Wynne and Vicki at Heart of the Matter kindly invited me on their podcast to talk about Wish I Was Here and its long, winding road to publication.
Before we started recording, Vicki told me she was upstairs reading, got to the end of chapter nine, and yelled, “Shut up!”
Here’s what happened.
Friday night was the school’s football homecoming game. Usually Hubby takes the kids, and I chill at home alone, blissfully. Ah, introversion. I was also super tired, so a low-key quiet night sounded great.
But, I wrote this book…
Apparently it’s harder to sell books if you don’t talk to people???
The funny, talented, and inspirational Cheryl said she keeps a box of books in her trunk (can do), and then SELLS them to people. (Wait, wut?) She even stops at garage sales and gets the sellers–sellers!–to buy her book!
That’s next level salesmanship. I could never.
But, I chugged some caffeine, put a box of books in the trunk of the family van, and the six of us hauled off to the game. I ambitiously put four books in my purse with Hubby saying he could run back to the van if I needed more.
HAHAHAHA!
This was my third year teaching a girls’ self defense summer camp. I wore a boot for my not-quite-healed broken foot, but I made it work.
The last day was a flurry of fast-paced review, interrupted briefly by what the girls called “story time” for which they gathered around me in a semi-circle.
I’d already given a speech about situational awareness and how their level of alertness should go up as the comfort of their surroundings goes down. (And for goodness sake, don’t be looking at your phone.) This time I gave them real talk about danger from non-strangers and what to do if a relative, family friend, or future coworker makes them uncomfortable.
At the end, one of them said, “That wasn’t a very fun story.” So I added, “Then you grab their head and smash your knee in their face!”
They all shouted, “Yay!”
Not even kidding. It always amuses me how stiff and quiet they are the first few days. By the end,
Cover me.
I’m going under cover.
Cover your mouth when you sneeze?
Okay, fine. I was trying to be unique and not do the standard announcement, but…
Actually, I am well. I just wanted to use that title.
What’s most occupying me these days is a two-week girls’ self defense camp I’m teaching at my kids’ school. I’m halfway through and loving it. The girls are so attentive and into it. One girl showed up on day one looking the picture of, “I don’t want to be here, but my mom is making me do this.” However, she perked up quickly and was smiling throughout class. Win!
One of my daughters is helping me and is a dynamo. “I really like martial arts,” she said, and it shows.
One day we did Taekwondo kicks. Not in a position to be doing those myself, I spoke, Daughter demonstrated. Then, feeling nostalgic, she stood on one leg and threw kicks of different sorts in all directions. One student said, “Go, Elise!” And we clapped. Whichever girl she partners with I can ignore because I know Elise will help her with the moves as needed, leaving me to watch over the others.
She’s also multi-talented. For July 4th, she made mini cupcakes. Starting with white cake batter, she divided it into three bowls and put red and blue food coloring into each of the two other bowls. So, not only were the cupcakes striped red, white, and blue (and delicious), she used tweezers (washed first!) to painstakingly embellish the frosting with tiny sprinkles.
Anyway, here’s something funny and ironic. How many of you caught the typo in my last post?
“Despite all the work, I know stuff it still going to get missed.”
Wow.
The email from the publisher began:
“We have now begun the production cycle for your book, Wish I Was Here. Your submitted final manuscript has been professionally formatted into a custom PDF bookblock and attached here for your review.”
I had been texting with a coworker when this email popped up, prompting me to hastily exit that conversation and clock out of my day job.
The cover was also attached. Naturally, I began there. Oh, how I wish I could show you the cover, but it’s still a work in progress. When I saw it, I didn’t hate it. But I didn’t love it.
I sent it to my Faithful Few for feedback. (Isn’t it wonderful when alliteration happens naturally?) I got varied responses:
Should I cut back on Jiu-Jitsu or not?
The biggest stressor in my life right now is an impossible deadline to finish book two of my YA trilogy. The editor said I should submit the sequel when book one is in presale. That’s possibly in September. Zero chance I’ll be done by then–with draft 1 and 2, maaayyybe, but the final, at least 20th, draft? Not a chance.
I need more time. There’s the job, the kids, the house, laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, checking 2nd grade math homework, etc. Something has to give. You may have already noticed blogging has mostly “given,” as in, I’ve not been around much.
There’s also the book reading. I have three for which I need to write reviews. And my boss wants me to clean up transcripts of interviews she’s done and compile them into a book.
She and I were at a conference recently where, at the “VIP poolside dinner,” I met a woman with the most intriguing story that includes seven years of homelessness before a radical transformation. When dinner was over and everyone stood, I ran to her side of the table and said, “You are so amazing. Will you please be my friend?”
Some of you really got into the comma discussion from my last post. Some others of you are thinking, “Where are the bruise pictures?”
BTW, funny thing about that wannabe black eye post, it earned likes from three CBD dispensaries and one counseling service. LOL. I’m okay, people. Really.
But getting back to the Comma Conundrum…
Here’s what your votes added up to, including a write-in from my mother via text. And, yes, friends, I do know the elementary comma conjunction rule when what follows is an independent clause.
1a At first there was nothing then a slight tickling as though from fur. TWO VOTES
1b At first there was nothing, then a slight tickling as though from fur. 14 VOTES
2a Even if I told them about the van, I didn’t know where it was headed, besides north. TWO VOTES
2b Even if I told them about the van, I didn’t know where it was headed besides north. 12 VOTES
What did the editor say?
Writing and Martial Arts 