more Magical news about coverage in advertising

I am happy to report that I was able to take advantage of the April,  National Poetry month discount on ad space offered by Poets & Writers magazine. Their July 2013 issue will feature a color cover of the book and ad for TCTEW. May 22, 2013, my essay taken from this blog, “That First Omelette”  which was a non fiction finalist in their multi genre contest, will be published in thewriteplaceatthewritetime.org. They, too, will advertise TCTEW. You can also find info on purchase at the website of Finishingline Press on their FaceBook fan page. I may not have mentioned it before, but for those who enjoy my artwork and are poets and writers but not visual artists, I am an artist for cover work for FinishingLine Press. Check it out. I can custom design a cover to your specs. This weekend we start the filming of TCTEW the reading/trailer. Be on the look out for it on youtube and other places.

I am also donating prize packages to the 16th Annual Poetry SuperHighway Poetry contest. For the duration fo the contest, Rick Lupert, the host of Poetry Superhighway will also advertise TCTEW as well as my chapbooks that are available.

Time to shake out the purple story telling cape again…see you in the forest…

Reviews of The Complete Tales from the Edge of the Woods

I am happy to report reviews are beginning to come in on my YA fantasy (really for all ages) on Amazon.com on the book’s page and on Goodreads. Feedback is so far five stars. TCTEW is going on the road, on tour now, too. I’ve asked  messenger dragon, Gabrielle, to swing by to pick me up and then we head for Clifton Park and Eastline Books www.eastline.books.com. Saturday June 8 at 1:00 p.m. I will be there. Icarus Aloft’s head publisher, Vince Potenza will also be on hand. After the reading, there will be time for Q & A and books to be signed. Im hopeful that all the books Gabrielle stuffs into her messenger pouch will fly out of there into happy hands and hearts of new readers and  new wanderers of the magical woodland where Ambergris, the great ursine wizard watches over all who pass under the hemlocks’ skirts to dance a reel or two with the Power of the Great Mother. Writing from The Treehouse, the balcony of which is now a fabulous colorful garden mixture of vegetables, herbs, house plants in their summer togs, and annual blossoms; where spirit cats cheek themselves on windchimes and their music rings softly through the air,where at night glow-in-the-dark hummingbirds and , no doubt, faeries come out from their slumbers of warm rooms ‘neath cedar shacks to dance and change colors from deepest purple through to bright green to hot pink and rich reds, I remain Writer Raebeth.

Hope to see you somewhere magical on the roads or in the sky soon.

The Complete Tales from the Edge of the Woods, Icarus Aloft, Selkirk, NY 2013

Cover art and book by Rachael Z. Ikins
Available now! On Amazon , at readings, through http://www.rachaelikins.com

Never Stop Asking for a Story:my take on the promotional trail

Writing and or illustrating it is the fun part of making a book. Marketing it is less enchanting even if one is a fantasy author. There are no magical solutions to arriving in the top ten on the best seller list. Many excellent writers are never read. If a writer is using a small or indie press, the plus side of that is the author has much more back and forth dialogue and control of things such as artwork and design. On the other hand being picked up by an agent and then a big house appears to most folks as the true pinnacle of success.

QUoting YA fantasy author with Scholastic Diana Zimmerman author of “Kandide,”
ever year 300,000 good books fall by the wayside into obscurity due to lack of exposure.” On Amazon.com are 3, 000.000 books.How to stay visible becomes the ultimate question, long enough to reach a table at one of the big book fairs to then be noticed and picked up by a bigger house.

There are countless hours without pay that an author labors away on social networking, blogging, emailing groups, make short films to post on youtube, advertising, finding links to link with, networking with fellow writers and artists, and ever in search of more public reading opportunities to read from your works, sign books and greet fans.
If you ve ever gotten a bargain book, or gone into Barnes and Noble to the bargain tables, how quickly does a book fall from the best seller list to the obscurity of the bargain table. And let’s take Barnes and Noble as a whole separate topic. In order to have a reading or an art exhibit at a Barnes and Noble you must have a book on their shelves. They are very particular about which books they choose. Once on the bargain table, what size royalties do you imagine the author is receiving? Even James PAtterson has bargain table books. Why do you think authors like him or Dean Koontz are so prolific? Because you have to keep making new product, fresh product to stay current.
At this point I have to ask “Why then, would anyone want to become a writer?”
Why not cheat, as it were, in these days of massive self publishing of the vanity route that so dismayed John-Boy Walton back in the day? When I was in school writing my first poems, I was taught never to fall for a vanity publisher. MAkes perfect sense for an older person who wants to leave his memoirs to his family.
So it remains the formula of query letter, sample chapters sent to an agent of your genre and waiting. Lots of rejections.
I decided since my mother is frail and elderly and I wanted to go with a small publisher for Book 1 of my series of “The Complete Tales from the Edge of the Woods.” That way, was I lucky enough to find a small publisher who would pick my book up, she’ d be able to participate. It has only been a week or so since the book debuted, but I continually sell out of copies and more invitations for readings appear in my in-box and reviews post on Amazon.com. My mother is in a rehab facility due to a bad fall. Her copy lies constantly on her night stand. Any and everyone who has entered her room hears that her daughter wrote and published this book. I ve sold quite a few there.
One of my mottos or credos is to help other writers. Writers help each other. I am finding, like karma, when I do reach out to someone and it is successful for them, often it comes back to me successfully furthering my path as well.
It is fabulous to read to a standing room only crowd. It is marvelous to win prizes for excellence in writing. It is amazing to walk into someone’s house and see a copy of your book lying on their bed. It is wondrous when someone shyly asks you to sign the book to someone special and to say this or that.
We write because we can ‘t help it. I certainly can’t stop. Its what I do. It is a small percent magic and the vastly larger percent sweat, swearing, and determination. One of my poetry publishers, has a title of his own work “Never Stop Asking for Poems.”
I say never stop asking for someone to tell you a story.

vonnie Winslow Crist at a book signing

Guest Blogger Vonnie Winslow Crist on HItting the Promotion Trail

Hitting the Promotion Trail by Vonnie Winslow Crist

 

I love to imagine stories, then jot them down. I enjoy researching, revising, and polishing a story. I like sketching, then painting cover art. Quiet talks with other writers, readers, and fans about my fiction are fun. But I do NOT like to promote, even though I realize promotion is a necessary part of building a reader base and letting people know that a book is available.

 

I’ve thought a lot about why many writers and illustrators, me included, hate the promotion part of the book business. I’ve decided it’s because when we draw attention to our books, stories, or artwork, we feel like we’re bragging somehow. For me, it’s not about “look at what I’ve done,” so much as inviting readers to enter the fantastical worlds I’ve created. It’s about telling a story around a campfire and having people listen.

 

And so, with an eye to promotion, I invited you to visit a few guest blogs and interviews I’ve done recently:

 

Thanks to romance writer, Allison Merritt, for inviting me to guest post Speculative Romance: http://havenovelwilledit.blogspot.com/2013/03/guest-post-vonnie-winslow-crist.html

 

Thanks to fantasy author, Jennifer Allis Provost, for inviting me to guest post Where the Magic Begins: http://jenniferallisprovost.blogspot.com/2013/04/where-magic-begins-by-vonnie-winslow.html

 

Thanks to the wonderful author, Jaleta Clegg, for interviewing me on her blog: http://jaletaclegg.blogspot.com/2013/04/author-interview-vonnie-winslow-crist.html

 

Thanks to fantasy author, J. Michael Squatrito, Jr. for inviting me to guest post Location Matters in Fantasy: http://theoverlords.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-guest-post-with-vonnie-winslow-crist.html

 

And last, but certainly not least, thank you to Douglas R. Cobb for interviewing me for The New Yorker Times (and asking very specific questions about The Enchanted Skean): http://newyorkertimes.com/2013/05/vonnie-winslow-crist-interview/

 

I hope you’ll read and enjoy the interviews and guest posts, and I hope I get more comfortable doing book promotion!

 

Vonnie Winslow Crist is the author-illustrator of a YA fantasy novel, The Enchanted Skean, a collection of YA-friendly fantasy short stories, The Greener Forest, and other books. To find out more about her, visit her website: www.vonniewinslowcrist.com , blog: http://vonniewinslowcrist.wordpress.com or Facebook page: http://facebook.com/WriterVonnieWinslowCrist  Her books can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/Vonnie-Winslow-Crist-Amazon

photo to Collage, The Sparrow Story

it rode around in my Blackberry, then my laptop, and ultimately in my head for two years. I d seen the birds one February roosting on the cart handles as I drove into the parking lot. I thought what a great photo that would be. Then, of course, once I got out of the car, they lifted off. I forgot about them until we were checking out. I ran over to the window hoping against hope some would have landed again. They had. Just whipped the BB up and clicked it. Then for two years I pondered the composition. I did an acrylic abstract of them which has nothing to do with the photograph. Was disappointed… though everybody likes the abstract. Then I worked a stylized bird motif kind thing in my sketchbook, just filling the paper with the shapes of their bodies. I liked that but knew not what to do with it next. Maybe it should be a poem. No. Lots of time passed, many events, other artworks and writings left my fingers and every once in a great while, I’d pass the page in the old sketchbook with the stylized flock of birds drawn in flight. Sunday morning I got up at 9:30 like a normal weekendy person. Took the dog out, fed, dog, cat and fish while my coffee brewed. suspected nothing. Stirred in my creamer and sweetener. Was still back in my pjs feeling sort of uncomfortable. The next thing I know, in answer to Sallie Bailey’s inquiry as to how long did it stay neat, I was moving through the house like a dervish automaton. Dragging tissue paper out of a desk drawer, assembling ModPodge and rubber cement, a collection of scissors, leaving sagged open drawers & doors to root for the origami paper, a pencil without a broken lead and where was I going to set up the sketchbook to look at the drawing while I put this together? I guess it was 9:45 ish. I slathered and clipped, ripped, cut and tore. I also realized I had to draw on the back of the origami paper in mirror images. I forget why but I did not question it. By 1:30 or 2 in the afternoon, I sweated through my clothing. as I worked I could feel it roll down my spine. I listened to Adele’s 21, Ceelo Greene’s “Crazy”, Phil Phillips singing “Home”. Lady Gaga and the Bad Romance as the ModPodge coated my fingers. In a last ditch attempt at the carts, I grabbed tin foil from the drawer in the kitchen and cut a roundish fish shaped blob and glued it to the bottom of the collage. Instantly hated it. I was still uncomfortable thinking of failed love affairs, hurtful memories, and was I ridiculous to even bother with art.?I also felt like my 9 year old self at that storied art table of the pebbly surface pitted with old paint and glue. I was behaving just as that child had. Instead of wasting time on the self censor which I tried to over ride with the music and lyrics, I just stopped whatever else I’d been doing (eating breakfast) and let the moment of creative inspiration seize me. By 5 o’clock in the evening, I still hated the foil fish blob so I ripped some more paper and glued over it. during this whole process, the table disappeared under the load of tissue as did the couch, the easy chair nearby and half a dozen spaces in between. The dog and cat sensibly went under the bed. People find the composition “colorful.” I think I want to cut it up in portions because some of it I really like. As a whole, not so much. Was it worth the attempt? oh, yes. Nothing surprised me more than carrying a photo memory in my head for two years and then in a matter of hours, finishing an artistic rendering of it. If nothing else, I made room in my head by cleaning out that old image.

How the Sparrows Flew that Day at Kmart

the collage completed yesterday

original phone photo snapped inside the store

chinese pork, peppers and cashews