The countdown to the forty-fifth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon launch and the release of Jessiehas begun!
Forty five years ago the world watched as Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong blasted off from Kennedy Space Center with the moon as their goal. Would they be able to land, what would the moon be like? Four days later they did indeed land as the world watched breathless for that first step.
Jessie eBook will be available for 60% off the regular price for one week at all outlets.
You can snag your pre-release copy today and it will be delivered to your device tomorrow.
iBooks
Smashwords
July 16, 2014 Jessie will be available on Amazon in eBook as well as print
I will tell you a little secret about myself. I’m a Michael Bolton fan. It’s been several years since I last had a chance to see him in concert, so when a friend called me last fall to let me know he was going to be in Jacksonville this past Friday, I was more than a little excited. The day tickets went on sale I was texting another friend to see if he wanted attend the show with me. He never got back to me, so when I went online and found one seat on the front row, I admit, I ditched my friend. If he really wanted to go, we could find him his own seat somewhere else in the theater.
I’ve had the ticket for close to six months and yet it still seems like just a few days ago I was ordering it. The show was at the Florida Theater, a venue I never had a chance to visit during my college years in Jacksonville, but had always wanted to. The theater itself is gorgeous. I arrived just as the doors were opening and had time to enjoy the architecture, feeling like I was in one of the grand old theaters on Broadway.
The show was phenomenal, of course. I was sad that I didn’t have a real camera with me, only my iPhone, which never seems to take great pictures when I really want it to. The lady next to me was on her own as well and we chatted about the theater and other shows she’d seen there. Afterward, I got up the nerve to ask her if she would email me a couple of photos. She had a nice camera and had gotten some excellent photos. She took my email address and I really hope she sends me even just one picture. It seems a shame to have been so close and not have a photo to prove it.
I was close enough for eye contact!!
So happy to have my CDs signed
I’m amazed at how much social media has changed the rules at concerts. Another show I went to before Christmas was not only encouraging photo taking, but provided a hashtag to share the photos so the radio station sponsoring the show could do a photo round up. I will certainly be better prepared for my next concert.
Since I was in Jacksonville anyway, I decided to make a weekend of it, staying at a friend’s condo right on the beach. Something about being able to open up the patio doors and hear the ocean makes me feel free of all the entanglements of life. I was able to whiz through ten chapters of edits on Jessie and read a good portion of my mindless chick-lit book. I feel more energized and ideas about how to promote this next book are starting to take shape. A good concert, a great view, and I’m feeling refreshed and ready to take on the riggers of publishing again. Be sure to check back soon for a sneak peek at the first chapters of Jessie.
God has a way of putting the right people in our lives at the right times and I never cease to be amazed when I experience this. Last Wednesday I stopped in at the historical society to look up some businesses in the old city directories. As I walked in, there were four ladies and a man already sitting around a table chatting. I found the directory I needed, sat down and started flipping through it. My ears perked up when I heard one of the ladies ask the man about a meeting she thought he had attended. They went back and forth for a minute, my interest growing until she mentioned she was trying to get the information for someone who had asked on Facebook. (You know the page You grew up in…. ) I smiled and spoke up. “That was me,” I said. The lady turned around and the man came over and asked what exactly I was trying to find out. I explained I was trying to determine what year the last family left the area on North Merritt Island that was bought by the government for the space program. This led to a wonderful conversation about a few of the families they knew of from the old days.
I’ve also been looking for Vietnam veterans to get feedback on a battle a scene in Jessie and a friend saw me mention this, again on Facebook, and offered to ask his dad some questions. We shared a couple of emails and he arranged for me to meet his dad over the weekend to get a real sense of what it was like to be on the ground in Vietnam. Meeting Bill, hearing his stories and his feedback on the scene I had written was a humbling experience. I was nervous about interviewing him and asking him to relive a painful time, but he was so kind and easy to talk to the time flew by. Not only was my need supplied, Bill was actually involved in battle the same time as my fictional character.
