Reviews and other things

By November 16th, I will have released three books in four months: "Snow Drifter" and "A Fair Trader" from Whiskey Creek Press and "A Soldier's Woman" from Eternal Press. All have garnered excellent reviews and I admit to being pleased, flattered and grateful that other people have enjoyed my writing efforts. "The Widow-Maker", my previous book at Whiskey Creek Press, performed just as well, even attracting a film rights contract, yet book sales reflect none of this and I suspect that the fault is mine.

I am abysmal at promotion because I'm not really interested. I have a real hunger to write, and to write well, to share my love of complexity and adventure, but, approaching seventy-two, my financial dreams are limited. A new monitor for my creaking computer, the costs of a research trip to some location that interests me and I haven't already visited. (I've been to writer's conventions, so they're no longer on my wish list.)

I earn more income from the adult education writer's classes I conduct, but I suspect I would do them even if they paid nothing because of the pleasure of opening other minds to the joy of writing.

I enjoy some promotional activities--the blog radio interview with Cat Johnson was a ball, even if I was as nervous as a kitten--the occasional chat via some writer's blog, answering reader's comments, etc., but, my current venture with Heartfelt Promos aside, I've made a value judgement on how I want to spend my time and writing wins hands down...

Snow Drifter

July is almost here and I'm gearing up for the release of Snow Drifter.

The first step was revamping my website, http://www.amygallow.com/ . I'd updated it along the way, adding books as they were released, reporting the progress of The Widow-Maker from book to film, but it no longer reflected my writing and it was time to change.

What I'd forgotten was amount of work involved for an amateur like me.

It took two days of experimentation, false starts and simple mistakes before what I'd designed could be seen in my web browser, let alone on the web itself, and another day before the website was successfully loaded onto the web. Since then, I've grown cross-eyed looking for errors and can only hope I've caught them all.

Yahoo group, Coffee Time Romance, etc., etc., etc., are next...then the preparation of excerpts for each of the groups I belong to...

With A Soldier's Woman coming out in August, I can't see me getting much writing done for a while.

Still, it's a great life.

Amy