Cover for Populated, written by Susan Helene Gottfried

What? More about Populated??? AGAIN????

Well, first of all, this might be my favorite book of the three published so far. MIGHT BE. I’m not going to swear one way or the other. Maybe the Bird Will Rise and Safe House hold huge chunks of my heart, as well. Don’t miss either one.

Secondly, read on and you’ll see why it’s our feature picture of the day.

You see, when I decided to return to publishing, my thought wasn’t far off from what it had been when I started with the Trevolution books: I’d put them out and not think too much about it.

Except in the decade since I put the Trevolution books out, publishing got expensive, yo. And at the same time, it also got a hell of a lot more fun, although maybe that’s just because I’m in a better mental place.

It’s also allowed me to meet a lot of neat people, and to develop friendships. It’s been a gift (again, my life is a lot like Delia Ford’s, so grab Populated and you can see what I mean. Reach out directly if you want an autographed print copy.)

When I got an email from my friend Mary Walsh that she was going to be in town, turning the Other Shadyside Arts Festival into a book show with fine art, I told her I’d go hang with her for a few hours. Somehow, that turned into “Hey, meet me at seven and we’ll set up” and then that turned into “Hey, clear off a corner of the table and throw your books on it.”

Let me tell you, it was a ton of fun to learn about Mary’s books and handsell them to people we (usually me; I can extrovert pretty well, but it does take a toll) enticed to come under Mary’s tent. It was fun to people watch in a neighborhood I used to hang out in and drop a ton of money in, almost always on clothing. (Sigh. I miss those days, I say as I look down at my sweatshirt and joggers. Or maybe not; I’m comfy.)

Now, one thing among the authors on the book show circuit that I’ve noticed is that we tend to talk about the success of the day based on whether or not we earn out our table fees. And for this show, the fees were STEEP.

It took work. Not gonna lie.

But we did it! We earned back Mary’s table fee! And let me tell you, I’m a fan of her books, not just her, now. She’s got a unique vision and puts in the hard work to bring her fictional visions to life. I know a bunch of my friends would love her books.

So… what’s this got to do with Populated?

Well, see up above, where I say that on Sunday, Mary encouraged me to set up the three Sheep Farm books? Populated was the day’s hit and top seller. I shouldn’t have been surprised. People really respond to, “When someone breaks into the Woolslayer Gallery and steals ALL and ONLY the art by street photographer Delia Ford…” A lot of times, that’s all it takes.

I’m thrilled. I’m over the moon, really. As you know, I’m so proud of this project and these books. I believe in the message I’m putting out into the world with them — People are treasures too.

So grab some books.

And if you’re in the Pittsburgh area, keep an eye out for me. I’m hoping to pop up in odd places with an impromptu book show, with authors and books and books and books. You’re going to want to keep an eye out for me.

We’re leading with Maybe the Bird Will Rise today because Mack and Tess ended a week bookended with books. (Oh, my. If I wrote that into my fiction, I’d edit it on out. This, however, is not fiction, and so I will not.)

Last Sunday, authors Joyce Tremel/Joyce St. Anthony and Amanda Flower did a joint conversation and book signing, hosted by Pittsburgh-based Riverstone books. Best of all, they came to the McCandless store, which is closer for me than their city-based store. Although give me a reason to go to the city and I’ll usually grab it.

It was great fun, and I encourage you all to pick up Joyce and Amanda’s books. I had every opportunity to and… honestly? After ten years of having a rigid book budget of $0.00, I don’t want an overflowing bookshelf. (I actually have recently culled my shelves and have more than a few boxes to haul off to resell.)

And then I got word of a new bookstore opening in town. Reading Ready Pittsburgh, it’s called, and I am 100% behind this. Not only should we support an effort to get families and kids reading from the get-go, but those kids deserve to see themselves on the page, too. As do we adults!

On the editing front, since I was just doing a re-read this week, I knocked that out and surprised myself by getting it back to its author on Friday. But it was good, and interesting, the change from first person to third changed the book’s genre! How was that for a fascinating discovery?

This week, I’m tackling a debut romance from a new client. So yes! If you want to work with me, I may take you on! (I do not take on everyone, because you deserve the best client for you.)

And then I ended the week with another book event… my own! With seven others, but still. We did a panel discussion that was comfortable, relaxed, fun, and had total strangers riffing on each other in a good-natured way, and then we retreated to our tables and sold books. Not quite all the books, but enough to make me happy! One reader told me the plot of Populated was more interesting to her than the plot of the Bird, and that’s super! (also, not unexpected… it’s the art thief that gets everyone.)

So this is your reminder that you CAN read Populated first. Or you can even read only the odd-numbered books and only the even-numbered books in the Tales from the Sheep Farm series. And, of course, the ebook version of Populated is still on sale for $2.99 at your favorite retailers, including my own shop, if you too need a copy because what’s this about an art thief?

And, of course, Maybe the Bird Will Rise is 99c, and so is the preorder of Safe House and gosh darn it, but I forgot to plug Safe House’s presale yesterday… This is why I have a lot of signs on my table.

Grab a book — Hell, grab all the books — while the sale is on. And remember to leave reviews (I encourage you to leave HONEST reviews. A one-star review never killed an author and I won’t see it anyway.)!

If you’re an author who needs me, reach on out. I’m here, and the queue is starting to get a little thin.

That’s a USA Archery certified coach, an archer who was nationally ranked in the top 100 as a collegiate archer, and a high school JOAD state champ (those last two in his category, of course). He’s my first resource when I have a question about archery. He’s also the person who got me so involved in the sport, and immersed me in a sport I respect, adore, and want to see presented properly on the pages of fiction.

So when I saw another editor with a hot take that said something along the lines of, “It’s not proper to use the word fire in association with archery,” I wasn’t real happy. How many tournaments and practice sessions and lessons have I sat through where the coaches (also USAA-certified) had said things like “Hold your fire,” “Do not fire your bow,” and even “Step up to the firing line.” Heck, there’s even a term in archery — DRY FIRE — that is one of the first things you learn when you pick up a bow, because dry firing a bow (that means pulling the string back to full draw, ready to fire, but without an arrow, and yet you let the string go as if an arrow is present) is BAD. Do not dry fire!

Seriously. It’s one of the first lessons with a bow. (Instead, for those of you who are curious, let the string down in a controlled fashion.)

But to be safe, I double-checked with Mr. USAA-Certified pictured above. Yep, my memory’s still good. But, he said to me, “I wonder what the etymology for using the term fire with an arrow is.”

It’s a good question. I wondered that too. This kid often asks me good questions, like “What does Apocalyptica sound like live?” and “Where is the Roxian Theater, and what does it look like inside?” We found out together. It was fun.

So… I did as deep a dive as I could. I even reached out to Lancaster Archery, which is kind of the gold standard of retail, at least here outside of Pittsburgh. The kid satisfied his question about what it’s like there when he went for a National Indoor Championship shoot a couple years back. Like I said, we do our best to learn the things we have questions about.

What I found, since that’s what you’re all dying to know, is that at least from what I found, we won’t know if the term “fire” is something that came before or after the introduction of firearms. The rest of this lengthy post will explain what I found and my thinking.

All this said, if you have legitimate sources of information on this topic, bring it. I’d love to learn.

Okay. Let’s start where the kid suggested I start: with the etymology of the word FIRE:

English fire was applied to “ardent, burning” passions or feelings from mid-14c. Meaning “discharge of firearms, action of guns, etc.” is from 1580s.

That clearly mentions firearms. And a lot of people make the assumption that this is where it begins as an archery term. But I am not convinced of that! Here’s why. That same definition goes to to say:

Symbolic fire and the sword is by c. 1600 (translating Latin flamma ferroque absumi); earlier yron and fyre (1560s), with suerd & flawme (mid-15c.), mid fure & mid here (“with fire and armed force”), c. 1200.

Okay, but that’s a noun, and we’re looking at the verb. What does this page say about that? Well. Hmm. Here we go. The word as a verb traces back to 1200 CE. Here’s more:

1660s. Meaning “to discharge artillery or a firearm” (originally by application of fire) is from 1520s; extended sense of “to throw (as a missile)” is from 1580s. Fire away in the figurative sense of “go ahead” is from 1775.

But note! That’s artillery or a firearm. There’s no note about archery, arrows, bows. Nothing. Why is that? Is that because it was so common that no one wrote it down, or was it so UNcommon that there was nothing to write down? And when DID the first documentation of the use of the word begin to be attached to archery? THAT, I do not know. I’d love to. If you’ve got that information, send it along.

However, the timeframe to associate the word “fire” with firearms works… sort of. After all, firearms date back to the 10th Century (CE), and by 1380 were found across Europe. They’d first been brought to Europe in the 13th Century (CE) by travelers of the Silk Road.

It’s an easy association to make, no? FIREarms. To discharge. Fire your firearm. But it makes ya wonder what people were saying for those two hundred years between the firearm’s arrival in Europe and the documentation of the term.

And still, I’m not convinced that the term wasn’t used for archery prior to the proliferation of firearms. There’s no proof one way or the other, just anecodotes that English longbowmen would say “Loosen” during warfare. Again, I’d love a source for this. I’m really fascinated!

So, while I didn’t write down all my sources for what comes next (and I’m kicking myself for that, too; you’d think I’d know better), here’s some of what I’ve found that makes me wonder if the term “fire” as associated with an arrow predates the use of “fire” with firearms.

Ever heard of Greek Fire? It predates the Chinese development of the firearm by three centuries (7th Century CE). It was used in warfare, and the linked article includes this gem:

many writers of antiquity refer to flaming arrows,

Flaming arrows! YES! Arrows on fire!

There’s a problem with setting most arrows on fire (Greek Fire being an exception) and shooting them, though. Fire needs oxygen to survive, and when something is flying through the air at speed, the flame tends to go out. So while incendiary arrows are sexy as hell, especially as a gesture with a funeral pyre, unless we’re talking Greek Fire, which seems to have solved the problem of being extinguished, incendiary arrows really weren’t a thing. Still, Greek Fire was clearly able to defy that, and Greek Fire incendiary arrows were definitely a thing.

If an arrow on fire was able to fly through the air… Well, I think it’s possible that the term “fire” became associated with archery at that time. Three centuries before the development of the firearm during the Song Dynasty.

Now, here’s another fact to consider. The term “fire arrow” was used in 9th Century China. This Wikipedia page has some really cool facts, including mention of earlier incendiary arrows. Check this line from the site:

Although the fire arrow is most commonly associated with its rocket mechanism, it originally consisted of a pouch of gunpowder attached to an arrow.

So again, we’re back to arrows being linked to an ability to ignite… or to catch on fire. And given the way we twist language today, it’s not a stretch to think that someone along the line started saying “fire” in assocation with arrows coated in Greek Fire, or that it was a shorthand for using a Fire Arrow in place of a regular boring old arrow without pockets of gunpowder. I’m not saying it’s a sure thing, but it’s also not a stretch of believability.

What if it began accidentally? If someone misfired and an incendiary arrow landed nearby, people screamed “fire” and others loosed their bows so that they could get the shot off before the fire became a problme? And what if it stuck?

What if…

What if…

This is one I don’t think we’re going to find out so fast, although I’m still intrigued. Not all questions are so easy to answer, especially when we have to stop and take a look at what’s been lost to history (or altered to fit certain narratives).

But I’m 100% confident when I say that it’s perfectly acceptable to use the term “fire” when discussing shooting an arrow, be it in a work of fiction with a contemporary setting or a historical one.

Books: They tell our stories. Support the NEA or NEH

I wasn’t going to do this yet. I mean, I’ve been sitting on this for well over a year, and the plan was to wait until the website is live and launched.

Life happens when you make plans, huh?

My daughter is doing a study abroad this semester in Africa. Ghana, to be specific. It’s through the university and the group of 12 of them have a faculty member from home present with them; the whole thing has been seamless. They are there to take a deep dive into tropical ecology, as this specific program is designed for Biology majors. But they are also there to learn about their host country, of course. How can you not?

On Friday the 13th, she toured Elmina Castle.

I mean, you can’t talk about the west coast of Africa, the former Gold Coast, without talking about the atrocities committed there. Forced migration. Enslavement. Killing. Murder. Death. Rape. Starvation. Disease.

The Door of No Return.

But even before this, long before we knew for certain that my daughter was going on this adventure, I’d been thinking. Watching, really, as diverse author after diverse author (and even some editors!) got the shaft from the big publishing houses (and some small ones, too). I have spent years listening to some well-published LGBTQ+ authors bemoaning the lack of support they receive, the difficulties they’ve had getting respect from their own publishers. Authors who are searching for a literary agent, only to be told, “I really like your book but I already rep an author whose book features a Jewish main character.” And my favorite: “If you’re disabled, you should be writing about disabled people. That’s what’s hot right now. Not this very good book you’ve put in front of me.”

Yep. All true.

“Tell the whole story,” my rabbi said in a sermon in 2022. “Teach the suffering, teach the pain, and remember it, share it. Because the only way to move beyond it, the only way to return to a more healthful way of getting along with each other and interacting with each other is to tell the story, to remind ourselves of the low that we suffered together.”

Powerful words.

When I heard them, I knew what I had to do. I had this book, this story that has since become MAYBE THE BIRD WILL RISE, the first book in the Tales from the Sheep Farm series, and it begged me to do just this. To tell the whole story, pieces of which I cannot even begin to fathom because I am not the right person to tell it.

There’s only one option: To make this a Shared Worlds project, where I’ll invite others into my fictional world and let them tell stories — fictional of course, but fictionalized is super as well — so that we can, together, move beyond the pain we inflict on each other in the world.

“If we can figure out a way to make ourselves see the other more favorably, to view the other not with a sense of dread or fear, but to see in the other the same holiness that we want for ourselves, then we can tell this story [he was referring to the story of Passover] in a way that builds us all up and builds up our society and builds up our nation.

“So follow the path of the Torah. Tell the story. Look for ways to find goodness in the other. See our own holiness as we look into the eyes of another person.

“If we do that, if we can figure out a way to tell this story, we can figure out a way to use it to remind us to seek the good…”

Join me. If you’re an author with a story to tell and would like to be part of the world of Tales from the Sheep Farm, let’s talk. If you’re a reader who’d like to read more stories of and by diverse authors, stay tuned.

The website’s being built as we speak. I’ve been waiting a long time for it, but when you hire the best, you have to wait for the perfect site. It’s going to be worth it.

But today, as I’m thinking of history of Elmina Castle and my daughter, my heart, standing in those dungeons into which human beings were forced, as I think of her there, looking at the Door of No Return, I just can’t be quiet about what I’m up to.

Tell their stories…

And so I will strive to. Because as the tag line for this project states, People are treasures too.

As authors, we walk an interesting, fascinating line: that between emotionally engaged and not. We need to emotionally engage in order to write the heart-wrenching stuff that our readers demand. We also need to be emotionally engaged enough to be able to create an emotionally appropriate, fully-rounded character. Because believe me, if the author doesn’t care about his or her characters, neither will the reader.

But we also need to be detached from the emotional games that go along with emotional involvement. And that’s because we are both the puppet and the puppet master. (No. Wrong Master of Puppets!)

When we’re wearing our author or editor (or beta or crit partner) hats, it’s easier to disengage. It really is. We have the space we need, physically and emotionally. We can put the book or manuscript down and walk away and think.

Our characters usually can’t. And often, they shouldn’t have this distance. Sometimes, your character needs to be playing the bad guy’s emotion game. Your character probably needs to be more emotionally vested than you are, especially if your character is going up against a narcissist, a sociopath, or a psychopath. This is because until the character — the victim, the target — knows what s/he is dealing with, the emotion game is impossible to avoid.

What’s it look like?

Shock. Disbelief. An inability to wrap your head around a consistent set of actions. A refusal to accept the reality you’re faced with — and not necessarily the reality you’re living (that gets into the whole area of gaslighting) but the reality that this is how the bad guy behaves over and over again and isn’t going to change that. The character self-righteously claims they are refusing to normalize abnormal behavior.

Yet their shock and disbelief and anger continue to play the exact role the bad guy is feeding to them. And the bad guy wins.

Let’s take a step back.

Shock, disbelief, anger — these are emotions. Emotions have good points and bad points and advantages and disadvantages. (kind of like everything else in life!)

If you retain nothing else from this post, remember this: When your character is caught up in the cycle of expressing emotion, your character is not able to gain the upper hand on his or her enemy, something that requires emotional distance and clarity to achieve. And so long as your character is emotional, they are off-balance. Off-balance means easier to manipulate.

Bad guy wins.

Yes, it IS that simple.

So, as authors, it’s your job to, to an extent, get caught up in this emotional cycle — insofar as the character needs you to, in order to create an authentic experience for the reader.

BUT as authors, you also need to know how to rise above that emotion, how to break the cycle. There are many ways to do this, of course; what works for one person or character may not work for the next. Method isn’t nearly as important and being able to sever that emotional reaction. Once your character can get past the emotion game, your character comes out the winner.

Sounds simple, right? But look around you in your own life. Take a good, cold, hard look. Notice how many people are caught up in the drama of the emotion game. Because, hey, it’s drama! Friends respond to drama (at least until you tip the scales into the land of the drama queen). They hear you better when you are passionate!

Except… guess what? You are also too emotionally invested, and you can’t think clearly and critically. You are unconsciously holding yourself down in a position of weakness under the narcissist/sociopath/psychopath/asshole who is using your emotions to manipulate you and keep you under his/her thumb.

Yes, you are allowing yourself to be abused.

You.

Are.

Allowing.

Yourself.

To.

Be.

Abused.

In fiction, we expect the abused to be able to rise above, end the emotion game, and triumph in the end. We cheer the main character as they embrace their agency, find their strength, and defeat the agents of evil.

So why aren’t we doing it in real life?

Take a deep breath. And a step back. What do you respond emotionally to? Are you playing someone else’s emotion game in the name of resisting the abuse?

Is your character?

Is that where you want to be? Is that what you want your character to be doing?

Think about it. Think hard.

And here we go! I’m auctioning off up to 100 pages of line edits as part of The Romance For Reproductive Justice movement.

I’m not going to get all political about the hows and whys. You know the stories, you know where you stand. This is where I stand, and I’m making myself available to one author who wants to work on their craft and up their game.

Please spread the word, bid, send your friends. If you’ve been wanting to work with me and can’t afford to, now’s possibly your chance to do so! And if you do work with me and want to support the cause, feel free to browse the other offerings. Or hang out and run the bids up. I won’t say no. It goes to a good cause, and it’s a chance to work with ME.

Really. How can you resist?

Like my ad?

I do!

And that’s what we need to talk about today. My regulars (and you know who you are and I love you!) have me SO BOOKED right now that I’m backed up until, by my estimate, October. It could be earlier that I dig out from under this stack of manuscripts, of course; I hate to keep you all waiting.

So. First off, this is the sort of news I announce via my newsletter. Or I will, once I figure it all out. I’m too busy to do that right now!

Secondly, pace your writing selves accordingly. I’m doing my best and back to working even a few hours on weekends, but there’s a lot of you and every single one of you deserves my best. That said, I hate to make anyone wait and I deeply appreciate everyone who’s willing to wait and even the authors who’ve told me to take a manuscript before theirs.

Third, if you NEED me in August or September, know I’m hitting you with a rush fee surcharge that’s gonna hurt.

Write on. Write well. But… maybe don’t write too fast the next month or so?

My daughter is a high school senior.

Maybe you’ve seen the comments on social media about how these kids are getting hosed. They are. I, as a parent, am. After all, this is my youngest, my baby. I don’t get the milestone closure of her graduation ceremony that will begin my transition summer into being an empty nester. I may not even get the transition summer.

But this isn’t is post to mourn these losses, although they are real and they are significant and I encourage anyone who’s feeling it to, yes, grieve and mourn. Us, our kids, our families… it’s a true loss.

Nope.

This post is about something bigger, deeper. It’s about what my daughter’s high school class has done: they’re submitting pictures of themselves along with their post-graduation plans. It’s a substitute for the traditional May 1 college shirt reveal day. I love it.

But as I’m looking at it, I’m realizing it’s so much more.

It’s their way of signing each other’s yearbooks. It’s their graduation program, where these plans are printed (aren’t they? The more I think, the more I think maybe they’re not. But I know they are in the band concert program!).

But let’s focus on the signing each other’s yearbooks aspect. There are a lot of “I love you!” and “Good luck in the next four!” comments, but there are also a number that gave me pause. The young man who announced his plan is to be a career firefighter, and someone left a comment that said along the lines of, “I remember you talking about this when we were young. Glad to see you doing it.”

That touched me.

That one comment told a story. Of a friendship that drifted apart, but that there’s still a tie, a connection. That the young firefighter never wavered in his commitment to reach this goal — and in a district like ours, one of the top in the country, that could not have been an easy goal to keep.

I felt privileged to see these comments.

They may not feel like much now, but one day, these kids will get their yearbooks. Almost half of their senior year won’t be in there: it all shut down after the high school musical. And they won’t be given a chance to write platitudes and even things of meaning in them. And one day, they’ll look back at this Instagram they collaborated on and that’s where it’ll be. Archived. Waiting.

Comments matter. Maybe not today, but down the road, they will matter.

As an editor, I work with words — duh, right? Except part of “work with words” means I need to know how to bury something, how to pump it up, how a word’s placement in a sentence affects the reader. Unless I’ve done a line edit for you already, you’d probably be surprised at what a skill this can be.

That’s why I want to bring this very important one to you. Because for years now, we’ve been set up by a certain narcissist to accept something that I pray we won’t have to.

First was talk of walking out onto Fifth Avenue in New York and shooting someone and getting away with it.

There was no condemnation of the Saudi prince and his murder of a journalist.

There have been talks of sending our military into Venezuela. Rumors of military action against North Korea and others. Lots of talk of military action.

Just in March, a scant month ago, a Navy SEAL charged with murder was moved to a different spot in prison, a less restrictive place. Let’s reward the murderer!

And haven’t we seen some of that associated with certain mass killings? A kind of sideways absolution of someone who committed murder, at a rally, with an AR-15 or two or three? A lack of condemnation can be and probably is a sideways absolution when you’re speaking a narcissist’s native tongue.

There is talk of the military at the border being allowed to use more force against hopeful immigrants.

And then, recently, the most chilling one yet.

He started off by painting a lovely picture of a delivery room. Babies wrapped in blankets. And then, buried at the end of the sentence, after the feel-good moment, there it was. One word that both was preposterous in reality as we know it, but also a narcissistic teaser, a(nother) feeler to see how this new policy would go over, if there would be an outcry from the public.

EXECUTION.

This is a common narcissistic tactic: float an idea bunded into something else. See if there’s a reaction. If not, float it again and again. Inch toward the goal. Wear down the listener until they are too tired, too numb to react anymore.

Note, too, that this came mere days after Saudi Arabia executed 37 people. When we SHOULD be sensitive to it. When there SHOULD be an outcry, and not just because one of the executed was set to attend an American university when he was arrested and then executed. Thirty-seven people faced an execution. Thirty-seven people died. And a few days later, buried in a sentence, there it is.

EXECUTION.

It keeps coming back, in various forms. Don’t be numb to it. Listen to it. We are being shown what lies ahead.

So where is the outcry?

This is why that was tacked on to the end of that lovely picture. Oh, yes, it was meant to shock and horrify, and it did that. But that seems to be restricted to the idea of infanticide. Not to the wider idea of a change in our culture, a change in which the idea of execution becomes something that… well, if we’re not comfortable with, at least we’re not screaming bloody murder to keep it from happening.

Screaming now will hopefully save us from screaming in terror and the pain of loss later on.

This is Read an eBook Week over at Smashwords. It’s the tenth annual Read an eBook Week, in fact, and I believe I’ve had a book or more enrolled every year since the first.

I’ve given away a lot of books during Read an eBook Week. Hundreds, thousands… honestly, I don’t really keep count.

You can get your hands on my books this Read an eBook Week, of course.

But I actually don’t want to talk about my own books, or promote myself. Not this week. (My books are old, after all, and even in ten years, society has shifted quite a bit and I don’t even know if they hold up anymore. I’m still proud of them, though.)

Rather, let’s talk about you, and three actions you can take this Read an eBook Week.
1. Browse Smashwords. Set your erotic filters and browse away. Find new authors, new books, new genres and subject matter. This is a great time to expand your reading horizons, so go for it.

2. Read something. If it’s stuff that’s been sitting on your ereader for a long time, if it’s the new stuff you’re finding… it doesn’t matter. Just read.

3. Write reviews. Leave them at GoodReads. Go back to the book’s page at Smashwords. Got a blog? Leave them there. Got a friend with a blog? Another option. I am also always glad to post thoughtful, constructive reviews and essays about books you’ve read here. And, of course, if you need help with a review or an essay about a book you’ve read, holler. I charge a minimal fee, and you’ll get more than the cost is worth.

Yes, that’s it! Find a book. Read a book. Review a book.

It has been proven over and over and over and over and over and over again that word of mouth recommendations are the best way to sell books. Reviews often fall into this category, because it means people are talking about someone’s book.

So talk about someone’s book.

We know there are algorithms that will prop up a book when it gets a new, or many, or a set number of reviews. So YOUR review has a very good chance of resonating and helping an author. Yes, even if it’s a negative review! (Remember, reading is subjective. I mean, I have met people who don’t loathe Moby Dick.)

And it’s not like you paid money for these books. Most of them over at Smashwords, as part of Read an eBook Week, are free.

That means leaving a review is an easy way to say thanks. To show appreciation for an author’s hard work, even if it wasn’t work that you loved. To help a very small business owner have a little bit better shot at success… and that, right there, is reason enough.

We’re one reading/writing/publishing community. If we don’t take care of each other, who will?

Happy New Year, friends, clients, acquaintances, writers, and the odd stalker or creepy person!

I figured it was a good time to stop in, check in, see how everyone is. It’s January 2, after all. It should be an inauspicious day, although longtimers around here know it’s not, and they know why.

It’s been busy over here. I worked all through the break and to be honest, I can’t remember the last time I took a day off. And I’m still not caught up, so thank you for the continued trust and work. Best of all, it doesn’t feel like work anymore, and it’s certainly not drudgery. Editing is the best challenge, brain game, and use of my time — not to mention stress relief!

If 2019 continues for me the way 2018 went, I don’t expect that string of no days off to change. By my count, I have room for about 11 projects all year — but don’t let that intimidate you. Remember that I do work on a Send When Ready schedule, so one of those anticipated eleven openings might happen right when — or maybe a day or two after — you need me. Please keep referring work my way, and if I can’t handle it… well, truth be told, I’ll figure out a way to work it in. This is what you do when you love what you do.

One thing I want to make time for in the upcoming weeks and months is conducting workshops, preferably (gasp) in person. Writing conferences, retreats, even meetings. When I haven’t been editing, I’ve been developing a pretty broad-based portfolio of workshops. I’d like to beta them, so if you’re in the area, keep your eyes open for details and invites to join in. Help me help you make the best book possible.

That’s it for over here. It’s been quiet even as it’s been busy, and as soon as I have more of these workshops tamed, I intend to return to blogging on a more regular basis. There’s only so much time in the day, after all, and you guys who pay me money to work on your manuscripts for and with you, as always, have top priority of my time.

Let me know what you’re up to. Chat with me on Twitter (@WestofMars), submit your book for a Featured New Book Spotlight, and keep an eye on the Facebook page, too. No need to lurk, not around me! I’m here in my yoga pants and oversized sweatshirt, living the dream… so join me.

This is a rare gem that I gotta share with you guys.

I’d been talking to a potential client, like I often do. And unlike I often do, I wound up wishing him well with his writing endeavors, as he chose a different editor.

But he dropped back into my inbox a few days ago to ask if he could write nice things about me on his blog.

I appreciated that he thought to ask. And especially that he wanted to say nice things. Who doesn’t like receiving public kudos for their passions?

I’ll let you go over there and read them for yourself. If you have nice things to say about me, too, I’d love to hear them. I’m told time and again I need a client testimonial page on this here site, but I continue to resist. Why? A lot of reasons, including that I have a lot of clients who, wisely, use multiple editors in their quest to make the best book possible.

If you guys flood my inbox, though, with the sorts of kudos that I can’t resist — and more importantly, that’ll help other writers realize how amazing I am — I could change my mind and have my amazing web designer get your words on my site.

I kind of like that idea. Because it makes me happy when you guys tell the world how much you love me. Even when you (the horror) hire someone else.

I thought this cover would compliment the post, even though it has nothing to do with… well, anything other than the theme. In my mind. Let me know if I nailed it.

Local-to-me Parsec, Inc has put out a call for submissions for their literary magazine, Triangulation.

The theme is Dark Skies.

What does that mean?

From their site:

Triangulation: Dark Skies will be a celebration of the dark. This year, we are joining forces with the International Dark-Sky Association to raise awareness of the dangers of light pollution—to human health, to animals and plants in the nighttime ecosystem, and to the future of astronomical research on our planet. We’d like to see proactive characters experiencing firsthand the dangers and consequences of a world without darkness, but even more than that, we want stories celebrating our place in the universe, and our ability, as sentient beings, to see into the depths of space. Give us past, present, and future accounts. Cautionary tales. Secondary worlds and altered timelines. The effects of light pollution are many and varied—feel free to explore any aspects, from neurobiological studies, to life in an alien star system, to legends out of time.

Do you love it? I love it. I can feel some creative juices flowing already.

Submissions open December 1 and close on the last day of February, and should be made through my favorite submissions site, Submittable.

And they are a paying market! So be sure to check out the guidelines (aka rules) and follow them. Don’t set yourself up for failure. You are better than that.

As always, if you want my fine editor’s eye to look over your piece before you send it in, drop me an e-mail. I give discounts on editing when you say your intended market is one you first saw here. (HINT)

Good luck, and also as always, if your story makes the cut, come back and let us know. Do a Featured New Book Spotlight! Brag about it! Send us buy links so we can read it and brag about you, too.

Like I’m not busy enough this summer, I answered a call from a journalist who was looking for creative ways to be productive at an unfulfilling job.

You guys know me. You know what I had to say.

But go check it out anyway. And, of course, do the upvoting thing and all that.

As always, send your friends my way. I’ve got a college tuition to pay, a research trip to Yellowstone, my mortgage… and besides, the busier I am editing, the less trouble I get myself into, and while my adventures are fun and make great stories — my attorney told me a couple weeks ago that she misses hearing them — staying out of trouble for the next couple of months is a good choice. At least until I’m sure the college kid isn’t going to follow in my footsteps. Too much.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted about the charming narcissistic abuse we’re being exposed to on a daily basis. But this one’s been gnawing at me, so here it is.

Know how some members of the media are chasing after our Narcissist in Chief, trying to figure out what he means? Do all the walkbacks, the contradictions, the double-speak give you whiplash?

They are meant to.

It’s the most basic form of narcissistic abuse: keeping you on the hook, around, dependent on him (or her) for clarification. There is no reality other than what the narcissist creates, and it’s a shifting, slippery, scary place. He (or she) is the only one who can navigate it for you.

But if you look at the words and then compare them to the actions, they NEVER match up. They never will. Because the words are a game. They’re the worm on the fishing hook and you’re the trout. You can’t resist; it looks so good wiggling away there on the hook. One bite and it’ll be yours.

One more try to kick that football that Lucy holds and you’ll have made it, Charlie Brown.

Get it? See how that works? The media comes salvating around, trying to get at the truth of the situation. Would he? Wouldn’t he? Which is it? Yesterday it was would, today it’s wouldn’t, tomorrow it’ll be would, come back Tuesday to see if it’s changed or stayed the same.

There’s a hint of an endorphin rush in there, isn’t there?

Don’t buy into it.

Don’t listen to the words, especially when the words change so fast. Look beyond them, into the spaces the words are designed to hide. Look beyond them, into the actions the words are designed to hide — and no, the spaces and the actions aren’t the same things. Not even close.

Close your ears. Tune out the narcissistic abuse that’s nothing more than noise. Stop chasing him around, hoping for the final absolute truth and reporting every last syllable even when it contradicts what your eyes tell you. The only thing you’re doing is hurting yourself — and everyone who’s depending on you for the truth. In the case of the media, the harder they chase, the more they feed into his claims that they’re not truthful. See how that works?

Look at the actions. Always, always, always, look at the actions. There’s your truth, even when it’s ugly and hard to admit.

Let’s go visiting today, shall we? And while there, let’s talk about Undaunted, and more.

Now, of COURSE you’re going to be seeing a ton of posts about the Running Wild Anthology of Stories (Volume 2) that my newest baby is in. I mean, hello? Isn’t calling my story “my newest baby” enough of a clue as to how I feel about it?

Today, I’m over at Julie Doherty’s blog, with an interview that’s about the story, about writing, about my work as a freelance editor… to be honest, it was one of those “pick the questions you want to answer” forms, and I don’t remember what all I said! So join me over there and let’s check it out together. I remember having fun as I filled it out, so I bet you’ll have fun reading it. Isn’t that how these things work?

And remember: Pick up a copy of Undaunted. Leave a review once you’ve read the whole thing (or just the story. I won’t mind, although my anthology-mates will!).
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I had heard of this from others, but didn’t think it was actually happening. Mail has gone missing from Google Mail.

Well, after a message between me and a friend vanished into the ether — all copies of it, like I’d dreamed it or something — I realized that nope, it’s real and it’s happening. Gmail seems to be eating messages.

So at this moment in time, I am caught up on Featured New Book Spotlights. If you’ve submitted the form but not heard back from me, resubmit, and include a note wherever you like that it’s a resubmission.

Don’t let this go missing. Take the time to recreate. Let me feature your book; it’s one question! And some music, and who doesn’t need music to start their Monday off right?

And a quick note: on an editing front, things are arriving steadily, so if you need me, be sure to get into the queue sooner rather than later — and again, if you haven’t heard from me, drop me a note. It’s possible Gmail ate that, too. Grr.

It’s been forever since I’ve shared an eye update with you guys. That’s actually a good thing — it means there’s been nothing to say. The eye has been and remains stable.

And it was that way last week, too, when I saw the surgeon. He’s happy with how it’s healed, although he finally did admit I’ve got a handicap in the form of what’s called a Lamellar hole. It’s confusing to explain what exactly that is, but its presence explains a few problems I have with my vision: letters drop out of signs and the eye chart. And, something I noticed a year ago: I’ve developed a touch of face blindness.

Which means that if I’ve known you for years and I suddenly don’t recognize you, it’s not because you look terrible. It’s because I truly cannot see you well enough to make out your features. Or because my brain can’t interpret what my eyes are seeing, and can’t make the connection to the memory I carry of you. I’m not sure which; I haven’t asked that question.

The fact that I’ve got this slight face blindness is is really strange, given that the damage is to my non-dominant eye. You’d think that the dominance would overrule the distortion. Okay, *I* expect that. Except, it doesn’t seem to work that way.

Which leads us to another big question: how can I work as an editor if letters drop out of my vision?

That’s where it gets weirder: when I’m looking at my screens, my dominant eye kicks in and compensates. And the surgeon says, too, that my brain is learning to adapt to the dropped letters. I’m figuring out, he says — and I agree — how to look at things so that I can get a more complete picture. I’m learning how to look around the hole in my vision.

Bizarre, isn’t it? You’d think it’d be the other way around, that I’d struggle with the small stuff and have faces down cold.

But eyes, as we’ve all learned through this crazy adventure, are tricky, confusing, confounding, and amazing things. At one point during this whole ordeal, I looked at one of my surgeons — I think it was the cataract guy — and said that if I were 20 years younger, I’d go back to med school for ophthalmology. This is really cool stuff.

So what’s the upshot of all this? I get to see the surgeon once a year now, so long as I check in with my optometrist in between my annual surgeon visits, to make sure my eye pressure is behaving. That problem probably won’t ever go away, and so I need to stay on top of it to keep it from damaging my optic nerve. I’m willing to do that, even though it means having my eyes dilated twice a year and letting them touch my eye with that strange blue light. Like everything else, you get used to it.

Another upshot: this is what it is. It’s not nearly as bad as it could have — should have — been.

And I can work as well, if not better than ever. In some ways, I work more slowly, more thoroughly these days.

Just… if we see each other in public and I don’t seem to recognize you, don’t hesitate to say, “Hey, it’s Stevie.” (Except, you smartass, use your own name.) Like I said, it’s not you. It’s the strange gift of my right eye.

What’s this Littsburgh stuff? You all thought I was West of Mars!

Well, I am BOTH. Littsburgh is the literary hub for us publishing folk in the city of Pittsburgh and maybe you missed it, but West of Mars definitely refers to the only city or town of Mars in the United States. The question I usually won’t answer is how far west of Mars I am, but that’s because I hate it when people show up on my doorstep. Of course, showing up on my back deck is even worse, so don’t do that, either. And before you go, “A-ha! I’ll use the garage,” know that’s where the boy’s bows are stored. Just sayin’.

So because I’m both West of Mars and a proud part of the Littsburgh community, Nick and Rachel and Katie were more than glad to feature me with a quick four-question interview about my story, “Undaunted,” in the Running Wild Anthology of Stories.

I know I’ve done other interviews and stuff about it already, but somehow, seeing myself up on Littsburgh, being an active part of the writerly community… it’s darn cool.

Check it out. If you haven’t picked up a copy for yourself, what are you waiting for?

Like short stories?

Sure ya do.

Especially since one of them was written by me, and you know you want to read what I’ve come up with now. I’ve heard feedback that it’s VERY different from my older stuff. More polished. Less angry. And it certainly felt different as I wrote it!

So. I am willing to hand over digital copies of the anthology to anyone who’d like one — with the caveat that you leave a review at whichever book review site you like. Amazon, Goodreads, B&N… I don’t really care. I just want to see the reviews happening, so that others can read the work of 20 damn good writers. Or 19 damn good writers and me. Whichever. You can decide and mention it in your review.

If you’d like a review copy, let me know. But remember: I expect a review! Maybe not a day after I hand the copy over, but within a reasonable period of time.

Reviews sell books. They expose books to new readers who otherwise wouldn’t hear of a book. They HELP. They are the best way to say thanks for taking the time to write, hone, revise, craft the tale in your hands.

Be polite. Write reviews.