I’m in my usual stressed out, pre-travel packing mode at the moment. You might think that I’d be an expert at packing by now…yes and no. Stop by friend and author Shelley Munro’s blog to find out what special packing challenges I’m facing this year. Leave a comment and you’ll have a chance to win a PDF copy of SEPARATION ANXIETY.
I’ll be back with you, live from Egypt next week. Have a great weekend and send me positive thoughts for a smooth trip back!
I’m guest blogging at Killer Fiction today, reminiscing about my own childhood family vacations. Stop by and keep me company – and tell me about your family vacations.
And don’t forget that tomorrow, July 31st, is the last day to take advantage of the sale on my latest release SEPARATION ANXIETY, available at Smashwords.com. For those of you holding out for a paperback, good news! The trade paperback will be available for sale very soon at Amazon.
I also thought I’d share the new recipe I tried for July: Beer Margaritas. Talk about easy and tasty – and very refreshing on a hot summer afternoon.
Beer Margaritas
2 – 12 ounce cans of beer (I used Corona)
1 – 12 ounce can of frozen limeade concentrate
12 ounces of tequila
Pour into a pitcher and mix well. Serve over crushed ice and consume with friends.
ETA: SEPARATION ANXIETY is now available in paperback on Amazon!
I am pleased to announce that SEPARATION ANXIETY is now available at Smashwords.com in a variety of digital formats, including Kindle. You can even sample 20% in the format of your choice for free before you buy.
My primary reason for taking matters into my own hands and publishing SEPARATION ANXIETY independently boils down to pricing. The publishing world is in a state of transition in the moment. It’s a huge enterprise with a lot of built up inertia going in one direction, that being a very traditional model in which the publishers control the market in terms of what gets published, when, and for how much. E-publishing is a leak in the dam that is gaining momentum and big publishers are scrambling to keep up and make as much profit as they can in the process.
I’ve seen my own titles climb in price from $5 to $10 and now to as much as $13 at some places – and that’s just for the digital copy. If you want a paperback of Here to Stay, be prepared to pay as much as $15. I know that smaller presses can’t compete on prices with bigger publishers and ebooks never go out of print but who is going to pay more than $5 for an ebook unless it’s from their favorite big-name author?
By making SEPARATION ANXIETY available at Smashwords.com, I’ve been able to decide what I think is a fair price on my own terms. It’s only been up since Tuesday, but once it passes the various quality control tests it will be eligible for distribution through Amazon Kindle, Apple, Sony, and other bigger outlets. Sure, I’ll be responsible for the bulk of the book’s promotion but what else is new?
All in all, it’s been an incredibly exciting and liberating process.
I am also investigating options for making SEPARATION ANXIETY available in print for those who prefer paperbacks – more details on that coming soon.
SEPARATION ANXIETY
Sometimes running away is the first step toward finding yourself.
Aurora has spent her entire married life transforming herself from a regular, middle class girl into the perfect society wife. Life seems perfect until she is unceremoniously dumped by her philandering cliche’ of a husband just before Christmas – and their tenth wedding anniversary.
Devastated and unable to face the social ostracism or the holiday parties, Aurora and her best friend Kat plan a trip to Amsterdam for a weekend…then decide to keep going. Aurora attempts to drown her sorrows with wine in Amsterdam and Frankfurt, finds her anger in Athens and Cairo, and reclaims her sexuality in Dubai. By the time she and Kat reach Bangkok at the New Year, Aurora is ready and eager to move on with her life.
Planned as a way to escape her pain, Aurora’s travels instead become a journey to a new sense of self and a whole new world – post-divorce.
For those of you who visit the blog directly, bypassing the main home page, you might not have seen my new cover. Isn’t it pretty?
It’s been a long time coming. The manuscript has actually been done for a while now, looking for a home. I sent queries to agents, and when that didn’t work out, I went directly to the few publishers out there who will look at unsolicited, un-agented manuscripts. It’s difficult enough to break into the traditional publishing work but with the current economy, publishers and agents are even more conservative than usual about what projects they take on.
As you can see here, not every great book finds its home right away. And since there are even fewer publishers and bookstores now than there were when many of these classic / popular books were published, it’s harder yet today. So I decided that I could accept these obstacles to sharing my story with the world and put it in a metaphorical drawer or I could have faith in myself and choose another path.
My plan is to release Separation Anxiety myself by the end of June. I’ll start digitally and then see if I can find a good option for a print-on-demand service for those who prefer a print copy. One step at a time.
For those who are skeptical of self-publishing, assuming that it’s only an avenue for talentless losers who can’t hack it in the real publishing world, I invite you to write your own book and try to get it published. It’s not as easy as you think and talent doesn’t always find a home. The world is a different place and things change. Sure, there are probably plenty of crappy self-published books – I’m sure there’s at least one for every crappy book that is released from a big NY publisher. Taste is subjective. Keep an open mind.
As for me, I’m headed to the beach. For this bus trip I’m taking The Kite Runner, another long timer on my TBR list. This trip isn’t as long, but I’m hoping it’s long enough to get me hooked…
I bought four new books for my e-reader for my recent trip to the US. I only read three of them, but I did read one of them twice.
It didn’t occur to me until I started thinking about writing this post (in the dead of the night, thanks jet leg) that the three books I read were all by authors that I first discovered and read the year that my husband and I moved abroad. Picture it: I had no friends, no job, no children, no sewing machine, no TV, and I wasn’t writing. What I did have was an abundance of empty hours to fill each day while my husband was at work and I mostly did that by losing myself in the pages of a book.
Before I left the US, I visited a bookstore and bought myself a paperback – a rare treat because back then we were pretty poor and buying a book new and paying full price was a real luxury. That book was Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I can’t tell you how many times I read that book. There are a lot of books that I find amusing but there are some scenes in this book that make me laugh so hard I cry every time I read them. I recently loaned this book to an older gentleman friend of mine after he reluctantly admitted to me that he enjoyed Nora Roberts. He loved it as much as I did. I still have the same copy and read it from time to time when I need a giggle.
I’ve read several other books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips since then, and have enjoyed them all. I read What I Did For Love on this trip. It had all the classic elements of a SEP book: the couple who hate each other but are thrown together for one reason or another; a hero who has hidden depths; the heroine who falls in love in spite of herself and then withdraws to protect her heart; the hero who realizes too late how he feels and then has to find a way to convince her that his love is for real; a variety of parallel story lines with the quirky family / friends of the main characters.
I liked What I Did For Love but somehow it just fell a little flat for me overall compared to her other books. I gave it the benefit of the doubt because I was trying to read it when I was exhausted and could only read a couple pages at a time so I read it again. It flowed better the second go round, but still felt just a tad off. I think it was Bram – his character never really developed as much as I would have liked. I didn’t get enough of the story from his perspective and when he had his big epiphany about how much he loved Georgie it felt too sudden and too fast. It was no wonder Georgie didn’t believe him in the story because neither did I. It was still a fun read and for once I enjoyed her epilogue, but Lady Be Good is still my favorite.
Another author I discovered the year I moved abroad was Jane Green. There were no public libraries in the small town where we lived in the United Arab Emirates and the only bookstores sold stationery items and Korans. There was a spinning rack in one of the stores downtown that mostly had Harlequin Presents but one day I spotted Mr. Maybe by Jane Green. It was my very first British chick-lit book and I’ve been hooked on them ever since. I read Mr. Maybe obsessively for a few months. Every time I’d finish, I’d start over again. The story was hilarious, but I think it was the first person voice that drew me in. I know some people don’t like books written in first person but when it’s done well, I love it. In the case of this book, it was like having a chat with a friend about her dating misadventures at a time when I didn’t have (many) real life friends to talk to. Since then I’ve read several other of Jane Green’s books, Jemina J being another favorite.
I bought Babyville for this trip and read it in one go on the nonstop flight from Cairo to NY, with only time out for short bouts of unconsciousness. Babyville is the story of three women and motherhood: one who desperately wants a child but can’t conceive, one who gets pregnant by accident (by the boyfriend of woman #1, whoops!), and one who has just had a baby and is finding her goal of being Super Mom just a bit more than she can handle. I enjoyed how Jane Green handled each story line and how the lives of the women intersected – and how each of them handled their individual challenges. It wasn’t as much of a favorite as the two I mentioned above, but I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt because I read it when I was so exhausted. I’ll definitely reread it at some point. I didn’t like Jemina J much the first time I read it either, but love it now.
I finished the last book, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marian Keyes, my first two nights home, after my son woke me up in the wee hours with his own jet lag issues – then he got back to sleep and I didn’t.
Once I’d read every book we brought with us – several times – that first year we lived abroad, I started to read just about anything else that I could find. Our first summer there, I was pet sitting for a neighbor upstairs and found a box of books in their living room that they had borrowed from someone else. I read several John Grisham books which have all blurred together in my memory since, but I also read Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes. How I loved that book. It was the story of Rachel, an Irish woman who had been forced into rehab by her (whacko) family. What I loved about it was how cleverly the story was presented – told in first person, Rachel is in total denial about her problems with drugs and alcohol and how badly out of control her life is. And because she presents her side of the story in such a rational and reasonable way, I was totally sucked in to believing that she was as misunderstood by her family as she said she was. (It’s a good thing I don’t have any real life addicts in my life – what a soft touch I would be!) The story was so vivid to me that I was totally sucked in before I figured out what what really going on. My own stories are totally character driven so it’s no wonder I like Marian Keyes so much – the characters and stories she creates make me laugh and cry and read until my eyes are bloodshot.
Of the three books I read in the last two weeks, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married was by far my favorite. It had a similar flavor to it that Rachel’s Holiday did in that the main character Lucy is totally blind to the fact that she’s constantly drawn to drunk losers and that in fact she has the perfect man, her best friend, right in front of her. If there was anything I didn’t like about the book it was how patient and loyal Daniel was throughout – watching her date loser after loser, putting up with her all her “friendly” teasing / verbal abuse. Having read enough Marian Keyes to know how she builds a story, I wasn’t fooled by what fueled Lucy’s self-destructive dating patterns and I picked out Daniel as her eventual partner from the start, but it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the book one bit. I’ll definitely read it again.
Last weekend I took a trip to the Wissa Wassef Art Center. I went to the ATM first, knowing that I’d find things that I wanted to buy.
The place was really amazing. It’s basically an art colony started in the 1950s. Everyone works together but they don’t make the artists wait for a piece to sell before they pay them, they pay them all along so that their art doesn’t become commercial and so that the artists only follow their pure creative impulses. They even grow plants to make their own dyes.
If you want to know more about the place, you should go to their website. I was too busy running around taking pictures!
(Click any image to enlarge)
The wool weaving these ladies were doing was amazing – particularly as they were working strictly from a vision in their head — and working vertically!
You can see that the picture is coming out sideways on this one.
They also weave in cotton – the panels are smaller since the thread is so much finer than wool.
I felt my heart rate increase when I walked into this workspace – this man is making a batik panel, and as a quilter I love love love batik. It was a real treat to see how it is done.
I coveted this fabric but could never conceive of cutting it up for quilting!
The detail they manage to weave into these panels is just phenomenal!
This gigantic piece is actually three panels made over the course of three years.
This is some detail from the above panel. Amazing!
All of the above pieces were in the art center’s museum. I didn’t look very closely at the items for sale because they were too expensive for me to even consider. They started at $500 and went up from there. Worth every penny, but I wasn’t so sure my husband would agree with me!
I also resisted most of the pottery. It was pretty, but I have a habit of falling in love with teapots and then not using them.
I loved these little teapots but in an awesome display of willpower, I decided only to take pictures of them
I got this picture while we were waiting for our bus to pick us up. The whole trip was worth this picture – I see this all the time but almost never have my camera with me, or a zoom lens powerful enough to take a picture like this from so far away.
All in all, quite a satisfying way to spend a Saturday morning in Cairo.
It only rains in Cairo a few times a year, mostly in the winter months. I knew that when I washed my (many) windows, I’d likely have to do it again soon because we are coming to the khamseen season (sandstorms) I did not however expect it to rain two days later. I really should have expected it though because really, isn’t it always the way? I remember when I was younger it always seemed like the best way to invite rain was to wash your car. Rain in Cairo is not cleansing in the least. It never really rains hard enough to wash away the accumulated dust – it only drips enough to carry the dust in the air and on the trees to the objects below. The worst place to stand when it rains is under a tree! Get caught in the rain here and you’ll need a shower when you get home. Having said all that, imagine the dirty drop marks on my once clean windows…
It dripped on and off all day long yesterday, and then late in the day it started to look very dark and gloomy. Lightening started to flash and then suddenly it started to rain really loudly. Hail!
The hail was pea-sized, not that impressive in general hail terms, but mighty impressive in Cairo-terms!
Even as I rushed around to turn off all the computers because of the lightening, I grabbed my camera to take a few pictures (my daughter was not happy with me for opening the door at such a time!)
If snow in Texas and hail in Cairo doesn’t point to changes in the climate, I don’t know what does…
So another interest of mine is in making pottery. I first took pottery lessons about 12 years ago and fell in love with the process. Unfortunately, it’s not such an easy hobby to take-along and so I haven’t been able work with clay since we moved abroad – until last spring when I discovered that one of the other tennis moms not only had her own equipment but also offered lessons.
So here I am, months later, getting ready to glaze my first crop of pots, and I had the great idea to add a bit of texture and shine by using bits of broken glass – specifically, the green glass of a Cockburn’s port bottle. It is a good idea and I do believe that the end result will look fabulous. The problem? Actually breaking the glass.
Because it’s not enough to just break the bottle – most of it has to be reduced to powder. I did a google search to figure out how best to accomplish this and found one site that suggested that heating glass to red hot and then plunging it in cold water would do the trick – the glass would shatter cleanly and then it was just a matter of pounding it to dust with a mortar and pestle. Easy peasy.
Forgive me, but I have my reservations. I am fully aware of how easily some glass will break when it is exposed to rapid changes in temperature, having once had a glass pitcher explode all over my kitchen while I was in the process of making iced tea. I am, however, somewhat reluctant to repeat such an experiment without safety glasses and perhaps a lead apron. Also, I think I would prefer to use non-cooking pots and instruments for the grinding process to minimize any food contamination and subsequent deaths in the pursuit of my artistic vision.
I haven’t totally formulated my plan but I’m thinking pretty low tech, perhaps involving multiple layers of plastic bags and a hammer. We’ll see what we get (besides multiple lacerations).
I’ve mentioned before that the children’s tennis coach likes to motivate and reward the children he teaches with prizes from time to time. The rewards vary widely (remember the leopard slippers?) Sometimes he might give them a few pieces of candy and other times he might come up with something high end, like a tennis bag.
Last week my son won all the matches in his group and he got what looked like a stuffed monkey as a prize. Little did I know it wasn’t just any stuffed monkey. He dances too.
I love this monkey so much I got out my tripod and figured out how to take videos with my new camera – I even registered at YouTube to share this with you. It’s amusing and absurd at the same time – I only regret that Queen isn’t being paid royalties every time I press the button on his arm. But really – overalls? Given the song lyrics, shouldn’t the monkey really be wearing a leather jacket at the very least?
I write books for fun so why is it so hard to write my own bio? I am an American currently living in Cairo, Egypt. Aside from writing, I'm a married mom of two under ten, a decent (if reluctant) cook, an encyclopedia of random scientific / medical facts, a wine lover (but not a snob!), and a Capricorn. I love to travel, spend time with good friends, and laugh at life's surprises. View of life - definitely half full.
I am pleased to announce that 
