Chatting with Readers is Refreshing!

Today I had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face with a group of readers who belong to a book club at the local library. It was so much fun! I needed this. I needed to connect with real people, people who enjoy books, but aren't authors.
I've met some wonderful authors in the past year, as I've joined the publishing industry. But so many of them have been in cyberspace only. And often I've felt that I was caught in an endless loop of authors promoting to authors.

It was good to meet people who enjoy reading and were willing to spend a few minutes listening to me talk about my books. They happily took bookmarks and asked question. They thumbed through the books and declared them to be interesting and well-written!! YAY! This is a big deal, because, I'm sorry to say,  several of them mentioned having seen self-published books that were embarrassing in their lack of professionalism. That, I'm afraid is an uphill battle.

The other big battle for a self-published author is getting in front of readers, finding an audience. So, I'm very grateful to the library for inviting me, and to the lovely ladies for indulging me. I think I've got a second wind now! Maybe this would be a good time to tackle that next chapter! :-)

Teen Readers Rock!

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with three groups of high school teens, mostly young women, during their book club discussion. To my delight, they read my novel Unexpected Legacy for their group read in October. It’s mainstream fiction with romantic elements that crosses over to young adult.
It was wonderful to hear that they liked my book, and thought it was engaging and realistic, with characters they could relate to. It was a nice little ego boost.

But what really struck me in the two hours I spent at the school, was how many of the students are reading and writing for pleasure, are interested in the writing and publishing process, and are active on Goodreads. A few of them were even planning to participate in NaNoWriMo. One young woman said she would stay up until midnight on Halloween night so that she could begin writing!

During our discussion, we talked about self-publishing and writing habits. They wanted to know about scene selection, and where ideas come from. They asked great questions about character development and dialog that showed they’d really put some thought into reading and analyzing the book.

I’m thrilled that my kids’ high school librarian is sponsoring a book club. And making it cool. She wrote a proposal, and was granted funds from the school's education foundation to purchase Nooks for the book club and a budget for purchasing ebooks. The students simply check out the Nooks for book club. It’s a great way to foster a love of reading, and to bring together young readers in a support/discussion group.

I know the young adult genre has exploded in the last several years thanks to series such as Harry Potter and Twilight. Still, this is the age of too many activities to choose from, iPhones, and downloadable everything. So I’m really happy to see the kids choosing reading and writing as a pastime. And especially happy to be a part of promoting a love for reading!