It’s Ten Years!!! Since Day One of My Loyalist Trilogy Writing Journey.
The time seems to have sprouted little white wings and just flown. From that day when my son said to me “If not now, when?” and gave me the oomph I needed to start writing the trilogy, I’ve never had to wonder what to do next. Always more ideas of my own and more suggestions from others made my days way too short to get it all done.
Please join with me and celebrate!
Look Back:
Over that ten years a trilogy came to life, one that touches the history of my family and the families of other Loyalists here in Canada. The books are in print format, e-book format, and even an audio book of the first one is almost ready to made its debut. I learned how to do so many things connected with writing and publishing, all of it fun and all of it from really helpful and knowledgeable people. I am so grateful for all those along the way, many of whom are still in my Contact list, thank goodness. A special thanks to all those who’ve invited me to speak at events where I could sell my books. You are the best!
Look Ahead:
Everyone has been wondering what is in the works for me now and I’ve been a little cagey about my answer. I could write more about the Loyalists, perhaps down East either where my husband’s family originated or further East in the Atlantic provinces where most of the Loyalists escaping during the American Revolution landed. I will be getting my audio book of The Loyalist’s Wife, 2nd ed., out very soon. I am currently learning more about writing a screen treatment and script for my Loyalist trilogy. (Wouldn’t it be fun to see John and Lucy on the big screen?) And I am definitely exploring writing a book about my writing journey with a view to helping other writers. I have in mind that this will be an e-book only, at this point, but you never know.
The really big news? I’m currently working with a coach to extend my reach as a writer and speaker beyond where I have taken these things on my own. This is huge and I had to do a lot of soul-searching before shelling out the money.
Giveaway:
To thank my readers, today I am offering a free e-copy of the second edition of The Loyalist’s Wife, complete with new cover and a few changes, to all who comment below. I’ll contact you and ask for your email. Then I’ll send you the epub or pdf copy of that beautiful book. You can read it on your computer, your iPad or perhaps other reader (not sure about that). So make sure you write a nice comment below!
Also I’ve reduced the price of that book in e-book format on Amazon where you can order it for $2.99 and it will go right to your Kindle. Their rules wouldn’t let me put the price any lower. Sorry.
Both of these specials are only available until April 5 when my next post goes up. Take action! Send your friends to my site. This is a limited time offer. Afterwards it’ll be back to $4.99 US$ on Amazon.
Don’t forget to sign up for both my twice monthly newsletter and to receive notice in your InBox of my weekly blog posts. And if you’re a writer or a reader, don’t forget to write reviews, especially for my latest book, The Loyalist Legacy, on Goodreads and Amazon. You can put the same review in both places.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey. My writing friends, my beta readers, my lifelong friends and family–all of you are part of what makes me who I am so that I can write. You are a joy which touches my very soul.
Okay. Now the mushy stuff is over!
So after somewhere around 3650 days of writing professionally and this small celebration, I’m still moving forward and I hope you’ll all come with me. Don’t forget to write a comment and win a free e-book!
The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck, The Loyalist Legacy
“Write a novel.” I answered my son’s question immediately surprising myself with my words.
“You’re 60 years old. You’re in perfect health, you have all that English background, you’ve read all your life, you have the time, and you have the computer skills. If not now, when?” My son took his eyes off the road for a moment to fix his blue eyes on me.
I don’t remember exactly what happened then but a week later when my husband and I arrived in Hilton Head, South Carolina, for a holiday, one of my first stops was to the local bookstore where I bought a book about writing and selling a first novel and I was off and running.
And now, here I am almost 10 years later with my historical fiction Loyalist trilogy out there in the world in various formats, an audio book soon to be released, and a book for writers about writing close to being announced. It’s been a tough but rewarding ten years for me who never wanted to retire and play cards every afternoon while wondering what part of my body would next fall apart.
It’s been mostly a terrific experience to spend most of every weekday writing, editing, marketing, and doing all the other necessities which have made my life so interesting. Hundreds of new people have enriched my life, most of them in the writing business themselves, and all of them willing to share and help me along the way.
As I celebrate this milestone I’m very aware that I could not have done this without the help of many people. Of course, my son, Kevin, whom I mentioned in the first lines of this post and my daughter, Beth, who keeps my brain ticking with new ideas and who is a great sounding board for my own ideas, are top of the list. My husband, Ron, joins them there as a ready listener to my ideas, my plans, my troubles and always encourages me to go farther. He has fueled my ambition. My sister, Linda, gone now, always kept my off-site flash drive safely in her kitchen cupboard and my brother Ross whose own achievements and then early death fueled my drive to succeed while I still could.
There have been a few missteps along the way but thanks to great and constant support from my peeps, I’ve found the way to go on. The biggest problem was when I joined an online group of great people whose mission was to help authors get published and editors and agents find worthy clients. For reasons which are not going to be aired here, I gradually sunk lower and lower as I struggled to work in that environment but I finally realized I not only could leave the group and go on but absolutely had to for my own sake. When my husband said to me in the kindest of words that I did not have to continue with my book, I took stock. He did me such a favor because I realized I had to go on for myself. I dumped that group, walked away from three prospective agents and a senior editor with Penguin in New York, and have never looked back.
Writing and finding a measure of success has given this second part of my life more meaning than I could ever have imagined. Because I’m so thankful to so many for helping me, I’ve decided to have a celebration with my online friends and those I’m so fortunate to know in person. I’m picking March 29th for my celebration blog post. I’ll have giveaways, reading suggestions, messages from other author friends about their writing and a grand prize of the whole trilogy, bound and beautiful, for some lucky person. Keep checking back here and on my twice monthly newsletters for more information. And invite your reading and writing friends to join in the fun.
Check back next week for more exciting news about March 29. Help me celebrate!
As I approach the ten-year anniversary of the beginnings of my writing journey, I can’t help but think of some of the crazy things I’ve had to research. Of course I expected to go digging for first-person accounts of the times and for just the exact details about battles and political chicanery back in the days of the American Revolution and afterwards, but looking up how to bleed a cow or just where Carolinian forest is, well, those were surprises.
Here are some of the things I’ve had to research for my novels:
Tarring and feathering. In the first book of my Loyalist trilogy, Lucy’s father experiences this inhumane method of punishment. Believe me, reading about it does not make it seem any less gruesome; in fact, so gruesome that sometimes people died from it.
Skinning a raccoon. This description was part of the first draft of The Loyalist’s Wife as Lucy tried to hold on to her land while her husband was off fighting with the British. The account didn’t survive revision but I learned both how to do the skinning and how to write its description in an interesting fashion.
Carolinian forest. Did you know that Carolinian forest grows from the Carolinas right up into Ontario? And that some of the trees in that forest are ash, birch, chestnut, hickory, oak and walnut? I needed those notes to make sure the specific trees I mentioned actually grew where I said they did.
Battles around Niagara in the War of 1812. These were particularly bloody as the Niagara peninsula saw a lot of killing and cannonading as did the whole of Southern Ontario. As a person who grew up in Southern Ontario, I was surprised to learn the facts and wrote about them in both The Loyalist’s Luckand The Loyalist Legacy.
The Portage Road on both sides of the Niagara River. I still have visions of huge oxen pulling wagons loaded with settlers’ supplies up the hills to get to the level of Niagara Falls. Anyone who has seen those Falls or their picture knows that is a huge height and goods had to be portaged around the Falls in order to continue up the lakes on their way to settlers’ destinations.
How to bleed a dead cow. Well, I grew up on a farm so some of this I kind of knew but I still had to research just to make sure I had the facts right about the kill, the hanging of the carcass and the slicing of the neck vein in order to let the blood run out. In “olden days”, that’s where they got the blood for blood pudding and certain sausages. Doesn’t sound that appetizing to today’s readers! Lucy has to do this herself in the first book of the Loyalist Trilogy.
Uniforms for Butler’s Rangers, British soldiers, and Patriots who later became Americans. Believe me this is a huge subject with uniforms ranging from non-existent to very specific for each subsection in fighting units. The uniforms indicate far more than just the country the soldiers are fighting for. The Butler’s Rangers in my first book started out wearing their own clothes but eventually had a green coat and tan trousers. Here’s a sample of the variations.
Muskets and various cannons. There is no end of information on all of the weapons of the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Fascinating read when you consider these soldiers had to master intricate steps in all kinds weather and fighting conditions. I love the bit about the musket firing soldier ripping off the end of the paper tube holding the powder with his teeth, pouring in the powder, ramming it home with the ramrod, attaching the ramrod to the barrel again and finally firing. In the video no one is firing at those demonstrating. Makes a difference to how calm they might be, wouldn’t you say?
Redans and redoubts. Redoubt is the most common word and redoubts represent a fortification where soldiers were somewhat protected from approaching enemies. This is described here. I used this research in the second book of my trilogy, The Loyalist’s Luck.
Cicadas and crickets. Believe me there is a difference in the chirping times between these two but in the eight years since I sourced it out for my first book, I’ve forgotten, and I don’t have the time to do the research again. I did use the correct term in that book. There’s nothing to say that once finding the proper research and using it, you’ll remember it!
No matter what kind of book you’re writing the research will catch or destroy the reader’s interest. Make sure it’s well done.
The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck, The Loyalist Legacy
One of the gifts I received for Christmas shows yet again how closely my husband is tuned in to my writing life. He knows that having just launched the third in my Loyalist trilogy, I am working even harder on marketing. After all, what good is writing a great series if few people know about it?
While my next writing project is simmering in my mind, I’m going to step up my already busy book marketing life. My husband bought me this book: Online Marketing for Busy Authors. (Click to see it on Amazon.)
I have yet to crack this book open but soon!
Now I have a closet full of books on writing and even a few on marketing. The first book I read on the subject linked writing and selling right in the title so I know how important the selling part is to a writer’s career. And before I open Burke’s book I’m going to list my own marketing methods to date:
Talk about your writing whenever you can. So many people will be thrilled that you’ve included them in your writing inner circle. (Of course, you don’t want to become annoying!) Believe it or not, having published books seems to give a writer the right to call herself an author and most people respect that.
Get on as many social media outlets as you can handle comfortably and keep them up to date. I use Facebook, both my main page and my author page, sometimes I do ads on these; Twitter; Pinterest; and, to a lesser extent, LinkedIn. I’m planning to step up my YouTube game in 2017 and post regular videos.
Look for speaking gigs that relate to the subject matter of your book. Historical and Loyalist groups are delighted to hear about my Loyalist trilogy. Elementary schools would be excited to get in children’s book authors. Those with non-fiction books can look for their peeps among those who need/want their books about dog-grooming, lifestyle suggestions, or dating advice.
Offer to do special presentations where your book is most suited. Last summer I did a July 1st (Canada Day) table at a wonderful museum in London. For that I did special games for kids that related to the history at the museum and in my books. Of course the woman who wanted to dumb my games down for her kids by giving them the answers kind of missed the point.
Make it your goal to do at least one thing to market yourself and your books EVERY DAY. This keeps you on top of your marketing game and increases your chances of the world finding out about your books. It also results in all kinds of people knowing you. Just a few days ago I received a lovely thank you letter from a couple who subscribe to my twice monthly newsletter telling me how much they enjoy it and wishing me Merry Christmas. I so appreciated that both for the kindness it showed and for the feedback on what I am doing.
Here is a link to some blog posts related to this topic which will show you my journey along the marketing road. On that blog I really talk about my writing journey to publication and beyond so there may be other things there that interest budding writers. Whatever your interest I hope the articles help you. Meanwhile I am going to push on with marketing my Loyalist trilogy. For this morning? I’m going to go down my list of previous speaking venues and see if there is somewhere I might seek a return gig now that it’s almost four years since I’ve been to some of them. Happy New Year!
The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck, The Loyalist Legacy
Knowing that the third book in my Loyalist trilogy was launching in November, my husband and I planned a wonderful cruise for a couple of weeks beforehand. The story is in the pictures:
In Florence, the Ponte Vecchio across the Arno was a photographer’s delight and we had to jostle for position. Well worth it.I couldn’t walk by David’s butt without clicking one for posterity. (Ha Ha) Shied away from the front, though. 😉Street scene from a tour bus in beautiful Barcelona. We had fabulous weather there at the beginning of our trip.Cute little monk parakeets in Barcelona park gardens of King’s summer palace.King’s summer palace fountain in Barcelona.Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, always under construction. Fabulous testament to the absolute need for people to build monuments to their gods. Very beautiful.Of course we saw the leaning tower of Pisa but didn’t know about the beautiful church right beside it. Lovely.High up on the Isle of Capri we could see the shades in the water.And the powerful volcano, Mount Vesuvius, in the distance.The clouds scudded across the azure sky in a perfect picture over the Mediterranean Sea.One of the most beautiful places was Monaco even though it is extremely crowded with buildings and streets built on top of one another.And here rests Princess Grace in the lovely Monaco Cathedral where visitors are welcomed at no charge.
And now we’re back home with wonderful memories of our Mediterranean cruise. The Loyalist Legacy is launched and we can revisit our two week holiday with the pictures and our memories. Just what a good holiday should do for us!
This has been a terrific month for me and my books as number three in the Loyalist trilogy has made its way into the limelight. Last Sunday the last of four book launches took place right here in my home city with lots of people sharing readings and cake with me and my wonderful team. It made me think of all the help I’ve had over this almost 10-year journey and of the kindness shown by so many.
Here’s the cake we ordered for this final event. Dee at the local Dee-Lights Bake Shop went out of her way to design this large facsimile of the new book cover. Fabulous! Both in the rendering of my book cover and in the taste of the cake. Everyone loved it.
A number of people attending were strangers who came out to buy books and meet me. Wasn’t that a surprise! And they came on the day of the first snowfall here. London had too much snow for some to venture out but luckily our town just had a sprinkling.
Save
Save
Save
This all made me think of the people I’ve met over this almost ten-year journey and how kind and helpful they have been. In the early days of writing the first book in the trilogy I was mostly on my own but, after a year, I had the first draft researched and written and started moving ahead on the journey to publication.
Here are some of the steps along the way:
–Some local writers joined a small group here and four of us continued critiquing each other’s work for about a year. They helped me move to the next step where I attended several writing workshops led by the well-known Brian Henry here in Southern Ontario.
–For about 8 weeks I drove an hour and a half to Oakville for an extreme editing course full of about 20 writers like myself in Brian’s course. We listened to each other’s work, we commented, we rewrote, we agreed, we disagreed and along the way we learned. Several of us are still supportive writing friends today about seven years later.
–A conference I went to in Niagara Falls, Ontario, brought me more writing friends, two or three of whom are moving along their journey as am I. We haven’t necessarily gone the same way but we’ve supported each other the whole time. Tomorrow The Loyalist Legacy and I will be on Sally Moore’s blog and though Sally is in a particularly busy work time just now, she is helping me out. I long for the day when her amazing, well-honed, and extremely interesting books find their way out into the fresh air of the publishing world.
–Another conference I went to was in Vancouver a few years ago and its focus was on using social media and other methods to get our writing out in the world. I loved that conference and starting a new writing blog as soon as I came home, highlighting the lessons I’d learned and those who had taught me. On Becoming a Wordsmith still has loads of helpful articles.
–Through Sally again, I joined WCDR and drove for two or three years once a month for meetings of this forward-thinking and very helpful writing group of around 250 members or so. Their speakers are fabulous. They also have associate memberships for people to join and be on their mailing list to receive loads of helpful information: workshops, book selling events, reading sessions at bars, visiting writers and many more things are part of this organization. The cheaper memberships give a lot of information to people who can’t possibly make the journey to Ajax once a month. They just finished hosting Bookapalooza.
–I joined the London Writers’ Society and spend quite a lot of time with them these days. Having received so much help through critique groups and guest speakers in the past, now I try to help writers who are not as far along in their journey. It’s a pleasure to have answers won over years of searching and moving ahead on the journey. Our current president has raised the level of the group so high that every meeting we have new meetings and will have to find a larger room one of these days. Another group there has stepped up the learning about marketing, specifically getting our names out in the media.
Writing is a pastime, a hobby, a job, a passion, a soul-searching and gut-wrenching activity for most of us in differing levels depending on who we are. One thing is for certain, though. If we want to succeed, we must keep searching, keep learning, and keep writing. Thanks so much to all of those who have helped me along the way!
November is launch month for The Loyalist Legacy, the third in my Loyalist Trilogy and what a month it has turned out to be. Our thoughts are on our American neighbors to the south and the most vitriolic and divisive election any of us can ever remember. No matter whose side you’re on, this was a dirty fight and it was hard to see dignity and even honesty go out the window.
And it’s the time of year when we specifically remember those who served that we who have come after might live our lives in freedom.
Of course almost my every waking thought is on my book launch with personal appearances, book signings and speaking engagements, and my three-week book tour all over the Internet. Yesterday I did a newspaper interview here in my hometown after two major events on the weekend. So much fun! Meeting people who love historical fiction in general and my Loyalist trilogy in particular is pretty darn rewarding.
As I drove home after one of these events I thought about the connection between my latest book (the Loyalist Legacy), November 11th and Remembrance Day, and this pivotal American election.
Five Items to Make Us Feel Better This November
Though our history is relatively short it is full of catastrophic events which could have ended Canada. Wars, rebellions and civil disobedience are part of our past and yet here we are. My Loyalist trilogy is a testament to the efforts of individuals fighting for a good life here.
Canada suffered through the 1837 Rebellion in Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec) yet managed to survive and become one of the best countries in which to live today. William and Catherine Garner, the real couple whose names I borrowed in The Loyalist Legacy, were there for that rebellion and survived.
Reading fiction and particularly historical fiction lets us imagine things that may have happened in the past from which our ancestors recovered. We see the strength in ordinary people when faced with disheartening and even terrifying events going on all around. We can recover.
One of the things my daughter started me writing with her is a gratitude journal. Every day we try to write 3 things for which we are grateful and it helps me to focus on the good in my life as well as have a wonderful view into just who my daughter is. We pick each other up with that journal and we remember how lucky we are.
In The Loyalist Legacy the difficulties of being settlers in an unsettled land, of fighting to save children from disease with no healthcare, and of seeing one’s neighbors divided over just how to solve political and social problems every day–those difficulties seem so much larger than ours just at this moment. There is a bigger picture. Perhaps we can all focus on it while we strive to build a better world.
When the first book in my Loyalist trilogy was published, I was ecstatic. The cover was fabulous, the paper quality excellent, and everything else seemed just what this perfectionist wanted. The bubble floated along with me in it until, little by little, snippets of doubt crept into my mind. Oh, my readers mentioned over and over their excitement, their sleepless nights, their need for the next book just as soon as I could get it written. In fact, readers have been all that I could expect and much more.
The Loyalist’s Wife 2nd edition cover.
Save
Still, a few things bothered me. I’d missed checking the chapter headings and numbered them incorrectly. That was a relatively simple fix and that’s why the printer sends a proof copy. Then, as I did numerous public readings, I found the odd error. Horrors! The worst one was using the wrong name for one of my characters, an error which I discovered right in the middle of a public reading. Luckily my performance genes took over and my audience never knew. But I did. The worst was finding sections where the writing was just not what I am capable of and I hated those bits. Did I mention I’m a perfectionist?
This past spring and summer, I upped my author game by recording this first book for an audio book and that led to a perfect opportunity to go back and fix all those things which bugged me, and more. As I prepared each chapter for the recording sessions, I made changes in the text. Then when I was reading for the two hour recording sessions I always had a pen in hand. A large squiggly black thing in the margin was quick to put in as I was reading and, once home, I made the correction needed. This was a fabulous way to check my own work. Reading aloud makes me notice every little word and if it doesn’t read well, it’s probably not written well. Now I’m a convert for proofreading aloud. This is particularly good for dialogue bits and the dialogue tags with them.
At the same time as I was recording and editing the 2nd edition of The Loyalist’s Wife, my third in the trilogy, The Loyalist Legacy, was in the review process and I had cover decisions to make. Even though I loved the first cover for Wife, the thought of a trilogy sold as a set made me think about making the books similar. The second book, The Loyalist’s Luck, had such a striking cover I directed my cover artist to use it as a model for the third. While she was at it, she suggested the artwork above for the first one. I loved the idea and what you see above is the updated cover for the second edition. It cost me a bit of money but not nearly so much as you might think. Well worth it.
Here’s the full updated cover for The Loyalist’s Luck. I’ve added the other two covers on the back as well as extra words on the front for all three. (The second book of The Loyalist Trilogy on this one.)
Notice the number at the top of the spine. I love that! My three books will look great sitting together on my wonderful readers’ bookshelves, don’t you think? Because I made significant changes to the interior and to the cover of the first book, I chose to give it the second edition label on the inside title page. You’ll still be able to buy the first one online for a while but for my speaking and signing engagements, once those are gone I won’t order more. Get ’em while they last!
I have used the cover for the third book here. It will be launching in November with a three-week blog tour weekdays Nov. 7-25. More about all of that later. For today I just wanted to suggest to other authors that doing a second edition is not as difficult as you might imagine and when I received my print copies a couple of days ago, they pleased and excited me just as much as the first one did about three and a half years ago.
Cover Reveal for The Loyalist Legacy coming in November!
I’ll be looking for new editions from other authors from now on!
Writing Superheroes–from a conference a couple of years ago.
Yesterday I got to spend some time over on a different website where Maria Grace has created a dream of a site. She included me in her series about author superheroes, a thrill to be sure. I’ve linked to the interview here and urge you to click over and feast on her creativity. A fabulous idea for author interviews!
The time seems to have sprouted little white wings and just flown. From that day when my son said to me “If not now, when?” and gave me the oomph I needed to start writing the trilogy, I’ve never had to wonder what to do next. Always more ideas of my own and more suggestions from others made my days way too short to get it all done.
“Is there anything you wish you had done, Mom?”
Today I’m lucky enough to be 
Save
This has been a terrific month for me and my books as number three in the Loyalist trilogy has made its way into the limelight. Last Sunday the last of four book launches took place right here in my home city with lots of people sharing readings and cake with me and my wonderful team. It made me think of all the help I’ve had over this almost 10-year journey and of the kindness shown by so many.
November is launch month for The Loyalist Legacy, the third in my Loyalist Trilogy and what a month it has turned out to be. Our thoughts are on our American neighbors to the south and the most vitriolic and divisive election any of us can ever remember. No matter whose side you’re on, this was a dirty fight and it was hard to see dignity and even honesty go out the window.
