The Unwritten Girl

I read a number of author websites and their suggestions on how to best market one’s book. Author J.A. Konrath gave me a number of good tips on his website (which shows you don’t have to be 100% slick to make an impression), and is a strong believer in blogs. Keep your website dynamic, he tells all. Give readers something new to come back to every week.

Easier said than done, I’m afraid. Though I’ve continued to keep my fingers nimble every one or two days at my personal blog, promoting The Unwritten Girl has to be done in and amongst my other duties, including my freelance journalism, keeping the house (relatively) clean, bringing up Vivian, et cetera. My journaling is the biggest concession I can make to spending some time each day writing, but it’s not always applicable to this blog.

It’s also been a busy month. Vivian’s first birthday started things off, and it ended with a bang with the American Thanksgiving and a visit by all my in-laws. I’ve also been spending time working on a new story called The Night Girl — my first without Peter and Rosemary — so work on this series is at a low ebb.

But I’ll tell you one thing I’ve managed to make time for, and that’s reading. I’m quite pleased about this because I’m convinced that one of the best things authors and prospective authors can do to ensure they’ll be published is to read a lot. I enjoy reading, and I enjoy reading within my chosen genre (as I mention here). But where does one find time? A lot of people ask that, and with lives as busy as ours, finding time to read a good book can be a challege.

One of the best things about reading is that, moreso than writing, it’s one of those things that you can do to fill in the little gaps in your life. It’s no accident why you find magazines by the toilet in many bathrooms. There are two times where I get to read. One is at the gym. My friend Dan Kukwa and I try to go to the gym regularly and part of our routine is to spend 24 minutes on an exercycle. There’s not a lot you actually have to do on these things; you don’t even need to steer, so your hands are free to do with as they please, so why not have them hold a book? Twenty-four minutes is more than enough time to read a few pages in a novel — a whole chapter, even. I’ve gotten through many books on the exercycles at the gym.

The other time I read is before I go to sleep. And I have to thank my wife Erin for getting me into this habit when we moved into our first apartment. I wasn’t one for bedtime reading before then, but she got me into the habit of reading to her. It’s to the point that she has trouble sleeping, otherwise. And even if I didn’t have the opportunity to read to Erin, I would still read before bed, now. If nothing else, it’s easier and more relaxing to do before sleep than writing.

This means that I actually have two books on the go, since the book I read at gym isn’t the same one I read at bedtime, which has given me a number of opportunities to write book reviews.

So, it’s been a full month. Just not full of The Unwritten Girl and Fathom Five. But there are things happening on these fronts. I’m looking forward to a school reading in Cambridge in the middle of December. I’ll tell you more about that once it’s done. Barry, my editor, also tells me that the editing work on Fathom Five will take place between the middle of December and the middle of January. I’m also looking at a couple of promotion events, including one around the Ontario Library Association “Superconference” this coming February. Fathom Five looks to be on track for a late spring release in 2007, and I’m starting to consider launch parties, and revamping this website.

I’m also pleased to announce that The Unwritten Girl was reviewed by Carrie Spellman for the website Teens Read Too, receiving five stars and a gold award. This review is very like the Sarah’s Stars review, which I cherish because it’s a review from a reader. Reviews from critics at magazines are important, but it’s always heartening to know that my book is connecting with my audience.

So, that’s my statement on what’s been happening since I last posted here. I hope that posting comes more frequently, now, if nothing else so that you have more reason to come back to this website. Remember that books make good Christmas gifts, including (I hope) mine.

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