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Friday, October 29, 2010

Meet John Owens - Self-Published Author




Yeah, that's him on the left. John Owens.


I call him Bubba.


Bubba and I first met in 1985 - holy crap that's more than two lifetimes ago! He and I were both employed at the same company here in Ottawa, working for Rod Bryden back in Rod's high tech days. John was in charge of "communications" and "public relations". I believe he came to the organization from the United Way, and before that he worked as a high school teacher in the Bahamas, where legend says he got that shirt he's wearing in the picture. After working in high tech (when high tech was COOL in Ottawa), he went to work for Rod Bryden at the Ottawa Senators (back when hockey was COOL in Ottawa and the Senators used to win a game or two).


It's all a blur after that because there's a rumour around that Bubba moved to la Belle Province and I lost contact with him for a couple of years. Fast forward to a couple of months ago when a mutual acquaintance asked me if I knew that John was back in town and that he'd written a book. I was on THAT like white on rice.


I thought if John Owens had written a book, that means HE would have a traditional publisher (did I mention he's a fabulous writer) because his writing is amazing. Ah, taberWHIT, and zut alors, it turned out that Bubba was in the same situation as I.....no traditional publisher and he was going the self-publishing route. I was on THAT like Joan Rivers and a free facelift!


John's road to publishing had been similar to mine - frustrating to say the least. But I was glad to find out that having a published author as a friend who is also a famous journalist didn't help either (read about it on John's blog http://www.johnowens.ca/) - LOL! Turns out John decided to try a company I had been looking at as well (iUniverse) and his experience with them had been okay. So, I signed up with them too (read all about it on my blog.....).

Fast forward to last Friday. I arrived home to find Bubba's book ON THE RAILS had arrived from Amazon and on Sunday and Monday I read through all 600 and some odd pages. I found it mesmerizing, I loved the characters, I was fascinated by the time period, and couldn't put it down.

John had agreed with me a while ago that after I read his book, he would do a blog interview with me about ON THE RAILS. So, here it is.....read on:

Question: Your adult working career has included teaching English to high school students, corporate communications/PR work for large public companies and a professional hockey team franchise, and writer. Which of these has given you the most personal satisfaction?

Answer: I don’t want to sound like a friggin’ politician here, but most of the jobs I’ve held have given me a lot of pleasure – but for different reasons. Teaching poor kids in the Bahamas and working for the United Way both made me feel like I was doing something worthwhile. Being with the Ottawa Senators for the team’s first five years was a blast – fairly shitty hockey but a great bunch of people who busted their collective ass to make the franchise work. But, after writing for months in a row – even if I had a terrible day when nothing worked – I would always say to myself: “This is what I should be doing.”

Question: Where did the idea for On The Rails germinate?

Answer: My father was (and still is) a great storyteller. He’s almost 90 now and he lived through much of what Michael experiences – from riding the rails to logging camps, to short order cooking to Northern service with the RCMP. He told those stories with such humour and liveliness that they struck me in a way I hadn’t heard before. I figured there had to be a book in that.

Question: The old adage "write what you know" always comes to my mind when reading an author's first novel. How much of On The Rails is based on your own experiences and your own views/knowledge of Canadian locales? (And yeah, we know you're old but we also know you weren't alive during the Depression and the start of WWII.)

Answer: There are particular events or scenes which I experienced (skating, “borrowing” my father’s truck, the sideshow, working in a catalogue department among many others) and then adapted them to Depression-era Canada. Geographically, I have to confess that I’ve never been to central BC, northern New Brunswick, the Arctic, or Regina. Bless the Internet for images and info.

Question: As a writer, I've found it hard not to imbue my main characters with at least a tiny bit of me. I also get a secret thrill having my characters do or say things that I've always wanted to do or say, but didn't have the guts. Which character in On The Rails is most like you?

Answer: A small part of me is Michael but as a kindred character I’d have to say Dick Williams, the apple farmer in BC. He leads the kind of graceful, self-contained life which I much admire. But there are probably 20 characters who say or do stuff which I somehow believe.

Question: From the time you typed "George Shymchuk's axes were always sharp" to the point where you took your fingers off the keyboard and said, "DONE", how long did it take you to write the book (excluding the yucky parts of editing and proofreading)?

Answer: It’s actually hard to give an accurate answer because, throughout the novel writing period, I also had to make money in my business. There was a pretty intense stretch between 2003 and 2005 where I mainly worked on the book and I did a major revision in 2008 that took about six months.

Question: There is so much in this book that resonated with me (but most of that's fodder for another blog interview). Here's an example: "He felt the guilt of one human who knows he feels less than another about the same thing. He felt the powerlessness to change it within him, the rigid inability to force himself to lift up his caring to the apparent level around him." I actually had a WOW moment when I read those lines, and realized that finally, someone had put into words something I've known for a long time but was unable to articulate. Did you have a WOW moment when you wrote those lines?

Answer: Like you, I’ve guiltily felt that for a long time but I made myself write it to capture Michael’s isolation in everything from severing his family ties to his reaction to war in Europe.

Question: Inarguably, the main plot of On The Rails is male-dominated, and not a lot of women rode the rails during the Depression, but we couldn't ignore the fact that the women's characters in your book are peripheral. This is not a feminist dig in the least, we're just curious if this was a conscious decision on your part or is that just the way the "cookie crumbled", so to speak?

Answer: You’re right: mainly, it was historical circumstance, both on the rails and in the RCMP which is about 80% of the book. For some reason or other, though, I’ve always had a problem with male writers attempting to write from a female perspective (and vice versa!). It always strikes me like a parlour trick. It’s clever and all, but it’s still a trick. Idiotically perhaps, I don’t know why they try it.

Question: You strike me as a beach bum type of guy who likes the warm weather and cold beers. Did you ever experience sledding or wilderness living like Michael and his other RCMP co-horts?

Answer: Again, I think my old man’s story telling abilities made those times and places seem real to me. Personally, I do everything I can to avoid the cold and spend my winters in hibernation, dreaming of Mexico. Coincidentally, however, I did spend a winter in an uninsulated cabin in 2003 when I first really ploughed into On the Rails. It was chilly and remote but absolutely nothing even close to the realities of the Canadian Arctic!

Question: When will be reading The Sixth String? Are you trying to find a traditional publisher for it or are you going the self-publish route again?

Answer: We’ll see. I’m revising some musical things in The Sixth String right now which I had dead wrong so I’m not quite done. I do first want to see if On the Rails will attract some attention and a publisher. But that’s like: I do intend to keep buying lottery tickets.

Question: What's next? Are you writing your next novel?

Answer: Sort of. I’m about 50,000 words into a Central American thing but I haven’t visited it for quite some time. It’s an odd book that might become a real one.

John's book On the Rails is available at http://www.amazon.ca/ or http://www.iuniverse.com/




Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I'm thissssss close

The e-proofs for both books have been reviewed by me and sent back to iUniverse. There were very few errors in either books, with the majority being mine, all mine. And yes, you guessed right - I found a whole bunch more of those pesky problems like missing words, spelling mistakes, etc. HUGE SIGH. Hopefully there aren't that many left.

I sent everything back to iUniverse last Friday and Saturday and yesterday I received the cover proofs for Artificial Intentions, with all changes made. By the way, the covers for both books are fantastic. The graphics people at iUniverse took Jordan's artwork and used his lay-out, photos and ideas to the max! So, the credit goes to number one son (again) for the covers!

Tonight I received the revised text for Artificial Intentions, which I checked and sent back with one last minor correction to be made. Now they do the printer's layout and get the book to market. Can't wait, but I guess I'll have to (not sure how much longer it will be).

Still waiting for the proofs for OPTIONS which is being handled by another design team. I'm not as anxious for it because I can't wait to hold my new book in my hands!

iUniverse is doing a great job!

Friday, October 15, 2010

The e-Proofs Have Arrived!

This week I received electronic proofs for both books. How exciting is this?

The books had been assigned to different design teams and each team has produced a different-looking book. I had thought they may end up looking the same (not the covers but the inside), but they're not. Although both books are virtually the same in word count (~120,000 words), one book is 392 pages and the other is 300 pages. The fonts and font sizes are different in each book, and the pages are laid out differently. I like both (alot!).

The covers are fantastic! Because I had sent them the artwork that Jordan (my son) designed, as well as the photos he had used, their professionals just took the basic design and our photos and re-did the covers. I love them.

The back cover text has me a little perplexed... As part of the editorial process, I was asked to submit the text for the back cover. iUniverse set out a maximum number of words for the text, and gave me an editor's opinion on it. Now I admit, my back cover text sucked. But I did work on it.....so, imagine my surprise when both books showed up with new cover text. They used maybe one of my sentences.....and, I LOVE IT! These people are obviously professionals and they know what's needed on a back cover. I will edit it only a wee bit.

The other treasure was the text for a hard cover book. As you know, hard covers have inside flaps, so to fill up those flaps they put the text from the back cover of the paperback, as well as the author's bio. And, they put an excerpt from the book on the back cover. It's a good thing my bible-thumping Grandmother is not alive because the text on the back cover of the first book has the F word -- tee hee! I will make sure they change that....

So, I'm now doing a deep dive on the books, proofreading and making changes. I'm halfway through Options and am happy to report that I've only found a few changes.

I want to get through this step as quickly as possible becuase I'd like the books available for Christmas.

So.....TTFN (ta ta for now)

Friday, October 8, 2010

The books are "in production"

This week has seen us take another step towards publication. iUniverse has let me know that both books are now in production. What does that mean? They are designing the covers and laying out the text. They tell me I should have e-proofs in about 2-3 weeks.

Options is slightly ahead of Artificial Intentions in terms of production, and each book has been assigned to a different production team at iUniverse.

I supplied the teams with my cover designs that were done by Jordan (my son) and the accompanying photos that we used. They asked that Kate (my daughter) sign a "Model Release Form" giving permission to use her photo on both covers (although she is not recognizable).

So, things are moving along nicely.

On another note, my friend John Owen's book On the Rails was released last week through iUniverse and I bought a hard copy from Amazon. I can't wait to see it and read it. Hopefully my books will be ready and available well before Christmas so people can buy copies for presents!

Monday, September 20, 2010

I'm one bleary-eyed editor!

Two marathon sessions on the weekend (a total of approximately 26 hours) came to an end around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday night....when I finally finished the edit of ARTIFICIAL INTENTIONS, the second book. Hopefully, with a few last swipes, I'll be ready to send it in to iUniverse and get it into production.

Had a note today from iUniverse that the first book OPTIONS, has been assigned to the "London" production team -- so, things are happening. Looking forward to the next phase for both books.

No...more....reading..... for at least a day!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Book #1 in Production

So, I finally finished editing Options for the three thousandth time the other night and sent it off to iUniverse, telling them I was by-passing any further editorial work. I quickly sent in my revised back cover text and bio with the hope that somewhere in Indiana (I think that's where iUniverse lives), someone is now busily preparing my book.

I love my first book. (The editorial review I got was fair and if I was to compare the review to a mark given by a teacher in school, I probably got a B, however, I'm digressing.) I love my first book, but I have read it at least twenty times (no joke) in the last three months, and every single time I read it I find errors and things to correct. I think I nailed it this time though, and hope that any mistakes left are the type that an average reader won't notice. (Although I must admit I am a SERIOUS snob when it comes to finding errors in professionally published books and I'm finding more and more of them lately.....shame on you Penguin Books and all you other large houses!)

So, sayonara Options (although I believe I get one more go around when iUniverse publishes the proof). It's been fun. It's been fourteen years. Time to send you off....

Let me sign off by saying how sick to death I am of the comma.....

p.s. any mistakes in this post are the sole responsibility of the author (I feel I must add this rider)

Friday, September 10, 2010

My iUniverse experience -- so far

I have now received editorial evaluations for both books which were very positive.

The editorial evaluation format from iUniverse is very user-friendly. The editor sends you a multi-page document containing their comments on various topics (the basics; title; marketing text; opening; basic premise and tone; point of view; structure, plot and pace; setting; characterization; dialogue; basic punctuation and grammar; and general comments about the manuscript). The evaluation finishes off with their trade mark "Editorial Rx Referral".

On each topic listed above, the editor has a series of standard questions they answer about the book (yes or needs work), and then they give a narrative answer, citing examples from the book. I found this very valuable. For both books I received lots of constructive comments which I plan on integrating into the manuscripts.

Any complaints? You betcha. And I've shared this with iUniverse. They have a program called "Editor's Choice" where editors at iUniverse identify good, solid books to get their "gold seal of approval". Both of my books were recommended by the editors for this program. However, there's a catch. You have to submit to their recommendations (i.e. have your book copy edited, or have your book line edited, etc.) and pay very big bucks to their organization to have the job done.

Don't get me wrong, I know that copy editing and proofreading are very expensive propositions (see one of my first blog entries). And they are worth every penny. iUniverse's services are not out of line with industry prices for the same type of service and I'm sure their editors are worth the money. I just wish I had several thousand dollars to pay for these services......but self-publishing is costly enough.

So, I'm going to incorporate as many of the changes as I can that were recommended by the editors and get both manuscripts re-submitted asap!

Over and out!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

iUniverse....the journey continues......

Happy to report that I've have had a successful week with iUniverse!

I decided to get OPTIONS submitted first so they can get working on that, so earlier this week I went through the steps on the iUniverse website to get the book in their hands. They have a spot on their website for clients to sign-in and once you have paid your deposit, your personal space is made available to you.

You simply follow the logical steps, putting in information they need about you, blurbs about the book for your back cover, a description of what you want the covers to look like, etc., etc. As I already have artwork for both my books, I plan on sending iUniverse the original photos and the cover and see what they can do, if anything, to improve on it. Not that there's anything wrong with what Jordan has designed but the cover designers at iUniverse may have some ideas.

One of the features I get with the "package" I purchased is an editorial evaluation of the book - which I consider a HUGE bonus. I haven't had any "professionals" look at the book(s) and am looking forward to this stage. I'm told the evaluation will be ready in 2-3 weeks.....in the meantime, I received a generic email from the Editorial Team at iUniverse yesterday, describing the process and what type of reaction I might have to receiving critical advice. Basically, they're telling you that you may not like what you hear...... I say so what? -- that's LIFE. Sometimes it sucks to hear the truth! Although I'll probably be wimpering in a corner when I get the evaluation and when I get my composure back I'll likely be demanding the editor's credentials....HAHAHA!

Today I submitted the second book, ARTIFICIAL INTENTIONS.

So yours truly is happy to report that the first leg of my publishing journey with iUniverse has been relatively painless!

Stay tuned for further reports!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

iUniverse and Me

Well, it's been two months since I finished writing the second book, now titled ARTIFICIAL INTENTIONS. Lots of re-reading and proofreading going on, with able assistance being provided by my team: Roxanne, Deborah and Sheila! Thank you ladies.

To get ready for publication, I contacted my printer in Victoria and got a quote and also contacted several printers here in the Ottawa area -- only one of which had the decency to get back to me and provide a quote! Their loss!!

And then I got an email......which was from iUniverse (I'm on their mailing list) www.iuniverse.com. Normally I delete them but because I was on vacation and in "vacation mode" (read: nothing to do), I actually took a minute and looked at the sales pitch. All publications were being offered half off! Which got me thinking.........

Why not try a different route this time? You see, iUniverse has it all (so they say). They help you format the book, they'll produce the covers, they'll make the book available on their website, and on the websites of such places as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., etc. They do the printing, the shipping, collect the money, etc., etc.

And.....at 50% off the regular price, I thought, why not give them both of my books? The total cost will be a little bit more than what I would pay to the printer in Victoria to print 100 copies. And if I did the same with the second book as I did with the first book (i.e. print my own), I'd be responsible for advertising, shipping, collecting the money, etc., etc.

So, I'm hoping and crossing my fingers that this has been a good decision. I have a friend who is using iUniverse and he assures me that so far, so good. His book isn't published yet (it takes anywhere from 90 to 120 days to get it out) but he says he's had a good experience so far with them.

For those of you not in the know, so to speak, iUniverse (and many, many other similar companies) are Print On Demand (POD) publishers. Once all the front end "stuff" is done, and consumers want to buy the book, they place an order with iUniverse and iUniverse prints it, ships it and collects the money (and ultimately pays me a royalty).

iUniverse has a great website which takes you (the author) through many steps to getting the book published. Yesterday I managed to get the manuscript for my first book uploaded as well as completing several other tasks. The one problem so far that I've run into is not knowing how to go "back" and update things already submitted or to complete tasks that I skipped. I have an email out to iUniverse and hope to hear back shortly.

Stay tuned here to my blog as I set off on this journay. I'll do my best to keep you up to date on the process.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

The Third?

My husband asked me today if I knew what the next book in the Kate Monahan series was about.

I have no idea, and that's what I told him. The third in the series has been niggling around in the back of my mind, but no ideas have bubbled up. Yet.

I'm in the throes of editing the second in the series and am anxious to get that done so I can send the book to print. My proof-readers and editor are standing-by waiting for the next draft. We still have to finalize a title and a cover too.

Lots to do.........

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Summer Reading at Half Price

Have you read my book yet? If you haven't, here's an opportunity to purchase it at half-price from now until the end of July. If you're looking for a good summer read, this is a book for you.

OPTIONS is the first book in the Kate Monahan Series. Kate is a paralegal/legal secretary at TechniGroup Consulting who deals with the ups and downs of the corporate world. When her close friend dies mysteriously, Kate finds herself in the middle of a series of bizarre coincidences with her own life on the line.

The second book in the Kate Monahan Series will be released later this summer! Stay-tuned to this blog or the author's website http://www.rosemarie-damico.com/ for updates on publishing dates.

In celebration of summer, read OPTIONS for half price!

Click here http://rosemarie-damico.com/purchase.html to purchase a hard copy for $8.50!

Click here https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2075 to purchase an e-copy for $2.00 (use coupon code SWS50 when purchasing).

I'd love to hear from you -- give me a review of OPTIONS (good, bad or indifferent - I love feedback from readers!). Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/RoseDAmico and stay-tuned for a new Facebook page.

Happy reading!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Finis! Finito! Finished!

Note the date folks. Sunday, June 27, 2010. I finished my second book. It's a sequel to the first book -- I'm referring to it as the Second Book in the Kate Monahan Series.

I started this book FOURTEEN years ago. Yep, you read that right. Fourteen years ago. 1996. If you're familiar with the story of how my first book OPTIONS came about (if not see my website www.rosemarie-damico.com) you'll know that I wrote that book in "three months of Sundays". About twelve days of writing. Shortly after finishing that book, I started on the second one. I got about 60 pages in (about ten chapters) and stopped. 1996 was a long time ago and I cannot for life of me remember why I stopped writing at that time. I know there were other things going on in my life at that time (change of jobs, three kids, my husband and I owned our own business, busy, busy, busy). I do remember being very discouraged by all the "No thanks" rejection letters I was getting from publishers and agents for my first book so maybe that contributed to me laying down my pen at that time.

Fast forward to January/February 2009. If you've now read my story about how OPTIONS came about, you'll know that I was about to self-publish the book. I barely remembered the other book but for some reason, I decided to dig it out. That's a story in itself. We had moved houses and I had changed jobs so did I have a paper copy somewhere? Did I have a soft copy on my computer at my current job? I nervously started looking and lo and behold I found it. On my computer at work. It had been sitting on the hard drive for fourteen, lonely years.

Excitedly, I clicked on the file name in Word and lo and behold, the computer told me to enter my password to access the document. I had password protected the document and did I mention that fourteen years is a long time??? I had no idea what the password was. I spent the next two days trying to find software that I could get (cheap) that could break the password. That was two wasted days!

I called my sister in Washington. Did she have a paper copy? She didn't think so but she would ask Dan, my niece's better half who was one of my inspirations for self-publishing the first book -- but you already know that because you're up-to-date on my "story" (see above) LOL. Why Dan would have a copy I wasn't sure, because I do know he wasn't around when I started writing the second book....

While I waited to hear back from my sister/Dan, I called the document back up on my computer screen, and when it asked for a password I typed in a word, and it worked. Duh?! I'm not sure how I remembered it, but I did. I quickly removed the password and read the first 60 pages. And I liked it! I liked it alot.

About a week later I was scheduled to fly to Vancouver (about a five hour flight) and was privileged to be flying Business Class. I took my laptop with me and spent a solid five hours writing in the book in my wide, leather seat, uninterrupted. I was stoked!

I've spent a lot of hours over the last 17 months finishing this book -- way more time than it took to write the first book. My first book clearly fit in the category of "write what you know". This second book is a little of that and a TON of new, undiscovered area. I did a lot of research for this book. Many days I would sit down to write and hit a point in the story where I was asking myself all sorts of questions, so I would change direction and spend hours researching. For this book I found out a lot of information about the Food & Drug Administration in the United States, the Securities & Exchange Commission in the U.S., the New York Police Department.

Last July I took a trip to Manhattan with my son Jordan to scout locations. We had a blast touring around and because of that trip some things changed in the book.

In between writing time, our family has expanded. Our oldest daughter had twins in September so they (along with their older brother) have taken me away from writing for short spells. Is there anything more delicious than spending time with grandchildren? Recently, that same daughter broke her ankle, requiring surgery and many, many weeks on crutches, so we've spent more time with her and the babies. Sometimes my job gets in the way of writing, sometimes the garden calls me. Recently, the swimming pool has been beckoning.....

Today is Sunday, June 27, 2010. 405 pages, 112,155 words, so far untitled. I feel a serene sense of accomplishment.

Stay-tuned for updates on the next steps. Editing with my trustee sidekick, Sheila. Cover artwork photography, modelling, and design with my uber-talented son, Jordan. And my 'you-know-who' model.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Read an E-Book Week - WOW What a Success!


Thank you to everyone who took advantage of Read an E-Book Week to download a free copy of my book Options. 55 of you took the time to go to http://www.smashwords.com/ and download the book. Some of you even stopped by here first and read my blog entry before going to smashwords.



I took advantage of my 100+ friends on Facebook and reminded them everyday this past week that it was Read an E-Book Week and gave them a link to my blog to get a free copy.

It's hard slogging to get the word out about a self-published book and this week has definitely paid off. There are now 55 more copies of my book out there and hopefully some of those readers will post a review of the book on smashwords, or send me an email with their comments (rosemarie@rosemarie-damico.com). All comments, good, bad or indifferent are welcomed.

My book also showed up this week on http://www.kobo.com/, which is the website for Chapters/Indigo that sells electronic books. So, the word is spreading and thanks to people like Mark Coker (founder of Smashwords), self-published authors are actually getting a toe-hold (albeit tiny) in the publishing world. Now if I could only convince Heather Reisman to put my hard copy book on the shelves at Chapters!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Free E-Books

Have you have tried reading e-books on an e-reader (Sony, Kindle, i-Phone, etc.) or on your computer? I have and I LOVE it!

I hear a collective gasp out there and about a year ago, I would have sucked in my breath too at the thought of someone my age accepting the new technology. But it was Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/) who was the reason I self-published my book Options (http://www.rosemarie-damico.com/) in the first place.

You see, it is now easy to publish your own book, and a big piece of doing that is having your book in an electronic format (.doc, .pdf, etc.). I think the only people in the world not to 'write' their books on computers would be the Amish, so you know what I mean when I say having your book in electronic format is the first step. Once it's written in Word or WordPerfect or whatever, it's easy to convert it to a format that allows readers to read your book on their e-reader of choice. My son-in-law does all his reading on his i-Phone, which has a screen far too small for me to enjoy but the generation behind me are using smaller and smaller devices for their reading. Imagine reading a book on a cell phone? I don't think so!

Smashwords published my book on their website as soon as I gave it to them in Word format. They converted it to several various e-formats and it is available for sale on their website. They have since signed agreements with Barnes & Noble, Sony, Amazon, Kobo and a few others to sell our books through those websites too.

In January this year I made the big step and purchased an e-reader for myself. After much research I chose the Sony e-Reader and I am VERY happy with it. I still read paper books and will never give those up. It only makes good business sense as far as I'm concerned, being an "electronically published" author as well as a "paper published" author, if you know what I mean. I can store up to 3,500 books on my e-reader and that makes travelling a heck of a lot lighter. Now my suitcase/briefcase isn't loaded with books when I travel -- I just have to throw my e-reader in my purse!

e-books are generally less expensive than print books. AND, imagine how happy I was to find out that my local library has e-books which I can borrow for 20 days (plus two renewals). Fantastic! So, don't knock it until you've tried it. Log on to your local library's website, search for the e-books, and download a couple to your computer (the library will likely advise you to download some free Adobe software first). Try reading a book on your computer.

Go to http://www.smashwords.com/ where my book and several hundred more are FREE starting March 7th (until March 13th). Smashwords are participating in a global event -- "Read an e-book Week".

To view my book and download a free copy starting on March 7th, go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2075

If you find that e-books aren't your cup of tea, I would be glad to sell you a paper copy of my book. Just go to http://www.rosemarie-damico.com/ -- I will even autograph your copy!

Happy reading!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

In the category of "every little bit counts".....

.....831 words produced tonight. Not a ton, but yours truly is proud of herself for doing some writing on an weeknight when I'm usually brainbusted!

January 6, 2010: 831 words!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Another Fruitful Day

Another banner day.

I was lucky to have a visit this morning from my grandchildren so I didn't get down to the writing until about 1:00 p.m. It's now 5:45 p.m. and I'm calling it a day. Two chapters completed! Yay me!

January 3, 2010: 3,111 words

Saturday, January 2, 2010

The Final Leg of the Race

Okay, it's the New Year and time for resolve and determination. I have about two-thirds of my second book done and haven't made the time in since the end of September to get back at it.

Today, January 2nd I cleared the decks and spent the WHOLE day writing. What a giddy feeling......writing excites me so much! The day is almost done and I'm happy to report that I've written almost 5,000 words today. Which means if I'm aiming for a 125,000 word novel, I have about 8.5 days of writing 5,000 per day left to finish the book.

Now I'm not kidding myself to think that I might be lucky enough to clear the decks for eight and half days of straight writing or that I can write 5,000 in each sitting but .... there does appear to be an end in sight. Yeah!

I will keep this blog up to date to keep us all informed of progress.

January 2, 2010: 4,387 words