Pluck & Luck

Nov. 10, 2009

Saturday was the local writer's meeting. Lots of the winter folks are back, so the room was jam packed. Plus three new possible members showed up - I met Karen thru Pattie at Jake's and I think she writes sci-fi, Matt is a former member of the U.S. Coast Guard and I'm not sure what he writes and Kelly is a young poet. All three seemed highly motivated. Again, the crits were a waste of time for me. I think we spent all of 60 seconds on my submission and that includes the time to pass them back. I talked with some of the folks at our after meeting at Denny's and suggested that we reinforce the need to say what works in a sub as well as what's wrong. Knowing how and why something works would help the newbies.

One good thing did come out of the meeting. Due to Slotchkey's closing at nine and the dearth of parking on McCullouch on Thurs. night due to the car shows the group agreed to give Denny's a try. We had talked about it last spring, but

After Denny's Cindie, Doug, Penny and I went to the Golden Horseshoe for dinner. Yummy. Then Penny and I went to see 'Men Who Stare at Goats'. I must admit that there were laugh out loud funny parts, but the last 20 minutes or so was disgusting and inappropriate for so many reasons. Typical George Clooney rot. His movies just aren't worth viewing. If he weren't so handsome, I don't think he'd have much of a following.

Sunday was book signing day! It was fabulous. More than I could have imagined. I sold 41 'Hannah' books and 5 'After the War, Before the Peace' books. Peter, at Hastings said it was some sort of a record. I sure do have some wonderful friends. And, there were several folks who came in saying that their friends had sent them to buy both books because they had enjoyed 'After the War, Before the Peace' so much. Word of mouth is the best. To get a following is every writer's dream! Now, I need to set up signings in Bullhead and Kingman.

Monday I met with Dave. I gave him his feedback on his short stories and he gave me his crits on the segment of 'Stephen's Boys' he reviewed. He said it was consistent and had some good observations and dialog. He suggested some cutting on the military jargon. I think he's right.

Then Cindie, Kelley and Ted joined us for the first meeting of the fiction novel group we are trying to form. We talked about our objectives and the process and I think we are off to a good start. We'll meet once a month.

Then today, I set up a book signing in Kingman on Dec. 13th, right before Christmas. It will be for the four of us - Cindie, JoAn, Lois and me. The Hastings book rep in Kingman thought it sounded like a good idea.

I've been trying to move 'Stephen's Boys' forward each day. I'm about to save Josh from his plight in the Pacific Ocean, but it is taking so much time for research. Today I need to search out emergency pouches, flare guns and flare cartridges that were used during WWII. Yuck, I hate research. After this book, it's back to the 1880s for me!

Oh, almost forgot. I got my rejection for 'Deborah's Story' from that Barrett agency. She said she couldn't get excited about it enough to sell it. Then tonight I got a call from Dave. He received an almost identically worded rejection from Barrett, too. Oh, well, their loss.

And my quote for tonight addresses my tendency to enjoy the good times way too much. So, after the wonderful book signing event, I would like to sit back for awhile and avoid the cold, stranger-laden signings in Bullhead and Kingman where I'll be lucky to sell even one book. Then, I stumbled on this quote by James A Garfield, "A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck".