All posts by NewEngland_Muse

I'm a traditionally and self published author. I write in the genre of children and YA at the moment but working my way up to adults. I'm a sports loving, photo taking gal who loves to sing/dance to my own enjoyment. I love to laugh even at myself. I am also owned by 8 birds and 2 hamsters, and yes they know it. :)
Acknowledgements, Amazon Parrot, Writers and Support

My Dedication and Acknowledgement

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By the end of this year I will have a couple of short books online and one in the bookstores. Part of that involves coming up with a dedication and an acknowledgement for each one. Granted this is not required. But for me it is necessary. For “Jasper, Amazon Parrot:ARainforest Adventure” the dedication is easy.  I will be dedicating the book to Jasper. Without his personality this book would not have been written.

But now comes the joy of acknowledging everyone who has helped me. That is a long list. Longer then I thought once I started writing down the names.

-My editor Nancy who is an amazing woman. I am so fortunate to have her.

-My friend Ami who helped me with my query letter. The same letter that got my MS into the door to be read. If this letter is not spot on you are dead in the water

-My sister Karen who loaned me her daycare so the children could read the book. This was perfect for beta reading.

-I have my writings groups all of which have helped me in one way or another with edits and suggestions.

-A publisher by the name of Mike who even though rejected my submission filled it with so much positivity I framed it. In that letter he gave me the three reasons why they did not pick up Jasper. I revised it according to his recommendations and two submissions later the book got picked up. Even though Mike will not be publishing Jasper he deserves a lot of credit for this book

-I have the numerous people on my Twitter account, FB profile page and this site alone who have encourage me and lifted me back up.

-I have my friend Debbie who believed in me from the moment she read the very first draft of Jasper. Who knew ,according to her, this book was going to be published.

-Melanie my publisher who believes in my book and shares my vision for it.

The list goes on. I am surrounded by a large group of people who have helped me get to this point. So writing a dedication is not easy if you want to do it right. And you should for you did not get to this point alone, I didn’t.

Book signing, My John Hancock, Signature

Practicing My Signature

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2013-05-20 10.53.31

 

This may seem silly but I been practicing my signature. You know for when my book comes out at the end of this summer. For after all it is going to be a huge hit and people will want signed copies of it. Yes my mind dreams big. So I been using up scrap after scrap of left over paper to sign my John Hancock repeatedly. You think this would be easy. I mean it is not as if I am trying to learn a new name. It is one I been signing for years now. So why the need to get it right? Does it matter?Do people really care about this in their book? I don’t know. I truly do not know why I feel the need to practice.

And of course the one signature that I liked the best on the sheets is the one I can not reproduce readily without giving it a lot of thought.

That is just how it is. But I will continue to practice who knows I might be able to reproduce it more than a few times. I can’t be the only one who does this. I will worry what I will be inscribing inside the book as it comes up. For there will be no line sheets to help me out as a guideline.

Manuscripts, Paper Dominos, Titles and Numbers

Paper Dominoes

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How many of you write page numbers on your MS? I am thinking a good portion of you. I am not one of those people. Why I really do not know. A few days ago I was carrying three MS in my hand each having over 100 pages to them. Can anyone guess where this is going? Yes I bumped into something and they all fell like paper dominoes to the floor. I did not curse nor did I cry. I just looked at the mess I had created on the floor.

Thinking I get some sympathy from someone anyone I looked at my birds. They were laughing as they cluck clucked at me loudly. This did not brighten my mood. It was my own fault as I had not labeled them like I should have. Sitting down I put like to like and went through the process of getting them in order.

At least I had the chapters titled somewhat. What I had written on the top of the title page was “Chapter 1” and so on for each following chapters. It was not much but at least it was something. It took me a small bit to get all three MS put back together like Humpty Dumpty though in my case I was able to do so.

Multitasking sometimes works for me and then on other occasions it does not. Trying to do too much at one time does not always get me where I am trying to go. Case in point 300 pages on my floor as they stared back at me mocking me in the way only paper can do. Lesson learned I will start numbering my sheets. For I don’t see me slowing down in trying to get more than one thing done at the same time. I should it would do my body good but until then will start off with numbering my pages. Another example of how I need to slow down.