Note to self: car starters do wear out. Fortunately, it’s only a problem when starting the car. Unfortunately a bad starter means car will not move.
Second note to self: Renew Triple A plus membership.
Third note to self: Should I have bought the Versa instead of nursing the Sentra along for another year? Nah.
A nice review came via Jeremy Warach at his site. Thanks to Jeremy for taking the time to read The Last Track. Check out his vignette section where he captures some pretty interesting ideas in a very short entries.
Since publishers hate paying for hotel accommodations and many authors are too neurotic to wait in security lines these days, 2010 just might be the year of the virtual book tour. Instead of actually meeting people face to face, authors interact with readers via the feisty proxy that is the Internet, appearing on a number of sites over the course of several weeks as a guest blogger, reviewer or interview subject. No exception around these parts.
See, the first virtual book tour for The Last Track ended on July 31. I can see doing another one. Or more precisely, I bet I do another one. But first things first.
With a long weekend to reflect on the journey, a few rules of virtual touring actually wrote themselves–though usually the day after I needed them. Lessons for the next tour, I suppose.
Towards that end, here’s some tidbits that can help with future virtual tours. Or call it what I wished I knew about touring beforehand. First a little background about who hosts these tour stops.
There is an ever growing network of really dedicated book review sites emerging across the Internet. While the caliber of the reviews varies from site to site, as does the writing, generally readers become online reviewers because they love books. They read lots of books by choice, and enjoy writing about the ones they like. And these online reviewers operate at the cusp of an emerging trend in publishing, whereby readers learn about new authors not from a press release from the same six publishing houses or public relations firm, but from fellow readers. Power readers as it were, and many of them are authors by avocation as well. In years to come, publishers will court the most important of these sites like they do the brick and mortar review services.
Their growing influence being noted, you never really know who is reading a review site until the comments appear for your book entry. Therefore, it pays to revisit tour stops one, two, four and seven days after the entry first appears. The source and intent of the comments that appear after the fact can be surprising.
Second, have a very brief author bio handy. By brief bio, I mean between five to eight sentences. Frankly I think that’s a good length for author bios, brief and long version alike, but that’s just me. Like the internet in general, if people have to scroll to the end, they generally will not. Needless to say a very streamlined version of my bio developed for the virtual tour will appear in the FAQs soon. No scrolling necessary. I swear.
Last, once the virtual tour starts, be ready for anything. Like your phone dropping a call right as a live podcast begins. Or your cat getting a urinary tract infection. Or maybe even the day after the tour wraps, your site ( which worked without any mishap for seven years ) gets hacked.
Just saying. It could happen.
Late last week, Electra, one of the founding members of the Cat Army, exhibited some very disturbing symptoms that necessitated a midnight run to an emergency vet. Of her fourteen years, thus far she has has only had one real medical situation–eleven years ago. And I’ve been pleasantly spoiled by her good health and pointy nose in my ear every morning since.
For the first time she didn’t wake me up in the morning, wasn’t scratching the door when I returned from work. She sat in the middle of the hallway meowing like the wounded still stranded on the battlefield. Usually when a cat’s behavior changes drastically, something is wrong; they make their discomfort known. That’s what I learned during her last disaster.
Fortunately a nearby 24/7 animal hospital diagnosed her quickly and began a course of antibiotics. Instead of having to administer–read lose fingers to biting–tiny pills down a very agile and recalcitrant cat’s throat three times a day, science delivered its second miracle of the night.
A single injection that delivered bacteria zapping goodness for ten days. It cost three times as much as the pills. And I didn’t care.
Because my cat. Got. Better.
A few weeks ago, started experiencing headaches and serious eye strain. More than an hour at the keyboard and objects near or far appeared blurry. Eye drops and a fistful of generic Advil swapped aches and strain for heartburn and watery eyes. Relief lasted until the symptoms returned, and usually quickly. Being preternaturally stubborn, this self medication cycle of denial went on for awhile, until reading became too painful for any length of time.
Then I remembered I had the same eyeglass prescription for nearly three years. Probably my vision had declined over time. That’s how it’s been since age six.
So it was off to the optometrist.
Instead of an ominous diagnosis, the eye examiner provided a rather welcome bit of information. Somewhat paradoxically, I have hit the age where vision often improves, rather than deteriorates. I am there roughly 5 to 10 years ahead of schedule, which I’m conflicted about, but I find no fault with the fix: Crank down the current prescription a few notches, and voila. Headaches and eyestrain begone!
So too much correction actually causes far more discomfort than not enough. I did not know that.
Stopped by Barnes and Nobles today and found this in the magazine section:
Besides interviews with thriller and mystery writers, and reviews of their work, Mystery Scene Magazine is the go to place for mystery fans about upcoming events and releases. So check it out!
Whenever a vacation ends, it evokes the same feelings when attending funeral services for a distant relative does. Just like the departed, vacations always pass too quickly and I regret not knowing them better while I had the chance.
In all, a productive break from the day job–largely because of what I tossed to the curb. Shredded reams of old paperwork in the home office. Donated clothes that stopped fitting–or how I learned that light beer did not discourage blubber accumulation, only that it contained less calories than standard hops. Replaced a very scratched up bedroom set with new pieces from Furni. Also recycled some old electrical gear coalescing at the bottom of the closets. Basically got all the major distractions out of the way so I can write without interruption when at home.
Though mentioned before, July brought two traditional reviews for The Last Track, one in Mystery Scene Magazine ( #115 not yet on the stands, me thinks ) and another in the Midwest Book Review. There is a reason I’m bringing this up again, since it dovetails with the eternal lesson of publishing.
Both the publisher and Ellen had warned me about the lag time between publication and the bricks and mortar review coverage filtering back to base. Honestly, I didn’t quite believe them. I probably even said something like, “No way.” Even though the reviewers usually receive titles months before release, reviews appearing months or even a year after the launch is the norm–unless your last name is Flynn-Nolan, Patterson, King or Grisham. Surely they were kidding. Oh well, color me converted.
So like everything else in the writing process, usually getting what you want takes time, and the distance between you and that point is inversely proportional to your patience for said outcome.
