For Those Who Read, or Write, or Want To - Celebrate!

Although Sylvia Plath won a Pulitzer Prize for her book “The Collected Poems,” she is perhaps best known for “The Bell Jar.” 

Alfred A. Knopf, Plath’s first American publisher, passed on “The Bell Jar” twice. But through the author’s strong belief in her talent and her dedication, she acquired a measured response to such brushoffs. 

Plath understood that professional writing meant courting criticism — first from editors, then reviewers, and finally readers. Rather than fretting over responses she couldn’t control, Plath celebrated each time she was vulnerable enough to send her work out into the world.

 

From Steven King:

 "If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented."

 

I've neglected you guys over the past couple of week. I'm sorry about that. How can I make it up to you? And yet I turn to you when I am in a quandary about writing. I figure you guys understand, for sisnce you are here, I figure many of you are either writers or want-a-bees. 

 

 I have put out two children's books within the past week, and I'm been struggling to get them properly formatted for Amazon to publish. 

 

This morning, in preparation for the paperback edition of The Incredible Yellow School Bus, I wrote a dedication to my daughter Nina:

 

 For my beautiful daughter Nina.

 I wrote this story when my daughter was in the first grade and read it to her class. (It kept their attention.) Ever since, Nina has often admonished me by saying, “Mom, publish the school bus story.”

 But I didn’t, until now.

 It was my first fiction story of any length, and I thought I needed to learn more before anyone read it. Often, I would dink with it and make it worse.

 Now, these many years later, Nina says to me, “Mom, sometimes a person’s first work is the best. And then we think we ought to make it a certain way and lose the purity of it.” See, she grew into a wise adult.

 And then I wrote Incredible's sequel, A Journey Into Inner Earth, and that was a fun write and read. 

 Thanks Nina. This is for you.

Mom

A click on the cover picture will take you to the book on Amazon. 

 

 

 

 I thought perhaps you could relate, how you first write something in the throes of enthusiasm, and then doubt yourself. Or else have let it sit so long you're afraid it has dried up. Also, some say,  that gremlins come in during the night and dink with your prose. They probably dink with your poetry too, but I'm not a poet, so I can't say. I admire you who write it though.

  

And from Amazon:

While Amazon’s algorithms are somewhat of a mystery, it’s a known truth that when your book accrues a certain number of reviews, or a lot of reviews in a short amount of (unspecified) time, Amazon kicks into gear multiple promotions for your book. Free promotion that would probably cost a fortune if you had to foot the bill.

 Every time your book is reviewed, the algorithms are updated, and your book’s internal ranking increases.

 They say the magic number is 50 reviews. Wow.

 

A special Thanks.

  So, my dear ones, for anyone who will kindly write a review,  I will thank you profoundly. For the first FIVE people--kids or adults--to write a review for either or both books, I will send you a  tee-shirt as a special THANK YOU.

 (I will need your NAME, ADDRESS and size. Adult or child, S, M, L, XL, 2XL.)

 I’m providing links to review the books, for it took me a while to learn how to do it, and that will, hopefully save you time.*

To write a review for The Incredible Yellow School Bus, please click on the below picture: This will take you to the Amazon review page. 

For A Journey Into Inner Earth, click below:

 

 

*To go the Amazon route, go to the item you want, SCROLL WAY DOWN on the left side of the page, past other books until you come to this:

 

Thanks for reading. You know I love you,

Jo

 

 

Pushing the Publish Button

 I love you guys. Thanks for reading my blog. Without you I'd be talking to myself, and you know what they says...

I have to tell you this for I figure many of you are writers, and you know about that fear of pushing the publish button.

Well, I wrote two children's stories years ago, then imitated the movie when the fellow waves his hand over the signature line of a check, just not quite getting his hand to sign it. I just couldn't push the publish button...until now.

 

When I was a kid, I rode a school bus—as many of you have. We lived near the top of a long sweeping hill, and I was the first kid on the bus each school day. The driver lived further up the hill, and each night he parked the bus at his house. In the mornings, it was easy, he just picked up the kids on the hill and drove us into town, to school.

 My kids say I have no inkling of time, and I guess I didn’t in those days as well, for often, I was running down our steps as the bus was coming to a screeching halt outside our gate. The driver took to honking for me. The trouble was he laid on the horn for about a block before arriving at our house, and he honked whether I was running or waiting. (We did have an elderly couple living across the street, who were former owners of our property. They were hard of hearing, and never complained.)

 After six kids were onboard the bus, the driver pulled into a neighbor’s drive, parked on his steep driveway, set the emergency brake, and with an “I’ll only be a minute,” jumped out of the bus.

 A moment later, I felt a slight shutter as the bus gave a groan. I knew the brakes were about to fail.

 Well, the driver heard it too. He flew into the bus, and caught the controls before the bus, with six kids on board, began to roll.

 My story set the stage for this children’s book: The Incredible Yellow School Bus. It became a fantasy, of course.

 

 

I wrote the story when my second daughter was in the first grade. The protagonist/narrator was 11 years old. 

The story sat in an old file. Although my daughter kept telling me to publish it. I didn’t think I could.

 Fast-forward 20 years, I wrote the sequel, A Journey into Inner Earth, set four years later. The protagonist was then 15-years-old.

 

 

On my birthday a week ago, my internal voice--you know the one who likes to whisper? This day, mine screamed: “PUBLISH THOSE BOOKS, STUPID!” 

My ears are still ringing.

 I’M DOING IT. (But don’t call yourself stupid—yourself is listening.)

Note, I am jewell d

Both books and now available on Amazon.com 

Thanks,

 I'm out of here.

Jo 

P.S. Do you have an old story sitting in a drawer?  Maybe it needs a facelift.