Sara J. Henry's Blog, page 17

No, Gale and Christine, It's Not a Health Book!

Gale posted this on Facebook with the caption: Gale Maleskey and Christine Dreisbach Murray look for health tips in Learning to Swim. Love it! (It's a joke - we all worked together at Rodale Books, writing and editing health and fitness books.)

A Dominant Culture of Weird Hedonism ...

In a post today entitled "Let's discuss hook-up culture, alco-pops, and the super awkwardness that is teenage sexuality," teen Steph Bowe - a YA author - talks about kids and sex, and I learn what a Cruiser is (sort of, because "alcoholic lolly water" is still a mystery to me) and Steph coins a new phrase, pashing and dashing. An excerpt:

Now, the sexual expectations for kids (especially girls) of my generation (in a predominantly white, middle-class Australian outer-suburb), are that...

I'm Trying to Be Sensible - But It's Very Hard

Logic would dictate that I wait a while before getting another dog - that I finish these revisions on Book 2, that I wait until I'm back in Vermont and get the new roof and perhaps the new culvert and perhaps a few other things done.



But, oh, I miss my cattle dog. Cattle dogs aren't just dogs - they are constant companions, guardians, watchers, who do everything whole-heartedly. They are smart and dedicated and resourceful and and hard-working and quirky - in short, perfect for me. And there...

The Very First End-Cap Sighting

Riverside, California, Barnes & Noble - thank you, Teresa Rhyne

I'm on PBS-TV Today, and This Weekend

Have just been told I'm on PBS TV today and this weekend: Mountain Lake Journal Extra - on Friday, 12:30pm; Saturday, 7:30pm; Sunday 6am and 10:30am, EST. Talking about my book, of course, and a bit about the process of writing and publishing. I was exhausted at the time, and hope it came off passably. I just kept concentrating on trying to sit up straight. And not gesticulate wildly.

Some of the Best Writing Advice I've Gotten

"Sometimes you don't need to fix things; you just need to get rid of them." This came from John Feltman, an editor at Rodale Books I worked with - I'd struggled with a complex passage in a chapter I was writing about, I don't know, vitamin D, and John introduced the notion that sometimes the best thing is to cut the offending bit. I think of this when I'm struggling with recalcitrant fiction passages. If it just doesn't work after rewriting several times - I get rid of it.



"Don't engage the...

Another 30 Copies of LEARNING TO SWIM ... and I'm Appearing at Malaprop's Friday Night

The wonderful marketing department at Crown has put another 30 copies of Learning to Swim up for a giveaway at Goodreads, ending in about five days. Plus you get a signed bookplate.



If you're anywhere in the vicinity of Asheville, North Carolina, come to Malaprop's Bookstore Friday, March 25, at 7 pm for my book event (I read a bit, talk a bit, answer questions and try to make you laugh).



In other bookish news, today LTS is reviewed at Devourer of Books, and Tuesday by Jen Forbus at Jen's ...

For Your Reading Pleasure ... My Friend Meg Waite Clayton's New Novel Comes Out Today!

Meg Clayton and I met way back when, when neither of us had books published, and she and her husband Mac were instrumental in pushing encouraging me to finish my novel and then to apply to a writing conference that made a huge difference in my career path. I gobbled up her first and second novels - The Language of Light and The Wednesday Sisters - and now her third, The Four Ms. Bradwells , has just been released.

Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited...

Ah, You Clever FakeTwitter Followers

Time was, you could spot a fake Twitter follower (not a real person, an account set up for purposes of spam or more nefarious motives) from the lack of a bio, and from a thumbnail photo of a scantily clad or large-bosomed woman. Now they have bios, and clever ones:

Hardcore writer. Travel guru. Hipster-friendly web enthusiast. Subtly charming music buff.



Certified thinker. Student. Passionate food lover. General problem solver. Incurable communicator. Troublemaker.



Lifelong social media...

The Author's Dilemma (OK, Two of Them)

I'm visiting New York City, and yesterday I stumbled across copies of my book at the Strand - eight all told. At first I thought, cool! Then I realized 1) these books were brand-new, unread, for sale at $12 - less than I can get them for, and 2) they were review copies turned in for cash, unread - which means I don't get a dime when they sell (never mind that the folks who received them neither read nor reviewed them).



Here's my dilemma: to leave the books there, where readers can discover t...