Fast Break South on Kindle

So Fast Break South has been available on Amazon´s Kindle Store for five days and I have two customer reviews! One is by my mother, who I´ve never given the entire memoir to before. She´s only read parts. The other is by my friend Sandra Gulland. OK, two people who know me, but it´s a start!

My mother doesn´t have a Kindle by the way. She downloaded it through some Kindle/PC feature onto her computer.

People are laughing at my cover! Ahem. OK, it is a bit ridiculous. A girl on a galloping horse (the romance!) to represent a book that doesn´t have a single horse in it. Alright already. I´ll change it.

More news when a new cover is up!

FOR SALE ON AMAZON!

My book is available on Amazon.com! Here´s the link: http://tiny.cc/oZx9l
Amazon priced it at $11.99 even though I asked for $9.99. O well.
Tell me what you think of the cover!
Thanks for looking.

Publication...of sorts

So my friend Mary the graphic designer worked up a cover design for me and uploaded my memoir, Fast Break South, to Amazon, where it should be available for sale at $9.99 on Monday! I figured I could throw it up there while I continue to look for agents, and maybe make a few sales.

Uploading to Amazon means the book it only available to Kindle readers, a growing population, from what I read. No hard copy. But I did it at no cost, except for exchanging some massages with Mary for the cover.

Has this been done before? Is this OK? Can I similarily upload it to nook and other readers? I have no idea. I´m guessing I´ll find out.

The cover uses a photo that my 14-year old Carla took of herself riding her horse, Lucky. It is actually a crisp shadow of them against a large flat rock. Since Lucky is galloping, the photo suggests movement, going places, travel, which are elements of my story. There are no actual
horses or riders in the memoir, but I liked the visual metaphor. Also Fast Break is a basketball term that means you´ve broken away from defenders and are going at breakneck speed to the basket for a layup. The other idea was a photo of the back of Carla, showing a single braid falling over her back in a jeans jacket embroidered with flowers. I like that too, but decided to go with the motion photo. Does it work? Check is out on Amazon on Monday, read the book and tell me!

San Miguel Magazine

Hey, anyone checked out San Miguel magazine online this month? Find me woe-is-meing about finding a literary agent. http://tiny.cc/SvjOj That´s my column about being a writer. Plus, discover other cool stuff like the weather in San Miguel, the story of a trip through other parts of Mexico - is it safe?? (of course) and info about running businesses south of the border.

Teen Writers Workshop

Started signing kids up for the San Miguel Teen Writers Workshop that happens in February in San Miguel today. Interest was immediately sparked among my middle school students by the giveaway of new Acer mini-laptops. Last year, the Workshop raffled off three computers. Apart from the freebies, including pizza, the workshop is pretty cool for teens who like to express with WORDS. Last year, over the two-day session, they brainstormed, then did a mini-graphic novel. It was a collective effort about a gringo who misuses Spanish. It got a lot of laughts.

This year, those timeless teen-pleasing topics - Fantasy and Science Fiction!

When my writer pal, Beverly Donofrio, announced more than two years ago that she was going to move away from San Miguel and become a nun, I felt, hm, what did I feel? Abandoned, maybe, and trying to understand. Bev now lives in Colorado alone in a cabin in the mountains, as a contemplative, part of a community of like religious individuals. She writes about her life and her relationship with God.

For five or six years, Bev and Sandra Gulland (Mistress of the Sun, the Josephine B. Trilogy) met regularly and exchanged chapters and pages of what we were working on. We met at Bella Italia when it was on Hernandez Macias and had the big parrot in its courtyard. We each ordered the beef filet each time and Bev, a margarita, Sandra, white wine and me, a beer. Every once in awhile, Bev and Sandra would go through a non-drinking period, but I never failed to order my Dos X. Our meetings were sustenance as a writer for me.

So Bev was back last week. Over dinner, I was happy to learn that she still swears like a truck driver, and that she seems pretty darn happy with her life. She came to Colegio Siglo XXI and spoke to my advanced English students about writing and having had a movie made of her life (Riding in Cars with Boys). They were impressed with her candor and willingness to talk about everything in her life. I said that is what makes a good memoir writer.

Bev is on her way back to her beloved cabin now, and on a bright note, writer pal, Sandra Gulland arrives in San Miguel tomorrow!