Back in April during Articulture, locl author Melissa Volker and I were invited to be on Bob Plasse's radio program on local station WSKB 89.5 FM which is broadcast from a small studio on the campus of Westfield State University here in town.We set a date for June 2017.
In May Bob advised us that he had overbooked for the show, so we rebooked for October 24th.
I kind of put it out of my mind because I am by nature a quiet person, and Kelly is even worse than I am at not talking much, and she had also been invited to join us because she had just self published her first novel and her first novella.
Well- Melissa came down with an upper respiratory virus and didn't want to be exposing us to it in a small studio, so she volunteered to be a phone in guest. In for a penny in for a dollar, Kelly and I decided that if we were going to do this then we were going to go to the studio and just do it- so, at 5:45AM this past Tuesday I rolled out of bed and threw on some clothes, combed my hair and brushed my teeth, then rousted Kelly at 6:03AM, and she pretty much did the same thing. We lft the house at 6:18AM in the pre-dawn darkness and headed to Little River Dunkin Donuts so she could grab some breakfast- chocolate milk and a plain bagel as is, and a bottle of water for me...too nervous to eat and drive.
We made our way on surprisingly busy streets to the college campus, found the faculty staff lot where we could parking, stuck our two hour temporary parking permit on the dash, then headed to Ely Hall and the third floor radio station.
The anteroom door was propped open with a wastebasket. We let ourselves in. Bob was on the air in the studio, but smiled and waved in greeting. Kell and I took seats and sat quietly talking until Bob came out to ask if we were ready for the program. We nodded and followed him into the studio. Music was playing so he got us settled into task chairs, adjusted the green milk crates to rest our feet on, then showed us how close we had to have the microphones in order to be heard, and how to hear everything through the headsets.
Seven o'clock rolled around and we went live on the air! There were some ice breaker questions and stuff to make us laugh and relax, and then we got Melissa involved on the phone as she had called in. We discussed acting, books, jobs, ghost stories, vampires...and I got to talk a little bit about my newly released contemporary vampire novel, and our writers group, Out. Melissa spoke about her upcoming sequel to The Thirteenth Moon. Kelly talked a little about Teleport and Parapsychology. Bob was made an honorary WhipCity Wordsmith during the show.
The hour literally flew by! It was easier than I thought it would be, and because I have known Bob for years and he is a very personable man I felt comfortable and was able to talk more than I usually would.
It was gloomy gray out just past 8AM when we left the building to head home. I definitely would do this again because it was fun, and now that I've done it once and survived I'll be more relaxed and prepared for it the next time, because he did invite us back, and hopefully Melissa will be able to get into the studio in the future too!
Turns out my husband who has never shown any interest in my books but has snooped through my files in the past, tuned into the radio program and listened. That surprised me...that he admitted to listening, not that he actually did listen.
I definitely would do this again because it was fun, and provided exposure which is something every author needs to have if they want to sell books!
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Can Someone Please Stop The Calendar!!!!
It seems like I just blinked and already more than half of October has passed. Can someone please stop the calendar, or at the very least slow it down?
I have been crazy busy with author events this month, and working on the WhipCity Wordsmiths that I haven't had much time to work on the not one, but two books that I've started. My NaNo novel looms on the horizon of approaching November. With so much stress in my personal life with my husband still jobless after 20 months, our health insurance coverage ending at the end of November, the usual bills still rolling in unrelentlessly, and so on and so forth I feel like a small pat of butter spread every so thinly across a slice of bread as large as my kitchen table!
The Art&Author event during PumpkinFest went very well on the 14th. The dynamics in the author's room were amazing! Four of us are Wordsmiths and by the end of the fifth hour the fifth author had earned honorary Wordsmith membership- we all felt as if we'd known her all our lives! Connie Bombaci had written a book about her deaf dalmatian, Hogan. She brought with her her deaf dalmatian, Judea, who is also her service dog. As soon as Judea's service vest came off she was just an ordinary, beautiful dog aching to pounce on the shadows playing across beams of sunlight on the floor in the room, but there were a lot of people flowing through the room so she had to be kept on a close lead. She received an acre of attention from people of all ages and performed some tricks for us which amazed us all. It was a great day!
Next up for me is the official launch for Out, my unconventional vampire romance. It received a very nice 4-star review from an advance reader. I believe she actually got the intent of the book, which please me immensely! This is Out's second 4-star rating! I'll be discussing a little about folklore vampires and how vampires morphed into media stars thanks to authors and the movies. My book is bringing vampires back to be more in line with folklore vampires, but these are modern day vampires.
Immediately after te author event is the second official WhipCity Wordsmith's meeting. The agenda has changed several times, so I'm not really sure what will take place, but I have ten or so items in my notebook to discuss when we start.
Ghost Stories LIVE! will take place on October 28th. I wrote one new ghost story but there's a lot of B-L-O-O-D in it (Kelly doesn't do well with blood, or even the thought it, so if I choose to read this story, she's going to have to step outside until I'm done!).
Hoping to be able to get a table at a local church craft and vendor fair on November 18th to promote the seven little Christmas books- 3 stand alone novellas (A Major Production, The Red Velvet Suit, and The Winter Solstice Ball) and 4 story collections (Christ With the Family, Christmas Inspirations, Christmases Past and Christmases Present). I've been told I should write for Hallmark. These stories were written over the past 20 years for family and friends. I have no clue what this year's story will be...it'll be written in December.
It feels as if this year has flown by, like in the hurricane force winds that devastated so many places this past summer. I have so much I still want to accomplish this year...and the days are flying by!
I have been crazy busy with author events this month, and working on the WhipCity Wordsmiths that I haven't had much time to work on the not one, but two books that I've started. My NaNo novel looms on the horizon of approaching November. With so much stress in my personal life with my husband still jobless after 20 months, our health insurance coverage ending at the end of November, the usual bills still rolling in unrelentlessly, and so on and so forth I feel like a small pat of butter spread every so thinly across a slice of bread as large as my kitchen table!
The Art&Author event during PumpkinFest went very well on the 14th. The dynamics in the author's room were amazing! Four of us are Wordsmiths and by the end of the fifth hour the fifth author had earned honorary Wordsmith membership- we all felt as if we'd known her all our lives! Connie Bombaci had written a book about her deaf dalmatian, Hogan. She brought with her her deaf dalmatian, Judea, who is also her service dog. As soon as Judea's service vest came off she was just an ordinary, beautiful dog aching to pounce on the shadows playing across beams of sunlight on the floor in the room, but there were a lot of people flowing through the room so she had to be kept on a close lead. She received an acre of attention from people of all ages and performed some tricks for us which amazed us all. It was a great day!
Next up for me is the official launch for Out, my unconventional vampire romance. It received a very nice 4-star review from an advance reader. I believe she actually got the intent of the book, which please me immensely! This is Out's second 4-star rating! I'll be discussing a little about folklore vampires and how vampires morphed into media stars thanks to authors and the movies. My book is bringing vampires back to be more in line with folklore vampires, but these are modern day vampires.
Immediately after te author event is the second official WhipCity Wordsmith's meeting. The agenda has changed several times, so I'm not really sure what will take place, but I have ten or so items in my notebook to discuss when we start.
Ghost Stories LIVE! will take place on October 28th. I wrote one new ghost story but there's a lot of B-L-O-O-D in it (Kelly doesn't do well with blood, or even the thought it, so if I choose to read this story, she's going to have to step outside until I'm done!).
Hoping to be able to get a table at a local church craft and vendor fair on November 18th to promote the seven little Christmas books- 3 stand alone novellas (A Major Production, The Red Velvet Suit, and The Winter Solstice Ball) and 4 story collections (Christ With the Family, Christmas Inspirations, Christmases Past and Christmases Present). I've been told I should write for Hallmark. These stories were written over the past 20 years for family and friends. I have no clue what this year's story will be...it'll be written in December.
It feels as if this year has flown by, like in the hurricane force winds that devastated so many places this past summer. I have so much I still want to accomplish this year...and the days are flying by!
Sunday, October 8, 2017
It's Been Awhile
I realized that I haven't posted anything here since September 28...things have been busy here with the arrival of October. All four Saturdays this month are booked solid and then some! This past Saturday I had hoped to go see authors Shawn Flynn and Connie Bombaci at 1PM at the Barnes & Noble closest to my home. But then I remembered that I'd been invited to an author event at Blue Umbrella Books here in town at 1PM. Also, I'd been invited to my best friend's mother's surprise 80th birthday party...at 1PM. And then there was my co-worker's wedding reception at 4PM that afternoon. I also needed to do a lot of the preparation work for the author event during PumpkinFest this coming Saturday- making signs, getting my books organized and ready, creating raffle tickets and ticket buckets, putting together the raffle prizes which included shopping for last minute pieces for each.
I made it to two events- the Blue Umbrella author event which was downtown near the Italian club where the surprise party was being held. I managed to get to both spending an hour at each before heading home to make decorations and signs for the rest of the afternoon and straight through to midnight when I finally called it a night.
On October 1st I began writing the third book in the Romney & Ivy series that started with the shortlisted Black King Takes White Queen and continued in Black Knight, White Rook. This one is tentatively titled A Bishop Among Pawns, but is currently under the title An Army of Pawns. I don't know yet which it will be but I've been averaging 5400 words a day (well for the first 4 days anyway). I hit the stall point when I had to stop to prepare for PumpkinFest.
I've also been busy getting ready for my author event to promote Out, my new vampire novel on the 21st, and the monthly WhipCity Wordsmiths meeting, also on the 21st immediately after my author event.
And then I've been helping work on an anthology for Ghost Stories LIVE! and need to write a new story for that event. In talking to the host it occurred to us we're down two cast members with them being off to college, so I scrambled last night to bring onboard a new permanent cast member-yea! She (Melissa Volker) is awesome!
I also created my NaNo novel, The Clockmaker's Son, and wrote the synopsis so I'm ready for November 1st. And yes, this is the werewolf novel from months ago! It'll finally get written!
And yes, I'm working full time days as well as working full time nights on all this other stuff I'm doing while wearing my author hat!
Burn, burn little candle, at both ends! I'll meet the flames in the middle and we'll see whether or not I'm fireproof!!!
I made it to two events- the Blue Umbrella author event which was downtown near the Italian club where the surprise party was being held. I managed to get to both spending an hour at each before heading home to make decorations and signs for the rest of the afternoon and straight through to midnight when I finally called it a night.
On October 1st I began writing the third book in the Romney & Ivy series that started with the shortlisted Black King Takes White Queen and continued in Black Knight, White Rook. This one is tentatively titled A Bishop Among Pawns, but is currently under the title An Army of Pawns. I don't know yet which it will be but I've been averaging 5400 words a day (well for the first 4 days anyway). I hit the stall point when I had to stop to prepare for PumpkinFest.
I've also been busy getting ready for my author event to promote Out, my new vampire novel on the 21st, and the monthly WhipCity Wordsmiths meeting, also on the 21st immediately after my author event.
And then I've been helping work on an anthology for Ghost Stories LIVE! and need to write a new story for that event. In talking to the host it occurred to us we're down two cast members with them being off to college, so I scrambled last night to bring onboard a new permanent cast member-yea! She (Melissa Volker) is awesome!
I also created my NaNo novel, The Clockmaker's Son, and wrote the synopsis so I'm ready for November 1st. And yes, this is the werewolf novel from months ago! It'll finally get written!
And yes, I'm working full time days as well as working full time nights on all this other stuff I'm doing while wearing my author hat!
Burn, burn little candle, at both ends! I'll meet the flames in the middle and we'll see whether or not I'm fireproof!!!
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