From somebody who enjoys reading...

Just received a lovely nice email from Judith Johnson of Toronto. She bought a copy of From the Chrysalis at the book launch on Nov 25:

I have just finished you book which I read in the last couple of days and I thought it was an extremely good read.  I connected with the characters and a couple of times I had to put the book down because of the suspense in the courtroom.  I think you crafted the story very well and the characters were real.  I usual go to the library once a week and pick out 6-7 novels of which I read between 4 or 5, as I read very quickly.  I only finish the books that catch my attention and give me enjoyment so I believe that I have the expertise to judge a well written book.  Your story I will remember for a long while as I often forget the plots of other novels.  The first chapter was captivating and I could not, then, put it down for a couple of hours.

Ann Turner tells me that you will be writing a sequel and I am dying to know what happens to Liza and Dace.

Thank you for your hard work and talent in giving me the pleasure of a really good read.

KDP Select Update

Warning: if you take a hiatus from KDP Select, your ranking will plummet. It's definitely a little disheartening, especially when your ranking falls over 500,000 points in one day. I'd only had one e-book sale in the past two or three days, but how is such a precipitous drop possible?

(Whew--I just re-checked and apparently that was just a one day glitch! It's dropped, but not nearly that much. Maybe something else was going on.)

I'm busy promoting the paperback version of From the Chrysalis right now, so I have mixed feelings about the e-book version anyway. It's not like it cost me anything to upload the e-book or that I'm warehousing a bunch of books I can't sell. (On-line paperback sales are slow to show up in the rankings, even though I know I've had some.)

My private sales remain good, but none of these will be reflected in my on-line Amazon ranking.

Anyway--I still believe From the Chrysalis will find its target audience.

The people who have read it (as opposed to the massive number of people who downloaded it when it was free), have loved it.

I'll have to get cracking on the sequel. For some reason, when an author has more than one title, Amazon sales often soar. (Not that care about the money right now. Popularity is something else, though.)

My book launch!

The launch went very well on Sunday. I sold quite a few books and should be able to make back the cost of print copies very soon. My daughter Aidan and her fiance (both actors) read Chap.6 about Liza's and Dace's first meeting in "Maitland Penitentiary" and Julian Fauth (2009 Juno winner) played mostly prison songs, plus one of his best known songs "Liza." Somebody from our very small neighbourhood newspaper came and took my picture.

John did a great job of promoting the event, which was held at the Axis Gallery and Grill in the Junction. Our costs were for some flyers, posters and a bit of food. We also gave several free books to the local press etc., but that got us an announcement in the paper too. I think the total cost of the launch was less than $300.00. (Julian refused to accept any payment.) In restrospect, we probably wouldn't have spent $40.00 on flyers. What worked best was emailing everybody (friends, family, neighbours and music and church contacts) and then following up with some phone calls. (John is very good at getting people to buy the book. He chases down our neighbours, tells them his wife has written a great book and then practically hits them over the head with it until they buy one. I don't really have the nerve!)

It was a little nerve wracking having a reading with some of my more conservative relatives present, but people were very kind and some of them bought several books.

My oldest daughter (Caitlin) and her husband gave me an engraved pen for the signing, so that was very sweet. All my grandchildren came too, but it was hard to get near them and towards the end the babies became a little distraught. The place was packed. We managed to wrap things up just before the Grey Cup which of course the Argos have won, so big excitement here.

And more big excitement in Toronto because they kicked Mayor Rob Ford out of office for conflict of interest etc.

What a weekend!

It's the countdown to my book launch!

Sunday, November 25, 2012, 3:30 - 6:00 P.M. Book Launch! Come meet Karen Black and pick up a signed copy of her new novel,"From the Chrysalis." Aidan Black-Allen, superstar of "Famous Now What?" will read about Liza's and Dace's first meeting at the prison. And Julian Fauth, 2009 Juno winner will play everybody's favourite song, "Liza." Everybody is welcome!

Location:

Axis Gallery & Grill

3048 Dundas St W, Toronto, Ontario M6P1Z3

 

Smashwords

From the Chrysalis is now available at Smashwords, so I took their advice and created an electronic signature for my e-mail correspondence. Please see below and if you hate it, let me know.

Was uploading to Smashwords a piece of cake? Of course not. I had a Kindle file which was perfect, but Smashwords wanted a .doc file. In the end, I re-sized the cover because SW insisted on a larger one, but I paid Ray from The Fiction Works to format the interior.

I'm too distracted. The book launch is this weekend. My husband has drummed up quite a few attendees (via a flyer distribution to every neighbour in a three block radius and an e-mail and phone blitz to everybody else who crossed our threshold in the past 35 years), so I might sell a few books. He's already sold a dozen for me, partly because he has no shame, but mostly because he's convinced himself that the book is great. He even entered it in a couple of contests. He has a lot more nerve than I do--thank God!

Oh, Ray volunteered that From the Chrysalis is "very powerful" book too. 

Karen  E. Black

http://www.karenblackauthor.com

Author of From the Chrysalis

“a rough-and-tumble romance based on the Kingston Penitentiary Riot in 1971”

 

Paperback up on Amazon! Really!

The paperback version of From the Chrysalis is finally available for order on Amazon.com! I purchased some copies myself, so I know it looks good. What a relief. I don't think I'll make much more money per copy in paperback sales, but at least people who don't like ebooks have some choice.

Paperback version of "From the Chrysalis" still not available on Amazon.com !

The paperback version of From the Chrysalis is still not available on Amazon.com  Urggh!!! They (who ever they are) keep citing technology difficulties, but I'm starting to wonder. I haven't heard anybody else complaining about the same problem and there's nothing wrong with the version I uploaded because it's available in paperback on the Amazon UK

If anybody else has a similar problem, please let me know. It's a cliche, but it's true. Misery loves company.

"From the Chrysalis" in paperback!

Well, yes and no. I've ordered copies for the book launch here in Toronto on Nov 25, they arrived with the minimum of fuss and bother and guess what--From the Chrysalis really is a book! I don't know if it's my imagination or not, but my novel actually sounds better when I read it in print.

Lots of trouble getting the print version on Amazon, though. I uploaded a print file [provided by CreateSpace] on Oct 17, but it's still not available for purchase.

CreateSpace Member Services assures me I have not been forgotten and that they are investigating the matter. Whatever--CreateSpace has been great. I've used their templates to create a paperback version of From the Chrysalis at virtually no cost beyond the money I had already spent [for one thorough edit by Genevieve Graham, author of Under the Same Sky etc.]. The book is under my own imprint: Viceroy Power Press. Well, okay, I paid $80.00 for Tatiana Will's great cover too. I'm not an illustrator, or a promoter either, for that matter. Help--I would really like to get back to the business of writing! Retirement is not an option, nor do I want my children to stop getting married and having babies.

"From the Chrysalis:" the story behind the story

The first thing most people ask me about my novel is if they’re in it!

And behind this question is a larger question—how much of this book is true?

Although I have altered the timing of events to coincide with my character Liza’s return from Dublin to enrol in university and resume a relationship with her jailed cousin Dace Devereux, From the Chrysalis is based on the most deadly prison uprising in Canadian history, the Kingston Penitentiary Riot of April 1971.

Six guards who were taken hostage survived; two prisoners who were beaten and tortured on the final day of the four day riot did not. 

To my knowledge, two inmate accounts have been written about the riot: Roger Caron’s  factual account Bingo: Four Days in Hell and Gregory Bell’s fictionalized Birdsong. As my subsequent research revealed, both these jailhouse authors were long-term inmates and low key leaders in the riot.

Though neither Bingo nor Birdsong addresses the role played by the inmate who protected the hostage guards, it’s no wonder: at the time of the riot, there were over 600 prisoners in the Kingston Pen and at least as many stories.

My novel From the Chrysalis is about the inmate who protected the guards and was later one of thirteen men charged in the torture deaths of two prisoners. For the purposes of this novel, his name was Dace Devereux.

Dace’s cousin Liza had great hopes for him—hopes he’d survive, hopes he’d stay out of prison, hopes people would stop thinking he got away with murder in the penitentiary riot, hopes they would always be together.

This is her story too.

When Dace and Liza meet in a prison visiting room and her “real” life begins, they haven’t seen each other for five years. Their only contact has been the eighty-three letters she’s saved while he’s been serving time and she’s been getting into trouble in Dublin. My guess is that they’re both as nervous as hell.

Listmania!

I've been having lots of fun creating "lists" of books that relate to my novel, From the Chrysalis.

Here's three:
Ten books about finding and sometimes losing your soulmate...

Ten great beach books to read in the sun or the shade!

Best novels about ex-convicts (who try to make good)!

A couple of kind friends also created some lawesome lists for me:

Five fabulous reads!

Awesome, emotionally-driven reads!

Butterflies and novels--the best reads!

Cousin romances--what's the big deal?

Did they have a choice? Ten brilliant novels about fate vs free will...

Ten timeless coming-of-age novels.  (I loved all the books on this list!)

My favorite books about long-suffering prisoners and ex-cons

Drive by shootings on Goodreads

There sure is a lot of "help" out there for aspiring novelists. Take Goodreads. Looks like a wonderful place to share your love of books and maybe your own book too!

But be careful if you are a Goodreads author and your book becomes even moderately successful, or you might suddenly find yourself hit with several one starred reviews, the literary equivalent of a series of drive by shootings.

If these one starred reviews were accompanied by some constructive criticism, they might serve some useful purpose, but Goodread reviewers are allowed to star "reviews" and make no comments at all.

Pushing Up a Mountain

As anticipated, self-promotion is very difficult, but I've got to get From the Chrysalis out there or nobody will ever find it. I feel like an ant pushing a bread crumb up a mounting pile of books, though. It wouldn't surprise me if a thousand new novels get published on Amazon every day, most really bad, but some very good. I don't know which is scarier--that so many bad novels get "published" or that even some really good books can't find traditional publishers. What are the authors thinking!? Well, it can't be about money, that's for sure and if they're anything like me, authors just want people read their book and maybe fall in love with their characters.

On the subject of falling in love with characters, reviews have started to trickle in for my hybrid novel and it is indeed fascinating to get  unsolicited opinions from complete strangers:

The characters were lifelike and the storyline intense. It is a story that will captivate readers and cause them to think.

Much of the book is centered around the prison riot of 1971 in Maitland, Ontario. Dace Devereux, residing there at the time, is a key player in the riot. It was at this point of the novel that I fell in love with the character of Dace. His perseverance and resilience, whether making good or bad decisions, can’t be matched. The riot is based on the real life Kingston Penitentiary Riot of April 1971, one of the largest riots in Canadian history. Mixed in among the fiction are some true details that lend a sense of believability to the plot. I could have happily read a complete novel based around this event and Ms. Black’s characters in the prison. This was by far the most entertaining and fast paced section of the entire book. I was completely enthralled. It was also the part where we truly get to know the character of Dace. 

An Introvert's Attempt at Self-Promotion

I haven't written a thing since I uploaded From the Chrysalis to Kindle and that's the rub. Each step is onerous. Tracking down reviews, for example. Most people I know don't even have Kindles.Why is that? I work in a library, for God's sake, so theorectically I'm surrounded by readers. Ah, but you'd be surprised by the number of librarians (people with Masters) who don't read. A good thing I have five children and gave them each a Kindle two Christmases ago, and I've got a daughter-in-law and son-in-law with access to Kindles too.Won't they be surprised when they see what's in my book. Well, I'm sure my children will be too. My formatter liked Chrysalis though--thought it was a "damn good book." I suppose I should have been more assertive and asked why and got it in writing. I wasn't paying him/her all that much though to relieve me of the tedium of learning to typeset on top of everything else.

And this blog's another problem. What to leave in and what to leave out. And how to interest anybody [who doesn't love me] in my ramblings.

From the Chrysalis

After much soul searching, I finally uploaded my first novel From the Chrysalis to Kindle KDP (7 Feb 2012). What do I care if I had to give them exclusive rights for 90 days? I know everybody doesn't have a Kindle, but at least they can download a free one to read on their PC.

Btw, a good thing the cover's a stand out because there are an amazing number of books on Amazon with "the chrysalis" in their title.

 http://www.amazon.com/Karen-E.-Black/e/B0076LCJ1O

This is my description:
A forbidden love affair between a college student and an ex-convict threatens to destroy them both.

Liza's bad-boy cousin, the handsome, magnetic D’Arcy “Dace” Devereux is nothing but trouble. Falling in love with him can only make things worse. Especially for a girl who knows more about books and monarch butterflies than she does men.

The cousins’ mutual infatuation flares into an obsession long before Liza is out of her teens. Even when Dace is arrested for manslaughter and sent to a penitentiary, their feelings don't change.

When she’s old enough, Liza enrolls in a local university to be closer to him, but a prison riot breaks out and Dace is forced to make decisions that will jeopardize both their relationship and his life. He's always been loyal to his old buddies—too loyal some say.

The cousins spend one wonderful summer together when he's briefly paroled, butDace is still drawn to trouble like the monarchs down to Mexico.

In the end, nobody—not the biker gangs, the authorities or Dace's own demons—is going to let him go. The only way they can both break out and fly free is if Liza walks away. But how can she leave him when he has become her whole life?

From the Chrysalis is a taut novel of romance and survival against all odds,set in the shifting political and moral background of the early seventies.

My work as a reference librarian has helped me enrich the setting and heighten the suspense of this novel by using historical detail about the deadliest event in Canadian penal history, the Kingston Penitentiary Riot of April 1971.