I write southern historical fiction and local history. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog is about my journey as a writer and a reader.
You will recall from my blog post last Monday that Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC was hosting a “Meet & Greet” for me on Saturday afternoon. I tend to see the glass half-empty or sometimes completely empty. Try as I might, I tend to expect the worst. The worst rarely happens, but I’m not to be deterred in my expectations.
I approached the Meet & Greet” with a fear that no one would come. After creating an “event” on Facebook last week and sending it out as an invitation to several hundred people, I only received “coming” responses from four people. One of them was driving an hour to get here and I was afraid she would regret making that effort if she came and the event was a big flop.
As usual, I had it all wrong. Lots of people came! Six of my classmates from high school came. I’ve known two of them since the first grade, but we hadn’t seen each other in years. Four of the classmates were there at the same time, so we had a mini-reunion.
A number of friends I know from church came. Others came who I’d never met, so I now have some new friends. Various people shared their memories of Harrisburg. Ours is a fast-growing and fast-changing small town. It was barely a village from I was born. The roads and schools can’t keep up with the growth.
Many of the changes are good, but most of us on Saturday were glad we grew up when we did – back when everybody knew everybody and traffic was nonexistent. We talked about how we used to have to drive five miles or more to a grocery store and now we have a multitude of supermarkets to choose from.
My books displayed just inside the front door on the Local Authors shelf!
It was a privilege to write the local history newspaper column for six and a half years. It was indeed a privilege to interview so many older residents and write down their experiences and memories. Having those 175 newspaper articles in book form now is a dream come true.
It was gratifying on Saturday to see and hear how excited and appreciative others are that I wrote the articles and that things finally fell into place for me to publish them in book form: Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2.
Who knows? Maybe Saturday’s event was just the impetus I needed to nudge me to get back to work on my novel! A few short days ago, I was disillusioned. I was ready to give up on it. Dear friends and new friends gave me a real boost on Saturday. I’m ready to continue now!
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read. If you need some suggestions, I know of a couple of local history books I’d recommend.
Take time to nurture friendships.
Remember the people of Ukraine, Nashville, Louisville, Fort Lauderdale, and Dadeville. There are lots of hurting people out there.
This should have been a very short blog post. Two or three paragraphs should have covered the story. Actually, if that had been the case, I would have chosen a different topic for the post. I hadn’t planned to blog about this today.
When I started writing my blog more than 10 years ago, I set out to chronicle my journey as a reader and a writer. It’s been a bumpy ride and there have been detours, successes, and obstacles. I’ve tried to share my ups and downs.
Today’s post is about last week’s stress. Last week’s stress has lapped right over into this week. I’d like to think there’s light at the end of this tunnel, but after what I’ve been through, it’s hard to be optimistic.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Today’s post falls in the category of “you can’t make this stuff up.”
Here’s the timeline as tracked on Amazon.com:
February 19
Having submitted the formatted copy of Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2 to Amazon for publication, I ordered a proof copy. After having some technical difficulties with several photographs in the book, I especially wanted to be sure they were going to be oriented correctly in the printed book.
I also ordered two paperback copies of Slip Sliding Away: A Southern Historical Short Story, but those two books had to be purchased as a separate order.
Amazon chose to combine the orders and deliver (or attempt to deliver) the three books to me via the United States Postal System, otherwise known as “carrier facility.”
February 21
9:11 pm Order left carrier facility, Concord, NC.
This is when I had a feeling that things had gone awry. Since Amazon does not print books at its facility in Concord, NC, which is about 12 miles from my house, I wondered why Concord was the first point of transit. The first point of transit should have been Amazon – not the US Postal Service. My books are usually printed either of Columbia, South Carolina or Indianapolis, Indiana.
February 22
Unspecified time Carrier picked up package in Columbia, SC (about 90 miles south of me.)
8:18 a.m. Package arrived at Amazon facility, Concord, NC (about 15 miles north of me.) [This is great! Maybe my proof copy and the short stories will arrive today or tomorrow at the latest! Life is good!]
February 23
6:18 a.m. Package arrived at carrier facility, Walkertown, NC (about 80 miles north of me.) [What?]
6:32 p.m. Package arrived at carrier facility, Harrisburg, NC (Post office is five miles from me. I live on a Harrisburg mail route.) [I’m not sure how it traveled 75 miles in 14 minutes, but okay. Whatever.]
7:47 p.m. Package arrived at carrier facility, Greensboro, NC (about 85 miles northeast of me.) [Wait a minute! Something’s not right.]
But I don’t want a refund. I want my books!
You know you’re in trouble when Amazon tells you on Thursday that you can request a refund if your package doesn’t arrive by Tuesday.
A refund won’t do me any good. I need to receive the proof copy before I can give Amazon the go ahead to start selling it. More importantly, I can’t order author copies to supply Second Look Books in Harrisburg until the book “goes live” on Amazon. Then, it takes about four weeks for me to receive the author copies, and my “Meet & Greet” at Second Look Books is scheduled for April 15.
February 24
5:19 a.m. Package left Amazon facility, Concord, NC (about 15 miles northeast of me.)
9:21 a.m. Package arrived at USPS distribution center, Charlotte, NC (about 18 miles west of me.)
February 25
3:15 a.m. After spending 18 hours at the USPS distribution center in Charlotte, the package left.
3:20 a.m. Five minutes later, it left again. (I’m not making any of this up!)
7:07 a.m. After traveling about 15 miles, package arrived nearly four hours later at the USPS in Harrisburg, NC.
7:18 a.m. Package is out for delivery “by 8 p.m. tonight.”
3:20 p.m. Package arrives at my house! According to the back page, the books were printed in Columbia, SC on February 20, 2023. There was only one 2×4-inch gaping hole in the package right over the cover of the Harrisburg book. These books have seen parts of North Carolina I’ve never seen. As far as I know, I’ve never been to Walkertown. I looked it up. It’s between Winston-Salem and Virginia.
Alas, I had the books in my hands.
I quickly turned to page 465 in the Harrisburg book to make sure Carl Higgins’ B-26 bomber was shown correctly; but, no! In the image, the plane is heading straight up instead of to the left.
Various subheadings in the book appear at the bottom of one page instead of at the top of the next page, although I painstakingly made sure that none of the subheadings were at the bottom of a page when I submitted the formatted manuscript to Amazon. Likewise, all images were oriented in the correct manner when they left my computer.
And did I mention that the cover is dark brown instead of red?
Photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh on Unsplash
I discovered, though, that the errors (except for the color of the cover) were my fault due to my lack of technical knowledge. If I’d been more in tune with general computer technology, I would have realized that I had created a problem… all the problems in the way the book was printed… except for the brown cover on the red book.
I still hold Amazon and the USPS responsible for shipping my book all over North and South Carolina for nearly a week. The best I can figure, the USPS transported it around 425 miles to get it 90 miles from Columbia, SC to Harrisburg, NC. If I could have received it five days ago, I’d probably have all the problems worked out in the formatting by now and would still be on schedule for publication.
Instead of giving Amazon the go ahead on March 1 to publish my book, I’m now working to correct errors. Then, I’ll submit the revised version. Then, with a great sense of foreboding, I’ll pay to get ANOTHER proof copy of the Harrisburg book. And I’ll wait who know how long for it to arrive. Then, if it is in good order, I’ll order author copies. Then, I’ll wait four weeks for them to arrive. Will they arrive in time for the “Meet & Greet” at Second Look Books on April 15th?
If I were a betting person, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Since my last blog post
Besides following the day-to-day saga of the trip the proof copy of my book has been on, I did some yard work. It’s been unseasonably warm here in North Carolina. I was surprised to see two black snakes on Wednesday. I’ve never seen a snake in February (or March!) before. It’s unusual to see one in April.
My email provider is a company called Windstream. There are many things I’d like to say about Windstream, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that on Saturday night, just five hours after I received the awful proof copy of my Harrisburg Book 2, Windstream downloaded into my inbox the last 4,449 emails I had already received. As we say in the South, “Bless their hearts!” Again, you can’t make this stuff up.
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read. I plan to write about the books I read in February.
If you’re looking for a good historical short story, just visit https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com and subscribe to my newsletter. You’ll be rewarded with a free e-copy of a short story I had fun writing, “Slip Sliding Away: A Southern Historical Short Story.”
Also, hurry and subscribe before March 1, in order to receive my first newsletter!
I hope to have a corrected copy of Harrisburg, Book 2 completed, submitted to Amazon, and have a new proof copy of it in my hands by the time I blog again on March 6. I can only hope.
Thank you for reading my blog!
Don’t forget the brave people of Ukraine who have been under unwarranted attack by Putin for a year.
In my first blog of the month I almost always write about the books I read the previous month. If I did that today, this would be my shortest blog post ever.
Near the end of this post, I’ll do just that; however, first I need to let off some steam.
January was a month filled with distractions and frustrations. The redesigning of my website has gone more slowly than I had hoped, mainly because I’m not very computer savvy. There were answers to technical questions I couldn’t readily figure out.
Plus, I had to learn a lot of technology in January so I can enable readers to subscribe to my email list and receive a free ebook, That’s still a work in progress because the good people at the very well-known email marketing service I’m using required me to fill out a long survey before they can answer two of my three basic questions. At least, they seemed basic to me.
I’m still not sure I’ve figured out how to give away the ebook. Maybe I’ll have to just reward my subscribers with a link to it so they can purchase it on Amazon for 99 cents. At least that remains an option.
Bless their hearts, the folks at the very well-known email marketing service I’m using are more interested in such things as my top three goals, how many subscribers I’ll be downloading (right now, it looks like zero), and what software I anticipate “integrating” with them. I’ve already asked them about Zapier, but they can’t answer me until I fill out the survey and tell them the best time to call me. I thought my question about Zapier was a yes or no question. Apparently, I was wrong.
Due to my moderate hearing loss and the fact that I just prefer having answers in writing, I much prefer answers in writing. I wish I’d gone with ConvertKit. Perhaps there’s still that option – which I told the good people at the very well-known email marketing service in my last email to them on Friday.
On an equally frustrating note, the very well-known print-on-demand company that prints my books has also forced me to learn more technology than I ever wanted to know. However, even with my best efforts in responding to each of their emails and supplying them with 20+ digital photographs, all the order numbers, etc. more times than I can remember since January 5, I have now given up on ever being reimbursed for the 14 damaged books I received on December 21, 2022 because there was no packing material in the boxes.
I worked my way up to a supervisor, but she has chosen not to respond to my latest plea for a refund. I paid the cost of printing, tax, and shipping for those books but I can’t sell them. And who wants to give away a damaged book that has your name on it as the author?
Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 is selling very well at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, but I dread all future shipments of it and of Book 2, which I hope to have published by April. It sort of takes the fun out of being an author.
(By the way, don’t bother to send the very well-known print-on-demand company that prints my books photos of the condition the box is in when you receive damaged author copies or a photo of the inside of the box showing the four inches of empty space in which your $25 books were allowed to bounce around in while they were in transit for 600 miles from Indianapolis because the company doesn’t want to know such things. You have the benefit of learning from my silly assumptions that someone in the company would want to know why so many of the books they print arrive at the author’s home in unsellable condition. But if they don’t have to issue a refund to the author, I guess they really don’t need to know what the books arrived damaged.)
I spent the entire month of January formatting Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2, trying my best to learn how to giveaway an ebook via a very well-known email marketing service, and attempting to get a refund from the company that prints my books for 14 unsellable copies of Book 1. That left very little time for reading for pleasure, but numerous opportunities for screaming.
Photo by Simran Sood on Unsplash
What I read in January 2023
However, when I wasn’t screaming, I read part of The Shadow Box, by Louanne Rice. It was the January book for the Rocky River Readers book club. Time ran out and I didn’t get to finish it.
I tried to read one chapter in Black Raven, by Ann Cleeves every night. Unfortunately, I only got to do that for three nights before the ebook went back to the public library.
I read Chasing the Ripper: A Kindle Single, by Patricia Cornwell. She wrote it in 2014 about her research about Jack the Ripper after her book, Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper – Case Closed was published. This 57-page Kindle Single was interesting even though I haven’t read her Portrait… book. Her Kindle Single is sort of a prelude to her 2017 book, Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert. The Kindle Single made me curious about the details Ms. Cornwell has pieced together lending credence to the theory that British artist Walter Sickert was indeed Jack the Ripper.
The other book I actually read in its very short entirety was The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy. I can’t describe it better than the blurb on Amazon, so I’ll just quote it, in case you aren’t familiar with the wee book: “From the revered British illustrator, a modern fable for all ages that explores life’s universal lessons, featuring 100 color and black-and-white drawings.”
What I’d thought about blogging about today
An alternative subject for today was the 89th anniversary of the ratification of the 20th Amendment to the US Constitution. I hesitated to write about that, since just two weeks ago I blogged about the ratification of the 24th Amendment in #OnThisDay: The US Constitutional Amendment that Put an End to Poll Taxes. Plus, I couldn’t seem to set aside enough quiet time to refresh my memory about the 20th Amendment enough to blog about it. Please take time to Google it and refresh your memory. That’s all I had time to do.
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read. I’m listening to The Diamond Eye, by Kate Quinn. I’m thoroughly enjoying it, and I hope to have time to finish listening to it.
Take time to relax. If you figure out how to do that while dealing with this technologically-mishandled world, please let me know your secret.
And in all seriousness, I remind you and myself not to forget the freezing, suffering, weary, much-abused-by-Putin-and-his-henchmen, and terrorized people of Ukraine.
My problems don’t hold a candle to what the Ukrainians are dealing with 24/7. Remembering that helps put my concerns in perspective. Come to think of it, I have nothing to scream about.
A couple of months ago I found a free online headline improvement program. Have you noticed? The jury’s still out, though, as to how it’s working.
Funny thing is, “they” used to tell bloggers to never give a blog post a title containing more than five words. I’ve tried to follow that for years. Lo and behold, now we’re supposed to have seven- to 12-word titles. It’s hard to keep up with what’s acceptable. Who knew blogging would be so complicated and have so many rules?
This free program I’ve started using analyzes headlines and gives each one a numeric score. I’ve had some fun playing around with it and taking its “advice.” I don’t know that my higher-scoring blog post titles have attracted attention or not.
In fact, as my posts have turned more toward publicizing my writing and concentrating less on the art and craft of writing, my blog has lost some popularity. I continued to attract new followers at a slow but steady rate, but my posts are getting fewer “likes” from other bloggers.
My subtle change in direction was a decision I had to make. Was my purpose as a writer to attract the attention of other writers or was it to attract readers?
I hope to continue to attract the attention of other writers but, if I’m going to establish myself as a writer I must find and attract readers.
Headline Studio by Co-Schedule
This isn’t an ad for Headline Studio by Co-Schedule, and I’m getting no compensation for writing about the program in my blog. This is the program I’m using. It’s been a real eye opener.
The program analyzes the headlines or titles you enter and gives you a score from 0 to 100. Today’s blog post title rated a moderately good score of 67, whereas the blog post title I used on January 9, 2023 was my all-time high at 80.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Things taken into consideration in rating title include strength of words, number of characters, number of words, use of emotional words, and readability. The readability aspect is the one that troubles me enough. Some blog post titles I’ve created receive low scores because I used words that someone reading on a fifth-grade level would not understand. How sad is that?
Even sadder is the rating I got when I plugged in today’s blog post title. Read it again. Do you find it difficult to understand? The Headline Studio program gave me the following analysis for this title: “Your headline reads at a 10th grade or higher reading level, which may make it difficult for many readers to comprehend. Switch out the complex words in your headline to improve readability.”
To that, I say, “You must be kidding!” If you can’t understand the title, you probably wouldn’t be able to read my blog. It’s a sad commentary on the state of education.
#OnThisDay: Operation Desert Storm Began in 1991
Since my last blog post
My book sales are going well on Amazon and at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC. Here’s a photo I took one day of my book on the shelf with books by other local authors.
I took the picture the only day I visited the store and it wasn’t sold out! Notice that my book was displayed next to Teachers are Amazing: The ABCs of Teachers, by Tierney Fairchild.
Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 on the shelf at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC!
If you’re a teacher, know a teacher, or aspire to be a teacher, I recommend Tierney’s book to you. In addition to Second Look Books, her book is also available on Amazon. Tierney is a lifelong educator and is dedicated to the profession.
Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1, by Janet Morrison, next to Teachers are Amazing! The ABCs of Teachers, by Tierney Fairchild at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC!
I’ve been busy this week writing content for the “Home,” “Books,” and “History in Photographs” pages on my website that’s being redesigned. I continue to learn more technology. I created a folder on Google Drive to house the media kit for Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1. I know this sounds easy to many of you, but it was another milestone for me. I can’t wait to unveil the new website… soon!
I want to offer a free e-novelette to people who sign up for my email list when the new website goes live. My next hurdle is learning how to do that!
Until my next blog post
I hope you’re reading a good book. I’m reading The Shadow Box, by Louanne Rice for Rocky River Readers this month. I’ve also started reading Raven Black, by Ann Cleeves.
Thank you to each and every one of you for supporting me and my new local history book!
Did you ever see the Sauline Players perform? Chances are you did if you went to school in the piedmont of North Carolina in the early- to mid-1900s.
As I write that, though, it occurs to me that I don’t know if they performed at the schools for black children. I hope they did, for their performances were a real treasure for those of us who lived in rural areas and didn’t have easy access to live theatrical performances.
Two of the 91 local history articles in my new book, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1, are about the Sauline Players. I’ll share some highlights from those articles in today’s blog post.
When I researched the Sauline Players for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper in 2011, I was surprised to learn that the theatrical troupe was based in the small Gaston County town of Belmont, North Carolina. I have fond memories of their performances in the auditorium at Harrisburg High School in the early 1960s when I was in elementary school.
In 2010, I learned that Joseph Sauline was with another traveling acting troupe in Charlotte in the 1920s when that company went broke. Not to be outdone, Mr. Sauline stayed in the area and organized his own acting group — the Sauline Players.
An online search in 2010 led me to a Sauline Players listing on the acting resume of Ms. Joan McCrea. I was able to get in touch with her agent, who in turn gave Ms. McCrea my contact information. Imagine my surprise one day when I answered the phone and found actress Joan McCrea in Los Angeles on the other end of the line!
The ensuing correspondence with Ms. McCrea turned my single newspaper article about the Sauline Players into a two-part series.
If you want to know more about the Sauline Players and other local history articles I wrote for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper, look for my book, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1.
Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1, by Janet Morrison
Where to purchase Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1
Paperback available at Second Look Books, 4519 School House Commons, Harrisburg, NC
My book received a lot of positive and well-placed publicity last week. The proprietor of Second Look Books in Harrisburg tells me sales have been brisk.
I took a long enough break from formatting Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2 to design the cover for the paperback. Then, it was back to formatting. I’m pleased to have the cover designed so I could mark that task off my to-do list.
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read. I’m reading a couple of books now. It’ll be interesting to see how many I get read in January.
Sampson and Lee Ann Parker, authors of Unthinkable Choice, were the guest speakers on Monday night at the monthly meeting of Rocky River Readers Book Club at Rocky River Presbyterian Church near Harrisburg and Concord, North Carolina. I think everyone in attendance felt blessed for having been there to hear the Parkers’ story.
I blogged about the release of the book on September 19, 2014, so please feel free to read my entry for that day.
Sampson was in a horrible farming accident in which he had to take a pocket knife and cut off his own arm in order to free himself from a single-row corn picker and save his life. The injuries he received from the machinery and fire were injuries he should not have survived. It was only by the grace of God that he survived to tell his story. Visit http://www.SampsonParker.com for more information.
If you have not read Unthinkable Choice, please look for it at your public library or local bookstore. If you cannot find it in a store, either ask that it be ordered for you or order it online. It is available at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, North Carolina.
The sales and marketing people at Arcadia Publishing have been hard at work getting my book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina on store shelves in the mountains. The following locations already have my book for sale:
Smoky Mountain Host Visitors Center in Franklin
Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville
Books Unlimited in Franklin
The Guilded Lily by Patra in Blowing Rock
Village Pharmacy in Blowing Rock
University Bookstore at Appalachian State University in Boone
Boone Drug locations on King Street and New Market in Boone
Lake Junaluska Assembly at Lake Junaluska
Malaprops Books and Cafe in Asheville
Walgreens on Merrimon Avenue in Asheville
Walgreens on South Tunnel Road in Asheville
Asheville Chamber of Commerce
Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar in Asheville
Christa’s Country Corner in Newland
Mystery Hill in Blowing Rock
Town Hardware and General Store in Black Mountain
I am thrilled to know that my book is being sold at all these locations and will soon also be available at Second Look Books in Harrisburg.
The sales and marketing people at Arcadia Publishing have been hard at work getting my book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, on store shelves. The book is available at the following locations in the North Carolina mountains:
Smoky Mountain Host Visitors Center in Franklin
Books Unlimited in Franklin
Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville
The Gilded Lily by Patra in Blowing Rock
Village Pharmacy in Blowing Rock
University Bookstore at Appalachian State University in Boone
Boone Drug – King Street and New Market in Boone
Lake Junaluska Assembly at Lake Junaluska
Walgreens on Merrimon Avenue in Asheville
Walgreens on S. Tunnel Road in Asheville
Malaprop’s Books and Cafe in Asheville
Asheville Chamber of Commerce
Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar in Asheville
Christa’s Country Corner in Newland
Mystery Hill in Blowing Rock
Town Hardware and General Store in Black Mountain
I am thrilled to know my book is being sold at all those locations in the North Carolina mountains! Soon it will be available at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC.
Janet's Writing Blog 