It does not surprise me (given my obsession with good grades and test scores as a kid) that I have a great and terrible capacity to stress out over any sort of numerical indication of my book’s “success”: Amazon rankings, stars, number of reviews, etc.
At this point, however, none of that serves any purpose except to drive me crazy and distract me from my new book. So I am trying to be good and avoid these behaviors. And to do so, I am not above bribery. So a few weeks ago I told myself if I could make it to a certain day without googling myself, etc, I would get a treat. This proved sufficiently motivational that I held to my vow — and was considerably more mellow and productive! I am trying to keep it up for a longer span now. So far so good! I am busy working on my circus book and the demons of self-doubt are only clamoring at their normal volume.
Anyways, my bribe/treat arrived on Friday in the mail, and thus I got to wear them this weekend. Check them out!
Knowing I have happy little robots dangling from my ears somehow makes any day better, and reminds me to stay focused on the good stuff. And this weekend was pretty wonderful. Aside from a number of enjoyable non-writing-related escapades (detailed in my livejournal), I got to hang out with a bunch of other kidlit writers from Maine at a wonderful bookstore (Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta).
I will admit that the first thing I did was to seek out the kid’s section to see if there were copies of Fortune’s Folly in stock. And there were! I was also thrilled to see my friend R.J. Anderson’s wonderful new debut Faery Rebels: Spellhunter on the shelf! Hooray!
After shamelessly ogling my own book, I met with the other ladies in the cafe and we talked for a few hours about nifty writing retreats, what we’ve read recently, what we’re working on now, and various other topics.
Of course we couldn’t leave without buying a few things, so eventually we moved back to the shelves and started shopping. I snapped up a copy of Spellhunter as well as Eva Ibbotson’s newest: The Reluctant Heiress. We introduced ourselves to the staff and were invited to sign stock – only my second time doing so, and my hands were shaking for several minutes afterward! At least I knew I had spares in the car in case I screwed up my signature so horribly it could not be salvaged. All in all it was a lovely visit.
As noted above, I am avoiding self-googling so I only find out about blogger reviews of my book that I happen to stumble across during my normal book-blog reading. This weekend I was looking for reviews of Patricia Wrede’s Thirteenth Child (which I am currently reading) and discovered The Book Aunt, who serendipitously had recently finished Fortune’s Folly. I am quite delighted at having my plot described as having a “near-Shakespearean convolution”. Thank you, Kate!
And last but definitely not least, thank you to all the teachers, bloggers, librarians and booksellers who have already entered my most recent ARC contest! I am so pleased that you guys are interested in reading my book, and I wish I had copies for everyone!
Tags: fortune's folly, reviews
