A rose, by any other name, wouldn't be my company

I've been The Northern Bard online since 1997, when I damaged a disc in my lower back and had to spend two months under restrictions. So what does one do when commanded to do "NO bending, NO lifting, NO twisting" when one works as a janitor?

In my case, I was introduced to chat rooms, where I met a lot of really cool people who made some interesting suggestions for ways to avoid breaking the doctors rules. One actually sent me to a page that taught me to build my own web pages using HTML. Taking my own poems, which had been published in The North Country Bard column of The Pequawket Valley News, and using a slightly different title for my pages, I practiced HTML by putting my own poetry onto the internet.

Then I finished the novel I started on an old Tandy HX1000, which took three "fresh beginnings" because I kept crashing the second hand computers I was using. I bought a copy of the Writer's Market to find out who was publishing romance novels. I started sending out introductory letters and the first three chapters to all the "big" companies. And when I got rejection slip after rejection slip, a friend suggested a new tactic: ebooks. It seems that a friend of hers right here in our home state of Maine, who was starting a company called ebooksonthe.net, was publishing novels in HTML, selling permission for one print copy for those who didn't want to sit on their computer reading the books.

The rest, as the saying goes, is history, with the sale of ebooksonthe.net to a company in Maryland in 2002, the introduction of Kindle in 2007, and Nook in 2009. Between the introduction of the Kindle reader and the introduction of the Nook reader, my first novel went to paperback, and although I've never made enough to be worth shouting about, the sales have been steady....

So when I wrote a second novel, I offered it first to the company who had been sending me my royalty checks since 2002....and the headaches between my vision for the second book and the vision of the publisher sent me back to my friends with "the grumblies".

When deciding with a couple of these friends that I could have better creative control if I turned to self-publishing, the next discussion was about the name of our "company" - and at the suggestion that I already WAS The Northern Bard, we opted to name the company Northern Bard Publications, whose first offering was the third book in my series, as chronicled here on this blog.....

I'm very proud of our little company, despite the fact that we don't appear to even be recouping the costs of our first offering, much less the second one that will be launching - or is that "relaunching"? - soon. My choice to use professional models for the covers would probably not be considered a good business strategy, but I truly adore the cover for "A Wild Tiger's Heart".  I also truly love the cover for the relaunch of my second novel, "The Tiger's Cub".....

  

The finance director is praying for a miracle - that she'll be able to see enough of an increase in sales to pay off the credit card I used for both the Daniel Sobieray/Patrice Garza cover for "A Wild Tiger's Heart" and for the Derek Yates/Belle Louve cover for "The Tiger's Cub".

The art director has already put the covers for these two behind her and is obsessing over the third project I've put in her lap: a new cover for the book that started it all, "Night of the Tiger". Her only hope is that The Universe continues to respond to my requests for models. She's joking that, since I've finally hit my goal weight and actually could get away with wearing a bikini for the first time since 1997, I should start modeling to pay for the next cover and stop making the finance director have sleepless nights....

And me? 

I'm feeling the pressure to be the editor in chief, rewriting a small part of "The Tiger's Cub" (mostly things that I trusted the first publisher to put in) and the parts of "Night of the Tiger" that were changed so that the pivotal scene makes no sense.

I'm writing short stories that will be getting put together to become a future Northern Bard offering that I've been calling "The Mostly True Adventures of Superburnerman".

I'm working my "day job" as a salesperson at Staples.

And I'm trying to pretend, especially for the two friends who are on this ride with me, that I'm not worried about a little belly bump just above my navel that has caused me to spend at least one day off each week for the past three weeks either visiting or talking to doctors...

Though I am starting to wonder....

The Universe has this way of getting my attention with extreme drama. 

For the first book, it was the back injury. 

For the second book, it was an argument between myself and the doctor I'd been working with for 8 years, so that I was working part time in retail and had lots of "free time" to write instead of busting my hump for 40 hours a week.

For the third book, it was another job switch to a company that has a print shop on site, so I can check the art directors work before we send it to the printers.

Perhaps this little belly bump that looks like it's going to put me back to a "no lifting" situation if it goes to the planned biopsy is meant to get the current work in progress finished before 2016?

Fifty Shades of Trouble

Or maybe that title should read Fifty Shades of IN Trouble?

Let me go back several years to a simpler time, when I was young and naive and thought no one would ever intentionally hurt me...

*cue the wavy lines they use in the old movies to indicate a flashback*

I was a freshman in college, thinking of majoring in Theater Arts, and a friend introduced me to another actor. We dated, we had sex that didn't do anything for me, I moved on....

Or so I thought.

But he was very obsessive, determined we would marry and I would be his submissive little wifey. (Cue Bugs Bunny link: http://www.talkingwav.com/cartoon/bugs_22.wav)  When I still refused, he played hard ball, insisting that "a woman needs calcium at every meal", he brought me milk and antagonized me until I drank it. I would wake up the next day tied to his bed, naked, with nothing but bruises and body aches to clue me in as to what had happened once I finished the milk....

Suffice to say that, with the help of some very good friends, I walked away from that situation and try to never look back into that darkness.....

Now, back to current day and the women who are flooding Facebook with this whole "Fifty Shades of Grey" craze. Encouraged by several friends, I started to read the book once....and it raised so many red flags and brought on so many nightmares that I returned it to the library. Christian Grey is SO much like that man I met in college that I can't force myself to read the rest, much less see the movie.

So, to make friends stop asking me what I thought of the movie, I posted this:

I even have backup in the form of multitudes of articles, like this one, that also saw what I saw in that book...http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/consent-isnt-enough-in-fifty-shades-of-grey/385267/

But, as my dad used to say when he was warning us against being too opinionated, "Open mouth, insert foot."

I have been absolutely barraged by fans of the book who didn't see that, when she gives a safe word and he refuses to stop, that's rape, and when a man does such a thing to his own wife, that's domestic violence. Courtesy of one sour apple, I've never delved further into the barrel of BDSM culture, but I know people who have, and they say this is NOT a good representation of their world....

Please don't try to insist that you're right and I'm wrong, as even briefly skimming the top of that long ago relationship for the sake of the few lines I wrote above without having to dive back into my nightmares to defend why I feel the way I do....but I HAVE to ask....

What do you think of all this hoopla? Is this book trilogy really worth all the media coverage, or did the author just manage to hit the right people at the right time?

Of course, while I would try to make it sound like my interest is merely clinical, there is a darker shade to my question. I'm trying to market my own books in every way I can and suggest ploys to Northern Bard Publication to get those ever popular "New York Times Best Sellers" in our stable of authors...

I want to know who I need to do the BDSM treatment to in order to get the kind of media attention this first timer got......

When dealing with Mother Nature, does one cry uncle.......or aunt?

I live in the northeast of the United States. For any who haven't heard, we've had LOTS of snow this year, and we have another blizzard warning up for tomorrow and Sunday.

All the neighbors are doing the run for milk, eggs and bread....which is sort of Northeastern slag for "fill up the pantry, because you may not be able to get out for a while". My pantry is always full. I have two young adult "kids" and three grandkids who come by looking for food. It never ends well if Yamma doesn't have something for the kiddies...

But I digress....mostly because I don't want to talk about that white crap that Mother Nature is ready to dump on us......AGAIN. We're already running out of places to put it, and it looks like there's no end in sight. Most people I know would love to kill that furry little rodent who, according to legend, told us on February 2nd that we have to put up with at least six more weeks of this nonsense before spring.

And don't try to point out that March the 22nd is six weeks from February 2nd. The natives turn toward thoughts slow roasting a writer over an open fire if you try to use the calendar and a little logic on them, but I can't blame them. Too many more weeks of looking out at more of this white stuff dropping from the clouds and I might start getting as antsy as they are.

But I have some projects  to finish.

LOTS of projects...

I'm also drawing my curtains shut as the newest blizzard (due to the predicted 33 mph winds rather than deep snow) makes an appearance. At the beginning of the winter, it's covering the dead leaves and lending beauty to the bare trees..

Now, it's just one more round of shoveling, snow blowing, freezing in the stiff breeze and harsh temperatures that are accompanying the snow. Muscles that are already sore from pushing too much snow in too little time have to be forced to do it one more time.

I'm going to ignore that part for as long as possible...

Why I don't get frustrated by delays any more.....

I used to be your typical "hot head". It was hard NOT to be hot tempered, with a French mother who could curse at you in TWO languages when she was REALLY mad and a dad who just had this look that you didn't dare test.......

When I'm alone, I still can curse like a sailor, but I'm starting to see a pattern in things in my life, and this pattern has made me sit back and ponder.

I've had those days when I've been caught behind a school bus or a slow driver for miles when I was already late leaving the house, on my way to something important. Yes, I've muttered and sputtered and said things like "Come ON! I'm trying to SPEED!"

Those are the days that I drive past an accident before I reach my destination. When the news story about an accident come out, the timing of my departure from my house to the site of the accident would have put me solidly at the wrong place at the wrong time: at Ground Zero when the proverbial manure hit the fan......

It happened again tonight. I see the pattern clearly.

My hubby plays in a pool league. Billiards. 8-ball, to be exact. Since he likes to have a drink with the team, I drop him off and pick him up, giving him a sober ride to depend on. It's how I roll.

The plan was to stop at a fast food place, eat, drop him off, and then go home. We got to the counter with just two people in front of us, but the elderly guy seemed to be having trouble understanding the concept of "sides" and took a really long time ordering. The lady behind him wasn't much faster. We took our order to go, as there was no real time to sit and eat. Hubby would eat while I drove and I would eat when I got home.

But he forgot that he needed to stop for cash for dues....

So I ran the extra errand, thinking I was hearing sirens, but nothing was coming past me....yet.....

After dropping off the money to the hubby and finally starting home, I was having a very odd feeling about those sirens. There had been A LOT of them. Not too far into my drive home, another siren could be heard, and this one was coming closer. A fire truck turned off a side road and turned in the direction I was going. It was a truck from another town.

FIRE was my first thought. It's a very cold winter. People are doing foolish things to keep warm.

Then red lights flashing in the distance in my rear view mirror. I watched, pulled over, and watched an ambulance rush past. I had just started to move again when I saw their brake lights come on. A little further around the curve, and the truth was there in front of me.

Fire trucks, police cars and at least one ambulance already at the scene as the ambulance that just went past me joined them. As I went down the convenient side road that has a full view of the straightaway where the accident appears to have happened, the number of fire trucks and police cars astounded me. The detour, with a hay field between the road taken and the usual pass, allowed a full view, but all that could be glimpsed were vehicles and humans.

A snowmobile trail crosses the road near the site of the accident. My heart sank at the thought that perhaps a snowmobile was trying to cross and got hit......

And then the timing struck me. If not for the other people at the fast food restaurant, I may have been going through that space at the wrong time......

Two more ambulances heading toward the accident from the town I live in brought a vision of being pulled out of my car had it not been for that delay......

I was raised in the Christian world. They talked a lot about God, the invisible being who watches over you and answers payers. I've sometimes had prayers answered, but not until I stopped going to a stuffy building every week, feeling the eyes of the scornful better-than-yous judging every movement. I also stopped calling the Divine One "God", because although I've studied many religions and am no longer sure what name to give that being.

I call it The Universe. It seems to be liking me lately, and the more I just relax and let The Universe move as it will, without me fighting it, the more it seems to like me.

I'll post an update when I find out what happened this time. I stayed up for the news, but they don't seem to have been informed yet.  Maybe tomorrow.....or is that today, since I'm up past midnight???

Goodnight, and may you be blessed.

The Universe Strikes Again!

It looks like this is going to be another "be careful what you ask for" year....with the exception of winning the lottery, that is.  Seems the Universe doesn't wish for me to get money that way....

However, when I want a model for a book cover who will work with me and the team at Northern Bard Publications, I get one, it seems.

The latest came just as we were scouting big red barns and/or silos around the area that can be photographed for the background of the new, improved "Night of the Tiger", hopefully with a sexy new cover and a new size that matches book three....

I made the above wish for a model, silently instead of on Facebook. The Universe responded with a slightly lesser version of the response for "A Wild Tiger's Heart", but not for book one, which also needs some editing/rewriting to correct a couple of minor glitches. The face it presented was Derek Yates, a young man who has the green eyes, the right hair color/style, the body....

As in this photo from FuriousFotog, https://www.facebook.com/FuriousFotog?fref=photo, Derek bares a striking resemblance to the Chase I see in my mind's eye whenever my character whispers in my ear, letting me know that there may still be another Tiger story at some point in my future:

Just about the time I started looking at other pictures of Derek, he was chosen as Ellen Degeneres new gardener in a contest. I thought the chance of me being able to hire him to be Chase on a cover were nil.....

But when I made a comment on my Facebook fan page for "The Tiger's Cub", he responded with a like and an email address. I responded to the email. A week later, we have a cover for the art director to "play" with, adding in my lovely lady Aloriah (yes, I know - it's hard to figure out, but if you break it down, it's Al-or-e-ah, and Chase calls her "Ree") onto the back......

Because I feel like being a little mysterious this time around, I'm not posting an advance photo, but I highly encourage you to check out my new model for Chase on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/derekyates or just drop the name Derek Yates into Google and follow any one of the links there. Should you need a model, he's very easy to work with, and I'm eager to see what Northern Bard Publications is going to do with the excellent photo he's selling us.....

But Universe?  Before you grant my wish for a pair of models for the new cover for "Night of the Tiger", can we talk funding?

Please?

If not the lottery, then by book sales?

Maybe?

*making a face like a pleading puppy*