I actually think that it is a good thing because I have been pushing myself to finish and without this little break, I would most likely have forced myself to tie it up in a bow and call it done. I hit the point where I was ready to be done with the work, while the work is not ready to be done. It is these times when the right thing to do is put the work on the shelf and walk away. When I’m pushing to finish is the exact time when the worst things can happen to my work. I can gut things that should stay, I can add things that shouldn’t be there. This way, neither author or characters get hurt.

So while the manuscript sits on its figurative shelf, I wait for the siren call that is sure to come. The music may start softly and then will build with time until I can no longer stand to be away from the story line and the characters within. Will I miss the first notes of the siren song through inattention? Or will they come to me clearly, calling my name, and luring me back into the depths of editing? When I hear the song, it will be the right time. The time to pick the manuscript up, dust it off and dive into the pages and make the necessary changes. I will once again transform into the writer, where little else matters in the world except my story. So, Katie, I’m waiting to hear those first whispered notes. Sing to me Katie McCabe and call me back to the place I long to be.

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LK Griffie
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The LL Book Review

The post Thoughts From the Morning Commute – Waiting for the Siren Call appeared first on Be the Cat.

We arrived at the book festival, which was held in a location where no GPS could find, nor MapQuest or Google Maps. According to one of the other authors who attended, the only site which had proper directions was Yahoo. I put the approximate address in the GPS and decided that once we got off the freeway, I’d pull off and we could pull up the internet really quick to see if we could find better directions. It turned out that wasn’t necessary as the festival coordinators had the way marked very well with signs. We parked at the Library and then walked across the street. Although a short distance, the walk was quite lengthy as the area was fenced in and there appeared to be one way in and one way out, which included going to the far edge of the parking lot (for authorized people only), then back through the parking lot to the stairs (or ramp) and then to your booth. The AuthorsDen booth was along the backside of the park where the book festival was being housed, and toward the street end, so as the crow flies it wouldn’t have been far at all. We dropped off the first load of stuff and I sent Denny on ahead and told him I’d meet him at the car. He had quite a bit of a headstart and decided to go back the way we came in. I figured there had to be a shorter way, and sure enough I found it. Denny was surprised to see me coming from the opposite direction and catching up to him as he prepared to cross the street.

The weather did manage to make a turn for the better during my signing and the gloomy clouds gave way to sunshine and a nice breeze. Denny and I found a nice table under an awning to have our lunch to get me out of the sun for a bit. I also had to go back to the car and get my floppy orange hat that I wear to the Titan games on Sundays to keep my from getting too much sun on my face. (We had already put sunscreen on before arriving at the event.)

My signing times were 10:00 – 10:30 and 3:00 – 3:30, so since the festival opened at 10:00, I was the first one up. I brought my laptop so that I could play my book trailer for Misfit McCabe, which worked out fairly well. Unfortunately, unlike the LA Times Festival of Books, at the opening of the San Diego Book Festival, actual customers were sparse. Afterward people did start coming in and there were a fair number of people in attendance. There were a lot of families with young children, moms and their small children, and babies in strollers everywhere. What was interesting was that while there were children’s books and children’s authors there, we did see quite a few young adult books on display and young adult authors, however, the actual young adults in attendance were very meager.

Denny and I took the opportunity of this being a smaller venue than the LA Times festival and caught a few of the featured talks on the stage. DJ McHale spoke about his Pendragon series and he was quite entertaining to listen to. DJ also read an exerpt of chapter 1 from a new series that he is working on. To me it sounded much more like a prologue than chapter 1, but as he explained it was a very rough draft. I gave him credit for having the guts to share something at that stage of the writing process, something he confessed he had never done before. I’m not sure I would have the courage to do that. We also sat in on the session of Mad Science, and that had a great deal of audience participation. The Mad Science guy (sorry I don’t know his name as we caught it after it started) was choosing kids from the audience to come up and help him, and every time he asked for volunteers, a young teen in a bright pink shirt with a paperbag hat decorated with caution tape practically leapt out of her chair to stick her hand in the air. Unfortunately, he simply was choosing from the next to the back row, and her hopes of being selected continued to be dashed. As he was winding his show up, he asked for volunteers, and of course, her hand shot straight into the air, and Denny and I then put our hands in the air and began to point at her. She was so excited to have been chosen for the task. So, you’re welcome, Danielle.

Even though I didn’t make any sales, the day was not a total loss. I was glad to have the chance to reconnect with children’s author Mary Coe and to meet her family, as well as meet and talk with authors Janice Lease, Gayle Martin, and Shirley Woods. I also made some additional contacts while handing out more bookmarks. As with most things in the authorship game, you cast out your offerings and don’t know whether or not there will be any returns until later. One good contact made was with Edward Pyne of the Union Herald Tribune. Edward saw Denny and I walking by with our t-shirts which have the Where in the World is Misfit McCabe? map on the front, and a picture of the cover for Nowhere Feels Like Home on the back, and he was intrigued. We chatted for a few moments and the end result is that Edward is in the process of starting up a new website which will have author interviews, and after he gets the website up and running, he would like to interview me. Which, if it comes to pass, will be quite exciting.

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LK Griffie
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post The Trip to San Diego appeared first on Be the Cat.

On my way home, I had reached that point where I was sure Nowhere Feels Like Home was an unsalvageable mess and I might as well scrap it. Fortunately, I’ve been writing long enough to know this mood and realize that’s all it is, a phase that I will get through. I usually hit it when I have finished the novel, have done the first blush editing and now face the nitty gritty work of going through word by word – knowing there is a lot that has to be redone. The evil little goblin on my left tells me to just give up, while the angel on my right tells me to hang in there, I can do better. After a few days of heavy procrastinating, I’ll force myself to buckle down and will become immersed in the book once more and you won’t be able to get me away from it.

Arriving home, I was a little down. And once I brought email up again, I remembered the whole, strange Twitter follow thing that was going on, and it still was. More and more follower notifications kept popping into my inbox. There were so many, I was beginning to wonder whether I should be getting paranoid. Instead, I headed on over to Twitter to find out what was going on. Still clueless, it wasn’t until I saw a tweet by @CarolHousel telling me I made a Mashable and then suddenly the world made sense once again. Cameron Chapman created a list of the 100+ Best Authors on Twitter, and I made the list under Children’s and Young Adult. I am definitely honored to have made the list. And it does explain the upsurge in followers. Now, all of a sudden, I’m back up in the clouds, and everything seems possible. Even finishing the editing on Nowhere Feels Like Home, (but not this weekend).  ***I know the butterfly doesn’t have anything to do with this post – I just thought it was pretty.***

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LK Griffie
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post Strange Phenomenon appeared first on Be the Cat.

Although sounding quite tasty, what does this have to do with books? While attending the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, April 25-26, my attention was captured by one of the author’s marketing materials. The author just so happened to be participating in the AuthorsDen.com booth along with me, so I had ample opportunity to see the marketing materials, and drool. The most interesting aspect to me was that the author, Allyson Ames was using her book, Wonderlicious ~ The Enchanting and Delicious Story of Wonderland Bakery as a means of marketing her Wonderland Bakery. Along with the book, Allyson and Sondra had aprons, shirts, a cupcake purse, a castle tote, a tea set, a cupcake bake set, along with enchanting wands in blue and pink.  But the item that captured the most attention was the Gund bear which reads the Wonderlicious story, a definite must have item among the pre-school set. And as an added bonus, each purchase was accompanied by a Wonderland Bakery cookie. Sweet!

The absolute best thing these very savvy women did was to send an Allyson character to walk around with the book and the bear talking to children and showing how the bear reads the story. Meanwhile, her compadre was quickly passing out flyers to help promote the bakery and direct people to the AuthorsDen.com booth where they might sell a few of the accessorial products.  Could you resist that smile?

We, as writers, focus so much of our time and energy on promoting our books through traditional methods such as book fairs, bookstores, and libraries, we may be overlooking a golden opportunity. It’s time to pull out those creative thinking caps and dream up a kind of marketing strategy in reverse whereby you find another product or activity to promote which leads right back to your primary product of books.  The Ames women have provided a shining example in using a book festival to promote a bakery, without pitching a cookbook or putting on a cooking demonstration.  What is your Wonderland?

The Wonderlicious Cookbook is due out Spring 2009.

Written for the Lulu Book Review.
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LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post A Wonderland of Marketing appeared first on Be the Cat.

So, when is this wondeful event? Saturday, May 9th between the hours of 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM. If you’re in the neighborhood, I’d love to see you there.

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LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post Meet Me in San Diego appeared first on Be the Cat.

I have created and sent off the 8×10’s of the Misfit McCabe book cover and the review by the Lulu Book Review, although to be perfectly honest, those nearly escaped my attention and I had to send Denny down to Ramona to deliver them to the post office there so they would be on time.   The only thing left to do is make up and print out some flyers and that shouldn’t take me too long.

The good news is on the weather front, it appears that the current heat wave should be dissipating to cooler temperatures for the weekend, but we haven’t yet seen the cool down start. I will remain hopeful that I won’t be spending the entire weekend outside in 100 plus degree heat. Leaving work the past two days has been like walking out into a wet blanket. I shudder to think what summer time will be if this is spring.

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LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post Book Festival Here I Come appeared first on Be the Cat.