My book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, started appearing on bookstore shelves in the mountains today! Malaprop’s Bookstore and Cafe in Asheville welcomed the book this morning, as well as several Walgreens in Asheville. Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville put the book on their shelves today, too.
I’m waiting to hear how the book was received at the bookstore at Lake Junaluska this afternoon.
What an exciting day! The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina was released today by Arcadia Publishing and I had my first newspaper interview about the book!
Jesse Campbell of The Mountain Times in Boone interviewed me for an article to be published on August 28 in that weekly newspaper that covers Ashe, Avery and Watauga Counties. You can’t beat free publicity like that!
This morning I participated in the filming of a pilot for a TV series about single pastors. The interim pastor of Rocky River Presbyterian Church is the Rev. Eleanor Norman. She was chosen as one of several single pastors in the US for inclusion in the pilot. Some of us gathered this morning in the sanctuary to give Eleanor an audience for a Scripture reading, sermon, and other remarks as directed by the producer. It’s fun to do something out of the ordinary. My only other TV experience was being an extra in a funeral scene the first season of the TV series “Homeland.” The pilot filmed this morning will never air. It will only be used to try to sell the idea to a network.
I’m going to the monthly meeting of Rocky River Readers Book Club tonight at Rocky River Presbyterian Church for a discussion of I Am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen who was shot in the face just for wanting an education. Attending the book club meeting will be the perfect way to end what has been quite a day.
Another door prize arrived in the mail today for my September 21, 2014 book launch for The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Add two adult passes to Chimney Rock to the list!
Other door prizes I’ve secured so far are as follows: two adult VIP passes for a two-day Hop On/Hop Off Historic Tour by Gray Line Asheville, two $25 gift cards from Bogart’s Restaurant and Tavern in Waynesville, a complimentary pass for a family of four to Linville Caverns, and two tickets for a 2015 performance of Horn in the West and admission to Hickory Ridge Museum in Boone.
The public is invited to my book launch and book signing at 3:00 on Sunday afternoon, September 21, 2014 in the new fellowship hall at Rocky River Presbyterian Church, 7940 Rocky River Road, Concord, NC.
Be sure and come at 3:00 and plan to stay for the hour as door prize drawings will be held every few minutes. My book will be available for $20.
The Concord Friends of the Library will host an author event/book signing for me in the auditorium at Concord Library on Saturday, October 11th at 1:00 p.m. I appreciate the work that all Friends of the Library organizations do, and I am thrilled that the Concord Friends have scheduled this event for me.
I look forward to telling a Concord audience about my book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina!
My first author event/book signing for The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina will be held at the public library in Harrisburg at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, September 11th. This is exciting and a bit intimidating. Author events at the other three public libraries in Cabarrus County are in the works, but no dates have been selected.
I’ve tried for two weeks to arrange author events in the three public libraries in one of the counties in the foothills of North Carolina to no avail. It is disappointing. I really want to show my support for public libraries. I will turn my attention to the next county on my list and keep you posted.
I feel my way along in the dark as I try to arrange The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina book talks.
It has been a learning experience. Our local county’s library system schedules author events three months in advance and the Friends group for each branch library controls the timetable.
Plans for my September 21 book launch at Rocky River Presbyterian Church continue while I try to get other events on the calendar. I will work to schedule book talks locally and in some mountain counties. I still haven’t given up on visiting libraries in five mountain counties in October, but nothing has worked out so far.
I have sore muscles today after helping to set up the history room yesterday in the new building at Rocky River Presbyterian Church. We haven’t had a room set aside for history in several years, so I’m excited that we’ll once again have such a room. It will serve as history room, church library, and a meeting room. It is absolutely beautiful!
I worked on my book talk today, so I’ll be ready when I start taking The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina “on the road” to public libraries in September.
Every day brings a new experience. I’m putting together my first book tour in the mountains of North Carolina. I’ve selected nine public libraries to contact. Speaking about my book is going to take me way out of my comfort zone, but I need to do it!
Amy Clipston gave a very interesting presentation on Monday night at Rocky River Presbyterian Church. She told us about how she is able to write Amish fiction without being Amish. She also talked about the journey her family took through the process of kidney transplantation. She is one busy and gracious lady! Check out her books and her website: http://www.amyclipston.com.
My complimentary author copies of The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina arrived yesterday. What a thrill to hold in my hands a book with my name on the cover as the author! It will be available to the public on August 25.
With my deadline met with Arcadia Publishing on Thursday, I breathed a little easier over the weekend. I shopped for some postcards with a couple of future books in mind. Today I organized 230+ postcards for possible inclusion in a book of vintage postcards from the piedmont region of North Carolina.
I also searched the 2014 “Writer’s Market” book for magazines to submit articles to about several history topics I have in mind. It’s not easy to break into the magazine market. It’s discouraging when you pitch a story idea to an in-state magazine, it gets rejected, and then a few months later a regular contributing writer gets an article published on the very subject you pitched. That’s happened to me twice with the same magazine. That makes me a little hesitant to pitch story ideas to magazines.
Janet's Writing Blog 