Solicited 17 on-line and print reviews
Blogged, Facebooked and Tweeted my heart out
Traveled to Chicago to sell books
Had t-shirt, bookmarks, pens, etc. made
Targeted (that sounds bad, it wasn’t!) on-line lighthouse enthusiasts
Toured lighthouses with promo materials
Set up a “blog tour” for September
Set up not one but two book launch parties here in town
Convinced the Lighthouse Inn to display my promo
On Line book launch party at the Romance Studio (TODAY – JOIN US!)
Connected with a lovely lady on Squidoo that will link my book to her lens about a lighthouse (THE lighthouse that figures prominently in CAPE SEDUCTION!)

(Getting more creative as I go)

Like I said, that’s just a bit of it. I have contests in the works (you’ll be hearing about them) and another important author’s endorsement coming. I’m in conversation with a lighthouse preservation society (not sure yet how it will tie, but it WILL.)

The main thing is, I do something every day to promote my books. Because if I don’t care enough to do that, who will care enough to buy them? And my efforts encourage my publisher to match them. ‘Nuff said!

St. George Reef Lighthouse

High points (and pun slightly intended) were the lighthouses. Sigh. First, Point Cabrillo, just north of Mendocino, California. Darlingest little beacon. No tours (the tower was chained off) and the main floor is now a gift shop. DD and I romped around taking photos and complained because I’d left my wallet with DH, down the road.

Next was Battery Point in Crescent City. We stayed at (where else?) The Lighthouse Inn. Lovely people, and a lobbyful

The Glamorous, Success Author at Battery Point

of lighthouse pictures and artifacts. INCLUDING a huge wall mural of St. George Reef Lighthouse, which figures prominently in my new book, CAPE SEDUCTION! How hauntingly apropos. Staff was lovely. They agreed to display my rack cards!

Battery Point is a beautiful lighthouse, accessed only at low tide. DD and I took a tour. The docents were volunteers who get a month of lighthouse keeping at a time, and the waiting list is LONG. I passed out bookmarks and postcards to two very giddy lighthouse loving ladies.

Last was one of my favorites, Heceta Head Lighthouse in Yachats, Oregon. One of the most photographed beacons in the U.S. Another tour, lots of good info.

The Astonishing Heceta Head

Great gift shop (had my wallet this time!!) Could have stayed here all day. This lighthouse is on the cover of POINT SURRENDER. Heceta Head, by the way, is on tap for a major facelift next year. Needs it, badly.

Couldn’t see them all. Passed several up on the way, hopefully to be visited another time. I’ll be traveling back to my brother’s house in late August, at which time we’ll visit Point No Point Lighthouse. Can’t wait!

St. George Reef inside The Lighthouse Inn!

Evidence of decay. Still beautiful

Hollywood was wooing back the public with blockbusters like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo and The Three Musketeers. The beautiful people were “seen” at the Brown Derby and held their not-so-secret trysts at Chateau Marmont. They drove fishtail-finned Caddies and flew in the luxurious Douglas DC-6.

Darla Foster wanted to be in pictures. Just 21, she worked the circles, attached herself to the arm of any available actor with connections. On this night, March 20, 1948, one of her dreams came true as she sat at Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre watching Hollywood’s brightest accept their coveted Oscar statuettes. Later, at the Derby with her date, she met one of Tinsel Town’s favorite sons: the suave, slick headliner, Jordan Kent.

Darla’s life was about to take a sudden left turn as she found herself cast in Jordan’s next big film, about star-crossed lovers, a lighthouse and murder. Exciting fantasy, or true life?

CAPE SEDUCTION… available now for your reading pleasure!  BUY IT HERE:

Friday night we joined fellow Echelon authors Beth Solheim, Mary Welk and Luisa Buehler for dinner, then grabbed LJ Sellers from O’Hare. Weather, to this point, was hot-hot and muggy. But Saturday morning dawned cloudy and cool. We kept one eye on the sky while organizing our ½ booth, staying optimistic as we squeezed into space meant for half as many people. Our tent-mates, “Drawn and Quarterly”, were actually quite accommodating when Karen suggested we cut the booth in half rather than diagonally.

Nick Valentino, Norm Cowie, Karen Syed

I was thrilled with the pre-release copies of CAPE SEDUCTION that arrived in time to show off to book-buying Chicagoans. Best sale of the day:  to an excited reader with LIGHTHOUSE EARRINGS! No brainer, that one! The interest, not the reader, LOL.

However, even the nicest books look a little dowdy when subjected to rainfall. By midday, the temp had dropped and so had the wet stuff from the sky, as our authors scrambled to cover everything with tarps and plastic drop cloths. Most of us had dressed for heat and humidity but not chilly rain. Sales dropped off when the umbrellas came out. We packed up a half hour early while it poured, then walked the block and a half to a wonderful Italian restaurant (Trattoria Caterina) for dinner where talk ranged from new manuscripts and industry news to the wine Norm brought to share…

Sam Morton and Yours Truly

Sunday was better, traffic was higher and sales were up. But by 4 pm, the rain returned, and because it was later in the day, most people just left and vendors began to break down early. The band was still playing across the way, so most of us danced—we were a happy sight to see! Around this time I joined Nick Valentino at the Old Towne Books & Tea table to sign books and chat with readers. Friendly booksellers from Oswego, IL!

Despite the weather and the cramped conditions, we did all right. Could’ve done much better, I think, with more space and less wet. Karen Syed has described the situation with the space in her blog at Echelon Press, and you can read my take on it there as well.

For me, one of the highlights is meeting and interacting with the other authors. Old friends Sam Morton, Luisa Buehler, Bob Goldsborough, Marc & son Jim Vun Kannon; new pals Nick & Stacey Valentino, Joel & Cydney Fox (Cydney could sell potatoes to Irishmen!), Beth Solheim, LJ Sellers, Kieryn Nicholas and her fab family, and funny guy Norm Cowie were all a delight to meet. And spending time with Karen is always, ALWAYS a lark.

Will I go back? Right now, I say probably not, but you never know!

Chicago 2007

It’s been three years since I last attended Printers Row in Chicago. It was hot but pleasant. Hoards of people. There I met fellow Echelon Press authors J.R. (Jenny) Turner, Luisa Buehler, Robert Goldsborough, Marc Vun Kannon, Margot Justes, Mary Welk and of course our fearless leader, Karen Syed. This year, we’ll be joined by Norm Cowie, Nick Valentino, Sam Morton, Joel Fox, L.J. Sellers, Beth Solheim, Kieryn Nicholas and Marlis Day.

Here’s the press release for my appearance this year.

I’m not packed. I’m leaving the house at around 6:30 AM tomorrow. Mentally, I have my list:  bookmarks, postcards, banner; stickers, pens, Altoids. My standard signing kit, which includes sunscreen, scissors, granola bars, change, lip balm, more pens. Bookstands—new ones this year.

Technology-wise, I’ll have my laptop. My Blackberry. My nook. My iPod. Numerous AC adapters. I’ll be wired for sound.

Also toting some new things. A very pretty necklace with a USB drive hanging from it. Some mini-coloring books with pictures of lighthouses. A hat. Yes, I am wearing a hat.

And I will be seeing my new release for the first time. CAPE SEDUCTION will “pre-release” in limited quantities at this event. I’m so excited about that! I love this book and can’t wait to see/hear the response. Official release will be in August. Ebook is a few days delayed, but should be online for purchase any day now.

Technology slows things down. Yes, that’s what I said – new formats take longer to prepare. We’ve waited this long, a few more days won’t matter!

Come by booth #FF if you’re in town. If not, hang out and read the excerpts while I’m gone.

Will report in when I return. This is going to be a great weekend, thunderstorms and all!

But what drives those gears? In classic clocks and watches, a coiled spring produces tension and must be re-wound in order to keep the timepiece running. In tall, free-standing “grandfather” clocks, it is a weight mechanism that provides the clock’s movement. Basic gravity swings the grandfather clock pendulum, making the weights drop at fixed paces. The falling weights drive the grandfather clock’s functions.

Before the introduction of electricity in lighthouses, this same clockwork mechanism was used to operate the gears that turned the lens. While a clock’s chain might be thirty-six inches or less, the rope attached to the weight in a lighthouse was several feet long and hung down the center of the lighthouse tower. When the weight reached as far as it could go (presumably to the bottom floor of the lighthouse), the keeper had to wind the clockwork mechanism again to raise the heavy weight and start the whole process over. The taller the lighthouse, the longer the rope might be. Many lighthouses had to have the mechanism wound every few hours.

An early lighthouse keeper in Minnesota is said to have slept beneath the hanging weight in order not to sleep through the onerous task of rewinding the mechanism! Can you imagine being awakened several times a night, with a hanging, 170 pound weight brushing your belly?

And we think our jobs are hard.

I couldn’t begin to write his biography. He led an interesting life, full of a myriad of vocations and locations. He was a thinker, above all. A design engineer by trade, he was forever inventing a better mousetrap.

Aerospace, television and radio electronics and medical technologies were some of his many fields. Due to his role in defense aeronautics, he was exempted from serving during the great wars, instead working on military contracts for Lockheed, Boeing and other homeland defense contractors.

He invented and held the patent for an electro-magnetic linear-drive motor that he built into the first portable electrocardiogram machine. Its purpose was to allow patients’ hearts to be monitored and recorded while engaged in active exercise (such as the treadmill.)

Daddy had in-depth theories about the demise of the dinosaurs and the creation of the planets. He loved nothing more than chatting about his thoughts and studies with anyone who would listen. He was an articulate arguer, as well.

He once worked as a stand-in for Clark Gable. When Gable walked off the set during a pay dispute, Dad was put into his place for a few distance shots. The movie was “Boomtown.”

Another time, his story goes, he was sitting in a bar in Kansas City when a couple of well-dressed thugs surrounded him, mistaking him for a “syndicate” guy.

I will be forever thankful for the things he taught me. When other little girls were playing with dolls or jumpropes, I was seated in the garage, soldering iron in hand. He gave me my first job, as a draftsman, where I drew spec drawings for his medical electronics company. He instilled in me a love of a diverse range of music; Motown, country, pop, Big Band. We often danced in the living room until we were both winded. He also taught me to bowl. He was a friend and wonderful father to his five children. He was a champ.

My father succumbed to heart disease almost 14 years ago. I still miss him, every day.

Happy Birthday, Daddy.

It’s all about not wanting to be interrupted. I could sit at the computer for, say, 30 minutes between tasks and start working on a story. But for most writers, 30 minutes just won’t cut it—it takes that long, sometimes, to really warm up to what I’m writing. So I’m reluctant to put fingers on the keyboard unless I have some significant, quality time to write. I just can’t be rushed.

Oh, Yum.

The book launch for the Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles anthology MURDER IN LA LA LAND was just a kick! I believe nine of the 12 authors and two of the three editors made appearances at The Mystery Bookstore in Westwood. The crowd was fun and receptive, the bookstore staff was generous and accommodating. I enjoyed meeting Paul Marks, Terri Nolan, Jane DeLucchio, Kathy Kingston, Donna May, Kathleen Piche and Lenore Carlson, all extraordinary LA LA authors. I’d already had the pleasure of meeting Gabriela Vazquez,  my terrific editor Eric Stone, and it’s always a lark chatting with the witty and behatted Michael Mallory. Also on hand was the charming Naomi Hirahara, another of our fine editors. Missing were authors Jack Maeby (whom I’ve met before), Patricia Morin and Jude McGee—we’ll catch up at a future event. (Jude is off gallivanting around Spain, poor kid!)

Lots of positive feedback on my short entry, “Just Like Jay.” I’m encouraged to start writing shorts again. If I ever get my chores caught up.