Happy New Year (And Happy Birthday to Me!)

New Years card 2Happy New Year!

 

To celebrate the New Year, and to give a little something on a day when I get so much (homemade waffles, my family catering to me… to name just two!) I’m giving away a Kindle tonight right after I blow out my birthday candles. (And I’ve got plenty, thanks for asking :)

To be eligible just make sure you’re signed on to the email list to the top right of this blog post.

I’ll be back after the cake!

Happy New Year & Happy e-Reading,

Kathy

A Writers Conference on the cutting e-Dge

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself with the e-Dge (You know, e-Books, iPads…) But there really is a writers conference coming up October 6th & 7th that’s all about the new marketplace for authors. As an Indie author myself who managed to get on the Amazon Bestsellers list from Nowhere, Montana, I can tell you these are EXCITING TIMES!

The Flathead River Writers Conference has been focused on e-publishing for several years now, and this year the key note speaker is Mark Coker. Yeah, that Mark Coker!

Smashwords logo   He’s the founder of Smashwords, an ebook publishing and distribution platform that serves over 40,000 independent authors and publishers around the world & has distributed over 100,000 titles.

How does a small conference in Montana get somebody like that, in addition to Jeff Herman, Regina Brooks, John Dekakis, and Leslie Budewitz!? Maybe because the two day event is held here…

Kalispell in the fall

And the food’s really good too!

Frank feeds the writers well!

Well, I’ll be there with my friend & marketing guru Roxanne McHenry. We’re presenting our story of how two moms who chat over coffee made their way to the Amazon Bestseller list, and on Sunday we’ll hit the 10 things writers can do to better market their work. I’m looking forward to the weekend & the fun of gathering with a bunch of writers who understand the joys and pitfalls of working in our pyjamas!

me in PJ's in office

If you can join us…

http://www.authorsoftheflathead.org/conference.asp

Happy Holidays!

As always it’s a crazy-busy time of year, but I’d like to share a pair of holiday inspired songs (only vaguely inappropriate) and offer you TWO PRESENTS! ( No, really, it’s okay if you didn’t get me anything)

The first song is for my writer friends out there… Sing to “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”

Write Christmas

I’m dreaming of a write Christmas,

the one I hope’s right down the road.

Where the scenes I hammer and readers clamor

to rush my Kindle book download.

I’m dreaming of a write Christmas

with every novel that I plot.

May the book be funny and hot,

and may all the comma errs be caught.

I’m dreaming of a write Christmas.

I’ve worked the keyboard all year round,

where my neck would seize up, my fingers freeze up,

my head would spin around and pound.

I’m dreaming of a write Christmas

I made my list in case he might…

May St. Nick bring a manuscript tonight,

’cause I’ve heard those elves can really write.

This next number (I’m sounding like a lounge singer now, aren’t I?) is one I wrote for my beloved Bookgroup: all women, all amazing, and all wondering if… Here Comes Menopause.

You can hear this song performed (not by me) in front of my very own Christmas tree. I love the little dog in the background (also not mine but I wish he were).The yellow title below links directly to Youtube where you’ll enjoy lyrics like… “She’s got a bag that’s filled with rage, but she loves you just the same!”

Here Comes Menopause

And didn’t I say something about a PRESENT… about TWO PRESENTS? Yes, I did. To thank everyone for being so wonderfully supportive and encouraging in my first year as a real live author, The Do-Over and my newest novel, Plan On It will be available for FREE downloads on December 26!

Thankyouthankyouthankyou and happy e-reading!

 

 

 

 

 

E-Publishing 101

This is for the Montana writers…  Resolve to Publish Your Book in 2012 Workshop!

Roxanne McHenry, who helped me launch The Do-Over, will present the technical aspects of e-publishing and the specific tools for online marketing.

Roxanne's website banner www.eroxanne.com

I’m going to cover the author’s job in the process. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but the steps are clear once you begin and very do-able. My mentor Dennis Foley says about novel writing, “If Dennis can do it, anybody can do it.” Let me say about e-publishing, “If Kathy can do it, anybody can do it!”

 Prior to May I didn’t have so much as a Facebook account. I am now the owner of Blue House Publishing, the author of an e-book (the second one’s coming out this month!), a blogger, and occasionally I’m a twit. Okay, I mean I tweet on Twitter!

It’s been a great experience, and we hope you’ll join us…

Saturday January 21, 2012  9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell, Montana. For more information and to register contact Roxanne at rox@roxanne.com

e-pub 101 001

Babies, Books, and Finding My People

The first time I attended the Flathead River Writers Conference, I was partially trying to get away from a toddler.
When I look back now at the photos of that dear toddler, Ava, I almost can’t stand how sweet that time was. But when you’re home nearly 24/7 with an active child, and the northern fall is bringing clouds and darkness, and you have almost given up hope of ever seeing the light of day again, escape is not unreasonable.
So I went to the local writer’s conference to spend two days drinking coffee with grown-ups and enjoying the privilege of closing the door all the way when I went to the restroom.

The Plan

I met a literary agent there who liked the concept of my novel that I was only about 30 pages into. That novel, The Plan, about a biology professor who makes a science experiment out of looking for a man to father her child, will be available this fall, but at that moment in time, it was a long way from grown, just like Ava.
I attended the next year. The combination of an interested agent and, more importantly, privacy in the bathroom, was well worth the admission price. I had another great weekend, complicated only by having another great baby. Yes, that fall, I had a toddler and her two-month-old sister, Grace. My mother brought the baby to me during my breaks, and I was exhausted and exhilarated in equal measure.

Flathead River Writers Conference

I continued to attended the conference year after year, and as my children grew, so did my stack of manuscripts. I suffered near misses with agents, and a success or two. I certainly won the lottery when it came to amazing daughters, and I won and placed in several writing contests. But over time, the conference came to mean something to me beyond the break from domestic life, and even beyond the amazing instruction and opportunity the professionals there give so freely. I came to find my people.
I am a writer and so are the 125 people who gather there every year.
We take two days from our lives to talk about our shared love of words, the desire to write that drives us to stay up late or get up early or try to scribble down a bit of dialogue with a baby on one hip and another asking for a juice box.

 

And this year, my teenage daughters will tell me to have fun as they run out the door to see their friends, and I will run out the door to see mine.

 

Whine and Cheese Over Books

Thanks to the Whine and Cheese Over Books club for having me as a guest last week! They gather to share book picks on Goodreads, which I’ve just joined. It’s a site full of lots of great book talk, and I’m going to pass the information along to my own book group.

My personal highlights of the evening besides being hosted at Corie’s beautiful house in the woods and enjoying a Montana evening gathered around a firepit on the patio…  was discovering how unique and yet how similar women’s gatherings can be. The Whine and Cheese Over Books club is not all that different from the group of women I meet with.

We’re connected by the similar experiences of being women knee-deep in our lives and laughing and wrestling with it in equal measure.

As a writer, the best part of the evening was hearing women quoting lines I had written and laughing together about it. I work for months alone on a novel, and to get a moment to share some of my work with just the kind of women I want for readers was a real gift… thank you!

I Do Not Regret the Italian

Italian Flag in the breezeIn college I once broke up with a guy who said, “The only thing worse than not getting what you want is getting it.” (At the time he was referring to the Italian I dumped him for, but that’s another story.) When he said it to me, it felt like the worst fortune cookie ever.

Eternal Optimism and the Hamster Brain

As an eternal optimist, I always think that things will get better. He actually introduced me to the idea that you could want something and then later be sorry. (For the record, I do not regret the Italian!)

In a matter of days, my first book The Do-Over will be in the hands of readers. I’d like to say I am nothing but thrilled… “I am nothing but thrilled.”  I am also nervous and a little stressed, and guilty of hamster brain. (You know, where your thoughts spin around on that damn squeaky wheel?) Being a writer, and even better, having readers is something I’ve wanted my whole life, and I want getting it to be the best thing.

Mid-life Adventures

I hope, like the Italian, I will look back on all this as a grand adventure. (I’m thinking that my analogy needs to end here before I say something with a double meaning that I will surely mean but will cause me to lose my PG-13 rating.) And I refuse to give into my hamster brain and the ominous parting shot of a college boy, and embrace the sheer joy of sharing my work. So here’s to the only thing better than having an adventure at twenty…. Having one at mid-life!

Kathy’s Book News & More!

Woo Hoo!! Kathy’s “The Do-Over” is Now an Amazon Bestseller!

Get it at a special price  in seconds from Amazon for the Kindle.

The Do-Over is a Top 10 Indie eBook

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