Stewart Free Library
Earlier this afternoon, the Stewart Free Library in Corinna held a reception/book signing for Waiting For Spring.
We lured people in with Hubby's homemade peanutbutter cookies. Nom!
Oh...and with books.
Oh, yes, I did.
Puttin' down my John Hancock.
A great, big thanks to Donna Lambert, Librarian Extraordinaire, for hosting the event.
This morning I entered the names of everyone who commented on my last post into random.org
Congratulations Susan Morris! You’ve won a signed copy of Waiting For Spring. Just send your contact info to rjkeller.wfs@gmail.com and we can make arrangements for shipping.
Thanks to everyone who commented, and for your support! You rock!
Today is release day! I’m excited and nervous. But mostly excited.
“Where can I get a copy?” you ask. The answer is:
If you see a copy of it sitting in your local bookstore, let me know. If you can get a picture of it sitting in your local bookstore, send it to me at rjkeller.wfs@gmail.com and I’ll post it here at da blog.
Your Kindle will like Waiting For Spring.
If you want to tell a friend to pick up a copy that would be awesome, too.
And if you’re in the Corinna, Maine area on Saturday, May 14 between 1pm and 3pm, stop by the beautiful Stewart Free Library. I’ll be there signing books and answering questions and reading an excerpt from Waiting For Spring.
The most common question I’ve been asked about AmazonEncore’s acquisition of Waiting For Spring and its subsequent rerelease is:
Are there any major changes from the original?
The good people at Encore left my book pretty much intact, which is code for “they didn’t water down the sex or language.” They also didn’t insist on cutting the length. They gave it a very thorough, and much needed, copy edit. I’m pretty sure the members of the editing team still dream about removing semi-colons from the text. There is a minor change near the middle that involves a decision Tess makes about employment. It does have a new cover, which I love, and the Kindle version now has a clickable table of contents (something I could never figure out how to do on my own). And that’s pretty much it.
Oh, by the way, a random commenter on this post will be sent a free signed copy of Waiting For Spring. Winner to be announced on Friday, May 13.
Click to enlarge.
Last night I removed the self-published editions from Amazon and other online retailers, which was both exciting and sad. Somehow it seems like it should have been a bigger deal than just clicking “unpublish”. It made me think about the journey this book has taken me on over the past five years and how grateful I am to have had all of you with me.
Waiting For Spring attracted Encore’s attention because of sales numbers and reviews, which I understand, and I appreciate each and every person who spent a bit of their hard earned money on a copy and encouraged their friends and family members to do the same. But for me it goes beyond that. I mean, you guys helped me design a t-shirt. You let me put you in my silly video. You’ve been in general an awesome group of people, and I truly appreciate all of your support and friendship.
Onward!!
Check out this interview over at The LL Book Review! Conducted via Twitter, each question and answer is 140 characters or less. You can enter to win an advanced reader’s copy by leaving a comment.
Today I broke one of my New Year’s Resolutions. I colored my hair. That’s right, vanity won out over health concerns. More specifically, I decided I didn’t want to go to New York next month with gray hair.
Karma’s kind of a bitch, though. I chose medium reddish brown, the same color I’ve used for pretty much my entire hair-coloring career, because I thought it was a safe choice. However, while the salt-and-pepper hair in the back was transformed into the nice reddish brown I remember so well, the silver hair in the front turned a weird orange-y color.Ick. I’m not sure what to do about it. I’m hopeful that a shampoo regimen will save the day. Or it might be back to the drugstore for an ashier color. Oy.
Let this be a lesson to me: Don’t cheap out. Next time go to a professional.
Speaking of New York, I have some more information about my upcoming trip. I was invited by Carol Hoenig to participate in a publishing panel that’s being sponsored by The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; Tuesday May 24, 6:00 PM, at The General Society Library. I’ll be speaking about orange hair and how to avoid getting it. Or maybe it’ll be about something publishing related. Probably it’s that last thing.
In other news, look for Shannon Yarbrough’s interview with moi to be posted at LL Book Review on Sunday. The interview was conducted via Twitter direct messaging, which means all of my answers are 140 characters or less. Anyone who knows me will realize what a challenge this was. In the meantime, you can check out Shannon’s review of Waiting For Spring from 2009 and an article Kristen Tsetsi and I wrote for the site about first chapters last summer (which is pretty funny, if I do say so myself. And I guess I just did).
The UPS man brought me a special delivery on Monday!
I may be stepping out on a limb here, but I think it’s safe to say that anyone who’s a writer or works in some facet of publishing has heard about Jacqueline Howett’s little meltdown a couple of weeks ago. I won’t go into detail here because, frankly, that’s been done to death, and I’m of the opinion that we should give the poor woman a break. In a nutshell, she got a bad review and attacked the reviewer. This led to a whole mess of problems, including 75 one-star Amazon reviews. Like I said, let’s give the poor woman a break.
Who is Donovan Candle? (click for a link to purchase at Amazon)
I only bring it up here for the sake of context. See, that same week, I was also graced with a blistering review of my novel, A LIFE TRANSPARENT. It isn’t the first, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but boy, did it sting. I went through a self-imposed mourning period that lasted about 48 hours before I woke up, put on my big boy pants, and got over it.
That period of 48 hours was spent quietly rocking back and forth, reassuring myself that the book isn’t that bad in an incomprehensible babble. Friends called to console me. My wife cooked a meal of comfort food. My editor, in typical editor fashion, simply told me to get over it and stop reading reviews.
“But how can I not? They’re reviews! Of my book! And this one was bad! It’s like if a teacher tells you your kid’s an idiot.”
(Full disclosure: This is all for dramatic effect. The conversation was way more subdued and less weepy. My editor may tell a different tale, however. Fortunately, this isn’t her article.)
And then she said something that knocked me out of my stupor self-loathing and doubt: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
She was right. It was a sobering thing, realizing that one bad review (or even three) wasn’t going to kill my career, but could only serve to pique curiosity. In some way it was a sort of Sisyphean moment, like I’d pissed off the gods by finding comfort in the rock, and in that fact I could find some form of solace.
I realized that, bad review or not, people were still reading the book. They were allowed to form their opinions based on their experience. To date, ALT has had far more positives than negatives, with an average of 4 stars on Amazon and Goodreads. Do those low ratings stick in my craw? Absolutely. But I’m not going to stop doing what I love because of it. In fact, I see those poor reviews and bad ratings as incentive.
Every time I sit down at my computer, or take a pen and notebook in hand, I think of those folks who hated my work enough to speak out about it. I think of the honest reviewers who really just didn’t like my work. I think about their words, and then I put pen to paper or fingers to keys and I do what I was put here to do: I write. I write because I want to prove them wrong. I write because I want to win them over with that next work of genius. I write out of spite. With ALT, I wrote the best book I could, and with my editor’s help, we made it even better. Some people love it, some only like it, and some absolutely hate it. I’m okay with that.
The Jacqueline Howett scenario made me realize that that easily could have been me. It could have been you, or anyone else, for that matter. It’s our natural instinct to defend ourselves when we’re under attack. That’s not to say that what she did was right—far from it—but the negative reactions and attention she’s received because of it is far overblown. Best of all, regardless of all the reviews and negative press, her book was selling way better than mine. I hope it continues to do so, and I hope she continues to write. I hope her next book takes everyone by surprise and becomes a literary legend.
Now, two weeks on, I’m reminded of THE STRANGER by Albert Camus. On the eve of the protagonist’s execution, faced with the absurdity of his predicament, he comes to terms with his place in life and the indifference of the universe:
“As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother, really—I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.”
I hope Ms. Howett greets those cries of hate with a smile on her face, and continues to write. I will do the same.
Todd Keisling
Todd Keisling is a two-time recipient of the Oswald Research and Creativity Prize for fiction. His work has appeared in a number of print and online publications including Limestone, Kaleidoscope, and 365tomorrows. Born in Kentucky, he now lives with his wife and son somewhere near Reading, Pennsylvania. Contrary to popular opinion, he is a cat person. A LIFE TRANSPARENT is his first novel.
For more information:
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May is going to be a busy, exciting month. As you probably remember (because I keep reminding you) Waiting For Spring’s AmazonEncore re-release is set for May 10 (available for pre-order now, just sayin’). Now I can tell you that I’ll be in New York City May 23-25 for BookExpo America, the largest book trade fair in North America, courtesy of AmazonEncore. w00t!
The fun will start Monday morning, May 23, when my husband, Dan, and I board a plane in Portland, Maine. I believe I may have mentioned before that I fear flying above all other things, including Donald Trump’s hair and dentists’ bills, but that’s why they invented Valium. Assuming all goes well with the flight, I’ll be checking into my room at what appears to be a wicked swanky hotel, INK 48, where I’ll spend most of the afternoon getting ready for the party Amazon is putting on at The Press Lounge (which boasts “classic cocktails, an extensive wine list, and seasonally inspired small plates”. I don’t know what that last thing is, but I’m all for classic cocktails and extensive wine lists.). This kind of party is why they invented little black dresses and Mary Kay Suede lipstick, and I’m all set on both counts.
Then Tuesday: BEA! I can’t adequately express how much I’m looking forward to this. I even bought a Waiting For Spring-ish necklace for the occasion. Just to be surrounded by books and the people who love and make them will be a huge treat, but I’ll also get to meet in person several friends I’ve only known online; among them Craig Lancaster, Elisa Lorello, and fellow Paper Rat Kristen Tsetsi. That’s right! The Rats will meet at last! If you’re thinking you can expect an episode of Inside The Writers’ Studio to come out of this, then you’d be expecting correctly. There’s another event that’s still in the works for Tuesday evening, and when I get more details about that I’ll share them here.
Then Dan and I will spend all of Wednesday playing tourist. I’ve been warned not to wear my Red Sox jersey, advice I will surely heed, but I’d also like some advice on where to go and what to do. Something beyond the usual Times Square/Statue of Liberty thing (not that those aren’t great places to see, I’m sure.) For those of you who are familiar with New York, what are your Must See Spots?
And, just because, here’s my favorite episode of Inside The Writers’ Studio.
I cut my hair again last week to help speed along the process of transitioning from brown to gray. Now that I’ve finally made the decision, I want that process to be over with as quickly as possible. Right now, as you may be able to see from this picture (not sure how well it will show up on your particular monitor) it’s salt-and-pepper throughout the top. I’m really digging the white streaks at my temples, too, and can’t wait until it grows out a little so I can pull my hair back to show them off.
Still, I’d be lying if I said it’s been completely painless. It’s been an adjustment lately, knowing I look my age. I know that sounds petty and egotistical, but it’s true. Before the gray I could at least pretend that I looked five years younger…
R.J. Keller 
