Tag: friends

Coming full circle (and announcing a free class!)

by Karen, posted in books, Brave books, Life's too short to read bad books, Midlife Crisis, relationships, Turning 50, writing

When I was in elementary school, I was in a new school every year.

Every. Single. Year.

No, my parents weren’t in the military. My father was disabled, and when money got tight, we got moving.

Kindergarten: The Hancock in Medford. First grade and half of second: The Emerson in Malden. Last half of second grade and third: The Parker in Billerica. Fourth: The Hajjar in Billerica. Fifth: The Davenport in Medford.

Maybe you noticed that Billerica is up there twice in a row. We actually didn’t move that year, but as luck would have it, the town built a new elementary school to accommodate its growing population and (you guess it) I was zoned to move to the new school.

Oh, happy day.

Moving can be hard for anyone at any age, and I was no exception. Every time I made a friend, we moved, and I had to begin all over again. As I got older, it seemed as if everyone was already paired up with a best friend, and had been forever. I always felt like the odd girl out. Like I didn’t belong.

And then something wonderful happened. I discovered my BFF’s in books!

Nancy Drew and Pippi Longstocking were among the first and are still my friends today.

Of course, Judy Blume’s books were part of my life back then, and the one that immediately comes to my mind when I think of that time is this one: Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how reading books can help us find meaning and insight into our lives. Even in fiction–maybe especially in fiction–it’s the story we connect with, and how it resonates for us in our real lives, and through which we can find comfort and clarity.

The phrase, “Go back to go forward” popped into my head not too long ago, and it kept popping in, over and over, so I thought, hey, I have to do something with this.

About the same time, Margaret was also intruding on my thoughts. 

Pretty much everyone I know that is past puberty has read the Margaret book. Maybe because I have been re-reading other books lately that impacted me, it occurred to me that it might be very interesting to re-read this particular book now. Maybe that’s why it was so persistently intruding in my thoughts. It wanted me to read it again!

And then I had another thought: maybe other women would also enjoy this.
And my free mini-course idea was born!

You can join the Facebook group now to get notified when the free course is available. As of now, I expect it to be ready on the Tuesday before Labor Day (August 29, 2017). Once it’s live, this link should work to sign up for my free mini-course, GO BACK TO GO FORWARD! 

Feel free to share this with anyone else who has read this book and might enjoy coming with me on my learning curve to take this free course!

Birthday Week CakeWalk (BWCW) Day 6

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, celebrations, friends

Getting to the home stretch! Today’s cake was a present from my friend, Jane. Thanks for taking the pressure off with the cake-finding mission today, Jane!

Actually, I should have said today’s cakes, because Jane gifted me with a Cake Trifecta! Lemon, Chocolate Bomb, and Fruit Tart (because fruit is healthy!).

Oh, and the cakes came with a side of flowers.

What a treat this was!

All three of these cakes were delicious. All pass. Full disclosure: I didn’t eat all of them all! Only half! I swear!

🙂

One more day to go.

Goodbye, my friend

by Karen, posted in friends, good grief, Grace, relationships

A very dear person passed away over the weekend.

I met Karen when I worked with her at Sirona several years ago. We worked together via the telephone, so actually our voices met first! As many of you may know, you can tell a lot about someone by their voice. I liked her right away.

She was a supervisor, but she was every inch one of the gang as well. She was always a calm, reassuring, even loving presence at work. If Karen was on the job, I always felt better knowing that. When I was new in my role, of course I made some mistakes. When Karen was the person in charge and I needed to reach out for help, she was one hundred percent there for me. She somehow made me feel like she had made that exact same mistake dozens of times, just last week in fact. And hey, it was no big deal! Oh, and here’s how to fix it. And by the way, here’s  how to do it better next time. You may have heard that “Nurses eat their young.” Well, Karen never got that memo. Karen nurtured her young.

There is little that is more comforting in nursing than knowing that your supervisor has your back.

I did get to meet her in person as well, in 2013. We were part of the Sirona Seedlings at the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. I was new to the company and didn’t know a lot of people yet. My daughter came with me, and we walked the track for a while, and we lit votives to honor my parents who had both died from cancer. My mother had the same cancer that Karen endured. Anyway, I was humbled by the grace of this woman who, just a short time after the event, sent out a heartfelt email message to thank each of us for coming, by name, and she included what it was that each of us had done to participate.

I still have this message. I still have my Sirona Seedlings T-shirt. And I still have Karen in my heart.

Farewell, Karen. Like so many, many others, I am better for having known you.

On the radio with Megan Brady

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food
**UPDATE: Here is the link to listen to the interview!**
http://www.edgeradioarchives.com/audio/121916creameronbravething.mp3
I was just interviewed about my book by Megan Brady for her show “The Morningline with Megan Brady” for EdgeRadio (an online streaming station through Seacoast Media Group).
smg2How wonderful it is to be interviewed by someone who is great at it (thank you, Megan). I felt comfortable right away, like I was having coffee with a friend. Which, I sort of was. I mean, I did bring my coffee, my current favorite, Spicy Eggnog (was that wrong?). And Megan was very friendly.  🙂
We talked about how I wrote the first draft of my book, One Brave Thing, during NaNoWriMo in 2010, and my blog, kwrites.com.  I mentioned how people can ask to join the One Brave Thing Private Facebook Group for readers and purchasers of my book, and about how I interview one reader a month about ‘one brave thing’ that they’ve done in their own lives. Click here for the current list of The BRAVE Interviews. We also talked about my upcoming book, which is related to One Brave Thing. The working title is: What if Bebe Stays with Steven?
I know, right?!
And we talked about the Stephen King trick of putting the draft of your manuscript away in a drawer for a while to give you some perspective on it. Megan reminded me of Joey Tribbiano’s trick of putting Stephen King’s book in the freezer! So I leave you with this clip, to leave you with a laugh today:
My talk with Megan Brady will air Monday morning at some point between 6AM-10AM. 
Click here to listen on Monday morning for my interview (not sure what time yet!) or anytime, just to listen! After it airs, I will be posting the audio clip on my blog, so if you miss the show you can still hear the interview.

The power of one

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, author, book reviews, books, family, friends, Holidays, local fun, writing

I have been giving a lot of talks at local libraries. For my most recent one, I personally invited and Facebook invited a lot of people.

yorklibraryphoto2

A lot.

Plus, it was a full moon in Gemini (my sign)! At 7:05pm! And my talk started at 7:00PM!

I know this is a busy time of year for us all, but I was expecting at least 10 people or so.

When it 6:59pm and still no one had come, I began to consider that maybe I had saturated my geographic location.

If no one came (as I have heard sometimes happens, but thankfully had never happened to me), my Plan B was to have my husband make a video of me reading so I could post it on my YouTube Channel (still evolving–don’t judge it). At least this would be time well spent, right?

What I learned: Don’t accept a time slot that starts when the library is CLOSED. Duh. I’m not sure why they even did that… oh, wait. Yes, I do. I took the slot because I was hoping to sell a lot of books before Christmas, and this was the only December slot they had. They had one slot available in January, but I thought people might not come out in the cold when they weren’t possibly out already, shopping for the holidays (books make great gifts!). Note: the temperature was in the 20’s last night.

And then, at 7:05pm, one person came into the room.

My audience had arrived. She probably didn’t really feel like going out, but she wanted to support a fellow writer/author, and guess what?

SHE DID.

Thank you again, Katherine. ❤

For some reason, this song was in my head on my way home from the event, so I am including it here for your listening pleasure:

Jodi Picoult at the Music Hall

by Karen, posted in author, books, friends, Life's too short to read bad books, local fun, writing

My friend Deb and I went to see Jodi Picoult read from her new book, Small Great Things. After picoult4she read, she was interviewed by Virginia from New Hampshire Public Radio.

What was good: Jodi’s reading of an excerpt of her book was dramatic and entertaining. It was definitely a performance worth hearing. Being able to ask her questions was also nice.

I liked the venue. The Portsmouth Music Hall is an older theater with loads of character and charm.

I also got the idea of selling tickets to my own author talks from this, and including the cost of the book in the ticket price. Smart, right? So you dont’ have to worry about investing a lot of time and money in an event and not selling books. I might try this someday, you know, when I’m famous.

What wasn’t so good: The price! Not only did you have to buy a ticket to hear the talk, you also had to buy a book. Hardcover fiction is not generally something I spend money on. This made for a pretty pricey evening. Also, the books were pre-signed. Not for nothing, but we had to take it on faith that she actually signed them herself. Just sayin’.

Also, while I did like that she took audience questions, I did not like that she only took some of our questions, and the ones she did take were pre-screened. There was really zero contact with her whatsoever, other than watching and listening. Not interactive.

It was more of an author show than an author talk, more formal than casual. I suppose in the future I should keep the difference in mind. I prefer the latter over the former.

All in all, the book sounds great. The protagonist is a nurse, and (as some of you know) so am I, so if I had to buy a hardcover fiction book by Jodi, I guess this was the one (NOTE: It better not end like My Sister’s Keeper).

 

Top 10 reasons to attend The New England Authors Expo

by Karen, posted in author, books, Brave books, friends, Life's too short to read bad books

I went to The New England Authors Expo this week at The Danversport Yacht Club in (you guessed it) Danvers, MA. It was a hot summer day, and I was hopeful that the masses would like to get out of the hot sun and into the cool a/c, but not a whole lot did. The good news Expo swagis that the readers who did make the effort to attend were amazing! We all appreciate it so much (thank you Robin, Sheila, Chrissy and Scott!) when our friends come out to support our writing!

I also am so blessed to have the support  of my family. My husband, Bill, and my daughter, Izzy, spent the entire day with me, helping me get set up, keeping me fed and watered, and helping me connect with readers (yep; still shy). My son, Anthony, encourage me from afar via technology. Thank you so much!

Plus I made several new friends and met many terrific writers. I love how my book, One Brave Thing, has connected me to so many other people (and books!) that I might never have known otherwise.

I am loving every minute of this!

Maybe you should come to the next Expo.

Top 10 Reasons to Attend the Next New England Authors Expo:

  1. You will learn a lot.
  2. Your isolated writer-ly life will be broken open.
  3. Colleagues! You have them! They are at The Expo! (Jennifer Davies, Jennifer W. Smith)
  4. Attend panel discussions! You will always learn at least new thing. I took pages of notes that I am looking forward to reviewing (Hello, free time? It’s Karen. I miss you…).
  5. See what your fellow authors are doing to market their writing.
  6. Show other authors what YOU are doing to market YOUR writing.
  7. Get cool author swag (Check out the photo above)!
  8. Learn some new social media strategies–and what to avoid doing.
  9. You can offer to trade books (and reviews!) with other authors and then you have some excellent reads for the near future!

And the top 10 reason is:

10. You will have so much fun!!! 🙂

I came away from this event so inspired with ideas on how to market my book and to help my readers. I received an invitation to a free online webinar (note to self: register for free online webinar!), so the learning continues even once you get home. I met Gayle C. Heney, who talked to me about her program Write Now. I received an invitation to be on Be My Guest!, a program for writers hosted by Jan Lewis (stay tuned for details as the become available).

Inspiration? It’s a wonderful thing!

Here is a video from an Authors Expo from years past, to give you a flavor of what it’s like:

Selling my books at the Kennebunk Community Market

by Karen, posted in author, books, Brave books, friends, local fun

Today was my debut at the Kennenbunk Community Market at The Waterhouse Center. I picked a good day to start: high 50’s (Hello, July? It’s me, Karen. Where are you? I miss you!), with rain and wind. And just like at the Saco River Farmers Market, I had to ask a fellow vendor to help me get my tablet open (thanks, Peter!). {Note to self: really do practice doing this before the next market!!!}

photo credit: Patti Austin
Me with my book, ONE BRAVE THING, at the Kennebunk Community Market, photo taken by my friend, Patti Austin

Freezing cold, rain, wind…I know, right? Great weather for books.

Fortunately, this market is covered.

Also, you can pull your car right up to the center to unload your stuff, and then go park and come back. There are bathrooms. II heard a rumor that usually there is a food truck that has great sandwiches right next door, which I will have to investigate next week because, sadly, it was absent today.

But I am going again next week! I want to see what it’s like when the weather is more, you know…conducive. When it’s not freezing cold with driving rain.

(Is that wrong?)

My friend Patti stopped by and took this wonderful picture of me (above) today. My friend Jane stopped by to bring me a much-needed third cup of coffee. I made some new friends today, too! I had some great conversations with the people who stopped by my table. I got a couple of ideas of new spins on the marriage topic to write about.

I made some reminder notes for things to bring next time, just like I did at my last book sale in Saco, but this time, I’m going to actually read them before I go again.

My first public reading of my book

by Karen, posted in author, books, Brave books, Disney, local fun, no fear

I was at the local library recently to read some passages of my first novel, One Brave Thing. It was my first time reading aloud from my book in front of other people. I am not someone who loves public speaking. Actually, I am someone who hyperventilates at the thought of public speaking. Most of my life, I have avoided speaking in front of a group with focused determination.

Until now. I wasn’t over-the-top nervous at first, because it was booked so far in advance. When I thought about it, I thought, oh! Plenty of time! Breathed a sigh of relief, and stopped thinking about it. Suddenly though, the day loomed large. I was feeling distressed. I tried Bach’s Rescue Remedy gum that I found in my desk drawer, left over from when I took my daughter to Florida last year (don’t ask). It helped  a little, but I was still feeling so very nervous.

I confided in my friend Stephanie about my angst. She said, “Just tell yourself: ‘This is going to be fun!'”

Could it really be that easy? I had nothing to lose, right? So I tried it. Every time the ‘OMG! OMG!’ thought popped into my head, I stopped, took a breath, and replaced it with ‘This is going to be so much fun!’

library talk 4

And you know what? It was!

My book is published! (part 2)

by Karen, posted in author, books, friends, local fun, no fear

It’s been a busy week! I was at Will’s Copy Center yesterday, ordering some bookmarks (Maine NonesuchAuthor!!) and flyers and such, when I ran into my friend, Denise. She was saying that it must be hard, putting the book out into the world. I said, “Yes! Thank you for validating that! It’s terrifying!”

This is true.

But what I wish I had also said was, “But it’s also a lifelong dream come true! I’m so happy!”

Because this is also true.

What helps in both cases is this: all of the people who have messaged me to say that they loved my book and (even though they were busy) they read it in two days, and oh, when will my next book be out?

Today I was lucky enough to learn that Nonesuch Books in Biddeford, Maine will be selling my books!

See? It’s just getting better and better!