Keeping it in the Family by New York Times Bestselling Author Jane Green

I adore my family. I have a wonderful relationship with my both my parents and my younger brother and his wife, so close I think of her as a sister rather than a sister-in-law. When people ask me what I miss about England, I may answer with silly witticisms such as Marks and Spencer's food hall, but in truth what I have missed most, since moving to America seven years ago, is my family.

And what I have found myself doing, from the moment I touched down on these shores, is attempting to create a 'family of choice', surrounding myself with people I love, friends who become so much more, people I can phone in the middle of the night who will drop everything and come to help me out of a crisis.

I have a couple here in town, girls I have known for some years, our children growing up together, going to the same pre-schools, the same painful music classes.

But I don't see these friends as much as I used to. Long gone are the days when the children were all in pre-school and we could spend our time at one another's houses, drinking endless coffees as the children crawled around our feet.

Now I am lucky if I see these friends once a month. We still get together in the evenings from time to time, when we are not so exhausted we do nothing more than collapse into bed, and we still get together for Christmas and Thanksgiving, but now that our kids are in different elementary schools, it's rare that we see one another on a daily basis.

I live in Westport, Connecticut, in a town where few of my female peers work, where I spend my time ferrying my four children back and forth to ballet and soccer, wondering why it is I never feel quite right, never feel that I belong, as groups of women expertly unfold their collapsible chairs, maneuvering their Starbucks coffee from one hand to the other as they shout hellos and wave to all around them.

Even now, in Summer, I drop the kids at camp every morning and feel my muscles tense as I get out the car. I know a few of the women, but I am not, have never been, tribal, have always felt ill-at-ease amongst groups of women, and particularly these groups. I don't know what to say to them, and I stand, awkwardly, at one side as they greet each other in their workout gear, each of them looking as if they have something I don't: they belong.

These women, for the most part, don't work. These women, for the most part, are full-time mothers, involved in local charity work, their children's PTA's. I am quite certain that most of them are delightful – on the occasions I've met one of them on a one-to-one basis, they have been lovely – so why is it that I feel so awkward, so different, so utterly wrong? Is it because I'm English? Does that automatically make me different? Is it because I work? Or perhaps is it the nature of my work?

What I miss, as I sit on the edges of the soccer field or bury myself in a book as I wait for my daughter to finish ballet, are other authors, female friends who work in the same line, who can truly relate. Who else could understand my frustrations at an editor, my delight with an agent, my strategies with a publisher? Who else could understand the difficulties of juggling book tours with motherhood, and the joys and sorrows of writing novels, this peculiar life where you are half in, half out of the public eye.

Two years ago, when I moved – briefly - to Litchfield, Connecticut, I told myself I was moving away from suburbia and towards an area in Connecticut that is known for its artists, actors and writers. All I'd have to do, I thought, was walk out my front door where I would be stumbling across household names, people I have, for years, found inspirational, people with whom I would be able to sit, recounting our various literary adventures.

I did find them, but only in passing. I was married, at the time, to a rabid Republican, something of a fish out of water in the liberal world of artists and writers. The friends I did find would talk of organizing parties for us, introducing us, then balked at the eleventh hour, knowing that however I might have been accepted on my own, as a couple, as a 'we', it would never have worked.

My marriage started unraveling, and I moved back to Westport. I moved away from a world that held so much promise, that had so much potential to be the right place for me, to a world that I knew, a world that already held my friends, a place that felt safe.

I jumped back into suburbia with my eyes squeezed tightly shut, but I have found that those friends I made in Litchfield, the artists, the writers, the actors, are still in my life, that the distance between us hasn't changed our friendship, but has given us the space to explore it slowly, has made those friendships even stronger.

My family of choice now includes those people, my closest friend from that time being another female author, fiercely successful, far more literary than I, yet we meet for lunch and can't stop talking for hours – from the writing process, to book tours, to new deals, to make-up, and back all over again.

So even though we are no longer neighbours, even though I now have to jump in the car to spend time with these friends, they are now, firmly, part of the fabric of my life, and I am so grateful that I have them, that I don't have to spend my time fretting as to the precise reasons I will never fit in with the other soccer moms.

Jane Green
Author of Second Chance
http://www.janegreen.com/

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A Note to the Reader by Marilyn Celeste Morris

There really was/is a Camp Sobingo, located outside the capitol city of Seoul, South Korea at the end of WWII. This military compound’s cookie-cutter “quarters” was home to the women and children who joined their Army officer husbands during the US Occupation. The camp had a school, a post exchange, a dispensary, a commissary, and even a movie theatre (think “MASH”). Ever-present, however, was the military presence, both Korean and our own US forces, and the tyranny of the Russians located across the 38th parallel, who merely annoyed the dependents with their random denial of electricity to the American contingent.

Most of the Americans had deployed to other assignments before June 25th, 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. Those remaining escaped safely, but “The Land of the Morning Calm” would never be the same. In 1954, my father was ordered back to Korea as part of the Military Advisory Group. He took a short drive to what remained of Camp Sobingo, and sent snapshots of our former quarters, (Hq.G-27) which had been pock-marked by aerial strafing, and natives were stripping the floorboards for fuel.

The window, where I had sat and dreamed a 10 year old’s dreams and played with my homemade doll-house populated by models cut from the Sears, Roebuck catalog, was boarded up. More pockmarks surrounded the framework.

An unusual childhood, one might correctly assume, yet I was not alone in this kind of adventure. There are vast numbers of military brats and wives of servicemen who carry the same experiences from different countries. Thanks to the power of the Internet, we are finding each other. Two such sites that assist in this process are: http://www.military-brats.com/ where you may register so that others may find you, and http://www.overseas-brats.com/. Another organization of interest is the American Overseas Schools Historical Society, which recently broke ground for a museum to be built in Wichita, Kansas, housing such “sacred artifacts” as my 4th grade report card from Seoul Dependents Elementary School. Many of the schools currently in operation overseas are being closed as our military presence is no longer required.

Researchers and historians will be astounded by such a treasure trove detailing one small but important part of our nation’s history.

Marilyn Celeste Morris
Author, The Women of Camp Sobingo

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Why I Love Book Signings by Judi Moreo

My recent book signing at the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce Women’s Council turned out to be a wonderful experience. They called it “Wine, Cheese, and a Good Book.”, served wine and cheese and I did a talk on “You Are More Than Enough”. Of course, I would, that’s the title of the book. Twenty-eight people attended and we sold twenty-four books, the other four people were from the publisher’s office and Chamber staff.

It was amazing who came. .. Jeanne Bennett, who was partner with Buck Ram in Personality Productions in 1963. The significance of this is…I was her secretary back then… Buck Ram is the man who wrote the songs, “Twilight Time”,”My Prayer”, “Only You” and many, many others. I hadn’t seen her in 30 years. She still looked like a million dollars and was just as charming as ever.

Nelson Sardelli was there. Nelson was a big time star in Brazil for many years and then played Vegas and Reno in the 80’s and 90’s. He was the heart throb of the city. He still looks as good as he did back then and exudes personality. He bought a book and ended up lugging it all over Italy and then came back and bought four more for gifts. He said he only started reading it because I wrote it and then couldn’t put it down. That certainly was good for my ego.

A really great looking man came in and bought a book and said he recognized my picture from one of the dating websites and then saw it in the paper and thought he should come by and get acquainted in person. Second big boost for the ego.

I really like the idea of Wine, Cheese, and a Good Book and think more book signings should include wine and cheese. I feel like it’s more hospitable to do something other than just asking people to show up and buy a book when they don’t yet know what the book is about.

I also had a great book signing at the Border’s Store in Henderson, Nevada last week. Jesse Ferrell, the author of “How You Leave Them Feeling” came in and bought a few books. (By the way, his book is fabulous!) Another one of those men from the internet dating showed up to let me know he had found a woman and it wasn’t me. But he bought a book for the woman he found! My ex-sister in law came. I was so glad to see her. She has always been one of my favorite people and we had lost touch. Various ex-models came by…people that had worked for me when I owned Universal Models fifteen years ago.

I’ve decided that book signings are the way to go to catch up with old friends and sell books at the same time. I met lots of new people as well. The store manager and staff were wonderful. The more I do book signings, the more I realize that people who manage and work in book stores are fabulous people. They are so gracious and easy to work with. The table is always set up when I arrive. My publisher, Stephens Press, furnishes posters and bookmarks and the staff has them displayed and puts bookmarks in the shopping bags for people when they buy books. They are so good about making sure I have everything I want and need to make the book signing successful.

Sometimes my assistant, Charlotte, goes with me and she walks around the store with a book in her hand and asks people if they’ve seen it yet or if they’ve met me. We’ve found that is a real boost for sales. Of course, Charlotte is very personable and loves to talk with people so she tells them all about the book and how fabulous it is. When we do back of the room sales at presentations, she sets up the table and decorates it beautifully with blue cloths and gold stars (which is my trademark, because of the story about my dad in the book). Then she talks about the book and handles all the sales.

We’ve now created a line of motivational jewelry that goes with the book… We have bracelets that say “I am more than enough”,”Purpose”, “Passion” and “Power”. We also have my signature gold star bracelet…. So Charlotte handles the sale of that as well.

This past weekend I did a book signing at the Barnes & Noble store in St. Peters, Missouri and it poured down rain just as I walked into the store, so the traffic slowed down a bit, but it was still a wonderful experience. The book store personnel were very, very nice and supportive. Several friends from St. Louis stopped by in spite of the rain. We sold a few books, got some publicity in the local newspaper, and made more new friends.

I’m looking forward to making lots more new friends this year. I find that once the book store people like me and know about the book, they make some of the best promoters you can possibly have. They recommend the book when someone is looking and asks their advice.
Someone asked me the other day if I ever get tired of signing books. My answer, “Are you kidding? I’ve waited my entire life to do this!”

Judi Moreo
Author of You Are More Than Enough: Every Woman’s Guide to Purpose, Passion, and Power
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A Bit About Me And My Books by Elena Dorothy Bowman

I am an author who writes in several genre's including: futuristic science fiction, and mystery romance novels that have a touch of the paranormal running through them. I started writing fiction seriously during my lunch hours at work. I needed the diversion since most of my writing at that time was devoted to technical writing. With my first published novel, I guess it started with my smoking. Yes, I used to smoke. I don't now, haven't for many years. But one day while sitting in my office during a break, after a real rough morning, I lit a cigarette.
I watched the curled smoke from my cigarette rise toward the corner of the office disappearing into a crack in the wall. I watched this for several minutes wondering where the smoke was going. Was it just being swallowed up into the wall, or did it vanish into the nooks and crannies that were hidden from view and led to God knows where. Needless to say, my imagination took hold and before I knew it I was writing the first chapter to my science fiction/mystery/romance novel Sarah's Landing-I-Contact. I have since taken the smoking aspect out of the story and replaced that part of it with a human being — the lead character — which ultimately led to the birth of four complete novels in The Sarah's Landing Series. All four books in the series have been released in ebook format by Write Words, Inc., ebooksonthe.net. The print editions will be released sometime in 2007 by their imprint Cambridge Books.

My fifth published novel, a Romance/Suspense/Mystery Thriller, The House On The Bluff, first came into existence due to a mysterious, seemingly uninhabited house on a ledge that overlooked the ocean. A place where I had never seen anyone enter or leave in the many times I had visited there. It was as if the house sat there waiting for something or someone. It was a foreboding looking house, especially on a cloudy day. Still, there was something majestic about the way it stood its ground against the ocean crashing up against its seawall, and the mystery
surrounding it — just added to the equation. This, too, lent itself to a three book series entitled The Legacy Series. All three books in the series have been released in ebook format by Write Words, Inc., ebooksonthe.net. The first two books in the series have been released in print by their imprint Cambridge Books. (http://www.cambridgebooks.us/).

We come to my eighth published novel, Time-Slip, in the Romantic Paranormal Suspense genre. At present, it is only available as an e-book, but hopefully it, too, will be released in paperback. This novel had its birth while researching ancient histories and lost civilizations. The thought occurred to me as I read certain books that what if, what they say is true, about a continent that disappeared in the Pacific? What if it all did happen exactly the way they say it did? But what if it all wasn't lost? What if a part of it was trapped in a sort of bubble, but no one, just by looking, would ever discover it? What then? What if some young archaeologist decided to search for
ancient artifacts and was caught in a seaquake, an undersea earthquake that opened the door to a portal that only the Earth remembers —and to an undersea world that shouldn't exist? This, too, will be released in print sometime in 2007 by Cambridge Books. More about all of my novels, excepts and reviews can be read on my website: http://sarahslanding.com/ or http://elenadb.home.comcast.net/. My blog: http://elenabowmanscifimysteryromanceauthor.blogspot.com/

Elena Dorothy Bowman
Author of Gatekeeper's Realm
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The Nightmare of Booksignings by Susan Gregg

When my book The Toltec Way came out, I went on a book signing tour of the West Coast. When I got to my first book signing, the store had forgotten they were going to even have a book signing. That could have been my first clue. I spent 3 1/2 weeks on the road going from town to town signing books.

Now don't get the wrong idea, some of the book signings were wonderful.

I got to meet so many wonderful people. One night while I was waiting for people to show up I sat in the back row. I forgot my picture was on the back of the book and just sat there watching people gather. Finally the woman sitting next to me said, "I know who you are are you supposed to be up front?"

I feel silly sitting behind a table with a pile of books and people scurrying by trying to avoid me so I refuse to do a book signing unless I get to do a talk as well. One of the bookstores had shelves that were about 4 feet high. When I started my talk there was a handful of people
sitting in the chairs. As I talked I started to see disembodied heads appearing over all the shelves. It was great.

At a bookstore, I think it was in Seattle, there was only a schizophrenic and a homeless man who really enjoyed the cookies. Some day I hope to have people lined up around the block, just waiting for me to sign their book, but for now I'll just enjoy my virtual book tour.

Susan Gregg
Author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Short Meditations
http://www.susangregg.com/

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