Through the years, PJ would contact me and ask for advice on things. When we first corresponded, she was over the moon because someone thought her “little scribblings” had value. Then as time went on, she became frustrated because sales weren’t happening. Her frustration didn’t stem from the lack of monetary gain, but because she simply wanted to get her books into the hands of readers. She suffered a huge disappointment when she tried to give her books to schools and they wouldn’t accept them. So I asked, if she was willing to give them away, why she didn’t give them to shelters?

When she said she didn’t know where to start, I put her in contact with another friend, Linda Welch, author of the successful paranormal mystery Whisperings series, who was able to get her started and give her some pointers on how to proceed. She was ecstatic and the children loved her stories. But the next time I heard from PJ, she was distraught. Her husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and PJ herself has a degenerative eye condition which is causing her to go blind. She thought she’d have to give up her writing altogether, which saddened her, but her husband had to be her first priority.

Shortly after, I was delighted to hear that she decided she needed the creative outlet and she wanted to give away as many books as she could before she completely lost her vision. She proceeded to build up her list of shelters for donations to twenty. To assist her sight, she bought a 40-inch monitor and uses a magnifying glass to help her see, and hired an assistant to help with some of the things she cannot do.

Shortly before the holidays, I received an email from PJ — and she had been on my mind, isn’t that usually how things work? The email was to advise me that her husband’s condition was worsening at a rapid rate, and she needed to give him her attention and love. And her eyesight was also failing at a more rapid rate, and she would now have to give up writing. She was going to send a last batch of books to the shelters on her list, and would be moving to assisted living to ensure appropriate care for both her and her husband. Her one regret? To not be able to give more book donations.

And that’s when it hit me… this is somewhere I can help… and so can you. I’d like to issue a challenge to all: Purchase one or two of PJ’s books and send them to a women’s shelter or a children’s shelter. Give the gift of books to children without, and make an author, who can no longer follow her passion, happy. Let’s carry on PJ’s legacy… It’s not about the money — it’s about the children.

If you’re interested in reading my reviews of PJ’s work, they are:

• Michael O’Brien and the Magic Hat
• Tilbee Toadlet’s Trip to Town
• Giggle Grump Gurgle

The delightful illustrations are done based on PJ’s concept by Mike Motz.

PS – My niece and nephew LOVE PJ’s books and David’s favorite books right now are the dragons because he gets to Rawr!

The post Author Spotlight: PJ Cowan appeared first on Be the Cat.

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who screws up your day and may their arms be too short to scratch…

This saying reminds me of how Monica looks at life. She is a take-no-prisoners, no-holds-barred kind of person. Her mind is sharp, intuitive, and she possesses one of the most wicked talents in writing I have ever run across and she has the wicked wit to match. I met Monica online through the #wipfire hashtag and I promptly fell in love with the writing. Watch this one because she is a rising star, which as soon as she reaches the launchpad is going to take off like a rocket. She has a way of asking a question (especially when I’m unbalanced) and all of a sudden, perspective is gained, and I am able to continue on with the writing with greater clarity. She has amazing knowledge and I want to soak up as much from her as I can.

Linda on the other hand is one of the few online friends met outside of Twitter. She and I met through an independent book review I review for. She posted her book Along Came a Demon and requested a review, and I read, reviewed, and LOVED it, and a friendship was born. Linda and I support one another through all of the trials of putting our books out in the best shape possible. We have laughed, cried, and screamed together, cajoled one another through the rough patches, celebrated in the good times, and mourned in sorrow. (By the way, in the pic, I’m the pup not paying attention to what’s going on with my tongue lolling out.) I have enjoyed watching Linda grow as a writer and was perhaps even more excited than she was when she was approached by an agent wanting to rep her Whisperings series. We are definitely in this thing called the writing game together.

So when the time came for me to plan vacation for 2010 and the original plan included a trip to Washington, I kept looking at the map and decided that Utah where Linda lives wasn’t too far out of the way, I’d make sure I stopped by to meet her in person. Then, as my friendship with Monica grew, I knew fitting her in to the vacation would be a simple thing because she lives in the town where my dad grew up, and I would be visiting relatives in the area. We had a wonderful weekend hanging out together, talking about writing, wandering around soaking in inspiration, and actually doing some writing (Monica insisted). The memories will be cherished – and I thought my cheeks might break from laughing and smiling so much. After the weekend with Monica, I drove to visit Linda and loved wandering around the town on which she has based her fictional town for her paranormal mystery series. Of course, Linda may have panicked a bit when she almost got a house guest for a longer period of time than expected when I fell on her deck and twisted my ankle. Well, twisted is probably being nice… I ripped the ligaments to shreds. But I was able to ice and had some ace bandages with me to wrap the ankle with, so I moved on as planned.

I could go on and on (but I hear their groans about the length already). Both of these women mean more to me than words can say. They enrich my life, and I don’t know how I would have survived the past year without them.

The post The People of 2010 – Part VIII appeared first on Be the Cat.

I first came across the writing of Linda Welch early in 2009 when I reviewed her first book in the Whisperings series, Along Came a Demon (review 70). I knew of Linda from the Lulu forums and that is one of the reasons I chose to review her book when it was posted on the Pick Me tab. I was very happy to have read the first book, and jumped at the chance to read and review the second book in the series, The Demon Hunters, as soon as Linda made it available to us (review 105). Since that time, Linda and I have become regular correspondents and critique partners for each other, and Linda has graciously reviewed a few books for LL Book review as well. I am very fortunate to call this talented woman my friend, and had the pleasure of meeting her this year on my vacation.

A few months ago, Linda’s Whisperings series took off in Kindle sales and her books were number 1 & 2 respectively in their category. I couldn’t have been more thrilled for her, or so I thought. The week following their rise to number 1, she received an email that she flipped to me to get my take on it. The email just happened to be from Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group (number one agency in sales since 2004 by Publisher’s Marketplace) enquiring whether she had representation for her Whispering novels and whether she would be interested in growing her business in the US and abroad. After I finished dancing on the ceiling on her behalf and doing a quick round of research, checking Publisher’s Marketplace, Preditors and Editors, and other sources looking for what the feedback was about Trident and Robert Gottlieb specifically, I sent back my response advising her to express interest. NOW!!

After discussing how Trident would be able to help Linda potentially increase her sales, Linda sent both of her current books, Along Came a Demon and The Demon Hunters to Robert, and he provided some inital editorial feedback. Over the past couple months, Linda and Robert have been working out the details of their agreement. Linda did seek out the assistance of a literary attorney to review the agency contract, which is always a good idea. A reputable agency will recommend you have someone look over the agreement, which Trident did. Once the minor changes to the contract were agreed upon and changed, Linda signed and with a few deep breaths, sent the contract back to the agency. So it is official, Linda Welch is now represented by Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group.

As happy as I am for Linda, and I truly don’t know who has sounded more excited about this venture…I think it might be me, the more exciting aspect to garner from this is that one of the major New York agencies is actively looking for talent amidst the self-published pool based on sales. And if a respected CEO and agent like Robert Gottlieb is taking the time to watch the Amazon sales rankings to scoop up talent, then will it be long before more and more agencies are doing the same?

If you want to pick up a copy of the books which earned her the deal, you’d better check Amazon.com fast, as they will soon disappear for awhile. Oh, and the reason we don’t have a picture of the smiling author is that such a thing does not exist on the web. The closest we can get is a picture of Tiff Banks, her main character from the Whisperings series.

CONGRATULATIONS LINDA!!!

Originally posted for the LL Book Review

The post Celebrate with Linda Welch appeared first on Be the Cat.

So Thanks to Eisley Jacobs (@EisleyJacobs) over at Eisley’s Ellipses and Ann Arkie (@annarkie) of Supernatural Smut (isn’t it wonderful that I received this from two such dissimilar authors – the irony of this amuses me). If you have a Twitter account – follow both of these lovely ladies. Okay let’s get this over with. And for those who know me, it should not come as any surprise that I’ll follow some of the rules and bend others.

**An addendum to the above, I have also now been given this award back by Linda Welch (@welch6331) of Linda’s Worlds – apparently she wanted to share the wealth with me. Huh!

***Addendum number 2 – Monica Pierce (@ThePreyers) of Stalking Fiction has also returned the favor. I’m starting to think they didn’t appreciate the gift in the first place. Imagine that! AND I don’t yet see Monica’s award post.

****Addendum to addendum number 2 – The post is now (2/23/10) up at Stalking Fiction, so swing by & take a look. I might have to go into hiding soon, so if you don’t see me for awhile, you’ll know where to start looking.

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate seven three “Creative Writers” who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the seven three blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

All righty then. The first three points are done. So here come the rest. Mind you, these may not be much because I don’t have a lot of practice with lies and while I do have several outrageous truths, I share them, so a lot of people know them already.

Which are lies, and wherein lies the truth?

1. Using past life regression therapy, I have discovered that I was once the Queen of Siam – which really explains my disdain for domesticity. I need servants to take care of me.
2. In school, my teachers put me through a battery of IQ tests to determine what level of genius I am then skipped me ahead a grade.
3. I see dead people.
4. My fear of snakes comes from having been chased by a water moccasin
5. There’s a black hole in my brain which is unexplainable by doctors
6. I have a grandmother who rode with the Hell’s Angels
7. I had to give up a career in professional softball due to knee injury

And who am I nominating to be the next victims recipients of this lovely award?

1. Monica Pierce (@ThePreyers) of Stalking Fiction because with her creativity and command of the English language, I can’t wait to see what lies she puts down
2. Linda Welch (@welch6331) of Linda’s Worlds because she has a quick wit and I’m really interested to see what she comes up with after she finishes cursing me for getting her involved
3. Shannon Yarbrough (@slyarbrough) of The Lone Writer because I always appreciate his point of view and I know he’ll be able to spin a tall tale for us.

All three of these folks are well worth a follow on Twitter, so don’t miss out. Now I’m off to leave comments on their blogs, and this award will be complete.

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I started off the morning by waking up thinking that it was Sunday and was kind of bummed because I didn’t accomplish nearly what I wanted to, considering I took time off of work so I could focus on writing. Ok, to be strictly honest, I also took time off work because if I didn’t take some vacation days, I’d start losing them. Plus, I really needed the break. Anyway, when I woke up this a.m. and thought that I was returning to work the following day, I was a little down. Then when I realized that it was actually Saturday and I had another whole day before returning to work, the day ahead seemed much brighter. I mix up my days from time to time, and usually think that it is later in the week than it actually is, so this was nothing new for me. Except, usually, when I mix up my days, its during the middle of the week and I think that Tuesday or Wednesday is Thurdsay or Friday and that is depressing when the truth hits. Don’t get me wrong, I do like my job, but it is never a good thing when you think you have only a day or two left until the weekend only to discover that you were wrong and there is more work to be done before the weekend arrives.

Buoyed by the fact that I had both Saturday and Sunday in which to still work on my editing, I opened up my manuscript and started working. Also, I had a conversation with my friend Gail the night before (Oprah is not the only person in the world who has a Gail), and she had finished reading the raw, unedited version of Nowhere Feels Like Home, or as I like to call it, the monstrosity, and she had some good feedback for me. Notice that I said good feeback and not positive. While overall, she liked the manuscript, she gave me constructive feedback as well, which is what I was looking for.

By the time Saturday has wound to its conclusion, I feel quite accomplished with my progress. I wrote a 650 word article for the Lulu Book Review to go live in April, re-read the review of Along Came a Demon by Linda Welch which will be going live on April 1st to make sure that the review reflected what I wanted it to, edited 24 pages of Nowhere Feels Like Home, and wrote a pesky flashback that I had been avoiding like the plague, but had to be written, which added 2,500 words to the total word count. Oh, and I did some re-chaptering to break down some of the overly large chapters into more bite size chunks.

Now that’s what I call a good day – if only I could wake up tomorrow morning and find that it’s Saturday again. . .

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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
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To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

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