Wednesday, March 8 is International Women's Day, so it's the perfect time for me to remind everyone of some wonderful books to empower feminists everywhere. Sure, I wrote them. But sometimes empowerment starts with encouraging others to support and empower YOU. This is one of those posts.
First,I'm Not Writing a Book Today empowers everyone to write. An illustrated free verse poem features image after image of children dreaming, doing, and creating. I wrote I'm Not Writing a Book Today in response to the parents of my young authors who apologized to me that their writers weren't chained to their desks all summer. But I chose illustrations to reach an even younger audience. I was reading at three years old and writing as soon as I could hold a pencil. So why not other young people? And when I read I'm Not Writing a Book Today, whether to toddlers or retirees, my audience GETS it. I'm Not Writing a Book Today has become a mantra for so many people doing so many things. And if you haven't experienced it for yourself, your parents, or your kids, you really need to.
Martha's Chickens and the Pirates was the first children's book I was able to publish -- even if it wasn't one of the first ones I'd written or even finished. It is a story I wrote to honor my pioneering grandmother -- the sweet bad ass woman who endeavored to keep the peace even if she had to talk dirty to do it sometimes. In addition to the obvious ways Martha dominates the decisions made by characters in the book, I worked with the illustrator especially to make sure that genders were represented equally. And on International Woman's Day, maybe that's not equal. But as a mother with a son, I needed to see both. I needed people who talked about animals that didn't and I needed people to try new things and to be brave even though being brave means different things to different people. So if you are feeling brave, need to feel brave, or need a change in your life, pick up a copy of Martha's Chickens and the Pirates.
For the adult crowd, #25 Reasons Why Charlie Should Never Read Jane's Books to Jane is a hard anti-comedy to beat. In the traditional understanding that women are from Venus and men are from Mars, each vignette highlights ways that two people who love each other very much can still lack basic communication skills or mutual understanding. The idea behind the story and the hashtag was to have a response to the popular fanfic FSOG. A lot of people argued that FSOG liberated women by exposing sexual fantasies. Others felt the lurid sex imprisoned women. I objected to the novel because it took an angst-filled teen drama series that I liked (Twilight), took away the mythological beings that made it so great, and replaced fairly extensive character development with S&M. It wasn't original, but some marketer picked it up because sex sells. How many of the same people boycotting Beauty and the Beast helped rocket FSOG into a bestselling book and movie? Not the book's fault, or the author's. Still, I wanted to provide an alternative. I think male and female feminists want more out of their relationships. #25 Reasons gives readers more.
Finally, of the books I want to talk about today, last but by no means least, is A Muse Meant. Samm is the girl-next-door heroine we all want in our lives. Her dreams, her magic, and even her insecurities drive the plot of this coming-of-age story for middle grade readers. The best part is all the things she doesn't realize she's doing. Girls are so often taught to feel insecure -- in the things they are told and the things adults assume they know. So for Samm to be continuously empowered instead -- this was as challenging to write (and re-write) as it was for Samm to experience. Did I get it right?
Some people number their chapters. I'm among the camp that names mine. And so I thought on the day I was able to HOLD my novel -- A Muse Meant -- in my hot little hands, that I would share these chapter names with you. And unashamedly, I hope that I pique your interest so you just HAVE to go buy my book on Amazon.
I hope your interest is piqued! My book is available on Amazon. Get it! If you want your copy signed, be sure to let me know! And if you know someone who would be interested in my publishing workshop, let me know or tell them to contact me. I am working to have a place to hold classes, but also teach via Skype and Google Hangouts!!
Phyl Campbell is Author, Mother, Dreamer. Right now, she's in over her head with
book projects whose (author-self-imposed) deadlines passed by. She waved, and only cried a little. But sometimes the Mother and Dreamer get in the way of the Author, and the Author has to catch up. Check out her author page on Amazon.
Some people are not very observant. It probably means they
carry less stress than I do. I remember being a freshman in college and talking
to an advisor (a non-academic advisor, as it happened) about how to find out
what was going on around campus by reading the sidewalks and bulletin boards. I
confessed that I probably read 70 billboard flyers a day. I’m sure she was
skeptical. Later in the week, she saw me reading flyers in the union. “Ohmigod,”
she said. “You really do. You really do read all those.”
And the weird thing is, I could read all those flyers and
sidewalk chalk signs and still miss important events that I would have wanted
to attend on campus. It seemed I always saw flyers for great shows the week
AFTER they were actually playing. Great speakers, same thing. I did a lot. Saw
a lot. Participated in a lot. Still, I feel like I missed out on a lot MORE.
Things I promised myself I would do during freshman orientation I never did in
my four and a half years on campus. I never saw a movie in the Union Theater. I
never cross-dressed and attended the showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show in
the Greek Theatre on Halloween night. I didn’t attend a single football game –
which is probably not that much of a loss. I lose interest in sports when they
aren’t being played by clumsy six year olds.
Fast forward nearly two decades, three states, and too many
cities to count, and I find myself needing to be observant again. I did some
(precious little) research on my new town while still in my old one. And then
after I’d arranged what belongings I wasn’t keeping stored in boxes, I set out
to find more friends and do more things. After finding a few groups via
Facebook, I went to another old haunt, meetup.com, and found a few more groups
to join. Two have proven very valuable. And when I tell others about them, I
realize that there are people who don’t know about sites like Meetup. And then
I realized that a site like Meetup could be a way for my single friends to get
out and meet people without the stress of online dating. But then I realized I couldn’t say that
tactfully. I can think it, but it’s impolite to say unless the conversation
works around that way naturally. Which of course now it won’t.
So I’m two months in a new place --- starting the third. And
really I think I’m doing rather well. But then it hits me that some of the
things I researched early on I still haven’t checked out yet. So that’s on next
week’s agenda, having decided to leave this week open because of the school
event that’s happening Friday.
Still haven’t decided what of that is trying to pace myself
and what is fear of rejection and all that creeps in when I’m trying to busy
myself with other things. And I wonder to what extent other people deal with
the feeling that they’re missing out on something wonderful. Sometimes I get
glimpses from others on Facebook. Sometimes I just have to guess.
And then my junk mail puts things into a weird kind of
perspective for me. Three years ago, when my husband and I put our home on the
market, this one realtor started to send us info cards and calendars and things in
order to get our business – either to allow him to sell our house or to use him in picking out our new house. We didn’t ever use him. We sold our house
and rented and now we have moved out of state and are renting again. We got a
postcard from that realtor with the change of address sticker. I thought that
would be the end of it.
Nope. In the mail today was another postcard – this time with our correct out of state address. And I wonder if I should email or call him to get taken off his mailing list. I actually waste time worrying about what this piece of my junk mail is costing HIM. Who does that? That question is rhetorical, of course. Though if someone wants to throw me a bone and tell me they worry about other people to this mind-numbing extent… Or tell me that it would literally cost this guy more to take my name off his mailing list than to keep sending me junk mail. I should toss it in the recycle bin without a second thought. But it will sit on my table for a week, and I will stress about it.
A photo posted by Phyl Campbell (@phylc_author) on
And then along came a spider...
And as I wrote that last bit, I had to stop and swipe off a
spider that was crawling up my arm. Now I don’t see it anywhere. I usually don’t
kill spiders because they eat gnats and things. But I killed a brown recluse in
my bathroom over the weekend because they are poisonous and I killed a wolf
spider yesterday because it was moving too fast for me to see what it was, then
was hiding on top of the light on my ceiling fan. I should have realized it
wasn’t a recluse because recluses don’t spin webs.
And then I saw it. And of course my phone is dead because I
was playing Candy Crush Jelly Saga while trying to get stations on my TV – I REALLY
wanted to watch Lucifer – then remembered it’s done for the season. The point is, my
pictures of the spider on my wall and ceiling aren’t very good. Is it a recluse or not?
I simply can’t tell.
It has a few less than eight legs – that’s probably my
fault for swiping too hard instead of flicking or blowing it off like I know I’m
supposed to. And it very patiently moved around a bit – even waited for me to
get a stepladder and put the portable charger on my phone to try to get a
better image of it. Of course it did.
This is a brown recluse. Bigger butt than a wolf spider. Image courtesy of Terra.
It’s a wolf spider, but the cat eye is
very difficult to see on this one, and it’s colored more recluse-like than
wolf-spider-like. And with less than eight legs, it’s walking much more slowly –
like a recluse.
If it will get off my ceiling and walk across the panels, I
will knock it off to a box lid and release it outside. If it gets any closer to
my bed, it’s going to be a goner – it’s already been on my arm and we both know
how I reacted to that. Come down, stupid spider. I don’t want to kill you. It
hardly seems fair to throw you out into the rain, but you could be very comfy
on or under my porch.
Excuse me.
[muffled shuffling, a brief struggle, a door slam]
There. Much better. Spider and a plastic tub lib are outside
on the porch. Yes, the spider could crawl right back in any number of cracks –
especially the large one under the door. But perhaps it will think of the legs
its already lost and value its life enough to stay outside.
And I won’t tell you how many times I got sidetracked in the
course of writing this post. (If you believe that, you obviously don’t know
me.) Let’s see – the fight with the TV that got 33 channels yesterday and 0
today, no matter what I do/did with the antenna. I was hungry, so I got a
snack. I had a bill in the afternoon mail, so I made sure it was paid. It was.
I checked my email – dealt with a notice from the PTA and a request to go over
a cover letter for a relative of a former student. I got further distracted by
a couple of articles about the Target boycott – which I do not support, BTW. A
text conversation with my sister and a PM conversation with another writer. I
forgot I was working on this post until the fellow writer said something to
make me remember it. Then the spider on my arm. Skulking on my arm. Walking
like a recluse would – slow and deliberate. And I could take and process all of
that in the time it took me to realize it wasn’t my hair and raise my arm to
knock the spider off. Then try to find it. Turn on all the lights. Don’t see
it. Go back to writing and all of the above. Then see it on the wall, heading
toward the ceiling.
Is it observant to notice the spider? Weird to let it live?
Without some of its legs, should I have put it out of its misery? What is
misery to a spider? Am I observant to have seen it again? What if it was a
different spider? What if, in some weird kind of universe with spider
solidarity, it was attacking me for killing the other spiders? What if ALL the
household spiders decide to make me a target? More importantly -- why haven’t I internalized yet
that I am thousands of times bigger than spiders are? It’s ridiculous to be
bothered by the things – I don’t freak out in the same way when a fly lands on
me. But logic fails me when it comes to spiders, especially close to bedtime.
One more thing to worry about. Despite the absolute lack of
good worrying does, I do quite a bit of it.
So many ideas, so the same number of hours in a day as before. It's nearly impossible to decorate for Halloween, continue my fall cleaning, work on my current WIP, help my students with their WIPs, and decide among all my lovely half-baked ideas which one I will pluck from obscurity to make into my 50,000 word November project.
Or do I rebel? Nano rebellion for me is a time honored tradition. I'd hate to start following rules now.
I could work on several projects simultaneously, as I do throughout the year and have done for past NANOs, but I am looking to stretch myself as an author and a person. Why not make my 2015 NANO a personal best in determination and growth?
So I created a placeholder novel -- although a part of me wants to follow that plot bunny down the rabbit hole. We'll see what book I start when the Trick-or-Treaters have all gone home.
If you want to join my NANO buddy group, my handle is phyln. If you want more info about NANO, my classes, or anything else, send me an email or a FB PM. I look forward to hearing from you!
Since Amazon now owns Goodreads, I don't often post book reviews anymore. But I am fortunate to have fans, friends, and fellow authors who have friended me on Goodreads and may wish to submit reviews on Goodreads. As a result, I have updated my profile with the new books I have published there.
My way is not the only way to
publish an Indie book. These steps are my best advice for creating a print
book (paperback) that can be made available on Amazon or purchased wholesale by the author
for resale at book buying events.
1. Create a manuscript using a word
processor.
Use sections (Page Break, Section Break) for each chapter or
section
Use Headers and Footers to create page numbers and to write
your book title and author name on each page (I keep another published book in
front of me as a guide)
Create the front matter (title, copyright page, dedication).
Again, use a previously published book to see the industry standard.
Create the back matter (acknowledgments, author note, about
the author, preview of next book)
Front matter and back matter should not have page numbers,
headers, or footers. I use section breaks to do this, but my brother recommends
applying white text boxes where text should be hidden.
Use Styles to establish one font and font size for chapter
headers and a different font and font size for basic text. You can also use it
to select indents, spacing between lines and other text features. It’s tricky
to learn, but will save any many steps.
In my word processing tool bar, there is a paragraph mark
symbol. Select it to see all hidden formatting symbols like spaces and
hard/soft returns.
Learn how to use Find and Replace. Especially MORE/FORMAT
Follow the instructions to select
book size, paper, and other attributes
Skip the step of adding an interior
file
Create a Cover (Create and upload
the PDF, or use their template and images – I do a combination)
3. Go back to your word processor
document.
Adjust paper size or margins to fit the
selected book size.
Add the CreateSpace assigned ISBNs to the
copyright page
Export to PDF (sometimes this is “print to
PDF” or “save to PDF”)
Open the PDF file to check for correct
placement of headers, footers, and page numbers. Select “view two page” with “separate
title page” (2 boxes to check)
Without a PDF editor, make changes to the
PDF by making the changes in Word and repeating the Export to PDF/Print to
PDF/Save as PDF option.
4. Go back to CreateSpace
Go to the Title created in Step 2.
Go to the step of uploading an
Interior File.
It is possible to upload files
from a word processor without the PDF step. I don’t think the files come across
as cleanly --- some formatting is lost (fonts, margins, page breaks). This has
been my experience.
Choose sales channels and set book
price(s)
Submit files for review
5. The file review check takes 24-48
hours. It will determine whether all the content from the submitted file fits
within the margins of the selected layout.
Make changes to the review file
until CreateSpace (and you) are satisfied, either by making changes to the
CreateSpace review file (when applicable), changing book attributes in
CreateSpace, or making changes to the PDF/ word document.
Repeat the file review steps each
time changes are made.
When the review comes back without
errors, and the book is acceptable to you, select Publish.
Published titles are available
immediately on CreateSpace, and within 1-5 days on Amazon (if Amazon was
selected) or other channels.
6. My way is not the only way to
publish an Indie book. Some people buy their own ISBNs (See LightningSource
instead of CreateSpace), hire out cover artists and layout designers,
formatters, editors, etc. Some people
only publish to Kindle. These steps are my best advice for creating a print
book that can be made available on Amazon or purchased wholesale by the author
for resale at book buying events.
7. Timeline. On average, creating the
manuscript takes me a year. Preparing a cover takes me two weeks (over a month
with reader input). Formatting the interior (for me) is a two-week job minimum.
I try to format as I go, but best laid plans sometimes go awry, and I have to
undo formatting to add pages, delete pages, or fiddle with margins. Can someone else do it faster and better? Undoubtedly.
I encourage people with tips or tricks to share their knowledge.
