eating food off each other than having to hunt it for survival.

Nonetheless, the group of 30 or so that came to hear the YA contingent talk about our genre and individual books were incredibly supportive and enthusiastic. The handful of teens at the event were happy to have "their" authors so available to them, and as I talked about my book I was thrilled to see one lean over and whisper to another, as they scribbled my name and the title down.

Another thing that helped was that I was on a panel with friends. My fellow Lucky13ers Melissa Landers, Liz Coley and Jennifer McGowan were alongside me, as well as local Ohio authors Leeanna Renee Heiber and Carey Corp. Some of them are pros at public speaking, so falling in step was easy and I was grateful for their leadership. Afterwards, while having coffee with my fellw authors, one of the teens approached me to be sure she'd written my name correctly and had the title of my book right.

"I'm just so excited about it!" she said.

Me too, sweetheart. Me too.

Hope you had a great day! (Books tomorrow, promise)

Can't blog, too busy having a street party!

At least that's the plan, so long as it doesn't rain too much...

Here's the beautiful Queen during the Jubilee Flotilla.

I'm so delighted that the nation has got on board with celebrating the jubilee. I can't imagine there is anyone else in the country who has been so dedicated, loyal, hard-working and wise - nor inspired such love and devotion - over such a long period of time.  I have nothing but respect for Queen Elizabeth II.  (Remember, you republicans are welcome back on Wednesday!)

Song for a Sunday

This is where I fully anticipate losing half my regular readers, but... yes, I watch Glee.  I think it's half dreadful and half entertaining (well, that ratio slips and slides) but occasionally they do rather interesting versions of great songs.  I love 'Shake it Out' by Florence and the Machine - indeed, it's been a Sunday Song before - and I also love Glee's take on it, below.

And, er, yeah I love Shakespeare and stuff too.  So don't judge.  Ok, you can.  A bit.

Year Six: The Reviews

Time to start up another place to record reviews, I think...  A bit like the fiscal year, the Stuck-in-a-Book year rolls around every April - somewhere in the middle.  If you'd prefer to see all my reviews in one place (alphabetical by author) then have a little clickety-click in this direction.  That link is always up to the top of the right-hand sidebar, by the way.

Ackland, Valentine - For Sylvia
Alpha of the Plough - Leaves in the Wind 
Ardizzone, Edward - The Young Ardizzone 
Bainbridge, Beryl - Injury Time
Bainbridge, Beryl - Sweet William
Bainbridge, Beryl - Something Happened Yesterday 
Baker, Frank - Miss Hargreaves : the play 
Bedford, Sybille - A Favourite of the Gods 
Benedictus, David - Return to the Hundred Acre Wood 
Blom, Philipp - The Simmons Papers 
Bodger, Joan - How The Heather Looks 
Bowen, Elizabeth - The House in Paris  
Braine, John - Room at the Top 
Brand, Millen - The Outward Room 
Campbell, Jen - Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops  
Carter, Angela - Wise Children 
Christie, Agatha - The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Christie, Agatha - One, Two, Buckle My Shoe  
Clapp, Susannah - A Card From Angela Carter
Colegate, Isabel - The Shooting Party  
Collier, John - His Monkey Wife
Camus, Albert - The Outsider 
Compton-Burnett, Ivy - More Women Than Men
Compton-Burnett, Ivy - Elders and Betters 
Dangarembga, Tsitsi - Nervous Conditions
Delafield, E.M. - Zella Sees Herself 
Delafield, E.M. - Three Marriages 
Dickens, Monica - The Winds of Heaven 
Dickens, Monica & Beverley Nichols - Yours Sincerely 
Drabble, Margaret - The Garrick Year  
du Maurier, Daphne - Frenchman's Creek
du Maurier, Daphne - Frenchman's Creek (OVW's review)
Dunn, Mark - Ella Minnow Pea
Ferguson, Rachel - We Were Amused 
Fitzgerald, Penelope - At Freddie's 
Gallico, Paul - Coronation
Gallico, Paul - Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris
Gallico, Paul - Mrs. Harris Goes To New York 
Garnett, David - A Man in the Zoo
Gillard, Linda - House of Silence  
Greig, Cicely - Ivy Compton Burnett: A Memoir 
Hanff, Helene - Q's Legacy 
Hansford Johnson, Pamela - I. Compton-Burnett
Hart, Miranda - Is It Just Me? 
Jansson, Tove - Moominpappa at Sea
Jansson, Tove - Art in Nature
Jerome, Jerome K. - Three Men on the Bummel 
Jordan, Robert - The Eye of the World  
Kafka, Franz - Metamorphosis 
Kaye-Smith, Sheila - All The Books of My Life 
Kaye-Smith, Sheila and G.B. Stern - Talking of Jane Austen
Kundera, Milan - The Joke 
Lehmann, Rosamond - Dusty Answer 
Leverson, Ada - Love at Second Sight 
Lewis, C.S. - A Grief Observed 
Lickorish Quinn, Karina - Shrinking Violet 
Loos, Anita - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Mansfield, Katherine - In a German Pension 
Maxwell, William & Eudora Welty - What There Is To Say We Have Said 
Maxwell, W.B. - Spinster of this Parish 
Medvei, Cornelius - Caroline 
Milne, A.A. - Not That It Matters
Milne, A.A. - Lovers in London 
Mitford, Nancy - Frederick the Great 
Moran, Caitlin - Moranthology 
Murdoch, Iris - The Sea, The Sea 
Murray, Margaret - The Witch-Cult in Western Europe 
Myron, Vicki - Dewey 
Nesbit, E. - The Railway Children 
Nesbit, E. - The Enchanted Castle 
Olivier, Edith - The Love-Child 
Olivier, Laurence - On Acting  
Panter-Downes, Mollie - London War Notes 
Potter, Beatrix - The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies 
Pritchett, V.S. - A Cab at the Door  
Read, Miss - Gossip From Thrush Green 
Reed, Myrtle - The Spinster Book
Riddell, Marjorie - M for Mother
Robinson, Marilynne - Housekeeping 
Sacks, Oliver - The Island of the Colorblind
Sacks, Oliver - Hallucinations
Sackville-West, Vita - The Easter Party  
Sagan, Francoise - Sunlight on Cold Water
Saki - The Westminster Alice 
Saki - When William Came 
Saki - Reginald in Russia 
Saumarez Smith, John - A Spy in the Bookshop 
Scharlieb, Mary - What It Means To Marry
Shaw, George Bernard - Man and Superman
Sinclair, May - Uncanny Stories 
Smith, Dorothy Evelyn - Miss Plum and Miss Penny 
Spark, Muriel - The Abbess of Crewe
Spark, Muriel - The Takeover 
Spark, Muriel - The Ballad of Peckham Rye
Spark, Muriel - The Only Problem 
Spark, Muriel - Reality and Dreams 
Spark, Muriel - Curriculum Vitae
Spurling, Hilary - La Grande Thérèse 
Stevens, Michael - V. Sackville-West
Stopes, Marie - Married Love  
Strachey, Julia - Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (readalong) 
Sutcliff, Rosemary - Blue Remembered Hills 
Taylor - At Mrs. Lippincote's 
Trillin, Calvin - About Alice 
Trollope, Anthony - The Warden
Tutton, Diana - Guard Your Daughters 
Warner, Sylvia Townsend - Summer Will Show
Warner, Sylvia Townsend - Jane Austen
Warner, Sylvia Townsend - With The Hunted 
Warner, Sylvia Townsend - The Corner That Held Them  
Webb, Mary - Gone To Earth  
Webster, Jean - Daddy Long-legs 
Whitechurch, V.L. - Canon in Residence
Wolff-Mönckeberg, Mathilde - On The Other Side 
Woolf, Virginia - A Room of One's Own 
Wyndham, Francis - The Other Garden

Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

Happy Jubilee Weekend, everyone!  Well, the actual Jubilee was back in February, so happy 59th anniversary of the Coronation, everyone.  I hope you've got street parties etc. planned, and are ready to toast HRH Elizabeth II - Republicans not welcome for one weekend only ;)  (I jest - my beloved, but foolish, brother is a staunch republican.)  (I mean republican in the anti-monarchy sense, not the US party sense...)  Ahem.  Right, I should be making this Jubilee-themed in some way, but I'm not - instead, it's the usual book, blog post, and link.

1.) The blog post - is, as so often, cheating on my part.  It's a whole blog - a photo blog, at that.  Deborah inadvertently introduced me to Humans of New York when I saw her comment on Facebook, and I was immediately hooked.  A young photographer, Brandon, goes all over New York taking portraits of interesting-looking people he sees on the street.  These tend towards a few categories - people with brightly dyed hair; cute children; dignified older people - but that's fine, it's not intended as an exhaustive gallery.  His little snippets of their conversations enhance the pictures, and it's a really wonderful project.  I would love it if it were anywhere in the world, but if you're besotted with the Empire State, then you'll love it even more.  Facebook group is here; website is here.  I couldn't find anything about whether or not people were allowed to reproduce photographs, with the intention of advertising his project, but... well, I'll remove them if I'm told to!

2.) The link - is the Independent's series on neglected authors, featuring Rachel Ferguson of The Brontes Went To Woolworths and Alas, Poor Lady fame - and Passionate Kensington, which I gave to Rachel a while ago and now want to read myself!

3.) The book - Polity Books recently sent me Letters to Hitler, edited by Henrik Eberle.  The letters are from the public - whether fooled by his charisma or antagonistic to his regime.  It looks like it might be a very challenging, disturbing read - but also a book which offers a social history like no other.  I'm going to have to brace myself to read it, but I don't think we fight evil by ignoring it.

When Your Book-Baby Isn’t The New Kid On the Block Anymore

by Sophie Perinot

When you have a brand new baby everyone wants to see it.  Relatives travel  to admire the latest addition to the family.  Neighbors cross the street to peek in your stroller and declare how cute junior is—even if he looks like a little bald, red-faced monkey.  More than this, everyone wants in on the parenting action.  Your sister-in-law has naptime tips.  Strangers at grocery stores ask incredibly personal questions and offer unsolicited advice.

Bleary-eyes, sleep-deprived and feeling far from glamorous, you are not in any sort of shape to enjoy all this attention.  You swear—usually under your breath on the way to your car lugging that ridiculously heavy infant car seat—that you wish everyone would just fade away and stop calling at the precise moment the baby is napping and you are trying to squeeze in a shower.  Yes, you are delighted that everyone admires the baby but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

It’s pretty much the same thing for a debut author during the immediate post-launch period.  Minus the poopy diapers of course.

Your family and friends call or email in a continuous stream congratulating you and asking “how are sales?”  Book bloggers want guest posts—now, now, now!  You can’t walk into a bookstore without seeing your book on the tables and God that’s a rush.

For the first few weeks you are okay—after all you didn’t need an epidural or stitches to deliver this baby.  But somewhere around the 30^th stop on your world-domination blog tour, you begin to run out of steam.  You aren’t sleeping like you used to because, um, you have this other book you are supposed to be writing.  You’ve run out of ideas for guest posts that might go viral.  And, like new parents the world over, no matter how confident you seem you are not entirely sure you are doing this right.  You want things to JUST CALM DOWN ALREADY!

And then they do.  Right around the three month mark.

Your book is no longer “what’s new” or “what’s next.”  It’s just like hundreds of other cute little toddlers out there, standing next to their new baby brother while everyone “ooos” and “ahs” over him.  And far from being happy about this shift in attention, your book is thinking (well, it is inanimate so you are thinking) “what the hell’s so special about him?”  OUCH. I know.  I’ve been there (actually I AM there right now).

This can be a demoralizing time.  You may find yourself unable to focus on your latest manuscript even as deadlines grow closer.  You may find yourself thinking, “Why did I think I wanted to be published?”  I mean all that work—the writing; the looking for an agent; the checking your email every hour while your agent pitched to publishers; the edits, copy edits, page proofs, etc—yet in less than 1/4 of the 12-18 months it took from signing your publishing contract until your launch some stores aren’t even carrying your novel anymore.  Is it any wonder you have an author’s version of post-partum depression?

So what can you do?

First, remember none of this sudden dearth of attention is a reflection on your book-baby.  Your novel is still compelling.  Your cover is still eye-catching.  It’s just not brand new anymore.  Honeymoons end.  You don’t look at your husband of 10 years the same way you did when he was your husband of ten days (and if you do, I’ll have what you’re drinking).  The great cultural eye has shifted on to new targets.  Somebody else’s book baby is the hot young thing.  That doesn’t mean that thousands of people aren’t out there reading your book right now and enjoying the heck out of it.

Second, understand that you are not alone.  It’s easy to feel that way because authors—like others whose jobs include putting on a public face—are conditioned to project an aura of confidence and success.  Next time you see a tweet by a fellow author exclaiming over her wonderful book signing, remember that behind the “rainbows and unicorns” prose there may have been fifty chairs with ten bodies in them.  Most authors don’t become overnight sensations and New York Times best-sellers with their debuts, yet they go on to have productive and fulfilling authorial careers.  You are in the majority here kiddo.  Focus on what brought you into this business in the first place—the writing.  You love that right?  So do it.  Go back to a work day that is more about the next book and less about the one that has already launched.

Third, reach out to other writers for support.  Book parenting is just like regular parenting, when you are most worried and in need of advice you are least likely to ask for it.  Why?  Because asking for advice means admitting you need it—that you have doubts and that maybe, gulp, you or your book aren’t doing as well as you expected to be.  You might be wondering, “what if I admit I am feeling down, or disappointed, or worried and everyone else just looks at me with pity because their lives are perfect?”  Yeah, you may get some of that.  And you will find a certain portion of people—usually those behind you in the launch timeline—who are very willing to believe it’s you.  Time will cure that.  But I can guarantee you will also find veteran writers (or debut writers who are just a little further along the trail than you are) willing to say, “yeah, I’ve been there,” and who are willing to offer you tried and true tips for dealing with “middle child” syndrome and all the attendant insecurities.

Finally, own your feelings and don’t be embarrassed of them.  It’s okay to miss being the center of attention.  It’s okay to find that the reality of parenting (either a baby or a book) doesn’t always meet the glowing hype that precedes it.  Problems not owned don’t get solved.  You’ll be glad you broke the code of silence.  I am.