Meredith R. Stoddard's Blog, page 19

Telling people you're a writer

This has always felt a little awkward for me. I've sort of had the idea that you're not a writer unless someone is paying you to write. Even when I was getting paid to write training material, I called myself a trainer not a writer. Still in the indie author business you sort of have to tell people that or you'll never sell books. It's never been a secret that I write, that's just not the way that I would introduce myself to people. It's one thing to say it online, but a whole different thing to introduce yourself in person to someone new by saying that you're a writer. I found myself yesterday introducing myself to someone as a writer for the first time. It felt weird, but awesome. 

It just happened that my daughter and I were way early for her preschool field trip and I had not had enough caffeine, so we stopped at Starbucks for some coffee and cocoa. T in her indefatigable cuteness attracted the attention of the young lady at the table next to us. I'm a terrible introvert (as so many writers are) and children make the most wonderful icebreakers. After telling me how cute T is the young lady, Katrina, and I began chatting about kids, preschools, blah blah…Then she asked me what I do. Before I would usually say, "I'm a stay at home mom." or "I knit and crochet accessories". Yesterday I said, "I'm a writer."

Katrina's face lit up, "Wow. What do you write?" I told her and more conversation ensued mostly about leaving jobs and chasing dreams, the importance of support while you're doing it (I'll save that topic for  a later post). It was a good conversation, and before leaving she asked for my email.

Here I had to stop, because being newly published I did not have any cards for me as a writer. I did have cards for my fiber business and I gave her one, but I immediately began thinking of the need for business cards with my web address and some info on what I do. So I started looking around at Author Business Cards and trying to figure out what would be the best way to go. I found a few blog posts on the subject. Here's a pretty good one.

In the end I went with my standby Moo.com. I've used Moo before for my craft biz cards and have been really pleased with the result. I like their mini cards. Yes, they're smaller, but you'd be amazed at how much people like them.

For the cost of what most printers will charge for their stock designs. Moo lets you put your own photos on your cards, and not just one photo, you can do a bunch of different photos.
The half-sized mini cards are attention getters. Most people don't expect them, and they remember them.
The card stock is good quality. They don't feel flimsy.

I went into their card builder tool and uploaded some of the pics from here on the blog and from The White House's cover and a few others that looked sufficiently "historical fictiony" Chose my background color and put in my info. After previewing them , I ordered 100 to start with. I can always order more. Plus if I get some new pics, I can upload those for the next batch. 100 mini cards cost only $19.99.  Moo also does stickers in different sizes, and designs including using your own photos. All around I've been very please with them and can't wait to get my new cards. I'll be able to say I'm a writer and give a card consistent with that.

 

Giveaway! Review copies of The White House available

My little baby, The White House, could use some more info on various sites so give readers a picture of what they're getting for their .99. [image error]

So for the next month, I will be giving away review copies of my little short for anyone who is willing to read and leave an honest review on Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble or iBooks. I have coupons available for The White House for Smashwords. That means you can get it in just about any format through their site including .mobi files for Kindle. It won't take much time. It is a short story after all, but I'm confident that you'll find it entertaining.

If you're interested in a free review copy of The White House, please let me know in the comments on this post. I will then email you the coupon code.

Thanks as always.

KDP Select – Trying to reserve judgement

Like so many others I got the email yesterday inviting me to enroll in KDP Select and potentially earn great profits from letting people "borrow" my ebook. So I took to the writer forums and list on twitter to see what other people w/ more epublishing experience had to say about it. I've seen comment ranging from, "I'm yanking my books off smashword and BN right now!" to "It's all a big conspiracy to cheat indie authors and kill indie publishing." but the general consensus seems to be one of skepticism.

The sticking point for most people, me included, seems to be the exclusivity. Maybe it's because I'm an iPad reader and former nook reader, but I don't really like the idea of limiting my readers to one source for access to my work. Yes, I know there's a Kindle app for the iPad and I have nothing against the Kindle as a device (except maybe for the annoying blonde chick in the commercials), but I also want as many readers as I can get. I know that Amazon has an enormous market share, but shrinking my market just seems like a bad idea.

I'm also skeptical of the numbers in the email. Seeing as my book has only been out there for 3 weeks and I've only sold one copy (thanks, Dad:) the idea that an indie like me w/ one little book would ever reach 1% seems just crazy. So I don't expect that I, nor many other new indie authors would be making much of that allotted $500K/month.  A commenter on this blog did a pretty good breakdown of the numbers. I may be stretching it, but since The White House is only .99, that means that I already get just .32 out of every book I sell. Sure the potential with KDP Select is there for my little ebook to make much more than that with even 1% of borrows like the email says. But without a traditional marketing and promotion machine I suspect the reality would be more like .oooooo1% and I would end up making less than my measly .32.

In addition to the question of money, there are the pitfalls of  the Terms and Conditions. This blog has a good examination of the potential legal issues.

"1 Exclusivity. When you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, you give us the exclusive right to sell and distribute your Digital Book in digital format while your book is in KDP Select. During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book (or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it), in digital format in any territory where you have rights."

I think the scariest language here is in the parenthesis "(or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it)". Who decides what is "reasonably likely to compete commercially"? Is that to say that if you have one series of YA Paranormal Romance (because after Twilight, doesn't everybody) on KDP Select and another different series in the same genre available on Smashwords that could  be deemed competition. And of course if it is, you're done with KDP Select and Amazon will…

"…not owe you Royalties for that Digital Book earned through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library Program, and we may offset any of those Royalties that were previously paid against future Royalties, or require you to remit them to us. We may also withhold your Royalty payments on all your Digital Books for a period of up to 90 days while we investigate. This doesn't limit other remedies we have, such as prohibiting your future participation in KDP Select or KDP generally."

That just sounds scary.

Something else that I think many authors who don't read carefully may get caught by is the Smashwords policy of keeping books that have been unpublished available to the people who purchased before it was unpublished so that they can always get a copy of it. Sure, the book isn't for sale anymore on Smashwords, but people will be able to download it if they have before. How will KDP handle that, will they see it as violating their exclusivity? Given the potential for Amazon to kick you off and keep your earnings, I fear for the few writers I saw on Kindleboards who were "removing" their books from Smashwords and putting all their eggs in the KDP Select basket.

This is not to say that there is nothing in KDP Select's favor.

I spent 11 years working for Intuit the makers of QuickBooks (No, I will not troubleshoot your QuickBooks/Quicken/TurboTax issues) which maintains an 85% share of the small business market. Microsoft once tried to break into that market with a competing program, but users were so entrenched in QuickBooks that the tech behemoth quickly gave up on their competing program and discontinued it in less than two years. Amazon is the Intuit of epublishing. Their market share is so huge, that most successful indie authors make the vast majority of their money from KDP. So, it's conceivable that going exclusively to KDP and embracing anything they have to offer would be to an author's benefit.

It's also good to remember that this is a numbers game. KDP Select has alotted $500K/month to go out to those people who participate no matter how many or few people that is. Since the majority of writers I'm seeing in the forums are taking a wait and see attitude toward KDP Select, there seems to be a lot of potential for the few early adopters to get a lot of exposure and a good share of that money. Naturally, as the months go on and the library grows, that potential share that participating authors can get will be reduced by the number of books that are added. Still, there is a lot of opportunity for those who jump in early (providing their don't run afoul of the exclusivity and non-compete clauses).

Finally, Mark Coker at Smashwords makes some interesting points on his blog about what KDP Select might mean for the epublishing industry as a whole. Obviously as the founder of Smashwords, he's got a bit of an ax to grind, but he has some very good points.

 

 

My spinning wheel comes full circle

I showed my Granny my spinning wheel, last week. I should point out that it was once her spinning wheel, although she never did learn to use it.  No one else in my family is terribly interested in the hows and whats of hand spinning. Don't get me wrong, they think it's cool. You should see my husband's face when he tells people I spin my own yarn. But if I go much further than, "look how soft this angora is" their eyes start to glaze over. I don't hold it against them. I get that way when they talk about video games or computer parts. But , with Granny it was a real treat to show my wheel and skills off to someone who knows a little about it, and at least understands why I love it.

I should start with a little information about Granny. She is a very spry 94 and the healthiest, sharpest 94 year old you could ever meet. She also loves her family more than just about anything in the world. She grew up in a mill village in a small town in North Carolina, but my Granny never worked in the spinning room like so many girls of her generation. That was due to the determination of my great grandmother (the Original Granny). When most of the other girls in the village were dropping out of school at the ripe old age of twelve to go work in the mill, my great grandmother made sure that her children finished high school including her girls. So, when Granny graduated and went to work in the mill it was in the office, not on the floor.  My grandfather on the other hand dropped out of school at twelve and began working to help support his family. He knew how to do just about every job in the mill.  So, thirty years ago when my grandmother wanted a spinning wheel to spruce up her parlor, he wasn't going to buy her one that didn't work.

Flash forward thirty years and I've been drooling over spinning wheels and resisting shelling out $400+ for one in spite of my husbands repeated attempts to get me to buy one. I had settled on an Ashford Traditional and was just a few weeks away from ordering one, when I discovered Granny's wheel behind the sofa in the parlor. What do you know, it was an Ashford Traditional.  It was also in need of some reconditioning and repairs. So at Granny's urging I brought it home and got myself an Ashford Maintenance Kit and some wood conditioner and went to work. It only took a couple of hours to recon the wood and replace some of the hardware. A few Youtube videos and spinning books later, I was in business.

So just last week, I was finally able to show my Granny what I had learned.  So, I took the wheel up to my parents house where Granny was staying for the holiday and sat down to do two of my favorite things; spin and talk to Granny. I explained how the wheel worked and what parts I had replaced and then set to spinning. Granny was thrilled to see what I was able to do and naturally it sparked a lot of memories. She told me about how her mother used to load the warp for the looms, her aunt used to work in the spinning room and how my Grandad knew how to do almost every job in the mill. I told her about the different fibers and how each one spins differently.

I treasure those few hours in the mornings when I'm child free and able to do whatever I want. I usually reserve that time for writing. But that morning was one of the best I've had in a long time. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The Inspiration for "The White House"

Years ago on our first trip to Beaufort, NC my husband and I were sitting atop the rather conspicuous doubledecker bus that provided tours of the beautiful historic town. It was a hot July afternoon, and I'm sure we would have been more comfortable in the shade of the first level, but I'm a sucker for historic architecture and was willing to endure the heat to have an unobstructed view. At the edge of the historic district stands a 2 1/2 story white house with a 2 story porch on a slightly raised plot of ground, it's view from the street slightly obscured by trees. The vernacular architecture enthusiast in me identified the "hall and parlor" layout of the first story. It was also clear that this is one of the oldest houses we had seen on the tour. The tour guide called this the "Hammock House" for the slight rise on which it was built.  She also told us some of the many legends attached to the house that had been at that location almost longer than the town. The story that stuck with me the most was also the story that also was the murkiest without many supporting facts or specifics.

The Hammock House first appears in a 1789 map of the coast and is prominently identified as The White House. However, it is believed to have been an old establishment by the time that map was made possibly dating back as early as 1713 when the town was first being planned. It is believed to have been an inn or ordinary. According to the earliest of the legends. Blackbeard was a regular guest, as the inn's location and Beaufort's deep natural harbor offered strategic advantages. On one occasion he is said to have brought his "wife" there on a visit. After staying at the inn for a few days, the pirate is said to have left and left his "wife" hanging from a tree in the back yard.

Of the many stories that I heard that day, this is one that sparked my imagination. I immediately began imagining scenarios that would have led to such cruelty, not that a notorious pirate would need much inducement to be cruel. What kind of woman must she have been? How had she come to be with Blackbeard? The story sparked so many questions that I had to learn more about the pirate, the town and the house.

In my research I discovered a couple more stories that further inspired me. Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, ran aground near Beaufort inlet in 1718. In 1996, marine archaeologists discovered a shipwreck near Beaufort Inlet that they are almost certain is the Queen Anne's Revenge. Some believe that Blackbeard grounded the ship on purpose as a sort of downsizing of his crew. I was fascinated by the idea of the pirate intentionally abandoning the ship that had served him so well and on the idea of pirate layoffs. What strategy would drive the pirate whose career seemed to be at it's height to jettison one of his most useful tools?

Another character that I came across in researching was Israel Hands, a person that not much is known about. As a writer that gave me a bit of freedom with which to flesh that character out. I also found intriguing, a story from Daniel Defoe's "General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates". During a card game, Blackbeard is said to have attempted to shoot another crew member, but hit Hands in the leg instead. When asked why he had done it, the pirate is said to have responded that "if he did not now and then kill one of them, they would forget who he was." which is to say "the BOSS". This sent my mind down the line of questions about how a man maintained rule over a crew that at it's zenith numbered around 300 cut-throats. By all accounts, Blackbeard was notoriously ruthless, not just with the people of the ships and towns he terrorized but also with his own crew. We can only speculate that it was that kind of behavior that inspired loyalty out of fear, but also inspired the kind of pragmatism that cause Israel Hands to testify against the corrupt officials along the North Carolina coast who helped Blackbeard elude the colonial authorities for so long.

All of these different aspects of the Blackbeard and Hammock House legends went into the creation of my story "The White House". I have tried to weave these loose bits of legend into characters and a narrative that attempts to answer some of those questions inspired by what we know of Blackbeard, his crew and this one of his many wives.  Although the story is set in 1718, the questions that it attempts to answer about power, love and humanity are timeless.

The White House is now available via: Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

The White House

Is now available via Kindle and Smashwords. [image error]

Legend has it that Blackbeard frequented an inn in Beaufort, North Carolina that was called The White House. This story is based on one fateful visit that the town still talks about today. Annie Simpson is a Scottish lass on her way to the colonies as an indentured servant until her ship is attacked by Blackbeard's crew. Israel Hands is Blackbeard's second in command who is questioning his commitment to pirate life. Lizzie Poole is a lonely innkeeper's daughter who longs for a secure home all her own. As their worlds collide they explore the timeless dynamics of power in personal and professional relationships.

The first story of the Of Sound and Sea short stories is now available in ebook form through Smashwords and Kindle.

Great historical fiction for less than a cup of coffee.

I'm super excited about this and will likely post more about the legends that inspired the story in the near future.

 

Busy busy busy

What a week, and it's only Thursday afternoon.  There is some very exciting stuff going on in the Stoddard house.

First of all I'm happy to report that our 2nd grader made the Honor Roll for his very first report card of the school year. This is an awesome development. We've always known our boy was crazy smart, but he's also "gifted" with ADHD and doesn't adjust well to change, so back to school is usually a tough transition. That he has done this well is fantastic.

I have been hard at work getting the website off and running, but have also been working on the third of my short stories about the Manney-French love affair.  Formatting "The White House" for ebook release and making a cover for it. I'm still working on the cover as I'm not 100% sold on the font. Still, I would love to have that out in the next week or two.

Also, I'm lining up a gig as an ebook reviewer at Read All Over Reviews. Pretty excited about this. I'm always excited to interact with other avid readers. As a result, I'm also adding a blogroll to the bar on the right linking there and some other places that I find helpful.

I promise a more in depth post when there is more to say, but things are moving.

M

Dyeing to try this

I'm always the kind of person who wants to drill down to the source on most things. So, naturally when I started spinning yarn, I wanted to know everything about the process from "sheep to shawl". It also means I'm willing to try just about any step in the process short of actually owning livestock. I'm not a future alpaca farmer, but I do plan to cultivate many of them as friends. So far in exploring all things spinning related I've spun a wool, angora and silk roving, and dyed wool with Koolaid. My next step was to try a more professional dye with a number of different fibers.

At this year's Montpelier Fiber Festival I scored some delicious milk fiber, bamboo, and silk bells. I also had some brown, black and white roving that I got in a mill end bag from The Sheep Shed Studio. Armed with 2 ounces of each, my thrift store crockpot and a pack of Dylon fabric dye in Bahama Blue, I set about my experiment. I essentially did 2 dye lots in the same pot[image error]

I mixed the dye according to the instructions on the packet in my crockpot. This was super easy. This dye uses salt as a mordant. I used canning salt thinking that if it's strong enough for pickling then it must be strong enough for dyeing.

I put the wool and bamboo in first thinking that I would blend them together before spinning.  The instructions on the packet say to stir for 15 minutes, but I just tamped it down instead because I wanted to make sure there weren't any air bubbles, but I didn't want to mix them together while they were wet. I added more hot water to make sure it was well covered and that I would be able to cover the other fibers once I added them. I let this sit for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, I soaked my silk cap and 2 ounces of milk fiber. I knew I wanted these to be lighter so planned for them to spend less time in the dye. After 25 minutes I added these to the dye bath and made sure they were saturated. I left this for another 20 minutes before taking them out.

Milk Fiber [image error]

I really can't wait to spin this it is wonderfully soft and the color looks terrific. It seems to have taken the dye pretty well the color really pops.

 

 

 

Silk [image error]

The biggest factor in the color differences in the silk is that it's in cap or bell form. So the inside layers barely got any dye at all while the outside layers seemed to take it in a very subtle way. I like these variations a lo. I haven't spun silk in this form yet, so that will be another interesting adventure.

 

 

[image error]


Bamboo

Every time I walk by the drying rack, this one catches my eye. The color is electric and the fiber is so soft. I had originally planned to blend this with the wool to make it softer and add some more dimension to the color, but I'm clearly going to have to come up with something else. This color is too good to let it be overpowered by the brown and black.

Wool [image error]

This one is interesting. I'm not unhappy with the color that the white wool took on. The brown and black maintained their color, which I expected. I wanted this to be brown black and blue, so I got the result I was looking for. Still, when you compare this blue to the blue of the other fibers it's just not as bright. I'm planning on spinning this into a nice slubby singles that will be blue, brown and black twisted together.

 

 

Passionate Stitches

The striking young woman in this photo is my great great aunt Mattie Verb Minga. That's right her middle name was Verb, and it fit. Aunt Matt was a woman of action, a woman of passion. Sometimes it lead her in the wrong direction like marrying and divorcing the same man twice. Sometimes it lead her to great joy. When Mattie was in her forties and single she adopted the infant child of a cousin who had died in childbirth. Everyone thought she was crazy, thought the boy would need a father, wondered how a single woman working in the mill could support a child. But she did it anyway, and my cousin Gene grew up to be a well respected policeman, veteran and a great father himself.

Our family was large and tight-knit, as families that spend several generations in the same small town usually are. Still Aunt Matt was at every family function. Christmas, summer trips to the beach, anytime we all got together, someone went over to the little house next to the old company store to fetch Aunt Matt. For some folks we might do that out of a sense of duty. My great grandmother, Mattie's sister, did ask my grandmother to take care of Mattie before she died. But the truth is it was because we loved having her around. She's been gone 23 years now, but I can still hear her gregarious laugh. She always had a way of finding things to laugh about, be happy about, even in her late eighties when she rarely left the house. I remember going with my grandmother to visit Aunt Matt in her little house in the mill village and sitting on the ottoman next to her chair and watching her crochet. She was so practiced that she sped through the stitches and rarely had to look down at her work. Even late in life when her health was waning, she never stopped making things.

Aunt Matt's hands were never idle. My grandmother's house is full of things that she made from a plarn (yes, 1960′s plarn from bread bags) rug on the threshold in the kitchen to a lace canopy and bedspread on the double canopy bed upstairs. Every Christmas the stairs are lined with crocheted snowmen, and Santa Clause dolls and the tree is hung with lace snowflakes and angels that she made. When my children were born I was gifted with jackets and blankets and hats that I had worn as a child that were made by Aunt Matt and that I am keeping for my grandchildren. She didn't just crochet. Here is a photo of her working on a quilt that spent years on my parent's bed and that I'm sure my mother still has. Aunt Matt was always making something, and everything she made was a beautiful expression of the love that she had for the people around her and of her passion for life.

I've made a lot of really beautiful things in my years as a crafter, but I don't think I've ever been more proud of the work that I've done than I was at Aunt Matt's 90th birthday party, an event so big that we held it at the church. I had made a pillow out of yarn that my grandfather had brought home from his job at the NC State Textile Engineering dept. It was just a big white granny square tacked to a big white pillow, but it meant everything to me as a crocheter and it still does. Now, whenever I finish a project, I can almost feel Aunt Matt patting my hand and laughing with joy the way she always did when we did something she liked.

Sadly, my cousin Gene passed away last November and his bright beautiful daughter years before that. The little house by the company store belongs to someone else now as the mill village is becoming gentrified. There aren't very many of us who remember Aunt Matt, but the beauty of the things she made and the abundance of her work will show for generations.

*This is a re-post of an article I wrote for a now defunct blog about my craft business.

Fiber in the Blood

T his grainy photo is one of the few that I have of my grandfather smiling. It's kind of odd, because with his grandchildren he was often joking and laughing. But he didn't care for having his picture taken. He wasn't much for crowds or meeting new people. What he was was a good hearted, incredibly strong and smart individual but he didn't broadcast it. He just was all of those things and more.
My grandad was a weaver. He started working in the Glen Royal textile mill at the ripe old age of 12, and worked in textiles most of his life. He worked his way up to being a weaver at the Royal mill and when the mill closed he found jobs at other mills and eventually worked in the Textiles School at NC State. He found a home there and worked there even part-time after his retirement. Having worked to support his mother and younger siblings through much of the depression, he was always thrifty and as the textile students experimented with spinning yarns of different materials and textures, Grandad salvaged most of that yarn the would otherwise have been tossed and brought it back to my Aunt Matt and others who would find uses for it. To this day my grandmother, mother and I have cones and cones of yarn that was saved in crazy colors or unexpected textures.
I am not a weaver, but I have always been fascinated by the workings of large looms, their speed and complexity. There can be something hypnotic and fascinating in a well woven fabric. That's something that I'm sure I come by honestly. I was lucky enough to have my Grandad until I was an adult, and I wish every day that my husband and children could know him. The many photos of him unsmiling or looking away from the camera just don't show the kind of open-hearted goodness that he spread to those of us who knew him. I still feel it every time I feel thread slide through my fingers.