Emilie Richards's Blog, page 38
June 26, 2019
We Interrupt This Program for a Word from our Sponsor
I’m delighted to say that yesterday A Family of Strangers went on sale. My husband bought freshly picked garden flowers at the farmer’s market to celebrate, and after a shopping trip for paint for our newly renovated bathroom (half-successful) and a bed frame with a simple headboard (not successful) we went out for the worst steak I’ve ever eaten. I still had a fabulous day.
So that’s what authors do when, after years of work, a book arrives at bookstores or is automatically transmitted to eReaders overnight.
The only thing left to do now? A bit of final publicity. That’s today’s mission. You’ve seen the book trailer if you’ve clicked above. Now just a little more.
A Few Review Snippets:
From Elyse at Smart Bitches/Trashy Books who gave it an A: “I absolutely loved A Family of Strangers by Emilie Richards. It’s a beautifully executed mystery with a lovely second-chance romance subplot. It also offers a depiction of what living with chronic pain can look like, and as someone who has Fibromyalgia, that was really meaningful to me.”
From Nancy Lepri at New York Journal of Books: “Emilie Richards is well known for penning engaging tales. Three decades ago she began writing romance novels then segued into women’s contemporary fiction with in-depth characterization including subplots filled with mystery and suspense and descriptive detail sure to captivate her readers. A Family of Strangers falls into this category.”
From a New Zealander, Kathryn at The Book Date: “I slowly read the last pages of A Family of Strangers, reluctant to finish, because then I have to step out of the story web that Emilie Richards has woven and entrapped me in.”
Upcoming Book Signings:
June 28 at 1:00 PM:
Chautauqua Institution Bookstore, 67 Bestor Plaza, Chautauqua, NY 14722.
July 10 at 7 PM:
A Likely Story, 7566 Main Street #113 Sykesville, MD 21784. Here’s the link to register.
August 7 at 7 PM:
Towne Book Center Wine Bar and Café, 220 Plaza Drive, Suite B-3, Collegeville, PA 19426. No need to register, but here’s the link for more info.
November 2 from 9:30 to 4:
Buckeye Book Fair, Fisher Auditorium, Wooster, OH. Here’s the link to find out more.
Bookstore Links:
I listed all the links in last Wednesday’s blog, but you can also find them here, plus more about the book.
And there you have it? Is my work done? Not exactly. Last week I promised to share some of the “secrets” behind the book. I’ll do that next week, including the real life story that started me down the road to this book back in 2002. Did you think I was kidding when I said that a book takes years of work?
The post We Interrupt This Program for a Word from our Sponsor appeared first on Emilie Richards.
June 22, 2019
Sunday Inspiration: Best Commencement Speeches 2019
For many students June is an end and often a beginning, complete with ceremony and celebration, and this is a perfect time to look at some of the best commencement speeches. So much inspiration is packed into those minutes on stage.
Commencement speeches are often as relevant to me as to the graduates, since like everyone, I’m constantly growing and graduating from one stage of life to another.
Time Magazine publishes some of the best speeches of the year, so today let’s look at a few. Follow the link to find more on line.
Some of my favorites are Robert F. Smith who walked his talk in a big way by telling the Morehouse College graduating class:
“On behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we’re going to put a little fuel in your bus … This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.”
Oprah Winfrey, as usual, brought the Colorado College class to its feet when she said:
“The most important thing is how you’re touching other people’s lives … The truth is, you cannot fix everything. But what you can do, here and now, is make a decision, because life is about decisions. And the decision is that you will use your life in service; you will be in service to life. You will speak up. You will show up. You will stand up. You will sit in. You will volunteer. You will vote. You will shout out. You will help. You will lend a hand.”
And Tara Westover, the author of the best-seller, Educated, was speaking about our avatars, the photos we usually share with the world when she told the Northeastern University class:
“They are beautiful, unblemished lives. But sometimes I think that when we deny what is worst about ourselves, we also deny what is best. We repress our ignorance, and thus we deny our capacity to learn. We repress our faults, and thus we deny our capacity to change. We forget that it is our flawed human self, and not our avatar, who creates things and reconsiders and forgives and shows mercy.”
I hope you were able to hear an excellent commencement speech in person this month. But if you want a real challenge, reflect on what you would say to the next generation if you had the opportunity.
Ready, set go!
The post Sunday Inspiration: Best Commencement Speeches 2019 appeared first on Emilie Richards.
June 18, 2019
A Family of Strangers: One Week Away
I feel like I’m about to give birth again.Of course a book arriving on bookstore shelves–and eReaders, too–is not the same as having a baby. Having done both, though, I can appreciate the similarities. A novel and a baby take months of nurturing and special care before they make their debut. Parents and authors care enormously about what they’ve conceived and have many of their hopes and dreams tied up in them.
The third trimester of pregnancy is a time to gather energy, to prepare for a baby’s arrival and the work that’s about to ensue. One week away is nesting time. In much the same way, an author prepares by doing promotion, organizing future book signings, giving interviews, fantasizing about results.
While my baby days are behind me, in a week a new book with my name on the cover comes into the world. Between a week of brainstorming with my author friends, a cottage that needed a lot of TLC when we arrived and a two week trip from Florida to New York, I haven’t had nearly as much time to prepare as I’d hoped. At the same time, I haven’t had as much time to worry, either. And like any mother who’s already had several babies, I’ve learned that once a baby (book) is already in production, there’s not a lot we can do. We wait, we hope, we look forward to the birth.
My publisher took the reins and organized some lovely promotion for me. For instance:
The blog Thoughts in Progress did a fun interview about the book, and others are scheduled.
Red Carpet Crash did a flattering review and others are beginning to appear as pub date approaches.
Booklist, a review site for librarians in public libraries, had this to say: “Richards (When We Were Sisters, 2016) deftly shifts from women’s fiction into domestic suspense, but she doesn’t sacrifice the emotional acuity that her fans expect.”
TLC organized a blog tour in June and July
Three bookstores set up signings–dates and time in a later blog.
Today BookBub sent out a preorder alert. Don’t know about BookBub? It’s a terrific way to find new authors and books and to follow your favorite authors (ahem…) to find out what’s coming up next and be the first to know when discounts apply. They’re professional about only sending what you ask for. Give them a try.
One of my publisher’s biggest promotional thrusts was through NetGalley, where reader-reviewers are chosen to receive Advanced Reading Copies months before a book goes on sale so that they can post reviews at places like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and others. I’ve enjoyed reading those reviews, many on Goodreads, which, although not necessarily 100% positive, are thoughtfully produced.
And yes, unlike some authors, most of the time I read my reviews for valuable feedback. I can tell the difference between a critical review from a reader who just doesn’t like the kind of books I write and isn’t afraid to say so, and a reader who has thought carefully about what he/she regards as a problem in a book and stated their opinion without sarcasm. Luckily there aren’t many of the former.
This time I noted that a few of the hard core mystery and thriller readers weren’t as happy with the women’s fiction elements in A Family of Strangers. By the same token some of my women’s fiction readers wished there were fewer suspense elements. I found that instructive, but being human, I particularly loved my many Goldilocks readers.
You know, Goldilocks readers, right? They’re the ones who found the book “just right.”
I happen to be one of them.
A Family of Strangers can be ordered now for delivery on June 25th:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Indiebound –your favorite independent bookstores
Books-A-Million
Apple Books
Kobo
Audible
Next week celebrate the launch with me and find out some of the secrets behind the story.
The post A Family of Strangers: One Week Away appeared first on Emilie Richards.
June 15, 2019
June 8, 2019
June 5, 2019
Befuddled, Bothered and Bewildered
Who likes change? Raise your hands.I see some of you are waving wildly to get my attention. I see some of you cringing in the corner. I’m afraid I cringe with you. Change is a good thing. Too much of it can send me into a tailspin.
So, in the last month I’ve done the following:
Debuted a brand new website. While we always expect mistakes and problems any time we try something new, no one involved in the debut expected the recipes to go crazy. They did, though. The instructions were fine. The ingredients went wild. For instance, did you know that Chicken Okra Gumbo contains 3 cups of paprika, 1 1/2 cups of instant vanilla or chocolate pudding and 2 1/4 cups of olive oil (chopped fine.) Apparently once it’s cooked we add bananas and cherries. Who knew? After everyone on my Facebook pages and I had a great laugh, I asked my webmaster to remove them until we find out what went wrong. I suspect General Foods to be the culprit, since instant pudding came up in many of the “revised” recipes.
Tried valiantly to get my new, faster and smaller computer up and running. This is never easy, and this time the computer has a mind of its own. Right now my “Envy” is loading 69,000 emails I don’t need or want and there’s no way to stop it. Hal, from 2001, would be more accommodating.
Moved too much of everything I own to our cottage in New York for the summer and fall. And while this sounds perfectly delightful, truth is we walked into a horrifying mess. Last year a plumbing disaster meant we had to replace floors and woodwork. So that’s what our contractor did over the winter, along with remodeling a bathroom. Only he left us the dust and dirt and miscellaneous junk to dealt with. (The photo is a teensy example.) Every surface was covered. In his defense he swears he hired someone to clean. I explained he’d been rooked. He wasn’t happy to hear it. I wasn’t happy to pick up the pieces, but between Proman, me and our loyal cleaning lady, the process continues.
Did I mention my Brainstorming Buddies are arriving on Sunday? And between now and then, Proman and I drive back to Cleveland to see our granddaughter’s dance recital.
On the cottage front, we went without hot water or heat (night temps down in the 40s) for three days until the very sweet guy from National Fuel arrived awhile ago to turn on the gas. Luckily we stayed sort of warm cleaning. I had my first shower in four days an hour ago. Nothing like a little deprivation to ramp up appreciation.
So that’s my befuddling, bewildering life for the past few weeks. I really just wanted you to know why I haven’t been around much. And you know what? Through all of it I’ve been aware that:
I have the good fortune to have readers who check out my website and need the best I can give them.
I am so lucky to be able to afford a new computer.
I am even luckier to have a summer cottage I love, even when it’s coated with dust.
Some of my best writer friends will arrive on Sunday and won’t care about the chaos here.
And while I didn’t have hot water or heat for three days, I had water, blankets and shelter, something too many people in this world of ours are not lucky enough to have ever.
Life’s like that, isn’t it? Everything on my list is a first world problem. And they’re all being solved a bit at a time.
I hope your summer is not bewildering or befuddling, and that you spend it with friends and family celebrating your own good fortune.
Next week, some tidbits about A Family of Strangers. Another new thing in my life. If you follow that link right now you’ll find the first chapter, info about how the book came into being, and a short book trailer to pique your interest.
The post Befuddled, Bothered and Bewildered appeared first on Emilie Richards.
June 2, 2019
Sunday Inspiration: Forgiveness
Do you agree? Novelists tackle forgiveness often in our fiction. Are our characters stronger because they’re able to forgive the imperfections of others?
And how about the people we know in our real lives? What can’t you forgive? Who can’t you forgive? And how do we go about it when we’re ready? Each of us has to answer this for ourselves over and over in our lives. If forgiveness is an attribute of the strong, does it make us stronger each time we forgive?
What do you think?
The post Sunday Inspiration: Forgiveness appeared first on Emilie Richards.
May 27, 2019
May 18, 2019
Be A Be Keeper
My son has taken up beekeeping. And while I’m not inclined to join him in his new hobby, I am enthused about keeping “bes.”
That’s not a misspelling. Here’s what I mean.
“Say what you want and BE who you are, because those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.”
I’d love to tell you who first murmured this wonderful piece of ‘be” advice, but apparently pieces of it have been around since the 1890s, and while it’s often attributed to either Dr.
The post Be A Be Keeper appeared first on Emilie Richards.
May 14, 2019
The Great Migration is About to Begin
As I was planning what to write about today I realized my blog may temporarily be down on Wednesday. As I reported earlier my website is undergoing major revisions, and with luck, this is the week the old site disappears and the new one arrives. So this will be quick, just in case the blog still visible.
The post The Great Migration is About to Begin appeared first on Emilie Richards.
