Finished NaNoWriMo Contest

I'm back after missing a few Tuesday posts. My competitive side came out while I tried to prove to myself I could succeed at this contest. On Sunday, I pasted into the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) site what is to be my next book. I modestly put 51,900 words in my word estimate updater. The validater totaled 52,028 words. That puts me well over the 50,000 I needed. According to the site that makes me a winner along with most of the 36,000 plus other contestants.

Last year, I entered and didn't have half the words I needed by the end of November. However, that contest was a good learning experience to prepare me for this year. I learned from the 2009 entry what I needed to do to compete in this contest and make it to the finish line. For one thing, I have been too used to going over what I've written to correct the first time around as I go. Over the years, I've entered many writing contests. All the elements that go into a story has to be perfect in order to place. So last time, I didn't pay attention to the fact the contest information states that the book can be poorly written and should be to get done by the end of the month. How sloppy the sentence structure or how poor the details are doesn't matter. That can be taken care of after the contest. All right so this time I got it.

Stick-to-itness and watching the words add up are a must. I checked after each writing session to see how many words I'd written. A writer has to average close to 12,000 or over a week to be able to finish a winner. When I hadn't made that goal by the end of a week, I knew I had to buckle down and continue until I had the amount of words I needed. Then I could stop, rest and get ready to start over the next day. So what if I wasn't at my brightest when I slaved away at the keyboard, trying to make the 12,000 words a week. All I had to do was keep in mind that I was allowed to be a sloppy writer on this contest entry. No one was going to hold it against me.

I excused last year that I had too many interruptions in November to write. I found this November wasn't any different. The key is I was prepared for the interruptions and didn't let those distractions stop me from working when I was home. That meant cutting down to the minimal amount of distractions. For instance, I really did need to go grocery shopping or keep a dental appointment. One cut was not making blog posts most of the month. Writing a post doesn't take me long, but my dial up Internet connection is slow. It takes a morning and sometimes a day to download the post on my various blogs. While I was writing I kept away from the telephone as much as possible. Time to chat is now that I'm done with the contest.

Turns out, I have done much the same sort of writing with all my other books. I just didn't think about the time it took to get to the finished version. For one thing, I don't have a deadline so the days melt into months while I work on a story and rework it and eventually the book is done. I like it that way, but this contest was an incentive to keep working.

NaNoWriMo is certainly a way to motivate authors as long as they have a basic outline or plan in their head for the story. That means start giving some thought to what you want to write about in October. Once the contest starts, there isn't any time to have writer's block. The great thing about this contest is whether I got to the 50,000 word finish line or not, I could considered the process a great writing exercise and a portion of a book done.

Now comes the real work. I've got to edit the entry, rewrite and delete many words in the sloppy sentence structures. Wouldn't be surprised if I chop out half of the entry, but that's all right. The basic story is still there and one of these days I'll have a book completed.

Athena Club Presentation Over

For just a few days, I imagined a well thought out plan for what I was going to do to promote my Civil War book at the Athena Club meeting in Belle Plaine, Iowa last night. That all changed last Tuesday with a sizable dent in my car's driver door. My door won't open until the repair work is done so I'm stuck with driving the car like it is. Until that happy moment when I can get in and out of my car like any other driver, I'm getting in on the passenger side and squeezing between the gear shift lever and arm rest one leg at a time. There went the idea of wearing my full skirted, floor length homesteader dress. It's hard enough to double up and maneuver myself into and out of the driver's seat in slacks. Not that this little inconvenience dimmed my enthusiasm for talking about my books. I slipped on my pioneer bonnet and told the audience I wore it to get in the mood. That got me a chuckle from everyone which put them in a good mood as well I hope.

I can't imagine how girls in the thirties had any freedom to be adventuresome, wearing dresses. My mother-in-law was a teenager in Arkansas at the time. Mom assures me I'm wrong. Women wore dresses no matter what they did on the farm. They didn't know any different. In fact, when the first two women in the area dared to put on slacks, they were considered sinners. However soon after that the fad caught on and northern Arkansas had many sinners wearing slacks.

In the middle of my struggle to get from one seat of my car to the other, it reminds me of sitting on a horse's saddle while I sit on the hump with the gear shift lever in front of me. I asked Mom if she ever rode a horse in a dress. Turns out at fourteen, she was riding one of her father's work horses bareback with a bit and reins. She is only 4 feet eleven inches tall but could grab the horse's mane, give a leap and straddle that large animal. I asked, "How did your dress work out for you then?" She said it wasn't a problem. Dresses were longer in those days. Was she adventuresome? Oh yes! She met up with a group of boys from school at a little used country road and together they raced to the other end. Now I know this lady likes to be the best she can at anything she does so I asked if she ever won the races. She smiled cagily when she told me it wasn't that kind of race. They just ran the horses for the fun of it. Sounds like a smart woman to me. At fourteen years old, she had figured out to let the boys win the race.

Last night at the meeting, I talked about another woman with a competitive nature. During the Civil War, Ella Mayfield, lady Bushwhacker, was determined to fight to the end for her cause. Not only was she a crack shot, she rode her horse better than most men. While hiding from Union Soldiers in the Ozark timbers of Vernon County, Missouri, a messenger found Ella to deliver a message from a friend that lived near Ft. Scott, Kansas. The doctor needed to see Ella right away. It was a matter of life and death. This was 3 in the afternoon. Ella raced west and arrived at the friend's house at dusk. She found out the problem was the doctor had sent her mother a picture of a Union soldier that killed Ella's two brothers. One brother's widow had put a bounty on that soldier's head. Now the rough men in Kansas wanted that picture so they would know who to shoot for the bounty. If the doctor didn't give them the picture in 24 hours, they were going to kill him. Ella rested an hour, got back on her horse and headed back to Montevallo, Mo. She arrived at her mother's cabin, explained the doctor's dilemma, secured the picture and raced back to the doctor's house. She made it in the 24 hour time limit and had rode at break neck speed for 125 miles with only two hours break. As well as Ella knew the land, traveling at night had to be dangerous for many reasons. What if her horse stumbled in a gully or stream? What if the Union patrols, camped all over the area, were alerted by their horses knickering at Ella's mount? Her only warning when she came near a camp was smelling smoke or seeing the flicker of a campfire. If Ella came too close to a cabin in the dark, she could have gotten shot by a homesteader that thought she was a murderous Jayhawker. Wild animals were plentiful such as wolves, bobcats and mountain lions. Those night predators could have easily pounced on Ella. Not only was she in good shape physically, but her horse must had very good stamina. However once Ella rejoined her Bushwhacker band in the timber camp, I can imagine she and her horse took a well deserved rest. Oh yeah, and she did all that in men's trousers.

That's just one of the stories I told last night about Ella's brave deeds from the book Ella Mayfield's Pawpaw Militia - A Civil War Saga In Vernon Co. Mo. It was a fun meeting with a very interested audience. I enjoyed myself, and I hoped the Athena Club did, too.

Now I have to get back to my November writing contest story. I'm doing all right so far with word count, but the month is young.

Fay Risner's 18th Book

I've been without an internet or phone for two days. As I'm writing this blog post, I have a connection but it keeps coming and going. Seems the wind gusting up to 50 miles an hour is interfering.

I've always liked to read westerns and watch cowboy shows. Maybe because I was raised that way. In the fifties my parents took us to western movies in a vacant lot during the summer. We sat on hard benches on Saturday evenings and enjoyed every minute. Since westerns were the only movies we went to see I didn't realize there were any other kind for a long time.

When I worked with a woman that loves westerns, she encouraged me to write one. That's when I wrote The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary - my first Stringbean Hooper Western. I didn't think there would be another one until the same woman asked me to continue with Stringbean Hooper's story. She even gave me a story line to follow. All right, so here it is the book she is waiting for - Small Feet's Many Moon Journey - ISBN 1453899448.

Back Cover

Looking forward to a journey across country to San Jose, California, Stringbean Hooper and his wife, Theo, have no idea just how much trouble they can get into. Theo considers this trip their honeymoon and a change to be at her brother, Brock's wedding. Stringbean has been in one place too long and is eager to see country he hasn't seen before.

Stringbean gets them lost in Indian territory and upsets the Indians. The couple escapes a flood, a mad bear, spends the night in a run down cabin with a woman crazy with prairie fever and more.

Through it all, Stringbean meets the challenges with his usual sense of humor, but he notices as the journey drags on Theo is getting crankier by the minute. He sure hopes she lightens up by the time they get to her brother's wedding in San Jose. It didn't help him any to have warning advice freely handed out to Theo, known as Small Feet, by Indian shaman Matilda Vinci. The old woman warns Theo to be careful while traveling with Stringbean who's Sioux name is Walking Dead. He might get her killed.

Now I'm waiting until November 1 to start my next book in the NaNoWriMo contest. This will be the third book in the Nurse Hal Among The Amish Series I'm working on during the contest. So because I am in earnest this year about getting my 50,000 words in, I'll be working on that instead of posting to my blog. Last year was my first time in the contest. I found getting to the finish line was harder than I thought it would be. Too many days I was away from the computer, and I just couldn't catch up so this time I'm prepared to stick with writing. I'll let you know how I did the last of November.

Fay Risner's 18th Book

I've been without an internet or phone for two days. As I'm writing this blog post, I have a connection but it keeps coming and going. Seems the wind gusting up to 50 miles an hour is interfering.

I've always liked to read westerns and watch cowboy shows. Maybe because I was raised that way. In the fifties my parents took us to western movies in a vacant lot during the summer. We sat on hard benches on Saturday evenings and enjoyed every minute. Since westerns were the only movies we went to see I didn't realize there were any other kind for a long time.

When I worked with a woman that loves westerns, she encouraged me to write one. That's when I wrote The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary - my first Stringbean Hooper Western. I didn't think there would be another one until the same woman asked me to continue with Stringbean Hooper's story. She even gave me a story line to follow. All right, so here it is the book she is waiting for - Small Feet's Many Moon Journey - ISBN 1453899448.

Back Cover

Looking forward to a journey across country to San Jose, California, Stringbean Hooper and his wife, Theo, have no idea just how much trouble they can get into. Theo considers this trip their honeymoon and a change to be at her brother, Brock's wedding. Stringbean has been in one place too long and is eager to see country he hasn't seen before.

Stringbean gets them lost in Indian territory and upsets the Indians. The couple escapes a flood, a mad bear, spends the night in a run down cabin with a woman crazy with prairie fever and more.

Through it all, Stringbean meets the challenges with his usual sense of humor, but he notices as the journey drags on Theo is getting crankier by the minute. He sure hopes she lightens up by the time they get to her brother's wedding in San Jose. It didn't help him any to have warning advice freely handed out to Theo, known as Small Feet, by Indian shaman Matilda Vinci. The old woman warns Theo to be careful while traveling with Stringbean who's Sioux name is Walking Dead. He might get her killed.

Now I'm waiting until November 1 to start my next book in the NaNoWriMo contest. This will be the third book in the Nurse Hal Among The Amish Series I'm working on during the contest. So because I am in earnest this year about getting my 50,000 words in, I'll be working on that instead of posting to my blog. Last year was my first time in the contest. I found getting to the finish line was harder than I thought it would be. Too many days I was away from the computer, and I just couldn't catch up so this time I'm prepared to stick with writing. I'll let you know how I did the last of November.

Keosauqua, Iowa Road Trip

Last Thursday was the day I spoke at the Van Buren County Hospital Women's Health Fair at Keosauqua, Iowa. Wow! Did I get more out of the day than just speaking and selling books. Although being there did give me a chance to meet a lot of friendly people and spread the word about my books.

That morning, the sun shone brightly on Iowa fields filled with combines and tractors. The farther south we drove, the more leaves colored. The hundred and twelve miles was fairly flat land. We drove through smaller villages except for Fairfield, a college town. The two hours flew by as we enjoyed looking at the scenic countryside.

The visitors guide 2010 says "Keosauqua, the county seat, (pop. 1066) is the largest village in Van Buren County. It is located in the center of the county within the horseshoe bend of the Des Moines River. Keosauqua is a community of friendly neighbors with small town hospitality." I couldn't have said that better myself.

The courthouse is the oldest in Iowa and on the National Register of Historic Places. Second oldest in the country. In 1846, the courthouse was the scene of the first legal death sentencing and hanging in Iowa. Don't know when the town was founded but that statement tells me some time around 1846.

Van Buren Hospital is a much needed medical benefit to everyone as all our county hospitals are. The building was filled with friendly staff, and volunteers manned a table to greet the visitors at the door. The grounds were neatly groomed with trees and flowers beds. Stones had the name of people on them that the spots were dedicated to.

The health fair tables were spread out from one end of the building to the other down the maze of halls. Women came, interested in information about diseases that will or have affected them. Plus, there were other businesses doing therapy, massages, selling children books, nutrition drinks and much more. I had a drawing for one of my books. The addresses on the papers in my basket proved women were willing to drive some distance to attended this annual event.

Now step out of this modern hospital and tour the town. I loved that Keosauqua has preserved buildings that must have been some of the first built when the town was settled in the 1800's. By now a lot of small towns historic buildings have been torn down to make way for progress. This is a town that would make a good back drop for the type of movies I'd like to watch.

We drove down a street headed east and watched a fisherman unload his boat into the Des Moines River's fast currant right in front of us. We turned the corner. That street ran between the river and century or better old Riverbend hotel with a porch on the end that was built around the front of the building as well. If the long modern bridge hadn't been in view, I might have expected a riverboat to slowly round the bend and trappers in canoes gliding over to dock. They'd be coming to town to sell their bundle of furs in the back of the boat. Perhaps, women, in their finery, holding onto a parasol and paper fan sat on the porch, waiting to go up the gang plank of that riverboat for a ride back home. No, the ladies sitting there was just enjoying the view while they ate their sack lunch.

We turned back west and drove along the front of the hotel. The long porch is held up with porch posts from back in the day. A picture flashed through my head of elderly bearded gents sitting on benches. Some smoking a pipe and others spitting amber in the dirt street (that used to be there) from the chewing tobacco in their jaws as they watched the younger generations move about town energetically.

Another neat sight was a church that looked like it should have been in Little House On The Prairie. The tower on the side of the church held a bell, rusted from all the years it tolled in inclement elements. Another building was the Farmers Creamery, long closed and perhaps part of the extension office built on the back. A reminder that this was a farming community then and now. At one time all over the country, farmers separated the cream from the milk and brought the cream to the Creamery to sell. Downtown still has that fifties look. Nothing wrong with that for a person like me that likes the familiar small town feel.

We were too early for the health fair, because we hadn't expected to get to Keosauqua so quickly. By the time, we set up our table it was lunch time. I asked for a place to eat. Several choices of restaurants were suggested, but all of those had much the same menus that we can choose from at home. The one that interested me was Billy Ray's Smokehouse just because I love fried catfish.

We'd quietly entered Billy Ray's behind another couple. They sat on one side the room and we sat in a booth on the other. In a minute or two, the two waitresses spotted they had customers. We barely glanced at the menu since we knew what we wanted. Fried CATFISH. The waitress suggested the smoked barbecued chicken was good. We turned that down, because that wasn't what we came in to eat.

And what a treat. The catfish was golden, large fillets. Taken from larger catfish than I've ever caught and tastier than how the ones I fry turn out. French fries were just right, too. The waitress even tore the top off our tarter sauce packets for us. I appreciated that small courtesy, because I can never get those stubborn packets open.

By the time we finished eating we were stuffed but already planning our return to Billy Ray's before we headed for home. We wanted to try another meal on the menu. I asked what time the restaurant closed. The answer was 8 p.m. "We would be ready to box up my books by 5:30," I said, thinking out loud. The waitress said, "Are you telling me you're coming back tonight?" Why not. We have to try that smoked chicken.

The two waitresses were watching for us this time. We enjoyed visiting with them almost as much as we liked eating their good meal. We said no need to hand us the menu. We were back for the smoked chicken which turned out just as delicious as the catfish. We eat out quite a bit, but we couldn't order smoked barbecued food around us, and though we love the walleye we eat in our area, if that restaurant's fried catfish was on the same menu, I'd have to flip a coin to decided. As a side, we had the special for the night - fried potatoes and onions which was perfect with the chicken.

We promised to come back sometime soon. With all the interesting sights to see that I read about in the visitors guide the waitress gave me, we can spend a day going from one small town to the next. Just so we're close enough to end up at Billy Ray's for meals.

Short Story Awarded Sixth Place

The results are in for a short story I entered this summer in White County Creative Writers Contests at Searcy, Arkansas. I was awarded sixth place for a version of the story I received second place for in an earlier contest. This time the story could only be 1500 words. That meant I had to do some drastic cutting and at the same time keep the basic story in tact. I managed to do just that, but I like the longer version better so that is my post for today. This story takes place during the Depression in the 1930's.

The Unexpected Visitor

The two room cabin Rachel Archer rented wasn't air tight, but it beat sleeping out in the open with the migrants. Sitting at her kitchen table drinking a second cup of morning coffee, she watched the freight trains slow down at the road crossing. Four men jumped on the flat cars and six leaped off. It was an ever day occurrence these days. Homeless and jobless men headed west, looking for work. The men disembarking were on their way back home after finding out there weren't any jobs to be had. At night, the red and gold glimmer of a dozen or so campfires glowed in the timber near the cabin. Most days, at least a couple poorly dressed, unbathed men, looking half starved, knocked at the back door, expecting her to give them a handout.
Rachel picked the three folded sheets of tablet paper up off the table and reread them. Last week, the letter came from a fellow teacher, Mary Winters. Rachel hadn't seen her for over a year when they spent a term teaching at the same school seventy-five miles away. She was delighted Mary was coming for a visit. In fact, her friend be arriving any minute.
Looking around the cabin, Rachel anxiously wondered what Mary would think of this place she called home. No matter what condition it was in or how cramped she was for room, Rachel considered herself lucky to have a place to live. The alternative was staying at a student's home. This way she had privacy, and the door locked so she felt safe at night.
If only she could stop the nightly noises that kept her awake. Lately, the irritating gnawing under the kitchen floor had given her nights of disturbed sleep. What she heard had to be a rat. No mouse would be big enough to make that much racket. Suddenly a horrible thought came to her. What if that rat made his way through the wooden floor while her company was visiting? How embarrassing that would be.
Mid morning, Mary Winters knocked on the cabin door. Rachel greeted her with a hug. "Come in. It is so good to see you."
"I couldn't wait to get here. I've missed our talks this last year," Mary said, returning Rachel's hug.
"Me, too. Sit down at the table. I've kept the coffee pot on so we could have a cup when you got here. I expect you are about wore out from the trip."
"Not really, but the roads make for rough riding with all the pot holes and ruts. I thought that poor truck I hitched a ride on was going to fall apart before the farmer got me here," Mary said, laughing. As she sat down, she looked around the combined kitchen-living room.
"Not the biggest of home, but big enough for me. Beats bunking with one of the students," Rachel assured her. "I wouldn't have a bit of privacy, and another family's home life is so hard to get used to for me and them."
"I know that feeling. I spent the last term with a family of six kids. That might not be so bad, but the father made me nervous. I didn't like the way he watched me all the time."
"Did he think you might steal something?"
"I don't think that was his problem. I just made sure to never be alone with him," Mary admitted, ducking her head bashfully.
"You must get out of there. You are applying for a different school for this fall, aren't you?" Rachel asked, appalled at what her friend had been going through.
"Already got a different school close by as a matter of fact so we can visit more often," said Mary, grinning.
"Wonderful!"
A train, traveling east, blew its whistle as it approached the crossing. Mary watched out the window with a frown. The freight train slowed down. Men jumped from the box cars and ran into the trees. "Did you have a good year here at the school?" Mary kept a troubled look as her eyes stayed glued to what was happening out the window.
"Yes, I had a nice size bunch of kids. Sometimes I wish I lived somewhere that didn't get as much snow in the winter. I hate being snowed in for days on end," Rachel admitted.
"I know that feeling," Mary said in a distracted voice. Another train, headed west, slowed down at the crossing. Men ran along side and jumped on while almost as many men leaped off. Mary shook her head in dismay.
"Is something wrong?" Rachel asked.
"How are you so brave to live this close to the railroad tracks? Hobos keep jumping on and off the trains at the crossing."
"The hobos don't bother me," Rachel assured her. "They do knock on the door once in awhile to ask for food. If I have extra, I give what I can."
"Doesn't sound like a good idea to me. You shouldn't encourage that sort of thing. Those men look desperate to me and that makes them dangerous," warned Mary.
"Perhaps, you're just edgy because of what you've been through this last year. Those men are just down on their luck. How about some lunch? This afternoon, I want to take you over to the school and show you around. I have a car. When you're ready to leave in a few days, I'll take you back to town to catch a bus," Rachel offered.
After dark, Mary jumped at every little noise outside. Rachel laughed at how spooked her friend was. "Relax. There's always stray dogs and cats prowling in the night, looking for scraps."
By bedtime, Mary still wasn't convinced the cabin was a safe place to sleep. A series of sharp yips startled her. The racket came from the hillside in front of the cabin.
"That is coyotes on the run. They'll be into some farmer's chickens before morning, I expect," Rachel told her.
The yips came again. "Those animals sound like they're right outside the cabin," Mary said, shuttering.
Angry voices, some talking loud and others yelling, drifted from the timber to the women through the thin cabin walls. "Sounds like the migrants are into a fight again," said Rachel with a sigh.
"Again," screeched Mary. "You mean this happens often?"
"Once in awhile. Some of the migrants are a rough lot," Rachel admitted, looking at her sideways.
In the bedroom, Mary put on her nightgown and crawled under the covers on the cot Rachel fixed for her. She tossed and turned, having trouble going to sleep in the pitch black room. In a trembling voice, she said, "Rachel, how do you know the difference between a dog prowling outside your door and a hobo?"
Rachel's voice held humor as she said, "Simple. The dog can't turn the door knob."
"Honestly, Rachel, you're awful. That isn't one bit funny," Mary said, pulling her covers up to her chin. "Do you have a gun?"
"Land's sakes, no. Just go to sleep, Mary. You'll be safe enough in here with me," Rachel assured her.
Mary listened intently at first in case hobos lurked outside. Finally, she slept fitfully, dreaming the cabin was surrounded by hobos. They peeked in the windows and rattled the door knob.
Right on cue as soon as the lights went out and the women stopped talking, the rat gnawed with gusto. Rachel held her breath, hoping that Mary didn't hear the racket. Rumbling snores from across the room convinced her the noise wouldn't bother Mary. Rachel fell asleep wishing she could figure out a way to persuade that nasty creature to move out from under her home. The sooner the better. She longed for a peaceful night's sleep.
The next morning, Rachel, while filling the coffee pot at the sink, looked down. There was what she had dreaded for days. In front of the sink was the feared hole, with fresh wood shavings heaped around the edges. Slowly, she opened the sink door. Cowering in a shadowy corner behind a stack of iron skillets, the beady eyed, black rat stared at her.
Horrified, Rachel screamed. She forgot about her sleeping company as she yelled, "Oh my, he's gotten in." She slammed the sink door.
Startled awake, Mary sprang off the cot. She pulled a butcher knife out from under her pillow. The picture of an unkempt, menacing hobo ran through her mind. At that very minute, he was stalking Rachel in the kitchen.
"Where's he at?" Mary's loud voice trembled. Her bare feet thudded on the floor as she raced to the doorway. Afraid for her life, she flattened herself against the bedroom wall to listen.
"Under the sink," Rachel replied in a disgusted voice.
Welding the knife with its blade up in the air, Mary peeked around the door. Bewildered, she looked around the room. Rachel, stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at the sink cabinet door. "How - how did he get in there?" She stuttered.
Looking over her shoulder, Rachel spotted Mary's weapon. "That my knife?"
"If you had a gun, I wouldn't need this for protection. I slept with it under my pillow," Mary replied sheepishly.
Rachel grabbed the broom, leaning in the corner. She opened the sink door and prodded back and forth with the handle. "Get out of there," she yelled.
Mary clamped her hand over her mouth and shrank back into the bedroom. She waited for the hobo to unbend from his contortious position and spring out of the cupboard. When he attacked Rachel, she'd have to be brave enough to stab him with the knife, but she didn't know where she'd find the courage.
Suddenly, the rat darted out of the cabinet and ran in circles around Rachel's feet. Doing a jumping dance, the frantic woman slapped the floor wildly with her broom. Mary peeked into the kitchen. She ducked back out of sight just in time to keep from getting hit when the broom came up over Rachel's head. The rat headed for under the table. Rachel slapped the business end of the broom down at him, but missed. He hunkered by a far table leg, hoping that Rachel wouldn't spot him.
Rachel rammed the broom handle at him, yelling, "Out from under the table, you creepy thing."
"He's under that small table?" Mary cried in disbelief from the bedroom.
"He was," Rachel screeched. "He's on the move again now."
A fast black blur, the rat, hunkered low and scurried across the floor, up the cupboard and under the wooden bread box lid.
Rachel cried, "Oh, no! He went in the bread box with my bread." Mary, clutching the knife, eased out into the kitchen. "Let him have the bread. You can buy more." Completely befuddled, she looked at the small box and whispered, "How could he fit in there?"
As Rachel turned her back on the bread box to answer, she felt a scratchy, fuzzy upward movement inside her left slack leg. She clutched her thigh and watched the lump continue to move up her slacks past her knee. "Oh, Mary, he's in my slacks. What will I do?"
Thinking Rachel had lost her mind, Mary said, "Dear, he couldn't be in there. Don't you think you should sit down?"
"I can't do that. I have to get shut of him," Rachel said, giving Mary a disgusted look. She yanked the back door open and ran out into the yard.
Mary followed her. Helplessly, she watched Rachel frantically jump up and down like she was skipping rope.
As the movement continued in Rachel's slacks leg, she darted around the yard holding her leg tightly and screaming very loud. After she grew weary from the exertion, she looked down at her slack leg and begged, "Please leave. Please leave."
"Poor Rachel. I knew living out here on this prairie had to get to you. I just didn't realize you were this bad. Please stop bouncing around," Mary commanded, grabbing Rachel by the shoulder. "You must calm down. I promise you there isn't a hobo in your slacks."
That statement brought Rachel to an instant stop. Panting, she gave Mary a incredulous glare. "There isn't a hobo in my pants. What are you talking about?"
Mary answered in a small voice. "I thought you thought you had a hobo going up your leg. What do you have in your pants?"
"Believe it or not. What's in my pants is much worse. It's a rat."
Mary turned loose of Rachel and staggered backed a few feet. "Really?"
"Really. I knew he was under the cabin floor, but I hoped he wouldn't gnaw through while you was here." Rachel couldn't feel movement in her hands anymore. She loosened her grip on the lump. It didn't move. She shook her leg and cringed as she felt the tickling, furry lump slide down her shin. The motionless rat appeared and lay her shoe. Rachel gave a fast kick, sending the rat toward Mary.
Pale faced, Mary squealed and dodged sideways.
"Thank goodness, he's dead," Rachel sighed, panting.
"He is, but I'm not sure I'm going to live through all this excitement," Mary said and giggled. "Tell me the rest of today is going to be calmer, please."
"Can't never tell what will happen next around here," Rachel affirmed, laughing.

Risner To Speak At Women Health Fair

I've been invited to be the guest speaker at Van Buren County Hospital's Women Health Fair in Keosauqua, Iowa on October 14, 2010 from 2:30 - 5:30 p.m. I'll be speaking about my Alzheimer's Caregiver Experiences. This year's theme is "Fight Like A Girl". The expected attendance is around 200. This sounds like a fun experience, but I think I'll keep my fingers crossed that I do a good job.

How did I end up with this invitation? I joined a website for Iowa authors http://wwwhttp://www.iowacenterforthebooks.org Any group looking for a speaker can read a list of books I've written and my biography. This is the second speaking engagement I've received from that website. I don't think I can remind other authors often enough to check out their state resources for authors.

What was it in my biography that qualifies me to speak at a Hospital Health Fair? Let me tell you. My experiences include helping my mother care for my father for ten years while he battled Alzheimer's disease and working in long term care at the Keystone Nursing Care Center in Keystone, Iowa as a Certified Nurse Aide for almost sixteen years. It's not often you meet someone like me that is a CNA/author/speaker. That's because I didn't just do my job for the paycheck. I tried to make a difference in the lives of the residents by understanding how Alzheimer's disease affected them and their families and doing something about it. In my time as CNA, I was awarded the 2004 award for Certified Nurse Aide by the Iowa Health Care Association and 2006 Professional Caregiver Award by the Alzheimer's Association. Those awards will be mentioned along with a picture of me on the marketing director's advertising about the Health Fair CNA/author/speaker.

While I took care of my father, I kept a journal. After his death, I turned that journal into a story about what it was like for his family to take care of him. Realizing there are many books on the market about caregivers struggling to care for someone, I made my book different by adding helpful caregiving tips at the end of chapters. Plus, I had the advantage of being able to write this book from a CNA point of view. The book is Hello Alzheimer's Good Bye Dad.

As more residents with Alzheimer's were admitted to the nursing home, I met many families baffled by what the disease was doing to their loved ones. I started a support group to help. I listened and explained what I knew from my experiences with my father and my job. Early on I decided I needed to write a book of examples about how to relate to someone with Alzheimer's. That book is Open A Window.

Anyone that wants to be an author needs some speaking ability. I've been speaking since 1998. The Alzheimer's Association asked me to speak at a conference for ministers. I was scared stiff, and the subject was a painful one, talking about caring for my father. When I received a packet from the Alzheimer's Association in the mail with the survey about how the ministers liked my speech, I was overwhelmed by their great comments. Also in that packet was a form to fill out and send back if I wanted to be in the volunteer speakers bureau. There was a need in my area on the far side of the county when the Alzheimer's Association didn't have as many experienced employees. Now adequate staff has eliminated the need for volunteer speakers, but I still get an invitation once in a while and I go. Education about Alzheimer's disease is very important for families. Have I spoke before an audience of 200 people? No! But how much different can that be than speaking to 20 - 50. Besides, I'm doing two sessions so I won't have 400 eyes looking at me at the same time.

The administer at the nursing home asked me several times to be the speaker for inservices on Alzheimer's. For one inservice, I wrote a fifteen minute skit about a woman, with Alzheimer's, in the nursing home. Two nieces came to visit and didn't know how to relate to her. The employee who found the most mistakes made by the nieces received dinner for two at a restaurant. That skit later became my three act play, Floating Feathers Of Yesterdays.

Van Buren County Hospital's Marketing Director wants me to bring my books to sell and sign. There will be a variety of health related booths besides mine. My husband has consented to go along with me on this three hour drive. He can help carry in the boxes of books and watch the table while I'm not there. I've found he makes a good salesman for my books. He has read them all and never fails to tell people that he likes what he read.

An added plus is I get to take my Amish books, too. When I had the idea to write them, I thought if I set my series about Nurse Hal Among the Amish somewhere in Iowa that might be a way to increase sales in my area. Turns out the marketing director at the hospital says she likes the idea very much that the books are set in southern Iowa and for the Health Fair theme it's an added bonus that the books are about a nurse. "A Promise Is A Promise and The Rainbow's End - books in my Nurse Hal Among The Amish series.

So now I've a speech to write and practice. Plus I've been thinking about what I want on my table. Just recently, I printed out a large batch of business cards and bought a card holder to display them. I have three short story books. These were stories I entered and placed with in contests. I'm taking them to use in a give away. People can sign up for the drawing, and I'll mail the book from home after I draw. That way no one has to worry about being there for the drawing. Since the three books are different themes, people can list a preference when they put their name in the basket. I will put a list of my books and a business card in with the winning book so that might encourage the winner to want to read more of my books. One of these books goes along with the health theme for that day - Butterfly and Angel Wings.

I'm looking forward to the opportunity and the drive. Fall is coming. The timbered hills along the way should be lovely in October. The marketing director asked if I charged a fee. My answer was I'm free. Ever since I helped my mom with my father I've liked educating others suffering the pain of watching a loved one go through Alzheimer's disease. The bonus is now that I'm an author I get to talk about my books at the same time and sell them. I'll tell you all about how the Health Fair went after October 14th.

Taping Interview Sold Story

I'm interviewing my mother-in-law while she tells me about her early years. Why you might ask? Well, she's going to turn 90 years old in a couple weeks. There is so much about her life that should be interesting to her grandchildren and great grandchilden since life today is so different from when she was born. We're thankful that this woman is one sharp minded cookie and able to be a main stay in our lives as long as we can keep her with us. She has been dubbed Little Grandma because she's an agile, healthy four feet eleven inches example to live by. Her life long passions have been two. First one is her faith. She knows all the stories in her well worn bible. Second is growing flowers and plants of all kinds. I've never seen anyone else that has a thumb as green as hers. We both started out with rose cuttings in June from the same plants. Her rose cuttings are alive and growing. Mine dried up a long time ago. I'm used to this problem and always know I can get another start from Mom when she has her plants big enough to share.

This lady is busy in the summer raising many flowers, which cover much of her large yard, and a large garden from which she freezes the bounty and gives much of the veggies away. She has given the coming of her 90th birthday much thought. Recently, she told my husband not to till up her garden this fall. We should wait and see how she feels about planting a garden next spring. I told her to look ahead. She's only as old as she feels. She said age was a state of mind. She'd do what she was able to do as long as she could.

In the fall, she always takes in cuttings from her houseplants and keeps them alive all winter until time to set them out again. If she loses a plant she bemoans the fact as if she's had a death in the family. I take my cues from this woman so I'm ready preparing for fall and winter, too. Working in a flower bed is much easier to do if the weather is warm.

I use a tape recorder to document Mom's answers to my questions about the last century. Where did I get the idea to tape someone's story? Several years ago, I taped a resident at the nursing home. That happened because one evening at their dinner hour, I told everyone in the dining room the Good Old Days magazine bought my fourth story from me.

The woman said, "I have stories."
Afraid of where this was leading, I replied, "The magazine likes pictures with the stories."
"I have pictures," she insisted.
"The pictures have to be in black and white," I countered.
"They are."
"The story has to be before 1960," I said.
"It is."
"Let me guess. You want me to write a story for you."
Grinning widely, she nodded in the affirmative.

My day off was coming up. So if nothing else, why not share my time to reminsce with this woman. Spending time with a lonely person is a good way to volunteer. This lady happened to be a resident that had very little company. So I set up a meeting in the conference room one morning. I wanted this lady to think I was sincerely interested in helping her so I took my tape player and plenty of tapes. By taping the conversation, I wouldn't forget details about her story, and I'd be paying closer attention to her if I wasn't always writing down notes.

We went through her picture album together. She introduced me to her relatives and shared her early life with me. When the hour was up, I pushed her to the dining room for lunch and left. If nothing else came from that meeting, I was sure she had a good time remembering the past with someone who really listened to her and was interested enough to ask questions.

When I listened to the tapes, my idea as to write a story to give the resident. That should make her happy. The more I listened I realized what stood out was Sunday afternoons spent at her grandparents with a whole house full of relatives. Potluck for lunch, baseball in the afternoon with cousins and later rides on Grandpa's white horse. What I heard on my tapes was this lady has a speech pattern I wouldn't have used if I had taken handwritten notes. I'm told I write the way I talk. That's what readers that know me say anyway. Taking the story from the tape, I was able to write her story in her words the way she spoke them. At that point, I recognized a story that had selling possibilities if I submitted it to Good Old Days magazine. Families don't get together like they used to when all the relatives lived close by.

I read the story to the resident. She approved. I submitted the story to the Good Old Days. The by line had her name as told by me which I'd seen others do on several submissions. I explained in my submission letter that this woman was in a nursing home. I didn't know if her story was something the magazine wanted but the woman had fun telling this story, and I enjoyed listening to it. To my surprise and everyone else's, our story was accepted and published in the July 2007 issue of Good Old Days specials - Family Get-Togethers.

The resident was so proud. She told everyone she was a published author. The activity director had an activity just for her. The two of them sat in front of an audience at the nursing home while the activity director read her story. The other residents clapped their approval which made that woman glow. That short hour I spent with her taping her story gave her a shining moment that lasted for days as she repeatiedly told people she was a published author. Selling another one of my stories was great, but the bonus was how I brightened her days. I will always be glad I did that for her.

Now I'm taping my mother-in-law's story. She speaks with a southern accent and a speech pattern from the 20's and 30's. I couldn't duplicate that without the aid of a tape player. What am I going to do with this story? She's already warned me I am not to make a book out of it that would be published to the world. I assured her my intention was to give her life story in book form to the following generations as her legacy to them. Besides, I can always use the writing practice.

At our first taping, I ran out of questions. Mom's daughter that had this idea came up with suggestions. Since then we've had another taping. I found a way to come up with more questions by then. Last Thursday, my husband and I went to the Old Thrasher Reunion in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Talk about going back in the past. We took a trolley ride, watched school in session in a one room school house, saw rugs made on a loom and quilting in an 1850 log cabin. Everything is exhibited for men and women from steam engines and old tractors. For women, there is a reminder of how far we've come from the drudgery of the past when I looked at wood cook stoves, lye soap, wash boards, sad irons and much more. My mind was on my mother-in-law's story. I took pictures of what might have been used in her lifetime as well as pictures of signs describing what we now think of as antiques. So Saturday afternoon, I had another round of questions for Mom. After about 90 minutes, my sister-in-law and I ran out of questions again. Now I'm working on a new list for the next time.

Mom asked me how I was going to put the story together. I told her we skipped around in her life so this would take time. A story that will be a good winter project. Could it be she is eager to see this book she was hesitate about in the beginning? I explained I'd have to make chapters and add each story to the chapter it fit into as I put her life in order by years. Also, I want to make this a history lesson for the children, this story is intended for, so I will add who was president, the depression era, and other history events in a time line with her life.

She's not so suspicious of my motives now. In fact, she was eager to start talking and thought of events like the pie socials and winter sled rides through the timber to her grandparents that I wouldn't know to ask about. It's a good thing I didn't have to take notes, because I listened too intently to write details down. Whether you are a writer or not, take it from me that time gets away from busy families. I have lost many elderly relatives that could have told me the stories Mom is telling. Events have come to my attention that made me regret I didn't ask questions when my parents were alive. This time, I'm making sure the next generations will know this grandma. The next time I have the opportunity to tape someone it might be to sell another story. This is a method that works for me.

Am I always looking for a good story and characters that stand out? Sure I am. Mom didn't say I couldn't use a likeness of her character with a different name in a fiction book. But just to be on the safe side now that I have her talking, let's keep this our little secret.

Odds and Ends

It's always a thrill to know my blog posts get noticed. I appreciate that last week's blog post Short Story Contest Winner was featured on iFOGO village's home page. A new leader board went up on that site, and I found me at number five. Thank you iFOGO village and Gene Cartwright for the acknowledgments.

Those of you that have followed my blog posts about making hay should know that we just finished the last cutting for the year. I was so relieved to get done with the overhauled tractor working fine, the ancient baler shooting out every bale without incident and the brand new hay conveyor sent every bale to the loft with a smooth rattle. So just went I thought we lucked out this time, I woke up the next morning after unloading those bales to find my back painful. I gave in to going to the doctor for muscle relaxants and pain pills. I took one of each and was moving and talking in s - l - o - w motion for 24 hours. It's a good thing I write these posts a few days ahead of time so I can go over them a few times. Last Tuesday was a copy and paste day and lots of nap time. By Wednesday, I decided I was better off feeling the pain which was less since I'd stayed still one day so I put away the pills. I'm looking on the bright side when I say I was probably cheaper to fix than my hay making equipment, and now I can quit worrying until the next hay season in 2011.

Short Story Contest Winner

The winners up to six place are now out and online for the Arkansas Writers' Conference contests at Little Rock, Arkansas.

I placed second in contest 25. Look What The Cat Dragged In. Title of my short story was The Unexpected Visitor. Guidelines for this entry - a short story and no word limit which is great for me. I know 2500 words is about the top limit for an entry, but I like it when I don't have to watch the count close.

I've been entering this set of contests since 2003 and have many awards from first to sixth place. For the $10 entry fee participants can enter as many contests as they want. I have entered up to a dozen each year, but this year I found only four that I wanted to do. Several of the themes had vampire or ghost subjects. Vampires aren't something that I can write about, but I did come up with a ghost story. I'll share that one with you around Halloween.

The $15.00 prize money paid my entry fee and expenses of ink, paper, envelope and postage. Plus, I am listed online in the list of winners for anyone that wants to look up the website.

Every year the contest rules come out in January. The entries have to be in by the last of April which is plenty of time to work on a short story. After all these years, I've become familiar with the different contest themes. When I get an idea in the months before the contest starts, I write a story and wait to see if it will fit the guidelines. Sometimes, the story only takes a little reworking.

The first four contests entered, the writers have to present at the conference the first weekend of June. Contests 5 - 28 are open to all writers. Contests 29-36 are for residents of Arkansas only.

Now my entries to White River Writers Conference Contest, Searcy, Arkansas, have been sent in. Another Arkansas based conference with a July 26 deadline. More on that later in September if I place in the contests. Sometimes I submit the short stories I've used for the Arkansas Writers' Conference. I've found with a different set of judges I place this time when I didn't in the other contest.

Over the years, I complied quite a few essays and short stories. When I published my books back in 2008, three of those books were made up of these contest entries. Wild West Tales, Butterfly And Angel Wings and A Teapot, Ghosts, Bats & More.

The books didn't cost much to publish. I use them as give aways at book signings. The winner has a choice of the three books. Also, I gave a copy of A Teapot, Ghosts, Bats & More to my family doctor to put in the magazine rack in the waiting room. It took the longest time for that book to get placed in the rack. I finally figured out all the staff read the book before they gave it up to the patients. In the back of each book is my contact information and list of other books I've written if anyone reading this book wants another from me. I've sold the doctor two of my Amish books and the staff has bought four of my Alzheimer's caregiver books Open A Window.

Three of the short story entries became books. I make sure to list that I was a contest winner with the short story. Right now I have a western book, second in my Stringbean Hooper Westerns, to be published soon. I entered my western in a Western Three Chapter contest. Dusty Richards, well known western author, is the judge. He gave me second place for my first Stringbean Hooper book, The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary. Contest winners are announced in September at the conference. If I am awarded anything I can use that acknowledgment in my next book.

Cozy Mystery Website Adding My Mystery Series

If you like cozy, clean mysteries like the Amazing Gracie Mystery Series I write, I've found a site on an Amazon mystery discussion group. There are many books to choose from at http://www.cozy-mystery.com The site had an email contact for the host so I sent a message requesting she try a complimentary copy of Neighbor Watchers - ISBN 1438246072 so she can see for herself what my mystery series is like and think about adding my books to her site.

The host replied, "Thank you so much for writing and letting me know about your Amazing Gracie series. It looks like exactly the type of mystery series that this site emphasizes. I have added you to my list of authors to post, but I must warn you that it might take a little while before I get to you. My list is always expanding, but every once in a while I make it a project to get some more authors done.

Check out the site if you are interested in reading or submitting a cozy mystery book. The site has links to everything. Danna gives her definition of what a cozy mystery is. Cozies don't usually involve a lot of gory details or explicit adult situations.

Authors are posted alphabetically.

TV shows and movies

Cozy mysteries with themes such as culinary themes, librarian themes and for cat and dog lovers

Cozy mystery new releases

In Danna's cozy mystery blog, she talks about different movies and shows.

If you have a submission email Danna@Cozy-Mystery.com

Danna mentioned that she'd like people to link to her site. If you contact her mention that you found out about her site by reading my blog. That way she will know I helped spread the word.

I tried to list my Amazing Gracie Mystery Series on different websites for mysteries a couple years ago when I published the first book. I got a reply from one site that I must be kidding if I thought the book would be put on that website if it was sold by Amazon. I didn't have any idea what that meant. As a writer, I figure I am always going to win over some and lose some so I keep looking ahead for other possiblities. I didn't hear back from another mystery website I contacted. An online book store in California took three signed copies of my book on consignment but never got back to me. I was unknown, and my series is not the violent, sexy stories that ate popular so I'm assuming the books didn't sell.

Two more mystery book list websites are http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/ ( which I found on an Amazon mystery discussion group) and http://www.thebloodstainedbookshelf. I emailed The bloodstained bookshelf and didn't hear back so I assume my books wouldn't fit in either of these sites.

Sorry I missed my blog post entry last week. We made a quick trip to Arkansas for my husband's aunt's funeral and visited with my aunt and uncle near Cabool, Missouri before we came home. The loss of one aunt is a reminder to me to spend time with another one about the same age.

Now I'm back, and a day early with this blog post, because I don't want the phone line tied up tomorrow. My three month old dishwasher quit working a couple days ago. The repairman is suppose to call me when he is ready to come fix the dishwasher, and that is one call I don't want to miss.

Author Fay Risner To Speak At Athena Meeting Nov. 8, 2010

Nov. 8, 2010, the Belle Plaine, Iowa Athena Club has invited me to speak about my Civil War book - Ella Mayfield's Pawpaw Militia - A Civil War Saga In Vernon County Missouri. ISBN 1438235461. Sold on Amazon, ebay and http://www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com It seems only fitting that today's members in a club that was founded in the 1800's would be interested in history from that era.

Awhile back, I signed up on a website for Iowa authors. Iowa Center for the Book - http://www.iowacenterforthebook.org This is the site the Athena Club looked on to find an author. They found my name and list of books.


I'm getting prepared for the Athena Club meeting. I kept my bulletin board from the book sale at a Civil War reenactment last year. A hand drawn map of Missouri points out Vernon County's location. The map is covered with statistics like how many battles and scrimmages were fought in Missouri. Across the top of the map is the definition for bushwhacker and jayhawker, plus pictures of a bushwhacker and two Union soldiers stones which are my great grandfathers buried in the Montevallo Cemetery and a picture of a woman's grave who was a slave before the war and lived to be almost 100. Montevallo's only black citizen after the war, Isabel Taylor was my parents neighbor in the 1930's. In plastic covers, I have a copy of my great grandfather's discharge paper, a picture and a story about Isabel Taylor from the Nevada Daily News. I'll set out a stack of business cards so the club members know how to contact me later for future sales and a box of my other books to go through for those that like my different genres (Amish, mystery, western or Alzheimer's themes) while I talk.

Bushwhacker Ella Mayfield's story was an easy one to write. History provided me with details and dates of battles and towns burned by Union soldiers. The 1887 Vernon County History book supplied information about the Mayfield family. The authors point of view about the Civil War others wouldn't know that didn't live in that area until I wrote this book and talked about the era. My book is considered fact based fiction. The conversations and some of the details I added were my imagination because I wasn't there.

An added plus for me, my parents grew up near Montevallo. We went there to visit family and friends often when I was a child so I know the landscape well. For many years, I've revisited that area, traveling in the same places that my parents and Ella lived.

Women, who homesteaded with their husbands, were sturdy, hardworking individuals. They could shoot a squirrel rifle, ride a horse, wield an ax and hold on to the reins of work horses or mules struggling to pull a small plow across unbroken sod. All the while, they had just delivered a baby or were expecting another one. It's no wonder, these same women were able to hold their own among men in Ozark bushwhacker bands. The Mayfield family were considered heroes in Vernon County during the war. They suffered as much as any other family. Ella lost two husbands, two brothers and two brother-in-laws to Union soldiers and in the end was burned out of the timbers that hid her and her band so well.

Homesteaders weren't interested in slavery. They had large families to help farm the 160 acres they signed up for. To keep that land, they had to build a cabin and plant crops for five years then the farm belonged to them. When the war started, family members, women, children and elderly were left behind to protect their homes and land. They fought to stay on the land they had put so much sweat into making their home. Years later, bushwhackers that come to mind are the James brothers and Younger brothers. Living in a land completely destroyed by fire and battles, these men chose to be outlaws rather than make an honest living. That was not how the bushwhackers of Vernon County began. Early on, the men came home from battles, disillusioned by battle losses, death of friends and relatives. The battles they were sent to fight were too far from home to protect their families. These men chose to become bushwhackers and fight at home to try to keep the Kansas Jayhawkers and the Union soldiers from burning their homes and killing their families. Angered by raids made on what belonged to them, the bushwhackers raided in Kansas, burning and killing. Ft. Scott Union soldiers tracked them back into Vernon County. Hit and run fighting was easy for the bushwhackers with vast timbers to disappear into, caves to hold up in and creeks to ford to hide their tracks. By the end of the war, the few women, children and old men left in their homes ran out of food to give the bushwhackers. The Union soldiers saw to that by destroying extra food, gardens and taking away milk cows to keep starving settlers from giving aide to the militias. The sympathizers had to move away from the areas to survive. That didn't stop the bushwhackers. They were afraid to shoot what little game was left for fear the soldier patrols would hear a shot. Instead, they lived on berries, nuts, persimmons and pawpaws. Finally, the Union General, Thomas Ewing, in Kansas City issued Order No. 11. Burn Cass, Jackson, Bates and most of Vernon county south of Kansas City to run off all the southern sympathizers and what was left of the bushwhackers. That did it. In the smoky haze of spreading fire, Vernon County citizens and the last of Confederate solders fled to Arkansas.

That's when Ella and her second husband gave up the fight. A few months after they arrived in Arkansas, Ella's husband was killed. I tried to find out what happened but so far don't know the answer. Ella came back to Vernon County, married a man farming not far from where her family's farm had been. She used her first name, Amanda, which as time passed helped others forget her involvement in the war. After so many hardships, Ella had a normal life. She farmed with her husband, moved to Oklahoma later in life and is buried there beside her husband.

Now thoughts about summers -Yesterday and Today

Last Thursday was my husband's birthday. I brought his 89 year old mother out for the day. In he afternoon, one of his sisters brought her two grandchildren that think coming to our place is like visiting a zoo. Our son joined us after he got off work. It was a super day with low humidity and warm sunshine that made our ash trees shade feel good. This was a day reminiscent of days in the Ozarks when I was small. In those days, my family spent many hot afternoons under a large maple tree, sipping real lemonade and Kool Aid. Our fan, compliments of a feed store, was a small piece of cardboard with a tongue depressor like handle. Many weekends when relatives came to visit, the grownups sat in the shade while the kids played. Dad bought a 50 pound block of ice which he busted up in a gunny sack, and everyone including the kids took turns cranking on the ice cream maker. We didn't seem to mind the heat in those days. Maybe because we didn't have air conditioning, we were acclimated to Missouri's humid heat.

Many a summer evening, my family sat outside until bedtime. We had a porch swing. When my younger brother and I were small, my parents sat in it with us while Dad told us stories about what it was like when he was a kid or the Civil War stories his father told him about his grandfather. When we outgrew the swing, we sat on an old quilt in the grass. Dad bought a telescope. He pointed out stars and constellations, told us the names and let us look at them. The moving star that traveled from North to South was Russia's Sputnik.

The house stayed hot through the night. We slept on the floor in front of the front porch screen door with a small, old fan stirring the air some. I was agile enough in those days not to mind the hard floor. The only reason I've thought twice about those days was Mom's story about the large black snake that crawled under the screen door and slithered across the floor. The creature was looking for a cool place, too. At night for a summer or two, we slept sideways on an old iron bed out in the yard. Summers tended to be hot and dry so my parents didn't worry about the old mattress getting wet. If a shower came up and passed through, the sun came out. The mattress was baked dry by bedtime. We lived on a blacktop road, but no one came by after ten o'clock to see us sleeping outside. That was the whole neighborhood's bedtime so traffic was nonexistent until morning. My parents woke up at daybreak to milk cows. When passerbys drove by during the day, they probably thought the bed was a trampoline for the kids.

Now it's summer in Iowa. The heat index of 104 one Wednesday was enough to drive my husband and I out of our un-air conditioned house that evening until the sun set. Not much of a view from our yard these days with ten feet tall corn plants all around us. One night, we watched four hot air balloons float near our house, turn and go back the way they came, but that Wednesday night and since then it has been too hot or stormy for balloons.

Another evening, my husband made the mistake of digging out a dandelion near my clematis vine which housed a minature nest of baby red headed finches. The frightened birds flew out into the lawn and bushes. After the surprise wore off, they decided they weren't ready to leave home just yet. From several directions, the young birds made a clicking sound, trying to talk their mother into coming for them. Finally, my sympathetic husband hunted each baby up and put them back in the nest so their mother could find them. That quieted them down.

Most summer afternoon and evenings, we're content to watch panting sparrows and warbling jenny wrens. How do those tiny birds muster up such a loud song? As you can see if my husband and I have any kind of breeze, plenty of shade, a refillable glass of tea and song birds entertaining us, we're easy to please. Maybe it's because we know what winter will bring.

Final USPS Udate, Twitter, Merchant Circle & More

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I've received another $55 check from the Postal Service. That brings the total repayment to $110. I'm going to stop with that amount though I'm still owed another $25. I feel lucky to have gotten that much. For future reference if I ever lose something else in the mail I've insured, I now know to keep pushing for a fair payment.

At last count, I have 40 following me on Twitter and 66 followers. It seems as though I see an increase in followers after I've blogged on Book Marketing Network, iFOGO and Publetariat. This last week I picked up Blog Expert, Rachel Karl, as a follower. She said I had a nice blog. I wondered which one since I blog on eight sites now. Rachel had checked my Twitter site out well enough to let me know that the link to my website under my name wasn't working. I appreciated the FYI, immediately fixed the problem and tweeted Rachel back to let her know the link works now.

My twitter bio has lead different types of businesses and people with varied interest to follow me. I stated I like writing books, gardening, flowers, fishing and boating. Therefore boat businesses and boaters, flower businesses, gardeners and nature lovers follow me. I thought about not returning the follow or changing my bio if I might be misleading some tweeters, but what I wanted was to promote my books and online bookstore. Most followers must read books so after email notification from followers, I send them a thank you message from Author Fay Risner and mention one of my books or where to buy my books online and my online bookstore. I've picked up some authors including Steve Weber, author of Plug Your Book, a book about internet book advertising which has been helpful to me, and he didn't even know at the time I'd bought his book.

Google Partner Program has decided to make ebooks out of the books in the program if the authors are agreeable. I've had my books in the program for awhile but I haven't finished filling out the forms they needed. August 6 is when they will begin promoting ebooks. Once a month for some time now, I've received an email notice about how many of my books were viewed and how many pages looked at. This notice is a way for me to see what genres readers are interested in.

I accidentally came across Merchant Circle on the internet. There is one for every city in every state and if a you come from a small town that hasn't started using Merchant Circle yet be the first one to start if you consider your book selling a business. Sign up is free. I didn't think of myself as a business when I began this venture, but last year I published two books at Lightning Source Publishing. I had to fill out tax forms and send for a sales tax permit before Lightning Source would print my books. Since I was considered a business, that lead to me starting my online bookstore.

The added features on Merchant Circle are from $249 to $39, but I signed up for the free site. Do I expect to sell more books in my area when my town has a population of 600 and the biggest businesses are the nursing home and the John Deere Implement dealer. Not really, but Google Crawler is working on the site. My blog is picked up by major search engines which extends my reach and will introduce my books to more customers that search the internet like I do. I felt it was worth the effort to sign up for the free package and give it a try.

I had to have a logo so I used a copy of my business card since I'm not good with graphics. An advertisement and a coupon can be made. My coupon states a free book for the sale of one book on the site and a review of my business or the book purchased. The advertisement states that my stories are clean; no curse words or sex scenes. Books written by a Midwestern author with wholesome values.

The results are in for July for my Kindle books. With the raise in price, sales went down to about half of what I sold in June, but the royalty went from 35% to 70% so the total royalty amount was about the same. Better news is I am now selling my series of five mystery books which wasn't getting noticed before. That gives me encouragement to write Amazing Gracie Mystery number six.

Amazon's Author Central has sent out emails to authors with an author page to tell them they won't be able to blog on site after August 15th. They will need to submit a link to another blog they write. I've tried linking to another blog before without success, but I'm working on it again.

And finally, I read a helpful article on Publetariat.com that I liked titled The Truth About Typos by Mark Barrett's Ditchwalk. He said reread what you write at least once. Slow down and concentrate. Don't publish when you're tired. Just know that what you've written will never be perfect. Sooner or later a typo will survive. If you as a self published author worry about those typos like I do, this would be a good article to read. If nothing else the article made me feel a little better about those dreaded typos that did survive.

Thursday Blog Post

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I Like Customer Reviews

In a previous post I wrote about a review I requested from Charlie Courtland for A Promise Is A Promise from my Nurse Hal series. Charlie is the author of Dandelions In The Garden and has a book review website http://www.bitsybling.wordpress.com. I appreciated her good review and the fact that she put it on Amazon and www.goodreads.com where it could be seen by people.

According to Steve Weber in his book Plug Your Book, Amazon has some regular customers that offer reviews on every book they read. One negative view can hurt sales. He says keep asking for reviews. The more often your book is reviewed, the likely a minority opinion can dominate. Numerous authentic reviews lessen the chance that a single review can overtake and monopolize the Spotlight position.

Think about it. Reviewers have likes and dislikes when they pick a book to read. That may play a factor in their review. Plus, their intention is to review the book so they're naturally watching as they read for what they want to say. What would be great is to see more positive customer reviews on Amazon, but how do we go about getting buyers to respond. I want to know what people who buy my books think of them. Most book readers aren't reading a book to find mistakes but to be entertained. Those are the buyers most likely to leave a good review. Anyone that has bought an item from Amazon knows if you don't leave a review in a certain amount of time, you get an emailed reminder. That means the book buyers don't just forget. It's always possible they didn't like some of the books well enough to make a positive review so they decided not to make one at all.

As far as my books are concerned, I've gotten good reviews from ebay buyers and private sales. These are the buyers I was referring to that read my books for the entertainment value. I always make a point to ask buyers for a review so I'd know how they liked my books. Most of them are glad to comply and all the reviews have been good. I know they aren't just saying that. They like my books well enough that they want to buy another one.

I thought about how well my ebay buyers respond, and I had to wonder what was the difference between ebay and Amazon buyers. Maybe it has something to do with the reviews left by the experienced reviewers. Most book buyers couldn't measure up to those detailed critiqued reviews with one of their own. Maybe buyers don't know how to write a review they think would be all right. I can tell you from first hand experience I'm not good at giving a constructive review. When I was active on http://www.authonony.com I submitted Christmas Traditions and A Promise Is A Promise to get the opinion of other authors. Their reviews and thoughts were very complimentary and detailed, but I found it hard to review their books as well as they did mine. What I know for sure is I either like the books or don't, and that's based on the genre and the story in the books I like to read.

I write books that I hope are stories people will like to read. These books make you laugh out loud sometimes, describe characters that remind you of someone, and you miss them when the story ends. Those are not my words but words my customers have used to describe my books. So why is it so much easier to get ebay and private customers to give me positive reviews than it is to get them on Amazon?

Perhaps, there is another simple answer besides knowing how to write a review. On Amazon, customers don't have contact with the author of the books. Sales are impersonal business transactions. On ebay and private sales I can reach out to customers to add the personal touches to my sales so they get to know me. I sign my books for buyers. I have their email addresses so I can let them know the book had been sent so they can watch for it, and I tell them I appreciate their business. I ask for a review, if they have time to contact me, after they read the books. I think they respond back, because I reached out to them. Many of these buyers have become my email pen pals. They email me to find out how soon another book will be published. I have email addresses on a mailing list so I can notify buyers when a book is for sale. I've never been a fan of mass emails. That to me is very impersonal. I know the process takes time, but I email each buyer one at a time. Besides, that way I can visit with many of them. Some of these buyers email me once in awhile to just to say hi. Makes me feel blessed to get to know so many wonderful people in the United States.

With this all in mind, I started two new discussions under Christmas Traditions in Kindle. The first one explains that I have decided to put my books on Kindle and hope the buyers like this book. There's a short explanation about the use of Old English pronouns, because my book is a historical fiction. The second discussion is Reviews Needed For Christmas Traditions. Since I have sold many of these books on Amazon, I asked if the buyers could give my book a review. I explained I didn't want or need a detailed review like the experienced reviewers give. It would be great if they could click one to five on the stars and just say they liked the book. That would be enough to encourage other buyers to give my books a try. Now I'm hoping that the customers find the discussion and read it.

I added three sample reviews for Christmas Traditions-An Amish Love Story from other buyers to give them an idea what I'm looking for.

I had a hard time putting the story down. It has some interesting twists and turns as we follow the customs and false pride of the characters.

You are so descriptive. I felt the little thread of hope Margaret felt, but she didn't see.

I enjoyed this book very much. You sure made the characters come to life and what a sweet love story you have told. I wondered if you may be thinking about writing a sequel to this book.

What more could any author ask for when the book is already published and in the bookstores. By then it's too late for a detailed, constructive review if it's not positive. Reviews as simple as the reviews above show other buyers the books are worth reading for the entertainment value of each one. So book customers on Amazon or other sites speak up and let your favorite authors know how you feel about their work. Your opinion not only counts with other consumers, but it matters to the author.

Kindle Post Featured on iFOGO & More Author Sites

What a nice surprise to get an email to let me know that my blog post from last week - Kindle Book Sales A Surprise - is featured on www.iFogovillage.com right now. Thank you iFogo Village.

I read in an Amazon discussion that another author was surprised at how well his book was selling on Kindle after not getting as good a result for his hardcover book. Made me wonder just how many Kindles have been sold. Maybe sales would dry up soon. Also, on the discussions, I've seen it written that Kindle users were running out of their favorite genre to download. They were asking for help in finding electronic books they hadn't read yet. Maybe that is why Amazon raised the royalty fee for authors, encouraging them to download on Kindle.

This morning I had an answer to my wondering. At the bottom of the screen on Good Morning America, the scroll stated Amazon's sales of electronic books surpassed sales of hardcover books for the first time.

Looks like I picked the right time to download on Kindle. However, I'm not giving up on my paperback books. So many people stare at computer screens all day. Their eyes need a rest from that glare which means they are more likely to pick up a book. Call me old fashion but trying to relax after a busy day with a electronic device to read just isn't the same as getting cozy with a book.

This week I want to share sites I promote my books on. This is just a few that I know about. There are many more on the internet to try so I keep looking for the ones that are right for me to join. If you don't know about the sites in my list, check them out to see if any of them will be helpful to authors looking for places to put portions of their books for readers, agents or publishers to find. Some of the sites have an upgrade which you have to pay for, but I stick to the free plan. I like the sites that have a link to the social sites I belong to, because I can get an added announcement from that each time I add a book. When an author submits to these sites, Google crawler picks up book titles and authors to add to Google search.


Booksie.com

Published.com

1chapterfree.com - displays the first chapter of your book and shows how many hits have been made to read it

Stumbleupon

Authorden.com

Filedbyauthor.com

Goodreads.com

Reader2.com

Biblioscribe.com

Writetobreath.com

Weread.com

Zvents.com

Compulsivereader.com - just found this site. It has 23 book related links to check out. This site does reviews.

One more newsletter - Author Marketing Experts, Inc. - Penny C. Sansevieri, Editor
This free newsletter has some helpful tips for marketing and provides link.


Absolute Write watercooler - Forum topics you can check out. I've gotten information on publishers and agents I was curious about by reading authors posts.

Writers Beware - warnings about literary frauds, scams, deceptions and pitfalls listing agents and publishers you might not want to submit your query to. Definitely, a helpful site.

Kindle Books Sales A Surprise

The month of June has past with several of my books in the Kindle store on Amazon. I priced the download of my books very cheap. I'm an unknown author so my paperback books in the list of choices in the different genre is near the bottom of thousands of titles. I've searched Amazon for them myself, and by the time I went through a few hundred books, I was tired of looking so I know how buyers feel. Then there is the fact that $16.00 plus $4.00 postage is a lot of money to pay to take a chance on a paperback written by an unknown.

So I've tried Kindle. I was amazed at the wide variety of my books sold in June including one download of my western book, The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary. Still my best sellers are my Amish books. Now part of the Kindle buyers will know me as an author. If they liked what they read, they will find my books by searching for my name. They will watch for my latest books in the future and tell someone else about my books. Word of mouth has always been a great way for me to get buyers. Also in the back of each of my books is my bio with email address and a list of my other books.

In June, I didn't have an easy experience with kindle downloading. I wanted to use PDF because that's the format I downloaded my books to publish and save, but the system warned that PDF conversion didn't format well. Amazon was working on that but couldn't guarantee conversion with PDF yet. I found that out. The sentence structure was all out of whack. I don't have Microsoft, but my Open Office should work just as well. I found the format that worked one time didn't the next. I've went from PDF to rft, to hmtl to doc. I kept trying until I found a format that is fairly neat, I hope. Thank Goodness for the preview pages so I could check. Two years ago when I put the first book in my mystery series in kindle, I didn't finish filling out the form. When someone in the mystery community asked when my books would be on Kindle, I finished the download only to hear about the odd sentence structure so I stopped the production and resubmitted that book. Next problem was the cover downloads. They are blurry. I was wondering why Amazon didn't transfer the covers from my book page to Kindle. Checked the Kindle store and found my covers had been transferred.

What a difference a month makes. The last books I downloaded didn't give me as much trouble. The different formats to download a book weren't mentioned so I used PDF. Amazon has fixed their system to automatically help with conversion when needed before publishing. Hopefully, my next Kindle books are neater now. A discussion on Amazon mentioned the problems with the format downloading so now I feel better, knowing this wasn't a ME thing.

Amazon's 35% royalty wasn't very much. By July 1st, a new royalty has been added with a choice of 35 or 70%. I stopped all my books and repriced them so that I get a descent royalty. The bottom price is $2.99. Now my books are back for sale. The Kindle download at $5.99 is still much cheaper than the price of my paperback books. With 70% royalty, I have to pay for the buyer's download of the book according to the size. In my case that amounts to 2 - 6 cents.

Here is a review of Neighbor Watchers from Luv2read in Amazon kindle community discussion group I started titled New Amish Books On Kindle. She looked for my Amish books and found my mystery series book one Neighbor Watchers so she downloaded it, too.

She wrote I loved this book! The characters were so well written, it was easy to see it played out in my head as I read. Gracie was my great grandmother and Sam Elliot was the sheriff. Gracie & Melinda get into quite a few predicaments trying to "Help" solve the murder across the street. It kept me turning the page to find out what mischief these two adorable old ladies would get into next. I see more books in the series. I would definitely buy them.

Another time she wrote
I highly recommend this series to anyone who has ever known or had a nosy elderly neighbor that seemed to ALWAYS know what is going on in the neighborhood. This is a funny laugh out loud easy read. Neighbor Watchers is really unique as the time period is the turn of the century.

Of course, the thing I can't do in the Amazon discussion groups is advertise that my books are cheaper in my online bookstore( http://www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com ), on ebay or from me personally. Not everyone wants to read a book from a screen on Kindle. Since my books sold on Kindle in June, it looks like what buyers are looking for is a bargain. Next month I'll update you about July sales after I've raised my prices. What I need is to get the word out to buyers of paperback books that I am the keeper of my book bargains and am glad to accommodate customers.

Blackberry Picking & Hay Making

Again my living in the country got in the way of being able to work at the computer last week. Not that I'm complaining. I love being an author and a country gal. I'm the one who set out blackberry vines twenty years ago. I dug the starter plants out of my parents ditch. One more plant at my house that has a family attachment. It took a few years for the plants to get established and attached to the barb wire fence back of the garden. Now the vines are so thickly entwined we don't know the fence is there until we come in contact with a barb. Then we can't be sure if what punctured our finger was metal or a sticker.

My favorite pie and jelly are blackberry. I make a blackberry syrup for a revel to run through homemade vanilla ice cream. The vines are between a row of spruce trees and cherry bushes and a field of 8 feet tall corn plants. However, I consider picking the berries, in the hottest month of the year and in a spot where absolutely no air moves, worth the effort. This year's crop has been overly abundant because of all the rain.

When I bat at the deer flies and mosquitoes, I think about what berry picking was like when I was a kid in southern Missouri. My brother and I picked blackberries with our mom every other day for two weeks until all the berries ripened. She sold what berries we didn't need to pay for sugar, flour and coffee at the grocery store. July days are hot and humid in the Ozarks. We were made hotter yet, because Mom made us wear long sleeve shirts to keep from getting scratched. We wore our cowboy hats with the bead on the string to shade us from the sun. Mom bought vanilla flavoring from the Watkins Salesman. She believed that to be the best for baking. The salesman was good at the over sell pitches. He told Mom she could rub the vanilla on our ankles to keep chiggers from crawling on us. Mom thought the idea was worth a try. We smelled like raw cookie dough and still had bites all over us. The sweet smell probably attracted the chiggers to us.

In the early morning hours when the day was as cool as it would get, we had a quarter of a mile walk down a lane lined with Osage Orange hedge trees to the pasture where the milk cows grazed. It was about that far across the pasture to the blackberry thickets. Cattle didn't try to eat in the thickets because of the stickers, but snakes like the grassy shade under the vines. So we got the usual cautions from Mom to watch where we stepped. We each had a pail. Once in a while, a popping bug would fall in the berries. I'd have to stop picking to get rid of it.

Back then, I liked the cobblers and jelly Mom made with the berries. She canned and stored the jars in the fruit cellar behind the house for winter use. Even so I was always glad when we had all the ripe berries picked for the day so we could go home for lunch. We were sweaty and tired. Usually Mom had a fresh pitcher of real lemonade waiting for us in the ice box which was something to look forward to. A glass of that lemonade and the shade of the maple tree was as cool as it got in those days.

Back to the present with hay making. We finally got the hay baled. That job always makes me nervous. Last year, the tractor had a smoking problem that turned out to be two wires rubbed together. The smoke came up in my face through the steering wheel. I panicked and jumped off the tractor just about the time the smoke stopped.

This summer has not been good hay making weather. We usually cut hay the first of June, in July and again late August. Almost every day in June, we had rain. We needed the days to be hot and dry. When we saw this last week was going to be rain free, my husband cut the hay on Sunday. The timothy, clover and alfalfa plants were tall, two cuttings in one actually. The windrows were thick which made them hard to dry. By Thursday afternoon, we were ready to bale. My husband warned me to go slow and watch not to plug the baler with the hay. We'd sheer a pin. Just what I needed to hear, but in three hours, we didn't have any trouble and three wagons full of hay for our efforts. I thought a problem had by passed us this time and found out I was wrong.


It was 7 o'clock that night. The day had been perfect with a breeze and not too hot. My husband suggested we put a load in the barn right away while it was cool. I unload the bales from the wagons onto the conveyor which isn't so bad with a breeze. My husband stacks in the loft which is hot any time. We were down to the last layer on the first wagon when the chain on our 40 year old conveyor broke. My husband fixed it. I put one bale in the loft and the chain broke. By then it was too dark to see how to work on the chain. My husband did repairs the next morning and about three other times after that. Only about six bales had gone up to the loft. Then a sprocket bent and a chain broke. I'd been trying to talk my husband into getting a new conveyor so I was relieved that the conveyor was finally unfixable. We spent the rest of the day putting 200 bales in the loft by hand. My husband threw the first wagon load in the loft window while I carried them back out of the way. The next wagon, he stacked 15 at a time on the tractor loader bucket and raised it up to the window for me to pull inside. What a relief when we had that last bale stacked.

Saturday, we checked on a new conveyor. The salesman is going to call on Tuesday to let us know the cost and delivery date so I have to keep my phone line free. I definitely want that call to come through so I'm making my blog posts today. By the next time we make hay, something else will have to go wrong. The conveyor is new and the tractor is fixed. That only leaves the baler.

Yeah! Reviews On Amazon

Well, three book reviews anyway. That's a start.

Two years ago in June, I published 16 books on Create Space Publishing owned by Amazon. I started out to publish one book and found the process so easy I decided to publish all my books. My thought was that if I was going to promote one book I might as well promote all 16 at the same time. The books are different genre so I had a better chance of finding buyers. They are sold on Amazon which doesn't mean much for an unknown author unless I'm willing to work at getting some attention placed on my books.

Correct key search words help book buyers to come across a list of books to choose from with best sales at the top and mine at the bottom. However, I've noticed my Amish books are creeping up in the list Amish, because they sell. Buyers haven't left reviews, but I had the feeling they liked my books because the number of sales kept increasing for all three Amish books. So I asked people I knew that bought my books and buyers from ebay to give me reviews. I can't review my own books where buyers are allowed so at the bottom of each of my Amazon book pages is a list of community discussions. I started a new discussion so I could talk about each of my books and submitted all the reviews I had.

This month to my surprise, a buyer bought one of my Amish books (A Promise Is A Promise) and left a review. She liked the book but thought I was too descriptive. She advised I should watch the use of adjectives. First time I've had a semi negative review from anyone. I could have let that go, but I wanted this reviewer to have a good opinion of me as a writer. Besides that, I was thrilled by the fact someone had finally taken the time to leave a review so I responded back to her in the community discussion that I was glad to finally see someone review one of my books and thanked her. She softened her next response by saying the amount of adjectives I used wasn't going to stop her from buying another one of my books. She liked my Amish stories.

Her second response made me feel a better but I was wishing I had another review that could top that first one. I lucked out. Recently, I joined Book Marketing Network. I searched through the groups to seek information that would help me with marketing and found Charlie Courtland's post about doing free reviews. Charlie is author of Dandelions In The Garden. She hosts the site http://www.bitsybling.wordpress.com where she gives her review of each book she reads and rates them up to five stars. If you want an opinion on the books she reads, check out her site.

I emailed Charlie about doing a review of A Promise Is A Promise the first book in my Nurse Hal series. She replied she'd be glad to and I could send the book PDF, ebook or in print. I emailed back that I'd like to send her a book. She wondered about the cost, but I wanted her to see the book in the form I sold it complete with cover. Writing isn't everything. It helps to have an attractive package (cover).

Charlie told me she was a content, thematic, style and overall impression reviewer. She focuses on the positive and intended to include a few "flaws" because she wants each reader to decide if these are important or will dampen their reading experience. That statement, uncertain author that I am, made me somewhat nervous. I was trying to balance out a flawed review on Amazon and hoped for a new one that was more positive.

I asked for Charlie's review because she puts them on Amazon (which is what I needed) and Goodread which I joined some time back. Charlie must be a fast reader. She goes through many books and gives a review on Goodreads and her website. Here is Charlie's review for A Promise Is A Promise-Nurse Hal Among The Amish (ISBN 0982459505) which came back in a few days.

Gems: Growing up in the Mid West I loved the style and tone of the story and scenery. No purple prose or overly nostalgic descriptions, but rather a simple and honest portrayal of daily life. Each character is original and thoughtfully developed. I whole-heartedly enjoyed this Amish tale and believed the contrast between the Plain and English, but also how it is possible to live together with understand, honesty and acceptance. The story is not overtly religious but rather focuses on the complexities of relationships and because of this drew me into the Lapp family.

FLAWS: This is not truly a flaw because I loved how the author wrote the story, but if a reader is looking for more action or twist based on a typical 'mystery' experience, you may be slightly disappointed. The family secret isn't so surprising, nor is it terribly shocking, but from the point of view of the Amish it is understandably shameful. I see this as a story about living up to a person's word and good old fashion romance and values.

Bitsy's Rating: 4 out of five stars.

I responded with thanks for such a great review. Charlie's response was -

I really enjoyed the book. I missed the characters after I stopped reading. It was refreshing to read a different type of novel and I could relate since I grew up in farm county in Michigan. I realize I write with a Mid Western accent. I love the 'voice'. I like the authentic language because it gives depth and thematic power to the story and characters.

Charlie is a personable lady that is easy to correspond with. I've enjoyed our emails and a positive look at my work from someone that doesn't know me. My family and friends were complimentary from the start when they read my books. At first that was enough to keep me writing though not enough to keep me from worrying I might not be as good a writer as I was being told. When my books started selling on ebay, I needed to know if I was giving the buyers their money's worth. I had personal email contact with each customer so I asked for reviews. The positive reviews came back as well as buyers buying more of my books because they like my stories. Since I put my contact information in each book package, I've sold books through my email to these same customers. That makes me more profit when I don't have ebay's deduction tacked on. Now I get emails from buyers (dare I say fans) wanting me to hurry up and finish the next book. That's given me confidence that I'm doing all right as an author.

I started a new thread Two New Amish Books on Kindle to advertise. The discussion was picked up and carried on from there. Once people participate and the amount of discussions multiply a book advertising is lost several pages back quickly so has to be repeated to get attention from others. I didn't go back to advertise again. It looks like buyers have found me now. I checked the email box so when a new message is left in the discussion group the email is sent to me and I can keep track of what is going on. That tells me many Amazon buyers got my advertising mailed to them, too. Problem is getting inundated by Amazon emails, because the discussion groups are popular. I was just about to delete myself from the four discussions I've been following when someone wrote about a couple of web sites that list many mystery writers and their books. I'm going to check them out and let you know about that next week.

On MyEntre.Net.com I wrote in my blog about wanting reviews. A helpful comment was join http://www.librarything.com for a member giveaway of my books. I do belong to that website, but I wasn't familiar with the review process. I can give away a certain number of books to other members. People request to get them. The website determines which members get the books. Then the people who read the books have to give reviews.

I haven't tried Library Thing for reviews yet, but the next Amish book I publish, hopefully by the end of the year, I'll be ready for another round of reviews and this site will be my next option.