Front page news

The newspaper interview came out in last night's paper. Pretty cool. Its always cool when you see your name in print. In this case the reporter's story took over half a page. The headline reads "Saco author weaves camp tales into first book." Then she goes on to tell all about who I am, and how the book came about. Then she quotes a few excerpts from the books and focuses on the one story which I told her was my favorite. She did get a few things incorrect or misinterpreted. That always seems to happen. But they were minor errors and did not affect the spirit of the piece which was basically about the fun I have had writing and publishing the book. All in all the interview was an enjoyable thing to do. The paper has a circulation of 22,500 so hopefully that many people will now know about my book and that was the goal. As I have said, this is just one more step in a "journey of shameless self promotion." I hope a few people will be intrigued enough to visit the local book store and buy a copy. Not only would it be nice to sell more books but it would be nice for the bookstore owner to sell out of all her copies. Who knows? The notoriety may catch some other folks attention and lead to some new opportunities. You never know. As my friend Winnie-the-Pooh said " You never can tell about bees."

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Yesterday I was interviewed by a reporter from the local paper. Just another step in this journey of "shameless self promotion." Actually the owner of the local bookstore had suggested how it would help her and me if I could get some attention from the "Journal". She did agree to buy a few books and put them on display but thought some local publicity would help sales. Sounded good to me, so not knowing anything about how to proceed, I just sent an email to the paper. Turns out they do read the emails they get and this one caught their attention. A young woman called on Monday and invited herself here for an interview yesterday. She picked a perfect afternoon to come. Beautiful, warm sunny day on the water. We sat at the picnic table down by the river and talked about writing and - life. She was very busy taking notes. One question she asked was "where do I get my ideas?" Oh good grief. I live with my ideas. I have them all the time. They pop into my head continuously unbidden, uninvited and at really inopportune times. It was like asking when do you breathe? I suppose other writers are the same way. Story ideas are like this mulligan stew we have in our heads that's boiling and bubbling constantly, and we add ingredients to the mix every day. Some times the result is tasty and fulfilling, and other times not so delicious. But she was nice and eager and told me a story might be forthcoming within a week or two weeks. I let her take a copy of the book. If she reads the introduction she'll have all she needs to write a piece because I layed it all out in that beginning chapter - my motivation for writing the book, my goals for my readers and my apologies. I'll alert the public when the interview is scheduled to appear.