Tag: Hurricane Baby

Lemuria Books Thursday

Thursday I did a Q&A with my fellow Madville author Steve Yates, who I’ve known professionally for almost twenty-five years. He signed books for a bit in the store proper, then we moved over to the store’s event space for me to ask Steve questions about his book. I pulled from the list my friend Shannon gave to me to set up my own Q&A document on my website, and some flowed just from the conversation. All very low-key; we had a crowd of about 12 there, including a fellow who said he planned to do a story on the event. I’m not quite sure how that’s going to turn out, but we will see.

I also talked to another bookstore in north Mississippi about a signing; we will see how that goes. Supposedly they have a book on the way to them. I talked to one lady over the phone and another over email. The issue is going to be turnout, as usual–how can I conjure up a crowd? I got my post cards to mail for folks to go to my Ackerman event, so I;ll be sending those next week. Who knows what’s going to happen,

I’ve also got invited out of the blue to do a library appearance in Pontotoc, which I’m not sure I’ve ever been to. It would take me out in the middle of a week but they have a high weekly turnout. So we will will see, there, too.

Pic below of me and Steve, courtesy of Tammy Yates:

Bits of Good News

Two more bits of good news have come in for Hurricane Baby–my signing at my local bookstore may have been turned into a conversation about another writer Q&A format. I think it will be cool if we can pull it off.

And a bookseller back at my old stomping grounds at college finally got back in touch with me and agreed to hold a signing event the day after I had my reading in my hometown. So soon I will need to start publicizing that.

My work-in-progress in kid of in freeze frame. I don’t know what’s really holding me back from writing it the way I want to. I just don’t know Merrilyn well enough yet. I need to work on that. I certainly don’t think I’m going to hit that August deadline–but then again, I might. You never know. I may sit down one night and just type my heart out. It might not be right for the book, but at least it will be something to deal with.

We will see. Have a good afternoon!

Ups and Downs

I’ve had other media opportunities for Hurricane Baby come up in the past week–one on a statewide-syndicated radio talk show, another on a website I wrote some for while I was in grad school that focuses on women’s reinvention journeys. I’m still negotiating with the radio show so I’m not going to announce it yet. August seems like it’s going to be super-busy!

On the flip side, getting into the new point of view for my qork-in-progress is proving difficult. I pretty much know what I have to have happen to get the effect I want at the end of it. It’s the right voice I haven’t nailed. I have this character in the first section and the end section–in both places her interactions are mediated through another character’s consciousness. This section we’re hearing directly from her, and I have to decide how she’s going to react to events, going from one kind of person to another. I’m going to let things go downhill mostly, with three bounce-backs that later blow up in her face. I’ve been writing little microscenes when I think them up.

So I’m being a bit push-pulled with the writing–proud of how much attention Hurricane Baby is getting, but a nagging thought in the back of my mind that I want to finish this manuscript, Looking For Home, so there will be a future book being worked over and possibly sold while I’m promoting the other. We will see how it goes.

Off to write some more! Have a good week! Read a lot! Write a lot, too, if you’re so inclined!

New Podcast Episode

Soa few days ago I sat down with Shannon Evans, host of Tombigbee Tales, a podcast originating out of the Columbus MS area. We talked about how I got into writing, how I wrote Hurricane Baby, and how I wound up selling it to my publisher. So it was a good conversation in my head.

The tape told a little bit different story. I waited too long to answer questions, I used filler words like “um”, and I didn’t let the host set up the pace of the interview. Good points: I answered every question fully, and I wasn’t boring in telling my stories. So now I know what to continue to work on in future interviews–being quicker on the uptake with questions and speaking with authority.

So we will see how the next one goes! Here’s the link to last week’s podcast if you want to give it a listen:

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-jmfs3-163fdc4

New Opportunity

So we have our first festival invitation! The Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has invited me to be on a panel and will have my books available for the sale tent at the event in November 2024. So that was a nice surprise when I got the message.

I am still holding out hope for the Mississippi Book Festival in September 2024. It’s only a few weeks after my book launch, which is now about two months away. But it’s not unusual for them to finalize their author list at the last minute, so I still have time to wait.

My work-in-progress is getting more manageable! I have two half-chapters and a set of scenes that aren’t connected together yet. I will figure them out. Maybe I will finish this section before the end of the month. Then I have the whole middle to write (from scratch!) That’s too terrifying to think about right now, though.

I did a very rewarding this yesterday–I talked via Zoom to students from my former MFA program about my journey to publication, along with two other alumni who are publishing books–Karol Lagodski and Lauren Rhoades. We just talked about pushing through and persevering and not giving up, sprinkled in with some practical advice along the way. It was so good to see everyone that runs the program and to meet the new faces as well. I hope I can do more of those kind of talks in the future.

I guess that’s all my news for today! Wishing everyone well!

Publicity Matters

So now I am starting to be in the thick of publicity/marketing/selling Hurricane Baby. I’ve identified several bookstores I want to do small events with. Bookstore events are tricky, because the bookstore orders a lot of product, and if you can’t muster up that many people to show up at the event, they can return those books and get their money back from your publisher. I am trying to do bookstore events in conjunction with other events around the state so the events will be joined in time. People could possibly go to my events then swing by the bookstore and buy the book. So that’s one angle.

Another angle is getting news outlets to cover my book. I made a couple of big asks such as sending info on my book to big names like NYT, WaPo, and Kirkus. But I am really working a lot of my personal contacts for interviews, book reviews, and other publicity opportunities–people I worked with when I was a freelancer, colleges I attended and worked for to participate in readings on those campuses, people I attended my MFA program with (who have been absolute rockstars in promoting my book) and word-of-mouth among the people I know.

Another marketing avenue is book festivals. I have about ten, all in the southeast, that I hope to be invited to where I can make some noise about my book. The Festival for the Book, Southern Literary Festival, etc. etc. Most of that is legwork I’ve done myself; others already have a connection to the publisher.

And working all these connections is outside of what my publisher is doing, such as shipping my book to reviewers, nominating me for book awards, and playing up posts about my book on social media. My motto for this whole endeavor has been to do everything I could to position my book for the best outcome possible–and that’s what I’m trying to do.

Events and More

I am starting to have a few events start to shape up around my book launch! I have an interview for a podcast coming up–I’m so far supposed to do the interview this weekend, then it will be edited and released whenever the host has a spot to insert it. Hopefully I can post the audio link to the Tombigbee Tales podcast here on my site.

Right around launch I have a signing at my local independent bookstore, Lemuria Books in Jackson. I had filled out a form and left a review copy at the store a few weeks ago, and they contacted me back for Saturday, August 24, at noon. It’s only a few days after launch but before football season really gets in gear. So that was a wonderful feeling to have getting this one set up.

The next week I am going to try to give back to my community back home in Ackerman with a reading and signing event at Ackerman Library, a place that was a home-away-from home for me. If mom needed to run errands or grocery shop or go to the bank, she’d drop me off there–and I was in heaven. No one ever bothered me, and I never bothered anyone else with so many books around me to read! I feel like that will be a real full-circle event for me. It is currently set for September 5 at 6 p.m. (again working round the football games!)

The final event that’s fallen into place recently is being part of a forum on Hurricane Katrina literature in observance of the twentieth anniversary of the storm. So that will be all the way off into next year with an event in conjunction with Prince George County’s Office of Human Rights in Virginia.

Of course, I am aiming to schedule more–the goal is to have at least one event/speaking opportunity a month for the first year the book is out. So this feels like a really good start! Three-and-a-half months before it’s out in stores. I wonder when the reality kicks in. I still feel like this is all some kind of dream. But it’s a good one. If it’s a dream, it’s one of the best.

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!