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.