Cathy Spencer's Blog, page 23

My Author Interview with Book Motion City

Book Motion City, a website that specializes in book cover design and short book advertisement films, posted an author's interview with me today, including my advice for aspiring writers.

Catch the interview here:
http://bookmotioncity.com/guest-interview-author-cathy-spencer

Tall Tales Twin-Pack, Science Fiction and Fantasy Free Today and Tomorrow

Tall Tales Twin-Pack, Science Fiction and Fantasy is free today and tomorrow, June 1st and 2nd, so grab a free copy.  If you don't have a Kindle, no problem.  Amazon has free reading apps that allow you to read it on any device.

Product Description
Two short stories in one book, one science fiction and one fantasy.

"Your Daughter is Marrying an Alien" (originally published by Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, November 2011) is set in the year 2080. Simple farmer Lloyd Hodgkin suddenly learns from his wife, Dorothy, that their only child is engaged, and not to the boy-next-door.

"Willimede's Quest" is the story of a young female guard on a quest far beyond her homeland to find an elixir that will keep her queen alive. Pursued by hunters and their dogs, she seeks sanctuary at the castle of a king who has to be convinced that she is who she says she is. But the mystical object she possesses may be enough to buy her safety.

Click to buy on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Twin-Pack-Science-Fiction-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B00D0XNTZM

Click to buy on Amazon.ca:
 http://www.amazon.ca/Twin-Pack-Science-Fiction-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B00D0XNTZM

Silly Cat Pictures, Just Because

This is a great Facebook link to hilarious cat photos and captions (if you like cats, I guess).  Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Love-My-Cat/439386492768813

Comely Press Publishes Its First Two Books

Available from Comely Press:



Tall Tales Twin-Pack, Mysteries

Two mysterious short stories in one book. 

In "The House on Cliffside," Colonel Booth fears his doctor is spending too much time with Booth's wife. When her body is found at the foot of a cliff, he knows it isn't an accident - but he can't prove it. 

"In the Playground," originally published by Suspense Magazine, is a thriller about a suspicious stranger who watches children playing in a park one evening.

Available at Amazon.com.




Tall Tales Twin-Pack, Science Fiction and Fantasy

Two short stories in one book, one science fiction and one fantasy.

"Your Daughter is Marrying an Alien" (originally published by Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, November 2011) is set in the year 2080. Simple farmer Lloyd Hodgkin suddenly learns from his wife, Dorothy, that their only child is engaged, and not to the boy-next-door.

"Willimede's Quest" is the story of a young female guard on a quest far beyond her homeland to find an elixir that will keep her queen alive. Pursued by hunters and their dogs, she seeks sanctuary at the castle of a king who has to be convinced that she is who she says she is. But the mystical object she possesses may be enough to buy her safety.

Available at Amazon.com.

I've Started My Own Publishing Company!

Yesterday, I decided that I was wasting an opportunity in not e-publishing my short stories on Amazon and Smashwords. I got my inspiration from author and publisher Dean Wesley Smith and his wonderful postings entitled "Think Like a Publisher" http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?page_id=3736. Not only should I publish my short stories, but I must publish my novels, which are currently e-published by Books We Love, in paperback, and sooner rather than later.  In order to do that, I needed to create my own publishing company, a sole proprietorship.

I spent an hour or so coming up with a name. It was very frustrating; every time I thought of a great name, I googled it and found it was already taken. I finally settled on one that wasn't taken - Comely Press. My next move was to buy the website domain right away before it was taken. So now I have a website for Comely Press, http://comelypress.com, and an e-mail address, cs@comelypress.com.

There are many steps to a career in writing and publishing, and yesterday I took another one. Huzzah!

Kudos to Charlaine Harris

Dead Ever After
The Final Sookie Stackhouse Novel













I'm a big fan of Charlaine Harris' books, including the Lilly Bard "Shakespeare" series, the Harper Connelly ("I feel dead people"), and the flag ship of them all, Sookie Stackhouse.  Oddly, I never got into the Aurora Teagarden books, but three out of four is darn good.

I just finished reading the final book in the Stackhouse series, Dead Ever After, and put it down with a contented sigh.  This book is like a curtain-call for many of the series characters, those that are still alive, that is, and Ms. Harris ties all the loose ends together.  She has created a universe with all its own rules, just like Terry Pratchett has with the "Disc World" and JK Rowling with "Harry Potter," and that's no mean feat.  Sookie is unique, however.  Her heroine is a waitress considered dim-witted by those unfamiliar with her mind-reading abilities; someone who tries to improve her education with a new word-a-day calendar.  Her world revolves around the bar Sookie works at in a small southern American town, her only  family a self-engrossed brother, and she has few real friends.  But into this microcosm of a world, Harris had introduced vampires, shape-shifters, fairies, and demons - the mundane with the supernatural - and made it both endearing and exciting.

I look forward to seeing where Ms. Harris takes us to next.  I intend to come along for the ride - do you?

Laura Spencer, Understudy, Goes on in Jubilations' "The Big Boom Theory"

Our budding actress-daughter, Laura, has been employed as "adcast" by Jubilations Dinner Theatre in Calgary for about a year now.  All of the wait staff wear costumes and appear in character during the show, and are a fun part of the entertainment.  Laura has sung a solo during a food-break in the last two shows, and became the understudy for the Amy Farrah Fowler character for the current show, "The Big Boom Theory," which opened at the end of April.

Laura worked two extra shifts last Monday and Tuesday, and was taking Thursday off to allow maintenance to install a bathroom ceiling fan in her apartment when she got a text message from the Jubilations floor manager telling her that the actress who plays Amy was quite sick, and that Laura was on standby to go on for her the next night.  On Friday morning at 10AM, Laura received a second message telling her that she was playing Amy that night, and to come to an emergency four-hour dress rehearsal at 1PM.  Laura had had no previous rehearsals for the show, but had been learning the part by observing the play while she worked.

Even though the show was sold-out, the good people at Jubilations squeezed in another table-for-two for Reid and I, and we got to see Laura perform in the Friday night show.  We were so proud of her.  She had learned all of the lines, sang a solo and duets, and was in some of the dance numbers, too.  She also had the Amy voice and mannerisms down pat. One particular moment I will always remember was when the villain, who was trying to seduce Amy, did some back flips across the stage during a musical number, and then waited for Laura to run at him full tilt and straddle-jump him!  At the end of the show, Laura stepped forward for her bow, and the other cast members formed a half-circle around her and applauded.  You could tell that Laura didn't expect them to do this and was visibly touched.

Saturday afternoon she attended a second extra rehearsal so that she could be added to the big "Ballroom Blitz" song and dance number, and Sunday she did a third rehearsal so that she could sing an extra solo during one of the meal breaks and appear in the dance combinations at the end of the show.  This was Laura's first professional show, and she was a real pro through-out her "baptism-by-fire."  Well done, Laura!

Great Article About My Books in Mount Royal University's "Face Time"

I'm delighted today about an article that appeared in Mount Royal University's electronic newsletter, "Face Time."  It was written by Angela Sengaus, and is about my writing career outside my working hours as an administrative assistant with the Department of Humanities.  It includes  book covers and links to my books on Amazon.com, and it's terrific promotion.

Heres a link to the article:  http://www.mtroyal.ca/facetime/FTdata_cathyspencer_050913.htm

A Big Move

Sometimes the dice get rolled and your whole life turns upside down.  That's just what happened to my husband and me over the past couple of months.  Budget cuts to post-secondary education from the Alberta government required Mount Royal University, where my husband is employed as a tenured associate professor and I am employed as an administrative assistant, to make some deep cuts, and they suspended the fine arts diploma program, among others.  My husband was declared redundant, since he teaches music and drama, so we have decided to return to Ontario, where Reid will have more teaching and performing opportunities.  We will probably head off the last week in July, our furniture in a truck and our Toyota in tandem, and plan to head for Hamilton.  We've never lived there before, but there's a GO Train to Toronto, and the real estate prices are at least half of what they cost in the greater Toronto area.  Reid will pick up some part-time teaching hours at a nearby college, open a private studio, and work with his agent to find performing opportunities.  The plan is for me to stay home and write, after thirty-plus years of working as a clerk/administrative assistant in the insurance and post-secondary education industries.  We hope to buy a house we can put a basement apartment into to help with the mortgage payments, so we'll be flying out to Hamilton in June to look at properties.  The next three to four months will be crazy and stressful, but exciting.

I will be able to treat my writing as a full-time career and give it the time and energy it requires to be successful.  A meeting with the Calgary IPAC group in April, where Dave Reynolds of the Calgary Chapters-Indigo bookstore chain spoke about getting your self-published books into Chapters on consignment, and new promotional ideas from my e-publisher, Books We Love, have made me realize that it will take a heck of a long time to finish my next book, Town Haunts, if I continue to write on a part-time basis.  Since the best strategy to a successful career is to keep publishing books, I'm really glad that this opportunity to pursue my dream on a full-time basis has opened before me; glad, but scared.

So, now we need to sell our house in Turner Valley, find a loving home(s) for my daughter's two cats, comb through our accumulated junk (again) and pack up, find a place to live in Ontario - oh, and finish out the next couple of months at Mount Royal.  "Easy peasy" my daughter, Kate, would say.  And say goodbye to our youngest daughter, who will be staying here in Calgary as she pursues her acting career.  We've put down roots in St. John's, Waterloo, Vancouver, and Calgary, and Laura is one root who will flourish here a while longer, until she realizes her dream to live in England, that is.

Goodbye, Alberta.  Welcome home, Ontario.

When Authors Have to Have a Thick Skin

So, probably the worst part about being an author is when someone gives you a lousy review.  Anyone can write and publish a review these days; all they have to have is a blog, no credentials required.  It doesn't matter that they didn't read your book very carefully or are misinformed; they can say whatever they like.  And it's seen as poor form for an author to respond in her own defence.  Not only does it look like sour grapes, but the author might become the target of malicious reviews as payback.  While the book-sharing platforms can be a lot of fun - people get together to recommend the books they love - they are also used by people who self-aggrandize by trashing other peoples' work.

Today The Affairs of Harriet Walters, Spinster got trashed, and that's frustrating.  Not just trashed, but major plot points were given away without so much as a "spoiler alert," and when I pointed this out to the site managers, my knuckles were rapped.  I won't direct you to the website because I don't want to promote them and because I don't want to spoil the book for people who haven't read it yet.  I am, however, very grateful every time someone who enjoys one of my books makes a special effort to leave a good review.  It is so much easier to tear things down than to build them up.

So, thanks to everyone who likes my books and passes the word along to their friends.  I'm going to hold my head up and keep on writing for a long time to come.  Cheers!