Emily was at home when Shannon came over to confess she was pregnant. The girls were best friends, barely 17, and had just started their senior year of high school. Shannon was a class beauty. She was a homecoming queen nominee. But it was the Sixties; nice girls—class beauties, homecoming queens—didn’t get pregnant.
There had to be some way to take care of the problem. The girls drove the dusty back roads to the smaller towns around the metropolitan area where they lived naively assuming they could find a doctor who would rid Shannon of her difficulty. All declined. Back at Emily’s, Shannon lay down alongside Emily’s bed. Her plan was for Emily to jump from the bed onto her abdomen. The mistake would then be expelled and Shannon could return to being the carefree teenager she was before having unprotected sex with a guy who supposedly was in love with her but, after all, didn’t care. Emily refused. Shannon’s class beauty picture was removed from the high school annual. Shannon herself was expelled and forced to leave home. Frightened and alone, she gave birth in a strange place under the cold, judging eye of relatives who disapproved.

Katherine had a roommate who came to be in a similar situation. Donna managed to hide her condition from her employers until two weeks prior to her delivery date. The only doctor she saw during the term of her pregnancy was the one who confirmed her condition. Again, the father of the child, who had professed love, didn’t. Donna took a leave of absence from work; she gave birth to her baby in a home for unwed mothers. Denied the right to even see the child, she gave it up for adoption. She returned to work. Donna and Katherine never spoke of it, but the silence and the sorrow weighed on them and eventually eroded their friendship.

Vicky’s roommate Tanya also hid her condition. Only Vicky knew. Tanya carried her baby to term. The girls, twenty-somethings, had no plan other than Vicky would drive Tanya to the hospital when her time came; she would deliver her baby and then decide whether to keep it or give it up. Other than that, the matter wasn’t discussed. It was as if by ignoring the fact, it might disappear. It didn’t. When Tanya’s water broke, she found Vicky across the hall watching television with her boyfriend. The boyfriend drove the girls to the hospital, but after that, he never spoke to Vicky again. The fact that Vicky associated with, lived with a girl who was pregnant out of wedlock tarred her with the same brush, and in his eyes, the “sin” was unforgivable. Tanya’s baby was stillborn. The hospital staff insisted she give it a proper funeral or the baby’s soul would be lost in purgatory and when she refused, they shamed her.

Within an hour or so of publishing The Ninth Step last August, I was elated to see a few sales. I (naively) imagined the trend would continue and figured I would just keep writing another book while The Ninth Step flew off the virtual shelves. Hah! I was wrong of course, but then I have always been enamored of Pollyanna and I loved the movie Field of Dreams and its message “if you build it, they will come”. In a sense writing and sharing my work with others is my field of dreams and even now six months later, I’m loathe to relinquish the notion that if you create something out of a vision you hold in your heart and mind, that it won’t draw attention. It’s a simple enough idea on the surface, to make a thing and assume its success in the marketplace, but almost nothing will fly on its own. Even the Wright brothers’ machine had wings and a propeller. And of course the Wright brothers persisted; they wouldn’t take no for an answer; they had tremendous determination. So these are a few more things you need in addition to your burning faith and desire.

Jersey Girl Book Reviews - I love this pic!

And once the thing is made, there’s another essential element to the process if your goal is to bring interest and attention to your creation. You’re going to need visibility, preferably of the sort that is targeted to your particular market. There are a wealth of resources available in the indie publishing world, and one of the most valuable are book bloggers and reviewers who out of their sheer love for books devote so much time and care to reading every sort of book, fiction or non fiction, and then generously share their thoughts across a network of virtual venues.

Jersey Girl Book Reviews is the creation of Kathleen Higgins Anderson. I was lucky enough to find her website almost immediately after publishing The Ninth Step and I was drawn in first by the artwork on her site and then by the genuine warmth of her reviews. She provides such full-bodied and richly detailed commentary that in no way reveals too much of the story, but rather it fuels your desire to read the book for yourself. When I contacted her, she got back to me immediately and was so gracious in her response. I was new to the indie publishing game and a little nervous; her professionalism meant a lot. Today her review of The Ninth Step is one of the books featured on Jersey Girl Book Reviews and she has included my guest post on her blog. I am fortunate that she has given wings to my novel and to my hope of sharing it with a widening circle of readers. Many thanks, Kathleen.

I ran across this quote a few days ago: The art of love … is largely in the art of persistence. Albert Ellis said it. And it is sticking in my mind, sticking to it in much the same way oatmeal sticks to your ribs. At first I thought of writing, how it is an act of love and how persistence is such a huge part of that love. I remember, vividly, painfully, the first time I was invited to join a critique group. They asked that I come to the meeting with a sample of my writing that I would be prepared to read out loud, in front of strangers. I worked hard and managed to produce one page of the novel I had in mind to write, that I thought might be fit to read, but when my turn came, my voice faltered. My mouth was so dry. I can’t imagine how I got through the ordeal. It was worse than the public speaking class I took in college where I was the only girl student in a roomful of guys. Who would want to endure that experience again? Much less week after week? Yet I did. I went back, over and over and I learned the craft of writing—through persistence. Was it me or was it the love for the art form, for the work itself, in me?

Then I extrapolated … what of my love for my children? How much of loving them was/is persistence? The moment they were settled into my arms after birth, I melted. I thought my heart would explode, I was in such awe, but then there were days. You know the ones. Those tests of love days. I would think: I am going to lose it
here! I would go into the bathroom, shut the door and sit on the closed toilet lid and I would talk myself down, return to the fray, mete out whatever discipline was required. When everyone was calm again, we talked about what happened. It was an act of love, but wasn’t it also an act of persistence?

You fight with your spouse, you walk away and come back, talk it out. Isn’t that persistence? Love is like a visitor knocking on your door, persistently knocking until you open it and allow in the flood of inspiration, revelation, joy … the treasure that is there, that is inside you. We recognize that in each other and we persist in every way we can to connect with each other. We persist in loving one another, and our work, if we’re fortunate in that regard and often it is in the face of what seem to be insurmountable odds.

The Facebook Link

Kindle Nation Daily, (website link), the brainchild of Stephen Windwalker, Windwalker Media, is a webzine/newsletter about all things Kindle, and so much more, offering readers free book alerts, cogent indie-related articles and Kindle news, plus tips and tricks for getting the most out of your Kindle experience. It is no accident that it is the most popular Kindle community on the web. In addition to their Facebook page, which daily showcases a plethora of e-books for all tastes–from thrillers to romance to literary and historical, just every genre you can imagine–and all budgets, the webzine also sends out daily email blasts called Kindle Shorts. Not the kind you wear but the kind you read! In addition to an author biography and bits of other data, each short contains a generous excerpted serving of the book, usually the opening chapters, enough certainly to decide whether the work is to your taste. For readers it’s a great way to discover new authors without spending a dime. And today the featured short is an excerpt from my novel, The Volunteer.

Briefly, the story centers on psychologist Sophia Wilmot who through a haunting sequence of events finds herself holding the power to save death row inmate Jarrett Capshaw from execution. Sophia resists becoming involved, and wouldn’t have, if it were not for Jarrett’s wife and children. It’s his family and their struggle to survive, to come to terms with this calamity, that she can’t resist. But families are what The Volunteer is about, how they’re made and how in one single, horrifying instant, they can be broken. It is a story about mothers and the lies they tell to protect their children, to keep them from being hurt. But what happens when the truth comes out anyway and nothing and no one is spared? Sometimes the truth has the power to break your heart, and in Sophia’s case it will also endanger her freedom and threaten everything she has ever believed about her life.

I hope you will be intrigued by this short enough to check out and subscribe to the Kindle Nation Daily so you can sign up to receive the Shorts via email for yourself. I guarantee you will find authors and genres you love. And do visit their Facebook page, as well, to discover even more great new books every day. As an author myself I can’t say enough good about the variety of ways there are through this outlet to promote e-books. For me, the marketing end of this venture has been the most daunting and confusing. I didn’t even know where to start and when I found the Kindle Nation Daily website, I was thrilled. There it was, a variety of marketing plans laid out in a straightforward, creative and professional manner that from experience I know delivers fantastic, track-able results. Marketing a book, or any product, I think, is a cumulative adventure. It builds from each effort and having a plan is key. Having Steve’s support and the choice of the many venues he provides has been invaluable to me. Other authors agree. Read what they have to say here. All I can do is add my thanks and appreciation to theirs.

Yesterday I attended a chapter meeting of the West Houston RWA. I’m not a member but tagged along at the invitation of two of my critique partners, authors Colleen Thompson and TJ Bennett, who were kind enough to include me. I had a special reason for going to this meeting, and it was because Joan Reeves, super-successful author of many super-fun and sexy romantic titles was the speaker. I had met Joan before, virtually, last summer through her Slingwords blog that I was led to from uber-successful Joe Konrath’s blog. I was in fact-gathering mode at the time, trying to absorb all I could about how to indie publish my work. To say I was naïve would be an understatement and finding Joe Konrath and then through his blog to be led to Joan’s Slingwords blog was just a gift. Without the support of the wealth of information they (and their followers) share, and the guidance Joan has so generously provided to me through our email correspondence, the learning curve would have been a lot sharper and more painful!

I went to that meeting feeling overwhelmed. It’s nothing new. I’ve been plagued with this sense ever since my first novel went live last August. I’m haunted by the notion that I am never going to master the skills necessary to keep all the multiple plates—actual writing + the process involved in artfully showcasing via cover, cover verbiage, endorsements etc. + formatting + marketing, which entails all the various social networking venues (also requiring of a cogent framework)  spinning and maintain my balance. If I can ever even learn mastery of these skills—how best to use the tools that are available—that’s another question.

But two things I came away with yesterday… 

One: I am not alone. Everyone involved in this new publishing world feels overwhelmed to some degree. (It isn’t just me being totally dense after all! At least not all the way!) Joan talked about how the indie landscape is changing, and not just yearly, but weekly, even daily! Back when I was a flight attendant I had a supervisor who gave me a piece of advice in reference to running (literally!) a four-course dinner service on a short flight. I’ve never forgotten it and it applies here: Do what you can do, and what you can’t do, don’t, and don’t worry about it!

The second thing…

Don’t waste your time doing anything that does not resonate with your soul no matter who tries to tell you otherwise. Follow your own inner guide, your own sense of what works for you. You don’t have to explain or apologize. Your way is your way, and it is to be honored and respected, revered even. You don’t have to be proficient at every level of social networking, or what-have-you, regardless of what form it takes. You only have to be true to yourself, and I believe when you are, bit by bit, the bridge to your goal, whatever it might be, is built. There is no magic bullet, no guarantee or sure-fire formula for success other than the magical, sure-fire way you create for yourself.

And Last…

Where are my manners? Thank you to everyone yesterday at the West Houston meeting. It was lovely. I enjoyed meeting everyone and got so much out of the discussion plus came home with two great reads!

The Last Innocent Hour, originally published in trade paper is now available for e-readers. It tells the story of Beth Cunningham who at eighteen was forced to leave the Texas farm where she was raised in order to escape her stepfather’s unwanted attention. She marries, but seven years later when her husband Charlie’s freewheeling gambling lifestyle jeopardizes their daughter Chrissy’s wellbeing, Beth sees no alternative other than to bring her family back to Texas. Beth’s mama has promised Beth’s stepfather is gone; Beth believes the nightmare that drove her from home—the one Charlie knows nothing about—is over. She believes her family will be safe. But within a matter of hours after their arrival, short innocent hours, a fresh storm, brutal and fearsome in its intensity, breaks. Charlie vanishes. Beth witnesses a murder, and with Chrissy in her arms, she’s running again. Running for her life. Too late, a voice whispers in her brain. Bang, bang you’re next, taunts the voice behind her. And still she runs. Runs until she is falling. Runs until all reason is lost.

The "Big House" in winter - Beautiful!

The house Beth flees, the one that’s pictured on the front cover of The Last Innocent Hour, was built by my great grandfather Horace Rogers for his wife, my beautiful great grandmother, Stella Williams Rogers, in the town of Fort Smith, Arkansas. My grandmother and her two brothers were raised in the house. Family legend has it that Stella chose the site, that her heart was set on it, but the parcel of land belonged to the estate of a deceased Arkansas governor and my great grandfather had a time talking his way into the purchase of it. The house is beautifully situated on a gentle rise with grounds that drop away like a full lowering skirt. It unfortunately has passed from the family years ago and the way that it did is a story all in itself.

The seed for The Last Innocent Hour was planted when I was attending college in Fort Smith one semester and my mother arranged with the (then) owner of the house for us to come and have a tour. I was in awe from the moment I walked onto the veranda. The front door opens into an elegant foyer, tiled in yards of marble. Doorways open from the foyer into a variety of rooms, music room, parlor, a library. The kitchen and a glass conservatory are at the back of the house, behind the stairs. But what drew my eye that day was the staircase. It was so wide and sweeping, with beautifully carved newel posts, and led up to a generously proportioned second floor landing, where a tall beveled and stained glass window rose from the floor like a crown. Light spilled through it silvering the air. The effect was magical. I guess that’s why out of all the other beautiful details there were to see that day, it is the window over the stairway landing that I remember most vividly. I describe it in the novel, how it frames the glare of lightening, how the rain runs like tears down the glass.

I think my sister Susan and I are the only great grandchildren to see the interior of that house. My one regret is that due to an illness in the owner’s family, my mom and I could not tour the third floor ballroom or go out on the widow’s walk. Someday I would like to go back there. Last I knew “the big house”, as it is affectionately referred to in the family, was a bed and breakfast. I’ve mentioned to my siblings and cousins that we should hold a reunion there, walk the halls and rooms of our ancestors. Maybe one day we’ll do that!

Year of the Indie Event!

This week, December 24^th through December 31^st, The Last Innocent Hour, among many other great e-books, is being featured in The Women’s Literary Café’s Year of the Indie Event.

About the WoMen’s Literary Café

The WoMen’s Literary Café (welcoming both men and women) is an extension of The Women’s Nest. This Internet hub bridges the gap between writers and readers with the sole mission of promoting great literature. The WLC provides free marketing services allowing authors to connect with readers, reviewers, and the media, through numerous promotions and a launch platform for new books. The WoMen’s Literary Café is ‘Where readers and authors unite!’  I encourage you to visit Women’s Literary Cafe to learn more.

Melissa Foster, the founder of WLC, and also of The Women’s Nest, an online community for women, which connects women across the world, is also a very fine author. I don’t know how she manages everything that she does, but I’m glad for her support and the support of the writing communities she has worked so tirelessly to create. For more about Melissa, visit her website at www.MelissaFoster.com

Transitions. Everyone goes through them, but even when they lead to something wonderful like marriage to the one you love or the welcomed birth of a child, they can be unsettling. Coping With Transition, Men, Motherhood, Money and Magic, edited by Susan Briggs Wright, is a memorable collection of memoirs from women who were born between 1935 and 1960. It was a pivotal era for women, a time when transitions, especially difficult ones, were seldom discussed. Women’s lives, family life, life in general was supposed to resemble the images Norman Rockwell captured on the pretty and serene covers he did for the Saturday Evening Post. The reality was often far different. Messier. Confusing.

Rules were numerous. Young women were cautioned to adhere to certain standards. “My father was strict about who I could go out with,” relates Suzanne Kerr in her memoir titled, Waiting For Marriage, Sex, and My Mother’s Life (In That Order). Suzanne’s dad went on to tell her as she was leaving the nest for college in September of 1962, that if he ever heard of her going to a boy’s apartment, he’d jerk her out of school. (Can you imagine handing down such a mandate to your daughter today?!) Her mother said she should marry a professional man, and oh yes, she should certainly be a virgin. Suzanne chronicles what becomes a long and circuitous path to the altar in a voice that mixes elements of wry humor and rueful irony.  And honesty. It’s the honesty and trueness of each voice in the collection that makes it such a compelling read.

Why do I not remember days, only moments? How do I start … with the end of my life? So begins Sue Jacobson’s haunting memoir, Why Have I Survived You? in which she tells of the loss of a beloved daughter. Donna Siegel begins her memoir, Crossing the Rubicon, with this notable line: Growing into who you are genetically destined to be can cause a lot of problems. Donna was married at 19 and divorced after a lifetime. Somewhere she found the courage to reenter school, to earn her master’s degree, but even better, she lives comfortably now with life’s questions, its mystery. In A Closet: Memories, Meaning, and Sometimes Magic, Mel Gallagher, confides that her closet (of all curious and imaginative places!) and all that it contains has given her insights into her life. Leslie McManis begins her short essay, Growing Up Outside, with this intriguing line: My mother was a forties beauty queen, and then renders the poignant details of an injured childhood, but the accent is on survivorship, not victimhood. What touches a chord throughout this collection is the amount of courage and resilience that was and is still demonstrated by this remarkable group of women. The collection is diverse, covering topics from a husband’s impending retirement to the pursuit of international adoption—at the age of forty-nine, no less. Talk about courage. And there’s long, intimate and wise talk about seizing love and the moment—at sixty-eight from Mary Margaret Hansen. No, she isn’t thirty-five, but she’s still very full of life with so much to do, to share and contribute as you will find out when you read her witty and smart memoir Seven Scenes From Shared Space.

Coping With Transition, Men, Motherhood, Money and Magic is truly a book for women of all ages, and the men who want to understand them—who dare to try! Reading it is like sitting down to have an intimate chat with dear friends and the conversation is one that leaves you feeling satisfied and hopeful. It’s life affirming. It would be great to see this collection digitized for e-readers. It’s perfect for reading on the go. A perfect delight all the way around.

Click the image to hear a judge explain the legal logic for granting Haugen's wish

Last month, Oregon Governor, John Kitzhaber, imposed a moratorium on the death penalty for the remainder of his term, saying he’s morally opposed to capital punishment and has long regrettedallowing two men to be executed in the 1990s. Oregon is the fifth state since 2007 to halt the execution process. One of the biggest motivating factors behind this decision is the fear of killing the wrong person. It happens and often the tragedy isn’t uncovered until after the fact. After lives and families are destroyed.

But what about the inmates who ask to die? The death row volunteers who are guilty by their own admission. So guilty there is not so much as the sliver of a shadow of doubt. That’s the case with twice-convicted murderer Gary Haugen. After serving thirty years in prison, the last several on Oregon’s death row, Haugen asked the same legal system that handed down his death sentence to carry it out. A judge agreed, and Haugen’s execution date was scheduled for December 6th.

But it didn’t happen because Oregon’s governor suffered a moral crisis over the issue and shut down the death machine. Until his term is over, he says. Then the next governor can sort out the legislative mess.

Some objectors say volunteering is a way for inmates to control the system. Some say it’s state-assisted suicide. Some would take every death row inmate, including Haugen, “out back” and shoot them. Others think sitting out your days in a prison cell is a worse penalty, a living hell as opposed to the eternal one that may wait after death. But however you look at it, volunteers are in a different category. They aren’t straining the already burdened courts with yet one more appeal beyond asking to die. Now. They aren’t looking for a loophole or pleading they’ve been saved by Jesus Christ, although professionals in the field say, as in the case of Haugen, such petitions are often meant to draw attention to the flaws in the justice system. But even if legal reform were to occur as a result of their actions, volunteers must know they won’t be alive to see it.

So, what’s the real point? In research for my novel, The Volunteer, I read a lot of interviews of these inmates, and while many had strong opinions about the whole emotionally-charged, Gordian Knot that surrounds the death penalty, at their core, what some of them seemed to feel was the need to take responsibility. Short of returning to life those who were dead by their hands, it was all they could do. End the suffering of their victim’s families, and in some cases, of their own families. And isn’t this, at least in part, the logic that underlies the death penalty? That the suffering should come to an end?

So while I can admire Kitzhaber for his courage in standing up for his convictions, and for doing so under a barrage of public criticism, while I even share in his moral confusion about the matter, I think an exception should be made for Haugen, and in the case of all volunteers like him. Let the ones who choose to shoulder the terrible burden of their crimes go. Let it be over. Let Haugen fulfill his court-ordered obligation, the one a judge and jury, showing no less courage than Kitzhaber in making their decision to send Haugen to his death, says he deserves. And let those who are left behind find peace . . . if they can.

First: The farm and the magical trip that made up the best Thanksgiving Day ever…. 

On Thanksgiving Day I rode with my son, David, and his girlfriend, Christy, to the Hill Country. It was the most special occasion because it was my first visit to land they purchased near Smithwick where in a few short months they will open an aquaponics farm. In case you don’t know, Aquaponics is the cultivation of fish and plants that are linked via a re-circulating ecosystem utilizing natural bacterial processes to convert fish wastes to plant nutrients. It is an environmentally-friendly, organic method of growing food (you harvest both fish and produce) that harnesses the best attributes of aquaculture and hydroponics without the need to discard any water or filtrate or add chemical fertilizers. And unlike crops raised by hydroponics alone, the fruits and veggies grown this way taste wonderful!

The view from my front yard

I’m excited about this venture and thrilled to be part of it. One of the reasons we went there was so that I could choose a home site. I’m thinking a Texas Tiny Houses type home. I took my camera (my home site picture here doesn’t do it justice) and a small iron bird, a garden ornament, to leave there as a promise, and I brought back a soil sample and rocks with actual crystals in them from what will one day be the garden outside my front door. It was a beautiful day to be outside, to walk the land that had lived in our hearts for so many years like a dream. The air in the hill country has an effervescence, like champagne, and it’s permeated with the fresh scent of cedar. There were butterflies everywhere, the music of birds (the property backs up to a section of the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Reservation) and the hush of the wind through the trees. Not silence, and yet it was silence at some level so deep, a level that waits in each of us, I think, to be recognized, to be nourished. We had lunch. Christy and David had packed my favorite Thanksgiving feast: turkey sandwiches on homemade bread with homemade cranberry sauce and butter. Evening came and we sat in the grass watching the last of the day’s light glaze the hills across the highway. “It’s hard to leave,” I whispered, and it was.

Now for the goddess part….

But on the way home, we had an interesting conversation. Christy is training to run in the MetroPCS Dallas White Rock 26.2 mile marathon going off this weekend. She’s been training for weeks and it’s amazing to me; her persistence has been dogged in the extreme. Grueling. I’d never do it and I’m so proud of her because she is! She has said all along, though, that she isn’t doing it to win and I understand her completely. The very fact that she set the goal, that she adhered to a training schedule, that she hasn’t once given up on her commitment has given her a sense of accomplishment. It has raised her level of self-confidence. And that’s enough. She’ll be happy, she says, if she can finish. But David said if he had put in all the sweat equity she has, he’d be set on winning. In fact, he said he wouldn’t take on the challenge of a marathon or anything like that unless he believed to his core he could win. Their discussion seemed to represent one of the classic male/female divides and led me to remember a remarkable book I read quite some time ago, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, The Conflict Between Word and Image by Leonard Shlain. I mentioned the book to them, and reflecting on it, said I thought the difference in their approach to a challenge was rooted in ancient history when men were the hunters in charge of bringing food back to their tribe and women were the gatherers, the nurturers, charged with the safety and wellbeing of the children, the progeny that ensured the continuance of the race. That is a less well-defined goal, one that spans a much longer time of execution than the one of rustling up the family’s next meal. A guy had to be focused; he had to win and more than that, he had to be passionate about winning. He had to be in a kind of “take no prisoner’s” mode, because it wasn’t as if he could purchase dinner at the local grocery store if he failed! His need to succeed was immediate, the consequences if he didn’t were just as immediate … starvation and death. And while the woman’s role was as crucial to the tribe’s survival, there wasn’t the daily pressure of the hunt with its clearly defined objective. The hunter had to win, every day provide a physical trophy; the goddess didn’t. She provided things, but they were less tangible, nothing to dance in the end zone over! At least that’s my take on it for what it’s worth. Y’all weigh in, if you want to.

And for readers who might be interested

From the Amazon Review: “Literacy has promoted the subjugation of women by men throughout all but the very recent history of the West,” writes Leonard Shlain. “Misogyny and patriarchy rise and fall with the fortunes of the alphabetic written word.” That’s a pretty audacious claim, one that The Alphabet Versus the Goddess provides extensive historical and cultural correlations to support. Shlain’s thesis takes readers from the evolutionary steps that distinguish the human brain from that of the primates to the development of the Internet. The very act of learning written language, he argues, exercises the human brain’s left hemisphere–the half that handles linear, abstract thought–and enforces its dominance over the right hemisphere, which thinks holistically and visually. If you accept the idea that linear abstraction is a masculine trait, and that holistic visualization is feminine, the rest of the theory falls into place. The flip side is that as visual orientation returns to prominence within society through film, television, and cyberspace, the status of women increases, soon to return to the equilibrium of the earliest human cultures. Shlain wisely presents this view of history as plausible rather than definite, but whether you agree with his wide-ranging speculations or not, he provides readers eager to “understand it all” with much to consider. –Ron Hogan

It took me awhile to get through it, but it was well worth the read, for what I carried away from it was a clearer understanding of human nature and a greater hope for our future.

I have had the privilege of becoming acquainted with Corinna Barsan, a senior editor at Other Press, through our correspondence regarding a handful of wonderful books published by the house. The first was The Quickening by Michelle Hoover. An Accidental Light by Elizabeth Diamond and Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam are two others. Judging from what her authors have to say about her, Corinna is a truly remarkable, hands-on, nurturing midwife to the books she works on. I think it must be lovely as a writer to have her guidance. I know I have very much enjoyed our email conversation. So when out of the blue, I decided to try indie publishing, I thought of Corinna and wondered what she would think. What would her opinion, even her advice be, to an author heading into this new territory? I kept wondering for so long, I finally decided to ask her and she has graciously consented to share her answers to a few of my questions. Corinna, welcome to the blog. Thank you very much for taking the time to drop by.

Thanks for inviting me, and congratulations on the publication of your new book, The Volunteer. You’re now an indie publishing veteran! You’ll have to share your experiences . . . but we’ll save that for future blog posts.

First, do you own a reading device? Do you take it along when you travel? Are you reading something on it now? Do you find it is a different experience? 

I’m a bit of a walking book-lover cliché. When I’m reading for pleasure, it’s always a printed book. I’m an underliner. I like to fill the pages with dots and lines and markings as trails leading back to my impressions. But for work purposes, I mostly read submissions on a device—as most editors and publishing folks do. In the old days (just five or six years ago), you could spot an editor on the street by the heavy load of manuscripts tucked in a tote and their tilted posture. Electronic devices have saved our backs and spared some trees from copy machines. (Although I have to admit that I still print out submissions when I’m starting to fall for a book because I tend to absorb more of the story that way.) While these devices are convenient in so many ways, one thing that irks me is that the outside world can’t distinguish that the reading I’m doing is work-related and that I’m not a total e-reader convert—I still support the printed book. I wish someone would manufacture a sticker that says something like: On duty. I prefer paperbacks. I would slap that on the back of my device!

In a recent conversation I had with a literary agent, she tagged the publishing climate today as the “Wild Wild West”. Do you agree? And if so, do you think the current shaking of the old foundation will settle, and while the landscape around it might be new, do you feel the base it sits on will eventually be stable and accepted as part of the publishing mainstream?

That’s a great image. In many ways it is like the “Wild Wild West” in that we’re traveling across unchartered terrain and there are no rules (“laws”) to guide us—it’s a bit of a land grab right now as we feel our way through these changes. In many ways it’s exciting because new opportunities for publishing have opened up and there’s room to break out of previous molds to experiment with format. Some books—such as very hot, time-sensitive nonfiction—can benefit from being published as quickly as possible into an e-book so as not to miss out on public interest. We can do that these days. While we’re still exploring and experimenting, it all looks like a mad dash of chaos but the possibilities are manifesting and things will eventually calm down a bit when the novelty wears off.

In the past, an author who published his or her own work was often dismissed out of hand. From your viewpoint as an editor, has that perception changed with the advent of e-books and readers? Would you, or have you ever considered the work of an indie author? Is there an indie book out there that you wish you had acquired?

There have been some great examples of writers self-publishing, finding success, and then going on to have a more traditional experience with an established publisher. One title that springs to mind is Anthology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann, which was self-published and then re-published by Spiegel and Grau. It’s difficult to ignore a book that has taken flight through word-of-mouth and I would certainly consider a title that has galvanized readers. This all goes back to increased opportunity in this “Wild Wild West” landscape. The arrival of e-books has given self-published authors an advantage in that their work is more accessible; though I think an author needs to be a good self-promoter or have a platform to make inroads.

A lot of rhetoric surrounds the price of indie e-books. Readers argue that traditional publishers price them too high. Some readers even boycott books priced above $2.99. What is your feeling about this? Do you foresee traditional publishers lowering the prices for e-books in the future?

There’s great danger in pricing e-books too low because the message that is being delivered is that it’s okay to devalue a work of literature. Format doesn’t necessarily equate the need for dirt cheap pricing. What you’re buying is art. It shouldn’t be reduced to the price of a Starbucks coffee because people are out for a bargain. Once you start lowering prices to that extent, it’s much harder to raise it again to a more respectable price since you’ve set an expectation in the consumer’s mind. E-book pricing is still in flux and eventually we’ll settle on a model—hopefully a respectable one.

Corinna Barsan is a senior editor at Other Press, where she edits literary fiction and nonfiction from around the world. She joined the company in 2006 after beginning her publishing career at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Prior to her editorial work, she was a photo editor for book and magazine projects. Born and raised in New York City, she holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from New York University and an MFA in fiction from Hunter College. And she writes a wonderful blog, Shiny White Page.