Refrigerator Door - Home

This past week, Starbucks has been pushing a new item, a line of instant coffee.  I admire their tenacity; every time I go to my local Starbucks - which would be once a day - I am asked, very cheerfully, “Do you want to try our new instant coffee?”

The first couple of times I chuckled and declined politely.  Then I started to get annoyed.  The kicker came when I was at the register buying a pound of whole bean Cafe Verona.  I wanted to take the cheerful barista by the shoulders and shake her and yell, “Do I look like a person who drinks instant coffee?  I’m in here once a day buying whole beans or a double tall nonfat caramel macchiato.  What are you, nuts??”

This is why I’m not sure their new instant coffee will succeed; it seems kind of stupid to me to try to sell instant coffee in an actual coffee house.  It’s like trying to sell Paula Abdul’s line of jewelry in Tiffany’s; it might be a good product, but it’s definitely the wrong audience.

But it’s a lesson that all authors can stand to learn.  Just as it’s stupid to try to sell instant coffee to whole bean addicts, it’s not very smart to put an alien spaceship in a literary novel.  Or decide not to have your hero and heroine so much as kiss chastely in a romance novel.

In other words, know your audience.

This isn’t selling out - although I know some authors who might feel that way.  I know some authors who feel it’s beneath them to write for people who actually enjoy reading (not to mention buying) books in bookstores.  There are some authors who feel as if they’re allowed to break every rule, every convention there is, because they’re special.  (Or brilliant or better than everyone else or independently wealthy; sometimes all of the above.)

Well, OK.  But me, well - I’d rather write books that adhere to some kind of convention, because conventions are defined by the reading public, and publishers like to publish books that this reading public might actually buy, and that’s kind of my goal.  To have my work read.  So I try to know my audience.  I think about them while I’m writing.  It’s a fine line; you can’t be paralyzed by all those unknown eyes, watching your every move.  Yet you can’t write in a vacuum, either.  I’ve talked about how important it is to read what is being published today; these are books that have a defined audience, and it’s smart to understand how they abide by certain conventions.  

Yet I feel that the most creative of people thrive under these conditions; they find ways to be innovative, be daring, within these confines.  It’s much harder to be creative when you’re writing for an audience.  It’s so easy to write whatever the heck pops in your head, and call it genius, when it doesn’t adhere to any rules.  A child can do that. 

But it takes a talented author to carry off the trick of being both creative and fresh and exciting, while knowing the audience she is writing for.  People do expect certain things in their books.  Book club members - and I’ve learned this firsthand - like to laugh a little, cry a lot, and have something faintly controversial to discuss over wine and cheese.  It’s not selling out to try to include these elements in your writing; it’s smart, and it’s a challenge to do it in a fresh way, and that’s what makes good authors great.  Rising to that challenge.

So know your audience, and write up to it.   That’s how I prefer to see it - it’s not writing down, writing to the lowest common denominator.  It’s writing up, writing to a smart, discerning group of people who know what they like, but who want to be astonished anew, every time.  They may like whole bean coffee (instead of instant, Starbucks!), but think how many different varieties of whole bean there are.

And now I am finished beating this particular caffeine-fueled analogy into the ground - 

Because I know my audience.   

This weekend, I had to read a book.

I’m not trying to be cute; truly, reading a novel this weekend was part of my job as an author.  I won’t get into the particulars; suffice it to say there was a specific book that I had to read, in preparation for something I had to do relating to my own writing.  And I really needed to do it before Monday.

I’m happy to say that once I started it, I couldn’t put it down; it was a lovely book and I’m better for having read it.  (The Help, by Kathryn Sockett; run right out and buy it.) 

And I realized, once more, how vital, how important it is that anyone calling him or herself an author actually read.  A lot.  Books that are published today.  Books that are published by the people we hope will publish our books.  It’s part of our jobs; just as important as understanding the difference between past perfect and future perfect tense. 

I joked a lot to my husband about how I had to read this book, gosh darnit, while he had to fill out boring expense reports.  Because, really - how great is this job of ours?  How amazing is it that part of what we have to do is read wonderful, transporting novels? 

Whenever it gets tough, whenever we get that zillionth rejection letter or bad review, we need to remember this.  We get to live and work and hope to work in the world of words.  That’s one of the reasons I wanted to be an author in the first place.  It wasn’t to see my name on a book or my book in a bookstore - although those have certainly been great pleasures.  But it was to be able to live in this world, meet and work with people who love words and stories as much as I do - it was to be able to sit down on a rainy Sunday and read a wonderful book, and call it my job.  Then get up on Monday morning and sit down at a computer and dive right into my own words and spend the whole day rearranging them and spinning them slowly into a novel -

And call it my job.

It may only be a part time job for you.  Or maybe even an internship - a labor of love for now, a learning experience that will prepare you for the next step.  Some people are lucky enough to make it their full time job. 

But it’s a great job, isn’t it?  Writing?  And especially reading? 

It’s Monday morning.  Are you at work yet?

If not, jump in the car and drive to your bookstore and get started.  You’re a working writer.  So start reading. 

There’s a lot of gloom and doom in the world right now, isn’t there? 

Everyone seems to be affected by the economy.  There doesn’t seem to be any sector spared.  Certainly publishing hasn’t been.

Those of us who work in publishing, or want to work in publishing, or love people who work in publishing - this would include writers, of course - are kind of a depressed lot these days.  We read the industry news, we know people laid off, or authors who have had contracts cancelled, or authors who are told by their agents, “Last year I could have sold this; nobody’s buying anything right now, and I have no idea if it’s ever going to get better,” and it’s hard not to think the worst.  It’s hard not to think, “Well, that’s that.  There will be no more books published, ever.  No more books read.  The people have spoken.  We are all doomed.”

Certainly I’ve felt this lately.  I know people whose contracts have been cancelled.  I know people with good sales who can’t sell that next book.  I know agents and editors who don’t know if they’ll still have a job next month.  I have a book on submission right now myself, and while it’s very early in the game - too early to know what’s really going to happen - it’s hard to be optimistic.

But something happened to me yesterday to dispel the gloom and doom.

Yesterday, I went into a bookstore.  For the first time in a long while.  Too long.  It’s not as if I haven’t been buying books - I have - but since they’ve mostly been specific, research-related books, I’ve found it easier to buy them on Amazon. 

But my 17-year-old son recently voiced a desire to read the entire Harry Potter series.  He started it when he was small, when the books first came out, but when J.K. Rowling took her first lengthy break between books he grew up and into videogames and Manga, and never got back into the series.  Now, for some reason (probably a girl-related reason, of course!) he wants to re-read them, and we no longer have the originals.

So I went to the bookstore yesterday to buy the first couple of books for him.  And do you know what?  There were people there!

Real people, buying books!

I actually let out a little gasp when I saw them all.  I have been so immersed in the insider publishing angst, I suppose I truly expected to be the only person out on a Sunday afternoon buying books. 

But I was not the only person.  There were lots of people, and they were buying books and asking sales people for books and even talking about books they want to buy in the future. 

So after I paid for my three books (What?  You think I was going to go inside a Borders and not buy myself something, too?  Ha!  I bought The Heroines by Eileen Favorite, and I can’t wait to read it!), I walked out the door humming a little tune.  Feeling a little optimistic.

Yes, publishing has a lot to think about.  Yes, there have been some boneheaded business practices, and adjustments must be made.  But you know what?  People are still buying books.  And they will buy them in the future.  So we need to keep writing them - and reading them - and stay positive.  It’s not easy, but then again, it probably never has been.

So next time you start feeling a little down, a little gloomy, walk away from the computer.  Get in the car, drive to your nearest bookstore, and stay awhile.  I guarantee you’ll feel better.  Lots better.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a new book to read.

There is a great article by a man named Colin Robinson in the latest edition of the London Review of Books.  He was an editor at Scribner, one of the many unfortunate book industry professionals who were laid off on publishing’s ”Black Wednesday” - December 3. 

I thought his article was very insightful - if a bit lengthy, so be warned! - about what’s happening in the publishing industry now and more importantly, what has happened that has led to the current crisis.  But what really struck a chord with me came more than halfway through the article, when he began discussing how the Internet is changing the way we read and the way we write (my emphasis in bold):

“But there is a wider, if less concrete threat to book publishing from the internet. Electronic communication has generally made life easier for writers and harder for readers. Text is simpler to produce on computers, easier to amend and spell-check, and a breeze to distribute. No one can be more conscious of this than editors, who are now deluged with manuscripts, attached with consummate ease to letters explaining that if this particular book is not of interest, several others, perhaps more appealing, await on the author’s hard drive. But how does this technology serve the reader? For all the claims of their optical friendliness and handiness, e-books still strain the eyes and are challenging to carry around. Worse, the dizzying range of easily accessible material on the internet conspires with a lack of editorial guidance to make web reading a disjointed experience that works against the sustained concentration required for serious reading.

This privileging of the writer at the expense of the reader is borne out by statistics showing the annual output of new titles in the US soaring towards half a million. At the same time a recent survey revealed that one in four Americans didn’t read a single book last year. Books have become detached from meaningful readerships. Writing itself is the victim in this shift. If anyone can publish, and the number of critical readers is diminishing, is it any wonder that non-writers – pop stars, chefs, sports personalities – are increasingly dominating the bestseller lists?

Perhaps the problem has to do with more than just the way in which words are transmitted. People bowl alone, shop online, abandon cinemas for DVDs, and chat to each other electronically rather than go to a bar. In an increasingly self-centred society a premium is placed on being heard rather than listening, being seen rather than watching, and on being read rather than reading.”

I haven’t read anything that so succinctly summarizes what I’ve been feeling about the rise of eBooks, electronic self-publishing, blogs, and the faction of people who seem to think that in the future, publishers will be obsolete and all writing will be available free and electronically.  This faction appears to think this is good for readers and good for writers.  I beg to differ - and this article conveys my fears.

Please understand - I’m all for people following their dreams, and if that dream is finally writing that book they’ve been meaning to write, that’s great.  I’m also all for wonderful books being available in every kind of format, including eBooks.

I’m not, however, for the increasingly popular notion that all writing is created equal, and everyone can be an author.  I do feel that this current climate is devaluing the author and I, understandably, have a problem with that.  Good books are damn hard to write, and they’re not written in a mad rush on a laptop in your spare time; that favorite book of yours, be it TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD or FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS or even GOODNIGHT MOON, is the product of many people working together - an author who, prior to writing and rewriting that book a thousand times, spent years reading and learning the craft; an editor who has done the same; a copyeditor who dreams in punctuation; a cover artist who toils in obscurity.  Not to mention the agent who played matchmaker in the first place, getting the book in the right editor’s hands, and probably doing the first editing of the manuscript before it even got there. 

My point is - writing is not easy.  It’s hard, and every great book is the result - has to be the result - of many caring professionals.  As we keep marching toward this great sea of words, words, words floating out there on the Internet, the gene pool, so to speak, is greatly diluted.  And the result, I fear, is a future where there will be no more great books, period.

So as we march in that direction - and it’s inevitable - I sincerely hope and pray we find a way to value authors, to pay them - and thus, give them an incentive and a way to spend the time they need to work and perfect their craft - and to value good writing.  Not just any writing - but good.  All right, maybe “good” isn’t the right word; what I think is good you might not.  That’s why there are so many different authors and editors out there. 

So maybe “professional” is the better word.  Let’s all hope that there’s a future where writing will be a valued profession, and one to which not everyone will be able to aspire.  After all, not everyone can be an NBA guard, a brain surgeon, or a teacher.

I bet Ernest Hemingway would have made a lousy third baseman in the majors, yet somehow, I feel pretty confident that Alex Rodriguez will write a book someday.  And be paid a lot more to do it than ol’ Ernest ever earned in his lifetime.

That just doesn’t seem right. 

(And - I hesitate to say this after my mighty rant, but bills need to be paid - remember, I do offer a manuscript evaluation service to help those who dream of writing learn and perfect the craft.  I suspect services like mine will be valued more and more, simply because the only way to stand out from all the noise is by putting your best writing out there.) 

I was having a conversation with another writer friend recently.  We were talking about revisions - which is what happens after you think you’ve written the perfect book but then other people read it, or you set it aside for a week or two to clear your head, or your agent or editor weighs in, and you realize that it’s not that perfect.  In fact, it’s frequently suddenly terrible.  But revisions are part of the job; I’d say they’re the majority of the job, really.  Throughout your writing career you will spend a lot more time revising your work than you will in writing it in the first place.

Anyway.  As we were talking, I remembered something that has happened to me in the past, and it’s something worth talking about here.  Sometimes there’s something just a little off in the manuscript; the character, so clear to the author, just won’t resonate with the reader on the page.  It’s one of the hardest things to quantify, but one of the most common reasons why books don’t work.  It’s the main reason agents, editors, or even reviewers will say, “I just couldn’t fall in love with it.”

I’ve come to learn that many times, when this happens, it’s a result of the author forgetting to tell the reader - about a lot of things.  Little things, big things, but things, usually pertaining to the main character, that are so very clear to us in our minds.  And that’s the thing - we know our characters better than anyone.  Of course we do.  We imagine them, we create them in the first place.  Usually we spend a lot of time listening to them talk to us before we even sit down to open the Word Document.  We spend a lot of time thinking about them, their quirks, their habits, their histories. 

So when we do sit down to write them, we forget that the reader doesn’t know them so well.  The reader hasn’t lived with them for months and months.  What’s so very clear to us in our minds, what makes us love them and root for them and cry for them, is often omitted in the actual writing.

I think this is a very understandable, very common mistake we all make, no matter where we are in our careers.  So often, authors are afraid of being too obvious on the page; subtlety is always valued over hitting the reader with a giant clue stick.  And it’s good to value subtlety.  Yet I think, in the end, most of us err on the side of being too subtle.  What’s so clear to us, as we’re creating these wonderful characters, is not clear to the person reading the actual words for the first time.  We have to spell it out for them; we have to make our characters’ motivations, desires, journeys, clear as day.  The person picking up your book can’t read your mind; they can only read what you put down on the page.  

So remember this, when you’re revising.  Don’t be surprised to find out that you neglected to say something that was very obvious to you while writing.  Maybe several somethings, in fact.

In other words - don’t forget the reader.

As my own writing is taking me in a new direction - more toward historical fiction -  I’m finding out that I love doing research. 

It’s really the perfect storm for me; I’ve long been a history junkie.  Give me a marathon of “The Presidents” or “The Revolution” on the History Channel, and I’m there with popcorn and Red Vines.  Fortunately, I think I’ve managed to find the sweet spot of making sure that the story is still king while surrounding it with lots of interesting, historical detail and tidbits.  Sometimes I think it’s easy to go overboard with the history, and forget that really, people want a PLOT.

However.  There is one little problem with this. 

As I’m casting about for my next project, waiting for that “Aha!” moment, I’m spending a lot of time on the Internet, a lot of time on Google - and a helluva lot of time on Amazon.  And herein lies my problem.  A subject interests me and in the excitement of the moment, I start hitting “Order now with One-Click” and suddenly I have a stack of books piling up on my desk.  Books that, usually, I now regret ordering because after just a bit more research I discovered the idea doesn’t really hold up, or has been done to death by better authors than me. 

Now, I’ll read all these books sometime because, as I said - I’m a history junkie.  They all sound fascinating.  They were not all, however, absolutely necessary and even though I can claim them as a business expense - after all, they are still research - my Visa card is getting a bit tired.  And despite my patriotic desire to single-handedly jumpstart this economy, I can’t actually afford all of these books.

But it’s so tempting.  Thinking of setting a book during the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis?  With one click of a button, tons of books - new books, books now out of print, every single book ever written about the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis - can be yours.  All yours!  No trip to the library necessary.  In two days, they will be on your doorstep.

Of course, by then you will have discovered this setting doesn’t exactly work with your idea for a story about star-crossed lovers from two different worlds because even with a World’s Fair, St. Louis was still kind of a snooze in 1904 (although the ice cream cone was invented then, which is kind of exciting.  Except not really.).  And now you have five different books telling you this.

I think I’m learning; I am now telling myself, sternly, that I cannot hit “Order now with One-Click” until I have slept on an idea overnight.  It’s tough, though.  And I admit, I’ve had a relapse or two.  

Is there a One-Click Button’s Anonymous Group somewhere?  Because my name is Melanie Lynne Hauser, and I’m a One-Click-aholic.

This morning there was yet another article about the rise in self-publishing.

I’ve blogged about self-publishing in the past.  Basically, I think it’s not for someone who wants a career as a writer.  But it can be swell for someone who has a family memory book they’d like to produce, or something with a very narrow, local focus (like the history of their small town), or even some business or self-help books, especially if the author has a nice little business going around and giving motivational or informational talks on the subject. 

But for someone who really hopes to have a wide audience for their books - all their books - I still think traditional publishing is the way to go, as hard as it is these days.  The rare breakout books you read about - books that were self-published and went on to fame and fortune - usually have a couple of things going for them that you don’t always know about.  One is, the author (or the author’s loved one) often has a connection, a skill, pertinent to the book industry - running or owning a small press already, or connections and inroads into the book distribution business, or bookseller associations.  Most of us don’t have these connections, though.  And these successful examples of self-published books almost always are defined as successful only once they’ve been picked up and published by, yes, you guessed it - a traditional publisher.  It’s only then that they ever sell enough copies, get in enough bookstores, to be profitable. 

So ultimately, success is still determined as a book that has been published by the big, traditional presses.  It’s just the path that might be different - but it’s a narrower, rockier path than even the one the majority of authors take. 

Getting back to this article, though, several things struck me.  One is the fact that the number of self-published books is increasing every week, just as fewer and fewer books are being bought and read, bookstores are closing, and chains are struggling. 

Now, it’s not a new idea, that almost everyone you know thinks they can write a book.  It’s the truth; almost everywhere I go, when people find out I’m an author, I’m either asked how much money I make (not a whole heck of a lot) or how easy it was to get published because, “I always wanted to quit my job and write a book.”  People think it’s easy, and they think it’s easy money, but I also think people just want to create, which isn’t a bad thing. 

But these people - all these would-be writers - are not always readers, and that’s the big disconnect.  There are far more people who want to write books than who want to read them, and self-publishing is making it easier, in a way, and, well -

We have an interesting phenomenon:  Way more books than there are people to read them. 

This is true, really, even if you take out self-publishing.  Even books that have been carefully crafted, studied, vetted by agents and editors can’t find readers. 

So - what’s up, America?  Why are we a nation of writers who don’t read?  What is it about the lure of publishing a book that doesn’t always translate to the joy of spending the weekend reading lots of other people’s books? 

As part of my manuscript evaluation service, I ask clients several questions before I read their manuscripts:  Why did you write it?  Who’s your audience?  Can you describe the plot in one sentence?

I also ask them, “What are the last five books you’ve read?  When did you read them?”

I find this last question very revealing.  It seems to be the hardest one to answer.  There is a lot of hemming and hawing, and many times the last five books sound suspiciously like the books that were on my high school summer reading list, about twenty years ago. 

Personally, I became an author because I loved reading.  Not because I wanted to see my name on a book in a bookstore, or because I wanted to boast to people that I was an author, or because I had dreams of fame and fortune.  (Although truthfully, I wouldn’t turn those down!)  But because, from the time I was a little girl, I was spellbound by words, by stories, and always wanted to read more and more - and wanted to be able to talk to other people about words and stories.  I wanted to be in that world, because, simply, I loved books.  Everything about ‘em.

I still do.  I look at my overflowing bookshelves, the stacks of books on the floor in my room, and I’m happy and content and - full.  Full of dreams and knowledge and stories and words.  And it’s only once I’m full of other people’s stories that I feel fueled enough to begin to write my own.

So - self-published or not, writers need to read.  There should never be more books in the world than there are readers.  There should never be more writers in the world than there are readers.  

A writer should never write more books than she has read.  There’s just no excuse for that. 

So it is written; so it shall be. 

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve updated this blog.  When I took this break, I intended to revamp this website, signaling a new direction in my career.

Well, isn’t there some saying about the best intentions?  I had them, truly.  But…as you can see, the site looks the same.

But that’s not to say that I haven’t been changing.  I have!  In addition to my own writing, I’ve started a new business, evaluating manuscripts.

With that in mind, then, I intend this blog to be solely about the art and business of writing.  Eventually I will launch a sister site that will be more about me, personally, and my own writing.  But - baby steps, baby!  Baby steps.

First order of business - “The Refrigerator Door” doesn’t sound very writing-related, does it?  So what should I call this new site?  Please let me know in the comments!

Second order of business - Let me tell you a bit about my new service.  Actually, let me point you to the page on my site that tells you a bit about my new service!  Why am I doing this?  Well, I could say for the money, of course.  But also, I believe that publishing is changing.  The ground is tumbling under our feet as we speak.  EBooks, self-publishing, traditional publishing - all are competing for a hungry readership that is looking for new ways to read.  Yet ultimately, story is king.  With a crowded playing field, then, it’s the best, most polished work that will stand out, no matter how it is delivered or read. 

I truly believe I can help writers; I want to help writers.  I want to pass on what I’ve learned with two books published, short stories published, an essay that’s appeared in a successful anthology - and years working with an agent, editors, other wonderful writers.  Writers can’t work in a vacuum.  Often - usually - the author is too close to the project, too emotionally invested, too caught up in lofty ideals and goals, to see the flaws and the potential for improvement in the work.  This is why most successful authors have beloved critique partners, or trusted editors (often their agents serve in this capacity).  

And that’s what I’m offering - my services as that critique partner, that trusted editor.  I want to see authors succeed; I want to make sure wonderful stories get told.  That’s my goal.  (When I’m not writing my own wonderful stories, that is!)

So that’s what’s new with me!  How about you?

And stay tuned; I will be blogging about the art and business of writing, and have lots of ideas and thoughts to share.  The world need stories.  And we need to value the people who tell them.  One way is to have a place to discuss this wonderful, important process.  I’d like to try to provide that place.

As always, I close with my favorite thing to say (after “The cocktails are on ice!” of course) - Buy books!  Read books!  Tell other people about books!

I know I said I was taking a break, but as we go into the holidays I wanted to point you to this great blog.  It’s all about buying books for the holidays; you can post which books you’re buying, and get some great ideas! 

I know it’s simplistic, but the only way we’re going to save this industry is to get people to buy more books.  And times are tough, true - but a book isn’t very much money, and it’s a gift that will last forever.  So please put books on your Christmas list, and ask others to do the same! 

A funny thing happened on the way to this blog post…

Last Thursday, I woke up to no Internet.  No Internet, no DAH in the house to help me figure it out.  I figured it would be just a temporary service thing, so I waited all day.. and waited…and waited.  Finally I called Earthlink, spoke to a customer service representative from the other side of the world named “Jim” - Anyway.  Long story short -

It was a major problem on their side, and we didn’t get our service back up again until Friday night.  So.  36 hours without Internet. 

At first I didn’t care; I thought it would be a refreshing change.  But soon enough, I started to break out in a cold sweat, unable to shake the feeling that there was important stuff going on in the world, and I was the only person who didn’t know about it!  Then younger son came home from school and had to fill out an application for a job, so he needed some phone numbers for references.  And it took us both about half an hour to figure out how to do that, without looking on the Internet.  (There’s this fancy service called “Directory Assistance” - did you know about that??!!)

Eventually we got the Internet back, and life seemed normal again.

But I did learn something from the experience.

I learned that not having to write a blog post on Friday was kind of liberating.

Oh, at first it was difficult - I thought, if I don’t blog about my life, is it really happening??

Then I realized how pathetic that was.  And then I thought - wow.  It’s actually kind of nice to go through my day and not think, “I wonder if THIS would make a good blog post?” with every action.

Now, I do not want to give the impression that I haven’t enjoyed writing a blog.  I have, mainly because of the people I’ve met - and re-met - through it. 

But I started this, over three years ago, because I was an author with a book about to come out and I was told that all authors with books about to come out should have blogs.  So I did.  And again - it’s been a very rewarding experience.

However, my blog - and my website - really did center around the Super Mom books.  And as those books have come, and now gone, I’ve felt for a while now that I’ve been in a rut.  I’m an author who blogs, not a blogger who writes books.  So…well…

All this is a very long-winded way to say that I’m taking a hiatus from the Refrigerator Door for a while.  I’m going in a very different direction with my next book, and when the time comes to start talking about that - and building an Internet presence around it - I’m going to have to retool my whole website and blog.  Take things in an entirely different direction.  

And since I’m currently immersed in that manuscript, trying to finish before the holidays take over, I think it’s a smart use of my time to suspend the blog postings.  

BUT - I am very optimistic that sometime after the first of the year, I will be doing as I said - a reboot; a redesign.  And when that time comes, I will let you know!  All you have to do is sign up on my mailing list, and you will get a notice when Melanie’s new blog is up.  (Just click here, scroll down and on the left-hand side, there’s a place to enter your email address to be on the newsletter mailing list.) 

So until that time, I won’t say good-bye.  I’ll be working, and welcome any emails anyone wants to send my way.  I’ll just say, “See ya in a few!” and look forward to a fresh start in the New Year.

But please - have a wonderful holiday season, and remember to please, PLEASE, read and buy books!  If you value the written word - and I think you do, if you’re reading this - you have to understand.  We’re in a crisis right now.  Books and authors are not valued as they once were.  We desperately need people to keep reading, start reading, and to tell the next generation about reading.

OK, enough preaching.  Now to work - and I’ll see ya in a few!

(And I promised Heather a shout out for mentioning my eBook on her blog - thanks, Heather!)