Where Have I Been These Last Three Months?

My loyal fans and blog followers (all two of them) must be wondering where the heck has she been these last three months? Well, I've been around, just not here on the blog.

Some amazing things have been happening: had an 'author's signing event', sold a ton of books (by my standards), had my book Options put up on the Barnes and Noble website, added another 10,000 words to the second book, but have been mostly blissfully enjoying my two new grandchildren.

Chloe Ann and Thomas George were born on September 27th. They are wonderful, mellow, happy babies. Jonathan, their big brother, and the wee man who I fell in love with over three years ago, is very accepting of the new babies and is happily ensconced in his new pre-school. New babies make it hard to concentrate on much else so the book writing hasn't been progressing as well as I had hoped. Several weekends when yours truly should have been pounding the keyboard have been spent babysitting the grandkids to give their parents some well deserved rest! January is just around the corner and new year's resolve will kick in and I'm sure I'll be back on track.

In November, as a fundraising event at my place of employment, I was asked to participate in an author's signing event with a fellow self-published author, Deborah Cholette. About a year ago in our company newsletter I read an article about Deborah and her journey of self-publishing. That story, along with a newspaper article about a month later about Mark Coker and his new company Smashwords were really the two events that sent me down the road to where I am today with my first book Options. Deborah is a wonderful woman who I have seen over the last many years at the office, nodding hello on the elevator but never getting to know her. When I decided to self-publish, she was very helpful with information. She has two books to her credit: a children's book and a romantic comedy.

I was a little apprehensive before the signing event because I had never participated in one. Deborah and I had agreed to donate all profits from our sales to the charity and between the two of us we raised almost 700 dollars! I sold almost 70 books. Unbelievable! And I'm getting lots of great feedback.

My book has now appeared in electronic format at Barnes and Noble thanks to Mark Coker at Smashwords. Mark has been working very hard for all of his authors .... next up we should be at Amazon and a few other on-line stores. When I saw my book on the Barnes and Noble website http://books.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=EBOOK&WRD=rosemarie+d%27amico+options I admit I squealed just a wee bit!

The Christmas season is upon us and for me this time of year makes my heart swell (really...) and race (really...) in anticipation of seeing my family from out of town, enjoying some social time with our friends, and waiting for Santa to arrive! As I said above, January will soon be here and for me the new year is always a time to suck in a deep breath, slap myself mentally a few times, and get at it! So watch out 2010, my new book will be published before the spring and I see some amazing things on the horizon for Options!

Merry Christmas!

Options - second edition has gone to print

Today I shipped (electronically) my book Options to First Choice Books in Victoria, British Columbia for a second printing.

Had a cheery email from Johanna at First Choice -- kind of a "congratulations" email -- she assumes I am printing a second edition because I have no copies left of the first printing. I wish that were true.....sigh.

Truth be told, the second edition is being printed because of the number of mistakes found by a reader (see my blog entry about that!) in the first edition. Shortly after my self-flagellation phase (which lasted a day or two), I sucked it up and made the dozens (and dozens) of changes/revisions. And then I re-read the book, again, and found a few more errors. And, I'm sure there are still several boo-boos, typos, extra words, words in the wrong place, etc., etc., which will remain, until a publishing house buys the book and does some copy-editing themselves.

I had a comment on my blog from a copy-editor (thank you!) who said that authors often don't see their mistakes because of what they "expect" to see/read. How true.

Glad the changes have been made -- it took up a precious day this past weekend -- a day which I would have preferred to have been writing in my second book. But hey! What's a little set-back? This is all for fun and I'm not curing cancer, as I tell everyone who gets down on themselves (lucky for me I don't know any depressed medical researchers....).

And who knows -- the first edition may well end up being a collector's item one day!

Discovering the Value of a Copy Editor

I'm embarrassed, mortified, humbled and generally red in the face. Over the past while, several of my readers have gently let me know that they had seen a few mistakes/typos in my book. I say "gently" let me know because I have had to really drag that news out of them. A couple have said that they didn't want to embarrass me by telling me..... Au contraire, I've told them, I NEED TO KNOW.

You see, I have always prided myself on my error-free, completely proofread, clean as a whistle, documentation. (My background in the legal profession taught me the hard way about mistakes in documents.) I have always considered myself a proofreader extraordinaire.

Until today. My good friend and sister-in-law is one of my readers who mentioned that she had found a few errors. I asked her to point them out to me yesterday when she was visiting and she said that it would take too much time as there were quite a few. I think I mentally passed out when I thought I heard her say there were about 60. The power of denial......until today. She dropped the book off with her "gentle" notations in the margin. There were more than 60 notations. YIKES.

Thank you my friend. I corrected 55 mistakes which consisted of: typos, words missing, words in the wrong order, misspelled words, etc., etc. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Humbled I am because until today I was quite a snob when it came to reading other's books. In fact, there have been times that I've been so disgusted to find a mistake in someone's book that I have trouble continuing to read it.

Smashwords, the electronic publisher of my book (http://www.smashwords.com/) sent out an email a few nights ago letting all of its authors know that they have inked a deal with Barnes & Noble to have our books sold through their website. Imagine how excited I am. There are a few provisos though, one of which is that our books have to "pass muster" to be listed at Barnes & Noble. Right away I decided I needed to clean up the book because as I mentioned above, a few people said they had found some mistakes. I immediately started reading/proofreading the book again (for about the tenth time, seriously). And then I got the mark up from my friend and realized I am a TERRIBLE proofreader of my own work. Because although I had just read the first 110 pages, I had missed over ten mistakes!

So, what's the value of a good copy editor? I'm not sure how much they charge, but believe me, I will be seeking out and hiring one for my next book (and maybe for this one as well, before I do another print run).

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm 54 years old today and thankful for every year I've had. Not to be maudlin about it, but I am blessed/lucky. Why you ask? Well, it could be because of:

• the people around me who tolerate/love me in spite of my numerous character flaws
• three incredible children who make me swell with pride every time I think about them and their accomplishments - simply put, I am in awe of them! (Roxanne, Kathleen and Jordan)
• the thirty five years I have spent with the most wonderful partner in the world: my husband, my hero, the love of my life (Darryl)
• the newest man I fell in love with three years ago, my grandson Jonathan (until you experience the birth of a grandchild it is hard to explain how the sight of them makes your heart go pitter-patter)
• the expectation of new grandchildren (TWINS expected in late September 2009)
• the wonderful parents I had and the example they set (Bill and Isabel)
• three best friends who are also my siblings and my biggest supporters (my eldest sister Linda, my brother Abe, and my youngest sister Roxanne)
• the wonderful partners of my siblings (Phil, Sheila), partners of my children (Colin, Mat), and the progeny of my siblings and siblings-in-law (Sean, Alexandra, Naomi, Will, Erin)
• the great people I work with and because of them, the best job in the world

Yes, today is definitely a day to count my blessings! One of my favourite things about my birthday is checking out my birthday horoscope in the papers (Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen, National Post, and Globe & Mail). I LOVE reading about the year ahead (I secretly believe my horoscope and religiously read it every day). So what do the soothsayers say about today's birthday girl?

Ottawa Sun says: You are influential and witty. You are resourceful, vibrant and a true joy to be around. You are highly literate, verbose, popular, reliable, cultured, and well-travelled. You're a wise and kind intellectual and enjoy the company of others like yourself. You may marry one of your first loves.

Well, I am verbose and did marry my first love. All the other stuff makes me smile and truth be known, I want to be all those other adjectives.....

National Post says: Something you're noted for is your ability to overcome obstacles and challenges. You are peaceful; you're wise; but you can be tough. You believe that experience is the greatest teacher. You're a natural leader; however, you can play it solo as well. You're extremely supportive as a partner, helpmate, guide or advisor. This year a new cycle begins for you. Open any door!

I know that this year holds lots of promise and am slap-happy that my horoscope is predicting the same!

Globe & Mail says: Your birthday message is simple and to the point: stop trying to be perfect and start being yourself. If you follow that advice over the coming year you will find a happiness you were beginning to fear might not exist. Love yourself and others will love you too.

Ohh, since when did horoscopes start kicking where it hurts?

I'm hopeful about so much in the coming months, especially as it relates to my book! So, Happy Birthday to Me!

Thank you Louise Lenard

Who's Louise Lenard you ask? Well, I'd like to know too, so I could thank her personally. Louise purchased my book from the smashwords.com website and posted a review. Here it is:

Review by: Louise Lenard on Aug. 08, 2009 : Options has all the right ingredients: murder; strong characters; intrigue; all thrown into a company specializing in take-overs. I loved the details about working in the company and Kate is a great character, full of flaws but likeable. Definitely deserves a mainstream hard cover launch (and no, I have never met the author!).

I'm thrilled to receive Louise's review. She rated the book four out of five stars.

I have sold dozens of copies of my book to many other people, many of whom I know, many I don't. I recently sent out an email to all purchasers asking them to send in a review -- and I promised to put all of them on my website. I told everyone straight out: good, bad, indifferent -- I want to hear it all. Check it out, there are now three reviews (www.rosemarie-damico.com)

That's why I was so pleased to hear from Louise. A review that was unsolicited is greatly appreciated.

Thanks Louise Lenard.

Writing as a part-time job

I'm back to my paying job tomorrow, after two weeks of vacation. It was a wonderful two weeks; I got to do everything I wanted and more. Had a mini-vacation in Manhattan with my son where we got to see a Broadway play, do some location scouting for my next novel, and generally be gawking tourists. Spent some mega quality time with my grandson which was a total bonus. Wrote several chapters in the second book. Visited with family. Sat in the sun and swam in the pool. Read a dozen books. Discovered a new author.

The new (to me) author is Laura Lippman and as usual, I came across her the same way I always discover authors. Totally by chance at my local library. You see, I read so much that it's cheaper for me to go to the library (blasephemy I know, from a new author myself). I pretty much stick to the mystery section (if they have one). Last week I had to go to the library in my old neighbourhood because ours is currently under renovation. This library has only a general fiction section so I played my usual library game: wander around the stacks until something inside me says "stop". I then turn to my left and take a gander, then I turn to my right and take a look and whichever side "feels" right, that's where I start looking for books. This week I ended up in the "L" section. There were two books by Laura Lippman and I could tell by reading the jacket covers that I would like her books. I devoured them along with about eight other books that I took out.

Laura Lippman's writing fascinated me. She is so detailed about locations, people, emotions, situations, etc. She's a wonderful storyteller.

I wondered how long it took her to write these books because I have been struggling with mine. So I looked her up on the internet (www.lauralippman.com). Apparently, she's been a newspaper reporter for over 20 years and wrote her first seven novels while she was a reporter. Whew! While she was holding down a full time job, she wrote seven novels! I'm sure she's not the only writer to be published and so very accomplished while holding a job, but I am just gobsmacked! On her website she said that for her first books, she would go to a cafe every morning, and write about 1,000 words. She would have a first draft of her book done in 4-5 months. Amazing.

I'm wondering if I should find a nice little cafe downtown that I could patronize for a couple of hours every morning....hmmm (not Starbuck's!).

Mama never said it would be easy.....

I'm slogging along this week (on vacation) trying to make a dent in the second book. I'm averaging about 1,500 words a day but they're HARD words to come by. I'm finding this book so much harder to write than the first one.

A friend who just finished reading my first book sent me an email this morning. She said "it must have been a lot of work and research" to which I replied, "no, it wasn't hard, and there was no research involved at all". You see, the first book came easy to me because I wrote what I knew, which at the time was high tech companies, paralegal work, stock options, public companies, etc., etc. My job at that time was all of that.

For the second book, I've taken the character into an area that I'm not familiar with at all. So this time, I'm doing lots of research. Thank goodness for the internet -- yesterday, I only got about three paragraphs written and the rest of the time was researching scientific stuff, trying to work my way through the website of the U.S. Patent Office, reading medical journals, etc. It's all incredibly interesting but time consuming.

I guess I just have to stop comparing the last writing experience to this one. So, at 1,500 words a day, I think I might need another 23 full days to finish the book. With no more vacation after this week, that means about 12 weekends, or 3 more months (my, my, my -- hasn't my math improved?).

I'll try not to be too anxious to finish the book to ensure a quality product.........now -- back to the book.

Making Hay

Yours truly had a very successful day -- I was able to write about 2,500 words in the new book. That's about three chapters. The story is shaping up nicely and I have a good feeling about where the mystery is heading.

My four days in New York City certainly paid off - I was able to reflect a lot of what I soaked up in the city in the bits I wrote today.

If this book is to be about the length of Options (my first book), I am just past the half way mark. I have the rest of the week off for vacation so I'm hoping to "make hay while the sun shines" and try and average about 2,500 words a day. A little goal for myself.

New York City - doing research for my second book

Sounds so cliche, non? Visiting The Big Apple. I'm on a mini-holiday with my son Jordan in New York City. Our visit has two missions: (1) shop until Jordan drops and (2) do some location research for my second book.

We arrived yesterday afternoon and quickly re-oriented ourselves to Manhattan. After dragging Jordan about eight blocks in the wrong direction looking for the Rockefeller Center, we ended up on Fifth Avenue, shopping at The Gap, H&M, etc. There was a nasty thunderstorm late in the afternoon which I enjoyed watching from our hotel room (we are on the 36th floor at The Palace, overlooking St. Patrick's Cathedral -- and oh yeah, we also overlook the Rockefeller Center, duh!).

This morning we walked, walked, and walked some more. Up Seventh Avenue to Central Park, over to Central Park West, through the south end of Central Park, down Fifth Avenue (Central Park East), and back to the hotel. We sat for a while at certain spots that are described in the book because I wanted to make sure that I had it "right". I'm glad we did this because I have decided to change some of the locations now. I guess that's what location scouting is all about. I'm so glad we did this.

During our walk, we stopped in at the Apple Store and FAO Schwartz and dropped some cash, so to speak. We LOVE New York and we love the fact that today is sunny, and all you can see are blue skies, something we haven't seen in Ottawa for the whole month of July!

This afternoon -- who knows? I want to drop in at Soho, Greenwich Village and Little Italy. Where will our tired feet take us?

An Interesting Two Weeks

Since the book was "publicly" launched on Facebook by my daughter, I have had lots of interest and have actually sold some copies. I checked the stats on my website the other day and apparently there have been over 500 "views" of my website in June so far. That seems so strange to me because I wonder who is viewing it and where are they hearing about it. I think so far it's all from Facebook (has to be). The other day a good friend got a note on Facebook that some friend of hers was raving about MY book. Talk about the six degrees of separation!!

The other fantastic news I got this week was from Dan -- my favourite nephew-in-law (he's the better half of my eldest niece Alexandra). Dan manages the "Bookshelf" in Guelph, Ontario and he told me he will take some copies of the book and display them in his store. He also has two people lined up to read the book and write a review. I'll be shipping to him this week!

Other than book news, I've been missing my husband this week who has been away in Toronto taking more training for his Commando Krav Maga - I know, I know, it sounds strange (but it fits in with his martial arts world -- check it out on his website www.ottawajkd.com)

The news it out!

Well apparently the news is out! My daughter (bless her), launched my book on facebook yesterday.....so the marketing begins. I actually have some sales from that launch -- looking forward to many more. I know it's going to be a good week. I'm in Quebec City (for my "regular" job), in a beautiful room overlooking the river in one of the nicest hotels in the world (Chateau Frontenac).

Happy reading to everyone who buys my book! Autographed copies are on their way!

Printed Copies Have Arrived

This week my books arrived from First Choice Books in Victoria, B.C. They look fabulous and I'm pretty pleased. I have one on my bedside table to look at and I've been falling asleep with a smile on my face.

The book is also now published in electronic format on www.smashwords.com - for those who like to read on the computer or a hand-held device. The cost to purchase electronically will be $3.99. Check it out at www.smashwords.com/books/view/2075

My website is up and running www.rosemarie-damico.com. Special thanks to Jordan D'Amico who designed it and made it "work". Printed copies of the book can be ordered through the website ($16.99 U.S./Cdn.).

June 6 (tomorrow) is the anniversary of D-Day and the landing of the allies in Normandy. I'm feeling akin to that date as everything has come together this week after six months of my quest to self-publish the book. It's long overdue as the book was written 13 years ago.

Lots more to do -- local bookstores to visit, publicize the website, etc., etc.

I'm feeling the pressure is off (somewhat) and hope to spend the weekend writing. Yours truly is about half way through the second novel in the Kate Monahan series and I had some great ideas this week -- while sitting in the chair at the dentist's on Monday, with the drill screaming, I had some time to think and a few "light bulbs" went off!

On the printing press at last?

This week has been frustrating to say the least. It all started last Thursday (eight days ago) when I sent a nice, but "fed up" email to the printers. I asked them to call me so we could finalize things ... which I am happy to report finally happened eight days later.

I'm told that the book has been sent to "print" and that it should be shipped to me next week!

Fingers crossed ... (my finger crossing is now causing arthritis in my knuckles)

The good news in all this is that my website has been started http://www.rosemarie-damico.com/ - check it out. It's still very rough but will quickly take shape under the great artistic vision of Jordan D'Amico, the cover artist of my book and the master of my website!

So, next week will be HUGE in my life as an author. I need to have the printed copies in my hands before I push the button to publish it electronically on SMASHWORDS http://www.smashwords.com/. Smashwords will have a link to my website and a link to this blog.

Next on my list of "things to do" is get a list of all bookstores in the Ottawa area, and find out how to sell my book on Amazon. Darryl, my partner in all things, has agreed to help me flog the book at local bookstores where I understand they might take a few books to put on their "local authors" shelf. He's also looking into Amazon for me!

So, stay tuned for updates on this journey of mine to self-publish. I'm taking a lot of deep breaths and finding great stores of patience deep inside me.

Until next time.....

Finally settled with the printer?

It's been several weeks since my book was submitted to the printer. The woman there who is the designer (Johanna) is very hard to get in touch with and it's been frustrating to say the least.

However, at long last, we have finalized the proof. (A good thing because I was about to fire them for inattentiveness).

Johanna was good enough to fix the text/printing on the back cover, which was blurry on the proof. She explained that it was blurry because of the resolution when creating the file -- we'll know for next time.

AND, the biggest freak-out for me: I found TWO typos! One on the front copyright page and one in the VERY LAST LINE of the book. Now I'm worried that there are going to be more....

So I'm hopeful that the printing will start this week. Not sure when the final copies will be delivered but I'm anxious to get them so I can post my book on Smashwords.

Last weekend I removed all the formatting in the book to get it ready for submission to Smashwords, the website that publishes books in electronic format. I'm am holding off sending it to them until I actually have a hard copy of the book in my hands. Don't ask why; call me kookie, but I don't want to jinx the pitcher so to speak.

So here we go: fingers crossed (again) (I've been doing so much finger crossing lately that my hands are cramped!)

My proof arrived!

The envelope arrived on Monday with the proof of my book.

My first impressions: it wasn't as thick as I thought it was going to be (which is a good thing, I'm not whining here) and there are a few small issues with the cover.

I was worried that 417 pages might seem too much and the book would be too big. But DUH, they do print two-sided these days so it's only about 200 pages "thick".

It's very exciting to see it in print with the cover. The front is amazing and the photo and graphics that Jordan did are great. The problem is with the text on the back -- it appears to be really blurry. So we'll have to get some help on this one.

I found out last night that the graphic designer at the printer has been sick this week so I'm still waiting to talk to her.

Next steps: get the proof into acceptable format and then we're off to the printers!

I've heard from Shy at Victoria Bookbinding/First Choice Books. Quote is the same as it was in March - $9.28 a book for 100 books. I called to give them my credit card number to start the process and spoke to Joanna - she's the graphic designer who will be working on my book. Ohhhhh.....I feel like a teenybopper about to see David Cassidy. I feel like squealing! Not really....but it is exciting to have a graphic designer working on my book......whatever that means. She said they may have a proof ready to ship to me by the end of this week.

Now I get to find out what the service at First Choice Books is like. I'll try and be fair about evaluating them. Let's hope this isn't $1,000 being spent for "vanity's" sake. Maybe I will see some of the money back.....maybe some of the copies will sell.

I should really delve deep and take a hard look at why I'm publishing this book. Is it for the possibility of money? Is it for the possibility of recognition? Is it for the possibility of becoming someday, a legitimately published author? Is it for the possibility of wanting to share what I have written with a larger audience? OR ALL OF THE ABOVE?

It's done!!

April 23 - I sent the manuscript and book cover to Shy today at Victoria Bookbinding/First Choice Books. I'm waiting to hear back with an estimate on costs. I have a feeling it's going to cost me way more than $10 per book which means I'll have to make the cover price $19.99. The cost will end up being cheaper than Wordclay and other POD printers because of the U.S. dollar exchange rate. First Choice seems to offer several of the same options that Wordclay offers i.e. links to Amazon, etc.

Do you love the cover? I do -- especially since it was designed, photographed, laid out, etc. by my son Jordan (a very talented artist!).

Here's a little secret - the photograph of the person on the front cover is my daughter Kate -- so I guess you could say the production of this book has been a family affair. My other daughter Roxanne was one of my final proofreaders...

Now we wait....

Being anal is taking up too much time!!

I'm very nervous because I am about to send off my first manuscript/book to a printing company for PUBLISHING. I am going nuts reading, re-reading, scanning for typos, checking for grammar, spacing, and generally driving myself silly.

I've had Jordan do four more versions of the cover.....I think he's getting sick of my changes.

But hey, what to expect of someone who's primary job for so many years was PROOFREADING, PROOFREADING and more PROOFREADING? I will be devastated if I find one minor mistake in the book.

On the other hand, this could be my way of avoiding the inevitable.....getting the book published! So here we go. Stay tuned for updates!

Too much to do and too little time

It's Friday - one of my favourite days of the week. Friday's are the day that I get excited and worked up with anticipation of the weekend. Why? Because on the weekend's, my time is (usually) my own and that's when I get to write. Today, I'm not so excited because there are lots of activities this weekend that will get in the way of my writing...... Not that I want to sound selfish, but last weekend was Easter and we had four days off. Did I do any writing? A little, on Monday, after my houseful of guests left. So this weekend was going to be my catch up time.

But, no writing this weekend because other important things are happening, namely, fun activities with my grandson. He has two big milestones this weekend -- his first swimming lessons and his third birthday. So Nana won't be doing any writing, but she'll be shopping for his birthday gifts and sneaking into the recreation complex to watch him at his swim lessons.

The weekend after -- watch out! I plan on getting at least 20 pages done in Kate Monahan's latest adventures!

My first blog?

I'm up and at it. They say having a blog is a must for self-published authors. Not that I'm self-published yet, but this is a first step.