As you consider those you love, a cozy mystery might be the sweetest gift you could give. Books by Radine Trees Nehring bring the Ozarks alive with spine-tingling adventure. If you’ve visited the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, AR, A Wedding to Die For will carry you right back there.
You can get a signed copy from the author and shipped free from www.radinesbooks.com
It’s a five-star winner on Amazon
I am a writer, and I can prove it. Just look at http://www.RadinesBooks.com. Nine books published by three independent publishers.
Then, silence! Why? No new book in work, no posts on my blog, not much travel to distant writers’ conferences and conventions, (partly because, during this period, many of our favorites closed).
During this long silence, my husband and I moved from our Ozarks country home (“DEAR EARTH: A Love Letter from Spring Hollow”) to a condo in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We settled in, and I began intensive work at weekend book signings at an area grocery chain that welcomed me as a registered vendor in its various stores. I loved this work, and enjoyed meeting customers who stopped to chat, ask about my books, and, often, chose to buy one or more. My husband, who was also my business manager, enjoyed the store visits and usually sat with me at my signing table. He also carried and helped arrange supplies, including table, chairs, and book stock at my events.
Then, suddenly, my husband died, and a huge learning experience swamped my life so fully that I barely had time to grieve. I lost interest in writing and (never really true) I also thought I had no time. He had handled all my business necessities since his own retirement. Manage bookkeeping, yes; book stock orders, yes; shipping to those who ordered books from my web site, yes; travel arrangements, yes; tax prep and filing, yes: negotiations and business arrangements with bookstores,: yes.
And, of course, he took care of all household issues as well, helped me with troublesome tech questions in my office, and did upkeep in and around our city condominium. Blogging dropped to the bottom of my “to-do” list. For a time, I didn’t want to write at all.
I have been able to continue some grocery signing events, and, last year, began writing what had been a long-time dream for me, a short story anthology featuring the main characters in my eight mystery novels. I finished the final story in “Solving Peculiar Crimes” yesterday, and sent it off to my editor at SK Publications. Though I have always enjoyed writing, creating thirteen “Peculiar Crime” stories for Carrie McCrite and Henry King, Shirley and Roger, and more, was the most delicious fun. It re-awakened my love for making up stories.
So, here I am. More to come.
Best wishes to all of you in this sheltering, mask-wearing, and keeping our physical distance time. I’ll be back soon.
Radine
eople initiated friendly discussions about their families, their lives, and about almost anything else that wasn’t overly controversial and not–how should I say it?–off color. (I mention off-color because a majority of those wanting to chat were male. Though my husb
The following ideas are from a talk titled “Understanding the Mysterious Woman–Adventure and Awakening.” I spoke about this at Ozarks Writers Live, a fabulous annual event hosted by the Fayetteville, AR, Public Library each fall, and held on Sept. 13 this year.
BUT, before you read this, do scroll down and read the guest post from bookstore owner and deep thinker, Dan Krotz from Sow’s Ear Antiques and Books in Berryville, ARkansas.
Now, about that mysterious woman…WHAT does the female in fiction reveal about the living, breathing, female…about me and you?
Let’s look at a bit of history first. I think most of you are familiar with the ANNE OF GREEN GABLES series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, especially with the first book in the series which covers Anne’s life from ages 11 through 16. That book came out exactly one hundred years ago, in 1908, and sold 19,000 copies in Canada during the first five months. (Remember, telegraph was the method of rapid communication in those days. Radio and telephone were in their beginning stages and weren’t in common use. Talk about books or anything else didn’t zip around the globe!)
But, before long millions of copies of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES were selling around the globe. What was it that almost guaranteed this book’s success? Well, of course it had pathos. It had Victorian virtue. It had spice, because its appealing protagonist was a bit of a scamp. But still, why the popularity? BECAUSE MOST BOOKS AVAILABLE TO YOUNG PEOPLE AT THAT TIME WERE WRITTEN FOR BOYS! This novel was water in the desert for young girls.
Female readers and writers as well as women generally have faced many literature deserts over time. Often books intended for women were insipid, wordy, and sweetly romantic in nature–not the more lively stories and mystery novels that are popular today.
That’s not to say there weren’t any mysteries that might appeal to women. The first few mystery novels featuring women protagonists were published in the 1870’s in England. One of those was by Wilkie Collins, known as the father of the detective novel for THE MOONSTONE. His book, THE LAW AND THE LADY showcased Valeria Brinton, who made heroic efforts to find enough evidence to clear her husband of a murder charge. Though the book might seem quaint to us today, at least Valeria managed to bypass or ignore many social rules and restrictions that burdened women of her day.
Next time: Anna Katherine Green.
How many of you have heard that reading among the population of the United States is declining…that fewer and fewer people, especially young people, read books today? Well, after all (they say) we have television and the Internet, iPods, Blackberries, cell phones, ( and on and on) to communicate with, learn from, and be entertained by………don’t we? Why waste time with a book?
I imagine most of you are familiar with at least some of the ‘modern inventions’ above. You know what e-mail and text messaging is like. Think about that for a moment.
Now, imagine what holding a baby is like. Picture the baby. Feel it. Soft. Warm. A bit heavy, maybe like a ten-pound bag of sugar. Interesting noises and smells. Love. Got that image?
Okay. Think about being in a tornado. These days, most of us can at least imagine that. Furious wind. That famous freight-train sound. The crack of splintering wood. Air sucked out of us. Fear.
Next, think about watching a Fourth of July parade. The high school band is marching by, playing “Stars and Stripes Forever,” perhaps with more enthusiasm than talent. But still….. Heart beating faster. Tears?
What have you been feeling? Emotions!
Humans are hard-wired to express and feel emotions. Sadness, joy, fear, horror, outrage, pride, compassion, joy. Empathy. As humans we feel, we respond, we even make decisions based on emotions. We may decide what is good and true and what is not based on a “gut feeling” which, frankly, is just another way to use and express emotion. What would human life be like without emotions? But to get there, something must have the time to touch us, and the time to get inside us far enough to stir responding feelings. Humans find satisfaction and fulfillment in that.
Personal relationships, experiencing or viewing disaster or triumph–and much more–can awaken varying emotions. Reading a book can also give us that. It offers enough time to create and experience emotions. I think, because of that if nothing else, books in some form will endure.
What do you think? Radine
Writing is a creative effort not wholly unlike acting or painting or music. In all of these, it’s manditory to keep polishing the craft, overcome the disappointment of rejection, and forge on.
BUT! Actors, if they don’t make big-time, can take bit parts on TV, do commercials, and act in Little Theater. Painters display at craft fairs, in restaurants and small galleries, and even along sidewalks. Musicians play in local music groups and perform in restaurants and night clubs.
What does the writer do for validation? Sure, writing itself is a wonderful experience–a big “high.” But to receive validation most of us need to be published in something more than “Letters to the Editor.” We can find satisfaction and a career in journalism or writing magazine features, as I have done in the past. But, sooner or later, a surprisingly large percentage of us will feel the urge to create a BOOK! Assuming we do write that book and try the top publishers for a time with no sales…what next?
Well, publishing options are enormous and increasing daily. Did you read about the woman in Japan who wrote a novel on her cell phone? It was the number one best-seller in Japan during 2007. Twenty million people read it on line and on cell phones before it came out in hard cover and sold millions more copies. It’s now being made into a movie. I read about Mika and her novel, “Love Sky,” in The Christian Science Monitor last February, and, a few days later, saw in the New York Times that five out of the top ten novels in Japan in 2007 were written and published on cell phones.
Talk about new technology!
Okay, how many of you writers out there would rather hold a “real” book with your name on the cover in your hands? Downloading a book to your Kindle or even your cell phone may be the wave of the future, but there are those confounded tiny screens and, well, real books made of paper feel and smell so nice! Though my own books are available as e-books, those are a small percentage of sales and, call me old-fashioned, but I still prefer reading books printed on paper.
A recent article in the New Yorker magazine assures us that books will endure. It says, in part: “New technologies don’t triumph just because they work well; they have to solve a real problem. And for most people the physical book offers no problems at all. The book–portable, intuitive to use–is an almost perfect technology.” (Don’t you love that!”)
The article goes on to opine that it isn’t books that are in trouble, but publishers, partly because they have been so slow to adopt new technology like Print on Demand.
Next: The plus and minus sides of Print on Demand.
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