Sustaining your Soul

Good morning. Since I took the job at Monster's school, I've had the opportunity to meet lots of people. Most of them Moms. Some of them work, some of them don't. Lots of them volunteer at the school like I do. (There's lots of stuff to do.)

I've always worked. All my life. I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't. Writing is a job. So that's what I do now. I had an interesting question from one of the Moms last week. She asked, "What do you do when you're NOT writing."

I kind of laughed. "What do you mean? I clean my house." And you guys know what I'm talking about here.

She said, "No. Not like that. What do you do for fun?"

I said, "I write."

She said, "No, I mean, don't you do other stuff? Like scrap book, or bake cookies, or paint. Surely, you can't write all the time. Doesn't that get boring?"

How could I explain it to her. Even when I was working all those years, even when I worked 2 and 3 jobs at a time, I always wrote. (I have a cedar chest full of manuscripts -- all of them garbage, but mine nonetheless.)

I can't NOT write. I think if someone took away my keyboard I would die. (Yes, the same goes for pen and paper, chalk, crayon, pencil, hieroglyphics.) I cannot ever think of my life in any circumstance and not write. Sure, I may not have written every day when I was younger, sure, I have many many unfinished manuscripts, but I always wrote. It's not something I DO, but rather, it's part of WHO I am.

It sustains my soul.

I'm sure if I searched I could find oh-so-many-quotes on the subject with words to describe it like passion, fulfillment, joy. It completes me.

When I was younger I always maintained, that when a job stopped being fun, I would quit. No matter the pay, the hours, the benefits. And I did. If I can't have fun at work, then why bother. I'm not going to my grave like my forebears before me, working 40 hours a week at a job I despise just to put bread on the table and hope for two weeks off in the summer. Sure I made money, sometimes lots of money, but that's not what it's all about for me. I've also been poor as a church mouse and happier than I could ever be.

Now that I'm here, in this job as a writer/author/publisher, sure it gets to be trying at times. Sure, working through a block, or a formatting issue makes me want to scream sometimes, but I could never give it up. Never Never Never. Only when it stops being fun.

Writing sustains me. Without it, I wouldn't know who I am. And just for fun, I did another experiment. We know that I just finished writing the end on my latest novel. It's now with critters and readers and I just have to wait until it comes back until I can further it along. I officially sent it out on Monday the 17th. For the rest of that week, I cleaned my house. (Yes, it took that long.) Once that was finished, I looked around for something to do.

I thought about reading a book. (How long has it been since I read for pleasure and not critique?)

I thought about going shopping and picking out some new clothes. (My wardrobe is atrocious. I should be on that show What NOT to Wear.)

I thought about ripping the wallpaper down in my bathroom and painting.

I thought about rearranging the furniture again.

Guess what I did? Nothing. I watched the Downton Abbey marathon a few Sundays ago and that was pretty much it on my fun-scale. Monday morning I found myself back on the computer, scratching out an outline for another title.

Some people say I'm dedicated to my craft. Some people say I'm crazy. Some people say I'm boring because that's all I do is write.

I say I'm sustaining my soul.

Tell me -- Can you not write? Does it sustain you? Is there something else you'd rather be doing than writing? (And yeah, we all have dreams of winning the lottery and traveling the world, but after that? What then?)

Anne Gallagher (c) 2014

Under Pressure

Good morning. Let me just say how much I miss you all. I've tried getting around to the blogs every so often, but it's a hit or miss proposition. Trying to get the latest book wrapped up, starting on the new one, dealing with school... it's just been too much.

Pressure.

I know a lot of you are dealing with enormous pressure on an everyday basis -- kids, jobs, husbands, housework. It's enough to make you explode.

But then, on top of all that, you're writing, revising, submitting, querying, polishing, beta-reading, all for the sake of the thing inside your soul that if you gave it up you would die.

Now there are some bloggers out there who blog every day, with phenomenal content, who have thousands of followers, who get tweeted and retweeted, and are just the bomb. They also have kids and lives, and their own reality to deal with. I envy those people who can do it all.

I'm not one of those people. I can barely keep up with the blogs I read, never mind write a coherent post for one day. Then there is the pressure to Tweet, keep up with LinkedIn and Goodreads, keep up with the marketing and publicity for my books.

And now that I have so many books out, that pressure becomes ten-fold. The guru's say to get a lot of content out there, keep writing, keep producing, more more more. That's the only way to make a name for yourself. And on top of all that, market, publicize, get your name out there, keep it up, more more more.

It's hard. Damn hard. And let me tell you how many times I thought about chucking it all. Just giving up writing and going out and getting a "real" job. A LOT.

But I didn't, and I can't, because I love writing so much.

Tell me -- Do you feel the need to "keep up"? How do you handle the pressure? What do you give up first?

The Shoulds and Should Nots

Good Morning. Today I'd like to discuss things we should and should not do when we're writer/authors. I've been around the blogs for a couple of years now. I've followed agents and big name writers, read blogs followed by thousands of people. These people know what they're talking about. I guess. But as with everything, I take what they say with a grain of salt.

We SHOULD blog with captivating content no less than 500 words no more than 800. We SHOULD Tweet and be friendly and engaging. We SHOULD have a Face Book author page and update it once a day. We SHOULD do blog tours when we publish. We SHOULD do this, that, and the other, so our name will be seen and heard and we will sell millions and millions of copies.

Uh, no. We don't. What we SHOULD do is find a place where we are comfortable.

I blog because I like it. I started my blog to meet people, like minded writers who I could engage with. Some of you who have been around with me from the beginning know me. I've written whatever the heck I want. Some days it's about writing, some days it's about romance, some days it's about my daughter, or the fact I'm building another fence. Some days I'm captivating, others I fall flat on my face. But I'm not blogging with specific content because I SHOULD. I'm blogging because I want to.

I've been reading forever about how to do a blog tour when you have a book coming out. You SHOULD set up no less than 15 stops, guests posts mixed with interviews, make sure you reply to every person in the comments etc. etc. I personally, don't do blog tours. Yes, I may do a cozy interview or two when my book comes out, but that's about it. And you know, there have been a couple of books I've released and only mentioned it once on my blog. (One story I never mentioned at all.) But that's me.  I don't have time for all that fuss and bother. Sure I might be missing a whole lot of sales, but you know,  I'm of the old school where word of mouth sells books. The writing should speak for itself.

I read a big name blogger a few weeks ago who said you SHOULD NOT reply to every single comment on your blog -- she said, it's padding the comments. Makes you look like you have 50 comments when you really only have 25. Now I had a "block comment" system in place for years. It's a pain in the butt sometimes. So I decided to go with "reply" comments instead. But you know, that turned into a pain as well, so I'm back to block comments. I'm making life easier on myself.

I also read over and over how I need to be on Twitter 3 or 4 times a day. I need to "engage" with people. I should be friendly and retweet. Then I also read that I should not retweet anything. Makes me look like a brown nose. I should have a schedule for Tweeting, 15 minutes morning, noon, and night. Uh, no. I don't have time to be sociable. I'm a writer. And personally, I don't think people give a fig what I had for lunch, or if Monster is home from school. I get on Twitter when I feel like it. I retweet interesting stuff if I think someone I know might like it. I Tweet because I want to and when I have the time.

And I've also read over and over how I need to get on Face Book so my "fans" can find me. As I've said before, I will never get on Face Book. In the back of every one of my books is my blog link to my Anne Gallagher Regency Romance Writer blog. I update every Sunday. I share what I'm doing in my books so my readers will know what's coming out next, what I'm doing, what's happening in my little writing world. My readers don't give a flying fig what page line edits I'm on, updating my status every 15 minutes. They just want to know when the damn thing will be finished.

I SHOULD do blog hops to find new followers. I SHOULD NOT do blog hops just to find new followers. I SHOULD follow every single person who follows me. I SHOULD NOT just follow someone blindly because they follow me. I SHOULD do memes and writing themes. I SHOULD NOT put my writing on my blog. I SHOULD use pictures. I SHOULD NOT use pictures. On and on and on.

Let me tell you what I have learned from the SHOULD and SHOULD NOT list. I SHOULD be true to myself and do whatever I feel comfortable doing. I WILL NOT do what every one else is doing. I mean, fish all swim upstream together. Why SHOULD I? I can zig zag if I want to. I'll still get to the same place. Maybe not as fast as the other fish, but I'll get there eventually.

Tell me -- What's on your SHOULD and SHOULD NOT list? What else have you seen on the blogs that you SHOULD be doing but don't? Or are not doing, but SHOULD?

Anne Gallagher (c) 2013

Stumbling Blocks

Before we start, I'd just like to say this is my 501st post. I know it may not seem like much to some, and there are people with thousands of posts, but the number impresses me just the same. I've done this 500 times. Whew.

Anyway, I got this interesting little blurb from one of my critique partners last week. She said,

I'm so glad Penny and Will got to love each other from the beginning of this book. They didn't have to overcome their fear to find their way to each other, or stumble through so many personal obstacles. It's a refreshing change.

She was talking about THE LADY'S MASQUERADE and Penny and Will are the main characters.

I never thought about it quite like this before. Usually my books are character driven, and the obstacles they stumble through are interior. My characters are loaded with angst and just can't make up their minds whether or not to love the person I've put in front of them.

MASQUERADE is plot driven. That Penny and Will find their love almost from the beginning of the book was a no brainer for me. It was my first book and I didn't know any better. I had no clue how to write a story, or what it needed. That they loved each other at almost first sight seemed a good way to start.

What they have to overcome to finally be together is in the plot. Murder attempts, jealousy, misunderstandings, and an overprotective daddy. Hmmm...

Tell me -- Do you find yourself writing more character driven or plot driven books? If you write love stories, are your characters afraid of love, and their angst, or do they just jump in and see what happens?

Cleaning the Mental Clutter

Good Morning. Last week, as I reported, James Taylor and I ripped up the rug in the front hall.  I set aside my revisions and cleaned my house. Well, yesterday, I decided to go bat shit crazy and rearrange the furniture. Yeah, what was I thinking.

I was thinking that I didn't want to work on my revisions. Some life I lead, huh? If I'm not writing, I clean.

Anyway, we have this room -- my mother calls it a den, I call it an extension of the kitchen. (Because the kitchen is a little box separated by a wall with a pass-through window.) In this "den" we have the tv, Monster's toys, my "other desk" (for household/school/bill stuff) the table where we eat, a love seat, and a couple of bookcases. Like I said, the room is huge.

We live in this room. Mind you, I have a dining room, a formal parlour, a foyer, and 3 bedrooms. However, this is the room we congregate in. (I don't think Monster has played in her bedroom once.) When we moved in, I put the furniture where I thought it should go and left it that way.

But it's always bugged me. This room faces the north side of the house, has only two windows, and the paneling is old Canadian pine board. (very thick, beautiful, and something my father absolutely refuses to allow me to paint) Needless to say, it's very dark. Only one overhead light.

So yesterday I decided to rearrange the furniture. See if I could get more light in. I took out a desk, moved two small pantry closet things, added a shelf, moved the big pantry thing, rearranged Monster's play area, and brought in some plants. Then for some crazy reason, I decided to take the desk downstairs to my office and rearranged all that furniture too.

On top of all that, I dusted, did laundry, vacuumed, washed dishes, cleaned the laundry room, and went to the grocery store. When I finished I turned on the tv and watched 3 hours of the Castle marathon on TNT, then switched over to Downton Abbey.

Now mind you, I should have been working on the revisions for The EE. I'm almost finished with them and want to get this book published. It's been my driving force for the last two months. So why would I forego that to clean my house, you may wonder.

Well, I'll tell you. The revisions I'm trying to do (suggestions from my wonderful critique partners) have made me realize the book was not everything I wanted it to be, everything it could be, as perfect as I thought it was. Yes, I made them, 99% of them in fact, and now, heading into the final edits/read through/copy line edits, I understand that I'm stubbornly refusing to acknowledge I'm not a first, second, third, or even fourth draft wunderkind. I thought I was, I really did.

Vanity, they name is woman.

And that bugs me.

What it all boils down to, is that EVERYTHING needs revisions. From where you put your furniture, to how many times you change your blouse in the morning, to how many times you need to revise your manuscript. Nothing is perfect the first time. No matter how perfect you think you are. But I have to say, now that my furniture is in a much better place, there's so much more light, I think my brain is as well. It's Monday and I'm ready to dive back in to see what else I can do to make my book the best that it can be.

Tell me -- Does your "mental" clutter drive your "outside" clutter? Or vice versa? Do you procrastinate getting things done in a timely manner like I do, or do you dive right in? How many times have you rearranged your furniture?

CosVogEllGirl Wants to Know -- What Kind of Writer Are You?

We’ve all seen them, all taken them, those quizzes in Cosmo, Vogue, Elle magazines that teach us who we are, but more importantly, who we can be if we change our ways, find our limits, secure our sanity by taking five minutes to choose A – B – C.

Today I’ve put together a little quiz of my own to show you just what kind of writer you are. Answer the 5 questions, and your true writer self will emerge.

1) When meeting your cousin at the airport whom you haven’t seen in ten years, do you….?

A) Know her immediately, give her a big hug, and welcome her with enthusiastic affection.

B) Look around carefully at the other people in baggage claim to make sure she’s your cousin before giving her a stiff hug.

C) Hold a placard up at the terminal exit.

D) Cry when you realize it’s your cousin ELLEN, not EILEEN.

2) Your husband/S.O. offers to go to the grocery store and comes back with nothing you put on the list. Do you….?

A) Say, “That’s okay, honey, I’ve always wanted to learn how to cook Brazilian Thai.”

B) Pull the stuff out of the bags, put it away, and say nothing.

C) Leave the stuff in the bags, and take it all back to the store the next day.

D) Cry when he says, “I couldn’t read your handwriting.”

3) You’ve just finished reading the latest best-seller all your friends have been raving about. It wasn’t all that. Do you….?

A) Find the good scenes and discuss those at your book club.

B) Pass the book along to your cousin, and when she asks, “How was it?” say “Okay.”

C) Go straight to Amazon and write an unfavorable review.

D) Cry because you know your book that’s been in your hard drive for 6 years is soooo much better.

4) At the gas station, fifteen minutes before a huge presentation at work, you accidentally spill gas down your leg and into your brand new $100- high heels. Do you….?

A) Stop off at the mall, grab a pair of new shoes and nylons before heading to the office.

B) Go into the Ladies Room, take off your nylons, wash the shoes, and head to the office.

C) Go to the office smelling like gasoline, there’s no time to do anything about it.

D) Cry. Now you won’t be able to return the shoes.

5) Your mother says she hates your new haircut. Do you….?

A) Say, “Don’t worry, it’ll grow out soon.”

B) Go into the bathroom, wash your hair, and style it the way you normally do.

C) Go back to the salon and have them give you a pixie.

D) Cry because you knew it was drastic and if your mother hates it, then so will everyone else.

If you answered A to most of the questions, you’re a CHEERLEADER –

No one will get you down. Not agents, publishers or your beta/critters. The book you’re writing is fantastic and when it needs work, you do it gladly because you know it’s going to get accepted and will be a best-seller. You’re on every social media site, have zillions of followers, and have done everything you know how to build that platform. Go YOU!

If you answered B to most of the questions, you’re a DOCTOR –

Writing is hard work. You know it and accept it. You’re informed and well read and go about the business of writing your fourth novel knowing some day you will be published. You’ve built a modest following on three social media sites, know what your platform is, and never stray from that. You’re not afraid of rewriting and revising.

If you answered C to most of the questions, you’re an ACUTARY –

You have no need for frills or friends. You only deal in facts. You write doggedly and determinedly, craft books by the bed for light reading. If you can’t get an agent to look at THIS book, you’ll write another. You’ve spent years honing the craft, memorizing genre guidelines, you know who you are and what you want – to be a mid-list author with a guaranteed income. You have a blog with a few followers, and Tweet occasionally. You don’t have time for social media. You’re a writer.

If you answered D to most of the questions, you’re a MESS –

Take some time, do some research on writing and genre, grab some craft books, get on the blogs, become informed. Learn sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, find some beta readers, invest in Kleenex. Getting critiques, losing contests, and finding rejections from agents and publishers in your inbox takes a thick skin. If you can’t handle the pressure, put your pen down and walk away. Not everyone with a great idea for a story can write one.

Thanks for taking the quiz. So tell me, WHAT KIND OF WRITER ARE YOU?

Update On My Dad and Other Miscellany

Good Morning.

It's certainly been a long couple of weeks. We finally got my father on a breathing machine and a new bed that allows him to sleep sitting up. He's been in his chair in the living room for almost six months and although it helped, it didn't allow him to get the rest he needed. Now he's in bed again and feeling so much better. Not 100%, but at least 85, so that's a good thing.  He even cut the back meadow on Saturday. (Although I still had to push mow the front hill .)

I joined in the fun of the A-Z challenge, which some of you may know. I didn't sign up on the linky because I knew with everything I have going on I wouldn't be able to do it justice. But I had this crazy idea for it about a week before it went down, and if you want, you can find it here on my Anne Gallagher blog. My theme is my characters in pictures.

Also, I managed to get THE DUKE'S DIVORCE out in paperback. You can't find it on Amazon just quite yet, (they say it takes about 14 days for all the content to be uploaded) but you can find it here.  I'm hoping if you know someone who likes to read Regency in paper form, you'll tell them about it.

 I'm also working on another short story to e-publish. It involves Lord Greenleigh, (Letter G) spies, intrigue, and espionage with Russians. I'm up to Chapter 9 and I think it's pretty cool considering I don't know the first thing about espionage. (And I'm hoping MI6 and the CIA don't take my Google searches into consideration.)

AND, the biggest news of all, (which I'm still kind of reeling from) is we're moving. No, not back to the beach, (I wish) but to the house two doors down from my parents. It has 1200 more square feet than the house we're currently in, which translates to a proper living room, sunroom, private office, and a HUGE kitchen with a FIREPLACE! (I still can't believe that.) And another bonus, there's a garage. Unfortunately the yard does not have space for a pool (unless I want to sunbathe in the front yard). It's a win-win that we'll be within shouting distance of my parents. It's also a drawback in that there's no escape. But, I'm trying to stay positive with the fact it means so much more living and BREATHING space.

Also, I believe I have to cancel the big Earth Day party I planned for my Birthday. With so much craziness going on, (packing cleaning while still trying to write) I really am quite scatterbrained these days. I'm also trying to get LADY'S FATE out to paper, as well as get Greenleigh's story finished and pubbed in e-form all before we take possession of the new house. (Which will likely be by the end of April.) So I'm trying to keep my sanity and keep all the balls in the air. HA!

Anyway, that's my news. I've tried to be around as much as I can, but it's not the same. I miss you all terribly. Tell me what you've been up to so I can keep up.

Killing Barthomolew Wood

Now in the writing world there is the phrase, "Kill your Darlings." Now for some, this means don't be afraid to put your characters through hell and back. Sometimes this means we have to actually kill them off.

In one of my books, THE CAPTAIN'S LADY, I am going to have to kill off one of my characters. Barthomolew Wood. He's the heroine's (Amanda) husband. And in Regency romance, the heroine is typically not married, and  if she is, she's certainly not supposed to want her husband to die.

However, Barthomolew Wood is an evil man. He's lied, beaten her, kidnapped their daughter, left her penniless and alone in Boston, sold slaves, beaten them, and is just a nasty piece of work.

I can honestly say it's going to be fun when I get to off his sleazy hide.

Now, the problem I'm having is, do I allow Richard (the hero of this story), a man of honor and integrity, a former Captain in the Royal Navy, do the deed?

This causes all kinds of repercussions for me. Although I think the readers won't care, (and might actually be thrilled this toad of a man is dead and Richard did the right thing) however, Amanda may care a great deal. Barthomolew is the father of her child, despicable cad that he is. He does love his daughter, and has given her everything money can buy. He's treated her well (despite the fact he took her away from her mother) and has shown great affection to her.

How is a mother supposed to tell her daughter that her new love interest has killed her father? See where I'm going with this. The daughter only knows her father to be a loving and generous man. If Richard kills him, the child will never love him no matter what.

Now I also know this is all very heavy and deep, and may not even be something any of you think about for your characters. But every action has an equal reaction. What if Richard's killing of Barthomolew does have a negative reaction from my readers? How many will I let down?

And unfortunately Barthomolew does indeed need to die in order for Richard and Amanda to be together. I can't just let them get divorced, I've already played that card.

Tell me -- Do you really think through the actions of your characters before writing a major scene like this? Do you delve into their psyche or just write how you want the story to go?

Will You Marry Me?

Today, as you all know, is February 29th. What is commonly refered to as Leap Day.

"According to an old Irish legend, or possibly history, St Bridget struck a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men – and not just the other way around – every 4 years. This is believed to have been introduced to balance the traditional roles of men and women in a similar way to how Leap Day balances the calendar."

And as I'm half Irish, you might have thought I would have taken note of this in my younger years.


"In some places, Leap Day has been known as “Bachelors’ Day” for the same reason. A man was expected to pay a penalty, such as a gown or money, if he refused a marriage proposal from a woman on Leap Day. In many European countries, especially in the upper classes of society, tradition dictates that any man who refuses a woman's proposal on February 29 has to buy her 12 pairs of gloves. The intention is that the woman can wear the gloves to hide the embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. During the middle ages there were laws governing this tradition."

Now I'm sure most of you know, I will be using this little piece of information in one of my books.

Tell me -- Is there anyone (living, dead, character from a book, movie) you would like to propose to?

Here is my choice. This would be Col. Brandon from Sense & Sensibility.

(Source of quotes  http://www.thetimenow.com)

Marketing Quietly

Good Morning. As most of you know I self-published several short stories and two novels to Kindle/Amazon with a third on the way. It's been a truly life changing experience in more ways than one. Yes, I am exceedingly proud of all I've achieved with my writing. I've also learned how to upload, download, fix html codes, and all kinds of other "fun" stuff I never in a zillion years thought I'd ever do. (With the help of some very dear friends, I might add.)

When I first uploaded A WIFE FOR WINSBARREN to Kindle back in October, I had no idea what "ranking" was or "best-seller lists" or any of that. However, as I uploaded more books, I found my ranking was getting higher. Now, one of my dear friends said that being at #63 was an amazing achievement.
I even wrote about it here on my blog.

As of this writing, I'm on three different best-seller lists, with that one book, at #5, #16, and #52 respectively. People are actually buying my books and reading them. (And these rankings change HOURLY so what may have me sitting in astonishment one moment, has me plummeting to the dregs of the earth in another.)

Now there're all kinds of ways to get to the top in a short amount of time. Here are three I've heard about. Put it free, get tons of reviews, do a blog splash. I never did any of those. As a matter of fact, WINSBARREN sat with the same 3 reviews it had, written by dear friends, for the first 4 months it was out. It now has 4. (Two stars I might add.) So reviews don't have anything to do with ranking as far as I can tell.

As of this writing, THE LADY'S FATE has 5 reviews. My other two short stories and novel have none. And quite honestly, I don't care. They're all selling. Quite well I might add. So as far as I'm concerned, word of mouth is selling my books. Either that OR the fact I have so much reading material out there
I did do "free" on one of my other books (A HUSBAND FOR MISS TRENT), but I did that the wrong way, using Smashwords for the "free" instead of Amazon/Kindle, hence, a lesson learned.

As for a blog splash (or marketing blitz) nope, didn't do that either. Not that I couldn't, but quite frankly, I just didn't want to. With so many people complaining (myself included) about people shoving their books in your face on every social media site known to man, I just couldn't do it. As a matter of fact, I hardly did anything -- I believe 2 interviews and a guest post and that was it. Some very nice people wrote some very nice things about my books and posted them on Goodreads, but I didn't ask them to do it. I Tweeted once and only once for each book release. That's it. I posted once for each book release on both of my blogs. That's it.

(The one thing that I haven't done, that I really want to do, is get bookmarks and/or postcards made. I'm waiting on my third novel to go out before I do that.)
As for my actual stats on how many I've sold, well, that's kind of personal, like asking what religion you belong to, or if you ever inhaled. I want to tell you, really I do, but I'm not going to. You know why, because my sales will be different than yours. There are all kinds of reasons why -- different genre, different publication dates, different marketing strategies, hey, even different covers. And we can't compare. ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY CANNOT COMPARE. It wouldn't be fair to you or I, or any of the other writers out there.

Yes, some people have sold 50k in the last year. Some only 100 books. You have to find what works for you to be able to sell. You have to find your own marketing groove and go with it. J.A. Konrath suggests playing with pricing. David Gaughran suggests putting books out for free. K. K. Rusch suggests putting excerpts up on your blog. And all of these are really great ideas. And yes, I've done them. Some worked, and some didn't. But only you can make the decision of what works best for you. Sometimes it's just the difference of changing the cover.

What I do know, however, is that putting out great content, with a pretty decent cover, keeping the typo's and mistakes to a minimum, and keeping that momentum going, will see your sales grow over time. This isn't a race. There's a long tail on this roller-coaster. What sells today, might not sell next year, or even next week. Who knows. Then again, even if you don't sell this year, in five years, you might be the next gazillionaire.

I guess what I'm saying is, you don't have to beat people over the head to buy your books. I didn't and I'm making a nice living now. I keep my nose to the grindstone and write. I guess you could say I "Market Quietly", and just do what I think is best and let the chips fall where they may. But then again, I'm not you and you're not me. We each have our own way of looking at things.

Tell me -- What are the most effective ways you've seen writers market? What are some of the most detrimental? What are some of your marketing techniques?

A Publishing Logo

Day two of the new/old schedule. So far so good.

Today I want to discuss publishing logos. You know, those little piccies on the spines of books that most of the major publishers have.

Back in the old days, when there were only like six publishers (waaaayyyy back in the old days), a logo would mean, you knew exactly what you were getting from the publisher without even having to crack the book open or look at jacket copy. A yellow star with a blue background meant it was romance, and sweet romance to boot. No boobies hiding in there. A captial H with a diamond for the the crossbar meant something else. Two red waves, different publisher, same genre. A capital P with a star in the middle, different genre, same publisher. You get my drift.

In the world of self-publishing, there's so much to think about, a logo just doesn't seem necessary. Especially as most self-publishers aren't even thinking of "physical books". With the advent of the e-book revolution, I mean where would you even put something like that. There's no spine. On the title page? On the copyright page? In the back matter somewhere?

Besides, most self-publishers don't form their own companies, and if they do, don't necessarily think about a logo for it. I know I never did. Until I started thinking about publishing to paperback and someone asked me what my logo would be. I was like, why bother? But then I started thinking, I used to have a logo for my catering company. And my cards and brochures were passed around like candy. Back in the day, my name meant something, and the people who hired me knew exactly what they were getting as soon as they saw my logo.

(Sorry for the tilt. I couldn't quite get it to scan right.)

And so now, with a little push, and help from my very dear friend, I have a new logo to accompany Shore Road Publishing. (I so wanted to have Beach House Publishing but that was already taken.)

What do you think? Kind of cool isn't it. I think it's quite snappy. (Although I might change it to the same color blue as my original business card.)

And look, I didn't even have to ask, this just magically appeared in my inbox.

And I didn't even realize when I drew it out, but the RP is actually my real name. So I think that's a really good sign/omen/portent for the paperback versions of my books. 

Tell me -- Have you ever thought about your own logo?  What would it look like?

PS I've got a great guest for an interview on Friday at the Piedmont Grille so I hope you'll stop by.

I'm Just Not That Into You

Good Morning.

Last year, before all my falderal, I had a schedule for this blog -- Monday's were about love, Wednesday's were about writing, and Friday's were at the Piedmont Grille. I liked that schedule and I think I'm going to try and go back to it since I'm not crazy busy anymore.

So here we are on Monday, and I'm going to write about love. Or should I say my lack thereof. For long -time readers of my blog, you know I'm a single parent, and some of you may also know my ex- finally got his act together and moved back to NC to be near our daughter. What most of you don't know, however, is that my ex- has moved back into our home.

NOT to be with me. To be near our daughter. Let me repeat that -- NOT to be with me.

Right from the get-go, I made it quite clear in no uncertain terms that WE were not a couple anymore. I had no desire for us to try and work things out and we would maintain separate bedrooms. (Which, luckily I had an extra one.) So far this has worked out well.

HOWEVER, I am approaching my 50th birthday in April and I keep wondering if I'll ever fall in love again.

One of the big internet dating sites had a "free" weekend this past weekend and I toyed with the idea of online dating. No, I didn't join. I mean, seriously, what would my ad say?

SWF, 50, w/7 yr. old daughter, seeks companionship one or two days per week to meet for coffee/chat. Cannot travel, cannot date at night, cannot bring you home because my ex- lives with me. Hobbies include -- BBC adaptations of Jane Austen, writing, reading, and trying to get a grip on housework. Must be between the ages of 45-60, single/divorced, like old rock and roll, be sober, have a job, and vehicle. Looking for long term commitment with no foreseeable future.

How many men do you know would answer an ad like that? Besides the crazies.

And truth be told, I don't even know if I'm actually serious about getting into another relationship these days. I've got my career going on, The Monster is my top priority, and I've gained so much weight, well, I'm not exactly comfortable in my own skin.

But with spring right around the corner, and the (almost) promise of returning to the beach in RI again this summer, my thoughts have turned to the men I met on vacation last year. The guy on the beach, the guy in the fish department at Stop & Shop, and the chef at the restaurant where we ate like 6 times. (There are no men in NC that attract me. NONE.)

I've been in this "love limbo" for about 6 years now. It's not fun. And as the clock ticks closer to my big birthday I have to wonder if I'll ever fall in love again. I mean, I'm not looking to get married. I've remained free from the nuptial noose for this long, why bother. One in two marriages end in divorce anyway. Why be a statistic.

But the thought of remaining for the rest of my life without another someone to kiss good-night really has me bothered. The thought of never having sex again is kind of disturbing. (Then again, it has been 5 years, what's a few decades more. Sorry, that might have been a little too much information. But you know, this is my reality.)

The things I miss about men are subtle -- a shared joke, a mid-day call just to check in, bringing home a gallon of milk without me asking, help with the dishes. But that kind of stuff takes years to achieve. And I'm feeling like I don't have too many years left, before the looks completely fade, and the arthritis really sets in.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy being single. I'm too independent and too set in my ways, I think, to really have what I might have wanted back in my 20's. But a nice lunch every now and again would be great. A walk through a museum or a night out at the theatre would be swell.

(And for those of you who say or think I should give my ex- another chance -- hush your mouth. THAT will NEVER EVER happen. I may have forgiven him, but I will never forget what he did to me and our daughter. There is no trust or respect left in that relationship.)

So tell me -- Do you think love after 50 is possible? Or am I more likely to get hit by lightning at 12,000 feet in an airplane?

There's a Change in the Air

Good morning. And no, I'm not talking about snow, or the lack thereof. I'm talking about the blogosphere, the blogoverse, blogging, whatever you want to call it.

I've been picking up on these little threads lately, these little discussions, sometimes rants, often times questions, about what the hay-zoo is going on here. I remember when I started blogging, we were all in this together -- to write the best book possible, land an agent, a contract, and be published.

Then somewhere along the line, the publishing world shifted, Amazon became a god, and we found ourselves in new territory. The imposed taboo of self-publishing was magically lifted and thousands of books began appearing on this thing called a Kindle. We didn't have to query anymore. We didn't have to suffer through the agony of rejection. If we put our book out there, someone would buy it.

And the blogosphere changed. We were no longer looking for ways to write better dialogue, or find out where a hyphen truly belongs, we were looking for information in how to format, to upload, to write cohesive 400 character cover copy. We shifted our focus to meet the new demand. To jump on the bandwagon. To make a gajillion dollars as promised by the new gods of Kindle -- Konrath, Hocking, et al.

We somehow turned the blogosphere into a side show, hawking our wares, asking, telling, begging, people to buy our books, to read our books, to please just look at our books. We became singular in our attention. It wasn't about "us being in this together" anymore, it was about me, me, me.

I am guilty of this as well.

And I hate every freaking minute of it. I loathe it with a passion. Which is why I try not to do it. It annoys me. And I know how much it annoys you.

But the problem is, how the hell are we supposed to sell our books if we don't publicize, market, promote. For most of us, this isn't some little "hobby" we do late at night when the kids are in bed. Sure, it may be the dream we've finally achieved, but it's also our "job" now. We're writers, who sell books, which makes us authors, who need to make money, to put food on the table, to pay the electric bill, to maybe make enough to finally get the damn car fixed.

There's a fine line some of us seem to be walking now in the blogosphere. We have to promote, yet we don't want to annoy. But what can we talk about these days? Can we go back to being the same bloggers we used to be? Can we really discuss the merits of a semi-colon without sounding like some lame asshat? Can we actually have a decent comment thread on the nuances of close third POV? or does it all now revolve around how many we sell, what our rank is, what royalty rate is best?

I want to go back to the way it used to be. I'm sick of being an author already. And it's only been three months. I want to go back to just being a writer. Who's really stuck in the last third of her book and can't decide whether to make her hero love the heroine or hate her guts. I want the blogs to be fun again, where I can learn something, where I can help someone. Where I don't have to be Anne Gallagher - Author of Regency Romances.

I just want to be the plain old Piedmont Writer.




photo courtesy of Jimmy Emerson, AL 2006

I'm Having Trouble

Good morning. I'm having trouble these last few weeks getting back into blogging. I was on hiatus from before Thanksgiving until last week. I missed a lot in the blog world by doing that, but it did get me back into what I needed to do -- spend time with The Monster and my books before the holidays.

But now the holidays are over, and I'm looking at the the next 5 months until I can take my next hiatus. (Part of my publishing goal was to only "work" while The Monster was in school, and when she was out for the summer and on vacations, so was I.) I need to get back to the blogs and come up with something snappy, some witty repartee, some fantastic mind blowing chatter.

Problem is, I've got nothing to say.

I mean, sure, I could talk about my books, but that's boring. You don't want to hear about that.

I could probably go crazy and read a couple of craft books and discuss those, but hey, you can do that on your own. You don't need me.

There's also the idea that I could just talk about The Monster but this isn't a Mommy blog, it's supposed to be a writing blog.

I don't know when the shift in my world occured. I would have to say, probably last summer when I decided to officially self-publish. But in doing that, I became someone new. I lost who I was. I'm not Piedmont Writer anymore, I'm Anne Gallagher -- Author of Regency Romances.

And don't get me wrong, I like Anne Gallagher, I'm just not sure what to do about Piedmont Writer. I liked being a writer. There was fun in that. I got to create new characters, test my wings in writing styles, and POV's, use my brain to figure out how to make good dialogue. Now that I'm an author, it's all about the next book. Traditional published authors will tell you that too. To find and keep an audience.

I hate that. I really do. There's so much damn pressure.

My aunt used to tell me, If I can't say anything nice to or about someone, don't say anything at all. I'm going to modify that concept.

If I can't find anything relevant to say, I won't say anything at all.

I hate the idea of giving up this blog. I really do. I've met so many wonderful people, made so many great friends, formed such solid bonds with other writers. I did miss you all when I was on hiatus, very much, but I've seemed to have lost my voice somewhere. And I really don't know how to get it back.

I'm going to try and only post on Monday for awhile, and see how that works out. I don't really know what else to do.

Tell me -- What do you talk about when you have nothing to say?

My Aversion to SemiColons

Happy Wednesday Everyone. Back in the swing of things, as today is a writing post day, I decided to do a post about punctuation. Or more pointedly, semicolons.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't use them. First of all, I don't know what they're for. According to Strunk and White

If two or more clauses grammatically complete and not joined by a conjunction are to form a single complete sentence, the proper mark of punctuation is a semicolon.

Yeah, okay.

Gallagher's romances are entertaining; they are full of love and desire.

(My own play on the example they give.)

It is, of course, equally correct to write each of these as two sentences, replacing the semicolons with periods.

Gallagher's romances are entertaining. They are full of love and desire.

Which is what I do. As I'm typing along in Word, sometimes, when I complete my sentence, my little green squiggly line will appear and then I will go to my Spelling & Grammar tool to see what I've done wrong. (God I love Word.) And it will say, "replace with semicolon". And I do not. I always separate the sentences.

According to THE MIRRIAM-WEBSTER CONCISE HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS

The semicolon is used in ways that are similar to those in which periods and commas are used. Because of these similarities, the semicolon is often thought of as either a weak period or a strong comma.

Now in this chapter, Mirriam and Webster throw out phrases like independent clauses, coordinating conjunctions, grammatical construction of the second illiptical clause, and my favorite, conjunctive adverb. In this chapter, there are ten rules to learn before you can use a semicolon.

My question -- Why?

Why would anyone want to torture themselves learning how to use a semicolon when most of us have enough trouble with a plain old comma?

Why would you want to use a weak period when a full stop will do? Or a strong comma? How many beats is a strong comma anyway? Two? Three? Enough to take a sip of coffee?

Tell me -- Do you use semicolons? Or am I the only one who doesn't? Any other punctuation you want to diss today?

PS In rereading my latest work in progress, I found not one, but two semicolins. My bad. But I still don't like them.

PPS I hope you'll swing by on Friday when I explain my reasons for self-publishing.

The Bachelorette

Good Morning. With my travails into the never-ending question about love, I'm going to share another secret with you. I watch The Bachelorette on tv. I know, I know. It's kind of nauseating sometimes, but I watch it to get character ideas. (Ha, yeah, if you believe that, I've got some bottom land for sale, cheap.)

No, really, I do. I always watch the beginning episode and pick out the guy I think the girl will eventually fall in love with. Just on first impressions. And then I skip the next few episodes until she gets to around 10 or 12 guys. That's when the real fun begins and they go to exotic locals.

On this last season, Ashley fell hard for a scoundrel, a rake, a big fat jerkface who broke her heart when he left the show. Now we all knew his reasoning behind it -- he thought he was going on the show for a different woman and he was disappointed with this girl and he couldn't fake affection -- but she didn't know any of that. He told her he missed his child back home and he couldn't stay there any longer.

And she fell hook, line and sinker for his BS. It made me cringe that he was such a low life scum bag to break her heart like that. I wanted to yell at the tv I was so mad. (And of course this is reality television so there are always moments like this.)

It took a week, but she got over it, and they went to Thailand. She and 11 other guys. Woo-hoo. She had a couple of good dates, and then lo and behold, Scumbag was brought to Thailand. And this time I really did scream at the tv. Because she wanted to see him. She wanted to see if he really was the true man of her dreams.

And he wasn't, thank the Goddess, but the guy she eventually picked, was not the guy I would have picked for her. Needless to say, I was disappointed in her choice, but you know, she's not me, and I'm not her, and we all have different ideas about who we eventually fall in love with.

Tell me -- Have you ever been in a relationship that all your friends told you was bad for you and you didn't listen? Have you ever loved a guy who was so out of your normal comfort zone your friends thought you were on crack?

Adverbs

I've been wracking my brain for a week to try and come up with a post for today. Actually I have 4 right now in draft mode, all waiting to make the cut. But someone said something to me the other day and it's been nagging at my craw so I thought I'd talk about it.

I'd asked a writer friend to take a look at the final proof for THE LADY'S FATE for me. Make sure everything was looking good. I thought I had written a pretty tight story, cleaned up all the typo's and punctuation and what not. Had all the details in all the right places. Was/am pretty proud of the way it turned out. So this reading was just kind of for my piece of mind.

Now this writer, an excellent "working" writer, gave me some pretty fantastic feedback, of which I was glad. She confirmed all my expectations that it wasn't a piece of doo-da, and even though it won't win a Pulitzer, expelled my doubts that I do indeed write a pretty good story.

BUT, she did say I had to watch my adverbs. I have too many -ly words. However, as she wasn't an avid reader of the historical romance genre, she didn't know if that was the style in which they were written.

And I've been thinking about this a lot. Do I really use too many adverbs, -ly words in my manuscript? And the resounding answer is yes. I do. And I'll tell you why.

I like them. They serve a purpose for me. Don't get me wrong, I mean they're not everywhere , but they are there.

For example -- He quickly bounded up the stairs. Okay, he's bounding, so we know what that means. You can only be bounding one way, and that is quickly, so we don't need to say quickly. Hence, delete quickly.

However, I also have -- She answered brightly. Can you see the expression on her face? I could have written -- She answered with a bright smile. But that's just way too long and brightly does the job in one word instead of four. To me, this is an either or choice. I choose brightly.

Now these are just examples, but you get my drift.

The other reason I use them, is because most readers aren't writers. They don't analyze every single sentence structure for mistakes. They're just reading a book, trying to escape their everyday lives. I mean, that's why I read. To escape.

There was a big hoo-hah a couple of years ago about Dan Brown and his writing style. Writers were dissing him, saying he writes like a hack. Well, you know what, I read Dan Brown on vacation and I thought he was a pretty good writer. You know why, because I was reading as a reader, not a writer. The story sucked me in and kept me reading (until the wee hours one night.) I wasn't analyzing his content, I was swept away with his words. I was in Paris, in Spain, on a plane, on a boat. I was trying to figure out who dunnit, right along with Robert Langdon.

Now I couldn't tell you how many adverbs he used, and quite frankly, I don't care. I just liked his book.

With the Big 6 crumbling, and authors and writers using more and more places to get their work seen and read, yeah, sure, some of it is going to suck. I mean, you have to KNOW the rules, before you break them, and we all don't have agents as gatekeepers. BUT, if you have a great plotline, engaging characters, and keep the pace moving forward, I don't think readers will care if you use a couple of adverbs.

And that's what it's all about really. Isn't it? Keeping the reader reading. So they will say, "Hey, I read this fantastic book the other day, you should read it."

Tell me -- How do you feel about adverbs? What rules do you break? Are there any you would like to break, but just can't because of the way you were taught to write?
(Maybe someday I'll tell you about my aversion to semi-colons.)

Prom

Remember when Prom Season rolled around? If you weren't dating someone exclusively, you had a 50/50 shot you'd get asked to the Prom. Now, some women had nerves of steel and (remember I'm old and women's lib was just starting out when I was in high school) would ask a guy instead of waiting for him to ask her. I wasn't one of those girls.

Now all through high school I was in love with Ricky. (I think I still might be 40 years later.) We dated sporadically, he was All-American in football, wrestling, baseball. He didn't have time for a serious girlfriend. I respected that.

Junior year I waited nervously through April and May for him to ask me. I faithfully went to every one of his sports games during the year, helped him with his Lit thesis (he wasn't very good in English), and basically prayed nightly for him to ask me. He didn't. He asked Kathleen. To say I was disappointed was an understatement.

Senior year was a little different. As luck would have it, we went to a football party and ended up hooking up. (No, there was no sex involved.) We were "together" (although back in those days, if he didn't give you his school ring or his letter jacket, you really weren't). So, I waited patiently. Sometime around the last wrestling match Debbie made a play for him. And it stuck. She had his ring AND his jacket. To say I was devastated was an understatement.

(They've been married for 40 years now. But I'm still not over her underhandedness. EVERYONE knew I liked Ricky. A LOT. And I thought he liked me too. Guess I was wrong.)

You may be asking -- What in God's name does Prom have to do with ANYTHING? Well, ever since I made the announcement I'm going to self-publish, that's how I feel... like it's two weeks before the dance and I'm still without a date.

I've queried my brains out with my three books. Every agent, like a prospective date, and they've all turned me down. Sure, I've had one or two partials and even a full request, (Which is like dinner and a movie) but no one's said, "Sure, I'd love to take you to Prom."

Now back in the day, there was a group of girls who couldn't get dates and decided to chip in and rent a limo and all go together. That wasn't really done in those days. We looked on them with more than a little pity. Not that there was anything wrong with them, they just hadn't been asked. Let me tell you, looking back, if I knew then what I know now, I would have gone to Prom with them.

With this whole self-publishing thing, it seems I'm feeling those same feelings all over again. No date for the Prom -- do I want to scramble for a bad date, or do I want to go with the girls?

Do I want to keep scrambling to try and get an agent? Or do I want to go it alone and join a group of indie authors who seem to be having all the fun?

I've run through both sides of the spectrum, pro's and con's. I've gnashed my teeth, wrung my hands, spent many a sleepless night, pored over blogs and articles. Yes, I have decided to self-publish, but the knot in my stomach is bigger than any I had about Prom.

Tell me -- Is there a situation in your life where you feel like it's Prom all over again?

Heavens to Murgatroid!

Well, Good Morning. Finally. I know I'm late with my post today. I'll bet you can't guess why. I'll tell you. I slept late. I slept until eight o'clock. Which I haven't done since -- I can't remember. And do you want to know why I slept until eight o'clock.

Monster Child slept in her own bed last night. For the first time. (Actually technically, it was the third time, but this was the first time she initiated it on her own.)

I made the decision of keeping her, first, in her bassinet in our bedroom, when I brought her home from the hospital. Breast feeding and all that. And then in our bed when she went through growth spurts, and then, well, she wouldn't go down in her crib and would scream bloody murder, and I just couldn't stand to listen to the poor thing so in our bed she came. When her father and I split up, naturally she wouldn't leave me, and I didn't bug her about it.

What precipitated the change of sleeping venue, you ask? I'm not exactly sure, but I think it's because her bedroom is finally finished. Sure it's always been inhabitable, bed, desk, chair, teddies (bears not pj's), dressers, tv/vcr (spoiled rotten), but I've never been happy with it. There's always been something wrong -- the curtains, the bookcase, the lamp, the chair. So last week I bought two (better) bookcases for her room, new curtains, rearranged the furniture and BAM! Her room, in my eyes, was finally done.

And I guess in hers as well.

I've read the child rearing books, I've had other parents turn their nose up at me for saying I raised Monster Child in a family bed, our doctor even questioned my choice. They all warned me about the possible outcomes, all bad, all negative. I don't think it's fostered anything other than a loving comfortable stable atmosphere at home. No matter how much we scream and yell (she soooo takes after my Type A personalilty and challenges me on EVERYTHING) there's always a giggle and snuggle in bed. I always know where she is, can hear her breathing. (When she was so sick for so long I would stay up all night and just listen to her breath. I had a lot of conversations with God on those nights.)

I knew it would only be a matter of time before SHE decided she would sleep in her own room. I have the patience of a saint (or so I've been told.) Last night, she went up to my room (with the DVD player) and I stayed downstairs to watch Masterpiece Mystery. I figured she fell asleep like she always does. At 10:30 she was still awake. It's summer now, I don't really care what time she goes to bed -- sort of.

She said, "I want you to put up my Princess tent on my bed. I'm going to sleep in my own room."

It's 10:30 on a Sunday night. I DO NOT want to fuss with the Princess tent. I'm tired, I have a lot to do on Monday. However, who am I to turn down spreading out in my own bed for the first time in six years. I snapped that tent together in record time, tucked her in, kissed her good-night, and jumped in my own glorious queen size bed all by myself. I sank blissfully into my pillows, not worrying about if she's cold, or moving an ankle or elbow, not wondering if one of us was going to fall out of bed.

Did I sleep the sleep I've been longing for? NO! I tossed and turned, had horrible, horrible nightmares, got up 3 times to check on her. She came in and woke me up at six a.m. I told her to go back to sleep, it was too early. That's MY usual time to get up. I laid there after she left and debated about getting up. Next thing I knew, the sun was streaming through the windows. I glanced at the clock and to my horror, it was eight a.m. I lost two hours to my Monday. Oh well.

Now I realize my Monday posts are supposed to be about love. I guess today's post is about unconditional love.

Tell me -- Have you bucked tradition where your kids are concerned? Have you done anything for them that other parents might raise an eyebrow over? Do you allow them things or freedoms that you didn't have as a child?

A Personal Choice

Last week I proposed what The Ultimate Novel means to us, and it seems we were all thinking along the same lines. In describing our books, we all just want them to be read.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot, and I mean a LOT of thinking these last few weeks about the state of the publishing world. I know, most of you have been as well. It makes one's head spin. Well, mine anyway.

And I decided that I am definitely going to give e-publishing a try. I know, I vowed I would never e-pub, I vowed I wanted an agent and all the NY hooplah, but as an artist, I'm kind of feeling like I'm trussed up in a straight jacket.

Dancers dance. Singers sing. Actors act. Writers write. But I have no audience. I've been holed up in my little office writing away with no one to read what I've written except for my critters and betas. It's frustrating. I want to have an audience. Call me a narcissist if you must, but I want to share my writing with people who want to read a book about love and longing. I have these great stories (well, at least that's what my betas and critters tell me), but no one can read them.

And most of you are doing the same thing. You're writing books for an audience, but no one can read them. Yet, how can they read them if they aren't published? Even if I got an agent and a publishing contract tomorrow, the book still wouldn't come out until 2013. By that time, I'm sure you'd have forgotten all about Genna and Tony and Pete. Maybe you already have. And sure, I could put the whole thing up on my blog for free, but you know, writing is a job and I would like to get paid for it at some point. (Monster Child wants a pony.)

I still have several queries and a partial out on two different books, so I'm not officially in the e-pub club yet. If I did my calculations right, by the end of July everything should be in from agents. And I think if I play my cards right, maybe by September, I could have an e-book out there. I think there might be one or two of you who would drop $2.99 to find out what happened to Ellis and Violet, or Penny and Will? Wouldn't you? How about 99 cents for Genna and Tony?

So, that's what I've been thinking about. I know there's more to the whole e-pubbing phenomenon than just formatting and uploading, and I'm not especially computer literate, so I'm kind of scared. But I have to say, I really think my mind's made up. Even more so since I received a lovely rejection letter from an agent who wrote -- "This story does sound intriguing, however, I'm just not sure I can place it." (Can't place a single-title sweet Regency romance? Hello Harlequin -- Avon -- St. Martins. I've done my homework, how about you? Sounds like a brush-off to me.)

Tell me, have YOU given e-publishing some thought, or more thought than you used to?