Category: QuickJAB

Author Highlights ~ Susie H. Baxter

~ Jaye Bee ~ Leave a comment

Susie Baxter - 2_2 for back covr

About Susie H. Baxter

Susie H. Baxter serves as Creative Nonfiction Editor for Bacopa Literary Review, the annual print journal of the Writers Alliance of Gainesville, and teaches memoir writing at Santa Fe College.

During her career as an acquisitions editor and publisher for a health-science publishing house in St. Louis, Baxter commissioned dozens of successful clinical reference books, authored by world renowned physicians. Recognition for her success included Times Mirror’s coveted Editor-of-the-Year Award.

She is the author of three books: C. G. and Ethel, a Family History; Write Your Memoir, One Story at a Time; and Pumping Sunshine, A Memoir of My Rural Childhood, and a finalist in the Royal Palm Literary Award competition, sponsored by the Florida Writers Association.

Susie H. Baxter Author Page on Amazon         susiehbaxter.com

Interview with Susie H. Baxter

Q. How would your 10-year-old self react to what you do?
A. She would not be surprised that I am currently renovating an old house—scraping peeling paint and cutting glass to replace broken window panes. But she would be surprised that I had a career in health-science publishing where I recruited physicians to write medical references, and that I have written a book about her childhood.
Q. What is your definition of success? 
A. Success is achieving a goal set by one’s self, no matter how large or small.
Q. What is a dream you have that you’ve yet to achieve? 
A. To consistently be relaxed and organized.
Q. If you see a puddle on the ground, do you walk around it or over it? 
A. At the age of five I stepped into it and ruined new shoes my parents bought on credit. Today I would walk around it. For sure. The punishment for my naivety is still vivid.
Q. What tips do you have for a new writer? 
A. Join a writing group so you can get encouragement and feedback. Trust your gut, but if two or more readers tell you a change is needed, believe it.
Thank you, Susie!

 

American Library Association and their Banned Books Week

~ Jaye Bee ~ Leave a comment

Bannedbooks

The American Library Association uses Banned Books Week, September 23-29, to highlight books that have been (are going to be?) banned. I think it’s kind of a reverse psychology thing. You know, better read these banned books before we take them off the shelves again, wink, wink.

Good marketing, ALA. However, as an Indie Author and publisher, I shun the American Library Association. I’m sure there are a few indie authors who have managed to get a library to include an indie book on their shelf, but the library process is definitely not indie author friendly. I’m sure libraries would welcome donations of books, and there may be authors whose intent upon publishing is to provide a free book for anyone to reads. Not me.  I donate my free books to schools. And one or two to the local library while I wait for the ALA to catch up to the world of Indie Authors.

Maybe I’ll unshun ALA for a week. After all, maybe their campaign will encourage one or two people to pick up a paperback or an ebook and READ!

Here’s the link to the blog where I first learned about BBW.  Any blog titled Dysfunctional Literacy should be on everyone’s Must Read list.

What Books Would You Ban for Banned Book Week?

How to Do Nothing

~ Jaye Bee ~ Leave a comment

I love lists and a list on how to do nothing? Brilliant!

O at the Edges

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHow to Do Nothing

First you must wash the window to observe more clearly
the dandelion seed heads bobbing in the wind. Next,

announce on Facebook and Twitter that you will be offline
for the next two days, if not forever. Heat water for tea.

Remember the bill you forgot to pay, and then cleanse
your mind of all regret. Consider industrial solvents

and the smoothness of sand-scoured stone, the miracle
of erasure. Eliminate all thought, but remember

the water. Hitch a ride on a Miles Davis solo and float
away on a raft of bluesy notes and lions’ teeth,

and wonder how to sabotage your neighbor’s leaf blower,
but nicely, of course. She’s a widow with a gun.

Now it is time to empty yourself. Close your eyes.
Become a single drop of dew on a constellation of petals.

Evaporate, share the bliss. Stuff that dog’s bark
into a…

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New! The Girl Who Saw Clouds

~ Jaye Bee ~ Leave a comment

The Girl Who Saw Clouds is a story of conspiracy, family, and survival.  The novel is available NOW on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.

Link to The Girl Who Saw Clouds on Amazon

Girl Who Saw Clouds Cover 5.5x 8.5 June 1 2018 ebook cover.png

AIMEE LOUISE is a bright, quirky 14-year-old with autism who doesn’t recognize facial expressions, but instead sees clouds that reveal a person’s true intentions. After a cyber-attack takes down the nation’s electrical grid, can her ability to see danger where no one else does expose the secret plot to take over the U.S.?

National Doughnut Day Month

~ Jaye Bee ~ Leave a comment

Sweet Deal Sealed LettersizeLargerMedX9

If you’ve been waiting all year for National Doughnut Day, you’re in luck. It’s National Doughnut Day Month! Yep, in honor of the Doughnut Lady and Woody, we aren’t doughnut-deprived because June 1 was National Doughnut Day.

This will be a short post because I want to beat the crowds at the local Doughnut Shop. I know Dunkin Doughnuts, Krispy Kreme, and all the other smaller doughnut shops will heartily support National Doughnut Day Month. Don’t believe me? Walk into a shop and take a big whiff…doughnuts, right? See! All month!

And while you’re waiting in line for that doughnut, how about using your phone, which I see in your hand, to leave a review for Sweet Deal Sealed on Amazon. I know you’ve read it. Doesn’t have to be long or flowery. How about “I’m standing in line waiting for a doughnut because I read Sweet Deal Sealed and now I need a doughnut.”  See? Easy.

Oh. You haven’t read Sweet Deal Sealed? See the phone in your hand? Sweet Deal Sealed is on Amazon. You can read the ebook on your phone, tablet or computer.  Or if the feel and convenience of a paperback is your preference, same link and your postal carrier will deliver!  Link to Sweet Deal Sealed on Amazon

 

Acknowledgments

~ Jaye Bee ~ Leave a comment
thank you text on black and brown board
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

The novel’s done. The final draft has been copyedited, proofed, and formatted for publishing. Now for the Front Matter and the Back Matter. Somewhere in the Front Matter or the Back Matter, it depends on which template you use or source you listen to or read last, is the Acknowledgments.

I’ve read that writing the Acknowledgments is a drudge. Harder than writing the book. It took me a year to write the book. Don’t need a year to write Thank You, right?

I did a little internet search on how to write an Acknowledgement for a novel. I learned I spelled it wrong. The next thing I learned is that I shouldn’t bore the reader or be superficial. Of course, I immediately decided anyone who can’t even spell Acknowledgment correctly must be superficial, so I’m doomed.

The Ack – we’ll call it – is supposed to be specific, walk the reader through the entire process of writing the book, but not be too long, must be witty, and again with the not boring. Also, mention names, but respect people’s privacy…ACK!

So here ya go….

ACK!! THANKS Y’ALL, FOR EVERYTHING!

There. That should just about cover it. Didn’t even split an infinitive or invoke a gerund. Nailed it!