Trailer Trash? I Don't Think So

Donna of Authentic Hearts Productions is a member of our women's marketing collective, To Market, To Market.  At a recent meeting she asked if I'd be interested in creating a book trailer for the little book.

Would I?  Yes!

Now, what the heck's a book trailer?

So I did some research (which included watching many book trailers) and discovered that it's a promotional opportunity, very similar to a movie trailer.

We set up at Accent on Books, a great indie bookstore. Here's Donna, making some stills before we started the video part.

I did several mini-tutorials on different aspects of my work and even did a little plug for the book.

The stuff Donna got today will go to her editor-friend and I'll post the bits and pieces when they get to me.

It was great fun!

Back in the Saddle...again

I was out of town all last week and have spent the last 36 hours catching up on correspondence and sleep.  The little book is having its cover tweaked and I am holding myself in patience.

I don't do that but so well, to be truthful.  But I think it's a book worth waiting for and I want it to be as right as it can be.

I am very grateful to my formatter and to my publisher--both of whom are keeping me sane and assuring me it will come out.  It really, really will.

Writing a book is a very interesting process.  I do a lot of writing, in all sorts of places.  But when I started this project, I really wasn't sure I could finish it.  I mostly do short pieces, you see, and this was a lot of material to fit between two covers.

The last minute adjusting and rewriting of one of the chapters was an adrenaline rush and it also leaves me with a portion of the book that will feel a little new to me. I think that will be delightful.

There are a couple more manuscripts in my personal pipeline.  One is nearly finished--Earth Works: Ceremonies for a Changing Earth. That's its working title. And I'm thinking it would be fun to do a flip book based on my workshop The Joy of Hex: the Nine Levels of Willful Bane.  The first half of the book could be that and then you turn it over and there's another book at the back. It would be the opposite--workings on nourishment, self-care and blessing.

I'm partial to the word "wort" for that title.

Getting Organized

An outdoor display of Village Witch products and such. Note my comfy chair in the background--it has a canopy!

I bought a little green spiral notebook a couple of days ago and am making lists of where to go and what to do and...well, all that stuff.  The little book is finishing up getting formatted and I still don't have a photo for the inside. But I am very, very grateful for the wonderful comments people have made for the back of the book.  I feel a little like Sally Field at the Oscars that time--you like me!

One of the lists in the green notebook is a to-do list--making a marketing plan, a media kit, finish printing labels so I can ship out the books as soon as they arrive.

Another page has a to-go list.  I know I want to have a launch party at my old bookstore Accent on Books but where else could I go to talk about the book and sell a few copies?  Waynesville, Mountain Home, Johnson City, Sylva?  How far do I want to drive and how many times do I want to talk about this?  I'd love any suggestions from you, generous readers.  Do you have a favorite bookstore that hosts events?

So, tomorrow morning I'm getting a haircut, picking up printer cartridges and folders (for the above-mentioned media kit) and thinking about putting out an edition of my newsletter "From the Edges and Hedges" focused on the little book.

a Photograph

In this age of immediacy and instant gratification, making a photo of the author isn't such a big deal.

Is it?

I am hoping to achieve this task today, if the weather cooperates.  We'll do some shots in the garden and near the hive and perhaps at the workbench (that's why a need some sunshine--our porch is pretty dark on a cloudy rainy day).

My book designer says an action shot is best--wrapping an egg or whupping up some hoodoo. With everything about this book and about my public persona, I am striving to be honey without being condescending, to be real and not pander to a stereotype I detest. So, no poke bonnet. No corn cob pipe. No brown jug with XX on it. Over at the Facebook page, I'm going to post a few choices and let you all pick which one to use.

The book formatting is nearly complete, I think.  The rewriting went well and it's a stronger book for having done that. Oddly enough, I am already thinking of the next one and when it should be released and all sorts of things I've learned in this process.

Next on the list is a media packet for potential bookstores. Avec photo.

Probably not one of these, I'm thinking:

I'm Back-pedaling as Fast as I Can

Oops, roadblock!

Not really. The formatting is almost finished and one of my readers said she felt like the last chapter ended too abruptly. It was like hitting "a brick wall."

Yikes!

In practicing this non-attachment, I do still have moments where I am very...er, attached. Or so it seemed last night when I couldn't think of any way to do more or better or...anything with that chapter.

And then I went to sleep and that was refreshing.  When I woke this morning, I sat down here at the computer and started the addition/rewrite.  Finished it up at noon and sent it back to the formatting Fae.

Whew!

But in an odd way, it made me feel like a "real" writer (which I am, of course). Those final edits can be challenging, as many writers will tell you.  Just when you think it's safe and ready to go out into the world, there's a sudden abrupt halt, and maybe a change of direction.

All tidied up for now and non-attachment setting lightly on my shoulders. I finished up the mini-bio and what's-this-book-about text for the back cover and re-read the beautiful kind blurbs that others have written about the little book.

Cheered me right up.

Bit by Bit

I still have some writing to do!  Yep, there's a little paragraph that needs to be put together for the back cover and I'm going to get that to my formatting Fae, Diotima, sometime tomorrow.  Several sister-writers have given me very kind blurbs about the book and they will also be on the back cover.

The cover!  We still have a few of the incidentals (Glossary, Bibliography) to do, but it's all very close.

How blessed I am with good friends and allies.Together we're spinning quite a tale with the little book.

This spinning wheel is part of the Old Bethpage Village Restoration project.

Goodness! Before you know it, we'll be booking launch parties and book signings.

Revisiting the Essays

This little book has alternating chapters. There are chapters on folk magic and in between there are essays--most of which have been previously published.  I included the essays to give readers who may not be from around here a sense of what our culture is really like.  Not what they think it is from Deliverance or the Beverly Hillbillies.

In editing tonight, I got the chance to read those essays with a fresh set of eyes. It was nice to enjoy the stories in them and to remember what prompted me to write them in the first place.

In the midst of this editing, I'm remembering how much of my self and experiences have gone into the making of it.

That must be why I'm so excited to think of it being published.  I hope you all are, too.