Chapter 31
My eight-year old grandson had been playing baseball all summer and Grandma and I had attended most of the games.
It was the next to last game of the season and Blake's team was playing for the championship.
During the warm-up drills, Blake lost a high fly ball in the sun and wound up catching it with his forehead.
As he lay on the ground stunned and bleeding, one of his teammates quipped, "Wow! Cool! You're grandpa is an author. Maybe he can write a story about this."
I hadn't planned on writing any more Rainbow Road stories for awhile, but this kid had thrown down the gauntlet and my creative juices began to flow.
The next day, I started the fifth volume in the series, Sports Heroes of Rainbow Road.
One of the things about my writing that is so special, is that I get to share the process with my wife.
I let her read each chapter after it's finished and often she has conceptual suggestions that make the story even better, and she creates the covers for all the books.
After my work is finished, she spends hours editing for all the missed commas and misplaced quotation marks. It's quite a job.
As the series developed, we added more and more illustrations. After all, "a picture is worth a thousand words".
We spent hours on dreamstime.com together, purchasing the rights to dozens of illustrations and even went back to the original four volumes of the series, added more pictures and republished. The process is so simple with Createspace.
Sports Heroes Of Rainbow Road turned out to be my favorite of the series and after it was finished, I couldn't shut down the old imagination.
Soon, with fall approaching, volume number six, Ghosts And Goblins Of Rainbow Road, began to form in my mind.
By this time the kids had three super powers each, and the opportunities to use them were endless.
So far in the series, Rainbow Road had transported them to different cities in the U.S. and even to Maui, Hawaii, so in Ghosts And Goblins, Rainbow Road took them back in time to the year 1692, and with their super powers, they were able to change the course of history. How cool is that?
I thought that maybe after Ghosts And Goblins, I would be finished, but how can you have a Halloween story and not have a Christmas story?
In Christmas Crooks Of Rainbow Road, evil thieves steal Blake's gold coin that bestows the super power of Shape-Shifting, kidnap Santa, assume his identity and threaten to destroy Christmas for the entire world.
Blake and Breonna are, of course, up to the task and in this North Pole adventure, save Santa and Christmas.
There are now seven volumes in the Rainbow Road series.
Done! Finished! No more Rainbow Road stories for awhile.
I'll have a couple of months to market the new children's chapter book series before the new Lady Justice Takes A C.R.A.P. and Lady Justice And The Lost Tapes are released by Tate Publishing.
School has started and my grandson has been taking the chapter books to school and selling them to his classmates. I give him a dollar for every book he sells.
Who says I don't have a distribution network?
When I started writing the first Lady Justice novel, I had no idea where it was going to take me, and here I am now with three mystery/comedy novels and seven children's chapter books.
Who wudda thunk?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
The Tears And Triumphs Of A New Author Chapter 30
Chapter 30
The third book in the Rainbow Road series of children's chapter books was Hawaiian Rainbows.
I had been looking forward to writing this one. Peg and I had lived on Maui, Hawaii for five years and we loved it.
My third mystery/comedy novel in the Lady Justice series, Lady Justice Gets Leid, was also set on that beautiful island.
In Hawaiian Rainbows, Blake receives the gold coin for Super Strength.
After receiving another nod of approval from the grandson, Peg created another cover and we sent it off to Createspace.
Three down --- and how many more to go?
As with the Lady Justice books, once my mind was fixated on Rainbow Road, it wouldn't shut off. I found myself again laying awake in the middle of the night conjuring up the kids next adventure.
The Fourth of July holiday was approaching and I thought that an adventure based on a patriotic theme seemed appropriate, so the fourth installment of the Rainbow Road series, Patriotic Rainbows, began to form in my mind.
In this adventure, little Breonna receives the gold coin of Truth. In each story, the previously bestowed super powers are passed on to the next story, so in this book, each kid now has two super powers. With these new-found abilities, they are able to save the Liberty Bell from being destroyed by terrorists.
Even though the Lady Justice series was fiction, these were adult novels and the plots had to be believable.
I felt no such constraints with the Rainbow Road books. Having played with my grandson, I was quite aware of the dazzling stories that are constantly being conjured up in the fertile imagination of a kid, and I let my own imagination run free, pretending I was an eight-year old.
It was actually kind of scary when I realized just how easy that was to do. They say that grandpas are just really old kids, and I began to think that maybe there was some truth there.
"If I were a kid, and could have a super power, what would I do?" It was just like going back sixty years and being Roy Rogers again.
Blake loved Patriotic Rainbows, so off it went to Createspace and Rainbow Road now had four volumes.
Our next event was the Bingham-Waggoner Festival and we had Rainbow Road ready to sell along with Lady Justice.
The new books had the affect we had hoped for. We now had kids dragging their parents to our table and grandmas who didn't really want to buy a mystery for themselves, would buy a book for their grandchild.
Bingo!
After receiving great reviews from our new Rainbow Road readers, I began to wonder if maybe there could be some commercial value to our new series.
On a whim, I sent the manuscripts of the four Rainbow Road books to the acquisitions lady at Tate Publishing. Since I already had three novels under contract with them, I thought they might at least take the time to look at them.
I have to admit that I was surprised by her response.
"I have had an opportunity to review your juvenile reader books (The Rainbow Road Series.) I liked the books. The dialog between Blake and Breonna is perfect for young readers. You have really captured their personalities in your writing. One part that stood out was when Breonna called Blake a “smarty pants.” You are right on with the age range of readers you are trying to reach. You have written their adventures to be fun and exciting. There is fine line between trying to put too much into a story and just the right amount of adventure. With too much you lose the reader and they become confused with what the ultimate goal of the writer is. Often when this happens it is difficult for a writer to find the proper ending to their story. If there is not enough adventure and personality to the writing the reader gets easily bored and we all know what happens then… the book is put back on the shelf. I think you have a good balance with your story. I am not surprised that parents and grandparents were purchasing the book. It can be difficult to find a book for this age range. Juvenile reader books are highly successful in the industry at the moment."
I was offered a contract for the Rainbow Road series.
While this was certainly a boost for my ego, and a validation for the series, Peg and I decided that with three Lady Justice novels being published, we would hold off until we were certain that Tate would come through as promised.
At that point we were absolutely happy with our experience with Tate, but we wanted to see if the marketing and promotion would develop as we had hoped.
I had decided to stop writing more Rainbow Road books and get back to Lady Justice #4.
In the meantime, my grandson was sharing his little books with some of his friends, and soon, fate would intervene once again.
The third book in the Rainbow Road series of children's chapter books was Hawaiian Rainbows.
I had been looking forward to writing this one. Peg and I had lived on Maui, Hawaii for five years and we loved it.
My third mystery/comedy novel in the Lady Justice series, Lady Justice Gets Leid, was also set on that beautiful island.
In Hawaiian Rainbows, Blake receives the gold coin for Super Strength.
After receiving another nod of approval from the grandson, Peg created another cover and we sent it off to Createspace.
Three down --- and how many more to go?
As with the Lady Justice books, once my mind was fixated on Rainbow Road, it wouldn't shut off. I found myself again laying awake in the middle of the night conjuring up the kids next adventure.
The Fourth of July holiday was approaching and I thought that an adventure based on a patriotic theme seemed appropriate, so the fourth installment of the Rainbow Road series, Patriotic Rainbows, began to form in my mind.
In this adventure, little Breonna receives the gold coin of Truth. In each story, the previously bestowed super powers are passed on to the next story, so in this book, each kid now has two super powers. With these new-found abilities, they are able to save the Liberty Bell from being destroyed by terrorists.
Even though the Lady Justice series was fiction, these were adult novels and the plots had to be believable.
I felt no such constraints with the Rainbow Road books. Having played with my grandson, I was quite aware of the dazzling stories that are constantly being conjured up in the fertile imagination of a kid, and I let my own imagination run free, pretending I was an eight-year old.
It was actually kind of scary when I realized just how easy that was to do. They say that grandpas are just really old kids, and I began to think that maybe there was some truth there.
"If I were a kid, and could have a super power, what would I do?" It was just like going back sixty years and being Roy Rogers again.
Blake loved Patriotic Rainbows, so off it went to Createspace and Rainbow Road now had four volumes.
Our next event was the Bingham-Waggoner Festival and we had Rainbow Road ready to sell along with Lady Justice.
The new books had the affect we had hoped for. We now had kids dragging their parents to our table and grandmas who didn't really want to buy a mystery for themselves, would buy a book for their grandchild.
Bingo!
After receiving great reviews from our new Rainbow Road readers, I began to wonder if maybe there could be some commercial value to our new series.
On a whim, I sent the manuscripts of the four Rainbow Road books to the acquisitions lady at Tate Publishing. Since I already had three novels under contract with them, I thought they might at least take the time to look at them.
I have to admit that I was surprised by her response.
"I have had an opportunity to review your juvenile reader books (The Rainbow Road Series.) I liked the books. The dialog between Blake and Breonna is perfect for young readers. You have really captured their personalities in your writing. One part that stood out was when Breonna called Blake a “smarty pants.” You are right on with the age range of readers you are trying to reach. You have written their adventures to be fun and exciting. There is fine line between trying to put too much into a story and just the right amount of adventure. With too much you lose the reader and they become confused with what the ultimate goal of the writer is. Often when this happens it is difficult for a writer to find the proper ending to their story. If there is not enough adventure and personality to the writing the reader gets easily bored and we all know what happens then… the book is put back on the shelf. I think you have a good balance with your story. I am not surprised that parents and grandparents were purchasing the book. It can be difficult to find a book for this age range. Juvenile reader books are highly successful in the industry at the moment."
I was offered a contract for the Rainbow Road series.
While this was certainly a boost for my ego, and a validation for the series, Peg and I decided that with three Lady Justice novels being published, we would hold off until we were certain that Tate would come through as promised.
At that point we were absolutely happy with our experience with Tate, but we wanted to see if the marketing and promotion would develop as we had hoped.
I had decided to stop writing more Rainbow Road books and get back to Lady Justice #4.
In the meantime, my grandson was sharing his little books with some of his friends, and soon, fate would intervene once again.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
The Tears And Triumphs Of A New Author Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
In the first installment of the Rainbow Road series, Blake, the eight-year old boy was given the super power of X-Ray Vision.
Not wanting to be perceived as sexist, I decided that in the second book, Super Powers Of Rainbow Road, little six-year old Breonna would get Super Hearing.
While I banged away, one finger at a time, on the computer, Peg busied herself creating another beautiful cover for the book.
When both were finished and bound at OfficeMax, we presented the second installment to my grandson for his critique. Kids his age, after all, are my target audience.
He loved the second book as much as the first and encouraged me to keep pumping them out. I hoped he wasn't just saying that to make his poor old grandpa happy. How old do you have to be to learn to lie to people so that they feel good?
Then a thought occurred to us. We had been involved in craft fairs, art expos and book signings for almost a year with Lady Justice Takes A C.R.A.P.
Not everyone is interested in mysteries and we had just the one book on our big eight-foot table.
Maybe if we had a couple of kids books, it would attract more readers to our table.
The OfficeMax version was OK for the grandson critique, but we needed something better to sell.
We decided that since this was a kid's book, we needed some illustrations, so we went back to Dreamstime.com and purchased some really cute images that fit into the story line.
We were quite happy with the book that Authorhouse had produced, but there was no way we were going down that road with the little kids books.
We had met a young lady at the Lowry City, Mo. Library Author's Fair.
We love going to those events. We love meeting other authors and comparing notes.
This lady had written a novel and published it with an on-line service called Createspace which we discovered was a company affiliated with Amazon.
We logged on to the website and were amazed to see how easy it was to upload a PDF file and a front and back cover, and the cost, compared to all the other ways we had found to publish, was insignificant.
We realized, of course, that what we were doing was the bottom of the publishing barrel. Besides having a book to hold in your hand, all you got was the title available on Amazon.com., but we didn't care. All we were interested in was having the kids books on our table to attract a wider range of readers.
We submitted the two volumes of the Rainbow Road series, followed their on-line directions and within a week the books were in our hands.
Frankly, we were not expecting much for the price we paid, but when we opened the box, our little books looked every bit as good as the Random House and Penguin chapter books on the Barnes & Noble bookshelf.
I have to admit that I was excited about these little books and with my grandson's encouragement, I couldn't stop writing the darned things!
In the first installment of the Rainbow Road series, Blake, the eight-year old boy was given the super power of X-Ray Vision.
Not wanting to be perceived as sexist, I decided that in the second book, Super Powers Of Rainbow Road, little six-year old Breonna would get Super Hearing.
While I banged away, one finger at a time, on the computer, Peg busied herself creating another beautiful cover for the book.
When both were finished and bound at OfficeMax, we presented the second installment to my grandson for his critique. Kids his age, after all, are my target audience.
He loved the second book as much as the first and encouraged me to keep pumping them out. I hoped he wasn't just saying that to make his poor old grandpa happy. How old do you have to be to learn to lie to people so that they feel good?
Then a thought occurred to us. We had been involved in craft fairs, art expos and book signings for almost a year with Lady Justice Takes A C.R.A.P.
Not everyone is interested in mysteries and we had just the one book on our big eight-foot table.
Maybe if we had a couple of kids books, it would attract more readers to our table.
The OfficeMax version was OK for the grandson critique, but we needed something better to sell.
We decided that since this was a kid's book, we needed some illustrations, so we went back to Dreamstime.com and purchased some really cute images that fit into the story line.
We were quite happy with the book that Authorhouse had produced, but there was no way we were going down that road with the little kids books.
We had met a young lady at the Lowry City, Mo. Library Author's Fair.
We love going to those events. We love meeting other authors and comparing notes.
This lady had written a novel and published it with an on-line service called Createspace which we discovered was a company affiliated with Amazon.
We logged on to the website and were amazed to see how easy it was to upload a PDF file and a front and back cover, and the cost, compared to all the other ways we had found to publish, was insignificant.
We realized, of course, that what we were doing was the bottom of the publishing barrel. Besides having a book to hold in your hand, all you got was the title available on Amazon.com., but we didn't care. All we were interested in was having the kids books on our table to attract a wider range of readers.
We submitted the two volumes of the Rainbow Road series, followed their on-line directions and within a week the books were in our hands.
Frankly, we were not expecting much for the price we paid, but when we opened the box, our little books looked every bit as good as the Random House and Penguin chapter books on the Barnes & Noble bookshelf.
I have to admit that I was excited about these little books and with my grandson's encouragement, I couldn't stop writing the darned things!
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