Authors Talk About It Podcast

Link to podcast is here.

Being interviewed by two doctors could be an intimidating experience. Fortunately for me, relationship experts Drs. Rob and Janelle Alex put me right at ease and asked interesting and provocative questions. A refreshing twist on the usual "Tell me about your book" questions was how to forge relationships between readers and characters. We ended up having so much to talk about and they've invited me back for another visit.

Oh, just in case you're thinking that all podcasts are perfectly executed, you can hear my fluster at receiving a phone call in the middle of it! <sigh> Who was it? A reader wanting the inside scoop on my upcoming book, of course!

Why We Love Reading about Strong Women by Ursula Wong

Welcome to Friday Features! Maybe it's the fact that my guest grew up on a dairy farm that first sparked my interest. But a dairy girl turned author? I had to learn more. Once Ursula Wong and I began talking, I recognized a certain resolve and thought you'd like to meet her, too.  I asked Ursula to share her thoughts on "strong women." This is what she had to say:

Why We Love Reading about Strong Women by Ursula Wong

I love the conviction of women who are resolved to overcome bad situations, but does it mean that strong women appeal to us because we think they’re unique?  Does that say something about what we expect of ourselves and what we expect of women both in life and in what we read?

I write about women who overcome tremendous odds with creativity and hidden strength. To see how other writers were handling the subject, I did a Google search for ‘strong female literary characters’ and came up with a few surprises.

First, there were many lists and they were long.

Secondly, the lists didn’t have a lot of overlap. Perhaps too many novels exist for one set of ‘strong women’ tastes.

I noticed that some of the stories have been around for a while.  Lizzie Bennett in Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice wows us with her wit and mindfulness.  Charlotte Bronte’s ever-constant Jane Eyre builds strength over many bad situations. Don’t forget the nutty Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations who showed strength of conviction even though it involved waiting for her fiancé to show up.

Stories about strong girls also made the lists including the brilliant Matilda by Roald Dahl, Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and Meg Mury from the wonderful A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.

The lists also had many contemporary entries. Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a power-house. Katniss shows spectacular survival strength in Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Don’t forget Jessica Wyeth in TheCharity and The Troubles by Connie Johnson Hambley, and my own Lily Phelps in Purple Trees as two more examples of women struggling against terrible odds.

My personal all-time favorite is Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God by ZoraHurston, for discovering her power by listening to her heart.

I don’t think strong women are unusual either in stories or in life. Sometimes, I think we don’t recognize our strength, and perhaps minimize it, thinking if I can do something, anyone can. I also think that stories of strong women will remain popular because of the different ways we solve our problems, so I’ll continue writing about them, and even aspire to be one.

URSULA WONG

Ursula Wong, author of "Purple Trees"

Ursula grew up on a dairy farm in central Massachusetts, and became a high tech engineer. Her stories have appeared in Everyday Fiction, Spinetingler Magazine, and the popular anthologies Insanity Tales and Insanity Tales II: The Sense of Fear. She runs the Nashua chapter of the New Hampshire Writer’s Project, and is Marketing Director of The Storyside Consortium, a publishing cooperative.

Her award-winning debut novel, Purple Trees, portrays rural New England life in the story of a naïve girl who must grow up fast to find work and build a future, when the weight of the past threatens everything she loves.

Ursula taps her Lithuanian heritage in her upcoming novel, Amber Wolf, a saga of love and war. Destitute after her mother is killed by Russian soldiers in 1944, young Ludmelia Kudirka joins farmers who are fighting for freedom in a David-and-Goliath struggle against the mighty Soviet war machine. Amber Wolf  will be available in 2016.

Visit Ursula’s popular Reaching Readers Blog on her website (ursulawong.wordpress.com) and signup for monthly mini-stories. Pin Ursula on Pinterest, and like her on Facebook.

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FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here. 

If you have something to say about the topic of 

strong women, contact me on Twitter: 

@conniehambley.

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Bringing Books to Life

Author Tea at the Wenham Tea House

I live in an area of New England that is filled with physical beauty, history, and creative minds. Englishmen began to question their allegiance to Britain and witches were hunted steps from my home. Boston's history is as rich and colorful as the countryside it resides in. Is it any wonder that many novels are set here? Readers agree that walking the streets and paths they've read about deepens their understanding of the books and forges a deeper connection to the characters.

I'm excited to have a special author's high tea in the hometown of my book's main character, Jessica Wyeth. On Friday, December 18 from 3:30 to 5:30 pm, I will talk about the people and the places in my suspense thrillers. Hamilton, Massachusetts is the quintessential New England town. White colonials line the main streets. Split-rail fences dot the countryside. Horses are around every turn. Seriously. The picture below is a fairly common site.

Technically speaking, Hamilton is really Hamilton-Wenham. The two towns joined forces just to confuse everyone. The Wenham Tea House is an iconic establishment. My characters definitely would have been regulars there if they were real people.

But when you drive the streets and see the sights described in The Charity or understand the yearning for home Jessica feels in The Troubles, you just might get the sneaking suspicion that maybe these books aren't fiction after all.

I hope to see you on the 18th!

(More event dates for fall 2015 can be found here.)

Reaching Readers: Panels and Book Clubs

Sisters in Crime Panel at the Martha Canfield Library in Arlington, Vermont

I'll bet you're reading this post on your phone, tablet, or computer. Take a moment and look around you. See anyone you'd like to strike up a conversation with? No? Then you could be suffering from Digital Isolation Syndrome.

Writers definitely suffer DIS. Hours at the keyboard play havoc on the health of real-life relationships. A little known fact is that readers suffer from the affliction as well. Communication that cannot be distilled into a "like" or six-word comment is too taxing. Besides, what comes after placing a thumbs-up? A conversation? Banish the thought!

Established cures for DIS are author panels and book clubs. Both feature authors talking about their work to an audience that has more than a passing interest in the subject matter. These events are easy even for the shiest of colleagues. Ever meet a parent who doesn't like to talk about her kids? A table filled with books is the author's version of the accordion-pleated picture wallet filled with photos of grandchildren and dogs.

For me, panels are akin to a professional workshop and a great way to connect with readers. A topic is declared and a handful of questions are lobbed by the moderator. Once the conversation starts to roll, the authors usually take it from there by asking follow-on questions to delve deeper into the subject. The panel pictured above shows Nancy Means Wright, Ellen Larson, and me discussing "We're Not Making This Up," a panel of the Sisters in Crime New England. As fiction writers, we base our stories on historical figures, science, or current events, and readers want to know how we concoct. What was better than a full house? Having readers linger and listening to conversations ignited by the discussion. Relationships were formed and no one hid behind an illuminated screen.

The shared experience of reading the same book and meeting to discuss it over a potluck dinner is a surefire antidote to DIS. Think of book clubs as a personalized medicine for isolation, virtual or otherwise.

Kidding aside, I find these events are essential for maintaining the pulse on what readers want. (Yes, that's a cringe-worthy pun.) I'm deeply rewarded when I hear animated conversations about a book, especially when the people are meeting for the first time. "Oh! I read that book, too! What did you think?"

For all of the leveraging the digital world of social media provides us, it is still the connection that propels the relationship.

The next time you see a discussion hosted by your local library, go. Spend an hour listening, then look around you. I'll bet you'll find someone to strike up a conversation with.

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Being Indie

Photo credit: funmozar.com/alone-in-the-world/

I had a tough moment a few days ago. Ever have a nightmare where you arrive at work only to realize you're not wearing pants? Yeah. Kinda like that. But I was very, very awake.

I attended a book launch of a friend of mine. She's a local favorite, traditionally published by one of the big houses, and knows how to write terrific women's fiction. The bookstore where she has launched many of her six novels is a cornerstone of the community. Combine a local favorite with a trusted bookstore and you get a crowd of book loving folks and avid readers. I recognized more than a few faces of the writing community. Authors, publicists, columnists, and fans dotted the audience.

My friend is a hybrid author. Toward the end of the Q and A segment of her talk, a question prompted a discussion of traditionally versus independently published books. My name came up as an example of independently published. The audience member had read my first book, The Charity, and said she enjoyed it and did not know I was independently published.

This is where I wish I had pinched myself awake.

The discussion touched on editorial quality. When asked if the audience member saw typographical errors in my book versus traditionally published books, she wagged her hand in the air in a pantomime of balance and said, "Well..." The drawn out word and hand gesture sliced into me like a hot knife through butter.

But wait. It gets worse.

The bookstore owner used the opportunity to talk about some of the self-published train wrecks she had declined to put on her shelves. For what seemed like forever, the owner vented on the demise of publishing quality due, in no small way, to the deluge of self-published crap that has flooded the market.

I was guilty by association. In that conversation, in that horrible moment where reality and nightmare merged, in a room filled with my peers, I was lumped together with the crap she wouldn't put on her shelves.

I withered. My pants were no where to be found.

The event ended and the reception and book signing began. Still trying to process exactly what had happened, I immediately went to the owner. I asked if she would prefer my books be removed from her shelves.

The conversations I've had since that moment have nurtured me. The owner said my books wouldn't be on her shelves if they were not good books. I've launched both The Charity and The Troubles at her shop and sold, by her observation, more books than many best-selling and widely known authors did when they have had events with her. To her, my books are not crap. I deserve the right to be on her shelves because I do the work. I make sure I produce a quality product.

At a writers' dinner, my friend approached me and apologized for not defending me right then and there. She confessed that her traditionally published books have typos despite the fact that she has a team of editors, designers, and proof readers at her disposal. Other folks have expressed their support of me. To each one, I am grateful.

I'm not going to thump on a tabletop and proclaim my perfection, nor am I going to pick apart a traditionally published work as not being as good as many independently published works. I understand that in a rapidly changing world, it's easier to find reasons to dismiss than to support.

My books are my business. I put out a damn good product.

Here's the irony. The audience member made a point to speak with me afterwards, expressing surprise. She sensed she had touched off something, but was simply happy to meet me. We chatted for a bit. Her name was familiar.

Turns out she  had reached out to me via my website a year earlier. She had purchased my book at another location. Maybe the version she had did have a typo. I don't know. All I know is that one luxury of being indie is I can upload corrected versions of my books, and do--something traditionally published can't do easily.

She contacted me out of the blue all those months ago because (drum roll please) she loved my book. Her five star review on Amazon is short and sweet.

Indie or Tradional? What Matters is Being Relentless

Have you been reading the press lately? Traditionally published authors are earning less than ever. What has increased? The time spent on marketing.

Don't fool yourself. Whether you have a team through your publisher or you are your team as an indie, positioning your work and your brand to find readers is not easy. Even as a trad, at some point the effort to push will fall at your feet, and your feet only. You may have pushed through the top trending Five Steps to Success and wonder why you're not swimming in readers. You've done what the experts have told you to do, but wonder why success hasn't been bestowed upon you yet. What are you doing wrong?

Most likely, you're doing everything right. The only tweak needed is to become relentless.

Applying business development and marketing skills is not easy for many writers and authors. You've swallowed the castor oil of identifying your core identity (brand), crafted a message, targeted an audience, and reached out via your different platforms. Then you wipe the sweat from your brow and sit back, waiting for the readers to come. When they don't flock in the numbers you want, you fear your process was flawed and you thrash about finding and experimenting with another recipe for the magic sauce.

Stop thrashing for the next Big Idea and adopt an athlete's focus. Success comes from repeating the same sprint, or lifting the same weight, over and over again. The mindset needed is not much different from what we writers do when crafting a paragraph. We go over it again and again. We are relentless in our craft. We just have to apply that mindset to our marketing efforts.

Failure or the word "No" are things that most writers shrink from, but business development professionals take in stride. We writers can be a fragile bunch and yearn to be read and liked, but BD folks know that you learn a lot from rejection and a failure. Failures don't stop them in their tracks. Instead, the reasons why something failed are examined and a new or modified approach is taken. BD folks don't let the Big Account get away just because one pitch on one particular day did not succeed. They circle back, reassess, and re-approach with a refined pitch.

Times have changed and a commitment to writing includes acknowledging it takes time to build a following. 

Don't stop. Keep going. Go back to the beginning again and again. Be relentless.

Upcoming Events or Why I Can't Say "NO!"

(If you're reading this post from my website the feed may be faulty. Click here to read it directly off my blog.)

My timing will have to show off some military precision this fall, but I can't say no to any opportunity to meet with readers and fellow authors. Some links bring you to Facebook, so feel free to join the event, invite friends, and like my page to keep in touch! Other links bring you to the sponsor's site. Hope to see you there!

September 25: Independent Publishers of New England Annual Conference, Portsmouth, NH
September 26: Village Square Bookstore, Bellows Falls, VT

October 7: Tracy Memorial Library Author Event, New London, NH (flyer below)
October 11: Irish Heritage Festival, Dorchester, MA
October 16: Merrimack Council on Aging Book Club, Merrimack, MA
October 24: Peabody South Branch Author Fair, Peabody, MA (11:00 to 1:00)
October 24: Boston Book Festival/Sisters in Crime, Boston, MA (3:00 to 4:00)
October 25: Green Stride Half Marathon, Newburyport (10:00 to 3:00)

November 1: Martha Canfield Library, Arlington, VT (2:00 to 4:00)
November 6 - 8: Crimebake, Dedham, MA
November 8: Local Author Fair, Ipswich, MA (1:00 to 4:00)
November 11: Podcast Interview: Authors Talk About it.
November 12 - 15: Equine Affaire, Taborton Books (various times)
November 14: K9 Gala: Mystery/Thriller Authors Fundraiser for K9s (6:00 to 11:00)
November 19: Emma Andrews Library Author Talk (6:30 - 8:30)
November 25: Authors Talk About It Podcast Interview Released (Link TBD)

December 3: Mystery Gala at New England Mobile Book Fair (6:00 to 9:00)
December 5: Book Signing at Pawling Book Cove (11:00 to 1:00)
December 7: Write Now TV Interview Taping
December 18: Author Tea at Wenham Tea House (3:30 to 5:00)

Green Stride Half Marathon w/ Evolvement Music, Newburyport, MA

Tracy Memorial Library, New London, NH Author Event