Books published in 2014

I normally do these blog posts on the last day of the year. However, we have too much going on right now and some things planned for NYE, so I want to get a jump on this annual post while I still can. I am not currently able to use Word or Notepad to help me with the text, as this new computer does not yet have those things on it, but I'll try typing everything into the blog itself and just hope the power doesn't go out, or anything.

This has been a good year for me as far as books are concerned. At the start of the year, my plan was to get a nice mix of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children's stories out there. Fortunately, I was able to make that happen. I like to offer a little variety with my books every year -- not the same genre or same subject year after year -- and looking back, I must say I accomplished as much.

I am grateful to everyone I had the pleasure of working with this year in my attempts to get books published. Thank you to my co-writer, editors, beta readers, cover designers and illustrator. I am so fortunate to work with you all! Thank you for helping me to put out some awesome books. I look forward to working with all of you again next year!

As to the books, here are the ones I was able to get published this year:

The Warrior Way

Blurb:

"The warrior way is a philosophy, a standard of principles and ethics one can adopt without struggle.  It represents the divine warrior spirit within all of us, the enduring strength of the fighter prepared to stand up for what is most important: The Self.  For in recognizing the Self and honoring the Self, the warrior learns to adapt to the rigors of society and the difficulties faced along the journey through this lifetime."-- from the Introduction

Through a process of meditation and inner reflection, author Dawn Colclasure was inspired to write about 32 messages that came to be defined as "the warrior way."

Buy link

 

Parenting Pauses: Life as a Deaf Parent

Blurb:

Being a deaf parent isn’t just about not being able to hear anything—it’s more. From limited access to information in the medical establishments to daily challenges in dealing with discrimination and communication hurdles, the world of deaf parenting is one fraught with trials, fears and tribulations that no other parenting experience will offer. But at the same time, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Deaf parents CAN conquer those trials, they CAN overcome those fears and they CAN work around those tribulations in order to make deaf parenting work.

Parenting Pauses will give readers, both deaf and hearing, an inside look into the world of one deaf parent, along with some tips and techniques learned along the way.

Buy link

Read the story behind this book here

April Showers

Blurb: 

To many, the month of April is known as National Poetry Month. But April also brings Earth Day, National DNA Day and the ever-dreaded Tax Day! April Showers was written during National Poetry Month of 2013, in which one poet wrote at least one poem a day that captured everything she read, saw and experienced in verse, as well as celebrating April's special days.

Buy link

Read the story behind this book here

The GHOST Group, Book Two: The Ghosts of The Irish Setter and The Missing Hiker 

Blurb:

There’s something different about Sarah Town. It’s brimming with ghosts – and some of those ghosts need help! That’s where the GHOST Group comes in – the Ghost Helpers of Sarah Town. The GHOST Group is made up of five 11-year-old team members: Jesse, Jenny, Ryan, Trent, and Cassie.

The Ghost of the Irish Setter is a “ghost dog” story where team member Jesse must come to terms with losing his dog, Lolly, after she ran away. A ghost dog that is an Irish setter seeks Jesse’s help, but when the rest of the GHOST Group join the case, it becomes a matter of life or death after Cassie and Trent are kidnapped! Can the GHOST Group help the ghost dog? And can Jesse find out what really happened to Lolly?

In The Ghost of the Missing Hiker, a day of April Fool’s hijinks turns into another mystery for the GHOST Group. Meanwhile, the group's helper ghost, Adam, has some bad news for the team, and Jenny realizes she must accept her special gift and learn how to use it so she can help other ghosts in Sarah Town.

Buy link

Read the story behind this book here

Remember the Soldier

Blurb:
They have fought in wars and they have fought on the frontlines. They are the soldiers who stepped up and risked it all to fight for our country. Remember the Soldier is a collection of poems honoring the men and women in uniform who have left behind their homes and families to bravely defend our country, as well as the veterans who served.

Buy link

Read the story behind this book here

Wolf Whispers

Blurb:
After her mother dies, 9-year-old Anya must travel to the woods to live with her father. But Anya is very sad and misses her mother. Then one evening, she receives a very special gift from a wolf. Can Anya learn to listen to the whispers of her heart and heal from her grief?

Buy link

Read the story behind this book here

A Ghost on Every Corner

Blurb:

There’s a ghost town then there’s a "ghost" town! A Ghost on Every Corner is a collection of stories from paranormal investigators who have done investigations in some of America’s most haunted cities. Read about the ghost haunting a restaurant in Galena, Illinois, or about a Gettysburg Battlefield ghost who follows an investigator home! There’s also Marilyn Monroe’s ghost haunting the famous Roosevelt Hotel, a ghost violently attacking an investigator at the Sallie House and the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe’s adoptive father angrily pushing an investigator down the stairs! You’ll also get to read historical (as well as ghostly!) information about places such as The Alamo, Myrtles Plantation and the famous BirdCage Theatre. Walk with investigators located across the country as they gather evidence about ghosts and go where no other would dare to tread! 

Buy link

Read the story behind this book here

 
Also this year: Two books that were only available as ebooks last year were released as a print this year.

The first 4 GHOST Group stories were put into a Book One print book. You can check it out here

Also, the book I co-wrote with Martha Jette and Usko Ahonen, TERROR IN THE NIGHT: Alien Abduction Exposed, is now in print. Check it out here


It's been a great year for me, as far as writing books and getting some of them published this year is concerned. I have finished writing/revising other books this year and look forward to seeing them published next year, along with a couple of others already submitted to publishers.

Here's to another round of great writing fun in 2015! 

 

My essay collection on deaf parenting, Parenting Pauses: Life as a Deaf Parent, has been published!

This month, something happened that I had been waiting for and hoping would happen for years: My deaf parenting book, Parenting Pauses: Life as a Deaf Parent, was finally published! At long last, the book I spent years working on and more years trying to get published has NOW been published! Sometimes I can only look at the cover and think, Wow, it’s really a book!

It’s definitely been a long journey with this one. I tend to say that with so many of my books. Some took years to perfect and some took years to find a home. But I hung in there and it finally happened.

I started writing this book while still a writer for the newspaper SIGNews. This book actually started off as a blog on my web site and I got some emails from readers who enjoyed reading my posts. The feedback made me think that I could take those blog posts to the next level and transform them into a book. At this time, I’d already had essays on being a deaf parent published elsewhere – in Mothering Magazine, in the DPPi Journal and even in an issue of SIGNews. But I really didn’t have a steady stream of essays on deaf parenting going out. I was focused on freelance writing and SIGNews at the time. So I decided to do a book of essays on deaf parenting. After all, I am a deaf parent! That pretty much made it easier for me to write about it.

I often say “I have so many stories to tell.” This is true of my experiences as a deaf parent. You’ll get to read them in this book.

There are two reasons why this book took so long to get published. As an author, I must admit I am a perfectionist when it comes to the books I write. The book HAS to be perfect. I’ll rewrite chapters or even a whole book several times before I think it’s ready to go. I get feedback through several readers, revise more where needed, and try to get even MORE feedback. A manuscript can go through several drafts, several readers and several rounds of edits before it can be ready to submit. And even then, it goes through more edits and revisions after acceptance.
 
Another thing that delayed publication was finding a home for this book. That was not easy. A lot of publishers, even those specializing in deaf products, only wanted books by famous people – even when it came to a book on deaf parenting. I’m not Marlee Matlin or Dr. I. King Jordan, so that made it a little difficult for me to get this book to certain publishers who wanted any and all books on a deaf topic. With no luck there, I considered self-publishing the book. My friend in London suggested I send it to her publisher, but they were closed to submissions. I kept them in mind, but months passed and nothing happened. Then I “met” John Lee Clark through HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and I interviewed him for one of my WIPs. Just so happened to turn out that John was deaf, too (well, deaf and blind), and he told me about this company he was reading manuscripts for called Clerc Scar. I sent him my book and he liked it and I was told they wanted to publish it. Several months later, I got an email saying Clerc Scar was shutting down, so it was back to finding a publisher again.

At this point, I’d had books published by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. This independent publisher has been AMAZING to work with and I get along real well with Denise Bartlett and Charlotte Holley. They’re great!  (Denise also edits the poetry books that I self-publish and Charlotte designs the covers.) I have been very happy with GSP so, when this book was once again up for grabs, I asked Denise if she wanted to see it. She said yes and, shortly after I sent it to her, GSP offered me a contract for the book. I was overjoyed!

And now this book is at long last published. It is REALLY published! I am just so thrilled. And I am grateful to everyone who has helped make this happen, especially to Denise and Charlotte for taking this book and working with me to make it an essay collection I can be proud of.

Of course, my experiences as a deaf parent don’t end there. As it happens, I originally planned to only write about my experiences with one child, and even then up until she was 5 years old. Then I had a second child and there were more stories to tell. (And some things have changed, too. For example, in the book, I talk about how hard it was to get my son Jesse to use sign language. Most of the time, we had to lipread him. These days, however, he fingerspells practically everything he says to his deaf parents.) In the event I have more stories to tell, they’ll go up on my Palms to Pines blog. For now, there is this book, and I am so grateful I have these memories to share with my children from their younger years for a very long time. Here’s to many more!

You can purchase an electronic copy of Parenting Pauses: Life as a Deaf Parent through online retailers as well as from Gypsy Shadow Publishing here and you can get the print here.

Shifting gears with an article idea

When it comes to getting an assignment from the EIC at SIGNews, she usually tosses them my way. On very rare occasions, I may mention something to her that could be written up as an article for the paper, and she’ll tell me to go for it. For my September assignment, however, she opened the door for article suggestions.

I had not one but two article ideas. And she said that I could write both of them. Yay! (A third one will be for the November issue.)

So I got to work on my articles. One particular article idea came as a result of something I observed with my 3 ½-year-old son, Jesse. With Jesse being a CODA, I was aware of something POSSIBLY amiss as far as him using sign language in a school setting was concerned. After some secret investigating, however, I found nothing wrong. But I had to wonder, was this kind of thing actually happening with another Child of Deaf Adult out there? I had to find out, and therein was my assignment.

After I checked around – through Facebook, HARO and a network of deaf parents I am a part of – I found that the opposite was true. No, this was not happening. (Thank goodness!) And, actually, ASL was welcome in mainstream schools, instead of being discouraged.

But instead of considering my idea a failure, I got the message. Sign language is ACCEPTED in schools? Really? Hearing kids are allowed to use ASL?

That could work as an article, too!

And the bonus is, it’s still CODA-related. The whole point behind this article idea getting the green light was that it was related to CODAs. So it would still work!

I pitched this new angle to my editor and she gave me her blessing to proceed. I wrote up the article, got photos and turned everything in.

Thank you to you CODAs and deaf parents who took the time to respond to my inquiry about this. I am still so psyched that my own CODA will be included in this article.

I am also glad I was able to take what seemed like a “failed” idea and turn it into a successful one that sold. As writers, we do need to keep our eyes peeled for a story. But we also need to keep an eye out for how to reslant a piece if our original idea doesn't work out.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is step away

This week, I have been working on trying to fix up an essay in my deaf parenting book. This particular essay received harsh criticism from a beta reader (well, "harsh" as in "she never sent back any feedback on it after I sent an essay that had the same mistakes she'd complained about in another essay"). Even though I don't dispute what the essay says, I do see how it is saying what I want it to say in the wrong way. One thing I have learned during this lovely torture of revising the essays is that some of them are just "preachy." I might as well be standing on a soapbox spouting all of this stuff!

No, that's not the kind of book I want it to be. I don't want it to be some "manifesto" or "mission statement for deaf parents." It's an essay collection. I wanted it to tell stories, in the form of essays, which will convey the messages and insights which I am trying to get across to readers. If it's preachy, they won't read it. But if it's entertaining, and kind of like a story, then that might attract more attention.

Of course, it's not easy trying to write about experiences that took place 6-7 years ago with complete accuracy. I have been literally racking my brain trying to remember things, just so I could relate what I learned during the early years of being a deaf parent in a way that is more true-to-life. I have to keep asking myself, what exactly happened at that point in time that made me reach this conclusion in the essay? What was I trying to say? What was I doing? What was I thinking?

Fortunately, I used to be a heavy journal writer, so looking back on old journals has helped. Still, a lot of my journals were destroyed after I moved out of California (thank you, neighbors who refused to allow us access to our personal belongings in the garage!), but some things are still fresh in my mind. Also, old e-mails help, and I was able to review all of these things to help me revise the essays. (Yes, I do save old e-mails! LOL I even have old chats saved, too, but don't really read them.)

But ONE ESSAY was giving me big trouble. I tried and tried to revise it, but to no avail. I just didn't get it "right."

Even with one revision I did this morning, I hated it. I hated what I was writing. I just KNEW it was not how the essay should be. I kept writing it, anyway, because I knew I had to get this "junk" out of my head first. Before I could do anything else with this essay.

But halfway through the essay, I had to stop working on it. After all, nothing will get accomplished if I ended up starving to death!

So I got up from the desk and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. I'd only had coffee, which usually helps me to get through writing something decent in the mornings. But this time, coffee failed me. Maybe actual food would help. I grabbed a box of cereal, got a bowl out of the cabinet, watched as the cereal poured into the bowl...then it struck me. It literally came to me like a bolt of lightning. I knew EXACTLY how the essay should be! I knew EXACTLY how I should write it. Eureka! I've got it!

I hurriedly went through my meal, opened a new document on the computer, and my fingers started flying over the keys as the words came pouring out. I didn't care for typos. I didn't care about "that darn Shift key" sticking again. I just typed. And typed and typed.

Gee, this is getting long, I thought, noting I was now on page 3. But I couldn't stop now. There were more words to type! More things to say!

When I finished typing what I HOPED would be the final revision of that essay, a wave of satisfaction went through me. THIS is how the essay should be, I thought. It was perfect, similar to the way I wrote the others. (Like creative nonfiction. Emphasis on..."creative.") I didn't care if I did not get the exact words I said correct; how the heck could I remember exactly what I said 7 years ago?? It wasn't possible. Still, I did use quotes that got across what I was asking about. I give myself permission to misquote myself. (Ha!) The quotes were still good and the essay got across everything I wanted it to say, which is what the original version tried to say. Of course, it needs editing and probably some tightening. But at least the foundation was in place. I got it right this time, on my fourth try.

And all it took to survive that week-long revision nightmare was just stopping the writing and stepping away from it for a while.

Eureka! I've got it! (Almost)

In my last blog post, I talked about how I had a writing gig but no idea how to put it to use. Since I have to come up with my own topics to write about, including one I said I wanted to write about when I applied, I tried to think of article ideas for that particular topic. Yesterday, that happened.

I kept going through my day thinking, I wish I had an idea for something to write for this topic! Sure, I have some articles for this topic collecting dust on my hard drive, but they're just not "right" yet. I wanted something else. Then something happened that made the light bulb go off over my head. I had my article idea! All in the same day! (I love it when that happens. Ask and ye shall write!)

Then it hit me: This would be a great way to build up an audience for my deaf parenting book. This particular book has not been published yet; it's been stuck in editing limbo ever since I had the manuscript professionally edited. (Thanks, Emily!) I've been dabbling with the edits on that manuscript here and there, all the while focused on trying to finish the books I have DUE. And getting ready for the ones scheduled for publication next year.

I am not planning to go whole hog with revising and editing that draft of the book until January. By then, I'll be able to fit that into my schedule, since I'll have a couple of other books off my shoulders.

But until then, I need to build my platform. One editor told me I DO already have a platform, since I am a deaf parent. But I wanted something stronger than this. Me being a deaf parent doesn't make this book more appealing to a publisher, but having a fan base or some kind of platform set up would look better.

Granted, I do have the SIGNews articles. But those are few and far between. I want something more consistent. Something that would REALLY touch on the theme of deaf parenting, so that my name would be better associated with it.

I also have the work going on with DPPi, but more as editing and feedback than writing about deaf parenting. (I have debated asking Shanta Everington if I could run a regular column on deaf parenting in there, but haven't gotten around to asking her just yet.)

So I thought, why not use this gig to do that? Of course, I could probably do that with Associated Content. But I think this other site would work better.

It's something to think about, at least. I do understand the importance of having a platform, because it helps book sales. With that in place, a publisher is more likely to publish a book. And I'd really like for my deaf parenting book to have that kind of appeal, so that a publisher is more likely to say "yes" to publishing it.

This particular book is something I want to put more focus on building up when 2010 gets here.

Right now, I'm wrapping up projects for this year. But next year, I'm hoping that not only will I figure out how to get that stronger platform in place for the deaf parenting book, but, hopefully, God willing, I'll find a publisher for it, too.

And as a side note, I want to add that I'm sort of glad this book has not been published yet. I've come up with new material for it, which should make the book all the more useful to other deaf parents out there.

Stay tuned.