Laura Duksta | I Love You More
August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Laura enjoys nothing more than sharing her story with others, inspiring them to know that if she can do it so can they. Laura has presented her program, “Self-Esteem through Love: Empowering our Children to Shine” to 1000’s of students, educators and administrators across the country. She is able to sprinkle her story of becoming an author with bits of wisdom that people of any age can use to achieve any dream. She speaks to all types of women’s auxiliary groups, charitable foundations, support groups, etc., at which she shares how her biggest challenge, losing her hair, eventually became her biggest blessing. This helps people see what might be possible when they bring love to what’s being experienced as a challenge or a negative situation. She inspires marketing and sales teams to know that there’s nothing that can’t be accomplished with a plan, a few prayers and a lot of love. And, she of course speaks to aspiring authors and publishers sharing her story of how she went from bartender to best-selling author. She prepares her audience for what might be at times a roller coaster of ride, but certainly one that’s worth it. Laura has spoken for The Learning Annex, The National Alopecia Areata Foundation, The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, The National Association of Women’s Writers (Florida chapter), Gilda’s Club, Xango New School (network marketing event where she shared the stage with Keynote T. Harv Eker), emceed the South Beach Wine and Food Festival Kidz Kitchen (with Rachel Ray, Alton Brown, Emril and Giatta), as well as having had presented dozens of school visits and author workshops across the country. Laura believes that love is the answer. She sees the world as a classroom where we have chosen to come and grow ourselves to the next level of awareness.. This world is one of duality and when we learn to embrace both the happiness and sadness, the good and bad, the war and peace, the challenge and opportunity, we will no longer be stopped by our circumstances but will be inspired to co-create with our Higher Selves. It is in this state that we are grateful for the events and experiences in our lives because we are able to see how they all serve our own personal growth and add to global evolution. What would happen if we understood that life is happening exactly as it was meant to, so that we may learn lessons of compassion, understanding, wisdom and contribution. If everything “worked” the way that we might envision that it “should” there would be no room for growth. We would no longer have to be here-you might say we would become “enlightened,” when that happens we will have transformed into The Light. This is not to say that we are not working towards transforming and healing our planet, but when we do this from the space that there is something wrong we come from fear and force and things aren’t necessarily transformed they are changed or fixed. Yet, when we can create and come from a place of love we will cause quantum leaps in consciousness. Love has the ability to heal the planet, though it will take a group of committed individuals to create a vision and take action. We are the ones and now is the time!
John Straley | Alaska & Mystery
August 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Novelist John Straley has worked as a secretary, horseshoer, wilderness guide, trail crew foreman, millworker, machinist and private investigator.He moved to Sitka, Alaska in 1977 and has no plans of leaving. John’s wife, Jan Straley, is a marine biologist well-known for her extensive studies of humpback whales.John’s first book, The Woman Who Married a Bear, was published in 1993 and won the Shamus Award for the Best First Mystery of that year. His third book, The Music of What Happens Finn. You can also find the Straley family on their sometimes second home, the Phalarope.Visit his website at www.johnstraley.com for more information
Raymond Benson | Writing 007
June 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
RAYMOND BENSON wrote six original James Bond novels, three film novelizations, and three short stories—all published worldwide. His most recently published thrillers are A HARD DAY’s DEATH (the first in a series of “rock ‘n’ roll thrillers”) and the novelization of the popular videogame METAL GEAR SOLID. As “David Michaels” Raymond was the author of the NY Times best-sellers TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL and TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL—OPERATION BARRACUDA. Raymond’s other recent original thrillers are FACE BLIND, EVIL HOURS, and SWEETIE’S DIAMONDS. An anthology of some of his 007 work will be published in October 2008. www.raymondbens
Aaron Lazar | Writing & Loons
June 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
In addition to receiving publishing contracts for Double Forte’, Upstaged, Tremolo: cry of the loon, Mazurka, Healey’s Cave, and One Potato, Blue Potato, Aaron writes “Seedlings,” a monthly column featured in the Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine (FMAM) and the Mysteryfiction.
Cindi Myers | Soldier & Romance
June 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Cindi believes in writing fun, sexy romances about people she hopes readers will fall in love with. She sold her first novel in 1997 and writing as Cynthia Sterling, she wrote seven historical romances for Berkley and Kensington before turning to contemporary fiction. Almost half a million copies of Cindi’s books have been published around the world. Her books have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, German, Dutch, Korean, Japanese, and Greek. http://www.cind
R.T. Jordan | Disney & Polly
May 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Raised in Peabody, Massachusetts, R.T. Jordan moved to Los Angeles when he was nineteen and is only now beginning to look back. Although he believes that he has always been a writer, he first began to earn a living in this manner as the staff writer in the feature film marketing department of The Walt Disney Studios. “It was the best of times. It was he worst of times,” Jordan says of his nearly two decades in that position. “Although the deadlines were a horror, the writing and rewriting gave me discipline, and the understanding that there are many ways to spin a story,” Jordan says. “In retrospect, I see that those years were better than a Master’s program in creative writing because - by pumping out prose twelve hours a day and on nearly 400 films - I honed what little skill I had and developed what I hope is a breezy style of writing.” During those years, while still writing for Disney, Jordan found time to complete his first book, BUT DARLING, I’M YOUR AUNTIE MAME!, a nonfiction history of the famous character created by author Patrick Dennis. He went on to write four novels and three novellas (summer beach reading books written under a pen name he says he’d rather not acknowledge) for Kensington Publishing Corp. He then switched to the cozy mystery genre. http://www.poll
Donald Ray Pollock | Knockemstiff
May 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Donald Ray Pollock was born in 1954 and grew up in southern Ohio, in a holler named Knockemstiff. He dropped out of high school at seventeen to work in a meatpacking plant, and then spent thirty-two years employed in a paper mill in Chillicothe, Ohio. Currently, he is a graduate student in the MFA program at Ohio State University and still lives in Chillicothe with his wife, Patsy, a high school English teacher. He hopes to someday teach fiction writing. His work has appeared in, or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Third Coast, The Journal, Sou’wester, Chiron Review, River Styx, Boulevard, Folio, and The Berkeley Fiction Review. He is currently at work on a novel set in 1965, about a serial killer named Arvin Eugene Russell. http://www.dona
Tanya Lee Stone | Important Children’s Books
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Tanya Lee Stone was our guest on the show today. She is a well-known author, and writes books for children that all have great importance in theme… Her newest book is a biography of Ella Fitzgerald (commemorating Ella Fitzgerald’s birthday on this date), and she has two new books coming out in the next year.More information from Tanya Lee Stone’s money:
Like many writers, Tanya Lee Stone has been making up stories since she was a kid. But her first series, Henry the Happy House, was never sold. She even drew the pictures. It’s a mystery why nobody wanted to publish it! As a high schooler, Tanya went to performing arts high school as a music major. Her writing improved when she studied English at Oberlin College (and Music at Oberlin Conservatory. She might even sing if you offer her chocolate.). After graduation she moved to New York to be an editor.Stone was an editor for 13 years. During some of those years, she also earned a Masters Degree in Education and learned all about seals and sea lions! (If you ask, she might tell you about the time she had to climb into a harbor seal tank with high rubber boots to give the seals their shots). She also traveled all over the world, hopping with kangaroos in Australia, eating the best caviar ever in Russia, and even living in England for awhile where she studied British literature. When Stone moved to Vermont and got her chance to write her first book, she got hooked on stories all over again. This award-winning author has written nearly 90 books for young readers. She has written books about animals, nature, science, history, and biography. She also writes poetry and fiction. Best-selling titles include Abraham Lincoln (more than 100,000 copies sold) and P is for Passover (more than 75,000 sold). Stone’s most recent titles are a young adult novel, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl (Wendy Lamb/Random House), Amelia Earhart (DK), and Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald (Viking). Bad Boy was her first novel for teens and received starred reviews, as well as honors from the New York Public Library, Texas Tayshas State Reading List, School Library Journal, the ALA, Maryland Best Books, and the Kentucky Bluegrass Master Award List. Stone also writes articles and reviews and has been published in VOYA, School Library Journal, and the New York Times.Forthcoming titles include picture books Elizabeth Leads the Way (Holt) and Sandy’s Circus (Viking), as well as Almost Astronauts: The True Story of the Mercury 13. Many of the stories she now finds herself drawn to deal with themes of strong women and empowering girls. Stone is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Authors Guild, PEN American Center, ALAN (The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents), and the National Council Against Censorship. She has been a featured speaker at the Texas Book Festival, the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Rochester Book Festival, the Connecticut Reading Association, the Vermont League of Writers, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the International Reading Association (IRA), the American Library Association (ALA), as well as multiple schools and libraries. She is the Co-director of Kindling Words, an annual retreat for published children’s book authors and illustrators.
Suzanne Lieurance |
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Often-published children’s author Suzanne Lieurance was a guest on our show today, speaking to us about the process of writing a children’s book, and about her latest book The Locket. She had some interesting insights about how to write difficult non-fiction for children.
Suzanne Lieurance is a former classroom teacher, now a freelance writer, children’s author, speaker, and The Working Writer’s Coach. She is the author of over 20 published books for children. Lieurance is also the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center and the Children’s Writers Coaching Club.
Ken Bruen | Thriller Author
April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today we spoke with Thriller Novelist Ken Bruen from Ireland. The dialogue was fascinating… Tune in to hear the story about the fan with the baseball bat! More about Ken Bruen’s new novel Cross from his website:
Cross (kros/ noun, verb, & adjective) means an ancient instrument of torture, or, in a very bad humour, or, a punch thrown across an opponent’s punch. Jack Taylor brings death and pain to everyone he loves. His only hope of redemption - his surrogate son, Cody - is lying in hospital in a coma. At least he still has Ridge, his old friend from the Guards, though theirs is an unorthodox relationship. When she tells him that a boy has been crucified in Galway city, he agrees to help her search for the killer. Jack’s investigations take him to many of his old haunts where he encounters ghosts, dead and living. Everyone wants something from him, but Jack is not sure he has anything left to give. Maybe he should sell up, pocket his Euros and get the hell out of Galway like everyone else seems to be doing. Then the sister of the murdered boy is burned to death, and Jack decides he must hunt down the killer, if only to administer his own brand of rough justice.
Emily McCay | Romance & Writing
April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today we spoke with Harlequin romance novelist Emily McCay. This is a great revealing look into the world of romance novels, and about McCay’s first experiences with the genre.More about Emily McCay from her website:
Emily McKaskle, who writes as Emily McKay, has been reading romance novels since she was eleven years old. Her first Harlequin Romance came free in a box of Hefty garbage bags. She’s been reading — and loving! — romance novels ever since.In her spare time, she loves to garden and cook … well, bake. Mostly cookies. Naturally, she still loves to read a good romance. She’s been blissfully married for eleven years. When they can ditch their five pets for a couple of weeks, she and her husband like to travel to exotic and exciting locations like Greece, Costa Rica, and Ignorant Flats, Texas.She has a degree in English from Texas A&M University. After college, she taught middle school for four years. While teaching America’s disenfranchised youth to appreciate fine literature, she learned very little about writing romance but a lot about finding humor in any situation. Eager for a job where she wouldn’t have to dodge spitwads, she fled the teaching profession to write full-time. Though her characters sometimes misbehave, they almost never throw things at her.Emily has been writing seriously for ten years. In 2001, one of her dreams came true when her manuscript, Love Letters to Tabitha, was a finalist in the Golden Heart. Just over a year later, she got ‘THE CALL.’ In January of 2003, Love Letters to Tabitha was published as Baby, Be Mine by Harlequin Temptation. Baby, Be Mine is also a finalist for the 2004 RITA Award in Best First Book and Best Short Contemporary Romance categories. Emily has gone on to sell seven more books to Harlequin Silhouette. Her next book, Baby on the Billionaire’s Doorstep, will be released in April of 2008.
Kate Maloy Transcription
March 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to “Sound Authors.” My next guest is Kate Maloy. Her new novel is called “Every Last Cuckoo.” It is published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. It just came out and it is set in Vermont, a favorite place of mine. It is a good pleasure speaking to Kate Malloy. Welcome to the show.
Kate Maloy: Thank you. It is good to be here.
Dr. Kent: Tell me a little bit about “Every Last Cuckoo.”
Kate: OK. “Every Last Cuckoo,” as you said, is set in Vermont. The main character is a 75 year old native Vermonter named Sarah Lucas who, in the course of the novel, suffers a really devastating loss and has to decide how she is going to carry on. She sort of feels that her choices are between lying back and going dark or sitting up and paying attention. She sits up and pays attention.
Dr. Kent: Is this a novel that has personal feelings for you?
Kate: Well, I lived in Vermont when I was writing it. I dearly loved Vermont. My husband and I had to leave for personal reasons and we now live in Oregon, which is a little bit like Vermont. But Sarah herself, although she is modeled on some older women that I have known personally, is not any of those women. She is her own creation.
Dr. Kent: There are so many novels out there right now. Algonquin Press is a wonderful press. How has the book been doing?
Kate: It has been doing actually very well. The official release date was January 22. The book has just gone into its third printing.
Dr. Kent: Oh, wonderful!
Kate: Yeah, yeah. I mean, they are not mega printings, but they are really respectable and really good. Algonquin is just wonderful. I have absolutely loved working with them.
Dr. Kent: So, let us talk a little bit about the book itself. Why did you decide to deal with the topic of an elderly woman and with the sudden death of her husband? I know it is a very thing. It is something we see every day, but why did you choose this topic?
Kate: Well, I chose it partly because it is something that happens to many, many women every year. But really, the main reason I chose it is because I still see older women, women in their 60’s, 70’s, 80’s stereotyped by the larger culture. It is as if people think that an older woman has just arrived on the planet with no history. You know?Instead of looking at these women as people who have developed some skill and strength and wisdom in the course of their lives, they just look at them as frail or silly or negligible in some way. In my experience, it is absolutely not true. There is nobody tougher and nobody more wise than women who have struggled in their lives. And especially if they have raised families and been engaged deeply with the people in their lives. They really become a force to contend with.
Dr. Kent: In Vermont, I went to a college in Vermont, at Middlebury. It is the most beautiful state in the country, I think. Oregon has a good claim, also. But Vermont, the people are so different than people anywhere else. Did you choose a Vermonter for that reason?
Kate: Well, I chose a Vermonter partly because I was in Vermont. Partly because one of the women who is like my character Sarah in spirit, if not in the events of her life, comes from Vermont stock. And also because Vermont has an extreme climate. There is a great deal of, I do not know, challenge to living in Vermont, especially for a lifetime. Weathering the winters. Seeing the amount of poverty in the state, which is really quite a lot and increasing in these days, I am sure.There is just a certain resourcefulness and independence of mind and courage I associate with Vermonters, especially native Vermonters. So yeah, Vermont is important. It is important to Sarah and to the story.
Dr. Kent: What is the process you go about? This book has a whole great cast of characters. What is your process of dreaming up a family? Dreaming up a character? Is this based on people you know? Is it based on people you see walking around shopping malls? How do you do that?
Kate: In this case, although Sarah yes, is based in her attitudes and her courage on women I have known and her husband Charles is probably based on some older men I have known, the rest of her family just kind of arrives. It seemed to me that Sarah needed at least a couple of children, and three seemed better than two.She needed one of them to be somebody she had to really struggle with. Somebody she butted heads with. She needed one to be someone she could always talk to. And another one who maybe they have a history of difficulty and now that has passed and there is a sort of mellowness that has set in. So, I think the characters of her children come from the needs of the story.I would say the same is true for other characters in the book. There is a bunch of people who show up in Sarah’s life after her husband has died. They are all people who need a retreat or refuge or some kind of protection. There have been a few people who have said oh that is ridiculous, no 75 year old woman is going to fill up her house with strangers.And the fact they are not strangers. That is partly a function of Vermont too. One of them is a cousin of somebody she knows and one is her own granddaughter with two of her friends. One is the daughter of a friend. She either knows all of these people or knows where they come from, what their stock is, who their families are. I think that is important too. She is not a foolhardy woman. She is making her choices very carefully.
Dr. Kent: Now, in a world where the last Halloween I remember all of the children in the neighborhood came before 5:00 pm because of the fear of strangers, it is such a frightened society right now. Maybe from all of the television and that. This book is about accepting strangers into a home, the “Every Last Cuckoo.” What does that mean to people?
Kate: Well, I want to respond a little bit to your comment that this is a very frightened society, because I think that is really important in the book. There is hazard all around Sarah. And after Charles dies, she is very, very aware of it and very frightened and has sort of lifelong underground fears to confront and deal with in the course of this novel.Some of that comes from the natural world, which she sees as full of hazard, from the weather to the predators in her woods, accidents that can happen. Somebody falls through the ice into a pond. Someone else nearly freezes to death because her car gets stalled at night on a remote road and it is bitterly, bitterly cold.But there are also echoes of fear from the larger world. People think of Vermont as very safe, which compared to other states it is. But there is a lot of domestic violence in Vermont. There is a lot of personal violence that is bred by poverty and loss of jobs and alcohol and all sorts of things.And then there are a couple of characters in the novel who bring in a sense of danger from the much larger world. There is an Israeli scholar who comes and stays with Sarah. There is news of a murder in Massachusetts that affects her family.So yeah, there is kind of a sense of that throughout the novel. And it is a big challenge for Sarah to learn how not to be afraid when there is so much reason for fear.
Dr. Kent: I know you have written in the past a memoir called A Stone Bridge North, which explores a little bit your Quaker faith.
Kate: Yes, that is right.
Dr. Kent: How does being part of the Friends Church…How does that take place in this novel as well? Is there a little bit of that in here?
Kate: There is some of that in there. There is one character who is a Quaker, who has been a Quaker her whole life. She has doubts, you know as most people who follow any kind of religious faith do from time to time. But mainly the thread from Quakerism has to do with human violence, and whether it is as essential and in the scape of all, as violence in the natural world.I mean, an animal who hunts for its dinner is doing what it was designed and formed to do. But a person who goes to war and kills another person, he does not know and does not have any actual personal quarrel with, is a whole different question. And that is partly why the Israeli character is in there. It is something he has thought about a lot.
Dr. Kent: So, now that you have opened up the political bag of worms a little bit here, what do you think about the political situation?
Kate: The current one?
Dr. Kent: Yes.
Kate: What about it? It is so much.
Dr. Kent: Are you glued to CNN? Or are you more of a newspaper reader?
Kate: I am more of an online reader. I read a lot of stuff online, both from conversations in various forums to reporting on various sites. At the moment, my major concerns are endless war and the threat of further wars. And also the increasingly mean-spirited tone between the Democratic candidates. I do not think it is doing the party any good and I think it is helping Republicans. But that is just my personal take on things.
Dr. Kent: Well this has been a real honor. Kate Maloy, her book is called Every Last Cuckoo. Her website iskatemaloy.com, and that is with a k-a-t-e-m-a-l-o-y.com.
Kate: One L in Maloy. And this is available at Amazon and book stores all over the place.
Dr. Kent: It is from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. And her older books are also available. So, go check her out online. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Kate: Thank you ever so much. I have really enjoyed it.
Dr. Kent: My next guest is the legendary bluegrass, father of bluegrass in some ways, Doyle Lawson with a brand of vocal gospel bluegrass that no one else has. Come on back.
James R. Olson Transcript
March 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest is James R. Olson, author of “An Eagle Unchained,” a political novel. Welcome to the show.
James R. Olson: Thank you, pleased to be here.
Kent: Tell me a little bit about your newest novel.
James: The “Eagle Unchained” is a political novel. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool patriot, but I do believe that our government has gotten out of control, and it’s interfering in every aspects of our lives, that the career politicians have lost touch with the American people and do much of their legislation for the benefit of the special interest groups and lobbyists who donate huge sums of money to their election campaigns. So, I wrote the “Eagle Unchained” as a way of pointing out some of what I believe are common sense solutions that career politicians refuse to address.
Kent: And I know you are giving away your book online.
James: Yes I am. One of the biggest fears of an author of course is obscurity. I believe that the way to get the word around is by word of mouth; and I believe what I’m saying in the “Eagle Unchained” is important enough that we would love to have a lot of people read it, tell other people about. So, if I have to give it away, I’m more than willing to do that.
Kent: You’ve had quite a history of book publishing. Give us a little nutshell of where you’ve come.
James: I published my first back in 1973, “Ulzana,” a historical fiction. It won several awards. That was published through Houghton Mifflin. I became disenchanted with traditional publish and I’ve investigated quite a few avenues since then. I published another historical fiction called “Brother,” two mystery stories, a kind of a series, and one other general fiction. The other general fiction is currently being considered for the Pulitzer. I hope to find out in April how that did.
Kent: You’re newest book “An Eagle Unchained,” it’s a political novel, which is a little bit of a change for you. What was the inspiration for that?
James: Well, again as I said, I’m just kind of disgusted with the way that government has gotten bigger and bigger and become less in touch with the people and it’s interfering with some many aspects of our life - not only the career politicians, but the career bureaucrats. And so, I wanted to just do my part to let people know that there are other options.”An Eagle Unchained” is the story of a man probably most similar to Ross Perot, who ran for president back in the 1970s, a business man rather than a career politician who reaches out to the people instead of going with the support to of the political parties. He starts his own political party.
Kent: The book itself is a novel.
James: Yes.
Kent: Does it talk about an ideal government. What’s the premise?
James: Well, as I said, the premise is the man running for president because he also feels that things need to be changed and that the career politicians aren’t addressing the problems. The president of the United States - although we kind of use him as a figure head - really doesn’t cause a lot of the problems, it’s congress. Congress passes the laws, congress spends our money, congress changes the taxes and so on and so forth. You have people in congress that are in there for a career. Thirty, forty years - we’ve got the average age of the senate, for example, is much older than the average age in the country.The major premise of the book is to do something about congress. Something that they’re trying to get done is to have term limits on congressmen that the hero Ted Hale, who is running for president. His main focus is to cut down on these career politicians who are losing touch with the American people.
Kent: If you’re candidate was running for president, do you think he’d do pretty well against the current candidates?
James: I think, if he could do what my man does in the book - get to the people through the young people. Yes, I think he could. The people that are running now - the three major candidates - are all senators. Two of which have been senators for a long time. They are good people. I am not knocking them individually. They have lost touch with the American people. All they are talking about is more government, more government, more spending, and that isn’t the answer. Government is the problem, not the answer.
Kent: What did you think about the candidate Ron Paul?
James: I was impressed with him. I didn’t follow his campaign real well, but, yeah, I was impressed with some of the things that he had to say. Actually, some of the candidates who are not the big guns had more to say. But, none of them, again, were addressing the problem of doing something about congress.
Kent: Tell me a little bit about the plot of the story. How did it open up?
James: It opens up with Ted Hale, the candidate for president who is quite a wealthy business man, gathering together people from his own organization and going to begin his campaign for the presidency because he’s been selected to address the major media in New York for receiving a reward for man of the year. He uses that as a platform to launch his campaign, although he suspects most of the major media is not going to back him. He has spent several years getting ready for this by purchasing his own television networks, newspapers, and radio stations so that he does have a platform to reach the people.
Kent: How does he get through to the young people? Is he a young man?
James: He’s middle-aged. He’s not a young man. He goes to the colleges for their graduations every opportunity that he has and speaks to the young people trying to get them together - probably a lot like John Kennedy did back in the 60s when he was running for president. He had a lot of young people who got enthusiastic about his campaign and went out and did a lot of the leg work for him. He does that in this book - reaches the young people and then he maintains contact with them through Internet hook ups and through with all of his campaign headquarters and he gets the young people out there to talk and to spread the word. There is no substitute for spreading the word because there are a lot of unhappy people in this country.
Kent: What’s your newest project? Are you writing a new one?
James: Oh yeah. Probably, they’re going to take the pen out of my cold dead hand when I die. Right now, I am writing another general fiction book about abused children. I am hoping that’ll also be a good book. I’ve gotten a lot of good response about “An Eagle Unchained” so far although it has only been out since the beginning of this month.
Kent: Wonderful. Who are your target readers? Who are you looking for? Is this a mainstream book?
James: Oh yes. It’s mainstream. I suspect the people who’d be most interested in it are the people who feel frustrated because they’re unhappy with the government. The way things are going and they feel like their vote doesn’t count. This is an opportunity to tell them, “yes it does count.” There are things that can be done. It isn’t going to be easy, but it can be done.
Kent: And this book is available free online. People can read it from the website which is booksbyolson.com. Give me a sound clip about the book for people that are just tuning in.
James: I’m not sure what you mean by sound clip.
Kent: Tell me what the book is about, where to find it, and all that.
James: OK. As I said, the book is a political novel and it’s trying to offer some solutions that the American people can reach at. It’s available throughout the country at any bookstore. The publisher, Erian Press, is offering autographed copies at a discount with free shipping to United States addresses. Their website is erianpress.com. They can also reach that through booksbyolson.com. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble; your favorite bookstore can order it. It’s available through all the wholesale channels. So, it’s got widespread distribution.
Kent: It’s been a real pleasure speaking with you today about your book “An Eagle Unchained.” This is James. R. Olson and his book is available all across the country in hardcover and trade paperback. Thank you for being on the show.
James: Thank you or having me. I’ve enjoyed it.
Kent: The next guest will be Kathleen Maloy with her novel, “Every Last Cuckoo.” Come on back.
Caroline Howard-Johnson Transcript
March 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome to Sound Authors. Today is March 28th. It is almost April, the first day of spring. It is a beautiful day outside. Foggy, rainy, but its warm. Four guests on the show today. The last guest, of course, is an author sound, Doyle Lawson. His famous band, Quicksilver, has been around for a long, long time.Then I have three authors on the show. First author is Caroline Howard-Johnson, with her books about writing books. My second guest is Jim Olson with his novel “An Eagle Unchained”. My third guest is another novelist with her book, “Every Last Cuckoo”.Welcome to the show to Caroline Howard-Johnson. She has a long resume with a whole bunch of amazing achievements in the world of writing. Her website is carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepress.com. Welcome to the show.
Caroline Howard-Johnson: Hi. Thanks a lot for having me!
Dr. Kent: And I’m sure you have a bunch of other websites as well.
Caroline: My favorite one is easy. It is howtodoitfrugally.com.
Dr. Kent: howtodoitfrugally.com.
Caroline: Easy to remember.
Dr. Kent: So tell me a little bit about your whole method. You have a couple books out recently. They’re to help authors with what they do.
Caroline: Yep. They do. I certainly hope they do, and it seems that they are from the mail I get. They’re in the How to do it Frugally series of books for writers. They came about because I’m, at heart, a novelist and short story writer and poet. As your author listeners will know, those are the hardest books of all to get people to read, especially if the novel is a literary novel.I fell into all kinds of potholes. I had a publicist background, and I wanted to help writers combat the same problems that I had. I also wanted a text that was really practical for my classes at UCLA. So my first book in the series was “The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won’t.” The second was just released. It is called “The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward To Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success.”
Dr. Kent: Let’s talk a little bit about the first one, “The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won’t.” Most folks that aren’t in the publishing industry don’t know that a great deal of the books that do get accepted, they go through that whole sieve. They end up being asked to be on a press and all of that, and then they get published, and what happens? It sits on the shelves. Tell us a little bit about that.
Caroline: Exactly. And that’s exactly what happened to my first novel. It is called “This is the Place.” It was published traditionally. I was living the myth two decades ago that my publisher would do it for me. It is set in Salt Lake City. It was published just before the winter Olympics there. I thought it was going to be a big seller, and it just wasn’t doing anything and I didn’t quite understand why.Luckily I did have a publicist’s background, so I just started researching ways that I could get the word out there. Of course, book promotion is a lot different from fashion promotion, which is what I had done before, so I had a heck of a lot to learn.That book is just simply a compilation of all the things I tried, all the resources I found, put very simply and in a light language so that people can read it easily. People who aren’t yet really familiar with the publishing industry.
Dr. Kent: How about the age-old… “This book is going to make it onto Oprah”?
Caroline: Well, I think that you can probably put your energies into a lot better channels if you’re on a limited budget or if you don’t have an awful lot of time. The chances are very, very slim. I never like to be discouraging. If that’s your dream and you’re an author, hey, go for it. But if you’re budgeting your time as well as your money, the net is just open to about any kind of an effort you want to make. So are many radio shows like yours. I think those are the best places.Also speaking and teaching are good ways to get the news about your book out to the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if Oprah chooses one book to feature in, I don’t know, a hundred thousand that are submitted to her every year.
Dr. Kent: What is the connection between your first book, “Frugal Book Promoter” and your second book now, “The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward To Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success.” Tell us a little bit about that one.
Caroline: In the meantime, I started editing a lot of people’s books. I found that people were really submitting awful material. Not in terms of editing. Things written… Not necessarily grammatical errors. Not necessarily typos. But they were writing the way they’d been taught to write in high school. Writing has changed since many of us were in high school. Fiction is different from writing a high school essay. So is poetry different from the way it was written in the days of the classics, the poetry that we studied. On and on…I became concerned that that very first line of offense that we authors have, the very first time that we present ourselves to a publisher or an editor or whatever, is really extremely poorly edited. So I wrote “The Frugal Editor.” I consider it almost a marketing book also because that is your first effort. Your first presentation to what I call the gate keepers, the people who can say yes or no to your work.
Dr. Kent: So what is the difference between… I know you’re talking both about what they used to call vanity presses or self-published process, and then you’re also talking about approaching the big ones.
Caroline: Yes. I believe that there’s probably the right place for every book for every book and every author, and no one place is right. In other words, traditional presses like Simon & Schuster, really publishers, are wonderful. If that’s where an author’s heart is, maybe that’s where they should try to go first. They need an agent for that.But there are lots of other ways to publish now. Thank heaven, in the last decade we’ve come a long way. Some books are really better published on a POD press, self-published, or with help. Those are called subsidy publishers. So we’re not at the mercy of an agent or a large publisher anymore. There are all kinds of roots. And some of those other roots are becoming very well respected unlike the Vanity Presses of even the 1950s. Some are far more profitable and some are better suited to say a how-to book, than others.So if people do their homework, they can be published. I just want them to be published properly edited. [laughs]