Emily's Book

  By Thomas Kies

This past Sunday, I was both proud and delighted to attend the book launch for Emily Dunlop Carter.  The book, entitled A Spork in the Road, is a collection of essays that are touching, humorous, and thought provoking. Emily has her own blog called www.achicksview.com.  She was also once a member of my creative writing class and continues to be a good friend.

Another set of friends, Autumn Ware, her husband, Jack Ware, and Marjorie Peltier, founders EPIC Carteret Books, an imprint of Planck Length Publishing, are publishing the book.  Both Autumn and Marjorie are former members of my creative writing classes. 

I wrote one of the blurbs promoting her as a writer on the back cover of her book that goes, “Reading Emily’s work is like spending time with a lifelong friend who shows you life through fresh eyes on a warm summer day. Her stories are clever, moving, often laugh-out-loud funny, and always filled with love. She’s a butterfly that lands on the back of your hand—beautiful, graceful, and filled with childlike wonder.”

At her event, Emily read a series of her essays and her husband, John, also known as the Smokin’ Hot Love Biscuit, performed songs.  Combined with champagne, scones, and cupcakes, it was a delightful afternoon shared with about fifty people in Beaufort, North Carolina.

The event was actually a pre-launch celebration.  Once the book is available, I'll let you know how to order it. Or you can go to Emily's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/emily.d.carter.1.

The point of this particular blog isn’t just to promote Emily’s new book.  It’s to say how you never know how things will turn out.  Emily, Autumn, and Marjorie were all part of my creative writing class.  Most of the members of the Carteret Writers Organization were part of my creative writing class. And that group continues to grow.

At the beginning of my first class, I always tell everyone that I don’t grade.  How I measure success is if, once you’ve taken the class, you continue to write. 

I love writing.  I love when people read what I write.  But I also love being able to have an effect and be part of a community of writers. Seeing them succeed is damned gratifying and I can’t be any prouder. 

 

In praise of launches

 In the past two weeks, I released SHIPWRECKED SOULS, my latest Inspector Green mystery, with two launches, one in Toronto and one in Ottawa. I have been doing launches for my books, sometimes alone and sometimes with another writer, for over twenty-five years, and I have never tired of them. The, launches serve four purposes.

First, they are a reward to myself,  the culmination of all the hard, lonely work that comes with writing a novel. Secondly, they are a marketing tool. As I described in a previous post on Type M, I promote the launch on my social media platforms for a few weeks before the event. In my case, that's Facebook and Instagram, both of which are public. I use those two platforms because I am too long in the tooth to get excited about TikTok and Threads and other newer platforms, because I have built up a friendship base on them over the years, and thirdly, I believe the people who might enjoy my books tend to use those platforms. This may be a wrong assumption, based on the fact I find them alien and annoying, but a writer can only do so many things. 

As the launch dates approach, I also send out specific invites to my email contacts and to my Facebook friends via the Facebook event feature. Unfortunately the Facebook invites are sent to Facebook Messenger, which not everyone actually looks at. But you do what you can. The purpose of doing all this launch promotion is not just to invite people to the party but also to announce the publication of the book.

At the Ottawa launch, Robin Harlick interviewed me. 

The third reason I have launches is to give me a chance to meet readers. It's wonderful to see old friends, family, and devoted readers who have become friends. Everyone is united in their affection for Inspector Green, and that's a very heartwarming feeling. In our darkest hours, writers often wonder why we do this job, and this reminds us. Readers buoy us up.

The fourth, and least important, reason for holding a launch is to sell books. I'm a traditionally published author; I don't make much money on each sale, so the amount I actually take home is fairly small. But it builds my relationship with the bookseller, in this case Perfect Books, and supports their store. 

The Toronto and Ottawa launches are different. I live in Ottawa and the Inspector Green series is set here. I have lots of friends and family here as well as readers, so I make it a real party. This year, after years of online events due to Covid, I booked a pub (Irene's Pub, which is very supportive of the arts), ordered some food platters, and arranged for a friend's band to play soft background jazz. There's always a few moments of panic beforehand. What if I throw a party and no one comes? It's a leap of faith that always seems to work out.

Toronto launch

Toronto is a more challenging market. The city is bigger and getting around it is difficult, I haven't as many contacts there, and if I  booked a pub in this case it might well be "what if I threw a party and no one came?" There's nothing more demoralizing than an empty party room. However, Toronto does have a wonderful mystery bookstore, Sleuth of Baker Street, which is very supportive of authors and author events. It's a smaller, more intimate setting surrounding by shelves of books, and it allows for an informal gathering of friends. 

In both these launches, I am so appreciative of the readers and friends who do come to celebrate with me. Being an introvert, I don't throw a lot of parties, but these launches are highlights! 

Promote, Promote, Promote!

A Previous Engagement

-Please join me, Donis Casey, for the launch of The Wrong Girl, 7:00 p.m., October 29, at Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. I’ll be appearing with the great Martin Edwards, who is also launching a new series with his book Gallows Lane. -

Don’t worry. I’ll remind you again later.

I'm getting ready for my book to come out, the first of my new series, The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse. I’m in the midst of planning the promotional campaign - and not enjoying it very much, sorry to say. I'm one of those people who doesn't care for the planning part. I don't like calling up people who've never heard of me and trying to convince them that I'm the greatest thing since little green apples and they should by all means have me speak at their bookstore/library/club. It's not that I'm particularly shy, and I'm certainly not overly modest. I secretly suspect that I am the greatest thing since little green apples.

Writing is a - let us not say 'late' - but more like a 'mature' life career change for me. I put in my thirty-five years in the workplace, and now I find that getting out there and beating the bushes doesn't appeal. I like to be quiet for a change, and write. I like the public speaking. I've done a lot of it in my life and am good at it. But I don't like having to set up the gigs. If I had the money, I'd hire a publicist to do it for me.

It’s difficult to know what the most effective things are to do to gain attention for your books. I think sometimes that I’d be better served to do fewer signings and start concentrating on attending more big writing conferences. That way I’d get to know more of the mystery writers and readers around the country, and maybe get a little bit wider exposure. Sadly for me, travel is not easy for me to plan, since I don’t know from month to month if some family health crisis is going to intervene and I’ll have to cancel my trip at the last minute. When I first started, I was advised to concentrate on a narrower audience until I was better known, which I have done, and it has served me well. But the law of diminishing returns kicks in after a couple of books, and you have to keep finding new venues.

I think that I'm going to try to do more internet promotion. Which is pretty optimistic of me, since I don’t much enjoy that, either. Fortunately, with a new series that has a new setting and new character, I have lots of fun new stuff to write about.

However, when next I write my blog entry, Dear Reader, I’ll visit a familiar subject : What to wear for your launch! Stay tuned.

Endings

Well, this is embarrassing. I thought I had written my Type M entry and scheduled it to post this morning, but apparently that was somebody else posting at some other venue. Since I only manage to write about one book a year, every book launch is a big circus for me and I have to be very careful not to forget where I am and what I'm supposed to be doing for whom. Therefore I apologize for my tardiness, but better late than never. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.

My official book launch party on February 24 at the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale Arizona went off very nicely, thanks for asking. In fact, the bookstore recorded the whole thing and posted it on their Facebook site. You can check it out by going here and scrolling down to Feb. 24. To tide you over, here is a photo of the evening.

Dennis Palumbo, Priscilla Royal, Donis Casey, Barbara Peters

In more writerly news, a couple of weeks ago my Type M blogmates were discussing a thread on endings, which is a topic near to my heart. I am speaking about the end of a novel, but a few years ago I was thinking about the end of life, and in that vein I read a wonderful book called Being Mortal, Medicine and 
What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande. If you’re interested in managing your own demise, I would recommend it.

But even when planning my own induction into the choir invisible, I can’t help but think like a writer. Toward the end of Dr. Gawande’s book, he quotes a study done by Daniel Kahneman, who says something to the effect that it doesn’t matter too much how much pleasure or pain we endure, it’s the ending of the experience we remember. As an example he cites the experience of watching an exciting sports match, when your team, “having performed beautifully for nearly the entire game, blows in the end. We feel that the ending ruins the whole experience…The experiencing self had whole hours of pleasure and just a moment of displeasure, but the remembering self sees no pleasure at all.”

What does that tell you, Mr. or Ms. Writer?

We are told that we must have a gripping beginning to our novel in order to engage the prospective reader as soon as possible. Then we have to keep drawing the reader on, keep him interested as we work our way through the long middle of the story. All excellent advice.

But, by God, the ending better deliver. Because as we all know, a great beginning makes a reader want to read your current book, but a great ending makes her want to read your next book.

Set to Launch and Reading Reviews

My newest Alafair Tucker novel, Forty Dead Men, has finally been released into the world—at last! It seems to me that this book was a LONG time coming. I turned in the final revised manuscript months ago. A few years back I went to a book launch for a novel that was number 12 in a series, and the author said he was currently working on number 14 and could hardly remember what number 12 was about! I’m not that bad, but I have moved on and sometimes have to remind myself that such and such an event happened in this novel and not that one.

I’ve been gearing up for the personal appearances that go with a launch. This always entails a new outfit and a new hair color. I always plan on it entailing a 20 pound weight loss as well, but as yet that goal has never been accomplished.

Forty Dead Men has been released both in paper and as an ebook. If you would like to check it out, I invite you to breeze over to my website where I have have posted the first couple of chapters. I hope you will find yourself intrigued. This week Barnes & Noble has chosen to feature Forty Dead Men on the first page of B&N Press Presents.

The early reviews have been excellent, I am happy to say. I don’t read my reviews as religiously as I did early in my writing career. I like it when the review strokes my ego. I try not to let it bother me if someone is less than enthusiastic. Of course, having said that, I can get dozens of five star reviews and one three star review and the less effusive one is the one I remember. I think that reviews tell me quite a bit about the reviewer. In fact, they may tell me more about the reviewer than they do the book itself.

Readers will often love something about your writing that you never anticipated. They’ll make connections that you didn’t even realize you had put in there, or attribute something to a character’s motives that you didn’t mean AT ALL. Still, once a book is published it isn’t yours any more, it’s the reader’s, so you can’t really complain. (Well, you can, but you shouldn’t) Sometimes reviews are on the nose. A review of one of my early books said, “The writing style is humorous, and odd.”  That pretty much summarizes my view of humankind. All it’s members are very humorous and odd.  That includes reviewers.

My official book launch will be in a couple of weeks. It won’t be a media event, but it’ll be fun and I hope you’ll come if you’re in the area. Here’s your invitation:

Please join me for the launch of my tenth Alafair Tucker Mystery, 
Forty Dead Men

 February 24, 2:00 p.m. at Poisoned Pen Bookstore,
1404 N. Goldwater Blvd, Suite 101, Scottsdale, AZ 85251

I’ll be joined by authors Dennis Palumbo and Priscilla Royal, and Dana Stabenow will join us for a tribute to the late, much beloved Frederick Ramsay.

Please come.

Forty Dead Men is a tragic, bittersweet story of a returning veteran and PTSD. While there’s a mystery, the story actually revolves around Gee Dub. Even if you haven’t read the previous Alafair Tucker mysteries, you can pick up this book. And, if you’re a fan of the Ian Rutledge mysteries, you might want to meet another veteran of World War I. Lesa’s Book Critiques, February 5, 2018