Showing posts with label events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label events. Show all posts

Friday, March 12, 2010

What’s your sign?

I’m a Virgo, but that wasn’t necessarily the sign I was talking about. Every day we see signs, on the street corner, on buildings, hanging on a door or wall. Then there are those signs that aren’t posted for the world to see and notice, but for the individual. If he or she is open to seeing them or even hearing them.

Perhaps the sign is a symbol to you. Something that whenever you see it makes you smile or lets you know that something is going to occur, or that you need to call someone.

There are and have been several of them in my life. They change just as I do, but they are there if I pay attention. Not all of them have been good, but more times than not they are positive.

A simple example is seeing a truck with a name of a business on it drive by me every day for a week. I kept seeing the truck and it drove me nuts because it always reminded me of a person I hadn’t talked with for months. Then bam! I heard from him. The truck was a sign.

Three years ago, I was in Kentucky on a business trip and told everyone that I was going to buy a house that weekend when I returned to New Hampshire. The people I worked with thought I was nuts. Little did they know.

The night I returned home, I sent my real estate agent 3 places I wanted to see. I had very little to go on but pictures, but I chose 3 that looked the most like what I was looking for. My real estate agent emailed me back and asked me if I could have everything in a house what would it be. I told her I wanted an open floor plan, wood floors, granite countertops, a yard (this was most important to me), and on a whim I said I wanted an apple tree and a rock wall. I have no clue where that thought came from but I threw it out there.

The first house we saw Saturday morning was my house. I knew it the moment I crossed the threshold, but my fate was sealed when I walked out onto the back deck. The first thing I heard was the rattle of the old, wooden roller coaster at the amusement park behind the tall trees followed by the screams of happy people as they zipped down the ride. While standing on the deck, I saw this big old tree so I asked what kind it was. An apple tree! The whole area had been an apple orchard about 50 years before. My heart did a little trip in my chest. Then I looked to the right of the house and what did I see? You guessed it, a rock wall. The moment my real estate agent and I walked out of the house, I told her I didn’t need to look any further. I’d found my house. Apparently, even the builders knew I was the one. The piece de resistance was when my friend who had been overseas calls me and tells me that he was back in the states and I told him I was buying a house. The next day he was here and was the first person to see my new home.

What about the signs we don’t see, the ones that while doing the most inane, day-to-day task strikes you and you know. Some might call it intuition, premonition, or déjà vu (if you’ve seen it before).

About six years ago, I was doing the spring-cleaning thing, standing in the spare bedroom folding clothes to give away when out of nowhere came a thought about my sister. I picked up the phone, called my sister, and without preamble told her, “You’re going to have a girl.”

My sister laughed and said, “What?”

Just so you know, in my family we do not have boys and girls. We have all boys or all girls. My sister already had two sons so everyone assumed the third would be a boy. It’s how my family works. But for some reason on this day, my mind said different.

We both laughed, but she told me she would know in two weeks. Two weeks later, my premonition was confirmed. Now I have a little niece who is the spitting image of my sister, right down to the button nose sprinkled with freckles.

This type of sign actually happens quite often with me. A little over a year ago, I was hanging out on my hammock drinking a beer or two waiting for a friend of mine to show up. While lazing on the hammock, swinging back and forth, I had this odd thought cross in my mind and it stayed. As soon as Rick walked over to where I was, I looked up and said, "You're moving."

Thank goodness the move was only temporary, but I knew without him saying a word. He hadn't even mentioned it as a possibility.

Almost seven years ago, I was unemployed like many others when the economy took a nosedive. I decided that there had to be more to life than technology and that I wanted something more. At first, I was depressed and all I did was read, look for a job, and clean the house. I practically ate books. I couldn’t read enough. The more I read, the more I started looking into the new things that I read about.

I tried glassblowing, cake decorating, and even chocolate making. The chocolate making stuck, but at the same time, something else happened – I started writing my own book, my first book. I became a writer and six years later, I became an author. The book was and is a huge symbol for me. It symbolizes balance in my life. The balance between left and right brain, the logical and the creative.

What signs do you see or hear? Do you pay attention?

Friday, May 8, 2009

Romance Authors and Readers

How do romance authors or any authors reach out to their readers or potential readers?

Last night, before I had dinner with "the girls" of http://www.youdontsaynotogirls.com, I had a very interesting conversation with Terry of http://www.romanceinthebackseat.com. During our quick (longer than 30 minutes) chat, we both talked about how there are lots of groups for authors to meet other authors, or even authors to meet editors, agents, etc. But where are the events where authors can meet readers?

I'm not talking at like a book signing. Although they can be fun the amount of interactive time between a reader and the author can be minimal. And yes, although you may learn a little more about the author, when does the author learn more about his or her reader?

At dinner with "the girls", they noted the same thing, that there are a lot of opportunities for authors to meet authors. This is all well and good, but isn't our goal as an author to reach readers? Not necessarily to put our latest and greatest book in their hands, but to find out what they liked, what they didn't like, and what they would like to see.

Perhaps there is a reader in your midst that has thought of writing a story but has not figured out how to put pen to paper. Is it not our responsibility to help them figure out how to do so, to encourage them, motivate them?

I realize there are some, perhaps many authors that are actually shy, introverted, whatever you want to call it and putting yourself out there can be, um, well, distressing to a few. BUT, don't you want readers to know that you as a person exist behind the name on the cover? That you are more than the bio posted on the book jacket or your website? Please, you can only show so much of you in 100 words or less.

I, personally, love talking with readers and authors. Let's face it! If you write, you more than likely read. Don't you want to have a sit down with your favorite author and ask him or her about him or her self? Yup, I am waving my hands in the air. "I do!"

I would love to have a cup of coffee or a can of soda, even a glass of wine and a chat with as many of my favorite authors as possible. (To name a few, David Baldacci, Linda Howard, Carla Neggers, Suzanne Brockmann, John Sanford, Faye Kellerman, many more!) I would love to share a cold beer with a new author I just read and find out why she wrote that story as her first.

I'm not talking a friendly chat in an auditorium. That is an oxy moron if I have ever heard one! A friendly chat would take place at a local coffee shop, pizza place, winery, where everyone can sit around in comfy chairs, and be themselves. No suits or ties, or dresses (unless that's what makes you comfortable), but a T-shirt and a pair of jeans so you can sit back, cross your feet and have a conversation as if this author and reader was your next door neighbor. Who knows, maybe they are.

I would be willing to drive a distance to sit down and talk with readers and authors, wouldn't you? Wouldn't that beat standing in line for a 5 second blip and a signing by an author who doesn't even know your name?

Anyway, after all that longwindedness (not sure if that is a word), my point is, I'm an author and a reader and I want to meet readers on a more personal level, talk with them, hear their stories, share my stories, and just have some fun.

With that in mind, I would love anyone's input as to:

A. Does this sound like a terrific idea?
B. Would you as a reader want to participate in this?
C. Would you as an author want to participate in this?
D. What place would you recommend for a cozy author/reader chat?
E. How often should these take place? (once a week, once a month, more)??

Share any thoughts and ideas. And yes, I plan on following through on some form of this in the VERY near future. Hopefully, other authors will want to participate or start something similar in their area!

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