Recommend-A-Book-Wednesday: Sarah Dunn's The Big Love

I am currently re-reading The Big Love by Sarah Dunn.  It's a wonderful book and yes, it's chick-lit in the true sense of the term.  It is about a woman who is going through a break-up and dating and looking for love and trying to become comfortable with who she is and so on and so forth.  And yet while all those are familiar themes Dunn executes them so well.  The book isn't really frothy, although it has lots of laugh-out-loud moments.  The protagonist, Allison, is neurotic but so relatable and you feel for her in all her trials and tribulations.  And then there's Allison's attachment to her past.  She was raised as an Evangelical Christian and left the church as an adult.  This has left her with all sorts of issues.  Her view on sex is colored by her training in the church and she misses the security and the clarity the church once offered her.  Growing up her religion had made decisions easier for her.  There were no gray areas, just you're-supposed-to-do-this-and-not-that-so-don't-question-it kind of thing. But now that she has to look within herself to figure out what she should and should not do it's all a lot more complicated.  Watching her sort through this is both moving and enthralling.  

I think what I appreciate most about this book is that Allison isn't angry. This isn't a book designed to condemn the Evangelical Church.  Allison sees why the church is so precious for some people and why it has value.  She knows that it doesn't offer her the answers she needs anymore but she at no point skewers it or holds it up for ridicule.  Her critique of her own upbringing is thoughtful and nuanced.  

It honestly is a wonderful read and I strongly recommend it.  As always I encourage you to list your own book suggestions in the comments section.  I am continually looking for yet another good book to read.

 

Kyra Davis 

Bestselling Author of:

The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!

Being Shared Out Of Business

Recently while on Facebook a post made by author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez caught my attention.  It said: 

Just got another email from a fan bragging about having passed the same single book around to all her friends and family. Nice to be loved; not so nice to be shared right out of business.

While Rodriguez may be one of the few authors with the balls to say anything about this issue I know for a fact that book sharing is the bane of many writers' existence.  While attending book signings for other authors I've listened to readers approach them and gush about how much they love them and how they have loaned their copy of their book out to all of their friends and family to share the joy.  While these compliments are being doled out I always watch the face of the author who is being addressed and it is always clear that they are working over-time to keep themselves from grimacing or rolling their eyes.  What they want to say, what we all want to say and can't, is that their entire salary, their entire career, is based on book sales.  If ten people are reading one book that's still one sale for us. Not ten, not even five. As far as our publishers and our bank accounts are concerned it counts as one.  

That's not good.

And yet we all lend our books out occasionally. When I borrow a book I try to at least blog about the book after reading it to give the author publicity. Frequently I will go out and buy my own copy if I like it. When a friend comes over to my place and asks to borrow a book of mine (particularly a friend who's a little strapped for cash) I ALWAYS lend it out.  If I can I will then go out and buy the book that I lent out. Furthermore whenever I give a copy of one of my own books away I buy a replacement book.  When my film agent asked me for another few copies of my book and I brought them to her in a Barnes & Noble bag she looked at me warily.  "You don't have to buy these yourself, do you? If so we could--"

"No, no, I don't have to buy them myself," I said.  And that's true.  I don't have to buy them.  My publisher always sends me plenty of free copies of my books and so far they've never refused to send me more when I need them for publicity purposes.  But I buy them myself anyway because I'm not a big enough author to be able to afford give-aways.  Very few of us are. Of course we all hope that those who borrowed the book will fall in love with the author who wrote it; so much so that the borrower will become the buyer when the author writes the next book...assuming the first book sold enough copies for said author to get another book contract which might not be the case if too many people lent the book out.

Those of you who got a copy of my book at the library may be squirming in your seat right now.  Well stop squirming.  The library most likely purchased that book you borrowed.  Hopefully several other libraries in your county did as well.  Those are legitimate sales and they're sales that I feel particularly good about because they're made with the intent of making my novels available to everyone regardless of their economic situation.  I am continually encouraging readers to put in purchase requests for my books to their libraries. 

Used bookstores are another thing entirely.  No one who actually worked on a book gets any money when a book is sold at a used bookstore.  Not the writer, not the publisher, no one except the bookstore selling it and, rather ironically, the reader who sold the book.  It's hard for me to take used bookstores to task.  They are small businesses owned and run by people who genuinely love books.  And yet unless a book is out of print everywhere else or is written by someone like JK Rowling or Dan Brown  (neither of whom have to worry about the effect used book stores are going to have on their career or financial status) I can't get myself to buy a book at one of them.  I just keep thinking about the author who is sadly mulling over his royalty statements wondering how he seems to have so many fans and so few sales.  

And then there's Nook.  For the record I'm rooting for Nook's success.  Like it or not ebooks are probably the future of publishing and I'd like to think that bookstores will be able to find ways to incorporate them into their business strategy. Otherwise bookstores could conceivably go the way of record stores and seriously, how many record stores are left in your town?  But now Barnes & Noble allows Nook owners to share, or "lend-out", ebooks to other Nook owners for fourteen days at a time.  Obviously the purpose of this is to get people to buy the Nook device and encourage others to buy it as well. It's comparable to how Verizon Wireless customers encourage their friends to switch to Verizon so they can call them for free.  But the catch here of course is that if you can lend out your ebooks then an author has to assume that for every five or ten nook readers  who will enjoy their work they will get one sale, just like they do when readers lend out their hardcovers and paperbacks. 

Except now the issue is even worse.

It's easier to lend an ebook than a paperback.  You can lend an ebook to a friend across the country without worrying about packaging or shipping costs.  Furthermore lending ebooks takes out the risk normally associated with lending out a book because you know you're going to get your ebook back in two weeks...at which point you can lend it out again.  Borrowers will have little incentive to buy the upcoming books of authors they fell in love with because they'll know they can borrow the next one from fellow Nook-owning friends again. And unlike library copies these ebooks will not be reaching the under privileged.  Not a lot of welfare mom's are going to be shelling out $150 for their very own Nook.

Again, this is a good system if the point is to make money off of selling the device rather than selling the books but as an author I'm not thrilled with it.  On the flip side if you could lend the book out for three to five days I'd be thrilled.  That would allow readers to read a few chapters and figure out if they really like the book.  If they don't they saved themselves nine bucks if they do then they're going to want to buy the book for themselves and quickly so as not to interrupt their reading experience.  Of course some people are very fast readers but most people take longer than five days to finish a novel.  I could even get behind the idea of being able to lend out a book for two weeks once.  But to be able to lend out an ebook over and over and over again...that's problematic.

And yet it seems to be the way of the world these days. And once again we authors will have to work to keep ourselves from grimacing or rolling our eyes.  We will continue to look at our royalty statements and wonder how we can have so many fans and so few sales.

Kyra Davis 

Bestselling Author of:

The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!

The Ultimate Stalker-Mommy

While in Maryland my three-year-old nephew asked me to read him a book titled Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch.  I had heard of this book, I know it's a favorite for a lot of people, but I had never read it before.  So I pulled my nephew close to me and began this new literary adventure with him.  I found the first page sweet, although I did think it was a little odd that the mother "crawled across the floor" in order to check to see if her baby was asleep before picking him up and singing to him.  I mean is the kid that light of a sleeper? And if he is maybe she shouldn't pick him up.  Still, the sentiment is nice.  And she does the same when he's a troublesome toddler.  Again, crawling weird, rocking and singing to a sleeping child not so much.

But when she does the same thing to her boy when he's a nine-year-old and later when he's a teenager I began to worry about the family dynamics that existed in this household.  My son is eleven and while I could still pick him up I certainly couldn't do it without waking him.  The fact that this mother is able to do so to a teenager makes me think that maybe her son has a drug problem.  No one above the age of seven can sleep that deeply naturally.  And why is she still crawling?! Is it so she can scurry across the room and crouch in a dark corner in the off chance that her Ambien-loving son wakes up from his nightly coma?  And if she thinks her son would object to her being there maybe she shouldn't be! Maybe the whole reason he's taking drugs is because he's self-medicating to help himself cope with his stalker-mommy. 

But I didn't say any of this to my nephew.  I just kept reading.  It wasn't until we got to the page where the son is an adult in his own house and the mother has taken a ladder over to his place in the middle of the night, crawled in his window when he's asleep, used her bionic-woman-like strength to lift him into her arms (with out waking him...definitely drugs) that I got the chance to speak up.  My nephew pointed to a kitten in the illustration who was stretching his legs toward the open window and asked,

"What's dat?" 

"Oh, that, is a funky looking kitty-cat," I said in my gentlest voice, "and he's trying to escape because this crazy mommy just broke into the house again."

"Kyra!" I turned to see my sister-in-law glowering at me.  "I've read this book to all of my children when they were this age," she continued. "Do. Not. Ruin it!"

For the record my nephew really liked the way I had answered his question and now had a lot more eager questions for me but his mother was now standing over us and flat out forbid me to answer, repeatedly reminding me to "stick to the script."

I did.  I got to the scene where bionic-mommy is on her death bed and her son sings to her for once and yes, the scene did pull on my heart-strings.  And then I get to the page when he comes home, lifts his sleeping daughter up from her crib and sings the song his mother has been singing to him to his infant child...which begs the question: If he was really asleep while his mom was singing the song how does he know the words? So maybe he isn't a drug addict.  Maybe he has been faking sleep this whole time in order to avoid the otherwise inevitable confrontation that would have probably begun with, "Mom, you need to stop this crawling-stalker stuff."

But those weren't the first questions that popped into my mind. The FIRST question was:

"He has a kid?!?! How did that happen?" 

Because honestly, if I knew that my mother was breaking into my house on a semi-regular basis and sneaking into my bedroom I would never have sex. Period.

Now I would never write anything in my blog that I thought might have the slightest chance of causing another author career problems but Love You Forever is already a children's classic and nothing I say is going to deter its continued success.  And I understand why it's a success.  It reinforces the idea that no matter how old you get, or how much you misbehave, your mother will always love you (in the book the toddler version of the son flushes his mom's watch down the toilet, something even my 3-year old nephew was horrified by).  It also has the repetition that young children respond to so well in literature.  And I'm sure many of you are thinking, "Hey! I love that book! My kids love that book! That book has serious sentimental value to me and my family!" Again, I get why it would.  I really do.

I'm just saying that for me personally, as an adult, it sort of freaks me out.  I think that any mother who climbs in her adult child's window in the middle of the night might have a few issues.  I'm just sayin'.


Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!

How Screwing Up Can Get You Published

When I heard the news about the Rolling Stones article on Stanley McChrystal my first thought was not, "What an idiot," or even, "what was he thinking?" No, my first thought was, "He's going to get a huge book deal out of this."

It's one of the most frustrating things about my industry.  Anyone who makes a splash in the headlines for good or bad reasons is made rich by some publishing house.  Make an idiot out of yourself on some reality show? There's a book deal in it for you.  Did you mess up an answer during a beauty pageant? Book deal.  Did you have sex with a married politician? Take a lot of drugs while in public office? Rig an election? Book deal, book deal, book deal.  And if you can't actually write a coherent sentence, no problem.  That's what ghostwriters are for.

There's something wrong with that.   And of course the publishing houses wouldn't be handing out seven-figure book deals to these people if their books weren't selling.  We seem to live in a world where we reward people for screwing up.  And I'll admit, I read How To Rig An Election by Allen Raymond and it was an interesting exposé but even as I read the book I wondered, "should I be supporting this guy with a book purchase?" I mean even if he was scapegoated as he claims to have been he did do some pretty awful stuff.  Should his crimes earn him a six-figure advance?  Shouldn't the exposés be coming from our media and printed in our newspapers and magazines rather than coming from the criminals themselves and printed inside a cute hardcover?

By the way, I'm not suggesting that McChrystal is a criminal and if he had left his post without controversy he would still have been able to get a book contract if that's what he wanted.  But his latest error in judgment makes him more marketable, not less.

And once again I've got to say, there's something wrong with that.


Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!

Recommend-A-Book-Wednesday: Davis' The Accidental Columnist

I've been busy playing catch up after a long trip but I wanted to make sure to stop by here and suggest a book for Recommend-A-Book-Wednesday.  This week I want to direct your attention to The Accidental Columnist by Jeannie Davis.  It fits the description of what was once called "Chick Lit" and is now called "Humorous Women's Fiction" and it's one of the few books of its genre that features a Chinese protagonist.  It's a romance that's touched by the conflict of a woman raised in the fast-paced modern world of the States by a family who is deeply attached to the old world ways of China.  In the end it's really a book of self discovery and the establishment of an individual identity that doesn't completely disregard cultural heritage.  And on top of all that it's actually a very fun read.  Flirty, funny and at times tender, The Accidental Columnist is an emotionally intricate novel wrapped up in a easy beach read.  So consider picking up a copy on your way to the pool this summer.  You won't regret it.

As always I encourage you to add the names of books you recommend in the comment section.  One can never have enough book suggestions!

Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!

The Value of Disillusionment

Last week had some major bright spots but as a whole the theme of those seven days can be summed up in one word: "disillusionment."  Disillusionment could be found within some of my closest friendships, within my professional life and within my extended family. I had no idea how many blindfolds I had been wearing until they were ripped off of me one by one.

By the time we reach puberty we have already had to let go of more illusions than we can count.  We quickly learn that there is no Santa Claus, that the Mickey Mouse that gave us a hug at the theme park is really just a sweaty actor in a costume counting the minutes down to his break.  We learn that our parents aren't all powerful and can't solve all our problems or protect us from the hardships of the world.

So you would think that by the time we reach adulthood saying goodbye to new or remaining illusions should be old hat.  We should be able to take it in stride. 

But of course we can't.  As human beings we cling to our illusions the way a shipwreck victims cling to their life preservers.  Our illusions make life feel easier.  They take the pressure off and they seem to give us clarity.  Harsh and unadorned reality is much more complicated and messy.  It usually requires us to be a little more proactive and to take on more responsibility.  It requires us to make hard decisions and give up certain short term comforts and luxuries. Worse yet it requires us to do those things without any guarantee that our efforts are going to pay off.

And yet we have to lose those illusions because in each loss there is a lesson.  When we are stripped of our comforts we are given new strength in return.  Does it make us harder? Perhaps a bit.  But even that isn't such a bad thing.  People, particularly women, are told that when we're "tough" we're really just putting walls up while men are just considered to be...well, tough.  Life isn't easy, we ALL need to be a little tough.  For me the lessons were that I have to trust my instincts more.  When people talk about "instincts" they usually think that they're referring to a gut feeling that has little to do with logical observations.  In fact instincts frequently appear to defy logic.  But I'm beginning to realize that's not the case.  What we consider "instinct" is really our brain putting special value on small, fleeting observations that frequently flat out contradict the big obvious observations.  We think we can't follow our "gut" by following path B because all the big, obvious signs tell us that  we should be following path A.  But if big, obvious signs always pointed to the truth then we'd have to believe that our earth really is the center of the universe and the planets, sun and moon really are orbiting around us because when we look up at the sky that's obviously what appears to be happening.  But way before we had satellite imagery a few astronomers saw little signs that contradicted those "logical" observations and then their "gut" told them to research those little signs a lot more thoroughly.  So going forward when my instincts tell me I need to deviate from a certain course or distance myself from certain people I'm going to stop and really think about WHY my instincts might be right.  

I've also learned that I don't need to put up with as much crap as I do.  There have been people who have in this last week treated me pretty shabbily, some did so completely unintentionally and others did so with venomous purpose.  Intent is important but either way I don't need that kind of stuff in my life.  Forgiveness is all well and good but that doesn't mean that I need to set myself up for more abuse by giving people multiple chances in the hope that they're going to change their ways.  How can I expect anyone to change if I won't.  When I continually agree to open myself up to more of the same I'm not changing.  It's always good to be the "bigger person" but sometimes that means you have to just walk away. 

So I'm disillusioned, I'm stronger and I've learned how to set limits and take care of myself.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad week after all.

Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!

The New Exhibitionism vs. The New Forms Of Privacy

When I got my first publishing contract I was told that I needed to start blogging in order to attract and connect with readers.  The obvious question is: what to blog about?  I went through lots of different author blogs and discovered that the most popular blogs and the most interesting blogs were ones in which the author shared personal details about his or her life.  On some level we are all voyeurs.  We want to hear about other people's trials and tribulations not just because they can be juicy but because they help us realize that other people have dealt with the same challenges or experiences that we have.  We want to know that what we felt, what we did, how we coped was not really abnormal, that there are other people out there who are not only able to relate but are comfortable enough with the situations to be public about it and therefore lift a taboo or a repressive stigma.  It's why gay activists urge celebrities to "come out." It's why people read autobiographies about dysfunctional childhoods or humorous parenting experiences.  We don't just want to know, on some level we kind of need to know.  And the funny thing is that when someone shares certain types of things with the world we all expect more of the same.  If a close friend cheers another close friend's accomplishment with a Tweet we expect them to do the same for us when the time comes and when they don't we wonder about our importance in that person's life.  People sit around and wonder if the person they've been dating will tag themselves in the cute "couple's photo" posted on Facebook.  More than anything else, support and acknowledgment is expected to be publicly declared.  But then again, isn't that what support and acknowledgment is supposed to be all about?  Perhaps we should be grateful that it has become more difficult to pay lip service to those things. If someone wants to support us they need to put themselves on the line for all their friends to see and...well, support us. I don't dispute the value in that.

And yet the more I share online the more precious the things I don't share become.  There are things about myself that I will only share with the closest of friends or a most trusted lover.  I think the fact that I share so much of myself online confuses people.  They see me as a completely open book, someone who borders on exhibitionism.  There are times that a person that I trusted has carelessly given out a private detail of my life, made a vague but transparent reference to a personal issue for the consumption of others without it ever occurring to them that I would mind. 

They're wrong, I mind a lot.  So much of myself is exposed on the pages of my blog, woven into the posts of Facebook and Twitter that I have come to cherish my secrets as benign as some of them may be.  Despite many editorials that have been written which state the contrary, privacy is NOT dead.  It wasn't killed by social networking. It's just that sharing has been (and should be) encouraged.  But now our privacy, like our Facebook settings, have to be customized to meet each individual's needs. And I'm not the only one.  Celebrities who cry on Oprah still don't want to talk to you about that argument they had with their best friend.  The girl on the cover of Playboy doesn't want to tell you about all her neurotic insecurities. 

So when an author recently emailed me to ask what they should write about I told him to write about himself but to figure out right now what he didn't want to share.  Tuck those secrets into a locked journal.  We need to know you, but honestly, we don't need to know everything. 


Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!

Recommend-A-Book-Wednesday: Sharp Teeth

I realize I'm a little late on this one but I didn't want to miss Recommend-A-Book-Wednesday (again) just because I'm traveling.  The other day I picked up Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow.  I was hesitant when I flipped it open because I could immediately see that it was written in free verse like an epic poem.  I'm not big on epic poetry.  I like my poetry to be pocket sized like a Shakespearean sonnet or a little verse by Emily Dickinson.  Walt Whitman has never been able to hold my interest past the first page.   But this book had received a blurb from Nick Hornby.  Not only is Hornby one of my favorite authors but as far as I can tell he has never blurbed an author who I didn't end up loving as well.  So I figured I should at least give the novel a chance, perhaps read 5 or 10 pages before putting it aside.
I couldn't put it down.  I can't exactly explain why.  It doesn't really read like a poem and it's grittier and more real than any other paranormal book I've ever read (it's about werewolves).  It's sexy and engaging and the characters are complicated and real.  It draws you in.  You can see the characters as they move through the dark streets of LA prowling for both victims and companions.  The lead female character is clearly modeled after the heroines you might find in a film noir but she's somehow a little more appealing than that and easier to relate to.  The suspense fills each page making you want to read quickly in order to find out what happens and yet you don't want it to end too soon.

It got great reviews but as far as I can tell was met with limited success.  My guess is that people picked it up and like me were put off when they realized it was written in verse form.  But I strongly encourage you to give this one a chance.  This is an epic poem that can and should be enjoyed by the masses. 

Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!

There's Something To Be Said For Home

I've traveled a lot in my life.  I've been all over the globe and in some of the most spectacular cities in the world.  Inevitably on my flights back from these excursions someone on the plane will say something about how they're ready to go home.  They'll admit to having an amazing vacation but to also missing their own bed and the routine of their normal daily life.

I'm almost never in agreement on this point.  I am always aware that home is more than a familiar bed, it's the place where all my responsibilities exist.  It's where I have to run around with fifty balls in the air trying to keep them from crashing to the floor.  Home is where the heart is but it's also the place where my bills are sent to.  It's the place where I make parent-teacher conference appointments (that aren't always pleasant), it's where I need to worry about things like setting up playdates and doctor appointments and so on and so forth.  It's not that I hate being home, I actually love where I live.  And yet these are always the things that weigh on me on those return flights.  Home is a wonderful but it's not "easy" and no matter how much running around I did on the trip I'm returning from it is almost inevitable that the trip itself was a relief and I leave that vacation spot with a certain amount of wistfulness. 

Of course there are exceptions to all that.  Trips I need to take out of obligation, to attend funerals, to deal with unpleasant business or family issues; those are trips I'm happy to return home from.  But again, those are exceptions.

But here's the thing.  On Saturday my son went to spend some time with his dad and his dad's family and now, all of a sudden, I'm homesick.  I miss my son of course but I also miss my bed. I miss the sunny blue skies of California.  I was at The Met yesterday, one of the most famous and amazing museums in the world. And yet I keep thinking about the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum Of Art).  I miss my friends.  One of them doesn't have her child with her this week and I know that if I was in town we'd be going out right now.  I probably would have been at her house sipping  a glass of wine or cocktail watching True Blood last night as we giggled and assessed Eric's nicely sculpted body.  Her neighbor might have come over and we could have had a girl's night. It's such a little thing, a fleeting moment.  And yet I'm sorry I missed it.

In other words, I'm actually homesick.  I can see that I'm not an East Coast girl.  I now know that if I hadn't left New York after my short stint at FIT to get engaged to a man in San Francisco I would have eventually left for another reason.  It's not that I don't love New York.  I do.  I love the energy, and the people, and the international nature of the city.  It's an amazing place to visit.

It's just not home. And maybe, just maybe that's one of the things you're supposed to get from a vacation: a deeper appreciation of home and for those who share it with you.  Not such a bad thing.

Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!