Tell us the story behind the story. How did THE 11^th INKBLOT come to be?

I love inkblots and mysteries!  I love being moved and surprised. Hermann Rorschach’s creation of his eponymous test has fascinated me for 40 years.  As a psychologist and psychoanalyst, I’ve immersed myself in the science and art of using the Rorschach Test as a diagnostic instrument.  As a writer, I’m drawn to the layered meaning of the inkblot – the appeal of complexity, ambiguity, and navigating the unknown reaches of our personal experience.  

When I completed my first book, Disordered Thinking and The Rorschach, twenty years ago, I was struck by the idea of an “11^th inkblot.”  Rorschach’s test has 10 blots, administered according to standardized instructions for the last 100 years.  I thought that someday I would imagine a story about “the 11^th inkblot.”  So the concept percolated for decades but came to fruition a couple of years ago.  Much of my professional life has involved in writing clinical reports, which, in some ways, tell stories about an individual’s inner life.  I’d authored three books about the Rorschach and wanted to create a story about the origin of the test.  

A confluence of events in my personal life gave birth to the story.  Long fascinated by my ancestry in Ukraine and the number of watch makers in my family, Eastern Europe and the centrality of timepieces became an important theme in my story.  While writing The 11^th Inkblot, I lost my father, a WW II combat veteran. Although I dismissed decades of his war stories, they snuck into in my book as I was preparing for his death.  In some ways, The 11^th Inkblot is an homage to my fathers – Pvt. Ralph Kleiger, my dad, and Hermann Rorschach, my professional father.  I don’t think the story would have ever found life without a third father-presence, that of my analyst, Irwin Rosen. 

What was the most challenging aspect of writing THE 11^th INKBLOT?

“Killing the darlings.”  The often used phrase for writers helped me prune the manuscript and cut characters or storylines that got in the way.  Working with my editor, my wife, was challenging as her reasoned, objective perspective pushed me to see what I could not see on my own about my writing.  

Researching many content domains was both work and fun.  Learning elementary details about the history and mechanics of horology, studying maps of battles in the Easter Front of WWI, and learning about the Romani culture were challenges that I embraced.  

What is the message you hope readers take away from your book?

More of an experience than a message.  Beyond anything else, I want readers to enjoy this story, which is a journey in a man’s life, across time, and space.  Moreover, I hope to touch the reader – move them to laughter and, in some places, tears.  In the end, I hope to leave the passengers on the reading journey with a warm feeling, but also, with a sense of mystery, with questions that remain unanswered.

Describe your background. Did your background play a part in your book?

Clearly, my 40+ years as a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst provided a personal and professional canvas for my story.  My work as a therapist and psychodiagnostician paved the way for writing a book that took fact and history as a basis for imagining people and events. Having written over 30 professional papers and book chapters and 3 nonfiction books, I learned that writing provided a creative space for describing concepts and telling stories about people’s inner lives and experiences. 

Describe your writing schedule. Do you outline? Any habits? 

My friend and mentor told me, “research cold and write hot.”  I think that meant spend lots of time reading about the background topics and content that will inform the story and then, write!  I wish I wrote on schedule.  That is hard because I am still working and writing professional reports and papers.  When I’m writing fiction, I usually begin with an idea or premise that draws me in.  The scary, yet exciting, part of the writing process is discovering where the story is going as I’m writing it.  I usually have a broad-brush sense of where I want to end but the pathway leading there evolves as I write.

What books are on your nightstand? What are you currently reading?

I’m finishing Topeka School by Ben Lerner.  My roots at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, KS make this an especially appealing read.  Plus, Ben Lerner is a poet, turned writer of fiction, who writes prose like poetry.  Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese is another book I want to finish.

Which authors do you admire? 

Anthony Doerr and Richard Powers.  Wish I could write like them.  

What have you learned from this experience?

Writing fiction is hard work but brings me ultimate joy.  Writing will be my 4^th quarter passion.  I love writing about odd and interesting people, inventing characters and their back stories, tinkering with the details of their behavior and inner lives.  

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? What is one piece of advice you would give your younger self? 

Some of it crept into the novel in the voice of several wise characters – the power of memory and holding onto the most important people in your life during hard and sad times.  My wife, my children, sister, family, and friends.  

What are you working on now?

I’ve begun a story about another psychologically damaged character, who becomes caught up in a mystery, wrapped in the genome, but neither he nor the readers know how much of this is a product of actual events or the mutterings of his own confused mind.  

Severance by Ling Ma is becoming one of the hottest novels right now despite being published in 2018. The reason for its recent rise in sales is because the novel’s pandemic, Shen Fever, mirrors our own struggles with Covid-19. Ling Ma explores how it affects life around the world and specifically New York City. Not sure if reading about a pandemic while living through one will provide much solace, but it’s worth a shot.

Jane Hu at The Ringer discusses this and more in her essay. Also if you’re looking for another book about loss and epidemics, Joshua Keating has an article on Slate about how the Orwellian novel The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa mirrors how things we’ve taken for granted are disappearing in the age of Sheltering in Place and Social Distancing. Another dystopian tale that mirrors our current reality.

These are unprecedented times and as we wait, with bated breath, for a solution/remedy/anchor for this swirling storm we will continue to live our lives. Our lives, here at Kelley & Hall have always, and will always, revolve around the world of literature. We are going to use this space as an outlet for updates on how the Coronavirus is impacting the world of publishing and how writers can continue to move forward in an uncertain world.

To get started, here are a few gems we found over the weekend:

Sloane Crosley on writing about a pandemic on an emotional level – NYTimes “But like everyone else, writers feel the need to distill life as a means of surviving it.“

National Book Critics Circle Announces Winners – Library Journal

What to Read During Quarantine. – The Strategist

Jami Attenberg on dysfunctional families, forgiveness, and women’s fiction. –The Guardian

The literary awards circuit took an unexpected turn on Monday when the judges for the Booker Prize made a revolutionary (and stubborn!) decision to award two novels with this honor. Margaret Atwood’s THE TESTAMENTS and Bernardine Evaristo’s GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER. This is not the first time the award has been split in two. According to the New York Times, in 1992 Michael Ondaatje’s “The English Patient” shared it with Barry Unsworth’s “Sacred Hunger,” but the prize’s organizers then changed the rules to only allow one winner to avoid undermining either book.” This year, after hours of deliberating and repeatedly being told they could only choose one winner, the judges threw caution to the wind and broke the rules…again.

If you’re looking for some award-worthy weekend reading, here is some information on these two riveting novels.

THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood is a #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. It brings us back into the world Atwood introduced readers to in The Handmaid’s Tale, (winner of the Booker Prize in 1986). Now she brings the iconic story to a dramatic conclusion in this riveting sequel.

The hit Hulu adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale starring Elisabeth Moss won the 2018 Golden Globe for best television series and the 2017 Emmy for outstanding drama.

More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.

Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.

As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

GIRL,WOMAN, OTHER by Bernardine Evaristo

“Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.”—Booker Prize citation

Evaristo is the first black woman to win the Booker Prize. Girl, Woman, Other is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of Black British women. Girl, Woman, Other paints a vivid portrait of the state of post-Brexit Britain, as well as looking back to the legacy of Britain’s colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean.

The twelve central characters of this multi-voiced novel lead vastly different lives: Amma is a newly acclaimed playwright whose work often explores her Black lesbian identity; her old friend Shirley is a teacher, jaded after decades of work in London’s funding-deprived schools; Carole, one of Shirley’s former students, is a successful investment banker; Carole’s mother Bummi works as a cleaner and worries about her daughter’s lack of rootedness despite her obvious achievements. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters also intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class.

Sparklingly witty and filled with emotion, centering voices we often see othered, and written in an innovative fast-moving form that borrows technique from poetry, Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic and richly textured social novel that shows a side of Britain we rarely see, one that reminds us of all that connects us to our neighbors, even in times when we are encouraged to be split apart.

So you be the judge. Read both books and decide for yourself if the judge’s tenacity and stubbornness was warranted. I think you will find yourself understanding why they broke the rules.

Tell us the story behind the story. How did LEAVES ON FROZEN GROUND come to be?

I’m not sure when I first got the idea for the story. But it presented itself to me as stories for four previous, and heretofore unpublished, novels often have: as a fully realized ending with a lot of white space in the preceding narrative. In other words, I knew how I wanted to end the book, but had no idea how I was going to get there. Writing the first draft, a course that took roughly 18 months, was essentially a process of discovering the story on a daily basis and putting it into words.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing LEAVES ON FROZEN GROUND?

Virtually every obstacle I encountered outside the actual writing was difficult, discouraging, and endlessly frustrating. After I completed the first draft, I submitted it to my agent at the time, who read it and rejected it. I had set the original book during the 1930’s depression, and she suggested, with good reason, that books set during the depression had about run their course in American literature. Since my agent had always given me good advice, I decided to rewrite the book per her suggestions: moving the setting to a more current period, and making slight changes in the characters’ makeups. The result took another 18 months or so, and what I thought would be minor tweaking evolved into an entirely new novel. No matter; I submitted the new book to my agent and she rejected it again. At that point I decided that, despite my sincere respect for her opinion, I would try to find a publisher on my own. After months of trying and dozens of rejections, the book finally landed on Michael Mirolla’s desk at Guernica Editions in Toronto, Canada, who to may utter astonishment liked it enough to take it on.   

What is the message you want readers to take away from your book?

I’m not a believer in “message” books, so there are no subliminal messages in this one beyond what readers might like to infer on their own. But I believe it is possible to rise above adversity and I believe in the triumph of the human spirit. I would be greatly flattered if even a few of my readers took those sentiments away from this book.

Describe your background. Did your background play a part in your book?

Yes and no. I spent 30 years writing for magazines, largely, although not entirely, in the so-called hook and bullet press. When I started writing fiction about 25 years ago, the last thing I wanted to do was write hook and bullet novels. But I’ve spent my life outdoors – in the woods, the prairies, the mountains — and have lived with animals all my life: bird dogs, cats, and peripherally, horses. In my late teens and twenties, I worked a numbing succession of low-paying jobs before I became a fulltime writer. All those experiences undoubtedly figured into the tone and setting of this book.

Describe your writing schedule. Do you outline? Any habits? 

I am very disciplined, which I have had frequently pointed out to me, not exclusively in tones of awestruck admiration, by those among my friends who know me best. I awaken early – depending upon the season, between five and six-thirty in the morning, then spend an hour or so drinking coffee, studying notes I’ve written to myself on index cards, watching the sun come up, and finally, meditating. Then I have a quick breakfast and write until noon. In the afternoon, I catch up on whatever else I’ve scheduled for the day. As for outlining, no. Been there and done that. Once I’ve scribbled out a brief storyline for a book, I sketch out a few high points in the narrative and then get after it, figuring out the thrust of the next chapter after I’ve written the last.

What books are on your nightstand? What are you currently reading?

I had to check. Here’s an abbreviated list: Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor E. Frankl; The Book Of Hours by Ranier Maria Rilke, and The Prosody Handbook, A Guide To Poetic Form, by Robert Beum and Karl Shapiro. There are others. This list might seem to imply that I’m an avid reader of poetry, but I am not. I would like to become an avid reader of poetry and am taking small steps in that direction. Mostly I read good novels recommended by friends and non-fiction books on a variety of subjects.

Which authors do you admire?

John Steinbeck, first and foremost. I have long thought that the Grapes of Wrath is a singular example of the Great American Novel. There were so many great writers from that era, Hemingway and Faulkner and Herman Wouk among them, but Steinway seemed the writer who, to me, wrote most often from a very deep place. Contemporary writers I’ve read and tremendously admire are Kent Haruf, Cormac McCarthy, TC Boyle, Jim Harrison, Michael Ondaatje, Ann Patchett, Annie Proulx…to name just a few of the great writers I’ve read in the last ten years or so.  

What have you learned from this experience?

That craftsmanship and beautiful writing and clever word play are all fine and good, but great stories are finer and gooder. So there.  

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unimagined in common hours.” That’s Thoreau, from Walden. I can’t improve on it.    

What is one piece of advice you would give your younger self?

Marry rich. Saves about 30 years of writing for magazines.

What are you working on now?

I’m halfway through a novel set in the Shields River valley, which is about an hour’s drive east of my home in southwestern Montana. It’s been tremendously enjoyable so far – I can’t wait to get to work each morning.

• Tell us the story behind the story. How did BLUEFALL come to be?

Years ago, when I was working as a professional actor with time on my hands in-between the hectic, but often sporadic, schedule of auditions and filming on set, I filled up virtually all my free time gaming in virtual worlds; this was a habit I picked up from my older brother when I was very young, often gaming with him and his friends over our computers. One day, I decided to use my credit card to purchase a virtual item in the game DOTA 2 – this item was purely cosmetic. It made my character look different but offered me no advantage in the game. The item’s cost at that time was the equivalent of $8, and I bought it because I wanted to stand out – to have some level of status in this game. A small part of me felt ridiculous spending money on a video game, but that didn’t stop me. Some years on, the developers of DOTA 2 issued a patch to the game that made this particular item no longer “droppable,” meaning that no new copies of the item would ever be found in the game. The supply growth was immediately cut to zero. Forever.

Immediately, the effect of this imposed rarity caused the item’s real-money value to sky-rocket to over $1500. The effective return on my initial $8 investment of a staggering 18750%, over a period of just four to five years, would have caused any stock-market trader or investment enthusiast to get excited by the possibility of immense gains. So, I made some money with my first ever virtual purchase – completely by accident. But what if I had foreseen this rise coming, and had pre-emptively purchased 10 of the item? Or 100? Or 1,000? It was this notion that sparked the idea for the story that would eventually become Bluefall.

Real-money involvement in virtual worlds is not a new thing. Back since the early days of the massively popular World of Warcraft, Chinese companies were hiring workers at pittance wages to “gold-farm”. Basically, they would find the most efficient process to gain virtual capital in the game, and then repeat that process over and over for 24 hours a day. The practice was against the game’s terms of conditions, but that didn’t stop the gold-farmers. These companies were obviously making enough money to justify their operation. World of Warcraft attempted to stop users from purchasing in-game capital for real money, but the sellers just went to platforms like eBay and conducted the transaction there.

Eventually, as it stands today, the World of Warcraft developers ceased trying to prevent these transactions and instead adopted their own “official” means of injecting real-money into the game. Users can now purchase “subscription time” – 1 month’s access to the game – and sell that to other players for a certain amount of gold. Thus, a functioning and official Economy and currency exchange was born. The same process has been repeated in various other games across the MMORPG genre. In every game, you can find someone willing to pay real money to look better, be stronger, stand out, and gain status – I myself was one of those people. And wherever you find money and a lack of strict regulation, you find sharks and opportunists ready to swoop in and exploit the market in order to get rich.

Bluefall, in a sense, is already happening. From that understanding, I only needed a model to progress with for the story, and I found a perfect framework in replicating/breaking down the causes and timelines of a real Economic crash that occurred in 1990’s Korea with the chaebols – Samsung, Hyundai, LG, etc. Add in my passion for sci-fi, a touch of detective noir, and the building blocks for the story were in place. That was over two years ago.

• What was the most challenging aspect of writing BLUEFALL?

I first approached the idea 4-5 years ago, but grew frustrated and never finished it. Once I felt ready to revisit the subject, there was nothing remotely challenging about writing Bluefall at all — it was a sheer pleasure. But it wasn’t until I was able to approach the story with a fresh perspective that everything finally opened up for me. So I guess I’ll say the most difficult part was that initial ‘failure’, but I see now that it was a necessary part of the process and I look back on even that part of the journey as part of the greater joy of writing Bluefall.

• What is the message you want readers to take away from your book?

There’s a couple of layers to this, but I think the most important message (to me personally, at least) in Bluefall is that we cannot hide from who we are — not even in a virtual world. Not through wealth, not through escapism, not through addiction, not through obsession, not even through the lies we tell ourselves and the ones we love in our desperation to dull the pain of reality. Until we can face ourselves as we are, we will always be unhappy.

• Tell us a little bit about your background and how it helped inspire your work.

I’m a gamer who has over a year’s worth of playing time on WoW and another year spread out among a couple other MMOs since back in the days of the original Everquest, so I’ve always been interested in virtual worlds and fascinated by them. I studied Economics in college before I went into writing, so this concept is really just a direct blend of those two different parts of my past.

• Describe your writing schedule. Do you outline? Any habits?

I come up with an idea that I think is cool and I try to hold onto that initial feeling of excitement for as long as I can. When it’s gone, I try to remember what I loved about it and that sometimes helps me get back on track. I write when I feel like it and sometimes that means staying up all night. Other times it means I won’t write for weeks.

I start with a cool idea, then form it into a story, then create a world for that story, then I populate that world with people. From the characters comes everything else. The specifics are different every time, but most of the things I’ve written (that were actually finished or turned out any good) have come about in that general way.

As to keeping everything organized when creating a vast world, I know there are other writers who about worldbuilding in a different way, but I don’t feel as if you need to meticulously plan out every single detail of a Universe to create one. You start with the big blocks and fill in some little ones, and when you’re confronted with making a choice you decide what works or makes sense with what you already have. It’s a strange kind of cause and effect process, i.e. you make X decision, so the next decision must be Y, and because you chose Y then the next decision must be Z. You can ask yourself any possible question about a Universe and answer it with some variation of that same process. There will always be inconsistencies at first, but rarely will you be presented with a situation where those disconnects can’t be resolved, so if you’re paying attention and aren’t afraid to make adjustments or rethink details when necessary, it doesn’t all feel so overwhelming. Everything starts with a single decision and from there blossoms into a living Universe, much like life came from single-celled organisms and adapted, by necessity, into complex, rational beings.

• What books are on your nightstand? What are you currently reading?

I just finished the Mistborn series and have returned to rereading Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. What can I say? I’m a huge fantasy nerd.

• Which authors do you admire?

Brandon Sanderson, for his work ethic; Sam Shepherd, for his artistic versatility; and Stan Lee, for his magical ability to turn stories and characters into modern mythology.

• What have you learned from this experience?

Don’t be afraid to dive into the unknown – whether that is a genre you are uncomfortable with or a format you’ve never tried before. (Bluefall was my first graphic novel, after all.) But just as important as the fearlessness in an artist is the humility; asking for help and trusting those you choose to collaborate with is an absolutely necessary – and hopefully, enjoyable! – part of growing as an artist. Writing can often be a very solitary profession by nature, but I’ve recently come to realize that most of my favorite professional experiences were those rare opportunities to work with other creatives and watch them lend their own unique artistic vision to my work. Inevitably, the story becomes better for it.

• What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? What is one piece of advice you would give your younger self?

“Write what you know” – or, even better, “Write what makes you come alive.” I wasted so much time in my formative writing years trying to figure out what people wanted to read. It was agonizing! This revelation has become a cliché by now, but everything became so much easier and more enjoyable for me when I focused on trying to write the type of stories that I wanted to read instead.

• What are you working on now?

Bluefall: Vol. 2!

{Photo by Nicole Honeywill on Unsplash}

I was recently asked by an author what the difference was between an agent and a publicist and which was more important to a successful writing career. The old adage of comparing apples and oranges is very fitting. Both are fruits, part of the same world, but within that world, they couldn’t be more different.

In a nutshell, agents shop material to editors and publishers in the hopes of securing a lucrative deal for their clients. Agents make money from a percentage of any sales to publishers/production companies/etc.

Tip: It is strongly advised not to move forward with an agent who requires or requests money upfront. There are even states with regulations against such business practices.

Publicists work on either an hourly rate or for a specified amount (often called a retainer). Publicists are responsible for getting material (in this case books and authors) media coverage and placement. They send out pitches and press releases alerting the media to the existence of the book and why it is “newsworthy,” and would make a good fit with their audience. When you see an author interviewed in a magazine or on a television news program, that is the work of a publicist (either in-house or independently hired).

Agents and publicists are both extremely helpful in building an author’s career. They can both help to create and facilitate an author’s brand and platform.

Tell us the story behind the story. How did MUSING MEDITERRANEAN come to be?

When I first traveled to the Mediterranean in 2012, I had been freelance writing for regional magazines in my area for about five years. I had written many articles and columns, but began wanting something more. I tossed book ideas around in my head, but never landed on that one concept that seemed right. Fiction writing didn’t call out to me and children’s or young adult books didn’t light a spark either. My trip to the Mediterranean had been a lifetime in the making. I was excited to see my ancestral countries (Greece and Italy) for the first time and took along a travel journal to chronicle as much of what we did and saw as possible.  I began writing in it at the end of each day and about half way through the trip it was nearly full. It dawned on me that, with so much material already, this was my book.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing MUSING MEDITERRANEAN?

For me, the most challenging part of writing this book was determining what aspects of my travel experience were story-worthy and what needed to hit the cutting room floor. I wanted to give enough detail to capture the reader’s interest and keep the story moving forward, but not so much that the reader would become lost in minutiae.  It can be a fine balance between too much information and not enough.

What is the message you want readers to take away from your book?

I would like readers to come away from my book with the feeling that travel is full of possibilities. If they are planning a trip to the Mediterranean, I want them to read MUSING MEDITERRANEAN as a resource. To say, that sounds so interesting, I want to do or see that too. If a reader may never have the chance to visit Greece, Italy or Turkey, I want them to come away from MUSING MEDITERRANEANfeeling like they have. I want this book to be an escape just like a good vacation should be.

Describe your background.

I come from a marketing background having earned my undergraduate degree and MBA both with concentrations in marketing. I went on to work in the financial services and online consumer goods industries in various marketing capacities. Eventually, I left the corporate world to raise a family. I began freelance writing as a way to keep my head in the game beyond my role as mom. Writing and developing promotional content had always been my favorite part of my marketing jobs. The official decision to begin writing came when I binge-watched Sex and the Cityabout ten years after it first aired. I fixated on Carrie Bradshaw as a columnist and writer and declared, “I could do that.” So, I did. I had my first article published in Northshore Magazinein October 2008 and I’ve been writing ever since. I have written a movie and film column and had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing celebrities including Mark Wahlberg, Mike O’Malley and Scott Grimes. I also wrote a lifestyle column called Matters of Life and Beth and was the editor of a regional home publication which secured my current obsession with all things interior design and home décor.

Describe your writing schedule. Do you outline? Any habits?

Whether I’m writing a column, a magazine article or a book, my process is the same. I begin with a brain dump so that any and all of my thoughts, notes, interview quotes or research are together in one place. This often results in a ridiculously long version of whatever the end result is supposed to be. From here I begin my first round of edits, cutting anything that is superfluous. As I near a word count that is appropriate, I move into the next phase which is finessing each sentence – finding just the right words to express what I want to say and impart emotion through the words I choose. Next, I carefully run through what remains to fact check, spell check and proof to the very best of my ability. Finally, I read through for flow, reorganize content and ensure that my final version is as close to my version of perfect as I can get it.

I write best when I am alone without any distraction. I have a home office that I’ve turned into a little writing haven. Some of my favorite published pieces are framed and hanging on the wall and little mementos or quotes surround me for those moments when I need inspiration.

What books are on your nightstand? What are you currently reading?

I keep some of my favorite books on my nightstand including The Language of Flowersby Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Not only did I find that story and its romance captivating, but the education of Victorian age floriography was so interesting to me. After reading the book, I wrote a short article featuring it and I began bringing flowers into my own home that expressed whatever particular emotion or feeling I wanted in my life at that time. The romance, beauty and meaning of flowers is appealing on so many levels. Other books I have read and enjoyed that sit on my nightstand are Traveling with Pomegranatesby Sue Monk Kidd and Anne Kidd Taylor, A Man Called Oveby Frederik Backman andUnder the Tuscan Sunby Frances Mayes.

My book club just finished reading Little Fires Everywhereby Celeste Ng and before that Goodnight Nobodyby Jennifer Weiner. Up next we are reading Americanahby Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Which authors inspire you?

I do enjoy the relatable and straightforward writing style of Elin Hilderbrand. She has an ease about her words that is perfect for the kind of summer reads she’s known for. When charged with reading the first book in her Winter Streetseries for book club, I ended up reading all four. They’re just interesting and effortless reads.

I am also inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert author of Eat Pray Love. I like to say that MUSING MEDITERRANEAN is Eat Pray Love meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I liken my transformation working through travel anxiety to Gilbert’s personal journey overcoming her own demons. Experiencing and appreciating other countries, cultures and lifestyles throughout the process allowed me to feel a connection with Gilbert and her travel experience. I also enjoy her very honest and thoughtful approach to writing. I hope that I am able to achieve a similarly authentic voice.

What have you learned from this experience?

I have learned that, like with most things in life, you can’t do it alone. Sure, you can put words to a page without help, but I believe, whenever possible, publishing a book is best done when you involve professionals who can take your work to the next level. Working with seasoned editors, publishers, and promoters has given me the satisfaction and peace of mind of knowing that I have given my book its best chance at success. The support has given me confidence.

What is your advice for aspiring writers?

My advice to aspiring writers is to commit. Commit to who you are as a writer, commit to your story, your writing style and your voice. You will have people tell you to change and you might be compelled to give them what they say “sells,” but if you have a story you believe in and can share it in an authentic voice, it is worth telling your way. Take pride in your work and do whatever it takes to make it the best it can be. If you can, work with a writing coach, hire an editor and do your research.

Above all, commit to getting it done. It’s easy to take on a big project like a book and set it aside for a time when you feel there’s more time. Life is busy, that may never happen, so make the time and tell your story now.

What are you working on now?

I continue to freelance and post regularly on my lifestyle blog, 3 Olives & A Twist. I am also planning a follow up to MUSING MEDITERRANEAN. The same cast of characters will be taking Hawaii by storm in 2019…working title, HELLO HAWAII. I would love to chronicle my time there in a similar way and update readers on how things are going with my travel anxiety.

Following a fabulous trip in 2014 to Los Angeles for the MTV Music Awards with a girlfriend, I thought my travel anxiety was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, it reared its ugly head again in 2016 when, two weeks prior to another European vacation, I put my foot down and insisted we cancel. After learning that one of our destinations, Nice, France, had been the target of a terror attack involving a cargo truck driven into a crowd killing 86 people, I simply could not muster the courage to go.

However now, with enough time passed, I am trying again with Hawaii and would love to share my experience there.

We can’t wait to hear more from Beth Daigle. Pick up a copy of MUSING MEDITERRANEAN and start planning your next trip!

There are many approaches that you can take when drafting a press release for your book. One of the most important things you can do is make sure your press release provides all of the vital information so that you don’t leave an editor with any unanswered questions. Here is a quick cheat sheet to help you get the best possible press release crafted for you and your book.

1. Headline. Be attention grabbing but not sensational. Give the most important aspect of the book so that editors know what will draw the reader in and why people will be talking about your book. Why do people need to read your book? How is your book applicable to a particular audience? What makes it “newsworthy”?
2. Body. Don’t use BIG words. A recent study found big words to be a waste of time and not successful in proving your intelligence to readers. What do you want to say? If you were sitting down with an editor or producer, what would you want them to know about your book? Why is it newsworthy? Why is it readable? Think like a journalist. Give them the story right there in the body of the press release. Provide a quote from the author (you). Provide a quote from an expert if it supports your material. Give statistics, research studies, facts and figures that help make your story more interesting.
3. 5 W’s and an H. Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. Enough said.
4. Keep it clean. Be precise, straightforward, and to the point. Don’t fill up your press release just to take up space. This isn’t your 6th grade book report with a required word count. Don’t use wacky colors and fonts. Make it as print ready as possible because you will find that editors pressed for time may take your press release and run with it, exactly how it stands.
5. Vital Stats. Provide any extra information on how to find you online {i.e., Twitter, Facebook, Website, Instagram, LinkedIn}.

There are a lot of rules for drafting the perfect press release. Once you learn, understand, and incorporate them, you can break them to fit your needs. Maybe your book is about bringing color and sparkle into your life, then adding funky colors and fonts represents your work and might be what grabs the attention of an editor? Maybe writing a sensational headline will set you apart? Maybe you don’t want to answer all of the W & H questions because you want to leave an element of mystery to correlate with the mysterious subject matter of your book? These are the tried and true rules for writing a press release and you should always make sure that you have one straight/serious/official press release available to send to the media. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a fun/gimmicky press release available, as well. Some of the best coverage we have secured was the result of a more creative approach to gaining the media’s attention.

Last night was a big night for Kelley & Hall client, Lisa Genova. Julianne Moore won a Best Actress Golden Globe for her portrayal of Alice in STILL ALICE.

Here is what Lisa Genova had to say about her self-publishing journey and joining forces with Kelley & Hall:

One of the best things you can do, when promoting your book, is to think like a journalist. You have a beat to cover and that beat is you and your writing. Look for stories that pertain to the subject matter in your novels, the themes you explore in your work and try to expand on them in a way that would interest everyone. Authors often say to me, “But I write fiction? I make these stories up and there isn’t any earth-shattering revelation in my work. It’s just about women and friendship (or divorce, death, marriage, children).” I always tell my authors that these are the stories that people gravitate towards, these are the personal stories that hold the most interest, these are the stories producers and editors go looking for when covering a topic. If you have written a book about divorce, a novel that explores the ins and outs of one of the most difficult times in a person’s life, then you should explore that in a way that will grab an editor’s (and ultimately a reader or viewer’s interest). Research it. How many divorces take place in year? What is the real percentage of marriages that end in divorce? Are there any headline grabbing names (i.e., Hollywood, Political) who are currently going through a divorce? Tackle your subject and research it daily. Set a google alert to let you know when your topic is mentioned in the news or on blogs. Authors often say, “But I’m not an expert. Who am I to weigh in on divorce/death/marriage?” If you have written a novel exploring a topic, then you are an expert. You have spent enough hours delving into the intricacies of this topic to consider yourself an expert. An expert continues to research and explore a topic and that is exactly what you are doing. Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, is considered an expert on happiness because she focuses an entire blog on just that topic. She writes about it daily, thinks about it all the time and explores every angle possible. If you can do that with the themes explored in your novels, then you should share your knowledge…as an expert.

Start every day by scanning newspapers, major online news sites and news programs. Stay alert to what is relevant, what news stories are trending, and where the interest seems to be. If something comes up in any one of these outlets that you feel pertains to your work, your writing or your life, start jotting down ideas. Write about it in your blog or mention it on one of your social media sites (Facebook, Twitter). Stay curious and alert at all times because all it takes is one story or “hook” and you could get the exposure that will help increase the visibility of you and your work.

Here is the thing about book tours. They can be exhausting for the author and don’t necessarily result in exposure that will move your book up in sales. There are many writers who love hitting the open road, traveling to bookstores across the country, directly interacting with booksellers and readers. However, it can be difficult to have the stamina and the ego to take on a book tour. You will go to bookstore signings where there will only be three people in attendance (and two of them probably work for the bookstore). And unless your publisher is paying for this tour, it can get pretty expensive. All-in-all, a book tour is oftentimes not the best use of your time, energy and finances. However, one author that I recently spoke with, did a book tour, ended up in a bookstore with three people there for the signing (and yes, two were book store employees) but the third person was a freelance writer for a major magazine who ended up connecting with the author, writing about the book on the magazine’s website and creating a lot of buzz for this particular author. Sometimes, it does benefit to just put yourself out there. I always suggest that authors reach out to their local bookstores for signings or if they are already planning on traveling somewhere, reach out to bookstores in those areas, as well.

However, a blog tour is a much more efficient way to spread the word about your book without spreading yourself too thin. Blog tours allow you to interact with readers, use social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter) to increase the attention of the blog tours and generate interest for you and your book. Research say that people need to hear a title or name at least seven times before it generates a reaction, appearing in numerous places online is a great way to bring enough exposure to your name to have people react and pay attention.

Admit it. You’ve said it, or something along the lines of it. You’re feeling worn out, burned out or just want to get out.

“I can’t do this anymore.”

“I’m not a marketer, I’m a writer.”

“If I spend so much time selling myself, I’ll have nothing left.”

“My writing will suffer.”

“I’ll start annoying people.”

These are the common worries that people have when promoting their writing. They don’t feel qualified or capable of building “buzz.”

To quote a line from The Kings Speech.

“I deserve to be heard! I have a voice!”

We all have a voice and our passions fuel our thoughts, our voices, and what we say. The book you write is an extension of yourself.

Haven’t you wanted to be a writer all of your life? Wasn’t that the career you aspired to? The writing is the creative side but as with all careers, it can’t all be creative work, it’s also about money. You want to sell more books, earn more money and become desirable to your publishing house. You have to get out there. Let your voice be heard!

Things are changing. Selling and marketing books isn’t the way it used to be. There are many more channels, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online reviews, and more competition. We can’t rely solely on securing a review in the book section of a major paper. Not only are those sections diminishing and restructuring their focus, but it is increasingly difficult for different voices (particularly new voices) to be heard.

Think back to when you were trying to get published, stomping the pavement to secure that perfect agent, to find the editor who connected with your work, you were persistent and dedicated to an ultimate goal. This is where many writers think the journey ends. This is where they are wrong. Now you have a new goal…find those readers. Maybe you will find your best reader, the one who belongs to 15 book clubs and writes for her local paper, on a website devoted to psychology enthusiasts. Maybe your work will connect with a columnist who will tell everyone she knows about this great book she read! Maybe a producer for a talk show reads the op-ed section of a particular paper every day and that is where she stumbles upon your essay and falls in love with your voice.

There are so many opportunities out there for writers. So even if you’re feeling like you don’t have it in you to toot your own horn or spread the word about your book, you owe it to yourself and your work. This is your job. Don’t just get it done. Excel! Strive for what seems out of reach and keep pounding the pavement. Go out on that limb, as the saying goes, because that’s where you’ll find the fruit.

Here are some recent book news that should keep your literary fire burning!

The Last Chapter

Love in Bookstores

Author, Sell Thyself

JJ Abrams (of Felicity fame) will co-write novel for Little, Brown imprint Mulholland Books

Literary Witchhunt

One thing that the push towards digital may create is an increase in the art and artistry of printed books.

Fast Company recently profiled Penguin books cover designer Coralie Bickford-Smith and The Atlantic ran a piece on their hand sewn covers that will be releasing soon.

Penguin seems to be the leader in this area, but as word spreads and interest grows in collecting books as works of art, not just to read, the growth may be significant.

Christina Katz has a great article in the March/April issue of Writers Digest on 50 simple ways to build your platform in 5 minutes a day. The constant throughout her piece is this: always be thinking about your book and how you can incorporate it into what is going on in the world. We give our clients this piece of advice frequently. This is one of the reasons we suggest that our authors start blogs. Many of them are apprehensive about venturing into blog territory. They are filled with questions like, “How do I build up traffic to my blog?” and “What do I write about?” Our advice is simple, just write. You will find that you start gravitating towards similar topics, topics that you cover in your writing, topics that you are passionate about. Putting yourself on a writing schedule, motivating yourself to write daily with a nonfiction hook  is a great way to start generating ideas and recognizing angles for your work to be covered. Train your brain to look for hooks everywhere and you will begin to develop angles that you can pitch to publications or websites. Search online for people writing about similar topics and connect with them. Build your online network and share and cultivate ideas.

Katz recommends that writers master the 5-minute release. “Zoom in on the latest happenings, holidays and story hooks and tie your book into it. Write 5-minute mini-press releases and send them out regularly.” Sometimes authors find themselves overwhelmed by all the great ideas they have for promoting their work that they don’t actually take the time to write them down and actively pursue them. Ideas should be written down as they occur, who knows which one is going to be the tipping point for your success.

Here’s what’s going on this week in the literary landscape.

–Could the Kindle be free by November? It’s possible. However, what is most likely going to happen is that Amazon Prime members will be eligible for a free device, according to Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch.

-Half of this year’s best movies were based on books. Independent.

-Here is some new information on Ebooks for libraries. Library Journal.

-Interesting article on the importance of social media for authors. Guardian.

-Upcoming Books-to-Film releases. NPR.

-Alternative outlets for bookselling. NYTimes.

I want to open this blog up to readers (and writers). What are your questions regarding book publicity? What do you want to know? We are here to answer your questions about an industry that changes DAILY. Do you want to know about social media? Do you want to know about book reviewers? Columnists? How to pitch magazines and newspapers? How to get an editor or a producer interested in your book? How to find an angle or platform that suits you and your work? Self-publishing versus traditional publishing houses?

What are your most pressing questions about book publicity?

Ask away…

When it comes to writing, there is a beauty in the unselfconscious mind. We allow our words to flow freely onto the page, we explore worlds and we try to disconnect from the audience. We are fully immersed in the writing process and business is a word we don’t even comprehend…during the writing process. Then we finish our books, our works of art, and have to begin to explore the business side. I have often heard from writers about the terror this stage of the game produces. Fixations on things like book sales, Amazon rankings and media coverage can suck all of the joy and energy out of that which you once dreamed about: being a writer.

I read an interesting piece on a blog the other day, ironically it was on a blog about acting! In the essay he writes that essentially you have to let go of the end result in order to succeed.

We need to have a direction we want to move in. But we must detach from the results. If we don’t detach from the results we will be locked in misery and thought. Also, detaching from the results opens us up to a possibility much grander than what our minds can imagine. We need to plant seeds and let them do their magic under the soil.

We often use the planting seed analogy when talking about publicity. We reach far and wide, send out messages and information to all appropriate outlets and often times the results far exceed our expectations. But these seeds also take time to come to fruition. You can’t send someone a book and have them read it, react the way you want and then cover it in a short period of time. However, often these seeds bloom in ways we never even dreamed. One person reads a book that we have sent them and it registers in an impossibly enlightening way. The right book at the right time. But if you, as the writer, spend your time obsessing over Amazon rankings or trying to beat the competition, you lose sight of that goal. To find readers and have them connect with your work, to open up a world inside the pages of a novel or memoir or non-fiction guide and have people understand and appreciate what you have created. In order to change lives and leave an impact, to honor your work as a writer, you have to detach from the results because it will only leave you self-conscious and stalled when completing future work. As Deepak Chopra (bestselling author and guru) says,

You do not want to dig up the seeds of your desires to see if they are growing, or get rigidly attached to the way in which they will unfold. You simply want to release them.

Whether you are trying to get an agent, a publisher or an article published, the key to a successful writing career is writing to sell. You want to sell your novel, memoir or article and you don’t have a lot of space or time in which to do that. You have to grab your readers from the opening page, even still, the opening paragraph. This same practice holds true when pitching yourself to media outlets. You want as much exposure as you can get, thereby guaranteeing that your media presence is significant and consistent enough to warrant attention from book buyers. When publicizing your book you need to think outside of the book review pages and see if you can generate interest in areas that either pertain to your background, the subject matter of your book, or both. When doing this you need to sell yourself and your idea to editors and producers in the shortest amount of time. You need to hook on to something relevant in the current news media cycle and explain why you would make the perfect expert to weigh in on that particular topic. Here are some tips for generating a strong approach when contacting media.

Know your facts. Start your research early and be consistent. Look for key facts that relate to the subject you are pitching. Editors and producers want to know about recent studies. If you have written a novel that deals with eating disorders, they don’t want to know about your character’s journey (yet), they want to know that 1 in 5 women struggle with an eating disorder (according to the National Institute of Mental Health).

The more the merrier. Give editors and producers plenty of material to work with. The more ideas you can generate, the easier their job is to assign a story or pursue a lead. Each idea should be topical, interesting and current. Stay on top of the news and keep those ideas coming.

Have an opinion. Be vocal about issues that relate to your story. Whether or not your opinion is the popular one, it will get people talking. Speak out and speak often. Raise questions, interact with your readers and bring these ideas into the public forum.

Find trends. Don’t panic if you see that another author has written a book with similar themes. Use this as a sign that society is gravitating towards the subject matter you have already explored. Join together and pitch trend pieces to magazines and newspapers. There is a reason that your story is playing out in different venues, there is a social outcry for it and you and your fellow authors are there to fill that need.

Think like a journalist. You want your story to sell so make sure it’s timely and appropriate. Know the outlets you are pitching. Whether they are print, radio, television or online, familiarize yourself with their content and do a little research to locate the correct editor.

Is there such a thing as too many bookstores? Apparently, for the residents of Westhampton Beach, NY, the answer is yes. Today The New York Times profiles the battle between two independent bookstores and the animosity that is running rampant in this small town. This all comes on the heels of a recent New York Magazine article about the rise of the independent bookstore. According to the NYTimes article, Books & Books opened its doors in July and have received a less than stellar welcoming (reportedly older women have marched into the store to yell at employees and they have even faced vandalism).  The problem is, Books & Books is around the corner from The Open Book and is taking away business. But isn’t the beauty of independent bookstores that no two look or feel the same? Every independent bookstore has its’ own character and charm with varying approaches to reaching out to readers. Independent bookstores provide people with a sense of community, access to book clubs, author signings, and frequent staff picks. With so many people up in arms over the rise of the big box bookstore and the Amazon epidemic not to mention the strain that e-book devices are putting on printed matter, can we really start complaining about too many independent bookstores? Do we want to dissuade independent’s from opening their doors?

{photo courtesy of Paz & Associates}

According to Pimp My Novel, e-books may take the place of the mass market title. As Eric explains, mass market books sell because they are cheap and portable…the very reason e-books are becoming popular. And with the prices steadily declining on e-books as the number of available titles increase, the e-book could turn the mass market paperback into a relic from the past.

The Huffington Post has a great list of the Twitter accounts for writers and publishing industry professionals.

If you get a bad review, don’t worry about it! Check out these horrible Amazon reviews for literary classics.

A significantly large group of young adult authors are binding together to help put an end, and bring an awareness to, bullying.

Booksquare weighs in on the iPad.

Digital books from a consumer’s POV.

Social media and networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, GoodReads, etc., are excellent ways to build your network of readers, friends and fans. They provide a wide-reaching online community and allow you to disseminate information constantly. In a matter of moments you can alert thousands of people to the release of your novel, provide a link to an article you have written or ask a pressing question. These sites are important to building name recognition and increasing your exposure. The major flaw in this great design is that it can suck away your precious time and for writers, time is your greatest asset. With publishers wanting at least a book a year from their authors, it is imperative that you put all of your available time into your writing. Here are some tips to managing your activity on social networking sites.

1.) Organize. Set aside a specific time to check and update sites like Facebook and Twitter. Give yourself a half hour in the morning and a half hour at night. That way you can still interact with friends without becoming a slave to your status updates.

2.) Separate. Have a separate email address reserved specifically for social networking sites. We are emailed constantly throughout the day when friends contact us through Facebook. If someone comments on our status update, we get an email. If one of our friends updates their GoodReads page, we get an email. All of these emails can be enticing but also very distracting. You can also adjust your settings so that you don’t receive an email for every Facebook/Twitter/GoodReads message sent or comment posted.

3.) Balance. For every Facebook interaction you have over the course of the day, try to make a real connection outside of the social networking sites.

4.) Avoid Games. Admittedly, those Facebook games are fun and entertaining, but they can suck up your time faster than you can spell SCRABBLE.

5.) Be unavailable. Set your Facebook status to unavailable. If a friend wants to get in touch with you, let them email you. This will allow you to set aside the time to get in touch with your friend. If a friend sends you an instant message through Facebook, it is hard to tell them you’re busy when to them you appear to be “playing” on Facebook.

These new networking sites are providing us with an abundance of publicity opportunities, but there is always a down side. By managing your time appropriately you can take advantage of what these sites offer without giving up all of your available time and energy.

Last night Kelley & Hall was invited to speak to a wonderful group of writers from the Mystery Writers of America‘s New England chapter. This group of insightful  and talented authors had great questions and an eager curiosity to learn as much as they could about the skills and tactics employed when trying to secure publicity. Many of the questions revolved around both an online presence and the social networking outlet of Facebook. The conversation flew by and at the end there were still so many things I wanted to say about the importance of promoting your work to the best of your ability. I would love to open up this blog as a forum for aspiring and published authors to ask questions. Let this blog be the “Dear Abby” of book publicity. Email me directly at jocelyn (at) kelleyandhall (dot) com and we can address your questions right here on this blog. With the constantly changing face of publishing and media and the new opportunities developing at every turn, now is the best time to fully understand how to take complete advantage of these opportunities and let them work for you.

Publishers Weekly ran a Year in Publishing essay through 140-character tweets. It is a great year end wrap-up and will certainly entertain.

It has been quite a year in publishing! E-books seem to be the talk of the industry but we have yet to really see a tremendous change in the power struggle between the real and the virtual. As Don Draper in Mad Men said, “I have a lot bricks, but I can’t quite see a building yet.”

This year has seen the demise of some great magazines and newspapers and more and more attention is going to online ventures and blogs. Self-publishing is getting mainstream attention and publishing houses are seeing some major restructuring.

All in all it has been a year of change, growth and invention. We are looking forward to the new year with hope and anticipation for what’s to come!

We hope you will join us on this journey in 2010 through the ever-changing world of media, publishing and literature. There are some great new voices on our horizon and we are looking forward to bringing them into your world!

Happy Holidays from all of us Kelley & Hall and have a safe and happy New Year!

This is something that I think about often when reading. How many people write in their books? Do you scribble notes to yourself, underline important/quote-worthy passages or do you just highlight words or sections? Does it help you better understand the material? Does it make the entire experience more memorable?

My parents collect rare books, so it has always been an unwritten rule around my house that books should be treated with care and respect…however, I have gone to the dark side. I write in books! I underline, I scribble (although I have extremely neat handwriting, so it really can’t be called scribbling), I highlight (yellow is my color of choice). I like my books to look like a version of my own personal diary. I want to always remember what struck me as poignant. I want to be able to revisit my thoughts and perceptions.

So my question is, “Do you write in books?” If you do, I would love to see snapshots of a page out of your book.

“There’s no secret recipe for a good plot. Brilliance can be born of anything from a twelve-layered mystery to one old man in a boat trying to catch a fish. It’s all in the telling. But make sure your plot has the elements of great storytelling: believability, heart, and tension.”

— Laura Whitcomb, Your First Novel

Great piece in the New York Times about the price war between Walmart and Amazon over their books.