Author: Allie P.

Time away from home

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it
Hong Kong Harbor
A room with a view – Hong Kong Harbor

If I sound a little off, it is for good reason. The day job has sent me to Asia for the week which is twelve hours different from my home time zone and a sixteen hour flight. I am thrilled to still be sitting upright at this point.

My last visit was several years ago, before I had any children. At that time I had been wedged into a seat in economy class, or cattle class as we like to call it. I remain convinced that the bed in my hotel room was actually just a cloth covered sheet of plywood, and communication at home was either a spotty phone call or by instant messenger. I had entertained myself to the best of my ability, but there had been an element of homesickness throughout my entire stay.

Knowing the extent of my previous homesickness prior to having children, I was more than a little hesitant to return after the children were born. But you can only put off necessary journeys for so long.

Thankfully technology has come a long way since my last extended trip to Asia. Tools like Skype and Face Time are helping me do everything but reach out a touch my loved ones. Explaining the time change to my boys was easy. If they are eating breakfast, I am eating dinner. If they are getting ready for bed, I am on my way to work. I told them I was going to opposite land. While they miss me, they think this is a pretty cool, but it is probably a good thing my computer’s camera isn’t set up for high definition. It’s hard to look your best after such a long flight coupled with an extreme case of jet lag. Al Gore said it best, “Airplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo.”

I can’t change the fact that I had to travel away from my family for a few days. I miss them terribly. I wish that they were here with me, or that society was further along in development of teleportation technology. But it is pointless to bemoan what I don’t have. Instead I need to make the most of this experience. I have to think about what I do have, and be happy. It’s already shaping up to be better than the last time I was here. No one sat next to me on the plane allowing some extra elbow room, and the hotel I am staying at understands the importance of a softer mattress. Additionally, I now have something I haven’t had in years. Spare time.

Quote by Jimmy Dean on Travel

 

 

 

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Is that a fire hydrant or a really odd garden gnome?

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it
German garden gnome
German garden gnome (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After staring at my computer screen for hours, I decided to go for a walk at lunch as a way to recharge.  There is a secluded nature park within a short walk that can be reached by passing through the adjacent residential area. It’s not particularly impressive, but it at least gives me a destination to go to when I need some fresh air.

It had been a partially cloudy day which had allowed me to walk at a rather brisk pace without worrying that I would stink up my office upon my return. At least it had been at the beginning of my walk. As I began the final stretch, the clouds parted and the sun beat down upon the payment. We’ve had an unusually wet summer this year and the ground was full of pent up moisture. Within an instant the humidity skyrocketed and I found myself wishing that I had gills.

Luckily trees with low hanging limbs draped the sidewalk ahead and I eagerly darted under their cover. I stood there for a moment to enjoy the last bit of shadow as the rest of my route was in full sun. To my left stood a fire hydrant.

Its paint was faded and it had a layer of mold and bird droppings that helped to blend it into the surrounding landscape. It certainly did not command a high degree of visibility from the street. There have been ceramic garden gnomes which have caught my eye quicker. I found myself wondering how often it was maintained. I wondered what would happen if there was a nearby fire. Would the firefighters even know it was there? I imagined the damage that could be avoided if only someone would do a better job of trimming those trees or applying a new coat of paint to that hydrant.

Most fires don’t put themselves out before they have reduced everything around them to cinders. It doesn’t matter if the fire is a physical one or the more metaphoric variety. However it isn’t enough to provide the tools to combat them, you have to make sure everyone knows they are there, and then remind them over and over again.

At my work, I am the documentation queen. I’ve written several hundred pages of memos, policies, and procedures. I placed these documents on the company network for all employees to share. I believed I had given the entire company a great reference tool. However it seemed that the moment someone encountered some situation they weren’t entirely sure of they would either panic or do nothing.  Senior management would get frustrated. Why are we repeating the same mistakes? Customers would get frustrated. Why were we making their lives so difficult? I grew frustrated. What was the point of all those hours spent refining those policies or putting them to paper if no one was going to read them?

Book promoters will tell you often that you can write the greatest story ever, but no one will read it if they don’t know it exists. This saying is true for so many things beyond the publishing world. It wasn’t that my co-workers were lazy. They just hadn’t needed to use the reference guide in a long time. They hadn’t been involved in its creation and had no reason to remember the contents of every single page.  I’ve since learned that the average adult has to hear something more than six times before it embeds itself into active memory. Six times! I couldn’t fault my colleagues for not retaining information I had only mentioned once or twice. My co-workers simply didn’t know what they didn’t know.

So now unless I want to have the written equivalent of a garden gnome I must trim back those trees, apply a new coat of paint, and repeat, repeat, repeat, or in marketing terms, promote, promote, promote.

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Amazon’s call to action

by Allie P., posted in Indie book promotion, Life as I know it

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I receive quite a bit of email on any given day, half of which are various email newsletters I don’t particularly recall signing up for. I delete the majority of these without doing more than scanning the headlines. One of these is from Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing group and usually details how such and such author is now making so much money, not only are they making enough writing to replace their full-time job, their significant other is also leading a life of luxury.

I was surprised then to find that this week’s message was instead a call to action against publisher Hachette as part of their ongoing dispute regarding e-book pricing.

To summarize, Hachette wants to get a return on their investment by controlling the price of the books they publish, they believe their books are worth more because they are of higher quality than say, a book published without their help. They argue that unlike retailers, publishers invest heavily in individual books, often for years, before seeing any revenue. This investment includes: invest in advances against royalties, editing, design, production, marketing, warehousing, shipping, piracy protection, and more. All of this additional overhead is critical to their business and should be valued accordingly. You can see their full response here.

Amazon believes they would be able to sell more of Hachette’s books if only Hachette would agree to make less money on the books they (Amazon) sells. Amazon listed out several of their arguments in their email, two of which are:

  • “With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive”
  • “They think books only compete against books. But in reality, books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more.”

If Hachette compromises, unless they accept a lower return on their investment (a sure shareholder crowd pleaser), they will be forced to reduce staff or otherwise cut overhead, lowering either their selection or their quality standards.

If Amazon compromises, then this same fight will play out with all the other large publishers. Prices will stay where they are currently, or could even rise, making books less accessible to readers on a budget.

Which brings me back to the email. At the end, there is a call to action begging authors such as myself to write to Hachette’s CEO and carbon copy Amazon. The email even provided his email address and talking points. You can read the full letter at www.readersunited.com.

Amazon has been great to me. Without them I would not have sold half the books I’ve sold to date, and I love that they have a platform allowing a person such as myself the ability to compete with major players in the industry. I also wouldn’t have been able to do the majority of my shopping without them. As with any retailer, I believe they have the right to refuse to promote or sell goods which do not conform to their corporate strategy/image. However, and please don’t block me Amazon for saying this, I won’t be writing Hachette. Hachette has the right to charge what they believe is fair market price. If they believe that their e-books are worth $14+ then so be it. As a reader, I don’t buy their argument that there aren’t other cheaper alternatives which are just as worthwhile to read, but other readers might view this differently. As a writer, their pricing practices actually make my book easier to sell. I am not going to complain about a competitive advantage that comes my way.

This whole incident is like fighting parents bringing their children into an argument. It’s not in anyone’s benefit and should be avoided at all costs. It’s going to get ugly, things are going to get said that can never be unsaid, and no matter who wins the child is stuck with expensive therapy bills later.

Authors who have signed with Hachette’s companies might be suffering. If I was one of them, I might be upset that there were negotiations out of my control affecting my livelihood. However I am not one of them. I’d love to have their worst day’s sales. Nor am I an Amazon exclusive author. Amazon and Hachette, thank you both for enlightening me on your relative positions, but I hope you can settle this without my further involvement. Until then, I think I will continuing to support indie publishers and authors whenever possible.

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Working on the follow up project

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

When my eldest son was still in swaddling blankets I used to rock with him close. I thought a second child could never be as special to me as my first. As my son grew into a little boy, this belief was only strengthened. He was quiet, polite, eager to please, and as helpful as anyone could expect a toddler to be. At the time, I had no interest in adding another child to our family. I believed I had hit the child temperament jackpot. Since cloning wasn’t really an option, I worried about having another. I just couldn’t help worrying that I would subconsciously compare my second to my first and that just wouldn’t be fair to him or her.

But two-year olds are demanding, and mine was no exception. My son was incredibly shy around anyone who wasn’t a close associate, almost to the point of paralysis. Play dates weren’t worth the hassle of coordinating. All I wanted to do after a long day at work was sit down on the couch for a few minutes, but he wouldn’t have it. After playing the same game for the hundredth time, I caught myself thinking how nice it would be if he had a friend to play with. Someone he’d feel comfortable around. Someone who would match him in energy. We didn’t decide to have another kid just to provide our eldest with a diversion. There were a number of other factors that influenced our decision over the next several months, but this thought was a starting point.

My second son came into this world roaring. While they resemble each other physically (at least in coloring), my boys have vastly different personalities. I should never have worried. Comparisons between the two of them are like comparing a dog to a cat. For example, my youngest rarely cares about your approval. No, in his opinion, it is more important to him that he approve you. He’ll follow the rules if they suit him, ignore them entirely if they don’t. He has a stubborn streak that could almost be seen from space. But he was born knowing how to charm a room. He’s quick to smile, fills the house with comfortable chatter, and loves to cuddle.  My boys couldn’t be more different, and yet I love them both the same.

To make it as an indie writer, I’ve been told that you must have more than a couple of books to your name, ideally at least five. Therefore I needed to expand my family of work too. Unfortunately writing is a long, drawn out process. Especially when you are trying to squeeze it in between a full-time job and parenting. Publishing the work takes even more time. My first novel had barely started seeing its first sales when I decided I needed to start writing a second.

I didn’t know how well An Uncertain Faith would be received at the time it launched. Although I’ve since read a number of opinions advocating writing sequels as means of developing your writing platform, I chose to work on something different. I didn’t want to spend precious time on a sequel until I knew it had an audience. In the end, not only is the resulting story different from my first, it isn’t even in the same genre. I didn’t do this out of some hidden dislike of my first experience. It just was the story that came into being.

I was several chapters in before I read opinions suggesting that genre hopping might also be a mistake. By then I was too committed to my project to turn back. I’ve sent my second manuscript off to be professionally edited. With any luck title reveal, cover reveal, advance reviews, and book launch excitement may soon follow. ‘Soon’ will depend on publishing schedules and deals I am and am not willing to make. I hope that when it does make its way to bookshelves or onto e-readers you will find a passing resemblance between the two stories at least in style and will enjoy them as much as I have.

I may soon find out whether or not if I can make it in more than one genre. Until then, it is time to get started work on project number three.


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A night out with my prince

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it, Personal Favorites

It has been more than fifteen years since I went on a date with anyone other than my husband, but Saturday afternoon I found myself looking forward to doing just that.

I made sure to pick out a dress that was sure to please. A combination of slacks and nice blouse just wasn’t going to do. As I came down the stairs, my date was already there and I took satisfaction in the smile that broke across his face.

“Mom! You are a pretty princess!” he exclaimed.

In his next breath, my son amended his comment. “Well, you aren’t green dress pretty (his favorite of my outfits) but you are still pretty.” My son may be quick to praise, but is also great at finding ways to keep me humble.

I was taking my son to see a local live theatre production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. It was an evening show time, but even so at least a third of the audience was made up of children close to his age and nearly all of them were female. I wasn’t surprised that some changes were made for the stage adaptation, but didn’t expect the that the big climatic sequence at the end would be one of those edits. The prince no longer drove a jagged piece of shipwreck into the sea witch saving the mermaid from certain death. No in this version, the mermaid saves herself as well as the king. The prince is entirely absent from the climax. Only after the witch is defeated and Ariel and her father have heart to heart does the prince reappear. Additionally, in this version the prince spends the majority of the play contemplating abdicating his crown for a life as a sailor, and only accepts his responsibility when Ariel emerges victoriously from the waves with her very muscled father behind her.

I regularly attend networking functions with other working moms and other executive women. Often there are discussion prompts such as ‘what is the one thing you hope to pass on to your daughter’ or ‘what are you doing to empower the next generation of women in the workplace?’ While I appreciate the thought process behind these prompts, they always tend to bother me. Did I in someway betray my gender by only having sons? Is there no place for young boys in a ‘Girl Power!’ world? I refuse to accept this.

I wish more boys had been at the performance. It was a special night out with my son that at least I will remember forever. He held my hand both to and from the theatre. He curled up in my lap during the love songs, and proudly proclaimed to our seat mates how happy he was to be there with me. Other mother/sons missed out on a truly magical bonding experience. Why? Because it was a musical play about a princess.

My sons love their legos, transformers, toy backhoes and front loaders. They love to play in the sand/dirt, fight pretend bad guys, and build things with tools. They are about as stereotypically boys as they come. However my sons also like cooking, painting, and reading. They are just as likely to play with the kitchenette set at day care as they are the train table.

I may not have daughters today, but I may, in the far, far, far, future have a daughter-in-law. For now, I am raising my sons to be just as confident running a household as they are a board room, so that if they do choose to stay home for the betterment of their family they can do so without feeling like their masculinity has in someway been threatened. I am raising them to be respectful of women beyond using proper manners. I am raising them to understand that women can do anything, but at the same time I am making sure that they know they can too. If I am successful, my sons will hire, promote, or feature a woman because she is the most qualified or most deserving, not because she is a woman and certain standards have to be met. That is how I am empowering the next generation. That is the gift I intend to pass on to my future daughter – may she be equal to my son.

 

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