New book cover - Aarrghh!!

I really love the original yellow and red cover on DARK LADY'S STONE with Loriano playing to the Stone with the image of the Lady. Many people have commented favorably on it, but many others said it wasn't a good cover and would turn readers off.
So I finally got a new one to see what will happen and went to upload it to Create Space. It was endless frustration! I think The Gods are firmly against that new cover! Or maybe it's my resistance to change. First I couldn’t figure out where, on Create Space’s setup/ cover screen to input the new file. So I phoned them, and their representative quickly pointed it out. (Why I hadn’t seen that in the five times I’d looked???) So I hit “Upload cover." “Browse.” And I got a message to update Adobe on my browser. I don’t WANT Adobe on my Safari! Why did I get Firefox & Chrome except to have a browser with Adobe? And why do I need Adobe to upload a .PDF anyway? I kept hitting "Later" and "No." Create Space wouldn’t let me proceed. Update Adobe or else!
Back to Square 0. Open Firefox. Log into CS again. Find Cover Setup. Hit Browse. Choose File. I choose the file. Hit upload. And it starts loading—Ta-Da! Two-thirds of the way through a message flashes: Upgrade Firefox. Screw it! I hit Later. And thank the gods my cover file keeps loading. When it finally finishes it looks just like the old cover. I go back to my folder, double-check my artwork files—and it is the old cover!! And furthermore CS is reviewing my submission and I can’t make further changes until they finish. 
Aarrghh!

End of an Era

     Well, it’s official. Today I received a black-bordered e-mail from RWA National that begins: “We regret to note that the final date for renewing your membership with Romance Writers of America (RWA) has passed. In accordance with RWA’s bylaws, your membership in the organization has been terminated.” 

      So ends an era that began in 1991. I wanted to write novels and, after every publisher in the country rejected my first, I was advised to join a writers' group and get critiques. I saw an ad in the paper for the local RWA Chapter and went to my first meeting where I learned why every publisher in the country had rejected my novel. I realized that I, a former editorial secretary with a B.A. in Creative Writing, had to go back to writers' kindergarten and learn the whole process from the ground up. (A business journal is not a genre novel.) 

      Lots of learning, lots of growth through good times and bad. Thanks to RWA I learned to write fiction (plots, character development, dialogue, pacing, POV) and tons of "how to be a writer" stuff, like critique groups, how to query and submit, identify publishers, how to find an agent, how to get rid of an agent. I felt really good about serving on the Board of my local Chapter, first as Secretary, then Treasurer, and for the past years as Newsletter Editor--again, lots of work but tremendous learning (I got to read all the articles posted to the Editors' loop). And I'm one of those nuts who enjoys obsessing over formatting and type-fitting. 

     Je ne regrette rien. But sometimes one’s just gotta move on, so I chose not to renew my membership in RWA. 

Dark Lady's Stone out in e-Books

Yesterday I got The Dark Lady's Stone up on Smashwords for distribution in various formats to Nook, iBooks, Kobo, and so on. It's available through Kindle as well. What a trip--not only uploading the manuscript but setting prices and getting book descriptions and my biography up on different websites. I keep wanting to tinker, to change a word here, a phrase there. And trying to get the word out that it's published ...  Keeps the old juices churning!

Now it's back to the coffee shop to take a moment to continue work on the sequel.

On Being a New Author

What a scramble! Getting word out about Dark Lady's Stone to all my friends--past and present--relatives, writers' groups, and acquaintances. Lots of fun reconnections... Get business cards printed up with the cover, directing people to Amazon. Thank all the gods for Pages! Every morning I check for sales. I've actually sold 3-4 books! Oooo! Of course it's nothing compared to J. K. Rowling or even "Robert Galbraith." But it's me.

I go to unfry my brain in the coffee shop. I take my proof copy of Dark Lady's Stone and put it out on the table. I've gotten several queries. It's fun to meet people and ask what they like to read.

I'm doing my own formatting for e-publication, Kindle Direct and Smashwords, following their guidelines. Time-consuming but I enjoy tinkering.

My book is here!

I'm in the throes of self-publishing The Dark Lady's Stone.  

After JoSelle Vanderhooft went over my manuscript and caught slews of little things, I started to upload it to Create Space. It's quite a learning curve! I downloaded their template and copied my text into it. And discovered all kinds of problems, like text running over the margins. And developing front material--you know the fine-print stuff you skip over but it has to be there anyway.

What to use as a scene break--asterisks are so boring! I settled on an Infinity sign. Dedication, Acknowledgements - remembering all the folks who helped me along the road, Table of Contents and hunting down all those pesky page numbers and--ooops! Discover a slew of widows and orphans to fix. Which changes the page numbers . . . 

Finally it loaded and was printable but it needed proofing. On-line proofing caught lots of mistakes. 

Can I hit Go? [Slather, pant] 

Better order hard copy because it's amazing how many problems stand out on the printed page. I don't want to look like an idiot. 

Wait for hard copy to come, and wait . . . [Sound of drumming fingers.] In the meantime, I read Smashwords manuscript prep instructions like the Bible and start to develop a Kindle file. 

The book came, and it's Beautiful! Sheri McGathy's cover is gorgeous with real pages in the middle. And I get to actually hold my firstborn book in my hand! I've waited 35 years for this. 

I can hit GO!??

Don't be hasty. Little problems do jump out on the printed page. 

Yep, there are lots more. Proofing this hard copy is quite different from the page proofs I used to read as an editorial assistant in the early 60s. Back then, you had to remember all the capitalization, comma policies, formatting quirks in the whole piece and mark the pages (delete, insert). Now I just use "Find" and they're highlighted and, being typesetter as well as author,  I can simply fix 'em. 

My story is out

The Sword & Saga supplement to American Athenaeum's Front Porch issue is out. It contains my story, "The Whitewood Kitarra." This prequel to The Dark Lady's Stone, which I am in the process of self-publishing, tells of how Loriano came to the Karaskan court and was named troubadour to Countess Elisse. Many thanks to editor Hunter Liguore for asking about this story and for her detailed edits to my manuscript.