Category: My books

The final proofreading on mountain book

The final proofreading has been done, and The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina has been sent to the printer! I will be working with the sales and marketing staff of Arcadia Publishing to get publicity for this book of vintage postcards and get it on the shelves of strategic stores throughout the mountains and foothills of North Carolina. Publication is scheduled for August 25, 2014!

Vintage postcard book

This is a red-letter day. I have proofread The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina — my first book of vintage postcards — and returned the proofed pages to Arcadia Publishing this morning. I eagerly await the August 25th publication date.

Publication Date: August 25, 2014

I have been notified by Arcadia Publishing that my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, will be published on Monday, August 25, 2014. Mark your calendars! In addition to being in stores throughout western North Carolina, the book will be available online. I will share those details later.

It is exciting to have a publication date scheduled, and it makes the book more real to me. This is a learning process. In the coming months, I will learn about marketing the book.

I just realized I haven’t blogged in more than a month. Time flies when you’re looking after a very sick dog and dealing with 10.5 inches of snow… and life. My vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, is in the hands of the line editor at Arcadia Publishing. I’m waiting to hear what the line editor thinks of my writing. While I wait, I continue to sew and make various items to try to sell in my online craft shop on Etsy.com and I am doing the research in order to write postcard captions in case I get to do a second book for Arcadia of vintage postcards from the Piedmont section of North Carolina.

I have selected a literary agency to send a query letter to about The Spanish Coin. When I get the letter polished and we get our e-mail problems under control, I will take a deep breath and send it off.

Since my last post, I have read The Parting, by Beverly Lewis; Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail, by Louise Shivers; and The Angel of Bastogne, by Gilbert Morris. I’m currently reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It is riveting! I finally had to put it down at 4:00 this morning. Great book!

It’s in the mail!

No, really. This is a “red letter day.” As of this morning, the 210 vintage postcards and layout pages for my book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, were shipped to Arcadia Publishing. The book’s text went to the publisher electronically yesterday. It’s time to take a deep breath, celebrate a little, and start working on the proposal for my next book.

The process of writing The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina was a bit tedious at times as there were strict guidelines for the word count on each postcard caption, but it was a good writing exercise. The word count restrictions forced me to tighten up every sentence and delete every unnecessary word. This usually results in better writing. I hope you will agree when you read the book.

Watch my blog for the publication date.

Looking ahead to the next project

I’m in a holding pattern for the next week or so on The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina vintage postcard book, so today I turned my attention to the piedmont section of the state. I was pleased to discover that I have enough postcards to consider proposing a piedmont postcards book for Arcadia Publishing. Something else to look forward to in 2014!

A Book of Vintage Postcards

A lot has happened since my last post. I signed a contract with Arcadia Publishing to write a book of vintage postcards called The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It will be a thrill to see my name as the author on the cover of a book!

The book will cover the mountains and foothills of North Carolina and the entire Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Doing the necessary research for the book has been educational for me. I have learned a lot about the mountains, but I have also learned that writing a vintage postcard book and writing a historical novel have more in common than one would think. Either book can only contain a small fraction of the details discovered during the research phase.

The text is completed for the book. Caption word counts have been checked and double-checked. Grammar has been examined against The Chicago Manual of Style. All that remains is assigning each postcard a number and cross-referencing those numbers.

Publication will be sometime in 2014. I’ll let you know when I have a publication date!

In search of an agent

I’ve been researching literary agencies and agents in search of a good match for me and The Spanish Coin. Two agents have risen to the top of the list, and I have prepared letters and other documentation to send to them. After some last minute tweaking, I’ll send them off. Then I’ll select another agent to write, then another one, and so forth until I find the right one.

This is a big step for me!

An exercise in brevity

Today I’m faced with the challenge of summarizing my 98,000-word Spanish Coin manuscript in about 40 words and writing a cover letter that will convince a literary agent to read the first three chapters of my book.

This is possibly the most important letter I’ve ever written. No pressure there!

Back to my novel manuscript

I must stop letting life interfere with my writing! I’ve been so busy this summer making things to try to sell on Etsy in my online shop, Hickory Ridge Crafts, that I have neglected my writing. Dr. Kyle Hite’s sermon this morning at Rocky River Presbyterian prompted me to return to my Spanish Coin manuscript this afternoon. It was fun getting back to it and getting the synopsis polished.

I started writing The Spanish Coin in 2004. The manuscript has evolved from historical fiction into Christian historical fiction. This was a slow process as I tried to discern God’s will.

What’s next? Writing the dreaded query letter and seeking a literary agent.