EVIDENCE OF (Celebration) LIFE

EVIDENCE OF LIFE: in a bottle!

Today, I brought home the wine, a lovely pinot gris, that my critique partner and generous friend, Joni Rodgers and her husband, Gary, made to commemorate the momentous occasion of the debut on March 26th of EVIDENCE OF LIFE. The bottles are small and labeled with the book cover artwork. Gary made the wine. Joni designed the gorgeous label, (She also sampled the wine as it was being bottled. Somebody has to!) and Jerusha, their daughter, helped to sterilize and put in the corks. It was a true family effort, and I can’t say how much it means to me to be given such a wonderful gift in honor of my book and its publication.

Winemakers: Gary & Jerusha

When Joni first proposed the idea of bottling a wine, I was intrigued and thrilled by the idea, but actually seeing the end result is something else! The bottles are so artistic and stylish, such an elegant tribute to the novel. Unique, like Joni, Jerusha and Gary, themselves. Joni says that doing this for me, to honor EVIDENCE OF LIFE, is her and her family’s way to share in the joy. I think joy was poured into each bottle, and I treasure each one and the lovely thought that went into them, along with Joni, Gary and Jerusha too. Thanks so much, you guys!! I’ve been so lucky to have the benefit of so much encouragement, enthusiasm and support from so many people who have helped to bring this dream into being. I’ll be keeping a handful of these little bottles to remember this occasion and to remind me of just how much good is in the world, and how, sometimes, when your dream comes true, it can exceed your wildest expectations. It can knock you right out of your socks. Yep, I’ll be treasuring this and finding a new pair of socks!

Beautiful: EVIDENCE OF LIFE

Went for eggs & sugar, came back with foxgloves!

Antique Rose: Duchesse De Brabant 1857

Down here in Texas, we had scarcely any winter, and now, the week of Valentines Day, we are having spring, which is absolutely my favorite time of year until summer, when the night settles late and the oncoming darkness is laced with the song of crickets and tree frogs. When I had a pond, I also had a bullfrog. I loved him for the bass notes. Then I love fall when the light goes more quickly from the day and somehow the earth seems quieter, more contemplative. And I’m glad for the very short days of winter that keep me inside, tucked up reading and dreaming of something new I want to write.

Kramer's Supreme Camellia Standard

But now I’m in love with spring. All winter, what little there was, I’ve been immersed in a project that is entering its final stages, but every day for the last week or two, spring called; the song renews every year, and every year I respond as if I never heard anything so lovely before, or as if I’m still the person who was raised in more northern climes, standing awestruck at the sight of my mother’s daffodils blooming through the snow. Spring gets into the very air. It’s like a half forgotten melody. The feeling of it bubbles from a center that is both known and unknown, everywhere, and nowhere that’s fixed. It meets every sense with its irresistible invitation that whispers, Come outside. Come and play. Hey, I’m growing out here. Don’t you want to see? Come and smell this rose, that sweet olive. Look at this fat Magnolia bud that I have brought about just for you, or at least it seems that way. And that fat bud is as soft as cotton. The unfolding petals will be like satin and its scent will be something between sugar and lemon. Looking at it, my mouth waters and I am beauty-drunk, saturated with joy. I have an urge to skip.   

So, out I went one day this week and found that all this life was beginning, renewing itself without me, in spite of inattention. The photographs show the proof. Evidence of life abounds in my garden. And very soon, it will abound in bookstores, too! I wonder, when spring is oncoming, what is your first awareness? What is the very first inkling you have? The one that makes you pause and say to yourself: I have to go outside. I'd love for you to leave your answer in a comment....

Loved this novel: Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield

How far would you go as a mother to keep your child safe from harm? What could you be driven to do, if like Miyako Takeda in Sophie Littlefield’s beautifully rendered and touching novel, Garden of Stones, you knew that, ultimately, you could not be there to protect your young daughter from the horrible assault you know lies in wait for her? The answers to these questions would be difficult enough under ordinary circumstances, during peace time. But for Miyako and her daughter, Lucy, who are imprisoned and subjected to the inhuman treatment those of Japanese descent endured while they were kept in the U.S. interment camps during World War II, the times are anything but ordinary. When the story opens, it is some thirty years later, and a man, an American, who was associated with the camp, is found murdered. It’s a mystery and a source of terrible concern to Patty, Lucy’s daughter, when her mother is implicated. Unaware of much of her mother’s and her grandmother’s painful history, Patty assumes her investigation into the matter will prove her mother’s innocence. But what Patty learns, through a series of shattering revelations, will alter forever her ideas about herself and her courageous and lovely mother and grandmother. In this poignant narrative, a tragic history is recounted, and the true bravery of women and mothers is explored; there is the murder of a man, too. The ending contains unexpected twists, and a haunting question: Who is really responsible? Who committed the more heinous crime?

Inaugural Signing

On Tuesday, I signed my first book for Lillian Reitz, Community Relations Manager for Barnes & Noble's Champion's Village location in Houston. Joni Rodgers, a friend and critique partner, and a fabulous NYT bestselling author (and an "auntie" to this venture, for which I thank heaven!) took time from her busy schedule to drive down with me to see Lillian and talk to her about the possibility of doing a book launch event for EVIDENCE OF LIFE there. Champions Village is in a busy shopping center, on a busy north Houston street, and yet when you walk inside, you are instantly impressed with a sense of coziness, of welcome. Of course, there's the wonderful smell of books in the air, dozens and hundreds of books. And coffee. All kinds of coffee and assorted treats. But the best, or one of the best, parts of the store, and one of the reasons why it retains such a cozy, neighborhood feel, is Lillian herself.

Me signing a copy of Evidence of Life for Lillian - so fun!

Remember those little bookstores, the ones in the neighborhood where you could walk in and while away an hour or two or more, browsing and reading and talking books with the owner? Remember that lovely experience? That's what meeting with Lillian was like. I am more pleased than she can know that she agreed to having a book launch event there. It will be in April, and as soon as I have a firm date, I'll post it here on my website, but if you live anywhere near the Barnes and Noble in Champions Village, I highly recommend you stop in there before April.

It proves that even a big chain store can retain an element of something smaller and more intimate, something more personal and warm ... a bit of what used to be the charm of the Mom & Pop book store you loved going into not so long ago.

Announcing a Goodreads Giveaway!!

There are so few weeks left now until the launch of my novel, EVIDENCE OF LIFE, and I'm excited to post about a chance to win a free copy. Goodreads, a wonderful site for readers and authors, for book lovers of every persuasion and stripe, has 5 free copies to give away to 5 lucky winners/readers! I hope you'll click the link and hop on over to enter the contest for your free chance to win! If you're a book lover, but you aren't a Goodreads member, it's worth looking around the site at what's available there, everything from book discussions to book promotion. It's a great place to meet readers and authors and to discover new, fabulous books to read!

Click this link and enter for your chance to WIN a copy of EVIDENCE OF LIFE!!! Good luck and thank you to everyone for the boatloads of support! Please Tweet and Share as much as you like. The more the merrier!

Sharing the joy....

Hello 2013! Guess what? You aren’t in Kansas anymore….

From my collection - loved these growing up!

I can’t think of a better way to start this new year than with gratitude for the last one. 2012 was amazing for me. Doors opened that I had thought were closed. Gifts of people, resources and opportunities fell into my hands. I have stood in moments of awed wonder. Who is the benefactor of so much largess? 

A few years ago, when the course and landscape of my life was suddenly and radically altered, I made a choice. I don’t think I was aware at the time of my determination, that it was bone deep, soul deep. Maybe I had even made the choice long before and the events that altered my course were a test to see how devoted I was to walking my talk, to being true to myself. In retrospect, the choice seems almost “other” in the sense that it was something I was aware of, but almost as if it were another self or life than mine. I didn’t picture the end, my destination, too clearly. The gist of my intention was to keep writing. There was no money in it, no security, no medical or retirement benefits were attached. I was essentially flying by the seat of my britches. I laughed maniacally at times. I cried: What was I doing? Why was I so stubborn? Couldn’t I see my future if I persisted in going down this path, a self-indulgent pursuit of nothing to nowhere. Who cared a fig what I wrote?  But nothing I said to myself mattered. Whatever was driving the whole venture had its own idea about where it was going. In the immortal words of John Candy in the movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, I was “a twig in the shoulders of a mighty stream.” That’s just how it felt and I would have enjoyed the ride a lot more if I could have loosened up, but I’m afraid I didn’t. I was apprehensive the entire way.

I mean most people, sensible people in my circumstances, would do the conventional thing and get a regular job. They’d sock away for their retirement. They’d have weekends off and paid vacations, get a new car every two or five years. Not me. I kept writing, submitting, collecting rejections, day-after-day, weekends and holidays, stubbornly, persistently, hardheadedly, doggedly pursuing this nebulous, at times I could not have said what it was, goal—for lack of a better word.

And finally, last year in the very early spring, a door magically opened, first one and then another, and almost before I could even register what was happening, I was boosted up onto a path I had only ever dreamed of. I will never be able to put into words the effect this has had on me. It is like the headiest cocktail, an effervescent mix of emotions running a gamut between absolute elation and delight and total apprehension and panic. I am still in awe and so grateful to so many people, who believed in me, who encouraged me, who caught me up and steadied me when the path was dark and scary. I am thrilled and grateful for those who opened the doors to me, for their belief and continuing enthusiasm.

But here’s the thing, the couple or so things that I think I learned … first when they say persistence pays off, it’s true. If you quit, you’ll never know. Doubt is fine, fear is fine. In fact, I think both are part of the territory if you are determined to pursue a vision. How could it be otherwise? A true vision is individual. There’s no handbook, no set of rules and it’s about as far away from convention as you can get. That’s scary. No way around it. The other thing may be the most critical piece of advice ever given to the world, and it’s been around for centuries, vintage Shakespeare: To thine own self be true. Goethe said it another way: As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. 

It is out of the swirling, fertile darkness that creation comes and you will never know that place if you always adhere to ritual, the expected, what is familiar and routine.

As Robert Frost said in these lovely lines from The Road Not Taken: 

Two roads diverged in a wood,

And I—

I took the one least traveled by,

And that has made all the difference

Life is vast and so beautiful and mysterious. And sometimes, when you jump off a cliff, you can fly.

I can only imagine the treasures that lie up this new year’s sleeve, but I think I’ll just go ahead and say thank you now. Happy 2013 everyone!

The news I've been dying to share. . . .

I have so much wonderful news to share today, I scarcely know where to start. First, since you are here, you see I have a gorgeous new website, but before I talk about that, my book cover for EVIDENCE OF LIFE is out!!! And I’m dying for you to see it! Feast your eyes! I think it’s stunning, one of the most compelling book covers in the entire world of books. Okay, so maybe I’m a bit prejudiced, but, truly, if you saw these eyes peering at you on-line or, better yet, if you saw them peering at you from a shelf in a bookstore, could you walk on by? Wouldn’t you just have to pick this book up? I don’t know how I got so lucky, but this cover captures the story that is EVIDENCE OF LIFE to a tee. Eerie and intriguing, yet lovely. I love the story in this novel; I loved writing it, and I hope you will love reading it, too. Look for it in March of 2013 or pre-order it now at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

And I’m sorry to continue gushing, but none of this would be happening without the village filled with fantastic people that opened its doors to me and extended me their faith and support, among them my fabulous agent Barbara Poelle and my equally fabulous editor, Erika Imranyi, and the whole fantastic team at MIRA. First they made this novel’s debut possible, then they framed it in this stunning, cannot-leave-it-on-the-shelf way!! It’s hard to put into words how grateful I am to them and to readers everywhere for this opportunity to put my work into your hands. Special thanks, too, to NYT bestselling authors Sophie Littlefield and Joni Rodgers for reading EVIDENCE OF LIFE and then providing their lovely endorsements. 

Now for the website. Isn’t it beautiful? To me this is one of the very best things about doing virtual business, the fact that you can build and design a virtual storefront with relative ease when compared to real world building and designing. This is noteworthy, I think, because the one thing that has been constant since I published by first indie book in August, 2010, is change. When I entered the world of virtual publishing then, my view was very different than it is now. A little over two years later, the landscape of my goals has widened considerably. Since then my opportunities have become as endless and deep as the sky. Looking back, I see that in opening that door, in allowing myself to take that leap, things, people, the right circumstances, all came together to achieve something much greater than what I originally conceived.

Imagine that the very thing you wanted to achieve is a beautiful jewel. It’s like that for me, and of course, a beautiful jewel needs an equally beautiful setting. Not one that would overwhelm the message, but one that visually, and in this case, virtually, enhances it. My website is a visual synthesis of the premise that launches each novel I’ve written and the others that are living now within the walls of my brain: At the heart of every crime, there’s a family, someone you love…  Whether it is a legally criminal act or more a breach of morality, there is collateral damage. Other people are affected, other lives devastated. The words, sentences, paragraphs in a novel spin out through the pages to unfold the story, but an image can capture a story in an instant. It can pull you through its doors in a heartbeat, or in this case, its virtual cover. Browsing websites and book covers is similar to walking along a row of shops. Why do you choose to go inside one and not another, if not for the window display, the setting for the jewel?

This particular setting, which so perfectly depicts the mood and ambience of the novels I write, was designed by Maddee James of www.xuni.com. She is a true artist with a fantastic and intuitive gift for finding out your vision for your virtual storefront and then translating it into images that capture the very essence of your idea. I loved and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of collaborating with her. She not only designed the site, she also redesigned the covers for my three indie novels.

I didn’t really intend to change those covers, but in what seems an almost universal experience in design, once one thing is done, it’s nearly impossible to stop there. While I love the old covers, I also wanted to create a cohesive look among them that would reflect the site and the nature of what I write, my brand, in other words. The gorgeous covers Maddee has designed, I think, perfectly reflect the idea of normalcy, of ordinary life … except things are a bit skewed, a bit off kilter. There’s the suggestion of impending calamity.

I am so fortunate to have found Maddee and www.xuni.com and I can’t thank her enough. Her artistry with my site and with the covers just has exceeded my every expectation. Thank you, Maddee!