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Showing posts with the label family relationships

Answers to All Life's Questions

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  Just kidding, but here are the answers to the newsletter quiz from last week.  __7__What holiday song says to “put on your yarmulke”? __1__Which song describes water “like a stone”? _10___Which song do we associate with Charlie Brown? _5___Song to avoid to play Whamageddon. _8___In which song will we get pumpkin pie later? _2___Which song mentions rosy cheeks? _9___Song that mentions the hautbois (oboe) _4___Christmas wishes on steroids. _3___It should be tragic, but we laugh anyway. _6___Most popular Christmas carol in the U.S.   1.   “In the Bleak Midwinter” 2.   “Sleigh Ride” 3.   “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” 4.   “Santa Baby” 5.   “Last Christmas” 6.   “Silent Night” 7.   “The Hannukah Song” 8.   “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” 9.   “Il est né, le divin Enfant” 10. “Christmas Time Is Here”   Aunt Marge is getting good reviews from the pre-sales set, which makes my Christmas season a little brighter. One of my beta readers told

It's Getting Close!

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  You might think "Christmas!" when you read that headline, but for me it's the release of SISTER SAINT, SISTER SINNER on December 15th. The launch of a new book is both exciting and nerve-wracking. I dread some mistake that I and the many editors and beta readers missed. I drive myself crazy trying to come up with exactly the right categories and keywords to make Amazon and all the other search engines offer up my book when people go looking for something new to read. I'm excited to see what readers think. I'm afraid of what readers might think. It's complicated. "So what is this book?" you might ask (Oh, please ask.) It's not a mystery per se , though it has a murder that eventually is solved. It's more a family drama that spills onto the larger, national scene. But it's not one of those "Aren't these women sweet?" books. These women take matters into their own hands. For better or for worse, they're proactive. And if

At the Point Where I Can Tell You

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 I sent my next book to the copy editor a few days ago, which for me is a major turning point. It's a commitment of sorts; the book that for a looooonnnnngggg time has been only mine is close to being offered to others. I've certainly talked about it at length to friends and family, but no one has read it except my first-draft beta reader, my content editor, and me (many, many times). And yes, I do pay three different people to critique a manuscript before I inflict it on the public. Sending a book to the copy editor indicates that it's in its final narrative form, so now it's her job to find the silly stuff that would take away from readers' enjoyment: spelling errors, extra commas, etc. Once that's done, it will be formatted and prepared for print, e-book, and audio offerings. In other words, I'm saying I don't intend to make substantial changes anymore, and that's really hard for me. Any time I look at past work I think, "I could have done t