This is a very exciting day for the lovely and gracious Laura Harrington, and I’m delighted to introduce her on Brava! Laura’s debut novel, Alice Bliss, launches into the world of published books today, and life, as she knew it, will forever change. Yes, a debut is that big! As an award-winning playwright and the 2008 winner of the Kleban award, Laura is ready for this next chapter in her career. And if the sparkle in here eyes is any indication, I’d say she’d elated!

I had the pleasure of reading an advanced copy of Laura’s book—it’s an incredibly well done coming-of-age story that I hope you’ll add to your reading list. Please welcome Laura Harrington to Brava as she shares personal thoughts about dreams.

A Father, a Daughter, a Pony, and a Lesson in Dreams

Thank you, Beth, for this wonderful invitation to write something for your blog. I had intended to write about mothers and daughters, because I’m so intrigued by and so love Cee Cee’s relationships with her mother and all of the other women in her life who become surrogate mothers.  But every time I sat down to write about mothers and daughters, I ended up writing about fathers and daughters instead.

In my novel, Alice Bliss, Alice’s primary relationship in the family is with her father, Matt.  They are kindred spirits; their connection encompasses camping, gardening, swimming, hiking, and playing catch.  They are knit together by shared activity, hard work, and play.

Unlike Alice, I did not often choose to hang out with my father.  The things my father loved to do – golfing, gardening, reading history, watching baseball – required a level of patience I didn’t possess.  I worked beside him in the garden grudgingly, I ventured on to the golf course or the driving range once, maybe twice, embarrassed at my ineptitude and bored by the entire enterprise.  I wince at my snotty twelve-year-old impatience as I helped put up the fence to pasture my pony.  Acquiring that pony was a lifelong dream, a dream my father helped come true by buying an old single-stall barn that was slated for demolition for a few bucks, managing to move it onto our property and putting up said fence.

My parents knew nothing about horses but followed me into that world with good grace, much better grace than I displayed by that fence, with my father.  I earned the money to buy my Chincoteague pony ($100) by weeding the vegetable garden (15 cents a row), ironing my father’s shirts (25 cents a shirt) and babysitting (35 cents an hour).  My father drove me to the Kelly Bros Nursery in Danville, NY where the Kelly brothers had purchased a mare and a stallion one pony-penning day on Assateague Island, and now had their own herd.  I picked out a black and white two-year-old filly and paid Mr. Kelly in four installments of $25.  It took a year.

I created the character of Matt Bliss in the weeks and months following my father’s death.  I re-created the relationship my own father had offered me as a child, that I had rejected at the time. I poured my lucky, blessed adult friendship with my dad into Matt Bliss, picking up the threads of my father’s garden, his easy athleticism, the way it seemed he could do anything with the right tools and a how-to book borrowed from the library.

I am grateful that I lived long enough to lose some of my impatience and finally, really get to know my father. I wish I could go back and dig those post-holes again.  There’s so much I would want to tell him now, and even more, so many questions I would want to ask.

It turns out that I appreciate everything I learned in that hot sun, struggling with that post-hole digger, unrolling and stapling the fence to those posts.  I think of all that my father was teaching me, almost without words: how to build a dream, how to work for it and struggle for it, how to reach beyond what you think you can do, by breaking it down into small steps.  Every one of those garden rows hoed and weeded, every shirt ironed properly, every babysitting job.  Rolling dimes and nickels and quarters at the kitchen table, the four visits to the Kelly Bros Nursery, my rolls of change turned in at the bank for real, folding money, putting those dollars into Mr. Kelly’s hands.

The waiting and the wishing and the wanting and the working were as valuable, I now know, as the day we brought that pony home and let her loose in her own paddock.  And then the pony herself was a source of life lessons for years to come.  But that’s a story for another time.

Please visit Laura’s website HERE.

You can also find her on Twitter @bookalike and on Facebook.

Every now and then, but always on a Tuesday, I drive to a French-style bistro to meet a special girlfriend. We say it’s for lunch, which is true, but that’s not the point. We meet to laugh and cry and talk about our love of words and the lure of story. By the time our pear salads arrive, we’re leaning forward across the table, talking and laughing like a pair of five-year-olds, and guaranteed when the check arrives we’re wiping our tears on our napkins.

My friend’s name is Molly Campbell and she’s a very bright and talented woman, she’s also one of the funniest people I know. One visit to her blog, LIFE WITH THE CAMPBELLS, and you’ll see what I mean.

Molly, an award-winning writer who oftentimes writes in her pajamas, has recently started a new venture—CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A NOVEL—a collection of micro stories that she’s weaving together in an online book that’s already garnering attention from New York to California.

And by “micro” I really mean micro! These stories are generally about 450 words and can be read during a five-minute coffee break. Some will make you laugh out loud, some will make you ponder, and there are some that will break your heart. New characters and stories appear twice monthly, and you can subscribe so you’ll know when a new story has been posted.

I’m among the thousands of people who always look forward to Molly’s “Micro Stories” and after you read them, I believe you will too!

Please Visit Molly at CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A NOVEL and also LIFE WITH THE CAMPBELLS

You can also find her on Twitter @insearchofnovel and @mollydcampbell

Meg is lovely, inside and out, and she’s also very talented. After working many years in journalism, she set a goal, reached for her dream of writing a novel, and succeeded! Not an easy task considering she’s a busy wife and mother of three young children. Today is a very exciting day for Meg. Known in the industry as “launch” day, Meg’s debut, The Arrivals, hits the bookshelves—one of the most exciting and memorable events in a writer’s life.

I’m delighted to feature Meg on Brava on this special day, so please welcome her as she talks about her journey to publication.

The Story Behind the Story

Thank you, Beth, for hosting me here. I’m honored to be part of such a stellar group of writers.

Thus far I have given only one reading from my debut novel, The Arrivals. This reading took place last month at the literary festival in the Massachusetts town where I live. The book had not yet been released from the warehouse, so there were no copies to sell or even show at the reading—I read from a tattered galley, and I received my first finished copies two days later.

Because the festival fell before my book’s release, I thought the planners would stick me on a panel, not give me a reading by myself, and I was nervous when I heard the plans. What was I supposed to say to introduce my book? “Well,” said my husband, whose colleagues in the business world know him as a top-notch presenter. “Start by saying why you wrote the book. That’s what people want to know.”

Why did I write the book? I had answered that question on the author questionnaire I filled out for my publisher soon after the book sold. But in the (many) intervening months, in the process of revising, beginning another book, revising that, thinking about publicity for The Arrivals, I had sort of forgotten. So I went back, and I read what I wrote in my questionnaire, and I thought about it.

The answer, and the way I began my reading, goes something like this. I, like many novelists, have a bunch of false starts hanging out somewhere on my desktop or printed out and stuffed unceremoniously into a drawer. A few years ago I started writing a book about a man whose wife died suddenly, leaving their two young daughters in his care. The daughters were dispatched to their grandparents’ house in Vermont, where the presence of tiny people into what was once an organized household wreaked a certain amount of chaos. I wrote a lot of that book, more than I really care to think about. I even contacted an agent I’d met at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference who offered to read it. He declined to take it on, and reading over his letter to me I understood why the novel hadn’t wowed him. For a lot of reasons that I will spare you right now, it wasn’t very good.

I thought I would revise that book, and I began writing about another Vermont family whose grandchildren were visiting for less tragic reasons and who would somehow be related to the first family. This time the voice, the humor and the characters’ back story came more quickly, and I understood that I wasn’t revising. I was writing a whole new book. I ditched the first storyline, and my book eventually became The Arrivals, the story of three adult siblings returning to their childhood home over the course of a summer, all for different reasons. That’s what I told the audience at my first reading, and they, bless their hearts, seemed interested.

I’m relating all of this not because my back story is so fascinating (it isn’t), but because the journey to publication has taught me that every book—every single book in any bookstore or on any e-reader anywhere in the world—has a story behind it. And that is fascinating. Trailing behind most published authors is a string of rejections or setbacks or self-doubt; behind nearly every smiling author photo is the ghostly outline of a writer with his head in his hands saying, This is never going to happen. Some authors are candid with their stories, which are often much more interesting than mine. Some of those stories we’ll never know, and that’s okay too. But perusing the aisles of a bookstore, the library shelves, the bins at a used book sale, I like to know they exist.

Please visit Meg’s website HERE.

You can also find her on Twitter @mmitchmoore and Facebook.

In the 1980s, Rob was a member of a wild and successful comedy troupe, Chucklehead. A Vogue headline announced “They’ll take Manhattan”—and, as Rob says, “We were naive enough to believe it.”  Now, all these years later, Rob has written about the crazy, wacky, and sometimes downright scary adventures of the troupe in his memoir Tales of the Troupe.

Rob’s talents are many. Besides being a yoga instructor, he’s a freelance writer specializing in clarifying complex medical issues for lay readers, and his comedy writing includes one-liners for MTV’s “Global Village News.” some of which won a Cable Ace Award, skits for Nicklelodeon’s “Don’t Just Sit There, and “Welcome Freshmen,” and half-hour scripts for “Welcome Freshmen.”

I invited Rob to be a guest on Bravo, and I’m so glad he accepted. So please Welcome Rob as he (with good humor) shares his experience in the world of self-publishing.

SELLING MY TALES

I’m very honored and excited to be featured on Bravo.  After reading about the other featured authors, I see that I am in very impressive company.

In 2009, I self-published Tales of the Troupe, my book about writing for the edgy and popular comedy troupe Chucklehead in New York City in the 1980s. In my naivety, I thought that as soon as it was up on Amazon, copies would fly off the shelves and then I’d go on Oprah.  That hasn’t happened yet.

Selling the book has been challenging, to say the least.  I took 30 copies to a Self-Published Book Expo in New York City, where neither I nor any of the other authors I met sold any books.  I gained some notoriety when someone stole a copy of my book.  “Are you the guy whose book got stolen?” other authors would ask me, shaking my hand.

At book fairs, I was always amused at the noncommittal way people would approach my table. They would walk by, look over their shoulders, and gaze at the book very casually.  Every so often, someone would actually touch a copy, but they would never actually pick it up and open it.  They knew that each copy contained a miniaturized bear trap that would snap down on their fingers.  Or that I would lunge across the table, tackle them, and take their wallets. The silver lining of that book expo was meeting Lisette Brodey, a very talented and supportive writer and friend.

I started getting voice mails from what sounded like an Indian woman, and the only syllables I could understand were “Tale o’ de Troupe,” which were reported several times.  The next time the person called, I picked up and immediately explained I couldn’t understand a thing that was being said, and offered my e-mail address.

The calls were from a book marketing firm in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but I was convinced they did a lot of outsourcing.  My friend Helen conjured up an image of some woman in Mumbai, holding a cell phone in one hand and nursing an infant in the other—and being the breadwinner for dozens of family members.  I rolled the dice and tried them out.  They supposedly e-mailed a press release about my book, titled “Bumping with This Tricky World’s Unexpected Twists,” to a million people, but I didn’t make a single sale because of it.

There were certain people I hoped would never read the book—namely, other troupe members.  But then I got an e-mail from the troupe’s artistic director, Jay, saying he had bought the book and was looking forward to reading it.  I had to warn him that he was one of the book’s “villains.”  I also worried about Ronnie reading it, because I had portrayed her as a kind of sex goddess, whom the narrator fauns over through most of the book, and I didn’t know how she would react.

Jay liked the book and Ronnie posted on my Facebook wall:  “Absolutely LOVED your book, perhaps because I am and was so involved in it and the world of the troupe, but I think even without that connection, I would love it.  I laughed a lot at your description of the three C’head weddings but mainly I had a major, major cry over the last chapter, so thanks for writing it!  Somebody had to do it!–Ronnie.”  My reaction?  Let’s just say crying is infectious.

In the end, the best marketing strategy has become meeting other writers whose work I admire, and mutually promoting each others’ work.  The added perk is that I’ve met some exceptionally interesting, talented, and kind people doing that.

One day I got an e-mail from a lady who had bought the book off my Website and hadn’t received her copy yet.  So, I went on PayPal and, sure enough, I had a sale.  It turns out that it was a lady I was drinking with at the local watering hole, The Black Cow, during a power outage.  With a few drinks under my belt, I had told her all about my books and given her one of my business cards.  So, I’ve decided that drinking at The Black Cow is a highly effective marketing strategy.

Please visit Rob’s website HERE.

You can also find him on Twitter @Dinsmoor1958 and Facebook.

There’s an undeniable light in Erika’s beautiful eyes, and I see mischief too. It’s that glint of mischief that adds an unexpected, present-day twist to her historical novel. Receive Me Falling weaves together past and present in a story that contains several elements—a touch of the supernatural and the shocking truths of plantation life to name just a few. Erika is a debut author who pushed open the door to self-publishing and took her talents to press. The rewards have been many, and Receive Me Falling has become a favorite among book clubs and offers several topics for lively discussions.

I enjoy highlighting debut authors and was delighted that Erika accepted my invitation. So please welcome Erika Robuck as she shares thoughts about a very special person.

Musings on a Critique Partner

When Beth asked me to guest post on Brava, I was overwhelmed and honored. This blog is such a positive, uplifting tribute to writers I couldn’t help but think of the people in my life who’ve held me up and supported me through this journey: family members, critique partners, teachers, book clubs, and friends. They are so numerous I don’t have the space to name them, but I want to speak specifically on my relationship with my critique partner and how she has encouraged my growth as a writer.

Many writers are loners.  We hunch over our computer screens with coffee and Pandora, and lose ourselves in worlds we create.  Sometimes we surface for air.  It is in this surfacing that we give our words time to breathe, and it naturally follows that we prepare our work to share with the world.

I’ve been in several writers’ groups over the years. These are sometimes people I’ve known for years, and other times, people I’ve just met through writing workshops.  They are other writers who help me translate the personal language of my fiction so that it connects to my readers.

While the groups have come and gone, my writing partner, Kelly, has remained.  We attended elementary school and high school together, but fell out of touch during the college years. We reconnected several years ago, and whenever I’m with her I find myself thinking of Hemingway’s line about James Joyce and picking up a conversation started three years ago without missing a beat.

She is an earth-mother-goddess girl, wise beyond her years, and who has a gift for drawing out of me what it is I’m trying to say.  Our meetings and phone calls tend to go on hours longer than any other groups I’ve been in because we talk about our lives as much as our writing.  Through these conversations we consistently find that the two are inseparable.  Our writing is an extension of our inner selves and by tapping into the personal psychology of the moment, what we are trying to communicate through our prose is that much stronger.

Both of us have many commitments and live two hours apart, so we submit work to each other online every three weeks, conference by phone a week later, and begin the cycle over again.  We meet in person as often as we are able.

I share this with you to encourage you to find a partner or group to support you in your creative endeavors.  It isn’t easy to share new work with others, but if you can find someone with whom you are comfortable and who will give you honest feedback, it will help you immeasurably.  I am very thankful that I have found Kelly, and she has been integral to my writing accomplishments.

Please visit Erika’s website HERE.

You can also find her on Twitter @ErikaRobuck and on Facebook.