What I'm REALLY Thankful For This Year - Thursdays with the Author

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in the states! 

This week, instead of doing a Q&A with my readers, my post will be focusing on the holiday we are celebrating today. The spirit of Thanksgiving is all about the name, giving thanks.There's been a lot of social network buzz about thanksgiving with a November status drive called 30 days of thanks. Every day in November, users are encouraged to list something they are thankful for.

I chose not to participate as I feel we should be thankful EVERY day for what we have.I think the world we live in has grown pretty selfish. Materialism, money, fame, it's all gotten way out of hand. Especially here in the US. We tend to worry about what we DON'T have instead of counting the blessings of what we DO have.

Don't get me wrong, I've been guilty of this myself. All the time. But the last few weeks have been somewhat of a wake-up call for me in this department.

You see, less than two weeks ago, on Sunday, November 17, I was going to church with my daughter in a city 30 minutes from home. My son was staying home with my husband to help him work on his truck. It was an odd weather weekend for Illinois in November. Usually we have temperatures in the 30's and snow flurries. This particular weekend, the temps were in the high 60's and severe weather had been predicted for the afternoon. 

 Half way through 2nd service Sunday School, the alert on my phone went off. A tornado warning had been issued for home. I frantically text  my husband, asking if he was aware of the weather situation. He text back quickly, somewhat unusual for him, saying that the sirens were going off and he and my son were in the basement with some of our pets. He told me he was trying to get our son calmed down before going back upstairs to gather our other animals. This was also unusual behavior for him. Normally when there's severe weather (mostly in the Spring and Summer), we gather in the basement when the weather turns nasty and my husband never takes it seriously. He'll say he wants to stay upstairs and watch and will come down if it looks serious. Thankfully today he took the warnings seriously and got to safety.

Moments after getting a hold of him, someone came rushing in the room from the service, saying the church was being evacuated to the basement right as my phone alert went off again saying the area we were in was also under a tornado warning. I quickly found my daughter (the children's Sunday school classes were the first to be evacuated) and desperately tried calling my husband again. The cell service in our church's basement left a lot to be desired and my calls kept failing. Then it would ring and I would get no answer. 

I'm sure most parents and spouses can understand that at this point, I was freaking out. I called my mother (who happens to live between our church and home) for an update since my radar wasn't working. She informed me that there was a large cell with rotation over the church and a cell over our hometown area that had confirmed tornadoes. She assured me she would try calling my husband and reminded me to stay in the basement until the weather cleared. Minutes later, a member of the church came down to the basement with a chunk of hail as big as his palm. He reported there was damage and flooding outside but it looked like we had missed anything major.

The next phone call was from my sister telling me that Washington, IL had been hit, part of it being completely wiped out. My town is only ten miles from Washington. Normal weather patterns usually affect my house and Washington. I was sure at this point, that something had happened to my family. Until my husband called. I almost cried when I read his name on the screen. He assured me that they were fine, he'd managed to get all the animals to the basement and the weather had cleared. As far as he could tell there had been no damage to our property though he swore he heard what he described as 'a freight train passing over the house after the sirens had gone off a second time'. 

When our senior pastor gave the all clear I hurried home as fast as I could. Other than straight-line wind damage near our church, I was relieved to see no other damage on the 30 minute drive home. When I got home, I hugged my husband and son and tried to let go of the fear I had been feeling for the last two hours. My son excitedly told me how Daddy had brought his lizard down to the basement, dragged the reluctant dog down the stairs and searched the house for our cat before getting him a kennel and bringing him down while he objected indignantly. My family was safe and I was beyond thankful.

Then I turned on the TV. All the local stations, even CNN and the major networks were showing pictures and videos from the city next to our small town. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A town that I had shopped and dined in, driven through countless times lay destroyed. An EF4 tornado, as we found out in the coming days, had touched down in the heart of town. In the coming days we found out that over 1000 homes had been destroyed, over 75 people had been injured and 1 man had died. My family could have been among the injured. My house could have been destroyed. My life could have been forever changed by a freak, fast-moving storm only ten miles from home. 

The things I worried about suddenly seemed so small. My family was safe. This thanksgiving I have a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful that I'm not planning a funeral for a loved one. I'm thankful that I'm not spending this holiday sifting through the rubble of what's left of my home. I'm thankful that my family was spared from having our lives turned upside down. I'm thankful that the surrounding communities here have come together to support the towns affected by the November 17 storms. I'm thankful that people who couldn't afford to give, gave anyway. I'm thankful that a house is just a house and things can be replaced. And I'm thankful that I know what always has and always will matter most. The people I love.

Who do I thank for becoming a writer? - Thursdays with the Author

Who do I thank for becoming a writer? 

A lot of people, really, but a few people really played a major part in launching my career as a writer.

My first grade teacher, Mrs. Ghormley was one. I was struggling enough with reading and writing that there was talk about holding me back a year. She spent a lot of (unpaid) time, helping me read and write, developing ways that motivated me to try harder and not give up. She 'custom made' education for every one of her students, regardless of how much extra work it gave her.

We had a giant ice cream party at the end of the year where we could earn extra scoops and toppings by finishing reading goals. We also had a class pet, a black rabbit named Floppy. Instead of reading to people, we would read to her. She didn't talk back, laugh at you if you made a mistake, or correct every word you said. It was genius. I got over my fear of reading out loud and really improved in my reading skills. She also let us bring Floppy home on the weekends and holidays when we met our goals in class. Which is just a great idea that has really picked up all over the country the last few years. Reading to shelter dogs, therapy dogs, cats, rabbits, etc. It's a confidence builder for kids and also great for animals!

My education improved so much that year that I not only moved on to the next grade with my class but I also wrote a book for the young author contest that was a finalist out of the entire school.

Moving on to high school I had even more teachers that helped encourage and cultivate my love for the written word. English isn't the most popular subject in school but I was lucky enough to have many teachers that made it an interesting and important subject. My creative writing teacher, Miss Hynes, didn't treat her class like we had to write the assignments just to get a good grade. She encouraged us to write great things that meant something, to us and to the reader. 

My mother, also a teacher, (noticing a theme here?) was also very encouraging and supportive. She never put limits on my dreams and aspirations. 

My grandma, who supported my mom unfailingly while she went to college to become a teacher while raising three girls, read through every horrible manuscript I wasted printer ink on and always had good comments as well as constructive criticism. She really encouraged me to self publish when I was too afraid to take that leap. 

I'll interject a huge shout-out to teachers here. Your hard work does make a difference in student's lives. What you teach, how you encourage, all those extra things you do, could really change someone's life. You are the unsung heroes in life. 

You never know who might inspire you to follow your dreams but those people will never give up on you. I just hope the ones in my life know how much their support means to me. :)

Where do I get my ideas? - Thursdays with the Author

Last night I had my first book signing at my local library. We did a Q&A time with the readers and they had some really great questions for me. Here's one of them:

Question: Where do you get the ideas for these stories?

Answer: Honestly I get ideas from just about anything. The spark for Dark Mountains started in my creative writing class my senior year in high school. The teacher gave as an assignment to write a story based on a plant (tree, bush, flower, etc) and I picked the common bluebell. I wrote a very short story about two young children, best friends, that picked the flowers to give to their mothers. 

A year later, while I was on bed rest with my first child, I was bored out of my mind and got out my writing folder from that class. I found the story and read through it. Ideas about how those two children became best friends, their lives together as they grew up, etc, started popping into my head. So I began to write. Dark Mountains would be published eight years later. 

The rest of the ideas for Dark Mountains came from so many different places. Cole (the hero) decided to become a soldier after 9/11. I was a junior in high school at the time and I remember vividly what happened that day. Many of my classmates and school friends joined the military as a result of that day so it was very easy to inject that into the story line. I also interviewed and read blogs from soldiers that served in Iraq and really tried to understand what it was like fighting over there. I wanted to be able to use all of the senses when describing scenes so the reader wasn't just reading about what someone was going through, but experiencing it themselves.

Libby (the heroine) came from an abusive family life. Part of the inspiration for that story line came from my own childhood, growing up with a verbally abusive and alcoholic father. Of course, Jackson (the villain) was way worse than anything I'd ever experienced so I had to do a lot of research on abuse and the scars they leave on families that live with it. Reading personal testimonies from abuse victims was very tough but I used the emotions they described and tried to put myself in their shoes while I wrote the scenes.

In Irish Strength the inspiration, again, came from multiple sources. I was researching taking a trip to Ireland for our 10th wedding anniversary and stumbled on a website that contained some Celtic mythology. I started reading and found the myth about the four treasures from the cities of light. I started writing ideas right away, mixing a few different Celtic myths in to make the story really flow.

I've had dialogue ideas and story lines come into my head while over-hearing conversations, on vacation at the beach, listening to a song on the radio, even taking my kids to the zoo. For a writer, inspiration is everywhere. 

My advice: no matter where you are, when an idea pops into your head, no matter how ridiculous it might seem, WRITE IT DOWN. You never know where you'll be able to use it or what kind of story it could make.

What I'm Working On - Thursdays with the Author

Question: What are you working on right now?

Answer: I'm one of those writers who writes what I feel. I don't work with a schedule, outline or plan. I write whatever is in my head at the time. I don't recommend this for my fellow writers but you have to find what works for you and use it. 

So as for not having a plan, I have a few different projects I'm working on right now. I am getting feedback from my beta readers and editing accordingly for Irish Strength - Irish Treasures - Book One and preparing it for the upcoming January release. I am editing and adding to Irish Heart - Irish Treasures - Book Two.  I continue to work on Irish Sight- Irish Treasures - Book Three. 

I've started working on a children's book Manda Panda's Tummy Ache, which I'll be writing under the pen name Miss Amanda. 

I have a few more projects in the work that I pick up and add to when inspiration strikes including a historical romance with horse racing inspiration and a contemporary fiction set in Nashville. 

My first Book Signing is next week. I am very excited to meet my readers in person and have a Q&A session with them!

I continue to improve my internet presence through blogging and social media. 

Outside of writing, my daughter'a sixth birthday is tomorrow and I'm planning her party for this weekend. Then there's Thanksgiving and Christmas fast approaching. 

Then there's my daycare kids, which for any if you that didn't know, is my day job. I run an I'm-home daycare during the week, which is what allowed me to stay at home with my children. 

So between my day job and my own children, finding time to sit down and write is not easy. I tend to keep a notepad or my phone app open to jot ideas down as they pop up. And of course, I take advantage of naps and bedtimes and weekend sleep-overs at Grandma's. ;)

Handling Negative Feedback - Thursdays with the Author

Question: How do you handle negative feedback on a book?

Answer: I had to learn how to handle negative feedback, the hard way. Just like every other author does. The first negative feedback I received, I handled very badly. I at least had the good sense not to comment on the Amazon reviews section, venting instead via my (personal, NOT author) Facebook page. I had received a 2 star review and I actually knew the person who'd left the review. Not only that, this person was family! I know we authors are supposed to be able to handle negative criticism but I hadn't learned that particular talent yet.

This reviewer admitted that she hadn't finished the book. Her biggest reason for such a bad review? One of the characters used the Lord's name in vain. (yes really. That was actually her reason.) She gave two other reasons for the general despising of my first novel to be published. They were: 1) The amount of curse words (FYI there's less than 10 in the entire thing) and the descriptive sex scenes (which were under 5 in the entire novel). She continued with an explanation that sex should be implied, not explained. But she made it very clear that she stopped reading the minute I took the Lord's name in vain and did not finish the book. Which meant she didn't even get to read the rest of the cuss words and sex scenes! ;)

She also implied that since my bio page stated that I sang at church, that she expected better of me. The actual title of her review was "Don't judge a book by the author's bio". So I had to comment (via Facebook) that maybe I go to a Pagan church where people have sex in front of everybody during services. (I don't, by the way, but I really felt like being a smart-ass). (Uh, oh. Sorry for the curse word). I did end up changing my bio to 'singing' instead of 'singing at church' so no one else would come to the same conclusion as my (apparently) very shocked, and disappointed relative. So my going off the deep-end on Facebook because of (what I saw as) a betrayal by a family member continued...

I (shamefully) declared that said relative was a religious zealot and should have known that since the book is a ROMANCE, it would have sex in it. I had assumed too, since the book wasn't classified as religious or inspirational that it would also have adult content and language.  Well you know what they say about people who assume! ;)(in case you don't: It makes an ass out of u and me. Get it?) Well apparently it wasn't as obvious that a ROMANCE book would contain adult situations.

Well my little, unprofessional outburst fired up a literal shit-storm (oops, there's another curse word... guess I still have a little bit of bitterness) which resulted in yet another family member, angry that I called the first family member a religious zealot, echoed the first relative's review with a negative one of her own. On Amazon. Where everyone could see it. Where I can't delete it. Where it effects the sales of my book. 

This relative, at least, left me a 4 star rating. But echoed that the cursing, use of the Lord's name in vain, and sex were completely unnecessary. And since I knew who this particular relative was, I was again angry. Because this specific relative had read the 50 Shades of Grey series and loved it! That series is like hard-core porn compared to what I wrote, but I digress...

My point is, that though I didn't handle my first negative review very well, I have since learned that it doesn't matter. The rest of my reviews for that particular book are all 4-5 star ratings so I have to assume (yes there's that word again) that people like my book. I have to assume that MOST people will understand what my book will be about when it's categorized as a romantic suspense. I have to assume that people will read the blurb and positive reviews and understand what the negative reviews are: proof that you can't please everyone. 

And that is the absolute truth. An author will NEVER please every reader. Most of the time we will piss-off at least a few of them. We have to learn how to accept that fact and deal with the negative reviews.

Look at J.K. Rowling. One of the biggest literary figures of this century, immensely popular and famous, yet her book was BANNED by some libraries for its references to magic! When I say some readers will hate what you write, well she had hordes of people that hated what she wrote, boycotted it even, yet she went on to sell over 400 million copies and that figure is from 2011! So there's your proof.

Take the negative reviews, the criticism, hate, displeasure, betrayal, etc and let it go.(Just try not to sing a song about it.) Because in the end it doesn't really matter. (Of course that's a different story if ALL your reviews are negative...The different story being that something is probably MAJORLY wrong with your book, but I digress again.)


Another factor of the negative review is that you can gain positives out of it. Say a reviewer said 'I loved the story-line but it was too short! Would like to have seen more detail between so and so or more conflict with such and such.' Perhaps another reviewer said: 'loved the book but hated the cover. Needs a new one.' or: 'good story but too many grammatical errors'.USE these negative reviews to your advantage. Fix your mistakes, make a better cover, add more to the story and release a second edition.

You write what you write because you're passionate about it. Because you have this story bursting inside you, screaming to be told. It's YOUR story, which means it's no one else's so, naturally, someone else may not like it. That's life and that's okay.

These are negative reviews that you should LOVE to get because in reality, they are POSITIVE. They give you constructive criticism, ways to improve, ideas, etc. Take it and run with it. Being a writer is ALL about perfecting your craft. You are ALWAYS learning. Your next book should always be your BEST book and the next one and the next one and so on. Take all the reviews, all the criticism, all the ideas, and learn from them. Because that is really what will make you a better writer. :)

And to continue in the current 'smart-assery' of this blog post, here's a picture to help you understand what I'm saying:

;)

Book Signing - November 20

When: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 6:00-8:00 pm

Where: Deer Creek District Library
                203 E. First Ave
                Deer Creek, IL 61733
                (309) 447-6724

RSVP: Call the library or email AuthorAmandaMeredith@gmail.com to reserve a copy of Dark Mountains for only $6. Extra copies will be available but not guaranteed unless you reserve one! 
This is an open event. No reservations (besides purchasing a book) are required.

Prizes: Two raffle prizes will be given away. Guests can choose which raffle to be entered in. First prize includes a Kindle Touch eReader and a signed copy of Dark Mountains. Second prize includes a $25 Amazon gift card and a signed copy of Dark Mountains.

Extras: Cake and punch provided

The author will be signing copies of Dark Mountains. There will be a short Q&A session. 

Friday Night Entertainment

I like to put a little humor into what I write. So where do I get my inspiration? My children, of course. For those of you that have kids, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Those little moments that make you laugh so hard, you might pee your pants. For those of you without children, here's an example of why my kids inject so much humorous inspiration into my life:


Scene:
The Meredith family is sitting at the table for dinner. The six-year-old daughter gets up to use the bathroom but quickly returns.
Aubree: "I went to go to the bathroom but there was a giant turd in the toilet!"
 The rest of the members of the family burst into hysterical laughter.
Me: Laughing and trying not to choke. "Well, did you flush it?"
Aubree: With an indignant look on her face. "No! It wasn't my turd!"
More laughter ensues while nine-year-old son tries to escape, unnoticed, from the table, blushing deeply.


Maybe I should be writing comedy instead of romance? I'd have a full-size novel of hilarious things my kids have said and done. :)