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Archive for October, 2008
Monday, October 27th, 2008
Just took a new reference book out of the package–COWBOYS AND THE TRAPPINGS OF THE OLD WEST. It looks to be a fabulous find! Sure wish I had time to pore over it page by page, but as soon as I get done with this blog, I need to Get To Work on my book.
A Bronx cheer (pffft!) to Amazon on their ordering screens for this purchase, however–I’m reminded of why I don’t like them and stopped using them awhile ago. One screen excitedly told me I was eligible for free shipping, but in the course of making several clicks to attempt to achieve that, I somehow unknowingly ordered the book twice. The next day when I got the confirmation by email, I emailed them right back to try to head off the error. I don’t know why they even pretend it’s possible to fix the problem at that point–well, yes I do, actually; it’s in hopes that I’ll be too weary of the whole thing and busy with other matters and just keep the extra book.
Not. I didn’t even receive the book I’d gone on the site originally to buy, THE LOOK OF THE OLD WEST. I’ll jump through their stupid hoops and return this thing, and then go on Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million’s sites to order the book I really wanted.
Sorry for the Monday mood. I was sick over my weekend off–a low-level virus that suddenly went into painful pleurisy. I’ll be more cheerful next time, I promise. And now the dogs have been bribed with chewies and it’s Time to Write.
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: Amzon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, online ordering sites, western references
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Monday, October 20th, 2008
One of the neat things about being an author is that I am able get to meet people I might never have met otherwise, and that my book will go places I never will. One such instance is when some traveler left one of my old Laurie Grant books in the unlikely location of a hotel in the Ukranian town of Ivano-Frankivsk. One of the workers found it and gave it to Natalia Kupchak, who read and spoke English, and one day she sent me a letter telling me how she had come to possess and read my book. With pleasure, I answered her by snail mail, but the lengthy time and expense involved in international snailmailing was discouraging. But then she was able to get internet access via the family computer, and she sent me her email address. I answered via that, and an almost-daily back and forth emailing relationship blossomed.
Today Natalia is one of my best friends. She lives across the world, and she’s my daughters’ age, but our relationship is as close as if we were family who lived next door to one another. Together we have mourned over the losses of 9/11 and celebrated the Ukrainian Orange Revolution. We have learned about life in each other’s countries and discuss books we’re reading and movies we’re seeing. We share photos and the ups and downs of family life and love. She rejoices with me on my writing success and sympathizes with me on my writing trials; I admire her amazing needlework.
And last week, through the wonders of SKYPE, the online telephone service, I talked to and saw Natalia for FREE through an online phone connection. She couldn’t see me, only hear me, as I don’t yet have a webcam, but this I think I will have to get one in the future. This is the neatest thing since the internet was invented.
Natalia, I just want to thank you for reaching out to me, so this blog today is a tribute to you.
Blesssings, Laurie
Tags: Natalia Kupchak, online friendships, SKYPE
Posted in online friendships | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
At long last, my second book from Steeple Hill, which will be released in August next year, has a title. Ta da–the new title is THE OUTLAW’S LADY, which was one of my list of suggestions. I think it’s a lot better than my working title, PICTURE OF AN OUTLAW. It just wasn’t an easy task to come up with something that suggests old-time photography without sounding stodgy, so I’m hoping the artist will give some hint of her profession on the cover. To that end, I searched endlessly for digital pictures on the web of Daguerrotype-style cameras to send to Steeple Hill to help the artist. If they chose not to use that, however, I imagine there will be some hint about it on the back blurb–which the writer doesn’t usually get to write, in case you didn’t know. I sent them lots of south Texas scenery pictures too, so I can’t’ wait to see what they come up with. That’s months away, however, so I might as well get back to MARRYING MILLY.
I just attended a dynamite talk (at Central Ohio Fiction Writers’ monthly meeting) done by my writer-friend and accountant, Donna MacMeans, on her “W” method of plotting, which came at just the right time because I was having trouble deciding which events should come first in the middle of the book, and the way I was doing it wasn’t working. So today I took my first hour of writing time and studied her handouts, and then replotted the order of that pesky middle. I think this is going to work! Thanks, Donna! It may have taken me some time, but I think it’ll save a lot of time and anguish later on.
That’s all for now.What do you think of the title? How do you come up with your titles? Please comment!
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: , Book titles, Donna MacMeans, the "W method" of plotting, writing life
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
It’s a whole new month, and just eleven days until the mid-month release of my first inspirational historical romance, HILL COUNTRY CHRISTMAS! It’s meant a flurry of activity for me in promoting the book, sending out postcards with the lovely cover on the front and the details on the back (by the way, if you’d like me to send you one, just email me your snail mail addy via the contact info on my website!), doing an interview on Margaret Daley’s website and that of Favorite PastTIMES.com, and guest-blogging on Pistols and Petticoats. The one on Margaret’s site will be up on 10/12, the one on P&P, 10/15, and the one on Favorite PastTIMES is already up. Whew! This makes for very little time to work on the current work-in-progress, MARRYING MILLY, but next week should be better.
I’ve also gotten a couple of new distractions –first, the arrival of the complete set of the workshop disks for the 1008 ACFW conference which was just held in Minneapolis,which I can already see is going to necessitate the buying of at least a cheap MP3 player. I’ve got to be about the last person in this country to learn how to download MP3 files, but who wants to lug around a laptop to listen to these workshops. And then there’s my nifty new white “eee-pc” by ASUS, a computer that’s about the size of a DVD player and which has wireless internet. I think this is going to revolutionize my traveling, since I’ll no longer have a groove in my shoulder from carrying my 7-pound laptop around just to have email accessibility. AND I got the model that is Word-compatible, so theoretically I can write on it. But I know how much writing I usually get done when I’m away, so this may remain a theory…My cyberfriend in Ukraine is also eager for me to use Skype on it to contact her. But playing with this eee-pc will have to wait until I get this one particular top-secret writing project out of the way….
In a past couple of blogs, I mentioned the horrendous service at a French restaurant in the Sofitel Hotel in Minneapolis. I finally did get an apology from their management, but just that. They know we writers don’t live there, so there’s no use offering us a refund or something, but somehow I was hoping for something more in the way of service recovery than what I got….f
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: eee-p.c. by ASUS, electronic gadgets, Favorite PastTimes website, HILL COUNTRY CHRISTMAS, Margaret Daley, other websites and blogs, Petticoats and Pistols website, Sofitel hotel, writing life
Posted in HILL COUNTRY CHRISTMAS, electronic gadgets, other blogs and websites | 2 Comments »
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