GRATITUDE

How could a writer spend several years growing a book (or half a lifetime) and not hope the critics will bring it to the attention of the world? I entertained those ideas a time or two as I put MR together. That my story might in someway touch thousands of others was a thought almost too grand to contemplate.

Since its publication in 2000, I've lowered my expectations. Our local bookstore didn't even send a press release when I was there to sign books. The book critic on our NPR station, who knows me by name, ignored it. The Sacramento Bee book critic, whom I'd cultivated with newsy notes before publication, ignored it. Alright, it's a one-of-a-kind book, written in a quirky way that reviewers don't like. They want a REAL memoir, in first person, that bares all: sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Well, I am unique, and can only fulfill life-missions in my own unique way. The result, while not profitable, has been deeply gratifying. Readers tell me, "I didn't want to put it down." "I was fascinated!" "It brought back so many memories." "Your writing is amazing. I can just feel myself in it." It's comments like these that remind me to keep writing, and marketing.

My grand nephew is in the business of marketing right now. He's an awesome and very handsome young man with determination and intelligence. He wants to help set up another layer of social networking for MR, which pleases me. AND, I need to discipline myself to tackle Barnes and Noble's Nook template again, which treated me very poorly last time! I've sold four books locally this past week. Every dollar goes into the "book fund" to reorder MR's for me to sell, or eventually to publish again.

I'm pleased to be working on a new book, one that doesn't resemble memoir at all. and quite excited as it develops, sometimes in twisty ways I didn't predict. So that's an update, beginning in January 2012, two years after I first had MR in my hands with a copyright, a cover and a head full of dreams!