Fun Photo!

When I first revealed my cover design for Hurricane Baby back in January, a lady I knew vaguely from writers’ groups contacted me over Instagram and asked to be able to feature my book cover on her Instagram account, Books + Scarves. Apparently for quite some time. she’s been selecting books and matches their cover designs to scarves from her extensive vintage and modern collection. She’s got a good many followers across Instagram and Twitter (now X) and they’re a pretty dedicated following

So I said that sounded like a great idea. When my ARC’s came in, I set one aside for her and mailed it to the address she gave me and waited. I thought it might be close to my release dates before she did it, but she posted it yesterday! With pre-order links embedded in the story so people could go ahead and order the book! The shawl she used is named Faubourg Tropical, designed by Octave Marsal and Théo de Gueltz.

Isn’t it great?

Thanks so much to people who commented and shared this image over social media over the past couple of days and to Book + Scarves for selecting me to feature on your account!

Unforced Error

Well, I went to the library event yesterday. Everything went well until I got up to do my reading–I had picked what I thought was one of the shorter stories in my collection to read aloud. I introduced myself by name and said I was going to read a bit of my work and got started. I was NOT finished with the piece when the organizer asked me to stop so we could move on to the next artist. I had lost track of time or misunderstood my time limit or something. I was so embarrassed, and I just wanted to sink into the ground.

But I kept my composure and got through the rest of the event. And afterwards people were so nice–several people told me they enjoyed my reading, and many people picked up my bookmarks, so I hope that adds up to some pre-orders as well. We had a lot of interesting people there–a Chrisitan romance author, two poets, an author that had published her family stories, a devotional writer, another author that gives her books away to create awareness of domestic violence–a big assortment. But I think everyone enjoyed the presentations and talking to us, the authors.

Note to self–start timing your readings so you know exactly which story you can read at each event. Last time the piece I picked was too long and I had to read too fast. This time, some signals just got crossed, I think. I hope I get better with this with practice. . .

I did come home and do some writing after that so that made the day better. So that was good. I seem to have gotten my groove back in terms of writing every day. I just don’t feel like I’m accomplishing very much. But so far I have around 40,000 total words, so that’s almost halfway! We will see how things go next week!

Happy reading, everyone!

National Library Week Literature and Arts Brunch

Reading from Hurricane Baby: Stories. April 20, 2024 from 10 a.m.-noon featuring a total of ten authors and other artists. Link to register: https://cmrls.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=20155&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2024/04/14

More information? Amy Lee (601) 825-2672 brbm@cmrls.lib.ms.us

WomenWrite 2024

So I went to the Mississippi Christian Living writer retreat, named the above this year. It was held at the Bill Waller Crafts Center on the Mississippi Natchez Trace in the Ridgeland area. The building is the home of the Mississippi Craftsman’s Guild and has a lovely shop with finely crafted items, several meeting areas, a large display area for Guild events, etc. Just a great place to have this event.

I got a lot out of the conference this year in that it was very focused on getting your work up to professional standards and giving resources for that as well as giving guidance to getting your work noticed in the larger literary community. The keynote speaker gave a lot of information on story structure, character development, plot development, etc. I enjoyed thinking about how to apply what she was saying to my current work-in-progress as well as seeing how closely what I had done in Hurricane Baby lined up with what she said.

A lot of the marketing tips I took special attention to, also–trying to mine for ideas of places I could go and get my book out in front of people once it’s released. One woman mentioned organizing virtual book clubs using Google Meets, and I am giving that some serious thought. I think I will get in touch with her over email for more information on how to do that.

I handed out a lot of my sell-sheet and my new bookmarks I made to hand out at events as well. So hopefully I was able to scare up some pre-orders this weekend myself.

And we did some writing as well–I wrote a scene for my work-in-progress; it may stay, or it may go. But it was a freeing thing to write in a fresh bright space without feeling what happens when I work from home–like there’s this chore or that shore to catch up. That sort of thing. So it was really nice.

For locals to the metro Jackson, Mississippi area, I’ll be reading from Hurricane Baby at the Brandon Library Arts Brunch on April 20, 2024. The event runs from 10 a.m.-noon, and registration is at this link: https://cmrls.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=20155&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2024/04/14

Winding up that this event was very interesting–I happened across a Facebook page for my city that had an announcement for the event, calling for authors to sign up. I called immediately and left my name and number for the organizer, Amy Lee. She called me back and sounded very happy to have me involved in the event! I believe there’s about ten authors being featured, so it will be nice to see who all is involved!

It’s all getting more and more like it’s actually happening with each milestone I pass. Thanks for reading and sharing these highlights with me!

Moving Along

I finished a good twelve-page chunk of my work-in-progress done this week! Now I need to map what happens in the next few sections so I’ll have more to work from.

I go to a local writing retreat next weekend and hopefully learn a little about marketing my work. I will be armed with my bookmarks for Hurricane Baby to pass around if anyone is interested. I’m looking forward to hearing from the other speakers as well.

Otherwise I have had a rough week, and I don’t really want to get into it.

Next week I’ll have a little more to talk about that’s good. Watch this space!

News From My Publisher

My book has been live with a pre-order button on Amazon less than a week. On Friday, my publisher sent me this screenshot of my Amazon sales rankings, out of all the books published to the site.

To say I was gobsmacked would be an understatement. I don’t know how the algorithms on Amazon work. But my publisher indicated that these numbers mean the books are getting A LOT of attention from somewhere. Pre-orders aren’t tracked by Amazon until the book is released. And the rankings change hourly. But for a debut author with a small press to be able to be discovered enough to generate these numbers? Bizarre.

I am hoping, hoping, hoping to get back into my work-in-progress tomorrow. I have a lot of angst to work out, and I think this new book is the place to do it. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Good Evening!

I didn’t post yesterday because we were traveling by car most of the day.

Just got the notification that Hurricane Baby is up for pre-order on Barnes & Noble! You can click on the Hurricane Baby: Stories page on the left-hand side of the blog and then click on the preorder button provided, or you can go to this link (paperback is the only format available there right now):

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hurricane-baby-julie-liddell-whitehead/1145144169?ean=9781956440959

Pre-orders are really important to get buzz going early for the book, so feel free to take advantage of these connections! Thank you for reading!

Housekeeping Details

Just heard from my publisher–my full book cover is final, and I have a QR code I can slap on all my marketing materials so people can order just by pointing their phones at it! I just ordered VistaPrint bookmarks that I plan to hand out at events.

I have one event coming up–Hurricane Baby the play is having a staged reading coming up. I’ve got everything ready to go to it all lined up–hotel room, ride, etc. I’m looking forward to that. More details will be available closer to time. But I’m looking forward to it.

My new writing has been on hold lately. We have had a lot going on in my family and in my work life, and I’ve honestly been too exhausted to concentrate on my work-in-progress. I hope to be able to change that soon.

And my publisher has said pre-orders are already coming in. So that made me feel good!

Whew. Will ride already. Wish me well with further info and events to come soon! See code below to order Hurricane Baby: Stories for delivery August 2024!

Terror

So I wrote last week about being really excited that Hurricane Baby had opened for pre-orders.

This week I’m writing about the terror.

I started having really high levels of anxiety about the idea of my book in the hands of readers and thinking about “What if they don’t like it? What will people think about me as a person after reading this?”

And I just kept letting my mind spin out of control with those thoughts.

What finally broke the spiral was an email from Lisa Cooper Ellison, an author I admire very much. She wrote about her recent micro nonfiction that had been published in the Tiny Love Stories feature in the New York Times and how she simultaneously felt a surge of pride and a wave of fear. Fear of not handling all the attention in a good way, fear of not being able to leverage the opportunities the publication might give her, etc.

It felt so validating that someone else felt the same kind of feelings I was feeling when something so wonderful had happened in her writing career. I wrote her an email letting her know that she had helped me come to grips with my anxiety.

So now the fear has worn itself out after bedeviling me for several days. I feel much better knowing that those feelings are common to other writers also and can be overcome.

So I am back to normal now (as close as I’ll ever get to that) and am ready to continue this journey. Onward!