Ann Hite has written a very moving essay published by Psychology Today about how she has dealt or didn’t deal with her mother’s bi-polar issues.

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/one-true-thing/201204/my-family-secret

Dear Writers,

It takes time to become an author. If it were quick and easy, everyone would be doing it.

Like all would-be authors, you have a burning desire to see your books on the shelves of every bookstore in the country. You envision your name on the New York Times bestseller list. You anticipate book tours, the Today Show, readers queued up on the sidewalk outside Barnes and Noble … ah, the dreams we all dream!

So, after a few months, why isn’t it happening for you? Why hasn’t your agent sold your book already? You grow frustrated and declare you’ll publish it yourself if it isn’t snapped up by Simon and Schuster within the next month with a multi-thousands of dollars advance.

OK. Time for a reality check. If you send your manuscript to one of the big publishers without an agent, chances are very good you’ve just wasted your time. If you’ve sent it electronically, more than likely it will be deleted without so much as a glance at the title page. If you’ve sent it via the mail, it will go to recycling without a glance at the cover letter. Agents understand what the publishers want, and they make sure to send it. Publishers trust them. They don’t trust a writer they’ve never heard of, and therefore don’t waste their time.

Typically, here’s what’s gong to happen to your manuscript. Your agent likes the proposal you sent and asks for the entire book. When it arrives, it goes to the back of the line to wait as she reads through the ones that arrived before yours. Think about how long it takes to read a book, then realize your agent is reading books all day, every day, looking for quality reading and all that time she’s getting closer to yours. After several weeks, your manuscript is at the front of the line. She reads it. She likes it. She offers to represent you in the selling of this book. So she creates submission package and makes queries to editors she knows are looking for this kind of story and sends the manuscript to them. A good agent will give your book every opportunity. That means she will submit to far more publishers than just the Big Six (Hatchett, Harper Collins, Macmillian, Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster). There’s nothing wrong with building your reputation, working your way up from a small house to one of the Big Six. In fact, working your way up is far more likely to assure your success than expecting yourself to become an overnight success. Once again, your book goes to the back of the line, and weeks must pass until it’s at the front once more. If the editor likes the synopsis, chances are she’s going to have her readers look at the manuscript first to see if it fulfills its promise. Once more it goes to the back of the line—a shorter line this time, but still, there’s a bit of a wait. If the reader likes the story, he’ll tell the editor, who will read it. And then, dear friend, the editor takes your manuscript before an editorial board. She’ll recommend it. Others must read it, but then they also have a pile of   recommended manuscripts, and who knows where yours is placed. Eventually, the book is either accepted or rejected by the editorial board. And you know what happens then. A rejection letter, or the offer of a contract. Either way, it’s usually a long hard wait.

So what do you do in the meantime? If you’re a serious, professional writer, you work on your next book. You realize there is a process books must go through before they reach acceptance, so you practice patience and understanding. You appreciate your agent for her hard work and you express your gratitude—even if the book is rejected, because you know she believes in you and is working hard on your behalf.

Trust me when I encourage you to trust the process. I’ve been writing for many years, and if I hadn’t been patient and understanding, knowing my agent had my best interests at heart, I would not have signed 10 contracts in the last two years.

You can do it. Believe in yourself. Believe in your agent. Trust the process. And most importantly, never give up!

K.D. McCrite, aka Sidney Archer

Sullivan Maxx has taken on one of the spunkiest lady authors of our day, Mary Wagner.

She hits the nail right on the head with her true stories of perseverance, do-it-yourself, and pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps for women, by a woman who likes to wear heels and can also use a chainsaw.

We know women can do anything if they set their minds to it, but some who are put in the “male” dominated positions such as Mary has found herself in as an attorney, tend to lose themselves in the process. Having to be “all”, mother, wife, daughter to elderly parents, etc. on top of having a career, we could use books like hers to remind us that we are Running in Stilettos, are Heck on Heels and absolutely Fabulous in Flats.

Hooray for Sisterhood!

The secret book Stephanie Osborn and Travis S. Taylor have been working on is available for pre-order. Well, the secret part, at least. The book itself won’t be available until November. This will be a hot item. Check out the links below.

The Rocket City Rednecks’ New American Space Plan

Popular science from the Rocket City Rednecks, as seen in multiple appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and in the National Geographic Channel’s hit series.

Meet the Rocket City Rednecks. They’re five “backwoods” guys from the rocket city: Huntsville, Alabama, home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the birthplace of the U.S. space program. Sure, they love to shoot stuff and drink beer, and one of ’em lives in a trailer, but with a family tree full of NASA rocket scientists (not to mention their own PhDs and advanced degrees), they aim a little higher—like using homemade moonshine to fuel a rocket!

Now, in typical laidback style, Dr. Travis S. Taylor, leader of the crew, delivers the goods on how America can return to space exploration and manned space flight – and can probably do so with common items found in a typical redneck backyard. What’s needed is a good old “try anything” attitude, a bit of gumption, and the spectacularly entertaining backyard science that’s the Rocket City Redneckspecialty.
http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-City-Rednecks-American-Space/dp/1451638655/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1335239458&sr=8-12
The cover can be seen here: http://www.baen.com/author_catalog.asp?author=tstaylor

Also, just released a small, 99-cent ebook. Those of you who know that I presented a paper at a Sherlockian (Sherlock Holmes fandom) gathering this past weekend, and wanted to know all about it, can now download it to Kindle. (I’m working on Nook and stuff, but this is my first time to try an ebook pub, and Sarah Hoyt is walking me through it a few baby steps at a time.) It’s called Sherlock, Sheilas, and the Seven-Percent Solution, and it can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Sheilas-Seven-Percent-Solution-ebook/dp/B007WZAZYC/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1335249134&sr=8-11

Sherlock, Sheilas, and the Seven-Percent Solution

Sherlock Holmes, the world’s first consulting detective, the most popular fictional character in history – and admitted drug abuser. Have you ever wondered why? Surely such a brilliant mind wasn’t in it for the “high” alone – was he? What about the side effects? Was there a benefit to its use that Watson couldn’t tell us because of the mores of his day? Sherlock, Sheilas and the Seven-Percent Solution explores, and perhaps answers, all these questions, and more.
Both publications, btw, are nonfiction science, but easy to read.

June 29th, 11am St. Simons Island Library will host the book launch for Stephen Doster’s Georgia Witness.

June 30th, 1-3 pm GJ Ford Book Store is hosting a book signing for Georgia Witness

Ann Hite will be interviewed on 11Alive’s Atlanta & Co. this Thursday, April 26th between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm. to  talk about Ghost On Black Mountain being one of the 10 finalists for the Townsend Prize and more.

Both John Robinson(photograph) and author, Tom Simmons, are included in a new, large coffee table book, MISSISSIPPIANS, Limited Second Edition (300 + Photographs), Edited by Neil White, The Nautilus Publishing Co. (found in the section Little Known Mississippians on page 371.)

W.W. Norton will be distributing The Man Called Brown Condor, published by Sky Horse Publishing; release date Fall 2012.

Hogan’s Boat will be Black Rose Writing’s book of the month in July. If you haven’t gotten it yet, GET IT! It is fantastic!

www.blackrosewriting.com/

In less than 24 hours of receiving the completed manuscript for Sidney Archer’s (aka KD McCrite) novel Fettered Souls and with only one submission, it sold to Ecanus Publishing www.ecanuspublishing.co.uk/ .

Desolate Heart is a story of spurned, lost, and true love found. In the spirit of Somewhere In Time, this is the story of a love that surpasses time and triumphs against all odds.

When a fiery mountain girl’s obsessive love is rejected by Andrew, a young medical student one hundred years ago, she demands the help of the local medicine woman, who is also known for dark sorcery. The curse is one of selfish revenge and dooms them both; the girl to her death, and Andrew to his exile – in a painting.

Abbie, a successful defense attorney in our time, is disillusioned with her career and sets off to her friend’s home in the Ozark Mountains to sort out her life. In route, an unrelenting urge compels her to stop at a ramshackle roadside antique shop where she buys a mysterious painting; one that draws her into it, transporting her into Andrew’s existence.

The key to their escape from this endless time in a bewitched painting is true love. Time, space, and a hundred-year spell will challenge and reinforce what is truly meant to be.