Jane Spavold Tims's Blog, page 34

Celebrating bookstores and reading – Canadian Independent Bookstore Day

On Saturday, April 28, 2018, I will be participating in Canadian Independent Bookstore Day at Westminster Books in Fredericton. I will be there to talk with you about my books in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series and sign copies.  I will be at the bookstore from 11:00 AM to noon. Hope to see you there!!!

Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is a day to celebrate the amazing independent bookstores in communities across Canada that develop and maintain a thriving book industry across the country. It is a day to go out into your community and enjoy the unique intersection of art, culture, business and opportunity that bookstores provide. Thanks to your participation, this event can continue to grow and thrive in the years to come. The purpose of Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is to show off the unique community spaces that bookstores create and was born from Authors For Indies.

Authors for Indies was a national grassroots movement in support of independent bookstores. It’s a day when authors take time to give back to the bookstores who support authors every day of the year by volunteering as guest booksellers. We meet and greet customers, recommend books, tell our friends and relatives to come to the store where we are working. Hundreds of authors across Canada have done this for the past three years. It’s been a national phenomenon. 

Jane

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Creating a marketing plan

As a writer, I think a lot about the various stages of writing.

I describe the time spent in these various stages in this way:

Creative Process (the writing, plotting, world-building and character-creation) –  10% of the time.

Editing Process (drafts after the first, grammar and spelling, refining of language and pace, checking character arcs, checking symbol recurrence, refining detail, working with editor and publisher) – 40% of the time

Marketing Process (interacting with publisher, launches and readings, selling books, book fairs, social media, advertising, writing blurbs and press releases) – 50% of the time.

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I am a planner, a bit surprised to say I have never created a plan for the marketing of my books. So this will be the next step in my writing career.

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A little research has given me the main ingredients of a Marketing Plan:

a summary for reference – pulls together the main points of the plan and states my marketing goals
identification of customers – who they are and where to find them
development of a unique selling point – a way to separate your product from others
a pricing strategy – price of your product and timing of offers
a distribution plan – how customers will buy from you

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In the next few weeks, I will think about and write down these components as they relate to my products: my books and paintings.

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Have you ever created a marketing plan and did it help you to meet your goals?

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Copyright Jane Tims 2018

 

Now available … fourth in the Meniscus Series: The Village at Themble Hill

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The new book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series is now available. In The Town at Themble Hill, humans on the alien planet Meniscus continue to search for freedom and a safe place to live.

My heroine Odymn, who is expert at the art of parkour, sometimes also called free-running, navigates the landscape with runs, leaps and vaults. She never falls. Or does she? Find out how Odymn copes with a loss of her independence.

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Meniscus: The Town at Themble Hill

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… On the alien planet Meniscus, against all odds, a small group of Humans works to forge a new life together. When a Dock-winder drone pays them a visit, Odymn and the Slain trek along the heights of The Fault, to make certain the community is not in danger of invasion. They find a new way to scale The Fault and a perfect location for building a new village. Matters are complicated when Odymn is injured on a parkour run and the Slain’s former girlfriend joins the group. Faced with a dangerous journey through the Themble Wood and the hardships of building a new community, are the Humans in more danger from themselves, the alien landscape, or their Doc-winder overlords?

 

… In the fourth book of the Meniscus series, The Village at Themble Hill chronicles the first days of community life on a planet where Humans are not allowed to associate and freedom is always at risk.

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home is the safest place … so build a home …

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Get the paperback version of Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill here. The Kindle version will be available soon. For readers in the Fredericton area, Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill will be available at Westminster Books after May 1st.

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Copyright Jane Tims 2018

ice-falls in New Brunswick

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An ice-fall along highway #102 in New Brunswick

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One of the sad things about the end of winter is the demise of our ice-falls in New Brunswick. Along the roads, where there are streams intersected by road-cuts, we often have a build-up of ice as it drips from the top of the cut. Some of the ice-falls are spectacular and all are dazzlers in the sun. For more about ice-falls in my blog see here.

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From my reading, I know that ice-falls begin as ‘frazil ice’, a suspension of small ice crystals adhering to soil, rock or vegetation. As meltwater flows over the surface of the frozen ice-fall, new layers are built and a cross-section of the ice will show bands of ice. 

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In New Brunswick, some ice-falls are climbable, and some create caves under the curtain of ice. A famous New Brunswick ice-fall is the Midland Ice Caves near Norton. https://www.explorenb.ca/blog/icecaves

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one warm hand

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icicles seep between

layers of rock frozen

curtains separate

inner room from winter storm

glass barrier between blue

light and sheltered eyes

memory of water flows

along the face of the rock

one warm hand melts ice

consolation, condensation

on the inward glass

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(published as ‘one warm hand’, http://www.janetims.com, March 10, 2012)

Copyright Jane Tims 2018

herb growing in winter #5: tomatoes and lettuce

Since my last AeroGarden update, I have baby tomatoes and leaves of romaine lettuce in my garden.

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In a couple of weeks, I’ll have enough basil, lettuce and Tiny Tim tomatoes for a salad … if I can stop my ongoing snacking!

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Copyright Jane Tims 2018

signs of spring

Here are few of the signs of spring we saw on our drive last weekend:

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a skunk running through the apple orchard …

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pussy willows …

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muddy roads …

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beer cans and other returnables, released from their cover of snow …

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and a New Brunswick can-and-bottle collector out for walk …

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Happy Spring!

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Copyright Jane Tims 2018

my painting at Isaac’s Way

Winter is going fast! But winter still exists in my painting on display at Isaac’s Way Restaurant in Fredericton. The painting is one of 70 original art pieces in the 32nd Art Auction, raising funds for music lessons for kids-in-need.

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My painting ‘farmyard in moonlight’ is 24″ x 20″, acrylic, unframed, gallery edges. The high bid right now is $100. You can buy it off the wall for $320.  Half of the price goes to the charity.

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You can see the other painting in the auction by visiting Isaac’s Way and enjoying their great menu. Or see the paintings on-line at 32nd Art Auction.

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Copyright Jane Tims 2018

someone has a plan!

This time of year the winter ice on the rivers in New Brunswick is starting to break up. At the concrete bridge over the South Branch of the Rusagonis Stream, not far from where I live, there is a narrow band of melted ice.

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However, someone has plans for that part of the river. Have a look at the next two photos and guess who the ‘planners’ are.

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Beavers! Not ice scour since softer trees at the same level are not involved. Also, two of the trees have deep ‘v’s cut out on the bank side.

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We will be watching to see the next stage and the results of this plan. A beaver dam on the Rusagonis. Oh my!

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Copyright Jane Tims 2018

 

in the shelter of the covered bridge

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in the shelter of the covered bridge

by Jane Spavold Tims

poetry with illustrations

Chapel Street Editions 2017

poems about plants and animals living in the vicinity of the covered bridge

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73 poems, 35 bridges, 21 illustrations

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From the Preface:

Where I live in rural New Brunswick, driving through a covered bridge is a daily occurrence. The sounds of the tires on the decking, the glimpses of river and sunlight between boards, the fun of seeing a family fishing and the sight of a groundhog carrying her kit across entryway of the bridge — these are touch-stones for my existence.

The inspiration for this book came in 2015, when my husband and I crossed the Patrick Owens Bridge on the Rusagonis Stream and startled a rabbit in the middle of the span. The rabbit raced through the bridge in front of the truck. I can still see the shadow of his long ears and the scurry of his feet. Since the incident occurred during the February 21, 2015 conjunction of Venus and Mars, with the sickle moon just above the planets, I thought of all the legends about the hare and the moon. This led to the poem “conjunction” and a question about what other plants and animals find shelter in or around our covered bridges in New Brunswick.

My husband and I carried out the field work for the book during 2015. We focused on covered bridges in the entire Saint John River Valley, but we also visited bridges in Charlotte and Westmorland Counties. Travelling around the province, visiting covered bridges and paying special attention to the nearby wild life, was an ideal way to spend a spring and summer in New Brunswick. Some bridges were easy to find, others a challenge. Each bridge contributed its own personality, history and component flora and fauna.

The covered bridge is endangered in New Brunswick. In 1900, there were about 400 covered bridges in the province. By 1944, there were only 320. In 1992, when Glen, Michael and I visited some of the bridges for Canada’s 125th birthday, there were 71. In 2017, as I write this, there are only 60 remaining. Vandalism, flood, accident, fire and age claim more bridges every few years.

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… In 2018, there are 58 covered bridges remaining …

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Book available from Chapel Street Editions

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dry wind

French Village Bridge

Hammond River #2

 

the bridge leans, upriver

wind enters, a beer can

rolls on the deck

 

white butterflies obey

the valley breeze

navigate the scent of wild roses

 

avoid the dogs

cooling off in the river

the beach folk, sunning themselves

 

bracts of Yellow Rattle

and Silene, inflated bladders

dry as old boards

 

aspens tremble

a song sparrow stutters

a loose shingle rattles in wind

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sketch of the French Village Bridge (Hammond River #2), demolished in 2017

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About the Author

Jane Spavold Tims is a botanist, writer and artist living in rural New Brunswick, Canada.  She has published two books of poetry, within easy reach (2106) and in the shelter of the covered bridge (2017), both with Chapel Street Editions, Woodstock. Her first four books in the Meniscus series, Meniscus: Crossing The Churn, Meniscus: One Point Five – Forty Missing Days, Meniscus: South from Sintha and Meniscus: Winter by the Water-climb, were published with CreateSpace in 2017 and 2018 under the name Alexandra Tims. In 2016 she won the Alfred G. Bailey Prize in the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick Writing Competition for her manuscript of poems about bird calls. She is interested in identifying plants, bird-watching, science fiction and the conservation of built heritage. Her websites feature her drawings, paintings and poetry.

www.janetims.com

www.offplanet.blog

www.janetimsdotcom.wordpress.com

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both books available from Chapel Street Editions

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herb growing in winter #4

The identity of the odd plant in my AeroGarden is no longer a secret!

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What is the plant on the right hand side of my garden?

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The plant in question is the bushy ‘herb’ to the right. It has dark green leaves and a thick stem.

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As you know, I am a botanist and if this plant was presented to me in any other way, I am sure I would have identified it immediately.

But the label said ‘mint’ and so I expected mint.

My first suggestion of mistaken identity came when I popped a few of the young leaves into my tea. The taste was terrible.

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Then I took a closer look. The stem was not square – an immediate identifier of the whole mint family.

So I went back to the package material. Possibly I switched the labels. Perhaps it was curly parsley. Deep frown. Didn’t look like curly parsley.

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All this time, I kept pruning and drying the leaves. My bottle of dried mystery leaves is quite full!

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What is it?

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Then I saw the flowers and took a step back. They were yellow and clustered. The leaves were compound, very hairy. The light came on! Tomato!

You will think I am a terrible botanist!

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So now I am waiting for my first tomatoes. I have discarded the dried leaves (tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family and the leaves contain a poisonous alkaloid).

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the unopened ‘flowers’ of my tomato plant (the hairy green buds) … in a few days I will have baby tomatoes!

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Copyright Jane Tims 2018