Website Wonder

I think my website designer, Pat, just might be more excited about my new website than I am! She jumped in and hasn't stopped firing ideas and plans and insight my way. Knowledgeable, creative, persistent, not afraid to say she doesn't know something but always eager to learn how to do it, fix it, make it function. I love her!

Here's a sample of her thought process from today's email: "If I can master what I have in mind, your site will be beyond awesome -- not only will it look great, it will have functionality for easy updating on all pages."

Check out Pat at www.sweetsolutions.biz. And in a few weeks, check out my website! I most definitely am excited about it.

New website in the making

I'm working now on a new website for my books. I'll publish the sequel to A Shocking & Unnatural Incident next year. It's called Wixumlee Is My Salvation and has Tess and Beany struggling to survive in Buffalo, New York at the end of the Erie Canal, after August's death on the towpath.

This new site will be colorful and have much more content than my current site (www.historicalfictionbook.net). I'll have character pages, character photos, an expanded author biography, news, reviews, and, of course, a Buy Now button ;).

My dear friend Pat Petro of Sweet Solutions is designing the site and she is full of ideas and expertise. I can't wait to see georgiamullen.com completed.

Changing Google Ads

I've successfully changed my Google Ads. Rewrote all four with "YA" in the title. I don't consider A Shocking & Unnatural Incident a YA novel, but I must do something to get more clicks. So far my search engine marketing has bombed.

Georgia

Progress with Promotion

If I only do one thing each day to promote my book, A Shocking & Unnatural Incident, I'll be doing well.

So far I'll be speaking in Seneca Falls, NY next March for Women's History Month. The Seneca Falls Historical Society will set it all up: speak at the school, Rotary, Senior Citizen event. I especially hope to visit an AP English or AP history class and discuss how modern young women's opportunities have improved over those of Tess, Beany and Lucy.

I'm also hoping to get in on a program for young girls at Pomegranate Books and participate in the Pearl Girls Academy program, both here in Wilmington. Pearl Girls learn how to deal with violence, friendships, self image. My character Tess would be an enlightening model for those issues.

Another successful book signing

Everyone seemed to be having a grand time at my third book signing July 26 at Treehouse Bistro in Carolina Beach. Nice, noisy crowd. Much laughter and smiles. Sold books, which was great! Made new friends from among Bistro customers who heard about the signing and attended. One, Valeria, I hope to look up on my vacation north in August, who lives in Rochester.

Big thanks to my kayaking friends Arlene and Eileen who arranged the event and to my paddling and turtle friends who shared a lively evening with me.

Georgia

Book signings heating up

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Kathleen at Pomegranate Books saying she was interested in carrying A Shocking & Unnatural Incident. Someone came in looking for the book and she didn't have it. Didn't know it had been published. So she found me online!

We have a book signing lined up for Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. Kathleen works hard at publicizing her signings and I'm looking forward to an enthusiastic group.

My friends Arlene and Eileen have organized another signing this Sunday, July 26, from 5-7 p.m. at Treehouse Bistro, formerly known as Two Wine Guys at the Grind. They sent invitations to our fellow kayakers and sea turtle project friends, who are always lively and supportive.

My bookmarks are being designed and printed and will be ready to drop strategically at restaurants and restrooms when I visit family and friends up north in August.

Ah, little by little, the word is getting out.

I couldn't put it down

Just returned from an Island Women meeting and am blown away by praise for my book, A Shocking & Unnatural Incident.

"This should be in every library."
"This should be read in schools."
"I couldn't put it down. I'm telling you the truth."
"Someone will surely pick up the second book."

She means a traditional publisher. Well, traditional publishers had enough chances to buy it.

"Important issue."
"Well written."
"Doesn't fit our list."

That's about how it ran.

But I'm thrilled. There is no greater blessing or surge of emotion than when a reader buttonholes an author and repeats how much she enjoyed a book and how much she is looking forward to--can't wait to read!--the next one.

Thank you all!
Georgia

Social networking

Steve Weber in Plug Your Book! says social networking is mandatory for authors promoting their own books. His 200+ pages are stuffed with advice on the importance of author blogs and web sites and he does an admirable job of providing detailed information on how to make the most of them. Stuff I never dreamed of.

He explains the "why" and "how" quite well, giving actual urls to check out for examples.

Consequently, I spent the last three hours fiddling around with my new My Space account. Haven't figured out how to get rid of the standard stuff and make it look more like an author's book site. But I will!

Georgia

Whale bone it is!

Friend Azariah suggests, "I'd like to hear you read the part about the women being 'liberated' from their whale bone corsets! And how miraculous it was when they realized they could bend without passing out. That tickled me to no end."

Great suggestion! Funny, yet poignant. Sure to make an impression.

Georgia

Book signing a success

My first book signing for A Shocking & Unnatural Incident was exhilarating. Friends Kathy and Marcia organized a welcoming reception for me and our friends at Kathy's lovely ocean-front home.


I gave a short recap of the book (some friends were kind enough to come not even knowing what the book was about!) and signed away.


A second signing is coming up and organizers Arlene and Eileen have asked that I read a short excerpt from the book. Think I'll ask some readers who enjoyed the story for suggestions on their favorite passages.


Georgia

Drunks, slave catchers and 19th century chauvinists trigger the women’s rights movement

Yes! My book is out. A Shocking & Unnatural Incident is available from Dog Ear Publishing, Amazon and other online bookstores.

A Shocking & Unnatural Incident is an historical fiction book portraying temperance, abolition and women’s rights as the sparks that lit the First Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848.

Tomboy Tess wears pants, spits, fights boys and yearns for independence and adventure along the Erie Canal. Beany is the shy daughter of August, a runaway slave who works for Tess’ family. Lucy is the ambitious daughter of a wealthy family who wants to attend college and become a lawyer, but her father expects her to marry one instead.

The girls have nothing in common until they become enmeshed in Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s First Woman’s Rights Convention taking root in Seneca Falls. They become friends when Amelia Bloomer takes them under her wing, offering them employment and emotional support at The Lily, her temperance and women’s rights newspaper.

Things turn serious when Tess’ alcoholic and mean-spirited father turns Beany and her mother over to slave catchers. Tess and Lucy team up with Tess’ brother Cooper to free them from jail. This adventure brings about catastrophic consequences and Tess finds herself together with Coop and Beany adrift on a boat in the Erie Canal facing the unknown.

Go to historicalfictionbook.net and let tomboy Tess start you on this historical journey in her own no-nonsense style.

Thanks for your support,
Georgia

Building the book

I received a sample layout from my publisher yesterday and like the look, the font and type size. Made a couple suggestions and sent back the PDF.

The process is becoming exciting and I'm eager to see the cover. Also awaiting a map from the artist, which should arrive Sunday. Should receive a call today from a historical society person confirming the correct name of Watkins Glen in 1848. Wikipedia says "Jefferson," but I've been cautioned not to completely trust Wikipedia. Don't know if that's warranted or not.

After the book is flowed, I'll have one more intense reading of the "first pass pages." Don't expect many changes/corrections. Hope to have a copy in my hands--and many other hands--by Christmas. That's what I want from Santa.

Check out Coastal Gardening

Spent some time at the Carolina Beach marina pulling weeds and plotting where to plant the pansies and violas that'll take us through the fall and winter.

My other blog, Coastal Gardening, is fun to write and quite informative. Basically, I'm experimenting with my own property, transforming a weedy, sandy front yard into beds of drought-tolerant, native plants.

If you have experiences to offer regarding gardening in coastal areas, please share them. You'll find the link under Interesting Links on the right side of this page.

An absolutely text book hatch

It's been just over a month since 95 baby sea turtles made their way into the surf at Carolina Beach from a nest nurtured by Island Women. I wonder how many are still swimming. It's discouraging to know only one in 5,000 turtles makes it to adulthood and returns to nest on the same beach where it hatched decades earlier.

But these babies were strong. They boiled out of the nest about an hour after I and another volunteer got there, saw the depression and began calling volunteers who were supposed to begin sitting the nest that evening, Sept. 11.

What a sight! Those little turtles, about the size of a quarter, got a whiff of sea water, saw the shining red-light lantern leading them to the ocean and off they went! Thrilling! And an experience I'll never forget.

A Shocking & Unnatural Incident

I've been working on this book since the winter of 1991. The first manuscript I sent to potential publishers was nothing like the final product I sent to Dog Ear Publishing--17 years later. No wonder none of them wanted it. But THIS manuscript is good. Very good. I'm proud of it.

The story features three young girls whose lives reflect the three issues leading up to the First Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848: temperance, abolition and women's rights.

So, Tess is the daughter of a drunken handyman; Beany the daughter of a runaway slave; Lucy the daughter of a wealthy abolitionist attorney. Once my Web site's up, I'll link to it and you can learn more about the girls and their adventures and traumas.

In the meantime I'm reading Brian Jud's Beyond the Bookstore, learning everything there is to know about marketing.

The book's on its way

It's been a long wait, and we'll have to wait a little bit longer, but my first book, A Shocking & Unnatural Incident, is at Dog Ear Publishing. With some luck, it'll be off the press before Christmas.

I've been attending seminars on guerilla marketing, self-publishing and maximizing my Web site with search marketing and pay-per-click. There's much to learn and I'm encouraged by so many authors and publishers willing to share their knowledge and expertise.

Sometimes I get frightened (like right now) by all the work that needs to be done. The desperate need to think outside the box and find alternative venues to sell books. They say the easy part is writing the book. The hard part is selling it.

Comments? Experiences?

First day on the job

It's time. After months of wondering about the value of hosting my own blog, I've done it. Signed up. Picked the title. Picked the template. Now I'll see just how easy it is.

For starters, it's exciting! An opportunity to talk to the world. Learn. Share. Contribute.

I hope the kayakers, gardeners, sea turtle saviors and, of course, fellow authors will drop me a paragraph or two.

Talk to you soon.