Nathaniel Hawthorne quote

‘Easy reading is damned hard writing’ – Nathaniel Hawthorne
For writers everywhere, this is the perfect quote.

Each writer wants their work to be filled with fully-fleshed and compelling characters, complex and intricately woven plots, and a satisfying and worthy ending. But more than these technical aspects, the reader should share the characters’ joys and heartaches, experience exhilaration as the characters reach mountaintops and despair for the plunges into the valleys below. The reader should LIVE something new because of the words on the page.

Ernest Hemingway wrote, then rewrote the final page of The Old Man and The Sea thirty-eight times before he was satisfied. Why?

Because easy reading is damned hard writing.

What is your favorite easy read?

Copyright and Release Date

Harm’s Way
COPYRIGHT © 2007 by Sandra Ferguson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: info@thewildrosepress.com
Cover Art by Tamra Westberry
The Wild Rose Press
PO Box 706
Adams Basin, NY 14410-0706
Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History
First Crimson Rose Edition, March 2007
PRINT ISBN 1-60154-047-7

Published in the United States of America

There it is . . . the COPYRIGHT page for my soon-to-be-released book.

I can’t quite describe the feeling of seeing my name listed behind the COPYRIGHT logo, except to say this all suddenly feels very real.

This is the accurate ISBN for HARM’S WAY, and with this number you can order a print copy from any Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon.com or Ingrams book store.

HARM’S WAY is not available yet. But if you’re visiting your local book retailers, feel free to ask anyway. If the book stores receive enough requests, they’ll order a stash for their shelves as soon as the print copies become available.

I’ve completed my Galleys (final corrections for type-setting and ultimate book release). With those last corrections in to the publisher, I’m hoping for an April e-pub release date, then a short 8 weeks later and the print version will be available.

I’m working toward an actual ‘book-signing’ date. Check back for details.

Book Cover

I am just a wee bit excited at the moment. I’ve given birth to a book. Surprisingly, the labor pains of writing and delivering a child are remarkably similar.

This book cover represents ten years of determination and gutsy tenacity, and a whole lot of hard work.

Recently, author Lori Wilde said if you’re a writer depending on luck, you aren’t working hard enough. I’ll second Lori’s thoughts. I thought luck would be the final push to ultimate publication: meeting the right agent at a conference, pitching to an editor who would love my voice, falling across a publisher who couldn’t wait to print my books. None of those things happened. Though I certainly queried enough agents, pitched to enough editors and yep, stalked enough publishers at national conferences. (Fellow RWA members will understand this technique.) In the end, luck really had nothing to do with publishing. Success in writing has been a long road: curved so I couldn’t see all the obstacles still in front and so I would forget all the trials in the past; bumpy so that I needed to hang on with both hands to keep my dream; and incredibly discouraging to make me fight to win. The dream of writing . . . no, of writing well, is not for the faint of heart.

Like childbirth . . . would I do it again? Commit my time and effort to carry the burden of intricate plot, to develop dynamic dialogue, to weave the threads until finally delivering something worthy to the reading public? In a heartbeat!

Breaking for Spring . . .

The family was ALL home for Spring Break, which is joyous for a mom and wife, and deadly for a writer.

I did manage to squeeze in time to write a new book blurb for my upcoming release. Don’t know yet whether it was accepted or the editors will opt for something different.

At present, I’m waiting for the galleys to come back from my publisher and to see the release of my front cover! Wow, this part is exciting.

As for family time. . . we engaged in several ‘fun day’ activities. We took a Vantrip to Dinosaur Valley Park in Glen Rose, Texas. Great spot—that’s located an hour and a bit from the Fort Worth area. Yep, at this state park, they really do have dinosaur tracks. The tracks have been preserved in some special cement mixture that protects them from the elements, but has in fact kept the exact imprint of the track. Pretty cool! The tracks are in the Paluxy river, so conditions do have to be just right in order to view. If the river is too high from excess rain or cloudy (again, useless from spring flash flooding), then it’s a no-go on viewing. This is the first time we’ve been back with older kids. There is a super picnic area or a short drive into Glen Rose and there are a few restaurant choices. At the park there are some great trails to explore for the older bunch. And if the weather is warm enough, the river is perfect for a sunny afternoon dip.

Have you ever seen a dinosaur track? Share your secret spot?

Great Spring Break spot . . .

Hey, where are you headed for Spring Break?

The kids are almost free from school for a week, and it’s time for a quick idea for a little get-away.

Check out The Alamo

San Antonio is always a fun place to visit, and this site can provide lots of details for any spring break event. (One of the best reasons to visit. . . not many college kids head to The Alamo for their break—probably too much like studying.) But my younger crew has always enjoyed walking through the museum, re-enacting the last Alamo battle, and then finding some great Mexican food or real Texas Chicken Fried Steak on the River Walk to top off the evening.

We’ve managed to find some superb hideaways in San Antonio—a few have been reasonable and right on the River Walk. **Hint**While looking for a great River Walk deal--stay away from the large chain hotels. Your booking success will depend on how much time you want to invest in the ‘on-line’ search. Staying off the River Walk has been fun as well, and certainly reasonably priced. San Antonio is an easy town to navigate—plenty of ‘Tourist’ signs posted for even the most directionally challenged.

A word of warning—if you have a student studying Texas History this year, then brush up on the facts. Kids do really learn this stuff in school. It can be MIGHTY embarrassing when your 10-year-old rattles off the date of the last Alamo battle, and you're simply clueless. FYI: The final assault took place on March 6, 1836.

For anyone counting . . . that’s 171 years ago—Today!

Leave a comment and share your get-away ideas!

Classic Reads . . .

Great fiction is worthy of reading effort. My oldest child, a lover of timeless literature, has shamed me into reading DEEP titles. She’ll ask my opinion on a certain classic, and I’m dreadfully guilty of giving her a blank look. Searching my collegiate memory, I can only remember struggling through the mightily complex House of Seven Gables. Did I read more than one classic while obtaining my Liberal Arts degree? You betcha. Perhaps, I was too simple-minded, too youthfully naive to understand great books at that time. So with age, does true wisdom come? Maybe, or maybe I’m simply capable of seeing between the lines now.

Mandy Moore, in ‘A Walk To Remember’, practiced an interesting dying philosophy: focus on accomplishing everything on a ‘to-do’ list, rather than the inevitable end. Not a bad goal for any of us.

In the past few months I’ve read Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Prince in The Pauper. I’ve reread for the eight or ninth time, Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, recently completed To Kill A Mockingbird and tonight started and finished S.E. Hinton’s, The Outsiders. They all have one thing in common: they were worthy of my time.

Have you read a classic recently? Feel free to share the title with me.

If you’re not reading great literature . . . practice the habit. It’s one worth keeping.

The Edits Are Finished . . .

Yippee!
Yep, that describes it!

As my stories are set in modern-day Texas, the Yippee gets it done. I’m waiting for one final read-through from a fresh set of eyes, then it’s back to the editor.

I’ve utilized an ‘Edits’ notebook throughout this process. More on this in another blog. Honestly, without a technique, I’m not sure I would have been capable of keeping all the changes straight. As this is a Romantic Suspense, multiple threads must be woven through the entire book. Just like with crocheting, drop a stitch and the whole afghan unravels. A disappointed reader is the last thing I want, so I’ve pulled the threads tight to ensure a happy ending and a satisfied reader.

Thanks go to Ally, my editor at Wild Rose Press, for her careful attention on HARM’S WAY. I’m banking all the changes will be worth the wait.

Now, it’s onto the next part of the journey with Ally’s final edits and the return of my galleys.

I’ll keep you posted on the next step in this publishing process.

Do you have a specific question about this writing journey? Feel free to leave your question in the comment section.

Business Card Website

Useful writer site:
http://www.vistaprint.com/

Looking for self-promotion ideas? Business cards lend the air of professionalism to any business--why not to a writer? I found a great site at Vistaprint to order ‘nice’ business cards for reduced rates.

I clicked on their webpage and and signed up for their mailings and received a number of Free offers. Okay, they were FREE from a select grouping of their stock paper and IF I paid for the shipping, which was reasonable.

Below are the cards I had made for just the cost of shipping. That’s inexpensive enough to use a different card for each of my book releases. Hey, I believe it thinking positive and that I will have scads of new book releases.



On my actual cards, I added phone numbers, but not an address. Not really advisable, per several established authors who had some strange fans show up at their very doorstep. Something to consider.

Have you found a helpful promotional website? Please leave a comment and share it.

The Edits Arrive . . .

They’re here! The edits from my editor. I was pretty darned excited. Okay, not the most eloquently written, but you get my point. This is my first go round on having a paid professional critique my work. (Yes, a few published authors had read it and my Critique Partners have lavished their attention over it—but those people know me, and somewhat like me.) This professional and her invaluable opinion needed to be brutally honest and totally objective so I could produce the best book possible.

Was I nervous to open the document? Um . . . of course. What if she bled red ink across my beloved manuscript pages? DOUBLE scored scads of witty dialogue or great introspection.

But an unopened document is rather like an unopened Christmas package—no matter what’s inside, I had to peek.

So, I downloaded my edits and now, it’s time for learning curve #4083. Okay, maybe not that many, but surely, it’s a HUGE number as I’ve been learning the writing business since Moses was still playing in the dirt.

Learning curve or not, now, it’s back to work and delving into what my editor thinks is the best way to handle a sentence or straighten out a confusing passage.

It is nice to have fresh eyes on the pages. I’ve read these words so many times, I can’t determine where reality and dreams meet.

Six months has gone by since I really looked at the manuscript. It was great to start the read again. I remembered why I’d liked these characters, how much I cared about what happened to them, and how much I wanted the happy ending.

That felt good, accomplished. If I can still want to know about this story (after a zillion rewrites) then hopefully, the reader will find it even more entertaining and enthralling.

I will have done my job well, if that happens.

Here’s back to the edit and hoping . . . for happy endings.

A good day writing

As writers, we love those ‘ah-ha’ moments. We call them epiphanies. Big word, bugger to spell – I always get it wrong on the first try! As writers, we weave the ‘ah-ha’ moments in for our readers: characters learning something new on page, discovering a breakthrough in their own personality, or the unfolding of the plot.

However . . . if we are very lucky, sometimes the epiphany belongs to the writer.

Today was a good writing day. I, actually, should say an excellent writing day as the epiphany was mine. For months I’ve been honing the skill of front-loading the suspense in my under construction manuscript. The first three chapters have been written no less than 12 times! Oh, how I wish I was teasing. 12 times through the first 70 or so pages. At times, I despise these characters and want them to die an ugly death, just so I’m not forced to type their names again. (For those who aren’t writers, it’s okay. I don’t really intend to kill my characters—unless the plot demands it!)

When the pages run together, I remember Ernest Hemingway’s comments about the ending of The Old Man and The Sea. He admitted he’d written the ending 38 times. He said that was what it took to ‘get it right’.

Since our readers expect us to get it right, my 12 times through those first pages doesn’t seem so much trouble. So again, I worked on the suspense element.

I’ve managed to tease the edge of the suspense, but that has been the limit of my success. With the need to weave in believable sexual tension, accurate blocking, the tendrils of the basic plot, catchy and ‘spot-on’ dialogue, and develop likeable characters, I simply couldn’t get enough suspense on the page.

Then today, it worked.

The spider web actually wove today. In brilliant display, I captured the suspense. It was wonderful, fun writing!

Some days, this is a great job!

Here’s hoping all my writing friends are having epiphanies of their own.